《Path of the Ascendant》


 Volume One | Yi City

    It is said that the heavens have their favourites. They favour some, gifting riches, knowledge and talent, and curse others, tearing those very things away from them, again, again and again.


    Often, it is said that the heavens do this to maintain equilibrium ¨C to maintain balance between the strong and the weak, the righteous and demonic, the virtuous and the sinful, the brilliant and the dull. As one side falls, the other falls with it.


    Such a belief could not be proven any more easily than with the story of the Master of Yi City. Little is remembered of him. His face is unknown. The clothes he wore are a mystery. Even his identity, his name and his gender are all beyond the reach of the modern man. However, it can be said without a shadow of a doubt that he fit the former categories far more than the latter. He was strong, righteous, virtuous, and brilliant in every move, or so say those who benefited the most from his past actions.


    Although his influence supposedly remains all over the two Planar Continents, it can be seen most clearly in his city. When Yi City was first founded, many, many years ago, every child of the Yi family held a status equivalent to an emperor. The city stretched from one end of the Western Continent to another, and the powers around it would all bend to its ruler¡¯s will.


    There were other families, in charge of certain districts, but none of them could hold as high a status.


    And yet, the Master of Yi City did not remain within the Planar Continents forever. Whether willingly or not, he eventually departed from the world, though whether he found another, greater place is not known.


    With him, his enemies vanished also. Ancient beasts, monstrous demons and Primordial Deities that wished to see the world burn, or cower beneath their feet; all were gone, as if they were mere myths.


    Thus, began the decline.


    By the time that the fifth generation of the Yi family came to be, it was no longer unbelievable to see one of their members being unable to acquire a life in glamour as a noble of one of the other nations. The scale of the city itself decreased, though many had said that the lands were hardly being used, and that their loss was irrelevant.


    The tenth generation only had four figures worthy of being called nobles, and more territory was lost yet again. It was harder for anyone to rationally proclaim that they had lost nothing of importance, but few wished to argue otherwise, for none could reclaim that land.


    With every generation after that, the losses grew, but it wasn¡¯t only the city that suffered. The planar cultivation of the people fell as well. The Master of Yi City was said to hold a realm unobtainable by normal men, possibly surpassing the ninth realm, with power so great that he could raze the entire world in a single careless breath, and that even his disciples and direct descendants could draw from a nigh-endless supply of planar energy within their body, wielding it with the same ease as they would use their body. They did not require techniques or skills, for everything they had learned would be integrated into their very being, and every action, twitch and step would represent their concentrated knowledge, or so the stories went.


    By the fiftieth generation, there wasn¡¯t a single person that could achieve the same level of skill, and since then, all about the city plummeted.


    Lands that had long belonged to the twenty-four major districts of Yi City shrank until each district was separated, leaving each one in nearly complete darkness about the activities of the others. The minor districts that existed in the outer regions of Yi City were annexed by other nations, or splintered from the city, and soon the territory of what had once been the most majestic treasure of the world shrank into relatively small dots on a map.


    Yi Wei was born in a generation where the highest of the family were only fully respected within their district of the city, while the lowest were mere servants. One¡¯s status could be decided by a number of factors, but none were as significant as their parents and cultivation ability. Intelligence was favourable, but optional. Brains could never defeat a fist, or so they believed.


    Although she had plenty of intelligence to throw around, she was unfortunately born to servants, and her cultivation ability was all but absent.


    When she had reached the age of twelve, she and all of the other children of the same age were brought to the family¡¯s training hall and given planar cultivation techniques to allow them to become cultivators. Her brothers and sisters, cousins and distant relatives all succeeded in reaching the first stage of Energy Condensation within the year, but Yi Wei has only barely managed to reach the same stage three years later, and now, after her sixteenth birthday, she was still stuck in the exact same place.


    Most struggled with sensing planar energy at first, as they needed to rely purely on the innate sense of their dantian for the detection of the particles that existed all around them, but for her, it had gone beyond a mere struggle. Every single particle that she was able to snap up took hours to obtain.


    As a result, she spent the last few years working simple, menial jobs, and lived in a small shack on the edge of the city district.


    She was thin, mostly because of how little food she could afford on a daily basis, with shoulder-length red hair and grey eyes, both of which were obvious symbols of her heritage. Her features were fair, though they were obviously nowhere near what one may call a country-toppling beauty, and the parts that many considered to matter on her body were still underdeveloped, and barely noticeable as a result.


    On this particular day, the first of the month, she sat on her bed, desperately trying to sense and absorb even a small quantity of planar energy. The pathetic mist that she had managed to accumulate so far hovered within her dantian, with impurities taking up a third of the total volume of the cloud. In comparison to the geniuses who could practise higher-tiered techniques and only had impurities occupy around ten percent of their planar energy cloud, she might as well have never gotten into cultivation in the first place.


    ¡®Still, I can¡¯t give up!¡¯ she thought, clenching her fists, almost to the point of breaking through skin with her nails, ¡®If I can¡¯t get to the second stage before I turn eighteen, then I¡¯m going to be kicked out onto the streets, and what little access I currently have to the family¡¯s pills and elixirs will be rescinded.¡¯


    Just as she finally felt another particle of planar energy that was suitable for her, the sound of a fist striking the wall of her home distracted her from absorbing it.


    ¡°Yi Wei, get out here immediately!¡± a frustrated voice said, speaking far louder than necessary.


    She recognised this voice immediately ¨C it belonged to one of her many aunts, Yi Zehao, an aging woman of over sixty years, and one who tried to hide her age with an excessive amount of makeup, though she did so poorly. When Yi Wei had carelessly mentioned that while gossiping with another servant several years ago, she had managed to overhear this and had never forgiven her since.


    For a moment, she hoped that she would be able to recapture that wisp of planar energy, but when it became obvious that wouldn¡¯t work, she opened her eyes, got up and stepped out the front door, bowing before the woman.


    ¡°Aunt Zehao, what can I do for you?¡±


    ¡°I require the ingredients for a Blood Regeneration Pill, right now. Ten sets of ingredients, no more, no less. Understand?¡± she stated, clearly limiting her words to avoid having to speak to her any longer than necessary.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Yi Wei said, and immediately ran in the direction of the Three Stars Pharmacy.


    At times, she attempted to speak back, but Aunt Zehao never cared for her words and simply urged her to hurry up, so she didn¡¯t bother. Also, she wanted to get back as soon as possible to resume her cultivation before anyone else could barge in and interrupt her. It was difficult enough as it was, so she appreciated the free moments when she earned them.


    She hadn¡¯t been able to say anything against her aunt even when her cultivation talent was unknown, so she had gotten used to receiving sudden orders to retrieve ingredients at random times of the day. It was frustrating, as her aunt had reached the Planar Pool Realm, and could get to the pharmacy and back a dozen times in the time that it took her to make the journey once, but there was no point in complaining. If she really wanted to, Aunt Zehao could have her exiled from the city in a heartbeat, and then she would have no chances of surviving whatsoever.


    The road to the Three Stars Pharmacy was familiar to her after all these years, so she didn¡¯t need to focus on her journey, ¡®At the very least her constant orders have allowed me to learn the ingredients for a number of different pills, elixirs and medications. If I ever reach the second stage of Energy Condensation, I could try refining some of them. However¡­¡¯


    Yi Wei sighed, and used her spiritual will to look inside her body, at her dantian. There, in the middle of the cloud, hidden amidst the silver, metal planar energy, hovered a dozen lines of impeccable characters, written out in utmost precision. They had no clear meaning, and their order and place would change with her every breath, and every line was thin and narrow, as if drawn with a quill upon the space of her dantian.


    Normally, such an abnormal situation would be seen as some sort of inheritance or gift from the heavens, but not once did the letters arrange themselves into any order that would benefit her.


    On the contrary, whenever she attempted to cultivate in a manner that was somehow unsatisfactory to the characters, they would suck up the energy and not give her a single thing in return. It took Yi Wei a little more than a year to perfect her cultivation technique to prevent as much of her energy as possible from being drained, but all that got her was a form of planar energy that was one fold greater in quality than any of her peers, with a notable number of impurities still present amidst that, due to the low quality of her cultivation method in comparison to superior members of her family.


    That did her no good, however. Even against those of the same stage of cultivation, she was at a severe disadvantage due to her low quantity of planar energy, and the greater quality of each particle only meant that she wasn¡¯t typically beaten as badly as she would have been otherwise.


    ¡®If only those things arranged themselves into some sort of legendary technique, or a long-lost method of crafting or refining weapons, artefacts or pills, I could quickly rise to the top,¡¯ she thought, breathing in to sigh once more, ¡®Well, at least I¡¯d not be in as poor a state as I currently am¡­¡¯


    Before she could do that, however, she heard an explosion to her left, and saw the home of a talisman maker explode in a burst of planar energy.


    ¡°Damn it! How difficult can it be to make a four-star talisman!¡± a voice from inside the explosion yelled and tossed out a rectangular piece of yellow paper.


    As if it was being guided by some outside force, the talisman, with three profound characters written horizontally across it, flew straight at Yi Wei, landing right on her face.


    ¡®Wait, is this a failed talisman? Oh no-¡¯


    Just as she raised her hand to remove the paper from her body, bright orange light flooded her vision, and the thick, solid planar energy of the Active Core Realm burst into her. It tore through her flesh, her blood vessels, her bones and even her meridians, and all of it coursed right to her planar aperture ¨C her dantian. If it was to reach it, the energy would undoubtedly destroy it in an instant, and even if she survived, her cultivation would be gone for the rest of her life.


    However, there was nothing she could do. Her spiritual will was purely a method of sensing the inside of her body, and planar energy was meaningless against someone three whole realms above her. As such, all she was able to do was watch as the fire planar energy burst into her dantian, burning away almost all of the cloud that she had cultivated.


    ¡®No! Not like this! Not from a failed talisman that was accidentally thrown at me!¡¯


    All of a sudden, the characters that had previously been idle and dull in colour lit up with a blinding violet glow. The flaming planar energy froze in place.


    The characters rearranged themselves into gaping maw, and, without any resistance whatsoever, all of the foreign planar energy was sucked into the space between them, vanishing from view just as suddenly as it had appeared.


    With what looked to be a glint of satisfaction, the characters broke back down into a dozen lines of text. However, as opposed to their usual nonsense, they now spelled out legible words and sentences. In fact, as Yi Wei had a closer look, she realised that each line was incredibly profound, containing knowledge that someone like her would never have been able to see with just her own effort. Faced with these words, she couldn¡¯t and wouldn¡¯t stop herself from following their instructions, and began to absorb planar energy according to the glowing characters.


    Unlike before, when she had to struggle to find even a single piece of compatible energy, it now rushed to her willingly, flooding into her body and passing through her meridians before entering her abdomen, where it peacefully collected within the centre of her dantian. She wasn¡¯t even sure if there was any energy out there that wasn¡¯t compatible with this method.


    In just a single moment, all of the progress that she had lost was recovered by the technique within the mysterious characters, but not with the same metal planar energy as before. Instead, it was purple in colour, and looked almost as if someone had collected a cosmic nebula and deposited it within her body.


    ¡®Amazing! The fire planar energy burned away my impurities, and the mysterious characters managed to collect so much energy without accumulating a single speck of dirt inside it. Just¡­ what sort of energy is that? It doesn¡¯t look to match any specific element-¡¯


    ¡°Kid! How long are you going to stand there?¡± a man¡¯s voice forced her out of her stupor, and as she returned her focus to the outside world, she realised that she had been standing in the middle of the road, with the ash that remained of the talisman having been blown away by the wind a long time ago.


    The road wasn¡¯t especially wide, so she alone managed to block a group of nine men from progressing onwards.


    ¡°M-My apologies!¡± she said quickly and got out of the way to allow a large group to pass by her.


    Yi Wei glanced at the ruins of the talisman maker¡¯s home before proceeding to the pharmacy.


    ¡®That¡¯s right, I need to get those pill ingredients,¡¯ she recalled, though her mind was still on the purple cloud within her dantian, ¡®To think I had something like that in my body the whole time¡­¡¯


    She was still a little dazed by the time she picked up the pill ingredients and returned to her hut, where her aunt was standing impatiently and instantly leapt onto Yi Wei, ripping the ingredients out of her hands.


    ¡°What were you doing out there for so long? Explain yourself, you wretch!¡± she said, grabbing her by the ear.


    ¡°I got injured by a failed talisman on the way there! I¡¯m so sorry!¡± Yi Wei replied as hastily as she could.


    This caused Yi Zehao to let her go, instead grabbing her arm, ¡°Don¡¯t say such nonsense. There¡¯s no way-¡±


    As she was speaking, her aunt sent her spiritual will into Yi Wei¡¯s body. Her face quickly changed, showing a look of shock. Secretly, Yi Wei also looked into her body, and saw that everything inside of her was lightly burned, and that more than half of her body shouldn¡¯t have been able to function with such a degree of damage. She hadn¡¯t even realised that her state had been this bad.


    ¡°How in the heavens are you still standing?¡± Aunt Zehao questioned, handing her a fragrant pill, ¡°Take it. The Flesh Recovery Pill should fix your injuries so that you are properly able to continue serving me in the future.¡±


    As soon as Yi Wei accepted the pill, her aunt looked deeper into her, focusing on her dantian.


    ¡®Wait, will she be able to-¡¯


    ¡°It looks like you haven¡¯t advanced much in your cultivation. Useless,¡± she shook her head, and removed her spiritual will from her body, ¡°If you don¡¯t reach the second stage soon, you won¡¯t even be fit for manual labour.¡±


    With that, her aunt turned around and left, leaving Yi Wei alone in her shack.


    ¡®It¡­ it can hide!¡¯ she mentally exclaimed to herself once her aunt was out of sight.


    When her aunt had been probing her planar aperture with her spiritual will, any planar energy she came across changed into the same metal energy she had cultivated for four years and returned to normal the instant her attention shifted.


    It seemed that it wasn¡¯t just the appearance of her energy that changed, but also its very structure, for it resembled metal while it was silver and had an entirely different feel while in the violet, almost celestial state. Such sudden changes weren¡¯t just unusual, but practically unheard of, as energy was usually stuck in a single element and gathered through a single technique, meaning that this was absolutely phenomenal.


    Additionally, the characters in her dantian still remained unseen, no matter how many times someone had attempted to scan her with their spiritual will.


    Her eyes widened, and her lips parted into a wide grin that she simply wasn¡¯t able to contain, ¡®This is it! This is what I¡¯ve been waiting for ¨C a chance for me to break through again! I won¡¯t have to lose my home!¡¯


    Oculus


    Any constructive criticism is very welcome, though since the novel is done, I won''t be able to implement much of it here.

 V1C2: Studying the Technique

    Yi Wei returned to her bed, but this time, instead of attempting to absorb more planar energy, she focused on what she already had. As a result of her brief practise of the technique described by the mysterious characters, her dantian was full of purple planar energy that was far denser, purer and stronger than what she was previously able to achieve through the practise of the Seven Winds Sutra.


    One of the most important things to do after discovering such a strange, new technique, was, of course, to learn exactly what it was capable of. Because of this, Yi Wei temporarily put off taking the healing pill, and instead coursed the planar energy through her body.


    ¡®When I previously practised the Seven Winds Sutra, I could increase my speed slightly by channelling my energy into a specific part of my body. Had I had more, I could have affected the whole body, but¡­¡¯ she didn¡¯t need to finish that thought, so she focused her spiritual will on her meridians.


    The planar mist poured out of her abdomen and flowed through her body. At first, there seemed to be no obvious effect, but as she looked closer, she found that everything that her planar energy touched rapidly broke down¡­ and just as quickly, regenerated.


    Her eyes narrowed, ¡®Could it be some sort of healing property?¡¯


    She spread out the mist over her entire body, to heal the many internal burns from the failed talisman, before making it repeat the circulation.


    Quite quickly, she understood that her assumption was wrong. When the planar energy touched the areas it had already healed, it repeated the exact same process. The longer it remained in place, the more times it was able to destroy whatever it touched and remake it.


    ¡®If it was merely for healing, that would be a strange property for it to have. So¡­ could it be?¡¯


    With a thought, the entire pool of planar energy burst out of her abdomen, and into her eyes. As the reconstruction effect occurred, she was only barely able to resist the immense itch that built up within them.


    After several minutes, after her eyes had been entirely processed by the purple planar energy, she made it return to her dantian and opened her eyes. Everything seemed to be as it was before, until she raised her head to look at something more distant. On the other side of the road, where the remains of a ruined shack stood untouched for many years, she was able to spot a small line of ants, passing over one of the walls on their way elsewhere.


    Just to be sure, she repeated the experiment ¨C this time, it took a little longer than before ¨C and looked out again. She found that the ants transformed from distant blobs of colour into slightly more detailed shapes. Where each ant melted into others before, she was now able to distinguish each of them clearly.


    When she looked back at her shack, and herself, she realised that it affected all of her vision, not just her ability to see at a distance. Each fold, crease and detail of her robes was clearer, and the many particles of dust all over her home were now obvious without needing to look carefully.


    ¡®Amazing. My planar energy is able to enhance my body!¡¯ she exclaimed, a smile forming on her face, ¡®Even if it offers no other benefit, I should be able to easily keep my place in the family with this. Although, I wonder how great the effect of a single circulation is.¡¯


    Yi Wei got up and turned towards the furthest wall, assuming a basic combat stance. Without using any techniques, she punched the air with all her strength. The strike caused a few small, light objects in the way to jitter slightly, but managed little else.


    Just to be sure, she punched with her other hand as well before circulating the planar energy through her body once. It took a little longer than ten minutes to complete, and as soon as it did, she repeated the basic strikes. This time, her fists made a clear sound as they pierced the air, and a few small sticks, that she had once positioned upright out of boredom on the desk, in front of her collapsed.


    ¡®To get an exact figure, I¡¯d need to go to the training hall, but that requires one gold coin per hour, and I barely have a dozen copper coins. Still, my strength increased by at least one tenth, if not more. For ten minutes of work, that is a lot more than I expected.¡¯


    She took out the Flesh Recovery Pill and held it in her hand, pondering what to do with it.


    ¡®Currently, I don¡¯t need it, since my planar energy has fixed my body, but what would be the best use for it?¡¯


    As if responding to her, she heard another yell for her from outside, ¡°Yi Wei, if you are not a coward, come out here and fight me!¡±


    It was the voice of a teenage boy, and one she somewhat recognised ¨C Yi Zhang. He was also the child of a family servant, and just like her, he practised a basic cultivation technique of the family, the Nurtured Sapling Sutra, a technique of the wood element, and had reached the second stage of Energy Condensation. As a result, he was able to break through her defences every time they fought, and she was rarely able to break his.


    At the first stage of the first realm, that being Energy Condensation, the gap between each stage was small in the matter of raw power, but the increased density of energy that came with each stage was able to significantly influence how much one could enhance their own body with techniques.


    Normally, without either a significantly stronger body or some particularly powerful methods, gaps in stages were difficult to breach, and given that Yi Wei was a malnourished teenage girl while he was a reasonably nourished boy of a similar age, there had certainly been a gap in their natural physical ability up to this point.


    ¡®This time it¡¯s different. Just the passive effect of the mysterious character technique has strengthened me, and the active effects may be even better.¡¯


    With that in mind, she calmly walked out of her shack, where she saw the boy waiting for her with reddened eyes.


    ¡°What happened? Did someone decide to beat you up again?¡±


    The two of them were servants, and thus overeager and overactive lower members of the family tended to enjoy coming to them for fights. None of them would ever go overboard and try to kill any of the servants, but they did occasionally attempt to make the servants fight one another when normal beatings became boring in their eyes.


    As such, since the kid was here, he was either trying to fight, or had been incited to do the same.


    ¡°No!¡± he shook his head instantly, ¡°They said they would if I didn¡¯t agree to fight you. When I agreed to it, they even gave me a Planar Gathering Pill!¡±


    Yi Zhang reached into his pocket and took out a small, round, amber pill that glistened with a red light. From the way that the planar energy around automatically drew closer to it, it was obvious that it was indeed a Planar Gathering Pill, and one of above-average quality. The way he held it made it obvious that he wanted to show off a little.


    She looked down at the pill in her own hand and smiled.


    ¡°Then, why don¡¯t we bet on something?¡± Yi Wei suggested, stretching out her hand to show the Flesh Recovery Pill to him, ¡°We¡¯ll fight, and the winner can take both of them?¡±


    Technically, this should have been a foolish bet from her perspective. Just yesterday, she wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against Yi Zhang, and she would most certainly require the pill given to her by her aunt in order to heal the injuries she¡¯d inevitably suffer as a result. However, with the mysterious characters, not only could she heal everything herself, but it would also significantly improve her own strength, so she had no use for the pill. Meanwhile, the Planar Gathering Pill would give her the opportunity to experiment with the interaction of her planar energy with the pill essence, and even if there was no difference, it would still help her reach the second stage of Energy Condensation sooner.


    ¡°W-What? Are you being serious? Are you really giving that away?¡± he asked, looking at her as if she had lost her mind. Concluding that she would rescind her offer soon, Yi Zhang nodded, ¡°Right. I won¡¯t hold back, so don¡¯t cry about it!¡±


    ¡°Not even against a girl like me?¡± she shrugged, and stepped closer to him, ¡°Then don¡¯t go complaining to your parents if you lose.¡±


    He remained silent.


    Unlike her, he wasn¡¯t an orphan, so he did have someone to complain to when he lost. He had only lost a few times, but each time, he did rush straight to them when they were younger. Luckily, his parents were more mature than he was, and might have even known Yi Wei¡¯s parents when they were still alive ¨C though they wouldn¡¯t talk about them the few times she asked ¨C so the situation was never elevated to anything unreasonable.


    They raised their fists and entered combat stances, looking into each other¡¯s eyes. Standing still, they each waited for the other to make any move, no matter how small, so that they could reply in kind with their fists.


    The first to lose their patience was Yi Zhang. With a loud scream, he ran at her and directed an attack at her stomach with his right hand while gathering planar energy in his left hand.


    ¡®A feint, but he¡¯s planning to use the Bull Punch Skill,¡¯ Yi Wei understood immediately, but there was one thing that she couldn¡¯t comprehend no matter how much she tried, ¡®Why is he moving so slowly?¡¯


    Usually, although he was most certainly slower than other cultivators due to his wood type cultivation technique, his advantage in cultivation meant that he was able to exceed Yi Wei¡¯s speed by a small margin, but also that his strength and defence were vastly greater than hers.


    No matter how much she looked, she couldn¡¯t understand any reason for him to suddenly be so much slower.


    ¡®Unless¡­ I haven¡¯t even begun channelling my planar energy, but it has already enhanced my perception to this point? In that case, I should be able to defeat him without using any planar energy at all!¡¯


    She ignored the feint and lunged forward, closing the distance between them in an instant. With a low posture, she executed one of the basic moves of her only combat technique ¨C Gentle Breeze Strike.


    The name wasn¡¯t exciting, and neither was the metal technique itself. It did little to amplify her strength and had few special effects that set it apart from other techniques. The only true advantage it did have was the ability to slightly shift the direction of the strike, and even then, all it would allow for is changing the target from the upper-left part of the chest to the left shoulder.


    Still, that was enough.


    Before he had a chance to realise what she did, her fist already struck his chest. Something within his body cracked, and he was forced back by a couple steps.


    ¡°How-¡± he opened his mouth, but only managed to spit out a few drops of blood.


    Not willing to give him a chance to retaliate, Yi Wei struck his stomach with another Gentle Breeze Strike, using less strength this time, and knocked him to the ground.


    ¡°Do you surrender?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes! I sur-¡± he spat out more blood, ¡°surrender¡­¡±


    ¡°Thank you for the Planar Gathering Pill. I shall treasure it dearly,¡± she pried it from his hands and placed it in her pocket beside the Flesh Recovery Pill, ¡°Do you need me to throw you out of here?¡±


    He replied with a grunt, so Yi Wei assumed that he didn¡¯t need her help. She returned to her home and shut the door behind her. Although she had hit him hard and dealt more damage than expected, she knew that he would stand up within a minute or two, and be able to escape and obtain assistance from someone familiar with a recovery technique, like his parents.


    For a little while, she was perfectly silent, her hands trembling from the excitement and adrenaline that had surged into her blood from that previous fight. It had been unexpected, and it did end quickly, but it was still an astounding experience.


    ¡°Yes! I did it!¡± she exclaimed to herself, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself.


    ¡®So¡­ to sum things up: my strength can be increased significantly just through circulating my planar energy, but it also affects my speed and reaction speed. Also, even though the element of my energy seems to have changed, it has no issue executing techniques of the metal element, so it might also allow me to use techniques of other elements as well,¡¯ she theorised, before turning her attention back to the pill she had just won, ¡®I¡¯ve heard that the effects of a pill can differ based on how one uses the medicinal essence within, and that they can be amplified by certain elements.¡¯


    However, she had not had the chance to experiment with such things, as she had been told numerous times by Yi Zehao and other alchemists that her metal planar energy did not get along well with the pills she has had the opportunity to see so far.


    Yi Wei placed the Planar Gathering Pill in her mouth and sent a wisp of planar energy to it to quickly dissolve it into medicinal essence. It was absorbed into her blood, and spread out over her body, causing the nearby planar energy to draw in closer. This much wasn¡¯t unusual, since a single wisp of her energy wasn¡¯t sufficient to trigger an effect.


    ¡®Now, what effect will the purple planar energy have?¡¯


    She sent her energy to mix with the essence, and her eyes widened. As soon as the two touched, they suddenly merged together, the violet and the amber blurred into crystalline strands of energy and essence.


    The effect was clear as day. The planar energy that was previously moving toward her lazily was suddenly roused into action, causing it to flood into her body at a pace similar to when she used the technique of the mysterious characters. Furthermore, the range of the pill also expanded greatly, going up from a few metres to almost one hundred metres.


    Not willing to waste this opportunity, Yi Wei used the mysterious character technique and absorbed all of the energy that came her way, the immense effects of the technique combining with the Planar Gathering Pill to nearly overwhelm her body and planar aperture.


    Unfortunately, this discovery also allowed her to find one flaw of the merged medicinal essence. While the Planar Gathering Pill would typically last half an hour, with the exact duration varying based on the exact quality and craftsmanship of the pill, the crystallised essence was exhausted in a mere minute, causing the flow of planar energy to run out just seconds before it would have allowed her to advance to the second stage.


    ¡®Regardless of that, the effect of the crystallised pill was far greater than the regular one. Had it been any stronger, the pill could be considered some sort of heaven-defying treasure,¡¯ she thought, her grip tightening on the other pill in her possession, ¡®Still, this means that I have a life-saving pill in my hands. I shouldn¡¯t waste it, no matter what.¡¯


    Opening her eyes, she looked around and found a needle and some thread, which she then used to sow her right pocket shut. Sowing was a necessary skill to know the basics of in her conditions.


    ¡®Now, I won¡¯t have to risk losing it accidentally, and the stitching should be easy enough to tear if I have need of the pill,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, patting the pocket one more time before moving on, ¡®Right, what I need now are combat techniques. In this district, it is easiest to earn money through fighting and brawling, and once I have the money, I can purchase more Planar Gathering Pills, and rapidly soar in my cultivation.¡¯


    Although her plan was simple, it was undoubtedly effective. While professions like alchemy, blacksmithing and talisman crafting were also rather lucrative, they required a lot of hard work to learn, and then a lot more effort to gain sufficient trust from potential customers to make even a coin of profit. She did not have the time that was usually required.


    Meanwhile, combat was a completely different story. It was preferable for new people to enter various competitions and arenas, as seeing new faces was far more exciting than the same few faces fighting each other again and again.


    It allowed for hidden geniuses to emerge, as well as the occasional obvious failure, who¡¯s only noteworthy ability was to amuse the crowd with his futile flailing. As a result, people were paid handsomely to enter an arena or some other challenge, especially when the challenge was far above their level, and were paid even more generously if they actually succeeded. To make the situation even better, there were few to no business owners that would ever dare to withhold pay from their warriors, meaning that one would have to put in a great deal of effort to locate a swindler that would attempt to take their hard earned money from them.


    For someone like Yi Wei, who suddenly found herself with a far greater degree of strength, this was the perfect direction to head in. As long as she found the right opponent and learned the right techniques, she could easily defeat someone in the first and second stages of Energy Condensation, and if she channelled her planar energy, she might even stand a chance against someone at the third or fourth stage.


    ¡°Whoever or whatever gave me this opportunity, I promise I won¡¯t waste it!¡±


    Oculus


    Also, thank you to everyone that had decided to check out my story. I hope you''ll stick around for this and my future works.

 V1C3: Learning the Basics

    Despite her proud declaration, she quickly remembered that she still had work to do, so she left and returned in the late evening.


    As a result of her increase in strength, the manual labour wasn¡¯t as tiring as before, and the long working hours allowed her to perform a few more circulations of the purple planar energy. Although the last circulation took up an entire hour, she felt that her strength might have increased by around fifty percent from her initial state.


    ¡®It is a little late for reading techniques or shopping, even with my improved eyesight, so I suppose the only thing I can do now is practise the Gentle Breeze Fist. With any luck, the mysterious characters will have improved my comprehension, or perhaps I¡¯ll be able to apply my understanding of the technique to others and learn them more quickly,¡¯ she thought, performing the first move of the skill, ¡®I wonder whether I¡¯ll be able to combine these moves with those of other elements, allowing for my movements to be far less predictable and much more powerful.¡¯


    Her evening practise allowed her to get more comfortable with a few things, like transforming her planar energy into metal planar energy on demand, as well as some of the intricacies of the Gentle Breeze Fist, but her overall progress was still at the Great Stride stage.


    Martial arts and combat techniques, much like planar cultivation, were separated into a number of stages: Initial Accomplishment, Minor Achievement, Great Stride, Full Success, and then a number of unnamed levels which surpass the ordinary understanding of the technique. For instance, if the Meridian Explosion Art, a move that allows a cultivator to gain great strength temporarily in exchange for great risk of injury, was performed at the Initial Accomplishment stage, it would provide a minimal degree of improvement to the cultivator, and have a high risk of damaging them. On the other hand, it if was performed at the Full Success stage, there would be no physically injury unless the cultivator exceed the limits of their body, and it would allow the cultivator to increase their strength by 50%.


    If it was performed at the First Level, however, the cultivator could increase their strength by up to 75% without any injury to themselves, and instead of the effect only lasting for five seconds, it would increase to seven seconds. This was only an example, though.


    Yi Wei didn¡¯t have access to the technique library, unfortunately, as she was still on the first stage of Energy Condensation and had used up her only opportunity to select a technique for that stage, which was how she acquired the Gentle Breeze Fist. Even though advancing would allow her to choose two more techniques, and perhaps more if she was able to memorise them while in the technique library, she was in no rush.


    ¡®I¡¯ve heard that it is possible for someone to accumulate such a great degree of planar energy in a single stage that they perfect that particular stage, and their cultivation will progress immediately to the next stage and permanently grant them a great increase in strength,¡¯ she remembered, looking inward at her dantian, ¡®Supposedly, once one¡¯s cultivation reaches a certain point, they have to resist an ever-growing pressure to advance onto the next stage, but despite my planar energy filling my planar aperture entirely, I feel nothing of the sort. However, I can see that the planar energy is interacting the walls of the dantian, so perhaps it will also be able to improve it, as well?¡¯


    Since there wasn¡¯t anything she could do for now, she shut her eyes and went to sleep.


    The next morning, Yi Wei awoke to find no major changes had occurred to her body. After a few minutes of testing, the only thing she was able to notice was that her sensitivity towards planar energy had grown slightly,


    She wasn¡¯t particularly disappointed about the matter, ¡®I hadn¡¯t expected the planar energy of the mysterious characters to be miraculous in nature to begin with, so to find out that it cannot improve my talent in a single day isn¡¯t much of an issue.¡¯


    If one was to ask her whether she wished for her purple planar energy to be miraculous, however, she would be lying if she said no.


    She cleaned herself up and exited her shack before Yi Zehao had another chance to call for her. Her destination was the first floor of the technique library, which was open to all members of the Yi family, regardless of their status or cultivation ability, as the only thing that was held on that floor were basic cultivation techniques, like the Seven Blades Sutra or the Nurtured Sapling Sutra.


    To most, such things would be useless, but Yi Wei theorised that if she understood the properties of other elements and their cultivation techniques, she would be able to freely transform her planar energy into those forms and make use of all of their benefits simultaneously.


    When she arrived at the technique library, the man that sat at the front desk took one look at her and threw over a small token with the number one written on it.


    ¡°It seems like you have improved,¡± he said, his spiritual will briefly washing over her, ¡°Are you looking for a different technique?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve had some luck recently, so I want to see if I can gather some new insight on cultivation,¡± Yi Wei replied, cupping her fist respectfully.


    ¡°I see. You may proceed.¡±


    She entered the library and passed by the stairs, entering the mostly empty floor where the basic cultivation techniques were kept. They were separated into five sections, with each containing four large bookshelves of manuals in various conditions. Some looked to be brand new, with immaculate covers and no signs of wear, while others were faded, torn and crumbling.


    ¡®It is possible for cultivators of a higher realm than mine to read these books without opening them using their spiritual will, but, unfortunately, my Energy Condensation realm only lets me use my spiritual will within my body,¡¯ Yi Wei sighed, reaching for a random technique of the fire element, ¡®Right now, the only thing I can do is flip through these as quickly as possible, and hope that my memory is good enough to remember the key parts.¡¯


    The first technique she stumbled upon was the Lingering Spark Sutra. It was of the same level as her original technique. The manual contained the instructions for the first five stages of Energy Condensation, and, upon a close inspection, turned out to have quite a lot in common with the Seven Blades Sutra.


    ¡®I suppose that things like this are to be expected on the very first realm. The only differences that are mentioned relate specifically to the element of the technique, as if these were all based on the same concept,¡¯ she noticed, slamming the manual shut, ¡®Alright then, let¡¯s see¡­ collect essence to feed the flame¡­ the body as kindling and the mind as the heat¡­¡¯


    She went over the key points of the technique as she focused on her planar energy, trying to properly comprehend the nature of the fire element. However, no matter how much she concentrated on the Lingering Spark Sutra, she was unable to convert her planar essence into the flame element.


    ¡®Perhaps I can¡¯t get enough understanding from a single technique, especially when I haven¡¯t practised it for as long as the Seven Blades Sutra,¡¯ Yi Wei proposed, taking out another manual, ¡®If I am able to merge these together, it would be worth even if I have to read every book in this library.¡¯


    One thing she did not anticipate was that she would actually have to stay true to her word. The thought of reading the entire library entered her mind only for a moment, and she dismissed it quickly, since there was no way that she wouldn¡¯t be able to gather enough information and insight from a tenth of the fire-type manuals in the library, if not fewer.


    In the end, she had to read more than two thirds of the entire fire section before she finally felt a spark lighting up within her dantian. She put back the manual she was reading and dropped to the floor.


    ¡°Xiao Wei, are you alright?¡± the man that watched over the library, Yi Zhihao, asked her, suddenly appearing right next to her.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine. I got a little too invested, that¡¯s all.¡±


    ¡°Do not exhaust yourself so much over simple techniques and remember that you can only ever practise one of them safely at a time. Trying to mix too many different concepts will just get you killed, or worse,¡± he gave her some advice, before looking up and noticing that she was in the fire section, ¡°Weren¡¯t you practising a metal technique?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. However, I recalled that fire overcomes metal, and thought that I might be able to learn something from these techniques that I could then apply to my Seven Blades Sutra,¡± Yi Wei came up with an explanation on the spot ¨C it made enough sense and sounded honest, as it was something she had tried to do when she was fifteen, though not to much effect.


    ¡°Good thinking, Xiao Wei. If you do think of any change to your technique, though, check with me first. I wouldn¡¯t want a bright mind like yours being hurt because of your cultivation going berserk.¡±


    ¡°I shall do that.¡±


    When Yi Wei had woken up, the sun was just appearing over the horizon. By the time she exited the library, the sun was directly overhead, and she felt ready to fall asleep at any moment.


    ¡®However, I was successful.¡¯


    In her dantian, the violet planar energy suddenly transformed into an enormous blaze, heating up her insides, before returning back to the familiar purple. Even then, the planar energy seemed less docile and warmer than before, though it still had no wish to condense into the second stage without her express will.


    ¡®When I have time-¡¯ she began but was immediately distracted as she saw another yellow paper flying inauspiciously in her direction, ¡°Old man, stop throwing out your talismans!¡±


    As she shouted, she managed to catch the paper in her hand just seconds before it would have landed on her face again. Turning it over, she found that it was yet another failed talisman.


    Out of the smoking ashes of the talisman maker¡¯s home, a man covered in soot emerged, a look of surprise in his eyes, ¡°You? Weren¡¯t you the one that got burned by one of my failed talismans? I¡¯m surprised you¡¯re still standing, and unlucky enough to nearly get hit by another one.¡±


    ¡®Do you have to throw out the talismans?¡¯ she wanted to ask.


    All of a sudden, she had a better idea, and transformed her planar energy into fire, ¡°Say, old man, are you interested in taking in a disciple?¡±


    ¡°Even if I was, you¡¯d¡­ eh? Girl, weren¡¯t you practising a metal cultivation technique just yesterday?¡± he asked, appearing right in front of her in a flash, ¡°That fire¡­ what technique is it?¡±


    From his words, she understood that he had managed to inspect her with his spiritual will without her even knowing. Nonetheless, as he wasn¡¯t able to figure out her secret, she simply smiled and feigned ignorance, ¡°I¡¯m simply practising one of the Yi family¡¯s basic techniques. Is that an issue?¡±


    ¡°Hmph¡­ Very well. This district is sorely lacking in talent, so you¡¯ll do. Just to be sure, you¡¯re not some young mistress of the Yi family in disguise, are you?¡±


    ¡°If I was truly in disguise, I wouldn¡¯t reveal it because of a simple question,¡± she replied, ¡°However, I am not someone like that. I am the child of two servants, and I¡¯m sure you could confirm this with any other member of the family if you just ask about Yi Wei.¡±


    ¡°Good. If you were related to the higher class of the family, I would kick you out immediately,¡± the man said, bringing her into the middle of the burnt house, ¡°I am Luo Xiuying, but you can keep calling me old man, or whatever else. I¡¯ll teach you a few things about talisman making, but if you have no talent, then you can leave as soon as you get bored of failing.¡±


    ¡°I understand,¡± she said, and was about to bow when Luo Xiuying presented her with a thin book, ¡°This is¡­?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what cultivation technique you¡¯re practising, but since it is basic, and from the Yi family, it would be much better for you to switch to something superior. In comparison to most basic skills, which result in a quarter of your planar energy being filled with impurities, this Scalding Torch technique will only result in 21% being impurities,¡± he said, forcing the manual into her hands, ¡°The art of talisman making benefits from fewer impurities, even more so than pill refining or formation arranging.¡±


    ¡°Thank you,¡± Yi Wei said, putting the small book into one of her pockets, ¡°I¡¯d ask if you would be able to start teaching me now, but there doesn¡¯t seem to be much left of the building itself, not to mention any paper or ink¡­¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about that,¡± the old man said, lowering himself to the ground before removing a charred floor tile, from which he retrieved a stack of a hundred yellow papers, a brush and ink.


    ¡®It seems that this Luo Xiuying was well prepared for failure in his craft,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, accepting those items, after which the old man reached back under the tile to retrieve a second set, ¡°If I mess up, it won¡¯t cause as large an explosion, will it?¡±


    ¡°Of course not. Your meagre supply of planar energy will only do harm to things in immediate contact with the paper, at most. Now, observe!¡±


    The old man raised the brush, tipped it in ink and began to write in smooth, steady strokes. Without any interruptions, he wrote the first character, followed by the second, followed by the third. When the last stroke of the third character was complete, the paper briefly let out a soothing red and golden glow.


    ¡°There. Any questions?¡±


    ¡°How have you failed to create a four-star talisman when it is this easy?¡± she said without realising it.


    Thankfully, the old man took it well, tightening his hands into fists and scrunching up the newly made talisman.


    ¡°What I have shown you is the Sealed Talisman Arts ¨C a talisman making technique suitable for talismans between one and three stars. The process for making one-star talismans is easiest. All you need is some ink, then you must apply your planar energy smoothly and consistently onto the paper, writing out a certain set of characters that correspond to the function you wish to have,¡± Luo Xiuying explained, removing yet another item from beneath the floor tiles, ¡°Here¡¯s a tome with every talisman I know of from one to three stars. The talisman I just made was the Burn talisman. Try it yourself.¡±


    He opened the book to a certain page and handed it to her. On the page was an image of the talisman he had made, alongside a number of instructions and recommendations on how to get the most out of the talisman. There were also small annotations in the margins, written in a steady hand. Some were in agreement with the text, while others suggested superior alternatives.


    Yi Wei took in all of the information for a minute, and once it was all firmly locked within her head she lifted the brush and dipped it in the black ink.


    ¡®The most important thing is for the strokes to be consistent, and for my speed to be neither too fast or too slow,¡¯ she thought, ¡®Luckily, the four years of practise with the Seven Blades Sutra and the mysterious characters have taught me a lot about control.¡¯


    She set the brush down on the paper and channelled her planar energy through it, effectively writing with it.


    The first stroke was simple, as were all the others, but Yi Wei paced herself, drawing each one with the exact same speed. When the first character was done, she moved onto the second. She was able to notice a slight disruption within the flow of planar energy when her hand quivered involuntarily and made sure not to repeat the mistake, but other than that, the process continued smoothly.


    When she completed the final stroke, a red glow consumed the talisman. For a single moment, it was brighter than the one created by Luo Xiuying, though the next instant it dimmed and disappeared completely.


    ¡°You succeeded on the first try. Not bad,¡± the old man gave his assessment, ¡°Throw it at something, and see how well it works.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d prefer not to accidentally do the same thing you did to me,¡± Yi Wei replied, looking around before she noticed someone in the streets, ¡°Do you mind if I try it out in combat?¡±


    ¡°Fine. Just don¡¯t claim that I made you do it.¡±


    She nodded, and leapt out of the burnt building. Her target was the poor Yi Zhang, who was still looking unwell from their previous encounter. Once she got close to him, she shifted her planar energy to metal, and became akin to a needle that suddenly appeared beside Yi Zhang and stuck the talisman onto him.


    A few seconds later, before the talisman even activated, she was already sitting in front of Luo Xiuying.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that isn¡¯t a friend of yours.¡±


    ¡°Not really, but I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll appreciate my little prank,¡± she replied, just as the words on the talisman lit up.


    It did not simply turn to ash as a common Burn talisman should, but instead it burst into a blaze that instantly consumed Yi Zhang¡¯s shirt, and spread quickly to his trousers and underwear. A passing expert of the Emergent Anchor realm saw the commotion and created a large sphere of water, which he promptly threw at him to douse the flames.


    When he came to, it was clear that the prank was not appreciated.


    ¡°Does cultivating a wood-type technique make you more flammable?¡± Yi Wei asked, noticing how quickly the boy seemed to burn.


    She knew that there was some relation between one¡¯s practised element and the effectiveness of certain techniques, but even with the addition of her unique energy nobody should have been engulfed in flame quite that quickly.


    The old man shrugged, ¡°No clue. If you want to ask a proper question, however, I¡¯m all ears.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, if ink is used as a vessel for planar energy within the talisman, then would blood or a similar substance work?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, it would. However, blood will only hold your planar energy for a short while, so it is only possible to make blood talismans right before combat, or in the middle of it. The creation of talismans on the fly like that is part of a completely different skillset to what I can teach you,¡± Luo Xiuying explained, ¡°Luckily for you, your skill is quite conducive to the creation of blood talismans, so you might be able to make use of them in the future.¡±


    After that, he instructed her on the creation of a few other talismans, before letting her do whatever she wanted for a few hours. By the time he brought his attention back to her, she had already used up every blank talisman paper that she had been given, creating a variety of different talismans.


    ¡°Since you need to learn the Scalding Torch, I can sell any talismans you don¡¯t want to keep for yourself. Quite a number of my customers are only looking for low-level talismans, so having someone else make them for me would essentially be free income,¡± the old man said proudly.


    Yi Wei wasn¡¯t sure how to react to that, so she simply put on a smile and took a few of each type of talisman for herself, leaving a majority of them behind, ¡°You can sell those. I shall go home and cultivate.¡±


    The talisman maker nodded, so she left the burnt wreck of a home, taking with her the manuals for Scalding Torch, Sealed Talisman Arts and the large tome of talismans.


    As soon as she got home and shut the front door, she dropped the large tome and flipped open both of the manuals. In a matter of minutes, she absorbed all of the information held within, including the chants, diagrams and complex philosophical statements by the creators of the techniques. In her dantian, the purple mist pulsed twice, as if it consumed the knowledge with her.


    Her memory had always been on the good side, though she even impressed herself with how well everything she learned today stuck within her memory. Originally, her expectation had been to permit the mysterious characters to somehow obtain that information from her reading, and then refresh herself on the things that mattered most in a day or two, but it seemed like she might be able to retain everything she had browsed through in just a single hasty read.


    When she transformed it into flame planar energy, she found that the fire was hotter, denser and faster, changing from a calm flame one may find within a fireplace to a raging inferno. Despite that, it was still perfectly within her control.


    It also confirmed that she was able to change her energy further after condensing an initial understanding of an element, which was highly encouraging and relaxing at the same time. So long as she was able to improve her techniques without the same trouble that some would need to go through in order to switch to something that significantly differed from their current cultivation technique, she wouldn¡¯t need to worry about becoming stuck in her cultivation if she learnt the wrong kinds of techniques.


    There had been quite a few famous individuals and cases wherein their cultivation was temporarily paused while they attempted to convert one kind of flame to another, although that was usually the full extent of it. Switching from a metal-type technique focusing on metal to one focused on wind, for instance, was nearly impossible unless it combined the two concepts, and changing from fire to water or from wood to earth was entirely impossible.


    Some believed that there were cultivation techniques that focused on two elements at once, which would theoretically permit such a switch, but even they usually led to an entirely different form of energy than the two component elements. They were also either pure myths, or rare enough to be considered nothing more than that.


    However, she didn¡¯t exactly have the energy to be thinking about all of that now, nor the time, as the sun had set some time ago.


    She lay down on her shabby bed, shut her eyes, and fell asleep.


    Oculus


    Also, I figured I should mention this, but despite the somewhat generic start, I tried not to follow some of the standard formulas of the genre (there won''t be many generic young masters running rampant, for instance). I hope to provide a few surprises for my readers, so expect a plot twist or two by the end of this.

 V1C4: The Second Stage

    When she awoke the next day, Yi Wei found her body covered in a thick layer of black filth. Having left her planar energy to circulate around her body freely, she went to sleep expecting a small change to her strength, like before.


    However, whether due to the absorption of a large number of fire techniques, or due to her crossing some sort of unknown threshold in the refining of her body, the effects were far greater than before, and forced out a large quantity of impurities from her body. It took a little less than an hour to fully clean herself, but when she finally had a chance to inspect her body, she was astonished.


    The changes were both major and minor at the same time: her skin was clearer and healthier in tone, the fat on her body was cleared away, though without affecting her figure as her key regions were already too insignificant to mention, her eyes gained a spark that she had not seen in four years, and the small scars, scratches and old wounds that littered her skin vanished without a trace.


    To her, every single difference was like night and day, but she was also aware that to any casual observer, or even a close friend, there would be almost no way to tell that anything had changed.


    ¡®It even feels easier to breathe today. I wonder how much my strength has grown.¡¯


    She stepped outside and punched the air, first with her left hand, then with the right, and quickly understood the approximate extent of her growth from the great blasts of air she produced.


    ¡®In comparison to what I was capable of several days ago, it seems like my strength has almost doubled,¡¯ Yi Wei looked at her fist; it looked no different to before, yet the power within was on a different level, ¡®However, future improvements will take a lot longer. If I really want to keep going on this route, I will need to practise body cultivation techniques, and hope that their effects work together with my planar energy¡¯s body refinement.¡¯


    Still, that was not something she could learn at this moment. Like every other skill and technique, body cultivation techniques were locked away until one reached the second stage of Energy Condensation.


    Before deciding what to do today, Yi Wei found her way to Luo Xiuying¡¯s house, and was immediately astonished for the second time. In place of a charred wreck there was a complete building, with three floors and an ornate exterior. In fact, it resembled the house that stood there before the failed talisman that activated Yi Wei¡¯s mysterious characters blew it up.


    Inside was a fancy storefront, with numerous talismans arranged in some sort of order underneath a glass cover, which also had a number of protective talismans stuck to it to prevent theft or any damage to the products.


    Despite all that, the old man was still covered in ash and soot, bringing a smile to her face.


    ¡°Hey, old man, how have you managed to rebuild this place so quickly? And aren¡¯t you afraid you¡¯ll blow it up again?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ You! How have you converted your cultivation to the Searing Torch so quickly?¡± the talisman maker questioned, luckily ignoring Yi Wei¡¯s second question.


    Yi Wei pretended to not understand what he was saying, ¡°I¡¯ve just read through your technique¡­ Did my cultivation change that significantly?¡±


    ¡°¡­ What about the Sealed Talisman Arts?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve read through all of it too.¡±


    He appeared before her, and looked deep into her eyes, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to have some sort of amazing physique, would you? Has your family tested you for it?¡±


    ¡°Not to my knowledge,¡± she replied honestly. She was just the child of servants, so there was no chance of her actually having any sort of natural unique physique or constitution. Even though such things were not inherited directly most of the time, they would still have a far higher chance of occurrence if one or both of the parents had reached a higher realm in cultivation that just the Planar Pool realm.


    ¡°Very well then. If you continue to impress me, I will acquire a pill that can awaken any Earth-grade constitution or below, and then we can be certain about this matter,¡± Luo Xiuying decided, throwing out a blank talisman paper, ¡°Show me your Sealed Talisman Arts!¡±


    With the complete understanding of the talisman making technique, the process of creating a talisman was a little different to before. Now, she used the characters to form miniature formations that sealed greater quantities of elemental energy inside, and when the talisman was completed in half the time it took previously, the glow released also lingered for several seconds before vanishing into the paper.


    ¡°Well done! Do you want me to further instruct you?¡±


    ¡°Not for the moment. I would like to reach the second stage of Energy Condensation as soon as possible, so that I can acquire a few combat techniques and retain my place in the family in two years,¡± Yi Wei said, ¡°so I shall head out for now. Thank you for the offer nonetheless.¡±


    Luo Xiuying said nothing, so she kept her talisman and left for the technique library, where she went straight for the wood technique section. She explained it to Yi Zhihao by stating that her reading of the fire-type techniques brought her a greater understanding of metal techniques, and that she felt that browsing through a few wood-type techniques would increase that understanding even further.


    The man didn¡¯t question the matter too much after she showed off the slight increase in her planar energy quality through the creation of her fire planar energy. She went to one end of the shelves, and then began the arduous task of flipping through every single wood technique.


    Four days later.


    She had always been a fast reader, but the more that she read through in the technique library, the more that she felt her reading ability grow further. It wasn¡¯t that her mind was somehow becoming wider and more spacious, but more like a mist was being dispelled from it, allowing her clarity.


    In the past, while she might have been able to go through the same number of books in just four days, it would have likely left her with quite a lot of gaps in her knowledge, not to mention extremely tired fingers and arms from holding the manuals and flipping through the pages inside of them, but both the mental and physical fatigue were absent for their own reasons. Although recalling every individual word from every technique was still a struggle, it was also getting easier the more time that she invested into it, with more effort being required to find the metaphorical place in which her memory resides rather than accessing and remembering it.


    Yi Wei sat in her home; six talismans were stuck to the floor around her. Each was made with a different type of elemental planar energy, with the exception of the sixth, which was created in secret using the purple planar energy. While her typical talismans all had a rather exaggerated effect upon creation, the purple energy had an effect of a completely different level. It bathed her home in light for several minutes, and only calmed down a second before someone knocked on her door to investigate.


    Her energy was split into six, and each section revolved around her dantian at a slow pace. In addition to her violet and flame planar energy, she now had green wood energy, blue water energy that resembled watery mist and thin brown dust that was of the earth element. Strangely enough, despite the opposing natures of the elements, something about her specific planar energy prevented them from reacting to one another.


    ¡®Now that I have all of these techniques in my head, I can attempt to continue my cultivation,¡¯ she thought, glancing into herself at the mysterious characters, ¡®Perhaps I will be able to achieve that legendary perfected stage.¡¯


    She took a deep breath, reaching out to tap on each talisman before returning to a standard cultivation stance. The talismans began to singe at the edges, just as Yi Wei began to cultivate.


    All of a sudden, her home was flooded with planar energy. Each talisman, alongside her mysterious characters, attracted a similar amount of planar energy, increasing her energy pull by six times. She nearly spat out a mouthful of blood as the planar energy pressed onto her, threatening to crush her body, but she was able to narrowly resist due to her strengthened body.


    ¡°Ugh¡­ With this much force, it¡¯s like being on the side of a fight between two Planar Pool experts¡­¡± she muttered, clenching her teeth to endure.


    Just before it got too concentrated for her to maintain her cultivation, the first wisps of planar energy reached her dantian, and filled it further. In seconds, the pressure lessened, and the energy around her was absorbed into her body, where it occupied the last few empty spots of her dantian.


    Crack!


    The dim, grey walls of the dantian suddenly broke, and the outer shell broke down to reveal a pristine white layer. Her cultivation broke through with it, bursting out of her dantian for a brief moment before falling back in, concentrating further.


    Where her planar energy was previously akin to mist and thin dust, it now became fog, but before it could stabilise, it condensed again, getting even less transparent.


    Although it looked like she had broken through to the second stage, she knew that it was not the case ¨C instead, this was the legendary effect of a perfected stage. She had found a lot more details on it within the various low-level manuals, and learned that every perfected stage had the same effect as two stages, or an additional stage on top of the regular one: if one stage would typically grant her 10% more power, a perfected stage would grant her 20%, and it would persist for the rest of her life.


    At lower stages, this matter was not too significant, but with every perfected stage, her power would grow. If she perfected every stage of cultivation, as the mysterious characters seemed suited to do, she would be twice as powerful as any other cultivators.


    When combined with her unique planar energy, the strengthening effect of the mysterious characters, and her ability with talismans¡­ she would be far above anyone of the same level.


    That was not the end to the changes within her, however. Just as she was about to draw her attention from her dantian, she saw the mysterious characters shift about and rearrange themselves into a new set of instructions. With her increased knowledge and understanding of cultivation techniques, she saw that this was the second stage of the Mysterious Characters (which was the name she had decided to give it temporarily), and that it was as powerful as the previous stage, if not even more so.


    ¡°And now that I¡¯m on the second stage-¡±


    ¡°Yi Wei! You¡¯ve suddenly grown the nerve to beat up our junior, have you?¡± a voice from the outside interrupted her, ¡°Come out and get your limbs broken!¡±


    ¡®Why would I listen to you in normal circumstances?¡¯ she thought to herself, getting up from her bed, ¡®Luckily for you, I do want to see how far I¡¯ve come.¡¯


    She straightened her clothes and exited her home, finding a peculiar scene outside. Two men, both taller than seven feet and with similar features, stood beside one another, and another man ¨C Yi Zhang ¨C cowered behind them, doing his best not to stand out.


    ¡°Are these people the ones that threated to injure you?¡± she asked him, receiving a weak nod in reply.


    ¡°You must¡¯ve known that you are this family¡¯s favourite beating bag, so you should have also known that fighting back would land you into trouble,¡± the man on the right said, ¡°Now, which one of us would you prefer to beat you up first?¡±


    The two men who looked so similar that they might have been brothers glanced at one another, before turning back to her.


    ¡°Since we¡¯re nice, we¡¯ll let you choose,¡± the man on the left said, ¡°I practise wood techniques, my bro practises metal techniques. We¡¯re both on the fifth stage of Energy Condensation.¡±


    ¡®You¡¯ve chosen the wrong target, boys,¡¯ Yi Wei said to herself, looking back and forth between the two, ¡®Since I¡¯ve been practising a metal technique for the past few years, using any other one in this conformation would not be wise¡­¡¯


    ¡°I¡­ choose¡­¡± she raised her hand and slowly stretched out her index finger to point at one of the men, ¡°you!¡±


    Her chosen opponent was the man on the right, for the simple reason of confirming how her metal energy matched up to a typical technique.


    ¡®Even though I can¡¯t inspect his cultivation with my spiritual sense, I still seem to be have some awareness of his cultivation,¡¯ she noticed that his cultivation was roughly composed of 23% impurities, while his brother¡¯s planar energy had the standard 25% impurity, ¡®Either this is the product of my improved cultivation, or of the changes to my dantian.¡¯


    The man on the right smiled, and stepped forward, ¡°You¡¯ve chosen well. I am Yi Jin, and I practise the Tempered Steel Sutra. If you know what¡¯s good for you, don¡¯t put up a fight. Or do. We¡¯ll have fun either way.¡±


    ¡®They sure are cocky,¡¯ she frowned, putting one foot behind the other to be able to sprint at him as soon as the fight begins, ¡®And sadistic. I can¡¯t blame them for the former, though. I was only a first stage weakling yesterday, and even if I broke through suddenly, they would have a great advantage over me. Thankfully, we¡¯re both in the Energy Condensation realm ¨C if we fought with a similar gap in stages in the Emergent Anchor realm or above, my perfected stage wouldn¡¯t count for as much.¡¯


    ¡°Come on bro, let¡¯s show her why she should¡¯ve just stayed down!¡± the other brother said, before checking that both were ready, ¡°Fight!¡±


    With an external force deciding the beginning of the duel, both moved immediately. As both practised metal techniques, their speeds were greater than the typical cultivator ¨C and Yi Wei was slightly faster, to the surprise of everyone present.


    The difference was not sufficient to earn a significant advantage, however. As the only martial art that Yi Wei knew was the Gentle Breeze Strike, she was unable to use her speed to confuse her opponent by rapidly switching from one attack to another, as no matter which attack she used, it would be a Gentle Breeze Strike.


    Still, with the advantage of the attack¡¯s unique feature, she was able to land one strike. Then another. And another. Her fists were able to shift just enough to avoid his arms and strike his body, and since her speed was greater by the smallest of fractions, he couldn¡¯t respond in time.


    ¡°Bro, what are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Yi Jun, I¡¯ve got it!¡± Yi Jin replied, putting his arms together to block another strike from Yi Wei, ¡°Well done, girl, you¡¯ve put up enough of a fight to warrant me using my planar energy!¡±


    At his stage of cultivation, one didn¡¯t even have to use spiritual will to notice the metallic energy flowing through his meridians, turning his skin silvery. His muscles tensed and almost seemed to grow in size, but the most noticeable change was his speed.


    Yi Wei¡¯s next punch, aimed at his stomach, was suddenly blocked and a simple punch from him landed on her arm, forcing her to retreat.


    ¡®I guess I won¡¯t get by without making use of my own planar energy,¡¯ she realised.


    With a thought, all of the planar energy within her transformed into metal and spread out into every corner of her body. Seeing that her opponent was already attacking her again, she used Gentle Breeze Strike with both fists simultaneously and struck out with her full speed.


    Her left fist struck his arm, instantly breaking the bones within. Her right hand collided with some sort of defensive technique, but, contrary to her expectations, it broke through and crashed into his face.


    Yi Jin was sent flying, landing several metres away on his back with another audible crunch. His brother¡¯s eyes widened with fear, and he froze for a few moments as he attempted to understand the situation.


    ¡°W-What? How¡­ You! What stage are you on? Fifth?¡±


    ¡°No, I-¡±


    ¡°Sixth, then?¡±


    ¡°No-¡±


    ¡°Seventh?¡± Yi Jun¡¯s eyes widened a little further.


    ¡°No! You¡¯re going in the completely wrong direction!¡±


    ¡°Ninth stage?¡±


    She narrowly resisted the urge to slap his face to try to knock some sense into him, ¡°It¡¯s lower than that, can¡¯t you understand human speech?¡±


    His expression calmed significantly when he finally realised that she wasn¡¯t secretly a Planar Pool expert, ¡°Then, are you on the fourth stage?¡±


    ¡°Lower.¡±


    ¡°Third? There¡¯s no way you could have beaten my bro on the third stage!¡± he exclaimed, ignoring the pained moans of his ¡®bro¡¯.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry to say, but it¡¯s even lower than that.¡±


    ¡°¡±Second stage?¡±¡± both he and Yi Zhang cried out.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. Well done,¡± Yi Wei felt like she had to offer some congratulation after all of the effort they must have put it. After all, they still had pained expressions on their faces, as if they had exhausted their every reserve of mental energy to come to this conclusion.


    ¡°Defeating my bro at this level¡­ We¡¯ll get our revenge!¡± before she had a chance to go for him, he grabbed his brother, lifted him onto his shoulder, and ran away as far as a wood cultivator could.


    Yi Wei allowed them to get away. Her focus shifted to her hands.


    Even now, they looked thin, gentle, and weak. They were the hands of a young woman, one who could and had been defeated countless times, and yet, now, those very same hands were able to defeat a far bigger opponent that, by all common sense, should have been stronger. Something about that was just¡­ staggering to her.


    She let out a breath and lowered her hands, ¡®I guess something this major happening in a mere week can be a little shocking, no matter how prepared I was. Regardless, anything is better than being beaten up yet again, so I should calm down, and enjoy the victory. If things keep elevating like this, a loss will be inevitable.


    Instead, I should focus on the battle. The main problems were the speed at which I adjusted to Yi Jin¡¯s increased strength and speed, the lack of sufficient variety within my attacks, and, perhaps most significantly, the- hm?¡¯


    Yi Wei suddenly felt a presence behind her, and a faint aura of killing intent, so she shoved her hand into her pocket and threw out a talisman, jumping away immediately as soon as it flew out of her fingers.


    A large fist, almost resembling a tree trunk, crashed into where she stood mere moments ago.


    It belonged to Yi Jun, who spat out his words, ¡°Damn, you-¡±


    It was then that the talisman landed on his robe. A blinding red light burst out it, and instantly engulfed him in flame.


    ¡°AH!¡± was all that he managed to cry out before running in the direction of the nearest river.


    The speed with which he was consumed by fire, and with which the talisman activated upon coming into contact with him, made him look as if he had been made of dried twigs in a dry desert being set alit by a spark.


    She watched him run off and waited for a few moments, to confirm that there wouldn¡¯t be another attack, before relaxing.


    ¡°Phew¡­ I swear, wood-type techniques do make you more flammable.¡±


    ¡°Um¡­¡± someone behind her muttered something. Turning around, she saw Yi Zhang, who still had a few signs of his interaction with her first Burn talisman ¨C namely, incredibly short and thin eyebrows, and an almost bald head.


    ¡°You¡¯re still here? Do you want something?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I h-have to ask¡­ how did you become so strong?¡± Yi Zhang managed to force the words out of his mouth, his expression carrying a complex mixture of fear, reluctance, worry and a small sign of shattered pride.


    She looked back at him, showing an enigmatic smile.


    ¡°Well¡­ I wonder...¡±

 V1C5: The Second Floor

    In the end, she did not reveal a single detail, other than advising him to read up on a few earth and metal techniques in order to gain a greater understanding of his chosen element. Since she had a few things inspect in the technique library for herself, she followed him there.


    ¡®Now, I¡¯d gotten a little distracted last time. What was I thinking about? Oh, right, the biggest flaw in my fighting was that I was unable to maximise my body¡¯s strength. Starting from the first point, I should pay a lot more attention to combat in the future, and always overestimate my opponents, even if there seems to be no plausible way for them to overpower me. Even the most basic techniques I had read through included some mentions of methods allowing for sudden explosions of strength, and the Meridian Explosion Art is a thing, so¡­¡¯ she looked around, slightly worried that someone with that skill would decide to jump out and attack her.


    ¡®The second matter, of me only having one proper technique, and the third, of limited future growth,  can both be remedied with combat techniques and body cultivation techniques respectively. Perhaps I will be able to achieve a similar thing to my elemental cultivation techniques and blend together all compatible body cultivation systems into a single, all-powerful skill. I highly doubt it, though. The mysterious characters have made no moves to help me learn combat arts or skills so far.¡¯


    Before she entered the technique library, she made sure to display her metal planar energy proudly, and, just as expected, it caught the eye of Yi Zhihao.


    ¡°So, you have finally broken through to- eh? Is that the third stage?¡±


    ¡®Even someone two realms above me gets confused by this¡­¡¯ Yi Wei sighed internally, before presenting a kind smile, ¡°No, I am only on the second stage, Uncle Zhihao. What made you think otherwise?¡±


    Her earnest tone was surprisingly effective, as the man immediately admitted his fault, ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s how it is. I suppose your intensive reading paid off, then, seeing as you¡¯ve reached such an impressive quality of planar energy.¡±


    ¡°I sure hope so,¡± she muttered ambiguously, ¡°Now, may I be allowed onto the second floor?¡±


    ¡°Certainly,¡± Yi Zhihao threw her a token with a small two written in the middle, ¡°The rules up there are a little different. You may read any manual you wish, but you may only remove three books from the library at a time, and they must either be renewed or returned after one month. Oh, and¡­ if you want a little advice from me, then don¡¯t show off your memory too much, or else the family might come up with a few more rules just for you.¡±


    Although she was well aware of the answer, she still asked, ¡°Is my memory really that good?¡±


    ¡°If you can remember even a tenth of the books you¡¯ve read here so far, then yes.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ I shall keep that in mind,¡± Yi Wei said, and headed up the stairs to the second level, ¡®All of them.¡¯


    It was much like the first floor, except the number of shelves was lesser, and the number of people was greater. While Yi Wei had been able to avoid any attention during her browsing of the basic cultivation techniques, her appearance on the second floor was already noticed by several individuals who were also browsing through the manuals on offer.


    She ignored their gazes and quickly determined how this floor was organised. Instead of being split into elements, the shelves were separated by the type of technique held on them: fist, palm, sword, saber, spear, movement, body and even the occasional dual cultivation techniques were present.


    The last type she ignored instantly ¨C regardless of their effectiveness, which often varies due to a number of factors, she was not intending to practise them even if it could increase the speed of her cultivation a thousand-fold. Weapon arts and skills were also quickly removed from the list of manuals she intended to study, as they were simply too unreliable. With her planar energy, she could strengthen her body, her mind and possibly even her techniques, but it would be far less likely to apply to weapons. Thus, it would be unreasonable to rely on help from without while instead of the power within.


    ¡®Even then, I will still have to go through all of the fist, palm, finger, movement and body skills to find the most suitable ones, or, if I am fortunate enough, to combine them into a single technique,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, guessing the number of books she¡¯d need to read, ¡®That will be at least five hundred manuals per category, or twenty five hundred books in total¡­ Great.¡¯


    Heading straight for the far end of one of the shelves, she glanced at a few of the names.


    ¡®Thousand Nail Skill, Bedrock Skin Skill, Torrential Falls Skill¡­ that last one looks interesting¡­ ¡°based on the essence of a waterfall, strengthens the body, increases speed and overall defence¡±¡­¡¯ she read out from the back of the manual, ¡®I suppose this technique is as good a start as any.¡¯


    Yi Wei removed that manual, alongside a few others, and went to the back of the room, where a number of benches were placed for convenience. She sat down and flipped through the manuals as quickly as she could while still absorbing the information within, and as soon as one of the manuals was finished, she returned it and replaced it with another.


    Yi Yaling had just finished her daily cultivation, and, having stabilised her energy at the ninth stage of Energy Condensation, she decided to head over to the technique library to read up on a few techniques and pick out something new to practise.


    However, when she arrived onto the second floor, she came across a most peculiar sight. A girl, only a few years younger than her, was flipping through book after book at a rapid pace. This alone would not be too out of the ordinary ¨C it isn¡¯t unusual for some to go through dozens of skills before finding one that suits them the most, and that sort of reading naturally can¡¯t be done slowly ¨C except that her speed was utterly outrageous. In the time that a regular person would be able to read one paragraph, this person managed to finish half of a detailed, comprehensive technique manual.


    She watched for several minutes, seeing her go through six books, before she realised that she was wasting her time and went pick out her own technique to study.


    As soon as she reached for one of the manuals, however, another hand grabbed it first, and began flipping through it quickly, her eyes blurring as they rapidly read each line before scrolling over to the next.


    ¡°Ahem. Could I have that manual?¡± Yi Yaling asked, those few words already allowing the young woman to read a third of the book, ¡®Is my question going to slow her down? I might as well have just waited for a few more minutes¡­¡¯


    ¡°Hm?¡± the young woman raised her eyes for a moment, before returning her focus to the manual, ¡°Give me a moment.¡±


    She had no chance to reply before the manual in the woman¡¯s hands returned to the shelf.


    ¡°There¡­ Hold on, are you intending to practise body cultivation?¡± the girl¡¯s eyebrow rose slightly ¨C Yi Yaling did not look the part of a body cultivator whatsoever. She was thin, pretty and had rather large breasts; if she became a body cultivator and didn¡¯t have something to counteract the physical changes, she would lose the first and the third feature, while the second would become a lot more contentious.


    Seeing the teenager¡¯s gaze landing on her chest, she immediately understood the misunderstanding that had occurred, ¡°No, not at all. However, Yi Zhihao has been recommending that we study techniques that are related, or even opposite to the ones we wish to practise, in order to gain a greater understanding of both. Initially, I didn¡¯t pay this advice much mind, but today he seemed particularly excited, and stated that someone who does this well can appear to be one stage higher than they actually are due to the purity, density and quality of their planar energy.¡±


    Something about her explanation made the girl frown for a moment, ¡°I see. I wouldn¡¯t recommend that particular manual for study ¨C it¡¯s strictly for men.¡±


    ¡®She was able to learn that from half a minute of reading?¡¯ Yi Yaling was astonished, ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°The manual follows the Yin Yang Theory and suggests that you begin practise with the centre of your yang, or your yang root. I¡¯m sure I don¡¯t need to explain why you¡¯re not able to do that,¡± she replied, reaching for another manual, ¡°After that, to progress, you will also have to perform dual cultivation as the yang partner, so¡­¡±


    ¡®Why did she read it, then?¡¯ Yi Yaling had to ponder as she replied, ¡°T-Thank you, for that information¡­ If I may ask, how many of the techniques here have you read already?¡±


    ¡°Four hundred and seventy-nine body cultivation manuals. I intend to finish the section today, and move onto palm techniques later today or tomorrow,¡± the young woman explained, flipping through the Bovine Stomach Skill, ¡°¡­ has a side effect of growing one¡¯s breasts? I should give this to Aunt Zehao, then¡­¡±


    ¡°In that case, could you give me some advice on the Still Water Body?¡± Yi Yaling asked, both to test whether she has truly taken in all of the material she had read so far, and to clear up a question she had about the technique, ¡°The technique mentions that the water energy within the body must be as calm as a reflective pool, and yet all of my combat techniques require my energy to flow swiftly, as a river or waterfall. How would I cultivate the technique?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mean to be rude, but are you paying attention to anything you read? The entire essence of water is changing and moving, so, naturally, when you utilise your combat techniques, you allow for a current to be created within your body, and when you need to defend, you stop it. In other words, ¡°Water must be stagnant and fluid. In motion and in action, speed will allow for power. In defence and resistance, a still pool will survive a greater blow than any other¡±,¡± the gril recited while reading two other manuals simultaneously.


    ¡°That¡­ that is straight from the Still Water Body manual! I can¡¯t believe I forgot!¡± she realised, ¡°Thank you! I will leave immediately! Thank you!¡±


    Yi Wei stood in place for a moment, processing the strange encounter, before returning to her reading.


    ¡®What a strange person. She just ran up to me, asked a question, and left¡­ Eh, whatever, back to the Revolving Revelations Body¡­¡¯


    Finally, she was able to emerge a few hours later, with the combined knowledge of a thousand techniques and skills filling her head. It quickly became apparent that it was not going to be as simple as combining her planar cultivation techniques, as even the simplest of body cultivation manuals had innumerable contradicting principles and concepts that would likely tear her body apart if she even attempted to cultivate them together.


    ¡®Ideally, I would find a way to combine the most opposing techniques in such a way that their negative or neutral effects, like expanding or condensing muscles, are negated, and the positive effects, like strengthening the body, are doubled,¡¯ she decided, idly transforming her planar energy into the water element, ¡®However, even with the healing effect of my water planar energy, combined with the reinforcement of my body by the mysterious characters, I don¡¯t think I will be able to survive the damage that the techniques would do to my body.¡¯


    As she was walking past an elderly man, he brushed past her with his spiritual will and suddenly stopped.


    ¡°Excuse me, young lady, are you in the third stage of Energy Condensation, by any chance?¡± he asked, his hand half stretched out as if he couldn¡¯t decide whether he wanted to place it on her shoulder, ¡°and you¡¯re a member of the Yi family, right?¡±


    His voice was shaky and anxious, and his posture and aura were similar. It was extremely strange to see such behaviour from someone who had to be at the Emergent Anchor realm, especially when it was directed at someone at the second stage of Energy Condensation.


    ¡°I am Yi Wei, of the Yi family, but I am only on the second stage, I¡¯m afraid,¡± she explained, but that only seemed to make the man more excited and nervous.


    ¡°Only second? That¡¯s amazing! Please, won¡¯t you study array arrangement under me? I can give you elixirs, herbs, pills, artefacts, whatever you want, just say yes, please!¡±


    ¡®Really? Typically, it is the students that have to beg masters of the various arts to be taught by them,¡¯ Yi Wei noted, looking up and down over the strange elderly man, ¡®however, he is wearing the robes of a master, and has three formation stars pinned to them, so unless he managed to kill a formation master and steal his clothes ¨C which would be difficult, considering how difficult it can be to counter the many secret formation arrays they typically place onto their items ¨C he must be a realm formation master.¡¯


    ¡°¡­ Is that not enough? Should I give you even more? I can create free arrays for you, or-¡±


    ¡°Just calm down for a second. Why are you so insistent on me becoming your disciple?¡±


    ¡°Huh? Oh, right. I am sorry! Please don¡¯t let this mistake prevent you from studying under me!¡± he tried to prostrate himself before her, but she managed to keep him on his feet, ¡°I am Master Yi Yi, a three-star formation master. As a practitioner of the arts within the Yi family, I have the obligation to train at least one student from the family every five years, and the deadline for picking the next student was approaching.


    ¡°However, I refused to accept any disciples the family recommended to me! They were all ignorant, childish, foolish and prideful, and they wouldn¡¯t have grasped the intricacies of formation arrangement no matter how long I taught them, not to mention the fact that their planar energy was all shallow and impure, clearly fuelled by unclean elixirs that artificially inflate their growth. None could sense something as simple as the direction of the flow of energy!¡±


    When Yi Yi ranted, his very aura changed. The pleading tone disappeared, and planar energy seemed to gather around him, giving him a very powerful vibe.


    ¡°I can tell that you are different when it comes to your cultivation. Your dantian is full of pure water energy, so even if you are utterly useless at everything else, you will be a far better disciple than the others,¡± he paused for a breath when his disposition suddenly changed back, ¡°Ah¡­ Please don¡¯t go!¡±


    ¡®He doesn¡¯t have two souls inside his body, does he?¡¯ Yi Wei questioned, remarking at how different his voice was, ¡°I¡¯m not going anywhere, so you can calm down. I also don¡¯t have any issues with becoming your disciple-¡±


    ¡°Excellent!¡± he cried out but calmed himself when he saw that she had not finished speaking, ¡°¡­ Sorry. Please continue.¡±


    ¡°¡­ However, I may not be able to spend every day, nor even the entirety of the day, on studying with you,¡± she continued, ¡°I am already studying another art, and I am also very busy with my project of reading through the entirety of the technique library, so I will spend half of every day there until I am finished.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s no problem, no problem! Before we continue, though, would you like to step inside? My residence is a short walk away from here, and I will be able to provide you with a basic introductory manual on arrays.¡±


    She agreed, so he led her to his home. However, midway there, she stopped.


    ¡®Arrays¡­ Perhaps¡­ they could be utilised within my body cultivation technique, to balance out the effects and prevent damage to the body!¡¯ she theorised, and the creative spark within her was lit.


    Oculus


    Edit: I have decided on my next project, which will be a bit of practise before Book 2 of this and whatever other stories I end up writing. As such, any suggestions you provide here may be used as ideas for my next project, ¡ºI Was Called A Demon¡», but only as ideas for techniques, archetypes and so on.

 V1C6: Condensed Formation Body

    The introductory manual could not be called anything other than a gigantic tome ¨C it looked to have no fewer than two thousand pages and was most certainly heavy enough to be used as a low-tier heavy weapon. It would most certainly be more effective than any regular brick.


    Still, Yi Wei remained undaunted, and immediately flipped it open.


    ¡®The Introduction to Formation Array Arrangement, Understanding and Mastery, by Master Yi Yi¡­ hold on, Master Yi Yi¡­ no way¡­ No way!¡¯ she looked up at the man before her, who looked as if he was a commoner worker being examined by an emperor, ¡°Are you related to that Master Yi Yi, the one that created one-star formations powerful enough to defeat someone of the Active Core realm?¡±


    ¡°That great man is my grandfather,¡± he said with pride, ¡°I, and my father before me, have been working to create a technique to rival his own Prime Star Arts, to receive his inheritance, but our art, the Excellence Art, has been unable to reach the point of completion so far. As soon as I reach the fourth realm, Active Core, I will be able to perfect it, and¡­ sorry. Where was I?¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s enough, thank you,¡± Yi Wei said, lowering her head to focus on the book once more, ¡®What an interesting coincidence. I get some fire planar energy, and some tired old man comes out to teach me talisman making. I decide to display my water planar energy, and another unique figure emerges from the streets of Yi City. If this trend somehow continues, I must make the most of each opportunity while I continue to receive them.¡¯


    She did not speak for a long time, her entire mind focusing on the book before her. With each passing minute that Yi Wei spent in intense concentration, the look of joy grew on Yi Yi¡¯s face.


    ¡®I was right! My guess was right! Even if she understands nothing from that book, and doesn¡¯t see the traps within, just the raw knowledge within can take her to a three-star formation master, and that planar energy she cultivates could bring her up to the very peak of three stars!¡¯


    Contrary to both of their expectations, Yi Wei could no longer stomach the book after only reading a third of its content.


    ¡°Master Yi, are you sure that this is a book on formation arrangement, and not blacksmithing?¡± her head snapped upwards as she slammed the tome shut, ¡°Half of the things discussed were the crafting of materials and the melting points of pure metals and alloys, none of which were then mentioned again!¡±


    The formation master did not lose his smile, and it might have grown even larger, ¡°That¡¯s right, that¡¯s exactly right! You figured it out! Praise the heavens for sending such a wise disciple to me! Let me explain: your observation is correct, and is, in fact, intentional. This book is a sort of designed by my grandfather, to find those who possess an aptitude for formations. Those that do will have an automatic ability to unravel any matter, regardless of its complexity, into its simplest parts, and will then be able to remove extraneous elements and execute it in the most efficient manner possible. Do you know what the key element of formations is?¡±


    ¡°According to the seventh page, paragraph 15, the core component of a successful formation is efficiency, and minimized redundancy. The fewer nodes a formation array has, the more powerful it can be, and the better it accommodates the natural flow of planar energy, the more energy it will have to work with,¡± she said in one breath, ¡°Is that about right?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s exactly right! In-¡±


    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be, since the book said that on paragraph 14, and it specifically stated that accommodating the natural flow of energy would primarily affect the absorption of natural energy, the efficiency of the flow of planar energy within the formation and will increase the total pool of energy it can access, but do go on.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    His expression was complicated, to say the least. On one hand, he was even more excited to learn that his new student was able to not only remember his grandfather¡¯s work, but also memorise it better than him, but on the other, it was a little embarrassing to be fooled that easily, even if she might not have had any malicious intent to her actions. Just to be sure, he glanced at her expression and felt even less certain.


    Thankfully, Yi Wei also realised what she had done, and lowered her head in apology, ¡°Sorry, I got carried away. Please, do continue.¡±


    ¡°Right. Well, that is the reason why your ability, to notice just how extraneous most of the material within this book is, is so important. It means that you will be able to apply a similar skill when examining or creating formation arrays, and then be able to minimize the number of nodes, place them more efficiently, and create far more powerful arrays than a common formation master.¡±


    ¡®I see. That makes sense, and the best procedures to process certain materials are bound to be helpful if I end up getting into blacksmithing as well,¡¯ she decided, focusing back on the book.


    She completed her reading in a single day, at the expense of a terrible ache in her neck. It was soothed slightly by her planar energy, with the water element significantly increasing the natural healing ability of her body, and she was able to give the tome back to Master Yi Yi, who had gone off to study on his own at some point.


    ¡°You finished all of it?¡± he asked, despite having seen the entire process himself.


    ¡°I have.¡±


    ¡°Do you remember it all as well as paragraph 13 on the seventh page?¡±


    ¡°It was paragraph 14,¡± she corrected him, ¡°but yes, I can recall it just as clearly.¡±


    He sat silently for a moment, ¡°You have a very impressive memory¡­ So, how much must I pay you? A thousand two-star resources? Two thousand? No, you¡¯re clearly worth far more than that, so-¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to pay me. You¡¯ve already promised to teach me formation arrays, didn¡¯t you? So it¡¯s fine. I can survive with just a few pills to assist me in cultivation, and a few that can help develop body techniques.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ that¡¯s all you want?¡± he asked, with an eyebrow raised ¨C would someone with a perfect memory like hers be willing to learn from someone as useless as him?


    It was difficult for Yi Wei to imagine that such a weak character could have ever become a three-star master in any art, so she nodded, and stared him straight in the eyes, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s all. Master Yi Yi, you should have a lot more confidence in yourself, especially when speaking with someone as minor and insignificant as me. Even if I ever outdo you, I will still be thankful for your support, and will not think of your existence as a burden.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± he stared back at her, his mouth moving even though no sound came out. Finally, he turned away and spoke softly, ¡°Please leave me for today. You can return whenever it is convenient, and I shall personally introduce you to the practical side of formation arrays.¡±


    The red-haired girl nodded and left. For Yi Wei, this action was small, insignificant, and required no effort, but it clearly mattered to Master Yi Yi, so she didn¡¯t hesitate to do it. After all, formations were one of the great arts, and merely understanding the basics of formation arrays would raise one¡¯s status by a small notch, regardless of their other abilities. Therefore, the knowledge she had already gained could prove invaluable for the rest of her life, and she would do quite a lot to repay the man that gave it to her.


    Her journey back to her home was made in darkness, through empty streets. She did not enter the shack once she arrived, but instead collected a number of rounds rocks and began laying them out in a strange pattern.


    ¡®To create a proper formation array, I would need formation flags, or some sort of energy-conductive material to create the formation nodes. However, an imitation can be made up of any random garbage, so long as every node is made from a similar material,¡¯ was what she had learned from the tome.


    The stones were placed at certain points around her shack, some close to the walls, others far away, at the very edge of her property. Despite their disordered appearance, each rock that was placed made the air somewhat¡­ more pleasant, as if it had been infused energy and pleasant memories from one¡¯s life.


    This was the weakened effect of a Planar Condensation Array, a one-star formation that draws in planar energy and increases its concentration in a limited area. Without any proper nodes or materials used in the construction, it could only display one fiftieth of its typical effect, but even that was enough for her to feel as if her home suddenly became much more homely, warm and inviting. However, the expression that appeared on her face was a deep frown.


    ¡®This isn¡¯t right. The massive change in aura shouldn¡¯t be happening just because of an imitation array,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, ¡®It can happen if, by putting up a contradictory array, I destabilised and thus dispelled something that was already in place¡­¡¯


    She entered her shack silently, went down on her knees, grabbed a part of the wooden floor, and pulled it out, throwing it out of the open doorway. Then, she grabbed the next plank, and did the same, continuing to do so until half of her floor was thrown out.


    Beneath the floor was a mass of tightly packed dirt, with nothing seeming to be out of place.


    ¡®Whatever this is, I wouldn¡¯t have noticed it if I didn¡¯t have my purified dantian, refined planar energy and the mysterious characters at the same time, meaning that the array is undoubtedly of high quality. The only reason that my imitation array has any effect on it is that it was never meant to be interfered with,¡¯ she suspected, digging into the dirt with her bare hands.


    It took an hour of digging to reveal a small, only half a metre in diameter, buried array plate. It was cast from a golden metal, and it curved and weaved into esoteric shapes and patterns.


    To those who are completely unfamiliar with formation arrays, this would seem like a meaningless decoration, but Yi Wei happened to have read about something similar in the enormous ¡®Introduction to Formation Array Arrangement¡¯.


    ¡®A Potential Draining Array, combined with a Planar Corruption Array, a Mental Distortion Array and a Dantian Clogging Array,¡¯ she guessed, recalling several mentions of each in the ¡®Introduction¡¯. ¡®This¡­ this is serious. The lowest of these is a three-star array, and the highest is a peak four-star¡­ Wait a moment! When I was inspected by an elder of the family after I was unable to advance to the first stage in half a year, he muttered something along the lines of ¡°her even being able to cultivate with such a low-grade planar aperture is impressive¡±.


    ¡®Then, that means that the array has been placed here before I began cultivating, and depending on how quickly it works, it might have been here before I even moved in. That¡¯s why, when I broke through, there was such a great change in my sensory abilities ¨C the planar energy wiped away the years of the Dantian Clogging Array¡¯s effects, and it might also be counteracting the other three.¡¯


    She examined the array plate from top to bottom, to make sure that she observed every little detail she could. As soon as she was sure that there was nothing else to see, she gripped either side and, with some effort, broke it in two.


    Instantly, the pleasant atmosphere that arose upon her arranging the imitation array increased so significantly that the very colours around her changed, becoming warmer and lighter, as if someone had wiped away the gloom.


    Without wasting any time, Yi Wei threw the two pieces of the array plate under her bed and buried the dirt back where it previously was, covering it as well as she could with pieces of the wooden floor.


    All through that task, she couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that someone, or something, was observing her, but no matter how much she looked, she could find no one, and moved on to her next objective, which was creating her own body technique.


    Unlike the body cultivation techniques within the library, her idea, which she had decided to call the Condensed Formation Body, relied on generating a formation array within her body, which would channel her planar energy alongside her technique¡¯s effects, allowing for hundreds of different elements to coexist at the same time. To her knowledge, this was something that no one had ever attempted before, and for good reason.


    It was completely impossible for a regular cultivator.


    ¡°An array requires a stable series of nodes, created from a material that conducts planar energy,¡± Yi Wei recited, sighing, ¡®For most, even those two things are ridiculous to achieve. The human body is in constant motion and activity, which makes it rather difficult to set up a stable array, not to mention the fact that the only remotely conductive element of the body is the dantian¡­ Wait¡­¡¯


    Her spiritual will dove right into her dantian, where her planar energy was calmly churning in place. There, near its walls, she saw clouds of small shards of white material that were floating there since her planar energy purified it.


    ¡®¡­ Huh,¡¯ she struggled to keep her face still, ¡®Seriously, my luck¡­ isn¡¯t it a little too good? Based on my understanding of the techniques, these seventy-four pieces should be enough to create a foundation for the body cultivation method. Additionally, since they are this small, each one can likely be refined much quicker than the dantian as a whole, thus allowing me to improve the technique without doing anything at all.¡¯


    Biting her lip to prevent a smile from forming, Yi Wei shook her head, ¡®I should focus. The quicker I can get this done, the quicker I can relax and go to sleep.¡¯


    Using her planar energy, she enveloped every shard and pushed them out of the dantian, causing a slight burning sensation to appear inside her abdomen. Recognising the feeling as her body attempting to reject her work, she stabilised her breathing and sped up, controlling as many pieces as she could at a time.


    The burning got stronger with every second, but she was able to complete the placement of half of the dantian shards before it started to become an issue. Every piece, regardless of its place, seemed to have changed into a brightly burning coal, and they were still heating up. Although she could not be certain about the exact time she had left, she was confident that what she had would likely be insufficient at her current pace.


    ¡®At least I won¡¯t have to wonder what it feels like to eat a hot coal,¡¯ she joked, getting up, ¡®Since my first plan isn¡¯t going to work, let¡¯s try the other one.¡¯


    Quickly considering the remaining shards and where they had to end up, Yi Wei crouched down and channelled all of her energy, planar and otherwise, before punching down with all the force she had.


    Her body felt as if it was about to explode, but it stopped mere moments from actually doing so ¨C more importantly, a set of dantian shards was forced into place. As soon as she confirmed that they were in the right place, she stood up straight, ignoring the faintness in her vision and her quivering muscles, and struck her stomach.


    ¡°Ugh¡­ That hurt¡­¡± she said, then saw that one piece from the group was still out of place. She was forced to strike herself again to force it into place.


    ¡°Only ten more to go¡­¡±

 V1C7: The Plan of the Heavens

    That day, Yi Wei did not sleep, as her mind was wholly concentrated on developing her Condensed Formation Body skill.


    She was able to complete the arrangement of her dantian shard nodes just moments before they would have literally burned through her and began to condense and course energy from all of her various body techniques through the nodes. By sending in skills focused on healing first, she was able to negate the damaging effects of the shards, and with each technique that she added, the rejection from her body was lessened.


    Her final body cultivation method was added to her Condensed Formation Body Array, which lay somewhere in between an imitation array and a true array, five hours after she began, and it was only then that she could finally relax, albeit only briefly. Only a brief period of time later, she had to focus even harder to begin the process of achieving Initial Accomplishment within the technique.


    This was perhaps the most important step, more so even than the proper arrangement of her dantian shards. If a technique that generated or used some form of unique energy was trained in and then interrupted prior to reaching Initial Accomplishment, all of that energy would disperse and melt back into the body as basic or planar energy, depending on what was used. In basic techniques, this wasn¡¯t a significant risk, as the quantity of energy would typically be low, and the work required to reach Initial Accomplishment would be minimal. None of that applied to the Condensed Formation Body, which was far, far more complex than any of the techniques originally involved in its creation.


    Even if the strange combination of them somehow reduced the amount of energy required to train in them to a tenth, the combined cost still added up to a far greater quantity than Yi Wei was comfortable with. However, as she had decided to train in her technique before properly developing it, this was something she had to deal with right now.


    Luckily enough, her planar energy was outstanding in every way, so she was able to rely on her energy regeneration to save herself from literally drying up as a result of her practise.


    ¡®Now that I think about it,¡¯ she thought after several hours of attempting to condense the essence of her Condensed Formation Body, ¡®Body cultivation techniques are very different from basic cultivation techniques, and I couldn¡¯t even put the latter into a single skill without the advantage of the mysterious characters¡­ so what made me think that I could combine every body skill into one all on my own?¡¯


    Despite that pessimistic line of thought, the essence of her skill was close to completion. The last few components of her technique were those that allowed for foreign objects to exist within the body without rejection, and they were initially meant for cultivators to be able to become one with swords or ancient treasures, empowering their bodies at the cost of replacing some vital organs with those particular treasures. Yi Wei intended to apply those same effects to keep the dantian shards in her body, while not losing a single thing ¨C instead, she hoped to create something entirely new.


    The only problem with that particular idea was that the techniques she studied didn¡¯t explain how or why the item of choice would replace a certain body part, so she had no way of knowing how her combination and modification of those techniques would function.


    ¡®However, every single man or woman who ever created their own technique must have studied and experimented, or else they wouldn¡¯t have created what they did,¡¯ she calmed herself, trying to feel out every change that was occurring to her.


    All of a sudden, she gasped, grasping her throat with a pained expression.


    ¡®This¡­ is this replacing my lungs?¡¯ she mentally screamed out her first fear, but quickly realised that the sensation she felt wasn¡¯t simply from the lack of air, ¡®No, it shouldn¡¯t be¡­ My meridians! It¡¯s creating new meridians!¡¯


    If she was able to scream, she probably would have, as it seemed as if a large serpent suddenly dug into her and began to eat through her flesh, forcefully carving out an entirely new network inside of her.


    Out of all the things she had experienced so far, including the scalding dantian shards and the near destruction of her body by the failed talisman, this easily topped the list as the most painful experience.


    Yi Wei had no clue how she was able to stop herself from passing out, but she did it¡­ only for the experience to repeat itself, with twice as much pain. As the second meridian network was already complete, there was also nothing to stop her from yelling, either, so she had to do it herself by forcing her throat shut with planar energy.


    ¡®F-¡­¡¯ she clenched her teeth, coursing some planar energy through them to prevent them from breaking, ¡®Why is it even creating a third network? Aren¡¯t two enough? Still, it¡¯s almost- AAH!¡¯


    A third serpent chewed through her, clearly of the opinion that four was the perfect number of meridian networks.


    She wasn¡¯t sure when it began, but she suddenly became aware of all of the planar energy around her being drawn into the depths of her planar aperture, where her mysterious characters were shining with a soft white light. As if her technique had taken offence to her viewing anything other than it, a fifth snake bit down somewhere near her heart.


    The taste of iron appeared in her mouth, and a few drops of red dripped out from her lips. There was a faint feeling at the tip of her tongue, almost as if she had bitten it during her confusion.


    ¡®I remember doing that when I was younger¡­ I thought it was actually quite painful, but I guess it can¡¯t compare with almost literally being eaten¡­ Yi Kun must be even more of a wierdo than I thought she was¡­¡¯ she thought, in a strange moment of clarity, before glancing into her dantian.


    It was full yet again, suggesting that it had been absorbing energy for several hours. The planar energy remained in place for a few more minutes, then burst out, bathing her pained tissue and muscle, before collapsing into a thicker cloud within the dantian. Just before it fully settled, the energy exploded once more, completely soothing her injuries, and fell back to her abdomen, where the characters rearranged themselves again.


    Now, the cloud of energy became difficult to see through. Obviously, this was not the typical appearance of third-stage energy.


    ¡®A second perfected stage, so I now look like I¡¯m at the fifth stage,¡¯ she thought, feeling a silly grin appearing on her face, ¡®and the pain has finally stopped, too. Huh, its absence is almost a little strange. I hope I¡¯m not going to get used to this sort of thing.¡¯


    She breathed slowly, in and out, calming her racing heart. With each breath, she felt her blood pumping through her body, but also a second kind energy, beside her planar energy, running through the second set of meridians crafted by her skill. It was a¡­ unique¡­ feeling, to say the least. It could be compared to suddenly gaining a new set of lungs, or an entirely new cardiovascular system after being chewed at by four serpents for a while.


    When her heartbeat and breath finally settled, she glanced outside and found that the sun was already coming up.


    ¡°I have enough time to check out my physical strength,¡± she said, but she lowered her fist as quickly as she raised it, ¡°I should do so outside, though. Accidentally destroying the walls wouldn¡¯t be a good idea.¡±


    The sky was crimson, bathed by the rising sun, and it covered the land in red. To the people of Yi City, such a day foreshadowed a bloodbath, or the death of a great man. Naturally, it was a simple superstition, and it often proved inaccurate, but it occurred every month or so ¨C and no-one could be blamed for wanting to fight on an auspicious day.


    To Yi Wei, however, there was little difference between this day, and any other. After all, what chance was there of her meeting some great figure?


    ¡°I recall my previous strength well enough, but if my technique worked as I wanted it to, there shouldn¡¯t be any need for me to remember,¡± she muttered to herself, readying a strike, ¡®I can already feel my skill¡¯s power strengthening me. In addition to my greater cultivation¡­¡¯


    She swallowed, to delay the moment a little longer, and punched the air.


    The sound of her fist cutting through the air was incredible. It was perhaps the most powerful sound she had ever heard, and for once, she could say with absolute certainty that she was the cause.


    It made her proud, as did the sheer force of her fist. Compared to her original strength, it was six times greater, and it even lifted a great number of leaves and small items from the ground and into the air. In the grand scheme of things, when compared to experts of the Emergent Anchor realm, who could solidify their planar energy and tear through buildings effortlessly, or the Active Core realm, which permits for the planar energy to be left behind and forged into arrays, which can then overpower a hundred Energy Condensation cultivators even with a one-star array, lifting a few leaves was nothing much. Compared to common Energy Condensation experts, however, it was quite something.


    ¡®Although I don¡¯t know exactly how much this would do against someone at the peak of my realm, it should be safe to say that the force of my regular punch exceeds the power of the techniques used by someone at the sixth or seventh stage,¡¯ Yi Wei recognised, relaxing her body, ¡®This means that I can- no, I should bathe first.¡¯


    Only now did she notice that the lower part of her face was covered in blood. It had dried completely, so it must have been there for quite a while, and it had already drawn the gaze of a passer-by.


    ¡°Yi Wei, what have you been doing this time?¡± Yi Zehao¡¯s voice suddenly entered her ears, and only then did she register that the onlooker was none other than her least favourite aunt.


    Her first instinct was to suppress all of the strange energy within her body, and to dull the appearance of her planar energy. In the next second, she felt her aunt¡¯s spiritual will passing through her, scanning for hidden injuries and any other things of note.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she replied while pretending that she didn¡¯t notice a thing, ¡°I had reached the second stage recently, and I¡¯ve been trying to practise a new technique. However, I was a little foolish, and made a small mistake.¡±


    ¡°Did you say second stage? Not the third?¡±


    She made a face that suggested she knew nothing about it, ¡°What do you mean, Aunt Zehao?¡±


    Her aunt frowned, but her search was unable to uncover anything other than unusually dense energy for the second stage, so she shrugged and moved on, ¡°Try not to injure yourself like this again. If you do this to yourself, I won¡¯t spare you any pill no matter how much you beg me to help you,¡±


    ¡®I do not intend to do so anywhere in the near future, aunt. Besides, I still have the last pill you left me,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, but said nothing.


    ¡°Sit down and recover. I¡¯ll be leaving now ¨C I didn¡¯t intend to stop by anyway,¡± Yi Zehao said, and immediately turned and disappeared from sight.


    Only then did Yi Wei let out a sigh of relief, permitting her planar and body energy to roam her body freely. Although she had not actually held her breath, it very much felt like it. The fact that her body relied that much on her new technique was slightly alarming, but costs like that were easily worth it when looking at what it gave her.


    Today, her destination was the technique library yet again, where she intended to pick up a few palm techniques. Naturally, however, she was quickly stopped at the door by Yi Zhihao.


    The old man initially only gave her a brief glance, but what he saw quickly forced him to search her with his spiritual will, ¡°Xiao Wei, did¡­ did you¡­ did you break through three stages at once?¡±


    ¡°W-what? Uncle, you must be joking. I¡¯m only at the third stage,¡± she said truthfully.


    ¡°Third? Are you certain?¡± he asked, but he didn¡¯t wait for a response before he began to mutter, ¡°Although, since you appeared to be in the third stage the day before, a progression of another stage would logically resemble two, in your case. Still, how have you managed to remain in place for four years, then go through two stages in one week?¡±


    ¡°Well, you see, I was rather fortunate to come across a formation master. He was testing a Planar Condensation Array, and he let me help out by seeing how my cultivation speed would be affected by it,¡± Yi Wei made up a short story that wouldn¡¯t seem too outrageous ¨C such lucky encounters were rare, but they could occur every few weeks to at least one person, ¡°As it turns out, the effect was great, and with my great understanding of techniques, I broke through.¡±


    ¡°Huh.¡±


    ¡°By the way, Uncle Zhihao, I have been told that you¡¯ve been advising people that they should study a bunch of other techniques and elements.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Yi Zhihao nodded, ¡°In fact, I would have used you as a perfect example, but I thought that you would appreciate remaining unbothered while browsing the library. Have I made the correct assumption?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Additionally, it seems like my situation isn¡¯t exactly normal,¡± she was sure that he mumbled something like ¡®you don¡¯t say¡¯, but since even her improved hearing didn¡¯t allow her to distinguish it properly, she let it go, ¡°so my example wouldn¡¯t be the best. May I go upstairs now?¡±


    ¡°Sure, go on.¡±


    Yi Wei headed upstairs, and straight to the palm technique section. She didn¡¯t see the girl who approached her yesterday, so she was able to focus on reading.


    She didn¡¯t get through too much before her mind began to drift slightly, ¡®How strange that I¡¯ve never done this before. Reading, whether through techniques or anything else, had always been really pleasant and calming, and yet I¡¯ve been extremely nervous for the past year and didn¡¯t even consider doing this¡­ Now, the Bestial Palm Skill¡­ wood-type¡­ slower? Not too useful¡­ Sizzling Palm¡­ that¡¯s better¡­¡¯


    Techniques, and cultivation in general, is typically split into five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. There were certain rumours about more unique elements, like lightning or yin and yang, but there was no evidence of any of them in the technique library or anywhere near the district in which Yi Wei lived. Each element had a specialty, and a certain benefit that encouraged people to cultivate it.


    Fire is focused on raw strength, and the techniques are primarily themed around fire, heat and light, creating techniques like the Solar Crushing Fist, Sizzling Palm, or the Meridian Explosion Art. Earth is slower, but easily the most defensive. It is often inspired by stone, dirt, dust and other variations, thus leading to the creation of the Bedrock Skin Skill or the Collapsing Cavern Fist. Metal and wood were the opposite of one another ¨C metal is sharp and brittle, wood is more suited for crushing, and is more durable, though neither were typically the true inspiration for their techniques. Metal was often inspired by wind, causing the creation of the Gentle Breeze Fist, while wood was typically the preferred type for beast or animal-related techniques like the Bestial Palm or Beast Punch Skill. Finally, the water element was most useful for healing and recovery, and the inspiration behind its skills came from rivers and seas, ice, steam or other water-related substances, creating the Torrential Falls Body, Boiling Ocean and Harsh Waves Sutras, and certain unique abilities like the Blood Vision Technique, which allows a cultivator to see the blood of others, even in absolute darkness.


    Additionally, every element was most suitable for a particular form of crafting. Pill refining was primarily a wood-type profession, as it primarily involves handling plants and other natural materials, formation array arrangement was suited for water cultivators, as it was focused on sensing and adjusting to the natural currents of planar energy, talisman crafting was best practised by fire cultivators, as talismans had an incredibly limited duration and were based around releasing great quantities of energy quickly, hence the danger of failed talismans, and blacksmithing was an metal-type profession, which wasn¡¯t typically the first thing that most people thought of. Inscriptions were best made by earth-type cultivators, as they relied more on the material they were embedded in.


    ¡®Finally, the last manual, ¡®Scarlet Metal Strike¡¯, and then I can finally get around to my original plans,¡¯ she thought, having mentally reminded herself of certain basics. She completed the book in a minute and shut the book as loudly as she thought would be acceptable.


    This particular action wasn¡¯t observed by anyone, allowing her to exit the library in relative peace.


    ¡®Alright, now that I have all of those, I can seek out a combat arena. Although I haven¡¯t yet combined these into some sort of Mysterious Palm Skill, I am still able to make use of any of their main principles to strengthen my basic attacks,¡¯ Yi Wei travelled in the direction of the arena square, where those who wished to fight or those who wished to see other fight gathered, ¡®Just to make sure that I don¡¯t get pulled over by some other ancient master, I¡¯ll even keep my energy in its typical metal form¡­¡¯


    On her way there, she stepped into a small shop that sold various trinkets and items, and acquired a mask, conspicuous black robes, a few odds and ends to stuff into them to obfuscate her figure, some old pieces of broken armour to make her seem like an ancient warrior of some kind, and a broken blade for the purpose of experimentation.


    All together, these items were only worth a few copper coins, a small but necessary expense if she was to avoid making her identity completely obvious to anyone that bothered to look in her direction. She was also considering changing her voice slightly, perhaps speaking with a higher or lower pitch.


    Her intention was to duck into some alleyway to disguise herself, but she nearly bumped into an elderly woman who was burying a pristine weapon into the ground.


    They stared at one another in silence for a while.


    The elderly woman made a move first, suddenly appearing right before her, staring at the weapon by her waist.


    ¡°Young lady, if you¡¯ve such high-quality metal cultivation, what¡¯re you doing with that broken thing?¡±


    That wasn¡¯t the question she expected, so she stuttered a little before deciding to be honest, ¡°While I don¡¯t know what my cultivation has to do with anything, I was intending to use this and some armour pieces to disguise myself before entering some combat arena to earn money, resources and possibly win something good in a minor competition.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re honest. That¡¯s good. Do you want to learn blacksmithing from me?¡±


    ¡®Are¡­ are you being serious right now? Are the heavens trying to discourage me from fighting? Still, if this woman is like the other masters I¡¯ve met so far, she should be easily impressed and then allow me to have some free time, and then I will be able to enter combat with a completed skill and some actual armour,¡¯ Yi Wei considered the matter for a few seconds, then nodded, ¡°Sure. Is the axe in the ground some of your work?¡±


    ¡°No, that isn¡¯t my work. It¡¯s trash,¡± the old woman replied, spitting at the half-buried weapon, ¡°Unfortunately, I did make it.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡± Yi Wei examined the weapon from where she stood, but she couldn¡¯t find a single issue with it, ¡®I guess she¡¯s a bit of a perfectionist, or perhaps I am just missing all of the problems with it.¡¯


    ¡°Name¡¯s Ning Guanting,¡± she introduced herself, holding out her hand. Yi Wei shook it without much hesitation, ¡°I can tell that you¡¯ve not practised this art before, but I will hammer you into shape within a month.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Master Ning. Are we also going to begin by reading a large manual?¡±


    ¡°Also? You¡¯ve trained in some other arts? Do you prefer theory over practise?¡±


    ¡°Yes, and it does seem to be a good start for me in any field I¡¯ve tried.¡±


    ¡°And what have you tried at such a young age?¡± Ning Guanting asked.


    She realised that she had said a little more than intended, so she decided to keep the details to the minimum, ¡°I¡¯ve previously tried talisman crafting and formation arranging, and I¡¯ve had some luck with both.¡±


    ¡°Curious. I¡¯ll let you read for one hour, but blacksmithing is about practise. You must feel each strike, each metal, each hammer and each anvil for yourself to understand how to shape the tool you craft, and no ordinary tome can bring you that,¡± the blacksmith explained, turning away, ¡°Come on, come with me.¡±


    Yi Wei followed, leaving the alleyway and passing a few streets before being forced to stop abruptly. The elderly blacksmith held out her arm and pointed at a small group.


    ¡°Now, fight them.¡±

 V1C8: Anvil of a Thousand Strikes

    ¡°Alri- sorry, what?¡± Yi Wei nearly did as instructed before she realised exactly what that instruction was.


    ¡°I said that you should fight the six people that are standing in front of my house, so that I can judge your abilities.¡±


    ¡®¡­ Well, at least she says she¡¯s doing this for a reason,¡¯ the red-haired girl sighed, though she still nodded, ¡°Alright. They¡¯re not in the Planar Pool realm, are they?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Since it was clear that the blacksmith didn¡¯t intend to reveal anything else, Yi Wei handed over the bag in which she had stored her recent purchases and slowly walked in the direction of the group. It was composed of five men and one woman, dressed in basic clothing. Two of the men had a dagger on their belts, while the woman looked to have a whip wound around her right arm. They noticed her only once she came into speaking distance. One man shared a glance with another, then stepped forward to block her path.


    ¡°Hey, if you don¡¯t have business ¡®round here, I recommend you back off,¡± he said, his arms folded, standing as tall as he could.


    ¡°Can¡¯t do that, I¡¯m afraid.¡±


    He frowned, ¡°What stage are you on?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s your stage?¡±


    ¡°I asked first.¡±


    ¡°But if I receive an answer, I might just back off,¡± Yi Wei replied, coursing her body energy in preparation for the fight.


    The man¡¯s frown deepened. He briefly glanced back to a member of his group, then answered, ¡°Two are at the fifth, three at the sixth, one at the seventh. Now, are you backin¡¯ off?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then answer my question.¡±


    ¡°You could think of me as being in the fifth stage,¡± she said, ¡®Everyone else arrives at that conclusion anyway. Next week, they¡¯ll think I¡¯m at the seventh stage, if I¡¯m lucky enough.¡¯


    Hearing that, a smirk appeared on four members of the group, including the man in front of her, ¡°Just one fifth stager against us? Are you stupid?¡±


    ¡°On the contrary, I believe my intellect is my best feature,¡± Yi Wei answered, raising a fist, ¡°So, are we fighting, then?¡±


    This time, they did not need to share a glance ¨C they simply charged at her, each preparing some combat technique to use against her. The men were at the front, while the woman hung back; based on the light glowing within their blood, two men were practising wood techniques, while the rest used metal, fire and earth skills. Curiously enough, the dark-haired woman, whose face was mostly obscured by her hair, did not circulate her energy.


    ¡®Interesting. Unfortunately for her, unless she is in the Planar Pool realm, I should be fine,¡¯ she thought for a moment, before returning her attention to the charging group, ¡®based on the vibrance of their energy, the ones practising metal and earth techniques are in the fifth stage, and since metal is naturally brittle, he¡¯s the best target. First, though, I should test the current defensive properties of my body.¡¯


    Anticipating where the thugs were intending to strike, Yi Wei raised her arms to block the metal cultivator¡¯s attack.


    His punch landed near her elbow, and for a moment, she had to question whether he had used some sort of illusory technique. Despite him clearly hitting her as hard as he could, she felt as if she was under attack by a young girl, as, speaking with experience, she couldn¡¯t imagine any young boy capable of inflicting that little pain.


    Seeing that this fifth stage man wasn¡¯t worth her time, she threw a Gentle Breeze Strike at him. He reacted with surprising speed, but just as he was about to grab her approaching fist, she opened it into a palm that gained a completely different aura.


    ¡®Sizzling Palm!¡¯


    She had not achieved Initial Accomplishment with any of the techniques she had gathered today, but that didn¡¯t stop her from using its basic concept.


    Her palm struck the man¡¯s chest with a loud bang, forcing him back by one step. However, the main force of the Sizzling Palm was the continuous burning it would inflict for several seconds afterwards. Just as he thought that her technique was lacking or incomplete, he felt as if his entire chest was suddenly covered in flame. It seemed to melt his planar energy, preventing him from properly circulating it, and the pain escalated over several seconds until he could no longer hold on, and dropped to the ground, unconscious.


    ¡®To think combining it with purple planar energy would have that sort of effect,¡¯ Yi Wei noticed the additional effects with a smile, grabbing the fist of the attacking fire cultivator.  However, before she could strike him as well, a whip struck her free arm, wrapping tightly around it.


    The whip¡¯s handle was held by the woman at the back, and a water of current seemed to flow from her into the whip. Clearly, this was a low-grade artefact!


    Yi Wei had heard quite a number of rumours regarding such items. Even at the first realm, a cultivator could infuse their planar energy into it to significantly raise their power, elevating the weapons from simply being durable to being incredibly effective. Indeed, even with her Condensed Formation Body, the whip was able to cut into her skin, though not too deeply.


    Still, this wasn¡¯t much of an issue. While the fire cultivator pulled his hand back to hit her, she grabbed onto the length of the whip and pulled with her full strength, exerting twice the force she used for her Sizzling Palm.


    Before the black-haired woman understood what happened, she found herself flying towards Yi Wei, right into the path of the fire cultivator¡¯s attack. His hit landed on her shoulder, the pain causing her to weaken her hold on the low-grade artefact. Yi Wei noticed, and immediately pulled again, catching the whip¡¯s handle as she released her opponent¡¯s fist and jumped back.


    Using the distraction, she took a brief look at the artefact. Despite its name, now that it no longer had the woman¡¯s planar energy coursing through it, the item looked no greater than a simple leather whip, perhaps even seeming worse than a typical one.


    ¡®In that case, let¡¯s see what my planar energy would do with it,¡¯ she thought, directing a wisp of her energy into it.


    Suddenly, she heard a crackling sound coming from her hand, and without thinking she tossed the whip right into the middle of the group. It smacked into the face of a wood cultivator, then its surface cracked.


    The next moment, it burst into a bright violet light, and exploded. The blast consumed all six of the thugs, and likely blinded any low-realm onlooker in the vicinity. When the light dimmed, it revealed a large, ruined patch within the road, and five heavily injured male bodies. The woman was nowhere to be found.


    ¡®Well¡­ whoops?¡¯ Yi Wei looked down at her hand, where the low-grade artefact was just moments ago, ¡®Why did it react this way? Everything else I¡¯ve tried seems to have worked well enough with my planar energy.¡¯


    ¡°Young lady, if there is one thing I have learnt from this, it¡¯s that you¡¯re not fated to use weapons,¡± Ning Guanting said, approaching her, ¡°Though your body and cultivation are intriguing. If you¡¯re not at the fifth stage, then which one are you at?¡±


    ¡°The third. For whatever reason, everyone always seems to think it¡¯s greater than that.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s only natural. Even though you¡¯ve no proper technique, your planar energy alone is enough to make up for it, allowing you to use that skill properly without actually cultivating its essence,¡± she stated, grabbing Yi Wei¡¯s arm, ¡°I wasn¡¯t aware that you cultivated a body skill, either. Somehow, it seems like you¡¯ve got a skill on par with my Anvil of a Thousand Strikes.¡±


    ¡°Anvil of a Thousand Strikes? I¡¯ve not heard of such a skill before,¡± Yi Wei spoke with great confidence ¨C she had every basic body cultivation technique in her head, and nothing of the sort was among them.


    ¡°Of course you wouldn¡¯t have, Yi girl,¡± the blacksmith replied, ¡°It¡¯s not something your family will ever get its slimy hands on... ahem. Mind telling me how you managed it?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯d prefer not to.¡±


    ¡°Alright then. Go inside.¡±


    Yi Wei was prepared to defend herself, or plead for mercy, but the woman¡¯s quick dismissal of the matter surprised her, ¡®If I can¡¯t even sense her spiritual will, she must be on the fourth realm, if not higher, and yet I am able to match a body technique she uses, but she doesn¡¯t want it? That¡¯s¡­ not what would have happened if I was speaking to a Yi family elder. He or she would sooner tear out my dantian and examine how I can cultivate so quickly than letting me go free. Speaking of which, I¡¯m glad someone as minor as me hasn¡¯t gotten acquainted with such a person.¡¯


    The old woman didn¡¯t spare her a second look, so she followed her into the large house.


    It was far less luxurious than Lou Xiuying¡¯s talisman shop, containing no decorations nor items of convenience, like chairs, seats or tables. The only pieces of furniture were those that related in some way to blacksmithing: an anvil, forge, several shelves and holders of various tools and hammers, as well as certain things that Yi Wei had no knowledge of.


    In a lonely corner, far away from everything else, was a small stack of books, covered so entirely with dust that it was difficult to see their colour or the words on their covers. Unfortunately, the book at the top was the one Ning Guanting pointed to, ¡°That¡¯s your book. Read for an hour.¡±


    Immediately after, she threw down the bag given to her by Yi Wei and turned to the window, looking onto the faint beam of light that was streaming in, as if she intended to use it to measure the time.


    Seeing that she didn¡¯t have any leeway, Yi Wei went over and picked up the book, wiping off a layer of dust thinker than the cover. ¡®One, Two and Three Star Blacksmithing¡¯, it read on the front, with no other text or images.


    The inside was different. Completely different. The first page contained a dozen expertly drawn diagrams, and text written in such small lettering that she needed to circulate planar energy to her eyes to be able to properly read it. The words within were all deep and complex, clearly written by someone with deep insights into their craft, as the statements and descriptions were all clear and lead right to the depths of the profession.


    That single page, despite Yi Wei¡¯s lack of experience with blacksmithing, made her feel as if she suddenly understood a lot more than she had before, so she continued onto the next page.


    ¡°Finish-¡±


    She shut the book calmly, having completed the last page that very instant.


    ¡°- reading. Hm, Yi girl, I can see why you like books. With that speed, listening to any lecture would just be a waste of time,¡± the old woman said, grabbing a hammer off the shelf, ¡°Catch.¡±


    Despite the ease with which the elderly blacksmith tossed the hammer over to her, Yi Wei felt her arm straining under its weight. The handle was clearly made out of ordinary wood, so she examined the head. It, too, seemed ordinary, until she noticed faint etchings on all sides of it, as well as the aura of a formation array or two from within.


    ¡°Have you figured it out?¡±


    ¡°There are at least two arrays inside, and possibly a few external ones as well. However, the patterns on the outside¡­ are they inscriptions?¡±


    ¡°Correct. What about the metal?¡±


    ¡°It looks like ordinary steel, but I think it¡¯s being hidden by some part of the engravings or arrays. In truth, is it made from titan magnetite?¡±


    She nodded, ¡°That¡¯s the sort of thing you can learn from books. Titan magnetite is the correct answer. Now, why don¡¯t you try making something with it? A simple blade, maybe a dagger, shouldn¡¯t be too hard, right?¡±


    Looking around, Yi Wei saw various bits and pieces that she now recognised from the book, so she took them and brought them to the forge.


    The master blacksmith watched in silence as Yi Wei went about the various tasks with surprising proficiency for someone who had never handled metal before, though it was clear that her movements were mechanical, following the raw instructions rather than understanding most of the essence behind them.


    She was able to heat the chunk of iron without much difficulty, as the task was one that even novice blacksmiths could perform without much trouble. However, once she grabbed it with some tongs and lifted her hammer to shape the metal, she ran into some difficulty. It is simple to describe the process of striking metal with the right strength, but when one has to moderate their own power in such a situation, difficulties naturally arise.


    Unlike her first formation array and talisman, her first dagger was misshapen and obviously skewed.


    ¡°I see¡­¡± Yi Wei muttered, looking closely at the hot piece of metal in her hand, ¡°I can see exactly where I went wrong. This¡­ it¡¯s still hot, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°It is. I wouldn¡¯t have recommended you to pick it up yet, but you have a surprising resistance to heat.¡±


    ¡°That is because I¡¯m not a wood cultivator. They¡¯re flammable.¡±


    ¡°Oh? You noticed that too? No-one in the Ning family believed me, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Are metal cultivators vulnerable to water?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Ning Guanting thought about it for a minute, ¡°I¡¯ve not noticed such a thing. However, water has been successful at calming fire cultivators, so¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°Um. Are you going to teach me now?¡±


    ¡°Sure. You¡¯ve just distracted me with a fun topic. What¡¯s the first thing you want to learn to make?¡±


    ¡°If I¡¯m not going to be able to use weapons, then any piece of armour will do,¡± Yi Wei decided, glancing out the window to find that the injured men were taken away, leaving behind only the small, scalding crater, ¡°Greaves or bracers should be the simplest to make.¡±


    ¡°Then we will begin with bracers. Seeing as you fight with your upper body, they¡¯re more important for you,¡° the blacksmith decided, and stepped up to the forge.

 V1C9: The Application Process, Part 1

    The elderly master blacksmith only allowed her to leave in the late evening, when she had thoroughly demonstrated the process of creating a few basic pieces of metal armour and got Yi Wei to attempt it. Her final item was greatly superior to the first, but Ning Guanting also deemed it a failure and tossed it out alongside her.


    Luckily, she found herself within close proximity of the streets of Yi City that were filled to the brim with all sorts of combat arenas, rings and underground coliseums, and she was also within close proximity of an empty alleyway, where she would have no risk of running into another expert.


    She removed the scrap armour and dusty robe from her bag, ¡®Looking at this stuff with my new knowledge, I can see why this was sold for so little. Even if I repaired the sword or the armour, it would break apart at the lightest touch. Still, this gives me a good opportunity to test whether my planar energy is generally harmful to weapons and armour, or if it was something about the low-grade artefact that caused it to react with my energy.¡¯


    Naturally, as someone in the Energy Condensation realm, Yi Wei had no ability to send her planar energy into the air, and even if she could, it would dissipate too quickly for her to find any use for it. However, even if the broken blade wasn¡¯t specifically designed to conduct planar energy, like talisman ink and array nodes typically were, nothing stopped her from holding onto the blade and channelling her power into it.


    As soon as the first wisp of purple energy collided with the blade, a large crack formed within the metal, prompting her to send her planar energy back into her dantian.


    ¡®Tsk¡­ something about this entire profession doesn¡¯t mesh with me. It looks like I have no chance of using weapons, unless I discover an ancient weapon of the Master of Yi City,¡¯ she considered, ¡®I bet that even his kitchen knives were superior to the greatest items made by the current leaders of the world, so they must be able to take this strange energy.¡¯


    Before the sword broke any further, she hid it below her robe, put on a simple black mask, gloves, and covered her arms and legs with a few ancient pieces of armour. She completed this by putting on a pair of boots with a lot of padding at the bottom to raise her height by one and a half inches.


    She was able to get used to them by means of a few circles around the alleyway. Once she knew that she wouldn¡¯t trip over herself if she tried anything, Yi Wei went out and approached a large noticeboard that a few other similarly shady people stood around. It was covered with numerous announcements, requests and notices to and about the various businesses in the area.


    They ranged from common notices regarding upcoming events, or the visits of important individuals, to job notices for fighters, cleaners and builders, and even included the occasional odd and overly specific request and warning, which Yi Wei ignored as she felt that they were clearly not for her.


    ¡®Currently, there are empty spots in Lin¡¯s Battle Centre, Deadly Martial Colosseum, Elemental Hall of Variety, Emporium of Animalistic Destruction and Violence and the Cavern of Destruction¡­ Looking at this, perhaps my idea to call my cultivation technique ¡®Mysterious Characters¡¯ isn¡¯t so bad after all,¡¯ she sighed internally while maintaining calmness on the outside. ¡®It seems that they all offer different methods of payment. Lin¡¯s Battle Centre would pay in silver coins, the Emporium- the EADV would give access to their cultivation chamber. Frankly, with my knowledge of three different professions and an insane cultivation speed, I don¡¯t need either of those things, but technique manuals¡­ the Deadly Martial Colosseum offers manuals!¡¯


    Immediately, her eyes descended to the direction to the arena, and she left, breaking away from the cloaked, mask-wearing crowd. No-one spared her a second glance.


    Her journey took her a few minutes, and she didn¡¯t have to wonder whether she had found the right place. The Deadly Martial Colosseum was an enormous courtyard, with its front walls occupying as much space as four dozen instances of Luo Xiuying¡¯s shop put together, and there was a short queue at the front gates, where nine similar robed and masked figures stood.


    Each member of the line was silent, so Yi Wei followed their lead and took her place at the end of the line.


    It proceeded slowly, each figure going in one by one, with some exiting not too long after, and others remaining within. Eventually, it came to be her turn, and the very sight of her caused the man at the door to sigh.


    ¡°Another young master¡­ Couldn¡¯t you go to any other shop?¡± he muttered, likely thinking that Yi Wei wouldn¡¯t be able to hear him, ¡°So, what do you want to call yourself?¡±


    ¡®Young master? Does he think I¡¯m¡­ are they really that¡­ well, might as well take advantage of this,¡¯ she considered the matter with a glance down at her chest for a few moments before answering, intentionally lowering her voice to make it seem less feminine, ¡°Da Gang. I am Da Gang.¡±


    ¡°Sure you are,¡± the man responded, quickly writing her name down on a small piece of paper that he then gave to her, ¡°When I tell you to go inside, do so, and follow the central path into the pagoda. On each floor, you will have a task. Based on how well you do, we¡¯ll determine your initial placement. Before that, though, you will have to answer a few questions, but you can do that at any empty desk.¡±


    Yi Wei nodded, and waited patiently to be allowed inside.


    Several minutes later, one of the previous masked figures exited, and she was allowed to enter. Within were a number of paths leading from the gates, and they lead to various buildings, with guards standing outside each one. As instructed, she followed the central path, arriving within a small fenced off area which contained ten tables with chairs on either side. Nine were occupied, so Yi Wei sat down on the only empty chair that faced a woman in a white robe, with the characters for ¡®Deadly Martial Colosseum¡¯ drawn on the front.


    The woman had a wide smile on her face, even when Yi Wei¡¯s eyes involuntarily drifted down to her very pronounced chest. She realised her loss of attention quickly and looked around before taking a seat. As it turned out, the other four employees of the Colosseum were also female, and the other four masked figures were also enraptured by some aspect of their body.


    ¡®Damn, either they are using some sort of charming skill, or their features are sufficient to transcend the boundaries of gender,¡¯ she thought, fixing her gaze on the woman¡¯s face.


    ¡°So, have you come to apply for a position here?¡± the woman asked, her voice no less beautiful than the rest of her features, ¡°Could you hand your big sister Lin the paper given to you at the gate?¡±


    Yi Wei complied, though she couldn¡¯t stop herself from muttering in her mind, ¡®What big sister?¡¯


    ¡°Ah, so it is Da Gang. Your big sister will just ask you a few questions, and then you can enter the pagoda. Firstly, are you here to kill yourself?¡±


    ¡°H-Huh?¡± she stuttered, nearly forgetting to lower her voice, ¡°What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Brother Da, you have such a wonderful voice,¡± the woman giggled, choosing to explain the matter only once she was finished, ¡°Some people aren¡¯t particularly satisfied with their lives, and choose combat as their method of ending it. If that is your intention, our Deadly Martial Colosseum wishes to know of it, so that we can arrange it without much trouble for ourselves.¡±


    Yi Wei nodded, ¡°I have no such intention.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s excellent, Brother Da. Big sis Lin would hate to never hear your voice again. Which realm would you like to fight in?¡±


    ¡°Energy Condensation.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s excellent. Our establishment was in great need of warriors at your level. Final question, Bro Da, and perhaps the most important for you ¨C you¡¯ve come for the combat techniques, right? We can give you one part of a Planar Pool-grade technique per victory, but which element do you practise? What sorts of techniques do you want?¡±


    ¡®She¡¯s not actually intending to join my family, is she?¡¯ she thought, ¡°I will have no qualms with receiving whichever techniques you have available, regardless of the element. However, I have no interest in techniques reliant on weapons. If they can be executed at full strength without them, then I¡¯ll take them, too.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re an interesting one, Brother Da,¡± her ¡®big sister¡¯ giggled again, ¡°I wonder, are you overambitious, or just confident? Never mind that, it¡¯s none of my business. Feel free to enter the pagoda. There are ten floors, and if you get past the third, you will be hired, and your exact payment rates can be examined again. Otherwise¡­¡±


    The woman didn¡¯t finish her sentence, just continuing to smile. Taking this to be the end of the conversation, Yi Wei stood up, bowed slightly, and returned onto the central path, walking slowly as to attempt to eavesdrop on the other robed men.


    Unfortunately, she did not hear anything of interest by the time she reached the pagoda¡¯s doors, so she stepped inside. As she crossed the threshold, she felt a powerful wind wash over her, and when she was able to raise her head, she found herself within a dark void, with only the pagoda¡¯s floor still remaining below her.


    ¡®An illusory array! Considering the fact that I couldn¡¯t detect it before entering it, the array must be a five-star, at least,¡¯ she exclaimed, raising her guard slightly. Even if she was far stronger than anyone else on her stage, Yi Wei had no ability to deal with arrays created by those in the Marked Core realm, and if they were used to attack her, she would have no chance unless another miracle occurred, like the time her mysterious characters consumed the rogue flame planar energy in her body.


    She did not have to wait long before the void changed. A simple figure, without a face or any clear features, stepped out from the darkness, seemingly made purely from fluid light. It bowed and raised its fists.


    From the inky sky, a voice descended, ¡°First floor, first stage: defeat an enemy of a lower level.¡±


    Since it was guaranteed that someone operating the array was watching her, she changed her planar energy into earth and stabilised it in that condition, just in case she panicked during any of the following trials. A surprisingly large number of palm techniques within the technique library were of the earth element, so if she had to demonstrate her strength, earth-type energy would be most appropriate.


    Seemingly reacting to her inaction, the figure sprinted forward, lunging right at her face. Just before the glowing fist reached her, Yi Wei punched its ambiguous chest.


    It dissipated in a single strike, even though she didn¡¯t use a technique.


    ¡°Stage complete: Third stage opponent defeated. Second stage: defeat an enemy of a middle level.¡±


    ¡®Well, that wasn¡¯t too difficult. If the rest of these are this easy, I might get to the top,¡¯ she thought, waiting for the new light figure to appear.


    As soon as it had a chance to bow, she struck it with her palm, using the combined intent of every palm technique at a low level. The figure flickered, and shattered once again, prompting the voice to return.


    Far below the earth, in a small, special chamber belonging to the Deadly Martial Colosseum, there was an androgynous figure staring into a small pool of water, which somehow reflected the scene of the first floor of the pagoda. Their face, which had been stiff from not moving for many years, slowly changed as they saw more and more.


    ¡°Even though he is in the fifth stage, he can defeat an illusion in the third with one strike¡­¡± they mumbled, raising a single droplet of water with a wave of their finger, the reflection of which changed into her palm strike, ¡°The concentrated intent within that attack¡­ Perhaps he can do as my ancestors wished¡­¡±


    The third figure appeared, and Yi Wei struck immediately, not even letting it bow. The androgynous being smirked for an instant, before calming themselves.


    This palm was different from her last. It did not contain an uncertain mixture of techniques and skills but concentrated them all into a single movement that the being recognised immediately. They gasped, for the palm was neither well mastered nor weak, showing more strength than it might have done had a typical cultivator reached Full Success.


    ¡°Boulder Pushing Palm¡­ without reaching Initial Accomplishment? In that case¡­ inscription¡­ he might be able to master inscription¡­¡±


    ¡°Stage complete: Ninth stage opponent defeated. Optional stage: defeat an enemy of Planar Pool, first stage,¡± the voice from above spoke out once more, just as the third opponent began to collapse.


    ¡®Well, this is a good opportunity to see whether my advantages are able to breach the gap between realms,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, but a great deal of pressure suddenly pressed down on her.


    The voice returned, but it was slightly different, ¡°Due to success in previous stages, applying additional modifier: enhanced gravity, 1.5x.¡±


    ¡°Oi, aren¡¯t you supposed to reward me for doing well?¡± she spoke up with a lowered tone, trying to act more like a foolish young master while secretly being happy inside, ¡®One of the things needed to advance my Condensed Formation Body is a significant amount of pressure, and I¡¯ve noticed that my planar essence is able to remake injured parts of my body slightly quicker than healthy ones, so this is everything I could wish for.¡¯


    That second voice was unaware of her inner thoughts, and responded, ¡°Through greater pressure, you will reinforce your cultivation. So long as you persevere, this will prove to be a reward many times more valuable than a simple technique.¡±


    As if it didn¡¯t want to give Y Wei another opportunity to speak, the fourth figure came out from the darkness. It was much like the others, except it was more solid, and had a clear spherical pool within its abdomen.


    Even though it simply stood in place, the pressure it gave off was obvious, especially when it was combined with the heightened gravity.


    ¡®A singe stage of the Planar Pool realm is equivalent to ten stages of the Energy Condensation, which isn¡¯t even possible for most people¡­¡¯ she observed, before straightening her posture, ¡®However, I¡¯ve handled something similar when breaking through to the second stage. Pressure alone won¡¯t stop me.¡¯


    Having bowed, the figure didn¡¯t wait, thrust one leg back and placed one hand on its chest. A small stream of white energy flowed out of its illusory dantian and wrapped around her hand and body just as Yi Wei¡¯s palm reached it, with earth planar energy surging through it.


    ¡®Drying Sands Strike!¡¯


    Her skin and the figure¡¯s soft planar energy collided¡­ and the latter shattered with a deafening sound. The next second, what remained of the energy exploded, pushing Yi Wei back while giving the figure the opportunity to retreat. Briefly, she used her spiritual will to inspect her palm. To her surprise, her skin was all but gone, revealing the red flesh underneath, with the glove keeping that sight hidden.


    Biting her lip, she coursed some planar energy through her right hand to heal the injury while assessing the state of her opponent.


    Apparently, this simple defence was quite costly to its supply of energy, as a third of the pool was gone, and although the defensive ability returned, it was clearly weaker than before. Perhaps the figure noticed Yi Wei¡¯s predatory gaze, as it placed a second hand on its chest, strengthening the barrier around itself.


    Seeing that the figure decided to double down on defence, she shut her eyes and focused on the hundreds of techniques within her head. Although she was able to breach the entity¡¯s shield, she was only able to do so upon channelling her planar energy into her palm and spending an immense quantity of energy on the concentrated execution of the Drying Sands Strike, which was a skill intentionally designed to breach defences.


    Now that the figure¡¯s invested of power into its protection was doubled, a second or third attack of the same nature would just waste her own energy and give the figure a chance to retaliate. Thus, she needed something greater than that.


    Naturally, her thoughts went straight to her Condensed Formation Body. When she had created it, just the Initial Accomplishment doubled her power, and if she wanted to defeat someone in the Planar Pool realm, she would need to rely on a similar phenomenon.


    ¡®It seems like my only choice, if I want to win this, is to complete my very own palm technique this very instant,¡¯ Yi Wei frowned, desperately going through every skill she had studied today trying to pick out the best parts of each, when she saw the figure lower its defences and charge forward, channelling planar energy into both hands, clearly about to execute a technique.


    ¡®Now!¡¯


    She leapt up and raised her palm above her head, coursing her energy through her secondary meridians, attempting to bring all of that knowledge together to condense it into a new technique.


    As she pressed her palm down, Yi Wei prayed to the heavens to raise her success, even if it was just by a little bit. All of a sudden, the nonsensical mess within her head came together, and the many lines united into two words.


    ¡®Elysian Palm!¡¯


    The planar energy within her ignited, emitting such a bright glow that it pierced through the darkness of the illusory formation. It concentrated within her hand, and then, a miracle occurred.


    Sparks of light burst into being, wrapping around her palm.


    ¡°This is-¡°


    ¡®This is!¡¯ Yi Wei exclaimed in her mind.


    ¡°External force!¡± the genderless figure sprung up, exclaiming at the top of their lungs.


    Yi Wei¡¯s palm, wreathed in heavenly flame, crashed down upon the illusory entity. It breached the being¡¯s hastily created shield and crushed it with a force so great that it destroyed it in a single instant, with the aftershock landing upon the pagoda¡¯s floor.


    The wood shattered and fractured, the cracks rapidly spreading in a circle with a radius that was twice Yi Wei¡¯s height.


    ¡°Optional stage complete: First stage Planar Pool opponent defeated. Due to success in previous stage, applying additional modifiers: enhanced gravity, 2x, greater pressure, 2x.¡±


    ¡°That palm! It harnessed external force! At the Energy Condensation realm!¡± the being repeated once more, staring in shock while Yi Wei proceeded up the steps to the next floor of the pagoda, ¡°Impossible! This should be impossible! By the Master of Yi City, that sort of thing¡­ Oh no! He-¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s who you¡¯re spying on this time, Great Dark.¡±


    The figure turned around to find an almost identical being standing behind them, except the latter character had lighter skin and hair.


    ¡°Great Light... Don¡¯t you dare kill another bright talent!¡±


    ¡°What are you saying, Great Dark? I¡¯ll just test this so-called ¡®bright talent¡¯, who dares to show off in our Deadly Martial Hall!¡± Great Light replied, and thrust their arm upward, causing a thick stream of earthen energy to burst through the ceiling.


    ¡°No!¡±


    Meanwhile, Yi Wei was ascending the steps to the second floor when she felt a familiar, unpleasant sensation. For whatever reason, it reminded her of the time she was nearly killed by a failed talisman-


    ¡°Not agai-¡±


    She was unable to finish her sentence before a large cluster of earth burst through the stairs, and then broke right through her cloak, shirt and skin, and speared right into her abdomen. However, just as it began to eat through her body, her mysterious characters sprung into action once more. They formed a great mouth and flew out of her dantian, coming down upon the earthen energy and consuming it in an instant. For a moment, the characters lit up with a brown light, then calmed down once more, returning into the description of a technique for passing into the fourth stage.


    And yet, her planar energy was different from before. Whatever the energy touched became tougher, stronger and mightier, turning skin to hardened earth and bone to stone, even though her physical appearance remained unchanged.


    ¡®Does¡­ does this mean that my planar energy isn¡¯t even complete, so to speak? Is it capable of doing more than just enhancing my body? If I am able to absorb energy of all elements, would I become invincible?¡¯ she pondered, but shook her head when she comprehended that it wasn¡¯t the best time to think about this, ¡®Whatever. I don¡¯t know if my mysterious characters will repeat this on a type of energy they have already consumed, so I should hurry up before I get attacked again.¡¯


    ¡°Eh? What? Did I use an illusion instead of my actual energy?¡± Great Light mumbled, scratching their head, ¡°Should I-¡±


    ¡°Enough, Great Light! That person is a genius¡­ and shouldn¡¯t be slain just because of your personal grudges!¡±


    ¡°Ugh¡­ You bastard. I will leave him alone if he studies under us equally, but if you even dare to tell him who tried to kill him, I¡¯m finishing the job!¡±


    Great Dark shook his head while grumbling, but eventually agreed, ¡°Fine. It isn¡¯t even set in stone¡­ so wait for him to get through the other floors.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the point? The ability to use external force is enough to shatter the entire pagoda, given that it¡¯s on a low setting, with enough effort, so he¡¯s bound to clear it,¡± Great Light argued.


    The other figure remained silent for a long time, so Great Light sighed and sat down on the other side of the pond and also stared into it.


    Once she arrived on the second floor, the darkness returned.


    ¡°Second floor: cultivation test. Cultivate for two hours to demonstrate proficiency.¡±


    ¡®Really? Well, if you¡¯re sure¡­¡¯ Yi Wei smiled and sat down, her spiritual will following each individual character in her dantian.


    The darkness around her quaked, and a storm of planar energy stormed towards her.


    ¡°What is that? Isn¡¯t he in the fifth stage?¡±


    ¡°Why is his rate of absorption equal to someone in the upper Planar Pool realm?¡±


    Great Dark and Great Light said to one another, feeling the quivering of the Illusory World Array all the way down in the ground. The high draw of planar energy was obvious even all the way down there, and it all crashed onto Yi Wei without any protection whatsoever.


    Unlike the last time she cultivated, just a single pass of her planar energy made her body much more resilient, allowing her to survive this quantity of energy without much difficulty.


    It surged into her, seemingly shaking the entire illusory world with each wave.


    In just nine seconds, her dantian was filled to the brim, and the next moment, it overflowed. With the sound of thunder, her mist of planar energy burst outward, flooding through her body before collapsing back in. Before it could settle, it erupted yet again, and this time, her planar energy reached an inch outside her body, momentarily covering her in an astral aura.


    ¡°Seventh stage? How did he just reach seventh stage? What is happening?¡± Great Light couldn¡¯t decide whether they wanted to shout or cry, resulting in a strange combination of the two.


    ¡°Amazing¡­¡±


    When Yi Wei opened her eyes after her planar energy settled down, she found that parts of the illusion around her had collapsed, leaving behind a blank white space that started and ended abruptly amidst the darkness.


    ¡°Second floor complete: cultivation threshold exceeded. Due to success, applying additional modifiers: enhanced gravity, 2.5x, greater pressure, 2.5x, decreased surrounding planar energy quantity, 0.2x.¡±


    ¡°Please proceed to the third floor.¡±

 V1C10: The Application Process, Part 2

    The third floor was much like the last two, except for the fact that there were a number of other figures on this floor, each of them dressed in almost identical robes and masks, making it all too obvious that they had been to the same small store.


    As soon as Yi Wei entered, the stairs vanished behind her, leaving her and the other four in perfect darkness.


    ¡°Third floor: endurance test. Endure until three remain. Combat is permitted. Distraction and trickery are permitted. Killing is impossible and is thus permitted. Test will begin in two minutes. Vocal and physical interaction permitted during and after that duration,¡± the ever-present voice said, maintaining its perfect monotone.


    That caused the masked men to look at one another, measuring up their potential opponents.


    Eventually, all eyes made it to Yi Wei, who appeared to be the smallest and weakest of the lot, ¡°Before you all gang up on me, why don¡¯t you consider the rules? All you have to do to pass is to survive the increasing pressure. Even if you defeat me, you¡¯ll just tire yourselves out.¡±


    As soon as they heard that, two men seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and clearly lost any intent to fight, but two more, a tall, bulky man with a massive sword on his back and a shorter stout man who was covered from the neck down in an unnecessary quantity of knives, were unconvinced.


    ¡°Really? If you¡¯re a weakling, then getting rid of you would make it easier for all of us,¡± the latter man stated, pulling out two of his knives, ¡°And if you¡¯re strong, then one of us will get your spot. Say, how many hits did it take you to take out the last opponent?¡±


    ¡®Last? Does he mean the optional one, or the ninth stage one?¡¯ she wondered, trying to determine the man¡¯s cultivation stage purely through his aura, before deciding that it was best to combine the two fights, ¡°Two strikes. It took me two strong strikes.¡±


    That reply caused the man to recoil slightly, ¡°Damn, you¡¯re stronger than you l-¡­ unless you¡¯re lying! Are-¡±


    ¡°If you want, I can beat you up. Don¡¯t complain if that causes your loss,¡± Yi Wei said promptly, shutting the knife-wielding man up, ¡°Same for the rest of you. If you think you¡¯re tough, just sit down and endure.¡±


    Though the sword-wielding man was still clearly eager to fight, as he was the only one interested in doing so, he also sat down, grumbling under his breath. Like that, they continued to stare at one another, just in case one of them decided to strike while they were distracted. No such thing occurred, and soon after, the two minutes passed.


    ¡°Test is beginning. Applying initial modifier on top of existing modifiers: enhanced gravity, 1.5x.¡±


    ¡°Existing modifiers? Does someone already have another modifier?¡± one of the men who didn¡¯t initially want to fight, with a saber on his belt, asked.


    Everyone else shook their heads, which answered Yi Wei¡¯s previous question perfectly. Unless one or more of them were lying to prevent themselves from being targeted first, the only possibility was that they had not met the conditions for gaining the bonus modifiers from the third stage, and didn¡¯t pass the optional stage, if they were even given a chance to do so. Theoretically, that would mean that Yi Wei was the strongest out of them, but the fact that the current stage¡¯s effects were being applied together with her previous modifier meant that she was only capable of using around four tenths of her actual ability. In other words, unless the other men were significantly weaker than her, she was currently at a rather major disadvantage.


    Even though the other robed figures were already sitting down, they still wobbled slightly as the pressure on them increased.


    Yi Wei felt that more than anyone else, and she would have sworn than she had heard her bones cracking under the pressure. Clenching her teeth to avoid making a sound, she circulated her planar energy as quickly as she could, repairing minor internal injuries and strengthening the bones with the combined power of fire and earth.


    ¡°From now on, gravity will increase by an additional 0.5x every minute. As soon as two sustain lethal damage, regardless of the source, the test will finish,¡± the voice stated.


    The slow increase in gravitational pressure was obvious, and rather unpleasant, as if someone was stacking more and more stone slabs on her head with every passing moment. Looking around, however, it was pretty obvious that it wasn¡¯t easy for any of the others, as the knife-carrying figure was trembling with just twice the standard amount of gravity.


    ¡®I guess that¡¯s why he wanted to gang up on someone in the beginning. If he¡¯s powerful, but frail, it would be to his advantage to get rid of someone else,¡¯ Yi Wei understood, straightening her back as to appear undaunted, ¡®If I was in his place, I¡¯d probably start the previous line of questioning again, or else he¡¯ll be thrown out before anyone else.¡¯


    The others weren¡¯t particularly comfortable either, but the three other men had little issue covering up their struggle against gravity, while the knife-wielder did.


    Just like she expected, when the gravity increased to three times its initial state, the man spoke out, ¡°He must have been-¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just worried that you¡¯re going to collapse soon, aren¡¯t you?¡± she interrupted him, infusing even more energy into her body to maintain her straight posture, ¡°Just ignore that man and wait. He¡¯ll drop soon enough.¡±


    There was a brief period of silence.


    ¡°Hm¡­ I get the feeling the two of you are trying to kick the other down,¡± one of the men that remained silent spoke up, ¡°So, if you want to fight, just do it. I¡¯ll focus on myself.¡±


    He began to turn around on the spot, but quickly thought better of it and stayed in place after he caught the gaze of the knife-covered man. After he made sure that the former didn¡¯t try to run away, the latter turned back to Yi Wei, who was already focusing her attention on him.


    ¡°Hey, what¡¯re you calling yourself?¡± she asked, figuring that she might as well learn his false identity before getting into a fight with him.


    ¡°Long Aotian. You?¡±


    ¡°Da Gang. What stage?¡±


    He paused, likely narrowing his eyes behind his mask, ¡°Eighth Stage.¡±


    ¡®Uh, that makes things a little tougher,¡¯ she thought, ¡°Seventh, but I have one of the strongest techniques in my family. Even if you beat me, I¡¯ll take you down with me.¡±


    ¡°Really? What technique is it? I might have heard of it,¡± Long Aotian said, one of his hands drifting to a knife again.


    ¡°It¡¯s a secret technique. If you¡¯re curious, it is called Elysian Palm. You¡¯re welcome to experience it if you think it to be a good idea, Brother Long, but I warn you ¨C this might breach even the defences of this pagoda¡¯s array, not to mention whatever weak defensive items you possess,¡± Yi Wei threatened, though inside, she was desperately hoping that he wouldn¡¯t accept her offer.


    While they talked, the gravitational pressure increased by another fold, and it undoubtedly affected her more than the others. Thus, while ¡®Long Aotian¡¯ was also naturally affected, he would hold a greater advantage over her in a fight. When combined with the decreased quantity of planar energy around her and the somewhat ambiguous 2.5x pressure, it meant that her base physical advantage could be nullified, and she might be unable to perform the Elysian Palm twice in a row, which would grant the other three an opportunity to defeat her while she recovered.


    Finally, Long Aotian sighed, dropping his arms to the ground, ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll¡­ Take you down with me!¡±


    They acted simultaneously; Yi Wei had predicted that he would act this way as soon as he started speaking. While he drew two handfuls of knives, she dashed forward. The man moved with surprising speed, and before she was able to cover a third of the distance between them, five knives were flying at her, aimed at her head, chest, arm, leg and¡­ crotch.


    ¡®They actually think I¡¯m a guy! Really, why would you-¡¯ she didn¡¯t finish her words, and instead threw out a weak palm strike to knock the fifth dagger out of the air, ¡®Even if I can regenerate, I don¡¯t want any sharp objects near there!¡¯


    Her strike also sent the knife aimed at her leg away, and she managed to grab the knife sent at her head by the blade just in time, but the other two impaled into her body, penetrating all the way to the hilt. That did nothing to slow her down, however, and she halved the distance between them before Long Aotian was able to comprehend what just happened. He raised his hand to throw out another set of daggers, but he flinched once he saw light gathering around Yi Wei¡¯s hand.


    That was his biggest mistake.


    In that instant of hesitation, her palm reached him, and the bright light collided with his body with immense force. He had no chance to scream before he abruptly vanished from the room.


    As soon as she could be sure that he was out of the picture, she pulled out the knives from her body. Both came uncomfortably close to seriously injuring her, yet when she pulled them out, there was only a thin layer of dried blood on them. Her wounds healed in a matter of seconds, thanks to the combination of her body technique and her planar energy. She collected the knives, as they were clearly out of the ordinary, and only then did the others react.


    ¡°Whoa? You were a Planar Pool expert? What in the heavens?¡± the man that had intended to focus on himself could no longer do so after he saw the external planar energy dissipating into the air.


    ¡®What Planar Pool expert? That cost me a third of my energy, and it¡¯s not regenerating any time soon,¡¯ Yi Wei exclaimed mentally, but since she knew that it wouldn¡¯t remove any pressure from her, she quickly made something up, ¡°I¡¯m just in the first stage, but I thought that revealing it would just make you more eager to gang up on me.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not wrong¡­¡±


    ¡°Expert!¡± the strong man who initially wanted to fight her now dropped to the ground in an exaggerated kowtow, ¡°If you help me, my family will get you whatever you want!¡±


    Hearing such a thing from such a strong looking man was slightly surprising, but in the world of cultivation, it was often the slimmer, softer and gentler looking people that had the most strength, as body cultivation was a rare practise, but the reaching of higher realms would always cleanse the body of impurities, with the exact effect varying based on the quality of one¡¯s cultivation and cultivation technique.


    What was more interesting was the fact that, despite hiding his identity with everything imaginable, he was now promising his family¡¯s wealth to the first strong-looking person he found.


    ¡°Why are you so quick to surrender? Do you have anything I want?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m only in the sixth stage, and the sword on my back is just a fake!¡± he revealed instantly, clearly putting all of his hopes on her, ¡°However, if I don¡¯t pass, my family¡­ my family will have my head!¡±


    ¡°That answered my first question, but not my second one.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m the son of the richest family in this entire district, the Chen family. Even the Yi family doesn¡¯t have as much as we do. Whether you want techniques, materials, artefacts or just money, I can give them all to you.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­¡± Yi Wei sunk into thought. On one hand, it seemed immensely helpful to receive any of the items offered by him, and any small gift from such a rich family would push her forward by an immense degree. She was aware of the Chen family, and this man was truly not lying regarding their wealth. However, she knew first-hand that large families weren¡¯t fond of stupid rich children that offered to trade away their items at a moment¡¯s notice. If she did receive a reward from him, the Chen family would likely send an assassin to kill her or to steal their things back, even if she disguised herself perfectly at all times.


    ¡®My best chance would be with a consumable item, whether it be a technique or a pill, since I can dispose of the former once I finish. Otherwise, if I receive something that can easily be tracked down, like armour or a weapon, that would just make things easier for them,¡¯ she concluded, and turned to the Chen family¡¯s son, ¡°Very well. However, I want techniques, pills and elixirs, and as quickly as possible.¡±


    She omitted the fact that they were likely being observed at that very moment.


    ¡°Alright, I can do that¡­ Ehm, I¡­ I can¡¯t get up¡­¡± he said, prompting the others to burst into laughter.


    ¡°Hey, expert, I¡¯m related to the Ding family. If you sit down on him and cause him to lose, I¡¯ll pay you with everything I own, including my businesses!¡± one laughed, flashing a small token with the Ding character.


    ¡°Brother Chen, do you mind if I kick that man out?¡± Yi Wei asked, silently thanking the man for providing her with a reason to target him first.


    ¡°S-sure¡­ ugh¡­¡±


    As soon as he made a noise, she went into action.


    ¡®Scarlet Metal Strike!¡¯


    Her palm struck his mask, a slight crimson glow transferring from it to the black ceramic. It cracked instantly, a few small shards dropping out to reveal a surprised blue eye. She hit him twice more, targeting the upper and lower body, leaving behind two more red spots, before he was able to react.


    ¡®Huh? Is he¡­¡¯ Yi Wei shook the thought out of her head ¨C whoever it was, he wouldn¡¯t recognise her.


    He attempted to leap away and take out his weapon, but he felt as if all of his strength had been drained away, and the mighty leap he was originally intending turned into a weak, insignificant hop.


    The next second, before he had a chance to understand what happened, a fist crashed into his face, creating a powerful shockwave upon impact. He staggered, and then fell on his back, a stream of blood flowing from his nose. As he was unable to maintain his defence against gravity, he vanished from the illusory world, with the immense pressure going with him.


    ¡°Third floor complete: Three participants remaining,¡± the voice said, the other two figures in the pagoda vanishing completely before it continued, ¡°Due to success, applying additional modifiers: constant abnormal state, extreme temperatures, delayed reaction time by 0.2 seconds, special.¡±


    ¡®Special?¡¯


    ¡°The next floors are optional, but will increase your potential income and position. It is recommended to proceed to the next floor.¡±


    ¡°Not going to explain what special means, are you?¡± the silent response was rather clear, so she shook her head and found the stairs, ¡°I¡¯m not noticing the delayed reaction time, either.¡±


    ¡°Cumbersome modifiers are disabled during transit.¡±


    ¡®Oh. In that case, couldn¡¯t it remove the increased gravity as well?¡¯ Yi Wei thought, ascending the steps to the next floor. It was much easier now that the floor¡¯s modifier was removed but having to use two and a half times the energy to walk up each step was unpleasant. It almost felt as if she was thrown back in time, to a week or two ago when she was still weak, and incapable.


    ¡®Damn, that sort of thinking won¡¯t get me anywhere. I¡¯m done with the past ¨C the heavens, or whatever else, have granted me an opportunity, and so far, it seems that its exactly the one I needed,¡¯ she willed the memory out of her mind, and took the last step to the fourth floor.


    ¡°What even is that creature? Regeneration, strength, endurance¡­ He¡¯s an earth cultivator, right? How is he doing this?¡± Great Light questioned, unable to shut their mouth since they noticed the insane cultivation speed displayed by her on the second floor.


    ¡°The techniques, too¡­ They are uninitiated, yet¡­ Crushing Boulder Palm, Drying Sands Strike, Scarlet Metal Palm¡­ and the Elysian Palm¡­ that one is an entirely different story,¡± Great Dark muttered in response, ¡°The first three are available in a number of libraries, though the Yi have all three¡­ I am unaware of Elysian Palm, on the other hand¡­¡±


    ¡°Such a strange name, too. I suppose those who are struck by it might return to an Elysium in the heavens, but I¡¯m not sure which expert would have called their best attack that. To my knowledge, none of the Great Fa-¡±


    ¡°Do not mention their names, lest they intrude and destroy us,¡± Great Dark raised their head, speaking sternly, ¡°We¡¯ve been fortunate enough to avoid their attention so far.¡±


    ¡°Right.¡±


    ¡°Fourth floor: attrition test. Defeat as many foes of equivalent cultivation level as possible. Defeating more than three will allow progress onto the next floor. Defeating twenty will be considering a perfect victory and will allow progress onto the next floor.¡±


    Fortunately, the list of cumbersome modifiers included the slowed planar energy regeneration. By the time she heard the entire message, her dantian was almost full. To deal with people of the same cultivation stage, she would only need to use her raw strength and a few basic techniques, so that much energy was more than enough.


    ¡°In one minutes, an enemy of the s-o-ve-rt-th stage will be-¡­¡±


    ¡®What?¡¯


    ¡°Failure to determine participant¡¯s cultivation detected. Requiring input from participant for the purpose of confirmation,¡± the illusory world¡¯s voice said, somehow sounding even more mechanical than before.


    ¡°I am- hm,¡± she caught herself just before she revealed her actual stage. If she selected her true level, it would make it really simple for anyone watching her to identify her, as all they¡¯d have to do is find the only person who seems to possess twice as much cultivation as they should. Additionally, taking down twenty foes of that level would only be difficult if they all came at once, using complex techniques. Hence, she decided to stick to her false persona, ¡°I am on the seventh stage.¡±


    Meanwhile, Great Dark re-examined her dantian with their spiritual will, ¡°How strange¡­ His cultivation truly is¡­ it seems to have the structure of the fourth stage, even though it isn¡¯t¡­¡±


    ¡°What do you think that means? He clearly isn¡¯t relying solely on pills, meaning that his cultivation can¡¯t be a temporary state, nor permanently impaired as a result¡­¡±


    ¡°It could be¡­ perfected stages¡­¡±


    ¡°Those? That can¡¯t be, since even the Great- eh, the Yi family only has a single expert that had managed to achieve a perfected stage forcefully, and that was at great cost to himself. For someone to have successfully perfected three stages¡­ You don¡¯t actually think that can be true, do you?¡±


    ¡°Is that really so unthinkable? The Master of Yi City¡­ I¡¯d imagine he had done it¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re talking about the most powerful figure in history. I can imagine him doing such a thing, but not a random young master.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Great Dark frowned, cupping their chin in thought, ¡°Were they wrong after all? Did he leave behind an inheritance? And if so¡­ what allowed that child to claim it?¡±


    ¡®Four Tortures Palm!¡¯


    Her attack shattered illusory bone and threw the twelfth enemy back, setting it alight at the same time. That particular technique was able to strike four times in rapid succession ¨C each individual hit was weaker than a standard slap, but together, they could pierce tough armour and any defences that specialised in resisting a single powerful strike.


    Despite the strengthened gravity, it was still too easy.


    ¡®Perhaps I should acquire some weights to wear on a regular basis. It would assist the progress of my Condensed Formation Body, and it should ensure that I always have more strength than I initially reveal,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, watching patiently as the thirteenth enemy arose from the ground.


    She was not exhausted yet.

 V1C11: The Application Process, Part 3

    It was only when she had gotten to the twentieth enemy that she had to break a sweat, as her arm was getting somewhat cramped from repeating the same motion over and over again.


    When the last enemy broke into pieces of energy that then sunk into the floor, the voice of the illusory world spoke up. Unlike the last few times she had heard it, it had acquired that strange sense of humanity that was missing from most of its speech, appearing only in the few times that something out of the ordinary, like her additional modifiers, had happened.


    ¡°Based on the participant¡¯s performance, a reward has been assigned. Voice your preference now.¡±


    Though the oddity of this forced her to raise an eyebrow, she still responded swiftly, coughing once to ensure that her voice wouldn¡¯t come out too feminine-sounding, ¡°I want a set of weights, in the form of restraints, cuffs or bracelets, that I can easily wear on my body without attracting too much attention. It would be best if I could get rid of them in battle without much difficulty, for obvious reasons.¡±


    ¡°Interesting. Great Light, do you still have your training set?¡±


    ¡°You want to give them away to that boy? For free?¡±


    ¡°He may work with us soon. I see no reason not to do so¡­¡±


    ¡°Ugh, fine, you can do that, if you want¡­ This Da Gang better end up a genius¡­¡± Great Light grumbled, vanishing for a second before returning with two metal armbands, leg bands, a belt and a thin, black choker, ¡°Here. Take them. Go on.¡±


    ¡°I hope so too,¡± Great Dark said, raising their head, ¡°Your reward has been decided¡­ It is being delivered immediately.¡±


    ¡°Your reward has been decided,¡± the illusory world¡¯s voice said, after a brief silence, ¡°It is being delivered immediately.¡±


    A dim light appeared within the darkness, and just below it, lying on the floor, was a set of items that clearly resembled what she had asked for, with the natural exception of a thin band of soft cloth that lay on top of it.


    ¡®Well, there are certain interesting items amongst the thousands of simple swords and sabres. I¡¯ve heard that certain experts use parasols, brushes and bricks as their weapons, so I suppose that it isn¡¯t too strange to see a strip of fabric being used for training¡­¡¯ Yi Wei reasoned, though she quickly encountered another issue, ¡®Where am I supposed to wear it? Let¡¯s see¡­ these four go on my arms and legs, the belt goes on my waist, so¡­ this¡­ is¡­ for¡­ my¡­ neck? Won¡¯t I look like I¡¯m wearing a collar of some sort?¡¯


    She tried to lift a metal armband, feeling it straining her arm just to raise it slightly. It was heavier than anything else she had found so far, probably weighing as much as she did.


    ¡®That¡¯s just for a single arm, too¡­ I will certainly struggle even outside of the pagoda,¡¯ she understood, managing to put them on after a long time, but when she went to pick up the satin band, she discovered that it weighed as much as the metal bands on her arms and legs, ¡®Wow. Since it¡¯s that heavy, I think I¡¯ll just leave it here.¡¯


    However, she took just one step away, and the voice stopped her, ¡°Please equip every reward item to proceed.¡±


    It was very difficult for her to swallow the many insults she wanted to throw at that voice. While exuding every drop of killing intent she could muster, she grabbed the satin band, reached into her robes and bound it around her neck.


    While the weights on her arms and legs were simply heavy, the choker was also tight, effectively halving the amount of air she could breathe in at once.


    ¡®I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ll die due to being crushed or lacking air first¡­¡¯ Yi Wei coughed, barely craning her head up, ¡°You happy now?¡±


    This time, the reply was void of emotion yet again, ¡°Please proceed to the fifth floor.¡±


    Had the source of the voice been in front of her, it would have been beaten into the ground by now.


    ¡°Hehe.¡±


    ¡°Great Light, your¡­ immature¡­ behaviour is not appreciated.¡±


    ¡°Let him suffer! He should have died from my planar energy, and now he ca- What in the heavens?¡±


    To distract herself from the immense pressure all over her body, Yi Wei turned her mind back to the many concepts she merged together for the Condensed Formation Body. One thing she had realised after gaining the ability to reinforce her body was the fact that she had focused a little too much on the dantian bone formation, rather than actually improving her body. After using her planar energy to strengthen all of her body, the only thing that remained unaffected were the bone shards spread out within her body.


    To correct that, she quickly sent wisps of energy to every part of the array within her body. The effect¡­


    ¡®I¡¯m breaking through in my body technique!? How much of an effect does some of my energy have?¡¯


    Perhaps, in the entire world, only the heavens knew the answer, but they chose to remain silent, watching as her body cultivation art broke through to Minor Achievement.


    ¡°No! I refuse to believe this! What is happening today?¡± Great Light shouted, throwing a casual punch at the wall. It was stopped a few moments before it hit a wall of light, put together from a thousand different complex shapes entwined together.


    ¡°A genius, perhaps. He must learn inscription, for the sake of the world,¡± Great Dark ignored the tantrum, and maintained their focus on the glow coming from within Yi Wei¡¯s body in an attempt to comprehend the technique she practised.


    No matter how hard they looked, they were unable to understand it, nor did they feel the presence of any such technique within the body, even though it was obvious that she was practising some form of body cultivation. In fact, if they didn¡¯t see her cultivate, they would have good reason to assume that she hadn¡¯t practised a single technique in her entire life. There was no influence on her meridians whatsoever, as if she had somehow bypassed all side effects of her techniques.


    Unlike the time she first developed her technique, this progression was relatively painless. It still broke down and remade her bones and flesh, but in comparison to getting four more meridian networks, it was positively pleasant.


    ¡®It¡¯s exactly as I feared ¨C I¡¯m getting used to it,¡¯ Yi Wei realised, taking another step up the stairs, ¡®However, my body technique has doubled in strength, so these weights aren¡¯t as difficult to wear. Phew. Now all I need is to get used to the way they affect my balance.¡¯


    ¡°At this rate, he¡¯ll get to the Planar Pool realm by the end of the day,¡± the being in the stone chamber muttered, reminiscing over their own experiences. Back then, any technique would take at least one year to learn fully, and yet this person in their pagoda broke through simply due to putting on some weights¡­


    ¡°That would be a blessing¡­ for the younger generation¡­¡± Great Dark responded, though even their passive voice showed a hint of jealousy.


    Just like all the other floors, the fifth floor was filled with darkness, and the only visible surface was the floor. However, while the other floors were relatively pristine, this one looked dusty and dirty, with several ancient stains ruining the smooth wood planks.


    It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out that this floor was far less frequented that the ones below, which indicated that most couldn¡¯t defeat twenty opponents on an equal level in a row.


    Of course, since she was still within an illusory world, the dust could have been an intentional feature for this particular floor. However, as someone with some experience with formation arrays, Yi Wei knew that generating such insignificant details as layers of dust would simply waste the capabilities and effort of the array¡¯s creator. Unless there was some significance to the dust, not even someone within the legendary Linked Channels realm, the sixth realm of cultivation, would waste their resources on it.


    ¡°Fifth floor: duel,¡± the voice that spoke was not emotionless, ¡°Defeat the shadow of a legendary figure. Victory will result in a reward of varying value depending on the opponent defeated.¡±


    A dull blue light appeared within the fog, growing brighter and brighter until it became a candle amidst the night. Then, it approached her slowly. As it neared, Yi Wei was able to discern that it was a humanoid figure, robed in countless layers of cloth, fabric and metal plates. In its hand was a greatsword that was embossed with a number of glowing blue runes that crackled, as if containing lightning. On its head was a helmet, and from within only two balls of lightning illuminated it.


    ¡°Thunder Lord, Seventh of Meng!¡± she recognised him, recalling the tales of his thunderous blade and what appeared to be lightning cultivation. Although the figure was introduced as a shadow of the true legend, and so it was unlikely to be in Marked Core realm, it would still be a mighty adversary even if it was a mortal that relied only on the techniques of the true Thunder Lord.


    The figure waited patiently for her to prepare, standing at the edge of the darkness.


    She recovered the planar energy she had lost, then performed a few stretches and practise punches while it watched, entering a combat stance only once she was fully ready.


    ¡°That¡­¡±


    ¡°He...¡±


    ¡°.. doesn¡¯t come out often¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡±


    ¡°Of all the people that fought the G- ehm, Them, and allowed us to store his shadow, he was perhaps the mightiest. To think that he has chosen to emerge to emerge for this boy¡­ It would benefit us greatly if we could learn his secrets through him, though I doubt that will happen,¡± Great Light said, making a complex sound that combined both hope and disappointment.


    ¡°Do not be so quick to dismiss the possibility¡­ There is a chance that the impossible will happen once more¡­ Although, when it has happened several times, can it be impossible¡­ Perhaps it would be more appropriate-¡±


    ¡°Great Dark, are you trying to get philosophical again? Honestly, just shut up and watch. Why are we even using water? Why can¡¯t we just observe the earth?¡±


    ¡°Less colour, and¡­ well, we¡¯ve discussed that more than I¡¯ve gotten philosophical¡­¡±


    ¡°Are you more intelligent than your counterparts below?¡± Yi Wei asked, feeling a slightly different aura from this being than the others.


    The Thunder Lord did not respond, merely raising his sword to prepare for an attack.


    ¡°Well, fine then. Please go easy on me,¡± she said, shutting her eyes for a few seconds to attain full focus. She listened out for every minute movement of the shadow, the sounds of cloth and metal brushing against each other, and any other thing she could notice.


    When her eyes opened, the only thing on her mind was her opponent.


    As her greatest advantage was the extra weight she was forced to lug around, she began by throwing herself forward with every weight. The shadow waited until she got just close enough, then raised its blade. A spark of lighting burst from one of the runes on the blade, and then another and another, until the entire sword was covered in a powerful storm.


    Then, it vanished in an instant. The first hint of the shadow¡¯s new position came in the form of the flat side of the blade crashing into her spine from above, launching her into the floor. Numerous bolts of lightning coursed through her, and she felt at least one bone breaking inside her body as she collided face-first with the floor.


    ¡®Fu-¡­ why aren¡¯t they eating the lightning? This guy¡¯s clearly higher than the first realm, so does the energy need to be in its raw form, or is it not powerful enough?¡¯ Yi Wei questioned, leaping up to her feet, channelling her planar energy throughout her body.


    As a wisp of energy reached her eyes, her perception of time slowed significantly, and when the shadow was about to vanish again, she saw that he had executed a strange movement technique that wreathed his legs in lightning, before moving in an extremely strange manner, sometimes to the side, sometimes backwards, in the direction he intended to go.


    With that insight, she was narrowly able to predict his approach and dodge out of the way, though the sheer force of the sword being swung sliced off a piece of her robe.


    ¡®Still, it looks like that¡¯s one of the techniques used to achieve the vanishing effect of the fourth realm. If I study it closely, I might be able to imitate it and integrate it into my future movement technique,¡¯ she thought, barely succeeding in evading a second lightning fast strike, ¡®I guess it¡¯s time for the truly dangerous weapons to be put to use.¡¯


    Yi Wei waited for the Thunder Lord to perform another vanishing manoeuvre, and just as his blade began to fly at her, she leapt up with every gram of strength she could muster. Then, raising her palm into the air, she did something stupid ¨C but something she had wanted to do for a while.


    ¡°Elysian¡­ Palm!¡±


    Planar energy burst from her arm and flew to her hand, forming the shape of an iridescent palm in front of it.


    It did not seem to surprise the shadow, as he simply tapped the blade of his sword. A second lightning rune burst into action, wrapping the sword in a second layer of lightning. He raised it to block her strike as if it wasn¡¯t of any great concern to him.


    ¡°Lass, mere power won¡¯t be enough for yer later opponents,¡± a voice emerged from within its rusted helm, ¡°Just because ye can do what most cannot, doesn¡¯t mean yer invincible against Them.¡±


    ¡®So, he can speak,¡¯ she noted as her palm crashed down on his blade.


    The collision was as if she had struck a large bell while the heavens sent down a bolt of lighting upon her. Despite the force of the palm easily exceeding her every previous use of it by a significant margin, it was all absorbed easily by the Thunder Lord¡¯s sword, and the next instant, it was already moving to stab into her stomach.


    She reacted as quickly as she was able, grabbing the blade with both hands, only narrowly stopping its movement. As it cut into her, drawing blood with ease, she didn¡¯t let the pain affect her. Instead, she smiled, and sent her planar energy into the sword.


    In just an instant of contact, the upper half of the blade broke down into dust, and the cracks spread all the way down, to the hilt and even the pommel.


    With just one portion of her energy, the sword was annihilated.


    ¡°That, however, is impressive,¡± the shadow had to admit, tossing away the remains of his weapon, ¡°Fer the ones that use weapons akin to mine, their strength would be halved with such a move.¡±


    Somewhere in the darkness, the hilt exploded in a violet flame, temporarily breaching the void and revealing a hint of sunlight before it was gone once more. Now, both of them stood without weapons, dressed in ragged clothes and ancient armour.


    ¡°How did he do that?¡± Great Dark asked, frowning as they saw the explosion.


    ¡°Is he not letting you hear him either?¡± Great Light responded with another question, ¡°Even if the Thunder Lord knows, he clearly doesn¡¯t wish to tell us.¡±


    ¡°Another secret that he will carry with him¡­ Wait, is he¡­ he is!¡±


    Yi Wei did not ignore the opportunity. As soon as the shadow was distracted, she rushed at him, throwing every punch, palm and kick she could at him, trying to simultaneously comprehend his two lightning techniques. Although none of her attacks, not even her occasional execution of a weaker variant of the Elysian Palm, were as powerful as the Thunder Lord¡¯s blade swipes, it was clear that as she struck him again and again, he was being pushed back. Without a doubt, this shadow was not as powerful as the original, and couldn¡¯t be any higher than the peak of the Planar Pool realm.


    Still, for someone in the second realm to successfully execute the fourth realm¡¯s movement techniques was, perhaps, as impressive as creating external force while in the first realm.


    All of a sudden, her incoming fist was calmly grabbed by the Thunder Lord, who did not retaliate, his glowing eyes staring into hers. She wasn¡¯t sure if she was imagining it, but there seemed to be a smile within the shadow of his helmet.


    ¡°There¡¯s no reason to keep wailin¡¯ on me, lass. With me sword, me anchor gone, I¡¯ll not be lasting long. Instead, let you and me talk for a while,¡± the Thunder Lord said, releasing her fist, ¡°And don¡¯t ye worry. The two can¡¯t see ye if I don¡¯t let them.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°I have no reason to lie to ye, lass. Just ask them later if they¡¯ve figured out that you¡¯ve literally no balls.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a crass way of putting it, Thunder Lord, but I suppose I don¡¯t have much a choice. You¡¯ve already said ¡®lass¡¯ a few dozen times, so if they haven¡¯t noticed, they can¡¯t possibly be cultivators,¡± Yi Wei shrugged, reverting to her normal voice.


    ¡°Hah! I like yer way of puttin¡¯ it. So, ye here doin¡¯ the disguised warrior thing, right?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. I¡¯m a lowly servant of the Yi family, so if I¡¯m suddenly leaping to the peak of Energy Condensation with unique techniques, it would surely draw a lot of attention, and overly eager family elders trying to steal the legacy I don¡¯t actually have from me,¡± she said, though she kept her mask on ¨C just in case, ¡°Say, would you be kind enough to teach me your techniques?¡±


    ¡°If I remember this floor¡¯s setup right, you¡¯ll get somethin¡¯ for yer victory, even if it be due to my own surrender,¡± the shadow said, ¡°However, I do have a gift for ye, if ye want it. It¡¯d work with ye trainin¡¯ set, and would allow me to leave behind one final gift for¡­ yer not familiar with them, so there¡¯s really no point in explainin¡¯, but it¡¯d be enough to know that you¡¯ve got a rough time ahead of ye.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t say that I know exactly what you mean. Are you able to enhance the weights I¡¯m wearing, or imbue them with something?¡±


    ¡°More of the latter, lass. I can see that the weights are heavy enough as they are, so more will just break yer bones. I am able to bind myself to the choker on yer neck, and provide guidance in the fields that I¡¯ve learned. Lightning techniques mostly, but other stuff¡¯s also within my head,¡± Thunder Lord Meng explained, tapping on his helmet, ¡°Whenever you find somethin¡¯ of use, I can give ye every secret I¡¯ve learned from reaching beyond the peak of those techniques. However, I won¡¯t last too long, so after I¡¯ve given ye most of what I¡¯ve got, I¡¯ll be off. And don¡¯t expect combat support from me, lass ¨C I can only do a thing to ye ¡®cause I¡¯m in ¡®ere. The illusory world lets me and the spectres below do harm, but outside, unless ye¡¯ve got some skill in five star arrays, I¡¯ll be as useless as a cock on a monk.¡±


    ¡°Lord Seventh of Meng, you¡¯re talking to a girl. Can¡¯t you tone it down just a little?¡±


    ¡°Sorry, though I¡¯m not too sorry. If you don¡¯t keep yerself disguised for the rest of yer life, you¡¯ll get much worse, believe me. Besides, it¡¯s been too long since I¡¯ve gotten to speak with someone, so I wanted me opportunity to chat. Don¡¯t ye worry though ¨C once I¡¯ve moved to yer gear, I won¡¯t chat to ye anymore.¡±


    ¡°Is that so? Hm¡­ Well, since I can just break all of this off if you bother me too much, I¡¯ll accept your offer, Thunder Lord,¡± Yi Wei decided after a brief period of thought, ¡°While you are still able to talk, could you explain to me how you¡¯ve ended up in a pagoda of a random combat establishment?¡±


    ¡°Random? Yer not tryin¡¯ to joke, are ye? They¡¯ve hidden surprisingly well, then. I¡¯ve promised to behave meself, so you¡¯ll not learn a thing from me!¡±


    ¡°Really, Lord Seventh? Can you tell me how you¡¯ve managed to perform that movement technique in the Planar Pool realm, then?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t even give me that little? Just one, simple technique, and you can¡¯t provide it to me as a gift alongside¡­ whatever it is you intend to do?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ eh, fine, I¡¯ll tell ye when I do the thing. It won¡¯t be the whole thing, so ye¡¯ll need to practise quite a bit, but since you¡¯ve noticed it already, it ought to be easy for ye. Now, allow me to change where I¡¯m bound to. It¡¯ll take only a moment.¡±


    His figure flickered, and when it stabilised, all that remained was a small ball of lightning, no bigger than Yi Wei¡¯s eye. It floated up to her, easily passing through her robes until it touched her neck. With the sound of a thunderclap, it wrapped around the black satin, and entered it, blending in as if the shadow was a mere hallucination.


    However, her mind was far less calm. First, it was flooded with various memories of a movement technique, starting from the perspective of a young man ¨C who was slightly too enamoured with a girl for Yi Wei¡¯s liking ¨C and ending up at a massive battlefield. The surroundings were hazy, but the movements involved were clear as day. When that memory faded, she had an enormous quantity of insight into the actions she was previously only narrowly comprehending.


    Unfortunately, that wasn¡¯t the end. Following the memories of the movement technique were all sorts of insights into palm, fist and even the occasional finger technique. She saw battlefields, arenas, stages and rooms, even the front-row seat of the Thunder Lord lying atop that girl from before, exploiting his newly learned technique to-


    ¡°NO! NOT THAT! GO AWAY!¡± Yi Wei yelled at the top of her lungs, not caring who or what could hear her. She was only seconds from trying to beat the memory out of her head when it stopped, leaving her with a very red face while she processed the rest of the memories.


    ¡°The darkness has finally cleared. What¡¯s happening?¡±


    ¡°The Thunder Lord has surrendered¡­ Da Gang has earned a reward.¡±


    Yi Wei wanted to hit someone. Anyone. As long as she could get someone to beat up, she wouldn¡¯t want to claw her own eyes out so much. Other distractions would also work, but somehow, the thought of hitting some annoying idiot in the face was the most soothing thing she could think of.


    ¡®I didn¡¯t need to see ¨C or feel ¨C that! I just wanted the techniques! I got them, but not the ones I needed! Will I even be able to lay with a man after this?¡¯ the questions shot through her mind at an incredible speed, attempting to comprehend exactly what had just occurred. It all began well enough, but the more strange techniques she acquired insight on, the more the Thunder Lord¡¯s memories diverged into the private.


    By the time she was getting memories related to a few things she had read a year ago, the content had shifted all the way into literal smut.


    In this world, such things did exist, but they were rather niche, intended purely for men, and never from the first-person perspective, and most certainly not with such realism. Even if it had been smut of the regular type, Yi Wei didn¡¯t have any particular desire to view it, and even then, she would have much preferred to witness it from the perspective of the correct sex.


    Thankfully, a distraction did arrive in the form of a large scroll that was surrounded by lightning.


    She struck the ground once to calm herself and got up to approach the item. When she reached out her hand to touch the sparking item, the aura of storms receded, allowing her to come into contact with it safely.


    On the top, a number of words were written out in a beautiful golden ink, ¡®Storm Blade Wreathing Technique.¡¯


    ¡°Tch. Of all the things the Seventh of Meng was famous for, I get this? Did those ¡®two¡¯, whoever they are, choose it for me?¡± Yi Wei wondered, speaking out loud to potentially receive an answer, ¡°I don¡¯t use a blade, nor a sword. I thought I told them.¡±


    Nevertheless, she received no answer, so she began to read.


    Oculus


    Path of the Ascendant will feature explicit content, as stated on the main series page, but any scenes outright depicting sexual activity are going to be found after this volume, and only in bonus chapters, which I am writing after the rest of the story is finished, while these chapters are being released to you. Currently, I have six finished ones, two in progress, and I imagine I will have more by the time enough chapters are released for you to read any of them.


    If you are disinterested in this type of content for whatever reason, you don''t need to worry about missing out on important details about the story. There will be nothing essential to the plot within the bonus chapters, and each one will be explicitly labelled with an R-18 tag after the chapter name. On the first chapter, I have also written a similar disclaimer to this one, just in case you forget.


    As for everyone else, I would appreciate some feedback, both on the story as a whole, and especially on the bonus chapters once you are able to read them. Unlike writing in general, which I have been doing for over five years, including the two years and six months spent on Path of the Ascendant, I have only dabbled in sexually explicit content up to this point, so I imagine there is plenty of room for improvement. If you would like to see said improvement, please provide me some idea of what does and doesn''t work for you in those chapters, even if you don''t want to write a lengthy essay on the whole thing.


    Thank you for reading so far. If you ever feel like you have too much money on your hands, I do have some places you can donate it to, which you should be able to see below the chapter. I don''t currently offer much of anything on there, but I might if there is interest in it.

 V1C12: The Application Process, Part 4

    Thankfully, this technique did not come with the front seat for the physical partnership between a man and a woman, but instead included the process of first discovering and practising it. Most curiously, it also included a glimpse of Lord Meng¡¯s cultivation technique, and it was both simpler and more unusual than Yi Wei had expected.


    For one, it was not of the lighting element as some had assumed. Instead, it was a dual technique ¨C a technique of fire and metal. Together, it formed something akin to lightning, but far inferior. Despite that, it was the only cultivation method suitable for practising any of the Thunder Lord¡¯s legendary techniques. Or, at the very least, that is what she found upon attempting to practise it purely using fire or metal planar energy.


    When she used a wisp of her planar energy instead, there was no issue whatsoever. Thus, despite the fact that she had never studied a dual technique, Yi Wei had no difficulty in applying her limited understanding of the Storm Blade Wreathing Technique.


    That discovery did not assist her when it came to conjuring a weapon to apply it to, however. She almost returned to ignoring memories, like the lewd ones from before, when she spotted something.


    An attempt by a younger Seventh of Meng to apply his technique not to his famous blade, but to his own hand. In the memory, he was fighting against a blurry opponent without access to a weapon, so he did the only thing he could think of and recklessly infused his fingers and palm with the power of storm, resulting in a narrow victory for him.


    ¡®It did also do significant harm to his hand, preventing him from using it properly for over four years, but¡­ I have my Condensed Formation Body, my planar energy that is already able to condense into a liquid using the Elysian Palm, and its reinforcing properties. Even if it doesn¡¯t work out, I have to attempt it,¡¯ she concluded, browsing through the scroll for a second time to be sure that she got all of the important details memorised correctly.


    With that, and every other combat technique in mind, she gathered her planar energy at her hand. Drawing upon her experience with the Elysian Palm, Yi Wei siphoned it out in a stable form to surround her skin, assembling it in a form that would then allow it to be transformed into lightning.


    In a way, it was like constructing an array, as there was no chance of her performing a technique meant for a far higher realm without one. Luckily, she had plenty of experience.


    ¡®If only the rest of my so-called experience could have been transformed into something useful like this. Rather, if I ever have the misfortune of acquiring someone¡¯s memories again, I should make sure that they¡¯re a woman who doesn¡¯t mix business with pleasure, so to speak,¡¯ she still complained internally, though she stopped rather quickly ¨C it was important to focus.


    The construction of the planar energy array was complete without too many bells or whistles, but it was clear that it wouldn¡¯t be able to remain in place for long. Even with external force, she was not in the Planar Pool realm, and so her energy was insufficiently powerful to resist the planar energy of the world. She held her hand as far away from herself as possible, just in case she made a mistake somewhere in the process, and active the Storm Blade Wreathing Technique.


    The violet planar energy, disguised by a thin layer of earth-type energy, burst into a sharp silvery flame and suddenly exploded, temporarily blinding her.


    As her vision was returning, she heard crackling in front of her, and the occasional glimpse of light.


    Great Light had completely given up on reacting, so he simply muttered, ¡°What is this? Why is a first realm cultivator performing a technique of the fourth realm? What¡­¡±


    ¡°No, that isn¡¯t quite it. He created the base for the technique¡­ and then activated it to allow himself to use it without the ability to rapidly manipulate planar energy outside of the body¡­ Though, the technique is very high-grade¡­¡±


    It succeeded, albeit barely. The only cost to herself was a large quantity of energy, and light burns both on her glove and hand.


    Since the version of the technique she executed would only last a minute, Yi Wei needed to get as much understanding of it in that time as was possible. First, she familiarised herself with the ability to manipulate the shape of the lightning wreathing to transform the tight layer into a short blade emerging from one of her fingers.


    That took a few seconds, after which she spent a few more to observe its limits, as well as how it affected her movement. Despite not using any metal planar energy, she still felt as if her movements from the arm up were faster, enough to create a major advantage in any battle on relatively even odds. Perhaps even more important was the fact that this technique could be merged into all forms of unarmed techniques, and that they could be integrated into the Storm Blade Wreathing Technique. In other words, it meant that she could any technique she knew, with or without a weapon.


    ¡®I guess I can revise my policy on weapon techniques, though I should really do so after I make good use of the time I have,¡¯ she thought, waving aside the less relevant topics.


    Three quarters of her time were still remaining, so she began to practise her combat skills, beginning with the one she was most familiar with ¨C Gentle Breeze Fist. Having reached Great Stride with it some time ago, before the mysterious characters within her dantian awoke, it was no challenge to use it both as a weapon skill, and a finger technique.


    Then, she moved on to her more recent acquisitions: Elysian Palm, Scarlet Metal Strike and Sinking Finger, which is a technique she had memorised when she happened to be in the perfect place to read it alongside a superior member of the family.


    Once she had gotten through a basic use of every technique, there were still a few seconds left, so Yi Wei decided to see what she could do at her full strength.


    She moulded the lightning into a blade atop her fist and channelled a vast quantity of her remaining energy into it. Her skin burned, turning bright red in the brief moment that her hand had to endure that enormous quantity and quality of power, and then, as if she had called down the heavens, it happened.


    A storm of golden lightning burst from her hand, forming a far larger blade. Violet lightning, almost seeming to be a portal into the distant skies, full of nebulae and stars, entwined with the gold, creating a cacophony of colour and sound, akin to entering the very depths of a thunderstorm or the tribulation clouds of a Daoist cultivator. In fact, the destructiveness soon matched one as well, as the condensed mixture of thunder and storm exploded.


    Outside the pagoda of the Deadly Martial Colosseum, near an adjacent administrative building, Yi Yaling was waiting for her father, who worked in a management position within this particular combat arena.


    After her encounter with the strange woman in the library, she decided to go back to the basics, and spent some time browsing the low-grade techniques of various types. Unfortunately, she didn¡¯t see the woman from before, or else she would have made sure to inquire regarding every somewhat difficult technique on the entire floor.


    ¡®Come to think of it, I didn¡¯t get her name,¡¯ she thought, waiting in front of the door to be allowed inside, ¡®I should make sure to display my gratitude properly the next time I see her.¡¯


    For whatever reason, she glanced at the pagoda to her side, when it exploded.


    A storm of lightning burst out of the fifth floor, a mixture of gold and violet dyeing the sky in an instant. It expanded to cover a massive area above the compound, as if it was a cloud sent down from the heavens. From within came rumbling and crackling, loud and ominous.


    She wasn¡¯t sure exactly what caused it, but Yi Yaling felt her legs getting weaker with every second. Something within that storm cloud radiated immense danger, causing her to feel an extreme pressure of dread, threatening to cease her breathing completely. Although she could not understand what could possibly cause such a phenomenon, she did know, without a doubt, that if she had been caught up within that tempest, she would have been obliterated in an instant.


    And yet, that very instant, the lightning vanished. The broken side of the pagoda vanished, replaced by its pristine original form.


    ¡®W-what was that?¡¯ she either thought or muttered ¨C she herself was unsure of which it was ¨C and collapsed onto her knees, feeling her entire body shaking with fear. Her clothes stuck to her tightly. Clearly, she had also sweated heavily during the ordeal.


    ¡®Huh. I¡­ I didn¡¯t even notice¡­ hehe¡­¡¯


    ¡°The formation array is repaired¡­ The lightning is dissipating slowly¡­¡± Great Dark said, their eyes focused on the floating, glowing array composed of their own earthly planar energy, ¡°I will dismiss any reports with the claim¡­ that it was a mistake with the illusory reality array.¡±


    ¡°It was clear that it wasn¡¯t fake even all the way down here! Do you really think anyone would believe that?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯d have to¡­ Our group is too powerful to be ignored¡­¡±


    ¡°True. Then, what about that madman within the pagoda? Surely, something of that magnitude would have torn his arm apart?¡±


    ¡°Only his clothes are damaged¡­ he has thin arms¡­¡±


    Yi Wei¡¯s left arm was covered in burns and scars from the lightning, but her flesh and muscle were unharmed. She wriggled her fingers for them to recover their sense of touch and ripped off some of her robe¡¯s spare cloth to wrap it around her exposed arm.


    ¡®Good thing that didn¡¯t spread all the way to my chest, or else ¡®those two¡¯, whoever they are, would certainly notice something, even if they haven¡¯t already,¡¯ she thought, bandaging her scorched arm with a long strip of black cloth, ¡®However, the fact that my Elysian Palm was this effective in combination with the Storm Blade Wreathing is truly remarkable. I don¡¯t know how much my particular planar energy changed its effectiveness, but that technique is probably why the Thunder Lord was considered to be such a mighty warrior.¡¯


    She glanced over to where the scroll with the skill was previously floating, but it had vanished since she had last seen it. In fact, even the marks from her fight with the Seventh of Meng were gone.


    ¡®Did my attack damage the illusory array?¡¯ she understood quickly, noticing that the dust on the floor only showed her most recent footprints.


    Since she had expended most of her energy and had no more access to the scroll, she calmed her breathing and circulated her planar energy to the parts of her arm that were covered up, to calm the unpleasant feeling the burns were causing.


    Like that, she waited, and waited, but no notice from above came.


    Eventually, she just decided to ask the darkness above her, ¡°Is this floor over, or are you letting me recuperate until the next challenge?¡±


    There was a slight delay in the response, and even then, it was the least sure it sounded since the first message from the slightly odd version of the voice, ¡°Please proceed to the sixth floor.¡±


    Yi Wei nodded, feeling the restriction on her planar energy recovery be lifted immediately after. Since she would most certainly need it on the upper floors, regardless of the challenges posed to her, she made sure to walk slowly up each step, taking her precious time to breathe in some more energy before ascending further.


    The sixth floor was the most different in appearance so far. Where the other floors had a simple, wooden surface, and a black void surrounding everything, this floor was a complete room with five sides and five tables beside each wall. On each table lay an item that represented a great art: a pill furnace, an array, an anvil, an inscription blade and a talisman brush and ink. Even before the voice of the pagoda had a chance to speak, it was clear what the theme of the next challenge would be.


    ¡°Sixth floor: profession challenge. Solve a challenge involving each art. Success in three or more is required to proceed. Success in all five will grant a reward.¡±


    Her expression soured. Having completed five floors almost perfectly, she wasn¡¯t too excited about failing this one. However, she knew that unless the challenges for pill forging and engraving were incredibly trivial, or were purely testing her physical and cultivation strength, there would be no possibility of her earning the reward from completing all five. This was especially frustrating as the last reward was an incredibly powerful technique.


    ¡®Well, I¡¯ve had decent enough luck earlier, so perhaps it will continue in this task,¡¯ she hoped, and proceeded to the table with the array. Out of all of the great arts, this was the one she was most compatible with after her dantian was cleansed.


    She reached out and touched the formation array, which she recognised as a two-star array, the Restraining Phantoms Array.


    Upon that touch, her vision blurred, and she saw scores of humanoid phantoms charging at her, each with their arms outstretched, ready to grab her and ensnare her within their eternal embrace. Some were only bones, but others were half-rotten, with scraps of skin hanging off their long-forgotten bones and desiccated muscles.


    In that moment, before she had a chance to process what was happening, her body had already acted.


    Planar energy surged to her bandaged hand, and she thrust it forward, unleashing an Elysian Palm onto the horde of fiends around her. In a flash of light, they were thrown away, and then ¨C the world around her cracked.


    It collapsed the next second, and Yi Wei found herself within the same five-sided room as before. The miniature array on the table was broken into a dozen small pieces, and the surface was melting.


    ¡®¡­ Eh? That¡­ that was a two-star array, wasn¡¯t it? My attack¡­ destroyed such an array?¡¯


    ¡°Formation array challenge complete. Four out of five remaining.¡±


    And yet, no matter how strange it was to break a two-star array in a single hit in the weakest realm of cultivation, there was no evidence to the contrary. Some part of her technique was able to forcefully collapse an array with a single, careless hit.


    ¡°That is the case, then.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Though it had not affected the Thunder Lord¡¯s technique due to his significantly higher cultivation and skill, this Elysian Palm does indeed have the power of disrupting the planar energy around it, which seems to include breaking arrays,¡± Great Light nodded, ¡°I swear, that man can¡¯t be from around here, or else his family would already be ruling the district.¡±


    ¡°And if it is part of the inheritance?¡±


    ¡°Even though the stories regarding him have obviously been embellished to some extent, I have never heard of an Elysian Palm, nor an undetectable body cultivation method, nor the ability to summon the equivalent of tribulation lightning at a realm in which one is meant to be unable to externalise their energy,¡± they stated, ¡°And on the topic of that attack, it was also not part of Lord Meng¡¯s inheritance, nor had there ever been a rumour of him bringing down such power upon even the worst of his enemies.¡±


    ¡°Are you suggesting¡­ that he creates his own techniques?¡±


    ¡°It is, unfortunately, a good possibility. To modify a technique within a minute of learning it¡­ is terrifying. Never tell him that I attacked him first, understand?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    Since the first challenge ended a little unexpectedly, Yi Wei moved on to the talisman table. Talisman crafting was the second most compatible art for her, so it was only natural to get it over with before moving onto the true challenges.


    As soon as her finger pressed against the brush, she felt the room change around her. The other four walls vanished, and all that remained was the fifth of the room with the talisman crafting kit carefully laid out on the table. However, it was now far further away than before, and a new piece of talisman paper appeared beside the ink where it hadn¡¯t been a moment prior.


    Soon after that, the darkness between her and the wall cleared, and the trial revealed itself.


    In the space between them was a large pit, seemingly stretching infinitely into the depths. Four platforms hovered within even intervals of one another, and atop each was a different collection of objects, items and features.


    The gap between each platform, including the final one and the one she stood on, was far too large to be cleared by someone of her realm.


    Floating in the air beside her were five stacks of talismans, each stack containing three talismans each. They were, from left to right: Flaming Slash, Air Platform, Earthen Shard, Water Push and the Wooden Tendril Talisman. In combination with the floating platforms full of materials and the pit, it was all too clear what the challenge intended her to do.


    ¡®Can¡¯t I just¡­ jump over with the Air Platforms and Water Push Talismans?¡¯ she wondered almost immediately after setting her eyes upon those two.


    ¡°As he might have observed¡­ the challenges are not meant to be purely relating to one¡¯s ability in using that art¡­ they are meant to find the most capable¡­ the most interesting warriors for our Deadly Martial Colosseum, and-¡±


    ¡°Are you able to talk any slower? If you want to reiterate what you¡¯ve said a dozen times, I can do the exact same thing a hundred times faster,¡± interrupted Great Light, striking the position of an ancient expert, with their arms behind their back and their head raised, before continuing, ¡°The warriors of the Deadly Martial Colosseum have to be smart, strong and interesting to watch, whether in combat to the death or a peaceful sparring match. So long as they are able to win, it is irrelevant how they do so.¡±


    In one hand, Yi Wei held the Water Push Talisman, and the Air Platform Talisman in the other.


    She had done some quick calculations and figured out that the six talismans were just barely enough for her to successfully cross the bottomless pit¡­ as long as she made use of a few other personal tricks.


    When she was putting together her Condensed Formation Body, she had thrown in literally every body technique she could find, with the exceptions of those that wouldn¡¯t work with her body no matter how skilled she was with arrays (the Yang Concentrated Body being one such example, although she also made sure to remove the potential side effects from the likes of the Bovine Stomach Skill, to ensure that her body was able to finish developing on its own). As a result, she had accumulated quite a number of abilities that she hadn¡¯t had the chance to use yet. Most were rather minor, as the effect of any basic cultivation art was bound to be, but the inadequacy in her strategy only needed a minor effect to correct it.


    Breathing out slowly, she crouched down, sending all of her energy to her legs. Her muscles tensed to their absolute limit, and then, she leapt up.


    Her motion was directed upwards, so she flew upward at an impressive speed. In just a few seconds, she got so far up that the black fog completely covered the platform she was previously on, and she had only stopped moving once any sign of the array challenge was out of view. Once her momentum began to slow, she threw out one Air Platform Talisman.


    It created a thin square of solid air behind her, at a 45-degree angle. Yi Wei landed on it, and before it dissipated, she launched off of it again. Now heading slightly further towards the other side of the pit, she flew even further upward, with the darkness growing ever denser.


    ¡°Clever¡­¡±


    ¡°Do you not get tired of saying tha- is he using another Storm Blade Wreathing? F-¡±


    While performing her second jump, Yi Wei also began to assemble the structure of the Storm Blade Wreathing Technique on the hand that held the Water Push Talismans. It required quite a long time to prepare, so by the time she reached the peak of the second jump, it was only half-way done.


    As soon as her ascent stopped, she threw out the last Air Platform, and leapt off it diagonally.


    The technique was complete at the peak of her last jump, so she turned in mid-air, stretched out her arm and activated Storm Blade Wreathing and Elysian Palm while channelling both into the Water Push Talisman. A second after, the talisman exploded in a flare of gold and purple, releasing a geyser of water propelled Yi Wei in the direction of the other side of the pit.


    The water¡¯s immense force threatened to tear her arm off, containing the energy of a Planar Pool cultivator mixed with two incredible techniques that vastly increased its power, but that power also brought her an impressive momentum, and as she slowly lost her altitude, she noticed that she was over the first platform, and moving towards the second.


    A single talisman would last only fifteen seconds, so she was be able to use all three within the duration of the Storm Blade Wreathing.


    Despite her best efforts, however, she was still heading for the middle of the pit between the last platform and the other side. This was slightly better than her estimate, so she smiled and turned back around to face her destination.


    Her planar energy coursed to one of the dantian shards within her body and filled in the shape of a technique diagram. Upon the completion of the last line, it was about to ignite, but a moment prior a tendril of lightning sunk into it, changing the colour of the planar energy to gold and purple. The next moment, it burst out of her body, splitting into two strands that both formed an illusory wing each, one luminous and the other dark.


    They crashed into the air, ceasing her fall in an instant. It transformed into an unsteady glide instead, all for only a few seconds before the wings burst into nothingness, leaving behind only two charred holes in Yi Wei¡¯s clothes and burn marks on the skin where the wings connected to her bones.


    This brought her forward, just enough to put her within reach of the edge of the other side. Despite that, she still had one more element of her body technique to try out. With her empty hand, she raised her mask slightly and sent a gust of planar energy to her neck, mouth and the nearby dantian shard before inhaling loudly.


    After her lungs filled, the effect borrowed from the Floating Whale Lungs skill activated ¨C the stream of air transformed into a gust so powerful that it grew to encompass her whole body and lifted her by the sheer force of the wind.


    That brought her up and allowed for an easy descent onto the cliff on the other side.


    When her feet touched the ground, the challenge vanished from sight, and she found herself back in the original room. The talismans that she did not take were gone, and the table which initially held a bottle of ink and a brush was now empty. Unfortunately, the new damage in her clothes remained, much to Yi Wei¡¯s annoyance.


    ¡®Since I¡¯m not too sure which array I¡¯m in, I don¡¯t know if it is possible to regenerate my state with each stage, but if this keeps going, I¡¯ll be facing the final floor in the nude,¡¯ she considered.


    ¡°Talisman challenge complete. Three out of five remaining.¡±


    Now, what remained were the pill refining, engraving and blacksmithing challenges.

 V1C13: The Application Process, Part 5

    ¡°Blacksmithing challenge complete. Two out of five remaining,¡± said the voice of the illusory world, finding no issue with her solving it through breaking every item with her planar energy.


    ¡®Great. Only two more left, and I¡­ don¡¯t want to do either¡­¡¯ she looked between the pill furnace and the inscribing blade, ¡®Inscription is said to be twice as difficult as formation arrangement, and pill refining requires recipes that I do not possess. Hm¡­¡¯


    Since she was unable to arrive at a decision after several more seconds of hesitation, she reached into her pocket and flipped a coin.


    ¡°Fine then, engraving it is.¡±


    Her hand touched the engraving blade, and the surroundings vanished. The darkness remained in place for half a minute, then it receded slowly, drifting away like a thick fog. It revealed a metal platform, round in shape, extending for several metres away from her, with lines that were both thick and thin carved into it.


    ¡°Welcome, Da Gang,¡± a voice spoke from behind her.


    She turned, a combat technique at the ready, to find an androgynous figure sitting on the floor, with their legs folded, in front of a low table with a number of metal plates stacked atop one another.


    ¡°Are you another shadow, or a member of the Deadly Martial Colosseum?¡±


    Their eyebrow went up, ¡°How did you¡­ realize that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s quite simple,¡± she replied, keeping the excitement of figuring things out away from her facial expression, ¡°So far, the basic illusory figures have only been capable of simple actions and gestures, but the Thunder Lord could speak without any difficulty, and had quite a few interesting things to say. Nonetheless, I still wish I could hit him in the face a few more times¡­


    ¡°Anyway, although you could be a shadow, you do not have the same glowing eyes, nor the look of a spirit about you. The environment is also completely different to the other challenges on this floor, which didn¡¯t have even a single basic figure on them. Thus, I can only conclude that you are someone from the Colosseum, and that you are someone in the fourth realm or above,¡± Yi Wei stated, ¡°Since I can¡¯t imagine someone in the Linked Channels realm working in, or even running a simple combat arena, I imagine that you would be in the Marked Core realm? How many marks do you have?¡±


    The Marked Core realm was the fifth realm of cultivation, in which one had to condense marks upon the shield formed around their dantian in the fourth realm. These marks were called searing marks, and their number varied from one to ninety-nine depending on the cultivator¡¯s techniques, purity of planar energy and other factors in their cultivation. The more marks one possessed, the greater their strength would be.


    For every individual mark, the cultivator is also able to infuse the power of a single mark into their attack, significantly increasing its power. Naturally, someone with one mark will only be able to do so once every few hours, but someone with all ninety-nine can repeatedly use the searing marks in battle and always have a few more ready just in case.


    As with all other realms, the gap between it and the Active Core realm was enormous. Just by entering that realm and reaching its first stage, the power of one¡¯s planar energy would increase by forty times that of their original strength, which was equivalent to four stages of the Active Core realm, eight stages of the Emergent Anchor realm, forty stages of the Planar Pool realm and four hundred stages of the Energy Condensation realm.


    ¡°Your guess¡­ is correct¡­¡± the figure eventually said, giving a slight nod, ¡°I am indeed in the fifth stage of Marked Core¡­ and I have appeared to give you an offer.¡±


    They raised their hand and took out a few sheets of paper out of the air, putting them on the other side of the table, ¡°Please, sit down¡­ and take a look.¡±


    ¡®He¡­ she?... has a curious style of speaking,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, sitting down on a soft mat opposite the androgynous figure, ¡°Since you¡¯re qualified to give me an offer, you have to be someone of high status in the Deadly Martial Colosseum.¡±


    Although they smiled, they did not reply to the question, ¡°I would like to offer you to a contract with us¡­ It will begin at five years, though it can be extended indefinitely¡­ You will become a second-grade combatant, the second highest rank in the Colosseum, without the loss of your false identity¡­ It will be necessary to participate in combat at least once a week, with the rest of the time being offered as an opportunity to recover. Additionally, my brother and I will teach you engraving, up to the five-star level, independent of your salary¡­ It is all in the contract¡­¡±


    She looked down and read the term of the contract, all written in small text akin to the one used in ¡®One, Two and Three Star Blacksmithing¡¯, concerning topics ranging from her salary to who she would and would not be allowed to kill in the arena.


    ¡®For a Deadly Martial Colosseum, they sure have a lot of rules regarding killing,¡¯ she commented, taking in all three pages in a single minute.


    ¡°You are a fast reader¡­¡±


    ¡°You could say that.¡±


    ¡°Are there any complaints regarding the terms?¡±


    ¡°Not really. I only want to change three- no, four things. Two of them should be obvious, since they¡¯re there to condemn me to eternal slavery if I break a particular vase, and to allow you to remove my dantian if I drink from the upper golden fountain. The third is that I would like to replace earth-type techniques with all techniques, regardless of element,¡± Yi Wei explained, tapping on the relevant clause in the contract.


    ¡°You¡¯re playing a dangerous game there¡­ you know that, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s worked out so far,¡± she answered just as vaguely, before lifting one page of the contract and pointing to a section of it, ¡°As for the fourth matter, I would like this particular version to be replaced with one that does not seem to contain engravings.¡±


    It was only now that the figure displayed a true emotion of surprise, ¡°It is good to see that I wasn¡¯t wrong! Indeed¡­ How?¡±


    ¡°How? How did I notice?¡± Yi Wei asked, continuing only after receiving a nod from the figure, ¡°Well, while I am unfamiliar with inscriptions, I am experienced enough with arrays to be able to arrange an imitation array purely using stones on a plain field, and the words within this document seemed to be arranged in just the right fashion to create a version of the two-star array, the Mental Dispersion Array.¡±


    ¡°That is correct, though the actual engraving¡­ is the Scattering Mind Inscription¡­ For you to be unaffected, you must have a good resistance to mental effects¡­¡±


    ¡®If I hadn¡¯t developed some resistance to them after living above a Mental Distortion Array for my entire life, then that would be much more surprising,¡¯ she commented mentally, though she didn¡¯t show it on her face (not that it mattered, seeing as she wore a mask).


    ¡°In that case, we can sign the contract outside the illusory world. First, I will teach you what I can, and then¡­ you may proceed to the upper floors, though I do not recommend it¡­¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡±


    ¡°The upper floors are not meant for anyone but the strongest, even at the lowest level of the array,¡± the (wo)man replied, ¡°As mentioned in the contract¡­ you may return here at any time during your employment, and you will be brought back up here, with the rewards waiting for you¡­ If you proceed now, however, all you¡¯ll do is waste your opportunity.¡±


    His, or perhaps her, words were completely accurate, so Yi Wei didn¡¯t feel the need to show any sign of disagreement. She nodded and waited for the strange figure to begin.


    As soon as she managed to enter her father¡¯s office, Yi Yaling ducked into a side room and cleansed herself and her clothing with a two-star talisman. Having utterly soaked her clothing in her sweat, she wasn¡¯t even sure if she did anything else to embarrass herself, so she thought it best to deal with it before anyone noticed ¨C and it took a long time for anyone to react. Even her father, a man in the Emergent Anchor realm, had to circulate his planar energy a number of times to soothe himself.


    Even after that, she still retrieved a spare set of clothes from her father¡¯s chambers, as she felt that the very cause of her fear was still stuck within the fabric, continuing to intimidate her the longer she wore them.


    ¡°Daddy, do you know who could have done such a thing?¡± she asked, literally hugging his thigh for comfort.


    He looked at her with an attempt at the look of confidence, one that even she saw through, ¡°I¡¯m not too sure. The people in the pagoda right now should all be in the first realm, so I cannot imagine how any of them was able to do such a thing. However, you can be sure that they won¡¯t hurt you. Great Light would take care of them, whoever they are.¡±


    ¡°Then, when are you going to let me meet him?¡± Yi Yaling pouted, ¡°You keep just telling me how great he is, but I still haven¡¯t seen him!¡±


    Yi Fenhong, her father, sighed as silently as he could, ¡°Honey, you know that I¡¯m just responsible for the finances of one of the arenas here. I don¡¯t have the authority to know anything other than the fact that Great Light is in charge.¡±


    She understood that, but she didn¡¯t want to admit any fault, so she just continued pouting.


    ¡°- While formation arrangement is focused on sensing the flow of planar energy in the air and placing nodes to take advantage of it, engraving creates the streams of energy, forcing it to flow in the way desired by the engraver,¡± Great Dark ¨C who had revealed their name to Yi Wei after a brief explanation of the Deadly Martial Colosseum ¨C described, slowly carving a groove into a metal plate, ¡°This is why this art favours earth cultivation, for none are better at sensing the natural structure of the world than earth-type cultivators.¡±


    ¡°I see. Is the engraving you¡¯re making right now intended for planar energy absorption?¡±


    ¡°Close¡­ It is an Energy Storage Inscription, of one star. This is another difference from formation arrays ¨C it is necessary to create a medium for the storage of energy before applying it¡­ Additionally, most inscriptions are not in continuous operation, but more often activated for a brief period of time.¡±


    ¡®Ning Guanting¡¯s hammer contained both, if I¡¯m not wrong,¡¯ she recalled, comparing the grooves being made by Great Dark to the ones on the hammer, ¡°Do you have any manuals I can consult before or after I attempt this myself? I learned formations purely from books, and I¡¯d like to think that I did so rather well.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, we did not get to witness that¡­¡± the androgynous figure said, finishing off the last line of their engraving, ¡°Now, to complete this, one must stabilise the engraving¡¯s flow of energy. Observe.¡±


    They reached out, placing one hand over the centre of the engraving.


    Suddenly, the thin carvings changed, a steady stream of planar energy surging into them and flowing according to the design of Great Dark.


    On the surface, that was the only thing that s/he had done, but Yi Wei could tell that there was far more to the gesture than met the eye. For one, a small stream of something flowed from their hand into the grooves of the engraving, and done¡­ something to them, before returning back to its place. Although it was rather difficult to tell exactly what the energy was, it seemed like Great Dark had intentionally allowed her to sense it, as it was very similar ¨C but still somewhat different ¨C to spiritual will.


    When she relayed her guess to Great Dark, they nodded, ¡°Indeed¡­ I have practised for many years, so my spiritual will may be a little different from most, but it is still my will in the end¡­ Unless you are able to employ your spiritual will, all you will be able to make are imitation engravings.¡±


    ¡°That is even more like array arrangement than I expected,¡± she admitted, sensing the slight gathering of planar energy within the metal plate, ¡°Is it possible to use this to store energy and then use in combat in place of your own?¡±


    ¡°Since you are able to externalise your energy¡­ yes, in theory. It will not retain your full power, however.¡±


    They said so to ensure that Yi Wei didn¡¯t get any ideas of storing up an enormous quantity of planar energy in an engraving and then challenging people far above her level. It was something an unfortunate quantity of inscription masters had attempted, and most of them were beaten to an inch of their life, if not killed outright when their opponents easily overpowered them.


    Naturally, this wasn¡¯t something she had considered. Instead, her thoughts drifted in a direction likely unimaginable even to the androgynous figure, who had lived many lifetimes more than her.


    She wanted to know if she could carve inscriptions into her body.


    ¡®I¡¯ve already changed myself permanently by creating the dantian shard array, so why not ruin myself more by filling every bone and muscle with engravings? Wait¡­ what if I then refine myself into a pill, pour some metal into myself and somehow change the dantian shards into talismans?¡¯ Yi Wei began, but she stopped herself before she had a chance to go completely insane, ¡®No, stop that. I will not transform into a complete masochist, at least not if I can help it. Otherwise, I¡¯ll be going up to dragons and phoenixes, begging for them to incinerate me in the hope of getting some minor improvement to my physique.¡¯


    It took all of her will to suppress the shaking that thought had generated. Dragons and phoenixes were both legendary creatures, and even their children were said to be equivalent to seventh realm cultivators. To seek out such a monster of her own accord, and purely for the purpose of strengthening herself¡­


    Perhaps deciding that she had enough understanding of engravings, Great Dark gave her the next metal plate and their engraving knife.


    ¡°The Energy Storage inscription is simple¡­ have a go.¡±


    She received both items without a change in her expression. Since engraving followed the logic of formations, it wasn¡¯t particularly difficult for her to convert one into the other, albeit at a far lower efficiency than something designed from the ground up to be an array or an inscription.


    Having witnessed the entire process of engraving, it didn¡¯t take much effort to duplicate it, but she was immediately stuck when the time came to complete it. Clearly, even when it came to creating an imitation engraving, one had to perform one final step to complete them, but Great Dark just happened to leave out any such steps, simply staring at her with a blank expression.


    ¡®How do I¡­? Let¡¯s see, when I create talismans, the process simply requires the characters to be even, then it completes the process¡­ In the case of formation arrays, to active a proper one-star array, one needs to- Ah!¡¯ her hand darted to a certain point above the engraving, which she tapped casually. Just like that, it produced a simple chime, and began to collect planar energy within its numerous grooves.


    ¡°Well done. You¡¯ve found the eye of the formation, or, rather¡­ the engraved heart.¡±


    They gave her a single clap before the space behind them rippled, and an almost identical figure emerged. They too had long hair, an androgynous body without obvious features of either sex, and had an aura so great that Yi Wei had no chance of seeing through it. This identical twin even had the exact same cultivation level.


    Perhaps the only clear difference was that this second figure was brighter, both in terms of hair and skin.


    ¡°That¡¯s enough of you, Great Dark. Didn¡¯t you hear him ask for a book to study?¡± Great Light said, taking out a large tome that they placed on top of Yi Wei¡¯s engraving, ¡°Here, read th-¡±


    ¡°You.¡±


    Her brows furrowed, as when their hand got close to her, she sensed an incredibly familiar energy radiating from them. Her mind rapidly thought back to every type of energy she had felt over the past day and realised that this aura was identical to the one that gave her planar energy a new ability.


    ¡°Me?¡± they questioned, their expression changing far more than Great Dark¡¯s ever did, ¡°I have no idea what you could be talking about.¡±


    ¡°You attempted to kill me,¡± Yi Wei decided to explain it to them, even though it was obvious.


    ¡°Did I now? When could that have happened?¡±


    ¡°Great Light, you are not the best of liars¡­ Indeed, Da Gang, this man attempted to kill you, twice, in fact. After his failure the first time, he and I then provided that weight training set to you. I see that it worked out for you, however.¡±


    So at least one of them was a man ¨C Yi Wei marked it down in her head, glad that one impossible mystery was solved today. It did not occur to her that if she didn¡¯t start eating more, and continued on her road to masochistic cultivation, she would the reverse of Great Dark and Great Light: a woman who looked nothing like one, but also not quite a man, either.


    ¡°I thought that it would have something to do with one of you,¡± she said, crossing her arms, ¡°Am I to assume that I am no longer under threat of being murdered for, as far as I can understand, no reason at all?¡±


    ¡°That is the case, yes,¡± nodded Great Light, though he was still reluctant to meet her gaze, ¡°We had a slight disagreement, and it has now been resolved. Great Dark and I will teach you inscription together, up to the level of five stars, if you are able to learn. However, if you are up for it, I can also train you in a few other aspects, and offer you a far greater challenge than those meagre weights pose.¡±


    ¡°For now, at the very least, I will have to deny your kind offer,¡± she answered, resting her hands on the table.


    Despite it being an illusion that might have been strengthened by the natural effects of the Illusory World Array, the wooden table creaked under the weight of the training bracelets. Her message was clear to the twins; she had plenty of challenge for now.


    ¡°Nonetheless, thank you for your assistance in the past.¡±


    ¡°Eh? You¡¯re not going to be angry that I nearly k-¡±


    ¡°Brother, cease your folly,¡± Great Dark slapped his brother on the back of his head, ¡°Even if he does not bear a grudge, repeatedly saying the same thing over and over again will not help in the slightest.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Yi Wei said, flipping open the tome given to her earlier, ¡°So far, you¡¯ve helped me more than you harmed me, so I have no particular anger towards you. Additionally, I can¡¯t bypass the gap between our realms, no matter how hard I may attempt to do so.¡±


    ¡®And why would I want to? I now have a much stronger body, and I even feel as if I may go over some sort of edge when it comes to my physique,¡¯ she thought as she read the introduction, ¡®The only problem with that is that I have not heard of such a concept as body cultivation realms, and yet I am rather certain that I don¡¯t have any sort of special physique, either¡­¡¯


    ¡°Though that attitude is wise, do not be too keen to forgive. In this world, some will never stop until they can crush you beneath their feet.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m well aware,¡± her mind drifted first to some of the final memories of the Thunder Lord, and then back to the array below her home. Regardless of the identity of its creator, it was clearly not intended to give her any chance of success. With a dulled mind and non-existent cultivation ability, she wouldn¡¯t last long no matter where she went, and even if some miracle allowed her to pull through, she would still be stuck at the bottom of whichever path she ended up taking.


    In a way, she was more than familiar with someone wanting her dead.

 V1C14: Reinforcing the Basics

    After finishing the engraving manual and receiving a lesson from Great Light, she intended to return home and have a long-awaited rest. Contrary to that expectation, however, the moment she ducked into an alleyway outside the Deadly Martial Colosseum and changed into her typical clothing, keeping the cloth bandage on her left arm to hide the burns, she nearly ran into someone familiar.


    ¡°You!¡± the woman from the library called out, suddenly rushing at her.


    ¡°Eh? What did I do?¡± Yi Wei said, raising her fists in preparation for the fight.


    Her question stopped the woman in her tracks, and her face reddened in embarrassment, ¡°Sorry, what I meant was, hi! You¡¯re the woman from the library, right?¡±


    ¡®That¡¯s what I call you, but I can see how she came up with the same name for me,¡¯ she thought, lowering her hands, ¡°I have been in the library before, and I even helped someone with the Still Water Body, though I did not get their name. Was that you?¡±


    ¡°Yes! I¡¯m Yi Yaling, daughter of Yi Fenhong. And you?¡±


    ¡°Yi Wei, child of two servants. You wouldn¡¯t know of them.¡±


    ¡°O-oh,¡± Yi Yaling¡¯s excitement was dulled slightly, but she recovered quickly, ¡°Your understanding of techniques was outstanding, and I learned a lot! I¡¯m feeling that my cultivation might actually advance soon. Why don¡¯t you reveal your talent to the family?¡±


    ¡°Why? Yi Yaling, have you never heard of the concept of jealousy?¡± Yi Wei asked, staring into the woman¡¯s eyes, ¡®I don¡¯t know why the array was placed beneath my home, nor will I reveal that to her, but if she doesn¡¯t get it, I can always bring up another¡¯s unfortunate tale¡­¡¯


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    The look in her eyes proved that she was truly innocent, and ignorant.


    ¡°Tell me, have you heard of Yi Dongfang? No? He was a child of servants, like me, and he was quite smart. He cultivated quickly, and succeeded in locating and restoring an ancient technique that surpassed the very best the Yi elders could practise. He then did what you suggested I do and brought it to the family leaders,¡± her expression soured despite the time that had passed since then.


    ¡°Really? I¡¯ve not heard of him¡­¡±


    ¡°That last action is the exact reason why. Had I not spoken with him a short while before he did this, I wouldn¡¯t have heard of him either. Let me tell you what happened,¡± she said, dragging Yi Yaling into the same alleyway to lower the number of ears that could hear them, ¡°He discovered a legendary skill, but also offended a child of the Yi family¡¯s leadership. When he brought it to the family, the child let his parents know, so they took it for themselves and erased him and his parents from history. Tell me, have your heard of the Broken Sky Brand?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ isn¡¯t it practised by the patriarch?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. And who supposedly brought it to him?¡±


    Yi Yaling frowned, ¡°I think it was the daughter of an elder, Yi¡­ Yi Juan. I have spoken with her before, and I think she mentioned something about it, but-¡±


    ¡°But there were few details?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yes.¡±


    ¡°Just in case you¡¯re thinking that this might be a one-off situation-¡±


    ¡°No,¡± she shook her head, ¡°The people at the top tend to have quite a lot of pride. If your advice didn¡¯t help me as much as it did, I probably wouldn¡¯t have been too happy about your attitude either. Ehm¡­ sorry. I should have remembered that.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. Just don¡¯t go around telling everyone how clever I am, or else I will defeat you before I¡¯m killed,¡± Yi Wei joked, but with such a serious expression that Yi Yaling struggled to understand whether she was actually kidding.


    ¡°R-right, I won¡¯t do that¡­ But, can I get some more advice from you in the future?¡±


    ¡°I highly doubt I¡¯m the best person for this, but I suppose that if you catch me in the library again, I won¡¯t object.¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡±


    ¡°Now, can I go? It¡¯s quite late, and I want to sleep,¡± she pointed to the sky.


    The moon was rising from the horizon, and stars shone from beyond a dark cloud that covered most of the sky. On the main streets, there were candles, lanterns and the rare torch that lit them up just enough for the populace to navigate them.


    Yi Yaling raised her head and stood there for quite some time before she stirred, ¡°Oh. Daddy- I mean, my dad is likely wondering where I am, so I have to get going too.¡±


    ¡°You know, I wouldn¡¯t have said anything even if you didn¡¯t correct yourself.¡±


    ¡°S-shut up.¡±


    She escaped as quickly as she could, rushing out of the alleyway at record speed.


    Yi Wei left a part of her story unsaid, however. When Yi Dongfang got the idea to speak to the heads of the family, it was primarily at her own na?ve, foolish insistence. Back then, she had the same thoughts as Yi Yaling, as her dreams were all about breaking out of her lowly position as the family servant and reaching some greater place within the hierarchy.


    When that young lad then failed to return, and all of his achievements were stolen Yi Juan, she felt her world view shatter. That was why she served Yi Zehao without any complaint ¨C life, even under someone else¡¯s foot, was better than death to her, especially when she had no chance of altering it.


    Thankfully, she now had a dozen means to change things, and had learnt from those events. Finding out that she was also being targeted at the same time by others reinforced these lessons.


    The next week of her life was a lot less exciting. Unlike before, when her every other night would be plagued with strange dreams and nightmares, this day was surprisingly calm.


    This continued into the morning after, when she awoke with a strangely clear mind. It felt as if she had previously existed within a thick, impenetrable fog that filled her mind and body constantly. Now, however, the fog had cleared, and the reality it obscured was finally revealed.


    ¡®Huh. I¡­ I vastly underestimated both myself and the array. The latter had a far greater effect than expected,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, rubbing her forehead ¨C the change from yesterday to today was, to her, as clear as the difference between being blind and having perfect vision, ¡®Meanwhile, I¡­ I really have been a little too hasty. Regardless of how fast I can read, and how powerful my planar energy is, I shouldn¡¯t have rushed to swallow up as many techniques as I could, even if I was in risk of being killed the very next day. A single well-understood, perfected technique will always win over a hundred random skills thrown into a pot and boiled together until they merged into a single mass of uncertainty.


    ¡®What I need the most right now is to refine what I already have, and get a few more lessons from each of my teachers. Finding someone knowledgeable in pill refining would also be helpful, though I have the same opinion regarding the five cultivation arts as I do regarding cultivation itself.¡¯


    With this in mind, Yi Wei spent the week going over what she had already learned, running into Yi Yaling in the process a few more times.


    Each time, she taught her something basic to get her to go away.


    By the seventh day, she was forced to return to the Deadly Martial Colosseum to comply with her contract, where Great Dark and Great Light were waiting for her inside of a small hut at the back of the Deadly Martial Colosseum¡¯s compound.


    As soon as she entered, she felt the aura of an identical Illusory World Array. After a week of recovering from the effects of the hidden arrays, her general sensitivity to energy had increased, and she could sense the energy of two fifth-realm experts within.


    In comparison to before, when she was only able to sense Great Light¡¯s planar energy when his hand was right next to her, this was a substantial improvement.


    She entered the hut calmly and allowed herself to be swallowed up by the array. When the darkness around her retreated, Yi Wei saw a similar scene to the one in the pagoda. A low table stood in the middle of the void, an empty pillow lay on one side and two on the other, both of which were occupied by the twins.


    ¡°Have you been sitting there long?¡± she asked, having repaired her outfit over the week. She had also browsed through a few simple techniques on changing one¡¯s voice and was now using one that didn¡¯t require her to cultivate it for the primary effect. The overall effects were obviously far worse than if she had used a more advanced skill, but that prevented her from clogging up any of her meridians with flawed techniques and ensured that she wouldn¡¯t be forced to make decisions that she would later regret.


    Her stance and atmosphere were different from the last time they met, and Great Dark clearly noticed this, ¡°Da Gang, you appear to have overcome some mental barriers over the last week.¡±


    ¡°I suppose you could say that,¡± Yi Wei replied vaguely, quickly switching topics, ¡°Lately, I have been improving my foundations, and have improved my cultivation in a number of my techniques. I assume I¡¯m going to be entering the arena soon?¡±


    ¡°That is correct,¡± Great Light answered, ¡°In fact, you showed up at the perfect time, since the next exhibition match was scheduled just thirty minutes from now. That gives me enough time to beat yo- I mean, to spar with you to give you some pointers.¡±


    ¡®Can you be any more obvious?¡¯ both Yi Wei and Great Dark thought, sighing simultaneously.


    ¡°Once again, there is no need for that, Great Light. Instead, please explain the format of the match.¡±


    ¡°Hmph, fine. You will fight someone at the lower third of the Planar Pool realm. It is not a battle to the death, but only until one side surrenders. The goal is mostly to display your abilities, and to provide some visual spectacle for the crowd. As such, you will be paid fifty silver coins. If you ever engage in a battle to the death, you will earn four gold coins, and any casual sparring match will grant you between ten silver coins and one gold coin, depending on the realm of your opponent. In addition, manuals for the first realm can be selected for free for every five gold coins you earn, and manuals for the second realm can be selected after earning fifty gold coins.¡±


    ¡®Even with the silver coins I earned from Luo Xiuying¡¯s store, I am nowhere near a gold coin. To purchase any first realm techniques on my own, I would need at least fifty gold coins, so the deal offered here is quite impressive. The old me made quite the smart decision,¡¯ she thought, having decided that her past actions were shrouded in so much mist and fog that they were essentially made by a different person than her current self.


    ¡°What happens when I win? Do I get an additional reward?¡±


    ¡°Not in this instance. In the future, regular fights will net you 25% of the bids against you, and fights to the death will give you 50%.¡±


    ¡°Are you encouraging me to try and get myself killed by challenging more and more powerful enemies in order to maximise the bets against me?¡±


    ¡°It would be preferable if you simply fought at your skill level instead, earning fame and attracting large crowds to your matches. While we are still teaching you, I¡¯d prefer it if you didn¡¯t die to anyone other than me.¡±


    ¡°I would prefer not to die at all, but I see your point.¡±


    ¡°Daddy, won¡¯t you speak to me about Yi Dongfang?¡±


    ¡°I told you, I don¡¯t know that name. Instead, sit still and pay attention to this fight. It should be between someone at the peak of Energy Condensation and another at the lower third of Planar Pool, so it ought to be beneficial to your cultivation,¡± Yi Fenhong said, taking a seat within a VIP chamber above the arena, ¡°I am not sure how, but I have been told that the lower realm opponent actually has a chance of victory.¡±


    ¡°Really? I don¡¯t know of anyone who can do that.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve not heard of such a thing either, so let¡¯s watch and see,¡± he encouraged, glad to have moved on from the previous topic. Although he did not show it, his back was covered in sweat.


    They did not have to wait long. In a few minutes, the arena¡¯s seats were half-full of various spectators between the first and third realms, who were all displaying various degrees of interest. Some had been to combat arenas many times before, and had grown used to most spectacle within, while others had entered such a location for the first time in their lives.


    After a brief wait, the doors were shut, the protective arrays were activated, and an announcer came up to the middle of the stage, dressed in thin silk that covered little of her body. Those who were not already watching the stage turned back quickly, both men and women alike.


    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming here today. After last week¡¯s recruitment, we have found an excellent warrior, but first, let me introduce his opponent¡­ He is well known as the Eternal Cold of the second realm, invincible in the same third! Jiang Sheng!¡± the woman declared, directing attention to the left side of the arena.


    From the darkness, a cold mist poured out. Slowly, a figure, dressed all in white and blue, emerged onto the stage, his face partially obscured by a mask made from icy crystal.


    ¡°Do you see his mask?¡± Yi Fenhong asked his daughter, waiting for her to nod before continuing, ¡°It is made from a rare material, yin condensed stone, that is invaluable to any blacksmith in the realm of two or three stars.¡±


    ¡°This Jiang Sheng sure is rich,¡± Yi Yaling pouted, glancing to her father, ¡°Daddy, can you buy me five of those?¡±


    Thankfully, they were in an isolated room, and were thus unheard by most of the audience. Otherwise, they would have been at risk of being beaten up by angry cultivators of all stages and realms.


    ¡°His opponent will be a man proficient in palm techniques, and one who had obtained an inheritance of a shadow of the Deadly Martial Colosseum. Please welcome Da Gang to the stage!¡±


    As soon as she finished speaking, she retreated from the stage with great haste. Being a cultivator that was only at the first stage of Energy Condensation, she knew that if those selected through the Pagoda of Trials fought with all of their might, she could easily be slaughtered by a stray attack from one of the two. Even if she retained her life by some miraculous means, it would still cause a significant disfiguring injury that would instantly remove her from employment, as the only reason she was able to work here was due to her good looks and voice.


    Da Gang¡¯s entrance was less impressive than his opponent¡¯s, as he simply strolled onto the stage. He was covered from head to toe in a black robe, with a nondescript mask covering his face. From the lack of any aura around him, even the few common mortals in the audience were able to understand that he was in the Energy Condensation realm.


    They stepped into the middle of the arena, bowing to one another.


    On some occasions, the two sides would say a few brief words to one another, but the Eternal Cold was famous for his silence. By the looks of it, Da Gang was also a man of few words.


    Above the stage, the announcer made her way to a large gong. She picked up a small hammer, gave the two a little more time to stare at one another in silence, then struck it harshly.


    The next second, an illusory glacier condensed in the air and charged into Da Gang, the stone floor of the arena cracking alongside it. This was a simple move for Jiang Sheng, as he lifted a single finger to direct the mass of condensed frost.


    His opponent stood still for a brief moment, perhaps admiring or examining the attack. However, as soon as it crossed into his side of the arena, he raised an arm and met the translucent force with a fist. Before the collision, lightning sparked into being around his glove-covered fist and shot out at the middle of the glacial shelf.


    The icy surface cracked, then the entire spectral surface broke apart with the thunderclap.


    ¡°External force!¡± someone in the audience yelled out.


    This was the same Storm Blade Wreathing Yi Wei had obtained from the Thunder Lord, except now she was able to execute a single-use version of it in an instant, and without any of the old cost to herself, meaning that her robes no longer end up being burned every time. Additionally, it was mixed in with some of the planar essence disturbing elements of the Elysian Palm, which turned the lightning golden and made it extremely suitable for attacking complex planar constructs like the Eternal Cold¡¯s glacier.


    ¡®It is also incredibly convenient that I happened to read up on the ability this Jiang Sheng¡¯s Glacial Push is based on, so I know where the weakness of the structure is. That is one issue techniques in the Planar Pool realm struggle with more than Energy Condensation skills, as every planar construct has a weak point that makes it a thousand times easier to destroy.¡¯


    Strictly speaking, the cultivator also had at least one major weak point, but this was mitigated by the fact that they were able to protect themselves, whereas the planar constructs of the second realm were limited to moving in simple manners and remaining mostly unchanged from start to finish. Some degree of transformation was possible with sufficient attainment or a technique deliberately made to transform the construct after a while, but the moment a construct left the metre around the cultivator within which they were able to control their energy, it was only going to follow a pre-set route.


    With her healed mind, it didn¡¯t take too much effort to calculate the position of the construct¡¯s weakness, and to strike it with the Elysian Storm Burst, which is what she dubbed her modified attack.


    As soon as the glacier broke, she activated another instance of Storm Blade Wreathing, channelling it into her meridians to store it for future use. Since it was not actively being utilised, its limited duration was increased all the way to one hour, though the overall power of the technique would drop with every minute of waiting within her.


    From behind the cold mist, she saw another large piece of ice being conjured, this time with two fingers, so she ran to the side, executing the other technique obtained from the Seventh of Meng ¨C Storm¡¯s Edge Dash.


    Her movement appeared disorganised and confused, her feet dancing back and forth and even to the side, but her speed was undeniable. Despite two individual glaciers soaring at her, she evaded both and returned to her original position in just a few seconds.


    ¡°Jiang Sheng, why don¡¯t you get serious? No-one wants to see you holding back,¡± she said, staring at the vague shape within the cloud of icy mist.


    He stared back for a few seconds, a dull blue glow appearing at his eyes. Just when she and the crowd above assumed that he wouldn¡¯t dignify her with a response, he raised an arm and spread out some of his planar energy into the shape of words.


    ¡®Only if you do the same. I prefer melee over ranger combat.¡¯


    This greatly shocked the inexperienced members of the audience. To discover that their opponent wasn¡¯t using their full strength in just three attacks¡­ how impressive was that?


    Those that were slightly more familiar with the situation knew that things were proceeding as normal. In a fight where one of the opponents has as much experience as the Eternal Cold, it would be strange if he didn¡¯t understand the true depth of his opponent¡¯s might after a few brief exchanges. Yi Wei, disguised as Da Gang, displayed both her offensive and defensive abilities after Jiang Sheng¡¯s few attacks, and he was undoubtedly able to understand how much she was holding back as a result.


    Although it was a little more impressive that a complete beginner, someone who looked to be no older than eighteen, was able to understand the same, it wasn¡¯t completely implausible that Da Gang had visited the Deadly Martial Colosseum before and had a chance to witness his opponent¡¯s full abilities during one of his tenser matches.


    ¡°Sure. It¡¯s the same for me, anyway,¡± Yi Wei responded, preparing to use her Storm Blade Wreathing.


    Together, they charged into the middle of the arena, one surrounding his form in frost, the other in radiant lightning.


    The next few moments were a blur for the audience. In just a few brief seconds, they threw punches at one another, blocked them and retaliated. The floor beneath them cracked and crumbled from the force of their combined strikes, and a few weaker members of the audience felt a swath of cold air wrapping around them. After their exchange, they leapt back, with neither looking hurt to any significant degree. Yi Wei¡¯s robes were covered by spots of light snow, while Jiang Sheng¡¯s outfit was lightly charred.


    The latter raised his arm again, ¡®I was told you prefer the palm. When will you use it?¡¯


    ¡°You want to see my favourite attack? Are you sure you want to end this fight so quickly?¡±


    ¡®¡­ Are you implying you can defeat me?¡¯


    Unlike the last time, the shock spread to all the members of the audience. Anyone could figure out that their opponent was holding back, but to claim that a seventh stage Energy Condensation cultivator could defeat a second stage Planar Pool expert¡­ it had to be madness!


    Clearly, the Eternal Cold was having the same thoughts, and they angered him. He lowered his stance and executed Glacial Push with his entire arm, summoning over a hundred titanic glaciers that surrounded Yi Wei and pressed down on her with their combined pressure, easily matching the force someone in the fifth stage of the second realm could exude.


    ¡®However, since my head cleared out, I seem to be able to slow my perception of time far more than I could before, even when I channelled planar energy into my head,¡¯ she thought idly, waiting for the cold energy to get close enough to her.


    As soon as it was time, she unleashed the full power of the storm and punched up into the air.


    The air flooded with storm clouds, and a strange silence filled the arena.


    ¡®That¡­ that is the storm from before! It¡¯s even more terrifying!¡¯ Yi Yaling felt her limbs weakening as the lightning gathered, gold and violet wrapping around Da Gang¡¯s body. It looked to be alive, writhing around him like a sea of serpents, all waiting to leap onto their prey and devour them whole. She even felt a clear killing intent coming specifically from them, besieging the glacial planar constructs around them before they even got close.


    ¡®This lightning is the most powerful technique I have ever seen¡­¡¯


    She couldn¡¯t understand it at the time, but something within her dantian shifted, and the water energy began to condense into something new.


    One moment, Yi Wei was surrounded by a hundred glaciers. The next, an endless explosion of lighting and thunder filled the arena, hiding her and her opponent from sight. It sparked against the walls of a protective array, but it only held on narrowly.


    Within the storm, half of her clothes were torn and burned, but the key details remained covered up. Since no-one so far seemed attentive enough to scan her entire form with their spiritual will, she wouldn¡¯t be exposed from something like this.


    Jiang Sheng, on the other hand, had seen better days. His body was covered from head to toe in large lacerations that bled a constant stream of cold blood. One of his eyes was shut, and a large cut traced down from his forehead to his lip. The mask on the upper part of his face had broken, and revealed a frozen brow, covered in a thin layer of ice that was miraculously unharmed by Yi Wei¡¯s lightning. The eye that was still unharmed was dull, blue and unblinking.


    ¡°That ice doesn¡¯t look to like the result of an unnatural physique¡­ Have you practised a forbidden skill?¡± Yi Wei spoke calmly.


    Forbidden techniques, skills or arts. They are methods for rapidly increasing one¡¯s ability and potential beyond anything intended by the heavens.


    Supposedly, their great power originates from the ancient beasts and devils that opposed the Master of Yi City in the ancient days to establish his titular city, although such tales have little credence to them, and no attempt to trace back their power has ever succeeded in finding anything of note.


    Regardless of their source, there is also a terrible drawback to every forbidden skill that exists. Almost all of them impose some side effect that relates to their primary effect. If a technique strengthens flame, then the insides of the user¡¯s body will be constantly alight. If it affects one¡¯s voice, it will cause the ears to rot. Some were far less straightforward.


    As long as a practitioner of the forbidden art is able to subdue or hide these consequences, they are guaranteed to rise far above their original station. Even if that someone was a prince or a king, a suitable forbidden art could elevate them all the way to the status of district patriarch. However, cases when one began to practise such a technique but then failed to control it are far more common, forcing these people to hide their symptoms and hope that they can cultivate enough strength to accomplish whatever goal they have before the forbidden skill consumes them.


    ¡®What¡¯s scarier is that my planar energy and the mysterious characters have the exact same effect as an incredibly powerful forbidden skill, without any clear repercussions. In fact, every new thing I discover about it seems to make me all the more powerful¡­¡¯ she considered, sending a stream of energy to heal her burnt limbs, ¡®If this had been a forbidden skill, it could have only come from the Master of Yi City himself¡­¡¯


    She was unable to identify the source of her own ability, but the frost on Jiang Sheng¡¯s face, in addition to his strange level of power, was clearly a direct result of a forbidden art.


    ¡°What¡¯s it to you? Are you not a practitioner like me?¡±


    The Eternal Cold¡¯s voice was deep and gravely, like the sound of someone rummaging through jagged stones and chipping away at stones with their fists. Moreover, it was clearly unnatural, which explained why he didn¡¯t reveal his voice previously.


    No matter how unaware of things one was, they would quickly catch on when something was so clearly off about another person!


    ¡°Why would you assume that? Is it the lightning? That¡¯s just the inheritance of the Thunder Lord,¡± Yi Wei replied, lifting the lower part of her mask, ¡°Look at me! Which part looks like a practitioner of forbidden skills?¡±


    ¡°My ability allows me to sense the yin qi of others. You have far too much of it to be any regular man unfortunate enough to be born with a Yin Physique,¡± Jiang Sheng stated, a bright smile appearing on his otherwise frozen face, ¡°Thus, you must have found a yin-type forbidden skill, and practised it against the wishes of your family, much like I did. I¡¯m not wrong, am I?¡±


    As the storm was beginning to thin, Yi Wei smiled and removed her mask completely, whilst raising her empty hand, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Jiang Sheng. I don¡¯t have any such technique. I¡­ am just a woman.¡±


    A bolt of lightning formed at her fingertip, mixing in with her purple energy, all before the man before her could react. When he did respond, his eyes widened as much as they could, and he raised a finger at her, desperately trying to get some words out of his mouth.


    Before even a single one was voiced, the bolt of electricity struck his injured body, and he collapsed.


    When the lightning storm cleared, it revealed an unexpected scene. Da Gang stood still and upright. The cloth on his arms, legs, and even near his stomach was torn and burnt, revealing an unexpectedly thin frame accented by a notable quantity of muscle. His mask was still in place, though it was not unscathed. However, it was hard to tell what he typically looked like, as every exposed spot was covered in a burn of some kind.


    To the surprise of the audience members who saw him first, his opponent, the Eternal Cold, Jiang Sheng, fared far worse. He lay on the ground, unmoving.


    The frost that accumulated on his face did not go unnoticed, either.


    ¡°Eh¡­ Da Gang is victorious, ladies and gentlemen!¡± the announcer eventually concluded, arousing a brief round of applause.


    A group of Deadly Martial Colosseum servants rushed out onto the arena, examining the wounds of both combatants, before making an announcement, ¡°Jiang Sheng has been using a forbidden skill! He is disqualified from the Colosseum!¡±


    They dragged him away and gave Da Gang a healing pill to assist with his injuries. The latter turned on the spot, slowly and clearly with great effort, and began to leave, when a pulse of energy burst from the private viewing rooms at the top of the spectator stands.


    ¡®A breakthrough? Someone broke through as a result of this?¡¯ Yi Wei questioned, using most of her effort to keep her eyes open.


    The lightning storm she generated this time was an even stronger combination of Elysian Palm and Storm Blade Wreathing than before, and thus it was a little more costly in term of planar energy usage. In combination with the various attacks she used prior and after it, her dantian was completely empty, with only the structure of her stage remaining.


    Due to that, she was unable to process the medicinal pill that was passed to her, and really couldn¡¯t spare the strength to investigate the person that had the breakthrough. Besides, it wasn¡¯t any of her business.


    As soon as she exited the arena, she found herself within the dark void of an illusory world.


    ¡°You¡¯ve improved, and caught someone who practises a forbidden skill,¡± Great Dark said slowly, ¡°Well done-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I need to lie down and rest. Could we do this later?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. We shall wait for you tomorrow, then, Da Gang.¡±


    The illusion freed her, so she got her bearings and struggled home, into the comfort of the uncomfortable bed.


    At some point between entering the shack and dropping into bed, she found that she had removed her disguise and tossed it away into an inconspicuous place, and even managed to dress herself in her regular clothes.


    ¡®Now, all I need is a little bit of rest¡­¡¯

 V1C15: The Half-Step Peak

    As always, the heavens were not kind enough to grant her a lengthy reprieve from life. Just minutes after she lay down, before enough energy accumulated within her dantian in order to allow her to call upon more of it through cultivation and circulation, she heard a familiar voice calling for her again.


    ¡°Yi Wei. Yi Wei! How long are you going to sit in there again?¡±


    Her brief rest, alongside Aunt Zehao¡¯s words gave her energy to reply, ¡°Esteemed Aunt, I am unable to come out. I have been injured.¡±


    She heard the aged woman scoffing before she reluctantly made her way inside, mumbling under her breath after each step, perhaps complaining about the fact she was forced to walk on dirt and dust. When she made it into the shack, her demeanour changed in an instant.


    ¡°What in the heavens have you done this time? Have you developed a hobby of burning yourself?¡± Yi Zehao asked with a mixture of worry and confusion in her voice, ¡°You imbecile!¡±


    ¡®I won¡¯t argue that the execution of Storm Blade Wreathing that I have developed is rather dangerous to myself, but that particular description is slightly disrespectful to the degree of changes I was able to make to it,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, but she instead said, ¡°I had the misfortune of running into a fight on the streets. One of the Planar Pool cultivator¡¯s attacks missed and went straight at me. I have only just reached the second stage, so I couldn¡¯t evade it in time.¡±


    She was not concerned about her figuring out the truth regarding her cultivation realm, as she stretched the little cloud of planar energy that had accumulated in her dantian to cover the entire area.


    ¡°Hm, I can see that,¡± her aunt replied after sending her spiritual will to inspect her dantian, ¡°I came here to tell you that you should be attending the Yi family tutor Yi Ming¡¯s lecture today, among others, on the fifteenth of the month, since you have now advanced to the second stage. Personally, I think you¡¯re unsuited for cultivation, but I can¡¯t have you slacking off!¡±


    ¡®My dear aunt, I sincerely hope you get into a difficult fight soon for you to correct that annoying character. If you hate me, just kick me out and let me progress on my own. If you don¡¯t, then stop making it so difficult for me to believe it,¡¯ she complained, her expression obscured by the pillow.


    ¡°You have two hours. Will you get up by then?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I¡¯ll be out in half the time.¡±


    Her aunt did not question this, only nodded and exited the hut with an amount of glee unbecoming of an older woman.


    When she was far enough away, Yi Wei uncompressed her energy and began her cultivation. Having rested for a week, her planar energy was stable and her dantian was more than ready for advancement. It was noteworthy to add, however, that in combination with her perfected stages, she would reach the effective equivalent of the ninth stage. If it was as similar to the real thing as the people she had met so far seemed to believe, then it might also be the final step before her planar energy condenses into liquid.


    If that is the case, it would be a little more difficult to hide her stage, and much easier to execute any of her external force techniques without constant injuries to herself.


    Half a minute later, her body was refilled with planar energy, and by the end of the minute, it was overflowing. Before she reached the point of a breakthrough, Yi Wei got out a talisman paper and bit down on her thumb, drawing a small quantity of blood. In one smooth motion, she drew a one-star Energy Suppression talisman and threw it down on the floor.


    It activated just as her energy began breaking through. Despite the ripples her energy caused being far above the level of a single star talisman, her purple planar energy also elevated the latter to a greater level, creating a form of equilibrium.


    Her planar aperture shook once, twice, and settled down. The mist grew thicker both times, until it was almost completely opaque, akin to truly looking out into the night sky. Curiously enough, the characters within were still easily observable to Yi Wei¡¯s spiritual will, so she had no difficulty reading the new segment of the technique.


    ¡®Now that it looks like this, I suppose I have no choice but to call it: cosmic planar energy,¡¯ she thought, trying to discern any familiar constellations within it with no immediate success, ¡®Had I advanced just one more step, my planar energy would have become liquid. If this isn¡¯t some mistake on my part, then it suggests that the liquid state of energy is not unique to the Planar Pool realm.


    ¡®If so, what could be the true purpose of it? Are there secrets to a simple realm that have remained unseen even by the Master of Yi City, or were they hidden by him or someone that came after him?¡¯


    No matter how curious she was, she wouldn¡¯t be able to arrive at any reasonable conclusions without any additional information, so she took the pill given to her at the Colosseum and consumed it quickly using the effects of the cosmic energy. After a single circulation, she exited her home.


    Her aunt failed to notice any changes, as Yi Wei had not had the opportunity to wash herself, and somehow managed to forget about the fact that the latter shouldn¡¯t have been able to walk after just five minutes of rest. Instead, she quickly looked away from her and spoke, ¡°Finally. Because you might actually become of use to me in more difficult errands, I will reward you with a trip to the bathhouse. Be grateful, you useless wretch.¡±


    ¡®I think this is what some call ¡®seeking death¡¯. I obviously have no intentions of harming my family, but I¡¯m sure that enough of this repetitive verbal abuse will eventually force me down the other path,¡¯ she complained in her mind, though she kept a calm expression on the outside, ¡°Thank you very much, aunt.¡±


    She was led to a lavish bathhouse in the inner part of the Yi District, which was frequented by those in the third realm. Her aunt, who was only in the lower stages of the Planar Pool realm, was even looked down upon until she managed to produce two gold coins to pay for herself and Yi Wei.


    This would have been a pleasurable experience, and a first for her, but it was marred by the memories of the Seventh of Meng which were still floating around her head. Although she believed she had no interest in the women around her, those particular memories still made her feel like she wasn¡¯t supposed to be here, and that she was looking at the female form differently from before.


    ¡®I shouldn¡¯t let those annoying images affect me like this. Otherwise, it will be like moving from one Mental Distortion Array to another,¡¯ Yi Wei reprimanded herself.


    When she was finished, she entered the changing rooms and dressed, putting the metal bracelets back on. The satin choker was rather inconspicuous, and seemingly impossible to remove without resorting to destroying it via her cosmic energy, so she had little choice but to let it rest on her neck.


    The obvious upside presented itself both in the form of her muscles, which were slowly developing as a result of the last two weeks, as well as her ever-growing strength. Even though it was somewhat unladylike to rely on physical power, have a distinct layer of muscle and go around wearing messy rags (not that she could be faulted for the latter, as she had only started earning funds two weeks ago), all of that meant little for her as long as it grant her strength (though, once again, the ragged clothing wasn¡¯t an intentional selection on her part).


    Her Aunt Zehao exited some time later, having reapplied her makeup and dressed herself appropriately. She scoffed again, ¡°Even though you¡¯ve cleaned yourself, you still look like trash. Let¡¯s go.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± was all that Yi Wei could say without letting the frustration seep into her voice.


    The lecture hall was half-full of cultivators between the second and ninth stage of Energy Condensation. From a cursory glance, it appeared that there were slightly more men than women, and every single one of them had either red hair, or grey eyes, or both.


    ¡°Come on now, sit down. I¡¯ll be going, since I¡¯ve wasted enough time with you,¡± Yi Zehao muttered, letting her find her own seat in the hall.


    She found an unremarkable location in the middle rows and sat down, sitting back and resting while she waited for the hour to pass. In her mind, she went through every technique she had, and considered the possible improvements or modifications she could make to them with the bits and pieces of other skills.


    In the end, she became so focused on that particular pursuit that she nearly missed the entrance of the main speaker at the lecture ¨C a man so old that he used a cane to support himself while walking, with a beard that reached down to his knees. From afar, it was difficult to determine his cultivation, but he certainly looked older than a ninety-year-old mortal would, suggesting that his true age, if he was capable enough to lecture the Yi family¡¯s young, must have been far higher.


    With cultivation, even without the usage of any special techniques, the lifespan of a cultivator increases proportionately to their realm. If a normal person could live until their eighties, someone in the Energy Condensation realm could reasonably be expected to pass on only after a hundred years. In the Planar Pool realm, that would increase to one hundred and fifty, then three hundred in the Emergent Anchor realm, and so on. In theory, had the Master of Yi City remained in this world, he could still be alive.


    ¡®Pay attention, Yi Wei. You can ponder things like this later,¡¯ she shook her head to wake herself, and began to listen carefully.


    ¡°Ahem¡­ ahem¡­¡± the old man coughed numerous times before his throat was clear, nearly falling over twice, ¡°I am¡­ Yi Laoshi. You youngsters, who have entered the world of cultivation¡­ must understand¡­ each stage and realm¡­ or else be-¡±


    He broke into a coughing fit again, eventually spitting out some dark blood, ¡°Let me take a pill quickly, then I will¡­ continue¡­¡±


    The elderly man reached into the folds of his robes and removed a thin round pill, which he placed in his mouth. He shut it and allowed the pill to melt in his mouth. A minute later, he breathed out and straightened his back.


    ¡°Now, where was I? Ah, yes, realms and stages,¡± Yi Laoshi¡¯s voice now sounded like it was overflowing energy, in stark contrast to his previous tone, ¡°The first realm is key. Energy Condensation is the process of absorbing sufficient energy to then compress it within the planar aperture, repeating the procedure nine times to go through the nine stages. If one accumulates enough energy, this will happen on its own, though it is best to manage your energy personally to ensure the method of breaking through is not harmful to you or your development in some way.


    ¡°As has been recently discovered, understanding your planar energy element is also beneficial to cultivation, as is having an image of your target within your head while practising. Supposedly, this doesn¡¯t just involve learning about your chosen element, but also about those that oppose and create them, as well as the ones they destroy and generate. For instance, if you were a metal cultivator, you would learn about wood, fire, earth and water ¨C in other words, all other elements can assist you.¡±


    ¡®Huh. They actually didn¡¯t know about this. Good to know,¡¯ Yi Wei noted, as she had assumed that someone among the family would have stumbled upon the possibility long ago, though there was also another possibility, ¡®Initially, they might have kept this part to those that were high enough in the seniority ladder, but the spreading rumours forced them to address it. That is also possible.¡¯


    ¡°When you are breaking through to the second realm, the Planar Pool realm, it is absolutely necessary to let your cultivation stabilise in a brimming state first, or else you may fail and injure yourself greatly. If you are not confident about any part of the process, or even if you are, speak to an expert of the family and let us arrange a suitable environment for you!¡± the man almost seemed to plead, ¡°Having the correct location and preparation is crucial for success, and may require talismans, arrays and pills of the Energy Gathering type to be prepared for you. I¡¯m sure most of you should be able to afford it with your regular income.¡±


    Most of the people in the audience nodded, though a few, dressed much like Yi Wei, shook their heads in discontent.


    ¡°Once you break through to Planar Pool, a few important changes will take place within your dantian and your body. Your focus should naturally move from strengthening your physical form to refining your control over energy, as you no longer have to utilise your body in combat.¡±


    ¡®I disagree with that. If the Eternal Cold was a little tougher physically, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to incapacitate him. I wonder, how did they handle his case?¡¯


    ¡°Additionally, you will find that you are able to project your spiritual will outside of your body. By the peak of the ninth stage, the range will typically go up to one metre, though some have had less luck, and others had more. I cannot confirm this, but the Master of Yi City supposedly had the ability to extend his spiritual will to a whole ten metres when he was about to break through into the Emergent Anchor realm¡­¡±


    He veered off track for a while before he returned to the relevant topic some ten minutes later, ¡°More significant is the third realm. After reaching it, you will attain the ability to temporarily solidify energy, vastly increasing the power of your planar constructs, and also keep control over energy you released from your body for prolonged periods of time. Additionally, you may summon the planar anchor generated in this realm to double your power. Be wary, however, that if your opponent is capable of attacking spectral beings, they may be able to damage your anchor. If it is destroyed, then the least you will have to do is restart cultivation from the second realm.


    ¡°When your planar anchor forms, it will have three sides, with the prime point angled towards one of five directions, depending on the element you practise. If you wish to switch techniques to a different element, you will have to shatter your planar anchor and reconstruct it to face the correct direction based on the instructions provided by your technique¡­¡±


    ¡®That¡­ How will that work for me? I won¡¯t have to rebuild my planar anchor every time I wish to switch elements, will I?¡¯ she thought at first, though her distress vanished quickly, ¡®No, that is unlikely. Considering the fact that I can already switch my planar energy at will, the anchor might end up pointing in all five directions at the same time, or it may be able to rotate whenever I switch elements, though that it less likely considering the existence of double techniques like the Thunder Lord¡¯s lightning.¡¯


    ¡°The range of spiritual will projection will also increase by an average of two metres. It will be difficult to perceive for regular mortals and could slip past the detection of absentminded Energy Condensation cultivators. That reminds me of the time I¡­¡±


    Yi Laoshi got distracted again, letting Yi Wei focus on her own thoughts for a while.


    ¡®Still, none of this relates to the matter of the key feature for the second realm. The first allows the usage of planar energy, and the third creates an anchor to enhance the control over such energy, but the second realm has only the ability to project energy outside of the body in the form of planar constructs. As proven by my Elysian and Storm techniques, this is not unique to the second realm¡­¡¯ she pondered, briefly glancing at the old man at the front only to find him speaking about some adventure in his youth, ¡®Then, is the purpose of the second realm to process planar energy into a certain state that can then allow for further progress? That seems a little too simple¡­¡¯


    ¡°The fourth stage is called Active Core. During the breakthrough process, you will have to apply the anchor¡¯s power to create a large spherical shield surrounding the dantian, as to shield it from physical attacks, and to allow the power within to be condensed further. Thanks to the shield, you will be able to stabilise your planar energy in the outside world, using it to create formation arrays in thin air, and your spiritual will¡¯s range will increase by three metres. At this level, you should be able to use it to read through written text as long as you apply intense mental concentration.


    ¡°At this level, you should be able to survive any attempt on your life by those of the second realm and below, as they will lack the ability to break through the shield and shatter your planar aperture. However, if they are able to incapacitate you and continuously attack you for an hour, your body will not be able to hold up. As such, don¡¯t think of yourself as being invincible.¡±


    ¡®Once again, this would be solved with a stronger body. At my current level, with the combination of the Condensed Formation Body and the enhancement of cosmic energy, I should be able to resist a common weapon.¡¯


    ¡°This is the realm I am on, so I am afraid I cannot say much regarding the next realm, Marked Core. Unlike the other realms, the fifth is completed over the nine stages that it has, and not during the breakthrough. Based on the purity of your energy and the quality of your technique, you will be able to call forth up to ninety-nine searing marks upon the dantian shield. Each one has an active effect ¨C when activated, the mark will burst and grant you up to five times your mortal strength. To make it even better, this can be done multiple times, bringing your prowess far beyond your typical ability. Alternatively, you can detonate one mark every few seconds, to last longer and to keep some for emergencies.


    ¡°Now, let me discuss another topic¡­¡±


    By the time the lecture ended, Yi Wei was rather exhausted mentally and emotionally. The more the man spoke, the more he got derailed and ended up speaking about more and more insignificant topics. She had to pay attention to each word just in case, however, and ended up suffering through three hours of stories and anecdotes about such trivial matters as the food he liked to eat before he was able to fully substitute his diet with planar energy, as one could in the fourth realm.


    The only thing she could possibly claim to have gained from such nonsense was a greater resistance to mental attacks that were primarily based on nonsensical chanting and jabbering. She wasn¡¯t even sure if they existed, but they wouldn¡¯t possibly be as effective against someone who had already enduring this for several hours.


    After she managed to exit the lecture hall, she headed straight for the Deadly Martial Colosseum, changing her outfit midway there. Like the last time she visited, Great Dark and Great Light sat by a low table, though this time they were drinking tea from simple ceramic cups.


    ¡°I see you have returned, and¡­ healed yourself already. Damn,¡± Great Light complained, tossing a pouch of coins at her, ¡°The Eternal Cold has been removed from our establishment, and we¡¯ve been able to confiscate a few things from him. Had the yin condensed stone survived your encounter, I would have allowed you to keep it, but you just had to break down the bounds of reason, so you will not be getting it.¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting to. How did he take the loss?¡±


    ¡°Poorly. He kept grumbling under his breath ¨C even more than I usually do,¡± Great Light grumbled under his breath, ¡°However, since you defeated him once, you should have no particular difficulty doing so again now that you have advanced in stage once again.¡±


    ¡°I doubt he will hold on for much longer. His technique, whatever it is, was rather close to fully corrupting his head,¡± Yi Wei mentioned, quickly opening the coin pouch and checking the number of silver coins within, ¡°At that point, the district guard would take over, and I wouldn¡¯t be in much danger.¡±


    ¡°It is good that you are aware of these things, but you should know that there are two common outcomes for the total corruption of an individual: death, and the loss of one¡¯s mind. The former would be more convenient for you, but I fear this technique in particular is more likely to cause the latter,¡± Great Dark warned, pausing for a while before speaking up again, ¡°At that point, it is possible for the cultivator¡¯s prowess to rise sharply, and for them to comprehend a series of mysterious techniques relating to their particular forbidden art. As Jiang Sheng is currently on the second stage, he will not rise to the Emergent Anchor realm in one go, but he could go as high as the ninth stage. Since you seemed to use your full strength in this fight, I would advise acquiring a few consumable items to assist you in the event that he comes after you.¡±


    ¡°Great Dark¡­ are you alright?¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the first time you¡¯ve spoken for such a long time without pausing,¡± she said in a serious voice, ¡°Do I need to get help?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    She glanced at Great Light, but he was of no help. In fact, he appeared to be struggling to contain his laughter. His brother glared at him sternly before turning back to Yi Wei, ¡°No need for that. Do you need help acquiring the items I mentioned?¡±


    ¡°Not really. When can I next participate in a match?¡±


    ¡°Any time you like. Ask my brother for details.¡±


    ¡°No, not today. I need to get going, and purchase a few things with my recent earnings,¡± she decided, stowing the pouch away, ¡°Oh, but I¡¯m not interested in any fights on the Energy Condensation level.¡±


    ¡°Noted,¡± Great Light managed to reply through clenched teeth, throwing a small slip of paper to her that he had scribbled on hastily.


    As soon as Yi Wei exited the illusory world, he broke out into laughter, not stopping even when Great Dark struck him with several planar constructs. He kept going even as a strange force slowly froze his hair and clothes, finishing only once almost all of his body turned to ice. That very moment, he changed back as if nothing had happened, and turned to face his brother.


    ¡°That Eternal Cold fellow¡­ he kept muttering ¡°woman, woman¡± over and over again, right? Any idea why?¡±


    ¡°Neither of us thought to properly scan that Da Gang with our spiritual will, have we?¡± Great Dark replied with a question of his own, ¡°Based on what I have understood from the Ice Demon¡¯s Will, the changes it brings to the body allow the user to notice the yin qi of others. It is possible he noticed an abnormal quantity of it in our latest recruit and felt offended that he was defeated by a woman of a lower level than himself.¡±


    ¡°Possibly¡­ As much as I want that guy¡­ or girl¡­ to suffer, since we¡¯ve decided not to poke into his history, we shouldn¡¯t research her- damn it!¡± he was going to curse further when a look of enlightenment surfaced on his face, ¡°Is this what others have to deal with when they see us?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Great Dark was stunned, ¡°Are you sure everything was split fifty-fifty?¡±


    Having purchased a comfortable set of plain shirts, trousers and a dress, just in case she needed it in the future, for twelve silver pieces, Yi Wei turned her attention to the slip of paper she received from Great Light. On it were a few simple words.


    ¡®To adjust weight of training set, trace multiplier on collar.¡¯


    ¡®Oi, you could have written a proper sentence,¡¯ she complained, though the information was entirely positive.


    With the recent advancement to the fifth stage, as well as the general adjustment of her body to the constant increased pressure from the bracers and choker, the current mass was beginning to reduce in usefulness. The fact that it could even be adjusted wasn¡¯t much of a surprise considering the fact that it came from two Marked Core cultivators, especially since the satin choker was somehow capable of housing the Thunder Lord¡¯s shadow without much obvious difficulty.


    Her finger traced a one on the soft texture of the collar. As soon as it drew away from her neck, the weight on her entire body decreased tremendously, and she felt as if she could fly off into the sky with a single passing gust of wind.


    ¡®This must be the setting at which the bracers don¡¯t increase their weight to ludicrous levels,¡¯ she understood, tracing the number four on her neck, ¡®This should be the standard pressure.¡¯


    The weight pulling on all her limbs rapidly grew until it reached the level she had grown used to.


    ¡®I don¡¯t know what the maximum is, but for now, a five or a six will be enough.¡¯


    She adjusted the weight and performed a few stretches and basic exercises to adjust to the additional pressure. Although the streets were busy in that part of the district, no-one spared her a second glance, and some didn¡¯t even bother with the first. All she did was stretch. Now, if she had begun practising an esoteric technique that required her to perform a strange dance, it would have been worth inspecting for a second or two.


    The sun was beginning to descend by the time she arrived at the home of her talisman teacher, Luo Xiuying. She could distinctly smell the new paint, wood and furniture, implying that his home had been rebuilt yet again since the last time she visited.


    As soon as his spiritual will brushed past her, he nearly tripped on the spot.


    ¡°What in the heavens, woman? It¡¯s only been a day or two, and you¡¯re already in the ninth stage? Are you some sort of heart demon that¡¯s come to torment me?¡± he yelled, scaring away a potential customer.


    ¡°Old man, is that any way to congratulate your disciple?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not my disciple. Not yet, anyway. I was planning to give you the pill I mentioned a while ago, but I¡¯m thinking that there¡¯s no use to it.¡±


    ¡°Pill?¡± Yi Wei briefly paused to recall all of their previous conversations, ¡°You mean the one that would awaken whatever physique I happened to be born with?¡±


    ¡°If you have one, then yes,¡± he answered, pulling out a small bottle from his sleeve, ¡°However, it also helps with developing an artificial physique. Are you familiar with those, you scoundrel?¡±


    ¡®Artificial physique?¡¯ her mind wandered into the depths of her memories, where all of the terms and phrases she hadn¡¯t expected to need were stored. Indeed, this particular term was amongst them, and described a physique that was formed not by some whim of the heavens, but by the cultivator himself, concentrating all of their understanding of martial arts, energy manipulation and whatever else they are able to do into their physical form into their bodies, changing their very structure into an imitation of a typical physique.


    By the description alone, one might assume them to be weaker than heaven-granted techniques, but there was no reason that an imitation couldn¡¯t surpass the original. All Yin Physiques or Absolute Yin Physiques, for example, would be identical to one another, granting the exact same advantages and disadvantages ¨C but artificial physiques had no such limitation. If one was sufficiently talented or lucky, they could vastly overpower the regular physique, creating a basic Artificial Yin Physique that was much stronger than a Greater Yin or even Absolute Yin Physique, possibly with fewer limitations and weaknesses.


    Then again, this topic lacked sufficient study according to the texts she had read. It was entirely possible that much about it was misunderstood, as most cultivators couldn¡¯t be bothered with improving their body.


    ¡®Since I am unlikely to possess a common physique of any sort, as it would have awakened under the influence of my cosmic energy, the only option I have is to create an artificial physique. As far as I¡¯m aware, they are best created as early as possible, as to bring the greatest benefit in later training, but I can still learn a little more before making an attempt,¡¯ she concluded, then realised that she still hadn¡¯t answered the first question, ¡°Yes, I am, but I do not think I am in the best position to take it at this particular moment.¡±


    ¡°Then, are you able to hold on to it yourself, or do you want me to hold on to it for you?¡±


    She considered both option for a few seconds, ¡°I¡¯ll take it, and store it elsewhere for now. Thank you, old man Luo.¡±


    ¡°Bah. Since you¡¯ve advanced so quickly, take a look at my talisman crafting process. Maybe, by some coincidence, you¡¯ll also figure out where I¡¯m going wrong,¡± he said, fetching a brush, some form of ink and talisman paper. Before Yi Wei had a chance to escape as far away as possible, he pointed to a corner of the shop, ¡°Stand there. I¡¯ve paid a formation array expert to set up a protective four-star array there, so you will be safe from either explosion.¡±


    Although she still wanted to escape, Yi Wei dragged herself into the corner and examined the array, just in case she was able to spot any obvious flaws that would give her the excuse to leave. Both fortunately and unfortunately for her, the nodes were all where they should be, without any flaws a novice like her could spot.


    Luo Xiuying nodded, and began to draw on the paper. To be able to run away as soon as things went south, Yi Wei channelled her cosmic energy into her eyes, patiently observing the entire process. The technique he used was clearly different from the one he taught her, but she noticed several similarities.


    By the looks of it, the Sealed Talisman Arts were connected to his technique, perhaps as a precursor or as a simplification.


    ¡®I need to steal as much as I can from it, but not get so distracted that I won¡¯t be able to raise my defences when he inevitably fails,¡¯ she thought, trying to memorise every single movement he made to understand the reason behind it¡¯s superiority to her current technique.


    The first letter was complete, but then the problems began. For a brief period of time, the brush left the paper, and the flow of energy also halted. The very next second, the character ignited, and a curtain of flame burst out, covering the entire building in fire that rapidly consumed the walls. It ate at the invisible shield generated by the protection array, causing the energy in the nodes to flicker numerous times before the energy finally settled.


    ¡°FUCK!¡± Lou Xiuying yelled, tossing the talisman away.


    Whether intentionally or not, the paper went straight for her, arcing perfectly to land on her face, if not for the array¡¯s protection.


    She leapt out of the corner seconds prior to the talisman¡¯s activation, which tore right through the array and it¡¯s shielding, stopping only a moment prior to obliterating what little remained of the talisman maker¡¯s home.


    ¡°This stupid talisman thing¡­ I should have just learnt formation arrangement when I had the choice, then I could have made sure that single node was correct before I attempted to activate the array¡­¡± he said, slapping a talisman onto himself that burned away and cleaned him of the ash, ¡°I don¡¯t understand¡­ Girl, did you understand anything?¡±


    ¡°Nothing except for the obvious, I¡¯m afraid,¡± Yi Wei replied, reaching into her pocket for a protective talisman as a precaution.


    ¡°Tell me that, just in case.¡±


    ¡°Well, while you were creating the first symbol, everything was fine. However, as soon as you lifted your brush from the paper, the flow of planar energy was disrupted, and the process naturally failed,¡± she said casually, not expecting any of her words to be of any use.


    However, with just that little bit of information, the talisman maker¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°Yes! That¡¯s it! How did I- ah, but how can I fix this, then? I can¡¯t draw them in a single go¡­¡±


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t you slow down the flow of energy? As long as the process is paced correctly, you should be able to put your brush back on the paper before it explodes,¡± Yi Wei proposed, but was forced to instantly retreat, ¡°Don¡¯t try to blow me up again!¡±

 V1C16: All-Rounder of the Arts

    In the end, both were successful. Yi Wei was able escape from the explosion radius, and Luo Xiuying finally broke through into a four-star talisman maker after many years of struggle.


    Just in case the man decided to explode something again in celebration, she got out of his sight and spiritual will detection range as quickly as she was able to, using the power of metal-type energy to forcefully increase the power of her Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, switching to wood-type to maintain it.


    She could only stop once she was certain that the explosive talisman manufacturer wasn¡¯t chasing her, and she did so in front of a large fenced-off field. It was made from a strange sort of wood that actively pulsed with life, small vines growing and writhing on the wall of wooden stakes seemingly cut straight from small wooden trees.


    Before she was able to make any particular decision, Yi Wei felt the sensation of spiritual will sweeping past her. A small passageway opened up within fence, and a voice seemed to sound within her head.


    ¡°Child who hath such pure wood energy, enter into my domain if thee would be properly taught within this land of ignorance,¡± the voice sounded like it belonged to a young woman, although it had an ethereal quality to it, as if it belonged to a divine being rather than a simple cultivator, ¡°Even if thou hath no interest in my teachings, my domain shalt be a sanctuary for thee and the rest of this world¡¯s righteous practitioners of the natural arts.¡±


    Her voice calmed her instantly, soothing any panic she had over Luo Xiuying¡¯s explosive tendencies.


    ¡®If that had been a mental attack, it would have been incredibly powerful¡­ and yet, it was simply her voice. To speak in my head like that, she can¡¯t be any weaker than the fourth realm,¡¯ Yi Wei understood, breathing slowly several times to regain her senses, ¡®It can¡¯t hurt to have a look. Though, the way my heart is beating¡­ must be the influence of the damn Thunder Lord again¡­¡¯


    She stepped into the open maw of the wooden fence. It closed behind her, leaving her with no path other than forward, through a grove of trees and flowers that formed a small tunnel, just large enough for her to traverse comfortably.


    A pleasant smell entered her nose, a mixture of the fragrant flowers and fresh leaves falling into her short hair.


    The narrow tunnel opened up after a few minutes of walking, revealing a small clearing that was only a few metres from one edge to another. On the far side stood the most beautiful woman Yi Wei had ever seen, with a balanced body and curvaceous figure, large, motherly breasts and wide hips hidden only by two strips of thin green cloth wrapped around her chest and waist. Brown hair grew down to her thighs, wreathed in green leaves and flowers.


    This sight caused her to freeze in place both in mind and body, unable to do anything but take in the sight. For once, her normal self and the part of her mind affected by the Seventh of Meng¡¯s memories agreed that the person before them was, without a shadow of a doubt, a masterpiece of physical form.


    ¡°Do not worry about staring,¡± the woman¡¯s lips moved softly, ¡°I hath intentionally moulded my shape to represent the peak of yin, so it would be foolish of me to object to observation.¡±


    Her voice broke Yi Wei¡¯s trance, although she was still unable to take her eyes off the woman, only move between her eyes, chest, hips and legs. She felt blood rushing to her cheeks, which she was unable to suppress even with her control over the body. ¡°That¡¯s not something I usually do, regardless of the woman I¡¯m in front of. You called me in because of my energy?¡±


    ¡°That is correct. Thou hath great mastery of wood energy, and I saw thee appear with great haste due to some great technique. Despite thee being a child of the Yi, thou art not a fool by most appearances. I, Chu Ling, would take thee into my apprenticeship to ensure thine talents are not misused,¡± the woman said, every idle movement of her hands causing the forest around her to shift and rustle.


    It was her last sentence that finally shook Yi Wei¡¯s mind, ¡®Right, that. I was missing a teacher for pill refining and wood cultivation. Thank you, future Master Chu, for saying that, or else I¡¯d never be able to look away.¡¯


    ¡°What sort of things would I learn from you?¡± she asked, shifting her gaze to a branch near the woman¡¯s head.


    ¡°Child, I would teach thee my Dao, the way of nature and the world. I would also grant thee my knowledge of herbs and plants, and how to refine them,¡± Chu Ling raised her hands, causing a number of herbs to pluck themselves from the ground and fly into the space above them, ¡°In other terms, I would train thee in the great art of pill refining.¡±


    ¡®Since I have already decided to get all five, I have no reason to refuse¡­¡¯ Yi Wei decided, so she bowed before the woman, ¡°Then I¡¯ll accept your offer, Master Chu Ling.¡±


    ¡°Thou doth not need to be so formal, child of Yi. What is thine name?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Yi Wei, a ser-¡±


    ¡°I hath no need for thine status. Here, thou art akin to the trees, equal in thine station and standing. Just as I teach the grove what I know, I shall teach thee as well,¡± the verdant woman interrupted her, letting the various grasses and herbs that she brought out of the ground return to their original places, ¡°However, I would inquire in regards to thine technique that hath achieved such purity. How have thee done this?¡±


    ¡°Um¡­¡± Yi Wei considered the best words to use, ¡°I have been practising metal techniques for a few years, but I found that I was not particularly successful, so I switched to wood-type skills out of desperation. To my pleasant surprise, I progressed quickly after I began to apply my comprehension of metal¡¯s opposition to wood, and breakthroughs have been coming one after another.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ is a valid method of progression, child. In fact, it hath even been mentioned within my technique,¡± she got out a thin, aged manual that opened in mid-air. It turned to face Yi Wei and flipped to a certain page, which described the importance of study.


    It was only in the air for a few seconds, but it was enough for her to read every word.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that¡­ Miss Chu Ling, isn¡¯t that a forbidden art?¡± she couldn¡¯t help but ask, having recognised a few sentences.


    ¡°Oh? Thine knowledge doth surprise me, child,¡± her reply was simple, and her expression remained unchanged, ¡°Indeed, thine master practises the Codex of Nature, but I assume that thou doth not desire the fate that such a skill would grant thee, so I shalt not teach thee this skill, but only the section of cultivation within it.¡±


    ¡®So that¡¯s how things are. No wonder she looks so¡­ unique? Like she is one with nature? Seriously, this person is really harmful to my mind. If I stay here too long, I¡¯ll inevitably do something stupid,¡¯ Yi Wei nodded to show her understanding of the matter, ¡®I guess this is what some boys experience¡­¡¯


    ¡°I shalt prepare an area for thee to learn, so you may relax here for now. If any of thine family approach, I shalt tell them that thou art under my guard while thou art within the Timeless Grove.¡±


    Chu Ling did not give her the opportunity to speak, stepping back into the woods and vanishing into the shadows of the trees. It was as if she turned into wood herself and simply flowed into the trunks of the green giants around her.


    As the source of distraction had finally left, Yi Wei let out a very audible sigh of relief and sat down on the grass. A soft wind blew through the grove, causing the blades of grass to brush against her legs. Chirping of various birds occasionally broke the calm silence of the secluded area, but it only added to the soothing atmosphere. After half a month of hurrying to progress, such a moment of relaxation was far more helpful than she ever expected it to be.


    An uncertain period of time later, the forest ahead of her opened up, trunks twisting and roots shifting away to clear a narrow pathway into a secondary clearing, full of various items and implements that must have been of some use in pill refining or wood cultivation.


    ¡°Come hither, child. I shall teach thee what thine eager mind wishes to learn,¡± the voice spoke within her head, the branches along the path waving in an inviting manner.


    ¡®Are all of those made of wood? Did she make all of these just in this minute? If they¡¯re good enough to create one-star pills, then that is a very impressive ability,¡¯ she thought. Although most cauldrons, anvils and formation plates required for making one-star items could be made from random pieces of metal and be hammered into the right shape by sheer accident, to create such things from wood in a few minutes was still impressive for someone who did not seem to specialise in blacksmithing.


    She stood up and passed through the opening. The trees did not close behind her, though she could feel their desire to do so, and the way it was suppressed by Chu Ling¡¯s idle thought. Every living thing surrounding her was full of energy that was in no way inferior to the sort used by a fourth realm cultivator, including even the smallest blades of grass.


    ¡®These all look like ordinary plants, so¡­ has she somehow shared her cultivation with them? It is probably a part of the Codex of Nature,¡¯ Yi Wei guessed, as she did not see a mention of this in the pages she was allowed to read.


    ¡°Child of Yi, since thou art skilled at cultivation, perhaps more so than I, the first thing we shalt focus on shalt be the art of refining. Have thou experienced this before?¡±


    ¡°I have seen the process of pill refining, and have learned a few simple recipes, though I can only fetch their ingredients, not process them,¡± she admitted, as the woman could easily learn about that sort of history if she just inquired with Yi Zehao or any other senior member of the Yi family. There was nothing strange about a servant knowing these things, either.


    ¡°Even that experience shalt greatly benefit thine progress in the future. Let me impart unto thee the Cherry Revolving Blossom Art, a method specifically designed for the refining of pills at a high quality. It is almost three times superior to the common ways of thine family, so it shall benefit thee greatly. As thou ought to be aware, speak not of this art to others, lest thine fortune catches the ears of unsavoury individuals,¡± Chu Ling warned, clicking her fingers.


    A young cherry tree suddenly blossomed from the ground, rapidly growing from seedling to a ten-year-old tree, pink leaves sprouting from the branches. One branch in particular, thicker and sturdier than the rest, began to sag as a rectangular object grew from its end.


    It was a manual with the insignia of a cherry blossom on the front and back, which slowly rotated in place despite being drawn on the leather cover.


    ¡°Do not attempt to remove this manual from the grove, for it is bound to it. Once thine mind is full of its knowledge, place it back onto the tree and allow it to be stored,¡± she explained, plucking the book from the branch and giving it to Yi Wei, ¡°I shalt also grant thee the manual for the Codex of Nature before thine exit, in a similar manner.¡±


    As the woman had nothing more to say, Yi Wei flipped onto the first page. The word density was not particularly high, and they were not too complex in nature, and yet she felt her mind being strained with just a few sentences.


    ¡®Oh. I know what this means. The more difficult a text is to read and comprehend, the closer it is said to be aligned with a Dao, though which one it follows is uncertain. To think that I have encountered something like this when even the Thunder Lord¡¯s legendary techniques had no such effect,¡¯ she gasped, noticing a smile appearing on the woman¡¯s lips, ¡®She must be testing me to see how much of this I am able to take in. Well, since she is unlikely to tell the Yi family if she finds a diamond in the rough, I might as well test myself at the same time.¡¯


    She shut her eyes for a few seconds, clearing her head of unnecessary thoughts and focusing onto the matter at hand with a mote of cosmic energy. Even without channelling it, she felt the weight on her mind lessening, as if the energy dissolved the mystery and complexity of the Dao itself.


    Her eyes opened and returned to the page. She read the first paragraph, the second, third, fourth¡­ The entire page was finished in a minute. It stressed her mind despite being a simple introduction, but after another minute dedicated purely to letting her head relax with the influence of the cosmic energy, she was able to do the same on the second page.


    Like that, slowly and somewhat painfully, she completed the first chapter, which contained the basic instructions for general pill refining. It would not apply to the truly valuable medicines, all of which needed to be processed in very specific ways.


    However, she could not push onward. The words, no matter how simple and obvious they were, overwhelmed her mind far too much.


    ¡®A second thing that I can¡¯t force using the advantage of my planar energy- hold up. If this technique contains the words of the Dao, then what about my mysterious characters? I don¡¯t want to divulge too much of it, just in case, but I should try yelling it at someone in a fight. Since even hearing the words of the Dao can put a certain pressure on the mind, I should be able to overwhelm those with weaker minds just with a phrase,¡¯ she considered, shutting the book with a heavy sigh.


    ¡°Have thou finished thine reading, child?¡± Chu Ling said, her eyes glistening with curiosity.


    ¡°I think I have. This is one of the hardest manuals I have ever read.¡±


    ¡°I can tell that thou art not surprised by this, so I assume that thou hath discovered that in thine hands lies a manual of great value and significance,¡± she smiled, ¡°Still, thou hath read through much of the book, more than I had expected thine mind to be able to comprehend.¡±


    ¡°If I may ask, how many sentences were you able to read the first time you came across this technique?¡±


    Chu Ling bit her lip, a hint of embarrassment appearing on her stoic face, ¡°Three words. I was not in the best state of mind, neither was my comprehension of wood and cultivation in general. Since then, I hath been able to read through one and a half pages in one go, and since I hath already learned the technique, it is improving with every day.¡±


    ¡®That means that even without cosmic energy, I have a better comprehension of things than this woman had,¡¯ Yi Wei remarked mentally with some pride, ¡°I see. Then, are we going to move onto the practical side of things?¡±


    ¡°It is time to do so, yes. Since thou hath read the first chapter, thine knowledge shalt be sufficient for the assistance in processing one-star medicines. Please, follow me to the pill furnace.¡±


    The wooden pill furnace was covered in small decorations, decorative symbols and aesthetic endless lines, some sticking outward and others indented into the brown surface. It was a little amazing how Chu Ling had been able to add such a great degree of detail over such a brief timeframe, as the decorations themselves made the furnace worth a dozen golden coins, and since it was also capable of refining pills, the price would automatically triple. Depending on the quality of produced pills and the number of stars they could handle, the price would multiply even further.


    ¡°For today, I shalt teach thee how to refine the Copper Skin Toughening Pill, which shalt be useful if thine body requires strengthening during thine work for the Yi family, or if thou art interested in body cultivation.¡±


    Yi Wei nodded, so the woman stretched out her hand and beckoned the forest. A number of herbs, ginsengs and plants were brought out of the shade of the leaves by sturdy branches.


    ¡°Have thou handled such things before?¡± the woman asked, laying these items out on a table beside the pill furnace.


    ¡°I have seen how to process the hundred-year ginseng, crimson petal flower, bright star tulip and violet grass, but not the rest of these. Are these the correct quantity for a Copper Skin Toughening Pill?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. The fact that thou hath recognized these is good for thine future in this art. Do remember that some of them are also beneficial in their raw form and can be consumed in higher quantities than most pills before their usefulness ebbs. However, keep in thine mind that they shalt be wilder and less controlled than typical pills, so if thou art interested in the matter, ensure that thee art well prepared for it. Acquire items to resist the potential impact, or else thine time will be short indeed.¡±


    ¡°I am aware, but I have not been able to acquire any precious herbs with my limited funds. Anything you¡¯d recommend, or could provide?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ I shalt consider this, but I do possess a unique planar herb of an unknown quantity of stars ¨C the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus. I am not certain what its purpose is, but I am certain that it is beneficial to thine body,¡± Chu Ling admitted, rubbing her chin, ¡°If thou stumbled upon it, or another instance of it, do not consume it hastily. It will not end well.¡±


    Yi Wei could tell that she was not saying this because of her desire to get her hands on the planar herb, but due to some small degree of genuine concern. ¡®Is she actually worried about me as her disciple? That¡¯s¡­ unexpected¡­ Maybe I¡¯ll be able to get help from my five teachers if I get into some trouble with the family eventually¡­ I can consider this later. Shouldn¡¯t be getting distracted this easily¡­¡¯


    ¡°Alright. I am not so-¡± she was about to label herself as the bastion of carefulness, but none of her actions over the last two weeks suggested that, ¡°I may be a little careless, but I won¡¯t make such a simple mistake.¡±


    ¡°Do not fear, I do not believe thee to be a fool, child of Yi. However, thine cultivation could not be so great without taking any risks, so I simply wished to remind thee that thou should not consume such an item under any circumstances,¡± the woman in green smiled, ¡°Now, observe the process, and learn as much as thee can. Once thee have witnessed it once, we may attempt it together.¡±


    ¡°The Ice Demon¡¯s Will meshes well with our natures, brother. As the one of greater dark, how is your progress?¡±


    ¡°I am making a little more progress than you, clearly... I am at the Great Stride already, and the Paradigm of Yin only now begins to struggle.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a reason the Gr-¡±


    ¡°Brother¡­¡±


    ¡°I mean, there is a reason why They wished to get their hands on it. If it had been an ordinary forbidden skill, they would have allowed to remain just like all of the rest of the weaker skills. If they realize what they¡¯re missing with that brat, Da Gang, they would certainly ignite a second War of Yin.¡±


    ¡°War of Yin¡­ It is fitting for him, as well, though I suspect, based on the lightning¡­ War of Gold, perhaps? The Astral War?¡±


    ¡°The first one, I understand, but not the second.¡±


    ¡°Just consider his lighting. It was of two colours, was it not?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s where the gold thing came from, yes.¡±


    ¡°Truly, you were not the better half¡­ The lightning was gold, but also purple¡­ violet¡­ akin to the stars¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ I see!¡±


    ¡°I suspect you do not, Great Light. That light must be in your eyes far too often for you to see the world around you¡­ Remember, when the storm from his attack descended, it was a mixture of heavenly gold, but also starlight. When I looked through those bolts of lightning, it was like I watched the skies themselves¡­¡±


    ¡°You have an impressive imagination¡­ is what I¡¯d like to have said, but I saw it too, just thought it to be in my head, and my head alone¡­ Isn¡¯t it said that abilities that are able to pierce into the heavens are akin to the eighth realm?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know¡­ The worst would be if he owned a forbidden skill of his own, as this would be far superior to the Paradigm of Yin. Perfected stages for every stage reached¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you don¡¯t have to say it. Scary stuff.¡±


    Just as the refinement completed, Yi Wei sneezed out of nowhere.


    ¡°Did I get sick despite being a cultivator? Huh¡­¡±

 V1C17: Creating a Physique

    ¡°How much have thee understood, child of Yi?¡± Chu Ling queried, storing the Copper Skin Toughening pills within a thin wooden bottle.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to brag, but it feels like I have understood most of it. The rest, I¡¯m pretty sure, are from later chapters of the Cherry Revolving Blossom,¡± she said, ¡°Am I right, or have I understood far less than I thought?¡±


    ¡°Not to worry, thou hath understood much, Wei¡¯er. It is as thee hath theorized, I intentionally used my knowledge to test thee once again. I apologize for the repeated test of thine skill, but I wish to ascertain thine current comprehension as to teach thee in the best manner. Since thou art quick to understand, I shalt let thee participate in the next refinement. Do every step thee can, and I shalt complete those that thou art unable to.¡±


    Yi Wei nodded and began to measure out ingredients using only her eyes. As most of them only needed to be there in the correct quantity, picking out two leaves of the spotted charm tree was not so difficult, and even the powdered and crushed ingredients were helpfully packaged in a transparent film by Chu Ling, though she didn¡¯t want to ask exactly what the film was made out of.


    After the green-clothed woman approved of the quantity of ingredients, she was able to move to the furnace and open the lid. Before she could get to the process of refining, it was important to clean the inside of the furnace and get rid of the ash and impurities that had been burned away.


    It was a somewhat tedious process, without a doubt, but this was something that every alchemist she had ever spoken to had stressed the importance of. Supposedly, forgetting to do this can easily cause the refining of a pill to fail or become corrupted in some fashion, or otherwise damage the furnace and eventually lead to an explosion or general structural decay. Regardless of the exact outcome, it was wise to spend a few minutes to clean the furnace.


    Once it was sufficiently clean, she opened the lower compartment that contained a small pile of coal and lit it. A weak-looking orange flame lit up, slowly growing until it burned over every piece of coal.


    She shut the compartment before the fire had a chance to burst out. Had she been attempting to refine a pill with a greater number of stars, she would have had to use either a greater quality of kindling to produce a superior flame, or her own fire-type energy to condense an alchemical flame, the grade of which will differ based on the cultivator¡¯s quality of fire techniques.


    The furnace took a minute to heat up. Despite being made from wood, the surface showed no signs of suffering from the flame¡¯s warmth, even with a few flowers growing from the tips of certain branches that made up the furnace¡¯s surface. When the level of heat was just right, Yi Wei tossed a couple petals of the spotted charm tree into one corner of the upper part of the furnace, following up quickly with five other ingredients, all placed an equal distant apart from one another in a circle, akin to the petals of a cherry blossom.


    When they began to burn, she lightly tapped the side of the furnace with her palm, causing a soft ringing sound. The ingredients within flew up by an inch and hovered in place for a little longer before they began to turn on the spot while also orbiting the centre of the furnace.


    The key of the Cherry Revolving Blossom, as one could deduce from the name, was rotation and the shape of a cherry blossom. Through the connection of the shape to the core laws of the heavens, it allows for the purification and later coagulation of the medicinal elements within the ingredients used in the alchemical recipe.


    The extraction and coalescing of alchemical elements was the difference between medicines and pills, though they were often used interchangeably when the exact topic was clear. No matter how skilled a common man was in preparing medicinal liquids, so long as they did not possess some form of pill refining technique, they would never be capable of extracting the elements within cleanly and then combining a number of them together to produce the desired result.


    Naturally, most crafting techniques that involved any specific materials, like blacksmithing or alchemy, were graded primarily based on the percentage they are able to extract from the material used and then combine into the final product. The Cherry Revolving Blossom was able to work with three times the medicinal qualities within alchemical ingredients of common techniques, and thus it was able to use approximately thirty percent of the ingredient¡¯s overall effect within the refinement process. It could be rated either as a three-star skill, or as a silver grade technique.


    As to why there were two different methods of grading crafting skills¡­ Once upon a time, two master craftsmen were arguing over the correct methods to grade their skills. One suggested that the best technique would be one that could make use of 100% of the material used, and thus it would be wise to keep following the star system and apply them to crafting techniques. The other did not believe that it was possible to achieve such perfection, as it was the realm of the heavens, and thus it would be most wise to use a new system, starting from mortal and ascending to dust, earth, silver, gold, heaven and, as the very peak, planar.


    In the end, they both brought up reasonable arguments, but they could not decide upon either system. Even when they attempted to settle it with a duel, it turned out that both were in complete equilibrium. Whenever one had an advantage with a technique or a pill, the other brought out an inscription or some masterwork artefact that evened the battle out again. It is said that they engaged in combat for seven days and seven nights, before both craftsmen dropped to the ground out of exhaustion.


    They attempted to pass the matter onto their disciples, but the few that were willing to argue over something like grading systems found that they were also in balance with their opponents.


    A hundred years later, it was finally decided that both will remain, and that it would be wisest for anyone wishing to label a skill to do so with both methods, until one or the other could be proven to be unnecessary.


    To this day, that had not occurred, and minor debates between young alchemists, blacksmiths, inscription masters, array crafters and talisman creators continue to happen, though the only ones capable of reaching a stage beyond the planar grade are more focused on developing their skills toward it instead of aimlessly shouting at one another.


    ¡®There are a lot of debates like that in history. At one point, artefacts and medicines were also labelled with different systems, and it was supposedly impossible to buy anything reasonably. You might try to acquire a three-star talisman but would only be able to find earth-tier or high-tier talismans,¡¯ Yi Wei¡¯s mind drifted to a few things she had read while she waited for the pill refining process to complete. She had thrown in every ingredient in the correct order and allowed their properties to mix when the petals of the Cherry Blossom closed.


    ¡°Thou art performing better than I expected, child of Yi,¡± Chu Ling commented from the side, her hand placed on the surface of the furnace as she supplied the necessary planar energy to allow the process to proceed smoothly.


    Had Yi Wei had the confidence to reveal her ability to use external force, she would have probably been able to do this herself, but for now the illusory cherry blossom in the middle of the furnace was made from the luminous green planar energy of the woman in green. It felt soft and welcoming, despite her not even being in contact with it.


    ¡°Now is the time for the final step. Would thee desire some assistance?¡±


    ¡°Is this part going to be particularly difficult?¡± she asked, slowing down the rotation as to not rush into the final step unprepared.


    ¡°Not necessarily so, but the failure rate for thine refinement is often incredibly high when thou hath not mastered the recipe. If it is in thine interests to succeed in this particular attempt, I can attempt to help thee and raise the chance of success, while also granting thee a little more experience in the process. What say thee?¡±


    ¡°Experience would certainly be helpful, and I can find a use for the pills, as well¡­ Alright, I¡¯ll appreciate your assistance.¡±


    Chu Ling nodded and sent a greater quantity of her planar energy into it as the cherry blossom began to shut yet again, six mixtures of materials and effects drifting closer to the middle. Suddenly, as the energy mixed with what was already in the furnace, the warmth of the flame within leapt to ludicrous levels, as if the lower compartment had begun to house the earth fires of the heavens, while the medicinal masses above it melted completely into floating spheres of liquid.


    In a flash, they came in contact with one another, spinning faster and faster, merging into a single mass, despite still being six distinct, individual objects. They lit up, glowing so brightly that even Yi Wei¡¯s eyes struggled to endure the light¡­


    The upper compartment¡¯s lid shut sharply, just moments before the inside of the furnace exploded. A cloud of smoke burst out the top, a noxious smell floating out alongside it.


    ¡°This was a somewhat unexpected outcome,¡± Chu Ling mumbled, waving to the trees which caused them to quickly absorb the smoke before it could fly out of the grove, ¡°Such an eruption of impurities means either a great success, or terrible failure. Art thou curious to see which it is?¡±


    Yi Wei replied with action, opening the lid and peering inside.


    Within the middle lay four rows of four pills, each of a coppery-green shade. They were round and made of crystalline material that caused the light that passed through them to refract in ways that made the inside glisten and shine with a metallic sheen. It was as if someone had trapped a small pool of copper within the middle of the round pills.


    ¡°Thine hands have done good work, Wei¡¯er. Thou art unable to smell the medicinal scent, art thou?¡±


    ¡°Hm? No, no I cannot. Is that a good thing?¡±


    The woman in green nodded, ¡°Indeed. Have thou never considered why it could possibly be a good idea for the medicinal essence of a pill to constantly leak away in the form of the medicinal scent? When one is unable to detect such a thing, it means that the alchemist has successfully sealed the pills within and means that they will not decay in the next thousand years, or even longer depending on the pill itself.¡±


    ¡®I see, that does make a lot of sense. If I touch a hot object but am unable to feel the heat within, that means it is perfectly sealed and will not escape any time soon, so the same principle obviously applies to pills and their effects,¡¯ she understood, reaching into the furnace and removing the sixteen pills.


    They were smooth and hard to the touch, like solid, round pieces of marble. Despite having been made only seconds ago, they retained little of the heat, containing only a semblance of the embers used to make them. Their appearance was rather appealing, so to stop herself from consuming it recklessly she stored it in a bottle and placed them into her pocket.


    ¡°If thee wishes my aid in the usage of the Copper Skin Toughening pills, I am always available to assist thee. If thou art in a difficult situation and require a safe haven, thou hath free entry to the grove, and the life here will fight against any invaders.¡±


    ¡°I understand. If you¡¯re telling about this, is it about time for me to go?¡±


    ¡°It is getting late, so I thought that thine time would be better spent in rest. If thou hath other responsibilities to attend to over the week, I shalt not mind if thou doth not visit for a while, but please return within a week,¡± she said, waving her hand to cause another branch to descend right next to Yi Wei. It held a small red fruit, shaped like a mixture of an apple and lemon, though the fruit¡¯s skin looked closer to that of a peach, ¡°I recalled that I hath this unique fruit. The Crimson Star Fruit, as it is known, ought to do wonders to thine body, and should not harm thine future development. Take it on its own, and let the effects pass, or else thou would risk permanent harm to your physique and dantian.¡±


    This was not surprising to her in any way, but Yi Wei appreciated the opportunity to look at her calming face, before mentally reprimanding herself for it, ¡°Naturally. Something with a name like that typically has miraculous properties ¨C in stories, at least ¨C so I wouldn¡¯t do something careless like that. Thank you for the advice nonetheless.¡±


    ¡°Hm,¡± the woman nodded, ¡°Then I also do not need to remind thee not to show it to others.¡±


    ¡°Of course not. I¡¯ll consume it soon, so that shouldn¡¯t prove to be an issue¡­ though, you wouldn¡¯t happen to have some sort of storage ring?¡±


    Chu Ling let out a quiet giggle at her question, ¡°I truly didn¡¯t have to remind thee, for thine knowledge of stories is clearly great if thou hath the misconception that common men and women like me are able to get their hands upon a spatial artefact of any kind. The head of thine family might have one, but not me. Even if I was fortunate enough to possess one, it would only be a single item intended for specific items. I could not pass it onto thee.¡±


    Although spatial rings, bottomless bags and all sorts of other items were everywhere in the stories, often given to the protagonist early on to allow them to carry any items acquired in the future without any hassle, they were limited in reality for two main reason.


    First of all, the materials required to make any form of spatial item were incredibly limited, and it could take several thousand years to gather the materials for a single flawed storage ring. This was reduced most frequently by limiting the types of items that could be stored within, or by complicating the storage process in order to minimize the quantity of spatial metal required. For example, a ring that could store ten cubic metres of any item might cost ten units of spatial metal, but if it can only hold charred ember rock and requires the user to perform forty different steps to place it into the ring, the cost could be reduced to two units of spatial metal.


    The second issue was that there were few craftsmen capable of creating something that is able to sustain a sealed space. It was already difficult enough to find someone in the sixth, Linked Channels, realm, but the number of six-star blacksmiths, formation arrangers and inscription masters was even more limited, and you would need one of each to create the simplest of storage items.


    ¡°I figured, but you have already mentioned two strange fruits, so maybe you had something like that as well,¡± Yi Wei shrugged, ¡°If you did, but I didn¡¯t bother to ask and you didn¡¯t care to mention it, I would have missed out on a very powerful artefact.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough, child of Yi. If thou art in need of anything else, I shall be here,¡± Chu Ling said, and sat down on the spot, a bench made from wood growing beneath her that very instant.


    ¡®How useful that would be for me¡­¡¯ the apprentice thought, though the idea became far less appealing once she considered the fact that this was the work of a forbidden skill, ¡®Unfortunately, it wouldn¡¯t be too useful if I had to bind myself to a single forest for the rest of my life, unless I obtained a complete spatial treasure that could hold living beings, thus allowing me to store my entire grove inside of the artefact and enter and leave whenever I need to, maintaining a link to the inside to keep myself alive.¡¯


    Since that was not an option at the moment, she stored the idea in some dark corner of her mind and excused herself from the Timeless Grove, a narrow pathway opening for her amidst the trees and closing the moment she stepped away.


    Outside, she realised that the entrance to the forest was surprisingly close to the route she typically took to the Three Stars Pharmacy, and yet she had never witnessed such a great grove of trees on her many years of fetching things for Yi Zehao. Narrowing her eyes, she stepped away, onto the next street, and saw the tops of the trees disappearing from sight.


    ¡®What? How? There was no aura of an illusory formation, nor any sign of anything else¡­ What if I was to go back to the grove?¡¯ she wondered, so she returned to the exact spot she stood in earlier.


    There was still no sign of the trees.


    ¡°Child of Yi, art thou stumped by the disappearance of the wood?¡± Chu Ling¡¯s voice entered her ears, akin to the first time, ¡°Or have thou forgotten something in my territory?¡±


    ¡°I-¡± Yi Wei looked around to make sure no-one heard her effectively speaking to herself, then continued, ¡°Yes, I realised that this place was near my path to my workplace, but I had somehow never noticed it. The next thing I know, the entire place vanished from sight.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, such a sight could shock many. It is a mixture of many things, involving arrays, inscriptions and artefacts, and it took me a lot of time to set up. If thou art interested in learning more, I can attempt to teach thee after thou hath mastered what I have to teach thee. I will see if there are any teachers willing to take on a clever student like thee.¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ Master Chu, I¡¯ve already studied formation arrays, inscriptions, talismans and blacksmithing, and am currently studying them. I don¡¯t think that your help will be necessary in this regard.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Oh¡­ I¡¯ll admit, I was excited to share thine prowess with the few friends I have¡­ If I may ask, who art thine tutors in those fields? Have they accepted thee despite thine wood cultivation?¡± the soothing voice lost some of its confidence with each word.


    ¡°W-Well¡­¡± she remained silent for a while ¨C although it was easy to reveal her many teachers, since it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to learn about them, there was very little she could possibly say to explain the matter of her seemingly having five different elements of cultivation at once. It was also something she couldn¡¯t possibly hide, as any conversation between her five (or six, if she was to count Great Dark and Great Light as separate people) would immediately reveal the supposed existence either of a method that allows her to switch the element of her cultivation in a single day without any harm, or something that allows her to fake her true element.


    The fact that both were somewhat true didn¡¯t really help her case.


    Eventually, she decided on obfuscating their identities for as long as possible, ¡°They would prefer to keep their names hidden for now. If you are concerned about my safety in their hands, or something along those lines, I wouldn¡¯t reject a token or item of some sort that I can use to protect myself, or to call you for aid if I get into trouble.¡±


    This time, the other side remained silent for a while, ¡°Very well. I shall grant thee the token of my Chu family. It should dissuade the common folk from harming thee, but if thou art in danger of attack by a family like the Yi, Luo or Ning, crush it and I shall attempt to come to thine aid.¡±


    Something flashed in the air ahead of her, and a small, flat, rectangular wooden token flew out it, straight into Yi Wei¡¯s idle hand. A single, large Chu character was carved into it, or perhaps it was simply grown in that shape. From it radiated a faint yet sharp aura, perhaps from her spiritual will, planar energy, killing intent or even some combination of all three. Since she was able to sense it even at her low realm, true experts would immediately be able to identify it.


    ¡°Thank you. I¡¯ll be going now,¡± Yi Wei bowed to the air, and returned to her home with moderate speed.


    Once there, she retrieved a blank sheet of paper, a thin stick of charcoal and began writing.


    One week later, a woman dressed in a suspicious black robe and mask sat within a dark cave, the only entrance to which was blocked by a large rock covered in a large array. Another array lay beneath her, six talismans were placed in a circle around her, and several items were lined up in front of her.


    Naturally, this person was Yi Wei, and what she was preparing to do was break through again. Beside the Planar Gathering talismans and the array she was sitting on, the pile of things before her included the Crimson Star Fruit, an Earth Physique Awakening pill, Copper Skin Toughening pills, and a number of other pills and miracle fruits, though the latter were naturally of a lower grade than the one offered by Chu Ling.


    The reason for her delay on the consumption of the fruit was quite simple. During the process of a breakthrough, the body was able to rapidly process and absorb beneficial elements and remove harmful ones. In a way, it was one of the simplest, albeit not always the easiest, methods for one to cleanse their body of long-lasting poisons and afflictions.


    It also allowed for a cultivator to absorb far more medicinal effects than they would otherwise be able to do, with less harm, especially when the breakthrough involved a major change in one¡¯s cultivation, like the ascension of a realm.


    ¡®Since the next step of my cultivation should condense my planar energy into liquid, this is the biggest step my energy will take until the Linked Channels realm,¡¯ she recalled, confirming that she had everything she needed one last time before she began her attempt to forge an artificial physique, ¡®Additionally, physiques are best created during a major process like a breakthrough, according to a number of books available in the Yi, Ning, Chu and Luo family archives, or what little I was able to glean from them.¡¯


    The creation of a physique would also contribute to the processing of medicinal effects, and could even imbue the physique with their effects, allowing one to have something akin to the Humanoid Pill Physique. Thus, she came up with the idea to do it all at once; to forge a physique, break through and consume far more medicinal items in one go than she should have ever been able to.


    ¡®If I¡¯m lucky, this will also affect my body in a way that allows that strange feeling of being on the brink of some greater step to pass by overfilling some metaphorical basin within me. As long as the results are generally positive, I¡¯ll gladly accept some visual or physical oddities in return for success.¡¯


    Thus, she gathered up as many medicinal items as she could within the week, requesting help from the other four teachers. The majority of what she ended up getting was from Yi Yi, who instantly brought out ninety percent of the items she had before her at the moment, and even more that she chose to return to him so that she did not bankrupt him in just one request.


    She lifted her mask and grabbed a handful of pills and stuffed them into her mouth, followed by another handful of miracle fruits to help her swallow them. On their own, any one of them might have been delicious to consume, but together they formed an incomprehensible mixture of hot and cold, sweet and sour, flavourful and lacking, that was not improved by the wild combination of Copper Skin, Muscle Expansion, Condensed Muscle, Minor Cleansing, Superior Marrow Refining and other pills, all of which also had their own distinctive taste.


    As soon as her planar energy came into contact with this combination within her stomach, a vast quantity of energy burst out into her body, penetrating her flesh and bone with an even less pleasant combination of sensations. Before she had the chance to feel it breaking her body, she released six small bolts of lightning at the talismans around her while using her other hand to grab another handful of items.


    The array and talismans activated, causing an immense surge of pure planar energy to crash down upon her, forcefully sending the violent forces within her back to her stomach, albeit only briefly as her next mouthful of miracle fruits caused them surge forth with twice the power.


    ¡®Good thing I made all talismans using cosmic energy, or else they wouldn¡¯t be able to hold up to just one fifth of these pills and fruits¡­ Still, I have four more portions to consume, and only one more group of prepared talismans¡­ I guess more practise with blood talismans was in order anyway¡­¡¯ she thought, consuming the last of the second portion.


    In a split second, she concluded that if she continued on with her current pace of consumption, she would be able to survive to her third portion before needing to reign it in again with the remaining talismans, so she kept going.


    The last item she consumed as part of her third portion was the Crimson Star Fruit, which instantly sent a burst of flame through her entire body. It was akin to consuming a large bonfire in a single gulp, and every second after was like spitting it out and devouring it again. She would have loved to explain to someone exactly how painful it was but keeping herself alive came first. Drawing six more talismans, she activated them simultaneously, leaping up into the enormous wave of planar energy.


    ¡°Ugh¡­¡± Yi Wei groaned, spitting out a few drops of boiling blood that instantly evaporated upon hitting the cave floor.


    With the brief reprieve from the raging energies, she was able to eat the fourth portion, and begin the fifth with the Earth Physique Awakening pill, the power from which sunk into her veins and latched onto the strange mixture of energy within her.


    She threw out a dozen talisman papers and pierced the skin of her finger with her teeth, drawing the Planar Concentration talisman in her scalding and bubbling blood whilst also devouring the last few fruits and pills. Some of the juice had split from her mouth and was covering her chin and the front of her robes, but the slight discomfort that caused was nothing compared to the rapidly growing storm that was about to tear her into so many pieces that even the Master of Yi City wouldn¡¯t be able to put them back together.


    ¡®I think it¡¯s time for cultivation and physique forging,¡¯ she thought, activating her cultivation technique.


    In the next moment, quite a number of things happened at once. Prime amongst them was the sudden burst of her planar energy that signified a breakthrough, as well as a secondary shock that flowed throughout her body. However, the sense she had of being on the tip of breaking past some boundary with her body also vanished, replaced with the feeling of a river beginning to flow through her very being. The gaseous form of her planar energy shook, and as it returned to her dantian, it slowly filled up more and more space until it finally breached the gap between the first and second realm, condensing into an opaque fluid that seemed to have no clear shade or colour of its own. Instead, it acted only as a portal into the void; countless stars, nebulae and galaxies danced within it, slowly drifting along and revealing other sights that were just as grand and wondrous.


    Yi Wei realised that she had been holding her breath for some time, so she exhaled a mouthful of steam.  As her jaw moved, the subtle sound of cracking entered her ears, prompting her to look down and see a thick layer of black impurities covering every inch of her body.


    ¡®I must have released them during the process of breaking through, and then failed to observe it for some time as I was too engrossed within my cosmic energy,¡¯ she understood, moving to get up.


    The second the muscle in her leg twitched, she suddenly flew up, crashing into the cave¡¯s ceiling.

 V1C18: True Ascendant

    She spat out a little more blood, which was no longer boiling, but still released a thin waft of steam while it slowly evaporated on the stone floor.


    ¡®Well¡­ the good news is that it seems to have thrown all of the impurities off,¡¯ Yi Wei observed the black shell falling off her body before she turned to the cave wall, ¡®The bad news is that I am now partially lodged in the stone¡­ It seems that this whole process has greatly increased my strength, but since my cultivation and the various fruits and pills couldn¡¯t have possibly brought about such a great improvement, it must be my physique!¡¯


    Since it would take some time to extricate herself from her current predicament, she decided to use this opportunity to see what visual effects, if any, her physique brought about, so that she could attempt to discern its name or characteristics.


    There were no obvious changes to be noticed in the dark ¨C her body shape seemed to be the same, her breasts were still the smallest of the generation, her hands did not transform into vicious claws nor did her legs change to hooves. By the looks of it, she did not end up getting one of the extreme physiques that makes men look more like demons or beasts.


    Although that might have been disappointing to the common man or woman, Yi Wei had done enough research to know that the so-called extreme physiques were a little deceptive, as they were not actually the most powerful. No, the strongest were the likes of the Immortal Mortal, Perfected Form or the Concentrated Humanity Physiques, as they did not attempt to change humans into creatures that they weren¡¯t, instead taking the innate strengths and advantages of man and magnifying them to their absolute limit.


    It was difficult to glean any more details in the dark, so she pulled one of her arms free from the stone and clicked her fingers, causing a thin layer of her radiant cosmic energy to wrap around that hand. The violet light was not the most convenient for seeing the subtle changes, so she created a strand of golden lightning to balance out the colours. Pulling up the sleeve of her robes finally allowed her to find a few differences.


    For one, her hair gained a certain richness in its colour, transforming from dull red to vibrant crimson. Her skin had also changed. The various blemishes and spots that she was familiar with had disappeared, though it also looked as if she had spent a few days under the scorching sun due to what looked like a deep tan.


    ¡®Odd. Typically, the stories that feature either a unique physique or a general cleansing of the body describe the skin becoming more like snow, and as smooth as jade¡­¡¯ she recalled, examining her arm more closely but finding few other differences, ¡®Perhaps the high quantity of yang energy within the things I consumed had a similar effect to absorbing it from sunlight, though that would also suggest that my new physique is a yang-type. It is unlikely to be the pure Yang Physique, nor the Sun¡¯s Regalia, Bright Star or Golden Form Physiques, as the first would create a glowing mark upon the chest, the second would cause my eyes to glow brightly enough to light up this cave and the third would turn my skin to gold instead of lightly darkening it.


    So, to sum things up, the physique I ended up getting is a mixture of a perfected human and yang-type, which should make things more confusing for anyone who is able to sense the yin and yang within me, but I cannot identify the exact nature of it. Hm¡­¡¯


    She sent her spiritual will into her body in an attempt to discover some other difference when she saw the characters within her dantian disperse, leaving behind only a few.


    Once they rearranged themselves, Yi Wei saw three words, ¡®True Ascendant Physique.¡¯


    As if in response to her observing this, the mysterious characters flew back into their original places, displaying their method of advancing to the seventh stage as if they had never moved. Nevertheless, there were some differences that had developed since the first time they activated. They started out as thin lines, drawn in ink onto the empty space within her planar aperture, but now they seemed to be carved from solid shards of obsidian that shone with a fiery-red glow.


    Each character seemed to be made from a varying number of shards, with the fewest being two and the most complex incorporating thirty-nine separate pieces of black stone. Their energy also felt different to before, although, since she had no clue what exactly they did besides providing her with the cultivation technique, it was difficult to understand what this difference entailed.


    She would have continued with her contemplation, but it was at that moment that the stone holding her loosened, dropping her onto the ground. Before doing anything else, she drew the number ten on her collar, and attempted to subdue her strength before getting up again.


    This time, Yi Wei was able to stand up without much incident, leaving behind only a large palm print within the stone. After adjusting the setting of the choker to a twelve, which brought her down to a similar level to what she was used to, she approached the stone blocking the cave¡¯s entrance and found that the arrays she had placed upon it had broken at some point after she began the process of breaking through.


    ¡®Well, it¡¯s fine so long as no-one noticed the extreme planar fluctuations my activity here has caused,¡¯ she thought, placing the mask back onto her face before easily pushing the stone out of the way.


    When she had pushed into place, it was the middle of the night. The moon had shone down upon her and the forest on the outskirts of the Yi District, making her feel as if she was somehow doing wrong or forbidden.


    Now, however, the sun had fully risen over the horizon, bathing the world in a layer of gold. The trees around her cast long shadows that covered most of the terrain around her in darkness. On occasion, the grass around her rustled, and some beast passed by, sniffing or glancing at her for a moment before retreating with great haste. They were ordinary animals, not ones that had harnessed planar energy through some unknown means, and thus they were not match even for the weakest of those in the Energy Condensation realm.


    ¡®And I am no ordinary person in the first realm,¡¯ she thought to herself with a smile, ¡®Should I seek out a planar beast and see how I compare? It will give me a good opportunity to get used to my liquid cosmic energy before I have the misfortune of getting into any fights as well, so it seems like a wise idea.¡¯


    She looked around in hopes of seeing some obvious sign of a planar beast, but without much success. Of all the topics she studied, her knowledge of the Yi City¡¯s wildlife was rather lacking, even in comparison to her understanding of dual cultivation methods.


    That lack of knowledge caused a proverbial match to be lit inside her head, ¡®Wait a minute, if I have achieved the equivalent of the common man¡¯s second realm, then shouldn¡¯t I be able to project my spiritual will outside of my body? My eyes are still incapable of seeing many things, but my spiritual will has far fewer limitations. With it, I should be able to apply the few things that I do know about wild beasts and apply them to find the tracks of a local moss wolf or vine bear.¡¯


    Naturally, in a world full of energy that could elevate the level of one¡¯s existence far beyond its original state, humans were not the only ones to harness planar energy. Plants, animals, even certain inanimate objects were able to absorb energy through various means, and then, perhaps through sheer chance or some method embedded into their very souls, they occasionally succeed in finding their own route of cultivation. At other times, those same things are born from planar energy itself, creating things like planar shards, planar beasts and planar herbs¡­


    No, those who discovered these things originally did not consider these names for too long, or else they would have realised that they could have come up with something better. A number had tried, but as with the various systems of grading skills, it was difficult to win over a large number of people who had already gotten used to simply adding ¡®planar¡¯ behind everything they say.


    Creatures that are born from planar energy are often influenced by their surroundings, though that is not a rule. On occasion, beasts that absolutely do not belong in a particular location are born nonetheless, occasionally due to the influence of powerful cultivators or artefacts, but at other times there are seemingly no reason for their appearance whatsoever. Due to this, the outskirts of the Yi District of Yi City were mostly occupied by wood-type animals with the exception of the occasional fire or ice-type planar beast, like the Flame-Devouring Lion or the Jagged Ice Hyena.


    She manipulated her spiritual will and forced it to exit her body, immediately feeling the pressure of the world attempting to destroy it, or otherwise push it back into her.


    However, it survived, regardless of the pushback.


    ¡®So, it appears that the strengthening of the spiritual will isn¡¯t purely due to the condensation of planar energy, as there is no way my spiritual will can reach the range of one metre that a cultivator in the second realm would have,¡¯ Yi Wei frowned, though it quickly turned into a more neutral expression, ¡®However, the half-metre that I do have is enough.¡¯


    To prevent her spiritual will from being exhausted too quickly, she withdrew all but a few thin tendrils of it, which she then used to scan the forest floor. Within her immediate vicinity, there was nothing, so she raised her hand and placed a ball of lightning at her fingertip.


    Unlike before, this took little effort ¨C she just needed to execute her version of Storm Blade Wreathing exactly as it was, without assembling a framework of arrays through her unstable planar energy before being able to conjure bolts of lightning for a brief duration. Now, she could keep it going for as long as she wanted, or at the very least for several hours without any significant interruptions. Additionally, the lightning was far more stable than before, flickering entirely in accordance with her desire. This wasn¡¯t to say that there was no room for improvement, but the improvement caused by her breakthrough were far greater than one might have expected.


    With the golden light breaking through the veil of shadows cast by the ancient trees, she quickly found the traces of unordinary beasts.


    A number of vines grew in the shape of paw prints in the grass, obscured almost entirely by the flora that had since grown. By the looks of it, a creature of the vine variety, all of which were creatively named by prefixing an animal with the word vine, had passed through a week or so ago.


    ¡®Planar beasts tend to be rather territorial, even more so than regular creatures, so this trail is either the sign of a beast moving, or a sign of their territory,¡¯ she knew, ¡®Looking at the size of the prints, this particular creature appears to be twice as large as a regular wolf would be, so it might be somewhat dangerous. Certain beasts, though wood-types do this most regularly, grow alongside their cultivation, so this one should be at the peak of the second realm¡­ Should prove to be a good challenge¡­¡¯


    She was well aware that she was slipping back into the mad death-seeking mind-set of growing in strength at any cost, but at this moment in time, fighting a dangerous opponent was the best route for adapting to her current strength. Thus, she did not subdue that mentality, but instead tempered it, or else her rational mind would have found far too many good reasons not to do this.


    Using her spiritual will to scout out further vine tracks, Yi Wei was able to slowly discover more and more trails until she came across a recent path of the vine beast ¨C the grass had not yet settled, and the vines were young and light.


    In addition, there was a slight aura of killing intent permeating throughout this part of the forest. It was nothing to a cultivator, but any regular man or beast would naturally stay away from this area, even if they did not know why or what they were so afraid of. Killing intent was the preferred method of any planar beast to mark its territory and was undoubtedly more refined than the methods of their regular beast brethren.


    However, this also made it easier to track them down. While various scents and smells could be left behind and scattered, killing intent belonged to the creature that produced it. No matter what, it would be bound to the creature, in life and in death, continuously pointing towards it even through barriers of a physical and planar nature.


    It made it extremely easy to locate the tombs of ancient warriors that had built up such a great intensity of killing intent that it was able to remain in battlefields long after their deaths, leading those who could withstand it to their final resting places and allowing them to gain great treasure.


    Yi Wei had no chance of tracking down such a tomb for the moment, but a planar beast was a good first step.


    A few minutes later, she found the nest of the vine beast. It was a cave that was completely overgrown with vines and other foliage, turning the dark grey of stone into a constant green and brown.


    Her examination of the cave was interrupted by the strange howling originating behind her. It was unlike the cry of a typical wolf, being deeper, but it also sounded as if it was made with the wind crashing against a wall of leaves on a tree, resulting in an uncanny noise that few would immediately associate with what it imitated.


    She turned around and saw the creature upon whose lands she was intruding: a vine dire wolf at the very peak of the second realm, with a body made entirely from green vines and crimson eyes that glowed brighter than the sun.


    ¡®No, that aura¡­ Half-step Emergent Anchor realm!¡¯


    The typical path of cultivation would lead one along the route of advancing through nine stages, then ascending to the next layer, the next realm, where one could do the same once more, continuing until they inevitably fall. However, there were exceptions to this, as some had the necessary ability to break through the barrier of their realm, but not enough to reach the next. In that state, their cultivation would be in the half-step stage, where they are able to manifest certain features of the next realm but be much weaker than anyone that had truly reached it.


    Someone in the Half-step Planar Pool realm could produce temporary planar constructs, but they would be unable to properly manifest their planar energy outside their body to use it for the purposes of writing, like Jiang Sheng was able to. In the Half-step Emergent Anchor realm, a human cultivator would either be capable of constructing a partial planar anchor, that could then be projected for half of its regular effect, or their planar energy and planar constructs would be significantly strengthened, allowing for fluid planar constructs to be formed, doubling their combat ability. Similar increases in strength would follow in the Half-step Active Core realm, though the details on it were scarcer than on the Half-step Emergent Anchor realm, and scarcer still was information on the Half-step Marked Core realm.


    ¡®The question here is, which ability will this vine dire wolf manifest?¡¯ she wondered to herself, preparing a series of actions to respond to each. The ability to project a planar anchor provided an overall increase in the power of the user, and thus she would have to minimise the attacks that land on her body. However, the strengthened planar constructs would mean that being struck by them could carry a death sentence, but the rest of its attacks would be weaker as a result.


    After seeing that the intruder on its land did not run immediately, the vine wolf growled and, with a loud wooden bark, a ghostly tower crashed onto the ground behind it. It radiated illusory timber tendrils and caused the grass around it to grow rapidly. It was slightly taller than three metres and had three sides, with jagged edges and rough corners. Composed of several floating pieces that were joined together with thin branches, this was clearly a wood-type planar anchor of the vine wolf, and it was almost entirely whole.


    ¡®So that¡¯s what it can do¡­ Good to know!¡¯ she exclaimed mentally, recalling a number of fire techniques for this situation.


    The next second, the vine dire wolf dashed at her, crossing the gap between them in an instant as it created a human-sized planar construct of a set of jaws that tried to close down upon her. However, she was ready for him and used Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, appearing to the left of the wolf.


    ¡®Sizzling Palm!¡¯


    When she had first used it, this technique was only capable of producing a slight red glow, but this strike now created a surge of flame that engulfed the wolf, throwing it into a tree.


    The wood cracked and splintered, and the trunk of the tree shattered into two, but the wolf stood back up with ease, the flames slowly dissipating on his body. Ultimately, the attack did little but anger the wild beast, as it recalled the planar anchor and placed it closer to its new position. It snarled, causing the glowing red from its eyes to spread across the entire body, radiating from the shadows created by the vines.


    ¡®Now that my spiritual will can exit my body, I can feel things like the vast increase in planar energy gathered on that vine dire wolf without needing to concentrate,¡¯ she readied an Elysian Palm at full force and met the wolf with it once it pounced at her again.


    The bright planar construct met the wolf¡¯s spectral jaws, the liquid planar energy of the former creating esoteric shapes and patterns as it emerged from her palm. Their collision was not as simple as two fists meeting one another, but rather it was akin to a wave of flame being engulfed by water. Elysian energy swallowed up the gaping jaws and pierced through their very fabric, breaking them down from a complex construct into a simple mass of planar energy that quickly dissipated under the pressure of the world.


    This time, neither remained static, and stepped around the clashing constructs, deciding to strike with physical force instead.


    The vine wolf attempted to bite down on her arm, a set of jagged thorns appearing on its jaw. Seeing that its speed was only greater than hers, Yi Wei channelled her planar energy and her every feature doubled, allowing her to punch the wolf¡¯s nose ¨C or where the nose should have been ¨C with her full strength.


    A loud crack echoed through the forest as the entire front half of the vine dire wolf¡¯s head was smashed in, destroying its eyes and causing the red glow to vanish from its insides. However, although it was thrown back with great force, it survived, as any wood-type planar beast would.


    Unlike regular creatures, who relied on their brain to think and their heart to live, planar creatures were a little more flexible. Ice maw jaguars, for instance, had no internal organs at all, and used only the planar energy in the air to sustain themselves. So long as a sizeable chunk of their icy flesh remained, they could resuscitate and rebuild themselves entirely, effectively becoming immortal against ignorant opponents. Wood beasts were most notorious for this, as they were like weeds ¨C unless you pull them out by the roots, they will grow back no matter what you do to prevent it. As a result, in order to kill this beast completely, Yi Wei would have to find its root, and destroy it.


    Unfortunately, that was somewhat easier said than done. Despite landing three more attacks on the vine beast, each in a different area, she could not locate anything that stood out amongst the vines.


    ¡®With each strike, this thing is forcing more and more effort out of me. Despite being a wolf made up of a bunch of plants, it is rather good at learning¡­¡¯ she remarked, when her eyes suddenly widened, ¡®Of course, it¡¯s a plant! A plant that leaves behind vines where it walks, and even has a lair covered in them! This might not be a vine dire wolf after all, but a vine hungry nest!¡¯


    The vine hungry nest was named even more literally than any other planar creature. It was a thing that occupied a tight space, like a cave, passage or even the inside of a house, and grew all over the walls and floors until it covered the entire area in vines. It could then produce monsters that were not inferior to itself to gather food for itself. Once it did so, it would remain stationary, and would only be able to defend itself with the creatures it creates. These things would not have a root, nor a core, and would be linked with the thing that spawned them.


    Yi Wei seemed to throw another attack at the wolf, but just as it dodged out of the way, she also disappeared with the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, appearing before the entrance to the cave. Indeed, according to her expectations, there were hints of teeth-like thorns at the entrance, revealing its true nature.


    As soon as she entered the cave, she felt the air become damper, as if she had entered the stomach of some gigantic beast. The vine wolf struggled to chase her, but with the movement technique of the fourth realm, she was able to easily surpass the creature¡¯s superior speed at the low cost of straining her legs. After all, she didn¡¯t truly possess an ability of the Active Core realm, and instead simply imitated the leg movements of an expert. If not for her recently acquired physique, repeating this with enough frequency to escape the vine dire wolf and to progress into the vine hungry nest would have led to the loss of one or both of her feet.


    With her progress into the nest, the cave slowly opened up from a narrow passage suitable only for two people walking side by side to a cavern that a dozen tall and wide men could be comfortable in.


    The vines also changed from simple growths on the stone to a darker, more crimson shade, with large, sack-like outgrowths on the walls and floor. Presumably, they held the resting spawn of the hungry nest, though the vines were far too tightly packed for her to see through.


    She progressed further into the cave and finally came upon the central chamber, where the crimson light was most vibrant. There, held up in the air by a thousand individual vines, was a large red object that resembled a human heart, beating slowly whilst radiating a thin red mist. It flowed downwards and spread out, coating the entire cavern floor with a blood-like layer of fog so thick that it almost felt like liquid as she waded through it.


    ¡®No matter what this stuff is, that heart matches the picture I saw of the vine hungry nest¡¯s root,¡¯ Yi Wei remembered the book that she had read regarding the vine variety of creatures and charged straight for it.


    However, just because the wolf was unable to catch up with her, that didn¡¯t mean that the nest could not slow her down. Just as she crossed half of the chamber, a monumental planar anchor crashed down in front of her, occupying half of the width of the room. Contrary to whatever plans the planar beast had, however, she did not turn around, nor did she go around it.


    She lunged right at it, lightning gathering within her hand whilst entwining with white energy.


    ¡®Stupid beast, don¡¯t throw out your strongest weapon as a shield! Elysian Storm Burst!¡¯


    Two bolts of interweaved lightning shot out, right into the spectral stone of the anchor. This wasn¡¯t a proper planar anchor, no matter how impressive it appeared to be. It was the result of a half-step realm, and thus, it was even more vulnerable to attack than it should have been.


    It struck the surface, and instantly spread out, covering the entire monumental anchor in light. Immediately after, it began to crack and splinter, pieces of stone flying off and vanishing into the air.


    With what must have been a cry of pain, the hungry nest retrieved the planar anchor back into its aperture, but it was far too late. The lightning followed it, and only seconds later, the inside of the root burst with gold and violet light, and several cracks appeared at the surface as the lightning energy exploded.


    The aura of the creature flickered, and then began to decline rapidly until it was no stronger than the sixth stage of the Planar Pool realm. With just a single move of someone who is almost two realms below it, it was crippled.


    This time, there was no need to question what the subsequent sound meant ¨C it was a roar. A roar of absolute fury.


    From all around the nest¡¯s walls, cocoons and vine eggs burst out, breaking open into all sorts of beasts and monsters. They roared, screeched and howled, each one burning with crimson light as if they had emerged from a sea of blood. Their every breath released a thick cloud of the red mist, and they instantly surrounded her from all directions, with some staying low to the ground and others flying up to the top of the cave.


    ¡®Either this thing has some fondness of the dramatic, or-¡¯ all of a sudden, her train of thought was broken by a sudden cough. Her lungs felt as if they had been set on fire and filled with some foul mixture of fluids that seemed to be melting through her flesh.


    ¡®Or this is all poison! Of course it is! That¡¯s won¡¯t stop me!¡¯ Yi Wei exclaimed, covering her entire body in storm.


    As the beasts all launched themselves at her, she too made a move.


    Drying Sands Strike! Scarlet Metal Strike! Boulder Pushing Palm! Bestial Palm ¨C Ram! Elysian Palm! Storm Wreathing! Elysian Storm Burst! Seven strikes, seven techniques, all combined into one, were unleashed by her in a circle, targeting all approaching beasts, but mainly concentrated on a single point ¨C the vine hungry nest¡¯s root!


    Combining attacks wasn¡¯t significantly unusual in the Planar Continents, but it was typically limited to one movement skill and a combat technique, or something of a similar nature. This was due to two main issues. The first was that it required immense concentration and understanding of the skills being utilised. Most did not create their own techniques, and thus, their understanding of them, no matter how complete it seemed, would lack a few integral components. Yi Wei, on the other hand, faced no such issue as she modified small parts of these skills herself to allow herself to use them without cultivating them. She had even created Elysian Palm in a moment of inspiration, and thus gained knowledge about the structure of techniques that she could apply to all others.


    The second issue with trying to use so many techniques at once was obvious to anyone who had ever cultivated. In order to perform any skill, one needed to circulate their planar energy in a particular fashion. However, if you intended to use two or more skills that relied on the same meridians and pathways, you would need to allow the planar energy to clash against itself, forcefully generating two or more flows of energy. In simpler words, the second issue was pain. A lot of pain, and even the risk of permanent damage.


    Yi Wei was not worried about the latter. She had cosmic energy, so that was not an issue.


    Half-way through her execution of the attack, however, she felt something she hadn¡¯t expected. Before any clashes within her planar energy occurred, something within her second set of meridians moved instead, performing almost every energy circulation that would have caused injury otherwise.


    ¡®What is this? To think I hadn¡¯t noticed it- wait! It¡¯s yang-type energy, meaning¡­ True Ascendant Physique?¡¯ she concluded just as the energy burst out of her.


    A sphere of fire, stone, sand, heat, bestial energy, storm and heavenly energy exploded within the cavern, with a secondary beam striking right for the root. In a single second, every vine beast was annihilated, and in the next moment, the hungry nest followed their fate. The vines that covered every single surface of the cave withered in an instant, their vitality flowing away into the world.


    The second after, Yi Wei also fell to one knee. Even though she was able to avoid the backlash of executing all of those techniques at once, it still drained a vast quantity of planar energy, though not to the same point as the fight with Jiang Sheng.


    She spat out a mouthful of liquid poison, though it looked much like her blood.


    For a while, she sat in place and rested, recovering her energy as she watched the vines recede into the central chamber, almost flowing into the ruined root until the vines that held it up also sunk into it, causing it to fall onto the ground with a dull thud. Once it was clear that there would be no more activity from the nest¡¯s core, she was able to focus on what just happened.


    ¡®So, by the looks of it, body cultivation ¨C or, rather, my physique ¨C also provides a form of energy that can be circulated. When I developed the True Ascendant Physique, it must have occupied my secondary meridians without me noticing,¡¯ Yi Wei was able to deduce what happened in a few seconds, ¡®However, unless the physique energy¡­ I¡¯ll need to think of a better name for it¡­ is akin to planar energy in that it cannot exit the body without sufficient condensation, then it seems to me that it is only capable of supporting the energy that I already have. Well, I might as well experiment with it now, seeing as my planar energy is almost spent.¡¯


    After taking in one more breath of planar energy, she rose to her feet and considered the simplest technique she had, as well as the one she was most familiar with, Gentle Breeze Fist.


    ¡®If my assumption is correct, then the most that I will be able to do with only my physique energy is pull off the movements of the skill,¡¯ she thought, ¡®If it does require cultivation in much the same way that one cultivates planar energy, then this will also produce the exact effect of the Gentle Breeze Fist that I would have been able to execute one month ago. In the unlikely event that I simply failed to use the full ability of physique energy the last time, then it could even function as a secondary pool of planar energy.¡¯


    Admittedly, the last idea was clearly far too optimistic, considering all of the advantages she already had, but strictly speaking, there was no reason for it to not be plausible at the very least. And if it was plausible, then why couldn¡¯t she make it real?

 V1C19: A Quiet Chat

    She calmed down her mind and focused on keeping her planar energy in check as to not corrupt the results of her experiment, then willed the energy in her secondary meridians to move alongside her body. It was difficult, as if she had begun to learn the use of an entirely new limb, but this limb wasn¡¯t a wing or a tail, or something else that she had never used before. It was a meridian network, and even though no creature was born with more than one, it was still familiar to her.


    The first half of the circulation did not appear productive, but as soon as she started finalising the flow of physique energy into a technique, that changed.


    True Ascendant physique energy, initially idle and dull, flared up, transforming into beams of sunlight within her meridians. Even without ever seeing it with her own eyes, she knew that this was the purest state yang energy could ever be in, and yet it was flowing through her meridians in ever-growing quantities, the light of the sun doubling in strength with every moment.


    That immense build up lasted only a few seconds, ending just before her attack was unleashed, but that time alone made the yang qi shine brighter than a thousand suns. When it burst out of her fist, a roar, immense and earth-shattering, was a mere prelude to the attack it hailed.


    A gust of wind, impossibly mighty and hot, was launched at the cavern¡¯s wall. It shook not just the entire cave, but seemingly the entire world, heating the stone into glass and incinerating the remains of vines and grasses into nothingness as if they were struck with the breath of a dragon. What should have been a simple fist technique expanded into a heating haze that would have consumed all in its path if it had been used at the peak of Yi Wei¡¯s strength.


    Now, it was only able to last a second, after which it vanished without a trace ¨C other than the glassed cave walls, of course.


    The True Ascendant energy was completely exhausted from her meridians, although the physique was clearly still in place. In other words, physique energy seemed to behave like a multiple-use talisman, storing energy before unleashing it all in a single use.


    ¡®And it just happens to be yang-type, like fire¡­ I wonder, if I was to gain yin-type physique energy, could it also behave like a formation array, collecting and slowly using energy, thus allowing me to use it just like I use my planar energy?¡¯ she wondered, though she quickly shook her head and threw the idea as far away as she could ¨C she had already gained an impressive and unknown physique by luck, so to somehow gain a secondary one would really be pushing it. Even if the heavens were kind, they would not tolerate her ambitions indefinitely.


    ¡®Anyway, this attack is certainly no weaker than anything a second realm cultivator could produce, though I have too little experience with the Emergent Anchor realm to estimate how it compares. Nevertheless, I shouldn¡¯t be fighting at that level anytime soon,¡¯ she thought, though the rather major increase in the strength of her opponents in recent times was somewhat worrying.


    Still, that was something to worry about later. Her rather loud destruction of the vine hungry nest would certainly attract some attention sooner or later ¨C plus, if the earth shook as much as she thought it did during the test of the True Ascendant physique force, then it would demand the inspection of someone in the fifth realm just in case there was some sort of damage to the very surface of the world itself ¨C so it was best to get out of the area before discovered her and saw through what little remained of her mask and cloak. She looked down, and confirmed her suspicion that during the day¡¯s activity, her clothes were once again torn apart.


    ¡®Had I come out here with the expensive items I purchased last week, my money would have been completely wasted. Still, how has my chosen path destroyed my clothes so many times already? Is this how I¡¯ll be punished for all of my luck so far?¡¯


    To get some use out of what remained, she rearranged the robes on her body to cover the significant areas on her body, before throwing the mask down onto the ground and crushing it. This wasn¡¯t one she used for the Da Gang persona, so there was no need for her to keep it on her for any longer than was absolutely necessary.


    ¡®Also, this mask was already half-broken after just one encounter, while the first one survived the Deadly Martial Colosseum¡¯s pagoda and several fights. I should go to Ning Guanting and ask her if it is made out of an unusual material,¡¯ Yi Wei considered,


    She then retrieved the root of the nest, which had thankfully shrunk sufficiently for her to store it in the one pocket that survived without any obvious signs of it.


    It was certain to have some purpose, so even if she would be unable to use it now or in the future, it could still be sold for a decent sum due to it being the core of a Half-Step Emergent Anchor planar beast.


    Once she had searched the cave for any other items of value, and found none, she left, heading through the winding passages to the bright sunlight outside. Even without seeing the sky, it was easy to see that the sun was now completely over the horizon, that there were few clouds to block the light, and that a cloaked figure stood warily by the entrance of the cave, clearly waiting to see who or what would emerge from within.


    Judging by the aura, it was someone in the second realm, so-


    ¡°Yi Wei?¡±


    Moments later, she recognised the voice and figure, ¡°Yi Yaling?¡±


    The figure lowered her hood, and the familiar red-haired face of the na?ve girl was revealed. However, there was something different about her, or rather her eyes. Previously, they were plain and grey, just as those of many members of the Yi family, but now they had a curious glint within them, like they contained a spark of golden light within them.


    Out of curiosity, she got a little closer and sent out a thin tendril of her spiritual will to inspect the woman¡¯s cultivation and found a stable aura of the second realm.


    ¡®Well, this isn¡¯t anything too surprising. If I recall correctly, she was at the ninth stage last time we spoke, so it isn¡¯t too strange for her to have broken through,¡¯ Yi Wei thought before addressing the girl, ¡°What are you doing out here?¡±


    ¡°I heard that there was a vine wolf lurking in the area, preying upon the common folk, so I came over and wanted to kill it,¡± Yi Yaling explained quickly while taking a look at Yi Wei¡¯s state, ¡°I was told that it was around here, but since you¡¯re coming out¡­ like that, have you encountered it?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I found it and defeated it,¡± she gave part of the truth before moving on, ¡°Hey, I feel that your aura is a little different. Did you make some progress with your cultivation recently?¡±


    ¡°Oh, you noticed!¡± her face ¨C no, her entire figure ¨C suddenly lit up with excitement, ¡°I¡¯m not sure what you were doing two weeks ago, but I went to the Deadly Martial Colosseum again, and my dad brought me to see a really cool fight! This guy, Da Gang, he used an amazing technique that created an endless storm of golden lightning, and when I looked at it, I just felt as if I understood something, and the next thing I know, I¡¯m breaking into the Planar Pool realm! Awesome, right?¡±


    Yi Wei nodded along, though these news were somewhat concerning, ¡®To think that a random fight allowed someone to advance that easily¡­ I haven¡¯t heard any news of a whole slew of people doing the same, so I have to assume that Yi Yaling was the only one affected like this, but it still isn¡¯t necessarily a good thing to be able to inspire others in combat to this extent. Imagine being close to defeating someone when they suddenly comprehend some aspect of the Dao as a result of your attacks and advance by a stage or even a realm!


    ¡®Such a thing is unlikely, of course, just as few people ever get some degree of inspiration within their lives. It does raise a few questions, however.¡¯


    ¡°Weren¡¯t you cultivating a water type technique? How did lightning grant you inspiration?¡±


    ¡°You see, I¡­¡± the girl stepped forward to whisper into Yi Wei¡¯s ears, ¡°I was, but then my planar energy suddenly transformed without any warning, and now it¡¯s like this!¡±


    Just as her spiritual will was about to enter the girl¡¯s planar aperture, Yi Wei saw a golden spark appear in Yi Yaling¡¯s hand, growing rapidly until it condensed into a sphere of lightning almost indistinguishable from Yi Wei¡¯s techniques on first sight. A little bit of inspection, however, revealed that the lightning was made purely from the fire and metal elements, and the overall purity and density was far lower than energy Yi Wei was able to use.


    Nonetheless, it was on a level approaching the user of a forbidden skill, Jiang Sheng, which was an impressive achievement in and of itself. The thought that it was all from a random bit of inspiration was¡­ a little jealousy-inducing.


    Yi Wei made sure to not show it on her face, so Yi Yaling continued, ¡°Since I learned a lot about techniques of fire and metal types ¨C by the way, did you know that lightning is actually two elements? ¨C I was able to stabilise my cultivation, but even the secret lightning technique my daddy borrowed from the family didn¡¯t work with my planar energy, so he got a little angry at me for a bit.¡±


    ¡®Your father can borrow secret techniques from the family at will? If you were the protagonist of a story, things would be really easy for you,¡¯ she complained internally before forcing a smile, ¡°I¡¯m glad that my suggestions have been beneficial to you, but if you ever intend to go hunting in the outskirts of the district, be careful. Even though your strength has improved, you aren¡¯t omnipotent. There are always things stronger than you.¡±


    ¡°I know that, but if I am too scared to fight wild beasts, how will I ever challenge the top of the family and right the wrongs they have committed?¡±


    ¡®What?¡¯


    ¡°Naturally, I respect my elders and the family as a whole, but the people who forced you to work under the scorching sun for so long that your beautiful snow-white skin got marred should not be allowed to remain in power! So, I will rise to the top and help our family recover from this disgrace!¡±


    ¡®So she¡¯s just an idiot. Got it. Where do I even begin with this?¡¯ Yi Wei bit her lip to prevent herself from accidentally speaking some of her less polite ideas, ¡°First of all, I am a servant of the family. Working for people is what I¡¯m meant to be doing. If that¡¯s the sort of thing you want to change, then you¡¯d effectively be going against the entire family. In other words, you, a second realm cultivator, would need to oppose at least two people in the Linked Channels realm, at least ten in the Marked Core realm, around a hundred in the Active Core realm, thousands of Emergent Anchor realm cultivators and the tens of thousands below that. Do you really think that this would work even if you reached the sixth realm? Remember, so long as your skin and flesh can be pierced by weapons, then any regular man or woman could kill you if given enough time.¡±


    ¡°I-I know that, of course! However, the family should recognise talent, not strike it down. If I raise the issue, most of the higher-ups would certainly leap to my aid!¡±


    Yi Wei sighed, ¡°Are you so sure about that? Imagine having a child for a moment.¡±


    ¡°Eh? A-Alright, sure, I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m imagining it,¡± the girl blushed slightly.


    ¡°Now imagine that you have been raising him or her-¡±


    ¡°Her.¡±


    ¡°¡­ That you have been raising her for fourteen years, doing your best to bring them to the top. Naturally, you want her to take over your position after your death, correct? So, you try to give her opportunities to shine, to rise above everyone else, but then some random dirty boy shows up and delivers an inheritance that is far more valuable than anything you or your child have ever had the hope of finding. Then, your child also comes along and tells you how that boy constantly bullied and offended her by intentionally beating her in whatever they did. What would you do in this situation?¡±


    She didn¡¯t even take a second to respond, ¡°I¡¯d take the technique and beat the little brat who dared to offend my sweet Ah Mei! Then, since it¡¯s so important, I¡¯d let Ah Mei take credit for it, and¡­ wait¡­¡±


    ¡°Took you a while, though I can¡¯t say I¡¯m too surprised. Now, to give you another example, let¡¯s just forget about Ah Mei-¡±


    ¡°No! I can¡¯t forget about such a cute girl¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah Mei isn¡¯t real, so move on.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­¡±


    ¡°Are you done now? Good. Imagine that you were trying to prove yourself to the family after failing to do much of use for several years. Then, all of a sudden, just as you were about to be knocked down a spot in the hierarchy, a random girl shows up, using strange techniques and cultivating far quicker than anyone else, reaching¡­ say, the third realm in just a few months despite starting off at the first. In addition, she is bringing some sort of treasure that allows the use of a unique cultivation technique.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I would take her in as my disciple, then share in her future glory,¡± Yi Yaling smiled, almost begging to be praised.


    ¡°That answer is far too reasonable for you. What would you actually do in such a situation?¡±


    ¡°Y-You¡¯re right¡­ I would secretly beat her up, get the techniques out of her, take the artefact and pretend that I was the one that found it¡­ Dear heavens, I sound like such a terrible person, don¡¯t I? Ugh¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, that¡¯s not entirely your fault,¡± Yi Wei said, sighing in relief at the fact that the silly girl seemed to have failed to understand who the second example was about, ¡°The Planar Continents are all about strength and worth. If you have the first, you have the second one as well, though not always the other way around. So long as you are of use, then it doesn¡¯t matter what you¡¯ve done or who you are, but if that use doesn¡¯t outweigh a number of other factors, you¡¯re not likely to survive for long. Yi Dongfang himself didn¡¯t have much use, but his technique did, so they took it and passed it along to someone who they thought was better fit to carry it.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Then, surely you don¡¯t intend to just be a common servant for the rest of your life? You¡¯re a genius, after all¡­¡±


    ¡°No, I do not. However, I also don¡¯t intend to dismantle the entire system, like you seem to be. My plan, for now, is to get to a point where I have enough strength and wit to overpower the natural dislike of the lower members of the family, as well as the jealousy of those who desire whatever it is I may possess in the future. In theory, as long as I am able to cultivate, to, say, the third realm, then it would be completely unreasonable to keep me in my current position, and too foolish to kill me.¡±


    ¡°Wait, didn¡¯t you say that intelligence was also important? Can¡¯t you just show it off now and instantly leap up a few ranks in the family?¡±


    She looked at her with a disappointed gaze, ¡°Where have you gotten these ideas from? Haven¡¯t you heard the phrase ¡®one hundred brains are not match for a sword¡¯?¡±


    ¡°No?¡±


    ¡°I made it up,¡± Yi Wei said, ¡°The meaning is that we, the Yi family, do not currently require bright minds. Development of cultivation techniques is typically up to luck and inspiration, so any random oaf could manage it, and business deals can be handled purely with our name. There is no need for strategists, for there have been no wars for the past few thousand years, no need for bright minds in architecture or construction, since the Yi District won¡¯t expand unless Yi City does, and no requirement for someone who can understand the great arts over someone who can simply do them, since no new recipes or methods have been created in some time.


    ¡°That¡¯s not to say that the mind is useless in this age. Had I been born to a lower member of the family instead of servants, I could have lived the rest of my life as a trader and merchant, since the best deals won¡¯t be made with our name alone. However, there are only so many people needed in each position, and it would be unwise for the higher-ups to choose me over any of the established members of the family, regardless of my ability, as their support is far more valuable than my skills seem to be.


    ¡°If I was to add to my mind with cultivation, or, in simpler words, strength, there would be a question ¨C where did I get it from? I am not too talented in cultivation, and yet, somehow, I am making progress in a month that I have not been able to make in four years. In such a case, there is really only one logical answer: a treasure, or some other sort of powerful gift.


    ¡°As long as it can be salvaged and used on someone more useful, then I will be killed and it will be taken away from me. For the good of the family, or something like that. That is why I need to get to a higher realm first. Once I am a little too powerful to be handled casually, and once it can be ascertained that whatever I may or may not have used to advance quickly is no longer removable from me ¨C even if it doesn¡¯t exist, mind you ¨C then there will be no other choice but to accept me with open arms and take advantage of whatever it is they¡¯re able to make me do.


    ¡°After all, I am a servant, a servant who wasn¡¯t treated as well as I could have been. Why would I be as loyal as someone who has been born and raised in riches from the start, like, for example¡­ you?¡±


    ¡°Huh? What about me?¡±


    ¡°Why should the Yi family bother with me if they have a better rising star to cling on to? Even if you don¡¯t end up as bright, or as powerful, or as capable in the great arts, you¡¯ve been raised by a loving member of the family who had the clout to casually take out a secret-grade technique for you to look through. If all they have to do to gain your eternal trust it to pretend to get rid of some of the less savoury elements of the family, then that is a much better deal than annoying every other kid who would have been in my place if I didn¡¯t show up out of nowhere.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ You¡­ you have given me a lot to think about. Do you mind if we get back to this another time?¡±


    ¡°No, feel free to leave. I should be going too.¡±


    ¡°Right.¡±


    Yi Yaling hopped away, completely forgetting about her intention to ascertain Yi Wei¡¯s current cultivation.


    Yi Wei, meanwhile, stood still, and looked into her planar aperture. There, the mysterious characters that had been shaking slightly during her entire unprovoked rant slowly calmed and returned to their original stillness.


    ¡®All of that didn¡¯t quite sound like me¡­ In fact, it was the same with the first time I mentioned Yi Dongfang. It was almost like I was combining my thoughts with someone else who had gone through a similar situation, albeit worse. These characters¡­ since they¡¯re able to store cultivation techniques, or possibly create them on the spot, then maybe they also contain the memories of someone who was suppressed by their family and constantly held back by various greedy individuals?¡¯ she pondered, taking a few deep breaths to relax, ¡®I¡¯m not sure, but I do know that I¡¯m not completely doomed yet. If things go wrong, then I¡¯ll get back to this.¡¯


    Oculus


    Please select all that you''d be interested in reading in the poll below:


    Edit: After realising that all three poll results would need a significant focus on characters, I have decided that my next project will be ¡ºI Was Called A Demon¡», a story set in the Planar Continents roughly 300,000 years prior to the events of Path of the Ascendant. I still intend to do the other stories, but they will come after IWCAD and Book 2 of Path of the Ascendant.

 V1C20: Returning to the Colosseum

    Although it was unpleasant to know that something was capable of influencing her mind so easily, she had no methods of handling the mysterious characters, nor did she wish to get rid of her only hope to cultivating.


    Thus, she shook her head and returned home, doing the best she could to avoid any direct encounters with passers-by. Since she had no stealth techniques, there were still undoubtedly witnesses to her mostly nude hopping about the forest.


    When she got back to her hut, it became quickly obvious that rumours of a random ragged temptress would fill the minds and ears of the common folk for a few days. At some point during her careless travel out of the forest, what little remained of her cloak was torn apart, leaving only the pocket and the area around her neck.


    On the positive side, with her new physique and pseudo-second realm cultivation, her speed was sufficiently great to avoid any details of her visage from being seen and remembered by others, so at the very least she wouldn¡¯t be recognised in the streets, but to avoid anyone else seeing too much of her skin she quickly threw off the rag, removed the vine hungry nest root and threw it elsewhere before taking out a set of clothes that she had acquired earlier.


    Just as she put on her shirt, she heard shouting outside her door.


    ¡°Yi Wei! Come out here and answer for what you¡¯ve done to my brothers! Do you hear me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I hear you,¡± she replied just loudly enough to the man outside to hear her, ¡®How does everyone I don¡¯t want to see know where I live? And what is he even talking about?¡¯


    She couldn¡¯t remember anything of relevance to the situation until she stepped outside and saw three young men around her age, one of whom had strangely short hair, eyebrows and a furious look in his eyes.


    ¡®Oh, it¡¯s¡­ Yi Jin? No, that was the metal cultivator, so¡­¡¯


    ¡°Yi Jun, is that the person that stole your Planar Gathering pill and burned you without any provocation whatsoever?¡± the third man, older than the other two, whom Yi Wei had not seen before, asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, big bro Yi Jang, she-¡±


    She interrupted him before he had a chance to say any more blatant lies, ¡°Yi Jang, do you mind if we talk with each other alone? I have a feeling there is a slight misunderstanding of the situation, and I might be unable to explain myself properly if two people constantly attempt to speak over me.¡±


    Yi Jang looked at her with an odd expression for a while before he came to a conclusion, ¡°Fine. Since you dare to speak with me, you might have something to say. Yi Jun, Yi Jin, stay here and¡­ well, there¡¯s nothing for you to steal, is there? Just don¡¯t make a mess. If everything you¡¯ve said is true, I¡¯ll get revenge for you.¡±


    ¡°Of course it¡¯s true, big bro! Don¡¯t listen to her lies!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not as stupid as you two, so don¡¯t worry. Now, go away,¡± Yi Jang shooed them away as if he was talking down to animals, and turned around once they had gotten far enough away, ¡°So, how will you defend yourself? Or do you intend to beg for-¡±


    ¡°I apologise for interrupting, but I do not intend to beg you for anything. I simply want to correct whatever story they might have told you. Where should I start?¡±


    He frowned at her, ¡°I don¡¯t like your attitude, but¡­ begin with the seventh. It is obvious that you stole the Planar Gathering pill on the second, so-¡±


    ¡°That is very presumptuous of you, Yi Jang. On the second of this month, I was approached by Yi Zhang, who proposed a duel with me. I accepted, with the stakes being one Flesh Recovery pill and one Planar Gathering pill. I won, and took my prize,¡± Yi Wei explained without letting the man¡¯s angry expression phase her, ¡°Surely you¡¯re not going to have a problem with that, are you?¡±


    ¡°Yi Zhang? Hm, he is only in the second stage, so if he did get his hands on the pill, it makes sense for you to beat him at¡­ what realm were you in?¡±


    ¡°The first.¡±


    ¡°Hm. Fine, continue.¡±


    ¡°On the seventh, after my cultivation, Yi Jin and Yi Jun approached me and got into another fight because I didn¡¯t let myself be beaten by Yi Zhang. Their skills weren¡¯t very good, so I defeated them easily. They tried to catch me off guard afterward, but I was alert and foiled their little plot.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, their skills are rather weak. They even tried to claim that you were in the second stage, but I didn¡¯t believe such an obvious lie.¡±


    ¡®No, that was the one lie you should believe when it comes from a sore loser. I am surprised they didn¡¯t claim I was, or had the help of, an Emergent Anchor realm expert, as that would have been much more like their style,¡¯ she thought, shooting an angry look at the pair that seemed to be about to tear apart what little remained of her fence, ¡°I don¡¯t care what they have and haven¡¯t said. If you don¡¯t have anything else to say, can we just get to the conclusion of this? I have something else to be doing.¡±


    ¡°Fine. I think I can understand what happened. They paid the brat to fight you, and when he lost, they made up a few stories to get me to save them some face,¡± Yi Jang sighed, ¡°Keep the pill, if you still have it.¡±


    Without any further words, he turned to Yi Jun and Yi Jin and went to them. He placed his hands on their shoulders and lead them away from her home, turning the street after a while.


    ¡®Regardless of what he¡¯ll do with them, I find it curious that he hasn¡¯t made any semblance of an apology. Had he not believed me, and had I been a regular peak Energy Condensation realm cultivator, he would have easily defeated me with his second realm, third stage cultivation, and then he would have been able to punish me for defending myself thrice in a row,¡¯ Yi Wei sighed after she confirmed that they were too far away for her to hear, even with the aid of cosmic energy, ¡®I can see why whatever memories were left inside the mysterious characters had such a negative reaction to the thought of simply trusting the family.¡¯


    She knew that whatever the origin of the mysterious characters was, it wouldn¡¯t be smart to consider it entirely harmless after one instance of their unwanted side effects being correct, so she made a mental note to keep an eye on any future instances of unusual activity before leaving her yard and heading for the Colosseum.


    On the way, she switched clothes again, and encountered no strange people trying to recruit her. For once, the journey was somewhat calm.


    Since Jiang Sheng¡¯s fight, she had participated in formal combat four more times, mostly due to her teachers being busy with gathering materials for her. Two of the matches were supposed to be to the death, but her opponents turned out to be far less impressive than the first. They were defeated with sufficient ease to remove any tension from the fight, and so her opponents were spared by the arena''s organisers, likely to be put into battles with more fairly matched opponents.


    As a result, she walked away with eight gold and forty silver coins. Even with the large quantity that she had spent on materials to assist in her breakthrough, she still had two free manuals she could redeem, as well as one gold and a dozen silver coins left over.


    There were currently no obvious ways to spend the money, so she was hanging onto it, keeping the majority of it in a hidden spot that she reinforced with a pseudo Aura Obscuring array. Any powerful cultivator would easily be able to see through it, but it should prevent the Yi Juns and Yi Jins of the world from finding it.


    Once she entered the building at the far edge of the Deadly Martial Colosseum¡¯s land, she saw the twins waiting for her as always. She had been tempted to ask whether they had anything else to do the last time she visited, but it was slowly becoming evident that they had very little work in general.


    Just as she was about to speak, however, she realised that there was something different about them this time, ¡°Great Dark and Great Light, have both of you advanced by a stage or two?¡±


    ¡°We could ask you the same thing,¡± Great Dark, looking at her strangely, ¡°Now, we are both at the peak of the Marked Core realm¡­ though we may push for a breakthrough in the near future, depending on how long our momentum lasts¡­ May we now receive your answer?¡±


    ¡°I have made one stage of progress,¡± Yi Wei replied briefly, her attention drawn by the curious state of yin and yang qi within the twins ¨C or, rather, the absolute absence of the latter. Typically, any regular human had a 33% on 66% split of yin and yang depending on their gender. A man would be two-thirds yang and one-third yin, and a woman would have the opposite. Someone with a Yin or Yang Physique would have three-quarters yin or three-quarters yang, and a Greater Yin Physique would cause someone to have four-fifths yin, Absolute Yin would lead to five-sixths yin, and any further stages of the physique would lead to similar increases.


    Great Light and Great Dark, however, had no yang qi at all despite being men. It was like someone had come along and thoroughly drained them of any yang, then went ahead and replaced every internal organ with solid sculptures made up of condensed yin. Such an absolute absence of a core element of reality was far stranger than the True Ascendant Physique, although the exact split that it caused was also not known to Yi Wei at the moment.


    ¡°Just one? That¡­ huh. How does it work if someone has enough perfected stages to break through early?¡± Great Light said, before being immediately slapped on the face by his brother.


    A wave of absolute yin pulsed out from the strike, filling the air with frost.


    ¡°Have you completely lost control over your mouth recently?¡± Great Dark muttered, but it was too late.


    ¡®So they did catch on. It would have been strange if someone approaching the sixth realm couldn¡¯t detect the perfected stages of a first realm cultivator, especially when I never tried to hide it in front of them. In fact, it is rather surprising that there seems to be no-one else who realises this,¡¯ she thought, raising her masked face to meet the eyes of the two, ¡°Since you know, I might as well admit it, but I would appreciate some form of equivalent exchange. I lack certain information, and you two clearly want to know some of the things I know.¡±


    ¡°True. The existence of perfected stages is well known to anyone over the age of fifty, as they would have had to stumble upon a book describing them by that point, but the Master of Yi City is one of the few who is believed to have even succeeded with perfecting more than a few stages. Otherwise, the Ze District is at the peak of the world, their focus being perfected stages,¡± Great Light nodded, ¡°Since you are in need of a teacher, I can educate your straight to your imminent demis-¡±


    ¡°Great Light! The Void Room, now!¡±


    The next moment, Great Light vanished from the darkness of the illusory world, leaving only his twin. He didn¡¯t seem to have moved, or even used the fourth realm¡¯s instant movement, he just¡­ vanished.


    ¡°Ahem. Great Light has been having a few problems with his cultivation as of late, and-¡±


    ¡®Hold on, they¡¯ve recently begun to advance rapidly, their yin energy has gotten even thicker, and it just happened to occur after I defeated Jiang Sheng and, most likely, allowed his technique to be taken by those two, and now, after a few days during which Great Light has been acting strangely, he seems to have gone completely off the rails- rails? What does that even¡­¡¯ she was momentarily stumped, but waved the strange concept of a ¡®rail¡¯ away and interrupted the twin, ¡°You¡¯ve been practising that forbidden skill, haven¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± he blinked several times in silence, ¡°How¡­ do¡­ you¡­ figure¡­ that?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not blind, and I¡¯m not blind. I don¡¯t know why it isn¡¯t affecting your appearance, nor your voice, but your brother is clearly more vulnerable to its particular mental effects. Or, so I assume based on how much he has lost control over the past two weeks, to the point of you sending him to some sort of Void Room. I assume that, if it deserves to be called a Void Room despite this illusory world being completely empty, then it would be a sort of isolation cell for someone to calm down, but the fact that it has never been used before in my presence implies that things haven¡¯t gotten this bad in a while, and that Great Light hasn¡¯t been behaving himself when you two were on your own, as well. Is that about right?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yes. The effects of Ice Demon¡¯s Will were somewhat greater than we had expected, and for the past few hours, he¡¯s been ranting and raving about a number of things that shouldn¡¯t be said,¡± Great Dark admitted, ¡°As such, let us focus on perfected stages. What did you want to know?¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯d actually like to read the manual for Ice Demon¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°No. Perfected stages only.¡±


    She raised an eyebrow, but ultimately decided to acquiesce, ¡°Then, I wish to know a little bit about the basics. What effects do they have on one¡¯s cultivation? What are the largest quantities of perfected stages ever achieved by regular people, and how have they influenced their future stages and realms? Are there any known unusual scenarios that occur upon achieving a sufficient number of perfected stages within a certain realm?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ In the rare instance that someone achieves a perfected stage, the general density of their energy will increase, or the particular element of the realm will be strengthened. The highest quantity of perfected stages reached by a single person that I am aware of is four, in total, across all realms¡­ That same person was forever stuck in the Emergent Anchor realm as they were unable to control their energy sufficiently to create the shield of the Active Core realm¡­ Other than that, I cannot think of anything,¡± Great Dark spoke slowly, slower than usual, ¡°Now, tell me how you have perfected each stage in your cultivation.¡±


    Yi Wei saw a slight cold glint within his eye, but even if it was some sort of forgotten lie-detecting technique, she wasn¡¯t too worried, ¡°It¡¯s a technique I acquired¡­ If you want to know where, I may tell you if you let me examine the Ice Demon¡¯s Will.¡±


    ¡°I will do fine without that information, then.¡±


    ¡°Tch. Would it really hurt you to let me take a look?¡±


    ¡°Even if we limit the ¡®taking a look¡¯ to a minute, you¡¯ll read it in its entirety, won¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like the manual will explode if just one person reads it, though, so what is the issue with it? You two deemed it safe enough to practise, so are you afraid to let your best student do the same?¡±


    ¡°Is that something I have to explain to you? You have some awareness of yin and yang in your surroundings, or so I assume¡­ and you should know that it is safer for those with high quantities of yin to practise yin-type techniques than someone with a high quantity of yang doing the same¡­ I can apologise for us mistaking you for a woman, however. Such a quantity and purity of yang qi is rarely seen in most men.¡±


    ¡®That means my breakthrough was well-timed. However, it is very curious that he says that I do know certain things, rather than asking me about it¡­ Is he making an incorrect assumption about my identity?¡¯


    Since that mistaken assumption was getting her new information with surprising ease, she decided not to correct him for the moment, ¡°You mentioned a person being unable to reach the next realm of cultivation due to perfected stages. Is that something specific to the Active Core realm?¡±


    ¡°Obviously not¡­ In the Planar Pool realm, the dantian may be unable to withstand the planar energy at a density beyond that of the Energy Condensation realm¡­ In the Emergent Anchor realm, the cultivator may lack the strength to control his energy to a sufficient enough degree to form a planar anchor¡­ at the Marked Core realm, the issue could be much the same. This is a general danger anyone could face, though perfected stages increase the chances of them occurring.¡±


    ¡®If that is true, then it is a good thing my planar aperture was cleansed before my planar energy began to condense into liquid.¡¯


    ¡°There have been several methods by which various experts have attempted to strengthen their planar apertures and forcefully induce a perfected stage. We have a number of them at the Deadly Martial Colosseum, and they can be shared with you if you would permit us to study the effects of perfected stages on you.¡±


    ¡®I already know that my cosmic energy is able to hide of its own accord, and that the mysterious characters are invisible to anyone but me, so I doubt there¡¯s much he¡¯ll be able to see. In addition, there¡¯s the elevation of my duties once I openly display my pseudo second realm cultivation, which might take me out of the city district for a number of months. I can grab all of the techniques, put them together into another painful mess, and then avoid anyone who knows me until I am actually in the second realm, at which point I can pin everything onto some sort of miraculous encounter, or the aid of an expert,¡¯ she smiled beneath the mask, but controlled her voice to sound calm, ¡°Sure. Where are the manuals?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll summon them for you¡­ but you are already considering leaving the district as soon as possible, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Any reason I shouldn¡¯t be? You are spending your weeks sitting in a dark space, but I have a number of things I need to be doing,¡± Yi Wei said in a self-important tone ¨C the way the two interpreted it was none of her business.


    ¡°Very well. Just get to reading already. You¡¯ll reduce our lifespan by a couple hundred years¡­¡±


    ¡°You want to do what? Did you not listen to what I told you the last time? I said¡­ do not waste your opportunity!¡±


    ¡°And I heard you. However, I wish to go back to the pagoda anyway.¡±


    Yi Wei had read through the various books and manuals even more quickly than before, mobilising what little spiritual will she could to scan through the text next to where she was reading, thus accelerating her progress. There were few completed and completely harmless techniques, as expected from such an unexplored area as perfected stages, but after putting together everything that should work from the hundreds of books, she had a Cosmic Dantian Refining technique, and an updated variant of the Condensed Formation Body that incorporated the extreme yang qi of the True Ascendant Physique as well as the insights of the experts on perfected stages.


    As a result, she wanted to get to grips with them as quickly as possible, and to do so she needed a certain¡­ stimulation. The sort that would almost certainly be found within the upper levels of the pagoda. She brought this up with Great Dark, naturally omitting the fact that she had unexpectedly found a pill refining recently, thus leading to this exchange.


    Clearly, the man of absolute yin was not too happy about the idea.


    ¡°Even with perfected stages and an Absolute Yang Physique, that isn¡¯t enough to go beyond the sixth floor¡­ the first six are designed to¡­ weed out the simpler types-¡±


    ¡°But you still allow those in the Energy Condensation realm to participate, implying that it isn¡¯t impossible. Let me go back into the sixth floor, and I shall leave once things get too difficult again. Or, is there some particular reason you want to keep a man like myself from returning there?¡±


    Somehow, she managed to say that sentence smoothly, without stumbling on any part of it, despite the fact that it included both an obvious lie and an unnecessary, provocative and accusative question.


    ¡°I hope it was not a mistake to take you on as a disciple¡­ Very well¡­ Off with you.¡±


    The expansive stack of books abruptly vanished, and the scene from the pagoda¡¯s sixth floor reappeared. Out of the five sides of the room, only one remained, displaying a pill furnace.

 V1C21: The Upper Floor

    Upon touching the furnace, her surroundings warped and twisted, eventually settling on a single table floating in the void. On it lay five pills of different colours, two green, one coppery, one red and one brown.


    Above them was a small note that read, ¡®Identify which pills are safe for consumption and fulfil their intended functions. Dispose safely of those that do not.¡¯


    Beside that note, there was no information regarding any of the pills, not even a false name to give her some idea of what they are supposed to be. If she hadn¡¯t had the chance to read up on pills and didn¡¯t have the appraisal skill granted by her practise of the Cherry Revolving Blossom, which she had read up to the fourth chapter by this point, she would have no method to discover what these ambiguous pills could do.


    ¡®Alright, let¡¯s have a go at this. I¡¯ll have to thank Master Chu for telling me to practise this exact thing the last time I saw her,¡¯ she grabbed a pill at random, selecting one of the green pills, ¡®So, the colour of the pills are one of the easiest things to change without much harm to the overall quality, like using a dye on clothes, and thus I can ignore it. The ingredients¡­ this one seems to use a lot of fire elemental ingredients, most of which are volatile, with few to suppress them¡­ The recipe is most similar to¡­ Aberrant Flame Suppressing pill? Now this is just terrible. With this many volatile ingredients, it won¡¯t be able to do what it is meant to, no matter how they put them together.¡¯


    For a moment, she considered how to dispose of it, but then quickly dismissed all of them and simply clasped it in her fist and released a small wisp of yang energy.


    The pill exploded in her hand, but the only visible sign of it was a small puff of smoke.


    ¡°This is considered to be safe, right?¡± she asked the black void behind her.


    ¡°¡­ Did that hurt you?¡± the voice of the pagoda said begrudgingly.


    ¡°Nope,¡± Yi Wei showed it her smooth skin that had reddened slightly as a result of the yang expulsion but was otherwise as healthy as it ever was. It had a thick medicinal scent on it, somewhat similar to smoke or incense.


    ¡°Then it is indeed safe¡­¡±


    Great Dark was no longer attempting to disguise his voice in the slightest, so she naturally understood that he had also been the one to speak for the pagoda when it gained a strange quality to its voice. Due to this, she took the other four pills and held them tightly, ¡°Just asking, but does the pill have to be perfect in order for it to pass? Should it only have the intended effects?¡±


    ¡°Naturally.¡±


    ¡°Ah, cool,¡± she said, and, with a smile for her personal satisfaction, she made the other four pills explode unceremoniously.


    There was a long period of silence that seemed intent to go on forever. Through the gaps in her fingers, an unpleasant combination of smells wafted out, slowly filling the invisible walls of the illusory space. An earthy scent, combined with a wooden flavour and a slight metallic taste, filled her lungs with every breath. For such small objects, medicinal pills contained more flavour than most of the meals Yi Wei had seen in her life, and yet most of it couldn¡¯t be enjoyed during the regular consumption of the pill as it was typically overwhelmed by the medicinal effect.


    Finally, the pagoda¡¯s voice ended up being the entity to break the silence, ¡°Floor complete. Please select your reward out of the following categories: combat, stealth, cultivation, body, detection and great arts. Based on your choice, a jade slip shall be granted.¡±


    This declaration made her eyes widen.


    Jade slips are almost legendary in nature. They originated in the ancient days of the Master of Yi City, and had a single purpose: to store vast quantities of information, and to deliver it straight into the mind of another without the need for long periods of reading and comprehension. So long as the insights regarding the topics within have also been stored inside of the jade slip, anyone who uses it, no matter how foolish or lacking in understanding, will gain them all instantly.


    Unfortunately, these items were sparse, as they were incredibly difficult to manufacture. Even those who followed every word of the Master of Yi City¡¯s instructions on creating them often failed, not to mention the rest of the world who lacked direct access to the teaching of a genius. After his disappearance, the numbers of capable craftsmen also declined, and thus they were rarely seen.


    For someone in the first stage to come across such a wonder was considered a miracle, and yet Yi Wei had the choice between six.


    Although, perhaps it was best to focus not on the recipient, but rather on the person capable of giving out one of their six jade slips so easily. As far as she knew, jade slips were usable multiple times until their eventual decay and destruction, much like how a book could be read infinitely before it crumbled into dust from age. However, just like with a book, if it was used often and used carelessly, the jade slip would decay with greater speed, changing its lifespan from thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of years to a far lower quantity.


    This was an important choice, so she took her time. Cultivation techniques were the first to be ignored ¨C no matter how good they were, they wouldn¡¯t bring much of an improvement to the energy of the mysterious characters. The great arts followed soon after, as Great Dark and Great Light were already teaching her everything she needed to know about engraving, and she had four other teachers for the four other arts.


    Out of the options that remained, stealth and detection were the areas in which she was most lacking, so they were the most appealing to her. Then, out of those two, the area of detection was recently reinforced through her True Ascendant Physique and the ability to project spiritual will outside of the body, thus it seemed best to select stealth, as to reinforce her most lacking area.


    It would also be beneficial when it comes to protecting her secrets, and it would allow her to rely on things other than the mysterious characters.


    Thus, with a little more consideration, she opened her mouth, and-


    ¡°Take all of them. They are one-time use, and are soon going to break. Just take them,¡± Great Dark declared, and six green jade slips appeared out of the void. Each one contained an inscription of several characters relevant to its stored knowledge, and each one was covered in dozens of large cracks.


    In the brief moment that they were in the air, two of the six cracked again, bringing them one step closer to destruction.


    ¡°Da Gang! Take them!¡±


    Yi Wei no longer hesitated. She took all six jade slips and sent her spiritual will into them, causing a blinding light to emit from them. Six different globes of condensed words and images broke out of the jade, heading straight for her head, followed by each one of them shattering the very next instant.


    ¡°Not all at-¡±


    However, midway there, they suddenly flew down and entered her planar aperture, where the characters reformed into the shape of an open maw and bit down on the globes.


    ¡®These characters can even react to this, huh- wait, why are they-¡¯


    The teeth closed down upon the balls of words, but they were completely unharmed, save for a few red symbols that melted away into earth-type planar energy and joined her pool of cosmic energy, dissolving into only a few wisps of her standard of energy. The rest of the glowing words returned to their original trajectory as if nothing happened, entering her mind and dissolving into pure information.


    Concepts, techniques, ideas, speculation, facts and anything in between flooded her thoughts. Although they flew past at a staggering pace, even in the eyes of a person who was able to read over a thousand manuals in a day, she still understood every single thing as if she had taken an hour to study each individual sentence with great care. Ideas like personal aura obstruction, planar energy binding modulation, physical alteration and more that she had never come in contact with were suddenly plain as day, even clearer than moving her own four limbs.


    Perhaps the most impressive was the fact that she was also able to process what happened with the characters at the same time as reading all of that information.


    ¡®If Wang Ling¡¯s ¡®A Compendium of the Dao¡¯ can be believed, then the red characters within each jade slip were a form of a compelling influence, a thought or idea that gets lost among the rest and is then accepted without any further consideration. They could be things as simple as ¡®Red is better than blue¡¯ or ¡®The Yi family is a powerful force¡¯, but if imbued with enough force to overwhelm the target completely whilst also leaving them unaware of the intrusion, it can be elevated to ¡®I am a loyal servant of the Deadly Martial Colosseum¡¯, for example. I can¡¯t be sure what they were, now that the characters have eaten them, nor do I know whether they were even targeted at me, but it is helpful to know that they are keeping me safe from such forms of control,¡¯ she considered while also learning about one of the Thunder Lord¡¯s killing moves, ¡®That means that if I ever get into a dangerous situation like this in the future, when someone is attempting to plant certain thoughts in my¡­ mind¡­ Oh, right, the Thunder Lord is still around, and I¡¯ve just learned a bunch of techniques. Oh, dear mysterious characters, can¡¯t you eat him as well?¡¯


    The stone symbols remained silent, hovering in their usual fashion, even though her planar energy had grown much more powerful thanks to the influx of techniques, not to mention the additional elements of all of those techniques that she would undoubtably be able to use in a future situation.


    She did not get the opportunity to enjoy this, however, as the Seventh of Meng¡¯s memories forced themselves into her head.


    Great Dark watched as Da Gang took the jade slips, as per his instructions, but then activated every single one of them at the same time. As the one who created these particular items, he knew all too well that some would struggle to handle even a single slip at a time, not to mention six.


    ¡°Why have you done this? With how quickly you are able to read, have you not learned of the dangers of the slip?¡±


    The masked man quivered for a second, then replied with perfect clarity, ¡°Sorry. I saw that they were nearly destroyed, and I overreacted for a moment. These were one-time use, correct? I haven¡¯t heard much of such things. As you made them yourself, I assume that you were unable to recreate the full jade slip, and thus resorted to this?¡±


    Seeing that the man¡¯s head hadn¡¯t exploded, he relaxed slightly and considered his response.


    ¡°Naturally not... That is also why they were deteriorating so quickly,¡± Great Dark explained, earning a nod from Da Gang, ¡°Giving them all away at once wasn¡¯t my intention¡­ had I waited, they would have broken down by the end of the day, so I will have to make them again later¡­ You¡¯re free to leave the pagoda again for the day. Take the next few months to process the information and return once you can think with a clear head for longer than one hour.¡±


    ¡°Sorry? Did you say several months to process the information? Is that how long this is meant to take?¡±


    There was a strange note within the man¡¯s voice, but he dismissed it as a side-effect of information overload, ¡°Yes. Based on how quickly your mind is capable of working, the speed of absorption will vary¡­ Your mental resilience is good, but do not overstress yourself.¡±


    ¡°Huh. Fine, I¡¯ll go, but I¡¯ll be back soon, unless I¡¯m busy. I still want whatever rewards you have up there, so if there are any more time-limited things like this, don¡¯t hide it from me.¡±


    ¡°Certainly¡­ there are no more objects as close to destruction as the slips, so you have at least one year before anything is at risk¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright. Take me out of here.¡±


    He did as the young man asked, then vanished from the pagoda¡¯s illusory world, instead appearing in a world completely devoid of anything but his twin, who was radiating vast quantities of yin qi with every second.


    ¡°Brother.¡±


    Great Light turned to the voice, the maddened look in his eyes clearly lesser than it had been before, ¡°Have you spoken with that brat? Did anything interesting happen? Did he die?¡±


    ¡°No, he did not¡­ He got through the sixth floor a little unconventionally, and now we have lost five decent pills¡­ Somehow, he has survived using all six slips at once, and even seemed to¡­ age¡­ a few years as a result¡­¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that a normal reaction to gaining far more information than your brain is meant to hold? We saw it happen to a number of people who weren¡¯t careful with various inheritances they found before and during the War of Yin. By your comments, aren¡¯t I supposed to be the one forgetting things, or what?¡±


    ¡°I remember¡­ but something seems strange¡­ have you figured out where the Thunder Lord ended up going?¡±


    ¡°How should I know? You¡¯re better at finding the shadows than I am.¡±


    Yi Wei didn¡¯t head for her home, but instead for a small bathhouse, where she booked a private room and leapt into an icy pool intended for cultivation of extreme ice or fire techniques. To her yang-infused body, such a thing wasn¡¯t painful nor unpleasant, but she wished that it had been so that it would be able to hide the redness of her face at least a little bit.


    ¡®That Thunder Lord Meng really is too shameless. Don¡¯t think about it, don¡¯t think about it¡­ So, the jade slips. If a man that might have ¨C intentionally or otherwise ¨C planted mental compulsions within his jade slips can be trusted, then it is common for people to take a month to process a single slip ¨C assuming that he did the math for me, and that the total combination of slips results in a longer processing time than a single one would, otherwise¡­¡¯ her thoughts paused as she glanced down and saw that all of the ice in the bath melted despite two formation arrays still running beneath it, ¡®Oh¡­ I guess I can improve the arrays for them¡­¡¯


    ¡°Hey, what is this? I nearly froze in there!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, customer, but I don¡¯t know. We check the arrays every morning, but there was nothing wrong with them.¡±


    ¡°Then isn¡¯t it natural that someone intentionally sabotaged it, knowing that I would come here? Quickly, tell me who has been in that room before me so that I can chase them down and show them why they shouldn¡¯t mess with the Flaming Demon!¡±


    ¡°S-sir, the last person, who, incidentally, didn¡¯t complain about a thing, was Da Gang¡­¡±


    ¡°Da Gang? What kind of family is he from? I¡¯ve not heard of any kind of Da family around here, so either the name¡¯s a fake, or there¡¯s a different family backing them! Tell me right now!¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know, but¡­ haven¡¯t you heard about the goings on at the Deadly Martial Colosseum?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe I- wait, THAT DA GANG? Never mind all that, I¡¯m leaving! Thank you!¡±

 V1C22: The Duties to the Family

    Yi Wei did not sleep well that day, not the few days after. Even though she apparently did not need to process raw information for several months like the common individual, when that information was the unfiltered memories of another person, of another gender and from another time, it suddenly became a lot more difficult.


    It didn¡¯t help that the Seventh of Meng didn¡¯t seem to know the meaning of restraint, nor chastity.


    Due to the extreme quantity of techniques she had gained, with a number of them being related directly to the Thunder Lord, she had gained far more memories than she had expected, and the number turned out to be so large that she was now suffering through further memories in her dreams, enduring several days of another person¡¯s life in a single night. She was able to experience Lord Meng¡¯s daily cultivation, his visits to various restaurants to try out all sorts of foods, his occasional fights with people from various families, and even certain actions that probably shouldn¡¯t be mentioned, all because he happened to be thinking about, or practising, one of the techniques from the jade slips.


    Even in that single moment in which she gained those skills, she had lived through a difficult month of the Seventh of Meng¡¯s life, nearing some sort of major conflict.


    The actual facts within the memories were sparse, at best, but they were still filled with experiences that she would have likely never had a chance to see. One thing that she noticed quickly was the difference between the bodies of a man and a woman, though that was rather obvious to anyone who had ever seen both human genders. Nevertheless, besides knowing that targeting the crotch tended to be far more effective against men, she hadn¡¯t given much thought to the subject before, nor had she ever felt quite so much of their body.


    ¡®Even if I had gotten much more out of this, like every weak point on a man¡¯s body, I would still believe my choice to allow the Thunder Lord to settle in to be a mistake,¡¯ she thought at one point on the day of her completion of the sixth floor, ¡®I¡¯ll have to be careful not to let that shadow influence me any further, or else I¡¯ll never be able to look at another woman normally.¡¯


    It was already impressive that she was able to behave normally when speaking with Yi Yaling, though that was likely because it was impossible to see her as anything other than a little sister who was still learning about the world and needed protecting. The more they spoke, the more it seemed that way.


    ¡®It¡¯s already becoming incredibly difficult to stay near Chu Ling, who is doing her very best to expose as much of her body as possible, so I shouldn¡¯t visit for a while, at least until Lord Meng¡¯s memories stop appearing in my dreams,¡¯ she had decided, and thus focused her studies on the other four great arts, spending several weeks making sure to learn everything that wasn¡¯t related to the Meng family or the war that the Thunder Lord ended up engaging in, though the details on it were sparse enough to make avoiding such things incredibly difficult.


    She had enough luck to avoid all but two of such techniques, and the memories that she gained from those were limited, lasting only a few seconds due to the Seventh of Meng¡¯s lacking experience in those particular skills.


    This lasted for some time, until a representative from the family arrived at her home.


    For once, the messenger knocked instead of simply yelling at her, putting her in a good mood when she opened the door.


    The person outside was a thin, well-balanced woman, garbed in red robes with a silver lining. A small Yi (Òã) character was woven in silver into the left breast of the robe and, in combination with the woman¡¯s silver eyes, marked her as an important member of the family.


    However, she clearly wasn¡¯t important enough to be spared from visiting the worst part of the city district. Since the Yi character was silver, not gold, and her robes were primarily red and not silver, she was clearly amongst the lower-class members of the family, though she was still far above any servant or commoner.


    ¡°Are you¡­¡± she paused, took out a small paper slip and read something in the corner of it, ¡°Yi Wei?¡±


    There were a few things she wanted to reply with, but she settled on a simple affirmation after forcefully shifting her eyes to the woman¡¯s hand, ¡°That¡¯s right. Do you require something of me?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ It says here that you¡¯ve reached the Planar Pool realm. Is that correct? Actually, don¡¯t answer that. I can feel your cultivation already¡­¡± the woman frowned as her spiritual will neared Yi Wei to conform her cultivation, ¡°On second thought¡­¡±


    ¡°I am in the second realm, yes,¡± she chose to display some metallic external energy to move the conversation along, ¡°Is this about the new duties that are assigned to all servants upon advancing?¡±


    ¡°Since you know about it already, I¡¯ll spare you the lengthy explanation they wanted me to give you,¡± the woman threw away the paper slip, which unfolded in the air into a piece of paper larger than her body as it was carried away by the wind, ¡°You need to go to the Ancestral Hall, where you¡¯ll be given a number of options for your new specialisation. Depending on what you can do, you may become a hunter, a guard, or something of the sort. That way, you¡¯ll actually be contributing to the family beyond carrying things around for whoever it is you¡¯re serving right now. Do you know where the Ance- you should know, so I¡¯m not wasting any more time. Goodbye.¡±


    Just like that, she turned around left, using a movement technique that looked much like walking but allowed her to travel at a speed far higher than that of the few commoners walking or even sprinting past.


    ¡®She was in quite a hurry,¡¯ Yi Wei noted, chasing down the large sheet of paper before returning to her shack to read through it, ¡®At the very least she didn¡¯t forget to mention anything significant. Most of this is just nonsense that¡¯s not useful to me or her. As for what I will choose to do¡­ there¡¯s not much point in considering it when I don¡¯t know what options they will offer me.¡¯


    Declining this invitation wasn¡¯t an option, unless one intended to leave the family¡¯s land and attempt to survive on their own either in the wild areas between districts, or the district of another family. The first option was dangerous, as wild beasts were far calmer about killing trespassing humans than any vengeful man or woman, and the second was risky due to the natural distrust that exists between different factions.


    If a capable person suddenly appears in another family¡¯s territory ¨C as they would have no reason to pay attention to someone who was incapable and would be unable to contribute to their cause ¨C there would naturally be a lot of suspicion and investigation into that person¡¯s identity to be certain that they are not a spy or an intruder from another family. Even if there was no sign of such activity, no reasonable family would ever allow any stranger to remain without at the very least minimal observation. There was no reason that they couldn¡¯t be trying to play some sort of long game, after all.


    Thus, it was most reasonable to stay with the family during one¡¯s growth period, even if there were some disagreements with certain higher-ups. It would never be too late to attempt to survive on your own, but if you were eaten by a wild planar beast or killed by the agents of another family, then you could hardly do much more with your life.


    That was the case for the regular person, but Yi Wei also had her own unique points to consider. If she displayed her full abilities, including the ability to change between elements at will, then she wouldn¡¯t be able to stay alive for long before someone got the bright idea to steal whatever artefact or technique was allowing her to do this. This might even cause them to skip over the investigation phase of their plan, as she would be making the advantages of this plan of action very clear.


    It was difficult to convince someone to switch sides but stealing their skills or items and giving them to someone loyal was easy.


    So, she made a few preparations, took a few of the talismans that she had kept from the Deadly Martial Colosseum and exited her home, heading to the Ancestral Hall on the straightest path possible.


    This wasn¡¯t a journey she made frequently, not since her previous ineptitude in cultivation was discovered, but she still remembered the road clearly. It was something that every member of the Yi family was expected, or, rather, must know, even if they had only the minimal connection to the bloodline.


    The Ancestral Hall was the most important building in the districts of many families, and the few that treated it less respectfully did so because of monetary difficulties or the inability to safeguard such a structure. It stores the remaining wills of the great people of the family ¨C or, in more literal terms, it contains the original copies of their techniques, weapons, equipment and anything that isn¡¯t in use at that particular moment. Whenever something is removed from the ancestor¡¯s chambers, the object is treated with great reverence regardless of one¡¯s opinion regarding that particular individual, as that ancestor must have done something irreplaceable to ensure that the family is alive and successful to this day, or perhaps paved the way for others to do the same.


    Unless someone did not wish to live at all, they would have no reason to hate these people, regardless of the many faults they undeniably had.


    It was customary for those of moderate importance and above to pay respects to the ancestors every month, whether by simply kowtowing to them or by giving various offerings to their resting chambers, though the latter option was chosen less frequently due to those items being for the taking of that ancestor¡¯s descendants, who might not always be the allies of the ones providing offerings.


    Besides the ancestral chambers, the Ancestral Hall also contained most of the family¡¯s management and leadership, with many offices and records storage zones occupying the majority of the upper rooms of the building. One thing that it did not contain was accommodations for the living, whether temporary or otherwise, as it was considered disrespectful to the spirits of those unable to make use of the luxuries of the living, just like how it was not permitted to trade material goods within the Hall, though that rule was oft waived when it was necessary for someone to make a deal on the Ancestral Hall¡¯s land.


    Naturally, not everyone was fond of the occasional shirking of the rules, no matter how inconvenient they may be at times when urgency is key, though the complaints vanish quickly when their interests required the breaking of the same rules.


    No matter what one thought of the matters within the Hall, it could not be denied that the outside of the Yi family¡¯s Ancestral Hall was incredibly impressive. It was in the very middle of the Yi District, supposedly located on the site of the Master of Yi City¡¯s former residence, and it was as likely as expensive as the rest of the city itself.


    The walls were made of solid, pure immortal gold, a substance much stronger than most metals, and yet more vibrant than regular gold. A single ingot could purchase several planar shards, but there was enough here to form eight large walls of statues and frozen scenes depicting the history of the Yi family in great levels of detail. Amongst them, she saw the conclusion of the Master of Yi City¡¯s grand project, the fight of the third Yi family¡¯s patriarch against the remnant ancient beasts, the confrontation of the Yi and the Kong family that attempted to overthrow the seventeenth patriarch by fabricating a familial connection to the Master of Yi City, and even the ancient creation of the Broken Sky Brand, which was soon lost and then, eventually, supposedly, discovered by Yi Juan.


    There was a new small structure being formed by two experts of the Active Core realm, though it was difficult to tell what it was intended to be so far.


    ¡®Even the gates of this place are filled with decorative engravings that detail a few dozen epic tales,¡¯ Yi Wei remarked once she arrived before the entrance to the Ancestral Hall, ¡®I¡­ I want to yell at myself for even thinking this, but if this material was used for trade, it could probably finance even the legendary talent enhancing pill for the geniuses of the family¡­ No, the materials of the ancestors can¡¯t be used for that¡­


    ¡®Come to think of it, the Thunder Lord didn¡¯t care much for family either. This, in combination with the characters, means that I have two different forces with the same ideas. If I become a magnet for them, but continue working with the Yi family, I¡¯ll have quite the tough time.¡¯


    The former already prevented her from looking attractive women in the eye, for fear of accidentally exhibiting a man¡¯s lustful gaze. If the latter also made her see men in a different light, it would be incredibly difficult to maintain a regular conversation with any humanoid being, and she would need to reside within the wilds, hoping that some further development doesn¡¯t then sully her view of beasts.


    ¡®What am I even thinking about?¡¯ she slapped her cheek as lightly as she could while still inflicting some semblance of pain, though a few still glanced at her with a confounded gaze, ¡®I¡¯m here to be given a task, not anything else. The more I think of this stuff, the more influence it¡¯ll have on me, so¡­ focus on the present, Ah Wei, don¡¯t get distracted by the Seventh of Meng¡¯s overly lewd imagination, nor the activities he did with his girlfriend¡­ I said don¡¯t get distracted!¡¯


    ¡°Young girl, are you named Wei, surnamed Yi, by any chance?¡±


    She turned sharply to the voice and found it to originate from a tall woman near Yi Zehao¡¯s age, clothed in red and silver robe with a silver ¡®Yi¡¯ character. Her red hair was long, ceasing by the middle of her spine, and was tied up into a single high ponytail. Unlike Yi Wei¡¯s least favourite aunt, she had smooth and light skin, red lips and amber eyes, resulting in a visage that she was forced to look away from quickly, leading to her also seeing the woman¡¯s body. In a single, non-obscene term, it was jealousy-inducing, especially when the observer was someone who lacked in any feminine areas.


    ¡®At least jealousy is better than attraction¡­¡¯ she settled her gaze on the woman¡¯s eyes, and nodded, ¡°That is correct. Were you looking for me?¡±


    ¡°Are you nervous?¡± the woman noticed immediately, putting on a soft smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t bite.¡±


    That smile revealed a set of pearly teeth that shone almost as brightly as the immortal gold outside.


    Yi Wei¡¯s eyes were inadvertently drawn to it, and she couldn¡¯t help but notice how sharp her canines were, though she didn¡¯t think much of it. At the woman¡¯s realm, which was greater than Emergent Anchor, it wasn¡¯t too uncommon for the occasional refinement of various parts of the body to be carried out in the breaks between one¡¯s cultivation and general responsibilities.


    ¡°I-I didn¡¯t think that you would, eh¡­¡±


    ¡°I am Yi Taizhi, and it is great to see a talented young lady like you advancing in the family. Would you like to move this conversation to my study, so that we may discuss your advancement in a certain degree of privacy?¡±


    ¡°Alright,¡± she nodded, distracting herself by considering the exact words used by the woman, ¡®Interestingly enough, she indirectly admitted that the conversation would be observed. Hm¡­¡¯


    Yi Taizhi turned and guided Yi Wei to a room on the third floor of the Ancestral Hall, striding in large but steady steps that would have made it easy for anyone to follow her regardless of their knowledge of movement techniques, though it wasn¡¯t an issue for Yi Wei, who had more skills than the technique library.


    The room they entered was clean and tidy, containing a desk, three chairs, one of which stood in the corner, facing the wall, and a small bookshelf on the left.


    ¡°Please, sit down. Would you like something to drink?¡±


    ¡°Ah? No, there¡¯s no need for you to-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I like drinking tea during any friendly conversation, so it wouldn¡¯t be a problem to pour a little bit for you,¡± the woman smiled, moving a tray with a couple of cups and a teapot over to the middle of the table.


    Since she insisted on it, Yi Wei watched as she created water out of the air with simple hand movements and prepared some simple green tea. Yi Taizhi poured two cups of tea and set them in front of herself and Yi Wei, waiting for a while before taking a small sip from her cup. ¡°Go on, have a taste.¡±


    Though she found it a little strange that the kind woman was so insistent, she saw no poison being used within the tea¡¯s creation, nor was she particularly afraid of low-level poisons after her experience with the crimson gaseous fluid, which she was able to simply spit out once she had a spare moment to herself. She took the cup with one hand, ignoring the meagre warmth within, and breathed in some of the tea¡¯s scent.


    ¡®Hm¡­ Not bad, and I can¡¯t detect any obvious scent of poison, though, if I could, it wouldn¡¯t be particularly useful as a poison,¡¯ she thought to herself and took a sip from the cup.


    The instant the tea touched her tongue, she felt her blood ignite and boil, as if her bloodline had been infused with enough energy to help someone in the Linked Channels realm break through by one stage. It flooded through her physique, surging through her entire circulatory system several times before it calmed.


    ¡°That¡­ is very strong tea.¡±


    Yi Taizhi was unphased by the comment, simply nodding in response, ¡°I happen to like it that way. Now, shall we begin? I¡¯d list all of the options you have and help you choose from them, but I think that it would be best to let you explain what you do best, and then I can give you the option that suit you.¡±


    ¡°Well, I am very capable with metal skills, general combat techniques, though I have studied palm techniques the most. I have previously been in the outskirts of the city and have tracked down a beast in the Planar Pool realm, which you could talk to Yi Yaling about if you¡¯d like to confirm it. In the fights I¡¯ve been in after reaching this realm, I¡¯ve generally had the upper hand in the same stage, though I don¡¯t have anyone you could check that with¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about verification, Yi Wei. If you lie about your abilities and then you die on a mission against enemies that far stronger than you, you¡¯ll have no-one but yourself to blame,¡± Yi Taizhi said, her sweet smile breaking for an instant to reveal a stern expression that completely changed her appearance, ¡°So, you¡¯re a fighter, then?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d prefer to be called a scholar, though that does also apply.¡±


    ¡°Really? What sort of fields have you studied? Are you familiar with many planar beasts, for instance?¡±


    ¡°I happen to have read a few books and encyclopaedias regarding them, yes.¡±


    ¡°Excellent,¡± the woman said, drinking a mouthful of her tea without any sign of being affected by the tea the same way Yi Wei was, making her wonder whether it truly was poisoned, ¡°Then what do you think about trying out a hunter¡¯s role? There happens to be a mission all hunters will be sent to soon, and it should be a great font of opportunities for you, whether you go alone or with a group. The most important thing for you to remember is that the outskirts are dangerous, and that if you lose your life there the family will suffer for it, and I will ¡­ miss you.¡±


    ¡®That is a strangely high importance to assign to a seemingly useless servant- wait, she will miss me? What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡¯ she snuck a glance at Yi Taizhi, but the woman didn¡¯t reveal any indication of her intentions.


    ¡°So, what do you think?¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t suggest all that many options, but¡­¡± she considered her options while she finished her cup of tea, taking a little longer after that to recover from its effects, ¡°I will accept this position, though I¡¯d prefer to know what that mission you¡¯ve mentioned is. If it is something that I would be unable to assist in, then I wouldn¡¯t want to waste the family¡¯s time.¡±


    ¡°Your position is completely understandable, and it is respectable that you do not wish to harm the family with your weakness,¡± Yi Taizhi nodded, ¡°The mission is rather simple. Recently, we have discovered a potential location of a hidden ground, and potentially an inheritance of one of the family¡¯s patriarchs. Unfortunately, we have no idea where it is, not the exact location, at the very least, so we require people who are capable of surviving in the wilds and that will be capable of locating man-made structures or formation arrays that are disguising the inheritance. You¡¯ll be heading out on the fifteenth, though you can sell any planar beast materials to me or to anyone at the Beast Capture Hall. Are you capable of using or destroying arrays, locating inscriptions or identifying forged items?¡±


    ¡°You might as well have asked whether I have studied the great arts... Sheesh. I have studied all of the above, though I am most confident with my array skills. I am able to construct the simplest arrays of the one-star level, though I don¡¯t have too much practise with it.¡±


    ¡°Excellent. Then, let me get you a set of red robes, and the family identity token, so that you may become a proper member of the family. Welcome, Yi Wei.¡±

 V1C23: The Rising Dawn

    After a few questions regarding the preferred formation array to be inscribed into the back of her robes ¨C which may sound somewhat confusing, but is simply the fault of the terms occasionally used for the two different arts overlapping ¨C she was guided to the tailors outside of the Ancestral Hall, though not before Yi Wei made sure to ask for anyone other than Yi Kun to take her measurements, as that person would be certain to take the opportunity to feel her up way beyond the amount necessary.


    Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for the female population of Yi District, the strange girl¡¯s antics were well known, and Yi Taizhi even revealed that she acted in the exact opposite manner to men, many of whom had suffered after trying to come onto her without knowing who she was.


    None of them suffered any permanent damage, supposedly, but it did add one piece to the puzzle that Yi Kun embodied.


    ¡®Unfortunately, I don¡¯t know how many pieces that puzzle has, so I don¡¯t know if I am one step away from completing it, or if I only have enough pieces to complete one small part of it,¡¯ she thought, although it also seemed that there was some obvious implication that she was missing regarding that strange girl¡¯s character being suggested by Yi Taizhi, ¡°So, do I need to give you a part of my spiritual will for the identity token? I¡¯ve never had an opportunity to examine one, but I¡¯m still curious how these tokens are able to prove one¡¯s identity. Is it related to my spiritual will, planar energy or some other connection to myself?¡±


    ¡°We can discuss this in more detail after your measurements have been taken, but it is a combination with the two. Much like the Master of Yi City created the jade slip, he also invented the array that allows a cultivator to condense their planar energy into an object far before the fourth realm, then seal a small fragment of their spiritual will inside for as long as that person draws breath. Now, go.¡±


    In theory, it was possible for one¡¯s measurements to be taken with spiritual will, which would naturally be much faster than the typical process of taking every minor measurement manually, but this would require at least someone in the Active Core realm to be able to achieve the accuracy required, and that would be a waste of any good fourth realm expert, even if it only took them a dozen seconds to completely scan one person.


    Instead, first and second realm cultivators with poor combat abilities were more suited to the job, as they had little else to do for the majority of the time and putting them to work was clearly more reasonable than letting them rot at home while they struggled to cultivate to greater heights.


    As a result, she entered the tailor¡¯s room to find a young girl, fourteen years of age, who was clearly incredibly shy, as she only managed to look in Yi Wei¡¯s direction enough to read the measurements she gathered. Despite that, once it came time for her to leave, the girl offered to take her out for some food, which Yi Wei declined tactfully.


    For some reason, that brought extreme disappointment to the teenager, though she hid her expression quickly.


    When she left the room, Yi Taizhi was holding a new set of cups filled with tea, as if brewing tea was her only activity outside of guiding newly promoted servants. Naturally, Yi Wei did not voice this theory and instead followed her silently back to the inside of the Ancestral Hall, to a room on the second floor.


    This was something that she did decide to question, ¡°If the formation array to condense identity tokens is inside, then couldn¡¯t I have done this first?¡±


    ¡°The process can be extremely draining on people in your realm, Yi Wei. After all, you need to expel a sufficient quantity of energy into the array for it to be condensed into a solid, which means that you will require around fifty times more energy in order to condense the planar energy of an Active Core realm cultivator,¡± Yi Taizhi explained, ¡°You also need to remove a fragment of your spiritual will, which, depending on how much you have, can leave you in a poor state for a few hours until it recovers.¡±


    ¡°Right,¡± she nodded to show her understanding, ¡®It¡¯s great that she told me, or else I wouldn¡¯t have known how to correctly respond to the process. If I just walked away without any signs of tiredness, then it would surely be noticeable.¡¯


    The room with the identity token array was in use at the time they got to it, though the people within left a few minutes later, allowing them entry.


    Within the room, there was no light other than the one coming from the array in the very middle of the room, which was made with a silvery material laid out across the wooden floor. There was a trace remnant of silvery metal planar energy dissipating atop the array¡¯s surface, the leftovers of the previous use of the formation.


    ¡°To use it, just pour your planar energy into it until-¡± Yi Taizhi stopped midsentence and looked to the side, hearing something that she didn¡¯t, ¡°Get started on your own. I¡¯ll come back once I deal with something.¡±


    She stepped out of the room and shut the door, audibly walking away.


    ¡®If I couldn¡¯t hear anything, it must have been a message sent through spiritual will,¡¯ she figured it out quickly, ¡®It shouldn¡¯t be some sort of test, because I cannot detect any observation and detection arrays in the area, nor are there any wills viewing me at the moment. Also, if this was standard, I am certain that Yi Kun or someone else with little control over their mouth would have warned me about this. So, while she is away, it would be best to compare this array to the one I know from Lord Meng¡¯s memories.¡¯


    Her past few questions were not out of random curiosity, but rather to confirm whether the things they told her would line up with what the Thunder Lord had experienced when he reached the second realm of his cultivation.


    One thing she didn¡¯t see was how the process of condensing an identity token affected him, as the memory cut off just as it was getting to the interesting bit. Still, it gave her enough information to understand what a certain configuration of the Token Condensing array did, and thus to decipher whether there were any malicious elements within the Yi family¡¯s setup.


    ¡®The basic composition seems to match his memory. These few nodes capture the planar energy, this one is able to keep it in place, those few allow for its condensation¡­ That one is odd. The previous node in the sequence is able to hold spiritual will, but that one sends it somewhere¡­ Eh, I¡¯ll get rid of it,¡¯ she decided, altering that part of the array in a matter of minutes, ¡®What els- Hold. Up. This is a circulation map, shaped much like the human meridian system¡­ I¡¯ll need to memorise and study it later. For now, I should do what I should have been originally doing.¡¯


    It was already fortunate that Yi Taizhi did not return to the room to find her modifying the formation array, so she knew that it was best not to push her luck any further.


    She knelt by the edge of the silvery circle and rested her hands on the array node that would absorb her energy, whilst also sending out her spiritual will to rest right above the node responsible for storing it.


    Once she made sure that her planar energy was completely metallic, she released a thin stream of it into the system, willingly guiding it along the correct pathway. The moment her energy touched the array, it lit up with a glow that was a dozen times brighter than it initially was and began to pull every little drop of external planar energy into itself. At the same time, it was a sharp knife cut through the tip of spiritual will, severing it from her before bringing it into the middle of the array, where her silver planar energy swallowed it while slowly forming the shape of a simple silver token, with her name written on the front.


    Interestingly enough, when the spiritual will was being enveloped, she noticed it increase in density ever so slightly.


    It solidified, then hovered to a space in front of her, where it waited until she caught it.


    Although the process went smoothly, Yi Wei was completely dumbfounded. She had just heard that forming an identity token at her level was incredibly difficult, or at the very least exhausting, yet it was complete in seconds while taking a few small, insignificant drops of her planar energy? That made no sense at all!


    ¡®I guess I shouldn¡¯t be complaining about this, but¡­ is it due to the purity of my energy? My cultivation technique? The way I channelled the energy into the array? None of those should be able to do any of this¡­¡¯


    She was unable to figure it out right there and then, so she hid most of the planar energy within the shadow of the mysterious characters, where none would see it. Regardless of the cause of her strange success with the formation array, she had now memorised the array both in her own life, and in the Thunder Lord¡¯s life, so simply understanding it wouldn¡¯t be particularly difficult in the future, especially if she manages to create her own Token Condensing array for personal study.


    There was still no sign of Yi Taizhi, so she reverted her planar energy to its cosmic form.


    Immediately, her identity token shattered in her hand, each piece of silver melting into a star-like dust that returned to her dantian, settling near the outside wall.


    ¡®¡­¡¯ Yi Wei looked between her empty hand and her dantian in silence for several seconds, ¡®Don¡¯t tell me that I cannot switch my planar energy to another element without losing my token¡­ No, that¡¯s not something that can be certain just like that. Experimentation is necessary, no matter what ability I¡¯m dealing with.¡¯


    First, though, she coursed some of her planar energy into her teeth to achieve a similar striking effect to Yi Taizhi¡¯s pearly whites. It only took a few seconds now that her energy could solidify in the planar aperture, but the effect was completely worth it, in her opinion.


    ¡®It is said that a woman¡¯s appearance is also a weapon, much like their fists or blades. I can¡¯t enhance most of my features, not yet, so I should focus on the little things that will undoubtedly help me if I ever need to¡­ chew through something, I guess? I¡¯m sure there¡¯ll be some use for this in the future,¡¯ she shrugged and willed her planar energy to shift into the state of the Scalding Torch Sutra specifically, rather than simply changing into the fire-type.


    The small clump of planar energy at the edge of her planar aperture suddenly launched out of her body, forming a fiery red identity token with her name at the front and the Yi (Òã) character at the back. If she didn¡¯t know where it came from, it would have been easy to assume that this originally belonged to a fire cultivator.


    She made her planar energy transform back into the cosmic state, allowed the token to return into her body, then switched her element into water while willing the token to reappear in her hand.


    The condensed energy flew out of her planar aperture and, after a moment of seeming hesitation, landed in her hand whilst forming itself into the shape of a round, smooth blue token. When she changed her energy to earth, the identity token reformed itself into a brown shade, almost as if turned into a lump of earth. After she transformed her planar energy back to metal, the token followed suit and became sharper, almost turning into a rectangular piece of a large sword¡¯s blade.


    ¡®So that¡¯s how things are. For some reason, my changes in planar energy extend to my token. I have no idea whether this is due to my modifications of the array, or part of the standard features of the identity token, but at the very least nobody will be able to steal it from me, as long as there isn¡¯t a limit to the range of the token retrieval,¡¯ she determined, ¡®And I should never have any issues with disguising which technique I practise to my teachers, all of whom seem to believe I cultivate a completely different element.¡¯


    Yi Wei stabilised her planar energy at the metal state and waited for Yi Taizhi to return.


    ¡®Now that I think about it, the more I stand around that woman in particular, my unfortunate weakness to her is fading away. Perhaps that means I am able to solve my problem by being around people enough, or by finding some issue with their character, like her odd mention of ¡®missing me¡¯ if I die despite knowing me for fewer than a few minutes.¡¯


    That woman arrived several minutes later, and the pretty smile was completely absent from her face that now showed a certain degree of frustration, ¡°That stupid girl¡­ Where were- Oh? You¡¯re done? That was quick.¡±


    Her lips curved upwards slightly as Yi Wei replied, ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve completed it just a second ago, and I¡¯ve gotten this token out of it. Did I do things correctly?¡±


    ¡°Let me take a look at that¡­ Yes, that is very good. You have done a good job cultivating the metal element to reach such a purity of energy,¡± she said, looking at the token in Yi Wei¡¯s hand, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, which technique are you practising?¡±


    ¡®Oh, ask me an easier question¡­¡¯ Yi Wei sighed internally, recalling a suitably low-level technique, ¡°I use the Tempered Steel Sutra, though I have received a lot of inspiration thanks to elder Yi Zhihao¡¯s guidance on studying other techniques and elements, so I may have altered the substance of the technique as a result¡­ I understand that it is foolish to challenge the wisdom of the ancestors who had worked for so many years to create the skills that we now use, but I couldn¡¯t ignore the inspiration that I received after my study of the¡­ water element, which made me understand metal in a completely new way.¡±


    For some reason, that made Yi Taizhi¡¯s eyebrow rise, ¡°Oh? An insight from water? If that is the case, you wouldn¡¯t be interested in learning a new technique, would you?¡±


    ¡®Really? Like that? Another one? A sixth teacher? Right.¡¯


    She took a moment to consider things, making sure that she doesn¡¯t seem too eager to take up the time of an important members of the family, ¡°I don¡¯t know if I can impose on you like this, but if you wish to spend your time on someone insignificant like me, then I will listen to your every word carefully.¡±


    ¡°Do not treat me like some family matriarch, I am just a casual middle-class member of our wonderful Yi family. This is just a simple technique of mine, but if you succeed in cultivating it successfully, I shall be¡­ very happy.¡±


    ¡®She really is odd. It can¡¯t hurt to read it, though I don¡¯t know if it would be wise to cultivate when she has such a large smirk on her face while she speaks in an ominous fashion,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, doing her best not to let that thought show on her face as Yi Taizhi was looking at her very intently, ¡°Alright, I will do my best. Can I take a look at the technique?¡±


    ¡°Here you go. Once you¡¯re done with it, bring it back or burn it somewhere in secret. I wouldn¡¯t like it if someone who wasn¡¯t supposed to read it got to look through my latest project,¡± she said, removing a thin book from some pocket on the inside of her robes that she then gave to Yi Wei.


    It had fewer than ten pages, and the text was not particularly large, either, meaning that she didn¡¯t have to flex her usual reading skills in order to complete it in a few minutes, at which point she eagerly handed the manual back to her and excused herself from the Ancestral Hall with all the haste she could muster after reading such a technique. It wasn¡¯t so impressive that she wanted to attempt it immediately, nor was it so terrible that she wished to get aware from the terrible person that created it. No, it was simply because she observed a strange element within the skill that she might not have noticed if she hadn¡¯t read through as many skills as she did.


    It had a curious effect of raising the intensity of the bloodline within her body, at least in theory.


    The actual effects could not be certain until she tested it, but there were two reasons for her to avoid displaying her cultivation of the technique in front of Yi Taizhi, apart from the standard ones. Firstly, she had no interest whatsoever in the skill¡¯s main effect ¨C it was already impressive that she had not been caught switching elements every few minutes and adding another method of tracking her wouldn¡¯t help the situation.


    However, the more important reason was that the technique appeared to be attempting to create multi-elemental planar energy. It, the Disciple of Iron skill, was primarily a water-type technique, but it often made use of the metal energy present within the body and in the user¡¯s previous cultivation, and it had a high potential to create a form of water and metal dual energy as a result.


    ¡®Fire and metal makes lightning, so I wonder what water and metal would be,¡¯ she wondered, hurrying to her home to modify the technique for herself, ¡®I know too little to make a proper informed guess¡­¡¯


    She did not make it far before she came across a familiar face sulking on the side of the main road, slowly stuffing her face with a steamed bun. Yi Yaling¡¯s expression was absolutely miserable, as if she had just witnessed her entire home being destroyed, though that was almost certainly not the case.


    ¡°Hey. Any reason why you¡¯re sitting over here?¡±


    She jumped up, nearly throwing away the bun before she realised who was addressing her, ¡°Yi Wei! Daddy told me off! Waah!¡±


    ¡®Yep. Thought so. Now, if I think about it, didn¡¯t Yi Taizhi mention a stupid girl when she returned? It wouldn¡¯t happen to be this stupid girl in particular, would it?¡¯ Yi Wei considered, so she decided to ask, ¡°What did you do that caused your father, who seems to always tolerate whatever it is you do in your spare time, to suddenly scold you?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I tried breaking into the Ancestral Chambers to take a few planar shards for you to cultivate with.¡±


    She had no words for that, so she turned around and began to leave.


    ¡°W-Wait! Can I stay over at your place tonight? Even though I recently reached the second stage, daddy looked really angry with me, to the point that he didn¡¯t even pat my head when I asked him to! I want to stay over with you until he calms down¡­¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Yi Wei said sharply, without even looking at Yi Yaling.


    ¡°B-But I¡­ I can-¡±


    ¡°No, you cannot stay at my place,¡± she stopped in place, ¡°I don¡¯t have room for some random girl to sulk.¡±


    ¡°I can be useful! I can¡­ eh¡­ I can do things! Don¡¯t abandon me like this!¡± Yi Yaling leapt to Yi Wei¡¯s leg, hugging it tightly, as if she was stuck within a planar stone statue specifically designed to trap her, ¡°Please!¡±


    ¡°No, I meant that I literally have no room for you. My house only had enough room for my bed, and the space to get out of the bed. I couldn¡¯t share the bed even if I wanted to, and I highly doubt you want to sleep on the floor when made up of dirt and old wooden planks in an uncertain distribution,¡± she explained, shaking the girl off with a disguised kick technique, ¡°Also, I¡¯m pretty sure that you wouldn¡¯t survive the incredible quantity of filth in the surrounding area. No offence to your survival abilities.¡±


    ¡°Aw¡­ Can I come with you for a bit, anyway?¡±


    Seeing the girl do her best, well-practised impression of a small puppy begging for food, it was difficult to turn her down after all this effort.


    ¡°Fine, although I never would have stopped you from just following along, and then leaving. Even if I wanted to stop you, you shouldn¡¯t have much difficulty with finding out where I live just by asking your father, once he calms down,¡± Yi Wei said, deftly dodging another attempt to hug her thigh, ¡°Come on.¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ You¡­ you really weren¡¯t kidding about your housing situation. How does this place not even have a planar herb lawn?¡±


    ¡°Do I genuinely need to tell you that most people do not have a- hold on, how can your father afford a planar herb lawn? That¡¯s something that even the patriarch would love to get his hands on, not to mention most middle-class members of the family,¡± she said while keeping Yi Yaling from running into the dirt and sprinkling some planar herb seeds onto her lawn by holding onto the collar of her clothes, ¡°Also, stop that. I don¡¯t need to get more people screaming at me in the morning. It isn¡¯t particularly pleasant. If you want, I can show you what it¡¯s like by coming over to your home every day and yelling at you to fight me.¡±


    ¡°N-No thanks, I¡¯m alright¡­¡± Yi Yaling reluctantly pocketed the seeds and stopped trying to run away, allowing Yi Wei to release her, ¡°Daddy got it by luck, and because he sold it to the rest of the family for a tiny price, they decided they might as well let him keep it.¡±


    ¡°How convenient,¡± she muttered, frowning as she saw Yi Yaling kick one of the rocks that composed her Planar Condensation array, ¡®Out of all the rocks, you kick that one? I guess that¡¯s as good an invitation as any to update my array. This one is completely useless to me, anyway¡­ And it isn¡¯t very good to begin with. It sure took a while for me to notice that.¡¯


    ¡°Hm? Did I do something just now?¡±


    ¡°You did do something, though I don¡¯t know what it is you mean,¡± Yi Wei replied.


    ¡°It feels like the planar energy around here suddenly thinned as I kicked this rock¡­¡±


    ¡®So she isn¡¯t completely blind to the energy around herself, but isn¡¯t sensitive enough to it to actually matter. You need that much to get inspiration from some golden lightning, I gue- Oh, I know what I can do!¡¯ she stepped forward and grabbed the ignorant girl¡¯s arm, then dragged her to her door, ¡°Come with me, Ah Ling, I just thought of something I¡¯d like you to do for me that doesn¡¯t involve breaking the laws of the family.¡±


    ¡°Okay? You have very strong hands¡­¡± Yi Yaling muttered, reluctantly allowing herself to be brought into Yi Wei¡¯s home, ¡°Are you also practising a body cultivation technique?¡±


    ¡°Are you?¡±


    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t think it was a good idea after all of the weird things those techniques are capable of. That Bovine Stomach skill, for instance, would completely ruin what little balance I have¡­ Why is the floor mostly earth?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a feature,¡± Yi Wei replied, nudging one of the floor planks back into place, ¡°The floor wasn¡¯t in a good state, but I never really had the time to fix it.¡±


    ¡°This is terrible¡­ Do you want a new house? My daddy gave me a few spare homes, but I don¡¯t really need any of them, so I can probably give you two or three of them. Do you want the one near Mirror Lake or nearby the Three Star Pharmacy? Personally, I prefer the residence near to the Xiao Mountain, though it has a few too many cherry trees-¡±


    ¡°I was about to say that I have no interest in your residences, but I¡¯ll take the Xiao Mountain one. I happen to be practising something related to cherry blossoms. Thanks, Ah Ling, for your contribution to the cause!¡±


    ¡°¡­ What? Eh¡­ No¡­¡±


    That previous miserable look returned to her face in an instant, forcing Yi Wei to drop the act, ¡°Okay, I¡¯m just joking. I¡¯m not going to steal your spare house¡­ even though you wanted to give it to me.¡±


    ¡°I did, but¡­ that place is so pretty¡­ can I keep one room there? Daddy would scold me again if I return and tell him I¡¯ve lost one of the homes he gifted me¡­¡±


    ¡°No, seriously, I don¡¯t need the house. If you really me want to, I can take one of the rooms, though you¡¯re not allowed to complain if I leave behind a few burn marks by the end. Does the place have a bathing area?¡±


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s fine. It does have a hot springs, though. Hey, what did you want me in here for?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Oh, right, that. I nearly forgot. Could you release some of your planar energy for me? I would like to inspect its structure and see whether I can copy it.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ think you can copy it?¡± her eyes widened in surprise, or perhaps shock. That wasn¡¯t too strange, because if anyone had claimed that they could learn someone¡¯s technique with a simple demonstration of their planar energy, then they would typically be treated as a madman by most. If skills were so easily learned, then any single fight would instantly allow both sides to learn the techniques of the other, and then jade slips and manuals would be completely unnecessary and inefficient, for who would bother reading things for many hours to completely understand the deep meaning of a technique when they could just-


    "Alright, I believe you. Go on," Yi Yaling said, and released a thin strand of golden lightning from her hand that wrapped around her arm, crackling quietly.


    ¡°Ah Ling, did¡­ did you just believe something that nonsensical?¡±


    ¡°Was it? You can read a book in a minute, can¡¯t you?¡±


    Now it was Yi Wei¡¯s turn to be taken aback, ¡°I¡­ I know I¡¯m the one that suggested this, but you do know quick reading skills don¡¯t translate to the understanding of planar energy structure, planar energy cultivation technique circulation map comprehension and multi-elemental thinking, right?¡±


    ¡°Depending on what the last two things mean, I might know that, but you¡¯re really smart! There¡¯s no reason why you can¡¯t do something so simple!¡±


    ¡®Right, I just remembered¡­ she isn¡¯t very bright. I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s a good thing or not, but it is a thing,¡¯ Yi Wei sighed, getting as close to the girl¡¯s arm as she was comfortable with, ¡°In that case, keep your energy as stable as possible please. If you do this right, I might come up with a cultivation technique for you¡­ though I¡¯m not going to promise anything.¡±


    Yi Yaling nodded, so she was able to focus on studying the golden electricity. In many ways, it was incredibly similar to the energy produced via Elysian Storm Burst, as she had confirmed before, but it had its certain differences. For one, her planar energy was controlled by her without any faults, but Yi Yaling¡¯s energy was almost¡­ alive, as if was a true storm, raging infinitely within the silly girl¡¯s dantian. Perhaps it was contained, or it was residing within her-


    ¡®Planar energy isn¡¯t alive, so that can¡¯t be it. Perhaps it has something to do with how her inspiration came about,¡¯ she pondered, raising her head, ¡°If I may ask, what in particular brought about your inspiration?¡±


    ¡°It was Da Gang¡¯s lightning storm. It seemed to be composed of a thousand individual bolt of lightning, seeking out and destroying danger on their own¡­ I don¡¯t think I can describe it properly¡­¡±


    ¡®There¡¯s no need for it, I was there. However, I did not notice that particular element of my Elysian Storm. Regardless of whether it happened or not, I should still keep this in mind, just in case it turns out that inspiration is an important part of techniques. That would explain why the most common ones are related to some form of source, like animals or natural phenomena, and why more abstract techniques are mostly non-existent. In fact, my Elysian Palm has very little inspiration beyond my prayer to the heavens¡­ Doesn¡¯t seem to harm the effectiveness of it, though,¡¯ she considered, looking back down onto Yi Yaling¡¯s arm before the direct eye contact caused her mind to drift to different things, ¡°Ahem¡­ This is very interesting¡­¡±


    Despite her best attempts to refocus, it seemed like the very thought of her thoughts going awry invited that very event to occur. Her eyes involuntarily drifted away from the golden planar energy and onto Yi Yaling¡¯s soft skin, which glistened slightly with a thin layer of sweat, and the faint scent of a perfume, or perhaps even her natural smell¡­


    ¡°Alright, that is enough for today!¡± she lurched up and turned away, feeling blood rushing to her cheeks, ¡°Now, I¡¯m going to be practising my own techniques, so unless you want to watch, you can leave.¡±


    ¡°Eh? A-Alright¡­¡± the confusion in her voice was clear, but Yi Wei did not dare to look at her and check her expression, ¡°I¡¯d like to watch, for a bit.¡±


    ¡®I was trying to ask you to leave, but¡­ that¡¯s fine. That¡¯s fine¡­ I can keep myself calm for now, but I certainly need proper mental techniques in the future as to not suffer from this in the future. Maybe I can seek out an ascetic or a Daoist that has strengthened their mind for guidance on¡­ lustful thoughts? If only they were of my own volition, that would be fine, considering my age, but no¡­ I had to get some ancient shadow sitting in my head¡­¡¯ she took a couple of deep, slow breaths as she tried to focus on the Disciple of Iron technique.


    To say that an overeager girl sitting close to her and keeping her gaze purely upon her made it somewhat challenging would be an understatement of a lifetime, but given some recent experiences, she believed that she would be able to handle it in the end.


    She wasn¡¯t able to calm herself immediately, but she did succeed in shifting her thoughts from the woman in her home to the words of Great Dark when she used his jade slips. According to his conjecture, if she was able to absorb their information in a literal instant, then her mind must have been capable of handling it at that rate. Thus, there should be a method of using that speed in normal situations, which would mean that she could understand anything, no matter how complex, instantly.


    ¡®To come up with that from scratch, however, I will need to use that same effect¡­¡¯


    Though was not as productive as she would have hoped, this contemplation relaxed her, and an image that represented her effort slowly crept into her mind. It was the rising sun.


    It opposed a vast black sky as it attempted to rise, forced to overwhelm it all just to shine upon the world for a brief while. It faced the gleaming stars that wished to take its place away, competing with the moon that so often overlooked the world, and wanted to show itself to everyone that needed it, and to all those that believed that they did not.

 V1C24: Disciple of Blood

    Focusing on the image of the dawn, she was able to concentrate on the Disciple of Iron skill and filter out the unnecessary elements, until it was just the combination of metal and water. Before she even began to practise it, she began to figure out what the resulting planar energy would look like.


    She released her metallic energy, made sure her token was out of sight, and activated the Disciple of Iron element.


    The fluid silver energy suddenly froze in place, then quaked as red burst out from random points on the metal. It spread like a red tide, consuming the metal and destroying all metallic patterns until all that remained was the unmistakable texture of blood that formed several rings around her body. It bubbled slowly and released a constant metallic smell that quickly filled her small room.


    ¡°Whoa! That¡¯s blood! Yi Wei, are you alright?¡±


    ¡°Ah Ling, you dummy, this is the combination of metal and water. I¡¯m obviously not bleeding right now,¡± Yi Wei explained, willing the planar energy to recede into her body, ¡°It¡¯s a technique that Yi Taizhi gave to me. I think you might know her.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I do,¡± Yi Yaling answered, pouting, ¡°She told daddy about my break in, so I don¡¯t like her very much¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s immature, but fine. The Disciple of Iron, as she called it, is a multi-elemental technique, so once I have a proper understanding of it, I should be able to make much more progress on your lightning planar energy.¡±


    ¡°Okay, but I think that woman is creepy. She always has that smile on ¨C except for when she and daddy were scolding me, of course ¨C and a lot of her disciples vanish on or after their missions. I heard that they were constantly looked at weirdly by her, whether they were male or female, and when they vanished, their family only inquired about them once before they suddenly gave up,¡± she revealed, exchanging the pout for a concerned frown, ¡°I can¡¯t sit by and protect you all of the time, so you have to be careful, alright?¡±


    ¡®What? We¡¯re almost at the same stage¡­ in practise, at the very least¡­ and I am able to continue cultivating, while she cannot do so without a lot of struggle, and yet she is saying that she¡¯ll protect me?¡¯


    The statement was so odd that it allowed her to turn to Yi Yaling calmly and say, ¡°You have noticed I am at the Planar Pool realm, right? You saw me releasing external force, right?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah. I missed that. Sorry.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Yi Wei sighed, ¡®She really is like a younger sister. If I only think of her that way, I seem to be immune to the Thunder Lord¡¯s influence, so I suppose it is a good thing that she reminds me of this every now and again. Would still be nice if she was a little smarter, though.¡¯


    ¡°However, I¡¯ve got daddy¡¯s support, so if you are ever in trouble, I can always ask him for help!¡±


    ¡°Not today, though, right?¡±


    ¡°No¡­ But tomorrow, I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll forgive me completely for trying to help out my teacher-¡±


    ¡°Who you were also intending to protect, despite the fact I have cultivated faster than you, know more techniques than you, have more experience in combat than you do ¨C unless you¡¯ve been over to the training hall a lot ¨C and am far more observant than you, since it still might not have dawned on you that you broke my pseudo Planar Condensation array when you kicked that rock outside.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what that was? That makes so much more sense now! No wonder the area¡¯s planar energy thinned out¡­ Are you going to cultivate?¡±


    ¡°Are you intending to watch?¡±


    ¡°No, I think I should get going- Wait, let me draw you a map of where the Xiao Mountain Residence is, so that you can move there. Feel free to take any room other than my bedroom, which is the biggest one,¡± Yi Yaling said as she took out a piece of paper and began to draw on it, ¡°I had asked daddy not to leave any servants there, so the only time anyone may bother you is when a maid comes over to clean the house on the weekend. I¡¯ll try to inform her about you, but I¡¯d suggest avoiding her the first time you see her.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry about that. I¡¯ll be leaving for the outskirts of the city soon, so you will get to keep your home for yourself for several weeks to several months, depending on how things go on the mission.¡±


    ¡°Alright, then I¡¯ll prepare an excellent party for your return!¡±


    Before Yi Wei had the opportunity to ask her not to, Yi Yaling skipped out of the house, leaving the map in her hands.


    ¡®She likes making a quick exit, I see¡­¡¯ she thought, looking down to examine the map she was provided. To her surprise, despite the haste in which it was made, and the lack of proper surfaces for one¡¯s artistic expression, the map was incredibly well-drawn and highly detailed. Amongst a few rather childish drawings of houses and people, there was a clear route over to the Xiao Mountain, and the correct road to Ah Ling¡¯s residence was harder to miss than the existence of the sun.


    ¡®Despite whatever it is that¡¯s happening in her head, she¡¯s a good artist, huh?¡¯


    The next day, Yi Wei¡¯s new robes were ready, but she didn¡¯t hasten to explain her progress in the Disciple of Iron skill to Yi Taizhi. For one, the cultivation technique she practised, even if one was to ignore the fact that it was mostly emulated by the mysterious characters, was no longer fit to have that name.


    Now, it had no feature of enhancing the bloodline, nor did it have a number of poorly thought-out elements that someone with no experience with other multi-elemental technique would naturally include to their misunderstandings. Now, it was simply called Disciple of Blood.


    That name was a little menacing, admittedly, so after a little more consideration, she swapped it to Mysterious Blood, to fit in amongst the other elemental variants of her Mysterious Characters technique, though it also worked quite well as an independent name. The blood was rather strange and mysterious, and it didn¡¯t look entirely human to her, although she would never profess herself to be an expert on such things. It was shaded by both crimson and gold, almost like the lifeblood of a Golden Qilin of legends, though it did not share any of the effects that creature¡¯s life essence had. Whether that was due to Yi Wei¡¯s own weakness, or because the Mysterious Blood skill had no actual connection to the Golden Qilin, was to be discovered later.


    For now, she just pretended to be familiarising herself with the Disciple of Iron skill, and informed Yi Taizhi that she would be spending the next few days in the library studying a number of techniques for her trip on the fifteenth.


    She didn¡¯t have any objections, so Yi Wei went straight to the technique library and read through the rest of the books on the second floor in a few days through the assistance of her spiritual will, and by the thirteenth, she had gathered up every single book there into her mind, where there still seemed to be a large amount of space remaining.


    Thus, to make good use of her time in the city, she returned to Yi Zhihao to get further access.


    ¡°Hello, what may I do for y- Yi Wei? Why are you wearing that robe?¡± he questioned immediately upon seeing her. She had walked past him several times before, but as she never stopped to greet him as of late, he ¨C and, by extension, the rest of the regular visitors to the technique library ¨C was unaware of Yi Wei¡¯s current cultivation realm. Thus, when he laid eyes upon her clothing, it seemed to him that there had been some mistake.


    ¡°Hello, Uncle Zhihao. You might not have heard it, but I¡¯ve broken through again! I just wanted to inform you that I would like to go up to the third floor.¡±


    ¡°How¡­ how did you manage this? I thought you were at the third, or fourth stage a month ago?¡±


    ¡°Was I? I¡¯ll admit, having read so many different technique manuals, my memories of the past have faded slightly,¡± she claimed, despite that being completely false, ¡°What I do know is that I am currently within the first stage, and I would like to go to the third floor¡¯s mental technique section. Do you mind permitting my passage?¡±


    ¡°Could you display your cultivation for me? I know that Da Gang has made relying on external force alone rather difficult, but if you can demonstrate external force, I-¡±


    He stopped talking the moment a circle of blood formed behind Yi Wei, arranging itself into an entire paragraph of letters from the Triumvirate¡¯s Will, one of the better mental technique on the second floor.


    ¡°Wow¡­ I am sorry for doubting you, Xiao Wei. That is truly impressive,¡± Yi Zhihao bowed deeply, drawing the eyes of a few too many people before Yi Wei forced him upright, ¡°You said you want to view mental techniques, correct? Have you been having some trouble with your mental state? I wouldn¡¯t have guessed, considering your progress¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been in the Energy Condensation realm most of the time, so my mental state hasn¡¯t had much of an effect on my cultivation. Now, however, I want to make sure to reinforce it.¡±


    ¡°That seems like a good idea,¡± he nodded, reaching out his hand for her identity token, ¡°I will authorise it for you. If everyone could be as capable as you, our Yi family would not have declined until we only had this single district¡­¡±


    The token was handed back to her, and they parted in silence.


    Each floor of the technique hall was designed and laid out differently. The first was separated into five main sections, each holding first realm techniques of a single element. Anyone from the Yi family could access them, for there was little reason to obscure such things if the family wished to have any cultivators beside those born to the experts with personal skill libraries.


    On the second floor, techniques still belonged in the first realm, but they were split into their functions and categories, allowing people to select their personal path in life a little more easily. This floor was also a little more restricted to ensure that no-one would attempt to go beyond their capabilities, using complex skills before understanding the basics of cultivation. It was also the first to impose some limit on the number of books that can be withdrawn, as the techniques stored there had some value, whereas the skills on the first floor could be easily recalled by any random individual who had cultivated them.


    Within the third floor, things were even more secure. Rather than having easily accessible shelves, the techniques were kept in individual sections that require specific permission to access. They were made for the second realm, and thus often included elements regarding externalisation of force or the cultivation of one¡¯s planar pool. As a result, their value increased exponentially, and the limit for borrowing manuals was one, unless you had the trust of a higher up of the family that would be held accountable instead of you in the case that you lost one of the techniques.


    For this reason, while the first two floors had one or two guards watching over them, the third floor had a guard on every wall and corner, each one having a cultivation of the upper second realm or the lower third realm. In theory, a prepared and powerful thief could defeat one or two of the guards on their own, but even if they made it into one of the secure sections and stole a technique, they wouldn¡¯t be able to leave.


    ¡®Additionally, this place has the occasional skill that incorporates a semblance of the Dao, and is thus intended to be difficult to read through in one go. Luckily, I¡¯m used to it, and my brain can handle reading five different books at once before the decrease in reading speed stops being worth it.¡¯


    She made her way up to the third floor, where she passed seventeen guards before she arrived at the mental technique section.


    It was encased in fiery-red light, flowing most vibrantly through the engravings on the side of the violet stone walls. By the looks of it, there were several layers of defences, all being collected on a single set of four walls to minimize the chances of theft occurring on this floor. ¡®If the third floor looks like this, what happens on the fourth and fifth?¡¯


    Since she couldn¡¯t answer that question right now, Yi Wei raised her identity token and pressed it against the flaming wall, causing the barrier to shimmer and open a small doorway within the barrier. A border grew on the inner edge, stabilising the door, for a time.


    The moment she stepped inside, the solidified energy shattered, sealing her inside.


    ¡®Alright, now it¡¯s time for me to enter¡­ reading mode¡­¡¯ she breathed out and turned to the nearest manual, flipping it open to find a muddled mess of characters written without any logic or consistency.


    ¡°Oh. What a nice book. Thank you,¡± Yi Wei looked at the cover, ¡°Venerable Damned Sun. Clearly, you sacrificed much, including the right to a proper name, in order to deliver such a technique to me and the other people of the Yi family, so I shall- right, that¡¯s the code. Excellent. Now I can actually study.¡±


    As she decoded and read the Manual of Devil¡¯s Will, she extended her spiritual will to four other books, only to find the exact same situation within all of them. They were written by different people, used different elements, and generally shared little to no ideas, but for whatever reason, they had the exact same cipher applied to them.


    ¡®Damned Sun, Fat Wu, Fairy Dongfang¡­ they don¡¯t have any connection that I know of, so either this is common practise within the third floor, and perhaps above, or there is more to these than meets the eye,¡¯ she contemplated, sealing the five books in her memory before moving onto another five. This time, three of them had the same code, while the other two were perfectly readable, albeit slightly aged and using a number of outdated expressions and methods. ¡®Thus, the first idea is likely to be ruled out, leaving the second one. Since I was going to read all of these anyway, I don¡¯t see why I shouldn¡¯t solve a mystery while I¡¯m at it.¡¯


    In the back of the technique library, a guard was observing the third floor from an elevated platform. There were rarely any visitors stupid enough to break the rules, so they were mostly for show, but he still had to turn his head to a random section every now and then to get paid.


    A familiar voice, a fellow guard, spoke to him from behind, ¡°Hey, anything interesting happen today?¡±


    ¡°This is the technique library. What exactly are you expecting?¡± the first guard replied, ¡°I¡¯ve been here four months, but nothing fun so far.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re unlucky, man. Had you been here a month earlier, you would have seen a girl suddenly burst into flame from some revelation, and stand there for a long time before she realised we were staring at her.¡±


    ¡°Why were you doing that?¡±


    The second guard let out a disappointed sigh, ¡°Dude, what does fire do to clothes? It burns them. What could we have been looking at?¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­¡± he turned away in embarrassment and saw a teenager in red robes grabbing every fifth book, flipping through it in seconds, before putting it back down, ¡°Actually, I think I¡¯ve found something as well. Look at that one over there. No, there! At the¡­ mental techniques section. What do you think she¡¯s trying to do?¡±


    ¡°How would I know? Probably trying to get through as many as possible in the hopes of understanding them all at home without needing to borrow any of the techniques, or something.¡±


    ¡°Does that work?¡±


    ¡°How do you think a dummy like you wouldn¡¯t know about such a trick? It¡¯s nonsense, obviously.¡±


    Yi Wei lost track of time while reading, getting through every single book in a matter of minutes. Out of all of them, around thirty percent features the strange cipher, two more had a different code within them, and the rest were written in plain text.


    ¡®Interesting. This is certain to have some importance, but the skills still have very few connecting features. Unless this was done as a joke by whoever was responsible for moving the books to this library, then there is something I have not yet noticed,¡¯ she thought, slowly flipping through one of the books she hadn¡¯t read physically while looking over the few hundred books with the first code in her head, ¡®What if I was to line them all up? No, I can do that, but I¡¯d need to know the intended order of the books first, and no matter how much information I can process at once, it won¡¯t be enough to guess the correct order.¡¯


    Just in case she got lucky, she tried arranging the techniques in several different orders, but beyond a few somewhat humorous lines, nothing productive came out of it.


    ¡®If there is truly something of value within these books, it should be reasonable to assume that it has not been found yet, because otherwise the family would have rewritten the techniques in plain text and would have stored the secret within somewhere else, unless they intend this to be a challenge for those who realise this pattern, giving them some information as a result. Then, it should be something that cannot be reasonably deciphered in an environment like the library¡­¡¯


    She bit her lip while she thought.


    ¡®Perhaps it is related to some pattern within the texts? Their cipher is identical, so there has to be more that matches, right?¡¯


    There were a number of possibilities that she had already thought of, so she went through them one by one. A dozen possibilities were thrown out quickly, however, as she only had to check a few of the manuals before it was clear that there was no correlation. That was until she decided to overlap the first page of a dozen manuals in her mind.


    Her lips formed a small smile, ¡®Aha~. This seems to be having some success. A number of words are in identical locations on all twelve manuals, so why don¡¯t I put them all together?¡¯


    A second dozen was added in, and it still worked. To not drag out the process too much, Yi Wei went ahead and added the rest, and, amidst the endless clouds of poorly overlapping characters she removed with a thought, there were two different sets of characters that remained.


    One of the sets of words was present on the majority of the techniques, while the other was present in the minority. She began with the former, mentally organising them into a more readable format before she began to read.


    ¡®I am of the sky- no, that should be Kong, not sky ¨C of the Kong. This is the culmination of my efforts into the field of mental techniques. I have no need to study further in this field, for I have reached my limit with it, but I grant this to you. While I do not believe in fate, if you have succeeded in understanding this, then I hope the Kong Mental Arts serve you well. I would like to ask just one favour of you, which would be not to spread this to others, especially not the Kong family. Though I have given this art their name after they made themselves my second family, this is already more than they deserve.


    ¡®You do not need to do this, but I would appreciate it if you could search out for the children of Yi Shi Ming, if any do exist. I do not expect there to be any, but if there does turn out to be someone, if you wish to, then you may protect them. However, if they do not deserve your attention, I would ask that you do not intentionally harm them. If it is necessary for you, you can think of it as repaying the debt for this technique.


    ¡®Now, if you are reading the original cipher, you are likely to be tired of deciphering and reading so many insignificant words. So, without further ado, my Kong Mental Arts.¡¯


    Even though she did not have to confirm each individual word in every manual, she was still somewhat tired of the process, as every character was strangely malformed, as if the person writing was unfamiliar with the language of the Planar Continents, or perhaps they were far more familiar with a different dialect or form of writing that caused their text to be unusually difficult to understand. This wasn¡¯t a noticeable problem when reading individual skill manuals, as those odd characters were somewhat sparse, but it became far worse when every single word was made up of these.


    ¡®Thankfully, writing out the exact same thing over and over again clearly gave this person a lot of practise, as the actual technique is much easier to read,¡¯ Yi Wei noticed, compiling the Kong Mental Arts in a minute, ¡®Not as fortunately, all mental techniques take a while to cultivate, so I cannot learn them now. Onto the second overlapping set¡­¡¯


    It quickly became clear that this was written by a different hand, and perhaps at a different time. Somehow, these changed did not overlap, but the result was also a technique.


    ¡®Red Phantom Flood Technique¡­ Very interesting. Both this one and the Kong Mental Arts lack any clear indication of the element they are supposed to be intended for, almost as if- no, that can¡¯t ¡­¡¯ she thought back to the Kong Mental Arts and quickly performed a few of its initial steps.


    A small part of her planar energy floated up to her head, and right there, before the gaze of her spiritual will, it transformed for the briefest moment, changing back into her current Mysterious Blood form. However, she still knew what she saw. In that short instant, her planar energy changed into the same form that one would see within a planar shard; it became pure violet, shining like the vital soul of man within their heart, and it had no connection to the concept of elements whatsoever.


    For a second, Yi Wei¡¯s body contained a pure form of energy, devoid of all impurities and influences.


    She tried to form it within the planar aperture on her own, but the most she was capable of was slightly dulling the glow of stars within her planar energy.


    ¡®This technique isn¡¯t normal. Not by a long shot. I have heard of a thousand different elements that have supposedly been manifested through various cultivation techniques, but never have I seen this. The lack of elements. The lack of inspiration. Just¡­ raw energy¡­ Despite all that, it¡¯s acting a bit like inspiration by simply being this unusual¡­¡¯ her previous smile had grown into an all-out grin by this point, ¡°I can work with this¡­ Then, what about the Red Phantom Flood? It clearly follows a different method, but perhaps it can create the exact same thing?¡±


    In her excitement, she ignored a number of missing pieces within the technique, as well as the oddity of its structure, and cultivated it.


    That was, in a word, a mistake.


    A strange, unknown energy welled from the depths of her body, suddenly rushing to her heart almost as if it was a wave of knives, swords, daggers, sabres and arrows, all of which were thrown and fired with incredible competence. If she faced them in the physical world, no technique or skill would have been able to throw them aside, but in her own body, she could not even dodge as they impaled every organ in her chest.


    She ceased the technique immediately, but not before she felt her throat fill with her own blood. Hastily, Yi Wei healed the internal wounds and forced that blood to return to her veins via the manipulation of the Mysterious Blood.


    Even then, she shook at the fearsome might of the crimson energy, which, after stabbing her countless times, simply dissipated back into her body, vanishing as if it had never existed to begin with.


    Just like the planar energy of the Kong Mental Arts, she could not force it to manifest again under her control.


    ¡®That¡­ is insane¡­ what kind of madman made such a terrifying skill? What realm is it even for? Does that say¡­ Marked Core? What in the heavens is this?¡¯ she couldn¡¯t stop herself from mentally screaming at finding such a strange ability within the third floor.


    Somewhere, in an empty void, a chorus of identical voices laughed to themselves. An endless legion of flaming green eyes stared into a faint light within the middle of the group.


    Despite no blood actually leaving her body, she felt faint, so she decided not to experiment with any more techniques she found, instead going through the remaining potential ciphers as quickly as possible and then heading to the Xiao Mountain Residence, where she would spend the rest of the day resting in the overly comfortable beds while practising her new mental techniques.


    The second set of manuals, only thirty of them, did not reveal anything upon going the same process to decode them, and after she had tried everything she could think of, all she had left were the techniques that were written in plain text.


    Initially, she wanted to ignore them and leave, but since it did not take much effort to attempt to decode them, Yi Wei decided to have a go at it.


    Surprisingly enough, it worked. After overlaying every single page atop the other, a single word remained on every page, spelling out a curious sentence that was¡­ unnerving, to say the least, for it was a great warning to the reader.


    ¡®They see you. They watch you. They will consume you. Do not trust them.¡¯


    ¡®Ominous. Who are they? Why would they do those things? Hm,¡¯ she pondered, shutting the book she had been pretending to read, ¡®Let¡¯s hope I don¡¯t accidentally get on their bad side.¡¯


    To be safe, she circulated her planar energy a few more times through the damaged areas of her body and finally felt sufficiently stable to walk out of the technique library without collapsing the second she makes any step in any direction. She returned to the place in the barrier through which she entered and tapped her token on it to cause the doorway to reconstruct itself.


    As soon as she exited the mental technique section, the doorway closed and the small wisp of energy within her token that granted her permission to enter that section broke.


    She turned to the exit, when someone suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder.


    ¡°Excuse me,¡± the man behind her said, ¡°The guy behind me wants to spar with you. Could you spare him a few moments of your time?¡±


    Since the request seemed sufficiently friendly, she turned around with an audible sigh, only to see a pair of young men wearing the standard guard armour of the technique library, which consisted of a simple grey robe covered by a number of metal plates made from meteorite iron, which were inscribed with defensive and shielding engravings to make them useful, rather than simply being decorative. Potentially, they could even qualify as low-grade artefact. The man who stopped her had red hair and a tall build, with clear muscles visible despite the robe and armour, while the person he pointed to had brown hair, green eyes and an unimpressive physique, clearly marking him as someone not fortunate enough to attain either the features of the Yi family, nor a strong body.


    ¡°Sure. Does the technique library allow sparring?¡±


    ¡°Nah, but we can just go outside. Come on, Yi Fen,¡± the muscular guard said, waving to his friend, who only got the hint the third time he was spoken to.


    ¡®I think he¡¯s very nervous, for whatever reason. Was it not his choice to fight with me, like that time with Yi Zhang? He does seem to be somewhat anxious, as his heartbeat is higher than it should be, but he does not seem to be being coerced,¡¯ Yi Wei analysed the situation, sneaking a glance at both of the guards, ¡®I¡¯ll go along with it until I see what¡¯s wrong, if something¡¯s wrong.¡¯


    They went outside, to a small square nearby the library where a shielding array was already built into the bricks. This was one of several ¡®emergency¡¯ arenas, as some called them, intended to function as a safe area for people to fight out their differences without needing to go through some official process to do so. All they needed was three people ¨C one on each side and another to operate the formation array ¨C and they could start and end a fight on their own.


    ¡°Get in there, Yi Fen. I¡¯ll be cheering for you,¡± said the red-haired guard, nudging his peer into the arena.


    ¡®That tone seems to be¡­ encouraging? Not malicious, or anything of the sort¡­ I don¡¯t get this situation at all,¡¯ Yi Wei got into the circle and breathed calmly while scanning her surroundings to see if there were any assassins waiting to pounce on her or the guard, ¡®No, so is it just a friendly duel? Then, what realm is that man on?¡¯


    Seeing her gaze, the guard stammered, ¡°H-Hey, I¡¯m Yi Fen. I¡­ I¡¯m at the ninth stage of the second realm. W-What about you?¡±


    ¡°First stage. Don¡¯t drag this out, alright?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ o-okay¡­¡±


    The other guard sat down at the outside of the array, calling out to certain townsfolk and accumulating a decent collection of food and drink for himself in a single minute, simultaneously gathering a small crowd of spectators.


    ¡°Alright, you ready, Yi Fen?¡±


    ¡°Hold up,¡± Yi Wei looked to the shy man, ¡°Is this going to be a purely physical battle, or an all-out sparring session?¡±


    ¡°I t-think we can go all out¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright then, everyone! Gather up, everyone, and watch this riveting battle between two geniuses of the Planar Pool realm! Yi Fen, the magnificent, the powerful, wielder of the Yi Wood skills, and the most emotionally fooli-¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re starting!¡± she interrupted this strange introduction and gave Yi Fen a second to comprehend her words before releasing two thick clouds of blood planar energy.


    One flooded around her arm while the other remained floating freely in the air. She leapt forward, crossing the distance between them in one move, sending her blood-covered hand at his chest. In the air, an illusory reflection of her fist appeared in front of it, layering atop itself three times in a row, not unlike the Three-Fold Palm within the second floor of the technique library. At the same time, she created a whip out of the free-floating planar energy and launching it upon the raised arm of the guard.


    It seemed that he realised what was happening only then, for he did not have the time to do anything but take the hit. Wood-type planar energy burst out of his chest and arm, but in comparison to Yi Wei¡¯s refined energy, it was thin and lacking.


    It only withstood the initial impact of the twin blood attacks, and the remaining force crashed onto his body.


    ¡°Ugh!¡± he restrained a pained cry and attempted to lunge forward at her, but a third planar energy cloud formed into a thick spear that had a dulled tip. If this had been a fight against an intruder into the technique library, or some thug outside, he would have felt insulted at the fact that he was being underestimated, but he knew that she wasn¡¯t doing that at all. There was no chance for him to dodge.


    The blood spear crashed into his body and launched him into the array barrier, creating ripples within the translucent surface. He fell to the ground, feeling a stream of crimson fluid pouring slowly from his mouth, and knew that he had no chance.


    ¡°I-I SURRENDER!¡±


    Yi Wei had already stopped her assault, so his words were unnecessary. The crowd dispersed quickly, and once the barrier went down, she left those two alone.


    ¡®Good to know that blood energy can benefit from physical strength¡­¡¯


    ¡°So much for that, man. Shouldn¡¯t you have been stronger than her?¡±


    ¡°I get it now¡­ don¡¯t drag it out¡­ she was talking about me¡­¡± Yi Fen coughed once more and passed out on the spot.


    ¡°¡­ What was she, some sort of Disciple of Blood? Does anyone even practise skills like that?¡±

 V1C25: The Grove and the Mission

    By the fifteenth, Yi Wei had also browsed through the body cultivation section of the technique library. The various insights within the second realm techniques were certainly illuminating, but they lacked any mention of any sort of physique energy, nor did they have a feature of utterly purifying the body.


    The latter could still be attributed to the breakthrough and the development of the True Ascendant physique, but the same could not be said about the former. Despite her physique being formed only recently, the power of the physique energy was enormous, surpassing even the combination of all of her cultivation techniques within the cosmic planar energy, and it was capable of substituting planar energy despite being in a completely different set of meridians.


    ¡®I suppose that one conclusion that can be drawn is that this energy requires an empty set of meridians that do not accommodate any other type of energy, thus preventing anyone who pursued cultivation alongside body strengthening from discovering it. Since it also requires a physique, that narrows down the chances of discovering it even further,¡¯ she hypothesised after she returned to the mountain residence from the library on the fourteenth, ¡®Unfortunately, I don¡¯t know anything about communities of pure body cultivators, nor do I expect any of them to be within the vicinity of the Yi District, unless there is a far larger number of resources for body cultivation here than I am aware of.¡¯


    Speaking of the Xiao Mountain residence, it was much more impressive than Yi Wei had imagined. It was placed half-way up the mountain, on a small plain beside a wide but shallow river that weaved through the courtyard before plunging below in a majestic waterfall. It was an excellent sight, clearly belonging more to a painting than reality.


    It was extremely suitable for the initial cultivation of mental techniques, as it was calm and soothing, yet included many elements in which one¡¯s mind could be lost, so by the end of the fourteenth day of the sixth month, she had entered the Initial Accomplishment stage of the Kong Mental Arts, as well as a number of other skills she decided to practise alongside it.


    The Red Phantom Flood Skill continued to evade her, however. It wasn¡¯t entirely complete, clearly, and the missing elements turned out to be vital, as she could tell that any attempt to practise it would repeat the rather unpleasant experience of the previous day.


    With the body cultivation skills of the third floor, she made some progress on one of her previous plans to integrate every single one of the great arts into the Condensed Formation Body, or, as it would have to be called, Condensed Arts Body. Unfortunately, she could not cultivate it, as she had neither the spare dantian shards, nor the leeway to sit somewhere for the couple of days needed for the completion of the cultivation of the technique, nor the space to hide the incredible fanfare that would likely follow.


    Thus, she waited, and on the day of her departure, she went around to her teachers and informed them of her departure.


    Luo Xiuying was too busy with his attempt to stabilise his comprehension of his crafting technique, Yi Yi threw several bags of pills and low-grade artefacts at her before she could even say hello, Ning Guanting made her attempt to craft an item of sufficient quality again ¨C which she failed to do successfully, as blacksmithing still hadn¡¯t quite clicked with her, Great Dark was occupied with dealing with Great Light and simply allowed her to read up on a few more inscription manuals on the condition that she does not read too much and Chu Ling¡­ her interaction could not be summed up in as few words as the rest, not while conveying Yi Wei¡¯s response with any degree of accuracy.


    When she entered the Timeless Grove, the voluptuous woman sat in the back of the initial open area. She was supported by a number of branches, creating something akin to a hammock on which she sat while idly reading a book made from rectangular leaves.


    ¡°Welcome, Ah Wei. How hath thee fared since our last meeting? Have thou decided on thine mission for thine family?¡±


    ¡°I have,¡± she answered, looking right at her to test the effectiveness of her mental techniques, ¡°I¡¯ll be leaving on the fifteenth, but I do not know when I will return.¡±


    ¡°No? Is thine mission connected to the secret space thine family discovered?¡±


    Chu Ling stood up, causing her ample chest to bounce in a fashion that forced Yi Wei to look away that very instant, ¡°You¡¯re aware of that? Apparently, they¡¯re unaware if there¡¯s anything there, but they need people who are capable of surviving in the wild and finding things that do not belong. I happen to have gone out to the district¡¯s outskirts a number of times, so I was apparently suitable for the task.¡±


    ¡°Thine family struggles to find talent, so thou hath naturally caught their eyes,¡± she said, ¡°Since thee shalt be outside the district for long, I shalt grant thee two boons, if thou doth not object. Nay, if thou doth hath an issue with my gifts, I shalt ignore thy will this once, for I believe these to be necessary.¡±


    ¡®That sounds a little ominous, but she has been kind so far. I doubt that she will do anything particularly harmful,¡¯ Yi Wei hoped, peeking at her out of the corner of her eyes to limit how much of the woman she sees, ¡°Since you have already anticipated my refusal of at least one of your boons, I get the feeling that I won¡¯t like the idea too much. Can we get that out of the way first, and move onto something that I won¡¯t have issues with?¡±


    ¡°Do not fret, child of Yi, thou hath too negative a mindset,¡± Chu Ling stated, waving her hand to cause a small area of the grass to shorten rapidly, where she then sat down on her knees, ¡°Come, lay thine head into my lap.¡±


    Something within her head froze for a second. However, even when she recovered, nothing changed.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡±


    ¡°I believe thou hath heard my words the first time. Lay thine head here, Ah Wei, and we shalt talk whilst thou enjoy thine hard-earned relaxation.¡±


    ¡°Although I can appreciate the suggestion¡­ if I try particularly hard¡­ I am afraid that I cannot properly relax in such a situation, as you might have noticed,¡± she attempted to explain, taking a small step back, ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m slightly uncomfortable with coming into contact with other people, you see-¡±


    Her sentence was cut short by a number of roots that burst out of the ground, wrapping around her arms and legs and dragging her to Chu Ling in a single motion, forcefully laying her onto her lap.


    She was placed eyes-up, and the majority of her vision was dominated by the woman¡¯s twin peaks, surrounded by her brown hair and a set of different flowers that grew around her. Altogether, they created both an alluring sight and smell, making Yi Wei¡¯s entire body heat up for the brief moment before she shut her eyes and blocked her nose via her control over her body. For a moment, she was able to stop herself from turning red, but any hopes of hiding her embarrassment were shattered the moment a soft hand began to brush through her crimson hair, which had grown since the last time to a few inches past her shoulders.


    ¡°Relax, Ah Wei. Thine reaction is not shameful, and thou doth not need to hide thyself from me. With a few exceptions, thou can do whatever you wish. More importantly, since thine family doth not care for thine well-being, I shalt assist thee in their stead. Tell me, child of Yi, why art thou afraid to show thine desires toward me?¡±


    For an uncertain length of time, Yi Wei kept her mouth shut. Could she properly explain her issue? Should she, even?


    ¡°Well¡­ I wouldn¡¯t want to impose myself on anyone even if there was no problem, but¡­ I do not think these¡­ reactions that I¡¯m having¡­ I don¡¯t think that they are my own¡­ Some time ago, I had an encounter with a will that offered me its experiences to assist me in learning skills, but¡­¡±


    ¡°And hath thou found thine body and mind reacting in a different manner since?¡±, Chu Ling asked, quickly receiving the semblance of a nod in response, ¡°Hm¡­ thou hath found thyself in quite the curious situation indeed. Nonetheless, I implore thee to open thine eyes. Regardless of the cause, thou must adapt to it if thou art to conquer it.¡±


    Yi Wei wasn¡¯t an idiot, so she naturally knew that. However, it was somehow more difficult than creating new techniques, more painful than the consequence of the Red Phantom Flood, and far more shameful than anything she had ever done before. She couldn¡¯t explain why, and, well¡­ in her mind, the unknown could be one of two things: exciting, as in the case of the Kong Mental Arts and the mysterious physique energy she had developed, or utterly terrifying, as with the Red Phantom Flood or the strange message left behind within the ordinary manuals of the technique library.


    She held her breath and forced one of her eyes open ever so slightly, though she still could not allow herself to look in Chu Ling¡¯s direction.


    ¡°Do you¡­ mind if I¡­ go at my own pace?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. So long as thou art doing what thou hath to do, then I cannot possibly scold thee for not being able to go as quickly as some others. Even then, I know not of many that hath gone through the same things as thee, for the sorts of wills that reside near or within thine mind and rare in this year,¡± Chu Ling said, her hand drifting to the satin choker on Yi Wei¡¯s neck, ¡°I cannot blame thee for thine choice, and I do not know if this will is malicious in nature, but there is the possibility that thou were not meant to have been affected in the way that thou hath been. That will that resides within thine mind, what doth thou know of it?¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s¡­ a lot like¡­ the Thunder Lord, I guess¡­ It is male and has had some¡­ experience¡­ with the other sex.¡±


    The woman in green nodded, ¡°I can see why thou hath arrived at the conclusion that it hath muddled your mind. Unless thou art some sort of voyeur, I can see it being greatly uncomfortable. If it is not too uncomfortable for thee, can thou tell me how thine memories of techniques ended up relating to the will¡¯s interaction with women?¡±


    That was an obvious question, and had an answer that was so infuriating that it somehow became amusing ¨C though only slightly, ¡°That jerk was using his techniques in bed¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah. Thou art unfortunate indeed, to have stumbled upon such a person, and to know the few techniques that triggered such a response,¡± Chu Ling sighed, and the person lying in her lap did not feel the need to mention that she knew way more techniques than that, ¡°However, would thou be interested in examining the other potential possibility? I can leave thee to consider this on thine own, but I suspect that thou would benefit from someone else to speak to.¡±


    ¡°You mean the potential that I am not being influenced by the memories, but rather that they simply brought about some sort of comprehension within myself that then caused me to change the way I view certain things?¡± Yi Wei opened both eyes now, though they were still kept to the forest above them, ¡°I¡¯d love to get the answer to that, you know¡­ I don¡¯t have a clue. One day, I barely think about any of this, and then, I suddenly get a lifetime¡¯s worth of memories from someone who really liked spending his time in one particular way¡­ For all I know, it had no influence on me at all. Unfortunately, I am unable to confirm this, and I will not act on something that might not be my own thought. At the very least, I will attempt not to.¡±


    ¡°I see. I understand thine position on this. Is this why thou hath began the practise of mental techniques?¡±


    For a brief moment, Yi Wei managed to use all of her regular senses to view the woman next to her with a raised brow, ¡°If I may ask, how did you notice that? Of all techniques in existence, mental techniques are famously the most difficult to find, so far as I am aware.¡±


    ¡°Thou art correct about that, but they art the most difficult to find, not impossible, especially if thou hath the knowledge of their effects. Despite thine uncomfortable ¨C in thine opinion, at least ¨C position, thou hath quickly calmed thyself when it came time to discuss thine mind-set. Quickly calming thyself is one of the most common functions of mental techniques, and I also happen to possess a certain method of discovering them, but I cannot teach thee yet.¡±


    ¡°Huh¡­ any advice?¡±


    ¡°The mind is a complicated thing. If thou doth not follow a single path all the way through, thou might lose thine self even further.¡±


    ¡®So you cannot see that I¡¯m practising a few hundred at the same time? Thank you for this information, Master Chu, beside the rest of the¡­ conversation we¡¯ve had, I guess¡­¡¯ Yi Wei thought, turning her head to the side to look through the endless wall of trees, ¡°Thank you for the advice, though you may already be able to tell that I care for my mind a lot.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, thou hath shown that clearly. In this case, once thou hath completed the clearing of thine mind, I would encourage thee to explore thyself, to be certain what thou art and art not. That knowledge ought to be beneficial in thine future.¡±


    ¡°It could be¡­¡±


    The conversation ceased for some time. Chu Ling continued to softly caress her, while Yi Wei lay in place, in silence. The roots had already rescinded, but she did not want to move from her position.


    She was also the person to resume their discussion, ¡°I recall being promised two things.¡±


    ¡°Indeed,¡± the green-clothed woman whispered, her voice just loud enough to be heard amidst the rustle of leaves above them, ¡°Thou hath completed thine reading of the Cherry Revolving Blossom, so I would like to offer thee another skill to study in thine absence from my grove. They are not all as impressive as that crafting skill, but they shalt serve thee well in the wilderness. I assume thou wouldst be most interested in choosing on thine own?¡±


    ¡°Preferably, yes. What are my options?¡±


    ¡°Thou hath the choice of a number of techniques I hath extrapolated from the essence of our pill refining technique, and thine options would be between an offensive, defensive and a recovery skill. The first can be used so long as thou hath the ability to move, the second is strengthened via movement, and the third is able to amplify thine natural regeneration and apply it to thyself or others.¡±


    ¡®Strictly speaking, I do not need the third technique, but¡­¡¯ Yi Wei decided to inquire on the matter nonetheless, ¡°Out of interest, is the third skill based on the body¡¯s regenerative abilities, or on one¡¯s overall capabilities?¡±


    ¡°Purely based on the body itself. If thine physique vastly accelerates healing, then it wouldst be most beneficial.¡±


    ¡°No, it does not. When you said that the offensive technique can be used so long as I am capable of movement, did you mean that I could execute it with the same strength regardless of the movement I make?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Greater movements art naturally able to amplify the effects of the technique, but there is a certain baseline that thou cannot go beneath. Since thou wouldst ask this nonetheless, I can also explain the function of the second technique to spare thee thine breath. It is intended to add to thine movement abilities and permit thee an additional layer of safety atop thine dexterity,¡± Chu Ling explained, ¡°Thine movements are fast, and I wished to ensure that thee can avoid harm while thou art using them.¡±


    ¡°Master, are you saying you made these just for me?¡±


    The woman in green smiled, ¡°Nay, not for thee alone. However, I had kept thou in my mind whilst working on these three skills, so that thou may benefit from them.¡±


    ¡°I see. Thank you,¡± Yi Wei paused to ponder the best option, ¡°Are you sure I can¡¯t have all three?¡±


    ¡°Thine comprehensive skills, regardless of the assistance of the will, are incapable of substituting or avoiding thine mind¡¯s limits. Since these contain some minor truths of the Dao, as thou hath seen, thine mind is incapable of processing it in a sufficient length of time for thou to complete thine studies in a single day,¡± Chu Ling said, ¡°I would prefer that my work doth not fall into the wrong hands, so I cannot allow thee to carry it with thee in thine mission, especially due to the likelihood of thine family stumbling upon it.¡±


    ¡°Right, and I don¡¯t have a spatial artefact to hold it safely¡­ Fair enough. I¡¯ll take the offensive technique, in the case of me running into something capable of restraining me,¡± she decided, sighing inwardly at the loss of the other two skills.


    ¡°Very well. Wouldst thou be interested in reading it now?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Ehm¡­ Well¡­ Can I¡­ how do I put this...  Would you mind if I stayed here for a bit longer? This has slightly¡­ grown on me¡­¡±


    She could feel Chu Ling¡¯s gaze on her blushing cheeks for a length of time that seemed to grow slower with every moment, becoming so slow that she feared that it would last forever. All of a sudden, she lowered her head and spoke into Yi Wei¡¯s ear, ¡°Thou may. If thou doth not object, could thee tell me thine time of departure for the mission? So that, if thou doth rest thine eyes, I may wake thee at the right time.¡±


    ¡°It should be three hours from now¡­ it is around ten minutes from here, and I should be able to read the manual in five minutes at most¡­ If I hasten a little more, I should get both of the things done in twelve minutes at most.¡±


    ¡°Heh, thou art intent on spending quite so much time here, Ah Wei?¡± she chuckled, ¡°If thou doth not object, I shalt place the technique before thee so that thou doth not need to factor it in thine calculations. Tell me, dost thou prefer thine reading material to be perpendicular to the ground, or to thine eyes?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have much experience in the matter, since I haven¡¯t had many opportunities to read while reclining in this matter. Could I hold it myself?¡±


    ¡°Thou could do so, though I wish for thee to tell me as soon as thine arms tire.¡±


    Yi Wei rolled her eyes, ¡°Master Chu Ling, I am a cultivator who has practised an advanced body technique. If I get tired of simply holding a book open, I¡¯d like to think that I am a complete failure in that regard.¡±


    ¡°I suppose thine words are right. Go on then, read on thine own.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Ah Wei?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Yes?¡± she stirred awake, opening her eyes and blocking the bright rays of sunlight with her arm, ¡°Where am I?¡±


    ¡°Thou hath indeed decided to rest thine eyes. How hath thine comprehension of the Cherry Blossom Strike fared? Have thou found thine resting place to be somewhat more pleasant than expected?¡±


    It was at that moment that she remembered where she was, and nearly leapt out of the woman¡¯s lap using her full strength. She stopped herself at the last moment, after recalling the rest of their conversation, and responded, ¡°I understood all of it before I fell asleep, and I do not intend to answer the second question.¡±


    ¡°I will not force thee to,¡± Chu Ling said, ¡°Thou hath a few minutes more to rest, if thou art still in need of it.¡±


    ¡°No, I should be leaving early. I¡¯ve heard that latecomer servants can be punished, despite still being earlier than the rest,¡± Yi Wei responded, getting up slowly, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for wasting so much of your time, but-¡±


    ¡°Child of Yi, thou need not apologise to me. In fact, my offer of rest to thee hath harmed thine image. If thou doth not mind, I wouldst like to clear up thine appearance before thou art to appear on the mission,¡± she offered, reaching out to take a comb and a set of other items that spontaneously grew from the tree branches, ¡°If thou art concerned about the time, then thee shalt be in for a pleasant surprise regarding my proficiency in this matter.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ Okay, so long as it¡¯s quick,¡± Yi Wei agreed, sitting back down while frowning subtly, ¡®Would I be surprised because of how messy her hair looks? To be honest, I have no idea what half of the things in her hand are- no, let¡¯s be fair. I only know what the comb is, and I only use it sparingly, when my hair is in too bad a state. I break through sufficiently frequently for it to clean my body regularly.¡¯


    ¡°I hath practised my art for many years, so thou shalt be dazed, no doubt,¡± Chu Ling repeated, and began.


    A couple of minutes later, she put down her last instrument of physical transformation, and conjured a still pool of water through a casual wave of her hand for Yi Wei to inspect herself in. She looked down for a moment, and immediately had to turn back and question, ¡°Did you put makeup on me?¡±


    ¡°Thou hath gotten a little distracted, so I applied the bare minimum. It is my personal creation, which I shalt give thee, and it requires not much effort to apply, and doth not require removal,¡± she said, holding out a wooden bottle and a few small wooden containers, ¡°In the bottle, thou hath a cream, which thee can use on thine skin, regardless of location. In this container, I hath placed a lip balm, which thou can apply daily to prevent their dryness. Here is something to apply around thine eyes, this is specifically for thine hands, and if thou rub this into thine hair, it will be much silkier and softer.¡±


    ¡®It¡¯s a good thing she put labels on these,¡¯ she thought while scanning it with her spiritual will when her eyes suddenly widened slightly, ¡°Are these all one-star medicines?¡±


    ¡°Thou art correct, Ah Wei. Thus, if thou apply these regularly, thine features will benefit permanently, even if thine supplies run short. Regardless of the look thou wishes to adopt later in thine life, no matter how much thou change thine appearance later, it will create a good base for thee,¡± Chu Ling stated, also giving her a pouch to hold all of that, ¡°I do not wish to limit the options thou will have, regardless of thine choices.¡±


    Yi Wei nodded, returning her gaze to the pool of water. After Chu Ling¡¯s work, her appearance did not change in any significant or shocking way, not even affecting her in the same manner that her physique did. However, the subtle changes amounted to something impressive. Her features were smoother, her eyes were highlighted, bringing out her grey irises, and her lips were slightly redder and moister.


    In combination with her hair, which had been straightened and brushed until it almost shone, like it was made from a crimson metal.


    Had her face belonged to anyone else, that annoying feeling within her heart would have most certainly made her attracted to it, perhaps even more so than Chu Ling¡¯s motherly beauty, or Yi Yaling¡¯s youthful good looks.


    ¡°¡­ Thank you. I¡­ I¡¯ll be going now.¡±


    ¡°Be careful in thine journey, Ah Wei. Return safely,¡± she said, waving her hand to open a pathway through the woods, ¡°I shalt miss my best student.¡±


    Yi Wei arrived at the gathering location a few minutes earlier than she intended. Only a few other servants were at the location, and each one of them sent her a dirty look for arriving that much later than them, as if she was somehow at fault for the expectations placed upon them. She ignored them and found herself a place to sit, where she cultivated the Kong Mental Arts while she waited.


    ¡®If I am to try to understand my own feelings, then I first need to remove the influence of the Seventh of Meng. The best option to do that should be to isolate all of his memories, current and future, elsewhere in my mind, so that I could continue viewing the things I am interested in while not being affected my them, as if they are simply facts that I have the opportunity to view in motion. Once I am able to do so, unless my mind has been affected far too much by those memories, I will be able to understand my true opinions on a number of things,¡¯ she considered, ¡®Unfortunately, so far as I can tell, this will take more than a year at the very least, and up to three if I am forced to add more memories and influences to the mix. I don¡¯t have information nor experience to improve the technique, as the Kong Mental Arts, like the Red Phantom Flood, appear to be a far higher level than the other mental skills within the technique library.


    ¡®Also, I have to figure out what to do on the journey. Beside the Cherry Blossom Strike, I have no other powerful techniques to use that are not connected to my identity as Da Gang, thus forcing me either to obtain a number of skills from my companions on the mission, or to create a few on my own. I should be able to do both, but the latter requires some sort of inspiration¡­ Unfortunately, I am not the person surnamed Kong, who created the Kong Mental Arts, who was able to create a technique without it, but perhaps I already have something to draw upon¡­¡¯


    The latter thought was low on her list of priorities, as the journey to the potential location of the hidden grounds alone could take a week, which should be enough for her to come up with something, so she instead focused on sealing away the most egregious memories from the Thunder Lord, while using a small portion of her consciousness to listen out for the arrival of the rest of the team.


    Seventeen minutes after the intended arrival time, the proper members of the family began to flood in. Men and women, mostly young adults, slowly arrived, their realms ranging between the middle stages of the Planar Pool realm and the lower Emergent Anchor realm, with each of them carrying at least one lower-grade artefact openly, though a few had a middle-grade artefact while others had multiple lower-grade artefacts.


    They quickly occupied the most comfortable areas of the square, pushing away a number of servants who had previously occupied them. Soon after, a much older man in the family¡¯s silver and red robes ¨C the robes of a middle-class member of the family ¨C arrived, and the chatter that had development during their silence instantly stopped.


    ¡°If you are not here as a member of the mission to explore the city¡¯s outskirts, leave immediately,¡± the elder said, sending an intense glare over every person in the area.


    A few visibly shivered at it, and many of them rushed away that very instant. Every single one who remained had one of the Yi family¡¯s robes on, and the vast majority had either red hair or silver eyes.


    ¡°Yi Tai, Yi Zheng, Yi Jiazhi, Yi Henghua, Yi Guanyu and Yi Fenwu, into the middle.¡±


    Six people stepped out of the group, assembling into a single line facing the elder. Despite them instantly following orders from a superior, they had haughty expressions as they glanced at the ones around them, as if they were instead lording over them in the throne of the heavens.


    ¡°You shall lead the exploration squads. Choose a similar number of members and decide on your own plans. I will go and get drunk,¡± the elder said plainly, and disappeared from the spot. Yi Wei was able to follow his movement to the rooftop of a nearby pagoda, where he vanished and reappeared a few times before settling down, using some sort of stealth technique to obscure himself.


    ¡®I wonder how many others are aware of this,¡¯ she wondered, though she was unable to find anyone else looking in the same direction.


    For a moment, the six appeared to be stunned, but they quickly reverted their expressions and went into a circle, muttering to one another for a while. It took them some time, but the rest of the gathered crowd did not move, keeping perfectly still, perhaps instinctively aware that both the six in the silver and red and the elder were paying attention to them, perhaps even seeking an excuse to call them out and punish them.


    ¡°Very well then, it is decided,¡± a man ¨C Yi Jiazhi, as she later learned ¨C raised his voice and turned away from the circle, ¡°We¡¯ll call out names, or point at you, and you will enter a line in front of us. Do all of you understand?¡±


    The gathered crowd nodded, so the six began to shout names or point at random people, one at a time.


    Naturally, the first to be selected were those either in the third realm, or in red and silver robes, and once they ran out lower-class members of the family, the higher-realm servants were also chosen.


    With every selection, the crowd slowly thinned out, until all that were left were the weak and the unknown. To nobody¡¯s surprise, Yi Wei was amongst this group, as she had no fame to her own name, and her overall power appeared to be no greater than the first stage of the second realm, which was beneath a number of the servants in the area.


    Despite that, a gaze from the middle was drawn to her figure, and a finger rose to point at her, ¡°You. Were you fighting near the technique library the other day?¡±


    ¡®I suppose that makes sense. I defeated someone of a much higher stage, so after he got every well-known capable figure, he moved onto me,¡¯ Yi Wei understood, stepping forward, ¡°I fought a guard two days ago, yes.¡±


    ¡°Then get over here.¡±


    She nodded and entered the line behind the man named Yi Jiazhi. The other five leaders looked at him with some confusion but moved on quickly. A random servant wasn¡¯t worth their attention.


    After everyone had chosen who they wanted on their side, they split apart to decide on their own plans. Yi Jiazhi decided that the servants were not capable enough to assist in the strategic planning, so she ended up sitting on the side while she listened in on the plans.


    It turned out to mostly be the principle of ¡®rush in and win¡¯, so she returned to mental cultivation.


    They emerged some time after, scattering to collect various supplies and items for the journey ahead. Their leader, on the other hand, headed straight to her.


    ¡°I saw your fight. If you have any other talents, use them on the mission, but do not interfere if you do not,¡± he said sternly, before his face softened and he sat down next to her, looking her directly in the eyes, ¡°I must say, you look much better today than you did the last time. Have you done something with your hair?¡±


    ¡°Not much.¡±


    He was frozen in a half-smile for a second, ¡°Is that so? When we leave the district, if you need something, you can go to me. Could I get your name?¡±


    ¡®Why is he taking this much interest in me? I haven¡¯t done something worth being this interested in, have I?¡¯ she wondered, but she still provided an answer, ¡°Yi Wei.¡±


    Yi Jiazhi nodded, then turned around and raised his voice to address the rest of the servants, ¡°Listen up! As you should know, we are going to be going outside of the district. We will require materials and camping equipment, as well as preserved food to consume when we are unable find a planar beast to consume instead. You will have fifty silver coins, and you may decide between yourselves what to get. However, if you make a mistake, you will be the first to suffer, I assure you.¡±


    Without another word, he turned and left, leaving the family servants to figure things out among themselves.

 V1C26: Heading Out

    By the late evening, after some hasty scrounging of supplies and a lot of work, mostly done by the servants, they were finally ready to set out. The elder, who did not move from the rooftop this entire time, reappeared with a red face, as if he truly had gone out drinking, temporarily confusing Yi Wei until she saw hints of him using one of the techniques she had previously learned.


    ¡°You all done?¡± he asked, wobbling slightly on the spot. Whatever this man¡¯s genuine character was, his acting was completely impeccable.


    ¡°We¡¯re done, elder,¡± Yi Jiazhi said, ¡°We have a month¡¯s worth of supplies, and Yi Ping has confirmed that there is a large population of edible planar beasts and fruits, so there should be enough for us to complete the exploration task.¡±


    The elder nodded, ¡°Good. Then, go.¡±


    With no further ceremony, he swayed to the side and walked off, not caring about the people behind him.


    ¡°Everyone, let us move. Whoever locates the hidden grounds, or some other treasure, will be allowed first pick of whatever is in there,¡± after recovering from the elder¡¯s confusing actions, Yi Jiazhi turned to the group, ¡°Even if you are a servant, though, at that point, I expect that your original master would want a look at the things you earn. Now, servants, Yi Wei, take a bag of supplies each. Once we reach the outer border of the district, we will take a rest, so it shouldn¡¯t be much effort for you.¡±


    ¡®He¡¯s still singling me out for some reason,¡¯ Yi Wei frowned, taking the bag nearest to her, ¡®Perhaps he has some untoward intention toward me? I¡¯ll need to watch out for any suspicious behaviour from him.¡¯


    Long, long ago, Yi City sprawled across the vast majority of the continent. Across all of human history, it was the largest settlement to ever exist under the defence of a single person. Thus, it was, without a doubt, the only territory to qualify as a megacity ¨C though it was closer to a vast empire.


    Under the Master of Yi City¡¯s protection, the settlements, kingdoms, empires and other territories outside of the city still remained, but were utterly miniscule in comparison, and were effectively controlled by the authorities within Yi City. They provided their resources for the lowest prices possible, and if the Master of Yi City decided that some part of their territory was needed for his city, they had no choice but to give it up. If they tarried, all the Master of Yi City had to do was rescind his protection over their lands and the powerful monsters he opposed would destroy them in minutes.


    At that point, Yi City could simply expand to their territory and take whatever they wanted.


    Things changed once the most powerful forces in the world disappeared. At first, all outside forces waited to confirm that they were truly gone, but once there were no signs of their return, they began to act.


    At first, they began to press various claims, both legitimate and otherwise. Certain requests were granted very quickly, as they were convenient to the city¡¯s administration, but with each claim that was accepted, a dozen more sprouted up as the other nations gained more and more confidence. They became more and more brazen, and one small empire even had the gall to demand all of the city¡¯s territory in one go.


    That made the city¡¯s leaders refuse any further demands on their territory, but it did not dissuade the other forces.


    Instead of taking the city outright, they came up with a new plan. They began to raise prices on their exports, pay less for any of the city¡¯s imports, and generally create problems for the city. Then, they waited.


    At first, Yi City did not suffer, for they used a spatial treasure to store vast quantities of supplies and were able to ignore the raised prices, purchasing less and instead consuming what they already had. According to the tales of the past, that treasure was able to freeze time itself, thus holding any perishable items placed within without any deterioration whatsoever.


    Naturally, these supplies did not last forever, and the internal troubles of Yi City did not help matters.


    In between every district, and in some portions of certain districts, there were gardens, parks and small groves where various planar beasts and herbs were reared and planted, as there was no other reasonable use for such a vast area of space, and due to the usefulness of having a method of production for food within the city. They were originally kept in check by the Master of Yi City ¨C who, in hindsight, likely had more involvement in every matter of Yi City than he really should have had ¨C but after he was gone and attention had to be diverted from them to other areas of the city, the beasts there bred and grew until they could no longer be restrained by the people responsible for them.


    When combined with a number of those gardens intentionally being allowed to grow to be able to provide more food to the city, the city¡¯s internal groves slowly spread out like a web, consuming areas of the city on the inside while the empires on the outside did the same to the borders of Yi City.


    Initially, there were large highways connecting each city district, lined with large quantities of houses and markets to service various travellers, but they were the first to be claimed by the growing woods, making travel between districts significantly more difficult once the planar beasts settled in. Thus, the minor districts on the border were forced to return to the territories outside the city and accept their nonsensical prices and demands, and just a few generations later, they either became independent of the city or joined those outer territories.


    ¡®And now, after a lot more decay, we might be traveling through a place that was once one of the biggest markets in the entire Yi District,¡¯ Yi Wei sighed as she lowered the bag from her back onto the grass. They had travelled for a few hours alongside the other teams and found a good, open place to settle down, with the lights from the Yi District still in sight at the horizon.


    One of the servants practising fire-type techniques ignited a bonfire in the middle, while the rest set up tents.


    Most of them looked exhausted, each of them having carried enough items for ten people, save for Yi Wei, who had more than enough strength for it even with the added pressure from her training weights. To not stand out too much, she faked a tired look and found a place to rest after setting up her tents.


    Unfortunately, she had no opportunities to break away from the group, nor the five other teams currently surrounding them, so she could only continue her practise of the Kong Mental Arts. The group leader came to her again, speaking about various insignificant matters, but he left quickly despite having said nothing of substance. She had almost wondered whether he was attempting to affect her with an offensive mental technique but found no trace of it within her psyche.


    ¡®How strange. I do not understand his motives, but I can¡¯t let down my guard just yet.¡¯


    She leant back, resting on the tree bark behind her, and looked up into the sky. The large, rising moon shone back at her, covering the campsite in its ethereal yin light.


    ¡°Hey, Yi Wei, right?¡±


    In response, she turned around and saw a woman that was also dressed in the pure red robes of a servant. She was blond, her hair reaching to the lower half of her back, with dark brown eyes, as well as extremely sharp features that made her look much angrier than she presumably was.


    ¡°That¡¯s me. What can I do for you?¡±


    ¡°Watch out for that dickhead, alright? He¡¯s got a bad rep in the district,¡± she said, her voice being just as stern as her appearance, ¡°That Yi Jiazhi¡¯s charmed a dozen of us servants ¡®fore tossing them away. The worst thing¡¯s that some then got picked up by that witch, Yi Taizhi, and then they disappeared completely. Oh, I¡¯m Yi Bai. Nice to meet you.¡±


    ¡°Good to know¡­ all of that. Thank you for warning me. Do you know how he manages it ¨C is it his so-called natural charm, or is he using some technique?¡±


    She spat at the mention of natural charm, ¡°Fuck no, he can¡¯t charm a blind and deaf girl, not to mention someone that is mildly healthy. I haven¡¯t experienced it ¨C he¡¯s no M, apparently ¨C but it ought to be some sort of bullshit charm skill.¡±


    ¡°Noted, but, well, what¡¯s an ¡®M¡¯?¡±


    ¡°He ain¡¯t a masochist, apparently. Don¡¯t know what my appearance has to do with that, but screw that jerk anyway,¡± Yi Bai explained, turning around on the spot, ¡°Anyway, later.¡±


    ¡°Huh,¡± was all that she managed to say as the stern-looking woman walked away without another word, leaving Yi Wei to ponder matters for herself, ¡®So, it wasn¡¯t just me that found that man suspicious. However, no matter how much someone may find him suspicious, if he doesn¡¯t actually target me with his techniques, I don¡¯t have any reason to avoid that man. In addition, it would be detrimental if this¡­ relationship¡­ can deliver me a number of boons and I break it due to one accusation.


    ¡®I suppose the best solution would be to wait. As soon as I spot something, anything, I can make sure to distance myself, or, if I am able to catch the man on my own and he confronts me, then I can try to deal with him¡­ I am unlikely to beat him, but if this takes a while, I might break through a few stages¡­¡¯


    Yi Wei sighed, and leaned back.


    She wasn¡¯t entirely happy with someone attempting to control the minds of others, but she knew better than to just barge into whatever was happening and cause more issues down the line.


    Night descended, and the last few watchers headed to sleep after setting up a defensive formation array. On the other hand, Yi Wei got up, confirmed the exact function of the array and escaped from it, running to a location with no sight of the camps before digging out a small pit via earth techniques, where she ducked down.


    ¡®Cultivators do not need to sleep as much as regular people, and assuming that most people haven¡¯t spent as many nights practising things as I have, or do not have a technique to limit their necessary resting time, the ones at the second realm should only need six hours, and the likes of Yi Jiazhi will need five. Since they did not all go to sleep at the same time, and some might awake in the middle of the night, I do not expect to have any more than three hours for this. In that time, I need to get as close as possible to creating an entirely new technique with no particular influence or inspiration to draw upon¡­¡¯ she thought while she calmed her mind, ¡®Good. Challenges are meant to be good for one¡¯s growth and progress¡­¡¯


    Yi Wei could not use the lightning of the Storm Blade Wreathing nor the gold and violet colours it created. In theory, the simplest method to obscure her true identity would be by portraying the opposite of Da Gang, as it would be unreasonable for anyone to practise both sides of the coin simultaneously. As a result, when his energy was substantive and shaped, she could use something shapeless and illusory, replace something hard with soft, yang with yin and yin with yang¡­


    ¡®But what in the heavens is opposite to lightning ¨C or, at the very least, something significantly different from it? What do I-¡¯


    In her eyes, a dull orange glow rose, almost as if it was heading over some unseen horizon. Soft beams of light emitted from it, washing over the entire forest as it slowly ascended to completely occupy her silver pupils. Just as suddenly as it appeared, the light slowly faded, but not before an old light within her reignited, and the seed for her techniques was set.


    ¡®That¡¯s right, I had the image of a sunrise in my head some time ago, but I nearly forgot about it¡­ That could work very well, couldn¡¯t it? My lightning is targeted, except for all the time that it supposedly gains free will and creates a massive storm, but sunlight is formless and global, hitting everyone who does not hide themselves in the shade. The general colour scheme is a little similar, but that often happens when there are five elements for people to chase, not including their combinations. Both are also technically yang, though most do not consider that particular aspect of techniques particularly important. With that¡­ moment of inspiration, I suppose¡­ I even have a few ideas for the offensive methods, so I should see if I can come up with something before the sun actually rises.¡¯


    She gathered her knowledge of the more shapeless skills at her disposal, considering their benefits and negatives while attempting to understand which part of the technique created that particular effect¡­


    Crack!


    Yi Wei snapped her head in the direction of the sound, finding the silhouette of a woman emerging from behind a tree.


    ¡°Who are- Yi Wei? What¡¯re you doin¡¯ there?¡±


    ¡°Oh, Yi Bai, you¡­ you scared me,¡± she recognised the voice and let out a fake breath of relief, ¡°I was just resting here, away from the camp. Why?¡±


    ¡°Did¡¯ya see that light? What caused it?¡±


    ¡®Eh? What are you¡­ she also saw that sunlight? I thought I had just imagined it¡­ If this happens every time I practise, I will have a lot more to worry about,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, briefly considering a reasonable reply, ¡°I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t really know.¡±


    In situations like this, it was best to do as little as possible to answer the actual question, just in case that it was a trick question. After all, if Yi Wei had been up to suspicious and Yi Bai decided to test that via asking about something that didn¡¯t even happen, answering in the positive would surely make her look all the more suspicious. On the other hand, if no such motive is present, then the most trouble answering so vaguely would cause would simply be a temporary misunderstanding between her and the other servant.


    ¡°Tch. I was hoping that it¡¯d be something interesting,¡± Yi Bai shook her head subtly, ¡°How did¡¯ya know that the array wouldn¡¯t catch you if you went out?¡±


    ¡°That¡­¡± to further distance herself from Da Gang, Yi Wei would have loved to claim that she had no understanding of formation arrays whatsoever, but she had unfortunately gotten to participate in this mission due to some knowledge of them, so she had to give a partial truth, ¡°I happen to know a few things. Although I can¡¯t identify the exact array, I was pretty sure that it wouldn¡¯t do anything. Even if it did, all I¡¯d have to do was explain myself.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re hopeful, aren¡¯t you¡­ Let¡¯s get back before anyone else wakes up.¡±


    Yi Wei nodded, so the two of them returned to their previous resting places.


    ¡°¡­ Potential disruptive elements ¨C two. One allegiance confirmed, second is unaccounted for. Cover is maintained. Further investigation will continue. Mission safety currently ensured.


    Memory, seal.¡±


    On the next day, after travelling for the majority of the sunlit hours, they settled down for camp once again, but it was much more difficult to sneak out unnoticed. Yi Bai was not the only person who saw the false sunlight, and thus Yi Jiazhi¡¯s group voted to have a few people keep watch in addition to the sensory array.


    Fortunately, Yi Wei had the stealth skills from the Deadly Martial Colosseum, allowing her to slip away under their observation.


    She found a small hollow beneath a large tree and settled down there, shutting her eyes to minimize the risks of creating more sunlight by accident. While keeping some of her attention on her hearing, she applied the rest to generating the basic concept for one of her sun-based techniques.


    Her intention was to create the basic circulation path for an offensive skill that could be used in a variety of situations, and then refine it in actual combat under the guise of having had some sudden inspiration after reading some old book back in the Yi District. It would be a somewhat suspicious story, obviously, but it would make it seem that the technique is somewhere out there, perhaps even in its complete form, and would dissuade most from coming after her for it, especially if she intentionally displays some obvious flaws in her development process.


    Regardless of whether those faults are real or not, she could later solve them once the technique is complete or keep displaying them until she needs something to turn the tide of a difficult fight.


    Due to the power of Elysian Palm, the first technique that spontaneously generated within her mind, Yi Wei was attempting to create as much of the dawn technique herself, without relying on the techniques she already had for anything more than inspiration and guidance, which made the likelihood of running into a number of such flaws rise significantly. After all, she had only been tampering with techniques like this for one and a half months at most. She had a long way to go to become a master.


    ¡®If I add the method of execution from the Cherry Blossom Strike, or perhaps adapt it to forgo movement completely, which could allow me stand in some respectable fashion while fighting off hordes with beams of dawn light,¡¯ she imagined, shifting her work in that direction.


    Having the ability to use a skill without movement could function as an additional trump card, since it could still be used alongside some specific action to create a mistaken impression of the technique, eventually using this misunderstanding to take advantage of someone who believes that they understand her style of combat.


    She put together a rough version of the skill she came up and attempted to use it.


    ¡®No, that¡¯s not it. I can¡¯t complete this technique unless I make use of a particular element, since cosmic energy cannot be shown, and I can¡¯t use fire without raising some questions¡­¡¯


    There seemed to be a good option already available to her, but she could not think of it before she heard the subtle sounds of movement from the camp and had to retreat to the servant¡¯s tent.


    Contrary to her expectations, the person that woke up headed straight for the same tent, raising the flap to reveal his identity as the team¡¯s leader, who looked around the inside of the tent before his eyes locked onto her figure.


    ¡°Yi Wei, could you step out for a moment?¡±


    She raised an eyebrow at this, but followed his instruction, as she couldn¡¯t think of anything he could possibly do to her in the middle of a camp with sentries within a few metres of them.


    ¡°Can I help you?¡±


    ¡°Hey, we¡¯ve known each other for some time, haven¡¯t we? Let¡¯s talk a little more casually, why don¡¯t we?¡± he suggested, ¡°Also, I¡¯m thinking about setting up practise sessions every evening starting from tomorrow. If you¡¯d like me to, I could personally train you and help you out with a few things, instead of letting some other guy beat you up.¡±


    ¡®Now even he¡¯s doing this? I suppose there¡¯s no harm in it, as it will both give me the opportunity to start displaying the dawn abilities, but also help me figure out whether he intends to attack me,¡¯ she decided, ¡°Sure.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± his lip twitched, but he quickly corrected his expression while faking a cough, ¡°Alright then, see you later.¡±


    Yi Jiazhi turned around and departed, leaving Yi Wei to settle back down in her bed.


    ¡®What a strange person. Why does he keep having these brief conversations with me? I recall Yi Bai mentioning the fact that he has charmed a number of servants, but¡­ I wouldn¡¯t describe any of that as particularly charming. Am I missing something?¡¯ she wondered but could not figure out anything. To distract herself or accidentally figure out in a more relaxed condition, Yi Wei reached into her pouch and took out the various items given to her by Chu Ling.


    They were medicines of a one-star grade and could be affected by her cosmic energy in the same manner as any pill, vastly accelerating the rate at which their effects occur while also increasing the overall effect significantly. Since the breakthrough to the false Planar Pool realm, her planar energy had somewhat increased in its effectiveness, multiplying the power of any pill twice as much as it did before, though the duration also decreased slightly, causing the overall effect to only be 1.75 times as great as before.


    Nevertheless, that was still much greater than the base product, and allowed her to apply the various creams and balms more frequently while also extracting far more effect from them. She did not have any access to mirrors or sufficiently stagnant pools of water, so she could not tell how much of an effect they had on her just yet, though she had noticed that a few of the gazes occasionally drifting over her lingered a little longer than when they first came together as a group. Since that could easily be chalked up to any other number of causes, like some rumours spreading regarding her proximity to the strange sunlight, she did not want to judge the final effect until she could view it for herself.


    Once she was done with it all ¨C it still took a lot of work for her to remember and correctly use all of the things given to her by her pill refining teacher ¨C she lay back down on her bed, and shut her eyes while practising her mental techniques to rest and repair her mind.


    The next day, their group stopped earlier than before, clearing out a number of trees to have enough space for everyone to stand several metres apart from one another.


    Yi Jiazhi ordered them all to arrange themselves in a simple formation before speaking, ¡°Everybody, we are approaching the area containing the hidden grounds, and there is a high chance of the area containing a much larger quantity of hostile planar beasts. We need to be prepared to combat them, so we will train. Those of similar combat strengths, spar with one another, and try to share as many issues with your opponent¡¯s combat techniques as possible, and familiarise yourself with them. When we fight beasts together, this can mean the difference between life and death.¡±


    Everyone quickly looked to someone else in the group, including Yi Bai, who glanced to Yi Wei. However, the latter was quickly approached by Yi Jiazhi, who bowed to her while looking at the other servant. Yi Bai frowned, but after Yi Wei confirmed that she was fine, she reluctantly found another sparring partner.


    ¡°So, we speak again, Lady Wei. If you do not mind my enquiry, which weapon do you specialise in? Are you proficient in the sword, fighting with great fluidity, or do you use the saber to slash down your foes-¡±


    ¡°I use my fists. You?¡±


    ¡°¡­ My preference is the guandao, but I am also proficient with unarmed combat. To make things easier, I¡¯ll also fight without a weapon,¡± he said, removing a long, bladeless black rod from his back before tossing it to the ground somewhat unceremoniously, ¡°Throw any technique you like at me. I¡¯ll show you how to break it.¡±


    He stood in a relaxed pose, waiting for her to act, but she was first more interested in the item on the ground. Apart from the material it was made from, it looked mostly inconspicuous, but with the combination of her spiritual will and natural senses, she was able to determine its true nature.


    ¡®A middle-grade artefact. If his preferred weapon is a guandao, then this item must be capable of condensing the blade from the user¡¯s planar energy¡­ Solidified planar energy at the third realm¡­¡¯


    Unfortunately, she had no use for it, as her cosmic energy would obliterate it in moments if she attempted to use it, so she turned her attention back to the imminent sparring match. As far as she could tell, the man before her had no bad intentions, having thrown away an item that would have been incredibly helpful in killing her, or at the very least surprising her, so she decided to treat this as an opportunity to hone her dawn skill, tentatively named ¡®Dawn Flowing Light¡¯. In theory, it should be capable of generating waves of sunlight that would flow onto her opponent and burn them while they are within the light, but it currently lacked a critical element in the form of an appropriate element. Metal did not exactly match sunlight, nor did water, although it could be argued that both reflect light in their typical form.


    However, she did not want to simply collect and reflect light¡­ although that could also be an effective method on a particularly bright day¡­ she wanted to have her own light. To create her own dawn, regardless of the true sun¡¯s place.


    ¡°Then, I¡¯ll begin,¡± she said, taking the initial stance of the Cherry Blossom Strike.


    Immediately after, she launched herself forward, clearing the gap between them in seconds. She thrust one palm forward, causing a small cloud of petals to burst from her hand and into the direction of the man¡¯s heart. Before those cherry petals flew any further, she stopped abruptly and spun on the spot, sending a kick at his head.


    She limited herself to moving more quickly than the average first stage cultivator in the second realm, but that was still slower than an expert in the third realm. With a single step to the side, Yi Jiazhi moved four metres and evaded both attacks, before throwing a single punch.


    It wasn¡¯t strong- no, rather, it was weak, incredibly so, but she knew that it was directed at one of her weaknesses, at one point where a true attack could easily harm her.


    ¡®However, the thing that interests me more than my own faults is the energy within his attack. It is weak, passive, but there¡¯s something odd about it. Without taking it on directly, I can only figure it out by letting as much of it pass near me as possible,¡¯ she determined, though she naturally also corrected the stance she was in to prevent that flaw from being exploited in the future. She lowered her posture and sent another cherry petal attack at his leg before pre-emptively dashing backwards.


    Once again, he was able to reply with a weak strike of his own, time and time again, as if she posed no threat to him at all. However, although every attack of his contained the same quantity and type of energy as the first, it was clear that he was slowly being forced to take the match seriously.


    At first, he barely had to focus on her movements, but as she showered him with all sorts of combinations of attacks pulled from her own imagination and the memories of the Thunder Lord, correcting various flaws as she went along, sweat began to appear on his forehead, and some of her attacks nearly hit his body. Of course, no matter how many times she struck him, he wouldn¡¯t suffer a little bit unless she brought out her full strength, perhaps only if she channelled her planar energy to maximise her power, but it was still surprising for someone to be able to touch an opponent while using no techniques for the second realm beside the Cherry Blossom Strike.


    After several minutes, she was finally able to understand the nature of technique he used.


    ¡®It seems that it is indeed a charming skill of some sort, being used in place of a true combat technique as to avoid harming me, or perhaps to influence me with it. However, as I have made sure to not get hit by these projectiles of energy, I do not know what their primary intention is. Letting one hit me seems irresponsible, but¡­ If I prepare with the Kong Mental Arts, I can isolate it the moment it tries doing something,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, and pretended to stumble on the on uneven ground.


    A bolt of transparent energy impacted onto her breast, dissipating into her body. Some flowed to her heart, while the rest went to her head.


    She carefully watched for any effect, but, after it hovered around in her consciousness for a few moments, it broke apart and scattered without any effect, without even gaining the attention of the mysterious characters.


    ¡®Well, that¡¯s not helpful in the slightest. I¡¯ll split this energy away, just in case, but it is surprisingly ineffective. Was he genuinely attempting not to hurt me or am I somehow oblivious to the intended effects of this skill?¡¯ she struggled to understand, so she decided to follow the standard method of putting things off for her future self and focusing on the matters at hand.


    For now, she had to devise a method of using the Dawn Flowing Light without elemental energy, and to end the sparring session without beating up her opponent too badly, but also preferably without getting beat up too much herself.


    ¡®Wait¡­ I¡¯m an idiot, aren¡¯t I? Sunlight is considered to be one of the purest forms of yang, and what do I have flowing through my secondary meridians? Thank you, Yi Jiazhi, for helping me realise this, albeit very indirectly and unintentionally,¡¯ she gave silent thanks to her opponent while also reprimanding and reminding herself, ¡®The Kong Mental Arts are extremely useful, naturally, but what I need the most is some method of properly organising and going through my thoughts and memories, or else my potential maximum mental speed won¡¯t do me any good no matter how much I use it.¡¯


    Her current attack stopped mid-way as she recoiled, drawing one foot and hand back. The yang within her body surged, bursting along a rough path designed just a second prior, then exploded outward.


    A dim yet striking light appeared within her palm, growing outward steadily as it almost appeared to flow out akin to a flooding river. It stormed toward Yi Jiazhi, the orange sunlight growing brighter and brighter with every second as burnt all of the plants and leaves in the vicinity, growing large enough to completely engulf him.


    All of a sudden, the middle-grade guandao that should have been on the floor appeared in his hand, a blade made of magma appearing atop it. He spun it around and, at the last moment, struck the wave of light, causing it to split apart and fly past him harmlessly, naturally dispersing after a while.


    For a few seconds, they stood in place, neither daring to make a move against the other.


    ¡°Sorry for using a weapon despite our agreement. I was a little¡­ shocked by your last technique and reacted instinctively.¡±


    ¡°Right.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± his lips twitched twice, and he took a deep breath to calm himself ¨C though Yi Wei couldn¡¯t determine what she could have said to provoke such a reaction, ¡°Should we resume without¡­ whatever that skill was?¡±


    ¡°Yes, we should. I didn¡¯t even intend to do such a thing, but it sort of¡­ occurred.¡±


    His thoughts were practically written on his face, ¡®Sort of¡­ occurred? What do you mean? Since when someone can accidentally create a sun in their hand?¡¯


    Two days later, they arrived at the top of a large valley that stretched out for dozens of kilometres, housing an enormous lake, enormous trees that stretched half-way up the valley¡¯s mile-high walls, and even a chasm slicing it in half.


    All six groups found their way there at different times, but all of them turned to the servants amongst them and ordered them to cut down trees and construct ladders for them to descend with. It took four long days of work before the first enormous ladder was complete and lowered down onto an outcropping some way down the mountain¡¯s edge, followed by a few more, smaller, ladders to complete their descent.


    The day after that, Yi Wei and the rest of her group also began their descent, relying on footholds carved out within the valley wall by an expert specialising in earth cultivation. When they got to a spot of hard rock, the ladder was used to clear the rest of the way. Soon after that, the rest of the travelling parties followed them, and by the seventh day, they were all on the valley floor.


    Their accompanying elder descended in some unseen manner and gathered them up again.


    ¡°So, we¡¯re here. This is the valley where the hidden grounds might be located. We¡¯re not going anywhere until we¡¯ve either found them, or until I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that there are no hidden grounds here. Since that could take years, you better be fast. Now, scatter.¡±


    Without any further words, he turned around and vanished, reappearing near the lakeside where he created an opaque wall around himself and a part of the lake.


    ¡°Why are there two people that are so difficult to speak to around here?¡± Yi Jiazhi muttered to himself before he turned to his group, ¡°Alright, everyone, you heard the man¡­ whatever his name is¡­ we are going to be searching the valley for the hidden grounds. They may be in some forest, in a cave, that lake, or somewhere else entirely, and we have to find it first! In order to make the best use of our time, let us figure out how we¡¯re going to be doing this. Does anyone have any particularly bright ideas, or may I lead us to glory?¡±


    ¡°It would probably be most efficient to split up,¡± Yi Wei offered, causing her to receive an angry glare.


    ¡°Ugh¡­ Alright, Yi Wei, tell me, why should we split up?¡±


    ¡°Because it would allow us to cover the most space in the shortest period of time. If we all walk in a large group, then unless we happen to stumble upon the grounds by sheer luck ¨C which, considering the words of the elder and how it might take years to be sure of things, seems unlikely ¨C we won¡¯t be able to cover much ground, but if we all walk on our own, or in small groups of twos or threes, then the chances of someone finding them will increase significantly. If we then meet up every few days, like once a week, for example, then we will be able to share our discoveries with one another. Additionally, if someone doesn¡¯t show up, we will know that they are either facing some difficulties, or have found something of note. Then, if we decide before splitting up where everyone will go, then we can go straight to them and see which fate they have met with.¡±


    ¡°Holy shit¡­ how come you¡¯ve never spoken this much to me before? I¡¯ve been trying to chat with you every single day, but¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡±


    ¡°No, nothing, never mind¡­¡± Yi Jiazhi coughed several times, ¡°I¡¯ll admit, planning is not my strength ¨C my strength is my strength, so strategy isn¡¯t too valuable ¨C but it sounds to me like you¡¯re trying to give yourself the opportunity to steal from the grounds once you find them.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not wrong about your strength, then. How do you suppose I¡¯ll be able to steal anything? Regardless of what is in the hidden grounds, I cannot possibly take it away. Let¡¯s start with pills. They are small, admittedly, but any more than a couple will stand out in these robes. I also cannot consume them all, since I have no method of quickly digesting them ¨C in fact, I do not think any of us do, nor do we have any spatial storage methods, correct?¡±


    As expected, everyone shook their heads. Even if someone did have access to a storage artefact, they would not have brought it with them, as it would be under the control of their parents or some other superior or it would have been far too risky to carry it in such a dangerous area.


    If someone did have such a thing on them, they would never reveal it, but as only one of them was a middle-class member of the family, they would not have access to a space compressing item, not to mention complete spatial storage. Space compression was the more modern variation of spatial storage, as it was much easier to create and far less expensive, requiring as little as a tenth of the material, but it was also significantly more limited in its uses, as it could only allow for the shrinking of items, not complete removal from reality and placement into a storage space.


    ¡°The same extends to weapons and artefacts. Any one of us could probably sneak one or two of them, depending on their size, somewhere under our robes or in our bags, but that would be the items we are already entitled to receive if we find the hidden grounds first. The same applies to any inscribed items, and if we find some formation arrays, then I think we should personally congratulate anyone who manages to take even one of those with them without it being noticed. If the treasure is instead some sort of ritual or one-time-use item, then it is bound to take enough time to be used for the rest of the group to notice and then locate the entry to the hidden grounds before it is too late.¡±


    Yi Jiazhi frowned, and one could almost hear the gears in his head turning, albeit incredibly slowly.


    By the time the average person had the opportunity to reconsider the matter half a dozen times, he finally came to a conclusion.


    ¡°That might work. However, we need to decide whether it is best to separate into single groups, pairs, triplets or fours¡­ no, fours wouldn¡¯t work, that wouldn¡¯t be enough¡­ as well as how frequently we¡¯ll meet up with one another. Fairy Wei-¡±


    ¡°I am Yi Wei. I have no connection to any fairies, regardless of the type¡­ also, I am not among the Sensual Fairies, more commonly known as prostitutes.¡±


    ¡°I-¡± he was stunned at how difficult she was to speak with. He was just attempting to speak to her politely, having noticed her growing beauty as of late, but in spite of his attempts to speak with her regularly and form a sort of friendly relationship with her, she just wouldn¡¯t work with him, ¡°Then, Yi Wei, you were proposing a weekly meetup, weren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°It should give enough time us to explore the area, but also enough time to return if there are any complications. As for the quantity of people in each group, I would suggest no more than two. If we go into dangerous areas in large groups and everyone perishes, it could significantly endanger our chances of success. If a party of two is in danger, one can run for help while the other delays the enemy, and it would limit the attention we get from wild planar beasts, which tend to pay more attention to larger groups due to the higher risk they pose.¡±


    She didn¡¯t actually care too much about the things she was saying, as her real intention was to hang onto the slightest chance possible of getting into the hidden grounds alone with as small a group as possible, before eating up any planar medicines and pills and breaking through to rapidly absorb them.


    ¡°Hey, why are we listening to some servant? What does she know about matters?¡± a random person asked.


    Yi Wei sighed, ¡°Then why don¡¯t you just vote? I¡¯m sure you can decide on something like this just by raising your hands, so, if you¡¯re for having one person groups, vote now.¡±


    The group shared a look with one another, then the vast majority of them raised their hands. Quite clearly, Yi Wei was not the only one who had the hopes of discovering whatever inheritance hid in the area and taking as much as possible for themselves. Walking on your own would naturally be far more dangerous, but if there was something to find, then they would be the only ones to find it.


    ¡°Very well then, each man shall go on his own. We¡¯ll discuss the rough direction all of us will go in, or the landmark we wish to explore, and then we will meet back up a week later,¡± Yi Jiazhi said, ¡°Let¡¯s decide on that now.¡±


    The poll is available on Patreon, so head over there if you would like to vote. I can create a copy on SubscribeStar if anyone wants me to. The poll ends on December 17th, so head over there before then.

 V1C27: Planar Pool

    It has been eight months since they set out for the hidden grounds, and no direct progress has been made. Yi Wei, on the other hand, had progressed a lot. Her cultivation had been advancing until it reached the last stage of the Energy Condensation realm, her hair had grown even further to touch her lower back, her Dawn series of techniques was slowly nearing completion, her attempt to separate the memories of the Thunder Lord from her own was progressing smoothly, and her chest¡­ was not developing as she had hoped. Although her body and behind had clearly grown, making it much more difficult to hide her breasts without the use of some additional effort, it was completely different from what occurred to Yi Bai¡¯s body.


    She was of a similar age to Yi Wei, and also turned out to be a late bloomer, as her figure had changed from nearly flat to what could only be described as impressive.


    Although it was a little jealousy inducing, it also allowed Yi Wei to understand her progress in removing the Thunder Lord¡¯s influence on her. Unfortunately, that progress was not as great as she had hoped, even though she did gain far more control over herself in most situations.


    Her suspicion regarding her lack of growth in certain areas was that the Condensed Formation Body was put together a little lazily, and thus stunted a few very specific venues of development, some of which just happened to include the exact areas she wanted to grow the most. That taught her a lot, albeit a little too late.


    Today, she had gotten as far away from the rest of the group as possible, and intended to break through again, to truly become someone in the second realm while also implementing her plan to conceal her incredible body cultivation technique ¨C the Dawn Star Body. It was something she created from her combined understanding of various body skills, and even though it was rather effective when combined with the immense quantity of yang inside of her, its primary purpose was to be as obvious as possible.


    Her physical strength, even with Great Light¡¯s training set limit it, was still far beyond anything most cultivators had, and thus it could easily be noticed by anyone who was paying attention. Thus, to obscure it, she needed something to conceal it. Since she was going all out with her dawn skills, why not use that theme for her body technique as well?


    It would not be as in-depth as the Condensed Formation Body, which she planned to update later, and it could be used to excuse her physical superiority.


    ¡®For now, I should focus on the present. I don¡¯t have any planar herbs to devour this time, so I can¡¯t try to strengthen my physique or develop a new one ¨C if that is even possible ¨C and I can instead focus on simply breaking through, both in my cultivation and the Dawn Star Body.¡¯


    She took a deep breath, bound her hair in a simple ponytail, and activated her cultivation technique.


    The dense planar energy of the valley surged to her, rapidly flowing into her physique and filling her dantian. Unlike the instant breakthrough she had the first time she used the Mysterious Characters technique, her progress had been slowing down more and more, and this time, she had to absorb planar energy for almost ten minutes before she felt the energy within her quiver.


    Before it progressed any further, she sent all of her cosmic energy into each of the meridians within her body. They formed into small, glowing stars, being barely held in place with a combination of her spiritual will and physique energy. At the same time, she envisioned that blinding dawn within her mind, also executing the incomplete variant of the Dawn Flowing Light to seal the image firmly in her body and surroundings.


    The next second, her planar aperture filled to the brim, the energy rapidly condensing back into liquid form, before it shook.


    With a dull chime, the cosmic fluid vibrated once, then again and again, until the number of chimes was nine. Matching the beat of her heart, it was about to shake a tenth time, when it instead exploded outward, slicing past her every bone and muscle in its way as it completely filled her body. For a brief moment, it seeped out of her skin, bringing along with it some number of impurities, before it receded once more into her planar dantian. It sat still for a second before bursting out once more, this time in solid tendrils and vague shapes almost as if it had turned into some swarm of living things. A number of these strands wrapped around the stars in her meridians, while the rest repeated their journey to the outside of her body.


    This burned away all of the black filth on her skin, instead wrapping her in a layer of cosmic light, almost as if it formed a second skin, but the solidified energy lasted only seconds before it collapsed inward, returning to her planar aperture.


    The stars in her meridians quivered as the solid tendrils pulled away, but they remained in place.


    ¡®Alright, that¡¯s-¡¯ her thought was interrupted as the planar energy suddenly expanded a third time, literally cutting through every inch of her insides as it sought a path out.


    Her dantian¡¯s walls cracked and shattered for a second time, launching out another series of bone shards into her body, leaving behind planar aperture walls that were as white and pure as a pearl, seeming like the exact opposite of the dark and mysterious planar energy that continued on its path through her physical form. It severed bone and tendons, muscles and veins, cutting through her skin and eyes as it exited her body yet again. Some part of it severed the thin string keeping her hair in place, causing it to fall down her back like a silky, crimson waterfall.


    If not for the absolute destruction of her lungs, this would have elicited a terrifying scream.


    This time, the energy did not linger, rapidly returning to its proper place within the dantian, and as it went, the wounds it caused were repaired in an instant by its effects, simultaneously strengthening each part of her.


    It flowed back into her abdomen, but it seemed to leave behind a trace of itself as it went, creating a small mist-like barrier around the dantian.


    Once it settled, it formed a solid ball of planar energy, resembling a stable portal into the beyond, or perhaps some crystal ball that contained a stable fragment of the night sky.


    The stars flowed within it slowly, and they were clearer than ever before, shining even more beautifully than the one hundred and eight stars inside of her meridians, and as she looked up into the sky, she could also tell that the nebulae of her energy were greatly superior to the ones inside reality.


    She breathed out a mouthful of turbid air, mixed in with evaporated blood.


    ¡®Now¡­ that¡¯s it. Three individual breakthroughs¡­ suggests that I broke through once, to the second realm, once to complete the ninth perfected stage¡­ then once more as I perfected the realm? How very interesting¡­ It is possible to perfect a realm, so what sorts of things does that do for me?¡¯ Yi Wei wondered, limiting the speed of her thoughts to not risk passing out from overwhelming sensations, ¡®I suppose I have nothing better to do than experiment.¡¯


    The first things she thought to confirm was the range of her spiritual will. A transparent strand left her body, and slowly reached out to one metre away, then, as it was clear that it could go further, it did.


    It crossed two metres, and only once it reached three metres did it stop in place.


    ¡®Oh¡­ Heh, I have the same reach of spiritual will as someone in the Emergent Anchor realm¡­¡¯ she couldn¡¯t restrain her lips from forming a smile, even as they were still partially covered in blood from her breakthrough process, ¡®Additionally, it seems that it is much more detailed in what it is able to detect, though I cannot compare that to a typical Emergent Anchor realm expert¡­¡¯


    She stood up, taking a few breaths, both literally and in terms of time, to stabilise her legs. Once she could stand still, Yi Wei activated the light of the one hundred and eight stars.


    Her skin filled with dawn light, and each star released a thin ray of sunlight that was cast in random directions. It was blinding, rather impressive to witness, and incredibly eye-catching and useless. It was exactly what she wanted.


    ¡®Now, I need to see whether my external force has changed¡­ but first, that spectral shield around my dantian¡­ I wonder if it¡¯s effective, or just some temporary phantom,¡¯ she thought, reaching into the pile of things by her side for a knife. In anticipation of the possibility of her breakthrough destroying the things on her body, which turned out to be a perfectly valid fear, or the expulsion of a lot of impurities and filth, which also happened but was then undone by the second and third breakthroughs, she had chosen to undergo this particular session of cultivation in the nude.


    Her body was muscular thanks to her consistent training with body cultivation skills and general exercise, though she made sure to limit her muscle growth so as to avoid ending up as a solid chunk of flesh, resulting in toned, strong-looking limbs and body.


    It was somewhat scary to sit in the wilderness without anything to cover herself with, but at the same time, it was strangely exciting¡­


    ¡®I hope that I never say that to anyone by accident¡­ I¡¯m already strange enough without needing to add some perversion into the mix¡­¡¯ Yi Wei sighed, quickly slipping on her underwear before anyone had the opportunity to chance upon her, ¡®Alright, let¡¯s see if that shield is the same as the Active Core realm¡¯s core, or not.¡¯


    She relaxed the muscles in her stomach and sank the knife in, going slowly until the tip of the blade reached the spectral barrier. For a brief moment, the iron was unable to go any further, but the instant after it continued a little further.


    ¡®No, it isn¡¯t. If someone briefly jabs at my planar aperture, then it might be able to save me, but it won¡¯t be enough for any serious attack,¡¯ she thought, removing the knife and allowing her physique to recover in an instant. The knife was almost entirely clean of blood, but she still wiped it clean prior to placing it into its sheath. ¡®That is unfortunate, but not unexpected. Getting something half a realm early was already impressive but receiving a core two realms early would be far too convenient.¡¯


    As Yi Wei had nothing more to test on her body, she put on her robes and took out a spare string to tie her hair.


    With her spiritual will, she scouted her surroundings and confirmed that no-one was spying on her, and then released her planar energy into a small sphere above her hand. A small chunk broke off her planar energy sphere and flew to her skin. However, when it passed beyond her body, it broke down into a fluid form, shaping itself into a perfect ball under her command.


    ¡®That is within my expectations, at the very least. External force always lags behind internal force, so because I now possess solid planar energy, my external energy has become fluid.¡¯


    She transformed it into water and cleansed her body with it, effectively giving herself a bath without all of the fuss of drying herself afterward. After all, no matter how powerful one¡¯s planar energy was, unless they were able to stabilise it in the external world, it would still remain energy.


    Yi Wei stretched for a few minutes to get the dull pain leftover from the breakthrough out of her muscles and cleared the area of any obvious signs of her presence. It wouldn¡¯t be dangerous for people to know where she¡¯s been, but she did have to hide her many cultivation sites, as it wouldn¡¯t make much sense for someone who has broken through such a large number of times to still remain within the first stage of the second realm. At the same time, she relied on cosmic energy, and the more of it collected in one place, the easier it would be for someone to detect it.


    She didn¡¯t want that risk, so she collected all of the energy for herself and made her way toward the main camp of Yi Jiazhi¡¯s group.


    Her area of exploration had been the same for the past month, so she was very familiar with the path there and back and could make the journey in half of the time she could when she first had to travel through the thick forest. With the additional benefit of her strengthened cultivation realm, she was able to travel several kilometres in just a dozen minutes.


    Before she even entered the camp, she was able to tell that the atmosphere was strange. Most of the group stood in a circle, looking out to the forest, and they all radiated faint killing intent that was vaguely directed outward and also at one another.


    It wasn¡¯t immediately clear what was happening, so she slowed down and entered their sight calmly.


    The moment a certain someone caught sight of her, they ran out and pointed a finger at her, ¡°Yi Wei! Is this what you were planning all that time ago?¡±


    ¡°I would love to answer that, but I¡¯d need to know what you¡¯re accusing me of first,¡± she responded, approaching the camp calmly with her hands by the side as to not appear to be threatening, since a number of people were looking at her with a suspicious degree of hostility despite her typical inconspicuous appearance.


    ¡°You¡¯re trying to conceal your crimes? Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t know what happened to Yi Shizhi?¡±


    She frowned for a moment as she tried to recall that name, ¡°Are you talking about that black-haired man who had seven different knives on him? What happened to him?¡±


    ¡°He was killed by-¡± Yi Bai began, but Yi Jiazhi interrupted her only to repeat the exact same thing.


    ¡°He was killed by someone during his explorative efforts, and I, Yi Kong and Yi Chu stumbled upon their body in the woods. You were the one that suggested that we split up into the smallest groups possible, so it must obviously be your fault!¡±


    ¡®What kind of logic is he operating on? His intelligence hasn¡¯t increased at all since we first met, and he¡¯s still trying to talk with me every time we meet, though he¡¯s clearly getting more and more annoyed at time goes on. I wonder what that¡¯s all about¡­ First, though, I¡¯ll clear this nonsense up,¡¯ she shook her head, ¡°First off, he headed to the north-west, didn¡¯t he? That is the exact opposite of the direction I went in. Second of all, what realm was he on?¡±


    ¡°The third one, naturally.¡±


    ¡°And how do you think I killed him? Was he stabbed repeatedly in the dantian, ruining his cultivation, before being beaten to death, somehow?¡±


    ¡°Ugh¡­ no. He was attacked with planar energy of the third¡­ realm¡­ You might have used talismans!¡±


    ¡°Where do you suppose I picked up those? I am on the second realm, and am also a servant. I do have some materials on me, but, as you should be able to tell, this talisman paper cannot be used for any talisman over the Planar Pool realm,¡± she explained, taking out two stacks of talisman paper, both containing thirty-six sheets, ¡°Supposing that I could somehow create a talisman using the energy of the Emergent Anchor realm, it would be one, at most. How many wounds does Yi Shizhi¡¯s body have? How many different attacks killed him?¡±


    ¡°That-¡±


    ¡°It was three, at least,¡± Yi Bai stepped in, ¡°And this motherfu- person hasn¡¯t yet said that the energy used was of the earth element.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, Yi Bai. Why were you wasting my time in the first place, then? I don¡¯t use any energy of the earth element, nor can I somehow synthesise it, so how would I be able to attack someone with it thrice?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± he struggled to come up with something, but as soon as he could not, he immediately switched topics, ¡°Then, onto our regular sparring session. Yi Wei, your features have gotten even more impressive since last time, and it feels like your aura has strengthened, as if you will soon have a breakthrough. Would you mind sparring with me as to stabilise your cultivation?¡±


    The rest of the group looked to him disapprovingly.


    ¡®You were just accusing me, and now you¡¯re trying to chat to me casually again?¡¯ Yi Wei showed a look of disgust, as did the vast majority of the people looking at him, especially Yi Bai, who already disliked him.


    Nevertheless, she agreed, as she was one step away from deciphering every possible function of his strange energy, allowing her to either confront him about it, or find an excuse to get away from him.


    Her speed of understanding the technique was a little disappointing, admittedly, but she blamed that on her lack of knowledge in mental techniques and skills targeted at ones other than the self. It did end up providing a lot of information regarding that type of abilities, and she was confident in being able to analyse them much more quickly in the future, but it was still unfortunate that her speed of analysis was so lacking when it came to new and unknown skills.


    Over time, she involved more and more dawn light in her fighting style, and now that she also had the Dawn Star Body, she used it to overwhelm Yi Jiazhi a second time while pretending that it somehow enhanced her Dawn abilities. Currently, it did not have such an ability, and instead she just used more strength whenever any of the stars within her body were lit.


    When their training concluded, she finally completed her comprehension of his skill, so she approached him and whispered to him, ¡°Hey, could we speak in private?¡±


    She could tell that he got some sort of strange idea based on the look in his eyes, but he nodded, and after some conversation with a few other members of the party, Yi Jiazhi followed her to a spot outside of the camp, and took over as they ascended to a small hill.


    Midway there, she called out, ¡°You¡¯ve been trying to charm me for some time, haven¡¯t you?¡±


    He stopped in the middle of his step. His foot descended to the ground slowly, but he did not turn around.


    ¡°I would just like to be sure of one thing ¨C what was the intended effect? How did your particular technique work?¡±


    ¡°Will you speak about it?¡±


    ¡°To others?¡± she watched him nod his head, ¡°If you don¡¯t want me to, then I will not. I am simply interested in techniques in general, and I have been trying to understand it for some time ¨C in fact, since I haven¡¯t revealed it after knowing about it all this time should give you the confidence that I won¡¯t mention it to anyone after today.¡±


    She made sure not to promise not to speak of it in the distant future, when she not only understood the matter in full and perhaps when they were done with the exploration and search. If possible, she would eventually prefer to reveal to anyone that hadn¡¯t yet figured out that Yi Jiazhi was influencing minds.


    ¡°¡­ It is just meant to amplify any existing feelings you might have had or developed towards me, causing you to become attracted to me far more than you otherwise would have. Seems to not have had an effect on you, though¡­¡±


    Charming techniques could be split into two types: those that modified one¡¯s feelings, exaggerating some and dulling others to influence their mind into a certain direction, and those that were able to create completely new ideas and thoughts, potentially leading to a complete alteration of one¡¯s mind. Naturally, the first was far more common, as it was not too difficult to amplify or diminish what is already present, but far, far more difficult to create something out of nothing, or even to transform one emotion into another.


    It was believed to be so complicated, in fact, that any technique that could do such a thing was automatically labelled as something of the fifth, the Marked Core realm, and those that could transform thoughts were considered to be no lesser than the Active Core realm, regardless of the type of energy required.


    The notable difference from the mental influence on jade slips was that the slips would directly deliver knowledge to the mind, whereas the techniques of others couldn¡¯t do so. Hence, a jade slip could have greater effects despite requiring a lower realm to produce.


    Yi Jiazhi turned around, ¡°Now, unless you had something else to say-¡±


    ¡°Actually, I was also curious what you intended to do here if I had fallen to your¡­ charms,¡± Yi Wei asked, although she was also eager to explore some things on her own.


    He looked at her and was bewildered, as if she had said something incomprehensible, ¡°Maybe that¡¯s why I failed to do anything¡­ Aren¡¯t you a mature woman already? I thought that you had finally fallen for me and that we¡¯d finally sleep with one another. With your beauty growing with every day, I was getting rather excited, too¡­¡±


    With a shake of his head, he returned down the path they initially used, intentionally bumping into Yi Wei on the way. She, meanwhile, stood in place for almost half a minute before a dull red shade appeared on her cheeks.


    ¡®Oh. Right. That is what he would want, isn¡¯t it? Then, this, in combination with my absolute lack of positive thought regarding him, doesn¡¯t it suggest that any sort of relationship with him hasn¡¯t ever crossed my mind?¡¯ Yi Wei had to conclude, ¡®Well, I can¡¯t say I liked his personality from the very beginning, so that isn¡¯t much of a surprise. With other thoughts overshadowing any possibility of positive interaction with him, I doubt I would have been interested in him even if I didn¡¯t have the Thunder Lord¡¯s memories bothering me. Additionally, they might have negated certain interests while inducing others, so I cannot yet be certain about my personal preferences¡­


    ¡®I need to be careful about this. If I bind my attraction to certain people, or lack thereof, to the Seventh of Meng, and it then turns out that those feelings belong to me instead of him, then I will be facing a lot more difficulty later on, as I¡¯d need to reverse my stance on those things and adapt to them¡­ Sheesh, thanks, Thunder Lord Meng, you perverted bastard.¡¯


    She sighed, casually breaking a nearby tree in half with a kick to vent a little bit of her frustration.


    As she also returned to the camp, she ran into Yi Bai, who was clearly attempting to hide behind a tree but failing miserably thanks to her ¡®assets¡¯, which stuck out beyond the thin wooden log.


    ¡®At least I can find one advantage to not being as endowed,¡¯ the small smile that appeared allowed her to hide her earlier embarrassment as she approached, ¡°Hey, have you got any reason for hiding behind there, or is it just for¡­ fun?¡±


    Yi Bai leapt out from beyond the tree and grabbed her shoulders, ¡°Did that guy do something?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ well, I promised not to say anything, but- let me finish before butting in, okay?¡± Yi Wei said, casually putting her finger on the other woman¡¯s lips, ¡°You see, I try to keep my promises, but I am able to tell you, without any particulars, that a certain suspicion you had was indeed correct. I¡¯m not going to say what that was, but¡­ I¡¯m sure you have no~ idea what I could mean, right?¡±


    The blond woman nodded quickly, stepping back, ¡°I knew it. It was a charm technique, right? Thanks for your efforts!¡±


    Without any further words, she ran off, leaving Yi Wei standing in the middle of the forest with a raised finger. A blush crept back into her expression as she realised what she just did, ¡®Why did I just¡­ Her lips were so soft, and moist¡­¡¯


    Once she had ¡®foiled¡¯ Yi Jiazhi¡¯s plans, he completely lost interest in her, and completely stopped any attempts to interact with her. He switched his sparring partner to someone in the same realm, leaving Yi Wei and Yi Bai to partner up as they had originally intended. To his credit, he didn¡¯t attempt to get his revenge, or do anything else of the sort, instead choosing to forgo communication with her entirely. This was rather convenient for her.


    She had learned of the location of Yi Shizhi¡¯s death from another member of the party and decided to test out a small theory.


    ¡®According to what I know about the circumstances regarding his death, his killer was either an intelligent beast, or a human. The former would mean that he had simply wandered into its lair, but the latter could have two implications. The first would be that he had also entered an area he shouldn¡¯t have, and the only area of the sort in the region would be the hidden grounds! Naturally, the other possibility is that one of the other five teams has decided to get a little bit overly competitive, which could be for the same reason, or just to cull the competition¡­ That is a little less likely, considering the fact that the family is a little more peaceful than, say, the Chen family, which encourages all-out war between its heirs, but for all I know, the treasure within the hidden grounds may be worth it¡­


    ¡®Working off the first assumption, however, if I assume that he was killed due to being too close to finding the grounds, or some clue leading to them, then I have to investigate there myself. If I am able to be the first into the hidden grounds, I can benefit far more than anyone else would, then pretend that I didn¡¯t take anything more than a few useless items.¡¯


    The Yi family would have preferred her to think a little more about them and a little less about herself, but she didn¡¯t exactly feel bad about it. She had almost no method of surpassing her status as a servant and obtaining the resources someone in the higher rank of the family would have, so why shouldn¡¯t she take a few things for herself before letting the rest of the family take their share of the reward, especially if there turned out to be a number of defences in front of the hidden grounds which she would then have to clear on her own.


    After all, if she is doing all of the work, then why not take the things she needs as compensation?


    ¡®Here comes that overly optimistic thinking of mine. Knowing my luck, even if I do find something, it will fill my mind with unnecessary images, explode my body a few times, then reveal that a second consciousness has nested inside of some article of clothing.¡¯


    She felt a chill go down her spine, almost like a warning from the world itself. Perhaps it was a good idea to stop attempting to predict the future.

 V1C28: The Confrontation

    Four months later, despite spending most of her time searching every area that Yi Shizhi had been to, she had nothing to show for it. Naturally, no one could be as lucky as to find something that might take a decade of searching on their first day, but this was so unproductive that she was almost entirely certain that her assumption about the motives of Yi Shizhi¡¯s killing was wrong.


    Nevertheless, searching one area of the woods wasn¡¯t much different from searching another area of the woods, so she kept at it in the hopes of discovering something of value. She had located a few planar beasts, which she defeated without much effort, as well as a number of natural planar herbs, but none of them could match the potential value of the hidden grounds, or even just some clue regarding the location of their entrance.


    It was on the 23rd of the seventh month of the 1521st year, approximately one year and one month after they had set out on this expedition, that she finally made a worthwhile discovery.


    Yi Wei¡¯s method of exploration was simple ¨C she started on the spot where Yi Shizhi had perished, then walked in ever-growing circles, scouring through every possible spot where something could be hidden until moving on. With the use of spiritual will, she was able to make each circle have a radius of three metres, and so her efforts resulted in her covering a lot of ground.


    She was considering the search to have been completely fruitless, when she detected a faint quiver within the space around her. It was subtle, and could have easily originated from nothing of significance, but as this was the first clue she had found in months, she went straight for it.


    ¡®If I¡¯m not mistaken, this should belong to a sort of disguising and confounding formation array,¡¯ she thought, slowing down as to be sure that she wasn¡¯t being led astray, ¡®That would explain why no one has located it so far, though it would also ruin my previous theory regarding Yi Shizhi¡¯s death having some sort of significance, other than being an attempt to weaken the competition. He was literally miles away from this spot, so unless it was intended as a diversion, which is, admittedly, plausible as well, then it was just a random kill.¡¯


    Her foot rose again and was about to step onto a patch of grass when she hesitated.


    ¡®Hold on, shouldn¡¯t I be stepping there?¡¯ she moved her foot a few inches to the right and lowered it onto the ground cautiously, ¡®Alright, no distracting thought. Focus on this¡­¡¯


    Yi Wei slowed down her pace and made sure to double check exactly where she was stepping as to avoid being taken in by whatever was affecting her. What should have taken two minutes at most to walk through was slowed down to an hour, even with the assistance of every mental art she had on her.


    However, when she entered a small clearing in the woods, walled off by a countless number of thick trees, she knew that the time had been well spent.


    In place of grass, this clearing had one-star planar herbs like Cold Drake Grass, Water Collecting Sprouts and luminous Yin Flowers, and in the very middle stood a small pillar that was no higher than her chest. It was made of old, mossy stone and filled with countless cracks, but it still emanated a certain grace and power that no ordinary rock could. Without a shadow of a doubt, even if this was not related to the hidden grounds, it had to be something of worth.


    ¡®There don¡¯t seem to be any traps or offensive arrays in the area¡­¡¯ Yi Wei scanned everything with her spiritual will but found nothing even when she was right next to the ancient pedestal. Its surface had no clear indication of how to use it, so she placed her hand atop it.


    Nothing happened.


    ¡®Perhaps I need to apply some planar energy? I hope this doesn¡¯t cause it to explode,¡¯ she cautiously released a tiny wisp of energy from her hand into the inside of the stone pillar.


    It did not explode, but neither did it activate. Using her planar energy and spiritual will, she was able to see that the inside of the obelisk contained an incredibly complex inscription, surpassing the level of a five-star without a doubt, but there was no sign of a spatial fold nor an illusory world, meaning that whatever this was, it did not contain the hidden grounds themselves.


    That meant that this was either an unconnected item, perhaps some sort of treasure that was hidden in the valley by some coincidence, or it could be part of a sealing mechanism for the true location of the hidden grounds.


    ¡®I¡¯d prefer the latter option, so long as I am able to figure out how to activate this rock,¡¯ she thought, considering every possible method she could imagine. Using every different type of planar energy, including lightning ¨C which she created in her spare time of this explorative effort ¨C and blood, mobilising a small quantity of yang physique energy that burnt off every bit of moss and vines on top of the ancient stone, and even using other formation arrays, talismans, inscriptions and, for research purposes, a pill that did little more than contain energy.


    Once that didn¡¯t prove productive, she switched to circulating random skills and using random techniques. After she had gone through every combat, defensive, movement and healing technique she could think of, then switched to mental techniques. Strictly speaking, no mental technique is intended to produce energy, but she had two that belonged to higher realms and generated something that she couldn¡¯t quite understand.


    The Red Phantom Flood proved unhelpful, although the injuries caused were lessened in comparison to the first time she used it. However, when she activated Kong Mental Arts, she finally found success.


    From her head, a small wisp of the strange planar energy emerged from her body and landed on the top of the pillar. It sank in slowly, the majority of the energy evaporating before it fully entered the stone. The few drops of planar energy spread across the network of inscriptions within, and the deeper it got, the more concentrated the energy around the stone became.


    Half-way through, a number of mist-like rings of planar energy condensed around the stone, hovering up and down slowly as the inscriptions within slowly completed. As soon as it did, her hand, which had begun to drift away from the pedestal, was forced back onto it.


    Sparks of violet lightning burst out of the pillar and struck her arm, pricking her skin in a painful manner. Arcing on her wrist, it drew a quarter of a symbol on her flesh, disappearing immediately after.


    ¡®Ow, that didn¡¯t really hurt, but was instead¡­ unpleasant. What is this?¡¯ she examined her arm.


    The symbol, which seemed to be one fourth of some ornate loop or circle, seemed to have been drawn beneath her skin with some sort of black ink. It was dark, but relatively subtle, and it just happened to be in the same position as her training cuff, which mostly covered it up. It was made of a number of different straight lines that only turned in perfect right angles, creating a rather simplistic but fascinating design.


    Just as she finished examining the marking, the stone shook and began to sink down into the ground, going completely under the ground before a pile of dirt collapsed atop it, hiding it from sight.


    ¡®So, this can only be used once, then?¡¯ Yi Wei inspected the inscriptions within using her spiritual will and discovered that they were completely burnt out, but also that something that had been connected to it changed as well, though she was unable to trace that connection beyond the small forest clearing that contained the pillar.


    That was unfortunate, but within the norm when dealing with an ancient hidden ground or inheritance. If it was hidden, then it would naturally be undesirable for it to be found, so the ancient creators of it, whoever they may have been, would have put up as many different types of defences as possible, and separate every small part of the overall structure into different areas as to slow down any potential intruder as much as possible. If she, someone in the second realm, albeit with some unusual abilities, was able to track down every part of the hidden ground¡¯s lock with just her spiritual will, then it wouldn¡¯t be worthwhile for her to search for it in the first place.


    Yi Wei picked a dozen of each herb in the area, as she couldn¡¯t store any more than that without bringing some attention to herself. Each planar herb had a slight aura, and even if the people with her had no knowledge of it, they would undoubtable be able to detect the vast pool of cold, water and yin energy that would be generated if she was somehow able to collect every flower and grass in the clearing.


    As the pillar vanished into the ground, so did the confounding array, which allowed her to return to her original searching location in minutes.


    Before she had any opportunity to have a go at searching through the place she was meant to be inspecting, she heard the loud approach of a woman, based on her audible yelps and whimpers, which she also recognised well after their repeated sparring sessions.


    ¡°How difficult can it be to walk through a few bushes?¡±


    The reply was an elated shout, ¡°You are there! I thought you¡¯d have slunk away somewhere again. Could you help me out?¡±


    She sighed, but still navigated the thick grass and plant life with ease and found the place where Yi Bai had gotten herself stuck before slashing through every branch and vine with a simple blood blade planar construct. The latter was in the fourth stage of the Planar Pool realm, but she was far weaker in terms of her general combat ability, technique usage and energy manipulation.


    Due to that, she constantly lost to Yi Wei, even when she used the weakest of her skills.


    ¡°Thanks. I hate this fucking place, you know?¡±


    ¡°No, not really. This place has nothing on the swamp to the north, where you¡¯d truly be stuck if you entered it carelessly,¡± she replied, recalling their group¡¯s initial exploration of the valley and the time a number of them nearly drowned, ¡°Since you¡¯ve made your way here, I¡¯m assuming that you didn¡¯t just want to chat.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. You remember the creepy guy, the one that wanted to get in bed with you? He¡¯s gonna blame you this time as well.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡­¡±


    ¡°Yi Zhu, the funny lad from last month¡¯s sparring session, has been killed, and since you¡¯ve rejected him, Yi Jiazhi¡¯s not gonna let you get away as easily this time,¡± Yi Bai sighed, idly playing with a few strands of her hair, ¡°Just thought I¡¯d warn you.¡±


    ¡°Fuck¡­ They need someone to blame, don¡¯t they? Have we still not come across any of the other groups?¡±


    ¡°How¡¯d I know that? For all I know, the prick had met all of them already, but he wouldn¡¯t tell any of us,¡± the blonde woman spat, ¡°Actually, I heard something about Yi Tai¡¯s team, or rather traces of him. Yi Bing, that tall servant girl who you¡¯d stared at every time she showed up, found a fuck-ton of large planar energy boulders, the signature skill of that guy¡¯s Rain of Stone technique. However, by the time someone with a tracking skill got over, they¡¯d melted into nothing.¡±


    ¡°And Yi Jiazhi won¡¯t blame it on them¡­ why?¡±


    ¡°I dunno. He¡¯s an idiot?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Yi Wei nodded. If there is one thing that could be agreed about when it comes to their team leader, it was that he wasn¡¯t the brightest star in the sky, if he was even somewhere up there. Without even mentioning his attempts to charm random women with his skill, he wouldn¡¯t be able to get out of bed in the morning without the aid of his supporters in the group.


    ¡°So, you wanna run, or are you gonna kick his ass?¡± Yi Bai asked, imitating Yi Wei¡¯s fighting posture without too much accuracy.


    ¡°I¡¯m not insane, you know? Actually, if you don¡¯t mind me asking, what element are you practising?¡±


    ¡°Earth¡­¡± she paused when she understood the implication of her question, ¡°You¡¯re not try and blame me, are you? I¡¯d never beat Yi Zhu up, and not just because I can¡¯t. Seriously, at this point, it¡¯d make more sense to accuse the plants.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Bai, I am not accusing you of anything¡­ though you do raise an interesting point about the flora. I haven¡¯t found any planar wildlife yet, even though this place is perfect for it,¡± Yi Wei muttered, ¡°However, I¡¯m thinking that if he wanted to blame someone, then you would still be a better target.¡±


    ¡°Then, I suppose I can agree with you. Maybe you¡¯re the weakest, so if you¡¯re offed, there¡¯ll be the least harm to the group?¡±


    ¡°Hm, that could be true. I wonde- DUCK!¡± Yi Wei caught the faint sound of something whizzing in their direction from afar, so she leapt onto Yi Bai and threw her down to the grass. The very next moment, that object shot past where they stood and pierced the tree behind them.


    ¡°What are yo-¡± Yi Bai was about to ask when she looked up and saw an enormous arrow that had split the tree in two, ¡°Oh. Shit. You know who that¡¯s reminding me of?¡±


    ¡°Yi Fenwu?¡±


    ¡°Yi Fenwu.¡±


    Yi Fenwu was one of the six group leaders on this expedition, and she was the most powerful of them, being at the sixth stage of Emergent Anchor. Her cultivation technique was called Soaring Dragon¡¯s Flight, and her preferred weapon was a gigantic bow and arrows that were currently physical but would become stabilised planar constructs the moment she reached the fourth realm. She was a famous beauty amongst the middle-class members of the family, but a high number of them did not dare to come after her due to her impressive cultivation speed and strength.


    ¡°So¡­¡± Yi Wei glanced down at the woman beneath her, ¡°We need to run¡­¡±


    ¡°Yep,¡± Yi Bai replied in a whisper, ¡°Do you have any ideas? I have no movement techniques, and my general defensive skills, are¡­ in a word, fucked.¡±


    She listened out for a moment while she released her grasp on Yi Bai and crouched beside her, ¡°You won¡¯t be able to block the arrows, true (and neither can I, I¡¯m afraid), but you can deflect them, at least one or two of them. I have an idea, but it only has a small chance of success¡­ maybe thirty-nine percent, at most.¡±


    ¡°One realm and six stages, yet you¡¯ve still got that high a chance? I¡¯m in.¡±


    Yi Bai rose to her feet as well, albeit while causing far more noise. As a direct response, the sound of a gigantic arrow being nocked was caught by Yi Wei¡¯s ears.


    ¡®Is she using her hearing to detect us? That is not good, not when this girl is unable to remain quiet,¡¯ she bit her lip, ¡®I can¡¯t pass on any of my stealth techniques to her, and neither can I shield her without using all of my hidden strength. Since I do not want to display it yet, I could¡­¡¯


    She activated both her cosmic planar energy and the Kong Mental Arts, increasing the speed of her thoughts as much as she could. In the moment that the arrow was being pulled back, her mind went through a thousand different possibilities¡­ ¡®And yet, my best idea is something so nonsensical that I do not even want to voice it in my own thoughts¡­ I do need something to distract her attention for long enough to break away, but also some method of neutralising the first shot, at the very least¡­¡¯


    ¡°Alright, an arrow will be shot at us in a moment. The moment I yell anything at all, you must create a shield with all of your planar energy on that exact point,¡± Yi Wei pointed to a spot in the grass, ¡°Then, run.¡±


    ¡°Got it!¡±


    The wait felt like it was a thousand years when, in reality, it was just a single second. The next, the distinct sound of an arrow being fired echoed throughout the forest.


    ¡°Now!¡±


    Out of the earth, a jagged stone shield rose. The dark stone pierced the dirt as if it was butter and ascended quickly ¨C but not to Yi Wei. In comparison to the speed of the gigantic arrow heading for them, the shield was no faster than a turtle that was missing its legs.


    Luckily, she had taken this into account, relying on Yi Bai¡¯s limited ability in terms of planar energy usage to allow her plan to happen.


    As soon it was half-way out of the ground, the arrow reached it.


    ¡®It¡¯s aiming at me? Interesting¡­¡¯ a thought flashed past her mind as she dashed forward.


    The arrow tip was about to soar past the stone when it was struck by the top of the shield, causing it to bounce off and change its trajectory, instead soaring upward rather than towards them. Before it had a chance to go anywhere, Yi Wei leapt up to it and grabbed onto the arrow shaft with her right hand. Simultaneously, she performed a number of different tasks.


    First, she infused as much of her planar energy into the arrow ¨C which was a low-grade artefact ¨C in blood form as she could, causing the metal to creak and crack near her hand, crimson light flickering through the gaps.


    Also, she channelled her cosmic energy into her arm, both maximising its strength and executing the loudest combat technique she could create, temporarily named the Banshee¡¯s Scream.


    Finally, using the substitution of the physique energy, she activated a number of other skills to enhance the Banshee¡¯s Scream and allow her to throw the arrow far enough. Bedrock Skill technique strengthened her skin and flesh to hopefully allow it to survive the effort of the throw. Gentle Breeze Strike was used to guide the arrow¡¯s path a little further. Boulder Pushing Palm further added to her strength, increasing the force of the throw as much as possible. A subtler version of Storm Blade Wreathing was applied to increase the size of the explosion.


    ¡°HA!¡± she screamed out as she threw the arrow like a spear.


    The instant it left her hand, it created an enormous sonic boom, accelerating past the speed of sound. It soared away, causing every tree near its path to shatter and break away, disappearing in the blink of an eye.


    For a moment, there was silence as Yi Wei grabbed Yi Bai¡¯s hand with her left hand.


    Then, an enormous flash of blood-red light exploded in the distance, covering the entirety of the forest in crimson light. As the flash began to fade, the sound of the explosion reached them, a powerful sound that ripped away the leaves of every tree in the area and momentarily deafened Yi Bai. Yi Wei had developed a certain degree of resistance to loud sounds by now, and her ears were significantly strengthened by a number of treatments with cosmic energy.


    They ran as quickly as they could, stopping only once they found a tree large enough to hide behind safely.


    It was then that Yi Wei was able to examine her throwing hand and found it to be completely ruined. The bones in her arm and hand were completely shattered, her muscles were torn and ripped apart, and the skin was ruptured in a thousand places, with blood slowly pouring from it onto the forest floor.


    ¡®This¡­ is highly unpleasant, but also not as painful as it should be. I¡¯m going to lose my sense of pain completely if this happens again,¡¯ she noted, channelling some of her remaining planar energy to repair some of the fundamental parts of her limb, ¡°Now, please stay quiet, or else that woman is going to find us again.¡±


    ¡°Ri- right¡­¡± Yi Bai replied, lowering her voice as much as she was able to, though her breathing alone was probably loud enough to give her away, ¡°That was so cool¡­ You¡¯re really strong, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I practise some body cultivation techniques, so it is to be expected,¡± she waved away the complement, ¡°Do you have any methods of hiding the sounds you make? I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯re the reason Yi Fenwu caught onto us.¡±


    The blond woman shook her head, ¡°I¡¯d have used it already. Do you think she¡¯ll go through the explosion and keep attacking us?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. Speaking of which, let us get back to running.¡±


    They nodded to one another and got up, charging in the direction of their camp under Yi Wei¡¯s guidance, who was able to bring them through the quietest areas without much effort thanks to every single book on survival in the wild, navigating forests and other random topics that she had read in the past. The Thunder Lord also had a significant amount of experience of navigation in the wilderness, judging by how much forests were featured in certain memories, but she knew very few of the skills he used and thus couldn¡¯t gain much from his memories alone.


    After several minutes of running, they began to see familiar terrain, but just as they entered it, the sound of an arrow being prepared entered her ears. Quickly, the sound of it being shot out followed, the faint metallic glint of the arrow tip could be seen in the distance.


    Yi Wei resisted the urge to curse and simply shouted, ¡°Shield! Now!¡±


    To her credit, Yi Bai reacted quickly, creating a jagged stone shield in the path of the arrow. Nevertheless, the timing was off, and the barrier would not come up at the right time.


    ¡®Not good. These spear-like arrows are able to pierce trees easily, and a planar construct won¡¯t stop it. Now, that is a useful thought for once. Spear-like, huh¡­¡¯ Yi Wei smiled, holding out her left hand while executing the Living Spear technique in combination with the Dawn Flowing Light, which was still in the process of being improved.


    The Living Spear skill was a wood-type technique, but she forcefully used it as a metal technique, causing a metallic planar construct to grow out within her hand, shaped exactly like the massive arrow that she had thrown back minutes earlier.


    She pulled her arm back, as far as she could, and threw the arrow-spear.


    Two arrows, real and not, flew at one another. One moved far, far faster than the other, as Yi Wei did not want to risk shattering her second arm, but that did not matter when they collided.


    Instantly, the planar construct shattered, but its momentum was sufficient to slow the arrow down. The spear-like projectile began to fall much quicker and headed straight for the stone barrier created by Yi Bai. It struck the shield, piercing through it as easily as expected, but it crashed into the ground with only a dull thud instead of a small explosion as it otherwise would have. It was still glowing with brown earth-type energy from the one that fired it.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take this,¡± she muttered, grabbing the arrow with her lone working hand, ¡°Yi Bai, run ahead of me! It¡¯s easier to defend against these things when I¡¯m only worrying about myself.¡±


    ¡°Alright, thanks! Your tombstone will be great, I promise!¡± Yi Bai joked, and ran.


    Although it wasn¡¯t too funny in Yi Wei¡¯s opinion, she ignored it and followed her while keeping a slower pace. Whenever she heard the nocking of an arrow, she threw out a delayed Banshee¡¯s Scream talisman, drawing them in blood in a matter of seconds. She was not too keen on losing much blood, but whether for better or worse, Yi Fenwu caught on quickly.


    Unfortunately for that woman, she was not fast enough. Before the next arrow could reach her, they stumbled into camp.


    ¡°There you are!¡± Yi Jiazhi spotted them immediately, ¡°We-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve found Yi Fenwu!¡± Yi Wei interrupted him, raising the spear-like arrow into the air before jumping off to the side. With Yi Bai following suit, when the arrow was fired, the person directly in its trajectory was none other than Yi Jiazhi.


    ¡°What are you- oh,¡± he finally understood her words when he noticed the approaching shape of the great arrow.


    He raised his hand and held out his palm, as if bidding the arrow to stop. Dozens of mystical flaming characters emerged from his arm, circling around it at different speeds. Just as the projectile was half-way through its journey, the symbols suddenly sunk back in, and a massive wall of fiery magma appeared at the edge of the camp. Yi Jiazhi frowned, and a titanic planar anchor appeared behind him, radiating such intense heat that the grass beneath it turned into ash instantly, and the dirt began to transform into glass.


    The wall of earth fire grew thicker and larger, expanding from the size of a large tower shield to the shell of a hundred-year Eternal Turtle, effectively doubling in size.


    Before he had the opportunity to take another breath, the arrow finally arrived. It cut through the air and impacted into the magma, creating an enormous ripple that spat out blobs of earth flame into the forest, burning grass and trees alike.


    Despite that, the arrow tip still pierced the defensive barrier, with the entire projectile passing half-way through the magma before stopping.


    Yi Jiazhi let out a breath as the planar anchor and the shield disappeared, letting the arrow drop to the ground harmlessly. Well, as harmlessly as an enormous, heavy spear being misused as an arrow could.


    ¡°Yi! Fen! Wu! Come out here!¡±


    For a moment, there was silence before a quiet giggle was carried to them over the air. Out of the depths of the forest, one robed figure emerged, then another and another appeared, carrying artefact bows, swords, spears and blades, with a large number of them also carrying at least one defensive artefact on their bodies, with many displaying them prominently over their robes. They formed a large semi-circle around Yi Jiazhi¡¯s camp, and only once they all pointed their weapons at them did their leader emerge. It was a tall, dainty woman clothed in the typical robes of the middle-class members of the family, but also had a large fabric shawl wrapped behind her neck and drooping over both shoulders. The shawl was white, and thus blended in with her robes while also partially obscuring two giant arrows bound to her back. In her hand was the great bow she was well-known for, with both hands wrapped in bandages. Her crimson hair hung freely from her head, reaching all the way to her thighs, and it waved calmly in the wind.


    Out of all her curious features, however, the most eye-catching (with the wording being entirely intentional) was the ornate silk blindfold covering her eyes, with most of her hair going over it.


    She turned her head back slightly, prompting a servant with a dozen of the giant arrows on his back to appear and take the one she was holding from her, adding it to the ones on his back despite clearly struggling to hold all of them.


    ¡°Yi Jiazhi. I didn¡¯t expect to find you here. I was just hunting some animals for training when they suddenly decided to run off in your direction,¡± Yi Fenwu said with a coy smile, resting a finger on her chin, ¡°Would you be so kind as to hand them over to me, darling? Or would you like me to get them myself?¡±


    In the uncomfortable silence that followed, the adrenaline finally faded from Yi Wei¡¯s mind, leaving it open to the less welcome thoughts, such as, ¡®She¡¯s so hot¡­ Damn it, I was doing so well, too¡­¡¯


    ¡°Yi Fenwu, are you the one slaughtering members of our group?¡± their leader ignored her request, earning a few surprised looks from both sides, ¡°If you are, then don¡¯t you dare think of leaving here without a fight!¡±


    ¡°Me? Slaughtering your team? Whatever could you mean?¡± she said, putting her hand on her chest with an exaggerated hurt look, ¡°I have merely killed some wild beasts, not our dear family members.¡±


    ¡®I want to trust her- no, I don¡¯t, but my corrupted mind does¡­ but that is not at all believable.¡¯


    ¡°I don¡¯t trust you!¡± Yi Jiazhi had the same opinion, which he voiced clearly and without restraint, ¡°Just now, you were clearly trying to kill our team members, so how in the heavens am I supposed to believe anything you say?¡±


    ¡°Oh dear, was I?¡± Yi Fenwu tilted her head questioningly and pulled off the blindfold to reveal two abyssal black eyes. They stared at Yi Jiazhi¡¯s group and examined each person, pausing only briefly at a few people, Yi Wei included, ¡°No wonder those small creatures put up such great resistance. I do sincerely apologise for the inconvenience, darling. I suppose you can keep my arrow for a while, then¡­ I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll return them in time¡­¡±


    She chuckled while wrapping the blindfold around her neck, ¡°Now, let¡¯s not be bothered with such insignificant matters. Since we¡¯ve found one another, dear, why don¡¯t we discuss how we¡¯re going to get along? Would you mind us setting up a camp near you?¡±


    Yi Jiazhi frowned, ¡°Near us? Why would you want to do that?¡±


    ¡°Darling, you¡¯ve not grown wiser since we¡¯ve last met, have you?¡± she responded, shaking her head in pity, ¡°I just want to be closer to you.¡±


    ¡®It is naturally not that simple, but I get the feeling that even if Yi Jiazhi catches on, he¡¯ll not be allowed to disagree. We are surrounded, and also overpowered thanks to all of her group having artefacts that we do not possess. Once we are forced to accept, we will probably be monitored constantly, and any discoveries we make will be known to them at the same time. Then, they can just get there first and deal with it themselves, getting whatever rewards there are to be found. Luckily for us ¨C or, rather, me ¨C the obelisks seem to be connected to the hidden grounds, and thus they are likely to be inaccessible to anyone who doesn¡¯t have the same strange planar energy that I possess thanks to the Kong Mental Arts¡­ unless the various locks have different opening mechanisms, in which case even I may not be able to open all of them.¡¯


    Their leader thoughts for as long as she did, but regardless of how much he considered, his conclusion was the same, ¡°Fine. Why don¡¯t we go and decide where you will settle down on our own, without the, eh¡­ audience?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d be glad to, darling!¡±


    With a click of her fingers, the group that surrounded them back away, lowering their weapons. She waved Yi Jiazhi over to her, before they headed away from the camp and disappeared within the thick forest.


    After a brief wait, Yi Bai looked around carefully before spitting onto the ground, ¡°That damn slut, why was she the first one we found?¡±


    ¡°I get the dislike for her,¡± Yi Wei whispered back, keeping the fact that she also knew why so many men chased, or dreamed about chasing after Yi Fenwu to herself, ¡°But she didn¡¯t do anything to deserve that particular label, surely?¡±


    ¡°What, are you gonna defend her? Look at those two! If they didn¡¯t hate each other, you¡¯d think they were going off for a fu-¡°


    ¡°We¡¯ve arrived at a conclusion,¡± Yi Jiazhi returned suddenly, forcing Yi Bai to shut up to avoid being beaten up, ¡°Yi Fenwu¡¯s group will be¡­ uh, working, with us, so we should get along for now. Understood, all of you?¡±


    The team did not immediately accept that outcome, but none of the had any chance of defeating a master in the sixth stage of the Emergent Anchor realm, especially not one that had so many different treasures at her disposal, so they had no choice but to go along with it in the end. Yi Bai had no opportunity to finish what she was saying, as they were then asked to attend a quick strategy meeting.

 V1C29: Grounds of Kong

    Over the next few days, Yi Fenwu¡¯s group brought over their supplies and settled down on a hill overlooking Yi Jiazhi¡¯s camp. In between them, a small trading area was formed, for the two groups to trade their items between one another in relative peace. The tents of both leaders were moved to overlook that area, and thus, if either side had any particular grievance with the other, one leader was able to appear and solve the issue before any significant infighting could arise.


    Generally, there were not too many conflicts between Yi Fenwu and Yi Jiazhi, nor their teams, but the former would occasionally fire a few regular arrows in the vague direction of Yi Jiazhi¡¯s camp, though it was relatively easy to escape for most cultivators.


    Once the initial tension passed, Yi Wei had the opportunity to sneak away from the encampment and return to her cultivation.


    Although her stage was stagnant for the past few months, she had not been avoiding cultivation ¨C far from it. She had been spending several hours every week or so on her planar cultivation, which would have been more than enough for her to break through a dozen times had she still been in the Energy Condensation realm, but only got her to the peak of the first stage after all this time.


    With the threats of an uncertain killer and Yi Fenwu, she knew that it was important to be prepared for either of them coming for her, and thus she settled down today to break through at any cost¡­ well, most costs, with a few specific exceptions.


    ¡®Following the pattern of my previous realm, I should expect to have a development within my planar energy half-way through. However, I already have solid internal energy, so I am not too sure on what could come next, but I am almost certain that it is this process that is causing this realm to be so difficult to advance in,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, finding the spot richest in planar energy in the nearby area before setting up a number of arrays to obscure her presence.


    Once that was done, she sat down, activating the current form of the Mysterious Character technique to absorb planar energy.


    Actually, that was another curious element of her cultivation. Every single time she broke through, the characters changed and seemed to describe an entirely new technique, but, in truth, they were mostly the same with the notable exception of the wording of each stage, which had confused her for some time until she just accepted that as a quirk of the mysterious characters.


    Planar energy surged into her body, flowing through the planar meridians ¨C the ones that stored the Dawn Stars and coursed with planar energy, as opposed to the physique meridians that only held yang physique energy ¨C and into the dantian, where the rough, gaseous energy barely contributed to the enormous solid sphere of cosmic energy. Ten minutes, then thirty and sixty passed by, and yet almost no progress was made. It reminded her of the time when she had to cultivate on her own, with the only aid provided by the mysterious characters being their demanding nature when it came to her cultivated energy.


    As a result, although the significant drop in progress was disappointing, it was not disheartening.


    The second hour passed, and then the third and the fourth. Only once the fifth hour came about did she begin to feel the energy within her dantian overflowing.


    ¡®Still, just this much might not even allow me to break through before all of this excess energy flows away. Time for slightly drastic measures,¡¯ she thought, reaching into her pocket for the remaining talisman papers, which she threw out onto the floor, arranging them into a large square.


    Biting down deeply into her finger, all the way down to the bone, and drew on all talisman papers as if they were a single enormous talisman, her solid planar energy surging inside to create a two-star planar collecting talisman. Arcs of violet lightning surged between the gaps of the paper, leaving burn marks that quickly grew to cover all of the edges. Before the paper was destroyed completely, she activated the talisman.


    That very moment, thunder rumbled above her, and a thin lightning bolt fell down from the heavens, striking the middle of the oversized talisman. It turned to ash instantly, but the effect had already begun. A wave of planar energy, so thick that it was visible to Yi Wei¡¯s naked eye, rushed to her, breaking into her body and forcing itself into her planar aperture.


    It continued, flooding more and more energy into the tight walls of the dantian, but even as the effect ran out, it still seemed that it would be insufficient.


    ¡®Right, that is an issue¡­¡¯ she looked around for any possible solutions to the problem, like convenient talisman paper left behind by someone else, but nothing caught her eyes. Her spiritual will, on the other hand, sunk into the ground and brushed up against what appeared to be an ancient array.


    ¡®This! I¡¯m not sure what it¡¯s for, but it can draw in energy, and it can do so much better than the talismans I¡¯m capable of making,¡¯ Yi Wei quickly analysed the formation array¡¯s structure and picked out the nodes that she needed to keep, ¡®Now, if I break away this, this and this link, then put my energy into this node¡­¡¯


    She quickly executed every step of the process by sending in thin blades of liquid planar energy, finishing off with injecting a large quantity of it into the core of the array.


    For a second or two, the array flickered, unwilling to accept its new role, but after that it began to draw in planar energy from within the nearest kilometre. It was not immediately pulled to Yi Wei¡¯s body, but it instead formed a large sphere around her, where the planar energy condensed into gaseous and then liquid form before two streams of violet energy raced to her abdomen.


    That was enough for her breakthrough to begin.


    Her planar energy permeated throughout her body as it burst out of the planar aperture, flooding her body as it rebuilt her body for a second time, though it only tore apart the more minor elements within her rather than every single bone and muscle.


    The blood vessels, the physical echo of the meridians and the nerves in her body were torn and then repaired, as before, on the energy¡¯s path outside her body. It formed a solid shell around her, tightly enveloping every feature, every tiny hair and eyelash, before receding and returning as she experienced the second, perfected stage breakthrough. It repeated the same process, strengthening her every hair and vein, and when it returned to her dantian, she could see that it had somehow grown even denser, which she thought to be impossible.


    ¡®What could possibly come after a solid state? Some sort of¡­ void state? Nah, there¡¯s no point thinking about it. Instead, I should check out what this-¡¯


    She turned around as she felt some disturbance within the surrounding area, but what greeted her was not some beast or human, but an enormous tear within space itself, a large hole within the air between a few trees that led to a great stone hall. White smoke poured from the spatial gateway, filling the area.


    ¡®Did¡­ did this show up as a result of me tampering with the array? I thought that if I damaged a spatial array, the space within would collapse¡­¡¯ she frowned, checking her memories before shaking her head decisively, ¡®No, this can¡¯t be an isolated space. Then, it must be an illusory wall, or an illusory world, and it likely opened up due to me removing the array that kept it hidden.¡¯


    Yi Wei stood up and brushed off her clothes, picked up her spear-arrow, and entered the illusion.


    Within the illusory spatial tear, a great hall, with pillars of grey stone that were as tall as the largest trees within the forest, holding up the dark ceiling as if it were the sky. In the distance, within what appeared to be the middle of the hall, stood a familiar pillar, with a faint beam of light going up from its centre and into a small hole within the ceiling.


    Naturally, she went straight for it after confirming that there were no obvious threats in sight. Just in case, she used a defensive technique and stretched out her spiritual will to detect any incoming threats, regardless of what they were.


    She crossed half of the dark hall safely, turning part-way to examine the sight behind the illusory tear. Despite not being physically possible, the hall expanded behind it as well, stopping far away from the point of entry. At the walls, there were countless faint shapes that resembled chains, hanging from the ceiling and bound to the floor, occasionally rattling and sending echoes of metal hitting metal throughout the stone hall.


    Her long walk was paused when she didn¡¯t hear stone underneath her foot, but metal. As she glanced down, she saw a golden line, a part of a golden circle that went all around the stone pedestal.


    A blade descended onto her from behind.


    Yi Wei leapt out of the way, blinking as she did so, and the scene before her was completely different. An endless battlefield, a floor of sand and countless bodies armoured in bronze and silver, with various weapons in them and in the ground. Each weapon had either a blue or a red ribbon attached to their handles which waved in the strong wind of the deserted plains.


    Currently, eight bronze warriors surrounded her, holding swords, spear, guandao and sabres, red ribbons tied onto their weapons. Their helmets covered up their faces and revealed nothing other than pairs of glowing red eyes.


    Two figures lunged at her, one targeting her neck while the other attacked her legs. She evaded the first via Storm¡¯s Edge Dash and appeared right next to the other foe.


    Her fist struck the figure¡¯s head with full force, combining lightning and dawn light into a simple punch.


    However, the armoured humanoid was unmoved. Her hand bounced off the armour, doing little more than creating a small scratch on its surface. It was as if these soldiers were all impeccable experts, shielding their entire bodies with pure defensive planar energy in such a fashion that any strike was absorbed and ignored completely-


    ¡®Wait! This doesn¡¯t make sense! Where did they come from? Why can¡¯t I sense any trace of cultivation in their bodies? How am I here, all of a sudden?¡¯ her mind raced as she activated every mental technique in her arsenal to make sense of recent events, ¡®That¡¯s right! I was in an illusory world, so whatever these things are, there is a high chance that they are fake, and that this entire battlefield is a simple illusion! Why didn¡¯t I realise that quicker?¡¯


    As the Kong Mental Arts planar energy entered her mind, in combination with her comprehension of events, the world around her flickered and, with the sound of breaking glass, shattered completely, leaving her back within the stone hall.


    Yi Wei heaved a sigh of relief, ¡®Phew. I wonder who had such an imagination as to put together an immense battlefield like that, with so many fallen warriors. It felt like it was endless¡­¡¯


    Atop the void, within a simple seat, a woman with hair that was all white except for its black tips, that lay near her knees, stared into the beyond. She was expressionless, but behind her eyes one could glimpse an endless battlefield, stretching on for all eternity.


    Now that she had a better opportunity to take in the golden circle, she realised that it was part of an enormous array inscription, surrounding the central pillar and containing a number of various formation arrays that were no lower than five stars. Without a shadow of a doubt, whoever created this particular illusory realm was an expert, no, a genius, a grandmaster in the craft.


    She paused for a moment to carefully memorise it all, in the hopes of learning something from this wonderful creation. Judging by the fact that it was difficult for her to fully take it all in within a second, there was likely quite a number of insights into the Dao within its construction, and it would be immensely helpful for her to understand even a fragment of it in the future. If she was able to correctly recreate it, or perhaps even improve it, then she could be unconquerable for those with feebler minds beneath the sixth realm.


    With it in mind, she made sure to avoid any potential areas for triggering the array again and attempted to head toward the pedestal in the middle.


    Yet, despite that, when she was within reach of that obelisk, she felt another illusion form around her. It was a simple arena, with candles sitting in a circle on the outside, with a lone figure standing opposite her.


    ¡°Thee, who doth trespass upon these grounds, thou hath proven that thou art capable in one quarter of the arts of the Kong. Thine mind is strong, but to test thine skill, I wish to combat thee in this world without thine illusory breaking,¡± the figure bowed, revealing itself to be a bald, aged man, with spectral features and thin body covered by red robes that were in turn covered by several pieces of bronze armour.


    ¡°Kong? These hidden grounds belong to the Kong family?¡± Yi Wei asked, ¡®My mental arts also originate from them, presumably, so that would explain why they were so effective against that array.¡¯


    ¡°Indeed. With the assistance of a master, they were initially built to assist in the training of our disciples, but mid-way through, we had no choice but to conceal them, for our family was collapsing and our greatest son refused to assist us.¡±


    ¡®Then this was built before the fall of the Kong family, which no longer has a district to their name. They lost their land a long, long time ago, so this hidden realm must be ancient,¡¯ she thought, ¡®Their greatest son¡­ I wonder if that is related to the creator of the Kong Mental Arts, who rejected the family name.¡¯


    ¡°Who is this ¡®greatest son¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Kong Shi Meng, the prodigy, the heir apparent, the reincarnation of our ancestors. Despite that, he was not loyal to the family, clearly lacking in his filial piety, and thus he left us at our most difficult time.¡±


    ¡®Kong Shi Meng¡­ I¡¯ve never heard of that name, but it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if it was simply lost to time, like so many other people, great deeds and creations. Not everyone has the fortune to become as powerful and well-known as the Master of Yi City, after all,¡¯ Yi Wei considered, ¡°I see. So, you want to fight me? Are you going to lower your cultivation to my level?¡±


    The figure shook its head, ¡°I hath no cultivation, for I am a mere illusion. In terms of power, I will be similar to thee, but if thou art more skilled, or sufficiently capable to withstand me for five minutes, it shalt be my loss.¡±


    ¡°As long as you¡¯re not going to be like the bronze warriors, who withstood a punch at my full strength, I don¡¯t see any issue.¡±


    ¡°Nay, they were incorporeal creatures, merely figments of the imagination of their creator, inspired by our tools and weaponry,¡± the bald man explained, bowing to her a second time, ¡°I am Kong Dong Ming, or, rather, I was created with him as my base. Perhaps thou shalt be able to find his legacy within the hidden grounds, if thou art fortunate.¡±


    Seeing that he remained in that bow, she returned it, and when she rose, so did he. Kong Dong Ming reached into the air and pulled out an hourglass, which he flipped and tossed into the air. It struck some invisible point in the air and froze, except for the grains of sand within that began to fall.


    At the same time, he straightened his back and put his arms by his sides.


    ¡®He wants me to attack first? Well, I prefer being on the offensive nonetheless,¡¯ Yi Wei thought and rushed at him, ready to use both Dawn Flowing Light and Elysian Palm.


    However, the moment she entered within a certain range of him, he threw up one hand and balled it up into a fist while radiant blue energy surged through his arm and into his fist, lighting it up from the bone to the skin.


    ¡°Light of Divinity!¡± Kong Dong Ming yelled, causing an enormous circle of light to appear before him, creating an enormous formation array on the ground while the blue energy congealed around his hand, forming into the shape of a great hammer, engraved with ornate shapes and decorations that had a slight golden sheen.


    She looked down and saw that she stood right within the circle, and that it was slowly getting brighter.


    Her figure suddenly shifted a few metres back, just in time to witness a thick beam of light descend upon the circle, melting the stone around it into a crimson magma.


    As it faded, Yi Wei was sure that if she had stood beneath it, even if she used every means at her disposal, she would not be able to survive, ¡®Except for the fact that he compromised his ability to use this to trick me in the future by yelling a certain line while using this technique, it is a very impressive skill. I¡¯m not sure if he has misunderstood my level of power, or if that ¡®Light of Divinity¡¯ is so powerful even at the second realm.¡¯


    Regardless, that attack had to have been costly on his energy, so she returned to her initial plan and appeared behind the man, striking his spine with an incredibly concentrated wave of Dawn Flowing Light. Her fist hit his flesh, but it bounced off, leaving only a minor bruise. As he began to turn, she retreated via Storm¡¯s Edge Dash.


    ¡®He said his power would be similar to mine, but not his body. I see what he did, but it won¡¯t be enough. I still have Scarlet Metal Strike, so no matter how tough he is, I can bring him down.¡¯


    The man lowered both hands, motioned as if he was grabbing onto something, then raised it with great effort, ¡°Ancestral Call!¡±


    Before she had an opportunity to mentally reprimand this illusion, she saw the stone all around her shake as several large groups of stone totems burst out of the ground, atop which blue light condensed into the top halves of humanoid forms, abruptly cutting off at the torso. They had two long, large arms and small heads, with a single brighter clump of blue energy acting as an eye in the middle of their heads. Other than that, they were mostly featureless, lacking mouths or any clear semblance of basic anatomy or muscle definition.


    Out of the five groups of ten that appeared, one surrounded her completely. Four of the glowing figures were within reach of her, and the moment they understood that, they attacked. Four great fists rose into the air, and four descended on the spot where Yi Wei stood a second prior.


    The surface beneath their fists was crushed to dust, leaving behind a large pit where they struck.


    ¡®Really? He¡¯s strong and these things are strong as well? This reminds me of that Red Phantom Flood, except these actually benefit their user,¡¯ she complained, charging a Storm Burst on her hand.


    As soon as it was ready, she leapt towards the blue figure and launched a bolt of lightning towards the totem atop which it floated. It raised its fist towards her, but the moment the lightning touched the totem, it crumbled into dust, and the blue figure dispersed instantaneously, as if it hadn¡¯t just demonstrated the strength of an expert body cultivator.


    No matter how strange that was, Yi Wei wasn¡¯t planning to complain just because things got easier. She obliterated the group with Dawn Flowing Light, then glanced in the direction of Kong Dong Ming to see what he was doing.


    ¡°The Touch of God!¡± the man shouted, thrusting his fist at her as his blue energy erupted into a great beam.


    ¡°F-¡± her cursing was interrupted by the sudden use of Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, which knocked out most of the air in her lungs, ¡°You¡¯re yelling out every single technique you use, and yet they¡¯re still this ridiculously destructive. How in the heavens had you ever used these in the real world? You¡¯d obliterate the entire area just to kill an insect, you madman!¡±


    ¡°That is the way of the Kong! We practise the mental arts, and we annihilate our enemies! Ancestral Eyes!¡±


    She had dashed over to a cluster of the so-called ancestors, expecting them to attack in the same fashion that they had before, but as soon Kong Dong Ming said those last two words, their behaviour clearly changed. The blue light in the middle of their heads suddenly turned bronze, and their initial clunky movement changed to be far more fluid¡­ and familiar. Even without the man¡¯s helpful screams, she knew that two were about to use Light of Divinity, while another three were preparing the Touch of God, whilst the others¡­


    ¡®Don¡¯t tell me that they can also call upon more ancestors?¡¯


    Even as two glowing circles appeared on the floor, she ignored them, releasing five concentrated beams of sunlight at the totems of the last five ancestors, while, somewhat foolishly, calling out the name for the technique, ¡°Dawn Slicing Beam!¡±


    It wasn¡¯t done out of some desire to show off her ability ¨C though she was proud of it ¨C but rather out of anger that the illusory man was able to do so well despite yelling out the name of every single move. That was such a bad practise that even the majority of the idiot battle junkies within the Yi family refrained from it, and yet this illusion could get away with it despite supposedly being at her level of power.


    ¡°Ha! Thou doth understand our ways!¡±


    ¡°Your ways? That is pure stupidity! All you¡¯re doing is letting your enemies learn your moves! You act like you¡¯re showing off, but anyone who is actually impressed by your nonsense is even more foolish than you!¡± she spoke with a raised voice, punctuating her last sentence with an Earth-Shaking Step.


    That was a movement technique with the auxiliary purpose of disturbing nearby foes via sending a large tremor through the ground. Luckily, it did just enough damage to shatter the ancestor totems, but not in time to disturb the tremendous beam of the Light of Divinity, which crashed down upon her location.


    ¡®You¡¯ve got a powerful attack? Then I¡¯ll get a powerful attack!¡¯ she exclaimed mentally, ¡®Bestial Palm!¡¯


    Although she had initially dismissed that skill as not being too beneficial to her, it did have a function that was immensely useful in the current situation ¨C it was created to mimic a beast¡¯s retaliation when they are cornered, to recreate their last attempt to take down their foe, even at the cost of their own life. As a result, if faced with an attack that was more powerful than her own, it would grow in strength to match it.


    A planar construct of some uncertain beast burst out of her palm, expanding to cover her completely as it flew upward to meet the blue beam, the product of two half-formed Lights of Divinity.


    When it was struck, it nearly collapsed that same instant, but the properties of the Bestial Palm caused the planar construct to ignite with twice the power, causing the beast to change form and the energy contained within to burst out.


    Yi Wei took advantage of the temporary barrier and used another Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, clearing the area of the beam and appearing on top of a totem, which she crushed with her weight as she landed on it. The other ancestors did not look to be under the effect of the Ancestral Eyes, which gave her enough time to trace the number 1 on her collar.


    In an instant, it felt as if her body lost all of its weight. It had been more than a year since she last messed with the training set, and thus she had completely adjusted to the pressure it put upon her.


    Now that it was gone, she felt like she could soar into the sky with a simple step.


    And soar she did. She pushed off the ground with her foot and vanished from the spot, travelling in an instant to the illusory figure, launching her fist at him while circulating her pure yang in a manner similar to the Elysian Palm.


    With the added strength of channelling her planar energy, her strike instantly obliterated the ground in front of it, shattering stone and turning the candles at the edge of the arena to dust. A wave of absolute yang flew out, melting all in its path, searing even through the illusion and leaving behind a large tear within space.


    Kong Dong Ming, however, vanished the moment she attacked him. Behind her, she heard the crumbling of stone, and spun around to find a totem broken, and his figure standing in its place.


    ¡®I was the one lecturing him about tactics, and yet I lost myself to an emotional outburst,¡¯ Yi Wei scolded herself, restricting any more of her yang physique energy from flowing out. She had used some of it on the Dawn Flowing Light and Slicing Beam, and with the immense consumption of the Yang Elysian Fist, she had only a third of her yang energy remaining, as well as three-quarters of her planar energy and two more uses of the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash before it began to take a toll on her body, not that she needed it with her unlocked strength.


    She activated her mental techniques to stabilise her mind while she checked the remaining sand within the hourglass, ¡®By the looks of it, I still have four minutes left. If he doesn¡¯t pull out any more surprises, then-¡¯


    ¡°Ancestral Call!¡±


    ¡®You¡¯re joking, right?¡¯ she hoped, but without enough time to stop him, she could only watch on as five more groups of ancestors rose from the ground.


    Fortunately for her, she noticed the illusory figure stagger on the spot, suggesting that there was a limit to how many ancestors he could have at once. Less fortunately, however, was that his next action was to call out ¡®Ancestral Eyes¡¯, transforming every single clump of blue energy within their heads to bronze, before they also reached into the ground and began to raise more of themselves.


    Yi Wei weighed up her options, then vanished.


    The illusion spent an entire minute searching for her before it realised that it wasn¡¯t working. It used its false spiritual will, made every ancestral totem spread their arms and scour every single spot of the arena, as there were invisible walls preventing either of them from going beyond the circle of candles which significantly limited the space in which Yi Wei could hide, but none of his efforts produced any results beyond tiring him out.


    ¡°Light of Divinity!¡± he shouted into the heavens, willing every single ancestor to copy his motions and flood the area with light.


    For a moment, he thought he heard footsteps, but they were quickly drowned out by the deafening blue beams that scorched the stone ground, eliminating every single ancestor totem as collateral damage. Before the glow cleared, Kong Dong Ming knew that he had missed.


    ¡®How? That attack hit every single point in the area¡­¡¯ he thought, slowly raising his head, ¡®Is she capable of floating in the air? Just in case¡­¡¯


    ¡°Touch of God!¡±


    He fired a great beam from his hand, aiming it upward, striking the very top of the hall without any visible damage. Unlike the floor of the arena, which was accurately simulated by the illusory world of the Lock Obelisk, most of the surrounding area only existed as an image to make it appear more believable.  Kong Dong Ming could attack it over and over again without any clear effect, but before he could, a faint shape fell down next to him mid-way through his attack.


    A wave of pure yang energy engulfed him.


    When the hourglass stopped, and fell from the air, neither of them were in a good shape. Yi Wei¡¯s energy was completely exhausted, and the illusory figure was missing an arm and a significant patch of flesh in its stomach.


    The moment that it did fall, both of their states recovered instantly, and they returned to their original positions in the arena.


    ¡°Thou¡­ hath passed. The fact that thou hath managed to comprehend that I am incapable of swapping my position with an Ancestor during an attack ¨C though I suspect that thou were simply guessing, were thou not? I can grant thee passage to thine target ¨C the Lock Obelisk of the Kong Holy Space. If thou hath any other wishes, I can consider them now.¡±


    Yi Wei caught her breath while directing an angry glare at the illusion, ¡°Can I violently stab you?¡±


    ¡°I still hath my possession of the sense of pain, so I wouldst prefer it if thou didst not do this,¡± Kong Dong Ming replied, ¡°To calm thine mental state, I would advise thee to follow the chapter within thine mental arts regarding the dissolution of abnormal states.¡±


    She shut her eyes for a moment, and quickly did as he recommended. When she opened them again, the anger was completely gone from her eyes, ¡°My apologies. I seem to have a certain problem with people being much stronger than me despite lacking any clear reason to be as powerful as they are, since they are, supposedly, in the same realm, don¡¯t have certain advantages that I do have, and do not appear to treat the fight as seriously as I was. I will attempt to improve on this in the future.¡±


    ¡°Thou need¡¯th not apologise, for thou art learning from thine mistakes, as all should. Even the Ancestors were flawed, in their own ways, and we must seek to improve over them to make progress within our study,¡± the illusory figure nodded, ¡°Now that thou art aware of thine deficiency, thou may attempt to improve it.¡±


    ¡°I am already aiming to do that, but I think that one flaw has significantly overshadowed the other.¡±


    ¡°Ah, then I truly cannot reprimand thee, especially not after thou hath proven thine capability in combat despite thine shortcomings.¡±


    ¡°In that case, let me ask you what these are for,¡± Yi Wei raised her arm and lowered the training set¡¯s bracelet, displaying the quarter of the symbol on it, ¡°Based on the fact that it came from a Lock Obelisk, I assume this is either a lock, or a key to a lock, though I cannot comprehend why you would display it so obviously on someone¡¯s arm."


    Kong Dong Ming nodded, ¡°Thine second presumption is correct, though I cannot explain what thou shalt be able to locate within the Kong Holy Space. That shalt be left up to thee for thine own exploration.¡±


    ¡°I see. Then, why don¡¯t you just tell me everything that you can?¡±


    ¡°Very well. There are, as thou coulds¡¯t hath surmised, a total of four Lock Obelisks, and four key fragments that thou can gain. One can gain only one key from an obelisk, so if thou art not the only one seeking entrance, then thou needeth to ally thyself with another holder of a key if thou art not in possession of all four. Once the Holy Grounds open, all may enter, but only those with keys, or those accompanying them, shalt be able to access the areas with true rewards,¡± Kong Dong Ming explained, ¡°Additionally, all Lock Obelisks are within the Kong District, so if thou art not certain of their location, thou may seeketh them within the valley.¡±


    ¡°Hold on, are you saying that this forested valley is the Kong District?¡± Yi Wei¡¯s eyes widened. Even without the hidden grounds ¨C or, rather, the Kong Holy Space ¨C it was still a great discovery to learn that such an ancient location is secretly immediately next to the Yi District, potentially containing countless forgotten skills and techniques.


    That finally cleared up all of her frustration, so she smiled and pretended to ask innocuously, ¡°Then, could you direct me to the technique library?¡±


    ¡°Thou seeketh the Ancestral Library? It cans¡¯t be found north of here, within the underground tribute chamber to our ancestors. Thou shouldst know the password to open the door, if thee should be in our library,¡± he replied.


    ¡°Thank you very much,¡± she said with a stiff smile, ¡®Even if the door is still there, it won¡¯t stop me!¡¯

 V1C30: 18

    The conversation finished without too many other great revelations, as Kong Dong Ming reported that he and this illusory world was running out of time, so he implored her to receive her key piece as quickly as possible. She did so, gaining the second part of the key symbol. When that was done, the illusory figure sat down on the ground and spoke to her.


    ¡°Since thou hath completed this challenge swiftly, I shall grant thee what little remains of the energy of this realm, for thou hath shown the greatest capability in mental techniques that I hath seen since these grounds came to be.¡±


    Yi Wei was in need of some assistance in her cultivation, so she did not turn him down.


    Kong Dong Ming sat down onto the ground, holding out his arm towards the obelisk. For once, he remained silent as he willed a large purple crystal to emerge from within it.


    ¡°This is a stable planar stone, used as the base for this illusion, storing the energy of a great planar gathering-type array and expending it when necessary. Our confrontation hath expended more power than expected, and perhaps more time has passed than I was aware of, wearing it down further¡­¡± he paused for a moment, ¡°As to prevent me from losing my sanity, I hath no concept of time. When no challenger is present, I enter a resting state, and hath no knowledge of the world around me¡­ Now, thou hath planar energy of the water element, dost thou not?¡±


    ¡°I do. Will this be water-type planar energy that I¡¯m receiving, then?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Now, to ensure that thou doth receive thine energy, I shalt focus,¡± he said, shutting his eyes and channelling the planar energy. Slowly, radiant blue energy broke out of the crystal, forming a solid stream as it was slowly guided to Yi Wei¡¯s planar aperture.


    It passed through her skin and flesh, but the moment it neared her dantian it suddenly accelerated and flew right into the mysterious characters¡¯ open jaws. Within a few seconds, a vast majority of the energy was consumed by them, and once they ceased their consumption, barely a tenth of what she should have initially gotten remained.


    Her characters ignited with a blue light, calming themselves quickly, but she understood that her planar energy had once again gained a new property.


    ¡®I will study that later. For now, I should get what little has been left for me,¡¯ she thought, focusing on absorbing the rest of the water-type energy from the illusory world¡¯s planar stone. The energy, albeit dense, was not high in quantity, and so she was able to consume all of it within a minute.


    immediately afterward, the obelisk began to sink down into the earth, while the illusion flickered and slowly collapsed into nothingness.


    ¡°Good luck, seeker,¡± were the illusion¡¯s last words as her surroundings transformed back into the green forest of the Kong valley.


    Yi Wei sat in place for a few minutes, claiming the water planar energy within her for herself for an imminent session of cultivation, before she stood up and respectfully bowed to the place where the illusory man had stood a little earlier. He had spent a lot of years within that illusion, so even though his fondness of calling out technique names aggravated her immensely, he still deserved some appreciation.


    Once that was done, her vision was involuntarily drawn to a large number of bones around her. Amongst the grass, there were tens, if not hundreds, of skeletons, with their flesh completely decayed and any clothes they might have been wearing rotted into nothing. The only things that survived were small violet shards, no larger than her thumb and with sharp edges; planar shards.


    She took every single one that she could find, accumulating a total of fifty-four planar shards that completely filled one of her larger robe pockets.


    ¡®They don¡¯t need these anyway,¡¯ she sighed, absentmindedly counting up the number of lives lost in the area, ¡®No fewer than one hundred and thirty-six, possibly more if they lost some of their major bones, died here, presumably on this trial. Indeed, any of the great arts could be deadly, if used or misused in the appropriate manner. Blacksmiths can make armour, but also weapons, formation array masters can create barriers and shields or slaughtering arrays, and if those masters specialise in illusions, they can cause someone to lose their life out of fear or shock when the body fails to understand that an injury is not real.¡¯


    There was no reason to bury their remains, so she retreated from the general area as quickly as possible. She had opened the illusory realm by accident some time ago, and the planar energy echo that it created would have likely reached the more perceptive members of the six Yi family groups in the valley, and perhaps any other individuals searching for the Kong Holy Space. If she was to be seen standing right next to that location, it would naturally require them to ask a number of questions.


    Her run brought her to the outer areas of the forest, north of her previous location. Naturally, she was attempting to locate the Ancestral Library of the Kong family, or what remained of it, though it was not an immediate priority. There were still two Lock Obelisks to find, thus she would have a lot of time to search for it later, but it doesn¡¯t hurt to investigate it now.


    Several hours later, there were no signs of a large cave, nor an array that could be concealing one, so she instead put one together herself and sat in the middle of it.


    ¡®First, I need to understand what changes the water-type energy caused to my planar energy,¡¯ she decided, making her dantian erupt in a blue fluid that quickly enveloped everything within her body. She felt the strengthening properties it initially developed from Luo Xiuying¡¯s energy, the toughening properties that came about as a result of Great Light¡¯s unprovoked attack, but the third property was much harder to observe.


    When she felt one cycle of the planar energy complete, she returned it to her dantian and did a few stretches to see if anything had changed. There was still no clear increase in strength, nor did her skin seem any stronger than before, but she was able to guess what the third effect was once she noticed that her fingers could move a little more freely than before.


    ¡®By the looks of it, fire gave me strength, earth gave me resistance, and now water has granted me fluidity and flexibility. That¡¯s not too significant, but it could prove essential in the future¡­ maybe.¡¯


    Although there were no clear immediate benefits, she underwent a second cycle of the water-type effect before moving on to her cultivation. She would have preferred to allow for a third or fourth cycle, but she was starting to feel more and more bloated as a result of the unprocessed energy within her dantian, which was a clear sign that she needed to hurry up with her cultivation if she didn¡¯t want to explode from the excess planar energy.


    The characters had absorbed every drop of energy with impurities, so she didn¡¯t have to do anything beside circulating it once throughout her meridians, converting it to her body¡¯s planar energy, before allowing it to settle down within her dantian.


    Before the hour was done, she was experiencing her next breakthrough, almost as if she had returned to the time when the characters first burst into action and could break through at will.


    Twice, her energy flooded her body and returned to the planar aperture in a slightly denser and stronger state, eventually settling in within a large sphere that occupied most of her dantian. From the looks of it, the water-type energy of the illusory realm that was not consumed by the characters was sufficient for one and a half stages of her cultivation.


    ¡®Now, I have reached the third stage of the Planar Pool realm. With my disguising techniques, I should be able to pass myself off as someone the second stage, although it wouldn¡¯t be too unreasonable for me to have broken through using some fortunate encounter, perhaps by locating one of these planar shards,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, taking one of them out of her pocket, ¡®I could actually use them for that purpose, but their value as currency is too great for that purpose. Thankfully, their usage leaves behind few traces, so no-one could reasonably expect me to present the ash from the stone.¡¯


    She decided to lower her aura to the third stage, while also breaking up the outer edge of the solid into liquid, just in case someone inspected her cultivation and noticed that something was amiss. With that issue settled, she moved on to her spiritual will.


    ¡®If I recall correctly, spiritual will is only meant to get stronger every realm, but perhaps I am somewhat of an exception to the rule. It doesn¡¯t hurt to find out regardless of the outcome.¡¯


    Yi Wei released a tendril of her spiritual will, quickly reaching the three-metre limit she previously had. However, It quickly became apparent that one of the experiences that had occurred this day had altered it, as it was significantly denser than before, and was able to soar past that limit all the way to four metres, where it stopped right on the edge of going just an inch further.


    Having established that figure, she sunk her spiritual will into the ground to check its investigative abilities.


    ¡®Hm¡­ it is a little more detailed than before, and it is easier to see more things with less effort, meaning that I should be able to read a few more books at once in the technique library, but the overall clarity has not increased by much,¡¯ she observed, recalling her spiritual will into her body.


    ¡®Alright, I should get back to my original search location. It is near another corner of the valley, so there is a chance of finding another Lock Obelisk. I will also need to pay far more attention to random discussions in the camp, as someone mysteriously losing their way could be the indication of another array obstructing the location of the obelisk,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, breaking down the illusory array and scattering the various rocks she used to create it.


    ¡°Get back here! That planar fruit belongs to our leader, Yi Zheng!¡±


    Two groups were running through a large hilly field within the Kong valley. One consisted of three people, two of whom were carrying spears while the last one held a war hammer. They sprinted with great haste, visibly sweating and gasping for air. The second group shouldn¡¯t even be described as that, for it was a single woman who was calmly running with a small leather bag in her hand.


    She had incredibly attractive features, long, crimson, radiant hair that was tied into a lazy ponytail with a torn piece of cloth, soft lips that were curved into a slight smile, a strong physique with clear traces of muscles beneath the skin of her exposed arms, but an unfortunately flat chest and moderately large behind, the latter occurring mostly as a result of persistent exercise and the development of those muscles rather than an endowment of her bloodline.


    ¡°Since when is that the case?¡± she replied to them calmly, running just as quickly as they were but without showing any clear signs of exhaustion, ¡°I found it, I retrieved it from the Minor Air Whale beast, and am now carrying it on my own. Where did you participate?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t get clever with us!¡± the first spearman spat out, ¡°Yi Zheng claimed the Metal Fulfilling Pear for himself, and it will be incredibly beneficial to his cultivation! Give it here!¡±


    ¡®Has no-one here ever learned about negotiation? If that thing is valuable to you, then do not reveal it and try to make me believe that I don¡¯t have much to gain from this, and that you could easily offer me far more by exchanging this fruit for something else. Seriously, are the heavens giving me a gift for my eighteenth birthday?¡¯ Yi Wei wondered, randomly looking about in order to delay the conversation, ¡°Why didn¡¯t your leader come over here and get it himself, then? Why is such a great thing being acquired by three ¨C and I apologise for this in advance ¨C random grunts who are utterly useless?¡±


    ¡°W-We are not random grunts!¡±


    ¡°And we¡¯re not useless, either!¡± the hammer-wielder added, though he was the one that was falling behind the furthest, ¡±Are you going to do what we want or not?¡±


    ¡°Let me think about it,¡± she answered, then shut her mouth and waited for one of them to realise.


    She had no hourglass to time them with, but it certainly took them more than a minute to understand that she had no intention of providing them with an answer, so they sped up as much as they were able to, straining their bodies to run at their full speed for even for a second more.


    ¡®Oh, finally. I can speed up as well. I thought I¡¯d fall asleep before I got where I wanted to go,¡¯ she thanked them in her head before leaping into the air and turning around mid-jump, ¡°Oh no, what will I ever do? Three men who are slower than me in every way and are about to collapse of exhaustion are going to catch up to me!¡±


    Without any difficulty, she landed on the ground and kept running.


    ¡°That bitch! We¡¯ll¡­ get you!¡± they screamed, somehow extracting even more energy out of the ash that was their stamina to keep going a little longer.


    Yi Wei might have praised them for that, if she hadn¡¯t reached her destination. She stopped abruptly, nearly causing the three pursuers to run past her and exhaust themselves further. They managed to stop themselves in time and imitated some sort of an encirclement.


    ¡°We¡­ we¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just in time! Hey, Yi Jiazhi, I¡¯ve found another group!¡±


    The heads of the three snapped in the direction that she yelled in, right in time to see a group of five emerge out of the nearby trees, with a figure in the Emergent Anchor realm at the front.


    Yi Jiazhi looked at her, then at the ones following her, and spat out the grass he was chewing, ¡°Damn it, do you have a magnet for these people? You three, why are you chasing after one of my team members?¡±


    ¡°Yi J-Jiazhi? Your¡­ your subordinate has s-stolen a miracle fruit from Yi Zheng, a-and-¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care. Get your leader if he has a problem,¡± he stopped him with a wave of his arm, ¡°Tell him that he doesn¡¯t have to worry about losing whatever fruit he wants, unless he gives up on it. Got it?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Understood. May¡­ may we rest here?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    They looked at him with misery in their eyes, but he did not back down, so they had no option but to nod and begin their retreat, ¡°Very well¡­ We¡¯ll retreat¡­¡±


    ¡°Will we? That woman is right th-¡±


    ¡°WE. WILL. RETREAT!¡± the second spearman said to the hammer wielder before grabbing him by the collar of his robe and dragging him away¡­ or, rather, struggling to do so due to his own weakness, as well as the weight of an exhausted bag of flesh that could barely move on his own.


    Yi Jiazhi¡¯s group and Yi Wei looked onto the departing three in silence, waiting for them to disappear from sight before the former began to glare at the latter.


    ¡°How do you always attract hatred from the other groups?¡± Yi Jiazhi questioned her, ¡°What¡¯s that thing you¡¯ve gotten from them?¡±


    ¡°Trust me, it won¡¯t do you any good,¡± she replied, obscuring the metal energy from the Metal Fulfilling Pear with a thin layer of cosmic energy, ¡°It is not a miracle fruit of the fire element, and will thus not be of much use to a fire cultivator like yourself. That¡¯s even without mentioning the fact that you shouldn¡¯t be using it in the first place, considering what you¡¯ve said to those three.¡±


    ¡°I was simply intending to understand the items value, and if Yi Zheng will be interested in it.¡±


    ¡°Ooh, you¡¯re learning,¡± Yi Wei said, ¡°You don¡¯t need to know what the item is to know that he doesn¡¯t have too much of an interest in it. It is powerful but has a high risk of damaging the body without strong mastery of both physical and mental techniques. On that topic, you should know the rumours.¡±


    ¡°How have you gotten more insufferable since the first year¡­¡± he muttered under his breath, ¡°You¡¯re referring to the idea that he has rather poor self-control, correct?¡±


    ¡°Naturally,¡± she answered simply, pretending that she didn¡¯t hear that comment, ¡®What do you mean? All I did was accidentally resist your charming technique ¨C which, I admit, I would be somewhat annoyed about if I had expected it to work, but I would have gotten over it after a day or two, not to mention multiple months ¨C and now I was just being a little¡­ sarcastic, I suppose. Is that really such a bad thing? I guess this is what four years of only being spoken to when I was being beaten up, then one year and six months of strutting around forests and fields does to one¡¯s communication abilities.¡¯


    ¡°Very well then, but don¡¯t you dare consume the miracle fruit and then blame it on me.¡±


    ¡°I would never do something so risky,¡± Yi Wei claimed, ¡®I¡¯ve only risked death multiple times on creating my own body techniques and a physique that could have easily destroyed my body completely. I¡¯ve not yet attempted to transfuse the blood from a dragon or phoenix into my body yet¡­ yet.¡¯


    That idea wasn¡¯t completely unfounded. In the Planar Continents, it was generally agreed that blood carried a certain degree of power, and that the blood of more powerful beings naturally carried more. Hence, when cultivators of a high realm have children, especially if their conception is done in an environment rich in planar energy, they will be born either with an initially high cultivation realm, a rare physique or a general greater sensitivity and control over planar energy.


    The concept of transfusing blood to gain its abilities is also not a new one. Many experts in high cultivation realms who were unable to progress further resorted to extreme measures to extend their lifespan and get even one more chance to progress, also in order to gain a few more years of life for themselves.


    One famous example of this is the Lady of Ashes, Chao Jianhong. She had lived for many years as one of the strongest cultivators in the Bai District, despite not being part of any large family, but she faced the same fate as any other mortal ¨C she was aging, faster than she was able to cultivate. As someone who had lived for many years and mastered countless legendary techniques, eventually settling on building her combat style around the ultimate skill called World of Ash and the cultivation method called Lord of Cinder, and she grew attached to her life even more than most. When ordinary pills and medicines were unable to extend her life sufficiently, she turned to more extreme measures.


    She attempted a number of different things, but eventually she latched onto the idea of stealing the blood of a longer-lived species, like one of the remnant dragons or phoenixes, and taking it for herself.


    Chao Jianhong got in touch with an old cult that existed before the birth of the Master of Yi City, an organisation named the Blood-tinged Church. Their specialty was the blood of any and all beings, its usage and the various operations that could be done with it, and when they heard her suggestion, they were incredibly eager to attempt it. They worked together with her, after she joined their ranks, and located one of the last nests of a mythical creature within Yi City.


    According to tales, the battle was long and hard, but when the remnant dragon fell, all of its blood was taken by the Church, and put to use on various experiments. Some attempted to extract its raw potential, others focused on creating armour and weapons out of it, but the primary focus was on the Lady of Ashes and her request.


    It did not go as well as she had hoped. Clearly, she had been blinded by the imminence of her demise and failed to observe a few key flaws with her plans. For one, despite dragons being a hermaphroditic species, they were creatures of great yang, while Chao Jianhong was a woman without any yang-type physique. To inject that blood into her veins was similar to attempting to flood a glacier with earth fire to prevent it from melting, and it is said that the Blood-tinged Church was well aware of that fact but chose to remain silent for their own gains.


    For the first few days after the experiment, she was stable, and much stronger than before. Apart from a few minor physical alterations, like her veins becoming more visible and glowing subtly, her eyes changing colour to flaming red, or her nails growing darker and sharper, as if they were slowly becoming claws, no harm was done to her mind or body. Unfortunately, that didn¡¯t last as long as the Lady of Ashes had hoped it would.


    After a few weeks, she became more irritable and seemed to be on a short fuse at all times, ready to explode upon any minor mistake by someone around her. Some assumed it to be that time of the month ¨C though they were promptly beaten by Chao Jianhong for the implication ¨C but that irritability persisted.


    A month after the blood transfusion, her forehead suddenly began to bleed. She called in some healers from the Church, only for them to tell her that she was growing horns. Over a few undoubtedly slow days for her, small black nubs of bone sprouted from her skin, her teeth sharpened, her nails merged with her flesh to become actual claws and her skin darkened, not like someone who had stayed under the sun for lengthy periods of time, but it turned coal-black, with her flaming blood glowing even more brightly through her veins.


    From there, things got worse. The Lady of Ashes¡¯ mental state declined immensely over a few hours, and she lost many of the things she was known for, like her keen intellect and great comprehensive ability. It was like she had gotten the mind of a beast alongside the blood.


    It would have been manageable if she had received the mental capacity of a dragon, for they are said to be incredibly clever creatures, albeit a little overly proud and greedy at times, but her intelligence was turning out to be the same as her body ¨C a pale imitation of the true beast, a snake before a dragon, a hill in front of Mt Tai.


    Chao Jianhong did not have long to live after that. With each day, she became wilder and wilder, her appetite increased, and her flesh grew ever more malformed. The Bai family had no choice but to put her down, weaving a tale about her having been afflicted by a curse in order to prevent the great hero from being written into the history books as a fool who could not accept their inevitable fate. However, since Yi Wei was able to learn about this, it clearly hadn¡¯t worked as they had hoped.


    After the death of the Lady of Ashes, a group of seven-star physicians were permitted to dissect her body. They found that her bones had turned to obsidian black, her flesh and her organs mutated into something between human and dragon and that, had she lived a few more days, she might have begun to grow some imitation of wings. It is said that her blood was extracted from her lifeless corpse, before it was placed within an Ancestral Hall for storage before a suitable method to destroy it was decided upon by the Bai family¡¯s elders. It is also rumoured that it was stolen from that Hall, perhaps by the Blood-tinged Church or some other force, though no rumours of the corpse¡¯s reappearance were known to Yi Wei.


    Thus, to attempt the same thing as Chao Jianhong would be the utter height of folly unless she had made the appropriate preparations, whatever they might be.


    ¡°Very well then, get back to whatever it is you were doing,¡± Yi Jiazhi said, turning to his followers, ¡°Prepare another spot near our camp, preferably within our sight. I don¡¯t want another Yi Fenwu watching over us.¡±


    ¡°Understood, leader.¡±


    As the conversation they were having had nothing to do with her, Yi Wei departed, removing a silver pear from the bag and biting off a piece of it.


    ¡®Those three had no direct connection to their leader, I¡¯m sure of that. Despite the time they spent chasing me, not a single one went to speak with Yi Zheng, which they would have done either if they knew that he wanted this fruit, or if they were confident that they could get his help. I¡¯m guessing that they intended to take the Metal Fulfilling Pear to him as a way to get some respect from him,¡¯ she thought, consuming it quickly before anyone had the opportunity to observe her actions, ¡®Even if I¡¯m wrong, I have a second pear, so it doesn¡¯t matter whether he wants it or not.¡¯


    She placed the bag into her pocket and licked the fruit juices off her fingers. It was slightly bitter, with a strong metallic taste reminiscent of blood, albeit multiplied by a dozen times or so. Had she tasted it prior to throwing up blood with every other breakthrough and technique development, she would have found that to be a little overwhelming, but she had gotten used to it by now.


    The fruit¡¯s medicinal properties dispersed throughout her body via the physique meridians, strengthening the metallic aspect of her planar energy before the remaining substance of the pear settled down within her body as impurities.


    Calmly, she released her physique energy and circulated it once, utterly annihilating any traces of the fruit.


    ¡®Good to know that my hypothesis was correct,¡¯ she smiled, ¡®With how destructive my yang energy is, I am not too surprised. In the future, I won¡¯t have to force myself to break through onto a new stage or realm whenever I decide to consume a miracle fruit or two.¡¯


    Her destination was one corner of the valley that she had not yet explored, but the instant she went out of the hearing range of Yi Jiazhi¡¯s group, she passed through a thick brush¡­ right onto the scene of a naked woman stepping out of a lake.


    Yi Wei immediately averted her eyes, though the brief glance was sufficient for her to notice the large birthmark on the woman¡¯s cheek, her dust-grey hair and eyes, the woman¡¯s thin body and sickly white skin that belonged on a plague victim or someone who had not seen the light for a hundred years, rather than a young and talented cultivator and a number of scars and red blotches on her stomach, which also exposed her ribcage beneath a thin translucent layer of skin¡­ that identified her as another of the team leaders on this expedition, a cultivator that was now in the fourth stage the Emergent Anchor realm, Yi Henghua.


    ¡®I¡¯m not sure if I should blame that level of attention onto the Thunder Lord or the myriad mental techniques I¡¯ve practised,¡¯ she coughed lightly to ensure that her presence was known, ¡°Excuse me.¡±


    ¡°Had you been a man, I would have killed you without any hesitation,¡± Yi Henghua stated calmly, though her voice was also sickly and frail, as if it was a struggle to get any of those words out any louder than a whisper.


    ¡°Eh¡­ Thank you?¡± Yi Wei turned around while extending her spiritual will to ensure that the sickly woman is unable to catch her by surprise, ¡®Slightly unfair, but I¡¯ll take it.¡¯


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome. You are from one of the other groups?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I am one of the servants under Yi Jiazhi, though we have also encountered Yi Fenwu, Yi Zheng, and may have located traces of Yi Tai.¡±


    ¡°Nothing regarding Yi Guanyu?¡±


    ¡°Not that I know of.¡±


    ¡°Shame. I had hoped to pay him back for a few things¡­ Have your lot come together into one camp? Oh, and you can turn around now. I¡¯ve finished changing.¡±


    Yi Wei nodded, turning to find Yi Henghua in the silver robes with red lining and highlights of a middle-class member of the family, ¡°We have, though I think you should talk to Yi Jiazhi about that.¡±


    Her eyebrow rose ever so slightly, ¡°Is he nearby?¡±


    ¡°Relatively. Do you mind if I shout?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Go ahead¡­¡±


    With the volume enhancement effect of Speaker¡¯s Illusion, the voice-changing technique Yi Wei had used in the presence of Great Dark and Great Light, she raised her head, ¡°YI JIAZHI! I¡¯VE FOUND ANOTHER ONE!¡±


    The shout echoed throughout the forest, slowly fading until it changed to silence.


    ¡°Another one? Rude¡­¡±


    ¡°Sorry, but I¡¯ve found the other two groups as well, so¡­¡± Yi Wei shrugged.


    Thus, the silence continued. And continued. She felt the gaze of Yi Henghua slowly drilling into her, until a reply was finally heard.


    ¡°Are you being serious? Again? In less than an hour? Did you steal another fruit from them?¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, yes, and I didn¡¯t steal anything!¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± a few seconds later, Yi Jiazhi burst out of the same bushes that Yi Wei had gone through earlier, ¡°By the heavens, woman, are you some priceless treasure that constantly attracts people to itself? And, of all people, why have you found this worthless sack of flesh?¡±


    Yi Henghua¡¯s expression did not change, but a thin layer of dust-like energy gathered around her, ¡°Hello to you too, scumbag. I see you haven¡¯t improved in the slightest since we last spoke.¡±


    ¡°Why would I? You¡¯re still at the second- no, I suppose you¡¯d be at the third stage by now, no?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re that pathetically slow at your cultivation? I am at the peak of the fourth stage, so I¡¯m still two stages below you. So, do you want to repeat our last duel?¡±


    ¡°F-fourth¡­¡± Yi Jiazhi suddenly backed down, turning away, ¡°I suppose you¡¯d want a place near our camp to settle down?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯d like that.¡±


    ¡°Then that girl will bring you there.¡±


    He pointed in the vague direction of Yi Wei, grumbling something under his breath while he stomped off as imposingly as he was able to. The two women watched him leave, before one turned to the other with a weak grin.


    ¡°What a coward. He had only been able to defeat me in the past due to the three-stage gap in our cultivation, so now that it has been narrowed¡­ heh¡­¡±


    The thin layer of planar energy receded into her body as she laughed silently.


    ¡®Indeed, the difference between the two of them is large, and it is not in Yi Jiazhi¡¯s favour. Despite his advantage in terms of stages, he has a lower quantity and purity of planar energy, and so far as I am able to tell from my earlier sparring sessions with him, he is not too skilled at the control of energy, meaning that he is also disadvantaged in that regard, further lowering the effectiveness of his cultivation,¡¯ Yi Wei observed, ¡®Meanwhile, Yi Henghua¡¯s ability to finely manipulate her planar energy even under a certain degree of stress means that she will be far more capable in a fight.¡¯


    ¡°So, where is that man¡¯s vile nest?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ Our camp is in that direction,¡± she pointed towards the camp, ¡°I have no clue where Yi Jiazhi has walked off to, though.¡±


    However, her simple statement seemed to stun the pale woman, who frowned, ¡°Are you certain about that?¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t I be? I don¡¯t have the best sense of direction, but I know where I¡¯m going.¡±


    ¡°How far away from here?¡±


    ¡°On my typical walking speed, I¡¯d say that it takes around half an hour from here.¡±


    ¡°Heh. I suppose I won¡¯t have to move my tent too far¡­ Where are you in relation to the tiered series of hills?¡±


    ¡°He put down his camp on the second lowest tier.¡±


    ¡°Heh heh¡­ We¡¯ve been walking past one another all this time, have we? In that case, don¡¯t mind me. I know where to go. If you ever want to defect to my side, you¡¯ll be able to find me again, I¡¯m sure¡­¡±


    She covered her legs with the dust-like planar energy and dashed away, almost as if she was being carried by the wind. Her speed of movement was incredible, especially for someone practising earth-type cultivation, which mostly focuses on damage and disruption with its common movement techniques.


    ¡®So, to sum up my birthday so far, I have found three people who are likely deficient in their spiritual will (damage to, or significant issues within the mind can reduce the quantity and range of spiritual will available to a cultivator, thus implying that they aren¡¯t too bright), one who is in such a poor condition that even the Thunder Lord wouldn¡¯t look at her the wrong way, and I might even stumble across the last two. Not bad.¡¯

 V1C31: The Third Lock Obelisk, Part 1

    Within two months, the shared camp was expanded with Yi Tai, who Yi Wei located in the middle of a hunt on some planar beasts, and Yi Zheng moving in, while Yi Henghua¡¯s group simply cleared a few trees and posted a few guards on the edge of their tier of the cliff in some display of dominance.


    Even after a lot of searching by Yi Wei, however, no trace of Yi Guanyu¡¯s group had been found.


    This didn¡¯t sour her birthday too much, since the rest of that day went about as smoothly as it began, with great rewards and little painful challenge.


    After a few more days of rest, during which she continued to have no success in finding anything of great significance and was thus able to simply run around and get some exercise with the further heightened gravity imposed via the training set, there was finally an interruption to the two month-long lull.


    ¡°Everyone, gather at the square! Something has been found!¡±


    Servants and regular members of the family alike were roused from their sleep and were directed to the recently established announcement square, where, as the name implies, any announcements that were relevant to the groups could be voiced or posted.


    Today, the speakers were none other than their groups leaders, all five of whom stood on a small stage near a lower-class member of the family, whose appearance was rough and filthy, as if he had crawled through a number of bogs and mud pits in preparation for his appearance before the others. Just enough of his robe was clean for the red robe and silver highlights to be visible, although the Yi symbol at his chest was concealed by the layers of dirt.


    ¡°We have not found the hidden grounds,¡± Yi Tai, a tall man with a blank expression stated, immediately turning and leaving.


    ¡°D-Darling, you¡­¡± Yi Fenwu chased after him for a moment, but his strides were far larger than hers and she was forced to return to the stage, ¡°All of you can be so difficult sometimes¡­ Indeed, we have not found the entrance, but we have located¡­ something~.¡±


    A plain but sharp looking man, Yi Zheng, stepped up to the front, ¡°This man is one of mine. Tell us what you have found.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± the dirt-covered figure nodded eagerly ¨C Yi Wei presumed that he wasn¡¯t allowed to wash himself until this announcement was done, and that he was keen to get it over with, ¡°I was exploring near the swamp area, doing my best to detect any odd areas, when I suddenly found that I had lost my way, and that I was somewhere different than I should have been.


    ¡°All of a sudden, a number of wild men, dressed in mud and leaves, burst out of nowhere, yelling something at me, with a number of them being in the upper Planar Pool and low Emergent Anchor realms, so I escaped, but the moment I turned around I was back in the same place that I initially should have been. I¡­ I fell into the mud during the encounter, while trying to not be killed by those wild folks, and¡­ can I wash myself now?¡±


    ¡°Go away. You smell.¡±


    ¡°I- You-¡± the man clearly had to suppress some choice words, ¡°T-thank you, sir.¡±


    He ran off the stage, stopping by someone on the way to confirm the location of the nearest lake, which he headed to as fast as he was able to.


    ¡®By the looks of it, he is in Half-Step Emergent Anchor,¡¯ Yi Wei was able to detect his cultivation even while he was on the stage, though him walking so near to her allowed her to confirm it via her spiritual will, ¡®If he was scared off by a group and is now giving a speech in front of the others, I suppose that Yi Zheng has no faith in his ability to clear that challenge and retrieve its rewards on his own.¡¯


    Promptly, Yi Henghua confirmed that theory while pointing to Yi Zheng, ¡°This simpleton was clever enough to understand that he would not be able to tackle this singlehandedly, so he will instead employ the strategy of making everyone else do the dirty work for him¡­ Whichever person, and the group they belong to, find the thing that is being guarded by the wild men, gets to keep it. Any complaints¡­ can be settled through the standard method.¡±


    In the typical cultivation society, especially between two or more opposing forces that are being forced to work together, the standard method typically involves a duel between the parties in disagreement.


    Her meaning was simple ¨C if a group was not satisfied with what they were able to acquire and dared to fight those who found the treasures first and those would inevitably try to take it from them afterward, then they could have whatever they like.


    ¡°Alright, everybody who wants to investigate this, stay here. Those who don¡¯t can return to your regular business,¡± Yi Jiazhi said, though a number of group leaders shook their heads.


    ¡°My dears, you¡¯re all going to assist me in that search, won¡¯t you?¡± Yi Fenwu looked to her team.


    Yi Tai also reappeared out of nowhere, saying, ¡°You will all go,¡± before leaving again.


    ¡°Everyone above the sixth stage of Planar Pool should head there,¡± Yi Zheng ordered his subordinates, none of whom appeared too pleased.


    After a little bit of consideration, Yi Henghua waved dismissively, ¡°None of you care what I think, so you¡¯re free to do choose either one¡­ Just don¡¯t complain afterward if you didn¡¯t choose the most rewarding path.¡±


    No-one in the crowd seemed to react, though Yi Wei noticed a number of people that stood amongst the other four groups staring in the pale woman¡¯s vague direction with dislike and disapproval so dense that it was almost corporeal. ¡®By the looks of it, they split apart and entered other groups, at least temporarily. I had heard a few things about Yi Henghua¡¯s reputation, but I didn¡¯t expect it to be that bad.¡¯


    Out of the six group leaders on this particular expedition, Yi Henghua was perhaps the most infamous. She was born amidst a small outbreak of disease, which had infected her in the womb. It had not completely stunted her growth, but it was said to ruin her meridians and dantian, rendering her unable to cultivate.


    Her parents had died not long after her birth, not unlike Yi Wei¡¯s parents, and she was not treated too favourably as she was disfigured even after the passing of the disease, causing her to resemble a spirit more so than a human. Nevertheless, due to her blood, upon her twelfth birthday, she was led into the family¡¯s private library to choose from their high-tiered cultivation skills, more out of pity than due to any belief that she would make good use of the charity. She was shown through every shelf, told what they did and what they were intended for, then left alone to choose.


    As one would expect, things did not turn out as most had thought they would. In between two shelves, Yi Henghua found an old technique called Fairy of Dust, presumably created before the word received its current definition, and it resonated with her.


    Within minutes, she broke through right where she stood, reaching the first stage of Energy Condensation in record time ¨C with the exception of unique cases like Yi Wei¡¯s.


    Since then, she developed much faster than anyone could have expected. Even though she had access to the family¡¯s supply of pills, planar herbs and miracle fruits for her personal development, she was still disadvantaged in comparison to most in her place in society, as they often had their parents supporting them with far greater quantities of supplies. Despite that, she kept pace with some of the greater experts of her generation, surpassing the more common peak of Planar Pool and entering the lower Emergent Anchor realm not too far behind the genius Yi Fenwu, and almost at the same time as Yi Tai.


    Perhaps the strangest thing about her case was the fact that her meridians are still in the same, supposedly injured state that was originally observed near her birth. No clear explanation of this was available to the common residents of the Yi District, but one rumour suggested that she was born with a sort of unique physique that couldn¡¯t be identified by the healers of the family, and that prevented her from practising more common cultivation techniques but permitted the use of the Fairy of Dust, which was said to be incredibly difficult to comprehend and practise.


    It was known that Yi Henghua struggled with any skill that did not have a connection to dust in some way, shape or form, and some even claimed that her planar energy had taken on an unusual form of dust even in the Energy Condensation realm, when most people and most techniques would only provide a vague fog. This applied even to cosmic energy, although it was most certainly unique in its own right.


    ¡°Very well then, darlings, let us proceed!¡± Yi Fenwu exclaimed, hopping onto Yi Jiazhi¡¯s back, ¡°Go!¡±


    ¡°Get off¡­¡± he muttered, struggling to peel her off of him. However, she seemed to have an iron grip, and he couldn¡¯t do a thing to her without resorting to planar techniques.


    ¡®That is why body cultivation is the way to go,¡¯ Yi Wei smiled inwardly, ¡®If you select the right one, you don¡¯t have to gain ¨C nor lose, in Yi Fenwu¡¯s case ¨C breasts, become a giant of muscle nor condense them all to the point of looking far too weak. Unfortunately, there are far too few of those out there, so you¡¯d have to borrow one or two from me¡­¡¯


    The group began to move, but not long after she heard a familiar voice from behind her. Reflexively, she extended her spiritual will, and the first thing it struck was the woman¡¯s enormous chest.


    ¡°Hey, Yi Wei, not seen you in a while. How¡¯re things?¡± Yi Bai said, speeding up to stand by her side.


    ¡®What kind of blood did she inherit? Is she able to siphon the potential growth from other women or something?¡¯ she forcefully suppressed the wayward thoughts and did her best to keep her eyes from going too low, or else either the Thunder Lord or her jealous side would emerge, ¡°Hello. Nothing too unusual has occurred as of late. Are you still on the fifth stage?¡±


    ¡°I am¡­ Why¡¯re you lookin¡¯ at me like that?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Yi Wei turned to face the direction she was walking in, ¡°Do you think you¡¯ll get anything out of this?¡±


    ¡°Fuck no. Any random prick with a planar anchor could slap anything I get out of my hands by accident, not to mention if they find me lookin¡¯ at ¡®em wrong. Still, maybe they¡¯ll drop something for me, as if I¡¯m some dog¡­ By the by, I like that Yi Henghua, y¡¯know? She¡¯s a bit like one of us, just¡­ not.¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ yes?¡± she took a moment to understand the blond woman, ¡°You¡¯re referring to how she is disliked by most and does not receive as many resources as others due to who she was born to?¡±


    ¡°Yea, that. She even looks as bad as some of us¡­ Speakin¡¯ of which, Yi Wei, how¡¯d you manage to look so good? Has it got something to do with those creams you kept applying?¡± Yi Bai asked, ¡°Can I borrow some?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, I¡¯m out¡­ I highly doubt that it would help you too much. I mean, how good do I look?¡±


    Yi Bai looked at her face intensely for a few moments, causing her to blush from the attention until the woman finally had her fill. ¡°I¡¯m no guy, so maybe I¡¯m a little off, but looking just at your head, you¡¯re surely a nine, maybe even a ten, out of ten!¡±


    ¡°T-Ten? Me? Eh¡­¡± she remembered the time she last saw herself in a reflection, ¡°C-come on, y-you know I¡¯m a bit shy¡­ What would have rated me as the first time you saw me?¡±


    ¡°No higher than a seven. Perhaps if I judged your face itself, you could be a five, but your presentation was top notch!¡± Yi Bai stated, oblivious to Yi Wei¡¯s ever-growing embarrassment, ¡°You had just the right touches in the right places, so your beauty was accen- acceint- fuck, I meant that it raised your appearance to a whole new level! There. What I do know for sure is that if you had a larger bust, y¡¯know, bigger boo-¡±


    ¡°I got it,¡± Yi Wei said coldly, ¡°How did you even manage those? Is there some method for it?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s why you were looking at me like that¡­¡± she finally realised, muttering a quiet apology, ¡°I dunno, didn¡¯t do anything particular. I just ate, drank and ran away from scary planar beasts, as always. These things aren¡¯t all positive, y¡¯know? Any larger and I wouldn¡¯t be able to fight properly.¡±


    Yi Wei rolled her eyes, ¡°Of course you¡¯d say that¡­ I get it, though. I¡¯m just a little irritable when it comes to the topic.¡±


    ¡®Another mental weakness¡­ Heavens, I¡¯m finding a lot of those as of late¡­ I suppose I can incorporate the Bovine Stomach skill into my body technique, or just deal with it through the Kong Mental Arts,¡¯ she tried to move her mind onto some topic other than the current one.


    ¡°So, about the creams and balms?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m out of them, unfortunately, and I don¡¯t think they would make as much of a difference as you¡¯re hoping. Your skin doesn¡¯t seem too bad, nor your lips or hair, so it wouldn¡¯t do much for you.¡±


    Yi Bai shrugged, ¡°Anyone could¡¯ve said the same for you, but look how you turned out. Were they somethin¡¯ you made, or¡­¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately not, though I may be able to put something basic together if I have the right ingredients. I have a little bit of experience in pill refining and medicine making, so if you have a specific concern, feel free to ask me about it.¡±


    ¡°Gotcha! In return, I won¡¯t throw you to the wolves, or whatever planar beast shows up, to assist my escape.¡±


    ¡°Thanks¡­ Wait a minute-¡±


    The Kong valley swamp was exactly what one might imagine upon hearing the name. It was dark, muddy, filthy, covered with small pools of dirty water, or perhaps watery dirt. A thick fog covered the terrain and went up to the average man¡¯s thighs, or almost up to Yi Wei¡¯s thigh. If there was one thing she had over most people, it would be her height, which was not as outrageous as that of Yi Jin or Yi Jun, but still greater than that of most women.


    Back onto the original topic, they had arrived at the swamp after a three-hour trek in which the faster and more powerful third realm cultivators decided to leave their slower team members behind to arrive a few minutes before them. Now, however, both stood at the edge of the swamp, looking around for any hint of the phenomenon described by Yi Zheng¡¯s subordinate as to not rush in blind.


    ¡°The location of the illusory realm, or the trapping array, should be somewhere within, though it would be prudent to investigate the area around it as well,¡± Yi Jiazhi repeated the words of Yi Zheng to his followers before entering the swamp himself.


    One by one, after they couldn¡¯t notice anything from outside the swamp, members of each team entered the bog, including Yi Bai, who decided to chase some powerful figure from another group as per her original plan. Yi Wei did not rush ahead, however, as she knew that she had two distinct advantages. For one, even if the Lock Obelisk is found, few are likely to be able to activate it without the ability to synthesise the violet energy of the Kong Mental Arts. Also, if this area followed the pattern established by the last two, then it would be protected by an illusory array, which she is perhaps the most capable at bypassing, once again due to her mastery of mental cultivation.


    Thus, she held back to take in as much information as she could before stumbling in.


    ¡°Wow, this place has gotten worse since the last time I¡¯ve been here,¡± someone suddenly spoke behind her, prompting her to look back with both her eyes and spiritual will.


    To the eyes, the speaker was a simple woman, clothed in a simple wool shirt and some trousers without any clear label or familial symbol on them, with a head of exotic blue hair and crimson eyes. Based on physical appearance alone, she couldn¡¯t have been any older than fifteen, if not younger.


    She couldn¡¯t have a strong figure no matter how someone ordinary looked at her, but Yi Wei¡¯s senses were telling her a different story.


    When using her spiritual will, she could not determine what the woman¡¯s cultivation was, and when she focused with her keen senses, she felt far more dangerous than any figure she had encountered so far, even including those in the Marked Core realm. Worst of all, nothing about her suggested that she was a threat, as she walked, breathed and spoke in a completely ordinary manner, as if she was a typical human that had accidentally stumbled into this valley.


    ¡°Hey,¡± she waved to Yi Wei, casually walking up to her, ¡°What¡¯s that on your robe?¡±


    The woman pointed to the symbol on her chest, so, warily, she chose to reply with, ¡°It means ¡®Yi¡¯, the Yi family.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right, sorry. A little rusty when it comes to reading,¡± the woman laughed it off, ¡°This is still the Kong District though, right? It looks quite a lot worse for wear than I even imagined it would have, impressively enough.¡±


    ¡®She knows about the true identity of this place? Not just that, but she also has some experience within it before it declined? Wouldn¡¯t that mean that she is not just older than me, but is also far older than the Yi family¡¯s patriarch? How can that be possible?¡¯ Yi Wei wondered, though she replied before the break in the conversation became too significant, ¡°I believe so, yes.¡±


    ¡°Excellent. Thanks, Yi girl,¡± the blue-haired girl said.


    She waved for a moment, then vanished- no, ran past her at such a speed that she disappeared from Yi Wei¡¯s sight before she had the opportunity to channel some planar energy into her eyes.


    ¡®I cannot detect her aura, and, come to think of it, I didn¡¯t notice her approaching me either¡­ Who, or what, is she? Wait, if she is that ancient, then she might even have knowledge of the curious planar energy required to activate the Lock Obelisk. Shit, now I have to hurry!¡¯


    It did not evade her that if the woman had abilities that surpassed each of her own, she would have no chance whatsoever to lay her hands upon the key fragments of this Lock Obelisk, but she was not someone to give up so quickly. Until she could be sure of the abilities of the blue-haired woman, like whether she even had the capability to bypass the illusory barriers, or whether she had any intentions to access the hidden grounds, she would be wasting a good opportunity by giving up now.


    She ran into the mire, avoiding the murky pools as best she could without the ability to fly. Getting her footwear filthy wasn¡¯t a significant concern but getting stuck in the mud wouldn¡¯t be good.


    After all, every moment was precious, no matter who she was up against.


    It was difficult to tell which direction the blue-haired woman had gone in, not to mention the fact that she might not have the same goal in mind, so she had to rely solely on her own judgement to navigate the swamp. With her spiritual will outstretched and her natural sense of energy at the ready, Yi Wei headed in the direction where planar energy was most concentrated, going off of her previous experience with the second Lock Obelisk.


    For some time, she found nothing of note, until there was finally a small break within the consistency of planar energy density in front of her. Visually, there was nothing different about that particular patch of terrain, but she rushed to it nonetheless, ignoring those who carelessly walked around it.


    One moment, she was in the middle of a swamp, the next, she stood in the middle of a lake.


    ¡®Oh. Indeed, this is very sudden,¡¯ Yi Wei commented. Looking around, there was no sign whatsoever that this wasn¡¯t a real lake, nor that the land beneath her wasn¡¯t truly stone rather than mud. Even when scanned with spiritual will, none of the environment stood out. She could analyse the water around her, the clear air, the bright sun that was right above her ¨C when it should have been somewhere to the side, as it was rather early in the day ¨C and even a few fish swimming near the base of the rocky island she stood on, complete with their proper anatomy and behaviour.


    Without a shadow of a doubt, this was a far more complex illusory array than the first one she came across.


    ¡®Before I break through it, I am curious to see what Yi Zheng¡¯s man meant when he said that the world changed the moment he moved. Let¡¯s see, if I step to the left¡­¡¯ she prepared to defend herself, just in case she encountered the wild men, and took that step.


    The world flickered, and in place of the expansive lake, the inside of a small commander¡¯s tent appeared, a ray of light surging in from behind her. In the middle, a large seat was occupied by the shadowy figure of a man, who was surrounded on all sides by nigh naked women who seemed to be swooning over him, whispering something to him.


    She didn¡¯t want to interrupt, so she took another step to the side.


    As the world reformed, she found herself standing atop a tall mountain, just barely above the highest clouds that slowly passed around its peak. This time, the sun was right on the horizon, and it bathed her in crimson light.


    Yi Wei took a deep breath, taking in what little air she was able to. It was almost as if she was truly in that location, as her body was unable to distinguish the illusion from reality.


    A third step to the side brought her into a dark cave, where someone was chained to the furthest wall with two great chains. There was almost no light, making it difficult to understand who the restrained figure was, but Yi Wei was able to make out the faint shape of horns on the individual¡¯s head, two large spherical shapes on its chest, and rather feminine looking legs and arms. Something, presumably a piece of fabric, was covering her upper body, simultaneously obscuring parts of her thighs as she was sat on the ground on her knees, her arms raised and outstretched by the chains.


    There seemed to be a number of stains on the ground, though it was impossible to tell what they were caused by, nor how old they were.


    She was curious about the complexity of the illusion, so she called out softly, ¡°Hello?¡±


    The woman did not appear to react at first, but once Yi Wei siphoned some cosmic energy into her eyes, she saw drops of glistening liquid dripping from her eyes, crashing onto the floor like someone striking a drum amidst the utter silence of the cave.


    ¡°M-mother¡­ why¡­ why¡­¡± an even fainter voice came from the woman¡¯s lips, following the tears as they dried up in the darkness. She did not seem to be able to hear Yi Wei¡¯s voice.


    ¡®If this is just an illusion, then someone has some strange ideas about keeping people out¡­ How would a restrained, crying woman stop the typical treasure hunter? Even then, I can understand the endless battlefield, and the random areas from before, but this seems way, way too specific, so much so that I can¡¯t see thing randomly popping into someone¡¯s head. Unless someone had a particularly sick imagination, this must either be inspired by reality, or perhaps even a window into it,¡¯ she considered, though she quickly recognised the absurdity of her last conjecture, ¡®No, unless this is a ghost, no-one would be able to survive for so many years without being at the peak of the world, like the Master of Yi City was. This woman, whoever she is, is unlikely to fit that description, considering her current position.¡¯


    However, something about that idea stuck with her, so much so that she couldn¡¯t bear to move on without saying something else to the grieving woman. She considered the options for a minute, then spoke softly, stepping to the left again the next moment.


    ¡°M-mother¡­ why¡­ why¡­¡± a figure in the dark cried, while the rest of her body was completely still, ¡°Why did they kill you? Why did they¡­¡±


    She had no idea how long she had been down there, nor how she was still alive, nor how many times the same thoughts had repeated themselves inside her head. It was happening again and again, and nothing seemed capable of ending the monotony.


    All of a sudden, a faint gust of wind brushed past her naked skin.


    Her head snapped upwards, but there were no changes to the darkness. There had never been any wind down here, so she listened, as intently as she could.


    Eventually, she caught a faint sound, but it was a sound. Nothing but her tears and shallow breathing had ever sounded within the cave, and yet, now, here was something. She focused onto that sound, whatever it was, and finally understood that sound. It was a voice, a woman¡¯s voice. A voice that belonged to someone other than her.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t rescue you¡­¡±


    The wind and the voice faded away immediately after, but it lingered in her head.


    There was a way in, so there must be a way out.


    There was hope, after all.


    Yi Wei¡¯s vision warped again, and now she found herself within a swamp once more. In front of her, a large army of silver soldiers stood in an enormous circle, surrounding someone so tightly that she doubted that even air would be able to pass by them.


    ¡®Alright then, I don¡¯t want to be here. Next,¡¯ she decided, taking another step to the side.


    However, nothing about her surroundings changed ¨C apart from her moving one step to the left, of course. The same occurred when she took two steps to the right, as to attempt to return to the dark cave. A step forward seemed unwise, so she made a single step backwards, also to no avail. Just to be safe, she took a few more steps in each direction, but without going right into that small army, there appeared to be no way to leave.


    ¡®So¡­ this array is certainly the most complicated one so far. I might need to break out now,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, preparing to activate the Kong Mental Arts.

 V1C32: The Third Lock Obelisk, Part 2

    Just as the violet planar energy was about to reach her brain, an enormous wave of force surged through the silver armour, throwing a swarm of them out of the way. A second wave quickly followed, and it was itself trailed by a familiar blue-haired figure who landed beside Yi Wei.


    ¡°Oh, hi! You¡¯re here too!¡± she exclaimed, waving at her, ¡°This place sure is annoying, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Sure.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t happen to know where the exit is? I didn¡¯t know I¡¯d stumble into such an annoying array here, and I don¡¯t want to break it all down¡­¡±


    ¡®Sorry, are you telling me you could do that? What realm are you in? This thing can¡¯t possibly be below five stars, and if you want to damage it without being at the formation eye then you must be either a very powerful individual in the fifth realm, or someone in the sixth. If you are truly either one of those, then you have put my cultivation speed to shame,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, but shook her head, ¡°I am not sure whether this is a complex illusory array, or whether it also includes a confusion formation within to prevent an easy escape. Thus, if it is the former, you need to simply take a few steps back, but if it is the latter, then any step you take could actually be leading you in the wrong direction.¡±


    ¡°Right, I know that¡­ How do we figure that out again?¡±


    ¡°Do you practise any mental techniques or skills?¡±


    The blue-haired woman rubbed her chin, ¡°Eh¡­ n-no? Those are the things that make you smarter, right? I¡¯ve not had a chance to practise those yet, unfortunately¡­¡±


    ¡°Then give me a moment,¡± Yi Wei said, placing one hand at the side of her head.


    She activated the Kong Mental Arts again and was not interrupted this time as the woman standing next to her was able to throw away any approaching soldiers with a flick of her fingers. As a result, she was able to completely fill her mind with the mental technique¡¯s clearing energy.


    In the centre of her vision, a thin point expanded to the size of a small apple, revealing a different swamp to the one within the illusion. However, the rest of her sight was completely unchanged, and even the small point she could see through was constantly wavering, the illusion threatening to consume the reality behind itself.


    That made it all the more obvious that this array was the most advanced of the ones she had seen so far. There was a high chance that a great deal of spatial comprehension was invested into its creation, allowing it to act almost like a complete reality of its own.


    Beneath the falsehood, she saw the vague lines and nodes that made up an array which reached out underneath her and ended far in the distance.


    ¡°I think the array is much larger than it appears,¡± Yi Wei said to the blue-haired woman, ¡°It¡¯s likely that we entered it some time ago, but it sealed around us once we passed a certain point. Additionally, if you were to randomly walk in that direction, you¡¯ll probably end up walking in circles thanks to the multitude of sections within the arrays. The nodes there, there and there should be part of a confusion array, though I lack enough understanding of higher-grade formation arrays to identify it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, okay. Should I just destroy¡­ no, I wouldn¡¯t want to mess someone¡¯s work up just because I stumbled into it by accident. Can I just walk out?¡±


    ¡°You can attempt it, sure. The exit is over there.¡±


    The woman nodded and, after kicking another line of silver soldiers down, stepped in the direction of reality.


    However, within the circle of truth within her vision, she saw that her figure hadn¡¯t actually moved back, but instead to the left, ¡°No, that¡¯s not working. I suspect that this illusion is a little more complete than the sections around it, and that if you attempt to leave, you will walk around the circumference of the array, with the illusion perhaps even updating as you walk in circles.¡±


    ¡°Wow, this really is a good array. My friend would have hated to see this¡­¡±


    ¡°Okay. If you want to leave, I might be able to guide you out. Maybe. Don¡¯t take my word for it,¡± she muttered, ¡°Do you want to try it?¡±


    ¡°Sure!¡± the blue-haired girl said, grabbing her hand with ease, ¡°Lead on!¡±


    Yi Wei jumped slightly at the sudden contact, but as the girl maintained a casual smile and had far too firm a grip for her to break out of, she coughed awkwardly and lead her out slowly, looking around every few steps as to not lose her way.


    While she attempted to focus, the girl ignored the terrain around her and instead her eyes wandered over every small detail of Yi Wei¡¯s body.


    ¡°Ahem.¡±


    ¡°Can I help you?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind an explanation of what you¡¯re doing.¡±


    The girl looked confused for a moment before it dawned on her, ¡°Oh, I¡¯m just focusing on you so that the illusion doesn¡¯t make me think I¡¯m going in the wrong direction. It wouldn¡¯t be too pleasant to get all confused about this stuff, so I decided to look at the person leading me.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ You could just close your eyes.¡±


    ¡°Nah,¡± she disagreed, ¡°If I do that, I¡¯ll have to use my spiritual will, and then I¡¯d just be getting more confused. Are we near the exit yet?¡±


    Yi Wei sighed and turned back in the direction they were heading, ¡°Based on what I can see, we¡¯re almost there. Do you want to exit completely, or did you want something from within this area?¡±


    ¡°Just leaving will be fine, thank you.¡±


    They crossed the edge of the array, and the illusion suddenly vanished. The swampland returned to its original state, one set of trees and dirty ponds vanished, and another appeared, merging the vision of the circle of truth to the rest of her sight.


    The blue-haired girl blinked several times to recover from the sudden change, before nodding casually, ¡°Yup, this is better. I like reality a lot more than the illusion. It felt a little off, if you know what I mean.¡±


    ¡®No, I do not. Apart from the effect that occurred upon crossing the illusory boundaries, and the true vision I possessed via the Kong Mental Arts, I had noticed nothing that could be described as ¡®a little off¡¯,¡¯ Yi Wei said in her head, before answering vocally, ¡°If you avoid the general circumference of the array, you shouldn¡¯t get pulled in again. Theoretically.¡±


    ¡°Alright, thanks for that. See you later, Yi girl!¡±


    ¡°Wai-¡± before she was able to finish a single word, the blue-haired figure vanished into naught once more, leaving her hand still warm from the other¡¯s touch. She switched between the empty point where the girl had stood and her own hand a few times, before cleansing the latter with water-type planar energy. Whoever that woman was, her touch was a little too¡­ strange to keep, especially when she might have applied some tracking technique to find her in the future.


    ¡®I had intended to learn either her name or cultivation realm, and got neither¡­ I could have brought it up at any time without seeming strange, yet I hesitated for no reason¡­ Oh well, I can¡¯t imagine running into her any time soon anyway,¡¯ she comforted herself as she returned into the array.


    A second look into it revealed a certain pattern within the structure, perhaps the most important one. She identified a certain correlation within the array nodes and the illusory reality it brought her into, which explained a little bit regarding why some illusions vanished after a single step, while others seemed a little bigger than others. In addition, the structure of the smaller sectors lacked the confounding element, while the larger areas had parts of them and a certain connection to the heart of the formation array, though she was unable to see what the connection delivered.


    All in all, the clarification to the way this array worked brought her one step closer to comprehending the secrets of the Dao hidden within.


    While she advanced, she re-entered the swamp, where the soldiers appeared to be busy with something else and thus didn¡¯t interfere with her, then that tent again, where the man and the women surrounding him were still in the same place as before, then passed through them and entered a snowy field, devoid of all life other than her own.


    The next area was, once again, a swamp, but she didn¡¯t pass through it immediately.


    Upon her entry, she caught a glimpse of a wild-looking figure, covered it dirt and grass, stalking through the high grass without much difficulty. Her immediate thought linked this person with the wild folk previously described by Yi Zheng¡¯s subordinate.


    ¡®So, unless that man had omitted a few details ¨C which is likely, to be honest ¨C then there are multiple connections to any one illusory zone, as observed with that strange commander¡¯s tent,¡¯ she thought, watching the wild figure go about his business, whatever that was, ¡®I am curious whether any of them are capable of regular speech, or whether they are as fake as the silver and bronze knights the Kong family seems to be obsessed with.¡¯


    With the assistance of a simple stealth technique from one of Great Dark¡¯s jade slips, Yi Wei followed the crouching figure while shrinking the circle of truth in her vision even further, as to not get disoriented and lose her target.


    Slowly, she closed the distance between them, and when she got within striking distance, she examined his facial features and noticed a curious similarity to one of the servants from another group, whom she had not seen ever since they arrived in this valley. He was filthy and clearly not having the best time of his life, but it was still the same person, inside and outside the illusion.


    ¡®Interesting. Either this segment is even stronger when it comes to its illusions, or I may have just found the missing group.¡¯


    Since this man was in the second realm, and thus did not pose much of a threat, she quickly decided to emerge out of the shadows and tap him on the shoulder, ¡°Hey, do you know a Yi Guanyu?¡±


    He leapt away from her in fright, his teeth chattering and his entire body quaking even after he noticed her clothing and the Yi character on her robes. He looked around, as if searching for an ambush or some other trap, then opened and closed his mouth several times before finally mustering a few words, ¡°Are¡­ are you real?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    The man shook his head, ¡°No, that¡¯s what an illusion would say! Begone, you phantom! I will not submit to you!¡±


    It was hard to take his words seriously as his shaking only intensified. His legs occasionally twitched, almost as if he was trying to run away, but his efforts produced no results at all. He glanced down when he realised that, and when he raised his head once more, his fearful expression had only intensified.


    ¡°That is also what a real person would say. Your question isn¡¯t the best method for distinguishing reality from illusion,¡± Yi Wei pointed out, ¡°Can you lead me to your leader?¡±


    ¡°I-I don¡¯t have a leader! He isn¡¯t located in a hidden camp behind me! Don¡¯t even look there!¡±


    ¡®I¡­ I hope he was doing this on purpose, because otherwise he has totally lost his mind,¡¯ she sighed, walking around him and then heading in the direction he informed her of, ¡°The illusion might be broken soon, so if you are able to make yourself look presentable, now would be a good time to do so. Just saying.¡±


    He provided no reply, other than the constant clattering of his teeth, so she continued through the swamp and the unusually thick flora in her way. There were three major layers of foliage obstructing her, but as she knew that she was inside an illusion, she was able to walk past them easily.


    After passing the last one, she found the so-called camp, though it would have been far more fitting to describe it as a tribal village more so than any civilized camp. Mud and straw huts were placed haphazardly, all of which were clearly built by different people and at different levels of expertise, leading to some looking far worse than others. A sort of path snaked between them, formed by frequent footsteps, leading up to the only tent in this entire swamp. Even then, it was torn and ragged, looking worse than some of the mud huts.


    Other than that, there were no people in sight.


    ¡®Interesting. If I¡¯m right, then that means that our expedition¡¯s last group has been here for a while,¡¯ she thought, before raising her voice and calling out, ¡°Yi Guanyu! Can you hear me?¡±


    Her voice echoed for a moment before a horde of the so-called wild folk burst out of the huts and the tent, quickly crowding up in front of her. Most of them looked as bad as the terrified man outside the camp, though a few were clearly maintaining their appearance with whatever means possible, although they still looked far worse than any random servants from the other groups.


    ¡°Are you from one of the other groups?¡± one man asked, though his voice was quickly drowned out by others.


    ¡°Are you real?¡±


    ¡°How did you get in here?¡±


    ¡°Can you get us out?¡±


    ¡°Will we be rescued soon? Is the elder aware of our location?¡±


    The cacophony of voices went silent the moment another figure exited the tent. Unlike the rest, who resorted to wearing all sorts of random trash to cover themselves, this man was much like his tent, tattered and worn but still clinging on. His robes were damaged and patched up countless times, and the original colours that they had were completely gone, replaced with a dull brown and green, but the Yi character on his chest still feebly held on.


    ¡°Servant of Yi, which group do you belong to?¡± Yi Guanyu questioned, clearly attempting to appear imposing but failing miserably thanks to the leaves in his hair.


    ¡°I am Yi Wei, part of Yi Jiazhi¡¯s group.¡±


    He walked through the crowd that parted to give him passage, stopping a few steps before her, ¡°You do exist, do you not? You are not some phantom, come to torment us again, are you? Do you know how to get out of here?¡±


    ¡°As far as I¡¯m aware, I am real, and I¡¯m not an illusion. In terms of leaving¡­¡± Yi Wei pretended to give it some thought, as to not appear out of the ordinary by easily declaring to be able to leave an illusory realm that has clearly taken those of a greater level months to deal with, before shrugging, ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but I have some understanding of illusory arrays, and I know that there is something in the middle of it that is keeping it going. If one of us is able to break it, the entire illusion will break.¡±


    Her news clearly brought him a great deal of relief for a moment, as he emptied his lungs via a relieved sigh.


    However, his expression stiffened soon after, ¡°That is not necessarily going to be easy, will it?¡±


    ¡°No. However, most of the other groups are already here, and they¡¯re likely to be going towards the crux of the array as well. Provided that they are able to overcome the illusion, they might be able to take it down.¡±


    Naturally, she did not mention the fact that she was, potentially, the only one with that capability, as she intended to be dismissed by Yi Guanyu as to be able to pursue the Lock Obelisk herself.


    ¡°Most? Are Yi Fenwu and Yi Tai on their way?¡±


    ¡°I believe so, though the latter has a bad tendency of appearing and disappearing as he pleases,¡± Yi Wei said, recalling how he showed up and left the earlier meeting several times.


    Yi Guanyu nodded, ¡°Is that good-for-nothing, Yi Henghua, dead yet?¡±


    She had to take a moment to reply in an entirely calm manner, ¡°¡­ No.¡±


    ¡°Damn. I can¡¯t believe no-one has taken the opportunity to end her life yet, when her neck is so thin and weak, and when her body is so thin and lithe- ahem!¡± he coughed, his face gaining a red hue, ¡°Is there anything else you can tell me?¡±


    ¡°I would like to ask something, actually. How long have you been here?¡±


    ¡°The sun here seems to not move exactly as it does on the outside, but we entered two days after we descended into the valley.¡±


    ¡®Two days¡­ That¡­ That¡¯s nearly two years! What in the heavens have you been doing in here? Surely, as long as all of you form a circle and walk outwards, then one of your will inevitably either bump into one another, damaging the illusion, or exit it, doing the exact same! How are you even more useless than Yi Jiazhi?¡¯ Yi Wei could only limit herself to a neutral expression ¨C or what she hoped resembled one.


    Seeing that neither of them spoke, the crowd began to get a little restless. Some dispersed to do their own things, but a large number crowded around Yi Wei, likely excited about seeing a new face after two years of being stuck in an illusion.


    They muttered various things around her, ranging from innocent to somewhat crass, but before it could escalate, Yi Guanyu spoke, ¡°Since you have nothing more to say, go, return to your group.¡±


    She took the opportunity to get out of there, first leaving in terms of the illusion and then reality, exiting that sector of the illusion and moving onto the next one. As she had spent a little too much time with both the blue-haired girl and Yi Guanyu¡¯s camp, the likelihood of someone locating the Lock Obelisk had increased too much for her liking, so she sprinted through the illusions without taking in the sights. Woods, mountains, fields, hills, castles, cities, large fonts of earth fire and more were passed through without a second glance, until she crossed into the inner part of the array.


    Unlike the middle part, which contained the seemingly infinite number of illusory realities, this only had one section that covered the entirety of the inner circle and was presumably placed around the Lock Obelisk.


    It wasn¡¯t a simple illusion either, but one capable of inflicting genuine harm on others. If there were any more bronze or silver soldiers, they could significantly injure the unprepared or the weak, which included Yi Wei. Her cultivation had not advanced as much as she would have liked, and even then, only certain types of illusions would even care about her strength.


    Fortunately, those illusions that can damage intruders typically manifest themselves as those in the same realm as their attack potential, so if she had the ability to resist those attacks, she would also be able to oppose the illusory warriors.


    ¡®Unfortunately, the potential location of the Lock Obelisk is obscured by an illusory light so powerful that even I cannot see through it. If it turns out there¡¯s nothing there, this array won¡¯t remain standing for long,¡¯ she mentally threatened the formation array, even though she knew that it was likely that she would be unable to do any damage to it without resorting to extreme measures, ¡®Although, if the Kong family had the spare resources to create such an enormous array as a simple distraction, then I can see why they ended up falling into such a bad state. Wasting so much on something absolutely pointless would naturally cause them to decline.¡¯


    She paused on the outer edge and split the circle of truth within her vision, formed by her mental energy, into several pieces, aiming to increase her awareness of reality while still being able to view the illusions with reasonable clarity.


    With that, and a few defensive techniques prepared just in case, she continued her journey.


    At first, it was safe. Nothing emerged from the sand dunes, and the illusory reality didn¡¯t even attempt to make her feel particularly hot, keeping the temperature at the same level as it was in the swamp. However, the sky was devoid of all clouds, and the sun looked like it was boiling her surroundings, to the point that she was nearly convinced that she should be feeling some sort of immense heat slowly baking her alive.


    ¡®Now I don¡¯t know if my Kong Mental Arts are removing certain effects, or if- oh, I suppose I can ask¡­ oh, not again¡­¡¯ her thoughts were interrupted twice in a row as she first saw a figure among the dunes, and then noticed the colour of her hair.


    At the same time, the girl turned around to notice her.


    ¡°Have you no sense of direction?¡± Yi Wei shouted first, charging up to her, ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you how to get out of here?¡±


    ¡°Ah, Yi girl. Hello again! I seem to have stumbled into the array again¡­ Hehe¡­¡±


    ¡°Ugh¡­ What is your name?¡±


    ¡°Eh? I¡¯m¡­ eh¡­ Lan Mei Xing?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t appear to be very certain of that,¡± she pointed out, though that was of lesser priority than her next sentence, ¡°Anyway, tell me this ¨C how? How have you done this?¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure how close to the middle of the array I had been, so I had mistakenly walked right back into it. However, the first thing I saw was a swamp, so I didn¡¯t realise anything was off until I suddenly appeared in a desert and a bunch of sand figures attacked me.¡±


    ¡°Sand figures?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, like those ones,¡± Lan Mei Xing raised her hand and pointed at something behind Yi Wei.


    She turned around to find several tall humanoid shapes formed from sand slowly walking up to her. The moment she laid eyes upon them, they stopped in place, glared at her for a while, then suddenly accelerated, crossing the gap between them in a single breath, each one preparing an attack with their fists or legs.


    In the points of truth, she could see that there were no sandmen bearing down upon her, but instead they were the condensed essence of a technique flying at her.


    ¡®Skills of the fourth realm, no less. I can¡¯t take a strike like that!¡¯ Yi Wei understood immediately, using Dawn Sunlight Step, a technique she created to function as a weaker variation of the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, to get out of the way of the sand people.


    They did not appear to be able to adjust their trajectory, so they flew past her original position and straight for the blue-haired girl. She waited for them to get closer, then lazily kicked in their direction.


    An enormous burst of wind burst out as a result, colliding with both the sand figures and the technique essences within them, annihilating them immediately upon impact. Furthermore, the force of the attack travelled further, destroying the sand dunes and even striking the array paths below, causing the entire illusory reality to flicker momentarily before stabilising itself.


    ¡®That was impressive,¡¯ Yi Wei remarked, though she couldn¡¯t help but frown, ¡®And yet, I sensed no elemental energy within that attack, nor any particularly strong physique. Yet another strange detail about her.¡¯


    ¡°So, anyway, that¡¯s what happened. Would it be too tough for you to lead me out again, or do you want me to stick around, take care of the sand and wait until you find a way to take the illusion down?¡±


    ¡°If I lead you out of here, you¡¯ll just find a way to come back in again, won¡¯t you?¡± the blue-haired girl answered with a shy nod, so Yi Wei continued, ¡°Then the latter option is better. If you could prevent any difficult-to-evade attacks from reaching me, I¡¯d greatly appreciate it.¡±


    ¡°Got it!¡±


    Lan Mei Xing said, vanishing the next moment.


    ¡®She¡¯s insane, but at least she hasn¡¯t found some issue with me so far, or else I¡¯d never stand a chance,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, turning towards the centre of the array.


    She proceeded through the desert, avoiding the deeper swampland in reality while also evading the areas in which technique essences begin to form, though the moment they did, Lan Mei Xing would reappear, punch or kick her way through the rising sand figures, obliterating them instantly before running off somewhere once again. It was impressive, but more importantly, it allowed her to slowly track down every minor movement of energy within her body and collect the circulation map of a powerful kick technique.


    To see whether she would able to use it would require a place where the blue-haired girl wasn¡¯t watching, or else her sudden duplication of her technique would raise a number of questions.


    As she got closer to the middle, the number of technique essence attacks increased from two or three a minute, to a dozen every few seconds. Each individual attack did not take much effort for Lan Mei Xing to destroy, or for Yi Wei to evade them, but with that insane frequency of attacks, both of them were showing signs of fatigue and the inability to keep up.


    ¡°Damn, how many planar stones are powering this thing?¡± the blue-haired girl wondered out loud, drawing another curious glance from Yi Wei.


    ¡®Interesting. I don¡¯t think that knowing how larger arrays are powered is something particularly unusual, but¡­ mhm, now I¡¯m just grasping at straws here, aren¡¯t I? That¡¯s not good ¨C I need to keep a level head, or else I¡¯ll have another mental hiccup to address.¡¯


    Still, they progressed, until one step suddenly doubled the quantity of sand figures.


    ¡°Ugh, how does this work? Hey, Yi girl, is one of these illusions a, well, an illusion? Can I ignore one or two of these?¡±


    ¡°Give me a moment!¡± Yi Wei called out, scanning all twenty-four sandmen with spiritual will that she infused with the energy of the Kong Mental Arts, allowing her to move the circle of truth from her sight to her mind¡¯s eye. ¡°That one, that one ¨C twelve of them are harmless!¡±


    ¡°Can you mark them, somehow? I¡¯m fast, but twelve additional enemies are a little too much for me.¡±


    She nodded, and briefly considered her options. Talismans or any other of the four great arts would not be helpful, as they all required time and great thought to create, so her only options were her cultivation and physique. The latter did not have any marking abilities, not so far as she knew, and thus the best choice would be either some variation of the Dawn Slicing Beam or simply shooting out small clumps of planar energy.


    After analysing the energy cost of either option, as well as their visibility for that cost, in the very same instant that she began thinking, she willed for a dozen clusters of blood planar energy to burst out of her body, passing harmlessly through her robes before heading directly for the false sand figures. As someone in the second realm, she could only control her energy precisely within a small range, but it was sufficient for Lan Mei Xing to understand exactly who she was aiming for and take actions against the rest.


    Meanwhile, Yi Wei leapt right into the path of a false sand figure, ignoring her mind¡¯s warnings against it. Even as she was mere inches away from the sandman¡¯s featureless face, she still felt some degree of fear from the potential of being struck by a technique of the fourth realm.


    ¡®Come on, calm down! You know this is an illusion! Trust your judgement, you confused girl!¡¯ she said to herself, resisting her body¡¯s urge to shut her eyes.


    Out of nowhere, she heard the sound of breaking pottery. The figure made of sand, which looked so imposing the previous moment, was scattered into nothingness by a single glowing crimson needle that pierced the sand and turned it back to a shapeless dust. It then returned to her heart, where it scattered into a single sentence.


    ¡®That¡¯s better,¡¯ she read, watching as the red dispersed into nothingness, ¡®Does¡­ does the Red Phantom Flood have a will of its own?¡¯


    A burst of laughter echoed throughout the empty void, ten thousand identical silhouettes all sharing an amused expression. Their pupils of emerald flame lit up parts of their features, revealing the raised corners of their lips.


    ¡°What a silly thing to say,¡± their choir of voices instantly converted the silence of the darkness into a melodious, yet strangely vicious tone, ¡°Nonetheless, no more help from me, girl. Bye for now.¡±


    Once the excitement from the sudden activation of the Red Phantom Flood faded, she realised that her mind, or, rather, her spiritual will had changed on a small, yet significant level. In fact, it seemed to be a part of the same change that had led to increase in the range of her spiritual will earlier in the expedition, but instead of simply raising the density of it, it had also affected the quality.


    The circle of truth within her sight expanded and stabilised, allowing her to view more of reality at once.


    With this advantage, she sped up, evading the next series of fake sand figures easily. At least for now, her mind seemed to be working slightly faster than before, so she put it to good use by looking out for the smallest signs of the generation of an attacking technique essence, then changing her movement trajectory ever so slightly to prevent it from having any chance of harming her. Once the blue-haired girl noticed what she was doing, she also began to ignore more of the figures, vastly increasing their pace.


    Like that, running from several dozen true attacks and several thousand false ones, they crossed another boundary, transforming the world around them from desert to a flat, empty rock, with a black sky above them. There were already a number of individuals there, most of whom wore the Yi robes, though a few did not.


    The rock appeared to form a floating round platform, in the middle of which stood an enormous pillar of light, surging out of the stone and soaring into the empty heavens. Behind it, within the circle of truth, Yi Wei could see the vague outline of a Lock Obelisk.


    ¡°What is this place?¡± Lan Mei Xing whispered to her, though she seemed to quickly realise that there would be no reason for Yi Wei to know that, ¡°Do you know any of these people?¡±


    ¡°A few. I¡¯ll ask them if they know anything.¡±


    She looked through the small gathering of people, and could not find a hint of Yi Tai, Yi Guanyu, Yi Zheng or Yi Fenwu, though Yi Henghua and Yi Jiazhi had miraculously found their way to this stone platform. Naturally, she headed to the one that was easier to converse with.


    ¡°Excuse me, Yi Henghua, could you tell me what¡¯s going on here?¡±


    Yi Henghua was a little distracted when she approached, but when she finally realised that she was being spoken to, her first words were, ¡°Oh, voyeur girl. You made it into here as well.¡±


    ¡®Really? That¡¯s your memory of me? I¡­ I don¡¯t even know what to say,¡¯ Yi Wei suppressed the twitching of her lips and repeated her question, ¡°I won¡¯t comment on that, but could you enlighten me as to what this place is?¡±


    ¡°I think there was something about an arena. Some floating letters appear now and then, so-¡±


    Right at that moment, a blue surface lit up in front of her eyes, a few lines scrawled across it by someone with poor typographical skills, ¡®After a certain number of participants is reached, duels will begin. The winner will claim the crux of this array, and a great prize. Usage of all equipment is permitted.¡¯


    Yi Wei nodded, ¡°I see. Then, I shall leave you to your thinking, Yi Henghua. I hope I won¡¯t have to face you.¡±


    She began her walk back to the outer edge of the stone platform, when she decided to take another look in the direction of the pillar of light, and the array beneath it. The nodes and channels in the very centre of the enormous array were far denser than those on the outside, and as numerous, if not more so, but no matter how much she looked through them, she could not identify even a single array that would create a solid, impassable barrier.


    ¡®Doesn¡¯t that mean¡­ heh? Heh.¡¯

 V1C33: Crouching Tigers, Hidden Dragons

    There was no need for another screen of light to tell those on the stone platform that the time had come, as a large crystalline wall burst out of nowhere on the outer edge, sealing in all who had made it in.


    In total, there were sixty-four people within the central portion of the array, and thus sixty-four competitors. When a number of glowing white platforms appeared in the dark above them, it became clear that they would fight exactly six times, with each round reducing their number by half until the final battle was between the two strongest, or perhaps luckiest, opponents, who could then claim the final reward, whatever that may be.


    Out of the contestants, forty-nine belonged to the Yi family, including Yi Henghua, Yi Jiazhi and Yi Fenwu, who had made it in at the last moment.


    Seven more had the word ¡®Flame¡¯ written a part of their clothes, with the exact location differing between each individual. Their outfits were not as coordinated as those of the Yi family, nor were they as great in terms of quality, looking worn and clearly well-used, but they were clearly more practical, designed not for grace but to be as suitable for each person as possible.


    Five lacked any obvious identification on their armour, but they all wore an identical set of equipment, complete with a dagger and a sword on their belts, sealed within simple leather scabbards.


    The remaining three were masked and cloaked, but their weapon of choice was a greatsword. While it was possible to tell that the seven were three women and four men, and that the five consisted of one woman and four men, it was impossible to distinguish one cloaked figure from another, not even by the yin and yang within their bodies. Their breathing was identical, taking in air at the same time and speed, and breathing out at same time as the other two. Many turned to look at them, whether covertly or not, but they showed no sign of caring.


    Before the tension could build up too much, the light screen finally reappeared before each one of them, showing only two names ¨C theirs, and their opponent¡¯s. As soon as they read them, their bodies broke down into particles of light, which flew up to the floating white platforms above them.


    The moment Yi Wei had the opportunity to view her opponent¡¯s cultivation, as well as the match-ups within the other arenas via the circle of truth, she understood that either a large number of weaker individuals were rather unlucky, or that the illusory realm intended to pick off the weaker participants first, perhaps with the intention to have the last battle be between the strongest.


    Looking simply at the cultivation she presented, she was in the fifth stage, while her opponent was at the top of the ninth stage of the Planar Pool realm. Normally, that would be quite a leap.


    At the same time, her enemy was one of the ¡®Flame¡¯ warriors. Whoever they were, to have a name attached, especially one so simple as Flame, to their group suggested that they had to be a powerful force. After all, it is the simplest title that is often chased after. Most want to be emperors or kings, for the position of the second Master of Yi City is unattainable to any human, beast or spirit, but few want to be the Senior Elder of the Seventh Sword Peak of the Sprouting Valley, no matter how prestigious the title actually was. Simply saying it every day would exhaust a person.


    This was most relevant in terms of mercenary companies, sects and other organisations that wished for their name to be known across the world. The simpler their label was, the more common the word it used, the easier it would be to remember them. They would not be the Fire-Catching Ember Warriors, but simply Flame Lords, for instance.


    For a while, they looked at one another, unsure of what to do, but no further screens of light appeared, and no instructions were given, nor did anything obstruct them from moving towards one another. Thus, they shared a wordless look, and began combat unbidden.


    The Flame warrior drew both of her weapons, but before she could cross the gap between them, she saw her opponent stretch out her arms to the side, showing her open hands, palms pointed toward the warrior. Before she had any opportunity to question the red-robed woman¡¯s behaviour, two miniature suns formed in front of her hands, and both fired a great beam that sliced right through her body, cutting two large gashes in her chest and legs.


    Yi Fenwu grinned as she saw her opponent ¨C one of the three figures in black, featureless and emotionless.


    ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you a fun-looking one?¡± she played with her blindfold with one hand, while reaching for something in her pockets with the other, ¡°Be a dear and tell me if you happen to know what this thing here is.¡±


    She took out a small black token, showing both sides to her enemy.


    The moment the masked figure saw the subtle character on the front, they shook in place, before their eyes narrowed. They drew their greatsword while shooting a stare full of killing intent toward her.


    ¡°Not a fan then, are you, darling? It figures that I wouldn¡¯t find two in a row,¡± Yi Fenwu sighed, storing the token, ¡°Come on then, dear, don¡¯t waste my time.¡±


    Removing the bow off of her back, she slammed it into the ground, impaling the lower spike into the white light below her with little effort. She wasn¡¯t clear whether this was due to her personal strength, which was enhanced with a great deal of personal training, or due to the platforms naturally giving way to her weapon, but once it was planted, it remained firmly in place, not shifting even as she loaded an enormous arrow onto the great bow.


    She gave the covered figure one second to act, then shot.


    In another arena, a figure covered in absolute darkness descended upon a member of the Yi family, bearing two daggers that were elongated thanks to two straight blades of black energy. They were as solid, if not more so, than the material weapon, and they were aimed with the clear intention to kill.


    At the start, this figure¡¯s opponent assumed that it would be an easy victory for him. This figure¡¯s cultivation seemed to be on the lower end of the Planar Pool realm, and other than the cloak of absolute black that consumed his or her entire body, there was nothing outstanding about them. Despite that, they did not wait for any signal to begin the fight, charging straight in at an impressive speed, aiming their very first pair of attacks for the heart and brain. Clearly, they had no interest in keeping him alive.


    He was able to ward off the first few strikes, merely by the advantage of his cultivation realm, but while he had to exhaust a sizeable quantity of energy in order to defend himself, his enemy had no such limit. Furthermore, each strike was clearly more powerful than the last, as if the dark figure was advancing through stages on the spot.


    Luckily, that did not appear to be the case, but their power was still increasing, as was their accuracy. Within a single minute, he was completely exhausted, and failed to block a fatal strike.


    The array of the illusory world was unable to prevent his death, for it occurred instantly. All it could do was throw him out of the illusion, as to not sour the experiences of the other competitors, and to prevent the stench of death from permeating.


    When the first round concluded, sixty-one individuals found themselves standing upon the stone platform once more. Above them, the number of white arenas was reduced by half, while those that remained rearranged themselves in the air as to be positioned an equal distance from one another. Then, the victors of the first round were told their next opponents, after which they turned into particles of light and flew back up.


    Meanwhile, those who had lost their first battle remained on the ground, with a limited view of the combat above them.


    ¡°Now, we can finally settle this!¡± Yi Henghua exclaimed, a massive storm of dust expanding out of her, covering every single inch of the few metres within her range of control. Every particle of that dust was sharp and vicious, able to slice any regular animal into a thousand pieces.


    Yi Jiazhi, her opponent, put on a brave face as he replied, ¡°You think I¡¯m scared of you? I am not!¡±


    ¡°Then prove it, you bastard! Ever since I¡¯ve come to this world, I¡¯ve wanted to kill you and the rest of your insolent ilk! Give me that opportunity, you worthless pig!¡±


    The man responded by releasing two balls of planar energy that looked like two spheres of magma the size of his head. Their searing glow painted him and the white platform a bright shade of red, even burning away a few of the hairs on his arms.


    ¡°Here you go!¡± he shouted, ¡°Magma Spines!¡±


    He threw both spheres of earth fire into the ground, into which they disappeared without any resistance. The moment after, two great spikes of magma thrust out of the ground a metre in front of him, reaching two metres into the air at their peak. They began to sink, but not before another set of spines emerged a metre further, then another and another, swiftly making their way toward Yi Henghua.


    Despite that, the woman sneered at his attempt, ¡°That¡¯s it? You felt the need to call out a name for that pathetic excuse of an attack? You¡¯re all worthless!¡±


    She leapt into the air, and just as the pair of spines emerged from the ground, she willed the cloud of dust to congeal into two solid shields that collided with the magma, ceasing its ascent before forcing it back below the ground. Then, she split off two small blades from the dust barriers, which she launched at Yi Jiazhi at great speed.


    ¡°Is that all?¡± he questioned, repelling both attacks with ease before he looked at her ¨C and froze.


    While he was distracted by the dust blades, his opponent had condensed an enormous sphere of dust with an enormous quantity of energy infused within it. She reached out with both hands and willed the dust orb to rotate, making it spin faster and faster until it transformed into a great bullet, with a sharp point that spun so quickly that it pierced the very air before it, seemingly cutting into the fabric or reality itself.


    Without giving Yi Jiazhi an opportunity to respond, she fired the bullet at him. It shot through the gap between them and was about to destroy his face on the same second.


    In that split second, perhaps due to the aid of the adrenaline surge at the prospect of dying to someone he hated so much, he was able to place his planar anchor behind himself and force a large wall of magma to surge upward on the path of the dust bolt.


    The dust collided with the magma, drilling into it, sending drops and clumps of magmatic planar energy everywhere that dispersed into nothingness the moment they left the range of his control. For a second, it was unable to pierce his defences, but the very next, the dust spear shot through the earth fire, shattering the molten barrier into a large puddle of lava. At a slower speed than before, it headed for his nose¡­ before collapsing into nothingness merely a breath away from ending him.


    ¡°So, you¡¯ve used your planar anchor? Then, don¡¯t mind me,¡± Yi Henghua waved her hand, and a strange, dust-like planar anchor landed behind her, constantly shifting and moving as if it was a dune within a great desert. Then, she smoothly transitioned that move into the formation of two more spheres of dust, identical to her previous attacks in appearance, though only half as powerful.


    However, with the addition of the planar anchor¡¯s strengthening effect, their effect was identical.


    Thus, Yi Jiazhi grit his teeth and was forced to make the hardest decision he had made in a long time. ¡°I surrender!¡±


    She flinched for a moment, but as she saw nothing stopping her from striking him while he was down, she allowed her expression to contort into a manic grin as she threw both dust bullets at him, aiming one at his crotch and the other at his heart.


    ¡°Brother Ling, from my previous match, I know that this arena does not accept surrenders. Would you prefer to be the victor, or can you bear with the pain for a little bit?¡±


    ¡°I could accept the beating, Brother Xing, only if you wish to win. Otherwise, I have no preference.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ then, why don¡¯t we use the old method?¡±


    ¡°The old method¡­ ah, I see. That is an excellent idea, Brother Xing. Let¡¯s go!¡±


    Fifty-nine survivors remained after the second round, though a number wished that they hadn¡¯t.


    Fifty-seven remained after the third, where Yi Wei also lost her battle. Four arenas remained, which she watched until that number was reduced to two, and then one.


    A few more had lost their lives, but the last two warriors were Yi Henghua, much to the surprise of the majority of the Yi family¡¯s spectators, and one of the masked and cloaked figures, while the other two had perished under the hand of Yi Fenwu and one of the ¡®Flame¡¯ warriors, respectively. The last dark figure did not appear to be affected by this, and the more observant noticed that it may have even been strengthened by their loss, somehow.


    Speaking of the observant, most of the losers gathered up to watch the upcoming duel together, sharing various details regarding themselves and their battles. As it turned out, the ¡®Flame¡¯ troops were mercenaries who had gotten wind of a treasure within the Kong valley, and sent a number of their junior warriors for the purpose of training.


    ¡°Are you a famous mercenary group? We¡¯ve not heard of you in the Yi District.¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t care much for fame,¡± replied a male warrior, ¡°However, we are often called upon by the Patriarchs of other families. Our greatest soldiers are in the Linked Channels realm, while our leader, Zhong Shui, is at the seventh stage! If you need to get rid of a monster, or search through some hidden grounds such as this, we can offer you a good deal. We accept either upfront payment, if you¡¯d prefer to keep everything we find ¨C we are honest folk, so once we agree on a deal, we¡¯ll not raise or lower our requested sum arbitrarily ¨C or we¡¯ll accept a certain percentage of the rewards, which we can discuss once we bring them back to you. If you¡¯d like to reserve a specific item, we can do that too.¡±


    ¡®I¡­ I didn¡¯t ask you for your marketing speech, just who you were!¡¯ the one who asked the question exclaimed in his mind, scratching his head while doing his best to mask his true expression, ¡°I-Is that so? I¡¯ll report this to the family, then.¡±


    ¡°Wait, if you¡¯ve heard of this place, then do you know what¡¯s in here?¡± another Yi family lower-class member inquired.


    ¡°Only that one of the more valuable items is an elixir of some sort-¡±


    ¡°The fight is starting!¡±


    ¡°Hey, help me up! I want to see this!¡±


    The mercenary¡¯s words were consumed by the noise of the crowd that desperately desired to see the two strongest fighters compete over this mysterious elixir, as well as any other potential gains from this illusory area. Some even guessed that it might contain the entrance to the hidden grounds they were searching for and despaired that they would not have the chance to see them, if entrance to them counted as a reward for the winner.


    Everyone¡¯s eyes were directed at that last arena, watching every movement of the two opponents carefully. It was a good opportunity to see two experts in action.


    Yi Henghua and the cloaked figure stared one another down for a few moments, then their planar anchors appeared behind them. Hers was a large pillar of dust, its corner pointing in the direction of earth, while the dark figure had a similarly dark anchor that was shrouded in shadow, obscuring any hint of physical features.


    ¡°The reward will be mine, understand? Get out of my way!¡± Yi Henghua shouted at him, condensing three rotating dust bullets simultaneously.


    ¡°Hmph,¡± the obscured figure didn¡¯t deign her with an answer, merely drawing its blade calmly.


    As with the previous battles, neither waited for a signal, for no signal would come from the silent illusory world. Both attacked immediately, firing dust spears and releasing waves of pitch-black sword light respectively.


    They clashed from afar, each one of their strikes shaking the earth ¨C despite them floating far above it. At first, the battle was even, with neither being able to strike the other for a time. Then, Yi Henghua suddenly found an opening within her opponent¡¯s guard, and went for it immediately, piercing through the side of the figure¡¯s upper stomach. She also manipulated the dust to consume a part of his or her flesh and clothing as to intensify the damage.


    That attack revealed the figure¡¯s dark skin and the edge of a strip of fabric wrapped around their chest.


    As soon as one of the spectators noticed, the rest were informed that same instant, with these news spreading even between those that had previously fought between one another.


    ¡°Black clothing and identical breathing, greatswords and shadowy planar anchors¡­ Dark skin¡­ These couldn¡¯t be the Endless Dark Assassins from the north, could they? What in the heavens are they doing in this valley?¡± someone voiced, causing that guess to spread across the group as well.


    A few others, however, were far more interested in the discovery that this figure might be a woman.


    It wasn¡¯t too uncommon for some women to hide their identities and obscure their features within all sorts of organisations, for various practical and aesthetic purposes, and there were even times that men disguised themselves as women, but ultimately, it was rare for such things to be exposed, and thus it naturally aroused a great deal of discussion.


    What sort of face was hiding beneath that mask, were the rest of the dark figures also women, how large were the mountains hidden beneath the cloth¡­ all sorts of questions were asked, even if not all were intelligent, but before they could be answered, the light from the arena dimmed.


    ¡®The victor has claimed their reward. Concluding illusory reality.¡¯


    That message appeared in front of everyone¡¯s eyes while the white arena descended to the ground. However, even when they descended, no-one was able to tell that a victor had been found. Both were still standing strong, and neither held any sort of elixir, not to mention any other form of more noticeable treasure. Furthermore, both were looking around in confusion, clearly opposite to the behaviour one should display if they had just gained a great prize.


    ¡°What? It ended this quickly?¡± Yi Wei was the first to voice her concern, narrowing her eyes almost as if too much light was entering them, despite the illusory reality becoming rather dim.


    ¡°Who¡¯s the winner? Who got the treasure?¡±


    ¡°Can someone explain this to me? What¡¯s going on?¡±

 V1C34: Behind the Scenes

    During the first few rounds, Yi Wei had paid close attention to every participant, with her priority being on whether the loss of a round would cause one to be blocked from remaining on the stone platform.


    As it turned out, that was not a problem, so she allowed herself to lose with minimal injuries and joined the spectating crowd. Unfortunately, while there were still several arenas in the air, their general attention was split, and many would switch between the battles that were occurring, often looking all over the place in the hopes of discovering some subtle change within the stone platform illusion.


    Thus, she had to wait until the very last fight, where every single observer was watching a single battle without taking their eyes off it. At that time, she quietly broke away from the crowd via a stealth technique, and casually walked into the beam of light in the middle of the platform.


    As expected, there was no obstruction to her entry.


    ¡®This makes me wonder whether this is some oversight, or if this is an intentional test of those who enter. Judging by the fact that the Kong family specialises in illusions and mental training, and considering the fact that all three challenges so far have been very vulnerable to the Kong Mental Arts, it wouldn¡¯t be too strange if they weren¡¯t seeking the most powerful person, but rather the most capable in terms of mental techniques, for even a well-trained master of arrays would have no clue what it could and could not do without seeing it,¡¯ she determined, glancing back to ensure that no-one had followed her, ¡®Perhaps they could even be seeking that Kong Shi Meng, though I know too little about that situation to make any quick judgements right now. Anyway, the items in here can likely be won either by the strongest, in case no suitable claimant appears, or by the one who is able to take them first, either through sheer luck or knowledge of the array.¡¯


    She finished passing through the beam of light, and finally saw the other side fully, without the obstruction of illusion.


    There were only three objects there ¨C the Lock Obelisk, a small vial floating an inch off the surface of a small table, and, in the ground, a large planar stone. Other than that, there was nothing, not even a proper floor, in or outside of the illusion. Both she and the objects stood on grass and dirt, without any of the fancy architecture on the outside of the light beam.


    ¡®If I was Yi Henghua or the person she was fighting, I¡¯d be rather disappointed by this¡­¡¯ Yi Wei thought, reaching for the small flask first, ¡®It¡¯s full of transparent liquid, almost like water¡­ and I have no clue what it is¡­ Drinking it straight away seems hasty, but I don¡¯t know how long that battle will take¡­¡¯


    After examining it for a few moments, she could not find any obvious and dangerous poisons within, so she opened up the flask and drank it.


    The instant the last drop of liquid sank down her throat, she could no longer keep her grip on the glass. It dropped from her fingers and shattered on the hardened dirt ground, but she couldn¡¯t care less, for it felt as if her forehead had been set aflame.


    ¡®If there¡¯s one thing I can¡¯t say, its that I didn¡¯t deserve this¡­ whatever this is¡­¡¯ she thought, lightly rubbing the affected spot. It hurt a little bit, but in comparison to any of the other experiences she has had since the mysterious characters had awakened, this might as well have been someone tickling her forehead, or perhaps a mild headache at worst. After the initial burst of pain, which caused her hand to twitch and release the vial, it had calmed, and she was able to continue her exploration without much difficulty.


    Unfortunately, all that was left was the planar stone, from which she siphoned as much energy as she could with a quick formation array. The energy within was sufficient to bring her up to the sixth, or perhaps seventh stage, but regardless of the exact figure, it would certainly bring about the equivalent of a breakthrough in her realm.


    She couldn¡¯t wait to see what changes would occur to her energy, or what other effects this perfected realm breakthrough might entail. There was already that spectral barrier around her dantian, which had still not solidified since she had first discovered it. Perhaps the development in her cultivation could transform it into something more useful or give her some hint of what its purpose was, besides looking somewhat nice.


    ¡®I can spend some time on this later. For now, I should use the Lock Obelisk and return before anyone notices my departure,¡¯ Yi Wei stepped up to the Lock Obelisk and placed her hand over it, before infusing it with a small quantity of the Kong Mental Art¡¯s energy.


    The third part of the key was being inscribed on her arm when she suddenly felt that her surroundings were too bright. It was a sudden thought, and an unprompted one. In fact, there was nothing different about her vision upon first glance. However, when she looked up, to the inner walls of the beam of light, she found them to be strangely¡­ translucent, ethereal. It was like they had lost their substance.


    ¡®What is¡­ wait, the burning sensation is gone,¡¯ she felt her brow, but nothing seemed to have changed, ¡®Is this the effect of the elixir?¡¯


    To test it further, she practised the Kong Mental Arts to see what kind of circle of truth it would be able to produce this time. The moment that violet energy reached her mind, every illusion and false sight within her eyes visibly quaked and shuddered, before the vast majority of her sight was emptied of illusions, leaving only a vague circle of falsehood on the very outside of her vision. This certainly qualified as a circle of truth, while the previous dot in her vision was completely insignificant in comparison.


    ¡®This is quite something. Wait a minute, now, doesn¡¯t this mean that the elixir I drank was the Third Eye Elixir? That would explain a lot of things, including the burning sensation in my glabella,¡¯ she realised, recalling what she remembered of the potion.


    It wasn¡¯t a particularly well-known elixir, with the entire Yi family historical library containing only three or four mentions of it. Thankfully, in each one, there were clear description of its functions, so Yi Wei had a pretty good idea of what it could do. After burning in a symbolic third eye, it would enhance the vision of the consumer, allowing them to see through illusions far more easily than anyone else, acting almost like the True Sight physique ¨C and it might even have the ability to combine with it. Additionally, it had some positive effect at refining mental energy, and with sufficient time, it is said to be able to refine spiritual will into an entirely new realm, though no accurate records of such a realm existed within the library.


    To put it simply, it was an effective item, and worth as much as the planar stone, if not more so, especially due to the location it was in.


    What made it even better was the fact that it was a permanent benefit, both in terms of usefulness and duration. While the planar stone¡¯s energy would eventually become meaningless if she ascended to the sixth realm or above, having the ability to see through illusions without needing to invest much effort was always helpful, as even the mysterious blue-haired girl lacked that ability.


    ¡®Then, I guess that the supposed third eye is what¡¯s causing this strange feeling of looking at something too bright. I hope it¡¯ll recover soon,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, narrowing her eyes as to reduce the unpleasant sensation.


    The moment the Lock Obelisk finished inscribing the third part of the key, she obscured her wrist with the training bracelet and left the beam of light, re-joining the crowd as if she had never left.


    Just as soon as she did that, the illusory realm announced, ¡®The victor has claimed their reward. Concluding illusory reality.¡¯


    ¡°What? It ended this quickly?¡± she muttered, prompting the others to also speak.


    When Yi Henghua and the masked figure descended onto the stone platform, they had slightly different reactions. The latter did not appear to have any strong reaction, simply looking around without seeming too flustered, but after the initial shock wore off, the former¡¯s eyes went wide, and her body began to shake.


    She balled her trembling hands into fists while dust congealed around her, forming a small wild storm that forced everyone below the third realm to retreat immediately as to avoid suffering serious harm. Yi Henghua stared at the spectating crowd with thick killing intent, seemingly ready to obliterate anyone who has any trace of the illusory realm¡¯s reward.


    ¡°You¡­ Which one of you thieves stole my reward?¡± she roared, causing the storm to surge upward, forming into an enormous floating planar anchor, ¡°GIVE IT TO ME!¡±


    A number of people wished to comply, but there was nothing they could do. They had no clue where the things she wanted were either, while even attempting to guess in front of this furious person would likely result in a dust bullet to the face.


    Furthermore, there was something strange about the planar anchor she displayed.


    ¡®I feel some sort of strange energy within that anchor¡­ don¡¯t tell me that she also has some sort of unique planar energy like Lan Mei Xing or I do? Since when does everyone have one of these?¡¯ Yi Wei questioned, though she maintained a blank expression as to not give herself away to the raging middle-class member of the family. ¡®Actually, this is a great opportunity to study things like this. So far, none of the three types of energy bear many similarities ¨C mine can imitate cultivation techniques, the blue-haired girl lacks an element completely, and Yi Henghua only has her dust, but it might be that this dust is the most curious thing about her. If her constitution is still damaged, as some say, then it must be this peculiar energy that permits her to cultivate in spite of everything going against her.


    Might that dusty tome caught between two shelves have actually been an artefact of some sort? Otherwise, just like how I would not be able to use my cosmic energy without the characters, I can¡¯t see how a unique energy like hers would be able to stay within her body.¡¯


    ¡°So this is how it¡¯ll be? Not only has my family cursed me constantly, but it has also betrayed me? What are you staring at, you bastard?¡± she noticed someone¡¯s gaze and launched a dust spear at them instantly, empowering it with the full power of both her planar anchor and her cultivation. Before the poor lower-class member of the family could react, it had almost impaled him, but it was suddenly struck mid-way by a rushed gust of wind planar energy.


    Both Yi Henghua and the crowd¡¯s eyes went to the source of the energy: Yi Fenwu.


    ¡°You¡­!¡± Yi Henghua sputtered, the dust storm around her growing even stronger and thicker, ¡°YOU BITCH! Do you think I cannot kill you? GET OUT OF MY WAY!¡±


    ¡°Henghua, if you have any sense about you, then stop this very instant. No matter what you may think about yourself, you won¡¯t be able to deal with the consequences of your actions,¡± Yi Fenwu spoke in an unusual manner, without any of her sultry and flirty tones that usually filled her voice, ¡°This illusion will break down soon, and the elder that followed us will be all too happy to take care of a rebel family member.¡±


    ¡°HOW DARE YOU THREATEN ME! THIS WAS MEANT TO BE MINE! MINE!¡±


    While she was distracted, Yi Wei retreated to the back of the crowd, where she found Yi Bai standing with a shocked face and slightly trembling arms. When their gazes met, she noticed a complex mixture of feelings within her expression.


    ¡°H-hey, you know when I said that she was a lot like us? C-can I undo that statement?¡± she whispered that, trying to ensure that she wouldn¡¯t earn the fury of their subject of discussion.


    ¡°Sure, if you want to¡­¡± Yi Wei muttered, also keeping her voice down while Yi Henghua was ranting to Yi Fenwu, ¡°Do you have any idea why she is so upset over this? Was she also aware of the rumours regarding the content of this place?¡±


    Yi Bai shook her head, ¡°Don¡¯t ask me. That guy over there was in her team, so he should know more.¡±


    ¡°Alright. Try to avoid looking directly at her, but also don¡¯t look too far away, or else she¡¯ll probably kill you.¡±


    ¡°I-I know that! Don¡¯t make me even more nervous!¡±


    She showed a small smile while she moved over to the ¡®guy¡¯ that had been pointed out by Yi Bai. He looked rather ordinary, both in terms of cultivation and appearance, being a red-haired man within the upper segment of the second realm.


    ¡°I¡¯ve no clue, really,¡± he answered immediately, before shutting his mouth and making some strange motions with his hands. When she next heard his voice, it somehow entered her ears despite him not moving his lips, ¡°Honestly, she can be a little weird sometimes, going on and on about things that we don¡¯t understand, and occasionally she even mutters things like ¡®chosen by the heavens¡¯ and similar sorts of nonsense to herself when she thinks we¡¯re not listening. It¡¯s one of the reasons no-one likes her. Wait, you¡¯re hearing me, right?¡±


    ¡°I am¡­ nice technique, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Tha-¡± the man said a little bit out loud before he noticed his mistake, ¡°I mean, thanks. Anyway, before she looks over here, could you scram?¡±


    ¡°Right¡­¡±


    Yi Wei retreated back to her previous position and assessed her previous theory, ¡®If that is true, then I suppose there is some credence to the possibility of her having an artefact. I mean, I¡¯ve had some similar thoughts myself, so if she had found an item that just happened to be perfect for her, and that also gave her a significant advantage over everyone else, then I can see why she¡¯d say things like that¡­ I wonder what the other things she says are, and why she wanted this realm¡¯s treasure in particular¡­¡¯


    Even though the Third Eye Elixir was indeed a powerful item, it didn¡¯t have any clear benefit to the dust-wielding cultivator, and there was certainly nothing that would imply a connection between the Kong family and the dust-like technique, so for Yi Henghua to be so obsessed with the elixir made little sense.


    ¡®Is she just irrational, then?¡¯ she wondered, listening to Yi Henghua¡¯s words for a bit.


    ¡°- I HAD BEEN CHOSEN! EVERY TREASURE IS MINE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT! MINE! YOU¡¯RE A MERE INSECT BEFORE ME!¡±


    ¡®That is quite likely,¡¯ Yi Wei sighed, ¡®With how she was previously struggling to speak too much, I am surprised that she has this much energy now, especially after several concurrent fights. Anyway, this isn¡¯t any of my business, so I¡¯ll just leave the moment the illusion finally shuts down.¡¯


    A few more minutes passed before that happened, and it was only then that Yi Henghua finally ran out of air in her lungs and had to take a breath or two. After ranting for a sufficiently long period of time, she realised that she might have said a little too much, judging by the fact that the gazes of the crowd had grown even less favourable towards her, so she could only calm herself down and bury all of that anger and frustration. She would have time to learn who the thief was, just not today.


    Once the illusory realm was down, every saw that they were standing in the middle of the same swamp that they had initially entered, although there was an equivalent to the illusory stone platform in the form of a large circle of smoothed grass and dirt of a similar size to it. There were no traces of battle on it, suggesting that those who fought on the platforms were somehow flying in reality and illusion.


    They also saw the table and the shattered glass flask beside it, but there was nothing they could do to figure out who claimed it first.


    There were no traces of planar energy around them, nor did anyone drip their blood over the glass, so the usage of blood tracking arts was out of the question as well. Furthermore, if the elixir was the only item stored within the illusory realm¡¯s core, then the only method to remove it would be to refine the one who consumed it into a medicinal pill, and even then, it might not possess the same power as it should have done.


    It likely wasn¡¯t out of the picture for Yi Henghua, but the rest of the group, including both the Yi family and the ¡®Flame¡¯ mercenaries, had no intention to do so, and the remaining dark-clothed figure was still standing in complete silence.


    Slowly, they dispersed, leaving the circle and returning to their camps.


    The ¡®Flame¡¯ mercenaries made their way out of the valley, for they had completed their task and thought that there was nothing more within the Kong valley for them to locate. Before they did so, they ensured that they advertised themselves as much as possible, though that made them appear to be short on money to most of those who listened.


    Unfortunately, the blue-haired girl, Lan Mei Xing, had vanished completely since their entry to the stone arena, and Yi Wei could not locate her no matter how much she tried.


    Although she had no luck with her own search, someone else was more fortunate than her.


    While looking for Lan Mei Xing, Yi Wei had split away from the rest of the family in order to increase her chances. After all, the first time the girl appeared, it was after every other person in the area had gone into the illusory realm, so perhaps she was just a little bit shy. She had been looking all over the place, calling out the girl¡¯s name, when she felt an approaching foreign aura.


    ¡°Who is it?¡± she called out, sensing that this person did not appear to be obscuring their presence, ¡°Don¡¯t blame me for attacking you if you don¡¯t reply.¡±


    ¡°No¡­ no need. I am¡­ here,¡± the person replied, stepping out from the shadows, ¡°I¡¯d¡­ like to talk¡­¡±


    ¡®Oh great, another Great Dark- wait, it¡¯s the greatsword-wielding assassin from the Endless Dark Assassins!¡¯ Yi Wei realised, not immediately being able to connect the soft and feminine voice to someone who ruthlessly defeated several opponents in a row with a giant sword. The wound on her side had been healed thanks to the magic of illusory realities, and now she looked just as she had before, other than the fact that her face covering had been pulled down, revealing soft yet scarred lips, with two thin claw marks on the left side of her face.


    The upper part of her head was still obscured, but that small glimpse had still sent that annoying part of her heart fluttering, forcing her to take a moment to calm herself before speaking, ¡°Alright, can I do something for you?¡±


    ¡°Mhm¡­¡± the assassin nodded, approaching a little closer under Yi Wei¡¯s watchful gaze until they were in regular speaking distance, ¡°You¡­ received the elixir¡­ didn¡¯t you?¡±


    That prompted her to tense up. Had she had a weapon to take out of a scabbard, or to remove from her belt or back, she would have done so at that moment. ¡°What does it matter to you? Besides, how would I have taken it away while everyone was watching?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t¡­ misunderstand¡­ I don¡¯t want to¡­ steal it¡­ Just need to get your help¡­ Please¡­¡±


    It was rather difficult to tell whether she was being truthful, so Yi Wei put up a few defensive layers while also preparing to trigger a breakthrough if it was absolutely necessary to raise her fighting ability suddenly. However, when the assassin proceeded to stand still, she decided to listen to what she had to say. ¡°Fine, I can listen to you and pretend that I have what you want, though I want all of the relevant details.¡±


    ¡°Naturally¡­ There is a second flask of elixir¡­ elsewhere in the valley¡­ I want it to break free of my assassin¡¯s binding¡­¡± the woman said, taking a deep breath before launching into a lengthy explanation, ¡°I am indeed a part of the Endless Dark Assassins¡­ like most groups of our kind, our Master has a method of controlling us¡­ I barely broke out, took two others with me, and wanted to get the Third Eye Elixir to dispel that control¡­ This flask was easier to attain¡­ but the other one requires great accomplishments in illusions¡­ or the Third Eye. Once I have it, I can strengthen my spiritual will¡­ purify it¡­ and get rid of the Master¡¯s influence.¡±


    ¡°Out of curiosity, how exactly does that refinement process work?¡±


    ¡°You channel your spiritual will to the Third Eye¡­¡± she said, tapping her forehead, ¡°then allow it to be refined¡­ repeat until you can no longer continue¡­¡±


    Yi Wei followed those instructions, sending a strand of spiritual will into her glabella. There, she found a small circle, surrounded by vague lines that almost resembled those that one may find around the heart of an array. She sent her spiritual will into it, and as it passed through, she saw it growing ever so slightly denser, although it was so insignificant that she would have needed to repeat this a hundred times for any clear improvement.


    ¡®Well, that much is true. If she really is trying to free herself¡­ maybe I can confirm it for myself?¡¯ she wondered, returning her focus to the world outside, ¡°Could you allow me to check your body for myself? I¡¯m interested to see what an assassin¡¯s binding looks like.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± the woman hesitated, even showing her thinking on her face for once, until she finally gave a slight nod, ¡°Rescind your spiritual will¡­ the instant I tell you to¡­¡±


    Naturally, Yi Wei agreed ¨C she didn¡¯t exactly appreciate how a number of people would search through the bodies of others with their spiritual wills without any consent from the other party, and she didn¡¯t want to become just like those people ¨C and slowly sent out her will to meet the assassin¡¯s spiritual will. It was intangible in the physical world, but when viewed with her mind, she saw two individual strands of energy intertwining with one another so closely that they might as well have been one. One was dark and smoke-like, fluid and thin, but the other was thick, slow and dense, as if it had somehow solidified.


    The Third Eye revealed that although neither were out of place, one was slightly more powerful than the other, and even seemed to be suppressing the thinner spiritual will.


    ¡°Is that denser energy also yours?¡±


    ¡°Mhm¡­ It can be controlled by the Master¡¯s technique, but¡­ if I can refine it into one¡­ it will no longer have effect,¡± the assassin explained, lowering her voice, ¡°Hopefully¡­ I have learnt about this and the elixir from the Master¡¯s documents, so perhaps¡­ no¡­ never mind¡­¡±


    ¡®Okay then¡­ uh¡­ I feel terrible about this, but I don¡¯t think I can do much to help¡­ Eh¡­ I should have at least one mental technique to assist her in the process, right?¡¯ Yi Wei scanned her memory and selected a skill designed to calm one¡¯s mind and unify it, in the hopes that it would translate to her spiritual will. She removed a sheet of paper from her robe alongside a brush and some ink, writing down the technique quickly before giving it to the assassin, ¡°Here. If condensing your spiritual will can prevent you from being controlled, then this should help¡­ at least a little bit. By the way, you haven¡¯t mentioned your name yet.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ have been called Ninth by the Master¡­¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re intending to break free of him, won¡¯t you need a new name?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Ninth lowered her head, also revoking her spiritual will into her body, ¡°Yes¡­ but¡­ I¡­ I haven¡¯t had the time¡­¡±


    Yi Wei wanted to state how understandable that was, especially considering the fact that two of her¡­ friends? Partners? Two of her acquaintances from the Endless Dark Assassins had been killed not too long ago, so if she had been thinking about a name for them or for herself at that time, it wouldn¡¯t have led to much good. Instead, she quickly thought up a name and offered it to her, ¡°How about Fen Zhi? Fen as in strive or exert, and Zhi as in will or ambition? I think it makes sense, given your circumstances.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I¡¯d prefer to¡­ give it more thought, first, but¡­¡± she tried her best to smile, ¡°I can¡­ accept it for now.¡±


    ¡®Well, that is good enough for me,¡¯ Yi Wei smiled back, ¡°Alright then, do you know where to go?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ I can sense the general direction¡­ of the elixir¡­ so we should be able to find it within the day¡­¡± Fen Zhi stated confidently, pointing to the south, ¡°As long as you can travel quickly¡­ it could be done within the hour¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s great. Let¡¯s hurry up before someone accidentally stumbles onto that one, as well.¡±


    ¡°Mhm¡­¡±

 V1C35: The Well of Yin

    ¡°By the way, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask this for a while, but there were a few more important topics to discuss first¡­ Do you have some issue with speaking, or are you simply the quiet type?¡±


    ¡°As an assassin, I¡­ didn¡¯t do much speaking¡­ so it is a little difficult¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh, I understand. Sorry if I¡¯m prying too much into your history.¡±


    They had been walking for some time, and Yi Wei had the opportunity to ask Fen Zhi about a number of topics while they traversed the forest. She learned about the assassin¡¯s training, though she couldn¡¯t get anything out of her regarding her mysterious Master, not even his or her name and gender. As it turns out, her planar anchor was of the fire element, and thus looked like a large scorched pillar, but she was able to cloak it passively via the unique property of her spiritual will. For that reason, Yi Wei couldn¡¯t attempt to duplicate it into her personal cultivation technique, as her understanding of mental cultivation was far lesser than that of planar cultivation.


    Furthermore, careless replication of Fen Zhi¡¯s method could result in her also being susceptible to the control method of her master, which would be¡­ undesirable at best, and equivalent to death at worst, depending on the mood of the Endless Dark Master.


    One thing she was able to borrow from the assassin were her combat techniques, including the black sword light and various methods of evasion used by her. She was a little wary about asking about her combat skills so blatantly, but not only was the woman perfectly happy to give away all of her techniques, but she also insisted that, if she ever encountered any of the upper members of an assassin organisation, then she should use them to get rid of them, albeit without stirring up too much conflict.


    ¡°After all, in wars¡­ between us, it¡¯s¡­ we¡­ that are sent¡­ to fight¡­¡± Fen Zhi explained, sighing, ¡°Still, I want¡­ to get rid of a few of them¡­ at least¡­¡±


    ¡°I get that, don¡¯t worry. If that ever happens, I¡¯ll try to not leave any obvious traces for anyone to identify. Actually, how exactly were you able to break away from the control of the Endless Dark Assassins? If it is some universal method, then I would also like to know about it, just in case I ever get into a similar situation.¡±


    ¡°I had been¡­ recruited when I was young¡­ the binding was placed upon me¡­ I was trained for a long time, taught to¡­ follow the Master¡¯s orders¡­ even without the binding¡­ but I was¡­ sent out more frequently¡­ than others¡­ I think¡­ I saw different people¡­ and different lives¡­ and I wanted to be more like them¡­¡± the assassin said, ¡°Eventually, I just¡­ broke free¡­ I was able to bring Twelfth and Nineteenth with me¡­ making them mistake my energy for the Master¡¯s¡­ There was no opportunity to do so for others¡­ and I had to leave¡­ as quickly as possible¡­¡±


    ¡®In that case, there¡¯s not much for me to learn from, apart from ensuring that I never forget who I am, and who I wish to be,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, causing her to frown, ¡®Now that I think about it, I haven¡¯t considered the second question at all. What should I do after I return to the Yi District? I won¡¯t be at risk of being thrown out ¨C and even if I am, Yi Yaling would be silly enough to let me stay with her ¨C so what should be my goal? To master one of the great arts? To reach for the peak of cultivation?


    ¡®That may sound interesting to some, but I don¡¯t care that much for the prospect of immortality, if it is even attainable. So long as I experience no more drops in my cultivation speed as I did when I broke into the second realm, then I should be able to reach the next realm with plenty of my lifespan remaining, ensuring that I won¡¯t die for the next few hundred, if not thousand years. After all, if the documents compiled from the Master of Yi City¡¯s theories are correct, the typical lifespan of someone in the fifth realm should be 1,800, then 6,400 for the next realm, then 51,200, then 204,800, then over one and a half million once one attains the level of the Master of Yi City. If I ever reach such a height, I can¡¯t imagine what I¡¯d do with all of my time¡­


    ¡®That¡¯s if that is even possible. There is a reason why the strongest figures of recent times are never above the sixth or seventh realm. Still, what sort of goal can I pursue, and what sort of relationship should I attempt to maintain with my family? More importantly, is this really the best time to think about this?¡¯


    Fen Zhi, without knowing her thoughts, answered sufficiently well nonetheless, ¡°Yi Wei¡­ we are getting near¡­ the elixir¡­¡±


    She escaped the depths of her mind and beheld the world around her.


    They had long exited the swampland and were now standing at the edge of a forest, looking down off the edge of a cliff onto a small pool of water beneath them. It was a little more than ten metres beneath them, with no visible bottom. Beside that, there was nothing else to the pit, as if someone had randomly stabbed into the ground with a giant spear and let it fill with rain.


    ¡°Is it in there?¡± Yi Wei asked, tossing in a small pebble. It crashed into the water and produced a small splash that echoed within the pit.


    ¡°I believe so¡­ but I can¡¯t¡­ detect the exact location¡­ I¡¯m afraid¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, this fall isn¡¯t too bad, and the water doesn¡¯t seem to be an illusion, so it should be safe to jump in,¡± she concluded, having also scanned the area with her spiritual will and the power of the Third Eye, ¡°From there, we should see if there is an underwater cave which we can swim into. If not, I should be able to help with breathing down there via water-type techniques, and if we can¡¯t find anything even with all that¡­¡±


    ¡°We¡­ we will,¡± said Fen Zhi, though the lack of confidence was obvious even in her exhausted voice, ¡°I believe that we will find it¡­¡±


    Since Yi Wei didn¡¯t want to give the poor woman any false hope, she simply nodded, and gestured forward before leaping into the water. Fen Zhi followed soon after, with both of them using a technique to significantly slow their fall before landing in the water, resulting in their landings occurring almost simultaneously.


    The first thing Yi Wei noticed was that the water was incredibly cold, almost as if it had been made of absolute ice in fluid form. In just one second, she felt her skin turn to frost, and it was certain that if not for her physique energy, she would have been frozen completely.


    Thankfully, she was unable to slow herself to the same degree as the assassin, mostly due to her lacking planar energy in its blood-like form, so before the other woman could suffer to the same extent, she grabbed her and threw her out of the water and onto the stone wall where she saw a number of places to hold on to.


    Fen Zhi understood her quickly and silently, grasping onto a piece of protruding stone and stepping onto another with the foot that had been within the water for a shorter time.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Yi Wei asked.


    ¡°Cold¡­ but alive¡­ are you?¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m fine. I have a physique resistant to cold and a little heavy in yang, you see, and I also practise an interesting set of techniques,¡± she explained vaguely, lifting one hand out of the water before creating a large beam of warming light that she shone upon the assassin, ¡°This one is called Dawn Flowing Light. Is it helpful?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ I can help myself, though¡­ Preserve yourself instead¡­¡±


    Despite that, Yi Wei persisted in her efforts until she was sure that the woman was safe and well. She lowered her arm back into the freezing liquid and thought about finding a place for herself to rest outside the water before getting a better idea.


    ¡®I have a perfect opportunity to strengthen both my body and my yang energy here, don¡¯t I?¡¯


    She hadn¡¯t wanted to go down the route of masochistic cultivation, but this was certainly a perfect opportunity to significantly increase her prowess in quite a number of aspects. Releasing a strand of planar energy into the liquid, she found it to be suffering in a similar manner to her own body, though just like how she had an incredible quantity of yang energy, her planar energy was guarded by the mysterious characters, the hidden flame, water and earth essences within it, as well as the influence from her physique energy.


    Essentially, that meant that it might have also been possible to temper her body and energy in one go. Had it been possible, she would have done the same with her spiritual will, but it was not affected in the same way, no matter how deep she sent it into the cold liquid. To cultivate every single type of energy within one¡¯s body at the same time would have been too nonsensical and unbelievable.


    ¡®Besides, I¡¯m going to be searching through the water anyway. Might as well take advantage of it,¡¯ Yi Wei justified things to herself, before raising her head to address the assassin, ¡°I¡¯ll go down and search for whatever is down here. Listen out for any potential danger, and, please, don¡¯t come down here unless you are able to keep yourself safe, alright?¡±


    ¡°Mhm¡­¡± Fen Zhi nodded, watching as Yi Wei sank beneath the water.


    Her search was intentionally slow, as she kept a constant layer of planar energy around herself in order to gradually refine it. It was in a constant state of flux as a certain quantity of it would flow out of her body while the energy that had been on the outside the longest was circulated back into her body and through her meridians, warming it back up with yang physique energy before it was its turn to go outside once more.


    If not for the fact that she was helping Fen Zhi to find her Third Eye Elixir, she probably would have just sat down at the very bottom of the pool and cultivated until all of the extreme yin within it was consumed, but doing so while she watched would be far too cruel. Instead, she simply slowed her progress, showing the proper amount of focus on any potential illusory barriers around her.


    However, she suddenly froze ¨C figuratively ¨C and restrained the urge to sigh, ¡®I hadn¡¯t considered the possibility that this isn¡¯t something created by the Kong family, or that it wasn¡¯t protected with illusions, had I?¡¯


    Indeed, all she was relying on was the statement by the assassin that the Third Eye would assist in locating the other flask of the elixir, but that didn¡¯t necessarily mean that every barrier to it would be an illusory one. Even if most were, it wouldn¡¯t be too unreasonable to have the door be something physical, that cannot be circumvented through a strong enough mental skill or by the natural decay of time wearing down the array creating the false barrier.


    ¡®To make it even worse, the method of opening this barrier might not even be down here, but somewhere above, disguised as a random rock or something similar,¡¯ she considered.


    Once that thought crawled into her mind, she knew that she would have to cut her cultivation session short, so she took another few minutes to ensure that every single wisp of her planar energy was refined equally prior to swimming out of the water.


    There, she found Fen Zhi to be resting in the exact same place, having not moved a single inch.


    ¡°Yi Wei¡­ any success?¡±


    ¡°Unless you happen to be aware that the first barrier to entry is an illusion, I¡¯d recommend you to search for any potential buttons or levers hidden up here,¡± she said, looking around herself, ¡°I¡¯ve not been able to find much down there yet, though I think I¡¯ve seen the bottom of the pool, so I should be able to check the rest of the pool the next time I dive in.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can find¡­ Are you sure¡­ you¡¯re alright? Your hair¡­ seems to be freezing¡­¡± the assassin asked, pointing to Yi Wei¡¯s ice-covered head.


    ¡°Hm?¡± she pulled over her ponytail and brushed the layer of frost off it, revealing the familiar crimson colour beneath it, albeit intensified by its wetness and the vibrance granted to it via her planar energy, ¡°No, I think it¡¯s fine. Even if it does freeze completely, I can just cut it off without any problems.¡±


    Fen Zhi shrugged, or seemed to do so, at the very least, and turned her attention to the walls of this strange, round pit, extending her dark spiritual will to seek out any irregularities within the stone walls.


    Seeing that she was getting on just fine on her own, Yi Wei dove back into the yin pool, deciding to sink slowly while continuing with her cultivation. Now that she was doing this for the second time, it was a somewhat calming experience, as she could be sure that she wouldn¡¯t suddenly freeze to death, and was able to dedicate her attention purely to the refining process, with the leftovers being used to search for any further traces of illusions.


    Thus, she casually descended, spinning her body slowly with the aid of planar energy.


    ¡®In the future, I could get a pool like this for myself. If my mental state is ever at risk, I can just float down slowly, spinning round and round¡­ Is this the eccentricity people often refer to when they speak of unusual experts?¡¯ she asked no-one in particular, keeping herself breathing with the aid of a simple water-type technique, ¡®It would be funny if I was doing this and a bunch of kids at the first realm came by and assumed that this was some sort of secret method to becoming powerful, starting a trend of lazily spinning while you descend into a deep pool in a cross-legged position¡­¡¯


    The corners of her lips rose as she imagined that scenario playing out. By the standards of cultivators, it was an incredibly simple fantasy, without elements of district domination or any other such nonsense, but she somehow found it to be just as appealing, if not more so.


    ¡®Might that be my goal? To live life calmly, occasionally doing a few mischievous acts to amuse myself? It doesn¡¯t seem sufficient to motivate someone to reach the top, but-¡¯


    Her thought was interrupted by the sound of stone rubbing against stone, as well as faint movement in her peripheral vision. Through the still wall of water in her way, she saw a large slab of stone move out of the wall, progressing for a few seconds before it stopped and simply popped out, dropping into the depths of the pool.


    Despite all logic, however, there was no rush of water into the gap left by the stone. It was as if it hadn¡¯t moved at all, still sitting in the wall like it had been before they found it.


    She swam over to the hole in the wall and found that there was a thin barrier in place of the stone.


    ¡®What an interesting barrier. Can I still walk through?¡¯ she asked herself, placing her hand on the barrier. She wasn¡¯t sure what to expect from it, whether in terms of strength or texture, but it turned out that it had neither, as her hand simply passed right through it, appearing on the other side completely dry. To be sure that this wasn¡¯t limited to her hand, she moved through the barrier in her entirety, ending up in a small, dark stone corridor without a trace of water or frost on her body.


    Out of a random bout of curiosity, she inspected her skin and hair once more, and found that the former was unchanged, still slightly darker than the average, but that the latter had gained a certain degree of vibrance that it had previously lacked, even with the effects of Chu Ling¡¯s medicinal items and the reconstructive effects of her planar energy.


    The change was subtle, especially when viewed using the blood-red light of her planar energy, but it was still an interesting one.


    ¡®If only I had some sort of spatial storage, I could have absorbed a bit of this water and used it in the future¡­ Now, I have no choice but to leave it...¡¯ she thought to herself when a silly idea popped into her head. It wouldn¡¯t solve the problem, but it would allow her to perform one more round of refinement internally, as long as she wasn¡¯t opposed to drinking some of that yin water and allowing it to pulse through her veins.


    ¡®That¡¯s stupid, and I don¡¯t want to be dealing with whatever this might do to my digestive system,¡¯ Yi Wei forced that idea out of her head, dug out a small hole in the ground, and buried it there, before hopping back into the water.


    Once she reached the surface, she found Fen Zhi waiting for her, one hand placed over a particular rock on the side of the pool.


    ¡°I found¡­ something¡­ did it do anything?¡±


    ¡°A stone slab near the bottom fell away and revealed some sort of passage, though I don¡¯t know where it leads¡­¡± Yi Wei paused as she understood a minor complication in their plan, ¡°How are you going to get down there?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Ehm¡­¡± the assassin paused for a moment, ¡°I should be able¡­ to protect myself¡­ for three seconds, maybe four¡­ I¡¯d need more than that¡­ to dive down, though¡­¡±


    ¡°Four seconds? I could try throwing you down while parting the water with some technique.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­¡±


    ¡°Actually, I have a slightly better idea ¨C or, rather, an improved version of the same idea. Do you have any large flat objects, preferably made with metal?¡±


    ¡°I might do¡­ but how large¡­ should it be? If¡­ it needs to be larger than¡­ my head¡­ then I don¡¯t¡­¡±


    ¡°No, so long as the object, whatever it is, is equivalent in size to two standard talisman papers placed next to one another in length and width, and is thick enough to be cut into without piercing the material completely, then there shouldn¡¯t be any issues,¡± Yi Wei clarified, realising that she had mistakenly used the standards of an inscription master when describing the size of her desired item. Although most famous inscriptions tended to be larger than a person, carved into enormous artefacts and items for all sorts of purposes, the primary focus of inscription was actually on smaller things, like the hammer used by Ning Guanting. Thus, when an inscription master speaks of engravings, a small engraving is no bigger than a coin, a medium inscription is thrice the size, and a large engraving is larger still. Anything beyond it is considered a great engraving, or perhaps a giant engraving.


    ¡°Then¡­ could you use some bark?¡±


    The idea seemed sound, so she nodded and climbed out of the pit, leaping a couple metres with each jump until she reached the top and found an appropriate tree. She severed a clean slice of bark using the Dawn Slicing Beam, and then got to work.


    A few minutes later, she returned into the pit, with a flat piece of bark that was attached to several thin pieces of rope-like plants, which she placed onto the assassin¡¯s back.


    ¡°This is?¡±


    ¡°A makeshift water repellent and heat condenser, both at the two-star level, with the inclusion of a basic planar energy accumulation method¡­ basically, this thing should prevent anything from happening to you on the way down, and if it doesn¡¯t then explode into dust after one use, it might even assist you on the way up,¡± Yi Wei explained, binding the bark on her back with the makeshift ropes, ¡°It¡¯ll activate the moment you enter the water, and you will still need to use that method you mentioned earlier, but it should last twice or thrice as long.¡±


    ¡°Understood¡­ Are you still going to¡­ throw me in?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. At my fastest possible speed, at least, it would take me five times the time you have in order to reach the underwater passage, so unless you have a good swimming technique, then this will be necessary.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately¡­ the place where I lived¡­ have few opportunities to swim¡­ I know the basics¡­ but I¡¯m¡­ not too good,¡± Fen Zhi said, glancing longingly into the air, ¡°I¡¯m ready¡­¡±


    Yi Wei nodded, and after calculating the best trajectory to throw her on, she found her footing on the protruding stones beneath her and grabbed the assassin, holding her as easily as a child could hold a doll. Then, she forced a great quantity of yang physique energy into her arms and, as she threw Fen Zhi into the water, she simultaneously launched that energy beside her, causing the entire pool to boil.


    It wasn¡¯t that she didn¡¯t have any confidence in her inscription, or the other woman¡¯s methods, but she had two reasons for her actions. The first was simply a desire to minimise risks by warming up the yin pool, ensuring that no malfunction within the inscribed plate would injure the assassin. The other was a little more selfish: she was curious to see if this water would happen to be a form of Yin Yang Spring Dew, a form of fluid that is capable of absorbing the extremes of either yin or yang without transforming into either solid or gas like most regular liquids would. If that was the case, then she would have an excellent opportunity to temper her body in the opposite manner, perhaps even rousing what little yin energy was present within her physique.


    However, life didn¡¯t always go as planned. After a second of the yang energy being in contact with the freezing water, she saw the top layer of liquid slowly turn to steam and float away, still maintaining a rather cool temperature.


    Whatever this liquid was, it wasn¡¯t Yin Yang Spring Dew.


    ¡®Oh well, I can¡¯t always get lucky,¡¯ she quickly shrugged the matter off and dove in after Fen Zhi, ¡®Besides, I don¡¯t know whether my body is even capable of releasing its yin energy, so if I had leapt in carelessly, I might have just been ensuring my death, or perhaps burning myself quite badly, unless my own yang wasn¡¯t able to injure me.¡¯


    She swam quickly this time, so she made it through the curious barrier within the minute, finding the assassin woman shivering slightly but frequently.


    ¡°I-It¡¯s dark¡­ in here¡­¡± Fen Zhi said, looking towards the other side of the passage, which was covered completely by such thick darkness that it was impossible to tell where it led, ¡°Could you light¡­ things up somehow?¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a fire cultivator?¡±


    In response, she simply raised her hand and released a wisp of deep, dull and dark flame.


    ¡°Point taken. I¡¯ll make a small light array,¡± Yi Wei said, grabbing a spare piece of bark off her back and began to work, ¡°By the way, did you not receive any training to see in the dark?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not so easy¡­ without a special skill or physique¡­¡± explained Fen Zhi, tapping on the side of her head, ¡°My eyes aren¡¯t¡­ too appropriate for the skills¡­ of the Endless Dark¡­ I can give them to you as well¡­ if you want¡­¡±


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll take them. Give me a second to finish this first.¡±


    To create an array that could generate light, one didn¡¯t need any special materials, nor any particular secret knowledge within the great art of formation arrangement.


    In fact, to create some form of a Light Array, or perhaps a Glowing Array, was a common exercise for those just starting out in the field of arrays to practise, right after they complete their first few Planar Gathering arrays. In terms of structure, it was not complicated in the slightest. All it had were a few nodes to gather energy, a few to transform it into particles of light, then another few to release it. They were so easy to create that they would be used in place of torches during any expedition into ruins or underground environments and could be purchased for just a few silver coins.


    ¡°Done. Now, let me just bind this to my front¡­¡± she said, leaving the latter part unsaid, ¡®My chest is mostly flat anyway, so it won¡¯t be uncomfortable.¡¯


    In order to activate it, all she had to do was tap the side of the bark while also sending a certain quantity of spiritual will into the array, circulating it through the appropriate nodes to activate the structure.


    A small spark of light, like a weak cinder in the midst of a dying pile of kindling, appeared in front of the array plate, blooming gradually into a flower of flame and then into a bright torchlight.


    When compared to the glorious illumination provided by a technique at its peak, it was dim indeed, but in this darkness, it was more than sufficient to enlighten then as to the nature of the corridor, what was at the end of it, as well as what their surroundings looked like, even if they were coloured by the orange shade of the light.


    Contrary to the initial impression Yi Wei had of the passageway, it wasn¡¯t simply cut from rough stone, or perhaps created naturally. Instead, it was put together from a great number of tiles, cut intentionally to appear like the surface of unprocessed stone, albeit with sharper and more geometrical angles than one would naturally expect. With the light shining upon them, the gaps between each square tile were obvious, as was the fact that they were not made of the same stone as the pit, meaning that someone had intentionally or unintentionally used a different material to create this corridor. Upon even further inspection, she deduced ¨C via the secret art of randomly hitting it ¨C that this stone was much stronger than ordinary rock, though she couldn¡¯t quite identify it from strength and endurance alone.


    What she was able to observe was that the stone slab tiles were not arranged perfectly, with some having larger gaps than others, resulting in a strangely irregular surface that persisted all the way until the other end of the passageway, where an even more curious discovery was made.


    Amongst the countless stone tiles, approximately at eye level, there was a single tile that was completely flat. Upon first glance, it appeared to be made from some sort of dark glass, or perhaps a crystal, and there seemed to be something within, though any attempts at a closer examination caused the bright light from her Glowing Array to ruin all visibility with a reflection of herself.


    ¡°Do you have any idea what this is?¡±


    Fen Zhi shook her head, ¡°No¡­ but since there¡¯s no door¡­ maybe this opens it? Maybe we should¡­ try touching it¡­¡±


    There was a certain risk of triggering a trap, or failing whatever challenge this was supposed to be, but just like she said, the passageway ended in the same stone tiles as the rest of the corridor, with no visible exit. Out of all the potential methods for progressing, the glass tile seemed most obvious.

 V1C36: Curious Chambers

    To prevent both of them from falling into some trap at the same time, Fen Zhi stepped away to the other side of the passageway before Yi Wei came into contact with the glass.


    She shielded her body in blood-like planar energy, applying every defensive technique she had in her arsenal. For whatever reason, she felt a certain degree of danger from that sheet of glass, and thus she prepared to tear her hand away the moment something occurred. With every defensive measure applied twice, she reached out with a single finger, and touched it¡­


    ¡­ Nothing happened.


    Nonetheless, she revoked her hand immediately, and instead scanned it with her spiritual will. Something within blocked it from going too far, but she was able to see the very surface. Besides a large quantity of mysterious things within, there was a familiar set of array nodes inside of it.


    ¡®So, it might also react to the planar energy of the Kong Mental Arts. Might as well attempt it,¡¯ Yi Wei shrugged, engaging her mental arts before placing her finger back on the glass.


    The violet energy floated through her arm and out of her body, into the pane of glass, where it sank deep into the surface and continued on, moving away. For some time, there was no reaction, until the dark crystal lit up with a sharp blue light. It occupied a perfect rectangle and the majority of the glass, but it had no clear purpose to it at all.


    For a few seconds, that was all that she saw, until the image finally changed. Two smaller rectangles appeared in the middle of the blue, with a word on either one.


    ¡®Open, and Exit? I suppose I want to open the door, so¡­¡¯ she hesitantly touched the upper rectangle.


    Upon that interaction, both of the shapes vanished, and a door appeared within the stone to her left, opening up slowly with the loud creak of old metal. While it opened, a small, slightly incomplete circle spun in the middle of the blue light, and when it was finished, both it and the light dimmed to nothingness.


    ¡°Well, that worked,¡± Yi Wei muttered as she waved Fen Zhi over.


    Contrary to her expectation, the moment the assassin got closer, she looked at her questioningly, ¡°How¡­ did you manage that?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean? I just tapped that thing ¨C a button of sorts, I guess ¨C and it opened.¡±


    ¡°Button? I only saw¡­ a number of lines¡­ of words¡­ maybe numbers¡­ I was too far away to see¡­¡± she explained, ¡°I¡¯ve never seen anything like this¡­ in my usual places of deployment¡­ Is this common near the¡­ Yi District?¡±


    ¡°Nope. Never seen anything like this. If I activate this again, could you tell me what you see? I¡¯d like to figure out what the cause of this discrepancy in our views is.¡±


    Fen Zhi nodded, so Yi Wei sank another wisp of violet energy into the glass pane, causing the blue light to return. This time, the two buttons said ¡®Close¡¯ and ¡®Exit¡¯, with those characters written on a bright white background. Other than that, there were no differences.


    ¡°To me¡­ it looks like a few dozen lines¡­ of symbols¡­ though I don¡¯t think¡­ they¡¯re of the common language¡­¡± the assassin said, pointing to the supposed ends of each line on the glass, where Yi Wei saw only blue, ¡°I think¡­ there¡¯s some sort¡­ of pattern to it¡­ but I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t¡­ understand it at all¡­ and it¡¯ll take a little too long to copy¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, don¡¯t worry,¡± Yi Wei said, moving her hand away from the glass.


    After a minute of glowing idly, the light dimmed and went away, disappearing without any hints of being there before.


    However, that time allowed for Yi Wei to spread her spiritual will throughout her body, and to observe the exact cause for the difference in their understandings of the blue light. As it turned out, the only thing that was different within her body when she viewed the glass¡­ were the mysterious characters. Just like the time she became rather exasperated about her family, they were strangely active, shaking and jittering in place whenever she looked upon the blue surface.


    ¡®Now, I naturally have to wonder whether this is just some natural function of the characters, which would allow me to comprehend whatever those symbols mean, or if this is something specific incorporated into either the glass or the mysterious characters,¡¯ she pondered, resisting the urge to pull off the glass and examine whatever is behind it, ¡®The first would simply mean that they store not just cultivation techniques, but also certain languages, codes or something else. The second would suggest that there is some connection between the characters and this cave, and potentially to the Kong family. However, with these characters holding such an immense power, being capable of absorbing planar energy and sustaining cosmic energy, I can¡¯t imagine how the Kong District would have been reduced to such a state.


    ¡®Actually¡­ Where did these things come from?¡¯ her attention remained on the characters, watching them as their many pieces hovered in the middle of her dantian without any clear purpose to their minute movements, ¡®I¡¯ve had them ever since I¡¯ve been able to see into my own body with my spiritual will, and yet no-one else has been able to notice them, even when they have detected my perfected stages. They seem to change as I cultivate, growing from simple text to shards of a strange stone. They contain information, varying from cultivation techniques to what appear to be vague memories and emotions¡­ What are they?¡¯


    She had been able to find a convenient name for her specific planar energy after staring a little too long into the constantly changing nebulae within it, but the characters evaded this fate. For one, she couldn¡¯t even be certain what they truly looked like, nor whether the uses she had found so far were meant to be the primary ones, or if she had been using a sword as a hammer this entire time.


    ¡°Yi Wei¡­ should we get going?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Oh, right, sorry. I got a little distracted,¡± Yi Wei awkwardly laughed, sealing those thoughts via the Kong Mental Arts so that she would be able to return to them when the time was right.


    As far as she could tell, that wasn¡¯t the original intention behind that technique, but more of an accidental feature. It assisted with memory in general and allowed for the compartmentalisation of certain memories in such a way that they wouldn¡¯t affect one¡¯s psyche and would remain purely as information. However, if those memories were then converted back into memories, all of the emotions and thoughts associated with them would rush back, as if that memory had happened just a moment ago.


    She had simply been experimenting while sitting around in the woods, to see the full extent of the Kong Mental Arts¡¯ abilities, when she had stumbled upon this possibility. Unfortunately, the more time had passed since the occurrence of that memory, the less effect it would have. Thus, she couldn¡¯t recover passing thoughts from when she was eight, nor was this as effective on the memories of the Thunder Lord (or else she would have made herself feel even more awkward around women than she could already be), but so long as she sealed the memory early on, it would not be affected by the erosion of time ¨C or, at the very least, that erosion would be significantly slowed.


    ¡°Alright, follow me. Be prepared for anything and tell me if there are any more of those symbols,¡± she stated, striding into the open door, projecting a protective barrier in front of herself to prevent any traps from damaging her.


    Without realising it was there, she crossed another thin barrier between rooms, but this time she was not met with water, nor with darkness, but instead with bright, unpleasant, overly white light. Unlike the small pit and the dark corridor, this room was large, in terms of all three dimensions, easily exceeding the size of several combat arenas put together. Much like an arena, however, it was mostly empty, exposing a flat, white metal floor and similar walls and ceiling, with the only notable object being the item in the middle.


    That one object, however, was as interesting as a thousand different artefacts.


    It was a large glass tube, going up from the floor up to the ceiling, with countless tubes made of some sort of dark material stretching out from a circle at the top to various slots at the bottom.


    In the middle, a small flask floated like a piece of ice would float in water.


    ¡°Is¡­ is that an illusion?¡± Fen Zhi questioned, not moving a step closer or further away from the central glass tube, her intense desire for the item within combatting the fear of being tricked or losing her opportunity to set her hands upon the Third Eye Elixir once again.


    Yi Wei examined it closely, applying every single mental and anti-illusory technique she had to her sight and spiritual will before slowly shaking her head, ¡°Doesn¡¯t look like it. At least, I can¡¯t see through it, so even if it an illusion, it isn¡¯t one that a cultivator of my level would be able to see through. Not even the Third Eye helps.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I see¡­ Then, maybe that information¡­ was incorrect?¡±


    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t make any assumptions like that, or else your hopes will probably be shattered way too many times. For one, I don¡¯t know whether that flask has the elixir inside it, or if it¡¯s just water.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­¡± the assassin hung her head in her own, suppressed manner, ¡°Let¡¯s continue.¡±


    She nodded, and progressed further, walking as closely to the glass as she was able to before the vast quantity of dark tubes obstructed her. That proximity allowed her to notice that the visual of the flask was a little strange, so she instead stepped to the side rather than trying to advance.


    ¡°So that¡¯s how it is¡­¡± Yi Wei sighed, turning to Fen Zhi, ¡°I might be able to see through illusions, but if something is real, none of my abilities work.¡±


    ¡°What¡­¡± the assassin followed her lead and walked around the glass, quickly realising the same thing.


    The glass flask was not an illusion, but instead some sort of projection onto the glass, cast by something at the top of the glass. When viewed from the front, it seemed to be as real as anything, but the moment they observed from the side, it was clear that it might as well have been a moving painting on the glass surface.


    ¡°Oh¡­ Thank you¡­ for the warning¡­¡± Fen Zhi sighed, staring at the glass longingly for a while, ¡°What do you think¡­ this might be for?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t have a single clue. Might be intended to trick an explorer, or maybe it¡¯s simply here to show that the Third Eye Elixir is somewhere deeper within. Frankly, this entire style and aesthetic is completely unfamiliar to me, and I have never read of anything like this in all of my years of reading and study,¡± Yi Wei replied, ¡°I can¡¯t even understand whether any of these tubes have some function, or if someone just put them here for fun.¡±


    ¡°For fun¡­ would be¡­ worrying¡­ What other things¡­ could be here for fun?¡±


    She didn¡¯t have a suitable response for that, so she looked around for any other clues. Three of the walls of the room, those being the one behind her, as well as those to their left and right, were mostly featureless, with the natural exception of the door they entered through.


    The last wall, the one behind the glass tube, was the only one with anything notable. It had no just one, but two rectangular outlines cut into its surface, an equal distance from one another and from the corners of the room. Their shapes matched the door that they had used for entry, and thus they quickly concluded that they had to be obscuring the passage forward.


    Although the number of doors was somewhat worrying, as they might force them to split up and thus miss key details that the two of them together would never miss, what took precedence was finding a method to open them. After all, with how peculiar this area is, it wouldn¡¯t be too surprising if one door was intended for entry, while the other was for exiting, or if one was simply four lines cut out in a wall while the other was the real way into the next area.


    ¡°Do you see any floating lines of that unknown language, or perhaps another black sheet of glass randomly placed in a floor or wall?¡±


    ¡°No¡­ In contrast with the corridor, this¡­ light above us¡­ is far too bright¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a bit like someone had pulled the sun down, a little too close to the ground, then removed any of the pleasant orange colour from it,¡± Yi Wei agreed, contemplating throwing something at it to try and return to the pleasant soft light of her Glowing Array, ¡°If this is intentional, then I don¡¯t have a clue of what to think about whoever created this place.¡±


    ¡°Mhm¡­ Do you want me to break it?¡±


    ¡°Well, if I said that I didn¡¯t want you to, I¡¯d be lying, but I also don¡¯t know what purpose that light serves. What if-¡±


    Before she could say anything else, she witnessed a small knife flying out of Fen Zhi¡¯s hand, right into the glowing spot at the ceiling. It flew at an impressive speed, surrounded by a dark sword light, and struck the bright point of light.


    For a second, it glowed even more brightly than before, then exploded.


    The entire room was plunged into darkness, the only respite being the Glowing Array bound to Yi Wei¡¯s front.


    ¡°Uh¡­ Sure. That works. If there is a spirit watching over this, and that spirit liked that overly bright light, then it was not my fault,¡± said Yi Wei, raising her hands into the air as to demonstrate her peaceful intent, though she lowered them quickly once she was not met with any response, ¡°Alright, we don¡¯t seem to be dead yet¡­ Can you not give me more warning in the future?¡±


    ¡°I will try¡­ But it seemed like the only¡­ way to progress¡­¡± the assassin woman replied, walking over to the spot beneath the light source to retrieve her dagger. It lay in the middle of a large pile of glass shards, all of which were surprisingly blunt.


    Yi Wei raised one eyebrow, then turned slightly and pointed to the middle of the room, ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that was also an option. It would also make much more sense, considering the fact that it contains some weird projection of the object we are looking for, instead of a random light source that might have gotten a little too bright since it was first created¡­ with glass¡­ was it some sort of lantern? It could have been amplified by an array¡­¡±


    Her thoughts drifted off, but just like the last time she allowed herself to think for too long on something insignificant, something unexpected interrupted her.


    A sound, deep and grating, burst out of nowhere. It was loud, repeating over and over, but it was somewhat difficult to describe, the exact origin of such a noise being completely unclear. Perhaps the best descriptor of this sound would be one of alarm, a sort of warning about something or someone, like what might be used within a town or camp to alert its inhabitants to a threat.


    They covered their ears, for this noise was utterly unbearable and deafening, though they were still able to hear a hint of grating stone beneath the alarming noise. Glancing in that direction, they observed both doorways opening slowly.


    ¡°WELL, AT LEAST THAT GUESS WAS CORRECT!¡± Yi Wei shouted over the top of the sound.


    ¡°SHOULD WE¡­ SPLIT UP?¡±


    ¡°SO FAR, THERE HAS BEEN NO BENEFIT FROM THE THIRD EYE, SO IT MIGHT BE FINE!¡± she suggested, pointing to the right door, ¡°I¡¯LL GO THERE! SHOUT IF THERE¡¯S SOMETHING ILLUSORY!¡±


    ¡°I DON¡¯T THINK¡­ YOU¡¯LL HEAR ME¡­ BUT ALRIGHT¡­¡±


    Upon making that decision, they separated and entered their respective passages, passing through another set of odd membranes that cancelled out all of the sound, including that dreaded noise. In front of her, Yi Wei saw a second corridor, made of the same stone panels as the first one. Thankfully, it was also as dark, and thus it didn¡¯t feel like someone was burning her eyes out.


    ¡®On the positive side of things, my eyes have grown a little stronger as a result, meaning that it will be easier for me to practise any eye-related techniques in the future, whether they are simply for vision or if they have an offensive purpose,¡¯ she said to herself, healing the remaining damage with cosmic energy.


    In general, eye techniques and skills were not the most common in the Planar Continents, and even then, combat techniques involving them were typically limited to rapid inspection or deduction in battle. Shooting beams of light or energy from the eyes was uncommon, and foolish, as eyes were the most vulnerable point on the body of a human. Furthermore, they had few meridians in their proximity, allowing for little variation and limited usefulness in battle, while using a similar technique with one¡¯s arms or legs would naturally allow for far more specialisation in the skill of choice.


    ¡®No, I¡¯m getting distracted again. If I do this again, maybe a second noise of alarm will appear here.¡¯


    Rushed by the thought, she advanced through the corridor quickly, keeping an eye out for any illusions in her way.


    Much to her surprise, she went through the entire passageway without noticing a single false sight, not even those that were generated the same way as the floating flask within the glass tube in the previous room. When she reached the end, and crossed through another imperceptible barrier, there were still no illusions in sight.


    What she did see, however, was a human skeleton, seated on a simple chair, with bones made of gold and a different flask within its hand. It was filled with a golden liquid, though its consistency did not match anything Yi Wei was familiar with.


    Other than this, the room was empty.


    ¡®Another elixir? Does it strengthen the bones, or is it a mere coincidence that it is being held by a golden skeleton?¡¯ she wondered, ¡®No, gold in itself is ineffective, unless it is immortal gold, in which case this is an insanely valuable treasure and if anyone discovers that I or someone else has consumed it, then they will immediately demand that I cut off one of my limbs so that they could live the rest of their lives in peace, without any need to work, unless they want to advance in their cultivation and desire some particular artefact or medicinal pill.¡¯


    She approached the skeleton and inspected it, searching for any sign of a trap, whether it be in the form of an inscription, array or even something mechanical. Yet again, she found nothing.


    ¡®Is this some tradition? Do elixirs have to be put out in plain sight, without anything preventing them from being taken by whoever wants them, or was this place and the Lock Obelisk array made by the same person?¡¯ Yi Wei questioned yet again, nervously reaching for the flask.


    The moment she touched it, the hand of the golden skeleton fell apart, the individual finger bones dropping to the floor without any hint of grace. Following after it, the rest of the bones began to fall, collapsing onto the floor into a golden pile of bones, with the skull falling onto the very top, its empty sockets looking right at the flask in her hand.


    She crouched down and tapped on the skull with a little bit of her strength. It caved in immediately, causing her to breathe a sigh of relief and disappointment at the same time.


    ¡®Well, that is the best outcome, I suppose. If this was immortal gold, and if this elixir ¨C if that even is what it is ¨C is capable of transforming my bones into it, then, as I had previously considered, I¡¯d be doomed. If this had been immortal gold, but this elixir wasn¡¯t related to it, then I would need to find a place to sell this as soon as possible, get a lot of planar shards, absorb them, advance in my cultivation and then keep making more via the great arts. Now, the only three possibilities are that the elixir will still make my bones into immortal gold, perhaps as some final work of this golden skeleton, that it will turn my bones into actual gold, without any good reason for this, or that this elixir has some other effect, and that I won¡¯t have any idea what I¡¯m getting into¡­ again. Can it go any worse than randomly growing a third spiritual eye? Probably¡­¡¯


    However, she had remembered something since realising that she had consumed the Third Eye Elixir, and that was a small fact mentioned within a book called ¡®An Introduction to Elixirs, or: Heaven Defying Tome of Omniscient Knowledge of Elixirs¡¯, and that was that they rarely had negative effects due to the specific nature of elixirs, as well as the way they were made. Regardless of their exact effects, few would be strictly negative to the human body or mind, and even if they were not completed perfectly, they would lack effects more frequently than gaining negative ones.


    Thus, although consuming random liquids out of ancient flasks was certainly not a wise idea by common standards, it was not as dangerous as consuming random pills, as those would be far more likely to have some sort of negative effect.


    Once, there was even a story of an expert storing their will inside of a pill, which they then left behind under the guise of an unparalleled inheritance for whoever found it. An unfortunate person consumed it, believing themselves to be about to become a great expert. Naturally, they did not expect themselves to become an expert far more literally than they had imagined.


    Unlike the stories of the Lady of Ashes, this had far less validity to it ¨C presumably, even if that expert was real, they wanted to erase any mention of themselves, for such practises were considered taboo in the cultivation world. After all, most experts, regardless of their realm, possess a strong body, whether through body cultivation or planar reinforcement, and a great deal of offensive capability, but any attack on the mind, especially one as direct as a will entering the body without having to deal with any external barriers, could still be fatal unless it is noticed in time. Naturally, the majority of cultivators didn¡¯t want such a fate to befall them, so they quickly decided to oppose it.


    ¡®Anyway, I don¡¯t have any means for comprehending the effects of this, so I might as well drink it,¡¯ Yi Wei though, sniffing the fluid within the flask, discovering it to have a similar scent to the other elixir.


    To be safe, she circulated her planar energy throughout her body, engaging even the one hundred and eight suns within her meridians, which had almost stabilised themselves within her body, contrary to her initial expectations for the Dawn Star Body, then downed the golden fluid in a single go. It went down her throat, passing through the body until it spread out throughout her entire being, flooding primarily to her bones.


    For a moment, it did nothing of note, but then it seemed to activate, accelerating significantly as it rushed into her bones. It seemed to simultaneously burn and melt them, wiping away the numerous impurities within them that still remained.


    It passed into the bones quickly, and when the bone tissue within her body settled down, she found it to have a slight golden sheen to it, though nothing as extreme as the golden pile of bones by her feet.


    When the process seemed to stop, she attempted to comprehend the effects that this elixir had. After a little stretching, some light punching at the air, a few quick sprints from one end of the room to one another and was eventually able to compile every change that it had brought her. They could be succinctly summarised as: nothing at all.


    ¡®In all fairness, had my strength increased from this, I would be more confused,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, sending some of her cosmic energy into her bones.


    The reconstruction process occurred slowly, but she estimated that it would take the entire day for it to complete once. Apart from indicating that she should strengthen her energy soon, it also meant that her bones had been reinforced significantly.


    ¡®Essentially, this elixir appears to not be one focused on utility or strength, but instead the fundamental foundation of a human being. If my bones were to fail, then the rest of the body would collapse as well, so, I guess that this was of great benefit to my future. The biggest question is whether that is the final extent of the elixir¡¯s effects, of if it has a similar enhancing element to the Third Eye Elixir, in which case it would be wise to make use of it as early as possible,¡¯ she concluded, sending her spiritual will into the depths of her arm bone.


    However, it was suddenly stopped on the surface, preventing her from looking any further into them.


    ¡®What? How is this possible? The entire body is meant to be visible to one¡¯s own spiritual will¡­ the only exception are the bones of the dantian, but¡­ Is there even a use for this? Most people don¡¯t search their opponents for hidden bone damage, and this doesn¡¯t obstruct me from seeing the inside of my ribcage,¡¯ Yi Wei frowned, ¡®Alright then, fair enough. Maybe there will be a reason for this and perhaps I could develop a complete resistance to the intrusion of spiritual will.¡¯


    Since there were no further changes within a short time period, she considered what to do with the golden bones before deciding that it would be impractical to carry them with her, especially considering how cheap simple gold would be.


    There was another open passage at the back of the room, so she crossed it and found herself within a chamber similar in appearance to the previous one, with the same glass tube in the middle, and the same floating vial within it. Only the light source that illuminated it differed, and it did so for the better, no longer hurting her eyes to the same extent.


    She glanced to the left and found Fen Zhi¡¯s figure standing in front of an identical passageway.


    ¡°Wait, you¡¯re already made it through as well?¡± she asked, prompting the assassin to nod before she came closer to her.


    ¡°Yes¡­ I found this¡­¡± Fen Zhi showed her a golden flask, identical to the one that she had drunk minutes earlier, ¡°It was in¡­ the hands of¡­ a golden skeleton¡­ It isn¡¯t the Third Eye Elixir¡­ but I wasn¡¯t sure what it was¡­ so I didn¡¯t drink it¡­¡±


    ¡°I have. I don¡¯t know its actual name, so I¡¯ve temporarily named it the Golden Bones Elixir. It makes your bones tougher, so you should drink it.¡±


    ¡°Alright¡­ In a minute¡­ First, are we¡­ in the same room as before? Is that flask¡­ also fake?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s check.¡±

 V1C37: Dust in the Endless Dark

    They walked around the glass tube and saw no source of light to be creating the same illusion as before, nor did they notice any trace of that same method. By all possible metrics, that flask and the liquid within were real, though what they really were was more difficult to determine. Since the Third Eye Elixir is identical to water in appearance, and it was impossible to smell the fluid through two layers of glass, they had to work under the assumption that it was what they were looking for.


    ¡°So, should we attempt to break the glass case this time, or are you going to attempt to get rid of the light again?¡± Yi Wei asked, looking behind the network of strange tubes to inspect the back wall, finding no sign of doorways there.


    ¡°I¡¯ll try the first option... I don¡¯t want to hear that noise¡­ again¡­¡±


    Fen Zhi stepped forward to the glass surface, drawing her greatsword quickly and with experienced movements. Dark energy flowed to her blade as she prepared her strike.


    Then, with one grand movement, she sliced through the glass, the mysterious tubes around it, and shattered everything around it. Sword light flew out of it, striking the wall at the back and scattering into a burst of darkness, leaving behind a small yet obvious mark.


    After a moment of uncertainty, the vial slowly hovered down until it stabilised an inch above the ground.


    ¡°Well, at least that behaviour is consistent with the previous Third Eye Elixir,¡± Yi Wei remarked, keeping her hands by her sides, ¡°You can take it. I won¡¯t be able to figure out whether it¡¯s real or not anyway, and I have no reason to consume a second flask of the same elixir. By the way, was that another reason why you chose me to help you?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ Though I had thought¡­ there would be more illusions¡­ than none at all¡­¡±


    She bent down and carefully picked up the elixir flask, swirling around the liquid within for a few moments while her eyes were shut.


    Eventually, she nodded as she opened her eyes, ¡°This is it¡­ I can sense the energy¡­ of the Third Eye Elixir¡­ within¡­¡±


    ¡°Then drink it already, alongside the Golden Bones Elixir, or else someone might come and-¡±


    Out of nowhere, the ground beneath them rumbled, as if a giant had stepped onto the land above them. The sound and strength of the shaking earth were both faint, but that was enough for both of them to lose their relaxed stances.


    ¡°Hurry up. We might have a problem.¡±


    ¡°Mhm¡­¡±


    The assassin opened up both flasks and downed their contents, one after another, swallowing their contents before sitting down on the metal floor with her legs crossed.


    Without asking for permission, Yi Wei took out a number of tools and began to draw, carve and place various nodes and channels around her, creating all sorts of arrays and inscriptions within a single minute. A Planar Gathering array, a Mental Stabilisation array, a reversed, simplified and weakened Potential Draining and Dantian Clogging arrays, and many more were placed onto the ground, with their centre and focus being the assassin.


    ¡°Fen Zhi, this will probably hurt, so I advise you to begin cultivation immediately,¡± she said, and injected an enormous quantity of her cosmic energy in liquid form into the arrays.


    ¡°Now?¡±


    ¡°Right now. You won¡¯t have a better opportunity than this, and, from experience, cultivation and breakthrough can dull the pain from a number of things, and might even allow for a different method of integration of the elixirs¡­ Maybe.¡±


    ¡°Understood¡­¡± the assassin muttered and initiated her cultivation technique.


    Great quantities of planar energy surged to her body, but to Yi Wei¡¯s surprise, the flow of energy was far inferior to what she was personally capable of.


    ¡®How interesting. The Mysterious Character technique is powerful, I was aware of that already, but I¡¯ve never had the opportunity to compare myself with someone of a greater realm,¡¯ Yi Wei noted, altering one small node on the Planar Gathering array, ¡®If she is to achieve any sort of development in this amount of time, I will need to increase the amount of energy I¡¯m providing her with. Hopefully, the trembling ground isn¡¯t anything to do with us, but¡­¡¯


    She felt another minor quake, and this time, it was clearly closer than before.


    ¡®¡­ but I¡¯m not going to have that kind of luck, am I?¡¯ she thought, recalling the sorts of things she had encountered when she last tried cultivating in the area, ¡®This will be a good opportunity to see how I would have fared with my typical cultivation methods in an ordinary body. Maybe my reversed version of the four arrays beneath my home will help her out with her doubled spiritual will situation.¡¯


    The moment her arrays and inscriptions activated, the stream of energy that Fen Zhi was creating no longer seemed so grand, for the rate at which it flowed increased tenfold. Planar energy that had previously lacked sufficient density to be visible to the naked eye became a thin violet mist within the air, and then, deep within this mist, droplets of purple condensed. Pure planar energy, pulled together to such an extent that it appeared in liquid form outside of the dantian, where planar energy can exist in a stable form without risk of dispersal, rushed towards the assassin¡¯s abdomen, and the moment it entered, it elicited a gasp of surprise from her mouth.


    ¡°What¡­ did you..?¡±


    ¡°Shh. Focus.¡±


    ¡°Why- AH!¡± Fen Zhi suddenly cried out, clenching her hands to such an extent that her nails pierced her dark gloves and drew blood.


    ¡°Told you. Stay calm and don¡¯t let yourself be destroyed by the energy. It will be beneficial in the long run,¡± Yi Wei stated, reaching into her pocket to find something she had almost completely forgotten about ¨C the Flesh Recovery pill. She took it out, momentarily pausing to examine its somewhat dusty surface, then infused it with a wisp of cosmic energy, ¡°Here. This should help.¡±


    The assassin was unable to reply, so she simply flicked it into her half-open mouth. As the pill flew through a cloud of planar energy, it melted slightly, though not to an extent that would have prevented it from reaching its target.


    ¡®I think I have gone ever so slightly overboard on this,¡¯ she considered, a little too late to actually do anything about it, ¡®At the very least, the Flesh Recovery pill should prevent any potential of death from all of this violent energy, and might, if things go well for her, even have a similar effect to my cosmic energy in terms of the reconstructive and strengthening properties. In theory. I don¡¯t have a clue as to what exactly causes it, and whether it is effective outside of my body, so all of this is just wishful thinking¡­¡¯


    She saw Fen Zhi swallow the pill just as a trace of red began to bleed through her clothes, spreading rapidly to turn her figure, starting from the neck down, red.


    ¡®Wait, why is she bleeding this badly? Did I overdo this even more than I thought?¡¯ Yi Wei asked herself, sending her spiritual will into the woman¡¯s body. Quickly, she located the golden energy of the elixir, and saw that instead of it quickly converting the bones to gold, like in her case, it was instead burning everything within proximity, almost as if it was trying to melt the bones completely.


    For a moment, she couldn¡¯t understand why the effects between them differed to such an extent, when she remembered the differences between their bodies yet again, all while observing how the medicinal effects of the Flesh Recovery pill sunk into melting flesh and bones and healed them.


    Although Yi Wei¡¯s physique was not the most powerful, at least upon first glance, it had been refined endlessly by the three elements currently stored within her planar energy. It still contained a large number of flaws and impurities, as does the body of any mortal being, but that number was vastly lower than that of the average person, especially when that one person does not practise body cultivation nor have a particular physique.


    Thus, when the Golden Bones Elixir reformed her skeleton, it had to do little, merely converting their structure into gold. Meanwhile, in order to reach the same level of refinement in Fen Zhi¡¯s body, it needed to get rid of a significantly greater quantity of impurities, and the process was naturally far more painful and bloody as a result, especially when combined with a simultaneous assault of an extreme quantity of planar energy without the guidance of a sufficiently powerful technique to control it and minimize its damage.


    ¡®Well, I have successfully learned exactly how much other people and I differ, both in terms of physique and cultivation techniques¡­ In fact, Fen Zhi isn¡¯t an ordinary person. She is someone who has been trained by a well-known assassin organisation, the Endless Dark Assassins, and so her skills are likely to be far superior to those of the weaker families and districts of Yi City.¡¯


    Once she was sure that the Flesh Recovery pill was sufficient to heal the side effect of the Golden Body Elixir, she rescinded her spiritual will and silently thanked the heavens for her gifts.


    Whether those gifts were the mysterious characters, the planar energy they gave her, the luck in finding a teacher for each of the great arts, or the general fortune she had experienced since the awakening of the characters, each one provided her with something that few others could even dream of, and if she ever encountered the person, entity or group responsible, she would wholeheartedly thank them, regardless of what else those people may be up to.


    Another rumble of the earth passed by them, originating somewhere to the south of them¡­ in other words, from the place they entered.


    ¡®I get the feeling that the one responsible for those quakes is heading for us, or perhaps for the Third Eye Elixir, specifically. To be safe, I should assume that the feeling is correct, which would leave me with two options to prepare for it. Either I have to conclude Fen Zhi¡¯s cultivation and elixir absorption as quickly as possible, or I could attempt to strengthen her further, possibly delaying her ability to assist in combat, but exchanging that lost time for greater offensive potential, which is absolutely necessary if this isn¡¯t just a snake in a dragon¡¯s body,¡¯ she decided, quickly weighing up the two options in her mind, ¡®Ultimately, I should be able to play the part of someone in the lower Emergent Anchor realm for a short time, and I can even break through on the spot, so long as I have half a minute to spare, but it will ultimately be up to Fen Zhi to deal with any real threats. That means that she should have as much combat ability as possible.¡¯


    Yi Wei quickly glanced at the woman¡¯s eyes, finding them to be tightly shut. After she also looked around the room and found no possible observers, she took out her equipment again and quickly added and modified a number of arrays, primarily focusing on Planar Gathering arrays, adding a Planar Stabilisation array after every few of them to prevent the planar energy from going completely out of control.


    Each one of the newly created arrays was at the level of three stars, albeit constructed in such a fashion that they might as well have been talismans, as they would burn out after only a single use. Nonetheless, when imbued with cosmic energy, their effects could match an array of four stars.


    ¡®I don¡¯t think I will be able to give her a perfected stage with this, but it might allow for two stages to be passed through at once,¡¯ she thought, activating this new series of arrays.


    Once more, the waves of planar energy intensified, the thin trickle of violet liquid transforming into a great stream that surged into Fen Zhi¡¯s body. This time, the sound of flesh being torn, and bones cracking was clearly audible, echoing throughout the empty hall before her wounds sealed herself, only to explode again.


    Blood dripped out of her mouth slowly, pooling up by her feet.


    Just as she seemed to be losing consciousness, Yi Wei was able to observe the signs of a breakthrough developing within her body.


    For a moment, all of the planar energy around her was drawn in at an even faster pace, flooding her dantian completely, before it burst out, a dark energy consuming her body in its entirety as it formed into the shape of a planar anchor. Fiery light surged out from within, marking the shadowy shape with cracks of flame. The remaining liquid cloud of planar energy changed the direction in which it flowed, going up and into the core of the anchor.


    It sucked in all of that energy, before releasing a sudden pulse of darkness as it dispersed, sinking back into Fen Zhi¡¯s body. Within it, she saw that the assassin¡¯s blood had turned completely black, though the blood that still spilled from her body remained red.


    ¡®Alright, one breakthrough has been completed, and there seems to be enough energy in the air for another one,¡¯ Yi Wei observed, sending some spiritual energy back into her body, ¡®Her bones have almost transformed, and the third eye is mostly formed. If necessary, I could interrupt this midway, but I would much rather have her complete the next breakthrough as well, since-¡¯


    The ground shook yet again, allowing her to estimate the rough location of the source.


    ¡®Whoever or whatever it is that¡¯s currently breaking in doesn¡¯t appear to be very patient or happy, provided that it has intelligence,¡¯ she guessed, shifting her attention to the doorways through which she entered, ¡®I should reinforce these, as much as I can.¡¯


    That¡¯s exactly what she did, inscribing every single inscription she could that could possibly prevent entry. Without any specific materials and with a limited time frame, it was only feasible to place seven Momentary Barrier inscriptions and connect them to four Static Shield inscriptions, using the former to prevent anyone from charging in and then activating the latter to further delay entry. If the source of the noise turned out to be someone without hostile intent towards them, then it would not be too difficult to break the inscription down, but if it was an enemy, then the longest they could possibly hold would be for a minute and twelve seconds, provided that the intruder is below the fifth realm in terms of strength.


    If it was above that¡­


    ¡®No matter how proficient I am in any defensive measures, there is no way to bridge such a large gap in cultivation. Even if my perfected stages and cosmic energy have made me ten times stronger than anyone in the same realm, then any average cultivator above the Marked Core realm will be more than six times more powerful, and will have the ability to use solidified planar energy and searing marks, which will make them twelve times stronger at the very least.¡¯


    By the time she was finished, there were two more quakes, with the last one seeming to be far closer to the previous one than usual. It seemed to be originating from the room with the deafening noise, so Yi Wei figured that they had also gotten irritated by it to the same extent as Fen Zhi had and stuck around a little longer than usual.


    ¡°There¡¯s one corridor and eleven inscriptions left. How long will it take you to get to the sixth stage?¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± the assassin spat out a few drops of blood, wiping her mouth with the back of her gloved hand before finding an answer, ¡°It might take¡­ a few more minutes¡­ at best¡­¡±


    ¡®Right, most people don¡¯t have two to three breakthroughs in one go,¡¯ she suppressed her rising stress and nodded, ¡°One minute and twelve seconds are guaranteed, any more than that and some planar beast might be attempting to eat you.¡±


    Fen Zhi bobbed her head slightly, either unintentionally or as a nod, ¡°Noted.¡±


    Another rumble reached them, and it was not difficult for both of them to place the source of it at the entrance to the twin corridors that led up to the skeleton rooms.


    ¡°I might¡­ be able to be a little¡­ quicker¡­¡± Fen Zhi muttered, placing her palms together by her chest, ¡°One minute and fifty-two seconds¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯ll have to do, I suppose. Don¡¯t get distracted.¡±


    A few seconds passed, followed by yet another earthly shake. This one was far stronger, and significantly angrier in nature, and was rapidly followed by a strike on the passage Yi Wei had used to enter.


    The membrane absorbed that attack, distending and bending as a result of it, showing that the source of the damage was an enormous crescent-like wave that had impacted against it. For a moment, the assault paused, but it resumed with another strike against the membrane. This time, it was something smaller and denser, striking the very middle of the barrier, stretching it even further before it was able to resist the attack. It began to repair itself, but before it could, the third attack, in the same fashion as the second one, struck the exact same spot.


    For a moment, the membrane tensed, then, without any sound, it ruptured, causing a cloud of dust to flood into the room, with any momentum having been dispersed by the barrier.


    Through the thick layer of dust shone the violet light of an activating inscription, which was promptly shattered by yet another wave of dust. In rapid succession, invisible attacks destroyed one barrier after another, forcing the remaining four Static Shield inscriptions to light up simultaneously.


    As there was little she could do but watch, Yi Wei turned her attention to the dust that slowly floated towards her. After it passed a certain distance from the doorway, each individual particle dissolved completely, vanishing as if it had never existed, and as if it hadn¡¯t just destroyed seven carefully crafted inscription barriers in just a dozen seconds. As it did so, the density of planar energy within the room increased significantly, as if someone had thrown a planar shard into the room and scattered it with their spiritual will.


    ¡®That¡¯s cleared up any doubts I had. This is Yi Henghua, and I get the feeling she won¡¯t be happy,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, casually absorbing that energy, ¡®However, the technique she practises¡­ It is immeasurably powerful. If this isn¡¯t a sign of some forbidden skill, then I can¡¯t imagine what else it could be. That confirms the theory that her technique was connected to an artefact, or something of the sort.¡¯


    The first barrier collapsed with a great explosion of energy, leaving three.


    Fen Zhi¡¯s body began to show signs of another breakthrough, with the planar anchor reforming in the air around her. It was stronger, clearer than before, and with the influx of energy from the scattering dust, the flaming patterns on its surface also grew larger and brighter.


    By the time the second barrier fell, the anchor had begun to solidify, becoming more than a mere phantom. Planar energy surged into it once the third one broken and continued with the fourth.


    The moment it broke, the explosion sent the dust flying, revealing Yi Henghua¡¯s figure as she entered the chamber. An endless whirlwind of dust circled behind her, seemingly pouring endlessly out of her hair and clothes, as if she was made from it completely. In fact, her fingers and the edges of her face appeared to be covered in a thin layer of stone, which also crumbled and rebuilt itself without any sings of stopping.


    ¡°YOU!¡± she screamed, before taking any time to inspect the room. When she did, her eyes inevitably went to the empty flasks on the ground, and then to the two women who were beside them. Then, her expression twisted into that of a demon or a vengeful spirit as she called a great spear out of the dust, sending it flying at Yi Wei without a word.


    It looked much like the attacks she had previously used within the illusory realm, but a single glance at it with her spiritual will revealed that it was almost solid, and thus was almost equivalent in strength to someone in the fourth realm.


    The world seemed to freeze around her as she processed the situation, ¡®I cannot get hit by that, but if I move out of the way, Fen Zhi¡¯s breakthrough will be interrupted and her planar anchor could be damaged, or outright destroyed, dropping her down to the second realm. This, I also cannot allow, not after how much she had given me, and how much she had told me. That would be both disrespectful and foolish, as the moment she loses her power, I lose any chance of getting out alive. What to- Hm? Wait, if I am sensing that correctly, I might ¨C no, I should be able to¡­ yes. That might work¡­ Or I¡¯ll have a hole in my chest.¡¯


    Despite her uncertainty, she permitted her mind to return to its regular speed.


    The spear of sand flew forward, crossing the room rapidly and in a flash, it was right in front of her, its tip spinning rapidly as it was clearly ready and able to kill her.


    A burst of darkness flooded in from behind her, colliding with the dust. Both were obliterated instantly, but that was enough. Using her full ability of the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, Yi Wei disappeared from the spot and reappeared behind Fen Zhi, beside the planar anchor that was already placed as to minimize the damage that Yi Henghua could do to it from her current position.


    ¡°You two¡­ Get your hands off of my things!¡±


    ¡®I think she is aware that Fen Zhi is on par with her, at least without the usage of her forbidden skill. This is a good opportunity,¡¯ she thought after observing that the dust cultivator did not immediately fire another bolt in their direction, ¡°Since when do any of these elixirs belong to you?¡±


    ¡°Since when? You incredulous, foolish native, this entire world belongs to me! I am destined to sit in the throne of the heavens, to stand above the world! Haven¡¯t you looked around? This architecture is clearly inspired by my world ¨C this is all here for me!¡± Yi Henghua exclaimed, ¡°And you¡¯re the ones interfering. Now, where are my elixirs?¡±


    ¡°Even if this place is familiar to you, why would that mean that this belongs to you?¡± Yi Wei asked again, though her thoughts were more turbulent than her outward appearance seemed, ¡®She is from another world? No, her body is certainly from the Planar Continents, but it could be that her mind and spirit somehow appeared here. Has she formed the misunderstanding that because she was able to find something suitable for her, that she is the rightful ruler of the world? She must be unaware of the fact that even the Master of Yi City had never dared to say that it was his right to rule over the continent, not to mention the entire world.¡¯


    ¡°You, the pervert that sought out my naked form, actually want to delay me like this? Fine. I know how this works. I¡¯ll get what I want in the end,¡± she replied, continuing quickly without giving Yi Wei an opportunity to interject, ¡°This body¡¯s former owner died in her sleep, and the very first day I woke up, I found the most powerful technique in the world ¨C the Fairy of Dust. The book turned to crystal and entered my body, and since then, I have been able to defeat anyone of the same stage with ease. I get fortuitous encounter after encounter, and I have an unparalleled talent in pill refining. Tell me, if that isn¡¯t a sign, what is? Would you want me to be perfect in every great art and be able to cultivate every element at once before you acknowledge my greatness?¡±


    ¡®If¡­ If I say yes, will she kill me?¡¯ Yi Wei suppressed the involuntary rising of the corners of her lips, ¡°Where did you get the idea that your technique is the strongest?¡±


    ¡°Where? Are you stupid? Can your techniques do this?¡±


    With a casual wave of her hand, she caused five spears to form from the dust behind her, each one spinning at an immense speed and each one full of stone-like shards that formed out of larger clusters of dust.


    Yi Henghua smirked, putting her hands on her sides without any signs of her typical state of fatigue, ¡°So, convinced yet? Now, where have you hidden those elixirs?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know why you assumed we¡¯ve hidden them.¡±


    Her expression froze, before slowly transforming back into the rage she previously showed, ¡°You haven¡¯t been listening, have you? HAVE YOU? They were for me, not for your filthy mouths! Just like the rest of this world, you are far too insolent when you speak to your future empress. Oh, wait a second, I can refine the medicinal properties out of your bodies, can¡¯t I? So, you¡¯re just the characters that are meant to present me with some medicinal pills, aren¡¯t you? Hehe¡­ DIE!¡±


    All five projectiles flew forward, and in response to them, Fen Zhi caused the shadows around them to converge into a barrier. The spinning spears struck it simultaneously, scattering a large quantity of dust into the air before shattering the congealed darkness.


    The time that earned was more than sufficient, for both Fen Zhi and Yi Wei had techniques for rapid movement. They split up, each one dashing to the side, drawing a greatsword and a spear generated by the Living Spear technique. However, such a thing did not stump Yi Henghua even for a moment, as she produced eight more projectiles, shooting half at each one of them.


    ¡®Despite the fact that they all look the same, she has already shot three different types of spear. The first one, which she used to break down the membrane and barriers to this chamber, was equivalent to three and a half of these ones, which have the same strength as half of the second type, which she had just fired at Fen Zhi. This means that I don¡¯t even have to dodge¡­ Dawn Flowing Light!¡¯ she called out in her mind, calling forth a great wave of thick sunlight that concealed a great quantity of golden lightning within.


    Dust collided with dawn light, but before it could break through, a singular strand of gold burst out, arcing between all four bolts and causing them to crumble into nothingness.


    The energy that was contained within was instantly absorbed by Yi Wei, adding it to the great pool of planar energy she was saving up for her future breakthrough. She mobilised some of her own energy and formed it into three bright points of light in front of her, charging them with an even greater quantity of cosmic energy before releasing it in the form of three enormous beams.


    Yi Henghua was also able to react quickly. With one simple gesture, she transformed the newly formed dust spears into shields, absorbing the beams in their entirety, albeit at the cost of all three dust bolts and the energy invested in them.


    Meanwhile, Fen Zhi also decided to take the attacks head-on, slicing through every single projectile of dust with her blade, using the least energy possible whilst acclimating to her increase in strength.


    ¡°You stupid side characters! Have I not explained myself properly? YOU¡¯RE MEANT TO DIE!¡±


    She threw her hands up into the air as the cloud of dust behind her gathered around her body, forming something akin to a second layer of skin whilst it continued to fly around wildly. Out of the air, ten spears made out of chunks of rock appeared, and both of them could tell that they were at the same level as the ones she used to break into the metal chamber. This time, she didn¡¯t even need a gesture to make them fly, but she did follow every spear with a large chunk of the dust storm.


    This was not something they could casually block, nor could they evade it with ease, as any slight movements were immediately corrected for.


    They shared one glance, then, following Yi Wei¡¯s gaze, they looked towards the second entrance.


    Fen Zhi stood closed to it, so she ran straight for it, whilst Yi Wei ignited the one hundred and eight stars inside of her body and manifested another wooden arrow-spear, wreathing it in lightning before charging¡­ straight for Yi Henghua.


    A glint of confusion flashed in her eyes, but she responded with a prompt spear right in her face.


    ¡®That¡¯s exactly what I was waiting for, you self-proclaimed rightful ruler! Elysian Fist!¡¯ she thought, whilst calling out, ¡°Rising Dawn Fist!¡±


    The light of dawn, originating from the miniature star within a meridian in her hand, and the soft while energy of the Elysian Fist ¨C a somewhat lazy modification of the Elysian Palm, done quite some time ago in the Yi District ¨C wove together before her fist, glowing far more brightly than the true sun of the world. It crashed into the dust, instantaneously destroying any cohesion in its structure, sending it flying in a great cloud towards Yi Henghua.


    Her own planar energy blinded her for a moment, and when she was able to clear her sight, she saw Yi Wei at the doorway adjacent to the one she entered through. In her furious state, Yi Henghua could react in no way other than by launching every dust-stone spear and storm at her.


    The latter reached her target first, shredding through the defensive arrays on her robes and crashing into her back, doing little but leaving a few scratches on her rosy skin.


    Before the other projectiles could strike her, she passed through the doorway¡¯s membrane safely.


    Thus, they impacted violently against the opaque surface, destroying it but simultaneously activating the defensive barriers placed upon the passageway. Although each layer shattered with every further spear, by the time the final four inscription barriers were broken, the room beyond was empty, and there were a few more inscriptions placed around the doorway.


    ¡°YOU¡­¡±


    Unfortunately, Yi Wei could only place that one set of inscriptions, not because there wasn¡¯t enough time, but rather due to every single other doorway being destroyed already.


    ¡°What do you know¡­ of that woman? ¡­ She seems insane¡­¡±


    ¡°I get the feeling that she is,¡± Yi Wei replied, running through the first metal chamber where the fake container for the elixir was sort into little pieces, ¡°Her name is Yi Henghua, she cultivates the Fairy of Dust, uses dust techniques, and is generally disliked by most of the family. If this is how she deals with most people, then I can imagine why. Even if she wasn¡¯t as clear about it most of the time, I can still see why someone would get tired of her superiority complex¡­ whatever that is.¡±


    ¡°Mhm¡­ Is it a forbidden art?¡±


    ¡°Almost certainly. Very few other things allow someone to exceed their realm and stage by such an extent,¡± she said, thinking of her own gift, ¡®I¡¯d like to think that I know a thing or two about that.¡¯


    ¡°In that case¡­ what would be her¡­ weakness?¡± Fen Zhi asked.


    ¡°Presumably, the dust is of the earth element, meaning that it should be susceptible to wood-type attacks, though my Living Spear hasn¡¯t done much against her. How fast are you at learning techniques?¡±


    ¡°My record is¡­ two weeks¡­ for the sword light techniques¡­ to reach Minor Achievement.¡±


    ¡®Then I can¡¯t just pass on my collection of wood skills on to you, can I? I¡¯m also the only one who seems to be able to use a technique with any degree of usefulness without properly cultivating it, so I can¡¯t ask her to do that, either¡­¡¯ Yi Wei frowned, ¡°Well then, I don¡¯t have any useful suggestions, other than overwhelming her or trying to catch her off guard. She is just one person, after all, and both of us should have various methods of stealth, so if one of us occupies her, the other can either incapacitate her or outright kill her, if necessary.¡±


    ¡°Would it be¡­ bad to end her life? Are you¡­ part of the same¡­ family, and how does¡­ your family deal with¡­ killing their own members?¡±


    ¡°Not acceptable unless they have seriously endangered the family as a whole, or if permission has been given by the proper authority for the prevention of any such behaviour. There¡¯s a reason why no-one ever beat me up to death while I hadn¡¯t yet found the right path in my cultivation.¡±


    ¡°Then it wouldn¡¯t-¡±


    Her words were cut short when they entered the metal corridor and saw that the floor was covered in a thin layer of freezing water, and that a great hole was made in the entrance, exposing the fact that the vast majority of the yin water pool had been completely eradicated. A small stream of sunlight poured in through that gap, illuminating the jagged walls of the passage.


    ¡°That answers how she bypassed the freezing waters, I suppose,¡± Yi Wei commented, rushing to the exit as to minimize the freezing of her footwear, ¡°Do you want me to throw you again?¡±


    ¡°Right¡­¡± Fen Zhi nodded, ¡°Before that, I was saying¡­ that it wouldn¡¯t be good to take her life¡­ even if I do it myself¡­ right?¡±


    ¡°Pretty much. I¡¯ve assisted you in this, so if anyone at all cares about her or the rules, then I will suffer for it, even if they conclude that I was acting in self-defence and with good justification to end her life. Now, enough chatter unless you¡¯re fond of being cut into a million pieces by tiny particles of sand.¡±


    The assassin stepped forward to the edge of the jagged stone passageway, where Yi Wei grabbed her by the waist and, using her entire body to maximise the force of her throw, she launched her up, all the way to the top of the pit, where Fen Zhi grabbed onto the edge and climbed out with ease, with Yi Wei following her using a single jump to get onto the wall, then the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash to run up the walls and right out of the pit.


    Just as they did that, the sound of an explosion from inside of the underground chambers reached them, alongside another quake.


    ¡®Well, she¡¯s out already. What to do¡­¡¯ Yi Wei considered, looking around for any signs of people in the area, but unfortunately she found no-one but the assassin by her side, ¡®Based on her speed, she will catch up far before we reach the camp, and I can¡¯t pull off my Rising Dawn Elysian Fist enough times to have the chance to get the attention of someone capable¡­ Then, I may need to incapacitate her here, as quickly as possible, before she has the chance to unlock some further form of the Fairy of Dust, like she has already done once in the underground chambers.¡¯


    ¡°Fen Zhi, we¡¯re going to fight her here. Place down your planar anchor and hide yourself ¨C try to avoid any deadly attacks, if you can.¡±


    ¡°Understood¡­  Though I have a sword, so¡­ difficult to injure seriously but non-lethally¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true, but if you do kill her, I will force you to stay around and take the blame, though once they acknowledge you as the perpetrator, you can run freely,¡± Yi Wei stated, ¡°I just don¡¯t want to get executed or get sent back to the District.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough¡­¡± the assassin said. She vanished from the spot in a cloud of dark energy, reappearing somewhere to the side, though if Yi Wei hadn¡¯t channelled cosmic energy to her eyes, she wouldn¡¯t have been able to follow her. Furthermore, the moment she blinked, she lost track of Fen Zhi, despite the fact that she hadn¡¯t moved from her spot.


    ¡®Not bad, I¡¯ll have to see if I can¡¯t mix her stealth abilities with the ones from the Deadly Martial Colosseum.¡¯


    She had to put it off for later, as she felt the approaching killing intent that belonged to Yi Henghua.


    When she emerged from the darkness, the dust around her was even thicker, as if her every attack didn¡¯t exhaust her of planar energy, but instead filled her with ever greater quantities of energy. Her hair had transformed into long strands of dust, two tornadoes of dust spinning by her eyes and a vast cloak of dust trailing behind her. She glanced up, out of the pit, then simply crossed her arms. A great quantity of dust, sand and stone erupted from beneath her feet, launching her out of the depths of the former yin water pool.


    ¡°Where did that black-clothed bitch go?¡± were the words that followed her graceful landing, as well as a dozen sand projectiles that emerged from her, ¡°Did you let her run off so that you can die alone?¡±


    ¡°Are you prepared to take on the punishment for killing one of your kin?¡±


    ¡°Punishment? For me? You must be completely foolish ¨C unable to see Mt Tai! I¡¯m the protagonist here, don¡¯t you understand? I¡¯m above mere servants like you, and when they learn that I deigned to get rid of you, they¡¯ll congratulate me for getting rid of useless filth. Maybe when I become Empress of the World, I¡¯ll leave a small plaque for you beneath my statue, telling everyone how you nobly sacrificed yourself to raise me to new heights.¡±


    ¡°You might want to make your aspirations a little more realistic. The Master of Yi City himself settled for a single city, albeit a large one, and never dared to claim that he could occupy more than this one continent.¡±


    ¡°The Master of Yi City?¡± Yi Henghua¡¯s expression turned dark, ¡°AGAIN WITH HIM? Master of Yi City this, Master of Yi City that¡­ do you people have nothing to speak about but him? Who cares about that old bastard, he probably hadn¡¯t seen the true peak of cultivation anyway! These things always have a dozen or so upper worlds, while he had only reached the ninth stage. He¡¯s weak!¡±


    She sent all of her formed spears at Yi Wei, as if to demonstrate the truth of her words.


    The spears and dust clouds flew almost twice as fast, so she was unable to execute any full combat technique or to use her Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, so she was only able to materialise a barrier of blood in front of herself. As before, the clumps of the dust storm struck first, cutting and shredding into her layer of defensive planar energy.


    It held on, but only for a moment. The rest of the dust clouds went right through, striking her entire body, from head to toe, scratching and cutting her skin relentlessly.


    Just as the spears were about to make their mark, Yi Wei heard the familiar sound of an arrow, far too large for any regular bow, being loosed, and, based on the origin of the sound and the direction in which this arrow pierced the air, she could tell that she was not the target.


    A flash of silver burst out of the forest behind her and struck Yi Henghua right in the chest.


    Every single dust projectile shattered, and the numerous dust formations around her also collapsed into nothingness, though the dust armour was able to completely absorb the impact.


    ¡°You have truly lost it this time, haven¡¯t you?¡± Yi Fenwu¡¯s voice was carried through the forest, reaching the ears of all three without any difficulties despite the fact that it was almost a whisper, which should have naturally been overshadowed by the flow of gold and crimson blood and endless quantities of rushing dust.


    ¡°Have you no sense of the moment? The villain isn¡¯t meant to save his or her subordinates until they¡¯re one step away from death!¡± Yi Henghua exclaimed, kicking away the arrow-spear, ¡°Didn¡¯t know you two were working together. When that pervert intruded on my bathing, was it to research my weaknesses? You fools, did you think that I could be tricked by something like that? Even if I didn¡¯t expect to find a gay girl in this world, I wasn¡¯t caught off guard!¡±


    ¡®I¡­ What does half of that mean? Also, if you thought I was trying to find your weaknesses ¨C how am I a pervert in that instance, anyway? ¨C then why did you let me get away with it? You¡¯re not making any sense, you insane woman!¡¯ Yi Wei swallowed a few drops of blood that had gathered in her mouth and silently flooded her body with cosmic energy to accelerate its healing, ¡°Yi Fenwu, she claims she is from another world and is intending to become Empress of the World. Her Fairy of Dust technique is a forbidden art, and her mental state is generally poor!¡±


    ¡°That last part doesn¡¯t surprise me,¡± the woman that walked out of the forest seemed to have a completely different aura, lacking any of Yi Fenwu¡¯s typical flirtatious tone and intentionally revealing movement, and her tone was dry and serious. The only thing that matched was her appearance, and the blindfold that was always on when she was practising her archery or maximising its power.


    ¡°Yi Henghua, I am obligated to tell you to stand down. You¡¯re endangering this entire expedition with your reckless and foolish behaviour-¡±


    ¡°I AM GOING TO BE THE ONE THAT FINDS THIS HIDDEN REALM!¡± Yi Henghua interrupted her, ¡°None of you are going to get inside without me! I hold the key, and I will find it first! All of the world¡¯s treasures belong to me!¡±


    ¡®Do you even know who this valley belonged to? Besides, you don¡¯t have a single one of the keys, while I have three. Does that make me the Empress of Empresses?¡¯


    ¡°And what does your attempt to murder a poor girl have to do with that?¡±


    ¡®Don¡¯t think that I¡¯ve forgotten your attempt to kill me, Yi Fenwu. However, I will forgive you for now¡­¡¯


    ¡°Oh, shut up already. You just want to murder me, don¡¯t you? You¡¯re the villain, that¡¯s what you do ¨C I can¡¯t blame you for it,¡± Yi Henghua smiled, the dust beginning to gather around her again, ¡°Come on then, come at me. You¡¯re a metal cultivator, so you don¡¯t have an advantage in terms of the elements, and that idiot over there can¡¯t hurt me no matter what she does. This should be fun!¡±

 V1C38: Down to Five

    As they clashed, both displayed their greatest abilities. Yi Fenwu did not have enough arrows to shoot every attack out of the air, so she instead evaded, doing so while perfectly maintaining her aim. Yi Henghua didn¡¯t have to modify her tactics in the slightest, and simply increased the number of projectiles she fired alongside their power, causing a constant swarm of dust and sand to crash upon the position where Yi Fenwu had stood a moment prior.


    After a minute, the archer finally found an opportune moment to strike, shooting the arrow through a rain of bolts and right into Yi Henghua¡¯s head.


    This time, she was not caught off guard. Every dust projectile was about to form flew into one place, right in the path of the arrow, and solidified as much as it could before assuming solid form, for even the Fairy of Dust forbidden skill couldn¡¯t bypass the limitations of realm.


    Metal met earth; the arrow met the dust shield. Both broke the other down, causing the arrow to drop to the ground and the dust to scatter, their collision creating a shockwave that struck Yi Henghua and pushed her back by a step, weakening every single one of the planar constructs she had created by this point.


    Yi Fenwu took advantage of this moment to knock every dust spear out of the air, giving her a momentary reprieve from the assault. However, her expression only became darker.


    Despite her being three stages above her opponent and the arrows being closer in terms of power to the level of someone in the eight stage, she couldn¡¯t pierce the defences of Yi Fenwu, not even when she found a gap in her offence.


    The next planar constructs had completely recovered by the next wave of attacks, which followed only moments later, showing that in order to weaken her for a single second, she had to waste an entire arrow. Since it would take a little longer than that to fire a second arrow to take advantage of Yi Henghua¡¯s weakened state, she had no ability to seriously injure her on her own. Thus, her attention was momentarily drawn to Yi Wei, but she realised that she was unable to sense her position, as if she had become even less visible than she was the last time she went after her.


    She decided to leave her be ¨C if she was able to evade her detection, then she should be able to slip past Yi Henghua¡¯s sight as well. Although she was someone in the middle of the second realm, as long as she could strike at a weak point in her body, then even a common person could severely injure, or even destroy her cultivation completely. Since there was a small chance of this, it would be better not to disturb her plan, whatever it may be.


    To give her a slightly greater chance of success, she did not reach for another arrow, instead conjuring a weaker metallic replica via a weaker, simplified version of the Soaring Dragon¡¯s Tooth.


    With it, she was able to meet the next volley of projectiles with a volley of her own, for the planar constructs had far less weight to them than real arrows, not to mention than the spears she usually called arrows. To draw, aim and fire the silver strands of light took mere moments, and since a number of dust spears were launched at positions around her, as to prevent her from dodging easily, Yi Henghua only had to deal with half of the dozen or so dust bolts which were formed endlessly from her planar energy.


    ¡°Ha, so you figured it out, haven¡¯t you?¡± Yi Henghua shouted, prompting Yi Fenwu to raise an eyebrow as to inquire about her meaning, ¡°I have an infinite pool of planar energy! You can never exhaust it, no matter what you do! My life force isn¡¯t suffering at all!¡±


    ¡®Life force?¡¯ both Yi Fenwu and Yi Wei wondered, ¡®The natural implication is that she is using the forbidden art to convert her life into planar energy. That must be why her body is slowly changing.¡¯


    Yi Wei had a little more time within her thoughts, so she also added, ¡®She really needs to better control her mouth, and perhaps her spiritual will. Any casual observer can see that she is slowly turning into sand, just like how Jiang Sheng was previously changing to ice. Perhaps his forbidden art had a similar function, and he too failed to notice it before his throat and voice transformed.¡¯


    Yi Henghua was unaware of their thoughts, and instead of calming down with her attacks, she increased their quantity even further, causing them to form an entire sea of grey particles that endlessly rained down.


    If there was one good thing about her tactic, it was that it made a lot of noise, allowing Yi Fenwu to keep track of every projectile without needing to remove her blindfold.


    ¡®If she had been someone who attacks silently, like an assassin of sorts, my Soaring Dragon¡¯s Hearing would be completely useless,¡¯ Yi Fenwu thought, finding a small quantity of good within the current troubling situation, ¡®I¡¯m impressed with her, nonetheless. I had mistakenly assumed the likes of Yi Jiazhi to be more of a threat, but if she isn¡¯t removed now, then she will have a high chance of claiming the hidden grounds, whenever they eventually appear.¡¯


    All of a sudden, she saw a bright spot of light through her blindfold, appearing completely grey in her eyes in spite of whatever colour it truly was.


    That light was near Yi Henghua¡¯s position, and it was thrown to her the next instant.


    Despite already being sufficiently bright to seep through the tight cloth of the blindfold, it seemed to grow even brighter, finally catching even Yi Henghua¡¯s attention. She turned to it, finding the same great arrow that she had previously kicked away, but it was now cracked and damaged, and through the gaps she saw a great cosmic light within, growing enormously in size and luminescence in the few moments that she had looked at it. At the edge of her sight, she saw the retreating, bloodied and scratched back of someone with crimson hair, and realised that she had forgotten about Yi Wei amidst the conflict.


    Before she had any chance to act upon that realisation, the artefact arrow exploded next to her feet. It looked as if an entire galaxy was born next to her, consuming her and her surroundings as it expanded. Endless nebulae and stars flashed past her eyes ¨C and were suddenly torn apart by a second arrow, which lodged itself within her chest.


    That same arrow threw her down to the ground, pinning her to the hardened dirt and stone.


    ¡°AH! DAMN Y-¡± Yi Henghua¡¯s exclamation was cut short when a foot crashed down onto her stomach, knocking all of the air out of her lungs, alongside a great quantity of dust and sand-filled blood.


    Once the astral light cleared out of her vision, she realised that it was Yi Fenwu that now stood on her body, with one foot on her stomach and the other beside her head, aiming the greatbow at her head from such a short distance that she was able to feel the cold tip of the arrow on her nose.


    ¡°Yi Wei, tell me again ¨C she is from another world?¡±


    ¡°So she claims, yes,¡± Yi Wei¡¯s voice came from somewhere near her head, but as Yi Henghua did not dare to look away from the arrow that could end her life in a single instant, with just one twitch of the archer¡¯s muscles, she could only assume that the servant girl was crouching somewhere near her head, likely covering every inch of her body with her perverted gaze.


    In fact, it could be said that her gaze was somewhat out of the ordinary, but only in that it wasn¡¯t focusing on the physical form of the one she observed, but the energy within.


    Yi Wei had not had many opportunities to inspect forbidden arts, having exhausted herself far too much the first time she fought against someone who used it, and then did not get the opportunity to study the technique itself, while Chu Ling possessed a cultivation realm that was too high for her to research silently or to any reasonable degree of success. Now that she had a living user of a forbidden skill being suppressed completely, she couldn¡¯t miss this chance to expand her understanding of the matter.


    So, she made sure to speak slowly and to divulge as little information as possible no matter what she was asked, just to prolong the period of time in which she could observe the flow of the dust-like planar energy within the supposedly otherworldly body.


    ¡°Did she express any desire to topple the family?¡± Yi Fenwu asked again.


    ¡®Then the planar energy flows through- wait, is she intending to kill her as well? If she is able to justify it by saying that she was intending to destroy the family structure, as well as the fact that this Yi Henghua isn¡¯t even her real self, then she might be able to avoid any and all punishment¡­¡¯ Yi Wei understood quickly, but she pretended to take a moment to consider it, ¡°She did say that she intended to become Empress of the world, as you know, and that the Master of Yi City is weak and insignificant, and that the family should be happy for her to get rid of us¡­¡±


    ¡°I see, so she is mad and seeks to undermine the very structure of the family. Elder, would you prevent me from passing judgement on this poor child?¡±


    Her words seemed to address no-one in particular, being spoken up, towards the air, but the intended recipient heard them nonetheless. The elder that they had last seen upon their arrival to the valley appeared out of nowhere, standing a low branch of a nearby tree, with a red nose and a tired face. He looked over the situation, his gaze pausing on each one of them, before replying.


    ¡°I can permit this¡­¡± he said, ¡°Only if all group leaders agree. That is all.¡±


    Immediately after, he jumped up slightly and disappeared again, though all three knew that he was not gone. For this reason, Yi Fenwu laughed before addressing the air once more, ¡°Elder, you are well aware that she will not be saved like this. At most, we¡¯ll take one look at her and condemn her to death.¡±


    ¡°That is fine.¡±


    Yi Fenwu shrugged, turning back to Yi Wei with a smile on her face that more closely resembled her previous attitude, ¡°Honey, we¡¯ll be heading back to camp. It will take a while, so you can do what you like for now. Just be sure to show up by the end of the day, so that you can provide your testimony as to how she was plotting against us all, ¡®kay?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll do that,¡± she replied, though she didn¡¯t move from her spot, continuing to scan Yi Henghua¡¯s body with her spiritual will. Her understanding of a small element of the Fairy of Dust was almost complete and leaving now would ruin her opportunity to comprehend it and use it in the future.


    A few moments of awkward silence followed, after which Yi Fenwu seemed to recall something.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to remove my blindfold, so if you could assist with restraining her, I¡¯d be very grateful for your assistance,¡± she said, nodding towards an inner pocket in her robes, ¡°Since I wouldn¡¯t like to remove my hands from my bow and give this girl an opportunity to escape, won¡¯t you reach in and grab the restraints for me?¡±


    ¡®Isn¡¯t it common knowledge that you are able to do something like this so quickly that even someone in the fourth realm would struggle to keep up with you? Are you just trying to test if I am as perverted as Yi Henghua claimed me to be?¡¯ Yi Wei questioned internally, though she didn¡¯t voice a single thought and instead did as she was asked, reaching into the woman¡¯s robe and removing a set of handcuffs from within, doing her best to avoid touching the woman¡¯s breasts.


    She noticed the corner of Yi Fenwu¡¯s lips rise slightly, but ignored it and instead restrained Yi Henghua, taking advantage of the situation to complete her analysis of the Fairy of Dust.


    ¡°Good. Thank you, darling. I¡¯ll see you later ¨C if you¡¯d like to serve under me in the future, I wouldn¡¯t mind it at all. Actually, could you share with me the skill you used to create that bright light? It turned the tide of battle entirely, and I¡¯d love to use it in the future.¡±


    Yi Wei wasn¡¯t surprised by the question, having expected it from the moment she decided to employ her ability to explode artefacts via her planar energy, and thus she already had an answer prepared, ¡°It¡¯s a technique I found in the library not long before our departure. The only function, so far as I can tell, is to destroy and overwhelm the structure of a low-grade artefact to cause a large explosion. I¡¯ve only managed to make it work somewhat recently.¡±


    ¡°Like the time I mistakenly shot an arrow or two at you?¡±


    ¡°Like that, yes. Now, I¡¯ll get going, unless you have some more questions.¡±


    ¡°No, no, go ahead. Don¡¯t get delayed too much,¡± Yi Fenwu said, casually waving her away before lifting Yi Henghua with one hand and dragging her away.


    She watched the two of them leave, then looked to the side, where she sensed a faint movement just a second earlier.


    ¡°Fen Zhi, you can come out now.¡±


    The assassin appeared in front of her, the planar anchor that had stood in the shadow of a nearby tree sinking into her body. She looked around, using her own methods to confirm that no-one was observing them.


    ¡°You ended up¡­ not needing my help¡­ Unfortunately¡­¡± Fen Zhi said, ¡°I had intended to¡­ thank you¡­ by assisting in battle¡­ but now¡­ I have to do something else¡­ would you like more techniques?¡±


    ¡°While I can¡¯t say that I wouldn¡¯t, I do also want to point out that you don¡¯t have to do anything at all,¡± Yi Wei said hastily, ¡°You¡¯ve already given me a great deal of things, which I greatly appreciate. What would you have even done if you hadn¡¯t intended to help me?¡±


    ¡°I could have escaped¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡­ Hm. Yes, you could have done. Why didn¡¯t I consider that?¡± Yi Wei frowned, taking a moment to consider why such an obvious option evaded her thoughts, as well as marking it down in her mental notes as to be addressed during her regular mental cultivation, ¡°Anyway, if you want to give these techniques to me, then I¡¯ll accept them, but don¡¯t feel obligated to provide anything for me. I took the Third Eye Elixir from you initially, and I took the Golden Bones Elixir that you could have given to one of your friends or fellow assassins, if you manage to free them as well, and drank it despite not even needing to be there. Then, I also attracted the attention of Yi Henghua, who you might have otherwise avoided.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I¡¯ll just¡­ write down my techniques now¡­ before you convince me out of it¡­ I don¡¯t want to¡­ speak on things I¡¯m not knowledgeable on¡­ but I think that you won¡¯t get much¡­ in the future¡­ if you always do things like this¡­¡±


    ¡®Naturally, but this whole situation is a little unusual for me. I¡¯ve got a part of a forbidden art, two elixirs, one middle-class member of the family might be killed by five others and we¡¯re just one Lock Obelisk away from opening the Kong hidden grounds¡­ Not to mention the fact that I am currently bleeding from a number of shallow wounds that haven¡¯t yet healed¡­ Ow,¡¯ she drove her planar energy a little faster, finally causing the last few cuts to begin sowing themselves up, ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. What techniques are you going to give me?¡±


    ¡°A few, but¡­ one is based on a¡­ forbidden skill, or¡­ as it is called near my home¡­ cursed skills¡­ It is far weaker, but it won¡¯t hurt you¡­ unless you overuse it¡­¡± Fen Zhi said, jotting down the technique.


    Unlike most of her previous techniques, which she was able to relay swiftly, and in few words, this skill took her several minutes of fast writing on pieces of wood with the tip of a throwing knife. Once she completed it, she returned to the top of the first ¡®page¡¯ and wrote the name of the technique: ¡®Aeon of the Endless Dark¡¯.


    ¡°It should help you to¡­ hide your identity and cultivation¡­ as well as your very existence¡­ in theory¡­ I have not cultivated it myself¡­ as I lack the talent to do so¡­ but the Master was very eager to praise it¡­¡± the assassin explained, handing the thin slabs of bark to Yi Wei.


    The latter read through it quickly and agreed with the judgement of the Master of the Endless Dark. There were traces of the Dao within, and if she was able to understand the properties of this technique to any degree of accuracy, then it would undoubtedly prove to be similar in quality and effectiveness to her own Elysian Palm, albeit it would not reach that same power in her hands as quickly as any technique she made herself.


    ¡®However, this does give me a second fragment of a forbidden art to study, and one that I ought to be beneficial if I ever find that I cannot remain within the family,¡¯ she thought.


    ¡°One more thing¡­ During that fight¡­ I felt the energy of another assassin group¡­ though I couldn¡¯t identify it¡­ Someone from your family¡­ might be affiliated with assassins¡­ in secret or otherwise¡­¡± Fen Zhi said, slowly walking away, ¡°If this isn¡¯t already known to you¡­ I would advise you to keep your guard up¡­ Just in case.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. I hope that you¡¯re successful in your goals, and that we meet again.¡±


    ¡°So do I¡­ Goodbye, Yi Wei¡­ May your sands be still¡­¡±


    The assassin bowed, then faded into the darkness. Yi Wei was able to faintly hear her footsteps as she left, though she was unable to see her, no matter how hard she tried.


    ¡®It is an incredible skill, isn¡¯t it?¡¯ she remarked to herself, waiting for Fen Zhi to go out of her range of hearing before sitting down on the side of a tree that had been felled at some point during the battle, ¡®While I have the time, I should make use of the planar energy I have and complete my breakthrough before heading over to the camp. I already have the ability to disguise my cultivation, and with the added effectiveness of the techniques I¡¯ve ended up getting from Fen Zhi, I should be able to hide any particularly strange changes that passing the mid-point of a realm may bring.¡¯


    Naturally, she wasn¡¯t sure what those changes would be. It could be that the early liquid planar energy she attained in the first realm was simply a one-off occurrence, but if it wasn¡¯t, then she had a number of ideas regarding the possibilities. Since the first realm allowed her to gain the ability of the second realm early, could crossing the mid-point of the second realm result in her gaining an early planar anchor?


    Although the idea was quite interesting, it was highly unlikely, as the changes between the various states of planar energy did not rely on any particular structure within the dantian, which was what allowed it to transform between gas, liquid and solid in the outside world. A planar anchor, on the other hand, cannot form naturally, no matter what someone does in the outside world.


    This did raise the question of what the next perfected stage could possibly bring. According to her knowledge, there was no state of matter greater or denser than solid, so what could possibly come after?


    ¡®Doesn¡¯t really matter, I guess. I¡¯ll see what happens either way,¡¯ she thought to herself.


    She had already begun to absorb the unbound energy within her dantian, and within a minute, it was enough to cause her energy to tremble within her body.


    The solid mass of cosmic energy pulsed once, then twice, almost matching her rapid heartbeat, and then it finally exploded outwards, cutting through bone, flesh and skin whilst rapidly sealing those same wounds the next instant, before it reached outside of her body and formed a thin layer around her. Unlike the previous instances of this, it wasn¡¯t merely a second layer of skin, but instead it had clear shapes, spikes and edges to it that her body did not have, almost as if it was transforming into armour.


    However, it lost that shape soon after, and collapsed into her body, bursting out the next second to do the same thing. When it seemed to finally settle down within her planar aperture, she thought she was mistaken in regard to her theory.


    That thought remained only for a moment, for the next, the sound of cracking stone entered her ears.


    It was not from her surroundings, nor from her physical body. Instead, it came from the cosmic energy within her, which, rather unceremoniously, suddenly transformed, gaining edges and faces akin to those of a gem, or some other crystal structure. With the way that her planar energy had no real texture, it was difficult to see each individual face, but she still had the knowledge of its shape.


    Furthermore, the spherical barrier that surrounded her dantian also changed, becoming more solid than before, almost as it, too, ascended by a cultivation realm.


    To her, and to any cultivator that could have viewed this scene, the sight of crystalline planar energy was absolutely enthralling. It went beyond any common understanding of cultivation, and gave the cosmos shown within a fascinating appearance.


    A quick scan also revealed that the quantity and quality of that planar energy was vastly heightened, effectively increasing her pool of cosmic energy by almost ten times with just one breakthrough.


    She still had one more to go.


    When Yi Wei returned to camp, she drew much more attention than she usually did. Naturally, the fact that one of the six leaders was recently brought in and was being held captive within a tent under a great deal of observation caused everyone to wonder what happened, and what anyone walking in or out of the camp had to do with it, but there were a few other things that drew their eyes.


    For one, her heavily damaged clothes were rather revealing, and although they did not show anything explicit that would prompt a parent to obscure their child¡¯s eyes, the many cuts and holes in her robes revealed a far greater quantity of skin than normal.


    The eyes of some stopped on the tantalising glimpses of naked flesh, but others paid more attention and realised that her appearance had changed slightly. For one, the tan on her skin had grown darker, though not by much, and not too unexpectedly for someone who spends so much time in the wilderness, without anything to hide herself from the sun, and without powerful techniques to restore her regular appearance.


    However, that was the change that was easiest to understand and explain, while the rest were observed mostly by one¡¯s intuition. They noticed that her hair seemed to flow more smoothly behind her, though only a few were able to understand that this was because each strand moved freely, without interfering or getting tangled up with another, thus causing her crimson ponytail to resemble a slow waterfall. Also, her grey eyes had subtly transformed to resemble well-cut gemstones, though that could only be observed by someone if they had a habit of staring deeply into the eyes of everyone they meet.


    Nevertheless, no matter how curious her changed features were, the attention of the majority did not stay on her for long once the six leaders of the camp emerged onto a platform visible from the tents of every group.


    Yi Henghua was in chains, her arms and legs bound together tightly. On each link of the chains, there were small inscriptions to prevent her from escaping, and to prevent them from breaking easily.


    The other five stood around her in a semi-circle, and none seemed particularly distraught over this ¨C Yi Jiazhi was positively beaming, while Yi Fenwu had her typical smirk on while she did her best to push Yi Tai¡¯s arm as deeply as possible into the valley of her breasts. The other three pretended to not notice that behaviour and stood around with mixed expressions.


    There was no need for any announcements or declarations. Everyone naturally gathered around them, whether to see Yi Henghua, the most disliked member of the Yi family, bound, or to hear what their leaders had to say.


    ¡°Explain again,¡± Yi Tai said, only now turning to the person embracing his arm.


    ¡°Yes, darling,¡± she replied, seemingly unphased by his lack of reaction, ¡°That woman appears to be completely insane, and claims she is from another world. She has convinced herself that she has acquired a peerless treasure in the form of Fairy of Dust, and that she is superior to the Master of Yi City in every way, so she is planning to take us down and take over his legacy.¡±


    A series of surprised gasps followed, as well as a number of gazes being directed toward Yi Henghua to see her rebuttal of the claims. However, she said nothing.


    ¡®I¡¯m slightly tempted to believe that she is genuinely insane, rather than simply a little over-enthused with herself,¡¯ Yi Wei thought to herself, finding a spot near the back of the crowd to quietly listen to the proceedings, ¡®Do people not defend themselves of accusations in her world, perhaps?¡¯


    ¡°You want to kill this bitch, then? Do it. I¡¯m all for it,¡± Yi Jiazhi said, barely keeping his laughter in.


    ¡°One of five-¡±


    ¡°I also agree with that. She is a danger to the expedition, and is just too unreasonable, trying to kill a poor girl for no reason at all,¡± Yi Fenwu added.


    Somewhere in the crowd, Yi Wei could hear familiar grumbling that likely belonged to Yi Bai.


    ¡°Then, two. I have no strong opinion and will side with whichever side has the most votes.¡±


    ¡°And if it¡¯s two against two?¡±


    ¡°It won¡¯t matter, because her death will come after five votes.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ Yi Guanyu, Yi Zheng, what about you?¡± Yi Fenwu inquired, looking towards them almost like a puppy might look at its owner while begging for treats.


    Yi Guanyu, who had cleaned himself up in the time he had and now resembled a normal person, just with a large quantity of tears within the upper half of his robe, spoke up first, ¡°Who¡¯d she try to attack? Was it someone important?¡±


    ¡°Well, you could speak with her. Yi Wei, honey? Could you come out to the front?¡±


    She pushed through the crowd and the moment she emerged at the front, Yi Guanyu¡¯s eyes lit up, and he nodded, ¡°I agree ¨C Yi Henghua deserves death.¡±


    ¡°Then I have nothing to say,¡± Yi Zheng said, ¡°She has not benefitted the expedition in the slightest.¡±


    Yi Tai shrugged, showing his agreement. All five of them looked into the air, seeking approval of the elder that followed them, which they received the next moment, once he appeared on a tree branch and nodded, vanishing the next second. Since they had nothing else to confirm, Yi Fenwu took out her greatbow and an arrow, aiming it right for Yi Henghua¡¯s head.


    Her target looked at her without fear, ¡°You think you can kill the main character? Any moment now, I¡¯ll-¡±


    She was never able to finish her sentence, as her skull was destroyed by the arrow spear.


    For a moment, the mysterious characters within Yi Wei¡¯s planar aperture shook, but they calmed down quickly and she could find no particular reason for this strange instance of their activity.


    ¡°Anyone who was in the dead girl¡¯s group can go to any other group, so long as the leader accepts you.¡±

 V1C39: The Last Obelisk

    The death was fast and, in comparison with how much blood Yi Wei typically saw during her breakthroughs, not particularly brutal. It was almost strange how someone like that, with such a high opinion of themselves, died so easily. Had her face remained intact, it too would have likely sported an expression of surprise and confusion, but it had not, and few cared to treat her body with any degree of respect. After they allowed Yi Wei to take away some of the pill materials in the woman¡¯s pockets, the rest of her items were taken and split across whoever wanted them. Curiously enough, there was no trace of the Fairy of Dust technique.


    Her body was later thrown into the depths of the forest and buried by someone who was injured and had little else to do with their time. Just like that, someone in the Emergent Anchor realm, a member of the middle-class of the Yi family, was thrown away and forgotten.


    For a month, things were calm. The camp Yi Henghua had occupied was transformed into a secondary market and a space for the remaining five to live.


    It was on the 24th of the next month that a commotion had begun. A group with Yi Zheng at the front returned to camp and announced that a second area with an illusory array was found. For whatever reason, it was far simpler than the previous one, and they were able to break through it without much difficulty, finding the eye of the array quickly.


    However, there were nothing there other than a simple stone obelisk, with no clear use or value to it.


    The moment that they returned, it was clear to everyone that they were unable to make it work, though few understood as much about the matter as Yi Wei did.


    ¡®So, this confirms that most people can¡¯t use the Lock Obelisks,¡¯ she thought while she listened to their report. Her clothes had been fixed up since the previous discovery, and she had taken a little bit of her spare time to learn to take slightly better care of her appearance, in addition to carving out a comb out of some wood to practise her control over her planar energy, which had diminished somewhat after its transformation to crystal. ¡®That, or no-one had the correct approach to using it.¡¯


    Yi Zheng¡¯s group reported everything they had attempted so far, listing over a dozen methods which all proved unsuccessful. After making sure that it was clear that they weren¡¯t incompetent, they asked for help.


    It was decided that only those with some experience in blacksmithing, inscription and arrays should go, as the rest would be unlikely to know how to solve this conundrum.


    Since Yi Wei had knowledge of all of those, and claimed to specialise in arrays, she was selected to go with the rest of the group. They were given a number of resources, both old and new, put together from the various materials found within the Kong valley, and given some time to create something with them that they could then apply in their investigation.


    After several hours of preparation, they set out, with Yi Tai of all people at the front.


    Despite his rather plain countenance and brief words, it turned out that he had received a great quantity of training in the field of arrays, their creation and destruction.


    He proved this quickly when they arrived at the fourth site, which happened to match the location Yi Wei expected it to be in, and rapidly deconstructed the array¡­ with a precision bombardment of boulders.


    ¡®I can see why he isn¡¯t well known for his skills. Simply imagining this method being used on a smaller array would make any regular array master let out a cry of pain,¡¯ she thought, following him into the middle of the array, ¡®Does he make formation arrays by piling up those boulders until they do whatever he wants to do with them?¡¯


    ¡°Is that it?¡± the man asked, pointing toward the small stone pillar.


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± the person who had returned with them from the previous trip answered, ¡°We¡¯re not sure what it is, but we have noticed that planar energy is thicker around it, suggesting that it does have some function.¡±


    Yi Tai performed some semblance of a nod, ¡°Then you can go one at a time. Try once, then retreat.¡±


    After that, via vague gestures and glances, he decided upon their order via some sort of curious methodology, putting certain individuals in a higher realm behind those in the lower realm.


    For whatever reason, out of the thirteen array masters, Yi Wei was placed last, whether because he considered her to be the worst, the best, or perhaps there was some other reason behind his decision. Nonetheless, that¡¯s where she was placed, and the number of people she had to give the opportunity to examine the Lock Obelisk first ended up being thirty-nine.


    In that time, she had the chance to decide upon her course of action. She knew that for her to suddenly reveal the ability to activate the Lock Obelisk would raise a few questions, and even if all of that was waved away, it would be difficult to not pay attention to the appearance of an additional symbol on her wrist, which had otherwise seemed to go unnoticed. At that point, if she entered the hidden grounds and walked through a door that no-one else can enter, then it would be incredibly obvious that she had received something beneficial from the grounds, or that she had otherwise claimed something from within.


    This was something she could avoid if she ensured that they were unaware of the key symbols on her wrist. At that point, if she entered any sort of portal or doorway and none could follow her, she could just say that she had fallen into some sort of trap, and even wound herself intentionally to prove it.


    Unfortunately, if she doesn¡¯t activate the obelisk on her own, she could have to wait for quite a long time before getting the opportunity to try doing so without any observation. Depending on how persistent Yi Tai proved to be, and how important he believed this find to be, it could take between a week and several months for him to finally conclude that this obelisk, whatever he might assume it to be, won¡¯t be cracked by them and that it isn¡¯t relevant to the hidden grounds.


    ¡®As a result, I¡¯m in a bit of a conundrum. If I want to get this over with quickly, which, frankly, I would prefer, as I¡¯ve spent a little too much time here, then I will endanger my chances of getting the items within the Kong Holy Space. If I decide to do things slowly, I might wait out another year here¡­¡¯ she frowned as she stood behind the first person in the queue, ¡®The best option would be one that lets me activate this obelisk, while also drawing attention to literally anything else in the area, so long as it isn¡¯t the Lock Obelisk.¡¯


    There wasn¡¯t much she could have done had this occurred in any other forest, or even in some random location within the Kong valley. However, they just happened to be standing in the eye of an array.


    An illusory array, to be exact.


    ¡®If I do this correctly, I won¡¯t need months, but just one more rotation of experts. At that point, I should be able to activate the obelisk and let everyone else work with it a few times before making the obelisk sink into the ground on its own, at which point it will be impossible to tell who caused it to activate, nor why. Ordinarily, they could figure out that something is wrong, but if they think the array is inactive, they won¡¯t have a reason to suspect foul play¡­¡¯


    To make an illusion that acted exactly like the real thing, it would take a lot of time and effort. To make something that doesn¡¯t react to any stimulus, however, is far easier, especially when the opposite has already been set up for her.


    She pretended to try out a number of methods, some of which had been used by previous array masters, and others which she had randomly taken out of ¡®The Introduction to Formation Array Arrangement, Understanding and Mastery¡¯, then retreated with an exasperated look on her face. As if to seek inspiration, or simply to vent her frustration at her own inability, she went into the woods and returned by the time that most of the people who had gone ahead of her had a second opportunity to test some theories.


    A number of experts went in front of her, Yi Tai included, but not one noticed something amiss about the obelisk.


    Yi Wei approached it again, casually holding her hand over it while projecting a large field of blood planar energy around the pillar, as if she was trying to interact with it via a sort of planar manipulation technique. In truth, the instant the blood covered the surface of the pillar, she had already sent the violet energy into it, and was just waiting for the inscription of the key to finish.


    Once it did, she emulated a failure and went back to think of more tests and experiments to fake.


    An inscription master stepped forward and began experimenting in his own ways. Everyone passively watched from the side, hoping to see the moment that success is found, but this attempt, just like each one prior, ended in disappointment.


    So did the next person¡¯s effort, as did the next.


    As far as Yi Wei could tell, her illusion worked, as everyone endlessly worked on the empty air where the obelisk had stood earlier. For someone with the Third Eye, it appeared to be rather amusing, but she knew better than to expose her emotions in a manner that could shatter the illusion for someone. After she witnessed enough people examine and fail to discern the truth from illusion, she found an excuse to leave, claiming that she needed a little more time to consider a good method, and walked around the forest, occasionally checking that the array nodes were still intact.


    Several hours passed, and just as people were running out of things to do other than exploding the entire area with powerful techniques, they finally saw it.


    The Lock Obelisk shuddered and sank down, disappearing beneath the earth.


    Before anyone had the opportunity to react, it was gone from their sight, and nothing could return it to the surface. Not even the impeccable technique and method of Yi Tai, who threw quite a number of rocks at it, managed to achieve success.


    The ground around it seemed far tougher than anything else, and no matter how much energy they invested into it, they couldn¡¯t break it either.


    No-one had the opportunity to present the idea of using more extreme measures before a light, bright and violet, burst out of the ground, soaring upwards into the blue sky. Elsewhere, three more beams identical to this one emerged, and all of them slowly met in the middle of the valley, where they merged into a single stream of light that descended upon the ground.


    ¡°What?¡± a clear hint of confusion appeared on Yi Tai¡¯s face as he looked into the distance, ¡°They activated on their own? Without us? How? Why? Did someone get to the others first? What activated this one?¡±


    He looked so distraught that Yi Wei decided to offer a slightly more helpful theory, ¡°It could have been something to do with timing, or perhaps it followed a similar rule to the previous illusory area, which began the arena fights once enough people arrived. For all we know, we weren¡¯t meant to do anything with these to begin with.¡±


    Yi Tai looked at her in silence for a few seconds before turning away, towards the descending beam of light, ¡°Maybe. We will have a lot of competition, then.¡±


    ¡®We might. We had already come across some mercenaries and assassins, and we had no clue that they were even there before they showed up in the depths of the illusion and left just as quickly. Now that there is such an obvious beam here, presumably pointing towards the entrance to the Kong Holy Grounds, as everyone is assuming it is, then anyone in the valley will rush towards it immediately, because something this bright would have to be important,¡¯ she thought, scanning past the light with her spiritual will only to find it to be an illusory light, ¡°We should probably hurry before the main camp rushes off.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Indeed. We are leaving. Pack up now.¡±


    That¡¯s what they did, rushing to pick up everything they could before stuffing it in bags and giving the largest and heaviest packs to the servants, as well as their strongest members. Although this treatment was a little unfair, anyone who struggled to carry their equipment was permitted to pass it on to another who was having fewer difficulties. Under the encouragement of certain individuals, primarily Yi Wei, they rushed as far away from the location as they could.


    The reason for this hurried action was primarily motivated by one thing ¨C making great modifications to arrays that one is not equipped to modify, mainly because of one¡¯s lacking cultivation, can occasionally lead to disastrous circumstances. Such circumstances include, but are not limited to, enormous explosions, sudden planar phenomena ¨C explosions ¨C and other, rarer scenarios.


    Indeed, the reaction she expected did occur.


    Just as the last members of their group left the area of the illusion, the planar energy in the area suddenly froze. Then, without any warning, it flew into the array eye at great speed, condensing into one point in just a few seconds.


    Then, it exploded. Endless planar energy, thickened to the point of appearing as purple light and gas, expanded at twice the speed it had gone at previously, scorching the area in its immense temperature.


    Compared to an array of the same level that had been designed specifically for an offensive purpose, its power was lacking in every way, but it was still beyond the attack power of any cultivator amongst them. Had a regular person been standing at the edge, they would have been critically burned at best, and instantly killed at worst.


    ¡°W-What was that?¡± someone less familiar with arrays questioned.


    ¡°Array meltdown via structural instability,¡± Yi Tai answered, ¡°The period of time in between the construction of the array and its activation might have weakened it¡­¡±


    They returned to the main camp with great haste, and just in time, as everyone was already getting to leave, with most tents having been emptied. It was decided that even if the beam of light was irrelevant, or a distraction, repositioning the tents would be beneficial, as it would be far easier to access any specific point within the Kong valley from the middle of it instead of a location on the side of it.


    Before they left, Yi Wei removed the arrow spear she had previously taken from Yi Fenwu from its hiding spot and placed it on her back as if it was a typical spear.


    That action, somewhat predictably, drew the attention of its former owner, who suddenly blocked her and leaned down in such an exaggerated fashion that her cleavage was beyond obvious, ¡°Hey, honey. Would you like to give that thing on your back to me? It just so happens that I¡¯m missing one of my arrows, and that looks exactly like what I need. You wouldn¡¯t want to make me beg, would you? Or, do you like seeing a girl-¡±


    ¡°Yi Fenwu, as someone who was severely injured due to your ¡®accidental assault¡¯, I would like to keep this with me, in order to be able to better defend myself in the future,¡± Yi Wei looked right into the woman¡¯s eyes with a serious expression, mostly to keep her eyes off of her breasts and to seem a lot more serious while doing it, ¡°If you have another low-grade artefact for me to use, I¡¯ll take it instead.¡±


    Somehow, her expression didn¡¯t sour, although she did straighten her back, ¡°Well, that¡¯s fair. I can see why you might not want to give this up¡­ Alright, you can hold on to it for a while¡­¡±


    Yi Fenwu smiled ominously and walked off to take charge in her part of the camp.


    ¡®I have to say that I don¡¯t like this too much¡­ whatever this is. In theory, I am one step away from claiming whatever is stored inside the Kong Holy Grounds, so if there was ever a time for something to go wrong, then it would be-¡¯


    ¡°Yi Wei, I¡¯d like to talk with you,¡± the voice of her group leader interrupted, having approached her silently, ¡°It¡¯s about this group¡¯s problem.¡±


    ¡®Besides his attempts to influence the minds of others, the only significant issue I can think of are the few deaths that had mysteriously occurred. After we had formed a larger camp with the other groups, it became a little more difficult to keep track of everyone¡­ was there another mysterious death?¡¯ Yi Wei thought, ¡°Alright.¡±


    She followed him to a shaded spot to the side of the large hill where the camps were placed, and through ever thickening woods. Just as she began to consider the possibility that he had decided to try influencing her mind again, or perhaps decided to get rid of her entirely, they stopped.


    Before her, a small emptied area within the wood was lit by the dimming sunlight, and within stood a group. Out of the eleven people there, nine were from groups other than Yi Jiazhi¡¯s.


    For someone who paid a decent amount of attention to the events around her, it wasn¡¯t difficult to make a number of guesses regarding the situation. For one, it would be far too strange if Yi Jiazhi was the only person to suffer from mysterious assassinations, if those were indeed what they were, as that would indicate that every other group leader had decided to sabotage him together, or at the very least that they ignored the strange occurrences for some other reason.


    ¡°After you had departed with that group the previous day, I have finally acquired enough information to believe that you are innocent,¡± Yi Jiazhi stated, nodding along to himself as if he was saying something intelligent, ¡°As a result, I shall allow you to join this investigation.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure that you hadn¡¯t just been treating me as a suspect due to our previous encounter?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Shut up,¡± he muttered, turning to the group in front of them, ¡°I hadn¡¯t told you, but our group had lost a total of five people. These people also suffered from the same issue.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m from Yi Zheng¡¯s party. We have already lost three people,¡± one man, standing near the back, stated, before looking over her closely, ¡°We were told that you have a certain talent for resisting mind influencing abilities, and unfortunately, our group has also heard rumours of a certain red-haired, flat-chested girl that is incredibly fast for her realm. You should be able to assist us.¡±


    ¡°Investigation? You¡¯ve decided to team up and find the killer, or killers?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± a woman to the right, with a large scar going down her face, almost exactly down the middle, ¡°I am one of Yi Guanyu¡¯s, and we¡¯ve suffered three strange losses in the month since we left the illusory array. That is unacceptable.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. I¡¯d been with Yi Tai most of the time, and we¡¯ve lost a total of nine without any clear explanation. Even if some were due to ancient arrays and old beasts who caught them unaware, for all of them to have been committed by someone using the element of earth seems a little too¡­ coincidental. Don¡¯t you agree? Also, I¡¯m Yi Meng, just so that you know. Everyone else is just saying their piece, but not introducing themselves,¡± another woman, who was nearly as tall as her group¡¯s leader, complained, before adding, ¡°Though I do think that it is strange that the number of deaths before we met your group is only one lower than after.¡±


    ¡°What kind of idiot would target their own group?¡± someone from Yi Wei and Yi Jiazhi¡¯s party retorted, ¡°Though¡­ having said that, all of our teams have lost at least someone, right?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, yes,¡± Yi Guanyu¡¯s team member stated, ¡°Three people since we came out of the illusory array, which is, frankly, horrible, but all of them seemed to be perpetrated by the same person. Same wounds, same energy, the only difference is the number.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve noticed the same thing?¡± a man from Yi Fenwu¡¯s team wondered, ¡°Three attacks for Planar Pool cultivators, and five for Emergent Anchor.¡±


    ¡°Three?¡± the woman from Yi Guanyu¡¯s group questioned, ¡°Our people only sustained two and four wounds, respectively. Do you think that he or she could have advanced by a stage and gotten even stronger?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve been here for two years, so it would have been strange if they hadn¡¯t done anything after all this time,¡± Yi Meng said, ¡°Since he won¡¯t introduce himself, that guy is Yi Sheng, by the way.¡±


    ¡°That makes sense. I¡¯m Yi Wei,¡± she presented herself, ¡°However, I don¡¯t think that this is the best time to be doing this, especially since we might be about to enter the hidden grounds, and then return to the district. Unless, of course, your group has been around for longer than this, or you¡¯ve made some new discovery?¡±


    ¡°We have,¡± Yi Jiazhi said, looking over to Yi Meng, ¡°She¡¯s figured something out, apparently.¡±


    ¡°I have. The planar energy in use against every assassination target might not actually be earth-type energy. After a lot of experiments, I managed to get the residual energy to react in a fashion that is more reminiscent of either fire or water energy, rather than earth, and I have good reason to believe it is not what it appears to be, and is instead either fire or water. Perhaps it could even be both, with the killer using something to store the other form of energy before combining it with their own to create false earth planar energy.¡±


    ¡°And I have observed that the wounds were all made by the same weapon. Whoever this person is, they favour a dagger or a short sword as their tool of choice,¡± Yi Sheng added.


    ¡°Interesting. Are there any suspects, or a list of everyone who uses either water or fire techniques?¡± Yi Wei asked while thinking to herself, ¡®If this person uses a dual fire and water-type technique, then it isn¡¯t impossible for them to lack any talismans or forms of energy storage, which these people would look for due to their current assumption. However, it is clear that they are either unaware of dual-type techniques, or are not speaking about them in front of me, so I have to suggest it subtly¡­¡¯


    ¡°We are putting together a list, but one thing that we weren¡¯t sure about was your technique.¡±


    ¡®And here I have the perfect opportunity!¡¯ she realised, ¡°Well, you and me both. I used to cultivate a metal technique, but shortly before going on this expedition, I acquired a new technique that perfectly merged with my previous one. It still seems to have the metal element, but it is a lot more like water now.¡±


    ¡°Interesti- Wait, could this be¡­ dual elements?¡± a man, formerly from Yi Henghua¡¯s group, guessed quickly, ¡°Is it actually real? Release some energy, right now!¡±


    The request was somewhat impolite, but Yi Wei chose to ignore it and released some of her blood-like energy into the world. Although it appeared to be in liquid form, it was actually a gaseous mist that closely resembled actual blood. She could, had she chosen to, have summoned it as actual fluid and have passed it off as the gas version of her planar energy, but if anyone in the clearing was familiar with other types of dual-type planar energy, it would take more effort to hide the truth from them in that situation.


    The man immediately leapt forward and examined the planar energy closely, and moments later, he half nodded, and half shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t fully identity it here, but there does appear to be a trace of both elements in there. Then, doesn¡¯t it mean that the perpetrator could be cultivating a similar skill? Shit, that makes things so much worse¡­ can you still use your metal energy?¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± Yi Wei hesitated ¨C she was capable of switching her form of planar energy at will, and thus she had never considered whether she could do it without the advantage of her mysterious characters ¨C and frowned, ¡°I admit, I have never tried. Let me do so now.¡±


    She focused on the energy before her and tried to extract only the metal from the viscous gold and crimson fluid whilst ignoring the characters. It was difficult to simply focus on the task, and not to let her mind resort to the endlessly shifting symbols in the middle of her dantian, as she had gotten so used to that casual action of drawing upon their power that her mind was barely able to imagine doing a number of things without it, especially when it was uncertain whether those things were even possible for the regular person.


    In the end, after a minute of standing still, with her eyes closed, she resorted to sealing away the memories of using the characters and significantly lowering the quantity of planar energy she was dealing with from a large blob of blood to one small droplet of it. Even then, she found herself unable to do anything with it at all, not without relying on the characters, so she gave up.


    ¡°There¡¯s your answer. I¡¯m not sure if this is due to the lack of proper training, the proper technique or simply because it is impossible, but it would be far more likely for the person in question to use earth-type techniques, rather than fire or water,¡± she concluded.


    The others nodded, with the man who was examining her planar energy speaking up first, ¡°Makes sense. Our list is going to go down the drain, but whatever, that¡¯s worth it. Narrowing it down to one of five from every group is much better than the two out of five that we had before, not to mention that they would have been the wrong ones. We¡¯ll need to repeat the search in a different manner, as to not attract attention.¡±


    ¡°Then, let us split up and do this properly, since we¡¯ll need to be leaving soon,¡± Yi Jiazhi said, ¡°We only had a few minutes, so make sure to remember one another¡¯s faces before we leave.¡±

 V1C40: Approaching the End

    They separated soon after, joining the departing groups as if they had been amongst them all this time. It had been decided that they should randomly scan past every person in their surroundings with spiritual will under the pretence of searching for any potential foes hiding in the area, and memorise those who appear to be exuding earth-type ¨C or dual fire and water-type energy, if their theory was incorrect ¨C energy, in order to compile a list once they come back together the next day.


    Yi Wei decided to be more reckless with her own search, as her spiritual will seemed to be more difficult to observe than that of common cultivators, mostly so that she could focus on her own line of thought.


    In her opinion, it was still a mistake to get to the investigation so late into the expedition. Now that so many people had died, if those were the only targets, then they would never find anything from now on, and by the time they return to the Yi District, if the elder hadn¡¯t noticed anything, then they would have no chance to discover the identity of the mysterious assassin. Memory sealing and other methods, while rare, do exist, so even if they did track down the culprit, they would have no guarantee of being able to extract any useful information out of them, or who put them up to it.


    One thing she did approve of was the fact that they were not getting any of the other group leaders involved. No matter who was involved in the assassinations, nor why, the motivation behind it could not be as simple as revenge or something of that nature. It was likely that it had something to do with the expedition, and thus the one who would benefit the most would be the group leaders, who could easily reward the assassin later, no matter which group they were in.


    As a result, if they brought in anyone besides Yi Jiazhi, who initially brought these deaths to their attention, they would significantly increase the likelihood of including the perpetrator in their meetings, allowing the latter to pretend to assist in their investigation while also using the knowledge they gain to guide their assassin away from discovery.


    Why was she, and the other investigators, sure that that there were two individuals involved?


    The group leader would be under too much observation to do anything on their own, but no ordinary member of their group would benefit from killing someone from every group. The first would also receive the most attention from the elder, while the other could limit themselves either to their own group, or to every other group, as even if suspicion of foul play was cast toward them, it would be aimed at their leader, not them.


    ¡®Actually, following that logic, the assassin would have to be from a different group than the one commanding them, as even if they were caught, the one suspected would be the wrong leader, and any deaths in that leader¡¯s group would be interpreted as intentionally drawing the attention away from them,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, looking forward to where the five team leaders walked near one another.


    Yi Jiazhi looked around nervously, attracting the far more subtle attention of Yi Guanyu and Yi Fenwu, who couldn¡¯t help but observe his actions.


    Yi Tai and Yi Zheng were less interested, and instead took their time looking around for potential threats. Nonetheless, they occasionally glanced in Yi Jiazhi¡¯s direction, sometimes by accident and other times simply because he made far too much noise with the constant shifting and shuffling of his robe.


    She had almost begun to consider walking over and tapping him on the shoulder in order to explain to him why his behaviour seemed so suspicious, but, perhaps having been confronted with one too many gaze and glance, he finally calmed down, having switched his focus to staring straight ahead, which was a small improvement.


    ¡®That man is not cut out for subtlety, which makes it all the less likely that he is involved in the assassination issue,¡¯ she decided, ¡®If he was, then he would have accidentally revealed it to everyone by now.¡¯


    Advancing a little closer to him, she reached out with her spiritual will.


    Somewhat unsurprisingly, she was able to catch the man murmuring under his breath, ¡°Yi Guanyu might not be the one, but his person may have been on the outside¡­¡±


    He then proceeded to list off various observations and guesses on everyone near him, only barely keeping his voice quiet enough as to not allow those people to hear him. For those accompanying him, the lower-class members of the family that were part of his group and closest to his cultivation realm, it was extremely embarrassing, but they couldn¡¯t say anything without drawing attention to his mutterings, forcing them to speed up slightly as to attempt to step onto his feet and distract him.


    ¡°What a moron¡­¡±


    ¡°What¡¯re you thinking about, Yi Wei?¡± Yi Bai¡¯s voice emerged from behind her, evidently having heard her murmur.


    Since the last time they saw one another, she had ascended all the way to the seventh stage of the Planar Pool realm, making incredible progress for someone without many resources or, so far as Yi Wei had observed, without as much talent as most rapidly rising geniuses of the Yi family. Far more noticeably than that, however, her chest had somehow grown even further.


    ¡®At the very least, it appears to be at the cost of her expression ¨C it looks even fiercer and more aggressive than before, despite that nice smile,¡¯ she noted, ¡®And, she is an earth cultivator, isn¡¯t she? Might as well include her on the list¡­¡¯


    ¡°Hey, Yi Bai. Had any luck in the past month?¡±


    ¡°Eh, kinda. You might¡¯ve noticed already,¡± Yi Bai grinned, letting out a wisp of earth-type planar energy that then quickly dissipated, ¡°I got my hands on a dissipating planar shard, so I had to absorb it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s nice. So far, your luck hasn¡¯t been half bad,¡± she replied, noting how the woman had somehow progressed at a comparable speed to herself, in spite of the environment not being particularly advantageous to one¡¯s cultivation, ¡°Do you think you¡¯ll accidentally stumble into some great treasure chamber or hidden area with someone¡¯s inheritance when we enter the hidden grounds ¨C provided we do enter the hidden grounds?¡±


    ¡°How the fuck would I know? Hope so. If I do, I can promise that I¡¯ll bring you the least shit thing in there, maybe two if there are a lot of them.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d prefer it if those things were just items that you do not benefit from, like something intended for metal or water cultivators, whichever one I am currently,¡± Yi Wei said, ¡°Though you don¡¯t have to do something like that if you¡¯d prefer to sell those items off instead. Unless I help you get those things, of course, in which case I do want something.¡±


    Yi Bai nodded, ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll do that. By the way, did you get blamed for the deaths again?¡±


    ¡°Thankfully, no. Have they ¨C I mean, has Yi Jiazhi ¨C found someone else to blame, or to pursue?¡± she inquired, due to the strange degree of correlation that appeared to exist between the two.


    ¡°Eh¡­ Not so far as I can tell. That prick¡¯s been surprisingly quiet on the matter as of late,¡± the woman frowned, making that angry look appear even more intense than before, ¡°If not for the fact that his thoughts are more obvious than the influence his dick must have on him, then I would have guessed he had something to do with things all along.¡±


    ¡®So even she has figured things out. Clearly, that gathering is far less secret than they hope, especially considering the fact that Yi Jiazhi is in charge. Had he been literally anyone else, it would have been far more difficult to guess that something was going on.¡¯


    ¡°Anyway, what d¡¯ya think is gonna be in there, in the beam? Who do you think it belonged to?¡±


    ¡°Well, speaking in terms of geography, I seem to recall that this valley is in the same direction as the ancient Kong District was. I¡¯m not sure if this is the correct location for it, but if there was one family that this place could belong to, it would be the Kong family. Besides that, the location of the beam, and the connection to two large illusory arrays, would imply some degree of significance, so even if these are not the hidden grounds, then they have to be something worthwhile,¡± Yi Wei explained, pretending that her theory regarding the Kong family wasn¡¯t founded purely based on her encounter with the illusory replica of Kong Dong Ming, whose techniques she was unable to replicate after all of this time, ¡°Though it is a little strange to have such an enormous beam pointing in the direction of the hidden grounds, it is important to remember that their initial function wouldn¡¯t have been as something for us to loot, but rather as a safe place for the family, or perhaps a treasury to challenge their children with, so it would make perfect sense to point it out to them once they had completed the other tasks.¡±


    ¡°Eh? What other tasks? Was that illusory realm arena thing a task?¡±


    ¡°Who knows? Maybe we were caught in the traps, and someone else managed to activate all four of those beacons that created the beam,¡± Yi Wei suggested, ¡°After all, three of the four had somehow been activated without our knowledge, and when our group got to the fourth, it seemed to complete on its own.¡±


    Yi Bai nodded, though it didn¡¯t seem like she had understood much, as her eyes clearly radiated confusion while they scoured their surroundings.


    ¡®Actually, this is something to consider. The first, second and fourth Lock Obelisk were easy to access, relatively speaking. When I had entered the third illusory array, however, there were countless illusory realms within, and several layers of challenge, not to mention that strange cave with the sobbing woman. Why was it so different from the rest, and which level of difficulty and complexity will be present within the Kong Holy Grounds?¡¯ she asked herself during the break in the conversation, gazing towards the bright purple beam in the distance.


    They continued walking until the end of the day, when it was decided that it would be better to be rested but somewhat late to enter the beam of light, rather than getting there early but without much energy to combat whatever threats might have been drawn to it, or out of it.


    Once the camp was set up, everyone hurried to fall asleep as quickly as they could so that they could rise as early as possible the next morning.


    For a reason that she didn¡¯t bother explaining, Yi Bai decided to settle down her tent near Yi Wei, where they ended up having a small snack together while having what might be described as ¡®girl talk¡¯, which consisted mostly of discussion about their hair, make-up, bodies and whatever else they managed to include within their list of topics.


    Ultimately, they fell asleep within their own tents, their stomachs full of dried meat and bread.


    Although cultivators had many advantages, they were unable to preserve food for long periods of time without accessing space-related treasures, which could be made in such a fashion that they do not maintain the passage of time, or otherwise allow for it to progress at a rate different to what the world outside experiences. The best example of this is the spatial storage item once used by the Yi City, and is one of the few that is known to cease the progression of time entirely.


    Lesser treasures are few and far between, though perhaps the most famous one belongs to the Ning District, where the Horn of Wealth is passed on to the Patriarch of the Ning family. There are many rumours regarding the contents of the horn, but no-one had ever revealed the truth.


    All that was known was the fact that it was not something to be shown to the world lightly. Perhaps it had an immeasurably priceless artefact, hence the name of the Horn of Wealth, or a collection of cultivation materials or techniques, or, according to an old rumour by the descendant of the Chen family, all it contains is an ancient set of great arts materials, like a pill refining furnace, regular furnace and anvil, inscription knife and surface, formation array flags ¨C the intended tool for constructing arrays, rather than random rocks and objects found lying around ¨C and a set of talisman papers and ink.


    None of those rumours were ever confirmed, even when the Horn of Wealth was once taken from the Patriarch and carried around for over twenty years by a thief.


    For whatever reason, this thief never spoke about the things he found within, and even more strangely, he returned the horn after those twenty years, without any reports of anything within having been lost or taken. That same thief was also found dead less than a month afterwards, with seeming signs of self-inflicted harm.


    It was all rather peculiar, but the undeniable fact was that it was a spatial artefact, and one that could slow down time on the objects within, with the theorised rate of time being six minutes outside being equal to one minute on the inside.


    Even with such an impressive item, it would only be possible to preserve food hunted or found recently, as anything that could last a day would only last a total of six days within the horn, if it could even store food. With such an item, it would be impossible to bring along enough food to eat something fresh every single day for two years. As they rushed here without proper preparation, they lacked the supplies needed to prepare a proper meal, and thus they were forced to rely on what was left of their initial dried food supplies, which they had brought along all the way from the Yi District, and made a little more with the spare meat from their hunts.


    The next day, they awoke and set out the moment that their leaders issued the order. That happened more than four hours after she awoke, but she still pretended to be sleepy as to not appear strange.


    Having completed a great deal of the journey on their previous day of intense walking, it only took a few hours, during which the initial faint dawn light faded and was replaced with the steadier, brighter sunlight of the afternoon.


    It was then that they finally saw the beam up close. Just as expected, it was absolutely enormous, the diameter being equal to a large lake, with it being centred on a hill which seemed far too round and smooth to be natural, to the extent that it was already noted down on every map that had been made of the area, both before and after their arrival. Now, however, in the middle of that endless flood of purple, was a large, floating globe of energy, undulating wildly, without any degree of sense.


    Within, a small sliver of light could be seen, bursting out every now and then to illuminate the grass with an amber glow. Yi Wei channelled a wisp of planar energy into both eyes and saw the glimpse of another world on the inside, with dark blue floors and walls and a single, bright point of orange somehow illuminating all of it without any shadows.


    The sights, despite how limited her vision of them was, were curious, with perfectly straight edges on every single surface, and with every surface seeming to be made on a perfectly square grid.


    This style of construction, besides being highly improbable in the real world to due the limitations of architecture and those who design it, was never seen outside of illusory realms, and they appeared within them at all due to the issue of creating worlds with miniature spaces.


    If a blacksmith, inscription master and array arranger came together to create a spatial realm that was identical to the world around it, they could do as little as taking a small portion of reality and placing it into the spatial realm, but the moment one wanted to change the world¡¯s structure in some way, placing a chunk of reality into that world meant risking the collapse of one or the other, the consequences of which can range from something as simple as requiring a quick repair of the spatial array to the destruction of everything involved in its creation, in addition to those who were making it and a large chunk of terrain around the workshop used.


    Essentially, it was far, far safer, albeit a little more difficult, to create a world from scratch. It did not need to be as complex as reality and could be focused on performing the one function they needed to perform, rather than existing in a complete state when the vast majority of the world¡¯s natural properties were superfluous.


    This philosophy gave rise to the simplified nature of spatial realms. Why recreate gravity in its entirety, when you can apply it only to humans and allow the rest of the world to float casually within a void?


    What was the reason for recreating the complexity of any material or object, when it was far simpler and far easier to create something without any restrictions or limitations, and to assign it only the properties that were needed, while simply stating other ones? For instance, if someone wanted to create an arena for themselves to train and battle, then why consider the durability of the floor, or how it would interact with the cold, when it would be far quicker to simply craft a flat plane that is unbreakable without changing the laws of the world itself?


    In fact, there is quite a lot of laziness and timesaving within the many practises of cultivators and cultivation, as well as the great arts, which, despite their name, had quite a number of rushed traditions that significantly harm the overall product.


    Back to the events at hand, their procession stopped at the very edge of the beam of light, for they could not tell, without pushing someone in, whether this violet glow would be harmful to them.


    ¡°So, what do we do now?¡± Yi Jiazhi asked, almost certainly to suppress the inner excitement and relief from finally being able to distract himself and the others, ¡°Do we have someone here that wants to end their lives?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for any of that,¡± Yi Guanyu said, ¡°Yi Ping, did you find something suitable?¡±


    A man stepped out of Yi Guanyu¡¯s group with an object that was covered with a dark cloth, which he removed to reveal a recently manufactured cage that held a small, meek planar rabbit of the first realm.


    ¡°Yes, I did.¡±


    ¡°Logically speaking, this shouldn¡¯t have any particular target, so if it specifically harms those with planar energy, or living beings, then this animal should be harmed as well,¡± Yi Guanyu explained to the watchful gazes of the other four groups, ¡°If it does not suffer, then it can be safe to assume that we won¡¯t be hurt by the light.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough. It¡¯ll be your pet that gets harmed, so go ahead! Toss that fluffy thing in there,¡± Yi Fenwu ordered, making her way over to Yi Tai, presumably to stuff his arm in between her breasts again.


    After receiving a nod of affirmation from his leader, that man moved to the front, stepping up to the very edge of the beam before opening the cage and, rather forcefully, tossing out the planar beast within.


    It entered the violet light amidst a collective holding of breath¡­ and was unharmed.


    ¡°Phew~, that was tense¡­ for some reason. This means that we can go in, right?¡± Yi Jiazhi asked, being hesitant to enter before someone else.


    ¡°Yes, it does. We must examine the entrance closely first,¡± stated Yi Tai, reaching into the violet with his free hand. It was also unharmed, so he stepped forward at the same time as Yi Fenwu, who was still clinging onto him.


    The others, having seen that none of them suffered from negative effects, followed suit, entering the purple glow and letting it wash over them. The last person to enter was Yi Wei, who was wary of the light but also wanted as much time as possible to investigate it and figure out whether it was in any way connected to the violet energy generated by the Kong Mental Arts, but her scanning via spiritual will provided little information other than the fact that this was mostly a visual aid, rather than a siphon of energy into the hidden grounds.


    Just like the third Lock Obelisk array, the undulating globe that functioned as the entrance to the Kong Holy Ground was different from every direction. With every step one took, the sight they saw through the small gap within the portal changed, though almost all of them contained the same square surfaces and all could see that one bright spot of light within.


    ¡°How should we do things, darling? Would you like my group and yours to come together and proceed through one entrance, or¡­¡± she looked around, then spoke in a quieter voice, ¡°Would you like to be alone with-¡±


    ¡°It would be best for everyone to split up and go through each entrance. Whoever finds any treasure can have first pick of it!¡± Yi Zheng interrupted them and declared, ¡°I believe this will be for the best.¡±


    He looked at the other four leaders, clearly expecting them to agree, which they eventually did, though not without pouting, silence, confusing murmuring and a few dozen luck rituals from Yi Fenwu, Yi Tai, Yi Jiazhi and Yi Guanyu, in that precise order.

 V1C41: Kong Holy Grounds, Part 1

    There was a total of twenty-eight entrances that could be accessed, and so twenty-eight lines formed in front of each entrance, with a few people standing in each one. The leaders stood at the very front of a few of the lines, while Yi Wei found a place at the back and did her best not to look directly at the openings, as they had a shape that could all too easily be likened to a certain part of the female anatomy.


    She wasn¡¯t sure whether she wasn¡¯t comfortable with looking at it due to the memories of the Thunder Lord, or her own mind, as it was rather difficult to tell the two apart due to the strongest memories of the former still being vibrant within her thoughts, but the suggestive imagery was easy to avoid for now, so she did exactly that.


    Looking to the side, a few lines away from her, she saw Yi Bai standing without a clear expression on her face, seeming to be in a daze.


    The others showed a mixture of different emotions and faces, with some, Yi Fenwu included, showing a clear look of excitement and eagerness, while others were more apprehensive, amongst which Yi Wei saw a few of those who had fought in the third Lock Obelisk¡¯s arenas.


    Some displayed a mixture of feelings, cycling from one to another without any clear reason, their eyes darting back and forth as they desperately tried to see more and more of the world within.


    As she glanced past the crowd, she saw a young man, younger than most members of the expedition by a couple of years, also limiting his viewing of the entrance to the hidden grounds, with slightly blushed cheeks. ¡®So I¡¯m not the only one, then¡­ Good. This shows that I haven¡¯t gone completely mad just yet, and that I have some hope of recovery, or achieving a reasonable degree of mental maturity where, regardless of what I feel towards certain imagery, my mind and body will not get confused as a result of it.¡¯


    Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t seek out such a state just yet, not while the matter of certain overwhelming memories was not yet settled, so she simply looked forward and awaited instruction from the group leaders, who waited for the elder to appear.


    In total, it took three minutes before he found a suitable branch to perch upon and reveal his presence.


    ¡°What are you people doing?¡± was the first thing he said, his nose still red and his speech still slightly slurred, as if he had been drinking recently, ¡°You don¡¯t need my permission to do everything.¡±


    He appeared to vanish, though Yi Wei was able to catch a glimpse of him entering the gateway on his own, doing his very best to conceal that action. Whether this was motivated by greed, or a desire to secretly safeguard those who will enter after him from the shadows, she couldn¡¯t be certain, but the fact that he made sure to hide his presence with even greater care than usual suggested the former explanation more so than the latter.


    ¡°Very well then, everyone, let¡¯s go!¡± the team leaders called out, and charged into the entrances of the hidden grounds.


    Everyone else followed them, and the first wave of people entered the gateways together, with some of the larger individuals needing to pull the edges of the entrances apart in order to make it through them, only adding to the unfortunate imagery that Yi Wei was trying to ignore. The next in line were about to follow them, but they quickly realised that the world in front of them changed, and that there was no trace of those who had gone in front of them there. Every scene in front of them was new, and the one that Yi Wei was able to see previously, with square dark tiles arranged in a geometric fashion, had changed to a scene of a small island floating in a dark void, lit by the ever-present orange light.


    Those who were next in line hesitated for a moment, but then stepped forward nonetheless, making their way through the portals with some wariness and hesitation. Once they disappeared into the shifting mass of gateways, the scenes changed once more, and continued doing so with every further entry into the hidden grounds.


    In a minute, it was Yi Wei¡¯s turn, and the scene in front of her was now a large globe of flame, floating a small distance above the flat, dark square tiles that made up the ground. Behind it, as always, was that same point of light, which appeared to not be bound to any specific physical location, instead seeming to be a law of the world, made for the creators to be able to avoid bothering with concerns regarding lighting every single area they created.


    ¡®So far, things are as Kong Dong Ming had described. Now, I wonder how to access the true treasures of this realm. Do I just walk into those¡­ entrances? Wait, that doesn¡¯t sound right either¡­¡¯


    She shook her head and advanced by a single step, stopping a few inches from her gateway of choice. To be sure that she wasn¡¯t missing anything, she walked around the pulsing mass and made sure that none of other doors had anything that would suggest the presence of the proper entrance for the holder of the Lock Obelisk keys, and returned to the first entrance she stood in front of.


    After breathing in deeply, breathing out and then shutting her eyes, she leapt into the portal.


    For a moment, there was a sensation of great warmth, but it vanished immediately, being replaced with a state of neither cold nor warmth, more like the total absence of temperature and humidity. Her feet landed onto a hard surface, after which she reopened her eyes and took a look around.


    What she saw before and after jumping into the hidden grounds did not match. Where there previously was a ball of flame, she now saw four doors, with two to her left, one to her right, and one directly in front of her. Above each door, floating freely in the void, there was a portion of a symbol that Yi Wei recognised quickly ¨C the round key markings, matching those on her wrist. The first door on the left had a quarter of it, the one on the right had one half, the second on the left had three quarters, and the one in front contained the full symbol.


    These doorways were completely dark and showed nothing even with the usage of the Third Eye.


    ¡®This is the true treasure of the Kong Holy Grounds? I assume I can go into any of the doors at any time, considering the fact that I have all four keys, but as of late, I¡¯ve been feeling a certain degree of dread¡­ As a cultivator blessed by the heavens with spiritual will, I should put trust into such feelings, though I don¡¯t quite know what that dread means. Am I in danger, is the expedition in danger, and how should I be dealing with it?¡¯ she asked herself, looking around at the doors in no particular order.


    Before she had a chance to consider some of the sillier ideas, like tossing a stone into the air and seeing where it rolls towards, the natural realisation came to her that the most valuable objects, no matter what they may be, would be contained within the last door. It was, after all, the only one that would require the cooperation of all four key fragments to access.


    ¡®However, this does raise the question of the purpose behind having four individual doors. Depending on the people that collect these keys, and their allegiances, some doors may be inaccessible, and I don¡¯t have a clue regarding what may happen if one of the key holders dies inside or outside of the Kong Holy Grounds. Can a key be retaken by someone else? Does it get passed on to the killer, or to the nearest human? Well, whatever the answer, I can try and investigate later. I¡¯m already worried about not being able to access one or more of the doors, so if I waste any more time, I may lose out on more treasure,¡¯ she thought to herself, ignoring the fact that her mind had processed her every thought in under a few seconds, ¡®The last door it is, then the three-key door, then the two-key and the one-key doors, assuming that the value of the items within is in ascending order, and does not follow some other form of logic, like sorting them according to the importance placed upon them by the Kong family¡­¡¯


    Yi Wei readied herself for combat, as to prepare for any traps or obstacles that may still be in her way, and approached the furthest doorway, touching its surface with her hand.


    Although it appeared to completely impassable, the moment she tried to pierce the darkness, her hand went straight through, to whatever was on the other side, and when she pulled it back, there was nothing stopping it.


    It felt strange, but ultimately harmless, so she took a cautious step into the darkness.


    Blood.


    An enormous wall covered in blood.


    It stood right in front of her, with a single sentence standing out amidst the endless scrawling on the dark, smooth surface.


    ¡®Help us.¡¯


    Around, there were other messages, left in the same liquid.


    ¡®Forgive us.¡¯


    ¡®Please return to us.¡¯


    ¡®The family is doomed.¡¯


    ¡®We are sorry for not seeing your potential.¡¯


    ¡®Return to us, Shi Meng.¡¯


    ¡®Shi Meng? Kong Shi Meng, the prodigal child?¡¯ Yi Wei recalled, ¡®Was this written at the time that he left the family? Did they undergo some sort of terrible strife quickly after creating the replica of Kong Dong Ming? Did they hope for this Kong Shi Meng to find this wall soon after?¡¯


    Although this sight made her completely speechless, she forced herself to advance and take a closer look at the wall and the writing on it.


    ¡®Our deeds were unfair and unjustified. We beg for your forgiveness.¡¯


    The stench of iron flooded her nose quickly upon nearing it, but it did confirm one simple fact ¨C this pocket realm, these hidden grounds, did not have the fundamental laws that would allow for the typical drying of blood. Unfortunately, that also meant that it was impossible to date this particular wall of blood, nor figure out whether it was something left behind by the ancient Kong family, or perhaps by someone else, as a method of misleading those who came upon it.


    ¡®We will not bring up old grievances. Please, save us.¡¯


    However, that theory could only be true if the Lock Obelisks had previously been accessed and then rose up again after the hidden grounds were exited by their previous visitors, in which case she might as well say goodbye to any possibility of acquiring things from any of the doors, since the people who could access the final door would also be able to access the other doors as well.


    ¡®Since I can¡¯t see anything here, I assume they would be behind this¡­ memorial? Tombstone? What would this count as?¡¯ she wondered to herself, while slowly making her way around it.


    At the back of this chamber with invisible walls, there were five small rectangular pedestals, four of which were slightly in front of the middle one, with two on either side of it. All five held a single tome, with the two on the right reading ¡®Ancestral Call¡¯ and ¡®Ancestral Eyes¡¯, while the two on the left read ¡®Light of Divinity¡¯ and ¡®Touch of God¡¯. It took her a second to recall where she had heard these names before, but when she did, she was far more eager to see the title of the last book, as she could, with enough time, replicate all four of them, but she had not witnessed the echo of Kong Dong Ming using a fifth skill.


    In a way, the title of this manual was far simpler than the rest, with no allusions to divinity or to the ancestors, instead reading as follows, ¡®The Gilded Library¡¯.


    ¡®To be frank, this doesn¡¯t sound so much like a technique as it does a blueprint of an architect,¡¯ Yi Wei remarked to herself, thinking back to the Ancestral Hall of the Yi District, which was covered in immortal gold, ¡®Is this a cultivation technique to work alongside the combat arts around it, or could this be a mental art?¡¯


    She did not reach for it immediately, but instead checked all around it for any signs of traps, arrays and inscriptions, finding none. Even then, she reached out to the book carefully, and touched as little of it as possible while she flipped it open.


    Immediately, the characters began to dance around in her vision, blurring to the point that she was barely able to understand a single one of them.


    ¡®This is akin to the effect that skills close to the Dao to have, just¡­ different. I wonder-¡¯


    A strange jingle, like that of a small bell, interrupted her thoughts, and forced her spiritual will into her dantian. There, she witnessed the mysterious characters changing shape into something utterly unknown and unrecognisable to her. Perhaps it was the likeness of a beast, or some humanoid creature, or perhaps it had no similarity to a living thing at all. Regardless of that, she felt the veil over the words of the Gilded Library skill being lifted, allowing her to read them effortlessly.


    ¡®Thou that readeth this tome, if thou art worthy of carrying our legacy, thine eyes shalt be clear and thine mind shalt be ready. To mould thine mind without proper preparation is the utmost folly, so shalt thee know.¡¯


    It started much like the Kong Mental Arts, albeit the language used was older and a bit of a chore to read as a result. Nonetheless, she pressed on, and after the introduction, it switched right into the simplest language available at the time of creation, losing all superfluity and focusing purely on the essence of the technique.


    ¡®That is the mark of someone who had truly understood the technique they are teaching. In comparison to some of the manuals that can be found in the Yi family¡¯s technique library, this is much better,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, flipping through the manual quickly and committing every single page to mind. There was still no way of telling if there was some limit to the time she had to read, so instead of carefully comprehend this technique now, she would do so later. ¡®As it turns out, this is a mental technique. Besides strengthening the mind, this also allows one to store all knowledge and memories in a sort of library, where they can be accessed at any time, and at any level of immersion. If practised correctly and to a high standard, I should be able to finally get rid of the influence of the Thunder Lord and, if it turns out I have certain inclinations, I can access the appropriate memories to recall the so-called skills and techniques that he possessed in bed, or wherever else.¡¯


    As the book was not particularly thick, she finished it in a minute, and moved onto the other four.


    By that point, the mysterious characters had reset to their previous position, displaying the technique for breaking into the eight stage of Planar Pool, and even though those four techniques also had a similar sort of blur over all of their words, she found them much easier to read.


    Whether this was due to them being on a lower level than the Gilded Library, or due to her having gained similar knowledge, she took advantage of that fact and also finished them in a matter of minutes, realising in the process that she had been overthinking all four of the techniques used by the echo of Kong Dong Ming, as well as a number of other skills that she had encountered in the past. For instance, the golden lightning that had formed within Yi Yaling had previously seemed too complex to replicate, but now she had a little more to work with.


    If she had a few days of access to Yi Yaling¡¯s planar energy, she would currently have more than 50% certainty of compiling a suitable technique for her, whereas previously she wouldn¡¯t have given herself anything above ten percent or lower in terms of her chances. In other words, five ancient techniques allowed her to greatly improve her knowledge, and greatly boost her abilities.


    ¡®It does help that these are clearly not designed for someone of the second realm, but rather for the fifth realm. Just like how learning the Storm Blade Wreathing skill greatly improved my abilities, learning about something even more powerful and complex than one¡¯s current comprehension always helps.¡¯


    Once she completed the last manual, she shut it and turned around, looking for any other treasures that have been left behind.


    She looked around the great bloodied wall, touched every wall and floor tile, even attempted to leap out of the invisible chamber with what could be described as unfortunate results ¨C mostly for her hair, as her skull was tough enough to endure a small bump into an invisible force ¨C after which Yi Wei was able to come to a conclusion.


    ¡®There¡¯s nothing else. Huh¡­¡¯ she sighed, ¡®Whoever this was originally meant for must not have been lacking in material goods, or else none of them made it into the Kong Holy Grounds. That¡¯s a shame, as I could have done with anything that could withstand my cosmic energy.¡¯


    Whatever the explanation for this lack of treasures was, it was out of her control, so she switched her attention to the one thing she was able to find, which was right on the back of the great memorial wall. A set of small round portals floated in the air, closely to the wall, and displayed various positions within the hidden grounds, including a few things that Yi Wei had seen through the entrances to the Kong Holy Grounds.


    Some were not particularly intriguing to witness, showing a calm emptiness, as if these hidden grounds had never been touched in all of time, but others were a little less pleasant to witness.


    There were scenes with stains of blood, though they were not too striking in comparison to the enormous painting of blood on the other side of the wall. However, as she kept looking, she saw more and more of the scenes and of blood, until she came across a dead body. It belonged to someone from the Yi family, and the only visible wounds numbered two ¨C one in the abdomen, where vague planar energy was flowing out, and another in the eye, cutting right through to the brain. On an image close to that one, there was a nigh identical image, except she was able to recognise this person as an individual from Yi Jiazhi¡¯s group.


    Then, she saw another, and another, as if someone had intentionally gone through and lined up the images in the fashion of some sort of collage, perhaps in order to infuriate whoever came upon them. At first, she was not too moved, as she did not have a personal connection to these people, and lacked any clear ability to do anything about their unfortunate demise, but as the number of corpses climbed all the way to thirty-seven, she felt that it was impossible not to act.


    ¡®Before I do anything, I should consider my own capabilities. This assassin is likely to be near the peak of the second realm, or in the lower end of the third realm, so, while I could inflict some harm on them, I could only do so if they lacked the ability to evade my observation. If that is not the case, then I need to quickly raise my strength,¡¯ Yi Wei concluded, ¡®and the best option I currently have is to create a new cultivation technique and merge it into my mysterious character technique, as it will grant me whatever properties I manage to add into it, no matter which type of planar energy I display.¡¯


    She went through the many techniques within her mind, trying to see if any of them could come together without too much effort on her part, but as she had previously learned with the Disciple of Iron technique, combining two elements was not as simple as throwing two random techniques together, not even with the aid of the characters.


    Instead, her gaze was drawn back towards the Gilded Library tome, as well as the four manuals around it.


    Although they all looked similar to one another, there was a second enormous difference between it and the combat techniques. While all four of them followed the element of water, the Gilded Library was exactly the same as the Kong Mental Arts, in that it had neither an image that inspired it, nor any trace of an element to influence. In other words, they were planar techniques, using the raw planar energy of the world instead of converting it into an elemental form.


    ¡®With only those two skills ¨C the Red Phantom Flood is too deadly to be mentioned , and who knows how that technique works ¨C I can¡¯t imagine making something stable, but my chances are yet again better than they would have been before, and so long as my characters accept it, I won¡¯t need to maintain it for longer than a second.¡¯


    Yi Wei sat down on the ground and concentrated. She flipped through the pages of the Gilded Library within her mind, taking in every detail she hadn¡¯t previously paid attention to, and then began her cultivation of it.


    Her vision moved into the depths of her mind, where the endless seas of memories and knowledge floated with little reason or structure. What little logic was present originated from her attempts to seal away the thoughts of the Thunder Lord, so most of his memories now resided within a certain spot far away from the rest of them. In addition, some of the thoughts relating to the mysterious characters hovered amidst the rest in a slightly more organised fashion due to her previous meddling.


    From what little she could garner from the Gilded Library manual, she had a slightly larger quantity of thoughts and memories to gather than most, though it was difficult to establish the exact difference due to the lacking descriptions within the technique regarding examples, preferring to focus on the actual instructions of the skill.


    ¡®Now, I need to sort all of these into the mental library, and in order to do that I have to conceptualise the most potent idea of a library that I can. If I am familiar with any suitable library, I should use that one¡­ I think the best one would be the library that had contained the various miscellaneous texts that I had spent much of my time studying back when I thought that I wouldn¡¯t have any chances of advancing to the second stage within a reasonable time. I have a solid impression of it, so it will be easiest to recreate¡­¡¯ she considered.


    Before she was able to begin the construction, she felt a memory originating from the mysterious characters entering her mind.


    It was the image of a grand library, covered in golden ornaments, and with such a great number of floors that it stretched into the endless void and was concealed by a golden fog. All shelves were filled to the brim with books of all sizes, sorted according to some arcane principle.


    At the entrance, there was a set of characters unknown to her, but their golden contours radiated profundity, and it felt that if she was able to get her hands on a single one of those books within, she could surpass the heavens themselves. Even if all she was able to enter the library but was not permitted to read anything, the aura of knowledge seemed sufficient to grant her every insight she was currently lacking.


    However, she hesitated upon witnessing this, and, with great effort, chose to turn away.


    ¡®This¡­ I cannot use this. It may look impressive, but I know nothing of this place, and it is far too impressive for me and my perception of myself. For me to use something that does not come from my mind would essentially mean forsaking all possibility of development in this technique, as I could never improve on something that appears to be closer to an ideal than any kind of reality,¡¯ she decided, her thoughts returning to the small library she had often sat in four years ago, ¡®That impressive library may offer me greatest advantages at the beginning, but the library that I know can be enlarged, improved, redesigned, and I will still understand it, while I have no chance of doing so with something so great from the start. However, I can make this dream the first idea to be stored in my mental library.¡¯


    She called upon her mental energy and drove it into her mind, following the instructions of the Gilded Library technique and assembling the outline of a small library in the middle of her mental landscape.


    With how much time she had spent there, she was able to build it up all the way from the ground, creating every individual part of the foundations, the walls, the two floors and the many bookshelves, not all of which fit perfectly together with one another. Some were new, due to having been replaced a few years before her first arrival at the library, while others were ancient and would creak as loud as thunder whenever they were touched, whether by a human hand or by a faint breeze.


    Some shelves stood taller than others, and a few had to be cut in two in order to prevent them from breaking into the floor above, and one was even laid across the floor, supposedly having come from a small passing tribe of human giants.


    It did not measure up to the library offered by mysterious characters in any way, but she was as familiar with it as she was with her own home, allowing her to construct it with her mental energy in a matter of minutes. Once it was done, she immediately transformed the image of that golden library into a piece of paper, which she then placed on one of the better shelves.


    Yi Wei looked outside of the library, through the lone, cloudy window, and onto the countless thoughts, memories and ideas that hovered around her mind. She reached out with her mental strength, grabbing onto the nearest floating memory, which she also converted into a book and opened it onto a random page. There, she saw one of the Thunder Lord Meng¡¯s memories from his adulthood, where he fought with a man while using an early version of his Storm Blade Wreathing technique, which was primarily a fire technique at the time.


    When she looked out onto the sea of memories, then back onto the book in her mental hand, she was able to recognise the difference between two groups of thoughts, ¡®I didn¡¯t realise that I had missed such a large number of his ideas, but now I can see that his memories are somewhat dim and flat, perhaps because they do not belong to me or his shadow, which originally passed them on to me, while mine are vibrant and three-dimensional, almost certainly due to the fact that they are mine, originally, and were experienced in their entirety by me. Let¡¯s test this theory.¡¯


    She reached out and grabbed onto another memory, opening it up to find the sight of a large bathing pool, with vast quantities of steam failing to do anything to obscure the naked female bodies within it.


    Her face turned red as she shut the book and placed it on the most hidden shelf within the library.


    ¡®Why is that such a vibrant memory of mine, and why am I finding it now of all times? I am about to seek out a powerful assassin that has already slaughtered a great number of my family¡¯s expedition group, but my brain just happened to pull out something stupid like this?¡¯ Yi Wei brought that memory out of her mind, focusing on the rest of her mental landscape, ¡®At the very least I should be able to get rid of the man¡¯s influence soon. Come, archived memories of the Seventh of Meng!¡¯


    The large collection of thoughts in the far reaches of her mind shifted, and floated into the middle, where her library was placed. When they neared it, they suddenly accelerated and shrunk down to the size of an average book, passing through the door and window as they soared onto the shelves.


    As they did, she suddenly recalled every detail about that particular memory, only without the feelings stored within overtaking her like they did before. She was able to witness all sorts of scenarios, but only as stories, as words on a page, instead of the vibrant memories that they had been before. Even if she looked to the various unfortunate memories of his experience in bed, they were not as striking as before.


    With the Thunder Lord Meng section of the library filling up, she felt an energy slowly welling up within her brain, akin to the violet energy of the Kong Mental Arts.


    ¡®Alright. With this and that other energy, I should be able to create something.¡¯

 V1C42: Kong Holy Grounds, Part 2

    Yi Wei took her time to slowly examine that energy while it was still present within her head. With every observation that she made, a new line was added to a mental manual that she had created specifically for it. As she proceeded, she noticed that a large number of things that she typically forgot, the seemingly insignificant details, could now be remembered via the Gilded Library, increasing her overall memory capacity two-fold, and allowing her to notice a small collection of things that she would have otherwise looked over.


    On their own, these things were not too relevant, but together, she found that they added up to some rather significant details. Because of these, she was able to create a concept of a planar-based technique much more quickly than she had anticipated.


    ¡®Alright, before even attempting to use it, I must compare it with my mysterious character-based technique, or else I will risk exploding or experiencing a form of planar energy deviation.¡¯


    While allowing her library to slowly sort out all of the other ideas within her head, she brought herself out of her mind and to reality, where she briefly looked onto the scenes on the wall. Her eyes were immediately drawn to one particular point, where she saw a familiar face. The elder who had followed them into the hidden grounds fought with a darkened figure, obscured in an impenetrable layer of darkness.


    Despite the man¡¯s immense cultivation, he had already suffered three significant wounds on his body and was slowly getting pushed back by the great mass of shadow.


    ¡®Well, shit. This is worse than I thought,¡¯ Yi Wei thought as she watched the battle leave her vision, ¡®I had anticipated him or her to be within the third realm, but this shows that they are capable of competing with someone in the upper fourth realm, even if that is simply due to their techniques being most suited to countering attacks, rather than withstanding or dodging them.


    This means that I have to hurry up and create the most powerful form of planar energy that I can, regardless of the danger it may pose, or else this assassin is almost certain to kill me the moment they come across me.¡¯


    In order to accelerate her thoughts, she activated the Kong Mental Arts, observing as its energy mixed with that of the Gilded Library. The space around the two mixing energies seemed to blur and distort, though no actual harm was done, and she did not allow herself to overlook even a single detail while she noted down the process of the energies mixing within her mental library, quickly incorporating everything from it that she could.


    When there was nothing else to document, she looked towards the book that represented the Red Phantom Flood skill. Although she was not sufficiently reckless to practise it again, she still opened it and tried to incorporate every small detail that she could without causing an instant destruction of her cultivation.


    The moment that was done, she sent those books back into their shelves and looked only onto the new, Mysterious Planar sub-technique.


    She didn¡¯t need to show it to anyone else to know that it would be considered completely insane for anyone to practise her creation. This wasn¡¯t simply due to their lack of cosmic energy, nor due to their comparatively weaker bodies, but due to the properties of the technique seeming to be more appropriate for a deadly poison more so than a cultivation technique. In the worst-case scenario, anyone practising this skill would instantly die due to the explosion of their dantian, and even in the best-case scenario, if a person did not have access to a purified planar aperture and strengthened body, this planar-type energy would still eat through them in seconds.


    However, this wasn¡¯t something she had a choice about, as anything less volatile would not be beneficial in terms of a power increase. At the same time, she did not want to end her life in vain, so she considered things for a minute and stood up, heading to the exit.


    ¡®This area may have been designed for a genius, who was already powerful enough, but the other doorways may lead to something more suited to regular people¡­ if there is something behind them at all. Logically speaking, they wouldn¡¯t have bothered to make the other three if there wasn¡¯t something there, as the only person who they would have intended to see them would have been their Kong Shi Meng, so there must be something here,¡¯ Yi Wei reasoned, exiting the fourth door and returning to the small chamber.


    She headed straight for the third door and passed through it without much difficulty.


    It did not contain another bloodied wall, but amongst numerous piles of materials and items lying about, there were two large planar stones, filled to the brim with energy.


    ¡®Well, well. I cannot carry them out of here, but advancing in my cultivation would be greatly beneficial, since it would give me a brief moment of guaranteed safety during which I can convert my energy into planar energy for that short while that I need,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, picking up both stones and bringing them over to the fourth door, behind the wall covered in blood, before exiting again.


    This time, she went into the second room, and scoured it for resources. Unfortunately, it did not contain much beyond more crafting materials, all of which she would need a lot of time in order to process and use, meaning that she had no use for them.


    She found a few planar shards, which she collected and also threw into the fourth room, then went into the first room.


    Ancient pills, low and medium-grade artefacts and far more lined the various shelves on the walls, but most of them were either useless to her, or she was unable to identify them due to their old age. Out of that large collection, she chose a few throwing knives, which could be transformed into explosives whenever needed via cosmic energy, collected the few remnants of planar shards that she was able to find, and returned to her original seat in the fourth room.


    ¡®With this, I can guarantee an increase in one stage, and have a high likelihood of getting two, which will put me at the edge of the third realm. In addition to the planar technique, if it works, I should be able to put up a fight against that assassin. Since the detonation of a middle-grade artefact should, logically, cause a much more powerful explosion, I will likely possess a means of attacking them as well as defending, and the first time it happens, it should catch them off-guard,¡¯ she thought, placing her hands over the planar stones, ¡®Now, focus, Yi Wei, focus and don¡¯t kill yourself.¡¯


    Tapping into the stones with her spiritual will, she made the energy within rise up and into her body, where she quickly absorbed it and transformed it into her own energy. The pool of planar energy within her body quickly rose, and within minutes, her planar aperture was filled to the brim, and the energy began to tremble as her breakthrough neared.


    Her power burst out of her body twice, forming the great crystalline armour twice without any clear reason nor logic behind it, and even as it slowly settled again, the cosmic energy began to increase in quantity as it slowly rose to the tipping point of the ninth stage of the Planar Pool realm.


    The two planar stones were nearly empty, so she nudged one towards the other and used that same hand to take every planar shard and hold them in a closed fist.


    Their sharp edges were able to cut ever so slightly into her skin, but that was what she intended.


    As her blood slowly dripped onto the violet shards, she pulled on the planar energy within, absorbing it a dozen times faster than she otherwise could have done, flooding her meridians and then her planar aperture. It was rapidly converted from regular violet energy into cosmic energy, with seven colours of nebulae glowing within.


    Yi Wei wasn¡¯t sure whether there was any correlation between the energies and elements she had available, as the exact colours and shapes of the constellations seemed to differ whenever she looked upon them, but at this exact moment, mid-way through the breakthrough, there were seven distinct shades within the stars: orange-red, crimson, brown, blue, silver, flickering blue and green, mixing with one another to create all sorts of colours. Additionally, if she was to apply some creative interpretations to the shapes of the fields of stars, they could be said to resemble symbols for those elements.


    Further adding to that particular theory, the stars that could represent flame and metal were perhaps the brightest, correlating with her ownership of powerful techniques like the Scalding Torch as well as her practise of the Thunder Lord¡¯s skills, which also involve the element of fire. There wasn¡¯t much relevance to her current situation, but she noted it down mentally nonetheless just in case it turned out to be important.


    The moment that she felt the second breakthrough approach, she opened her mental book for the Mysterious Planar sub-technique and proceeded with her first steps. For a moment, her heart quaked with worry, but she silenced it and forced herself to continue.


    Her entire being trembled as, for a single instant, her cosmic energy flashed pure purple, and every internal organ was scarred by the energy. That wasn¡¯t even a successful manifestation of the pure planar energy she wished to wield, and yet it caused such an enormous degree of harm to herself, the only person who should have always been exempt from its effects.


    ¡®What the fuck is this? I did anticipate this, but how in the world can the temporary appearance of unbound planar energy cause this kind of- right, the Red Phantom Flood. It¡¯s this dangerous even when I am using less than one percent of it? Still, I had expected that something like this would happen, so¡­¡¯


    She stopped talking to herself, as she understood that it wasn¡¯t helping.


    Instead, Yi Wei drew in all of her spiritual will, shut her eyes, and focused, healing the numerous internal wounds via the innate effects of cosmic energy before returning to the cultivation process.


    The planar energy within her flickered for a second time, without the same disastrous effects, while it flowed through her meridians in a certain pattern. Every few moments, it would pulse violently, tearing through her firm flesh, but she suppressed it every time it occurred, forcing herself to continue. At the same time, since she understood that force of will could only take her so far before her body would no longer respond to her commands, she sought out something that could either ease the pressure on her body, or that could make use of the great destructive force of the pure planar energy and distract herself with it. Her attention was quickly drawn to the numerous dantian bone shards floating a short distance around it.


    ¡®I¡¯ve already made an array with the previous shards, so I suppose the next thing I can create¡­ would be a set of talismans, with which, just like in the fourth realm, I could use up the energy within one or more in order to significantly strengthen my body for a brief time,¡¯ she decided, quickly calculating the feasibility of her idea, ¡®That could work, and would be a great place to use up the violent energy from my planar energy. Alright, let¡¯s do this¡­ and hopefully not die.¡¯


    As she felt the next pulse of destructive energy rising up from within, she distorted the flow of planar energy from her meridians to the dantian bone shards near her abdomen. That destructive force burst out just as it reached a bone shard, pushing it through her body at the same time as it carved out one stroke of the character for a talisman.


    ¡®First attempt, damage minimal so far,¡¯ she assessed the situation, making a few notes on her execution of it, ¡®If I arrange the talismans into a secondary array, it will strengthen my body even further, so the movement caused by the bursts of planar energy isn¡¯t superfluous nor negative, and if I apply the natural energy flow of the Condensed Formation Body to control the movement, then I can influence it with a significantly greater quantity of accuracy than I currently possess. Overall, I can rate this particular endeavour as: not completely hopeless.¡¯


    Yi Wei continued, this time splitting her energy into two individual strands, making both of them orbit once around the stars in her meridians in order to gather up the more violent energies while depositing the calmer wisps of cosmic light.


    A few minutes passed, during which she had rearranged the second set of dantian bone shards into an array mirroring her first, except with minor differences based on her improved understanding of arrays from studying the four illusory formations around the Lock Obelisks, especially the third one, which contained a great number of extremely interesting ideas despite its immense age.


    The last nudge and cut on the last shard occurred the second that her breakthrough to the ninth stage began. Also at that moment, she finalised the conversion to the Mysterious Planar sub-technique.


    Her pool of cosmic energy transformed into pure purple, savaging the flesh and organs within her abdomen as it began to soar out. With her spiritual will, she saw the space around it distort, almost as if her cosmic energy had transformed from a simple window into an unknown void, to that very void itself, warping the very fabric of reality around itself. That energy contained an immense degree of power, surpassing the previous purest form of her cosmic energy.


    Before it could spread any further and destroy anything else, she suppressed it and transformed it into its previous state, forcing the cosmic energy to regenerate every injury it had caused, applying what little control she had over her breakthrough to guide the energy according to the former shape of her internal organs.


    Since they had not been completely obliterated, what remained was rapidly rebuilt via the effects of flame within the cosmic energy, simultaneously strengthening her stomach. Though there was no such thing as absolute immunity to poisons, strengthening the digestive system to this degree was certain to reduce any risk of her receiving any disease or poisoning from anything she consumes, which, in combination with the ability of her yang physique energy and the natural strengthening of the Condensed Arts Body, prevents any chance of falling to common illness or poison.


    It continued to flow out, forming the same suit of armour twice without any clear reason behind it, and as it touched each of the inactive talisman shards, Yi Wei controlled it to flood in and activate them with small explosions of power. Bright cosmic light burst out of her body with every such activation, dyeing the dark ground with starlight. Then, the energy returned to her dantian, where it settled back into its crystal state.


    However, the talisman shards did not calm down. Due to their activation within the same few seconds, their position beside an existing array, and the one hundred and eight stars within her meridians connecting to them via planar energy, they connected to one another in a complex formation array of their own, and were filled to the brim with power.


    Her eyes snapped open.


    She stood up, drew back her fist and punched the air, invoking one of the talismans within herself whilst drawing out a small quantity of planar energy out of herself.


    The moment that the talisman activated, everything about her attack increased. Her speed and strength both rose by half, and the instant it lost contact with her hand, she switched the form of energy to pure planar energy, causing it to emit a sudden, piercing sound.


    It struck the wall at great speed and exploded into an enormous cloud of chaotic energy.


    For a few brief moments, it looked as if it might burn into the Kong Holy Grounds themselves, but the violet light dulled before that could occur.


    Before it had any chance to harm herself, she switched her planar energy back to its cosmic form and allowed it to heal the damaged portions of her meridians, temporarily calling out the energy from the hundred and eight stars in order to accelerate the process.


    ¡®I had originally wanted the Dawn Star Body to be purely for show, but my planar energy seems to be settling down in my meridians far better than I had initially expected. In general, this can significantly accelerate my healing, as long as the damage is near my meridian network, but if the quantity of energy within each dawn star grows large enough, I could use attacks purely via that energy, saving on the power within my dantian and surprising anyone who thinks they have limited the flow of energy within my body,¡¯ she considered, watching as her planar energy slowly returned to the talisman shard at a speed that suggested that she would need approximately one hour in order to get that talisman back.


    Although the great art of talisman drawing typically showcased its consumable, one-time use talismans to the world, there was also a secondary, less frequently used form of a talisman, known as the permanent talisman, whereas the common one can be referred to as the temporary or one-time use talisman.


    The primary difference in the creation of the two is the material. Temporary talismans utilise talisman paper and ink, which quickly burns when the planar energy sealed within erupts. As a result, no matter what modifications are made to the characters or ink, it is impossible to get more than a single use of the common, cheap talisman ¨C with cheap being used not in a derogatory format, but rather in a factual one, for temporary talismans are many times cheaper than permanent ones.


    In order to produce a permanent talisman, several things are needed. First, the talisman maker has to be sufficiently capable, with a low quantity of impurities within their planar energy. Then, they require an object capable of conducting planar energy, storing planar energy, and yet it must not contain any innate planar energy of its own, whilst also being able to withstand the pressure of a limited cultivation technique constantly operating on it. After that, the material has to be inscribed with raw planar energy of the cultivator, albeit this step is easier than the equivalent within the creation of the temporary talismans, as those require the drawing of characters without any interruption, in a fashion that differs slightly from typical talisman characters.


    Simply put, it was difficult, as those materials often resisted cutting via planar energy. Yi Wei¡¯s dantian shards just happened to be appropriate for this purpose, as they naturally conduct and store energy, have no innate energy, and, due to being a part of the planar aperture, have no difficulties with withstanding any form of cultivation technique.


    ¡®Although I could have probably done a slightly better job of this, especially with the experience I currently possess, having forty-eight usable talismans that can add 50% to my combat ability at any time, once per hour, is still pretty good,¡¯ she thought, ¡®Of course, in comparison to a searing mark, which can double the power of an attack and be combined with multiple marks at the same time for greater effect, this isn¡¯t all that impressive, but this should still be usable after I reach the fifth realm, and so I will essentially have a primary and secondary set of searing marks.¡¯


    Yi Wei dusted herself off and attempted to accelerate the regeneration of the talisman shard by rushing a great quantity of planar energy to it, but to no avail. Instead, she assessed her current fighting strength.


    ¡®I am now in the ninth stage, and have half of the energy needed to reach the next realm, provided that it isn¡¯t too difficult to achieve,¡¯ she considered, briefly checking the mysterious characters without finding anything unusual about the technique they displayed, ¡®My planar energy should be on par with someone in the first stage of the Emergent Anchor realm, though I still can¡¯t manifest a solid form of it outside of my body, and when the trump cards of the talisman shards, pure planar energy and exploding artefacts are taken into account, I shouldn¡¯t struggle to combat any typical individual in the third realm¡­ Provided that the assassin relied on a form of illusion to combat the Yi family elder, then I will not lose to them, but if that was their strength and speed and nothing else, then I may need to seek out a pyrrhic victory over a purely beneficial one.¡¯


    She looked over the empty remnants of the planar stones and shards, lightly stepping on them in order to disperse them into dust, which then scattered into nothingness.


    Turning to the side, she looked for any sign of the assassin or the elder on the bloodied wall. There were countless images to look through, and they were not responsive to spiritual will, so she could only use her eyes for this purpose. She skipped over the countless empty and bloody scenes, including those where corpses still lay, until she eventually found them.


    A trace of the shadow slowly departing from one of the images caught her eye. Yi Wei stepped forward and pressed her hand on the picture, although she was not entirely sure what she expected that to get her.


    The outline of the image pulsed, then expanded to cover a person-sized doorway within the wall, and her hand, which previously had no ability to pass through it, moved through without issue.


    ¡®Oh, that¡¯s convenient. I wonder if I¡¯ll be able to return in a similar manner.¡¯


    She was about to walk through, before she turned around and sliced through the five technique manuals behind her with the Dawn Slicing Beam, turning back around the instant that she observed the pages catching on fire. Every single one of the technique within those books was immensely valuable, and she did not want anyone else to get their hands on it, no matter how or why they would have the ability to reach them, as they would grant anyone who gets their hands on them immense power.


    Walking through the doorway, she felt a similar sense of warmth to the time she first entered the hidden grounds, and then found herself within the room that she had been watching earlier.


    It was another simple chamber, with three pathways from her point of entrance, which, as she briefly confirmed, had an extremely tiny point on it which grew if she brought her key-marked arm closer to it, suggesting that she could return through it or any other position that had a link to the fourth chamber of the hidden ground treasury.


    Since she had seen the shadowy figure departing through the rightmost passage, that was where she went, rushing at the greatest speed she could manage while preventing her footsteps from generating any noise.


    ¡®This assassin is rather quick. Even with my constant use of the Dawn Sunlight Step, they haven¡¯t entered my sight even once,¡¯ she thought, running through corridors and past countless turns, as if navigating a maze, relying purely on the remnants of dust, dirt and the slight scratches or marks left behind by the assassin¡¯s footsteps, ¡®If they turn out to be within the second realm, I will have a lot of questions to ask, especially why our Yi family has such terrible cultivation techniques when there are things out there that can reach the level of forbidden arts without any harm to the body or mind.


    ¡®Actually, I already have such questions. If they gave out techniques on the level of those I have acquired from my six teachers back in the Yi District to everyone, the overall level of the family would have increased significantly, but they instead withhold the majority of them for those who come from superior families and can access the greater skills either via their parent¡¯s connections, or by accessing the other technique library within the Ancestral Hall.¡¯


    It wasn¡¯t the right time to consider things like that, so she threw them into the library in the form of random pages and began to use the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash to clear longer distances in order to catch up.


    Almost ten minutes after she began her chase, she came upon another pure black doorway, charging right into it without much consideration. So far as she could tell, her target had gone through the same passageway, so there would be no reason why she, the holder of all four keys, could not do the same thing.


    Just as she had expected, her body was not obstructed in the slightest, although she felt another burst of warmth before she appeared on the other side, standing inside of a grey stone cave that was somehow still lit with the orange light.


    The assassin was still nowhere to be found, but there was a number of corpses lying on the ground, blood slowly seeping out of them. There were three wounds on each one of their bodies.


    Originating somewhere in the distance, a faint sound reached her ears, so she snapped her head in that direction, choosing to go after it. If the assassin could be found there, then it would be incredibly convenient for her, but if it was someone who had not yet become a target of the assassin, or was someone completely unrelated to their expedition, then she could make use of their support or learn a little more about the situation they had found themselves in after her entry to the treasure chamber of the Kong Holy Grounds.


    She conserved her energy and did not use the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, and it turned out to be a good idea.


    When she turned on the last junction of the cave, Yi Wei saw a small chamber with seven corpses of the Yi expedition¡¯s former members pinned to the walls with large arrows, though none were as large as the arrow-spears commonly used by Yi Fenwu.


    ¡®Nonetheless, I am rather certain that this was fired either by her, or by someone with a similar technique, both in terms of planar energy utilisation and shooting style,¡¯ she concluded as she briefly stopped to examine the arrow lodged within one of the members of Yi Jiazhi¡¯s group, whom she had seen Yi Bai speaking to some time ago, ¡®Did she directly cause this, or did she defend herself against a sudden attack by another group?¡¯


    There were no survivors of this altercation, not so far as she could see, so there was also no one to provide her with an answer, forcing her to continue chasing the sounds in the distance.


    As they echoed and reverberated due to the cave walls, it made it very difficult to accurately assess the location of their origin, especially with the multitude of different passages, corridors and chambers within this cave, almost as if this was a continuation of the previous labyrinth, just in a more natural setting.


    She was still able to track it down with a little effort and slowed herself down the moment before she was about to turn the corner leading to the noise. If there was indeed some conflict, regardless of the propagator, it would not be a good idea to barge in without warning, or else one or more of the sides might mistake her for an enemy and retaliate before she has any opportunity to explain herself, potentially with enough force to necessitate the usage of her strongest techniques to avoid sustaining heavy injuries.


    ¡®By the sounds of it, two people are clashing with metal weapons, presumably low or middle-grade artefacts. Alright then, I should have a look¡­¡¯


    Oculus

 V1C43: Kong Holy Grounds, Part 3

    ¡°I knew it from the beginning, you-¡±


    ¡°Do shut up, darling. You had no clue until I happened to miss the shot,¡± Yi Fenwu replied, holding an arrow-spear in both hands as she used it as a spear, ¡°Speaking of which, I do have to thank that girl for giving me this idea. Using a bow in close range could get rather exhausting, you know?¡±


    ¡°I have never used a bow before, so, no!¡± Yi Jiazhi threw himself forward and stuck his finger out, summoning a large globule of magma out of it, aiming directly at his opponent¡¯s face.


    Yi Fenwu was not surprised by his attack, easily impaling the mass of flame with her arrow before throwing it off onto a wall, striking close to one of the entrances. The fiery globe splattered onto the stone, some even landing in the passageway, burning and heating up the stone before it slowly melted and dissipated into pure planar energy.


    Neither of them paid attention to the fact that it was siphoned off by an unseen entity.


    The two were far more focused on themselves, especially on the fact that one was clearly stronger and more skilled than the other. Yi Jiazhi was only in the sixth stage, while Yi Fenwu seemed to be in the eighth, whilst simultaneously possessing a far greater degree of skill.


    In order for him to win, he would have to invest his all into the battle.


    Yi Wei sighed silently as she finished consuming the power of the wayward strike. As she had expected, things had gotten complicated, and if she revealed herself now, she couldn¡¯t be sure who to assist, nor why. For all she knew, this was a personal spat between the two of them, and the others had gotten caught in the crossfire, and if she supported one of them at random, she would get stabbed in the back for seeing something she wasn¡¯t supposed to have seen.


    So, instead of barging in at random, she decided to stay out of sight until she could attain a superior understanding of the present situation and decide upon the best course of action.


    ¡°Magma Spines!¡± Yi Jiazhi invoked, waving with his free, left hand while he sprinted around the eventual path of the spines, a middle-class artefact guandao in his right hand, attempting to launch two attacks at once in some attempt at tactics, which both of the observers were able to understand immediately through hearing alone.


    Indeed, he was not suited for secrecy nor wise decisions, for Yi Fenwu evaded his first attack easily and met his attack with the side of the arrow-spear, deftly deflecting every blow calmly.


    ¡°Come now, honey, won¡¯t you use your all to attack me? You know that you won¡¯t be able to touch me when you don¡¯t even have your planar anchor out,¡± she said, breathing slowly and effortlessly while her enemy was clearly already winded, ¡°You make us middle-class members of the family look bad with your incompetence, and yet you of all people was selected to come along on such an important mission¡­ What a shame¡­¡±


    ¡°If that¡¯s what you think of me, why did you send an assassin after me?¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡®Oh?¡¯


    ¡°You are being rather bold in your suggestion, aren¡¯t you?¡± Yi Fenwu muttered, blocking an overhead attack with a simple movement of her arm, ¡°Let¡¯s say I humour you, darling. Why would I get an assassin, and how does this assassin end up killing three of my own?¡±


    ¡°Naturally, that is simply a trick! If all other groups but yours suffered mysterious losses, wouldn¡¯t anyone get suspicious? Perhaps those three had caught on to your plan and intended to reveal it to the elder observing us! I may not be the smartest out of all of us, but I can still see through your plans! Do you really think the elder will forgive you once your schemes have been revealed?¡±


    ¡°The elder? I wonder where he is. He would have likely entered this place with us, yet all of the deaths have gone unavenged¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t try to change the topic!¡± Yi Jiazhi exclaimed.


    ¡®Something tells me this isn¡¯t just a diversionary tactic, but sure, you¡¯re leading the conversation, so you can do what you like¡­ Is she just pointing out the fact that she hasn¡¯t seen him for some time, or is there an implication behind her words? I hadn¡¯t seen the elder for some time, and the assassin did not appear to have any obvious wounds on their body, so either they disengaged, or the elder was defeated¡­¡® Yi Wei listened in, before an interesting idea entered her mind, ¡®Could the elder have switched places with the assassin?¡¯


    However, such an idea was naturally silly, as the constant cover of darkness had to be an advanced technique belonging to the assassin, and not something bound to an artefact or a piece of clothing due to the fact that most artefacts cannot display effects of the same cultivation realm for prolonged periods of time, or else most would embed techniques into items instead of cultivating them.


    Furthermore, to have both the movement and disguising techniques of the assassin bound to a single item, without any restrictions on who could use it, would imply that the assassin organisation failed to follow the standard that every other group of the same nature had created quite some time ago. In order to prevent others from benefiting from their slain members, all items belonging to an assassin are typically bound in some way, either to them specifically or to the planar energy technique of the organisation. This allows for the items to be retrieved before they can be misused, as someone would have to find and complete the cultivation of their specific technique before using the items, which typically takes more than several years.


    To put things a little more simply, unless the assassin and his or her backing were incredibly mentally handicapped, their items would not be so easily used by another.


    ¡°If you have a grudge with me, or with the rest of us, why did you have to kill everyone else?¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t killed a soul ¨C with the eventual exception of you, naturally. The rest perished oh so unfortunately due to the dangers of this space, and I have just happened to attain entrance to the treasury,¡± Yi Fenwu replied, taking her left hand off of the spear in order to raise that arm and showcase a mark on her wrist ¨C one quarter of a geometric shape that wrapped around her arm, ¡°Maybe you¡¯ve even gone mad and entrusted me to put you down.¡±


    ¡°And yet, you dare deny your involvement!¡± an enormous planar anchor suddenly crashed down behind him, marked with flaming cracks of magma, before he channelled a great quantity of energy into his blade whilst flooding his empty arm with the rest, causing it to glow like hot metal.


    He reached up into the sky, seemingly grabbing something in the air, and cried out, ¡°Eternal Rising Star: Magma Burst!¡±


    A great quantity of earth fire gathered from the air above him, forming an enormous sphere that melted the ceiling that it touched. The great heat could be felt through one¡¯s skin, meaning that neither Yi Wei nor Yi Fenwu had any difficulties understanding what was happening above them, though the first was behind a thick layer of stone and the second was still blindfolded, and only capable of seeing an incredibly faint glimpse of light through the fabric in front of her eyes.


    The brilliant sphere released a dozen smaller projectiles of magma, which hovered for a few moments before flying at Yi Fenwu, all but one targeting a different point to which she could feasibly dodge, sealing off all routes of escape.


    ¡®Although her words are very incriminating, and difficult to ignore as evidence, she is currently in a much better position than him physically,¡¯ Yi Wei analysed while she continued to hide, making her breathing and heart beat as quiet as she was able to, ¡®He did not guide those projectiles, so they must be part of the skill itself. That means that the moment he attacks for a second time, she will notice.¡¯


    She would have liked to know what Yi Fenwu had displayed earlier, as she had an idea, but it seemed to be about as nonsensical as the elder having borrowed the items of the assassin.


    Yi Fenwu infused her spear with a greater quantity of energy, then thrust it forward, right into the path of the magma orbs. As it struck the surface of the one that headed straight for her, the metallic energy placed within her arrow-spear burst out into a large, round shield that blocked their path and scattered the earth flame, but the next volley of attacks struck the next second, breaking the barrier instantly.


    However, just as Yi Wei had predicted, she had recognised the pattern in which they flew towards her, and when she blocked the magma bolts again, she only created a shield large enough to break a single mote of earth fire, then remained standing in place as the barrier, which held the same quantity of energy as the previous one, withstood two more volleys without difficulty.


    ¡°This was your big attack? I¡¯m disappointed, Yi Jiazhi, I truly am. Furthermore, by the sound of it, this is of your own creation?¡± she asked lazily, ¡°I remember you bragging about it more than three years ago, and yet, after all this time, all you¡¯ve been able to do is manifest this pathetic thing¡­ Heh¡­ That¡¯s the second pathetic thing you now possess. I¡¯m surprised that you were able to get this one up, and that you didn¡¯t have to rely on charming skills to convince me that you did something impressive. Good job!¡±


    ¡°Shut your mouth, you damn fairy!¡± he shouted, splitting the enormous orb into three.


    Unlike Yi Henghua, who had the support of a forbidden skill, he couldn¡¯t match her level of ability without a far greater degree of sacrifice. The excessive quantities of flaming energy that flooded out of his body scorched his flesh and skin, and his meridian network seemed to ignite with flame.


    All three orbs pulsed as they released a dozen smaller projectiles of earth flame, which all locked onto Yi Fenwu¡¯s position.


    However, she did not move to respond to the attack, simply nodding at something behind him.


    ¡®That feeling¡­ It¡¯s the breaking of a deep concealment technique! The aura it is obscuring matches the assassin!¡¯ Yi Wei realised, and, judging by the location in which the concealment was being broken, she understood who the target was. The instant that she understood that, she made a decision, calculated the best angle and method of approach, and moved.


    Despite his shortcomings, Yi Jiazhi was observant enough to realise that something was wrong when his opponent paid no attention to his attack and seemed to be waiting for something.


    He turned his head just in time to witness an approaching dark blade, heading straight for the planar anchor at the back, aiming at the exact point in the anchor that would cause it to collapse in a single instant, as he had learned from a few days of experimentation that occurred the first time he formed his planar anchor. He wanted to repel the attack, to retaliate with something that would cause this blade to go off the mark, in order to give him the opportunity to recover the planar anchor, but his eyes widened as he realised that he could not nothing.


    All of a sudden, the dagger struck a wooden spear, shaped strangely like an arrow, and although the spear broke as a result, it caused the attack to miss its mark completely.


    Yi Wei jabbed at the assassin with the broken remnant of the spear, causing them to jump back, before she momentarily looked toward Yi Jiazhi. To her surprise, despite her assistance, Yi Fenwu had somehow crossed the gap between them, and pierced his abdomen with her arrow.


    The next instant, she pulled it out and stabbed his heart, dropping him to the floor before pulling out the weapon and cleansing it of blood with an exaggerated swipe. She calmly smiled in Yi Wei¡¯s direction.


    ¡°So, I was right to assume that you would be a problem,¡± Yi Fenwu said, glancing to her side at the same time as the shadow of the assassin appeared there, a dagger in one hand and a featureless blob of shadow surrounding the other. ¡°It¡¯s a shame that you had your guard up the entire time and kept going off to various places, or else you would have been killed a while ago.¡±


    ¡°Are you intending to reveal your entire plan to me?¡±


    ¡°Plan? No, I¡¯m not telling you anything about any plan I might have,¡± she replied, ¡°However, since I am intending to kill you, I might as well be straightforward about it. If, by some miracle, you evade death or capture and leave this place, or if you somehow succeed in killing me, I wouldn¡¯t want my reputation to be unfairly besmirched by any frivolous claims you might make. That¡¯s not such an insane thing to want, is it, darling?¡±


    ¡®Don¡¯t sound so calm when you¡¯re intending to kill me! It¡¯s¡­ off-putting. Still, this does confirm a number of things, and it means that I shouldn¡¯t worry about attacking her, as she has killed more than enough members of the family in order to justify her death, even by a servant,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, ¡°I guess not. This is about being the one to succeed in the expedition, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d want to achieve the exact same thing, if you were in my position. I¡¯m sure that your exact strategy would differ, just like I had never thought of using these things as spears while you came up with it immediately, so perhaps you would be even more vicious¡­¡± she paused, reaching for something within her pocket, before she addressed the assassin on her side with a commanding tone, ¡°Kill that girl, and do so quickly. You have two more team leaders to slaughter after this.¡±


    Yi Wei didn¡¯t have a single moment to prepare, as the assassin did not bother with so much as a nod before they acted.


    The attack was swift, a knife heading for her abdomen within the blink of an eye, but unlike the time that Yi Wei was attempting to chase her down, this was an attack in close quarters. She launched an immense quantity of cosmic energy into her body, flooding all of it, and activated the principles of Storm¡¯s Edge Dash on her entire form.


    For a second, her body flashed, and the next moment she appeared in a different position, her fist heading for the assassin¡¯s chest, targeting the exact place that would allow her to crush their ribcage.


    However, her opponent was also not helpless. All of a sudden, the assassin appeared a few steps behind their original position, turning into smoke and then reforming there. They lunged forward with their empty hand, a mass of black energy flying off toward her.


    ¡®Based on the technique, I think- eh, no, might as well be safe,¡¯ Yi Wei decided, and used a wisp of energy from each dawn star inside of her body to trace the circulation pattern of an Elysian Fist, simultaneously coursing the yang physique energy throughout her body in a pre-emptive move to safeguard her body just in the case of the assassin retaliating with a powerful and unknown attack outside of her knowledge.


    Before the collision of the two energies, she momentarily switched her energy to its pure planar form, causing the wonderful pure white of the Elysian Fist to blink violet.


    The white and purple struck the black mass, and just as it seemed strong enough to withstand the brilliant light of her fist, it collapsed inwards, its most significant point having been targeted by Yi Wei with a technique specifically meant to annihilate planar constructs and similar manifestations of energy.


    A flash obscured their vision for a second, and while both acted without any hesitation, the assassin was just an instant slower in their response.


    When the bright flash cleared, they saw that a fist was headed for them yet again, this time targeting their head. And yet, this fist suddenly halted in the air, and all that was headed for them was an incredibly compressed and rapid burst of air, which struck their obscured expression to their extreme surprise.


    ¡°You- Wait, how do you¡­?¡± Yi Fenwu began to say something, but then she saw something far more important, ¡°What is on your wrist?¡±


    Yi Wei did not need to follow her gaze in order to understand what she was talking about, so, before she replied, she retreated via a combination of the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash and Dawn Sunlight Step raising her guard by extending her spiritual will and creating a thin, translucent barrier of planar energy which would block any attack to a sufficient degree to allow her to respond, ¡°I had intended to ask you about this as well. You must have understood that you needed a total of four keys on your arm, so you must have found at least one Lock Obelisk in here. Have others found more?¡±


    ¡°Not so far as I know, but I guess I will need to move on,¡± Yi Fenwu said, ¡°Goodbye, darling.¡±


    She turned and was clearly about to use a movement technique to escape, but Yi Wei wasn¡¯t someone who would allow that happen just like that. In a single swift motion, she drew two throwing knives, infused them with a fraction of the energy flowing around her body, and threw one directly at her back, where she was least likely to miss, and would be most likely to get the knife lodged into her body.


    At the same time, she threw the other at the shadow of the assassin, though this one was targeted not at their present position, but rather at the ground in front of where they would dodge in order to evade her attack, with the intention of surprising the assassin with the subsequent explosion.


    However, before it hit Yi Fenwu, she abruptly turned around and parried it, sending the throwing knife flying to the side. Just a second later, the assassin did the exact same thing, causing the knife aimed at them to go in the same direction. They collided in the air with a metallic clang, with that impact causing bright cosmic cracks to appear within both of them. A second later, they exploded into a brilliant, seven-coloured burst of light, which eradicated them and a thin layer of the stone that covered the surface of the cave.


    The next moment, Yi Fenwu vanished, while the assassin blocked the passage she had used. Her shadow grew until it completely obscured the cave, though the vague silhouette of their figure remained in place, still wielding the ordinary-looking knife.


    ¡®This person reacted very quickly to my attack, despite the fact that they shouldn¡¯t have been familiar with it. Yi Fenwu could have shared the details of the exploding weapons with them, but I usually filled any weapon I used for this purpose with so much energy that they instantly began to show visible cracks, while this time, likely due to my usage of a middle-grade artefact, there were no such tell-tale signs, nor would they have had any reason to assume that I wanted to throw away such a valuable item for a one-time strike, not to mention the fact that they shouldn¡¯t have known whether or not I can actually destroy middle-grade artefacts,¡¯ Yi Wei filled her mind with cosmic energy in order to further accelerate her mind to its peak, ¡®They could have acted just to be safe, though if Yi Fenwu had shared her knowledge of my abilities with the assassin, it would have been strange not to mention my claim of only being able to affect low-grade items¡­


    In short, the person that would be most likely to respond correctly in this situation is someone who knows about my ability by witnessing it, but without relying on Yi Fenwu¡¯s explanation¡­ The assassin, as I had previously considered, doesn¡¯t have to be in her group, and so I should focus on the few who had witnessed my capability to destroy artefacts. The complete list would be Yi Fenwu, those who followed her the first time I encountered her, Yi Bai, Yi Henghua ¨C who is dead, unfortunately enough for my pursuit of learning more about forbidden arts ¨C and Fen Zhi, who clearly had a different set of abilities than this person in front of me.


    This leaves me with only one person who isn¡¯t from her group and yet knows about my ability,¡¯ Yi Wei frowned, looking up at the shadow before her, ¡°Please tell me I¡¯m mistaken, Yi Bai.¡±


    She heard no vocal reply, but the smoke around the assassin cleared just enough for her to see a great pair of mountains on their chest, with long, light hair that had the occasional streak of dark colour going through it. Although that particular feature was different from what she remembered seeing prior to entering the Kong Holy Grounds, the rest matched up with Yi Bai¡¯s appearance perfectly, proving that she was exactly who she thought she was.


    ¡®She is an assassin, after all¡­ Every time Yi Fenwu ordered her to do anything, she reached for something in her pocket. Unless that is a coincidence ¨C which, for all I know, it easily could be ¨C then this control is exerted via some sort of item, perhaps a token given to her by an assassin organisation, or collected from a body of someone who was unable to control the assassins with a technique due to lacking strength, or something along those lines,¡¯ Yi Wei theorised, ¡®Either way, this means that I cannot recklessly kill her, even if I can, but instead I have to try and retrieve whatever item allows Yi Fenwu to influence Yi Bai¡¯s mind. If no such thing exists, or if it isn¡¯t an item I can take, then I might be forced to employ lethal force¡­ I really don¡¯t want to do that. Even if she had been influenced from the first day that I met her, I still want to give her back her free will¡­¡¯


    ¡°Yi Bai, are you being controlled right now? Can you still control yourself?¡± she asked, figuring that she might as well confirm her theory before making any decisions as a result of it.


    ¡°¡­¡± the assassin did not reply for quite some time, but just as she thought that Yi Bai had no will of her own while under control, her lips opened ever so slightly, ¡°Do not waste your time. There is nothing you can do.¡±


    ¡°Why not? Do you not want to be free?¡±


    ¡°You will affect my efficiency,¡± was all that she said before she advanced within an instant, her immense speed creating a great shockwave in the air as she closed the gap between them and jabbed the knife at her heart. With the same speed, created via the stimulation of her body¡¯s natural abilities, achieved through the perpetual refinement via cosmic energy, Yi Wei blocked this strike with the metal bracelet on her arm, which she knew to be strong enough for someone in the fourth realm.


    Regarding the fourth realm, there is a major gap between it and the third realm, just as there is a significant divide between the Energy Condensation realm and Planar Pool realm. While the latter was caused as a result of the ability (or lack thereof) to externalise energy, the former lay in the gap between fluid and solid planar energy.


    Even though the battle between Yi Bai and the elder did not display this, the solidified energy of an Active Core cultivator had the ability to completely bypass or destroy the weaker energy of someone in the Emergent Anchor realm, even if the latter utilises the strengthening effects of the planar anchor.


    As it was solid, it also had a far greater effect on the material world. Whereas planar energy in the gaseous or liquid form could technically damage anyone or anything, so long as enough force is invested, solidified energy does not require much force to do serious harm to a regular human, with this being especially true for the volatile and incendiary element of flame, which, unless specifically controlled to behave in a different manner, will burn anyone who touched it in much the same way as a real fire would, and with it burning at many times the temperature of regular flame, the planar energy of a fire cultivator could even melt through things that no regular flame can affect.


    Since her training set was previously worn by someone who had reached the peak of the fifth realm, it wasn¡¯t unlikely for him to have used it at the early stages of the fourth realm, which would mean that it had been capable of withstanding the devastating power of that realm, even if only for a little while. No dagger, even if it is reinforced with the power that surpasses the second realm, could damage it.


    The collision seemed to be instantaneous, but both took it as an opportunity to act.


    Yi Wei leapt past Yi Bai, repelling a second attack with a pre-emptive explosive strike, which threw the girl off her feet for a second. As before, she did not attack the assassin¡¯s body, and thus, whatever evasive technique she used did not trigger as quickly.


    She did not get far before the assassin caught up, throwing a barrage of six attacks in incredibly rapid succession at various points on her body. Yi Wei dealt with a few via the Living Spear technique, which she reinforced with an internal core of cosmic energy and a thin layer of lightning from Storm Blade Wreathing, before suddenly changing her posture completely to imitate that of Lan Mei Xing. She stomped her foot onto the ground, raising the other and delivering a kick right to Yi Bai¡¯s side.


    This attack did connect, but the assassin was not sent flying, instead seeming to transform into smoke before reappearing a few steps behind her previous position.


    However, in that brief span of time, Yi Wei was able to disappear behind the corner.

 V1C44: Kong Holy Grounds, Part 4

    By the time Yi Wei tracked down Yi Fenwu¡¯s path and crossed yet another dark gate, appearing in a maze completely made of ice, which made her rather appreciative of the fact that she acquired a yang-type physique, she had discovered that the exact distance between her and Yi Bai that she could maintain comfortably was exactly five metres and two steps.


    Naturally, she would have preferred to have a larger gap between them, but it was still enough for her to calmly observe and locate the traces of Yi Fenwu.


    Every now and then, the assassin was able to appear beside her and throw a few more strikes in her general direction, which Yi Wei blocked rather easily. This pattern allowed her to quickly gather that, despite Yi Bai possessing an immensely powerful set of techniques that allow her to combat someone in the fourth realm while appearing to be in the second realm, she does not have all too much experience in combat at high levels. To put it simply: Yi Bai may never have been trained.


    This was significant because it allowed the thought of a certain possibility to arise within Yi Wei¡¯s mind. If Yi Bai had not received any proper training for the purposes of assassinating those who had a higher cultivation than her, then there was a chance, albeit a slim one, that she was not truly part of any assassin organisation. After all, the thing that controlled Fen Zhi, the dark half of her spiritual will, could theoretically be cultivated by anyone, and thus it follows that other techniques that bind the assassins to their masters could also be found, cultivated by unsuspecting individuals, and then lead to them being bound to those who possess the other technique.


    Besides increasing the likelihood of her having shown her true face for the past two years, it also meant that her ability was purely based on the technique¡¯s strength. In addition, it made it all the more likely that she would have no reason to target her if she is able to break the influence over her mind.


    ¡®If only that was easy, but I suspect that regardless of the method she uses, Yi Fenwu will never give it up without a significant amount of persuasion ¨C which here means intense combat ¨C and if she had known about Yi Bai¡¯s practise of the techniques of an assassin organisation, she could have easily made her give up some of them in order to bolster her own combat ability. Since Yi Bai, a person in the seventh stage, can fight on a similar level to me, even if I am holding back as to not harm her, then Yi Fenwu, who seemed to be reaching the peak of the Emergent Anchor realm, could be able to defeat me.¡¯


    She deflected another series of attacks and turned another corner, managing to stop herself just before she ran into Yi Tai.


    ¡°Yi Tai! Duck right now!¡± she called out, throwing herself to the ground.


    To her surprise, he did exactly that, just in time for Yi Bai¡¯s knife to soar over the top of his head.


    ¡°Infighting?¡± he asked, retreating calmly while Yi Wei stood up and did the same. However, despite his seemingly calm expression, she felt a great quantity of planar energy rising up from within him, covering his skin in a thin layer of stone.


    ¡°Not quite. I think she practised an art belonging to an assassin organisation, which is now allowing Yi Fenwu to give her orders. Have you seen that woman?¡±


    ¡°She-¡± Yi Tai suddenly turned around and struck an incoming arrow-spear out of the air, though his attack was sloppy and left him with a great cut across his arm. Nevertheless, his action revealed the location of the shooter, who calmly stood on the other side of the great icy corridor. The moment that she saw her failure to end him in one shot, Yi Fenwu retreated to behind the wall of solid ice without any hesitation.


    He remained standing sideways, as to overlook both sources of danger, and nodded, ¡°I see. Who is the priority?¡±


    ¡°Yi Fenwu is looking for a set of key marks. She has one and needs three more, at which point she will be able to access the treasury of the hidden grounds and possibly attain a number of other privileges,¡± Yi Wei explained, keeping those other privileges vague as to not bring attention to herself, ¡°Since she wants everyone but her group dead, I would go after her first.¡±


    ¡°Then, agreed. I¡¯ll block her,¡± was all that Yi Tai said before conjuring a vast quantity of boulders that dropped out of the sky and completely filled up the space between them and Yi Bai, before they turned and ran in Yi Fenwu¡¯s direction.


    Half-way down the frost corridor, Yi Fenwu popped out yet again, and did not hesitate to fire a second arrow-spear upon seeing their current location. The instant that the arrow left her grip, she retreated and did not look for the results of her shot. As Yi Tai was more prepared this time, he met the projectile with another great boulder, which completely stopped the arrow, albeit not without collapsing and leaving the arrow-spear lying in a pile of stone dust.


    ¡°How many of those arrows does she have?¡± Yi Wei muttered out loud, not really expecting to get an answer.


    Despite that, the walking mountain turned his head to her and said, ¡°The arrows have a special construction that allows them to be compactly placed into a quiver, then removed and used instantly. Typically, a few arrows are kept in their larger form, as to trick enemies and allies alike, if she even had the latter in her eyes.¡±


    For the third time in recent memory, Yi Wei wanted to ask whether someone had misplaced their script and personality, just as with the time that Great Dark started speaking far too quickly and verbosely, but she kept her mouth shut this time.


    It really wasn¡¯t the time and the place to complain about someone possessing more knowledge that they were meant to, especially when that benefitted them greatly. After all, now that they knew that she likely had four times the number of arrows that Yi Wei originally thought she had, they wouldn¡¯t have to waste their time on tactics that rely on exhausting their opponent¡¯s ammunition before attacking them.


    ¡®Wait a minute, I copy the arrow-spears almost perfectly with the Living Spear technique, and yet I haven¡¯t noticed such a feature?¡¯ she frowned, creating another replica spear within her hand as she ran, using it briefly to vault over an uneven surface in the frosty terrain. While in the air, she looked at the wooden spear with her spiritual will and found the traces of a mechanism.


    Unfortunately, it was only half-present, and so it could not be activated, but it did expose a certain flaw within her personal version of the Living Spear skill.


    ¡®Although I can copy the spear a year after seeing it for the first time, it seems that I cannot replicate an internal structure that I had no awareness of,¡¯ she thought, mentally scanning the book that represented the original technique, ¡®Indeed, the original had no such flaw. I suppose this proves that I still have much to learn in this regard.¡¯


    They had to run down yet another pathway, on which Yi Fenwu took the opportunity to fire off yet another arrow. This time, she stopped Yi Tai from interrupting and leapt forward at just the right time, grabbing the arrow out of the air whilst ignoring the poison that it had been coated in.


    So far as she could tell, the poison was meant to be rather dangerous, but the moment that it came into contact with her physique energy, any trace of it within her body was burnt off and broken down into nothingness, as if it was nothing more than water that had seeped into her body. After that, she examined the arrow-spear a little more closely, in order to understand how the mechanism within worked, and once she was confident that she had learnt enough, she infused it with an excessive quantity of cosmic energy, held it for a moment, and threw it out.


    She managed to impale it into the corner of the wall, where Yi Fenwu had previously peeked from, but by the lack of pained screams or splatters of blood, it was immediately obvious that their target had gotten out of the way in time.


    ¡°You will teach me that technique later,¡± stated Yi Tai, without leaving any room for negotiation.


    ¡®Do you really think I¡¯ll just give it to you? It¡¯s not even a technique, but a natural property of my planar energy!¡¯ she thought but did not voice her complaint. She had a slight feeling that he wouldn¡¯t mind.


    They ran for a little further, and eventually noticed that there were no more arrow-based attacks, which caused them to accelerate significantly, ignoring the slowly approaching rumbling noises behind them, likely generated by Yi Bai and her attempts to catch up to them as quickly as possible. Since there were no more arrows being fired at them, it had to mean that Yi Fenwu found something that she considered to be more important than them.


    Indeed, as they turned yet another corner, they saw a large chamber to their side, within which stood a single obelisk in the middle. Their target of pursuit was standing beside it, raising her hand over its peak.


    Yi Wei thought that nothing would happen, but the peak of the Lock Obelisk suddenly lit up and lightning surged into the woman¡¯s wrist, embedding another quarter of the key into it.


    ¡®The inner obelisks don¡¯t require the energy of the Kong Mental Arts?¡¯ she understood immediately, the question of how Yi Fenwu was able to get the first key fragment answering itself within her mind, ¡®I suppose that makes sense, depending on the intentions the Kong family had when they were creating this place. If this was all for that Kong Shi Meng, then they might not have been sure that he would be practising the correct technique to access the Lock Obelisks on the outside, and hoped that those who did open the Kong Holy Grounds would not be allied together, thus giving their prodigal child enough time to retrieve four keys from within the hidden grounds and challenge those who would take his legacy¡­ Possibly. If only the Kong Holy Grounds had the echo of their creator, so that they could explain the situation to me.¡¯


    Unfortunately, there were no traces of such existences within the Holy Grounds themselves, so she had no choice but to form another Living Spear, using cosmic energy instead of wood and applying Dawn Flowing Light to the inside structure before throwing it at Yi Fenwu.


    Just as it was about to hit, Yi Fenwu pulled out a small black token, which she raised into the air.


    A piercing sound, like a shriek and a blade cutting through air combined, entered their ears. They saw a flash of darkness suddenly fly past them and appear in front of the cosmic arrow-spear. With an impossibly fast slash of the knife, the figure shattered the spear in mid-air, with their shadow consuming any traces of the Dawn Flowing Light within it.


    Yi Wei blinked, and saw the shadow clear to reveal Yi Bai¡¯s figure yet again. She seemed calm, but there were traces of blood beneath her clothes, flowing slowly from her joints.


    ¡®It seems that she wasn¡¯t able to surpass her previous speed to such an extent without some consequences to her health. That thing in Yi Fenwu¡¯s hands is likely the item I am looking for, which has a function to call nearby assassins for aid when the holder¡¯s life is threatened. Based on those injuries, that call forces the assassin to ignore their typical limits, thus leading to severe bodily harm when used without anyone in sufficient proximity,¡¯ Yi Wei theorised, taking into account the fact that Yi Fenwu felt the need to take the token out and didn¡¯t rely on some form of automatic protection, before turning her head and addressing Yi Tai, ¡°We need the token to stop her from giving orders to Yi Bai, and to prevent her from using that life-saving method again!¡±


    He did not nod but frowned, though he seemed to understand her nonetheless.


    Yi Fenwu looked at her, then Yi Tai, and then at her assassin, ¡°Kill the weaker one of the two, as quickly as you can.¡±


    As before, Yi Bai did not nod, and instantly went into action. Her figure vanished, and only reappeared once the glint of her knife was right beside Yi Tai¡¯s neck ¨C the very next breath. Yi Tai¡¯s eyes widened, and his arm flew up to block the weapon.


    While it pierced his skin and slid a few inches into his flesh, Yi Fenwu¡¯s face contained only confusion.


    It was not difficult for Yi Wei to understand the reason for that expression, which she saw clearly due to deciding to charge at her and leave Yi Bai in Yi Tai¡¯s hands, for she had also expected Yi Bai to go after her. The fact that she did not meant that, despite Yi Wei¡¯s constant suppression of her own power, the innocent girl-turned-assassin was able to see through her and choose the higher level but weaker Yi Tai as her target, as per her master¡¯s order.


    Thus, Yi Wei decided that it would be best to showcase her full ability at this moment, and to explain and answer any questions that Yi Tai might have after their victory.


    She allowed the crystalline structure within her dantian to expand, for all of the compressed ninth-stage energy within its centre to burst out and mix with the rest of her planar energy. As a result, a pulse of energy originating from her abdomen shook the entire hidden grounds, and a faint yet all too obvious layer of dawn light formed around her, with the brightest points being around her meridians.


    Naturally, she would not reveal her cosmic cultivation, not until she could be certain that it wouldn¡¯t cause her or anyone else any problems, but even the active channelling of the dawn light was more than enough to significantly raise her strength.


    That action directly explained her subordinate¡¯s actions to Yi Fenwu, who used this opportunity to recover from her surprise and slam down her planar anchor behind herself.


    ¡°It seems that I am not the only one to have made some decent progress in recent times,¡± she exclaimed, ¡°Weren¡¯t you in the lower half of the second realm when I first saw you? And now, darling¡­ what heights have you achieved? It¡¯s a shame, though, that no matter what you¡¯ve done to bring yourself up to this level, you won¡¯t be able to compete with me!¡±


    Yi Fenwu raised her bow and impaled it into the ground on her side, before pulling out a unique, golden arrow-spear from the great quiver on her back, which shone as if it had been polished regularly since the first instant it had been forged. Its design was exquisite, far more so than any of the other arrow-spears, and yet it radiated pure power and strength, like the tool of a tyrant, the weapon of a warlord who could conquer an entire district of Yi City.


    ¡°Half-Step upper-grade artefact made out of immortal gold,¡± Yi Wei said with a hint of astonishment.


    To see either a weapon made from immortal gold, or any item nearing the upper grade, on its own was impressive enough, but here was a weapon that fit both descriptors. Whether in terms of power or durability, it would be completely unmatched by lower or middle-grade artefacts, and even if someone was able to create a half-step upper-grade artefact out of more common materials ¨C which would require a six-star blacksmith of immense talent ¨C it would not match up with the spear in front of her. She was tempted to grab it out of Yi Fenwu¡¯s hands and check whether it was capable of withstanding her planar energy, though she knew all too well that if she did cause any degree of damage to it, whoever had given the spear to her would want a great deal of compensation.


    Still, her recognition of the item caused Yi Fenwu to grin, ¡°So, you¡¯re also familiar with blacksmithing? I must say, darling, you really are a girl of many talents. I¡¯m not going to find out that you were checking me out when you first saw me, am I?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Yi Wei refuted, perhaps a little too quickly.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter anyway, as learning that you have a crush on me would make killing you ever so slightly difficult,¡± she said, holding her spear sideways, ¡°After all, I¡¯m not completely heartless.¡±


    Having said that, she slowly drew her hand along the spear¡¯s length, causing a faint crimson light to slowly burst out from the places she touched. Quite clearly, she was activating some sort of inscription within, and although Yi Wei could not determine what the offensive function was intended to be, she felt a certain defensive barrier that would significantly weaken or even reflect her attacks if she attempted to interrupt the process.


    Since she could do nothing else, Yi Wei briefly glanced back to confirm that Yi Tai was managing to withstand Yi Bai¡¯s endless attacks, then looked on as Yi Fenwu completed the spear¡¯s activation and slammed its lower end into the ground.


    ¡°Two five-star quality and three-star power inscriptions?¡±


    ¡°So, you know about these as we- wait, five-star? Not six-star?¡± Yi Fenwu caught something strange within the other¡¯s speech, ¡°Honey, are you sure you¡¯re not misinterpreting this?¡±


    Yi Wei looked at the spear a little longer before nodding, ¡°That¡¯s my opinion, yes.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s unfortunate. Still, the difference won¡¯t be too significant now, will it? Come now, Yi Wei, and give me your heart. Literally.¡±


    They sprung into action simultaneously, with one using the spear and the other relying on nothing but her body, which was lit both with the dawn light of the one hundred and eight dawn stars and the golden yang physique energy that flowed beneath her skin.


    Yi Fenwu¡¯s strike seemed to be a simple jab on the surface, but immediately beneath that deceptive impression there was a great degree of strength concentrated on the spear¡¯s tip. It felt almost like a dragon¡¯s might had been concentrated there, to such an extent that if it came into contact with any part of Yi Wei¡¯s body, it would instantly bite down upon it with enough force to crack the very reality they currently stood in.


    No matter how confident she was in her own strength, she would never allow something like that to hit her.


    With a strange movement of her legs, she suddenly shifted a few metres to the side, and stretched out her arms to the side. Around each hand, four individual vortexes of yang physique energy formed in the air, and after a moment of preparation, they all released a glaring beam of concentrated dawn light. Each beam targeted a different point on the archer¡¯s body.


    Despite that, all that Yi Fenwu needed to do was raise her arrow-spear in a defensive position, and a large crimson barrier appeared to block all eight beams, seemingly suppressing them entirely with no effort from the wielder at all.


    ¡®If I am not mistaken, this barrier is cold and metallic, and thus it can be considered to be yin¡­¡¯


    Just half-way through the effective duration of the Dawn Slicing Light, the sturdy shield suddenly cracked, and, without holding on for even a single further second, it collapsed into nothingness, the red light flowing back into the inscriptions on the spear as if it hadn¡¯t nearly withstood the power of the Dawn Slicing Light that same second.


    The beams, now that they had no obstruction in their path, burst forth and attempted to strike eight vulnerable points on Yi Fenwu¡¯s body, although two were still blocked by the physical body of the spear.


    Five went straight for her clothes, while the last targeted her forehead. That was one of the tougher points on the human body, but at the very least there was no need to worry about the potential effects of destroying the blindfold or risking doing too little damage by targeting the lower jaw.


    All of a sudden, Yi Fenwu¡¯s silvery robes lit up, as if someone had poured a pool of earth flame into the fabric, and the beams were suddenly blocked once again, this time with a great force of yang. For another few seconds, the beams burned, but then they fizzled out of existence and scattered into raw energy. The bright orange glow within the archer¡¯s robes disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, sinking back into the unknown depths of the robes.


    ¡®I know that I have a few things down my sleeve, but what is this? How many life-saving methods does she have? Can I even injure her?¡¯ Yi Wei questioned mentally, ¡®I suppose I might need to utilise the four combat techniques I acquired in the fourth room. When used by Kong Dong Ming¡¯s echo, they were incredibly powerful, so if anything can get through her defences, it will be them.¡¯


    She pulled up the four tomes within her mental library, and, reading through them a little more carefully, she realised what the true meaning of Kong Dong Ming¡¯s declaration of the ways of Kong were ¨C part of the process of using the techniques involved calling out their name.


    ¡®I knew that their ways were absolutely stup- ahem. Keep calm. Exploding with fury in battle may be beneficial to certain barbarian clans, but not if it is only mentally, and it will most certainly not assist someone who relies on their brain more so than their body¡­ That won¡¯t describe me for much longer with how strong my body is getting, will it?¡¯ she thought, ¡®My cultivation has been catching up lately, so I should be able to avoid the fate of becoming a large slab of muscle for a little while, and if I am able to refine my physique, it should compress my muscles without damaging my strength, though I don¡¯t know whether I will be able to manage to do that anytime soon.¡¯


    She shook her head ¨C mentally ¨C and put her hands together ¨C physically ¨C before circulating her planar energy in the manner described by the manuals. And then¡­


    ¡°The Touch of God!¡± Yi Wei shouted with an unwilling blush, whilst punching the air before her.


    Nobody had the chance to question her strange exclamation before a great mass of dawn light gathered at her hand, and erupted into a great, blinding beam of light. It cut right into the wall in front of her, melting several walls of ice in a single instant.


    The main target of the attack only dodged it narrowly, and even then, a large clump of crimson hair was caught within the beam, evaporating it out of existence.


    However, the one that was most surprised by this sudden outburst of power was no one other than Yi Wei herself, for there were several major questions she would have loved to ask the world, the heavens or whatever other force had a better understanding of matters. ¡®Can I not have a single normal thing? How did that happen? First, it¡¯s my lightning, now it¡¯s this¡­ At the very least this does not seem to be sentient, and is stronger than it should have been, but I can¡¯t say I appreciate the sudden transformation from a water-based technique to whatever it is now. Yang and fire, most likely.¡¯


    Before Yi Fenwu could straighter her back and attempt some sort of her own attack, a second beam headed for her from Yi Wei¡¯s other fist, alongside the shout of ¡®Touch of God¡¯, while the other was clearly filling up with more energy.


    Due to the greater knowledge regarding her attacks, Yi Fenwu was able to dodge without sustaining further damage to her hair, only to see a bright circle forming around her.


    ¡°Light of Divinity!¡±


    A great hammer of dawn light formed around her hand, and she immediately brought it down upon the ground, also causing the circle that formed around the archer to brighten and rise into the sky, where, far, far above them, a single solid sheet of ice obscured the sky, or lack thereof. A small glint within the ice was all that preceded a seemingly boundless beam that soared downwards and struck the ground with a deafening boom.


    Just before it did, the shawl around Yi Fenwu¡¯s neck lit up, and her figure blurred.


    The ice beneath them cracked, with the cracks spreading everywhere, tearing through the ground and floor without ceasing until the entire Lock Obelisk chamber was destroyed.


    Some kind of faint energy slowly flowed from the world into Yi Wei¡¯s planar aperture, but she could not focus on it as she felt the font of energy that marked and belonged to Yi Fenwu vanish from the spot she had stood in earlier, moving rapidly past her and towards one pathway of the labyrinth.


    ¡®Damn, again? How many items can she possibly have on her, and which family¡¯s Ancestral Hall did she rob to get them?¡¯ Yi Wei questioned, calling upon the yang physique energy within her, ¡®If she gets away like this again, then who knows where she¡¯ll disappear to? I should try and get her here and now, so I will use the strongest thing I can manage.¡¯


    While physique energy gathered in one hand, she stretched out the other, causing a great orange circle to appear in front of Yi Fenwu.


    ¡®No, she will be able to evade that. Larger!¡¯


    She willed the circle to expand, and that is what it did. Under the stimulation of her mental energy, it doubled and then tripled in size in just a few seconds, changing from covering a few metres to over a dozen metres, passing through Yi Fenwu¡¯s clouded figure in an instant.


    ¡®Even this isn¡¯t sufficient. I require more! More!¡¯


    Her eyes lit up with orange light as the targeting circle of the technique grew ever larger, though its growth was slower than before. It felt like her mind was slowly being stretched to its limit, and even the mental library began to tremble, the countless memory books that she had stored within it jittering. Still, she knew that she could go further with the mental and physique energy she had, so she did exactly that.


    ¡®Cover this entire realm!¡¯


    The circle grew so large that it seemed inescapable, and just as it neared her own feet, Yi Wei allowed her physique energy to finally form the hammer with which to cast the technique, and activated a bone talisman within her body.


    ¡°Behold! THE LIGHT OF DIVINITY!¡±


    In that instant, the entire ceiling of the icy world collapsed inwards, as an absolutely enormous light descended from the heavens. It was as if the sun itself had descended upon the world, surpassing the strange orange point that still hovered in the air, and it was just as destructive. Ice did not crack, it did not shatter ¨C it outright vanished from existence, changing from ice to water and to steam within one breath. The walls and floor of the maze was not shifted ¨C it was absolutely annihilated, every fundamental force within collapsing under the intense pressure of the dawn light.


    The force immediately threw anyone nearby, but not beneath the light, far away, and even the one who used the technique with every drop of her physique energy, could not remain on her feet. Furthermore, unlike the common Light of Divinity, this power was not contained to one location, and it spread, scorching everything it came in contact with until more than half of the icy maze was obliterated.

 V1C45: Kong Holy Grounds, Part 5

    Yi Wei forced her arms up, grabbing onto the nearest remaining wall to pull herself back to her feet.


    The sight before her was a dismal one, and if she had seen it when she had first entered the hidden grounds, she would have had to assume that they were on the brink of collapse.


    In the middle of the great icy maze, there was now an absolutely enormous hole the size of a lake, and it wasn¡¯t simply a pit in the ground, but a hole in the reality itself. Beneath a layer of ice that was precisely four metres thick was a great void, with distant star-like glints peppered amongst the darkness.


    Naturally, the similarity between it and her cosmic energy did not evade her attention, but one thing she was sure of was the fact that it was not a good idea to attempt to interact with the void outside a pocket reality without preparation or the Oblivion Halo realm.


    She looked around with her spiritual will, found no immediate threats, and looked into her planar aperture. As she had noticed earlier, the quantity of energy within her dantian had increased after the last usage of the Light of Divinity, and that new energy felt curiously pure, despite both the new and the old being completely clean of impurities.


    There were a few possibilities in regard to this matter, but after consulting the tome one more time, the most likely one seemed to be linked to the unique focus of the Kong family. While the vast majority of families focused on cultivation, whether planar or physical, the Kong seemed to prioritise the mental arts, which, as impressive as they could be in terms of learning or observation, lacked any notable benefits for typical cultivation or combat. As a result, they should have been behind most other families in terms of power and cultivation, and yet, until they suddenly fell one day, they were one of the more powerful groups in the area that would eventually become the Yi City.


    As it turns out, they had a somewhat different method of cultivation. Instead of actively drawing in energy via focused meditation and cultivation, they fought.


    During their battles, through some method that was not entirely clear to Yi Wei, the four skills that she had access to were able to draw in a certain quantity of energy towards their user, likely varying based on the user¡¯s mental cultivation, which would explain why only two attacks ¨C even if one of them was used with every drop of her mental and physique energy ¨C were able to bring her half-way to the next realm.


    ¡®While that is good, I can¡¯t see any sign of Yi Fenwu, Yi Tai or Yi Bai.¡¯


    She peered into the distance, only to see nothing of note yet again. A less cautious individual might have assumed that the archer was dead, but she knew all too well that Yi Fenwu had an excess of life-saving methods, and that the strange effect that allowed her to escape the first Light of Divinity was still on-going when the Yang Light of Divinity fell upon her.


    As a result, there was no guarantee that it killed her, nor that it was even able to damage her. It wouldn¡¯t even be too surprising if, after the Light of Divinity fell upon her, Yi Fenwu used yet another trinket that was able to transport her away from the range of the attack.


    ¡®I have previously blocked the Light of Divinity used by a far more powerful opponent, so I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she or Yi Bai were able to do the same for a little while, with the added help of the arrow-spear, cloak and shawl¡­ really, how many things can one person have? I still can¡¯t get over it¡­¡¯ Yi Wei recalled how the archer was able to activate one item after another without blinking an eye (nor doing much of anything, for that matter), ¡®If she is alive, then she should be heading towards-¡¯


    Yi Wei looked towards the entrance through which she and Yi Bai entered the ice maze and assessed the overall structure of the hidden grounds briefly before deciding to view this segment from a slightly higher perspective, which she found by jumping to the top of one of the still-standing frozen walls in the nearby area.


    ¡®No trace of the cave we originally came from, so the gateways aren¡¯t purely for show,¡¯ she noted, seeing as a void took over the moment the icy cliffs of the maze ended, ¡®not to mention the nearly endless sheet of ice above, which I hadn¡¯t seen in any of the other open areas within the Kong Holy Grounds. However, this place seems to be close to a square in shape, and the exit in right in the middle of that side, which is consistent with the first open area I have explored. Thus, it can be guessed that if there is another gateway, one would be on the opposite side of the ice maze block, and two more could be on the other two edges.¡¯


    To confirm that theory, she traced the number one on her neck and leapt up, as high as she could.


    As she soared into the air, a large chunk of the wall she had stood on cracked from the sudden force she had released. To her surprise, that one jump, without the augmentation of physique energy or the bone talismans, was sufficient to let her oversee the entire maze from above, letting her peek into every passageway and corner of the labyrinth with ease. Although there were a few interesting scenes for her to observe, she primarily focused on the four edges, where, after confirming the location of the passageway she used to enter this section, she looked to the other three centre points.


    The entry gateway was on the right, so she first looked forward, and immediately saw a hint of a dark shadow and a rapidly appearing and falling barrage of stone. Looking to her left, she was nearly blinded by the shine of a golden weapon in a woman¡¯s hands. Behind her, there was no hint of a door.


    ¡®Well, that¡¯s nice. So far as I¡¯m aware, the Touch of God has no restriction on range!¡¯ she smiled, pulling back her fist while aiming it at Yi Fenwu.


    Unlike before, all that gathered at her fist was blue energy, with no trace of dawn light in sight. As expected, due to the origin of dawn light being her yang physique energy, now that it was completely spent, the Touch of God had no choice but to manifest in its original, intended form. Unfortunately, that also made the technique noticeably less powerful, but so long as Yi Fenwu did not have yet another layer of defence, it would be enough to injure her into immobility.


    The light burst from her fist and flew at the archer¡­


    ¡­ and just before it struck, she ducked, spun around while brandishing her bow, and aimed a common arrow-spear at Yi Wei.


    ¡®I didn¡¯t shout the technique name that loudly, did I? Did she hear the energy approaching and dodge just at the right time to avoid it?¡¯ she wondered, slowly falling right into the path of the incoming arrow, ¡®Still, don¡¯t think that I will be easy to kill this way.¡¯


    For a moment, she considered whether it was worth it to punch the spear directly, but quickly concluded that it wasn¡¯t worth risking something like that while her physique meridians were dry, and instead looked downwards and used the Floating Whale Lungs to push herself back up into the air. Only seconds later, the arrow-spear flew past her, far below her present location. She fell to the ground smoothly, and landed on her feet, before charging in the direction of Yi Fenwu.


    She planned to rush right past the great hole in the ground, but as she stepped into its vicinity, the outer rim of the hole suddenly collapsed inwards.


    Then, the cracks spread, and more and more chunks of ice fell apart.


    In just a few seconds, the one-hundred-metre hole within the world slowly gained another ten metres within its diameter, and it clearly seemed to be growing rapidly, with the eternal void within spreading across the icy maze.


    Her eyes widened slightly, and she hurried far more so than she otherwise would have done.


    ¡°That beam is bad news. It¡¯s certainly trying to pull us in ¨C again! ¨C and I will not fall for it!¡± Yi Guanyu exclaimed, to the nodding and praise from his followers. They had all suffered far too long within that illusory swamp, and if there was even the tiniest of chances of falling back into such a realm, they would never get close to it, not unless that place also contained the method for forever freeing themselves from such encounters. ¡°I say that we go as far away from it as possible, find the exit and pretend that we were never here. Who agrees?¡±


    This time, there were fewer nods of agreement, as some could not justify such a cowardly action to themselves.


    ¡°Young Master Guanyu, couldn¡¯t we ignore the beam, and explore?¡±


    ¡°What, are you stupid?¡± he retorted, ¡°What kind of a trap would only have one place of entry, and one lure? Obviously, the beam is intended to lure us into the first entrance, but then, if we go away from it, we will also be trapped!¡±


    ¡°But, wouldn¡¯t seeking the exit be the same?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ by the heavens, I nearly missed that! Thank you, Yi Fat, your input was absolutely genius! Alright then, new-¡±


    Out of nowhere, he was overcome with a sudden urge to throw himself to the ground. It was extremely unusual for him to be so certain of something, anything, to the point that he was concerned that he had unwittingly gotten himself into yet another illusion that he would then sit inside of for years, but since he could already be within a mirage, he trusted that instinct and launched himself face-first onto the floor.


    ¡°Yo-¡± the first follower who had spoken began again, but his speech was suddenly cut short.


    A great arrow, no smaller than a spear, suddenly pierced his flesh, got caught on something midway through his body, and pulled him alongside it as it flew into a distant icy wall.


    The impact caused both the ice and person stuck on the arrow to explode, blood and freezing water mixing together in a great explosion of red and blue. It instantly covered anyone who stood within its proximity, and a few drops of crimson fluid even splattered onto Yi Guanyu¡¯s back, marking him with that figure¡¯s rapidly fading heat.


    He stood up immediately and saw the archer standing in the distance, a faint smile on her lips.


    ¡°Yi Fenwu! What in the heavens are you doing?¡± he shouted, raising the ice around him with the power of his Crushing Ice Falls into a great wall, no smaller than those that lined the maze, ¡°Have you completely lost your mind?¡±


    ¡°Not at all, Yi Guanyu. Now, before I get carried away, lie down and die for me.¡±


    ¡°Brace for another arrow!¡± Yi Guanyu shouted to his followers, prompting them to strengthen the wall with their own techniques and energies, adding all sorts of fire, water, earth, metal and wood reinforcement to it with various qualities and styles, causing the icy wall to transform into the likeness of a nonsensical mountain that didn¡¯t belong to this world.


    And yet, no arrow impact followed. It was almost like she was laughing at them from behind that great barrier whilst having to do nothing on her own.


    Since the majority of Yi Guanyu¡¯s followers were in the second realm, the defences they put up fell quickly, dissipating into nothingness while some of those who had created them dropped to the ground out of exhaustion. Clearly, some had not considered the ramification of wasting all of their energy on a single, temporary barrier against an attack that may not even come, and were thus emptied of planar energy completely, with their dantian struggling to refill itself in time.


    A little more time passed, and even Yi Guanyu¡¯s wall could not sustain itself without the support of the planar anchor, which still rested within his planar aperture. As a result, it too began to melt, slowly disappearing into the air.


    It was then that Yi Fenwu struck, not with her bow and arrow, but with a magnificent golden spear, with which she thrust through the remains of the barriers before landing on the other side and slashing the air with its tip. That slash travelled through the air, almost forming into the shape of countless swords as it did so, and cut into every nearby man and woman, splitting some in two while others got away with a shallow wound. An attack from those who stood further away quickly followed, but all the archer had to do was raise her spear and every strike, whether hot or cold, large or small, was nullified by the barrier that it generated.


    ¡°This is how it was meant to go. Can you believe that a single girl proved so troublesome?¡± she asked nobody in particular, dashing over to a distracted woman and unceremoniously stabbing her in the eye.


    ¡°E-Everybody, get behind me!¡± Yi Guanyu called out once he recovered from the shock, congealing more of his energy into a wall on either side of himself, leaving his position as the only passageway onto the other side of his walls, ¡°Whatever your plan is, Yi Fenwu, don¡¯t think that I or anyone else in the family will allow you to do as you please!¡±


    A great shard of ice formed in front of his hand and flew out just in time to block another spear thrust.


    Yi Fenwu wasn¡¯t too perturbed by her failure to eliminate the target, who quickly ran past Yi Guanyu and hid behind the icy wall, ¡°I get that a lot as of late, darling. I didn¡¯t need to hear it again.¡±


    She narrowed her eyes as she prepared to execute some great technique, which was heralded by a great gathering of metallic energy around her and the spear, creating a corona of silver, when an echo finally reached them.


    ¡°-of Divinity!¡±


    ¡°Oh, fuck-¡± Yi Fenwu flooded her legs with metal-type energy as she looked down upon the ground, charging away the instant she spotted the faint blue line of the circle.


    Another beam crashed down upon the ground, though anyone could tell that it was notably less powerful and impressive, and the overall strike area was one hundredth of the great beam that began the collapse of this segment of the world. Nevertheless, now that Yi Guanyu had an opportunity to see it close-up, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would have been injured heavily had he stood directly under it.


    Once the beam vanished, it revealed Yi Wei¡¯s figure in the distance, with a singed crimson robe and a blue glow slowly dissipating from her hand. However, even before that energy settled, she lowered her hand, gripped the air and threw her fist up, yelling with flushed cheeks, ¡°Ancestral Call!¡±


    Four groups of strange totems burst out of the ground around her, with faint dawn light glowing from within and coagulating into spectral figures above them. Each one only had one point in the middle of their heads that could be described as an eye, and two strong arms that looked ready to crush anyone or anything that got near them.


    However, there wasn¡¯t anyone within range of them, causing both Yi Guanyu and Yi Fenwu to furrow their brows ¨C were these things also able to move, they questioned silently.


    ¡°Ancestral Eyes!¡±


    A fierce orange light suddenly appeared within Yi Wei¡¯s eyes, and spread to every figure above the totems. In perfect synchronicity with one another, they raised their hands in a motion that was very familiar to the one who had suffered from it most.


    ¡°The Touch of- Storm Blade Wreathing!¡± her words changed mid-exclamation, and the posture of all of the figures changed as well. A terrifying net of lightning burst out of their arms, flickering each second between gold, white and violet. Each figure, Yi Wei included, lowered their right hands and switched their left from a fist to a palm, around which a great quantity of white, calming energy gathered, with its nature seemingly being more suitable for a healing method rather than an offensive one.


    But then, it merged with the lightning, splitting it into two unique strands of gold and purple.


    As it sparked across their arms, it almost seemed to be alive, behaving in a manner too unique to possibly be a coincidence or sheer chance. They grew and linked together, forming one great storm, with clouds seeming to appear in between the lightning bolts.


    ¡®Elysian Palm.¡¯


    In her eyes, Yi Wei saw four dozen and one pairs of hands flood with cosmic energy, draining her planar aperture almost entirely even as she activated yet another dantian bone talisman in order to increase the effectiveness of her planar energy without using as much of it. Once the structure of the Elysian Palm was set, she pushed her palm forward.


    Despite her simple movement, the lightning coiling on every single one of the ancients¡¯ hands surged forth like a sea through a broken dam, covering a great segment of the maze in lightning.


    It latched onto the ice, the water, the loose planar energy in the hidden grounds, onto the proximity of the Yi family¡¯s disciples, but the vast majority of the lightning went straight for Yi Fenwu, flooding her sight, even through the blindfold, and for once she was almost able to make out their true colours.


    Even from afar, Yi Wei could tell that the archer¡¯s whole body was shaking as she reached for her other pocket. She produced a strange, smooth orb, which was no larger than her thumb, and crushed it in her fist, producing an ugly green mist that quickly covered her body. Before it could produce any clear effect, a strand of purple lightning burst into it, dispersing it in an instant whilst also striking her robes, which produced its guarding light again.


    It, too, was interrupted as twin gold and purple hit her on either side of her body, surging into her clothing and instantly shattering whatever inscription was allowing her to protect herself.


    Four more wild bolts of lightning struck her immortal gold spear, and just as they were about to pass into the ground without causing much harm, Yi Fenwu felt a terrible premonition. The entire atmosphere transformed as the orange and gold glow within Yi Wei¡¯s eyes transformed into pure purple.


    The lightning storm changed with them, as both the gold and violet merged into one, with the cosmic light of the violet transforming into a more primal, more violent purple, with no sight of the stars within its shadow.


    Its power seemed to double with that change, and the energy that was previously harmless to the spear now melted through its surface, causing the immortal gold to crack and shatter into slowly melting pieces. Her robe was shredded into pieces, the prestigious fabric turning into ash upon an instant of contact with the magnificent lightning, and once it locked onto the countless arrows on her back, it seemed to spell death for the overly rich archer.


    Her hand reached into yet another pocket in the brief moment that she had and took out a small pebble. She dropped to her knees and seemed to pray to something unknown.


    Just as the first bolt surged right through her body, forcing her to throw up a bucket-full of blood, the space around her suddenly froze, and every strand of lightning passed right through her. No matter how many bolts of lightning Yi Wei tried to direct at her, they were all harmless until her figure blurred and became transparent, vanishing completely the next moment.


    When she saw that the archer was gone, whether under the observation of her eyes, spiritual will or any sort of natural sense, she allowed the lightning storm to disperse and the totems to fall back into the ground, vanishing to dust.


    ¡°Yi Wei, how¡­ how did you-¡±


    ¡°I¡­ may tell you¡­ not now¡­¡± Yi Wei mumbled as a steady stream of blood slowly poured out of her facial orifices, and her vision darkened, ¡°Slightly¡­ overexerted¡­ myself-¡±


    The last thing she saw was the icy ground, and her face burying itself within it.

 V1C46: Kong Holy Grounds, Part 6

    When she awoke, it was not within the real world, but within her very own mind. She recognised the library that she had specially constructed all too well to mistake it for anything else. Furthermore, even if the Kong Holy Grounds had collapsed completely, the void between worlds was different from the void within her mind, though she would struggle to explain the reasoning behind it to anyone due to the differences being in her experience of it, rather than its appearance.


    The void between worlds was complex and unknowable, but the darkness in her mind was her own, the chaotic memories that had not yet settled down in her library-


    ¡®Wait, where are they?¡¯ she noticed a suspicious absence of thought chunks, so she reached out with her spiritual will, an energy that was limitless whilst she was within her mind, and found no signs of them, ¡®Have I been resting here so long that my mind had the time to sort two lifetimes of ideas into this library?¡¯


    She turned around. The appearance of the Gilded Library was only identical to before on first glance.


    The moment she moved from the spot of her awakening, she saw that the library had fractured, though, miraculously, it was still whole. It was broken into hundreds of chunks, but they were spread apart, with the space in between shelves being stretched up to twice or thrice their original length in order to fit in the books that they now stored. She could walk on that empty void and could even perceive illusory objects and surfaces within it, but those sensations were extremely faint and fleeting, as if they were there and yet not there, akin to objects in a dream or a passing fancy.


    ¡®So, I have filled my library to the brim already. Although I don¡¯t yet know how to progress, logically speaking, unless someone is aware of the structure of the library, nobody should be able to influence my mind without the advantage of an extreme gap in our power.¡¯


    She lowered her mental avatar and tapped the ground with her knuckles, finding it to sound ¨C and feel ¨C just like sturdy wood.


    ¡®It seems that my mental energy is also at the limit of what the Gilded Library can offer. That is¡­ very impressive¡­ for someone who hadn¡¯t had much time to cultivate it, and should come in handy when I manage to get out of here and attack someone with the four Kong techniques,¡¯ Yi Wei smiled, standing up and heading to the library¡¯s door, ¡®Since I am currently stuck in here, I can only assume that my mind instinctively retreated into this place to sustain itself when it was threatened. Although I can appreciate such a thing, since it seems to have kept me alive after I had wasted all of my forms of energy on almost nothing, I would like to know what the state of my body is currently in.¡¯


    Yi Wei opened the door, and as she did, she forced spiritual will to pass through it, stretching into the rest of her body. There was a great deal of resistance, but she persevered until a singular strand reached her dantian. The moment that it touched the illusory barrier that typically existed around it, it was suddenly pulled into the depths, and as it connected to the mysterious characters, a rush of sensations nearly overwhelmed her.


    The first thing she noticed was the fact that the illusory barrier had transformed from solid to crystal, much like her energy had done the same. It still seemed to be purely illusory, but as before, it was bound to sustain an attack for a brief instance.


    The next was slightly more significant, and it was, unfortunately, not her planar energy or her characters, though the latter of the two had also undergone some changes that she would get to later.


    No, the most notable matter was the fact that enormous planar anchor floating right in the middle of her planar aperture, with the characters floating in front of it no matter which perspective she looked at it from.


    Unlike every anchor she had ever seen before, it had five individual faces. Each one burned ¨C or, rather, due to the differences within the elements, glowed ¨C with a particular elemental light. One side seemed to be made of silvery and gold metal, with blood stains on one side of it, the second was blue and deep, with a small pool of blood amidst it, the third was like the side of a mountain, tall and impenetrable, the fourth was burning in a curious rune that seemed to have no clear meaning, and the fifth was like the bark of a tree.


    Atop the magnificent stone monolith, there was a glowing orb of violet energy, crackling violently as it was barely contained by some force within her planar anchor. Additionally, she occasionally saw crackling on the fire and metal sides of the anchor, switching between violet and gold each time, likely having something to do with her living golden lightning born originally of Storm Blade Wreathing.


    However, as it was not complete, it could not fully manifest within her dantian.


    ¡®How in the heavens did I accidentally create a planar anchor like this while I wasn¡¯t conscious? I¡¯m assuming that it originated from the energy that was generated by the Kong techniques, but even the mysterious characters shouldn¡¯t be able to condense a planar anchor-¡¯ her mental brow furrowed as she noticed something about the anchor, ¡®Despite how grandiose it looks, it isn¡¯t quite complete, is it? That means that I¡¯m not quite in the third realm yet.¡¯


    She wasn¡¯t sure whether she was more worried or relieved about that matter, so she decided to look at the mysterious characters first.


    Previously, they were floating shards of dark stone, and while that descriptor still applied, and perhaps was even more accurate, she now saw a certain cosmic glow emanating from them, while a number of violet lightning bolts often struck in the gaps between the characters, stringing them together as if they were strings.


    The technique they displayed were of the same quality and same style, so there did not appear to be any changes other than that, but the consistent changes and improvements within the characters gave her a degree of hope that, eventually, they would transform into something amazing, even more so than they currently were. Perhaps they could become weapons, and they would then be usable in combat either in individual shards or as entire characters, at which point she could dominate the world with a bunch of odd, cosmic characters.


    ¡®Cosmic characters? No, that¡¯s not much of an improvement, seeing as I already have cosmic energy and cosmic-type techniques like the Elysian Palm.¡¯


    If she was able to learn the true name of the characters, then she would have a small chance of learning about their origin and whatever true purpose they might have, but so far, she had gone through no records that would imply the existence of anything close to the mysterious characters, and she had read through quite the number of historical and mythical records.


    ¡®Anyway, what else is different than before?¡¯ she asked herself, spreading out her spiritual will.


    As it passed through her networks of meridians, she saw that the physique energy had undergone a certain change, as did her body. The latter was more of a qualitative change, making her body far stronger, and slightly more muscular, than before, though her breasts were still as small as ever.


    Her physique energy, on the other hand, had grown significantly stronger, and she felt that if she was to use it for a similar world-ending beam as before, it could produce an attack one and a half times as large and powerful as her last, which, so long as she was in the same realm with the same structural weakness that the Kong Holy Grounds seemed to have ¨C perhaps due to the rush in which it must have been produced, based on what she knew of it ¨C then she might be able to eliminate an entire world chunk.


    ¡®Alright, I think that¡¯s it. I still have everything that I should have, where I should have it, and I don¡¯t appear to be dead, so¡­ how do I wake up?¡¯


    Yi Wei ascertained for a second time that her body was working smoothly and had no obvious wounds within, likely due to the passive flow of her planar energy healing her body of the damage caused by the reckless use of the raw planar energy, and forced her spiritual will out of her body, feeling a smooth fabric surrounding her, and another smooth surface beneath her.


    All of a sudden, her spiritual will surged outwards, and her mental avatar, which was casually floating around, was forced into her present physical position.


    Her eyes snapped open, and she found her mind and her body functioning in synchronicity once more. She felt her beating heart, the blood pumping through her veins, the planar energy and physique energy residing within her meridians and a soft light flooding into her vision even through her eyelids.


    ¡®Ugh¡­ It feels like I haven¡¯t moved in a hundred years¡­¡¯ Yi Wei thought, forcing her muscles to awake before opening her eyes.


    At the same time as light and colour filled her sight, she also felt sound pouring into her head, the smell of wood sinking into her nose and a faint sense of warmth covering her. She forced her eyes to open and looked around.


    Her present location was surrounded by a large sphere of icy planar energy, and it was supported by a distant figure who was holding their palm against it. Beneath her was a large, recently flattened log of wood, atop which was someone¡¯s red and silver robe, which seems to have been beneath her for quite some time, as it was covered by her red hairs and a small spot beside the neck where she might have drooled whilst sleeping. There was no trace of the icy maze in her surroundings, only a solid wooden surface on the ground that had a number of bumps and dips, but otherwise no maze-like walls.


    ¡®I can¡¯t feel my legs, though cosmic energy should fix it¡­ I assume, based on the fact that I am lying safely on someone¡¯s robe, that I am not currently in danger, so¡­¡¯ she sat up with a great deal of effort, and looked towards the distant figure, who, now that she had taken a second look at him or her, only seemed to be a few metres away, ¡°Excuse me¡­ where am I?¡±


    The figure initially glanced in her direction lazily, but the moment that they saw her sitting up, their movements hastened, and they quickly turned around, keeping only their palm on the spherical barrier of frost.


    ¡°You¡¯re awake?¡± the first thing he ¨C for that was a male voice, without a doubt ¨C said was within her expectations, but the next was¡­ less so, ¡°So quickly?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean, so quickly? It feels like I¡¯ve been here for a year!¡± Yi Wei unwittingly retorted, forcing her vision to focus on the speaker. It took a few seconds, but she was eventually able to see that he was Yi Guanyu, though his aura and overall appearance seemed different to what they used to be. Since she could not understand the exact reason for this, nor what had changed, so she assumed that it was due to his cultivation level getting far closer to her own.


    ¡°Are you trying to comment about your sleeping conditions? It may be somewhat difficult to identify the time down here, but we¡¯re sure that we haven¡¯t spent more than a day in these hidden grounds,¡± Yi Guanyu said, ¡°With your state, Yi Budian had assumed that you would need more than a dozen days to recover consciousness.¡±


    ¡°Then, I guess I was commenting about these sleeping arrangements. Whose robes am I lying on?¡±


    ¡°One of the people who had been part of Yi Tai¡¯s group was fond of his leader, and wanted to achieve a similar height and presence via body cultivation. He ended up developing a muscular upper body that he is now showing off to anyone who passes by.¡±


    ¡®Um¡­ Well, that explains why I am not larger than the robes despite my height. Wait, had been part of his group?¡¯ she frowned, and raised her head again, ¡°Did something happen to Yi Tai?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ It seems that Yi Fenwu and I are now the only leaders left. The elder, Yi Tai and Yi Zheng have been confirmed to be dead, and Yi Jiazhi¡¯s arm has been found, though not the rest of the body. I think that it might have been consumed by the void between worlds. Speaking of which, you¡¯re probably curious about where we currently are, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Is there a reason that there is a large dome above us?¡±


    Yi Guanyu nodded, though his palm was still on the translucent barrier, ¡°Your great beam, the one that you used in the ice realm, seems to have struck some fundamental element of the dimension, or perhaps it was simply so corrosive that it had started to devour not just the endless cold maze, but also a number of small realms without any clear reason behind it. Every one of them has fallen apart almost completely, reduced to little but a few small paths through the void between worlds that leads to the gateways to other small realms, and although that erosion doesn¡¯t seem to travel directly through the gateways, it has slowly started to appear in other small realms.¡±


    He turned around and willed his barrier to become clearer. At first, Yi Wei could not determine what she was meant to see, but then her eyes adjusted to the light and saw¡­ nothingness.


    The void between worlds. It was bottomless, and endless, and the only thing keeping it at bay was that feeble-seeming barrier. As she looked on for a little longer, she realised that it wasn¡¯t even that the barrier was holding the void back, but rather that it was feeding it, constantly supplying it with planar energy before being reformed with more of Yi Guanyu¡¯s energy.


    ¡°Let me see if I understand things correctly ¨C you are supplying the void between worlds with energy so that it doesn¡¯t consume a certain spot of land?¡±


    ¡°Yes, though I am hardly the only one. Everyone who was still alive has joined into one group, where I, mostly due to my cultivation, am considered the leader. At first, we just ran away from the spreading void, but someone eventually had the bright idea to throw their first stage planar anchor right into it. They lost it, naturally, but it also took the void several minutes to fully consume it, with the process slowing the encroachment of the void significantly,¡± he explained, ¡°It later turned out that regular planar energy works similarly, and that if we come together to create one barrier, we can protect a significant plot of land with one half of us resting and recovering while the other half supplies their planar energy. We¡¯ve also placed this barrier right at the crossroads of this particular small realm, so, as long as we are able to maintain it, the realm shouldn¡¯t collapse any time soon.¡±


    ¡°Alright then¡­ Why did you bother with me then?¡±


    ¡°Several reasons. First of all, and perhaps most importantly, you are the reason we survived Yi Fenwu¡¯s attack, and it seems that you might even be the reason for her not attacking us since. We¡¯ve seen her twice so far, once with her weird shadowy assassin, but whenever she noticed us carrying you around, she retreated instantly,¡± Yi Guanyu stated, ¡°I¡¯m not like that bitch. You saved us, even if it was just a coincidence, so I will not let you die to the void between worlds.


    ¡°Then, consider the fact that you had enough energy to put an enormous hole within an entire dimension. You¡¯ve got to have enough to keep it together for a little while, right?¡± Yi Wei asked, ¡°Haven¡¯t you thought about leaving? I¡¯d do that before sitting on the edge of a void. Just saying.¡±


    ¡°We had. The door is locked, and some sort of round symbol is the only hint we¡¯ve had when it comes to opening it. Some of the people who had joined us most recently suggested that it had a connection to the strange obelisks that Yi Fenwu has been looking for. They say that one of them added a quarter of a symbol to her wrist, so we suspect that someone would need all four to open the exit.¡±


    ¡®If nothing else, I have to commend their information gathering capabilities. If there has truly only been one day since I had fallen unconscious, then to learn so much is very impressive,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, shuffling to the edge of the log she was resting on as her body slowly regained its previous energy, ¡°How can you be sure that is the exit? What if it is the treasury that everyone¡¯s looking for?¡±


    ¡°There is a reason for that as well,¡± replied Yi Guanyu while he took something out of his pocket. That object was a small compass, with a single needle that was wildly fluctuating, ¡°It¡¯s something that we got to track down the exit of any pocket spaces we found ourselves in.¡±


    Yi Wei did not need to hear any further explanation, as she had previously read about the Planar Wayfarer¡¯s Compass within the same library that she had based her Gilded Library on. They were artefacts that could be made by someone in the fourth realm, without requiring extensive mastery of blacksmithing or inscriptions, and it only had one primary function ¨C to track down the flow of space itself throughout the fabric of reality. When it was far away from any gaps within reality, it would not show anything in particular, but when it neared one such gap ¨C with the exact distance needed varying based on the ability of the one that created it ¨C it would point to it with ever-increasing accuracy.


    Although it had no other ability, it was an invaluable and an infallible item for anyone who wanted to explore any other dimension.


    ¡°It pointed at that doorway?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±


    ¡°Well, that is unfortunate. Have you had no luck in finding any more of those obelisks? If you can get four of them, then you should be able to leave,¡± Yi Wei said, unconsciously adjusting the metal bracelet on the wrist that held the full key of the Kong Holy Grounds, ¡°Based on the entrance to this place, I suspect that as long as one person can exit, they should be able to keep it open for everyone.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps that¡¯s right, but we have only found hints of three, with one being near the origin of the void erosion, and we theorise that there will be no more than eight. Unfortunately, we can¡¯t explore too quickly unless we decide to forsake this segment of a small realm and rapidly seek out another, and we can¡¯t create new segments of land without wasting even more planar energy,¡± he said, sitting down while still keeping his hand on the same spot of the barrier.


    ¡®Right. Things like planar anchors won¡¯t help either, as they are stationary and do not increase the quantity of energy, only its power¡­¡¯ she got up from the flattened log, and although she nearly fell straight back down again, Yi Wei was able to keep herself on her feet.


    Now that she was up, she circulated her planar energy at its full strength and efficacy throughout her body, rapidly removing all of the fatigue from every muscle and organ in her body and further elevating them to a higher level of strength. Despite doing all that, on the outside, all she seemed to have done was stand up and regain a great deal of colour and warmth within her features.


    After taking a few steps to ensure that everything was as it should be, she addressed Yi Guanyu, ¡°I recall you mentioning a small group of people. Could I speak to them?¡±


    ¡°Sure, do what you want ¨C as long as it doesn¡¯t get us stuck in an illusion!¡± he replied dismissively.


    She shrugged and looked around, quickly locating the only place that could possibly contain a group of people: a small, blocky structure that looked to be someone¡¯s attempt to put together a house without knowing anything about architecture.


    Even though she had intentionally avoided quite a large number of books on the subject, reading only the things that were particularly relevant whilst skipping over the more boring parts, as she still had some degree of hope in her future at the time and hadn¡¯t realised quite how little cultivation she would be able to do while the characters had not yet awakened and were still consuming all of her impure energy, she was confident that she would be able to put together something far better with the same materials.


    At the very least there was no need to worry about any natural weather conditions, so the absolute lack of a roof made little difference.


    Yi Wei shrugged and made her way to it, silently drawing a greater number on the choker than before.


    There was no door in the front of this wooden building, so she went around the side, only to find a large gap in the wall where a door should have been. Within, there were a number of shabbily made chairs and tables, though most were far more serviceable than the house they were placed into, and they most certainly didn¡¯t crumble under the weight of those who sat upon them.


    Speaking of those sitting on the chairs, there were slightly more than two dozen people within, and most looked incredibly fatigued. Judging by her earlier conversation with Yi Guanyu, she guessed that they were the lot that had been supplying the barrier with energy not too long ago and couldn¡¯t help but pity the fact that they lacked any semblance of a bed or resting place. In comparison, her lazily cut log suddenly looked a lot, lot better than before.


    Just as she noticed them, they also noticed her, and one figure stood up immediately.


    ¡°Who are you? What are you doing-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you have eyes? It¡¯s Yi Wei, the girl we¡¯ve carried around for a dozen hours!¡± a familiar voice interrupted the figure, stood up and hit his head with the side of her hand, ¡°Hey, you¡¯re finally awake! How are you feeling?¡±


    Yi Wei had to blink several times before she was finally able to recall where she had seen her face before, ¡°Yi¡­ Meng, right? From the¡­ thing?¡±


    Before the woman had a chance to respond, she checked her library and was able to confirm that the woman was indeed called Yi Meng, and that the last time she had seen her was the time that Yi Jiazhi had brought her to a meeting that was attempting to figure out the identity of the killer that had targeted their entire expedition. As it turns out, that killer was Yi Fenwu, and their entire enterprise was useless, but at the time, it seemed like a good idea.


    ¡°Yeah, that one,¡± the tall girl nodded, ¡°It¡¯s a shame it didn¡¯t go as expected¡­ Out of everyone you saw there, we only have three survivors, me included. Me, Yi Sheng and Yi Cheng, who is part of Yi Guanyu¡¯s party. Those two are supporting the barrier at the moment, so you might not see them for a while.¡±


    ¡°Right, I see. Were you surprised by the identity of the assassin and their master?¡±


    She shrugged, ¡°The fact that it was Yi Fenwu isn¡¯t too strange if you had ever spoken to her in the past, but I¡¯m afraid I still don¡¯t know who the assassin is.¡±


    Yi Wei intended to reply when someone else suddenly barged into their conversation. It was a short girl, one that would be beneath most of the regular men and women in the family, not to mention Yi Wei and Yi Meng, both of whom were equivalent to giants in comparison to her, with striking blonde hair and brown-red eyes. An intricate silver tiara depicting a dragon crowned her head, and a similar silver necklace hung from her neck.


    ¡°What are you two discussing? Is it something that I, Yi Ling Tai, can contribute to?¡± she said, trying to appear as elegant possible but failing miserably due to her exhausted expression and constantly wobbling legs.


    ¡°Eh¡­ This is, despite what she has told you, Yi Ling. The Tai is something she came up with herself,¡± Yi Meng spoke almost apologetically, as if it was her responsibility that this girl was being silly.


    ¡°No, I am-¡±


    ¡°We were just discussing the matter of Yi Fenwu and her forceful manipulation of Yi Bai into being her assassin,¡± Yi Wei ignored the short girl, though she addressed both of them, ¡°I had heard that this group had seen the two of them twice already, and that they had avoided attacking due to me?¡±


    ¡°Yi-¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s been the current theory, yes. We¡¯ve seen her once on her own and she nearly shot at us before she looked in your direction and was immediately scared away, though I can¡¯t say for sure whether it was your presence, or someone else¡¯s,¡± said Yi Meng, leaning against a wall of the awkward wooden shack as to waste less of her energy, ¡°To be honest, I had almost thought that she was some sort of survivor of the assassin when I first saw her. Her robes were rags, her arrow count had dropped significantly, and she generally looked completely miserable, though she had improved by the second time we had come across her.¡±


    ¡°Did you say Yi Ba-¡±


    ¡°My vision was getting blurry by the time I did any harm to her, so I didn¡¯t realise that she was in such a bad state after my attack. Good to know I didn¡¯t waste my time and energy back then.¡±


    ¡°Do you know what happened to Yi-¡±


    Yi Meng¡¯s eyes and smile briefly widened, ¡°Oh, so that was you? I¡¯d heard it from Yi Cheng, but I had thought that it was exaggerated or something. If that was all you, then I can imagine why she would be too afraid to come at-¡±


    ¡°EXCUSE ME! Did you say that you knew Yi Bai?¡± the blonde girl shouted, her shrill voice making some of the resting individuals within the ¡®room¡¯ cover up their ears.


    ¡°Yes, I did. Are you friends with her, or perhaps just acquaintances?¡±


    ¡°We-¡±


    ¡°Look, you lot, I appreciate that some of us invested more of their energy into the barrier than others, I would appreciate it if you could SHUT THE FUCK UP! My cultivation technique can progress faster while sleeping, so take this shit elsewhere!¡± a man who was laying on the wooden ground shouted at them, before flipping onto his side and starting to snore as loudly as he could.


    ¡°H-How about we move this somewhere else?¡± Yi Meng suggested, ¡°Not that there is much else¡­ Let¡¯s just go.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Does anyone want me to carry them?¡± Yi Wei asked, though she primarily looked at the blond girl.


    At first, the short girl did not reply, but she quickly noticed that Yi Meng also looked in her direction with some expectation, and she clearly had to restrain herself from saying some choice words on the matter, instead speaking only this through her teeth, ¡°¡­ Sure.¡±


    Yi Wei approached Yi Ling and hooked her arm around her chest, lifting her up with ease before following Yi Meng to a spot outside of the resting area, where she put the girl down with ease, as if she was no heavier than a doll. They found a few bumps within the wooden ground and were about to sit down on them before Yi Wei offered to flatten the wood in order to make resting on them a little more comfortable.


    ¡°Alright then, what were you saying?¡± Yi Wei asked, taking her seat while searching through her library for any hints of previous mentions of Yi Ling¡¯s name by Yi Bai or anyone else.


    ¡°I heard you talking about Yi Bai, and I, Yi Ling Tai-¡±


    ¡°Look, I don¡¯t care whether your name is Yi Ling, Yi Tai, Yi Ling Tai or just Yi, but can you not repeat it over and over again?¡± interrupted Yi Wei, having to bend down in order to get closer to her eye-height, ¡°Otherwise, I can¡¯t really speak to you properly and you¡¯re not going to learn anything.¡±


    ¡°Oh, eh¡­ sorry. I just wanted to know if you had seen Yi Bai in this place,¡± Yi Ling said, with a hint of sadness and longing within her voice.


    ¡°I have, and if you had been part of this group for a while, you would have seen her too. She is the shadow-shrouded assassin that follows Yi Fenwu around,¡± she replied, and, when she saw the blond girl¡¯s eyes widen in shock, she continued, ¡°Let me explain it to you in greater detail¡­¡±

 V1C47: Kong Holy Grounds, Part 7

    ¡°¡­ T-That¡¯s not possible! Yi Bai had always cultivated an earth-type technique, even when- I mean, always! And she had never learned to be an assassin! There¡¯s no way for her to attack someone without insulting them at least once, with a lot of¡­ eh¡­ s-swearing! She barely even used a knife until five years ago, when¡­ she¡­ changed techniques¡­ progressed more quickly than before¡­ and seemed darker¡­ somehow¡­¡± Yi Ling began with a great deal of enthusiasm, but with every word that confidence and enthusiasm faded until there was nothing but realisation.


    In fact, both Yi Wei and Yi Meng had a clue about the full timeline of Yi Bai¡¯s life after everything the girl had said, though the former was able to piece together far more with the same information.


    So far as she could tell, Yi Bai was a common servant girl for the first half of her life. She studied the same types of techniques as Yi Wei had, went around similar places and generally had a decent time, without encountering too much trouble as a result of her place within the family. There wasn¡¯t even one person who had thought about randomly attacking her for personal entertainment, as she looked a little too scary for most people to try something like that.


    Then, she went out of the city to seek her fortune, driven by the common tales of people finding great things just by taking the wrong turn on the crossroads and the many legends of heroes being born through fortunate encounters.


    Yi Ling, as she was three years younger, hadn¡¯t followed, and wouldn¡¯t have done so anyway, as her primary inspiration was not the heroes that sought out greatness, but those that achieved them by the virtue of their own genius. In more likely terms, Yi Ling had been too scared of going out into the wilderness and didn¡¯t want to follow a servant out here while being a lower-class member of the family herself.


    Due to this, she couldn¡¯t tell them what happened, but the fact that Yi Bai came back with a great technique, an even grimmer look than before, and a sudden penchant for knife-like bladed weapons whereas she previously liked to use her fists, and if she could have afforded it, she would have purchased a low-grade gauntlet artefact to amplify her punching strength.


    When questioned about this, both by Yi Ling and a number of other acquaintances, they would always receive vague responses that they interpreted in their own ways, mostly by thinking that she had been ashamed to say that her previous path wasn¡¯t suitable for her.


    Naturally, with the knowledge of her sudden acquisition of an assassin¡¯s technique at the time, it was clear that she had attained something so powerful that she had no choice but to use them. Perhaps whatever legacy she had found was a little stricter that most of the mythical legacies in stories, and gave her no choice but to use the techniques it provided unless she wanted to suffer from some sort of punishment, though this was nothing more than a random theory on Yi Wei¡¯s part.


    Whatever the case really was, her rate of growth increased alongside her general ability.


    Most people hadn¡¯t noticed the fact that her technique had changed, but with their current knowledge, it immediately became clear that she had been using the assassin¡¯s methods to disguise her planar energy as earth-type energy that matched with her previous technique, and that she had been acting much like Yi Wei in terms of hiding her true level of ability.


    ¡°So, you¡¯re saying that as a result of that journey, she has now been captured and forced to obey Yi Fenwu?¡±


    ¡°Not quite. Since she seems to be using the techniques of an assassin, I suspect that it is those same techniques that are responsible for this. You might be aware that assassin groups are typically bound by a variety of methods, and the majority of them are woven into the basic techniques taught to their servants. Yi Fenwu has found a way of controlling that particular assassin¡¯s binding, and now she is abusing it to force Yi Bai to kill people,¡± Yi Wei said, with Yi Meng nodding along.


    ¡°That¡¯s horrible! I, Yi- I mean, I want to save her! How do we shatter the binding?¡±


    Yi Meng responded, ¡°I know a little bit about assassin¡¯s bindings, and I happen to know that it isn¡¯t very easy to do, unfortunately. Some are apparently bound to their very planar energy or spiritual will and are difficult to do anything about without ruining their cultivation.¡±


    ¡°I-Is this true?¡± Yi Ling turned to Yi Wei, who first nodded and then shook her head, sending some mixed messages.


    ¡°That is partially true. I know, from some personal experience, that it is possible to deal with an assassin¡¯s binding that is placed within someone¡¯s spiritual will, but I don¡¯t know what Yi Bai is afflicted with, nor how. If the binding is in the form of an individual strand of energy, then it is possible to fix, but if it is something more insidious, then we would need someone that is powerful enough to make this dimension. Have you ever heard of the Silver Skins?¡±


    Yi Ling shook her head, but Yi Meng nodded after a brief pause, ¡°Were they the assassins that transformed their own skins into metal in order to remove all signs of individuality from themselves and to become resistant to weapons?¡±


    ¡°You do know about them? Have you also read Ding Xing¡¯s ¡®Histories of the Assassins¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I have. According to that book, this process of changing their skins was the exact assassin¡¯s binding that kept them in line. Since they had none of their original skin left, even to the point of removing their various lower organs to prevent them from ever suffering defeat due to their desires, one would have to skin them to remove the binding.¡±


    ¡°Exactly. Yi Bai¡¯s skin is intact, and her techniques aren¡¯t metallic in nature, so I doubt that we have to consider that possibility, but it wouldn¡¯t be impossible for her internal organs or bones to have been replaced, and then things will be really difficult.¡±


    ¡°Eh? That sounds horrible!¡± Yi Ling exclaimed, ¡°Can we find out, somehow?¡±


    ¡°If we can capture her and restrain her, then it would only take a bit of experimentation to find out, but if Yi Fenwu is taken down, then there will be no need to do so. That method of control is only in her hands, and once it is dealt with, not only can Yi Bai be returned to her normal state, but, based on the fact that nobody had a clue that she was responsible for those murders outside of the hidden grounds, it might be possible that she wouldn¡¯t even have to deal with the memories of killing so many members of her own family, as her memories within and outside of the assassin state might be separate,¡± Yi Wei proposed.


    They glanced at one another, each one undoubtedly thinking about it from their own perspectives. Yi Meng wanted to defeat the assassin, in order to fulfil the original intention of their group, so getting rid of her via defeating her current master would function just as well, while Yi Ling wanted to save her friend, which would naturally be easier without dissecting her.


    However, all three of them quickly came to the main problem ¨C they, with the possible exception of Yi Wei, were not exactly capable of going out there on their own and confronting Yi Fenwu, wherever she currently was. They would need to have a way to sustain a barrier around themselves, a route through the void between worlds to wherever Yi Fenwu currently was, and then a method to defeat her, which might be difficult to do depending on how many more things she has up her sleeve.


    On their own, they wouldn¡¯t exactly be well equipped for this sudden mission.


    ¡°Do we even know where she is? If those key pillars give her access to more than the exit, then won¡¯t she be in a better state than when you first fought her?¡± Yi Meng asked.


    ¡°Not necessarily. Although hidden grounds are said to hold great quantities of treasures, as we have learned, stories are not always exactly equivalent to reality. I wouldn¡¯t be particularly surprised if she didn¡¯t find anything within at all, or if she only obtained a few small things,¡± Yi Wei replied, referring to those artefacts that she had found within the first three rooms of the treasury, ¡°Who knows, though.¡±


    ¡°That could be true, though I wouldn¡¯t want to bet on it. Imagine how terrible someone near the peak of the third realm could be if they had a lot of powerful artefacts on their hands,¡± she said, shuddering slightly at the thought.


    ¡®She already had plenty of things, but if she was able to recover all of those items from whatever is in the treasury, I wouldn¡¯t be too happy about it,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, glancing up at the icy barrier surrounding them, ¡®That¡¯s fair enough, though. She had three key fragments already, so she will find the fourth eventually and then, Yi Fenwu will either be transported to the treasury automatically, or she will inevitably find the small points in the walls that will allow her to get there on her own. At that point, she could potentially become a greater danger, so it would be nice to intervene with that before¡­ I wonder, is this place stationary?¡¯


    This enquiry couldn¡¯t be answered by either Yi Meng or Yi Ling, but the question itself had given Yi Wei a rather outlandish idea.


    ¡®Based on the fact that my Light of Divinity was able to pierce through the ice maze and also affect a number of other worlds, is it not possible that they are directly above one another? As far as I am aware, these pocket worlds exist within a single pocket of the void between worlds, so, in theory, if we are able to maintain this barrier while moving around, then we could effectively turn this chunk of land into a ship and pilot it to seek out whatever it is we want, whether it is the Lock Obelisks or Yi Fenwu herself, since the former isn¡¯t necessary if I showcase the fact that I already have all four keys¡­ I wonder if getting a second set would do anything, or if I¡¯m not going to be able to interact with them,¡¯ she asked herself, though that was yet another matter that didn¡¯t really need to be considered. After all, so long as one set of keys was enough to enter and exit both the dimension itself and the treasury within, the other set would be unlikely to matter too much, as the first treasury was already half-complete, so a second or third one would be even less likely to contain anything of value.


    ¡°Hey, how long does one shift of maintaining the barrier around this land last?¡±


    ¡°Roughly two hours. Yi Guanyu can keep going almost for three,¡± Yi Meng answered, ¡°The current state of the void between worlds is surprisingly tame despite its name and general appearance and function.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­¡± Yi Wei made a random noise while she continued to think, ¡®So, if the average cultivator is able to support the barrier for that long, I should be able to manage, say, six hours? Let¡¯s assume that. That means that if this would actually work, and if I can convince everyone else ¨C mostly Yi Guanyu, since he is a sort of leader here ¨C then I could provide a total of six hours of time for the ¡®Turn the plot of land into a ship¡¯ plan to be executed by people who are slightly more proficient in this than I am. Although, having said that, I don¡¯t think proficiency in the matter of constructing void-traversing land ships is a thing¡­


    ¡®In the first place, what would a void-traversing land ship require? The barrier and anyone¡¯s planar anchor can rest on the land, as it would bypass the typical rule about being unable to move one¡¯s anchor, and there would certainly need to be one or two arrays or inscriptions for moving the landmass, as well as a controlling array for those, so¡­ I could that myself, couldn¡¯t I? Not to mention six hours, two should be enough, provided that this wood is sufficiently stable to withstand a few arrays. I should still get permission to do this, or else people might interfere if they misunderstand my actions.¡¯


    She stood up suddenly, and turned to Yi Meng, ¡°I¡¯ve just gotten a good idea, so I will depart for now. When there¡¯s time, I wouldn¡¯t mind speaking a lot more with you.¡±


    Before the tall woman could reply, she had already departed and returned to where Yi Guanyu stood, still sending his planar energy into the barrier, whilst a number of people similar to those resting in the so-called shack standing at various points at the barrier¡¯s edge, doing the exact same thing as he was, albeit with less effect.


    When he heard her approach, he frowned and turned his head to face her.


    ¡°What do you want?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve got a plan that¡¯s either a little risky, or absolutely genius. It should help us to locate whatever it is we need, whether it is the Lock Obelisks, Yi Fenwu or survivors. All that I will need is an hour or two, and any kind of sharp implement that can accurately pierce this wood.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Should I be scared? Are you going to invoke another one of those great beams, the Light of Divinity, and send us all into an illusion?¡±


    ¡°I think you¡¯ve mixed up two completely different techniques,¡± she commented with a loud sigh, ¡°No, my intention is not to invoke that skill, nor any of the other ones that have a high chance of damaging the world, because all I want to do is separate this chunk of land from the rest and convert it into a great void-traversing landship¡­ or something to that effect.¡±


    Yi Guanyu wasn¡¯t sure what expression he should display, so he continued looking confused, ¡°I must say that I¡¯m not entirely convinced, and yet the fact that you¡¯ve managed to cause this void between worlds to erode the world suggests that you might manage this. Can you be sure this will work?¡±


    ¡°It is guaranteed to avoid failure, and that¡¯s all I can promise you, unfortunately. If I had done this before, I could have told you the exact chances of success in this matter, but so far, there¡¯s no certainty besides the fact that it should be possible. The void between worlds is, after all, nothing like fluid and has no semblance of gravity within it, so if a floating object enters it, it should be able to float freely and be manipulated easily via certain arrays and inscriptions, and since this pocket dimension is ultimately connected, regardless of what it looks like, we should be able to go wherever we want with a bit of accuracy and navigation,¡± she said, ¡°All I¡¯ll need is some time, as I said.¡±


    ¡°So, we won¡¯t fall into the void if you separate us from the rest of the land?¡±


    ¡°Nope, there¡¯s no risk of that. We¡¯re already floating, aren¡¯t we? I¡¯m not even sure why you think something will happen to begin with.¡±


    ¡°Usually, even in illusions, things fall down without support, so I don¡¯t think my fear is too unreasonable¡­¡± Yi Guanyu muttered, scratching his head for a while until he finally came to a conclusion, which he presented after a loud, lengthy sigh, ¡°You know what, do it. Since you know so much, can you tell me what will happen if we get consumed by the void?¡±


    ¡°If Jiang Ping Shimeng can be trusted on this matter, and I think he can be, given the fact that his theory has been correct when it comes to you subduing the void so far, then we will either die incredibly quickly and painlessly, or we will appear somewhere else.¡±


    ¡°Somewhere?¡±


    ¡°Literally anywhere in this world. Possibly inside of an object, or inside some earth fire.¡±


    He looked at her with a small degree of rising killing intent, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare cause something like that! If you do, I will haunt you forever!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a ghost before, so I will do my best to study your spiritual self as much as possible if that happens. In all seriousness, I would never doom you to death when I am also risking my life right here,¡± Yi Wei replied, rolling her eyes, ¡°if you think that I might mess up, then you can ask everyone else to assist me in those things that are not too complex, as I wouldn¡¯t want to accidentally kill you via someone else¡¯s mistake.¡±


    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll allow it. When I¡¯m out of planar energy, I-¡±


    ¡°Let me take over for a minute. Please share my plan to transform the landmass into a land ship with everyone else and ask them to provide whatever help I ask of them, then I will return, and the entire process will be complete in no more than three hours. Alright?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ as long as you do not trap us in the illusion, I can accept this. I will return quickly, so don¡¯t run out of energy before then,¡± Yi Guanyu said waiting for her to place her hand on the barrier before running off.


    The instant she felt his energy stop flowing into the dome, she took over, sending her planar energy in its most diluted, bloodied form, breaking it back down into the gaseous mist that it should have been before allowing it to be taken by the planar construct. However, the moment that it touched the barrier, it suddenly shuddered, and the entire structure fluctuated as if it was about to collapse from her mere touch.


    ¡®Is my energy this toxic, or is it too pure? Whatever the case is, I need to rebuild this to work a little better, don¡¯t I?¡¯ she thought to herself, shutting her eyes to focus better.


    With the planar energy that she had just released, she spread it across the entire enormous dome, passing it through every single spot that was being used to supply the barrier, and kept it together with that thin net. Once it stopped shuddering, Yi Wei began to weave the many strands of energy into something more complex than a mere layer of planar energy.


    She created the form of endless formation arrays within the dome, reforming it to push back the void between worlds rather than feeding it, increased the efficiency of the planar energy usage, and applied every bit of knowledge she had gained from the Kong family¡¯s arrays into this project.


    It felt like it had taken a lot of time, and yet, when she opened her eyes, her hand had not yet come to rest completely on the remodelled barrier.


    Rather than being generally formless, her new dome was smooth and even, with thin strands that were part of the arrays within running throughout the entire planar construct. With the addition of a few planar gathering arrays, it was also feeding itself with the same efficiency and effectiveness as a dozen people could, suddenly causing it to be far more stable than it had ever been before. Before anyone could question what had just happened ¨C Yi Wei herself included, as she hadn¡¯t understood why time had suddenly slowed down for her as she was working ¨C she injected a regular cultivator¡¯s planar aperture¡¯s worth of energy into it and walked off after the barrier showed no signs of collapse.


    ¡®Alright, while the massive barrier was mostly inspired by the third Lock Obelisk¡¯s array, the void-traversing land ship will be a little more difficult¡­ Still, I¡¯m certain that I can do this. I¡¯ve already done so many strange things that I seem to be more at home in a fantasy story than reality, so this isn¡¯t any different.¡¯

 V1C48: Kong Holy Grounds, Part 8

    When she went down to the shack, everyone who had been paying attention to Yi Guanyu¡¯s words looked at her, then at him, and then back at her.


    ¡°Eh¡­ Who¡¯s supporting the barrier?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean, who¡¯s- Yi Wei? What are you doing here?¡± Yi Guanyu asked, throwing his head up to look at the illusory barrier, his terrified expression suggesting that he expected to see it collapsing. However, all he saw was the fact that it was still holding steadily, with a series of strange lines and symbols within that had no obvious function to untrained eyes.


    ¡°Sorry, I just shoved my energy into the dome in one go, and set up an array or two, so it should be safe. Has your discussion finished yet, or should I come back later?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ ugh, fine, we have. I¡¯ll return to check on the barrier, so you should explain your idea-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t go anywhere, there¡¯s no need for it. If it falls, I¡¯ll be the first to jump in and you can patch up the barrier, just with a little less land,¡± she told him, ¡°Since you¡¯re currently at the highest realm out of everyone I¡¯ve seen on this plot of land, I¡¯ll need your help.¡±


    She did not elaborate immediately, but instead grabbed the wall and tore off a large chunk of it, which she placed onto the ground and carved it quickly via cosmic energy. Once it was flattened and smoothed into a large block, the height of the chairs that stood at various places in the four walls, she asked for a knife and carefully wrapped it in energy, making sure to avoid letting any planar energy into the structure of the knife as to prevent its sudden collapse.


    Yi Wei proceeded to carve a series of complex symbols and diagrams into the block¡¯s surface, quickly filling it up with so many things that it seemed to be less of a table and more of a sculpture.


    When that was complete, she wanted to give that ordinary knife back, but found that several inches of the blade had crumbled off as a result of her work, and that it resembled a toothpick more so than it did a bladed weapon that could be put into the hands of an assassin and used to kill people. She shared a glance with the weapon¡¯s owner and tossed the knife away.


    ¡°So, uh, Yi Wei, what¡¯re we looking at?¡± Yi Meng asked, even her experienced gaze quickly getting lost within the marks.


    ¡°Probably not the first, but my first void-traversing land ship. It is going to be powered by a number of planar gathering arrays, with a network of inscriptions within for the purpose of piloting it. Once detached from the rest of the land, it will allow for free travel throughout the void between worlds, though not out of it, so we will need to use it to locate the same Lock Obelisks that Yi Fenwu is looking for, gather the keys up, and get out of here.¡±


    ¡°We heard that, but¡­ wait, is this a Networking Web array?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ think so? I¡¯ve learnt this one by observation, so I can¡¯t tell you what the actual name of that particular array is,¡± Yi Wei said, checking her mental library in order to be sure, ¡®Come to think of it, being able to access these automatically would be really handy¡­¡¯


    ¡°Observation? That¡¯s amazing! I want to become your student!¡±


    ¡°N-No?¡±


    ¡°Okay then!¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Yi Wei looked at the woman with a confused expression, before turning to the rest of the listeners in some hope of getting a more reasonable interaction.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be honest, I don¡¯t understand a thing about this, so if you want any of us to do something, just tell us,¡± Yi Guanyu admitted, taking his eyes off the carvings quickly, as if he was afraid of losing himself amongst them, ¡°For this project, you can be the temporary leader!¡±


    ¡°Alright then, I hope you won¡¯t mind if I split all of you into groups. Everyone who has experience with inscriptions, or considers them their best field, stand on the right side of the building. Anyone who specialises in arrays, go to the left. Those who aren¡¯t particularly versed in either one, go to the front of the four walls,¡± she said, then watched as the tired people who still sat and lay on the ground forced themselves to stand and arranged themselves according to her wishes.


    Out of the two-dozen people here, only four made their way to the left wall, and only three went to the right, while the rest stood in front of her.


    Though that was not entirely out of her expectations, there was also another problem.


    ¡°How high is your achievement in the great arts?¡± she asked.


    Those who considered arrays to be their strongest field, two answered with two stars, and two answered with one star. Only one of the inscribers answered with two stars, while the rest also put their level at one star.


    ¡°Technically, that¡¯s all fine, as you don¡¯t need a great degree of understanding or talent in either field to prepare the foundation for these arrays and inscriptions, but in such small numbers¡­¡± Yi Wei frowned, and glanced around as she thought. She had not expected to find anything of note in her surroundings, and indeed, she found nothing new, but she did find her attention drawn to the wooden walls and the wooden floor. They were all covered in brown, seemingly ordinary bark, as was the table she had created to relay her plans.


    But how could that be? She had carved most of it off just moments ago.


    ¡®In fact, all of the wood in the area seems to be exactly the same. Has no-one noticed this?¡¯ she wondered, voicing the question to everyone, ¡°Does anyone know what type of wood this is?¡±


    Everyone shook their head, while Yi Guanyu said, ¡°Is this significant to anything?¡±


    ¡°Naturally it is,¡± Yi Wei answered, breaking off a small piece of the same wall that she had used as the table. She examined it closely, holding it within her first for a while, where no one could see what she was doing, but she eventually opened her hand and called out to the group, ¡°Does anyone here practise fire-type cultivation techniques?¡±


    ¡°I do.¡±


    ¡°Then set this thing on fire for me. Don¡¯t worry about my hands ¨C they¡¯re not going to burn easily,¡± she said, holding out the piece of wood on her palm.


    The person whom she had spoken to was more than a little confused, but he nodded and did as she had ordered, creating a flame that he sent onto the piece of wood. It quickly caught fire, but it did not char nor burn, instead seeming not to suffer at all.


    However, Yi Wei could see that rather than being burnt by the flame, it seemed to be being moulded by it. With every tongue of flame and burst of heat, the shape of the chunk of wood, which was also miraculously covered in bark despite being taken right out of the wall just now, was adjusting itself to the flame, with the top of the wood changing itself into the same shape as the flame. It was difficult to describe, as the visual was slight even to those present, but this visual gave her the exact information she needed.


    ¡°Slight change of plans. Out of those at the front, who has any proficiency in pill refining?¡±


    Out of the seventeen people at the front, only two stepped forward, and to Yi Wei¡¯s surprise, one was that short girl, Yi Ling.


    ¡°Are you two aware of a type of wood called adaptive wood?¡±


    ¡°Yes! It is only natural that I, Yi Li- I mean, it¡¯s a material that can naturally withstand all five elements and shape itself according to outside influences without any damage to itself. I think it¡¯s part of a three-star pill as well, though I can¡¯t remember the name¡­¡±


    ¡°Could you be referring to the Focused Mind pill?¡± the other pill refiner suggested, prompting Yi Wei to nod.


    ¡°Exactly. However, despite being a three-star pill, every step but the last does not require the one creating it to have the ability of a three-star refiner. Someone with only one star of mastery could easily accomplish those steps, and they wouldn¡¯t need anything besides common grasses and herbs,¡± she explained, taking a few more pieces of the adaptive wood out of the wall before splitting them amongst herself and the two pill refiners, ¡°With the Focused Mind pill, I think that we can make the void-traversing- eh, fuck it, I¡¯ll just say land ship from now. We¡¯ll be able to make the land ship in an even shorter period of time.¡±


    ¡°None of us have our pill furnaces with us, though¡­¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need a pill furnace ¨C we¡¯re standing on an infinite number of them. This is adaptive wood, after all, and so long as you make it into a certain shape and will it to stay that way via your spiritual will and planar energy, it¡¯s not going to deform unless you intend to throw the flame of a dragon into it,¡± she smiled, easily tearing out three more chunks out of the wall using only her physical strength.


    She created an arrow-spear using the Living Spear technique and used it to carve the wood into a vague shape of a pill furnace, ignoring the anguished look of the person whom she had originally borrowed the knife from.


    Once the third pill furnace was roughly carved, she looked up to the people waiting for her instructions and said, ¡°Alright then, those who can¡¯t create arrays, inscriptions or pills, please go and cut out a number of tunnels and channels throughout the adaptive wood as shown on the diagram. Prepare the locations of the arrays and inscriptions, but don¡¯t even try setting up their base, or else¡­ it might be a good opportunity to find out what falling into the void between worlds does to you.¡±


    Naturally, she did not mean that threat literally, as she didn¡¯t want to kill anyone for making a mistake that, due to the nature of the adaptive wood, could be rectified in a matter of seconds, but likely due her height and the sight of her muscles beneath her robes, most people were convinced by her threats and went to work immediately.


    When they departed, Yi Wei presented the inscription carvers and the array arrangers with the individual arrays and inscriptions they would have to assist her in creating, as to allow them to familiarise themselves with it while she worked on pill refining.


    ¡°Alright then, Yi Ling, Yi¡­?¡±


    ¡°Yi Jiu.¡±


    ¡°Right. Yi Ling and Yi Jiu, since you¡¯ve likely worked with different pill furnaces in your own time, I¡¯ll let you complete designing your own. From there, just utilise the typical dried herbs that an alchemist keeps within their herb bag to prepare a pill foundation in the Seven Violet Steps form, which should take you roughly thirty-two minutes. Do so two minutes apart from one another, and I¡¯ll have enough time to complete both of your Focused Mind pills for you,¡± Yi Wei said, sending some of her spiritual will into her pill furnace.


    It quickly morphed into the shape that she remembered Chu Ling using within her Timeless Grove due to the manipulation of her energy, though the rate at which it did so astounded her yet again.


    ¡®So far, this and the reconstruction of the dome have been surprisingly fast. Even with all of my apparent talent in the great arts and the control of my various forms of energy, there is no way that I could have done either of those tasks as quickly as I have managed to do now, so, what is the cause of this?¡¯ she asked herself, returning her spiritual will into her body and scanning herself with it, ¡®There¡¯s nothing unusual about my physical body, as far as I can tell, so has that long rest on a random log, as well as the absorption of all of my memories and thoughts by the Gilded Library somehow significantly strengthened my spiritual will in addition to my mind and memory? Given the fact that I have achieved Full Success with it, that could be the case¡­ If this is something it can do after being fully cultivated, I wonder what reaching the First Stage of the technique, and discovering my own path within it, would allow for. If it is linked to my mental acceleration during the reconstruction of the dome, then it might be more powerful than anything else I have cultivated so far.¡¯


    Her mind wandered to the other mental technique she had cultivated, which was so compatible with the Gilded Library that it proved that it originated from the same Kong family, ¡®Come to think of it, I don¡¯t think I made full use of the Kong Mental Arts. Since a technique not focused on improving my spiritual will and mind can do this much at its peak, then surely something focused purely on that effect will be capable of even more?¡¯


    While the other two moulded their own pill furnaces, Yi Wei started to work on her own pill, though the majority of her focus was on the Kong Mental Arts.


    If the library, even in its somewhat frayed state, was a solid object within her mental landscape, then the energy belonging to the Kong Mental Arts was more of a vague cloud that encompassed it, occasionally floating through, over and even below it, as the mental landscape was not dissimilar to the void between worlds, where gravity nor solid surfaces were a concept that even existed.


    Since she didn¡¯t have much of an idea on how to develop mental techniques, she decided to start with fixing the great quantity of gaps within the library. Her idea was that, if she was able to somehow mix the energies together and unite them into one technique, she wouldn¡¯t suffer from the result no matter what, and it could potentially result either in a far stronger mind or the opportunity to develop the Gilded Library into some unknown stage, and if that plan was a failure, she would at the very least get a little more experienced in the field of mental cultivation.


    Twenty-one minutes later, and her Focused Will pills were complete, but the Gilded Library had not developed by much. There were a few faint shadows that resembled bookshelves, but none had gotten even close to solidifying.


    ¡®I¡¯m thinking that I¡¯m doing something wrong, though the Gilded Library is way too different from the rest of the mental techniques that I have studied in the technique library, so I don¡¯t have too much information on what I need to fix. At the very least, I won¡¯t get too distracted during the process of helping those two with their pills,¡¯ she found some vague positive within her failure, and moved her attention elsewhere.


    Yi Ling glanced up and gasped, ¡°Wait, have you completed your pill refining already? That¡¯s amazing!¡±


    ¡°Hm? Oh, right, I was too distracted with something that I completely forgot what I was doing. I¡¯ve got twelve pills here, so you two should aim to make a total of twelve as well. We¡¯ll be able to repeat this process by the time the other half of the group get here, and then we will have enough for everyone.¡±


    ¡°Y-You did that while you were distracted? Then, what am I, Yi Ling Tai, supposed to be¡­¡± the blond girl sighed.


    Yi Wei ignored the girl¡¯s use of her own name in a sentence and watched her and Yi Jiu¡¯s work, to be sure that neither of them messed up by accident. She wasn¡¯t looking down on either one of them, but when it comes to creating something you¡¯ve never seen before, it was wise to be careful and have someone else who is more experienced watching over you.


    Unfortunately, Yi Wei was only more knowledgeable in terms of pill refining, and not more experienced. The total number of pills that she had refined was many times smaller than what most people would have done while training, as she had skipped forward by a significant amount due to her acquisition of the Cherry Revolving Blossom technique and the teaching of Chu Ling, but she was still in a better place to observe them than anyone else beneath the protective dome.


    A few more minutes passed, and she stepped in to complete the refining of Yi Ling¡¯s batch of pills, then proceeded to assist Yi Jiu two minutes later. While she had managed to produce one perfect set of pills, they were both able to create only six of decent quality, though that was the quantity she had expected, so she simply snuck in a trace of her cosmic energy and set them aside.


    ¡°Now, once we make the second set, we can progress onto the next step of the plan.¡±


    Some time later, Yi Wei gave out the Focused Mind pills to everyone, giving a single pill to each person. Once they were holding them, she asked Yi Guanyu to call everyone who is supplying the dome to the so-called shack, gave them the same pill and explained things to them with his help.


    ¡°Alright everybody, the barrier should keep itself in one piece for two more hours without anyone¡¯s contribution, so we need to set up the base structure of the land ship in that time,¡± she said, having already checked the progress that had been made so far. A number of tunnels and channels had been dug within the ground, and a large chunk of the protected area¡¯s connection to the wooden world outside had been severed, maintaining only a thin bridge that no more than two people could pass at once. ¡°Are there any questions, silly or otherwise, or any suggestions that I hadn¡¯t considered yet? Anyone?¡±


    ¡°Can you take me in as your student-¡±


    ¡°Great, let¡¯s get to it. Those on the array team, come with me. Those on the inscription team, create the base for inscriptions numbered one, three, four, seven, nineteen and twenty. Everyone else, keep digging and carving. Make it look nice if you want, though it won¡¯t matter to the void between worlds.¡±


    She walked off, leaving everyone to focus on their own tasks.


    Inside of her library was a replica of the initial plan that she had drawn, as well as a few other sheets of paper detailing various ideas and plans for the land ship itself, and for things that could be done within the void. For instance, she was very curious to learn whether Jiang Ping Shimeng was right in his theories, and she had no intentions to go to another world anytime soon, so this would be the best opportunity to study the all-devouring darkness.


    Depending on what she could learn, she might even be able to submit the information to the family and receive an extremely rare, albeit not entirely unprecedented, promotion in her family status, and guarantee a safe life for herself so long as she doesn¡¯t try to go against the family to an excessive degree. Even if it doesn¡¯t, when she eventually gets to a stage in which she can create such realms on her own, it would greatly improve the rate at which she would progress through the creation process, and significantly reduce the risk of making a mistake that could completely undo all of her work, or possibly even end her life due to an unexpected tear within reality consuming her.


    In other words, she had a lot to do.

 V1C49: Kong Holy Grounds, Part 9

    Two hours later, their work was complete. The current state of the adaptive wood island was completely incomparable to what it used to be, as it now more closely resembled a ship than a random chunk of land. Due to the number of people who had worked on it, and how little direction was given to them, the ship also looked to have been put together from components of several different ships, with one of them seemingly having been designed by a child.


    Nevertheless, as Yi Wei had stated at the beginning of this project, the visuals did not matter, as the concept of aerodynamics was irrelevant within the endless void between worlds.


    What mattered far more were the inscriptions and arrays placed all around, and within, the land ship. Compared to her original intention of having one or two of both for movement and energy, the final blueprint ended up having more than thirty of each, as did the land ship. If the first idea she had was a small rowboat for the void, then this was closer to a great capital ship.


    At the very least, she hoped that it could be described as such, especially if they somehow came across another such land ship. It would be rather embarrassing if they had a similar crew, yet a far better and more efficient design.


    ¡°Anyway, everything seems to be ready,¡± she muttered to herself, standing at the equivalent of the bridge, where the arrays and inscriptions could be controlled from, ¡°Destroy the bridge!¡±


    Yi Guanyu and another cultivator in the Emergent Anchor realm severed the connection between the land ship and the rest of the terrain, with one of them doing so with some hesitation, while Yi Guanyu seemed to be outright terrified. Still, they obeyed her, and the land ship did not sink, nor did it float. It simply remained stationary in the void as it surrounded it completely, removing any trace of the small wooden world from sight.


    Only then did Yi Guanyu finally relax, sitting down straight on the ground without any hesitation.


    ¡°Alright, step one is a success. Everyone who has a large quantity of planar energy remaining, please go to the collection points and prepare for the activation process.¡±


    A group of ten, the exact same number as the quantity of collection points, headed to edges of the ship and kneeled down beside the collection points, which were just arrays that would funnel their planar energy into the Networking Web array, which would then hold that energy and send it to arrays and inscriptions that need it.


    When their energy began to flow into the land ship, Yi Wei also contributed a small quantity of her own energy. She gave it just enough time to flow into the Networking Web, and then pressed her hand down onto the control surface whilst activating it with her spiritual will.


    ¡°Hold on everyone, I can¡¯t guarantee that this will be comfortable,¡± she stated whilst sitting down.


    Just as she managed to plant her behind on the bark-covered captain¡¯s chair, the entire landmass shook wildly, almost as if a great font of earth flame was about to erupt from within. Their combined planar energies coursed within the adaptive wood, making the inside of the wood glow with a rainbow of ever-changing colours. Whenever one of the arrays lit up during its activation, it would send a great tremor through the land ship, and when an inscription was filled with energy, it produced a loud cracking sound that made those aboard the ship worry if it was about to break into small pieces, and doom them to suffer in the void.


    Well, Yi Guanyu was most concerned about this, as he hadn¡¯t paid attention to Yi Wei¡¯s explanation of the void between world¡¯s effect, though the people who could see the inscriptions for themselves knew that the sound came from the adaptive wood living up to its name and changing itself to suit the inscriptions better.


    One minute, then two, and then three, passed, without any clear outcome, but, all of a sudden, Yi Wei leapt to her feet and loudly declared, ¡°It is working! The land ship can sail!¡±


    And sail it did. The enormous chunk of land slowly moved, floating up and to the side to avoid any potential remains of the wooden world. With ten people standing around the sides, a few with long-range attacks functioning as cannons and with Yi Wei in her hastily crafted wooden chair, the land ship sailed through the void.


    She dropped back to her seat and let out a relieved sigh. Although she had a reasonably high degree of confidence in her own work, there was a slightly higher chance of failure than she had claimed to Yi Guanyu upon her initial mention of the idea, as putting together so many different inscriptions and arrays isn¡¯t guaranteed to be safe. Besides simply failing, there are a hundred different negative outcomes that can occur from a simple mistake within the Networking Web array, or the propulsion arrays, or any one of the thirty inscriptions, some of which may have been avoided due to the natural properties of the adaptive wood correcting them prior to their occurrence.


    In fact, had they been on any site other than the one they had, perhaps if they were still in that icy maze, then this project would have fallen apart completely at any of the stages prior to the ship¡¯s activation.


    Perhaps this was her strange luck showing up again, or maybe her plan of the land ship had partially originated from the fact that she had found herself atop a great chunk of wood without any other solutions, but whatever the reason behind this success, it was one that she wouldn¡¯t have had in any other situation, and so she was determined to learn as much as possible from it.


    ¡®For instance, the fact that adaptive wood is an incredible material for land ships is something that needs to be remembered, as well as the fact that the void between worlds can be relatively easy to suppress so long as it is not aggravated. Currently, for us, it is important to avoid anyone doing such a thing, though if we find Yi Fenwu, know where the exit door is relative to our true position within the void, and have some planar energy to spare, it would be a good idea to easily dispose of her with the void¡­¡¯ she considered, though she had to dismiss the plan after a little more thought, ¡®No, I¡¯d like to get my hands on the black token she used to control Yi Bai. I can¡¯t be sure that she will return to her normal state after it is destroyed, nor do I know whether that thing hides anything that might be useful to me, Fen Zhi, Yi Bai or anyone else.¡¯


    ¡°So, Yi Wei, how are we going to be able to find anything?¡± asked Yi Guanyu after he had made his way up to the bridge.


    ¡°Do you really think that I wouldn¡¯t have thought about this after coming up with something like the land ship? We don¡¯t really need to do anything, since we are currently within the void between worlds that belongs to the wooden sector. Since it is used to limit vision between segments, the visibility is going to be incredibly low. Once we get out of the sector, however, it will expand based on the density of the void between worlds. It should be enough for us to see a glimpse of the other world segments, so just hold on for a minute,¡± she answered, casually controlling the land ship.


    ¡°Fine¡­ How do you know so much, anyway?¡± he said, finding a smooth enough place to rest.


    ¡°Reading, I suppose. I¡¯ve done a whole lot of reading in my time, about pretty much everything you can think of.¡±


    ¡°I know an elder of the family who has spent a whole lot of time reading, perhaps more than seventeen years doing nothing more than studying various texts and books, and I don¡¯t think that he would be able to tell me about¡­ what did you call it? Void density?¡±


    ¡°Well, people do have different areas of study. He might be far more knowledgeable in terms of geological formations, which I am not too well-versed in,¡± Yi Wei suggested.


    ¡°Still, how fast must you be able to read, and where have you been finding things like information on the void between worlds, that Jiang Ping Shimeng, and everything about inscriptions, arrays and pills? How much time did you spend in the library?¡±


    ¡°I suppose I have been called a quick reader before,¡± she mentioned, her mind briefly becoming drawn to the segment of the Gilded Library where the book on Yi Yaling was stored. She recalled her little sister-like behaviour and wondered what her situation was at the present moment. Was she still doing silly things that get her in trouble? What cultivation stage and realm had she reached? Although she didn¡¯t quite want to admit this, Yi Wei did miss her ever so slightly.


    ¡°In that respect, so have I, a few times. How quickly could you read the average technique manual?¡±


    ¡°If, by average technique manual, you mean something like a Bull Punch skill, then I can go through it in less than a minute, even quicker with spiritual will,¡± Yi Wei answered casually.


    ¡°Oh, so it¡¯s one minut- WHAT?¡± he yelled, attracting the attention of everyone who stood on the surface of the ship. If he had been drinking something, it would have certainly been spat out onto the ground at great velocity. ¡°What in the world did you eat a child? Were you breast-fed elixirs and pills to accelerate your mind and comprehension or something?¡±


    ¡°Doubt it. As you can see, I¡¯m a servant, and my parents died shortly after I reached the age of four, so they wouldn¡¯t have been able to afford even a single pill of worth, not to mention an elixir. I have a decent memory, so I¡¯m sure I would remember consuming a miracle fruit by accident at some point, but I haven¡¯t done that either, and I can guarantee you that I¡¯ve never been experimented on by people so my reading speed couldn¡¯t have come from that either,¡± she said, listing every possibility she could think of, ¡°To begin with, I can¡¯t really understand why my ability to read at a high speed is so unusual. Is that really so difficult for everyone else?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t even know how to explain this to you. Don¡¯t you read every word?¡±


    Yi Wei shrugged ¨C there was no need to reply to that, so she didn¡¯t ¨C and instead ripped of another part of the land ship and quickly shaped it into a book with her spiritual will before giving it to Yi Guanyu, ¡°Here, show me how you read this.¡±


    ¡°What is¡­ You¡¯ve made a book this quickly? Couldn¡¯t you have made the entire land ship on your own?¡± he asked, taking it from her and looking through it.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. The range of my spiritual will and planar energy combined are insufficient for that sort of thing,¡± she replied, waiting for him to start reading the book before she realised that he was staring at her, ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°You could have succeeded if that wasn¡¯t an issue?¡±


    ¡°That seems to be the case, yes. Why would you assume that I wouldn¡¯t be able to do so when I have already created a number of arrays, inscriptions, a book, a chair and a table without much effort?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­¡± he mumbled and opened the book to the first page.


    A minute later, he finally turned the page with an exasperated expression, and it was clear that although he had read the text, he had not comprehended it beyond the text itself. Any principles that were held within were unclear to him at best, and if there was any deeper meaning to any of the statements within, he would not be able to understand them no matter how much time was given to him.


    ¡°What in the heavens is this? What does any of this mean? Is this something you¡¯ve read in a few minutes? Are you even human?¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that a rude thing to ask, akin to asking a woman about her age?¡± Yi Wei replied, ¡°Anyhow, I would like to ask you about your book-reading experience. Was the material a little too difficult for you? Have you not read the works of Xia Daoling before?¡±


    ¡°Who is Xia Daoling?¡±


    ¡°I guess that¡¯s a no, then. What sorts of thing does someone in the middle-class of the family read during their studies? Could you give me an author or a title?¡±


    ¡°The most complex thing I¡¯ve ever read is ¡®Copper and Blood: Miraculous Connection for Cultivators¡¯ and ¡®The Profound Transformation of Water to Ice and Steam¡¯, though I cannot recall the author of either one. I learned the first to combat metal cultivators, who I had been having difficulties opposing, and the second to improve in my own cultivation, which had been stagnating at the time,¡± he stated.


    ¡®I think I¡¯ve read those two as well¡­ Wait a minute, is that it?¡¯ she asked herself when she found those books within the Gilded Library, ¡°I don¡¯t intend to be impolite, but I had initially assumed that these books were meant for people around the age of twelve. Is this really it?¡±


    ¡°When did you read them, then?¡±


    ¡°Around two years prior to the time I began to cultivate, so¡­ around the age of ten? Again, sorry for that, but I guess that this explains some of the difference between us. If you had also started to read things like this at that age, you might have known a bit more, though the reading speed that I possess does seem to be uncommon regardless of someone¡¯s overall maturity and quantity of knowledge,¡± Yi Wei concluded, sighing in disappointment that she would be unlikely to find someone to read books with at the same pace, ¡°Anyway, I think we should be nearing the edge of this segment of the void.¡±


    Both of them looked out and saw the truth of her words. The void between worlds, an entity that seemed completely impenetrable just seconds ago suddenly began to clear, and, far in the distance, above, below and around them, they were able to see rectangular chunks of all sorts of terrain. Some were whole, others seemed to be consumed right in front of them, but they could only see the nearest few world chunks with any degree of clarity. The rest were still obscured by the endless void.


    ¡°How strange. This particular void between voids is curiously low-density. Not something I was expecting from this place¡­¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±


    ¡°Look at how clearly you can see the distant landmass. That indicates that the density of the void is almost at the lowest point it can be, according to Jiang Ping Shimeng, if this world is to actually retain any stability.¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ I¡¯m afraid that you¡¯ve lost me again. If this stuff is low density, then what in the heavens would high density look like? And what does that even mean?¡±


    ¡°Well, to answer your second question first, the density of the void between worlds is a bit like the intensity of it. The higher the density, the higher the quantity of planar energy within that world will be, and the stability of the world will increase, though if it is damaged to the point of causing the erosion of that void, it will be consumed far quicker. I¡¯d give you a more detailed account, but neither I nor Jiang Ping Shimeng have a better idea about this matter. Few people headed into the void between worlds for entertainment in the times that creating pocket dimensions was easier than it is now,¡± she explained, taking back the previous book she had given him and creating the records she was currently talking about with it, ¡°If this world had a more typical, denser void between worlds, then the only thing you would see is the edge of the landmasses above and below us.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, you¡¯re the expert, so I believe you. Where are we going from here?¡±


    Yi Wei looked around, sending a wisp of cosmic energy to her eyes before spotting something of value in the distance, ¡°There! I think I see a trace of a Lock Obelisk¡¯s aura over there, so I could bring us over. I don¡¯t think it has been used yet, so Yi Fenwu hasn¡¯t found it so far. It could be a good place to ambush her, or else just a place for you to get your first key.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve also memorised the aura of a Lock Obelisk? How are you a servant of the family, and not the patriarch¡¯s heir?¡±


    ¡°Tell me which approach you want to take, please,¡± she said, while thinking, ¡®You know that it¡¯s not that simple and you know that just as well as any member of the family, so please don¡¯t tease me with such ideas. I wouldn¡¯t want to have a silly dream of ruling the family.¡¯


    ¡°Can you also notice Yi Fenwu¡¯s aura?¡±


    ¡°No. The Lock Obelisks are connected to the dimension itself, so the traces of their energy are noticeable from far away, while Yi Fenwu has not yet had the idea of connecting to the void itself. Before you ask, let me warn you ahead of time that attempting to unite with a dimension is not something you should do unless the dimension itself somehow develops a consciousness and permits this,¡± she warned him, ¡®As for spotting the aura of the Lock Obelisk¡­ I¡¯m not sure how I managed that, to be honest. I wasn¡¯t able to do it previously, so it might have something to do with my newly acquired half-formed planar anchor. Don¡¯t need to tell him that, though.¡¯


    ¡°Would you be able to tell if the obelisk had been used from far away?¡±


    ¡°This is a little more difficult, but I might have a way. Could you give me a moment?¡± she asked, and upon receiving his affirmation, she stood up from the captain¡¯s seat and went past the control surface, where she then kneeled down and began carving something in the wood purely via her spiritual will.


    Although she had no way of knowing when a Lock Obelisk was used, as the only times she had witnessed it with enough clarity to observe every part of the process were the times that she had used them in the outside world, where it was far more difficult to track the connection to the Kong Holy Grounds, she did still possess all four of the outer keys as a reference.


    Based on what she had seen, the inner keys were no different from the ones she had, so, with the right type of tracking array, it wouldn¡¯t be impossible to follow the aura of the keys to their two owners.


    Naturally, she had no intention to reveal her ownership of a set of keys, so while she was working on the array she also modified it to avoid a certain type of simple aura that could be released by a one-star array, which she then drew on her arm using her planar energy, and activated it.


    Although planar energy should typically be unable to sustain an active array prior to the fourth realm, she had kept her energy within her own body, where it could retain its crystal form, and used the stabilising effect of the five-sided planar anchor in order to further strengthen it, allowing it to fulfil its intended function.


    Once she confirmed that it was working as intended, and that it would continue to do so for the foreseeable future, she activated the array she made within the wood, and stepped back.


    After a few seconds of gathering energy, the array suddenly projected a translucent sphere a metre above itself, with a single dot glowing in the middle.


    ¡°There. This is a simple Energy Tracking array, and it should show us the location of one of the keys, or perhaps the activation of an obelisk, or something to a similar effect. The actual function will be confirmed later, but for now I can confirm that if we find Yi Fenwu within the range of the array, we will know about it,¡± she explained to Yi Guanyu, who still struggled to understand anything, ¡°Now what do you want to do?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Let¡¯s camp that-¡±


    Before he could finish, they both saw another spot appear within the sphere created by the Energy Tracking array, below them and to their left, at the very edge of the sphere.


    ¡°We¡¯ve found her! Shall we go and intercept?¡±


    ¡°You know, I think I understand why that Yi Meng wanted to become your disciple. Alright, let¡¯s go!¡±

 V1C50: Kong Holy Grounds, Part 10

    The land ship shook as its direction suddenly changed, but it stabilised under Yi Wei¡¯s careful control, and slowly moved away from the edge of the wooden miniature realm in the direction of a distant blue environment.


    It looked smooth and round, and it was possible to see something else through it, though the void between worlds made it difficult to distinguish exactly what it was. What could be seen through the darkness was the fact that the outline of the world chunk constantly fluctuated, almost as if it was a large amount of water floating freely in space.


    However, that wasn¡¯t of any concern to them, as they could easily stop a short distance from whatever that world was and avoid any potential flooding.


    As the ship moved away from the wooden world, and got further away from any individual world chunk, it accelerated, speeding up from a crawl to a slow walk and then to a sprint as the land ship tilted downwards and got away from the great floating pile of adaptive wood.


    Quickly, that great blob of water entered Yi Guanyu¡¯s sight, and he asked, ¡°Is that¡­ water?¡±


    ¡°That is very likely, though, having seen a few different things within the valley, it isn¡¯t impossible for this to be something akin to water, but much rarer. It could be Yin Yang Spring Dew, it could be yin water, yang water, Yin Yang Water¡­ I¡¯ve noticed this before, but I get the feeling that whoever was naming all of these things ran out of words to throw together,¡± Yi Wei mumbled, ¡°I¡¯ve heard that the Master of Yi City was responsible for a number of the names that we now commonly use, so it would be understandable if he or she was a little preoccupied with uniting Yi City, though if I had been in his place, I would have tasked someone else with coming up with better names¡­¡±


    ¡°Look, I appreciate the little history lesson, but can you focus on the task of getting to, and capturing, Yi Fenwu?¡± he stopped her, glancing at the Energy Tracking array to find that the spot representing Yi Fenwu had gotten closer to the point representing their land ship, exactly as expected, ¡°She¡¯s not going to be able to see this, is she?¡±


    ¡°Do I have to remind you of the way that the void between worlds functions? Obviously, she would notice the land ship once it moves into the water section of the void, which we only need to do the moment we want to engage in battle.¡±


    ¡°Right. You know, I get the feeling that you would make for a decent leader.¡±


    ¡°Me? I don¡¯t think so. I do far better on my own. For instance, I wouldn¡¯t have needed to make this whole land ship if I had been here myself. Then, I would have been out here much more quickly.¡±


    ¡°Hmph. If you hadn¡¯t been with the family, you would have been left for dead, or maybe even captured by others. At that point, who know what they would have done to you.¡±


    ¡°If I had been here on my own, I wouldn¡¯t have had to deal with Yi Fenwu trying to kill everyone, and if someone did attempt to capture me, I could have just hit them in the face with my full strength, which, as you should already be aware, is quite significant in comparison to most body cultivators.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re assuming that you would be able to make it into the hidden grounds to begin with. If not for the family¡¯s expedition here, would you have been able to find this place, or open it?¡±


    ¡°Since the Yi family had located this valley, I could have theoretically done the same. As for opening it, I can¡¯t recall a single one of you actually doing something that lead to the obelisks on the outside suddenly activating. To me, it seemed that the hidden grounds had just randomly decided to open themselves at a similar time to our search.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so you think that you would have been able to make it to the valley all on your own? Do-¡±


    ¡°Ahem, Yi Guanyu, Yi Wei, we¡¯re nearing our destination,¡± Yi Meng, who had appeared in front of them without either of them noticing her approach, stated while pointing to the nearing blue spherical mass, ¡°We shouldn¡¯t be trying to crash into it, right?¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s not part of the plan. Don¡¯t worry, I wasn¡¯t distracted, despite what it may have looked like.¡±


    Yi Wei was telling the truth, as she wasn¡¯t focusing too much on their argument, if it could even be called that. Whether she would have to go through life alone, in a small group, or as a proper member of the family wouldn¡¯t be decided by a casual argument between her and a middle-class Yi family member, but by a number of other factors. It would depend on whether she is able to learn who was responsible for the arrays beneath her home, whether she would be made to remain a servant for the rest of her life, whether the greed or jealously of some of the family is able to overwhelm their need for talented people.


    As for this discussion, it could be argued until they went back to her birth, and even further back. It was meaningless.


    ¡°Oh, speaking of the plan, what is it, exactly? Are we going to stop and study the void between worlds? I can volunteer to-¡±


    ¡°Yi Meng, you have long-range abilities, right?¡±


    ¡°Eh? Yes, I do.¡±


    ¡°Then go to the front and prepare to attack Yi Fenwu. If Yi Bai is in the area, try not to hurt her, and if it seems that you might be able to land a fatal, or close to fatal attack on Yi Fenwu, please restrain Yi Bai first. Otherwise, Yi Fenwu will make use of her control over the latter to force her to block the strike. Now, go and relay this to everyone else. We wouldn¡¯t want this opportunity to go to waste.¡±


    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll go do that,¡± Yi Meng nodded, and ran off to shout her orders.


    Meanwhile, as Yi Wei felt that they were nearing the border of that world segment¡¯s void between worlds, she slowed the land ship back down to a crawl, stopping just at that border.


    ¡°Since you¡¯re still the leader, you can decide whether it is time to attack,¡± she said, looking at Yi Guanyu, ¡°Although, if you do want my opinions and suggestions, then I can tell you that this might be the best opportunity for us to defeat her-¡±


    ¡°Hold on, where is she? Why can¡¯t we see her if she is close to us?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the void between worlds, and she¡¯s also not that close to us, so I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that strange that we can¡¯t see her at the moment,¡± she explained with a sigh, ¡°Now, stop interrupting and listen to me. Since this is a water-based world, you will have a great advantage over her, and she will also be disadvantaged. Inside of water, it is much more difficult to fire arrows at someone, and if you want to block them, all you will need to do is create a few icy barriers and then do whatever you want with the arrow-spear.¡±


    ¡°In addition, her mobility will be affected, won¡¯t it? I can¡¯t imagine a metal cultivator managing not to sink within the water. Actually, I can¡¯t imagine how anyone would be able to breathe in there.¡±


    ¡°Again, that interruption was unnecessary, and the fact that you haven¡¯t read up on breathing techniques, like the classic Turtle Breathing method, astounds me even more than your general lack of literacy¡­ Sorry about that, but you truly have read too few books. When you get back, sit down in a library and don¡¯t leave for a year. You will benefit greatly, I am sure of it,¡± she suggested.


    Yi Guanyu did not reply directly to her, instead returning to the original topic, ¡°Let¡¯s go, then.¡±


    She nodded and made the land ship move forward while sending a little more planar energy into the depths of the Networking Web array as to support the barrier on the outside. According to her knowledge of the void, leaving a smaller sector of the void between worlds is relatively safe, but getting back in when there is a great deal of difference between the laws within and outside of the section, as there might have to be due the great presence of water within, which doesn¡¯t usually float freely like that regardless of location.


    In truth, the interactions between the great void between worlds and the things that float within are rather confusing, even with all of the information about it within her library. After removing all of the contradictory and incorrect data regarding that void and pocket dimensions, there were still three books remaining on the void between worlds, and none of them were able to fully explain the function of the void nor what caused it be such a powerful force.


    As a result, a number of its actions and behaviours relative to other forces tended to seem strange, or otherwise entirely contradictory. Once a greater understanding of the void between worlds is achieved, whether by Yi Wei or someone else interested in that field of research, those same behaviours might turn out to be perfectly logical and in line with what one should expect, but that time is yet to come.


    Exactly as she had expected, the moment they crossed the invisible separator between the inner and outer void, the dome around the land ship shook and several areas around the edge flickered, almost as if it was about to collapse.


    She controlled the Networking Web to reinforce those points with that excess energy, and even briefly considered whether it would be a good idea to place down her planar anchor to further strengthen the dome, but then the turbulence from the transition ceased and the visibility within the void changed, with everything behind them vanishing completely and the things in front of them suddenly appearing far more clearly.


    With a casual glance, it was now easy to tell that the inside of the water bubble looked like a great pearl, shaped like a cave that had been dug out of the ground and placed into the water.


    Additionally, at the distant edge of the water, they saw Yi Fenwu walking on the edge of the water as if it was a solid surface, though she was doing so horizontally, ignoring the fact that gravity should have been pulling her down.


    ¡®Well then, that¡¯s the cause of the turbulence. The gravity within this segment is somehow different to those we have been to so far, and the void between worlds outside of them. Actually, now that I have better visibility thanks to the arrival to this area, I can see that the water is shaped similarly to the enormous pearl structure,¡¯ she observed, ¡®Is the gravity relative to it, then?¡¯


    ¡°Everybody, pay attention!¡± Yi Wei raised her voice with the aid of the Speaker¡¯s Illusion skill, ensuring that everyone within the dome could hear her, ¡°I¡¯m not sure how far the effect ranges, but as you might be able to see, the structure in the middle is somehow related to altering the gravity within this segment. It is possible that once we get closer, it will be difficult to stay on your feet, so grab onto something and hold on to it tightly. The moment that the gravity changes, I will make adjustments, but I don¡¯t know if we will be able to grab you out the void if you do fall in.¡±


    There was a collective nod from those in sight, and some groan of affirmation from within the land ship, as they found a chunk of wood to hold on to, with some manipulating the structure near them with various tools and energies to adjust it to hold on to the land ship more easily.


    ¡°Those who can attack at range, prepare. We will connect to the world segment in roughly one minute,¡± she continued, ¡°The moment that the dome connects, use your strongest abilities.¡±


    Yi Guanyu nodded, though no-one looked in his direction. Their eyes were collectively drawn to the pearl within the water, which glistened more and more as they drew closer to it, instantly absorbing the attention of those with weaker minds. There was something about that visual that instantly consumed every part of their thoughts.


    It was something that Yi Wei had sensed for a while, but she had misunderstood the power of it.


    ¡®Right, my mental strength and stability has now exceeded most people¡¯s level, so the vague sensation that I simply interpreted as beauty came across as outright fascination to the rest of them,¡¯ she thought, going through the list of options she had to solve this issue.


    A number of books soared out of the mental library and to her mental self, where she went through them quickly. Anything to do with blacksmithing and artefacts was instantly discarded, as she had no hope of making them in this environment, and the Focused Will pills had also exhausted themselves, so she could not forcefully strengthen their effect for a while to distract them from the pearl monument.


    ¡®Had I known how the timing would turn out, I would have let them work on the land ship without the pills for a while. Hm¡­ what about the Confusion Collecting array?¡¯ she opened the replica of the ¡®Introduction of Formation Array Arrangement¡¯ to the page about that particular formation array, ¡®No particular environment nor materials required to set it up¡­ Alright then, it can go on my other arm.¡¯


    She created the array with a little more planar energy, and then allowed it to capture the mental effect of the pearl over the entire land ship.


    It gathered up on her, and when it tried to flood into her body, she made it pass through her third eye, where she resisted it with the full force of her mental energy. As it withstood a wave of the fascination effect, she made it pass through the third eye, refining the energy and strengthening it.


    ¡°Wake up, everyone! Ten seconds!¡± she shouted, throwing them out of their trance.


    Exactly nine seconds later, the dome around the land ship collided into the water, and a great pressure suddenly pushed them down onto the surface of the ship, as if the gravity had intensified by a dozen times.


    The land ship trembled, and the adaptive wood warped slightly as a result, but they withstood this process and saw Yi Fenwu¡¯s figure turn to them.


    As her eyes widened, Yi Wei shouted, ¡°Attack now!¡±


    Before the archer could react, ten attacks of all different types and of all different elements flew at her, with none of them seeming to have any intention whatsoever to leave her alive. Various bolts, spheres and one beam, which looked far too weak to have been someone¡¯s typical combat technique and resembled the Light of Divinity far too much to be a coincidence, bombarded her position, with every projectile and attack penetrating into the water with varying degrees of success.


    The fire attacks naturally fizzled out as they travelled through the liquid, and by the time they reached Yi Fenwu¡¯s body or general position, their strength had dropped significantly, while water-based techniques did not suffer and one even became stronger by the end as a result of feeding on the energy of the surrounding water.


    To most, that wouldn¡¯t have been so unnatural, but Yi Wei noticed yet another rare substance.


    ¡®First I see adaptive wood, and now there¡¯s planar water, a fluid that is significantly more potent in the water element than what one might normally expect,¡¯ she identified it with the help of the library, ¡®Is this entire realm made out all sorts of strange things? Was the ice maze made out of green-hair ice?¡¯


    There wasn¡¯t much that she could do about the icy maze, as it was already gone, so she returned her focus to Yi Fenwu and conjured several points of dawn light around herself, which projected forth great beams of endless solar light. With all of the planar water in its path turning to steam, the Dawn Slicing Light landed onto the archer¡¯s body, with only the half-torn robe in the way.


    Yi Fenwu took a single look at this assault and responded with haste that was even greater than before, perhaps due to the lack of items to protect herself with.


    She dodged those attacks that were aimed too precisely, then used a common arrow-spear to deflect the rest, though that movement exposed a small object on her finger. It was a small ring, bound tightly around her finger, with the appearance of a snake that has coiled itself around her flesh.


    ¡®She didn¡¯t get herself yet another defensive item, did she?¡¯ Yi Wei asked herself.


    When the archer did not block the Slicing Beam but instead raised her ring finger, it became obvious that she had.


    A copper light burst out of the ring, enveloping her entire body. The moment that the Dawn Slicing Beams hit that light, they were dispersed into nothingness, with nothing but their warmth reaching Yi Fenwu¡¯s skin. The moment that the beams faded, so did the copper light, and she also took that opportunity to begin running.


    ¡°Does anyone here have any ability to fight underwater?¡±


    ¡°I do!¡± a female voice exclaimed. Surprisingly enough, that was stated by none other than the blond girl, Yi Ling.


    ¡°Fine then. Get over here,¡± Yi Wei waved her over, and the moment that she got within range, she grabbed her sides and pulled the girl closer to herself, ¡°I¡¯m going to throw you into the water, so take a deep breath right now.¡±


    Although that was not at all what the girl expected, she did as she was told and breathed in every bit of air she could before shutting her mouth. That same instant, Yi Wei put her human-throwing skills to use and launched her into the air, disabling the protective dome for a single second to allow her to pass through safely. In that second, some of the planar water got through and poured down onto the land ship, but she just asked Yi Guanyu to freeze it before creating a small reservoir for it atop the surface of the land ship. She stored the planar ice within that reservoir, then returned her attention to Yi Fenwu.


    ¡°Yi Guanyu, would you be fine with me potentially creating another enormous hole within reality itself?¡± she asked, considering her options.


    ¡°I¡¯d prefer that you didn¡¯t. In fact, I prohibit you from doing such a thing, no matter how helpful it would be. Use the beam technique if you want, but if there is any tearing into the void, I¡¯ll throw you in there much like you threw that girl into the water¡­ Guess your muscles aren¡¯t just for show, huh¡­¡± he muttered his last sentence, before speaking up again, ¡°Don¡¯t do anything stupid.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    Blood-like planar energy flowed into her arm and gathered around her hand, forming a dense red mist. Now that she had a planar anchor of her own, she was one step closer to solidifying her external energy, and thus all of her energy had grown in strength and density.


    At the same time, a large, crimson circle formed around Yi Fenwu, though she did not notice it immediately as its diameter had easily doubled in size from the last time Light of Divinity had been used. In addition, the glow of the circle was far less noticeable, in part due to the change in colour, the underwater fog that obscured their vision and due to the increase in Yi Wei¡¯s strength, which allowed her to hide the targeting circle a little more than before.


    The technique was also complete far more quickly than before. As soon as she could, she raised the hand in which the blood hammer had formed, and slammed it down, yelling, ¡°Light of Divinity!¡±


    It was then that Yi Fenwu finally understood what was happening, silently mouthing an insult in Yi Wei¡¯s vague direction. Despite the water that poured into her mouth, she seemed to have no issues when it came to the matter of breathing, which might have been explained by one of the new pieces of jewellery present on her body.


    From above ¨C or, rather, from the pearl-like monolithic structure that acted at the sky of this semi-spherical chunk of water ¨C a deep crimson light appeared and descended onto the area where Yi Fenwu still stood.


    Yi Wei hoped that the archer would not have more methods to save her own life, but she knew that it was unlikely the moment that she had spotted the rings and necklaces on her fingers and neck where there previously was nothing of the sort. Indeed, just as with the time she subdued the Dawn Slicing Light, Yi Fenwu raised her hand, displayed every ring, and activated them with her spiritual will just as the red energy was about to consume her.


    ¡®Interesting. It seems that either she likes to risk her life- no, I can¡¯t even finish that thought. If she wanted to risk her own life, she wouldn¡¯t have carried so many items to save her own life. No, I think that the rings and necklaces, besides the one that assists her with breathing underwater, need to be activated either against a specific attack, or just before it strikes. Let¡¯s see if the light is different this time,¡¯ she wondered, sending a wisp of planar energy into her eyes in order to be able to catch every minute detail.


    Each one of the rings on Yi Fenwu¡¯s hand released a light of its own, corresponding to the colour of the metal that composed it. As she had a copper, silver and iron ring, there were copper, silver and iron light, wrapping around her body tightly. They appeared to be identical to the light produced by the first ring, but, for a moment, after the red Light of Divinity came into contact with her and before it covered her body completely, Yi Wei was able to see the light distorting itself into a complex pattern of spikes and bumps. They did not appear to be there previously, but when she looked at the scene of the light blossoming while within her library, she realised that it was actually present from the very beginning and had only increased in magnitude upon the collision with the Light of Divinity.


    ¡®So, my first theory was correct. The rings have to be pointed at an attack in order to analyse a method of resisting it, then they release their energy and protect the user. Very clever,¡¯ she thought, ¡®If that pattern can somehow resist the technique, why don¡¯t I make the Light of Divinity fluctuate between its current form, and one that moves in accordance with the pattern?¡¯


    Based on what she was able to see, the analysis of the ring could identify techniques quickly, but once it decided on a shape, it could only alter its magnitude. Thus, what better way to deal with it than to prevent that specific pattern from being useful?


    With the Light of Divinity manual open within her mental space, she quickly went through it and found places that she could modify in order to achieve the desired effect. In comparison with creating her own techniques, something like this was easy, and so she was able to complete all of her modifications within the time that it took for the Light of Divinity to dissipate completely alongside the defensive light from the rings.


    Naturally, Yi Fenwu did not remain standing and had taken advantage of the obscuring energy to progress to one of the exits of this world chunk, but she didn¡¯t expect to find herself stepping into yet another targeting circle.


    ¡°Light of Divinity!¡± Yi Wei called out, then, after her speech would no longer interfere with the usage process, she muttered to Yi Guanyu, ¡°This skill is really taxing on the lungs and throat¡­¡±


    What she meant, but did not want to expose to him, was the fact that she should have modified the skill to no longer require the verbal element, which she could have theoretically done if she had infinite time on her hands. If she really wanted to injure any part of her body through shouting alone, she would also need that same amount of time due to the reinforcement of cosmic energy.


    This time, when the crimson light descended from the pearl, it had a slightly different aura to it. It was no longer as stable nor as magnificent as before, though the actual offensive potential remained identical.


    Yi Fenwu¡¯s reaction was the same; she could not leave the circle of light, so she raised her hand.


    Copper, silver and iron flew out of the rings, though it was a little fainter than before. Yi Wei guessed that it was due to whatever energy it used having failed to recover so far and kept watching.


    Crimson light descended upon her, and as it touched the three shades of light that covered her, it seemed to be subdued by them. However, the next second it changed in a manner that was totally imperceptible to those to the side of it, including the entire crew of the void-traversing land ship, but to Yi Fenwu, that change was followed by a sudden dispersal of the light that shrouded her.


    She did not have the opportunity to scream before the blood-like light engulfed her fully, tearing at her flesh and skin. Her mind seemed intent to escape her, so before it could, she took out a small object from her robe and kneeled down.


    When the Light of Divinity had cleared, she was nowhere to be found.


    ¡°What happened? Did your skill kill her?¡± Yi Guanyu questioned, looking around for traces of the exit to the hidden grounds despite knowing that he couldn¡¯t see it.


    As the person who had used the Light of Divinity, how could Yi Wei be unaware of what just happened? She said, ¡°Yi Fenwu should have been called Yi Lian, Yi Zhang, or even Yi Zhanglang (all of which mean roach). I don¡¯t have a clue how she did it, but she has vanished yet again. However, I think that her life-saving methods are slowly being exhausted. If we find her one more time, we should be able to bring her down for good.¡±


    ¡°Damn it! I agree with your assessment entirely ¨C when we return to the family and present our case, I will propose that the name on her gravestone will be one of the options you suggested,¡± he replied, ¡°Can you track her location based on the escape method she used?¡±


    ¡°Do I need to? Just look at the Energy Tracking array,¡± she pointed to the sphere of light.


    Right there, above them and to their side, was the same dot as before, though it was a little fainter. Whatever method she used was insufficient to get away from them.


    ¡°We¡¯re going after her, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    ¡°Everybody, listen up! We¡¯re departing from this world segment. If someone helps Yi Ling get back in, then-¡±


    Her voice was cut off as everyone felt a strange sensation wash over them. It was cold and hot at the same time, but it was far more uncomfortable than either of the two could be. Those who were a little more sensitive to energy also felt a trace of someone¡¯s will, or perhaps their killing intent. Yi Wei, however, understood exactly what the cause was, and so looked up.


    The water world, so stable and fluid mere moments ago, was being devoured by the void.


    ¡°Yi Guanyu, I might have to revise my assessment of the situation. It is no longer ¡®if¡¯ we follow Yi Fenwu, we must get to her immediately!¡± she declared, throwing herself onto her feet, ¡°Everyone, go to the collection points NOW!¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±


    ¡°I think that Yi Fenwu has attempted to connect herself to the void between worlds, thus aggravating it. Based on the condition of our shield and the world segments, we have less than an hour to live.¡±

 V1C51: The Final Fall of the Kong

    Once she explained the situation to him, Yi Guanyu did not hesitate to agree with her, and so their land ship set off, grabbing Yi Ling as quickly as they were able to. The instant that the barrier separated from the world of water, they saw it being rapidly consumed by the void, devouring all of the planar water until all that was left was the great pearl-like structure. For whatever reason, that object was untouched, and even as it faded into the distance, it remained clear and pristine.


    The moment that the mental effects from the pearl wore off, Yi Wei removed the relevant array from her arm and focused solely on the task of controlling the land ship. Although she made the process look simple, the fact that it was made in a bit of a rush meant that she had to manipulate all arrays individually through the Networking Web, which involved a great deal of mental calculation and prediction in order to get things right. If she didn¡¯t focus, she could accidentally send herself and everyone aboard flying into a nearby world chunk to be devoured by the void between worlds, so removing even a single distraction made the situation much easier for her.


    ¡°Now that we¡¯re going where we need to be, explain this situation to me. What do you mean by connecting to the void between worlds, and how in the heavens has that aggravated it?¡± Yi Guanyu questioned, looking into the distance as another small world chunk was consumed.


    ¡°To connect with the void is to attempt to claim the world within as your own. In theory, any random person with an external spiritual will can do so, but as I might have mentioned previously, to do so is the peak of folly unless the space contains an intelligent spirit that allows you to connect to it, or even control it. If you are not sufficiently strong to control a world like this, whether due to a lacking cultivation, will or any other number of factors, it will seep into you instead, recognise the fact that neither you nor it should exist within this world, and devour itself while taking you with it. To put it simply, if you try something that stupid, you and anyone else within the world will die, and the world will be gone forever, alongside any of the treasures within, or that were used in its creation,¡± she explained, ¡°I don¡¯t know what prompted that idiot to do this, but she will take us all with her if we don¡¯t stop her.¡±


    ¡°What will happen if we kill her before the world is completely destroyed?¡±


    ¡°The most likely scenario is that we will cease the consumption of the world, and those world segments that are still mostly stable will persist. The less likely scenario is that the decay will persist, but in a different, slower manner, giving us a little more time. Worst case scenario is that her mind will have already been integrated into the world, at which point ending her physical body won¡¯t help us at all. We need to get to her before that can happen.¡±


    Yi Guanyu couldn¡¯t speak for a few seconds as he checked the dome around him for any obvious signs of damage, ¡°Seriously? It¡¯s that easy to destroy an entire pocket dimension? Weren¡¯t these once used as fortresses by powerful families?¡±


    ¡°Although I did say that anyone could do it, I did forget to mention that you need access to the void between worlds that typically lies concealed beneath the structure of the world. After I had damaged that world chunk, it led to the true void between worlds spilling out, and thus indirectly lead to this,¡± she replied, ¡°Had I known that Yi Fenwu would do something like this, I would have been more careful.¡±


    ¡°In that case, can you go any faster?¡±


    ¡°Maybe if you stop talking, then I will be able to focus a little better. While I am good at multitasking, doing one thing at a time is still going to be easiest.¡±


    As if to confirm that, the land ship shook as it brushed past a border within the void between worlds, then stopped just as suddenly when it exited. In that same moment, the various segments of land around them disappeared from sight momentarily, and all they could see was the great chunk of stone to their side.


    ¡°There¡¯s that cave,¡± Yi Wei muttered, ¡®As expected, the world segments are connected to one another without any clear logic. I¡¯m guessing that those who made them created them first, then tried to connect each passage with another without too much thought, either to save time or to prevent any spread of the void between worlds from growing and limiting travel through the Kong Holy Grounds. After all, every single one of the passages seem to be consistent in where they lead, so unless they change with every hour or something, I can¡¯t imagine anything else going on here.¡¯


    She shook her head lightly and focused, just as she said she should.


    The land ship tilted up and stabilised itself as it ascended to the level of Yi Fenwu, and then progressed to the world segment where she stood.


    When they drew closer, they saw that if they hadn¡¯t had the Energy Tracking array, they would have still been able to observe her, as there was a great circle of light surrounding the world segment on which she was present. At the same time, the void seemed to warp around it, slowly being drawn towards it, like a thick fluid slowly seeping towards a hole within its container.


    A faint pulling force acted on the land ship as they got closer, and with every breath in which they progressed, that force got stronger, pushing them towards the landmass at an ever-increasing speed.


    ¡°Yi Guanyu, tell me, would you like this ship to survive?¡± Yi Wei asked, temporarily resisting that pull with an additional quantity of her own planar energy, ¡°Before you ask, yes, if this land ship crashes into that world segment at full speed, regardless of what it is made out of, the adaptive wood will ruin at least half of the arrays and inscriptions within in order to prevent itself from being harmed. We will, however, make it there four minutes faster.¡±


    ¡°Do you even need to ask me? Full speed, naturally!¡±


    She shrugged in response and used the full volume of Speaker¡¯s Illusion to address the crew of the land ship, ¡°Attention! Get to the surface of the land ship now if you don¡¯t want to die!¡±


    Her voice echoed into the depths of the land ship, and moments later, the rush of feet across wood echoed right back out. All two-dozen people who had something to do below burst out of the depths and rushed to the top, where they were quickly guided to the planar energy collection points, before those who acted as the cannons on the land ship followed them.


    It was only then that Yi Wei stopped slowing down the land ship and allowed it to accelerate.


    The closer they got to land, the more the dome struggled to protect them. From a stable sphere, it rapidly devolved into an undulating chaotic mass of energy, kept in one piece by the excessive quantity of planar energy that was being granted to it.


    Even the arrays that combined all of Yi Wei¡¯s knowledge, which in turn came from the Kong and Yi family, eventually broke, putting the barrier in an even more precarious position.


    However, they did so only a few seconds from the border within the void between worlds.


    ¡°Remember what I told you about holding on to the ship the last time we were heading for a world segment? Now, hold on a thousand times tighter! If you so much as move during this collision, then, and I will not repeat myself on this, you will die! Your life will go down the drain and you will have no chance to do anything else, no matter how stupid your goals are!¡± Yi Wei shouted, before freezing in place as she realised how she had phrased herself, ¡®Wait, what was that? Neither the characters nor the memories of the Thunder Lord seem to be interfering, so¡­ did I actually call everyone else¡¯s goals and dreams¡­ stupid? Eh?¡¯


    She had no time to further ponder her thoughts when they impacted into the separator between world segments, shaking the entire ship violently. The spherical barrier around them twisted and turned, until, with one final shake, it burst like a soap bubble.


    ¡°Yi Wei, was that-¡±


    ¡°Within my expectations!¡± she replied before Yi Guanyu could finish his sentence, ¡°The void between worlds has a limited speed, and so long as we go to the connection point, we will be safe!¡±


    The void between worlds began to encroach upon them, consuming more and more of the visibility around them. Some of the further edges were devoured before it finally got close to the landmass¡­ and crashed into it faster than a dragon could fly at its peak speed.


    That collision caused the edges of the void to rapidly recede as the world segment and the land ship united into one.


    ¡°Now, run!¡±


    Everybody stood up, separated their planar energy from the collection points, and ran towards the sandy world segment. The instant that their ship crashed into the dunes, they began to spill toward the adaptive wood, covering the hull rapidly with sand as it joined the world. The light which surrounded the world segment also spread to the land ship, wrapping around it soundlessly.


    With Yi Wei¡¯s movement techniques, with which she was also able to grab Yi Ling and Yi Meng, and Yi Guanyu¡¯s superior cultivation realm, they got onto land before the land ship was close to consumption, but not everyone was as fortunate.


    A number of servants were devoured, reducing their overall number by three.


    In the distance, amongst the low dunes, they saw Yi Fenwu¡¯s figure, standing tall and with a straightened back, which faced them. Space warped around her, making her seem as if she did not belong to this world. Her hair, with its burnt tips, flowed wildly in the wind, and her robes resembled strips more so than a complete piece of clothing, with all of them also fluttering due to some unseen currents. At her sides were her arms, hanging freely.


    ¡®Judging by that pose and posture, I have to assume that she has indeed merged with the void between worlds, just like I had assumed. Her strength will likely be significantly greater than before, nullifying the new lack of defensive items, though I can¡¯t imagine that a mindless world will be able to come up with any tactics beyond just warping the space that it controls. In that case, I will need to go all out again¡­ just without damaging the world further, or else I won¡¯t be able to find the exit in time, and I will have even less luck if I intend to help the rest of the expedition along,¡¯ she frowned, glancing into her pockets to find little more than a piece of the planar ice that she hadn¡¯t left behind on the land ship, ¡®By the looks of it, I can strengthen one attack with that water, if I melt it and use either cosmic energy or one of the Kong family¡¯s techniques, but I don¡¯t know if that might be instantly stopped by the world¡¯s will. This is one of the things that is far less documented than I would have liked it to be, unfortunately.¡¯


    Fortunately, Yi Fenwu, or possibly her husk, did not turn to them, simply remaining in place while the distortion of space grew around it.


    ¡°I think it would be best to attack right now, and not give the world any time to stabilise itself within her. Every second that is wasted, just like this one, will cause it to become a little more capable,¡± Yi Wei suggested, already preparing her strongest attacks.


    ¡°¡­ You¡¯re the leader now. We¡¯re doing whatever you say,¡± Yi Guanyu replied.


    ¡°Right¡­ Attack with your strongest techniques! Right now!¡±


    Although everyone was tired, with most of their planar energy exhausted, they still charged forward, splitting up so that no one attack could kill them in one, and drew upon their last vestiges of power.


    Fire, water, metal, earth and wood bloomed around them, planar anchors of all types descended onto the sand, sinking a few inches into it upon landing, and planar energy from the world segment was all drawn towards them. A great crimson, violet and golden circle formed around Yi Fenwu¡¯s position, all three colours blending together as if each one was a different arc of lightning merging into one.


    For a brief moment, a single feeling was shared by everyone in the expedition ¨C hope.


    Then, as if to stomp onto it with all the world had to offer, that warping space that surrounded Yi Fenwu burst out without ceremony, slicing outwards in a hundred impossibly thin lines, piercing through light itself as easily as a typical blade cut slice through air.


    In an instant, half of the group was split in half, as was the ground below them. The tear in space vanished, but their bodies were not healed. Without any sound, those affected fell to the ground in two separate pieces, their techniques and planar constructs broke into nothingness, and any semblance of their fighting spirit evaporated. Slowly, after a small delay, almost as if the heavens needed some time to understand what happened, blood began to pour out of their two halves.


    Those that survived suddenly experienced their power drop by half, not just in terms of numbers, but also in terms of their attacks. Although they pulled through with them, they were barely sufficient.


    Only Yi Wei managed to hold on and construct her attack without issue, and thus, she shouted the technique¡¯s name, as she always had to do. Golden lightning, the purple cosmos and the golden-red blood that seemed to belong to the Golden Qilin all appeared from the heavens as she called them down upon the avatar of the world.


    ¡°Light of Divinity!¡±


    It fell down onto Yi Fenwu¡¯s still back like the lightning tribulation of a Daoist cultivator, and was just as powerful. Gold entwined with violet, surrounded by an endless flood of red that came after.


    Before it touched the archer¡¯s body, Yi Wei raised her free hand and brought it down, her palm facing the ground, and called upon that which resided deep within her planar aperture, the tower that had formed entirely without her own understanding nor control. She willed her planar anchor to descend behind her and it did so with a sound that was akin to the roar of a dragon or the cry of a phoenix in grandness, but at the same time it had no other similarity to them. It was a foreign sound that could not be heard anywhere else in the world, and the anchor that it preceded was no different.


    The five-sided planar anchor fell from a great rift within the sky and collapsed onto the ground in a large explosion of sand. Faint sparks of golden light appeared and faded on one side, crimson light burned through the cracks on the other, blood and water mixed on the third while blood also stained the metallic surface of the fourth, and a smooth wooden surface covered the last.


    On the very instant that it appeared, every trace of her planar energy suddenly spiked in power. The great three-coloured light from the heavens doubled in brightness, and it went without saying that the power within had also doubled.


    At the same time, Yi Fenwu¡¯s head snapped around, going to the absolute limit of what her neck could survive, and looked at Yi Wei. Her eyes appeared to be entirely absent, and in their place was a great sphere of the void between worlds, burning with a great light deep within, though that eternal void still clearly looked upon her like any other pair of eyes could.


    The warping space around her burst out to meet with the tri-coloured energy, causing most of it to be distorted and annihilated in an instant, despite the great difference between Yi Wei¡¯s power and that of a common cultivator. All it took was a single look from the entity born of the connection between Yi Fenwu and the void, and so much of the magnificent energy burst out of existence without so much as touching her body. What little remained ate at the remnants of her clothes and burnt some strands of hair, but her body was completely unmarked and unmarred by the violent energies.


    ¡®Seriously, if not the fact that it has taken all of her cognitive abilities away, I would be decrying how unfair this is. Just touch the void a little bit and now you¡¯re suddenly nigh omnipotent compared to the third realm,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, throwing the planar ice away, ¡®That¡¯s not going to help me¡­¡¯


    She glanced to her sides to confirm the damage of that one attack by Yi Fenwu, and found that the void attack had ended the lives of the majority of those in the second realm, leaving behind only those like Yi Meng and Yi Ling, who happened to have been beside the primary jagged lines of attack. However, just as she looked to her right, she saw a familiar shadow.


    Yi Bai was, right before her eyes, stabbing the back of yet another member of the expedition.


    ¡®Her too? No, she seems normal, but I¡¯m guessing that the order given out by Yi Fenwu, probably something like ¡®Protect me¡¯ or ¡®Kill anyone who gets near me with malicious intent¡¯, is still being enforced by her. Even if Yi Bai understands what is currently happening, that stupid assassin¡¯s binding won¡¯t let her do anything!¡¯ she gritted her teeth, ¡®These damn assassin organisations are terrible! Damn it!¡¯


    ¡°Yi Bai!¡± she shouted, appearing at the assassin¡¯s side with Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, ¡°Stop that right now! Your actions are endangering your master!¡±


    She ignored her, even when Yi Wei stopped her knife with her bare hands.


    ¡°You¡¯ve responded before, so I know you can understand me. I¡¯m affecting your efficiency more when I¡¯m holding onto your knife than if you just spoke to me, right? Do you understand what your master has done?¡±


    Only then did Yi Bai answer, in a voice so quiet it would be subdued by a casual gust of wind, ¡°Master has decided to attempt to combine with the void between worlds via the planar origin stone. I am meant to stop anyone who interrupts her, as every such interruption would lower the chances of success. I am complying perfectly with my commands.¡±


    ¡°Planar origin stone? You mean that rock that¡¯s glowing in her pocket?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Release me,¡± the assassin said, naturally not having ceased her attempts to escape, though they were easily subdued with the full power of Yi Wei¡¯s physique and body cultivation.


    ¡°Not so fast, Yi Bai, I still-¡± she began, but then saw the glow of the Light of Divinity wane, and the great warping energy floating around Yi Fenwu burst out again. One line of the warp headed straight for them, or more precisely, for Yi Bai. Yi Wei could not allow either herself or the assassin to be harmed, so she released her knife and simultaneously kicked her with as much force she could without harming her, following up with leaping back on her own.


    The very next instant, the warping energy sliced across the space between them, as well as the space and bodies of several other expedition members. Amongst those losses was Yi Jiu, whose body was severed horizontally right in front of her.


    ¡°No! Yi Fenwu! You¡¯ve prepared something for this, so does that mean you can understand me?¡± she shouted, quickly following up with a Touch of God to block Yi Bai¡¯s assault on another person.


    Her still figure turned around on the spot, now facing Yi Wei in her entirety, but her face remained still, with no sign of any movement having occurred since she began her attempt to connect with the void. It was akin to a mask in its stillness, and it was just as smooth and flawless as a porcelain mask would be.


    ¡®At the very least that woman came prepared, so she wasn¡¯t as reckless as I thought, but it¡¯s clear that it hasn¡¯t worked,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, ¡®Even if I exhaust all forms of energy again and somehow manage to defeat her, the time taken will allow her to kill everyone else. However, is there anything I can do to prevent this? None of the forms that my planar energy can take seemed sufficient to tear through the warped space, although that could be due to the Light of Divinity being a water-type technique, rather than a cosmic-type one. What can I-¡¯


    Her thoughts were unceremoniously interrupted when the warped space burst out again, faster and with less delay than before. It surged forth in two hundred different lines, with three heading right for her. As they seemed to have no concept of height, it meant that they would kill her wherever she moved, giving her no choice but to confirm her new theory.


    ¡®The two most powerful forms of energy I possess are my physique energy and cosmic energy. The best attack to combine the two¡­¡¯ she thrust her palm forward, ¡®Yang Elysian Palm!¡¯


    Unlike the common method of technique usage, where one would solely use their planar energy and circulate it through their meridians to achieve a desired effect, or the method she had discovered after attaining physique energy, where she would substitute certain inconvenient parts of a circulation path with that yang physique energy, she currently channelled both types of energy simultaneously. When a full circulation path was complete in either meridian network, a single instance of the technique would manifest, so when she completed both¡­


    Around one side of her palm, bright white energy condensed within the air, clean and pure. Around the other, luminous flame appeared from nothing. They spun in a circle, in great proximity with one another and yet without contact, like the symbol of yin and yang.


    When the warped space came closer, the two finally came together. The light that seemed to come from the heavens and the fires that only the most fearsome of demons could possess united into a perfect force. As if the sun bloomed in front of her, a sphere of endless light burst out of her palm and met with that warped energy, instantly devouring it. The impossible heat completely melted the surface of the world segment, turning all of the sand to molten glass, and then exploded with an even greater light. A dozen of the warped lines were instantly shattered, as if they were nothing but feeble windows.


    That light did not stop there, however, and continued to Yi Fenwu, where it tore through the thick line of defensive warp with ease, and scorched her body, affecting her for the first time in this battle.


    The very moment that the white and orange light cleared, Yi Wei was already right in front of the woman¡¯s figure, drawing upon the other half of the physique energy that she had not yet used. However, she did not use it immediately, for the same reason that she had not exhausted all of her power on the first serious strike.


    Her intention wasn¡¯t to kill, but to get closer.


    ¡°Yi Fenwu! That stone of your is still glowing, so it must be doing something, right? Give the assassin¡¯s token to me!¡± she spoke clearly and not too loudly, as she didn¡¯t want anyone else to learn of the existence of the token Yi Fenwu used to control Yi Bai¡¯s actions, for the same reason that she had previously been very vague about the way in which Yi Bai was controlled. She did not want anyone to get any ideas about controlling her with it, as it would simply be her ownership moving from one person to another. If this was to be a true victory, not only would she have to get every survivor to safety, but also ensure that Yi Bai was free to live her own life.


    As always, the archer did not reply, while whatever entity controlled her body focused more on rebuilding the warped space around her.


    Would Yi Wei allow her to do that without interruption?


    Of course not!


    With a simple mental command, Yi Wei¡¯s great quantity of cosmic energy burst out in its pure form, at the densest fluid state that it could achieve without collapsing in the outside world and blocked the warped space from growing. Without the benefit of the physique energy, that effect was weakened, but it was still sufficient to prevent the warp from accumulating, and even slowly lead to its erosion. Due to her realm, she couldn¡¯t extend that energy beyond two metres, but it was enough to engulf her and Yi Fenwu completely.


    ¡°You¡¯re not going to respond? Then I¡¯ll just search for it myself!¡± she said, grabbing for the nearest strip of the woman¡¯s robe that had a pocket within it.


    Her hand shot forward, and without any warning, it was stopped by Yi Fenwu, who grabbed onto her arm with even greater speed and stared at her without any expression on her face nor inside of those void-filled eyes.


    Surprisingly enough, her grip was incredibly strong, almost matching Yi Wei¡¯s own strength.


    For a moment, she waited, expecting some kind of response as a result of that unexpected interaction, but when there was absolutely nothing from the silent archer, she tore her arm out of her grip and instead reached with her other hand, grabbing the first thing she could out of the pocket ¨C a familiar silver ring that matched one of those on Yi Fenwu¡¯s finger.


    ¡®This isn¡¯t what I needed at all. Can I even use it? Regardless it won¡¯t help against the warping space,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, storing it in her own pocket, ¡®Time for a second attempt- actually, the whole pocket¡­¡¯


    She jumped to the archer¡¯s side, where she simply released more cosmic energy around herself instead of controlling the cloud that she had already produced and grabbed onto Yi Fenwu¡¯s robes and tore off a large strip, which also contained a pocket within it.


    ¡®I hadn¡¯t considered it, but to an outside observer, it may seem like I am intentionally stripping her¡­¡¯


    Yi Wei forcefully threw that thought out of her mental landscape, and instead reached into that pocket. Within, she found a bunch of random pills, which she had no time to identify and thus stored in her own clothes, a small pebble with no traces of planar energy nor spiritual will, which she discarded after she concluded that she had seem them near the entrance to the Kong Holy Grounds not too long ago, and finally, a black token.


    When it touched her skin, it lit up ¨C or, rather, a faint shroud of darkness covered it ¨C and she felt a certain commanding presence covering her.


    ¡°Yi Bai, escape immediately!¡± she shouted, focusing her will on the shrouded assassin.


    Mid-way through another stab at someone who was too weak to resist her, Yi Bai stopped and turned towards one of the exits of the world segment, vanishing into a shadow and running straight towards at a speed that was lower only than the time she appeared before Yi Fenwu to shield her.


    ¡®I¡¯ve got it! Then, all I have to do is deal with Yi Fenwu, and then I and everyone who¡¯s left can leave with Yi Bai!¡¯ she smiled, though a quick look around dampened any hint of happiness.


    Out of the four dozen, the forty-eight people that had come alongside her into this battle, all that remained were Yi Guanyu and a few people whose names and faces she did not recognise, with the bodies of those who she did know lying on the glassed terrain, all of whom were split in half one way or another.


    She saw that the cloud of cosmic energy around the archer was slowly being consumed by the warped reality, and that the warp was clearly about to burst out again, so she stepped forward and circulated her True Ascendant physique energy throughout her meridians.


    As she did not want to kill everyone in the area that still survived, she sent that energy to her leg, performing the one leg combat technique she had mastered.


    Flame bloomed around her legs and as she kicked the archer, akin to the sun piercing reality itself as it burst from her foot and flew into Yi Fenwu¡¯s stomach, catching onto her body and rapidly spreading across her flesh. The unmistakable scent of burning flesh quickly spread throughout the world segment as her delicate yet tempered skin burnt away.


    All of a sudden, when parts of her ribcage began to show through the flames, the void within her eyes vanished for only a brief moment, during which she reached into the glowing pocket, retrieved a rock from it, and placed it right into Yi Wei¡¯s hand. ¡°I¡­ messed up¡­¡±


    That was the only thing she could say before the void between worlds returned to her eyes, though the void could do little with her, as that brief period of consciousness also significantly weakened her resistance to the yang energy produced by the Violet Kick ¨C a technique based on Lan Mei Xing¡¯s impressive kicking technique ¨C and thus more than half of her body had been reduced to nothing but charred bones, while the rest was close to destruction nonetheless.


    Not even the void between worlds could keep her body together, and thus, she fell to the ground.


    ¡®She¡¯s dead¡­ Shit, I killed someone¡­ Just like that¡­ Does that mean that the void will no longer spread as quickly, and that the warped reality will also cease?¡¯


    There was no time for her to check, however, as the next second, that great mass of warp suddenly burst out at an intensity a thousand times superior to its previous condition, cutting through the world segment with a thousand individual lines. In perfect silence, Yi Wei felt the very space around herself being sliced apart and heard a number of bodies fall onto the ground.


    ¡°Everyone! Follow Yi Bai!¡± she yelled, following her own commands immediately.


    In that one second, she saw that the void between worlds and the strange warp would not diminish upon the death of Yi Fenwu, and she realised that every single second would simply mean more deaths. Since the assassin, Yi Bai, knew where to go, likely based on her and Yi Fenwu¡¯s exploration of the area, it was their best to follow her. In this moment, with her having exposed her cosmic energy and yang physique energy, there was little more to hide, so there was no need for her to make others chase after the Lock Obelisks when she could open the exit door herself.


    She took her planar anchor back into her dantian and threw out the majority of her remaining planar energy onto the spot where the warped space was most concentrated in the hopes of weakening it.


    With the power of the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, she caught up to Yi Bai¡¯s distant figure just as she neared a doorway ¨C and did so just in time to see how that doorway was suddenly cracked open by the void, the symbol atop it being consumed at the same time, revealing a familiar grassy hill of the outside.


    Yi Bai ran through it, vanishing from the dunes, and Yi Wei followed, leaping out to escape a surge of warp energy.


    She twisted in the air and landed on her back, only to see the doorway in the air collapse.


    ¡®W-Wait, what? It¡­ It can¡¯t fall apart this quickly, the people inside¡­ There¡¯s another doorway, there has to be, right?¡¯ she desperately thought, getting onto her feet and returning to the top of the hill, but saw no trace of that initial beating heart of an entrance, nor any traces of other doorways and gateways that would bring people out of the Holy Grounds.


    Her vision was strangely red, and her breathing was oddly heavy, albeit she heard it through a fog of adrenaline and exhaustion.


    Raising her hand to wipe away that strange flood of red within her sight, she stopped when she saw that her entire arm was covered in small, thin cuts that were slowly leaking blood.


    ¡®Huh? When did this happen? Why am I¡­ what¡­¡¯ she fell to the ground as she felt the strength in her entire body wane and flow away into some unknown void, perhaps the same one that consumed the Kong Holy Grounds, ¡®No, I¡¯ve even brought out everything I had¡­ It can¡¯t just end that way, it can¡¯t¡­ No¡­¡¯


    Before she knew it, she had lost consciousness and regained it once again. Her cultivation had not advanced this time, and neither was there any extreme growth within her mental space and cultivation, but there was a great quantity of thoughts floating around her head, manifesting as random scraps of paper and books within the Gilded Library, where her mental self desperately tried to decipher some meaning from these things.


    She stood up and found that her body had mostly recovered, and thus looked around for Yi Bai.


    Whether with her own perception and sight, or the strange black token, she was unable to find her, so she stored the token away in the deepest, most hidden pocket of her robes, and looked into the distance, into the direction of the Yi District.


    Her eyes furrowed, and she decided not to cleanse her body with water. When she appears, there would be questions, and appearing wounded would be to her benefit.

 V1C52: Beginning of the End

    Yi Shangqing had been a guard of the Yi family for over thirteen years now, and he believed his choice to do so rather than following his initial dreams of adventure was the right choice. At first, standing outside of the entrance of the district and watching out for weak planar beasts was nowhere near as exciting as the things that his former companions went on to do, but every time that group of former friends went in and out of the city, he saw their numbers drop.


    In just a few years, a group of over fifty rising stars of the family had dropped to two, one of whom joined the guards while the other went missing not too long ago.


    After five years of faithful service, he learnt that guards were also responsible for handling outgoing expeditions of the younger generations, whether he was responsible for receiving them when they returned or going out to search for them if they had sent out a distress signal. It added a little excitement to his job, and it gave him the opportunity to practise his many skills gained from service.


    This time, almost two years ago, he had been told about the latest expedition to what was believed to be the former Kong District, and was provided a way to track the life signal of the elder that followed that expedition, as well as being informed about the most important people there.


    Out of everyone there, he was told to prioritise Yi Tai, Yi Guanyu and Yi Fenwu. In fact, the one with the most priority was Yi Fenwu, and he was told that if he let her die under his watch, then he and his entire circle of friends, his family, his acquaintances and anyone who he ever fancied would suffer the same fate as she did, and he had no choice but to believe them. The person who made the threats was credible, and well known for caring far too much for his daughter, to the point that rumours like him stealing a chunk of the immortal gold decorating the Ancestral Hall came to be.


    For the past two years, everything had been fine. The elder¡¯s life signal was intact, and he could relax.


    Then, it faded, though Yi Shangqing was clear that this did not mean his death, but that it was impossible to tell whether he was alive or dead due to him being in a different world or dimension.


    Only two days later, he saw the life signal flame flicker into being once more, and just as he assumed that the elder had exited the hidden grounds he had been searching for safely, the small flame dispersed into nothingness.


    As a result, he rushed directly to the people above him and reported the situation in as much detail as he could.


    That was why, eleven days later, he was trudging through the forest on the same path that the expedition should have taken, alongside most of his team, to find any trace of the expedition and learn what happened to them and why, as well as to retrieve any and all survivors and bring them safely to the Yi District, so that they may report what happened to the Ancestral Hall.


    Thankfully, he was in the peak of the third realm already, and so few of the creatures in his path could force him to fight them seriously. He was able to advance at a decent speed as a result.


    ¡®I wonder what happened to them,¡¯ he asked himself, his mind struggling to imagine anything that could defeat an expert in the Active Core realm within two days, especially due to Yi Dong¡¯s, the elder¡¯s, incredible ability to escape almost any situation, including the time that he was falsely accused of stealing something from the Patriarch and was able to evade capture for over fifty days of constant searching until his innocence was proven and the actual perpetrator was caught. For something to be able to catch him and kill him, the threat must have been incredible.


    All of a sudden, he heard something from the depths of the forest in front of him, and stopped, preparing a combat technique and a defensive technique, to deal with whatever threat he was about to face appropriately.


    However, he dispersed both techniques when he caught the familiar shade of red coming out of the bushes and trees, mixed in amongst a great quantity of blood-red.


    ¡°It¡¯s a survivor of the expedition!¡± he exclaimed, ¡°Yi Hongling, report it to the family immediately!¡±


    That subordinate of his followed his orders immediately, while the rest gathered around this survivor. When they emerged from the forest¡¯s depths, they saw that this person was actually a woman, with long crimson hair and silver eyes that looked strangely dim, as if her energy had been sapped by something.


    Looking at the rest of her body, it was not too surprising to most of the guards. Her robes were torn and cut in countless places, and each tear and cut exposed a wound that had dyed the surrounding cloth and skin in a deep red.


    By the looks of it, this woman had been on the edge of death.


    ¡®However, it may just be someone in the same clothes. How can I¡­ ah!¡¯ Yi Shangqing figured out a solution and called out, ¡°You, take out the family¡¯s token!¡±


    The woman did so, displaying a token that almost resembled a large bloodstone in appearance.


    ¡®The Yi guards¡­ finally¡­¡¯ Yi Wei recognised the people in front of her, breathing an internal sigh of relief. Her mind was still crowded with endless books and scraps of paper that whirled around without any sign of stopping. She had hoped to deal with them somewhat by the time she got to the Yi District, but she had not only failed to do so, the number of the wild thoughts had only grown greatly, slowing down her thoughts somewhat. Whenever she wanted to bring up any one of her ideas or thoughts from the past, she had to look at them through a storm of nonsense that she had no answer to.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name and what role did you have in the expedition?¡± the man that found her, a large man with a broad waist and a thick brown beard, asked.


    ¡°I am¡­ Yi Wei, and¡­ I was in Yi Jiazhi¡¯s group¡­ as a servant¡­¡± she responded, playing up her fatigue.


    ¡°Yi Jiazhi? What happened to them, and what happened to everyone else?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re dead¡­ they all died, including Yi Jiazhi, Yi Henghua, Yi Tai, Yi Fenwu, Yi Guanyu and Yi Zheng¡­ the entire hidden ground collapsed, and the void between worlds claimed everyone¡­ I just barely escaped¡­¡± Yi Wei said, tears flowing out uncontrollably.


    The man¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°All? All of them? Are you sure? Are you absolutely certain?¡±


    ¡°I can guarantee the deaths of all but four or five people¡­ I¡¯ve personally seen the rest fall.¡±


    ¡°No! Oh, no¡­ no, no, no¡­ Yi Chen and you two, bring her to the district. I must report this immediately!¡± he shouted, turning around and quickly vanishing into the distance.


    Apart from the three that he left behind to look after Yi Wei, the other proceeded onwards, heading in the direction of the Kong valley. With their speed and Yi Wei¡¯s blood trail for them to follow, they would be able to make it there by the end of the day, or in roughly eleven hours, by which point, even if there had been any survivors within the hidden grounds, the void would have consumed them.


    Meanwhile, Yi Chen used a strange movement technique that surrounded all four of them and allowed them to move at a far quicker pace. The other three didn¡¯t even need to move their legs.


    ¡®I might as well store this in the library as well, but¡­¡¯ as the book, containing everything she could gather regarding that movement technique, was placed into the library, the seemingly eternal storm of thoughts still obscured her mental vision.


    She allowed herself to rest, though the feeling of dread she had been feeling since the Kong Holy Grounds had still not faded.


    ¡°- so, while we sort things out, you should go to your residence and clean yourself up. Here, take a gold coin ¨C spend it wherever you like, though I recommend the Nine Suns Bathhouse in the northern part of the district. It has absolutely great service and water, and with this, you should be able to get every one of the services they offer, including a massage, haircut and whatever else you may want,¡± Yi Chen said, giving her an extremely shiny coin.


    ¡°Thanks¡­ are you employed by them?¡±


    ¡°N-No, I don¡¯t know why you would imply such a thing. You know what, take another silver coin and buy yourself a snack from the Sweet Fragrance Stall near the bathhouse.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I¡¯ll do that¡­¡± she agreed, taking the money from him before separating from the group.


    She did not go straight for the places she was recommended, instead allowing her instincts to guide her while she continued her contemplation.


    ¡®I¡¯ve been doing this far too much lately, but I need to do it nonetheless. I have to examine the situation in the Kong Holy Grounds, and the event that killed everyone, save for me and Yi Bai, who has gone off to wherever it is she considers to be a suitably safe place to escape to¡­ I can already see my first mistake, in that I failed to specify a specific location, and that I didn¡¯t free her mind. Perhaps it will naturally wear off and allow her to act normally until someone else gets one of these tokens, or perhaps she will hide out somewhere getting the bare necessities to allow herself to stay in shape while waiting for further commands¡­¡¯ she thought, looking up only enough to see the feet of those she was near as to avoid bumping into them by accident, ¡®The second mistake is that I obviously should have kept the warp in check before it got out of control and grew too powerful by subduing it with my planar energy, which should have reduced the likelihood of the current outcome by¡­ some number of percent. My head is too busy to concentrate on the exact numbers¡­¡¯


    Yi Wei groaned, attracting even more attention than her current blood-covered appearance did.


    ¡®I should have spoken to Fen Zhi more, in order to get as much information as possible about assassins and assassin¡¯s bindings, which might have allowed me to cut the link between Yi Bai and this damned token, preventing Yi Fenwu from escaping as easily and limiting the possibility of her connecting to the void via the planar origin stone¡­ On that topic, the Aeon of the Endless Dark¡­¡¯ her mental self reached for the technique and flipped open the manual, ¡®Might as well cultivate this fully. The ability to hide my abilities exactly as I want it to be, allowing me to prevent a number of faults within my future endeavours.¡¯


    That process was completed quickly, though it did not feel satisfying, as a number of her previous accomplishments were.


    ¡®Honestly, I had never given much thought to the so-called heart demons that the Daoists are fond of talking about, but this could easily qualify. It shouldn¡¯t stop me from advancing in my cultivation, but I won¡¯t be at my peak capacity until I figure this stuff out¡­ Damn¡­¡¯


    She raised her head and found that she had accidentally wandered onto the road that lead to her old home, the one that she had occupied before moving to the Xiao Mountain Residence with Yi Yaling shortly prior to the expedition. ¡®This was unexpected, but I suppose it wouldn¡¯t be harmful to see what my house looks like nowadays. It would be a shame if someone had torn it down in my absence¡­¡¯


    In the distance, in the same direction as her home was, were a few plumes of smoke rising into the sky, backlit by the setting sun.


    Her journey was far quicker than she had anticipated. While she was preoccupied with her own thoughts and considerations, her body automatically drew upon the knowledge of movement techniques engrained within her mental and physical states.


    As she drew closer, she realised that the smoke was not as small or insignificant as she had originally thought, nor as near as she had hopes, for the direction of one particular tower of smoke was not just near to the direction of her home, but exactly on it. She willingly sped up at that point, as she did not want to allow her home to burn without interfering in it, whatever the reason for the fire was.


    Just a few minutes later, she entered her street, and her fears were confirmed.


    Her home, that dirty, rotting shack that wouldn¡¯t be suitable for the vast majority of common folk, was aflame, as were many of the surrounding houses.


    Due to that, one might assume that the flame had started in a random house and then spread to the rest, but Yi Wei was not some random, uninformed person, and her home was not in close proximity to the other houses.


    Perhaps the only benefit that her shack had to the rest of the terrible buildings around it was the strangely spacious yard around it. In order for a flame to spread to the rest of the houses in the street, or for a fire on the street to spread to her residence, someone would have needed to intentionally light her domain on fire.


    She did not have the time to consider the possible perpetrators when she felt a faint thread of spiritual will force itself into her head.


    ¡°Child of Yi, it would be in thine best interests to not approach thine home. Go to our grove instead, for I fear that thou art in mortal danger,¡± Chu Ling¡¯s voice sounded in her head, with a great quantity of worry in her voice, ¡°Also, we have much to speak about.¡±


    After a moment of consideration, she decided to follow her instructions. She pretended not to have heard anything and found a passer-by, whom she questioned about the fire as a concerned citizen.


    That person was rather shocked about such a blood-covered individual approaching him, but he responded nonetheless and quickly lost interest after she said that she would return with a water cultivator in order to quell the fire, and didn¡¯t pay attention to her when she turned the corner and disguised her cultivation, before using a parallel street to head towards the Timeless Grove, which she entered only when she was sure that no-one was watching, and even then she only dared to near it once she had applied every single stealth skill that she possessed.


    It was only when she saw the familiar, busty figure covered in green and leaves that she relaxed.


    ¡°Oh my, thou art in quite a state. Would thee object to me assisting thee in cleaning thyself?¡± the woman asked.


    ¡°No, I wouldn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Then proceed to thine left, through the trees. A clean pond is waiting for thee there, and a set of the same items I had given thee once thou had departed on thine expedition. I¡¯d say more, but I¡¯m afraid our circumstances would not allow for such a thing,¡± Chu Ling said, opening the pathway on the left with a casual wave of her hand.


    Yi Wei said nothing, following the woman¡¯s instructions and leaping into the warm water of a small, clear pond, which quickly washed away the dried blood and revealed her clean, unmarred body within the water.


    All of the wounds, even those caused by the warp, had healed long ago, and with the dirt and blood gone, anyone who looked upon her now and did not mind her nudity would have been able to reasonably assume that she had never encountered combat, and had achieved her present physical state through pure training¡­ not that the assumption would be entirely inaccurate, seeing as she did not receive much benefit to her body through fighting.


    Speaking of her body, it had most certainly changed from the time when she was thin and dainty, mostly due to the lack of proper nutrition.


    She was still thin, of course, as she had never eaten enough to put on any more weight than was strictly necessary for her development, most of the nutrition for which came from planar energy rather than food, but around her bones there was a thick layer of strong muscle that was only a single step away from bursting out of her skin.


    While beneath clothing, that physical strength could easily remain hidden, but not outside of it.


    As her bodily development lead to the natural growth of the muscles in her legs, her lower body could easily be said to be aesthetically pleasing and fitting the ideas of many regarding a good-looking woman, though her upper half had not benefitted from the same development.


    In other words, her breasts could only be described as one step above flat, and with her reaching her age of maturity, they would not grow much in the future.


    ¡®It¡¯s funny that there was a time that I was concerned with this more than¡­ the rest of the things¡­¡¯ Yi Wei thought, glancing at the mental storm in her head, ¡®I suppose I could always cultivate the Bovine Stomach- oh, wait, a lower-grade body cultivation ability will not override a greater technique, especially not when that technique is the basis for a physique. Unless I can add it into the Condensed Arts Body, I¡¯m not going to be able to grow my boobs¡­ I could ask Chu Ling about it, but both of us know that there are better things to consider.¡¯


    She sighed, shrouded herself in a small cloud of smoke-like planar energy and cleansed herself by transforming it into water-type energy. Once she was clean, she examined the various creams and cosmetics left by Chu Ling, and found that most were similar to what she had previously received, except for the fact that all had been improved to a two-star level, and a few that had been improved in a less general and more specific sense.


    They were prepared in a similar quantity to before, but now that she knew about some sort of danger that the woman in green herself, a person in the fifth realm if not higher by now, needed to inform her about, Yi Wei had an ever so slight suspicion that she would not be able to make use of it all before that threat forced her away from it. As a result, she gave it some thought, simultaneously taking the opportunity to allow herself to relax for a little longer, she grabbed every single one of the items and began to applying them one by one, flooding every single one of them with the purest form of cosmic energy.


    The instant that any one of the cosmetics touched the place that they were meant to affect, they melted into her body and began to perform its function.


    Although the sensation was slightly unpleasant, it was nothing compared to any one of the things that she withstood both before and during the Kong expedition, and so she was able to keep her hands steady while she did so.


    ¡®My method of rushed application will decrease the overall effect by around eight percent, but since my cosmic energy simultaneously multiplies that percentage by a great degree, that should cancel out and possibly even give me a far greater effect than intended, in a shorter time. In combination with my physique and body cultivation skills¡­ physique cultivation skills?... it might make my skin even more difficult to pierce,¡¯ she idly thought, freezing mid-thought once she realised that she had spent a precious moment of mental clarity on something so unnecessary as her personal appearance.


    With the experience that she had in applying these cosmetics, she only needed a few minutes to finish, by which point her body had naturally dried.


    She clothed herself and returned through the woods.


    ¡°Thou hath already decided to reveal thine secrets?¡± Chu Ling asked the moment she returned.


    ¡°Indeed. I have an ability to absorb medicines at an immense pace and get all of their latent effects. I apologise for failing to inform you ahead of time,¡± Yi Wei quickly said, bowing respectfully while keeping her face still.


    ¡°There is no need for that, Ah Wei. I hath no intentions to steal thine secrets from thee, but I had learnt that thou art capable of changing thine cultivated element with ease, albeit without informing any other person or entity,¡± the woman in green replied, causing Yi Wei to stop mid-bow, ¡°I knoweth not whether thine ability is the reason for the present danger, but I wish to safeguard thee from it, regardless of the cause.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I hope you won¡¯t mind it if I ask you how you learnt about this ability? Who did you speak to, and what sort of things did they reveal?¡±


    ¡°I shall not object, for thine requests are perfectly respectable. When thou had left for thine expedition, I decided to investigate thee as to learn about thine place in the Yi family, and what else thou hath done in this district. While searching for thine name, I found one man named Yi Yi, another called Luo Xiuying, a woman by the name of Ning Guanting, and curious words regarding Da Gang, who seemed to appear just after Yi Wei had disappeared¡­ If thou art of the opinion that I hath gone beyond my station as thine teacher, I shalt apologise to thee, but-¡±


    ¡°The fact that you brought this up means that it is important to the threat I am facing, right? Could you explain that to me, beyond just the fact that some arsonist burnt my house down?¡± Yi Wei asked, folding her arms.


    ¡°Indeed. Not too long ago, thine name began to be uttered by those other than me. I had assumed it to be something related to thine family, but the more that I heard about this, the stranger it seemed. Due to our relationship never having been made public, those people never came to me, but now that thine home is in the state that it is, I am certain that they hath malicious intent. Thine residence, although burnt, was first searched. Since thee hath left thine home empty, they found little, but I am confident that they did not do so out of mere curiosity. Their first inquiries were simple, but when they had learnt that thine cultivation had advanced and that thou art the model of a diligent learner in thine technique hall, the nature of the investigation changed, and their tones became a little more¡­ aggressive. Not long after, thine home was searched and burnt¡­¡±


    ¡°That is rather concerning¡­¡± Yi Wei agreed, ¡°Who were these people?¡±


    ¡°Two young people, one man and one woman that are no older than you. Their cultivation is in the third realm, much like thine shalt be in time, but something is strange about it. I lack the knowledge to explain to thee the core of that difference, but it is one that makes their aura incredibly concerning.¡±


    ¡®Concerning? That¡¯s pretty much the vaguest thing you can say,¡¯ she thought, ¡°So, you can¡¯t help me with them, whatever the concerning factor is?¡±


    ¡°I cannot face them directly, if that is what thou wish from me, but I can protect thee within my grove. Remember, so long as the Timeless Grove stands tall within Yi City, I shalt watch over thee,¡± Chu Ling said, before showing a small smile, ¡°Can thine ability truly permit thee to absorb medicines more rapidly?¡±


    ¡°You were watching over me in the forest, right? I wouldn¡¯t have wasted all of them otherwise.¡±


    ¡°That is fascinating, and I wish I had the time to study it. Instead, I hath to hurry, just in the case of them coming after thee. Please, come with me, child of Yi.¡±


    She stood up from the branch she had used as her seat, with the branch receding into the forest as if it had never been used as a chair in the first place, and led her into the depths of the grove, through a strange and winding path that seemed to overlap onto itself and other segments of the grove without any clear reason for doing so, whilst simultaneously encountering none of those segments, as if it existed on an entirely different world to the rest of the woods.


    ¡°Art thou wondering how we hath walked for so long, yet have not found any trace of our destination?¡±


    ¡°I am somewhat curious, yes.¡±


    ¡°The Timeless Grove is not quite as it appears, as I might have told thee in the past. Due to a series of natural arrays constructed through the trees and the decorations within, I hath achieved a certain warping and locking of space. If we doth not travel through the correct path, we shalt never reach our destination, and thus we shalt follow this specific route,¡± Chu Ling said.


    ¡°Very impressive, though in comparison to a small realm that warps space in its entirety, it isn¡¯t quite as striking. I know it isn¡¯t really a fair comparison.¡±


    ¡°Nay, it is not, but thou art correct. Pray tell, art thou in the possession of that realm?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ Not quite. It collapsed onto almost everyone who was inside it when one of the leaders of the expedition invoked the void between worlds when she failed to kill everyone outside of her team, which was previously exposed when I tried to kill that same leader when I first learned about her plans.¡±


    ¡°Were thee familiar with those on the expedition?¡±


    ¡°You could say that¡­¡±


    ¡°Then I can understand thine sullen look that thou hath displayed since thee hath entered my grove. Last time, didst thou not enjoy resting upon my thighs? Wouldst thou wish for a repeat of that scenario? While we art present within the Timeless Grove, within the focus of my power, we art not at risk, no matter what we do nor how long we take.¡±


    Yi Wei glanced up at her and, after a pause, shook her head, ¡°Even then, I wouldn¡¯t want to waste time. If there¡¯s one thing I can take away from my latest experiences, it¡¯s that every second can be precious.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I shalt not force thee. We art near our destination, so permit me a moment of focus.¡±


    The woman in green shut her eyes for a brief time, seemingly listening out for something in the distance, and then turned in a random direction and continued walking.


    For several minutes, there seemed to be nothing unique within the route that they had taken, with every tree moving out of the way when they got close to them and closing back up behind them, but then the air suddenly began to grow heavier, and a slight violet light filled their vision. Out of curiosity, Yi Wei extended some of her spiritual will to inspect that light and found that it was due to an incredibly concentrated and pure cloud of planar energy, although it still remained within its gaseous form.


    In comparison to her own cosmic energy, it was almost as pure, though it was slightly less powerful and notably less curious than her planar energy was, without any obvious visuals of portals into the outer void nor the ability to transform into other elements.


    ¡°Dost thou recall the miracle fruit, nay, miracle food that I had mentioned before the expedition?¡±


    ¡°I recall something about a Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus. Is that it?¡± she asked, not because she was not certain about it, but because the mental book containing that information was rather difficult to read due to the endless mental storm that had yet to calm itself to any notable extent, ¡°Have you made some progress with investigating it?¡±


    ¡°That is indeed the case. The denseness of the planar energy in the area is due to it.¡±


    When the next series of trees in front of them opened up, Yi Wei saw a wondrous scene. Within a small clearing, only a few metres in diameter, atop a tree stump, lay a violet lotus that constantly emanated a dense violet light.


    ¡°Child of Yi, I doth not exaggerate when I tell thee that this might be the most powerful item I hath ever laid my eyes upon. This lotus contains endless planar energy, even while it constantly emits it.¡±


    ¡®I am still inclined to consider this an exaggeration¡­¡¯ Yi Wei thought silently, carefully reaching out with a strand of spiritual will to confirm whether the woman in green was speaking the truth. The instant that it touched the flower, she found her senses becoming overwhelmed as a single image flooded her head.


    A great violet portal within the void, through which the astral sky shone through.


    Endless planar energy stormed through it, flooding its surroundings ¨C a great set of stone pieces that encircled the rift, glowing with strange symbols, connected to one another with chains of purple lightning, and perhaps even forming that very rift. In itself, it was rather astounding, but it also contained a far deeper concept within, far more than anything the world itself could handle.


    It was much like the depths of the Dao, but unlike the things she had already gathered on that topic, what she saw before her was a million times more complex.


    She had just enough time to memorise the vision via the Gilded Library, within which the mental storm happened to be concentrated on another spot for a while, before it vanished from her sight and threw her back into the grove, where she felt her spiritual will forcefully recede into her body.


    ¡°Truly a difficult thing to approach, no?¡± Chu Ling said, ¡°One¡¯s spiritual will is instantly sent back¡­¡±


    ¡®Even she can¡¯t approach it? Neither my characters nor anything else is reacting to it, though¡­¡¯ Yi Wei thought, while idly nodding, ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°I hath hoped to make a greater degree of progress on my investigation, but this object is somewhat beyond my perception. However, I had confirmed that thine life would not be at risk as a result of direct consumption, nor will you suffer from any negative effects, although the positive ones are just as unclear,¡± the woman in green explained, leading her to the lotus flower, ¡°Nonetheless, I am certain that thou hath noticed the way in which I spoke regarding this object.¡±


    ¡°The fact that you have been talking about my safety as a result of consumption¡­ you want to give it to me?¡±


    ¡°Thou art in danger now, and I wish to give thee some greater opportunity to survive it. Additionally, thanks to thine talents and the ability of thine cultivation to switch freely, I believe thee to be the best student that I hath had, and the best person to pass my knowledge onto as my eventual successor.¡±


    She put her hand above the purple lotus and whispered a series of incantations, before kneeling down and gently lifting the lotus flower from the tree stump.


    ¡°If thou wouldst accept my offering, please take this and consume it.¡±


    Yi Wei looked her up and down, then stared at the lotus for a little longer, ¡°¡­ I don¡¯t mean to ruin the moment, but how am I meant to consume this thing? Should I bite off the individual petals, eat it in one go, or¡­ Is it even meant to be eaten raw?¡±


    ¡°Ah, I had failed to consider such a simple point. I apologise, child of Yi,¡± Chu Ling lightly bowed whilst keeping the lotus flower level, then straightened her back and explained, ¡°The Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus is to be consumed whole for the greatest effect. Place it in thine mouth and swallow it, without chewing nor without letting it sit there for too long, lest thine saliva begin to melt in thine mouth. Despite the immense power within, the lotus seems to be rather fragile, and thus thou shouldst not interact with it carelessly.¡±


    ¡°Right, okay, I can do that. There is no chance of violent death or anything of the sort, right?¡±


    ¡°None at all, Ah Wei.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll eat it,¡± Yi Wei shrugged, stretching out both hands to receive the lotus with as much care as she could manage.


    As the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus was placed into her hands, she felt that it was both light and heavy at the same time. In terms of physical mass, it was as light as a feather, perhaps even lighter, depending on the bird that produced it, but the planar energy around it amplified that mass by a hundred times. In combination with the constantly surging energy from within, it was a precarious thing to hold.


    On the other hand, it was just large enough to fit onto her tongue and snuggly within her mouth once she shut it, sealing the lotus flower within. Remembering Chu Ling¡¯s advice, she ignored the tickling of the petals and swallowed the flower whole.


    It descended down her gullet with surprising ease, though she felt it begin to melt slightly as it entered her stomach, at which point she enveloped it with cosmic energy.


    At that moment, the entire lotus dissolved within her, the very touch of the pure, crystalline cosmic energy corroding its entire structure, and releasing the pure energy within. That energy took the form of a small oval of planar energy, which then sunk slowly into her dantian, unphased by the obstacles of flesh in between it and its destination. When it touched the planar aperture¡¯s walls, the walls trembled, and the planar oval accelerated.


    It touched her nascent planar anchor and burst into it.


    For a moment, there was nothing, no obvious reaction nor any clear change, but then the purple gathering of planar energy awakened, causing the same purple fog that had been present around the lotus whilst it was on the outside to appear within her, though it quickly changed to resemble the same cosmic sky that the gaseous form of cosmic energy displayed.


    With that mist filling her dantian fully, her overall quantity of planar energy grew by one percent, but the biggest change was to the planar anchor itself.


    Although it had previously radiated energy, with all five sides glowing brightly with their own forms of the five elements, the small portal-like clump of planar energy within the anchor gave it a certain brightness and vibrance, empowering each side with its own unique light.


    ¡°Dost thou feel any different? Thine body is shrouded by one of thine skills, thus making thine state difficult to assess.¡±


    ¡°I have a little more planar energy capacity, and my nascent planar anchor seems to be slightly different, somehow, but I can¡¯t figure out any other changes, nor anything that would make this item particularly unique among planar¡­ miracle foods, you said?¡±


    ¡°This is a label I had come up with when the term of miracle fruit and planar fruit appeared to be unsuitable. However, the lacking effects are odd when they are compared to the immense power displayed by the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus prior to ingestion¡­¡±  Chu Ling frowned, ¡°If thou wouldst not object, couldst thee sit down on the tree stump that had been occupied by the lotus? I would like to test a few theories with thee.¡±


    Yi Wei shrugged and sat down, though she doubted that the woman in green would be able to figure out something that she, the only person with the full ability to view every part of her body, couldn¡¯t.


    For a few minutes, Chu Ling commanded the trees to arrange some sort of array around her, and then stepped back from her as she activated them with a wave of her hand. A translucent field formed around Yi Wei, and she felt the planar energy around her rapidly being drained.


    ¡°As the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus is able to generate planar energy, mayhap it shalt do the same after having been absorbed by thine body. Couldst thee attempt to confirm my hypothesis?¡± Chu Ling proposed, ¡°If not, I shalt free thee immediately.¡±


    Yi Wei shrugged and threw out a sizeable quantity of planar energy to create an opening within her dantian, though she made sure not to release so much that, if she was suddenly put in danger out of nowhere, she would be unable to protect herself. As that cloud of planar energy was sucked away by the array, she carefully watched her planar aperture for any sign of natural regeneration.


    ¡®I can¡¯t see anything of the sort-¡¯ she stopped herself when the rift deep within the anchor suddenly ignited.


    Out of it, pure cosmic energy flowed out, slowly but without ceasing.


    Slowly but surely, the lost planar energy was recovered, with it taking around four minutes for one percent of her energy to return ¨C in other words, it would take her four hundred minutes to recover the entire pool of planar energy, or a little over six and a half hours.


    ¡°It¡¯s working!¡± Yi Wei exclaimed, standing up, ¡°You can remove the array now, the effect of the lotus is allowing me to recover energy without needing to absorb it!¡±


    ¡°Understood,¡± she nodded, making the trees return to their original positions with a thought.


    The dome that sealed away the surrounding planar energy vanished, allowing it to rapidly flow into Yi Wei¡¯s body and supplement the small right within her planar aperture in restoring her energy to full in a single minute.


    ¡°So, we hath discovered one function of this item. Albeit minor in comparison with immediate improvement in thine cultivation or thine physique, as certain other miracle fruits might grant thee, I believe that this ought to grant thee a lot more breathing room in more difficult encounters,¡± Chu Ling said, ¡°Although, if the regeneration occurs at a lacking speed, it will only contribute if thou art in a place with no planar energy within the atmosphere.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, it is rather slow, though as with physiques and cultivation, there should be some method of accelerating the recovery rate. I¡¯ll have to investigate it later,¡± Yi Wei did not mention the second half of the sentence, which was, ¡®Once the mental storm clears up, of course.¡¯


    ¡°Thine thinking is on point. I shalt invest some time into my own research, and I hope to present thee with something within the week. For now, I shalt allow thee to dictate thine path.¡±


    ¡°Are you trying to tell me to do what I¡¯d like?¡±


    ¡°Ah, yes, indeed, that was my intention. I hath lived for quite some time, so my language doth not equate to thine own.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­ According to my knowledge, language has been static for quite some time, so¡­¡±


    ¡°If thou art referring to my visage, then thou wouldst be easily mistaken in regard to my age. You see, while this grove was young, my body was also young, but as it matured, so did my physique. The Codex of Nature cannot quite surpass the limitation of my lifeforce, but so long as the Timeless Grove stands, so shalt my body remain at the peak of its own growth, much like the trees.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see¡­ I¡¯d love to stay for a little longer, but I want to make sure that my other acquaintances are alright. I¡¯ll come back before the end of today, or as early in the next day¡¯s morning as I can.¡±


    ¡°Very well. Let me lead thee out, even if the path is simple enough. Come, child of Yi.¡±


    The woman in green headed forward, and Yi Wei followed, and quickly confirmed that the path was indeed simple, as they had to make no turns throughout their entire journey whatsoever. She suspected that the arrays that made their walk towards the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus so complicated only functioned in a single direction, and that if they had, at any time, gone off the right path, they could have easily returned to the exit of the Timeless Grove.


    ¡°I shalt see thee later, child of Yi. Whatever thine fate and path is in the future; I wish thee luck and great fortune.¡±

 V1C53: The Fires

    Once she left the Timeless Grove, she was a little less careful than before, though she still applied a stealth technique to herself under the logic that if the threat was genuinely far more powerful than Chu Ling, it wouldn¡¯t matter what she does, but if it is inferior, then she will be able to slip past them with only the Aeon of the Endless Dark.


    There were six individuals ¨C and five places, as Great Dark and Great Light lived in one place ¨C that she wanted to visit, and she quickly made the decision to go to the one who was in the most danger from this mysterious threat.


    Every few minutes, as she ascended Xiao Mountain, she looked up to confirm that there were no clouds of smoke rising into the air. It was a silly thing to do, and she knew it all too well, as the invisible threat she had been warned of wouldn¡¯t need to burn down the luxurious residence of someone just to kill them, as it they should have no difficulty to end the girl¡¯s life regardless of what cultivation she had achieved by now. Even if there was a fire, and even if she spotted it and rushed to it, what could she even do?


    When she finally arrived onto the flattened peak, she saw that the Xiao Mountain Residence was in a perfect, clean state, with no traces of death nor violence.


    ¡®That still doesn¡¯t prove anything, however. Is she even here right now?¡¯


    Yi Wei went into the residence and, after checking the floor plan of the home inside of the Gilded Library, she sought out the master bedroom, where she recalled the girl, who acted much like her younger sister, had resided the last time they met.


    The door was shut, so, once she listened in for a second to confirm that nothing she shouldn¡¯t barge into was happening on the other side, she opened it and stepped inside.


    ¡°Yi Yaling!¡±


    ¡°Eek!¡± she yelped, flying out of her bed and crashing onto the floor.


    ¡°¡­ Sorry.¡±


    ¡°Yi Wei, you¡¯re back!¡± Yi Yaling exclaimed, getting back onto her feet and tidying up her robes, ¡°Y-You could have knocked!¡±


    ¡°I did say sorry,¡± Yi Wei said, ¡°There were just a few things going on, and I was a little worried about you. Have you been doing well, and have you encountered any strange people lately?¡±


    ¡°Eh, well, n-not really¡­ The family, and daddy as a result, are receiving a few friends of the family, but other than that, there¡¯s not been anything in particular¡­ A few tutors had also been invited over for me, but none of them could help out with my issue as much as you could, so they had been sent back very quickly,¡± she listed, ¡°You know, the lightning thing¡­ How have you been?¡±


    ¡°Since you¡¯re okay, that¡¯s great,¡± Yi Wei let out a relieved sigh and approached her, before dropping unceremoniously on the bed, ¡°These beds are really comfortable... There¡¯s also a really fragrant flowery scent¡­¡±


    ¡°W-Well, I¡¯m¡­ eh¡­ I¡¯m not using perfume, so¡­ eh¡­¡±


    ¡®Wait, does that mean that I¡­?¡¯ her eyes widened, and she sat up on the bed and pretended not to have said anything, ¡°Sorry for laying on your bed with something this messy and dirty.¡±


    ¡°No, no, it¡¯s fine, I¡­ I¡¯ve missed you a lot, actually.¡±


    ¡°Same here. Earlier, you mentioned your cultivation, right? Could you show me the current state of your planar energy?¡±


    ¡°Sure!¡± Yi Yaling exclaimed, holding out her hand and summoning a thin strand of golden lightning that playfully arced across her fingers and almost seemed to dance as it did so. Yi Wei recalled how the girl had mentioned that the lightning acted almost like it was sentient and alive, and she saw that it was indeed acting in accordance with that description, as it was impossible to manipulate planar energy with such smoothness and precision without either an immense amount of talent or a great deal of practise.


    More importantly than that, she noticed that the energy had developed all the way to the fifth stage of the Planar Pool realm, which was a decent degree of process for someone who had no proper cultivation technique to utilise.


    ¡°Alright, give me a second¡­¡± Yi Wei narrowed her eyes and focused on the structure of the energy, analysing it from every angle she could with her spiritual will.


    Within her mental landscape, she forcefully pushed away the storm of thoughts for a little while and used that time to record it all within her library and compare it to everything else in the cultivation technique section and shelf, throwing them together in some complex manner that even she, had she been in her typical state, wouldn¡¯t have fully understood, before returning her focus to the outside.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve got something. Let me explain it to you, and you can see if it works¡­¡±


    ¡°The sixth stage! I¡¯ve gotten to the sixth stage already! Thank you, big sis- I mean, Yi Wei!¡± Yi Yaling nearly shouted, jumping onto her and hugging her tightly.


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome¡­ and you can call me whatever you like¡­ if you want to¡­¡± she blushed quietly.


    ¡°I¡¯ll think about it. Sorry about making you do this just after you¡¯ve arrived, and while you¡¯re wearing robes that like that, too. I¡¯ve made sure that your room was kept nice and neat, so you can sleep there whenever you want, though I don¡¯t really have a spare set of robes for you¡­¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re made specifically by the tailors near the Ancestral Hall, so I don¡¯t blame you. I¡¯ll have to pop in while Yi Kun is not around and request a repair or replacement,¡± Yi Wei said, shrugging her shoulders, ¡°However, you are right in that we shouldn¡¯t be bothering ourselves with things like cultivation. One missed day is unlikely to dictate our lives, so it won¡¯t be too much of an issue to take some time off for relaxation. Still, I do want you to remember that if you see some strange people with an overwhelming aura of strength, or something along those lines, that you should be really careful, alright?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes, I understand¡­ though I don¡¯t know why you seem so sure that I will meet someone like that¡­¡±


    ¡°Just be careful, please. I have to mention it to you specifically because you have that bad tendency to do dumb things, and I wouldn¡¯t want you to do so again.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t do dumb things! That¡¯s just rude¡­¡±


    Yi Wei just raised an eyebrow at that, ¡°Really? Who was the person that tried to steal planar shards for me to cultivate with?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°And don¡¯t try telling me that you didn¡¯t have a similar idea when I showed up today. Something like taking over the Ancestral Hall to force them to fix my robes, even if it would be much easier to get it done for free and without any harm?¡±


    ¡°H-how did you know?¡±


    ¡°Wait, seriously? I was just throwing that out there¡­ Now I don¡¯t want to let you out of my sight¡­¡±


    They looked at one another in silence for a while, before Yi Wei stood up in silence and went to the door.


    ¡°Wait, Y-Yi Wei-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just heading out to speak with a few other people. I¡¯ll be back soon, so don¡¯t rush out looking for me, and don¡¯t try searching for anything to help me cultivate. You¡¯re unlikely to help me too much anyways, as I have already reached the Half-Step Emergent Anchor realm,¡± she explained, creating a miniature shadow of her planar anchor atop her palm, though she willed it to display only the sides that it would have if it was a pure metal-type anchor, ¡°So, please, stay at home and don¡¯t raid any treasuries or anything of the sort, alright?¡±


    ¡°Okay¡­¡±


    Yi Wei nodded in acknowledgment and exited, heading to her own room. There, she lay down and, after a moment of awkward hesitation, she inhaled deeply via her nose.


    ¡®That was because of her, then¡­¡¯ she frowned, shook her head to throw those thoughts out of it, stood back up and left the residence, heading towards the hot springs of Xiao Mountain.


    Naturally, it was not part of her original intentions, as five acquaintances were still unspoken to, but there was one thing she had noticed as a result of the first planned conversation on her list. It wasn¡¯t exactly a great revelation, nor one she had wanted to receive, but in order to follow Chu Ling¡¯s advice from when she first consulted with her in regards to her mental state, it was important to consider every such thought clearly, as to be absolutely certain who she is and isn¡¯t.


    As for the potential revelation, was there any need to expressly state that it was-


    ¡®Smoke?¡¯ as she approached the hot springs, she absentmindedly looked up and saw the rising smoke from a building in the far, far distance, at the bottom of the mountain and some distance away from it. It was vague, due to how far away it was, but it was difficult to mistake this sight for anything else.


    Perhaps a random fire might not be of any significance to her, but the position of the flaming building was strangely close to the position of somewhere where she had been before.


    She needed only a second of thought to decide to investigate the matter.


    Yi Wei initiated her go-to stealth technique, the Aeon of the Endless Dark, and charged down the mountain, past the hot springs and through the thin wooded area that separated Xiao Mountain from the rest of the Yi District.


    Due to the additional boost that channelling her planar energy provided, she cleared that distance in a matter of minutes, slowing down only once she passed the first few random houses.


    From there, she navigated using her detailed mental map of the district and realised that this place was indeed familiar ¨C it was in close proximity to the shop that belonged to Luo Xiuying, which partially made her slow down. If it was him, then it wouldn¡¯t be unthinkable for him to have exploded his home in one of his attempts to improve on his talisman arts, and the fire would be one that he is himself responsible for and would quell soon after.


    Nevertheless, she approached, and found that the fire did indeed originate from the place she had expected.


    The prestigious-looking shop was, once again, in a terrible state, with a small crowd having gathered around it. However, that was the exact oddity that had only unnerved her further. When she first saw the shop explode, there may have been a few spectators who had stopped for a minute or two to see what happened, but the vast majority of the crowd ignored it.


    This time, however, the people remained, and the explosive pattern, which Yi Wei had some familiarity with, also differed. She frowned and softly pushed her way through the crowd, but stopped mid-way through when she had seen enough.


    At the back of the front room of the shop, just barely within her field of vision, lay an unmistakable body, drenched in blood.


    Luo Xiuying did not move nor breathe, and the aura of planar energy around him seemed incredibly faint, nothing like what the cultivation of the fourth realm should feel like. In addition, even that little bit of energy was slowly sinking away, which could only ever mean one thing ¨C he was dead, and his cultivation was ruined by someone.


    She restrained the quivering of her body, to appear as ordinary as she could, and rushed out.


    ¡°What in the heavens is going on? I¡¯ll help put out the fire!¡± she shouted, pretending to be some average concerned citizen.


    With her cosmic energy transformed into water, she threw it out onto the shop and ran inside, straight to Luo Xiuying. Her action finally stirred a few others, who also emerged from the crowd and began to put out the fire, providing her the perfect cover to examine the shop owner¡¯s body under the pretence of checking his pulse or providing him with a medicinal pill.


    Yi Wei wasn¡¯t certain what she had expected to find, or what she wanted to find, but she did stumble across a large, flat and thick book-shaped object in one of his pockets, so she immediately began searching elsewhere while releasing both her spiritual will and planar energy in flame form.


    The book was labelled ¡®Cursed Talisman Arts¡¯, and she quickly connected the concepts within to those of the technique he had typically used during his displays of his ability to her.


    While it burned due to her energy, she scanned every page and stored it in the library, though she had to stop every now and then to tear away one of the stray mental pages that tried to force themselves into the manual. Even with the obstructions, she had collected the entire technique within a minute, at which point she shot up and loudly declared, ¡°He¡¯s dead! This man is dead! By the heavens¡­¡±


    She ran out of the building and out of the crowd, disappearing behind a random house where she reapplied the Aeon of the Endless Dark and vanished from sight.


    ¡®Damn it, he¡¯s been targeted as well? He died with one attack that didn¡¯t even pierce his flesh, simply crushing the dantian with raw power. It was absolutely brutal. Hopefully, my performance won¡¯t have caught their eyes, if they don¡¯t yet know what I look like ¨C they shouldn¡¯t considering the fact that my muscles had primarily developed during the expedition, as I had previously been attempting to stifle their visual and physical growth ¨C and even if they do, maybe I¡¯ll be able to sneak under the radar due to the way that I acted,¡¯ she thought, heading through the shadows to the nearest acquaintance of hers, though she stopped mid-step as she realised the wording she had used, ¡®What¡¯s¡­ a radar, exactly?¡¯


    Naturally, there was no answer to that question, nor did she expect one, so she continued on her way.


    Several minutes later, she arrived at a small blacksmith¡¯s shop, the one in which she had learnt what she had learnt regarding blacksmithing. There was no smoke rising from it, but, once again, that little detail was the strange one, for the great furnace within the smithy tended to be lit and burning constantly.


    After taking a deep breath to calm herself, she acted calm and walked inside, ready to act either as a customer or as a student, depending on what she found within.


    ¡°Hello? Is anyone in at the moment?¡± she called out into the depths of the dark smithy, but the only response was her own voice echoing back at her. The lack of light in the building forced her to walk slowly, and slightly made her miss the ever-present glowing spot of orange light that glowed within the Kong Holy Grounds, which had likely been destroyed alongside it, as that would have allowed her to rely on more than her limited night vision.


    There was no answer even as she went into the depths of the structure, into the back, where the silent forge stood without light nor usage. Most was exactly as she remembered, until she had located something by the furthest wall.


    On first glance, and on the second and third one, that something looked much like a body.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± she asked once she took another step forward and confirmed that it did indeed look like a person sitting on the ground, their back pressed against the wall, ¡®That¡¯s a dumb question, but it is the best one that I can ask. If someone, even Ning Guanting, has decided to have a rest here, and then I begin to look through their pockets, it could get rather awkward.¡¯


    Her primary focus wasn¡¯t on this curious figure, however, as she could sense the planar energy around it being dispersed, exactly in the same manner as Luo Xiuying¡¯s was, but on any potential observer.


    She knelt down and reached out to feel the figure¡¯s pulse.


    All of a sudden, the figure¡¯s head shot up, and her fist headed straight for Yi Wei¡¯s face. A dim blue light lit up within the figure¡¯s eyes as she moved with speed that should have been impossible for anyone.


    Yi Wei leapt back, but before she could even land, she heard and felt another threat appear from the side, forcing her to use the effect of the Floating Whale Lungs to evade that attack as well.


    While she was landing on the ground, she glanced up and saw a large, glowing and flaming hammer within the second attacker¡¯s hand, lighting up just enough of that figure¡¯s face to identify who that person was.


    ¡°Ning Guanting, it¡¯s me!¡± she shouted, making both figures stop.


    ¡°Young lady, is that you? What in the heavens are you doing breaking into my smithy?¡± the blacksmith questioned, slamming the hammer onto the nearest surface with minimal damage to either one.


    ¡°Breaking in? Didn¡¯t you hear me calling out to you? Imagine what would have happened had I not strengthened my body and increased my cultivation in my absence! Though, based on the fact that you have laid some sort of trap here, I have to assume that you were intending for someone else, someone more dangerous than me to stumble across it.¡±


    ¡°Duh. You would think that someone can survive without some pursuer or another, but no¡­¡±


    ¡°Tell me about it¡­¡± Yi Wei sighed, sitting down on the ground.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve got someone coming after you as well? Did you come here to pick something up from me?¡± Ning Guanting asked, finding her own seat in the dark forge.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure whether you would still be alive, so I wanted to investigate it myself. If you were alive, I could inform you about the threat and ask you to be careful, maybe get some tutoring from you, but if you weren¡¯t¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d pilfer what you could get?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. Then, I¡¯d burn all manuals and techniques so that no-one else can get them.¡±


    The blacksmith shrugged, ¡°Eh, it¡¯d be fine with me. I don¡¯t want my things to get into anyone else¡¯s hands, so if a student of mine gets them, that¡¯s a little better than some random person getting them instead. Say, have you had the opportunity to test your theory about burning wood cultivators a little more?¡±


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t really high on my list of priorities, no. Did you?¡±


    ¡°It worked absolutely great! If only my family had been wood cultivators, I might have been able to get them off by back¡­¡±


    ¡°Hold up, your family? If this isn¡¯t asking for too much, could you tell me who¡¯s after you?¡±


    ¡°Sure, I could do that. You go first,¡± the elderly woman said, ¡°especially if those people might be coming after me as well, I would like to know how to deal with them.¡±


    Once again, Yi Wei sighed, ¡°Yeah, so would I. I know that it is two people at least, both of whom are in the third realm, with a power that feels greater than that of someone in the fifth. They seemed to have already killed one person and have been asking around for me for some time, though I evaded them due to the fact that I¡¯ve only come back to the district today. I don¡¯t know what element they use, nor what their appearance is like¡­ I should have asked the one who told me about them, but I sort of forgot about it¡­ That¡¯s about it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re in quite the situation, then. Are they after you specifically?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what it seems like, though they have also gone after the people related to me, so what do I know.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I should have a chance of avoiding them with my plans. It would have been great to have more to go off of, but I¡¯ll manage. Now, before I tell you about the people after me, I¡¯ll check your knowledge ¨C what do you know of the Ning family and district?¡±


    ¡°Ning family? They don¡¯t allow too much information to leave their particular district, though there is one thing that almost everyone knows about them. The Divine Blacksmiths of the Ning family are renowned for their ability to create some of the most powerful artefacts in the world, but their techniques are unknown to anyone. This is exceptionally rare, seeing as even the techniques of assassins have slowly gotten out of their organisations and gained some fame in the outside world.¡±


    ¡°Well then, I won¡¯t beat around the bush ¨C this old lady is a Divine Blacksmith, believe it or not.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± she asked, ¡°Then, am I right in guessing that the people after you are members of the Ning family that don¡¯t want you to release the skills of the Divine Blacksmiths?¡±


    ¡°Not quite. They know that I won¡¯t do it no matter what anyone tells me to do, for the same reason that I don¡¯t wish to be under their control. You see, Divine Blacksmiths are so mysterious and rare because, in addition to the immense difficulty of our training, the reason for our greatest accomplishment, the ability to surpass almost all other blacksmiths, is that we use our very lifeforce for our craft,¡± Ning Guanting said, resting her hand on the figure with glowing blue eyes, ¡°As a result, we can create all sorts of things, like this living statue, but every powerful item drains our very lives away. At my age, I should be able to live up to six hundred years, but now¡­ Can you guess how old I am?¡±


    ¡°With your appearance, I¡¯d say¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright, you¡¯re either going to guess too high, making me feel sad, or you¡¯re going to guess too low, doing the exact same thing. I¡¯m only ninety-two years old.¡±


    ¡°¡­ So, does losing one¡¯s lifeforce drain away their lifespan and physical age?¡±


    ¡°Precisely. Every single Divine Blacksmith didn¡¯t willingly seclude themselves, but rather, their lives were drained into their work. The lifeforce of a powerful blacksmith makes for a great crafting material, as it turns out.¡±


    ¡®Well, that is quite the revelation¡­ I can¡¯t possibly ask her to make something for me then, not that I would have benefitted from it to begin with,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, ¡°That¡¯s also why you don¡¯t want to give out your technique, right?¡±


    ¡°I had no choice when it came to my occupation, but that isn¡¯t the case for you. I won¡¯t let you or anyone else suffer like I had to.¡±


    ¡°Can I get a more common technique then?¡±


    ¡°Your Hammer Semblance Art is exactly that ¨C a technique made for the training of young Divine Blacksmiths, without any involvement of your lifeforce. In fact, it might enhance it somewhat, as a part of the training to ensure that you have enough energy to then make the things that they want you to make. It might not give you too much more time, but a year or two might come as a result.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a decent enough outcome for a common forging technique, I suppose. Does the majority of the family practise fire-type techniques?¡±


    ¡°They do, but if you see someone from the Ning family, pretend that you don¡¯t know me, or, better yet, claim that you utterly despise me and that you hated me so much that you quit being disciple and left the district for two years. It would be safer for you and, trust me, I won¡¯t mind.¡±


    Yi Wei wasn¡¯t exactly happy about that request, but she saw no better option, ¡°Fine. Can you give me a little more training on the Hammer Semblance Art then?¡±


    ¡°Sure, though this will be the last time you¡¯ll see me in this district. As a small gift, you can have this,¡± Ning Guanting lifted the hammer, which had already lost its flame, and gave it to her, ¡°It¡¯s my own creation, so the Ning family can¡¯t trace it to you. Furthermore, it has a small trick that you hadn¡¯t noticed the last few times you looked over it-¡±


    ¡°Is this some sort of spatial dilation inscription? No, maybe a physical volume conversion¡­¡±


    ¡°Heh¡­¡± the aging blacksmith took a deep breath and continued, ¡°Yes, you can make it transform into a far smaller thing. You¡¯ve cultivated your entire body, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I have¡­ depending on what you mean, of course.¡±


    ¡°Do you have some place on your body that is covered safely by skin or hair or something that is of equal strength?¡±


    ¡°Well, my hair is pretty tough. I¡¯ve tried cutting it with a regular knife, but I failed miserably.¡±


    ¡°Then you can make this smaller than an earring, then pin it to the back of your head, beneath that mane of hair, and nobody will know about it until you suddenly take it out and smack them in the face with the hammer!¡± Ning Guanting exclaimed with a rare moment of excitement on her tired face, ¡°The weight won¡¯t be much reduced, but that should be fine for you, no?¡±


    ¡°Let me try it,¡± Yi Wei said, taking the hammer from her, ¡°Huh, it¡¯s like a feather.¡±


    ¡°Good. Now, pay attention¡­¡±

 V1C54: At the Edge

    They parted smoothly, with Yi Wei achieving the next stage of the Hammer Semblance Art, but without making too much progress in the great art of blacksmithing. Something about it just didn¡¯t mesh well with her abilities for whatever reason, and she couldn¡¯t get beyond making above-average ordinary items. However, the upside of this particular meeting was that no-one died, nor was the forge burnt to the ground, meaning that it had gone better than the last attempt to meet an acquaintance.


    ¡®So, I now have three more people to check up on, and two more places to inspect. This force, whatever it is, is unlikely to go directly after the family, meaning that I shouldn¡¯t need to worry about the likes of Yi Kun or that tailor girl that I met from the time I had gone to make my robes and receive my identity token,¡¯ she thought, ¡®I guess the best person to check up on next would be¡­ who were they again? There was Luo Xiuying, who taught me talismans, Ning Guanting, who taught me about blacksmithing, Great Dark and Great Light, who shared their knowledge of inscriptions, Master Yi Yi, who studied arrays, and Chu Ling and her study of pill refining¡­ I suppose the Deadly Martial Colosseum ought to be a good place to go.¡¯


    When she managed to pull a map of the city out of the mental storm, she quickly made her way to the street on which the Deadly Martial Colosseum stood.


    It was not on fire, nor were there any bodies on the front door, so she slowed down and didn¡¯t rush in too quickly. Since she had never entered this place with her typical appearance ¨C nor was her current bloodied robe a part of her typical appearance ¨C she didn¡¯t rush in straight away, but instead snuck around the back and reached out with her spiritual will, searching for someone wearing a particular set of robes and a specific mask.


    To her surprise, she found her target in less than a minute.


    Furthermore, this person was conveniently enough changing within a small alleyway, so she rushed into that very same alleyway.


    ¡°Excuse me, could I borrow those things from you?¡± she asked, appearing out of nowhere in the eyes of that poor, unprepared man. He stared at her for a few seconds before the words processed themselves in his head, then, shuddered on the spot.


    ¡°N-No!¡± he said immediately, his hands rising to guard his chest and crotch despite being fully clothed.


    She shook her head, ¡°Sorry, I shouldn¡¯t have used that wording. Give the robe and mask to me. I can give it back later, though I¡¯m not sure whether ¡®later¡¯ will be a matter of minutes or hours.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t I still say no? I-I am a child of the Chen family!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s nice. Are you going to be buying your way into the combat arena you wish to enter?¡±


    ¡°It almost worked two years ago!¡±


    ¡®Two years? This isn¡¯t the same person that I had helped within the Deadly Martial Colosseum, is it?¡¯ she frowned, though she didn¡¯t bother pursuing that question as it did not matter to her, and would likely make the poor person in front of her a target to the ones pursuing her, which wouldn¡¯t be advantageous for anyone, ¡°I¡¯m sure you can buy your way in later, then. Gimme.¡±


    ¡°But-¡±


    ¡°Remember, I¡¯m not asking you this time, I¡¯m telling you to give this stuff to me,¡± she repeated while thinking, ¡®Next time I go here, I will certainly need to retrieve my original set for my disguise, both so that I don¡¯t have to bother anyone else and because the mask, as far as I recall, was rather resilient.¡¯


    ¡°A-Alright, here you go¡­ Aw¡­¡± he looked incredibly saddened and ran away with tears forming in his eyes.


    She watched him run away, then glanced at the robes he had thrown into her hands. To be safe, she cleansed them quickly with water-type planar energy, covered herself in them, put the simple mask onto her face, and snuck into the grounds of the Deadly Martial Colosseum.


    The internal layout was unchanged, allowing her to find the small shack in which the pair resided without much difficulty. However, when she stepped inside, she did not find the familiar dark void, nor the round table that they typically sat around while discussing all sorts of inane things. There was no trace of that energy of absolute yin, nor any sign of the illusory energies that created their domain. In short, any trace of the twins was gone.


    ¡®What is with my abysmal luck? Everyone is either intending to disappear, is dead, or has already vanished. Maybe this hut was only used as a meeting spot with me, and when I left, they-¡¯


    ¡°Hey, what are you doing on these grounds? Identify yourself!¡±


    Yi Wei threw her spiritual will backwards and, once she found no immediate threat, she turned around and faced the man who had approached her. He looked to be around the age of forty, in regular human years, and radiated the energy of the third realm, while being dressed in the standard guard armour of the Deadly Martial Colosseum.


    She coughed to adjust her voice with Speaker¡¯s Illusion before answering, ¡°I am Da Gang. I work here.¡±


    ¡°Da Gang? Hm, I don¡¯t know about that. Anyone can get one of those masks and robes and claim to be him. Prove it.¡±


    Since the man had a point, she raised her hand and willed for the initial energy of the Elysian Palm to manifest around it, before dispersing it and transforming it into twin gold and purple lightning.


    The man nodded, ¡°It is you, then. You¡¯ve not come at the best of times. I¡¯d recommend that you get out of here while you¡¯ve not been found by anyone other than me. There¡¯s been a slight change in the leadership around here, and they¡¯re not exactly favourable towards the old employees.¡±


    ¡°Are you saying that Great Light is no longer here?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, he had gone just a few days ago, and you just happened to miss him.¡±


    ¡°That is truly unfortunate. Did they not provide any explanation for this, and why do the new leaders have an issue with those that came before them?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid that I¡¯m just a guard here, so you won¡¯t get all of the details from me. Furthermore, I have to remain brief, or else someone is certain to notice my absence. The basic story is one that has been talked about for quite some time, so you might have heard about Great Light and his mysterious brother were being chased by someone or something. Apparently, that force has caught up recently, forcing them to depart yet again,¡± the guard informed her, ¡°As for the reason that the new leaders dislike the old¡­ I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t say much. Maybe they¡¯re jealous of their success?¡±


    ¡°That could be¡­ Have they left anything for me? I got through quite a lot of their pagoda and have studied quite a number of techniques under their tutelage. I had intended to resume it upon my return, as did Great Light, I am sure, so has he made any preparations for my inevitable return?¡±


    The guard considered things for a moment, ¡°As I said, I don¡¯t know much, but there is a hidden spot that he used for keeping things for himself and his friends. Anything belonging to him should have been cleared out, so you can have a look there and see if you find anything of use. It¡¯s at the back of the Colosseum, to the left and in a shack besides a small well.¡±


    ¡°I see. I¡¯ll take a look there. One final question: would it be safe for me to go to other combat arenas in the area, or do the new owners have some influence over those as well?¡±


    ¡°They may bother you a bit, but if you¡¯re still as good as you were the last time, our new employees wouldn¡¯t dare to let you get harassed,¡± the middle-aged man said, before adding, ¡°Of course, you¡¯ve gotten even better, haven¡¯t you? There¡¯s no way a powerful man like you can sit still, right?¡±


    Yi Wei¡¯s face twitched beneath the mask, ¡®Oi, don¡¯t compliment me so readily, and not like that!¡¯


    ¡°No, naturally I¡¯ll keep improving. Now, so that I don¡¯t disturb you any further, let me leave,¡± she said, turning around without giving him a chance to argue, ¡°Thank you for your time.¡±


    She disappeared through the back door within the wall of the Deadly Martial Colosseum, and followed the instructions given by the guard to locate the small wall described by him, as well as the shack that stood beside it.


    Within was a great pile of damaged and outright destroyed furniture and random pieces of wood that might or might not have been furniture, in addition to simple pieces of logs that clearly had no relation to furniture in their present state. That pile utterly covered any ground surfaces within the shed, and at the back of it, the pile reached all the way up to the admittedly low ceiling. To the average person, there was almost nothing they could do to locate something within this building, but there were few circumstances in which Yi Wei could be called average or ordinary.


    ¡®Thanks to my mental cultivation, my spiritual will has slightly greater reach, so if there is something within, I will find it,¡¯ she though to herself, reaching out with her mind.


    Her spiritual will sank into the wood and through it, and at first she found nothing but more pieces of former and future furniture, not beyond her expectations. She took a step into the shed and sank her spiritual will into the ground as well, to scan through as much of the debris as possible, as quickly as she could.


    It took a couple of minutes, but she eventually located something buried within that pile, and excavated it via tossing out everything else that she didn¡¯t really care about in order to allow her spiritual will to get close enough to it.


    Once she did, she enveloped it with her spiritual will and found that it was a small manual.


    ¡®Earthen Heart Inscription,¡¯ the front of the technique manual read in simple, hastily scribbled letters that had been smudged during the writing process.


    Within, the characters were similar, nearly damaged to the extent of being unreadable, but they were still comprehensible. She read through them quickly, and figured out that, as implied by the name, this was a crafting technique focused on inscriptions, and spoke about all sorts of methods involved within that process. When she completed her reading and stored it within the Gilded Library, she formed a flame atop her finger and lit the remnants of furniture within the shack, departing as the inferno slowly grew and consumed the building in its entirety.


    The plumes of smoke from the shed joined those of the servant-class area streets and the shop of Luo Xiuying, as well as a number of other, unrelated flames. Together, they filled the skies with smoke, obscuring both the setting sun and rising moon with darkness.


    ¡®With this, I have one more person to see¡­ Out of all the people that I have studied under, I cannot possibly imagine Master Yi Yi surviving any sort of confrontation with a powerful force, especially due to his rather lacking cultivation. He was at the sixth stage of the Emergent Anchor realm last I recall, so I might be able to defeat him if I catch him without giving him any time to set up his arrays,¡¯ she thought, recalling the man¡¯s rather cowardly behaviours, ¡®I hope he¡¯s not dead yet¡­¡¯


    Before going to him, she returned to the place where she met Brother Chen again, but he had not returned, so she instead went towards the shop that sold the robes and masks.


    Her intention was to return the items, maybe to get a few coins back as a result, but rather than finding the storekeeper that she had interacted with last time, she found that the member of the Chen family that had previously ran away from her was standing in the back of the shop, with the original storekeeper discussing something with him.


    ¡°Excuse me, I¡¯d like to return this stuff to you,¡± she said, dropping the bundle of clothes at the front, ¡°However, before I go, could you tell me what¡¯s happening here?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re so sorry, custome- eh?¡± the child of the Chen family stopped mid-sentence as he saw who he was speaking to, ¡°It¡¯s you? You have actually brought this stuff back to me?¡±


    ¡°Did you want me to run off with it?¡±


    ¡°No, uh¡­ Give it to me, then,¡± he said, taking the mask and robe from her, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what were you intending to do, and did you fail in it, seeing as you came back so soon? You¡­ You didn¡¯t try to play at being Da Gang, did you?¡±


    ¡®Obviously, you wouldn¡¯t know this, but I am Da Gang¡­ the fact that I am mistaken for a man rather frequently, but then am not mistaken for the mysterious fighter of the Deadly Martial Colosseum who has an absolutely excessive amount of yang is beyond mystifying,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter. I haven¡¯t gotten your things dirty, and they¡¯re in perfect condition. Meanwhile, you seem to have acquired a shop?¡±


    ¡°I had seen that it was incredibly popular amongst people like me, so I invested in it.¡±


    She nodded in acknowledgement and turned around before walking away, leaving the child of the Chen family to manage his own business in peace.


    Her destination was the home of Master Yi Yi, whose residence was only a few minutes away.


    Every few seconds, she glanced upwards, unsure whether she did or didn¡¯t want to see a pillar of smoke rising into the air. If it did appear, she would have been certain that something had occurred in his location, but it did not, somehow making things even more nerve-wracking. All along the path, there was no trace of unusual activity occurring in his location, forcing her to put up her defences.


    She channelled her planar energy to her skin, prepared a number of defensive techniques to deal with whatever element the mysterious threat might use, and carefully examined her surroundings to prepare a number of escape routes for herself.


    When she saw the array master¡¯s home, she knew that something was wrong, and not because there was some unusual, contradictory element within the scene ¨C instead, there was a far more obvious problem. The door had been broken into, with the force of the method of entry leaving it hanging on only a single hinge. With the reinforcement of cosmic energy, Yi Wei saw a trace of blood on the door frame.


    Naturally, after she activated the Aeon of the Endless Dark, she ran into the house.


    A trail of blood led her from the door to one of the rooms of that floor of the building, through another damaged door.


    Yi Yi lay bleeding within, his arms wrapped around a tome that is stained with both red and black, presumably with the former being his blood and the latter being ink, though with the various materials and liquids that exist within the Planar Continents, it isn¡¯t always easy to guess exactly what one mysterious vial of liquid might contain.


    ¡°Master Yi Yi!¡± she exclaimed ¨C rather quietly ¨C and rushed to him, kneeling down beside him.


    With her spiritual will, she felt that his heart was still beating, but his cultivation was not as fortunate. Although traces of the ninth stage of the Emergent Anchor realm were present, the actual anchor was broken, and his dantian was actively bleeding planar energy.


    He coughed up a mouthful of blood and raised his head with great effort. His eyes looked dim and lifeless, mirroring his planar aperture, for they also contained a shadow of his outbursts of pride.


    ¡°You¡­ my student, you¡¯ve returned¡­ I¡­ I am sorry, Yi Wei¡­¡± he muttered, loosening his grip on the tome at his chest, ¡°Listen, my student¡­ do you recall what I was attempting to do¡­ How I was attempting¡­ to perfect the Excellence Art? This book¡­ this tome¡­ is the essence of the Excellence Art¡­ that I have written¡­ so far¡­ it is¡­ imperfect¡­ but I cannot let it be lost with me¡­ Take it, and¡­ remember¡­¡±


    As he spoke, his expression became even paler, forcing Yi Wei to reach for a nearby bottle of healing pills.


    ¡°Master Yi Yi, take these-¡±


    ¡°No! There is¡­ no point¡­ They will find me again¡­ and kill me¡­¡± Yi Yi shook his head feebly, ¡°Listen to me¡­ One cannot succeed with a satisfactory item¡­ It must be perfect, in every way! The technique¡­ must be made whole with the Prime Star Arts!¡±


    ¡®Did he have his own enemies, or did they happen to be after both me and him at the same time? Or, perhaps, did those people attack him and led him to misunderstand their intentions?¡¯ she wondered, but as she had no method of confirming either guess, she placed the pill bottle back on the table and reached for the technique manual with her spiritual will.


    ¡°Is that¡­ your spiritual will?¡± he asked, surprising her with his sensitivity, ¡°So strong¡­ and stable¡­¡±


    She ignored his muttering and scanned the book in its entirety, forcing her way through the mental storm to place it into the great arts shelf of her library, before removing the Minute Star Arts that she had previously practised.


    The two techniques had similar functions and intentions, but a major difference between the Minute Star Arts, which were presumably similar to the Prime Star Arts of the older Master Yi Yi, and the Excellence Arts was the way in which they created the arrays. Based on what she knew of the Prime Star Arts, they were incredibly capable in creating one to three-star arrays that could overpower most four-star arrays created by others, but there were no stories of Master Yi Yi using four-star arrays and above despite being in the fifth realm as of his last appearance.


    A theory that a few had as a result of this was that Master Yi Yi could not, or would not, use arrays of that level, and one of the most common ideas regarding the reason for this was that he could not display the same prowess with higher star arrays. However, the current Excellence Art, albeit not complete, looked to be focused on preventing such a scenario by raising the stability of all levels of arrays.


    Without the Prime Star Arts, she could not integrate the Excellence Art with any other technique fully, but she could still contribute segments of it to the Minute Star Arts for great effect.


    At the back of the technique manual, there was also a small piece of paper stuck onto the page, with a faint map of a location alongside a few instructions regarding how to navigate the area once someone arrived there.


    ¡°Master, is the map at the back-¡±


    ¡°You will need to go there¡­ if you can complete¡­ my technique¡­¡± he said, ¡°My grandfather¡­ left it for us¡­ it should be¡­ the location¡­ of the Prime Star Arts¡­¡±


    He coughed out even more blood, which left his body just as the last echoes of his cultivation vanished.


    ¡°Go now¡­ don¡¯t let yourself get involved¡­ please¡­¡±


    ¡®Whether or not I get involved, I¡¯m already dealing with my own set of problems¡­ I won¡¯t bother him with this, though,¡¯ Yi Wei decided as she stood up and bowed to him, ¡°Thank you for all of the guidance you have given me in the past, and for trusting me with the Excellence Art. I will do my best to complete it, or to find someone trustworthy who can assist me with it. Goodbye, Master Yi Yi.¡±


    He did not reply, simply nodding in acknowledgement of her words.


    As she returned to the front door of the residence, Yi Yi reached out with his hand and clicked his fingers. An array that had been embedded beneath the floor lit up, bursting into life, and simultaneously engulfing the room in flame.


    Yi Wei had noticed the array while she had been scanning the Excellence Art with her spiritual will, but she ignored it in favour of getting out with greater haste.


    Unfortunately for her, when she left the door, she immediately felt a gaze aimed directly at her, so she glanced back at it out of the corner of her eyes. It originated from the very middle of the street, where two red-haired, grey-eyed people stood beside one another. One was male, with broad shoulders, sturdy frame and what would undoubtable be described as handsome features, while the other was clearly a woman, with an endowed chest and lithe body.


    On the surface, they did not appear threatening, though both seemed to be athletic and strong. However, every one of her senses was screaming that these two were a threat beyond any she had ever faced. On top of that, something about them, or their energy, or perhaps their very existence, seemed wrong, to the point that the very heavens would reject them.


    To make things even worse, they weren¡¯t staring at the slowly burning house behind her, nor something to her side ¨C their pupils were focused directly on her face.


    She instantly turned away and walked off, her destination being the Timeless Grove.


    Those two continued to follow her with their eyes but did not walk after her after she disappeared behind a building on the nearest turn she could find. Nevertheless, she still felt as if they were watching her, either through the nearby walls or from some other position.


    After a while of experiencing that sensation, she could not bear with it any longer and sped up, using the combination of Storm¡¯s Edge Dash and the Endless Dark Movement, the technique she had obtained from Fen Zhi, to go as fast as she could and evade the attention of those observing her. She expended over five percent of her energy, vastly more than she had expected, but eventually the feeling of being observed disappeared.


    Conveniently enough, she ended up in the street that led straight to the grove.


    In the distance, she saw a bright orange light, closer to flame than the setting sun, and then, after a painfully long and unpleasant delay, she realised what she was seeing.


    Without any input from her, her body broke into a sprint towards the light, though she did retain enough control over herself to prevent her precious planar energy from being wasted, for she that whether or not she understood the sight correctly, she would not have the ability to stop or interfere with it.


    When she neared the orange glow, it became clear that she was right in her initial conclusion.


    The spot that should have been occupied by a great, seemingly endless forest was consumed in flame, but it wasn¡¯t just a portion of the forest that burned. Instead, the entire Timeless Grove was absolutely devoured by the inferno, and despite it seeming to have started only recently, none of the tall trees still stood. From somewhere deep, deep within the grove, she heard a scream that only faintly reached her, before being silenced as one of the few trees that still stood split mid-way up its trunk and fell into the fire, throwing up a great cloud of ash.


    In her ears, Chu Ling¡¯s voice echoed, though this time it did not come from the grove, but from her own mind, ¡®So long as the Timeless Grove stands¡­ so shalt my body¡­¡¯


    That thought had added itself to the mental storm, for she knew that if that statement was true, then it also meant that if the Timeless Grove had burned, so would Chu Ling. That scream, that distant scream of pain and anguish, would have naturally had been hers.


    Yi Wei heard her breathing quicken, and suddenly felt her entire body tremble. She tried, desperately, to stop herself, but she had lost even more control over herself than before. Even in the Gilded Library, the besieged bastion of her mind, the place where all of her thought and memories were stored on shelves both material and otherwise, the quaking caused the mental storm to further grow, severely obfuscating her visibility until she could not see further than a metre in front of her mental self.


    Meanwhile, her eyes could see much further, but they were not showing her the sight she wanted.


    And then, that feeling ¨C the feeling of being looked upon by two pairs of eyes ¨C returned as well, with both gazes focused on her head, standing far closer than she was comfortable with.


    ¡°So, you are the person we are looking for.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for revealing yourself.¡±


    The man spoke first, and then the woman, with both of them standing only a few metres behind her, still standing right beside one another. For a second, she considered how to act, and then forced herself to turn around to face them.


    Now that she saw them more closely, she confirmed that the strangeness around them was not just a part of her imagination. Indeed, the very air around them warped like a distant mirage, with vague shapes floating within, though no matter how much she strained her eyes, she could not determine what they were, not even what shape they resembled.


    Perhaps as a result of that energy, or due to the killing intent-filled glare that she was sending towards them, the people that had initially filled the streets quickly left, emptying the area around them in less than a minute.


    At that very moment, Yi Wei had finally concluded upon a path of action.


    Without any warning, she threw her hands up and shouted, ¡°Ancestral Call! Ancestral Eyes!¡±


    In one instant, two groups of a dozen totems burst out of the ground, the torsos above them glowing with dawn light that was quickly surrounded by gold and purple lightning.


    ¡®Yang Elysian Storm!¡¯


    Pure white, gold, sunlight and cosmic light wrapped around her and the ancestor¡¯s palms, before exploding outwards into a great storm. All of the colours and energies mixed with one another, instantly colouring the street and the three combatants standing within with the wild cacophony of brilliant light. In a single heartbeat, the energies surged out to the mysterious pair, reaching their flesh and skin without any clear obstruction from them.


    Before it could do anything to them, a comparable force burst out of both of them, combining into energy that easily wiped away the nearby storm and grew, slicing like a sharpened blade through the entirety of the Yang Elysian Storm and the ancestral totems.


    That energy stopped just an inch from her, and receded, allowing her to discern that it was nothing but raw planar energy, without any technique to strengthen and refine its form.


    The man retracted his planar energy, but the woman did not, instead forming it into the head of an enormous wolf, large enough to consume Yi Wei in a single bite, with every tooth being as large and sharp as a short sword.


    Its jaws opened, and it surged forward without so much as a twitch from the woman controlling it.


    Unlike Yi Wei¡¯s storm, this wolven head was slower, but to her, that only amplified the threat. Had it been a fast attack, it could have easily been weaker, reliant more on the effectiveness of surprise or the inability of the target to dodge rather than the attack power of the jaws themselves, but that was not the case. She wrapped herself in defensive energy, bringing up every technique she could.


    All of a sudden, a thick bolt of golden lightning shot through the air, flying right through the wolf¡¯s mouth. The moment that it entered its jaws, it snapped shut, that very movement causing a great shockwave to fly through the air and knock Yi Wei back a few steps, then vanished.


    ¡°Ha! I won¡¯t let you lot hurt her, you¡­ eh, you!¡±


    Both turned to face the voice, and Yi Wei recognised her immediately. She was Yi Yaling, naturally, and she did not seem to understand the true danger of those she faced.


    ¡°Girl, under the request of your family, we were going to leave you alone,¡± the strange woman said.


    ¡°However, now that you have interfered, you shall be purged as well,¡± the man announced.


    They raised their hands ¨C the man raised his right and the woman raised her left, while placing their other hands into the other¡¯s ¨C and channelled their planar energy through the raised arms, causing them to glow with a wondrous crimson and orange light, before, within a single instant, that light burst out of their bodies, came together into one bright sphere that shot out a thick beam of flaming energy, which pierced Yi Yaling¡¯s body and instantly turned half of her flesh to naught but ash.


    It disappeared afterwards, leaving the remnants of the girl¡¯s body to drop to the ground.


    This all happened before Yi Wei had so much as a chance to leap to the rescue, to raise her hand in protest, or even cry out.


    When her hand did come up, it shut into a fist against her will. Within the depths of her mental world, a certain flame that had been growing ever since she witnessed the first trace of blood within the Kong Holy Grounds suddenly burst out within the library, devouring a quarter of the mental storm in seconds. The rest withstood it easily, the pages and scraps of paper simply floating around the great flame of anger and hatred, but this action also meant that this flame occupied a great deal of her mental avatar¡¯s vision, flooding it and the entire Gilded Library in red.


    That same light burst out of her eyes, alongside planar energy and True Ascendant physique energy.


    She let out a cry of pure fury as she charged forward, a storm of energy in liquid form materialising around her. The stray violent energies split the earth and the buildings around her, regardless of the material they were made from, but the two were completely unphased.


    With all of the energy that she could control being channelled to her arms and legs, she bombarded the two with attacks. Elysian Palms and Fists, Dawn Slicing Beam and Flowing Light, Violet Kicks and Storm Blade Wreathing were combined and executed flawlessly, with certain elements of formation arrays being incorporated when possible to maximise the destructive potential of her every movement.


    Even while certain buildings behind the two were annihilated with every few strikes, some due to the residual energy continuing to travel past her attack, and others falling after an instance of a dawn light beam cuts through its support, the two remained unmoved. When an attack could be dodged by retreating, both of them jumped back at the same time to traverse the exact distance that they needed to clear, and when that was not the case, they simply thrust their combined planar energies forward and crushed her attack.


    For a short while, no more than a single minute, they tolerated her strikes without any sign of retaliation, but then they suddenly stopped retreating.


    They stopped in place and prodded at her with a single finger each.


    All of the mysterious power around them condensed into one point before shooting forward, through her chest, the flesh and bones within, and even touched the edge of her heart. However, Yi Wei did not attempt to retreat, only pushing forward, through that energy, transforming her planar energy into the pure, absolutely destructive form. All of the light around her changed into pure violet, and then exploded without any order nor logic.


    It threw her backwards, with her only barely managing to land on her feet.


    Slowly, the light faded from her eyes and the wounds within her body were healed once she had transformed the violet energies back into cosmic energy. The raging mass of crimson in her mental library had lost some of its intensity, so she straightened her back and focused to observe the impact of her actions thus far.


    ¡®How-¡¯


    The two were almost unharmed, with the only visible damage being a small scratch on the woman¡¯s face, and a similarly small tear within the man¡¯s robes.


    Nevertheless, their expressions conveyed a rage even greater than her own. Without another word, they separated from one another and placed their own hands together, as if to pray to the heavens. The energy around them congregated around Yi Wei, surrounding her in a great circle. Red and white symbols and shapes burst out of the ground, in the same size and shape as the mirage-like circle, and then pressed down upon her.


    For a brief second, she remained standing, but the very next breath she collapsed onto the ground, falling face first. The pressure from the mysterious array ¨C for it was an array, at such a high level and complexity that she could not assess its nature immediately ¨C was far greater than anything she had experienced within the pagoda of the colosseum and with her training set, and it grew constantly, tearing her skin, flesh and bones as easily as a man could tear paper, or a sword might cut through a taut blade of grass.


    At the same time, she felt herself being pulled away, forced into a realm other than this one.


    With her consciousness seemingly intending to go with it, she forced her head up from the ground and asked, in an unsurprisingly hoarse and rough voice, ¡°¡­ WHY? WHY ARE YOU-¡±


    ¡°Blame your parents, silly girl,¡± the man said, his visage beginning to twist and distort in her eyes.


    ¡°They should not have given birth to you,¡± the woman stated, her features becoming vague and distant.


    With her last word entering her ears, her consciousness finally collapsed beneath the pressure.


    END OF VOLUME 1


    Oculus


    If you ever feel like giving me any support, you should be able to find links to Ko-fi and Patreon below this chapter. Seven advance chapters should be available on Patreon roughly seven minutes after the chapter is released (I had to stagger the releases so that they appeared in the right order). I would appreciate any amount you are able to provide, as it should help me dedicate more time to writing, and improving my writing. I have no doubt that there is plenty of room for the latter in particular.

 Volume Two | The Crimson Skies

    Endless storm clouds of impossible red twisted and flowed within the sky. Through them, or perhaps from them, the same crimson shade fell upon the ground, mixing with the red dirt, scarlet rock and ruby fluids of an unknown nature.


    In the far distance, a solid wall of the same clouds moved with the same ferocity, though the actual location remained unchanged no matter how much it moved, with the wall forming a great semi-circle until it disappeared into the distance, a sickly red fog obscuring anything within the distance, starting from a few metres of an observer¡¯s position and becoming far too difficult to look through after a kilometre or so.


    Other than that, there seemed to be nothing else within the ruby wasteland. No trees, no great mountains nor severe dips within the ground, nothing.


    This was exactly where Yi Wei awoke, with her face in the dirt.


    She was able to turn her head just enough to breathe freely, but the rest of her body just didn¡¯t respond to her. Despite knowing exactly how she wanted to move, which muscles she would need to control, she was unable to do so.


    However, she did have a clue regarding the source of her unfortunate affliction.


    Deep within her mind, inside of the mental library, everything in between the material shelves and floors was filled with that maddening crimson, the same one that grew upon Yi Yaling¡¯s death.


    In addition to the ever-present, ever-growing mental storm, she had almost no access to the vast majority of the mental objects stored within. Furthermore, her planar energy just wouldn¡¯t move no matter what she did.


    She desperately besieged that wall with her spiritual will, and barely escaped after crashing into the crimson and paper walls several times. When she did, she was able to see that her body was surrounded by a thin, invisible barrier, that was connected to a secondary, far superior set of barriers around her planar aperture, which was slowly attempting to refill itself via the violet portal inside of her nascent planar anchor, as well as the meridians that contained the dawn stars. Something seemed to be attempting to draw away that planar energy, though the constant regeneration of the portal and the slight jittering of her mysterious characters prevented it just enough to surround her planar anchor and the dawn stars with a thin veil of planar energy.


    As an experiment, she split off a thin thread of planar energy from within her dantian and forced it towards the barrier. It degraded partially as it moved, doing so at a far slower rate than it had ever previously moved, and when it touched the spherical obstruction it could do nothing but tap against it aimlessly.


    If she had a planar aperture full of planar energy, she theorised that she might be able to make a dent on the inner layer of the field, but that was a theory created from a very poor state of mind, with few of the facts at hand, and without any knowledge of what breaking the barrier might cause.


    In the first place, if she wanted to do that, she would need a full dantian, but that did not seem to be possible with the current rate of regeneration.


    Since she had no chance of testing her hypothesis any time soon, she formed it into a book and kept it close to her mental self, as to prevent the mental storm from devouring it, and to ensure that the crimson light did not prevent her from accessing it. Instead, she diverted all of her will to force herself to move, first lifting her body with one hand, then the other, then getting back onto her feet with a far greater effort than she had ever needed before.


    For a brief second, she was glad that she had spent so much time on strengthening her body, allowing her to walk with relative ease even while the choker around her neck and the bracelets around her wrists and ankles amplified the gravity which she experienced, even when her primary meridians ran dry of energy, but that feeling was quickly thrown away into the mental storm.


    As for the rest of her clothing, it was only that in name. Her robes had clearly suffered the exact same torture as her body had, and now were nothing more than a few strips of red cloth that could, with a bit of effort, be said to cover her private parts, though not for long.


    The sense of shame that appeared as a result was also taken by the mental storm.


    Even if it hadn¡¯t, the crimson shade of light would have made it difficult to discern flesh from cloth upon first glance, which would have given her some relief.


    Instead of worrying about that, she decided that the most important matter was that of food and drink. Typically, a cultivator wouldn¡¯t need to consume much after reaching the second and third realms, due to the ability of planar energy to assist in their nourishment, but now that she had no energy to spare and lacked the ability to send it outside of the dantian to use it in that way, she would need to eat as much as any other human being. Her physique energy made up for her significantly strengthened body, and if she didn¡¯t have it, she would have needed to eat even more.


    However, as she looked around, she saw no signs of flora nor fauna. The landscape was extremely flat with the exception of the smaller bumps and hills on the terrain, almost as if she was standing upon someone¡¯s skin, with their various imperfections and features.


    The thought entered her mind and she couldn¡¯t move on until she dug into the ground a little with her foot, just to be sure that no blood would emerge. It did not, though it did turn her foot even more red.


    Yi Wei looked around, trying to find the thing that was closest to a sign of civilization, making several turns on the spot before noticing that some of the pools of strange red fluid had a thin stream connecting them, with the crimson pools downstream being slightly smaller than those upstream. It looked like this liquid was flowing from something, and if the law of civilization applied here, then the best place to find life would be at the source.


    Then again, there was the issue of whether the liquid was drinkable. She had no idea whether or not it was, and since she could not mobilise her planar energy to resist whatever toxin or poison may be within, she didn¡¯t want to risk it until she had no other choice than to consume it.


    ¡®What a horrid landscape¡­ at the very least it isn¡¯t too hot nor too cold, or else I would have to either strip further or find something to cover myself with¡­¡¯ she thought, forcing her legs to move forward.


    It was difficult to tell how much time had passed since her appearance here, as the light and clouds above her did not change no matter how long she waited for them to do so. The red water-like fluid also did not shift nor move no matter she looked at the various pools, meaning that it was so viscous that it resembled blood even more so than before.


    Unfortunately, that discovery did not assist her much, as her long walk did not seem to bring her closer or further away from anything. The ground still seemed flat, the sky was still full of a crimson storm and the fog that consumed everything in the distance did not give her any opportunity to glimpse any sign of life, not to mention giving her no opportunity to wonder whether that sign would manifest itself as a building, a long-dead carcass of some local beast, or something that is entirely unknown to her. With the ruby dirt shifting frequently due to the storm above and erasing all of her footprints, she couldn¡¯t even tell how far she had travelled.


    She had no choice but to keep going, for she felt that if she stopped, she would not stand up again.


    ¡¯86,395, 86,396, 86,397, 86,398, 86,399, 86,400¡­ So, this should have been a day¡­¡¯ Yi Wei breathed a mental sigh, for she did not want to waste energy on sighing in physical reality, ¡®My lips are so fucking dry¡­ It is not particularly hot, but there is no water in the air at all¡­¡¯


    If her counting was accurate, then she would have been walking for an entire day, and that had finally led to some changes in the landscape around her.


    Her path was finally taking her uphill, forcing her to ascend an incredibly slight slope, but it was a slope nonetheless. Each step forced her to raise her feet higher for the same amount of progress, and she was beginning to feel the fatigue within her body, adding up slowly but surely. Although she had a strong body and had survived a great number of things, she was still human. No matter how much strength she had, without a way to replenish it ¨C which she wouldn¡¯t be able to do even if she did risk drinking the crimson fluid, unless it happened to contain all the nutrients that one would need from food ¨C she would fall in time.


    ¡®Come to think of it¡­ my physique energy is better at wiping away poisons than my planar energy, so why did I¡­ No, physique energy also needs to recover¡­ If I randomly drink whatever the red stuff is and receive no benefits, I¡¯ll just waste it¡­¡¯


    In addition to the incline, the pools of ruby fluid were growing, though just as slightly. If the first puddles she saw were only as large as her torso was when she was sixteen, the current pools of red were as large as her current torso. Between every few pools, she saw an incredibly thin string of red connecting them, proving her initial assumption.


    As fortunate as that was, she did not benefit much from the affirmation, for the incredibly gradual growth meant that she would need to keep moving for quite some time to get something out of it.


    Thus, that is what she did, putting one foot in front of the other while ignored her parched throat.


    Whether for better or for worse, one of the books she could still access within her mental library was a guide on surviving in the wilderness, as well as a collection of tips and facts regarding the human body and various beasts that one may encounter in the zones between the districts of Yi City.


    The majority of it was rather useless, since this desolate crimson landscape contained no familiar flora or fauna, but the topic of surviving without water did catch her attention, and was immensely relevant, for she had still not found water after the second day of walking. According to the book, an average human, at an average level of exertion per day, could survive for three days without any food and water. Whether or not this was entirely accurate didn¡¯t matter, as she had neither food nor water, and was exerting herself a little more than the average person might.


    Even under the assumption that the effect of cosmic energy circulating through her body for two years had somehow made it require less sustenance, three days was the most she could possibly risk before resorting to the vile red pools for the drink that she already needed. With two days out of the way, she only had one more to find anything in the barren, ruby wilderness.


    When she was not searching for nourishment and life, and often times even when she was, her thoughts were focused on the past.


    Some of her considerations were on the topic of the things that happened within the Kong Holy Grounds, and many thoughts were the exact same as those she had when she first left the pocket dimension. What she should have done instead of what she ended up doing, which ones of her choices were the primary causes for the complete disaster of the expedition, and how she should have seen it all coming from a kilometre away.


    Others were regarding the more recent events, at the same time as the events surrounding the awakening of her mysterious characters and the appearance of cosmic energy. For instance, the fact that she put in so little effort in disguising her identity when speaking to every one of her teachers other than the twins, which more than likely lead to them being found and targeted so easily.


    All of these ideas floated around within her mental storm, flooding her vision within her mind with them no matter what she did. Out of all of those thoughts, one that appeared only a single time was the concept of her not being responsible for any of these events. The moment that it did appear, it simply flew away and buried itself within the red light of her library, where it burned itself into nothingness. She wasn¡¯t completely ignoring the possibility ¨C it would be insane to pin every little thing onto herself, after all. However, she had no choice but to discard it for now, as she needed to give herself every chance she could to prevent further harm to herself, and with nobody else around her to keep her safe, she was forced to take care of things on her own.


    Her conclusion was further supported by the battle between Yi Yaling and the strange figures. Admittedly, even if she had fought with only one of the figures, and even if they lacked the strange energy that they possessed, she would have still failed to defeat them due to the separation in their realm, as she was in the second realm while either one of the two was in the third. Even then, it showed her that there was a certain boundary between her and the majority of people in the Planar Continents.


    She had no impurities within her planar aperture, was not bound by the elements and had, somewhat accidentally, given herself a total of five sets of meridians. Whether in terms of combat power or thinking ability, she exceeded most, and that meant she was the only one who could contend with threats akin to those posed by the strange pair that had thrown her into the crimson landscape, or the manifestation of the void between worlds that she faced within the Kong Holy Grounds, or even Yi Henghua, who had supposedly travelled between worlds.


    To throw herself to others and ask them for protection would be akin to inviting a planar beast tide right into their home, and it was not something that she wanted to do.


    Even though she thought that way, she also lacked the ability to fully protect herself without involving anyone else. In head to head confrontations, those who wield the full power of a forbidden art or utilise a power that transcends the very concept of planar energy easily surpass her strength, meaning that if she wanted to have any chance of achieving success, she would need to use a different tactic.


    As with everything else, there was a problem with that tactic. The vast majority of the time, she engaged in direct combat because she had no other choice. If she was to attack someone before they can attack her, she would have to be certain that they were a threat, and that she had no choice but to kill or otherwise cripple them completely. But how could she ever do anything of the sort without a full understanding of the situation?


    What if she mistook an ally for an enemy, and harmed them unjustifiably? What if she received false information from a source she believed to be trustworthy, and staged some sort of ambush to attack them mistakenly?


    To make things even worse, she could easily interpret someone¡¯s actions correctly, but misunderstand their intentions and damage or outright kill someone who was actually working to the benefit of a great majority, or maybe someone who was similarly misinformed, with one or both of them doing the job of some third party before they arrive to finish off whoever is left. Such a thing would be absolutely terrible, and she couldn¡¯t possibly dare to act in a way that would lead to it for the fear of harming someone unintentionally.


    ¡®I can¡¯t be sure of this, but doesn¡¯t the brain also use a certain degree of energy and nutrients? Using it more than necessary seems risky¡­¡¯


    After some time, she decided that keeping her eyes open was also a waste of whatever it was that her body needed, so she opened them very infrequently, only doing so when she had arrived at the edge of what she had previously seen. With this tactic, she further limited the expenditure of her limited resources, though she was sure that the change was minor in comparison to what she could achieve if she stopped walking.


    It was with this tactic that she finally encountered something that could be described either as a large hill, or a somewhat lacking mountain, after nearly two and a half days of walking. Just as everything else within this crimson nightmare, the rock it was made out of was red, though it was distinctly separate from the dirt around it, so she could, at the very least, figure out that it was indeed stone.


    She forced her eyes to remain open and changed her direction slightly in order to head to the top.


    That small change alone nearly caused her to collapse, but she was able to keep herself going when she saw something within the mountain ¨C a darker spot than the rest of the rather even stone. Whatever it was, she had to get to it.


    And get to it she did, albeit after a painfully long walk. She wasn¡¯t sure if the issue was due to her own energy being exhausted or due to the appearance of the mountain somehow being deceptive, appearing far smaller than it actually was, but she did eventually arrive, with the pain from her legs continuously being used finally reaching her brain. This dark spot turned out to be an opening within stone, a small cave that contained just a little less red and was thus immediately more pleasant to view than the rest of the world.


    When she got a short way into the cave, she heard a faint sound that was entirely unlike the storm clouds rumbling above. She frowned and listened with all of the focus she could muster.


    It was dripping. The faint sound of dripping water.


    She forced herself to speed up and barely managed to get to the depths, which got colder incredibly quickly. With every few steps, the temperature dropped by a degree or two, and by the time she reached the end, her breath was visible within the air.


    Nevertheless, it was worth it, for she found something that had only a slight hint of red within, and it just so happened to be water, or something that was mostly water, for the only thing that stopped it from being entirely transparent was a slight red hue, either from the rocks or from some other source within the crimson hellscape. Whatever it was, it was the safest thing to consume that she had seen so far, so she stumbled over to it and cupped her hands beneath the dripping liquid, catching a handful of it before drinking it.


    The fluid slid down her threat like liquid ice, cold even despite the ever-present yang physique energy within her, but it was absolutely worth it.


    That single mouthful seemed to revitalise her entire body, calming the pain from her joints, giving some much-needed moisture to her eyes, lips and mind, and instantly giving new life to her dry skin. It was like she had just consumed an entire meal, full of everything her body might ever need, with just that little bit of red water.


    Yi Wei sat down on the ground and shut her eyes. She could finally rest.

 V2C2: Desolate Lands

    ¡°Blame your parents, silly girl¡­¡± the voice echoed in her mind, as constant as a breeze by the ocean or the wind inside a tornado.


    Whereas dreams could typically pass in an instant, making it seem like you hadn¡¯t slept at all, this dream in particular was unwilling to go by so quickly. It seemed intent on making her recall every moment of the scene that led her to the crimson landscape with great detail, a hundred times over, before it would finally release her.


    As much as she wanted to wake herself, she could not, for she also couldn¡¯t move on.


    She tried to recall the faces that the two had. Neither of them seemed particularly happy about the things they were doing, but instead had expressions of¡­ disgust?


    ¡®But why?¡¯ she asked herself, ¡®Even if my parents had somehow harmed them to a great extent, what does that have to do with me? I never tried to investigate anything about my parents! Even if I was sometimes curious why they had died, and what they had done in the past, I never did anything!¡¯


    ¡°They should not have given birth to you-¡±


    All of a sudden, she awoke within the dark crimson cave, and found tears flowing down her cheeks, joining the nearby water stream in dripping onto the stone ground. She blinked in confusion several times, wiping the tears away before getting up and getting another drink from the water stream. Unfortunately, although she wanted to bathe, or otherwise clean herself, the pool beneath the dripping water stalactite was only as large as a few handfuls of water, with the rest sinking away into the stone and pooling up very slowly, meaning that if she wanted to clean herself to any reasonable degree, she would have needed to sit by the dripping water for several hours, or to retrieve some sort of bucket to collect the water properly.


    Either way, it wasn¡¯t an option at the moment, so she just drank what she could and looked outside.


    There was no change to the crimson light, nor any particular sign of danger nor safety out there, so she walked outside and took another look around. Now that her sight was working a little better than before, as she no longer lacked for water and, somehow, food, she saw her surroundings with far greater clarity than before.


    In addition to the mountain she stood on, there were several other similar peaks around her. They were all red, all lacked any signs of life, and none were the source of the red pools of fluid, which had now grown to the point of being connected with a constant stream, as they snaked through the mountainous region and disappeared into the distance on either side. None of them flowed up to, or from the peak of the mountain that she was standing on, making her somewhat curious where the water she had been drinking came from, but that was low on her list of priorities.


    Instead, she had to find something or someone ¨C anything, for that matter ¨C that would imply that she was not the only person in this world.


    Depending on the result of this search, she would be able to choose one of two routes to pursue. If people that were able to survive within this nightmare of a world, then she would have to learn from them and better her living conditions while also attempting to gain any information she could possibly gain regarding a possible means of escape from the world of eternal red. However, if there was no other life within the crimson wastes, she would have to do both things herself.


    That would involve risking quite a lot more than in the other situation, for she would have no one else to emulate in the process of gaining a greater comprehension of this reality.


    ¡®For now, I should focus that search on a day-long distance from this mountain. I don¡¯t know how common the miraculous springs are, nor whether there are any other than the one I have found, and if I get too far away and then fail to return in time, I will be in the same situation as my first arrival here. That wouldn¡¯t be too pleasant.¡¯


    Before she could even consider setting off, she noticed a chunk of rock sticking out of the terrain, and then looked down onto her hands before getting an idea. Even though there was no metal or wood to make containers for fluid out of, did she not have an excessive quantity of strength and the ability to release a type of energy that could burn through any typical metal or rock purely through coming into its proximity? Due to that constant storm, both inside and outside of her head, she had nearly forgotten about the fact that she possessed one of the most extreme yang physiques she had ever heard of.


    She grabbed that chunk of rock and pulled it out of the ground with ease, confirming that the rock of this world, albeit redder than any blood she had seen, was still just ordinary rock.


    With as much care as she could, she split it into two pieces that she then hollowed out, resulting in an empty space within the two of them that was equivalent to four of her fist placed close together, with a thin layer of rock around it that would prevent the water from pouring away.


    Then, by placing the two pieces together and sending a small quantity of physique energy to the surface of her hands, she made the stone melt together into one piece. Now that she had a seemingly limitless supply of nourishing liquid to rely on, she didn¡¯t have to worry about running out of True Ascendant physique energy, as it was produced alongside the body¡¯s energy. When she lacked food and drink, it could not be produced, but now that the situation had changed, it was regenerating normally.


    After a little more work, she fashioned the top of the container into a bottleneck, which she then sealed with another rock.


    In the end, she produced an extremely rough water bottle, one that weighed several kilograms and would be considered extremely horrid to behold in the Planar Continents by all but the most devoted practitioners of earth, who are known to go slightly insane once they reach the fourth realm and are forced to explore the path of cultivation on their own a little more.


    With this terrible thing in hand, she brought it back into the cave and filled it with water.


    ¡®Alright, that¡¯s one more issue solved¡­ Now I just need to deal with everything else, like the fact that I am hated by someone just because of my parents¡­¡¯ she thought, briefly considering before dismissing the idea of tying the stone flask to her body via the loose strips of cloth.


    Yi Wei took a deep breath and looked around again, finding the tallest mountain in the area after straining her eyes a little bit. Even though it had been less than a week before she appeared here, she already missed the ability to freely use her planar energy, whether for minor things like enhancing her sight and strengthening her muscles or for major things, like keeping herself alive. Still, she was able to locate a mountain that was slightly higher than the others, further along the stream of red, and rather smooth at the top, she decided to head towards it in order to get a better view of the area.


    ¡®One benefit that I have already gotten from this, however, is the fact that I appreciate certain resources far, far more that I previously had. I never cared for the many trees and plants within the Kong valley, but now that I don¡¯t have anything of the sort, I am far more appreciative of those things. If I had some of the grass from the valley, or some of the wood, I could have made something far better than this messy rock sphere.¡¯


    As she walked, thoughts like that passed through her head, though for every near-positive idea that she came up with, the mental storm was all too happy to provide her with a few dozen negative thoughts, like the fact that her casual involvement with Master Yi Yi had gotten the man killed.


    These things kept her occupied, preventing the addition bother of boredom from overcoming her.


    Every half an hour or so, she took a sip of the water within the stone container. It fuelled her just sufficiently to speed up her pace, and thus she arrived at the tallest, flattest mountain in sight after only three hours, whereas she would have previously needed four or five with her tired, drying body. She ascended it after another hour, stopping at the top and taking another drink.


    Surprisingly enough, the storm clouds above her head moved much closer as a result of the ascent, as if they were far closer than she had originally anticipated.


    The more significant matter was the fact that she did actually find something in the distance. It was surprising for the simple reason that she had previously wandered for two days without finding anything, but one singular day of exploration brought her two major discoveries.


    Besides the first, the second was a small dip within the terrain, akin to a dried lake.


    It was far away, about as far as the gap between the mountain cave and the peak on which she currently stood, but she was attracted to it as she saw something within its depths, something with a slight red glow that was unlike all of the other strange red lights and surfaces, as confusing as that very idea might sound.


    Something about those glowing distant spots made them seem full of energy, and whatever that energy was, she saw no reason not to take them.


    Fortunately for her, that was the exact distance she had intended to cross originally, and so she set off with half of the stone ¡®flask¡¯ still half-full of water, or what she was assuming to be water. It was likely to be the distilled version of the strange crimson pools, in which case she could have been drinking someone¡¯s blood this whole time without any knowledge of the matter, in which case she would need to take a little time to consider how to properly react to such a thing.


    Just as before, she reached her destination without much incident, though her supply of water was near exhaustion and, after a strange burst of sand or dirt from the ground, she was covered in an even greater quantity of red than before.


    Fortunately, the thing that she was looking for was still here, and as it turned out, it wasn¡¯t just a single item but over four of them. Each one emitted the same dim light, as she had observed from the peak, and turned out to be far more curious than she had expected. They were floating slightly above the ground and seemed like strange coagulations of crimson light or energy.


    This was something that she would have only expected to see within someone¡¯s dantian, and yet here the four floating motes did not seem to have an issue in existing.


    She bent down and grasped one of the motes, finding that she was able to lift them without difficulty, as if they had a small, spherical field around them that allowed her to touch the immaterial energy within, and that their texture was strangely sharp, as if she was holding a handful of sharpened knife blades. Even with her impressive physical body and endurance, it still felt like those invisible blades could pierce her skin if she made the wrong move.


    The same applied to all four of the motes, which she grabbed and wrapped in spare cloth strips.


    After slinging those over her shoulder, she turned back to the mountains and travelled back, heading straight to the mountain which she was using as her home instead of the observation mountain, as they formed a somewhat triangular shape together, making it more efficient.


    Upon her return, she drank some more of the miracle water and placed the water jug beneath the dripping stones to fill it up. Since the process would take quite some time to complete, she would have to wait for it to complete before setting out again, which gave her around an hour of free time in which to do whatever she liked.


    Naturally, the first thing she did was place the crimson motes onto the ground and take a close look at one of them. She poked at it, tested its endurance against various physical stimuli and even put it under the dripping water for a bit, though none of these proved to be particularly substantial. The structure of the mote flickered for a moment when it was exposed to the water, but it stabilised quickly and did not change no matter how much longer she kept it beneath the dripping stones.


    When that was done, she did not have much else to test. None of her techniques could be used without involving her physique energy, but that was sufficiently destructive to affect the warp created by the void between worlds, meaning that unless these motes of strange energy were somehow stronger than the void itself, she would be destroying them without any gains for herself.


    ¡®If this stuff is energy, then I should theoretically be able to absorb it, but, unfortunately, not only do I not know what this is, I also lack whatever preparations I may need to take to absorb them correctly. Seeing as it already appears to be stabbing and cutting me just through holding it, taking this in could be equivalent to swallowing a dozen blades without any technique to doing so¡­¡¯ Yi Wei thought, returning the mote into the pile, ¡®Even then, swallowing a sword does not bring any benefit to the person doing it in the vast majority of cases, so I would need to know what the purpose of consuming it would be before attempting it.¡¯


    She sighed, for she knew that whatever these motes were, there was a high likelihood that they could be used to attain great benefits, the method for which she just happened to lack.


    Unbidden, her mind pulled up a great number of examples of similar situations, where she was unable to do anything despite having every resource at her disposal. A great number of these were from her childhood and adolescence, for that was the time in which she was most powerless, but a few also surfaced from the latest two years of her life. Once they did, her imagination went wild, creating all sorts of scenarios where she had somehow obtained all of her current knowledge on the first day of attaining cosmic energy, and put them to good use to prevent the twin disasters that had followed.


    It was unreasonable and absolutely foolish, but her brain refused to listen to her yet again.


    For a second, she forcefully pushed those concepts away and looked at the red glow behind them. As far as she understood her mind, this was the metaphysical manifestation of her anger and desire for revenge, and it was causing her issues because she did not fully accept that side of herself.


    In combination with the mental storm, it led to her barely being able to handle all of it without the library collapsing onto itself.


    To solve this issue, she saw two potential solutions, with others that could be based on those two options. One route would involve her annihilating the crimson light and replacing it with her regular spiritual will, completing the library as it should have originally been. The second option would be¡­ far, far less preferable, and it would mean uniting with that anger.


    She saw no reason to ever, ever consider the second option, primarily because of the fear over losing control over herself. After the previous few outbursts of the red light ¨C which was yet another thing that she needed to find a name for, or else it would be completely indistinguishable from the red light of the world and the glowing red motes on the ground of the cave ¨C she had somewhat gotten an understanding of it, and could potentially restrain it in the future, but the moment that she gives it any more ground, she would lose that advantage. As to why she wanted to do so, the reason could be narrowed down to the fear of losing control.


    If she allowed such a great quantity of rage to overwhelm her, she would instantly be blinded by it, and no matter how much strength she could gain out of it, she would inevitably be crushed by the results when her anger is finally cleared.


    Within that state of madness, she would do countless things that she would then regret, like those previous hypothetical situations she had considered on her initial journey to this cave. Killing people just on the suspicions of them being opposed to her or attacking those in her way just for the pursuit of her own goals¡­ she would never know how to justify such a thing to herself, and then it would pressure her forever.


    Such pressure would be even greater than the current mental storm and red light combined, truly equalling the heart demons of the Daoists, and would prevent her advance forever.


    ¡®I mean, what can I possibly say that would justify even a single death caused directly by me? I don¡¯t even have a clear goal, while the rest of the people out there, even the two that sent me to this hellscape, likely have some sort of pursuit that they believe will lead to great things. If I stumble in and mess it all up, I could bring the entire world down for nothing.¡¯


    She looked over to the side and noticed that the stone jug was full to the brim, with her mind clearly having lost any track of time since she began to look inward. She removed the stone container from its place beneath the dripping stalactites and lay down on the ground, looking up at the red ceiling.


    ¡®Unfortunately, the better path is also the more difficult one. For now, I cannot push back either threat within my mental landscape, so I will have to get by through distracting myself instead,¡¯ Yi Wei thought, forcing the map of the cave to manifest within her Gilded Library, grabbing it with one hand while using her other arm to hold on to the other manuals she had rescued from the mental storm, ¡®Living in a simple cave like this won¡¯t be good for my mental health, nor for organisation. While I am stuck here, I might as well make this place presentable for myself and any potential visitors, and if I do find a settlement or any other signs of life, then I can consider whether to continue using the cave as a residence or if I should move to that settlement.¡¯


    By willing the map to stay still and flat in the air, she slowly drew up a basic floorplan for her future abode. Naturally, she still didn¡¯t have any more experience in construction and architecture than the last time she tried to appraise it, but from what she had understood about the crimson rock from the creation of the water jug, it should be stable enough to withstand minor modifications under her intentions.


    Her plans were to transform the room with the dripping stalactites into a sort of production room, where she could make things from any of the five great arts, combined with a small pool to allow for more of the water to gather without needing some sort of jug or bottle to contain it. To the left of the room, she would make a bedroom and cultivation chamber, with the latter being used whenever she figures out how to use the resources of this world, and the former allowing for a more comfortable resting place than the current cavern.


    On the right would be a storage chamber, which could be utilised for the crimson motes and any resources that this world many contain, be they precious metals or plants.


    Finally, the room outside of that would be a combination of everything else she might need, but primarily it would function as a sort of front room where she could meet any intruders, wanted or unwanted, and prevent them from getting inside without her express observation and permission. It could also have a table, if she ends up finding proper food.


    All of these plans were mostly for her personal entertainment, however, as it seemed doubtful for anyone that survived for longer than a second within this terrible environment to care for proper manners or aesthetics.


    She channelled her True Ascendant physique energy to her hands and got to work.

 V2C3: Her First Visitor

    Just like that, roughly eighteen days passed by without too much happening. Her buildings plans had gone along smoothly, and the bedroom and the primary room was fully complete, while the storage room and the dining rooms neared some semblance of existing. One thing that she hadn¡¯t considered was the fact that she couldn¡¯t really create a door or a doorway, as hinges weren¡¯t easy to produce out of a solid chunk of stone with only her hands as tools, so instead she made the dining chamber incredibly wide, making it seem as if that was intentional.


    She hadn¡¯t intended to make such a mistake originally, of course, but with every day, both the mental storm and the red light had been growing even more than she had expected. Neither was able to consume the stable foundations of the library that she had already put in place, which made her happy that she was able to make at least one correct decision in the past and didn¡¯t go for the overly opulent library that the mysterious characters had offered, but both of the plagues spread significantly.


    The mental storm now revolved across the entire library, occupying both floors and often picked up random books out of the shelves and spun them around for a while before throwing them elsewhere.


    Meanwhile, the red light now lit up everything within the Gilded Library, making it as painful to look at as the rest of the hellscape she had been forced to live in. In fact, they seemed so similar that, even with her mental faculties being lowered to one percent of their typical capacity, she realised that there might be a connection between the growth of the crimson light and the red world around her, though she could not figure out exactly what the cause was. With absolutely everything in the area being red ¨C with her skin soon to join that list ¨C it was absolutely impossible to tell whether it was the crimson light pouring in through the clouds, the ruby-tinged water that she regularly drank, the scarlet stone on which she slept or literally anything else.


    As a result, since she could not cut out all of those things to prevent them from affecting her, she had to focus on solving those mental issues, forcing her to pull out a number of books out of the storm to try and gain the understanding of mental cultivation techniques that she would need to fix the issue.


    After quite a lot of effort, she was able to extract the Kong Mental Arts, Gilded Library and the tome on the Third Eye Elixir out of the mental storm, only barely holding on to the things she had already been keeping in her hands in the process. She sat down in an alcove by the entrance of the cave, where she could better watch over any potential intruders, and began to study the books.


    Some time passed ¨C as always, she could not keep track of it due to the lack of any obvious changes around her.


    Then, a little more time passed. Perhaps it was an hour, or perhaps it was two, but she was finally able to complete her reading, studying every single manual and tome with such excruciating detail that she likely discovered things that even the original creators of the books were unaware of, even if the process did take far, far longer than she would have preferred. Fortunately, she remembered most of them even without needing to access the mental library, cutting down the time she had needed to spend on the process.


    Her final gains were¡­ underwhelming, to say the least. She had already read these things a number of times, some within reality and others within her mental library, and thus she knew pretty much everything within them. Unfortunately, not a single one of the authors understood how to move beyond a stable mental domain, and none had any recommendations on how to purify mental realms of strange red energy, nor did they include instructions on clearing away extreme storms.


    Both the Kong Mental Arts and the Third Eye provided her with a means of purifying and strengthening mental energy, but after having experimented with both of those recently, neither seemed capable of clearing away either malaise, with their only benefit being the strengthening of the library¡¯s foundations. That was helpful, but not a solution.


    Yi Wei sighed again, rubbing her brows to provide herself with some temporary relief to the headache she was having as a result of her current failure.


    Glancing outside, she saw no changes within the mountainous landscape, so she got out of the alcove and returned to her central room, taking a quick drink of the ruby water to recover the energy she had wasted on her contemplation.


    Even though she couldn¡¯t outright solve the problem she was having, she still wouldn¡¯t allow herself to be consumed without doing anything to stop it. She sat down on some smoothened stone ground that was higher than the floor, intended to function as a seat until she could make it look more like a chair, and began to practise her various mental techniques. As she wasn¡¯t in the position to use all of them at the same time, due to the issues with her mental landscape, she primarily focused on the three primary techniques ¨C Kong Mental Arts, Gilded Library and the Triumvirate¡¯s Will.


    The essence of the other mental techniques was infused into the three, which she initially practised carefully. Due to the possibility of the red light in her mental library being connected to the crimson world outside, carelessly attempting to refine her mind could lead to the quantity of the red light increasing without any benefits to offset the loss.


    She cultivated those techniques, and then sent the refined energy through the Third Eye in order to further strengthen it.


    Unfortunately, she quickly saw that this process was not as productive as she would have hoped. In spite of the effort to keep her mental energies clean, every time the mental energy returned to her head, it was further tinged with crimson light.


    ¡®So, this isn¡¯t going to work either, then¡­¡¯ Yi Wei thought, ignoring the red glow that tried to cause the emotion of anger to grow within her mind, ¡®This reminds me of the time before I discovered cosmic energy and lived on a house that was actively trying to kill me, albeit slowly. If my breakthroughs hadn¡¯t cleansed my dantian and purified my body, the combination of the Potential Draining, Planar Corruption, Mental Distortion and Dantian Clogging arrays would have made me completely useless, with the effect intensifying with each passing day until it takes me all of my energy just to consider what I want to eat for breakfast. Fortunately, I have no chance of falling to such a fate here, for I don¡¯t have a choice regarding my food, but still¡­


    ¡®Who put those arrays there, and why? Since they were placed there somewhere around the time of my birth, there is a chance that it was those same two people, but-¡¯ she stopped her thought midway as she saw the red light inside of the library brighten, ¡®Not the right time to be thinking of this. My mental stability and sanity are key at the moment, and considering these matters is just like asking the anger to overwhelm me.¡¯


    She calmed herself and instead looked into the mental storm once more, seeking something else to attempt as she did not want to sit by idly while her mind was consumed. Although both her memory and thinking speed had dropped due to the twin malaise, to read out small passages from flying books and recall the rest of the text was still within her ability.


    More time passed, with her reading and recalling all sorts of things. From the methods of cooking a planar rhinoceros-lion to perfection to the guide on scaling Mt Tai; she had previously committed all sorts of things to memory, and not all of them were necessarily useful. However, they did serve to minimise the speed of the mental storm by acting as obstructions to the thoughts that would be beneficial to her, thus making it significantly easier to read either type of thought or ideas. In a way, it was a sort of silver lining, though one that she wouldn¡¯t have needed to consider if not for the mental storm.


    After even more hours passed, with the day likely moving over to the nineteenth since she began to work on her mind and her residence, and roughly the twenty-fourth since she arrived in this crimson world. In the end, she achieved¡­ nothing.


    ¡®Both mental cultivation and other forms of mental energies, like killing intent, which some theorise to be an actual, separate energy and not just a transformation of spiritual will that is caused by the taint of hatred, are rather poorly understood. For every mental cultivation manual that exists within the Planar Continents, there seem to be a thousand manuals relating to combat and planar energy. Furthermore, they are considered to be nothing more than methods to prevent mental trauma and to keep one¡¯s mind in check against mental attacks, which are also rare. Even when it comes to illusions, most only assist in remembering that the world before the viewer is illusory, and not in breaking the illusion nor circumventing it. If I hadn¡¯t had the Kong Mental Arts in the Kong valley, I wouldn¡¯t have stood a chance against their impressive illusory formation arrays¡­


    ¡®In other words, as much as I can grasp from the manuals of the continents, they do not contain the full extent of the knowledge regarding mental cultivation, just as the manuals on body cultivation ¨C or, rather, physique cultivation ¨C seem to have no mention of physique energy, presumably due to the lack of body cultivators that completely omit the cultivation of planar energy. Whether mental cultivation can travel the same path, or if there is some other approach to it that I am unaware of, it is likely that few had ever used the likes of the Gilded Library and then encountered a situation similar to mine, before succeeding in solving it.


    ¡®I cannot access the knowledge I need from the manuals alone. Somehow, I must either find a new source of knowledge, or develop something on my own¡­ and I just happen to be in the worst state for the latter approach, with my mind, a place that is typically under my complete control, being enveloped in a storm of paper and crimson light. By the heavens¡­¡¯


    Since her access to the conveniences of her mental landscape were limited, it meant that she would need far, far more time to achieve the same results ¨C time that she did not possess.


    If the growth of the twin malaise continued to accelerate in the same fashion as it has already done, then even the spot where her mental self typically stands will be consumed within a day, at which point she would be in an even worse situation than if she willingly accepted the endless anger. She would no longer be in control, and it was not something she could ever accept, but even with how little time she had, she did not want to risk her initial first option of willingly taking in the crimson light, for that would bring along a similar situation.


    ¡®Even though they could not, or did not, kill me in the Yi District, they might do so now, almost a month after our initial confrontation¡­ I have to say, this would be the worst death ¨C the death of the self, and of the mind, even while my body lives on¡­¡¯


    To shake her thoughts a little, or perhaps to accidentally discover something through an epiphany alike to those that brought her the Elysian and Dawn series of techniques, she got up and headed out of the cave. However, before she could even near the entrance, she heard something unusual that broke up the typical calmness of the red wastes. It was like something hitting sand repeatedly, with the source of the sound nearing. Those two factors combined made it seem as if someone was approaching.


    The very possibility of life within the hellscape caused Yi Wei¡¯s mental storm and the red glow to recede ever so slightly, while she rushed to the entrance of her cave.


    Within such a terrible world, there was a far higher likelihood of encountering someone dangerous than someone who she could converse with peacefully, if this sound was even caused by a person in the first place. Nonetheless, she wanted to- no, she needed to see who it was, for this entity could provide her with the hope she needed to maintain her mind and possibly even push back the malaise.


    After all, the sounds that were being produced could not be made by an ordinary human or beast, unless the beasts of this ruby world were somehow significantly larger than most planar beasts, suggesting that some for of cultivation or energy usage did exist.


    She reached the exit of the cave in record time and did so just in time to see something fascinating.


    A red glow within the sky, one that stood out amidst the crimson storm clouds and the light that poured through them. It quickly descended, crashing onto the ground without any obvious care for the things beneath it, then launched up once more, the impact generating the sound that she had previously heard and was attracted to. In just a few of these leaps, the person that was surrounded in this light ¨C for it did appear to be a person, one dressed in a set of ruby robes and with long black hair trailing behind them ¨C crossed a small mountain and neared Yi Wei¡¯s position.


    As she did so, Yi Wei felt a strange sensation approach her. It was akin to incredibly thick killing intent in nature, expect it was not concentrated on any single person, instead being emitted from the person surrounded in the red light. Furthermore, the more she looked at it, the more she realised the similarity between it and the light of the world and the one within her mind.


    Before she could do too much thinking, the figure drenched in crimson light landed at the foot of her mountain and leapt up to land once more only a few metres away from her.


    With her being so close, it was immediately obvious that this person was a woman, for her figure was lithe yet full in what could only be described as all the right places. Her breasts bulged out of her robes, and her hips were wide. Even her face was far above the human standard, marred only by the extremely vicious expression she wore combined with the endless and ruthless killing intent that radiated from her body.


    Her eyes were of an ordinary colour, but even though the red light receded into her body, it remained within her eyes, dyeing them a pure shade of crimson. The red light radiated endlessly from her eyes, making them glow as brightly as the ruby motes that she had collected from the distant dried lake.


    ¡°Oho, what have I found here? Boy- no, girl, are you new?¡± the woman said, her lips curving into a wicked smile, ¡°Did those fuckers send you here to die as well?¡±


    Yi Wei narrowed her eyes, attempting to mobilise her spiritual will to feel out this woman¡¯s strength, but she could not make her spiritual will extend beyond a tenth of its typical limit. Since she did not want to risk approaching her due to the immense quantity of killing intent pouring out of her, she was forced to remain cautious and still, ¡°I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t reply with that information alone.¡±


    ¡°You sure about that? Do you know the Great Families, the so-called righteous bastards that have thrown all of our ancestors into this hellhole just because they had once gone against them! I say, you look nothing like us lot ¨C what got you into this mess?¡±


    ¡®Great Families? Righteous? They can¡¯t be the same people that¡­¡¯ Yi Wei replied, ¡°I may just be going off of first impressions, but you seem like someone that would kill someone for looking at them wrong. It is no surprise that we do not look alike. If I did bear some great resemblance to you, I would have to start questioning my own life choices.¡±


    Instantly, she nearly bit her own tongue when she realised what she was saying, and to whom. ¡®Damn it, this red light must be affecting me more than I had originally thought. To say such a thing to her-¡¯


    ¡°Ha¡­ Hahaha!¡± the woman unexpectedly broke out into laughter, nearly folding like a piece of paper before barely recovering, ¡°So, you¡¯re one of those righteous types, are you? I must say, you were not what I was expecting, not at all! You aren¡¯t wrong though, you slutty girl, I am more than happy to kill someone for something slight. You know what the people around here call me? The Black Terror, that¡¯s what. I¡¯m not sure if its ¡®cause of my hair, or if it¡¯s based on the colour that I like the blood on my body to get to before cleaning it off.


    ¡°However, is there really such a big difference between the two of us?¡±


    ¡®Contrary to her own depiction of herself, she¡¯s talking to me slowly¡­ What is she trying to do?¡¯ she wondered, taking a second to wonder whether it was a good idea to continue speaking to her, before eventually deciding that there was no trace of mental techniques trying to affect her brain and replied cautiously, ¡°I dare say that there is. Unlike you, I can count the number of my kills on one hand.¡±


    ¡°So? Whether you¡¯ve killed one or a million, you still did what you thought was right, did you not? You probably thought you were making the world better, as is so common for your ilk, or maybe you were doing something for yourself. Right?¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re trying to say something profound, then got on with it already.¡±


    ¡°Impatient, are you? Fair enough ¨C so am I,¡± the Black Terror grinned, stretching out her hand to her side, closing her hand around her fist as the red energy burst out of her body and formed into the shape of a one-sided blade, with the dull side being filled with countless spikes of various sizes and shapes. The very blade radiated a sensation of terror and rage, one that pressed down even upon her strengthened mind.


    ¡°Listen up, you righteous slut. All of the things you do, I do¡­ Who the fuck should decide what the right thing to do is? Those Great Families? Neither of us could possibly say yet to that seriously, and even if you think that they might have somehow fucked up in your case, then ask yourself why they should ever be the arbiters of righteousness. I don¡¯t know what it¡¯s like back in the upper world, in the continents, but down here, we¡¯ve got something more reasonable. Might makes right. The one that beats up the other is clearly in the right. We need strength in this world, and if you can beat up the other, then you¡¯re clearly right.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s exactly why people like you, who we¡¯d call bandits in the Planar Continents, were cleared away by the Master of Yi City, and the various families that now live in the districts!¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that exactly what the rest of you do? All of the Great Families, the districts, the people living there¡­ even some of the bastards here, they all do exactly that. In fact¡­ think about the Master of Yi City herself¡­ or himself, who the fuck cares¡­ do you think anyone would have respected him as much if he had failed? No, but he would have still thought he was in the right. Alright, you get it?¡±


    ¡°I-¡±


    ¡°Now, die!¡± the Black Terror suddenly yelled, charging forward with immense speed, the remaining crimson light surrounding her and the blade, almost forming into armour around everything beneath her head.


    However, in Yi Wei¡¯s eyes, her movements rapidly slowed, before stopping completely. She felt her mind accelerating to levels that she had only experienced when she had scanned the jade slips produced by Great Dark, and was pulled into the mental landscape, the Gilded Library, where the red light and endless mental storm mingled together.


    The black-haired woman¡¯s words were crude and poorly worded, as she would expect of someone who had lived in a world like this.


    Despite that, she thought that there was something to what she was saying.


    ¡®Indeed, no matter whether the two siblings were from a Great Family, or were just some random people that had an issue with me and Yi Yi, they view their actions as righteous, for why would someone do something that they did not believe would yield beneficial results?


    ¡®The Master of Yi City had a goal of some kind, and he too set out to change the world without any care for the opinions of others. It is well known that there was great resistance to his actions, far greater than to any person or group before and after his life. Had he lost and failed to achieve his dreams, he would have been remembered as a plague ¨C a demon. But he won, and thus, any actions that he had taken, justified or otherwise, are now at the very peak of morality.


    ¡®To be free, to be able to do whatever I desire, I must be at the peak of the continent.


    ¡®To reach the peak, I cannot hesitate. I cannot question my every action. I must be decisive, to take advantage of everything I have, and take out every potential threat before it can bloom into genuine danger ¨C for if I accomplish the same deed as the Master of Yi City, I will have succeeded. With my success, I could bring about countless years of peace and glory to Yi City. For every person that suffered for my actions without proper justification, I could allow a thousand generations to survive without the threat of Great Families or simple killers like this Black Terror. I could remove the barrier of bloodlines entirely and allow this world to prosper with the techniques and arts that the various districts hold ¨C for I possess something that no-one else would be able to equal, preventing any challenge to the peaceful rule of the continent.


    ¡®I must become the Master of Yi City!¡¯


    With her final words, the small library and all of her mind shook together, the red light suddenly bursting out as if it had been freed from some prison ¨C for it had been. It tore through the mental storm on one side, annihilating the pointless thoughts of hesitation and regret, while she and mental energies forced the regular manuals and books to return to their shelves.


    The crimson light overwhelmed her mental self and the library as a whole and merged with both. The structure of the library broke apart, but before the countless ideas within could scatter, it was rebuilt, with every strand of mental energy being wrapped in a tight rope of crimson light.


    In place of the original library, that was too small and insignificant to contain the things she required it to hold, appeared an enormous chamber created purely from her imagination, and yet contained even greater detail than her depiction of the old library. Rotting and ancient wood was replaced by a dense and strong mahogany, both new and seemingly eternal, and surrounding it were great quantities of gold, though they were all tinged with a certain ruby light and dark aura that would have threatened to consume any visitor who could possibly enter it.


    Every book returned to its rightful place, not through flight, but through a direct teleportation, in which the various manuals and tomes were wrapped in crimson energy and pulled through an ember-filled void to their respective shelves. With the new library being triple its size and containing four individual floors, the things that previously broke the library apart now fit with far too much space in between.


    On the first floor, she placed the manuals regarding cultivation and the usage of planar energy. The second contained everything she understood about the body, and the third held that which she knew about the mind. The fourth stored the rest: trivia, encyclopaedias and things that could not easily be placed elsewhere.


    In an instant, the twin malaise of the mind vanished, and her silver eyes, which had long seemed dull and empty in comparison to what they used to be, regained their splendour.


    ¡®You called yourself the Black Terror? Thank you for becoming the first threat to be removed on my path. Your words were greatly appreciated.¡¯


    She raised her fist as the scenery around her returned to its normal speed, lunging forward with only the might of her physical body and physique. The blade in the woman¡¯s hand was completely ignored as she threw a punch directly at her head without withholding even one percent of her strength.


    ¡°Goodbye,¡± Yi Wei whispered just as her fist collided with the woman¡¯s head.


    The Black Terror¡¯s eyes widened in that instant, for she also witnessed the curious transformation of the woman in front of her. Just the second after, her head exploded, bursting like a watermelon, though the extreme force of Yi Wei¡¯s caused the countless bits and pieces to fly away from her, resulting in her fist being completely clean of blood when she brought it back.


    Her headless body fell to the ground in silence, the crimson light disconnecting from her body and flying off into the sky.


    Yi Wei shut her eyes for a second, and when she opened them again, all of her spiritual will burst out of her body, evenly covering four and a half metres around her. It sank into the woman¡¯s body and confirmed to her that there were no defensive precautions placed on her body, so she bent down and removed the robe and a number of pouches from the woman¡¯s body before turning around and locating a rock to sit down on.


    There, she took off what few scraps of her robes remained and put on the woman¡¯s crimson robe.


    ¡®I am not familiar with this world, but I wouldn¡¯t imagine anyone keeping things that are valuable to them anywhere but on their person,¡¯ she thought, looking through the pockets of her new robes, ¡®If that red light that formed into a weapon and armour came from a form of cultivation, then a manual for it will have been somewhere on her corpse.¡¯


    The robes had six individual pockets, with two on the outside, on either side, and four on the inside, with one set of lower pockets and one set of upper pockets. In the left outside pocket, she found nothing but dust, which matched her discoveries within the right pocket. This, too, was perfectly natural, for those pockets were easiest to access for some pickpocket or thief. Keeping anything of value within them would be akin to inviting people to steal from the wearer, especially due to the fabric deforming easily whenever anything was placed within, even if it was a small pebble.


    In the inner pockets, she made four discoveries right after one another. The first was a manual labelled as ¡®Violent Third Pool¡¯, which appeared to be some sort of cultivation technique. She scanned it with her spiritual will in a single second then drew her physique energy to her hand, instantly setting the manual aflame. The second was a number of red motes similar to those that she had found within the lakebed, though none matched the ones that she had. They were all thicker and denser, with three appearing to almost be solid. Based on the fact that these things were being carried around, she came to the conclusion that they were indeed of some value and thus returned them to the pocket she found them in, before idly glancing up and thus making her third discovery.


    Somehow, in between the time that she removed the robe from the woman¡¯s body and found the crimson motes, the body had turned almost entirely to dust, with all that remained being her headless skeleton and a further series of those strange motes lying roughly in the former location of her heart.


    ¡®So, these can be produced by the deaths of people? Or, perhaps, does it have some relation to the manual that the woman held?¡¯


    For now, she held back the questions and completed her search of the robes and pouches, with her last significant find being a black dagger that seemed to be made of stone. Its shape was almost natural, as if it wasn¡¯t forged but instead found in a large pile of rocks, but she could sense that it was sharp and contained something within that was comparable to a low-grade artefact.


    Whatever it was, it could function as a decent weapon even without the infusion of an energy into the blade, so she kept it somewhere that she could draw from quickly before returning to her cave.


    ¡®That woman came from a settlement of some kind. The people there can clearly survive with relative ease and believe in strength over any kind of authority ¨C though I doubt that they do not have someone acting as either a leader or a police force that prevents any one individual from taking over completely. Whatever the case is, they almost certainly won¡¯t give things away for free, but one of the items on the Black Terror¡¯s body ought to function as currency, or be valuable in bartering, so I shouldn¡¯t face any issues on that front,¡¯ she thought as she collected the red motes from her storage cave before filling the stone jug to the brim with water, ¡®Before I go, I think that it is time for another change.


    ¡®My name¡­ The Yi family, regardless of the common people within it, allowed me to be targeted by the Great Families, and clearly did not care to protect me as one of their own. To bring their name into this world would be folly. Instead, why don¡¯t I go the simple route?


    ¡®From now on, I shall be Wei Yi, and I shall found the first ever Wei family. Just like the Master of Yi City brought his family to glory, I shall do the same, or die trying.¡¯

 V2C4: The Settlement atop Blood

    Now that her mind no longer posed such a great issue, Wei Yi found that exploring the crimson wastes of the new world was far easier than she had originally thought. With some clever control over her own body, she managed to significantly cut down on the energy she used, and with some additional minimal support from physique energy, her overall endurance grew ten-fold.


    ¡®Indeed, the mind is the most important part of the body. Had I understood things sooner, I would have been able to explore with ease,¡¯ she thought, her spiritual will sinking into her abdomen to examine the barrier around her dantian, ¡®This barrier is as troublesome as I had initially assumed. It actively drains away planar energy, and while it does not interfere with other forms of energy, it would drain away absolutely everything within the dantian, even the planar anchor and any other structures, leaving any cultivator without any traces of their cultivation.¡¯


    Within her mental landscape, she willed a book to appear, warping from the shelf via the crimson void, ¡®Whatever the system used within this world is, I know that my cosmic energy can break it down. If I am able to gather ninety-seven percent of my overall planar energy capacity, then pierce the barrier around the dantian with no more than twenty percent, then I should have a chance to initiate a breakdown of the world. However, in order to do so, I will require a means of strengthening the nascent portal within the planar anchor, or something to weaken the barrier, or both at the same time. By using the arrays and inscriptions I already know about as a base, I should be able to create something to do at least one of the two, but I estimate that this will take approximately thirty-seven days to complete in the best-case scenario.¡¯


    A number of other books warped in around her, then disappeared only to be replaced with another. She noted them down while she walked through the desolate crimson lands, taking everything she could from each technique and array that might prove to be beneficial.


    Three days later, she completed the process, stowing away the resulting tome into one of the shelves on the third floor. Now that everything was in one place, the calculation process could be accelerated by a small degree, but it would still take many days. Furthermore, to go against something that was equivalent to the will of the world itself, for the barrier around her planar aperture seemed to draw power from the very space around her, she would need something more than planar energy or physique energy, the latter of which she did not understand sufficiently to use at its full capacity.


    Thus, she willed for the manual of the Violent Third Pool to appear in front of her mental self.


    After reading through it once, she saw that it was surprisingly close in nature to a planar cultivation technique, except for the fact that it drew upon, and condensed, killing intent.


    ¡®So that is how things are, then. Killing intent is truly a form of energy¡­ and it is all around me in this world. This cultivation technique can rely on internal killing intent, which I ought to have a lot of, but one of the reasons that this world has decided to cultivate it is due to the extreme quantities of it pouring down from the sky, and contained within the clouds. Then, the motes I have collected¡­¡¯ she reached into her internal pockets and took out one of the dimmer crimson motes, ¡®¡­ can be called motes of killing intent. For some reason, the description of the absorption process is very simple and vague, which implies to me that it isn¡¯t common to absorb them. They could end up being used currency after all.¡¯


    She looked to the side and saw that the crimson rivers had grown into one solid and constant stream, with a thick scent of blood emanating from it. Whatever the source of it was, she was clearly nearing it, so she decided to investigate it first before attempting to cultivate the Violent Third Pool. She was relatively confident in defeating, or at the very least escaping, whatever threat the inhabitants of the world posed, so long as they were as unprepared to face her as the Black Terror was.


    As impressive as killing intent appeared to be in hampering the mind, it did not seem to possess the same effectiveness and versatility as planar energy, no matter if she looked at the technique itself, or at the Black Terror¡¯s usage of it. This was to be expected from a purely mental energy, which would naturally be weaker against pure physical force like her mighty physique.


    Due to this, she thought it wiser to observe how the rest of the crimson world cultivates killing intent, and what other paths they may follow, before potentially damaging her foundations forever by using something like the Violent Third Pool without a full understanding of it. Perhaps that technique is considered to be something that is only stronger than a person who does not cultivate, and thus it was completely unsurprising that she managed to defeat the black-haired woman via her body alone. Alternatively, it might be complicated to practise the technique with only the words written in the manuals and might require the words on each page to be decoded in some way before being used, with the code being simple or incredibly complicated depending on each individual manual.


    Most of her ideas were unlikely, but they had to be considered nonetheless, for the very existence of likelihood meant possibility.


    Only several hours later, she saw vague, unnatural figures appear out of the crimson fog, and as she approached, she saw the slanted rooves of homes and slightly lowered streets placed amongst thin, feeble trees that have clearly been dead for more than a hundred years.


    This town stood atop raised ground, which, upon first glance, she assumed to be stone or a man-made hill. However, just as she made out the homes as she neared, the large rock slate also changed into the figure of some ancient, absolutely enormous beast that made for the entire foundation of the town. Out of its primordial carcass, a dozen gigantic streams of blood slowly flowed out of it, with one pouring down and forming the very crimson river that Wei Yi had been following to this town.


    The closer she got to it, the more she smelled the same scent of blood that had initially been faint and nigh unnoticeable, which had originally prevented her from sensing it.


    At the foot of this great monstrosity, two figures stood guard on every road that led to it, and although the beast¡¯s innate radiating killing intent overshadowed most other sources of killing intent within the town, despite how long it appeared to have been dead for, those guards still stood out amidst it, radiating their own killing intent that was clearly inferior to that of the beast.


    She approached them without allowing herself to show even a glimpse of care about their aggressive and threatening appearances, and they seemed not to look at her beyond an initial glance at her features.


    However, just as she scanned them with her spiritual will, they also looked back at her, before one of the guards whispered something to the other and ran off through a different route.


    ¡®Interesting. These people also practise killing intent cultivation, but their techniques appear to be different, yet similar. They make their killing intent circulate through their meridians ¨C confirming the reason that no-one in the Planar Continents appear to have practised this same technique, for planar energy appears to have a fundamental opposition with killing intent ¨C and do so in a manner that almost seems to mirror the typical elements of planar cultivation. The Violent Third Pool would be akin to fire-type techniques, while the guards¡­ perhaps water?¡¯ she guessed, looking back at a few of the techniques she knew of before mentally nodding, ¡®Yes, that does appear to be the case. However, their quantity of killing intent, which primarily gathers in the heart in both of the techniques, is vastly lower than what the Violent Third Pool should allow for¡­ it is, however, more concentrated¡­ As I thought, more research needs to be done.¡¯


    ¡°Boss! Boss! Some newbie gotten into Beast¡¯s Rest!¡± the guard from the gates yelled, though not too loudly, as he entered the basement of a small tavern, ¡°It¡¯s a chick, though you¡¯d easily guess that they weren¡¯t ¡®cause of her abs.¡±


    ¡°Do you mean that she is extremely muscular?¡± his boss said, dressed like a noble, with a sigh so significant and pronounced that he seemed to be ready to die of exhaustion.


    ¡°That be what I said, boss.¡±


    ¡°By the beast, can you not speak like a regular human being for once? Use normal words!¡±


    The guard scratched his bald head, ¡°But, boss, you¡¯re the only one who talks like that. I dunno where you dug up the thing you called a dick-shinary, or wha¡¯ever you called it, but now you won¡¯t even give it to us no more. How¡¯re we supposed to learn without it?¡±


    ¡°That is because you lot tried to eat it the first and only time I offered to give it to you! If something this valuable gets destroyed, I couldn¡¯t possibly rebuild it, not without perfect memory!¡± the boss said with a raised voice, before calming down and asking, ¡°Alright then, tell me, did that woman look like one of the body cultivators?¡±


    ¡°I dunno, boss. She¡¯s got red robes and isn¡¯t exposing her ti-¡±


    ¡°Breasts, you mean.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, those. If she be a body builder livin¡¯ in the Beast¡¯s Ass, then she wouldn¡¯t be dressed like that.¡±


    ¡°There are so many things wrong with that sentence¡­ First of all, body cultivators, not body builders. Those are two different things.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what they call themselves-¡±


    ¡°Shut it, Ah Qiu. Next, I¡¯m guessing you are referring to the Great Bone Lake, where the violent energies of the Beast still persist, constantly forcing the bodies of those who occupy it to function at their very peak. Finally, in terms of their outfits, the women of the Bone Lake have three primary outfits that they tend to choose from ¨C trousers, baggy trousers and long hair to obscure their upper body, and a full-on robe- Wait, did you say red robes?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Fuckin¡¯ crimson, they were.¡±


    The boss stood up and approached the wall on which a single shelf was mounted, with a few books placed atop it. He removed one of them and opened them cautiously, flicking through a number of pages before settling on one for a little longer than the rest.


    ¡°Hm¡­ It is as I thought. The everlasting crimson robes of the third arrival were created after the discovery of a source of stable crimson threads, which ignored dirt and automatically healed themselves if the other part of the damaged piece of fabric was in close proximity. However, they miscalculated the quantity of the threads, and thus, only one hundred sets of robes were made. Although they were initially sold, they were then snatched up by killing intent practitioners, who themselves lost their robes to stronger practitioners, until only the strongest were able to keep them¡­ Right, I should have asked ¨C did she have any trace of killing intent cultivation?¡±


    ¡°I dunno-¡±


    ¡°Then have you seen any people leaving Beast¡¯s Rest that were wearing these same robes?¡±


    For a few seconds, the guard stood in a daze, then finally recalled something, ¡°There was that¡­ what¡¯s her name¡­ Xing Chen Li- no, wait¡­ Xing Cheng Yi-¡±


    ¡°Xing Chen Yi? The Black Terror? The one in the fifth realm of killing intent cultivation? The Hatred Augur realm? Well, isn¡¯t that something? Ah Qiu, keep an eye on that woman, but don¡¯t interfere with whatever she does. If there are any minor infractions on our rules, then you can ignore them. Oh, and check the wanted posters, just in case.¡±


    ¡°D¡¯you mean the death slabs?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I mean the death slabs... Basically, if you can, try to rope her in to our faction. Having someone that can beat someone in the Hatred Augur realm will make a huge difference if there¡¯s another conflict with Ding Wen and Shi Luo Feng.¡±


    ¡°Got it, boss!¡±


    The streets of the town were not particularly busy no matter where Wei Yi looked, but the buildings were. All of them were labelled with jagged and messy characters, almost a mockery of the common language of the Planar Continents, but with the experience from reading the words of the Kong Mental Arts, she was able to decipher most words with relatively high accuracy.


    ¡®On the topic of the two mental arts, now that they have been transformed with the inclusion of killing intent, and with so much of it, they cannot be said to be the same anymore, and so their names are also no longer suitable. For the Kong Mental Arts, just as their creator respected his family, I will also respect him, and name them the Kong Killing Arts. When I complete my investigation of the Violent Third Pool and begin to cultivate it, I should be able to put the Kong Killing Arts to use to refine the killing intent I gather,¡¯ she thought, walking through a small market where a number of people displayed goods that ranger from random rocks to exquisite but poorly aged items that may, at some point in their existence, have been golden in colour.


    ¡®As for the Gilded Library, though it does still contain gold, it would also benefit from a new name. Hm¡­ In a way, my vision of the world¡¯s future, a new Yi City, is akin to a prophecy in nature, and just as unlikely at the moment. Augur¡¯s Library seems fitting, then,¡¯ Wei Yi decided, applying those labels onto the two appropriate manuals before returning them to the third floor, ¡®It should be able to assist in making my killing intent more structured, and therefore more potent and effective. Furthermore, due to me creating both of these during a brief epiphany, I am essentially at the level of Full Success in both. From there on, I can only develop them to break into the First Stage and beyond.¡¯


    She walked further, until she saw a tavern on one side, and a building that contained a number of almost naked men and women on the other, doing their best to display the favourable sides of their bodies.


    ¡®Now, this reminds me of a conundrum I¡¯d been having for some time. That damn Seventh of Meng, the Thunder Lord, ignited the seeds of attraction within my mind, and I perceived them to be warped by his memories. Now that all of his memories, and mine, are stored away within the Augur¡¯s Library and are controlled, I can finally figure out what I truly think,¡¯ she looked back to the tavern, ¡®I might be able to settle it with sight alone, but if I need experience to confirm it, then I will first need to know how purchases are made in this town.¡¯


    Without any care for the random people in the way, she headed straight towards the entrance to the tavern and looked upon the man that stood in the doorway.


    ¡°Can I come in?¡± she asked, crossing her arms while focusing a part of her killing intent onto him.


    He looked at her carefully, up and down, his gaze clearly stopping on her chest ¨C which wasn¡¯t perfectly covered due to the robes clearly being intended for someone with larger breasts than a man ¨C for a number of seconds before he answered, ¡°Nah, bitch. Gimme a medium mote if you want-¡±


    ¡®Medium? There is at least one more before that, so I can¡¯t imagine this place to be worth such a price. He must be used to such limited quantities of killing intent,¡¯ Wei Yi decided, and stepped up to him, before placing her hand onto his shoulder, ¡°You may want to think about that again.¡±


    ¡°You think you¡¯re scary? Nah. Two medium motes-¡±


    She narrowed her eyes and pressed down hard on his shoulder, simultaneously delivering a powerful kick to his groin. Before the pain signals could reach his brain, she lifted him and tossed him away like one might throw a bag of potatoes, doing the tavern owner a small courtesy by not throwing him onto a table. Then, she headed straight for that owner, a short man with tidy, well-kept hair and ash-grey clothes that would have put him above an average peasant even in the Planar Continents. Out of all of the people present within the tavern, she surmised him to be the most likely to be the owner due to the fact that the rest of the people were sitting down and looking away from her actions, while he looked on with some regret in his eyes.


    Just as she approached the man in the door, without any trace of caution, so did she approach the supposed owner, stopping less than a step away from him, towering over him thanks to her height.


    ¡°Tell me, do I have to pay for entry?¡± Wei Yi asked, her voice as cool as ice.


    ¡°No, madam, you do not. I-I am the owner of this establishment¡­ would you like something?¡±


    ¡°What do you serve here?¡±


    ¡®Bitch, don¡¯t tell me you barged in without any reason! Most red-robes at least know what they want to steal from me first,¡¯ he complained inwardly, but as he was all too experienced with similar situations, this method of approach being the most popular amongst the people of this world, he remained calm and answered simply, ¡°We serve food and drinks here. Would you like the menu?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± she replied, finding the cleanest and most comfortable table for herself to occupy. The other customers looked at her with a variety of expressions, but a single glare in reply quickly made them look away.


    A minute later, the owner returned with a rectangular hide, which he placed onto her table.


    ¡°Here are all of your options. You, eh¡­ actually, never mind,¡± he said, stepping away to allow her to look at the hide without his interference.


    She did so, and found that a few dozen lines of the same, rough script were written onto it, detailing a number of dishes and drinks that were clearly inspired by those from the Planar Continents, but with the lacking resources of this world, they had to be simplified in some places, replacing some ingredients entirely due to their absence from the crimson hellscape. As a result, the list of ingredients within the dishes varied between as few as three and as many as five.


    To her, there wasn¡¯t much of a difference, as her priority was to recover energy and understand how well these foods compared to the water spring that she relied on, so she selected a few random dishes that wouldn¡¯t cost too much when she inevitably had to pay, and something the tavern called ¡®Crimson Fluid¡¯, which had no description beneath it.


    The owner accepted her request and went to the kitchen, where he stayed for some time.


    Meanwhile, Wei Yi glanced to the outside of the tavern, where she saw both the brothel and a person who quickly looked away from her the moment that he noticed her turning towards him. Unfortunately ¨C or, depending on his intentions, fortunately ¨C for him, she had her spiritual will enveloping the entire tavern, as well as a small area outside, and thus he had been noticed far earlier than she let on.


    ¡®I¡¯ve attracted someone¡¯s attention, have I? Interesting. So long as they do not inconvenience me, I won¡¯t bother stopping them, just like how the man clearly staring at my breasts wasn¡¯t worthy of action in and of itself. Honestly, those who spend so much time covering themselves up clearly have no greater problems to consider,¡¯ she thought, sighing inwardly as she moved her attention to the brothel, with the image of her stalker recorded firmly within the Augur¡¯s Library, ¡®If everyone exposed themselves as much as the people there are, I wouldn¡¯t even need to spend so much time trying to figure things out. Speaking of figuring things out¡­¡¯


    She stared intently at the most attractive man she could find, trying to analyse all of her mental and physical reactions as she did so, looking over his entire figure several times.


    ¡®From what I remember of my few conversations with other servants of the Yi family, this person does fit their definition of handsome, with decent body, hair and whatever else¡­ that part seems decently large as well, though I only have the other men out there to compare him to¡­ No, none of them seem appealing in any way. Why¡­ why did the possibility of this fill me with a small degree of dread in the past?¡¯ Wei Yi questioned herself, before switching her gaze to the women, whose similarly limited clothing made it much easier to determine the size of their assets.


    Immediately, she felt her eyes being drawn to their figures involuntarily while blood rushed to her cheeks, reminding her of the many times that it had occurred before. She immediately looked away, but even without the usage of the mental library, that image was emblazed into her mind for several minutes afterward.


    ¡®Although this may not be emotional or romantic attraction, there is certainly some physical attraction. It wasn¡¯t a by-product of the Thunder Lord¡¯s memories after all, and I should have noticed that when the library completed itself and I still had the same interests¡­ Good, this makes things clearer.¡¯


    ¡°Madam, these are the things you ordered,¡± the tavern owner came over and placed a number of thin stone and wooden slabs with food atop them onto her table, before turning around and muttering, ¡°Payment can be discussed later¡­¡±


    Since she never considered that payment would be something that he would ignore, she was not surprised by the matter and simply looked at the food in front of her.


    It was, as expected, bland-looking and focused more on being nutritious than looking appetizing, with the meat being burnt and cut into a large slab before being dropped onto the wooden surface that functioned as a plate. The same applied to the so-called salad, which was just a number of random crimson plants cut into pieces and dropped onto the same ¡®plate¡¯, and perhaps the only exception was the ¡®Crimson Fluid¡¯, which, while it was indeed red like everything else, was put inside of a wooden cup that looked far better than Wei Yi¡¯s attempt to create something similar.


    While keeping an eye out via her spiritual will, she consumed the things in front of her quickly, finding out two things simultaneously: the first being that the food of this world was surprisingly decent despite how little effort was put into making it palatable, and the second being that she really couldn¡¯t care about the taste of food, especially not now that she had something more significant to think about.


    That was only of note due to how frequent foodies were amongst the fictional heroes of Yi City. Even the Master of Yi City was said to enjoy his meals as more than a means to recover energy.


    ¡®I suppose that there are bound to be some differences between me and him, even if our goals match. In fact, I would like to avoid being too similar, for something about his actions caused him to later disappear and for his project to fall into a state where a bunch of random families can kill whoever they want for being born to the wrong person,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, feeling her killing intent rise at the very thought. With the Kong Killing Arts, she reinforced it and then directed it into the Augur¡¯s Library, where the energy gathered on the left side of the third floor, where she was storing the techniques regarding killing intent.


    She lifted the cup of Crimson Fluid, and finished it, assessing its effects on her body.


    Compared to the miracle water that she had luckily obtained within the red cave residence, it did not seem to refill as much of her energy, nor was it as pleasant to consume, but there was a similar taste to it, suggesting that their sources were similar.


    ¡®Hm, there is a faint scent of blood from this,¡¯ she observed, sniffing what remained within the cup, ¡®If this comes from the great river of blood, then that would explain where these people are obtaining it from. That would then open up the question of why there is such a difference between my miracle water and their Crimson Fluid, with the former seemingly being less concentrated, if the lack of colour is anything to go by.¡¯


    As answering that question would require her to complete some analysis in person, she shrugged and placed the cup back onto the table and stood up, going straight to the owner.


    ¡°How much should I pay you for that?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ Two of the smallest motes.¡±


    Although she kept her eyes on him, she scanned the reactions of the other customers with her spiritual will. Apart from a few brief glances, none of them showed any clear sign that the owner was making her pay more or less than she was meant to, so she took out two of the smallest motes she had and tossed them at the owner, turning around and leaving immediately after.


    Her eyes were set directly on the brothel, ¡®Since the prices here seem to be rather low in comparison to the funds I have obtained, I might as well invest them into ensuring that I am familiar with the bodies of other people in a slightly different way. It will also assist in confirming my initial impression of my attraction, which, for all I know, could be from mere physical appreciation more so than attraction¡­ That Thunder Lord really should have warned me in advance, so that I could have acquired a mental technique to seal away all of his memories the moment that they appeared, Then, I could have easily learned about my interests in my own time.¡¯


    With the issue and the solution memorised in the case of any future mental echoes passing on their ideas onto her without her permission, or something that can be dealt with similarly, she decided on the woman whose appearance interested her the most and entered the brothel.


    In comparison to the tavern, which was incredibly bare in terms of furniture and decorations, the interior of the brothel was superior to the most impressive room of the Xiao Mountain residence, with a great collection of rugs, tapestries and incredibly detailed statues that depicted both men and women performing various activities together. There was even a proper front desk besides the stairs to the upper floors, from which she heard vague moans and the collision of flesh against flesh.


    She approached the front desk just in time for two of the employees to finish a conversation.


    The man walked away, while the woman, dressed about as scantily as one could be while still covering their body, with thin silk fabric wrapping around her chest and a second piece of silk concealing the area between her lower abdomen and her upper thighs.


    ¡°Welcome, dear customer. Are you interested in one of our ladies or gentlemen?¡± she asked, motioning towards the windows to the outside, ¡°Everyone that is available can be found outside, or, if you prefer, you can come upstairs and we will instruct those who fit your preferences to come to you when they are available.¡±


    ¡°No need. How much would I need to pay for the platinum-haired woman?¡±


    The employee nodded, almost like she was expecting that exact response, ¡°A single session will be one minor mote, but as long as you do not harm her or violate our small set of rules, it can last for as long as one day, meaning that you can keep going for as long as you like.¡±


    ¡®I can¡¯t say that I expect to need that time, but a minor mote¡­¡¯ Wei Yi reached into her pocket, and took out a mote that was slightly denser than the weakest one she had, ¡°One of these?¡±


    ¡°Precisely. Now, head up to the fourth room on the second floor, and Ah Li will be with you in a moment.¡±

 Bonus Chapter: A Woman’s Touch [R-18]

    Oculus


    There won''t be many of these bonus chapters. I am also less experienced with writing explicit adult content than I am with the rest of the story, so feedback here is even more important. After all, even if you think these are terrible, I can''t improve what I''m doing if I don''t understand why you think that.


    Thank you for reading, and please enjoy the chapter.


    Much like everything in the crimson realm, the bed that awaited Wei Yi only barely fit the definition. Had she not been accustomed to staying out in the wilderness, and in a messy shack before that, she might have had a few complaints for this establishment.


    Fortunately for them, she had no concern for such things right now, as her interest was simply in experiencing that which she had refused to properly consider for far too long. Her unconscious mental block on the concept of having any kind of intimate contact or relationship with another woman seemed to be present far earlier than she had actually recognised it. Otherwise, she had no clue how she could have possibly missed the meanings of the numerous things that Yi Kun had said, when the perverted girl wasn¡¯t being subtle at all.


    ¡®Provided I get out of here fast enough, I could try to sneak into her residence and apologise for somehow misunderstanding each and every one of her innuendos,¡¯ a smile briefly appeared on her face.


    She could have sat around like that, pondering all manners of things, but she was also acutely aware that despite the memories of the Seventh of Meng, she wasn¡¯t familiar with the details of what she was about to get into. In what might have been a show of incredible restraint for him, the Thunder Lord had managed to only employ various finger techniques in bed, once he and his partner were already in the middle of the act. Thus, the rest of the process was far more nebulous.


    Of course, she was in a brothel. It didn¡¯t matter whether she had any experience, or skill, or even attractiveness.


    It was the job of the prostitute to please her, and it was her prerogative to do whatever she wanted, provided that it didn¡¯t break the rules. Surprisingly enough, there were some rules that appeared to be present and enforced, but none of them specified that she had to give anything back to the woman that would come to satisfy her body.


    And yet, it simply didn¡¯t sit right with her. She wanted to be proactive, perhaps thanks to her general change in worldview, and there was a certain something that didn¡¯t let her be subpar at anything, including sex. Perhaps it was pride, or some degree of perfectionism deciding to manifest itself now of all times ¨C she didn¡¯t know, and she didn¡¯t really care. It was the way it was, and there was no reason to change that part of her nature when it would only encourage her to work harder in all aspects of life.


    Therefore, she didn¡¯t waste her time and reached out with her spiritual will, easily overcoming the walls of the brothel and touching those in nearby rooms, as well as above and below.


    She couldn¡¯t hear much from any of those rooms, but they were all occupied. Most were in use by a male and female pair, going at it in various positions, and she looked at them for a few moments before confirming once more that she was not interested in the men. Perhaps they were considered attractive, well-endowed and fit, but especially in the middle of coitus, they were just unpleasant in her eyes.


    ¡®I can just block out any details about them, and record the effects they have on the women¡­ eh, I¡¯ll record all of it in the Augur¡¯s Library, since I have the space for it,¡¯ Wei Yi decided, though she still focused exclusively on the women.


    Her interest was instead grabbed by the two pairs of women she had observed.


    One pair was sitting on their bed, with the customer at the edge and the prostitute behind her. While softly kissing her neck, the prostitute caressed the customer¡¯s breast with one hand, and used the other to tease her lower lips. The moisture that had gathered there made it trivial for a finger to enter, eliciting a subdued moan from the customer.


    ¡®Now that is better. If I include the details of the whole body, and everything sensitive and pleasurable, I should be able to figure out how to do this right,¡¯ she felt her heart accelerate a little.


    As she spread her spiritual will further, she found her chosen woman on the last step up to the second floor. Long platinum hair flowed from her head, most of it resting on her back and ending just above her ass.


    On that topic, Ah Li¡¯s ass was a very pleasant sight, as was her bountiful chest, both bouncing in the loose grey tunic that served as the only clothing on her body. Seeing as it was trivial to see beneath it, Wei Yi did so, enjoying the soft white skin, the large hard nipples that made themselves prominent even with the shirt, and the puffy lips below.


    She had some experience with the nude bodies of other women thanks to more recent visits to the Yi District baths, so she could say with confidence that Ah Li was more beautiful than most of them.


    Given the nature of the crimson land, it was actually quite impressive.


    Her fingernails had been trimmed since she last saw her, and it wasn¡¯t hard to guess why, even with her own inexperience. So, using some of her spare physique energy to do the same, though she had never let her nails grow out in the first place.


    Wei Yi did not withdraw the tendrils of her mind, but she did shift her focus to the door, gazing at it patiently.


    It opened half a minute later, and the platinum-haired woman stepped in with a smile on her face, quickly finding the one that hired her and locking eyes with her. She shut the door behind herself, then gave a slight bow while keeping eye contact. Perhaps anticipating that Wei Yi would want to examine her body first ¨C which was accurate ¨C she didn¡¯t move for a while, restraining herself from similarly examining Wei Yi in that time.


    ¡°Hello, dear customer. It¡¯s a pleasure to see a new face here.¡±


    ¡°And it¡¯s wonderful to see your face as well.¡±


    ¡°How kind,¡± Ah Li stepped closer, ¡°So, what should I call you? If you don¡¯t want me to say your name, I can always use something like ¡®master¡¯ or ¡®honey¡¯¡­ Anything, really.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Wei Yi, though I don¡¯t mind any creative liberties,¡± she shrugged.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take note. So, Wei Yi, you¡¯ve got me for the whole day. I have plenty of stamina, so we can keep at it for as long as you like, and we can try whatever comes to mind. What would you like to begin with?¡± the woman took another step and bent her knees until their eyes were just about level.


    For a moment, she didn¡¯t have an answer to give. With the wealth of knowledge she was gaining from passively observing most of the brothel with her mind, and the few sexual acts she had heard of before, she had a lot of things to consider. Whatever she did now would be the first time she had sex with another, and perhaps it would remain within her mind even if the Augur¡¯s Library was destroyed, so it was important to get it right.


    She knew that it would be best to let Ah Li showcase her skills first, given that Wei Yi had no actual experience, though that only narrowed down who the act would be done to.


    In the end, as to not waste too much time, she decided to settle on Yi Kun¡¯s apparent preference.


    ¡°How about you get down on your knees and show me what your mouth can do?¡± Wei Yi suggested, moving a little further back on the bed.


    She had been sitting at the edge of the bed before this, and it didn¡¯t seem like a good place.


    ¡°I knew you¡¯d want that. Give me just one moment¡­¡±


    Taking the bottom of her long grey shirt, Ah Li pulled it up and over her head, removing it with ease and managing to only slightly mess up her straight hair, fixing it with her hand. The woman threw away the shirt, letting it end up in a corner of the room, then took one final step forward and lowered herself to the ground, resting her knees on some padding that surrounded the bed.


    She reached out and took hold of the crimson robes, forcing them apart to reveal Wei Yi¡¯s own naked form.


    ¡°Wow. You look fantastic, Wei Yi,¡± Ah Li said softly, her gaze travelling down from her abs to the virgin lips below, ¡°And you¡¯re so smooth down here. You take great care of yourself, despite the circumstances¡­¡±


    Her hand slid down to Wei Yi¡¯s thighs, resting on them as she drew closer, breathing in through her nose and suddenly making Wei Yi recall that she hadn¡¯t had the chance to clean herself since arriving at the city. Although she knew that it didn¡¯t really matter, the sixteen years of developing manners forced her to comment.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t had the opportunity to take a bath, or-¡±


    She realised a moment too late that it would likely be rather difficult to find a bath in this realm, but Ah Li didn¡¯t appear to notice, or at least didn¡¯t make it obvious, instead shaking her head, ¡°No, it¡¯s no problem. I like the smell of a hard worker, of a warrior. The sweat, and your arousal¡­ They¡¯re wonderful, like a flower or sweet fruit. I may not have ever seen one of those myself, but I¡¯ll just have to make do with you, won¡¯t I?¡±


    With a lascivious smile, she lightly pushed Wei Yi¡¯s legs apart, then brought her lips to her inner thighs, planting a kiss on her left, then on her right.


    ¡°You don¡¯t mind if I take it slowly, do you? I think it¡¯s much better that way.¡±


    Before a response could be formulated, Ah Li repeated her kisses, getting just a little closer to Wei Yi¡¯s moist pussy. Glistening drops of arousal slowly built up in the narrow crevice, a sharp contrast to the wide-open lips of Ah Li.


    ¡°I did tell you to show me your skills, so do as you think is best,¡± Wei Yi replied, restraining the urge to bite her lip, ¡°If I get bored, I can just trap you with my legs, then force your lips exactly where I want them.¡±


    ¡°Now I don¡¯t know whether I should. I love to be pushed down and fucked¡­¡±


    Although she said that, Ah Li continued on slowly and patiently. Every few seconds, she would plant another series of kisses, and each one would leave behind a faint crimson mark from whatever the crimson realm used as lipstick. The touch would be brief, not even involving the tongue, and yet it sent a faint spark of lust and pleasure through Wei Yi¡¯s body, slowly forcing her to employ more and more of her self-control as to not harm the woman between her legs.


    It was challenging, but the urge to shut her legs was tempered by the knowledge that this was just the start. Her lower lips hadn¡¯t even been touched yet, and she knew that there was a bundle of nerves there that would be far more overwhelming.


    ¡®I hadn¡¯t realised that not masturbating would prove to be a problem now¡­ Never really had the chance to touch myself, though. Too young to think of that at first, and then I got involved in the expedition¡­ On the other hand, it makes this so much better for me,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, feeling her cheeks heat up and her breath quicken with every touch.


    Clearly, Ah Li knew, as she slowed down, making the delay between each kiss absolutely agonising.


    Perhaps she was hoping for Wei Yi to take control, whether that was a genuine desire or just a play to excite her more, but no such thing happened. Even if she moved as slowly as she possibly could, she would still get to the spot between her legs in just a few minutes. Out of the twenty-four hours that they had, it was practically nothing, and although it was hard to endure, the slow build-up of arousal was extremely pleasant.


    ¡°You actually held out. I don¡¯t know whether to be impressed, or disappointed¡­¡± Ah Li said, after her last two kisses came so close that her breath tickled the pink flesh buried by Wei Yi¡¯s tight lips, ¡°Grip the sheets tightly. I can tell you¡¯re going to struggle otherwise.¡±


    Faced with the expert¡¯s opinion, Wei Yi wouldn¡¯t do otherwise. Just as most of the realm¡¯s fabrics and furniture, the bedsheets were rough and unpleasant, especially with her current sensitive and aroused state, but it was easy to forget about that when Ah Li neared her pussy lips and softly breathed upon them.


    Then, she got even nearer, and her lips touched Wei Yi¡¯s. Slowly, she pushed her tongue out and forced it in, licking up the dew that had built up. It slid into the virgin tunnel, managing only a single inch before it had to withdraw.


    ¡°F-Fuck¡­¡± Wei Yi exhaled, her breath akin to steam, pouring out into the room.


    A layer of sweat was beginning to appear upon her skin, larger droplets slowly sliding down her tanned form, but her focus was on the green eyes of the woman kneeled down before her as she withdrew.


    ¡°That was just the start. I haven¡¯t even touched this part yet,¡± Ah Li briefly showed a mischievous grin as she removed her right hand from Wei Yi¡¯s thigh and touched the small nub at the top of her lower lips.


    Another spark shook her body, making it even more difficult to restrain herself.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, is this your first time?¡± with nothing more than Wei Yi¡¯s focused gaze as an answer, Ah Li continued, ¡°It¡¯s not an issue. You¡¯re young, after all. However, I want to introduce you to something. That spot right there is the clit, or clitoris. All women have one, and it is just delightful to play with. You can touch it, lick it¡­¡±


    She moved her head in and placed her lips over the clit, placing her tongue upon it a moment later. With slow and deliberate movements, she caressed it and covered it in her saliva, drawing back a hood that covered much of it while she was at it.


    Obviously, her ministrations produced gaps and moans from Wei Yi. Although she still gripped the sheets, she was sure that she would tear them apart if this went on long enough, and then she would no longer be able to restrain herself. In a moment of respite granted when Ah Li moved her focus back to the entrance between her parted labia, she released the sheets and moved to grip another spot, and she wasn¡¯t going to let her lust and ever-growing desire take over just yet.


    Ah Li¡¯s tongue licked up slowly, starting from the bottom of her lower lips, then pressed against the vaginal entrance and forced the tense muscles to part just a little more each time. After a moment, she returned to her licking upwards, touching the clit before returning to the bottom and repeating.


    Her deeds were simultaneously remembered with perfect clarity within Wei Yi¡¯s mind, and also mixed into a blur as she was overwhelmed with lust. A pink fog occupied her vision, to the point that she couldn¡¯t even see the bed or the floor on which Ah Li kneeled. Only the woman herself was left, the green eyes alternating between Wei Yi¡¯s own gaze and her pussy, while her lips and tongue did their work with practised ease.


    Every now and then, when the prostitute glanced up, her eyes seemed to contain that challenge once again, inviting Wei Yi to simply take her and use her however she willed.


    The temptation rose each time.


    Another delicate lick, gathering up even more liquid arousal from her lower lips, and another inviting glance up. In that moment, it was like she was presented with all her heart¡¯s desire, with no reason to refuse, and even though she knew that she was just overwhelmed by the situation, that final glance caused her to lose control.


    Perhaps she tore the bedsheets, or maybe she released them. Even if she checked the Augur¡¯s Library, she probably wouldn¡¯t know. What was certain was that her hands were suddenly free, her legs wrapped around Ah Li¡¯s body, preventing her escape, and her left hand found itself on a head of platinum hair, forcing it against her lower lips. It particular, she wished to ensure that the divine tongue would enter her once again and stay there, for as long as it took, though by that rising tide within her body, she knew it wouldn¡¯t be long.


    To her credit, Ah Li appeared unphased. Her tongue went right in, stimulating her inner tunnel, while her eyes locked with Wei Yi¡¯s own, not moving away for a moment.


    Even though her nose was similarly forced against Wei YI¡¯s pussy, she didn¡¯t show a hint of restrain or hesitation, even inhaling her scent while her tongue stimulated her pussy in a simply indescribable, yet glorious manner.


    ¡®I¡­ I¡¯m-¡¯


    Wei Yi¡¯s barely understood what was happening when that tide finally struck her. She seemed to lose all control over her body as it washed over, an impossible pleasure frying every nerve within her body as she threw her head back, unable to maintain their eye contact. Just barely, she could feel something burst out of her, going right into the eager, ready mouth at her lower lips.


    By the time the wave dried up and the fog faded from her eyes, she knew that some time must have passed, and yet she found Ah Li still pinned between her legs, her eyes still looking back at her and her face red.


    As soon as Wei Yi was able to move her legs, she released the prostitute, allowing her to draw back and take a couple much-needed breaths. However, even when the signs of oxygen deprivation faded, her cheeks were still flushed in a manner to match Wei Yi, and her expression seemed to contain nothing much joy.


    ¡°You¡­ you finally did it¡­ and you came so much¡­ luckily for you¡­ I¡¯m into it¡­ phew¡­¡± she muttered, a big smile seemingly glued to her face, ¡°I know the answer, but¡­ did you like it?¡±


    Wei Yi opened her mouth to speak, only to find her mouth dry and hot. Another cloud of steam escaped through her parted lips before she shut them and forced some saliva to moisten her mouth. It took only a moment, even if her mind seemed to have ground to a halt a moment ago.


    ¡°Yeah. I want to try more.¡±


    ¡°I knew you would.¡±


    The prostitute began to rise, but before she could get far she was grabbed and pulled in closer, finding herself right in front of Wei Yi¡¯s face. Her silver eyes were still filled with an obvious desire, almost unchanged from before, though she could see something else within their depths. It was strangely authoritative, commanding ¨C and she loved it.


    Wei Yi moved her head forward just a little, and their lips met, parting quickly only to touch again. Although she had just as little practise at kissing as anything else, her spiritual will had clearly not remained idle while her conscious mind was at the peak of orgasm. She had the acts of numerous customers and prostitutes to draw upon for guidance, and the memories of the Thunder Lord if she got really desperate.


    Hence, she dove right in, beginning with simpler kisses before both of them parted their lips and let their tongues meet and entwine.


    At first, anyone could have guessed that she had never kissed someone, and Ah Li guessed as much, but that changed with incredible speed. It took only a little while for their kisses to become passionate and genuine, without Ah Li needed to play up her own enjoyment in the slightest.


    If she was asked how often she needed to lie about her own enjoyment, even a diplomatic answer would be that it was more often than she would have liked.


    When their lips separated again, with both needing some time to breathe, Ah Li even began to miss the feeling of her partner¡¯s lips. She wanted to speak, to say how much she loved the kiss, as she normally would, but it suddenly felt wrong to simply repeat the same words. Even if it was just a small difference, simply considering her usual white lies suddenly produced a feeling of guilt.


    ¡®This is bad. She is cute, but if I had fallen for every cute woman that passes by, I¡¯d have dozens of girlfriends by now¡­¡¯ Ah Li forced her eyes to shut for a moment, to block out the strangely enchanting visage, though she could do nothing about the pleasant smell of the woman before her.


    ¡°Come here,¡± Wei Yi said, forcing her eyes open as she felt herself being lifted up and brought onto the silver-eyed woman¡¯s lap, ¡°I want to touch you as well.¡±


    With a simple movement of her arms, the crimson robes were cast off fully, leaving Wei Yi entirely in the nude. As soon as her hands were free, she embraced Ah Li, bringing her closer so that they may resume their kiss. She needed only one arm for that, so her spare hand moved down to insofar untouched pussy, caressing it gently.


    ¡°Wait-¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re so wet for me,¡± Wei Yi cut her off with the sounds of her own wet vagina, ¡°I¡¯m glad you do enjoy being dominated. I was concerned.¡±


    ¡°No need for that, I¡­ I¡¯m here because I want to be, after all,¡± Ah Li muttered, her voice so quiet that only Wei Yi¡¯s powerful hearing permitted her to grasp some of it, ¡°I do like it when others take control, so¡­¡±


    ¡°Say no more and place your fingers right here,¡± briefly removing her left hand from Ah Li¡¯s lower lips, Wei Yi took hold of the prostitute¡¯s hand and brought it to her own pussy, ¡°We¡¯ll pleasure one another.¡±


    Ah Li saw no reason to argue, and so she got to work, inserting her fingers into the slick tunnel and slowly beginning to feel out her partner, using what little she had gathered with her tongue to ensure the best experience. The moment that her finger penetrated Wei Yi, the silver-eyed woman trembled, a faint gasp forcing its way past their joined lips, though that only delayed her for a moment before she did the same.


    Again, she could feel the seeming growth of her ability in mere seconds, for the first touch was clumsy, yet within a minute she was bringing her more pleasure than Ah Li had ever managed to bring to herself.


    ¡°W-Wei Yi, I¡¯m¡­ about to-¡±


    ¡°Me too. Let me just try¡­¡±


    No explanation followed, but Wei Yi knew that she had understood when the woman¡¯s empty hand clenched and her pussy tightened around her two fingers. It was only a simple pulse of energy, carefully controlled and manipulated to emerge at the tips of her fingers, but it sent a shockwave throughout Ah Li¡¯s body that left her speechless and breathless.


    Somehow, the prostitute managed to keep moving her own fingers as well, and soon she brought Wei Yi to her second orgasm, which seemed stronger than the last. Thanks to her experience, she wasn¡¯t left without control over herself this time, but she couldn¡¯t continue to finger her partner, so she removed her fingers and instead brought them to the platinum-haired beauty¡¯s mouth. They were slick with her arousal, but Ah Li happily took them into her mouth and licked them clean.


    It was more difficult to keep her fingers outside, as she insisted on giving them one final kiss once they left her warm mouth.


    ¡°How do you¡­¡± Ah Li paused, clearly finding her mouth to be dry as well, though her solution was to dive in for another kiss, almost gathering Wei Yi¡¯s saliva before withdrawing, a glistening strand keeping them joined for a moment.


    ¡°You were saying?¡±


    ¡°How do you learn so quickly? You¡¯re going to put me to shame if this keeps going¡­¡± Ah Li asked, beginning to lick her own fingers clean as soon as she finished.


    ¡°Is that a problem?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ let¡¯s not think about things like that. Do you want to keep going, or switch to something else?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve not gotten to use my mouth yet, so¡­¡±


    Just like before, Wei Yi easily lifted her up, laying her on the bed as if she weighed nothing. She stood up, glancing for a moment at the wet stains on her robes that were slowly fading from the crimson fabric, and got onto the bed as well, putting her legs around Ah Li¡¯s head and bringing herself close to her gushing lower lips.


    ¡°Are you sure? You don¡¯t have to-¡±


    ¡°I want to taste you, so I¡¯m going to. Besides, we have plenty of time, so I¡¯ll be sure to experience every part of your body,¡± Wei Yi smiled, then dove in.

 V2C5: The Three of the Beast

    ¡°Boss, the newbie¡¯s gone to one of your brothels after that,¡± the guard who had been seen beside the entrance to the city and then outside of the tavern, ¡°I swear that she noticed me whenever I looked at her, though she didn¡¯t even look at me except once.¡±


    Meng Chu lazily clapped, ¡°Well done, you managed to say one sentence that didn¡¯t make me hate you. Now, as for the matter of her noticing you¡­ very interesting.¡±


    ¡°What is?¡±


    ¡°That is something that can be accomplished with spiritual will and little else, but spiritual will is not something that one can project and maintain, even within their body, without planar cultivation. However, even if someone was to enter the prison grounds with a cultivation of a City Patriarch, with the peak of the seventh realm, they would only be able to maintain their planar structure for a month at most, and would then lose the anchor in a week and the rest of their planar energy would drain away within a similar time,¡± he explained, reading out of a different book from his shelf of knowledge, ¡°For someone to have been here for less than two months, without access to their cultivation, and to be able to kill someone with crimson robes in that amount of time¡­ She must be a dedicated body cultivator, and she ought to get stronger when she gets her hands on a killing intent technique.¡±


    ¡°Is ¡®at cool? How strong does that make her?¡±


    ¡°Strong enough for me to talk to her in person,¡± Meng Chu stated, getting up and patting the crimson dust off of his robe, ¡°You can return to your post for now.¡±


    Exactly twenty-three hours and fifteen minutes afterwards, Wei Yi awoke within an extremely comfortable bed with a beautiful woman lying by her side, without a trace of clothing on their bodies. Although Wei Yi quickly changed her expression to be neutral upon her awakening, Ah Li, who accidentally revealed her full name to be Xi Wen Li around the fourth hour of their interaction, had a face of utter bliss.


    As someone without any experience, she should not have been able to please someone with a great deal of experience upon her first time, but the structure of the brothel just happened to be constructed of a material that, while it subdued most of the noise from their adjacent rooms, was akin to paper before her spiritual will.


    It allowed her to observe a number of similar interactions within the entire brothel. That awareness, when combined with her calculative abilities, perfect memory thanks to the Augur¡¯s Library and the ability to scan her partners the entire body with spiritual will to see how every one of her actions affects her, allowed her to improve with frightening speed. Her ability to precisely control her body, hands, fingers and tongue also helped her greatly.


    Out of all of the things she had thought to use these abilities for, this was not near the beginning of her list.


    This did make her first ever time with a woman more than pleasant enough to explain why so many other people sought out such experiences, with certain bandit groups and criminal organisations seeking nothing more than beautiful, defenceless individuals to sleep with, whereas she previously considered them to be somewhat foolish.


    ¡®Not that they aren¡¯t still foolish, of course, I just see that they have a slightly better justification now.¡¯


    She sat up and stretched her arms before carefully cleansing them with physique energy while avoiding the metallic manacles on both wrists, just in case that energy proved to be particularly effective against them.


    Just as she wanted to consider whether to spend her last few minutes with Ah Li or to leave early, her answer arrived for her in the form of the woman from the front desk, who knocked on her door and entered thereafter. She glanced at her body briefly before raising her gaze to meet Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, maintaining a profession expression all the while.


    ¡°Dear customer, this brothel¡¯s owner would like to speak with you.¡±


    ¡°Why? I still have forty-three minutes left, and I don¡¯t see why I shouldn¡¯t be permitted to make use of that time as I wish.¡±


    ¡°No, that wasn¡¯t my intention, dear customer. In fact, if you still had the interest in Ah Li, then we could give you another free day with her, for the¡­ intensity of your activities has doubled our customers overnight, but the owner, Meng Chu, has expressed interest in discussing an important matter with you.¡±


    ¡°So?¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Is that man important?¡±


    ¡°Meng Chu is one of the three leaders of Beast¡¯s Rest, in case the dear customer was unaware,¡± the woman replied, ¡°In comparison to the rest of the prison realm, he would be within the top fifty.¡±


    ¡®I have caught the eye of someone like that? Although I did not expect to do anything of the sort, especially not by having sex ¨C not that my actions in the bedroom are what has likely attracted this Meng Chu, of course ¨C but it is within my interests,¡¯ she thought, shrugging, ¡°Alright then, I can do that. Step out for a moment.¡±


    The woman did not question her request and left, shutting the door behind her. Naturally, Wei Yi had no issue with being seen as she was putting her clothes back on after the woman had already seen most of her body, but she did not want to expose the matter of her physique energy just yet.


    She stood up and released her True Ascendant physique energy to envelop her entire body, with the natural exception of the training set, and removed all of the dead skin, dirt, dust, dried fluids and whatever else had gathered on her skin since her imprisonment within this crimson world while simultaneously wiping away any traces of impurities that may have gathered within her body since she was able to experience her last breakthrough. Once she had returned it to her body, she went to the back of the room and picked up a thin string, with which she tied her hair into a ponytail.


    Once she put on her robes, she returned to the bed, planted a quick kiss on Ah Li¡¯s cheek, and left the room.


    ¡°Very well then, lead me to your leader.¡±


    ¡°Naturally, dear custo-¡± the woman began, but her words suddenly got stuck in her throat when she saw Wei Yi¡¯s appearance again. She was not particularly surprised by how this customer was able to clean herself with such care and precision in so little time, as that was something that could, at least in theory, be achieved by a number of killing intent or body cultivation ¨C with the latter being more likely based on the customer¡¯s impressive musculature ¨C but what that cleanliness revealed.


    It was as if she had somehow experienced a complete transformation, like a diamond being revealed out of a rough stone, with features that she would have initially described as slightly above passable having been transformed into something nearing perfection.


    ¡°Are we waiting on something?¡±


    ¡°N-no, dear customer, my apologies,¡± the woman quickly said, turning away as she thought, ¡®I¡¯ve been working here for so long, but I¡¯ve never had a reaction like that before¡­¡¯


    ¡°Right,¡± Wei Yi nodded, following the woman. She had obviously noticed the way in which this woman looked at her, but since she did not seem in any way interested in pursuing her own interests, she wouldn¡¯t force her to.


    The woman led her to the stairs, down to the first floor, and then behind the counter where a second set of stairs brought them to the basement. It was decorated about as lavishly as the rest of the brothel but lacked the same scent that had long been infused into the rest of the building. As was made obvious by the positioning of the steps, this was not a place that the regular customer would be allowed to visit.


    Even then, the owner was apparently not content to see her there, for the woman continued into the basement and brought her to a third set of stairs, where she stopped.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I cannot lead you any further, dear customer. Meng Chu will meet you downstairs.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded and descended, finding that this floor was a little less aesthetically pleasing and a little more ergonomic, with a number of positions where one could hide from ranged attacks and manoeuvre their enemies into place for a more comfortable melee fight.


    Furthermore, now that the walls were not covered with various fabrics and paints, one could see that they were all sturdy and reinforced against any possible assault, in such a manner that even if the beast carcass below the town suddenly exploded into nothingness, the basement might be able to withstand it and allow the people within to survive with only minor injuries from the inevitable crash back onto the ground.


    There was only one passage to go down, and at the end of it was a door with three keyholes. ¡®That, and there are a few secret passages within the walls, but I don¡¯t think I was meant to notice.¡¯


    In preparation for her arrival, the door was open, so she walked through without issue. The room on the other side was simple, containing only one desk, two chairs and one shelf that was attached to the leftmost wall, near to the chair in which a man, dressed in ash-grey robes and wearing something that resembled crude glasses which rested on his nose, sat in a relaxed pose.


    ¡°Are you Meng Chu?¡± she asked, not waiting for his reply to sit down in the other chair.


    ¡°That¡¯s ri- whoa,¡± the man expressed involuntarily, his eyes freezing on her face, ¡°Ah Qiu did not tell me you looked like that. To be frank, I expected an enormous block of muscle, though you are tall by conventional standards.¡±


    ¡°I will just assume that this is a compliment and move the conversation along. Why did you feel the need to interrupt my usage of your services?¡±


    ¡°Straight to the point, then. First of all, can I know who you are?¡±


    ¡°My name is Wei Yi, and that is all I will tell you for now.¡±


    ¡°An interesting name, especially considering your hair and eyes,¡± Meng Chu pointed out, leaning in while placing his elbows on the table, ¡°If the records and rumours are to be believed, both are very common in those of the-¡±


    ¡°Are you trying to say something? Do you want me to leave right now?¡±


    ¡°No, no, my apologies. I was just curious whether you had any familiarity with the world outside as it is now.¡±


    Wei Yi sighed, ¡°Fine, I will pretend that I didn¡¯t hear anything before that one question. What sorts of things do you want to know, regarding what time, and what will you give me in return?¡±


    ¡°The general matter of the families and Great Families, I may decide to offer you my cooperation, and regarding the time¡­ well, what year was it when you got imprisoned here? If you have arrived here only recently, you may be unaware of this, but time here does not pass the same as it does in the Planar Continents. As a result, news tends to be slow and far between, depending on when the Greats decide to imprison their next set of people.¡±


    ¡®Cooperation is something that may prove useful, but the information he happened to reveal is even more interesting. Then, it is the Great Families that are capable of imprisoning others in this crimson domain, meaning that it is almost certain that they were responsible for burning the district and killing at least four of my friends or acquaintances,¡¯ she thought, asking, ¡°What exactly is the ratio, then?¡±


    ¡°According to one of the records, it is roughly one minute in the continents to thirty minutes here. Therefore, thirty days here is one day there, and thirty years here is also one year-¡±


    ¡°I am capable of performing mathematics on my own, thank you very much. Now, you have also mentioned sets of imprisonments, didn¡¯t you? Do the Greats typically targets groups when they emerge ¨C and yes, I am aware what my answer is telling you, so don¡¯t try to seem smart.¡±


    ¡°Whatever could you mean, Wei Yi?¡± the man chuckled dryly, ¡°Yes, they do. There have been a total of four hundred and sixty-four major arrivals, where more than fifty people were imprisoned within the prison realm, and roughly three thousand, seven hundred and fifty-two minor arrivals, where less than ten people were imprisoned. Typically, there are extremely long breaks in between those arrivals, for the Great Bastards are usually content to sit within some random caves, but every now and then they find some issue with the world and decide to emerge, or to respond to potential threats to their power. For instance, some time ago, there was something about a War of Yin?¡±


    ¡°No idea what that means, sorry. Any names that I could recognise?¡±


    ¡°Let me think for a second¡­¡± Meng Chu said, though he actually stood up, took a book off the shelf and flipped through it, ¡°Peng Xi?¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°Shu Wang?¡±


    ¡°Not familiar with that, either.¡±


    ¡°Meng Qi?¡±


    She nearly shook her head again before she recalled an exact match for that name, ¡°Seventh of Meng, the Thunder Lord, rune sword-wielding warrior in the Marked Core realm? Lost in a battle against an unknown foe. That Meng Qi?¡±


    ¡°It seems you know of him, then. The ones he fought, and lost to, were-¡±


    ¡°The Greats, and he then ended up here¡­ and based on the text within that book of yours, Meng Qi is your ancestor. I must say, you don¡¯t look anything like him, nor do you appear to be practising a technique as interesting as his. That is truly unfortunate, for I once hoped to acquire his technique and comprehend its secrets.¡±


    ¡°Not anymore, then?¡±


    ¡°Won¡¯t be of much use here, would it? Now, the War of Yin is not something I recognise, but I vaguely recall that the conflict the Thunder Lord was involved in was the second of its kind, so I shall call it the Second War of Yin for now. I believe that happened roughly forty-seven years before I was thrown into this world, so that will be one thousand, four hundred and ten years ago¡­ Holy shit, that is quite some time,¡± Wei Yi muttered, summoning up two sets of imaginary calendars within the library in order to confirm the validity of her estimate, ¡°How distant of an ancestor are you, and how long do people usually live here?¡±


    ¡°Very distant, unfortunately, and I couldn¡¯t possibly have practised his techniques due to them being lost after some random battle. Since we cannot practise planar cultivation, and due to killing intent not having much of an effect on the body until the fifth realm, you¡¯d expect us to live less than a hundred years, but something in the Beast¡¯s blood, even when diluted, allows us to live twice or thrice as long, unless we die an unnatural death or lose to the toxicity of the blood.¡±


    ¡®Once again, quite a bit of information to work with. Thank you, Meng Chu,¡¯ she calculated the answer and said, ¡°A little under six generations, then. His blood must have been rather weak in comparison to that of the women of this world.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t argue with that, so¡­ Since you are aware of how cultivation decays in this prison realm, I think it would be prudent to move onto the topic of cooperation. Even if you have no combat ability, your ability to use spiritual will right now makes you incredibly valuable, so I would like to put that to use while I can. After that, I can easily teach you whatever method of killing intent cultivation I have access to or offer you a number of medium motes to acquire something else from Ding Wen¡¯s auctions. What about this offer do you want to change before you agree?¡±


    ¡°You seem very certain that I will accept your offer. Why should I?¡± Wei Yi asked back.


    ¡°Because for someone with your abilities, abilities that were sufficient to acquire a crimson robe like that, there are only three people in the area that could give you anything worthwhile. That would be me, Ding Wen and Shi Luo Feng, the three leaders of Beast¡¯s Rest,¡± he explained, ¡±Ding Wen will never give you anything, for that conflicts with his very cultivation technique, Greed Congregation, and Shi Luo Feng will try to make a favourable impression on you before leeching everything from you. When I say everything, I do mean it, as her Magnanimous Leech skill can drain away your very intellect and mind if she has enough time. Trust me, you do not want either one of these to be too close with you for too long.¡±


    The techniques he described were incredibly interesting, and ones that she would greatly benefit from if she could ever get her hands on them, for she intended to keep quite a number of things to herself and wouldn¡¯t be opposed to taking away whatever talents allow the Great Families to surpass those like her, though she would indeed be opposed to being on the receiving end.


    ¡°Do you lack such things?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, yes. Those kinds of techniques are rather rare and almost impossible to create, with their original creators doing so via pure luck or some insight that we cannot hope to replicate. I have no such insight, and that is well known in this town.¡±


    ¡°Then I will ask around and see what people tell me, descendant of the Thunder Lord.¡±


    ¡°Hold on for just a minute, Wei Yi. Can you promise me a week- no, five days of your cultivation remaining?¡±


    ¡°If I can¡¯t then what will you do?¡±


    Meng Chu did not reply directly, ¡°Just answer the question.¡±


    ¡°Do you think you are threatening just because there are a few empty chambers and corridors around this room? Even if there are people in there that are somehow hiding their presence, I can still kill you before they have a chance to do anything,¡± she did the same, leaning back in her chair while still being ready to pounce if she needed to, ¡°I do not need to answer any of your questions, but you can also be certain that I will not waste my time when it comes to my cultivation.¡±


    Seeing that he remained silent for a while, she continued, ¡°Unless there¡¯s something else, I¡¯ll be going. Oh, and don¡¯t try anything with Ah Li. She¡¯s cute, but I won¡¯t be pushed into action for her.¡±


    She stood up, gave him a polite nod and left through the same door she entered through.


    For a while, Meng Chu sat in his seat, not making even the slightest movement, not even daring to breathe too audibly, and only when he was sure that she was not observing him with her spiritual will did he stand up and approach a wall, which he tapped several times without any clear pattern to his actions.


    However, that somehow caused it to lower into the ground, and reveal an empty passageway with an identical wall at the end of it.


    He tapped it in a similar yet wholly distinct manner, and it opened up to the same room that he seemed to have left, except for the number of chairs around the table and the fact that one was occupied by Ah Qiu, who sprung up the moment that he saw Meng Chu enter.


    ¡°Boss! How¡¯d it go? Did¡¯ya get them tits on our side?¡°


    ¡°By the heavens, shut up! Now that I¡¯ve had a talk with someone who still speaks the regular continental tongue, your mangled version of it is even more painful to listen to¡­¡± he said, rubbing his glabella, ¡°Unfortunately, I did not, but I do have an impression of her abilities. She did not display any fear nor hesitation when speaking with me, meaning that she was either confident in herself, as the owner of the crimson robes should be, or that she had no fear at all. As for which one it is¡­ Ah Qiu, have you found any traces of a minor arrival?¡±


    ¡°Not ¡®round here and not in the near towns. There¡¯ve not been any new people as of late.¡±


    Meng Chu smiled, ¡°So the Greats thought enough of her to imprison her without the start of a major war¡­ Interesting.¡±

 V2C6: Land of Blood

    As Wei Yi left the brothel and wandered the streets, she wore only a faint smile on her face, but her mental self was absolutely ecstatic. Before meeting with Meng Chu, there were quite a number of things that she wasn¡¯t sure about, including the strengths of those that were at the top within this crimson world, but during their interaction she had plenty of time to assess everything about the man, including his killing intent cultivation technique.


    He was a step weaker than the woman that attacked her in the mountains, and he practised a technique similar to that woman, except for the fact that it was closer to the element of earth than fire.


    ¡®If these techniques are named after the elements they are meant to be based on, then they would range between Violent First Pool and Violent Fifth Pool, meaning that it would be the Violent Fourth Pool¡­ except for the fact that this one stores far less energy, but it is much more powerful. I wonder if there is some official list for me to consult. Anyway, back on topic,¡¯ she stored her understanding of the technique in the library and brought back the book of Meng Chu, ¡®If I am to ally with someone, he might not be the worst choice, seeing as he shows signs of intelligence and is rather straightforward when he needs to be. If he speaks the truth regarding the nature of the other leaders, then the least I could do is meet them, steal everything I can with my spiritual will, and then¡­ Perhaps if I was presenting a false identity, then I could become someone¡¯s underling, but that is not something that I will do as myself.¡¯


    She saw a person walking past her, so she grabbed their arm and pushed them against a wall, noticing only then that it was a feeble woman without a trace of killing intent cultivation, prompting her to weaken her grip the next second, ¡°Tell me everything you know about the Beast¡¯s Rest leaders.¡±


    Although she didn¡¯t utilise any of her killing intent or physique energy, the height difference between them caused the girl to be presented with an extremely muscular chest and abdomen, presenting a similarly frightening image. For a few seconds, she did nothing but tremble, shutting her eyes immediately, but when she realised that Wei Yi didn¡¯t do anything to her, she narrowly opened one eye and managed to calm her trembling sufficiently to speak.


    ¡°W-Well, there¡¯s¡­ uh¡­ Meng Chu, and¡­ Ding Wen, uh, and Shi Luo Feng. They¡¯re all tough, and scary, and¡­ uh¡­¡±


    ¡°Calm down, girl. Just tell me everything you know, and I will let you go immediately.¡±


    ¡°R-Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Meng Chu practises the Violet Fourth Fall technique and is in charge of the town¡¯s guards and brothels which he has inherited from his father and is at the second stage of the Searing Torch realm which makes him the weakest of the three but he is able to keep his position because the guards are stronger than all of the other forces under the control of the other two¡­ hah¡­¡± the girl had to take a breath ¨C or seven ¨C before she could continue, ¡°Ding Wen does all of the trading in the town, and manages the auctions, and so he holds most of the town¡¯s treasures within his vaults. Then, Shi Luo Feng, she runs a number of training halls and a bunch of other buildings that deal with combat and competition. I don¡¯t do much fighting, so I- ah! I¡¯ve heard that none of her personal guard or close allies last for longer than a year.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for that information, I shall memorise all of it so that I don¡¯t have to do this again. Now, get out of here, preferably by going to your left then turning right on the second turn.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ okay¡­¡± the girl said, beginning to run the very moment that Wei Yi released her arm.


    Obviously, she didn¡¯t provide her with overly specific directions purely because of the kindness of her heart, for it would be difficult to say exactly how much of that kindness remained, but because her ever-present spiritual will caught the traces of approaching individuals who appeared to be bearing some degree of malicious intent towards their vague area.


    The route led the girl away from the conflict just in time, for the ones in hiding appeared the next second.


    Without any hesitation, they surrounded her, not bothering to search for anyone else in the area. Although that made it clear that they were after her instead of the random girl, there was no clear explanation of why there were after her-


    ¡°That¡¯s right, boss, this is the bitch that took away your time with Ah Li!¡±


    ¡®I would ask you to stop answering questions before I have the time to ask them, but that reason¡­ I suppose it is to be expected from a world where it is common to kill one another for fun, if the Black Terror is to be believed, but it is still extremely immature and exactly what I want, for this will allow me to measure up how I fare against someone in what might be the first or second realm of killing intent cultivation, as well as a large group and people who are not as unprepared as the aforementioned Black Terror,¡¯ she thought, drawing the black dagger from her pockets, ¡®And since my killing intent is unlikely to gain the effects of my planar energy, if I can manifest any of it into the blade, I might be able to experience fighting with a proper weapon for once.¡¯


    ¡°You, for ruining my Ah Li¡¯s mind, I will strike you down!¡± the leader of the group, a balding man with a sphere of crimson light floating in front of his forehead, yelled, reaching up and grabbing a clump of that energy with his hands.


    ¡°I did sleep with her, but I did nothing to her mind. If you¡¯re already planning to attack me, is there a point to accusing me falsely?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t¡¯ you lie to me, woman! I came to see her today, and she ignored me!¡±


    ¡®Uh¡­ Did I overdo things slightly, to the point of making her lose all interest in other people? I¡¯ll keep that in mind,¡¯ she thought, raising the dagger, ¡°Go on, then.¡±


    The bald man nodded to his underlings, prompting four of them, out of the total of eleven, to charge at her with two knives, one club and one long stick with a sword-blade bound to the top of one side. They had vague elements of coordination within their movements, but they were closer to being non-existent, for she was already able to see, just one step into their charge, that two of their strikes would collide with one another if they continued onward.


    Since their tactics were clearly not too advanced, she decided to attempt a mental technique that she could have theoretically utilised long ago if not for the interference of the mental storm and conjured a small tactical table in the middle of the library¡¯s third floor.


    Atop it, she created a series of books regarding every single one of the fighters around her. Then, she focused and forced her mind to accelerate, pushing it until she could not go any further without the risk of bringing significant harm to herself via overexertion. The moments of the four figures slowed down, not to a complete halt like the time she faced the Black Terror, but it was enough for her.


    From the beginning of her cosmic journey, she had thought that her best trait was her mind, and ever since she attained the Gilded Library, she had been wondering how to best put it to use. After plenty of consideration and deliberation, she came up with a technique that she tentatively named Endless Calculation, in the hopes of eventually creating something that rivals the likes of Storm Blade Wreathing and the Kong Mental Arts without relying entirely on the powers of cosmic energy.


    Its function was simple ¨C to take available information, typically the sorts of things that she can detect with her spiritual will and any prior knowledge about a situation or opponent ¨C then predict every possible step that could occur in the next second, at the rate of the mental space.


    Then, once the mental second passes, to repeat the process while eliminating possibilities that contradict the previous second. In other words, she wanted to create a perfect model of an encounter by learning from the actions in front of her, then devise a method to counteract those actions with minimal effort on her part.


    This wasn¡¯t something to be used on weaker enemies, nor on situations that can be solved via brute force, for that would be a waste of mental energy, but it could have two primary uses. The first would be when she is against the likes of the Great Families, which somehow surpass every cultivator in the same realm. As long as she can predict all of their movements and attacks, she doesn¡¯t need to care how powerful they are, for she would be able to evade them all and strike at the weakest points of their bodies. The second could be used to substitute her lacking tactical experience and allow her to order others to perform certain actions without needing to involve herself. In that situation, she would create a model of the encounter, take in all information about the area and the threats that may be encountered there, then design a small number of plans and tactics to be used against them.


    Both methods had not been used so far, as both would require a great deal of information to be gathered ahead of time against those that could resist her spiritual will, not to mention how her library developed a mental storm only a short time after being filled. Now that the twin malaise of the mind was solved, she finally had the opportunity to refine the technique into something usable.


    Two mental seconds passed since the activation of Endless Calculation, but the number of possibilities was clearly still too large to be dealt with.


    ¡®Right, I am only taking them into account, not considering what I could or should do. With my complete data, I can narrow down a method of approach significantly more quickly,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, adding that into the manual and performing another set of calculations.


    Out of the thousand or so books representing possibilities, several hundred vanished and half of those that remained moved backwards, as to demonstrate their low likelihood. Then, many of those vanished, and more of those at the front moved backwards. With each iteration, she gathered information on the thug¡¯s movements, probable techniques and skills, and even where they looked in the hopes of understanding their intentions. Once any of these were confirmed, she could judge their actions far more reliably, and thus discard the things that they would be certain not to do.


    The moment that she had less than ten possibilities for the actions of the club wielder, who looked to be rather simple mentally and was thus charging straight at her without any care for his allies nor surroundings, she decided to confirm their validity by acting out one of the predicted situations, stepping towards his right with a planar energy-free Dawn Light Step. The simple movements of the technique were not particularly fast nor extravagant, but they somehow confused the eye.


    He reacted by¡­ well, by changing absolutely nothing about his approach.


    ¡®Indeed, that prediction was correct, but only because there was very little that had to be considered with him. Even the least intelligent members of the Great Families are bound to have more methods than simply running at me without a care in the world forcefully drilled into them, and the more intelligent will have a thousand different ways to make the mindless charge tactic become something far more complex. I know I would,¡¯ she thought, taking another step and stabbing his armpit with the tip of the rock-like knife, ¡®This man appears to be practising the water equivalent of Violent Third Pool, so, presumably, Violent First Pool. That¡¯s three out of ten, or perhaps fifteen or twenty.¡¯


    She threw the club-wielding man into the wall of a nearby structure, instantly incapacitating him ¨C and likely causing significant damage to the skull, but that wasn¡¯t of any concern to her.


    The books in the library vanished and were replaced by a far greater number of tomes, for her simple action had significantly changed her position and her appearance in the eyes of the thugs. Just as they began to reconsider the simplicity of their actions, so did her Endless Calculation have to process their new decisions. Thankfully, as she had completed several sets of predictions already, the total number of books that appeared this time was lower, for there were some things that she could absolutely rule out without a second thought.


    Ideally, the technique seemed most suitable for use against close acquaintances, or those whose every move had been recorded somewhere for her to view and comprehend, for that would minimize the amount of guessing that she has to do, and thus increase how quickly she can act with confidence. However, such things would be risky in their own right if either source of information is unreliable, whether due to inaccuracies or the person acting in a different manner during their particular battle.


    The gazes of the thugs were drawn to their leader, who opened his mouth to speak, ¡°All of-¡±


    ¡®He is the primary source of their non-existent tactics, meaning that if he is dispatched, the groups cohesion should fall apart completely. How convenient,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, lowering her body significantly.


    Like a sprinter, she launched herself forward, through the gap between two men, and aimed straight for the leader¡¯s neck. He was able to respond quickly, crushing the clump of killing intent within his hand to form a thick barrier in front of himself. It was inferior to anything that could be created with the externalised force of planar energy, but it was still sufficiently dense to slow her momentum to a crawl if she carelessly passed through it.


    ¡®The other part of this fight was meant to be me utilising killing intent, which I ought to have enough of to activate the knife¡¯s internal systems, much like an Energy Condensation cultivator can use lower-grade artefacts. Strictly speaking, I am closer to someone who hasn¡¯t yet taken in any planar energy, but semantics are irrelevant for now,¡¯ she decided, gathering all of the loose crimson energy within her mental landscape, which had grown to envelop the entire library with a vague red light, as if it had also moved into the prison realm.


    She directed it into the knife, feeling an extremely unpleasant sensation as it passed through her hand and flesh, and quickly felt it being drained away as it entered the dagger.


    Somehow, she felt as if the weapon was laughing at the amount she provided, for it had almost no response besides getting a little warmer in her hands. Although she could not be said to be impulsive, not when she had perfect control over herself like she did now, for an inanimate object to mock her was not a pleasant experience in the slightest, whether or not it was true.


    ¡®Oh, so you don¡¯t think that I have enough energy for you, do you? You think the hatred of an entire family system, the districts of the most powerful city in the world, and the world itself for whatever nonsense it is engaging in while this occurs, is insufficient for one simple knife?¡¯


    Her mental brows furrowed, and the killing intent around the library suddenly doubled in volume.


    Once again, it flooded to the knife, but before it could be fully used this time, she caused even more to spawn within her mind, encouraging the constant development of killing intent via the combined powers of the Kong Killing Arts and the Augur¡¯s Library, both of which could easily be combined to create an array to magnify and greatly enhance the quantity of killing intent within her mind. When combined with the fact that killing intent wasn¡¯t a finite energy like planar energy, and it seemed that it could be generated within one¡¯s mind infinitely so long as the user did not lose his will and hatred, whatever that hatred was.


    To apply this infinite quantity of energy properly, something like the Violent Third Pool technique would be needed, and it ought to help greatly with storing more energy in the body, but what need did she have to store raw energy when she had the library to store it in a vastly denser, purer state?


    Within a heartbeat, according to the regular perception of those around her, the killing intent within her body doubled, tripled and then magnified by an unknown quantity.


    Before anyone could observe and understand it, that great mass condensed into incredibly thin threads, then the threads were woven into pages, and the pages were bound into a book that was placed on a shelf that stood apart from every other one on the third floor. This book contained all of the energy that should, according to some rough predictions from the Endless Calculation method, be enough to feed the dagger, which she intended to test right then and there.


    ¡®I must say, I had assumed the mysterious characters to be my most powerful asset, but this ability to practically slow down time is very close to beating it. In theory, had I not been stifled by the four arrays beneath my home from the very beginning, I could have achieved something similar to the cosmic energy I now possess through raw calculation¡­ theoretically.¡¯


    While another book condensed itself within the Augur¡¯s Library, she removed that one and projected it onto the dagger, all while she was still in the process of lunging towards the barrier. It flooded into the black stone, and this time, there was no imaginary laughter from the blade, and the minimal warmth that had initially appeared within the knife grew to the point of being boiling hot. No visual changes appeared on its surface, but she felt the edge becoming infinitely sharp, almost like it could cut through the very fabric of reality itself.


    Although it did not appear to do such a thing in her hands, it did cut through the barrier the very next real-time second, leaving a single long, deep wound on the bald man¡¯s chest.


    He leapt back, his eyes wide, and was about to exclaim something when he suddenly fell onto his back. Blood poured endlessly from the cut, which, despite all initial appearances, pierced almost all the way through, severing his heart, lungs and more in a strangely jagged and unclean manner, causing the blood to flow in vast, constant quantities.


    ¡°She¡­ she has a hatred blade! She hit our boss! Get her!¡±


    The situation did not play out exactly as expected, for the moment that they saw their leader fall, everyone, including those who had initially stood back, rushed at her with renewed vigour and dexterity.


    Their movements were even simpler than before, but each one was clearly preparing to use the strongest method they had of attacking her.


    ¡®Not that their attack amounts to anything more than a minor inconvenience. If I was to compare these with anyone, I would liken them to the common cultivators of the Planar Continents, people who had no guidance nor resources in their cultivation and were thus significantly weaker than anyone who practised a similar technique. However, they were incredibly helpful in my development of the Endless Calculation technique, and have informed me of a new term, so I¡¯ll end them quickly.¡¯


    She employed the Earth-Shaking Step to cause them to stumble the moment they neared her, and then followed up with a twin Boulder Pushing Palm to dispose of both of the knife-wielders. While she could not display the full strength of her techniques without calling upon her limited planar energy, the basic principles of most of them could be replicated with sufficient controlled force.


    A short but nimble woman armed with a sword approached her next. In her hands, the sword was used to stab at Wei Yi¡¯s heart while she simultaneously released a wave of concentrated killing intent aimed directly in her direction.


    The former was deflected by a simple swing of the black knife, followed up by a similar stab to the woman¡¯s heart, while the killing intent washed over her and provoked no visible response at all. It had easily pierced her body and surged to her mind, but when it met with the crimson light of the library and the red pages of an actively assembling book within, it waned and disappeared into nothingness, incapable of even touching the foundations of the library.


    ¡®So, this is the function of killing intent at lower cultivation levels? Her killing intent appears to be significantly more refined that of those around her, with only their boss surpassing her, so she is in the second realm while he is in the third?¡¯ Wei Yi guessed, pulling the black stone knife out of her heart, ¡®If that is the case, then wouldn¡¯t I be at the first realm already? That explains why I can use the dagger with a little bit of effort and confirms that killing intent cultivation is much like planar cultivation, in that they can be started with pure luck, but require some semblance of technique to advance.¡¯


    She focused on her killing intent, and willed it to emerge from her body, targeting everyone around her. If her guess was correct, then even the first realm of killing intent cultivation allowed for the externalisation of energy, but it could not be as focused. The second should allow for a targeted wave to be released, while the third appeared capable of striking specific targets.


    Indeed, as her killing intent burst out, it created a sphere around her that covered their entire area of conflict. One person fell to the ground instantly, their bodies incapable of handling the sudden shock, while the rest stumbled and struggled in place, their movements towards her stopping completely.


    ¡®As for the other realms, I can study this later. All I know is that the fifth realm had something to do with empowering one¡¯s own body, though not to the extent of making the user invulnerable.¡¯


    Without any resistance, it was incredibly easy to finish off her enemies, which she did with great precision, leaving only a single wound on their bodies after gathering everything she could about their killing intent cultivation techniques. Then, she also took a few things from their bodies, reading through them quickly using her spiritual will, then kept them on her for a while. Although most people appeared to practise killing intent cultivation, the matter of elements was still likely to be relevant, meaning that the right manual being sold to the right person could earn her a decent sum of motes of killing intent, which she probably should have considered when burning the Violent Third Pool.


    The techniques she found were called Violent First Pool, Violent First Fall, Violent Second River and Violent Fifth Fall. As she had predicted earlier, there were at least three distinct varieties of techniques. The Pool series supported a larger quantity of energy, but it would be weaker. The Fall series stores less energy, but the explosive power it provides is far greater. The River series appeared to be a balance of the two, though it was inferior in both aspects.


    ¡®Very interesting. However, this does mean that if I want to approximate some version of the technique from the mysterious characters, I will need all fifteen techniques in my pockets, so to speak,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, departing from the scene with some haste. Although there appeared to be no strict rules about assault and murder in Beast¡¯s Rest, it was better to be safe than sorry.


    The next few people she randomly accosted in the street were not followed by a battle, allowing her to gather up all of the information she wanted ¨C and a small map ¨C within an hour, after which she headed for the location of the largest auction house in the town.


    Besides common or uncommon killing intent techniques, which were apparently the most commonly sold commodities within the auctions, she wanted to have an opportunity to inspect Ding Wen, the user of the Greed Congregation technique, in order to steal it and to see whether his description by Meng Chu was in any way accurate. If it was, she would consider stealing from his vault later on, but if it wasn¡¯t, she would see whether he would be more agreeable in negotiations.


    Finding that auction house was not difficult, and she was sure that if she found someone who had no idea how to read or write, they could still find it.


    It would be appropriate to describe the auction house as tower, standing amidst grass, for it certainly gave the impression of being absolutely gigantic despite having only three floors. In horizontal proportions, it was as large as a dozen brothels placed next to one another, both lengthwise and width-wise. Furthermore, it was all built with rare white stone, causing it to stand out from everything around it. At the front stood four guards, one on each side of the entrance and two in the way, obstructing any potential intruders.


    ¡®My spiritual will can¡¯t extend far enough, but I can sense the presence of other people inside, meaning that there might be an active auction going at this very moment. I wonder what the requirement for entry is,¡¯ she asked herself, tidying her robes before approaching.


    The moment she entered their sight, they blocked her path with their guandaos, but then, just as suddenly, they raised them again.


    ¡°Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival. You may proceed,¡± one of them said, making way for her.


    She frowned internally, but she wouldn¡¯t question a free pass like that, so she walked inside while examining the sleeves of her robes with her eyes, and the rest of them with her spiritual will, ¡®Third Arrival, huh? To stumble onto a set of unique robes, a lower-grade hatred blade and a bunch of motes thanks to my first ever fight in this world, it seems that the strange luck that I had in the past hasn¡¯t quite gone away.¡¯


    If only luck was something substantive, and not just a superstition, she could have devised some method of cultivating it, or perhaps of gathering it from others, but alas, no such thing was possible.


    Even if it was, she wasn¡¯t sure that it was a good idea, for no matter how powerful the force of fortune was, and no matter how prominently it appeared within various tales and legends, it was not omnipotent. And when one could not guarantee success, it was best to do things themselves.

 V2C7: The Auction

    There was a small room in between the primary hall and the entrance, and in that room, she was given a small, black card with a number on it. Like everything else within the prison realm, the numbers were written in the horrid approximation of the language of the Planar Continents, and the fact that it was somehow written in gold did not make it look any nicer.


    Nevertheless, she didn¡¯t have an opportunity to say anything before she was also guided to the third floor, into a private room.


    After it was closed, with a key being available on the inside, she was left alone with her thoughts, ¡®If the information I have about auction houses in the continents is accurate, then this is some sort of VIP room, and this black and gold card is either to be used to signify my status, or to participate in the auction. Number 43... Speaking of which, how exactly am I supposed to get involved in a sealed room, without any windows to the stage?¡¯


    Her question was answered by the sudden disappearance of a large segment of the wall, which revealed the entire stage to her, on which a man in a black cloak stood, facing the rest of the participants.


    Before doing anything else, she inspected the wall with her spiritual will and found that it was still present, and, furthermore, that the other side was still completely opaque, except for when she raised the black card, at which point the numbers would somehow shine through, lighting up only on the other side of the wall. She located a number of arrays within it, powered by the constant flow of crimson killing intent from the clouded sky, and despite their structure being just as distorted as the rest of the language, she was able to understand that they were intended to allow her voice to pass through the wall, but in a warped manner that would prevent anyone from identifying her later.


    It was a very interesting structure, so she recorded all of it into the mental library before looking towards the man on the stage.


    He began to speak a few minutes later, during which she sat down on the most comfortable seat within the sealed chamber, presumably after everyone who was meant to attend the auction did so. ¡°Welcome to our prestigious master¡¯s auction. Some of you have been here before, others have not, so I will first introduce you to the way in which we appraise the motes.¡±


    With a wave of his hand, five pillars rose out of the darkness behind him, with the first four containing a mote of killing intent.


    ¡°The first mote, on the left, will be referred to as a minute mote, then a minor mote, then a medium mote, then a great mote and, finally,¡± he approached the empty pillar, ¡°we did not have the opportunity to acquire a spare titanic mote for this particular display, but if a participant has one of these, I suspect they will be well aware of their sensation. Although these motes do not hold much more energy than one another, the energy within is significantly more refined, thus making each subsequent size worth a hundred times the previous one. If an item is sold for one medium mote, then it can be acquired with one hundred minor motes, or ten thousand minute motes.¡±


    Wei Yi reached into her inner pockets and took out three vibrant, incredibly dense motes of killing intent, and compared them with those on the stage. They were clearly superior to the first three, and, after careful consideration, she found that the fourth was also inferior to it.


    ¡®Does that mean that I¡¯ve come into contact with something quite impressive yet again?¡¯ she wondered, ¡®These are the ones I have acquired from the decayed Black Terror¡¯s chest, so if these correlate to cultivation realms, then that would mean that not only was she in the fifth realm, but also that these motes are created upon death. That would make for quite the vicious economy¡­¡¯


    ¡°Now, since everyone is already aware of this, let us proceed. If you are a common guest, you should have the list of items available today in your hands already. If you are a VIP of our auction, you can find the list on the table in your room. If, by some fortune, you are a particularly special guest, then please ring the bell on your table and speak any requests to it, including the gender and general appearance of your preferred servant for this auction. While we may be somewhat lacking in comparison to Meng Chu¡¯s brothels, we do still allow you to do whatever you like with our staff, so long as they are not killed as a result. The birth rates are rather low in this city, you see, so we cannot afford random deaths from customer entertainment.¡±


    She turned to the side only to find a single, small bronze bell standing on the table.


    ¡®And now, I am apparently a particularly special guest. How many of these red robes are out there, and do all of them get this special treatment? Whatever the answer to that is, I should hurry so that I have some basic clue of what this auction will be about,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, lifting and softly ringing the bell. She didn¡¯t have any particular specifications for a servant, so she just said, ¡°Female, attractive, clever.¡±


    Less than a minute later, she heard a person knock on her door lightly. She stood up and opened it, finding a beautiful woman on the other side, dressed in a maid¡¯s outfit that revealed a significant portion of the soft skin beneath due to the majority of the outfit being made out of translucent or otherwise thin materials.


    ¡°Dear customer, am I to your liking?¡±


    ¡°Sure. Come in,¡± she replied, letting her in before locking the door. She returned to her seat, and the woman took her place to her side, waiting for the man on the stage to finish speaking.


    ¡°Dear customer, before I begin my introductions, is there a name you would prefer me to use?¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi ought to be fine.¡±


    ¡°Then, Master Wei Yi. If there is a particular item or type of item you are interested in, I can describe it to you, or I can go through everything one by one. The total value of today¡¯s auction is estimated to be at a total of five titanic motes, though our estimates are often wronged by differing priorities.¡±


    ¡°Just list everything. I have a good memory.¡±


    ¡°Alright, Master Wei Yi. The first item-¡±


    ¡°- and, finally, the last item is a mystery that Master Ding Wen has not permitted me to reveal. My apologies if this causes you any inconvenience, Master Wei Yi.¡±


    ¡°None at all,¡± she muttered, sorting through the items in her mind before discarding the majority of them. She had finite funds, and most of the items were books or manuals that she could study remotely ¨C the position of her room meant that she had just enough reach to scan the things on the stage with her spiritual will ¨C so it was wiser to focus on the list of things that could prove to be of some actual use to her.


    Amongst that list were things like the Beast¡¯s Rib Bone, an item that is supposedly capable of storing enough killing intent to thrust someone right into the fifth realm, a set of black bone die that had some sort of secret combat technique embedded within them, and a bronze mirror that can instantly kill any person within the prison grounds.


    Whether or not they were real, she wanted to acquire at least one of them to see how they compared to the black dagger that she took from the Black Terror.


    ¡°What is your name?¡± she asked the servant, who was currently pouring some blood wine for her.


    ¡°Master may refer to me as Shiyi, or by any other name or title that you prefer.¡±


    ¡°Shiyi, meaning eleven? What an¡­ original name. Either it isn¡¯t your real one, or there is a real lack of creativity within this place,¡± Wei Yi commented, tasting the blood wine and quickly eliminating it from her system with physique energy before it had any chance to cause a negative effect.


    ¡°You may interpret the situation however you like, Master. My only purpose is to ensure that you have a pleasant experience here.¡±


    ¡°Huh¡­ So, even if I told you to undress and serve me, you¡¯d do it without any hesitation?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ if the customer wishes, I-¡±


    ¡°No need for that. I was just curious,¡± Wei Yi said, turning away from the slightly flustered maid to watch as the first item of the auction was brought forward, ¡®To say that I¡¯m a little curious regarding the systems of this place would be a significant understatement, but I do not have the time nor need to investigate. If I ally with Ding Wen, I¡¯ll have no reason to weaken his auctions, and if I don¡¯t, taking over while making minimal changes would be most efficient. When we escape, I could easily reconsider the systems of the entire prison realm, as, at that point, they will be unable to defeat my cultivation, which could easily advance at a far greater pace than theirs, as it is limited by the presence of killing intent in their meridians.¡¯


    ¡°The first item is a craft that has finally been recovered by one of our artisans, the great art of pill refining! This is a wondrous item, the Copper Skin Toughening pill!¡±


    Despite so little being said, everyone on the first floor of the auction house began chattering to one another in excitement. To the typical cultivation in the continents, such a thing would not have much value, but in the prison realm, where strengthening the body was difficult to achieve without going to the insane body builders of the Great Bone Lake.


    Since the first few items would not be of any interest to her, Wei Yi turned back to the servant and asked, ¡°Instead, tell me everything you can about the prison realm. I¡¯m a bit of a new arrival, you see.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master Wei Yi. As the pill has been brought forward, I might as well begin there. The prison realm, sometimes called the Great Prison or the Great¡¯s Hell, is very lacking in flora and fauna. The vast majority of life-sustaining materials come from the Beast, the monster that lies beneath us. Some suggest that this realm may have been originally intended to seal it away, and then adapted to house the enemies of the Great Families,¡± the maid explained, ¡°As a result, even when pill refiners are sent here, they typically have little to work with, thus leading to the prison realm¡¯s lacking achievements in most of the great arts. Blacksmithing here typically involves bones instead of metals, though the occasional metal vein is found beneath the crimson dirt, sand and rock, while array arrangement can be done via auspicious placements of the Beast¡¯s bone shards, so that is also not an issue. However, there are almost no herbs in the entire prison realm, excluding whatever may hide beyond the wall.¡±


    ¡°The wall?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master. There is a large wall around the entire prison realm, that, according to its curvature, should result in a perfectly round environment. For no clear reason, that wall takes a sharp turn at one point, and goes straight across the middle of that circle. In theory, there should be another half of the prison realm, but it has not been found by anyone reliable, leading rumours of all sorts to sprout, including that the other side is the Planar Continents, though that is the least likely story.¡±


    ¡°Well, that does seem to be a silly notion. This is clearly a pocket realm, akin to the hidden grounds of the powerful families and districts, though the world seems far more complete. Perhaps it is an arbitrary division, or maybe there is something opposite on the other side, with the storm clouds preventing the intrusion of unwanted elements like us.¡±


    ¡°Theories like that also exist and are further encouraged by the fact that the straight segment of the wall has hints of white light behind it. Master Wei Yi might want to visit it in the future, but the best place to observe is the very centre of the bisecting wall, for it contains a sort of storm¡¯s eye, which is wider than the rest of the wall and significantly more interesting to behold,¡± Shiyi said, pouring a little more blood wine for her, ¡°However, if you ever wish to attempt to cross that wall, you are recommended to try it anywhere but there, for it is the least safe area to cross.¡±


    ¡°I will keep that in mind. Does your auction house sell informative books on the topic?¡±


    ¡°No, but you can pay the auction house a minor mote to employ me for a few more hours after the auction, during which I can provide you with all of the information I am aware of.¡±


    ¡°That is something I will have to consider when the time comes. Continue your explanation, please.¡±


    While the servant did so, the first auction began with the minimum value of one minor mote and quickly grew to nineteen motes, and a sudden raise brought it to thirty. Most of the crowd then became silent, but a few of the richer individuals continued betting until it was finally sold at the price of forty-eight minor motes.


    ¡®In the eyes of a people without pills, something like the Copper Skin Toughening pill was initially worth as much as a day with Ah Li? Naturally, they started with a lower price than they intended to get, but still¡­ have I been scammed by that Meng Chu?¡¯


    The next item was brought on, a collection of blood wine that had been bottled four hundred prison-years ago and was subsequently sold for seven minor motes. Strangely enough, the person who acquired it treated it similarly to the pill, muttering something about enhancing or strengthening himself, prompting Wei Yi to inspect both the blood wine in her glass and the remaining effects of it on her body.


    A little searching with her spiritual will led her to discover that, just like the rest of the red drinks in this world, it had traces of the properties of the Beast¡¯s blood, and thus it contained some of the same enhancing and restorative properties of the blood. However, something about the long process of creating and fermenting the wine led to those effects being enhanced or weakened, with a few completely new factors being created seemingly out of nowhere. The particular wine in her glass, for instance, had an effect of focusing and enhancing the mind temporarily, while relaxing the body, with the potential for long-term effects in the case of long-term consumption.


    ¡®Now this makes sense. With such a large quantity of blood wine, the new owner can get those desired effects out of it, or perhaps even modify it somehow to extract a particular effect,¡¯ she realised, turning to the servant beside her, ¡°This blood wine that you¡¯ve given me, was it intended to be the equivalent to pills before they could be replicated?¡±


    ¡°Ah, Master Wei Yi has understood that as well? Indeed, the common tale is as such, though Master Ding Wen has previously said that it isn¡¯t entirely accurate. According to him, the first arrival brought along quite a number of people, and amongst them there was one who could not stand a day without alcohol. He was able to withstand it for a short while, sustaining himself with the Beast¡¯s blood like the rest of his compatriots, but eventually he could no longer keep his calm,¡± Shiyi described, ¡°He went mad, slaughtering the hatred automatons of the wilds, before he came across one that resembled a barrel. That gave him an idea, which he then put into practise, creating several types of new brews. Unfortunately, none of them have anything over the miracle fluid, which still makes it the most valuable item in this wasteland.¡±


    ¡®I had guessed that it would be valuable, but I unfortunately lacked the resources to store it and bring it with me in large quantities. Once I have a group to assist me, I can inform them about the miracle fluid spring and sell most of it, while experimenting with the rest,¡¯ Wei Yi decided, sighing lightly, ¡®If only I could bring out my planar energy, I could significantly enhance its effects, and then I could benefit from this current situation even more. After all, if the Beast was deserving of its own prison, and is still capable of feeding people millions of years later in prison-time, then it could have been equivalent to the eighth or possibly even the mystical ninth realm of cultivation¡­¡¯


    In a way, the Beast had some similarity to the legendary dragons and phoenixes, though that simultaneously brought about the danger of mutation through the consumption of its blood. The fact that no such thing occurred¡­ it was mysterious, but unless there was a major change to the prison realm, it wasn¡¯t something that anyone would have to concern themselves with.


    ¡°And now, let us present to you the Devil¡¯s Dice, a weapon crafted by a mysterious gambler that just so happens to be banned from every single one of our establishments. They can be animated with killing intent and controlled to attack your enemies, or those that mildly inconvenience you, but the primary function is said to be a technique written deep within, that, once deciphered, will bring you to the level of the Crimson Robes. The starting price is ten minor motes.¡±


    ¡®Right, on the topic of strange items,¡¯ Wei Yi sank her spiritual will into one of her pockets, where the black token taken from Yi Fenwu lay silently, ¡®I hadn¡¯t taken the time to examine this after everything that happened. Logically speaking, it shouldn¡¯t just be a common control token.¡¯


    She tried to enter the token with her spiritual will but found that it could not enter no matter how much she tried, as some force constantly repelled her.


    ¡®Indeed, it is not a common thing. I¡¯ll need to polish my mind as well as my killing intent, then.¡¯


    ¡°Eleven motes!¡± someone called out the moment that the auction master stopped talking.


    ¡°Twelve!¡±


    ¡°Fifteen!¡± the first person shouted back.


    ¡°Seventeen,¡± a strange, warped voice came from one of the lower VIP chambers.


    ¡°Just in case Master Wei Yi is curious, this servant can inform you that every single VIP room has a specific voice-changing array that always ensures that no-one can identify you based on your voice. If someone else occupies this room in the future, they will sound the same as you do, inflections and verbal tics aside.¡±


    ¡°Twenty!¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Shiyi,¡± she said, lifting her black card before saying, ¡°Forty.¡±


    She hadn¡¯t been to many auctions before, but she did know that if she allowed the prices to climb naturally, human nature would ensure that it would become far more expensive than if she raised the price sharply and quickly rooted out most of her competition.


    When they heard a voice emerge from the special guest chamber, everyone turned to look at it, seeing only the number 43 glowing through the walls.


    Most of the participants instantly quietened down, not wishing to compete with someone of such importance. Not to mention special guests, even the VIP guests were rarely seen, and when they appeared, they would always bring with them enough motes to put together a titanic mote of killing intent without any difficulty. To compete with someone like that was just like throwing one¡¯s money away in the case victory, and potentially angering the VIP in the case of their victory.


    There were a few rules in the auction house that prevented angry customers from attacking others, but unless the item purchased was something that could be consumed quickly, there were plenty that would wait until the protection period ended before reclaiming what they thought was theirs.


    Despite that, someone still spoke up, ¡°Forty-two!¡±


    ¡°Fifty,¡± Wei Yi raised the price again.


    ¡°F-Fifty-two!¡±


    ¡°Shiyi, is it common to raise the price in increments of two?¡± she asked the servant, before raising the card and adding, ¡°Sixty.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe so, Master. It might just be the particular customer¡¯s preference to add two each time. Some believe that it will increase their likelihood of victory, while others simply like even numbers,¡± Shiyi answered.


    ¡°Si-¡± that voice began, but then lowered their card and sighed.


    Once Wei Yi was announced as the victor of the dice, she reached into her pockets and removed one medium mote, ¡°By the way, how would this work if I didn¡¯t have the funds to pay you?¡±


    ¡°Your status as a special guest means that we will allow for payments of up to fifty great motes of killing intent to be kept on hold for up to one year, after which the treatment will be the same as with all other guests ¨C the auction¡¯s force will find you and get the equivalent of the money owed back, through any means and in any form necessary.¡±


    ¡°Huh.¡±


    The set of dice was taken away from the stage and brought to her room by a different servant in a maid outfit, while the man on stage introduced another item. As it was something that she had no interest in, Wei Yi ignored him and focused on the six dice, all carved out of black bone and containing one to six dots on each side.


    She casually rolled them on the empty table, finding that they were balanced rather well despite looking so rough.


    After looking at them all closely, she didn¡¯t hesitate to sink her spiritual will into them and transfer whatever she found into the Augur¡¯s Library, where she examined the results. Apart from an incredibly rough set of channels for killing intent, ones that were even rougher than those within the black dagger, there were words that almost seemed to have been crushed up and mixed up before being moulded into the dice. For the average person, it would have been difficult to manage, but with the assistance of the library and her general mental abilities, the text was deciphered while she listened to Shiyi¡¯s explanations and observed the auction going on below her.


    ¡®So, the rumours weren¡¯t fabricated¡­ or they were, and I have accidentally put together a decent-looking technique. Regardless of the answer, I¡¯m not going to throw this away. For now, I might as well call the technique¡­ Beast¡¯s Fury. All of the killing intent cultivation techniques in this prison realm are focused on image, with the Fall series creating a waterfall of killing intent, the River series creating a river and the Pool series naturally creating a large pool. This technique, on the other hand, creates a large skeleton, based on the image of the Beast,¡¯ she thought, ¡®Unfortunately, it seems to grant power at the cost of something, which isn¡¯t explicitly stated in the manual, but I¡¯m not going to practise it just yet. I will not lose things just because some words state that I must. I will travel my own path, or none at all.¡¯


    With the dice safely placed within her inner pockets, she leaned back in her chair and ate a small piece of blood-red cake, which had been brought over after she expressed some interest in the local food and drink during the initial introduction by Shiyi.


    To her pleasant surprise, this cake didn¡¯t taste anything like blood, regardless of its colour, and was actually rather sweet and pleasant.


    ¡°Shiyi, do you think I should learn about baking? This cake is delicious.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for the compliment, Master,¡± the servant beamed, making it very obvious that she was the one who made it, ¡°I would not advise it, however. You must have impressive combat ability, and it is best to polish it. Perhaps, one day, you may be able to pierce the wall and reveal whatever lies on the other side, bringing everyone great joy¡­ or great terror.¡±


    ¡°If I feel like it, I may do so, or I may not.¡±


    The auction continued yet again, with several items being sold for various prices, until her next item of interest appeared.


    ¡°- the bronze mirror! When you attain it, you can name it whatever you like!¡± the auction master declared as the pillar containing the mirror rose out of the darkness behind him. It was very simple and rough, but everyone who looked at it could tell that there was something unusual about it.


    Wei Yi, perhaps the only one out of the entire auction house with spiritual will, inspected the mirror a little more closely, finding a number of incredibly intricate scratches on the front of the mirror, spelling out a phrase that she had not expected to find here, nor anywhere else that was created after the founding of Yi City.


    ¡®They see you. Their words are lies. They will use you. Never trust them.¡¯


    The words themselves were unique, but their meaning was all too similar to the warning she had found while compiling the Kong Mental Arts.


    Furthermore, they carried the exact same sense of dread, and were written in the same characters.


    ¡°Master Wei Yi, are you alright? Are you feeling a little hot?¡±


    Shiyi¡¯s words brought her back to reality and made her realise that she had begun to sweat at some point, though it was nothing too significant. After wiping the sweat on her brow with a soft cloth, it was like it had never happened, but Wei Yi knew that the words were meant to elicit that exact reaction.


    ¡°This mirror allows the wielder to terrify their foes by simply aiming the mirror at them, then utilising the technique included in the purchase. The starting price is only five minor motes!¡±


    Someone of incredible ability hid a certain sensation within the words, one that had slightly faded when she put together the first warning within her mind. Now that she saw it clearly, the full meaning behind the words could be conveyed to her. It wasn¡¯t simply intended to scare or to terrify ¨C it was intended to relay a particular emotional state that the writer had experienced, as a warning to the reader. This same fear could, with the right technique, be thrown onto others without any of the same restraint that the words themselves have, thus leading to the mirror¡¯s abilities being misjudged.


    ¡®They¡­ they could be the Great Families, but for someone so capable to still be so afraid of them¡­ Perhaps it refers to the primordial monsters that the Master of Yi City had opposed and restrained in his many years of protecting the city?¡¯ no matter how much she considered the matter, she could not figure out an answer by herself, so she simply raised the black card and said, ¡°Thirty minor motes.¡±


    She did not immediately raise the price to forty motes, for she hoped to have that be the final price. It would make the total amount that she had to pay much easier to give out, for she did not have many instances of the lower-grade motes, nor too many of the superior motes.


    ¡°Thirty-o-¡±


    ¡°Forty.¡±


    ¡°Fine, you take it!¡± an angry voice yelled from below and was quickly silenced by the guards.


    As the mirror was being brought to her, Wei Yi decided to practise her Endless Calculation further by attempting to guess who would win the next few items.

 V2C8: The Mystery Item

    The Beast¡¯s Rib Bone was sold to Wei Yi for three medium motes, which just happened to coincide with how many she had remaining. After that, the rest of the deals went about as she expected, until it finally came time to witness the most significant item of the auction. Before it could be presented, the auction master left the stage, and, for a moment, there was silence.


    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, I couldn¡¯t possibly miss the last and most interesting item of the auction, could I?¡± a male voice said, the speaker slowly emerging from the darkness alongside a small pedestal that was covered in white cloth. The man looked rather ordinary at first, but those with any degree of combat experience realised that it was far from the truth, for he walked with extreme confidence, and perfect balance. Additionally, thick yet transparent killing intent circled around him, originating not just from his body, but from the entire building around him.


    ¡°Ding Wen,¡± Wei Yi stated, with the servant nodding beside her.


    ¡°Indeed, that is Master Ding Wen. I¡¯d appreciate it if you didn¡¯t share this with him, but he is very fond of showing off. Otherwise, there wouldn¡¯t be a hint of his killing intent right now.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t say anything,¡± she replied, ¡®Not unless it would benefit a potential alliance.¡¯


    ¡°You might all be wondering what item was so important that I, myself, decided to show up today. Well, let me ask you ¨C do you remember what the first thing the new arrivals always think about is? Their planar energy. Their dantians. Their cultivation. This crimson hell takes them all away, doing whatever it wants with them. They could not cultivate planar energy, but they also knew that killing intent, the power of the realm itself, would not be the key to freeing themselves. So, what did they come up with?¡± he asked the crowd, but whether or not he had been expecting a reply, he continued after a second, ¡°The theory was, if there is something the prison realm does not erode, then why not create a new planar anchor out of it?¡±


    ¡®New planar anchor? That alone wouldn¡¯t work, even if it was possible, and that in itself is unlikely due to the manner in which planar anchor are formed. If there was any method to transfer them in or out of the body, it would undoubtedly be messy and complicated.¡¯


    ¡°You¡¯d think that it wouldn¡¯t work, right? Perhaps, but that will be for the person who puts the anchor together to consider. That¡¯s right, everyone, the final item, the mystery object that you¡¯ve been waiting for¡­ is the planar anchor shard that survived the erosion of the realm!¡± he exclaimed, removing the white cloth from the pedestal.


    On the pillar lay a small chunk of rock, one that could easily be passed by on any random road in the continents, but now that it was placed at the centre of attention, it suddenly became far less ordinary.


    Wei Yi wanted to inspect it with her spiritual will, but she pulled back at the last moment. While she didn¡¯t expect it to be noticed with the previous items, for they were mostly ordinary to the people in the auction, the anchor shard was both far less common and currently observed by the very owner of the auction. Regardless of the true nature of the shard, she believed that she would need to purchase it, as it was almost impossible to complete her study of it purely via a brief check of spiritual will.


    As for why she wanted to purchase the shard, it was not because of the possibility of putting together a new planar anchor, because it would be completely unsuitable for her, but due to desiring to confirm what caused it to survive while her own cosmic energy was rapidly being consumed.


    ¡®It is likely that anyone else who will want to purchase this will have a similar idea,¡¯ she thought.


    ¡°As with everything else around here, once you own the item, it is up to you to do what you want with it,¡± Ding Wen stated, ¡°Now, I don¡¯t think anyone will blame me for setting the initial price to one medium mote.¡±


    The man grinned on stage, as no one could express any complaints. Even if he started with one minute mote, the price would quickly rise on its own, and then certain individuals that would have otherwise abstained from participating in the auction would have been roped in anyway. In a way, the raised initial price actually reduced the potential for Ding Wen to profit from this auction, though, at the same time, anyone that had no interest in the shard wouldn¡¯t contribute to the final price too much, while those that do will be eager to pay as much as possible to prevent anyone else from acquiring the shard.


    Hence, the cries began immediately, ¡°Two motes!¡±


    ¡°Three!¡±


    ¡°Five!¡±


    ¡°Six!¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°Ten!¡±


    ¡°Eleven!¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°Twenty medium motes!¡±


    The price quickly rose, with the primary contributors being one man on the first floor and two VIPs who, due to the effects of the voice changing arrays, sounded like a warped old man and a warped young girl.


    ¡°Twenty-five medium motes!¡± the old man voice said calmly, ¡°Juniors, I hope you won¡¯t make this too difficult for me. I believe I can make the most out of that shard.¡±


    ¡°Twenty-six motes!¡± the man in the hall said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t do that, old man.¡±


    ¡°Same here,¡± the girl voice nodded verbally, ¡°Thirty!¡±


    ¡°Fine, you give me no choice! Forty!¡±


    ¡°Fifty!¡±


    ¡°Fifty-five!¡±


    ¡°So, you cannot afford to increase it by much, can you? Seventy,¡± the old man increased the price again.


    The young girl¡¯s voice interrupted the man in the hall, before he could even consider raising his own card to increase the bid, ¡°You fool, that¡¯s not the case at all! Eighty!¡±


    ¡°One great mote,¡± a warped voice from the special guest booth emerged, the number 43 shining through the wall, ¡°If you had been planning to do this on your own, I wouldn¡¯t have minded, but we¡¯re in a public auction here. Let¡¯s just get this over with, and then you lot can get a bed somewhere and keep going for however long you want.¡±


    ¡®I¡¯ve just realised, at the most inappropriate of times, that Yi Kun might have been making sexual references when she spoke¡­ That is extremely embarrassing ¨C not the references themselves, but how long it took me to understand this.¡¯


    ¡°Special guest? Fine, I¡¯ll cease my participation.¡±


    ¡°Eh? Young man, why did you not listen to me when I asked you to stop?¡± the old man questioned.


    ¡°One great mote and ten medium motes!¡± the young girl said, ignoring the two.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare! I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re a special guest, but I need that anchor shard! Give it to me! Great more and fifty medium mote-¡±


    ¡°Two great motes. I¡¯ll say the exact same thing back to you, sir,¡± Wei Yi smiled, lowering the card and turning to Shiyi, ¡°This might take a while, so could you feed me a bite of the cake every now and then? This might take a while, and I¡¯ve never really experienced a servant feeding me before, so I think it would be a useful experience.¡±


    ¡°Alright, Master Wei Yi,¡± she nodded, kneeling down beside her with a fork.


    ¡°You dare? Three great motes!¡±


    ¡°Four great motes,¡± the young girl voice answered calmly.


    ¡°I shall hunt you-¡±


    ¡°You may be a VIP client, but you are still a client, number 98,¡± Ding Wen interrupted the old man, looking up into his booth, ¡°Do not forget what the rules of the establishment are, or else I will demand your payment and then take away everything you¡¯ve won, placing it in my personal treasury.¡±


    ¡°Actually, there seem to be fifty booths for special guests around here, but the count of the crimson robes is supposed to be one hundred, is it not? Did your master not expect all of them to come at once?¡±


    ¡°Four great and fifty minor motes!¡±


    ¡°So far, it has never happened, and there is good reason to believe that it won¡¯t ever happen, not until the end of the prison realm,¡± Shiyi explained, ¡°There is a certain degree of opposition between the powerful members of the realm, and they tend to live quite far apart from one another. Some are in the Great Bone Lake, others reside here, and some live near the Storm Wall, hoping to notice something through the endless clouds, or even to pass through. All of the auctions are typically held on short notice, and not all of the items are useful to everyone, so for everyone to gather here¡­ Master Ding Wen would be in some trouble if that happened.¡±


    ¡°Five great motes!¡±


    ¡°How would all one hundred crimson robes masters compare to Ding Wen and his organisation?¡±


    ¡°That is enough, old man. Seven great motes.¡±


    ¡°That is difficult to say, but if everyone wearing your robes came at once, even if the whole city came together, killing one Hatred Augur master would be difficult, not to mention a potential hundred.¡±


    ¡°I am not old! Ten! Ten great motes! Ten, you hear me? TEN!¡±


    ¡°Such a big difference, huh. Alright then, I¡¯ll keep that in mind as well.¡±


    ¡°I heard you, senior. Fifteen.¡±


    ¡°Ugh¡­¡±


    ¡°So, number 43, are you intending to participate, or did you simply want us to fight between ourselves until one of us lost all of their motes?¡±


    Wei Yi swallowed a piece of red cake and raised her card, ¡°I would never do such a thing. Thirty.¡±


    ¡°Thirty-one. Don¡¯t raise the price if you do not intend to purchase the item.¡±


    ¡°Why would I ever do something like that? Thirty-five great motes.¡±


    ¡°Thirty-six motes.¡±


    ¡°Alright, little girl, how about I just raise the price one more time, and if you can afford to raise the bid as well, then you can just take the shard. Alright?¡±


    ¡°Whatever you want.¡±


    ¡°Then, one titanic mote.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± there was a silence all across the auction house with every invested participant and casual observer turning their eyes to the glowing golden number 43. Not everyone could take out a titanic mote, and most had never even laid their eyes upon it, and even the master of the auction, perhaps the richest man in the town of Beast¡¯s Rest, Ding Wen, did not have a spare one to exhibit, and yet here was a special guest who took one out just to win a bet.


    If they knew that there were two more such motes in the guest¡¯s pockets, they would be even more surprised.


    ¡°Hatred Augur¡­ they have to be¡­¡± someone muttered, and those around them nodded.


    Wei Yi heard the collective murmur but chose not to ask the servant girl. However, she did have a few ideas regarding the possible alternative methods of acquisition of the motes. It would be unlikely for the economy to rely on people dying constantly, even if the atmosphere of the world encouraged it, and so, logically speaking, there ought to be a method of creating motes in a less violent method.


    Based on the fact that everyone¡¯s thoughts turned to her potential killing intent realm rather than her identity or fighting ability, which were not necessarily connected if she was instead recognised as a body cultivator, it was possible that motes could be created by killing intent cultivators via some process that was not yet known to her. Perhaps it was some casual ability of the cultivators, or perhaps it was an extremely complicated ritual that required a few dozen killing intent practitioners to work together, but there was little doubt that there was something.


    One thing she could understand for certain was that the fifth realm of killing intent cultivation, as well as the realm of the Black Terror, was Hatred Augur, and that it had not been fully demonstrated during their battle.


    ¡°Very well. You can take it.¡±


    ¡°Thank you very much, little girl,¡± Wei Yi smiled, passing the titanic mote to the servant girl.


    ¡°Excellent, everyone. Now, you may take your leave and return the cards for the use of our future customers, and remember that interference with them in any way, even the soiling of the cards with your vile fluids, be they blood or anything else, will get you evicted from the next session,¡± Ding Wen stated with a smile, before looking towards Wei Yi¡¯s booth, ¡°Number 43, your servant will bring you to my office. I will pass the item onto you, but I would also like to have a talk with you.¡±


    He retreated from the stage, while Shiyi fed her the last piece of cake, wiping her lips with a soft cloth before helping her to stand up, ¡°My apologies, Master, but I have to do as he says.¡±


    Wei Yi did not reply, following the servant girl to a room behind the primary hall of the auction house, where she was led to sit on one side of a pristine desk while the titanic mote was left on the other side of the desk. For a while, she was left to sit in silence, allowing her to confirm the presence of several secret entrances within this room, much like the chamber in which she spoke with Meng Chu.


    Finally, almost ten minutes later, the door behind her opened, and Ding Wen entered the room.


    ¡°I hope I did not keep you waiting. Here is your shard,¡± he said, sitting down, pocketing the titanic mote without much formality, and granting her the anchor shard wrapped in the same white cloth as before.


    ¡°You did, and you should be well aware of that,¡± Wei Yi replied, examining the shard with both of her primary senses before storing it in her pockets, ¡°Since you¡¯ve given this to me already, I suppose there must be some other reason for you to be speaking with me right now. I¡¯d appreciate it if we could get straight to the point.¡±


    ¡°Then we might get along quite well. You are someone new to the city, correct, number 43?¡±


    ¡°Are you offering me to join your trade empire?¡±


    ¡°You could say that,¡± Ding Wen nodded, ¡°You¡¯ve been here for long enough, right? You should know that I have the most treasures out of everyone here. I can probably spare one or two for you, and if I discover any more anchor shards, I could give them straight to you, so long as you fight on my side.¡±


    ¡°Very interesting, but I would like to take a day or two to consider things. You wouldn¡¯t have a reason to prevent me from doing so, would you?¡±


    ¡°No, I would not. However, I¡¯d advise you not to be in such a hurry to leave,¡± he said, silently focusing his invisible killing intent on her. Despite the violent nature that such energy is ought to have, it simply enveloped her and sank into her mind, ringing with the faint sounds of ringing treasure and whistling tunes of wealth.


    Wei Yi noticed it easily ¨C her former experience with mental attacks, as well as her keen spiritual will allowed her to detect the invisible killing intent even when it truly wished to hide from the target ¨C but she ignored it and simply shut the doors of the library when it approached.


    To create an entirely new desire was the realm of high-grade techniques that were on the level of creating entirely new worlds, and thus, this particular attack was obviously an attempt to stimulate any worldly individual¡¯s natural desire for treasures, money or some similar objects. It was bound to be present in someone who had acquired three different artefacts of seemingly completely different natures, and thus it should have been easy to manipulate the person¡¯s mind. Unfortunately for Ding Wen, mental cultivation was rarely considered in this world, for killing intent appeared to be a completely antithesis to it, and thus his technique appeared to be far more fearsome than it would have been on the continents.


    Additionally, although Wei Yi could not be said to be among the Daoists that have achieved a certain detachment from the world and its riches, she had no desire for wealth purely for the sake of wealth. She had a single goal right now ¨C to form, no, to reform Yi City. Since that requires her to escape the prison realm, that¡¯s what she will do. If it requires her to amass a great supply of riches and treasures, perhaps to pay off some ancient deity to ensure that it doesn¡¯t attack her, then that is what she will do.


    ¡°My apologies, Ding Wen, I need to be elsewhere. Good luck in your future endeavours.¡±

 V2C9: Anchor Fragment

    She left quickly and located a calm-looking inn for herself to settle down and be left alone for a while. It was placed right in the middle of an intersection on the road, and thus she could be sure that none would be able to sneak up on her while she was studying her new items of interest.


    Naturally, those items were the four purchases she had made at the auction, which she removed from her robes one by one in order to minimise the chances of theft.


    Although it was tempting to begin with the anchor shard, Wei Yi instead decided to return to the Beast¡¯s Dice, from which she had already gathered everything there was to know. She still went over it with both her eyes and spiritual will, making sure that every minor detail was catalogued within the mental library, before carefully sending a minor quantity of killing intent into them. It flowed into the dice, causing the points on each side to ignite with a red light that somehow overpowered the killing intent flowing in through the windows.


    They hovered up, floating into the air, and trembled lightly as if they wished to slaughter someone.


    ¡®Although the structure within is extremely rough, worse than most low-grade artefacts, it has far more to it than the high-grade spear used by Yi Fenwu. I suppose this is more than worthwhile to study, as it might provide some method of creating an artefact that can withstand my cosmic energy,¡¯ she thought, willing them to rise slightly higher, ¡®They also make it clear that my grading system needs a rework.¡¯


    The black dagger that she had created a book of killing intent to power initially appeared to be a lower-grade item, but even the dice were clearly inferior to it. Furthermore, the gap between the energy required to make the former and the latter function was incredibly large, to the point that she was rather concerned about trying to use even a page of killing intent on the dice.


    ¡®Since the crimson robes are apparently so well-known and uncommon, I suppose it is not too surprising that this black knife is also uncommon, and that she did not take it out to deal with me.¡¯


    Once she got used to controlling the dice, she retrieved her killing intent and caught them out of the air, putting them back into her pockets for future use. Although they were certainly inferior to the likes of the black knife and the Yang Elysian Palm that she could manifest in emergencies, they would make for great weapons to surprise her enemies with, and to attack them while they are distracted with other weapons and attacks.


    The next item was the bronze mirror, which was the next least likely to contain any particular secrets.


    In theory, it should have been the most significant item, due to the message on it matching that of the Kong Mental Arts that could then connect it to the families and powers that came from before the creation of Yi City, but she had already scanned the mirror and found nothing on it. She suspected that the message was left hastily, which made the intent within the message all the more impressive.


    ¡®Creating something like this on short notice would grant me incredible power, for I won¡¯t be limited to letters alone. I could integrate this power into arrays, inscriptions and whatever else, and whenever someone attempts to attack me, I can project this intent while magnifying it significantly, instantly breaking down weaker minds while the stronger ones will still be weakened until they can recover, or if they have a mental library like me, then their numbers would still be lessened.¡¯


    She scanned the entire mirror several times to be sure that she had it perfectly within her memory and the library independently, just in case a repeat of the previous mental malaise reoccurred at some point, before putting it away as well.


    Her next item to be examined was the Beast¡¯s Rib Bone, which was a black chunk of rock-like bone, much like the Beast¡¯s Dice and the unnamed black dagger that she had obtained from the Black Terror. As it appeared, every single item in this realm that had any power was made from the bones of the ancient Beast, whether in solid or dust form, and it was this that resulted in an even greater quantity of killing intent filling them than if they had soaked under the endless crimson light for a thousand generations.


    Whatever the Beast once was, it clearly bore great hatred towards the world.


    The inside of the rib bone differed from the last two items of the same origin in that they had no channels on the inside, no structure that would allow one to course their energies through it to bring out some greater power. Instead, what filled it was a pure, undiluted killing intent, far superior to that of the crimson book within her Augur¡¯s Library, and even exceeding that of the Black Terror.


    ¡®Is it, perhaps, that the Beast naturally stores killing intent, but to allow it¡¯s bones to be used effectively, they have to be hollowed out, thus losing their stored energy? Then, why is it that this particular bone is somehow treated as something unique? Couldn¡¯t anyone go to the base of Beast¡¯s Rest and find a loose bone chunk or two to feed themselves with all of the killing intent that they want?¡¯ she wondered, but with no-one to provide information other than herself, she couldn¡¯t answer herself. Instead, she stored the bone chunk in her pockets once again, and instead focused on the techniques she had ¡®borrowed¡¯ from the auction.


    They followed the same naming style as the rest of the techniques she had found so far, and were, in no particular order, Violent First River, Violent Third River and Fall, Violent Fourth Pool and Violent Fifth Pool.


    Out of the potential fifteen techniques that she needed to begin creating her own technique, she only needed to find four more. However, Wei Yi was a little reluctant to create a technique that used the Violent series of techniques as a base, due to her acquisition of the Beast¡¯s Fury and Greed Congregation skills, which were far greater in might. To use the fifteen basic techniques of this world as a foundation now seemed to be akin to using bread ¨C it could feed one for a while, but it would not hold up a house.


    Since she did not want just a simple house, but a grand palace that could withstand the might of the greatest forces in the Planar Continents, nothing but the best stone would do.


    The issue with using the unique skills of the prison realm as a replacement for the fifteen basic techniques was that they were far less organised. She could be sure that she had attained everything she needed to know about the basic series of skills just by acquiring all fifteen techniques, but if she was to use only the unique techniques, then it might require far more than that just to get a basic, rough idea of every element and its usage. Furthermore, the highest and most powerful techniques appear to be owned by a very limited few, to the point that Xing Chen Yi, the Black Terror, still used or at least carried a common method of killing intent cultivation. There was the chance that there wasn¡¯t a complete set of unique skills, and that she would have to work out the rest of them herself.


    ¡®I could use the basic techniques to patch up the gaps in the unique ones, but that would mean that, for quite some time, there would be a great number of flaws within my every movement and attack, giving the Great Families the perfect opportunity to take me down again,¡¯ she thought, ¡®I should continue collecting these, and attempt to use Endless Calculation to complete them later.¡¯


    Finally, it was time for the most significant acquisition of the entire auction ¨C the planar anchor shard.


    It still looked like an ordinary piece of rock, without a trace of planar energy around it, but her inspection of it with her spiritual will confirmed that it was, without a doubt, identical in basic nature to the anchor that rested within her planar aperture. Perhaps the biggest and most obvious difference was that the planar energy that must have been used to condense this anchor was from a fire-type technique, causing a faint orange light to glow from within the shard.


    ¡®However, that would not explain why it is somehow resistant to the erosion of the prison realm. If this was unique to fire-type techniques, then fire cultivators would reign supreme within the prison, but they clearly do not,¡¯ Wei Yi considered, bringing the stone close to her eye, ¡°It certainly doesn¡¯t help that there seems to be no library around here¡­¡±


    She paused as she recalled the names and roles of the three leaders of Beast¡¯s Rest. Ding Wen and Meng Chu had already been spoken with, and the last one was a woman by the name of Shi Luo Feng, someone who is apparently responsible for martial training halls and enigmatic ¡®other things¡¯.


    A training hall could be useful to perfect her combat techniques and usage of the Beast¡¯s Dice, but the other roles that she had were more interesting.


    After all, with such a large city and such an enormous world, how could there not be a library?


    ¡®That¡¯s right, from just observation alone, there is a finite amount of information that I can gather. It sufficed within the Planar Continents, but I am no longer there. I need to acquire more information, see if there are any records of certain types of planar energy decaying slower than others, or perhaps certain techniques that allow for killing intent to be fused with planar energy¡­ that¡¯s unlikely, but there has to be a certain reason for the formation of this shard. Once I find it, I can add it to the cosmic energy, and cultivate normally.¡¯


    Wei Yi wrapped the stone in the white cloth and hid it in her pockets, before infusing energy into all of her killing intent-based weapons as to be able to employ them in self-defence whenever she needs to do so.


    After that, she removed her robes and placed them atop her bed, where she could rest beneath them and constantly observe them with spiritual will, and fell asleep.


    She awoke in the equivalent of the middle of the night when she heard the faint sound of footsteps approaching from the outside. Although it was not in any way uncommon to approach an inn for to rest, the issue was that these steps were too quiet, and that there was no-one else around, whether because they had been made to leave or if they had been killed.


    Either way, it was safer to rouse from her sleep than to risk giving an assassin an easy time.


    Without any obvious acknowledgement of the situation outside, she stood up without bothering to cover herself, walking over to the other end of the room as if to take and drink a cup of blood wine that she had left there previously.


    As the windows in the inn were foggy and blurry, in order to give their customers some privacy while still letting in light, and the perceptions of public decency were somewhat different in this prison realm, her actions were in no way unusual. In fact, even if she was to walk around openly like that while having the ability to defeat anyone who tries to assault her, there would be nothing anyone could or would want to do.  For those who appreciated the sight, it wasn¡¯t worth risking its disappearance, and for those that did not, they could just ignore her body as if it belonged to any other casual passer-by.


    The walk went smoothly, but as she raised the glass of wine, she felt something approaching her at great speed, aiming directly for her neck.


    She ducked instantly, causing a spear to fly into the wall in front of her. Attached to it, surprisingly enough, was a man, who she promptly kicked in the chest, crushing most of the ribs and organs within, before throwing him out of the same window he entered through.


    ¡®Violet Kick sure is a useful technique, and kicking people without the restriction of robes is also a pleasant thing,¡¯ she noticed, leaping to the edge of the window to see who else she had to fight, ¡®In fact, I should research alternative forms of clothing in the future. Certain assassin organisations clothe their forces in skin-tight equipment, while others manage to achieve complete freedom of movement in other ways. One group is said to create their clothing from energy, allowing them to act freely.¡¯


    Apart from the body of the man that had intruded into her bedroom, there were three other individuals standing in the streets. Two were obviously female, based on their bodies, while the other one was far more ambiguous in appearance. All three wore basic masks and baggy clothes to make it more difficult to recognise them, but those things did not stand in the way of spiritual will.


    ¡®Who are these people?¡¯ she wondered, jumping down into the street.


    She was not familiar with any one of the four attackers, for she had never spoken with them in person, nor did she ever recall offending them. However, there were a few likely possibilities that quickly entered her mind.


    ¡°Old man or young girl?¡± Wei Yi asked, preparing to strike at the strongest person in the group, who was the ambiguous individual out of the group.


    They did not answer, rushing at her without a single sound, but the answer was completely irrelevant to her as she did not intend to allow them to beat her up regardless of the reason behind it. Even if she had previously slaughtered three generations of their family, she would not allow anyone to end her before she had clearly failed to establish Yi City or defeat the Great Families.


    She also flew forward, but, at the last moment, she stopped and leapt back, willing the dice to fly out of her room and strike directly at the two women that were present on either side of the ambiguous man ¨C for he was a man, as she determined through a brief physical incursion via spiritual will.


    As she determined that the woman on the right was weaker than the woman on the left, she directed two of the dice to fly at the first while three flew at the other woman, with one remaining by her side. She could not be sure how powerful these individuals were, not without more experience in the combat methods of the prison realm, so she felt that it was safest to have one powerful weapon near her at all times, just in case she was attacked by something that she could not predict and evade in time.


    All five of the attacking dice struck at once, not employing any special movements or techniques. The first two struck the woman without her being able to put up any resistance, though not due to overwhelming power, but because of the woman¡¯s lacking reaction speed. By the time she managed to register the attack within her mind, they had already struck her twice. The second woman had a little more success, swatting away two of the dice on their initial approach, but the third die hit her right in the throat and pierced the flesh without any difficulty, also incapacitating her. Meanwhile, the third warrior had no dice to contend with, but he saw Wei Yi¡¯s initial feint and the dice that followed and retreated, realising only once both of his allies had been struck that he was not in danger.


    ¡°How dare you, improper woman! Give the items you stole back to their rightful owner! Me!¡±


    ¡®Ah, so it is the old man. He¡¯s much younger than expected,¡¯ she realised, smiling as she willed the dice to surround the man, ¡°Really? Since you want them so much, here you go.¡±


    She made them strike all at once, but not before attempting to execute a certain technique of hers via the killing intent condensed within the dice, bursting it out the dice the moment that she sensed any feasibility of it working. Crimson light emerged from the black surface, and, without any obvious cause from within or without, transformed into pure black, devouring any trace of light that sank into it.


    They flew forth, the darkness expanding and contorting into something unknown as it surged out and attacked the man all at once.


    Beneath the mask, the man¡¯s expression was calm, though in his heart, he had a suspicion that something was off about the situation. He had seen many killing intent techniques and methods, but this black light was extremely strange. And¡­ why did it appear to come from someone in the first realm?


    Nevertheless, he rushed out of the encirclement of the dice, using killing intent to accelerate his movements. In his mind¡¯s eye, he could see how the attack would play out ¨C he would evade her attacks, and while she attempted to return the dice to herself, failing to do so in time due to her lacking experience in controlling this specific hatred blade, he would be able to pierce the indecent woman¡¯s heart and lungs in one go.


    For whatever reason, he did not move as quickly as expected¡­ no, he did not move at all!


    Furthermore, his legs that should have been full of killing intent were suddenly empty, but the air around them, that should have been rather light in that same energy, suddenly lit up with a baleful light that pressed down upon him, preventing him from making any movements whatsoever.


    Instead, the dice accelerated, piercing his flesh and skin without any issues and coming out the other side without a trace of blood on their surface before returning to Wei Yi¡¯s hand.


    Just like that, the old-sounding young man perished in the street, uncertain as to how he died.


    ¡®So that¡¯s how it is. Killing intent has somehow warped the image of heaven contained within the Elysian Palm into the shattering sight of the darkest hell, while also gaining the ability to invert energy¡­ somehow. This obviously warrants further investigation and research, but for now, I can call it the Antithesis Palm while looking forward to the day that I can actually use it as an attack of my own, rather than invoking it through the dice or some other hatred blade,¡¯ Wei Yi said in her mind, turning around to find the owner of the inn standing outside of the front entrance with a great deal of confusion in his eyes, ¡°My apologies for the damage to your property, but I expect the windows to be repaired by the time I wake up. Alright?¡±


    Before he could say anything, she knelt down and removed everything of any possible value from the bodies, then hopped back into the inn, where she jammed a few of the larger glass shards back into the window frame and instantaneously cleansed her body with True Ascendant energy, as she did not want to sleep with a layer of dust on her body.


    When she woke up properly, she found that the window was actually in a decent state once more, and that nothing in her room was touched by whoever put it back together. Even the spear was still stuck into the wall, though it appeared to have been shifted a little so that it was not obviously noticeable from the other side of the wall. She stood up, cleansed herself for a second time to be completely sure, tied up her hair and put on the crimson robe, pulling out the spear from the wall and descending to the first floor of the building, where she paid the innkeeper and left.


    After a little bit of experimentation with the hatred blade spear, she figured out a technique that suited it, and placed it on her back before heading for the nearest training hall.


    Unlike the auction house, which was absolutely gigantic in comparison with the buildings around it, the training halls appeared to be a more reasonable size, occupying only a single floor above the ground and an uncertain quantity beneath. The horizontal space that it occupied was also far less extreme, matching only three or four houses instead of a dozen brothels.


    ¡®I¡¯ve never been inside of a training hall on my own, so this will be a new experience in more ways than one,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, stepping into the building while attempting to appear as casual and ordinary as possible, ¡®My robes may make me somewhat conspicuous, though it seems that the information regarding these Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival, as the guards at the auction house referred to them, is somewhat limited, leading to the common people being ignorant of them.¡¯


    The inside of the training hall was made up of grey stone and grey wood, with a small reception room greeting all customers.


    Behind a small counter stood a man with enormous bulging muscles and a river of sweat covering his body. At first glance, it seemed as if he had to invest all of his physical might to stand in place, and after a brief moment of contemplation, Wei Yi understood that he was being affected by a gravity-amplifying array that was similar to the training set she was wearing, except the effect was less localised and almost as powerful as the current setting on the training set. Clearly, this man was either being punished for something, or, in the more likely scenario, he was someone who was so fond of training his body that he couldn¡¯t stop no matter what he was doing.


    ¡®They should have gone for the same approach as the brothel, selecting someone who the customer is most interested in to get them to pay more. It¡¯s a shame that they didn¡¯t, as this man also stinks¡­¡¯ she sighed, getting only as close to the counter as she needed to, ¡°Excuse me, what do I need to pay to get in?¡±


    The man raised his head, his neck muscles straining to an extreme, ¡°How long¡­ and what gravity?¡±


    ¡°Unless there are specific timeframes that your establishment allows, I¡¯ll go for two hours. As for gravity strength¡­ well, what¡¯s the range?¡±


    ¡°Ugh¡­ 1.5 to¡­ 5¡­ the last one¡­ could crush your feeble¡­ bones and flesh¡­¡±


    ¡°Very well, I will keep that in mind and select the most powerful form of gravity. By the way, are you a body cultivator? I can¡¯t imagine someone practising killing intent looking like that.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right¡­ you want¡­ to see¡­ the rest of me?¡±


    ¡°Not interested in the slightest, unless you have a secret forbidden art to transform your body into that of a woman. Now, where should I go?¡±


    ¡°Downstairs¡­ room number¡­ two¡­ four¡­¡± he said, giving her a small wooden key.


    ¡°Thanks,¡± she replied as she took it and followed his directions.


    After descending to the basement, she found that it resembled the brothel¡¯s underground section far more so than it did any other local basement, with simple stone walls and floors that weren¡¯t particularly comfortable to traverse without any footwear, though she had already wandered the crimson wastes of the prison realm for long enough to get used to something like that. There were a few signs that pointed to different areas, separating the underground portion of the training hall into four sections that were numbered from one to four.


    She went towards the second section then found the fourth room there, which opened once she inserted the wooden key into the appropriate slot. Before she could take a single step into it, she felt the increased gravity pressing down upon her.


    ¡®The area is rather poorly controlled, resulting in the gravity field spilling out. I suppose I can say nothing other than ¡®as expected of the prison realm¡¯, but it is helpful to know ahead of time that this is a multiplicative, not additive, effect,¡¯ Wei Yi considered, ignoring the faint sound of her bones lightly cracking beneath the pressure, ¡®It has been a while since I could develop my body, and I have a significant quantity of information to work with, not to mention Endless Calculation, with which I can practise improving and adding to techniques before I actually do so with the various killing intent skills, to work with. Before I can try doing anything, however¡­¡¯


    After breathing in and out several times to focus, she rapidly performed a series of actions. She leapt into the room while simultaneously grabbing onto the door and sealing it behind her, as she also turned in the air to fall onto the ground on her back. As she landed, she ignored the further sounds of cracking and breaking, instead coursing her True Ascendant energy throughout her body as to strengthen it.


    Without the assistance of the seemingly all-powerful cosmic energy, it was impossible to heal and rebuild every aspect of her body as quickly as before, not would the process be as efficient, but she had two hours to work with and a rather generous supply of physique energy.


    Ten minutes later, after some quick rearrangement of her physical array¡¯s channels and bone shard locations, as well as the constant force of gravity tearing at her body while simultaneously being rebuilt by physique energy, she had enough strength to stand up and endure the force of gravity while doing nothing else. Since that would not be necessary, nor too effective as if would put most of the pressure on her legs, she sat down instead, enduring the pressure for a little while longer while contemplating the best method to strengthen herself quickly.


    Once ten more minutes had passed, she had come up with a satisfactory plan, so she put it into motion while changing her position and posture yet again, deciding to perform a few push-ups and sit-ups at the same time. Her three remaining great arts to integrate into the physique were blacksmithing, pill refining and inscriptions, and the first and second would require a great outside force and pressure completely distinct from gravity in order to refine the bone shards appropriately.


    Thus, the last option was the only one that she could create with gravity and physique energy alone.


    When the gravity became bearable without the constant input of one hundred percent of her energy, she diverted the spare energy to begin drawing up the lines for the carvings on each one of her dantian bone shards.


    Fortunately for her, there were two sets of shards to work with, with one having already been used for talisman creation. The other had been initially used for the creation of the array in her body, and the creation of the original Condensed Formation Body, and has fortunately been left untouched since, giving her the perfect place to work on inscriptions without needing to worry about the talismans.


    After another ten minutes passed ¨C neither of the ten-minute intervals were precise, for there was no clock in the room nor a sun to judge the passing of time by ¨C before she was ready. With the vast majority of her energy diverted towards the dantian bone shards, she sank it into every single shard, beginning to carve out a variety of different arrays on every single bone shard. She did not have the most comprehensive collection of inscriptions nor were they the field in which she was most confident in, but the key here was not to create the most powerful nor the most complex inscriptions, but to put them together in such a fashion that it would enhance all of her bodily functions at the same time, whenever needed, just as an inscription was meant to.


    The carving process took, to nobody¡¯s surprise, another ten minutes, during which every single bone shard was not only inscribed with a variation of inscriptions, but also infused the shards with so much energy that they began to experience the effects of the Dantian Bone Refining technique she had created a very long time ago now. The shards that had initially come from the incredibly flawed planar aperture had been grey and unpleasant, but with the purifying energies of the True Ascendant physique they turned into pure white.


    ¡®Now, to activate the inscriptions¡­¡¯


    She breathed in, flooding her lungs with as much heavy air as she could, before performing the exact same action with her inscriptions and physique energy.


    Sunlight surged into every small groove in the bone shards, filling them with iridescence. Once every segment was filled perfectly and evenly, the light expanded throughout her body, wrapping around every single bone, muscle and sinew without any extreme phenomena. However, Wei Yi knew that something about the physique energy and her very body did change and grow, almost like it had ascended a stage in cultivation.


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s step one. Now, onto step two.¡±

 V2C10: Shi Luo Feng

    Wei Yi stood up, removing the spear from her back and swinging it aimlessly a few times as to recall the balance and the weight of the weapon. Although the only significant difference between the training hall and the outside was the greatly enhanced gravitational pull, that still resulted in a number of other changes that were useful to keep in mind. Furthermore, with the combination of her understanding of how the spear was wielded in two different conditions, it was possible to extrapolate that information and develop an understanding of the best weapon techniques in every single situation.


    Several minutes later, she moved on to the more complex techniques, namely the Eight Minor Changes spear technique, which had the most suitable amount of viciousness and ruthlessness for use in the prison realm.


    As one could gather from the name, there were eight primary moves within this technique upon which every variation was based on. Two moves were based upon stabbing motions, four were slashes, one was a defensive manoeuvre that can be used to parry and riposte an attack, while the last one was primarily intended for movement, whether to flee from a stronger foe, or, as was the intention of the technique, to chase down an equal or weaker foe.


    None of the eight movements were difficult on first glance, nor on the second or the third. However, this was a low-level technique created by simplifying and weakening the Eight Great Changes technique, and the person that did so did not bother to remove many of the elements that had composed the superior skill.


    Due to this, it was the perfect opportunity to use Endless Calculation to decipher the things that were truly omitted.


    What made this even better was that every single movement and change was independent of the next, meaning that if someone had the free time and the will to do so, they could split up each movement into individual techniques and spread them across the world in that way without anyone being in the least suspicious about this. It also meant that Wei Yi could work on a single movement at a time, refining and unearthing the potential that had been hidden away within the Eight Minor Changes, without needing to do this with the entire technique while also being able to transfer the progress from one movement to another due to their shared principles.


    To put things simply, it might as well have been created specifically for her current situation.


    ¡®First change, Piercing River,¡¯ she read out the name of the attack, stabbing at the target dummy in the middle of the room with extreme speed. A pulse of pure force shot out of the end of the spear, striking a precise point on the dummy with twice her original strength.


    With the technique manual within her mental hand, she looked up and willed the process of Endless Calculation to begin, with a hundred thousand variations of the exact same manuals appearing in front of her. In an instant, a thousand vanished when her mind understood that some aspect of the technique could not function in a competent or superior way to the existing version. A few seconds later, another few thousand were eliminated for the same reason.


    The next large elimination of manuals came roughly one minute later, when she had experimented with a few of the new variations of the technique and discovered more flaws and imperfections.


    She kept this up, eliminating a great quantity of techniques roughly half an hour later, narrowing things down to no more than a hundred mental manuals. Although it was a great improvement, there were still too many books for her to manage, even if they did lack any major flaws and count, in theory, function to confuse the enemy at a critical moment, but her intention had not been to add even more variations to the technique, but to extract the Eight Great Changes spear technique out of it. Thus, she shifted her posture and switched onto the next movement, creating another series of mental manuals from the basic technique and the understanding that she had gathered from the first movement.


    ¡®Second change, Crushing Flood,¡¯ Wei Yi struck out again, moving at a slower speed, almost as if she was pushing a great body of water with only her raw physical strength. When it struck the dummy, it was the exact opposite of the Piercing River, striking the entire body of the dummy and a great area around it.


    This simple action allowed her to eliminate a further series of manuals from the crimson Augur¡¯s Library, and with each variation of that attack, she removed even more failed attempts.


    ¡®Third change, Tidal Flame,¡¯ she performed the next movement, ¡®not sure why a fire-type technique has so many movements named after water phenomena, but I¡¯m not intending to complain about the names when I won¡¯t shout them out.¡¯


    With every one of her movements, she was able to eliminate a great quantity of unsuccessful manuals from her current movement and a few from the previous changes that she could not originally eliminate. Certain changes and attempts would eliminate more failed manuals than others, but her progress remained constant, even if it was not consistent in the slightest.


    ¡®Fourth change, Sweeping Inferno,¡¯ the spear slashed across the dummy¡¯s stomach, shredding the imaginary opponent into pieces.


    ¡®Fifth change, Defensive Blaze,¡¯ as she swiped with the spear, the burst of energy did not burst out as usual, but instead remained in place, sure to weaken or outright stop any incoming foe.


    ¡®Sixth change, Retreating Torch,¡¯ although the attack seemed similar to her last, it hid her rapid retreat.


    ¡®Seventh change, Repealing Spark,¡¯ her brows furrowed when she had to attempt this attack several attempts in order to properly understand and execute this strike without a proper foe to test her defences.


    ¡®Finally, eight change, Ember Switch,¡¯ this attack was far easier, for it required nothing more than to lunge forward at great speed.


    When she completed her practise of the eight movements, all eight had under two dozen manuals to work with. Most of them were rather similar to one another, sharing many basic concepts with the manuals of the same movement and with those of other movements, but they were not yet at the level she wished them to be on. One was likely to be the Eight Great Changes, but to narrow it down, she would either need more experimentation, or a burst of inspiration.


    As she wanted to focus, she felt an approaching energy drawing close to her. It was incredibly similar to spiritual will, but the presence of a vague crimson light, of killing intent, within it gave away its true nature right away.


    ¡®This particular type of energy has a particularly strange sensation to it, so I can only assume that it belongs to the owner of the training hall, the third leader of Beast¡¯s Rest. Not only do I not want to be interfered during this process, as I need to have complete focus on the remaining variations of the techniques in order to discover the true Eight Great Changes, or my own version of it, but I am not keen on being leeched from, no matter how little harm it actually does to me. I have good reason to believe that I have some decently impressive talents that I do not want Shi Luo Feng to obtain.¡¯


    She turned towards the approaching killing intent and stabbed at it with her spear, not using any particular move or technique.


    As expected, it did nothing more than split the energy in the air, making it spread out more, without influencing the overall trajectory nor movement of the killing intent. It did, however, showcase that the energy was not under perfect control, as it was directed to flood the room and not to travel directly to her.


    ¡®Very well then, the Antithesis Palm ¨C or spear, in this instance ¨C could work, or it could invert the area of killing intent and get me leeched even more quickly. If the latter ends up being the case, then I should still have enough space to flee from here.¡¯


    While channelling killing intent into the spear, she moved one foot back and lowered her entire body, gathering a crimson page from the Augur¡¯s Library and diverting it towards the spear. As it filled up with red light, she gripped the weapon even more tightly, as if she was afraid of it disappearing from her grasp, then slowly pushed it forward at the same time as releasing the killing intent bound within. It rapidly transformed into pure darkness that consumed the light around it and spread.


    The moment that the transformation completed, the speed of her spear also accelerated, striking at the killing intent with enormous force and speed.


    As the darkness came into contact with the killing intent, it rapidly expanded to cover all of the energy within the chamber, transforming the transparent energies into vibrant blue light that covered half of the entire room. It reached back, into the depths of the training hall, where the owner of the killing intent resided.


    When it made contact, Wei Yi¡¯s mental library suddenly witnessed the spare manuals of the Eight Minor Changes vanishing, leaving behind only one set of manuals for every single movement. Furthermore, a different, complete tome manifested within the crimson and gold third floor of the library, with a complete label and fully filled in on the inside with information that one could not possibly obtain through mere observation with sight and spiritual will.


    It was labelled ¡®Magnanimous Leech¡¯, and it described an extremely grim and worrying technique.


    ¡®So that¡¯s how the technique attains such power¡­¡¯ she understood as she read the book while her body performed the eight movements of the newly generated Eight Great Changes skill, ¡®It seems that power can truly never be acquired without some sacrifice. It is called Magnanimous Leech, but not because it does not take much from its targets during brief encounters, but because it oh-so-kindly keeps the user alive at the cost of forcing them to endlessly consume the might, the talent, the knowledge and the minds of others. Fortunately, my brief interference with it did not allow it to somehow manifest within me, but I will need to take great care not to replicate this part of the skill no matter what I do.¡¯


    There were plenty of miraculous abilities and techniques out there, but most were not without their own issues and limitations. As the killing intent rapidly withdrew from the room, she could now see how it simultaneously attempted to absorb everything in its vicinity whilst also pouring away the ability of the user. It was an extremely dangerous phenomena, for the technique manual that Wei Yi now possessed suggested that there was no possibility for the technique to be removed no matter what someone does. Even purging all killing intent or killing the mind itself would still leave it entrenched within the body and would give the energy no choice but to consume only the user.


    To accidentally include such a property within her future killing intent cultivation method would be a death sentence, especially if she accidentally put in only the aspect that stole away her talent while forgetting to include a method to recover it.


    On the other hand, it did give her yet another opportunity, since if she managed to understand exactly what permitted this talent and ability absorption and comprehension, she could potentially generate a method similar to the Cosmic Dantian Refining skill that could unlock or even generate further comprehensive ability, energy utilisation and mental processing.


    Even if that could not occur, it was feasible for her to create a method of viewing her own talents in a clearer form, granting her the ability to compare her own strengths to those of others and further focus on her strengths while patching up the weaknesses.


    ¡®Another thing to calculate, then. It is truly fortunate that time moves slower here, or else I would never have enough time for this¡­ but my physical age is unlikely to be as slow as it typically is on the outside, meaning that even if I retain the longer lifespan from my cultivation, I will only have somewhere between a total of one hundred and fifty and three hundred years to live, and thus roughly fifty-five to one hundred and thirty years to get out of here,¡¯ she estimated, repeating the movements of the Eight Great Changes over and over again as to ensure that her body remembered it just as well as her mind, ¡®It may sound like a lot of time, but my experience with planar cultivation suggests that it will be a slow process to progress in the realms of killing intent. I had both the mysterious characters and a number of fortunate encounters on my path of planar cultivation, with both significantly accelerating it, but, so far, I have had no response from the characters nor a miraculous technique to use.¡¯


    She had no clue whether there was such a thing as perfected stages or realms within killing intent or physique cultivation, but she would not accept anything other than the best attempt at reaching them within her own cultivation, and would never skip any steps that could lead to greater weaknesses later on. Depending on how difficult it was to cultivate killing intent, how much ability she had for it and how long it would take her to complete her technique, it could take as little as a few years or as many as a hundred in the worst-case scenario.


    ¡®If I do have the life-span of someone in the third realm, I will have enough time to reach the peak of killing intent while remaining in my prime, though I can¡¯t say that I want to age so much within this crimson domain,¡¯ Wei Yi thought while she changed a few minor aspects of her spear technique to make them more suitable for her particular physique and body, which differed from the original creator of the technique in far more ways than one.


    Her remaining time within the training chamber was spent on alternating between practising with the spear and performing exercises to build up her strength.


    The gravitational force acting upon her stopped suddenly exactly as the second hour passed, nearly causing her to fly into the ceiling with the force she was exerting into her push-up. She stood up, wiped the sweat from her face with her hand while using physique energy to burn away traces of dirt on the parts of herself she concealed with that action, and left the chamber with the spear on her back.


    To prevent herself from overusing her strength again, she raised the gravitational effect of the training set significantly higher than before. She had the faint suspicion that she was reaching the end of what the training set allowed for, which made perfect sense as Great Light was a typical planar energy cultivator rather than a body cultivator, so even if he had a powerful physique, he could not develop it like she could, nor did he have the access to cosmic energy, preventing him from growing as quickly.


    Almost immediately, she saw the back of the overly muscular man heading up the stairs, and knew, thanks to her ever-vigilant spiritual will, that he had turned around only a second earlier, clearly doing so upon seeing her exit the training chamber.


    ¡®Makes sense, seeing as I had done something extremely strange to Shi Luo Feng¡¯s killing intent,¡¯ she thought, calmly following him, ¡®I don¡¯t think it will be a good idea to speak to her for too long, if she does invite me to do so. While I can deal with her killing intent for now, I cannot be sure that there isn¡¯t some method to neutralise or bypass my Antithesis Palm and drain things from me anyway. Furthermore, I could accidentally give her some ideas to improve her own techniques and thus gain an advantage over the other three, which she already ought to have with her superior cultivation.¡¯


    When she returned to the reception room, she found that the man had returned to his position and looked at her the moment she came into view.


    ¡°The boss wants to speak with you, girl,¡± the muscular man said, his speech being much clearer without a field of gravity constantly forcing him into the ground, ¡°Also, you have strong muscles. I can appreciate that.¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ thanks, but I am not interested. You can pass on my apologies to-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I cannot let you get away that easily, woman,¡± an incredibly feminine and alluring voice interrupted her from the side.


    It belonged to a woman whose face was covered by a black veil, and whose robes were of a similarly dark colour that hid everything about her figure completely. Through the thin fabric of the veil, Wei Yi was able to see plump red lips and soft skin that nearly matched her own. Furthermore, her stance, although simple, served to make her look significantly more enticing.


    Although the portion of her mind that was fuelled purely by hormones and lust ¨C an incredibly small part, naturally ¨C was incredibly interested in this, she suppressed it because she recognised the killing intent that surrounded her, and then realised why her appearance was so oddly flawless.


    ¡°Shi Luo Feng. My apologies, but while I am greatly sorry for your plight, I do not wish to stay.¡±


    ¡°What in the world do you mean?¡± she narrowed her eyes, ¡°I would say your name in a similar manner, but I have unfortunately forgotten to make registering one¡¯s name a necessity.¡±


    ¡°I am Wei Yi, and by your plight, I meant that you are forced to run a training hall to keep yourself alive. That is really unfortunate, but I imagine that you cannot have missed the negative effects of the technique before deciding to cultivate it. Since you keep utilising it fully despite being able to control it all too well, you clearly don¡¯t have any issues with it, and thus I will not show you pity.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ What are you talking about?¡± Shi Luo Feng asked, but her expression beneath the veil was not of confusion, but of fear, her eyes and mouth widening while the rest of her body trembled slightly.


    ¡°Nothing at all, if you don¡¯t want to admit it. Goodbye,¡± Wei Yi muttered, turning away and exiting through the front door before she could be accosted by the woman again, ¡®While there might be a chance of getting along with Ding Wen, being near her would be completely fatal. Even if she was to avoid me with her killing intent, I would still need to feed her constantly with other people that would leech away all other talent and force me to work only with her, and if she is given enough time and effort, she might be able to attain the ability to manipulate my mind through raw and concentrated charisma¡­ by which I do not mean her breasts¡­¡¯


    She left the training hall and used every stealth technique that did not require planar energy to obscure her presence and to lose any potential pursuers. With the rather complicated layout of Beast¡¯s Rest, this was not too difficult for her to do, and so she soon reached a tavern safely.


    There, she ordered a large meal to sate the hunger she developed from using up so much of her True Ascendant physique energy on the process of creating the bone shard inscriptions.


    After almost an entire hour, she finished consuming her food and leaned onto her chair, consuming the last drops of the blood wine with a loud gulp. Some of the customers looked at her with disapproving gazes due to her lacking manners, but everyone who knew what the crimson robes meant ignored her and the rest received a single killing intent-filled glance from her and also looked away without any complaints.


    ¡®If I am to advance in my path to freedom, I need to find a group to reside in and order around to claim dominance over the town and get whatever resources I need for my cultivation,¡¯ she thought, creating two books within her Augur¡¯s Library that represented Ding Wen and Meng Chu, ¡®Those two are the best candidates, as I will not need to create a new faction and will be able to take over their organisations and use them to my advantage. Ding Wen has great riches and far too many treasures, while Meng Chu¡­ I¡¯m sure he does something, and has a number of guards under his control, so if I can provide them with a good plan and techniques, I would have the perfect set of tools to occupy Beast¡¯s Rest. I suppose that it is time to return to the streets and accost more people for information¡­¡¯

 V2C11: Negotiating New Leadership

    ¡°- and that grey cloak, please. You¡¯re not going to want more than one minute mote, correct?¡±


    ¡°N-No, I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to try to pick your pockets-¡±


    ¡°Shut up and give it to me already, you liar. How in the world could you ¡®accidentally¡¯ try to rob me? That either shows that you are absolutely moronic and incapable, or that you are possessed, in which case I will be all too pleased to remove both spirits from your body,¡± Wei Yi said, grabbing the items she had purchased from his hands.


    Mid-way through turning around, however, she spotted something more appealing in the corner of this poor man¡¯s shop and dropped the cloak back onto his counter.


    The moment that her hands went towards the pile of clothes, the shopkeeper nearly leapt over the counter to stop her, ¡°No, anything but that! You can¡¯t take that from me! Not even for a titanic mote, alright?¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡± she inquired, her eyebrow raised as she lifted some tight trousers and a similarly tight shirt that, if worn by her without anything underneath, would provide any onlooker with a perfect view of her body, almost as if she wore nothing at all.


    ¡°This¡­ this is something I had made specifically for me. If you want your own set, go to the tailor two streets down!¡± the shop owner declared, finally managing to hop over the counter despite his fat and weak body, ¡°That tailor is a really talented woman who makes her clothes based on ancient and lost designs that are said to be from the era of the Master of Yi City, with some of the designs possibly being created by the man himself!¡±


    ¡°Right, two streets down. I¡¯ll let you keep these, then, even if I can¡¯t imagine you ever putting them on,¡± she replied, leaving the items on the ground before departing with a few of her purchases.


    She headed for the tailor shop she had just heard about, and found it a few minutes later, after realising that the store that was capable of creating such interesting items was located within the worst building on the entire street, resembling random pieces of wood stacked onto one another.


    Within, the only light was provided by a small red candle, which thankfully gave off a warmer orange glow that made the building more pleasant to take in than most of the outside world.


    ¡°Hello? Anyone here?¡± Wei Yi called out, spreading out her spiritual will to find someone in this dim environment. However, to her surprise, there were no traces of life in the entire four metre vicinity, though she could have understood that through the thick layer of slightly red dust covering every surface in the building, or the fact that there have been no traces of any movements anywhere around her, with certain stacks of thread and pairs of scissors clearly having been left alone for far longer periods than others.


    ¡®Huh. Very interesting. Has this tailor moved out without that shopkeeper noticing?¡¯ she wondered.


    Just as she intended to turn around and ¡®peacefully¡® ask around about this shop, she heard the faint sound of something shuffling in the depths of the darkness, where there should have been no traces of life.


    ¡°Excuse me? If you are human, can you say something before I punch you in the face?¡± Wei Yi said, ensuring that she spoke loudly enough for even a deaf individual to notice.


    ¡°Everyone here¡­ always jumps to hitting¡­ and punching¡­ ugh¡­¡± a voice came from the same place as the shuffling. The vague outline of a figure rose from the darkness and slowly crawled over to a low table in the candlelight, revealing a humanoid body with slight but noticeable feminine features. However, it also showed strange crimson flesh that was covered in translucent skin, with multiple insignificant chunks of the body missing and revealing pitch-black bones within the body.


    Even the woman¡¯s face, although lacking any such missing chunks of flesh, looked rather disconcerting due to the strangeness of her skin and flesh and her pitch-black eyes that had no clear distinction between iris and sclera.


    Although that raised an incredible number of questions, it did answer why she couldn¡¯t be found in the building on first glance ¨C she had no heartbeat nor breath.


    ¡°Are you the tailor that works here?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right¡­ are you wondering why I look like this?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that I¡¯m not interested, but if you can create the same thin and tight clothes that you made for the fat shopkeeper a few metres away from here, then it isn¡¯t important what you look like,¡± Wei Yi answered, explaining the basic appearance of the clothes she had found there, ¡°They appear to be very suitable for combat, which happens to be incredibly suitable for me.¡±


    ¡°Shopkeeper¡­ Ping Feng, right? I remember that set¡­¡± the tailor muttered, reaching under the table to retrieve a set of papers that contained a number of designs on either side of them, ¡°This is what you want, right?¡±


    Wei Yi took the paper from her and examined it. The design matched that of the clothing found in Ping Feng¡¯s shop, and looked to have been drawn many, many years ago by someone who was not too artistically talented, but it did enough to convey the basic idea of the clothing set. The upper portion of the clothes, the shirt, was simple in appearance but instructed that the material to be used ought to be gathered from very particular sources and to be processed in a very specific manner to produce thin, flexible and tough fabric.


    Meanwhile, the lower part was labelled as ¡®jeans¡¯ and was likely from a different set of items, for they used a completely different method of creation and fabric, clinging tightly to the body instead.


    ¡°This does look suitable. Do you know who created these?¡±


    ¡°No clue¡­ no labels nor names on anything¡­ but they do seem to have been made by the same person¡­ But these are copies, despite how old they look. The original creator¡­ he or she would have died long ago, even with the benefits of planar cultivation and the Beast¡¯s blood combined¡­¡± the strange tailor guessed, ¡°Do you want these?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. Do you need to get my measurements?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Stand here¡­¡±


    She pointed to an empty spot within the building, then took out a series of instruments to measure her body.


    The tailor worked incredibly quickly and efficiently, getting the entire process done in just a few minutes, without any extraneous actions or questions. It was almost like she had mastered a unique martial art and was currently performing it without any reservations.


    When she was done, she went straight to creating the clothes, and did so in a similarly impressive time, finishing before half an hour went by. The shirt was made out of grey threads that stretched easily, while the trousers were woven from fabric of the same colour while having slight discolorations on the knees.


    ¡°Five minor motes, please.¡±


    ¡°Here you go,¡± she threw out some motes that she had received from someone who misinterpreted her approach to interrogation as an attempt to rob them, ¡°How long have you been doing this?¡±


    ¡°I do not remember¡­ I wasn¡¯t like this¡­ originally, I think, but then I woke up like this¡­ without any memory¡­ but with a thread and needle in hand and knowledge¡­ and instinct allowing me to make use of them¡­ I might have been human at some point¡­ but not anymore,¡± the tailor stated, stretching out her arm, ¡°My body resembles that¡­ of hatred automatons, with black bones and crimson flesh and no need for food¡­ but I seem to still have my mind¡­¡±


    ¡°Could you tell me what a hatred automaton is? I¡¯ve heard the term before, but not what it means.¡±


    ¡°Hatred automatons¡­ they are beings that once lived, animated by the endless killing intent within the world¡­ their flesh is partially missing and crimson¡­ and they act almost like mechanical constructs, moving methodically and without any obvious purpose¡­¡±


    Wei Yi grabbed the tailor¡¯s arm and felt her skin and lightly touched a spot of exposed flesh, ¡°You do have a certain quality of dryness and solidity, unlike what flesh is ought to have. Very interesting.¡±


    ¡°If you want to see a normal hatred automaton¡­ you can ask the guards about them¡­¡±


    ¡°Noted,¡± she said, releasing the woman¡¯s arm, ¡°My knowledge of hatred automatons is naturally lacking, but if it is somehow possible to reverse whatever happened to you, would you be interested in doing it?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t see a reason for that. I¡¯m alive¡­ never hungry nor thirsty and possibly free from aging¡­ I get to do what I like whenever I like¡­¡±


    ¡°Fair enough. Before I go, could you tell me if you intend to remain here in the near future?¡±


    ¡°Nowhere else to go, so, yes.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±


    She left the tailor¡¯s store and headed towards the other side of town, where the first brothel she had visited was. Although she was tempted to find Ah Li or someone else that caught her eye and spend another day with them, that wasn¡¯t something she could afford to do at this very moment, so she snuck into the brothel and descended into the depths, traversing both sets of stairs to return to the room in which she met Meng Chu.


    At the moment, that room was empty, so she went around and inspected every single hidden passage before finding one that led to an incredibly similar chamber within the range of her spiritual will, which she opened up with some spiritual will-based trickery and stepped through, opening the door on the other side in a similar manner.


    There, she sat down and crossed her arms, waiting for someone to enter.


    ¡®As far as I can tell, these places are used frequently, even if it isn¡¯t always by the owner of the establishment, so I am bound to find someone who works here if I wait long enough.¡¯


    And find someone she did, only a few minutes later. One of the regular doors was opened, and two women came in at the same time, with neither of them wearing any clothes and with both of them too busy kissing to notice her presence. The moment that they got through the doorway, one pressed the other up against a wall and got busy.


    ¡®When I thought that it wouldn¡¯t be the owner that entered, I didn¡¯t realise that customers would also be permitted,¡¯ Wei Yi commented, considering what to do now, ¡®I could interrupt them, but they seem to be having quite a lot of fun at the moment¡­ No, with how deep this part of the brothel is, no regular customers or workers would be here, so it would make sense if this connects to some internal part of the brothel where some of the higher-ups, Meng Chu included, might reside. Worth a shot, I suppose, and if it doesn¡¯t work, I can return to these two and ask them about it.¡¯


    She used her stealth techniques to sneak past them unnoticed and entered the chamber on the other side of the door. Unlike the first two chambers, which were both small and limited in terms of furniture, this area was incredibly large and open, with a number of shelves, chairs and tables scattered around.


    From the other side of the room, she heard a voice calling out, ¡°Where in the heavens have those two gone? Can they not¡­ what¡¯s this?¡±


    It was instantly obvious that this was Meng Chu speaking, so she approached his position openly while ignoring whoever he was looking for. She found him on the far edge of the chamber, standing over two sets of robes that were randomly dropped onto the ground without any care for the placement or the ornate fabrics they were made out of.


    ¡°Have you lost someone, Meng Chu? Not very professional of you.¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t lost anyone, I-¡± he replied reflexively before raising his head and realising who he was speaking to, ¡°Wei Yi? How did you get in?¡±


    ¡°Through the door, as most people probably would. Can I expect a proper answer to my question?¡±


    Meng Chu sighed, ¡°Since I assume that you are here to resume the negotiations we were having previously, I temporarily won¡¯t object. I am looking for two of my subordinates, Dugu Wei and Qiu Sheng, who typically manage the guards and brothels whenever I am not present. These robes belong to them, so I assume that they snuck off to engage in their typical ¡®romance sessions¡¯, as they call them, while they should have been working. If you still have your spiritual will, could you find them?¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not guaranteeing anything, but I might be able to do something,¡± she replied, grabbing both sets of robes, ¡°You can take a look at the left side, I¡¯ll look at the right side of the room.¡±


    The man shrugged and followed her directions, while she returned to the doorway she entered from and, after waiting a little in the hopes that the two women, whose moans could be heard easily from such proximity, would hear her, she knocked on the doorway loudly.


    ¡°Girls, you didn¡¯t pick the best time to do this. Get dressed and report to your boss,¡± Wei Yi said, throwing the robes in their direction, ¡°And do pay more attention to your surroundings.¡±


    Their moans stopped, and a pair of hands shot out shortly after to grab their respective clothes.


    ¡°What did you mean by that?¡± one of the women ¨C the one that had been pressed up against the wall, based on the sound of her voice ¨C asked.


    ¡°Did you not notice that someone had been watching you two for half a minute before walking right past you?¡±


    ¡°Someone did that? They need to be apprehended immediately!¡±


    ¡°You¡­ You¡¯re not Dugu Wei, are you?¡±


    ¡°Fortunately, she is not. Were you the one that was observing us?¡± the other woman said, her voice sounding far more mature and tough than her partner¡¯s, ¡°If you are a new assassin or agent that will work for us, then you have passed my test. I could not be sure that anyone was watching us to begin with, except for the feeling of being watched.¡±


    ¡°That is not quite what either of us intended, but we will see. However, if I had wanted to serve beneath you, I would be concerned at how inattentive you were. You see, I hadn¡¯t used a single one of my stealth methods.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Dugu Wei was audibly silent, with the sounds of cloth being louder than her breathing.


    Her partner also remained quiet, allowing both of them to change without any further interruptions. When they appeared in the doorway, Wei Yi noticed that the two of them were surprisingly similar to one another, except for a few key features. Their hair and eye colours were identical, but Dugu Wei had blond hair and dark eyes while Qiu Sheng had dark, almost black hair and cream-white eyes. Both had light skin, as did most within the prison realm due to the obvious lack of sunlight, and rather fair and lithe bodies, which was also common for pure killing intent cultivators.


    The vice-leader of the guards, Dugu Wei, was in the first stage of the fourth realm of killing intent cultivation, while Qui Sheng, the vice-manager of the brothels was at the peak of the previous realm.


    ¡°I do not recall seeing you around here before. Did Meng Chu authorise your presence?¡±


    ¡°Yep, that¡¯s exactly what he did, so get going already,¡± Wei Yi replied, nudging the two in the same direction that she had instructed Meng Chu to go in.


    Although the vice-leader of the guards clearly didn¡¯t trust her completely, she found that her physical strength allowed her to easily push around the two even without exerting herself, so they had no choice but to do as they were told.


    Thus, they were brought smoothly to Meng Chu¡¯s location, where he was already waiting for them to appear after he understood that Wei Yi didn¡¯t take their robes for no reason.


    ¡°There you are. Dugu Wei, manage the situation in the east section. Qiu Sheng, there have been a few complaints in the female-only brothel in the southern section and I need you to investigate and resolve the situation to the best of your ability. I might be busy for a while,¡± he said, waiting for the two of them to depart before turning to Wei Yi, ¡°My apologies for that. Not the best first impression of your future co-workers, I¡¯d imagine.¡±


    ¡°About that¡­ how about we find a more comfortable place to speak?¡±


    ¡°Certainly. There are a number of chambers similar to the first one we spoke in, so we¡¯ll speak in the closest one,¡± Meng Chu said, bringing her to a nearby negotiation chamber, as he called it. There, he sat down in a chair and offered her to sit down as well, continuing, ¡°Do you recall our original terms?¡±


    ¡°I do, but I have something different to propose first. It¡¯s significantly different from your original proposal, and it is this ¨C you serve under me, and I get us Beast¡¯s Rest and more.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Just to confirm, this is a serious suggestion, correct?¡±


    ¡°Naturally,¡± Wei Yi nodded, ¡°I have a certain set of skills that allow me to recall and calculate an incredible amount of information, and so I will be able to provide you with unbeatable tactics so long as you give me the data I need. Furthermore, I believe that I have the potential to either shatter the prison realm or to locate an exit, in which case I will be your only chance to survive the anger of the Great Families. Even if I cannot do that, I will retain the ability to use spiritual will for a long period of time from now, and both my killing intent and physique are powerful enough to¡­ well, crimson robe.¡±


    ¡°That is good to know, but you know that I cannot trust something like that just due to your word. I am not necessarily against working for someone competent, but¡­¡± Meng Chu paused, ¡°Had you not come here wearing a Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival, I would have tried to kill you already. I¡¯m sure you understand.¡±


    ¡®There¡¯s the standard violence and rage that a killing intent cultivator is meant to have¡­¡¯ she sighed internally while looking perfectly confident on the outside, ¡°Naturally, which is why I am sure we can work something out. There has to be something you¡¯ve been working on, some operation or plan or idea that is quite complex and thus likely to fail, causing you to be unsure about starting it. How about letting me handle it? If it fails, you won¡¯t lose much, and if I don¡¯t, then you¡¯ll know about my general capability. Perhaps I might even accomplish something you did not expect, resulting in a far greater success than you originally planned.¡±


    Meng Chu frowned, considering things for a moment, ¡°I could do that, and I even have the perfect operation to let you manage¡­ So, if you succeed, you want to take charge, and if you fail, will you serve under me?¡±


    ¡°Something like that. Mind explaining what operation you wish me to tackle?¡±


    ¡°My ancestor, Meng Qi, had lost his techniques in an old battle, and the battlefield is currently occupied by a bunch of bandits from the Great Bone Lake ¨C in case you are not aware, they are pure body cultivators, and thus they handle a form of unique physique energy that is not available anywhere in the upper realm, in the continents. I wanted to reclaim whatever was left of Meng Qi¡¯s legacy, but it is not a particular priority, so you may do it instead.¡±


    ¡°Just some bandits? Sure, I can manage. Besides, I have something of my own as well,¡± Wei Yi smiled, raising her hand and releasing a thin wisp of True Ascendant physique energy above it.


    ¡°Oh¡­ you don¡¯t practise killing intent, then, do you?¡±


    ¡°It should be impossible to practise both due to the fact that both occupy the meridians, right? Well, if you follow me, I could provide you with a unique method to produce a secondary set of those with the minor cost of extreme, excruciating pain and¡­ well, more pain. It isn¡¯t pleasant at all.¡±


    ¡°Very interesting¡­ if only you had opened with that, I wouldn¡¯t have needed to offer you that challenge. Using two forms of energy at once will naturally bring extreme advantages to any force that is able to give even one percent of their fighters that ability, no matter what the costs are. Physique energy and killing intent¡­ mental and physical abilities¡­ It is the peak of what we can achieve.¡±


    ¡®He shares my opinion on this, then. If I can manage to substitute planar energy for killing intent and reduce the complexity of my body cultivation to minimise the results, to ensure that no-one can ever rival me with my own techniques, then I might be able to gain some leverage over everyone in this prison realm, so long as I never reveal the possibility of having five sets of meridians at once,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, rescinding the physique energy, ¡°Tell me, Meng Chu, how does that compare to what most of the body cultivators from the Great Bone Lake are able to muster? I need to know that to understand how they will compare with me and with your troops.¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t very easy to judge physique energies based on sight alone, and since I have no spiritual will to look at it with¡­ It seems purer and brighter, but that is about it. What realm are you in?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Come to think of it, I have not asked about realms yet. Tell me everything you know about both forms of cultivation as well, for the same reasons as before,¡± she asked, ¡°I have cultivated both energies without a full knowledge of the realms, and I suspect that is not the best of ideas.¡±


    ¡°For the purposes of our eventual cooperation, I shall do that. Since I am more familiar with killing intent, I will begin with it. The first realm of killing intent is called Initial Well, for it is the realm in which one gathers the killing intent that belongs to them and the Beast and refines it into a pool within themselves and their meridians. At this point, you may mobilise it beyond mere instinctive reactions, but not with a clear target. This realm can be attained through mere accumulation of energy, but beyond that, you need a shape. A form for the hatred to take. Something striking for yourself and your enemies,¡± Meng Chu explained, materialising his killing intent in the form of a great waterfall, ¡°After that, you reach Fine Piercing ¨C and I have to point out that the names are not particularly creative nor original, for they were made by insane savages ¨C in which you may direct killing intent in a certain direction. You can¡¯t pierce through anything, but the name has been sufficient so far¡­


    ¡°After that is Condensed Shot, in which you may morph your killing intent into fluid and strike specific targets at specific locations ¨C which ought to name the realm Fine Piercing, but, well, it is not named that ¨C with a variety of different forms of attack, mostly varying based on your particular technique. Sometimes, the source of killing intent is very obvious, but at other times, it is not,¡± explained Meng Chu, ¡°Searing Torch, my realm, comes next. Silly name aside, it permits the condensation of killing intent into a weapon, which I shall demonstrate now.¡±


    He raised his hand and closed it around the air, almost as if he was gripping the hilt of a weapon.


    ¡®I remember this ¨C the Black Terror did this exact same motion to create her crimson jagged blade instead of using the dagger in her robes,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, carefully examining him and the flow of killing intent within his body to understand how it functioned for her future cultivation.


    His killing intent surged out and shaped itself into a large staff that was as tall as him. It, like every weapon in the prison realm, looked dark, jagged and imposing, as if the very appearance of the staff could harm one¡¯s body. However, by simply unclenching his fist, it dissipated back into his body, vanishing from sight.


    ¡°Where¡¯s the armour?¡±


    ¡°Hatred Augur realm, the fifth and, so far as anyone has been able to manage in the prison realm, the final realm of killing intent cultivation. It is what most of the owners of the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival are in, and it is significantly more powerful than the preceding realms. It permits the killing intent cultivator to infuse their hatred into their very flesh and skin, empowering themselves and applying immense defence on themselves. Furthermore, they gain something called a Hatred Scar that they can use to further those powers even more. I suppose that it can be compared to the searing marks of planar cultivation, or the planar anchor, but this effect is much more permanent and tends to be placed on the most significant part of the cultivator¡¯s body. The heart and the brain are common positions.¡±


    ¡°I see. What about body cultivation?¡±


    ¡°The realms are: Stable Form, Greater Shape, Impermanent Permanence and Progressive Difference. Their effects¡­ I have no clue.¡±


    ¡°How so? Is the information on body cultivation so hard to gain, or have you never particularly cared about his matter? If the bandits have truly been bothering you as much as you had claimed, then I imagine that you would have dealt with this already,¡± Wei Yi commented, crossing her arms.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that I haven¡¯t wished to investigate this, but the only people that can gain this information are those that engage with the body cultivation groups of the prison realm. The most well-known are those that reside within the Great Bone Lake, for the very environment there constantly forges and strengthens their bodies, but staying there requires either immense strength or submission to those there, and even those who enter via strength tend to go mad due to the constant pain,¡± he replied, ¡°Additionally, the descriptions of the realms, just like the names, are far more vague than those of killing intent or planar cultivation. For instance, Stable Form has once been described as ¡®Through mastery of body cultivation, the form achieves stability, preventing unfortunate temporal progression¡¯.¡±


    ¡°So, it is something that is attained through a powerful body and prevents the effects of aging. Simple.¡±


    ¡°The second realm is ¡®Elements of the body are refined, with certain imperfections within the mortal form being transcended. The physique is purified, extrapolating further might via its roots¡¯.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d assume that impurities and flaws are removed while the physique can attain the next level, like ascending from a Yin physique to a Greater Yin physique or from a Bright Star physique to a Superior Bright Star physique.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I think you are far more suitable for body cultivation than the practise of killing intent.¡±


    ¡°You might be right, but I don¡¯t mind that too much. Now, in terms of the planned method for distinguishing my position, are we agreed on the terms?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. I look forward to benefitting from your presence, regardless of your position.¡±

 V2C12: Devising a Scheme

    ¡°.. and that is everything I can currently provide you with. If you want more, then you will need to wait,¡± said Meng Chu, leaving the last book on the table.


    ¡°Since you said that we have a month to prepare, then I will make good use of that time. Give me everything you can about your men and your enemies, no matter how insignificant it might seem. The only thing that matters is that it is true without a shadow of a doubt, or else you will affect the accuracy and effectiveness of my plans.¡±


    ¡°Then I will increase the number of investigators in the field,¡± he nodded, turning around and departing.


    ¡®Perfect,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, expanding her spiritual will to cover and seep into every book that had been placed around her, ¡®With this much information, I can begin working on the plan and my killing intent cultivation technique at the same time, using Endless Calculation for both and refining it as well. Even if I fail to create a plan that will be sufficient to put me into the commanding position, I will still be able to reach a more advanced realm of killing intent within a month of completing the technique, provided that the speed of cultivation matches that of planar cultivation.¡¯


    To her left, she also placed a large supply of bottled blood wine and blood water, dried meat and other long-lasting food and drink to fuel her body while she pushed her mind to its limit, albeit without forcing it to slow down due to how much time she has to work with.


    To her right lay several piles of killing intent manuals, including those that completed her collection of the fifteen base killing intent techniques, as well as two unique techniques that were called Monarch of Terror and Perpetual Anger, with the first condensing the form of killing intent into a crown that gathers the emotions of those beneath the user and focuses them into killing intent, while the second focused all of the hatred of the user to endlessly revolve and strengthen it.


    Both were flawed in their own ways, but neither was as terrible as Magnanimous Leech, making them absolutely brilliant in comparison.


    In front of her was the largest pile of books and tomes, listing everything known about body cultivation ¨C or, rather, physique cultivation ¨C physique cultivators and the specific bandits occupying the battlefield where Meng Qi¡¯s remains may be located. It included their appearances, physical and mental features, where they had been seen guarding their encampment and all sorts of other details.


    With this, she had all of the information she needed to begin the process of calculation, and so she stored all of the books into the library before opening several of them within the Augur¡¯s Library. The naming of the technique and how it just happened to have the same name as the fifth realm of killing intent cultivation aside, she found it to be more and more comfortable to use with every passing minute, increasing the rate at which she was able to absorb and comprehend information through it and improving the rate at which Endless Calculation was able to function, even without improvements to the technique itself.


    As a result, when she had the books open within the library, she was able to read half a dozen at once without any issues, at the exact same pace and speed as just one book, and since her mind functioned at a greater speed than her eyes did in reality, that speed was further amplified.


    The first field she decided to study more carefully were the cultivation realms of physique cultivation, as it was relevant both to herself and to understanding the abilities of the bandits from the Great Bone Lake, which could contribute to as much as twenty percent of her potential success. Unfortunately, there were only a few manuals that had any hints about physique cultivation, with no cultivation techniques at all, but there were a number of tomes that described the style of combat that physique cultivators often employ and accurate tales of their battles, so it would suffice for now.


    ¡®Stable Form, guaranteed requirements of a physique, no matter how poor, empty meridians that have not contained any other form of energy for a day prior to cultivation, a body that is¡­ eight times as strong as that of a typical human, or that of the cultivator prior to their physical training,¡¯ she determined from the first few books, ¡®Thus, one has to be in the physical equivalent of the seventh or eighth stage of Planar Pool, and each stage of physical cultivation should elevate one¡¯s strength further.¡¯


    Physique cultivation appeared to be based primarily on one¡¯s physique ¨C hence why she considered it to be a superior name to body cultivation, since a person could theoretically develop a form of spiritual physique that render their strength almost null but make their physique abilities vastly more powerful ¨C and with each stage and realm, the body and the physique would become stronger, even without refining or purifying the physique to an entirely new level. As a result, it was far more dependent on what one was born with or created at the beginning of their cultivation journey, and if someone acquired a physique that was significantly more powerful than that of another, they would be at an enormous advantage to anyone in an inferior field.


    As Wei Yi had the True Ascendant physique, one that had an extreme quantity of yang within it, she had that same advantage, so long as there were no superior physiques hidden within the prison realm.


    ¡®According to the information that I¡¯ve been provided, there are roughly fifteen men and six women amongst their group. One man has a Yang physique, one woman has the Sun¡¯s Regalia physique, but the rest are unknown¡­ Not good enough. With how powerful my physique energy is, even if it is significantly more powerful than any other, I imagine that twenty-one physique cultivators would absolutely destroy anyone who does not have strong bodies, which would be the majority of the killing intent cultivators¡­¡¯ she thought, willing the tomes that depict them and their battlefield to manifest.


    Twenty-one thin books and a dozen larger ones appeared in front of her, and yet she did not even begin the process of Endless Calculation. Then, she opened up more books that related to physique cultivation, and repeated the process.


    ¡®Greater Shape, requirement of a doubled strength, equating second stage of Emergent Anchor or sixteen times that of their original ability¡­ flaws that the cultivator desires to be removed need to be understood and comprehended as to be able to direct the body to remove and amend them¡­ There isn¡¯t enough information for me to understand my exact realm and stage, but I am most certainly not in the second realm, for I lack any knowledge of the flaws that I would like to remove¡­¡¯


    The books containing the information on the twenty-one bandits grew slightly in thickness as she read through that batch of books and grew again with the next.


    ¡®Impermanent Permanence is the last one that I have sufficient detail on, and is also what their leader is supposedly in¡­ if I understand this correctly, it ensures perfect regeneration regardless of wound and duration of injury, meaning that so long as the damage can be healed, it will return to the initial state without any changes. It also requires a good understanding of the whole body, as to be able to return it to the preferred state¡­ Perhaps it is possible to alter the body in this realm, though not too significantly due to the next realm being the one in which you are intended to modify your physical self according to your whims,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, briefly glancing at her hands for no particular reason, ¡®Maybe minor changes to things that can be perceived as injuries can be repaired, but nothing more. If I did have a chance to change myself, what would I do?¡¯


    She waved away the question, as it was irrelevant to her at present, and returned to finishing the last few books on the topic of physique cultivation. When she did finish them, she moved onto the tomes and manuals describing killing intent, as well as those explaining the abilities of the warriors she would be able to order around.


    ¡®Initial Well, my realm and that of two warriors, Fine Piercing, the realm of five warriors, Condensed Shot, the realm of the last nineteen combatants. Makes sense, seeing as the top leaders are only in the Searing Torch realm,¡¯ she thought, ¡®However, this isn¡¯t too fortunate for me, unless I intend to go with this group, as killing intent appears to be weaker than physique cultivation. With decent physiques, the twenty-one bandits will be significantly more powerful than Meng Chu¡¯s troops, even if the latter have access to good hatred blades, emphasis on ¡®good¡¯ versus ¡®decent¡¯. Furthermore, he described the Great Bone Lake as driving anyone who stays inside of it for too long insane, meaning that killing intent will have even less effect on them¡­¡¯


    On the outside of the Augur¡¯s Library, she created a rough representation of how the fight would progress if the twenty-one went up against the twenty-six in head-to-head combat.


    At first, the books that were surrounded in the aura of killing intent had a minor advantage due to their ability to fight at a greater range, but the moment that the physique cultivators closed the gap and unleashed their physique energies, the battle was won, and won without any losses on their side.


    Naturally, if this was to occur in reality, it would be a lot more complex and would involve far more tactical decision-making, but the basic outcome would still be similarly in the favour of the physique cultivators. Due to this, she knew that it was an absolute necessity to exclude any plans that involved a direct collision between two forces, and instead depend on clever manoeuvring and stealth to succeed in the battle.


    ¡®This just means that my planning will require more data to go correctly, and I will need several backup plans to execute if the first one fails. Although it might be difficult to arrange in a day or a week, a month will be more than sufficient so long as I can boost the power of my library and Endless Calculation further by strengthening my killing intent¡­¡¯


    She was thrown out of her contemplation while more than a million books floated around her Augur¡¯s Library, flooding the equivalent of the heavens and the earth with brown tones when she heard a knock on the door to the chamber she decided to occupy.


    Leaving her mental realm, she turned to face the door just as it opened, revealing Meng Chu on the other side with a pile of books in his hands, and several people behind him with even more reading material. They carried it all into the room, filling the empty corners of the room with all sorts of books from all sorts of places. Some were old, some were new, others were created from all sorts of odd materials and were covered in all sorts of colours, causing the room to resemble a dull rainbow.


    Once the servants left, Wei Yi asked, ¡°How long has it been so far?¡±


    ¡°One day. This is everything that can be gathered within the city, so I recommend that you scan through it quickly before your spiritual will-¡±


    ¡°Since we¡¯re going to be working together no matter what happens, let me remind you that my spiritual will is not going to disappear without an extreme circumstance forcing the last remnants of my planar energy to vanish, so stop assuming that it will vanish at any moment¡­ And no, I will not be able to pass that on to you. It is quite literally a unique ability.¡±


    ¡°Is there no possibility whatsoever of passing on any aspect of that principle?¡±


    ¡°No, because it is not a technique nor a physique that I can induce in anyone. Furthermore, I am certain that if you kill me, you will not be able to take it from me,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡®That is nonsense, actually, but I have no reason to suggest any possibility of the nascent portal being transferrable.¡¯


    Given that she had only been able to perceive that nascent rift due to some uniqueness of her own when Chu Ling couldn¡¯t even approach the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus with her spiritual will, there might be even more validity to her words. Perhaps that same uniqueness was necessary to gain the opening bestowed by the miracle fruit, and since she hadn¡¯t fully confirmed the reason for that particular ability, she could not guarantee that anyone other than herself had it.


    ¡°Very well, I will accept that. How is your progress so far?¡±


    ¡°I have established a basic model of the battlefield, both sides and a number of theoretical obstacles that both might encounter. I have also begun work on a technique for myself, which I will put to use if I determine that it is impossible for your men to win, which, frankly, is the case in a direct confrontation. So far, there seems to be a 1.4% chance of victory through subterfuge, but that is only because I lack enough data to accurately predict the outcome of such a battle. I suspect that the true value is closer to 10.8% percent, give or take a tenth or hundredth.¡±


    ¡°That does not sound very good, and much worse than I anticipated. Is there something that you may be misinterpreting?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll know that after I read your additional material, but that should not be the case. After all, physical cultivators are superior in strength to killing intent cultivators, are resistant to the latter¡¯s mental attacks and can endure their physical attacks vastly better than the average killing intent cultivator. To defeat them smoothly and without casualty, as would be most efficient, every kill must be smooth and fast, catching as many off-guard prior to overwhelming any that remain.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, that is the case¡­ How would your presence affect these chances?¡±


    ¡°Unless something unexpected occurs, it ought to bring things up to 52.7% at most, though I expect that I will have to adjust that value after gaining further insights into the situation. After all, I am currently viewing the worst-case scenario, which will only be improved as faults within their defences can be found.¡±


    ¡°As expected of a crimson robe wearer with twin meridian networks, I suppose. My presence does not assist your planning and contemplation, does it?¡±


    ¡°Nope. However, I might need to book Ah Li at some point, as this ought to help my mind calm down after the excessive stress I¡¯m applying to it. If you could see my mental landscape right now, I¡¯m pretty sure you would experience a significant degree of mental pain.¡±


    ¡°Noted. I¡¯ll leave, then.¡±


    When he left, Wei Yi reached out with her spiritual will again, scanning every single book into her mind within a few minutes before going through them inside of her mental landscape. With the incredible quantity of information there, it took her a long time to do so, but the instant that she located a few more cultivation techniques for killing intent and one that resembled some haphazard attempt to create a physique cultivation technique, she got through them all quickly.


    The killing intent techniques were high in number, but unfortunately nameless. There were a number of effects, concepts and ideas within, but what mattered the most was that every possible combination of elements, energy quantity and purity and a number of other factors were included, allowing her to create a basic foundation for a personal technique within minutes after comprehending the last killing intent technique in the pile. From there, the key would be to establish her own model for the killing intent, much like she had done with the Gilded and Augur¡¯s Libraries and put all of the differing concepts and ideas together into something functional and powerful.


    On the other hand, to compose a physical cultivation method from the pathetic scraps that the creator dared to call ¡®filled with potential¡¯ would be identical to trying to challenge the heavens.


    It wasn¡¯t just bad, but absolutely terrible, for it lacked even the simplest understanding of both language and physique energy. Perhaps the only benefit from it was the fact that it contained a few more insights on physique energy cultivation than the rest of the books, hidden amongst dozens of falsehoods and endless nonsense.


    There were a few things she could invest into a proper technique, but nothing truly significant that she could use as a similar foundation to the killing intent she was already creating. As a result, that book was torn into little pieces, the significant ones were placed aside while the rest were burned.


    ¡®Now, to return to the matter of the plan. Let¡¯s see¡­ full profiles of all of the men and women that will be brought to this mission, various details and rumours regarding the opposition, full maps of the battlefield and how they have changed from the first battle to their current state, which should allow me to understand the geographical situation there with a little more clarity, crimson storm weather conditions, hatred automaton hunting patterns, instances of weaker or superior killing intent fields within the wild, several theses on the topic of miracle fluid and where it naturally appears, details on the creation and maintenance of hatred blades and defensive equipment, how killing intent reacts to physique energy and vice versa¡­ Excellent. This is all exactly what I needed¡­¡¯


    One by one, the books were placed into the mental library, filling it with far greater speed than Wei Yi had originally expected, and the number of the tomes floating around it also multiplied with every relevant book. The millions grew and grew until they reached into the billions, the sheer quantity of ideas, possibilities and theories straining her mind to the point of causing audible cracking and creaking from the Augur¡¯s Library.


    She took a moment to pool one of the killing intent books into the walls and pillars of the library before opening one of her newly gained books to find something ¨C anything ¨C that could contradict anything about the endless tide of theoretical and potential outcomes.


    Luckily, she found exactly that, and a great swath of floating books vanished into nothingness.


    ¡®If I do something on this same scale again, I must make sure to get rid of extraneous theories before they start to fill my mind beyond what is necessary,¡¯ Wei Yi said to herself, ¡®My mind is certainly capable of holding quite the number of things, but without some sort of additional mental cultivation technique to strengthen it, I cannot exert it to such an enormous extent. Furthermore, doing something like that is simply inefficient, as the entire point of the Endless Calculation technique is meant to discard the things that cannot happen and narrow things down to that which can happen¡­ Speaking of that, plotting out the entire engagement is also unnecessary. I must instead conclude what start to the engagement would be the smoothest and most efficient, then figure out how to progress from there. Naturally, that will cut down on the quantity of tomes¡­¡¯


    With a wave of her mental hand, the thickness of every single floating tome was halved and a number of books that were irrelevant to her current intention were removed immediately. With those that remained, she ran through every single one of them and examined what could happen if she did give these orders to those under her command. Even when her brain accelerated to deal with the matter a little more efficiently, she could still see how time passed around her, with things both inside and outside of her changing.


    She consumed a portion of the food by her side before she finally completed the process and eliminated a great quantity of tactics that could not possibly function no matter how things turned out.


    That further narrowed down her selection of tactical books, so she willed the next segment of them to reform once more before repeating the process. Every time she did so, the number of books was reduced significantly, but the thickness of each one grew, with the feasibility of them growing alongside it.

 V2C13: Second Month in the Prison Realm

    ¡®- Now, all I need to do is to circulate the killing intent in this pattern, and¡­¡¯


    The crimson energy gathered within the third set of meridians and travelled through her body in a way that almost resembled a perfect circle, with each revolution somehow causing the killing intent to thicken and grow in volume. The first few revolutions were smooth and perfectly pleasant to endure, flowing as smoothly as planar energy did, but despite the gains remaining the same, the difficulty of it grew until it felt like she had been allowing a sword to pass through her meridians, but she did not stop there and only accelerated the flow of killing intent.


    It grew more and more unpleasant by the second, first elevating to the point of feeling like a flaming sword, then a river of earth flame, then concentrated lightning, but she persevered not just because she had gotten used to experiencing such pains time and time again, but because she was aware that to progress in the Ascendant¡¯s Gathering technique and to form the endless battlefield of killing intent that she was aiming to create, she could not use anything but the purest killing intent she can muster.


    So, she continued, not considering her work done until visible cracks appeared within both her mental and physical forms, caused by the overwhelming pressure of the killing intent.


    ¡®Now, form! Condense!¡¯ she shouted in her mind, forcing the crimson light to gather inside her heart.


    The endless red energies flooded into a single point and then filled the entirety of the heart, forming a large yet miniscule battlefield that resembled the one she had seen within the Kong valley, except for the combatants there being formed from cosmic energy, with one side also handling physique energy while the other used killing intent.


    With every breath, the battlefield grew denser and more real, each combatant solidifying and gaining a degree of false sentience, beginning to fight amongst one another. Whenever their weapons collided, a thin wisp of killing intent was generated, flowing into her meridians and then circulating over and over again until it gained the same thickness and density as the energy that composed the battlefield, which it flowed into and formed more warriors that did the exact same thing, slowly growing her pool of hatred.


    Her killing intent stage rapidly grew, from what might have been the very first stage to the peak of what she could achieve in the first realm, flooding every aspect of her being with crimson light. As she opened her eyes, the grey of her iris was backlit by deep crimson, and there seemed to be a hint of the enormous battlefield within them. It almost felt as if she could pull someone into it with a single misplaced glance.


    ¡®I may not have that ability at the moment, but if I stretch out my killing intent, I should be able to pull people into an illusion of the battlefield,¡¯ she contemplated, assessing the final effectiveness of her technique, ¡®Even if that was to only last a single second, the distraction combined with the great pressure of the concentrated killing intent should make dispatching a single enemy rather easy.¡¯


    She examined her battlefield of killing intent briefly and found that she had no chance of ascending into the next realm any time soon.


    The issue was not her technique, though it could certainly be improved with her own experience and that of others, but the quantity of her killing intent. If it was easy to accumulate killing intent to progress onto the second realm, almost anyone who hated someone but could not cultivate planar energy would have long stepped into the Fine Piercing realm. No, that required a great quantity of killing intent that could only be found within the air of the prison realm, and the amount that she needed was vastly greater than most of the people in this world due to how concentrated the killing intent battlefield was. In order to reach the next realm, she would need to accumulate the quantity she now possesses multiplied by a vast amount, for that was the key of killing intent cultivation ¨C concentration and quantity were key.


    Wei Yi willed her killing intent to surge out and focused it in a small sphere around her, for she was unable to control it any more precisely than that, and watched as some random loose pages from some of the books she had read were disintegrated by the crimson energy.


    Although they were old and were already crumbling, it was still an impressive display of her prowess.


    ¡®I don¡¯t think that I have managed to step into any perfected stages or realms, which is truly unfortunate, but the immense concentration of killing intent appears to be above that of the average cultivator,¡¯ Wei Yi assessed, withdrawing the crimson light, ¡®Furthermore, the tests I have performed on myself while creating this technique has further strengthened my body which, in combination with the muscle growth from¡­ well, from not restricting it as much as before, means that even if I had no particular plan for the upcoming battle, I would have a minimum of a 76.2% chance of success.¡¯


    She took a deep breath and exhaled a lungful of turbid breath from her mouth, quickly dressed and undressed to cleanse her skin with physique energy, then took one of the stacks of papers that were outside of the range of her killing intent and began to write the contents of the only floating tome outside of her Augur¡¯s Library.


    To be safe, she wrote several copies, shoved one into her robes and split up the other ones before exiting the room.


    Outside, she found Meng Chu sitting on a chair, calmly drinking a cup of tea.


    ¡°How is the situation with the bandits? Are they still there?¡± she asked, holding out one of the copies of her final plan, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to revise this for attacking them while they¡¯re travelling.¡±


    ¡°They are still present, but there are rumours that they might be packing up soon, so your timing is good,¡± he replied, taking the stack of papers with his free hand, ¡°This is your plan? I see¡­ Very interesting. I must say, if that mental technique of yours is not as effective as you claim it to be, this plan will explode in a matter of seconds.¡±


    ¡°That is why I will be going. Since the situation has somewhat changed, I will examine it first-hand and prevent any uncertain variables from affecting the situation in a negative way. As your two vice-leaders know, my ability to sneak past people unnoticed is more than sufficient to go undetected by almost two dozen madmen that have gone completely insane due to the torture of the Great Bone Lake ¨C which I want to visit someday and investigate how effective it is ¨C and prevent the theft of the items of value on the ancient battlefield.¡±


    ¡°Huh,¡± Meng Chu made a quiet noise and finished the rest of his tea before flipping through the remaining pages of the plan, nodding after he finished, ¡°Indeed, that could work. I will bring the group over and tell them that you will be taking charge. If they refuse to follow orders, feel free to hit them.¡±


    ¡°I will keep that in mind. Do you have any means of rapid recovery for your troops?¡±


    ¡°Do not hit them to the point of significant injury,¡± he corrected himself, ¡°I am well aware that it was a simple question, but please do control yourself. I am aware that you have practised your killing intent while in seclusion, and it is common for those who have reached a new stage to experience emotional outbursts and general irritation. It should pass in a week¡¯s time.¡±


    ¡°I will keep that in mind, but I do not expect to succumb to something like that so easily. My past experiences with emotional outbursts should allow me to see them coming.¡±


    ¡°Whether or not that is true, it will be your loss if you fail to control yourself,¡± Meng Chu stated.


    He stood up and placed the teacup onto the armrest of his chair, departing into one of the many passages of the underground chambers. Meanwhile, Wei Yi took his cup and took a close look at the traces of the tea that remained within. Since he drank it so often, she was rather curious about what made it so special in his eyes. It was, as far as she understood, ordinary blood tea ¨C for nothing that wasn¡¯t made of the Beast¡¯s blood could be found within the desolate lands of the prison realm ¨C and appeared to have no specific superiority to any of the teas that he had allowed her to drink.


    From the scent of the tea, there was nothing that made it stand apart from the things she had previously tasted in this prison realm, and neither did the energy within appear to be in any way unusual.


    ¡®Could it be that I have no understanding of the intricacies of tea and other fancy beverages?¡¯ Wei Yi wondered, moving the cup to a table before leaving the room and heading for the food storage.


    There, she found a servant and asked them to bring out three teas that were as different from one another as possible, then made them prepare each one correctly as to ensure that her inexperience in the matter wouldn¡¯t interfere with this experiment. When he was done with this, and before he had a chance to question what was happening, she sent him away and grabbed a few more random items of food to expand the scope of the test further.


    She took one of the teacups and tried to ignore the hint of blood within its smell while tasting it.


    ¡®This is¡­ interesting. Sort of¡­ flavourless. I might actually have lost my ability to taste things properly at some point¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought, trying the other two cups with similar results, ¡®I think that there is something wrong with the parts of my head responsible either for detecting taste, or interpreting it¡­ I suppose that if I had ever had the hopes of settling down and tasting all the foods I can, I should abandon it right here and now.¡¯


    Just as she feared, the rest of the food she gathered provoked a similar response from her taste buds, that being an extremely faint hint of something, but nothing noteworthy.


    If not for her ability to burn away any poisons or toxins that she consumes, intentionally or otherwise, this would be significantly more concerning to her than just being slightly disconcerting, for she had not done anything at all that should have removed the sensation of taste from her mouth.


    What made this even stranger was the fact that, while her nose struggled to tell various foods apart from one another, it could still perceive all too well the difference between newly cut wood and ancient stone. She could still smell faint scents within the rooms that the vice-leaders of Meng Chu¡¯s faction had used for their private interactions, and all sorts of faint things that someone without any ability to tell two extremes of blood tea apart from one another shouldn¡¯t be able to notice.


    ¡°There you are,¡± Meng Chu walked in at some point, ¡°What are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°I have just discovered that I have no sense of taste.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Noted?¡±


    ¡°By that, I meant that I have, at some uncertain point, lost my sense of taste and smell when it comes to food and drink. I don¡¯t know how it happened, nor why, but it was a slightly shocking experience.¡±


    ¡°Although that has not explained much, there is a theory that those with particular sensitivity to energy tend to temporarily lose their ability to perceive the taste and smell of food, and it should pass if you exit the prison realm, or locate a place that is not filled to the brim with the Beast¡¯s killing intent,¡± Meng Chu said, ¡°However, we have no means of confirming this, so think of it as you may.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°I will. Have you gathered the men that will be under my command?¡±


    ¡°I have¡­ Did you, by any chance, make your plans in the first day and then spend the rest of your time exercising?¡±


    ¡°I only spent roughly an hour per three days focused on working out, and that was to supplement my physique energy in keeping my body from atrophying. The primary reason for my muscular development,¡± she glanced down at her arms, where the muscle had grown even more pronounced since the time she had entered seclusion, ¡°is that I had altered a part of my body cultivation technique as to allow for the expansion of muscular tissue and the additional strength that it will provide. This is roughly where it will stop for now.¡±


    ¡°The reason behind my question is that my men can be a little simple-minded at times, so I had the slight concern that they would not be intimidated simply by a tall woman. With that amount of muscle, however, it may be less difficult than I imagined,¡± Meng Chu said, ¡°Come with me.¡±


    She followed him through a series of corridors and chambers that was clearly far larger than the area of the brothel through which she entered.


    ¡°How large is this underground network of yours?¡±


    ¡°As the one that is responsible for the guard network for the entire town, it is important to allow my men to travel through the town without being bothered by anyone, so I made use of the network that had previously been built to allow for an invasion into Beast¡¯s Rest after my ancestor¡¯s fall on the battlefield. I connected every brothel and establishment I had to a chamber that allowed me to meet with others calmly,¡± he explained, pointing towards one of the walls, ¡°The secret entrances were made due to the excess of tunnels that prevented a proper layout from being constructed, so I deemed it wise to make it more difficult for most to navigate throughout the areas they are not meant to be in.¡±


    ¡°That appears to be a wise decision. By the way, could you ask a guard to investigate that particular passageway? Someone in the Condensed Shot realm, preferably.¡±


    ¡°A guard¡­ Did someone sneak into a place that they were not meant to be in?¡±


    ¡°Much like I did, except I suspect that this person managed to do so via a random guess to the absence of spiritual will around them,¡± she said, quickly scanning the male intruder that was currently struggling to get out of the plain, square chamber he had somehow trapped himself in, ¡°This person has a strong physical body, so I advise that the guard attacks from afar, preventing him from moving as quickly as possible. Don¡¯t kill him, however, as it ought to be interesting to learn why he snuck in.¡±


    ¡°I will follow that advice the moment that I introduce you to my men,¡± said Meng Chu, ¡°Do inform me if there are any more unwanted intruders, for the fewer people there are that understand the layout of the passages, the better.¡±


    ¡°Very well, I shall do that.¡±


    On their journey, they found two more such intruders, both of whom lacked any particularly powerful hatred blades, but did have strong bodies, leading to Wei Yi positing the theory that they were acting under the orders of Shi Luo Feng, for they would not be the troops under Meng Chu and Ding Wen¡¯s forces would typically act with no fewer than three artefacts or hatred blades.


    Meng Chu stated that he would investigate this before finally arriving at a large hall, where twenty-six troops gathered in a loose formation composed of several loose and vague lines.


    Upon their entry, they turned to face them, saw her following Meng Chu, and closely examined her from head to toe, checking out every single part of her with excessive focus and attention. A few looks were clearly filled with desire, but the rest were purely focused on her combat potential.


    ¡°Men, this is Wei Yi. She will be leading your mission, so show her the same respect that you show me.¡±


    ¡°Wait, Boss, we don¡¯t show you any respect!¡±


    ¡°Shut it, Ah Qiu,¡± Meng Shu briefly raised his voice, lowering it a moment later to address the rest of the team, ¡°Cooperate with your full ability and don¡¯t even dare to intentionally mess up, as Wei Yi will hold a position above you after this and will have as many chances as she needs to exact whatever punishment she deems necessary. Now, I shall leave you to it.¡±


    He returned through the doorway and vanished into the underground passages, gathering a few spare guards as he did so to apprehend the intruders, leaving Wei Yi all alone with the twenty-six warriors.


    For a little while, she replied with the same kind of attention, visually inspecting every single one of them to confirm that there had been no inaccuracies in the information she had received. She spent almost two minutes doing so ¨C a long time for someone with spiritual will and a complete mental library to refer to ¨C before concluding that every deviation that she did spot was acceptable to her plans, some of which needed a very specific build and physical appearance for them to work out.


    ¡°Hello, everyone. Are you capable of following orders properly?¡±


    The response was a mix of various non-comital noises and grunts, none of which inspired confidence.


    ¡°In that case, I shall show you why it is of the utmost importance that you do not, under any circumstances, attempt to go against any of the orders that I give you,¡± she sighed, putting aside the spear on her back and holding out her hands in an inviting manner, ¡°Attack me all at once and let me demonstrate.¡±


    None of the previous hesitation was shown. All of them leapt forward, releasing their killing intent with as much focus as their realms allowed. With so many different sources of spiritual crimson light filling the space she occupied, she felt a little uneasy, but she did not extend her own killing intent to combat it, for she wanted to demonstrate what a body cultivator could do against a great quantity of killing intent cultivators.


    Her understanding of the typical combat style of the physique cultivators of the Great Bone Lake was limited, but what she did know was that it was simple and focused on the use of raw strength combined with the unique properties of their physique.


    Wei Yi met force with force, lunging at the thickest collection of warriors with her full strength and without any hint of restraint. With her physique energy-infused palm, she struck a large man¡¯s chest and caused him to fly back, hitting a couple of other men behind him and throwing them onto the ground with enough force to incapacitate one and cause several minor injuries to the other two.


    Their fellow combatants took advantage of her momentary distraction to surround her, clearly intending to flood and overwhelm her.


    ¡®If I was a common woman, this would be troubling, but physique energy has a method of dealing with this,¡¯ she smiled, waiting for them to get just close enough before she released two handfuls of physique energy around her hands and struck out, causing them to flood around her and congeal a great sphere of blinding sunlight, which, under her influence, thinned out and spread out, washing over everyone around her and searing their clothes and hair.


    More importantly, however, their vision was momentarily disabled by the blinding light, which gave her the perfect opportunity to utilize the Eight Directions Kick, a technique that converted a single kick into a dozen through the diluted physique energy, executing them all simultaneously.


    All that were struck were thrown into the wall, throwing most of them into unconsciousness.


    Thirteen were now unconscious and thirteen more remained, with them realizing that the tactic of throwing themselves onto her wouldn¡¯t work. The man that was in the Initial Well realm remained near the front, as he would not be too helpful if his killing intent also affected his allies, the few in the Fine Piercing realm positioned themselves around her in a circle to bombard her with their crimson light all at once and those that were within the Condensed Shot realm stood in between the previously mentioned individuals, condensing their killing intent and firing it at her.


    ¡®Such basic tactics¡­ At the very least they¡¯re guaranteed not to stray from the plan once they figure out that it is far beyond their understanding, while someone who is a little smarter may get some silly ideas that they think are superior,¡¯ she thought, shutting her eyes for a second to establish a model of the underground chamber within the Augur¡¯s Library, ¡®Alright, this will be easy.¡¯


    Without bothering to protect herself with physique energy, she ran straight through the bolts of killing intent, not wincing even a little when they passed right through the crimson robes and struck her skin, for none of the bolts was able to leave behind more than a shallow cut or wound.


    Those that she was pursuing attempted to evade her and keep her within the encirclement, but she caught up to them by exerting just a little bit more strength through her legs, lightly cracking the ground beneath her as she did so. As she appeared beside one of the men in the Condensed Shot realm, she kicked him with great force, making sure to do so without damaging him significantly, for her focus was on launching him as far away as possible.


    His body flew towards the back wall of the hall, colliding into another person and throwing him off his feet. Together, they struck a tall support beam that led to a number of planks and wooden blocks falling from the ceiling, hitting nine of the eleven remaining guards straight on the head and trapping the last two in between large piles of debris.


    ¡°Alright, this is enough. If we go any further, then Meng Chu might be slightly annoyed at me,¡± she said, easily pulling the remaining two out of the piles of wood and stone.


    They did not object, instead assisting her in waking up the rest of the warriors with a variety of medicines. When they were up, they were rearranged into a formation and were given copies of her plan, with each one being given only the parts that were relevant to them. Although some were visibly confused by certain parts, as Wei Yi expected them to be due to the occasional esoteric and seemingly contradictory ideas she had invested into it, they read through anyway and did the best they could to memorize it before putting the paper away.


    ¡°I probably don¡¯t need to say this, but I am not the average physique cultivator. However, you will not be facing one body cultivator, but twenty-one, all of whom are physically superior to you and can ignore basic mental influences, like that of killing intent. Thus, you must follow every single instruction that I have written for you without any hesitation, or else you will be removed¡­ from existence, that is.¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ boss-¡±


    ¡°You were called Ah Qiu, correct? What is it?¡±


    ¡°This part ¡®ere, and ¡®ere¡­ Well, I dunno what any of ¡®is says. I can¡¯t read.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Do you mean that you struggle to understand the things that I have written, or that you are completely incapable of reading?¡±


    ¡°I get some of the words, just not most of them.¡±


    ¡°Right. I am disappointed by you, Ah Qiu. I thought you were someone capable, someone who could prove to be an outstanding individual, and yet you have greatly disappointed me ¨C and, I expect that you have also greatly displeased Meng Chu a number of times, considering how annoyed he sounded at your earlier question,¡± Wei Yi said, sighing, ¡°Very well, since I intended to instruct most of you anyway, I shall pay more attention to those of you who struggle to understand my words. Who does that include?¡±


    A man and a woman raised their hands, causing her to breathe another sigh, this time of relief. If the majority of the group lacked the ability to read more than the simplest words within her vocabulary, she would need to spend far more time than she had intended to explain things to people.


    ¡°Fine. Before we do that, let me explain that our priority is not the death of every single bandit, though my plan does intend to lead directly to it, but the acquisition of the things that had been left behind after the battle of Meng Chu¡¯s ancestor, Meng Qi, namely the killing intent cultivation technique that he had used there. If you observe someone attempting to escape with things like this and are concerned that I lack any scheme to deal with them, which can indeed be a possibility, then launch your killing intent into the sky. I will be observing the mission and will step in to correct any of your mistakes when I observe them. That doesn¡¯t mean that you can relax and do what you like. Is that clear?¡±


    ¡°Yes, boss!¡±


    ¡°Alright then, then let me begin the description to the illiterate lot¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­ and thus, we shall be leaving in twenty-four hours. Get yourselves to the peak of your ability, whether that involves eating, training or ¡®eating¡¯, if that¡¯s how you lot describe things.¡±


    ¡°Understood, bo-¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, it seems that those that we have apprehended were coming after you,¡± Meng Chu appeared within a doorway, interrupting his subordinates, ¡°It will be best if you are present during the interrogation so that you are able to solve your own problems.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go. Could you request that Ah Li makes herself available afterwards?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. As a member of my faction, you receive a fifty percent discount on all trades made within my establishments. Now, follow me,¡± he said, turning around and leading her to a small prison chamber.


    There, two men and one woman were bound to the wall with thick chains and their arms and legs were restrained with black bone cuffs, one side of which was buried within the wall. All of them looked rather drained, pale and tired, like they had been drained of blood, energy and their very lifeforce incredibly thoroughly.


    ¡°What did you do to them?¡±


    ¡°I did nothing, but certain brothel workers are trained in exhausting more than just your energy.¡±


    ¡°Sounds very helpful. What else have they said?¡±


    Meng Chu waved to the three prisoners, ¡°Nothing much, besides confirming that they had been working under Shi Luo Feng for some time. Since they were sent after you, I think that it is best for you to deal with them, unless you believe yourself to be completely incompetent at interrogation.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t say that I¡¯ve experimented with it before, but I have previously read thirty-nine books on torture, physical and mental manipulation and interrogation, so if previous experience with applying theoretical knowledge to practical situations is applicable here, then they should spill everything they know within an hour, giving me more than enough time with Ah Li.¡±


    ¡°When you speak of previous experience¡­ was your first visit to the brothel one such experience?¡±


    ¡°Well... I suppose you could say that,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°Does it matter?¡±


    ¡°Your one visit led to Xi Wen Li no longer providing any services to men, so, yes, it does. Whether you will end up serving me, or I you, I¡¯d advise far more restraint than that.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll think about it, so get out of the way now,¡± she said, approaching one of the restrained prisoners.

 V2C14: To the Nameless Battlefield

    Her purely theoretical understanding of torture did end up being carried over to reality, mostly due to her spiritual will allowing her to inspect what every single one of her actions resulted in within the body of her victims. Exactly thirty-four minutes after she began her work, all three of the prisoners had revealed their secrets and were now on the edge between life and death, both physically and mentally, for, as it turns out, killing intent in excessive quantities and through prolonged usage can equate the effects of several hallucinogenic substances combined.


    They were indeed the subordinates of the third leader of Beast¡¯s Rest, Shi Luo Feng, and were sent to find her and bring her to their leader without killing her. When it was discovered that she had, somehow, ended up within Meng Chu¡¯s underground network, they hesitated to enter and waited to see if she would eventually emerge, but after nearly a month of waiting, they concluded that they would have to risk entry.


    While they were aware of the underground corridors and passages, they lacked experience with them and had never understood the true extent of the network, as well as how many secret doors there were.


    As a result, they had gotten stuck not long after entry, subsequently being found by Wei Yi while she was feeling a little bored and decided to reach out with her spiritual will to see whether there was anything of interest in her surroundings.


    Shi Luo Feng had not told them much about why she wanted to see Wei Yi, so her intentions could not be confirmed, but Wei Yi suspected that the leader wanted to understand where she had obtained the information on her Magnanimous Leech technique, whether there were any others, and whether there was some means of reducing its harmful effects.


    ¡®Unfortunately for her, I have no such thing. The technique was obtained directly from her, and unless there is something extremely obvious within her technique that she has not yet understood, I will be of little help to her,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she left the prison chamber and relayed what she had learned to Meng Chu, with only the minor details of the Magnanimous Leech as to not give him too much ammunition to use against Shi Luo Feng before she had a chance to take over his faction and make her own decisions.


    After cleansing her hands with physique energy, she left the underground passages and went straight into the brothel above, where she found Ah Li and walked with her to a private room. There, the prostitute leapt directly at her, begging her for a repeat of their last time together, much like Meng Chu had told her to expect.


    Naturally, she did not refuse.


    ¡°By the heavens, sound-proofing is apparently far more important and necessary than I could have ever assumed,¡± Meng Chu sighed, ¡°So, Ah Qiu, anything to report?¡±


    ¡°I need your, eh¡­ what¡¯s it called... the book that ¡®as the words in it¡­¡±


    ¡°Do you mean the dictionary? What did I tell you the last time you complained about not having it?¡±


    ¡°I dunno, I can¡¯t ¡®member it now, my head is full of the plan. I need to remember the plan¡­¡±


    ¡°Right, sure, you can do that. Having seen the plan myself, I see that your limited mental capacity is needed in full in order to retain it in your memory. Make sure that you do not intentionally cause the plan to fail, understand?¡± said Meng Chu, trying to look as serious as he could over the noise in the background, ¡°My ancestor¡¯s technique, the Storm of Vengeance, is bound to be beneficial to my cultivation, and her chance of acquiring it is far higher than yours.¡±


    ¡°The plan¡­ the plan¡­¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll just pretend that you understood. Why did I ever consider you being suitable to become a third vice-leader¡­¡±


    Almost twenty-four hours after their tactical meeting, Wei Yi managed to put Ah Li to sleep with her efforts and exited the town via the underground passages of Beast¡¯s Rest, meeting up with the forces under her command there. She did not ask them about their activities but judging by their tired faces and the smell of other people hanging around them, she had a good idea of where they had been.


    ¡°It is time for us to set out. We will first travel to the dried lake beside the battlefield, confirm that we have not been spotted and that no extreme changes have occurred within the camp, then proceed with the plan. Any questions, beside the ones from the illiterate ones?¡±


    ¡°Boss, we were told that you also cultivate killing intent!¡± a soldier said, ¡°Can we see it?¡±


    ¡°Can you lot guarantee that you will be able to fight properly afterwards?¡±


    ¡°Yes, boss!¡± was the unanimous reply.


    However, she was not convinced in the slightest, for she could compare the difference between her killing intent and that of the soldiers and knew that it was significantly in her favour, even if it was against someone in the Condensed Shot realm. If she was to portray her full ability, then the damage to the weaker individuals would be rather significant.


    ¡®I suppose that if I distil the energy a little bit, then ask them to stand at the edge of my spiritual energy range, then it will be safe enough,¡¯ she decided, ¡°Very well. Stand exactly six metres away, all of you.¡±


    They did not question her and did their best to follow that order, which was rather difficult seeing these people lacked both a formal education and any ability to measure distances without using a specific implement for that purpose.


    As a result, Wei Yi had to personally instruct them in the basics of the units of measurement. The smallest unit that was typically used within the Planar Continents, and the prison realm as an extension, was the millimetre, for everything below that was almost indistinguishable to the common human eye. The next unit was the centimetre, but it was the least used as almost every saying and idiom more commonly referred to the inch, which was exactly 2.5 centimetres. It is said that both were introduced in the days of the Master of Yi City, with the first being the centimetre. However, their creator invented the inch shorty after, and spoke of it so much more commonly than the centimetre that the latter was solidified as the unit of choice.


    The metre and the kilometre follow, with one kilometre being one thousand metres, while one metre is one hundred centimetres. Although the odd discrepancy in this aspect is well known, not to mention the oddity of the inch being the only common unit of measurement to not include the term ¡®metre¡¯, they had gotten so entrenched in every great art that no-one felt confident enough to change them.


    One of the units that remained, while being used extremely rarely, was the mile, which was exactly 1.5 kilometres. This one is well-known to have originated straight from the mouth of the Master of Yi City, and it is typically guessed that he wished for a brief, simple term to use while stating extreme distances, for ¡®one hundred miles away¡¯ rolls off the tongue much more easily than ¡®one hundred kilometres away¡¯ while conveying a larger distance at the same time.


    ¡°So, this,¡± she grabbed her spear and infused it with killing intent, stabbing at the ground in front of her to create a single point in the crimson dirt, ¡°is one metre, while this,¡± she stabbed five more times, using the projected energy of the Eight Great Changes to mark the ground without moving, followed with one wide slash to draw a semi-circle in the ground at the six-metre mark, ¡°is six of them. Got it?¡±


    ¡°We get it, boss!¡± they shouted, quickly getting themselves into place, likely to avoid having to hear another lengthy lecture, ¡°Done, boss.¡±


    ¡°Good. Now, don¡¯t hesitate to step away if this gets too difficult for you,¡± she said, ¡®I wouldn¡¯t want to be working with dead weight even more so than I currently am¡­ If it even is possible to have someone who is less intelligent that this lot. Yi Jiazhi, mayb- right, he¡¯s dead. I still feel¡­ odd¡­¡¯


    Once they were sufficiently prepared, she raised her head and willed the battlefield from her eyes into the world, releasing a great crimson tide that burst out of her body and rushed forth, throwing up the dirt around her as it surged uncontrollably into the ground and sky, as well as towards its intended targets. The stone beneath the thin layer of dirt cracked with a single touch of the red energy, marking its path towards them.


    When it touched their bodies, the world before them changed. The perpetual crimson was gone, as was the dead body of the Beast in the distance. Smooth red dirt changed to rolling and uneven hills of brown and the sickly grey of dead grass, atop which lay countless bodies in identical armour. Their blood poured down into the lowest part of the field, creating small lakes of dried dark fluid.


    They could not control themselves as they looked up to see a few combatants still engaging in battle, with one side wielding deep ruby energy and the other surrounding themselves in vibrant sunlight.


    Every slash, stab and hit from every warrior generated a wave of pure energy, and seemed to be executed by such powerful individuals that if any one of the twenty-six faced them, they would be decimated in an instant, before they could ever realise that someone had attacked them in the first place, for their moves were incredibly refined and perfectly executed. The added fact that these warriors must have been extremely exhausted and some of the weakest from both armies did not help any of those that were terrified by their prowess.


    Far away, a single building of deep crimson and dark gold stood amongst the dead, radiating tyrannical energy. However, it was not the building itself that drew their collective attention, but what stood behind it.


    A single figure, as tall as the deep black clouds that covered up any trace of the sky above them, looked down upon them with no particular expression, but her ruby eyes pierced the veil of the clouds to stare at them like any human might look upon an ant. In front of such a thing, it felt that any actions would be meaningless, and any resistance futile, for it had to contain such immense might that even the warriors on the battlefield could not harm a hair on her body.


    Some even realised that this being could undoubtedly kill any one of them with a single blink of her eyes, and the reason behind their conclusion was never challenged ¨C was this fact not obvious?


    All of a sudden, all twenty-six warriors saw the figure shift, ever so slightly, perhaps doing so unconsciously. Nevertheless, in their eyes, this simple and utterly insignificant move was the greatest threat they had ever faced. Their bodies shook and their hearts stopped, perhaps due to fear of upsetting that great deity, or due to the belief that they were already dead.


    And then¡­ the battlefield vanished. The library vanished. The female deity vanished.


    Only Wei Yi remained, but now they could see a hint of the dying world within her eyes. Furthermore, the more they looked upon her, the more they saw the visage of that deity, the great terror that could crush any one of them with a single breath, even if the colour of her eyes differed.


    Even that minor movement that had utterly terrified them appeared to have been one that Wei Yi had made, with the exact same speed and in the exact same way.


    ¡°Alright, that should be enough,¡± she said, glancing down at the ruined ground to navigate the cracks safely, ¡®I¡¯ve made a slight mistake in terms of the quantity and quality of killing intent to release, but it seems to have worked out well enough. This will give me some perfect material to improve on the technique in the future, which suits me just fine.¡¯


    Only when she moved from her place did the others awake from their stupor and realise that they were not in any danger, and that the endless battlefield was a manifestation of her killing intent and nothing else.


    ¡°This was my energy at the first realm, while I was holding back. Understand?¡±


    ¡°YES, BOSS!¡± they cried out, any of their previous hesitation or lacking respect gone due to the sight of the terrible battlefield.


    Thus, they followed every single one of her commands closely, not even daring to take a bathroom break without the express statement that they were allowed to stray from the pack and do their own thing. Since she was able to push them to march at their highest speed, they also ended up arriving an hour earlier than originally anticipated. As for how they were able to tell a minute apart from an hour and a day within the prison realm, the truth was that they could not, instead trying to judge the passage of time by the movements of the storm clouds and the occasional but infrequent dimming and brightening of the perpetual crimson light.


    Needless to say, neither was connected to any particular consistent phenomena, like the sun and moon were, and so these methods of measurement were rather poor. Even clocks that were created within the prison realm had great inaccuracies, as they could only be calibrated to one¡¯s own personal perception of the passage of time, which varies wildly depending on the sanity and general perception of the creator.


    Wei Yi¡¯s rough estimates of time were typically based on her internal clock ¨C which she attempted to manifest within her Augur¡¯s Library as an actual clock ¨C and it typically functioned sufficiently well, though it tended to slow down when she was engaged in personal interactions.


    ¡°That¡¯s it, boss,¡± Ah Qiu said, pointing to the structure in the distance, ¡°This is their base ¡®ere.¡±


    ¡°Understood. Take a five-minute break and then immediately commence the fourth variation of the initial stage of the plan. I will enter on my own.¡±


    ¡°GOT-¡±


    ¡°Do. Not. Alert. Them.¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ got it, boss¡­¡±


    ¡°Good boy. Now, get going and remember, if you fuck this up, you will be the first one I kill. Neither I nor Meng Chu need inept subordinates, understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­¡±


    She nodded and surrounded herself with intent, concentrated killing intent that completely obscured any hints of her body or features, appearing only seconds later in the outfit that she had purchased from the hatred automaton tailor. Her crimson robe was tied around her body, keeping the spear on her back, with all of the additional weapons that it had held being placed around her waist.


    To further distinguish this appearance from her typical one, as to make herself look as common as she could, she let her hair down and placed the string she used for it into her pockets, making her look like some average traveller who had dressed for efficiency and effectiveness, rather than personal comfort.


    ¡°If they do spot me and I, by some miracle, am unable to take them out immediately, appearing to be a common person ought to make them less inclined to raise the alarm. Maybe they¡¯ll try and force themselves on me without alerting their peers, giving me the best opportunity to take them out without needing to put much effort into it,¡± she muttered to no-one in particular, picking up a handful of crimson sand and throwing it over herself to further solidify that appearance, ¡°Alright, this should be sufficient. Going too far would ruin it.¡±


    All of a sudden, she seemed to disappear from sight, using both speed and stealth techniques to evade notice and to approach the fortress of the bandits.


    Their base, although it could certainly be classified as a defensive structure, was about as rough as the majority of the buildings within Beast¡¯s Rest, with walls and small defensive towers being built out of dead and rotting wood that had likely been pulled out the ground in the vicinity of their construction effort.


    In fact, the towers and the walls between them did not even connect properly to one another. Major gaps in between every single one of them would allow anyone to enter without any issue if the structure was empty, but the sentries that observed the defensive structure were able to overlook the entire vicinity despite there only being a total of six guards, one of whom was female while the rest were clearly male ¨C exactly as Wei Yi had predicted.


    She had browsed through all of their information and determined that out of the entire group of bandits, only six were suitable for standing in one place and observing their surroundings carefully, as the rest were far too easily irritable and too impatient to do this task.


    Their placement was also accurate to her plans, with the short one amongst them standing on the tallest tower that overlooked the lowest ground.


    It just so happened that this guard ¨C the woman, as it just so happens to be ¨C was standing in the exact place that prevented her from seeing the current location of Meng Chu¡¯s warriors within the dried out lake, for while the towers were mostly open on the top, several support beams for the roof obstructed her view in just the right way.


    Those who were in the fortress below occupied the internal parts of the towers and walls, with some of them occasionally peeking out of the gaps in the walls for various purposes which were either recreational or for additional security.


    She watched the walls for a while and confirmed that the physique cultivators were also split across the six primary segments of the walls, those that were connected to the towers, in the fashion that she had expected. The first tower, if one was to count clockwise from an overhead position, contained four men, with one guarding the area from the top of the tower. The second was defended by another man, but it held one man and one woman, who, according to her estimations, were 78% likely to be in a physical relationship. Besides the third tower being protected by a woman, the same one that would be approached by Meng Chu¡¯s forces in just a minute, it also held two women and one man within, though they stood far apart from one another, suggesting that they were not the best of friends.


    Within the fourth tower resided two women who were watched over by an incredibly large man who wore nothing but a rag on his lower body, showing off the common fashion of the physique cultivators of the Great Bone Lake. The last two towers were both guarded by similar individuals and held three and two men respectively. They moved around constantly, with some of them going between the two towers every now and then, though, coincidentally, they maintained their number within the walls by constantly swapping with one another whenever they did so.


    ¡®Excellent. Everything is going according to plan¡­¡¯ she allowed her lips to form a smile while she willed a series of tomes to appear within the Augur¡¯s Library, which she quickly sorted according to Endless Calculation, ¡®The fifth tower seems to have the highest potential for inaccuracy and failure, so that is where I will go first.¡¯

 V2C15: The Silent Siege

    Once their five minutes were up, Meng Chu¡¯s troops began their advancement, making sure to stick to the exact path described by Wei Yi. The brighter ones amongst them soon understood why, for they observed that the tower they approached had an obstacle which would block their line from the sight of the guardian atop it. All of them quietened down even further while doing their best to accelerate their movements as much as possible, arriving at the tower after a tense but uneventful jog.


    They then split up, with five going to the first tower, four going to the second, five heading to the third and four heading to each one of the other towers.


    If there had been enough warriors to work with, Wei Yi would have liked to send two men for every man they had, and two women for every woman they had, which would have allowed her to use excessive force and numbers to deal with their superior physical strength, or even three men for every person the physique cultivators had, as men were superior in terms of physical strength and would be more capable of resisting their raw power without any cultivation of their body, but for better or for worse, most of Meng Chu¡¯s troops appeared to have very similar levels of physical and mental strength, killing intent cultivation naturally being excluded.


    To avoid detection, each group used a very specific path around the walls of the fortress and into them, naturally also decided beforehand by Wei Yi, and entered their respective parts of the so-called defensive structure quietly.


    ¡°Hurry up, Peng, it¡¯s your turn!¡± said a short, burly and muscular man, slamming a stack of four thin books onto the table.


    A man that sat opposite him clenched his fist and replied, ¡°I get it, Tai, I get it!¡±


    Peng stood up, bashing his own stack of books onto the table before removing one from the pile and putting it face-up in front of himself, ¡°I play the Vile Crimson Eradication technique! It beats your Violent Fourth Fall and cancels the effects of the Paradise Cry!¡±


    ¡°Hah, you think that you can beat me? I bring out-¡±


    ¡°WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOT DOING?¡± a third man rushed into the room and struck the table with enough force to finally break it, ¡°What is all this shit? Storm of Vengeance? Conundrum Maze? Who named this trash? You¡¯re meant to be packing this fucking garbage, not sitting around and chucking this at one another!¡±


    ¡°We are, you dickhead!¡± Tai replied, ¡°Look at all the books, Chen. Anyway, who put you in charge, you slow-ass prick?¡±


    ¡°You lot did! Anyway, Peng, shuffle off to the lower floor and handle the boxes there. Tai, get up top before I beat your ass!¡± Chen shouted, getting several hits off on both of them before they got to where he wanted them to be.


    He remained in place, glancing briefly at the stacks of books before kicking them all into a corner.


    In his eyes, these stacks of paper were boring and completely irrelevant, matching the opinion of most of his peers. For most of the physique cultivators of the Great Bone Lake, the best method for acquiring techniques was through battle and training and cultivating them could be done through similar means. Things that were written in such books were old and antiquated, without any benefit in the field without great adjustment on the spot, and if such great effort was required to learn the technique just to then relearn it in a manner relevant to battle, why not create something more suitable from the start, and on your own?


    Unfortunately, surviving with raw strength alone was difficult, and acquiring other resources was necessary for anyone who had no ability to farm the crimson wastes ¨C which included almost everyone who seriously cultivated either physique energy or killing intent. As a result, they would resort to pillaging and raiding, seeking various valuables to trade either for motes of killing intent or food.


    For this reason, the group of physique cultivators decided to occupy this battlefield and search all of the bodies and buried remains in the area, even though they belonged to the filthy and vile killing intent cultivators of Beast¡¯s Rest.


    ¡°Really, those fuckers waste so much time on these things¡­¡±


    He went to open up another one of the sealed boxes within this room but stopped midway when he heard a strange creak from the wall to his side.


    After restraining his first urge to punch the wall to damage whoever was hiding behind it, as that would likely cause significant damage to the entire structure and force them to leave early, Chen frowned instead and approached it slowly, still preparing to punch the wall if anything out of the ordinary occurred.


    Step by step, he moved closer, his heart accelerating for no particular reason. He had faced much greater threats than a random noise originating from behind a wall, but, for some reason, his typically acute sense of danger told him that this was the most terrifying foe he would ever find.


    ¡°What are you, you-¡±


    ¡°Chen, we found weird books with pictures in them!¡± a yell came from behind and below him, clearly belonging to Peng, ¡°What do we do?¡±


    ¡°Just fuck yourselves with them! If they look pricy, we¡¯ll sell them, if not, we burn them! Get it?¡±


    ¡°Alright, sure,¡± came Peng¡¯s reply, with vague sounds of boxes being opened and books being flipped through slowly following.


    In the process of answering, Chen had turned around on the spot, no longer feeling that odd sensation of dread nor threat. He was almost convinced that it was just something he had made up from boredom or exhaustion, but then two objects moved rapidly in front of his eyes and sunk into them. All he could do before death was realise that they were daggers, swung at the same time by two different hands, belonging to two different people.


    The daggers went in, then were pulled out the very next second so that those hands could catch his body before he fell loudly to the ground. Once his corpse was laid quietly onto the ground, the figures departed, not caring that his blood slowly seeped through the ground.


    ¡°Min, you can read, right? What does this thing say?¡±


    The man known as Min stepped forward and bent down to look as closely as he could at each individual character, ¡°It¡¯s that odd version of the language, I think¡­ It says, eh, S-Sar Aeh- no, Sa Rah¡¯s Protective Talisman, I think. It¡¯s meant to ward off bad luck, I think, and, well, I think, it might actually be able to, I think-¡±


    ¡°Are you sure you can think?¡±


    ¡°I think¡­ no¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah, whatever, just hush already. Can we use these things?¡±


    ¡°Well, if you put them on¡­ like this,¡± Min said, sticking one of the talisman papers onto his chest with great effort, repeating the motion several times to be absolutely sure that he had done it correctly, ¡°Then, I think that-¡±


    A powerful force, followed by a dark spear, shot out of the ground, piercing into Min¡¯s body and splitting him in two with just one attack, causing blood and wooden splinters to fly everywhere.


    Through the hole that formed in the ground, two figured jumped out and landed on the ground, with one wielding the spear and another using a large sword and shield, with the latter clearly being used more often than the former. However, they did not attack, nor did they retreat. They simply stood there, looking at the one man that remained with a clear intent.


    ¡°Heh¡­ Thanks for that¡­ You wanna fight me, don¡¯t you? Alright then, I¡¯ll humour you. Come on!¡±


    The man exclaimed, but he kept his voice down, and the stance that he took in combat was also one that would ensure that each one of his moves would produce the minimal amount of noise. He could not see the response of the two due to them wearing masks, but they did not appear to disagree.


    In truth, they were rather surprised by this, for they did not expect someone to be so accommodating after they had just killed his friend, even after Wei Yi had informed them of this.


    The two men that were part of Meng Chu¡¯s forces created some distance between themselves, forming a triangle with the physique cultivator. The spear-wielder raised a hand and silently counted down from three, to two, to one, before his hand shot down and returned to the shaft of the spear just as the other two also sprang into action.


    ¡°Hey, Ling, have you been sleeping around with someone else?¡±


    ¡°What are you on about? You¡¯ve been watching me pretty much the entire time, when would I do that?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ Fine. If you do find someone nice, don¡¯t forget to tell me, alright?¡±


    ¡°Sure, Xin, sure.¡±


    The two women separated, though Ling was still concerned. Out of nowhere, she started smelling something new in this generally stale structure, and if it wasn¡¯t either Ling or Ye finding someone else to lay with, then it could be an intruder of some sort, though they could either be a human or a hatred automaton of some kind, as both can have all sorts of strange scents coming from their bodies based on their cultivation techniques in the case of the former, or the beast it came from in the case of the latter.


    Due to this, Xin decided to search around and investigate, taking this opportunity to look around the section of the wall and search for things to borrow, eat or look at.


    She found nothing at the top of the tower and walls, nor on the next floor, as she had plundered those areas long ago, and both Ling and Ye must have long figured out that leaving anything on these floors would lead to it being taken.


    Descending by another floor, she entered the storage room, where countless crates, boxes and random materials were stacked up without much logic and reason. A single, snaking path lead through it, around all sorts of structures put together from those materials by Ye, who had both the patience to guard the fortress for the majority of his time and then used that unused energy to complicate the storage room further with esoteric designs.


    ¡°What a wierdo¡­¡± Xin muttered, ¡°With how mixed the scents here are, anyone could hide with ease!¡±


    For that reason, she slowed down and looked around herself constantly, seeking any minor trace of an intruder. By the pile that depicted Beast¡¯s Rest¡­ nothing. Near the structure that could, after excessive alcohol consumption, be deemed to resemble a house¡­ nothing. Inside of the prison of boxes¡­ also nothing.


    ¡®If only Ye had put in effort into literally any other field¡­¡¯


    The woman continued walking, checking everything else she encountered and came into contact with, but she was only able to find that the scent which had sent her on this explorative bout in the first place stopped near the edge of the wall and dissipated.


    Meanwhile, a figure exited the prison of boxes and stretched their bodies to recover from the extremely strange posture they had been in while within.


    ¡°Tai! Look!¡±


    ¡°Blood! Something happened to Chen?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go and check it out!¡±


    They ran upstairs with great haste and found the body of their friend, lying dead on the ground, blood pouring from his eye sockets. There were no traces of any other people here, except it was obvious that Chen could not have done this to himself.


    ¡°We need to-¡±


    ¡°Wait, Peng, that¡¯s what they want us to think! Whoever attacked us is expecting us to alert the others, so we must not do it!¡±


    ¡°Eh? That¡­ Does that make sense?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it does! Come on, let us investigate!¡± Tai exclaimed, pointing to one side of the wall, ¡°You go there, and I will go the other way! Make sure not to alert the guy up top, alright? He will ruin our plan with his incompetence!¡±


    Peng wasn¡¯t really clear what was happening, nor how that plan would ever work, but he knew that Tai was smarter than him and that if he acted on his own, he would probably just make things worse.


    They split up, each one looking to his own part of the structure, while the two that were responsible for Chen¡¯s door glanced at one another in confusion. Sure, they had been expecting this exact thing in order for the plan given to them by Wei Yi to work, but to see something like this happening right in front of them, while hearing the strange, warped logic that the man called Tai had used, was a very interesting experience.


    ¡°Oh, yes~! YES!¡± cried the woman, collapsing onto the hard wooden floor alongside her partner.


    They lay in silence for a little while, doing nothing but breathing in one another¡¯s warmth. Her breasts were pressed against his muscular chest, her messy hair lay on his neck, and although their eyes could not meet, their thoughts were focused purely on one another.


    Only after many minutes passed did they reluctantly part and tidy themselves, dressing in the minimalistic rags of the Great Bone Lake.


    ¡°Right, weren¡¯t we supposed to be doing something else?¡± she asked, glancing at the man¡¯s chiselled face for several seconds longer than she probably should have.


    ¡°Something to do with packing things up, I think. Let¡¯s¡­ look over there.¡±


    The man pointed towards the tower where Min, Ning and Sheng were, for he noticed that Sheng had vanished from the top of the tower, while within there were three men fighting one another. From such a distance, with the crimson light and fog obscuring the details, he could not tell who they were, but he did find it odd.


    ¡°There? Hm... It just looks like Sheng is being lazy again to me,¡± the woman commented, narrowing her eyes to try and peer into the distance, ¡°You know that Min and Ning don¡¯t always get along.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ I suppose¡­¡± frowned the man, his gaze sticking to the woman¡¯s ample breasts.


    ¡°Now, I know you can go at least thrice, so¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re insatiable¡­¡±


    ¡°When in the heavens did this hot slut come from?¡± one of three men asked, doing nothing to hide the rising tent within his pants, much like his compatriots.


    ¡°N-No, please, don¡¯t do this to me!¡± the woman they surrounded, a youthful figure without a trace of roughness in her features, cried out, her eyes darting between all three of them in some sort of vague hope that one of them would have enough kindness or compassion to safeguard her from the rest. However, not one had anything but lust in their eyes, lust that intensified from her extremely vulnerable appearance.


    ¡°Heh¡­ Boys, you know which part of her I want, don¡¯t you?¡± he said, taking a step closer.


    Before he could advance by much, both of the men by his side placed their hands upon his shoulders, stopping him from moving any further. The man on the right shook his head, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare. She¡¯ll only look like that once, and I want to ruin her first.¡±


    ¡°Same here. I¡¯m not gonna let you take her first time, as it belongs to me.¡±


    ¡°You lot¡­¡± he shook off their hands and turned around, glaring at the other two, ¡°You wanna do this? Do you?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡±


    ¡°Fine, you bastards. The battle for her mouth, then!¡±


    He punched the man on his left without any warning, striking his jaw and following up with a hit to his stomach. The man on his right kicked his leg and struck the back of his neck while the man on the left recovered, replying with a jab to the eyes.


    ¡°Alright girls, can I take off the blindfold already? What is it that you wanted to show me?¡±


    All he received were hushes from the two people that stood around him, though they seemed to intentionally avoid touching him or coming into close proximity with him, clearly intending to tease him and build up to some extravagant reveal. He wasn¡¯t sure what that reveal could be, since neither Ling nor Shi had expressly replied to his advances in the past, nor did he expect them to have found something worthwhile within the battlefield that would warrant such a build-up, but the culture of the Great Bone Lake dictated that one must have faith in their few close allies or partners, for there is no-one else that can be trusted in the desolate prison realm.


    For that reason, he continued standing patiently in the exact spot that he had been guided to earlier, listening closely to the shuffling and moving that was going on around him.


    Finally, he felt soft skin on his head and thin fingers untying the blindfold that covered his eyes.


    The moment that it came off, it was stuffed into his mouth and a sharp blade was placed against his neck, the edge resting against his thick and resistant skin, which had been trained for many years to ensure that no common ¨C or uncommon, for that matter ¨C weapon could pierce his flesh.


    Before he could consider doing anything to his unexpected assailant, however, he saw a grim image in front of himself ¨C two women lay dead on the ground, their throats cut and their flesh pierced several more times, seemingly for good measure. On its own, such a sight would not be too disturbing to the population of the prison realm, for the vast majority had seen and committed several murders prior to their adulthood, but what he saw was not just two random bodies, but those of Ling and Shi, the same women that should have been standing next to him.


    ¡®YOU¡­!¡¯


    His entire body seemed to light up like a candle in the night, his skin and hair rapidly transforming into pure gold. The hand holding the knife nearly recoiled instinctively, but it steadied itself and waited until the skin on the man¡¯s neck began to change and sliced with the blade at that exact time. When the knife moved away from his skin, it was followed by a steady stream of blood.


    He could not even question what happened, or how they knew about this weakness before he fell to the ground, his life burning away in seconds.


    ¡°Hah¡­ hah¡­¡± breathed the man, taking his foot off the body of his compatriot, ¡°Finally¡­¡±


    While trying to ignore the immense pain in his entire body, he turned around on the spot and looked at the prize they had been fighting for. He was covered in bruises, several large wounds on his legs, arms and one on his back were actively bleeding even as his physique desperately attempted to recover from the beating, thick and concentrated physique energy flowing through his meridians and rushing to every damaged point.


    Still, in his mind, all of this damage and the series injuries or even the deaths of allies were worthwhile, for the girl that lay on the ground, no doubt paralysed by terror during their battle, was far more difficult to find than a bunch of blood-thirsty muscle-brains.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, girl, I won¡¯t be gentle in the slightest¡­ hehehe¡­¡±


    In his lust, he missed how the woman¡¯s expression relaxed, how her body no longer shivered, and how one of her hand went behind her back.


    ¡°No, don¡¯t do this¡­¡± she said, but even her voice lost its enthusiasm, and yet it was still missed.


    Just as he climbed atop her and wanted to tear off her clothes, he froze when a blade entered his eye, instantly ending his life.


    The woman pushed the lifeless body off herself and sighed, recovering her typical stoic gaze and murderous grin, while she processed her success. When she had been told that she would be able to deceive anyone with this act, she approached the situation with a fair amount of scepticism, having never used trickery in her fights, but the results proved to be far better than she could have ever expected. Not only did the three men bring themselves down to one, but they also injured that man to the point of him losing all awareness of himself.


    ¡°It¡¯s just as she said¡­¡± she thought, recalling the calm expression of Wei Yi when she had explained how a series of coincidences and very specific actions would allow them to kill every single physique cultivator without any effort at all, ¡°And I¡¯m surprisingly good at this¡­¡±


    ¡°HOW DARE YOU!¡±


    The scream drew Ling¡¯s attention at just the right time for the one fighting her to land the killing blow. It was a perfect coincidence, but it was rather concerning, for it was not the one that combatant had expected, for it should have come almost an entire minute later in the form of Ling stumbling upon an object that had been placed on the ground ahead of time.


    Ning fell onto one knee, his teeth clenched and his arms shaking. There were several large stab wounds from the spear-wielding combatant, and over a dozen cuts that were mostly on his legs.


    ¡°So¡­ I¡¯m not the only one¡­ you¡¯re killing¡­ heh¡­ You¡¯re strong, you lot¡­¡±


    The two men ignored his words, standing calmly with their weapons aimed to kill him the moment that they needed to do so. From behind them, two more men entered, their weapons covered in blood. It was obvious that they had just taken out the guard that protected the top of the tower, prompting Ning to exhale a mouthful of turbid air. If there had been any chance of him being rescued previously, it was now gone.


    ¡°Go on then¡­ finish me!¡±


    They said nothing as they stepped forward and struck.


    ¡°YOU FUCKERS!¡± an enormous giant of a man cried out, a single one of his punches throwing one of Meng Chu¡¯s men out of the way as easily as one might push aside a blade of grass with their feet during a casual walk in a field of grass.


    This man had no interest in the rest of the invading forces as his eyes were trained on the woman that had brought three of his friends to death, and his physique energy was rapidly revolving around his body and surrounding him in an extremely vicious black light that seemed to cut the very thoughts of those who looked upon it.


    He was displaying the might of the Grim Mortality physique ¨C an offshoot of the Concentrated Humanity physique that permitted the user to release an incredibly dangerous energy that would rapidly cut through anyone with hopes, dreams or aspirations by striking them with the cold, hard truth of reality, or so it was often described. It was a yang-type physique and was considered to be rather formidable even in the Planar Continents, where most could not use physique energy. Within the prison realm, with the enhancement of a powerful physique cultivation, it became even more considerable.


    ¡°YOU DARE TO KILL MY FRIENDS?!¡± the giant cried out, raising both hands to prepare for an overhead smash.


    A second before he was able to do so, extremely bright golden light shone upon the scene, momentarily blinding everyone present. The giant had no chance to recover from such a thing before he felt an incredible quantity of yang surging towards him, filled to the brim with killing intent. He did not dare to assume that he could withstand it due to the element matching his, so he attempted to leap out of the way towards one of his other enemies.


    However, at that moment, his vision returned, and he found that instead of the exhausted man that should have been standing at his destination, there was a woman dressed in tight clothing, wielding a spear that was bursting with crimson light.


    In that situation, he could not imagine himself doing anything other than striking her.


    His fist approached with great speed, and yet the woman did nothing until it came to a certain distance, at which point she narrowed her silver eyes and parried his blow, performing an esoteric movement that completely deflected all of his strength and reflected it back into the giant¡¯s arm, instantly crushing all of the bones in that arm.


    Then, she stabbed that spear into the ground and called upon that infinitely bright sunlight, surrounding her hands in that infinite radiance. The woman suddenly appeared before him, moving as fast as the light that surrounded her skin and struck his skull with similar speed.


    For a second ¨C a brief second ¨C it withstood her might, but when the physique energy grew brighter and expanded, almost becoming the sun itself, the very light that so many in the prison realm had never seen and had only heard tales of, it evaporated his flesh and blood, even the physique energy of the Grim Mortality physique that had dared near her, and brought his life to an end.


    The fortress was theirs.

 V2C16: Experimentations with Physique

    Wei Yi extinguished the iridescent physique energy around her hands, bringing it back into her meridians. Although most observers would not notice this, a significant quantity of that energy had been drained in the instant that she pierced the giant¡¯s dark veil of physique energy. It was naturally not as costly to her energy as it would have been if she had an ordinary physique or no semblance of physique cultivation, but it was still more than she would have liked to expend on one person.


    She approached the giant man and knelt down, poking his muscular arm while she scanned him with spiritual will.


    ¡®This is what Impermanent Permanence- the third fucking realm looks like? Very interesting-¡¯ her brows furrowed as she noticed that as her spiritual will drew close to some of the physique energy that still remained within his body, there was a slight ¨C almost negligible ¨C response.


    Naturally, she brought more of her spiritual will towards that energy, but was met with no greater response, so she attempted this with her other forms of energy. Killing intent had no greater effect, but the instant that her True Ascendant physique energy came into contact with the refined Grim Mortality energy, the latter was drawn towards it, and when she permitted it to come into contact with her physique energy, it was absorbed into it, sinking into the blinding sunlight almost as naturally as light would put out the dark.


    Through her physique energy, the Grim Mortality energy entered her body and was seemingly digested by the sunlight. As it was absorbed, her own physique energy was bolstered, slowly growing in density and might until it reached what one might deem the ninth stage of the Stable Form realm. However, she could also tell that it was not the only change.


    In order to confirm one of her theories, she brought out her physique energy and willed it to manifest in the same form that the giant had previously showcased.


    To her pleasant surprise, she witnessed it forming a thin veil around herself, one that was brighter and thinner that the giant¡¯s, but as sharp, ¡®Huh, that is beyond my expectations. Either I am not limited by my physique for whatever reason, or, in the more likely case, this True Ascendant physique is more impressive than something that simply enhances my physical abilities significantly, and burns away pretty much everything within the world¡­ I see it was already impressive, huh¡­¡¯


    She revoked her physique energy and pretended that she had not accidentally discovered an incredible thing, standing up and heading over to the other bodies while instructing Meng Chu¡¯s to collect every book and item of value and collect it in one place to make it easier to bring them away.


    At each body, she brought her physique energy into their meridians and drained what physique energy remained, solidifying her current physique stage, but the majority of the remnant physique energies were clearly either insufficiently pure or powerful to give her any new abilities. Nevertheless, it did give her the opportunity to learn that her physique energy had no such effect on yin-type energy, preventing her from absorbing the likes of the Yin Physique. Whether or not that would increase the quantity of yin within her body, it was a shame to miss out on half of the energy within the slain bandits.


    Shortly after she was finished with that process, after she managed to loot all of the bodies that she did not burn with her True Ascendant energy, she came to the collection pile of tomes and items.


    ¡°Boss, this is everything we¡¯ve found. Is this what we needed?¡±


    ¡°Let me take a look,¡± Wei Yi replied, though her spiritual will was already half-way through scanning all of the books. After she was done, and when she already knew the answer to the question, she asked, ¡°Was there one called Storm of Vengeance?¡±


    Ah Qiu nodded, passing her one of the manuals, ¡°There it is.¡±


    ¡°Good,¡± she nodded, flipping through the book quickly, ¡°Stuff these into bags and we will return them to Beast¡¯s Rest. Are there any traces of the excavation sites that they used?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, the¡­ eh¡­ fourth¡­ tower has a basement thing.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. Bring me to it.¡±


    The man took her to the fourth tower, where they found a small set of stairs into the ground that brought them into a cave with a set of bones placed around the edges of a round underground chamber. Every single one of the bones was obsidian-black and radiated constant killing intent, acting unlike either type of bone that Wei Yi had previously encountered.


    ¡°I will take a look at this myself. Handle the preparation for the transportation of the things we have gathered,¡± she said, waiting for the man to leave before approaching one of the black bones, ¡®These people are not killing intent cultivators, and yet they have such a number of items relating to killing intent, arranged specifically for their own purposes? Furthermore, these bones are neither storing killing intent nor are they able to take it in, and simply focus it onto one place¡­¡¯


    Within her mind, she opened one of the books that described the practises and culture of the physique cultivators of the Great Bone Lake and found a passage that described the incredibly hostile conditions of the Lake.


    According to the book, every person within the Great Bone Lake was constantly bombarded by such a great quantity of killing intent that they could be crushed in an instant if they lack a sufficiently powerful physique, and that effect is achieved through the black bones that surround and fill the Great Bone Lake. They also belong to the beast, but they do not hold or allow for the circulation of killing intent, instead controlling its flow and concentration. With such a large quantity of bones simultaneously affecting the crimson energy of the prison realm, that killing intent becomes unpalatable to most killing intent cultivators and functions as an exaggerated and extreme form of a gravity-changing array, applying an identical amount of pressure onto every part of the body at all times.


    ¡®So, they have either borrowed a few of the bones from the Lake, or they have obtained some of their own black bones to construct a sort of array¡­¡¯


    She steeled herself and stepped into the bone array. The deeper crimson light pressed down upon her, acting like the gravity-changing room within Shi Luo Feng¡¯s training hall, although it was only twice as powerful as usual, while those rooms went up to a five-times increase. However, the major difference was that her True Ascendant energy instantly grew excited and accelerated its flow through her meridians. It grew more concentrated, slowly but surely, stabilising her current realm in her physique cultivation.


    ¡®This is not as quick as draining the physique energy from someone in the third realm, but if I collect enough of these, it could certainly prove to be an efficient method of cultivation. If I am, at some point, capable of defeating everyone within the Great Bone Lake, I might take all of those bones and concentrate them onto one point, using all of their power at once.¡¯


    Wei Yi came up to each bone and pulled it out of the wall, collecting them into a bag that she then placed on her back, beside the spear. Without a particular arrangement, their effects were scattered and could thus do nothing but cause minor discomfort to those in her vicinity.


    Besides these items, everything that could be found with little effort had already been dug up, and her spiritual will could not discover anything within the rock and dirt of the cave, even when she stretched her spiritual will to its limit. Due to the constant winds of the crimson realm, the shifting of the sand and dirt that lay on the world¡¯s surface, most of the items that had been present on the battlefield were now buried beneath the ground, and so if they had the time to dig out the space beneath the other towers, they might be able to find more remains, ancient weapons and armour and technique manuals.


    That was not something she could do for now, nor did she have any particular interest in digging through what was essentially an enormous graveyard, so she returned to the surface.


    There, Meng Chu¡¯s men had gathered up most of the loot from the six towers into a few large piles, with weapons, armour, books and miscellaneous objects being split into individual piles for the purposes of clarity and organisation. As the majority of the weapons and armour were made from the black bones of the Beast, they were still in good condition, while the books looked slightly worse due to all of their pages being covered in crimson dust and dirt.


    ¡®Still, the fact that the physique cultivators didn¡¯t try to eat the books is good enough,¡¯ she thought, glancing at Ah Qiu for no particular reason, ¡®To obtain this much with no casualties and only minor injuries ought to be good enough for that man.¡¯


    ¡°So, are you lot done?¡±


    ¡°Yes, boss!¡± all of the soldiers replied, those few who had not yet brought their findings to the pile accelerating significantly to make sure that their words were true.


    Wei Yi naturally noticed this but felt that it wasn¡¯t worth pointing out so long as they were doing their best. If they had been doing something else, perhaps attempting to imitate the physique cultivators and their game of book-cards, at that point she would have most certainly killed a few of them to motivate the rest of them.


    ¡°Very well. Let¡¯s get going. Five of you can stay behind and observe ¨C if someone attempts to capture the battlefield again, report back and do not attempt to engage unless you are certain that they are inferior to you in combat. If they¡¯re just some common traveller, you can kill them too.¡±


    They returned to Beast¡¯s Rest with all of the items they found, but while Meng Chu¡¯s men went to their leader to report their success and bring the Storm of Vengeance technique to him, Wei Yi slid away into the depths of the underground tunnels and into a chamber that was not currently use and yet was large enough for her purposes. She placed a number of defensive pseudo-inscriptions on the two entrances and then placed her bag on the ground, removing the black bones from within.


    She arranged them along the walls in such a way that would concentrate any killing intent within the area onto the place she intended to use for future research, work and experimentation.


    After standing on that point for a few minutes, she decided that it was insufficient, so she created a few more arrays all around that central point in the chamber, activating them all with her spiritual will and intensifying them to the absolute maximum.


    When she returned to her previous position, the gravity and pressure had intensified from being twice as powerful to almost three and a half times as strong, with the effect on her physique energy being similar albeit slightly reduced. The fact that these bones had a different effect to simple energy-gathering arrays was curious, and something she wished to inspect, but it was sufficient for now.


    For a little while, she sat on the spot, raising her physique energy to the outer layer of her body as to temper them more quickly.


    Then, she drew the True Ascendant energies out of her body and formed the veil of the Grim Mortality physique, expending several percent of her total pool of energy in order to stabilise it amidst the concentrated crimson light of killing intent.


    ¡®It was not a temporary effect, then. That is fortunate, and extremely nice to learn, as if this is something I can continue to use permanently, I will have an extreme advantage over everyone else. Now, if the effects of the physique are also maintained to the same, or greater, extent as the person I had taken it from, then obtaining the body of someone in one of the upper realms of physique cultivation with an advanced physique could make me nigh invulnerable.¡¯


    She took a segment of the veil and forced it into the ground, watching as it cut through the tough stone with minimal difficulty and effort.


    ¡®I haven¡¯t had the opportunity to see how well that giant was able to cut stone, but it is still formidable even if it is inferior,¡¯ she thought, allowing the segment to return to the overall defensive veil, ¡®The only other physique that seems to function with what I have absorbed so far is the Golden Form physique, which¡­¡¯


    Retracting the protective veil, she willed her physique energy to transform her skin.


    Bright sunlight appeared around her and sunk into her skin, seemingly disappearing completely upon doing so. However, her skin did change, darkening ever so slightly, making her look ever more out of place in a world that had never seen the sun.


    ¡®That¡­ is not how I expected that function. I can¡¯t help but feel that the differences between the two physique effects are rather arbitrary, almost like they were designed by someone who did not want me, or any other True Ascendant physique owners, walking around in golden form a majority of their time,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, despite how silly the very idea seemed, ¡®Naturally, that is unlikely to be the case, unless the heavens are very particular about their aesthetic sense. After all, this doesn¡¯t seem to be an effect of the mysterious characters, which are still refusing to react to anything I do.¡¯


    The cost of physique energy to maintain the Golden Form ¨C or Tanned Form, in her case ¨C was surprisingly minimal, so she decided to keep it active and stock up on blood wine and dried food.


    Although she wanted to use any of the other physique abilities, including the All-Seeing Eye ability to create an illusory eye and observe her surroundings from above, but even if she would eventually be able to activate it after absorbing more energy from other owners of the physique, it was not something she was able to do at this time.


    Thus, with nothing more to do, she stood up, left the killing intent concentration point and changed back into the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival, cleansing her body and tying her hair while she had been undressed.


    Wei Yi found her way back to the primary chambers of Meng Chu¡¯s faction, and entered the room where she thought she would be most likely to find him.


    ¡°- and now that the redhead isn¡¯t here, we can-¡±


    ¡°Dugu Wei, since you share a character of your name with me, you could at the very least remember it,¡± Wei Yi interrupted the couple as they were lying on the top of a large table, with Qiu Sheng on the bottom and Dugu Wei on top, their hair and clothing dishevelled, making their intentions about as clear as they could possibly be, ¡°Also, tell me where I can find Meng Chu before you get back to it. Remember, I don¡¯t have an issue with your activities, it is your current boss that does.¡±


    ¡°Ugh¡­ He should be in third meeting room, down to the left. Do you really not care?¡±


    ¡°Why would I? It¡¯s not my time you¡¯re wasting, is it? Now, if I had been your boss, then that would be a completely different situation. Fortunately for you, that is not the case, so pray that I never get placed above you on the ladder, alright?¡±


    She did not wait for their response and left, heading towards the room they had informed her of. Within, Meng Chu sat in the corner, his attention focused solely on the manual within his hands.


    It was obviously the Storm of Vengeance technique, for that was the one that he was most interested in from the very start. Due to it being a technique that was created by his ancestor, it would undoubtedly suit him more than others, and since it was also something created by the mighty Meng Qi, the Thunder Lord, the Seventh of Meng and one of the greatest fighters during the War of Yin, whatever that had been about, it was bound to be beneficial to anyone who claimed it. Wei Yi knew that well, for she had a copy of her own, kept safely in the Augur¡¯s Library.


    After a while, he finished it and then flipped all the way back to the beginning, where he began to read all the way through again. He did that again and again, repeating the process several times until he slammed the book shut and placed it onto the table in front of himself with a sigh, his head dropping onto the same book soon after.


    ¡°Is there something you do not understand within the book?¡±


    Meng Chu did not bother to raise his head, ¡°The writing is difficult to understand, and the principles are clearly written for someone of the Planar Continents, not the prison realm.¡±


    ¡°Not surprising, seeing as your ancestor did not come from this realm. I could explain those parts to you, the things on page 4 in particular, but there is something that I would like to discuss with you first,¡± Wei Yi said, approaching him, ¡°I seem to recall a certain agreement.¡±


    ¡°So do I¡­ You¡¯re not going to take these things away from me, are you?¡±


    She shook her head, ¡°I would never prevent my forces from growing in power, not when I have such great ambition. Furthermore, I have already scanned through every single book and item obtained from the battlefield, so taking it away from you would simply provoke you for no particular reason. In fact, I have no wish to take away everything from you, as I might have explained before. You¡¯ve been handling things for quite some time, so you will be better at it than me.¡±


    ¡°Truth be told, my memory regarding actual events can be somewhat faulty¡­ In that case, what is it that you want me to do?¡±


    ¡°I want you to keep acting as you currently are, except my orders and intentions will take precedence over yours. When I want you to make a particular decision or purchase, you will. When I need you to fight a certain faction or surrender to a different one, then you will. Naturally, I will give orders to your current subordinates when I see fit, but for now, you may have free reign.¡±


    The man frowned, sitting still for a long time before raising his head just enough to nod.


    ¡°That does make sense¡­ As a leader, those are the things you are supposed to do¡­ Very well then, Wei Yi. I did agree to that deal, and I did get the thing that I wanted from your involvement,¡± Meng Chu said, ¡°I will tell Qiu Sheng and Dugu Wei, who will share your new role with the rest of my faction. If someone refuses to obey your commands, you can naturally beat them up, or get someone else to correct their behaviour. For now, though, could you leave me alone? I want to rest for a while, and your presence is¡­ rather worrying and terrifying.¡±


    ¡°Sure, I can do that. Do remember that I was able to predict almost everything that occurred at the battlefield before going there, and my predictive abilities will improve as I work on them. Have no doubt that under me, your faction will hold Beast¡¯s Rest, and may play a significant role in the new Yi City.¡±


    She left with those words, returning to her future study to incorporate the killing intent methods she had found in the battlefield, and to make use of the few written things she had found regarding physique cultivation.

 Bonus Chapter: Vice-Leaders [R-18]

    ¡°Really? You two are going at it again?¡±


    Wei Yi would have said that she couldn¡¯t believe her eyes, but after spending a few days in close proximity to the two vice-leaders of Meng Chu¡¯s faction ¨C without being buried in her Endless Calculation and study, that is ¨C she was very well aware of their typical behaviour.


    If they weren¡¯t fucking, they were thinking about it and planning out a location and deed to engage in. They were creative, she had to give them that much, but their common escapades and dereliction of duty had made them a massive pain in the ass. Putting aside the fact that the two used that hole as well, she understood quickly that she needed to do something about them.


    At first, simply interrupting them and preventing them from finding a space on their own was her approach, but it didn¡¯t work well. It just made the two hornier, which was amazing in its own right.


    Getting them busy with other things barely had any effectiveness either, as they were able to get into some semblance of a sexual act even if they were seated right in front of her and made to do paperwork. It would only be some time until a hand descended beneath the table, finding its way to the legs of the other, and then the two would eagerly finger one another until they reached some kind of climax, as if no-one was watching.


    Their delicate fingers easily bypassed or slid away the simple fabric that took the place of underwear in the prison realm, then found their way to the other¡¯s dripping cunts. Dugu Wei seemed to like stroking her partner¡¯s pussy, managing to do so quietly at first, but quickly speeding up and producing lewd, wet noises that couldn¡¯t be mistaken for much else.


    Qiu Sheng preferred to penetrate, and after teasing the blond woman¡¯s lower lips for a while, she would begin with her index finger, sliding it in and almost seeming to revel in the way it forced out her partner¡¯s moist arousal. Naturally, her deeds were the louder of the two, especially when she really got into it or added the ring and middle finger to the mix. She appeared to know exactly where Qiu Sheng¡¯s sensitive spots were, for she touched them with precision and skill, easily making the blond woman climax within a few minutes.


    Trouble was, they were never satisfied with just doing it once, as Wei Yi would have otherwise permitted this mutual fingering if it let them focus on their work for long enough.


    No, they just had to keep going, leaving behind slick pools by the time they were done and moved from their seats. It helped that most furniture lacked cushions or fabrics, or else their scent would have sank into everything that they ever touched.


    Depending on how often they fucked near her, Wei Yi might have even let them off, but with her sense of taste and smell further deteriorating, at least when she attempted to perceive edible substances, there were only a few strong odours that she could perceive within Meng Chu¡¯s underground network. There was the occasional sweaty man or woman, the former of which she made sure to avoid, some odd poisonous substance from the crimson wastes, and then the arousal of the horny pair.


    It was quickly getting everywhere, and the more she came across sites of their recent coitus, the more she was able to recognise it even after many days had passed.


    Now, she had learnt from her experiences in the prison realm that she did like women, as well as their taste and scent, but there was such a thing as too much. Dugu Wei and Qiu Sheng had reached it long, long ago, and so, after a few weeks and a further few moments of deep thought, she decided that she had had enough.


    She needed to get them to calm down, but she also needed to ensure that they did their jobs and didn¡¯t find something else to obsess over. Frankly, she wasn¡¯t sure that it would ever be possible to overcome their nymphomania, as it seemed to exceed her expectations every time she attempted to predict the activities of the pair, so there was only one way that she could imagine to bring them into line and sort out their nonsense.


    First, though, she called them into the room she chose to use as her office, sighing as she knew that the air wouldn¡¯t be quite so pleasant soon.


    ¡°What is it this time? We were busy,¡± Qiu Sheng said, glancing at her partner with surprising care in her gaze.


    ¡°Yeah. Both of us have a lot of work.¡±


    ¡°I agree, you two are a lot of work, and I¡¯ve had enough of you two. Since you can¡¯t help yourselves, I¡¯ll be kind enough and assist you,¡± she said, letting her killing intent mix into her words, causing the two to shiver visibly, ¡°If you dare to run, I will make things a thousand times worse for you, do you understand that?¡±


    The two knew of her by now, and knew that she wasn¡¯t joking, nor a pushover. If they ran, they would be in genuine, significant danger, which was certain to be worse than whatever she had planned.


    Hence, their legs twitched, but they didn¡¯t flee.


    That put a kind, and most certainly not sinister grin upon Wei Yi¡¯s face, ¡°How kind of you.¡±


    In an instant, she appeared by the door and slammed it shut, before turning around and placing her hands on their shoulders. Qiu Sheng was on her right, Dugu Wei on her left, and both were pushed forward onto the desk, barely managing to reach their hands out and stopped their fall in time.


    ¡°Stay right there.¡±


    Qiu Sheng had begun to rise, but the stern words forced her to keep still. Thus, both were bent over, their asses sticking out, a faint stain visible at their crotches, right through their clothing.


    For whatever reason, their gazes quickly landed on that last detail, with both staring at the other for a moment before their eyes met and they both shared a look filled to the brim with all kinds of mixed feelings. Luckily, Wei Yi didn¡¯t need to decipher them, as they seemed unable to keep their mouths shut even in a situation like this.


    ¡°Ah Wei, are you¡­ from that?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re wet too, Ah Sheng.¡±


    ¡°I suppose I didn¡¯t prohibit you from talking, though you ought to know that I can hear you,¡± the two jumped, as if it was some actual revelation, ¡°Now, take everything off and go back to your current pose.¡±


    ¡°W-What?¡± Dugu Wei exclaimed, her hands parting from the desk as she went to look at Wei Yi, ¡°What are you-¡±


    Her words froze in her throat when a firm palm came down on her ass, slapping it with significant strength. The pain lingered on her ass cheek, and the moment she saw Wei Yi raise her hand again, she went back down and grabbed the desk, even though she had no idea what she had done wrong. Hadn¡¯t she been told to get up and undress?


    Qiu Sheng clearly had the same question, but she had enough sense to remain still for now.


    ¡°Follow my instructions, don¡¯t question them. Otherwise, I can make sure that you¡¯ll never be able to sit still again, not without some excellent cushions you¡¯ll never find within the prison realm.¡±


    A moment of silence led her to raise both hands, which instantly prompted the two into action.


    ¡°¡±Yes, boss!¡±¡±


    They turned to one another and removed one another¡¯s clothing in an impressive pace, though it was obvious that this wasn¡¯t the first time they¡¯d done it. Every other movement was nearly followed by a kiss, whether on the mouth, nipple, or some other part of the body, but a single glance at Wei Yi¡¯s stern expression stopped them just in time.


    Dugu Wei somehow managed to plant a gentle kiss on her lover¡¯s stomach while pulling down her pants, and was promptly rewarded with a slap on the ass, causing her to clench her teeth with a tear forming in the corner of her eye.


    Still, a glance from her partner ensured that she kept quiet as they returned their hands to the desk.


    ¡°¡­ We¡¯re done.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not blind,¡± Wei Yi replied promptly, placing her hands on their butt cheeks, feeling them up, ¡°You two have nice asses. You don¡¯t mind if I touch them a little, do you? No, of course you don¡¯t, I can smell you from here¡­ How long as this been going on? How long have you been unable to contain yourselves when faced with even the slightest semblance of sexual stimulation?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Are we allowed to answer?¡± Qiu Sheng asked.


    ¡°What do you think?¡±


    The woman clearly had the urge to roll her eyes, but managed to restrain herself, answering after a pause, ¡°Since we were old enough for this sort of thing.¡±


    ¡°You still haven¡¯t managed to deal with it?¡±


    Qiu Shen snapped back, ¡°What do you think?¡±


    The answer came in the form of two spanks, one for each nymphomaniac in the room. To spare Dugu Wei¡¯s ass just a little bit, she made sure to slap the other cheek, but she knew that the woman didn¡¯t appreciate it much. Her body did, though, as her arousal visibly leaked out onto her legs.


    Her lover was a little more difficult to excite, though anyone could see the faint sheen on her lower lips if they chose to look. She took her first spank far better than her peer, though the lengthy observation Wei Yi had ended up conducting prior to this led her to conclude that she wasn¡¯t just better able to take pain. In fact, Qiu Sheng preferred to be on top, and was more aggressive in general, but one of her ¨C undoubtedly many ¨C fetishes was anal.


    Given that they were both women without a drop of draconic blood in their veins, neither had a cock with which to penetrate the other, and there weren¡¯t many toys in the prison realm that could act as a substitute. The overall level of craftsmanship, as well as the lacking materials, left much to be desired, and nobody in their right mind would bring rough, decaying wood anywhere near their privates.


    What Qiu Sheng liked was having her asshole licked and entered by her lover¡¯s tongue, while she sat atop her and rode Dugu Wei¡¯s face.


    Occasionally, fingers would also be involved, and after a number of years, her hole must have gotten used to insertions. Even now, the ring was parted slightly, contracting briefly when Wei Yi delivered her slap, only to open up more once the pain settled.


    ¡°Well then, ladies, I¡¯ve got a solution for you. Since you¡¯re horny all the time, let¡¯s just make sure that you two can never get one another off. Then-¡±


    ¡°Wha- Ah!¡± another pair of slaps cut off Qiu Sheng, though her gasp had just the faintest hint of a pleasured moan within it.


    ¡°Did I fucking stutter? No, I didn¡¯t think so. I know my way around the human body, so I¡¯ll just let you experience sensations that you will not be able to reproduce on your own. Then, you¡¯ll have no reason to mess around with one another when it won¡¯t ever match up to what I can do, especially if I get some of my energy involved,¡± Wei Yi smiled, bending down a little to make sure that the two would see it without needing to rise from their current poses.


    ¡°But-¡±


    Another pair of slaps silenced Dugu Wei.


    ¡°You-¡±


    Qiu Sheng did not fare any better, feeling the palm strike the same spot as the first time she was spanked. Even without looking, she knew that her ass cheeks were bright red, burning from the pain, and every additional strike only made it worse.


    The trouble was that it was pleasant. It sent a spark of excitement through her body, overcoming the slight fog of monotony that had managed to build up in their years of endless sex.


    ¡°This is kinda fun, actually,¡± Wei Yi remarked, spanking the two again for no particular reason, ¡®Now, I¡¯ve used my physique energy for this kind of thing before, with Ah Li, but they don¡¯t need to know what I¡¯m doing. If they start seeking out physique cultivators to spank them all the time, just to end up unable to sit for as long as it takes them to find another one, I won¡¯t have improved the situation.¡¯


    Giving them a moment to breathe, she raised her hands and, after a pause, brought them down with one final slap, keeping her hands on their asses afterwards. She was sure that it would be agonising for them to experience her hand feeling them up in their current state, so she didn¡¯t linger for too long and instead slid them over to the holes that seemed to be awaiting her touch. In Dugu Wei¡¯s case, it was her sopping wet pussy, which had managed to drip down to the ground since they started, and in Qiu Sheng¡¯s case¡­


    ¡°W-what are you doing? That¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°Your asshole, yes. You play with it all the time, and you¡¯re clean, so why should it be a problem? Be honest, you enjoy my finger pressing against it, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I won¡¯t answer¡­¡±


    ¡°Somehow, I doubt that,¡± Wei Yi muttered, gently caressing their holes for now.


    Dugu Wei, being the cute submissive that she was, lost any hint of anger or frustration in her expression almost right away, though her naughty attempts to grind her pussy against Wei Yi¡¯s hand was a clear display of disobedience. So, she pulled away, but before she could even consider spanking her, the blonde stopped on her own.


    ¡°Sorry, I¡­ Please, touch me¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah Wei! You- ah, that¡¯s- yes, please, touch me more¡­¡± Qiu Sheng muttered before her brain caught up to her lips, ¡°I mean, eh¡­¡±


    ¡°Is it so bad to be honest for a while?¡± Wei Yi inquired as she slowly plunged her finger into the woman¡¯s puckered hole, while her other hand returned to Dugu Wei¡¯s pussy, ¡°I¡¯ll just find your most sensitive spots, and then make sure that you remember me for the rest of your lives.¡±


    As she penetrated the blonde as well, sinking in with far greater ease, she removed her finger from Qiu Sheng¡¯s asshole ¨C much to the woman¡¯s disappointment ¨C and reached forward to hold her hand right in front of Dugu Wei. Even without her needing to explain, the blonde got the idea, and placed her lips over the finger, quickly covering it in her saliva.


    Although Qiu Sheng seemed to have something to say, she swallowed her words when Dugu Wei eagerly moved onto the other fingers on Wei Yi¡¯s hand, seeming excited just to have something to lick.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a good girl¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am!¡± Dugu Wei exclaimed with pride, removing a finger from her mouth just long enough to speak. However, when she tried to return to her duties, she found the hand being pulled away, leading her to look back with a questioning gaze.


    ¡°I¡¯ve decided you should call me Master. Come on, don¡¯t you want your treat?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ uhm¡­¡± she looked over at her partner, only to find Qiu Sheng completely consumed by the sensation of a slick finger returning to her hole, sliding in with far greater ease this time.


    Her gaze to the side wasn¡¯t maintained for long, for the moment that Wei Yi plunged another finger into her pussy, she felt her muscles clench and the familiar wave of orgasm approach. It was hardly the best in recent memory, but she had also grown accustomed to experiencing dozens in a single encounter, so she was ready for it.


    Despite that, it never came. She knew that she was at an edge, she knew that she should be rushing past with every movement of the fingers in her cunt, and yet nothing happened.


    ¡°I thought I asked you. Don¡¯t you want a treat?¡±


    Dugu Wei trembled when she understood, but even then, she didn¡¯t acquiesce, instead choosing to endure. Given that Wei Yi had no knowledge of how to read minds, she had no clue why she was so against this in particular, when she was all too eager to do everything else she came up with, but as she hadn¡¯t intended to grant her release any time soon, it worked just fine for her. She had no strong desire to be called Master, or Mistress, for that matter ¨C it just seemed to fit the current situation.


    When the blonde was wet enough to handle three fingers without issue, Qiu Sheng had finally loosened up enough for a second finger to enter, and when it did, any hints of her initial resistance vanished completely.


    ¡°M-Master, please¡­¡± the dark-haired woman said.


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°Can you¡­ can you let me cum? Please?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you understand that I¡¯m doing it on purpose? I mentioned getting my energy involved, didn¡¯t I?¡± Wei Yi took a step forward, keeping her hands in place but bending down so that she could whisper in their ears, ¡°I¡¯ll just let you build up so much desire that you won¡¯t be able to sate it. Whenever it crosses your minds, you¡¯ll think of me, and my touch ¨C and you¡¯ll wait your fucking turn and keep working hard before then. Understand?¡±


    The two whimpered, but soon they were unable to restrain their moans as Wei Yi¡¯s fingers plunged deep into their holes, being buried up to their knuckles before she pulled back only to slam in with more force.


    Since her youth, when she had to struggle to obtain food, she had grown to be quite tall, and that growth extended to nearly every part of her body other than her breasts. In other words, her fingers were able to reach places that the two smaller women before her could never have reached with their own hands.


    When combined with the careful release of energy and Wei Yi¡¯s precise understanding of their bodies, being able to see the reactions every subtle movement caused, she might have been able to bring the two to climax a dozen times by now, but the energy she released also subdued that. Frankly, Wei Yi herself barely understood how she pulled it off, but as it appeared to be effective, she wasn¡¯t going to stop herself from taking advantage of it, thrusting into the pussy to her left, and the asshole on her right.


    Once they got used to the deep insertion, she also applied more of her strength, thrusting hard enough to push them against the desk and make their legs go weak.


    The two turned to one another, finding the same lustful expressions on one another¡¯s faces. Their tongues were out, drooling onto the wooden desk before them, and after a moment of shared consideration, they took their hands off the edge and embraced one another, their lips connecting in a kiss that could only be held for a moment before Wei Yi¡¯s thrusting fingers forced them apart.


    ¡°W-Wait, Master, p-please-¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t stopping you. Sure, you¡¯ve broken the rules, but seeing two women kiss is also pleasant ¨C especially since you won¡¯t cum from doing that, either,¡± she replied, leading the two to pause and ponder their predicament, ¡°Go on, get back to it, and make sure to get your tongues involved.¡±


    On her command, their lips joined once more and their tongues quickly emerged, wrapping around one another and making a complete mess of the makeup they wore.


    Lipstick stains were themselves stained by their saliva, as they could hardly maintain any form of decorum while they were filled by Wei Yi¡¯s dexterous fingers. They eagerly ravaged one another, with Qiu Sheng managing to assume control after a while, sucking on her lover¡¯s tongue and quickly forcing its retreat, with her tongue following and tasting Dugu Wei¡¯s mouth as if it was the greatest and richest of delicacies.


    Their drool quickly covered their chins, almost rivalling the slick flowing from their pussies, making Wei Yi herself get rather excited. Fortunately, her body didn¡¯t appear to be able to overproduce fluids quite as much as these two, or Ah Li for that matter, so she would only need to deal with the few drops of arousal that had begun to spill onto her inner thighs.


    Even without her prompting, the two got around to fondling one another¡¯s breasts, fully engrossing themselves in one another¡¯s bodies.


    Dugu Wei opted to grope her lover¡¯s chest, her fingers digging into the soft and large pair of boobs, playing with them without any care for the other¡¯s experience. Her partner managed to be more precise, locking onto the blonde¡¯s stiff, dark nipples and tugging at them, pinching and twisting in a manner that made gave her all of the control over the situation, while Dugu Wei was barely able to continue moving as she had been.


    Naturally, with three fingers filling her ass, Qiu Sheng was hardly unaffected, and no number of attempts at careful movement were successful. Eventually, she also descended into simply groping the other¡¯s tits, gasping and moaning as she felt her arousal escalate endlessly.


    ¡°So, what are you going to call me, girls?¡±


    ¡°Master! You¡¯re our Master!¡± Qiu Sheng exclaimed the moment she separated from her lover¡¯s lips, several strands of saliva keeping them connected, ¡°Please¡­¡±


    ¡°Dugu Wei?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Qiu Sheng, te-aAH! Tell her-¡± the blonde whimpered, for her every word was interrupted by Wei Yi thrusting into her, almost going as far as shoving her hand in, as it wouldn¡¯t be much of an issue with how wet and loose she was.


    Her partner clearly wanted to speak, but the sparks of energy that stimulated every nerve within her ass left her moaning instead, growing in volume until Wei Yi decided to give her a break for a moment.


    By slowing down and releasing less of her power, Qiu Sheng was able to gather her thoughts enough to look back at Wei Yi and speak, though she was still whimpering and moving her backside so as to continue receiving stimulation.


    ¡°She¡­ she¡¯s shy¡­¡±


    ¡°Fuck off with that. Shy? You two can probably be heard in the furthest parts of the underground passages, maybe even on the surface, and yet you¡¯re shy?¡± Wei Yi was almost tempted to pull her fingers out and spank the two until they apologised, though she could tell by the looks on their faces that they had something else to say.


    Indeed, when she stopped her right hand and fingers, allowing Qiu Sheng to go back and forth on her own, she managed to continue.


    ¡°She¡¯s shy¡­ mhm¡­ about saying¡­ ah¡­ things like Master¡­ it makes her so cute- AH!¡±


    As a reward, Wei Yi produced a few more sparks of energy from her fingers and thrust them in, as deep as she could, nearly overcoming her own method for preventing the black-haired woman from cumming.


    ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll stop the moment you overcome that shyness. Deal?¡±


    ¡°P-Please, Qiu Sheng-¡±


    ¡°Say it! I want to cum! I want Master to make me cum! Please~!¡±

 V2C17: Gaining Power

    ¡°- so what are you going to call me, Dugu Wei? You better be clear, since I can keep going for a long, long time¡­¡±


    ¡°Master! I¡¯m sorry, Master! P-Please stop¡­ Please!¡±


    ¡°Hmph,¡± Wei Yi withdrew, cleansing her hand with True Ascendant energy, ¡°I¡¯m sure you remember what I told you a few days ago, and yet you still kept shirking your duties. Now you two can come to me once a week, and if you¡¯ve worked well enough, then I may grant you some relief.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Master!¡± both Dugu Wei and Qiu Sheng cried out, not daring to move in the slightest, ¡°M-May we-¡±


    ¡°Yes, you can go. Meng Chu will inform you of your orders, so get out of here before you stain the floor any further.¡±


    They didn¡¯t say anything, getting up, grabbing their clothing and rushing out of the room before they had a chance to displease their new master any further. Wei Yi watched them leave, then seared the ground and air around her with her physique energy to limit how much their scent would spread. With the slight strengthening of both killing intent and physique energy, her sense of taste and smell of regular food had declined even further, and she did not want one particular scent to overwhelm all others while she resided in her study.


    Once the ground had cooled sufficiently, she evened it out and returned to the desk that she had installed in the very middle of the concentrated killing intent point within her room. It was made of stone and the Beast¡¯s bones, allowing it to be sufficiently sturdy to withstand the slowly growing killing intent concentration at that point of the room.


    The paper and tomes that she typically looked at and wrote on there, however, did not fare as well, though that did encourage her to work more quickly and to improve her writing speed, which had been relatively slow due to her desire to keep every single one of her characters as neat as possible.


    ¡®If I ever do this sort of thing again, I should get a bed that I can throw out instead of melting the floor,¡¯ she thought, circulating her physique energy, ¡®Nevertheless, I now have both vice-leaders under my control, Meng Chu has been rather supportive lately, and Shi Luo Feng has not sent too many more intruders, perhaps assuming that I¡¯ve died or something along those lines, so things should go smoothly from now on. Once I attempt to expand Meng Chu¡¯s grasp over the town, the other two leaders will most certainly rise up, at which point I can deal with them and ensure that they never have a chance at challenging my authority.¡¯


    She shut her eyes and focused her killing intent, opening them once the battlefield had appeared within her silver iris. For the most part, the battlefield of the Ascendant¡¯s Gathering remained unchanged, but the fighters within now wielded lightning and thunder, with their movement and skills clearly wielding a far greater strength than before. Furthermore, the distant figure that terrified all who looked upon it, Wei Yi¡¯s manifestation as the master of that mental domain, grew even mightier, with her glowing eyes frequently releasing sparks of crimson electricity.


    Unfortunately, no matter what she did to alter the essence of the killing intent technique with her newly acquired manuals, she could not make it harm people physically in her current realm, but so long as those caught within its effects did not immediately realise that they were being affected by a mental technique, they would suffer great mental damage without fail.


    The true power of these techniques would emerge the moment that the killing intent can be concentrated to a greater degree in the second realm, at which point the increased power could be concentrated on a single direction, and then would significantly increase again in the third realm, where the entire power of the illusory battlefield could be focused on a single individual, perhaps even allowing for the manifestation of certain obstacles from the battlefield into the realm world.


    Still, her killing intent was currently able to overwhelm those in the first three realms of killing intent, which made it sufficient to deal with large groups of enemies and weak combatants.


    Wei Yi willed the killing intent to return from her eyes and removed a few stacks of papers and a pen from the inside of the desk, flipping through a few of them in the physical world and significantly more within the mental landscape to remind herself of the current situation of Meng Chu¡¯s faction and those it opposed, was neutral to, and had the potential of forming an alliance with.


    Both Meng Chu and Ding Wen¡¯s factions were in good standing with the populace of Beast¡¯s Rest, as one provide security and much needed entertainment while the other ran a great number of shops and allowed for much more trading to occur, and for far more items and artefacts to be brought out of the darkness of the prison realm than otherwise would have. Shi Luo Feng, on the other hand, was not viewed as positively due to the extreme number of people that seemed to die or go missing after getting close enough to her and her faction, not to mention the fact that her training hall tended to be more useful to physique cultivators than common men.


    There was a certain possibility of an alliance with Ding Wen, but Wei Yi did not intend to allow the town to be shared by more than one group ¨C that being her own, of course ¨C so she crossed out the possibility immediately.


    Outside of Beast¡¯s Rest, there were several primary factions or settlements of note. The physique cultivators of the Great Bone Lake and several scattered collections of those that fled from it were one, the Council of Crimson and Hold of the Mighty that sought to reach greater heights in killing intent and physique cultivation respectively were another example. A settlement by the name of Cranial Domain was on the opposite side of Beast¡¯s Rest to the Great Bone Lake and was founded on what was presumably the skull of the Beast, much like the Great Bone Lake had been colloquially recognised as its rear end. They also primarily cultivated killing intent, though there were far more physique cultivators than in Beast¡¯s Rest.


    Near the Great Bone Lake, to the north-west, was a faction that called themselves the Seekers of Blood, with their purpose being to learn about the mysterious of all sorts of blood to understand and harness the immense power within. Their primary focus was the Beast¡¯s blood, for it was the only true creature with a powerful bloodline, but they were open to experimenting with whatever they could get their hands on.


    Out of these factions, the Council of Crimson was the one that would be most likely to accept an alliance due to their interest in driving out the people of the Hold of the Mighty and their shared preference for killing intent cultivation. They were also amongst the most powerful besides those that own the crimson robes, and so their addition to Wei Yi¡¯s forces would allow her to subjugate or get rid of those in the Cranial Domain and the Great Bone Lake with far less effort than if she attempted to attack them now.


    The Hold of the Mighty were also a viable alternative, as they were somewhat saner than the inhabitants of the Great Bone Lake and were also more open to having friendly relations with other factions. They would also wish for their neighbours, the Council of Crimson, to be driven out as the price for signing a pact of alliance with them, unfortunately.


    It was a little more difficult to assess the stance of the Cranial Domain, which was extremely isolationist and against any alliances or outright wars towards anyone that did not intrude upon their territory. Strictly speaking, it was feasible to get on their good side by eliminating the Council of Crimson, as it was the closest faction to their territory, then allowing them to act freely within that area, but it would never go further than that without some extreme circumstances.


    Those extreme circumstances could be manufactured, but the information that Wei Yi and Meng Chu currently had was insufficient to understand what that would require and how to accomplish it, so she added it to the list of priorities.


    Seekers of Blood were a neutral faction who tolerated the presence of others around them but would instantly attack anyone that dared to enter their territory without their permission. Their research was their absolute priority, and if someone could assist it, they would let them in and either experiment on them, or permit them to attempt to experiment with them, but if there was any chance of them ruining their progress, they would instantly go all-out on eliminating them. Despite them not being the most powerful faction, having the fewest number of Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival amongst their ranks, if they went all out then they could permanently weaken any one faction and leave them vulnerable to attacks from every other power in the prison realm.


    Before attempting to ally with the other factions, however, Wei Yi wanted to claim the entirety of Beast¡¯s Rest for herself, before expanding it to occupy significantly more land, as well as the miracle fluid spring that was located several days of travel away from the current outer edges of the town. Only then would she have the necessary power to negotiate with the other factions.


    ¡®Right, I should inform my subordinate about that and get an edge over the other two groups,¡¯ she thought, throwing away a few papers that had shrivelled beneath the pressure of killing intent.


    She left the room and went to the single chamber that she had designated as Meng Chu¡¯s office, as she was tired of constantly needing to ask the horny couple about his location ¨C for whatever reason, those two were far, far easier to find than their leader, and always seemed to be exactly where she was expecting to find him. Now that she had stopped them from engaging in elicit acts when they were not supposed to be, she could not rely on them and decided that if all of the scattered tomes and books from his many meeting chambers were brought into one place, he wouldn¡¯t need to be in different places every time she looked for him.


    Once she arrived at that office, she found him sitting at a desk much like her own, desperately trying to revise the formula for creating additional an additional meridian network to work with his own body. Wei Yi could have done this herself, but since he appeared to be sufficiently intelligent, she did not.


    ¡°How are things going for you, my loyal servant? Are you only eleven percent through the process?¡±


    ¡°Since you already know the answer, I don¡¯t know why you¡¯re asking,¡± he said, sighing almost as loudly as Wei Yi had many times in the past, ¡°All of this is incredibly complicated, even for me.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate, I¡¯m sure. What about your practise of the Storm of Vengeance? I can sense that as well, but if every time I went past you I scanned your entire body and then made random comments that I really shouldn¡¯t be able to make without a closer look at you, I¡¯m sure you wouldn¡¯t be too fond of that. For instance, I can detect that your root of yang-¡±


    ¡°I will agree with that and ignore whatever advice you wished to give me. I can take care of myself.¡±


    ¡°Sure. So?¡±


    Meng Chu sighed again and released a strand of crimson energy, focusing it into a bolt of red lightning that constantly sparkled and crackled, random offshoots and bolts of lightning occasionally striking thing around it, his robes included.


    ¡°There. If you do give me any advice, please focus it on my killing intent cultivation.¡±


    ¡°Very well, I will do exactly that. Your killing intent has reached roughly fifty-four percent of the power that it could possess with the Storm of Vengeance technique, and only thirty-nine percent of the stability. If you want to improve, I recommend you visit my room and sit at my desk for a while, using only your killing intent to protect yourself. It will significantly strengthen it in a short period of time, though you ought to be careful not to overwork yourself and your energy,¡± she said, showing him a small smile filled with killing intent.


    He did not bother to question exactly which part she expected him to suffer on the most and simply nodded, pretending that there had been something substantive in her words.


    ¡°Anyway, I have something to tell you. There is a spring of miracle fluid to the west of Beast¡¯s Rest, roughly three days of uninterrupted walking away, so I need you to send a team to set up a camp there and do whatever it is that you do with it. I¡¯ll need a cup a day to fuel myself, but the rest is up to you to use however you think is best,¡° she explained, ¡°Other than that, we need to make preparations to take on Shi Luo Feng. A temporary alliance with Ding Wen could work, but only as long as we immediately turn on him the moment that we have achieved victory against Shi Luo Feng¡¯s forces. I will enter seclusion to deliberate on a full plan soon, but you may have the honour of setting up the foundations for it.¡±


    ¡°Just one question ¨C how long do you intend to act this insufferably? It is obviously an act.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, but those two got on my nerves a little. I¡¯m sure you understand,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°I¡¯ve dealt with them, but I only got so much out of it. Maybe when they come by in a week¡¯s time, I¡¯ll have a slightly better experience, but for now, you can endure, I¡¯m sure.¡±


    Meng Chu shook his head, ¡°I¡¯d rather not. How soon are you going to enter seclusion, then? If you could guide my- our forces to the miracle spring, it would make things much easier.¡±


    ¡°Not for a few days, at least. Last time, I had to work from nothing but books and records, which, while it proved mostly sufficient, is not enough for me. I need a better understanding of the entire town, of the three forces that occupy it, and of the people that we will be fighting over. If an action we take causes all of them to rebel, it would be somewhat pointless.¡±


    ¡°Indeed¡­ I can organise a journey to the miracle spring within the day, so tell me when I should.¡±


    ¡°You might as well do it right away. While you are preparing, I will look around town. I¡¯ll return to the brothel, then we may leave,¡± she said, removing her crimson robes and tying them around her waist, with the tight-fitting clothes already beneath them.


    He nodded, turning back to the desk, so Wei Yi also turned around and departed, ignoring the desire-filled stares of two women that looked upon her from around a corner. They¡¯d asked for their punishment, and she had no intentions of ever giving in to someone just because they were pitiful. It would be of no benefit to her now, and it would be of no benefit to her in the future, because anyone with half a brain would take advantage of such a weakness and intentionally appear weak as to make her submit to their whims.


    Naturally, she had no intentions to be incredibly brutal to those that did not deserve it, as that would make it very difficult to get the common people on her side. After all, most have not experienced the wrath of the Great Families and might assume that they were the better choice if she went around burning down districts indiscriminately just for having a potential affiliation with the Greats.


    ¡®I will need to research whether it is possible to bring back a scene that has already happened to show to others, either by deducing what must have led to a place looking the way it does, or through rewinding time itself, if that is even an option,¡¯ she thought, exiting the underground passages through a secret entrance that brought her to a residential area of Beast¡¯s Rest, ¡®If I can also manipulate those images while still making them appear genuine, then rallying support for my cause would be significantly easier. A powerful leader is divided on who to support? I could show them how the Greats slaughtered their friends and family. One of the Great Families is having some internal issues? With such a technique, I could aggravate their poor relations further, and eliminate one Family with no need to do a thing myself.¡¯


    She left the residential area and went towards the primary trading zone, walking past the enormous auction house without even glancing at the guards at the front. Her destination was a weapon shop, or blacksmith store of any kind that had some experience in handling weapons made from the bones of the Beast, and her intention was to get them to appraise the black dagger that she had obtained from the Black Terror. It was something that she still did not understand fully, and that had to be corrected.


    There was an unsurprisingly large number of weapon stores placed near one another, with some being in vastly better condition than others. However, most traded in common items or in hatred blades of an extremely low calibre, which would make them unsuitable for her purposes.


    Eventually, she located a small store that contained several hatred blades of decent qualities, and a few sets of black bones that appeared to be intended to be made into something later. At the moment, there were no other customers within the store, so she entered without any hesitation and approached the old man that sat in the back, chipping away at some dark stone with a chisel while silently grumbling.


    ¡°Excuse me, are you the owner of this store?¡± she asked, not coming too close to him as to not disturb whatever it is that he is doing.


    ¡°Aye. D¡¯you want something, lass?¡± replied the old man, not stopping his work as he talked.


    ¡°I have a hatred blade, and I need someone that can analyse it and inform me of what makes it different from other hatred blades,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°You seem to have a number of the Beast¡¯s bones in your store, so I assume that you have that ability?¡±


    ¡°Heh¡­ Listen, lass, I¡¯ve got an issue right now. If ye can deal with it, I¡¯ll make or inspect whatever you like.¡±


    ¡°Well then, what is the issue you¡¯re faced with? I might be able to do something about it.¡±


    ¡°Y¡¯know the three leaders of this place? My issue¡¯s with Ding Wen, who wants to buy my store out and make me decorate all of his hatred blades for the rest of my limited life. Not exactly my preference for work, but in Beast¡¯s Rest, there ain¡¯t much I can do,¡± the old man sighed, placing the black stone onto a work surface, ¡°So, can ye deal with it?¡±


    She shrugged, ¡°It depends on who has been tasked with ¡®recruiting¡¯ you, but if it isn¡¯t Ding Wen himself, I should have a good chance at managing it. If it is him, that chance would be slightly lower, though it would not be completely impossible.¡±


    ¡°Then have at ye, lass. Just don¡¯t tell ¡®em I sent ye.¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged and left the dark shop, quickly finding someone that looked to be part of Ding Wen¡¯s faction. If they were truly interested in this man and his abilities, then they should be sufficient to accurately inform her of the nature of the black dagger. If he was either insane or simply lying, then it would just be a minor waste of her time.


    ¡®However, if he is telling the truth and Ding Wen himself wants his services, then I will either need to beat up all of his forces, or find something that he is interested in more than the old man¡­¡¯


    There were a few ideas already appearing within her mind, but for now, there was nothing she could do but approach Ding Wen¡¯s men and see if they knew anything about the matter. If not, there were a few alternatives, but the easiest would be to fake the man¡¯s death and to take him away to the underground passages of Meng Chu¡¯s faction, where they could seal him away and not permit him to see the crimson light of the prison realm. Whichever faction was interested in him, they could feign ignorance and pretend that they had nothing to do with them.

 V2C18: Blacksmith of Hatred

    She came up to the men and asked them in the most innocent voice she could muster, ¡°Hey, you guys, what are you doing here?¡±


    They looked back at her and initially scoffed, though one kept his gaze on her longer than others.


    ¡°We¡¯re trying to get the old man in that shop to work with us,¡± that man said, prompting the rest of his companions to sigh without stopping him from talking, ¡°He¡¯s rather reluctant, so we¡¯re trying to get his other customers to stop visiting him.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, her expression suddenly warping as a thick bubble of killing intent appeared around her, enveloping all of Ding Wen¡¯s forces, ¡°I need to talk with your leader about that.¡±


    They found themselves being consumed by the endless battlefield, with countless warriors fighting around them with such force that they would be able to break the very Beast in half if they appeared in the prison realm. Before they had any chance to notice the crimson and dark gold library in the distance, their attention was drawn to where Wei Yi had stood, and what they now saw behind it.


    A dark, towering figure looked down upon them, with eyes filled with crimson and silver that seemed to pierce their very souls. It bent down, its hand reaching for them, causing their minds to stop completely, making all three fall to the ground in unconsciousness.


    ¡°- are their words accurate, Ding Wen?¡± Wei Yi asked, the three lying on the ground beside her with blood flowing from their noses.


    ¡°I must say, this is the most charming entrance I¡¯ve experienced in some time. It is not how I expected to meet a Crimson Robe for the second time,¡± Ding Wen laughed, calmly leaning back in his chair, ¡°Indeed they are. I have an interest in the old man, and I want him to make things exclusively for me due to his impressive level of skill. Is that an issue?¡±


    ¡°Not necessarily, but, if I may, I have a slightly different proposition for you. I, and Meng Chu¡¯s faction as a whole, would also benefit from his presence, and in exchange, we could work together and alter the power dynamics of this town as a whole. What would you think about having one less leader?¡±


    ¡°Are you suggesting that Meng Chu and I work together to eliminate Shi Luo Feng?¡±


    ¡°Exactly. Shi Luo Feng obviously has a large quantity of valuables within her hands, not to mention the unique technique that she uses, and we could share a large quantity of them with you upon our success. Furthermore, you could also get your hands on more shops and facilities, giving you even more opportunities to earn and collect the treasures of the prison realm.¡±


    He looked at her in silence for a while, clearly contemplating the offer seriously, ¡°Is this something you are proposing as an envoy of Meng Chu? Have you joined him so soon after rejecting me?¡±


    ¡°You could call me that. Also, I have only officially joined his faction recently, being motivated primarily by the fact that Shi Luo Feng was too dangerous to remain close to while you wished to charm me into following you. Meng Chu did not, and simply offered me a good deal.¡±


    ¡°Very well. In that case, I suppose we can discuss the potential cooperation between our two forces. Naturally, I desire the treasures that Shi Luo Feng has stored away more so than anything else, so I wish for no fewer than two thirds of all of her treasures upon success, but I don¡¯t see a reason to continue speaking unless you¡¯re qualified to negotiate with me,¡± he said, ¡°Are you? Can you promise me that what we agree upon will be followed by your leader? And, more importantly, are you and your leader even capable of defeating the third leader of Beast¡¯s Rest? What are the chances of success in whatever plan you have devised?¡±


    ¡®You¡¯re speaking to the new leader of Meng Chu¡¯s faction, you know? One day, I will not need to pretend to be someone else¡¯s follower, and will be able to act exactly as I need to act, whenever I need to do so¡­ for now, however¡­¡¯ Wei Yi ignored the provocative tone in his voice and replied, ¡°If you prefer, then you can indeed converse with Meng Chu himself. However, if you wait for one year, then my leader can guarantee a ninety percent absolute success rate, a nine percent low success rate, and a one percent minor failure rate.


    ¡°Before you ask what that means, I can explain it to you. It is ninety percent likely that we will succeed entirely, without any significant losses or sacrifices on our part. We will be able to split the town into two without any issues. In the case of the nine percent, we will succeed in most parts of the plan, but some small part will fail or not go exactly as wanted. Perhaps we will not eliminate Shi Luo Feng completely and she will escape, or she will be down to one property that we cannot take from her. Finally, the last possibility, the minor failure, is if we can significantly weaken Shi Luo Feng¡¯s forces, but not outright destroy them. The power that both your and Meng Chu¡¯s factions possess will grow, but so long as she is clever and manages to rally the people behind her cause, that situation can be reversed or even turned in her favour.¡±


    ¡°Hum¡­ You and your leader sure care about the people, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you? One common man might not be able to rival any one of the factions in the prison realm, but if all citizens of Beast¡¯s Rest rose up against any of the three factions, they would be able to do significant harm to them, or even bring them down entirely.¡±


    ¡°If you and your leader say so,¡± commented Ding Wen, ¡°Very well, I will go along with what you¡¯re saying. I can negotiate with your leader, but not with you. However, one year is a suitable time.¡±


    ¡°Then, what about the blacksmith? May we borrow him for a few quick tasks?¡±


    ¡°I will permit it. If your leader does not provide me with your plan in a year¡¯s time, then I will need to talk with him¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright, that is sufficient for me, and for Meng Chu, I¡¯m sure. I also hope that our future interactions are just as pleasant as this one,¡± Wei Yi said, bowing ever-so-slightly before she turned around and departed, intentionally stepping on one of the three unconscious people in the room.


    She travelled back to the blacksmith¡¯s residence and informed him of the news, before bringing him to a location that was close to one of the entrances to the underground passages. As she did not want him or Ding Wen¡¯s men that might watch over him to know, she did not reveal this, and intended to walk around the area for a while before ever entering or exiting the passages. There, she explained his current situation to him.


    ¡°And so, you¡¯re free for now, but I would like you to do a few things for us,¡± Wei Yi said, removing her dagger and giving it to him, ¡°Take a look at this, if you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°Give it here¡­ Huh¡­¡± the man sent his killing intent into the depths of the dagger, but frowned when it was all devoured without any response from the hatred blade, ¡°Lass, can ye activate this on your own?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I can. Look,¡± she said, taking back the dagger and activating it with one of many crimson pages that had gathered within her mental library, with the latest improvements to her killing intent techniques allowing for one page to be as powerful as a book had been upon her first ever attempt to activate the hatred blade, ¡°Takes a little effort, but it is doable.¡±


    ¡°Damn¡­ Then, I¡¯d like to change the terms of our agreement somewhat. Rather than inspecting this, how about I teach ye how to do it instead?¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t do it yourself, can you?¡±


    ¡°Nay.¡±


    ¡°Fine, I don¡¯t see why not. This will help me more in the long run anyway,¡± she shrugged, sitting down opposite him, ¡°If you¡¯re doing this, could you also teach me how to create hatred blades and forge weapons out of the Beast¡¯s bones? Then, you could leave the city and not be bothered by Ding Wen and others at any time.¡±


    ¡°If that ¡®ad been the thing I wanted to do, I would¡¯ve. Now, judging by ye skin, I assume that you came from the outer world not too long ago, right? Have ye learnt anything about blacksmithing out there?¡±


    She nodded, ¡°In terms of the theory, I have the knowledge of three stars in the field, but my practical abilities are only on the level of one star at best. I have some rather poor luck when it comes to creating items of my own.¡±


    ¡°Then you¡¯re in a better place than most of us, lass. Ye might have noticed, but our weapon-making skills are oft limited to the grade of one star, although we¡¯ve made some changes to allow our craft to remain viable,¡± the old man sighed, lifting one of his own wares and looking at it closely, ¡°Without spiritual will, we can only use killing intent and our own eyes to sense that which is within the bone, and without planar energy, we have only chisels, hammers and our hands to work upon it.¡±


    ¡°I have noticed that all of the hatred blades I¡¯ve seen so far are far closer to low-grade artefacts than upper-grade ones, no matter how you look at them.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. It isn¡¯t that there are no craftsmen who have no idea how to make good weapons, but that we lack the equipment and skill necessary to create them, and are forced to create crude imitations of the real thing,¡± the old man sighed again, briefly prompting Wei Yi to wonder whether he was related to her in some way, ¡°If we could, I am certain that items on par with the things found outside would be produced regularly and constantly, using all of the Beast¡¯s remaining bones until the entire prison realm is flattened. Alas, things are not going that way so far.¡±


    ¡°It is unfortunate indeed. Say, old man, how much lifetime do you think you have left?¡±


    ¡°No more than ten years, I think. What¡¯s the reason behind the random question?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, really. I was just curious whether there was any chance of an escape from the prison realm before your death. If it had been a possibility, I could have shown you what the world is like out there, and how artefact creation has changes and progressed,¡± she replied, ¡°Actually, have you heard of any abilities that can lead to interference with, or the complete destruction of the channels within artefacts?¡±


    The old man was not perturbed in the slightest that she had mentioned escape from the prison realm, nor his death, simply saying, ¡°Can¡¯t say that I¡¯ve learnt much about that here. If it were something that you or your leader had, I would naturally be very curious to witness it.¡±


    ¡°I do know a method to make that happen, but it requires planar energy. Although I could demonstrate it near your grave, there¡¯s no way I¡¯m getting my planar energy back in ten years.¡±


    ¡°A shame, then,¡± the blacksmith said, ¡°I think we should get back to our original topic. In order to perform any kind of inspection on the bones of the beast, you require either an energy that you are able to manipulate precisely and consciously, or else ye need a bone that ain¡¯t been made into something yet. D¡¯you have either?¡±


    ¡°Oh, of course. I have spiritual will, which I¡¯m assuming will work just fine?¡±


    ¡°Are ye joking? How long have ye got to use it? One week? One hour? One day? Ye must use yer power immediately and learn about the world!¡±


    ¡°Calm down, old man. It¡¯s permanent for now, and if I develop my killing intent further, I might be able to protect my spiritual will even if my last remnants of planar energy somehow vanish,¡± she said, ¡°So, what do I do?¡±


    ¡°Ye are in great luck, lass! Just scan the weapon and examine all of its internal channels!¡±


    She did so, grabbing a nearby piece of fabric to draw all of them on. Once it was done, he took it from her and looked at it closely for several minutes, humming and grunting every now and then as he analysed it. Then, he put it back into her hand and said, with a proud voice, ¡°I don¡¯t get a bloody thing about it!¡±


    ¡°¡­ Was that supposed to happen?¡±


    ¡°Nay, but it does prove one thing ¨C this hatred blade is one of the closest I¡¯ve seen to a medium-grade weapon! What say ye, who has seen them in the outer world, how does it compare?¡±


    ¡°Honestly? It was the first hatred blade I found here, and it is what made me assume that everyone in this world was completely worthless and incompetent when it comes to the creation of artefacts. When I saw that every single other hatred blade was inferior to this, and used less energy, I was even more disappointed, to the point of being almost entirely certain that no-one in this world can teach me how to improve over my current level in blacksmithing.¡±


    ¡°Harsh. I can see where ye are coming from, though. Since you have spiritual will, you could easily improve over any one of us just by observing the creation process a little more carefully than any of us can,¡± said the old man, ¡°It is truly unfortunate for the rest of us, but Meng Chu will be happy, no doubt.¡±


    ¡°Right. Can you teach me the principles of analysing hatred blade-specific elements now?¡±


    ¡°She is very, very interesting, isn¡¯t she? What are you able to tell me?¡± Ding Wen said, looking towards the corner of his chamber, where a single red candle lit an idle chair.


    The light there congealed into the figure of a man dressed in purely white robes, with only his eyes being visible.


    ¡°Her killing intent seems to be in a low realm, no greater than the third, but it¡¯s concentration is significantly greater than usual. The crimson robe was most certainly not something she obtained by accident,¡± that figure stated, picking up the bottle of blood-wine that stood on the nearby table and popping it open while he spoke, ¡°Furthermore, there is something odd about her energy, almost like she possesses a secondary type of energy within her meridians. Energy-twinning techniques would be incredibly valuable to you, no doubt. Perhaps Greed Congregation will finally permit you to advance.¡±


    ¡°And if it is valuable, then her body, her skull and her brain ought to be significantly more valuable, no? Perhaps she is practising a physique energy technique, which could also convert her bones into gold¡­ hehe... Meng Chu, you picked the wrong woman to recruit.¡±


    ¡°She is in possession of a dagger that I require. I can return it to you after either ten years of use, or after two hundred kills, as per our contract. Depending on her abilities, I will require some aid in subjugating her, so I naturally require your permission to do so. When do you intend to confront them?¡± the man asked, gulping down the blood wine without a care in the world.


    ¡°If I was them, I would attack at the end of our alliance. Then, that is when we will attack. In fact, we could kill Shi Luo Feng and Meng Chu in one go¡­¡±


    The man in white nodded, melding back into the light of the candle while Ding Wen remained in his seat. He waited for a long, long while, until he could be sure that the man was gone completely, before he stood up and turned his chair around so that it faced the wall.


    Although the action seemed simple and incredibly unnecessary for the leader of a large faction that could be said to control a good portion of the entire prison realm, it was vitally important for him, as there was one secret that even the man in white was not aware of, and that no-one could ever learn lest they attempt to pry it from him and forever rid him from the only thing that permitted him to survive in the damned prison realm for such a long time.


    ¡°A book holds a house of gold.¡±


    These words caused a book to appear in front of him, materialising out of the air and opening without any input from him.


    However, none of the pages held any words nor images, but were instead a gateway into an enormous treasury that stored countless technique manuals, artefacts, hatred blades and bodies of those whose techniques could not be extracted from them, or those that were unique in some way.


    ¡°The unique gift of reincarnation¡­¡± he muttered to himself, reaching into the pages to remove a dense black pill, ¡°It might be the best opportunity to go into seclusion I¡¯ve had so far, and this thing requires exactly eleven months and thirteen days to fully process and consume¡­ Meng Chu, Shi Luo Feng, you did not earn your positions. I will bring you down to where you belong.¡±


    ¡°- and this should be what causes the immense requirement of killing intent for the activation and usage of yer dagger, lass. It is quite the interesting structure, but it does not appear to be viable for most,¡± the blacksmith said, ¡°The Bone of the Beast, this could be called, almost as if the Beast itself is setting a requirement for those that may use the weapon. For the ordinary folk, it could be as high as the fifth¡­ no, maybe even some sixth realm?¡±


    ¡°Are you going to tell me that killing intent and, possibly, even physique energy also has nine realms, just like planar cultivation?¡±


    ¡°Possibly. However, as ye might know, the killing intent of the Beast that remains is insufficient for the entire population to attain a realm beyond the fifth without slaying everyone else, which could never be allowed by most of the population that still maintains a will to live. If it was all taken away¡­ I wouldn¡¯t know what could happen, but it would be curious to say the least.¡±


    ¡°I agree with that, though I theorise that if the crimson storm clouds that are above and around the entire prison realm are made out of killing intent, which, knowing that almost everything else around here is in some way, shape or form related to the Beast¡¯s eternal hatred, is incredibly likely, then the absorption of all of them should remove the barrier between the prison realm and whatever is outside of it. Perhaps reality, or perhaps some greater world that is unknown to us, but it would certainly be one path to break out of here,¡± Wei Yi suggested, ¡°Unfortunately, I cannot take in such a large quantity of foreign killing intent within the scope of a few years, nor do I think that it is feasible to keep up with what appears to be a constant production of killing intent from the body of the Beast, meaning that it would have to be done in a single go, preventing any sort of balancing and rationing of the energy. In short, it could be done, but not without removing any semblance of identity, will and rationality from the one doing it.¡±


    ¡°Ye seem smarted than I on this topic despite being knew ¡®ere, which is certainly impressive. I¡¯ll trust yer judgement here, lass,¡± said the old man, leaning back in his seat.


    ¡°Great. Can we move on, then? I¡¯d like to get started on the process of creating hatred blades as well as inspecting them, and while speculation and theories are interesting ¨C and something I started, to be fair ¨C I do have a limited time for now.¡±


    ¡°Then let us proceed. I have some spare bones here, and I have my tools here, so let¡¯s begin¡­¡±

 V2C19: Second Year in the Prison Realm

    Despite there being no windows nor open doors in the room, it was bright, filled with crimson to the point of all other colours seemingly fading from existence itself. All of it was focused on a single figure, forming vague shapes of battle and a desolate landscape as it revolved around the centre of the room.


    The crimson slowly passed through a similarly red robe and entered the figure¡¯s body, flooding into the third set of meridians, circulating through the entire network precisely once before it flowed into a central pool of energy, where it transformed into one of a thousand warriors, engaged in violent and ruthless combat and produced further energy, which returned to circulate through the meridians two dozen times before it also returned into the pool of hatred.


    It was dangerous to rely too much on the energy of the Beast, so Wei Yi used it to produce her own killing intent to negate whatever effect the Beast¡¯s hatred might have.


    With that process and roughly eleven months of sitting in place, focusing ninety percent of her attention on absorbing and processing as much killing intent as she possibly could, she was finally nearing the edge of the second realm, at which point the hatred could be sufficiently concentrated and refined to be sent into a single direction.


    ¡®Now, it is time. Two more revolutions of the killing intent and then the rest of the crimson light in this room can be absorbed. One more¡­ Now!¡¯ she exclaimed in her mind, her eyes springing open and the eternal battlefield bursting out, manifesting into the world as an illusory vision.


    Once it mixed with the killing intent, the battlefield receded, taking the red light with it. It rapidly flowed into her body, mixing with the vast quantities of killing intent that was already present there, the dark red of the Beast mixing with the vibrant crimson of her hair and hatred, creating a marbled manifestation of their combined energies. Together, they collected into the central pool within her heart, flooding the great battlefield endlessly as it created more and more warriors on either side, creating further landscapes as there was insufficient space for them to fight.


    More and more of the battlefield that had been purely illusory at first became real, as real as a construct of killing intent could be, and the power that the warriors within wielded grew as well, changing from simple strikes and techniques to complex phenomena that made much greater use of the energies they were permitted to wield.


    That led to each strike being significantly more impactful, knocking up clouds of dust whenever they did anything as slight as breathing. The figure in the distance also shifted, moving closer and becoming smaller, but it was now linked to Wei Yi¡¯s true figure on the battlefield rather than being a mere phantom. It was like her shadow, an incredibly mighty and terrifying shadow that seemed to portray her full power and ability.


    She raised her head and looked forward, towards an empty wall, and willed her killing intent to burst out. It travelled at an immense speed, striking the wall in an instant, instantly crushing and cracking everything it touched as it did so.


    When she withdrew it, it moved just as quickly, thankfully avoiding further damage to her surroundings.


    As it returned, it also removed the last traces of crimson light from the room, all of it having been drained during her cultivation. She was in pitch darkness, but her bright silver eyes and the spiritual Third Eye that was now composed of equal parts spiritual will and killing intent saw through it nonetheless. For a brief, pleasant time, she saw a world untainted by red, unmarred by crimson.


    It was a strangely beautiful thing, despite the simplicity of the cracked stone.


    Wei Yi stood up and stretched her body, swiftly pushing out all of the built-up tension and fatigue from her prolonged cultivation session. By some miracle of her physique cultivation, although her body had clearly aged, her musculature and youth remained in place, almost making it seem as if she could live on forever via the power of the True Ascendant physique. However, she knew that it could never be so simple, as her lifespan was slowly but surely being depleted by the merciless flow of time.


    Nevertheless, time was not an enemy she could oppose just yet, so once she confirmed that the physical side of her remained intact, she turned her attention inwards, towards the Augur¡¯s Library.


    The base structure and appearance of it remained unchanged, for she had not made any great improvements to it, but it was notably denser and more powerful, its power amplified by the strengthening of her killing intent. Within lay a tome with numerous pages, all of them filled to the brim with carefully written characters than analysed all possible outcomes of the alliance between her and Ding Wen¡¯s factions, coming to a single conclusion that was naturally unable to surprise her, besides the fact that she was the one to create it.


    Within, she deduced that after the initial steps of the plan to rid Beast¡¯s Rest of Shi Luo Feng succeeded, not an unlikely thing when the nature of the Magnanimous Leech was already understood on a basic level by anyone that had any awareness of the three leaders of the town, Ding Wen would attempt to strike at both of the other factions at the same time, hoping to kill two birds with one stone and take his seat as the one and only leader of Beast¡¯s Rest.


    This plan naturally relied upon the fact that Ding Wen wanted to do as many of the safer parts of their shared plan while leaving Meng Chu and her to stand in the fire for most of the dangerous parts. That sort of behaviour would not be unusual for anyone in this world, and he undoubtedly hoped that it would not be questioned until it was too late. Then, stepping in with some powerful weapon or secret trick, he would strike down both sides in one go, but this plan also permitted for Wei Yi to turn it around on him. Since she was intimately familiar with the goings-on in Beast¡¯s Rest and knew which tasks would be more and less dangerous, she could intentionally bow down to his demands while intentionally sending his forces to the most deceptively risky tasks where he would be guaranteed to lose as many troops as possible.


    Since she knew that those particular tasks were safe from every possible perspective other than when they were actually experienced, Ding Wen would have no reason to assume anything other than poor luck, or perhaps some set up that he could never possibly prove to the absolute lack of evidence.


    From there, all they would need to do is pretend to work together, perhaps fake a number of losses on their side as to not disturb Ding Wen too much, then when the final confrontation came about, they could bring out all of the troops they had saved up and utilise them as cannon-fodder in the final battle.                                                 They were unlikely to contribute much, unfortunately, as Din Wen was likely to have a secret method ¨C whether it is a technique or an individual in the Hatred Augur realm was not something she could determine beforehand ¨C that gave him the confidence to do something he has never attempted before.


    After all, there had obviously been many different attempts by the various leaders of Beast¡¯s Rest to eliminate one another and to narrow down the number of factions occupying it. From the archives that she had been able to access after assuming her role as the leader of Meng Chu¡¯s faction, she learnt that there had been a total of seventy-four situations throughout ninety-six years of Ding Wen¡¯s leadership that he could have used to attempt something similar to his current plan.


    In any one of the seventy-four instances, he could have attempted to significantly weaken or outright eliminate one of the other factions that had been present, but he did not make any movements that would contribute to that until now. Naturally, there could be more reasons to it besides power and strength, but most of them would be connected.


    For instance, if there was a treasure that he wanted to obtain for his Greed Congregation technique, then he would undoubtedly need to put in more effort to claim it than he would otherwise use.


    ¡®Even if I am wrong and I have somehow imagined all of the signs that he is building up strength and preparing to go all out against me and Shi Luo Feng, then having additional forces on my side would mean that I can use his strategy of killing two-in-one instead, saving me the trouble of finding excuses to limit his power while I search for the best opportunity to finish him off at a different time. Really, there¡¯s no reason not to prepare for the worst in these situations,¡¯ she thought, blinking once to make the battlefield completely vanish from her eyes.


    She cleansed her body with physique energy, as she always did, and left the room by wading through the dense sea of books that had formed on the other side of the room to the one she used for practise with killing intent.


    After intentionally avoiding the two vice-leaders of the faction, with their intentions being completely obvious and entirely non-conducive to her plans, she located Meng Chu, who almost seemed deflated, like someone had approached him and stabbed him with a needle that led to all of the air inside of him leaking out and staying out.


    ¡°What have you been doing to drain yourself to this extent?¡± she asked, resisting the urge to poke him and check whether he is asleep in a more typical way than scanning someone with spiritual will.


    ¡°Dealing with certain¡­ individuals¡­ could already be extremely stressful, but now that I am just posing as a leader, it is somehow significantly more frustrating,¡± the deflated man replied, ¡°It is extremely annoying to be dealing with someone who thinks they are significantly better than you at all times, when he thinks that the concessions you are agreeing to are only made because of your personal incapability and not some greater plan¡­ naturally, that helps the negotiations, but he is in no way capable of obscuring the disgust he is currently feeling about me whenever I have the misfortune of speaking to him¡­¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ Wouldn¡¯t know what that feels like. Don¡¯t worry, my dear subordinate, you will not need to present yourself as a fake soon enough. Whether or not we take him down, I will take my rightful place at the peak of the city afterwards.¡±


    ¡°I understand. How long would that be?¡±


    She shrugged, ¡°Roughly four days in total. The first day will be dedicated to the minor operations that stop Shi Luo Feng from getting necessary aid and discourage the populace from following her. The second will damage her current businesses and raid her various storehouses to rid her of as many tools as we could before the battle on the fourth day. On the third, minor scuffles to corner her forces in the place that we want them to be, as well as the setup for the anti-Magnanimous Leech arrays around the final battle so that she cannot drain any of us when she has no other choice. The fourth will be the battle, of course. After that, either Shi Luo Feng will be defeated and Ding Wen will remain, or both will fall, with both of us naturally agreeing that the latter is the better option.¡±


    ¡°I have already read your plans, and all of their revisions, so I don¡¯t know why you explained it to me¡­¡± Meng Chu managed to raise his head and say.


    ¡°To remind you, naturally. With how all of your energy has vanished into the ether, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if your brain had also lost a few things, some of which could just happen to be the basic outline of the plan.¡±


    He looked at her with a great degree of scepticism, but he found nothing to say and instead allowed his head to fall back down onto his desk.


    ¡°Say, Meng Chu, do you know if Ding Wen has any secret helpers that are among the Crimson Robes?¡±


    His head sprung back up, ¡°What kind of a topic change is that? Wh-What? There¡¯s no way I¡¯d know that, since even if he does, it would be a secret. Every one of the three leaders have such secrets, as do all of the outside faction leaders, and if they were known to the other leaders, then they would no longer matter. Besides, you¡¯re the one that snuck around his residence for a day¡­¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t find anything there, but that is what¡¯s so strange. Despite being the one with the most treasure in this entire prison realm, he has the fewest vaults and hidden chambers out of everyone I¡¯ve seen. He would be acting incredibly foolishly if he stores everything in one place, so there must be something about him that I do not yet understand, hence my inability to create a proper plan about the possible confrontation with him. It is either his ability, or he has someone¡¯s aid, with both creating an unfortunate degree of uncertainty.¡±


    ¡°You think he may have a method of spatial storage?¡±


    ¡°He could do, or maybe he has a set of secret chambers somewhere far away from any areas associated with him that he has stored all of his items in. The fact that he spends most of his time in Beast¡¯s Rest would potentially invalidate the theory, but just as we have underground passages, he might have his own network,¡± Wei Yi suggested, ¡°Spatial storage is most unlikely, but most worrying, since he would be at a far greater advantage than any of us due to the freedom it offers.¡±


    ¡°Frankly, my head is in great pain right now, so I would appreciate fewer words being used per sentence and line¡­¡±


    ¡°He can pull shit out of the spatial storage whenever he wants, so while we walk in with spears and swords, he comes in with nothing and then takes out whatever he needs. Makes it difficult to plan around him.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s how it works¡­ Did I drink much blood wine last night?¡±


    ¡°No way, I¡¯m sure that your alcohol consumption was perf- Yes, you¡¯ve drunk way too much. Get some sleep before it¡¯s too late. If you fail to play your role correctly, you will be the first person I execute.¡±


    ¡°Not the two active fonts of lust?¡±


    ¡°They would be second, but they appear to be behaving themselves for now. Furthermore, their actions are consistent with their known character, while if you are suddenly obedient to me or reveal that you are not in charge of your own decisions then it will naturally raise quite the number of¡­ what¡¯s the phrase¡­ red flags? Is there any family or faction that has a red flag?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°Anyway, maintain appearances for now. Your failure to do so could lead to our faction being destroyed if Shi Luo Feng and Ding Wen notice and ally together to oppose us, understand?¡±


    ¡°Understood, though, I do have one question. Even when you were resting from your cultivation, I felt the immense concentration of killing intent around you. When you¡¯re that powerful, shouldn¡¯t you be able to kill both Shi Luo Feng and Ding Wen without any trouble and take over just like that? It seems to me that it would save you a lot of effort and significantly reduce the number of factors you need to pay attention to.¡±


    ¡°True. However, do you think your men would have obeyed and liked me if I just rushed in and killed you? If, instead of making a deal with you, I had stepped in and said that I was now in charge, would you not desire to get rid of me and retake your previous position?¡±


    ¡°I would be inclined to do so¡­ You want to ensure that you have a loyal following, then.¡±


    ¡°Rather, I would prefer to avoid any potential of betrayal. If someone views you as a tyrant and a person that should not be where they currently are, they will naturally strive to get rid of you. It¡¯s much like how everyone here hates the Great Families that threw them here ¨C what right did they have to do so? Why is it that they can decide our fates? Things like that are what I would like to avoid,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°For this reason, I also intend to provide our faction with a number of techniques that I own to bring up their combat ability and general prowess. It should make the common warriors and workers feel like they are somewhat appreciated, and that following me will lead to great benefits that cannot be ignored in favour of righteousness.¡±


    ¡°But, in your opinion, benefits like that will not be enough for factions that you usurp control from, so you want them to be defeated entirely, leaving only individuals that can be recruited later.¡±


    ¡°Exactly. After all, this world is much like the Planar Continents, where people care for strength but have a certain distaste for trickery and intellect. Going against someone directly is the most logical path, but it is one that will cause everyone to engage in that very scheming behaviour they claim to dislike in order to get rid of me.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ sounds complicated, and the exact thing I had hoped to avoid discussing¡­¡±


    ¡°You are welcome, Meng Chu. Now, rest, and do your ancestor proud. I know a few things about him, and I know that Meng Qi would be very proud of you running brothels. If not for the need to fight the Greats, perhaps that is what he would have done in the Continents.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard similar statements from you several times, but you¡¯ve never told me how you know that. You are only twenty years old, are you not?¡±


    ¡°A shadow of him was left behind in a certain establishment that was likely connected with other fighters of the War of Yin, and from him I received a certain set of skills,¡± Wei Yi revealed, raising the Bone of the Beast and making sparks of crimson lightning manifest upon its surface, ¡°At the time, I was rather displeased ¨C and I still am, to be frank ¨C that his knowledge came with some memories that I have since managed to put to good use. These memories revealed that he had spent almost as much time in bed as he had on a battlefield, making me wonder what brought him to desire battle.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ Your life seems to have been rather¡­ strange¡­¡± he managed to say before his head dropped and he fell asleep, loud snoring emerging from his mouth the next second.


    ¡®He finally fell asleep, then. With roughly seven hours and fifty-four minutes to rest, he should be in a sufficiently competent condition by the time he needs to speak with Ding Wen. Now, I have that exact same duration of time to attempt to finish off my small secret project,¡¯ she thought, reaching into her pocket to remove the Beast¡¯s Rib Bone, which had a certain quantity of killing intent drained from it, ¡®A weapon that could end up being superior to the Bone of the Beast while using less energy¡­¡¯


    She left the room and went to the smithy that she had constructed in one of the empty chambers that littered the underground passages of Meng Chu¡¯s brothels. The old blacksmith worked there every now and then, but most of the use the room saw was when she worked on her own attempts to refine her weakest great art.


    For whatever reason, despite her initial most compatible element being metal, blacksmithing was something that she could not understand as well as any other great art she had ever attempted. Arrays came to her most naturally, with talismans and pill refining following that, but whenever she went to create a weapon or a piece of armour with the hammer that was still pinned to the back of her head, which she was barely able to activate and affect via her spiritual will alone, the resulting product was always far worse than it should have been. After all, she had all of the information anyone could ever possibly require on the topic of blacksmithing within her Augur¡¯s Library, and she could even calculate how strong each strike of the hammer ought to be and where it was best to strike, but something about the process would never occur as she had intended.


    In this respect, working with the bones of the Beast was beneficial, as it was not metal and required only careful carving, aligning it more with the art of inscription rather than blacksmithing.


    With her new realm of killing intent, she would able to complete the last few steps of the weapon creating process and confirm whether her lacking talent for manipulating metal with heat and hammering extended to all creation of equipment, and gain another potential tool to use in the future.


    In the smithy, she lit a few crimson candles, which she placed around the work surface that she would be using. Although she could see without light, whether through the use of spiritual will or her eyes, it was still beneficial to add some for additional clarity while she was working. Then, she placed the Beast¡¯s Rib Bone into the middle and picked up a chisel with one hand while concentrating killing intent around her other hand.


    Although the black piece of bone was originally advertised to be capable of bringing someone straight into the fifth realm of killing intent cultivation, Wei Yi chose not to use it for that purpose simply because it had the exact same risk as carelessly absorbing the loose energy of the Beast. Sure, she could be in the Hatred Augur realm by the end of the process, but she would either be a hatred automaton or someone without any semblance of sanity, reason, logic or self, something that she could never allow on her route to reform Yi City.


    ¡®How can anyone who cannot understand themselves understand the necessary elements of a working nation?¡¯ was what she had thought some time ago, and would have agreed with even before she had accepted the endless killing intent within herself, for no madman driven by another¡¯s rage could possibly uplift the world into a millennium of prosperity, other than by accident.


    One thing she could never accept was relying on an accident to forge her legacy.


    A few hours of hard work passed before the inside of the bone was carved to perfection, using a combination of infusing killing intent into every one of her strikes with the chisel to slowly remove pieces of the bone within. After removing the bone dust with a small hole in the surface of the Beast¡¯s Rib Bone, which was necessary to ensure a consistent and smooth flow of killing intent through the channels, she proceeded with the last few steps, including the last parts of shaping the item.


    This was a tedious, difficult thing to do, but when it was complete, she had created a dagger to use alongside the Bone of the Beast. It was designed to resemble the weapon used by Yi Bai within the Kong Holy Grounds and was significantly nicer to look at than the Bone of the Beast, which was comparatively horrific to look at.


    The internal channels of the weapon were intended to resemble those of the only high-grade artefact she had witnessed, that being the immortal gold spear wielded by Yi Fenwu. Naturally, with her lacking ability and no access to planar energy nor the proper tools of a high-grade blacksmith, she could not replicate every single one of them with the accuracy that she would have liked to have, but the overall result was almost at the level of a middle-grade weapon, a significant improvement over the hatred blades that she had previously scanned with spiritual will.


    ¡®Still, I have time and the opportunity to improve, if I must. Although a year had passed here, only twelve days have passed in the Planar Continents. The fire burning in Luo Xiuying¡¯s shop might still be lit, for all I am aware of,¡¯ she imagined the scene briefly before sending her energy into the blade.


    It flooded the hatred blade, filling every channel with crimson light that pulsed and fluctuated as it flowed along the intended paths. The instant that it reached the tip of the black blade, it caused the entirety of the black bone to light up, vibrant ruby energy seeping out of thin cracks throughout the surface almost like her planar energy would begin to break through a typical artefact. That crimson coagulated at the blade, forming a secondary, sharper layer atop it.


    The moment that she withdrew her energy, the layer vanished, and then reappeared when she sent it back into the item.


    ¡®Fortunately, this seems to be working as expected. Even if the other, potentially more significant aspect of the hatred blade does not activate, or performs differently to my expectations, the basic functions of the weapon will remain functional, allowing me to cut through barriers made of killing intent without needing too much of my own energy,¡¯ she observed, deactivating the blade while she travelled to an empty room where she could practise and experiment safely. In the case of an explosion akin to the ones caused by her planar energy, or the miscalculation of the primary effects of the killing intent channels, she didn¡¯t want to damage the smithy.


    Once she was there, she held out the blade at arm¡¯s length and carefully swung it towards the wall while she stood several metres away from it. She did not use any special technique and looked like someone who had never used a bladed weapon before, but she had good reason to act this way that was confirmed the moment that she witnessed the result.


    Despite the dagger being short, with the blade itself not being significantly longer than her hand, that movement caused a small cut to appear on the wall in front of her, perfectly matching the arc that she drew with the knife.


    ¡®Frankly, I hadn¡¯t expected that to work,¡¯ she thought to herself, deactivating the dagger before daring to examine its blade, ¡®There¡¯s no visual indication of the blade when it extends, but it cuts exactly like the black bone itself would. In addition to this weapon having an incredible number of uses, it should permit for assassinations of certain individuals without attracting any attention to myself. After all, how can someone standing ten metres away from the victim have struck them?¡¯


    Overall, the result of her first attempt to create a hatred blade was beyond satisfactory, and she decided to name it White Echo, in honour of Yi Bai, the original wielder of this kind of weapon. If she came across her again in the future, she could either take her dagger, or give White Echo to her, allowing her to dual-wield seemingly identical daggers. Wei Yi stored it carefully inside of her robes and was about to leave the room when she detected ¨C through spiritual will and scent at the same time ¨C that one of the lustful pair of vice-leaders had managed to find their way to her despite all of her attempts to avoid them.


    She sighed and stepped out of the room, instantly grabbing the woman¡¯s shoulder and pushing her against the wall.


    ¡°M-Master-¡±


    ¡°Shut it. I want you to tell me if there are any passages here that lead deep enough into the Beast¡¯s corpse to reach some sort of pool of concentrated blood? It has to be large enough for a person to lie down in it without any of their features showing,¡± Wei Yi requested, holding Dugu Wei¡¯s jaw shut while she spoke so that she didn¡¯t interrupt.


    ¡°I¡­ Yes, there¡¯s one in the fifth section-¡±


    ¡°Thank you. Now, lock yourself within that room and don¡¯t come out until you¡¯re needed,¡± she forced her mouth shut once more and pushed her into the empty room, shutting the door behind her before the vice-leader could dare to bring up any semblance of a complaint.


    Dugu Wei saw the door close in front of her and, although she desperately wanted to rush out, she subdued herself and looked around, finding a small cut in the wall on one side of the room.


    She approached it out of curiosity, but when she stepped into some invisible field in front of it, she felt her vision being consumed by deep crimson, and when it cleared, she found herself within the middle of a great battle, with a distant figure wielding something shaped like a dagger, yet many times the size, who looked upon her and raised the weapon, red light wrapping around it, before she brought it down upon her.


    ¡°AH-¡±

 V2C20: Tactical Manoeuvres

    ¡°WAKE! UP!¡± Wei Yi shouted directly into Meng Chu¡¯s ear, causing him to awaken with such vigour that he nearly fell over in his chair.


    ¡°I¡¯m awa- huh? What? Why did¡­ why the fuck did you yell at me like that?¡±


    ¡°So that you wake up on time, obviously. You are required to appear before some important individuals shortly, and you need to be fully awake for that. Furthermore, I didn¡¯t use the loudest voice I could have, so your ear should be, and is, fully intact.¡±


    ¡°Ugh¡­ this is the exact thing you should be avoiding when it comes to keeping your underlings happy.¡±


    ¡°I am. I¡¯ve not yelled at anyone other than you yet. Even Dugu Wei and Qiu Sheng haven¡¯t had this treatment yet, so, in a way, you could consider yourself to be fortunate,¡± she joked, retreating just a little to avoid being in his striking distance, ¡°Now, go on. I don¡¯t know what the typical habits of someone in the prison realm are, but you should complete the equivalent of your morning routine.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve been here for a year¡­¡±


    ¡°Fortunately, I don¡¯t have to touch whatever vile means you use to keep yourselves relatively clean thanks to my physique energy- oh! Right, physique energy. How has your progress been with the Secondary Meridians technique?¡±


    Meng Chu nodded, giving her his final version of the manual, ¡°Since you instructed that I shouldn¡¯t attempt to use it by myself, I have not done it, but the technique itself should be complete.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let me have a look¡­¡± she said, reading the first page while using her spiritual will to scan through the rest of the modified manual, ¡°I can tell you that you have made several dozen mistakes in the writing itself, unless I¡¯m overestimating you and these are all actual mistakes, but the technique seems to be mostly effective, with only two slight mistakes. I can amend these sorts of things for you, though your initiation into the technique will need to wait until the end of our conflict with Ding Wen and Shi Luo Feng.¡±


    ¡°Understood. Do you have some means of enabling me to activate my physique, then?¡±


    ¡°I do have a few ideas, but it will come down to experimentation, as well as finding things that are comparable to the medicinal ingredients of the Planar Continents. Hopefully, Ding Wen will have a number of them within his treasury, which we can then use for you and your troops,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Unless there¡¯s anything else, I¡¯ll be going to speak with the troops.¡±


    ¡°No, nothing else. Nothing about your plan has changed while you were cultivating the last few days, right?¡±


    ¡°Everything¡¯s the same as before. Any changes that might occur will be around the second and third days, since the initial operations that we will be running are the safest ones ¨C for us, of course,¡± she smiled, leaving the room as inconspicuously as possible.


    From there, she travelled to a sort of armoury that had been within the underground passages even before she had taken over the faction, though she had also convinced everyone to utilise this place a lot more often than before, labelling it as the definite location for the soldiers and guards of the faction to gather and for major announcements and speeches to be performed.


    There, she found the majority of the room being occupied by warriors, all of them being there due to the orders she had passed down through Dugu Wei a few weeks earlier.


    Those warriors were clearly uncertain of why they had been asked to gather, nor where their vice-leader was at this moment, but the moment that they witnessed Wei Yi come to the front and cough to get their attention, a small number of them recalled their previous interactions with her and understood that there would be yet another odd, yet strangely effective mission for them to tackle under her command.


    In fact, those warriors didn¡¯t even know what her role in the faction was, as she had only ever been introduced as a tactician and someone who could get things done that even the strongest amongst them could not handle.


    ¡°Hello, everyone. I am Wei Yi, and for now, I¡¯ll say that I am in a position equivalent to your vice-leader. I¡¯m here to explain the current plans to you. As you are aware, we are soon going to be cooperating with Ding Wen on a mission to eliminate Shi Luo Feng ¨C and as some of you may have guessed, going against him is also on the table. Now, restrain that man there, that woman there, and that¡­¡±


    She listed off a series of targets, all of whom stood out when they displayed a strange reaction upon hearing that statement. Whether they were just surprised to hear this after maintaining a peace with the other two factions for so long, or if they had some interest in preventing such a scenario, or even if they were spies from Ding Wen¡¯s faction, she couldn¡¯t allow for anyone to slip through, so she ordered that they were to be lined up in one place, with every other warrior keeping an eye on them. Some guards were reluctant to obey, but those who had previously fought against Wei Yi, and now knew that she had gotten stronger again, silently convinced them to do as they were told.


    ¡°Excellent. Now, I will just ask you lot some questions, and if your answers are satisfactory, you will not be violently torn into many pieces. Maybe. No promises,¡± she said, assuming a dignified pose with her hands behind her back, ¡°Now, listen carefully, you scum.¡±


    All of a sudden, her figure in their eyes warped and transformed, the shadow behind her growing and stretching until it seemed to be as tall as the Beast would have been in its prime. Two crimson embers glowed within its eye sockets, a bright ruby aura surrounded all of the dark body, and an endless quantity of killing intent revolved around both her and the shadowy manifestation of her, making every one of the soldiers that witnessed this tremble.


    ¡°Are you affiliated with Ding Wen or Shi Luo Feng?¡± her shadow asked, glaring at all of them.


    Some instantly shook their heads, others trembled, but two felt their heads nod despite their knowledge that they should never reveal the truth to anyone.


    ¡°Do you intend to harm Meng Chu¡¯s faction?¡±


    Those two nodded, but a few others joined them. Perhaps they had some personal motivations to go against the faction, or perhaps they wished to change sides for whatever reason before having come into contact with their new potential employer, but it was confirmation, nonetheless.


    ¡°Do you have any thoughts of rebellion against your master?¡±


    Only one more joined the traitors, so Wei Yi withdrew her killing intent, but not before briefly turning to the rest of the soldiers and striking them with an instantaneous wave of it as to ensure that if they had any similar ideas to those she was interrogating, but kept their reactions concealed, that they would know that it was not a good idea to cross her.


    ¡°Get rid of the ones that nodded. The rest of you can re-join the briefing for now, though you are still under suspicion. Don¡¯t give me an excuse to repeat the procedure, unless you want to die.¡±


    There was no argumentation from them, especially not when they tried to move from their current position and saw that rather than standing on solid stone, there was now a thick layer of rock dust beneath them due to the immense crushing pressure of her crimson light.


    The fact that they were somehow unaffected physically by such a force was outright miraculous.


    One of the soldiers she had picked out but did not get a reaction out of did originally consider potentially changing sides, depending on the situation he observed within Meng Chu¡¯s faction and how it compared to what the other factions were capable of, but any such thoughts were instantly eliminated when he remembered the dark shadow that appeared behind, and was connected to, Wei Yi. How could he possibly go against such a terrifying monster?


    ¡°Now, to discuss the plan of action. All of you have a certain power structure, do you not? Order yourselves according to it,¡± she instructed, ignoring the scared expressions of most of the warriors.


    All of the men and women did so, resulting in seven individuals standing at the front, with three or four standing behind each one and between fifteen and twenty-two standing behind them. With such a formation, they barely had enough space to fit within the armoury, forcing them to huddle rather close to one another.


    ¡®It seems that they follow an arrangement similar to that of an army. If I, Meng Chu or Dugu Wei had instructions to give, they would be provided to the one in charge of the squad or battalion, who would then pass it down to the most suitable individual amongst their ranks,¡¯ she thought, examining all of them closely with her spiritual will before she chose to ask the leaders themselves, ¡°You lot typically have something you¡¯re allocated to do, correct? Tell me, starting from left to right.¡±


    ¡°Yes, boss!¡± the first captain, a short-haired woman with a face that had more scars than skin, replied, ¡°I am Wang Shi, and I am typically in charge of simple patrols around the city!¡±


    ¡°An Jin,¡± a man with several metallic teeth pointed to himself, ¡°We handle¡­ troublemakers.¡±


    ¡°I am Chun He, at your command,¡± the third captain was a man that lacked any exceptional features that instantly drew the eye, though this could be said to be a noteworthy feature on its own. He performed a basic semblance of a salute before continuing, ¡°We¡¯re responsible for special protective missions on VIPs and important members of society!¡±


    ¡°Master Wei Yi, I am Hua Ju. Some of my men went with you to dispose of the intruders on the battlefield outside of Beast¡¯s Rest,¡± said a woman who was entirely bald, with one large burn scar marking her left cheek, ¡°My men and I typically dispose of bandits that dare to approach our town.¡±


    ¡°Boss, I am Lei Fu. I am mostly responsible for hunting hatred automatons and recovering various dead plants and herbs from outside of the town,¡± a man said, with dozens of strange black marks and scars on his face and body moving with every word. Some of the marks were clearly evocative of animals and beasts, while others had no clear purpose nor inspiration, seeming like the drawings of a madman or a lunatic.


    ¡°I¡¯m Ru Rong, and I lead any missions that are aimed to assassinate unseemly individuals. I¡­ may or may not appear in the brothel, if you¡¯re interested¡­¡± the sixth captain, a female dressed in black cloth and silk that completely covered all of her body. Beneath those clothes, she had fiery red hair and a soft face, though it was not one that Wei Yi was acquainted with.


    ¡°My name is Wen Ya, Boss Wei. I have been given the responsibility to ward off any potential invasions into Beast¡¯s Rest and have already warded off two during my employment here. The first invasion was from a small force from the Great Bone Lake, while the other one was from the Council of Crimson, supposedly done by a force outside of their control, though I suspect that it was actually intended to test our strength after Shi Luo Feng and Meng Chu took over from their single predecessor,¡± explained a tall, strong, muscular woman dressed in full metallic armour, with a single diagonal scar marking her otherwise average face, ¡°We are all capable of tackling most missions within Beast¡¯s Rest, however.¡±


    ¡°Excellent. Chun He and Wang Shi, you¡¯re going to be the first force. Hua Jiu, Wen Ya, you¡¯ll be the second force. An Jin, Lei Fu, Ru Rong, I will place you into the third force. You share specialties, so you will do best at similar missions. Now, let me explain what we shall be doing in the next few days¡­¡±


    The man in white pointed towards a point on Ding Wen¡¯s chest, saying, ¡°Now, take all of that immense killing intent and focus it throughout your body, starting with your heart and then going outwards to your head and limbs. Avoid filling your head with an excess of it lest you want to lose your mind but be sure not to have a single point on your body that does not contain killing intent. Otherwise, you will never reach the Hatred Augur realm no matter what resources you have.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ know¡­ that¡­¡± Ding Wen answered, blood marking his mouth from when he accidentally bit down on his tongue.


    ¡°Then limit the quantity of killing intent flowing to your head, you fool! No matter the contract, I will not be able to cleanse your body if you taint yourself with killing intent to such a great extent. You do understand my words, do you not?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ do!¡±


    His crimson energies momentarily burst out of his body, wrapping his clothing and flesh in illusory red armour that was shaped like one of his most commonly used sets of armour. It flickered out of existence quickly, dispersing into raw crimson that barraged his physique and tore through clothing and skin incredibly easily, like a hot knife slicing through butter.


    ¡°Focus and advance!¡±


    Ding Wen shut his eyes and focused, his killing intent gathering to form and rapidly break down weapons made from pure energy, all of them focused on the singular weapon he chose to form for the Searing Torch realm.


    His mind was unstable, incredibly so, ready to fracture on any minor stimulus, until a book appeared within his consciousness, one that he recognised well after storing so many things within. A small, blue, crystalline sphere emerged from it, energy of an identical colour and texture flooding out of it. It poured into every crack, hole and gap within his confused mental landscape, where memories of two worlds clashed with one another, and sealed it all together, colouring the entirety of his mind in soothing azure. Then, a secondary burst of energy pulsed out of the crystal and into his heart, marking it.


    All of his hatred and killing intent flooded to it, dying his flesh and blood as it did so, filling the mark until it grew into a Hatred Scar, a concentration of one¡¯s journey to the fifth realm, and the anchor that permitted one to be within it. Crimson light rapidly surged out of it, coating his skin in solid red armour that actively radiated dominance and tyranny. No matter who looked upon this sight, they would never claim that this was not the Hatred Augur realm.


    ¡°You¡¯ve¡­ done it!¡± the man in white exclaimed, though his voice lacked the certainty that it should have had, ¡®I felt his mind unravelling as we spoke¡­ How did he¡­¡¯


    ¡°Indeed, I have. Now, I may speak with Meng Chu and see if he even dares to consider betraying me.¡±


    ¡°And so, your instructions are simple: force 1, you are to take every mission that can be deemed as defensive. Follow all of my earlier orders without any deviation unless you¡¯re interested in fucking over your faction, though you are permitted to make adjustments if you can tell that the situation is clearly not matching up with my predictions. Just be very sure that you aren¡¯t misreading the situation.


    ¡°Force 2, you will be attacking several minor established locations belonging to Shi Luo Feng, so be sure to attack quickly, without a trace, and following my earlier guidance. In fact, so that I don¡¯t repeat myself again, all of you, just remember that the moment you deviate from any of my plans, you are the one at fault. If you manage to succeed or improve the situation, you¡¯ll probably receive praise from Meng Chu and possibly me, depending on my mood, but the moment that you negatively affect the outcome of our plans, you are guaranteed not to be rewarded and may even be demoted. Is that clear to all of you?¡±


    All seven guard captains nodded; the memory of the scene created by her killing intent still fresh in their minds.


    ¡°Excellent. In just a little while, you will be getting your orders, which I will also examine closely. I will allocate certain things to certain people, while I will leave the rest down to the seven captains. If you have any complaints¡­ you can shove it somewhere and forget about it.¡±


    ¡°U-Understood¡­¡±


    ¡°Now- uh?¡± Wei Yi turned her head and silently examined something with her spiritual will, ¡°Give me a second. Await further orders and don¡¯t act like idiots while I am away, alright?¡±


    She stepped outside and, almost by reflex, pinned the woman she found there against the wall, keeping her jaw shut so that she did not start spouting random nonsense. It was Dugu Wei yet again, except she looked extremely distressed and exhausted, with her robes being drenched in sweat and other, notably less pleasant fluids.


    ¡°What in the heavens happened to you?¡±


    ¡°M-Master¡­ that knife cut¡­ is so scary¡­¡± the woman cried, her expression being completely unsuitable for her typical stoic and bold character.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°The dagger¡­ strike¡­ I walked into it¡­ and¡­¡± she was unable to get any more words out of her mouth as tears filled her eyes, covering her face in seconds. Clearly, the experience was significantly more stressful and unpleasant than anything she had encountered before.


    ¡®I am pretty sure that the dagger strike itself, by which I mean the mark on the wall, nothing more, shouldn¡¯t have been impactful in a way that could harm a veteran of the prison realm to such an extent. That must mean that there is something in the construction of White Echo that I¡¯ve missed despite all of my efforts¡­ at the very least it is an effect that could be used to my benefit, rather than being a completely negative effect. This is something I can work with, though every use of White Echo would lead to that area being completely uninhabitable, unless the aura decays with time,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, scanning White Echo with her spiritual will in an attempt to locate the reason behind such an effect but failing, ¡°Alright, calm down and get yourself looking presentable. You¡¯re going to appear in front of your troops soon and having such an appearance wouldn¡¯t help you in the slightest.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master¡­¡± Dugu Wei said, cleaning her face with the sleeves of her robes, ¡°Could you not leave more of those marks on the wall?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll try to avoid it, though if you find any more random cuts in the wall, I would advise you to walk around them and avoid them just in case, for it is likely that if it has not been cleaned up, it is probably something that has been caused by White Echo. Tell your partner about that as well, unless you want her to share in your experiences. Anything else?¡±


    ¡°No¡­ Could you-¡±


    ¡°Do you not know the answer already? Perhaps later, but for now you need to present the final orders that you have received from Meng Chu. If you don¡¯t get going, you¡¯re going to have to wait for another week-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll get going immediately, Master!¡±

 V2C21: Initiating the Offensive

    ¡®This is worse than I had initially assumed,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, carefully examining the mark she had left on the wall, ¡®Frankly, I don¡¯t know what I expected to achieve from modifying something at the level of five or six stars with a theoretical knowledge of only three. This isn¡¯t like the Condensed Formation Body, which used low-level principles, some luck, the unique elements of cosmic energy and a slight misunderstanding of several elements to create four more meridian networks, but a principle and construction of six stars. The fact that it is still beneficial to me is outright miraculous.¡¯


    She carefully placed White Echo onto the ground, making sure that it was facing away from her, ¡®My original intent was to create an extension of the actual blade, much like how one might create a few plates of artefact armour that would provide the full resilience and protection of the materials they are made from while not restricting movement as much as real armour would, but I appear to have created¡­¡¯


    Unfortunately, no matter how much she searched for a word or term that would sufficiently describe the effects of White Echo, she was unable to find something satisfactory.


    Due to some mishap in the design and creation of the dagger, it now contained and amplified killing intent with a certain property that not only made it exist in one place for longer periods of time, but also allowed it to gather terror or shock at the scene within and use it to reinforce itself. It would do no harm to the owner of the killing intent, as that would be outright absurd, but unless it was specifically aimed not to harm any particular individual, the aura of killing intent would instantly affect them the moment they entered it.


    This effect was further amplified against those that the user ¨C in this case, Wei Yi ¨C considered to be hostile, meaning that had Dugu Wei been truly hated by her, she wouldn¡¯t have gotten away with simple mental trauma, but might have even suffered great physical harm as well.


    ¡®With this information, my plans can change a little. I could place down a number of these and easily eliminate large quantities of enemy soldiers, though having all of them die through mysterious means would not be conducive to my plans,¡¯ she thought, briefly considering whether to tear off a few pieces of her crimson robes and fashion them into a sort of scabbard for the knife, ¡®Although I can still use this in a number of places¡­ If I am to do so, I should hurry.¡¯


    She decided to compromise on the topic of a sheath for the dagger and used a common spare piece of cloth instead, making doubly sure that there was no killing intent stored within the blade before doing anything with it. It would be extremely dangerous of the entire faction if she accidentally left endless pockets of killing intent scattered around the underground passages.


    It would have been fine if these spots were noticeable, since even though this would make it far more difficult to use them during battle, it would permit her subordinates to avoid them without her help.


    However, the plane of killing intent she left behind upon her first use of White Echo was so difficult to notice, even for her, that she had no clue that it was there until one of her vice-leaders suffered greatly due to it. If all of her abilities had similar repercussions in the future, it would be extremely inconvenient at best, and incredibly dangerous and self-harming at worst. ¡®With more practise and more experience, I should learn exactly what caused this strange result, but for now, if I make any more weapons or techniques, I must be incredibly careful with using them lest I forever mar this entire prison realm with deadly pockets of invisible hatred.¡¯


    Wei Yi left the room and returned to the armoury, where Dugu Wei had already finished instructing the guards regarding the orders they had been provided. Based on what she overheard, it seemed that Meng Chu had successfully given away all of the truly difficult and dangerous missions to Ding Wen while keeping the easy ones. She stood around to be sure that Dugu Wei did not make any mistakes in her judgement of who to give which missions, then turned around and left the underground passages.


    As always, she dressed in her casual clothes, the crimson robes wrapped around her waist in such a manner that made them appear insignificant to most people who looked upon them. This wasn¡¯t the perfect method for concealing it, but it worked on the common majority.


    It was the common majority that she could hope to fool, as those in the higher realms, including Searing Torch and Hatred Augur, would be able to detect the concentrated presence of her killing intent with their basic senses. At that point, whether she had the crimson robes on or not, people would naturally assume her to be dangerous, and the possession of the robes would do nothing but amplify that impression.


    She travelled to the edge of Beast¡¯s Rest, where one of Shi Luo Feng¡¯s businesses was located and removed White Echo from the cloth sheath, carefully filling it with just enough killing intent before swinging it twice in two very specific locations. Once she was absolutely sure that the plane of invisible energy was in the correct place, she covered it in cloth and left.


    After repeating this process in a number of different areas and locations, she was satisfied with her work and headed to the area that had the greatest likelihood of failure to support whoever would be fighting there.


    ¡°You¡¯ve heard your orders. We¡¯ll be raiding the Cold Grounds Pavilion, and we must be in and out within thirty minutes!¡± Ru Rong repeated, her lips failing to contain an excited grin underneath the dark cloth that covered all but her eyes, ¡°All of you remember the instructions that you¡¯ve been given, correct?¡±


    None of them said anything, simply nodding as to not alert anyone in the vicinity.


    Ru Rong nodded back before making a simple hand gesture for them to begin. Eight figures, all of them dressed in dark and concealing clothing, rushed through the back alleys and empty streets and quickly came up to their target, a small building that primarily traded in a dust that could be poured into blood wine and other drinks to make them colder, but also contained a number of Shi Luo Feng¡¯s stored resources at the same time.


    There was nothing exceptionally valuable there, as it could be raided at any time by thieves who wanted to make a small amount of money from selling the dust themselves but intruding and destroying these materials would still make an impact when combined with every other raid.


    For a few minutes, they hid in a dark corner, waiting for the workers there to get to the right place, then sprung out and snuck inside quietly.


    Obviously, they could not remove every single item from storage and take it with them to bolster the supplies of the faction, so they recalled the list provided to them by Wei Yi and Dugu Wei and picked out the items on them, throwing everything else into an untidy pile and starting a fire to consume it. The process took several minutes, after which they instantly fled the scene with bags on their backs.


    Miraculously, they did not locate the small group of body cultivators that Wei Yi had initially predicted, so they were able to get away and move on safely, not knowing that those physique cultivators had been incapacitated on a nearby street due to a strange field of formless energy. When they managed to figure out where it was located, leave it and then recover from its effects, it was far too late to do anything but report it to their superiors, but the second that they wished to do so, their minds were invaded yet again by a second plane of killing intent that they had not foreseen.


    ¡°Shit! Boss, something¡¯s happening! Our warehouses are being raided by someone!¡±


    Several hours after the raiding had begun, the first report was finally brought to Shi Luo Feng, who didn¡¯t even look at the person reporting it. Instead, she reached out with her killing intent and latched it onto the messenger, draining all of his attributes in a matter of seconds, leaving nothing but a dried husk on the ground.


    Her skin gained a slight degree of moisture and the colour of her eyes shifted ever so slightly from a mixture of grey and violet to also include a hint of brown, but no other changes to her otherwise perfect form occurred.


    ¡°Those fucking bastards¡­ I thought those two would never dare¡­ What encouraged those fucking cu- That strange woman from a year ago! She must have given away my secret to the other two factions!¡± she exclaimed, slamming her fists onto her desk as she stood up, ¡°If that¡¯s how it¡¯s going to be, then I see no reason to hold back! I¡¯ll dominate this fucking shitty curse once and for all and escape this prison realm!¡±


    She stepped away from the desk and left the room, not caring that she stepped on the dried husk of a body, scattering it into sickly dust.


    After picking up an absolutely enormous hatred blade, which she was only able to bring with her by dragging it along the ground, Shi Luo Feng grabbed one of the closest people to her by the throat and drained him with the Magnanimous Leech right in front of everyone else who was present at the base before tossing the empty shell that remained at them.


    ¡°Listen up, you tasteless morsels! We are going to go to war!¡±


    A pitch-black hatred blade, enveloped in blue and red light, clashed with a pure manifestation of killing intent summoned by an unknown warrior. Wang Shi pushed him back, but only barely, as her physical strength was significantly inferior to the bulky man that opposed her.


    ¡®Even when he¡¯s poisoned, he¡¯s still this strong?¡¯ she asked herself, narrowly dodging another blow, ¡®With all of my men occupied, there¡¯s no way-¡¯


    She wanted to hit herself for having such a thought, but she was forced to satisfy herself by stabbing at her opponent instead, her blade narrowly piercing his incredibly powerful flesh and muscle. Before she was able to pull back, the man grabbed it in spite of the dense coat of hatred energy that surrounded it before pulling it out of himself and then pushing it to the side, his strength completely overwhelming Wang Shi¡¯s.


    Without any hesitation, she abandoned her sword, allowing it to be tossed aside, and instead took the opportunity to lower one of her hands to her stomach and remove a thick clump of killing intent, which she threw out almost like a stone. It pierced the man¡¯s flesh and lodged itself within him, slowly seeping into every connected blood vessel to spread all over his body.


    The man noticed this, and just as quickly as she allowed her sword to be taken from her, he reached down with his empty hand and thrust his fingers through his flesh, grasping the infected part of his body and tearing it away without any expression on his face.


    ¡®Holy shit, that¡¯s insane! I¡¯ve been scarred enough, but I¡¯d never go this far!¡¯


    What Wang Shi was unaware of was that he had only recently witnessed the full power of the Magnanimous Leech and deemed that suffering its effects would be a far lesser pain than tearing out part of his stomach. Even if he had been forced to tear off certain private parts, he would probably deem it to be a worthy sacrifice in comparison to being dried into nothing but a set of bones and flakes of skin.


    He swung at her once more with the power of the Searing Torch realm, his right hand grasping the blade of pure crimson tightly, without showing any weakness despite his injury.


    At this moment, his eyes suddenly dimmed as his mind was pulled into a terrifying realm, a great shadow looking down upon him with a simple-seeming dagger in her hand. However, the instant that it moved, he felt as if his entire being was cut into a hundred pieces before he could even contemplate evasion or escape.


    Despite his physical body being completely unaffected, it was more than enough of an opportunity for Wang Shi to thrust another clump of blue and red killing intent into the man¡¯s eyes, instantly flooding them with her energy. He had no chance to consider tearing them out as well before the energy spread to his head and brain, stunning his thoughts further and plunging him deeper into the realm conjured by Wei Yi¡¯s killing intent. The shadow in front of him grew larger and mightier, the knife gained a certain vibrant glint, and the entire realm gained depth and realism.


    In such a situation, he had no chance of survival.


    The team that Ding Wen sent, led by a pale, thin man carrying his weight in valuables and artefacts all over his body, approached their target with confidence. Although they had not been present at the scene of the negotiations between Ding Wen and Meng Chu, they were well aware that their leader had succeeded in taking many of the easier tasks from the latter, leaving them with easy missions only.


    As a result, though they sported such an excessive quantity of items on them, the inscriptions and arrays on them ranging from simple defensive ones to incredibly powerful offensive inscriptions, they felt that they would be safe even if they approached their objective naked.


    Their target was a simple member of Shi Luo Feng¡¯s faction, a weak and defenceless secretary for one of the training halls that belonged to her faction, and based on the information provided to them by their investigators and some random data owned by Meng Chu¡¯s faction, they knew that they would be travelling on an empty street at a time that most would be resting, or otherwise unavailable, giving them the perfect opportunity to take her out.


    If they had the time, they could look into performing some other acts prior to her death.


    ¡°There! She¡¯s there!¡± one of them exclaimed, pointing to a figure that approached the alleyway in which they hid.


    After quietening down and waiting for a little longer, the secretary finally neared their position, standing right in front of their hiding places without any recognition of this fact, making her the perfect target for this attack, for they suspected that they could follow behind her from now on without her noticing, but this was not something they could experiment on now.


    They leapt out of their hiding spot and surrounded the woman in a single second, pushing themselves to the limit despite the absolute lack of a necessity to do so. She reacted just as slowly as one might expect from a common mortal that had barely touched killing intent cultivation, until that changed.


    Without any warning, she tore off her hair, revealing that it was a wig, simultaneously using her other hand to tear off her upper layer of clothing. Besides showcasing that her chest and face were that of a man, it displayed a far more extreme and terrifying sight when every part of his exposed flesh also tore and twisted, his face opening along the middle into an abyss full of blood and otherworldly crimson, from which many tendrils, both real and illusory, shot out.


    Before they could react, they latched onto some of them, the real ones siphoning their blood and viscera while the illusory drained away all forms of their energy, seemingly including their lifespan, for with every second that they were connected to a soldier, their features aged and twisted.


    ¡°What is this shit? They never said-¡± the gold and treasure-clad warrior exclaimed, his words being interrupted when he saw another tendril appear from the monster¡¯s open maw and fly towards him.


    He did not dare assume that he could withstand it when the rest of his warriors could do nothing, and instead dodged to the side while also slashing at the vile, physical tendril with his blade, hoping that it was not a product of some incredibly disgusting physique or cultivation technique that could make it impervious to bladed weaponry.


    ¡°Mistress, must I-¡±


    ¡°You worthless chunk of flesh, since when do you think that you have a choice? I need you to practise this technique now, or else you will become sustenance for me!¡±


    ¡°B-But, Mistress, the rest of them turned into such abominations!¡± the poor old man could no longer keep his voice and emotions under control, ¡°They were all mindless and ravenous, unable to do anything but follow your commands to the letter! I have been serving you for so many years, without any complaints or personal desires! I served your mother when she campaigned to earn the same position as you-¡±


    ¡°And yet you fail to recognise what that bitch did to me! I am only a step away from those abominations, and you will become the same, do you understand? READ THE FUCKING BOOK!¡± Shi Luo Feng also lashed out, grabbing the man¡¯s head and forcing it into the open pages of the technique manual, her fingers grasping more and more tightly for every second that he did not appear to be reading as she had instructed. He tried desperately to escape her grasp, trying it thrice before he could no longer withstand the rising pressure and was forced to read, his killing intent automatically following the instructions described within.


    His expression slowly twisted as his insides warped and twisted, rearranging themselves without any clear logic nor reason. A dull, low cry seeped out of his open mouth as his eyes rolled up and the bones within his body cracked and morphed, transforming into a horrible abomination of humanity.


    Shi Luo Feng was able to release her the old man once that occurred, for even before the mental drain to him occurred, he would be in no position to move while all of his internal and external elements were being recklessly twisted. Quickly, his cried elevated to shrieks and constant desperate begging, which she was able to ignore without any effort while she glared down the few subordinates that remained standing around her. Their resistance quickly broke, and they also threw their books open, following the instructions and reaching the same point as the old man.


    She waited for them to complete their transformation, at which point she gave them some basic instructions and left them be, leaving to ponder who else would be suitable for the technique.


    Chun He clashed directly with another warrior in the Condensed Shot realm by colliding their waves of killing intent against one another, as someone in the Fine Piercing realm could do.


    His energy was weaker than the opponent, a woman that hid her face beneath a crude mask and sported very large assets that would have otherwise occupied much of his and his warriors¡¯ attention, but it was more plentiful due to his practise of the Violent Third River technique, allowing him to balance his usage of killing intent to prevent her attack from dealing more than minor damage to him and his mind.


    Unfortunately, his abilities were most suited for defence, not offence, meaning that although he could withstand the attacks from this masked woman, he could do little before his men completed their battle with their own opponents other than protect himself and keep his enemy from attacking others.


    For a second, he considered whether it was a good idea to retreat and to force his opponent to fight with some of his forces but deemed it to be a proposition that was too reckless to proceed with. His troops were already struggling with the enemies they were facing and throwing in such a powerful opponent into the mix would do nothing but provide the opponent with more lives to claim.


    He was forced to step back after a particularly serious attack, but some strange sixth sense of danger made him duck down at the last second, prompting his foe to lunge at him with a powerful overhead slash with her axe that would instantly pierce not only his wall of killing intent, but also the vast majority of his body and skull with its immense power and might. For a brief moment, he wondered whether he had made the wrong choice, but her arms suddenly twitched and stopped in place.


    The last thought she had was, ¡®What just happened to me? Where am I?¡¯


    Another abomination assaulted one of groups belonging to Meng Chu¡¯s faction, its face opening up sideways as tentacles and tendrils were spat out, latching onto all nearby forces instantly. However, an enormous ball of sunlight suddenly enveloped the tendrils and consumed them all in an instant, crushing them as easily as a cultivator could defeat a mortal.


    The extreme yang of the sun-like flame severed the sickly yin that connected these vile appendages to the morphed imitations of humanity, and all that they could bring to them were meagre glimpses of blood and energy, with the rest returning naturally to their owners.


    A woman dressed in tight clothing fell from the sky, landing on the ground with ease in spite of the height she fell from. Soft sunlight formed a corona around her, enveloping the ground around her with a rare glimpse of colours other than crimson. The red dirt and the ruby road tiles and the blood-red dust that filled the air were, for that pleasant moment of her simply standing there, lit with orange and yellow, expanding the colour palette of the prison realm a thousand-fold. To all that had never witnessed the light of the sun within reality, this was far greater than anything they could have ever imagined.


    ¡®I must say, I did not imagine this use of the Magnanimous Leech ¨C or, rather, a hastily created derivative of it that can barely keep the human body together,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, removing the hammer from the back of her head, ¡®This is the sort of thing that causes discrepancies in my plans, and forces me to get involved. What a sick joke.¡¯


    The hammer in her hand expanded to its normal size, with a spear still on her back and two daggers stored away within her pockets. White Echo was unsuitable for a battle with a large number of bystanders, Bone of the Beast used an unnecessarily large quantity of killing intent for what it was able to achieve most of the time, and the slashing and stabbing attacks of the spear would be somewhat lacking against a creature without proper form.


    In her mind, the easiest method of dealing with such an abomination was to crush it completely.


    She did not bother using her killing intent, for it would lack effectiveness against it, but the warped human was still able to sense her intent. It roared, or perhaps screeched, or performed some other action that resulted in noise, and pulled more tendrils from its body that it launched at her.


    ¡®Even if this does nothing else, it reminds me of what I am trying to avoid with the techniques I practise. Sure, this thing will be stronger than whatever it had been originally, but there is no trace of its original mind. From what I can sense, the only thing that remains is an order from Shi Luo Feng, and even though I cannot perceive the exact order, I know that it is not sufficient for my own path.¡¯


    Congealing her physique energy around her free hand, she struck the approaching tentacles directly, dispersing them into harmless dust and ash before charging through it using a movement technique activated through the might of her physique energy.


    It wreathed her in bright sunlight, and the next moment, she appeared to the vile creature¡¯s side, striking its former head with an all-out strike, transferring the principles of the Boulder Pushing palm onto the hammer via certain properties of Storm Blade Wreathing, which she manifested in the bright dawn light of her energy. Falling upon the creature, it instantly obliterated its upper half and launched its lower half into the ground, burying its feet in the dirt. Several major organs ¨C or what little remained after the transformation ¨C were absolutely crushed by the impact.


    What remained attempted to transform itself into a semblance of an opponent, but Wei Yi struck it once more, this time applying both the Sizzling Palm and the Sweeping Inferno move of the Eight Great Changes onto her hammer at the same time as Storm Blade Wreathing to condense a blinding force upon her enemy.


    Exploding with a mighty echo that reverberated throughout the town, all semblance of the creature was gone, as was one third of her physique energy.


    ¡®A third for one of these things¡­ no, I should be able to reduce it down to a quarter if I don¡¯t have to save people from the tendrils first¡­ Still, from the killing intent that remains around this individual, I can only assume that it had been a killing intent cultivator within the first two realms, and it is certainly feasible that stronger cultivators will make for stronger abominations. Furthermore, even if they are all exactly like this one, Shi Luo Feng should be able to produce a hundred with ease, while I would need several hours of rest to recover from killing only three or four¡­ Not the most efficient nor effective of arrangements, it seems,¡¯ she thought, checking that the hammer hadn¡¯t begun to melt beneath the physique energy before storing it away and turning to the forces of Meng Chu¡¯s faction, ¡°Keep going with your original task. These things should take some time to form and be given orders, and there are far too many places being attacked at once for Shi Luo Feng to send another thing here any time soon.¡±


    ¡°Yes, boss!¡± they shouted, with some of them simply following their partners and allies after having missed her briefing. Nevertheless, after seeing how quickly she was able to dispatch such a terrifying foe, they could never be rude to her, even if she had been some random beggar from the streets.


    When they left, Wei Yi re-examined the scene, making sure that there were no living traces of the creature, for, in theory, so long as such a being survived, it could find a living being to leech and drain, using it to grow in size and strength before returning to its original state and possibly growing from there to become something like a hatred automaton or even something greater, depending on what the fragments of the Magnanimous Leech they had been provided would allow for.


    Only once she was absolutely sure did she move on, rushing to the next group in danger.

 V2C22: The Ending of the First Quarter

    ¡°- now that a total of fifteen such things were encountered, and eleven were defeated, we can be sure that there will be no more than five hundred and seventy-nine of the abominations for us to fight,¡± Wei Yi concluded, presenting rather negative news with a neutral expression, ¡°For this reason, I have forcefully entered one of your vaults, removed some motes of killing intent and spent them to buy a few things for far less than they were really worth. Now, although I cannot advance my physique cultivation without a proper understanding of what I wish to improve about myself, nor the correct technique to doing so, I should be able to improve my general energy capacity.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ What the fuck is going on right now? As things are now, it seems that Shi Luo Feng has gone completely insane, while Ding Wen can¡¯t possibly be happy with his many losses and failures.¡±


    ¡°Obviously, he will show up and demand that his faction handles the objectives that are neutral in terms of difficulty, as taking the hardest ones can¡¯t be a good idea and the simplest ones appear to be rather misleading in nature. Just give him the things he wants, and I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll be just as happy tomorrow,¡± she replied, having already sorted all of the tasks according to this expectation, ¡°As for Shi Luo Feng¡­ I am lacking in the field of mental analysis, I¡¯m afraid, so I cannot be sure about her mental state, though I suspect that she had been contemplating her current plans for some time.¡±


    Meng Chu frowned, ¡°Really? This may be the prison realm, but we consider even the hatred automatons to be disgusting things, not to mention those¡­ abominations, you were calling them? Seems like a suitable name.¡±


    ¡°Hence my usage of it.¡±


    ¡°Does that have something to do with her Magnanimous Leech?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. I suspect that she had come up with the idea of tearing out pieces of the technique to pass along and create powerful leech abominations for herself long ago but intended to only use them in emergencies. After I revealed my understanding of her technique¡¯s weakness, and after our two factions began to attack them, she realised that she needed to retaliate immediately if she wanted to keep her position. Her own forces were somewhat lacking, so out came the abominations.¡±


    ¡°Which she created from her own forces.¡±


    ¡°As effective as her technique seems to be, if it was used on someone without any loyalty to her, the leech would be completely wild and utterly useless, giving her no other choice.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so she wasn¡¯t just utterly insane. That¡¯s good,¡± Meng Chu said, clearly fearing the sane less.


    ¡°You say that, but insanity has a certain predictability to it. The human mind, as complex as it is, does follow certain rules and logic, even if it makes no sense to anybody else. When someone forgets this and acts on instinct, it is easy to abuse, but when they are aware of their own predictability and act around it, doing everything they can to stifle the likes of my Endless Calculation, it can be quite troubling.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s how things are,¡± he nodded once he understood what she was saying, ¡°Even if you had failed with your attempt to impress me, I would still have made you my strategist. What should be done with the abominations? Is there any method of killing them easily?¡±


    ¡°Physique energy is one way, though it has to be extreme yang-type for optimum efficiency. Crushing strikes are also effective, though it has to be with one¡¯s full strength to significantly damage the abominations. Killing intent cultivation is irrelevant, so physique cultivators are the most suitable for this, regardless of their realm, and yin-type physique energy could also be used to freeze their bodies and slow them down, and the combination of yin and yang energy could permit for a faster elimination of the abomination,¡± she theorised, ¡®It¡¯s a shame I did not unlock one of the dual physiques, as that could have allowed me to use and absorb both yin and yang physique energy.¡¯


    Meng Chu wrote some of these things down on several separate pages that he then moved to different parts of his desk, intending to give them to different people after their meeting was complete.


    ¡°Is there anything else I need to know before Ding Wen gets here?¡±


    ¡°Nope. Don¡¯t tell him what I told you, though. Just say some minor guesses, lament at how your forces had struggled immensely to deal with the abominations while he must have been having an easy time, and make sure to appear genuine for the best effect. The next day, he will take a mix of the most and least dangerous missions, hoping that some of them turn out to be in his favour, so at that point, just make sure to present them in the correct fashion yet again. The less he understands about whether you are lying or just being a lucky idiot, the more chance we have to profit from his failures.¡±


    ¡°What about the fourth day, then?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s only going to be one thing that is done on the fourth day, and that is a full-on siege on Shi Luo Feng¡¯s primary base. All of our strongest forces will need to be sent, and at that point, the question of who does what will change based on what we encounter. Even if Ding Wen wanted to fuck us over, he wouldn¡¯t be able to,¡± Wei Yi said, turning around and leaving calmly, ¡®He will try, though.¡¯


    She returned to her room, where the meagre number of black bones around the edges of the room had grown significantly, resulting in the concentrating killing intent being visible and almost solid to the touch, forcing her to actively wade through it in order to reach her work surface.


    It was so severe that she decided to undress prior to entering the field, as she was worried that the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival, an item that had been present within the prison realm for countless years without any damage being done to it due to the natural regenerative properties of the threads it was made from, could be ripped apart by the wild pool of crimson light that fluctuated within the air, splitting it into so many random clumps and pieces that there would be no possible way for it to reform correctly.


    The chances of such a thing happening were even greater due to something she had noticed within the robes not too long ago, that being a thin strand of solidified killing intent that was woven into the fabric seamlessly. If not for her spiritual will, curiosity and an interest in creating similar items in the future to mitigate the issue of her clothes constantly being damaged in battle, she might have missed it completely.


    From what she was able to perceive, the thread did not appear to be dangerous, nor was it responsible for any particular property of the robes. It was just there, in the area beneath her left breast, seemingly content with having no interactions with the world around it.


    What made it strange was that killing intent was never a force that just existed. All of it came from a source, be that the Beast, humans or some complex array that could transform will into killing intent, and thus it would always possess some degree of intention sealed deep within its structure. It was for this reason that White Echo was less harmful to those that Wei Yi did not perceive to be her enemies, and why its effects could be amplified immensely against anyone that she did have some personal dislike for.


    If she was able to condense her own killing intent into a thread and then placed it into an article of clothing, it would certainly not just sit there forever, unless she placed it there with a very specific purpose and instructions that it would then carry out when the time was right. Even then, it wouldn¡¯t be likely to sit by when she wanted to remove it from the robes, which she failed to do due to certain factors other than the thread.


    To put it all simply, it was strange, just as strange as the wall running through what might be the middle of the prison and the fact that the Beast¡¯s carcass appeared to stop near the ground, and was not buried deeply into the ground as one might initially assume.


    ¡®All of this is what I can ¨C no, what I must investigate upon the capture of Beast¡¯s Rest, and while we expand the territory of the city to cover the prison realm. It could become my first attempt at a Yi City, and also give me the opportunity to learn all that there is to know about this world before I do the same in the Planar Continents,¡¯ she thought, circulating her physique energy around herself.


    It slowly became denser with every single second that it was exposed to the overly dense cloud of killing intent, and when it returned to her meridians, it was so dense that it strained them and forced them to get stronger to withstand the rising pressure of the physique energy. However, the instant that they finally adjusted to the greater density of the energy, that physique energy was sent out of the body once more, and it returned with even greater might and purity.


    Fortunately for her struggling meridians, every single revolution brought less and less of an improvement to her energy, until, several hours after she began, her physique energy was able to smoothly withstand the killing intent gathered on her.


    The rate of growth was within her expectations, and the result was also sufficient. Although she couldn¡¯t hope to match those in the upper realms of physique cultivation if they somehow came to possess the same physique as her, it was still significantly superior to the vast majority of those in the first realm and those in the early second realm, as far as she understood the nature of physique energy.


    Although this could be said to be equivalent to reaching some sort of perfected realm, it would still benefit her in the future, as every stage after this one would need more effort but result in far more power in the long run, which was exactly what she needed. No half-measures could ever contend with the Great Families, not unless she was able to collect every single half-measure in the world and put them all together. This was far more easily said than done, however, as she was still limited to three of her five sets of meridians, and there was no guarantee whatsoever that there weren¡¯t a thousand other forms of energy that she had simply been unaware of when creating the Condensed Formation Body.


    Since she needed to develop everything as much as she possibly could, once her physique energy was as powerful as it would become under the current bone formation, she swapped it to her killing intent, which was far less resilient against the built-up mass of killing intent.


    That did mean that it would be forced to develop far more quickly, and so it had grown in power significantly after just two more hours.


    Unlike when she reached the second realm of killing intent cultivation, the scene within her mental landscape was completely unchanged, except it became notably more solid, more real, and far more difficult to distinguish from reality. If she struck with White Echo now, the plane of killing intent would entrance anyone who stepped into it for twice as long, as do twice as much damage to their psyche. If positioned correctly, with several planes intersecting one another, or if it was used against a weak-willed individual, it could even directly lead to their death.


    Whether for better or for worse, she would not need to use White Echo on the second day, as the slight change in plans that came in the form of the abominations means that they would be the main threat, not the primary forces of either of the three factions. Against them, planes of killing intent would be useless, and would simply arouse suspicion in Ding Wen¡¯s men when they came across the same sort of obstacle for the second day in a row.


    This wasn¡¯t an issue for her, as her original plans never relied on the planes of killing intent to begin with. Even if White Echo itself shattered right in front of her, it would be a disappointment, nothing more.


    ¡®Well, that¡¯s what I¡¯d like to think, but I¡¯m not some unfeeling machine, and I don¡¯t think that becoming one will be necessarily beneficial. As a result, I will naturally be disappointed if one year of my work vanishes without any good reason, in the same way that I was distraught at the undue death of Yi Yaling despite the fact that our relations were tenuous as best,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, her expression still darkening when she recalled what happened on the streets of the Yi District, where the two Greats were able to do whatever they liked without any repercussions.


    She could not determine what her perfect world looked like with only nineteen years of experience, but she knew that she could never allow a group of people to act like the Great Families under her rule.


    If there had to be someone on top, someone to restrain such actions, then it would be her!


    ¡°A book holds a house of gold.¡±


    Ding Wen sat in his chair, the book hovering in front of him, a thousand different things idly floating inside of the pages of the book, which acted like a portal to another realm.


    He was not particularly knowledgeable when it came to storage artefacts, spatial items or anything of the sort, but his intuition ¨C and a strange azure light within his mental landscape that he could not see with his own mind or eyes ¨C told him that the book was incredibly powerful amongst all spatial items. Perhaps it had a quality of nine stars, or perhaps it even went above that level to become something completely different.


    After looking carefully at the items within, he had to remove several, which caused the bright shimmer of the book to dim slightly, and for his own killing intent to weaken, albeit insignificantly compared to the gains he had made in the past year.


    ¡°Things aren¡¯t going as they should. To make my forces stronger for a brief while is necessary.¡±


    ¡°How could eleven of them be defeated like that? Eleven! That¡¯s ridiculous!¡± Shi Luo Feng cried out, her killing intent bursting out of her body and incapacitating numerous innocent warriors with a single touch, ¡°How does she know? How can there be a woman with such a physique in the world?¡±


    She received no reply from the heavens nor the earth, even if they could hear her in this dreary prison realm. As she had not expected anything of the sort, she instead reached into a hidden compartment in the wall and removed a thick scroll, which she unfurled and looked upon with blood-shot eyes, something that not even the constant draining of energy via the Magnanimous Leech could heal. On the scroll were detailed a series of physiques and unique physical states, and at the top, amongst the most precious of human, beast, demon, spirit and devil-type physiques, a truly unique thing was described.


    ¡®The will of the heavens, the truth of the world. Pure yang, absolute yin, absorbing all, holding no weaknesses. Ascendant Physique, purity incarnate.¡¯


    It was not necessary to possess such a physique to destroy the abominations, but to do so with such efficiency, Shi Luo Feng could not imagine the enemy having any physique other than this one. After all, the Yang Ascendant physique also characteristically resembled sunlight, and that was the exact thing that had been reported to her on the scene of combat.


    ¡®One redhead that has incredibly powerful killing intent, and another with physique ener- Two redheads? It can¡¯t be just one person, can it?¡¯ her eyes suddenly widened as the possibility presented itself, ¡®Fuck-¡¯


    ¡°I suppose that if I had to affect my body in some way, I could grow certain assets ever so slightly, though any larger than that would lead to a deterioration of my combat ability. My current height is perfectly suitable for most things, and changing it would cause me to be unused to my size and lead to many mistakes within the short term, so modifying it would be completely pointless,¡± Wei Yi muttered to herself, touching, feeling and kneading parts of her body to confirm that her perception of her physique was correct, ¡°My legs are pretty good, though. No changes are needed there, to be sure.¡±


    After two years of constantly using a technique of the fourth realm through the leg movements alone, combined with a year of trudging through the prison realm, her legs were strong and muscular, appearing to have been chiselled out of stone for a statue of a perfect human rather than being made out of flesh and blood.


    Furthermore, she had long legs, which happened to fit the typical preferences of the Planar Continents, meaning that her lower half required little adjustment no matter how she looked at it.


    Above that, the only external thing that could be addressed had already been considered by her. Her skin was smooth, it¡¯s colour wasn¡¯t something that she cared to change nor had an issue with ¨C it wasn¡¯t something completely unnatural like red or blue that would stand out within a crowd, and it would be difficult to deem a change caused by the True Ascendant physique to be an imperfection without fully understanding the reason behind it ¨C and every other feature on her body could only be assessed subjectively, meaning that it would be worthless to change them in any way.


    Thus, all that was left was the inside of her body: the muscles, the organs, the many blood vessels and even the meridians. None of those things were perfect, and even if the countless impurities that the typical human built up within were cleansed, there were still many fundamental flaws within them.


    Luckily, as far as she understood the realms of physique cultivation, getting rid of such issues was the exact purpose of the Greater Shape realm.


    ¡®Furthermore, I have a decent understanding of the human body thanks to all of the books I¡¯ve read in the Yi District libraries, as well as my personal investigations into the matter via frequently scanning myself with spiritual will and killing a number of people, so I should be able to eliminate all of the major flaws in human physiology so long as I possess something powerful enough to stimulate such a change,¡¯ she thought, rising from her seat and dressing the moment that she felt someone approach.


    That person turned out to be Dugu Wei, who no longer looked as haggard as she had on the equivalent of the morning of the first day of the offensive, though there was still a hint of fear in her eyes that had previously been absent from the warrior.


    ¡°Master, I have found what you requested earlier,¡± she said, seemingly having learnt her lesson as she did not immediately attempt to leap onto Wei Yi the second she saw her, ¡°There is a pool of the Beast¡¯s blood within the underground passages, and it is large enough for five people to lie in simultaneously! It¡¯s also extremely pure and dense!¡±


    ¡°Perfect. Tell me where it is, then prepare for my usage of it. Ensure that none of the Beast¡¯s blood flows away before I can get to it,¡± Wei Yi ordered, forming a book within her mental landscape.

 V2C23: The Second Quarter of the Offensive

    Indeed, the pool of blood was exactly what she had been looking for. If a typical human stepped into it, they would be melted into nothing within seconds, and even if she attempted to enter it without proper preparation, she would also suffer greatly.


    However, this was the exact environment she needed to stimulate the potential of her body and physique and to reform it, and it also gave her the opportunity to attempt to use the bloodline of whatever this Beast was to further amplify her power. She would never draw any of it into herself, not before she was certain that she would be able to deal with the repercussions of a bloodline, but by simply being surrounded by it she could force every part of herself to become stronger.


    There was even the potential of forcing her planar energy to develop further, ignoring the restriction of the prison realm and raising her cultivation level to the first stage of Emergent Anchor, making every drop of her wondrous cosmic energy to become significantly more valuable than it currently is.


    If this method worked, and if it could be repeated multiple times, there was a chance of her reaching the fourth realm, Active Core, and breaking the space of the prison realm with just the percentage of energy she currently possessed. After all, each stage of the Active Core realm was twice as powerful as a stage of the Emergent Anchor realm, which was, in turn, five times superior to the Planar Pool Realm.


    Such a thing could only be achieved so long as the nascent rift within her anchor continued to act as it currently did, providing her not with energy that was suited to a particular realm, but energy that would ensure her total pool of planar energy was maintained at a certain level. Wei Yi had no clue how it functioned in such a manner, nor whether this was an infinite process that could be continued all the way to the peak of known cultivation and beyond, but it was certain to carry her to the fourth realm at the very least.


    ¡®This isn¡¯t I can do right now, however. I need to assist in the battles of the day even more so than yesterday, as, in comparison to those raids, today¡¯s will be a dozen times more difficult.¡¯


    She confirmed that the pool of blood was suitable for her purposes and left, placing a few other layers of clothing and accessories onto herself to make herself appear less conspicuous. There was already a high likelihood of someone figuring out her identity as both the physique cultivator and user of killing intent, but that was perfectly fine for her, as this news would be restricted to Beast¡¯s Rest no matter who learnt about it. Since she would likely need to invoke both of her energies to deal with the threat of Shi Luo Feng and Ding Wen, especially if any one of them has a spatial storage item or something of a similar power, it was fine for people to get an idea of her abilities now.


    As for those that overestimated her and would put in too much force to deal with her level of power¡­ that would be inconvenient, but with the combination of movement techniques, the Eight Great Changes Repealing Spark and White Echo, all of which she had not showcased as publicly as her other abilities, it would be difficult for anyone to harm her.


    ¡°This does not make any sense at all¡­¡± the man in white muttered to himself, sitting in the empty office of Ding Wen, where the candle lit up his body, ¡°I can never see him when he turns around¡­¡±


    The figure sat in place, doing nothing but drinking from the bottle of blood wine every now and then as it pondered. After making the initial agreement with Ding Wen, it obviously attempted to gain some leverage over him, even attempting a certain scheme that would have won him a significant amount of necessary resources, but not only were his resources somehow inexhaustible, his mind never suffered despite the immense quantities of killing intent he built up.


    It was completely nonsensical, and the fact that all signs of his aura vanished the moment that he turned his chair on the spot made the situation all the more confusing. He was someone with an impressive attainment in detection and scanning of his surroundings, so for him to not be able to distinguish the air from Ding Wen meant that he either vanished, or that he was shielded by something.


    To make things worse, that something was completely outside of his understanding.


    For a person that relied so much on his knowledge and understanding of the prison realm and the processes that occurred within, such a notion was extremely terrifying.


    It was like an expert in strength encountering something he could not move, or an expert in arrays finding an array structure that they had never heard of before. It was akin to a fisherman finding a fish that went against all logic and reason, that had its insides on the outside and had countless teeth and tendrils on the outside of the body¡­ which wasn¡¯t an entirely unprecedented situation, actually. Once upon a time, in the eastern Planar Continent, the land of the Daoist cultivators, a lonely fisherman in the third realm was fishing in familiar waters when he managed to find something that they could never forget no matter how much they tried.


    The figure in white had read such a story by luck, but he never expected it to apply to him at such a time.


    ¡®Fortunately, the man has some competition in the form of Shi Luo Feng, Meng Chu and that new arrival, which should push him to the edge, whatever the power that is currently allowing him to withstand me,¡¯ thought the figure in white, draining the bottle of blood wine, ¡®At that point, it will depend on what he does. I can either continue my work on him, or I could try the redhead or the winner of the general conflict.¡¯


    He casually threw away the bottle of blood wine and vanished, seemingly without reason.


    ¡®This is the second time today that I¡¯ve felt something strange happening. It isn¡¯t quite spiritual will, I don¡¯t think, but it acts much like it¡­¡¯ Wei Yi noticed, stopping on the roof of a sturdy building when she was sure that she would not be noticed by any common civilian, ¡®Either there is another new arrival with spiritual will, or someone¡¯s killing intent has transformed into something entirely unique.¡¯


    She frowned, but there was little that she could do with a simple facial expression, so she turned back around and continued to her destination, another book opening within the Augur¡¯s Library.


    It had a small number of details within, every single one being what she had gathered after her few sightings of the spiritual will around her. There was nothing too concrete or useful just yet, which was unfortunate, but she already had a few ideas on how to deal with it.


    So far as she understood the natural principles of energy, killing intent in larger, focused quantities subdued spiritual will, so if she specifically targeted the spiritual will in combat, she should be able to negate it for a sufficient length of time to execute an attack that could defeat the opponent. If it was not spiritual will but morphed killing intent, then it would depend on their exact cultivation. Within the first two and a half realms, she was confident about overpowering her opponent, but if they were at a level above that, she would have the highest chance of success through a surprise attack with her full force.


    ¡®Ultimately, I will need to deal with this sort of thing when it becomes a problem and gather as much information as I can in the meantime. Power without knowledge is even less significant than knowledge without power, unfortunately,¡¯ she thought, stopping atop another rooftop.


    From that position, she was able to see one of the targets of today¡¯s assault ¨C an official storehouse of Shi Luo Feng¡¯s faction, one that had several guards stationed in front of it with the cultivation of the Fine Piercing realm at the minimum. There were also several guards within, some positioned at key positions and others patrolling the tight passages of the warehouse.


    One abomination was placed in a box that was labelled with ¡®Motes of Killing Intent¡¯, with whoever put it there clearly intending to catch those who invade off guard either in the warehouse itself or when they steal the box and deliver it to their own base. Naturally, Wei Yi did not intend to give them such a chance, as she understood the power of stealthy and unexpected strikes incredibly well. Without them, she would have never made it to where she was, whether in the Planar Continents or the prison realm, so she prepared a few plans to either expose the contents of the box or to prevent her forces from finding it or trying to touch it.


    Other than that, there seemed to be no great preparations made for the attack, perhaps due to the general lack of resources stored within this building.


    For this location to be lost would mean nothing to Shi Luo Feng.


    ¡®It does mean something for me, however, as this place stores a large quantity of the Beast¡¯s bones, though most of them are deemed to be useless due to not yet having been processed or converted into something. With them, I could try and replicate the bones that concentrate and direct the flow of killing intent, potentially accelerating my cultivation significantly,¡¯ she scanned through some of the boxes containing black, jagged bones as she was thinking, ¡®Might need to take a few myself, though.¡¯


    Due to the same reason that Shi Luo Feng did not leave too great of a defensive force at this location, Wei Yi did not send out too many of her own troops, with her squad matching in number with the defence, so long as the abomination was included.


    Going by that alone, one might assume that her squad would be at a disadvantage, but apart from the exact positioning of the abomination, which wasn¡¯t a certainty and was only brought into the equation a day ago, she had planned out this particular assault several months ago while cultivating in seclusion. To deal with a simple change like that was incredibly easy.


    Wei Yi took a deep breath and used all of her stealth techniques to enter the warehouse while escaping notice.


    Within, she saw two of the guards calmly discussing all sorts of things with one another: their personal daily lives, interactions with their leaders and employers, gossip about Shi Luo Feng and her conflict with the other two factions, and even their visit to the brothel.


    Boredom radiated from them to the point of becoming visible, like the Beast¡¯s killing intent.


    ¡°Do you think those pricks will actually go here? That thing breathes incredibly loudly and unpleasantly, and I don¡¯t like it.¡±


    ¡°No¡¯ne gives a toss, bro. What¡¯ey gonna do ¡®bout it, huh?¡±


    ¡®Excellent, it is a guard that cannot comprehend the basic language of the Planar Continents. That means that the general forces here are as weak and incompetent as I had initially predicted,¡¯ she sighed internally, sneaking away from them, ¡®I¡¯d unleash the abomination to devour this lot and leave it to be taken care of by my men, but that would only make it stronger¡­¡¯


    Instead, she went to several boxes and places within the warehouse and adjusted the environment ever so slightly, to the point that if a casual observer compared the scenes before and after her interference, they might fail to notice her effect on them. Nevertheless, these minor changes pushed the upcoming battle heavily into her side¡¯s favour, with several places that Shi Luo Feng¡¯s warriors would overlook being changed into death traps or otherwise serious obstacles that could turn the tide in her favour without any further work from herself.


    For this reason, she exited the area about as easily as she entered, then proceeded to the next area of upcoming conflict.


    ¡°They¡¯re here! They-¡± the guard¡¯s voice was cut off when a spearhead pierced his throat, blood splattering onto the inside of the warehouse. It coated the hard stone floors, mixing with the dark red colours of the material and the grey dust that had accumulated atop them.


    A small squad of fighters rushed into the building, making as much noise as they could.


    Whenever they attacked, be it directly at their enemy or at some obstacle in their path, they used their full strength, causing countless empty rotten wood boxes to be crushed into dust in just a few minutes. This approach made every guard on the inside of the warehouse incredibly apprehensive, for even though they suspected that this wasn¡¯t something that they could keep up for a long time, they still knew that if they got hit by Wei Yi¡¯s forces at this time, they would be severely injured or outright killed.


    After a second of deliberation, the vast majority decided to run inwards, running away from the weapon-wielding maniacs and attempting to get to a more advantageous position for themselves, in order to get a better chance of defeating them.


    The minority that remained proved that the majority¡¯s decision was correct, for they were hacked, slashed and stabbed at viciously until their bodies were more wound than man.


    Still, it wasn¡¯t too pleasant for that escaping majority either, for the second that they thought they found a good place to reverse the situation, reality seemed to slap them in the face ¨C sometimes literally. One man, who had a good memory and recalled the layout of the warehouse decently enough, attempted to use his memory to his advantage and turned the corner only to stumble on something that had been placed on the floor, his body flying straight into a box.


    It crumbled under his weight, resulting in his landing face-first into a large pile of bright yet dried crimson herbs called the Cherry Oblique Skyroot, or, as it was more commonly known to the common public, the inferno pepper, typically used in extremely small quantities to poison one¡¯s enemies.


    Needless to say, that particular individual did not survive.


    Another wanted to duck through a gap between two unused boxes that he had frequently traversed before while escaping from his supervisor to drink some cheap blood wine, but when he leapt into it this time, he instantly found himself to be stuck there, in such a position that he could not quite push himself out of either side of the large wall of boxes.


    He might have been able to do something if given enough time, but before he could, concentrated killing intent combined with a sharp weapon sliced through his unguarded back.


    If Wei Yi had still been there ¨C and was in the mood to lecture the living and dead about their failings, which was not always something she had any interest in ¨C she would have said, ¡°Not everything that turns the tide of battle must be major and extravagant. An enormous planar construct can be impressive, just like the Storm Blade Wreathing twin-lightning storm that I have created several times before, but such things can frequently be beaten by a single knife to the back of the cultivator. In truth, when one¡¯s defences are lacking, all that is needed is one brief second of lowered guard.¡±


    With such simple movements, more than half of the defending soldiers were wiped out before they could even consider retaliating with full force, while the rest were demoralised further. Even though not all of them got along, and despite most of them being fully aware that lives are lost frequently and easily in the prison realm, they couldn¡¯t restrain their fear at the speed of how many of their own perished one after another.


    Their judgement was further affected by the fact that the fearsome might of the attackers was miraculously kept up even after several minutes of intense assault and combat. In their eyes, it was almost like their pools of killing intent were bottomless and infinite.


    Obviously, neither Wei Yi nor Meng Chu had access to such methods or techniques, but they did have access to motes of killing intent.


    The bright red motes of energy were not a limited resource, and can be obtained in one of two ways ¨C either through the death of those with a significant attainment in their killing intent cultivation, like the Black Terror, Xing Chen Yi, or through the purposeful condensation of one¡¯s killing intent in the outside world by a cultivator. Amongst the two, the latter was more efficient, and generally preferable for most, as they did not wish to die to generate their own currency, but it still necessitated an immense amount of work.


    Anyone in the first realm could produce minute motes, then minor motes in the second realm, medium motes in the third, great motes in the fourth and titanic motes in the fifth, unless they deliberately adjusted the condensation process to reduce the size of the motes they produced.


    The only difference that one¡¯s cultivation would result in is the speed at which these motes would be created. Wei Yi could manufacture one minor mote every few minutes due to the concentration and quantity of her killing intent, so she spared a few for the soldiers on the second day, allowing each one of them to use no more than four in a single day lest they become consumed by her killing intent and lose all semblance of sanity and reason.


    Nevertheless, for those in the second and third realms of killing intent cultivation, four motes were sufficient to provide them with several more minutes of energy to use.


    In the particular case of this group, those few minutes were more than sufficient.


    ¡®Simple, yet effective. If I am not mistaken, that Meng Chu should not be in charge any longer¡­ no, no, what am I saying? Of course he is in charge of his own faction ¨C or so I will tell Ding Wen,¡¯ the man in white stood near a small candle that lit up only his upper body as he looked upon the scene of the warehouse being taken over, ¡®Still, to be able to predict the movements of the guards with such precision must mean that she had some understanding of the human mind and the layout of the building, not to mention possessing methods of aggravating those foolish individuals. As much as I would like to target her, I do not think it will be possible¡­¡¯


    Just as suddenly as he appeared on the spot, he disappeared the next second, the candle extinguishing itself.


    ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing, you tall bitch? Get out of here!¡±


    ¡°No. Make me,¡± Wei Yi replied to the short guard, who huffed and puffed for several seconds before rushing at her with an enormous hammer that he was clearly attempting to use to compensate for something.


    He swung it at her with all of his strength, not considering the possibility that this woman, as tall as she might be, would be able to evade him. It might have been arrogance, or anger at seeing someone so superior to him in an aspect he had long been ashamed of, or even a mistaken attempt to estimate her strength prior to attacking, which made him think that she might not be a killing intent cultivator.


    Whatever it was, he knew that he had been wrong the next instant, when she calmly moved out of the way, pushed the falling hammer onto the ground and then struck back with a force identical to that of the hammer, except magnified significantly and used via her fist, not some weapon.


    The Repealing Spark change was incredibly effective against those that could not evade it, especially after Wei Yi used both her strong physical body and powerful killing intent. With a single strike, the short guard¡¯s head was obliterated, and the shockwave from the strike impacted the building behind him, as well as his friend that had stood back initially, incapacitating the latter with the overwhelming force while the outer wall of the structure shook and cracked in many places.


    ¡®Good, the effect of the Repealing Spark move functions even with killing intent, meaning that it is not like my Elysian Palm, which is transformed into the Antithesis Palm. It must be that the latter is somewhat unique in many ways, causing this unusual change in effect from the form of energy that is used,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, entering the warehouse after burning the blood off her hand.


    This building contained no abominations and few guards, with nothing that needed to be recovered for her own purposes, so she was able to act recklessly.

 V2C24: Preparations for Danger

    Due to there not being any new threat that Shi Luo Feng could pose to the combined forces of Ding Wen and Meng Chu, the second day went significantly more smoothly than the first. Besides the few places in which Wei Yi had to meddle a little bit to adjust the odds of combat in her favour, every other combat encounter was resolved either purely using the might and limited wit of the warriors involved, or through the tactics she had suggested against the abominations.


    As before, there were notably more losses on Ding Wen¡¯s side, though it was still a lesser quantity than Wei Yi had desired. Fortunately, the fact that he was able to strengthen his forces without too much effort further reinforced the potential of him being in possession of a spatial item of some kind, as he would otherwise need to go through far too much trouble just to disguise the location of one of his treasuries. There were other possibilities and answers to how he managed to provide a number of his troops with pills that could amplify their ability for a short period of time, but one thing that she could be sure of was that he did not make them last night, as pill refinement took a long time even in the Planar Continents, where it was not an art that was barely brought back to life.


    Furthermore, from what she had seen of the pills produced in the prison realm, they would not last long after being produced, so they had to have been created recently, somewhere within the last two weeks. Based on the supplies that Ding Wen¡¯s faction must have had, they could have easily made them ahead of time and given them out to all of their soldiers on the first day, and yet not a single one of the soldiers she had quietly observed in between her bouts of assistance to her forced used even one, suggesting to her that Ding Wen had some of them prepared for himself that he then stored in a spatial item.


    Depending on how such items worked, it would not be too unreasonable to assume that the time within travelled at the same speed as it would in the Planar Continents, as it would be independent of whatever was accelerating the flow of time in the prison realm, and would thus allow items to be stored for significantly longer periods of time before decaying.


    It would be nonsensical to assume that someone is in possession of a power absent from the vast majority of the world above just due to this, as Ding Wen could have prepared the pills earlier and have only given them out now, as he would have needed to do if he was to remove them from whatever form of spatial storage he might possess, but if he had initially anticipated an easy time with the four-day offensive, then he would not have the time he needed to create the pills after realising that things were not going according to plan.


    Still, she had already created plans for dealing with both outcomes, and the result would be absolutely irrelevant to her unless she encountered some extremely unlikely and unforeseen outcome.


    What mattered more for the moment were the unplanned and unexpected disturbances, such as the strange spiritual will-like energy that she had spotted several times during the second day, the potential for superior types of pills or treasures that could be given out by Ding Wen, and the fact that the abominations could still grow much stronger so long as Shi Luo Feng allowed it. After all, they were created from fragments of the Magnanimous Leech, an incredibly powerful but flawed technique.


    So long as they were fed sufficiently, their strength would grow significantly more efficiently than that of typical cultivators, as their physiques were almost literally fluid and permitted for any changes that this development and progression required.


    With roughly one hundred full sacrifices to an abomination, they would reach a level equivalent to that of the Searing Torch realm, except without the physical weakness of someone in that realm of killing intent. They would be just as strong in their defence as their offence, recovery and mental strength, as they had no true minds to speak of. With five hundred, they ought to match someone in the Hatred Augur realm, though that was slightly more difficult to estimate due to how fragmented knowledge of this realm was both within the prison realm itself and the Magnanimous Leech, with the latter losing even more of its knowledge when it was desecrated into the abomination creating technique.


    As a result, Wei Yi could not quite be sure how reaching such a realm would affect the abominations, for Shi Luo Feng herself wasn¡¯t in the fifth realm yet, nor did she know whether one of the three of Beast¡¯s Rest could ever gather up so many willing or unwilling sacrifices for even a single abomination, though it would naturally be in her best interest to prevent any attempts.


    When it comes to large stores of medicines, pills and stimulants that Ding Wen likely had, she couldn¡¯t do much to stop their usage without the knowledge of where his treasury was, so the only thing she could do was counteract their effects with creations of her own. For this reason, she requested the collection of several resources that she determined to be within the pill sold at the auction she had attended, and was now standing over a desk full of these rotting and dried leaves and herbs, all of which had very slight similarities to those in the Planar Continents, though there were far more differences.


    This made it rather difficult to understand what any one of these ingredients was meant to be or what it could be used to do.


    Names and appearances alone weren¡¯t of much use, since pill refining relied on a lot of complex interactions between various resources that couldn¡¯t immediately be predicted on the first glance. For instance, Green-Stalked Wood Flower should never be mixed with Orange-Stalked Wood Flower under all but one very specific circumstance, in which the destabilization of the refinement process is necessary for the continuation of it, even though both are of the wood element and share a lot in common, suggesting that they ought to function well alongside one another inside of a pill furnace. If not for the fact that one was slightly yin while the other was slightly yang in nature, there would be no conflict between them whatsoever.


    For a yang-type physique cultivator like Wei Yi, spotting issues of that nature was easy, but many other differences within extremely similar herbs and materials could still be unnoticed even under the perceptive gaze of her spiritual will, meaning that not only did she have to examine everything carefully, but also experiment with it for a little while to see if it reacts unexpectedly to anything.


    That is exactly what she was doing right now, holding two extremely similar dried leaves in either hand.


    ¡®One of these is a Crimson Hatred Leaf, while the other is Hatred Crimson Leaf¡­ what kind of person named everything within the prison realm? Next they¡¯ll give me a Leaf Crimson Hatred, or-¡¯ her spiritual will brushed past that exact label, forcing her to use all of her mental strength to stop her hands from crushing the dried leaves and then burning them all with her physique energy, instead placing them on the table carefully before standing up and grabbing someone to assist her.


    Somehow, that ended up being Meng Chu himself.


    After she explained some of the situation to him, he shrugged, ¡°I understand that the naming sense of the first few individuals that had been imprisoned here is rather lacking, but there isn¡¯t much I can do about it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s where you¡¯re wrong. Sit down here for a minute. Since you¡¯ve lived in this realm for some time, you ought to have some basic familiarity with the various plants and herbs that can be found within, so you should be able to come up with slightly better names for them. List down the properties you are already aware of, and everything will progress a dozen times faster as a result,¡± Wei Yi replied, emptying her seat for him, ¡°Once that¡¯s done, I could make something useful out of them.¡±


    ¡°Ugh¡­ Is there no way to just send the memories into your head?¡±


    ¡°Do you have any primordial jade with which to create a jade slip and some spiritual will to fill it with your knowledge? If you do, I¡¯ll take all of them and give out my techniques to greatly increase the strength of your forces.¡±


    ¡°Obviously, we don¡¯t have access to such a thing. It might be possible to recreate the effects of a jade slip using the materials of this prison realm, but this is one of the arts we have not yet recreated.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded and left him to his work. He was able to write down the details for a number of the dried plants with ease, even mentioning their taste and how they were able to work alongside one another in food, and then came up with several names that suited the ancient plants far more than the same three words being rearranged, again and again.


    The Crimson Hatred Leaf became the Flaming Core Leaf due to its nature being that of the fire element, the Hatred Crimson Leaf became Steel Sky Root, for it originally belonged to a plant that used the energy of the air to nourish an underground tree, and the Leaf Crimson Hatred was converted into the Mortal Enmity Grass, as it had been affected by killing intent significantly and had transformed into a poison that directly drained the lifeforce of those with less than twenty years of life remaining. For those with more than that, it was simply unpleasant to consume, albeit beneficial to the stomach.


    This process took a lot longer when it came to things that Meng Chu was unfamiliar with, for he had no previous experiences to work from.


    If someone had been standing by their side during this, one question would have naturally appeared in their heads ¨C why didn¡¯t Wei Yi do this herself? Surely, she, with a head full of different words, terms and meanings, could come up with some satisfactory names?


    Unfortunately, Wei Yi¡¯s own naming sense was somewhat lacking, as could be determined by the fact that the mysterious characters and the technique that they provided still carried the same name as they did the first time she had benefited from them. Furthermore, the techniques that she had created on her own, whether it was the Elysian Palm or the Dawn Slicing Beam and Flowing Light, had all but exhausted her ideas for names.


    It wouldn¡¯t have been an issue if there were only one or two herbs that needed processing naming, but there were almost a hundred different dried leaves that all shared the same meaningless names.


    ¡°Alright, this should be it. When it comes to the other herbs, just ask someone else for help. Though, could I ask you to stop grabbing random people to assist you whenever you need them? It can be very disruptive to the normal operation of the faction,¡± Meng Chu said, standing up from her seat.


    ¡°I could, though I don¡¯t grab that many people. It tends to be you, Dugu Wei and Qiu Sheng, though not in that order. The majority of the time, I only have a chance to get your help because you are already walking towards me for whatever reason,¡± she replied, not considering the situation to be as relevant as Meng Chu made it out to be, ¡°I don¡¯t even do it that often.¡±


    ¡°Since it isn¡¯t a concern for you, faction leader, I will go ahead with it.¡±


    He sighed and left, clearly considering whether he had enough time to get some sleep before he next needed to appear in front of someone officially.


    Wei Yi could not do the same, unfortunately, as she now had to get back to the most important part of the pill refining process ¨C the actual refinement process. With a few more hints from Meng Chu, she was able to reorganise her view of some of the materials and better understand their purpose, and had created a rough duplicate of the Planar Condensing pill recipe, except that instead of gathering planar energy, it would affect and purify killing intent just enough to be absorbed without too much difficulty on the part of the cultivator.


    ¡®Normally, I¡¯d need some materials and craftsmen to create a pill furnace for me, but I have the former, and I have the physique energy for the latter process,¡¯ she thought, although she did not immediately move to create the furnace, ¡®There are a few experiments I can perform without a pill furnace, and perhaps if I reach the Searing Torch realm, I could use the pressure of fire-type killing intent to create an illusory furnace and pseudo-alchemical flame, completely bypassing the necessity for owning a high quality furnace by creating the most suitable one myself.¡¯


    In theory, she could also achieve this with either one of her other energies, but none of the three was currently at a sufficient level to achieve such a thing, nor was she aware whether anyone else in the Planar Continents or the prison realm had ever attempted to do such a thing themselves.


    Regardless of what anyone else has or has not done, she absolutely had to attempt this in the future.


    For now, she took the metals she managed to gather from one of the warehouses she attacked and slowly heated them with a careful application of her physique energy, removing the hammer from the back of her head to shape the metal into her desired form, that being the furnace she had used in the Timeless Grove, under Chu Ling¡¯s tutorship.


    It was not necessarily the best pill furnace, but it was simple enough and suited her purposes for now, as this Hatred Gathering pill would not be anything above the level of one star.


    She worked on the main body of the furnace first, striking the metal carefully and regularly to attain the desired state of the crude iron. Normally, a blacksmith would use an anvil or some other work surface, but Wei Yi used only her hand and naked legs, for there was little else that was stronger within the entire faction. Afterwards, she worked on the lids for the fuel and material compartments of the furnace, creating those significantly more quickly due to how little effort was needed to match the shape of the furnace.


    That process took her an hour before she had something sufficient for her needs. As it did not need to be an artefact in order to withstand a small flame combined with killing intent, her primary weakness in the forging process did not manifest, allowing her to create a crude but effective pill furnace.


    Wei Yi collected several of the dried herbs ¨C those that were most plentiful, for what she was about to do had a high chance of failure ¨C and carefully released a thin strand of yang physique energy into a single herb, diluting it as much as she possibly could in order to prevent the leaf from being turned into flame instantly.


    For a brief second, the tip of the leaf seemed to regain some vitality, but that same spot immediately lit on fire the very next second.


    Within seconds, the flame consumed the herb and turned it to ash.


    ¡®Huh. I must say, I hadn¡¯t expected it to work like that at all. I was certain that it would just burn the herb, and I would then be able to proceed to trying to adapt for the lacking vitality of the materials as the next step,¡¯ she thought, the reaction of the leaf being pleasantly surprising to her, ¡®This means that if I get the right type of physique energy and gather a sufficient quantity, I could infuse a transformed version of my own physique energy and revitalise the herbs!¡¯


    She grinned, put the leaves down and filled the meridians in her legs with True Ascendant physique energy, literally vanishing from her spot the very next second, rushing through the underground passages of the faction to find the same person that had left an hour earlier.


    ¡°And so, we-¡±


    CRASH!


    A wall right behind Meng Chu exploded, seemingly for no good reason, for no human eye could witness an object moving at such an immense speed when they were not looking out for it.


    Several chunks of stone dropped from the ceiling, piling up atop an unseen figure.


    After a few seconds of stunned silence from both Meng Chu and Qiu Sheng, the latter of whom had been presenting some of the latest information gathered by certain prostitutes on the inner workings of the other two factions, as well as some of the actions of the neutral forces, the pile of stone shifted, and crimson hair atop a crimson robe revealed itself.


    ¡°Phew¡­¡± Wei Yi breathed out, spitting out a few chunks of stone before cleansing the inside of her mouth with physique energy to get rid of the remaining dust, ¡°Meng Chu! Where is the miracle fluid being stored, and do you have a large container of fluid?¡±


    ¡°¡­ What the fuck are you doing?¡± he couldn¡¯t help but reply, the sight of cracks spreading through the walls and ceiling of the room being rather unnerving to perceive, ¡°It¡¯s in the fourth storage room, but-¡±


    ¡°Thanks!¡± she exclaimed, searing the wall with True Ascendant energy to prevent further weakening of the structure before running off, finding that storage room without too much difficulty due to being the one that selected and numbered every single room and chamber within the enormous network of underground passages.


    Several litres of miracle fluid had been stored within, all of it being contained in small, individual bottles either to make it easier to give them out later or to make them more difficult to carry and steal.


    She grabbed one set of the miracle fluid bottles and filled the adjacent drum with their contents.


    After locating a few pieces of rope, fashioned from a particularly sturdy dried plant found within the wastes of the prison realm, she was able to attach the drum to her back and, after adjust its size to be just large enough to fit through the doorways of the underground network, she left without providing any explanation to her subordinates. For the moment, they didn¡¯t need to understand.


    ¡°Eh¡­ Boss, do you have any clue what she¡¯s doing?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ Based on the context, I have to presume our master is going to get something for the purpose of pill refining, but¡­ Miracle fluid? I don¡¯t think that there¡¯s any relation between that and the great art¡­ Naturally, that doesn¡¯t explain the extreme rush¡­¡±


    ¡°R-Right,¡± Qiu Sheng nodded, turning away to hide her red face and her action of biting her lip.


    A great storm shot through the crimson wilderness of the prison realm, creating a great wall of dust as it travelled. The moving storm travelled north, from Beast¡¯s Rest towards the Great Bone Lake, the place where countless physique cultivators resided and constantly strengthened themselves through the killing intent of the Beast¡¯s bones.


    It did not need to be stated that this was Wei Yi, investing her full strength into every step to travel at a speed greater than sound.


    The consumption of physique energy was far lesser than when she used the Elysian or Antithesis Palm with it, but it was still exhausted swiftly after several minutes of sprinting at her greatest possible speed, forcing her to pause every now and then to sip some of the miracle fluid from the great container on her back. Luckily, the transparent water-like substance was extremely nutritious, providing her with an immense quantity of energy from just a mouthful of it.


    As a result, she was able to reach the distant outskirts of the Great Bone Lake with just half of the miracle fluid, conserving the rest for prolonged battles which she intended to participate in since the beginning of the journey.


    Her purpose for leaving Beast¡¯s Rest and heading to the town of the physique cultivators was to gather some crops, so to speak, that she did not need to invest any effort into in order to grow, till or care for.


    The best place to locate physique cultivators that wouldn¡¯t be missed would be outside of their primary gathering spot, where everyone who couldn¡¯t withstand the immense pressure of the bones would form small camps and unite into teams of bandits that would then go on to do things like occupying ancient and forgotten battlefields and raiding them for food and resources for themselves.


    They would be easy to deal with, as they would not be in any realm higher than the third, and the variety of physiques that they possess have a large number of purposes, with several being bound to have something like the Restorative Spring or Vitality Siphon physiques.


    Before the Great Bone Lake came into view, she was already able to find several distant camps of bandit cultivators, with the smallest camp containing only six individuals while the largest appeared to have almost two dozen physique cultivators. Although her spiritual will could not reach them while they were at the edge of the crimson fog, she was relatively certain that most of the camps had no traces of those in the third realm, meaning that they would be easy to take down with little expenditure of any one of her forms of energy.


    In order to not attempt something dangerous by misperceiving the power of her enemies, she neared the smallest camp with her stealth methods active, leaving the miracle fluid container behind in an inconspicuous location, getting close enough to scan it with her spiritual will.


    Within this camp, six men stood in a circle, their hands placed on one another¡¯s shoulders, their mouths moving quickly as they were chanting something together.


    No energy was shifting around them, not even according to her natural perception and the sensitivity of her dantian, so Wei Yi didn¡¯t immediately stop it and instead drew closer, using some of the scattered items and debris around the camp to get closer to them while continuing to avoid notice. Their voices weren¡¯t too loud, but with six people making the exact same sound at the same time, they were almost certain not to hear her footsteps, allowing her to focus on staying out of their lines of sight.


    Several minutes later, she came close enough to them to hear that they were repeating a single sentence over and over, while traces of physique energy moved between them through their bodies, which had previously impeded Wei Yi¡¯s observation.


    ¡°Endure it, gain balance. Endure it, gain balance. Endure it, gain balance¡­¡±


    A dozen books from the shelves of the Augur¡¯s Library flew out for her to glance through them until she understood what might be happening.


    ¡®The Devil General physique. Physical features vary extremely, from no clear physical effect to looking almost like a true devil, but the most significant effect is always identical ¨C it permits for the linking of multiple cultivators in a symbiotic connection that allows them to suffer together for greater growth, though the Devil General will not only benefit more from the connection, but that benefit will increase with every person they add to their link. Data on this physique varies, and the common version of the physique either only permits the linking of ten cultivators, or the physique grows for every stage it achieves, refining the physique from a One Hundred Man Devil General to a One Million Man Devil General,¡¯ she read through the book and summarised it to herself, confirming that the energy appeared to be yin-type and matched the effects, ¡®It¡¯s a shame that I won¡¯t be able to absorb this one for myself.¡¯


    She prepared herself and then leapt out, understanding from the relevant tome that a Devil General physique was at its weakest when it in the preparatory stage, before their energy could be stabilised and redirected towards combat.


    Thus, she naturally didn¡¯t give them that opportunity, invoking her Yang Elysian Palm while covering it in the energy of the Antithesis Palm to prevent its glow from alerting others.


    None of the six were able to react in time, causing them to be crushed before they had any chance to consider retaliation or escape. Their strong outer shells, their skin and the rock-like carapace of one of the cultivators, were cracked and shattered into nothingness, breaking apart their physique energy connection before it could attempt to recede on its own.


    Wei Yi kneeled down besides each body and drained the energy of the four that were in possession of yang-type physiques, burning up the bodies of the other two. As they all had different physiques, she didn¡¯t activate any more abilities for her True Ascendant energy, but she did feel it becoming stronger.


    It happened to recover almost the same quantity of physique energy as she had initially spent.


    She caught her breath and left the camp before anyone else had the opportunity to find her and cause trouble for her, striding right towards the next nearest and emptiest camp.


    The second camp turned out to contain a total of ten people, all of whom were split into pairs all around the surface. Two pairs resided within small tents, quietly talking to one another about something, two more were actively training and beating one another up in a recreational manner, while the last pair were further away, behind a ruined wall, pretending to guard the area while they were actually sleeping.


    Their lacklustre behaviour made it significantly easier for her to take them all out, one by one, without any others noticing a single thing. Once again, she collected the energy from their bodies and turned them to ash before returning to the wastes and recovering some energy via the miracle fluid.


    Immediately after, she left it behind once more and rushed towards another encampment.

 V2C25: Wei Yi, Bringer of Life

    She kicked her last opponent to the ground and siphoned away his physique energy, her bright mood dampened ever so slightly due to the fact that she found that, no matter what she did, she was unable to drain the energy of those that weren¡¯t yet dead, nor the external energy of those that were able to use it that way.


    Nevertheless, that was a minor point in comparison to the fact that she had found not just one, but two physiques that were able to recover the vitality in other entities and was able to activate both of their effects within her True Ascendant physique.


    There were three such physiques in total that she had found within the body cultivator camps, but she was only able to activate the Restorative Spring and Vitality Siphon physiques, while the Energy Pylon, another yang-type physique that fit her purposes, happened to be rarer and was only found in one cultivator of a low rank, preventing her from achieving her desire of having a complete set of similar physiques that could be put to use to different situations, depending on which one was most appropriate.


    Even though that did not happen, she did happen upon another physique called the Glimmer Heart in surprisingly large quantities, allowing her to attain it as well.


    It had no great effects nor was it particularly beneficial to her overall strength like the Golden Form and Grim Mortality physiques had been, but it did have the effect of limiting or outright cleansing poisons or toxins from her system while strengthening the heart and circulatory system significantly, adding to her already present ability to negate poisons with her physique energy.


    Unfortunately for her, she needed to gather the vitality of another in order to pass it along to the dried herbs, and even though they were only one star in terms of quality, they would still need a significant quantity of energy to recover.


    Still, there were plenty of camps left behind for her to gather physique energy and vitality from, with the latter only being gatherable while the supplier is alive whereas physique energy can only be gathered from the dead. This meant that the endless fields of grain that she could gather would provide her with two resources at once, which was a deal that most farmers would appreciate greatly, especially due to the free nature of the harvest that allowed it to cultivate itself.


    ¡®What is with all of my comparisons to farmers and crops as of late?¡¯ Wei Yi asked herself, glancing inwards to find that the mysterious characters were not reacting in any unusual way.


    There were no intruders within her mental landscape, nor could she see any foreign thoughts infiltrating the library. That meant that the influence, whatever it was, was originating from an external source and wasn¡¯t trying to outright change her mind but was instead acting much like how a sight of something familiar would cause one¡¯s mind to be drawn towards it.


    Her discovery forced her to delay her plans of attacking another camp, and instead made her explore the surroundings. The first time she had ever considered anything through the perspective of a farmer was when she had approached the Great Bone Lake, so it meant that the area of effect was rather large.


    That was both to her benefit and deficit, as the large area of effect meant that the energy was rather distilled and insignificant for someone with a stable mind like hers, but it also made the source significantly more difficult to notice. It wasn¡¯t like a light that would get dimmer or brighter depending on how close she was to the source, but a very occasional sound that was faint wherever she stood and no matter how much she tried to listen.


    She frowned, ¡®There is also no clear effect on the energy around me, much like how the physique energy of the Devil General bypassed my attention. Damn, this is- eh?¡¯


    Right in front of her was a flat, shimmering surface, floating an inch above the ground without any movement nor distortion. It was stable, strangely so in a realm full of killing intent, hatred, violence and domination, none of which tended to make for stability. She drew closer to it, approaching it carefully and with a layer of defences prepared to deal with any potential threats that may originate from it, and saw that it slowly seemed to change from a featureless plane to a window, or perhaps some sort of translucent and flat container, for a scene that depicted a still mother and child, with the latter being held by the former.


    It was a most peculiar sight, and one that she couldn¡¯t help but touch after some preparation.


    Instantly, the flat surface shattered, a perfect sphere appearing from it and growing rapidly until it encompassed Wei Yi and a five-metre radius around the area from which it appeared. As it moved, the world that it touched transformed, changing from perpetual crimson to green grass that couldn¡¯t have possibly existed within the prison realm.


    A little further away from her position, that same mother and child were in the same position as before, except that they were three-dimensional and, slowly but surely, beginning to move.


    The mother had long red hair and grey eyes, with large assets and a pleasant figure, albeit not the most athletic one. Clearly, this person had not engaged in much physical activity as of late, which made sense for someone who had been carrying a child for nine months.


    After standing in place for a while, looking upon her child with a pleasant smile, she suddenly turned around and faced someone outside of the sphere, someone that was neither audible nor visible.


    ¡°Yes, this one understands, my dear husband,¡± the woman said, probably replying to the invisible person, ¡°Thou need not worry, I shalt never attempt to go beyond my station. My only interest is my child.¡±


    Whether her husband was or was not satisfied, he must have left, for the mother quickly turned back around and focused back on the baby. She stood for some time, perhaps waiting for her husband to go far enough away, before she sat down on the grass and quietly whispered to the child, ¡°Do not worry, I shalt never abandon thee for thine family. Grow strong, Kong Shi Meng.¡±


    Wei Yi suddenly shook ¨C if the sphere had been born from her own mind, it would have certainly shattered due to the immense shock.


    Kong Shi Meng! This was a name that she had only heard once before it had been completely forgotten within the Planar Continents, with the only trace of it that remained existing within the Kong Holy Grounds and the arrays that surrounded the Lock Obelisks.


    To find it here¡­


    The woman reached into her pockets and took out a dried stalk of grass, sighing as she did so. ¡°Those elders could have spared a living stalk of Meridian Nourishing Grass instead of forcing me to use my energy,¡± she muttered, so quietly that the baby wouldn¡¯t have been able to hear her.


    Then, a soft energy came out of her hand, covering the grass stalk in extremely smooth planar energy. However, it was not metallic silver, flaming red, grass-like green, earthy brown nor the blue of water. No, it was the same shade as pure planar energy in fluid or solid form, the same colour that could be found within planar shards and stones: purple.


    ¡®Pure planar energy? No, that can¡¯t be it¡­ It is somewhat similar to my unstable planar energy, except there is no such instability, while the effects of it allow her-¡¯


    She couldn¡¯t even finish her thought before the grass stalk visibly began to recover, the time around it seemingly being reversed as it gained a certain vigour. Once it was at a suitable state for the woman¡¯s purposes, she crushed it using that same energy before feeding it to her child.


    ¡®This isn¡¯t only an insane coincidence, but an excellent opportunity for me to acquire a different method of achieving the same goal,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, calming her mind as to not continue to be aghast at everything, ¡®Everything I see is automatically added to the library, of course, but I will only be able to experience this in person once, and I must make sure that I never waste it just because there is something that I cannot yet understand. This kind of hesitation didn¡¯t directly lead to, but most certainly didn¡¯t help during the confrontation with the Great Family members and must have restricted me so many times in the past.¡¯


    Wei Yi focused on the purple planar energy ¨C though it should be noted that it was not of the same shade nor texture as the cosmic gaseous energy provided through the technique of the mysterious characters, but a far more flat and constant colour, completely unlike the constellations that one may find in the night¡¯s sky ¨C and observed as much as she could about the entire process of the usage and transformation of energy, for every single detail could contribute not just to the recreation of the regenerative technique used by the woman, but also assist in the stabilisation of the wild planar-type energy that she had long been unable to use for any longer than a few seconds without dealing significant harm to herself.


    If she managed to make it more stable while maintaining or even enhancing the power of it, she would have a far better chance at breaking out of the prison realm with it, for the Mysterious Planar sub-technique was most suitable for tearing apart the fabric of space itself.


    The scene of the mother holding the child persisted for a little while until it slowly dissipated, although the glass-like sphere around her remained in place.


    It was only then that the true nature of the Meridian Nourishing Grass finally came to her, once she was calm enough to process the matter, ¡®Right, the grass was a dull red in colour, with stripes of grey¡­ That is certainly reminiscent of the six-star herb known in modern times as the Great Physical Amplification Grass¡­ It seems that, if this is a true portrayal of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s situation in the past, then the Kong family had access to far more Great Physical Amplification Grass than most families do now, except that it could be acquired in a dried form more frequently than in the living form.¡¯


    Slowly, the sight before her changed, though the main participants remained. The mother had aged slightly as did her child, who had grown from being roughly one year old to about four or five years old.


    They were sitting inside of a building, with sunlight pouring in through an invisible window to their side. The mother sat on a chair while the child was on the ground, two books placed in front of him. One was labelled, in extremely archaic characters, ¡®Principles of the Five Elements¡¯ while the other described the ¡®Nature of Planar Cultivation¡¯. It wasn¡¯t immediately clear whether these were intended to be two pieces of reading material for the child, or if they were intended to provide him with a choice, so Wei Yi tried to scan the books with her spiritual will and confirmed that she was unable to penetrate the surface of the book to read the text within.


    ¡®It seems that I¡¯ll need to follow the script, so to speak,¡¯ she thought, kneeling down between the mother and child.


    ¡°Ah Shi Meng, could you tell mommy which one you¡¯re more interested in?¡±


    The young child looked at both books, scanning their covers with a surprising amount of intelligence in his eyes, and then raised his head to address his mother, ¡°What¡¯s the difference between them? Is one better?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ there are two paths in cultivation. One is to use the natural energy that is all around us ¨C planar energy ¨C and use it for yourself, without attempting to transform or modify it. It has some strengths, like being able to interact with all elements equally, but is isn¡¯t too common. You probably won¡¯t find any materials for cultivation past the Marked Core realm,¡± she answered, glancing at Kong Shi Meng every few seconds to ensure that he was understanding everything that she was saying, ¡°The other relies on refining the energy you absorb into one of the five elements. It is used a lot more and can benefit from areas with a high concentration of elemental energies. Your Kong family specialises in water-type cultivation, for example.¡±


    Although the explanation appeared to be a little too complex for a child that age, little Kong Shi Meng nodded confidently and reached out to open the book on his left, the ¡®Nature of Planar Cultivation¡¯.


    His mother sighed quietly at this, though she did not stop him, as when he flipped through several pages of the introductory chapters, he looked to the other book and did the same, his little face shifting into an out-of-place frown for a few seconds.


    ¡°Mom, could you give me more time? I¡¯m not sure yet¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, thou doth not have to choose anything yet. Thee will only be able to cultivate from the age of ten, and thou shalt have all the time before that to consider tine decision. I think that thine friend, Lan Jia Hao, wants to go down the route of elemental cultivation,¡± the mother said, looking out of the invisible window.


    ¡°By the way, is there a foundation establishment stage? Are there Daoists out there? Is there a mystical red fruit that can make your body invincible?¡±


    The mother smiled, giggling quietly, ¡°Thine imagination is incredibly varied already, Ah Shi Meng. There is no such realm by the name of Foundation Establishment, though thou could call the Energy Condensation realm that, if it strikes thine fancy. There are indeed some who practise the Dao wholeheartedly, on the eastern continent. As for fruits- Oh, thine father is coming again. I will come back in a second, Ah Shi Meng.¡±


    The child nodded, but the second that the mother turned around, he looked back down on the books and began reading them again, doing so far more quickly than before.


    Unfortunately, Wei Yi could only gather a few more pages for herself before the scene turned into nothing once more. It did give her a few more hints about what was happening, namely that these scenes had to be connected to someone¡¯s memories, and those memories were bound to belong to someone. Based on the way that the sphere tended to surround the young boy, she supposed that these were the memories of Kong Shi Meng.


    ¡®Since his time, all traces of pure planar cultivation appear to have vanished from the world, except for the Kong Mental Arts and the Gilded Library, both of which harness energy that is similar but incomplete in comparison to what the mother was able to display,¡¯ thought Wei Yi, glancing at the glass-like dome around her.


    There were several cracks appearing within its surface, and each one was growing with every second.


    Eventually, an image returned, this time with the mother sitting at the very edge of the scene while two boys, roughly nine years of age, sat opposite one another and were playing some sort of game. Judging by their actions, Kong Shi Meng appeared to be winning every time, though if one looked at their expressions, the grey-eyed boy appeared outright bored while the blue-haired and red-eyed boy was getting more and more excited with every single time he lost.


    ¡°You¡¯re so cool, bro Shi Meng! Again!¡±


    ¡°Alright, I think that¡¯s enough, Lan Jia Hao. My son is getting tired, but he¡¯s just too shy to say anything,¡± the mother said in a soft voice.


    ¡°Oh, come on, Aunt Shi Ming!¡± the kid replied, ¡°I¡¯m sure Boss Shi Meng-¡±


    ¡°When did I become your boss?¡± Kong Shi Meng finally said, ¡°Mom¡¯s right, I am a little tired. Could we not play something else? We can play chess, checkers, go or anything else, just not rock, paper, scissors! Okay?¡±


    ¡°Aw¡­ Didn¡¯t you say that you¡¯ll need to make those yourself?¡±


    ¡°Yes, so, for now, you can go,¡± the grey-eyed boy said, ¡°I¡¯ll see you tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°See you!¡±


    The blue-haired boy ran out of the scene, and it was somehow only then that the only other blue-haired person she had even met came to mind. Lan Mei Xing, someone who shared a surname with the boy, and seemingly belonged to another nigh-extinct family, with the Lan family perishing a thousand years after the Kong family, with their district still being known to the world and currently occupied by another family.


    The fact that they shared the same striking features meant that they had to have some relation by blood, even if it was ancient, distant and insignificant.


    ¡®Wait, that Lan Mei Xing also used techniques with pure planar energy, meaning that she might have inherited some of the techniques from this time period! They must have been far more powerful than the techniques of today, which makes it odd that the planar path was apparently less liked than the elemental path,¡¯ she thought, returning her focus to the woman and child.


    ¡°Mom, can I look at the manual now?¡±


    ¡°Ah Shi Meng¡­ I know that thou art very bright for thine age, but thee must still be careful. Thou shoulds¡¯t not begin to cultivate until thou art ten years old, at which point thee will be granted another choice between the-¡±


    ¡°I know that, mom,¡± said the little Kong Shi Meng with a degree of confidence that did not suit a child such as him, ¡°However, I am sure about what I am doing. The path of planar cultivation is right for me.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps thou art correct, my dear,¡± the mother said, taking out a manual labelled ¡®Path of the Initiate¡¯, ¡°Take it, but the second that thou feelt¡¯h anything wrong, I will help thee. Was chess that game that is played on a black and white grid?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, mom.¡±


    ¡°Then I will get started on making it for thine friend, so be sure to join me later to make sure I don¡¯t mess up thine idea. It would also be great if thou could explain the rules to me one more time, as they appear to be very intriguing,¡± ¡®Aunt¡¯ Shi Ming said, getting up from her seat, ¡°Do remember to call me if thou art in need of my help.¡±


    However, the second that she stood up, the child¡¯s attention was on the technique manual. He flipped through it with speed that almost rivalled Wei Yi¡¯s initial visits to the library after the activation of the characters, then shut his eyes the second that he had completed the process.


    What he did not notice was that his mother had not gone far, standing within a doorway and observing her child. Rather than pointing out her presence, she simply watched, a smile slowly growing on her face. It was not a malicious expression, so far as Wei Yi was able to understand, but one of motherly pride and satisfaction. She understood this expression, in a way, since her child¡¯s understanding of complex manuals at such a young age was impressive, regardless of the reason for this achievement. Kong Shi Meng could have been a young prodigy, someone who was just lucky, or even someone blessed with the knowledge of the ancestors, but the mother was proud to have him either way.


    The scene changed once more, prompting Wei Yi to scan through her Augur¡¯s Library to figure out why something about ¡®Aunt¡¯ Shi Ming¡¯s name seemed so familiar.


    ¡®Shi Ming, Shi Ming¡­ Yi Shi Ming¡­ The woman mentioned in the introduction to the Kong Mental Arts? That¡­ This is something that seems rather far-fetched, but¡­ The prodigal child of the Kong leaves their family at their hardest time, not willing to associate himself with them, and leaves behind techniques that specifically ask them not to be returned to his ancestors, while mentioning a woman who she does not expect to have any further children¡­ Kong Shi Meng, the child of Yi Shi Ming, could be the same one that created the Kong Mental Arts!¡¯ she mentally exclaimed, the possibility being extremely striking to her, ¡®Perhaps he knew that he would leave the world before his mother due to some conflict or battle that he engaged in, and so he wished that any of her children would be protected by the one that benefits from his technique, hoping that their gratitude would ensure their compliance with his request. By the heavens¡­¡¯


    Around her, the glass-like dome was cracking faster and faster, with only one scene appearing before it finally broke. Yi Shi Ming was watching her prodigal child display his progress in his cultivation now that he was roughly twelve years old.


    Before it shattered into nothingness, Wei Yi was able to observe that in comparison to what she was able to read about the Path of the Initiate, the energy he now displayed was of a far higher quality, and significantly higher in quantity than it should have been. In other words, he was not necessarily practising a different technique, but most certainly a superior version of it.


    ¡®Frankly, I don¡¯t think that I can improve a technique to such an extent if I am given three years, even if I was present at a time with significantly more advanced knowledge of the world¡­ Furthermore, the knowledge demonstrated by the young Kong Shi Meng, as well as his general mannerisms and actions, suggest to me that his mind is significantly older than his body, hence his boredom when he was interacting with his friend. I could tell exactly what the kid would do hours before he did it, so it isn¡¯t surprising that someone with the experience of a past life would be able to do the same¡­¡¯ she thought, before arriving at another conclusion, ¡®It is possible that this child is akin to Yi Henghua, in that they are both from another world, as it would then make perfect sense for him to have a whole host of curious ideas, like that chess, checkers and go games, as well as the questions he had asked when young¡­ mystical red fruit? I had one of those¡­¡¯


    Still, despite all the signs, Kong Shi Meng appeared to be far more sane than Yi Henghua, perhaps due to lacking a technique that actively worked to deteriorate his intellect, or perhaps due to him not having come into contact with it yet. As far as she recalled, though Yi Henghua had been born pale and extremely poorly, her mind had not broken until she found the Fairy of Dust technique, which set her on the course of her imminent demise at the hands of the family.


    Perhaps it was this same curse of the other world that caused Kong Shi Meng to abandon his family, though that was not necessary based on the circumstances of their relationship.


    She stored all of the information she had acquired in a specific shelf of the mental library and departed, rushing towards a physique cultivator camp in order to acquire a certain quantity of vitality for herself. While the technique displayed by Yi Shi Ming was incredible, it was completely unsuitable for her, for she could not manifest planar energy yet no matter what she wished to do.


    It was a possibility for her to adapt the technique for physique energy, however, and increase the efficiency of vitality usage in the recovery of the dried herbs, as she was fully capable of using physique energy for all kinds of techniques, albeit it would also warp their effect somewhat, much like how killing intent created the Antithesis Palm and the physique energy created the Yang Elysian Palm, while if she had somehow obtained the yin variation of her physique, she would have attained an extreme Yin Elysian Palm, which would freeze reality itself, rather than transforming it into a sun.


    The closest camp of physique cultivators was on the other side of the container of miracle fluid, so she consumed a little more of it and travelled towards it.


    When she reached it, she found a total of nine people, seven men and two women, gathering in the middle their tents for a lengthy discussion. It wasn¡¯t a particularly interesting one, as they were currently considering where to move and which small settlement to make into their target.


    Once again, this led to them being rather focused on their activity, to the point of allowing Wei Yi to approach them rather effortlessly.


    ¡°I believe that the lands around the Council of Crimson should be the most vulnerable at the moment, as they are currently in the middle of some internal strife, or so I¡¯ve heard,¡± said one of the men, portraying a higher than average level of intellect for the physique cultivators of the Great Bone Lake, ¡°It¡¯s far from here, but we will pass Beast¡¯s Rest, so we should be able to acquire some food from them as we go by.¡±


    ¡°But the Beast¡¯s Rest¡¯s people are all stupid!¡± another presented his wise argument.


    ¡®Truly, the greatest of retorts¡­¡¯ Wei Yi resisted the urge to mutter this so that she wouldn¡¯t alert them to her location and kept listening.


    ¡°We don¡¯t need to stay near them for longer than an hour or two before leaving, just so that we have enough time to purchase food and some blood wine,¡± the first individual also replied, glancing at his fellow bandits to make sure that they hadn¡¯t been convinced by the fool¡¯s attempt at argumentation, ¡°Furthermore, every main settlement has a number of camps around them, just like ours. We can attack them and gather the crimson motes that the killing intent cultivators use as currency, then trade it in and leave without needing to work for our resources.¡±


    ¡°Seems smart,¡± a shirtless woman said, her chest contained purely by a horizontal strap.


    ¡°Great, then-¡±


    ¡°I think the Seekers of Blood or the Cranial Domain is a better place to target, though,¡± she continued, ¡°We won¡¯t be able to harvest motes of killing intent on the way to the former, but they are far more open to our sort. Some of us could easily earn enough to feed the rest of us, like me with my Concentrated Humanity physique-¡±


    That was enough to convince Wei Yi to act, for the Concentrated Humanity physique was not just extremely unique, but it was amongst the greatest human-type physiques known to her and all of the Yi family, unless there were a list of physiques not provided to the common servants.


    She sprung out, manifesting two separate forms of energy around her palms. In her left, she concentrated her killing intent, while the right contained all of her True Ascendant physique energy, causing the former to be consumed by absolute darkness while the latter lit up like the blinding sun, instantly splitting the bandit camp into two. One was thrown into a terrible nightmare, with a great figure standing before them, about to unleash a deadly attack upon them, while the others saw the sun itself ¨C something that they had never seen before in their lives ¨C descending upon them with extreme and absolute haste.


    ¡°Guys, mo-¡± was all that the strap-wearing woman managed to say while she was also activating their physique, causing a strange form of darkness to emerge from within her.


    These two energies fell upon the camp, temporarily blinding even Wei Yi, forcing her to rely upon her spiritual will to judge the situation. Six of the nine were either disintegrated or killed in an instant, but three remained within the cover of the Concentrated Humanity physique energy, which completely prevented the passage of her spiritual will.


    Since she wasn¡¯t sure of the exact effect of this barrier, for it came from physique energy that had not been cultivated within the Planar Continents, she simply approached while the Antithesis Palm and Yang Elysian Palm dispersed.


    When they did, so did the black and white physique energy, receding into the abdomen of the bandit woman. Based on that energy, it was clear that this woman was within the Impermanent Permanence, the third realm, of physique cultivation, which not only significantly amplified the natural effects of the physique, but also meant that the woman had a body that was significantly more powerful than that of any normal individual.


    ¡®I want to resolve this quickly, but this is such a good source of vitality¡­¡¯ Wei Yi considered the better choice for a second before concluding that she would be able to handle the bare-topped woman for long enough to absorb enough of her vitality to recover one set of ingredients for her first set of pills, prompting her to leap forward, though at the last second, she switched her direction and grabbed a woman to her left, activating both the Restorative Spring and Vitality Siphon to rapidly absorb a significant quantity of her lifespan.


    Within just a few seconds, that bandit¡¯s skin dried and her face aged rapidly, working at a far greater pace than it had for the last few physique cultivators that had used it.


    The Concentrated Humanity physique cultivator ¨C who shall be referred to as Ren Xing from now on for the sake of clarity ¨C tried to pull her friend from Wei Yi¡¯s grasp, but it was too late, for Wei Yi released the woman herself now that she had little more vitality to provide. As Ren Xing herself realised this, she did not care to grab the elderly woman as she fell, instead releasing her physique energy to form a layer of energy around herself.


    Now that there was no more visual interference in the form of two clashing forms of energy, it was clear that her physique energy was not just pure darkness, but more of a strange, twisted mirror of her actual form.


    Faintly, that odd darkness revealed thin streams of energy flowing throughout the body, in the exact place as the meridians, suggesting that this was not just some mirage, but that the physique energy of the Concentrated Humanity physique transformed the body itself into an extreme, concentrated essence of humanity itself, resulting in it being an extreme yang physique despite its appearance.


    ¡®Whatever this ability is, I just want it even more now,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, noticing that all forms of the physique energy were able to stop her spiritual will. In the future, outside of the prison realm, this would be an incredible ability to have in the fight against the Greats.


    She activated her physique energy and circulated it throughout her meridians, causing her physical strength to be significantly amplified. Once again, she charged directly at Ren Xing, but this time she did not rush away to another target, instead drawing back her fist and using the full weight of the thin metal band around her wrist to invoke as much force into her punch as she possibly could. The solid mass of humanity, with her features highlighted and outlined by bright while light, retaliated with a punch of her own.


    Their fists collided, the sun meeting with the dark dregs of humanity, with both ignoring the damage that both of them would suffer as a result.


    Bones cracked audibly during the collision, with both of them being thrown back by a few steps. Ren Xing seemed to be shocked by this, but Wei Yi was not, taking advantage of this opportunity to rush towards the other living member of the bandit group. As she passed by Ren Xing, she managed to strike at her again, but her fist collided with the Grim Mortality veil and was forced back, with a thousand white spectral cuts appearing on the surface of the darkness energy.


    Wei Yi grabbed the other survivor and drained their energy as well, covering both of them in the Grim Mortality veil as to prevent the Concentrated Humanity cultivator from touching either one of them. Ren Xing did desperately attempt to break through, but just before the veil cracked, there was no more vitality within the third survivor.


    ¡°You bitch!¡± the humanity sprite finally said, a maw appearing within the head of the darkness, ¡°Why are you attacking us? What did we do to you? What do you need that vitality for?¡±


    ¡°The same thing as you lot, really. Survival and power are my goals, and I require your lives for that.¡±


    ¡°Then, surely, you¡¯ve had enough? Leave!¡±


    Wei Yi shook her head, ¡°My apologies, but this much isn¡¯t enough for me. I will need your life as well. If you give it up nicely, you may be able to retain your physical integrity.¡±


    ¡°Are you insane? I¡­ ugh¡­ What if I tell you about a secret treasure in the wastes?¡±


    ¡°Secret treasure? What is it?¡±


    ¡°One of the bones from the Great Bone Lake, one that I can barely withstand. A blood stone that holds a lot of vitality, far more than I do. Even a large technique scroll that holds some kind of powerful physique art!¡± Ren Xing exclaimed, her guard dropping somewhat, ¡°You don¡¯t need to kill me!¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ I could agree to that. Tell me about it.¡±


    ¡°No! You must first swear that you will not attack me afterwards! By the heavens, the earth, and the prison realm!¡±


    ¡®Is that sort of thing even effective? Will there be a killing intent-filled thunderbolt flying at me from the sky if I was to break this oath?¡¯ Wei Yi wondered, though she did not show her curiosity and instead nodded, saying, ¡°I swear by that which I hold most dear that I shall not betray their expectations and go against my word.¡±


    The humanity sprite seemed to frown at her odd phrasing, but she was unable to determine any flaw with it and reluctantly nodded, ¡°Fine. It is to the east of the Hold of the Mighty, and south west of Beast¡¯s Rest. I had been there once and took nothing, so I¡¯ll be-¡±


    Before she finished talking, both Ren Xing and Wei Yi leapt at one another once more, with the former manifesting a blade from her physique energy with which to strike at her foe. The latter not only expected such a move, but she also acted specifically to deal with it, using the Repealing Spark move to deflect her left-handed jab with her right arm while she removed White Echo from her clothes and infused it with the plentiful killing intent residing within her left arm. At the same time, she activated the killing intent-equivalent of Storm Blade Wreathing, causing the energies within the dagger to split into two individual strands, one seemingly converting everything seen through it into the opposite colour while the other was pure crimson.


    When she jabbed with the dagger, stopping only an instant before striking the surface of the humanity sprite, the twin energies burst out of the tip of the blade, the Antithesis energy reverting the immense protective power of the Concentrated Humanity physique into nothingness while the Crimson Storm passed through that gap and tore through Ren Xing¡¯s flesh and blood, carving out an enormous hole in her chest.


    Wei Yi grabbed her the second that the physique energy began to disperse, draining her vitality quickly.


    ¡°N-No¡­ how-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t waste my energy,¡± she interrupted her, ¡°If you¡¯re referring to my so-called oath, however, then even if there would have been an effect, I never swore that I wouldn¡¯t attack you, only that I would do what I expect myself to do.¡±


    Her words, in combination with the fleeting physique energy, ended Ren Xing¡¯s life, prompting Wei Yi to absorb her physique energy and activate that ability within her own physique.


    ¡®Even with that wound, that was a lot of vitality. I might have enough for two attempts now¡­¡¯

 V2C26: Hatred Gathering Pills

    She chose not to attempt to investigate the location described by Ren Xing for now, as she knew that if the woman had left the things she mentioned behind, there was either a high likelihood of them not being accessible by most of the population of the prison realm, or that she wasn¡¯t able to take them either, meaning that if she lacked the resources needed to access them, then it would be a waste of time. Instead, she returned to Beast¡¯s Rest, her newly strengthened and further concentrated physique energy permitting for an even more efficient use of her remaining miracle fluid.


    From her brief scan of the city prior to entering the underground passages, it seemed that only a few hours had passed since her departure, meaning that the first teams of the third day had left a short time ago.


    This was fortunate, for she had not expected to return so soon.


    With so much additional time, she would be able to produce at least one set of pills without any difficulty, unless the laws of this realm somehow led to the artificial lengthening of the refining process.


    As she walked through the underground passages of Meng Chu¡¯s faction, carefully walking around the spots that had been marred by her earlier rush through them, she did not conceal her presence, quickly catching the attention of a guard who, after bowing respectfully to her, rushed off to report to Meng Chu or Dugu Wei. She did not stop him, since she wanted one of them to be present while she worked so that she could pass along the resulting product to him for further distribution.


    When she got to her destination, she raised her hand and activated the ability of the Concentrated Humanity physique, finding it to act the least like the original physique out of all of the abilities she had absorbed so far. For one, it made no changes to her dantian, like the original was meant to, and when physique energy was manifested in its form, it did not convert her physical body to that of a sun-blessed humanity sprite. Instead, it somehow combined with the Golden Form and Grim Mortality physiques, creating a thin layer of sunlight on top of her skin, which should still be effective when it comes to guarding against spiritual will.


    ¡®I cannot tell whether it is as effective as that woman¡¯s original physique, not without someone else attempting to probe me with an identical level of spiritual will, but it does seem to be sufficient against most regular cultivators that I might encounter when I first emerge from the prison realm,¡¯ she thought, making the energy recede under her skin while she removed several sets of herbs from a box.


    Several minutes after arriving to her alchemy room, Meng Chu ended up finding her in the midst of restoring several individual herbs with extreme care. Whenever they seemed to be getting too hot, she limited the quantity of energy within it and adjusted where it was within the leaf.


    ¡°You¡¯ve returned, then. Have you acquired such an impressive skill over just a few hours of work?¡±


    ¡°Not exactly, but I did get what I had intended to get from the brief expedition. Somehow, fewer people died than the last time I had gone on one of those,¡± Wei Yi commented, her expression darkening only for a brief moment before she looked back at Meng Chu as if she hadn¡¯t said anything, ¡°Anyway, I can attempt to create the Hatred Gathering pills in a few minutes, at which point you can pass it along to the groups that require them most.¡±


    ¡°I see. Physiques sure are powerful¡­¡±


    She remained silent as she fully revitalised the first set of herbs. When the living parts of each leaf touched the crimson light of the world, they quickly attempted to wilt once more, the concentrated killing intent clearly not being beneficial to the plants that had initially existed in a world without it.


    That meant that she would need to be fast, which suited her just fine, as she had never intended to take her time for this particular project. Having something else to speed her up was excellent.


    ¡°Alright, either get out of here, or stand back. I wouldn¡¯t want to accidentally kill you just yet.¡±


    Meng Chu chose to stand back, naturally being extremely curious about the process of the lost art of pill refining, as well the methods of the Planar Continents and how they would then be applied to the prison realm.


    Once she made sure that he was standing at the other end of the room, for she was slightly concerned that she would cause an enormous explosion of killing intent with some flaw in the pill furnace and then instantly obliterate the mind or body of anyone in the vicinity, she turned towards the furnace and lit the coals within the fuel compartment, sealing it immediately afterwards.


    For a few seconds, she did nothing, allowing the flame to grow and spread to all of the coals before she continued by taking a few of the base herb for the pill and throwing them into the middle of the upper compartment of the furnace.


    The herbs slowly began to boil and melt, the medicinal essence separating from the waste materials under the combined influence of the flame and Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual will, with which she was able to subtly guide the changes within the structure of the herbs. At the same time, she prepared six different grasses and leaves, which she tossed in when the time was right. Each one landed in a particular section of the furnace, for use with the Cherry Revolving Blossom art, which was the most suitable and most complete pill refining technique known to her, and also began to melt.


    ¡®Chu Ling had helped me far more than I had realised, it seems,¡¯ she thought, noticing that several things were already failing to go as she had hoped, ¡®If this is the case, I ought to attempt a slightly different method of refinement, using the skills I now possess. In the case of success, it will allow for an entirely different approach in the future, with far more gains and benefits than this current method.¡¯


    She glanced towards Meng Chu and said, ¡°You may want to prepare some defensive measures. I am going to attempt a rather dangerous technique, with an even higher chance of explosive failure.¡±


    His eyes widened as he retreated as far into the wall as he could while removing several hatred blades and their defensive equivalents from his pockets, filling all of them with a quantity of killing intent in preparation.


    As he had taken her warning seriously, Wei Yi subtly nodded and focused all of her spiritual will and attention on the pill furnace. With an empty hand, she opened the lower compartment of the furnace, then released her physique energy into both parts. She did not restrain it in any way, and even did her best to concentrate the quantity and quality of it as much as she could, not being afraid to damage the medicinal essence ¨C she was seeking it.


    Naturally, she had not gone insane because of the semblance of a small failure. She intended to experiment with the reversing property of the Antithesis Palm, which had the potential to invert more than just killing intent or physique energy. Depending on the outcome of this experiment, it might mean that the best method for refining pills would be to create absolute failures, before inverting them.


    ¡®Chances are, this won¡¯t work as I¡¯d like it to, as something this miraculous would allow for the creation of pills that reach the level of the heavens, or ten stars, and would grant me access to pills that are ten times more powerful than typical equivalents, which, in combination with my planar energy and its multiplicative effects on the power of any pill essence I consume, would mean that I am able to reach the likes of fifty stars or more,¡¯ she calculated, fully aware that such a pill would have to shock even the Great Families, regardless of the unique means that they possess, ¡®Still, if I have successfully extracted a tenth of the medicinal essence and then convert a tenth to the opposite, then I would still have one tenth, resulting in a successful pill.¡¯


    With the addition of her physique energy, she was able to replicate the revolving nature of her refining technique, further accelerating their incineration.


    She accelerated the revolution until the six piles of herbs on the outside, which she had supplemented with the remaining ingredients for the Hatred Gathering pill, turned into nothing more than a blur, their rapid movement fanning the physique energy around them and causing it to frequently burst out of the openings in the furnace, occasionally nearing her crimson robes and lightly darkening the crimson threads, though they recovered quickly.


    At that point, she willed the six piles of ash and essence into the middle of the upper compartment, causing them to collide with the medicinal essence that was slowly burning there. This impact caused the already fluctuating physique energy to burst out of the furnace at great speed, heading straight out of the opening for Wei Yi¡¯s clothes, but before they reached her, she raised her left hand and lightly pushed her palm forward, striking with the pure essence of the Antithesis Palm and no excessive killing intent.


    The initial meeting of the two energies was uneventful, but the second that Wei Yi willed the physique energy to separate from her, the Antithesis energy prevailed, rapidly converting the extreme yang to absolute yin, the vibrant sunlight changing to perfect cold that froze not only the sides of the pill furnace, but also the air itself, creating a large chunk of ice in the shape of flames.


    Wei Yi melted the energy with her physique energy and carefully reached into the furnace, removing the resulting pills.


    They were made successfully, and although she was unable to determine their exact level from sight and spiritual will alone, as that could lead to the potential deterioration of the outer shell that kept the medicinal essence within, the gem-like appearance and the smooth red colour of the pill implied that it was most certainly above the quality of one star, even if it may not be significantly above that realm. Whatever the truth was, it was extremely satisfying to see.


    Furthermore, her work resulted in two dozen Hatred Gathering pills, none of which differed in quality. It was the best that any alchemist could ever expect from any one session of pill refinement, and it was usually achieved only after extensive training and practise of a single recipe and technique, while this instance was the complete opposite.


    ¡°I have succeeded,¡± she said, looking to Meng Chu, ¡°Feel free to have a look.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure? Will there definitely be no explosions?¡±


    ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be any explosions, though, if you want me to, I can cause an explosion or two,¡± Wei Yi grinned, though she reverted her expression quickly, ¡°You can take sixteen, I will take the remaining eight. Distribute these to the groups I had previously labelled as being at the greatest risk of suffering great danger today, though you may keep a few for yourself if you¡¯re interested in forcing me out of the passages for another hour or two.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do such a thing,¡± Meng Chu shook his head as he took one pill from her hand and carefully looked at it, ¡°This is very different from what Ding Wen has been selling at his auctions; those pills looked like small pellets of mud put together by an unsteady hand.¡±


    She shrugged, ¡°Not surprising, considering the fact that his craftsmen had no access to spiritual will or equivalent physique energy, nor did they have the opportunity to study under an expert in the Marked Core realm and with immense prowess in pill refining. Had I been unaware of what these pills could have been, I might have approached the creation process in a similar manner to them as well¡­ not that this experiment was significantly more refined.¡±


    ¡°Speaking of your¡­ experiment¡­ it appeared to be very unconventional even to someone who knows nothing of convention. If you do not mind explaining it to me, could I know what you did?¡±


    ¡°Nothing too unique¡­ so to speak¡­¡± Wei Yi replied, considering how much she wanted to reveal to the man that she might have to work with for the next ten or twenty years, ¡°You must have noticed the ice that formed from my physique energy, so I will say only this ¨C I have the ability to invert the nature of certain things. Yin to yang, bad to good and so on. Now that I know this technique of mine works on pills, my process in creating them will be significantly different from what you saw here. I might not even need to revitalise the materials, which is a shame, though I¡¯m sure I can put most of the things I had acquired on my trip to work elsewhere.¡±


    He did not understand the situation fully, but chose not to ask for further information, gathering that she did not intend to elaborate, instead taking the sixteen pills that had been offered to him and leaving to distribute them to his men.


    Meanwhile, Wei Yi placed seven of her pills onto the work surface in front of her and kept one in her hand, examining it closely to find any potential signs of faults or instabilities. What she was looking for were not major instabilities, ones that could cause the pill to fail or to outright explode upon consumption, but more insignificant ones that would cause the deterioration of the pill¡¯s quality and long-term stability.


    It was normal to find a number of these within any regular pill of the Planar Continents, as perfection was something that was nigh impossible to attain, and they were almost inevitable in greater pills, such as those above the three star realm, but perhaps due to the simplicity of the Hatred Gathering pills she had invented, there were no such issues with it.


    ¡®Then again, it might be due to the fact that I had inverted a failing process into a successful one. I did not create any correct aspects of the pill, so they could not be inverted into failures.¡¯


    She swallowed a single pill and turned her spiritual will into herself as she watched how it was processed by her body. As she did not include any planar energy within the recipe, there was no need to use it to dissolve the shell of the pill, requiring only the natural ability of the body to break down food. With her amplified bodily function, this was complete in seconds, breaking out the pill essence from within, causing it to be activated within seconds.


    At that point, all of the crimson light and killing intent around her slowly drifted towards her, accelerating with each second until her body was surrounded in a thick cloud of hatred, all of which generated a pressure similar to the one caused by the Beast¡¯s bones.


    When she absorbed that killing intent, the speed of the effect accelerated even further, growing with every small wisp of killing intent that she permitted into her body for her unique method of refinement. With every quantity of killing intent that she processed, she did gain some understanding of the process that permitted her to accelerate it, which, in turn, led to the further increase of the pill effect and then increased the quantity of killing intent that she could utilise. Furthermore, the pill assisted with her processing of the hatred energy, clearing away some of the Beast¡¯s influence from its essence to prevent her from being overwhelmed by it.


    From this experience, she understood that the pill had not only succeeded in accomplishing everything she needed it to, but also that it had reached a level of quality beyond four stars at the very least.


    ¡®I should have probably tested these before giving them out to the guards, but while I¡¯m at it, I suppose I should take the time to raise my cultivation with all of this excess energy,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, getting up and leaving the room, heading towards her personal chambers with great haste, for this veil of crimson around her could significantly harm the mind of common men through raw quantity.


    The moment that she entered her office, she closed the door and sat down in the middle of the obsidian bone array. It took a second for the gathering force of the Hatred Gathering pill and the black bones to resonate, but once they did, the killing intent around her was intensified by a dozen times. Her eyes were completely obscured by the bright red light, and her spiritual will was instantly pressed into her body, with her skin rapidly drying and cracking beneath the extreme concentration of killing intent.


    She remained calm, quickly separating her mental battlefield to split the Beast¡¯s killing intent across it evenly, preventing it from gathering too much in one place and overwhelming her. As every single wisp of killing intent was processed, it caused the battlefield to grow, with every twelve wisps translating to enough space for one more wisp to be handled.


    Eventually, the Hatred Gathering pill could no longer keep up with her increasing rate of cultivation, forcing her to take another one to maintain her momentum.


    Almost half an hour after she began, she finally felt her foundation budging and her cultivation breaking through an invisible barrier that marked the gap between the first and second stage of the Fine Piercing realm.


    The battlefield briefly manifested within the material realm, covering every corner of the room, with several mighty combatants appeared from one wall and rushing towards an invisible foe through another wall, with some occasionally clashing in the middle of the chamber, beside the cultivating Wei Yi, before one pushed the other out of sight and out of the illusory manifestation of the endless battlefield.


    It transformed into pure killing intent that then rushed towards her, giving her just enough time to surround her body in a combined veil of crimson and sunlight.


    These two energies clashed, rapidly compressing both of her available forms of energy. Through no influence of her own, her vibrant crimson killing intent flowed to her left while her physique energy focused on her right, with both of them becoming significantly denser with every second she was able to keep the protective layer active.


    Before this killing intent returned to her body, although she had crossed into the second stage, she still had one foot in the first stage, prompting the following thought, ¡®This great pressure is really helpful when it comes to further amplifying physical manifestations of energy, meaning that every single advancement and breakthrough I have in the future will be significantly more effective and beneficial to me. If I can repeat this effect, then I may be able to push my killing intent into the peak of the second realm while multiplying its power to an incredible level.¡¯


    After another second, during which she scanned her entire physique with her spiritual will to confirm that it would be able to endure the process, she released all of her killing intent and physique energy to protect her body while forcing the battlefield to reappear around her.


    Without the natural power of the breakthrough keeping it stable, it flickered and fluctuated wildly under the pressure of the surrounding killing intent. However, it was also being tempered in the same fashion as the twin protective energies around her body, and soon it was able to withstand the obsidian bone array and maintain a form for long enough to complete some sort of invisible process of refinement, prompting it to collapse inwards as well.


    Two layers of hostile killing intent crashed down on her body and the twin energies surrounding it, but their overall power wasn¡¯t just doubled, but tripled or possibly even quadrupled, causing the protective layer to flicker and waver for the first few seconds that it had to endure the terrible barrage of crimson light.


    ¡®Still, this is something I can endure if I just change the structure of the energies into something a little more stable than a shapeless mass of fluid,¡¯ Wei Yi observed, doing exactly that by weaving the protective layer into individual threads that she united into a thick layer, ensuring that every single thread was being held up by a dozen other threads, while also supporting a dozen threads to maintain balance, ¡®I can repeat the process at least twice more, but if I change my route ever so slightly, I will only need to do so once.¡¯


    She took the remaining six Hatred Gathering pills and threw them into her mouth before releasing another battlefield¡­ a total of six times. Each one was unstable on its own, but when the layers of the battlefield were interwoven with one another, they gained the same strength and cohesion as the energy around her body, enduring the ever-growing pressure of killing intent on the entire room, causing even the reinforced ground and walls to slowly crack.


    For several minutes, she endured the crushing force of the two illusory battlefields until the other six finally began to fall inwards as well, at which point she made both the killing intent and physique energy to burst outwards in order to meet it.


    The second that they clashed, her interwoven energy was pushed back onto her body, that single impact falling upon her body with as much force as a hammer would strike something on an anvil, with both the hammer and the anvil being created through the exact same force acting from separate directions.


    Many of her bones and internal organs suffered greatly, but by using the spare physique energy that she had left behind within her meridians, she repaired her skin and the core parts of her body just sufficiently to prevent her from perishing from internal bleeding or anything of the sort. That single collision also empowered both energies, allowing them to endure the pressure of the combined eight battlefields for long enough to continually refine them for several seconds, achieving the same amount of work as one battlefield would have achieved in an hour. Immediately after, feeling that neither protective weave could hold on for any longer, she willed them to return to her body, enduring the following entry of an extreme quantity of her killing intent.


    As it belonged to her, it was not hostile to her flesh and blood, but the raw quantity of it caused it to tear apart her mortal form as it passed through it, creating countless scars on her smooth skin with each breath, making her resemble an ancient battlefield with countless wounds and craters.


    Once again, she knew that she had made the right choice in disrobing after closing the door.


    The second that the killing intent had finished entering her body and she was able to mobilise her physique energy, she did exactly that, manifesting all of the powers that she had assimilated into her physique, causing her entire body to light up like the sun, with the soothing glow seeping into every one of her wounds and forcing them to heal as quickly as they possibly could. The Golden Form smoothed the many wounds, the stored vitality of the Restorative Spring and Vitality Siphon accelerated her regeneration and the Concentrated Humanity ability caused her form to return to its former appearance, almost as if she had never even attempted to suffer through such a risky method of cultivation.


    When the sunlight cleared, her flesh was almost exactly as it had been before, except her skin had become a little darker again.


    ¡®Alright then, I appear to have succeeded. My killing intent is now in the second stage and my physique has been compressed and strengthened yet again. When I am able to push for the breakthrough to the second realm, I might need to find a way to intensify the blood of the beast if I am to make any genuine progress,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, looking closely at her hands and nails out of some idle curiosity. She had never taken care of her nails beyond trimming them when they got too long for their common uses, but with every additional physique ability and stage, they had gained the same endurance as her bones.


    Fortunately, such maintenance could be circumvented via certain techniques and physique methods, or else both her hair and nails would grow endlessly without any materials in the world being able to make even the slightest mark upon them.


    Even then, her hands ¨C and her entire body, for that matter ¨C contained a strange mixture of masculinity and femininity, amplified by the general simplicity of her appearance. With her powerful and compressed muscle, as well as the absolute yang physique that had been shaping her for three years, looking at her upper body while she wears a shirt leads to most assuming that she is a man, and yet every single powerful muscle and chiselled feature on her somehow carried the natural beauty commonly associated with women at the same time, shaping her overall appearance to be more feminine overall.


    In her eyes, this was fortunate, for she did not appreciate the male form as much as the female, but it did force her to consider whether permitting any further changes to occur to her would prevent her from using one of a woman¡¯s natural weapons ¨C her beauty. After all, she was still intent to create Yi City anew, and she would need to resolve many issues and conflicts on her way there. Having the ability to deal with some things through allure or traditional beauty would be extremely conducive to this.


    ¡®Really, this is all caused more so by the excess of yang within my body than anything that I am personally able to change or influence. If I am someday able to find a method of gaining a second physique, or if I can somehow infuse myself with the yin I require, then- wait, this reminds me of the time I started thinking about people as crops,¡¯ she realised, mentally slapping herself for failing to notice such a thing for a second time in a row, ¡®The fact that my mind is still this easily influenced is not good, but it is fortunate that I am not being targeted by a malicious influence. Then, if I-¡¯


    She was about to entertain the thought that she could have somehow found another of the strange memory planes when, right after turning around on the spot, she found one floating freely in the air.


    Even if she was someone that took luck for granted, this would still be insane to her.


    It seemed that reality didn¡¯t want her to ponder this too deeply either, as the memory plane was already breaking down before she even had the opportunity to touch it. Thus, she decided that it would be best to do so before she had no more opportunities to learn more about this prison realm.


    Wei Yi got up and rushed towards the memory plane, reaching it with her finger as only a half remained.


    The memory burst into existence, covering a smaller area than before in a glass-like dome and converting the area beneath it into a large field of golden wheat, all of which reached to half of her height without any difficulty as it swayed in the wind.


    Once again, she saw the two figures, the mother and the child, but they looked very different. Both had aged significantly, with the child now looking thirty years old, with a head of long black hair and silver eyes, with a height that easily put him above his mother, who now appeared to be within her forties, with the same crimson hair and grey eyes as she had the entire time. As before, she was still smiling, except that smile had somehow grown brighter and more cheerful, as if some terrible pressure had been removed from her.


    Kong Shi Meng held his mother¡¯s hand while he looked downward with a downcast expression, ¡°¡­ I will have to leave for some time, I¡¯m afraid. Mother, I just wanted to say¡­ thank you for everything you¡¯ve done for me, and for understanding my situation when I had first explained it to you. Do you remember what I had suggested some time ago?¡±


    ¡°I do. I don¡¯t mind doing as you asked, though it will be a shame not to be able to watch over the great things you have created,¡± Yi Shi Meng replied, pulling the tall man into a hug, ¡°Remember, I can still take care of things for you, just like I did when you were young.¡±


    ¡°R-Right¡­ If¡­ If I cannot return, for whatever reason, you will know when you see a person with my gift. Please take care of them, if they come to you.¡±


    ¡°Mhm¡­¡±


    The image shattered, leaving Wei Yi with far more questions than answers. What were the great things that Yi Shi Ming wanted to oversee, and could they still be found within the Planar Continents? Had Kong Shi Meng revealed his nature as a person from another world, or is the situation that he refers to significantly different to what she expects? This gift of his, what was it, and where should one go if they happen to obtain it?


    ¡®I¡¯m guessing that it ought to be somewhere within the prison realm, seeing as Kong Shi Meng¡¯s memories have become scattered throughout it, but I cannot even begin to imagine what sort of blessing he might have obtained in this life, for even the Fairy of Dust was incredibly powerful.¡¯


    She looked around, and found no more such memory planes, or perhaps echoes, prompting her to dress and exit the room with a grim expression on her face.

 V2C27: Preparation for Completion

    Wei Yi removed another set of pills from the furnace, sighing when she observed that the sides of the furnace had suffered greatly after being bombarded by both endless yin and yang, meaning that it would not last for many more pill refinements. As something that had initially been intended to be disposable, the loss of one pill furnace would not be too significant in any way, but now that she had found an easy and efficient way to rapidly produce pills of extreme quality, the time wasted on creating a new furnace would be far more noticeable than it otherwise would have been.


    ¡®If only I had the same herbs as I could access in the Planar Continents, then I would have been able to achieve a great deal more than a few more Hatred Gathering and Flesh Toughening pill, the latter of which has worked better as a combination of several skin and body strengthening pill than I had expected,¡¯ she thought, separating them into individual piles before filling separate pouches with them.


    After deciding which portion of the pills would go to whom, she stored them in her pockets and left the refining room, finding Meng Chu to pass the results of her work along.


    ¡°Hand these out ¨C or pass this along to Dugu Wei, if she isn¡¯t too busy ¨C as you had given out the first portion of pills. Speaking of which, tell me what ended up happening with those previous pills that I had given out,¡± she requested, taking this opportunity to take a sip of miracle fluid to recover her energy.


    ¡°Is there even much to say?¡± Meng Chu asked while he received the pouches of pills from her, ¡°These did not have the same effect as the mud balls from Ding Wen¡¯s auction, but their effects helped a great number of our troops to break through to the next level of killing intent cultivation. Chun He and Ru Rong have both broken through to the sixth stage of the Condensed Shot realm, for instance, and a number of the troops had benefitted from their achievements to reach a higher stage of the Fine Piercing realm.¡±


    ¡°Good. I¡¯ll try to find a recipe for instantaneous restoration of killing intent rather than drawing in a large quantity of it, though, due to the differences between killing intent and planar energy, I suspect that it will be slightly more difficult to create than the Hatred Gathering pill. Still, that is something to focus on later, as, for now, we need to sit down and discuss what might happen on the morrow. Do you know why that¡¯s important?¡±


    ¡°You suspect that there will be some significant changes in the situation, I assume?¡±


    ¡°Exactly,¡± Wei Yi nodded, sitting down next to him while taking out a large book she had put together a short time ago, ¡°Let me test your basic memory for a second ¨C what major changes have occurred in our plans? What sorts of things did we not expect?¡±


    He thought about the question for a second before saying, ¡°The biggest change was the appearance of the abominations, correct?¡±


    ¡°Naturally, that was rather significant. They had not been outside of the realm of possibility when I first began to work on the plan, but, frankly, I had no clue that Shi Luo Feng would not only convert a number of her troops into them, but also allow so much power. Ding Wen has, so far, not gone too far against our expectations, other than how many resources he had in his possession, but that is what makes me suspect that he will have something up his sleeve for tomorrow,¡± she explained, presenting the book to him, ¡°Since I am not known to every soldier in your faction, I will leave it up to you to inform them of what they need to know about our schemes.¡±


    ¡°What are those schemes? I know that all of that information will be in here, but can¡¯t you explain some of the most likely ones?¡±


    ¡°I could¡­ Fine, I suppose there¡¯s nothing better to do for the moment, as my energy is still in the process of regenerating,¡± she sighed, ¡°As I had previously said, Ding Wen is almost guaranteed to own some sort of unique treasure, whether it is a form of spatial storage or some means of preserving items for longer periods of time. As a result, it is certain that when he notices how the odds are slowly turning against him, he will make use of it to ensure success in killing you and Shi Luo Feng ¨C who is also bound to attempt something, though she appears to have little more than the Magnanimous Leech and the abominations to use against us ¨C for it will be worthwhile, even if it somehow weakens his Greed Congregation technique.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve spoken with the man before, haven¡¯t you? Were you able to gather anything about his cultivation technique, like you were able to fully read everything about Shi Luo Feng¡¯s Magnanimous Leech?¡±


    ¡°Why are you asking stupid questions again? If I was aware of the core principles of technique, I would take them into account. What I do know, just like everyone else in Beast¡¯s Rest, is that he benefits from greater quantities of treasures being gathered somewhere close to him, though the specifics are almost non-existent. How close does his trove have to be? Is it any treasure, or does it somehow have to belong to him specifically? Beyond just increasing the power of his cultivation, does Greed Congregation allow for any kind of unique abilities that utilise the combined power of valuables?¡±


    By now, Meng Chu had opened the book and began to flip through the initial parts of it, prompting him to respond, ¡°So, you had to create some semblance of a plan to deal with every potential possibility? Besides the immense dedication that this sort of thing requires, most of this appears to be sensible. I imagine that he has to have access to one of the abilities you¡¯ve theorised there in order to calmly call himself the protagonist of the world.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh¡­ Wait, what? Can you repeat that?¡±


    ¡°Which part? Once, when he thought I couldn¡¯t hear him, in the early days of his position amongst the three of Beast¡¯s Rest, he muttered to himself that he was the protagonist, and he was bound to get ahead of us, people that don¡¯t deserve their positions.¡±


    ¡°Has he said anything else of the sort?¡±


    ¡°When he is in a particularly poor mood, he tends to call others side characters or, eh, N¡­ enpeshees? I am not sure what that is meant to mean, but he usually doesn¡¯t say it about clever individuals.¡±


    ¡°Well, fuck. Throw the book out, it is useless now. Dealing with otherworldly people is entirely different than handling normal people¡­ While I do not know what that word you said means, I have previously encountered one woman who said those exact same things. She also possessed a mysterious and extremely powerful cultivation technique that functioned also as a forbidden art, permitting her to convert her lifeforce into planar energy while showcasing the power of someone nearing the fourth realm while only being at the Emergent Anchor realm,¡± Wei Yi sighed, her expression darkening again.


    Meng Chu¡¯s eyes narrowed, ¡°Are you absolutely certain? How many of these otherworldly individuals have you encountered so far?¡±


    ¡°If Ding Wen is included, then I have encountered three. One had been defeated and slain with my assistance, I have encountered the scattered memories of another, and both of us are familiar with the third. The first two clearly have an advantage over their peers due to their experience in the other world, though something about the other world, or the process of crossing over, leads to them being rather mentally unstable,¡± she said, including Kong Shi Meng in that generalisation as she had no clue what happened between the first and second memory plane she had encountered, ¡°It might also be their unique gifts¡­ Yi Henghua, the first one I mentioned, had the technique called the Fairy of Dust, but the technique manual was nowhere to be found, and I sensed something strange upon her death.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t realise that these otherworldly people-¡±


    ¡°I think that a more appropriate name for them might be otherworldly demons. Their insanity, overconfidence and extreme arrogance is extremely harmful to literally every other faction in their surroundings. If not for the Great Families, they might have torn this world apart a long time ago.¡±


    ¡°Otherworldly demons, then. They are far more common than I would have expected.¡±


    ¡°Well, who knows how they manage it. Perhaps it is easy for them, resulting in them gathering such powerful techniques and their overwhelming arrogance.¡±


    ¡°That could easily be the case. Anyway, how do we combat someone such as that?¡±


    ¡°It naturally depends on the specific otherworldly demon, but surprise attacks are most suitable, no matter the opponent. We need to catch him off guard, and then strike him with everything we¡¯ve got¡­ or, rather, everything I¡¯ve got. Your abilities will be somewhat lacking in the upcoming conflict, Meng Chu,¡± Wei Yi stated plainly, ¡°At best, you will be the most capable amongst the distractions.¡±


    ¡°That is rather harsh, but I have to admit the truth of your words. Out of the three of Beast¡¯s Rest, I have the least combat ability, whether due to my low cultivation or my lacking combat sense, hence why I trained up such a number of guards in the first place,¡± he said, pausing awkwardly to cough before continuing, ¡±Anyhow, I¡¯m assuming you can come up with something more complex than just catching them off guard, correct?¡±


    ¡°Excellent observation abilities. Congratulations¡­ Sarcasm is surprisingly fun, even when we¡¯re only a day away from potential death¡­¡± she did the same, coughing twice as she considered the unsuitability of her comments, ¡°The issue with my Endless Calculation is that I require data to process in order to decipher how things will go. I have no such data, as the only thing that has suggested to me that he is indeed an otherworldly demon were your comments, which tell me nothing about his actual abilities. Perhaps the Greed Congregation is nothing but a front, and he also cultivates a sort of Fairy of Dust, turning his killing intent into a sand-like texture that can be strengthened and replenished by the consumption of his lifeforce, or perhaps he retains some knowledge from his past life that allows him to defeat us all not with excessive might, but with a move that taps into the world¡¯s laws themselves.¡±


    ¡°Now I suspect you are exaggerating, Wei Yi.¡±


    ¡°Once again, excellent observation. This is the issue with lacking information. I do not know whether the only person I had fought against, Yi Henghua, was amongst the most gifted or powerful of the otherworldly demons, or if she was the weakest, nor whether she had utilised every method at her disposal prior to being killed, meaning that I cannot possibly estimate what Ding Wen can do.¡±


    ¡°Then, you¡¯re going to need to work around the worst possible scenario?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t force me to repeat myself a third time, Meng Chu,¡± she said, although she nodded nonetheless, ¡°The first thing to do would be to call off the attack on Shi Luo Feng on the fourth day. I¡¯ve already seen her technique, and how she uses it, so I can be relatively confident in her overall capabilities, and what I know is that they are significantly lower than Ding Wen¡¯s minimum potential power. Even if she recovers in the time we permit her, taking down ten of her faction at the same time would still be easier than dealing with a single Ding Wen.¡±


    ¡°That bad, huh¡­ say, this isn¡¯t something that I¡¯m trying to accuse you of, or anything else of the sort, but are you also using something from another world?¡±


    ¡°¡­ You did hear how I had just branded everyone from those worlds as demons, did you not?¡±


    ¡°However, your claims about the otherworldly demons was that they were immensely powerful, and if that doesn¡¯t describe you, then it will not describe anyone in this prison realm. You¡¯ve already killed a Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival wearer a year ago, and you¡¯ve only grown more powerful since then, meaning that you¡¯re superior to Hatred Augurs while being at the Fine Piercing realm,¡± Meng Chu explained himself, ¡°Is that not exactly what the power of an otherworldly demon could provide?¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s what you meant¡­ Let¡¯s just say that¡¯s irrelevant for now, alright?¡± she said, while looking inwards at the characters that were floating idly within her dantian, ¡®Certainly, these things could be similar to the Fairy of Dust technique, granting me the knowledge of a powerful cultivation technique¡­


    ¡®It is the power granted to me by the characters that allows me to push the boundaries of killing intent and physique cultivation by repeating the breakthrough process seven additional times, and when I get around to proceeding with my physique cultivation, I will be able to temper it with the amplified might of the Beast¡¯s blood, which is naturally far more significant than anything the normal physique cultivator dares to get into contact with¡­ The only thing that I can be relatively sure of is that my mind has, so far, not been affected to a significant degree, with only occasional memories that seem to originate from the Planar Continents seeping in, and that I have had it all my life, without any traces of memories from another world appearing in my head, meaning that even if the characters did come from the same world as the otherworldly demons, they came to a native, without any of that world¡¯s taint¡­¡¯


    The possibility was there, though it was not as disturbing as one might imagine. So long as the terrible mental effects that the gifts of the otherworldly demons seemed to carry did not manifest within her, it wouldn¡¯t matter where the characters came from, because the purposes of whoever or whatever gave them to her would differ from the common otherworldly demons.


    ¡®This reminds me, I need to protect my mind from any future influences, be they internal or external. If I create a large wall on the outside of my mental landscape, then stabilise my internal structure until nothing but the most well-reasoned arguments and the clearest of evidence are able to sway it, I can be safe from both the memory echoes and any potential internal changes,¡¯ she thought, manifesting a new tome within her Augur¡¯s Library and noting down a large number of mental tricks and techniques she was aware of, to later sort through them and enhance her existing mental techniques to achieve her purposes.


    ¡°Very well, then. Should we get back to our original discussion?¡±


    ¡°Sure, let¡¯s do that. For the first step of the plan, we must gather all of our forces the very second that they complete their current tasks and send them to Ding Wen¡¯s present location. If we can do this before he has the chance to recall his own forces, it will be even better, but if we cannot, we will need to utilise the information we have about the layout of his auction house to get as much of an advantage as we can, though an overreliance on them will naturally push things in the favour of Ding Wen, as he could be much like you, having secret passages within secret passages.¡±


    Before she could receive a reply, she stood up and pulled out a map from one of the shelves, unrolling it on a table to display the known interior of Ding Wen¡¯s auction house. The basic layout that could be viewed by common visitors was mapped out with great clarity and surety, but the further on the map went, the less certain everything was, with certain rooms being drawn purely based on their theorised placement within the structure.


    ¡°At the beginning, we can make use of this, this and this passageway, as we are almost certain that we are fully aware of the dangers within, but after we traverse this location,¡± she pointed to a certain room on the map, ¡°we will need to charge straight forward, making sure not to stand in ways that would allow for our forces to be attacked from behind through some of the possible secret doors. In fact, we shouldn¡¯t stand against walls at all, and, if possible, not remain on any floor tile, brick or plank for any longer than necessary, just in case there is some trap there that will lead to significant losses in our forces. Although they will only function as distractions, they ought to have high morale while doing so.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Then, in this location, would you say that it would be wise to split up our troops?¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re interested in getting some of them killed for no good reason, then no. It would be best to go in one direction, then, if Ding Wen is not where we expect him to be, then we rush towards the other ¨C unless he is already waiting for us to do so, of course, in which case we fight him there and then.¡±


    ¡°Such a method of attack is bound to incur countless casualties on our side,¡± Meng Chu stated plainly and clearly.


    ¡°Yes, that will happen. Any route other than the perfect one will allow an otherworldly demon to slaughter countless weaklings. In fact, even if he isn¡¯t one, Ding Wen could still easily obliterate us so long as he puts all of the treasures he has collected to good use ¨C and I¡¯m once again speaking from experience,¡± she said, the memory of how Yi Fenwu and Yi Bai were able to slaughter all of the Yi family¡¯s expedition surfacing within her mind, ¡°For instance, if he has somehow obtained a method for controlling this prison realm, even if it is only in a minor way, he could still easy create a pocket of warped space that will instantly pierce any defence you could possibly muster.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°As a result, we either need someone who is intimately familiar with the passageways of Ding Wen¡¯s auction house to guide us to him while he is unaware of this, or we need some way of drawing him out without pulling along any unnecessary stragglers-¡±


    She suddenly paused and turned towards a wall, prompting Meng Chu to be quiet when he wanted to ask her about what she was doing.


    Wei Yi slowly approached it, then bent down slightly to look into a small crack on its surface. Based on her spiritual will, there should have been nothing within or behind that wall, and yet she saw the shadow of another figure standing on the other side, their back turned to her. Based on their physical features, it appeared to be a man, though no clear attributes that belonged to either gender could be seen. Her judgement was primarily made due to her familiarity with Great Dark and Great Light, as well as her own appearance.


    ¡°Very unorthodox method of appearing before someone, especially after throwing your energy all around the place,¡± she said to the man whose clothes were entirely white, ¡°Since you¡¯ve chosen to appear at this particular moment, I assume you have something useful to say on the topic?¡±


    ¡°Of course. I would like to propose a deal for you and your faction,¡± he replied, his voice sounding both old and young at the same time, with both sounds causing a chorus of voices at an identical volume and prominence, with no method of possibly telling whether one was more or less true than the other. The voice was, however, clearly male, putting that issue to rest almost as quickly as it was raised. ¡°I believe it will be profitable for both of us.¡±


    ¡°A deal could be acceptable, though I would need to know that you are capable of providing me with what I require.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be here if I could not. I can share with you the best way to get to your target, while avoiding all guards in the way. As a gesture of sincerity, let me show you some of the secrets paths through Ding Wen¡¯s base,¡± the man in white said, clapping twice before returning his hands to his side, ¡°Head to it and I can guide you. Afterwards, there are a number of things I would like in return.¡±


    ¡°You do not intend to discuss them now? Is it something that I will be reluctant to give you?¡±


    ¡°That depends on your attachment to certain things. Worry not, however, for I will make the trade fair. You might not even lose anything permanently.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ If that¡¯s how you wish to do things, then we may proceed in that way. Do note, however, that if you attempt to claim far too great a reward for very little work, I will not give it to you without a fight, and since you should already be aware of my combat ability, you should also know exactly what that means.¡±


    ¡°I do¡­¡± said the man enigmatically, dragging out his words before stepping away and vanishing, causing the crack in the wall to return to normal, with no sign of a space beyond it.


    Wei Yi stepped away from the wall and turned around, finding that Meng Chu was looking towards the map of Ding Wen¡¯s domain. On it, several areas that had been sketched or outright ignored due to the lack of information about them were now drawn clearly in red, almost exactly like Wei Yi had assumed that they were bound to be within reality. Besides confirming that the man in white had to have some comprehension of the interior structure of the auction house, it also meant that he had to have served under Ding Wen at one point.


    ¡°Well, it looks like the man in the wall has some ability after all. Our plans have to change once more.¡±

 V2C28: Invading the Hall of Treasures

    Several hours later, the new plan of action was concocted. It wasn¡¯t certain that the man in white could be trusted, but if there was any chance of success with the information he had provided, then Wei Yi would have to go with the fewest number of people possible in order to avoid detection due to incompetent weaklings. In fact, the best approach may be for her to enter on her own, with some people standing by to be able to enter if the man in white turns out to have lied to them.


    At the same time, Meng Chu would lead his forces on an undisguised assault on the surface, hopefully diverting Ding Wen¡¯s attention to it instead of Wei Yi. This would also lead Shi Luo Feng to believe that their conflict could conclude there, at which point she might be lured out to engage in battle as well.


    Since the so-called siege of the auction house wouldn¡¯t delve into the depths of the structure, planning around it was incredibly easy for her, allowing her to complete the plan within a few minutes, creating a very simple set of directions and movements for every single soldier that would be participating, while also providing their captains with a greater quantity and quality of orders to allow them to adjust to any powers and gifts that Ding Wen could pass along to his forces, although she obviously couldn¡¯t account for every single possibility and instead considered the likely functions of those gifts and came up with methods of defeating and circumventing them instead.


    This would, at the very least, lower the number of casualties amongst her forces, with the gaps created as a result likely being filled up quickly by Ding Wen¡¯s troops the second that she is able to triumph.


    If Shi Luo Feng or her abominations do appear, she also instructed Dugu Wei and the captains under her to attempt to form a temporary truce with Ding Wen¡¯s warriors, as neither side should want to see the abominations feed on them and their families before growing stronger and taking over the entirety of Beast¡¯s Rest.


    Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t possibly account for everything, and as a result, her current plan was significantly weaker than what she had prepared prior to learning about Ding Wen¡¯s potential true nature, amplifying every risk and danger and significantly reducing the chance of success, but after revising what she had several times, completing one final revision just before the last of the guards returned to the underground passages, there was little more she could do to improve her work beyond its current level, not without more time and knowledge.


    ¡®Frankly, I hate the feeling of lacking information. I don¡¯t know the truth of Kong Shi Meng or the Great Families, whatever that truth may be, but that is mostly irrelevant for the moment. Lacking any clear evidence of Ding Wen¡¯s origins and the extent of his abilities, however, means that there is always a high chance of planning around the opposite of truth,¡¯ she thought, passing along written copies of her instructions to each relevant individual, ¡®I hope I¡¯m not failing to see Mt Tai in this situation.¡¯


    Whether or not that was the case, she could not determine it before she actually fought against Ding Wen, at which point it would be far too late.


    She left the passages beneath Beast¡¯s Rest with a grim look on her face, her spiritual will extended to her absolute limit with much of her attention focused onto it, for it was difficult to observe the entirety of her surroundings with any other one of her senses. There was none of the same dread that she had experienced before the appearance of the Great Family siblings, but she was still concerned.


    Due to her last experience with fighting a powerful foe inside of a spatial domain, she also looked out for any potential spatial tears or pockets of warp, for either one could do a significant amount of damage to her and any of her forces without the combination of cosmic energy and True Ascendant physique energy that she had previously used to deal with the avatar of the Kong Holy Realm. Although something as large and complex as the prison realm was bound to have a consciousness already in control of it, it was still bound to be possible to harness some of the spatial energy of the world in order to strike at her, especially if it was being done by an otherworldly demon.


    ¡®Admittedly, I may be going slightly insane about the potential ability of the otherworldly demons, but every single one of the preparations I¡¯ve completed should still apply if he turns out to be the exact opposite of what I believe him to be,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, glancing at the rings on her left hand.


    One was the silver ring she had taken from Yi Fenwu, with no modifications made to it, while the rest were simple metal bands that she had created while contemplating the best method of getting around the potential trickery of the man in white, their internal structure mimicking the silver band, except with the energy circuits being adapted for killing intent rather than planar energy. Each one had a slightly different design, as she did not have much of an opportunity to test each one, so that if one failed to function as intended, one of the others would.


    In the best case scenario, all of them would have some degree of effectiveness and usefulness, resulting in her owning a total of four defensive items, with three rings adapted specifically for killing intent while the silver band could theoretically be activated by using Antithesis energy to invert the energy it uses into anything other than planar energy.


    Since the silver ring was able to block her attacks while she was using the full strength of her planar energy, and also because killing intent as a form of energy is naturally weaker than planar energy, so long as any one of them functioned, she would be able to safely ignore one attack from Ding Wen every few seconds, giving her significantly more options and flexibility in every single one of her actions, hopefully countering some of his treasures.


    If they did fail, her raw strength should allow her to handle Ding Wen in a one on one battle, albeit with a great quantity of injuries.


    ¡®It is a shame that I don¡¯t have enough time to increase my physique cultivation, or else I could elevate the chances of success from roughly 24% to 47% or so, depending on how great the increase in the power of my physique energy and the body is. Although I do not think that physique energy is the direct counter to killing intent, it is still incredibly effective, especially when it is combined with a strong mind.¡¯


    On the topic of the mind, she did not have much time to create an entirely new mental art to protect herself from further mental effects, but she was able to construct a wall of storm clouds around the mental battlefield, duplicating the walls of the prison realm.


    As they were within her mental domain and were thus entirely under her control, she was able to freely open or close them to any mental intrusions, though she suspected that if someone was intent on breaking in or out of her mind, then they could still manage, albeit with a greater delay. On the inside of her mind, in the mental library, she strengthened the support beams with a greater quantity of mental energy, creating a special location for potential influences from the mysterious characters to appear so that she could inspect them in more detail and conclude whether it was something she wanted to permit into her own mind.


    Neither of these were perfect, nor did she have the opportunity to check whether they would be effective, but both were still better than having nothing at all. Often, action was the best way to improve.


    With the extreme size of the main auction house of Beast¡¯s Rest, finding it was incredibly easy, especially after she had visited it several times for reconnaissance and entertainment purposes. At the moment, the outside of the auction house was devoid of people, with only a few guards protecting the front entrance from unwanted intruders.


    From the looks of it, these particular guards were only in the Fine Piercing realm, meaning that they were the spare warriors that would not be useful when sent to attack Shi Luo Feng, suggesting that those warriors had not yet returned to their posts.


    ¡®Perfect. Even if this is a trick by Ding Wen, people at such a low cultivation realm won¡¯t have a chance of spotting me,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, blending into the shadows of the streets with her stealth techniques and approaching the auction house from the side. Even without the amendments that the man in white had made to the map, Meng Chu¡¯s faction was still aware that there was a secret entrance in the side of the auction house, one that did not require any complex methods to access.


    After a few taps on specific parts of the wall, a small door opened up within an alleyway that seemed to end at the wall of the auction house, presenting her with a passage into it.


    The process of opening was quiet, and it was the same when it shut.


    When she got through that passage, she dropped into the basement of the auction house, finding herself in a small room with several chests and crates being placed against one of the walls, with a candle lit atop them.


    She wanted to scan the rooms around her with her spiritual will, but she felt the familiar energy of the man in white approach, prompting her to momentarily cease her actions and pay attention to the spiritual will-like energy instead. It gathered near her, then beside a wall that was lit by the candle, causing the man to appear by that wall, standing casually with his hands behind his back, dressed entirely in white and without any part of the clothes showing his skin, hair or any other defining features that could be recognised.


    ¡°You¡¯ve arrived alone. A wise choice,¡± he said, his two-voice chorus still confounding his age.


    However, Wei Yi did not pay attention to it or his words, instead, glancing around the figure curiously until a smile slowly bloomed on her face. ¡°Nice trick. No wonder you didn¡¯t appear in the open.¡±


    ¡°Are you prepared for me to guide you, or do you want to loot this area first?¡± he also didn¡¯t respond, perhaps not caring to answer or intending to avoid questioning for whatever reason, ¡°I am unfamiliar with the contents of this storage area, but I don¡¯t think there¡¯s too much of use here.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be the judge of that,¡± she said, briefly scanning all of the chests and boxes to learn that they contained various experimental pills, none of which were of particular interest to her. In theory, she could attempt to invert them into something useful via the Antithesis Palm, though she doubted her chances of success as the structure of the pills and the primary functioning aspect of it had formed and would then be inverted via the palm technique.


    To confirm her theory about the appearance of the man in white, she opened the chest that held the candle on its lid, looking at some of the pills within to justify her action.


    Just as she had expected, the second that the light moved and some of the figure¡¯s legs were obscured by the shadow, those parts vanished, as if they had never been there. When she shut the chest, the missing parts of his legs returned, proving that this was nothing more than a projection of his form, true or otherwise.


    ¡®He doesn¡¯t seem to have noticed my observation, so I will not mention it for now,¡¯ she decided, turning around and stepping up to the door, ¡°Is this the way I should be going?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. These corridors are empty the vast majority of the time, and they are lit well by candles. Proceed to the left, pass three turns then turn right and enter the small room directly in front of you. I will continue to guide you from there.¡±


    ¡°I hope that your directions do not lead me astray,¡± she replied, using her stealth techniques to exit the small chamber.


    The second she turned to the side, however, she found a man lying on the ground, several pieces of gold jewellery on his hands, around his wrists and his neck, with an eerie azure glow emanating from him. It slowly poured away from him, floating softly in the air as it flowed towards some unseen destination deep within the auction house.


    ¡°Is this sort of sight normal?¡± Wei Yi asked the second after she had stretched out her spiritual will and found that there were no guards to overhear her.


    The man in white appeared beside a candle and immediately shook his head, his image blurring as the spiritual will-like energy reached out and touched the paralysed man, only to recoil moments later, almost as if it had been in terror, ¡°Not in the slightest. Something is wrong.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t say¡­¡± she muttered in response, ¡°What is this azure light? Have you encountered it before?¡±


    ¡°Never. However, it is travelling towards Ding Wen¡¯s inner chambers. Adding to that the fact that the light is densest around the treasures on his body, it must be something to do with him!¡±


    He rapidly shared a list of instructions and directions with her, all of which were promptly stored on the map that manifested within the Augur¡¯s Library for a greater ease of use. The path, albeit somewhat confusing and overly long on first glance, guided her through the compound while circumventing the greatest number of traps and obstacles possible, meaning that the journey would be significantly faster than attempting to traverse the area directly.


    Wei Yi followed it, quickly stumbling onto more paralysed figures. Men and women alike lay on the ground, wrapped in azure light that emanated from them and their treasures, their eyes and bodies frozen in invisible ice.


    Much like the figure in white, she also attempted to investigate the truth of this energy with her spiritual will, but when she came into contact with it, she could see¡­ nothing. It was as if it was not present, with nothing out of the ordinary in the space that she had checked time and time again, despite the incredibly obvious light that filled it. However, she was able to view the internal organs of the frozen people and determined that everything about that had somehow been frozen in time, almost as if they were transformed into statues made of flesh and frozen blood.


    ¡®This is almost like they¡¯ve become treasures¡­¡¯ she thought, her fists tightening, ¡°Fucking otherworldly demons¡­¡±


    ¡°I remember where I¡¯ve seen this exact phenomenon before! It¡¯s whenever he turns around on that chair!¡± the man in white exclaimed, clearly failing to hear her whispers, ¡°It must have been this exact same force that prevented him from losing control when he was being overwhelmed by killing intent, meaning that it must be connected to his cultivation!¡±


    ¡°Well, this isn¡¯t exactly what I expected, but this isn¡¯t too surprising. There won¡¯t be much resistance in my path, will there?¡± she asked no-one in particular, speeding up significantly as she ran through the corridors of the auction house, her idea being proven right almost immediately.


    The deeper they got into the auction house, the denser the azure light grew, and the less pleasant breathing within the area was, as this imperceptible light changed the colour of the prison realm from the sickly red to an oddly unbearable, absolute and pure azure. Something about its scent, its texture and its movements aroused disgust within Wei Yi, in spite of all of the mental defences she had, like it was a natural reaction from the entirety of her being.


    Without making it obvious, she looked towards the figure in white, whose image stood in the nearby candlelight; his face was similarly twisted in displeasure, though it was difficult to judge the exact cause.


    ¡°You mentioned the traps in this area. Could you clarify?¡±


    ¡°Certainly. The first tra-¡±


    Suddenly, his figure flickered, almost like the candlelight, before it stabilised, albeit with less clarity and certainty that before. He wanted to say something, but his image flickered again, losing even more of its stability.


    Before it could happen again, he held out his hand and spoke quickly, ¡°Thirteen spike traps there, there and there, twenty-nine dart traps in those locations, four hundred and seventy-two individual pressure plates to activate them with only these tiles being safe, travel through the air will activate one of four hatred arrays that have the same function, one button there disables those traps-¡±


    His form flickered yet again, vanishing after a moment of uncertainty.


    ¡®That¡¯s quite the number of traps¡­ Very well, then, I might as well¡­ use these to strengthen my body!¡¯ she decided, judging by the slight marks on the walls, ceiling and ground that the traps would not be deadly to her and could prove to be an effective method of further physical cultivation.


    Furthermore, it wouldn¡¯t take much longer than stepping on the correct tiles to avoid triggering the traps, meaning that it would be just as efficient.


    As the crimson robes covering her body were able to recover from piercing attacks and small cuts, she did not bother removing them, simply running into the passageway with all of the traps while making sure to step onto every single pressure plate in the floor that would trigger each individual trap in just the right order and pattern.


    Just a second after the triggered the first spike trap, a faint click could be heard from beneath the ground before a set of spikes, arranged in a grid pattern that was six spikes wide and six spikes long, with a total of thirty-six spikes connected to a single pressure plate, sprung out of the ground, through incredibly thin gaps in the floor, ones that most cultivators in the Planar Continents would have failed to notice on first glance. All of them were shaded slightly by a thin azure light, though the quantity was so insignificant that even if it could have a significant effect upon someone, it would likely not.


    They stabbed through her clothing, then struck her skin and pierced it slightly.


    Not a single spike was able to penetrate deeper than a single inch into her flesh, with all of them quickly being forced out as her wounds regenerated and her physique energy melted the tips of the spikes simply through flowing within her body.


    As one set of spikes retracted, another set sprung out of the wall, prompting Wei Yi to curve and twist her body in such a way as to ensure that they would strike the correct places on her body, those that had vulnerabilities and would benefit from the tempering of even and consistent strikes upon them. Once more, metal pierced her flesh and then receded, with the majority of the spikes being damaged and bent after impact.


    Several darts shot out from the direction of her destination, striking very specific points on her body in the intention of disabling her movement and breathing, but with her Golden Form ability being stimulated at just the right time, they bounced off her skin and stimulated the flow of her blood and the many energies within her sets of meridians.


    Again and again, the traps activated and struck her, their might clearly having been intended for the typical intruder and not someone who had tempered their body to the extent that they were able to contend with someone in the third realm of physique cultivation while only being in the first. Furthermore, none of the spikes or darts were hatred blades, nor were they supplemented with any great quantity of killing intent in their attacks, meaning that they were only as powerful as the attacks that a typical human would be able to manifest through a great deal of mechanical ingenuity and engineering.


    Therefore, by the time she reached the end, the only marks that weren¡¯t on her robes were small and indistinct bruises that vanished even before the robes could reconstruct themselves.


    She encountered some more trapped areas on her path, but with the experience of the previous trapped corridor, she was easily able to figure out the best way through every single one of them, both in terms of personal safety and continued physical cultivation.


    Her gains were minor, for she did not encounter any traps beyond the level of the first ones, nor did the slowly increasing density of azure light appear to give her much trouble. Whether this was due to something about her particular body or the possibility that the azure light wasn¡¯t intended to harm anyone, she couldn¡¯t determine the exact reason, for there was no consistent reaction within her body whenever she was touched by the azure light.


    Every now and then, the mysterious characters would quiver, or her physique energy would suddenly pulse with a greater degree of energy than usual, but nothing happened every single time.


    ¡®Perhaps the light doesn¡¯t affect anyone, or there are multiple ways of negating its effects¡­¡¯ she concluded, as there was nothing else she could possibly guess without willingly receding her two energies, lowering all forms of defence and somehow blocking away the mysterious characters from reacting to any external stimuli, if that was even possible.


    If that was possible, she would still be reluctant to show such weakness in front of something that is not only imperceptible to spiritual will, but also likely comes from the ability of an otherworldly demon, meaning that it would be significantly more dangerous to deal with than any normal ability or technique.


    Once she was only several rooms away from Ding Wen¡¯s chambers, the man in white briefly re-appeared beside a candle, the majority of his form flickering constantly.


    ¡°He has-¡± his appearance deteriorated further, the instability and constant fluctuation of his form causing his voice to be lost amidst the chaos, hiding away any of the words he attempted to convey to her until he finally managed to pronounce, ¡°- the book-¡±


    The man in white vanished once again, except it was clearly out of his own failure to maintain that illusory form rather than some outside interference, perhaps from the azure light.


    ¡®The book? Does he have some kind of unique item that is shaped like a book and gives him a great quantity of power? If possible, I must capture it and inspect it closely to see if I am able to decipher what causes it to be so powerful, and if there are any methods of disabling or weakening such effects so that any future otherworldly demons cannot go on the same path that Yi Henghua attempted to go down,¡¯ she thought, furrowing her brows.


    She drew White Echo, gripping it tightly in her left hand, and held the Bone of the Beast in her right, though that grip was somehow less certain and comfortable than on White Echo, perhaps due to the latter blade being one that had been made without her while the former was somehow she had created specifically with the knowledge she had available to her.


    In addition to the Beast¡¯s Dice, which she placed within her pockets in order to allow them to fly out when necessary, she had three sets of weapons and eight individual weapons.


    As for defensive items, although the weapons could most certainly be used for defence, there was little on hand apart from her powerful body. The bronze mirror with the warning scrawled on it could be converted into a protective barrier for a brief while, though, as it did not follow the intent and meaning of the message, it would only last for one or two strikes at full strength, which would be insufficient in the case of the book possessed by Ding Wen permitting for repeated, constant attacks, even if they were the least suited to break the killing intent in the mirror.


    ¡®This is a shame, but there aren¡¯t many defensive items to be found within the prison realm,¡¯ she recalled the auction she had visited, ¡®It would be for the best if it so happens that Ding Wen excels in defence more so than offence.¡¯


    With all of her stealth technique being put to use, she proceeded through the last few chambers, all of them lit by candles, the light from which was overwhelmed completely by the thick azure that emanated from the many bodies that lay beside one another, food and drink scattered over their clothing and bodies, suggesting that they had been feasting prior to the appearance of the azure light, likely having been the first to return from their missions.


    That timing certainly didn¡¯t do them any good.


    The doors to Ding Wen¡¯s chamber were tall and wide, incredibly impressive to behold. If she was to arrive here at a better time, she might have even paused to appreciate the sight, but she instead moved straight forward, pushing the doors open quietly just enough to permit her to pass through them and enter the primary chamber.


    Jewels, golden bars and all sorts of other treasures littered the ground, all of them releasing the constant azure light that flowed upwards and towards the centre of the back of the room, where, atop a pile of glittering gold, stood a dark gold throne with crimson cloth lining.


    Ding Wen sat atop it, his eyes shut, although the eyelids still permitted a certain quantity of azure to pour between them and a book that floated in front of him, a strange light emanating form the surface of the paper. He did not appear to be aware of her entrance, nor was he paying any attention to the world around him, seemingly being confused in his entirety by the mystical, seemingly otherworldly book.


    No-one seeking to assassinate him would ever ignore such a perfect opportunity, and Wei Yi was naturally no exception, prompting her to rush forward with both of her knives aimed at vital points.


    Despite her haste, her footsteps were silent, each step cushioned by a thin veil of energy from her physique and killing intent, yin and yang combining to prevent any of her actions from resonating with the environment and odd azure around her, completely obscuring her from non-visual detection as she crossed the space between the door and the throne, flooding both daggers with energy as she did so.


    That should have been able to strike him with ease, and yet, just before her attack hit, azure light burst out of the book and impacted precisely against the points of her blades, throwing her back with just one simple strike of energy.


    Immediately after, Ding Wen also awoke, his eyes snapping open with the azure dispersing harmlessly.


    ¡°You¡­ Finally. I was wondering whether you would come to meet me again,¡± said the treasure-covered man, reaching into the book in front of him.


    Somehow, his hand passed through the pages and vanished inside of the book, burrowing into the depths of the pages up to his elbow before he pulled out a large sword from within, gripping it with both hands while the book itself flew behind his back and seemed to vanish completely, though Wei Yi couldn¡¯t tell whether it had truly vanished as it was completely imperceptible to her spiritual will even when it was right in front of her.


    Unlike the book, the sword was not just visible to her spiritual will, but it acted like a beacon, filled to the brim with killing intent and made up of an enormous quantity of incredible materials and valuables, creating something that equalled the bones of the Beast despite being composed of treasures that appeared to have originated from the Planar Continents.


    ¡°Welcome to my treasury. Since you attacked me first, it may as well be your grave.¡±


    Neither of them waited for the other to respond, for they knew that they both posed a serious threat to one another. As the large sword meant that Ding Wen¡¯s movements would be slower than Wei Yi¡¯s, she acted to take advantage of this by slashing with White Echo, creating a plane of killing intent that rapidly flew towards his throne. Just as quickly as she struck, one of the countless treasures that lined the ground flew up and into the path of her strike, an excessively large shield appearing in the way of the thin place of killing intent just to block it.


    That gave Ding Wen the perfect opportunity to stab at her heart, intending to end her in a single blow, infusing an enormous quantity of killing intent into the longsword.


    ¡®His movements are too simple and straightforward!¡¯ she thought, meeting the attack with White Echo.


    She positioned the blade of the dagger in a very specific way, then, as crimson lightning gathered around the blade, she deflected the blade with the essence of the Eight Great Changes, manifesting the change of the Repealing Spark to not just negate the blow, but to convert it into her own strength while she deflected it.


    Then, while adding the essence of the Bestial Palm skill, which was also intended to retaliate against powerful foes, she struck with the same hand, stabbing at his heart yet again.


    And, just as before, the book sprung out from behind his back, thought this time, it did not fire out a projectile of pure azure, instead turning to face her with its pages, finally allowing her to see what they looked like. Every single page appeared to be a portal into a great treasury, with walls made from gold and accentuated by sickly azure, and within lay an endless quantity of items. Blades, sabres, shields, pieces of armour, bows and arrows, pills, bars of precious metals and gemstones of unknown or mysterious origins and far, far more, with no walls or edges to the treasury in sight.


    From within the book, separating from the endless trove of riches, flew out a goblet smeared in blood and collided with her weapon, blocking both the blade itself and the plane of killing intent that would emerge, albeit suffering great harm in the process.


    The goblet that flew out continued in its path, travelling past her before dropping onto the ground and breaking into two.


    ¡®Just as I thought, it is a spatial item, but one with seemingly no steps needed to activate it, nor any clear limit to its capacity, meaning that it used either an enormous quantity of spatial materials, or it is being empowered ¨C or outright permitted ¨C by some otherworldly power, possibly the same one that is responsible for the excessive quantity of azure in the air,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded in an instant, using the Retreating Torch to create a gap between them, ¡®It seems that unless I am able to generate an overwhelming, unstoppable force, I won¡¯t be able to bypass the book, meaning that brute force, at least for now, is out of the question.¡¯


    Despite thinking that in her head, she still willed the image from the last minutes of the Kong Holy Grounds to appear within her Augur¡¯s Library so that she would be able to analyse it in great detail, for if there was one thing that could barely be stopped by anything, it was the power of the world itself, the warp, the energy created via the fluctuation of space, one that would likely grow in strength the more complete the reality it was created in was.


    Naturally, such a thing would also make generating such an effect more difficult, but if it was only for a second, she believed that she would be able to gather the necessary information from her past experience to force the warp to manifest upon her command.


    ¡®Before I can possibly do such a thing, I must study carefully, both inside and outside of my mind, to see what this world, and my opponent, permit, lest I waste my time and energy.¡¯


    For this reason, she merely paused her assault for a single second, before resuming it with twice the force and energy of before, trying her best to test the limitations of the prison realm and to generate a weakness within the particular location of their combat, as to further simplify the process of forcing the warp into existence.


    ¡®Piercing River!¡¯ she threw out White Echo ¨C naturally ensuring that it was protected by her energy for long enough to prevent either the Greed Congregation or the azure light from affecting it ¨C before forcing killing intent to gather in her now empty hand, forming a Living Spear with internal channels that mimicked the golden arrow-spear of Yi Fenwu, albeit with far less stability and power than the high-grade artefact would have had.


    Ding Wen did not need to resort to the mystical book to deflect White Echo, blocking it with his longsword instead before shifting his attention just in time to strike back at the rapidly approaching crimson spear.


    ¡°Do you think you can act freely here?¡± he said, forcefully pushing the freely moving White Echo away, ¡°This is my treasury! Every item here is mine!¡±


    ¡®The otherworldly certainly appear to have a fondness for spilling their secrets upon the slightest provocation,¡¯ thought Wei Yi without a trace of surprise or fear within her expression, ¡®I¡¯m not some kind of idiot, Ding Wen. I can see this azure light everywhere, and I saw how it was connected to you. If you could not have some influence over the items connected to it, I would be disappointed.¡¯


    Furthermore, it was difficult to surprise someone with access to spiritual will, not without first forcing all of their attention onto a single thing that was in a completely different direction to that of the matter one was intending to hide.


    As a large pile of trinkets and baubles floated up from the ground, forced into a large wave of gold and jewels by a thin layer of azure, she didn¡¯t just notice it, but she responded to it pre-emptively, collecting a large quantity of lightning-like killing intent around her empty left hand to permit for the free usage of techniques while also releasing a pair of her dice to assist her. At once, using the physique energy meridians to circumvent the issue of using several overlapping techniques at the same time, she executed the Sweeping Inferno change to pierce and shred the literal wave of wealth, a Drying Sands strike to combat the fluid nature of the attack, and an Antithesis Storm Burst to disperse any semblance of cohesion within the attack.


    Several forms of energy, warped and changes by her attacks, flew out of her hand and the dice that had flown closer to the golden wave, weaving together while never coming into direct contact before striking the hundreds of meaningless baubles that had been forced together via some secret technique of Greed Congregation.


    The inverted lightning retained its speed, reaching it first, colliding with the azure light.


    For less than a second, both Wei Yi and Ding Wen found their eyes drawn to this impact, wondering whose attack would be superior, before the answer showed itself to them. The Antithesis lightning shattered into countless pieces, but it was not broken, instead seemingly being empowered by the large cloud of azure. Almost as if it wished to feed upon it, the inverted lightning spread out across the entire wave of gold, drilling and piercing through the azure light with every minor movement that it made.


    Although the wave retained cohesion for that moment, it was clear that it would not remain that way for long, as every single fragment of azure that came into contact with the Antithesis bolts quickly melted into the air, turning into nothingness.


    To Ding Wen¡¯s credit, although his expression betrayed his shock, his actions did not. He leapt forward with confidence, intending to take advantage of Wei Yi¡¯s momentary distraction.


    Even when he saw her eyes turn towards him, with the hint of a smile appearing on her lips, he was far less perturbed than his otherworldly peer had been, carefully observing every hint of energy and movement within her body before choosing to proceed with his attack. The tip of his blade was half-way to her heart when he noticed that her left hand, which had been initially hidden due to her positioning, was lit up with a deep crimson, surrounded by faint shapes and hints of arrays that united together into an attack.


    ¡®Wrong choice,¡¯ she wanted to say to him, but due to the requirements of the technique, as she struck out with her palm, all she could shout was, ¡°The Touch of God!¡±


    Once again, an object emerged from the book to safeguard its owner, combining with the defence of his blade to negate the powerful beam of killing intent and to allow him to retreat safely, but Wei Yi¡¯s purpose was still met.


    ¡®This attack could function as a part of the technique to forcefully condense an area of warped space, so long as I use to amplify the effect of several powerful overlapping forces and distort the natural structure of the world in my favour,¡¯ she understood, adding this observation to the mental book on the warp while also looking out for any further information within Yi Fenwu¡¯s usage of it.


    Ding Wen remained silent this time, simply raising both hands in a specific manner to create two more waves of treasure to compliment the one that was already moving towards her.


    At this time, the other two strikes that she had previously unleashed towards the first wave finally met it at the same time, the power of the Sweeping Inferno and the Drying Sands strike uniting into an extreme force that shredded what little remained of the connecting energy between the countless valuables, causing countless golden trinkets and jewels to explode from it like a fountain, every individual piece flying to some corner of the treasury.


    Although there were two more waves to contend with, Wei Yi only felt more confident, for she felt her mind accelerate with every single movement she made, and every single piece of information that she was able to glean from the battle.


    While it was speeding up with every exchange between them, to her, it felt as if the conflict was slowing down, as every single action from her opponent revealed another fault, another weakness for her to exploit and target to limit the duration of the battle. She did not even turn towards the golden waves, instead releasing the other Beast¡¯s Dice with two techniques manifesting within each pair, with both of them being a strange amalgamation of the three she had previously used to defeat the initial wave.


    These two unnamed techniques were by no means perfect, but they were exactly what she needed for the present moment.


    As gold and focused killing intent collided with one another, a hint of Antithesis energy emerge from every strand of killing intent, causing every touch of her techniques to disperse the azure energy and to weaken the stability of the waves of treasure.


    This time, neither of the waves were outright destroyed, nor exploded into a magnificent fountain. Instead, the rapid loss of energy and the great loss of stability caused them to simply fall apart into nothingness, merging with the treasure-covered floor once again as if they had never moved to begin with. If someone was to enter the treasury at this very moment, the only hint they would have had of some attack being unleashed by either combatant would be due to the uneven quantity and thickness of the azure light in certain places, caused by the reversal and dispersal of the Antithesis energy that was easier and easier to produce with every single use of an Antithesis technique.


    ¡°The Light of Divinity!¡± she immediately followed up, striking down with an ethereal hammer composed of pure crimson to ensure that Ding Wen would have no opportunity to focus or regroup.


    In spite of her using the technique almost the same second as the targeting circle appeared on the ground around her foe, she invested almost half of her entire pool of killing intent into it, causing the circle to grow to encompass half of Ding Wen¡¯s side of the treasury. For a second, there was no hint of the enormous beam that should have followed, until the entire structure shook.


    The ceiling cracked one moment, and burst open the next, a great quantity of stone and hidden gold caving into the room, followed by and covered in resplendent yet haunting crimson, the energy almost seeming a world of its own, a battlefield of countless combatants and a single figure that overwhelmed them all, her hand raised perhaps to call down this great beam of energy. Even with all of the rubble and debris in the way, its speed was barely affected, meaning that just in a single heartbeat, the stone nearly crushed the man beneath it.


    Ding Wen¡¯s eyes widened as his reflexes took over, making him grab the book in front of him and raise it towards the rubble that rapidly neared his position. Just as it was about to strike, an extremely powerful wave of energy burst out of the book, meeting the stone and instantly obliterating it into nothing, not even dust, while the energy that was shaded in the obnoxious azure continued, colliding with the Light of Divinity.


    Wild wisps of energy from both attacks scattered into the treasury, some flying at or past Wei Yi in the chaos. She scanned both of the techniques, prompting the eyes of her mental self to widen just as much as Ding Wen¡¯s eyes had only moments prior.


    ¡®Although the energy appears to be formed through killing intent, it is completely different not just to Ding Wen¡¯s energy but killing intent as a whole! In a way, it is an entirely new form of power, harnessing the essence of a concept or an attack to completely circumvent the natural limitations of one¡¯s power and to amplify it beyond belief!¡¯ she realised quickly, following this with her realisation of the source of the attack, ¡®This is the energy of some kind of powerful artefact or treasure, most likely a sword, that has been forcefully harnessed not by Ding Wen himself, but by the book that it is contained within, causing it to unleash the full potential of the weapon into a single strike that was specifically aimed to dissipate the Light of Divinity! However¡­ this is at the cost of spatial stability!¡¯


    The flow of time within the Augur¡¯s Library seemed to accelerate even further, causing the world outside it to almost freeze as countless books appeared outside of the library, rapidly being processed, discarded and created once again by the natural process of Endless Calculation. Furthermore, the quantity of possibilities, theories and ideas only increased with every mental second, alongside the rate at which they were processed, as her mind slowly neared the very limit of what it was capable of, stimulated by her own adrenaline and the appearance of such a perfect situation for herself.


    While this attack was an entirely unexpected piece on the chessboard that was this battle, it was one that benefitted Ding Wen in the short term, but brought him harm in the long term, for with the appearance of such a powerful force, one that was likely beyond the Hatred Augur realm of killing intent, the entire prison realm, which was naturally limited at that realm due to the lacking power of whatever spatial array or item permitted such a prison realm to exist, the structure of the prison realm fluctuated and was distorted. Not only did it mean that the book was momentarily occupied by this, but it also made it significantly easier to force the appearance of the warp.


    Several real seconds later, when the Light of Divinity was almost entirely discarded by the powerful force from the book, White Echo returned to her grip, fitting perfectly in her powerful hands.


    Without any delay, she used Ember Switch to bring herself forward, stopping several metres away from Ding Wen to then slice at him once, then twice, thrice and far more times, her hand turning into a blur due to the extreme speed at which these actions were performed. Every single slash was imbued with a sufficient quantity of killing intent to form a plane of it upon the strike, and although each one appeared to be entirely random, they were all carefully calculated for one purpose.


    They combined together, mimicking the third type of the Beast¡¯s bones and concentrating the killing intent around them in a single direction, that being the brain of Ding Wen. Furthermore, as the many flat planes of killing intent arrived at their destinations, they formed the careful lines of an array and an inscription upon the world itself, with many strokes having been copied directly from the array that was used by the Yi family to condense the identity tokens of their family members. The rest were taken from a variety of sources, with some being calculated from nothing within her mind, but their united purpose remained similar.


    In addition to the simple planes of killing intent, the strikes included the essence of different combat techniques within them, with some featuring the Eight Great Changes, others including such simple moves as the Boulder Pushing palm or the Gentle Breeze strike, while others were warped variations of her more powerful attacks, such as the Elysian and Antithesis Palms.


    When Ding Wen saw and felt this congregation of energy around him, he instantly responded by unleashing his killing intent into the area around his body, forming the armour of someone in the Hatred Augur realm with an impeccable quality.


    However, in Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, this was an insufficient reaction that came too late.


    Before the armour could even condense in its entirety, her left hand had already released White Echo to permit for Antithesis energy to safely gather around it, while her right hand had similarly released the Bone of the Beast and instead gathered an immense quantity of sunlight-like True Ascendant physique energy, shaping itself into the form of the most suitable, yet one of the most frustrating attacks within her arsenal.


    ¡°TOUCH OF GOD!¡± she cried out as loudly as she could, investing everything she could to make the attack be as powerful as possible so that she would have even the slightest hope of success.


    Blinding light emerged from her palm, shooting out towards her foe at the same time as an inverted bolt of lightning formed around her left hand, flying out at the same time and speed as her other attack. Both of them moved near to the speed of light itself, and both crashed down on their target at the same time as his Hatred Augur armour finally achieved a concrete shape.


    On their own, both Ding Wen and Wei Yi knew that these two attacks would do little against him, but what the former had not yet realised was that as they struck him, they formed the eye of the array, the core of the inscription, and the very foundation for the portion of space around his head.


    To him, things seemed to become silent for a second, while Wei Yi saw that all of the layers of energy from the planes of killing intent, the techniques imbued into them and the extreme power invested into both the Touch of God and the Antithesis Storm Burst reacted together, causing the very fabric of reality upon that point to quiver. Countless thin cracks formed within space itself, but the most significant effect occurred at the location of Ding Wen¡¯s head, where all light and matter suddenly contorted and twisted, all semblance of stability and order breaking down without any limitations nor restrictions.


    In that same heartbeat, an immense quantity of azure light poured towards his head, trying to subdue this force. With every breath, the situation seemed to change, with the first showing the clear victory of the warp, with more and more cracks appearing in the fabric of reality, while the next would suggest that the azure was subduing this effect, but every single time the scene changed, the cracks would grow in size and number, while the azure would decrease.


    Every time the spatial cracks appeared, they would cut through the world around them creating thin yet long gaps within space itself, erasing a number of treasures and several parts of the throne from existence, further contributing to their power and the azure¡¯s weakness.


    At one point, it became clear that the warp had won, when Ding Wen¡¯s head and a sphere of air around it exploded, the red of blood mingling with the rapidly decaying azure and the twisting, inverted colours and shapes of the warp, rapidly spreading into the spatial cracks and growing, breaking treasures and stone alike, with the only exception in proximity being the book that rapidly sought to escape from said proximity.


    However, the warp could not remain for long without a master, or perhaps it was subdued by that invisible master, for the broken space recovered just as suddenly as it burst into existence.

 V2C29: A Book holds a House of Gold

    Although the battle seemed to be won, the altercation itself was not.


    While Wei Yi wanted to watch the spectacle and disaster for every second of its brief presence, she was forced to turn her attention to the book, which flew towards her at great speed and slammed into her body, breaking the defence of the Golden Form without any issue whatsoever. Some kind of strange azure presence emerged from within, seemingly attempting to enter her body and her dantian, but the very second that it emerged, the mysterious characters, which had previously been quivering endlessly throughout the duration of the battle, suddenly moved once again.


    Each individual part of the characters separated and flew into a very specific location, forming an array of extreme complexity and impossible ingenuity before the azure presence could even attempt to dig deeper into her body.


    The many fragments lit up with a cosmic light, bolts of lightning that seemed to be formed from the very fabric of outer space itself forming and arcing between the obsidian fragments, and an odd form of force emerged from the eye of the array, flying out to meet the azure presence within the spatial book.


    When they collided, the azure disappeared in an instant, vanishing not just from her body, but seemingly from the very world itself, while the book fell into her hands.


    This entire process was so rapid and sudden, beginning and ending in less than one millisecond, that even Wei Yi¡¯s mind, which was currently working at something that neared the greatest speeds it had ever reached before, could barely understand what had happened, though it was able to remember the entire scene and store it within the Augur¡¯s Library before the magnificent array formed by the mysterious characters broke down and they returned to their previous positions, once more detailing how to break through into the Emergent Anchor realm. Nonetheless, she knew two things with great certainty: that Ding Wen had been an otherworldly demon, just as she had initially assumed, and that there was more to them than simply possessing a unique technique or approach.


    Never before had she seen the mysterious characters respond to something with such a great amount of power and such a complex array. Previously, even when consuming the energy of the fourth or fifth realm of planar cultivation to unlock some new aspect of her cosmic energy, they were able to achieve this purely via forming a great maw to consume what they required.


    After such things, they would be revitalised, but now, they seemed to be almost entirely exhausted.


    ¡®Of course, all of this may be my imagination, but¡­¡¯ she could not finish the thought, instead shifting her attention to the pages of the book that she now held within her hand. When she had grabbed it after the strange azure presence disappeared, she had accidentally shut it, so she now opened the book to a random page, uncertain whether the page that it was opened to would change anything of significantly, if anything at all.


    The very second that she saw the treasury through the pages of the book, she knew that it had been a good idea to inspect it when she did.


    From what she had previously seen of the azure treasury, it was incredibly stable and significantly stronger as a spatial realm than even the prison realm, which also had a significantly greater quantity of natural laws and stability of form than the Kong Holy Grounds, and yet the sight within the treasury was now completely different.


    All traces of the azure light had vanished completely, leaving behind only darkness, and the gold that made up the rest of the vault was rapidly being broken down and shattered into nothingness. Many of the items that she had previously seen within the treasury had already vanished, and those that remained were rapidly being pushed towards the centre by the shrinking walls of the spatial realm, though some of them could not fit into the remaining space and were instead devoured and completely eradicated by the rapid compression of the space.


    ¡®How do I retrieve items from this spatial item? I cannot lose such an enormous quantity of valuables!¡¯ she mentally exclaimed, sinking her spiritual will into the item while also inspecting it physically in an attempt to find any trace of instructions or some hint regarding how the items was to be used.


    Naturally, she did not expect some kind of instructional manual, for that sort of thing would just be silly and out of place on an artefact created specifically for someone, whether by that person, or by someone else with intimate knowledge of that person, as was likely the case with Ding Wen and his otherworldly inheritance.


    The answer turned out to be simpler than she had expected, for the second that she touched the spatial storage with her spiritual will, she found it to be lacking any sort of owner or master, without whom it was unable to maintain a stable for and was thus falling apart even more quickly than the Kong Holy Grounds had. Although this was not a well-documented aspect of storage items, if this sort of thing even happened to ordinary forms of spatial storage, it did not take her much effort to understand that the easiest way to correct this would be by providing the necessary guidance to the spatial realm within.


    When her will had resided in the artefact for a few seconds, she felt the item adjust to her presence, and slowly acknowledge her as the owner.


    It was incredibly simple, though Wei Yi had an idea as to why this happened.


    ¡®Previously, the master of the spatial artefact was either Ding Wen, or the strange azure presence that had emerged from it previously. If the latter is true, it would explain why the book was able to move on its own and respond to threats that Ding Wen could not, and it might have even been the thing that permitted the artefact to store such an enormous quantity of items. Now that it is gone, there is no-one to maintain it, nor an internal source of power to keep it stable,¡¯ she thought, willing the rapid collapse to slow down and then stop.


    When this process was complete, the overall storage area of the artefact had dropped to less than one percent of what it had initially been, and she had the feeling that the only thing that had allowed her to keep it at the current size were the items within, their power maintaining the space they occupied, ¡®I should be careful with removing things from here, as I suspect that I won¡¯t be able to place them back into it. Perhaps if I find something like the azure presence and am able to place it into the book, I will be able to bring back some of its overall storage area, but for now the overall storage limit¡­ let¡¯s have a look¡­¡¯


    While she could not make direct modifications to the internal storage space of the book, she was able to feel out the weaker parts of the space in the gaps between items, judging through them when the collapse would have stopped on its own.


    ¡®The current size is roughly one hundred cubic metres, so, let¡¯s see¡­¡¯ she felt the space and quickly noticed that the outer parts of the spatial storage were incredibly weak, so weak that even her spiritual will alone would be able to break them down, prompting her to go deeper, ¡®At fifty metres, it is still weak¡­ thirty metres¡­ ten metres? No? Fi- One metre? There¡¯s only one cubic metre of space in this entire book? It makes sense with how perfect the removal method is, but that must mean that the azure presence was incredibly, absolutely powerful¡­ Otherworldly demons, huh¡­¡¯


    It was frustrating that someone that wasn¡¯t particularly talented in any way, like Ding Wen, could acquire such an incredibly powerful item and use it freely, but there was very little she could do.


    Just like the reform of Yi City, it had to be delayed until the day that she had the necessary ability to interact with the otherworldly demons at a more preferable level, rather than waiting for them to appear and decide that they want to kill her due to getting in their way. At that point, she could find out anything she wants from them, whether it is the origin of the azure power or the reason behind their appearance in the world and the reasoning behind their constant attempts to rise to the top. After all, Yi Henghua had expressly stated her belief that not only was she vastly superior to the Master of Yi City, but that she would be the empress of the heavens and the earth, while Ding Wen was clearly claiming all of his troops as his own possessions through the power of the Greed Congregation technique ¨C which, just like the Fairy of Dust manual, was nowhere to be found.


    She considered putting the book away, when her intuition told her to view its cover once again. As her intuition and natural senses had been reliable as of late, she did exactly that, finding a new line of text that had previously been absent.


    ¡°A book holds a house of gold...!¡±


    There was no opportunity to contemplate the meaning of the statement as the book suddenly lit up and shrunk down into an extremely miniscule shape before sinking into her abdomen, where it reached her dantian and stopped just before coming into contact with the remnant planar energy that still remained within.


    No traces of it remained on the outside, though she could still view the inside of the book whenever she wanted to.


    ¡®Spatial storage and the ability to nest within the dantian? That something like this was owned by someone who could not properly comprehend its ability is rather disappointing, though only in so far as the fact that it would have been great to see this wielded by someone competent. Naturally, I am not so masochistic as to desire to be beaten by someone with might that is far superior to mine ¨C with how I¡¯m intentionally letting myself get hit more and more as of late, I suspect that might not remain the case for long, unfortunately,¡¯ she thought, shaking her head as to bring her attention back onto the book, ¡®I suppose I could call it the House of Gold for now.¡¯


    She took a step back at that second to avoid a large chunk of rubble from falling onto her head, then switched her attention to the remains of the room. Somewhere in the area had to be the man in white, as he would not have otherwise been so disturbed by the azure energy that was limited only to the enormous auction house.


    After looking around carefully, she sensed the spiritual will-like energy flowing up from the ground, seeking a candle to appear beside before a faint image of the man in white appeared near it.


    Just as she was about to greet him, he said, ¡°Listen, I do not have much time. Whatever you did during your battle- how in the heavens did the ceiling collapse? I thought that even this place hadn¡¯t yet begun to suffer from falling stars and rocks, or anything else of the sort¡­ Ahem, what I was saying is that your battle has damaged my place of residence. Let me into your mental landscape so that I may remain in this world!¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, though she watched incredibly carefully as this avatar of the man in white dispersed and a small wisp of what she could only assume to be pure mental energy floated out of the cracks and treasures in the ground and flew towards her head.


    However, just as it came close to her, she grabbed the wisp out of the air by wrapping her hands in a thin film of killing intent in order to be able to interact with the clump of mental energy.


    ¡°Hey! What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Look, even if you aren¡¯t intending to do something stupid, I am not stupid enough to allow random people into my head. The fact that you still wanted to get into my mind, however, tells me that you do have some bad ideas,¡± she said, ¡°For this reason, I will need you to be in a certain position within my mental landscape. You wouldn¡¯t be opposed to such a thing, would you?¡±


    ¡°Mental landscape? I suppose I can permit such a thing, so-¡±


    Having received his affirmation, she extended the vast quantity of killing intent out of her head and grabbed the wisp of mental energy with it, forcing it into the mental battlefield. There, just as she brought the man in white to his new place, a small tower grew out of the ground beside the Augur¡¯s Library, the vibrant opulence of the latter completely devouring all attention that could possibly be focused towards the former. With no entrances or exits to the tower, and with her mental laws preventing anyone from shifting their form while within it, it meant that the man in white would be completely incapable of leaving nor interacting with the mental world without her permission.


    As she threw him into the tower, he initially changed back into his white-covered form. Although there were no issues with it while she had beheld it in the prison realm, now that she could examine his mental energy in greater detail, she knew that this was not his true appearance, and thus she applied her mental energy and killing intent to force him to assume the form that was most true and most appropriate to him.


    He clearly wanted to voice some opposition to this, but, seemingly to his surprise, the force upon his was far greater than his own, rapidly breaking down some of the white clothing that obscured every aspect of his form from the world outside.


    With the head covering gone and the white clothes transformed into a plain robe, his appearance became incredibly clear to her. The man in white fit his description in two ways, for not only did he appear to prefer white for his clothes, but his long beard was also entirely white, while his face was clearly aged and befitting the old man that made up half of his vocal chorus.


    Although he stood with much of the same stability and confidence as his disguised self, the lack of any hair on the upper portions of his head, including his eyebrows, suggested that he had lived for many years, to the point that he had long accepted his baldness and integrated it into his mental perception of himself. This prompted Wei Yi to ponder what her own appearance within the mental realm was like without the intervention of her desires, but she knew that it was not high on the list of priorities and thus remained focused on the present.


    ¡°What¡­ what kind of a mental world is this for a savage such as yourself?¡±


    ¡°Savage? I understand why one might call an otherworldly demon that, as they lack most semblances of reason or logic, but such a thing is rather unfair towards a scholar such as myself, no?¡± she replied, feeling that she fit the description of a scholar rather well.


    ¡°Could anyone living in such a terrible place be anything other than a savage?¡± said the man in white, his words prompting a mental nod from Wei Yi, ¡°Have you seen the conditions of the people around here? Of your culture? All of you are battle-minded savages that walk around while covered in crimson dust and mud, not remembering anything of the way of your ancestors that had initially brought you to this prison realm!¡±


    ¡°That is a surprisingly fair assessment, so forgive me for assuming that you might have some relation to the same world that Ding Wen came from, White. However, you have an issue within your assumptions, namely that I am someone that was born within this prison realm, or that I walk around in mud and dirt like many people here do,¡± Wei Yi said, willing the hair of her mental self to come undone so that she could display how clean it was, ¡°Furthermore, I have only come here a year ago, and I still recall the way in which the Greats sent me here ¨C hence why I am so intent to leave.¡±


    ¡°What do- Wait a minute, does this mental realm include spiritual will? Are you not a killing intent cultivator that is somehow fusing physique energy with it? How are using spiritual will?¡±


    ¡°Spiritual will? There may be some mental energy within it, but I don¡¯t think I used any spiritual will in the construction process¡­¡± she replied in confusion, briefly wondering whether he was referring to the spiritual will with which she interacted with most of her mental landscape, ¡°I get the feeling that you will call me a savage agai-¡±


    ¡°You are a savage then, for how can you fail to notice that mental energy and spiritual will are the exact same thing?¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡± her eyes widened slightly as she pondered the truth of his words, ¡®Spiritual will and the mind are often considered to be improved throughout one¡¯s planar cultivation, and both are conducive to the construction of a mental world such as this one or the Gilded Library¡­ Oh fuck, he may be right!¡¯


    Her spiritual will nearly split in half as one portion travelled to the meridians within her body. The first set was reserved for planar energy, and it was the original set that, in comparison to the ones created by the Condensed Formation Body, was seeming to be somewhat inefficient. Her second meridians were filled with physique energy, rapidly attempting to recover from the extreme expenditure she had endured during the battle. Naturally, the third network was home to her killing intent, the deep yet vibrant crimson flowing through her as it was able to return with far greater speed due to being formed from her own mind and mental landscape. The other two appeared to be empty whenever she had looked at them before, and yet, now that she had learn something new about spiritual will, she found that the fourth meridian network was now flowing with a thin, blue and white energy.


    It was her spiritual will, without a doubt, and it was incredibly stable, albeit significantly weaker than any other forms of energy at this current time, including the barely stable planar energy.


    ¡°So that¡¯s how it is¡­ if only these things weren¡¯t constantly being hidden from me¡­ Then, the spiritual will that I felt from you is indeed that and not a warped form of killing intent?¡± she asked, silently reinforcing her mental tower so that the man in white had no chance to escape from her no matter what he did.


    ¡°Indeed, it is, but I ought to ask the same of you. How do you have two individual forms of energy at once?¡±


    ¡°I see no reason to answer. Instead, share with me your identity. If it is useful, I may be able to put your identity to good use and repay you with some of the information you clearly desire. After all, I can tell you a lot about the situation in the Planar Continents, or as it was roughly twelve days ago. It will be necessary for everyone here the second that I break down the spatial walls of the prison realm and set the world free.¡±


    ¡°Listen to yourself, woman! Breaking through the walls of the prison realm, while an admirable goal, is far easier said than done. Even those on the other side cannot do so without a great deal of effort, not to mention the likes of you¡­¡±


    ¡°Other side? Of the wall in the middle of the prison realm?¡±


    ¡°A-Ah¡­ All of the killing intent in your realm is damaging my cognitive abilities¡­¡± the man in white muttered, ¡°I am Bai Hao, and since you are now technically keeping me alive, I can share a bit with you.¡±


    ¡®Bai Hao¡­ even his name is white. This man, or his parents, certainly have a certain preference for the colour¡­ However, his surrender is not just obvious, but clearly due to the fact that he is unable to contend with me,¡¯ she thought, removing as much of her killing intent from the inside of the tower as she could, ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll take everything you can tell me.¡±


    ¡°Before I do that, I would suggest that you ensure you are in a safe place, or else you will be too invested in my tales to focus properly.¡±


    ¡°I am not so useless as to be unable to pay attention to two things at once, Bai Hao,¡± she said, fortifying the tower for a second time before exiting the mental domain so that she could wholeheartedly focus on the matter at hand, that being the slow awakening of the many warriors that had previously been under the rule of Ding Wen. They had all been changed into frozen statues to bolster the man¡¯s wealth and the power of the Greed Congregation, and now, they were slowly coming towards the large whole in the entire building to understand what had happened to them and their leader.


    Naturally, when they saw Wei Yi standing amidst the ruins, their gazes quickly focused upon her.


    ¡®In this situation, there is only one thing I could possibly do, isn¡¯t there? For the highest possible chance of discovering the weaknesses of this realm and eventually escaping, I must have as many people standing on my side as possible, and this situation is the best opportunity to get them there.¡¯

 V2C30: Unification of Beast’s Rest

    From the many floors of the auction house, everyone who had been trapped within slowly emerged to look down into the depths of it, where one woman in crimson robes stood amongst the carnage.


    That woman, Wei Yi, slowly turned around on the spot, looking at all of these people carefully before the number of observers had grown to a sufficient number, and until several individuals that appeared to be high-ranking amongst them appeared at the edges of the auction house.


    She walked towards the ruined golden throne and reached into the rubble, rummaging around for a little bit before she pulled out a large blade out of it. The metal was damaged and scuffed, with a large chunk missing from it, rendering it mostly useless due to the fact that it would break soon due to the immense structural instability that this missing piece caused. Nevertheless, it was recognisable to all who looked upon it.


    ¡°Warriors of Ding Wen¡¯s faction, you should be aware of who owned this blade. This same person cultivated the Greed Congregation, and once he felt threatened by me and Meng Chu, he sought to turn all of you into his belongings to bolster his abilities. You should be able to recall something about that experience, even if it is only a few seconds of freezing alive,¡± Wei Yi said and, when she saw several of the warriors look to one another and nod, knew that her assumption was correct, ¡°Now, Ding Wen is dead, and I have killed him.¡±


    There was some murmuring from the watching crowd, but most of them had gathered this information from the fact that the treasury was ruined and there was no trace of their leader.


    Still, it was incredible to some of them due to the fact that Ding Wen appeared to be nearing the peak of his Searing Torch realm, with some previous speculation mentioning the fact that he may have even reached the Hatred Augur realm, the absolute height of killing intent cultivation in this realm, as well as a realm that gives the cultivator something nearing immunity to most attacks.


    ¡°As his slayer, I wish to offer you a proposition ¨C join me. I have no need for extreme wealth nor your lives, and my goal isn¡¯t limited to reigning over Beast¡¯s Rest. Instead, I wish to break free of this prison, and when I do, you will all be able to come with me.¡±


    It was this statement that caused significantly more ruckus amongst all of them. After the first few arrivals into the prison realm, there were many that sought to exit it and retake their previous places in the Planar Continents, but with every generation, just as Yi City declined from the greatest jewel of the continents to a series of separate districts, so did their hope of returning. They had never been able to so much as scratch the storm-like walls around the prison realm, and in order to leave, assuming that they could do so simply by passing through those walls, they would need to tear an enormous hole within them.


    For this reason, most had long given up on such a thing, for the Hatred Augur realm could not be surpassed, and yet, even when combined with the most powerful hatred blades, it was powerless.


    ¡°Can you even claim that you have a good chance of succeeding?¡± one of the men called out, not due to some remaining loyalty to Ding Wen, nor to disturb her, but because the very idea of leaving was so enticing that most would willingly throw themselves into flame for such a possibility, so long as it was truly plausible.


    ¡°Yes, I can. In fact, I can do more than just claim a chance of success ¨C I can guarantee it. During the battle with Ding Wen, I had managed to utilise the combination of our two attacks to damage the stability of the space around him, thus bringing him down. When I reach the peak of my cultivation in this prison realm, I will be able to do so on my own, and with the combination of several arrays and hatred blades, I can create a permanent rift in space, or possibly cause the decay of this prison realm to begin. Regardless of the method I use, it will give us all a way out,¡± she said, ¡°And once we are free, with my knowledge of the Planar Continents, I can continue guiding you to rebuild Yi City without the vile influence of the Great Families. Most of you would appreciate that, no?¡±


    ¡°You broke space? How can we believe that?¡±


    ¡°Just take a look at the space above the throne, and you will see the truth,¡± Wei Yi answered a different person, turning around and swinging White Echo towards the space she had previously created the warp in.


    The slash was coated in crimson light that burst out, cutting through the air in a straight line. When it came into contact with that space, it strangely distorted, forming into the shape of the previous spatial cracks. For a few seconds, it remained in place, then dispersed and scattered into naught, the killing intent merging with the bright crimson of the Beast¡¯s energy.


    ¡°She was speaking the truth! She broke space!¡± one yelled immediately after recovering from the sight.


    ¡°The woman can break space!¡±


    ¡°We may actually be able to free ourselves!¡±


    ¡°Additionally, you lot may have noticed the robes I am wearing. In case you are unaware, these are the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival, one hundred of which are worn by the strongest killing intent cultivators within the prison realm. I claimed mine from the Black Terror when I had only begun to cultivate killing intent, so you can be sure that my power will be formidable no matter who I contend with,¡± she added, ¡°Join me, and return to where you belong. Under my command, you will all have a set of combat techniques that I will adapt specifically for you, and with every significant contribution you make, I can grant you all kinds of power and wealth. What do you say?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    The majority of those watching kneeled down in place, all of them showing their respect to her. To those that remained undecided on the matter, she said one more thing, ¡°If you are worried about the other two factions, don¡¯t be. I already control Meng Chu¡¯s faction, which we can confirm the moment that we leave the former auction house. As for Shi Luo Feng, she won¡¯t stand a chance with our forces and insights combined. We will put her down for good, before she can create more abominations.¡±


    ¡°We will serve you!¡±


    In truth, convincing these people wouldn¡¯t have been difficult for anyone that had come in and defeated Ding Wen seemingly on their own, as most of the soldiers wouldn¡¯t be willing to go over to Shi Luo Feng, the one that was responsible for killing many of them due to her creation of monsters from her own troops, and going over to Meng Chu would be foolish when the slayer of their previous leader was clearly superior to him. Since she claimed to have the latter under her rule, then it would either mean that she is sufficiently certain of her chances in contending with him, or because her words are true. Regardless of which one it was, since she was confident in allowing them to confirm this with Meng Chu himself, then there would be no harm in siding with her. After all, if she was found to be lying, then they could always turn on her and pledge allegiance to Meng Chu instead.


    Naturally, most people did not actually think that turning against her would be a good idea, as her ability to damage space itself meant that they would be killed in a matter of seconds the very second that they revealed their killing intent.


    ¡°In that case,¡± Wei Yi smiled, waving towards the entrance of the auction house, ¡°why don¡¯t we begin on our first task together?¡±


    ¡°You are really intent on saving all of your men, aren¡¯t you, Meng Chu? Just give up that redhead and I won¡¯t need to feed all of you to my creations!¡± Shi Luo Feng repeated, the twisted forms of several men and women that had been in the Searing Torch realm undulating around her, keeping any of Meng Chu¡¯s troops from retreating. Although the numbers were not in her favour, every single one of the abominations could stretch their bodies until they created a perfect semi-circle around their foes, with the other wall being part of the auction house.


    ¡°And I think you¡¯re under a great misconception, Shi Luo Feng!¡± Meng Chu answered, ¡°She-¡±


    All of a sudden, they felt an extreme quantity of energy fluctuate above them, prompting all forces to immediately look above them. Even the abominations followed this compulsion, momentarily ignoring the orders barked at them by Shi Luo Feng.


    Amidst the sky, an enormous quantity of crimson that was both similar to the Beast¡¯s killing intent and yet entirely unique from it formed within the air, then, the next second, it formed into a great beam that descended with enormous speed upon the auction house, its target being near the back of the building.


    Despite every single one of them being a significant distance from the edge of the beam, they still felt the immense quantity of energy concentrated within threatening all of their personal killing intent, forcing it to retreat into their meridians. It fell onto the roof of the auction house and broke straight through, continuing through the many floors, both above and beneath the surface. The great quantity of crashing stone combined with the enormous force of the strange killing intent technique caused the entirety of Beast¡¯s Rest to tremble.


    It was suddenly stopped by something else, some kind of immense power from beneath the auction house, one that certain members of Meng Chu¡¯s faction inexplicably understood to be from a sword.


    For several seconds, these twin energies collided with one another and spread out sideways, shaking the rest of the auction house while tearing through the walls and windows, the killing intent and sword energy reaching even beyond the building¡¯s walls and washing over the competing forces of Meng Chu and Shi Luo Feng.


    Then, just as suddenly as the sword energy appeared, a third force burst out of the auction house, and while some were able to recognise the nature of the second force, the third was entirely unknown to any of them, and was significantly more powerful. It shattered both types of force and seemed to rupture space itself, causing all of their killing intent flows to be disrupted. Some, like the abominations, even visibly twisted and distorted, though they did not, unfortunately, return to human form.


    The duration of the third force was significantly briefer than the other two, though both of them disappeared with it.


    For a few seconds, there was only silence, before quiet rumbles of movement appeared all throughout the remains of the auction house. Although none of them could fly, as such an ability was beyond even the Hatred Augur realm, and could barely be attempted with some trickery by those in the equivalent realm of planar cultivation, from what they were able to see of the inner hall of the auction house, it would not be of much use for its original purpose for a long time, as not only did the three strange energies damage the building itself, they also damaged the foundations and structure of the auction house. With careless attempts at repair, it would only cause more of it to collapse.


    As the quantity of movement slowly rose and fell, neither Meng Chu nor Shi Luo Feng dared to resume their battle, as they knew that if Ding Wen¡¯s forces emerged and decided to attack both of them at once while they had already injured themselves, it would simply mean that they would both perish without accomplishing their own goals.


    Thus, they waited for whatever was happening within to conclude in order to assess the situation more accurately. Both sides were aware that Wei Yi was bound to be within the building, with both also knowing that she was likely to be the most significant of any individual participant. If the incredible show of power they had witnessed earlier came as a result of the confrontation between her and Ding Wen, for example, then it would mean the victor possesses an incredible degree of strength, and, most likely, the leadership of the warriors within, for the warriors would have no reason to go against whoever was able to win in a fair battle ¨C or an unfair one, for that matter, especially if the victor was the same one who was forced to go against those inferior odds.


    Several minutes later, just when Shi Luo Feng began to consider attacking anyway, the possibility that Meng Chu was somehow fooling her and that the redhead that had somehow stopped and learnt everything about her cultivation technique in just a single day wasn¡¯t anywhere near the grand auction house slowly blossoming within her mind, figures slowly emerged on the many floors of the auction house.


    All kinds of warriors wielding a variety of weapons, with some primarily using ranged weaponry while others only had them behind their backs or in their other hand, approached the shattered windows of the auction house, each one of them looking carefully at the two forces outside of their doors.


    Curiously enough, Meng Chu noticed that they were looking mostly at Shi Luo Feng¡¯s abominations, though there were still quite a number of eyes on his own troops.


    That naturally presented a series of potential implications, though the fact that some were contradictory in nature made him reluctant to assume the accuracy of any of them just yet. If he assumed Wei Yi¡¯s success when these warriors were still under Ding Wen¡¯s control and were just discounting Meng Chu and his troops due to the fact that a number of them were already injured, it would simply put him at an even greater disadvantage. Even if things were in his favour, it was best to be certain about the situation before acting.


    However, as more and more warriors appeared beside the windows and slowly filled them, he couldn¡¯t help but question how either side would have been able to win without several casualties amongst Ding Wen¡¯s forces. After all, no matter how confident any one of them was in their abilities, it surely wouldn¡¯t occur to them to let the enemy get to them without putting any obstacles in their path?


    ¡°Meng Chu, you did lie to me, didn¡¯t you? There¡¯s no way someone like her wouldn¡¯t have been able to kill even a single treasure-covered goon!¡± Shi Luo Feng clearly found the same issue with the situation, raising her hand to order her abominations to attack.


    She stopped mid-way when she felt an extreme killing intent pour of the auction house, slowly moving towards them from the middle and heading towards the main, central entrance of the building. With the long reach of killing intent for those in the Searing Torch realm, they were able to observe the compressed aura while it was still half-way down the auction hall, while their aides, those who were a realm lower like Dugu Wei, noticed it a minute later.


    Shi Luo Feng recalled the particular killing intent that had repealed her own, but this one did not match. If anything, it was somehow the complete opposite, though perhaps even more powerful.


    Meng Chu thought back to the last time he witnessed the power of either Ding Wen or Wei Yi, and found that neither one appeared to match, though the latter¡¯s energy was far closer to what he was feeling at this particular moment.


    When that baleful energy got even closer, the common soldiers were also able to sense it. However, with their naturally lower sensitivity and inferior ability to distinguish the subtle differences in energy thanks to their weaker talent, even if they pooled all of their observations together and tried to recognise the killing intent, they would be unlikely to succeed.


    Fortunately for them, they did not need to try so hard.


    The tall doors of the auction house suddenly slammed open, both of them literally embedding themselves into the walls from the pure force that had been invested into that simple action. If that wasn¡¯t enough for them to determine the identity of the victor, then the crimson robes, tall stature, muscular arms, the illusory battlefield and the twin knives by her sides proved to be more than sufficient.


    She took several more steps, both for effect and to avoid the debris from her earlier over-eager opening of the doors, then faced Meng Chu.


    ¡°It seems that my typical estimations of success chance, even when facing otherworldly demons, are a little low. For the smoother progression of our future operations, I¡¯ll amend that in the future,¡± she said, though she was a little more occupied with scanning through the remaining contents of the House of Gold than the conversation.


    Due to the earlier battle with Ding Wen, as well as the faked demonstration of the spatial tear, Wei Yi¡¯s pools of energy had been significantly drained, meaning that even if Shi Luo Feng was a significantly weaker opponent than Ding Wen ¨C which was not just likely, but outright guaranteed ¨C it would still be in her best interests to use the remains of her energy as wisely as possible to ensure her own success. Since she also needed to empty the otherworldly book of unnecessary items to be able to store her own things inside of it, this presented her with the perfect opportunity to discard some of the treasures that would only be usable in this particular situation.


    This was made somewhat easier due to a certain function she had discovered within the House of Gold, which displayed a small summary of the item she focused on so long as it was stored within the book.


    Besides allowing her to figure out the functions of weapons, pills and other equipment without needing extensive analysis and experimentation, it also made her want to gain access to some empty space within as quickly as possible, as this book, so long as it could do the same for things that aren¡¯t yet within it, could potentially allow her to discover far more about the items and knowledge that she currently possesses.


    Meanwhile, with her hand still half-raised, Shi Luo Feng was trying to understand the sight in front of her, mumbling to herself, ¡°What is this¡­ how did she¡­¡±


    ¡°By the way, Meng Chu, there are a number of items I¡¯ll pass on to you later. I¡¯ll naturally provide you with an explanation of their functions, though how you use them is naturally up to you,¡± Wei Yi continued, seemingly ignoring the muttering that was extremely obvious with her superior hearing, ¡°As you might be able to guess, Ding Wen had quite the number of things hidden away.¡±


    ¡®She is aware that Shi Luo Feng is standing right there-¡¯ Meng Chu was trying to understand the purpose behind her actions when he spotted the glimpse of movement in the distance, prompting him to glance into the windows of the auction house, ¡®Is she intent on surrounding our forces first before making a move? If so, then how many people were just sitting about in the auction house while waiting for her to deal with Ding Wen?¡¯


    As outright asking such a thing would spoil whatever she was planning, he simply nodded and said, ¡°Indeed. Have you been able to find the secret of his treasury?¡±


    ¡°It was more or less what I had expected, with a slight twist. Not the best time for me to speak of such things, but I can share most of the information with you when we return to our base,¡± she answered, seemingly acknowledging the presence of others for the first time, ¡°Ah, Shi Luo Feng. We meet again.¡±


    ¡°We¡­ Oh¡­¡± since Meng Chu was able to observe the subtle movements in the background, how could someone more capable than him in combat fail to do so? After all, with greater experience and ability came greater perception and a better ability to focus on more than one thing, which was especially important in the prison realm, where most killing intent techniques did not require execution with a single part of the body, a bit like the Cherry Blossom Strike, except requiring far less cleverness and resulting in less damage due to the general lack of structure and stability of killing intent at all levels in comparison to planar energy.


    Even in the Searing Torch realm, when cultivators condense weaponry from their own concentrated hatred, their weapons lack the same stability as the solidified planar energy of those in the Active Core realm, whose planar constructs can remain in place for months so long as they are not dispersed, although they do require a certain proximity to the planar construct until the higher realms, at which point the range of their energy and spiritual will increases and might eventually become sufficient to no longer rely on their planar anchor for stability.


    In theory, they could even be turned into a form of planar stone that is animated by the original technique behind the construct, attaining a form of perpetual existence so long as the concentration of planar energy in the atmosphere around them is sufficient to continuously operate the technique.


    ¡®Right, this is me getting distracted by all sorts of nonsense again, except¡­ the Staff of Discombobulation in the House of Gold is described as containing a technique that disrupts any complex cultivation technique in the direction it is aimed towards, and while I would like to test it on the Greats, I have yet to figure out their secret, meaning that it might not be a technique but a physique, some kind of abnormality, artefact, some kind of energy I cannot even comprehend yet, a forbidden skill or something entirely different, and this staff might prove to be useless against a sufficiently powerful technique,¡¯ she decided, choosing that staff as one of the artefacts to use now, ¡®In a similar vein, the Crystallised Human Effigy, regardless of what it is actually made of, is stated to cause a temporary return to common human form without any special effects of cultivation or training, so I should use it second¡­¡¯


    Although she had the chance to consider far too much within the mental library, Shi Luo Feng only had the time to raise her hand and bark out an order in that same amount of time.


    ¡°Attack them all!¡±


    Thanks to her enemy saying her words for her, all that Wei Yi chose to add was, ¡°Now!¡±


    At the same time, she willed two items to fly out of her robes, though they truly emerged from the spatial storage of the House of Gold, and grabbed them with either hand. A large and long golden staff settled in one while a strange crystalline object that slightly resembled the humanity sprite transformation of the Concentrated Humanity physique landed in the other.


    She pointed the staff towards Shi Luo Feng¡¯s group, making sure to include as few of her allies in the area of effect. Her spiritual will flowed into it at an extreme rate, mostly due to the will of the Staff of Discombobulation itself, forcing her to quell the flow slightly until it was something her limited quantity of spiritual will could handle, then a thinner rod within the staff melted into pure energy and burst out of the staff, flying out in a loose wave of colourless energy.


    It reached Shi Luo Feng and the surrounding abominations before they had a chance to react, causing them to stop in their tracks. The abominations were affected first or were the first to display those effects due to being warped entirely by the method of the Magnanimous Leech.


    Their limbs and chunks of flesh compressed and tried to unwind themselves into some kind of more ordinary shape, but with the current arrangement of bones, muscle and whatever else had festered within them, every single movement simply unravelled them into a helpless mass of former human flesh.


    Once those effects also began to apply to Shi Luo Feng, her body¡¯s reaction was surprisingly similar, though disturbing in an entirely different way. Her facial features blurred and shifted, the colour of her eyes rapidly changed between brown, green, blue, yellow and grey, as well as some other, rarer shades that could only be inherited from some very specific blood or physique. The woman¡¯s skin also warped between the extremes of white and dark, though only individual patches of flesh were affected at a time, creating countless spots upon her.


    Furthermore, her limbs also shifted and undulated, their changes in length and width being minor but extremely bewildering to the person affected.  The majority of fighters rely on their body, whether to wield a weapon or to strike directly with their fists and legs, meaning that even the slightest abnormal changes in their physiques can lead to significant difficulties and the requirement for a certain period of adjustment.


    All of this combined meant that Shi Luo Feng would have very little opportunity to do anything but blindly unleash her killing intent and hope that the effort does not kill or injure her.


    Wei Yi, while grabbing a third item that flew out of the House of Gold, raised the Crystallised Human Effigy and focused on Shi Luo Feng, making sure her image was firmly in her mind before she crushed the strange object, noting with some surprise that it was incredibly fragile.


    When it broke, every single fragment of crystal that broke beneath her fingers turned straight into mist by some mysterious process, and the energy sealed within formed into a clump of black and white smoke that flew out at a slow yet steady pace. It passed unseen through the abominations and Meng Chu¡¯s troops alike, with them and Ding Wen¡¯s former warriors completely surrounding the frozen forces before it finally reached the skin of its target.


    The mottled and warped skin of the former beauty was enveloped in smoke for a single second, then, as it dispersed, Shi Luo Feng¡¯s entire body cracked audibly several times as it shrunk by several centimetres. A number of her primary physical features transformed, her proportions shifting in one breath before freezing in such a way that she appeared to be an entirely different person.


    Before such a thing could be pondered by anyone, the third item to be removed from the House of Gold was used, instantly applying some kind of field of energy over the entire area.


    Every hatred blade and weapon that was used within by her allies miraculously became sharper and more powerful, and if the abominations were capable of attacking at this moment, they would have found their attacks becoming weaker for no clear reason.


    While the majority of strikes were aimed at the former subordinates of Shi Luo Feng, Wei Yi targeted their leader herself, forming a hatred spear out of the Living Spear technique and then gave it some stability with some of her spiritual will energy. Only the point and the internal channels were formed carefully, while the rest was composed of unstable killing intent that was already threatening to turn into nothingness.


    As she could not afford to create another such spear, she would naturally not waste it.


    ¡®One of the core parts of the body, the most difficult to correct no matter how powerful the technique is, would be the brain!¡¯ she thought as she aimed for that exact spot, throwing the spear with a speed greater than that of sound.


    Shi Luo Feng tried to dodge, based on how her muscles twitched, but the extreme number of physical changes and confusion nullified that movement into nothing.


    With a sharp cut of flesh, the spear pierced her skull and exploded as it was mid-way through her head, taking all of her upper torso with it. The smoke around her dispersed and came into contact with a number of the abominations, temporarily softening their flesh and making them just as easy to temporarily kill.


    After the rest of them were taken care of, their bodies laid in one pile and burnt with the vast majority of Wei Yi¡¯s physique energy, the Three of Beast¡¯s Rest became one.

 V2C31: Learning of the Other Side

    Some time later.


    Wei Yi stood on the roof of the ruined auction house, her hands behind her back while her robes flowed in the wind. For a break from her typical style, she freed her hair and allowed it to similarly be carried by the killing intent winds of the prison realm. In front of her, on the ground below, a large dip in the ground was still releasing plumes of smoke and was surrounded by several shabbily dressed individuals that seemed to be using it for warmth.


    Further away, some people from Ding Wen and Shi Luo Feng¡¯s former factions were helping to remove all kinds of items from their places of storage and move them to areas that were more convenient for her purposes. She had not done much to filter out potential threats from those kinds of people yet, besides removing those that immediately succumbed to the test of killing intent and promising all those that remained the same things that she had promised to those that had stayed within the auction house ¨C who, as it had turned out, had been recalled earlier for the express purpose of being turned into wealth for Ding Wen, meaning that their gratitude for the rescue made them slightly less likely to be a threat.


    In fact, the same gratitude came from the remnants of Shi Luo Feng¡¯s group, who had been mostly consumed by her abominations and their leader¡¯s personal draining of their lifeforce and were now more than pleased to work for someone who seemed capable of warding off such things.


    Neither situation guaranteed that they would not be possessed by greed or some other influence that would then cause them to betray her, and so she did not reveal the entirety of her faction¡¯s secrets to them. The vast majority of the underground passages, for instance, were concealed from them, with a few specific paths being opened to make them conform to the common tales of these passages.


    ¡®It is important that anyone that is potentially malicious, even if it is not by their own intention, is removed swiftly, before they have the opportunity to get too deep into my faction ¨C and I can finally call it that, fortunately enough,¡¯ she noted, relieved that she will be able to present her true position to the world, rather than needing to constantly avoid the issue. She wasn¡¯t completely against acting, nor lying, but with the cosmic energy, five meridian networks and plentiful experiences in all sorts of things that would typically be reserved for those in the sixth realm and above, there were a few too many things she needed to keep quiet.


    That was something that would naturally solve itself the moment that she invests her full strength into fighting any one of the Great Families in a semi-public place, but, naturally, that wouldn¡¯t happen yet.


    ¡°For now, I think that it is finally time to have a little chat, Bai Hao,¡± she turned around, willing the manifestation of the man in white to be projected from the mental battlefield.


    ¡®I did indeed agree to share a few things with you, and so I shall. Your idea of breaking the prison realm¡¯s boundaries might succeed if you can pull out more of those strange items when you try it,¡¯ he said, idly stroking his white beard, ¡®I should begin with our concepts of the prison realm, shouldn¡¯t I? Or will you be more curious what ¡®our¡¯ encompasses?¡¯


    ¡°Whichever one is most interesting, really. The prison realm itself would be more important, though.¡±


    Bai Hao nodded and looked into the distance, towards the eastern wall of the prison realm, ¡®As the savages of this region have already understood, your portion of the prison realm looks like a semicircle, with a flat wall to the east and round walls on all other sides. If you concentrate your spiritual will on your eyes, you should be able to see through the fog of killing intent and observe the distant storm walls from here.¡¯


    She followed his suggestion, guiding the thin energy within the fourth set of meridians into her eyes. With the first wisp that was concentrated there, she noticed that the endless crimson light of the world receded slightly, and the edges of the fog similarly moved backwards.


    It took seven more such wisps of energy to push the fog back sufficiently far enough to reveal the great storm walls of the prison realm. They were much like the great storm above, except for the infrequent flashes of other colours showing themselves through the deep red clouds. Occasional bolts of crimson lightning also spontaneously burst out within, though their flashes were subdued almost completely by the fact that their colour matched the rest of the prison realm, as well as the clouds within which they were formed.


    ¡°That¡¯s quite the sight. Based on your earlier words, I can assume that the prison realm is divided a bit like the yin-yang symbol?¡±


    ¡®Yes, though which side is yin and which is yang is something that we have not decided upon. However, both contain vast quantities of mental energies. On this side, the air is filled to the brim with killing intent, while our side contains pure, unbound spiritual will. As we are also lacking in any planar energy, we cultivate it similarly to these savages, except we do not lose our mental faculties in the process,¡¯ the man in white explained, ¡®That is what makes the presence of spiritual will energy somewhere within you so strange. The taint of killing intent energy completely eradicates the possibility of training spiritual will, even if you disperse all of the former to practise the latter.¡¯


    ¡°So that¡¯s how things are. Makes sense,¡± Wei Yi nodded, thinking, ¡®Another advantage of multiple meridian networks appears to be that killing intent cannot significantly harm any of the networks it does not occupy. Still, I think that I won¡¯t ever be able to change the third meridian network to anything but killing intent unless I am able to completely reconstruct them at a later point.¡¯


    ¡®It is fortunate that you are not the common savage, then,¡¯ Bai Hao nodded.


    ¡°Could you return to your description of the other side? I¡¯m curious about the general power structure of the spiritual will domain ¨C and if there¡¯s a unique name you have for it, so that I don¡¯t have to make one up myself.¡±


    ¡®There was no such name when I last left, but most of us reside within one of four major cities. The capital is named Sanctuary, for that is where most of our greatest reside. Exactly to the south, Sanctum Alpha was built to house the scholars and the information they protect and study, while the north later gained Sanctum Beta, a place for the study of more offensive methods, including the one that allows us to break through the storm wall between the two halves of the prison realm. Then, to the east, Sanctum Omega is a place for those with no ability in spiritual will practise whatsoever, so that they may reside somewhere easily and not be expected to participate in the pursuits of the first three cities, at the cost of slightly inferior living conditions.¡¯


    As he spoke, though he stood still, the air around him did not. Mirages originating from his memories seeped from his will and into his surroundings within the mental battlefield, which Wei Yi then willed to appear beside him in reality, though, just as with his body, she was the only one that could witness them.


    Out of the vague mirages, one image stood out the most. Four cities, connected to one another with three perfectly straight roads built of white stone atop an uneven ground of white dust, with either end of each road connecting to a magnificent series of smooth towers and great structures that were clearly designed to be intricate and appealing to the eye first, while still remaining effective. A number of trees grew out of the ground, both within and outside of the cities, though those within the borders of Sanctuary and the Sanctums were planted and grown in very specific places and arrangements.


    Around these populated areas, Bai Hao¡¯s mental image was significantly less clear, with the glistening dust flats constantly shifting due to his lack of attention on them. Still, from what this showed, it seemed that there were no other traces of civilization within the other side of the prison realm, despite the vast emptiness around the four domains.


    ¡°This is quite the sight.¡±


    ¡®Indeed¡­ You said that you have seen the outside world, the Planar Continents, have you not? How does this compare?¡¯


    ¡°I have not seen the best parts of Yi City, but the sights will certainly be different. After being in a world so white, you¡¯ve developed a different version of the confused aesthetic sense of those in the killing intent side of the prison realm,¡± she gave her opinion, ¡°It is certainly a pleasant thing to behold, and would certainly be respected if these cities had been built outside.¡±


    ¡®Hm¡­¡¯ Bai Hao looked upon his own mental image for a few seconds before making it disperse softly.


    For a while, they stood there, with one staring into the distance while Wei Yi was making slightly better use of the time by attempting to modify her killing intent cultivation techniques into something that could work with spiritual will.


    ¡®Ahem, since you¡¯re the one that wanted to know more, you can ask about what I have shown you,¡¯ said the man in white, finally looking back towards her.


    ¡°Sure. Tell me about the combat style of spiritual will. How do the four settlements partake in it, and how powerful is spiritual will in comparison to killing intent? Can the equivalent of the Searing Torch realm¡¯s hatred weapon be attained in the fourth realm of spiritual will cultivation? What are the names of the realms of spiritual will cultivation?¡±


    ¡®I can answer the last question easily. When practising spiritual will, you begin with Focused Will, where, much like the barbaric practise of killing intent, you gather and focus your spiritual will within your meridians. The key is to concentrate it as much as possible, rather than trying to attain an excessive quantity or volume. Every stage of this realm, and all after it, increase the range that your spiritual will can reach, making it extremely beneficial most of the time. Then, in the Strengthened Mind realm, a simple structure is given to your spiritual will,¡¯ explained the man in white, pausing for a few seconds before adding, ¡®much like the concurrent realm of killing intent, unfortunately. It differs in that this structure is simpler and more defined, something like a cube made of spiritual will threads, for instance. Increased complexity is somewhat beneficial, but vastly inferior to stability.¡¯


    ¡°Does that mean I could assemble a kind of floating array within my body and greatly empower all of my spiritual will?¡±


    ¡®Try it, but do not expect to succeed. Supporting an array within the body is incredibly difficult to do, and far too taxing on the mind. If you have encountered an array master before, or if you are one yourself, you should be well aware of this. Now, in the next realm, Greater Stability, you might have a better chance,¡¯ said Bai Hao, though it was obvious that he did not believe it, ¡®Some youths these days are truly overconfident¡­¡¯


    She ignored his words and instead looked at her physique, as well as the array created by the dantian bone shards, ¡®I do have some experience, Bai Hao, and I can agree that it is a difficult endeavour. However, I happen to have received some advantages in this regard as well, so- oh, right, I forgot to ask about something incredibly important.¡¯


    ¡°By the way, as you have said that spiritual will is effectively mental energy, does that mean that it is similar in strength to one¡¯s mind?¡±


    ¡®There is some connection between the two, though it is not exact. Losing some of your spiritual will won¡¯t make you a fool, nor will a temporary mental affliction completely ruin your spiritual will¡­ It is rather complicated, frankly. Most of us aren¡¯t interested in injuring ourselves just for experimentation.¡¯


    ¡®Neither am I, but I suspect I will learn about this eventually with how much I get into,¡¯ she thought, looking deeper into her spiritual will energy. Based on her previous experiences with her own mind, it was capable of processing an immense quantity of information in a brief time, such as several jade slips at once, meaning that even if it was subpar in other areas, it had to be above average at the very least. In combination with everything she had already done to enhance her spiritual will, it would be strange if the energy formed from it was without some hidden strength beneath the weak exterior.


    However, there appeared to be nothing beneath the surface of the nigh-transparent stream of white energy, prompting her to begin some basic experimentation.


    Since her strongest mental ability was the processing of information, she initiated the Endless Calculation technique about some insignificant fact and observed as it worked slightly more quickly than before, prompting her to recall the cleansing and refining effect of the Touch of God and the Light of Divinity. By the looks of it, they had functioned even while warped by killing intent, and affected it instead of her planar energy.


    ¡®That¡¯s another fortunate coincidence, but what I am more interested in is the spiritual will. Can it affect the process of Endless Calculation, or will it be limited to simple observation for now?¡¯ she thought to herself, sending a wisp of it over to the rapidly multiplying tomes within the Augur¡¯s Library.


    Immediately, she could tell that it was reluctant to follow these commands, likely due to the natural distinctness and separation of spiritual will and killing intent, but as she was well aware that the former had no issues when it came to passing through the infinite air of hatred from the Beast, she made it continue and come into contact with the books.


    When it did, something resembling a miracle occurred.


    It split into many, tiny pieces, one of which somehow completely enveloped the book that it touched while the rest flew off to random books in their vicinity. The theory tome that was enveloped first instantly turned to nothingness, its mere existence fuelling the wisp of spiritual will that became twice its original size, split in two again, then joined the other spiritual will pieces in flying towards other possibilities.


    The vast majority were eliminated instantly, but a few remained, only being bolstered by the pieces that had landed up them. She willed them open, and saw that all of the theorisation within was significantly bolstered by all sorts of information that she was in possession of, but had overlooked or otherwise ignored subconsciously. Furthermore, everything written within was better considered, and would require less repetitions of the Endless Calculation before arriving at the likely truth. All of this happened almost instantly, without too great a cost for her spiritual will, meaning that her assumption had been correct.


    ¡®There is indeed something of use within this simple-looking energy. I suspect that it might have more abilities than just this, but I suppose my own mind won¡¯t make things easy for me when it comes to discovering them,¡¯ she understood, looking back to Bai Hao as he was about to continue.


    ¡®From Greater Stability, in which a superior structure is formed, a cultivator will proceed to the Weapon Condensation realm, permitting them to form their structure into a weapon. An uncouth behaviour, really, for in the other side of the prison realm, any contests that are fought with strength simply utilise a superior method of combat, wherein two combatants stand opposite one another and release their spiritual wills in spheres, extending them until they come into contact. Whoever is able to push the other¡¯s spiritual will until the edge touches their opponents skin wins, and no blood needs be shed,¡¯ said the man in white, the image matching his description appearing beside him, ¡®Even then, most of the time, battle is entirely unneeded.¡¯


    ¡°While that is certainly an interesting place, and one I wouldn¡¯t be against experiencing, I get a certain impression that the answer to one of my previous inquiries would be that spiritual will is vastly inferior in combat to killing intent, even if it is just due to the inability of the wielder. Is that why you were stuck for such a long time?¡±


    ¡®Listen, we have different pursuits in mind! For someone to be concerned only with battle suggests that they are mentally unstable!¡¯


    ¡°Sure. I mean, I can agree with you there, but sending someone untrained in combat into a place focused on it is one of the worst decisions you could make without outright feeding yourself poison in the hope that it somehow heals you instead,¡± Wei Yi replied, shrugging, ¡°Anyway, fifth realm?¡±


    ¡®Balanced Being, that is what the fifth realm is called. By fusing the spiritual will with the body, a Mark of Balance can be created, empowering the cultivator. This realm, too, is similar to the equivalent killing intent realm, except the manifestation of spiritual will that can be condensed into armour is naturally far less excessively spike-filled and otherwise hideous to behold and far less inconvenient in the vast majority of situations.¡¯


    ¡°Being too particular about appearances can be rather unhelpful, Bai Hao. Is your side also limited to the fifth realm, or do you have some kind of sixth realm as well?¡±


    ¡®Our researchers have compiled names for all nine potential realms, though that is all they have. From the sixth onwards, they would be Purified Flesh, Condensed Lens, Heavenly Light and Everlasting Heaven. It is said that planar cultivation had this many realms at its peak, and so it would make sense to have this many realms within other forms of cultivation as well.¡¯


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°That would make sense, so long as there were no further realms to planar cultivation. Perhaps the stories shared on your side are different, but Yi City often believes that the Master of Yi City had gone beyond the ninth realm, meaning that it would not be unwise to have a few more names.¡±


    ¡®Then you can speak to the philosophers and researchers on this topic, if you believe this to be a significant possibility,¡¯ Bai Hao replied, ¡®As much as I would be interested in doing the same, I can do no such thing unless you can somehow give me physical form once again. At that point, I could even pass on all of my techniques to you, as their value would be insignificant to someone capable of bringing someone back to life.¡¯


    ¡°I will naturally do both things if I can, as I suspect that resurrection would give an extreme edge over the Greats, unless they have some ability to do that too. Anyway, how did you cross the storm wall?¡±


    ¡®You were waiting to ask that question, weren¡¯t you? I can answer the question, but using the same method from this side might be a little difficult-¡¯


    ¡°That¡¯ll be for me and the rest of Beast¡¯s Rest to handle, so hurry up.¡±


    ¡®Both sides of the prison realm have their own sets of storm walls, and while the killing intent crimson storm walls are hostile and incredibly difficult to breach, the spiritual will white storm wall is calm and ordered. With the same techniques as are used in our one-on-one battles, it is possible to enter the storm wall and then use its power to force the opposite crimson wall open as well, passing through safely,¡¯ explained the man in white, the image of this act appearing beside him, ¡®From here, it is possible to work together with the spiritual will side to create a small gap in the crimson storm wall and then navigate the white storm wall yourself. However, it is never safe to enter through the middle of the storm walls, no matter which realm you are in.¡¯


    ¡°Why is that? Is it like some sort of storm, where it becomes more powerful the closer you get to the centre?¡±


    ¡®Actually, that¡¯s the exact reason for it. The centre of the storm walls contains an immense hurricane of killing intent and spiritual will, and it is complete suicide to enter it. Several talented people were lost within due to our inexperience at the time,¡¯ he sighed, ¡®That is from before my time, however.¡¯


    ¡°Hurricane¡­ Interesting. Now, do tell me how to cultivate spiritual will.¡±

 Bonus Chapter: Calming Down [R-18]

    ¡°Are you sure I need to be calm for this? I mean, I usually am rather calm, and I¡¯ve been using spiritual will rather freely most of the time.¡±


    ¡®Just do it. I have more experience than you, and there should be no harm in this either way.¡¯


    ¡°If you say so¡­¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi¡­ You have a rather intense look in your eyes today,¡± Xi Wen Li said, though she couldn¡¯t restrain her smile, ¡°Is there something special you¡¯d like to do today? We¡¯ve been plenty adventurous already¡­¡±


    ¡°We have, but I¡¯m told that I need to calm down. So, your expertise will be necessary,¡± Wei Yi leaned in close, until their lips nearly touched, ¡°After time with you, I tend to be really calm.¡±


    ¡°If you wish to ravish me¡­ you need only say the word.¡±


    ¡°Actually, I was thinking that you should put your expertise to use this time. I¡¯ll be tiring myself out with something else later,¡± she smiled, planting a quick kiss on Ah Li¡¯s lips, ¡°Come on, you did a fine job when we first met.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ Could you make up for it later? I¡¯ve wanted to feel your touch for so long¡­¡±


    ¡°Sure. I suspect I¡¯ll have a lot of time to myself in the coming weeks, so we can spend plenty of it together. Now, open up,¡± Wei Yi instructed, and Ah Li obliged.


    Their lips met, and both had their fill of the other. Wei Yi thrust her tongue out and entered Ah Li¡¯s mouth, tasting her and letting their tongues entwine, exploring one another without care for time or place. There was no rush, and she didn¡¯t care if anyone looked upon them ¨C she was actually happy for others to gaze upon their time together.


    It would be akin to showing off, and she was not shy about her body, not like she had been back in the Yi District. Letting the people of Beast¡¯s Rest see their leader bedding a beauty like Xi Wen Li ought to motivate them a little more, though that was only in the background of her mind at the moment.


    Right now, she preferred to focus on the taste of her partner, savouring it. She had little ability to compare the taste to anything, given her loss of the sense of taste, but she knew for a fact that it was better than any miracle fruit that she had consumed in or around the Yi District. Ah Li was sweet and flowery, with just a hint of sourness hidden within, but the two balanced out to produce an excellent sensation.


    When they parted, Wei Yi also took in a breath of Xi Wen Li¡¯s scent, a mixture of her own body and the best attempt at perfume that the prison realm was able to muster. It was faint, but lovely.


    ¡°So, how do you want me? Should I lie down, or remain standing?¡± she asked playfully.


    Ah Li had the grace to blush, ¡°While you still have the strength, I suppose you should stand. I¡¯ll take care of you¡­¡±


    As Wei Yi nodded, Ah Li got down on her knees and pushed her back just a little, resulting in Wei Yi¡¯s plump ass hitting the wall. She adjusted her position just a little and slid down a bit, positioning herself so that Xi Wen Li would be able to reach every part of her that mattered from her position on the ground.


    Ah Li looked up into Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, sharing a smile before focusing on the latter¡¯s lower lips. After their kiss, they had built up a small layer of moisture, but being a professional, Ah Li made sure to not rush right in. She leaned in and kissed to the left and then the right of her lower lips, before moving up to the small nub at the top of her lower lips, kissing it. A slight shiver passed through Wei Yi¡¯s body, her knees trembling just a little, but Ah Li had been with her enough to see that she was enjoying it.


    She stuck out her tongue and licked the clitoral hood, slowly peeling it back to reveal the clit itself, a focal point of nerves and sensitivity that was delightful to touch and feel.


    On her own, Wei Yi had gotten a few chances to experience what it was like to pleasure herself, but it never felt as good as when another woman touched her, licked her, sucked on that small nub and, like Ah Li did now, stroked her labia with dainty yet firm fingers.


    ¡®She¡¯s gotten so focused on me as of late¡­ It¡¯s so beautiful,¡¯ Wei Yi smiled, the experience being as pleasant as the physical touch itself, ¡®I can see why so many love to see others at their feet.¡¯


    Ah Li didn¡¯t know of her thoughts, and so she persisted in her efforts, rubbing Wei Yi¡¯s lower lips and suckling on her clitoris until the moisture down below had accumulated enough. When she pulled away her fingers and found them slick, several strands of liquid arousal joining them, Xi Wen Li looked up and smiled with her eyes.


    Once she pulled away, quietly licking her slick lips, she said, ¡°Can I put my fingers in, Mistress?¡±


    ¡°Where did that come from?¡±


    ¡°Aw, you¡¯re not even flustered¡­ I remember how sweet you were to look at when we first met¡­ Now, you don¡¯t even budge when I am right here, my lips and fingers moments from your gorgeous pussy¡­ I¡¯m a little sad,¡± Ah Li said, her gaze staying on Wei Yi¡¯s lower lips for a moment longer than she probably intended, ¡°How quickly you grew up, and made me addicted to your touch¡­ and your taste¡­ and scent¡­¡±


    ¡°Just get in and taste me properly, if that¡¯s what you want,¡± Wei Yi said, parting her own pussy lips with two fingers, ¡°I may have gotten used to it, but that doesn¡¯t make me any less excited.¡±


    With the tight labia parted, her arousal got to drip unimpeded, a drop landing on the floor before Ah Li did as she was told, quickly moving to hungrily devour her pussy. She lapped up the drops of liquid as if they were vital to her survival, and quickly reached the tight hole from which it poured.


    Perhaps due to the regenerative abilities of Wei Yi¡¯s physique, and her body in general after the multitude of enhancements performed by her cosmic energy prior to her imprisonment, it seemed like she would never feel the effects of time and excess activity upon her feminine sex. No matter how hard Ah Li worked to thrust several of her digits inside on prior occasions, the next time they met Wei Yi¡¯s lower lips became as tight as they had been the first time.


    It was rather lucky that she had no plans of sleeping with any men any time soon ¨C though she hadn¡¯t made up her mind on dragons or those with both endowments just yet ¨C or else she would struggle to ever let someone inside her.


    Still, that didn¡¯t stop Xi Wen Li from doing her best, thrusting her tongue inside before withdrawing and licking up the slit, collecting the liquid arousal that had built up there.


    Once her opening was eased open, she returned a finger to Wei Yi¡¯s pussy and prodded at the entrance. Her index finger worked on the tight opening, and after a few moments she was able to enter, sliding in with ease once the tip had paved the way. Wei Yi¡¯s pussy greedily consumed the finger, tightening around it as Ah Li¡¯s actions finally elicited a faint sigh from her.


    ¡°You have such nice fingers, Ah Li. Seeing you take so much care with your nails is lovely,¡± she smiled, making the lass blush.


    Although she was likely content to remain in Wei Yi¡¯s groin, the prostitute still felt obliged to reply, ¡°I have to match how pristine you are. If I ever hurt you, even a little, I would feel absolutely awful¡­ Do you not know what you¡¯ve done to me?¡±


    She didn¡¯t return her lips to Wei Yi¡¯s groin, but she continued to finger her slowly, the wetness spilling out with each thrust in and producing a moist noise that sounded rather perverse. Slowly, the opening was permitting her to move more freely, though her passage was still clenching around the intruding digit and seemed able to trap it inside if Wei Yi so wished.


    ¡°What have I done? I don¡¯t have the slightest clue.¡±


    ¡°You have made me addicted to you¡­ to your touch, and to pleasing you. At this point, I¡¯m going to be out of a job, because I can¡¯t even pretend to enjoy others¡­ Would you take care of me?¡±


    While providing Wei Yi with a loving upward gaze, Ah Li paused to insert her middle finger into Wei Yi¡¯s pussy, sliding in after a moment of trying. It elicited a gasp, during which Wei Yi shut her eyes and shifted her position, allowing the pair of fingers to enter a little deeper.


    ¡°Would I? Hah¡­ Of course I would,¡± she said, her calm tone only wavering a little.


    ¡°Thank you¡­¡± Xi Wen Li¡¯s words were quiet, and sounded rather sincere, until she continued, ¡°Mistress~.¡±


    Before Wei Yi would say anything, the prostitute went right back to suckling her clit, forcing her to shut her mouth if she didn¡¯t want to produce an audible moan. This time, Ah Li did notice her reaction, subdued as it was, and so she continued to lick while her fingers thrust in and bent, seeking the sensitive spots inside Wei Yi¡¯s wet pussy.


    It only took her a moment to find them, having been inside Wei Yi many times before, and she immediately rubbed it, her fingers sliding in and out the slick entrance while delighting in the steady stream of liquid arousal that poured from it.


    Wei Yi enjoyed the delicate touches and especially loved the attention her clit was receiving, but with her growing experience in the field of sex, she was finding that being on the receiving end was just less¡­ satisfying than eating out or fingering another. There was still pleasure to be found while in the hands of others, but without having the chance to control the situation, it was hard to enjoy a situation as much, even if it was otherwise identical.


    ¡®I almost feel bad for Ah Li, when she¡¯s trying so hard. This kind of thing seems like it will be incredibly limiting, unless I¡¯m able to get over it ¨C or find some other way of sating my dominant desires,¡¯ she thought, glancing over at the large bed at the back of the room, ¡®I¡¯ll let her get the first orgasm out of me before we move over.¡¯


    She tried to let her pussy relax and to distract herself from unnecessary thoughts, shutting her eyes as she permitted the physical sensations to be the only thing on her mind. The sensation of the probing fingers was delightful, causing the warmth of arousal to spread throughout her body, and with other matters buried into the depths of the Augur¡¯s Library, they were able to finally bring her arousal to a peak. As her inner walls clenched around the intruding digits, she felt her knees go weak and a moan burst through her defences, finally giving away an audible sign of her lust.


    Ah Li¡¯s hand was instantly covered in the gush of arousal, prompting her to slide her fingers out and replace them with her tongue, eagerly consuming the squirting fluid until Wei Yi was done.


    The gushing ceased, so Xi Wen Li withdrew and licked her fingers clean, displaying an inordinate amount of delight in tasting every single drop of slick. If someone came into the room at that point, convincing them that Ah Li had opted for an extremely unconventional method of tasting some sort of divine nectar would be absurdly easy.


    ¡°Thank you, Mistress~,¡± she smiled when she noticed Wei Yi¡¯s gaze, ¡°You will feed me more, right?¡±


    ¡°Rarely is the term thirsty applicable in both its meanings,¡± came the calm reply, ¡°If you¡¯d like to drink up, then it would be best for us to move to the bed.¡±


    A glint appeared in Ah Li¡¯s eyes, ¡°You¡¯ll sit on my face, won¡¯t you? I can¡¯t wait!¡±


    ¡®Maybe I did break her a little. None of my fluids should be addictive, nor should it be especially pleasant to consume even if some of my energy is somehow infused into them,¡¯ Wei Yi held back a frown and considered dedicating some time to this matter after everything else was dealt with.


    ¡°Hehe¡­ You should experiment by letting more ladies taste you. Let the whole world-¡±


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± a figure with flaming green eyes, floating upside down right, asked, ¡°You seem really involved in this one. Do you want to invade her dreams too? Will you let her fuck you? If you gave her a dick, would she dominate you easily?¡±


    Each time the figure spoke, another one appeared with the same features and similar demeanour, floating elsewhere in the void. Once any instances of the figure finished, they began to quietly chuckle.


    ¡°Every time you do that, I understand why everyone finds you scary,¡± the figure with a violet eye said back, though she didn¡¯t hesitate to turn back to her original focus in the darkness, the faint point of light that drew her interest. Although the ten thousand pairs of glowing green eyes seemed to disappear, one pair remained and looked in the same direction.


    ¡°I thought you didn¡¯t want to do any work today¡­¡± Ah Li¡¯s words seemed deliberately breathy, every word resulting in her breath sitting Wei Yi¡¯s sensitive slit.


    ¡°Sitting on a face isn¡¯t any work at all. In fact, it is highly relaxing to see a girl beneath me, eating me out, her eyes practically glowing in delight¡­ Are you trying to copy what I¡¯m saying, or is that a normal reaction?¡± she raised her eyebrow, ¡°Take a deep breath, because I may stay here for a while.¡±


    Xi Wen Li only smiled in reply, prompting Wei Yi to lower her hips and put those arrogant lips to better use. Clearly, that was what she wanted, as she immediately got to work, sticking out her tongue and parting Wei Yi¡¯s tight nether lips and invading her pussy with her tongue. Right away, a stead of arousal filled her mouth, causing her eyes to widen with realisation ¨C and her tongue to move so much more enthusiastically.


    ¡°This does feel so much nicer, wouldn¡¯t you agree?¡± Wei Yi¡¯s smile came far more naturally, practically blooming upon her face as she enjoyed Ah Li¡¯s mouth.


    It was delightful to sit atop someone in such a manner, and the loving gaze that remained locked on her eyes made it even better, as if the most important thing to her was that her Mistress got the best experience rather than her own desire. This was the exact kind of experience that she had grown to love, and although it might say something about the growing obsession with being atop others, figuratively or literally, this wasn¡¯t the time for considering such things. Instead, she waited for Ah Li to get used to her position and find a comfortable rhythm to her licking.


    She was tempted to reach back and help Ah Li with her own arousal, but that would go against the initial idea, so she instead adjusted her seating position, grinning as she inevitably disrupted Xi Wen Li¡¯s careful attempts to please her.


    For a moment, the loving gaze acquired a tinge of irritation, but a pat on her head sorted it out.


    ¡°Get used to it. Once I¡¯m happy with your tongue¡¯s work, I¡¯ll grind against your pretty face until I¡¯m all satisfied ¨C and you are as full as you can be. Doesn¡¯t that sound good?¡± she asked, though she didn¡¯t particularly care of the response, ¡®Although I dislike the appearance of men, I have to say that having a dick in a situation like this might be rather¡­ nice. Sure, let¡¯s go with that.¡¯


    Ah Li had her mouth full, but she managed to respond anyway, amplifying her tongue¡¯s efforts and digging in deep, managing to reach the most sensitive part of her pussy with a particularly forceful thrust of her tongue. It sent a pleasant tingle throughout Wei Yi¡¯s body, but that alone wasn¡¯t enough.


    To get more, she began to grind her pussy on Ah Li¡¯s face, her wetness quickly spilling out and covering her expression. Although she had a slow start, giving the prostitute plenty of room to adjust and lick up and down her slit, she sped up after only a short while, bringing a hand down to rub her clit while the other rested on Ah Li¡¯s head.


    To her credit, Xi Wen Li tried to keep up with Wei Yi¡¯s frenzied pace, but soon she was left with no choice but to keep her tongue out and to take in air through her nose in the brief moments that it wasn¡¯t also buried in Wei Yi¡¯s slit. Soon, even that was made impossible, as Ah Li¡¯s nose was also used for Wei Yi¡¯s pleasure, leaving her with nothing but the scent of her pussy to inhale and endure the grinding with.


    She felt another rush of euphoria approaching, but she delayed that feeling for as long as she could, letting her lust build up, climbing past a peak to an even greater one. Slowly, her mind was overwhelmed by the sensation, and no matter how good she was at controlling herself, it was difficult to do so when no thoughts made it past the veil of sex and arousal.


    It was inevitable that her restraint would waver, and it did so explosively.


    Her pussy clenched around the invading tongue and gushed with her clear arousal, spilling out onto Ah Li¡¯s face before she adjusted her position to permit her to swallow it all. That was the last major movement she could control before her orgasm forced her head up, eyes rolling back and tongue falling out her mouth.


    She couldn¡¯t contain her delight at all, and she was sure that she would have been heard everywhere in the crimson world had they decided to have fun outside the underground tunnels. Even then, Beast¡¯s Rest was likely disturbed by a faint moan that most would attribute to the city¡¯s brothels.


    ¡®The difference between the two orgasms¡­ Yeah, being in control is definitely my thing,¡¯ Wei Yi managed to restore some semblance of a normal expression.


    Only then did she remember that Ah Li was beneath her, prompting her to raise her hips a little as she looked down. Xi Wen Li didn¡¯t seem to have lost consciousness from oxygen deprivation, but she did seem to have difficulty with focusing her vision, as well as shutting her mouth. Her face was stained with a thick layer of slick, ruining what little makeup she had on to begin with, while her cheeks were a vivid shade of crimson.


    ¡°You alright?¡±


    Her words seemed to stir Ah Li awake, though only barely. All she did was stick her tongue out further.


    ¡°I¡¯m not doing anything else until you are able to show that you¡¯re alive. So, take a deep breath¡­¡±

 V2C32: Reforming the Body

    Wei Yi sat on the edge of an enormous pool of blood, with her clothing hanging from a nearby spike in the wall that had been attached for her convenience. Her feet were literal millimetres from the blood, and she occasionally touched its surface with her skin while she waited for some of her arrays and two more items from the House of Gold to change it in the ways that she required. As this was not something that she could accelerate, she focused on her spiritual will instead.


    Following her interrogation of Bai Hao, where she used his tendency to visualise the things he discussed to get a few more details out of him than he expected, she had been able to modify her Ascendant¡¯s Gathering to function simultaneously on both types of mental energy, though she would currently be incapable of using it due to the absence of free spiritual will in the air.


    Instead, she had to work with what she already had, and if her mind was any indication of her potential, it meant that she could get far, far more out of her current spiritual will energy than any part of it or its appearance suggested.


    The cultivation path of her new Ascendant¡¯s Refining technique ¨C also applicable to both killing intent and spiritual will at the same time, as their natures and the meridians they flowed through were nigh identical ¨C began with the Third Eye, which had long been affected by killing intent and changed to be partially crimson in colour. It had similar effects on both forms of energy, and thus it made for the perfect opportunity to cleanse her energies prior to beginning to circulate it. To alleviate the conflict of the two forms of mental energy, she intentionally split the Third Eye in two for this technique, using only the left side to circulate killing intent and only the right to process spiritual will.


    From there, she used the natural endurance that she had built up from cultivating in the middle of several dozen killing intent-attracting black bones, most of which had been relocated to this blood pool to further strengthen it, to circulate that energy as many times as possible, pushing both sets of meridians before supplementing them with physique energy.


    Based on what she was able to understand of the realms of spiritual will cultivation, it turned out that she had already gotten into the sixth stage of Focused Will, though any attempts to construct something complex out of her spiritual will at this point failed completely in the two times that she had attempted it. Although the fact that none of the three forms of energy that seemed to be independent of planar energy provided her with any opportunities to gain perfected stages was incredibly disappointing and disheartening, it also meant that it was very easy to develop any one stage to its absolute limit.


    The presence of a vastly superior energy in extremely close proximity to spiritual will, namely the killing intent that it began to mirror, caused it to develop more quickly in an effort to catch up, and soon, after just ten minutes of cultivation above a boiling pool of the Beast¡¯s blood, it broke through into the seventh stage, causing her spiritual will to become thicker and denser, gaining another tenth of a metre of range.


    ¡®Hm, the blood pool isn¡¯t quite ready yet. I suppose that I might be able to add the Soul Gem from the House of Gold into the equation and finish my cultivation to the peak of the first realm in one go,¡¯ she thought, glancing at the strange red crystal in her hand.


    According to the House of Gold¡¯s description, the Soul Gem stored the soul of some kind of powerful demon or devil, which could be teased out to challenge one¡¯s own mind and spirituality and strengthen it under the pressure. Such a description was certainly a little concerning, but as the behaviour suggested matched her current usage of the Beast¡¯s killing intent, Wei Yi figured that it was worth the risk, especially after considering that every single thing she had found within the House of Gold so far has been both effective against her enemies and harmless to her, despite the overall madness of the otherworldly demons.


    Due to the sheer variety of these items, she did not think that there was a high chance of them being the cause of the chaotic insanity of the other world, especially as Yi Henghua did not appear to have a large variety of equipment to choose from while she fought, not to mention the disappearance of a number of the most powerful-looking objects from the House of Gold immediately after the azure presence vanished. If any of them were likely to have hidden dangers, it would be those that had been bound most closely to the other world.


    ¡®As for its usage, it appears to be as simple as the rest of them, just requiring me to send my spiritual will into the gem¡­ The insides, however, include a very interesting set of array-like techniques to keep whatever is within at bay,¡¯ she was able to peek inside of the object with her spiritual will, though her view was not only faint, but very limited, preventing her from seeing the entirety of these symbols, ¡®All of these objects still seem to come from worlds other than this one, though nothing I have seen so far matches the absolute madness that was the azure presence¡­ I wonder what happened to the equivalent that ought to have been in Yi Henghua¡¯s possession, and whether it tried interacting with someone other than me, as well as what the result would have been¡­¡¯


    The lack of knowledge and information was, as always, bothersome, but she had spent enough time thinking about it, so she took the Soul Gem and willed the soul within to emerge.


    It did so through an incredibly thin crack within the gemstone, a thin crimson mist emerging and floating around the stone itself. Despite that, she instantly felt the storm walls of her mental landscape tremble, as if they were bombarded by some invisible, titanic beast that wished to enter the small world that they concealed.


    When she added her spiritual will to the storm walls, this invisible monster instead struck it, crushing every attempt at composing any kind of solid defence. Although a small quantity of that spiritual will energy was lost, everything that remained became a little stronger, allowing her to repeat the process again. After several more instances of construction and destruction, Wei Yi instead formed the energy into something with greater stability, creating basic structures out of it to endure the strikes of the malicious soul with a little more efficiency and reward.


    Not a single one of these structures was long lasting enough nor sufficient to skip the gap of stages to breach her into the Strengthened Mind realm, but it did bring her ever so slightly closer, with every wisp of spiritual will energy that recovered from her concentration coming closer to advancing.


    She was able to return all of this energy to the Ascendant¡¯s Refinement circulation after the mental storm walls had strengthened sufficiently, eventually creating a cycle wherein the energy of the mental storm walls would deflect some of the soul¡¯s attacks before circulating several times within the body to be refined to their limit before returning to their previous location.


    Just eight minutes later, as if she did not just experience another breakthrough, her spiritual will approached the edge of the eighth stage.


    ¡®The blood pool still has ten or so more minutes to go, so I suppose that I can try getting to the ninth stage before jumping into it. Then, I might be able to push for the second realm while I am inside, since the excessive killing intent within the Beast¡¯s blood will be conducive both to the tempering of spiritual will and the cultivation of killing intent itself, meaning that I might also get a stage or two of killing intent while pushing my physique into the second realm,¡¯ she concluded, removing her foot from the pool of blood to avoid suffering too much damage too early.


    And so, while keeping her feet away from the blood, as even a single touch would instantly eat through her skin and reach her bones, she permitted a slightly greater quantity of the trapped soul to emerge, replacing the quantity that she had already worn away while allowing the rest to gather around her and attack her mental landscape from all directions.


    Perhaps due to her perception of reality and the mental world as being a flat plane, with no detail below the mental battlefield nor any true sky to behold, that did not include the air or ground, meaning that all of the mental attacks were concentrated purely on the white and crimson storm walls.


    Almost ten more minutes had to pass before the next breakthrough neared, and this one was not as smooth as her last, though there was no harm or significant strain to her spiritual will energy, though there would likely be only one more stage that she could reach without any clear consequences to herself.


    Furthermore, just at that moment, the blood pool shook, quivered and then seemed to freeze, the many waves on the crimson surface stopping completely mid-movement.


    She knew that this was a mere illusion, and that the blood was currently in its most volatile state. If an ordinary person jumped in at this moment, the waves they came into contact with would be temporarily animated, then melt all of their flesh, muscles and bones into something equivalent to pure energy, causing it to mix with the Beast¡¯s blood and eventually be inseparable from it. When the blood pool would inevitably return to its typical state, there would be no hope of removing any traces of the dead person from within, and they might even transform into more blood for the dead Beast, even if that seemed to not benefit the ancient creature.


    ¡®Whether or not there is an effect on the Beast, I should obviously avoid turning to nothingness within its veins. Jumping in with anything other than the full protection of my physique energy will be foolish, so I naturally won¡¯t,¡¯ she thought, getting up and stepping up to the edge of the blood pool.


    Then, after taking a deep breath with the assistance of several body techniques and shrouding herself in sunlight, she jumped in feet-first.


    The very instant that her body came into contact with the blood, it leapt into action ¨C figuratively ¨C and tried to seep through her protective light and into her body ¨C literally. Despite the generally perfect protection of the True Ascendant physique energy, the blood broke through many thinner spots within the uneven parts of the protection, forcing Wei Yi to quickly improve her control over the physique energy in order to limit the burning of her skin.


    However, even the True Ascendant physique energy could only protect her for so long.


    It soon burst through the sunlight and charred her skin and flesh, though it was surprisingly useless against her hair for no clear reason. Even while her very bones were being threatened by the Beast¡¯s blood and the incredibly powerful physique energy was being beaten into shape constantly, her crimson hair did not suffer.


    ¡®In the future, I ought to see whether I can fashion my hair into clothes or weaponry, or something else of the sort. If I weave some of them into my robes, they might be almost as difficult to damage as the rest of my body, allowing me to not be concerned with the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival being destroyed completely during any particularly serious encounter,¡¯ she thought for a moment before her mind moved to a more suitable idea, ¡®Right, I need to consider my body¡¯s improvement. After all, the only reason I had decided to go in now was because I had finally come to some understanding of what I ought to amend within myself. To not consider it properly would be equivalent to wasting this opportunity completely.¡¯


    She separated her spiritual will into the primary energy and the actual spiritual perception, moving the latter into her body to carefully view every single part of herself, putting more focus onto the parts that she had not yet explored fully.


    The human body was full of flaws and issues, of course, and it was thus prime for modification during the ascension into the Greater Shape realm. Much of the muscle and organs were designed somewhat inefficiently and without using their full potential, and while it appeared that it would be more suitable to correct such flaws within a further physique cultivation realm, Wei Yi understood that many of the imperfections were far simpler than they appeared and could thus be removed this early.


    For instance, she could easily double the strength of her muscles by correcting their form, improve the heart by altering some of its capacity and efficiency, implement some basic functions of arrays and inscriptions within her body to significantly improve almost everything about her physical functions, alter the structure of the eyes somewhat to reduce the size of the ever-annoying blind spot within a human¡¯s vision that allows anyone to pass unseen so long as they exploit it, re-arrange some of the veins, arteries, capillaries, meridians and nerves within her body to optimise the flow of energy ¨C and to cleanse the corruption of the killing intent on the third meridian network, even if it was only to a limited extent ¨C throughout her limbs and features, change some of the bones to suit her current combat style a little more than they currently do¡­


    In short, there was a lot that she had to do, and most of it could only be achieved by outright melting parts of herself to then force them to change during their regeneration.


    Thus, as the Beast¡¯s blood seeped into her body, rapidly beating back her three energies, she began to reformation of the body and the reconstruction of the physique ¨C the rapid enhancement of all three forms of power.


    She began her breakthrough.


    Some distance away, within the carcass of the Beast, Dugu Wei shook her head at Qui Sheng¡¯s suggestions, saying, ¡°We can¡¯t just go back to our previous schedule. The second that we fall into it again, we will slip up and she will spot us, and then¡­ She might even be listening to us right now.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s been so long! This place is accessible to a limited few anyway, there can¡¯t be any harm in-¡±


    Qiu Sheng¡¯s words were cut short as a thick strand of killing intent suddenly flew past them, its length fluctuating and waving through the air as it travelled. Soon, it was joined by more and more such threads, separating the Beast¡¯s killing intent into many thinner pockets within the air as the threads slowly joined together, replacing the crimson air itself.


    With no spiritual will to use to analyse this killing intent, neither of them could get a detailed understanding of this energy, but their instincts told them that this belonged to their new leader.


    This was confirmed to Dugu Wei when parts of the crimson air suddenly showed familiar images: the dust and dead ground of the battlefield, countless warriors fighting one another without any clear reason behind their conflict and the hint of a significantly more powerful presence.


    However, there were some minor differences within this scene, but they became most clear when several strands of pure white seeped into this new crimson, mixing and yet contrasting with the killing intent as they altered the very image of the endless mental battlefield. Amongst the countless warriors that wielded only killing intent and physique energy, those that also employed some kind of subtle, calm force appeared, their defences being impeccable and their attacks being simple and direct, using no weapon but their own mind.


    Some small parts of the ground recovered from the endless battle, thin stalks of grass rising from the earth in those places and growing to a very specific, uniform height.


    The sight became even more confounding when this illusory world suddenly cracked once again, splitting into individual strands of white and red, expanding further outwards and crashing into their surroundings, with the most concentrated parts of the crimson killing intent inflicting some minor damage on the stone walls around them.


    All of the population of Beast¡¯s Rest suddenly found their killing intent going awry as the air around them seemed to break into two distinct parts, with the new segments of the crimson air being highlighted by some kind of white energy. This faint colour, overpowered by either form of killing intent around it, still aroused the curiosity of so many that observed it, for this shade was entirely foreign to their world, and yet it somehow remained in place for longer than a single breath.


    Furthermore, this magnificent colour continued to spread out, all of the other parts of crimson moving around to form complex shapes within the air, with those that were a little more experienced in the art of arrays understanding that they were seeing one such enormous array forming around them.


    Not a single one of those that saw the arrays had any idea what it was meant to do, however, for every part of it surpassed any of their understanding of the great art, weakened as it was by their lack of access to proper materials and the fact that they could only use killing intent to power their arrays, significantly limiting the ways in which they can function. Individual parts of the array could be deciphered with a significant amount of effort and focus, as they did appear in certain existing killing intent arrays, but the rest were from a system that was entirely outside of their comprehension, making it seem like the gap between them and the array creator was equivalent to the gap between the first and nine-star realms of great art mastery.


    This uncertainty was certainly not helped by the activation of this enormous array, which caused all of the killing intent around Beast¡¯s Rest to tremble. Slowly, it was drawn into some internal part of the town, along complicated paths that seemed to partially follow the arrays, like the streams in a tributary joining into a single flowing river.


    In a land of perfect white, four figures stood at four points at the four sides of a large construct in the middle of a four-sided tower in the middle of Sanctuary.


    They were looking at this complex mechanism, with many arrays and inscriptions carved out within to allow it to fulfil its function as a method of detection of aberrant and unusual bursts of energy. After an earlier outburst of killing intent had been caught appearing within the left section of the machine, indicating an unusual spike in foreign energy within the proximity of a local savage settlement, these four figures had been ordered to remain on watch for further oddities.


    Now, they found them, in the form of yet another energy spike that covered the entirety of the settlement, prompting their attention yet again.


    ¡°Energy flow appears to be following the pattern of savage breakthrough into the upper stages of killing intent cultivation,¡± the first figure said, his eyes glazing over for a second as he recalled all this information through a thread of spiritual will connected to something beneath the ground.


    ¡°Structure of the energy appears to follow basic spiritual will practises common around the time of expedition fifty-seven, led by Bai Hao,¡± the second figure added, her information coming from a similar source.


    ¡°Traces of physique manifestation energy are present, responsible for rapid movement of primordial beast blood throughout the settlement¡¯s basement,¡± reported the third figure.


    ¡°No evidence of previous spatial fluctuations, potential of equipment failure increased by 3.7%.¡±


    As the great energy movement continued, they kept watch, not moving nor even breathing any more than necessary as they paid attention to the occurring events, hoping to discover more information about them as to be certain how to respond. With every significant progression or change, they altered their statistics, percentages and predictions, the chance of their equipment being incorrect being changed several more times alongside a dozen other values. Still, no matter what they did, they made sure to never respond.


    They couldn¡¯t do such a thing, after all, unless they invested their full effort into making another breach within the storm walls.


    Many unpleasant hours passed in something close to silence for Wei Yi, who was still beneath the blood pool, her physique energy becoming sufficiently powerful to handle to immense power of the blood of the Beast and forcing her to manipulate it in a more precise manner to continue correcting her body.


    Although she would not emerge any time soon, expecting to remain within the pool for another few hours at the very least, her body had already changed in a manner that could be described as rather significantly.


    If she was to emerge at this very moment and ignore the numerous large holes within her flesh, she would stand one and a half centimetres higher than before due to the slight modification in the placement and scale of her bones and muscles in the legs and arms, even with the extreme compression of her musculature that she had decided to undergo in order to allow for further growth in the future, as her previous large form had little form for further improvement.


    Truthfully, she was also keen to return to a slightly less conspicuous state, though only slightly.


    Most of her blood vessels had also been rearranged to be in their most optimal positions within the body, with the same being done to her meridians. She even wove the physique energy meridians together with the main blood vessels, constantly reinforcing that which flowed through both sets of channels as well as insulating her blood entirely against any kind of poison or toxin through the raw power of her physique energy. Naturally, she could still willingly ingest and allow her body to process some type of poison if she needed to, it would just be more convenient to get rid of them the vast majority of the time.


    ¡®However, still is still not enough. In order to break through, I will need to do so with all three currently accessible forms of energy, stimulating every single wisp and clump of energy around me to cause this to happen,¡¯ she thought, going over her plan in her head, ¡®By rapidly compressing the enormous array that I have created with the vague killing intent I have allowed outside of my body, I should also be able to condense the structure of the spiritual will¡¯s Strengthened Mind. That pressure would force the development of my physique energy, adding to my existing work to further enhance my body, and the resulting radiance would solidify both my spiritual will and killing intent into the next realm and stage respectively¡­ I might even be able to convert some of that into development of my planar realm¡­¡¯


    That last idea was the most unlikely to work, though as someone in the Half-Step Emergent Anchor realm, all she truly needed was a push to fully solidify the anchor. In the situation that the nascent rift somehow develops alongside the anchor, this development could be of immense aid to her by significantly shortening the time she needs to spend within the prison realm before being able to force her way out, though whether that would be better than developing all other forms of energy to their peak first was an entirely different question.


    ¡®On the topic of multiple forms of energy, I require something to mitigate the current clash between my spiritual will and killing intent in the mental landscape. At the moment, the conflict isn¡¯t too significant due to the disparity in the cultivation of the two, but as spiritual will catches up, it will start to do more than alter the endless battlefield¡­¡¯ she frowned, not forgetting to keep the Beast¡¯s blood around her in check, ¡®Well, I have already used the storm walls and the general aesthetic, so I suppose that poaching a little more of the overall concept and design from the prison realm wouldn¡¯t be too detrimental to my progress. It is something that I have personally experienced, after all, and I will be able to improve on my impression of the prison realm when I inevitably get onto the other side¡­¡¯


    As she was aware that the prison realm had an eye to the storm walls, she instantly decided that the Augur¡¯s Library would be best placed in her equivalent, while the tower that currently held Bai Hao could be merged with it to grow the size of the library further by adding more wings onto it.


    The storm walls would then be supported by the raw power killing intent and the concentrated effect of the spiritual will basic structure array, with the mental battlefield being split in two for the combatants. Each one would be dedicated to the suitable warriors, except both would face off against physique energy-type opponents for their continuous cultivation and refinement.


    ¡®Alternatively, I could easily stage so-called incursions from the other side and make the two parts of the mental battlefield into things that are purely aesthetic, using the storm walls only to enhance the general stability of the battlefield¡­¡¯


    Since things were currently going rather slowly, she was pondering all sorts of things now that she had the opportunity to do so. For once, the ability of her mind to slow time the perception of time for herself was not proving to be convenient or helpful in the slightest, as she had slowly found herself drifting to topics of no relevance to her future whatsoever, like what colour she would prefer her eyes to be if she was able to freely alter them, or whether it was a good idea to add two more strands of hair to her head to even out her hair.


    However, she was finally able to move on once she felt her three available energies approaching the next stage, prompting her to shoot out a mental command to the enormous nexus of killing intent and spiritual will that had built up around her and the entirety of Beast¡¯s Rest.


    The thick crimson air around the town shook yet again, but this time, it did not remain in place, sinking away in a single instant as it crashed into the underground middle of the Beast¡¯s long-dead body. With it, the white and crimson that belonged to Wei Yi also disappeared, momentarily leaving the entire town mystified as they saw colours and shades that they had never seen before ¨C things other than crimson, for once, stood out to them, and they couldn¡¯t help but be drawn into observing them.


    Meanwhile, the blood pool around Wei Yi was compressed by this immense quantity of incoming energy, pressing an immense quantity of blood around a single individual with such great force that the black bones that had been arranged around it cracked from the pressure. Her internal organs and bones also struggled beneath this force, but the very next second, an immense quantity of physique energy burst out of her body, washing over the entirety of her being and rapidly completing the many tasks that she had initially began at the beginning of the process.


    When the killing intent and spiritual will returned, their collective power instantly blew the thick mass of blood apart, with both energies sinking into her head and shaking up the mental landscape.


    The dense grounds of the mental battlefield shattered into pieces and fell apart, with some being infused with white spiritual will energy while the rest united into one once more, forming one half of the yin-yang symbol out of the terrain that joined up with the other half that was now made entirely of white dust, white grass and white stone.


    Around the entirety of the mental battlefield, the array of killing intent stabilised and was replaced with spiritual will, the incredible complexity of it preventing the weak-seeming energy from collapsing onto itself.


    Her Augur¡¯s Library moved into the middle of this new battlefield, with the individual tower moving alongside it, and was then surrounded by two storm walls that would prevent any intruder from nearing it even if they were able to breach the first layer of her mental defences. On the other hand, her body, no longer covered in blood, was also revealed to the world in all its glory as she gracefully landed on the floor, opening her eyes and finally taking in a proper breath of air.


    ¡°Phew~¡­ Now, I should be in a good enough state to get my name out there.¡±

 V2C33: Rapid Expansion, Part 1

    She performed a few basic exercises to adjust herself to the changes she had made and then dressed herself in the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival, making sure to examine herself closely before doing so.


    Her point of view had gone up yet again thanks to the height she had added to her body, but the overall size of her body had gone down thanks to the compression of her muscle. Before, it was incredibly easy to presume her to be a man or someone who had put an immense amount of work and effort into ensuring that her muscles were as prominent as possible, but now, her appearance almost seemed to regain an immense quantity of yin. Although every muscle was still pronounced, they were now contained almost fully within her lithe frame.


    Although such a change would typically reduce the potential that she had for intimidation and coercion due to the seeming reduction in physical threat, she found that her natural dominating air had somehow only increased, quickly concluding that it must be due to the improvements in her twin mental energies impacting her very presence.


    In the end, she decided not to attempt to change her hairline, instead altering the basic structure of the strands of hair to make them even more resilient and durable.


    ¡®Perhaps, one day, after an intense battle in which I perish completely, only a bunch of red hair will remain on the scene of battle, confusing any travellers that pass it without any context about the situation,¡¯ she joked to herself, brushing her fingers through the silky red length of her hair.


    At some point during the process, her skin had once again turned a shade darker, likely responding to the immense quantity of yang True Ascendant energy that had gone into reshaping it. It still looked more like an intense tan than an outright transformation of her body, but if this was to occur with every breakthrough, she would end looking a lot like Fen Zhi by the end of the process.


    ¡®That could be useful if I could change my appearance at will, as I could then blend in with anyone from any environment without needing to cover up my face or apply some kind of makeup or illusion to deceive them,¡¯ she considered, theorising that the third and fourth realms of physique cultivation might permit for some further alteration of her form, though the fact that this form of cultivation seemed to be searching for stability and perfection rather than fluidity meant that she might need to settle down on a single skin tone and general build by the time she reaches the peak, ¡®Perhaps this will be something that I can control more if I am able to improve my physique itself onto the next stage.¡¯


    Other than these changes, most of them weren¡¯t immediately obvious to the casual observer, with the vast majority of her physical alterations having occurred beneath her skin. Still, they were bound to create difficulties for anyone who intended to use their knowledge of typical human physiology in order to attack her, as the subtle changes to most of her major organs and the complete modification of the circulatory system meant that this knowledge was entirely useless against her.


    The bigger changes would have been to her twin mental energies, with spiritual will changing the most out of the two.


    Her killing intent had remained within the same realm, and thus it had only grown stronger without any particular modifications to the base structure of the energy itself. It was brighter and stronger, with the illusory battlefield that it could impose upon the world becoming clearer and more detailed once again.


    On the other hand, her spiritual will was entirely indistinguishable from what it had previously been.


    Whereas the energy was previously pale and white, almost seeming to be significantly weaker than all three other forms of energy within her meridian networks, it was now focused around an enormous array within her mental domain, with every parts of the fantastic structure significantly enhancing the power of her spiritual will. It now resembled the ichor of the ancient gods, forming smooth silver strands of pure power that she could unleash whenever she wants.


    With this improvement, the range of her spiritual will also grew by half a metre since the beginning of this session of her cultivation. If she was to use her spiritual will energy rather than the sensory method, her range appeared to be doubled.


    As she had to gather further data, she took one of the silver strands and launched it into the stone walls of the former blood pool. The strand cut straight through the crimson fog that was innately produced by the Beast, surpassing it easily thanks to her cultivation and general mental ability, and when her spiritual will energy struck the wall, it went straight through without any issue whatsoever, being stopped only when it got to her usual range of spiritual will. If not for the obstruction of the killing intent within the walls, she knew that it could have travelled twice as far.


    ¡®Although it behaves differently to killing intent, I can see that it is inferior to it. Even without the congealment of my killing intent into a single strand of energy, it is already able to tear through the physical world merely by coming into contact with it. If I was to release my spiritual will energy in a large area around myself, it would not have as powerful an effect,¡¯ she observed to her disappointment.


    Nevertheless, an additional form of energy to use in combat was an improvement, no matter how weak or strong it was.


    With the growth of her mental energy came the increase in her ability when it came to any of the great arts, with the most significant effect being to her ability to create arrays and inscriptions, as those are heavily reliant on her spiritual will for the activation and usage of the arrays themselves. Even if she was to work with an array of killing intent, she would be able to create each line and connection within the array more carefully and get more out of it during the eventual activation.


    ¡®Perhaps it could also assist my blacksmithing by allowing me to judge the metal I¡¯m working on more carefully, potentially exposing the main issue that is leading to my constant failure to produce any form of equipment that matches my theoretical understanding of the art.¡¯


    She could only confirm this via experimentation, so, for now, she tied up her hair and left the room that she had reserved for herself, coming across the scene of Dugu Wei and Qiu Sheng trembling in opposite corners to one another. The second that they heard her approach ¨C but failed to observe her spiritual will that she instinctively sent forward to avoid any ambushes or unpleasant surprises that tended to occur when being in proximity with too many people ¨C they looked even further away from one another.


    ¡°Are you two alright? Did my killing intent overwhelm you?¡± Wei Yi inquired, not being surprised in the slightest that Qiu Sheng had made her way down to this place.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Mas-¡± Dugu Wei recovered first, though she froze mid-sentence when she stood up and tried to look in Wei Yi¡¯s direction as if nothing had happened. Her eyes were clearly drawn to a variety of places of her body, with the natural focus being on the parts that had been affected the most by the recent physical reconstruction, ¡°Master, are those the effects of soaking in the blood pools?¡±


    ¡°That depends on what you mean, really.¡±


    ¡°For instance, the change in your skin colour¡­?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s my physique, not the blood of the Beast. Normally, your flesh would just be corroded away.¡±


    ¡°And the muscle?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve compressed it to have more room for improvement. In the future, if I continue to work out, I will look exactly as I did before, then I would be able to repeat the process over and over again to ¨C theoretically ¨C attain an almost infinite level of strength through the physical form alone.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh¡­¡± she nodded before muttering under her breath, ¡°You look hotter now¡­¡±


    Wei Yi was physically incapable of not overhearing this, but she chose to ignore it, ¡°Did you want to tell me something, or were you intending to just stand there?¡±


    ¡°N-No, I will return to my other duties¡­¡±


    As she left, Qiu Sheng turned around and approached her.


    ¡°Master, I¡¯m sorry for trying to waste time and going against your instructions-¡±


    ¡°Then you may return to doing what you¡¯re meant to be doing, especially since you seem to have been continuing to waste our time for roughly twenty four hours after you could have left,¡± Wei Yi interrupted her mid-sentence while she thought, ¡®They were trying to shirk their duties in the bedroom ¨C or Meng Chu¡¯s office ¨C again, then. Perhaps the many weeks of simple relief that I had provided them weren¡¯t enough to teach them, so I might need to get a little harsher¡­¡¯


    Just like her blacksmithing ability, she would need to consider this further before acting upon it, so for now, she allowed the two of them to leave and, to ensure that the room remained somewhat hygienic in the future, cleansed the room with her strengthened physique energy.


    The shape and function of the True Ascendant energy did not significantly change thanks to her breakthrough, but the power did. Whereas she previously needed a sensible quantity of energy to outright melt the stone, she could now touch the ground with the physique energy for a brief second to achieve the same result.


    As she was still incapable of forcing the ground to freeze, she leapt out of the chamber and headed upwards throughout the underground passages, seeking Meng Chu¡¯s office.


    On her route, she encountered several soldiers who considered stopping her before they finally recognised her, making the issue of her rapid physical changes be even more obvious in her eyes. In the future, she would need to either cut down on how much she changes her physique with every single breakthrough, or create some kind of illusory or mental technique to prevent her appearance from changing in the eyes of others, or to automatically make them connect her previous vision with her new one.


    Both of those ideas could be implemented via the enormous spiritual will array through the integration of an existing illusory array, but that could not be accomplished until the next realm, so long as her understanding of the spiritual will realms was accurate and not deceptive, whether Bai Hao had lied to her intentionally or was simply missing some information of his own.


    Thus, when she barged into Meng Chu¡¯s room without any warning, as per tradition, she began with an explanation of her present features, ¡°Listen, everything about me that¡¯s different is due to a progression in my cultivation of physique and killing intent, as well as my personal adjustment of the self. If you have any inquiries about this, I could consider providing you with an explanation later, but for now, I need you to mobilise the troops and workers. Beast¡¯s Rest is going to expand today.¡±


    ¡°That was a very¡­ succinct explanation,¡± he responded, ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°About Beast¡¯s Rest¡¯s expansion? As you know, the city right now isn¡¯t small, but if we were to have an influx in the population, there would not be enough space to accommodate them. We require more housing and commercial buildings, including a few more brothels to pull in those currently living on the outskirts of the city. Since you¡¯ve done this stuff before, I can safely leave it to you, but I require it done.¡±


    ¡°I see. Are you attempting to create a miniature version of Yi City within the prison realm? Do you think it will work in this environment?¡±


    ¡°It will. I was able to defeat some of the strongest forces in this town while I was significantly weaker, and the physique cultivators at the third realm were no match to me while I was in the first, meaning that now that I have progressed, I ought to be able to contend with those in the fourth. Thus, in terms of strength, I shouldn¡¯t have any difficulties with establishing my authority over those that enter Beast¡¯s Rest. When it comes to maintaining my control and preventing irritating factions forming within the walls, my expanding mental energies and the underground passages should be able to solve most of our problems ¨C oh, and you will need to build out the underground passages and link various buildings to it so that it can be used throughout the entirety of the future area of Beast¡¯s Rest.¡±


    ¡°Then, will we have a set of blueprints to work from, or should I work on that myself as well?¡±


    ¡°Begin by simply expanding the walls, and I will provide you with a vague outline later on. While I would like to do everything myself, I have to acknowledge that I have no experience whatsoever in construction, architecture and general city design, so you or one of your subordinates can handle it.¡±


    ¡°Understood. I will get it done immediately,¡± Meng Chu said, standing up and leaving the room, with Wei Yi following him. He came across Dugu Wei quickly, ordering her to bring Lei Fu, Wang Shi and Hua Ju, alongside with some master craftsmen and builders, for a briefing on their current plans, choosing to ignore her fearful behaviour around Wei Yi.


    While they were being gathered, Wei Yi departed and sought out the blacksmith that she had recruited some time ago, finding him in the middle of working on a simple hatred blade.


    ¡°Do you mind if I step in for a moment? I would like to try something,¡± she said, waiting for a silent nod from him before taking up her hammer, some unused metal from the side of the smithy and approaching an anvil.


    Some time later, she returned the hammer to the back of her head and looked upon the finished product. It was not entirely horrible, but it also lacked the same quality that one would expect from a four-star blacksmith. As this happened despite her full efforts to take in every single detail of the process and work with it, the result proved that she still needed to put in more effort.


    ¡®If only I understood what the issue here was. I am sure that I am doing everything correctly, and yet the process is still failing to achieve the results that I need¡­ Perhaps this is the balance of the heavens in action, limiting me in this particular respect.¡¯


    Still, there was some improvement in her craft, so she sighed and put the sword she had made aside for someone else to take, if it grabbed their interest. She hadn¡¯t invested any significant effort nor any unusual materials into the weapon, so even if someone hostile to her was to take hold of it, the most they would get out of it would be the knowledge that she still has more to learn about the art of blacksmithing.


    For now, she departed to the meeting room, finding it to be filled with everyone that Meng Chu had called for earlier. She was very familiar with the three squad leaders that served under Dugu Wei, but she found that she recognised some of the builders and architects as well. They were still wearing the standard uniforms of soldiers and guards, with a few basic tools around their belts or in their pockets being the only significant indicator that they were anything more than bodyguards for the squad leaders that had been brought in.


    ¡°Boss Wei, did you need us for something?¡± Lei Fu asked, bowing upon her entry.


    ¡°Naturally, I did. Tell me, you and your fellow squad leaders, what is your opinion on the current Beast¡¯s Rest? Feel free to provide your honest opinions.¡±


    ¡°Beast¡¯s Rest? Eh¡­¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s pretty good, really,¡± said Wang Shi, interrupting her peer when she saw that he was unable to come up with an answer immediately, ¡°Though it could always be bigger! Heh¡­ Imagine joining all of the pieces of the Beast together and having an enormous city that spans the entirety of the prison realm!¡±


    ¡°Master Wei Yi, though I think that her expression was a little crass, I do agree that there is room for improvement. We could use more land, more people and more of the expanse of the prison realm.¡±


    ¡°Lei Fu, do you share this opinion?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I do, Boss. With the recent additions to our forces, we could handle a far larger settlement.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I have some excellent news for all of you. We are going to expand the town of Beast¡¯s Rest and double its size, so that our domain may be more fitting for the future, when we control this side of the prison realm. Perhaps, when we escape, this may even become our base of operations, from which we besiege the Great Families until we can reclaim Yi City from them, and return it to its former glory. You three shall be responsible for clearing out any bandits that may have settled down around our jewel in the wastes, and also for protecting the workers who shall construct the new walls and residences in the area that we will claim. Speaking of which, do you also serve as builders?¡±


    As she turned to look at warriors that had been brought in alongside the squad leaders, one of them chose to step forward to respond, ¡°That is correct, boss. Strength is important in construction work, so most of us end up being warriors as well.¡±


    ¡°Makes sense. Do all of you also have an interest in returning to your other occupation?¡±


    ¡°Of course! Some of us had personally worked on the underground passages and commercial buildings in the town, and I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be speaking for only myself when I say that I want to get back to work!¡±


    ¡°Excellent. In that case, why don¡¯t we begin as soon as possible? Get your men and gather the supplies you require for the construction of a new wall. Since I am uncertain of the best conditions and locations to construct these walls and some towers to oversee any potential intruders in, I will rely on your expertise to decide on such things. Do you have a map you¡¯ve worked with before, or would you like to examine areas in person in order to conclude this sort of thing?¡±


    ¡°Checking things in person would be best for the fine adjustments to your designs, but the rough outline can be completed with a map. I always carry one around with me,¡± replied that same person, removing a dried leather scroll from his clothes and unfurling it on a nearby desk, ¡°Show me the rough outline that you intend for Beast¡¯s Rest, if you would.¡±


    Wei Yi took a look at the map, compared it with her mental image of the outskirts of Beast¡¯s Rest, then pointed to one of the mountains to the west, saying, ¡°I would like Beast¡¯s Rest to extend to that point, someday. I trust I do not need to tell you why?¡±


    ¡°Naturally not. Any miracle fluid spring is incredibly valuable, and securing it within our walls would make it far easier to protect.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you understand. Since I suspect that extending the city straight to this point would be impractical, to say the least, I propose that it is brought to these areas first due to their defensive potential,¡± she moved her finger to a point north of the town, roughly half as far away as the miracle fluid spring, ¡°The land there is incredibly suitable for defensive walls, in my opinion, and the wall can be continued through these points, extending slightly further here and here to gain a further defensive advantage.¡±


    ¡°Hm. These positions are excellent, but this and this area do not appear to allow for a stable foundation for the wall. I would suggest adjusting their locations to here and here¡­¡±

 V2C34: Rapid Expansion, Part 2

    Several days later, Wei Yi stood atop a small mountain, looking down to its foot to observe a man dressed in all white as he was slowly navigating his way through the wastes of the prison realm.


    ¡®Bai Hao, this person¡¯s outfit perfectly matches the things worn in the right of the prison realm, yes?¡¯


    ¡®Almost entirely, yes,¡¯ the man in white replied, his body manifesting in reality through Wei Yi¡¯s personal instruction, for with the growth of her twin mental energies, it became even more difficult for him to appear where she did not want him.


    ¡®Excellent. I hope they are all as easy to interrogate as you were.¡¯


    She forced him back into the prison tower within her mental domain and activated her many stealth techniques, using some of her spiritual will in combination with them to prevent sounds that she makes from travelling through the air and reaching her target, the other man that was dressed in an incredibly similar set of white robes.


    As she wasn¡¯t aware whether this particular individual from the spiritual will side of the prison realm was hostile or otherwise eager to battle ¨C there had to be one or two such people who would intentionally leave that side of the prison realm to seek out the more hostile world of the killing intent side, where they could get all of their destructive tendencies out of their system before returning to the seemingly dull world of the spiritual will side of the prison realm ¨C she decided to be cautious and approach him without being spotted, before pretending to have come across him coincidentally and without any malicious intent. Depending on his response, she would then change her plans accordingly.


    The moment that she got within five metres of this person, she felt a thin wall of spiritual will surrounding him, continuously scanning everything that it touched. However, she was able to tell that this field was imperfect, hardly informing him of as much information as her spiritual will did.


    ¡®Whether I should assume that to be due to his incompetence or my competence is something I could investigate later, but for now, I don¡¯t think that it would be a good idea to bypass the spiritual will unnoticed if I want to appear non-threatening to this person,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded, straightening her back and disappearing behind a small hill that would be in the path of this person in white, then allowed herself to be revealed as she pretended to walk out from behind it just as he approached.


    ¡°You! Who are you?¡± the man in white questioned instantly, taking a step back while removing a short stick from his belt.


    ¡°I am just a traveller,¡± she answered, examining the object with her spiritual will while he was distracted, ¡°You appear to be someone from the other side of the prison realm. Would you mind if I asked you some questions?¡±


    ¡°Questions? What does a savage like you-¡±


    ¡°We can compete with our spiritual wills, if that is more to your liking.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ You are aware of that?¡±


    ¡°Mhm. Let us stand an equal distance away and release our spiritual wills. The one to win will have to answer a certain number of questions from the other, whether that¡¯s only three or all of them.¡±


    ¡°Any question at all? In that case, we can compete for all questions! There are many things I have to ask of you, and whatever allowed a savage like yourself to learn of both spiritual will and our standard practises will be revealed to me!¡± exclaimed the man in white, demonstrating far less intellect and general stability than Bai Hao in all of his actions.


    ¡°Very well, then. How close would you prefer me to stand?¡±


    ¡°All of this is down to you, for your spiritual will is clearly inferior to mine. Even if you need to stand right next to me, I shall tolerate it.¡±


    ¡®What an arrogant fuck. That seems to be a trend of their entire society, and one that I should not permit within my Yi City,¡¯ Wei Yi decided while maintaining a straight face and walking back a few steps until she was exactly three metres away, ¡°I will be fine with starting here. Shall we begin now?¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡±


    Thus, both of them released their spiritual wills at once in a sphere, though even a casual glance would reveal that her spiritual will was significantly more stable, almost forming an array simply by existing, while his sphere was constantly fluctuating and lacking the distinct stability that Wei Yi had long gotten used to with her own energy.


    Their rates of expansion would have also differed, but Wei Yi made sure to restrain herself so that the man did not get scared away or use some kind of insane technique that would turn the odds in his favour.


    Nevertheless, this man in white had noticed that her energy was not exactly matching his expectations, though he failed to observe the fact that she had long scanned the object that he had returned to his side and was also unaware that there were traces of killing intent mixed in with her spiritual will, helping her sphere remain stable and granting it a significant degree of offensive potential in the case of a collision with any other force.


    When their two energies met, Wei Yi stopped her spiritual will from progressing while the man in white pushed on. Despite that, his spiritual will could not budge hers, only enveloping it further without harming the perfect sphere in the slightest. The man¡¯s expression changed, and he tried to affect his spiritual will by raising his hand and trying to direct it, but he could do nothing.


    ¡°I must say, I had been expecting a little more from someone in the third realm. I¡¯m not mistaken in that assumption, am I?¡±


    ¡°I am in the Greater Stability realm! Are you some kind of monster in the Balanced Being realm, are you?¡±


    ¡°No, I am not,¡± she replied, ¡®However, it is certainly possible that the presence of planar energy and the spiritual will that comes naturally from planar cultivation could be causing my energy to be significantly more powerful and stable than his, which, in combination with the insane array that I had constructed in my mental landscape and my general mental ability, leads to me surpassing realms in this path as well.¡¯


    She waited a little longer, hoping to see something that she could emulate and learn from, but all he managed to do was hold out his hand more desperately than before, prompting her to activate her spiritual will energy and crush his sphere, pushing it back until her energy cut several hairs from his beard.


    ¡°Now, I am owed some questions¡­ Unless you would like to try again?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Fine, you have the victory. Get your questions over with!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t take too long. First of all, is there any way of getting over to your side of the storm wall? Is there a scheduled opening within it for you?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you think of taking it away from me! I-¡±


    ¡°Unless it is limited to a single person, I see no reason not to let you return to the other side of the prison realm. What matters more than that is when it will be happening. For instance, if I decided to lock you up somewhere with the intention of interrogating you and caused you to miss it, then neither of us will benefit, and I may torture you significantly more than I otherwise could.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Two years. I will be returning in two years, at a point that is exactly east of here.¡±


    ¡°Two, huh? That¡¯s quite a while, but I can wait. Just don¡¯t try to trick me, understand? It won¡¯t end well for you, no matter how powerful you think yourself to be.¡±


    The man in white shook his head vigorously, ¡°No, I¡¯ll not do such a thing.¡±


    ¡°However, you¡¯re thinking that once I cross over with you, the people on the other side will punish me in your stead? Is that right?¡±


    ¡°N-No¡­¡±


    ¡°Whatever. That¡¯s not up to you anyway. Now, tell me about that weapon on your belt. I see that it uses spiritual will as energy to condense a blade, but I am curious to learn more about it. Unless you want to let me borrow it, I suggest you tell me absolutely everything you know.¡±


    ¡°This? This is a spiritual concentration blade, made to deal with the threats of the prison realm on this side,¡± he explained, taking the object and showing it to her, though he kept a tight grip on it, ¡°By sending our spiritual will into the weapon, it can be controlled to form anything, so long as it is in a straight line from the handle. The weapon can be two-sided, if necessary, though most of us practise only swordsmanship and thus use the simplest configuration.¡±


    ¡°Very interesting. Are these plentiful on the other side, or are you one of the only ones to wield such a tool?¡±


    ¡°They are typically loaned out for training, and directly given to us only when we go out of the right side of the prison realm,¡± the man in white answered, ¡°In total, I recall that it was said that we have only one hundred weapons right now.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s excellent, thank you. Just one more thing, and then I may consider letting you go. Share all of your techniques with me.¡±


    That finally caused him to display reluctance, ¡°No, I can¡¯t-¡±


    ¡°Must I really explain why denying me is a bad idea? Did you fail to hear me the first time, you worthless insect?¡± Wei Yi completely changed her stance, radiating her killing intent without holding back. She only addressed him with a degree of politeness in the beginning so that he would speak to her more easily, but now that he refused to answer a simple question, she could get the same results with a slightly different method: namely, forcing him into combat so that he uses his combat techniques and allows her to duplicate them on her own after defeating him.


    Indeed, he acted just as she had expected, silently flooding the weapon in his hand with spiritual will and lunging at her with an angered expression.


    Although his movements were smooth and fluid, clearly displaying the training that he had received in the spiritual will domain of the prison realm, and the blade he created from the spiritual concentration blade was certainly on par with the low-grade hatred blades that were common within the crimson side of the prison realm, his actions were still simple and entirely lacking in power.


    Even if he was facing someone other than Wei Yi, who was an anomaly in almost every way, he would still encounter an unpleasant surprise the moment that he attempted to strike them in this manner, for they, just like Wei Yi, would be able to grab his arm and wrench the spiritual concentration blade form his hand without any difficulty whatsoever. As she did so, she also sent a thread of killing intent into his meridians, instantly disrupting any circulation of his spiritual will in that arm.


    He gasped and tried to focus his spiritual will in his other hand, but she was able to do the exact same thing in an even shorter period of time.


    ¡®Come on, use some kind of technique so that this trip becomes a little more worthwhile!¡¯ she demanded in her mind, but he did not respond in the way she wanted. Instead, his eyes widened, and he stumbled back, an expression of mixed terror and confusion dominating his face.


    ¡°Get back! Stay away from me!¡± he shouted, tripping on himself as he attempted to retreat.


    ¡®Ugh, what an enormous disappointment this man turned out to be. I hope his companions are a slightly more useful lot.¡¯


    She had noticed the presence of others quite some time ago, and thus, when two more figures in white, one male and one female, emerged from beyond the hills around them, she was prepared for whatever they could throw at her.


    As it turned out, their attack was also incredibly simplistic. Both of the figures in white released a total of ten strands of spiritual will, one from each of their fingers, and launched them towards her in a simplistic square grid that could easily be predicted and evaded by a common person. Naturally, the threads themselves couldn¡¯t be withstood by most low realm cultivators, but Wei Yi did not intend to allow them to hit her.


    With a certain quantity of her killing intent, she formed a sphere around herself for protection, then charged towards the second male figure in white.


    By their outfits, it was difficult to understand their relationships to one another and whether they were equal to or superior to one another, and thus she decided to check this by seeing how any of them would react to their allies being captured. In theory, if one of them was the leader of the group, then they would be far more inclined to assist them than if the captured person was on the same rank as they were.


    Just as she had predicted, the second that she grabbed that man, the woman processed the situation and stretched out her hand to launch spiritual will threads at her, clearly deciding to risk the life of her hostage to gain the upper edge.


    ¡®Even if she isn¡¯t the leader, she ought to have the information I want¡­ and interrogating someone that is more attractive is a natural positive,¡¯ Wei Yi reasoned, throwing the man straight into the path of the spiritual will threads. The woman¡¯s eyes widened for a second as she tried to revoke the threads before they could injure her comrade, but the moment that her efforts failed, she was forced to ignore those spiritual threads and create a new series of them to be able to attack freely. Just a second before that could happen, the woman in white found her entire body freezing up as baleful crimson energy filled her meridian network, stopping all movement and circulation of energy.


    As the second man in white fell to the ground, six holes in his body slowly leaking blood, Wei Yi restrained the woman and forced her to the ground, keeping her in the dirt with her leg while keeping a hold on the woman¡¯s neck with one hand, keeping the other one empty so that she would be able to deal with anyone that came to threaten her.


    ¡°Listen to me. That man is bleeding out quickly, and your other ally is probably going to trip over a rock and cause himself similar injuries. If you want to be able to save them, or perhaps even get my help to completely seal their wounds, then you should comply with all of my instructions. Do you understand that, or should I hurt you as well? With my killing intent, I can easily tear apart your meridians and end any hopes of advancing in your cultivation, perhaps completely eliminating any existing traces of it¡­¡±


    ¡°Savage, how dare you-¡±


    ¡°Wrong. Answer,¡± Wei Yi shook her head, tightening her grip on the woman¡¯s neck, ¡°You¡¯re not exactly in the best position to be rude to me, if you haven¡¯t noticed already.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± the woman in white remained silent for a while, gritting her teeth in frustration, then, with disgust and anger audibly filling her voice, she let out a quiet sigh and said, ¡°I can do that¡­ What do you want, you sav-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll cut you off there, just so that you don¡¯t give me a reason to get rougher with you. First of all, tell me about every single one of your techniques and how to use them, alright?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ that will take too long-¡±


    ¡°So get going, you idiot, unless you want your friend to die while you¡¯re wasting our time. Furthermore, it would be in your best interests to be as truthful with me as you can possibly be, otherwise the time that I take to confirm your words and get a second explanation of the things you lied about will bring that man closer to his death.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ Listen closely! If you don¡¯t listen, I-¡±


    ¡°Shut the fuck up and move on. I get it. I have no reason to want you lot dead, so if any deaths occur, it will be due to you and you alone. Do you understand that?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­ and that¡¯s the Concentrated Blade technique, though most of us use the spiritual concentration blade in place of it,¡± the woman in white finished her list, providing a total of six techniques in full and mentions of several more without being able to give a proper cultivation method for them.


    In full, the list included the Decapitating Net, Mental Intrusion, Pearl Barrier, Strike Deflection, Sword Will Arts and Concentrated Blade techniques. The Decapitating Net was an art to form a literal net out of spiritual will and, typically, decapitate foes. Mental Intrusion was a powerful sounding method, but all it permitted someone to do was send a thread of spiritual will into the mental landscape of another, viewing some parts of it until the target realises their presence and removes it with their ultimate control over their own mind. Pearl Barrier was a basic defensive technique, forming a basic sphere around the user with slightly more stability and strength than simply gathering one¡¯s energy. Strike Deflection was used to retaliate with force against force, weakening or outright eliminating attacks by meeting them in mid-air with similarly powerful strikes.


    Sword Will Arts and the Concentrated Blade technique were a little more interesting, as the former was a swordsmanship technique that permitted the creation of sword light, being most effective when channelled through a spiritual concentration blade or a weapon former via the Concentrated Blade technique. Furthermore, they even surpassed some of the common sword techniques from the Planar Continents, unlike the hatred blades that were significantly worse than any artefacts from the outer world.


    The issues with these techniques applied to every single one of them: they were far, far too rigid.


    So far as Wei Yi could tell, every single one of these were created for a few very specific situations and movements, thus leading to them being entirely impractical in true combat scenarios. If this was how every skill was designed, then it made perfect sense that the previous men in white were lacking in battle ¨C their techniques simply didn¡¯t allow them to properly adapt to the situation.


    ¡®All of these have a set of movements, but have invested no thought into putting them together into a cohesive whole¡­ I will need to adapt these techniques before using them myself, and I should make sure to learn this lesson in my own techniques in the future. Something like the Elysian Palm is a good example of what I should be attempting to recreate in the future, as it is not only incredibly powerful, but also very versatile, being usable in combination with seemingly every single other skill in my arsenal,¡¯ she thought, her hand still gripping the neck of the woman in white as she briefly analysed the techniques to confirm that none of them had any kind of trick embedded in their design to cripple her whenever she attempts to use them.


    When that did not appear to be the case, she softened her grip and said, ¡°Alright, you¡¯ve done well. Next, tell me when you are going to be returning to the right side of the prison realm.¡±


    ¡°Two years! It¡¯s going to be in two years! Now, heal-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t try to make demands. I¡¯ll do what I want, when I want, and it will be your fault when your friends die,¡± she was forced to interrupt the woman in white again, ¡°Since your answer appears to be consistent with your friend over there, let me offer you a deal ¨C you stay near me, don¡¯t try anything dumb and then bring me alongside you through the storm wall, then I will not only ensure you lot survive, but I will also pretend that I had nothing with you when we cross over. If the authorities on the other side question me, I will claim that you had no awareness of me, and that you are innocent of any transgressions against them.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Who are you, sav- who are you? What is your position in this side of the prison realm?¡±


    ¡°Why do you want to know? Are you trying to establish how much of a threat I will be to you if you escape my sight?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t really mind, to be honest. It only makes sense to want to be aware of who your captor is. My name is Wei Yi, and I am the current leader of Beast¡¯s Rest. I am also the person that appears to be the most likely to breach the boundaries of the prison realm itself and escape into the Planar Continents.¡±


    ¡°What? That¡­ weren¡¯t there three leaders in that place?¡±


    ¡°There were. Now, there aren¡¯t. I think that the city is better off for it, frankly.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ how do we know that we can trust you?¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t. Unless you want me to attempt to swear some kind of oath to you, then you will just have to believe me. However, let me remind you that I have no need to end your lives, so it would be in your best interests to go along with me. Afterwards, regardless of what happens with me, you will be free to continue with whatever it is you¡¯re interested in doing, so don¡¯t be stupid in your decision making.¡±


    The woman in white looked around, glancing first at the bleeding man on the ground then at the confused man in the distance, though she could only see his legs from his perspective, taking a few seconds to think before nodding, ¡°Very well. I am Hao Gang, and I expect you to honour your word.¡±


    ¡°Sure, I can do that. Before I let you stand up ¨C and breathe, since I suspect that you need that ¨C let me remind you for the last time that if you try to run away or do something stupid, you will fail. I am faster than you, stronger than you, and, it seems, smarter than you as well, so regardless of what you attempt to do, you will suffer as a result,¡± Wei Yi said, grabbing and easily crushing a nearby rock to prove her point, ¡°Do you understand that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I do.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, and stood up from the woman¡¯s body, finally allowing her to take a proper breath for the first time in a long while.


    After making sure that she wasn¡¯t intending to attack her from behind ¨C though she naturally kept watching with her spiritual will, as there was no reason to let her guard down ¨C she headed over to the injured man in white and forced a pill into his mouth, using some of her killing intent to activate it in order to allow him to recover from the spiritual thread wounds.


    ¡®Hm, unlike killing intent, which is always a single form of energy, spiritual will can be split distinctly into spiritual energy and spiritual perception¡­ So that I don¡¯t confuse myself, I think I should change what I call the energy I cultivate into spiritual will and the sensory form of it into spiritual perception.¡¯


    While she thought, she also removed the killing intent from the first figure¡¯s arms, allowing him to recover from whatever was causing him to act like he has lost his brain.


    ¡°Once you¡¯re done with recovering your breath, I will lead you to Beast¡¯s Rest.¡±


    Hao Gang nodded, silently rubbing the bright red marks on her throat when she thought that Wei Yi had turned away. While the latter kept watching in silence, the woman in white made no attempts to heal herself via some kind of spiritual will technique nor with any pill, showing that this was either insufficient of a concern to warrant the use of such things, simultaneously suggesting that either one of these methods would be costly, or that she lacked either of these methods, implying a very similar set of circumstances.


    Eventually, the three figures in white were ready to go and formed a line behind Wei Yi, remaining on guard while bidding her to proceed.


    When Beast¡¯s Rest came into view as they climbed over a particularly large hill, the three figures in white were astounded. It was not difficult for Wei Yi to have figured out that they had some awareness of what the world on this side of the storm wall looked like, especially after their earlier comments on the number of leaders in Beast¡¯s Rest, and their expression of surprise made that even more obvious.


    What they saw was not the eponymous Beast, as they undoubtedly expected, but an enormous framework of walls, buildings and roads being carved into the crimson ground of the prison realm. A large group of builders were carrying an enormous quantity of carved stone and wooden pillars from the town itself to these new structures, with others setting them into the ground and building up the basic foundations and frameworks for the expansion of Beast¡¯s Rest.


    Despite the fact that they had begun only a few days ago, the rough shape of the city was already obvious, with one of the eventual brothels already being mid-way through construction.


    ¡°How is this possible? That¡¯s not what the Sensory Scanning array showed at all!¡± Hao Gang presumably tried to keep her voice down, but her surprise turned that into a cry that was heard by some of the closest construction workers, who looked up and kept their eyes on the group.


    ¡®Sensory Scanning array¡­ I recall something that could match that description in Bai Hao¡¯s memories, so it is clear that she isn¡¯t making something up to appear more shocked than she actually is, though I doubt that she is capable of such a thing ¨C just like all of their techniques are incredibly rigid, all of them seem incapable of lying or faking their emotions,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, lightly striking the woman on the back of the head so that she would stop making so much of a commotion, ¡°I only took over recently, and made a major decisions as I did so. Whatever that array of yours is, I¡¯m not surprised that it couldn¡¯t show you the future.¡±


    ¡°What in the heavens-¡± the first figure in white began, but he was interrupted when a group of soldiers approached them, urged to do so by the busy construction workers.


    ¡°Halt!¡± those soldiers said, drawing a series of weapons and hatred blades as they partially surrounded them, ¡°You lot look suspicious. Why are you using this route?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re just passing through,¡± replied Wei Yi, ¡°Do continue working and protecting the construction site, and I may give you lot some personal instruction after you return to central Beast¡¯s Rest. For now, get out of the way.¡±


    For a second, it seemed that the person in front of them didn¡¯t understand who she was ¨C but only for a second, as his comrades immediately grabbed him and whispered a few words in his ear, explaining who she was and some of the things that she had recently done, instantly making the man take a step back and bow down to her.


    ¡°Boss Wei! Sorry for getting in your way,¡± he said, immediately turning around and fleeing with the soldiers.


    ¡°Wait, you¡¯re actually-¡±


    ¡°Welcome to Beast¡¯s Rest. I¡¯ll make sure that you enjoy your stay ¨C forcefully, if I have to.¡±

 V2C35: The Martial Arts of the East

    ¡°- so why? You promised that-¡±


    ¡°You said that you¡¯d tell me every single one of the techniques you know of, and yet you¡¯ve only given me six. Since you¡¯re reluctant to talk, I have to force it out of you, don¡¯t I? Don¡¯t worry, your friends ¨C if you¡¯re even that familiar with them, and they aren¡¯t just some random people that you were ordered to lead ¨C will not be bothered unless you prove to be completely untrustworthy,¡± Wei Yi said, placing her fingers on the woman¡¯s chin and raising her head so that their eyes met, ¡°So make things easy for me, then I will be able to allow you to relax for the rest of the two years.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Hao Gang shivered as a great quantity of killing intent washed over her, emanating from Wei Yi¡¯s silver eyes, ¡°I promise, I told you everything!¡±


    ¡°Sure~, that¡¯s totally believable. Now, tell me, what sort of method should I try first? I can do something pleasant, or something outright violent. Although I have little experience in one, I can assure you that I will not make a single mistake in the process ¨C in the case of the painful approach, that means that you will suffer the most. Make the right choice, Hao Gang.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t trust you! You¡¯d never do something pleasant! You¡¯re clearly lying! Again!¡±


    The woman in white yelled as loudly as she could, thrashing about as she tried to free herself, but the restraints that bound her to the wall were far too tough to be broken by someone with no body or physique cultivation experience, and the people outside had no reason to listen to a captive of their leader, as, regardless of what they thought they were doing within this room, the people of the prison realm had seen far worse. To them, it didn¡¯t matter what sorts of strange things someone got up to, so long as they did not result in their loss of life, possessions or anything else that was important to them. Hao Gang fit into none of those categories.


    ¡°Then, I will begin with torture. Just remember that you can stop it at any time by answering my questions¡­¡±


    ¡°W-Wait, what are you- AH! NO! STOP!¡±


    ¡°Are you intending to share the rest of the techniques with me?¡± Wei Yi gave her a few seconds to reply, but when she failed to do so, she simply formed another thread of spiritual will that she made as thin as possible to optimise its cutting ability.


    ¡°¡­ and that is Demonic Ire¡­ Please, let me go¡­¡± cried Hao Gang, her voice weak and quiet.


    Dried blood covered her skin, though there were no actual wounds present on her body. Her white robes had been put aside, mostly so that the curious material they were made from was not damaged in the process, and her hair was also tied up so that it would not get in the way. Although Wei Yi was interrogating her, she didn¡¯t see any reason to inflict any kind of permanent harm to her and negatively affect the woman¡¯s appearance.


    The wounds inflicted during the torture were easily healed with a single pill, but clothes and hair were slightly more difficult to repair, prompting Wei Yi to avoid doing so in the first place.


    As it turned out, interrogating someone while they were mostly undressed and in an uncomfortable environment was a rather effective method at weakening their resistance, as Hao Gang broke down several minutes earlier than a round of Endless Calculation used before undressing her had suggested.


    ¡®Still, amongst the Spiritual Martial Arts and Direct Movement, this Demonic Ire certainly stands out,¡¯ Wei Yi noticed, prompting her to turn to the exhausted woman and ask directly, ¡°Why is this technique so different from the rest? If I recall one of your earlier claims, all of these were made by the same groups of people, so to see such variation¡­¡±


    ¡°No¡­ this one¡­ it was taken from a powerful warrior¡­ who impeded the construction of Sanctuary¡­ many years ago¡­¡±


    ¡°Is that so? That person is dead, then?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­¡±


    ¡°How powerful was he, exactly? Any particular achievements that he had attained through his abilities?¡±


    ¡°In the records¡­ it says that his army had one tenth of the number of the Sanctuary Guard, but¡­ with his might alone, he almost overpowered all of them¡­ He was the most powerful warrior to ever exist on our side of the prison realm,¡± said Hao Gang, whimpering with every word.


    ¡®Well, isn¡¯t that interesting¡­ wait a minute¡­ wait¡­¡¯ the mental tome detailing the Demonic Ire technique was duplicated within her mind so that every page could be open at once, at which point she carefully examined all of them with extreme care, for she saw something within them that once again alarmed her, just like when she first theorised that Ding Wen could be an otherworldly demon.


    The feeling was incredibly similar because her hypothesis matched as well. It was unlike most techniques, which were created with the combined experience of one or many cultivators over a long period of time, with many changes and steps taken until they can reach perfection. Even Wei Yi, who experienced what could be described as one too many sudden enlightenments, needed to work on her techniques for a while before they could reach their peak and exhibit their full strength. This was not the case for the likes of the Kong Mental Arts or Gilded Library, both of which lacked a core inspiration and did not adhere to the typical five elements, using pure planar energy instead.


    She couldn¡¯t be sure why this occurred, only that the former appeared most frequently in the techniques of those from other worlds, perhaps due to some unique method within their possession.


    The issue was that this Demonic Ire had the exact same style as the Kong Mental Arts and the Gilded Library, though they were clearly not written by the same person, nor did they originate from the same source, meaning that this was not a continuation of the legacy of Kong Shi Meng, but it was made by someone that was similar to him.


    In other words, Demonic Ire was incredibly likely to have been created by an otherworldly demon.


    ¡®This does not bode well, does it? It is possible that this is the fourth otherworldly demon I¡¯ve encountered during my life, which means that there is an extremely terrifying possibility that they are extremely common, not just in the Planar Continents, but also in spatial realms like this prison realm¡­ for fuck¡¯s sake, are you kidding me? Just one of them tore a hole in the pocket dimension itself, so if a bunch of them gather up and decide to rally around some cause that only they are aware of, then use all of their unique abilities at once, they might shatter the entire dimension with me still in it.¡¯


    Technically, that was exactly what she was looking for ¨C other than her being devoured by the spatial instability generated by such a phenomenon, of course ¨C but the mental instability of the otherworldly demons made her reluctant to even consider the possibility of them doing something right.


    More likely than a smooth destruction of the dimensions walls would be something akin to what happened in the Kong Holy Grounds, except with several otherworldly demons harnessing the warp energy and fighting one another with it while using absolutely insane techniques that match the Elysian Palm combined with the Touch of God and Storm Blade Wreathing in terms of their destructiveness and raw power.


    ¡°Very well. Confirm this one last time for me ¨C do you have any other techniques to inform me about?¡±


    ¡°No! I¡­ don¡¯t¡­ Please, I won¡¯t go anywhere¡­ let me go¡­¡±


    ¡®I don¡¯t see any hints of her lying, so I suppose there is no reason to keep her here. Furthermore, if I keep injuring her, the stench of blood will fill this room to such an extent that it will never be cleaned out by the owner, and I would prefer not to give him more work in my first few days as his master, so¡­¡¯ she made her decision and released the woman in white from the restraints, ¡°You can get a bed somewhere downstairs, with your friends if you want, or on your own. If you do not run away, then I will not imprison you in complete darkness for the rest of your stay in Beast¡¯s Rest.¡±


    ¡°I understand¡­ C-Can I wear my clothes now?¡±


    ¡°Sure. I just wanted to avoid damaging them, so there is no reason to take them off around me unless you intend to force me to torture you for a second time. You don¡¯t intend to do such a thing, do you?


    ¡°N-No! I¡¯d never!¡±


    ¡°Good. Feel free to go now.¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± the woman in white exclaimed with as much strength as she was able to, getting onto her shaking legs, grabbing the white robes from the corner of the room and fleeing the moment that they covered her body in any way.


    Soon after that, the owner of the establishment, a plain man dressed in ordinary clothing, with a short yet messy beard, emerged from the opposite direction that Hao Gang had headed in, glancing in that woman¡¯s direction for a few seconds before looking back towards Wei Yi, bowing to her lightly before stepping into the room.


    ¡°Boss Wei, have you finished using this room?¡±


    ¡°I have.¡±


    ¡°Very well. Do you intend to use my business for much longer, or will you be leaving soon?¡±


    ¡°We will only stay for the day. While we¡¯re here, make sure you leave a few of your guards around the rooms of the three in white robes and don¡¯t let them just lean on the walls and sleep. Otherwise, they may be killed in their sleep and I will not claim any responsibility for it.¡±


    ¡°Understood, boss. I¡¯ll do as you say. Feel free to use any room to rest.¡±


    He bowed again and began to leave, when he stopped with his body still half-way in the doorway and hesitantly turned to face her again, asking, ¡°Boss, you¡­ you¡¯re not going to do that to other women, are you?¡±


    ¡°If, by this, you mean violently torture them until they submit, beg for mercy and tell me everything I want to know, then unless other people, women or not, possess something that is absolutely necessary to allow for the ultimate escape from the prison realm, then I will not bother them unless they bother me. For example, if one of these other women come to me and ask to be tortured, whether physically or sexually, then I see no reason to refuse if I am not busy.¡±


    ¡°Right, right¡­ Thanks, boss!¡±


    He walked away without another random pause, prompting Wei Yi to raise an eyebrow as she tried to figure out why he bothered to ask her that.


    There were a few theories that were sufficiently plausible to be considered, but none of them had any particular significance to her and so she decided not to bother with it, instead silently leaving the room and travelling away from it, expecting that the three figures in white would be a little reluctant to leave any time soon, even if they did not see her in the area.


    While she had the free time, she wanted to experiment with some of the techniques she had acquired after the recent interrogations of those from the spiritual will side of the prison realm. Most of them were rather simplistic, and could be replicated or even created outright just with a little bit of experimentation, and thus the ones she was most interested in were the Sword Will Arts, Spiritual Martial Arts and Demonic Ire. There was no need to explain why the last one caught her attention, but both Sword Will and Spiritual Martial Arts included certain curious elements that she believed could be extrapolated into something as effective as the Red Phantom Flood could be¡­


    ¡®Red Phantom Flood¡­ Huh. I must attempt to use that one once more, for I recall that I felt a sort of killing intent when I had previously used it. Perhaps now that I possess some of that energy of my own, I will be able to use it properly.¡¯


    She had only attempted to use that technique a few times, and the only thing she had achieved most of those times was a series of internal and external injures that greatly assisted her in dulling her sense of pain. If it could be put to use, she would have a technique that could easily belong to the fifth realm or above of whatever cultivation system it was created within, and any offensive capability that it had would be on par with the Touch of God, Light of Divinity and Antithesis Palm.


    ¡®However, I shouldn¡¯t rush these things. I have two years until I will make contact with the other side of the prison realm, by which point I should reach the third realm of no fewer than one of my cultivation paths, and I highly doubt that I will be stopped from experimenting with my techniques for both years,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, stopping by the outer walls to warn the guards that she would be performing with a few potentially destructive skills that could cause quite a lot of noise and many large dust explosions that they would otherwise investigate, ¡®I¡¯ll start with the simpler skills first, to limit disappointment.¡¯


    After her interrogation of Hao Gang, she borrowed the spiritual concentration blade from her without asking for her permission, but she first intended to attempt the Concentrated Blade technique so that she would not be bound to fragile weaponry.


    When she stopped at a random dip in the ground that was barely within view of the outer walls, she raised both hands and placed them side by side, closing her eyes for a few seconds to concentrate her spiritual will in the manner necessitated by the technique, then released it from her palms, causing a thin but constant thread of spiritual will emerge from the centre of her hands.


    She moved one hand up while moving the other down, causing the energy to form the blade of a sword, which she then adjusted at the bottom so that it would resemble a typical sword handle.


    The shape was somewhat crude and basic, but it was unmistakably a weapon.


    ¡®I suppose that this is good enough for the first try. It is incredibly fortunate that my blacksmithing incapability does not extend to weapons that I create via my techniques, like the Living Spear and this technique,¡¯ she smiled to herself, swinging the weapon a few times to get a feel for it, ¡®It is also very light, pleasant to use¡­ Excellent. Now, I will be able to have a weapon other than a knife and spear.¡¯


    Wei Yi held the weapon in a basic stance, then surrounded it with a secondary layer of spiritual will as per the instructions of the Sword Will Arts. She had to split it into several threads, with a few entering the blade while others surrounding it, then stimulate the basic structure of the weapon to produce a spiritual resonance with it in order to create the sword light that was the dream of many cultivators and martial artists due to permitting great reach and extreme power from any weapon, no matter how short the actual weapon was.


    It was very effective when Fen Zhi and the warriors that had appeared during the hunt for the Lock Obelisks utilised it, and when she slashed with her blade at a random hill near her, the bright white flash of light that emerged cut right through the ground and continued for several metres before fading.


    The effect was satisfactory, albeit imperfect.


    ¡®There are several things I can do to improve this, but it isn¡¯t too bad of a creation for the overly rigid people of the spiritual will side of the prison realm,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, dispelling the blade and the energy around it before taking a simple stance that was described within the Spiritual Martial Arts and circulating her spiritual will through her meridians according to that same description, ¡®It is already clear that none of those three cultivated this technique, as I can tell that it would strengthen the body with consistent usage, as well as leaving a certain aura on the body and possibly even resulting in discoloration of the skin in certain places with prolonged usage¡­¡¯


    She frowned and returned to a neutral posture, looking through the Spiritual Martial Arts and the many other body cultivation techniques she had to modify the former with the insights of the latter.


    For someone with a great deal of experience in creating and modifying techniques, this process only took a dozen minutes before she was able to substitute certain elements of it for superior elements from other techniques, incorporating parts of the Condensed Arts and Dawn Star Bodies as well as the simpler skills she had acquired from the Yi family¡¯s technique library.


    The flaw of the aura was mitigated by using the many aspects of the Condensed Arts Body to disperse it into nothingness while utilising the essence of her physique to either avoid the discoloration of her body, or to change it into something that was useful to her, though she wasn¡¯t yet sure how that would function. After all, despite the fact ¨C or perhaps due to it ¨C that she was able to complete the modification process quickly, she was not aware of everything that her changes would cause, as that required an intense quantity of experimentation to confirm everything about them.


    ¡®For now, however, the knowledge that I wouldn¡¯t stand out like a sore thumb is enough for me to safely play around with it,¡¯ she said to herself, returning to a slightly different stance to use the first move of the Spiritual Martial Arts.


    This stance was simple, and all it led into was a single punch directed roughly at the stomach of the opponent. Due to the limited scope and insane rigidity of the techniques from the spiritual will side of the prison realm, that was the only strike described for this stance, and there was no mention of the basics or the idea behind it, only the attack itself, meaning that unless someone could comprehend it on their own, they would have no choice but to use that exact strike.


    Perhaps it wouldn¡¯t be surprising to anyone that the next move, a quick jab to the head, also permitted no variation, and neither did the next move, a strike to the side, nor did the next one.


    ¡®If I was to use this in combat, any opponent with a brain would be able to figure out exactly what every single one of my attacks will lead to after they witness them once or twice, which, in the case of otherworldly demons and the Greats, is a genuine possibility and significant risk. This isn¡¯t a technique for me, not until I modify it further¡­¡¯


    Nevertheless, she went through the rest of the movements of the technique to be able to better ascertain the effect it would have on the body, concluding after several repetitions that the effect was minor in comparison to absorbing physique energy or using the training that was available to her.


    She then moved on to Direct Movement, a technique that involved creating a path on the ground that could then be traversed rapidly so long as one¡¯s spiritual will was plentiful and their concentration was not broken entirely. Naturally, it was not as versatile as anything Wei Yi had in her arsenal already, but it did promise a significant degree of speed and manoeuvrability in a confined space, so long as she had the time to create the spiritual path prior to a battle.


    The process of drawing it was simple, but it required a consistent quantity of energy to properly tether the cultivator to the path. This proved to not be an issue for her, as she had plenty of experience with talisman creation, which required the exact same kind of skill, just on a larger scale, and within minutes, the spiritual path was created.


    All that she needed to do now was throw out a spiritual thread, latch onto a part of the path, then pull herself towards that point in order to use the technique.


    She did exactly that, forming a thread of spiritual will and throwing it to the furthest end of the spiritual path, pulling on it with her mental energy to rapidly move herself to its base. After a few more attempts at this, she decided to modify the process slightly and thicken the thread so that she would be able to grab onto it reliably with her hand instead of using only the mind. Technically, she had all of the mental power she needed to use this technique proficiently, but it made no sense not to utilise the immense physical power of her body to further increase the speed at which she travels.


    By creating a thread and then pulling on it with her arm instead of her mind, she was able to leap into the air and traverse the spiritual path with significantly greater speed, nearly doubling her speed at the cost of requiring the use of one arm and some movement rather than using only mental energy.


    ¡®And now, it is time for the most significant of the techniques¡­ Demonic Ire, a truly suitable name.¡¯


    Only after carefully examining her surroundings was she confident in attempting to use this technique, as it was not only incredibly powerful, but also significantly more destructive than any of the skills she was currently aware of, so long as she did not combine multiple techniques together to achieve even greater destruction.


    To kill a few people wasn¡¯t a particular concern for her, as she would undoubtedly need to do so many times over in order to reach her goals, but she had no intention of doing so accidentally or without any proper reason for it, and Demonic Ire had an incredibly high likelihood of achieving exactly that due to the way in which it functioned. First, the cultivator would create a sort of array around them, which would draw in great quantities of power from the air itself, as well as foes within the range of the array, then that energy would be released in two forms ¨C a spherical burst of energy that was roughly half the diameter of the array, and an incredible beam that would be twice as powerful as the energy gathering array was during its entire duration of function.


    She took several breaths to flood her lungs with the twisted air of the prison realm, focusing on the Demonic Ire mental tome to ensure that she would not make any mistakes in its execution.


    All of a sudden, her feet lifted up from the ground, arcs of crimson lightning gathering around her. With no warning, a great quantity of such lightning burst out of her, striking the ground around her in a perfect circle, carving out a shape that was exactly ten metres in diameter. Further bolts of crimson lightning surged into the air, hitting the air and fading out while diverting a great quantity of invisible power from it towards her.


    Her arms and hands were stretched out, red lightning arcing around them and through her flesh.


    After a second, another set of bolts burst out of her body and struck the ground in a smaller circle, drawing a strange series of patterns and inscriptions into the ground that did not match any language or symbols that Wei Yi was aware of.


    However, she could distinctly feel the Demonic Ire energy growing stronger with every single smaller symbol that appeared, meaning that they did indeed have a function and power, in spite of what she might have thought. A total of ten such circles were carved into the ground, crimson lightning resting within every single one of them, their symbols connecting to one another in some kind of esoteric fashion that further empowered this entire complex array.


    Then, a second after the last pattern was formed within the ground, almost immediately around her, the crimson energy that was nested within the eleven rings suddenly burst out of the ground and returned into her, wrapping her entire form with a ruby light that was entirely unique from the air of the prison realm, containing far less chaotic energy and notably more power.


    At that moment, she slammed her hands together and let them separate just as quickly, resulting in that energy gathering at a point in front of her and exploding outwards.


    Part of the crimson light exploded outwards without any aim, scorching the ground and raising an enormous cloud of dust that completely eliminated all traces of the circles on the ground that had previously been formed by the technique.


    The other half flew out in the form of a great crimson beam that roughly matched the width of Wei Yi¡¯s outstretched arms. In just a single breath, it crossed the gap between her and the red hill she had been facing, impacting into it with force equalling someone in the fifth realm of planar cultivation. The hill was absolutely annihilated, exploding into nothingness and sending a great shockwave that flew past her and threw the cloud of dust aside, forcing Wei Yi to shut her eyes to avoid permanently losing her sight.


    She landed onto the ground and was forced to take another breath in order to recover the air that had been blown out of her lungs.


    ¡®Well¡­ that certainly matches a few other experiences in excitement. I see no traces of negative effects on myself, meaning that if I aim correctly and balance the energy I invest into this technique, as well as how many of those circle stages I build up before releasing, I¡¯ll be able to avoid the unpleasant part of this¡­ maybe I shouldn¡¯t bother getting underwear¡­¡¯


    That last thought was entirely random and irrelevant for the moment, so she shook it out of her head and sat down on the ground, taking advantage of the energy-draining effect of Demonic Ire to absorb the pure killing intent that remained around her and cultivate it into her own power.


    ¡®When I come back and bring those people from the other side of the prison realm into the inner city, I will need to decide which factions of the prison realm to side with, which ones to eliminate and which ones to¡­ integrate. Depending on how I do this, I will naturally get different rewards for my efforts, and different insights and minds with which to stride forward, and I would prefer to limit the number I kill as much as possible just to have the most troops to work with once I can organise an escape from the prison realm¡­¡¯


    She contemplated this as she cultivated, occasionally glancing into her mental domain to observe how the warriors wielding killing intent fought against those with physique energy, in addition to confirming that the refinement process of her killing intent was continuing smoothly, without any unexpected damage within her meridians or anywhere else in her body.


    It was important to do this after testing a few new techniques, and so she made sure to be careful.


    Roughly an hour into her cultivation, she stood up again and willed the Red Phantom Flood manual to appear within her mind, reading through it yet again to be certain about what she was doing.


    Then, she slowly activated the technique, willing her killing intent to gather in place of whatever other energies the Red Phantom Flood usually used. She did this slowly and incredibly cautiously, for the pain that she had previously been forced to endure was not just physical, which she had gotten used to long ago, but also mental, with every instant of the technique¡¯s usage feeling like her very soul was being torn into pieces.


    Indeed, as she repeated the activation of the skill now, she felt a similar pain, as if someone had stabbed her with a thousand knives at once.


    ¡®Shit¡­ I will not be defeated by a single technique!¡¯ she exclaimed to herself, forcefully pushing through the extreme discomfort and releasing a large clump of killing intent into the world, as per the technique¡¯s instructions.


    And then¡­ then, the sensation that she felt could not be described in its entirety with words alone. Her vision, her sense of smell, her hearing ¨C all of them felt like they were doubled and split in two, with two images simultaneously appearing within her mind of the world around her, with one being at her present location and the other being incredibly similar, originating from the clump of killing intent.


    Before she was able to understand any of this, her mind suddenly returned into a single whole, the second set of sensations vanished, and the quantity of killing intent collapsed entirely, floating back into her body.


    At some point during that experience, her body became entirely drenched in sweat, and her head felt as if she had stayed awake for a dozen days without food or water.

 V2C36: Deciding the Targets of Conquest

    In the end, she returned to the establishment owned by the plain man several hours later, finding that the three in white were obediently sitting on their beds, with Hao Gang shivering while the rest occasionally glanced around nervously before they noticed her approach.


    The second that they did, however, the nervous looks intensified tenfold.


    ¡°How have you three been? Had a good rest?¡± Wei Yi asked, prompting them all to nod their heads furiously.


    ¡°Yes, boss Wei, we did!¡± Hao Gang answered for all of them, clearly having recovered some of her energy without any of the previous fearlessness that she had exhibited, ¡°We¡¯re ready to leave at any moment, so long as it is convenient for you!¡±


    ¡°Good. See, you could have just started with this, instead of all of the nonsense you forced me to go through. Furthermore, since I was rather impressed by what I had gotten from you lot, I might have even provided something nice to you, but you know what happened in place of that¡­¡± she sighed, making the three shiver as they recalled the stories that Hao Gang had told them of her experience, ¡°Anyway, get up and let¡¯s go. Don¡¯t try to run away, or else.¡±


    They did not seem to need the reminder, as they leapt onto their feet and arranged themselves into a basic military formation, intending to obstruct her as little as they possibly could.


    This was indeed convenient to her, so she didn¡¯t comment on it and instead left the room, a small smile appearing on her face when she observed them following her at a very precise distance through her spiritual perception. It made things easier for her, though it was a shame that she couldn¡¯t easily attain the same level of obedience from others with a shorter, less damaging process.


    She brought them out of the building and threw a minute mote to the owner of the establishment to compensate him for the inconvenience she had caused. That kind of quantity wasn¡¯t too significant ¨C it was the most worthless type of currency she could have possibly provided to him, after all ¨C but it was still more than she needed to, or was even obligated to give the owner, as she could get rid of his shop whenever she wanted if she was not pleased with him due to her position as the one and only leader of Beast¡¯s Rest and was thus free to interact with whoever she wanted, however she wanted.


    Even if he wasn¡¯t too happy with such a thing, he didn¡¯t have anywhere else to go.


    Wei Yi brought them to the inner walls of Beast¡¯s Rest without any unpleasant interruptions, taking them through the front gate and then happening upon Wang Shi, who was on a break from her duties outside of the inner walls and was thus available to take the three figures in white to the underground passages and place them into a secure room that didn¡¯t look too much like a prison cell, as Wei Yi feared that it might be a little too much for their minds to handle at the moment.


    Now that the figures in white were within the custody of another person, she headed straight for her new office, which she had placed no bones into as the current excessive quantity of the Beast¡¯s bones that she possessed would instantly melt any paper or parchment that entered their area of effect.


    For this reason, instead of having something that was purely focused on practicality and function, as her other room ¨C which was still in use for the purposes of cultivation and the usage of the Endless Calculation method, and little else ¨C had been, this office was more focused on the aesthetic side of things. It was larger, and whenever someone entered, they would have to approach the main desk through a direct path surrounded by a number of trophies and unique items that she had taken out of the House of Gold due to their general lack of function for her purposes.


    In addition, the desk was also on a platform that put it above the typical height of a person, meaning that most of the people who entered would always be looked down upon by Wei Yi, and would certainly be below her if she decided to stand up and speak to them in that way. With some strategically placed shelves behind her, she was also able to make her entire figure appear significantly more threatening.


    When it came to speaking to most of the guards that commonly traversed the underground passages of Beast¡¯s Rest, this wasn¡¯t necessary, as they were very familiar with her capabilities and had likely come into direct contact with her killing intent at least once, either due to some test directed by her or due to accidentally stumbling into one of the killing intent planes created by White Echo before she had recognised the effect that the weapon had and taken steps to avoid harming the minds of people other than Dugu Wei, who had initially exposed the issue to her.


    However, Wei Yi believed that if she was to ever speak to an ambassador or a representative from another major faction, like the leaders of the Council of Crimson or the warlords of the Great Bone Lake, then the atmosphere created by this office would prevent them from being too certain of themselves when speaking to her, perhaps leading to them being more ready to agree to things that would be advantageous to her.


    ¡®That¡¯s something to test out some other time. For now, the question of which faction is most necessary for my plans to succeed is still more important,¡¯ she said to herself, taking out a map of the left side of the prison realm and unfurling it on her desk, ¡®I¡¯ve had no prior interactions with these, except for visiting the outskirts of the Great Bone Lake, so to get a better idea of this lot¡­¡¯


    At this moment, she spotted a guard passing by the door to her office, so she raised her head and called out, just softly enough to be heard by him, ¡°Warrior, step in for a moment.¡±


    The man froze for a second before complying with great haste, almost leaping into her office so that he would not appear to be shirking his responsibilities or disrespecting her in any way. This was slightly unnecessary in Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, but she didn¡¯t care to address it, instead telling him, ¡°Go to Meng Chu and tell him to come over for the next hour or two. If he doesn¡¯t believe you¡­ show him this piece of the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival.¡±


    She tore off a small fragment of the robes and tossed the piece of fabric over to the man, carefully observing the process of recovery that the clothes underwent as she did so. Although the guard was rather confused by the entire situation, he nodded and departed immediately.


    ¡®I might need to make some kind of disposable identity token so that I can pass it on to other people in the future, perhaps with a function to instantly destroy any of them if I find that they are being misused for things that I did not allow the holder of the token to do, or perhaps include something that would allow me to monitor their location and their surroundings¡­¡¯


    Before she could contemplate this for too long, Meng Chu entered the room with a piece of crimson fabric in his hand, which, after noticing that it was indeed torn from the sleeve of her robes, he returned to her without hesitation.


    ¡°This was still a nicer way of calling me than your typical approach, so I won¡¯t complain¡­¡± Meng Chu complained under his breath before raising his voice and saying, ¡°You called me here for something?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. Since Beast¡¯s Rest is expanding, I intent to take this opportunity to rethink some of our relations with other factions and interact with them beyond the occasional bit of trade. In slightly less vague language, I intend to either remove them from the map, turn them into our direct allies, or take over and add them into the territory of Beast¡¯s Rest,¡± Wei Yi explained, ignoring his widening eyes as she continued, ¡°You happen to be most familiar with these factions, so I wanted your input on this. Since my ultimate goal is to break out of the prison realm and defeat the Greats while reforming Yi City, tell me which factions would be most conducive to such a route.¡±


    ¡°Heh¡­ that¡¯s difficult. Do you have any priorities in regard to the form of energy you wish to side with? If it is of significance to you, the Council of Crimson, Seekers of Blood and the Cranial Domain would be your natural selections.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but if it was that simple, then I would hardly require your input. However, I have no such interests. I wish to side with those that will bring us closest to freedom, no matter what energy they use.¡±


    He considered things for a second before noticing the map on her table, ¡°Do you mind if I take a look at that map? It¡¯ll probably be easier if I draw some kind of chart or diagram to explain exactly what all of them might have.¡±


    ¡°Do go ahead. I happen to be fond of such things, and it might help to have it written down in the future,¡± she replied, moving her chair over so that he would have enough space to stand beside her.


    Once he climbed the steps to the raised platform and stood beside her, he took out a piece black chalk-like material and drew a few symbols on the map to denote some things about the factions that he then began to explain, ¡°These ones denote the energy used by the faction, which should still be relevant to you if you require more than one of them to damage the storm walls. Then, this one indicates how they get along with one another, or what kinds of alliances they have formed.¡±


    According to his indications, everything remained as it had been when Wei Yi first learnt about these groups. The Council of Crimson still opposed their close neighbours, the Hold of the Mighty, the Cranial Domain was still quiet, the Great Bone Lake was still driven by madmen and the Seekers of Blood continued to prevent anyone from nearing their location. The only significant difference was a new point to the very west of the prison realm, close to the storm walls. It had no name, nor any kind of flag or regalia associated with it, resulting in a simple question mark adorning the map.


    ¡°What does this indicate? Is there some other faction there?¡±


    ¡°Right, I had forgotten to share this with you, but there have been sightings of some kind of organised group there by our scouts. However, we have not found their home base, nor who they are,¡± explained Meng Chu, tapping on that point of the map several times, ¡°The rumours vary from them being actual planar cultivators to hatred automatons, so neither I nor the creator of the map could be sure.¡±


    ¡°Understood. Both possibilities would be incredibly interesting, so I will certainly need to visit them to make sure, especially if they have some kind of grudge against any of the other factions. Now, continue.¡±


    ¡°What ought to interest you is the unique pursuits of these factions ¨C their trump cards, or their ultimate techniques and artefacts, or even stranger things. The Great Bone Lake, for example, appears to have a total of three such trump cards, those being the Skeletal Manifestation, a monster they can conjure from the many bones at the cost of the physique energy of a dozen powerful experts, the Pure Unified Form, which is an ancient ritual to unify the power of their physique cultivators into a single person and significantly enhance them temporarily, and then they have something known only as ¡®The Ultimate Stratagem¡¯, with no other information being available to us.¡±


    Wei Yi raised an eyebrow at this, ¡°None at all?¡±


    ¡°No. We wouldn¡¯t have known anything about it at all if a physique cultivator hadn¡¯t stumbled into a brothel while drunk and spilled all of the information he had to one of our prostitutes during their session,¡± Meng Chu confirmed, ¡°He then died from excessive alcohol consumption.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Right. How do these things compare to the rest of the factions? I suspect that the Seekers of Blood would have some kind of bloodline-based art that transforms them into powerful beasts at the great cost of their own sanity, like in the tale of Chao Jianhong, the Lady of Ashes, and that the Hold of the Mighty will be able to stimulate their physique for a similar result. Is that roughly accurate, or is my perception of them entirely incorrect?¡±


    ¡°Both of the trump cards you¡¯ve described are indeed possessed by those factions, though the Seekers of Blood have a secondary method of creating an alchemical lifeform from the Beast¡¯s blood, while the Hold of the Mighty own two unknown methods of similar power. One is said to be a mysterious martial art from the time of the Master of Yi City, while the other is entirely unknown.¡±


    ¡°Does this lack of information extend to the Council of Crimson and the Cranial Domain?¡±


    ¡°No, as Beast¡¯s Rest has previously been in conflict with both of these factions for various reasons. To begin with the simpler one, the Cranial Domain has exactly one tactic that we are aware of ¨C the Skull of the Beast itself. With the combined forces of physique and killing intent cultivators, the remaining energy within it can be mobilised to eliminate all approaching foes with relatively few casualties on their side, so far as we are aware. On the other hand, the Council of Crimson revolves around the eponymous council, and every single one of their secret weapons is in some way connected to them,¡± he explained, drawing another question mark beneath the Council¡¯s location on the map, ¡°Unfortunately, although we know that, we have no clue what the technique actually is. It has manifested many times before, yet every single time it was different, meaning that there are either dozens of methods at their disposal, or an incredibly versatile one.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­ Make sure to list every single one of the moves witnessed so that I may have some chance, no matter how minor, to decipher the truth of the matter. Depending on what their technique is, it might either be easy to circumvent or adapt for our own use.¡±


    ¡°There is already a complete list of every battle between the Council of Crimson and every other faction out there, so I will have it brought to you at a later time. However, I don¡¯t think that we will be able to do much with the technique ourselves unless you know of several people with similar prowess to you, as it has only ever been witnessed in use when no fewer than six of the council members worked together.¡±


    ¡®Naturally, I do not, but¡­ the Red Phantom Flood might be of some use. However, I was barely able to use it for a single second, so unless the technique owned by the Council of Crimson is something that can be used in such a brief amount of time, I will need to practise far, far more before this idea can become reality,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, wincing involuntarily as she recalled the experience.


    Despite using the technique several hours ago, her mind still felt as if it had been torn in two and then put back together without anything to keep them there. Her mental domain seemed to be undamaged, so she wasn¡¯t too concerned about this, but she was almost certain that if she repeatedly used Red Phantom Flood several times in a row without allowing her brain to recover then there would be incredible detrimental effects not only to her mind, but potentially to her entire body, as her first few attempts to use the Red Phantom Flood did result in physical pain as well.


    ¡°That will depend on exactly what the technique is, but I might be able to provide something in the right scenario,¡± she said, deciding to remain vague for now, ¡°Then, these numbers here¡­¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re my opinion on which factions you should prioritise. Naturally, some will be able to provide us with significantly more than others, so I have added these numbers based on this. As you can see, I consider that the Council of Crimson has the greatest potential to offer you what you want, then the Hold of the Mighty and the Seekers of Blood, then the Cranial Domain and the mysterious faction and the Great Bone Lake last.¡±


    ¡°Is this due to the significant mindlessness of those in the so-called Beast¡¯s Ass?¡±


    ¡°Please don¡¯t start acting like Ah Qiu¡­ but yes, that is the reason. The most you will achieve by forming some alliance with them, if you succeed in such a pursuit at all, is a bunch of strong men and women and some insights into the possibility of torturing yourself for greater physical might. I highly doubt that this will contribute to breaking the storm walls.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps it will, or perhaps it won¡¯t. You can let me be the judge of that,¡± Wei Yi said as she resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his assertions ¨C her physique energy was perhaps her most powerful form of energy, matching the second realm of her planar cultivation on the very same day that she awakened it. If not for the True Ascendant physique, she would have never been as successful in her battles against the warp of the Kong Holy Grounds and would certainly lack any options for shattering space within a spatial realm.


    To label knowledge that could further empower such an immense force as lacking in potential clearly displayed that Meng Chu had not yet understood the true power of the right physique, though that fact also reminded her of the Secondary Meridians Technique, and the fact that she had still not found something suitable to forcefully invoke physique energy within him the last time they spoke about it.


    ¡°By the way, do you remember some of those Physical Invoking herbs that had been discovered recently? Bring some of them to the pill refining room, and I might be able to create an imitation of the Earth Physique Awakening pill for you to use to create a secondary set of meridians.¡±


    ¡°Um¡­ are we doing this now, or after we decide on our plans?¡±


    She shrugged, ¡°Does it matter? There are two years for us to conquer the left of the prison realm, and the conquest itself shouldn¡¯t take more than one year and eight months, meaning that we have another four months to consider it and to ponder the best approach. A pill only takes an hour or two to make at most with my particular techniques, so I don¡¯t see why we shouldn¡¯t attempt this as soon as possible. After all, if you acquire a physique that is useful for these plans, or something that helps you think and plan, you could genuinely contribute in the future.¡±


    ¡°I hope you don¡¯t intend to make such random jabs at people other than me¡­ Nonetheless, I suppose that you are right-¡±


    ¡°That is only natural. Come on, let¡¯s go.¡±


    They rose and headed towards the alchemical room, though they split mid-way through the journey so that Meng Chu could retrieve the necessary materials while Wei Yi headed straight there to prepare the room for her work.


    Although that might sound somewhat engaging, all she needed to do was ensure that the conditions for forging the pills were as poor as they could possibly be, as to allow for the greatest result upon the usage of Antithesis energy. Since this was a room that only she used, and since every single instance of refinement ended up leaving behind various impurities that would typically be cleansed before the next instance, all she really needed to do was get into the correct mood to shake off the traces of perfectionism that occasionally attempted to sprout within her mind.


    Due to this, when he returned several minutes later, she had already managed to do everything and was thus engaging in casual conversation with Bai Hao.


    ¡®- and so, there were a total of three of them. So far as I understand things, the Sensory Scanning Array is still fully functional and effective, allowing them to observe the growth of this side of the prison realm with high accuracy, perhaps with a bit of the delay,¡¯ she decided to inform the man in white to get a few more fragments of memories from him.


    ¡®Is that so? Fortunate. If only I could witness any of the process, perhaps I would be more keen to share knowledge with you, as I currently know almost nothing about what is happening to those three. For all I know, you¡¯ve killed the lot of them and are now lying to me.¡¯


    ¡®I¡¯ll show you them later, though I must say that you have grown in the time I forgot to talk to you.¡¯


    ¡°Here, I have gotten you the exact quantities of these herbs for the Earth Physique Awakening pill,¡± Meng Chu said the second that he entered the room, unaware that she had been conversing with another figure as he did so, ¡°I¡¯m assuming that the refining process has become less dangerous since the last time I witnessed it?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, it has. Still, remain on the other side of the room for safety purposes,¡± she said, shoving the man in white back into the tower as she took the things from him and tossed them into the furnace.


    After setting them aflame with her physique energy, she remained silent for a while before throwing a palm at the pill furnace and inverting the mess that this process caused into a set of Earth Physique Awakening pills that were no weaker than four stars.


    ¡°No matter how many times I witness this, I can¡¯t shake the feeling that this isn¡¯t proper refining.¡±


    ¡°It works, though. Honestly, if this wasn¡¯t the most effective method I had, I wouldn¡¯t be doing this either. The pill furnace is going to require some repairs soon as a result, and wouldn¡¯t be in such a terrible state if I could create pills in the typical fashion¡­ Nonetheless, let us delay the actual process of forming your secondary set of meridians just for a little longer. I want to set up a few arrays in preparation for it¡­¡±


    ¡°Are you planning something dangerous?¡±


    ¡°No, not dangerous. I just want to make an enormous killing intent storm to further stimulate your potential and ensure that the best technique possible is awakened.¡±

 V2C37: Awakening the Ashen Form

    Her words were not some curious form of humour, nor an exaggeration.


    Within a single day, she isolated a large portion of land on the outskirts of Beast¡¯s Rest and built an enormous array upon it, though it was not some kind of unique or unusual array that would never be seen within the prison realm.


    No, it was just a simple Hatred Gathering array, except she increased its size and power to an enormous extent at the cost of a few more precious items from the House of Gold, which gave her a very fortunate excuse to empty out even more of that artefact thanks to all of the items she decided to use being useful only for gathering great quantities of killing intent in a large area, though not to the extent of permitting her to damage space via the conflict of that energy and one of her attacks.


    Since there seemed to be no better use for such things ¨C especially considering the fact that she could also benefit from the array and siphon the energy that remains after Meng Chu¡¯s physique awakening to cultivate on her own ¨C she threw out everything liberally, with the finished array glittering like gold.


    Once that was prepared, she called Meng Chu out to this location with a series of pills and materials, including some extremely toxic poisons.


    Her reasoning behind such a decision was that his body was significantly older than she had been when awakening her physique and would thus be likely to put up far more resistance than her own body had. To loosen it up a little, give the secondary set of meridians room to grow and to cleanse his body of some of the impurities that constantly consuming the blood of the Beast resulted in, something poisonous and fast-acting was best, as she could then repair it quickly by supplying her built-up vitality via the various physiques she currently possessed.


    This was cheaper and easier than finding specific herbs to do that same thing properly, without initially damaging the body, and so she decided to take the exact same approach to this as she had to many other tasks after discovering the true power of Antithesis energy.


    Needless to say, although Meng Chu did trust her capabilities, he was not immediately convinced with her plan after he had the opportunity to see all of the poisonous materials stacked up atop one another, resulting in a pile that was similar in size to his head, and visibly damaging the dead crimson ground that it was placed upon.


    ¡°Are you absolutely certain that this will work? Is vitality sufficient to deal with all of these?¡±


    ¡°To ensure that it is, I have selected the poisons that function incredibly quickly. Since their poisonous essence will dissipate almost instantly, your natural regenerative abilities supplemented by excess vitality will correct most injuries quickly.¡±


    Before he had the opportunity to further question these things, she grabbed his clothes and tossed him into the array, making sure to control the force she invested into her throw to allow him to land on his feet and avoid damaging the complex design of the Extreme Hatred Gathering array, since that would be rather bothersome to correct, though not dangerous due to the array not yet being active nor completed.


    ¡°Now, quiet down and consume the pill and poison, then I will handle the rest. Focus on the Secondary Meridians Technique and take advantage of the creation of your physique to complete it, and then, once both forms of energy are present, make sure to use them in combination and get used to the ways in which they function to ensure that you do not suffer if you are somehow more unlucky than I was.¡±


    With the injection of her spiritual will and killing intent, the enormous array began to stir into action, the twin energies flowing through different parts of the structure and interacting with its various components, causing a series of faint sounds to come from the treasures that had been embedded into it. Faint crimson light began to gather around it, slowly growing deeper and deeper as it went from simply being present within the air to overpowering it, removing all colours other than the ever-consuming crimson of the prison realm.


    It slowly pressed down on Wei Yi, but it clearly had far more of an effect on Meng Chu, not in the least due to his position in the very middle of the array.


    When combined with his weaker constitution and lack of experience in such killing intent-heavy situations, he felt as if some kind of enormous giant, perhaps even the one from Wei Yi¡¯s killing intent illusion, had grabbed him and was attempting to crush him with all of their might.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you can¡¯t even handle this? There is still a lot more to go, including a full storm!¡± Wei Yi muttered disapprovingly, ¡°Eat the pill and poisons, or else I will just toss you right into the tornado as it forms!¡±


    He would have replied with a similar level of disapproval directed at her, but he was not so foolish as to risk his life just because of his emotions. Following her instructions, he grabbed the Earth Physique Awakening pill with one hand and the poisonous materials with the other, clenching his teeth to avoid crying out as the toxins burned the skin on his hand and some even began to eat through his flesh, with one particular herb even reaching his bones before he was able to force it into his mouth.


    That made the pain a thousand times worse.


    Although it was rare for him to deal with the prolonged exposure to an extreme quantity of killing intent on the outside of his body, with him having some minor control over it due to his killing intent cultivation, he had nothing whatsoever that he could do about the extreme quantity of deadly toxins that suddenly flooded into his stomach.


    ¡®Somehow, it is always surprising to witness how fragile almost everyone other than me is¡­ Anyway, time to guide the poison,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, placing her hand on the man¡¯s back and sending a spiritual thread into his body, ¡®While I¡¯m at it, can¡¯t I look through his memories? It seems like the perfect opportunity to do so, especially considering the fact that he won¡¯t have much of an opportunity to resist me in this condition.¡¯


    For a few moments, she probed his body with her spiritual will, making sure that she would be able to manage her part of his physique creation process, then once she was absolutely certain that she would be able to succeed, she used the newly-learned Mental Intrusion technique.


    Due to the strange nature of her mental energy, where it appeared to be thin and nigh imperceptible, even a spiritual will expert might have been incapable of noticing it, not to mention someone without any time to pay attention to the things going in within his mind and without the knowledge of spiritual will being anything more than spiritual perception, meaning that the second thread of spiritual will entered his head without any difficulty, intruding upon his mental realm after a second of searching.


    Meng Chu had never developed his mental realm, and thus it was almost as chaotic as Wei Yi¡¯s when she had first used the Kong Mental Arts to dwell into her own mind. The most distinct difference was the fact that there were significantly ¨C incredibly significantly ¨C fewer memory fragments, wayward thoughts and more, meaning that his mental domain looked like a barren wasteland in her eyes.


    Still, there were a number of curious things for her to view.


    For one, there were traces of his past and of his life as a child, allowing her to glean minor details of how people at that age exist within this twisted prison realm, though she was not too concerned with this and thus threw her recollection of these things into a corner of the Augur¡¯s Library the second that she had the spare time to do so, moving on to more recent, brighter and bigger memories in the hopes of locating information that may reveal any negative tendencies that she would be better off addressing before they became an issue.


    Before she could get to that, however, she was forced to return her focus to the outside world to manage the storm of killing intent that began to build up around them. It was exactly what she had wanted to achieve, but it required some control to maximise its potential.


    Wei Yi raised her hand and used a segment of Demonic Ire that she focused on it. All of the plentiful energies around her were forced towards her hand, focusing within her palm, but before it could progress into the stage at which the eleven array circles would be carved into the ground, she shattered the structure of the technique and redirected the great quantity of power that she had gathered into Meng Chu¡¯s body.


    When that power combined with the great quantity of poisons, it broke down even more of his internal structure.


    However, that energy also interacted with the Earth Physique Awakening pill, finally causing a reaction between it and the dormant structure within his body that contained the vague traces of the physique that the pill was intended to awaken.


    As she noticed this, she responded by beginning the transfer of vitality into him to permit for the physique to awaken without consuming what little of his life remained to do so.


    The flooding entry of vitality prompted the poison¡¯s effects to finally die out and the many broken parts of Meng Chu¡¯s body to slowly recover, but before they could get far, a pale white force surged from his insides, flooding out into reality and wreathing his ragger form in a thin layer of ash-like fog, prompting Wei Yi to withdrew her hand slightly.


    ¡®Energy of extreme yin, though it does not appear to be the same kind that would result in him having a skewed balance of yin and yang within his body¡­ regardless of the physique itself, he is fortunate in this department¡­¡¯ she thought to herself, continuing to guide this force in filling his entire form.


    What she noticed quickly after, however, was that this curious physique energy had a similar attribute to her spiritual will, in that it appeared to be incredibly weak and faint despite containing a greater power hidden within. It did not appear to match her True Ascendant physique energy to any degree, lacking the same empowering force, the physical enhancement and the ability to destabilise space itself at sufficient quantities, but in the place of such great abilities seemed to be an endless pool of potential, or so her instincts were telling her.


    They had been reliable enough so far, and so she had no intention of disregarding them now.


    ¡®I have stored quite an excessive amount of vitality after the recent battle with the two former leaders of Beast¡¯s Rest ¨C the abominations provided a bit, though I was forced to finish them quickly and thus couldn¡¯t benefit from the energy that they had drained from much of Beast¡¯s Rest population ¨C so I can naturally spare it to ensure that I have someone who is capable of assisting me in genuine battles in the future,¡¯ she thought, increasing the rate at which she supplied vitality to him.


    As a direct result, the ashen mist also grew thicker, enveloping both his insides and outsides until he appeared to be made more of ash than flesh and blood.


    Then, the ashes exploded, blowing away all nearby dust and dirt while simultaneously causing an implosion of killing intent, drawing it all into Meng Chu¡¯s body. It pooled within his heart, focusing further and further until it converged with all of the returning ashes and exploded once again, this time being contained to his body.


    Meanwhile, using the principles of Strike Deflection to ignore the outburst of physique energy, Wei Yi used her own power to force the ashen physique energy to stay away from Meng Chu¡¯s first set of meridians, forcing it to flow along a secondary path beside them, where his rapidly regenerating body quickly got the idea and began forging a second set of meridians, albeit slowly and undoubtedly incredibly painfully, though it was unlikely to be as terrible as her experience had been due to the rather unguided way in which her own set of meridians were developed.


    The ash explosion had thrown away the rest of the killing intent that built up around them, and the array was also thrown into disarray and deactivated as a result, leaving all focus on the two of them.


    For a while, they remained in their positions in silence, with Meng Chu following her earlier instructions and getting acclimated to the new form of energy that began to flow through him, as well as the strengthened killing intent that he had achieved during the physique forging process, while Wei Yi remained near him to ensure that he didn¡¯t accidentally explode himself with this power.


    Several minutes later, he was still alive and smoothly circulating the two energies throughout his body, prompting Wei Yi to get up and begin collecting the remaining treasures from the array, since the risk of imminent death seemed to have passed.


    When he finally opened his eyes, he looked around with a hint of bewilderment in his expression, ¡°This¡­ This is not what I expected¡­¡±


    ¡°Although I don¡¯t know what you expected, I am also unaware of what you¡¯re commenting on, so I cannot even tell you whether your experiences are common amongst physique cultivators- actually, never mind. I wouldn¡¯t be able to share that with you anyway, seeing as my experiences are anything other than common.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a strange ashen mist around everything, though it isn¡¯t thick enough to obstruct anything. Also, there¡¯s some kind of light pillar centred on some point near the middle of Beast¡¯s Rest, though I have no idea what it is or what it means.¡±


    ¡°Pillar of light?¡± she raised her eyebrow and considered the options she had for a few seconds before putting down the items that she had gathered and approaching him again, ¡°Let me try something to witness this from your perspective. Depending on what you are seeing it could be any number of things, ranging from you obtaining an eye-based physique that allows you to see the flow of spatial energy that may have been left behind from my battle with Ding Wen, or perhaps it is some kind of hallucination that you ought to disregard.¡±


    He nodded and stood still to make things easier for her, unaware of the fact that she had already been within his mind with the exact same technique a short time ago.


    Still, with him allowing her to enter his mental landscape, her spiritual thread was able to instantly locate the correct point in his mind and enter the part that displayed his current ideas and thoughts, as well as the things that he was experiencing with all of his senses.


    She ignored his sense of touch, smell and the like, for she had more than enough experiences of another¡¯s body thanks to the Thunder Lord¡¯s intrusive memories and thus had no curiosity regarding the potential differences in the experience on the world between her and a man. Instead, she adjusted her spiritual thread so that she would be able to view his vision in almost the exact same way as he was currently experiencing it.


    In his eyes, a large quantity of ash hovered in the air, slowly falling endlessly towards the ground and forming a thick mist the further away he looked, although it melded with the natural crimson fog of the prison realm and thus did not obstruct any more details than the fog itself.


    What was a little more interesting was the thick beam of light in the distance, seemingly streaming down upon a certain point of Beast¡¯s Rest. As far as she was able to tell, it had no connection to a spatial tear, nor to the memory fragments that occasionally appeared around the prison realm, but there was a certain resonance between it and the flow of Meng Chu¡¯s physique energy.


    Just as it streamed around his meridians and pulsed with his heartbeat, so did the distant light.


    ¡°We will need to return to the city. I suspect that your physique-¡±


    Before she was able to finish her sentence, the spiritual thread that she revoked from his head was suddenly pulled towards the characters within her dantian, causing the thread to latch onto one of the many obsidian fragments that made up the text instructing her on the breakthrough to the first stage of the Emergent Anchor realm. As always, it provided her with no new information on whatever they were truly made from, nor what their purpose was, but the characters did display a reaction to her spiritual touch.


    They suddenly moved, with a number of fragments from seemingly random characters breaking away from the whole and forming a new set of words a short distance in front of the rest.


    ¡°- is the Ashen Form physique?¡±


    ¡°Was that a suspicion or a question? I am afraid I¡¯ve never heard of such a physique, if it was the latter.¡±


    ¡°No, it was a statement, or perhaps an assertion, but my method of recollection was simply rather unusual for me. Don¡¯t pay it any more attention than you already have,¡± Wei Yi said, frowning as the fragments broke apart again and returned to the main technique guidance, ¡°Help me with the rest of these remaining artefacts, and then we shall return and experiment with your new physique.¡±


    He nodded, though she was able to tell that he wasn¡¯t entirely trusting of such a strange reply. While his body remained mostly similar to before, the slight enhancement still allowed him to carry his fill of items alongside her, allowing them to easily return to Beast¡¯s Rest within a single trip, though Meng Chu did end up being significantly more exhausted by the end of the journey than he would have been had he only carried a few small jewels and tokens.


    After dropping those items off in the treasury, which was slowly beginning to fill due to everything that Wei Yi had thrown in there due to its seeming useless ¨C amongst which were a number of items seemingly dedicated entirely to strange pursuits that she had no personal interest in ¨C she followed Meng Chu towards the location in which the pillar of light met the ground, but it did not seem to be the place that they were looking for, prompting them to descend into the underground passages once again to track down the true point of convergence.


    ¡°I can feel it getting closer. It should be in the next room,¡± said Meng Chu, opening a secret door within the wall as he spoke.


    It sank into the ground and revealed a room with two chairs, a small table and a shelf attached to one of the walls. Both of them quickly recognised it as the same kind of room that they first met in, though whether or not it was actually the same was something that Meng Chu could not determine.


    Wei Yi, on the other hand, extended her spiritual perception and stumbled right across an occupied bedroom in which two men and one woman were rather busy with their own activities, prompting her to quickly revoke it as to not intrude for no good reason. In combination with the general layout of the room and some traces of previous activity, it did seem to be that exact same chamber, though the longer they stood near it, the more she felt something in the very middle of it.


    ¡°The point of convergence seems to be right there,¡± he said, pointing to the middle of the room.


    ¡°I could tell.¡±


    ¡°Can you also see it now?¡±


    ¡°No, but there is some kind of strange sensation in this area. I don¡¯t understand it too well, nor can I figure out whether I can sense it due to my spiritual will, remaining planar energy, killing intent or physique energy, or whether any of those even play into the equation. All I do know is that it is in the same place that you pointed at.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s certainly¡­ encouraging. You were previously able to identify the physique, weren¡¯t you? Do you know anything at all about it?¡±


    ¡°Not much. It is classified as one of the absolute physiques of the world, though it is ranked significantly lower than the Ascendant physique and the likes of the Immortal Mortal and Perfected Form. To begin with, it wasn¡¯t within the ranks of the absolute physiques prior to a single common figure, whose gender had never been recorded for some uncertain reason, using it to grow in power at a ridiculous pace, using previously unknown techniques and methods to climb the ranks of cultivation at an immense speed-¡± she paused when she realised that the description seemed rather familiar to her, ¡°Oh, for fuck¡¯s sake. The Planar Continents are just full of otherworldly demons, aren¡¯t they?¡±


    ¡°What do you- oh. Though the circumstances are certainly similar to a number of your descriptions, I think that the moment you start believing everyone to be an otherworldly demon, you will eventually fall into complete paranoia,¡± Meng Chu warned.


    ¡°Do not worry, I won¡¯t do something like that. Furthermore, regardless of that figure¡¯s affiliations and origins, there is no way for him or her to have survived to this day, as they are said to have lived even before the birth of the Master of Yi City,¡± she replied, ¡°Anyway, the confirmed abilities of the Ashen Form physique are that it is able to benefit from killing others, accelerate personal growth and potential, and, if one rumour is to be believed, it can even prevent death from unnatural causes, though unless one is capable of restoring their lifespan and vitality, it is of no benefit against natural causes.¡±


    ¡°How does that compare with other physiques?¡±


    ¡°Rather poorly, I¡¯d say, though not in that it is too weak. Instead, their exact function and power is too different to be accurately judged. At the moment of the first awakening of the physique, anything that grants you immediate benefits will naturally be superior, but if you continually develop it, then it is bound to eventually become stronger, so long as the recorded stories about it are true.¡±


    ¡°Understood. Since you haven¡¯t mentioned anything about this point of convergence, I assume that there is nothing on that topic in history?¡±


    ¡°Nothing that I¡¯m aware of, at the very least. Still, since it appears to be something connected to your physique, I suggest that you try to touch it, or interact with it in some way. Perhaps it will be of use to you, or maybe it will reveal something of interest.¡±


    The man shrugged and followed her instructions, cautiously approaching the focused point of converge in the middle of the room, slowing down with each step until his last step took him roughly the same amount of time to take as all of the previous ones combined. Nevertheless, when he saw that nothing was leaping out to attack him, he was able to stretch out his hand and touch the point of convergence.


    At that point, Wei Yi could clearly feel the energy even without tapping into his perception. She practically saw how a pulse of power emerged from the centre of the point of convergence, washing over the entire room with a unique warmth before sinking into the floor and walls, seemingly vanishing from the world entirely.


    ¡°Huh¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s usually my line. Do you feel anything about this point of convergence? Wait, when did we even decide to start calling it that¡­ Ahem. Answer the question, please.¡±


    ¡°I do not understand exactly what it is, but it feels like there is some kind of connection between me and it now,¡± Meng Chu replied, waving his hand near the invisible pillar of light several times without any reaction from it, ¡°I can¡¯t sense it providing anything to me, nor do I seem to be giving it anything¡­¡±


    ¡°In that case, I have two theories to offer: either this is the method of preventing death, or one of the methods of developing your strength and potential. I am not sure why there is a point of convergence here, nor whether it originated as a result of you or if it just so happened to be in this specific location, but I would suggest searching for more of these points when we end up travelling to the other factions of the prison realm. Whichever one of my assumptions is correct, if either one of them is, you ought to benefit from acquiring more of these connections,¡± Wei Yi said, scanning his body with her spiritual perception without making any new discoveries.


    ¡°Alright. Do you have a physique cultivation method that I ought to follow?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll write it down for you and get it to you within a few hours, so feel free to leave for now. I¡¯ll attempt to study this on my own for a while, and if there is anything relevant to you, I¡¯ll inform you about it,¡± she said, nudging him out of the room before shutting the hidden door and confirming that he left before sitting down besides the invisible convergence point and shutting her eyes.


    She sighed and surrounded the rough area with her spiritual will, then her killing intent, then her physique energy, weaving them together as tightly as she could without causing conflict between them.


    ¡®As I am unaware of the relation between this strange point and Meng Chu, nor do I know whether anything I do will affect it, the safest thing to do was to get rid of him just in case any damage I may inflict on this point will somehow be passed onto him,¡¯ she thought, glancing in the direction of the secret passage before releasing another layer of energies around the entire room, ¡®There. That should be enough. If he still gets hurt, I will not be to blame, since I have no methods of dealing with things that can bypass space itself without the use of my planar energy.¡¯


    With great care, she slowly forced the sphere of energy to constrict upon the point of convergence.


    However, even when she had pressed the field down to the size of an apple, then a small pea, she found that there was no reaction from it or from anything else within the room, prompting her to completely crush the invisible point in space.


    Still, there was no reaction.


    ¡®Well, fuck. It seems that this is truly something unique to the Ashen Form physique, and I don¡¯t even have the opportunity of experiencing it due to it being a yin physique¡­I suppose that I may as well move onto my other purpose for asking him to leave ¨C taking a proper look through all of the memories that I was forced to skip through. Since I still witnessed them, they are within my library in full,¡¯ she revoked both of the fields of energy and absorbed them back into her body.


    In the Augur¡¯s Library, she threw open some of the tomes within the pile of memories, viewing the first set of them without paying much attention to them as she devoted most of her attention to the creation of a second wing of the library to accompany the prison tower and store the information that did not originate from her own experiences, including the Thunder Lord¡¯s remaining ideas.


    Only once the basic foundation of that new wing was created did she move onto the recent memories that could be of use to her.


    ¡®Let¡¯s see¡­ not particularly physically or sexually active¡­ never had a normal romantic relationship¡­ his mother had been killed by a warlord of the Great Bone Lake? It isn¡¯t common for someone who has an issue with a place to insist on it being called by its proper name,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, ignoring the more explicit scenes from his memories as a form of courtesy and politeness, though it was especially due to her possessing the thoughts of his ancestor, ¡®Anyhow, what else is here¡­ Not much. I had hoped to gather something useful from him, but all I have truly gathered is that I will need to bring him along to the Great Bone Lake and allow him to stab one of the warlords¡­ That, and the fact that he calls himself Jade Emperor, of all things.¡¯


    She sighed, glanced at the rest of the minor thoughts and threw them into the framework of the newly created wing of the library, double-checking the fact that neither of her mental storm walls were breached before leaving her mental domain and raising her head.


    A flat plane, floating in the air and showing something that couldn¡¯t possibly be there, was the first thing she saw.


    ¡®Well¡­ I¡¯m starting to think that these aren¡¯t appearing by pure coincidence.¡¯

 V2C38: Planar and Elemental

    This time, the frozen scene depicted a small indoor area, with grey walls and a sandy floor. Two boys, both around the age of fourteen, stood opposite one another, with one being surrounded by a hint of smooth violet while the other had a corona of thin orange. Both of them appeared to be in basic combat stances, perhaps preparing to battle one another or engage in some form of practise.


    The vague hint of a robed figure was present on the side, standing behind the boy enveloped in flame. No equivalent figure stood behind the other boy, but Wei Yi was able to recognise that child as Kong Shi Meng.


    ¡®Interesting. No real choice but to see what this one shows me,¡¯ she thought, getting up and approaching it with an outstretched hand.


    She came into contact with it, and just as before, the image rapidly expanded into a sphere that consumed the majority of the room, enveloping it in a glass-like dome while the scenery within changed completely. The wall that was right behind the memory plane appeared to have moved back by half a dozen steps, and instead of it the two children and one distant figure now stood in front of her. So that she did not miss anything when the action began, she quickly looked around to take in the rest of the environment of this memory.


    The figure that was previously obscured turned out to be a mature man that was physically no older than forty. He was clothed in a regal, decorative robe and had one hand on his dark moustache, which he was idly stroking in the instant that she was looking at him.


    Behind this event were several rows of empty seats, with more potentially existing outside of the range of the memory plane. The only person that she could see sitting on them was Yi Shi Ming, who was looking at her son with a concerned expression. Her hands were on her thighs, tightly clutching her robes in frustration.


    ¡®Did she follow her son around for his entire life?¡¯ Wei Yi idly questioned, recalling how every single scene she had witnessed so far contained her sitting in the corner of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s perception or closer, ¡®On the initial assessment, it seems that these two are duelling for whatever reason. Kong Shi Meng must either be in a bad place in the battle or generally appear to be weaker than his opponent, who is also being supported by the man behind him. The man has a pleased expression, while Yi Shi Ming does not, further supporting the earlier hypothesis. Furthermore, I know that, for whatever reason, the Kong family was not fond of either Yi Shi Ming or Kong Shi Meng, meaning that this might also be an effort to inflict some emotional harm to the boy and limit his development in the future¡­¡¯


    She frowned, her killing intent pouring out involuntarily, ¡®If so, how petty.¡¯


    The memory around her quivered due to her ever-growing aura of hatred, but she ignored it, focusing only on the events that were about to unfold in front of her.


    ¡°Thou may hath wondered for a long time, child, why we encourage the usage of elemental planar energy,¡± the man with the moustache said, a certain degree of overbearing smugness filling his voice, ¡°Witness it now, unwanted child!¡±


    ¡®Indeed¡­ how very fucking petty¡­¡¯


    Her opinion was shared by both Yi Shi Ming and Kong Shi Meng, though both of them showed significantly more restraint in their expressions, exhibiting a surprising amount of self-control.


    That was less curious for the former than the latter, seeing as she had the advantage of age and a sufficient cultivation to be able to obscure her expressions without much effort, but the latter lacked such an advantage, clearly being in the first realm and without too much of an opportunity to experience life or develop a degree of maturity.


    Naturally, the exception to that would be if he was indeed an otherworldly demon, as Wei Yi had assumed, though the possibility of him having a slack or still face was also present.


    The child on her right, the boy surrounded by an aura of flame, a simple hallucination caused by the presence of powerful planar energy within his meridians, also appeared to be smug as he stepped towards Kong Shi Meng, channelling his planar energy throughout his entire meridian network to empower the entirety of his body. However, a significant quantity of energy focused on his hands, split across them equally, making his intentions incredibly obvious as he lunged with his left hand.


    ¡®Fast. There is a trace of metallic-type wind energy around him¡­ They can¡¯t even play fair¡­¡¯


    Kong Shi Meng couldn¡¯t have noticed such a thing, for even if he had the most developed spiritual will in all of existence, which he most certainly did not possess, he was far too distracted by this sudden attack. Clearly, not only did he lack experience in battle, but he had also never dealt with someone travelling at a greater speed than he could, leading to him feebly evading that punch by ducking.


    Unfortunately for him, judging by the expressions on his opponent and the man supporting him, that was exactly what they were hoping for.


    The nameless boy performed an uppercut with his other fist, hitting Kong Shi Meng right in the face and then following up with a kick. All of the attacks were entirely merciless, and clearly made with the intent to significantly harm him physically, with the pain only being further exasperated by the burning energies within the boy¡¯s body being fanned towards Kong Shi Meng¡¯s pain points by the hidden metallic support from the figure behind him.


    Before he had even the slightest chance to recover, the boy hit him two more times in the chest, then kicked him down onto the ground. Every hit was filled with power, but it allowed Wei Yi to notice traces of weakness within the flaming planar energy. It was clearly produced through the consumption of pills to artificially raise the kid¡¯s cultivation, and not through the likes of Planar Gathering pills, either. With the right techniques, knowledge and coordination, it would be possible to strike at the weakened points of his energy, throw it into disarray and almost cripple him within a minute, but even if Kong Shi Meng knew that at the time, he clearly lacked any methods of achieving such a thing.


    ¡®Just like how I wasn¡¯t provided with a single thing while the superior members of the family had access to a different part of a library...¡¯ Wei Yi¡¯s expression became even darker, and the veil of killing intent grew even thicker, ¡®And just to add to the insult, they¡¯re cheating¡­¡¯


    ¡°Child, behold the power of fire cultivation! Thee cannot even resist it!¡±


    That comment, followed by an incoming kick to the spot between Kong Shi Meng¡¯s legs and a similarly imminent punch to his nose, prompted Yi Shi Ming to leapt to her feet and throw out a punch that was filled to the brim with violet purple energy and caused a wave of violet power to surge in between the two children, forcing the nameless boy to retreat before he could deliver those two strikes.


    ¡°Enough!¡± she said, her voice raised, though not to the point of shouting, ¡°Hath thou not made thine point? Regardless of thine thoughts, thou art beating the child of thine family!¡±


    ¡°Tch. Woman, art thou going beyond thine station?¡±


    ¡°Nay, I am merely protecting my child. If thou art interested in pretending that thou wouldn¡¯t not do the same if thine progeny was being harmed, then I shalt allow thee such delusions, but thou still ought to leave Ah Shi Meng alone.¡±


    ¡°I was merely attempting to instruct thine child in his folly, to educate him on the fact that all forms of elemental energy surpass pure planar energy in every form. Cans¡¯t thou not see the way in which he was defeated by someone of lesser age and lesser ancestry?¡± the man said, though there was an obvious grin on his face, ¡°In the future, thou shouldn¡¯t mentor him personally, so that he does not make the same mistakes as thee had done¡­¡±


    He smirked and placed his hand on the boy¡¯s shoulder, casually leading him away.


    The second that he exited the scene of the memory, Yi Shi Ming rushed to her son and embraced him, feeding him a pill from some pocket within her robes.


    ¡°My child¡­¡± she said, pondering her next words for a while as her son¡¯s body quickly recovered under the influence of the pill, soon looking only a little scuffed and dirty despite the immense amount of physical harm that he had endured earlier, ¡°Today, coulds¡¯t thee not fall asleep as early? There is something I wish to show thee.¡±


    Before the child could respond, the scene changed entirely. The plain room transformed into something that resembled a well-groomed garden, or perhaps some kind of clean part of the forest. Their path was a simple one, laid out in stone alone, with each individual tile seemingly placed at random, but their combined layout made it more than obvious that this was not the case. Furthermore, although the grass could be mistaken for being naturally short ¨C something that Wei Yi didn¡¯t ever need to worry about ¨C it was too unnaturally even for such an assumption to last long for anyone with spiritual perception.


    They walked towards the side of a cliff, and once it came into the range of the memory, she finally recognised this place ¨C it was where she had once gone to search for the Ancestral Library of the Kong family, finding nothing whatsoever during her time there.


    Yi Shi Ming approached one particular part of the wall, then kneeled down on the ground, briefly turning to whisper to her son, who now looked to be entirely healed and clean, ¡°Remember this.¡±


    With no other explanation, she pressed her hand against the wall and released her planar energy into it while whispering a series of words, statements and pledges, going through every single one of them without any pauses or hesitation, making it incredibly clear that this was a well-practised speech, one that she had memories within her very core.


    ¡®Kong Dong Ming mentioned a password when he told me about the library, so I suppose that this must be it. A set of tenets and beliefs of the Kong family recited in a specific order alongside a form of planar energy in order to trigger some opening mechanism. The door itself must be obstructed through an array or a unique material, meaning that it could not be observed during my brief exploration of this area¡­ They certainly guarded this better than the Yi family,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, memorising both the words and the form of planar energy for her eventual return to the Kong District.


    When the last word was spoken, a large rectangular section of the wall lit up in blue light, countless symbols and characters appearing on the wall and forming a complex mosaic of words that matched the words spoken by Yi Shi Ming.


    Slowly, it sank into the ground, revealing an enormous chamber ¨C one that Wei Yi could not see.


    Fortunately for her, neither one of them stood by nor took in the sights, instead hastily passing through and rushing towards a certain location of this hidden area.


    The second that the door to it opened, it became clear that they were looking for the technique library, as the enormous quantity of bookshelves and books was so vast that even the memory plane itself grew slightly to reveal them. They slowly approached one of the shelves, where there seemed to be no logic to the particular ordering or positioning of the books and stood in front of it.


    ¡°Kong Shi Meng, these are proper techniques of planar cultivation and combat. Thou ought not be here, but I cannot permit thee to suffer purely due to me. Please, look around and find something that is suitable to thee, and select freely. If thee desireth further guidance, I can provide it to thee.¡±


    ¡°Alright, mother,¡± Kong Shi Meng nodded, looking around before heading straight towards a shelf.


    ¡°Shi Meng, thou needeth not practise the same skills as I. Please, seek out the methods that benefit thee.¡±


    The boy paused, his hand an inch away from a pure planar technique. He held his hand there for a few breaths, a few ambiguous expressions appearing on his face, before he turned around and looked at his mother with begging eyes, ¡°Mother¡­ I have a reason for this. Allow me to practise these techniques, and I¡­ I may be able to achieve something great. I-If I do, I will tell you everything, without holding anything back. Can you trust me?¡±


    ¡°My son¡­¡± Yi Shi Ming¡¯s eyes widened in surprise for a second, before a smile appeared on her face, ¡°If I could not trust thee, I would be incapable of trust. Nonetheless, I shall remain to teach thee.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, mom!¡± he exclaimed, leaping into her embrace.


    They held one another for a while, letting go once they were finally ready to return to their original purpose. Kong Shi Meng headed straight towards that same tome once more and removing it from the shelf, flipping it open and eagerly beginning to read it.


    Out of random curiosity, Wei Yi took a step towards him, making sure to avoid the wall that was bound to be right in front of her in reality, and looked into his eyes.


    ¡±I am proud of you, my child¡­¡±


    Despite there being no trace of it in reality, she saw a strange grey rectangle reflected in them.


    ¡®This¡­ This wouldn¡¯t be yet another power of an otherworldly demon, would it? What does it-¡¯ her thoughts were interrupted when the memory plane shattered and the scene before her disappeared, leaving her with standing right in front of the wall and the empty shelf that was attached to it, with the only gains being the memories of the technique manual that Kong Shi Meng had opened.


    She stepped back to her previous location, ignoring the crunch of stone beneath her feet as she recalled the long speech for opening the Ancestral Library.


    ¡°Wei Yi! Has an enemy broken into our territory?¡± Meng Chu¡¯s voice suddenly rushed into her head, making her turn to the side and find him standing in the secret doorway, which had been opened at some point without her noticing.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ The amount of killing intent you released felt greater than it had been when you fought Ding Wen.¡±


    ¡®What is he- oh,¡¯ Wei Yi looked down and realised that the crunching sound she had heard came from a floor so filled with cracks and broken stone that she was currently standing in a small pit of sand, surrounded by stone that was on the brink of also becoming nothing more than sand and dust.


    She stepped out of the broken stone and coughed.


    ¡°You can ignore this. Is your point of convergence still intact?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is perfectly fine,¡± he replied.


    ¡°Then, leave. I¡¯ll get everything to you in a few minutes¡­¡± Wei Yi said, calming her breathing, ¡®Well then, this is the consequence of basing my cultivation on killing intent. I was able to avoid most negatives as a result of understanding and accepting my anger, but when I encounter the things that were responsible for it, I see that I am not so good at controlling myself¡­ Still, if I had been in the place of Kong Shi Meng, I would certainly not be pleased with my family either. At that point, even if they were to call me their prodigal child and threw all kinds of praise at me, it would be obvious that they were only doing so due to desiring to use my ability¡­¡¯


    She remembered the occasionally irrational distrust and dislike of the Yi family that she had experienced a long time before they clearly ignored the presence of the Greats destroying their territory, ¡®If that had come due to the influence of someone with a similar set of experiences, it would make perfect sense.¡¯


    To clean up after her mess, she melted the ground with her physique energy to allow the sand to reform into some semblance of its previous state, then left to her regal office.


    Due to remaining deeply within her thoughts and memories, that journey was incredibly brief and devoid of interruptions, though that seemed to be more due to the aura of killing intent that had remained around her. Fortunately, most of it had dispersed in the previous room, so her footsteps did not result in further cracks forming within the ground. Even if they had, she didn¡¯t look back, instead sitting straight down in her seat and opening the first true technique manual she was able to obtain.


    ¡®Astral Binding. A planar cultivation technique that generates pure planar energy¡­ The first true instance of this kind of technique. One that will hopefully not result in extreme instability, as my current attempt at replicating this form of energy does, although if I gain sufficient control over it and can stimulate it to regain some of that strength at the cost of greater volatility, it could be an outright improvement to my unstable planar energy,¡¯ she thought, scanning through the technique tome within her mind twice, once quickly, to get a grasp of it, then slowly, as to ascertain its true depth.


    Although the description of the technique claimed that this was a low-grade cultivation method, not intended for cultivators beyond the fourth realm, it still appeared to be vastly superior to the likes of the Seven Blades Sutra, which was all that Wei Yi had to begin with in the Yi family. The quantity of impurities that it would generate, for instance, were almost a third of her original technique.


    She looked into herself, into the dantian, where the planar energy endlessly flowing from the nascent rift was similarly being endlessly consumed by the natural laws of the prison realm.


    At will, the spatial rift-like appearance of her planar energy could freely shift into flame, water, metal, wood, earth or blood, not to mention pure but unstable planar energy. With the additional knowledge from Astral Binding, her energy also gained the ability to change into a form that was not so different from the last one, albeit lacking in the work invested into her pure planar energy, instead benefiting from the work of the Kong ancestors.


    When she willed it to transform, it did so quickly, the starry sky disappearing from the crystalline mass of planar energy and seemingly being purified into pure violet. For a brief second, it expanded greatly, going from occupying only 4% of the entire dantian, utilising all of that volume to cover the planar anchor and protect it, to double of that, throwing an ember of hope into Wei Yi¡¯s mind.


    Alas, the prison realm responded in kind. Whether it had a greater affinity with consuming pure planar energy, or perhaps it had been created specifically to target such a form of power, which would make a lot of sense if it had been created by the ancient families that looked down upon the magnificent violet of pure planar energy, it greatly hastened in devouring it, eating through a significant portion of the excess power in one mere moment, forcing her to transform it back into the standard shape of cosmic energy.


    ¡®This particular technique is not a key to escape the prison realm, then,¡¯ she said to herself as she was forced to put the idea of experimenting on this newly acquired variation of planar energy aside for a later date, ¡®Nevertheless, not only has this given me some knowledge about the prison realm itself, even if it will take some time to process it and understand its true meaning, but I can now be certain that the techniques from Kong Shi Meng¡¯s memories are extremely worthwhile to acquire. If I was able to understand the reasons behind the formation of the memory planes, as well as the logic behind their contents, I could be able to absorb the entirety of the Kong¡¯s Ancestral Library into my own and develop our methods into a greater path, one that can resist the various laws of this realm.¡¯


    She returned the tome for this technique into the appropriate shelf, then conjured the words requires to open the Ancestral Hall of the Kong family into the Augur¡¯s Library on a large painting that she placed above the doorway.


    ¡®Now, the only question would be: why were the ancient Kong so against planar energy? Were they merely trying to make things difficult for Yi Shi Ming and Kong Shi Meng, or is there some greater purpose behind this? Were the Greats already a presence in the world, perhaps using some secret of pure planar energy to achieve their immense power and trying to discourage others from cultivating it? Clearly, these families are not entirely against it, seeing as they have simple instructional and technique manuals available for children and adults to study¡­¡¯ Wei Yi rested both arms on the table, using one hand to hold up her head while she was stuck in thought, ¡®It is unlikely to be an entirely genuine belief, or else the man with the moustache wouldn¡¯t feel the need to assist his child in defeating Kong Shi Meng, unless he believed that the child had the ability to defeat the nameless boy even with the so-called handicap of pure planar energy, which was clearly not the case¡­¡¯


    Eventually, after she had unknowingly written down the basic technique that she had promised to Meng Chu during her thought process, she rose and concluded, ¡®I do not have enough information. I must gather more. The truth, whatever it is, might be part of the key of this prison realm.¡¯

 V2C39: Seeking Automaton Point

    When Wei Yi appeared before him in his office, Meng Chu wasn¡¯t certain whether she intended to kill him or to provide him with the technique she had mentioned earlier.


    The extreme quantity of killing intent pouring out of her only two hours earlier was still fresh in his memory, as was the phenomenon experienced during her breakthrough, where her killing intent had suffused the city and replaced all of the Beast¡¯s crimson with her own, displaying a pool of hatred that was absolutely impossible to match even for those in his cultivation realm. If she had found any part of his performance to be lacking and decided that it was time for him to die, he was sure that he wouldn¡¯t be able to put up any kind of a fight.


    Fortunately for him, it turned out to be the latter possibility.


    As she slammed a thin manual onto his desk, she looked into his eyes and said, ¡°Meng Chu, that mysterious place that might be home to hatred automatons or the like ¨C was the mark that you left on my map accurate?¡±


    ¡°We do not know the exact location of it, but it should be in that rough area. Are you interested in checking it out?¡±


    ¡°I think that it would be optimal to understand whether there is a faction there at all, or if it is a place that must be observed carefully. We have a basic understanding of all of the other factions, after all, so it is possible for us to attempt to work with or against them, but since we have no clue what pleases and displeases this theoretical group, we cannot do the same with them. I would like to fix this discrepancy,¡± Wei Yi explained, straightening her back, ¡°Do you want to come along, or send any of my people to attempt to set up a brothel there?¡±


    ¡°Waiting for your exploration of the area would be wiser. If it is truly a settlement of hatred automatons, there would be no good reason to bother, since they all lack any semblance of a sex drive.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough. Take good care of the place while I¡¯m away¡­ No, that sounds like I¡¯m leaving the house to go to the market and purchase some food. Make sure that Beast¡¯s Rest doesn¡¯t fall apart or get destroyed while I¡¯m not here, as the journey alone will take quite a long time,¡± she said, nudging the technique manual closer to him, ¡°Learn it by the time I return.¡±


    He had no clue whether that would be possible, but he decided to nod nonetheless.


    Wei Yi had no objections to this, turning around and heading towards the exit of the room. Before she passed through the doorway, she glanced back and said, ¡°I mean that, by the way. It is absolutely vital.¡±


    Before the man had any opportunity to do anything in response, she had already disappeared with a minor application of one of her many movement techniques. It was not difficult for her to notice the slight degree of fear in his eyes, and by providing him with a minor threat, she believed that it would serve as encouragement for him to progress significantly more quickly than he otherwise might. Even if it did not succeed, it would be unlikely to result in a negative response, leading to her trying it out.


    Her first destination was not the exit to Beast¡¯s Rest, but rather her room, where she took out the set of clothing prepared some time ago by the hatred automaton tailor. She wore them instead of the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival, as the latter had some infamy around the region and would give her a lot of unwanted attention, especially if the people of the Automaton Point, as she decided to temporarily label the unknown settlement of the west, were as knowledgeable about them as Meng Chu was. For her first ever approach, she wanted to be seen as inconspicuous, nothing more than a strong and tall woman from some nearby camp of physique cultivators.


    ¡®These tight clothes might also stand out, but their price isn¡¯t too high, so it isn¡¯t impossible for any random physique cultivator to have gotten their hands on a set if they saved up for them,¡¯ she reasoned, looking in a rough bronze mirror while playing with a lock of her hair, ¡®I wasn¡¯t intending to disguise myself entirely, but since I¡¯m at it, I could try changing my hair for once¡­ I haven¡¯t really done this before¡­¡¯


    Although her experience in this field was truly lacking, the natural advantages of being a cultivator allowed her to arrive at something half-decent within just a few minutes, not including the dozen or so minutes invested into experimentation.


    To achieve the right kind of presence, she swept roughly two thirds of her hair to one side, allowing it to partially obstruct one of her eyes, while the rest was tied into a simple braid and allowed to rest on her shoulder. This sort of uneven style resembled something she had observed a bandit from the Great Bone Lake sporting on one occasion, meaning that it was entirely appropriate for her purposes.


    ¡®I don¡¯t like it too much, though. Feels really impractical, amongst other things. Perhaps I should find some kind of specialist on this subject and get them to come up with something for me, then never change it and simply keep myself clean with physique energy, as I already do¡­¡¯


    Regardless of her intentions for the future, she was satisfied with this result, so she made sure to use her stealth techniques to avoid any traces of the people who could recognise her, both within the underground passages of Beast¡¯s Rest, as well as the people outside of it. This was not out of embarrassment or anything else of the sort, but in order to avoid any recognition and reports to the Automaton Point, just in case that was even a possibility. Even though such a situation would still mean that she would be recognised quickly ¨C her overall appearance was rather striking, after all, and incredibly particular ¨C not being reported ahead of time would give her a few more hours of time at the very least, if not days.


    ¡®I¡¯m not actually experiencing shyness right now, am I? What the fuck¡­ That literally makes no sense! I-I regularly deal with both Qiu Sheng and Dugu Wei, so how does a random hair style cause this? Why are there all sorts of inconsistencies with the way my body and mind function as of late?¡¯ she questioned, looking around anxiously once a certain thought arose within her head, ¡®Am I still not resistant to the influence of the memory planes, perhaps? Did I stumble across some experience that Kong Shi Meng had during puberty?¡¯


    However, she was unable to find any hints of such a phenomenon within view, nor did there appear to be any intrusions into her mental domain, meaning that her current feelings were likely to originate from her own mind, or something that was a purely ordinary outside influence.


    She couldn¡¯t really decide whether or not that was better or worse.


    On one hand, so long as all of her issues came from external sources, she would eventually be able to negate them and achieve some semblance of perfection, or otherwise lack any outstanding faults. If this was something that her very core was responsible for, it would mean that changing it would also involve completely modifying everything about herself. Such a thing, although it was theoretically possible, was not something she intended to attempt, no matter what.


    At that point, she would just be doing the job of the various mental influences around her, and potentially shifting the very goals that she was intending to pursue.


    To change her goals, wishes, dreams and intentions, it would mean negating all of her progress in the prison realm and the Planar Continents so far, and, in the worst-case scenario, losing all sense of the self. By that point, even if she recreated Yi City, destroyed the Greats once and for all, removing all traces of their techniques, as well as ensuring that the otherworldly demons could never interfere with the world without someone sensible keeping them in check and preventing them from trying to conquer the heavens, or doing something similarly exaggerated and moronic, it would mean nothing.


    ¡®Certainly, that would be extremely unfortunate¡­ and I doubt that something as simple as shame will be able to get into my mind with all of the negativity I have managed to manifest. If I ever end up in a world without any kind of energy to cultivate, I could work as an assassin, driving people to kill themselves through words alone¡­¡¯


    By now, she was far away from the city, and when she suddenly stopped in place, she saw nothing but an empty wasteland.


    ¡®Come to think of it, what exactly makes me who I am? When I embraced my killing intent, it did come from me, but did permitting such a quantity of it cause me to change fundamentally and lose something that had been important to me? Then, if I did, should I seek to return to who I was, or is my current state the better one, that I should stick to? Shit¡­¡¯ she realised that she might have been overdoing her attempt to ward off shyness, when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye.


    Her head snapped towards it, with her mind identifying the image in an instant.


    ¡®Perfect. Nothing better to deal with my personal confusion, worry and general overthinking than beating the shit out of someone.¡¯


    Although her goal was the mysterious Automaton Point, her first destination was the Great Bone Lake ¨C or, rather, the outskirts of it, where the bandits continued to gather ¨C as she desired to improve her travelling speed to ensure that she did not spend too much time away from Beast¡¯s Rest so that no dissident factions rose up and attempted to conquer the city purely via the techniques taken from her.


    In her eyes, the best opportunity to achieve that was by stealing the physique energy of another.


    There was a lone male physique cultivator striding through the desert, wearing naught but a pair of ragged trousers, and the aura of a yang-type physique was radiating from his body with such intensity that he was either intentionally releasing it to show off or ward off weaker foes, or cultivating some kind of strange physique technique that caused a powerful aura to be released without his personal control.


    Whatever the case was, Wei Yi only needed to know that she could be able to absorb the physique energy and vitality for herself, and there seemed to be nothing to suggest that she wouldn¡¯t be able to do so.


    Before that man could notice her presence, she leapt towards him and manifested a spiritual will Concentrated Blade within her right hand before enveloping it with Storm Blade Wreathing and using the energy to convert the Piercing River change of the Eight Great Changes into a blade move. She directed the point of the blade towards his lungs, as that would quickly disable him but give him enough time to live until she absorbed enough of his vitality to recover some of the energy she had needed to spend on Meng Chu, after which point she would then have enough physique energy to fully absorb his physique.


    He finally saw her at the last moment, his expression changing several times within a single instant. At first, there was a hint of alarm, then his eyes darted to her face and the alarm was mixed with traces of attraction, interest and lust, though all of the above were tempered by fear when the blade heading straight for his lungs came to his attention.


    Just before it pierced his flesh, his entire figure shifted to a slightly different spot within an instant, resulting in the calculated attack going through nothing but meat.


    ¡®That might be some kind of movement physique! That is fortunate!¡¯ Wei Yi exclaimed within her mind, conjuring a Living Spear entirely out of killing intent within her left hand and initiating Demonic Ire with the weapon serving as the focus for all of the energy within the technique.


    She lunged at him with the spear, but he was able to evade this attack more easily, instantly moving several metres every single time that he used his physique.


    ¡°Woman, what do you think you¡¯re doing?¡± he called out once he retreated far enough away for neither one of her weapons to be able to reach him, ¡°To attack someone out of the red like that, are you an assassin sent to kill me?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have the slightest clue of who you are, but there¡¯s something I want from you,¡± Wei Yi replied.


    ¡°There is? Ah~, well, in that case, couldn¡¯t you have just asked to-¡±


    His eyes suddenly widened when, perhaps through instinct alone, he realised what was occurring within the Living Spear in Wei Yi¡¯s hand. He clearly wished to retreat, back away, and never see her again, but before that powerful physique could save him from this battle, the crimson spear collapsed into a single point, roughly within her hand.


    Just as quickly, that tiny point of hatred shot out at an immense speed while Wei Yi used Demonic Ire once more, this time focusing it on her own body and permitting the entire channelling process to occur.


    The first bolt hit the man in the chest, interrupting his attempts to use his movement ability and bursting his flesh, causing an immense quantity of blood to explode from his stomach. In the brief moment after that, when he stood still in a daze from the attack, Wei Yi stopped the build-up of Demonic Ire at the stage of three circles, unleashing it before the strange man had even the slightest opportunity to recover.


    After the first blast, he was barely able to remain on his feet, so the second impact of a more powerful beam instantly threw him onto the ground, his blood and organs spilling everywhere, staining the crimson of the ground with his own colours.


    ¡°W-Why¡­¡±


    ¡°I need your physique energy, so I will take it. Is there any particular reason I shouldn¡¯t do this?¡±


    ¡°I am¡­ a warlord-¡±


    ¡°Not relevant to me,¡± she interrupted him, placing her foot on his neck so that he would stop talking, and to fulfil the requirement of physical contact for draining his vitality.


    He tried to rise, to do anything to get away from her as he felt his life literally being sucked away from him in an extremely uncomfortable manner. When he found that he was incapable of doing anything, his head was slowly filled with ridiculous thoughts, going from dreaming about some miraculous saviour ¨C preferably a beautiful woman who happened to fall for him and desired to claim him for herself ¨C to hoping that the second she takes enough of his lifeforce, she would repay him with a different set of services¡­ there was little in his head but lust, as was obvious from his face and where he was looking.


    ¡°Hey¡­ are you seriously staring at my boobs?¡±


    The man tried to nod, though the most he managed was a twitch of his head, ¡°Yes¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°Could you¡­ please¡­¡±


    ¡°Now I just feel sorry for you¡­ You said you were a warlord? How in the heavens did someone like you get into that position?¡± she said, but she did not wait for him to respond, instead shaking her head, ¡°Even if this was to affect my decisions about what I¡¯ll do with you, I¡¯d never go along with whatever it is you¡¯re imagining. Now, maybe if you¡¯d been attacked by some other woman¡­ I think they might.¡±


    ¡°Then¡­ can you¡­ let me go?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ let me think about this for a second¡­ Actually, whatever your name is, have you considered why I might be having such a long chat with you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ attractive-¡±


    ¡°No! I have no interest in you at all. If the rest of the warlords are like you, though, then it would be so easy to take over the Great Bone Lake¡­ Right, I¡¯m trying to delay you so that you don¡¯t do anything reasonable while I¡¯m draining your vitality. Had you actually done something during our chat, you might have prevented me from acquiring as much of it, but instead, you just spend all of your time staring at me¡­¡± she paused for a second, watching as the man¡¯s skin slowly dried and all traces of life were extinguished, ¡°Now, you can¡¯t even lift a finger, can you? Since you have nothing more to give¡­ Goodbye.¡±


    She crushed his throat with almost no effort, raising her foot and burning off any traces of his dried skin from it with physique energy before placing it back onto the ground and squatting down beside his body. Holding her hand over the bare chest of the man, a bright stream of sunlight surged from the former, flooding his body and devouring the plentiful physique energy belonging to the warlord.


    With every drop of energy that she took from him, she felt her cultivation advancing in small but not insignificant steps, rising swiftly to the middle of the first stage by the time most of his power was exhausted.


    Then, with one final drop of his physique energy, she felt that same energy awakening within herself.


    The same powerful aura that surrounded him appeared around her, changing from a mere aura of might to a covering of sunlight and absolute yang energy that overpowered the Beast¡¯s killing intent and pushed it back, creating a small field where one could see the truth of the world, without their eyes being covered up by the endless crimson of the prison realm.


    This was a mere side effect of the physique power itself, one that Wei Yi could show or hide at a whim, so she revoked it and focused on the power that she had obtained.


    Since she had seen how it was used, figuring out how to utilise it herself was an easy task. With a single thought and a very particular movement of her physique energy, she saw the world flash before her, finding that she had moved slightly forward during the period of confusion.


    Naturally, she attempted it again, and found that the distance increased, then increased again the next time. With every single usage of the physique ability, the duration of travel remained identical, but she was able to get roughly one step further without an increasing cost of physique energy, nor any greater strain upon her body. Unfortunately, this effect was not infinite, and when she manged to increase the distance of travel to two dozen steps, something that none of her techniques so far had been able to match even with the use of planar energy, she could no longer travel further.


    ¡®Still, this is more than a little impressive. With the right combination of movement techniques, I could easily double or triple the speed at which I travel through the world, especially since the usage of physique energy is incredibly low for this kind of ability,¡® she thought, waiting for a few seconds to allow whatever was affecting her movement distance to reset.


    Just as she theorised, after the physique ability stabilised again, her next attempt to use it resulted in only one step of movement.


    ¡®During combat, I will not need much more than this, and if I need to escape, I can use this physique several times in a row in order to run away quickly and possibly surprise whichever opponent that believes that I can only travel a step at a time,¡¯ Wei Yi decided, pausing for a little while to let her physique energy recover. With the improvement in her cultivation and body, every single physique ability consumed significantly less energy to achieve the same result, allowing her to practise the usage of the newly acquired power without forcing her to seek out something to nourish herself with before proceeding.


    ¡®Although, speaking of nourishment and supplies¡­¡¯ she looked to the figure¡¯s ruined body and searched his trousers, scanning through them with her spiritual perception to ensure that she did not miss a thing, ¡®He does indeed have a few things on him¡­ Wonderful.¡¯


    She stored away the food and random things that she found within his pockets, keeping the former for later and the latter for both investigative purposes and authenticity. If they turned out to have a use beyond what she was able to guess or imagine, it would have been foolish to throw them away, and if someone decided to search her at a later point and she allowed them to do so, having random sentimental objects would make her character, whatever that would end up being, seem more believable than someone with nothing.


    ¡®Or perhaps I won¡¯t need any of that¡­ I shall see¡­¡¯

 V2C40: The Caves of the Prison Realm

    A day after the beginning of her journey, Wei Yi sat upon a small stone in the middle of nowhere, chewing on a piece of the dried food she had obtained from the supposed warlord of the Great Bone Lake.


    The food wasn¡¯t exactly a masterpiece in any way, with the texture being rather unpleasant to consume, and she suspected that she was extremely fortunate not to be able to taste it, since that was bound to be even worse, but it did contain a significant quantity nutrients that significantly assisted in her recovery of her physique energy.


    ¡®I wonder exactly how my body decides what it wants to be able to taste and smell. There isn¡¯t too much of a difference between living and dead creatures when it comes to what they¡¯re made of, and yet I have previously been able to smell the scent of burnt flesh when her physique energy had affected the abominations, and yet the scent and taste of cooked hatred automaton flesh evades me¡­¡¯ she frowned, biting off another piece of the meat finding that it was still entirely devoid of taste, ¡®I¡¯ve never attempted to consume a living creature in this prison realm, though I do know I can taste other people...¡¯


    She forced the following thoughts of her mind as to prevent them from affecting her concentration and checked her current level of physique energy, deciding to end her rest as it rose to a satisfactory level.


    While she wasn¡¯t particularly thirsty, she still decided to drink a little bit of the thick Beast¡¯s blood from the ground and then cleanse her entire body with the True Ascendant physique energy before carrying on. This method of keeping oneself clean was efficient and incredibly effective, not to mention the fact that it could be far more thorough than any kind of ordinary method of bathing or washing oneself, but for some foolish reason, she was beginning to miss the baths of the Yi District.


    Besides the various sights that they provided, they also offered an opportunity to truly relax that she had not been able to find within the prison realm so far.


    ¡®Perhaps that¡¯s for the best. If I start relaxing here, I may just decide that there¡¯s no point to escaping, and then I will have absolutely ruined myself. I could attempt to partially replicate the experience once I return to Beast¡¯s Rest by diluting the Beast¡¯s blood sufficiently to make it nigh harmless to ordinary people and killing intent cultivators, at which point there could be yet another business for me and Meng Chu to profit from,¡¯ she considered, ¡®Wait, if all I am doing is distracting myself to make travelling a little less tedious, I should just invest this spare time into taking apart all of the tangled techniques from the right of the prison realm and turning them into something useful.¡¯


    Wei Yi forced open several of her technique tomes within her Augur¡¯s Library and duplicated them, returning the originals to their places while shattering the second set into individual pages, before then splitting them into even smaller pieces, with some parts of paper only containing a single word.


    She looked at this scattered mess for a little while, then slowly began to organise them according to some logic that even she wasn¡¯t entirely certain about, but it seemed to be working. Several minutes in reality later, she had completed this rearrangement and pushed most collections of paper fragments back, keeping only one close to herself.


    This particular set included several portions of the Sword Will Arts, Aerial Bisection, Concentrated Blade and even several segments of Demonic Ire, though she suspected that the last technique could only be used as reference for empowering the rest of her known techniques due to the immense difference between it and the rest of the spiritual will techniques within her arsenal. In addition, it was not something that she could improve on her own, as her understanding of the methods of otherworldly demons was unfortunately limited.


    Instead, she was considering implementing the various aspects of Demonic Ire into the other three techniques, as there were several parts that were relatively independent of the basic skill itself.


    ¡®For instance, this segment could work well with the Sword Will Arts, and allow them to become significantly more offensive and aggressive in nature than they currently are, or if I include the method of gathering and strengthening force, I could modify the Aerial Bisection into something significantly more powerful, albeit slower, and perhaps I could even gain the ability to split space itself¡­¡¯ she thought, splitting the current category of papers further according to these ideas.


    With her attention devoted mostly to this task, occasionally utilising the power of Endless Calculation infused with spiritual will to further accelerate it, not only did every step of the journey feel significantly faster, but she also came closer to getting a second proper spiritual will technique with every single step that she took.


    The first alternate version of a technique was something she considered calling Frayed Blade, inspired by the combination of Concentrated Blade and the incredible destructive capabilities of Demonic Ire.


    Unfortunately, as she neared its completion, she found that she lacked some understanding of both of the techniques involved, and as she did not want to waste further energy while her destination was still so uncertain, she could only turn to working on the other potential combinations while hoping to come across the necessary insights in the process. Seeing as she was already on the brink of creating a new variation of the spiritual concentration blade, she decided to work on altering the Sword Will Arts next, tentatively giving this new creation the name Terror Arts due to the similarity between Demonic Ire energy and killing intent, as well as the aesthetic that such a combination would result in.


    Every now and then, she would stop to eat a little more of the supposed warlord¡¯s food and then experiment only with the movements of the techniques to get a better grasp of what she could and could not accomplish with her own body.


    Like that, time passed, though it was always difficult to tell how much. Her internal clock could have gone wrong a long time ago, and she would be none the wiser until someone with an actual clock that functioned within the prison realm appeared and proved her wrong, though she was almost certain that it was currently the sixteenth day of the second month, of the second year that she had spent within the prison realm, meaning that it has been roughly thirteen days since her imprisonment in the Planar Continents.


    This was both fortunate and not for her, as it meant that if she was able to escape soon, she could be sure that most of the things she intended to investigate, like the Ancestral Hall of the Kong, would still be out there, but it also meant that she could still be fresh in the minds of the Great Family that imprisoned her ¨C if they ever cared about her to begin with, of course.


    After all, the most she had done to them was damage their clothing, and that could be corrected in a matter of seconds, if not quicker with the same strange methods that allowed them to possess their overwhelming might. Their initial hatred of her could have been a simple reaction to being touched by someone for the first time in their entire lives without some degree of reverence or respect, one that faded the very second that she was sealed.


    This was significantly more likely due to the fact that there was little anger in their voices when they explained the reason behind her being targeted.


    ¡®I am absolutely sure of one thing ¨C no matter what the Greats do, even if they are holding up the world itself and preventing it from collapsing, the particular Great Family that decided to threaten my life and the lives of everyone connected to me will die, or else I will.¡¯


    She quickly restrained her killing intent again, before it could break the ground beneath her, but the cracks that had still appeared prompted her to randomly investigate the terrain that she stood upon. The surface of the prison realm was incredibly dull and ordinary, with the natural exception of the occasional hatred automaton that she stumbled upon, though even they were completely inert when she found them, but the only underground environment that she had seen so far contained the most valuable material in the entire prison realm.


    Thus, she was curious whether there were any other caves out there that she could benefit from.


    ¡®With my current realm in spiritual will cultivation, I can see a significant distance into the ground, meaning that if I find something near the surface, I will be able to approach it with my own abilities,¡¯ she thought, initially finding nothing but not being discouraged in the least, ¡®In combination with calculating techniques, this might actually end up being an entertaining journey¡­¡¯


    She continued onwards, finding nothing for several minutes before she began to notice a series of oddities within the ground, amongst which was the fact that the ground she was walking on was becoming oddly compressed, almost like someone had been digging beneath the earth and shifting the stone and dirt of the prison realm in order to form a path for themselves and strengthen the walls and ceilings of their passages so that they would not collapse during ordinary forms of activity.


    For a few seconds, she mentally debated whether this phenomenon was worth her investigation and concluded that it was.


    Wei Yi spent several minutes searching for the best location to attempt to break through the ground, then located one where the ground was sufficiently thin for her to be able to notice a trace of air on the other side. This was naturally the best place to attempt to enter whatever was beneath the red wastes, and thus she began to weaken the ground using the combination of the Sizzling Palm, which empowered one¡¯s force with every repeated strike at a single point, Boulder Pushing Palm, as that would ensure that her attacks would breach all the way into the ground and not simply compact the ground further, a segment of the Touch of God, as well as the Collapsing Cavern Fist, mostly due the name being rather suitable for her current task.


    Since she had four different types of energy, she was able to use all of them without stressing her body, as there was only a single meridian that required energy to flow through it in two different directions due to the requirement of Storm Blade Wreathing to link the three techniques together while allowing them to be used without the proper weapon.


    ¡®So long as the rest of the food taken from the warlord is as nutritious, I should be able to use roughly three hundred and sixty-seven combined palm or fist strikes at full power prior to exhausting myself, meaning that I should stop roughly around the two hundred mark¡­ Thus, the best place to target would be this exact point on the ground,¡¯ Wei Yi calculated, drawing a cross in the dirt on that point for no real reason, ¡®Although, if I find some kind of edible hatred automaton, I could easily utilise every single drop and wisp of all of my energies and then recover them by cooking their flesh with True Ascendant energy¡­ I would need a drop or two of it for that, naturally¡­¡¯


    Like that, she began. Killing intent, spiritual will and physique energy wrapped around her hand, forming five particular kinds of energy that separated into individual sections around her fist, only the Storm Blade Wreathing power keeping them together and stable, with which she struck the ground and sent a shockwave through the ground, reverberating throughout the stone as if she had hit an enormous drum.


    The ground weakened slightly, but it was not enough, causing her to strike again.


    ¡®One hundred and seventy-eight¡­¡¯ she kept count in her head as she attacked yet again, but after this particular punch, she sensed a crack within the stone reaching all the way through it, failing to shatter the entire slab of stone by a single inch.


    Since even one more light tap would complete the process, she retreated to the nearest hill and activated one of her newest creations: Hatred Split, a technique that successfully formed within her mind after she had combined some of the ideas from Terror Arts and Frayed Blade into the Aerial Bisection technique. It was somewhat unnecessarily powerful for the situation at hand, but it made for a prime opportunity to confirm the effectiveness of this new stride in her technique creation abilities.


    Wei Yi raised both hands into the air as if she was gripping an invisible weapon with both. White threads of spiritual energy rushed around both of her wrists and towards her hands, but as they moved, their very nature warped and distorted, gaining an eerie crimson light that was entirely unlike killing intent, causing it to seemingly cut through the air itself.


    After every rotation around her hands on their path of ascension, the volume and brightness of the Hatred Split energy grew by a single fold, so that when it finally reached into the empty space between her hands, it was sufficient to create an enormous two-handed greatsword within her grip, stretching into the sky and actively burning it with every breath that it remained in place and gathered energy. Slowly, the space around her blurred and distorted, with even it being pulled towards the gigantic blade as the vibrant energy forming it became ever denser. Soon, it did not seem like she was holding a mere sword, but a weapon belonging to the gods, taken from their treasury or armoury and stolen by a mortal who could never be fit to carry such a magnificent item without their aid.


    And yet, Wei Yi, as unimpressive as she appeared beneath the blade that rapidly gained regal detail and luminance, held on, defying not just those gods, but the world itself, withstanding all of the pressure that should have been enough to form the very prison realm itself.


    Perhaps that was all an illusion, perhaps not, but the power within the spiritual blade was true.


    Every muscle, every blood vessel, every piece of mortal flesh and bone within her hands cried out merely due to being close to this furious power, so she did not keep hold of it for long, but the thought itself remained ¨C perhaps, one day, she could pierce space itself with this. Perhaps she could be free.


    As the blade finally descended, it carved a larger tear in the air with every instant of movement. It could not have reached the cracked part of the ground initially, but only half-way down the swing, it was striking the precise point that she had previously marked with a random, entirely meaningless cross. When it did strike, it hit the ground with immense power.


    In a single moment of reality, the ground, the dirt and sand that covered it and the stone beneath were cleaved in half, throwing up an enormous cloud of dust into the air, creating an impenetrable wall around both sides of the blade, which rapidly dispersed upon her command the second that it hit the ground, as even the single instant that she had held it while it touched the ground felt like attempting to hold the very sky itself, a privilege that not even the Master of Yi City could ever brag about.


    More importantly, however, the weakened ceiling of some cave instantly collapsed upon this strike, falling in and throwing the wall of dust into disarray, scattering it into a simple cloud.


    As she had no intentions to wait for the dust to clear, Wei Yi accelerated the process with a powerful punch, which created an enormous gust of wind that blew the cloud of dust far into the distance, hopefully targeting someone else who would appreciate the distraction and obstruction a little more than she did. Without this interference, she saw that the rocks fell into a large underground cave, with several passages heading away from it into various other directions, with several likely joining together in the distance while others would never meet one another again.


    Most of the cave was not particularly significant, looking much like the underground path that had led her to the miracle fluid, but she spotted strange indentations in the stone that much resembled footsteps that were repeated over and over again until they had permanently changed the ground.


    Based on those indentations, the occupants of the caves were not human, as their steps did not resemble the human foot in the vast majority of cases that were before her, instead matching something that one may find on a large planar beast that was shaped like an insect, though there were also footsteps that seemed to belong to wolves, cows, bears and all sorts of other creatures, with one particular set of prints matching the human hand.


    ¡®Thus, this place is likely to belong to a set of hatred automatons. They wouldn¡¯t require food and could just repeatedly walk through the exact same paths endlessly until these marks were made.¡¯


    So far as she was aware, things that became hatred automatons did not need to be whole at the time of creation. If several animals were somehow brought together, slain and rearranged into something new, they could still be animated by the Beast¡¯s killing intent and turned into a supposedly living creature that would then wander around and seek people to slaughter.


    ¡®I wonder if this lot has also decided to lie down and do nothing,¡¯ she wondered to herself, as she was unable to hear nor see any traces of the amalgamated hatred automatons that she theorised to live within these caves, ¡®Perhaps some of them could be easy to consume. I ought to investigate.¡¯


    Naturally, there were significantly more reasons for her actions that appeared within her head. For one, she was nearing the potential outskirts of Automaton Point. It was not impossible for whoever lived there to be underground most of the time, resulting in them remaining undetected the vast majority of the time. If they were all indeed hatred automatons, as some had theorised, then they would never need to go up to the surface with the exception of gathering materials for whatever tasks and activities they had chosen to spend their time on, if they were anything like the tailor of Beast¡¯s Rest.


    She carefully examined the walls of the cave before ascertaining that she would be able to climb them even without the use of physique energy, only jumping down at that point.


    Landing deftly on one of the rocks that she had cleaved in two, she paused for a second to examine her swordsmanship, stepping off it while thinking, ¡®I ought to improve the Hatred Split significantly before I ever consider using it combat. The expenditure of energy was acceptable, but the incredible pressure on me was- can be used for a physique cultivation method, actually. Still, unsuitable for regular battle, not to mention the incredible length of time that I had to spend on empowering it prior to use. In any real confrontation, especially with a fast opponent, I wouldn¡¯t stand a chance.¡¯


    In total, she saw six different paths snaking away from this cave chamber. None had anything outstanding about them, with the most significant difference that she was able to spot being the fact that some were slightly larger than others.


    The number of footsteps heading into any particular passage was also similar, but as she intended to locate either a trace of food or a settlement of some kind ¨C and likely find some food in their position ¨C she decided to go down the route with the most step-like indentations in the ground. It was not the largest tunnel, nor the one that looked the most interesting visually, as that would be the least travelled path on the opposite side of the cave, but it did look like someone had once taken the time to work on the surfaces of the passageway, either smoothing them down with some kind of tool or technique, if it wasn¡¯t the work of the insect-like creatures that were likely to inhabit this area.


    As a result, the chances of spotting something of use were notably higher than the other routes.


    She trusted both her spiritual perception and memory, given that both had brought her through many challenged and tribulations, and her sense of direction was generally serviceable, so she did not feel the need to retrieve any kind of string to leave behind herself as to recognise a path back to the surface. However, she did approach the entrance to the tunnel and, applying a little pressure to the stone with her finger, draw a small circle in the wall for future reference.


    ¡®Alright, I¡¯ll give myself roughly ten hours to find something of note, and if I fail, I ought to return to the surface quickly. If I waste more than a day here without finding anything, the physique that I had obtained from the warlord would have been entirely wasted on the journey to Automaton Point, and could even get wasted on the way back,¡¯ she decided, walking into the darkness.

 V2C41: Automatons and Avatars

    A figure moved through the tunnels, lightning their path with a single drop of vibrant and pure sunlight that illuminated several metres ahead of them in pure iridescence. Their long crimson hair glistened in the light, and their silver eyes stared intently forward.


    ¡®I¡¯m definitely heading towards something, though I don¡¯t have even the slightest clue what it is,¡¯ she thought, making the drop of True Ascendant energy floating above her hand bob up and down for little more than her personal amusement and to distract any potential invisible observers and confuse them with the indeterminate purpose behind her actions, ¡®At the very least, I can tell that the number of creatures travelling through here is higher than it was at the entrance, and that there has, once again, been more care put into this area than into the beginning¡­¡¯


    So far, she had spent slightly less than an hour and a half in the caves since her entrance, but there was still no-one and nothing around her.


    She recalled her previous conversation with the tailor that created the tight clothing she currently wore, and so far as she could tell, nothing about her caused that woman to retreat from her or to display any other kind of unusual behaviours, so she had no reason to assume that other hatred automatons, intelligent or otherwise, would demonstrate any kind of oddity.


    ¡®Thus, it shouldn¡¯t be that I am scaring them away, but that they don¡¯t often travel through this area, meaning that the footsteps they left behind took significantly longer to make than I initially assumed. This makes me wonder how long this prison realm has existed for. Did it originate before the time of the Master of Yi City, perhaps? If it did, then has the rate of time remained constant all of this time? Could the Master of Yi City currently be spending his time in a similar realm with an inversed rate of time, allowing him to survive to this day by slowing down each outside year to a single internal day?¡¯ she shook her head, ¡®No, even if that¡¯s true, that¡¯s really not what I should be thinking about.¡¯


    At that moment, she suddenly heard the skittering of feet ahead of her, prompting her to stop in place and utilise her various stealth methods to prevent herself from being noticed instantly by whatever was approaching her, also revoking the drop of physique energy.


    For several tense seconds, all that she could hear was the skittering.


    When she finally saw the source, she witnessed a set of five bright ruby eyes glowing in the dark, three on the right and two on the left, a wide open mouth below them and the body of an insane amalgamation of creatures, resulting in it resembling some kind of beetle, a hard shell covering its back and with a total of six limbs that she was able to see.


    This was, without a doubt, a hatred automaton, being driven by killing intent and with a body of sickly crimson flesh and black bones sticking out of two of the six limbs.


    It looked around, its mandibles clicking in a constant pattern without any clear meaning, then continued moving forward, its feet stepping into the exact same indentations in the ground as they must have done many times before. There was no immediate way to tell whether every single step and glance that it took had any true meaning, or whether this was something that it was simply replicating endlessly due to retaining some fragments of their past memories, but so far, it did not appear to have noticed Wei Yi.


    ¡®Now, the question is whether this thing is in any way intelligent. If it is, killing it out of nowhere would be unnecessary, especially if it is related to the people of Automaton Point,¡¯ she considered, not wanting to kill someone for no reason, as she took a quiet step back to ensure that she didn¡¯t get in the way of the amalgam automaton, ¡®Based on the energy inside it, this creature doesn¡¯t appear to be too powerful, so I know the best way to check this¡­¡¯


    Wei Yi dispelled her stealth methods and jumped into the creature¡¯s path, watching it carefully.


    Its reaction was delayed by several lengthy seconds, but when its five eyes locked onto her, the very first thing that it attempted to do was leapt onto her with an open maw.


    ¡®Whatever this is, I couldn¡¯t be blamed just for fighting back!¡¯ she silently thanked the creature for clearly attacking her and condensed a spiritual concentration blade within her right hand. As it flew towards her, she stabbed the blade into its open mouth using Sweeping Inferno with the intention of obliterating it into small pieces.


    The surface of the spiritual blade expanded as many small spikes grew out of it, breaking off and bursting into raw power, tearing apart the amalgam automaton¡¯s insides in an instant. It let out a weak noise, almost like an ordinary creature might cry out from pain, and fell to the ground.


    Although the creature proved more resilient against her attack than she had intended, as there were almost no external wounds on its body despite her not holding back with her strike, she had still achieved what she had initially intended, prompting her to sit down beside the amalgam automaton and begin dismantling its body. It was a tough creature, certainly more than the other hatred automatons she had passed on her way here, but with the assistance of the Bone of the Beast, White Echo and the spiritual concentration blade allowed her to make fast work of it.


    Within just a few minutes, she had removed the bones from the creature ¨C tossing them to the side once she was able to confirm that they merely resembled the Beast¡¯s bone structure, rather than matching it ¨C and separated the various kinds of meat depending on their toughness and appearance. Some were entirely unsuitable for consumption, no matter how much poison and toxicity she was able to ignore via physique energy, while others merely needed a little time to be cooked and prepared.


    Fortunately, storing these pieces of flesh did not require anything beside empty space and a bag, as they were as dry as any kind of meat could possibly be.


    ¡®I have both a bag and an incredible amount of spare strength which I can invest into carrying this stuff, so that isn¡¯t a problem. What I am somewhat concerned about is that there are bound to be more of these things around here¡­ Should I seek them out, or is it better to assume that anything that lives down here would be as far away from these amalgam automatons as possible?¡¯ she used the pause during her contemplation to cook one of the mediocre pieces of meat and consume it in order to recover some of the energy that she had expended, ¡®Still tasteless, but with a lot of energy¡­ I guess it must be the former, then.¡¯


    She stood up, hid away the rest of the gathered food, and set out.


    It only took her fourteen more minutes of wandering beneath the ground before she encountered another amalgam automaton, which she promptly slayed with a similar method to the last insectoid creature.


    This time, however, it was not the only one. Without any warning, several automatons burst out of the ground and walls around her, with the latter group of four landing on the ground with various levels of capability. In total, seven insectoid creatures suddenly surrounded her, although one of the ones that came out of the walls also landed on its back, rendering it entirely useless as it failed to flip itself while the other amalgam automatons paid no attention to it.


    They jumped at her at roughly the same time, showing no ability to coordinate their movements whatsoever as another pair of automatons crashed into one another and entirely wasted their time.


    Even if they had not been so inept, there was so much vertical space above Wei Yi¡¯s position that she was able to easily leap into the air as the remaining insectoids hit one another at the spot where she stood seconds prior.


    While she was still in the air, she used the fact that they were attempting to attack her and absorbed the incoming force before throwing it right back at them in the form of killing intent that channelled the Trapped Animal palm. The powerful wave of crimson struck the heads of these amalgam automatons and dented, if not outright crushed, their insect-like heads, damaging or destroying most of their eyes in one go. What remained of each insectoid creature was thrown backwards, providing Wei Yi with enough space to land.


    ¡®Tough, somehow capable of hiding in stone even from spiritual perception, but incredibly stupid,¡¯ she did not voice her assessment of these creatures, merely creating another Concentrated Blade with which to deal with them, when the battle changed again. A strange sensation passed through her and the entire tunnel, resembling killing intent in most ways, causing her whole body to become tense.


    However, the target clearly wasn¡¯t her but the amalgam automatons around her.


    All of a sudden, their eyes, acting as unblinking lanterns in the dark up until now, opened and shut, with the light within them remaining similar yet changing entirely.


    Every one of the automatons that could still move changed their positions slightly, with the one that was on its back being righted by another while the two that had previously crashed into one another instead changed their positions as to minimise the chances of that happening again. Some of the others also climbed onto the walls or otherwise prepared to act with a different timing to the rest of the automatons.


    In short, whereas they were mindless creatures, they now acted with proper consideration.


    That, combined with the aforementioned energy, made a single conclusion so obvious that Wei Yi didn¡¯t need to consider any other possibility ¨C there was a true intelligence, either a living human or someone akin to the automaton tailor of Beast¡¯s Rest, that was assisting the amalgam automatons in some way. The most significant question was whether they could understand her words.


    To find out, she looked at one of the insectoid creatures and said, ¡°If you tolerate outsiders, I wish to speak with you. If not, I can leave without further confrontation.¡±


    While there was no immediate reply, the fact that the amalgam automatons did not attack her immediately was enough of an answer for her. Regardless of the method used to influence or control the automatons, the one doing it did have some understanding of the concept of speech at the very least and could hear it through the connection they had to the amalgam automatons themselves. After this, even if they proved to not know the common language of the Planar Continents, there was still room for avoiding a confrontation.


    Naturally, Wei Yi wasn¡¯t attempting to avoid the battle out of some fear ¨C so long as the amalgam automatons did not have the ability to use one or more of an otherworldly demon¡¯s techniques, they would do little but slow her down even with proper tactics ¨C but she did not want to accidentally worsen her relations with some unknown faction, possibly the very Automaton Point that she was seeking, just due to some random desire for conflict.


    Several more seconds passed before the intelligence behind them came to a decision, which they relayed to her by making the amalgam automatons stand down but surround her, with the insectoid creature with the most eyes turning away to face the direction in which Wei Yi was already going.


    ¡®They want to direct me somewhere? Alright then, I¡¯m not objecting to this, especially since almost all methods of confusing my sense of direction can be countered with the combination of my various mental methods,¡¯ she thought, following the creatures without any objections, ¡®They don¡¯t seem capable of speaking, neither on their own nor for their master.¡¯


    Her guess about their intentions was correct, for she soon found them leading her through various passages on a route so nonsensical and complex that anyone without everything available to her would have gotten confused about the layout of the caves and had given up on mapping them to any degree. Frankly, even with the Augur¡¯s Library to keep track of things for her, she was tempted to turn to one of the amalgam automatons and ask them to simply bring her where she needed to be instead of delaying the journey for so long, but as she didn¡¯t want to aggravate them for no good reason, she chose to remain silent.


    ¡®I get the feeling that they¡¯re just fucking with me now. How many more times are we going to go past the exact same location? I hope it isn¡¯t twenty-eight¡­¡¯ as she was tempted to reconsider her previous decision, she finally felt something with her spiritual perception that stood out amidst the monotonous passages and tunnels, and it happened exactly as they walked on a path that they had not previously stepped on.


    Furthermore, they were no longer meandering through the tunnels, meaning that she had only a little longer to wait before finally arriving at her destination.


    When said destination finally came into view, Wei Yi found her sight drawn towards it. It was by no means regal nor astounding in terms of the architecture or design, but the simple visual that it resulted in would catch the eyes of any newcomer.


    Within a great cavern, tall enough for several dozen people to stand on one another¡¯s shoulders and still not reach the top, a great settlement was constructed on the walls and various outcroppings in the stone. Countless structures, long strips of cloth and various random objects were strewn all over the cave, a large rope and dried wood bridge connecting most of these structures to the other side of the cave.


    The entire area was lit by green lanterns, covering everything in an eerie glow that contrasted greatly with the typical colour scheme of the rest of the prison realm. Whenever distant figures covered in crimson walked past them, the mixture of green and red created a peculiar sight.


    Right on the edge of their side of the bridge, a humanoid hatred automaton stood with his or her hands together by their crotch, though they wore nothing and had nothing to conceal.


    Based on the energy flowing from them and towards the amalgam automatons, this had to be the same one that allowed them to act so much more like an intelligent entity, which was instantly confirmed the second that they took a step towards her and spoke.


    ¡°Human¡­ you have come here¡­ why?¡±


    ¡°Exploration and the desire to form some alliances. Is this settlement full of people like you?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    ¡°Like me¡­ yes¡­¡± the automaton nodded, ¡°Is that¡­ an issue?¡±


    ¡°Not really. If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what do you lot call yourselves? I¡¯ve met someone a lot like you, but they had no clue what they were. Are you hatred automatons, or have you decided on some different identity for yourselves?¡±


    ¡°We¡­ I wouldn¡¯t be¡­ the best one¡­ to explain¡­ But first¡­ you must-¡±


    Before they could open their mouth again, a voice came from the distance, soft yet far-reaching, ¡°Lao Kai, who has come to our front door? Are they an issue?¡±


    ¡®This one¡¯s definitely a guy,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded, glancing towards the uncertain automaton.


    ¡°No¡­ But she¡­ might be a threat¡­¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ She seems interesting. I will judge her, so, if you would, let her in.¡±


    ¡°Understood¡­¡± Lao Kai turned back to her and, through whatever technique that permitted him to control the amalgam automatons, made the insectoid creatures return towards the tunnels while he stepped to the side, ¡°Cause¡­ no¡­ trouble¡­¡±


    She nodded and stepped onto the bridge, finding it to be strangely stable despite the overall appearance of the structure. Even in the very middle, closest to the abyss below, it barely shook with her steps, and that was even with the additional gravity from the training equipment that had somehow survived on her body this entire time.


    ¡®A training set that will soon become entirely useless at suppressing my strength, at which point I might as well destroy it with my physique energy¡­ unless there is more to it than meets the eye¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she crossed the bridge, glancing at the metal band around one of her arms, ¡®There is bound to be something of interest in relation to these, considering the fact that the twins had gotten away from the Greats in time. However, I should figure out how to get them off and create my own set that isn¡¯t so difficult to remove.¡¯


    For now, they did not appear to get in the way, so she returned her focus to the settlement on the other side, which she reached with one final step.


    If she needed to get to any other part of the area, she would have had no clue whatsoever on how to get there, but since the voice seemed to belong to someone of great importance, she automatically concluded that it had to originate from the enormous passageway lit by the greatest quantity of green lamps, and thus headed there.


    Her guess was confirmed the second that she entered the great doorway as the strange voice was heard in her ears, ¡°You are going down the correct route. Please do not disturb the rest of us before we can converse.¡±


    None of that needed to be made explicit to her, so she quietly rolled her eyes and continued onwards.


    That large passageway slowly narrowed down to a tunnel that was only sufficient for three people to walk alongside one another at most. It ended at a set of double doors with no clear lock on either side, as far as she could tell with her spiritual perception. Given that the voice had given her the permission to continue, she did, opening one of the doors slowly and quietly as to follow his second instruction and not bother anyone else that might be on that side of the doors.


    As it turned out, such fears were entirely pointless. These doors led directly to a bedroom, with a large king-size bed standing at the back and in the very middle of the wall, surrounded by translucent silks and other unnecessarily luxurious materials. Several pieces of random furniture were strewn around the room in a less orderly fashion, and all of them stood out amidst the plain stone walls of the room which were only ornamented by a single tattered banner stuck onto one of the walls. The source of the voice seemed to be sitting in the corner within a comfortable reclining chair that obscured most of his body.


    ¡°Greetings. Am I still speaking to the same person?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, you are. Welcome, outsider. It has been some time since the last time someone of your kind has stumbled into our domain through the route that you had taken.¡±


    ¡°There aren¡¯t many cave tunnels that go up to the surface, so unless others decided to randomly break through the ground, they wouldn¡¯t come down here,¡± she responded, ¡°So, since you referred to me as a particular kind, I suppose that you are different? Are you also a hatred automaton?¡±


    ¡°Not quite¡­¡± he did not immediately explain himself, instead standing up slowly and turning towards her.


    Like the guard at the bridge, he did not wear clothing, but his physical appearance made that fact significantly more noticeable. His skin and flesh appeared to be ordinary in colour and appearance, matching that of a typical human man, and so did the vast majority of his physical features. Perhaps the only exceptions were the two small ruptures near his ribs and in his left arm that exposed his black bones. Every other part of his physiology, including the minor parts like his genitalia, were perfectly intact, albeit a little paler than would have been healthy for the average person.


    He noticed her gaze and asked, ¡°Does my state of undress bother you?¡±


    ¡°No, not at all. I was just curious upon seeing someone so complete despite your nature.¡±


    ¡°Ah. On that topic, let me clarify one thing. We and the automatons differ in one place ¨C although we are still animated by the Beast¡¯s eternal hatred, we retain our knowledge, identity, perhaps even our sanity. For this reason, we do not believe that we are their kind,¡± the man said, ¡°They are automatons, and we call ourselves avatars.¡±


    ¡°Hatred avatars?¡±


    ¡°Precisely,¡± he nodded, returning to his seat.


    Wei Yi glanced around the room again and found a chair placed against the wall close to her, deciding to sit down and get a break from the long journey here before looking back towards the hatred avatar, ¡°By the way, before we continue, may I know your name?¡±


    ¡°Fen Fang. What about yours?¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi. So, as hatred avatars, you have an ability to control the less intelligent automatons?¡±


    ¡°It is something that we had discovered. There is a resonance between us and them, one that can be used to link ourselves with them and influence their actions. Although it is important to avoid entering any automaton too deeply, so that our sanity and identity remains, it allows us to guard our lands without risking the integrity of our bodies,¡± Fen Fang explained, ¡°I do not know if your kind can sense our resonance, but it exists between all automatons and avatars.¡±


    ¡°The resonance you speak of appears to be some form of killing intent, and the majority of cultivators on the surface and in this half of the prison realm use killing intent as their primary form of power. I suspect that if you spent more time up there, some groups might even approach you to attempt to understand this power and use it themselves.¡±


    He nodded, ¡°That is possible. However, there is little that they could learn. Several of your kind had been here, and none could understand.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps those people were simply incompetent. I haven¡¯t met them, so I couldn¡¯t say anything definitively¡­ Nonetheless, I wish to ask if you are the leader of this underground settlement, whether there is more to it in other places, and if your collective has some kind of name?¡±


    ¡°I am the closest to a leader that you will find. I have the clearest voice, so it is easiest for me to resolve disagreements. I have little power beside that. There are some more areas that we inhabit, and one is even near the ground, but I will not share them with you. Our lands¡­ It is my duty to keep them all safe, and I do not yet know whether you are someone that will take advantage of our hospitality. However, we have no name for the settlement. We have no need of it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see. On the outside, some (only me, really) have decided to call this area Automaton Point, as several automaton-like individuals had been spotted above these caves. Would you object to such a name?¡±


    ¡°There is little difference to us. Since there are more automatons than avatars here, it is not entirely inaccurate,¡± he shrugged, ¡°You spoke about forming alliances at the bridge, did you not? As far as we are aware, the people of the surface are very particular about their factions and tend to remain in neutrality or opposition to one another. Does your presence mean that this will change?¡±


    ¡°It very well might. The leader of Beast¡¯s Rest ¨C a settlement to the east, as close to the central storm wall as this place is to the external one ¨C desires to claim more lands and unite them so that when the prison realm is finally breached, we will all be able to leave together and fight back against the greats,¡± Wei Yi explained, ignoring the fact that she was this very leader and that she was effectively throwing out propaganda for herself with a straight face, ¡°That leader is rather capable, and I am inclined to believe that she has a high chance of success. For this reason, I had to head out to investigate whether rumours about you were true, and if it would be possible to get your aid.¡±


    ¡°Interesting, but even if I wished to get involved, I could do little to convince the rest of us. To begin with, why should we be interested- no, would that leader be able to guarantee that we will survive?¡±


    ¡°Your survival¡­ You believe that you might perish when you exit the dense killing intent that animates you? Certainly, that¡¯s a worthwhile concern, and one that neither I nor she can address immediately. If you do not mind me performing some experiments, I could investigate and see whether it is possible to sustain your life in the Planar Continents.¡±


    ¡°And why would we have any interest in leaving?¡±


    ¡°When the Greats are defeated, or when a safe haven from them is created, you can freely come and go wherever you like. If you wish to return to the places that your ancestors came from, or if you want to remain here, then that leader would have no reason to prevent this.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ We can speak about this later, once you¡¯ve had your opportunity to experiment and once I have had some time to think and discuss the matter with other hatred avatars. You will have to convince the others yourself if you wish to test anything on them, but remember that if you kill anyone, even if they knew that it was a possibility, we will not look upon you as kindly as we currently do. Don¡¯t make any stupid mistakes.¡±


    ¡°Naturally. Would you object to me finding some place to reside and eating the automatons I had slain?¡±


    ¡°The automatons are mindless, like cattle to your kind. Do not slay too many and we shall not object. As for residence, you can find several empty homes built onto the walls of the cave structure. To us, homes are mostly for decoration and entertainment, so if you find one that lacks all semblances of furniture, feel free to occupy it.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Fen Fang. I will do my best not to aggravate your people.¡±


    She stood up and bowed lightly to him, exiting the room quietly. After she shut the door behind herself, she remained in place for a second before she looked at the braid resting on her shoulder.


    ¡®Well, there¡¯s my attempt at acting like some common physique cultivator¡­ Oh well. At the very least I can correct my style now that I¡¯m here and return to looking like a reasonable person,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, sighing as she departed.

 V2C42: Properties of Killing Intent

    Following Fen Fang¡¯s recommendation, she looked through a few rooms that were built on the outside of the cave walls and found one that appeared to have no inhabitant, using it to quickly modify her hairstyle and appearance to more closely resemble her previous style while also dressing in the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival.


    The robes were known in the world of men, but amongst the hatred avatars who know almost nothing about the factions around them, they would be unlikely to stand out.


    After that, she sat down on the cold stone ground ¨C which was warmed quickly by her innate yang ¨C and ate some of the meat from the amalgam automatons to recover the energy she had wasted in the earlier battle with that same kind of creature. Furthermore, she had not sat down to restore her energy since the breaking of the ground via Hatred Split, meaning that this opportunity was also prime for her to recover everything that she had expended on that move.


    ¡®Now, I have several priorities and several things that need to be done before I can attain any hope of allying with them, which would benefit Beast¡¯s Rest due to their ability to control hatred automatons, a natural predator for many people living in the prison realm. Although most of the truly powerful can handle them with ease, they would still prove to be beneficial in a large conflict of multiple armies clashing together,¡¯ she considered as she chewed on the tasteless flesh and burned away the poisonous influence of the Beast via physique energy, ¡®Furthermore, I highly doubt that the hatred avatars are limited to simply controlling other automatons. They ought to have the ability cultivate killing intent and to do so significantly more quickly than normal people. Perhaps their resonance might also allow for long-distance communication without need for vocalisation¡­


    ¡®Then again, I have to figure out whether it is possible to replicate their current state and resonance via the killing intent of another. Strictly speaking, the Beast¡¯s hatred is not particularly concentrated in the atmosphere, only existing in the state between the first and second realm most of the time, but it is still incredibly plentiful and constant, meaning that an ordinary cultivator in the second realm would likely struggle with maintaining anything nearing the required quantity and density of a killing intent field.¡¯


    She looked to the side in her mental realm and shifted her position to the half-built wing of the library, where she willed the map of the prison realm to appear, with the annotations made by Meng Chu. On the spots that she had personally seen, she overlaid her own experiences and increased their detail as to get a better idea of what she was working with.


    Furthermore, she added her current mental map of the cave systems beneath the ground onto the map, and envisioned it splitting into several distinct layers that she could manipulate freely.


    Something like this would have been impossible in reality without the use of complex arrays and constant alteration of them whenever she wanted to modify something, making her all the more pleased that she had chosen to rely primarily on the Augur¡¯s Library for this kind of planning and scheming, as managing this on any form of physical medium would have been incredibly tedious and extremely difficult to maintain.


    She was already bringing a lot of things with her wherever she went, so more wouldn¡¯t be necessary.


    Wei Yi decided to begin her work in Automaton Point by getting to know some of the practises of the locals, as well as the things they do and do not allow. If she accidentally went against some kind of immense taboo amongst the avatars, her chances of getting their uncoordinated crowd to side with her would be drastically reduced.


    ¡®If necessary, I could attempt to use some of the mind-influencing tricks I had picked up¡­ mostly from being targeted by them¡­ but even assuming that I am able to use them perfectly to amplify some desire of the avatars and use it for my own purposes, I can only increase or decrease some of their feelings, not create them. After all, I do not have the powers of the memory planes to suddenly induce strange figures of speech and references to farming, amongst other things¡­¡¯


    Thus, she rose from the ground and headed outside, finding that the so-called streets were still incredibly empty, devoid of everything but the occasional flicker of the curious green lanterns that lit the caves.


    Lao Kai remained on the other side of the bridge, one of the amalgam automatons sitting beside him.


    When he noticed her looking towards him, as she made no attempts whatsoever to hide it, he simply looked back at her with dark crimson eyes, his face mostly still and unmoving, making it difficult to understand his exact emotional state. However, what was obvious was that he would be one of the many hatred avatars that would be unlikely to desire to leave the caves just to fight the battles of various humans.


    ¡®If Fen Fang¡¯s words are to be believed, these hatred automatons do not like disturbances. Perhaps if I can either incite a faction to attack them or fabricate enough evidence that they will do so, I could mobilise them under the premise of striking before their enemies can, preventing any further fuss for the price of a small war,¡¯ she considered, looking away to prevent the stare from continuing for too long, ¡®No matter what they say, I highly doubt that none of them have any interest in seeing the Planar Continents again, with their new eyes. Thus, once I find some willing test subjects, I need to understand what exactly causes the Beast¡¯s power to bring so many different creatures and individuals to life, and why they and the tailor from Beast¡¯s Rest differ so greatly from the automatons.¡¯


    Before she had descended to speak with Fen Fang, she had seen several hatred avatars walking near the green lanterns without any great haste to their movements, so she made her way to where one of them appeared to be going.


    That brought her to a building that resembled a bar, with several tables off to the side and one main counter where an avatar stood with a clay cup in her hand, mechanically cleaning it with some fabric.


    Wei Yi approached the counter and intended to wait for the avatar to notice her presence and acknowledge her entrance, at the very least, but after almost two minutes of her repeating the exact same movements and cleaning the exact same part of the cup without any changes to her expression, she decided to be a little more direct.


    ¡°Excuse me, are you busy right now? Do you mind if I speak with you?¡±


    For several moments, there was no reply, but then, as if the words finally reached her, the avatar¡¯s hands stopped and she raised her head to meet Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, ¡°¡­ No?¡±


    ¡°Alright. What is your name?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­ Your name?¡±


    ¡°Ah? Liu Qi¡­¡±


    ¡®This one doesn¡¯t just seem to be responding with a delay, but also completely missing certain pieces of information¡­ I wonder why¡­¡¯ Wei Yi frowned and inspected the woman with her spiritual perception, ¡®Interesting. Her so-called resonance is rather¡­ faint. Furthermore, the quantity of killing intent within her body is clearly insufficient to maintain her thoughts at all times, so whenever some new form of input gets her attention, all energy is drained and, for a while, she can do nothing else¡­¡¯


    She waited for a little while, allowing the woman to recover some of her energy, then spoke quickly as to not exceed the avatar¡¯s attention span, ¡°Do some of you possess more intelligence and faster thoughts than others?¡±


    ¡°We¡­ I do¡­ not.¡±


    ¡®Yes, I noticed that. Whether or not she is the only case of such a thing occurring, I cannot imagine any of them being displeased if I find a way to grant them all a greater speed of thought,¡¯ Wei Yi considered, not recalling any mention of an inferior kind of hatred avatars or anyone else that the majority of Automaton Point¡¯s population disliked, ¡°Would you like to try and gain faster thinking?¡±


    ¡°¡­ What?¡±


    ¡°Faster thought. Yes or no?¡±


    The hatred avatar looked at her for an incredible length of time, making Wei Yi wonder whether she had accidentally offended the very world itself, then said, ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡®Well, this is as close to a normal agreement as I will get. If Fen Fang tries to object, he won¡¯t have much ground to stand on ¨C or sit on, since that seems to be his preference,¡¯ she thought, walking around the counter and stepping up to the hatred avatar, ¡°I¡¯ll try a few things and look around. If you have any objections¡­ try to get them to me in time.¡±


    The avatar continued to be in a daze, so Wei Yi interpreted this as the permission for her to continue and thus drove more of her spiritual perception into her, encompassing every single point of her being. Her ancient flesh, her dry insides, the ash-like hair that remained on her head ¨C all of it was recorded by Wei Yi within the Augur¡¯s Library, creating a model of this hatred avatar there with an incredible degree of detail.


    ¡®Very interesting¡­ I do not have enough of these. I should collect everyone in the universe, put them in a mental museum, then¡­ no, I don¡¯t need to do any of that. All I need is two figures that are functioning normally, and, in my constant diligence, I have collected both Lao Kai and Fen Fang¡¯s bodies, albeit at a significantly lower level of detail. Let¡¯s see¡­¡¯ she looked through the books she had created on those two and compared them to the woman¡¯s physique, ¡®So, the body itself appears to be functioning normally. The degree of decay is similar to Lao Kai, who only had issues speaking, not processing information, so simply providing her with vitality, even if I can do so, won¡¯t help.¡¯


    A few other ideas popped into her head, but, unfortunately, there appeared to be nothing to the hatred avatar before her that could be rectified without the most complex solution ¨C completely replacing the Beast¡¯s killing intent around her with her own.


    This was complicated for multiple reasons, amongst which was the fact that she needed to maintain the current resonance and activity within her mind without understanding exactly how any form of killing intent was able to stimulate and replicate the thoughts of a being entirely foreign to it. So far as she understood the natural hatred of all living things, even with the added revelations of it being something that could be cultivated as an entirely separate form of power to planar energy or the like, the phenomenon of hatred avatars or automatons was entirely impossible.


    Despite all of that, she clearly saw both manifestations of killing intent before her no matter what she personally thought or understood.


    ¡®Without some great revelation, like witnessing the Black Terror using her killing intent or Bai Hao¡¯s description of spiritual will, I can¡¯t imagine my understanding of either energy changing in the short term. As such, I should not attempt to modify the current killing intent keeping her moving too much, simply replacing it with my own. If that succeeds, I can attempt to modify or outright replace the structure of killing intent animating them, perhaps adding spiritual will into the equation, if it happens to be suitable,¡¯ Wei Yi quickly decided on her plan while adding, ¡®Frankly, I don¡¯t know whether or not this will work at all, but I do know that I can replace the killing intent after that one time I decided to break through via a day¡¯s swimming in the Beast¡¯s blood.¡¯


    Carefully, she released her killing intent, making sure to reduce the offensive ability of it as much as she possibly could while increasing the quantity and density of it at the same time, causing a thin veil of unique crimson to appear around her, completely overpowering the Beast¡¯s killing intent.


    The ground beneath her trembled and small cracks appeared in the stone, forcing her to slow down and manipulate her energy to further reduce its power, before she made it extend further and reach towards the hatred avatar. Her deep crimson, with the shadow of a battlefield and a towering library within it, cut through the Beast¡¯s energy, pushing it aside to replace it with her own colours. She continued gathering it around the hatred avatar, continuing only once she had been utterly surrounded.


    Even before Wei Yi attempted to intrude upon her body, she noticed that by separating the avatar from the Beast¡¯s killing intent, her activity was becoming even slower than before.


    ¡®If I can do this, I ought to do it quickly, or else attempt this at another time, after I¡¯ve had more practise,¡¯ she knew, ultimately deciding to make an attempt now and immediately disperse her killing intent the moment that something strange began to happen.


    That took far less time to occur than he would have hoped. The second that she intruded upon the hatred avatar¡¯s body with her energy, she felt a conflict between the two occur, the natural power that allowed Liu Qi to move being unable to accept Wei Yi¡¯s energy and attempting to repel her by breaking the very body that it animated.


    Naturally, she revoked her killing intent before any permanent harm could come to Liu Qi and noted down her findings.


    ¡®As far as I am aware, not a single killing intent cultivator has previously succeeded in animating any being, no matter how small or insignificant. Why is that?¡¯ she asked the question that she needed to answer before she could possibly proceed while checking that the hatred avatar¡¯s didn¡¯t suffer any damage that didn¡¯t immediately catch her eyes, ¡®Before I manage that, I need to see if they have killing intent cultivators and whether simply drawing killing intent towards them will allow me to assist in their recovery.¡¯


    She tested the latter immediately, using the vast cloud of killing intent that she had accumulated around her to push away the Beast¡¯s crimson and force it to coalesce on Liu Qi¡¯s position.


    As the quantity of killing intent within her body slowly refilled, the hatred avatar¡¯s mental processes also recovered, slowly accelerating until her mind returned to its previous state. From there, however, the increasing concentration and quantity of the Beast¡¯s killing intent did not seem to benefit her as significantly. Nevertheless, if her original state was to be quantified as 0.6, all of the killing intent that she was able to funnel towards her increased that to a 0.65.


    ¡°Thank you for your contribution. I will return soon to continue my experimentation.¡±


    ¡°My head¡­ feels strange¡­¡±


    ¡°Whatever is causing it, it should pass within an hour or two. While your mind is operating slightly more quickly, is there anything you want to tell me?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Who was I? Who¡­ was I?¡± her eyes widened, an aura of distress surrounding her.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t know. If your identity still exists within your head, I will do my best to uncover it,¡± Wei Yi promised, not because she truly cared about this one woman¡¯s mind, but due to the fact that her investigation would naturally lead to such an outcome if it is successful, ¡°If there isn¡¯t anything else, I will go now.¡±


    Liu Qi said nothing in response.


    ¡®Very well, then¡­¡¯ Wei Yi departed quietly, after she had drawn as much killing intent towards the hatred avatar as she could, ¡®Actually, her question is an interesting one. All of these people are likely to have been amongst the first generations of prisoners within this realm, so they would be incredibly likely to desire to fight against the Greats so long as their memories recovered¡­ Well, that¡¯s another thing on the list, then.¡¯


    The slowly growing list of possibilities and responsibilities was a little daunting, but it was also a little exciting for her. Not too long ago, she didn¡¯t even know that the Great Families existed, but now she was barely out of reach of resurrecting some of their greatest enemies and bringing the war to them.


    Furthermore, this was only her third year since the awakening of cosmic energy. Despite everything that she had gone through, the change in her perspective was still incredibly astounding.


    Since this experiment gave her a few things to contemplate, she decided to return to her current residence and snack on another piece of amalgam automaton flesh while focusing on her mental realm and adding even more information to it. Wei Yi further expanded the detail within the statue of Liu Qi with the recently gathered data while also creating yet another mental surface on which she scattered a series of notes, pages and the like.


    ¡®So¡­ what causes the Beast¡¯s killing intent to differ from that of a typical cultivator, and can I replicate it?¡¯ she willed one of the notes to fly into the air and hover before her as her thoughts appeared on it, ¡®Perhaps the most obvious would be the fact that both killing intent and spiritual will are mental energies. Upon the death of the owner, it will disperse¡­ The Beast¡¯s hatred has not. It seems to maintain a constant quantity, with the energy borrowed by cultivators returning to it and occasionally forming the motes of killing intent that others then use for trading, behaving similarly to planar energy that has the support of a planar anchor¡­ Indeed, planar energy¡­¡¯


    A second page hovered up from the table, ¡®Both forms of energy can be formed via the support of planar energy, and if planar energy as a concept was removed from existence, neither form of power would be likely to be anywhere near as powerful as they currently are. Thus, could they not be produced from planar energy? In fact, if that is true, that would explain a lot, not just about my personal excessive quantity of killing intent, but also about the constant drain of planar energy within everyone within the prison realm.¡¯


    Another page flew up to join the others.


    ¡®It is possible that the prison realm was, at one time designed not just to trap common people, but to convert their energies into killing intent ¨C and possibly spiritual will on the other side of the prison realm ¨C for some unknown reason. This environment allows killing intent cultivation to flourish, but it prevents planar energy from remaining in the world for long. It also keeps the Beast¡¯s energy stable¡­¡¯


    She frowned, ¡®Wait, does that not suggest that the Beast once had an immense pool of planar energy?¡¯


    As that theory appeared within her head, half of the notes she had created were thrown onto the ground while another series appeared on the mental table.


    ¡®Could it be that the prison realm was not for the imprisonment of people, but the Beast? The creature could have had some kind of unusual planar cultivation technique that made it dangerous to handle, leading the creators of the prison realm to design some method of changing planar energy to something more easily manageable¡­ Perhaps they intended to turn it back to planar energy at a later date, or maybe they simply needed to get rid of the Beast¡¯s harmful energy without allowing it to spread¡­¡¯ she shoved an entire piece of meat into her mouth to minimise the amount of thought she needed to invest into the process, ¡®Then, it is the prison realm that acts as the killing intent anchor for the Beast, and if I can understand exactly what leads to such a thing occurring, I could attempt to utilise it for myself and gain my own permanent aura of killing intent while I remain within the prison realm, then adapt it for when I leave¡­¡¯


    A grin grew on her face while a dangerous glint appeared within her eyes. Whether the so-called killing intent anchor was an array, inscription or some immense planar construct, she did not need to personally witness it to see how it affected the Beast¡¯s killing intent and then replicate it on her own.


    She just needed time.

 V2C43: Advancing via a Diversion

    When Wei Yi found something that was particularly engaging, her mind would accelerate to the same levels as during an impossible and incredibly deadly situation. A single second in reality would give her an hour, if not more, in the mental domain, and she made full use of two hours in real time before leaving her temporary residence and heading over to a different part of Automaton Point.


    She lacked the information to develop her current theories further, and thus she had no choice but to step out and find someone to learn more from.


    For whatever reason, she came out and saw significantly more hatred avatars walking around than before. After asking a few of them about the situation and finding someone that was both willing to talk to her and was able to talk at a speed that was greater than one word per minute ¨C deterioration of the lungs seemed to be amongst the most common major flaws within the body, excluding such things as their reproductive organs and skin ¨C she discovered that while they didn¡¯t have any specific time for work, activity or the like, they still tended to emerge at similar times due to residual memories of their past lives.


    This was to her benefit, allowing her to question a large number of people about certain things, prime amongst which was the topic of their customs, taboos and whether there were any killing intent cultivators amongst them.


    The first two lines of inquiry did not result in much, but the third did yield a curious rumour: supposedly, there was indeed someone who had attempted to practise the ways of her kind, as they put it, and succeeded to the point of ¡°damaging their resonance¡± and being ¡°suggested¡± to leave the general area of Automaton Point.


    ¡®So, them practising killing intent cultivation is a sort of taboo, unless they can do so without damaging their connection to the Beast¡­ I will need to be careful with this when I complete the mental array¡­¡¯ she considered, briefly glancing inwards towards the enormous array that she had begun to create within the sky of the mental domain with the same materials as the storm walls, ¡®This one specimen ought to significantly increase my progress, though it will take far more work to actually complete my plans.¡¯


    As a result, she was heading out of Automaton Point through the same route that she used to get in far earlier than anyone could have originally predicted.


    Lao Kai looked at her in slight confusion as she walked past him on the bridge, but he did not choose to obstruct her path. Whether he was pleased with her leaving or just didn¡¯t care enough to question her, he remained silent and continued resting a hand on the amalgam automaton near him.


    Once she returned into the cave tunnels, Wei Yi quickly made her way through them without even attempting to pretend that she had been confounded by the path that had been used to bring her to Automaton Point. Her inspiration had already begun to fade at this point, but every second that she wasted on meaningless wandering about was using up even more of that limited time during which her mind functioned at a significantly faster rate.


    ¡®My thoughts do seem to become slightly faster each time this happens, though¡­¡¯


    For no particular reason, once she was out of reach of the resonance belonging to Fen Fang, she drew a small mark on the wall before proceeding towards the location of the hatred avatar that had been removed from Automaton Point.


    The walk took a little over ten minutes, though if she had been confident in breaking down the walls of the tunnels without causing everything to collapse on her, it could have been shortened to four or five minutes at the speed of a pleasant walk. Her destination turned out to be a dead end in the tunnels, with several rotten wood walls set up to resemble the structure of a house.


    Unlike the large town the avatar came from, his current residence had no sources of light, leaving it in complete darkness as it sat on the ground, legs crossed and hands pressed together by its chest, looking forwards without any motion.


    ¡®This¡­ appears to be¡­ cultivation?¡¯ Wei Yi noticed the slight movements in killing intent around this hatred avatar, though they were incredibly imprecise and unrefined, like something that could be expected from someone cultivating for the very first time. Furthermore, what little energy it did manage to absorb was carried through the body without any logic, showing a clear lack of knowledge about meridians and the structure of the human body. If not for the fact that this was not an ordinary living person, the avatar would have likely died long ago from energy deviation or madness induced by carelessly taking in killing intent.


    ¡°Excuse me, do you mind if I ask you some questions?¡± she said once she made sure that it wouldn¡¯t have the chance of killing itself with the killing intent upon a distraction.


    ¡°Human. Is there a reason why you are here?¡±


    ¡°I was curious about your practise of killing intent cultivation, as well as the resonance of hatred avatars as a whole. I wish to study it and understand whether it is possible for another cultivator to replicate the stabilising effects of the Beast¡¯s hatred and animate creatures via a similar method,¡± Wei Yi explained plainly, ¡°If this is successful, it may be possible for you to exist outside of the prison realm without any of the disadvantages of the living nor of your current state.¡±


    The hatred avatar stopped his cultivation, lowering his hands and turning towards her, ¡°What does my severance of the resonance have to do with your project?¡±


    ¡°The fact that simple cultivation led to this makes me curious about the exact nature of it. Depending on the answer, it might either be an insignificant thing, or it might be the key to allowing all avatars to experience a number of things that they currently cannot.¡±


    ¡°¡­ How do you wish to test this?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s very simple. Just sit where you currently are and let me inspect you closely with spiritual perception. Once I have something that I need to get you to do, I will inform you about it.¡±


    ¡°Very well. Do what you must¡­ for now¡­¡± the avatar stated, turning back towards the wall.


    Since she received his or her permission, she continued to look around their body, just like she had begun doing the very second that she came close enough to them. Already, she was able to tell that the most likely cause for the so-called ¡®severance of resonance¡¯ was the fact that, as someone that controlled a pool of their own killing intent instead of simply allowing it to enter them or pass through them, this particular hatred avatar was like a rock in a river while the majority of his kind were the water, or perhaps leaves that happened to land on it.


    In simpler words, this avatar was no longer as close to their peers, prompting them to find his existence displeasing and confusing.


    ¡®Actually, I hadn¡¯t paid enough attention to this before, but it seems that there is indeed a certain difference between my cultivation and that of this avatar in particular ¨C besides the sheer quantity of killing intent that I am able to wield, of course,¡® she noted, diving deeper into their body with her spiritual perception.


    Her curiosity was immediately rewarded when she was able to compare the structure of the avatar¡¯s killing intent with her own. Despite the lacking knowledge and understanding of the hatred avatar, it was somehow able to reach the second realm, and thus it chose to create the figure of a human man dressed in a farmer¡¯s clothes and with a large scythe on his back. Even then, this was entirely dependent on the field of killing intent present throughout the left half of the prison realm and would likely weaken or outright vanish without the support of it or planar energy.


    ¡°Could you tell me who the person you based your killing intent structure on is?¡±


    ¡°I could not. That person was simply the most prominent memory within my mind when I began to learn, and so I used it to achieve the greatest effect in my practise.¡±


    ¡®That¡¯s not exactly what you¡¯re meant to do, but I don¡¯t see any reason to contradict him for the moment¡­ It is likely, however, that this is either the avatar himself ¨C his physiology does match that of a man, and if I was to extrapolate his current appearance, he could certainly resemble a more aged version of that same figure ¨C or someone really close to him, perhaps a relative or a close friend,¡¯ she thought, only choosing to say, ¡°There¡¯s something I wish to attempt. I will release some killing intent, and I would like you to attempt to displace it. Not destroy it, not shatter or penetrate it, but simply displace it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a practitioner of killing intent?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. Were you incapable of sensing it with your own killing intent, or did you not receive any information about this from whoever you learnt your techniques from?¡±


    ¡°I did, but I had seen no other killing intent cultivators since then. No explanation has sufficed to explain the truth of any particular sensation,¡± the hatred avatar stated, which earned a nod of agreement from Wei Yi, ¡°What realm are you in?¡±


    ¡°Same one as you are. Now, let us begin the experiment,¡± she said, releasing a small cube of killing intent next to him.


    He frowned but took the request seriously, mobilising all of the killing intent within him that he could and pushing against her energy with a clear quantity of effort. Their killing intents clashed with one another, but one won out almost immediately, with Wei Yi¡¯s hatred remaining in place without any difficulty.


    ¡®Thus, planar energy proves to be insanely useful once more. So far as I can tell, planar energy is the catalyst and anchor for all other forms of energy in this world, and since I have a nigh-infinite quantity of it thanks to the nascent anchor and rift, I can maintain the optimum state of all of these forms of energy. Logically, if I enhance my planar energy and keep it at a constant quantity, I will similarly strengthen the stability of my mental energies, providing a full planar anchor to hold all of them together,¡¯ she concluded, suddenly directing all three of her available forms of energy towards the dantian.


    As she had experienced several times, one of the best ways to force energy to develop and refine it was to pressure it with other types of power, and as it just so happened, she had three forms of it that was on par with her cosmic energy.


    Furthermore, her planar anchor was already half-formed: all it needed was one enormous push.


    ¡°Thank you for your contributions so far. I¡¯ll be back within a day or two, so try to leave a note if you go off somewhere,¡± she said, immediately turning around and departing from his residence within the tunnels. Her breakthroughs were known to be rather exaggerated and extreme in every respect imaginable, and although she knew exactly what a breakthrough to the Emergent Anchor realm entailed, she still suspected that her attempt to go against the very laws of the prison realm could not be safely conducted within the proximity of any pseudo-living things. If she had the time, she would have gone above the surface, then set up several arrays to limit the impact of her cultivation through extreme masochism, but she decided that she could endure a rock or two falling on her.


    Due to this, she sat down in the middle of one of the passages she had gone through on her way to Automaton Point after placing a few inscriptions and arrays on the routes through it.


    Then, while sitting down, she created a few more arrays around herself, completing them with her spiritual will to elevate simple arrangements of stones and drawings on the ground to the level of two stars. Most of these were Hatred Gathering and Will Focusing arrays, the latter of which had originally only been intended to allow people to gain a clearer mind while within its range, but with a few modifications, it was also effective at strengthening spiritual will.


    ¡®I can¡¯t do the same with my physique energy, but as it is all empowered True Ascendant physique energy, I don¡¯t really need to do so. It can empower the yang of both spiritual will and killing intent and neutralise the negative yin of both, thus further aiding in my plans,¡¯ she thought, the three unique forms of power already surrounding her dantian and just waiting to barrage her planar energy.


    She took a deep breath, allowed her body to relax, then began.


    Her trinity of mental and physical powers surged into her planar aperture, passing through the illusory barrier that surrounded it, and pushed the killing intent belonging to the Beast aside, wrapping the cosmic energy in sunlight, boundless crimson and feeble silver, forcefully compressing what little of her energy remained further into the centre, surrounding the planar anchor and concentrating it to an insane degree.


    Within the mental domain, the array that she had been working on lit up, the few functional elements of it focusing on the dantian to stabilise her twin mental energies.


    As her combined forms of power kept even the laws of the realm at bay, for an admittedly brief time as every second that she spent repelling the world cost her almost one fifth of her total pool of energies, her cosmic energy was finally able to recover, drop by drop. The 4% of her power grew to 5%, then 6%, and even further, the nascent rift somehow increasing its output in tandem with her plans.


    Everything she had gathered was further focused onto the planar anchor and some of the cosmic energy even sank into the faint planar anchor, increasing its overall structural stability and overall completeness.


    ¡®In theory, to break into the first stage of a realm from any one Half-Step stage, all I need to do is complete whatever process had been left incomplete during my previous attempt. This can easily be done without an excessive quantity of cosmic energy ¨C not that it wouldn¡¯t help, naturally ¨C and all I must do is make good use of what little I do have,¡¯ she said to herself, trying to infuse all three forms of energy into the nascent rift to make the most of the time she had, ¡®For the best chance of success, I will need just a little bit more energy¡­¡¯


    To her surprise, there was indeed a reaction when all three energies touched the nascent rift. They spun around the small tear in existence and were further consumed, but with every hundred wisps of energy that entered the rift, it widened by an extremely small amount.


    ¡°Fuck, I had something like that and never thought to use it?¡± she unwittingly vocalised her thoughts, pushing as much of all available energies into the nascent rift.


    Although the time she had to recover planar energy dropped, the quantity that she acquired with every second slowly rose ¨C and, naturally, she forced every single drop that emerged from the rift into her planar anchor. Threads of cosmic light surged into the long-dormant structure, changing to flame, water, metal, earth, wood, blood, sparked with the occasional bolt of golden lightning, and, almost upon the total exhaustion of the mental and physical energies, the threads and the entire planar anchor was suddenly enveloped in pure violet. Wei Yi wanted to transform it back into cosmic energy as soon as possible, to avoid the laws of the prison realm consuming it at a greater rate than they otherwise would, but it seemed that this was the push that her cultivation required.


    All of a sudden, the entire planar aperture was surrounded with cosmic light. The shadow of a planar anchor burst out of her body, forming a small barrier between her and the world around her. It was a great, five-sided monolith of a structure, glowing with five distinct colours on each side. Bolts of planar energy occasionally arced on its surface, as if they were arcs of lightning on a metal object.


    Each side radiated power, and each one released an incredible force upon the world around her.


    The killing intent from the Beast was pushed away as easily as if it had been the air of the Planar Continents, and when Wei Yi allowed her own killing intent to leave her body and occupy that space, she saw how, with every breath that she took, her energy grew more stable.


    When that shadow returned to her body, this field of stability remained, and it only seemed to grow with every second.


    ¡®I don¡¯t think this will last for too long, however. The laws of the realm are simply acclimating to the increased quantity and quality of my planar energy, and thus I have more killing intent to work with. Eventually, the growth will stop, at which point I will acquire a better degree of control over the field of energy that I control,¡¯ she deduced, seeing the growth in the radius of her energy decrease quickly after the initial burst, ¡®That does make one wonder about the initial power of the Beast. If I can control this much killing intent freely, then wouldn¡¯t it mean that the Beast had to have been within the sixth, seventh or even the eighth realm while it was still alive?¡¯


    If that was indeed the case, she understood why such an enormous prison realm would be constructed to restrict it, as it would otherwise easily be able to leave. It would also explain the significant strictness of the realm¡¯s laws, and why it had to eliminate everything it possibly could that had ever contained planar energy.


    ¡®Such a theory does not explain the existence of that planar anchor shard, but I can bother with it later, when I am forced to spend a dozen years sitting in place and cultivating killing intent to reach the fifth realm and earn some chance to break out. For now, I have what I need.¡¯


    She rose from the ground, dispersing the arrays around her with a simple stomp of her foot.


    ¡®It¡¯s a shame that as the rift has grown, the consumption rate seems to have grown as well. Now, my total supply of planar energy is higher by one or two percent, but it isn¡¯t growing any further than that. I will need to continue working on it in the future¡­¡¯


    Somehow, her breakthrough destroyed nothing around her, and thus this single stomp was the full extent of the damage to her surroundings.


    ¡®I might as well leave the other arrays in place. Might as well confuse some people, if they decide to walk through here,¡¯ Wei Yi shrugged, exiting this part of the tunnels with ease and heading back towards Automaton Point, ¡®Now, I ought to investigate how this more stable killing intent will affect the hatred automatons and avatars. If I can stabilise the thoughts of Liu Qi or recover her flesh, that would be for the best.¡¯


    At some unknown point in time, a group of people wandered into the tunnels leading up to Automaton Point. Their approach was violent and simplistic, charging straight towards their perceived target, but, all of a sudden, they found themselves getting lost within the dark caves. They considered breaking through the walls, but whenever this idea appeared in their minds or in conversation, it quickly vanished.


    It did not need to be said that they did not enjoy their time.

 V2C44: Uncovering Mysteries

    By the time Wei Yi returned, Lao Kai had gone somewhere else, allowing her to cross the bridge and then return to the mostly empty bar where Liu Qi resided without anyone witnessing her.


    Just as before, she remained in place, randomly polishing the exact same clay cup. She suspected that if she gave her enough time and kept watching, she would be able to see her rub all the way through the clay and then be forced to get a new cup.


    Wei Yi had figured out how to restrain the enormous aura of killing intent around her, and she had also understood how to create specific pockets of stabilised mental energies in areas around her. She left one behind near the area where she broke through, mostly to experiment with the way that this new ability worked, and despite her going far away from it, the small sphere of her killing intent remained stable.


    She was still unsure whether this would be as harmful to the female hatred avatar as the last time she attempted this, so she decided to fulfil her obligation to inform her about this attempt after funnelling more of the Beast¡¯s energy towards her, ¡°Liu Qi, I will be trying to fully correct your state, whether mentally or physically. This might hurt, if you can feel pain, so get ready.¡±


    ¡°Ah-¡±


    Before she had the time to say anything, Wei Yi created a large sphere of her own killing intent around her, stabilising it with the power of the planar anchor. To avoid anything going wrong due to her taking too much time to complete the process, she decided to get it done in the shortest time possible, infusing every single part of the woman¡¯s body with her hatred and doing her best to replicate the current structure that was allowing Liu Qi to live.


    Liu Qi dropped the clay cup and sank down to the ground, her hands quivering in pain while her mouth hung open in complete silence, though Wei Yi was sure that if she hadn¡¯t blocked her throat with spiritual will, she would be crying out in excruciating pain.


    ¡®I don¡¯t know how the nervous system of a hatred avatar works, but the sensation she is currently feeling is entirely incomparable to developing four more sets of meridians. She¡¯s overreacting to something like that,¡¯ Wei Yi commented within her mind, modifying her flow of killing intent to limit the pain that this woman would sense to prevent similar situations in the future.


    Her killing intent completely penetrated Liu Qi¡¯s physical form, the majority of it sinking into the mind of the hatred automaton to grasp onto the vague threads of thoughts and memory that remained within it, linking them together and doing her best to do so in a fashion that wouldn¡¯t lead to her losing all traces of her existence. Meanwhile, the remaining quantity of killing intent stimulated her body, attempting to prompt the long-dead elements of her body to recover, even if it was just to resemble a normal human just a little bit more.


    When both attempts seemed to be yielding some results, she also infused her vitality into the hatred avatar, driven more by the desire to succeed than anything else.


    Somehow, the added vitality mixed with the increased quantity of hatred and united with it. Flesh, skin and bones momentarily trembled as if to the beat of the long-dead heart within Liu Qi¡¯s body, being surrounded in the dull light of life itself, then slowly began to regenerate.


    Fair skin developed atop crimson flesh, quickly covering the entirety of her body. Muscle that had long lay dormant awoke within her, another rumble of force emerging from her as they restored themselves to their peak state. The black and red eyes of a hatred automaton, dull and devoid of all life, seemed to be burned away and replaced with white, a mixture of red and amber, and black, the pupils dilating for a second as they adjusted to the lack of light.


    Even the ash-like hair on her head grew, not due to the mere influence of vitality, but to recover its previous form, stopping only at her lower back at the same time as its colour changed to a deep black.


    All of this paled in comparison to what occurred near the still heart of the hatred avatar, however. Despite her half-dead state remaining as it already was, the vague force of a killing intent structure grew within her, slowly pulling in Wei Yi¡¯s own hatred in order to complete the shape of an inhuman heart that overlaid the real one, beating even while the latter did not.


    Unlike the cultivation of the male hatred avatar, this sudden growth to the third realm of killing intent did not sever Liu Qi¡¯s connection to the one that provided her with killing intent, but actually appeared to bring her closer as the beating foreign heart acted in tandem with Wei Yi¡¯s own intent. If she desired to slow down the beat, or stop it completely, she knew that she could, for even that simple thought affected it, or if she wished to provide the woman with further energy, she could do so without the target needing to process it.


    ¡®Is this the advantage that being alive gives me? The Beast cannot understand anything about the people attempting to cultivate it¡¯s force, and thus anyone that goes against the current state of things breaks their resonance towards it,¡¯ Wei Yi understood, compressing her field of killing intent so that it clung closely to Liu Qi¡¯s resuscitated flesh, ¡®To cover one humanoid costs me roughly 0.5% of the total stable area that I can currently possess, meaning that I could have up to 200 hatred avatars be supported by my energy at once, potentially more if I isolate it to simply keeping them animated and not looking like they are alive¡­ Furthermore, now that I have a full planar anchor, I ought to be able to increase this without requiring any actual cultivation to take place ¨C I merely need to learn superior techniques.¡¯


    She would have continued her thought process if not for the fact that Liu Qi slowly lowered her hands from her head, her expression no longer contorted in excruciating pain.


    As it turned out, this hatred avatar was once incredibly beautiful, with the uniqueness of the amber and red eyes only adding to her appearance. She appeared to be fair and soft, suiting Wei Yi¡¯s own tastes, but there was also an element of power beneath her skin ¨C literally, as well as figuratively ¨C that reminded Wei Yi of her former image.


    ¡°Where¡­¡± the hatred avatar muttered, before her eyes suddenly widened and she shifted her position to kneel before Wei Yi, ¡°Master, I apologise for the failure of my mission. I naturally accept all punishment that you intend to give me.¡±


    ¡®What the- wait, whether this is some kind of joke that I do not understand, or her misinterpreting the situation upon the recovery of fragments of her memory, I can use this. The more information I can get out of anyone, the better, and if Liu Qi happens to be someone that give to me, I have no reason to reveal anything about the truth until I learn everything,¡¯ she decided, looking down at the kneeling hatred avatar, ¡°Before that, tell me who you are.¡±


    ¡°My true name is Min Lian, Seventh Claw of the Scorching Blades.¡±


    ¡®Scorching Blades¡­ the assassin organisation founded shortly after the death of the Lady of Ashes, inspired by her attempt to use the blood of a dragon to increase her power and prolong her life? They do not use actual blood, but they do use a series of techniques based on draconic properties and attempt to make themselves more suitable for a blood transfusion in the future, once the issue of complete madness from absorbing the blood of a dragon is corrected by their masters¡­ It is said that they have some connection to the Blood-tinged Church, and that they might even be in possession of Chao Jianhong¡¯s body¡­¡¯ for a second, Wei Yi was stunned into complete silence, though Min Lian did not appear to mind, obediently remaining in place, ¡°What mission was assigned to you?¡±


    ¡°I had to eliminate the third-generation member of the Great Chen family, Chen Zhong. However, I was apprehended when the first-generation Chen Huang passed through the area and imprisoned me.¡±


    ¡°Since I see that you are in the Condensed Shot realm, I assume that you did not perish immediately.¡±


    ¡°No, I did not, Master. I adapted our Dragon¡¯s Heart technique and used it to cultivate to this realm, but I lost my life beneath the ground after my breakthrough to the third stage.¡±


    ¡®If she is telling the truth, I have a talented and powerful person that is perceiving me to be her master, someone that she would never go against¡­ The best way to check this would be to¡­¡¯ she considered a few options before deciding on the most practical, albeit the less entertaining, one, ¡°Share everything about your new technique and the Dragon¡¯s Heart technique.¡±


    There was no sign of hesitation on Min Lian¡¯s face as she nodded and read out the technique manuals for both from her memory. Not a single detail appeared to have been altered, and when the last word of the Dragon¡¯s Heart method was spoken, Wei Yi was able to transform her cosmic energy into flame and witness it become brighter and more powerful, resembling the flaming breath of a dragon attuned to the element of fire.


    Similarly, when she implemented the principles of Dragon¡¯s Mirage, the killing intent technique, into the prison realm-like endless battlefield within her mental landscape, she found that the concentration of killing intent within the centre of the realm grew significantly.


    ¡®Either her lies have somehow created incredibly powerful techniques, or she is telling me the truth¡­ Since both of them seem to be to my advantage, I will observe her while getting the most that I can out of her,¡¯ Wei Yi decided, ¡°Rise, Min Lian. Since exit from the prison realm is not currently available, you will serve me and fulfil every task I give you.¡±


    ¡°I understand, Master,¡± the hatred avatar said, rising from the floor but keeping her head bowed.


    ¡°For now, follow me and continue to use the fake name of Liu Qi. You must contribute to my efforts in forcing Automaton Point to cooperate with me, or outright subjugate it, to unify the prison realm and escape.¡±


    ¡°Very well, Master. I shall follow your lead,¡± she only raised her head then, ¡°Do you require me to serve you in any other way?¡±


    The avatar¡¯s gaze drifted downwards, making the exact meaning of her question all too obvious to Wei Yi, who wasn¡¯t surprised in the least, ¡®As expected of the various assassin masters¡­ Lust permeates all of humanity, and although I am no exception, I will not abuse this while there are plenty of people who are offering the exact same service willingly, and for their monetary benefit.¡¯


    ¡°No, just act naturally, as if you have recovered your mental faculties but no particular memories.¡±


    ¡°I will do my best to encourage confidence in you, Master,¡± the assassin nodded, being forced to look up at Wei Yi even as she straightened her back to look less submissive, ¡°So, does that mean that I will not receive punishment?¡±


    ¡°Do you want to?¡± Wei Yi asked, raising an eyebrow ¨C if it had been her, she wouldn¡¯t have brought the matter up if she had no interest in it.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t the case. I apologise if I have misled you. I was simply making sure that I hadn¡¯t distracted you from the matter with my report on my Dragon¡¯s Mirage technique,¡± Min Lian apologised profusely.


    ¡°No, you did not¡­¡± she replied, though a slight smile appeared on her face the second after, ¡°However, since you clearly believe that you have failed the Scorching Blades, you can prove your sincerity and commitment to our path by reciting the rest of the techniques that you are familiar with. Such a thing would not be difficult for a loyal Claw, would it?¡±


    ¡°It would not, Master. I can begin the moment that you are comfortable.¡±


    After she introduced Draconic Punch, Draconic Force, a palm technique, Draconic Claw and the core combat technique of the Scorching Blades, the eponymous Scorching Blade technique, it became clear that the assassin organisation had plenty of methods to study and that it would be best not to discuss them in a random bar-like area, which even Min Lian could not remember the purpose for, resulting in them leaving the area and heading towards the residence Wei Yi had decided to occupy.


    None of the meat that had been left there had been moved, nor were there any traces of other activity, allowing them to settle down without the worry of interruption.


    ¡°Master, as a member of the five hundredth and sixty seventh generation of the Claws, I had been trained in various infiltration and disguise methods, which included learning several techniques to assist in the relaxation of others. If it is not inconvenient for you, I could offer you a massage to make up for my failure.¡±


    ¡°Min Lian, you seem really keen to do this¡­¡±


    ¡°I am not,¡± she denied instantly, no traces of emotion appearing on her face, ¡°As I said, I must make up for my failure, and simply reciting techniques will not achieve this. After all, my mistake has likely delayed the Scorching Blades¡¯ project to end the supremacy of the Great Families for far too long¡­¡±


    ¡®Honestly, I am tempted to seek this assassin organisation out in the future, since they seem to be perfectly aligned with two of my main goals: to end the Greats, and to study the path of the Lady of Ashes in furthering one¡¯s power. If I can control them as easily as I appear to be ordering this one around ¨C which is unlikely, even if it is an enticing possibility ¨C then I could ensure that they do not take any other actions that are detrimental to the future of Yi City,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, sighing, ¡°In that case, you may demonstrate your current proficiency in this while proceeding with your recital.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Master,¡± said Min Lian, moving a chair into the middle of the room for Wei Yi to get a comfortable seat.


    When she sat down, the assassin got onto her knees beside her feet and slowly brought her hands towards them, except she suddenly froze and looked around with a trace of panic showing through her neutral expression.


    ¡°Master, there is a poison gas filling this room! It is toxic to living things! Are you using the Dragon¡¯s Constitution method to prevent poisonous substances from affecting you?¡±


    The sudden change in her voice and expression, almost as if the assassin saw her loved one in danger and was making sure that they were alright, caused Wei Yi to freeze for a moment before checking her own body with her spiritual perception, finding that there were indeed some traces of poison in her blood, although most of them were already being burnt away by her physique energy. To lessen Min Lian¡¯s worry, she gathered what little remained of the poison and spat it out in the form of a black, thick liquid. As it splattered onto the stone floor, it had no reaction with the ground nor the air, but the mere aura of the fluid made it obvious that it was toxic.


    ¡°I have my methods. Since you¡¯ve brought it up, recite all of that technique as well.¡±


    Min Lian clearly had to restrain herself from breathing a sigh of relief as she nodded, began to massage Wei Yi¡¯s feet, and read the manual for Dragon¡¯s Constitution from memory.


    While she did that, Wei Yi did her best to focus on analysing the exact structure of the poisonous substance as well as how it could have entered the room, quickly discovering that it was a poison that was only effective against living creatures, such as her, and was meant to shut down her various bodily functions without significant harm to her actual form.


    With further searching, made doubly more difficult by how oddly pleasant and relaxing the foot massage from the trained and powerful killer was and how it was tempting her to keep someone to do this and more while she was strategizing in the future, she also found a small hole in the wall that connected to a set of channels that spread out all throughout the cave, all of them leading to one of the largest rooms within the entirety of Automaton Point: Fen Fang¡¯s room.


    ¡®That bastard didn¡¯t look hostile at all¡­ No, perhaps he was not, even if he was the one responsible. The hatred avatars naturally prefer those with resonance to those without ¨C hopefully, that won¡¯t mean that Min Lian will be excluded, though her resonance ought to be similar to theirs ¨C and perhaps they believed that by ending my life and allowing me to change into an avatar will be an improvement for me¡­¡¯ she considered, ¡®The key is whether this is standard practise for them, and whether the others are aware of this. If they are, I might have some difficulties persuading them to side with a bunch of mortal men and women that need to breathe and eat, since they would want to kill them all and change them, but if this was only Fen Fang¡¯s doing, then I have a lot more to work with¡­¡¯


    ¡°Min Lian, do you have any memories of Fen Fang, the leader of Automaton Point?¡±


    ¡°Automa- ah, this domain of hatred avatars. I am not too familiar with him. Is there something precise that you desire to know about him, Master?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Tell me about the common opinion about him, and whether the common population would be open to him being replaced with somebody else with the ability to communicate with ease,¡± Wei Yi nodded.


    ¡°Most do not have a particular attachment to him. If he was to¡­ vanish, anyone could take over,¡± Min Lian stated, glancing at Wei Yi¡¯s daggers, ¡°Do you desire his end?¡±


    ¡°It seems to be the best option at the moment. You don¡¯t happen to possess a suitable weapon for the operation, do you?¡±


    ¡°My apologies, Master,¡± the assassin shook her head, ¡°My Scorching Blade, as well as my identification talisman and clothing, have all been lost a long time ago. I have no memories of them since my transformation into a hatred avatar, and the first memory I have is of being in a similar state of clothing to my current state. By the way, Master, do you wish me to get dressed?¡±


    ¡°The people of Automaton Point don¡¯t care, and neither do I. Do whatever you prefer,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, briefly considering which of the daggers to lend to the woman when she suddenly felt someone passing through the small sphere of stable killing intent that she had left behind.


    According to their particular energy signature and the way they disrupted the killing intent, they appeared to be living, though they were not killing intent cultivators, but physique cultivators. Several of them had a clear aura of power that was noticeable even in spite of the distance, and one might have even been actively repelling killing intent from his or her position, though the effect was minor to the point of only nudging it away by an inch or two.


    What was clear was the fact that they were angry, and clearly heading in the direction of Automaton Point.


    ¡°Min Lian, you are physically capable, are you not? If there was some major distraction to aid you in your task, could you successfully kill Fen Fang, with or without a weapon, and make it seem like he was slain by a physique cultivator?¡±


    ¡°To my knowledge, he is physically weak. I will accomplish this mission even without a blade,¡± the Scorching Blades assassin went back on one knee before her, lowering her head, ¡°Is that your wish?¡±

 V2C45: The Dead strike First

    The second that Wei Yi stepped out of the residence, deciding to wear some basic footwear as to not instantly sully the work that Min Lian had put into cleaning her feet, she saw a figure in the distance, at one of the cave entrances to Automaton Point.


    In the same breath, two more figured emerged, all of them appearing on the other side of the bridge and freezing the second that they saw the entirety of the underground city. They were clearly no ordinary humans, for physique energy actively radiated from their bodies and made them light up like lamps in the dark, and they made no effort to hide their seething fury as they looked upon Automaton Point.


    ¡®There¡¯s one identity for this lot that I can think of, but it is rather unlikely¡­ Still, I know more about the avatars than them, so I ought to side with the former in this situation¡­¡¯


    Using the moment in which they were stunned, Wei Yi used a stealth technique and leapt into the air, obscuring everything about herself and her movement. As the physique cultivators failed to notice her, she opened her mouth and used every voice technique available to her, including the overwhelming volume of the Lion¡¯s Roar, to project her voice.


    ¡°INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS SEEK TO HARM YOUR PEACE!¡±


    Her voice reached the outer walls of the cave in a single instant, then bounced off them, vibrating the entire cave with its intensity. The echo of her voice became louder and louder, absolutely deafening all but one person with working eardrums, turning into nothing but a shrill sound that still grew louder.


    The aforementioned intruders suffered the most, especially two more of their number that left the tunnels a second after her yell and were entirely unprepared for the situation. Due to the distance between them, she couldn¡¯t see every minor detail, but she could tell that their ears were bleeding profusely even as they attempted to cover their ears to prevent the extreme volume of sound from shattering their very minds.


    Yet another physique cultivator entered the area, but after suffering for a moment, he raised his head and met the piercing reverberations with a yell of his own.


    The vague image of a lion¡¯s head emerged around the physique cultivator, echoing his cry and amplifying it, causing it to clash with the echoes of Wei Yi¡¯s voice. As the latter had decayed and spread all around the cave of Automaton Point, the former won out, pushing the cry backwards and dispersing it.


    ¡®How fascinating. This is one of the rare physiques that either spawned a technique that fully replicated it, or was born as a result of the technique stimulating that part of humanity,¡¯ Wei Yi noted as she looked at the illusory lion head from the other side of the bridge.


    Although the yell was dispersed, she had already taken advantage of the distraction and moved to the base of the bridge, took out White Echo and slashed through the supports.


    She made sure to do so just as one of the physique cultivators stepped onto it, causing them to be caught off guard as it collapsed into the abyss between Automaton Point and the caves, with the fall made all the more unfortunate by the fact that they lacked any means of preventing it despite the incredibly variety of physiques in existence.


    It was made even more tragic when one of the other physique cultivators, a woman that was almost entirely covered in messy brown hair, approached the edge of the cliff and held out her hand. Translucent and fluid physique energy surged from her pores and flowed to her hands, gathering before them in an enormous sphere. Once it grew to being as wide as a typical human was tall, the sphere was launched forward, expanding horizontally until it barely reached the other side of the abyss and struck the cliff edge on that side.


    ¡®Mystical Bridge Physique¡­ An odd one, to be sure, but incredibly useful in a supporting role. Allows the generation of a bridge via one¡¯s physique energy,¡¯ Wei Yi recognised this physique as well, but chose not to strike again. The hatred avatars had to feel some threat and urgency, after all.


    Even without her continued interference, when the mystical bridge passed through the plane of killing intent left behind by White Echo, it was shaken and visibly weakened, as well as being slightly delayed.


    By the time it did indeed hit the cliff edge, almost half a hundred hatred avatars emerged from their residences, with some looking alike to hatred automatons while others had significantly more human features, marred only by large spots of crimson flesh on various parts of their body. Most did not wear any kind of clothing, although one was donning an apron made out of ancient cloth that was actively falling apart before Wei Yi¡¯s eyes.


    They witnessed the intruders, their exact expressions varying, but when they finally took action, their responses matched. Every single avatar rushed towards the new bridge, stopping several metres away from it before focusing. At the same time, a series of pulses in killing intent burst out of them, spreading out to the edges of Automaton Point and far, far beyond.


    To the physique cultivators, this was nothing but a strange vibration in the air, for they were unaware of the great quantities of amalgam automatons that were gathering upon this point.


    While they were distracted by the battle, Wei Yi retreated behind them and waited for her moment.


    As the bridge solidified, the invaders rushed onto it and towards the other side, fearing the possibility of another collapse due to an unknown opponent. Several more physique cultivators joined them as if they were just flowing from the cave tunnels, and all of them rushed towards Automaton Point with every method that they had at their disposal. One was able to temporarily stand on air, or perhaps the killing intent that filled it, and so they minimised the time they spent on the mystical bridge by constantly stepping on an invisible platform in the air, dispersing it and creating a new one just in time for their other foot to land on it. Another had some kind of support ability, and whenever he weakened the bridge by touching it, he released some of his physique energy to strengthen it.


    ¡®It is rather exciting to see so many physiques at the third realm just marching towards me, all of them radiating yang energy¡­ Since I can¡¯t imagine any of the avatars having an issue with me handling the bodies of the invaders, I will get all of it for little effort¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought.


    Even though the amalgam automatons were clearly rushing towards this location with great haste, they could only dig through solid rock so quickly with mismatched limbs and confused bodies. Before any one of them could make it to the scene, the first wave of physique cultivators crossed the bridge, with three more waves following behind them.


    ¡°Die, you filth!¡± one physique cultivator yelled for no good reason, with such great timing that one could almost assume that he had been told to do so at this exact time and place.


    ¡®My primary goal is to rile the avatars up against any other foe, and just as I want to do this, he makes it seem like they are just here to kill them due to their identity, even though the most likely reason behind their appearance is the death of that one lustful warlord from the Great Bone Lake,¡¯ thought the most likely culprit behind the sudden invasion, though she naturally did not intend to share this information with anyone else, ¡®Since this is also the very first thing that they said, if they follow up with ¡®Death to the killers of the warlord¡® or something of the sort, the avatars can just reasonably assume that they had been blamed for something just to give them a good excuse. I¡¯ll make sure that Min Lian suggests this notion¡­¡¯


    The hatred avatars closest to the mystical bridge attempted to run away, but they were entirely inferior to any of the physique cultivators. Two of the avatars sustained heavy damage almost instantly, and the number of injuries would have increased severely if not for the fact that the entire cave suddenly began to rumble. Even the most mentally deficient of the intruders couldn¡¯t ignore it, especially when they suddenly felt the ground beneath them collapsing inwards.


    In an instant, two physique cultivators were devoured or torn apart by amalgam automatons, which burst out of the ground and continued to pour out of the same tunnels that were formed by the creatures preceding them.


    These insectoid creatures poured towards the invaders like the tide, nimbly avoiding any hatred avatar that retreated while using them as cover, matching the number of intruders in four seconds and exceeding it in only nine seconds. Since these were merely puppets for the avatars to use, they threw themselves at the physique cultivators without any regards for their own safety, using only minimal tactics to entirely overwhelm them ¨C at first. Once those that were clearly unsuited for this battle perished or were forced to retreat, those that possessed powerful area attack capabilities made it to the front lines of this battle, and they did not hold back.


    With the empowerment of the Sun¡¯s Regalia physique, one particular fighter threw himself towards the insectoid creatures, with each one of his blows creating a powerful shockwave of sunlight that surged through the amalgam automatons and tore through their long-dead forms and destroyed both their insides and their tough outer shells.


    Each punch from this man severely injured or outright shattered three to four automatons, and his stamina appeared to be completely boundless.


    However, even that wasn¡¯t the greatest threat to the hatred avatars. As another wave of invaders crossed the mystical bridge, one particular fighter also rushed towards his foes, but he punched far too early for his strike to connect with any one of his foes.


    The man was not perturbed by this, and it soon became obvious why. Following his attack, an enormous mirage ¨C a shadowy humanoid figure with arms as thick as logs and a head with no visible features other than a single glowing point in the middle of its face that constantly radiated bright crimson energy ¨C appeared above him, the movements of the figure matching up with his own attack and connecting with the shells and bodies of half a dozen amalgam automatons in a single strike. The dark fist crushed their bodies as if they were mere bugs, vanishing a second later.


    ¡®Titanic Demolisher physique! This one is certainly visually impressive,¡¯ Wei Yi remarked silently.


    More and more amalgam automatons emerged from the ground, but in the eyes of the physique cultivators, they were just adding dry logs to their flame.


    Eventually, even the less knowledgeable amongst the avatars understood this, and although they were able to maintain their resonance with the amalgam automatons and continued controlling them, some were beginning to be consumed by their connection to the automatons. Their energy distorted and their bodies slowly started to tremble.


    What better time was there for a hero to step up and save the day?


    Just as the physique cultivators were about to push through to the hatred avatars once more, a bright mass of sunlight-like physique energy appeared out of nowhere and struck the user of the Sun¡¯s Regalia physique directly in the chest, shattering not only the golden regalia on his chest, but also the majority of his front. At the same time, the bright True Ascendant power surged into his body and, the very second that he perished, drained all of the Sun¡¯s Regalia light from his flesh, leaving him dry.


    As it returned to Wei Yi¡¯s body, she felt her physique energy grow even more powerful as a part of it concentrated on her chest, forming a strange amalgamation of symbols in between her breasts. More than anything else, this glowing symbol resembled the mysterious characters in disarray.


    She suppressed it immediately, forcing it to disappear before it had the opportunity to cause any particular disruptions amongst the side she was attempting to side with, but the improvement that it brought to her physique could not be hidden as easily.


    Before the physique cultivators had the opportunity to understand their opponent, she used the warlord¡¯s physique to shift forward by one step and concentrated her physique energy on her fist according to the principles of Draconic Punch. The faint echo of a dragon¡¯s roar reverberated throughout the cave as an illusory image of a dragon¡¯s head formed around her fist, composed entirely of sunlight, and was launched out.


    It struck several more intruders and snapped down on them, splitting their forms in two as easily as a knife could cut through air, and fed their energies to Wei Yi.


    ¡®Lion¡¯s Roar, Existence Trace and Cleaving Axe physiques are down and are now mine. With those, the breakthrough should occur in just a few seconds, but as it is only from the first to the second stage, it shouldn¡¯t catch more attention that those two ridiculous attacks¡­ I almost forgot how impressive a single Gentle Breeze Strike can be when amplified by the True Ascendant physique,¡¯ she thought to herself, finding that none of the physique cultivators were powerful enough to awaken another kind of ability within her.


    Nevertheless, the entrance still earned her one physique ability and the attention of both sides, who froze as they evaluated this new entrant to the battle. They needed to know which sides she did and did not belong to, and she decided to give the answer to them as plainly as she could.


    ¡°Avatars, get back! I¡¯ll keep them away!¡± she shouted, using Dawn Flowing Light to create a wave of energy to push the physique cultivators as close towards the cliff as possible.


    ¡°Wait, can she be trusted? She¡¯s another one of them!¡±


    Simply from the stabilisation of the resonance of the avatars, she could tell that her entrance was greatly welcomed, but due to the oddity and strange convenience of her appearance, it was only natural that some would find an issue with her. In fact, if they did not, Wei Yi would have brought up the exact same concern herself in order to address it before it had the opportunity to gnaw at their trust. Thus, she briefly looked back towards the avatar that raised the question ¨C a woman that looked mostly human from the waist up but had only the barest semblance of legs below that.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been working on healing your bodies and mind so that you can recover everything you used to be and be able to leave the prison realm safely, and just when I succeeded with Liu Qi, I saw what was happening outside!¡± she exclaimed, speaking as quickly as she could, ¡°She should be going to speak with Fen Fang right now to get help!¡±


    That appeared to appease the female hatred avatar, so Wei Yi turned back and threw her hands into the air, subduing her voice via inverting the Lion¡¯s Roar technique as she called out, ¡°Ancestral Call!¡±


    Her silent words caused her killing intent to surge out of her body and into the ground around her, forming into a series of totems that burst out of the ground and were then accompanied by a series of figures shrouded in crimson, with no lower body and a single glowing eye.


    ¡®I suspect the Kong had some inspiration from the Titanic Demolisher technique, seeing as the general visual is incredibly similar,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, lowering her hands before chanting, ¡°Ancestral Eyes!¡±


    A dozen shadows appeared within her vision, all of them showing the battle from a slightly different perspective. All of them followed her lead as she channelled her killing intent according to one of her personal techniques, causing one hundred and eight faint stars to light up within Wei Yi¡¯s body, and for roughly half of that number of ignite within the crimson ancestral figures as their energy was channelled towards a spot before their chests.


    It gathered into a large ball of light that then shot out a powerful beam. A total of fourteen instances of Dawn Slicing Beam, warped by killing intent into something far less pleasant to behold, but significantly more powerful, struck the front lines of the physique cultivating invaders, burning right through four of them and significantly injuring the other ten targets.


    Before they could react in any way, she dispersed the effect of Ancestral Eyes and leapt towards the bridge, falling down onto the edge of it with a Rising Dawn fist.


    With all of the damage that killing intent plane left behind by White Echo had dealt to the structure of the bridge, her punch shattered it, causing the bridge to slowly lean down into the abyss, clearly being unable to maintain its stability with so many people on it.


    So that their energy wouldn¡¯t be wasted, she took out the Bone of the Beast and filled it to the brim with several pages of her compressed killing intent, forcefully altering its structure to be as alike to fire-type planar energy as she possibly could. Using the rough structure of the weapon to mimic the required weapon for the usage of Scorching Blade, she burnt all of the killing intent she had forced into it as she activated the first move of the technique: Dragon¡¯s Wrath.


    The dagger was coated in an impossibly hot and bright flame, blinding anyone who looked directly at it, as if the sun itself had descended into the blade. It seemed to seep into the very thoughts of those who looked at it, instantly wiping away any consideration of attacking Wei Yi while she was busy preparing to use the technique.


    When they recovered, it was too late.


    Wei Yi swung the dagger slowly, looking much like someone who had never lifted a weapon in their entire life. However, that single, simple, incredibly basic looking swing contained a force that could never be imagined by the mortals of the current age. The flames contained within the dagger burst out at a dozen- no, a hundred times the intensity of what they should have been, and expanded into the flaming breath of a true dragon, a beast whose might had been long-forgotten, just like the name of the Master of Yi City and the power that he used to wield in his prime against the greatest of foes.


    The draconic breath torched everything it touched ¨C the bridge, the people on it, and the stone behind it. All of it was scorched and melted, raw physique energy being the only thing that somehow survived.


    ¡®Have I never used a technique with the Bone of the Beast before? Or, is this some kind of unique interaction between this kind of technique and the weapon? This is- right, I have to absorb the physique energy before it dissipates,¡¯ she interrupted herself and threw out her True Ascendant energy under the distraction of the incredible heat haze generated by the draconic breath, collecting all of the energy for herself.


    It flowed into her body, refuelling all of the energy that she had used in this battle so far, and as the last drop of physique energy was absorbed into her, she felt her entire supply of physique energy expand and wash over her body, coating and soaking all of her internal organs for a brief moment before it retreated to her meridians.


    ¡®More of the All-Seeing Eye, another Cleaving Axe, some random ordinary physiques that mostly do nothing¡­ Mystical Bridge physique is still on the other side, and Titanic Demolisher-¡¯


    She was forced to end that thought when the aforementioned physique cultivator repeated her plunging attack using his raw strength, his physique phantom following him quickly. Both were rather easy to evade due to the simplistic nature of the attacks, as the man followed the same tactic every single time he struck: initially miss his first strike by an inch before allowing the physique to take care of the rest. It was simple, but still incredibly powerful.


    Wei Yi contemplated using more of her killing intent to deal with him, but she found that her energy consumption was significantly more than she had expected, likely due to the immense power of the Dragon¡¯s Wrath.


    ¡®Eh, physique energy will be sufficient- oh, they even have a Vibrant Phoenix physique on their side. It¡¯s a good thing that the Dragon¡¯s Wrath went out almost instantly, or else it could have used the flame to strengthen itself,¡¯ she thought, recalling the description of the physique and the statement about not using any kind of active flame against an enemy using the physique, ¡®Yes, physique energy will do.¡¯


    Evading the simple punch of the Titanic Demolisher, she looked towards the Vibrant Phoenix who had transformed their upper body into that of an ancient phoenix, using their new wings to fly across the abyss while the Mystical Bridge physique worked to reconstruct the broken bridge, and gathered her physique energy around her arm, splitting it in two while one formed Storm Blade Wreathing and the other circulated the necessary energy for the Frayed Blade technique.


    In theory, it was meant to be used with spiritual will only, but as every form of energy had originated from cosmic energy, it meant that they could easily be interchangeable.


    As the Vibrant Phoenix was only inches away from her, the bright sunlight in her hands formed an enormous sword, it¡¯s edges frayed and rough yet radiating incredibly intense power, cutting through the air and killing intent around it and leaving a small area around it that was devoid of all matter, containing naught but her power.


    ¡®Elysian Frayed Blade!¡¯


    She slashed at the approaching physique cultivator, who thought that they would be able to dodge her attack due to how slow her previous attack with a weapon was. Contrary to their expectations, she moved at almost thrice the speed ¨C the attack with Dragon¡¯s Wrath demanded slow movement to prevent accidental damage to herself, but this weapon did not ¨C and split the cultivator in half in one attack. In that same movement, she continued the slash and spun around to face the Titanic Demolisher once more, transforming the energy gathered for the Frayed Blade into the power of Demonic Ire, which she targeted at the Demolisher.


    Before the technique had the opportunity to begin gathering energy from the air, which she suspected to be potentially lethal to the hatred avatars that were still within range, she fired it in the weakest, most basic form, creating only a simple beam of pure sunlight.


    The Titanic Demolisher attempted to meet the strike with a punch from the physique phantom, but what he did not expect was that it would be entirely useless against the incredible physique energy. It easily pierced the phantom fist and struck his head, exploding and entirely destroying the top third of his physical form.


    His energy was instantly stolen by Wei Yi, who turned back to the Vibrant Phoenix just in time to see their top half transform into that of a woman and for the flames to spread to the cut-off bottom half.


    In the one second that they touched the wounded portion of the body, the severed lower half grew out anew, as if the cut had never been made and there wasn¡¯t a pair of legs lying on the ground only a few steps away. While the exact regenerative abilities were impressive and rather daunting, seeing as this meant that the Vibrant Phoenix would have to be finished off in one strike, just as the Titanic Demolisher had been earlier, but Wei Yi saw this as more of an opportunity.


    After all, the physique energy in the cut-off legs was still present, and it also filled the new pair that had grown back onto the Vibrant Phoenix¡¯s body. Since it was apparently so easy to regrow limbs with such a technique, did it not mean that she had a plentiful supply of power just waiting for her to take it?


    ¡®But before that, I sense another physique ability awakening!¡¯ she smiled as her True Ascendant energy surged out once more, flying out of her body and forming an enormous phantom behind her that mimicked the terrifying visage present at all times within her mental domain and killing intent.


    Just as the poor Phoenix recovered, she grabbed it with the phantom limb ¨C her powerful physique energy allowing her to move the phantom form without needing it to mimic her actual movements, albeit it couldn¡¯t quite rid her of the entire delay ¨C and threw her on the ground next to her before stomping down with the Violet Kick to instantly sever the flaming bird¡¯s arm from her body while also draining it and the legs of the physique energy that they held.


    ¡°You- For the Lustful Warlord!¡± the Vibrant Phoenix suddenly exclaimed, her entire body igniting in a brilliant white flame.


    From the movement of energy within her, as well as the words spoken, Wei Yi understood her intentions and was forced to abandon her plan of farming for sufficient physique energy to activate the Vibrant Phoenix physique ability. Instead, she warped one step and kicked the glowing body over the enormous abyss.


    Clearly, the physique cultivators on that side also understood what was about to happen, as they did their best to scatter before the imminent explosion.


    Only a breath away from landing on the other side, the Vibrant Phoenix shut her eyes one last time and burst into an enormous ball of flame, exploding with enough force to knock the weakest hatred avatars on the other side of the abyss off their feet. The physique cultivators, although more powerful due to their persistent improvement of their own bodies, fared significantly worse, with several being scorched and disfigured in the explosion of flame.


    Nevertheless, when they recovered ¨C and they did so quickly, owing to their clear lack of the sensation of pain, amongst other things ¨C they immediately pulled out strange bows, seemingly made of stone and dirt, nocking arrows of a similar appearance with a clear lack of grace and precision.


    They fired them quickly, without any order or strategy, and did so directly at Wei Yi, in such a fashion that if she was to dodge, she would allow for everyone standing behind her to be impaled by countless projectiles. Even though such weaponry shouldn¡¯t be able to pose a threat to her, she wasn¡¯t stupid enough to simply allow them to strike her, for there were many odd and astounding physiques in the world that could empower ordinary weaponry or create all sorts of equipment from naught but dust, yet match low-grade artefacts.


    Amongst the most powerful of the latter type of physique was the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique, and although it was graded as only a greater physique, in the hands of a physique cultivator with physique energy, it was bound to be significantly more dangerous.


    She met the arrows with another wave of Dawn Flowing Light, but her eyes widened involuntarily when she saw that the arrows didn¡¯t just penetrate the wave, but also continued to fly with the same speed, landing on her body in a hail of projectiles. Furthermore, while some bounced off due to poor aim or broke upon impact, almost a dozen of the arrows actually pierced the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival and even managed to penetrate her skin, with three getting far enough into her body to not fall off simply due to her breathing.


    When she tore them out and inspected one, it proved one thing to her.


    ¡®They do have someone with the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique, and at a high realm, too. I must have it!¡¯ Wei Yi decided instantly, for the benefits that it would bring her simply couldn¡¯t be ignored.


    Thus, before the physique cultivators had the chance to prepare another volley, she looked carefully into the mass of intruders that had gathered on the other side of the abyss and found her target ¨C a man, clothed in robes, that was holding a stone and reshaping it into another arrow, like the rock was fluid in his hands.


    ¡®Since I¡¯ve used a sort of Elysian Demonic Ire once, I might as well do so again, and properly.¡¯


    Without making any obvious gestures or movements, she drew a path between herself and the other side of the former bridge using the killing intent that she had recovered since the usage of Dragon¡¯s Wrath, while also preparing for the second series of shots.


    The latter came before the former could be completed, and it looked like these particular physique cultivators were fast learners. Their arrows carried more force, flew faster, were aimed more precisely and used some semblance of timing to coordinate an attack that was more difficult to deal with than before.


    ¡®I¡¯ll have to take this one as well, but I hope that the hatred avatars are interpreting this the right way,¡¯ she thought, deciding against using Dawn Flowing Light in a wiser way to minimise her injuries.


    Again, the arrows pierced the simple wave of dawn light and struck her body, with the majority piercing the Crimson Robes and the majority of those also penetrating her skin, with one successfully landing on the same spot on her body as one of the previous arrows and getting further into her flesh, as she had not had the time to recover from the wound completely. Wei Yi tore all of these arrows out once more, then, without a warning, suddenly pulled on an invisible thread and jumped.


    Naturally, this thread was attached to the pathway made through Direct Movement, and with it, she was able to cross the enormous gap in a single breath, landing with enough force to push several fighters over the edge with the shockwave of the impact alone.


    Before the invaders had a chance to strike at her with their various weapons and methods, she brought her hands apart and floated into the air, the aura of sunlight surrounding her. The Sun¡¯s Regalia lit up on her chest, the veil of Grim Mortality covered from further harm, and a burst of physique energy emerged from her, striking the ground in a large circle around her. Every single physique cultivator within that circle felt a sudden sensation of dread, as if some unbeatable predator had cornered them and they had no chance of fighting back.


    When the first set of bolts burst out of Wei Yi¡¯s body and struck a dozen of them, tearing enormous holes within their bodies and bringing back the physique energy from them back towards her, they understood this feeling well, and it only got worse as every series of bolts seemed to spawn another, smaller circle, which slowly closed in on her position.


    As the last circle formed and the entirety of the physique energy deposited within the circles flew out and into Wei Yi¡¯s hands, they wished that they had run, or not bothered to come here.


    Unfortunately for them, not only was it too late for the survivors, but even those that had chosen to flee, like the cultivator of Shaper¡¯s Grasp, had not yet seen the worst that she had to offer. The gathered energy was pulled into one spot between her hands, and as she closed them around it and then released it in the shape of a single, powerful burst of a beam, it shot out at the walls above the many passages that headed towards Automaton Point.


    The bright energy struck the stone and exploded, shattering the stone and causing countless shards of rock to burst out of the explosion and impale dozens of physique cultivators through pure collateral damage. A second later, the top of all of the tunnels leading out of Automaton Point cracked and crumbled, collapsing downwards and crushing several of the physique cultivators that had been heading through them. The collapsing rocks also fell down upon many invaders on their side of the passages, several large stone falling into the abyss below.


    One of the few that survived was the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique cultivator, who willed the terrain around him to transform into walls that would then divert the falling stones away from him. When he noticed Wei Yi¡¯s gaze on him, he instantly grabbed a stone from the ground and began to shape it.


    ¡®Don¡¯t even think about it!¡¯ she formed a Living Spear with spiritual will and imbued it with spear light through the Terror Arts, throwing it at the intruder just as he completed creating his own weapon.


    Clearly, he had been observing her previous fights with others on his side and thus knew that her attacks needed to be evaded no matter what, or else they would just destroy his skull and leave him at the mercy of whatever it was that she did to their energies, making him leap out of the way of the spear as early as he could. He then prepared to rush forward, intending to pierce Wei Yi¡¯s eyes with his weapon to end her quickly, but he suddenly found that he could not, as if he was being restrained by some kind of rope or thread.


    His vision, which had previously been as clear as ever, was suddenly filled with a strange mist that seemed to exist within his eyes rather than outside, and he felt his mind grind to a halt. All ideas of moving, attacking or even evading faded from existence, leaving behind only the mist.


    Wei Yi approached him easily and cut off his head in one swing of a Frayed Blade, simultaneously severing the spiritual will thread that she had sent into it.


    ¡®This man should have enough energy to provide me with the full Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique, and if all of his allies that I¡¯ve slain today were to be combined, that would mean that I have acquired parts of, or the entirety of the Lion¡¯s Roar, Mystical Bridge, Existence Trace, Aerial Foothold, Cleaving Axe, Titanic Demolisher, Shaper¡¯s Grasp, Vibrant Phoenix, Humanity Lance, Rapid Existence and even the Pyromaniac¡¯s Coat, which is essentially the inferior version of the Vibrant Phoenix physique, granting some resistance to flame and greater abilities while in it¡­¡¯ she counted every single physique that she had gained as she finished absorbing the energy from the Shaper¡¯s Grasp cultivator, ¡®It is this particular physique that is most important, however, as it will allow me to bypass my weakness with blacksmithing.¡¯


    The ground beneath her feet trembled, prompting her to return to the other side of the abyss quickly.


    Just as she made it back, the cliff finally crumbled and collapsed into the void, all of the bodies that did not burn from her physique energy falling alongside the rock and disappearing from sight, though no sound was heard from below upon their fall. It seemed like the abyss was either bottomless, or so deep that there was no reason to not label it as such anyway.


    She approached the hatred avatars, intentionally allowing blood to flow from two of the wounds on her body while preventing the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival from repairing itself, and spoke while breathing heavily, ¡°That should be it, for now.¡±


    The avatars stood in silence, stunned both by the prowess of this one human and by the fact that she had just survived several dozen arrows being shot directly into her, when they heard shouting from the depths of Automaton Point. They turned to look towards it, willing their amalgam automatons to change positions as to best guard them from whatever this other threat was, and saw a lone hatred avatar, looking much like a human in almost every way, running in their direction.


    ¡°Fen Fang has been killed!¡±

 V2C46: Bringer of Miracles

    Min Lian shouted as loudly as she could, combining the informative nature of her words with a slight sense of panic, causing her to be believed immediately, especially once they realised her identity.


    ¡°What happened? Who did this?¡± the avatars asked the second that she had gotten closer, although their words were hardly that unified and consisted of these questions being spoken in all sorts of different ways and with many different words.


    ¡°A man with a human physique. He wielded flame and burned his corpse to the bone!¡±


    This made them believe her even more, for they had just witnessed one of the invader being transformed partially into an ancient phoenix and thus knew that the enemy had abilities of this nature.  They unconsciously ignored the Dragon¡¯s Wrath, executed right before them by Wei Yi, as being a tool available for the potential culprit, for it was well known to all that hatred automatons, and, conversely, hatred avatars, could not cultivate physique energy at all, and that using killing intent would destroy their resonance with the group.


    Since Min Lian¡¯s, or, in their eyes, Lin Qi¡¯s resonance remained, how could she possibly wield great power and turn against her own kind?


    Before any complicated questions could be raised, Wei Yi stepped through the crowd and asked, ¡°The physique cultivator, where did he go? Is anyone else here, or the other parts of Automaton Point, still at risk?¡±


    ¡°He disappeared, but I think that he might be going towards the other leaders!¡± Min Lian answered, before her expression turned resolute, ¡°Everyone, we cannot let this human faction attack us without any repercussions! As Fen Fang is dead, I wish to suggest myself for his position. Thanks to Wei Yi¡¯s abilities, I am able to speak without any difficulties, and I will be the best for communicating with others.¡±


    ¡°That makes sense,¡± some said, seeing no reason not to permit her the mostly meaningless position, but others caught the small detail in her words, ¡°What was the human able to do?¡±


    ¡°I have found out how to repair your bodies and minds, as well as providing you with a constant field of killing intent that can be maintained even in places where the Beast¡¯s energies are not present,¡± Wei Yi answered on her own, looking towards the avatars that had suffered during the battle and now lay on the ground, ¡°If you grant me permission, I can show this to you on the injured, and then follow you to the other parts of Automaton Point to protect you.¡±


    Their decision was quick and unanimous, allowing her to approach the broken hatred avatars without any obstructions, only under the careful watch of every avatar present, including Min Lian, who played her role perfectly. Wei Yi knelt in between the injured, focused her killing intent, and spread out her field of stable energy.


    ¡°This may bring you some pain or discomfort, but I recommend that no-one interferes, or else the lives of your friends may be lost,¡± she warned those who were more suspicious of her than the rest, then broke the pages of killing intent stored within her mental domain, flooding each avatar with them.


    Unlike her first attempt with Min Lian, she was now a little more familiar with the process, and thus blocked their nerves and throats immediately, applying some minor pressure to their bodies and faces to prevent them from showing the true extent of their suffering. In addition, she used her own killing intent to negate any fluctuations within the resonance of the hatred avatars, further dis-incentivising the gathered crowd from interfering in the process.


    As before, when their skin began to return and their eyes slowly changed to normal, she also found their killing intent structures appearing within their hearts, heads and, in the case of one female avatar, within her abdomen. They were varied and rather curious to witness after seeing so many using the same fifteen techniques over and over again, so she gathered everything she could about their techniques while attempting to reconnect the threads of memory within their heads. To prevent a similar situation to Min Lian occurring to them ¨C as she still had no idea why it happened, and seeing everyone she healed suddenly bowing down to her would be rather strange ¨C she was incredibly careful in doing this, limiting her actions to the absolute minimum.


    Compared to her first attempt, which took several hours, this one only took up one, at the end of which all of the hatred injured avatars were restored to their living forms.


    ¡°How is this possible?¡± asked someone from the crowd, and the rest nodded.


    Such a thing was comparable to bringing the dead back to life without a single flaw, with all of their memories intact, and was considered to be one of the most desired techniques of them all, for almost all had someone that they wished to resurrect. Of course, to bring a hatred avatar back to human form was less significant, but it still astounded a secluded society that knew little of cultivation to begin with.


    ¡°We¡­ We¡¯re alive again?¡± the one female hatred avatar muttered, noticing both her pristine, new pale skin and the return of her killing intent, but even when she understood that she was mistaken, she stood up and bowed to Wei Yi, ¡°Thank you so much for healing us, human!¡±


    ¡°Yes, thank you!¡± the other four, all of whom were men, also bowed to her.


    ¡°Please, there¡¯s no time for this. My work has taken a lot of time while Fen Fang¡¯s killer is still out there, potentially heading to other settlements. We must go immediately,¡± Wei Yi stopped them, putting on the fa?ade of some kind of heroic figure while simultaneously studying the bodies of the other hatred avatars to see whether it would be possible to learn of their techniques without needing to support them with her energy.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, although the killer likely doesn¡¯t know our passages and tunnels well, he still has an enormous lead. If we are to prevent further deaths, we should go this very second,¡± Min Lian nodded, turning to the other avatars, ¡°Hurry and take different paths! I shall bring Wei Yi through them myself.¡±


    There was no questioning of her instructions, and so the hatred avatars rushed off into the distance, leaving their new leader and Wei Yi on their own.


    Once they were far enough away, Min Lian turned towards her and bowed.


    ¡°I have done as you commanded, Master. Fen Fang looks like he has been attacked by a physique cultivator, and there are no methods known to me that can distinguish between my flame and that of physique energy. Even if they are suspicious of our actions, they will have nothing but that,¡± she said, ¡°Do you wish me to do this to the other leaders, or do you have different intentions?¡±


    ¡°For now, we shouldn¡¯t aggravate them further. Bring me through to the other parts of Automaton Point and share the location of all of the other passages while we are travelling. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°Of course, Master. Please, come with me,¡± the assassin nodded.


    She brought her to one of the many residences within the walls of the cave, where a small tunnel was partially hidden behind a large bookcase with nothing inside it. They stepped inside and then began to sprint at the fastest speed the assassin was capable of, which was still significantly higher than the typical running speed of most ordinary people, and, by extension, the hatred avatars, who had the advantage of having infinite stamina but no particular power within their ancient muscles.


    According to the memories Min Lian retained from her life as Liu Qi, there were a total of four parts to Automaton Point, each one having one speaker to coordinate things and to ensure smooth communication between them. Out of all four, the one previously led by Fen Fang was the lowest and deepest portion of the settlement, and it was connected to the other three via a complex network of underground passages dug by the amalgam automatons in such a way that no ordinary person without a map could navigate them without dying of exhaustion. Meanwhile, the hatred avatars could use their natural sensitivity to killing intent and their resonance with their peers to get a better idea of where to go and have no risk of dying due to the lacking air beneath the ground.


    If the lowest part was to now be called Min Lian¡¯s quarter, then there would also be Qi Zhou Zan¡¯s quarter, Yawen Yazhu¡¯s quarter and Ya¡¯s quarter, in the ascending order of depth.


    Qi Zhou Zan¡¯s part of the settlement was slightly higher than Min Lian¡¯s, containing roughly the same number of avatars and occupying a similar natural underground cave to the latter, but the leader was even less involved in things than Fen Fang had been. All she did was ask the most human-looking of the quarter¡¯s avatars to occasionally serve her to capture some basic sense of nobility.


    Yawen Yazhu was a man that was significantly more involved in matters than the previous two, and resided in an artificial cave dug out by countless amalgam automatons despite the fact that the population of the third quarter was lesser than the other two combined.


    Finally, their current destination was the fourth quarter, managed by Ya, an ambiguous figure that, a little like the Master of Yi City, was apparently called both a man and a woman while lacking the distinctive features of both due to their state of decay leaving their outer body with few humanoid features. However, their internal organs had survived in a significantly better state, and thus they had a clear voice that made them the perfect candidate for the position of speaker. Their approach to leadership was mostly similar to Yawen Yazhu, although they only had a small team following their orders while the rest were free to live as they wanted.


    The fourth quarter was close enough to the surface to occasionally catch glimpses of the sky, with parts of the cave being artificial and others being entirely natural. Unlike the other three quarters, everyone resided in proper homes and residences, which was somewhat impressive as the population of the fourth quarter was twice as high as the rest of the quarters combined.


    This made things a little more complicated. If all quarters had the exact same approach to leadership as Fen Fang, then killing the leaders and simply converting someone vocal to her side would be enough to gain their support and get the ability to bring them to Beast¡¯s Rest and convert them into permanent forces of the town and of her faction. However, when it came to the two stricter leaders, if they were to suddenly perish, even if it was believed that it was done by some intruding enemy, those who served under them would be unlikely to recruit a random individual to be their leader.


    Even if Wei Yi could convert one of them to her side, the other avatars of importance might still be unlikely to follow them out of Automaton Point without the right and intense stimulus being applied.


    ¡®In that case, I can just bring the invasion to them, can¡¯t I? That Lustful Warlord seems to have been someone important, and I can still sense more forces coming through the field of stable killing intent that I had left behind ¨C which I should collect now, just in case I need to heal more hatred avatars ¨C so if they were to invade all quarters and pose a significant threat even with the various means the avatars have to protect themselves, they might be open to going to the home of the only person that has the genuine ability to fight off the physique cultivating invaders,¡¯ Wei Yi considered once Min Lian finished her explanation, stretching a little when the third stage physique energy finally stabilised within her body, ¡®Even if I cannot control the minds of most people that I heal, this Ya should still be inclined to support me if I heal their form.¡¯


    ¡°Master, we will soon approach the others. I will return to my fake identity,¡± Min Lian warned.


    ¡°Go on. When we get to Ya, or whoever we will meet in their stead, appeal to the threat of the invaders and the fact that I was the only one capable of fighting them off. If you could suggest moving elsewhere, perhaps behind the walls of other capable humans, without outright saying it, then do so,¡± commanded Wei Yi, turning to the side and drawing a small symbol on the wall.


    One of the easiest ways to explain the true extent of a threat was to lead that threat all the way to someone, and if her intuition was accurate, then they were only able to find their way here through the previous random symbols she had left behind.


    Min Lian nodded and slowed down to seem more ordinary, catching up to the hatred avatars and melting into the crowd alongside Wei Yi, slowly making their way towards the front of the line as was only suitable for the leader of the group. Like this, they continued walking and traversing the tunnels, with the rare and occasional stops to confirm that they were heading in the right direction, as even the avatars didn¡¯t have a perfect understanding of the countless tunnels.


    Almost half an hour later, they finally got close enough to the fourth quarter of Automaton Point for Wei Yi to sense the various resonances of killing intent with her own spiritual perception.


    There were just as many entrances to the cave, but unlike the singular guard of Min Lian¡¯s quarter that sat by and stroked various amalgam automatons, this one had a guard for every three or four exits, with each one having one automaton by their side. Also unlike the first quarter, their automatons weren¡¯t only of the amalgam variation, with several animalistic and humanoid ones standing by the guards.


    When they emerged, these guards did not react either to Min Lian or to Wei Yi, perhaps having seen humans more commonly in this part of Automaton Point, but as more and more avatars emerged, they looked at one another in confusion before one of them ran off.


    The others approached them, with one of them asking, ¡°What is happening? Why have you all come here?¡±


    ¡°There has been a major invasion on our quarter. Fen Fang was killed, I have taken his position, and we nearly suffered extreme losses but were saved by this human,¡± Min Lian summarised things quickly to the guards before looking in the direction of the largest, most grand residence in the entire cave, ¡°May we go to Ya and inform them about the threat?¡±


    ¡°How many invaders are there?¡± the guard asked, not providing them with an answer yet.


    ¡°We suspect that there may be more, but the first major wave that we witnessed contained around fifty powerful physique cultivators from the surface,¡± she answered, ¡°I heard one of them speaking of a warlord, so it is possible that they were here under the orders of a major leader.¡±


    ¡°Fifty¡­ This human was the one that defeated them?¡±


    ¡°I did, yes. You could just ask me, you know?¡± Wei Yi stepped in, pretending to be bothered by the way in which the guard refused to speak to her directly, only glancing at her in slight suspicion instead.


    ¡°Did you? Did you also lure them here when you were unable to deal with whatever it was that you did to annoy the warlord? Don¡¯t expect a warm welcome from us just because you didn¡¯t immediately flee the scene!¡±


    ¡°Excu-¡±


    ¡°By the resonance, what are you saying? Look at her? Not only did she remain and singlehandedly handle everyone that was attacking us, but she stood directly in the line of fire of countless arrows to prevent any of us from being hurt, then healed those of us that were wounded! What kind of fucking moron would she have to be to do all of these things?¡± before Wei Yi could say anything, Min Lian burst out with righteous indignation, almost as if she had been there while the arrows were piercing her body and was now disgusted by her treatment, ¡°She can restore us to our original states, and she hasn¡¯t asked for any kind of reward!¡±


    ¡®Right, I forgot about that. I could have gotten a lot out of these avatars¡­¡¯


    ¡°What did you just say? Restoring your states? You¡­¡±


    ¡°Master Ya has said¡­ that they want to see you! Stop your chatter¡­ and come¡­ immediately!¡± the other guard that had run off came back with impressive speed, interrupting the question and grabbing one of the hatred avatars by the arm, ¡°Move!¡±


    This was an incredibly forceful move, but it was to the benefit of Wei Yi and Min Lian, so they instantly went along with it and allowed their entire congregation to be dragged towards the large building owned by Ya, the speaker. Exactly as they had guessed, it was the largest building in the cave, with three floors that almost resembled the Ancestral Hall of the Yi District, albeit without all of the immortal gold that always decorated it.


    Even the front doors to which they were led were decorated to the absolute extreme. Every single millimetre was filled to the brim with detail, all kinds of images, shapes and creatures dancing around the wooden doors, with a few small parts of it featuring rather explicit imagery of the reproductive cycle in many forms.


    ¡®The perversion of the world extends to the hatred avatars too, then. I have to say, it would be far more pleasant if the one who owned this door wasn¡¯t said to be a large mass of human-shaped flesh, but I suppose that isn¡¯t their fault,¡¯ Wei Yi commented to herself, looking away once she realised how much attention she was paying to these things as of late, ¡®This isn¡¯t necessarily a problem, but it might mean that my body and mind have decided that lust is more than a means to deal with stress to me¡­ With two very willing subjects in Beast¡¯s Rest, I suppose I might as well experiment¡­¡¯


    At the door, the guard stopped everyone but her, Min Lian and two of the fastest hatred avatars, with the rest being made to wait near the door.


    They were brought towards the central staircase of the residence, then up to the third floor and back towards the front side of the structure, into a room that had an enormous window that would have lit it up entirely if there was any kind of sunlight in the prison realm.


    One armchair stood in front of the window, and five more were placed around a low table in the middle of the room, with a bowl and plate of wood and stone carved to resemble fruit, vegetables and meat together in a satisfying and filling meal. There were even two cups made of incredibly thin wood that contained fake liquid made out of a particular type of stone to fake the appearance of tea or fruit juices.


    Clearly, Ya missed their former life greatly, and did whatever they could to reclaim parts of it.


    ¡°Master Ya¡­ we¡¯ve brought them over¡­¡± the guard said, nudging them all into the room before shutting the door behind them according to some common protocol.


    Based on where the guard was looking, it appeared that Ya was sitting in the armchair that had its back facing towards them, but even a few minutes of waiting did not result in any kind of acknowledgement from them.


    Min Lian and Wei Yi shared a glance, then the former stepped forward, bowing slightly as she said, ¡°Ya, I-¡±


    ¡°New speaker of the first quarter? Could I speak with your new human ally alone?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ C-Certainly. I will stand outside and wait¡­ for my turn, I guess¡­¡± Min Lian said, her voice full of genuine confusion. Of all the things that they had expected, it was not for the speaker of the fourth quarter to address Wei Yi directly.


    When she and the other hatred avatars left the room, the figure sitting in the armchair finally stood up and showed themselves to her. Ya turned out to be exactly as they were described, with only the barest of human features and resemblance. They had a head, arms, hands, legs, feet and a body, but if they were to be taken apart, no-one would ever recognise what part of the body they belonged to, for even the face only had two slight indentations that might resemble eyes.


    ¡°Hello. Could we get directly to the point?¡±


    ¡°If you prefer. I heard your conversation outside. I need to know if you can restore my state.¡±


    Oculus


    On another note, I have around 150 pages (of 3550~) left to check in Path of the Ascendant, then I will be able to devote my attention to IWCAD. I have completed a significant amount of preparatory work for that book already, including a bunch of signature techniques for nearly every major faction, most elements and archetypes. I''ve also written the prologue already, and will work on an outline of events for the story after I''m finished with the other stuff. Can''t promise how long that will take, unfortunately.


    This might be interrupted at one point, as I will have to move within the month, but it shouldn''t waste more than a day or two.

 V2C47: The Invasion Continues, Part 1

    ¡°Restore your state? Well, since you¡¯ve heard me already, I have to assume that there is a reason why you doubt my abilities. Is there something different about you?¡±


    Ya nodded, ¡°You¡¯re astute. The avatars that I have seen so far do appear to be in a far better state than anyone I was aware of, meaning that there has to be some truth to what I¡¯ve heard about you, but I must know whether your abilities extend only to humans, or if you can go beyond that.¡±


    ¡°Once again, your words imply much. Based on your doors and general appreciation of human life, you are the one that needs my abilities, but now you¡¯re wondering whether I can influence non-humans¡­ I have a few theories about you, and I can either present them to you, or you could just tell me the answer and let me diagnose the situation,¡± Wei Yi said, briefly examining the figure¡¯s body before her eyes froze on an amulet around his neck, ¡°Actually, before you decide, tell me about that thing. Where did you get it?¡±


    ¡°Is it of some value to humans like you?¡± Ya wondered, glancing down at the wooden amulet.


    It was the size of a common human thumb and shaped like a nude female figure, with one arm tactfully obscuring the nipples while the other hand concealed the crotch. Long, flowing hair seemed to actively pour from the figure¡¯s head, covering much of its back, but did nothing to hide the incredible detail in the face and body that rivalled real people despite the small scale of the object, not to mention the potential age of this item.


    ¡°That is not relevant. I would like to know what it is and where you were able to find,¡± she did not answer, scanning the object with spiritual perception the very second that she noticed something unusual about it.


    ¡°Do humans typically not respect their leaders?¡±


    ¡°It depends, really. When someone else¡¯s leader is practically begging you for help, I think that I have the leeway to speak however I want.¡±


    They shrugged, ¡°Perhaps. I obtained the amulet from a battlefield when I first awoke. It reminded me of my mortal past, of the sensations and pleasures that could no longer be felt no matter what is done to this body¡­ Still, I have been unable to understand anything about it since, and so I would prefer to know if I have uncovered something of interest to you or me.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t confirm that yet. All I know is that it is an artefact of some kind, an ancient and possibly powerful one,¡± Wei Yi said, skipping over the true reason for her interest, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind giving it to me for a few weeks so that I can experiment and examine it, I may be able to tell you more.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I can provide it to you as payment for your services, since I remember enough of humanity to know that few people do things for free. As for your other question, I would be interested in hearing your theories, whatever they may be.¡±


    ¡°Alright, since you asked for it, I will give you what you want. Have you, by chance, attempted to absorb the blood of an ancient beast while you were still alive, following the example of the Lady of Ashes, or were you even more insane and attempted to outright implant the organ of an ancient beast into your own living body without any suitable preparation for it?¡±


    Ya¡¯s eyes widened ¨C only slightly, but visibly and noticeably ¨C and they remained quiet for a while.


    ¡°You were close¡­ closer than I had expected. Perhaps something of the sort did occur, but it did not occur to me.¡±


    ¡°Not to- so, you were born as a result of someone who had done this and somehow managed to either impregnate a woman prior to their imminent demise, or to a woman who had been afflicted with the blood of an ancient creature late into her pregnancy and thus her child was not immediately killed due to the transformation of the body, but was instead born malformed and broken?¡± she raised an eyebrow, as she did not expect either of those to occur anywhere in the Planar Continents.


    Despite her expectations, the hatred avatar nodded, ¡°Close again. According to my memories, my mother had participated in some experiment. It did not seem to affect her directly, but her child ¨C me, of course ¨C was. However, the differences from normal humans were slight, until I perished in the prison realm.¡±


    ¡°At that point, whatever balance the human and ancient blood achieved must have finally been broken, destroying your external form while maintaining your internal one.¡±


    ¡°Possibly. So, are you able to correct this?¡±


    Although Ya¡¯s expression was still rather blank due to the absolute lack of obvious facial features, the desperation and need for an affirmative answer was incredibly obvious, almost turning into a kind of spiritual will as it reached her regardless of physical features.


    ¡®I don¡¯t think I have any reason to refuse. So far as I am aware, I could even attempt to restore an amalgam automaton ¨C I wouldn¡¯t touch their minds or memories, since I cannot imagine that any part of them would be happy with their current state ¨C so some mixed blood shouldn¡¯t stifle me too much. If I succeed, all I need to do is mention the brothels of Beast¡¯s Rest and they should be on my side right away¡­ From there, getting Qi Zhou Zan and Yawen Yazhu on my side should be significantly easier as well, for they will be facing the insistence of two leaders at the same time,¡¯ Wei Yi took a second to contemplate before preparing to give them the answer they desired.


    At that very moment, one of the guards that had stood at the entrances to the fourth quarter suddenly appeared outside, knocking on the door loudly.


    ¡°Master Ya, there are reports of an invasion at the third quarter!¡±


    Before Ya could even react, a second guard rushed in and did the same, yelling, ¡°Second quarter¡­ is under attack! Human men and women¡­ with mystical abilities are attempting¡­ to slaughter us all¡­ while yelling ¡®For the Lustful Warlord!¡¯¡±


    Both of them stopped when they realised that they were delivering almost the same report, except for a different part of Automaton Point. Technically, for those living in the prison realm, such things shouldn¡¯t be at all uncommon, and yet the hatred avatars had lived in peace for a little too long, and any encounters they might have had with wars or battles were likely with weaker forces that they were currently facing, causing them to be unprepared for such an invasion.


    Their only means of defence were the plentiful amalgam automatons, but those were only ever useful against foes with lacking strength ¨C something that never applied to physique cultivators.


    ¡°Remember when I said that you were begging me for help? Here¡¯s the second reason for me saying that,¡± Wei Yi commented, glancing out of the enormous window to see several small groups of hatred avatars slowly rushing through the quarter and towards Ya¡¯s residence, ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly how large the invading forces are, but I can tell you that so long as two of them ¨C one per each one of your quarters ¨C possesses a powerful greater or absolute combat physique, your people will not stand a chance. Furthermore, I highly doubt that this group is the full extent of the forces that serve the Lustful Warlord, so even if you were to defeat this lot, with or without my help, they would come for you again. One of them is bound to have some method of sending information back to their capital, after all, so they would know more about you the next time they come.¡±


    ¡°I sense an implication in your words as well. If we do not remain here, then where would we go?¡± Ya asked, looking at her in what was likely suspicion.


    ¡°That¡¯s simple. Beast¡¯s Rest is expanding and is looking to hold the entirety of this side of the prison realm is just two years. While there, all hatred avatars could be healed, their resonance with the amalgam automatons can be put to work, and in exchange, no-one from the Great Bone Lake will ever bother you again.¡±


    ¡°With the way you speak, I am inclined to agree with my guards at the tunnels.¡±


    Wei Yi shook her head, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be. I am not responsible for this invasion, nor do I have the ability to make them stop even if I was.¡±


    ¡°What about the process of physical restoration? Should it not provide me with greater strength?¡±


    ¡°It most likely would, especially if you had some form of a cultivation before becoming a hatred avatar. However, unless you¡¯re the equivalent of one of the Greats in terms of power, forget about winning this battle singlehandedly,¡± she said, adding, ¡°That, and it will take me around an hour if there are no complications. By that time, even if you emerge victorious, there would be no reason to bother with fighting to begin with.¡±


    ¡°And are you one of the Greats? How did you defeat such a powerful threat?¡± Ya questioned, though it was clear that they had reconsidered dealing with the matter on their own.


    ¡°I can¡¯t compare with those monsters, nor with the otherworldly demons that occasionally get into this world, but I have my own methods. Most people will die if a vital organ is struck, and I can damage quite a few such organs in one go,¡± she answered with a small smile, ¡°I don¡¯t know how much control you have over the other two quarters, but it would be best if all of them headed here quickly.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re likely making their way over right now¡­ Very well. If you succeed, we will come to your Beast¡¯s Rest, though we cannot be exploited. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°Sure. Just remember, if you decide to continue on your own after you get there, you may never get the chance to walk in the Planar Continents again, while most of the people from the prison realm will leave to fight back against the Great Families. Even if your body recovers, there is much that you will not experience without others to experience it with,¡± Wei Yi told him, taking the wooden amulet from him and lightly tapping it twice, first on the chest, then on the figure¡¯s thighs.


    She turned around and left, shutting the door behind her before raising the amulet in her hand closer to her eyes.


    Although the object looked and felt ordinary, she found several unusual things about it. First of all, the features of the woman that it depicted were unusual for the Planar Continents, with a larger chest, wider hips, eyes that seemed to be larger vertically than was common, and more. While these could just be coincidences, or perhaps the creator attempting to depict their personal preference and view of beauty, the otherworldly energy surrounding it was much more difficult to explain away. It was incredibly similar to the aura of the House of Gold, and similarly to it, it was impossible to perceive it with spiritual perception.


    Even if it was just some toy to the otherworldly demons, it could prove to be incredibly beneficial.


    ¡®Now, what should I do about those invaders? With the healing I¡¯ve had to do, combined with my earlier battle, I do not have too much of my killing intent left. Physique energy is more plentiful, and regenerates more quickly from the consumption of food, so I have more of it, but it still wouldn¡¯t be enough to take down an army twice as large as the one in the first quarter without injuries. Spiritual will is in largest supply, and yet most of the more effective techniques require a long time to prepare¡­¡¯


    Her internal gaze turned to the House of Gold, which still had far too many items lying within it to be of use as a method of storage, and then entered the expansive area within it, ¡®There are a few weapons remaining here. Some of them are, supposedly, incredibly powerful¡­¡¯


    Wei Yi descended to the first floor and left the building, heading towards the passages from the second and third quarters while she was considering this.


    Under orders from Ya, relayed through the guards and the natural resonance of the hatred avatars, all of the residents from the second and third quarters poured towards the back of the fourth quarter, where they would be least likely to get involved in combat. Yawen Yazhu rushed past her at one point, or someone that greatly resembled him, though there was no trace of Qi Zhou Zan in any of the groups rushing in through the passages leading from the second quarter, suggesting her unfortunate and untimely demise.


    Some of the more able combatants stood half-way into the city, calling upon various amalgam automatons to fight alongside them, but even they were under extremely strict instructions not to intrude into the battle that would inevitably take place. If they did, they wouldn¡¯t be able to do a thing, so it was best for them to stand by and prevent any individual combatants from getting too far into the quarter.


    Naturally, her place was past all of them, at the crossroads of two paths from the second and third quarters, where the forces from both directions would be likely to meet together and decide on how they will destroy this underground city.


    By the time she arrived, she was able to see the forces of physique cultivating bandits coming through the many tunnels, wielding bright physique energy that lit their bodies like they were enormous, mostly human-shaped lanterns in the dark. Some were equipped with various kinds of weaponry, including swords, lances, spears, one or two longbows, daggers, hammers, axes, guandao and more, clearly having come with either a little more preparation than the other group, or they did not expect to be able to rely on the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique and thus needed to bring their own equipment and weaponry.


    ¡®Still, it is likely that these weapons were made by the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique, as it is unlikely that any of them would have been able to create this equipment on their own,¡¯ Wei Yi made some assumptions while continuing to browse through her selection of weaponry in the House of Gold, ¡®Now, I need something that can strengthen my limited pool of energy significantly¡­¡¯


    The barbarians did not wait for her, only accelerating when they noticed her standing on her own.


    Even if there were any kinds of mounts in the Great Bone Lake, these particular physique cultivators obviously did not need them. Just by sprinting, they travelled at the speed of an excellent mount, and the enormous distance between the entrances to the quarter and the fork in the road that she stood on was crossed in a matter of minutes, with every single one of them charging directly at her, preparing various moves to strike at her.


    ¡®What in the heavens does ¡®Scales with player level¡¯ mean? Does this mean stage, or realm, or¡­ Eh, fuck it, this is pretty much the best I¡¯ve got in here.¡¯


    All of a sudden, she reached with her right hand into the gap between her torso and the other arm, grabbing onto something that the physique cultivators could not see. Nevertheless, those at the front of the charging crowd suddenly felt a wave of fear wash over them and stick within their hearts, despite nothing about her posture changing for several lengthy seconds.


    That all changed when they crossed some kind of invisible boundary.


    Wei Yi¡¯s head snapped upwards, as did her left arm, while the right performed a wide slash through the air. In her right hand appeared a large greatsword with a hilt and guard of gold and a blade made up of obsidian, and it was wrapped in intense and all-overpowering energy that warped the space around it. It was like sword light, killing intent, spiritual will, even planar energy all at the same time, but all that the physique cultivators were able to understand was that when she swung the blade with a single hand, it split the air before her, carving a thin line through the world that rapidly expanded in the direction of the invaders.


    Before they could blink, the cut reached them and, as if it had encountered no obstacles at all, pierced the bodies of those at the front, continuing to penetrate their forces until the sixth or seventh man.


    It was only when it was finally blocked by the bones of those intruders that the sound from the attack caught up to them. A harsh shockwave of wind and raw force struck those at the front directly, pushing their two halves back with the force of a punch at the fourth realm of planar cultivation, while those that had survived the attack itself felt their eardrums rupture from the sound and their minds shake from the extremely sudden shock.


    Somehow, what suffered even more greatly were not either one of the approaching forces, but the buildings in between them. The cut went directly through the front-most residences, with the following shockwave then shattering all of the supporting columns and causing the structures to collapse.


    No matter what the collateral damage was, the armies were stopped, for a moment. Wei Yi took advantage of the momentary pause to send out her physique energy and drain the dead bodies dry of their power while she gripped the blade in both hands and adapted a basic guard position from the Eight Great Changes.


    ¡®Sharen e Mo: Scales with player level, increases energy efficiency by 50%, increases energy regeneration by 50%... I can certainly feel the latter two, but I am still not sure about the first.¡¯


    Wei Yi watched as the two armies slowed down, desperately attempted to recover, then decided not to continue their charge as one of the largest figures amongst the crowd emerged to the front, spitting out a mouthful of blood from whatever internal damage he had managed to sustain and endure due to her earlier strike, and removed an enormous blade from his back before impaling it into the ground with a strange grin on his bearded face.


    ¡°Woman! Fight me!¡±


    ¡®Eh? Wasn¡¯t I doing that already? Why did he¡­ Anyway, here¡¯s all of my physique energy streaming to my meridians, it might be enough to activate a few more physique abilities and bring me to the next stage, as well,¡¯ she considered, silently absorbing that energy before looking into the man¡¯s eyes, ¡°I was planning on doing that already, unless you want to have a one-on-one duel?¡±


    ¡°Yes! Duel good! We¡¯ll fight together!¡± the man exclaimed, the grin growing into a gleeful smile, ¡°You and I ¨C the winner will win!¡±


    ¡°Will win¡­ The entire assault, you mean?¡±


    ¡°Yes, whole battle! Weapon on weapon, nothing other than physique, yes?¡±


    Before Wei Yi had the opportunity to answer, she felt two things directly after one another. First, her physique energy progressed to the next stage, and as that improved energy flowed to her arm and lightly touched the weapon in her hand, she heard a voice in her head, saying, ¡®Progress detected. Scanning user for weapon power adjustment¡­¡¯


    The weapon in her hand trembled lightly, but nothing other than that occurred, prompting her to momentarily ignore the matter.


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll go along with it. Are we permitted to kill one another?¡±


    ¡°Kill! Yes! Kill! Ha ha!¡± the man exclaimed, pulling his enormous blade out of the ground and raising it into the air without any difficulty at all, ¡°Glorious combat!¡±


    When his physique energy burst out of his body and also enveloped the titanic chunk of metal, Wei Yi was tempted to share in his excitement, for she recognised this kind of energy, and it was something that could further her pursuit of transferring the moves from one weapon to another.


    His physique was the Martial Aspirant, and it had one ability that was well known amongst those that studied physique cultivation within the Planar Continents: the power to use any and all cold weapons at the level of an expert within seconds of picking them up. It gave them the inherent understanding of all weaponry they got their hands on, and thus brought them significantly closer to comprehending every single combat technique that involved the usage of those same weapons.


    By the looks of it, when it was developed to the point of gaining physique energy, it could also be used to empower weaponry in some way.


    ¡°Indeed!¡± she exclaimed alongside the man, also raising her weapon, when she suddenly felt the greatsword tremble in her hands again, albeit without the same otherworldly voice in her head, ¡®There¡¯s some kind of energy originating from the blade, but it isn¡¯t offensive nor defensive. If anything, it is similar to spiritual perception¡­ I guess that scan might take a while, then.¡¯


    While they spoke, the other combatants slowly surrounded them, forming a large circle within which they could fight to their hearts content. The leader she was about to fight with, and the surviving combatants under them, seemed to have no issues with their particular arrangement, but she could distinctly sense that the other half of the encirclement was significantly less content with letting her go in the case of victory.


    ¡®I¡¯ll just have to not give them the chance to do so. Something overwhelming should suffice¡­¡¯

 V2C48: The Invasion Continues, Part 2

    Neither of them was waiting until any particular signal or indication, instead awaiting a suitable time to present itself to them and make itself known.


    Whether that would be some gust of wind, the movement of someone in the corner of their vision, or possibly even the actions of some outside forces, they somehow shared an understanding that the moment this occurred, they would engage in the most glorious form of combat imaginable to the people of the prison realm.


    Truthfully speaking, Wei Yi had two reasons for not going directly into the fight, with both of them relating to the Demon Killer, Sharen e Mo. Its acceleration of her energy regeneration meant that every second was more valuable, and the scanning process suggested that if she was able to hold off for long enough, the first effect listed within the House of Gold might finally manifest itself and clarify exactly why this weapon held a proper name while so many others were simply labelled ¡®Golden Hooped Rod¡¯ or ¡®Cleaver¡¯.


    Unfortunately for that particular plan, the aforementioned disturbance happened too early, in the form of one of the soldiers on the side coughing once and doing so surprisingly carefully for a maddened barbarian. Nonetheless, the sudden sound was practically deafening.


    The barbarian with the enormous weapon charged forward, pushing off the ground with so much force that it shattered the stone beneath his feet and launched an incredible quantity of broken fragments of rock into the air. Meanwhile, he crossed the gap between the two of them before the shards of stone even had the chance to land on the ground.


    His weapon was raised, and he swung directly downwards, taking advantage of the immense weight of the weapon to empower his already impressive might.


    As Wei Yi decided to confront the strike head-on, as it would spare her the energy that she would need to expend to evade the attack via the Lustful Warlord¡¯s physique, she felt the weapon in her hand softly rumble again, but this time she was also able to see the blade becoming slightly sharper, the obsidian growing darker, and the handle somehow becoming a little more comfortable than before, while the entire thing somehow became both lighter and heavier at the same time.


    That nearly threw off her control of the blade, but she still managed to position it correctly in time.


    Metal struck obsidian with enough force to shatter the stone they stood on, break the windows of the surviving residences around them, and the actual blow that followed pushed Wei Yi several inches into the ground.


    However, her arms and the weapon that she was forced to support with both hands survived, while the barbarian leader had clearly invested a little too much strength into his attack and was unable to react on time while Wei Yi flooded her body with the power of the Golden Form physique before lowering her weapon and stabbing the sword into the barbarian¡¯s extremely muscular chest.


    Just as she did so, the weapon once again twitched in her grip, a faint light appearing at the very tip of the obsidian blade only to be instantly covered by the warrior¡¯s flesh as it pierced it with surprising ease, stopping only when it struck his ribs. In that moment, the barbarian recovered and began to swing at her once more, so she pulled the sword out of him and disappeared to his side via the Lustful Warlord¡¯s physique, evading the horizontal slash that followed by a single breath, with only one of her hairs being caught by the blade.


    Somehow, that one red hair survived, remaining attached to her head.


    ¡®This is insane. Does every physique realm and ability somehow add endurance to my hair, even if it doesn¡¯t affect the rest of my body? How will I cut it in the future, when I want to return to a simpler hairstyle?¡¯ she wondered for a moment, the thought passing by quickly and not distracting her.


    She took advantage of her position by executing Piercing River against the back of his right leg. It dug into his muscle, but he evaded quickly, and the blade slipped out of the shallow wound.


    Although he dodged to the side and ended up having his back to her, he spun around and used the momentum to further strengthen his blow with yet another horizontal slash, showing his full range of skills and techniques as he tried to go straight for her neck, the force of the strike alone being enough to decapitate any common human, even any common physique cultivator.


    Luckily for Wei Yi, not only was she not a regular physique cultivator, but she considered that she might not even need to evade.


    ¡®The Lustful Warlord¡¯s physique might have just been the World¡¯s Echo physique, in which case, I have no need to move from my position whenever I use the ability. If I remain in place, I can just do¡­ this!¡¯ she waited for just the right moment, then activated her physique energy while focusing on her current position.


    As the blade reached her neck, her entire body flashed out of existence, reappearing the very moment that the sword passed through her. The overly wide weapon knocked some of her hair aside, and when he wanted to swing the other way, she saw her opportunity.


    Wei Yi shifted the placement of Demon Killer and, as the sword approached her again, she removed her left hand from the sword and threw it behind the brute¡¯s weapon, accelerating the weapon further and throwing his entire arm aside, a bone within his arm cracking, then she used Ember Switch to advance rapidly and used the force absorbed from his swing to further amplify her own stab towards the figure¡¯s heart.


    While the weapon headed straight forward without any interruptions, she was more focused on the people around them, especially those that were clearly preparing to attack her at the right moment, ¡®I am certain I can kill this man, regardless of what other tricks he can pull off with his physique energy, but in order to best handle such a large crowd¡­ Yes, Endless Calculation can be used, and since they appear to have very simplistic combat styles, especially if this is their best combatant with the greatest understanding of his own weapon, it can be incredibly quick and efficient.¡¯


    The weapon struck the same point on his body, digging deeper into the existing wound near his heart, but when her sword pierced his ribs, he grabbed the blade without any care for the damage that caused and forcefully pushed it away.


    Still, he lacked the same regenerative properties that Wei Yi possessed, and thus, so long as she struck him in the same spot for a third time, he would lose his heart and swiftly bleed to death.


    It was so obvious that the others noticed this as well and placed their hands on the hilts of whatever weapons they had on them, their eyes clearly looking towards the perceived weaknesses of Wei Yi¡¯s defences.


    For this reason, before the barbarian leader had the opportunity to strike back at her, she leapt into the middle of the circle and briefly slashed behind herself, utilising Defensive Blaze to form a protective barrier with her physique energy, which she then stabilised with the power of her planar anchor to prevent anyone from having the chance of approaching her from the back. Then, as the weapon in her hands trembled yet again and seemed to become even better, she decided to attempt the second of the second of the three primary Scorching Blade techniques ¨C Draconic Ember.


    She channelled her physique energy into Sharen e Mo until it was filled to the brim, exhausting almost a tenth of her total pool of energy for this endeavour. Somehow, the weapon was almost entirely hollow, lacking the typical channels for the flow of energy usually found in other artefacts, and while that meant that it had more space to contain her power and thus required more of it, it also allowed her to replicate the necessary pattern of energy for the Scorching Blade significantly more easily.


    As she rearranged the flow of physique energy, the metal slowly lit up with a warm glow, as if she had warmed it within a flame.


    Before it could become any brighter, the invading leader attacked her yet again, though this time, the concentration of physique energy within his own weapon grew and his attack seemed to be weaker, yet more calculated, as if it had reached him that she would not be defeated by any random swings or strikes.


    He struck diagonally, from top right to bottom left, and Wei Yi was forced to meet the strike with her own blade, her weapon connecting with the middle of his blade. Bright red sparks and embers exploded from the collision, flying off in the currents of the killing intent winds.


    Another blow came down upon her, then another and another, each one being blocked by a collision with the very middle of his blade and a large gust of flaming sparks in the direction of the audience.


    Within a single one of the man¡¯s breaths, he performed more than three dozen basic strikes, each one slowly pushing Wei Yi towards her own protective barrier due to their extreme might, and when he finally chose to take a breath, it was a shallow one, done only to prepare for another extreme overhead attack, his intentions of finally landing a blow on her being extremely clear.


    Although Wei Yi heard a faint ringing within her ears from all of the repeated sword blows and felt almost nothing from her arms, she had enough energy and awareness to realise that this was the perfect moment to witness exactly how effective this particular part of the technique was.


    When the blade began to descend upon her, she suddenly slashed at his weapon far earlier than the last few dozen exchanges, although she aimed for the exact same spot yet again.


    It was only at the moment of contact that the barbarian warrior understood that something was wrong. Their blades met, and yet, there was no sound fitting for such a collision, nor any of the same sparks. Instead, he saw that the very middle of his oversized weapon was as hot, if not significantly hotter than any part of Wei Yi¡¯s sword, and when she hit it, her blade cut straight through the warm metal, splitting the blade in two easily.


    Without wasting a single second, she leapt up and grabbed the severed half of the blade in her ascent, landing momentarily on the remaining half of the sword with her bare feet, using the second during which he began to lower what was left of the weapon to charge the broken shard with as many violent energies as it could possibly withstand without shattering before plunging it into his eye.


    The very next second, she leapt down and wielded Demon Killer in both hands, stabbing it into the open wound on his chest. It went straight through whatever remained of his ribs and impaled the heart in a single motion, with the enormous heat of the blade instantly evaporating any droplets of blood that landed on it. She tore the sword out of him, threw any remaining blood off with a single slashing motion, then delivered a single kick to the man¡¯s stomach to throw him out of the way and allow her to take her rightful place in the very middle of the encirclement, where more than a hundred physique cultivating barbarians were staring at her with such a large quantity of killing intent and hatred that it mixed with those of its peers and almost overpowered the Beast¡¯s own energies within the circle without a single killing intent cultivator getting involved.


    However, it was only when he landed that they threw themselves into action with one unified roar.


    She stood still for a moment as bright sunlight emerged upon her chest, a vague figure of a titan¡¯s upper half appeared behind her, a veil of Grim Mortality surrounded her and the light covering of the Concentrated Humanity appeared around her last, prompting her to turn to one point of the encirclement while the Titanic Demolisher turned in the other direction.


    Sharen e Mo trembled in her hands once more, still continuing to change and become more powerful, almost inviting the battle.


    ¡®The use of the Demonic Ire technique will not suffice here, so I might as well make full use of it.¡¯


    Wei Yi and the Titanic Demolisher phantom moved at the same time and in opposite directions, meeting the approaching waves directly with force. She began with a wide swing, the large arc being amplified significantly by the Cleaving Axe physique ability until the combination of her and the phantom¡¯s attacks covered the entire area that was not protected by the Defensive Blaze behind her, slicing right through the front lines of the attackers without any difficulty whatsoever.


    As those behind the charging waves pushed their separated allies aside and closed the gap between them and Wei Yi, it became obvious that she wouldn¡¯t be able to swing her sword around without any difficulty without opening herself to a thousand attacks of opportunity.


    Thus, she took a step back and converted all of the remaining power within the Demon Killer into the third move of the Scorching Blade ¨C Ashes¡¯ Echo.


    It was named after the person that the Scorching Blades revered and based their pursuits on, and just as the Lady of Ashes was renowned for crushing so many with her flame and ash-based techniques and style, they could transform their collected energy into an overpowering cloud of ash. It could completely block the breathing of the weak and kill them, while the strong would be confused.


    Regardless of the exact effect that would be applied to her current foes, it would still help her greatly.


    The overpowering crimson glow from the blade suddenly faded, every slight movement of it leaving behind a thick trail of ash that quickly flooded the area, at first only proving to be a slight obstruction to the physique cultivator¡¯s vision.


    However, as it built up and expanded to cover the entire area of the initial encirclement, reaching the archers in the back that were still waiting for the right time to fire and had thus not yet made an impact on the battle, Wei Yi saw several of the attackers slow down and grasp their necks, desperately trying to breathe, and failing. The others either didn¡¯t notice, or didn¡¯t care, but their behaviour had also grown a little more erratic and uncertain, losing what little cohesion they already had.


    Perhaps the only one that wasn¡¯t affected was the leader of the other half of the invading forces.


    It was yet another androgynous-looking figure ¨C Wei Yi seemed to have some fate with people like that ¨C although it was clear that they were female due to how little clothing the barbarians wore. Due to being made of more muscle than flesh, bone or fat combined, this woman was essentially the extreme of what Wei Yi could have become, with brown hair and a weaker mind.


    ¡®Still, this woman had enough sense to stand back and is currently able to ignore the ash, so she is either somewhat clever and strong or lacks the mind to experience confusion¡­¡¯ she concluded that it would be best to take the second leader down first, either to bring down morale, if they had such a concept to begin with, or to get rid of the greatest danger to her at the moment and reduce this enormous crowd down to ants that could do little more than leave a few temporary bite marks on her flesh.


    Wei Yi shifted her grip on the hilt of the blade and used Crushing Flood twice, pushing the confused forces on her sides away so that they would not intrude doing her confrontation with their leader, who was hastening straight towards her.


    After pushing straight through one of her subordinates, throwing them on the ground before walking across them as if they were some rug, the second barbarian leader drew two large axes that the regular person would not be able to wield even if they tried to lift one with both hands. She brushed the edge of one blade against the other and yelled, ¡°Bitch, die!¡±


    ¡®Do they choose leaders based on the limitations of their vocabulary?¡¯


    Wei Yi saw no reason to ask this question of the physique cultivating invader, instead taking advantage of her momentary distraction to use the World¡¯s Echo physique and appear right in front of her, further increasing the speed of her movement via Ember Switch, before following up with Piercing River.


    It was then that the voice within Demon Killer chose to reappear, speaking directly into her mental domain, ¡®Detected level over 14. Increasing the second digit by one¡­¡¯


    All of a sudden, she felt the entire structure of the weapon rearrange itself within her hands, as if it had split into many individual shards that then flipped over while still in her grasp, with the surface of the blade seemingly flipping over to show something nigh identical. More importantly than that, however, the thrust that she executed somehow gained a significant amount of force and pierced directly through the axes that were hastily raised to guard against her, stabbing into the barbarian¡¯s chest and piercing it without issue.


    The effect of the Piercing River then showed itself, exploding the remaining force of the attack within the leader and carving a heart-shaped hole within her chest, blood and pure physique energy scattering everywhere.


    Everything happened so smoothly that a part of Wei Yi was almost convinced that it was all a trick, prompting her to chop off the woman¡¯s head in one go before draining her of physique energy.


    ¡®What is this sword? What kind of power does it truly have, and why is it concealed behind some confusing label? Lastly, what does it even mean by ¡®level¡¯? None of my realms nor stages are that high ¨C the limit for all forms of cultivation being nine stages, a possibility of some of them being perfected, and nine realms ¨C and yet the scanning effect seems to continue¡­¡¯ she frowned.


    Unfortunately, she did not have much time to contemplate these matters, as her slash was amplified to such an extent by Demon Killer led to her forcefully dispersing the ashes that filled the air. As the physique cultivators came to, they saw that their leaders had both fallen, but instead of being intimidated in any way, their eyes simply became brighter and their eagerness to attack her grew stronger.


    None of them possessed particularly powerful physiques nor weapons, and thus there was only one real tactic that she could use while most of her energy was still drained: wide, powerful swings to wound or slay as many people as possible in one go.


    From afar, the hatred avatars of Automaton Point, names thusly only a day or two ago, watched as she rushed directly into the remaining forces. With every swing, she was able to significantly injure anyone within range, while those that endured to the blow to the heart, lungs or neck collapsed immediately, and this might and power impressed those who truly understood it.


    However, after the first few strikes were executed without any damage to herself, the number of physique cultivators around her slowly grew beyond what she could manage.


    At first, these wayward blows amount to little more than scratches on her cloak or otherwise perfect skin, but just as she was able to deepen a wound on the male barbarian leader with repeated strikes, so did the physique cultivators, although their efforts were likely unintentional and mostly accidental. By the time she had dispatched roughly one half of the forces that remained, there were several wounds on her face, chest, back, and even on her legs, with four of them bleeding heavily with a fluid of gold and crimson.


    The avatars could not tell exactly which of these wounds was the motivator for her sudden change in tactic, nor if they played any part at all, but after the number of foes was reduced to a certain level, she suddenly threw her arms ¨C and her physique energy ¨C outwards. The sunlight-like energy inexplicably transformed into a series of tendrils as thick as her legs which threw the warriors around her away before floating right back to her body.


    None of them had the opportunity to get back onto her feet before Wei Yi suddenly floated into the air and was surrounded by a strange crimson energy that exploded from her body, digging into the ground and carving an enormous circle around the entire invading force.


    Every few moments, several bolts of crimson spiritual will burst out of her body and struck the invaders that came closest to standing up, causing the crimson circles to appear one after another within seconds.


    When all of that power flowed back into her, she looked up at the cave ceiling and released an enormous burst of energy right into it. The beam struck the stone in an instant, exploding with enough force to push the stone ceiling upwards by an inch, before it cracked and violently fell, crumbling upon them.

 V2C49: Taking Advantage of the Situation

    ¡®Somehow, even when I am in my mental domain, the headache still reaches me¡­ At the very least I still end up being within my own mind when I fall unconscious, instead of being forced to wait it out,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she sat within the tactical wing of the Augur¡¯s Library, casually sipping on some tea that she had made after getting sufficiently bored of the extremely slow passage of time within her own mind. Unlike the drinks in the prison realm, this manifestation had taste, but it was only the memory of it, without any actual stimulation of her mental or physical taste buds.


    After the stones fell upon her, it turned out that there were a few more of them than she had originally expected, and thus the force from the drop still ended up hurting her.


    Naturally, she got away with far less injuries than any of the other physique cultivators around her, as they were either dead or about to die from internal and external bleeding, but she ended up losing her consciousness as a result.


    Unlike the time that she passed out within the Kong Holy Grounds, she was still able to sense the entirety of her own body, as well as the kinds of things that were happening to it, but going further than an inch away from her skin was impossible, even if she attempted to mobilise her spiritual perception. Even then, it still provided her with enough information to know that she had been removed from the rocks roughly fifteen minutes after they fell on her, likely owing to the amalgam automatons, and was then placed on a bed somewhere within walking distance of the battlefield, although she had no idea whether it was even indoors or not.


    She wasn¡¯t too worried about her own state, nor about her surroundings, as she could sense the fact that she would soon wake up, and thus she chose to wait for it to happen before trying to understand anything about the outcome of the battle. Hence, she sat down to drink some tea, then began to read through the various tomes in the mental library once that proved to be insufficiently entertaining.


    At the moment, the book she was reading detailed the many physique abilities that she had absorbed during and after the recent battles, with one of them being Eldritch Hold, a greater physique that was able to transform her energy into large tendrils. This wasn¡¯t a physique that she was very familiar with, but the reputation of it wasn¡¯t too good. Apparently, many of those who awakened this physique ended up using it for nefarious, lewd deeds that someone of her age was not permitted to learn about when she had first read through its description.


    Now, however, after taking a quick look at how she was able to manipulate the tendrils within her body, she was able to guess a few of the things that they could have been used for.


    ¡®I wonder, if the heavens have designed all of this, then does it mean that human lust is a direct result of their actions, or is Heaven¡¯s Will about as ignorant of this stuff as I was back in the Yi District? Frankly, I¡¯d hope for the latter, since that would mean that if I ever manage to commune with them, I wouldn¡¯t be disgusted by their very existence,¡¯ she pondered randomly before moving on within the book.


    By some coincidence, the next physique in the list happened to be the World¡¯s Echo physique, the one that she had obtained from the Lustful Warlord. Unlike the Eldritch Hold physique, it wasn¡¯t just that Wei Yi was not permitted to read most of the details about it, but that there was painfully little information to begin with. There were many different theories on the exact function and power of the physique, with some theorising that it was connected to an entirely different plane of existence while others simply suggested that the physique owner merely beseeched the heavens for safe travel ¨C which both made sense and seemed rather silly to most who heard it ¨C and the only thing that was certain was that it was an effective movement physique that could also sometimes be used to evade devastating attacks in combat.


    It was also considered a greater physique, although she personally considered it to be on a higher level than a physique that could only be used for restraining others or entertaining oneself in the case that their body was insufficient.


    Wei Yi flipped the page again, landing on the description of Shaper¡¯s Grasp.


    ¡®This might be useful for more than modifying equipment, actually. It should have the ability to shape all matter, albeit to a lesser extent, so it could be used to further improve the effects of my physique cultivation once I am able to do so,¡¯ she thought, willing a few of the books from her mental domain to appear beside her, ¡®There aren¡¯t many examples of this happening in the Planar Continents, but from what I can do from within here, it does appear to allow for this.¡¯


    Before she could flip over to the next physique in the list, she felt her mind finally expand into her body and occupy it fully.


    The moment that she could, she opened her eyes and found that she was looking up at a familiar ceiling, one that belonged to Ya¡¯s residence. She was placed on a large, king-size bed within her own Crimson Robes, although there were several bandages wrapped around the original location of the most severe wounds that had now healed.


    For some reason, Sharen e Mo lay beneath her right hand and literally nowhere else in the room, while the rest of her things remained untouched. At the moment, there was no one other than her in the room, suggesting that they either did not expect her to awake this quickly or wanted to give her some time on her own, perhaps to check her own injuries and use her own methods of healing them rather than the hatred avatars attempting to utilise their own lacking knowledge of the human body.


    This was probably for the best, as it would give them the impression that she had suffered some genuine harm during the battle, rather than being bitten by some insignificant insects.


    ¡®The moment that I stopped holding back the regeneration of my body and clothes, they recovered in the matter of minutes, so if they had taken a look at me then, instead of using bandages, they would have had a few questions for me when I woke up,¡¯ she thought, removing the unnecessary strips of fabric from her body, ¡®It also seems that my physique has broken through to the fourth stage while I slept, though my killing intent and spiritual will remain as they were before the battle. Unless I figure out some way of adapting the True Ascendant ability of absorbing energy to the other types of energy at my disposal, my physique may push far ahead of them very soon.¡¯


    After she checked her body with both her spiritual perception and hands to make sure that none of the scars had bypassed the natural regenerative properties of the Greater Shape realm, she corrected her clothing and placed the greatsword on her back before approaching the door.


    Before reaching out to open it, she felt something with her spiritual perception and paused.


    ¡°Min Lian, is there a need to be guarding my door?¡±


    ¡°Master, you suffered great harm while I stood back, contrary to what I was obligated to do as the Seventh Claw. If any further threats appeared, I had to protect you from them,¡± the assassin appeared beside the door, kneeling before her with her head lowered, ¡°I made sure to prevent any attempts at stealing your equipment, as well.¡±


    ¡°Do I have you to thank for this still being in my hand?¡± Wei Yi asked, pointing to Sharen e Mo.


    ¡°No, Master. I don¡¯t recall a single one of the avatars attempting to touch the weapon in the first place.¡±


    ¡°Is that so? Hm. I trust that you did not act like this in front of the others?¡±


    ¡°I would never be so foolish.¡±


    ¡°In that case, get back to your place amongst the hatred avatars and prepare to argue against anyone that believes that leaving Automaton Point is a bad idea.¡±


    ¡°On that topic, Master, I wish to inform you that it might be easier than you had originally expected. With the collapse of the entire cave ceiling, their location is now significantly easier to find from the surface, meaning that it is also far less safe. As such, they have absolutely no objects to leaving the moment that you are ready to guide them to Beast¡¯s Rest,¡± explained Min Lian, ¡°I cannot be sure that a repeat of the last attempt on your life won¡¯t occur, but I will be more careful in detecting poisons in the future.¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°There¡¯s no particular need for that, though I won¡¯t object.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Master. I shall do as you commanded earlier.¡±


    With that, the assassin quickly vanished, though it was still possible to track her movements if Wei Yi was to focus on the task. Even then, she was easily one of the fastest people she had met so far below the fourth realm of cultivation, excluding herself and those that were not bound by the world around them.


    After giving her a little time to get to her place, Wei Yi left the room and descended to the first floor of the building, where she found a rather dismal sight outside of the windows.


    In place of a city bustling with as much life as could be contained within the dead inhabitants of the prison realm was now a large pile of rock lit only by the bright crimson of the storm cloud-filled sky, with those that did dare to venture into the area doing so only for their most prised possessions, after which they quickly retreated. Based on their wariness, it seemed that there was a certain danger associated with traversing these ruins, perhaps due to some instability of the cave after it had been carved into by weapon and technique alike.


    This was unfortunate ¨C the fourth quarter of Automaton Point was rather pleasing to the eye, in her opinion, at least when compared to the rest of the prison realm ¨C but she would have had to endure far more damage to have a chance of keeping their city in one piece.


    As the hatred avatars didn¡¯t know that there was any chance of that happening, she wouldn¡¯t tell them.


    Currently, Ya, Min Lian and a few others were gathered in a room at the back of the building, so she figured that was where they were expecting her to be.


    They were sitting within the replica of a kitchen, which was split into two sections, one of which contained a counter with several cabinets attached to the wall while the other contained a large table. The hatred avatars sat around it on various chairs, with one empty and one occupied one clearly having been constructed on short notice. When she entered the room, Min Lian glanced back at her and switched to one of the different chairs without any comment as to allow her Master the most comfortable seat.


    ¡°Wei Yi, you have awakened,¡± Ya said, pointing towards the newly emptied chair, ¡°From what I recall, humans benefit from rest after withstanding significant injury or exhaustion, so we have gathered here.¡±


    ¡°That is indeed the case, though cultivators benefit from the ability to use their cultivated energy to make up for anything, be it energy, food, water, or whatever else you could come up with,¡± she replied, sitting down on the offered seat and noting that it was quite warm, ¡°Besides, I¡¯m probably in a better state than you imagine. Are you still intending to follow me towards Beast¡¯s Rest?¡±


    They nodded, ¡°It appears to be the best option. You might have seen the damage outside¡­¡±


    ¡°I was intending to cause a small collapse, localised on me and the invading forces, but it turned out a little bigger than expected.¡±


    ¡°The ceiling of this particular cave was rather thin, so it isn¡¯t surprising that something with that degree of power could bring it down,¡± Ya shrugged, ¡°Thus, we might as well leave. Before that, however, I have to bring up our matter once more¡­¡±


    ¡°I could do it now, or later, when I¡¯ve had the time to recover my energy. The latter would be more likely to succeed.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I expect you to remember it once we arrive to the human settlement. Are you able to guide us there?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. However, if you don¡¯t mind, I do have a slightly different idea that I would like to propose to all of you. Feel free to tell me if you think it sounds stupid or unreasonable,¡± she said, and when no-one immediately opposed her, she continued, ¡°As you know, these people have come from the Great Bone Lake, a settlement with an enormous number of physique cultivators. They are led by a number of warlords, one of whom appears to have caused this invasion. One of the best ways to end this kind of issue, in my mind, is to strike at their core. If the Great Bone Lake can be controlled by Beast¡¯s Rest, you can rest peacefully, without worrying about future invasions.¡±


    ¡°Are¡­ you proposing that we invade the Great Bone Lake?¡±


    ¡°Invade it? No, not at all. I just think that it could do with some new leadership. They seem the type to respond well to duels, so I could challenge all of the warlords at once, prove my strength, then do with it as I see fit.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± for a second, Ya was unable to reply while the other speakers didn¡¯t even know what they were discussing. When they did finally answer, they said, ¡°Does the leader of Beast¡¯s Rest really allow you to do these kinds of things? This seems extremely unreasonable, even if you are capable of one of their army leaders. The warlords are meant to have incredibly power!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know. I fought one once. He was surprisingly weak, actually, and I tend to fear many weaker opponents more than one strong one, except for when those stronger opponents are members of the Great Families¡­¡± Wei Yi paused, ¡°Anyway, my plan is entirely viable, so long as you assist me.¡±


    ¡°This seems like an unnecessary act¡­ but we could offer some support.¡±


    ¡°Perfect! In that case, gather all of the hatred avatars, as well as the, eh¡­ what do you lot call the amalgam automatons?¡±


    ¡°We did not bother with naming them. They are simply automatons, without any mind.¡±


    ¡°Then, amalgam automatons will do. Gather them and we will set out to the Great Bone Lake. In order to get the most out of all of them, here is what you need to do¡­¡±


    Several days later, a tidal wave of crimson rolled through the wastes of the prison realm.


    Countless insectoid creatures charged across the crimson, every tenth or so being ridden by a humanoid figure that blended with them due to their flesh, blood and skin colours matching. There were only a few that stood out amidst the crowd, and Wei Yi, Min Lian and the hatred avatars that the cosmic cultivator had healed earlier.


    Ya remained in their current form, as she had convinced them to wait even longer, mostly to prevent them from attempting to flee once her usefulness expired. If they attempted to do something of the sort once the Great Bone Lake was within her grasp, she would easily be able to deal with them.


    Thus, as they slowly neared the settlement, all of the speakers, old and new, went over the plan that they had been given. It was an extremely basic one, with only a few instructions, but when they realised exactly how large the Great Bone Lake was, how many people could fit inside of it, and how intensely warped the flow of killing intent was within it, they and the avatars under them began to reassess the situation and take it significantly more seriously.


    After all, they had witnessed what a small group of physique cultivators could do.


    Wei Yi, who was riding on the least unpleasant amalgam automaton that she could find, turned towards the small group of Automaton Point speakers on her side and said, ¡°Remember to act in the exact way that I described, and to control your resonance in a very specific manner, or else you lot will fuck all of this up. Also, if any of you get afraid and try to run off, I will personally make sure that I resurrect as a hatred automaton that can only think of chasing the cowards down and eating them, slowly and painfully.¡±


    ¡°You should reconsider and become an avatar instead, or else we could simply work together to control you,¡± stated Ya, mostly as a joke.


    She replied in a similar manner, ¡°If I become an avatar, I would have the chance of doing something more important, which would mean that you lot do not need to fear my undead wrath. I can¡¯t allow for something like that, can I?¡±


    ¡°No¡­ Did you not say that physique cultivators ignore killing intent?¡±


    ¡°That isn¡¯t the case. They simply aren¡¯t affected by the mental effects of it. However, when all of you are combined to generate a single field of killing intent, they will be able to tell that it differs from their own settlement, and then realise that the forces outside are powerful, even if they can¡¯t understand exactly why.¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi,¡± Min Lian entered the conversation, pretending to have casually thought of something, ¡°I appear to have regained some of my basic killing intent abilities since you healed me. If I influence the resonance, will that be detrimental to your plan?¡±


    ¡°What sorts of things can you do? If you have a method of enhancing it, then sure, go ahead.¡±


    ¡°My cultivation technique, from my human days, allows me to slightly strengthen stagnant energy with repeated heart-like beats, although it will take roughly four minutes for the effect to become significant enough for non-killing intent cultivators to be able to observe it,¡± she explained as if she hadn¡¯t already shared the entire technique manual with Wei Yi earlier, ¡°I could apply this to the resonance before it is fully expressed, if that benefits you.¡±


    Similarly, Wei Yi pretended to give it some thought before nodding, ¡°Sure, that would work. They might not immediately realise that we¡¯re here, so delay the effects of resonance.¡±


    Min Lian nodded, causing Ya to return into the conversation, ¡°We¡¯re nearing the Lake. Will you-¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± she said, ¡®It¡¯s time to conquer another city.¡¯

 V2C50: Challenging the Warlords, Part 1

    The residents of the Great Bone Lake were currently participating in their so-called morning activities, the disorganised group of berserk madmen having somehow organised a more coherent and consistent system than the killing intent cultivators of Beast¡¯s Rest.


    Unlike the typical behaviours of those in the Planar Continents, the inhabitants of the Great Bone Lake were proud of sweat, dirt and hard work, and thus their first action of the day was one that expended a great deal of energy and invigorated them for the rest of the day. Perhaps to facilitate this more easily, the majority of the physique cultivators lived in male and female pairs, with those that weren¡¯t in any particular relationships swapping every now and then to make their lives more entertaining.


    Even more interestingly, their bedrooms ¨C or whatever areas they chose to use for their morning workout ¨C were placed in areas with a similar concentration of killing intent from the Beast¡¯s bones to their most intense training areas and arenas, further increasing Wei Yi¡¯s interest in their particular culture.


    It wasn¡¯t the morning tumble that truly interested her, due to not being a voyeur, but the dedication to training their bodies and physiques that all of the Great Bone Lake¡¯s inhabitants seemed to have.


    ¡®I may need to implement this in the future Beast¡¯s Rest, so that everyone who lives within my city can become as powerful as possible ¨C once again, not the sexual elements, although if some are entertained by the intense pressure of killing intent and decide that the best way to spend their time would be to exercise a very specific set of muscles, I wouldn¡¯t stop them ¨C and if it could be moved into the future reconstruction of Yi City, to ensure that nothing like the Great Families could rise again, it would be best,¡¯ she thought, sneaking through the streets and bones while seeking out the most acoustically suitable area for her plan, ¡®I¡¯m not sure if there¡¯s an equivalent of the Beast¡¯s bones in the Planar Continents, but arrays could suffice.¡¯


    She travelled from the outer edge of the settlement, where there was no trace of a wall nor any obstacle to prevent people from entering other than the extremely jagged bones of the Beast, which had enough space in between most of them to allow for easy passage, towards the centre, as her intention was to reach as much of the city with a single shout as possible.


    With her possession of the Lion¡¯s Roar technique and physique at the same time, her voice had a significant reach, but it was still insufficient to cover the entire area of the city, and thus she needed to locate a place that would amplify her voice the most.


    Fortunately, this was made easier for her due to the particular shape of the city.


    The bones of the Beast stuck out of the ground in several circular and repeatedly growing shapes, with the largest bones being on the outside while the smallest were near the very middle, forming a small town square where the physique cultivators would occasionally gather and fight, if the many dents within the ground were to be interpreted that way. This particular layout made it so that if one was to stand in the very middle of the settlement and then yell at the top of one¡¯s lungs, it was possible to reach those points of the city that were likely to contain the warlords of the Great Bone Lake.


    Hence, that is exactly what she did.


    As the common inhabitants of the Great Bone Lake were finishing their morning activities, with some even beginning to work out to further build up their strength and utilise their cultivation techniques, they suddenly felt the walls around them tremble as a voice, both loud and powerful, actively surged into their ears.


    ¡°WARLORDS OF THE GREAT BONE LAKE, I CHALLENGE YOU!¡± the booming voice reached them and continued onwards, expanding to the very borders of the city as it shook everything in sight.


    Every one of them was forced to stop what they were doing, for no-one could focus on their basic activities when something this major ¨C a challenge that was seemingly addressed to every warlord of the Great Bone Lake, something that most of them could not remember occurring for countless years ¨C had occurred without any warning whatsoever. They could tell where the sound originated from, and thus they dropped everything they were doing and rushed towards it.


    Meanwhile, the sound finally reached the intended targets: the five warlords of the Great Bone Lake.


    ¡°WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?¡±


    One of them shouted, their voice being carried all the way through the city but at a lower volume than the initial challenge. As if to make up for that, the other responses followed.


    ¡°HAHAHAHAHA!¡± an unpleasant laugh echoed throughout the Great Bone Lake, travelling at an extreme speed and seemingly originating from a number of places, as if this particular warlord existed in several areas at once.


    From another direction, an extremely eerie and baleful sound emerged, cooling down the flames of passion within those that had kept going with their morning activities before somehow forming into  a voice, against all semblance of sense and logic that most thought that the world ought to follow, ¡°A challenger? How exciting, for a lone figure to attempt to rival the great Demonic L-¡±


    This eerie voice was interrupted by a loud howl of some kind of wolven creature. It was both the most natural of the cries so far, seeming to belong to a pure beast, and yet there was a quality of oddity within it, as if it was corrupted by some sort of vile influence. The mere sound of it could have easily broken the minds of lesser men, and even the physique cultivators, that were protected from most mental influences, felt an unpleasant sensation travelling up their spines as if they were about to be devoured by the creature that was capable of producing such a sound.


    Despite all of those responses, the first warlord that turned up was none of these four.


    Instead, it was a man with a rather average body, surrounded on either side by two pairs of other physique cultivators, with one pair being male and the other female.


    The man in the middle seemed to be unimpressive on first glance, but Wei Yi knew that this was an incorrect assumption. Whether through her spiritual perception, physique energy or the basic sensory abilities of her killing intent, she could feel an immense amount of power within him, displaying a cultivation of the third or even fourth realm of physique cultivation while his energy was dormant.


    ¡°Are you the challenger?¡± he asked, speaking slowly, ¡°You are no warlord. You cannot challenge us.¡±


    Almost immediately, another warlord rushed in, this one resembling a wolf more so than a man. He crashed onto the ground after a large leap, landing on his wolf-like legs, then stood up on his hind limbs, raising his head into the air and releasing another howl.


    ¡°You¡­ not¡­ warlord!¡± the creature stated, seeing that Wei Yi had no-one supporting her, ¡°You¡­ not¡­ worthy!¡±


    The third to arrive was a woman, riding atop some kind of violet, spectral beast formed from pure physique energy. A thin strand of energy connected the creature¡¯s head to the woman¡¯s back.


    ¡°So, you are the challenger?¡± she asked, severing the thread with her will.


    That caused the beast to suddenly turn incorporeal, allowing her to fall through it onto the ground, before it shrunk into a large ball of physique energy that then entered the warlord¡¯s back and spread into her meridians.


    ¡°I must say, you are truly unimpressive. Where is your grand army?¡± she asked, her voice still filled with that indescribable eerie dread.


    Even with three warlords, all of whom were in a similar realm of cultivation, staring down at her, Wei Yi remained silent, for she did not wish to waste her words. Furthermore, there was a certain degree of power in silence, and it allowed her to make a statement without even opening her mouth ¨C whatever her plan was, she was not afraid of them, meaning that they either didn¡¯t pose a threat, or that she had some means of circumventing it.


    The next warlord arrived several seconds later, with this one seeming to be the most ordinary of the lot. He had a body that bulged with muscle and was covered with a significant amount of hair, and his strength could be felt from every minor movement of his body.


    His vocabulary was also as one would expect from a physique cultivating barbarian, sparse and simple, ¡°Look weak! You weak!¡±


    Her next opponent entered the odd encirclement as not one, two or even three people, but as five individuals, with all of the figures moving separately and yet being connected with an invisible aura of physique energy. To the eye of a normal person, they would have seemed to be the same person, replicated four times, but through the Third Eye, the true form of the other four was revealed.


    Four of the five were made with concentrated physique energy that somehow replicated the structure of the human body with a significant degree of accuracy, with each one of them radiating a cold mist due to the yin-type nature of the figure¡¯s physique.


    The true form of this person was a woman with a cold expression, ice-blue eyes, grey hair, pale skin and a general cold presence, fitting the general stereotype of someone with the Yin Physique perfectly. However, the presence of the four fakes made it incredibly obvious that this person was not in the possession of the more common yin-type physiques, as none of the common and average physique abilities allowed for such perfect replicas.


    As far as Wei Yi could tell, this appeared to be the greater yin-type physique, Spirit Mirage. Typically, this physique would allow for the creation of one or two temporary figures that would naturally dissipate within a few minutes, but it appeared that these particular mirages had been present for a long time, with a higher quantity and greater detail than anything that could be achieved without physique energy. There was also the possibility of this being an advanced physique that had been developed beyond the initial level, reaching the Superior or Excellent Spirit Mirage stage.


    The barbarian that had arrived before her matched a common man in many ways, but the meridians within his body were significantly larger and thicker than that of any other warlord. This allowed the physique energy flowing within them to be denser and more powerful, while simultaneously allowing for a greater quantity of energy to reside within them.


    Based on everything she knew, it appeared to be an example of the yang-type absolute physique, Immortal Mortal, and it significantly enhanced the man¡¯s abilities without making any significant changes to his body or mind.


    Next, the woman with the strange voice appeared to be in possession of the Demonic Lord physique, a yin-type absolute physique. It caused her physique energy to be unusually mobile and fluid, and in return for a lesser degree of physical enhancement, allowed her to conjure subordinates or attacks from it, acting a little like planar energy. The strangeness of her voice was likely to be one of the abilities of the physique, though Wei Yi saw no good reason to use it constantly.


    The fourth warlord was likely to own the Wolven Form physique, which was a yin-type greater transformative physique. It could be activated through one¡¯s own will or powerful stimuli, and it granted a significant increase in strength while active at the cost of an impaired intellect and animalistic instincts.


    Depending on the person, these instincts could completely prevent them from continuing with their day to day lives, but for the culture of the Great Bone Lake, these side effects seemed to be irrelevant.


    Finally, the fifth warlord, the simple-looking man, had no obvious signs of any one physique, but Wei Yi had a few guesses, nonetheless. He came to the challenge with a small group of people, so it was likely that he somehow benefitted from either having allies, or just people in his proximity. Perhaps he was able to utilise the balance of yang and yin within men and women to enhance his own abilities, explaining the two pairs by his side, or their genders happened to be a coincidence that had no particular effects on his physique ability.


    Nonetheless, she had no intention allowing any more than one person to fight with her at a time, and she would naturally ensure that any helpers were as far away from him as possible, disrupting any connection that they might form due to his physique.


    ¡®What¡¯s most unfortunate is that only one of these particular warlords seem to have a yang-type physique¡­ The only one that I will be able to take is the Immortal Mortal physique, which will be immensely beneficial to me in the future, but if I could have gotten five high-grade physiques in one go, I would have been significantly more pleased with the situation¡­¡¯ she sighed silently, waiting a little longer to make sure that there were no more warlords that had not announced themselves first.


    When there were none, she looked directly into the eyes of the five warlords, one by one, then raised her head and used both the Lion¡¯s Roar physique and technique.


    ¡°AUTOMATONS, RISE!¡±


    Once again, her voice rumbled throughout the city, shocking those that had chased after their warlords in search of the sudden challenger, before passing by them almost as if it was a solid wall of sound.


    It travelled towards the edge of the city, dying off as it passed the invisible border and only barely managed to reach the ears of those that were meant to hear it.


    Nonetheless, they had heard it. Seconds later, the entire area of the Great Bone Lake trembled, as if the entire city had been lifted by a giant and shaken mercilessly, and those that were close enough to the borders of the settlement naturally looked out to check the source of this terrific tremor, one that they had never previously experienced within the prison realm, which lacked all seismic activity.


    To the horror of the common physique cultivators, what they found may have been even more unsettling than the earlier giant analogy: a literal sea of hatred automatons. They surrounded their lands and radiated a singular wave of intense energy that absolutely dwarfed anything any of their warlords have ever been able to produce, and it seemed to have a heartbeat of its own, consistently gaining vitality with every single second.


    Their power seemed so powerful that it reached even the centre of the city, engulfing the five warlords and stopping just shy of Wei Yi.


    ¡°You claimed that I am not a warlord. My army surpasses all of yours. Does that make me unworthy?¡± she said, with just enough volume to be heard by the five around her, using short sentences as to not challenge those with the weakest comprehensive abilities, ¡°I wish to challenge all of you for your positions. Five duels, one against one, and the victor takes all, including the loser¡¯s life.¡±


    ¡°Ooh, ooh, I¡¯ve got a question!¡± the Demonic Lord woman raised her hand.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°What if I want to enslave you and make you follow my every whim, like following me into bed and making sure that I-¡±


    ¡°I said everything, including the loser¡¯s freedom. If you win and decide to make use of me in that way, it would be according to the current rules,¡± Wei Yi cut her fantasies short, mostly because she felt a little uncomfortable about the concept of being in someone¡¯s possession, ¡®I do like my freedom and my life, after all, and she and the Greats seem all too happy to take one or both without any reason beyond their personal whims and interests¡­¡¯


    She looked to the others, but they seemed to have nothing to ask of her, prompting her to continue, ¡°We will fight here. You can choose the first challenger from amongst yourselves.¡±


    In her eyes, there was no need to begin with any one of them, but she had left the choice up to them for a better reason than simple laziness. There was a possibility, albeit an extremely slim one, that upon being given the option of subjugating someone with an incredibly powerful army, these warlords would be unable to decide on the matter peacefully and would decide to use a more violent method.


    If they did, she would learn a lot about their physiques and fighting styles simply from witnessing a single move, especially in the case of the fifth warlord ¨C unless he was wiser than the rest and decided to give up his chance of being first in exchange for watching a few battles first to learn what she was capable of. Fortunately, such tactics did not work against her, for she likely had the largest collection of techniques and combat styles out of anyone local to the Planar Continents, especially considering the fact that most of her contenders would have had to properly cultivate their abilities and engrain them into their bodies, while she was just using almost every technique without it.


    Thus, she could use a different set of moves and attacks against every warlord, then still have another set to combat some sixth or seventh enemy, if she needed to.


    For a few seconds, the warlords stared at one another, with each one choosing a particular figure to look at, then collectively raised their fists, brought out their weapons, or, in the case of the fifth warlord, looked towards the people on his sides.


    ¡°Fight!¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s fight for her! I want to see her mouth on my-¡±


    ¡°You lot can fight,¡± the fifth warlord said, shrugging exactly as Wei Yi had figured he would, ¡°If it is something you want.¡±


    ¡°Hey! Why do you lot keep interrupting me?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ stupid!¡± the Wolven Form warlord barked, ¡°I¡­ fight¡­ you¡­ FIRST!¡±


    Without any further warning, he leapt at the woman, who promptly responded with the summoning of a different creature to the first one that she arrived upon. At the same time, the other two also launched themselves into battle, with three mirages clashing with the one Immortal Mortal warlord without either side being at a disadvantage due to the latter¡¯s surprising prowess and the former¡¯s number advantage.


    Exactly as she had expected when they first began, they stopped only a few strikes in. All of them had somehow concluded which one was stronger at this particular moment, and thus a basic order was formed.


    ¡°I¡­ fight¡­ FIRST!¡± the Wolven Form warlord repeated, this time yelling this at Wei Yi, ¡°Weak!¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. I¡¯ll use this sword, if you don¡¯t mind,¡± she said casually, reaching for the weapon on her back. She made sure to do so slowly, in such a way that one could almost assume that she couldn¡¯t move at a speed greater than the average person, but when she grasped the hilt of the weapon, that changed.


    In a flash, she pulled it out of the two cloth strips that she had used to keep it in place and casually slashed through the air on the way to stabbing it into the ground.


    She had intentionally held back her strength, but even then, the amplification of the sword must have reached an entirely new level, for that simple movement pierced the air and shot out an enormous blast of slicing energy. It flew through space at a speed faster than sound, passing through the enormous bones that stuck out of the ground without any seeming harm to either side.


    However, when she then pierced the ground with the tip of the blade, the consequent shockwave shook the ground once more and caused the ends of the bones to fall to the ground, one of them falling straight onto the Wolven Form physique cultivator. As someone with the instincts of a wild wolf, he would have naturally been able to evade it, but the sudden effect on the killing intent within the air and the active disruption that the falling chunk of the Beast¡¯s bone caused made him unable to move his body in time.


    Just like that, a warlord fell to the ground, his chest pierced with a large shard of bone.

 V2C51: Challenging the Warlords, Part 2

    ¡®Well¡­ I didn¡¯t expect that, but I¡¯ll go with this. Taking out one opponent before the fight even begins- actually, the fight has begun. He called me weak and initiated the fight, so it is all fair,¡¯ she decided within her thoughts, resting her hands casually on the pommel of the obsidian blade, ¡°A victory for me.¡±


    ¡°Oh? I like that¡­ Now, I-¡±


    ¡°As the victor of the duel, I decree that I will fight this warlord next!¡± Wei Yi interrupted the Demonic Lord once more, pointing her finger at the man with the Immortal Mortal physique.


    ¡°Hm¡­ You strong! I strong! We fight!¡± he presumably attempted to use his brain for a while before agreeing with her, at which point he did show a small glimpse of intellect by instantly leaping into action instead of standing right beneath a spire of bone with which he could be crushed as easily as the Wolven Form physique.


    Furthermore, he did not immediately jump at her, instead rushing around her as to be on the move by the time she attacked him with Sharen e Mo. It was a simple tactic, of course, but one that had to be admired from someone who could not string a sentence longer than two words together.


    Since she knew this, she was in no rush to remove the sword from the ground.


    ¡®To begin with, the reason that I chose to fight him second was due to his physique being the only one that I can absorb for myself. With it, my combat ability will surge in the short and long term ¨C so long as the physical effects apply to me, and the case of the Concentrated Humanity physique does not repeat itself ¨C making it significantly easier to face off against the other three, if they have some ability to resist or escape slashes with my sword,¡¯ she thought to herself, standing in place while observing the constantly leaping physique cultivator via her spiritual perception, ¡®I have to say, the sword ¨C a two-handed sword, in particular ¨C does seem to agree with me as a weapon, more so than the spear, even with the Martial Aspirant physique ability. I should have read more sword techniques while I had been in the Yi District¡­¡¯


    After several tense minutes of jumping around, the Immortal Mortal warlord must have realised that all he was currently doing was assisting her in recovering her energy while he was just expending his. When he landed on the ground again, he stopped in place for a few moments, standing directly behind her to see whether she was even paying attention.


    When he believed the answer to be obvious, he grinned and charged directly at her, his victory already being imagined within his head.


    For this reason, and due to his general inattentiveness, he did not react in time to Wei Yi suddenly turning on the spot and meeting his punch with her palm, while the latter was surrounded by some kind of green and red energy.


    As his fist hit her hand, he felt as if he had just struck some kind of mirror, for all of the strength that he had invested into the attack seemed to return directly to his arm, shaking his muscles and bones and shattering something near the middle of his arm, simultaneously forcing it back from Wei Yi while she was able to remain in place without much difficulty.


    Before he had the opportunity to recover, she had pulled the weapon out of the ground and thrust it directly into his stomach, piercing it with an explosion of force.


    The raw power of the thrust caused his internal organs to explode, his bones to shatter and for his spine to break into more pieces than were needed to assemble an array of seven stars or above. In just one strike, he was permanently crippled, and brought straight to death¡¯s door.


    Wei Yi grabbed him by the neck before he could fall and siphoned what remained of his vitality, before simply crushing his neck with her bare hand and releasing her physique energy into his body to consume the potent energy of the Immortal Mortal physique that was wasted on someone like him. It was drained in less than a few seconds, at which point she released her grip and allowed the lifeless body to drop to the ground.


    She felt her energy return to her body and spread throughout her meridians, but rather than seeing the effects of it, she glanced down at the sword in her hand and noticed that a second crack had formed upon it, with the first appearing after the battle of Automaton Point. Due to this being an otherworldly artefact that she cannot understand with her spiritual perception, she couldn¡¯t tell whether this was intended, or caused by overwhelming the blade with whatever level she was supposedly on, but as the damage to it slowly grew, she understood that she needed to use it wisely before it broke into nothing. Depending on the behaviour of the weapon after destruction, as well as the method in which it was constructed, there was the possibility of reconstructing it, but she suspected that some parts of the otherworldly functionality would inevitably be lost.


    It was also this that influenced her decision to go to the Great Bone Lake ahead of schedule. The power of the sword was absolutely incredible, and the Lake was one of the easiest locations to subdue with raw force. Once she accomplished this, she would be able to talk to the allies and enemies of the Great Bone Lake without much negativity from either one.


    The allies would have little choice in the governance of the settlement, and would likely appreciate a smarter person to speak with, while the enemies would have no reason to refuse to speak to the person who singlehandedly bested their foes and now has the ability to provide them with whatever they needed from the Great Bone Lake to begin with. Furthermore, they would be significantly more open to alliance negotiations due to the phrase ¡®An enemy of my enemy is a friend¡¯ commonly applying to the prison realm.


    ¡°Now, I HAVE to be next!¡± the Demonic Lord warlord exclaimed, and when Wei Yi did not refute her, she almost leapt into the air with glee, ¡°Yes, you will make for a perfect servant for me! Come, surrender and I will never consider sharing you~!¡±


    ¡°No. Instead, would you be interested in taking a single blow from my sword?¡±


    The Demonic Lord shrugged, ignoring her offer but paying close attention to the position of Demon Killer, for she understood that even the various barriers that she could form with physique energy could be insufficient in the face of something that insanely powerful. Instead, she raised her hands into the air and released ten strands of energy, sprouting from her back, travelling along the back of her arms and leaving the body at her fingertips, which quickly flew to various points that formed a circle.


    A different creature appeared from every single one, with all of them being connected to the Demonic Lord warlord with that same strand.


    ¡®Based on her earlier actions, severing the strand will turn the monster into energy once more,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, noticing that after every single spectral creature was formed and stabilised, the strands of physique energy floated up and twisted in such a manner that they would be more difficult to hit, ¡®She does have a modicum of intelligence, but the otherworldly sword circumvents that¡­¡¯


    She looked towards the Demonic Lord warlord, who created a large and wide creature with antlers and fur to obstruct any attacks towards herself and smiled as she gathered her killing intent at her left palm. To the remaining three physique cultivators, she just seemed to be repeating her previous tactic, for they could hardly sense the flow of her energy, thus prompting her opponent to make the creatures opposite her to rush towards Wei Yi, intending to force her to turn around to deal with them before striking her during her distraction.


    Before the creatures took even a single step towards her, the crimson energy around Wei Yi¡¯s palm transformed, shifting into pure darkness that inverted every colour around it, this time radiating with obvious power that even the most careless and inattentive person could observe.


    As she pushed her palm forward, the disordered and chaotic energies of the Great Bone Lake suddenly became stable around the inverted energy, projecting it forward with great speed towards the antlered monster that was standing between Wei Yi and the Demonic Lord warlord. It surrounded it in an instant, its colour transforming from violet to gold as it was suddenly filled to the brim with incredible power that its creator could only ever dream of.


    However, she had no chance to get excited, for she suddenly realised that this creature was suddenly out of her control.


    The thread at the back was severed, completely removing any control the Demonic Lord had over her own creation, while the enormous channel of antithesis energy that was used to convert the creature provided it with all of the power that it could ever need.


    It did come at the slight cost to Wei Yi, however, as she felt her vision being split in two just as when she used the Red Phantom Flood technique, although this experience was still less uncomfortable than that, simply feeling like her mind was being forced to handle a second body rather than being split into two parts without any care for her mental cohesion with a dull, dirty and jagged knife that was used without any understanding of how to do so safely and without the knowledge of the exact parts that needed to be split, resulting in the cut being done so haphazardly that no-one in existence could possibly withstand it without crying out in pain.


    ¡®Ahem, that thought got out of hand¡­¡¯


    Whoever designed the Red Phantom Flood was either an absolute masochist or someone with multiple wills, she had concluded some time ago, for there was no other explanation for how such a technique could be used. Even then, she needed to lean in favour of the latter explanation, for no degree of pleasure derived from pain could dull the torment of being torn in two.


    After taking a moment to order the creature under her command to turn around and attack its master, she turned around and slashed towards the other nine beasts, which she had no wish of controlling.


    With the significantly greater investiture of energy into the attack, the force from her blade instantly severed the physique energies that kept the creatures together while also continuing on, slashing through the strands that connected them to the Demonic Lord cultivator before slashing through more of the Beast¡¯s bones and then the air behind them, severing the crimson air of the prison realm all the way into the storm clouds above.


    Her slash stopped there, even the extreme power of the Demon Killer being unable to pierce the thick clouds of the prison realm, but even that much force was enough to make her slash visible to everyone within it.


    She turned around immediately to see ¨C from two perspectives at once ¨C the Demonic Lord warlord conjuring several spears made from bright physique energy, which she launched at her former subordinate monster with a speed that rivalled Wei Yi¡¯s slash. They pierced the spectral hide of the creature and split it into several parts, the baleful physique energy permeating into the inverted creature and preventing it from reconnecting once more.


    ¡®This woman has quite a few abilities, doesn¡¯t she? Fortunately, I wasn¡¯t planning on keeping that converted guardian,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she raised Sharen e Mo, flooding it with her spiritual will.


    With a little more experience and time to polish the techniques that she derived from the basic spiritual will techniques of the right of the prison realm, she was able to shorten the time that it took to charge up Hatred Split, significantly accelerating the process of building up power and energy without compromising its effectiveness.


    Vibrant crimson gathered around the weapon, thickening and condensing with every second until it transformed into an almost solid covering of translucent energy that twisted the very concept of matter around it.


    Naturally, the Demonic Lord noticed this, and she ignored everything about the last attack of the converted monster to infuse her physique energy into her legs and to her back, with the latter forming a wing-like structure without much detail to the wings themselves, and then leapt away towards the largest and thickest bone spire within reach, hoping that the additional defence provided by the bone would be sufficient for her to be able to defend from the incoming attack with the additional means of provided with her own physique abilities.


    As Wei Yi brought down her blade, the sword light of the Hatred Split extended until it reached past the enormous bone spire, then it seemingly ignited out of nowhere.


    The energy that was already piercing killing intent and space suddenly pulsed and ruptured it, a thin rift of pure blackness from the outer reaches of space burst into the world, following behind the slashing blade and tearing a continuous tear within existence itself.


    Like that, it severed the enormous bone spire and fell upon the barrier created by the Demonic Lord warlord, stopping for only a single moment before blasting it into oblivion, piercing the warlord¡¯s flesh and crashing upon the ground in an explosion of stone dust and crimson dirt, shooting up into the sky alongside the side of the Beast¡¯s bone spire. The cloud of dust momentarily froze in the air and then slowly fell the ground, dispersing as it did so.


    The enormous tear in space stayed there for a few moments, before it instantly recovered, as if nothing had been done to it to begin with.  Just as before, this action was obviously intentional by whatever mind was currently controlling the pocket dimension of the prison realm.


    For a second, Wei Yi stood in place, doing nothing but reversing her grip on the weapon, seemingly with the intention to stab it into the ground yet again in wait of the next challenge.


    All of a sudden, appearing from behind her, the Demonic Lord warlord reached out with her hands enveloped in some kind of strange technique specific to her own physique, a physique energy construct that writhed and twitched like a living creature and naturally repulsed anyone who beheld it, whispering, ¡°I¡¯ve got you no-¡±


    The air was forced out of her lungs by the sudden intrusion of an obsidian blade, which was plunged even deeper when Wei Yi turned around and kicked the woman to the ground, impaling her into the ground until only the hilt and guard of the blade remained above the ground.


    ¡°Listen, I know you won¡¯t benefit from my suggestion in this life, but if you live another one, do not warn your target that you¡¯re behind them when you intend to avoid their detection,¡± Wei Yi said casually, easily crushing the bones in the warlord¡¯s arms so that she had no chance to affect her with whichever technique she was using, ¡°Before you go, though, tell me what you were trying to do to me, and I may accelerate the process.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I merely wanted you to experience my love¡­¡±


    ¡°Not what I was asking, nor ¨C and I am not an expert here, admittedly ¨C the best way to acquire anyone¡¯s love, nor to show it to them¡­¡± she commented the moment that she slid a spiritual will thread into the woman¡¯s head and understood that the technique was one that could inhabit a person and forcefully control their actions while their mind remained conscious of everything without the ability to resist, prompting an expression of disgust to appear on her face, ¡°How did you even figure out how to use your energy for this purpose? Oh, and don¡¯t answer¡­¡±


    She pulled the obsidian blade out of the ground, finding another crack on its surface, and cut the warlord¡¯s head off with one powerful chop.


    During that pause, she also examined her body and found that her meridians were indeed being affected by the absorption of the Immortal Mortal physique ability, and that didn¡¯t just include one of her meridian networks, but all five of them. However, the downside was that the meridians did not instantly change, as they would if she had awakened the Immortal Mortal physique instead of the True Ascendant physique but were instead growing from continuous usage and exertion.


    In order to make the best use of the new physique ability, she would need to engage in an exhausting cultivation session within a deep pool of the Beast¡¯s blood, but for now, she had roughly five percent more room within her meridians.


    Wei Yi stood up, looking towards the remaining two. One was still split into five figures, while the fifth warlord remained silent, seemingly unbothered about the situation that had just unfolded, even when half of the enormous spire that had failed to act as a shield for the Demonic Lord cultivator fell near him and covered his clothing and hair in dust.


    Despite the energy she radiated, the two managed to maintain a level of calmness that their dead peers could not, and so she and them had a few moments in which they simply glared at one another.


    Whatever the fifth warlord was doing, he didn¡¯t seem especially eager to engage in conflict with her right now. Hence, inevitably, the two that remained naturally drew the other¡¯s attention, and resulted in a stare so prolonged that it became rather uncomfortable. Had they been in another setting, without the audience composed of hatred avatars, amalgam automatons, and various physique cultivators, then it may have been easy to misconstrue for something less hostile.


    Had the last warlord to die not been the one to comment constantly on love and her general attraction to Wei Yi, then this would have almost certainly prompted an intervention from her.


    ¡®Anyway¡­¡¯

 V2C52: Challenging the Warlords, Part 3

    ¡°So, you, with the Spirit Mirage physique, are next?¡± she asked, pointing her sword at the woman¡¯s true body.


    ¡°We will¡­ be next¡­ Your blade¡­ is strange¡­¡± the various spirit mirages took turns to speak, with no clear preference for any one of the bodies, ¡°Drop it¡­ it is¡­ not a¡­ part of¡­ your strength.¡±


    ¡®What a clever¡­ whatever she would call herself. Hm¡­¡¯ Wei Yi recalled the fact that none of the hatred avatars appeared to have any desire to take her weapon, and got a bad idea that was far too tempting to not attempt, ¡°If you want, try to lift my weapon. You can use it for our battle if you succeed.¡±


    Before the Spirit Mirage warlord had the opportunity to ponder why she would let go of the obsidian blade so easily, she tossed the sword to her and prepared to conjure a Frayed Blade and use one of the Eight Great Changes in order to parry the incoming strike and redirect the immense power of Sharen e Mo at the attacker. However, she suspected that she would not need to do so, due to the line that mentioned, ¡®Scales with player level¡¯, as it would suggest a certain connection between her and the weapon, as shown by the fact that it only began to grow slowly after she got her hands on it.


    For this reason, she had the suspicion that if she was to give it to someone else, they would either not be able to use the weapon ¨C explaining why the avatars didn¡¯t touch it ¨C or the level of the weapon would reset and then she could easily beat the Spirit Mirage warlord.


    Then again, she had no clue what a player was supposed to be in this context, so maybe she was wrong.


    As someone with five perspectives and a great deal of combat experience, the warlord was able to catch the weapon easily, but they suddenly dropped it when some kind of shock struck their hand.


    Rather than clattering onto the ground harmlessly, it pierced directly into the ground, sliding several inches into it before stopping mostly due to the lack of momentum rather than insufficient sharpness to the obsidian edge.


    ¡°Oh dear, it seems that you cannot use my weapon,¡± Wei Yi said, calming down and speaking with far more confidence, ¡°Would you like me to wait, or should I attack now?¡±


    Although she said that, she understood enough about the culture of the Great Bone Lake that the duel had begun the moment that she threw her sword over, and so she condensed Frayed Blade and used Ember Switch to cross the gap between them, following up with a Piercing River to stab directly at the woman¡¯s heart.


    However, just as the weapon began to pierce her flesh, the solid feeling of her body changed into a spectral one, and the entire warlord¡¯s body changed into pure physique energy, collapsing the second that the obsidian shattered her heart.


    ¡®She can swap between her bodies? Physique energy can truly lead to some unique abilities, it seems!¡¯ Wei Yi exclaimed to herself, getting away from the other four Spirit Mirages instantly with Retreating Torch as none of them appeared to have any traces of living flesh within them, whether through the Third Eye or her spiritual will, indicating that her body had truly vanished into the pool of energy that formed their collective.


    Those four figures attacked the space where she had just stood, hitting the stone and achieving little, before all four of them grew slightly denser. Veins grew within one, skin grew on another, bones sprouted and rapidly enlarged within the third and a set of muscles spread throughout the fourth, their power somehow growing with every minor change that occurred within them.


    Wei Yi was not one for allowing her enemies to do whatever they liked while watching on, unless she could be absolutely certain that they would pose no threat no matter what they did, so she slashed with full force in the aim of separating these mirages into several pieces.


    Just as quickly as she was able to swing her sword, the muscular mirage appeared in front of the incoming slash and swung her arm in the inverse direction. A strike with one¡¯s fist did not match a strike with the blade, but it still generates a burst of air and energy that met the aerial slash half-way, somehow matching the immense power of the Demon Killer. Their collision erupted in a shockwave of force, shaking the entire Great Bone Lake for a third time in just a few minutes, but they were just barely able to negate one another.


    ¡®What¡­ the fuck is this? Is this physique cultivator secretly one of the Greats?¡¯ she questioned for a moment, dropping the idea immediately due to its lack of relevance and instead considering how to resolve the issue in front of her, ¡®Presumably, this is caused by the combination of a higher-grade physique, likely the Superior Spirit Mirage in this case, and a physique cultivation in the fourth realm, which would likely strengthen the body to an extreme amount¡­ If it was to be classified as a particular type of physique, like how the Immortal Mortal is a human-type physique and the True Ascendant is a yang-type physique, it would be considered an ancient-type physique due to its connection to the primordial powers of the world that existed long before the Yi City and had bled into the human bloodline after many, many years¡­


    ¡®It is likely that a part of the physique that has been forgotten in the current day, much like how there are many supposedly useless physiques that are simply unusable due to the lack of empty meridians for physique energy to flow through, perhaps following similar principles to the Bestial Palm and the Repealing Spark, allowing her to sacrifice one of her mirages to infuse all of them with a strength somehow mirrored from me¡­ That, or this is the latent potential of the Spirit Mirage warlord, and it is being unleashed temporarily via this strange method, in which case I will benefit the most if I delay any attacks and wait for her power to fall down to its previous level.¡¯


    As if in reply to that idea, the physique energy of the Spirit Mirage cultivator grew even further as another set of features appeared within the mirages: the vein-filled one gained a heart, the skin-covered one gained a set of lungs, the skeletal one gained a brain and the one full of muscle developed a small glowing spot near its abdomen, exactly where one might expect to find a dantian.


    ¡®Waiting isn¡¯t an option then. I have always wanted to see what will happen if I use Demonic Ire with physique energy¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought.


    She took her weapon and held it out in a semblance of a guard position, while actually using it as the focus of the Demonic Ire energies in place of her body in order to receive the benefits of the weapon¡¯s enhancements.


    In place of the typical dark crimson that would surround her or her weapon, the bright sunlight of her physique energy ignited around the obsidian for an instant before it, just like spiritual will, was twisted, the brightness of the sun getting duller as the entire structure of her physique energy morphed. For a few instants, she could not tell what the end result would be, but when the light slowly dimmed to a soft white, she saw that the sunlight was instead turned into moonlight.


    A bright, circular pulse of moonlight surged out of the sword, expanding to a large area before suddenly falling into the ground, cutting into the ground before surging upwards, creating a calming circle of energy around her.


    Naturally, just as she didn¡¯t permit her opponent to stand in place, the mirages also attempted to intrude into her circle of light once they understood that she was building up some kind of force or technique of equivalent power to their four-way split. The muscular mirage rushed forward first, its power clearly exceeding that of the other three, and attempted to break the circle of moonlight with a stomp of its foot, but the second that it crossed into the circle, a thick beam of blue and white light latched onto it, forming between it and Demon Killer, and rapidly drained away its power.


    Although the mirage had instantly pulled away and broke the connection, Wei Yi was more than a little pleased with the energy that flowed into Sharen e Mo and was about to surge out to form the first inner pattern of Demonic Ire, ¡®Although this doesn¡¯t allow me to absorb yin-type physique energy for myself, perhaps if I infuse Antithesis energy into this, I could achieve something even more powerful¡­¡¯


    She did exactly that, condensing Antithesis energy within the palms of her hands and then projecting it towards the rest of the weapon, waiting to see what would happen upon their collision.


    As it turned out, bringing one of the most powerful yang-type physiques warped by an otherworldly technique into a yin-type force into contact with an absolute inverting force derived from a sufficiently powerful and complex principle to allow for the externalisation of energy in the first realm of cultivation was something that yielded rather extreme results. The second that the outer layer of physique energy within and around the blade was touched by the Antithesis energy, a second pulse of force erupted from her position, instantly flattening the stone she stood upon, transforming the low circle of light at the edge of Demonic Ire¡¯s range into a tall beam that surged into the storm cloud-covered sky.


    The crimson clouds seemed to tremble for a moment, then, before the eyes of everyone that observed the fight between Wei Yi and the Spirit Mirage warlord, they actually appeared to move and shift out of the way, creating a small gap within the eternal storm.


    Through that gap, soft moonlight fell upon the world, covering their arena in white and blue.


    It was then that the first inner circle of the technique began to form, but instead of acting as it usually would, the energy within the blade fired out a horizontal beam that carved a curved line within the stone, reminiscent of the shape of the moon¡¯s phases. As the light from the moon above fell upon this line, both it and the line suddenly grew brighter, with the area between the line and the outer edge becoming filled with white energy.


    Once more, the muscular mirage attempted to enter, perhaps hoping that the initial phase of the technique had ended and that the moonlight beams would no longer drain her energy, but not only was she wrong, the beams had gotten even more powerful. Just a single instant of the beam coming into contact with the mirage instantly consumed its hand, leaving the muscle within to break down into crimson sludge and fall onto the ground while the mirage itself retreated, slowly recovering from its injuries.


    That energy also proved to be sufficient for another line to be carved into the ground, with the new segment also being filled to the brim with power.


    ¡®Since I¡¯m already building up power and none of the four mirages appear to have the right ability to deal with me, I might as well see the full power of the¡­ Antithesis Demonic Ire? Yin Demonic Ire? I¡¯m not the right person for naming this shit¡­¡¯ she decided to delay the naming until there was something more notable about this version of the technique, remaining in place while it continued to charge.


    The Spirit Mirage that was covered in skin decided to approach next, walking significantly more carefully and daring only to reach out towards the bright beam of moonlight with the tip of her finger, only succeeding in actually touching the beam once the third line was carved into the ground.


    However, it was not immediately torn asunder, nor did the beam that connected to it glow as brightly as before, being able to take only a small portion of the physique energy that existed near the surface of the mirage at a rate that was lower than the natural regeneration of it. As she saw that the technique wasn¡¯t instantly obliterating her, the mirage instantly accelerated to a run, getting through the outer layer of light as quickly as it could.


    With every step, the pressure and drain grew more powerful, but it could have reached Wei Yi and done something ¨C anything to interrupt the channelling process of the technique, or, depending on the abilities of this skin-covered mirage, possibly even inflict serious harm to her ¨C if not for the next phase of the Moonlight Ire suddenly bursting out of her blade and cutting a line directly through the middle of the pale white circle, splitting the mirage in two while also resulting in half of the entire circle being filled to the brim with Wei Yi¡¯s physique energy.


    The mirage broke into raw energy, the remaining skin crumpling to the ground and rotting away quickly, while the energy returned into the collective pool of the three remaining spirit mirages.


    After all three of them shivered, a layer of thin, translucent skin and a set of lungs grew within the remaining mirages, their overall power experiencing yet another massive leap as the full power of the warlord was consolidated within them.


    This moment allowed for another line to be cut into the stone, this time on Wei Yi¡¯s right, prompting the warlord to rush back towards the beam of moonlight with the muscular mirage and pull her fist back, building up as much force as she could within her muscles before punching the air with force that rivalled the strongest of the casual attacks with Sharen e Mo, sending out no physique energy at all for the moonlight to absorb.


    It reached the pale light in an instant, clashing with it and easily destroying the nigh non-existent defences that it provided from intrusion.


    Before it could get too far, however, Wei Yi removed one hand from the hilt of the outstretched blade ¨C it was sufficiently light for her to hold it with only two fingers, but she didn¡¯t want to affect the channelling process by being careless ¨C and replied to the punch with her palm, infusing only the raw principle of the Antithesis Palm into her strike, without any of its destructive potential.


    Their collision occurred only a breath before the punch would have reached her, but the second that it entered the inverted air, it suddenly changed into nothingness. Yang, raw explosive force and potential and activity itself reverted to yin, calmness and stillness.


    Another line was carved into the ground, and the moon below was almost complete, while the moon above grew ever brighter, illuminating the entirety of the Great Bone Lake in its pale light. This light, much like the skyward slash and the moon itself before it, caught the attention of all who looked up into the sky. Physique cultivators, killing intent cultivators, hatred avatars and automatons, even people with no semblance of unique skills or abilities couldn¡¯t help but watch this impossible colour appearing within the land of eternal crimson.


    Even to those that knew nothing about the potential cause of the moon, this light sparked hope.


    It was the light that their ancestors had spoken of, the glow that came from the skies above the Planar Continents, the radiance that had enveloped so many of those that had gone against the Great Families and were caught regardless. They had never expected to see even a glimpse of it within their lifetime, and yet, within just a single year, Beast¡¯s Rest experienced a brief time without the endless crimson, while the Great Bone Lake now saw the moon.


    No matter how pessimistic those that learnt of this were, it was impossible to deny that something was changing. The only question that remained was whether it would be enough.


    Perhaps the Spirit Mirage warlord felt similarly, but she could not afford to get distracted, instead being forced to act in an extreme manner. With the muscular mirage, she grabbed the one that had developed a bone structure and threw her into the direct beam of moonlight before the thin barrier around it could recover.


    The mirage flew straight through and directly onto Wei Yi¡¯s blade, breaking into little pieces.


    ¡®Does she want to forcefully complete herself to get the best chance at victory? Do you think I¡¯ll just let that happen?¡¯ Wei Yi asked inside of her head, using her free left hand to create another field of Antithesis to attempt to restrain the fleeing energies.


    However, it was just a little too quick to be caught by her technique, and it slipped out of the moonlight and returned to the remaining two mirages, causing bones to sprout within every single one of them in seconds, seconds that still permitted for the creation of yet another carving in the ground through the Moonlight Ire. With it, the Spirit Mirage warlord knew that she had only a few seconds left to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat before those jaws consumed her whole.


    This time, it was the vein-filled mirage that took a step forward, the physique energy within it suddenly retreating deeply into the body until the moonlight could not reach it even as she stepped into the beam and progressed towards Wei Yi with physique energy slowly building within the spirit mirage body, being bottled up within the veins.


    ¡®I can¡¯t be sure of what she¡¯s doing, but if she thinks that I can¡¯t do anything with my own techniques, especially after I¡¯ve had so long to work on them, then she is wrong,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she released another part of her killing intent into the air behind her, shaping it into a heart with the combined assistance of her spiritual will and the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique ability. This heart looked nothing like her own organ, instead being based on the form of power currently being cultivated by Min Lian, for it was that same technique that she currently intended to use.


    To further its power, she had also created a reflection of the draconic heart within her mental domain.


    As it beat for the first time, the moon in the sky above pulsed with it, glowing brighter for a moment before nearing its previous brightness. However, that brief pulse of energy caused the skin on the mirage to burn, several particular points of it failing completely and disintegrating to naught but ash, permitting the moonlight to surge into the gaps and siphon the physique energy that was so carefully stored beneath it.


    While most of the skin remained, this small breach allowed her to drain a significant portion of energy, causing the last two lines to be carved into the ground one directly after the other, completing the moon.


    The circle in the ground filled to the brim with power while the one above appeared to pierce through even more of the clouds, shining even more brightly onto the Great Bone Lake and the land around it. Just the light of the moon repelled the killing intent of the Beast, pushing away the eternal crimson and leaving a soothing pale light in its wake.


    However, the scene suddenly changed as the fluid energy within the ground seemingly dried up in an instant, while the moon above was overpowered by a different, golden light ¨C sunlight. Everyone who was observing the moonlight looked up and saw how the gap in the storm clouds revealed that the sun had appeared within it, existing far away from the moon and thus passing behind it as it came into view. It quickly settled directly behind the moon, leaving nothing but a corona of bright flame around the now darkened moon, and yet this light alone was enough to illuminate the entire area with twice the brightness of the moon¡¯s previous radiance.


    Neither of the spirit mirages knew what to do, nor what this meant, nor did Wei Yi, but the latter understood the simple fact that her technique had finished charging.


    Once more, she raised her weapon above her head, gripping it with both hands as it surged with immense force, as if she was directly connected to that luminous entity in the sky, and, using every muscle in her sturdy limbs, she swung the blade downwards.


    The phenomena that followed would not be out of place in one of the fantastical stories told to the children of the Yi District, of the great heroes and adventurers that completed all sorts of tall deeds that only the Master of Yi City could hope to achieve in reality. As her blade descended, instead of cutting through air and space as it did before, it seemed to be entirely unaffected by them, as if it had lost all trace of weight and form.


    Nevertheless, it still cut ¨C it cut the moon.


    Following her swing, a large gash was carved in the darkened circle above her, radiant sunlight surging directly through it. For a second, there was no obvious continuation, but then, alongside an explosion of force that shook the storm cloud-filled sky of the prison realm and reached the very edges of the world, it split violently in two, both sides being forced apart by the radiance of dawn light.


    At the same time as the moon fell apart, the extreme quantity of energy within Sharen e Mo exploded out in a single, seemingly insignificant beam that was only as thick as the blade ¨C a significantly weaker showing that her previous uses of Demonic Ire with her own body. Nevertheless, synchronising perfectly with another beat of the draconic heart, this energy pierced the first mirage¡¯s heart directly, then followed the energy from it towards the last remaining instance of the warlord. Upon reconnecting with the essence of the defeated mirage, the Spirit Mirage warlord reformed in place, her body bursting with so much vitality and power that it seemed to double the previous might of the muscular mirage.


    Despite that, when the Moonlight Ire beam touched her flesh, it passed straight through, nullifying all of the power found within the warlord¡¯s physique.


    It cut through the heart, the lungs, the head and neck, then latched onto the warlord¡¯s body and threw it into a distant hill, where it reached the end of its life and exploded into a smooth ball of moonlight. For a second, it and the sun in the sky, with both growing brighter with every moment of their existence, shared the prison realm, illuminating the left side of it with radiant yang and chilling yin, before the spectacle had to come to a close.


    The moonlight collapsed into itself, leaving no traces of itself or the warlord that it consumed.


    The sun, and the gap within the storm clouds that revealed it, vanished just as suddenly.


    Crimson filled the Great Bone Lake once again, no longer being held back by anything, and the colours of the world were lost to the inhabitants once more. However, unlike the previous times, when the only mention of the colours was in stories that came from so long ago that it was difficult to believe that any of them were real, they had truly seen the majesty of the outside world for themselves.


    Now, they understood. Even the least intelligent and attentive of the physique cultivators understood why the outside world was considered to be such a grandiose place, as even the two most ubiquitous presences within the Planar Continents ¨C the moon and the sun ¨C contained such immense power that they able to devour their hearts and minds in the brief duration of their existence in the prison realm. If just those two things were so impressive, then what of the green grass, blue seas, brown and grey mountains, golden dragons¡­ what of the stars?


    Wei Yi did not yet know that she had inspired this much thought, instead looking down at her blade to find two more cracks within it.


    ¡®For an otherworldly weapon, one that was likely meant to handle at least this much power, if not more, it is surprisingly easy to break. I wonder whether the otherworldly demon might have been scammed on this particular purchase,¡¯ she idly considered as she recovered her breath and turned towards her last foe.


    The fifth warlord¡¯s expression remained mostly still, but the slight glimmer in his eyes could not be hidden. He was clearly interested in what he had just seen, and thus, when he bid the four servants on his sides to step away, his intentions caused some confusion.


    ¡°Let us begin,¡± he said, indicating his desire to partake in the duel as originally planned.


    She did not have so much as the chance to slash with her blade to test his strength when she felt something within her mental domain and dived into it to take a look.


    Somehow, a vague shadow of the warlord formed on the outer edges of the left side of her mental battlefield, bypassing the outer storm walls entirely. As the owner of the place, Wei Yi had no difficulty in observing him without revealing herself and doing so revealed something interesting. When he first entered, he had a confident expression ¨C unlike his physical self ¨C but when he saw a landscape reminiscent of the prison realm in some ways, that changed into confusion, his brows furrowing and his eyes darting around for any clue to his current predicament.


    ¡®If he is in my mental domain, then¡­ this could be the Dreadful Possession physique! The only ability that it has is to occupy people¡¯s bodies and control them for prolonged periods of time, meaning that if I just stab him¡­ he will die.¡¯


    Wei Yi did exactly that, walking over to his still body in reality and splitting his neck in two with her sword.


    The figure in her mental domain flickered, but it otherwise did not appear to register any changes to the outside world, indicating that it was able to live on for some time purely through the physique energy that the warlord must have expended to get inside of her head. To prevent him from doing anything to her, she concentrated her spiritual will and killing intent around him, dispersing his mental form in seconds.


    ¡®Did I win just like that?¡¯ she questioned, continuing when she saw no evidence to the contrary, ¡®Well, I should have fought him first, shouldn¡¯t I? I suppose that this shows exactly how important it is to use the correct weapons against the correct enemies, or else I will be in the same situation as the warlord was.¡¯


    She stabbed her sword into the ground once again and raised her head.


    ¡°THE WARLORDS HAVE FALLEN! WILL YOU OBEY ME AS YOUR NEW WARLORD, OR MUST I PROVE MY POWER FURTHER?¡±

 V2C53: The Conqueror

    The hatred avatars on the outskirts of the Great Bone Lake heard her voice and prepared. According to the simple plan that they were given, this stage might require far more of their participation, depending on the choice of the inhabitants of the city.


    If they seemed her to be unworthy as their new warlord, or considered her to be a poor fit for the city in some way, and decided to reject her authority, it would be the role of the hatred avatars to control their amalgam automatons to quell the unrest by confirming the power of the army and showing the physique cultivators that they have no choice but to follow her if they want to remain in the city. They were a little empty-headed, but they did not lack brains completely ¨C when they confirmed that their reason for denying her the position that she had just won in righteous battle was insufficient, they would naturally surrender.


    Thus, the avatars had to wait for signs of unrest to occur, and deal with them as quickly as possible.


    And yet¡­


    ¡°Moon Splitter!¡± a cry came from one of the structures near the outer edge of the Great Bone Lake, and after its echo died down, another followed.


    ¡°Moon Splitter!¡± another voice came from a different part of the city, quickly joined by another call of, ¡°Moon Splitter! Moon Splitter!¡±


    Soon, the title was being called out from most homes within the Lake, without a single voice proclaiming a different title. As disorganised as the beginning of the cheer was, by the end, the choice made by the physique cultivating bandits became clear.


    ¡®They chose to accept me¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself as she saw several physique cultivators emerge from their residences and homes and arrive to the outer edge of the small dip in the ground that she had used as an area with the deceased warlords, ¡®I¡¯m not so sure about the title, though. It sounds impressive, but both the sun and the moon were manifestations of the technique, nothing more than a particularly visually impressive variation of a physique or killing intent construct.¡¯


    After a little thought, she chose not to bother with it. They likely understood that she couldn¡¯t have cut the moon of the Planar Continents, and thus they would not be too disappointed upon seeing it remain whole when they gain the opportunity to leave. Furthermore, if she was to step in and alter their chant, she might create the disarray within the crowds that she had initially hoped to avoid.


    ¡®Moon Splitter¡­ Could be a suitable title for the obsidian blade once I am inevitably forced to reforge it,¡¯ she decided, returning the weapon to its place on her back.


    Once a few more of the physique cultivators gathered around her, she used only the Lion¡¯s Roar technique to address them once again.


    ¡°I am Wei Yi, the Moon Splitter warlord. I will guide you all out of the prison realm, to witness the light and darkness of the Planar Continents,¡± she said, attempting to connect with the most impressive yet recent things these people would have witnessed, ¡°I will aid you in growing stronger, I will give you all techniques with which to fight, and I shall lead you to slaughter the Great Families that had imprisoned your ancestors!¡±


    Although she spoke with a lot of energy, this was meant to be nothing more than an announcement of her future plans, so that they would not be surprised once she told them to move out of the Great Bone Lake and into Beast¡¯s Rest to consolidate her forces.


    Despite that, every single one of the barbarians suddenly erupted into deafening cheers.


    ¡°MOON SPLITTER! MOON SPLITTER!¡±


    ¡®What in the heavens are they doing? Ah¡­ I keep forgetting that not everyone has perfect memories or any memories at all of the Planar Continents. To them, the imitations of the sun and moon were the first hints of light that was not red¡­¡¯ Wei Yi understood, allowing them to get the excitement out of their system for now before they found their own methods of handling it later.


    They shouted for a little longer before calming down and looking back at her, awaiting her next words eagerly.


    ¡°For this reason, we shall go south! To my domain of Beast¡¯s Rest! We will unite with them and gather at the central storm wall in two years to pierce the gap between the two sides of the prison realm! Then, in twenty years, we shall exit to the Planar Continents!¡±


    She had increased the amount of energy in her voice, and in direct reflection of it, the cheers around her got louder as well. It was likely that they had no clue that there was a different side to the prison realm ¨C the leaders of Beast¡¯s Rest and most of the people living there didn¡¯t have a single clue, after all ¨C but that did not matter, for if she said that there was another side, what reason did they have to not believe her? If she said that she could leave the prison realm, why would they distrust her after she seemingly tore a gap in space itself?


    What mattered most of all to them was that they would grow stronger, and that their leader was already sufficiently powerful to hold one of the largest settlements in the prison realm on her own.


    Even if the rest of the claims were lies, they would not suffer under her rule.


    ¡°MOON SPLITTER!¡± they cried out once more, bowing to her without any hint of grace in their movements.


    Several hours later, Wei Yi had gotten back to the outskirts of the Great Bone Lake after giving her new warriors the orders to grab every bone they could find and bring it with them on their journey, telling them that they would need to return for every single bone that they missed if they could not take them all at once.


    While they got that sorted, she found Ya, Min Lian and the others, at which point she relayed her success to them, explaining some of her future plans to them as well before looking towards Ya and sharing her next destination with them.


    ¡°So, we can either do this now, or wait until Beast¡¯s Rest. Once again, I¡¯ll let you decide.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard some of your speech through the resonance of killing intent. You appear to have a curious plan, so I am interested to know what the stronghold of the Moon Splitter looks like,¡± Ya replied, a slight smile gracing their face when they saw Wei Yi rolling her eyes at the name, ¡°Per chance, is this your first experience at gaining fame?¡±


    ¡°Not quite, although I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve gotten a title before. Can¡¯t say that it is the best one, though I have nothing better to suggest,¡± she said, ¡°Whatever. Let me return to them and handle things.¡±


    The hatred avatar had nothing to say as they connected to their resonance and communicated with the other avatars and automatons to stand down and gather in one spot so that they could stop disrupting the Great Bone Lake in their attempts to relocate the entirety of the bones that the land was named after. Meanwhile, Wei Yi returned to the inner parts of the city and continued handing out random trash from the House of Gold that could assist the physique cultivators in digging out and then carrying the larger bones.


    As there were no other spatial storage methods within the otherworldly book, she could not lift the entire place in one go and move it to the outskirts of Beast¡¯s Rest, but she was able to find a number of shovels crates, bags and various trinkets that enhanced carrying capacity, and that only.


    It wasn¡¯t clear exactly how these items accomplished this, but it was clear that when these were used by the various physique cultivators, their muscles would suddenly become stronger whenever they attempted to lift any item from the ground, though the moment that they tried to throw or otherwise misuse it ¨C as many did, exactly as Wei Yi expected them to ¨C their newfound strength would fail them.


    ¡®This is another mystery of the otherworldly demons, I suppose. Fortunately, I could leave these things with them, so long as none of them get the idea to dig Beast¡¯s Rest itself out of the ground and take it elsewhere as a joke,¡¯ she decided, inwardly hoping that such a thing would not be possible with the combined power of all of the physique cultivators and the items that she had gifted them, for she would otherwise need to be very careful with any items of this nature that she gives out in the future lest she allows them to accumulate enough power, ¡®Anyway, other than the largest spires, most things should be brought out in one go. I¡¯ll arrange them around Beast¡¯s Rest to get everyone used to the greater pressure, then put the rest of the bones in a specific district to strengthen the concentration of force to its limit.¡¯


    She ordered a few more of her new subordinates around before getting to work herself, deciding to drag along those spires that the others could not handle.


    With her immense power, she rivalled a dozen physique cultivators at the next realm of their cultivation, and thus she could single-handedly lift the half of the spire that she had severed alongside the space within and around it during her attack on the Demonic Lord warlord.


    ¡®Come to think of it, I am already so powerful, and yet, although I am certainly at the high end of power in my realms, I would be no match for someone in the seventh realm or above no matter how immensely I might surpass others. I can already separate space in high-grade spatial realms, so how much could someone in those realms accomplish? Wouldn¡¯t a battle between the Master of Yi City and one of the primordial gods be sufficient to destroy the entire world?¡¯ she casually wondered.


    As interesting as the concept was, she had no chance to test it at the moment, nor in the future, and she did not expect to have the luck to stumble across some fragment of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s memory that would display this figure at his peak, which could potentially show him at such a realm, but even if she did see it, it would only be a small glimpse of the truth.


    ¡®Since I am already on the path of cultivation, I should strive to reach such a realm myself,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, ¡®At that point, perhaps the heavens themselves would limit the damage of my strikes¡­¡¯


    In a few more hours, if one was to approach the Great Bone Lake, they would be surprised at the sight.


    The enormous spires that the land was known for were all but gone, with one exception that proved to be too difficult to remove from the ground. Most of the houses and residences, which were mostly loose collections of material and nothing more, were stacked onto the bones, which were themselves packed into large groups and tied together so that they could be carried more easily by large groups of people at the same time.


    Due to most of the bones being lighter than solid stone, although not by much, each stack of items was larger than if it had been stone or particularly heavy wood, and that number was further increased by items that supposedly allowed for the carrying of more objects without any additional weight, or by reducing the total weight of items being carried at the same time.


    None of the items made any sense, but since they appeared to work, she decided that it was important to investigate these items just in case one of them contained some secret to spatial storage.


    Once this was done, she brought the physique cultivators together once again and separated them based on the type of item she had given them, making sure that all of them could carry what they were given. Some proved to be stronger than she expected, prompting her to move some of the bones from the piles of things that were too large and heavy for others to handle. In general, her estimations turned out to be rather accurate, albeit slightly pessimistic, meaning that she was able to shift some of the bones from her own pile over to the others, resulting in her only carrying one wide chunk of a bone spire with several small ones placed atop it.


    Somehow, before they set out, one of the physique cultivators experienced a small breakthrough from a small brawl that broke out over an item that was found within the house of one of the combatants, and thus she was able to put the rest of her bone shards and chunks on that group¡¯s pile.


    ¡®Eh, I suppose this is fine. A leader typically doesn¡¯t get involved in this kind of thing, and unless I gather far more pieces of bone for myself and don¡¯t give the opportunity to others to exercise their own strengths, all I¡¯d be doing is wasting my own time,¡¯ Wei Yi considered as she headed to the front of the gathered crowd that had assembled at the sides of the bone piles and turned towards them, ¡°Everyone, we shall march for one hour. Get ready to travel!¡±


    ¡°Boss, boss, there¡¯s an enormous fuck-off wave approaching us!¡±


    ¡°¡­ What?¡±


    Ah Qiu took a breath, ¡°Boss, there¡¯s a large wave of people and hatred automatons heading straight towards us!¡±


    ¡°What do you mean? Are they just travelling, or do they appear to have the intent to attack us?¡± Meng Chu asked, getting up from his seat, ¡°What do they look like? Do they have some kind of banner or chant?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright, I get it. I will have a look,¡± he said, walking around the desk and rushing towards the walls of Beast¡¯s Rest, with Ah Qiu following him the moment that he caught his breath from his run here.


    When both of them got to the top, Meng Chu was incredibly tempted to make a grammatically poor statement about the situation. He saw a literal wave of crimson and pale flesh, with one standing on one side while the other remained on the right. The first was significantly larger and unbroken with any other colours, clearly made up of countless insectoid automatons that were striding forward at a constant pace without any requirement for food or energy, and the second appeared to be a large crowd of physique cultivators.


    They were arranged into more of a formation, with two columns around each one of some large dark objects, or perhaps large piles of them ¨C this sight was beyond even the outer walls of the city, and so he could not see the finer details due to his limited eyesight that lacked the same improvement that Wei Yi had experienced thanks to her cosmic energy ¨C with large people carrying them.


    ¡°¡­¡± Meng Chu could not find any words for several lengthy seconds before he finally found something to address, ¡°Who is the person at the front, and why are they absolutely covered in moonlight? Did one of the warlords from the Great Bone Lake have a physique like that?¡±


    ¡°I dunno, boss¡­¡±


    ¡°Wait, bring me the magnification lens that Wei Yi had left in the storage room,¡± he ordered, waiting for his servant to do as he asked.


    Several minutes later, when the enormous sea of things had advanced by a worrying amount, Ah Qiu finally got back to him with a large crystal lens that he grabbed out of his hand and looked through it, nearly throwing it onto the ground when he saw who it was.


    ¡°What in the heavens has she been getting up to?¡± he nearly shouted, passing the lens to his servant when he understood that his outburst must have seemed entirely unreasonable from his perspective, ¡°She said that she would search for the settlement of automatons in the north west, and now she comes from the north with a sea of physique cultivators¡­¡±


    Before Ah Qiu could get a word into the conversation, Meng Chu turned around ran towards the stairs so that he could descent the inner walls and rush over to the outer walls.


    He had no idea what was happening right now, but it his priority to make sure that Beast¡¯s Rest wasn¡¯t about to be threatened by an enormous incursion of maddened warriors and mindless monsters, and that no hasty moves were made by either side in the case of them coming in peace.


    ¡°This is Beast¡¯s Rest? It looks rather barren on this side,¡± Ya commented, looking at the nearly complete outer walls and the few structures that have already been established.


    ¡°It has recently been expanded, so there hasn¡¯t been enough time to construct most of the houses yet. Do keep in mind that all of this began less than a month ago, so by the end of the two years, everything will be filled to the brim with businesses and houses,¡± Wei Yi answered, leading them towards the front gates as she noticed a familiar face running in their direction, ¡°Slow down for a minute. We¡¯ll be allowed entrance soon.¡±


    Both of the groups behind her slowed down as she had commanded them to, pacing themselves so that they would only reach their destination at a similar time to Meng Chu and a few of the guards that were noticing their immense congregation.


    For once, she had underestimated the third former leader of Beast¡¯s Rest, for he was somehow able to climb to the top of the wall and appear atop the gates several seconds earlier than expected.


    ¡°Wei Yi! What exactly is going on?¡±


    ¡°Nothing much. I¡¯ve just brought two cities worth of troops over from Automaton Point and the Great Bone Lake, as well as most of the Great Bone Lake itself,¡± she replied, nodding her head towards the large stacks of the Beast¡¯s bones being carried by the physique cultivators, ¡°In other words, nothing much. How has the city been in my absence?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t just answer after what you¡¯ve said,¡± Meng Chu said, ¡°What do you mean by two cities? How did the Great Bone Lake get involved?¡±


    ¡°Are you going to make me answer you here?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Fine. Get the doors open!¡± he stepped away from the front of the wall and shouted to the guards that had arrived after him, before descending the wall to meet with the enormous crowd of people on the ground.


    The gates opened and Wei Yi guided the people through them, explaining the best order for them to follow before stepping away and walking over to Meng Chu, who was still in awe at the current situation. To be fair, it wasn¡¯t a particularly surprising reaction, as anyone that hadn¡¯t gotten too close to amalgam automatons and physique cultivators before would be rather shocked about the large swarms of insectoid creatures being followed into the town by bulky ¨C and mostly nude ¨C men and women carrying gigantic fragments of bone.


    Although their chaotic placement resulted in most of their influence on the killing intent around them being dispersed and negated, it still caused the air around them to grow heavier and less pleasant.


    ¡°So, what about now?¡±


    ¡°I have a nice, comfy office with a bunch of those bones being placed in the exact position to put pressure on the people sitting in front of me, and you want to do this here? Fine, I can explain some of my adventures to you ¨C just give me a moment,¡± Wei Yi said, subduing the moonlight around her until it was constrained only to her chest, at which point she dispersed it entirely, ¡°Right, where should I begin?¡±


    ¡°For one, I would be very interested to know who the hatred automatons are,¡± Meng Chu said.


    ¡°Oh, them? They¡¯re not actually automatons, but hatred avatars. They are like the mindless creatures that you know, except they have a mind and can control their mentally inferior counterparts via a killing intent resonance,¡± she explained, ¡°On the other hand, their physical strength is only slightly greater than that of a normal human, so they are nigh useless in battle on their own. For this reason, when some physique cultivators happened to find their way to their domain, the Automaton Point, named by me roughly ten minutes before the invasion, they were not able to do much against the invaders and had to rely on my help. I convinced their leaders, Ya, Liu Qi and some others, to follow me to Beast¡¯s Rest, but we happened to take a slight detour.¡±


    ¡°A detour that led you to the Great Bone Lake?¡± he questioned, pondering whether she was just making all of this up due to the absurdity of the situation, ¡°¡­ How?¡±


    She smiled, ¡°Now do you understand why I wanted to speak with you in a pleasant office? However, despite being my subordinate, you refused my kind offer time and time again to insist on receiving information that you do not strictly need to know. I am sure that if I was any of the other major leaders in the prison realm, you would not be treated as kindly.¡±


    ¡°That is true. However, since you have bothered to explain that much, I assume you do not mind?¡±


    ¡°No, not really. I just wanted to sound strict for a little bit, since I¡¯ll need to do so much more in the future, when I¡¯m forced to work with people that understand the situation less than you,¡± Wei Yi answered, ¡°The reason that I went to the Great Bone Lake is that I wished to resolve the conflict between them and Automaton Point, which I ended up accomplishing by taking over them. In the process, I split a moon and showed sunlight to the world.¡±


    ¡°We saw that all the way from Beast¡¯s Rest, and possibly beyond, actually,¡± he said, looking into the sky as if to see whether the moon was still in the sky, ¡°It¡¯s possible that the sight was visible all the way from the other edge of the prison realm.¡±


    ¡°Oh, was it that bright? That¡¯s not what I intended to achieve, but it works,¡± in reply, she shrugged and recalled a different topic she was curious about, ¡°Ah, by the way, what has been happening to the spiritual will cultivators that I had picked up a while ago? I¡¯m curious whether they¡¯ve attempted to do anything stupid.¡±


    ¡°Nothing of the sort. They¡¯ve been very quiet and obedient¡­ I suspect the cause of their actions is that they¡¯ve entirely lost track of time, and think that it is only their third or fourth day in the underground passages of the city,¡± Meng Chu reported, ¡°They rely on their spiritual will to feed themselves and keep their bodies running, so they don¡¯t tend to pay attention to food and the like. Did you expect them to do something?¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure whether they would or not, but if they did, I would need to discipline them again.¡±


    ¡°Discipline? They still cry about their last time in their sleep, to the point that some of the guards have felt the need to speak nicely to them so that they don¡¯t break down¡­¡±


    ¡°Huh. That bad?¡±


    ¡°It appears to be,¡± he said.


    ¡°I¡¯ll handle it later, then. For now, it seems that the bones have been brought in now, so come along and help us to distribute them throughout the entirety of the inner part of Beast¡¯s Rest, before placing the rest in the new physique cultivating district.¡±


    ¡°Alright- wait, no. You still haven¡¯t told me how you took over the Great Bone Lake. Was that not supposed to take a long time?¡±


    ¡°I surrounded it with my new forces, intimidated them, got the warlords to fight me, then killed them. It really isn¡¯t that interesting, you know? If you were to write it in a book, I¡¯d imagine everyone skipping over it,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, intentionally downplaying her achievements so that he would stop bringing them up, ¡°You saw the most interesting part of it, apparently, so there¡¯s little more that I need to mention.¡±


    He did not appear to be entirely satisfied with the answer, but he understood that he had been bothering her a little too much despite her superior position, ¡°Very well. Should I gather some people to assist you?¡±


    ¡°Of course. Get people who don¡¯t rely on their killing intent to carry and set up the bones according to my very specific instructions, or else they will likely suffer greatly if they fail to pay attention.¡±


    ¡°Understood¡­ Just to get things straight, you¡¯ve conquered two cities in a month?¡±


    ¡°You could put things that way, if you want to¡­ Actually, that¡¯s an excellent title, don¡¯t you think?¡± Wei Yi said, turning away from him and slowly walking away as she muttered, ¡°I could be the Conqueror, of the prison realm for now, but the Conqueror of Yi City could be next.¡±

 V2C54: Diplomacy

    Over the rest of the day, as vague as the idea of a day was within the prison realm, the majority of Beast¡¯s Rest was mobilised. The killing intent cultivators were assigned to be in less physically intensive positions, as they would be useless at them no matter how much they tried, while the rest were put to work carrying the Beast¡¯s bones that Wei Yi picked out on her own and then calculated where the best position for them would be.


    By the end of the day, the killing intent within the city grew to be almost twice as dense and twice as imposing, putting significant pressure on those that were not prepared for such a change and had incredibly weak bodies. Fortunately, life in the prison realm was dangerous, and so everyone important adapted quickly and on their own, while the rest found others to assist them in building up a resistance to the crushing pressure of the eternal crimson. Only a few had so many problems that they saw it fit to go to their leader, Wei Yi, for help, and depending on the nature of their troubles, she decided what kind of aid to offer them. For some, a simple strengthening pill was sufficient to deal with their weaker constitutions, while others had to be given a small stone with an inscription on it to temporarily weaken the killing intent around them to a level between the current and previous density to give them more time to adapt to it.


    Ultimately, she needed everyone to get used to the harsher conditions, and so those that could not do it no matter what, or were too lazy or unwilling, were sent to the outer part of Beast¡¯s Rest.


    Some complained, but all she had to do to get them to stop was to create a fake glow of moonlight around herself by inverting the energy of the Sun¡¯s Regalia physique into the Moon¡¯s Regalia without actually gaining its power. It was a purely visual change, but the killing intent cultivating community within Beast¡¯s Rest wasn¡¯t too knowledgeable on the subject.


    The unintentional side effect of this method was that her title, Moon Splitter, had gotten around this city even more quickly than if the physique cultivators had gone around and spread rumours about it to the population.


    ¡®It¡¯s just a name, in the end. It doesn¡¯t matter too much, and once I get to more grandiose activities in the real world, something as simple as splitting a fake moon won¡¯t be on their minds as much as it currently is,¡¯ she thought after she had dealt with another person that couldn¡¯t understand the fact that he was not permitted to sit around lazily any longer, ¡®Now that there is a name attributable to me, word of the Moon Splitter is bound to spread. If any of the other factions willingly come to me and ask to engage in diplomatic talks, it ought to be much easier to convince them of my strength and ability.¡¯


    As she had dealt with the Great Bone Lake and Automaton Point ¨C and would heal Ya the next day, unless something went awry ¨C she now held three out of the seven major powers within the palm of her hand, and managed to achieve this without seeing the deadly techniques that the warlords of the Great Bone Lake were said to have. This meant that she and the people under her now formed the single most powerful faction within the prison realm, and that was bound to attract attention.


    The three remaining killing intent factions were likely to be pleased with the elimination of their competition, as they were bound to assume that the old Beast¡¯s Rest, the city of killing intent cultivators, somehow subjugated them with their own means, while the Hold of the Mighty, the only known remaining stronghold of physique cultivation, was bound to investigate the Moon Splitter and quickly come to know that it was someone that fought all five remaining warlords without any particular difficulty, using primarily their raw strength.


    To the people there, nothing interested them more than powerful bodies and physiques, meaning that they were guaranteed to contact her at some point.


    During the few days after that, after drawing a blueprint for the physique cultivation portion of the city, she headed out of Beast¡¯s Rest once more, heading back to pick up the killing intent cultivator from the remains of Automaton Point, who turned out to be in the exact same place as before, seemingly unbothered by the recent collapse of the fourth quarter¡¯s top.


    She healed him with ease and found out that he was only a common killing intent cultivator in his past, so she directed him towards Beast¡¯s Rest and ventured out once more. This time, she wanted to find the treasure mentioned by the deceased owner of the Concentrated Humanity physique.


    It had never coincided with her route, due to its position being between the Hold of the Mighty and Beast¡¯s Rest, so she decided to take advantage of her current lack of responsibilities to investigate. Unfortunately, when she had fought with the physique cultivator that gave her that information, she had no access to her current ability to look into the minds of others, so she could not get the full details about the location of the supposed great treasure. As a result, Wei Yi only had a vague set of directions to follow, forcing her to make the full use of the expansion of her meridians through her Immortal Mortal ability and her physique cultivation stabilising in the fifth stage to rush there as quickly as possible.


    With her full power being showcased, she reached the area south-west of Beast¡¯s Rest and east of the Hold of the Mighty within a single day despite the enormous distance between them.


    Just like most of the prison realm, all she saw when she arrived was a set of small red hills, occasional crimson plains, ruby mountains, several small rivers of the Beast¡¯s baleful blood, and one small pit in the ground that appeared to be entirely ordinary after one of her close inspections. Other than that, nothing really stood out.


    ¡®Well, fuck. I had expected some hint of an unusual object within my spiritual perception, but everything here is just as dull and barren as when I searched for the Ancestral Hall of the Kong,¡¯ she thought, wondering whether there was any chance at all to stumble across it just by shutting her eyes and walking in a random direction, ¡®This is unfortunate, especially when I expected this treasure to be something obvious yet unobtainable to normal cultivators of the prison realm¡­ Perhaps I¡¯m just not there yet.¡¯


    She understood that most people would not be as accurate in their geography as she could be thanks to her ability to perfectly map things within her mental domain, and thus Wei Yi got out of the small pit and began her explorative search.


    Her first point of interest was the tall mountain peak near her current position, as it was rather narrow and would thus act as a sort of large tower, exposing a large quantity of the land to her without obscuring too many of its own secrets. Due to its steepness, it was difficult to climb it with her hands and feet alone, so she employed the Aerial Foothold physique ability whenever there wasn¡¯t a suitable indentation in the stone.


    From atop the oddly flat peak ¨C unfortunately without any hints of oddity beyond that, so far as she could tell ¨C she was able to see the bland terrain of the prison realm from a slightly different perspective, but little more than that. No clear beams of energy shooting up from the ground, as in the Kong District, nor any unnatural terrain other than this peak.


    ¡®Will I need to break down the peak and see if someone had built the mountain on top of the treasure? It wouldn¡¯t have been a complete lie, right?¡¯ she considered, conjuring some of her physique energy around her hand to play around with it while she looked around herself several more times, ¡®No, that would be extremely stupid of her. I had proven my strength then, and she had made me swear to not kill her afterwards, so if she then lied, she would just be putting herself in further danger once I found out that she had tricked me. In that case, what kind of obstacle would stump a woman like her?¡¯


    She spotted another mountain in the distance and decided to try looking around from there, hoping that it would give her a slightly better idea of the area.


    By leaping across widely spaced Aerial Footholds, she crossed the gap between the mountains in minutes, avoiding the process of climbing down and then back up the mountain that was her destination, then looked back down on the world to not see anything of particular interest.


    Or, so she thought. When she looked to the left, she saw another mountain, very similar to the two she had stood on so far, and when she looked to the right, she realised that these mountains were not only incredibly similar to one another in appearance, but that their positioning was entirely unnatural and on a curve, as if someone had drawn a circle using the geographic phenomena.


    Just to be sure, she crossed onto the next mountain and saw yet another one along the invisible curve.


    ¡®Indeed. There are just enough differences and oddities within these to hide them from sight on first glance, but their shape and placement allows for some sort of array to be hidden within them, even from my perception¡­¡¯ she noticed, extending her spiritual perception outwards and focusing more on the passive flow of energy throughout the area. At first, there still appeared to be nothing, but when she took the shape of the presumed array into account and applied some pressure onto it with her spiritual will, the long-awaited fluctuations in energy presented themselves to her, ¡®So there is something here, and the Concentrated Humanity physique cultivator stumbled across it by chance.¡¯


    She leapt off the mountain peak and descended gracefully with the Aerial Foothold ability, running towards the presumed centre of the array the moment that she landed onto the ground.


    ¡®Based on the scale and ability of this array, there would have been no way for her to break into it, no matter what she tried, but it is possible that the only obstacle in her way was some kind of unpassable wall or field that allowed her to understand enough about the treasures on offer for her to be able to share a description of them with me,¡¯ Wei Yi deduced as she slowly got close to the centre of the mountain range ¨C a similar, yet smaller mountain.


    Just like the others, there was nothing particularly interesting about it on first glance, as even the fact that it wasn¡¯t part of the mountain range was explained by the artificial terrain of the prison realm. However, if one was to look more closely, they would spot a small cave near its base, and a dim glow coming from within.


    Naturally, she hastened into the cave, protecting herself with a few basic defensive and stealth techniques as she did so, for she had the aid of spiritual perception to foresee danger.


    The cave was shallow, and the source of the light could be seen within several steps of the entrance. It belonged to a thick and flat wall that obstructed the entirety of the cave, preventing any passage through, and it appear to grow if the walls around it were destroyed, for there were traces of such attempted activity within and through the glowing wall. While most of the energy within the prison realm, the power flowing through the array included, was killing intent, this was a field of pure yang physique energy, being contained and maintained by the air around it.


    ¡®This is clearly the work of a physique cultivator, then,¡¯ she understood, approaching the wall while easily ignoring the slight warmth emanating from it. Although it would have been able to cook someone without a yin or yang physique, it barely mattered to her.


    What caught her attention before the things behind this translucent wall was the energy it was made from ¨C whereas her physique energy resembled sunlight and, inversely, moonlight, this energy was closer to the raw yang that one may find within the meridians of someone who cultivates the Yang Physique, or one of the more powerful variants of it, such as the Greater or Absolute Yang physiques.


    However, it still differed from the physiques listed above, as this barrier contained a force that could, in the right circumstances, be described as being ¡®otherworldly¡¯ in nature.


    What certainly didn¡¯t help dispel this impression was the fact that it could not be sensed with spiritual perception nor Wei Yi¡¯s natural senses, and that even her physique energy was barely capable of reacting to it when in close proximity.


    When she finally looked beyond it, into the place that it protected, her impression was further deepened by the things she saw within. Other than the vitality-storing blood stone and several large bones that compressed the killing intent around them to such an extent that it solidified into a thin film around the bones, there was only one thing of note: a large, thick scroll made of some kind of skin, with characters written on it that Wei Yi partially recognised, and yet was unable to understand.


    These characters confirmed her theory, for they resembled the writings of Kong Shi Meng within the books of the Yi family, and the description of the Kong Mental Arts.


    ¡°Another fucking otherworldly power¡­ How many of these people are there? Are they like ants in an anthill?¡± she said, resisting the urge to strike the physique wall in front of her mostly to avoid sudden disintegration of her fist, ¡°How are they everywhere? Do they just fall through random holes in their world and acquire random powers for no reason?¡±


    She sighed, calming herself, and drew out an enormous quantity of her physique energy to be able to absorb all of the wall without too much risk for herself. Her sunlight enveloped the orange energy and slowly pressed down upon it, effectively digesting the outer layer of energy before being strengthened by it and continuing to devour the otherworldly power. It took a long time, but when her cultivation suddenly broke through with the immense power and reached the sixth stage, she got through the rest of the energy in minutes.


    ¡®Not enough for the awakening of another physique ability, but it was so powerful that it brought me straight onto the next stage¡­ Good enough. Now, what is the rest of these things?¡¯


    Stepping through the now-empty passageway, she entered the small chamber of the cave that held the three items of value. As she already understood all too well how the Beast¡¯s bones functioned and how they were to be used, she skipped over them and looked first at the stone that seemed to be made entirely of blood.


    She could distinctly sense the intense vitality within the stone via her physique abilities, and so she quickly drained it before anyone else found this place and decided to try stealing it from her. The moment that it entered her body, the only way to take it back would be to gather more physique cultivators with greater physiques than her own and focus their energy on her without any interruptions, which would be difficult to accomplish when she had so many methods of attacking and repelling her enemies no matter what position she was in.


    Then, it was finally time to move onto the most significant find within this chamber ¨C the scroll.


    As she unfurled it, she found that the entirety of the front was covered in the same symbols and that no matter how she applied her understanding of the language of the Planar Continents, she could not decipher anything about these symbols.


    Fortunately, when she turned it around, she found a full description of a technique in the perfect Planar Continent language, although certain symbols were written in such a way that they resembled the writing of the other world. According to the scroll, the technique was called Martial God¡¯s Extremes, and although the Concentrated Humanity cultivator must have been guessing at the contents of the scroll, it was indeed a physique energy-based technique.


    Rather than being a typical combat technique, or a cultivation method ¨C although it featured elements of both, and could thus assist her in her cultivation nonetheless ¨C this appeared to be a modifier that could be applied to one¡¯s physique energy at any time, enhancing its power immensely and increasing the effectiveness of every technique used at the same time.


    It used all of the meridians at the same time, but this also allowed for other techniques to be utilised as it merely required the presence of energy in the correct places and did not care for its flow.


    ¡®This one isn¡¯t as artificial, however,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, comparing it to her last few otherworldly methods, ¡®Perhaps the other otherworldly demons used different methods to create their own techniques, while this one was created by someone that had genuinely considered and contemplated their own creation¡­ I can¡¯t see any traces of negative influences from this particular technique, and so it should be safe to practise. Since it does not occupy any of my meridians, I could fully cultivate it without reducing my ability to practise any other technique¡­¡¯


    She did exactly that, gathering her physique energy at the walls of her meridians and condensing it within them, simultaneously using this force to expand them a little further. Once she completed that, in place of experimenting with it immediately, she looked at the last paragraph written on the scroll.


    ¡°If this scroll is in the hands of one that cannot read the other side, I implore you to find someone that can and share that side with them, even if this one is kept to yourself,¡± she read it out to herself, mentally comparing it with the message left by Kong Shi Meng in the books of the Yi District, ¡®These otherworldly demons sure are polite, aren¡¯t they? I am impressed, frankly.¡¯


    The technique scroll was small enough for her to hide it within one of the larger pockets of the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival, so she chose not to destroy it yet. If she was able to find another otherworldly demon out there that happened to use the same language as the presumed Martial God, she saw no reason not to allow them to read whatever was written on the other side of the scroll, even if it was only to view their memories and gather their understanding of the language for future personal use. There was always the possibility that the superior version of the Martial God¡¯s Extremes was written on the other side, of course, but anyone would require several minutes of cultivation to use it properly, whereas she would be able to notice it quickly and prevent them from doing anything stupid.


    After confirming that there was nothing else within the cave, both with her natural senses, her eyesight and her spiritual perception, all of which could be affected by different factors and were thus less trustworthy on their own than in their combination, she struck the wall with the Collapsing Cavern fist and left before it collapsed, getting out of the way and turning around just in time to witness the passage seal itself behind her.


    The ground and the mountain trembled before her, but neither collapsed entirely, meaning that the landscape remained almost identical to how she had found it.


    ¡®I can try out my newly acquired technique at a later point in time. For now, I should get back to Beast¡¯s Rest and make sure that the physique cultivators haven¡¯t been bothering people with their¡­ mating habits? I guess that¡¯s a suitable description¡­¡¯ she shrugged, walking away from the lone mountain.


    Wei Yi had been gone for only a short time, and yet the city had developed far more in those few days than it had in the twenty days that she had spent searching for, and helping, Automaton Point. Likely due to the assistance of the physique cultivators, the number of houses and structures in various stages of construction in the outer portion of the city had nearly tripled since the last time she had counted them, and most of the buildings that had not been finished when she left were now complete, for the most part.


    As she navigated the outer portion of the city on her way in, she only spotted a single minor dispute occurring between a killing intent cultivator and a physique cultivator, and it was over their relationship with some third figure, causing her to ignore it entirely due to it being outside of her area of expertise and far from her realm of interest.


    On the inside of the city, the average cultivation level remained mostly as it was before, with only a few minor figures breaking through to the next realm, but it was still progress. If given enough time, she believed that she could raise the average cultivation level of everyone within the prison realm to the third or fourth realm, which, once combined with the support of her killing intent in the Planar Continents, would allow them to easily defeat those in the second and third realms of planar cultivation.


    She had considered the fact that there might not be enough killing intent for everyone to reach such a level ¨C as, unlike planar energy, it was not infinite and was generated from the Beast¡¯s energy ¨C but since she would be allowing others to share in her killing intent, that was not an issue.


    After all, her immense pool of killing intent originated from the constant conversion of her planar energy, which might as well be infinite due to the nascent rift, which, with enough time and effort, could be enlarged and made to be more efficient, meaning that she would eventually be able to have a full pool of energy even with the regular consumption of the prison realm and constantly generate even more killing intent for her subordinates to share in. It would also serve as excellent motivation for them to never go against her, as their power could be nullified immediately if she revoked her energy from them.


    When she stepped into the underground passages and found Meng Chu, however, she found him to be in a surprisingly panicked state.


    ¡°Has something gone wrong after all?¡± she asked him.


    He shook his head, ¡°Not exactly¡­ You mentioned that the other factions might want to get in touch with us, right?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Has one of them sent us a declaration of war?¡±


    ¡°No¡­ All four factions have sent a representative to speak with us, apparently.¡±


    ¡°Oh? I¡¯ll admit, I didn¡¯t expect that at all. Since you¡¯re so worried, I assume that they aren¡¯t just simple warriors or diplomats?¡± Wei Yi raised an eyebrow, ¡°Do you think that they could pose a significant risk to Beast¡¯s Rest?¡±


    ¡°Well, all four of them are in the fourth realms of their cultivation, so far as I can tell, all of them are practising unique techniques and all of them appeared rather displeased with the other three.¡±


    ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s how things are. If you have placed them in one room, then I¡¯ll hurry there before a conflict does break out. Just so that I don¡¯t inadvertently make things worse, tell me everything you know about them, what they look like and whether you¡¯ve noticed any strange behaviours from any of them that I should keep an eye on.¡±


    ¡°Yes. The first one to get here was a woman from the Council of Crimson, calling herself Shufen Bai Shu. She is tall, dark-haired and would probably suit the tastes of most of Beast¡¯s Rest, but she has an obvious problem of looking down on everyone, viewing them as nothing more than dirt. If I hadn¡¯t told her that I am the second in command in this city, she would have likely ignored me for the rest of the day,¡± Meng Chu explained, ¡°You¡¯re unlikely to mix her up with any of the others.


    ¡°Then, Jing Ling, a man from the Seekers of Blood, found his way into the city. He seems like someone that spends all of his time performing experiments in some dark cave, as his skin is even paler than normal, seeming to be almost green at times, although you could miss this at first due to an incredibly full head of greying brown hair that reached the lower half of his legs and seems to be a complete mess.


    ¡°Almost immediately after, I was informed of the presence of the third ambassador due to several brief quakes that happened one after the other, They were caused by Kai Feng Zhan, a physique cultivator from the Hold of the Mighty that spoke reasonably well for someone on his path of cultivation, but immediately rushed off to speak with the most muscular figure he could find under the assumption that they were in charge. As you¡¯d probably expect, he was incredibly muscular himself, to the point that he could probably block blades just using his muscles.


    ¡°Finally, nearly an hour later, a woman by the name of Hui Xin came along, hailing from the Cranial Domain. I can¡¯t say much about her other than the fact that she resembles an animal.¡±


    ¡°An animal? In what way?¡±


    He shrugged, ¡°My description won¡¯t do it justice. Since I¡¯ve said enough, you ought to be able to distinguish one from the other. I asked them to gather in a room near your office and told them that you would return within three days. All of them have taken a few things for themselves, food and some things for entertainment, and agreed to sit there and wait.¡±


    ¡°Very well, then. I¡¯ll let you relax and see these so-called ambassadors. If a fight does break out, don¡¯t be surprised if you see me fleeing first,¡± she said, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to damage the city too much.¡±


    She turned around and headed towards the location of her office, rushing there with the assistance of Endless Dark Movement and the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash to nullify the collateral damage that she otherwise would have caused.


    Thus, she got there quickly, and with only one small bit of damage to a chair that happened to be in the wrong place. Before going into the room where the four guests were waiting, she stopped by the door, using her stealth techniques, and extended her spiritual perception into the room to observe them without their knowledge. She quickly confirmed the descriptions of the four figures by Meng Chu, finding one muscular man, one skinny and weak-looking man, one woman that wouldn¡¯t be out of place in a noble court in one of the empires outside of Yi City, and a figure that was covered in thick hair on most parts of her body, truly resembling a wild animal.


    All of this created a curious atmosphere, for none of them wanted to be close to the other and thus positioned themselves in the four corners of the room, their collected energies causing the air in the room to be incredibly heavy and dense, acting almost like one of the Beast¡¯s bones that she recovered from the Great Bone Lake.


    ¡®Well then, let¡¯s see what these lot want from me,¡¯ she thought, pushing the door open.

 V2C55: How to form Alliances

    The moment that she touched the door, all four ambassadors shifted their attention towards it, with some doing so more obviously than others.


    ¡°Hello, everyone. I¡¯ve kept you waiting, haven¡¯t I?¡±


    ¡°You?¡± the noble Shufen Bai Shu understood her meaning immediately, turning to her properly and looking over her carefully, as if Wei Yi had been a sculpture presented to her in order to appease her anger but did not appear to match her expectations, ¡°I was told that you were a large, undisciplined brute that split the moon with her fist when it got in her way. As always, they lied to me¡­¡±


    ¡°I suppose that is a possibility, though I think that it is important to note that I do practise physique cultivation alongside killing intent.¡±


    ¡°Hmph.¡±


    ¡°Can I¡­ take a sample of your blood?¡± Jing Ling asked all of a sudden, earning a displeased glare from Shufen Bai Shu and more confused looks from the other two, while Wei Yi just looked at him and shook her head.


    ¡°For now, no. If we do not end up getting along, then I would hate to assist in your various experiments,¡± she explained, looking towards the two that had not yet spoken.


    The tower of muscle, Kai Feng Zhan, looked at her and said, ¡°They sent me here for someone strong. Prove that you are strong. Hit me.¡±


    ¡°Hit you? Sure. Stand in the middle of the room so that I don¡¯t damage the wall too much.¡±


    He did as she asked, his expression betraying neither confidence nor lack thereof. By the look of it, he seemed to be testing her genuinely and without any negative intentions, truly attempting to confirm whether or not she was truly the famous Moon Splitter that had earned the attention of the prison realm.


    Wei Yi glanced at Jing Ling to make sure that he did not want to move away, then drew her fist back and gathered her strength in her arm before punching the air before Kai Feng Zhan.


    With this attack, she used all of her strength but did not invest a single drop of her physique energy nor her techniques into it, as she intended to show him and the other three exactly how capable she was in every single one of her abilities individually, to show them exactly how little chance they had going against her while she limited herself to a single field, not to mention how weak they would be if she performed the Moonlight Ire again, this time targeting them.


    Her fist flew toward him then stopped in mid-air, an inch away from the man¡¯s chest ¨C even with her height, she could not comfortably strike his face without punching straight up, which would endanger the ceiling of the passages and potentially lead to a major collapse, just as it had in Automaton Point.


    The air between her fist and his chest was suddenly compressed, then, with nowhere else to go, it exploded outwards, striking his chest and being forced outwards and around him. In just one instant, the force of her strike crashed into the walls and floor behind him and instantly cracked and crushed the stone as if it was nothing.


    Much of the force ended up heading directly towards Jing Ling, who hastily raised his hands the moment that he realised that the impact was more powerful than he must have anticipated. Crimson light surged from his hand, expanding to a circular barrier in front of himself that he quickly limited to cover only his body and nothing else, but even then, when the force struck this barrier, it cracked nearly instantly, with the next second causing it to shatter into nothingness as the remainder of the strike landed directly on him, pushing him into the wall and likely breaking one or two bones.


    Although Kai Feng Zhan looked unmoved, his muscles twitched from the impact and a small stream of blood flowed involuntarily from his mouth.


    ¡°You¡­ are strong.¡±


    ¡°Strong? So she is strong¡­¡± Hui Xin, the previously silent woman, suddenly leapt to her feet and went over to Wei Yi, sniffing at her from a small distance, ¡°Can I bear your children? Can you give me your se-¡±


    ¡°I am a woman, Hui Xin. I can¡¯t do anything of the sort,¡± she replied, lightly pushing her away after cleansing her whole arm with physique energy, ¡°Now, do you mind if we get to the alliance discussion? I¡¯d rather not spend the rest of our time messing around with random battles when we could be pursuing freedom from the prison realm itself.¡±


    ¡°I want to test your killing intent! Let¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°Jing Ling, did you hear what I had just said?¡± Wei Yi said, rolling her eyes, ¡°However, if that¡¯s what you want to do, let me get it out of the way in one go.¡±


    She stretched out both hands and released her physique energy out of the right and killing intent out of the left. Above her left palm, a thick sphere of crimson gathered and illuminated the room in an even deeper light than before, while the sunlight that formed within her right palm congealed into a miniature sun, clashing with the crimson and splitting the room in two. One side saw a deeper killing intent than they had ever seen, while the other witnessed the majesty of sunlight.


    ¡°This is my killing intent and my physique energy. All four of you should understand how this compares to your own power, correct?¡± she asked as she controlled the energies to wrap around her arms and retreat under her skin, ¡°If you make things easier for me, I could make them easier for all of you once we return to the Planar Continents.¡±


    ¡°Or so you claim. You could be strong, but- what did you just say?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Return to the Planar Continents? That¡¯s entirely plausible, and nigh guaranteed so long as-¡±


    ¡°No, no, physique energy and killing intent? How exactly is that meant to work? If you wish to lie to us, it¡¯s no use,¡± Shufen Bai Shu said, shaking her head, ¡°The Council of Crimson understands enough about the meridians to know that it isn¡¯t possible to achieve this kind of cultivation.¡±


    ¡°This is the second time I¡¯m forced to repeat this, but yes, physique energy and killing intent. Did you fail to pay attention?¡± Wei Yi repeated, narrowing her eyes.


    ¡°You fool, why should I have to pay attention to-¡±


    The woman¡¯s words were cut short when Wei Yi suddenly grabbed her neck and threw her into the wall, crossing the gap between the middle of the room and the edge within a single breath, all while tightly and confidently grasping the woman¡¯s pale skin. Within her empty hand, she condensed a thick wisp of killing intent, which she then brought towards the woman¡¯s head.


    ¡°Then listen to me now, you idiot. This, right here, is killing intent. You¡¯ll need to feel it in order to confirm this, won¡¯t you?¡± Wei Yi said, her eyes radiating with an immense quantity of crimson light while she pressed her killing intent-filled hand against the woman¡¯s face, ¡°Come on, you can sense the hatred within, can¡¯t you? This can¡¯t possibly be physique energy or even fucking planar energy, can it? Are you going to speak?¡±


    Shufen Bai Shu wasn¡¯t able to reply immediately after she had been shoved into the wall, nor was she able to immediately deal with the terrifying quantity of hatred directed at her despite her own cultivation, and the additional helping of killing intent being forced directly into her head certainly didn¡¯t help matters. Despite trying to use her own technique and crimson energy to repel the intrusion, she felt herself instantly becoming overwhelmed with the vision of a terrifying battlefield, countless warriors fighting within a cage of storm walls, and a figure that stood far, far above it all, greater than a king, or an emperor, or even the Master of Yi City himself ¨C the female figure towered over her like a god.


    ¡°I-It¡¯s killing intent!¡± she cried out, unable to control her own voice, all of the nobility and pride typically invested into her speech being discarded for naught but terror.


    ¡°Excellent. Then,¡± Wei Yi removed her hand from the woman¡¯s face and dispelled the killing intent before gathering a small sphere of sunlight, ¡°tell me, where do you least mind being scarred permanently so that you can best learn your lesson?¡±


    She had not initially intended to be this harsh, but after noticing that they were only paying any attention to her after she proved her strength, she decided to make sure that none of these ambassadors believed that she was someone that didn¡¯t live up to whatever tales they must have created within their minds. Naturally, she couldn¡¯t possibly be a towering giant that used only her fists, nor did she intend to fit their exact images of her, and so she had to make up for that by establishing a far more ruthless image for herself.


    In the long term, this would also prevent insubordination, so it wasn¡¯t much of an issue.


    ¡°No, don¡¯t-¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right, there aren¡¯t any vital organs near your sides, so burning that part won¡¯t matter too much, will it? Furthermore, your clothing isn¡¯t that important, so I can burn straight through, no?¡± she prevented her from saying anything and brought the sunlight into contact with her clothes.


    Due to it being an extremely powerful form of physique energy from what appeared to be one of the greatest physiques, it seared through the cloth immediately upon contact, heating the skin beneath it just as quickly. Shufen Bai Shu desperately attempted to get away from her, but no matter what she did, she could not escape Wei Yi¡¯s tight and practised grasp.


    As the surface of her skin began to be burnt, the woman seemed to finally realise how to escape.


    ¡°Yes, this is physique energy! This is physique energy! Please, you don¡¯t have to continue, Moon Splitter!¡± Shufen Bai Shu exclaimed, tears forming within her eyes.


    ¡°Hm. Are you sure about your judgement?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure!¡±


    ¡°¡­ Fine. Now, let us move onto spiritual will. Do you know much about it, or must I provide you with a lecture on this as well?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes, I-¡±


    ¡°Think about your words, you fucking idiot. Are you certain that you know about spiritual will and what it can do to you? Do you know about the other side of the central storm wall? Do you know about Sanctuary and the Sanctums?¡±


    ¡°No¡­¡±


    ¡°Then why did you not just say so? I¡¯m not some kind of interrogator that only cares that you agree with my accusations, I am attempting to teach and educate you while you ignore my words and ignore your very own eyes while I display the method of splitting the moon to you. Image if someone else was in your place ¨C they would never overlook the possibility of understanding such a powerful technique,¡± Wei Yi shook her head, releasing her grip on the woman¡¯s neck and returning to the centre of the room, ¡°Just so that everyone else is clear, let me show you this once more.¡±


    She brought her hands together and listed the three forms of energy that she could freely harness within this world.


    ¡°Killing intent,¡± crimson energy gathered around her, before being briefly transformed into Antithesis energy to demonstrate a part of her full abilities to them, splitting and manipulating it for a while before returning it into her body.


    ¡°Physique energy,¡± bright dawn light surged from every exposed part of her body, the upper third of her arms, her feet, her head, hair, neck and the parts of her chest that were not covered by the somewhat loose Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival. After the muscular giant ascertained that this was indeed powerful physique energy, she also transformed it to moonlight energy briefly, converting it back quickly as she could not maintain it in that state for long without the Moonlight Ire technique.


    ¡°Spiritual will,¡± she finished, releasing the weak-looking energy from within her meridians.


    As this was incredibly weak as a display, she forcefully transformed it into Demonic Ire power, causing it to gather around her and visibly radiate power as it drained everything from the air and surged into the aura around her, though she prevented it from forming any of the typical circles around her and instead caused it to explode the second that it acquired sufficient energy.


    That explosion, albeit minor by her usual standards, shook the room with its power, both literally and figuratively.


    ¡°Do you believe that you speak to the Moon Splitter now? Will you listen to my words?¡±


    ¡°Very strong. I¡¯ll listen,¡± Kai Feng Zhan nodded, seemingly unperturbed by her display.


    ¡°Yes, your blood will make for good test material¡­¡±


    The bestial woman still appeared intent on finding some way to mate with her, so Wei Yi interpreted it as an agreement.


    ¡°Excellent. Oh, and Shufen Bai Shu,¡± she turned in her direction, causing her to tremble involuntarily, ¡°Remember that this was purely directed at you. If I hear that the Council of Crimson thinks that I have no intention of working with them and decides to go to war with my faction, the other three represented factions and I will be all too keen to capture their territory and make good use of it, won¡¯t we?¡±


    The other three nodded quickly, for none of them could think of a good reason not to claim more land and resources for themselves, while Hui Xin just used it as an opportunity to lean forward in her seat.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t make such a mistake, Moon Splitter¡­¡± the woman also shook her head quickly, slowly recovering from her mental and physical damage as quickly as she could. Although she had acted poorly to begin with, there was clearly a reason why she was brought on to handle the case of the Moon Splitter instead of any other powerful members of the Council of Crimson, and so she was able to adapt to the situation rather than forming a stupid grudge.


    ¡°Great. In that case, let us move onto the terms of our cooperation.¡±


    ¡°With whom?¡±


    ¡°Another poor question. I am speaking to all four of you, so, naturally I desire an alliance with all four of your factions. Is that not obvious?¡±


    ¡°Why should we work with them?¡± Kai Feng Zhan asked, looking at the three cultivators of killing intent, ¡°You and I are strong, unlike them. Your physique is strong. You will do well in the Hold of the Mighty.¡±


    ¡°Before the rest of you start, let me explain the issue with your ideas. Our goals should be to break out of here and to get revenge on those who put us, our ancestors and everyone that has had to suffer because of the Great Families, and here you lot are, discussing petty rivalries caused by the form of energy that you use?¡± Wei Yi quickly stopped the others from agreeing with him, ¡°What are you benefiting from? What is the point of all of this? So much land that you could be using to work on shattering the storm walls, on developing the world, on growing your population and ensuring that everyone practises the best techniques to be as ready as possible once your freedom is achieved!¡±


    ¡°You speak of freedom¡­¡± Hui Xin suddenly spoke with an odd degree of seriousness, ¡°You think you can earn it?¡±


    ¡°More than that. I can guarantee that it is within my reach. You¡¯d like to know why, no?¡±


    They did not deign her with a reply, for it was more than a little obvious. The desire for freedom, dulled as it had been after the many years of failure, was rekindled in full after the appearance of the moon and sun, and so the topic became significantly more serious in just a short amount of time. If there was indeed a chance for an escape, no matter how difficult, most would grab directly onto it.


    Thus, she raised one hand and formed a fist with it, drawing their attention to it before she gathered her killing intent, physique energy and spiritual will around her dantian and separated a small clump of energy from within, bringing it in that protected state towards her hand.


    ¡°What is the most powerful form of energy in existence?¡± she asked, keeping her hand shut.


    ¡°Killing intent,¡± two of those that used it replied thusly.


    ¡°Physique energy,¡± Kai Feng Zhan also answered exactly as she expected.


    ¡°The blood!¡± Jing Ling stated definitively, and with great certainty.


    She allowed a smile to appear on her face and shook her head, infusing the majority of her remaining mental and physical energies into the nascent rift to grow it as much as possible and make up for the energy that she was about to waste.


    ¡°Not at all. All of these come from one source, and all can contribute to it. Planar energy is superior.¡±


    It was then that she opened her hand and revealed it ¨C a small sphere mostly obscured by the three energies that were most plentiful within the prison realm, and yet, the true majesty of the cosmic energy within shone through in its entirety. It was in a crystalline form, just as within her dantian, and it radiated a power that could not be compared with any of those that surrounded it. Through the magnificent edges and facets of the cosmic energy, one could see an endless sky full of glorious stars, nebulae and distant galaxies that illuminated the chamber in an entirely different light.


    ¡°And I still retain access to it. I can still cultivate it. I can set us free.¡±


    Their eyes widened, even as she quickly returned the cosmic energy into her body and into the safety of the dantian so that it could not be consumed further.


    ¡°So, will your factions side with me and support me in my pursuit to shatter the storm walls, or will stand back and be remembered for doing nothing?¡± she asked them, ¡°If you would bring freedom to this world and death to the Greats, but think that I can do nothing even with this energy, then come to the central storm wall in two years. I will show you that they are not an unbreakable force, and that, with enough time, all of them can be broken.¡±

 V2C56: Opening the Way

    The talks afterwards had gone surprisingly smoothly. After some travelling back and forth by the representatives of the four factions, it was agreed that resources shall be shared and traded, with a certain quantity being devoted to Wei Yi¡¯s cultivation, with the condition that it must be monitored by those same representatives to ensure that she did not misuse or waste the items given to her.


    She did not object, of course, for they were smart enough not to demand to learn all of her secrets and would be satisfied so long as she did not go against her words.


    After that ¨C and after establishing a small outpost to monitor the position where the storm walls would open just in case the timing of the spiritual will cultivators was slightly off ¨C she went into a form of closed cultivation, focusing on further refining her body and mind and pushing both of them towards the third realms, so that they could catch up with her planar cultivation. Although she was able to advance her physique more quickly through slaughter and killing rather than laborious practise, her recent theft of the Great Bone Lake and the alliance with the Hold of the Mighty reduced her potential targets significantly.


    Naturally, she did also take the time to investigate her newly acquired physiques and the desires that had slowly been swelling within her, putting two willing participants out of commission for several months after she had gotten a little too invested in finally stopping their lustful thoughts for good.


    Thus, two years passed without much incident. At the beginning of the day before the storm walls would break open, she left her chambers and headed towards the lower parts of Inner Beast¡¯s Rest, where she had asked for an even larger blood pool to be created.


    Before it could fill, she had created a number of arrays around it to compress and refine the fluid into the most poisonous and toxic substance it could possibly become, while converting the rest into a weaker variant of miracle fluid to feed the slowly growing population of Beast¡¯s Rest, which was increased further by several groups from the other four factions arriving to watch over the Moon Splitter and her progress.


    As she stepped into the pool, she used this opportunity to slightly trim her hair, which had been consistently growing in the last two years and proving to be incredibly resistant against all forms of bladed weaponry, including Sharen e Mo, which needed several strikes to cut a single hair. Meanwhile, the toxins of the Beast¡¯s blood proved to be more effective.


    Just as the last time that she had done this, she had gotten into the blood pool with all of her energies at their peak, with all three being within the ninth stage of the second realm, intending to use the constant threat of the poisonous blood to refine them at once to empower herself to new heights.


    Having learned from her previous breakthrough using this method, she had considered minimising the effects of her accomplishment on the city, but instead decided that her killing intent occupying and displacing the energy of the Beast provided her with the perfect opportunity to officially replace the energy of Beast¡¯s Rest with her own, hoping that this replacement would allow her to increase the density of killing intent cultivated by everyone with every single breakthrough of her own, leading directly to the overall empowerment of the population.


    She stayed within the blood pool for an entire day, by the end of which, all three of her energies were approaching their limit.


    ¡®Some have expressed their belief that I might not be as strong as I had initially presented myself,¡¯ she thought as she condensed her three mental and physiques energy deep within her meridians, concentrating them to the point of putting severe stress on the three active meridian networks, ¡®This should prove them wrong.¡¯


    All of a sudden, crimson surged out of her and through the underground passages of Beast¡¯s Rest, bursting out on the outside and filling the sky with colour as it entwined and pushed the Beast¡¯s innate hatred away. At the same time, softer white followed, forming a pleasant bubble around the carcass of the ancient creature and prevented the rest of its crimson from entering it while the new killing intent occupied the empty space that was created.


    Following after these two with an immense delay, raw sunlight emerged from the ground, overpowering both white and red as it illuminated the land in its true shades and colours.


    Slowly, the three energies began to rotate, twist and turn, mingling with one another and yet remaining wholly separate. Individual strands of killing intent and spiritual will came together to form complex structures and arrays within the air, taking whatever energy was already present and condensing and refining it further, complex circulation paths creating themselves within the air and land and rapidly pumping with energy as it flowed into the centre of Beast¡¯s Rest and then returned outwards, picking up more power as it continuously refined the power of the world.


    It beat like an enormous heart, with the core being within the depths of the Beast¡¯s body.


    There, the blood of the Beast was consumed at a rapid pace, the toxins reacting to the three energies and being devoured by them as they slowly grew in power to suit the user¡¯s fame across the entire prison realm.


    The dome around Beast¡¯s Rest stabilised itself with the knowledge Wei Yi had previously gathered within the Kong Holy Grounds just as the last drops of the Beast¡¯s blood were exhausted.


    Although the crimson within the dome was replaced with her own, much of her energy still returned to her, filling her meridian networks with newly ascended energy. Her killing intent was now in the first stage of Condensed Shot, with it transforming into dense fluid which seemed to reflect her mental domain at all times, even while she looked upon it with her spiritual perception.


    Her spiritual will structure had grown even further in complexity and intensity, and thus her spiritual will had grown to the Greater Stability realm as well, resulting in the total range of her spiritual perception reaching nine and a half metres, or roughly half of that through thick and dense solid surfaces. Even then, everything that she could perceive with her spiritual perception was now even more detailed than before, far surpassing her eyes in the level of complexity that it was able to perceive without any similar dependence on light.


    Finally, her physique energy had also broken through to the third realm, Impermanent Permanence. As a direct result, her body had suppressed any of the minor negative effects of age that had appeared during the last few years, causing her to look young her mature.


    As she rose out of the former blood pool pit, her long crimson locks stuck to her tanned skin, their colour growing even more regal and intense, as if they had absorbed every single drop of the toxic blood and stole its colour. Her eyes, clear and silver, similarly resembled a combination of metal and gemstone far more so than any ordinary human eye, with this impression being further intensified by the dense spiritual will and killing intent that combined within them.


    Her height had remained stable in the last two years, while her musculature was once again condensed upon her breakthrough. Nevertheless, the passive air of power around her only grew.


    Wei Yi was able to distinctly sense that, although her physique energy had just achieved a major development, it was still on the edge of something greater, which she suspected to be the development of her physique itself, rather than the entirety of her body. The vast majority of known physiques possess several greater levels, such as the Greater and Absolute Yin physiques, but for the majority of those living in the Planar Continents, reaching such forms of the physiques could be accomplished through the consumption of powerful physique awakening pills and various treasures and miracle fruits. However, that did not take physique energy into account.


    ¡®It is possible that through physique cultivation, I can advance the True Ascendant physique to greater heights¡­ I wonder if this would allow me to absorb yin-type physiques as well, or if it would also advance the physique abilities that I have gathered for myself. Either option would be incredibly beneficial for me and depending on how much the further stages of the physique empower me and my physique energy, it might even save me some time in breaking through the storm walls.¡¯


    She looked into her dantian, where the nascent rift had grown further through her continued feeding of it. Now, roughly eight percent of her planar aperture was filled with energy, although it had not been enough to allow for a single advancement in her stage.


    Nevertheless, progress was progress, and this increase in energy allowed her to prove to the other factions that she was not lying about her ability to maintain her cultivation realm.


    After checking all of her forms of cultivation and energy, she took a brief look at her body to confirm that nothing had gone amiss during her brief dip in a blood pool. Her chest remained exactly as it was two years ago, her abdominal muscles remained as prominent as before even when they shrunk during the breakthrough, and her legs had not grown any shorter or longer, meaning that she would not need to adjust her various leg and kick-based techniques in the future so long as the breakthrough of her physique did not change this.


    Out of random curiosity, she took one strand of her hair with one hand while putting two fingers together on her other and condensing Storm Blade Wreathing around it to generate a small blade, which she then empowered with every technique available to her and slashed the single hair with all of the force she had.


    This blade of pure energy struck her hair and promptly shattered.


    ¡®Well¡­ It is a good thing that I have found a technique to limit the growth of my hair, or else it would go on forever,¡¯ she thought as she tied her hair into a ponytail and put on her crimson robe, putting on the rest of her equipment before stepping out of the chamber reserved for her toxic baths.


    As the mere force emanating from the room was sufficient to ward away anyone under the fifth realm of cultivation, it was deemed unnecessary to have anyone guarding her, thus leaving her on her own for several minutes until she reached the secret entrance to this particular part of the underground network of Beast¡¯s Rest. With several taps on the stone ¨C a process that she had recently improved via some of her own inscriptions and made it so that any opening of such doors would light up a point on a map that she had created within her office, as well as a few others ¨C it descended into the ground, and she stepped through, finding that there was still no-one in sight, as if everyone had vanished from the prison realm on their own.


    ¡®That obviously isn¡¯t the case, so where has everyone gone?¡¯ she asked herself, finding traces of footsteps heading outside, prompting her to follow them.


    Once outside, she quickly realized what was happening. Everyone had gathered in a large circle within an open plaza of Beast¡¯s Rest and observed as Ya, a figure that turned out to be a man with features resembling that of the Great Dark and Light twins, Meng Chu, who had recently advanced to the last stage of the Searing Torch realm and was nearing a breakthrough to the Hatred Augur realm, Min Lian, who was similarly at the ninth stage of Condensed Shot, and the squad leaders, all of whom had reached some level of Searing Torch, faced off against a man wearing an obvious and bright crimson robe.


    His realm was even more obvious, for he was coated from head to toe in armour condensed from pure killing intent, creating a thick layer of jagged crimson around him, and his power clearly surpassed that of the common cultivator, for he faced such a large group without much issue.


    Atop the layer of armour, a secondary layer of thick killing intent created a baleful aura around him, one that seemed intent on actively consuming the energy around, with it being kept at bay only by the arrays within the dome of killing intent created via her earlier breakthrough and the fact that Wei Yi still retained some control over her own energy even if it was no longer within her body or the range of her typical control.


    ¡®If I had to guess, I would say that he has the Consuming Rage technique and is trying to replenish his own power, though I don¡¯t know whether he was winning or losing the battle prior to discovering his inability to do so,¡¯ she thought, looking at both sides and finding nothing more than a few light injuries on all of them, ¡®Whatever. I should step in.¡¯


    In an instant, she vanished from her current position and appeared between the man and her warriors, creating a stable barrier of spiritual will and killing intent to prevent any attacks on them.


    ¡°What are you doing in my city?¡± she asked plainly, one eye glowing with white and the other with red as both energies trapped the man within them, forcing the second layer of killing intent around him to recede into his body.


    ¡°I heard there was a powerful figure here, so I came along to check it out!¡± he exclaimed, ¡°So-¡±


    ¡°No valid reason, then?¡±


    ¡°Nah, I-¡±


    He did not have the opportunity to continue when he felt his neck split in half, with his head flying away from the rest of his body when two slashes ¨C one from either side ¨C struck the same point on his neck and pierced the armour, the skin, flesh and his bones with only as much resistance as could be expected from particularly dense air.


    Before his body could fall to the ground, Wei Yi appeared beside it and grabbed the crimson robe from it so that it would not be covered in his blood, passing it to Min Lian once she dispelled the barrier.


    ¡°Here. You¡¯re the most capable in combat, so it is most suitable for you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you,¡± she replied, silently following with the word ¡®Master¡¯.


    Wei Yi nodded and turned to Meng Chu, ¡°Now, I need you to tell me everything about what just happened, why you were having such difficulties in dealing with him, and whether we should be expecting more of them in the future.¡±


    ¡°A short time after that enormous dome appeared, he entered and wanted to fight some people before the storm wall would be opened. We couldn¡¯t let him fight random people, so the group that you see now have decided to challenge him and did relatively well, stumping him a short time before you appeared when he wasn¡¯t able to recover his energy as easily as he had expected to,¡° he explained the situation quickly, ¡°Although he wasn¡¯t able to devour your energy, he was able to weaken or outright dispel our attacks, and the only thing that stopped him was our joined cooperation¡­ By the way, why have you given the robe-¡±


    ¡°Are there signs of similar intruders?¡±


    ¡°Not yet, but it is very likely that they¡¯ll be drawn towards the enormous dome around us. I¡¯d imagine it¡¯s as obvious as the moon split that you had done back then.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯d imagine so. In that case, let me provide them with a better distraction,¡± she said, turning towards the crowd that had gathered to watch, ¡°Everyone, you should have heard us. As I had promised in the past, now is the time to penetrate the storm walls and witness the other side of the prison realm! It is the first step to escaping once and for all, so if you wish to see history in the making, come with us and see!¡±


    The crowd had a variety of reactions, but most cheered with excitement and quickly fled the scene, either to pack up their things for the multiple day journey or to get started early to catch more of the exciting scene.


    Those that had no interest in the matter were in the significant minority, and most of them were simply deciding to avoid the matter due to lacking physical ability or the inability to travel for several days without harming themselves in the process, though a few of the latter kind decided to go nonetheless for their own reasons.


    Regardless of what they wished to do, Wei Yi did not stand and wait for them, instead returning into the inner passages of Beast¡¯s Rest to find the spiritual will cultivators.


    ¡°Come on, it is time for you lot to return to where you came from,¡± she said the moment that she entered their room, distracting them from their attempts at cultivation and concentration by releasing a faint pulse of spiritual will, ¡°I know you have trouble keeping track of time due to the lack of spiritual will in this area, but it has been two years and the gap in the storm wall should be opening up any second now.¡±


    ¡°Oh, is that so?¡± Hao Gang exclaimed, the fear that she initially had mostly disappearing into the depths of her mind. Thus, she behaved significantly more happily most of the time, occasionally visiting Wei Yi while she worked and sharing a few minor details about the right of the prison realm.


    Once Wei Yi nodded, the woman dressed in white awoke the rest of her companions and they prepared to depart by taking a few food items with them for the journey. Since they did not strictly require it, she suspected that they were simply acting as tourists and collecting a number of mementos from the left side of the prison realm to show off to those on the right. While she didn¡¯t know whether they would be too pleased with their deliver, she wasn¡¯t too concerned with how they would be received, as she only needed them to make it there.


    She made sure that they got ready quickly and forced them out of the tunnels, intending to proceed to the ambassadors of the four remaining factions in the prison realm, but spotted them gathering at the outer edge of Beast¡¯s Rest and proceeded to head directly towards them with the men and women in white.


    The moment that she entered their line of sight, all four of them turned to her. During their time here, all of them had advanced by a single stage but remained within the fourth realms of their respective cultivation routes.


    Apart from Hui Xin remaining rather adamant about claiming any and all bedsheets ever used by Wei Yi, causing the latter to avoid sleep entirely to not indulge the animalistic woman¡¯s fetishistic tendencies, or whatever they were, most of them had avoided doing anything too unnecessary or extreme during their stay, preventing her from needing to interact within them beyond the monthly confirmation that she was making progress ¨C more progress than any of them could.


    ¡°Moon Splitter,¡± Shufen Bai Shu said once she got close enough to them, ¡°You will be intending to impress us today, are you not?¡±


    ¡°No, you will be impressed while the two halves of the prison realm are forced into one whole.¡±


    The woman shrugged, ¡°I suppose I¡¯ll wait and see.¡±


    ¡°How will the storm wall be broken?¡± asked Kai Feng Zhan, ¡°You are strong, but strength has not yet broken them in our case.¡±


    ¡°Truth be told, the other side of the wall has already ruptured the central wall several times, sending people like the ones behind me in to collect information, scout the area and generally mess around, so I intend to take advantage of their activities to create a permanent passageway into the right side of the prison realm by combining our strengths,¡± Wei Yi explained, glancing towards Hui Xin, ¡°I¡¯d have suggested that you ask her about the various array and inscription plates I¡¯ve been working on before breaking through, but I suspect that she was more focused on me than my work.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. The mutt is far too wild to act reasonably, and yet the Cranial Domain seems to think that this is their best representative¡­ What a pathetic excuse for a faction,¡± Shufen Bai Shu muttered, even though everyone who was paying attention was sure that she could have shouted this without consequence.


    ¡°I won¡¯t comment on that, but I will say that they have provided me with the most resources out of all of you, especially when it came to acquiring various necessary components for the stabilization arrays. Without them, I might have had to delay this plan until the next rupture of the storm wall.¡±


    With the aid of the amalgam automatons, who were used as mounts or to pull large imitations of chariots or carriages forwards, as well as plenty of movement techniques and inscriptions which mimicked them, Wei Yi and the forces of the left of the prison realm reached the central storm walls within a single day, finding the outpost that was meant to guard for any unexpected lesions in the wall in a ready state.


    The outpost was composed of five towers spread out across a significant distance of the storm wall, made up of crimson stone carved precisely and stacked atop itself, with many arrays and inscriptions carved into every single one. Together, they formed an even more complex array, inspired in part by the legacy of the Martial God, with their energies being primarily targeted and the storm wall in front of them, and the land behind them, to ensure that no dissident forces could easily occupy the land without a significant degree of effort. However, the vast majority of effort was put into the wall-facing inscription plates, all of which were currently inactive.


    As neither Wei Yi nor the people in white could be certain of the exact location in which the storm wall would be torn asunder, she had been forced to create stabilizing formations on all five towers so that they could be aligned and utilized regardless of the precise point of the opening.


    Even then, this was only a small part of the plan, as these plates alone would not be sufficient to deal with an issue that had plagued the people of the prison realm for so many years and on both sides of the central storm wall. No, what would truly accomplish such a feat was a number and volume of inscribed stones and arrays that they would have matched one of the towers if they were to be stacked atop one another.


    To ensure that there were no confident idiots taking advantage of her work to attempt a stabilized gap in the wall on their own, she made sure not to explain the function of any individual inscription or array, not to mention the whole thing, and instead allowed every single piece to be placed wherever and however, meaning that only she would be able to complete the puzzle.


    Within each tower, roughly four dozen people were stationed in order to ensure that they were appropriately manned and that sufficient attention was paid to the fluctuations of the storm walls.


    As the procession from Beast¡¯s Rest arrived, they found that the stationed guards were already focused on the storm wall, with each wall-facing window of the enormous towers being occupied and everyone who couldn¡¯t fit in there stood outside to do the exact same thing.


    One of them glanced back, noticed the approaching group with Wei Yi at the front, and shouted, ¡°Master Wei Yi is here!¡±


    Those that could turned around and confirmed this, promptly breaking up and heading into the towers to retrieve the components for the passage stabilization construction while two of the weakest headed towards the procession to greet them.


    ¡°Master, visitors,¡± they had bowed to her first, then to the rest of them without referring to any one individual by name, ¡°We have not yet observed any significant changes within the storm walls, but the device that we have been given has been detecting something near the second tower, with minor fluctuations near the first and third towers.¡±


    ¡°I see. Gather at those three towers, leave two people at the remaining two, and set up the gateway stones near the second one. I will personally inspect all five measurement devices and the gateway stones to make sure that everything is accurate. The moment that you personally witness any occurrences within the storm wall, yell as loudly as you possibly can and launch the brightest technique you¡¯ve been able to learn,¡± Wei Yi stated, turning to those following her, ¡°If you want to watch, get onto the towers and in the spaces between the towers, but if you want to take part, you can get closer and I will decide what you are able to do and assign you to do it.¡±


    They did not contend with her instructions, as none of them had any understanding of even a single piece of the gateway stones or any of the arrays within or on top of them, not to mention the whole thing, and thus most of them decided to simply watch whereas a few came forward to help.


    With their limited assistance, Wei Yi brought the gateway stones to the second towers after checking the instruments that she had designed based on the memories of Bai Hao, confirming that everything they sensed was as accurate as it could possibly be. She did not immediately arrange the stones into any particular formation, continuing to wait for the tear to appear in the storm walls, but she did create a few smaller arrays near the wall in preparation.


    ¡®Old man, you¡¯ll want to see this,¡¯ she said to Bai Hao a little later, forcing him to appear in reality rather than in the library¡¯ lone tower, stabilizing his consciousness with her planar anchor.


    ¡°What do you- Storm wall? Are you actually trying to open the storm wall?¡±


    ¡°Not so loud, there are people around you that can hear you now,¡± Wei Yi limited the reach of his voice, but it still caught the attention of those that stood closest to her, which included the figures in white that were waiting for the storm wall to open, ¡°You¡¯ve been temporarily brought into reality.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ What?¡±


    ¡°Excuse me, are you also from the other side of the prison realm?¡± Hao Gang approached the old man in white, ¡°May we ask for your name?¡±


    ¡°I am Bai Hao. Have you come from Sanctuary?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right¡­ You¡¯ve achieved a method of granting people immortality?¡± the woman in white looked towards Wei Yi, for she sensed that the energy surrounding the figure came from her, and was only kept stable due to her.


    ¡°No, she-¡±


    ¡°Everyone, be quiet!¡± Wei Yi interrupted her and everyone else around her, raising her hand, ¡°The breach begins.¡±


    Oculus


    Thanks for everyone that has been reading so far, and for those who are giving me money on Patreon. I hope my next work will fix any issues this one has, and be more appealing to those who are interested in the lewd stuff, and who might have been hoping for more of it in this.

 V2C57: Land of White

    The storm wall before them trembled. A pulse of peculiar white slowly expanded on the other side of the crimson, pushing through into the crimson just before it finally and fully dispersed. Nevertheless, it left behind a faint white light within the centre of the pulse, roughly on the level of an average man¡¯s heart.


    It slowly advanced, the shape moving forward like the front of a large sphere.


    ¡®I see that they are indeed using the method described by Bai Hao, using spiritual will to push through the killing intent. In the normal situation, they would then be greeted by the explorative group and the connection would be formed for just enough time for the two sides to cross to the right side and allow the gap to seal behind them,¡¯ she thought, waiting for the sphere of spiritual will to advance sufficiently far, ¡®This time, however, they will see the innovations of the so-called savages.¡¯


    When the time was right, she thrust her hand outwards and released an enormous sphere of her own spiritual will to match the one being sent in her direction, piercing through the first inch of the storm wall without any difficulty.


    However, it could hardly continue, for the chaotic energy of the storm-like killing intent grew far more powerful the further it went, forcing her to compress it significantly until it was nothing more than a needle that was desperately attempting to pierce the storm, with every single movement in the depths of the crimson clouds causing this needle to tremble.


    Just as it was about to exit the range of her control, it tapped the spiritual will on the other side of the prison realm, and connected to it, overwhelming the energy of the other cultivator quickly.


    With the joined powers, she infused her stabilising energy into the connection and forcefully tore the dense storm wall asunder, bringing it to the size of her original spiritual will sphere in width and height. White light poured from the other side, but before anyone could adjust to it and see exactly what was on the other side, Wei Yi moved her hand back towards herself and closed it into a fist, the rest of her spiritual will exploding out of her hand and heading towards the many pieces of the gateway that lay behind her.


    They flew up, carried by nothing other than her will, and forced themselves into the open space, setting up several large arches that were connected at the top and sides, with shallow channels of energy and various arrays connecting themselves across them.


    She flooded these arrays with her killing intent, linking it with that of the storm walls, and infused the spiritual will that she expended on moving the stones into the remaining space within them, bright crimson and white pouring out of all of them and filling in the rest of the empty space between them to form the full archway. A small quantity of power surged out of either side of the passageway, preventing the killing intent or spiritual will from surging into the open path via either end.


    As if reacting to her actions, the storm walls on both sides suddenly pressed down, desperately attempting to crush the gateway that she had created, but she had naturally accounted for this.


    Despite this seeming intelligent effort, it was still a wild force, thus striking every part of the gateway at once and acting right into her hand, for the force from one side of the gateway was reflected onto the other side to maintain its stability, simultaneously drawing from the twin energies to refill the arrays and inscriptions while the exhausted energy contributed to the storm, thus stabilising both the storms and the gateway in a way that could not be achieved by the sheer effort of people alone, which was likely what so many intruders into one or the other side of the prison realm had failed to attempt due to the lacking knowledge of the great arts in this spatial realm.


    Even if it had previously been attempted before, the man on the other side of the prison realm was clearly unaware of such things, for he looked at the sight before him with bewilderment, as did the people that stood behind him, and those that stood behind them.


    Since they would not take the initiative to speak, Wei Yi stepped into the gateway first and announced, ¡°Greetings, people from the right side of the prison realm! My name is Wei Yi, and I am the leader of Beast¡¯s Rest, the largest faction on the left side, and I wish to bid you welcome. From now on, there shall be a permanent connection between the two of us, so I hope that our relationship shall be prosperous.¡±


    They remained stunned for a little longer, before the man at the front, whose spiritual will receded into his body when it had no more reason to remain within the air, took a similar step forward.


    ¡°The expedition that was meant to meet us ¨C what have you done with them?¡±


    ¡°Master Fen, we¡¯re fine!¡± Hao Gang rushed to Wei Yi¡¯s side and then proceeded to the white side of the prison realm once the latter presented no objections, ¡°We were planning to come through, but we found an outpost on the other side of the realm and when you began to open the passage, this woman came forward and used both spiritual will and killing intent to complete the connection!¡±


    ¡°Permit me to inspect your minds for a moment,¡± this Master Fen whispered to them, reaching out with a strand of spiritual will.


    ¡®It is only natural that they would use such methods, so the fact that I helped¡­ clear their minds several times should assist in preventing this man from observing my interrogations,¡¯ Wei Yi thought and snuck her own strand of spiritual will into the back of Hao Gang¡¯s head.


    The Weapon Condensation master¡¯s brow twitched for a second when her spiritual will brushed against his, but he did not appear to notice her and continued browsing through Hao Gang¡¯s memories. He saw the things that she intentionally brought forward first, like her latest few months in the prison realm, but then he continued back into the past, towards the year in which Wei Yi met with the woman in white.


    To his astonishment, however, he found that the memories from that time were cloudy, and that several portions of them were entirely absent, although he could not perceive any possible cause for it.


    ¡®That worked, then¡­ Easier than expected,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself while she waited for the man to view a different part of Hao Gang¡¯s mind so that she could revoke her spiritual will thread and pretend that she hadn¡¯t gotten involved in his mental investigation and that her spiritual will techniques were limited to offensive, defensive and constructive purposes, not mental ones.


    ¡°Wei Yi, of the Crimson Side, you wish for peaceful relations with the Virtuous Si-¡±


    ¡°No, no, don¡¯t do this. Either it¡¯s the Crimson and White Side, or Sinful and Virtuous, or something else. You can¡¯t just put two random things together and expect it to sound reasonable,¡± she interrupted him.


    ¡°The savages of this realm-¡±


    ¡°Once again, I do have to stop you. For one, I have come from the Planar Continents, and two, to label everyone here a savage sounds much like the actions of the Greats, does it not?¡±


    ¡°If you have truly originated from the outside realm, then you should perfectly understand the stance of the Virtuous Side. The killing intent that actively flows on your side floods your meridians, your mind, your body, and you regularly consume the blood of your so-called Beast. You and those that have lived within the Crimson Side are the true criminals of the world!¡± the man in white declared confidently, ¡°From what I see, your cities are also representative of this-¡±


    ¡°Enough of that.¡±


    Wei Yi¡¯s voice was grim as her immense killing intent surged out of her and forcefully flooded into the other side of the prison realm, overpowering whatever natural restriction kept the white and crimson apart, and stepped forward as she made the crimson energy intrude into the man in white¡¯s personal space.


    ¡°You¡¯re the type that foolishly looks down on everyone, aren¡¯t you? Furthermore, true criminals, you said? That¡¯s who you think we are?¡±


    Master Fen felt a shiver go up his spine when he felt the crimson flood toward him, but he remained stalwart, ¡°Naturally. Those who end up on our side are imprisoned for purely political reasons, while yours is full of vicious killers! Why do you think some end up there, and some end up here?¡±


    ¡°Vicious killers¡­¡± she took another step towards him, her bare foot landing in the white sand of the spiritual will side of the prison realm, ¡°Frankly, I can¡¯t speak for most of the people behind me, or their parents. Perhaps some could truly be guilty of so-called vicious killing. Perhaps if the leader of Beast¡¯s Rest was anyone else, you could have a point. Unfortunately for you, you are speaking to me. If I was to share some of my life with you, would you even care?¡±


    ¡°You think you can change the truth-¡±


    ¡°I was born a servant in one the families of Yi City ¨C some have guessed which one already, but I¡¯ll leave you to figure it out yourself ¨C and I had some rather poor abilities, at first. However, after a lucky break, I learnt that since my birth, I had been living within a house affected by four arrays intended to do nothing but dull my mind, weaken my cultivation ability and ensure that I would never amount to anything!¡± she exclaimed, a mirage of the arrays appearing behind her, ¡°Once I broke it and improved, I tried to grow, exactly as the family expected, while being cautious of whoever was responsible for the array¡­ Wanna guess who had been responsible?¡±


    ¡°Are you going to pin all of your troubles on the Greats? Would you not be as immature as you described me?¡±


    ¡°Oh, so you are paying attention. Good. No, I don¡¯t intend to blame everything on a single party, as that would be foolish. However, there is one thing that I do know,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°After the entire expeditionary force that was exploring the ancient Kong Holy Grounds was slaughtered by the spatial realm¡¯s consciousness united with someone that had power that they should not have possessed, I returned to my home to find it burning. Everyone I had gotten close to was either killed or forced to flee. Experts in the fourth and fifth realms of planar cultivation were slaughtered as if they were nothing. The culprits had an odd aura around them, with strange phantoms that almost seemed like other figures surrounding them.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve upset the Great Families, then?¡±


    ¡°No, not me. My actions had no effect on their actions. Apparently, my parents had something to do with it, but do you really think that their actions were in any way justified? Ensuring that my life would be a failure, slaughtering anyone I know, burning half of the fucking district just to get at me, then sealing me in a realm that, I suspect, they might not even be aware of the fact that it supports life, you think these are the actions of those who act wisely and imprison true criminals?¡± she paused for a breath, ¡°What about the Thunder Lord, Meng Qi? I have seen his memories, and I know some of the reason behind his actions, even if most of his memories were of his nightly activities.


    ¡°He was not some kind of vile, treacherous figure. He simply learned a truth of the Greats, allied with other forces, and attempted to rebel against them. I do not know exactly what led to this, but he was most certainly feeling that he was in the right. And yet, he ended up on this side, not on yours.¡±


    ¡°You-¡±


    ¡°So, the other side of the prison realm shares in our beliefs! Good to know!¡± a voice in the distance, within the white side of the realm, suddenly exclaimed, prompting Master Fen to turn around.


    The rest of the figures in white also turned to face a small approaching force of others in similar outfits, except their robes were decorated with silver threads whereas the group they were currently speaking to had none within their clothing. In addition, the one that had addressed them, a tall and mature man, had the vague shapes of the Planar Continents on the front of his robes.


    Judging by the immediate negative reaction of Master Fen and the others, they did not get along.


    ¡°Would you care to introduce yourself?¡± Wei Yi said, looking between Master Fen and the other figure warily.


    ¡°Of course. I am Mo Liang Shen, part of the Continental faction of the so-called Virtuous Side. As you might be able to tell, somewhat of a schism has formed within the otherwise orderly right side of the prison realm, and the people you have been speaking with are part of the Nobility faction, who consider themselves to be temporarily exiled out of necessity by the Great Families, rather than our appearance here being purely coincidental.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡± the brief distraction allowed her to suppress her killing intent enough to regain most of her sanity, ¡°Based on the knowledge that I possess, your position would appear to be the more reasonable one. Master Fen, you ought to consider this position.¡±


    ¡°Hao Gang, we shall be leaving now. These barbarians and the dissidents shall make a good pairing, I¡¯m sure!¡± Master Fen exclaimed, trying to keep himself composed, ¡°Fools.¡±


    He waved to those that had followed him and left with Hao Gang and those that had initially followed her into the left of the prison realm, though none of them paid any particular attention to the latter group, as they lacked any particular skills or information. Meanwhile, the man in the white and silver robes took their place.


    ¡°Greetings once again, everyone. You are the first people from the other side to come through to us in quite some time, so would you object to being shown around the place?¡± Mo Liang Shen proposed, holding out his hand as if to allow Wei Yi to take it.


    ¡°So long as the Nobility faction has no objections beyond that, I would not,¡± she replied, approaching him without any further action.


    The man did not appear to mind, lowering his hand and turning around, ¡°Then, please follow me.¡±


    They did not need to get far before the greatest structure in the entirety of the prison realm came into view, prompting every single one of them to stop. Wei Yi, Mo Liang Shen and Bai Hao had seen this many, many times before, with the first among them getting an excellent view from the third¡¯s memories, but they and the natives of the Crimson Side had the exact same response as the ivory towers came into view.


    Before them, Sanctuary reached into the skies with countless spires of varying heights that were arranged into a complex geometric pattern that could only be perceived from above.


    Every single spire glistened as if they were made from diamonds, all cut perfectly to a single size to match the rest. Soft white light surrounded all of it, further brightening the fantastic glimmering of the gem-like structures.


    Five primary towers stood in the middle, going the highest into the sky out of every single structure, and were connected to one another near the ground with aerial walkways. They also joined to a single tower that stood further away from the centre, of which there were nine, with their connecting pathways being higher up in the air, and the pathways that led to the third, fourth, fifth and sixth ring of towers were also higher than the others, with the outermost set of towers being connected to the next at their very peak.


    It was a curious visage, with two overlapping patterns trapping the eye.


    ¡®They didn¡¯t have that many connecting passages back in Bai Hao¡¯s day, so I suppose that they have continued working on this city all this time,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, looking to either side of it.


    Perfectly straight roads stretched out from the north and west of the city, travelling in a perfectly smooth line through otherwise uneven hills of white sand, with rows of smoothly aligned white trees with white bark and white leaves decorating it.


    Far away, through a dense white fog, two more cities could be seen at the ends of the roads, although none matched the size or opulence of Sanctuary.


    ¡°What of the construction of Sanctum Omega? Is it complete now?¡± Bai Hao asked suddenly.


    ¡°The construction was completed several dozen years ago, under our observation, of course. The Nobility faction thought that it was odd to have certain members that were not as noble as others,¡± Mo Liang Shen did not question how Bai Hao knew about something this old, for he was able to perceive a connection between him and Wei Yi and likely suspected that even if he was not some kind of remnant consciousness, he was not someone that lived in the present day.


    ¡°Actually, there is something I wish to confirm with you before we get any closer to Sanctuary,¡± she said, before Mo Liang Shen had the opportunity to get going once more, ¡°I was told about a method of competition that was common here, and I wished to see how I would fare.¡±


    He nodded, ¡°A single form of competition is indeed common amongst us. If you were indeed the one to use spiritual will in the opening of this gateway, then I would be more than pleased.¡±


    Pointing to a flat part of the terrain, he took his place at one side of the area while waiting for Wei Yi to occupy the other. Naturally, he was very curious about her exact abilities, but he would not ask such things outwardly, instead allowing her to reveal things on her own pace.


    She did exactly that, calculating the furthest distance that she could stand at while still being able to reach him and then getting onto that exact point without any signs that she had indeed done any kind of proper contemplation or consideration, ending up exactly nine metres away from Mo Liang Shen. Based on what she understood about spiritual will cultivation, his range would have been eighteen metres at most, which is where she would have also preferred to stand, but unless she invested most of her spiritual will into expanding the range of her actions, she would be unable to keep up if the man in silver and white acted at his full strength.


    ¡°Is your side more hospitable than we thought, or had spiritual will cultivation begun in the Planar Continents as well?¡± Mo Liang Shen said, seemingly being sufficiently satisfied with her prowess.


    ¡°Neither. I was fortunate,¡± she replied, ¡°Shall we?¡±


    The man in white and silver nodded, waving his hand and releasing a sphere of his spiritual will around himself. It rapidly expanded to the diameter of one metre, at which point it was completely stable and free of random fluctuations, with the density of it being sufficient to completely obscure any of his features.


    Wei Yi replied similarly, forcing her spiritual will sphere to stretch to five metres instantly, relying on the raw power and quantity of her energy and the stabilisation granted by her planar anchor.


    ¡°You wish to begin quickly, then? Allow me!¡± he exclaimed as his spiritual will expanded similarly, impacting into her sphere as it reached the same scale. Unlike her stable sphere, his one began to lightly tremble and fluctuate.


    She made her spiritual will retreat by half a metre and frowned, ¡°I have to say, I am not sure there¡¯s a good reason to continue. Your energy is lacking in stability and strength, whereas mine is not¡­¡±


    ¡°Indeed,¡± Mo Liang Shen nodded, revoking his energy as she revoked hers, ¡°Since you have delayed us, I shall do the same. I heard some of your speech, as you know, and I got the impression that you would have the desire to leave and fight back against the Greats. If, for instance, you were to get the chance to defeat all of them, what would you do?¡±


    ¡°Me?¡± she wanted to shrug at first, but then she recalled her ultimate goal in life, or the lack of one. She had already decided that the Yi City needed to be rebuilt without the Greats, or those that attempted to follow in their footsteps, and the reason behind that¡­ ¡°I¡¯d like justice. A world, a Yi City, where people like the Greats, or the otherworldly demons that seep into our world, have no chance to act however they like. A place where none can threaten others just because they gain a little bit of power. You can understand an idea like that, can¡¯t you?¡±

 V2C58: The Conflict in Sanctuary

    The force of Beast¡¯s Rest and the allied factions approached Sanctuary with the continued accompaniment of Mo Liang Shen, who had explained a little more about the current situation in the city as they walked.


    Originally, the entirety of the Virtuous Side had mostly avoided talking about their opinions on the Greats, the fairness of their imprisonment and other miscellaneous things that were now being contested, for, just as the Crimson Side, they had lost almost all hope of ever returning to the real world, to the Planar Continents. In their eyes, there had been no reason to bother with such things, and none of the leaders of Sanctuary had changed their minds on it for a long time.


    Then, that was suddenly changed. A small group rose up, debating the true purpose of their imprisonment with surprising eagerness.


    At first, no-one cared for this topic sufficiently to disagree with this group, but as their numbers rose, it became clear that they would need to contend with them fully. Thus, the Continental faction rose, forming from those that had not been persuaded to the other faction, but as it happened far too late for them to retain their dominance in the discussion, they were forced to become the so-called dissident faction while the Nobility faction took up the mantle of the primary faction of Sanctuary and Sanctums Alpha to Omega.


    Due to this, the Nobility kept the standard outfits of the Virtuous Side whereas the Continental faction, inspired by the continents that they desired to return to, added the symbol of the two continents onto their robes.


    The person responsible for this shift in ideology was not immediately clear, but when some of the people at the top changed, some guesses were made by the Continental faction and successfully managed to narrow the candidates down to just a few people, all of whom were capable, powerful and knowledgeable.


    ¡°Any reason why they would ever want to side with the Greats?¡± Wei Yi had inquired.


    ¡°It has been some time since we had any new arrivals in our side of the prison realm. Perhaps they mistook our history and decided that the Great Families had somehow been in the right in all of our previous conflicts,¡± Mo Liang Shen said, ¡°With so much time passing within the prison realm, it is hardly surprising, even if entirely stupid. Originally, there wasn¡¯t a tangible chance of breaking free from here, but with one gateway, the tensions will certainly rise¡­¡±


    He did not continue, for they had finally arrived at the entrance to Sanctuary. There was no gate nor any particularly high walls obstructing passage, with only chest-height barrier surrounding it in a perfect circle, and there was only one person standing guard at the entrance.


    What this suggested was obvious, but Wei Yi still decided to confirm her guess.


    ¡°Are there no creatures equivalent to the hatred automatons of the Crimson Side? Will automatons, for example?¡±


    ¡°No, none at all. All of the spiritual will in the world, apart from the quantity that makes up the outer storm walls, is entirely inert and has no consciousness of its own. No creatures have ever been animated by it, and there appear to be no creatures to animate in the first place,¡± he answered, ¡°For whatever reason, any beasts, insects and birds ended up on your end, whether due to some design of the Greats, or due to random chance.¡±


    ¡°Interesting. In that case, how do you feed yourselves? Spiritual will and nothing else?¡±


    ¡°Yes, nothing else. Through avoiding all of the hidden toxins and dangers in food, we can survive for longer than common men, roughly between two and three hundred years in the best case scenario,¡± the man in white and silver said as they entered the city, ¡°How has your side fared in this realm?¡±


    ¡°The hatred automatons that I mentioned are the most common sources of typical food, as their decayed bodies are kept in a semi-fresh state after their transformation, or through dried herbs and the like. These items were even put to use in the creation of basic pills not too long ago, reviving an art that was otherwise thought to be lost on our side. The rest of the dietary needs can be fulfilled via the blood of the Beast or its derivative, miracle fluid. We could share it with you via trade, if it would not affect your ability to survive for as long as you currently do.¡±


    ¡°That will need to be checked, but I¡¯m sure that there will be some interest in the various items available only on your side. Perhaps we could even share our understanding of pills, which we have also been working on as of late,¡± he replied, ¡°Forgive me if the reports had been incorrect in the past, but is there not a faction in your land specialising in¡­ carnal pleasures, shall we say?¡±


    ¡°If you mean brothels, prostitutes and sex, then that would be my faction, the same one that occupied Beast¡¯s Rest after defeating an otherworldly demon and a maddened killer.¡±


    ¡°Oh, is that so? Truth be told, that is something that is very lacking in our land, certainly not helped in the slightest by the gem-like translucence of every single structure in Sanctuary. When things are calmer, although there may be some slight protest, most of us would appreciate the opportunity to unwind.¡±


    ¡°That does make sense. We¡¯ll get to it when we have the time ¨C for now, I would prefer to concern myself with the altercation in front of us,¡± she nodded forwards, prompting the others to look.


    During their conversation, they had gotten closer to the centre of the city, and thus they came across the central plaza that sat within the middle of the three towers, where two groups stood opposite one another generating the closest thing to killing intent that could be found within this side of the prison realm. One side wore various designs of robes with silver threads decorating them, while the other lacked such decorations, but both were equipped with spiritual concentration blades by their sides.


    The two at the front of each group were speaking to one another, but their voices did not reach them.


    ¡°I had the impression that these weapons were purely for excursions to the left of the prison realm,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing towards Mo Liang Shen on her side, ¡°Furthermore, I was told that the Virtuous Side ¨C can¡¯t believe I¡¯m still calling it that ¨C is rather free of intense conflict.¡±


    The man frowned, ¡°The times have been changing. The Nobility faction have gotten a lot more confrontational in the past few years.¡±


    ¡°And the concentration blades?¡±


    ¡°They have become easier to produce and thus more widespread, so it had been decided that every single cultivator ought to carry their own spiritual concentration blade and take care of it themselves, so that they could be most used to it if they are ever required to travel to the Crimson Side,¡± Mo Liang Shen explained, ¡°So far, it has not been abused, but¡­¡±


    ¡°The possibility is always there, is it not? Is it a good idea to get closer to them?¡±


    ¡°If something does occur, it will be quickly suppressed, so it ought to be safe,¡± said the man in white and silver, bringing them forward with a hint of caution in his voice.


    ¡®He is not that certain of this. As expected of a place that has evaded conflict for so long ¨C any hint of it will suddenly inspire panic¡­¡¯ Wei Yi noted as she nodded to the others and followed him towards the argument.


    That kind of thing was somewhat concerning to her, as she was planning to remove the necessity for random violence and combat from her new Yi City and would thus face the exact same problem as the people of Sanctuary. If she was miraculously able to eliminate all possible threats to the rebuilt Yi City once and for all, that would not be an issue, but she knew that there would be a time when she, just like the Master of Yi City, would disappear, whether due to her own will or due to some outside circumstances ¨C at that point, if her people were completely incapable of protecting themselves, the second Yi City would split apart even more quickly than the first.


    She could not allow that, as it would simply be equivalent to giving the city back to the equivalent of the Great Families, whatever name and form they choose to take then.


    Things like combat training would not suffice, as the Virtuous Side had them frequently according to the memories of Hao Gang and Bai Hao, but true combat within the city would be difficult to achieve without allowing the premise of power being supreme over everything to take over.


    ¡®I am guessing that this is why the Master of Yi City, even if he had considered this problem and how this would allow the Greats to reign supreme due to their power, had done nothing to deal with the issue before it became significant enough,¡¯ Wei Yi theorised, although she had almost no information about the Great Families and when they came to be, meaning that they might not have even been a concern at the time.


    Unfortunately, all of this was simply a set of theories composed with lacking information, so she was forced to delay this contemplation and observe the argument between the only two factions of the Virtuous Side.


    ¡°- and now, the barbarians and savages of the Crimson Side have come here and spout the same nonsense as you do. Now, perhaps, you¡¯ll be able to understand exactly how right we are!¡± the man in the Nobility faction outfit stated, an obvious grin on his face as if there was no chance of him being proven wrong whatsoever.


    His entire being radiated smugness, to the point that even those behind him struggled to withstand it.


    The Continental faction was also rather confident, however, and their members appeared to have a more balanced quantity of smugness, making their presence significantly more bearable.


    ¡°You think so? Your sudden praise of the Greats has also been based on never meeting them before, I¡¯m sure. I¡¯d imagine that the moment you saw them casually disregard everything about you and do what they like to you simply because of your birth, you would change your mind quickly!¡± the man at the front stated with similar certainty, ¡°Furthermore, you¡¯ve gotten your force back, haven¡¯t you? Ask them about the behaviour of those that you call savages and what the only person who actually knows anything about the Greats thinks!¡±


    Before Wei Yi or Mo Liang Shen could announce their presence, the members of the Nobility faction seemed to perceive the fact that their argument was not going to succeed against such a challenge and turned around, leaving quickly while yelling the closest things to obscenities that were present within the Virtuous Side.


    They travelled in the direction of one of the three primary spires, where they were greeted by another group of people in ordinary white outfits.


    Meanwhile, those of the Continental faction shouted a few things back, then perceived their approach via their spiritual perception and turned towards them, with the leader saying, ¡°Ah, Mo Liang Shen. Greetings!¡±


    ¡°Greetings, Ding Ju Rong,¡± he replied, ¡°Have these people been causing you difficulties?¡±


    ¡°Not much. They do seem to be eager to get into verbal spats with us,¡± Ding Ju Rong said, glancing at Wei Yi and the others before looking back to him with a raised eyebrow.


    Mo Liang Shen understood his question and gestured for Wei Yi to step forward.


    ¡°This is Wei Yi, the leader of Beast¡¯s Rest, the largest faction in the entirety of the Crimson Side. She is the person you had mentioned earlier, even if you did not know her by name,¡± he introduced her quickly, ¡°She has expressed a desire to trade with us and knows of the terror of the Great Families.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± she confirmed.


    ¡°It is great to meet you!¡± Ding Ju Rong expressed, ¡°We¡¯ve been paying attention to the Crimson Side, and we have observed how the city you rule has grown quickly under your leadership. In fact, the design of the city expansion is inspired, to say the least. I almost believe that it could match or even exceed Sanctuary if it is completed.¡±


    ¡°High praise to be directed at someone with little experience in architecture and design, but I shall accept it,¡± Wei Yi nodded, ¡°I would not object to having any kind of casual conversation, but could I get a better idea of the situation in Sanctuary first?¡±


    ¡°Certainly! What would you like to know?¡±


    ¡°The split between the Continental and Nobility faction ¨C how many are in each group? How many neutral individuals are there?¡±


    ¡°Few to no neutral parties, as the split was significant enough in the higher echelons that it was nigh impossible to not to side with one group or the other. There is a roughly equal number on each side, although there are also likely a few on each side that doesn¡¯t have any particular belief in their side and would be open to switching if given a sufficient opportunity,¡± he explained.


    ¡®Well¡­ not what I would have hoped for. If a majority was prone to one side or the other, I could have slaughtered the minority and ally with that majority ¨C although I would prefer not to do so ¨C but if I was to kill half of people that could potentially contribute to fighting the Greats, I might as well simply let them loose once the prison realm is opened and get more out of them¡­¡¯ Wei Yi frowned, glancing in the direction of the Nobility spire only to find that the group had gone up the spire and were now too obscured by countless layers of cut gems to be able to perceive their location or actions with any clarity, ¡°I see. So, are there no other factions, or independent groups in either faction?¡±


    ¡°None that we know of,¡± Mo Liang Shen stated, with Ding Ju Rong nodding, ¡°We are near the top of the hierarchy, after all, so we would be unlikely to hear about any groups that do not agree with ourselves.¡±


    ¡°Right. Just to confirm, you lot are entirely against the Greats, and in the event of freedom from the prison realm, you would be willing to fight against them?¡±


    Both of them nodded, ¡°That was the work of our ancestors, and the reason why we are here. The second that we had even the slightest opportunity to damage the Great Families, even if it cost us our lives, I believe that most of us would eagerly commit to it without a second thought. Some of our faction may be a little more hesitant, but it is the Nobility faction that would side with them quickest of all.¡±


    ¡°That is currently occurring only due to their lack of understanding of the Greats, is it not? Has a single member of the Greats ever appeared within your side of the prison realm, or have they been just as absent there as on the Crimson Side?¡±


    ¡°None whatsoever,¡± Ding Ju Rong reported, ¡°We suspect that even they cannot evade the restriction of the prison realm.¡±


    ¡®That is plausible, of course, but it does suggest something positive, for once: it may be possible to get most of the population of Sanctuary and the Sanctums onto my side, so long as I can prove that my tale is entirely accurate¡­ I don¡¯t think that I have collected anything that can confirm that any words or memories are true, and even after two years of examining the insides of the House of Gold, I have still not found anything of the sort¡­¡¯ she remembered with a significant degree of disappointment, as anything that was able to detect lies would speed up the process immensely, ¡®Even if I did have something of the sort, perhaps my slight uncertainty about the actual identity of the brother and sister that sealed me in here would cause it to perceive my words as being dubious¡­¡¯


    While contemplating what she should do, her mind stumbled across the memories of the planar anchor shard that she had acquired from Ding Wen¡¯s first auction, prompting her to take it out and show it to the spiritual will cultivators, ¡°Do either of you know anything about this?¡±


    Due to the item¡¯s extreme scarcity in the Crimson Side, she expected them to shrug and allow her to move on to some entirely different question, and yet both of them nodded almost right away.


    ¡°Yes, we¡¯ve seen a large number of them. Unfortunately, we don¡¯t understand anything about them, so if you want to take all of the shards that we have, you can do so as a sign of our future friendship,¡± said Mo Liang Shen, gesturing towards the spire opposite of the one occupied by the Nobility faction and bringing her towards it.


    Before they came inside, Wei Yi asked those accompanying her to wait outside, or to take a look around Sanctuary, so long as they could do so without causing a mess.


    She was surprised to such an extent that she couldn¡¯t formulate a single sentence until she realised the reason why the inferior perceptive abilities of killing intent cultivators were able to understand something that spiritual perception could not ¨C the House of Gold.


    The first person to present one of the planar anchor shards was the same person that owned the spatial treasure that provided a brief description of its contents, so it was only natural that he had come to learn of the nature of the small stone and then decided to make a profit from it by selling it to a group of people who were keen to acquire some edge over one another. To her knowledge, it was the first ever item of its kind to appear in the Crimson Side of the prison realm, which would make far more sense if it was instead the only one to be discovered and accurately identified.


    Thus, she was less confused when she observed that over a dozen of these planar anchor shards were stored on a random table on the fourth floor of the spire, with only one woman sitting in a corner of the room and looking closely at another collection of items with far, far less value than these anchor shards.


    ¡°Are these just free for the taking, or can they be purchased with¡­ do you have currency of any kind here?¡± she asked, trying to make her interest in the shards a little less obvious than it already was.


    ¡°Some people attempted to trade with motes of spiritual will near the very beginning of Sanctuary¡¯s construction, but we currently use a point system. Based on our contributions in the tasks given to us by the city, and in our own pursuits, we receive points that can be exchanged at fixed prices with others,¡± he said, grabbing one of the planar anchor shards casually, ¡°We own these, however, so you don¡¯t need to bother with this for now. If you do wish to contribute to Sanctuary, I can get you an identity token.¡±


    ¡°As I assume that this takes time, we can do so later. I¡¯ll take these for now.¡±


    ¡°Here. If you find some use for this, you can submit it to the city and receive a number of contribution points based on the usefulness of your knowledge.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ shall consider that,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Now, on the topic of your two factions¡­¡±

 V2C59: Searching for the Culprit, Part 1

    ¡°- to do what?¡±


    ¡°You do not want to fight one another for no good reason, right? Surely it would be better to persuade the Nobility faction that they are in the wrong rather than ending up in a long, destructive and meaningless conflict?¡±


    ¡°Naturally,¡± both Ding Ju Rong and Mo Liang Shen nodded, with the former continuing, ¡°However, how do you intend to accomplish something like that?¡±


    ¡°You mentioned that you have a small list of the people that may have been responsible for creating the Nobility faction, correct? If that person is proven to be misinterpreting some information or just lying for their own gain, then the premise of that faction would be weakened significantly, allowing most of their number to be siphoned away to the Continental faction or brought into some independent group with which you and I could work with more easily,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°Alternatively, I would like to request that you search for something that can distinguish lies from truth, or to confirm the validity of memories, or to show them to others. Depending on how the plan on dealing with the propagator of the Nobility faction plays out, any one of these could be immensely helpful.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, that could work¡­¡± Mo Liang Shen said, ¡°There is a technique for viewing one¡¯s memories via a spiritual will thread, but it does not allow us to confirm the validity of these memories. There may be more techniques like that, but I would need to consult the archives to learn of them. The chances of finding an item with a similar purpose is higher.¡±


    ¡°Then look for an item or artefact to fulfil that role. If you don¡¯t object, Ding Ju Rong, could you bring me to see a few of the aforementioned individuals?¡±


    ¡°I can, although there are only so many people that we can visit before the Nobility faction deduces that we are trying once again to learn something about them. Due to this, I could either lead you to the most likely individuals, or you could choose who you¡¯d want to see from a list yourself.¡±


    ¡°The best way to begin would be by finding everyone who isn¡¯t up in some private room in one of these enormous towers,¡± she suggested, ¡°I¡¯m sure that if you¡¯re leading me through some points of interest, we could interact with several of them and confirm whether they have any particularly odd memories with that technique you mentioned. Mental Intrusion, is it not? I happen to have some experience in it.¡±


    During this discussion, Mo Liang Shen headed upstairs to consult the archives.


    Ding Ju Rong pondered the matter for a moment, then pointed out, ¡°The weakest of the suspects is in the upper third realm. Typically, such a thing only functions on someone of a lower realm¡­¡±


    ¡®If I reveal this, I will lose any opportunity to scan their minds in the future, but it would provide me with a certain degree of trustworthiness and value, meaning that they would be more keen to involve me in their politics¡­¡¯ Wei Yi considered her options for a second before smiling, ¡°Why don¡¯t I have a go? As Mo Liang Shen knows, my mental energy is incredibly stable.¡±


    ¡°That has nothing- well, if you insist,¡± he wanted to retort, but changed his mind and stood in place.


    Whether he thought that she would stand a chance, or if he just wanted to indulge her curiosity, Ding Ju Rong put him hands behind his back and calmly waited for her.


    Since he was intending to make things easy for her, Wei Yi decided to take advantage of his folly and did not ask him to put up his guard, instead releasing a thread of transparent energy that she quickly stabbed into the back of his neck without any sign of him noticing.


    Quickly, she came across the memories that were connected to his immediate experiences, which she skipped over as she would not gain much from them ¨C even his inside thoughts would be incredibly muddled unless she spent a high length of time just to interpret them ¨C instead going directly to the more distant, potentially more relevant and hopefully far more interesting ones that were generated several days or weeks ago.


    The moment that she spotted a curious memory that she could never learn about without the time or opportunities that she clearly lacked, she dove into it and scanned as much from it as she could.


    After a moment of analysis, she realised that her very first venture into the memories of an individual from the spiritual side of the prison realm had ended up bringing her the same results as her absorption of the Thunder Lord¡¯s echo. However, while those scenes provided her with pleasant scenes of women enjoying their time, this one¡­ lacked such a detail.


    Fortunately, she had experienced much since the meeting with the Thunder Lord, and had participated in certain activities that would put his libido and prowess to shame, and so she was able to ignore the sight and look through things that were less raunchy in nature.


    All the while, she remained relaxed in posture, almost as if she was doing nothing at all.


    ¡°Have you finished preparing the thread?¡± he eventually asked, clearly believing that impression after he scanned the area with his spiritual perception and discovered no traces of her thin energy.


    ¡°I¡¯ve done everything I needed to do,¡± she replied, ¡°Should I share the results?¡±


    ¡°Go on. Show me your expertise in the Mental Intrusion technique!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve misunderstood. I have already browsed through some of your memories, and, I must say, I understand why Mo Liang Shen was so keen to have a brothel built within the Virtuous Side. However, you have a pretty good understanding of arrays to be able to obscure your room to such an extent, both visually and aurally, without making it too conspicuous,¡± Wei Yi nodded alongside her praise, ¡°Congratulations.¡±


    He froze for a moment, ¡°Excuse me? Did you just accuse me of-¡±


    ¡°You were the one that told me to read your memories. In the future, if that is the sort of thing on your minds, please involve a female member of your faction,¡± she stopped him, ¡°I couldn¡¯t have possibly known about this from the small team that you sent into the Crimson Side, could I?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then, there¡¯s only one conclusion that you can ¨C and should ¨C make,¡± Wei Yi stated, removing the spiritual will thread significantly more harshly as to make sure that he was able to sense it, ¡°This method does work.¡±


    ¡°That might indeed be the case¡­ One final question, and then I will be convinced. What colour-¡±


    ¡°Silver. Asking me about colours is unnecessary in a world that is almost entirely absent of them, Ding Ju Rong,¡± she pointed out.


    ¡°True, although there is one person that is trying to create dyes from the many plants and trees of the prison realm. If he succeeds, we might be able to differentiate our robes from that of the Nobility faction further!¡± Ding Ju Rong stated, ¡°I could bring you to him on our route, if that interests you. I wouldn¡¯t know of the clothing situation in your Beast¡¯s Rest, although the robes look to be incredibly well-made¡­¡±


    ¡°There are only a hundred of these, so if you want to take a look, I would recommend attempting to kill one of the crimson robe wearers to steal their clothing, as per tradition. They regenerate themselves, so you don¡¯t even need to worry about how you attack the wearer.¡±


    He raised his eyebrow, ¡°Eh¡­ I shall consider it?¡±


    Sitting inside of a medium-sized building, a man sat at a large table that contained a number of curious designs and ideas scrawled on sheets of paper that were laid out atop it. He stared closely at one of his latest creations, frowning intensely, to the point of wrinkles forming permanently on his otherwise young and soft face.


    The soft white light of spiritual will poured through the wide space in between every single white wooden plank that made up the roof, filling in the room completely with the addition on the glow from the two windows at the front of the structure.


    It was impossible to tell exactly what he was thinking, but he was most certainly not paying attention to the entrance of his residence, as he completely missed a figure in crimson robes enter.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what exactly is this supposed to be?¡±


    ¡°A bra, something to support a woman¡¯s breasts and prevent them from sagging with age, as well as making things more comfortable in general¡­¡± the man answered without any actual thought about the question, nor about the sudden intruder into his space, until something internal suddenly shook him.


    He stood up abruptly, turned to face the figure in red, looked back onto the table, then swiftly swiped his arm across the table, throwing everything away from it, including the item of clothing.


    ¡°Dear customer! You should have knocked!¡±


    ¡°I did. Several times. Loudly. You did not hear me.¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­ is that so? My apologies, then¡­ if I may say, you have a very odd outfit for this place. Where did you get it from?¡±


    ¡°A body.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± the man wasn¡¯t sure how to respond to such a casual yet surprising answer, so he looked towards the scattered papers and then back to her, ¡°Since you¡¯ve come here, can I assume that you¡¯re interested in viewing or acquiring some of my goods?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure about acquiring anything yet, but I wouldn¡¯t object to inspecting your wares,¡± Wei Yi answered, ¡°Before I do that, could I get your name?¡±


    ¡°Fu Zan, aspiring craftsman and merchant. I hope you find one of my products helpful, dear customer.¡±


    He directed her to a room at the side, where a large set of his products was arranged on wooden imitations of the human figure, carved by someone that clearly needed more experience with both the crafting process, as was obvious from the many rough areas and countless scratches in the white wood, and the human body.


    These displays were predominantly for female clothing and underwear, but there was still a greater number of male items than she had ever seen within the prison realm and the Planar Continents combined. Even if she was to say nothing else about this person, Wei Yi had to admit that he had a lot of creativity to create such a vast array of items on his own. Furthermore, the designs for the female clothing were incredibly intricate and pleasing to the eye, presenting a vast range of styles despite his only equipment appearing to be a needle and a table.


    ¡®I can see why Ding Ju Rong believes that this man might revolutionise the clothing of the Virtuous Side, as he¡¯s clearly gotten used to wearing his existing products,¡¯ she thought as she glanced in the direction of an item labelled as ¡®boxers¡¯, ¡®However, the style of these things reminds me of something¡­¡¯


    She looked into one of the inner pockets of her robes and felt the grey shirt that had been made for her by the hatred avatar tailor and compared their physical sensations.


    ¡®Not identical, but the inspiration appears to be similar when it comes to the way that the material is handled and weaved together, or whatever the proper terminology in this field is,¡¯ Wei Yi silently shrugged to herself, enveloping the entire area with her spiritual perception, ¡®Now, I¡¯d hate to make any random allegations and further develop my slowly growing paranoia, but all of this is so new that I can¡¯t help but make a certain assumption that makes me profoundly uncomfortable¡­¡¯


    While considering what to do, she looked at one particular type of underwear and asked, ¡°How durable would you say that this material is?¡±


    ¡°Depends on what it¡¯ll be going through. These panties ¨C that¡¯s what they¡¯re called, by the way, customer ¨C wouldn¡¯t survive a direct strike from a sword, but when it comes to enduring liquids, dirt, sweat, or whatever else, so long as they are washed frequently, they will endure for years, at the very least.¡±


    ¡°At peak condition?¡±


    ¡°Exactly. I am very proud of my work, so if you purchase anything and find that it does not hold up to my promises, you can return or replace it at a tenth of the price!¡±


    ¡°Nice pitch, but I¡¯ve rather gotten used to walking around lightly. I could recommend this place to a few others, if you want,¡± she suggested, finding no trace of either otherworldly characters or any particularly odd things with her first look through the shop, ¡®Well, I don¡¯t actually care about improving his financial situation, especially since I have no idea how this place compares to others, but I don¡¯t know how to- actually, perhaps the Martial God-¡¯


    She did not have the opportunity to consider her idea before a wisp of spiritual will containing a simple message floated over to her, voicing itself within her mental domain when she allowed it to, ¡°The first one is coming. She is Shi An Qi, although she has a low likelihood of being the founder.¡±


    Almost immediately after, the door to the building was opened by a woman with nigh-transparent skin, blood-red eyes, colourless white hair and an ample yet slender figure. Her blood could almost be seen pumping through her veins, though the opacity of her skin did not extend to revealing her bones or muscles, causing her visage to be somewhat otherworldly ¨C in a good way, for once.


    She entered without any care for Wei Yi or the owner, heading directly to the women¡¯s section of the shop and browsing through it.


    ¡®This gives me a better opportunity than I would have expected. I can approach her entirely naturally!¡¯ Wei Yi smiled to herself, dismissed Fu Zan to allow him to gather up whatever it was that he had thrown onto the floor when she entered, and approached the woman.


    When she did not react despite her easily getting into the range of her spiritual perception, she chose to speak first.


    ¡°Hello there. If you¡¯re looking for a second opinion on that particular set, I think that it would fit you perfectly,¡± she said, making sure that her honesty was as obvious as it could be within her voice while carefully directing her spiritual will thread into the back of the woman¡¯s neck and stepping over to her side.


    ¡°Hm?¡± the woman turned to face her with a certain curiosity in her voice, but that swiftly sputtered out when she noticed the crimson robes on her body that stood out greatly amidst the purely white realm, ¡°Tsk. Savage. Get out of here before you ruin this store.¡±


    ¡®Lovely, this is the sort of person I¡¯m dealing with. It¡¯s fortunate that she made her stance clear from the beginning, or else I could have developed some liking for her,¡¯ Wei Yi resisted the urge to step away right away, forcing the thread into the woman¡¯s skin and into the mental landscape located within her head while shaking her head, ¡°I was just offering a suggestion. Furthermore, is there a reason why I¡¯m getting such a negative response from the get-go?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Shi An Qi did not deign her with an answer, taking a single look at the displayed items before turning around to leave.


    ¡®You¡¯re not going to leave that quickly, unless I quickly confirm that you¡¯re not the founder of the Nobility faction, so¡­¡¯ she quickly called out, ¡°I¡¯m actually a first-generation prisoner on the Crimson Side. I¡¯ve lived in the Planar Continents for eighteen years before ending up here. Passing up something that isn¡¯t even seen there just because of an inconvenient encounter seems¡­ unwise.¡±


    ¡°Have you been hired to advertise? Poor move.¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m just speaking my mind,¡± Wei Yi stated as she finally got access to the memories on the surface and scanned through them, finding nothing akin to the unfortunate memories of Ding Ju Rong, but also nothing of particular use to her, prompting her to dive deeper.


    The albino woman turned back around with a frown on her face, ¡°What would the Planar Continents say about filthy criminals like you?¡±


    ¡®It¡¯s hard to do anything but sigh in this situation¡­ thankfully, she¡¯s thinking enough about the other side of the prison realm for me to find some potentially relevant memories. Before I look at them, though¡­¡¯ she summoned Bai Hao from her mental domain and asked, ¡®Enlighten me, was the Sanctuary that you had left particularly against the other side of the prison realm, or is the notion of us being savages being widespread something more recent?¡¯


    ¡°You should have heard how many times I¡¯ve called you a savage. It¡¯s very common¡­ wait, when-¡±


    ¡®I threw you into my mental domain when the others went off to do their own things. You wouldn¡¯t have been able to get too far away from me, given your nature as a temporary sprite of spiritual will, so I brought you back in and confused your senses a little. We can talk later, but for now, I¡¯ll be handling this,¡¯ she stopped the old man in white from speaking and shoved him back into the tower of the Augur¡¯s Library, returning her focus to the woman in front of her, ¡®In that case, if she just wanted to further the dislike of the Crimson Side, she would not need to side with the Greats, unless she wanted to increase the divide by making the Crimson Side into despicable criminals and the Virtuous Side into necessary political sacrifices for the greater go- ugh, I can¡¯t even think of such a thing. What nonsense¡­¡¯


    A group of people that nonchalantly burnt cities just to get at one person, whose life they had already ruined forever simply due to that person¡¯s parents, couldn¡¯t possibly be concerned with the likes of the greater good, especially since they would have bragged about it instead of telling her to blame her parents for their actions.


    ¡°If I was to be brought before the people to be judged, I¡¯d imagine the first question would be about my crimes. Could you name any, besides me ending up in the wrong half of the world?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± the woman¡¯s glare intensified, but she offered no response verbally.


    However, her memories revealed an unusual crimson scene that couldn¡¯t have been seen by anyone who had been trapped within the Virtuous Side of the prison realm, instantly catching Wei Yi¡¯s attention and causing her to look deeper into that particular recollection.


    Almost immediately, she caught glimpses of physique cultivating barbarians surrounding the woman. Wei Yi was unable to understand any of the words spoken by either party without taking more time to view the memory, but she did see how Shi An Qi was easily chased down and severely beaten before she was somehow able to return to the other side ¨C her memories had clearly eroded from the passage of time, cutting out the things that she did not personally care for while focusing on the event itself.


    Based on that memory, the red-eyed woman appeared to get several long-lasting injuries, so to confirm its validity, she drove some of her spiritual perception beneath her clothing and found a series of large marks on her skin exactly where the strikes from the physique cultivators had landed in her memories.


    ¡®I¡¯d imagine that this kind of thing serves as perfect motivation for the Virtuous Side to increase their combat preparedness, providing another reason for them to be carrying the spiritual concentration blades¡­ Either way, the dislike of the ¡®savages¡¯ appears to be a genuine, reasoned reaction from her, not something inspired purely by the city¡¯s culture,¡¯ Wei Yi sorted through a few more memories and found that the woman appeared to join the Nobility faction after it already had half a dozen people, meaning that she was not likely to be the one simultaneously responsible for starting it, prompting her to shrug and say, ¡°Well, since you clearly aren¡¯t interested in speaking to me, I will leave you to browse on your own. Sorry for bothering you.¡±


    Shi An Qi continued to look at her with suspicion, then took another look at the black set of underwear and left without making a single purchase.


    ¡°Sorry for scaring away your customer. I hadn¡¯t expected such a response from her,¡± Wei Yi lied, ¡®Now, I can check who you really are.¡¯

 V2C60: Searching for the Culprit, Part 2

    Fu Zan accepted her apology easily, ¡°That¡¯s fine. She comes in every now and then, looks at my products longingly, then leaves. I suspect she¡¯s a little shy about it or perhaps she¡¯s ashamed of others seeing her in something like that.¡±


    ¡°Certainly, that is a possibility. I will say that both of those items of clothing are notably more risqu¨¦ than anything either the people of the prison realm or the Planar Continents typically wear.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, so I¡¯ve heard¡­¡± he smiled a little awkwardly, ¡°Still, it¡¯s bound to entice any partners one might have, so I think that it is a great idea! Comfortable yet attractive clothing is what we need, over simple and identical robes!¡±


    ¡®He is far, far too excited over something like this¡­ Anyway,¡¯ she took out a scroll from her robes and showed one side of it to the man, ¡°I¡¯ve got a potential order for you. Do you think it¡¯d be within your ability to fulfil?¡±


    ¡°Let me see¡­ the Martial God?¡±


    Wei Yi suddenly pulled the scroll away and look at the characters on the top of the material, sighing loudly.


    ¡°You really are an otherworldly demon, then,¡± she said softly, raising her voice to continue, ¡°I¡¯ll need you to answer some questions for me, Fu Zan.¡±


    ¡°W-What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t play dumb with me and read this writing again ¨C don¡¯t tell me you completely failed to notice something this obvious?¡±


    ¡°Wh-¡± he was about to repeat himself when she shoved the scroll in his face, pointing directly to the passage that he had read. His eyes glanced at the characters, then at one of the random labels on his products, and his expression darkened in understanding. Looking away from the scroll, he lowered his head.


    ¡°You called me a ¡®demon¡¯¡­ why?¡±


    ¡°I have met several of your kind- rather, several otherworldly people. The first was obsessed with rising to the top, thought that they deserved to be the Empress of the world, and constantly looked down on the heroes of the Planar Continents. For her own desires, she was willing and eager to kill everyone. The second, who was fought within this very prison realm, transformed every single one of his subordinates into objects just to increase his own power. Three more, that I¡¯ve personally never met, all possessed incredible power and tended to focus their lives on combat and strength, just like this particular Martial God whose scroll you¡¯ve now seen,¡± she explained, ¡°I haven¡¯t seen what kinds of things you can do, but I think that the label applies nonetheless.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t have any great ability. I can just make clothes!¡± he exclaimed, slamming the door to his shop shut with spiritual will, ¡°I¡¯m not a demon!¡±


    ¡°Perhaps that is all you can do. However, in the language of the Planar Continents, demon also means foreign intruder, or chaotic troublemaker. By this definition, it fits perfectly, especially when you consider the effect you¡¯ve already had on the world.¡±


    ¡°What effect?¡±


    ¡°Your clothes. As much as I have to admit that I would love to see a woman presenting herself to me in something like this,¡± she pointed to the same black set of underwear that Shi An Qi had been examining, ¡°you appear to have affected the dressing style and sense of the entire right side of the prison realm. On the left, a set of one hundred robes encouraged conflict between the strongest so that they could display their dominance, so imagine what could happen if you got your hands on some rare material and created something wholly unique to this world. By the way, these are from your world?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ But¡­ As I said-¡±


    ¡°Furthermore, I am not entirely convinced that your only ability is weaving fabric ¨C and even if it is, something tells me that it isn¡¯t as simple as you are making it out to be. Show me.¡±


    He grimaced but sat down and grabbed the needle and thread that were already laid out on the table. With the two in hand, he closed his eyes and sat still for a few lengthy seconds, during which he was completely enveloped in Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception.


    When he opened his eyes, there was a curious aura around him, though not one that appeared to be formed from tangible energy, instead being a sort of manifestation of his intense focus. He brought the two items together just as Wei Yi blinked for just a second, having stared at him for far too long to keep them open.


    And yet, when her eyes snapped open, half of the thread in the man¡¯s hand had changed, almost miraculously, into half of a completed pair of black lace panties. The thread wasn¡¯t black, nor was it in any way possible for a simple needle to achieve the creation of such an item, and yet it was right there.


    She blinked again, and this repeated, with her next blink resulting in the sight of a finished product.


    ¡°Time always seems to go by quickly when I work on these things¡­¡± Fu Zan muttered, wiping non-existent sweat from his brow.


    ¡°To be more precise, that was five seconds.¡±


    ¡°Eh? Really?¡±


    ¡°Do I seem to be in the mood to lie to you, demon? No, I am being as truthful as I can possibly be, even if I was unable to observe a single part of the process with my spiritual perception¡­ That¡¯s the trouble with you lot ¨C all of your abilities are completely against the standards of the Planar Continents and make very little sense within it.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by that? I could sense this just fine¡­¡±


    ¡°Is that so? In that case, could you tell me if there is anything in, or above, my hand?¡± she asked, raising her hand while opening a connection to the House of Gold.


    He spread his spiritual perception to her, felt around her hand, then shook his head.


    ¡°Then, even the otherworldly demons cannot perceive their own equipment. I¡¯m guessing that you have some kind of innate connection with the ability that you¡¯ve been using, and so you mistakenly believed that you were sensing it with one of your other senses instead of using the connection,¡± Wei Yi theorised, closing the connection to the House of Gold, ¡°Furthermore, I cannot possibly imagine that all your ability is capable of is making things quickly. I suspect that if you used some other materials, or outright changed the type of item you are creating, you might be able to achieve quite a lot.¡±


    She grabbed the panties from his hand and examined them and their material closely, finding nothing particularly odd about any part of them, other than the odd expression on Fu Zan¡¯s face while she was doing this.


    ¡°The clothing itself seems to lack any particular effects, at least none that I can perceive, so you may have this back. Nonetheless, your ability is beyond any technique that should be possible without the usage of your energy. It is outright supernatural. For this reason, I cannot just leave you be, especially not if you develop the same murderous tendencies as the others. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­¡± he nodded somewhat reluctantly, ¡°But¡­ what causes the madness?¡±


    ¡°You might want to ask yourself that. I have no idea, nor do I know if this is something that all otherworldly demons have to deal with. However, I think that it is best to assume so, lest you accidentally go mad with power nonetheless,¡± Wei Yi suggested, ¡°If you do not wish to share in their fate, or if you would like to help me prevent people less sane or more powerful than you from running wild, why don¡¯t you share a few things with me?¡±


    Fu Zan looked at her for a few moments, then slumped into his seat, ¡°Alright. Though, as I said, I don¡¯t know all that much¡­¡±


    ¡°You do know how to read this, don¡¯t you? Tell me what this says,¡± she showed that side of the scroll to him while also releasing a thread of Mental Intrusion spiritual will and directing it to the back of his head.


    Before she had the opportunity to place it into his head, he suggested, ¡°If there are more people like me out there, wouldn¡¯t it be better for me to teach you the languages that I know instead? If¡­ if I go mad, too¡­ it¡¯d be better if you didn¡¯t need to keep me alive and rely on me¡­ Or, if that would take too long, couldn¡¯t you use Mental Intrusion to learn more quickly?¡±


    She raised an eyebrow, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t object to me probing your mind? Alright then, focus on the language used here and I¡¯ll tell you if you need to do something different.¡±


    He nodded and obeyed, allowing Wei Yi to quickly lock on to his recollections of a strange language.


    ¡°This one¡¯s called Enian,¡± he said, pointing to the scroll as he clearly did not expect her to have already stumbled onto his mental dictionary of the language.


    Fortunately for her, he had learnt most of this ¡®Enian¡¯ during one prolonged period of his life, and so the memories were close to one another within his mind, letting her put her comprehension abilities to use and process everything in the matter of seconds to acquire some of the basics of the language and the meaning of the exact symbols used on the scroll, memorising the rest so that she could fully learn it at a later point.


    When she had collected every single drop of knowledge on the language that she could from his head, she looked down on the scroll and read the side of it that had previously stumped her completely, despite each symbol being so tantalisingly similar to that of the Planar Continent¡¯s language.


    ¡®The people of this world call me the Martial God, but I am no such thing.


    ¡®I have an ability, a physique that is one of the absolute physiques of this world, that I had found within myself when I came to this world, but I could not live a peaceful life.


    ¡®Everything I touched became a weapon, every thought I had turned to conflict, every person I met found enmity with me. Despite everything I tried, this dead, rotting world did not let me go. I couldn¡¯t break free to the supposed heaven on the outside, to the Planar Continents that everyone here desires. Eventually, I lost all hope.


    ¡®If you are like me, with a strange power and thoughts that you never had before, never let them consume you.


    ¡®Never.


    ¡®The people of this world call me the Martial God, but I was never him. I am He Ningan, and all I had done in my homeland of Enia was make and sell buns in a rural town. I should have never indulged in conflict, and while I cannot change the past, I will not do so again.


    ¡®When you read this, I will either be dead or in hiding. Don¡¯t look for me. If all you get is this message, do not seek my gifts. Remain stable. Remain peaceful. Do not let yourself be lost to this world. And, if, by some twisted joke by whatever gods may exist here, you do stumble across me, all I ever could or will offer you is a small meal for the road ahead. I will never return to conflict. I must never return to battle.


    ¡®Never.


    ¡®If you do come into the possession of my technique, you must not use it to begin wars, to ignite conflicts, or to create enmity. Only defend yourself. If you have to, keep yourself sane by following our laws, even in this new world.


    ¡®Do not repeat my mistakes,


    ¡®He Ningan.¡¯


    Wei Yi stood still for a while before she sighed and passed the scroll to Fu Zan, letting him read it while she pondered the subject of the letter.


    ¡°If you had any doubts in my words before, you should believe me now,¡± she said after a lengthy pause, having gathered a few more words in Enian and thus chose to begin in it, switching to the language of the Planar Continents immediately after, ¡°Unless you suspect that I¡¯m tricking you and have faked this scroll.¡±


    ¡°No, no, I don¡¯t¡­ you¡¯ve clearly never spoken Enian¡­ but it is strange to read¡­ It is almost like his misery is radiating from the words¡­¡±


    ¡®I cannot sense anything of the sort, but this may be due to my lacking understanding of the language so far. Perhaps once I understand more about it and its intricacies, I will be able to perceive this as well. Alternatively, perhaps the emotion here is insufficient to break my significant mental barriers¡­¡¯ she theorised for a few moments, ¡°I have to ask, are there any other languages spoken within your world? Here, besides the Planar Continental tongue and the warped variation of it used here, there¡¯s a different dialect on the Daoist Continent, the extreme south and north, a different language amongst the demons, ancient gods, planar beasts and there are even rumours of different tongues used by assassin organisations and certain factions¡­ Is your world similar?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, Orbis is similar, but I wouldn¡¯t know most of them. I could share the writing of traditional Enian-¡±


    ¡°Then do it. I don¡¯t know what differentiates them, but I expect countless different otherworldly demons to have been here at countless different times, so it would be odd if none of them had used a more traditional variation of your common language.¡±


    ¡°N-No, Enian isn¡¯t quite-¡±


    ¡°Shut up and think about traditional Enian. You¡¯re wasting my time, your own time, and the time of the world itself.¡±


    To Fu Zan, that sounded like nothing but unnecessary exaggeration, but he complied regardless. He pushed away the memories of modern Enian and recalled the time he had spent on learning the outdated form of his native language.


    There was less information on it within his head, and Wei Yi had learnt a little more about the interior of his mind, so she got through it significantly more quickly.


    ¡°I see. Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Well, there¡¯s also another really common language called Antanian-¡±


    She nodded, ¡°That too.¡±


    He had even less knowledge on this language, but it different greatly from the first two that he had provided her. It only had a few characters, a few letters, and further meaning and complexity was derived primarily from various combinations of the letters and the words created from them. While that difference did mean that she needed a little longer to begin comprehending it, it seemed like it would be quicker to grasp once the basics were firmly engrained in her head.


    ¡°Learning languages this quickly is rather fun, actually. Do you have any more?¡±


    He frowned for a moment, then nodded, ¡°I know a bit of North Antania¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°Give it to me, then,¡± she dug through the memories that arose quickly, finding far too little of the language to satisfy her. Before she could even consider a thought of complain, however, she saw him put a hand on his forehead as a trace of discomfort leaked into his otherwise stoic expression before then.


    She took as much as she could from his mind then retreated.


    ¡°Is your mind struggling from the strain of recalling two entirely different languages in full after not using for a long time?¡±


    ¡°Presumably,¡± Fu Zan agreed, ¡°I think that I should be able to handle one more, although, after that, I¡¯ll probably need a break, maybe some time to sleep and rest my eyes. How do you manage to learn so many different things in such a short time?¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°Some innate talent, maybe? What¡¯s your last language for today?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ I know several¡­ A bit of Nerinese, a smidgeon of Roksgardae and just a few phrases in Vexidirian,¡± he replied.


    ¡°I have no idea what any of these are, so just tell me what the next most spoken language is after the previous two. Alternatively, share the one that you know the most about, so that we get the most out of this,¡± she said, ¡°Try to think only of the language, not your memories associated with it, to reduce the pressure on the mind.¡±


    The man considered it for a moment, then shut his eyes and focused.


    She dove into his mind one last time and saw a series of memories labelled by a single, hastily scribbled word, ¡®Vexidirian¡¯. After going through all of it quickly, it appeared that it was more akin to Antanian than the language of the Planar Continents, except for having a few more letters and a differing grammatical structure. With this, she was able to learn the few words that Fu Zan knew, although the only sentence he had ever learnt appeared to be a simple greeting, meaning that she could not convey a single thing to any otherworldly demons that spoke it.


    Before she had the chance to further affect his mental state, she withdrew her spiritual will thread and allowed his mind to relax.


    ¡°Since you¡¯re not in the best state to talk, I¡¯ll leave for now. However, if you are genuinely interested in preventing maddened otherworldly demons from terrorising the world, or if you care about those in a similar position to you, with the madness not yet encroaching upon your mind, I would advise that you leave this position and join Beast¡¯s Rest, my faction. Tell them that Wei Yi sent you,¡± Wei Yi said, letting him figure out what to do on his own while she opened the door and left.


    Outside, Ding Ju Rong was standing beside a different building and occasionally glancing in the direction of the shop, and thus he caught her the second that she left, approaching her in a calm and collected manner.


    ¡°You were in there for some time. What did you discover?¡±


    ¡°Shi An Qi is unlikely to be the founder, as you had suggested earlier. Her objection is with us savages, without any clear preference for the Greats. She could still be the one, but it is doubtful. Also, that man makes decent clothes.¡±


    ¡°Understood,¡± he nodded, turning in a different direction, ¡°Our next potential target is some distance away. We should hurry if we do not wish to miss him.¡±

 V2C61: Searching for the Culprit, Part 3

    Their next destination was something that resembled a library in appearance and function, and even though those of the Virtuous Realm had decided to use it somewhat differently, it still contained books and knowledge for Wei Yi to casually absorb. Several arrays worked passively around all sources of information, likely to prevent this very thing, but they functioned poorly against someone who could sense all of their inner workings and bypass them with spiritual will that was clearer than air, at times.


    As a result, before they even got to their target, she had already gained a vast quantity of spiritual will techniques that she couldn¡¯t wait to put to good use.


    ¡°The next one is Chao Zhi, who is simultaneously one of the least and most likely suspects due to his behaviour. You¡¯ll likely see what I mean when you speak to him,¡± Ding Ju Rong said as he brought her through the library, ¡°Unless you are certain about him, try not to aggravate any tensions between us, as he might become an ally in the future.¡±


    ¡°Noted. I wouldn¡¯t have done something like that anyway, but¡­¡± she shrugged.


    ¡°There¡¯s a certain device that we¡¯ve created after a lot of work here, one that ought to be able to improve any techniques you¡¯ve cultivated. We haven¡¯t tested it with anyone outside of the Virtuous Side, so if you wish, you could participate in our experimentation.¡±


    ¡®Yeah, that sounds like it has never gone wrong before for anyone¡­ Still, I only cultivate a few techniques, but all of them possess immense power. If I can bring one of them to Full Success or beyond¡­¡¯ Wei Yi considered, ultimately concluding that she would be able to deal with any difficulties that might arise and, as a result, there would be no good reason for her not to attempt it, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll try it out. Would I be permitted to view the inner workings of it first, or is this something that¡¯s out of your reach?¡±


    ¡°It is not up to me, and even if it were, I have only seen a part of it myself. So long as you can reach it with your spiritual perception, there should be no problem.¡±


    Before there was a chance to acknowledge his words, he stopped and quietly nodded towards an elderly man in front of them, who currently stood near one of the shelves and stared closely at it, although it was difficult to tell exactly what he was looking at, or what he was searching for. He was quite still, with only his jaw and thick white beard moving up and down with every breath.


    This was Chao Zhi, who, according to Ding Ju Rong¡¯s brief description, was a brilliant inventor, researcher and someone that was just as important to the field of creating new techniques as Fu Zan was to the clothing of the prison realm. He was roughly one hundred and forty years old, outliving the conflict between the Nobility and Continental factions, but he had been a supporter of the former from an early point in time and fervently argued for it, even when he remained calm and mostly neutral on other topics.


    It wasn¡¯t clear exactly what drove him to this, and there were few who had any chance of matching him in raw power in order to probe his mind, not to mention competing with him in ability and technique. He, much like many in the upper echelons of Sanctuary, was in the fourth realm of spiritual will cultivation, Weapon Condensation, the name of which was slowly becoming less valid with the creation of the spiritual concentration blades, but he was at the very peak of it, nearing the realm of Balanced Being and striding towards it every day. In combination with his tendencies to keep his every thought to himself ¨C apart from his support of the Nobility faction, of course ¨C with a memory that far surpassed common men, it was very difficult to understand exactly what his reasoning for a number of activities was.


    Naturally, something like that was not enough for Wei Yi to be dissuaded from trying. So far, her spiritual will threads had not failed to pierce the mind of others in the same realm, and it was possible that due to their power, those in higher stages and realms would be even more likely to miss her energy while they watched out for more powerful opponents to contend with.


    To ensure that he would not consider her a particularly strange person, she approached him directly with the air of curiosity, one that she typically did not need to fake in the Yi District.


    ¡°Excuse me, am I disrupting your studies?¡° she asked.


    Chao Zhi finished the page that he was reading and turned towards her slowly, staring at the crimson on her robes for a little while before speaking, ¡°You¡¯re one of the people from the other side of the prison realm? What do you need?¡±


    ¡°It has been quite a long time since I¡¯ve seen a library like this. Would you be able to guide me to some material that I could study?¡±


    ¡°Oh, you wish to learn? Certainly. I assume that you only have basic knowledge of spiritual will cultivation, if any, so I can show you where a few free books can be found on the topic of spiritual will, cultivation and the like. Are you capable of practising the pure energy of this side, or have your meridians been steeped in killing intent?¡± he asked many questions, one right after the other, ¡°If you only wish the theoretical knowledge, I would need to bring you to a different part of the building¡­¡±


    ¡°I am capable of utilising spiritual will!¡± Wei Yi admitted with a trace of pride within her voice as she raised a hand and displayed an incredibly thin cloud of spiritual will that could easily be seen as being in the first realm.


    Her intentional display of weakness not only achieved the desired effect in lowering his wariness, but it also appeared to grant him some respect for her, as his eyes lit up slightly, ¡°To achieve that in such an inhospitable place is truly impressive. I have great respect for you! If it was not against the rules, it would be my honour to present the Knowledge Cultivation Room to you so that you can solidify your existing knowledge and refine it to the peak, at which point everyone on both sides could learn from you, but alas¡­ Let me show you some of the best free tomes, although I suggest that you consult the other ones as well. My opinion is not necessarily accurate, you see¡­¡±


    Just as per his description, he insisted on not forcing his opinion onto her and showed her a variety of tomes and books, going through the confirmed accuracies in each one while mentioning some of the faults in them as well. Even when they came across a book that she knew that he had written, he did not mention it and spoke about it just as plainly as the other ones.


    While this talk naturally pulled him away from the thoughts about his faction and the reason for joining them, she did not rush him, listening patiently while settling her spiritual thread in his mind and processing what she could from the library and the flashing recollections in his head.


    ¡°I will certainly study the texts that you¡¯ve recommended,¡± she said once he had completed his initial recommendations, ¡°If it is does not inconvenience you further, could I ask you a few more questions? I have been struggling to understand the situation within Sanctuary and the Virtuous Side so far, and the fact that everyone I speak to instantly dismisses me with the word ¡®savage¡¯ certainly hasn¡¯t helped in the least¡­¡±


    She looked down, permitting blood to rush to her cheeks to make her appear to blush in embarrassment, as if she was a simple, meek woman.


    ¡°You¡¯ve not been in this prison realm for long, have you? I apologise for such treatment, but many here believe that everyone who ends up on your side was deserving of their punishment, whereas those that were placed in the Virtuous Side are here for different reasons.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ Then, what about you?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t entirely share this sentiment, but I do think that the Great Families have the right idea. They are the right ones to lead the Planar Continents forth, and when we can return, they will let us do so.¡±


    Those words made it difficult not to break character, but Wei Yi knew better than to let something this simple get a rise out of her, especially when this discussion caused memories more relevant to her begin to pour out from the depths of the old man¡¯s mind. For now, she threw away the frustration and instead looked into his eyes with the saddest expression she could muster.


    ¡°B-But, they destroyed my home, burning half of the district in the process!¡±


    ¡°They-¡±


    Before he could get a single word out of his mouth, Wei Yi saw a powerful memory flare up within his mind, overwhelming any response that he could have possibly provided her on his own.


    ¡®- the candle that must light the way -¡¯


    ¡°- are the rightful masters of the Continents!¡± he declared at the same time as the memory forced itself into his focus.


    ¡®This¡­ something about that memory isn¡¯t right. It is too prominent to possibly be the result of some simple trauma,¡¯ she understood almost immediately, relying mostly on her existing familiarity with her own mental stresses, ¡®That means that he has either met with the Greats themselves, or someone who forced themselves upon his mind and twisted it with an influence that is too powerful for the common mind to handle. I can only presume that he had previously cultivated some kind of mental technique and avoided being scarred at all times, but the experience still had its toll¡­¡¯


    A spark of absolute hatred lit up once more within her Augur¡¯s Library, but she suppressed it before it could affect her current performance. Regardless of who was responsible for the effect on his mind, it was bound to lead her to the answer about the founding of the Nobility faction.


    ¡°Do you even know what you¡¯re saying?¡± she continued her distraught act, ¡°They killed so many people!¡±


    ¡°I-¡±


    ¡®- a wind to guide the rains -¡¯


    ¡°- we must follow the directions of the Great Families! Those that go against them are traitors to the world-¡±


    ¡®- have the blessings of the heavens -¡¯


    ¡°Their will is heaven¡¯s will!¡±


    His shouting attracted a small audience, but that sound was nothing compared to the fainter, yet more distinct sound of breaking glass. A bright wave of crimson burst out from Wei Yi¡¯s body, forming a dense aura around her, as if she was engulfed in raging flame. Raw dawn light ignited within her eyes, as if they had transformed into miniature flaming suns.


    Although her outburst was caused almost entirely by the words that he spouted, the biggest reason she let herself go was the fact that she had found the thing that she had been looking for.


    Within the man¡¯s mind was one brief glimpse of the past, and although it was incredibly brief and far too faint to grasp more than a single thing about it, that one thing was the name of the person that had further intensified the effects of those memory scars upon him.


    Wei Yi raised her head and shouted the name that came from his mind, ¡°CHANG FANG HE!¡±


    Amplified by both of the forms of Lion¡¯s Roar, her voice burst out of the library while shaking every part of it, striking the buildings around it and expanding outwards, seemingly without anything being able to stop it. The wave of sound shook the enormous spires of Sanctuary, and even shifted the air around the city, creating a series of circular patterns centred on the library near the eastern side of the city.


    There was no possibility of ignoring such a call, making it entirely obvious that the one being called would arrive in time.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Chao Zhi questioned, before her glare suddenly returned to him.


    ¡°I saw your memories, old man. You were lied to, and your previous trauma has been greatened for his personal gains. The premise of the Nobility faction is a lie! Chang Fang He¡¯s words are all lies! Even the mental influence that the Greats have forced upon you is an enormous lie!¡±


    She was making a number of assumptions, prime amongst which were that Chao Zhi¡¯s memories were all accurate, and that the terrifying mental pressure originated from her greatest foes.


    If she was wrong, her later argument could easily be undermined and disbelieved by those she was intending to speak with ¨C perhaps even by Ding Ju Rong, who was currently standing far away from her with his mouth agape and his mind absolutely stunned by the extreme madness that appeared to be surrounding her actions ¨C but based on his reaction, she seemed to have guessed exactly what the circumstances of his past were. He took a step back, nearly bumping into the bookshelf behind him, and took a moment to understand exactly what her words implied.


    ¡°Your spiritual will-¡±


    ¡®- ruler to guide them -¡¯


    ¡°Ah! You-¡±


    ¡°You saw the outside, didn¡¯t you? You¡¯ve seen the Continents, and you upset the Greats. They probably wanted to teach you a lesson for messing with them. Chang Fang He took advantage of this and amplified that lesson, causing you to be unable to think a single stray thought! Am I right?¡±


    The slowly growing crowd did not require his verbal answer, for it was obvious how much he was currently struggling from this line of questioning.


    ¡°Nobility Faction! Continental Faction! You are allies! You are separated only-¡±


    ¡°Savage! Stop filling the people¡¯s minds with lies!¡± a voice interjected, coming from a man that suddenly swooped in beside Chao Zhi, his hair short and brown while his eyes seemed to glimmer with wisdom beyond his age. His robes were white and simple, making his allegiance clear, but what spoke the most about his identity was the dense spiritual will infused into his very body, stable yet fresh, placing him into the first stage of the Balanced Being realm.


    This was clearly Chang Fang He, and although his expression was mostly calm, his spiritual will proved that his mind was anything but.


    ¡°Oh, this again? Savage, you say? You toyed with this man¡¯s mind to bring him into your service, lied to the entire population of the Virtuous Side, and are now trying to brand those that speak against you as liars!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, turning to the crowd, ¡°Which one of us is more savage?¡±


    ¡°People! She is trying to divide us with her hateful words! Do not-¡±


    ¡°Shut your fucking mouth, liar!¡±


    She didn¡¯t understand the approach that he was intending to take in this conversation, but she did not let him go through with it, instead throwing out a wall of spiritual will that she morphed into a large image with one of the techniques that she had found within the library. Within it, she recreated the image within Chao Zhi¡¯s mind, where the horrors of his past overlapped with the words of Chang Fang He, who was clearly observing the discomfort being experienced and yet continued, repeating his words again and again.


    It barely had the chance to stabilise before Chang Fang He tried to destroy it with a blast of his own spiritual will, but Wei Yi had already stabilised it with her anchor.


    As a result, that dense and concentrated blast only made the image waver, only adding more validity to it as it slowly began to move with Wei Yi finding more and more within Chao Zhi¡¯s mental domain, even while he desperately tried to focus on getting her out while also recovering from his terror and panic.


    ¡°- they are the rightful leaders-¡±


    ¡°- the kings that will direct the common people -¡±


    The two voices, one belonging to a younger Chao Zhi while the other belonged to some unknown member of a Great Family, overlapped with one another, echoing in the ears of the crowd. Alongside them, they witnessed the current pained expression on his face, seeing a conflict beneath the surface.


    For a moment, Chang Fang He was distracted by this image, and in that moment, Wei Yi threw out a dozen spiritual threads that she wove into a single dense rope, plunging it into the back of Chao Zhi¡¯s head while he and the rest of the people were distracted, obscuring it with a thin fog of loose spiritual will that blended in with the air of the right of the prison realm and hid it from the sight of all but the most observant.


    Within his head, she witnessed a small, weak man being surrounded on all sides by towering figures cloaked in darkness and shadow, only their eyes glimmering above him. They were all wrapped in the same strange illusory energy that she had previously witnessed on the members of the Greats, and all of them chanted at the same time, their voices blending with one another until they became completely incoherent. Nevertheless, they were understood by the old man, who was visibly shaken with every word that was spoken to him.


    ¡®You again! FUCK OFF!¡¯ she exploded with killing intent, guiding it to burst out and scorch every such figure in sight while she rushed to Chao Zhi¡¯s side.


    The figures, while they were strong even as figments of memory, could not match up to a living will that did not fear them, not to mention one foreign to the mental landscape in which they held the most power.


    As such, when she came to his side within his mind, they had been pushed back to the edges of the mental landscape, bleak and empty as it was without the guidance of superior mental techniques designed for the organisation and expansion of the mind. They desperately tried to crawl back to their previous places, but while they were being held back, Wei Yi forcefully raised him from the ground.


    ¡®Chao Zhi! I can delay these spectres! If what you care about is the world, the people and your freedom, speak up! Let them know the truth! Share your memories with them!¡¯


    ¡°I¡­ I would just be sending them to die! The Greats are too powerful-¡±


    ¡®They are not! They are mortal, just the same as any of us! They can die! They can be killed! They can be wounded by those with inferior cultivation!¡¯ she did not allow him to fall into this trap on his own, and instead projected her own memory into his mind, one that would never fade even if she had never cultivated the Gilded and Augur¡¯s Libraries, ¡®They are human! They bleed! They are not immune to harm, just like any other!¡¯


    His eyes widened as he took in everything within the memory that she had allowed him to experience, ¡°How is¡­ your cultivation is weaker, but¡­¡±


    ¡®They are not gods! They are not the heavens! They can fall! We can free the world from their grasp, we can rebuild Yi City as the united prison realm, we can prevent their plague from ever returning to this world! Just speak up!¡¯ she repeated, ¡®We do not need them!¡¯


    Before she could say much else, her spiritual threads were severed by Chang Fang He, although the dense protective killing intent remained in place within his mind. The brown-haired man stretched his hands out as a vast quantity of spiritual will flooded into each one, forming the hilts of blades just as his hands grabbed them.


    Both were shortswords, without a proper guard, although one was white while the other was grey ¨C it was nigh impossible to generate black spiritual will naturally. Their shape was odd, almost impractically wide and thicker than most swords, but they radiated confident power.


    ¡°The people will not listen to some random savage like you!¡± he exclaimed, lowering his body as he prepared to charge towards her.


    It was then, however, that Chao Zhi¡¯s back suddenly straightened, and his voice overpowered all sound.


    ¡°The Great Families are mortal! They have no right to our obedience!¡±

 V2C62: One’s Twisted Innocence

    ¡°What?¡± Chang Fang He froze, his attention switching entirely.


    ¡°You saw me tremble with every mention of the Greats and pushed me until you realised what they had done!¡± Chao Zhi continued, his voice secretly being amplified with Wei Yi¡¯s support, ¡°Due to your delusions, you drove me to tears until I could not even consider disagreeing with your words! You act just like the Greats!¡±


    He turned to the crowd outside, ¡°We can be unified! The two factions, the two sides of the prison realm ¨C they can work under the guidance of someone that has successfully harmed two members of the Great Families! We can see the light of the sun and the glow of the moon once more!¡±


    With every word, he spoke more quickly, and it soon became obvious why. After his last sentence, he fell to the ground with a cry of pain, his shaking hands grabbing onto his head in some feeble attempt to suppress the immense horror within. Even without a spiritual thread connecting them, Wei Yi was able to tell that her killing intent had been annihilated by the memories, and that they had now returned with twice of their previous power, as if to punish him for ever attempting to deal with the lesson provided by the Greats.


    Still, his words had reached a quarter of Sanctuary, and they quickly spread to the Nobility and Continental factions alike, regardless of what either one thought about them.


    ¡°You¡­ no matter. You, girl, are going against the obvious victors of the world, and that alone makes you worthless!¡± Chang Fang He declared, ¡°How foolish do you have to be to fail to see the futility of your actions?¡±


    ¡°Futility? This is futile?¡± Wei Yi asked back, switching the projected image to that of the wounded face and damaged clothes of the two members of a Great Family. If it had been the image of any normal person, such a thing would have been entirely insignificant to anyone, but what she showed was stunning for two reasons.


    The first, and most obvious, was the natural sky and terrain present within the scene. It was too natural to have been concocted from simple tales and stories that were widespread within the prison realm, and thus it gave credibility to the image.


    The second was the simple fact that the Greats were to cultivators as cultivators were to mortals, to common people. At their weakest, a cultivator could be slain by a mortal, of course, but as their cultivation rose and their state recovered, a literal city of people would need to rise up in an extremely organised fashion in order to have the slightest chance of injuring a cultivator. Meanwhile, the Great Families were said to be immortal, indifferent to damage, capable of surviving the very sky crashing down upon them without a single scratch on them or their clothes. It was said so commonly within any material mentioning them in the Virtuous Side that it had become common knowledge.


    And yet, there it was. A mark, on two members of the Great Families at once.


    It was akin to a miracle.


    ¡°A pathetic fabrication! Do you expect to-¡±


    ¡°Shut your mouth! I have yet to finish!¡± Wei Yi infused another quantity of spiritual will into the large floating image, filling it with so much power that it literally bloated and burst.


    However, it did not scatter, but instead expanded into the full scene, with her barely remaining on her feet after exhausting all of her power, while the Greats showed a look of absolute, uncontrolled fury that clashed with their typical attempts at presenting themselves with pride. They could smell smoke and flame around them, see the dirt and grass on the road, and even feel a feeble wind barging out of the memory.


    ¡°Everyone, do you believe that this is false?¡± she shouted with the empowerment of the Lion¡¯s Roar, forcing the scene to split, expand and shift, spreading it as far as she could while doing almost nothing to the image before her primary audience, ¡°They were not attacked by someone two realms above them, nor was some heavenly item used to damage them. It was planar energy, and nothing more!¡±


    Of course, it was possible to fabricate such a scene, but it would be bound to take time, preparation and a lot of effort, even for someone with a mind as efficient and quick as hers. Those of the prison realm did not know about her mind, and even if they did, there was only a single conclusion that any of the common populace, and many of those in power, would even wish to make ¨C it was real, and the Greats were mortal! They could be beaten! They could be killed!


    ¡°The Great Families are mortal?¡± one voice expressed their conclusion with uncertainty.


    Another followed, ¡°They are human, just like us!¡±


    ¡°They can be injured!¡±


    ¡°¡°THE GREAT FAMILIES CAN BE KILLED!¡±¡±


    ¡°Be silent!¡± Chang Fang He tried to launch a blast of spiritual will at the shouting observers to shut them up, but it was intercepted by Wei Yi, who appeared in its path in an instant and dispersed it with a single powerful punch.


    ¡°Now, why don¡¯t you tell us why you¡¯ve lied to the people that trusted your words?¡±


    ¡°I did not lie! It is only obvious to support those who live in a greater world to our own, those who can decide our fates with a single breath! Even the greatest among us would be like ants to them, and just-¡±


    The killing intent around Wei Yi had been beginning to fade then, the success slowly lightening her fury from the words about the Greats, but when she heard his description, her mind unwittingly recalled the words spoken by the first powerful enemy she had been forced to face in her life. She, too, spoke of higher worlds, of ants, of being nothing to those above them¡­


    ¡°Otherworldly demon!¡± she shouted, the second explosion of her hatred instantly turning the floor beneath her to dust and shattering the spiritual will arrays that protected the shelves around her, sending the books and shelves flying away from her, ¡°Once again, you fuck with a world that you do not even understand, and yet you dare preach to us that you are the one acting with wisdom? You dare speak of obvious victors, of futility, when you do not even belong to the Planar Continents? Answer me, you bastard!¡±


    Perhaps he would have answered her, but her crimson energy expanded rapidly, further shredding anything in its path, forcing him to retreat. She controlled it to stop just before it reached Chao Zhi, who was still on the ground and writhing in pain, but it had made her stance against him clear.


    ¡°I understand how this world works! It follows the same clich¨¦s as always, which makes you a worthless foe that will be slain within a chapter! Just-¡±


    ¡°WE ARE NOT LIVING IN A FUCKING BOOK!¡± dense crimson concentrated on her left arm, almost forming into solid claws despite the deficiency in realm, ¡°I don¡¯t care what you¡¯ve learned on your other world, but this is reality! You are not some protagonist, fated to succeed! You do not have the blessing of the heavens! You are just a spoiled child with a blessing that you do not deserve!¡±


    Within her mental domain, her Augur¡¯s Library lit up like a lantern in the night, illuminating both sides of the mental prison realm in crimson. She converted most of it into the condensed books and pages that she could use in extreme situations, but even then, the power was so overwhelming that it shook the foundations of the entire structure, driving her to make a set of declarations based entirely on her assumption from previous experiences.


    Despite that, she believed herself to be accurate in this regard, as the behaviour of both Yi Henghua and Chang Fang He were close to one another. Both, despite whatever suffering they had faced, had gained something too powerful without any work, so far as she could tell, and had clearly gotten used to that power. Perhaps it was only natural to assume that you were the centre of the world if the very best things within it seemed to flow towards you, but it was a childish and sickening perspective when it gave rise to the idea that one¡¯s every act was righteous, and every one of their foes was destined to fall due to their wickedness.


    ¡°I am no child! I have lived two lifetimes, in full, whereas you¡¯ve barely gotten through half of one!¡± he rejected her claim, suddenly throwing his blades, ¡°Behold the power of the protagonist!¡±


    A second set of shortswords appeared in his hands while the first flew towards Wei Yi with peculiar accuracy. They spun at great speed, almost blending into a set of white and grey blurs, but she was not in the right mind to worry about such pathetic weapons.


    She dashed towards one, grabbing it with her crimson-encased hand and crushing the blade into nothingness while a Frayed Blade spawned within her right hand, although it mixed with so much killing intent that, in combination with the natural appearance of the technique, it almost seemed to be made of a killing intent that was denser and more powerful than her hatred itself, as difficult and unlikely as such a concept seemed to be.


    ¡°Despite your age, you still play with toys!¡± she exclaimed in reply, unleashing a Hatred Split within a downward slash.


    Even while she was in the second realm, such an attack at full force was able to sever the space of the prison realm. After two years, a breakthrough in her cultivation, and ample time to improve on the technique, she had chosen to focus more on speed and fluidity rather than anything else, as power would naturally follow with a greater cultivation.


    Her weapon expanded just far enough to be able to cut Chang Fang He in half, then exploded into scorching flame and searing crimson half-way down the swing, and further empowered by overlaying the Cleaving Axe ability onto the weapon.


    The raw force of the technique fell upon the brown-haired man, exploding outwards as it landed on a hastily created barrier, crushing the walls around him into nothing. A thick plume of smoke and dust flew into the air with such speed that it caused the spires of Sanctuary to tremble, with stray specks of dust scratching their surface and even piercing into the interiors, disrupting the lives of those within. A thin spatial tear formed within the last seconds of her swing, swallowing a certain quantity of the dust and devouring it without a trace.


    And yet¡­


    ¡°Do all of you have bullshit methods of escape?¡± Wei Yi shouted in frustration, swatting the enormous cloud of dust away to reveal that, apart from a few hairs and a drop of blood, Chang Fang He had somehow vanished from his location and appeared elsewhere.


    She instantly turned towards his new position ¨C as he was still within the range of her spiritual will ¨C and found him standing atop a roof, his teeth clenched while one hand lay on the top of his head in an attempt to suppress the bleeding. A trace of the cut was visible on his head, but it was thin and shallow, insufficient to do anything but shake a seasoned warrior or lightly terrify a commoner that was unused to blood. It could not end his life.


    ¡°As I said, I am the one in charge! Since I cannot best your brute strength,¡± he winced as the wound on his head slowly attempted to heal, ¡°I shall show you the truth of my ¡®toys¡¯!¡±


    With his free hand, he pressed down on his chest, shutting his eyes for a moment. Although it was the perfect moment to make a move on him, before Wei Yi could do so, she found the characters within her dantian trembling slightly as a great quantity of stable energy pooled within his body, prompting her to stay put as to be able to respond in the best manner.


    The next second, his eyes snapped open and he slowly pulled away his hand from his chest, a strange light following them out of his body. It was a mixture of white and azure, and as it lit up the space around him, the vibrations of the mysterious characters intensified.


    ¡®Another one of those twisted abilities belonging to the otherworldly demons!¡¯ she recognised it easily, as the azure light, trembling of the characters and the inability to perceive it directly with spiritual perception were all obvious signs of interference from those that did not belong to the Planar Continents or the spatial realms within, ¡®It is stabilising the area around it, contains a lot of power, clearly has a degree of control to its actions, either through itself or through Chang Fang He¡¯s influence¡­ An anchor?¡¯


    It provided the answer for her when, after crossing some arbitrary boundary away from his chest, the glowing light pulsed, with only the azure expanding at a great speed. Within a single breath, it covered the entirety of Sanctuary, covering it with a dome-like energy that released countless threads of will that forced themselves into the stagnant spiritual will of the city and shaped it into humanoid figures.


    Those figures, bare and simple as they were, crashed onto the ground, with idle strands of energy forming into weapons or random pieces of armour that they then put to use, heading towards the nearest person with these weapons at the ready.


    Although this action was clearly one made with haste and folly that appeared to be prevalent in otherworldly demons, there appeared to be a purpose to their and Chang Fang He¡¯s madness, as one of the figures within her perception targeted a simple clump of spiritual will instead, grabbing onto it and adding it to itself and channelling a certain quantity of it to the glowing white light in his hands, as well as to his cultivation.


    This was a terrible act, of course¡­ but also the most perfect opportunity she could have asked for.


    ¡°People of Beast¡¯s Rest, attack the spectres! Protect Sanctuary!¡± she shouted first.


    No direct reply came to her, but their actions spoke far louder than any words could. As soon as her voice reached them, several dozen crimson pillars rose from the ground, crashing into the spiritual will figures forming above them, then exploded horizontally, cutting through the apparitions around them with ease, the killing intent easily shattering the feeble spiritual will.


    Once she confirmed that the techniques she had previously taught to them were effective, she turned her attention to those that were most in danger, ¡°People of Sanctuary! Chang Fang He, the founder of the Nobility faction, is not only an otherworldly demon, but someone that does not care for your survival, only his own interests! These spectres originate from him, and it is due to him that you will be harvested for your energy, so that he can shut me up! If you want to survive, approach the nearest pillar of crimson!¡±


    As the most powerful amongst every guest from the Crimson Side of the prison realm, she naturally needed to contribute, so as a series of phantoms formed near her and chose to target her, regardless of the driving force behind such a decision, she reined in her killing intent only to unleash it once more.


    Before the opening of the tear in the storm walls, Wei Yi and the people at Beast¡¯s Rest naturally had ample time to prepare, during which they created the gateway stones. However, those stones were not the only thing that she had prepared ¨C techniques for herself and everyone else was another. With the benefit of the memories of Bai Hao and the expeditionary group that she had captured, she had a somewhat decent understanding of the right of the prison realm even before she came to it, and thus she knew what the threats she might have to face were. Cultivators were one, but the equivalents of hatred automatons were another, so she had prepared a method for handling each one without harming the other, as well as methods to target all spiritual will.


    Now, she used one of those exact methods, capitalising on the fact that her energy could easily split far further and with far more stability than anyone else¡¯s, and created an enormous sphere around herself and the library. It was formed from killing intent, and thus it cut straight through the spectres incredibly easily, creating a bound space of her own spiritual will within it.


    ¡°Everyone, use the spiritual will and prepare for battle!¡± she spoke to those within the sphere without the Lion¡¯s Roar technique and physique, ¡°Min Lian, you¡¯re here, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I am, Master,¡± the assassin emerged from the edge of the spiritual will and killing intent sphere, bowing to her quickly before she drew a weapon that had been specifically created to replicate the Scorching Blade of her assassin organisation, ¡°Do you wish me to protect these people?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. I need you to prevent their deaths while I expand my influence and limit the unbound spiritual will that Chang Fang He has access to,¡± Wei Yi explained herself quickly, linking the automaton¡¯s resonance with her own energy as to allow her to wield as much power as possible, ¡°If you have to, sacrifice your bodily integrity, though not to the point of sacrificing your combat ability and mobility.¡±


    ¡°Understood, Master,¡± she nodded and immediately went to work, slashing through a dozen wraiths.


    As she had things under control, Wei Yi rushed out of the sphere and brought a small sphere of energy with her, dragging out the field that was controlled by her planar anchor and bringing it towards the rooftop on which Chang Fang He was creating these spectres.


    ¡°You¡¯ve given up on convincing your people, haven¡¯t you?¡± Wei Yi called out to him, concentrating an immense quantity of spiritual will within her right fist.


    He shook his head, retreating while the white light accompanied him with a slight delay, ¡°I have not.¡±


    ¡°Killing them all is hardly a genius plan, otherworldly bastard. At this point, even if you had been in the right, not a single soul would believe you,¡± she explained, having gotten far enough from the others to allow her to speak a little more freely, ¡°I¡¯ll give you a single opportunity to stand down and not be a murderous bastard, but if you reject this, I don¡¯t care whether you were a kind man in your world, in Enia or-¡±


    ¡°WHAT? HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT WORD?¡± the soft white light that emanated from a point between his hand and chest suddenly brightened by several folds, the colour transforming into a duller yet more intimidating grey, ¡°Who are you? Where did you get that word from?¡±


    ¡°A fellow otherworldly demon of yours. Did you think that you would be the only one here?¡±


    However, even if her words reached him, they did not affect him, for he immediately created a legion of spiritual will apparitions around himself and sent out half of them to fight her, ¡°Die!¡±


    ¡®That¡¯s your opportunity gone, Chang Fang He. Don¡¯t expect me to ever consider giving you a second chance,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as a storm of spiritual will threads burst out of her body, forming into the shape of an array, ¡®Furthermore, you think that you¡¯re the only one who can create countless disposable warriors? Let me show you how to do it properly.¡¯


    She recalled an array that she had once encountered and broke, and although she had only a second to witness it then, she had memorised it just as fully as everything else within her mental domain. Her threads formed the Restraining Phantoms array in seconds, but then the many loose threads that remained arranged themselves behind it and around it, expanding it in both size and power as her plentiful spiritual will surged towards it, activating the newly refined and assembled array just as the opposing wave of spectres reached her.


    They tried to swing and claw at her, but a force suddenly kept them in place, with countless hands emerging from the air and grabbing onto their limbs.


    With the standard Restraining Phantoms array, that would have been the full extent of the two star array¡¯s power, but then the fractal  patterns came to life. Each one of the hands expanded slightly, then tightened their grip on the will spectres and pulled themselves out of the void, full skeletal and ghostly figures emerging from nothing. Despite the lack of weaponry and equipment, they still fought the spectres, biting at them with such ferocity that their armour proved to be worthless.


    As soon as they dealt with the initial wave, they and the array itself turned its attention towards the group that currently surrounded and protected Chang Fang He, with countless more hands and limbs emerging from some unknown void to grasp onto that defensive force.


    ¡°What the hell is this? You¡¯re just some girl ¨C you should be failing pathetically until some prince comes to save you!¡± the man shouted in Enian, his ranting directed more at himself than anyone else.


    ¡°That¡¯s a strange assumption, demon,¡± Wei Yi replied in the same tongue, causing his head to snap towards her and his eyes to widen in further surprise, ¡°There are no princes in Yi City, nor in the prison realm. Finding a prince around here is bound to be far more difficult than one of your kind, not to mention one more powerful than me.¡±


    ¡°But that is how it works! That¡¯s how it always works!¡±


    ¡°Really? Is that more wisdom from some story that you¡¯ve read?¡±


    ¡°Exactly! And now, as I am nearly defeated by you, the Great Families will finally take notice and descend upon this damned world, cleansing it of bitches like you!¡± he excitedly informed her, looking up as if to observe their literal descent.


    That was a poor move on many levels. Even putting aside the fact that there had never been a single sighting of the Greats within the prison realm, meaning that them appearing now, out of nowhere, would be highly unlikely, he distracted himself with this move as even his spiritual perception was directed to the storm clouds above, perhaps hoping to be the first to notice some traces of a spatial tear.


    If he had been right, he would not have suffered greatly. And yet, even as Wei Yi flew right through the spiritual will spectres and thrust Sharen e Mo into his chest, no one appeared to save him.


    It pierced right through his body, cutting through the heart and several ribs in the process, and was pulled out of him just as easily, as if he had not been there to begin with. Rather than bothering about finishing off Chang Fang He¡¯s body ¨C as she felt that at this rate, he would manage it himself ¨C she raised the sword above her head, gripping it with both hands, and channelled physique energy, spiritual will and killing intent into the weapon, instantly causing another crack to appear within its surface. A Titanic Demolisher appeared beside her, its weapon merging with Demon Killer, while the Martial Aspirant physique energy empowered three instances of Moonlight Ire, Demonic Ire and a nameless, killing intent variant of the same technique.


    The initially spotless storm cloud-covered sky was suddenly torn asunder as a moon and sun appeared within that gap, shining brightly upon the glowing white light that had not yet followed Chang Fang He to the ground.


    With the full imbuement of all of her available energies, the three instances of her technique completed charging up in an instant, at the minor cost of yet another crack of Sharen e Mo¡¯s surface, with neither of the false objects in the sky being able to dominate the other to appear in the centre of the opening within the storm clouds.


    ¡®If this cursed power can be destroyed, then¡­¡¯ she did not finish her thoughts, for she saw that the light was slowly beginning to move, instead slashing down with the full force of her powerful muscles and physique, the additional weights on her wrists, the power of the True Ascendant physique, the further assistance of the Martial God¡¯s Extremes and even the mostly dormant Condensed Arts Body and planar energy.


    ¡°DIE!¡±


    Her weapon struck the light in the blink of an eye, the overlapping techniques and the overuse of every muscle in her arms causing everything within them to crack and tear.


    It tore the space in its path asunder, revealing a dark and empty void, and even managed to decapitate Chang Fang He through the sheer sound of the slash, catching him just as he tried to rise for one last gasp.


    And yet, when it met the light, it was as if it had encountered an immovable object, for it was unable to nudge the wisp of light even slightly, not to mention cutting or damaging it in any way. If anything, the weapon appeared to be suffering more, as a chip of obsidian broke away from the blade near the spot of direct impact. Even the fact that the sphere of light around Sanctuary appeared to recede seemed to be linked with the will of the light, rather than her actions.


    Nevertheless, she ignored the pain in her arms, the damage to the weapon, the collateral damage to one of the main spires of the city, and applied even more force, activating every single technique that could be transmitted to the weapon via Storm Blade Wreathing.


    For the sake of the Planar Continents, of the prison realm, of life as a whole, she had to succeed!


    Crimson, silver and sunlight merged together, moonlight surrounding them, and every single one of them exploded at once, the sun and moon above her suddenly shattering completely as both of their light pooled together and fell from the sky, crashing down onto her weapons as it illuminated the entirety of Sanctuary and beyond.


    The light was fantastic, brilliant, astounding and more, instantly illuminating the Virtuous Side with an even greater display than the split moon of the Great Bone Lake, and yet, to the one performing it, to the splitter of both sun and moon, to the only planar cultivator within the prison realm, to the one with an anchor that rivalled the prison realm itself, to the one with the unique cosmic energy and possibly even an unrivalled mental domain, nothing mattered as much as the fact that the light beneath the weapon completely ignored her attack, replying only when she was exhausted with a single pulse.


    That pulse threw off her blade and flooded the dome of energy, which had shrunk to roughly half of its previously size, with even more wild controlling threads, which quickly coalesced into more spectres that sought out targets to feast upon.


    Or, so they would have done, if the trembling characters within Wei Yi¡¯s dantian hadn¡¯t finally gone beyond that point, breaking up into many individual fragments that arranged themselves into an enormous, complex and impossibly powerful array that did not belong to the Planar Continents, impossible quantities of energy surging into it from some unknown, unseen source, condensing together to release a singular blast of power.


    It struck the glowing light just as the last spark of life faded from Chang Fang He¡¯s body, causing it to suddenly fade and dim, the large dome of energy around it receding as nothing but an azure gem remained. For several seconds, it hovered in the air, doing nothing at all, before it disappeared from the world.


    The second otherworldly demon felled by Wei Yi¡¯s hand died with a look of absolute confusion on his face.

 V2C63: The Secret of the Shards

    The casualties were greater than Wei Yi would have hoped, but lesser than half of the city. One of the central spires, coincidentally belonging to the Nobility faction, had been felled, and with it, seven hundred and forty-six people died, whether from the tower itself or from the spectres that had disappeared alongside the otherworldly azure light.


    Some of the losses were significant, or were received with mourning, but this brought a certain result that one of the propagators of the conflict was incredibly happy with.


    While the spiritual will cultivators struggled to withstand the spectres, as their wills could not compare to the otherworldly power that drove their foes, killing intent cultivators brought along by Wei Yi enjoyed the fact that their energy was the complete antithesis of spiritual will and were able to shred through apparitions as easily as a sharpened sword might pass through paper. When then they went to protect the spiritual will cultivators and showed no ill will towards them, even the most fervent opponents of the so-called savages were forced to put up with them, as in the case of Shi An Qi, while others quickly embraced their presence and did everything they could to assist them.


    As the word that they were being led by Wei Yi spread out throughout Sanctuary, it mixed with the description of the battle between her and Chang Fang He, leading everyone to view her as an impossibly powerful force at the very least, and a great hero at most.


    One thing was clear, however. The Nobility faction could not continue as it had been, as it had been founded on lies or misinterpretations by a single person that were then propagated via trauma and gullibility. Even if many had joined as they had agreed to the premise of the faction, they realised that they could hardly continue to emulate the thoughts of someone who had nearly killed all of them just a short time ago.


    Quite quickly, the remaining leaders of the faction decided that it would be best to temporarily retire the factions of Sanctuary, as they had led to far more divisions and issues than good. The older form of rule was initially to be brought back, but they then remembered their saviour and hero, and the promise that she had made after she had some time to recover from the battle ¨C that she could bring them out of the prison realm, to the Planar Continents, and show them not just the imitations of the sun and moon, but the real thing, without the obstructions of the Greats and the limits of the current, rotten and decayed Yi City. She could give them Yi City reborn, forged anew on the anvil of the Greats, where the initial glory brought by the Master of Yi City could be witnessed once more in far more magnificence than ever before.


    A bold claim, of course. Bold, yet oddly believable, especially after she singlehandedly replaced the spiritual will around Sanctuary with a bubble of her own energy, doing it with as little difficulty as the prison realm itself seemed to.


    It did take her some concentration and straining of the planar anchor, but she wasn¡¯t intending to reveal that to them, not before they had all joined her side.


    Not too long after everyone had the opportunity to consider this properly, and after some people from the Sanctums came to ask about the recent disturbances in almost everything near Sanctuary, it was decided that the people of the Virtuous Side ¨C forcibly renamed the Silver Side, after Wei Yi pointed out that their most virtuous members had nearly initiated a genocide ¨C would follow their saviour into the beyond and follow her instructions, at least until she did something similar to Chang Fang He and proved herself to be unsuitable.


    With their approval, it was incredibly easy for her to get into the Knowledge Cultivation Room and observe all of its inner workings and functions, leading to her creating plans for integrating it into her own mental domain and her cultivation methods before considering the most optimal technique to advance through it.


    Improving several would have been best, but apparently, only a single technique could be focused on with any visit, and it could only be used once every few years at the great cost of countless spiritual will motes that were used to assist in the derivation of techniques, as well as stress on the body and mind of the cultivator. Although Wei Yi had hoped to be able to ignore such limitations due to her cultivation, her exploration of the Knowledge Cultivation Room confirmed that the stress of overly rapid improvement without the body¡¯s direct involvement was not one that she had been prepared to handle.


    Planar techniques were out of the question, as they were not within the scope of the arrays and inscriptions used within the room, nor could they be improved through the same processes.


    Physique methods fell into a similar category due to their reliance on the physical body and an energy that appeared to be nigh non-existent within the Silver Side. Only one or two physique cultivators existed, while the rest of those that owned physiques, like Shi An Qi and her Eclipsed Sun physique, simply practised spiritual will techniques of a particular kind that best suited their natural strengths and could supplement their weaknesses.


    Common spiritual will techniques, like the ones that she was able to ¡®borrow¡¯ from the library before much of it was damaged ¨C she naturally restored every book that she could and returned it to them, although she did so without allowing them to question why she knew so much about their techniques despite only appearing within the Silver Side recently ¨C were also not suitable, as they were simply too simple and useless in the larger picture. All of the cultivation methods, going from First Light, Second Light and all the way to Fiftieth Light, were variations on the same simple principle, one that would not greatly benefit her in the battle against the Greats in the future.


    The more powerful skills, like Demonic Ire, Hatred Split and the like, were a poor choice for two reasons: firstly, she had already cultivated them to the Full Success Realm due to their power, and going beyond would require more than just brute force, and secondly, they were additions to her power, not the direct sources to it. If her cultivation was to be imagined as a foundation, as per the standard similes and comparisons made by many cultivators, then these techniques were ornaments placed on the bricks laid atop it.


    Thus, she only had a single option left ¨C the Augur¡¯s Library.


    It was, technically, still a technique with roots in spiritual will cultivation, as it had originally been a mental technique designed by Kong Shi Meng. Furthermore, due to the creator¡¯s identity, it likely contained a number of secrets beneath the surface, secrets that she could not wait to uncover and put to use.


    Since she had already expanded its principles to cover the entirety of her mental domain, the improvement of the Library would directly strengthen her mental energies, deductive capabilities, general mental processes, memory and whatever else she could think of, thus leading to the strengthening of her body and the improvement of other techniques through the advantages that it would offer her. Wei Yi also had a slight feeling that she was approaching some kind of qualitative change within the technique, although she did not understand what that would bring, exactly what it would entail, nor whether this feeling was accurate in any way.


    ¡®Still, even if it is not, I have no reason not to improve the Augur¡¯s Library. At the very worst, I gain nothing in particular, and in the best situation, I reach beyond any level the prison realm could even imagine without even cultivating to the fifth realms,¡¯ she thought, stepping into the room confidently.


    Climbing to the top of a circular set of stairs, she sat down upon one of the primary arrays in the structure and shut her eyes, focusing all attention on the mental domain and the technique that had led to its creation. She concentrated the mental domain on her head, so that the arrays of the Knowledge Concentration Room could do their work most efficiently, blocking the rest of her body with her energies so that it would not waste its time there, where it would do nothing.


    This wasn¡¯t a requirement of the process, but something that she had decided to do on her own after comprehending the inner workings of the room. It would raise the efficiency of the cultivation process by several percent by only allowing the arrays to target a single, relevant part of the body, whereas most of the people that entered the array would experience the arrays affecting every part of them, causing some of its power to be lost while it passed through their bodies towards the correct places within them.


    Once she was sure that everything was the way that she wanted it to be, she nodded quietly, signalling to those in control of the room to activate it.


    For a few moments, there was little movement or action from the inscriptions and arrays, but then the spiritual will motes that had been placed inside of them previously finally dissolved and spread out across the entire room, changing and converting into a form of power that was simultaneously similar and different from its initial form, containing no will while still enhancing it.


    It flowed to her, slid over the spiritual will and killing intent that surrounded everything beneath her neck, and surged into her head, spilling over into the mental domain where Wei Yi had pre-emptively lowered the storm walls as to allow this energy to come and go as it needs to.


    Like water, it soaked into the structure of the library, permeating it entirely, coursing through every single part of the structure as if they were all far, far apart from one another, with plenty of space for it to flow. There, with Wei Yi¡¯s assistance, it attempted to understand the complexities of the Augur¡¯s Library, and to derive a continuation or progression for it. As it joined with the countless memories regarding the technique within, it linked itself to the present, the dark golden and crimson library, and with the past, of soft golden highlights.


    Nothing could look into the actual future, only make accurate predictions, and this Knowledge Cultivation Room was no exception, but as it slowly did its work, Wei Yi felt her mind clear and deepen.


    Certain facts and traits of her cultivation that had previously been unnoticed by some confusing miracle of nature had finally surfaces, and the stagnant shape of the Augur¡¯s Library slowly came undone. Every piece of wood, every nugget of gold, every part of the dark columns that held it up parted, although not physically ¨C as physical as anything can be within the mental realm.


    At first, the only thing that could be improved was the simple shape of these individual parts, but as that progressed, a hidden power within the library slowly revealed itself. It contained great, untapped potential, holding the key to so many complex matters, potentially even changing the very ideas of spiritual will and killing intent as they were understood within the prison realm, but that remained out of her reach, for now. She needed to go further to uncover this mystery, to learn what she and her mind were truly capable of, and in order to achieve it, she might even need to break everything she had built up just to allow it to be rebuilt, greater than ever.


    However, the world and the heavens, if the latter even knew about the prison realm or what was done within, seemed to have plans other than allowing her to handle this on her own, in her own time, as she liked doing most things.


    Instead, the very structure of the Augur¡¯s Library suddenly shook, with every shelf and wall quaking in their place before the force of the Knowledge Cultivation Room¡¯s energy suddenly flared up, growing in power by a dozen times as the entire mental domain shook with the library, as if it had somehow experienced an earthquake despite the lack of any such forces within the structure of her mental world, as well as the prison realm, upon which it was modelled on.


    ¡®What part of the arrays is doing this?¡¯ Wei Yi questioned, consulting the mental books that were, thankfully, unmoved by the disruption, when she realised that while this phenomenon was caused by the influence of the room¡¯s energy, the origin of the shaking and the damage to the library was the technique itself.


    It was trying to reach some kind of greater level, exactly as she had hoped, but it could not sustain the changes that would need to take place.


    ¡®I have a planar anchor, which puts me in a far better position than any of the people in the prison realm, but it seems that whatever it is that I¡¯m trying to unlock is out of my reach. Somehow, I need to stabilise my power further, or else sacrifice all of this energy and rush out of the room, wasting this excellent opportunity!¡¯ she understood quickly, glancing into the House of Gold and then into her pockets, ¡®Out of everything I have, very little is actually beneficial to the empowerment or support of the planar anchor, as unfortunate as that is- wait, if the planar anchor is at fault, then-¡¯


    She shoved her hand into one of the internal pockets on the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival and removed a handful of shards that looked rather ordinary upon first glance, but when many of them were arranged together, they almost resembled a complete planar anchor. The only exception was that they seemed to come from different anchors, meaning that they could not be put back together to even attempt the resuscitation of the anchor itself.


    Fortunately, nothing should be able to prevent her from using the raw property of the shards themselves.


    Wei Yi stretched out her combined physical and mental energies and surrounded the anchor shards, before she released a small quantity of her planar energy from the depths of her dantian to consume every single one of the shards and make them sufficiently malleable and fluid for her to be able to absorb them into her own body.


    After using her own dantian shards twice to create an array and inscriptions within herself, she wasn¡¯t too concerned with allowing substances and pieces of greater things to end up somewhere where they were not supposed to be, but that had not prepared her for the discomfort that this caused.


    ¡®Ah, fucking¡­ shit¡­ This is almost certainly a false and completely disingenuous comparison ¨C I seem to be one of the only few who dislikes the idea, after all ¨C but I imagine this is what it must feel to have a man inside of you¡­¡¯ she thought, and the moment that the pain faded, she felt the need to amend that statement, ¡®No, that¡¯s nonsense. With how many had gone to the brothel for their first time, I can tell that the only thing causing me to think this way is my personal bias¡­ I suppose that I am destined to be on top¡­¡¯


    Once these shards entered her body and could be protected without the usage of her planar energy, she allowed the latter to return to her dantian and surround the planar anchor, bringing the shards with them. While this occurred, she also calculated the best positioning for every single shard to achieve the greatest effect, completing the first few estimates as the first few shards arrived.


    ¡®In total, I have forty-seven shards, so I ought to put them to use as well as I can. Even a single misplaced shard will fuck my chances of success¡­¡¯


    There was only a single shard that she could be absolutely certain about the positioning for, so while she kept the other shards moving as to ensure that they didn¡¯t settle in somewhere that they were not meant to ¨C her planar anchor could only be moved while outside of her body, so she was mostly sure that the shards would also become immovable the moment that they settled ¨C Wei Yi pushed this one into a place to the left and above the planar anchor, where she then froze it in place while the latter hummed with a hidden might.


    A second after the shard had stopped moving, it suddenly seemed to firmly entrench itself within its new position, creating a permanent place for itself in that location. However, as if to contradict that very notion immediately, it began to orbit around the anchor, sticking to the same height and distance.


    ¡®Well, thank you for throwing all of my calculations out of the window with that stunt. I guess the use of Endless Calculation is unavoidable, then,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she looked into the library, the roof of which had shattered into many pieces and began floating off into the sky of the mental domain during the process, and conjured a great number of books, tomes and scrolls to hold her various deductions, flooding them all with spiritual will to accelerate the process.


    As the next set of shards arrived at her abdomen, Endless Calculation had yielded her the answers she had desired, prompting her to arrange all of the available shards in similar, but not overlapping positions around the anchor.


    While they took the time to slot into place, she also allowed the next set of shards to settle into their rightful places, with their arrangement slowly protecting her anchor and granting it more stability.


    ¡®Now, the next- ugh! What now?¡¯ her mind was suddenly assaulted by waves of knowledge, not unlike the ones stored within jade slips, except this information was unfiltered, unclean and clearly distorted, putting far more strain onto her than the jade slips from Great Dark had back when she had used them without the assistance of the Gilded Library. Nevertheless, the quantity of knowledge was lesser, and so she was able to put together what little was legible within a single document in the Augur¡¯s Library, ¡®This is from the shards¡­ It seems that they have somehow stored a small quantity of information, and my assimilation of them into my cultivation revealed it to me¡­ Let¡¯s see¡­¡¯


    From this, she learnt a few things of relevance. First of all, just as she had suspected, these shards were formed with a single cultivation technique, hence their extreme similarity to one another. Furthermore, the cultivators that had practised them also had to be alike, as the general power and consistency within each shard were similar enough to have come from brothers and sisters.


    What was strange was that the few surviving memories seemed to originate from the same source, as brief and scattered as the memories themselves were. One displayed someone¡¯s entry into the prison realm, another showed their realisation of the prison realm¡¯s effects on planar energy, then their desperate attempts to correct it, and, finally, some kind of explosion or outburst near the end of their life.


    While that would explain why these shards were all over the place, having somehow crossed the storm walls in the case of the first shard that she had found, it completely went against anything understood about the planar anchors.


    One of the first rules about these wonders of cultivation was that any cultivator could only have a single anchor at a time. If they ever wanted a new one, they would need to destroy their current anchor and condense a new one, breaking through into the third realm anew, and even the wondrous cosmic energy could only circumvent this by having more sides than typical planar anchors.


    ¡®These memories certainly come from different shards¡­ Could they have simply encountered very similar situations?¡¯ she guessed, as she was not sure which option was more believable or likely, ¡®Either way, I might eventually be able to get something out of the shards regarding the cultivation technique used to condense them, but for now, I ought to focus on putting these in the right place and allowing them to connect to my own anchor. Would be nice if the mysterious characters could do something about them, but they seem incapable of assisting with much beyond raw planar energy cultivation and the removal of the azure stones that escape from otherworldly demons.¡¯


    The forty-seventh shard went into place without any difficulty, at which point she was finally able to allow them to resonate together in their orbits. That action finally shattered their ordinary appearances, allowing the violet shade of planar energy to emerge from within and synchronise with her anchor, developing five unique sections which contained the five primary elements of nature, with their borders displaying the cultivation techniques within her arsenal that combined two of the elements together.


    As they lit up, they momentarily pressed down upon her anchor, causing it to grow denser and tighter by a significant degree as the full power of the five-sided planar anchor was unleashed upon the Augur¡¯s Library, forcefully suppressing the movement of the upper floors in their attempts to shatter and join the roof in floating away.


    The greater stability extended to the roof as well, but after it was brought lower by a certain amount, it stopped, with the pieces of the roof remaining broken apart.


    ¡®Now, it is not the fault of the anchor, but of the technique and the mental energies at my disposal ¨C they are not enough for whatever my library is attempting to become,¡¯ she understood after her own attempt to shift the broken parts of the Augur¡¯s Library failed, ¡®Until then, it appears that the derivation process of the Knowledge Cultivation Room will remain half-complete, with the remaining mental power simply waiting for an opportunity to advance to whatever path it has chosen. Then, and only then, will I understand exactly what I will unleash upon the world.¡¯


    Wei Yi assumed that this would require more killing intent, thus prompting a return to the Crimson Side, but a closer look at the separated pieces showed both spiritual will and killing intent flowing within the gaps between them.


    This was odd, considering how the Augur¡¯s Library was a purely killing intent-based technique, but she trusted her own mind, even when it was combined with some other force. If spiritual will had somehow entered the mix, then even if it was somewhat counter-intuitive to mix absolute hatred and calm thought together, she would do exactly that, for her intuition and subconscious had proven to be a mostly reliable source of insight and information.


    She was not sure about any good sources of both spiritual will and killing intent at the moment, and would need to investigate more before attempting anything drastic, but for now, she could do nothing else but get up and leave the Knowledge Cultivation Room, assuring those that were controlling it that everything went well and telling them that she would be keen to attempt to improve it one day.


    After that, she headed back to the small residence within Sanctuary where the other known otherworldly demon resided.


    Within, she found Fu Zan sitting in silence, staring at his hands while holding a needle in one hand and a large ball of thread in the other. Nothing made it immediately clear how long he had been there, but only a few moments after she entered, she saw him bring the two items together, frowning as they transformed into a simple shirt within a literal blink of an eye. Evidently, this was not what he had wanted, as he then tossed it to the ground and sighed in disappointment.


    ¡°Are you trying to observe the way in which your otherworldly power works?¡±


    ¡°Ah! You scared me!¡± he jumped when he heard her voice, nearly managing to stab himself with the needle, ¡°You should knock next time!¡±


    ¡°I did, seven times. Furthermore, the door was open, meaning that I could see you sitting around, and you should have also noticed me if you had paid even a little bit of attention to your surroundings. I wasn¡¯t even trying to hide my presence this time, either,¡± she replied, her killing intent and spiritual will being in a somewhat peculiar state after the library had been partially torn asunder and thus it forced her to temporarily reveal significantly more of her power than usual, ¡°Anyway, I have given you plenty of time to consider my previous proposal. What of it?¡±


    He nodded as his head lowered, ¡°I will go with you. You know the most about us, and you are clearly powerful enough to deal with me if I do succumb to some kind of mental influence. Staying here would just be¡­ irresponsible.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately for you, it would be. Now, I shall be going, so you ought to go along with me. However, don¡¯t get your hopes up, as we¡¯re not going to be seeing the outside of the prison realm, nor the Planar Continents, if the two do not somehow overlap, today, nor tomorrow or even within the week unless a miracle occurs,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°I need to stabilise my cultivation to have even the slightest chance of breaking out of here, and will then need to perform a great number of experiments to find the best option for the escape.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re going to create a miniature version of the storm walls and see what will affect them?¡± Fu Zan became strangely excited, his eyes outright gleaming in a manner opposite to his earlier stance.


    ¡°N-No, I had no intentions of doing that. The only reason the enormous storm walls are that powerful is due to their incredible size, quantity of killing intent and spiritual will within them, and the array that is currently supporting them¡­¡± she paused when she said this and glanced out of the window, staring at the soft while of the Silver Side storm walls for a few seconds in silence, ¡°Large quantity of energy, and I happen to need some way of handling them¡­¡±


    ¡°Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°Nope, not really. However, I am fine for now, so pack up your things. Before I do find a way of freeing us, you should make armour and clothing for the entirety of the army, and even with your ability, that will take some time. We can discuss the general designs and whatever else later,¡± Wei Yi stated, picking up his newly created shirt, ¡°I¡¯m sure that you¡¯re capable of manipulating more than cloth, given how incredible every single otherworldly ability has been so far, so it is absolutely vital that we experiment until we discover everything that you¡¯re able to do. Furthermore, it will allow me to record exactly what occurs when you use your ability, and perhaps even replicate it, or find a way to separate the ability itself from the otherworldly power that fuels it. Is everything clear?¡±


    ¡°Actually, can I ask something? Last time you came in here, you¡­ eh¡­ well¡­¡± he struggled for so long that she nearly had to step in before he finally managed to say, ¡°Are you a lesbian?¡±


    He said that sentence in Enian, forcing Wei Yi to confirm her memory of it, ¡°Does the last word that you said describe a woman that is sexually interested in other women?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡±


    ¡°Sure, that¡¯s right. Why?¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­¡± Fu Zan appeared to first be disappointed, then slightly relieved, ¡°Is that common and accepted in this world?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t cite any statistics for how common it is, but most don¡¯t have any fundamental objections to the concept itself, just the problems that it may cause for succession, inheritance and the like. I can explain it on the way, so start packing up already.¡±


    She couldn¡¯t quite grasp the reason behind his hesitation even when she peered into his mind as he was collecting his things, so she dropped that particular matter. Either way, it was of no concern to her.


    It was probably some aspect of Orbis culture she hadn''t grasped from the language alone.

 V2C64: To Devour the Walls

    ¡°Then, it is settled. I must go into the eye of the storm walls and absorb all of them.¡±


    Wei Yi stated this to no-one in particular as she looked upon her own reflection in the ancient bronze mirror that held the cryptic warnings upon it.


    Almost twenty years had passed since the city of Sanctuary had been freed from the power of the otherworldly demon that called himself Chang Fang He, but her physical appearance had changed little. Her hair, body and clothing remained mostly unchanged, with only a few minor alterations to the Crimson Robes and a single shorter hair due to an experiment with improving the Hatred Split that had gone awry, and even what was inside of her body was almost identical to before.


    The Augur¡¯s Library, lacking the force it required to advance into a new form, remained in a half-constructed state, and the mental domain around it had only gained a few new details due to similar experiments.


    Her cultivation in all three of her available energies advanced to the peak of the third realm, but as she had neutrality and some degree of command over every single faction in the prison realm, she had not had the opportunity to make any significant breakthroughs in her physique ability collection, and every single technique that she had been able to obtain through more legitimate means had gone into one of her current skills, as her arsenal was slowly growing a little too large to be reasonably useful a majority of the time.


    Even if she had resorted to less legitimate means, she would have faced the same problem as she did now, but perhaps a few days earlier ¨C her cultivation, with the immense mental domain and the overly complex array constructed out of pure spiritual will, as well as the multitude of physiques that had built up within her, was becoming far too difficult to advance with the low-realm energy of the prison realm.


    Naturally, the best way of resolving this would be to gather the significantly denser energy of the storm walls, which, if done to the end, would also resolve the outer storm walls and grant freedom to the entire prison realm, and the best way to do that would be to position herself in the centre of the coursing energies, where she would have unending power from the walls until they were entirely exhausted. Nevertheless, she still remembered the warning that she had been given about the centre of the internal storm walls, as well as the fact that passing through the storms would be significantly more difficult than through her existing gateway within a calmer part of the storm wall.


    ¡®Even assuming that I can create any kind of passage through the wall, I would need to survive an incredible assault of killing intent or spiritual will, as I cannot rely on someone else to open a gap and then fill it with gateway stones¡­¡¯ she sighed, putting the mirror away.


    Another thing that worried her was the fact that out of the one hundred crimson robes out in the Crimson Side, she had only managed to catch a total of seven robes for her own forces, including the one she currently wore. That meant that there were still ninety-three powerful warriors out there that hadn¡¯t appeared to her or any of her forces throughout her stay in the prison realm, and if they were unhappy with her presence, either she or her faction could be attacked the moment that she departed.


    In short, there were quite a few concerns that could not be dealt with yet.


    Despite all of them, every single one of them, she could not wait any longer, as the time that she had spent in this realm was slowly adding up to a total of 276 days in the Planar Continents, which would grow to over a year if she wanted to do everything in her power to protect herself and her faction from any kind of possible harm, which would simply be unreasonable.


    Thus, she now found herself before the centre of the inner storm walls, where the storm walls grew almost imperceptibly thicker than usual. What was clear was that the speed at which the storm clouds moved was significantly greater, and the power contained within was even more powerful at the outer edge than at the centre of the gateway, where the storms intensified to a scary extent even for Wei Yi¡¯s impossibly powerful body.


    Now, she had to pass through, and do so without losing her consciousness or footing for even a single moment, as that would mean her slow and painful death.


    ¡®The painful part is mostly fine, seeing as I barely feel anything after all of the dips in the Beast¡¯s blood, but I would hardly like a slow death, as that would just be giving me the opportunity to realise exactly how many people could have benefitted from my battle against the Greats and the destruction of the storm walls, and how many were now let down¡­¡¯


    If she did lose her way, or stagger somewhere, even if the storm wall itself did not throw her away, she would still lose any track of her position due to the immense quantity of energy within the walls being sufficient to completely obscure any of her spiritual perception and eyesight, and would be especially true whenever she came across the more violent killing intent within the central vortex, but would still be noticeable while on the Silver Side, which is where she decided to cross into the centre of the storm wall.


    She might be becoming more masochistic ¨C in terms of her training and cultivation, at least ¨C by the year, but she was not yet suicidal enough to make her journey harder on purpose.


    ¡®¡­ Alright. It is time,¡¯ she thought to herself, removing the Demon Killer from her back before positioning it in a very specific way in front of herself with her eyes shut, ¡®The culmination of my work on Hatred Split might finally break this sword, but it would be worth it¡­¡¯


    Breathing in and out slowly, she controlled the flow of her spiritual will very precisely, sending it through specific meridians within her body in a route that she had calculated for this moment. She guided the energy towards the sword, stacking it in three distinct layers atop the cracked and splintered obsidian blade, then arranged it into miniscule inscriptions carved out in the air itself. With three layers of complex inscriptions complete, she finally opened her eyes and tensed her muscles.


    ¡®Three-fold Split!¡¯


    As she swung her sword, she seemed to do so three times in a single instant, when in actuality, two of the three were replicated via a burst of killing intent and spiritual will that carried the properties of her weapon without a single fragment of the weapon being brought with it. Each one had the same three layers of energy and inscriptions on it, and yet none of the three was truly real nor solid.


    Nevertheless, each instance of Hatred Split burst out of her blade, one horizontal and two vertical, piercing into the storm wall in the shape of a doorway.


    Sharen e Mo trembled and cracked, but she simply threw it away and rushed into the storm, as she did not have the time to collect whatever had resulted from the use of such a technique. Her slash, as powerful as it might have been, was only able to cut a small way into the storm walls, and even then, the space that she had opened was rapidly being consumed and repaired by the walls. If she did not take full advantage of the situation, she would have just wasted Demon Killer, an immense quantity of energy, and the right timing in which the storm walls were mostly calm.


    Even with the benefit of the World¡¯s Echo physique, and the countless movement techniques combined into the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash that she had grown accustomed to, Wei Yi was only able to make four steps into the storm walls before the opening closed up, and she was left to survive the storm on her own.


    Blinding white flooded her vision, mindless will assaulting every part of her body and clawing at the storm walls within her mind, though as it was simply driven by the storm, it had no ability to intelligently attack her mental defences and could thus be quickly forced out of her mind and back into the walls themselves. What she could not even begin to handle, however, was the extreme reduction to her vision and perception.


    She had heard and read descriptions of people in terrible storms, and had personally been in a few of the killing intent storms within the prison realm, but this didn¡¯t prepare her for the experience of passing through absolute, pure, concentrated spiritual will. It did not just limit her observation, as one might expect, but it seemed to force any of her senses to recede all the way into her body, reducing their range to a negative value, leading her to lose all senses in her skin and the outer inch of her body and flesh.


    Every single instant of her existence within the storm wall threatened to blow her off her feet and throw her away, but she forced herself to remain on the ground with the Eldritch Hold physique ability, forcing the spectral tendrils into the ground before her to assist her in her travel. Out of all of her forces, her physique energy appeared to be the most stable under the assault of spiritual will and killing intent, and thus, even when she came across glimpses of crimson amongst the perfect white of spiritual will, she was able to hold on, even as that crimson poured into her mental domain and interchangeably bashed against the mental storm wall together with the spiritual will of the prison realm.


    Step by step, she advanced, pushed forward, resisted the storms that had accumulated enough power to easily pierce the Crimson Robes and cut into her skin, albeit doing little but scratching it, for now.


    According to her overly accurate internal clock, she had spent almost eight minutes treading into the white and crimson, and although her visibility had not gotten any clearer over this time, growing only more and more limited, she did feel the direction of the storm winds slowly changing from going in a straight line to spinning around something, orbiting much like a tornado would, suggesting that she was approaching her destination.


    With this much force acting upon her, she did not have the opportunity to spend too much time on random and irrelevant thoughts, although some gratitude to herself did make it through when she noticed that her hair was still tightly bound together with the hair that she had cut from her head.


    Wei Yi was prepared to deal with another few minutes of walking, when the storms suddenly changed. The immense obscuring force cleared, and she found herself within an extremely small pocket of space where crimson and white whirled around her but did not touch her body. Thus, she instantly opened her eyes ¨C which had been shut to avoid lacerations being caused by the twin energies ¨C and looked up.


    In place of the standard pale white or crimson that anyone in the prison realm would have assumed to be the natural colour of the sky, was darkness, filled with stars. White, orange, red and blue all shone down upon her, with the hint of a beautiful nebula passing by her at the pace of a snail. It was¡­ beautiful, and yet something that reminded her of the cosmic energy within her own dantian, suggesting that there might indeed be some truth to the writings that claimed that the many spatial realms floated within a separate space, a kind of planar realm, which also appeared to be viewable through the cosmic energy.


    ¡°Hah¡­ I can breathe peacefully¡­ at least for a little bit¡­¡±


    She sat down on the ground and caught her breath, before resting her hands on her crossed legs and shutting her eyes once more as she stabilised her state as much as she possibly could before she had to begin her cultivation.


    Once her spiritual will array structure was stable, her physique energies flowed through her smoothly, and her Augur¡¯s Library had stopped trying to break itself apart further, she breathed in and began to take in energy through every single part of her body. With the support of her powerful techniques and the natural properties of her body, the pull was immense, and thus the storm clouds around her warped almost instantly.


    Writhing clouds of crimson and white poured towards her, twisting and circulating as the enormous tornado shrunk down to focus entirely on her lithe body.


    In Beast¡¯s Rest, Meng Chu stood atop one of the walls and stared into the distance, watching for any potential threats to approach. Wei Yi had specifically instructed him that her attempt to break through the boundaries she had faced might attract some attention either to her or the settlements that would no longer be guarded by her, but so far, he wasn¡¯t sure what she had meant.


    At the time, she had been rather vague, but only because she had no idea what her plan would actually do. For all she knew, the storm walls would have plenty of energy within them, or perhaps they would simply thin, or have something else happened to them.


    So that he didn¡¯t get bogged down with waiting for all of these signs at once, she simply said that once the storm walls change, it would likely to be connected to her.


    ¡®I still don¡¯t see anything particular, however¡­ What exactly does a change of a storm wall look like?¡¯


    The world deemed that moment to be the most opportune one to explain this to him. All of a sudden, the enormous flat wall in the distance quaked and contracted, pressing into itself before fluctuating and expanding even further than ever before. The violent storms thrashed against the gateway stones, denting the otherwise smooth and calm passageway, but it fortunately maintained its stability as the storm walls slowly began to recede.


    Now, however, he could see how something was rapidly draining them, and that something was in the very middle of the inner storm wall, where it was said to be entirely impossible to survive for even a moment.


    ¡®That¡¯s her¡­¡¯


    Crimson and white continuously barraged her flesh, flooded into her body, were circulated and refined by the endless battlefield and transformed into her own forms of energy, all while ten times more power forcefully occupied her than she should have ever been able to handle. She was sure that she had heard her flesh and muscles tear apart on numerous occasions, with every part of her being constantly suffering more damage than any one of the Beast¡¯s blood pool could ever accomplish and yet she also felt perfectly fine, without even a single drop of blood seeming to pour from any of her perceived wounds.


    It was a peculiar experience, and extremely unpleasant, but somehow devoid of all pain that she should have felt. If she could have, Wei Yi would have looked down upon her body to gain a better understanding of the situation, but her eyes already appeared to be besieged by crimson and white even while closed, so she was not keen to make the situation worse.


    Fortunately, she did not hear anything or anyone approaching her, nor did she sense anything of the sort, so at the very least she would not need to rise to battle just to fall due to shattered legs.


    ¡®And since I¡¯ve allowed all of this stuff into me, I cannot even sense my cultivation properly¡­¡¯ she thought, focusing more of her attention on the cultivation process itself rather than any wayward thoughts, ¡®Maybe my boobs will gro- No! Focus!¡¯


    As much as she would have liked to devote all of her attention to various tasks, when even her mental clock was beginning to lose accuracy ¨C or so it seemed, at the very least, since there was nothing at all for her to compare her time-keeping abilities to ¨C there was very little that she could actually do beside simply sitting on the ground and waiting for things to conclude. She wasn¡¯t even certain that she would be able to tell when she achieves any kind of breakthrough, or when the situation within the storm walls becomes too much for her to handle.


    Despite the immense brightness everywhere, she was somehow less informed about herself and her surrounding than when she had seen that pitch-black illusory cave in the Kong Holy Grounds.


    That changed without any warning when she suddenly felt her surroundings change. After an uncertain time of feeling almost nothing, she was suddenly able to tell that the storms were clearing. Not thinning, nor shifting or dispersing elsewhere, but outright clearing, disappearing from her surroundings, being entirely absorbed into her body.


    Without any control over it, she felt her mind being forcefully drawn into the mental domain, which shook as an endless flow of energy raged towards the Augur¡¯s Library, enveloping it and entering ever single gap that had been created within the Knowledge Cultivation Room. All of it almost melted under the pressure, but through instinct alone, she was able to tell that this was a change ¨C the change that she had been looking for.


    As spiritual will and killing intent flowed together within a vortex similar to the one at the centre of the storm walls, she understood that her path did indeed involve the merging of these two unique powers, and so, alongside an image of a new, greater library, a name came to her mind.


    ¡®I am not someone that would coat myself in gold, nor am I one to augur of things in the future. I have no need to do either, for I am the very change that I would prophesize, and since wealth alone is no concern to me. No, since I first learnt of my physique, since I broke through the seeming limits of humanity time and time again, since I had cultivated planar energy in a world so utterly devoid of it, I should have known that there would only be a single name or title I could associate with myself, if I am to break the foundation of the Greats and rebuild Yi City anew,¡¯ she thought to herself as an enormous structure slowly built itself within her mental domain, incorporating the separate towers that she had previously created, merging with the enormous array in the sky and slowly seeking to stabilise itself into a single form.


    ¡®Ascendant¡¯s Library!¡¯


    Those two words preceded the structure¡¯s sudden impact into the mental domain, firmly planting itself within it as the contours finally became clear. The number of floors, and their height, had grown, and the library was split into six distinct wings: the planar, killing intent, spiritual will, physique, general knowledge and a spare section, one dedicated to whatever energy could fill the fifth meridian network within her.


    Rather than opulent gold or grim crimson, this library contained both, with dark gold ornamentation covering basalt and crimson wood, all of which were to be illuminated by the bright light of her physique energy, the sunlight that was uniquely hers.


    Her insides also became clear to her spiritual perception, where she was able to observe several vital changes. First and perhaps most significant to her was the shift in the position of her spiritual will and killing intent meridians, which had initially been as far away from one another as any of the other sets. Now, however, they were practically entwined around one another, with both colours flowing past one another and yet remaining separate in a most unique display. Despite the latter fact, it somehow felt inappropriate to call them two separate energies, for it now seemed to require more effort to move one without the other than to mobilise the two together.


    ¡®Spiritual will and killing intent¡­ Spiritual intent? No¡­ Killing will? Yes, that will have to do for now. If so, then what exactly is my realm right now?¡¯ she finally opened her eyes, unsure of what she would find, ¡®I will need to quickly experiment with what I have, then return and stabilise my condition, so that no-one is able to take advantage of whatever state I am currently in.¡¯


    And yet, what she saw was confusing in far too many ways.


    After witnessing the sky, or lack thereof, in the centre of the prison realm, she was prepared to see more of it, but she had not expected that the powerful fog of the realm would finally fade and that this sky would be all around it, countless shining nebulae, galaxies and stars illuminating the world almost as brightly as the previous storm walls and ceilings were able to. Not a single trace of those remained, no matter where she looked.


    Then, she also noticed that she was somehow sitting in a large crater that she had not noticed upon entry, with a mixture of white, red and regular-looking sand covering the ground.


    Before her, only a few steps away, was a skeleton without any traces of his previous attire or equipment. It appeared to have belonged to a male human, but other than that, there was nothing that she could understand without using her spiritual perception.


    In any other situation, scanning the bones more closely would have been the first thing that she had done, but now, as she happened to glance down during her review of her surroundings, she saw something particularly exceptional, if such a word was even appropriate. It was certainly surprising, and more than a little unsettling.


    Her robes were all torn, exactly as expected, but beneath them, she did not see the same tanned skin that she had gotten used to over the years. Instead, her left side was covered in deep crimson, almost black in shade, with the tips of her fingers having changed to claws made of pitch-black bone. With her tongue, she could feel something resembling a fang in her mouth, but only on her left side, for on her right, her flesh had turned into an unnatural whiteness, one wholly distinct from the skin of someone like Shi An Qi or the pale inhabitants of the prison realm.


    On that side, her every feature was exceptionally smooth and delicate, although every one of her muscles still contained just as much force as they previously had.


    ¡®It also looks like this has finally broken the training equipment provided to me by Great Dark and Great Light¡­ Am I going to be stuck like this from now on? And¡­ what in the heavens is this?¡¯ she took a closer look at her physique meridians and observed a kind of spiral or double helix of energy within them that was similar to the killing will meridians near them.


    Therein flowed bright sunlight, matching that of purest yang, but also a cold moonlight, clearly encompassing absolute yin. Both seemed to be made of True Ascendant energy, and yet she found it all too difficult to recognise it.


    Fortunately, before too many questions could be asked, the unlikely combination reached the mysterious characters, which rearranged themselves in a manner similar to the first time that she had awakened her physique, although their current floating was far less smooth and constant, likely due to the constant drain on the planar energy around them limiting the supply of power that they had for themselves.


    ¡®Yin-Yang Ascendant¡­ Huh? I can¡¯t say that I¡¯ve heard of this particular physique, but the very structure of this energy, and the power that it contains ¨C beside the fact that I appear to have broken through to whatever the fourth realm is, somehow ¨C all seems to be superior to the True Ascendant. Then, is this the actual limit of the physique?¡¯ she questioned, raising her clawed hand and willing a clump of energy to come from it, ¡®Interesting¡­ There isn¡¯t much of an obstruction within my meridians, but it seems easier for the yin element of the energy to travel in the left of my body, whereas it is easier for the yang to pass through the right. I guess that answers the old question regarding the yin and yang nature of spiritual will and killing intent.¡¯


    She wished to explore all of this further, but before she could, she heard footsteps, and not just one set of them, approaching her.


    Quickly, she reached out with her spiritual perception and was instantly stunned by the strain on her mind when an absolutely enormous area suddenly became known to her, showing over four dozen people all clad in crimson robes approaching her from the crimson side of the world, while numerous strange creatures approached from the white.


    As she attempted to stand up, she found that while her body was still as comfortable as ever, she was simply unable to control her movements beyond simple motions of her hands and the elementary things like breathing or blinking. In other words, she was utterly defenceless.


    These two forces found their way to the top of the crater, then looked down into it and found her sitting on the ground. Her distinct crimson hair remained untransformed by the immense quantities of spiritual will and killing intent that had passed through her body, and so they must have been able to recognise her, for their movements suddenly accelerated and weapons were produced.


    ¡®Fuck, it¡¯s as I had suspected. Those bastards are the crimson robe wearers, whereas the things from the spiritual will side might be the spiritual automatons that would have wondered the lands on the right of the prison realm, except for something restraining them. Now that the storms walls are down, whatever had been stopping them is also out of the picture, allowing them to head straight towards their nearest target¡­¡¯ she understood, gritting her teeth and fangs.


    Even while she struggled to move, there was still much she could do-


    Any thoughts of action were extinguished completely when she saw a woman dressed in a simple grey robe appear before her without any trace of techniques, arrays or even forceful spatial tears. With her red hair calmly flowing in the wind, she raised her hand with the second and third finger pressed together and slashed the air in a smooth motion.


    There was no planar energy, nor killing intent, spiritual will or even physique energy. Despite that, the space in the middle of both approaching forces suddenly broke, splitting their bodies in half with one continuing to charge forward for a little while as their upper halves lost momentum and crumbled down.


    As if she had done nothing unusual at all, the woman turned to Wei Yi, revealing her grey eyes and a melancholy expression.


    ¡®No¡­ fucking¡­ way¡­¡¯


    ¡°Greetings, unfortunate victim of circumstance. Coulds¡¯t I receive thine name?¡±


    ¡°W-Wei Yi¡­ and you are¡­¡±


    ¡°My name is Yi Shi Ming, proud mother of Kong Shi Meng. However, as I last recall my child¡¯s countenance and feats, a different title became more common¡­¡± the woman nodded to herself, ¡°He was also known as the Master of Yi City.¡±


    END OF VOLUME 2


    Oculus

 Volume Three | The Truth of the Prison Realm

    When the woman spoke, she appeared entirely calm, and yet Wei Yi found her entire mind in an even more precarious position than when a pair of immensely powerful energies besieged it. Perhaps if it had just been one new fact, or one previous assumption proven wrong, she would have understood it easily, and yet, when so many things came together, she found herself to be unable to accept it all without at least one simple confirmation.


    Unfortunately, she could not decide which one of her numerous questions was to be asked first.


    ¡°Thou art aware of my son, art thou not?¡±


    ¡°H-How much are you¡­ eh¡­ Were those memories yours?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Memories¡­ Ah, thou hath witnessed my past whilst I slept, unable to control the Kong Prison Realm lest I reveal myself to the Greats,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, ¡°If thou hath seen something unseemly, I would bid thee forget it, if thou can. I hath little pride in myself, but as we will likely spend some time together, I would prefer thee to have a pleasant image of me in thine mind.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, Kong Prison Realm? I¡­ I think I need to learn far, far more than I currently know¡­¡± Wei Yi said, frowning, ¡°Wait, you were sleeping here for some time, and you¡¯ve cut space¡­ Are you-¡±


    ¡°I am not truly myself. In life, although my cultivation was certainly not poor, my ability and talent could never compare to Ah Shi Meng, and so, when this place was created, as I was also running out of my lifespan, my son created a new consciousness for the spatial realm, imbued it with my mind and one of his techniques, and thus allowed me to advance directly into the Oblivion Halo, the seventh realm,¡± she explained, although her gloomy expression deepened almost immediately, ¡°It is unfortunate that I will not meet him again.¡±


    Wei Yi swiftly stored all of this information into the newly rebuilt Ascendant¡¯s Library, but then she paused on the last thing that the Master of Yi City¡¯s mother had said. If she had been put into this prison realm and then forced to sleep, when exactly would she had the opportunity to learn of his demise?


    When she raised this question to Yi Shi Ming, she replied with getting closer to her and kneeling beside her, ¡°Thou hath the same uniqueness as he did, as he said one would¡­¡±


    ¡°The mysterious characters belonged to the Master of Yi City? And¡­ you can see them?¡±


    ¡°No, I cannot perceive the characters themselves ¨C which my child called the Truth of the Universe, if it interests thee ¨C but he had taught me how to notice the effect that they have upon one such as thyself. If, in the future, thou find others who can sense thine characters, then thou hath met with those that knew my son. They art likely to be thine friends, as few to none of his enemies knew of their existence,¡± the woman said, ¡°Art thou of the Yi family?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­¡±


    ¡°But thou named thyself by a different name. I assume that the family my son created did not treat thee fairly?¡±


    ¡°They calmly stood by as two of the Greats burnt half of the Yi District, killed some of their own and scared away some of the most powerful and capable masters of the great arts. I will destroy the Greats, or die trying, and perhaps do the same to a family that just stands by and allows one of their own to perish, especially after giving them no opportunity to ever advance from their position despite the rapid rate of advancement and the talent I had in the great arts,¡± Wei Yi recalled, idly raising her hand and conjuring a wisp of cosmic energy only seconds before she realised what she was doing ¨C only to find that the planar energy did not immediately dissipate, and was instead building within her dantian, ¡°Wait, is the planar energy conversion also under your control?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. It hath long served its purpose, and so I shalt allow thee and the prison realm to practise planar energy once more, if that suits thine purposes.¡±


    ¡°Once again, you¡¯re speaking of accommodating me¡­ I think that I would benefit from an explanation.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps thou woulds¡¯t. Even though thou hath seen the past with thine own eyes, I would suggest that it would be wise for me to present it all to thee from the beginning, as the memories were likely greatly limited and fractured due to my own focuses and cares, although I shan¡¯t pry if thou woulds¡¯t rather not share,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, sitting down in front of her while a large sphere of spatial power sealed them inside of it safely, ¡°Oh, and if thou hath not yet understood, thine form is temporary.¡±


    She said nothing more on that topic, but it was somehow sufficient for Wei Yi to realise that the plentiful mixture of physique energy and killing will within her flesh could indeed be controlled by her, and so she quickly revoked it and witnessed as the dark bone and odd colours on her skin retreated into her own physique, her crimson and white transforming into a similar tone of tanned skin that she had grown used to, except for that shade becoming slightly lighter than before due to the influence of the additional yin from the changes in her physique.


    Curiously enough, all of her new and unusual features, including claws, fangs, and the crimson shade in her left eye, as well as the pale colour in her right eye, also vanished, despite being partially composed of her actual bones and flesh, changing back without a hint of the previous oddities.


    Even the extreme yin and yang within those two halves of her body returned to normality, being split equally among her body, although the greater comfort in handling yin within her left side and yang within her right remained, likely due to familiarity over anything else. Even before the awakening of the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique, she had already been using killing intent with one hand and spiritual will with the other, so it made sense.


    ¡°If you are aware, could you tell me what realm I am in? I appear to be struggling with understanding it on my own, still¡­¡±


    ¡°Thine planar cultivation is still in the third realm ¨C I had been aware of thine presence since your breakthroughs began, as that was the time that thine spiritual perception had expanded and thine energy pull also grew, freeing me sufficiently from the world to allow me to understand thine cultivation ¨C whereas thine spiritual will and killing intent hath both ascended to the fifth realm, although I lack sufficient understanding of them to provide any kind of explanation for thee,¡± Yi Shi Ming explained, ¡°I suspect that thou hath a grasp on such things already. Finally, thine physique, something that evaded my child, hath reached one realm higher than before.¡±


    ¡°At the very least I have the names for the first realms in the killing intent and spiritual will paths, but due to the changes to these two energies, I have renamed both to killing will and now need to decide on a new series of realms¡­ My naming sense is like a deserted desert by now¡­ Alright, could you tell me if this sounds incredibly stupid please¡­¡±


    ¡°I shall do so, if thee wish.¡±


    ¡°Based on the realms of killing intent and spiritual will, and how both begin with collecting energy, it would make sense for the first realm of killing will to be called Combined Pools, as the two forms of energy gather together. Then, presuming that the structures of both also exist, United Mind, which could be followed by Clarified Energies, Twin Armaments,¡± Wei Yi paused to condense a blade of spiritual will in one hand and killing intent in the other, finding that they came to her extremely naturally, entirely unlike the Frayed Blade that she had previously used for an energy-based weapon, ¡°and since the fifth realms of both forms of cultivation currently culminate in a physical effect, Physical Amplification would also fit.¡±


    ¡°There is a logic to these names. It seems that despite my son¡¯s beliefs, killing intent doth not immediately lead to mindlessness,¡± Yi Shi Ming smiled for a moment, though her gloom quickly returned.


    ¡°Actually, I think that the key to killing intent, as well as anger, is that so long as it has a proper direction, and someone with sufficient will to control it, it will only empower¡­¡± as she replied, her killing intent pooled around her, ¡°And as you might have gathered from my earlier commentary, all of that is directed at the Greats. I don¡¯t know what your opinion on them or my mission for vengeance is, nor what you think of me attempting to reconstruct Yi City without their influence, but I will not be kept from this.¡±


    ¡°Worry not, child. I was the one to encourage my son to be more stringent and harsh in his actions, for he¡­ well, we shall speak about that, won¡¯t we? However, I shall keep an eye on thee, if thine will deteriorates. I woulds¡¯t hate thee to lose thine mind after thou hath found thyself with the Truth of the Universe¡­¡±


    ¡°Right¡­¡± Wei Yi focused and allowed her crimson hatred to return to her body, ¡°Please, begin.¡±


    Fifty-four years before the founding of Yi City, a child was born to Yi Shi Ming and Kong Lang Meng despite certain protests from the Kong Clan ¨C and it was a clan at the time, for the name and idea of families living in particular districts had not yet come into existence ¨C as Yi Shi Ming was not only an insignificant woman, but she had no particular talents apart from having caught the eyes of Kong Lang Meng. Regardless of their opposition, Kong Lang Meng used his raw might as the Clan Leader to force his decision, although that did not come without a cost.


    He had to force Yi Shi Ming away, and when he did so, the others realised that he did not care about the child, only the mother. Thus, the clan decided that the best method of dealing with their frustrations would be to target the child.


    That was not difficult in the slightest. With their abilities, training their children to overpower the young Kong Shi Meng and then stepping in to assist them if they still failed was incredibly easy for them, and so, one by one, they investigated how far they could push him, his mother and their Clan Leader, which was what had caused Yi Shi Ming to bring him to the Ancestral Library.


    According to her, the only reason that she believed putting even more pressure onto her son was a good idea was that she had observed that the little Kong Shi Meng was always not only incredibly mature for his age, despite his rather poor attempts to hide that, and had an extreme interest in various planar techniques that he was then able to practise and learn with far greater speed than any other child, with occasional changes being made to them.


    Back then, she had no clue whether this was something to do with a natural talent, or some ability that he did not share with her, but that did not matter. All she wanted was to ensure his safety.


    ¡°Can you trust me?¡± he had said, reaching for the book that she had believed to not be as helpful as many of the alternatives in the library. And yet, this once, he did not even attempt to hide the unusual maturity, stating with absolute certainty that these techniques would be the things that he needs to overpower those who constantly attacked him.


    She simply couldn¡¯t disagree with him then, but she made sure to keep watch.


    ¡°That was when he had performed a miracle¡­¡±


    ¡°When I viewed that memory, I recall seeing a strange grey shape reflected in Kong Shi Meng¡¯s eyes even while you saw nothing¡­ By the way, in every single memory, were you so focused on him that your entire field of awareness surrounded only him?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    ¡°Was that was thee saw¡­ Yes, I cared not for my own safety, nor for my husband, for he hath shown that his care for me was only due to my beauty, and that any emotional attraction he had faded long ago, and wished only for my child to succeed in the places where I had failed¡­ As for the rectangle thou hath seen, I am not certain what thou speak of, but it could be related to this,¡± Yi Shi Ming closed her hand for a moment and opened it, showing her a small shard of dark material, ¡°Thou might be familiar with this, perhaps.¡±


    ¡°This is¡­ Fuck, you¡¯ve got a piece of the chara- I mean, the Truth of the Universe? Eh¡­ actually, what will this do for me? Enhance my techniques?¡±


    ¡°Not exactly. I won¡¯t get too ahead of myself, but the Truth of the Universe is composed of three primary segments, according to my child¡¯s explanations. Thou hath one, he woulds¡¯t be dealing with another, and this is the third. As for its purpose, thou art about to hear it,¡± she said, giving the small shard to her.


    Right before her eyes, Kong Shi Meng flipped through the book at an immense speed, not even bothering to read any of the characters written upon it. Immediately after, he looked at something in the air before him, and silently mouthed something.


    All of a sudden, the energy around him collapsed into him, flooding his meridians according to the principles of the technique he had selected. In just a few moments, his cultivation of the technique advanced from that of a beginner, someone who had just laid eyes upon it for the first time, to the Full Success stage with incredible ease, despite the fact that it was literally impossible for him to have read through everything in that short amount of time.


    Then, after glancing at his mother to confirm that she wasn¡¯t reacting negatively ¨C while trying to do so inconspicuously ¨C he switched onto another book and repeated the process.


    Once he went through five different books, his face became slightly pale, and after nine, it was clear that he could not handle many more.


    ¡°Shi Meng, art thou practising overlapping techniques?¡± his mother asked, but then decided to change her question quickly, as she had considered another matter, ¡°Art thou capable of suppressing the ill effects of overlapping cultivation?¡±


    ¡°W-What?¡± he stuttered, his colour further fading.


    ¡°Thou did indeed read the book I gave thee, not just skim over it like this one, did thee?¡±


    ¡°No, I read it properly¡­ I just thought that I¡¯d be able to handle it¡­¡±


    ¡°By the way, Yi Shi Ming, would you like to learn the more recent variation of the language of the Planar Continents? Although your way of speaking does not bother me, I¡¯d imagine that our chats would go far more smoothly in the future if you had a greater grip of the modern changes,¡± Wei Yi suggested, as the entire description of the past was said in ancient words and terms that forced her to spend an additional instant to understand them, ¡°Furthermore, I¡¯d imagine it would make any conversations you have with others significantly easier than they would be right now.¡±


    ¡°I have no objects to such methodology. If thou coulds¡¯t extend a thread of spiritual will towards me with the knowledge thee wish to grant me, and I shalt understand it at my own pace,¡± she said, ¡°For now, I shalt continue¡­¡±


    ¡°There¡­ no matter how thee reached the peak of these techniques, thine meridians had not yet fully settled. It had been simple to correct then, but I would suggest that thou doth not repeat this.¡±


    ¡°Sorry for making you worry,¡± Kong Shi Meng said, a childishly embarrassed expression on his face, ¡°However, now that I have some techniques, I will be able to do¡­ something. Could you please watch over me while I do this? I¡¯m not sure if something like this will happen again.¡±


    ¡°Do not worry, child. I shalt never abandon thee.¡±


    He nodded in acknowledgement and set his eyes on the invisible floating space before him, reaching out with his hand and pressing something that only he could see.


    For a few moments, there was nothing, causing some confusion in both Yi Shi Ming and Kong Shi Meng. Several seconds after, however, the planar energy around him twisted once again, collapsing onto him and draining into his meridians and primarily his dantian, filling it up as a pool of pure planar energy condensed within, although no actual improvement seemed to come to his cultivation. Instead, the very quality of the energy stored within greatened, and his very technique advanced.


    ¡°Mom, is there anything wrong with me this time?¡±


    ¡°Nothing at all, Ah Shi Meng. If thou art able to persist like this, then thou ought to do so. There is only so much that coulds¡¯t be done against thee if thine power grows like this.¡±


    ¡°Of course. Don¡¯t worry, mom, I won¡¯t let myself get beaten again!¡± he exclaimed, with even more childish confidence leaking into his speech, causing Yi Shi Ming to relax fully. He might have had a special gift, he might have been able to complete the cultivation of a technique within seconds, but no matter what, she was still her child.


    ¡°So, were you aware that he was an otherworldly demon?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    ¡°That is thine name for a being from another world? I had some suspicions since the beginning, as his actions all too often seemed like that of an adult, even if his skills in stealth and overall distraction clearly needed work. However, I was, and still am, his mother. I could never stand to watch him suffer, and my child had the ability to prevent such things. If I had an ordinary child instead¡­ I do not believe that he could have ever fared as well,¡± Yi Shi Ming answered, although traces of reluctance about the topic seeped through her confidence, ¡°Besides, no matter what he had been before, on the path of reincarnation, all are born anew. He simply skipped a step.¡±


    ¡°And took something of incredible power with him¡­ So, what is this shard of the Truth of the Universe? If it offers the same power as he had just displayed, then¡­ what is that power?¡±


    ¡°Calculation. The ability to calculate any technique to its utmost capacity, to surpass all known limits and reach ascendance, if you will. What is already in thine hands is the primary method of storage for the information that is calculated, and what Ah Shi Meng had disappeared to deal with was the third components, the source of power,¡± she sighed, ¡°That source of power was the most powerful aspect of the Truth of the Universe by far¡­¡±


    ¡°Did it, perchance, look like this?¡± Wei Yi raised her right hand and drew out a wisp of spiritual will that she then shaped into the strange azure objects that existed within both of the otherworldly inhabitants of the prison realm.


    ¡°I did not see it myself, but I had heard him speak of azure on occasion.¡±


    Seeing as she offered no more information on the characters, Wei Yi took the calculating shard and, much like she had taken in the many planar anchor shards, she now allowed this small object to enter her body and travel to her dantian, though the moment that it was within a certain proximity of it, it suddenly compressed into a particle of light and made the rest of the journey for her, uniting with the characters and joining one of the cracked pieces. She was going to ask Yi Shi Ming about the method of using this new shard, but just as she thought about the grey rectangle, it materialised before her.


    Many rows and columns lined the floating shape, making it appear incredibly cluttered with all of the fist, leg, body and mental techniques that she had learnt and used, although without cultivating them. Those appeared as ¡®Uninitiated¡¯, whereas the others were somewhere in between Initial Accomplishment and Full Success. A short description followed them.


    All of the techniques were currently split across five primary columns, labelled ¡®Planar¡¯, ¡®Physique¡¯, ¡®Spiritual Will¡¯, ¡®Killing Intent¡¯ and ¡®Crafting¡¯, which somehow earned a category of its own.


    ¡°¡­ Hm, I see what thou hath meant. There is something in thine eyes, but hardly sufficient to notice without being aware of it. Thine perception must be at quite a high level,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, ¡°Art there any aspects that I might be able to enlighten thee about?¡±


    ¡°There are way too many techniques here¡­ Frankly, I¡¯ve already seen what this¡­ thing can produce. The techniques created from it are powerful, structurally sound, but lack the inspiration that once allowed me to display externalised energy whilst in the first realm. For this reason, I do not believe that it is a good idea to rely on it alone,¡± Wei Yi stated after some consideration, also noticing a value simply labelled ¡®Points¡¯ with a zero next to it, ¡°By the way, does this require some kind of resource to utilise?¡±


    ¡°Naturally, now that thou art not in the possession of the source of power, thou must provide thine own. My son had told me that one method was to rely on the energy left over after the destruction of either a planar anchor, or its cultivator. At that point, the energy should come to thee naturally, but thou ought also to be able to perceive it freely.¡±


    ¡®Energy from breaking anchors¡­ I have exactly forty-seven shards, but-¡¯


    Her eyes were naturally drawn to the skeleton lying near her, that had previously looked entirely unassuming. Now, however, she saw a thin azure mist floating around it, and when she reached out with her hand, it was naturally attracted to her, flowing through her hand seamlessly before entering her dantian and being absorbed by the Truth of the Universe, which became slightly more refined after this. Other than that, however, if not for her sudden ability to see the mist, she would have never had a clue that it had passed through her.


    ¡°Is anyone else able to perceive this anchor energy, whatever it really is?¡± she asked, noticing that it took a while for the number to increase.


    ¡°Ah Shi Meng had said that only another one like him might have a chance.¡±


    ¡°I see- Wait, forty-seven points?¡± Wei Yi¡¯s eyes widened when she found that the number had not changed to a one, nor a five or ten, as might have expected depending on the value of a single anchor of an unknown realm, but instead a very precise number that just happened to match with the number of shards that she had acquired, ¡°Did¡­ this man have that many anchors?¡±


    ¡°Him? I was not awake during his death, but I believe him to be a member of the Great Families. There is a certain aura to her that is absent from all others.¡±


    ¡°One of them did make it into the prison realm? I- Hold on. The strange mirage around them that seems to twist space itself and appears to make them immensely powerful. Is that their planar anchors? Are they capable of defeating others through the sheer quantity of anchors? How does that work?¡± she questioned, to which Yi Shi Ming replied with a dejected expression.


    ¡°If thou coulds¡¯t permit me to conclude my recollections of the past, I can share some of my knowledge with thee. As we are now, our conversation will never reach a zenith at which you could depart to thine home.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Right¡­ Carry on¡­¡± she said, although she did not stop thinking about this revelation.


    Several more techniques were developed by little Kong Shi Meng, including a quaint thing he called the Gilded Library, based on some of the many techniques in the Ancestral Library. At the time, it did not have much use, although he appeared to be very attached to it despite simultaneously creating several more powerful and significantly more useful techniques. Yi Shi Ming did not stop him, instead advising him that they should leave soon before anyone was to notice them, and that he could return at any time if he wanted.


    That convinced him, and so they left with far more than the library was ever supposed to be able to offer.


    The first challenger of the next day was defeated with ease, as they had heard about his performance from the previous fighter and believed that there would be no need to support the child with the parent¡¯s power beside an initial boost.


    As they had also wagered a few things in an attempt to prey on Yi Shi Ming without directly harming her, Kong Shi Meng ended up earning several resources for cultivation, which he quickly used to catch up to his peers in terms of cultivation, resulting in an immense boost of strength that none of them could match, with his power rising swiftly with semi-regular visits to the library yielding a great number of improvements to his current techniques and the occasional addition on a new one.


    Initially, some mostly ignored the words about his sudden rise, but when he broke through to the Planar Pool realm not only using a pure planar technique, but while also defeating everyone else in his age range of thirteen using it alone, the first serious opponents began to appear. Those that initially tried to push Yi Shi Ming and her son away were obviously displeased with the ease with which the latter was able to develop, and tried to obstruct him time and time again, but most attempts were stopped either by Kong Lang Meng, who was reconsidering his affection for Yi Shi Ming once again, or Kong Shi Meng himself, who continuously rose to challenge the odds and yet emerge victorious almost every time.


    After one such victory, he came to his mother with a stern expression, and told her that he knew that the Kong Clan would soon be attacked, and that he wanted to leave before it was. At the same time, he shared with her his fears of his bloodlust slowly rising after each conflict, and how he dreamed of an equal world, where none would need to fight for their right to survive.


    Wei Yi would have called the latter incredibly na?ve, while the former was an obvious consequence of the otherworldly powers appearing within him at an early age.


    Yi Shi Ming was unaware of this information, but she had observed similar things and ultimately agreed with his judgement that it would be a good idea to depart, although she was understandably reluctant to leave a place where she had lived for such a long time.


    ¡°The only way to ever ensure such a world without sacrificing everyone and everything to the first powerful invader would be to ensure that there was still a protector to watch over someone. A person that could enforce justice so that strength could not return to the forefront,¡° Wei Yi commented while her mind pondered on the matter of the excessive list of techniques, ¡°Come to think of it, all of these techniques don¡¯t differ so significantly from one another¡­ They share many principles, as all combat techniques would, and theoretically they even follow the same branch of the Dao, whichever one that may be¡­¡±


    The mother of the Master of Yi City waited for her to conclude her thoughts, using the silence that ensued to study the stream of knowledge from Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual will thread. Even as the spatial spirit of the Kong Prison Realm, her comprehensive speed lagged far behind Wei Yi¡¯s. It caused the latter to truly understand exactly how valuable her ability to go through information at a rapid pace was.


    Still, thoughts like that were brief, and passed by quickly as they were replaced with more relevant ideas regarding her cultivation of skills.


    What she had noticed with her blacksmithing was that she often tended to plan out singular actions to perfection, but when placed together, they would suddenly expose a number of flaws. In a way, this was similar to the countless techniques at her disposal ¨C they were magnificent on their own, being able to suppress the spatial warp of a breaking reality, or even momentarily best the Greats, but they lacked a necessary flow.


    It could be said that she lacked a single, cohesive Dao to connect her every strike.


    ¡®However, I do not yet have the ability to create forbidden skills, nor understand them perfectly. I do have the concept of sword will, which, in the many tales and legends of the world, is said to allow a combatant to wield the air itself as their weapon, and perform all kinds of strikes¡­ If I use this concept to connect several techniques together, into a single will that can perform whatever its components can, then perhaps¡­¡¯ she grabbed a series of manuals from the Ascendant¡¯s Library and browsed through them closely, re-reading all of them several times to be sure, ¡®Like the Eight Great Changes, I could link everything together, bring their power together and nullify weaknesses¡­ Yes¡­¡¯


    She raised one of her hands and focused on the universal concept of Storm Blade Wreathing, and it¡¯s ability to allow the usage of one technique with a different, unsuitable weapon, the curious Violet Kick copied from Lan Mei Xing that was able to bypass the elements, the Elysian Palm, the bright image of which still remained prominently within her mind, and the Light of Divinity, which still bothered her due to the requirement of calling out its name every single time she used it.


    Planar energy flowed to her hand, significantly more stable than the previous times that she had previously been able to use it in combat due to the breakthrough and the addition of the forty-seven anchor shards, and slowly formed the flat edge of a blade above her fingers, much like she had previously been able to use Storm Blade Wreathing alone.


    Turning away from Yi Shi Ming, she looked at the floating grey rectangle, where she found the many combat techniques invested into this attempt flickering, with a single button flashing beside them.


    ¡®Unify¡­ If I understood the function of the Truth of the Universe correctly, it can cultivate techniques, and develop them. The latter should only ever be used to complete a technique with an existing image to work with, but when it only uses what I already have, then¡­¡¯ she decided to give this a go, as she knew that it could not remove anything from her mind even if it tried, meaning that she would lose little of her combat ability if something went wrong.


    She willed the press of the button, at which point the many techniques faded from the flat panel while the planar energy above her hand slowly changed from a discordant, fragile state into something unified and whole, merging sunlight and moonlight, crimson and silver, cosmic, pure planar and elemental into something new¡­ Something that she did not expect to ever find in the Planar Continents, no matter who or what attempted to develop something great themselves, for the route that led to this point would never be replicated.


    As the many became one, she ignored the name that was slowly appearing within the rectangle and instead spoke her own.


    ¡°Ascendant¡¯s Dao.¡±


    When Kong Shi Meng turned twenty-four, he first had the idea of unifying the lands, and he began with the small collection of tribes at their new location. He succeeded, and the Yi family was born even as the Kong Clan continued to send pleas for help, unaware that the techniques that they were trying to lure him in with were created by their new prodigal child.


    He broke through at a rapid pace for the people of the time, reaching the sixth realm at only the age of fifty-four, at which point Yi City was officially titled and founded.


    Yi Shi Ming had seen many challengers attempt to break her son¡¯s project, but none phased him as much as when he had defeated a great number of Primordial Deities and demons and then travelled out of the reaches of the world, to seek something unknown to her.


    He returned with a gloomy expression, and the Kong Prison Realm, named after the clan that had shrunk to the point of losing all relevance. Within, an impossible creature of great size and power lay dead on one side of the realm, with planar energy from it being refined into crimson killing intent on that side, and with the rest being transformed into spiritual will. At the same time, he was attempting to understand a method of converting them back into planar energy, so that he could empower the entirety of Yi City and the Planar Continents themselves for an upcoming conflict with something that he had labelled the Hunger of the Beyond, though he never explained himself beyond that.


    Unfortunately, he was forced to leave before he could complete this project, leaving his mother to watch over it. There, she had to hide within the slowly growing storm walls as the Greats found it.


    Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, it was said that the heavens have their favourites.


    They favour some, gifting riches, knowledge and talent, and curse others, tearing those very things away from them, again, again and again.


    Often, it is said that the heavens do this to maintain equilibrium ¨C to maintain balance between the strong and the weak, the righteous and demonic, the virtuous and the sinful, the brilliant and the dull. As one side falls, the other falls with it. Nothing displayed this as well as the tale of the Master of Yi City, who disappeared alongside the same threat that he had warned of.

 V3C2: Freedom

    The unification process took a single point of anchor energy, but Wei Yi believed it to be entirely worthwhile, as the newly created Ascendant¡¯s Dao surpassed everything within her arsenal so far. It was fast, strong, defensive and incredibly versatile, allowing her to perform anything she had incorporated into it with a dozen different means. Furthermore, if she learnt more methods, she could add them into the condensed technique as well, with the exception of the particularly exceptional and unusual skills.


    ¡°Before my son had left, he had told me that there were two possibilities for his fate. Either he would return with the Truth of the Universe, with his own solution to the source of power, or that it would be passed down to another that he believed would be suitable to continue his work. It appears that he chose thee, even if it was quite some time later,¡± Yi Shi Ming concluded, ¡°That thou were also intending to rebuild Yi City appears to be a fortunate coincidence.¡±


    ¡°And so, he asked you to help me as you would him?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. I hope that thou art not too pressured by such a thing, but I sense that thou hath truly committed to thine path even without me. Since thou hath formed a faction of thine own in this desolate land, the decision of how to proceed is in thine hands.¡±


    ¡°It would probably be best to speak to them first, but I need to know a few things before I can do that,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°For instance, how does this spatial realm work? If I wanted to, could I use some sealed part of it as a method of spatial storage, or could I take advantage of the empty space to bring armies into battle without any hints of them being there beforehand?¡±


    ¡°The answer to thine first question is no, unfortunately. Thou ought to have seen the process of bringing something into the Kong Prison Realm, and while I can perform all of the steps necessary on my own, this takes time. If thou hath the desire to collect a large quantity of items without hurrying, I could assist thee, but I coulds¡¯t never match the likes of proper spatial treasures. Same for the matter of armies. People can be brought into and out of the realm with sufficient warning, but not for the means of a sudden ambush,¡± Yi Shi Ming stated.


    ¡°I suppose that it explains why spatial realms and spatial storage methods often differ. What about the laws of the world? Can I change them myself, or with your help?¡±


    ¡°Thou coulds¡¯t, but I would recommend thee to get to a higher realm before thine attempts. The fabric of reality is complex, even for the spirit of it,¡± she said, ¡°For now, I could control the presence of planar energy and the mental energies according to thine desire, so if thee wish to preserve the state of the Kong Prison Realm, it would not be difficult for me to do so. Furthermore, with enough time, I can change the geography of the realm, the materials it is made from, and much more.¡±


    ¡°Alright, then could I bother you to create a few ordinary sources of flowing water throughout the two halves, and perhaps form some mountains to replace the storm walls ¨C and change the colour of the world! This hideous crimson and white hurts my eyes, really,¡± Wei Yi requested, ¡°If possible, could we also get some natural sunlight so that everyone here won¡¯t burn the moment they are exposed to it?¡±


    ¡°I will create the mountains when they pose no danger to others, but I will require thee to spend some time in the outer world to collect a few impressions of water and regular soil to then replicate it within the Kong Prison Realm,¡± she said, ¡°However, I shalt show thee one way in which thee can influence the realm once thou art ready to return to the outside world, for this is best performed when thou art not within the centre of the realm for reasons that thee shalt witness when it occurs. Worry not about thine exit destination, for there is a place outside of the Yi District that was never looked at even in my time, a simple empty field.¡¯


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°Since you¡¯re the spatial spirit, I¡¯m sure that you are more aware of the situation outside than I am. I¡¯ll let you do this while I practise with a few of my techniques to get used to new forms of energy at my disposal, then speak to my faction and announce their freedom.¡±


    The mother of the Master of Yi City nodded, then dispersed the spatial dome that had given them the freedom to speak peacefully with one another. While she worked on something that Wei Yi was not yet fully able to perceive and comprehend, the latter stood up and performed a few stretches and exercises in order to adjust to the variance in her body as it was now, and during the transformation, which she could limit to changing very specific parts of her body.


    For example, she could change as little as a finger, changing one of her left fingers into a claw if she needed to obtain a weapon for any kind of sudden, unexpected conflict, or transform her entire arm into the killing intent variant to raise her endurance and resistance to attacks in particularly dangerous situations. On the other hand ¨C literally, for once ¨C she could merge the Golden Form physique ability with the pale spiritual will form to mostly disguise it as the Golden Form made her skin darker whereas the spiritual will lightened it.


    The same could not be said for the killing intent form, which made her rather disappointed when she discovered that despite possessing both forms of energy, only one side of her body could transform to the killing intent form, while the other could only enter the spiritual will form. It was possible to reinforce either side with both types of energy at the same time, but the effect was significantly greater whenever she applied the right type of mental energy onto the correct part of the body.


    ¡®A shame, though not an unexpected one. At the very least I don¡¯t need to split myself into two distinct halves and look silly unless I wish to unleash my full power,¡¯ she thought, closing her eyes for a moment.


    For a long, long time, she had been forced to limit her cultivation due to the inability to rapidly recover and strengthen herself from various physical alterations and effects, as this came from her incredible cosmic energy and the elemental energies that had been absorbed by the Truth of the Universe to enhance it. Curiously enough, Yi Shi Ming had never mentioned such an ability, nor did there appear to be the possibility of switching cultivation techniques on the fly in Kong Shi Meng¡¯s original configuration for the characters, so it appeared either that they had gained some kind of new ability in between his possession of them and her acquisition of them, or that he had never chosen to use it due to his reliance of pure planar energy.


    Either way, as she now had the time, she needed to make up for lost time, and the best way to accomplish that was by forcing her body to burn and maim itself to an extreme before allowing her planar energy and physique energy to combine and recover her wounds.


    There was a natural limit to her body, so she would not need to do this more than a few times.


    Naturally, she began the very moment that her planar energy had filled up her entire dantian, utilising the combination of every cultivation technique to affect her meridians, dantian and every physical part of her to tear through them in an instant, although she kept herself and her blood in one place with her killing will, preventing her body from collapsing without the support of her muscles. Quickly, vibrant cosmic light flooded every gap that had been created, forcing every separate muscle and bone to reconnect anew with greater might and power than before, imbedding the united Ascendant¡¯s Body technique into every fibre of her being.


    This time, she did feel the pain of the process, unlike the time that killing intent and spiritual will united collectively dulled all of her senses, but after every instant of unpleasant sensation, a soothing wave of regeneration caused her body to recover and quickly allowed her to get used to it, allowing her to increase the intensity of the process even more quickly than she had initially planned.


    Her body¡¯s ability climbed at a rapid pace, until she felt that her energy, as it currently was, would be insufficient to further advance her power in a reasonable length of time.


    She ceased the constant destruction of her own physique and allowed her cosmic energy to recover her state to the peak, with the five elements that infused her energy finalising her enhancement process. Flame allowed her flesh to burn even more quickly and regenerate into a greater form, earth strengthened her defences, metal sharpened her attacks and further contributed to the reconstruction of her physique, water made her flesh more fluid and malleable and, finally, the wood energy increased her regenerative properties and greatened her sensitivity to the natural flow of energy.


    Besides the greater quantities of energy that were provided to her by attacks and accidents of those in the fourth realm, such as the deceased talisman creator Liu Xiuying and Great Light, her present cosmic energy was sufficient to make up for the kinds of force that she lacked, as the addition of the two perfected realms of her cultivation brought her power up to that of someone approaching the first stages of the fourth realm, meaning that she had full access to nigh-solid externalised energy.


    As she had stepped out of the crater and saw both the wearers of the crimson robes and some random creatures from the spiritual will side of the prison realm lying on the ground, split in half, she also saw the shards of Sharen e Mo on the ground, seemingly entirely untouched from the time that she dropped it.


    ¡®Actually, I have an idea¡­¡¯


    She grabbed these shards and took a few items from the bodies before returning to Yi Shi Ming, who still stood in the field and looked into the depths of her reality.


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming, if I¡¯m not bother you, could I ask you to create a small sealed segment of land where I can store things in the long term? I have a method of spatial storage of my own, but it is too small to be used regularly and needs to be emptied first, but I haven¡¯t done so yet as the treasury in Beast¡¯s Rest was beginning to fill up,¡± Wei Yi explained to her, showing her the House of Gold, ¡°I¡¯d ask whether you could somehow connect to this and combine the Kong Prison Realm and the House of Gold in their advantages and negate their weaknesses, but¡­¡±


    ¡°I cannot sense it, I¡¯m afraid. I can, however, grant thee a sealed space quickly. Give me a single moment¡­¡±


    With just a single wave of her hand, Yi Shi Ming changed something within the fabric of the world, then turned back to Wei Yi, gesturing for her to remove everything she did not wish to keep from the inside of her spatial storage, which she did quickly as she had long decided exactly what she would likely never require immediately due to her already being able to do exactly what these items did.


    Countless items of varying designs and appearances poured out of the House of Gold, ranging from small orbs or trinkets that Wei Yi would hate to publicly display to another, to large chests, boxes, spheres and whatever else that the otherworldly mind of the House of Gold¡¯s creator was able to envisage. All of these had some quantity of gold on them as decoration, and all performed various tasks that she had no need for at the moment. Despite that, she still made sure to lay them out as neatly as possible so that they were not damaged in the extreme case that they were truly useful in the end, or if she found a way to safely take them apart and create something unique on her own.


    After another wave of her hand, Yi Shi Ming shifted the very space around them into a different part of the Kong Prison Realm, taking some of Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception with them so that she could be aware of the state of these items.


    With the combination of the fifth realm in killing will, the planar anchor and the newly created Ascendant¡¯s Perception, as well as the ability to stabilise energy despite vast distances, she had no difficulties maintaining her perception as it was shifted somewhere into the ground, perhaps into the space below the prison realm itself, where the land ended and the empty reaches of the endless warp began, protected from that warp only by the will of the spatial spirit themselves.


    ¡°Is this sort of thing easy for those in the eight or ninth realm, or are they still severely limited in what they are able to do?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ In thine time, most progress stops thee at the sixth realm, correct? Then, the seventh is Oblivion Halo, named so due to the generation of large halos forming around the planar core and empowering thine abilities and greatly strengthening thine power. Then, in the eighth realm, thou hath Imperfect Rift¡­ something surprisingly similar to the nascent rift in thine dantian. I suspect that thou shalt be able to merge to two together, or create a more powerful rift out of it, once thee reach the eighth realm,¡± Yi Shi Ming explained, ¡°The last realm is one that I know the least about. The Eternal Gate realm is one that very few, including my son, had reached, and in a way, this far surpasses any other realm. It allows thee to wield nigh endless quantities of planar energy.¡±


    ¡®Nigh endless, huh¡­ It would have been hard to imagine before I had my nascent rift, but then again, it is apparently similar to the eighth realm, so I suppose that it isn¡¯t too unusual for my perception to be slightly twisted,¡¯ she thought, glancing inwards at the rift, ¡®I wonder what that Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus was, and where it came from¡­¡¯


    ¡°The eighth and ninth realms possess certain spatial capabilities, but they are ultimately limited without the usage of equipment and spatial metal. There is an exception, but¡­¡± Yi Shi Ming paused for a while, ¡°I shalt show thee later. Go, do thine tasks.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I will return to this topic in the future, since I am interested in it, but that can be done later.¡±


    She left the woman to her work once more, heading towards the crimson side of the prison realm and choosing to travel half-way to Beast¡¯s Rest.


    To a normal person, such a journey would have taken one or two days, and to her earlier self, it would have still occupied several hours of her own time, but now she was able to combine the power of the World¡¯s Echo physique with the united Ascendant¡¯s Movement to clear that space in far, far less time. She had already experienced the power of those in higher realms, as well as the incredible movement abilities of those in the fourth realm of the planar realm, but personally utilising those same techniques at the same level was still impressive.


    Stopping on a hill in view of Beast¡¯s Rest, she saw a small group of people gathering outside of the walls, some scattering to look at the sky above them while others clearly intended to head towards the now absent storm walls. Amongst them were the people that she had wanted to call upon in the first place, those being the ambassadors of the four free factions and Meng Chu, so she gathered some energy at her hands and whispered, ¡°Beacon.¡±


    In her attempts to remove the spoken element from the Light of Divinity and the Touch of God, she had failed to do so entirely, but found, with the aid of the Truth of the Universe, that she could instead limit it to simple words or commands relating to the way in which she wanted to use that energy.


    With that command, a combination of planar energy and killing will burst out of her hands and sank into the ground, pooling for just a few moments before exploding into the air, cosmic tones mixing with a double helix of crimson and white as they created a great pillar that reached into the newly formed sky of the prison realm.


    Now that the Kong Prison Realm was in its equivalent of night time, with all of the ambient light from the storm walls and the fog of killing intent and spiritual will disappearing after Wei Yi had absorbed it, an enormous pillar of light like that instantly illuminated everything in sight, drawing the eyes of all that were around to witness it. In particular, the combination of the cosmic colours of her planar energy mixed with the standard shades of the prison realm instantly attracted all eyes towards it, as such an unusual combination was either entirely unknown to the observer, or made them think of the only person who had been able to practise both spiritual will and killing intent at once.


    In just a few seconds, all of the groups that were in any position to leave Beast¡¯s Rest did so, rushing towards the pillar of light.


    Typically, these kinds of people would be the ones that would need to take a day or two to make that journey, but although their cultivation had not yet advanced as significantly as Wei Yi¡¯s ¨C as she would make sure that their power rose with an inferior version of her Dao so that they would be more than mere cannon fodder against the Greats ¨C they had received certain benefits from the twenty year support from Fu Zan. He had indeed been able to manipulate more than mere cloth, and although he struggled to use metal extensively within his work, even more so than when he tried to create anything other than obvious clothing, once he had some designs from Wei Yi to work with, he created a set of armour, robes and other equipment which could increase the physical ability of those that wore it, balancing out the physical weakness of killing intent cultivators and further enhancing the incredible might of physique cultivators.


    With the additional benefit of the techniques that she had previously taught them, allowing them to enhance their and their allies¡¯ speed, their journey took no more than an hour and a half, at the end of which some still retained a sufficient supply of energy to fight, if they needed to.


    The first to spot her figure was Meng Chu, who brought her to the attention of the others with a simple shout, ¡°Wei Yi! Did you do it? Did you take down the walls?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± she replied, amplifying her voice using the Lion¡¯s Roar while allowing herself to speak quietly, thus providing herself with the air of some unparalleled expert that could shake the heavens with a single breath, ¡°I have now removed the storm walls permanently by draining their energy entirely, and have also ascended to the fifth realm.¡±


    Some shouts of amazement came from the back of the approaching groups, but they were ignored.


    ¡°What about leaving the realm? Is that now possible, or is there still more work to be done?¡± he asked, clearly eager to leave as soon as it was physically possible to do so.


    At that, Wei Yi smiled, and, after an instant of deliberation, confirmed her thoughts that revealing the existence of Yi Shi Ming would only raise questions and suspicions without providing her with any tangible benefit, instead saying, ¡°I have also managed to acquire a certain degree of control over the prison realm, and can control entry and exit. Due to this, I have some certainty that the exit to this realm is in a safe location, but I believe that it would be best for me to investigate first and to find a base of operations from which to work from, and only then bring you out of here. Furthermore, without the storm walls, planar energy can be practised here once more, so it would benefit you to take the time to consider switching to it.¡±


    Every single one of them had access to a derivative technique of the Secondary Meridians Technique, designed specifically to allow for the reconstruction of meridians for the cultivation of a different form of energy. It wouldn¡¯t work on Wei Yi and her overly powerful physique, but it functioned for most.


    As a result, it was relatively easy for them to cleanse their bodies of killing intent and convert to a different kind of cultivation, so long as they had the desire to do so. Some would not, or would consider it too lengthy of an endeavour to consider, as she saw some quickly shaking their heads and denying this opportunity, but others were clearly optimistic about such a possibility and looked at her with hopeful eyes once she had mentioned planar energy.


    Just like the sun and moon, planar energy was one of the legends of the prison realm, one of the draws of the outside world, so they understood just how powerful it could be.


    There was a third group, however, consisting of those who were somewhat doubtful of her claims, or those who had grown somewhat dissatisfied with the length of time that she had taken to fulfil her initial promises. Their number wasn¡¯t sufficient to require action from Wei Yi or her faction, but now that she had shown them the path to freedom, they wanted to ensure that she was truthful.


    ¡°Hey, if you can exit the prison realm so easily, show us!¡± one called out, and the others nodded.


    ¡°Show you?¡± she raised an eyebrow, and nodded, ¡°Certainly.¡±


    Taking a step back, she waved one hand through the air in front of her, using the principles of Demonic Ire to carve out a complex but ultimately powerless array within the ground. Then, after they had a moment to take it in, she clicked her fingers.


    A large rift opened up around her and swallowed her, a circle of crimson and white opening and then closing on her position.


    To them, she disappeared entirely, while in her eyes, she saw green, brown, blue and the wondrous gold of the sun shining down upon her, through leaves and tree branches. In the distance, a large district of Yi City stood, with miniscule figures going about their business through streets that she found incredibly familiar.


    She was free.

 V3C3: In Search of a Home

    ¡®This is the Yi District¡­ In less than a year, the only thing that¡¯s changed is that the many burnt buildings and streets have been repaired¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought, her eyes welling up with tears against her will as she felt a calm breeze pass through the trees and slightly shift her robe and hair, easily penetrating the thin cloth of the robes and causing her to shiver out of reflex more so than out of feeling cold, ¡®I think I¡¯ve seen this place once, though I never paid much attention to it¡­¡¯


    She took several deep breaths of the forest air, noting the difference in smell and taste between it and the stagnant air of the Kong Prison Realm, and appreciated the sensation of the wind brushing past her skin, including those places that she had never bother to cover while in that white and crimson realm.


    ¡®Despite this, I don¡¯t even feel like some kind of pervert¡­ I¡¯m sure Yi Kun would have something to say, but whatever. I don¡¯t care. For now, just for this brief moment, I am free. I have nothing to fear, nothing to worry about, nothing to brutally slaughter and murder and tear apart and burn¡­ I like this feeling, actually ¨C not the near nakedness, of course ¨C but the soft breeze and the sight of the district below me. Most of the important people there can go fuck themselves, of course, but one day, if I am successful, I will need to ensure that the rest of the population can live safely and not suffer the injustices of the Greats,¡¯ she thought, freezing this image in the Ascendant¡¯s Library before looking around herself.


    For a moment, she thought that Yi Shi Ming had lied to her about her ability to speak to her after she left the prison realm, but then the space behind her shimmered and the figure of the red-haired woman appeared, albeit faded and translucent. She was clearly unable to fully project herself into reality for the moment, although Wei Yi had already suspected that this would be the case.


    Yi Shi Ming stood still for a moment, doing something, then opened her eyes and looked at her.


    ¡°Wei Yi. Thou hath left somewhat unexpectedly. I had only barely prepared the exit array circle for thee,¡± she said.


    ¡°Sorry, I just wanted to have a nice exit. You said something about me being able to influence the prison realm from outside of it, but that it would only be possible for you to show me once I am outside of the realm? Depending on what this is, I am incredibly curious as to this method.¡±


    ¡°It is quite simple. What is thine understanding of personal realms?¡±


    Wei Yi¡¯s complete silence as she looked for and then failed to find a single mention of the matter within any reliable documents stored inside of the Ascendant¡¯s Library was a sufficient answer.


    ¡°With how obscured my son¡¯s identity has become, it is no surprise. Personal realms were an invention of his, and it involves utilising one¡¯s spiritual will to condense a similarity of a spatial realm, then integrate it into their dantian, mental landscape and stabilise it with their anchor. Thou art already benefitting from an array that was based on the structure of the Kong Prison Realm, and so thou might even improve the structure of the realm itself.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s that easy? Why hasn¡¯t¡­ I¡¯m guessing that this cannot be done without the full permission of a spatial spirit, can it?¡± Wei Yi guessed quickly, as she had previously experienced what it had cost someone to attempt to conquer a spatial realm without the permission of its will, ¡°Still, how come something that simple will improve a creation of the seventh realm or above?¡±


    ¡°Thou must be misunderstanding thine own capabilities, as thine observation talents are certainly beyond that of most cultivators, to my knowledge. Furthermore, thee took something by said seventh realm expert and then brought it to a greater point without the assistance of the Truth of the Universe,¡± Yi Shi Ming disagreed, ¡°In the worst case, thine luck surpasses almost anyone else¡¯s in the past, and in the best, thine mind does exactly the same. If thou art to pursue the reconstruction of Yi City, then thou ought to acknowledge thine abilities.¡±


    She frowned, but ultimately nodded, ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right. So, how would this work?¡±


    ¡°Just stand still and permit me to do my work. Thou shalt know what to do when it comes to this, and I could not instruct thee without damaging thine work. My apologies.¡±


    The figure faded, and Wei Yi felt the force of space itself fall upon her dantian, with an infinitely complex yet simplistic land appear within it, centring on her planar anchor, with it towering far over the rest of the lands, including the tallest mountains that she had been able to find within the prison realm.


    This land of white and crimson nudged the Truth of the Universe upwards, where it would not interact with it, and began to slowly merge with the illusory crystalline walls of her dantian, phasing right through the pure white dantian bone as if it did not even exist.


    ¡®She¡¯s either very experienced, or incredibly¡­ Spiritual will and the array, right? That means that I can fuse my current mental landscape with the Kong Prison Realm and change either one to greater resemble the other, correct? Perhaps I will even be able to summon my cultivating combatants into the real world to participate in my battles!¡¯ a sudden epiphany struck her, much like Yi Shi Ming had originally suggested would happen, and prompted her to do exactly that, ¡®Now, if I move the array and use it to nudge the mental domain, then attach the Ascendant¡¯s Library to the anchor and combine the two into a united anchor¡­¡¯


    For a little while, the integration of the prison realm and the dantian stagnated, whether due to Wei Yi¡¯s plan or some other factor within the process, but it provided her with enough time to fully shift the enormous mental domain that she had built up over the years and then adjust its size so that it could smoothly overlap with the Kong Prison Realm.


    As one provided direct inspiration for the other, she was able to do so with ease, concluding her work by controlling her planar anchor and combined mental domain and spatial realm and forcing the two of them to collide with one another and unite, although neither truly moved due to the limitations of her control over either entity. Even then, when the five-sided pillar came into contact with the mental domain, it sent a pulse throughout it, unifying the mental and physical and bonding the two, before rising just slightly to reside above the Ascendant¡¯s Library that now existed within the centre.


    In the Kong Prison Realm ¨C where time flowed at the normal speed once more, due to Yi Shi Ming¡¯s control ¨C there was only enough time for the spiritual will side of the realm to begin approaching the centre when they suddenly saw an enormous structure take shape before them, decorated with opulent gold and dark stone. It rose from nothing, and was overshadowed only by a titanic pillar composed of five sides and circled by forty-seven distinct shards that suddenly descended onto the world from the empty astral sky. On one side, flames mixed with sparks of golden lightning, on the second, a stone-like face sat still and yet imposing, on the third and fourth, metal and water mixed together as blood, and on the fifth was a layer of bark. Above this wondrous thing, a sphere of pure violet shone brightly, and arcs of violet lightning occasionally connected the anchor to the shards around it.


    To say that planar anchors were an uncommon sight in the prison realm would be an understatement to an extreme degree and would imply that they were ever seen within living memory of anyone living there. While some of the hatred automatons had longer lives that others, even they had few opportunities to witness such a thing outside of the collapse of the anchor upon one¡¯s arrival to the realm.


    And yet, here was the thing described in legends, overlooking all of them without any explanation whatsoever. It was a miracle for the optimistic, and a sign of the end for others.


    Neither had the opportunity to share their vision with the other as the ground suddenly quaked, a single circular pulse expanding from the mysterious library and anchor and coursing through the dirt, stone and sand of the realm, reshaping it in some slight ways and in some major ones. Most noticeably for those at the border between crimson and white, a set of short mountains rose from the ground, obscuring their path, but those further away also noticed that the ground beneath their feet gained a certain shade of colour that was rarely seen in the realm.


    Some also observed faint shadows and echoes of figures that engaged in combat, but they were not only intangible but also appeared very briefly, making some wonder whether they had completely imagined the situation.


    One thing was clear to everyone, however: the prison realm was truly changing.


    What many of those could not see was how the structure of the world itself changed to better match the mental domain of Wei Yi, with the very ground transforming itself into something more complex. In place of the previous eternal night that descended due to her absorption of the storm walls, the great pillar that was the planar anchor lit one fifth of the prison realm bright, that being the southern wall between the two sides of the world, while the rest had to make do with the faint sparking violet that formed between the anchor shards and the anchor itself until she was able to add sunlight to the astral sky of the realm.


    Furthermore, as her killing will merged with the land, it slowly increased the concentration of both killing intent and spiritual will that was present within it.


    She was able to merge it with the pockets of land that she had already encased in her own mental energies and thus assume dominion over the cultivation of every single individual that used either force, partially including the physique cultivators that had moved from the Great Bone Lake as they ultimately utilised killing intent in their practise.


    Since she now had much more space to work with, and the ability to restrict anyone and anything from touching the Ascendant¡¯s Library ¨C although that wasn¡¯t even a necessity as the mental and physical realms appeared to match and yet be separate, much like spiritual will and one¡¯s mental capacity paralleled one another and yet did not match up exactly, meaning that unless she permitted certain changes from the physical realm to carry over into the mental one, nothing would be able to harm her, and none of the inhabitants of the prison realm would have even the slightest opportunity to touch any of the books in her library ¨C she threw Bai Hao out of his tower and into Sanctuary without any explanation. Whether he was sufficiently clever to figure out what happened didn¡¯t matter to her too much, as he was still reliant on her to exist, and was now far, far weaker than her in every way.


    The last change of note appeared to be her connection to the spatial spirit, that being Yi Shi Ming.


    ¡®I can now speak to you whenever I want, correct?¡¯ she asked, communicating with the presence of the mother of the Master of Yi City that covered the prison realm.


    ¡®Indeed. If thou art in need of assistance, or if I believe thee to require some additional information, I can always speak to thee in this manner,¡¯ Yi Shi Ming replied, ¡®Furthermore, if thou art wishing for a moment of silence, thou art in control of our communication, so to hear my words is at thine discretion.¡¯


    ¡®Understood¡­¡¯ Wei Yi said, looking back towards the Yi District once more for a few seconds, ¡®So, how does this match up with your memories of the district? It has obviously declined alongside the rest of the city, losing much of its land, but I would like to know exactly what I would need to be working towards in my reconstruction of Yi City.¡¯


    For a moment, the spatial spirit viewed the world through her eyes while deep in thought, then said, ¡®The Ancestral Hall has lost much of its immortal gold, it seems.¡¯


    Wei Yi looked into the distance, enhancing her sight with two wisps of killing will, and found that apart from one small decorative piece of immortal gold being removed from the walls of the hall yet again, perhaps by the same person as last time, little had changed, suggesting that the original structure was somehow even more opulent and overly decorative than ever before. She could guess some of the details that had been lost, but not sufficiently to include ¡®much¡¯ immortal gold.


    ¡®Originally, the Ancestral Hall was a simple structure, but the craftsmen overreacted when Ah Shi Meng threw away some of his immortal gold once he decided that it was unsuitable for his own projects, and decided that he wished for them to decorate the structure in it. They worked and toiled for many days, and only worked harder when my son ignored them and said nothing about their work, just not for the reasons they likely expected,¡¯ Yi Shi Ming recalled after a moment of silence, ¡®Eventually, he was forced to approach them, after they had created a structure so extreme and decorative that it nearly drew the ire of some ancient dragons.


    ¡®He asked them what they were doing, and after clearing up that he wasn¡¯t disappointed with their work, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to chastise them. Instead, he told them that their work was finally complete and that he was satisfied with it, before sneaking away and ensuring that no great quantities of immortal gold ever made it into the hands of the other district builders.¡¯


    ¡®That¡¯s¡­ not at all what I had expected, though I can see that happening. Was your son a kind man?¡¯


    ¡®Indeed. He was a child that any parent could be proud of, as thee would be¡­¡¯ she did not continue, as with the information that she already possessed about Wei Yi, it was not difficult to tell that her closest family was either absent or deceased.


    As a result, they looked into the distance for a little while longer.


    It was only when the sun slowly began to set that they finally decided to take action, although both had done a number of things on their own within the prison realm while they contemplated how to proceed. Yi Shi Ming gathered an impression of the sunlight that shone down upon them, slowly weaving it into the prison realm, while Wei Yi scanned around them and considered geographical features that the Kong Prison Realm would benefit from before implementing them into her mental domain. This method would no longer yield immediate results, but with Yi Shi Ming¡¯s assistance, the two realms would match once more within a week.


    ¡®So, Yi Shi Ming, are there any locations that you would recommend for us to use as our base against the Greats?¡¯


    ¡®I know of a few places,¡¯ the red-haired spatial spirit replied, ¡®but I do not know of what interests thee. Resources, people, terrain or something else? Also, I likely do not have to say this, but my memories are of the past, and are likely inaccurate.¡¯


    ¡®Obviously, I am aware of that. However, I certainly require every single one of those things, as although any of my abilities could be used to make up for flaws, if I begin with nothing, I will need to invest far more into maintaining a semblance of a suitable base than I ever should,¡¯ Wei Yi stated, ¡®The easiest to circumvent for me would be troops and forces, as my mental realm already has a semblance of combatants that could be used in the place of living people. Terrain can be manipulated with techniques and cosmic energy, and with your support, I should be able to minimize the instability of my creations. Resources, on the other hand, I cannot provide, unless my hair is as useful for defensive purposes as it seemed to be in the prison realm.¡¯


    ¡®Your hair?¡¯


    ¡®Have you seen how tough it is? It¡¯s like it benefitted ten-fold from every single improvement to any part of my body, and I hadn¡¯t even used all that much of my cosmic energy on it to improve it. The only way to get rid of it now is to tear it out of my head, as my skin is weaker than hair,¡¯ she explained, displaying how it easily ignored a powerful attack from the Ascendant¡¯s Slash, ¡®It¡¯s also one of the only things to not change with my killing will form.¡¯


    ¡®Indeed¡­ Thine path is incredibly odd, I have to say. In another¡¯s hands, I do not think that they would have gotten quite as far as thee did¡­ Coulds¡¯t thee infuse thine hair into thine clothing?


    ¡®I had already considered it, but my hair isn¡¯t quite the right length for this, and I¡¯m not sure whether it would be best to work on these robes, or if I should create a new piece of equipment and include my hair in it from the very beginning¡­ Not something of relevance right now, and I realise that I shouldn¡¯t have mentioned it then,¡¯ Wei Yi shifted the topic of conversation back to the matter of bases and strongholds, ¡®Anyway, options. You said you have a few, so list them, then I will make the decision about the first places to investigate.¡¯


    ¡®Very well. I can share with thee three places that are likely to still be usable in the modern times, and they are far enough away from one another for thee to explore the world and find potential allies. The first is the southern outpost used by my son in part of his conquests, and then hidden entirely from sight with many arrays and inscriptions. It should remain hidden to this day, especially as the southern folk that were entrusted with fragments of information about it appeared to be trustworthy,¡¯ Yi Shi Ming said, granting her the vision of an abandoned structure that boasted great defensive capability and a great quantity of space for use in any areas necessary, then switching that image to a large swath of the desert.


    It looked almost barren at first, making Wei Yi wonder whether she had somehow received the wrong mental image through their exchange.


    ¡®This land is in the north, and although it appears poorly defended, various reasons cause it to be incredibly effective as a fortress. Beneath the land are countless deposits of materials, and there are several tribes that treat it as a sacred land, protecting it from most invaders. Circumstances may hath driven away the tribes since last I gazed upon that place, however.


    ¡®Finally, there is a third location that thou might be aware of, considering its proximity to the Yi District and thine usage of my son¡¯s work: the Kong District.¡¯


    ¡®That place¡­ Are you aware of the Kong Holy Grounds?¡¯


    ¡®Art thou aware of them as well? How goes their fate? Having a secondary, stationary realm of simple experiments by the Kong ought to be greatly beneficial to thee in the long term, as it could grant thee great insight into the matter of spatial arts.¡¯


    ¡®Yeah¡­ I sure gained some insight from them before they collapsed.¡¯


    ¡®Ah¡­¡¯


    ¡®Still, I need to go past them, so I shall be heading to the north first¡­ I wonder what happened to Yi Bai¡­¡¯ Wei Yi remembered the unfortunate assassin and frowned.


    Yi Shi Ming had no disagreements with her plan, so after she offered a few pieces of advice about navigating towards the north and about the potential dangers and Great Family lands that she might need to watch out for ¨C so long as they had not been moved or hidden from all viewers entirely ¨C she cloaked herself in stealth methods and hastened to leave her position, just in case.


    While leaping through the trees and rushing past the occasional clearings, she thought of a question she wanted to ask while she was doing her best to avoid any kind of sentries outside of the Yi District, just in case one of them happened to see past through her abilities.


    ¡®By the way, have you ever heard words like ¡®train¡¯ or ¡®rails¡¯ or anything of the sort?¡¯


    ¡®Indeed, it was not too uncommon to hear Ah Shi Meng speak of such things, although is attempts to recreate them never came to fruition, to my knowledge.¡¯


    ¡®Oh, so that¡¯s where these phrases came from¡­¡¯

 V3C4: All that Remains

    She found no guards on her path, suggesting that they either did not take any interests in exploring the lands of the Kong any longer, or that she had been rather fortunate during her travels. Either way, she had gotten away from the outer edges of her former home district without incident and paused in the forests to take a breath.


    Before getting away from the district, Wei Yi had considered going back to it to dig up her mask and black robe that she had used in her persona as Da Gang, but that was not something that was in any way reasonable or necessary. To get into the district just for an outfit ¨C even if the mask was capable of withstanding rather powerful hits without any obvious signs of inscriptions or arrays guarding it ¨C was unnecessarily risky, especially when the Greats might still be in the city waiting for someone else to pounce on and imprison for looking at them wrong. On the other hand, it would simply make her look conspicuous, whereas stealing an outfit from the nearest settlement and reverse engineering the killing will form to be able to alter the appearance and colour of her hair was significantly easier and more effective.


    It never occurred to her that it might be difficult to convert a phenomena of cultivation into a technique, not just due to her ability to surpass such things via techniques like Elysian Palm, but also because she had the idea, the understanding of roughly how her body could change, and the Truth of the Universe to accompany the Endless Deduction.


    As she did so, she noticed two things; Yi Shi Ming reported something to her when she had begun to take in some of her planar energy into her body to reacclimatise herself to it.


    ¡®The quantity of planar energy in the world appears to have decreased significantly. At the peak of my son¡¯s power, it was not uncommon for even common townsfolk to reach the second realm with little effort, while common soldiers were in the fifth realm and most capable craftsmen reached the seventh realm and had begun to work on spatial items and realm,¡¯ she shared, ¡®It was for this reason that even the Kong, as they were falling apart, were able to complete their spatial realm during an invasion by a different faction.¡¯


    ¡®Is that how things happened? I was always wondering why and how cultivation appeared to be more advanced in the past¡­ Would that mean that the techniques of the past haven¡¯t truly been lost, and are simply less powerful now that there is less energy to work with?¡¯


    ¡®That is possible, although your technique appears to be working perfectly well.¡¯


    Her other discovery occurred when she had filled her meridians with planar energy that rapidly surged towards her the moment that she even considered attracting energy towards herself ¨C the one hundred and eight dawn stars within her meridians that had been created long ago due to the Dawn Star Body and had mostly faded since the last time she had ever called upon them now lit up brightly.


    Each one was filled to the brim with dormant, quiet energy, and as planar energy flowed towards it, they activated once again, absorbing all of it into themselves and growing more vibrant with every moment, with a thin strand of solidified cosmic light forming within each one, acting almost as a small anchor. Furthermore, as each one was present within her own meridians, it also caused the energy from it to connect with her dantian, bolstering her cultivation without even being connected to her primary planar aperture directly. From what she understood of planar energy and its usage, this was an incredible sight.


    ¡®How is-¡¯


    She did not have the opportunity to ask any kind of question of herself or Yi Shi Ming when she found the Truth of the Universe shifting and changing, with several characters completely changing and moving around to describe a technique that integrated the dawn stars into it.


    In just one moment, they transformed from additional sources of energy and flashy distractions to make her enemies believe that she was more powerful than they would otherwise assume, to an integral part of a technique that had, at least in part, descended from the greatest cultivator to have ever lived within the Planar Continents¡­


    To get such a thing from an attempt to look cool had to be unprecedented, especially when she had been thinking about replicating realm abilities not too long prior.


    ¡®Furthermore, to get such a development while sitting near the road on which I had first begun creating the Dawn series is beyond coincidental,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, but beside the simple feeling of oddity, there was very little that she could conclude besides the fact that it was indeed a coincidence caused by her deciding to absorb energy just as she had begun to head in the exact same direction as before.


    Whether this was the will of the heavens, her own ability, or something entirely different, was not something discernible to her yet.


    ¡®Then again, if heaven¡¯s will truly has any connection to the Greats, I would be all too happy to get away from it. It clearly struggles with the concept of both justice and fairness, allowing all kinds of people to run rampant without any supervision at all. At that point, even if there is some kind of will, all it does is watch. We can survive without such a thing,¡¯ she considered, completing her cultivation.


    She stood up once more and continued through the forest, stumbling upon the first camp used by the Kong District expedition in far less time than the journey had taken last time, finding that the only traces of it that remained were some marks in the ground, although even those had been mostly removed by the steps of various planar beasts and the leaves that had fallen since their trek here. Although the Central Western Continent lacked any particular extreme weather conditions, whether that was to include snow or droughts or floods, the occasional rain further obscured the few traces that still remained.


    If not for her knowledge of the expedition and exactly where everything they had placed was ¨C not to mention her extreme spiritual perception, which now reached beyond a hundred metres ¨C she would have only thought this place to simply be a convenient place to rest.


    Instead, this area brought about certain memories of a group being slaughtered by warped space.


    With a greater realm, superior movement techniques, and the lack of necessity to pace herself due to the observation of a number of members of the Yi family, she realised just how close together these camps were. Less than an hour after leaving one, she was already at the second, and then came to the third after another hour and a half. The third camp had become the nest for a weak planar beast in the first realm, which Wei Yi swiftly dispatched and harvested for food for one purpose.


    She needed to know whether her sense of taste and smell would remain absent after leaving the Kong Prison Realm, and cooking planar beast meat for consumption was one of the most ordinary things she could do if someone was to observe her without knowledge of exactly who she was. Furthermore, she was now far enough away to avoid the attention of the Yi District guards, so the only people that would stumble upon her would be those without a great understanding of what had happened within the Yi District, since few travelled further than the district outskirts without the intention to remain out there for a while.


    The expedition to the Kong District was actually one of the shorter ones, as they had met an untimely end brought about by her ability to utilise the Lock Obelisks. If it had gone on without her, as it would have likely done had she not suddenly brought herself into the eyes of Yi Taizhi, they would have had to hang around for up to a decade while failing to activate them.


    After transforming her cosmic energy into flame and lighting a small campfire to provide herself with some light as the sun had fully set, she used a stick reinforced with her energy to pierce the flesh of the planar beast and hold it atop the flame.


    ¡®I don¡¯t have much experience with cooking anything more complex than this, not to mention lacking any ingredients that cannot be found in the prison realm, but if things do go the way that I expect them to, it wouldn¡¯t really matter,¡¯ she thought as the large chunk of flesh slowly cooked over the flame, ¡®To begin with, I will only get anything useful out of miracle fruits and planar herbs, and both of those can be processed by me without the use of traditional cooking methods. If I ever have to make food for someone else¡­ I think I read some books about cooking before. I could read through those in a hurry¡­¡¯


    Roughly half-way through the process, her extended spiritual perception observed the presence of a quiet figure slowly approaching the light in the trees, doing so silently enough to avoid attracting beasts but not sufficiently to avoid detection by experienced sentries or guards. He was dressed like a common hunter and appeared to have a cultivation in the first realm.


    That was rather suspicious, to say the least. Even Wei Yi wasn¡¯t confident about heading to the outskirts of the district until she had the necessary power and techniques, so for someone that likely lacked her abilities to go so far out with only a regular bow was incredibly odd.


    For this reason, the moment that he made a mistake and stepped onto a dry branch, she snapped her head towards him and glared, putting her hand by a pocket as to make it appear as if she was reaching for a weapon. After the hunter checked something on his side, he looked up and accidentally met her eyes. He froze for a moment, realising that he had been spotted, and then straightened his back and decided to approach her more openly.


    ¡°Hello there! I am just a hunter travelling through, and I saw that you are camping here!¡± he said, pointing to his bow before intending to look at her tent only to find nothing of the sort.


    ¡°Yes, so it would appear,¡± she replied, keeping her hand where it was, ¡°Is there a reason why you¡¯re skulking through the forests, or did you just happen to stumble upon my location and then just happened to approach me cautiously and with your weapon at the ready?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re aware of how dangerous these forests are. I had to be prepared just in case you turned out to be a planar beast!¡± the man declared with confidence, slowly inching towards her as he spoke, ¡°But, since that isn¡¯t the case, could I stay beside you? I won¡¯t ask for your food, and I could even be on first watch for the night!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s wise. I don¡¯t know who you are, and you approached me, so it would be best if I was the first to observe. Don¡¯t try to disagree with me ¨C just leave if you aren¡¯t happy with this.¡±


    To his credit, he was not particularly stumped due to this, and instead agreed with her readily, ¡°Yes, that is best! Allow me to find a place to rest and I shall be prepared to guard whenever you need me to. In fact, if there is a place you prefer to rest on, if you share it with me, I shall make sure that I am as far away as possible from you so that you can observe both me and your surroundings without needing to worry!¡±


    ¡®Yeah, this guy is way too enthusiastic over this. He must have something planned¡­ or he¡¯s never spoken to a human before. Either one is possible, and neither one is really to my benefit, as his cultivation is clearly weak and his general physicality is insignificant as well,¡¯ she concluded while pointing to the place beside her, and then to another flat portion of ground opposite the flame.


    He understood this and settled down in the second position, putting down his things and lying down.


    ¡®What is he doing? He can¡¯t even use spiritual perception, as I would have noticed it if he was able to bypass realm in this regard, but he has concluded that a random woman roasting meat is somehow not intending to hurt him¡­¡¯ Wei Yi looked at him with some concern, as his breathing slowly stabilised and he headed to sleep without any concern for the thirteen planar beasts that were within the range of her spiritual perception, ¡®Either way, I need to get away from him. As an assassin or bandit, he seems very certain, whereas as a hunter, he is entirely incapable¡­¡¯


    However, she wasn¡¯t about to throw away some food, even if she didn¡¯t need it with the plentiful planar energy in the air and rapidly recovering within her dantian whenever she needed it, so she waited for it to cook fully and bit down.


    To her, due to several rounds of dental reinforcement with cosmic energy, almost all foods were as soft as cotton, and this planar beast flesh was no exception. It still retained plenty of juices within it, and it easily appeared to be significantly better than anything within the prison realm, but as she chewed and swallowed the food, she tasted nothing.


    She tried a few more pieces, but it was all the same. After cleansing her mouth with yang-type physique energy, she turned the meat into ash that she dropped onto the campfire.


    After a moment of consideration, she stamped out the flame and released a few threads of her killing intent to scare away the planar beasts that were currently preparing to attack them. Whether this man was na?ve or with ill intent, she would allow him to live a little longer. If he came after her again and continued to act suspiciously, she would not grant him this kindness for a second time. Once the beasts fled, she disappeared similarly.


    Sleep was not a necessity for her, and so she used the additional time to make it to the fourth camp before sunrise.


    Nothing of note was there, nor was she found by yet another suspicious individual, so she proceeded onto the next camp and then the next, taking another full day to arrive at the edge of the enormous basin within which the Kong District had once existed. There were no people in sight below her, nor could she see any camps or settlements down there, so she had a few ideas about what had happened.


    After her report to the family, relayed by the guards, it was likely that the family had chosen to send out a second team to investigate what had happened, and they were likely more powerful than the second and third realm, meaning that they didn¡¯t need to waste their time camping every few minutes. They would have been able to get to the Kong District quickly and find nothing of use, especially if that bright beam of light hadn¡¯t yet faded back then. The most that the family would have been able to find would be the remnants of the spatial fluctuations from the collapse of the Kong Holy Grounds, and would have then been forced to conclude that there was little else here for them and would have retreated, as it would be too difficult for them to hold onto the land that was so far away from the Yi District.


    Even if they were aware of the yin water and were able to harvest it, they would have found little else and wouldn¡¯t have had a reason to come back before the situation in the Yi District stabilised from the brief attack by the Greats.


    ¡®So, I should be mostly alone, although caution is still necessary. Ancestral Hall, here I come¡­¡¯


    Wei Yi leapt into the Kong District without the use of any techniques to slow her descent, nor to protect her, instead accelerating her fall as much as she could.


    A second before she hit the ground, she released a burst of her physique energy and formed a foothold beneath herself, crashing into it with enough haste to shatter it despite the power of her physique. Hastily, she formed a secondary Aerial Foothold beneath the shattered pieces of energy, and then another one beneath it using yin-type energy, causing her to fall through the second and barely be stopped by the third foothold, although it also broke moments after.


    She landed on the grass and jumped away from it as the broken physique energy fell upon it and instantly froze and then turned it to ash, although neither flame nor frost spread any further than that small spot.


    After prompting the remnants of grass to grow with the abundant lifeforce still stored within her, she rushed in the rough direction of the Ancestral Hall and Library, passing by the location of two of the Lock Obelisks and finding that both were still buried deep in the ground, with almost no traces of them being present even though she knew exactly where they had been.


    ¡®Yi Shi Ming, could you tell me whether Kong Shi Meng had been involved in the construction of the Kong Holy Grounds, somehow? These pillars reacted to the energy used in his techniques, and there was also a place within the District that appeared to be otherworldly in appearance, suggesting that he had been there as well,¡¯ Wei Yi said to the spatial spirit as she passed the area that had contained the yin water, which had been obliterated by Yi Henghua during her rampage, ¡®Something about that always seemed strange, and now that you¡¯ve told me that both the Gilded Library and the Kong Mental Arts were made by him, I am curious whether more of the Kong foundations were made by him.¡¯


    ¡®I am afraid that is outside of my knowledge. It is possible, but he did not inform me if that was the case,¡¯ she answered.


    ¡®Oh, is that so¡­ Fuck¡­¡¯ she sighed, finally stopping at a place that she now recognised from two distinct times and memories, one where this place was at its prime, with carefully carved walls and ground and perfectly kept foliage, and the second, where everything had fallen apart and turned exactly as natural as it had been intended to be from the first place. Any traces of the path were consumed by grass, tree roots and bushes devoured the walls, and the carefully trimmed tree branches had grown out once more to obscure the sky.


    Now, this place had just gotten even worse.


    Fortunately, the wall remained, and that suggested that the Ancestral Library was still intact. Wei Yi approached it and searched for the correct place to open the hidden door within the mountainside. Only a few moments into her search, she located an oddly smooth side of the wall, where spiritual perception could not detect a single thing within it while the stone around it could be felt.


    She brought up the document containing the memory of Yi Shi Meng opening the passageway and mimicked her movements after she had converted the cosmic energy into pure, stable planar energy, placing her hand on the wall and reciting every word spoke by the woman.


    The spatial spirit had planned to say something to her, presumably to explain how to use this door, but quietened down when she confirmed that this was yet another thing that Wei Yi had been able to learn from her memories. Although she appeared to be fine with this, Wei Yi did feel a little awkward after borrowing so much from her knowledge without the spatial spirit¡¯s awareness, especially because she understood how much she didn¡¯t want her own memories to be viewed by anybody else. For this exact reason, she didn¡¯t allow Yi Shi Ming into the Ascendant¡¯s Library, despite how much she would likely be able to assist her with all of the knowledge stored within.


    It was slightly hypocritical ¨C although that was a rather light way to put it ¨C but she wasn¡¯t going to change her mind just because of that, even if she wasn¡¯t exactly pleased about the situation.


    A mosaic of words appeared on the wall as she finished her incantations, with most of them appearing mostly as they had in Yi Shi Ming¡¯s memories while only a few had been damaged by the passage of time or incidental strikes that had hit them during some unrelated conflict, and the wall slowly descended into the ground. It had clearly been unmoved for a long time, and thus it moved roughly and incredibly unpleasantly.


    Behind it, dilapidated furniture and a rotting d¨¦cor greeted her, with any traces of opulence or value having been claimed by time long, long ago. Even that which still remained appeared weak enough to shudder from the mere contact with her spiritual perception, suggesting that it would crumble into dust the moment that she attempted to touch it herself.


    A large number of roots grew through the ceiling and into the ground, with moss and random foliage of a non-planar origin covering the walls, destroying what few paintings and wall-bound decorations had been present within Yi Shi Ming¡¯s recollection of this Ancestral Hall.


    Even the occasional statue of said ancestors was either in pieces or completely missing.


    ¡®How many years was it since the Kong fell, again?¡¯ Wei Yi asked as she carefully passed through the roots and sought out the library.


    ¡®I believe that the last holding of the Kong Clan, then renamed as the Kong family and the Kong District without the same support that most other districts provided, had fallen roughly fifty-seven years after the founding of Yi City, even if the family itself continued, so that would be one million, two hundred and one thousand, four hundred and sixty-six years ago.¡¯


    ¡®Right¡­ This place has held up well, hasn¡¯t it?¡¯ she has slightly changed her assessment of the area, as the fact that there was still something standing suggested that the Ancestral Hall had been extremely resilient for a long time, then decided to let Yi Shi Ming assist her somewhat, ¡®Your memories were somewhat light on the navigation, so if you could guide me to where I need to go, I would appreciate it greatly.¡¯


    ¡®Certainly. Now, turn right here, and¡­¡¯


    ¡®I had hoped that there would be more than fifty books remaining. So much ancient knowledge, lost forever¡­¡¯ Wei Yi sighed, taking in the sight of countless ruined shelves and shreds of paper that lay on the ground, mixing with dust to the point of being no different from it.


    Some still contained writing, and some could potentially be pieced together if she scanned them with spiritual perception and figured out how they connected together, but it was almost certain that much of the text had been damaged beyond recovery even for the impressive might of her Ascendant¡¯s Library.


    Fortunately, a few books yet remained, and so she scanned them into her mental domain quickly before doing the same with every single small piece and scrap of paper in the area, storing them in a small flat layer within one portion of her library. Those that had any quantity of ink upon them were stored in one place, while those without were placed a small distance away, as they were still key to the connection of the pages. Between each character, there would be several scraps of empty paper that she would still need to include.


    Before getting to that, however, she looked through the books that she did have. Two of them happened to be the Light of Divinity and the Touch of God, which she had already known and had improved on her own, so that proved to be insignificant, whereas the rest were common techniques that did not significantly alter her combat ability. She was, however, able to add them to the Ascendant¡¯s Dao quickly, enhancing its strength by a little bit.


    After a few attempts to personally handle the process of reconstruction the pages within a reasonable time, she mentally lifted them into the air and used Endless Calculation to begin the work for her.


    Yi Shi Meng, after she had looked onto the library through Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, said, ¡®I hath, in my possession, a few of the tomes that were stored here, but I coulds¡¯t never store quite as many as thee. It was, at some point, an assassination technique, so it could benefit thee in battle.¡¯


    ¡®An assassination technique¡­ That reminds me of something, actually,¡¯ she did not ask her about that skill immediately and instead reached into her pocket to remove the token used by Yi Fenwu to command Yi Bai during her previous visit to the Kong District, ¡®Yi Shi Ming, have you ever seen anything of the sort?¡¯


    When the spatial spirit shook her head, as she had expected her to do, she wasn¡¯t particularly surprised and instead raised her hand to her chest and opened a connection to the House of Gold before tossing the token into it. As it had been emptied out earlier, there was enough space within that finite cubic metre of space for the token to fit, and for the otherworldly artefact to provide her with the information that she had been seeking ever since obtaining that object.


    According to the text that appeared beside the black token, it was a command token of the Weavers of the Dark, and beside carrying the authority of someone or something called a Binder of the Dark, it also contained the cultivation technique for them.


    ¡®Really? There seem to be far more things in this world that evade my spiritual perception than I had initially thought,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, removing the token from her spatial storage and looking at it more closely, ¡®Indeed, if not for the description, there would have been no chance of me ever spotting anything unusual about this, and if I hadn¡¯t known of its function, then I might not have even been able to figure out that it had the power to command an entire assassin organisation¡­ If I keep getting lucky, I might get control over several organisations by the end of my journey, and at that point I could be known as the Assassin Queen¡­ wait, what?¡¯


    She realised that her thoughts had wondered, even if that didn¡¯t cost her much time due to the speed of her mind, and immersed her spiritual perception into the one spot that was susceptible to it.


    Once she guided it through a miniature maze that threatened to tear apart her spiritual perception the moment that she turned in the wrong direction, she felt a stream of knowledge flow towards her mental domain. So that it did not inflict any kind of harm upon her, she captured it inside of a book and placed it into one of the wings of the library before choosing to take a closer look.


    It turned out that the technique was also called Binder of the Dark, and that through a very specific cultivation of planar energy, it would allow the user to release a certain kind of aura that would grant complete control over anyone using the Weaver of the Dark technique, with almost every minor function of their body being available to modification without any say from the assassins themselves. This same aura was released by the command token, presumably to permit those of a lower cultivation realm to maintain the same authority before they were able to sufficiently externalise their energy, and was the reason that Yi Bai could be made to surpass all of her limits without any care for her well-being or survival.


    What was most interesting for her was that the cultivation technique itself would only condense roughly eleven percent of impurities, which was extremely impressive considering that common techniques would typically produce energy with a third of it being impurities, and even some of the more impressive techniques in her possession resulted in twenty percent of impurities. All of those impurities were removed by the principle of cosmic energy, but it was still incredibly impressive.


    Naturally, it was added into her cosmic energy, and she was able to return to the topic that reminded her to make this discovery.


    ¡®So, what kind of technique do you have?¡¯


    ¡®It is from an ancient organisation known as the Weavers of the Dark, permitting thee to cloak thine form in shadow and to use it as an offensive method if that is necessary for thee,¡¯ Yi Shi Ming explained, ¡®And¡­ art thou alright?¡¯


    ¡®You know, all of these coincidences are getting a little too much for me¡­¡¯

 V3C5: The Great Encounter

    Dark shadow coiled around her, crimson hair turning black with the shadows that focused in her body. Her cosmic energy changed into similar darkness, overwhelming everything in sight and turning even the pristine dantian bones black. Slowly, it expanded outwards, covering more and more of her form in the abyss.


    She turned to the wall and willed a tendril of the Eldritch Hold physique to reach out, imbuing it with the power of the Weavers of the Dark before sending it at a nearby mountainside.


    The tendril struck the stone silently and with great speed, easily piercing into it as if it had been an impossibly sharp blade and not a thick inhuman appendage that had found a surprising amount of use in a place that the first user of the physique would have likely not appreciated. It was able to lodge itself far into the stone and could then be easily pulled out without a single difficulty, and with only a slight crack forming in the stone as a result.


    In other words, it was as one would expect from a tool of an assassin.


    Wei Yi made that tentacle disperse and instead created a tendril from yang-type physique energy, which, when it fused with the shadowy energy belonging to the Weavers of the Dark, rippled with both dawn light and darkness at once, and when she struck a different part of the stone with it, it instantly exploded into dust that boiled the air around it.


    ¡®Excellent. The physique energy is able to react with the technique and alter the way in which it functions,¡¯ she summarised to herself, dispelling the second tendril and converting her energy back into the cosmic crystal that typically occupied her dantian. Such attacks were sufficiently powerful to belong to her third realm, and yet their cost was rather low, whether in terms of energy consumption or physical exertion, making the techniques of the Weavers of the Dark significantly more effective than the vast majority of common combat techniques taught in the Yi District.


    They were weaker than those of the Scorching Blades or the likes of the Elysian Palm, but had the planar energy cost been higher, their offensive potential would have been similar.


    ¡®I suppose that the Weavers of the Dark must be a little more stealthy in their approach, whereas the Scorching Blades and those of the Endless Dark are somewhat more violent. Both have their place, so I need to include them in the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, but I must consider both when approaching a situation.¡¯


    Since there were no good reasons for her to bother with repairing the rocks that she had struck, she simply made sure to get rid of any remaining evidence of the Ancestral Library and looked through the remaining rooms of the structure, which were unfortunately in a far worse state than the entrance and the library and thus yielded nothing of use, before departing the Ancestral Hall and sealing the entrance with her yang-type physique energy.


    She would have loved to investigate the array or material that made the doorway impenetrable to her spiritual perception, but it was more difficult to break it apart than it was to ruin it forever.


    Fortunately, although she would not be able to benefit from this particular door, it was certain that there were similar ruins out there, also containing long-lost methods and storing various techniques that still surpassed common understanding, with one such ruin being certain to use a similar door to this one. All she needed to do was find it.


    Once she reached the other side of the Kong District, she quickly climbed up the side of the cliff using the Aerial Foothold ability, using each one to leap up almost five floors at a time whilst simultaneously shattering the foothold and letting the energy return to her. With this process, she spent only one fifth of her physique energy to ascend something that had taken the young generation of the Yi family several days to navigate in less than an hour, ending up at the edge of a different forest than the one she had entered through.


    Almost as quickly as she extended her spiritual perception to cover this area, she found a planar signature of the third realm, with a powerful anchor quietly humming in the middle of it. By the nature of the energy, and the general appearance of the origin, it was clear that it was a planar beast.


    ¡®Well, I haven¡¯t yet fought someone or something at this level since my return, especially not without utilising my other three energies, so this could be a decent distraction,¡¯ she shrugged, rushing to it.


    Several minutes after, the foe came into view ¨C a wolf¡¯s head atop a lion¡¯s body made entirely of bark and leaves, with a single thin root trailing behind it. It did not notice her immediately, both due to the distance between them meaning that it¡¯s spiritual perception could not reach her, and due to the powerful stealth methods in her possession, but not only did she see everything about it, she also recognised it almost immediately.


    It was a variant of a hungry nest, this one appearing to be a bark or tree hungry nest.


    ¡®That¡¯s the second one, despite the fact that these creatures are meant to be about as rare as a common creature can get, with there being one hundred vine and bark wolves for each vine or bark hungry nest¡­ Fortunately, the resource output from these things is slightly higher than most other planar beasts, so it¡¯s not like their additional inconvenience is all that bad.¡¯


    She jumped out of the tree and landed onto the grass with her bare feet, instantly catching the attention of the bark hungry nest and the bestial extension that it was using to explore its surroundings. Dull crimson light glowed within its eye, and a brief glance into the Ascendant¡¯s Library confirmed that this was actually a trait of hungry nests and not typical wood-type planar beasts as she had assumed the first time that she had seen the vine hungry nest¡¯s dire wolf, whereas its teeth were clearly sharp and incredibly lethal.


    The beast growled at her while the roots that led up to it pulsed, the attention that the hungry nest was paying to it increasing as it spotted a cultivator in the same realm as it.


    Once it saw her move, even if it was just to achieve a more comfortable posture while she waited for its actions, it pounced while its planar anchor descended to her left, at the very edge of its limit of placement. In a typical situation, this would mean that Wei Yi would need to choose either to fight it while it was at its full power, or attempt to evade its attacks and strike the planar anchor instead, which could be retracted and replaced at any time.


    As a set of jaw-shaped planar constructs formed around its open jaws and flew out at her, the planar creature likely thought that she would be heading for it, but she simply raised one hand and clicked her fingers.


    Soft white light suddenly enveloped her hands and expanded smoothly, completely unlike an explosion. It met with the planar construct and as the latter bit down onto it, every bit of stable energy within the planar jaws suddenly broke down into fluid, spilling onto the sphere of energy and sliding down it before dripping off and dispersing into unbound planar energy. When the false wolf attempted to bite down on it, it passed through the light smoothly, and shut its jaws on Wei Yi¡¯s outstretched arm triumphantly. However, while it did make a mark on her skin, it could not pierce it.


    ¡°Is this all you¡¯ve got? I suppose that this is the weakness of mostly unintelligent beasts ¨C they cannot form proper techniques nor truly cultivate their bodies, so the stability of their planar constructs is lacking against Elysian energy, whereas the fangs prove to be weak in comparison to such things as knives,¡± she kindly explained to the beast, taking out the Bone of the Beast before using her derivative of the Crushing Dagger arts to destroy the bark wolf¡¯s head.


    Since it would just recover the moment that she allowed it to, she kicked the body with as much strength as she could, sending it through a dozen trees in the process, and hastened in the direction that the root originated from.


    Just as the vine hungry nest had a nest full of vines and teeth-like spikes, the bark hungry nest lived near a tree and had connected to it with a thick layer of bark, with the opening to the cave being surrounded in jagged pieces of brown. Warm air streamed away from it, making it incredibly obvious that this was no common location. She rushed in, ignoring the numerous branches that appeared out of the walls and ground, and followed the trail of warm air all the way into the large opening of the primary chamber of this particular nest.


    It was filled to the brim with thick white gas and housed within the centre a large round creature that was attached to the walls, floor and ceiling with thick wooden branches. Dull crimson poured from within, lighting up the gas around it, emphasising it through the obscuring properties of the white, almost certainly poisonous gas.


    Three mounds on the floor were slowly rising, and they were changing into the shape of wild beasts.


    ¡®It¡¯s doing better than the vine hungry nest, but not good enough¡­¡¯ she thought, infusing the Bone of the Beast with planar energy and transforming it into the power of the Scorching Blade technique.


    Although she was entirely immune to the effects of the gas, as she had flooded her lungs and veins with Yin-Yang Ascendant energy and thus eliminated anything that it contained almost instantly, she still had to endure its terrible stench. It was clearly not something edible or consumable, hence allowing her to endure the full horror of the noxious gases, the full nature of which could never possibly be described through words alone.


    For this reason, she decided it was best to hurry, completing the charging process of the technique early as it lit up with draconic flame. It torched the horrendous gas and rapidly expanded as she waited for the gas to shift ever so slightly, then slashed at the creature diagonally.


    Scorching flame shot out of her dagger and cleaved the air, causing the very air to combust alongside the noxious white cloud, reaching the outer bark of the nest just as the shape of a dragon¡¯s head formed out of the fire. It bit down onto the bark, chewing right through it, removing an enormous chunk before exploding into raw heat and utterly annihilating the entire nest, followed shortly by the violent incineration of the white cloud and the explosive reaction that happened as a result. Wei Yi was thrown against one of the walls, but before the flame could damage her robes, she used the Pyromaniac¡¯s Coat physique ability to lighten the blow and the World¡¯s Echo to phase through the worst wave of damage.


    Just as a precaution, she had closed her eyes, so when she opened them, she saw how the sides of the cavern had lost all traces of wood or bark, instead being replaced by slightly scorched or molten stone.


    In a small mound on the ground, roughly where the hungry nest had hung, was its root. Unsurprisingly, it was in a better state than the first one she had the pleasure of acquiring, and it also appeared to be larger, likely due to the higher cultivation of this specimen in comparison to the Half-Step Emergent Anchor of the vine hungry nest.


    The previous root had been sold for a few gold coins, and would likely be somewhere in the depths of the Yi District, so she had no chance of obtaining it and thus decided to keep this one for further research, just in case it proved to have a useful function.


    What she could be certain about was that the Truth of the Universe worked in the Planar Continents exactly as intended, as a thin mist had been hanging around the root and was absorbed into her body and then into the characters within her dantian. When Wei Yi brought up the grey rectangle ¨C apparently called an interface or a screen by Kong Shi Meng when he had been talking about it ¨C the number had increased back to forty-seven, meaning that if she really desired it, she could improve one of the primary elements of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao once, so long as the cost did not increase.


    For now, she did not intend to do such a thing, as this fight against the nest had not shown her any weaknesses, but only that she was still far superior to common planar creatures.


    She would require true combat to learn more about her current ability in the Planar Continents.


    As she knew nothing about the current locations of any Great Families in the world as of this moment, nor was she confident in being able to do more than scratch any one of them again, she did not want to seek any of them out at this particular moment. Instead, she rested in the nest¡¯s cave for a little while, recovering the energy expended on destroying it, and then proceeded to head to the north-west, so that she could get back from the diversion that was the Kong District.


    If observed on a map, or viewed from a bird¡¯s eye view, the Yi District was roughly in the centre of Yi City, and directly to the north of it were the Ning and Ping Districts, among others. The Kong District, although it was not present on modern maps, was to the north-east, so in order to return to her original route towards the Northern Desert and the districts there, she needed to go into the direction of the Ning District, where Ning Guanting hailed from. According to what the blacksmith had told her, the district housed incredible blacksmiths, so it would allow her to study that art before proceeding in the direction of the desert hideout.


    Without any immediate threats in sight, Wei Yi continued through the trees and forest, but she was stopped far more quickly than she had expected.


    Only a few minutes after she had begun to sprint, she sensed an incredible force at the edge of her perception, forcing her to instantly stop herself with an Aerial Foothold generated directly in front of her just as she nearly entered the range of spiritual perception of the other person. Fortunately enough, her spiritual perception appeared to be unnoticed, but just in case, she retracted the majority of it.


    After surrounding herself with every stealth method that she was able to call upon without moving, she looked out to observe the identity of this powerful individual, finding that it was a figure in a plain robe that stood over a yet-breathing body, with their sandals stomping onto the body¡¯s arm.


    Despite being in the third realm, just like the nest, there was one feature that distinguished this one person from almost everyone else, that caused her heart to pump with absolute, undiluted fury, that sent the entirety of the mental realm ¨C thankfully avoiding the physical prison realm ¨C aflame with such powerful killing intent that it would easily make one think that her change to the cultivation of killing will was nothing but a lie. It was a large set of mirages around the figure, causing the air to tremble while that number of unclear shapes floated in the air.


    The last time that she beheld them, she was unable to understand their shape, but after condensing a full anchor and learning of the secret, Wei Yi saw that every single floating shape was an individual planar anchor, with each one possessing some uniqueness despite being attached to the very same figure.


    Thick crimson rage erupted from her body against her will, only barely being kept in check by her remaining consciousness using some of her spiritual will to prevent it from alerting the member of the Great family.


    ¡°Where is it, foul creature?¡± the Great said, sounding like he was addressing some kind of wild animal instead of a normal human being, ¡°Your resistance is not doing you any good, and simply prolongs your suffering. Tell us where the arrow is, and I will end your life here and now, and you will not need to suffer Testament. Speak up.¡±


    ¡°I said¡­ that I¡­ already¡­ gave it¡­ away¡­¡±


    The male member of a Great Family shook his head and raised his foot, just to bring it down again with greater force, ¡°Who was it, then?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ forgot¡­¡±


    ¡°Sure, that¡¯s believable. You gave the arrow away, and yet you don¡¯t remember who now has it, what they look like, where they went or what they¡¯ll do with it¡­¡± the plain-robed man sighed, looking away in thought for a few moments before his gaze returned to the man beneath him, ¡°Worthless.¡±


    At the same time, he raised his hand and gathered his metallic planar energy at a small point in front of it, with a circle of metallic light forming around it as the many mirages around him seemed to actively press down on the energy to compress it further into a more powerful pulse of power than he could have otherwise achieved. In one second, that enormous volume of power was pressed into a single point, which shot through the man¡¯s head in a single pulse of power.


    ¡®THAT FUCKING BAST-¡¯ Wei Yi¡¯s anger almost overpowered her spiritual will before her saner side spotted a faint azure shimmer emerge from the man on the ground and soar into the sky, disappearing into naught and instantly causing all of her fury to recede, ¡®Otherworldly demon? That was one of them? Then, the arrow that he was talking about must either be something to do with his power, or his actual ability that he was somehow able to rid himself of¡­ Perhaps, a bit like the Fairy of Dust, it was in an external item while the azure light was separate, permitting it to be passed on without the interference of the azure¡­ Furthermore, since this otherworldly demon was clearly in a lower realm, it must not have controlled him too greatly, thus permitting such an action to take place- Fuck, the first time seeing a member of the Great Families shook me this much, didn¡¯t it¡­¡¯


    The man in plain robes did not follow the azure with his eyes, instead searching the otherworldly demon with spiritual perception until he appeared to have found nothing and instead suddenly turned in Wei Yi¡¯s direction, his eyes glaring with an iron-like sheen. ¡°Come out. I can see you.¡±


    A small clump of crimson rage once more thrust itself out of her body, but she was able to force it back into her mental domain this time and keep herself in place, as she reasoned to herself that the Great couldn¡¯t possibly be referring to her. She had encountered them before, and while they were certainly impressive in almost every possible regard, not only did he fail to detect the azure light ¨C although that could ever be for any number of reasons, considering the fact that she had not seen the first azure light from Yi Henghua¡¯s demise ¨C but her stealth methods were composed from those of several assassin organisations and supported by energy of the fifth realm of killing will, whereas he was only in the third realm.


    Those kinds of gaps in realm could only be crossed to a certain extent, as she had already learnt.


    ¡°You seem to be having some difficulties with your target, Ning Wu,¡± a male voice emerged from a similar direction to Wei Yi, but it was far enough from her to be able to walk past the crimson-haired woman without any trace of detection.


    ¡°Chen Wu, neither of us will be acting in the interest of Testament if we speak to one another in such a fashion,¡± Ning Wu replied to the figure that emerged ¨C a man dressed in a plain robe that displayed a golden Chen (³½) character on its breast, with brown hair and eyes. Ning Wu, meanwhile, had oddly grey hair and dark eyes, and, although she had not noticed this previously, also had a character on the breast of his silver robes, with his one being an iron Ning (Äþ).


    Their fashion seemed to be almost exactly like that of the families that ruled the districts of Yi City, except for the colours and materials of their clothing being slightly skewed. For instance, the Chen family typically had robes of plain cloth that then changed into purple at higher ranks of the family, with the upper members and the patriarch proudly wearing a golden Chen character on their chest, while the Ning family always clothed themselves in metallic greys, unlike the silver shade of Ning Wu¡¯s outfit, although the material of the character was consistent.


    ¡®There¡¯s a mention of Testament for a second time. Is it a location, a group, a person or some cause?¡¯


    ¡°True. He did not divulge a thing?¡±


    ¡°Nothing of use. A total waste of time for us, except for the slaying of yet another foul invader,¡± Ning Wu affirmed, glancing around, before turning back to Chen Wu, ¡°Would you mind assisting me with something?¡±


    ¡°Certainly. We have to work together, after all.¡±


    As they said that, both of them suddenly turned back towards Wei Yi, one¡¯s eyes glowing with metallic lustre while the other¡¯s shone like gold. Both of their mirage-like planar anchors suddenly compressed onto their bodies, and an immense burst of raw force ¨C not planar energy, not spiritual will or killing intent, not even the power of space ¨C shot out towards her, disrupting all energy in its path.


    It crashed into her obscuring techniques and instantly dispersed them with raw might, striking her body and forcing her back by a step before her bare feet dug into the dirt.


    ¡°We¡¯ve had a spy all along, it seems,¡± Chen Wu said, a smile on his face as he tossed several golden coins into the air after he filled them with his planar energy. Each one froze in the air, turning to face her as more power pooled in the centre of each one.


    ¡°Indeed. Red, positively crimson hair, silver eyes¡­ one of the Yi?¡±


    ¡°Did one of them get uppity after one of their servants was consigned to the prison realm?¡±


    ¡°Could be. Red robes, no Yi symbol, so not garbed as one of their servants¡­ They¡¯re trying to make her seem independent?¡±


    Their idle chat had been suddenly interrupted when they felt the energy around Wei Yi intensify by a dozen times, like a cultivator might if they somehow ascended from the first realm all the way to the third in one go.


    ¡®I did not want to do this, but I must raise my power as quickly as possible. Fortunately enough, there is something that can be enhanced with simple efficiency and power, without adding any new elements to it that might require lengthy calculation,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself as she brought up the Truth of the Universe interface and looked at the subdivision for the Ascendant¡¯s Combat Dao, where the Yang Elysian Storm, her last weapon against the Greats, was outlined, ¡®To focus on a single technique should allow me to save on anchor energy, and could still lead to me discovering improvements for the rest of my combat abilities¡­¡¯


    When she mentally pressed the button to the side of the technique, three units of energy were consumed, so before it had the opportunity to begin the process, she repeated it two more times, with the second and third instance costing her four and seven units respectively. In just one instant, she had spent fourteen out of the forty-seven units currently available to her, but both her rage and reason agreed that this was the best use of that resource.


    Nothing would matter if she perished, so she must ensure that it would not happen. The only chance she had of defeating or scaring away the Greats would be with one powerful attack while they are not prepared for it, with the death of even a single one of them instantly leading to an increase in her supply by another thirty or forty points of anchor energy.


    Thus, as the entire structure of the Yang Elysian Storm changed within her, she already began to utilise the technique purely through the insights that the Truth of the Universe delivered to her at the same time as she drew one hand beneath her and clicked her fingers at the same time as muttering the phrase ¡®Totems¡¯.  Several dozen stone shapeless pillars rose out of the ground around her, each one gathering an immense quantity of cosmic light, pure yang sunlight, condensed killing will and the iridescent whiteness of Elysian energy, uniting together into a single attack that was led by Wei Yi herself, mimicking her exact movements and thus avoiding the need for the recreation of her meridians within the totems. In three short bursts, their and her energy grew distinctly, with the combined total of these attacks consuming more than half of her entire pool of energies.


    Within a single heartbeat, the derivation process began, the totems emerged, and her energies gathered into the form of the Yang Elysian Storm, giving the two Greats only a single opportunity to decide what to do against their foe.


    Ning Wu prioritised attack, perhaps believing that he would be able to handle her before the might of the storm of energy reached him. Concentrated points of metallic energy formed above him, all clearly aiming at her head with the intention to annihilate any of her thinking ability and thus ensure that she would pose them no threat.


    Meanwhile, Chen Wu made the coins that flew above him drop back down, caught all of them and threw them out again, arranging them into a small barrier around him.


    ¡®Yang Elysian Storm!¡¯


    It was as if she was relieving the past ¨C her palm thrust out as a wave of immensely dense power flew out from it and the totems that had emerged from the ground. Covering her vision entirely, her power instantly enveloped Ning Wu and Chen Wu¡¯s positions and swallowed them in pure dawn light, in radiant Elysian energy, in the incredible light of the stars, tearing through the terrain with as much ease as a knife through paper. At the same time, mobilising half of her remaining power, she condensed all of it within the Bone of the Beast, leaping into the enormous storm of power while aiming for the one that had focused on offence, as she believed that he would be more easily dispatched.


    Just as Ning Wu¡¯s vision cleared for a moment, permitting him to reassess the situation after his robes had burnt, his hair turned to ash and he suffered several severe burns and wounds, he witnessed the impending arrival of a terrifying flame drake, the jaws of which hung open to devour his skull in one ferocious bite.


    Slamming down onto his skin and flesh, it reverted into pure flame and heat that continued to feat upon him, slowly consuming his facial features.


    Nevertheless, as Wei Yi drew closer to attempt a finishing blow, she felt the offensive energy generated by the Great continue to condense and, just as the Bone of the Beast approached his eye, fire out towards her. As the pure blast of metallic energy approached her, she was forced to choose whether she would give him an excellent opportunity to get away, or if she would risk destruction just to finish him off.


    For her, neither option was suitable. Out of all of her forms of power, out of the obscure nature of her spiritual will and the destructive nature of her killing intent, her most fearsome ability was the only one that truly bore the label of Ascendant.


    Her flesh turned golden, her form changed to one half dark and half light, a shroud of sunlight and moonlight surrounded her and her very form flashed out of existence just as the first beam would have struck. It passed through her and she immediately returned to existence, empowering the dagger further with the Martial Aspirant and Titanic Demolisher physique abilities in order to enlarge the weapon while also doubling the overall offensive potential of her strike. Together, these forces continued on their path to Ning Wu¡¯s right eye.


    By the look in his eye, it was obvious that the member of the Great family would readily barrage her with all kinds of insults and disparaging words had he been in a better position, as the two presumed members of the Great Yi had done, likely calling her some kind of disgusting insect that didn¡¯t deserve to do even that much damage to him, but he appeared to understand the right time and place for such things. While the other concentrated points of energy continued to charge above him, he shifted all of his mirage-like anchors onto the path of her blade, making all of them unite together into a single glowing point that bent the very space around it, despite the stability of the Planar Continents themselves.


    The doubled dagger points struck the anchors¡­ or, rather, it hit the solidified air that the anchors stabilised through their mirages. They seemed to remain within the dantian of the Great that cultivated them, and these mirages were simply their influence upon the world around them, just as Wei Yi could stabilise large areas of energy through her own anchor.


    On their own, every single one of these planar anchors were clearly inferior to her own, cultivated with techniques that still retained fragments of impurities in their core, but together, they contained even more power than the warp of the Kong Holy Grounds, stopping her blade in its tracks after it had pierced only a single centimetre into the mirage. With a cry emboldened by her fury, Wei Yi applied the full extent of the strength contained within her thin arms, which exploded and almost doubled in volume as the mirage was finally pierced.


    However, that one moment was more than sufficient for Ning Wu to evade and remove a talisman from his robes, sticking it to his chest as it began to turn to ash and intensify his healing speed ten-fold.


    Just as the knife was about to reach his new position, a second beam of energy struck its point and knocked it aside, rendering the attack completely ineffective, before a third pulse shot out at her head in the same way as her dagger had been aimed at his.


    The very shifting of air before the planar energy would have been enough to shatter the skull of a first realm cultivator, regardless of the system of cultivation used, and the beam itself was even more powerful, but Wei Yi did not intend to back down, instead releasing all of her physique energy around herself and obliterating what remained of the training set that somehow still restrained some of her might, at which point the already mighty aura around her transformed entirely.


    It should be known that in order to break through the realms of physique cultivation, one¡¯s body must reach incredible heights. The first realm requires one to be eight times as strong as a normal individual, equating to the seventh stage of the Planar Pool realm, while the second and third require a strength that is sixteen and thirty-two times superior to the origin of the cultivation. Naturally, following this trend, Wei Yi¡¯s own form, empowered by the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique and reinforced countless times through the five elements of cosmic energy, almost equating to the raw power of the first stage of Active Core, greatened even further by the kind of energy that she had been able to cultivate.


    Her movements also accelerated immensely, allowing her to suddenly appear a step to the left without the use of the World¡¯s Echo physique ability with a blacksmith¡¯s hammer in hand. With a cry of exertion, she threw it at Ning Wu¡¯s skull with so much force that it caused an enormous shockwave to burst out, dispersing the remaining smoke and dust around them from her earlier attack.


    Barely before the hammer left her grip, her form already vanished and appeared in her original spot, where the beam had already passed her, and charged at Chen Wu, who had dispelled his defensive coin-based barrier and returned to attacking, tossing a few more coins into the air to arrange them into an offensive array of some kind that she was already focusing on Wei Yi, with his aim and concentration being disrupted only slightly when the shockwave struck the floating coins that nudged them back, although they barely moved due to the support of the mirage anchors.


    The hammer, although it had been filled with power and speed, was still easy for Ning Wu to knock aside with the remaining beams of energy that had built up above him.


    ¡®Their techniques, although they use somewhat different principles and systems, clearly share origins and have a similar structure. Both are hands-free, without the need for their personal movements, for what kind of heaven-blessed rulers of the world could possibly get their hands dirty? Even those two, the ones that imprisoned me, did not use their bodies until they had to seal me within the prison realm,¡¯ she quickly analysed their actions and readily scanned their techniques for a better understanding of their structure. Although she found them abhorrent due to the ones that had created them and had used them to suppress all others that could have taken their place, she did not believe that they could not be turned against them, or, at the very least, be accounted for and dealt with in the future.


    Fortunately, although she had been readily expending her power so far, her nascent rift was not too far behind in recovering it. Having reached a certain size of the rift prior to her exit from the Kong Prison Realm, it was now able to recover one tenth of her energy per four minutes.


    That was slow on its own, but it had a slightly different effect while in the Planar Continents ¨C whenever newly absorbed energy from the air, which was typically an immense amount due to the raw pull from the quantity of power that her anchor and technique, was enveloped by the cosmic mist from the nascent rift, it would quickly melt into her existing cultivation, allowing her to use it before even fully processing it and expanding her total pool of power.


    As a result, her actual speed of regeneration was closer to a tenth per half a minute, meaning that in those few breaths of time that she had spent utilising purely physique energy, she had already recovered sufficiently to unleash another powerful strike ¨C and that was exactly what she did. A weapon of pure cosmic light formed in her right hand, using the Frayed Blade technique as the base structure, and was then empowered further not only by the principles of Demonic Ire and the Hatred Split, but also by the Yang Elysian Storm, causing the light around it to distort in a manner that almost matched the many anchors she was up against.


    In the face of the incoming barrage, she put up no defences other than the physique energy that surrounded her, fusing yin and yang to prevent it from searing all of her limited clothing into oblivion, and instead directed the majority of her power into the united technique. With how expensive the Yang Elysian Storm itself was to improve using the Truth of the Universe, she didn¡¯t wish to waste the rest of her anchor points on another overly powerful technique that required the time and the opportunity to prepare for the best effect, and so she instead made up for the relative weakness of the Frayed Blade and the other techniques utilised by funnelling all of her power into this attack yet again, causing the warping effect to grow even more powerful and significant as she ignored their collective preparation to slaughter her.


    The points of energy gathering in the air above Ning Wu and in the coins above Chen Wu completed charging and shot out at the same time as the Frayed Blade was ready to strike.


    Both sides attacked at the exact same time, and while the united beams travelled far more quickly, the Hatred Split united with the power of the Yang Elysian Storm finally appeared to contain more might than their assault. Colliding roughly a third of the distance from Wei Yi to the Greats, two metallic forces found themselves unable to proceed as absolute sunlight overwhelmed them, and slim and nimble moonlight slid past them and surged further, disrupting the entire length of every single beam before crushing them entirely.


    Although that initial moment seemed to drag on forever, the rest of the energy¡¯s journey was strangely brief. In just one instant, her storm-like power was only a single brief moment from carving into their flesh, piercing their vulnerable areas and, hopefully, splitting them into naught.


    Somehow, both of her foes decided on the same defence¡­ and placed their anchors before her once more. The last time, her strike was momentarily stopped by the anchors before passing through them without a single scratch being made to any one of them. This time appeared to be similar, but just as the Hatred Split was about to pass the mirage anchors, she suddenly heard something shatter.

 V3C6: The Secret of the Arrow

    The shattering sound came from both directions, and both correlated with the addition of two points of anchor energy to the Truth of the Universe.


    For a moment, there was nothing, but then two explosions of pure planar energy erupted from the positions of the mirage anchors, scattering the energy of the Hatred Split swiftly and throwing Wei Yi and the two Greats backwards with such force that even the Eldritch Hold physique ability proved to be insufficient to keep her in place, as the tendrils were either torn out of the ground or outright torn to naught.


    She attempted to stabilise her stance as quickly as possible and return to combat, but to her surprise, the Greats used the energy from the explosion to retreat with incredible swiftness, flying to the outer edge of her spiritual perception before she could even begin to move.


    ¡°Get back here, you fuckers! Get¡­ shit¡­¡± she began to yell at them but stopped quickly as her saner side reminded her that it would not cause them to return if they truly wanted to flee. Furthermore, with the great expense of energy on the Hatred Split, she would not have the opportunity to recover her physique energy with sufficient speed to chase after them with the World¡¯s Echo physique. Instead, she frowned and attempted to memorise and process every single thing about the encounter that had just unexpectedly concluded.


    ¡®So, their anchors can be damaged without striking at the dantian even while they are still inside of their bodies, but it requires an immense degree of force¡­ They shouldn¡¯t be able to learn of my identity without the conclusion that the prison realm is no longer under their control ¨C which would imply that they have failed on an immense level, and should truly put them into a panic ¨C and the fact that I displayed my killing will form should make them believe that I can freely shift my appearance if things don¡¯t go my way, so I don¡¯t necessarily need to consider their response or an attack on the Yi District any time soon,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded after a moment, calming herself and changing her appearance back to her regular form, ¡®On the topic of combat again, I might be able to extrapolate their attack methods and possibly make myself appear as one of them for a moment, but that will take a while¡­¡¯


    The next few seconds were spent in deep thought, but there was unfortunately little she could do with how little information she had to work with. She didn¡¯t know why the anchor had broken, nor did she understand exactly why they needed the arrow from that otherworldly demon ¨C who she found on the ground without a trace of life to him, nor a hint of the nature of the arrow or his particular ability.


    One thing that she was able to roughly determine from the quiver in which the arrow must have been held was the shape and length of it, as well as the vague idea of the kind of arrowhead that it had.


    ¡®If I luckily stumble upon it in the future, I will be able to store it away and ensure that it doesn¡¯t fall into the hands of the Greats no matter what happens,¡¯ she thought, burning the body of the otherworldly demon to further confuse the Greats as to her identity, purpose and reasoning, since someone with a simple hatred of the Greats wouldn¡¯t stop to burn the body of some random person in the forest.


    Before doing anything else, she collected the hammer she had thrown at one of them, shrinking it and putting it back onto the back of her head.


    The two Greats had fled to the north and north-west, which just happened to be exactly where she was intending to go, meaning that if she rushed out now, she would simply meet them again and be instantly attacked.


    Instead, she chose to wait for a while, then travel directly westwards to continue making progress while not intruding upon any other potential Great Family locations, hoping that most of them were limited to only a few in number and didn¡¯t have the same enormous quantity as the combined forces of Yi City. With the power that each one of them had, matching an army with ease as a lone warrior, if the numbers of the Greats matched those of the normal families, not even the most insane leadership could ever prevent them from holding the power over Yi City in the open, rather than in the shadows, like in their current state.


    A day later, she had decided that she had enough of travelling in the wrong direction, and returned to travelling towards the north, where the Ning District would now be located, but once more found herself encountering various planar beasts and obstacles. Most were not particularly difficult to defeat, given that most of them were only in the peak of the second realm, but what truly stumped her was the fact that several of them had been slain with a single attack by the time that she had found them.


    In itself, that would suggest a combatant in the fourth realm or above going through the forest and slaughtering beasts that get in their way, but the presence of burnt-out campfires that been carelessly extinguished and still sent wisps of smoke into the air suggested that this person either chose to rest much like her, or had no choice but to do so.


    ¡®That would be nonsensical, however. There are few things that can permit someone of a low realm-¡¯


    She was about to punch another weak planar beast to death when she felt something shoot into the range of her spiritual perception and head directly towards the foe before her.


    Before the projectile struck, she appeared several steps behind her present position and watched as an ordinary-seeming arrow shot through the air and impaled the large planar beast, piercing directly through it before shooting out the other side and crashing into a tree, lodging itself half-way into the thick bark.


    ¡®The arrow? That quickly?¡¯ her eyes widened for a moment, but that did not stop her from shifting over to that location with the World¡¯s Echo ability and collecting it, storing it in the House of Gold before the one that fired it could realise that she had done anything.


    However, when the person entered her spiritual perception, she realised there was little she needed to do, as this person was none other than the strange hunter she had encountered earlier, but entirely overlooked due to the inability to sense the powers and artefacts of the otherworldly demons. The only reason she was even able to notice the arrow coming towards her was due to the shifting of air as it travelled, and if it had the ability to affect the air around it and keep it in place with an array or inscription, she could have easily been hit without any idea that there was something to dodge.


    Slowly, the hunter trudged towards the carcass of the planar beast, gasping when he realised just what he had slain before excitement overcame him.


    He found the wound on the beast, then rushed towards the location where he would be able to find his prized possession, but that was when he saw Wei Yi, standing far away from the place that should have housed his arrow. For a moment, neither one was quite sure of what to do, but then Wei Yi had an idea and walked over to him.


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you again!¡± the hunter exclaimed, missing the expression that she had put on as she walked, ¡°How do you do? Could you help me find the arrow that had pierced that fearsome beast-¡±


    ¡°Arrow? What arrow are you talking about? You don¡¯t have any arrows on you,¡± she suddenly stated, putting her hand on his shoulder while releasing the darkened energy of the Binder of the Dark technique to completely obscure their surroundings, ¡°Look, you¡¯ve been out here for far too long, it¡¯s even gotten dark. You should head home before you get yourself hurt.¡±


    ¡°Night? What are you¡­ Huh? When did it get so dark?¡±


    As he looked up, her dark energy obscured the sunlight in a large area, then wrapped in a dome around them making it seem as if the entire forest was enveloped by absolute darkness, without even the moon to light their way.


    ¡°See, you¡¯ve even lost track of time. Do you recall which direction your home is in?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ What is¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve been getting distracted a lot as of late, so you really should get some sleep. Come on, rest here. You won¡¯t be hurt. There are no beasts around here.¡±


    ¡°But, didn¡¯t I-¡±


    She shook her head, ¡°You¡¯ve been moving around without any clear reason or purpose, muttering about all kinds of strange things. You¡¯re just in the first realm, whereas everything here is in the second and third realm and above. Do you believe that you would be able to kill any kind of beast with just one arrow when they¡¯re so much more powerful than you?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yeah¡­ That is strange¡­¡±


    ¡°See? Now, just relax and allow yourself to rest. Then, go home when you awake. Do you understand me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I do¡­¡±


    ¡°Good. Sleep now¡­¡±


    Despite how strange everything must have been for the hunter, her reasoning seemed to have convinced him, for no sane man could believe that a single arrow would ever have such a powerful ability to pierce whatever it wanted despite no traces of arrays or inscriptions upon it. His eyes slowly shut, and his breathing calmed, and in just a few minutes, he fell asleep entirely, ignoring the fact that he lay just a few metres away from the bloody carcass of a terrible beast.


    When she could be sure that he would not awaken, she breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on the ground near him, as she was quite amazed that something like that succeeded without any preparations or appropriate techniques.


    ¡®Well¡­ That worked out, so now I need to allow him to leave safely, without the beasts consuming him as they would have done if he didn¡¯t have the arrow¡­ Actually, I suspect that he will be in more danger now that the blood of many foes is upon him, and I don¡¯t really have any methods of dealing with it¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought, grabbing a random rock from the ground and condensing a thin needle of yang-type physique energy atop one of her fingers and began to carve out a simple array upon it, ¡®I need to prevent him from dying randomly, and perhaps the best way to do so would be to give him something that can scare away the beasts for now, but will deteriorate quickly and will not catch the attentions of the greedy and envious, like the Greats.¡¯


    Normally, an array made by someone in the third realm of planar cultivation would be insufficient to ward off the most powerful planar beasts in the forest, but since spiritual will was utilised in the completion of arrays, she could also empower them with her superior killing will cultivation and thus achieve a far greater effect than she otherwise would.


    The process took her a few minutes, but when she completed the array, it lit up with a soothing cosmic light that slowly faded into the stone until it was entirely invisible so long as anything covered it.


    Since it would likely become entirely invisible after a few more hours, she placed it into the hunter¡¯s pocket and took out the planar core of the beast that he had slaughtered. After burning the rest of the corpse ¨C and simultaneously cleansing her blood-covered hands from the extraction process ¨C she moved on swiftly, rushing northwards. She did not intend to reach the border of the Ning District, as that would necessitate another few days of travel, but she did with to make up for the lost time.


    Besides a few more encounters with planar beasts, none of which truly challenged her, Wei Yi was able to make a significant degree of progress before nightfall, stopping on the branch of a large tree with a chunk of so-called ¡®Enigmatic Metal¡¯ from the House of Gold. Although the otherworldly artefact did not explain how to procure it, nor what made it so enigmatic, it did state that it was easily to mould and manipulate, especially when combined with a seemingly arbitrary list of other items, and could be used to create anything from a simple shield to an entire set of armour, although the exact method of achieving something of the sort from a simple chunk of metal was also not explicitly described while within the House of Gold.


    While she could not rush to produce that set of armour, she did tear off a chunk of the Enigmatic Metal and begin to fashion it into a mask, which was exactly what she was currently missing. Having an entire dark outfit might be a little too much, but a mask alone could easily be explained away with any number of reasons, so she would prefer to hide her identity a little more from other Greats.


    ¡®I could even maim my face on purpose, preventing the wounds from healing- ah, that would be a little more difficult with all of my attainments in physique cultivation, wouldn¡¯t it? It would affect any attempts to change my appearance as well, since the entire point of physique cultivation appears to be to stabilise the body before bringing it to greater heights than it could otherwise reach. In that light, it is even more curious that my killing will can change my shape to such an extent,¡¯ she thought, transforming her left hand into its clawed form for a moment, ¡®Fuck, can I even dye my hair at this point?¡¯


    She grabbed her ponytail with one hand and inspected it for a moment, sighing when she confirmed that it wouldn¡¯t be affected by any typical methods of dyeing one¡¯s hair. That messed with her plans ever so slightly, but she decided to carry on with her mask for now.


    Once most of the particularly complex parts were done, taking her roughly an hour and a half due to trying to get it to fit her perfectly, she shifted most of her attention to her Ascendant¡¯s Library, where she looked upon the extremely rough copies of her incomplete Ascendant¡¯s Transformation and Defiler¡¯s Point Beams, the latter of which she could not bear to associate with herself due to its origin. Perhaps, one day, if she found herself with an entirely different variation of the technique, or if the Greats were defeated, she could proclaim it to be the Ascendant¡¯s Point Beams.


    Her focus was instead on the Ascendant¡¯s Transformation, which currently contained the few basic principles that she was able to extract from the killing will form. She unfortunately had a very limited comprehension of it, and unless she wished to risk using whatever the Truth of the Universe could create for her, Wei Yi had to work on it slowly and cautiously, comprehending every part of the process before replicating it with the powers of her four types of her cultivation.


    In theory, it was possible to replicate every aspect of a cultivation realm with techniques and the clever manipulation of energy via one of the five great arts, but in practise, that was significantly more difficult. To her knowledge, the only people to successfully use more than one planar anchor were the Great Families, the only one to gain the boon of the Imperfect Rift realm was she with the nascent rift from the Nine Petals Cosmic Lotus, but other than that, most were incredibly limited in when they could achieve the power of any cultivation realm. It was this that allowed everyone to be certain of another¡¯s realm whenever they witnessed a particular ability, like externalised force, a planar anchor, solidified planar energy, the burst of a searing mark, purified planar energy from the Linked Channels realm, echoes of chaotic halos, a nigh-bottomless supply of energy and the Eternal Gate of the ninth realm.


    ¡®Frankly, the most I expect is the ability to subtly change the colour of my skin or hair, which would allow me to blend in to most communities so long as I can change by hair to be brown or black, since the crimson hair I currently have is rather distinct even for the Yi family, while skin colour can be significantly more flexible even in the Yi District,¡¯ she thought while experimenting with slight improvements and additions to the technique as the sun slowly returned to the horizon, at which point she dropped down from her tree and returned to reality, putting the Ascendant¡¯s Transformation aside with two more lines of text.


    That seemed like a minor improvement, but as anyone who didn¡¯t rely on random enlightenment for the creation of techniques would know, even one accurate word was immensely valuable.


    With a full pool of cosmic energy and meridians brimming with power, she employed all of her available movement skills to navigate the forests with immense speed, throwing quite a number of leaves off the branches of nearby trees as she travelled due to the raw force of her movement. No further interruptions stopped her until the sun had begun to set again, at which point she stumbled across a small village in the middle of a dense wall of trees.


    It was a simple set of structures placed within a clearing, protected only by the trees and a few feeble fences that would be unlikely to hold up well against any planar beast within the area. Clearly, this village did not have much contact with the outside world, as none of the fashion, design or even techniques at their disposal appeared to match anything Wei Yi had ever heard of in Yi City.


    Out of those three, their techniques and form of cultivation appeared most curious. As she sat in another tree and carefully observed some kind of ritual, she saw two men tearing apart a beast and extracting its planar core, before throwing it into a large cauldron that boiled with blood and flesh. Within, she was able to sense quite a number of cores, all of which were slowly melting into raw energy thanks to the concentrated heat from several crimson coals, a type of fuel that burned with a particularly high temperature.


    When they concluded that their brew was complete, without any obvious usage of spiritual perception or anything else of the sort, they removed the cauldron from the flame and poured the contents into several rough bowls of varying sizes, with the smallest being for the children and the largest for the muscular combatants of the village. After kowtowing to the flame, they sat down on the ground and readily consumed the mixture of blood and flesh.


    ¡®Interesting. They don¡¯t have any clear cultivation technique, but this process allows them to consume planar energy and digest it more naturally, adding it to their bodies slowly albeit consistently,¡¯ she observed traces of thickened planar energy within the blood broth that then entered the bodies of those that consumed it, suffusing their meridians and awkwardly flowing through them without any direct input from the people, ¡®If they had proper guidance, they would achieve far more from this, but for now, I ought to memorise this and see if I could expand on it to create something that less resembles the prison realm¡¯s cuisine.¡¯


    Neither their appearances nor clothing seemed to match what she knew of the Ning District, so after staying a little longer to see them practise some rudimentary punching routines, she navigated around them and returned to her route.

 V3C7: Approaching the Ning

    Some time later, she had stopped again, and this time, she remembered to read the description of the seemingly otherworldly arrow she had taken from the confused hunter.


    It wasn¡¯t that she had forgotten about checking something so important, but that it only became particularly significant as she finally neared the Ning District, as she might need to put it to use if she encountered another one of the Greats. Potentially, the two that she had fought could have already spread information about her around, and if they did not make the assumptions that she had hoped for them to make, they would be on the lookout for crimson-haired, silver-eyed people to ambush them and kill them.


    As she immersed her spiritual perception into the House of Gold, she saw the few objects that remained within the otherworldly artefact and the blue rectangular descriptions that appeared above them. The description above the arrow was shorter than some, but it sufficed.


    According to the House of Gold, this arrow was called the ¡®Arrow of Artemis¡¯, with the text being written in Antanian instead of the language of the Planar Continents. It was described to have the ability to instantly kill a foe, although the mention of various restrictions ¨C described about as vaguely as the identity of Artemis and what the arrow was made from ¨C made her almost certain that she wouldn¡¯t be able to freely kill the Greats with it.


    ¡®Furthermore, the otherworldly demon has to have attempted it himself, and yet they freely came after him even though he could have had it in his possession,¡¯ she reasoned, taking a closer look at the single unit of ammunition, ¡®The extreme variance between otherworldly demons is rather odd, too. None of them seem to know exactly why they¡¯re here, and their gifts vary from useful to incredibly effective in almost every regard. I¡¯d say that if the powers and artefacts didn¡¯t warp their minds, then they would have long dominated Yi City¡­ Well, Kong Shi Meng did exactly that, didn¡¯t he? If he still survives, despite what his mother believes, then nothing would stop him from taking the other continent when he returns.¡¯


    Due to the azure light fleeing from the body of the demon, she considered that this arrow would have a similar loss of power to the House of Gold, but as it appeared to retain its primary ability, it was possible that it would instead lose some of its durability, perhaps allowing it to be broken, moulded and manipulated into something new, whether it was the tip of a new weapon or a part of some array.


    Depending on how the unknown metal at the tip of the arrow functioned, it could be used for a powerful inscription, perhaps to allow for an Armour Forming inscription to be added to some other incredibly effective yet sparse metal in order to extend its protective abilities across the rest of her body, adding a second layer of defence over her skin and powerful flesh. Since she was already going to the north, where the people often used such inscriptions to allow for fewer clothes and pieces of armour to cover themselves while maintaining the same level of protection.


    ¡®Well, that will remain to be seen. I¡¯m not yet sure whether this assumption is accurate, and even if it is, the otherworldly material might refuse to function in the same manner as other materials from the Planar Continents,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, as she shut the House of Gold and brought her attention back to reality. Although the moulding of a mask from Enigmatic Metal could be done at any time, she needed a proper surface and set of tools to work with something as potentially intricate as the arrow.


    Something like that could be found in the Ning District, and, fortunately, she was able to see the first traces of civilization. The quantity of planar beasts was slowly decreasing, traces of camps and the occasional cleared path could be detected with her spiritual perception, likely created by the guards that had dealt with the creatures within the vicinity of the district for the safety of its less-capable inhabitants. Based on the typical practises in the Yi District, most guards would never go further than a day away from their district, as the wilds got more dangerous the further away one got from a district, so if she wanted to reach her destination, she would only need to go for a little longer.


    Naturally, that¡¯s exactly what she did, although she slowed down again when she came across a campfire that had been put out only a short time ago, less than a day ago.


    There had to be a small group of patrolling guards in the vicinity, and if she wanted to enter the district with as few complications as possible, what easier way would there be than to enter alongside a group of the protectors of the district?


    She stopped, and addressed Yi Shi Ming within the prison realm, ¡®Could you check whether Fu Zan, the otherworldly demon that¡¯s responsible for creating the equipment for my faction, has completed any clothing that could be interpreted as being noble, or that denotes the wearer to be of high standing? I need to get into the Ning District, and I¡¯m thinking of disguising myself as someone of high capability in an art so that they let me in without any extensive checks.¡¯


    ¡®Good choice. The Ning family, as I recall it, has always had a very strict set of conditions for those that it would allow into their territory, and those they valued the most were artisans of various arts.¡¯


    ¡®That seems to still be the case now, based on the documents in the libraries of the Yi Districts, although they prefer to leave blacksmithing up to their own people, allowing only the other four types of artisans into their territory.¡¯


    ¡®For a family full of blacksmithing arts, that only makes sense,¡¯ Yi Shi Ming replied, going silent for a few moments before coming back with an answer, ¡®There are a few things in his possession that suit thine needs. Take a look in the back room, on the thirteenth shelf. Most are some variation of grey, which is a poor choice for the Ning District, but there is a blue, red and a white robe. Additionally, he has a set of armour that he has not yet completed. Have a look.¡¯


    Wei Yi did so, shifting her gaze from her mental realm to the prison realm, finding those robes and several pieces of metal that could be interpreted as looking like a set of armour.


    ¡®No, it isn¡¯t anywhere near completion, is it? Fortunately for him, Shaper¡¯s Grasp can fix most of this into something presentable, and, fortunately, he had used a decent metal for the production of this set of equipment, meaning that it ought to look sufficient when worked on by someone capable,¡¯ she commented, looking back at the selection of robes, ¡®These, on the other hand, are decent, but they lack the protective capabilities of the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival. On second thought, it might be better to attempt dying it before getting something different. Can you send that armour to me?¡¯


    ¡®Yes, give me a moment. Do you have a way to obscure the transference process?¡¯


    Wei Yi passed on her affirmation and released a cloud of the Binder of the Dark¡¯s technique to obscure the small white and crimson array that appeared on the ground before her. It took a while to complete the process, but due to her ability to move significantly more quickly than any normal person in her realm, she was not concerned about the delay.


    The set of armour emerged from the prison realm, a thick cloud of spiritual will coming alongside it and dispersing into the air.


    Fu Zan returned from his break with a red face and plenty of excitement to work on something new. With the extreme perceptiveness of Wei Yi, he had always been afraid to visit the brothels that had been completed more than eighteen years ago in Sanctuary, as he thought that she might notice something about him and punish him for wasting time ¨C it was not known to him that she had frequently spent her time doing exactly the same thing, but he wouldn¡¯t have believed such tales even if someone did inform him ¨C but now that she had apparently left to the Planar Continents, he waited a few days to be sure and then took the plunge.


    In his former world, he had perished without any experience in sleeping with the opposite sex, making this even doubly exciting for him, and, to his surprise, it was far, far more amazing than he could have ever imagined.


    Afterwards, he felt that he would be able to accomplish a great deal more, especially when it came to creating equipment for women. After all, with intimate familiarity with the female form, if he did not put it to use in his work, then what kind of a craftsman or tailor would he be? That was the kind of thing that he was thinking when he entered the back of his store and found something conspicuously absent.


    ¡°Eh? Where¡¯s the cosplay gone? Did I get robbed?¡±


    It consisted of several plates of metal, with a few clearly functioning as armguards and pauldrons, as well as some kind of breastplate, although it had either been designed for a woman from the beginning, serving to protect the breasts and the areas around them, or Fu Zan did not quite understand how tall the majority of men and women were. There were several thin plates that could guard the legs, with a very roughly made pair of boots, as well as a few thigh guards, but what he had clearly struggled with the most were the gauntlets.


    Due to the claw-like shape of the fingers and the generally impractical design of the other pieces of metal around the hand, it was clear that he had not yet gained enough proficiency in the art of manipulating metal to go beyond imitating something he had seen in his world.


    ¡®One thing this confirms even more than anything else I¡¯d seen from him is that his world is certainly not employing metal armour and swordsmanship in their conflicts, since it would be nigh impossible for anyone to be this poor at understanding and replicating it with the otherworldly gift,¡¯ she concluded, remembering the weapons and armour that the otherworldly demon had attempted to design before this.


    His sword designs always tended to be too wide and too thick, like he was intending to make a club instead of a blade. His armour was entirely impractical, with ridiculous proportions and an unnecessarily tight chest for outfits designed for women that would just crush the breasts if anyone was to strike them.


    She and a number of other experienced armour smiths had attempted to instruct him on improving his work, but he seemed to struggle in terms of creativity and fluid thinking.


    ¡®If there hadn¡¯t been someone in the prison realm with the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique, I would be in a rough situation right now. However, with what I have learned from the killing will form, the robe should be easy enough to manipulate, whereas the armour can be adapted to make me seem like some kind of eccentric artisan from afar¡­ Wait, that is pretty much who I already am¡­¡¯ Wei Yi shrugged, ¡®I should hurry up. Thin the metal, reshape it, transform it¡­ empower it¡­¡¯


    Sinking her yin and yang-type energy deeply into the metal, she slowly manipulated it into a shape that she imagined. Whether she wanted to portray herself as an inscription master or someone who is an expert with arrays, she had to look well protected and capable of affording large transactions, as it would simply not make sense for someone of her ability not to be able to do so. A perfect example of this would have been Luo Xiuying, who, despite exploding his home and storefront every other day, was able to afford repairing it and purchasing new clothing for himself whenever it also suffered during his work. Since she could safely match his level of understanding, she had to match his wealth, too.


    Besides a few random pieces of gold or silver from the House of Gold, she didn¡¯t exactly have much money to spare, but she hoped that most would be keen to allow her to make use of some of their goods before paying for them in exchange for better prices on their raw materials.


    Her modification of the metal was done in a few minutes, thinning out most of the metal while doubling its strength and endurance and adjusting it to her form.


    Before putting any of them on, however, she needed to decide the colour she would change her robes to, as well as which one of the great arts she intended to display to the people of the Ning District. With her knowledge, she could easily play the part of a master of any of the five arts, and it was all too convenient that the art in which she was weakest, blacksmithing, was one that she did not need to present to the family that specialised in it.


    In theory, she had the most attainment in arrays, but her only path onwards was currently the incomplete Excellence Arts, which would mean that she would need to put in a lot of work to go beyond the current three star realm that she was in.


    Talisman creation was also one of her stronger fields, especially with how much experience she had creating talismans with blood in the heat of the moment, meaning that she could likely fight entirely using talismans and ensure that nobody learned about the techniques she had and then had the ability to trace her back to the Yi District and possible cause some complications.


    This would be highly advantageous to her, as she intended to spend some time in the Ning District while she learned as much as she could about everything that was occurring the world, as well as any possible rumours of the Greats that might have slipped their attention. Nevertheless, something about choosing talisman creation as her main art for this identity did not sit well with her, as there was another choice that refused to leave her mind.


    That, and the image that still occupied her thoughts in the rare instances of her choosing to sleep: the flaming Timeless Grove. Such a wondrous place, with so much life and potential, maintained by a caring woman that did a great deal to assist Wei Yi and even allowed her to retain her cultivation whereas others could not. Usually, she did her best not to get emotional, not to allow past memories to overwhelm her, especially not as badly as her hatred of the Greats, but now, she found it difficult not to be consumed by the memories of the flame that lit up her first ever attack against the Great Families, even if it did end in instant failure.


    What helped even more was that she possessed a forbidden skill concerning pill refining, not to mention the technique that would allow her to display talents up to five stars, as that meant that she could have a lot of breathing room when it came to progressing and building up her identity within the Ning District. Depending on how things go, she could even return to it later on to gather support once a full conflict with the Greats erupts, if more forces were necessary.


    ¡®In that case, it would need to be green, wouldn¡¯t it?¡¯ she glanced at her robes and sighed as she made her decision.


    She kneeled and grabbed a few clumps of grass, which she promptly drained with her physique abilities before crushing it and tossing it into the air as she stood up. All of the crushed grass was caught in a spherical container she moulded out of her killing will, modelled after a basic pill refining furnace, and used a part of a pill recipe to extract the colour out of the dried grass.


    Once she had enough of it, she scattered her killing will and used it to place the dye all over her robes, before saturating planar energy throughout the robes and using it to fuse the individual threads with the green of the grass, modifying it slightly in the process so that it didn¡¯t seem like she had just smeared grass all over her clothing. The verdant green turned darker, with the threads of killing intent that still remained within the cloth spreading out and forming random symmetrical markings on the surface of the cloth.


    Their meaning, if there was one, was lost to her, but they also functioned as the kind of flourish that the wealthy might include in their clothing, so she did not do anything against it, only focusing some of her own energy on the threads to change them to gold instead of crimson.


    Once that was done, she infused her clothes with spiritual will in order to stabilise their current state and to train her control over the energy until she could create or acquire a variant of the Armour Forming inscription to do this work for her. She made this stabilisation a little easier with the thin metal plates she then placed over her robes, as they were far less flexible than cloth and thus did not require quite as much attention to detail.


    When she was done with that, her shoulders, chest, the lower half of her arms and her hands, although not her fingers due to the confusing manner in which the gauntlets had been designed initially, as well as her waist and legs, the space between which was covered in her now green robes. Eventually, she could either create a full set of armour, or utilise an inscription to spread the power of a superior metal across the entirety of her clothing, but for now these plates would suffice in further confusing which direction she had originated from, as her darker skin combined with the incomplete armour could make her look like someone from the Northern Desert, rather than the Central Plains ¨C at the time that they had been named, the central area of the continent had been mostly devoid of trees and forests, but when Yi City declined, the trees slowly reclaimed the empty land.


    ¡®Alright, Yi Shi Ming, is there anything I should know about the Ning District so that I don¡¯t immediately get thrown out or attacked?¡¯


    ¡®I don¡¯t recall there being any rules that significantly differed from other districts. Just make sure not to aggravate the wrong people and most would not have a reason to target thee. If they do, the typical policy is to not kill, unlike the common principles I have observed within the prison realm, and to bring these issues to the guard once the initial conflict is concluded.¡¯


    ¡®Nothing new, then. Very well, let¡¯s see if I can find the guards on their way back¡­¡¯


    She filled her lungs with air, ignited her physique energy, and hastened along the rough direction of the tracks from the campfire, that had already burnt out entirely by the time that she had completed her preparations.


    With the World¡¯s Echo ability and all of her movement techniques, she made up the gap created by her delay, then used the significantly fresher prints on the ground to track the exact location of the guards, stopping once she was able to sense their lingering warmth through her spiritual perception. Unless one of them had a yin-type physique or item that masked their presence, there appeared to be six of them, a not too uncommon number for the average patrol, and judging by their footprints, at least four had to be male.


    ¡®It¡¯s time for my return to the society of the Planar Continents¡­ And if they¡¯re bandits, it shouldn¡¯t be too difficult to deal with them and bring their bodies back to claim a bounty, if there is one.¡¯


    Wei Yi released her presence and allowed a powerful planar aura to surround herself, instantly warding off several approaching beasts as they saw that they would be no match for her and her fragments of forbidden arts, primarily the cultivation aspect of the Codex of Nature. Then, with long and confident strides that meant to exude the air of an expert striding through a place that was of no threat to them at all, she advanced at great speed.

 V3C8: Wei Yi, Pill Refining Master

    A group of six travelled through the forest, their hands resting on the hilts of their weapons so that they could put them to use whenever they needed to. Four used swords, one had an axe with a handle of stone and a head of inscribed wood, and the last utilised a simple club.


    One of the sword wielders was a woman, standing over one of the other men, but all of their outfits revealed notably more than those of the Yi District. Some parts of the men¡¯s chests, arms and legs were exposed to the cool air of the world, while the woman¡¯s armour showed a good third of her breasts, and neither of these outfits were even close to the kinds of things that those in the Northern Desert would wear. Out there, it was not uncommon to witness those without anything to cover their chests at all, limiting themselves to a belt, loincloth and some light footwear to be able to navigate the scalding sand without burning themselves.


    These guards were not from the extreme north, as could be seen by their light skin, but the heightened warmth in the Ning District encouraged lightened equipment and less privacy in general.


    ¡°There¡¯ve been quite a few beasts coming in this direction, no?¡± the woman said, leaning slightly towards one of the men that walked beside her, intentionally pushing her breasts against his arm while he attempted to ignore her.


    ¡°Yeah. I think there may be some kind of predator hunting all of them.¡±


    ¡°Predator?¡± a third guard wondered, ¡°By the heavens, what kind of thing would be able to scare so many?¡±


    The second guard was about to suggest some kind of answer, but before he could conclude whether an expert or some aberrant planar beast was most likely to be the cause of the disturbance, all of them felt an immense power appear beside them, forcing every single one of them to turn around and view the cause.


    That cause presented itself shortly after, a tall figure emerging from the bushes behind them. Crimson hair covered her head, descending below it in a thick ponytail, and did nothing to obscure her dark green robes or the pieces of armour that covered it, nor the defined muscle visible on her arms.


    Her only weapons seemed to be a pair of daggers, both dark and rough, as if they were bones torn out of some kind of terrible beast and carved into tools of combat and war. However, that did not mesh well with the rest of her appearance, as her entire being seemed to radiate maturity and pure might that did not need to use something like weapons to achieve her goals. Nevertheless, one of them was surrounded in a crimson mirage that did not even seem to be entirely real, for it would disappear and reappear with every blink of the eyes.


    What they could be entirely certain of was that her cultivation realm was somewhere in the third realm, although her exact stage was difficult to determine for any one of them ¨C she was simply stronger than them. For this reason, they immediately drew their weapons and prepared for combat, as they could not be certain whether this woman was responsible for the beasts or what reason she might have had to call them towards the district, if she was responsible.


    ¡°Name yourself!¡± the fourth guard called out, stepping to the front of the group.


    The woman did not respond immediately, not even bothering to use her eyes as she instead scanned each one of them with her spiritual perception. Unlike their expectations, wherein any normal cultivators of the same realm would easily be able to sense one another¡¯s spiritual perception and block it from entering their bodies, they instead found that her energy was not only incredibly overwhelming, but also entirely unstoppable. It searched their bodies and clothes with ease, passing through them just as easily as water could pass through a net.


    ¡°You are guards of the Ning District?¡±


    They looked at one another, nodded, and then the fourth guard responded, ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±


    ¡°My name is Wei Yi, and I wish to set up shop in your district. Do you have the authorization to permit me entry?¡±


    Her words were incredibly clear, and the aura of power around her only seemed to grow when she looked down upon them and folded her arms. Not one of the guards could determine the exact nature of this, as it different from the raw power of planar energy, but they knew better than to look down on someone just because of an uncertainty.


    ¡°We do, but-¡±


    ¡°Bring me to the district,¡± she cut him off and ordered instead, not giving him a moment to argue against her ¨C not that the guard wished to. She seemed like she could crush him using her physical body and nothing else, despite him having done a significant quantity of body cultivation in his own time.


    ¡°H-Hey, we¡¯re in the same realm! Don¡¯t think you can just do whatever you like!¡± the female guard stepped in after a moment, although her confident tone was undermined by the slight shaking and quivering of her limbs, ¡°We¡¯re the authority here, so you have no right to just decide whatever you want, is that clear?¡±


    The crimson-haired woman¡¯s eyes moved to her, prompting an undignified yelp to flee her mouth against her will, ¡°Take me to your district and to someone acting out of more than impulse.¡±


    Once more, they shared a few glances before the fourth guard returned to the front of the group and nodded, ¡°Alright, we can do that. However, if our superiors tell you to leave, we¡¯re going to make sure that you do. We¡¯ve got people in the fourth and fifth realms-¡±


    ¡°Stop talking. I don¡¯t care,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°Furthermore, my business has nothing to do with you.¡±


    ¡®Fuck, this woman is terrifying,¡¯ that fourth guard thought as his group surrounded her and began to walk back towards the Ning District, ¡®Is she actually in the third realm, or is she somehow in the fourth or fifth realm? Her stage is also unclear¡­ first, or maybe fourth, or maybe even ninth¡­ And her spiritual will¡­¡¯


    He also shook when her gaze suddenly moved to him, as if she had somehow heard his thoughts, and couldn¡¯t fully relax even when she did not appear to address this.


    ¡°Are all of your forces this disorganised?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t quite know what you mean,¡± he responded, ¡°We-¡±


    ¡°Not you. If you¡¯re the leader of this group, then I suggest demotion and the transference of your power to anyone else in your group. She had the courage to address me, so she would do better in the middle of conflict,¡± Wei Yi pointed to the female guard, ¡°The others may have some merit as well.¡±


    None of them were able to respond.


    ¡®Did I take it too far? I¡¯m just trying to act dominant, as though mere guards of a district are nothing to me, and that I have previously dealt with far greater threats ¨C like the Greats and otherworldly demons, although they don¡¯t need to know that ¨C with enough ease to do whatever I want to them without breaking a sweat¡­¡¯ she thought to herself, deciding that further communication was currently unnecessary.


    She simply followed them for a little while at their top speed, keeping her aura around herself so that no beasts would interfere with the journey, and so that she would have the opportunity to display her ability against a sufficiently powerful foe if it was not immediately scared away.


    This did not prove necessary for her, as they finally arrived at their destination.


    The Ning District was surrounded in enormous metal walls that towered over every other structure within, going up to the height of almost fifteen average men. The walls were slanted inwards, and a number of guards stoop at the top of each major segment of the wall. It was all made from a dark iron and lined with glyphs, arrays and inscriptions that released a constant crimson glow, instinctively warding away intruders with the simple appearance of them. Although she had found it difficult to be particularly amazed by the beauty of most structures after witnessing Sanctuary and its reconstruction after she had knocked down a few towers, this wall impressed her by the sheer might and practicality of it, despite her innate dislike of the structure due to it likely originating from some otherworldly fantasy, much like the swords and armour of Fu Zan.


    ¡®Actually, thine assumption is incorrect, insofar as I am aware. According to Ah Shi Meng, he had come into possession of an excess of a certain kind of metal as he was setting up the Ning District. The clans there were all proficient in blacksmithing and crafting anything related to metal, so he commissioned them to work with him and integrated a number of ideas from the Truth of the Universe in order to strengthen the structure,¡¯ Yi Shi Ming stated when she was asked, ¡®Although, he did say something about a game during the later half of construction¡­¡¯


    ¡®Then, I was right. According to Fu Zan, there are countless games on the planet of Orbis, which feature plenty of designs and ideas for them to steal- I mean, borrow from. Did he ever say the name?¡¯


    ¡®Eh¡­ I can pass on the memory to thee, but I know not the language in which it ought to be interpreted,¡¯ the mother of the Master of Yi City replied, focusing on that memory before passing it along to her, ¡®Cans¡¯t thou gather anything from this?¡¯


    ¡®Let¡¯s see¡­ World¡­ eh¡­ That¡¯s not a real word in either Enian or Antanorden, so I have no idea.¡¯


    In terms of population, the Ning District housed almost fifty thousand people according to the latest records available within the Yi District, and they were clearly using every inch of space that they could. Homes were tightly packed in the majority of areas, and even the Ancestral Hall, which was also made of pure metal and resembled a forge more so than a typical building, only had a small space around it in which to navigate around it without needing to take a lengthy route.


    The few areas that were empty were only devoid of structures due to being large fissures in the ground that appeared to occasionally tremble even without anyone to interfere with them, as well as parts that were so barren and empty that no structure could be constructed on them without far too much work and effort.


    With such limitations, Wei Yi thought that acquiring any building for herself would be quite the difficult task, especially if she wanted to own more than a small shack to reside in.


    ¡®This district may have groups or unions that may allow me to trade in their premises without needing to acquire my own territory. It¡¯s a shame, since if these people were able to move these walls, they would have so much excellent land for me to build upon,¡¯ she thought, although she knew that they could not achieve this any time soon, not even if she stepped in to help with everything that she and Yi Shi Ming knew about the Master of Yi City¡¯s designs.


    His creations always incorporated an immense quantity of knowledge obtained through the Truth of the Universe, and so the great iron walls that surrounded the Ning District were likely created just for this purpose, in their specific arrangement. If she changed something without the full understanding of those same factors ¨C which would ordinarily mean achieving the sixth or seventh star level of understanding in array and inscription creation ¨C then the walls might even be ruined forever, which naturally extended to most other cultivators in the Planar Continents, providing them with an excellent reason to keep the district as it was.


    Expansion with a new, external set of walls was also out of the question, as the Ning District was surrounded with the nests and lairs of several extremely territorial packs of planar beasts. The moment that humans attempted to intrude too far into their territories, they would storm the new walls and ensure that they learnt their lesson.


    Their current path led to a gate within the metal, with its sides being just as jagged and intimidating as the rest of the structure. A large portcullis obscured the path through, in addition to several guards on the inner side of the walls, all of whom were equipped similarly to those on patrol.


    ¡°Approach the portcullis and speak to the guards there,¡± the female guard said, pointing towards it.


    Wei Yi did not nod or reply, as she usually would, instead heading directly towards the opening in the wall and approaching the closest guard she could, placing her hands behind her in a dignified manner.


    ¡°I have been told to request permission for entry from you.¡±


    The person she approached, a bald man who was clearly in the later half of his life, turned towards her and spent a few moments looking at her in suspicion. ¡°We don¡¯t just allow anyone in, so you need to explain why we should let you in, of all people. Do you have any ability in one of the great arts, or are you looking to assist in the maintenance of the underwalls?¡±


    She shook her head at the later suggestion, as she remembered that the position was the lowest one that could be found in any civilized district, involving extreme quantities of difficult labour in filth generated from the faults with the inscriptions utilised by Kong Shi Meng during and after the construction process, and replied, ¡°I am an expert pill refiner, and I want to provide my services within the district.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve got pill refiners. Why would we want you?¡±


    ¡°I can guarantee you that I am the only person capable of refining anything without affecting it with elemental energies. Depending on the pill, this could increase its effects by more than thrice.¡±


    That was a bold claim to make within the Planar Continents. Pure refining, or refining without the influence of the furnace and the elemental cultivation of the refiner, was something long sought after due to the incredible difference it could make with certain recipes. However, due to the extreme prevalence of elemental planar energy cultivation, even the latter aspect couldn¡¯t be addressed easily, whereas the first was likely to be impossible even in the days of the Master of Yi City and before then, as it would necessitate an energy without an elemental affinity to form the shape of the refining furnace and endure the process.


    For Wei Yi, making such a guarantee was not unreasonable. She had three unique forms of energy that could balance themselves out, those being her cosmic energy, spiritual will ¨C killing will and killing intent both contained too much polluting hatred to be used for the same purpose ¨C and physique energy, as it could be converted into perfect balance via the equal combination of yin and yang.


    Of course, the guard was unaware of this, and We Yi did not intend to reveal her full capabilities now.


    For this reason, his look of suspicion intensified, ¡°Are you going to ask me to bring you inside so that someone capable can assess your capabilities?¡±


    ¡°No need for that. My abilities can be understood by the most common of men, so long as you pay attention,¡± she answered, slashing the air with her hand to cut all of the grass around her and separate the individual stalks from the grass, before gathering all of them together in a sphere of spiritual will behind herself that she allowed to be slightly translucent as to ensure that he was able to sense her thin, nigh non-existent spiritual will.


    Then, as she returned her hand behind her back, the grass suddenly caught aflame and burnt, splitting into nine portions as it slowly revolved within the internal chamber without any influence from planar energy, the atmosphere around it, or even the soft winds that travelled past them.


    It was refined into dull medicinal essence, the most that could normally be achieved from a plant without any inherent planar properties or medicinal uses, but it was still something significant for the Planar Continents, for normal grass was one of the few things in existence that could not be processed without extreme care, as any wayward influence would instantly disperse the essence it contained.


    When she had made her point, she absorbed her spiritual will, which instantly made the essence of the grass wither and turn to dust, that then scattered even further into nothingness.


    ¡°I demand entry.¡±


    ¡°Very well, we can allow it,¡± the guard replied after he shared a look with the others, ¡°If you can find a place of work or a residence before the end of the day, we also won¡¯t have any reason to throw you out.¡±


    Most likely, he had no desire to throw someone of her talents out of the district even if she did fail to meet those requirements, as it would be a complete waste to allow some other district to claim her, likely for a lower price as well, but it was only natural for him to ensure that she bound herself to some place within the Ning District as soon as possible, so that she would have greater reason to remain there for as long as possible and form as many trade connections as possible that would then ensure that it would be unwise for her to move on for long periods of time.


    Basic recruitment and business, really. Wei Yi had done the same by granting her twin mental energies and techniques to the people under her in the prison realm, and back then, she had only been nineteen or twenty years old, far younger than those who led the districts of Yi City and had created the initial forms of governance before it.


    ¡°You can be assured that you won¡¯t need to bother yourself over such a thing.¡±


    The guard shrugged and gestured to his fellow warriors, who then gestured on until it reached someone within the district, who then activated the mechanism to open the portcullis that stood in her path.


    It rose slowly, with a mechanical sound following every single small increment. Step by step, it ascended just enough for her to be able to pass through without bowing her head ¨C a fortunate coincidence for her persona, as the guard was just a little too late to stop the opening process and would have otherwise forced her to inconvenience herself ¨C and then immediately dropped to the ground, only for the patrolling guards to rush to it and demand it to be opened yet again so that they could provide their reports to their superiors.


    Wei Yi chose not to look back, instead striding into the streets of the district and looking for the first credible-looking person she was able to find; she approached a street vendor and addressed him.


    ¡°Where is the nearest alchemical store or faction?¡± she asked without any elaboration.


    ¡°Lady, couldn¡¯t you buy a skewer or two before asking questions?¡± he replied with similar straightforwardness, ¡°As the younger generation is slowly getting old enough to chew on Nutrient Pills and the like, I get fewer and fewer sales here. More people approach me to ask questions than to buy my food.¡±


    ¡®A sort of equivalent exchange? Sure, I can appreciate that, especially considering the fact that I have the exact currency that he is asking for,¡¯ she thought, silently handing him the money for one of his meat skewers, ¡°So, the answer¡­¡±


    ¡°Go down the street until you get to the building labelled with the Chu (³ö) character. Go inside and to the left if you want to buy, right if you want to sell, forward for other topics.¡±


    ¡°Chu? Quite the unexpected name to hear around here. Is the family operating here, or¡­¡± to be sure that he answered, she tossed him another coin and took a second portion for herself, ¡°is it just some kind of coincidence?¡±


    ¡°I dunno. I don¡¯t often go there, since I don¡¯t have any aspirations for cultivation.¡±


    ¡°You could just say that your dantian is in an impure state¡­¡± Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    She turned away and walked away, trying one piece of her purchased meat and instantly turning the rest to ash once she found herself incapable of tasting his produce, and didn¡¯t want to enter the Chu structure while chewing on something tasteless and unpleasant.


    As she approached the structure mentioned by the street vendor, she saw no other characters nor titles written around it, with the Chu character being the only label above the main door.


    ¡®Interesting. The focus is clearly on the family name, and the character also seems to be the same one as Chu Ling¡¯s,¡¯ she noted, scanning the inside of the structure using her spiritual perception while she pretended to admire the outer shell of the building, ¡®No hints of the Great Families inside, so it doesn¡¯t seem to be related to them, although I am not too sure of how well others can detect the anchors of the Greats, so perhaps it is inconvenient for them to appear in public the vast majority of the time.¡¯


    After all, even before she had been made aware of the truth about the mirage-like anchors, she was able to sense their disruption. Although, besides her spiritual will being superior to that of normal people due to her inadvertent cultivation of it prior to entering the prison realm, as well as the possession of the Third Eye and the like, the two Greats had also appeared in the middle of the Yi District, where many would be able to witness them from the safety of their homes or if they stumbled past the scene of their combat, so the exact etiquette and common behaviours of the Great Families was difficult to narrow down without further experience.


    She manipulated her aura to subdue it slightly without removing the power that it radiated, then timed her entry into the building so that she wouldn¡¯t have even the slightest chance of bumping into someone.


    The inside of the structure, at the very least the reception room, was quite basic, with a carpet leading from the entrance into the structure and then splitting into three, one of which carried on straight forward while the other two headed to the left and right. As per the trader¡¯s description, on the left was a smiling woman with an enormous tome of items available for sale listed within, on the right was a stern man that would likely do a good job at negotiating prices, and in the front, behind a large and ornate desk, sat¡­ well, sat would be giving her a little too much credit. Rather, the grey-haired woman had her head on the table, her hair obscuring her face as she quietly snored, no awareness of her surroundings whatsoever.


    Something suggested that she either didn¡¯t speak to many people on the typical day, or that she did not care about her appearance nor presentation.


    Then again, the younger generation could just consult their parents about anything to do with the Chu building, whereas the adults would know anything they needed to know already, so there would be very little reason for her to do more than sit in her seat the vast majority of the time, indicating the first possibility.


    Approaching the woman, she leaned on the desk and said, ¡°Who should I speak to if I seek to provide my services here?¡±


    Fortunately, the resting woman stirred, and after a few moments, she rose and stared Wei Yi in the eyes with a blank expression. Slowly, her eyes focused, and her face brightened, as if she had only woken up then.


    ¡°Did you¡­¡± she yawned, ¡°want something?¡±


    ¡°Is this a building that is, in some way, dedicated to alchemy, pill refining and the great art that encompasses such actions?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ yes?¡± the woman replied after yet another yawn, during which her grey hair had shifted just enough to show the pitch-black bags under her eyes, creating the most contradictory image that Wei Yi had seen in some time. It seemed as if the desk beneath her had become moulded to her face due to all of the time that she had spent resting upon it, with a dark stain where she had drooled onto the wooden surface, and yet she seemed as if she still required more rest ¨C while being a cultivator in the second realm, no less.


    This wasn¡¯t something that she could address immediately, nor did she have any particular interest in figuring out the cause for such a phenomenon, so she continued, ¡°Am I able to sell my services in pill refining and acquire ingredients for it here?¡±


    ¡°Mhm¡­ I dunno¡­ Wait, did you say pill refining?¡± she woke up just enough to utter that, ¡°Can you¡­ make me something to let me sleep less?¡±


    ¡®Never mind, then- No, that¡¯s hardly an official request from this organisation. I can¡¯t just do whatever everyone wants, or else I will appear to be an individual that is easily manipulated and made to do what others want. I ought to confirm whether this is a necessity first,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded, remaining where she was, ¡°I am looking to do business. If you intend to pay me, or if this is some prerequisite test to confirm my ability, then I can make an attempt. Otherwise, I am afraid I won¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Maybe¡­ I can¡¯t really write anything¡­ like this¡­ My eyes hurt¡­¡± the woman muttered, her eyes losing focus with every moment that they were open.


    Wei Yi mentally rolled her eyes while straightening her back and forcefully flooding the receptionist¡¯s body with spiritual perception, making no attempt to obscure the displeasure with being bothered with something so seemingly insignificant.


    As she withdrew her perception, she remained unmoved outwardly, but was somewhat excited to locate yet another physique. So long as she was understanding the differences within her correctly, it appeared to be the Dark Shield physique which allowed its user to create a barrier around themselves that would be able to absorb incoming attacks and, once it ruptures, emit all of them back in a weakened form. In general, it was a rather useful thing to have in any fight, as it almost guaranteed the ability to endure a single strike without any harm to one¡¯s person, but there was a flaw.


    Physiques, even those that were human in nature, were not a natural part of most humans, nor of other creatures that can be born with them, such as dragons, phoenixes or the primordial gods, although the latter act in peculiar ways that have not been fully analysed by the scholars of the past prior to their retreat.


    Before it was awakened and fully activated, it was possible for most physiques to negatively influence the body or mind of those that own them. This was one of the many reasons for the development of the Physique Awakening pills that did not rely on an existing physique, and the possibility of creating one¡¯s own physique that would not then need to suffer through the same issues that those born with a physique would suffer from.


    As of late, this seemed to be less of an issue for most, although the exact reason for this was not known to Wei Yi. It could be that the reduced quantity of planar energy in the world had lessened the aggravation of the internal physique energy onto the body, or perhaps the bodies of people had adjusted to physiques over many generations of cultivation and were now less vulnerable to the aberrant power of superhuman forces, but whatever the cause, as the cases of physique disease, so to speak, decreased, so did knowledge of them, and since physiques in general were not fully understood, neither were most people able to detect them.


    For this reason, this receptionist had clearly not received any kind of assistance that she would have had the times been different, but fortunately for her, Wei Yi also had a solution to her problem.


    ¡°If you want to be cured, I will need a private room with you, for approximately twenty minutes.¡±


    ¡°Why¡­ would we need that?¡±


    ¡°Do you want to show off your naked body to everyone who¡¯s currently here?¡± she answered just as a few people entered through the front door and promptly looked towards them. Everyone who was already inside did the exact same thing, stepping away from their duties just for this.


    Treatments of various conditions often required some degree of direct physical contact, but stating it explicitly was still a little uncommon.


    For this exact reason, it did the job, causing the grey-haired woman to spring up, grab her by the arm, and drag her away into a small building near the Chu building, where there was nothing but a bed and just enough space to rise from it. Most of the woman¡¯s clothes and belongings were hidden beneath the wooden frame of the bed, as there was simply no better place to store her items without paying more money for more land or space elsewhere.


    After the burst of energy faded, the woman dropped onto the bed face-down.


    ¡°So¡­ what exactly are you¡­ going to do to me?¡± the grey-haired receptionist asked, although her voice was greatly masked by the pillow beneath her face.


    ¡°You have certain stagnant elements within your body that are affecting your daily life. I will extract them, and you will complete whatever documentation you must to allow me to work at that building and reside within the Ning District with more permanence than a single day or two. Presuming that the latter is outside of your control, at the very least permit me to offer my wares.¡±


    ¡°Alright¡­ Sure¡­ Please fix me¡­¡±


    Wei Yi suspected that the woman was simply falling back asleep and speaking entirely incoherently and without much awareness of her own words, but she took it as a yes and removed her robes to have free access to the woman¡¯s back.


    She had worn rather large, loose robes that had obscured her figure, but it turned out that she was rather slim and about as fit someone who slept most of the time could possibly be. There were several dark but mostly inconspicuous spots on her back that could easily be overlooked by someone who was not a professional, but she was able to identify them as spots of significant yin from the receptionist¡¯s yin baleful-type physique.


    ¡®If this was in the past, I would have needed to awaken her physique to solve this, and risk all kinds of things occurring, as I was unable to target physique energy within the living. Although I think that this is still the case, as I could otherwise drain everyone around me whenever I want, I should have no difficulty getting either at yin-type energy or inert physique energy,¡¯ she thought as she released a thin thread of yin Ascendant energy, ¡®I have both types of energy now, and can accumulate both types of physiques. If someone like Meng Chu ever decides to blatantly turn against me, I will be able to experiment with the true abilities of the Ashen Form physique¡­¡¯


    Those threads of energy seeped into the veins and meridians of the receptionist as Wei Yi placed her hand upon the top of her spine, near the neck, and slowly slid her finger downwards. With each moment, particles of baleful energy from the Dark Shield physique were consumed by the overwhelming yin from her physique energy, and while her own power did not grow by any noticeable extent, the woman¡¯s sleepy and tired exterior slowly recovered, although there was only so much that curing the cause could do for the symptoms.


    Once the spots on the woman¡¯s back disappeared, Wei Yi had to move further down, sliding a finger down each of her legs to recover all of the stagnant baleful energy from within.


    She could have attempted to do this without any physical contact at all, and, although she couldn¡¯t say that she didn¡¯t appreciate the sight to an extent, the primary reason for this particular method of treatment was simple. From afar and through clothing, she would risk freezing the insides of the receptionist with any careless movement, whereas direct contact permitted her to relax significantly more and feel for the meridians and veins in more ways than one.


    When she had extracted everything she could from the legs and feet, she returned her focus to the head, placing both hands onto the back of it before sending a thousand thin threads into it, carefully worming her way through every single feature in the woman¡¯s skull to find the primary source of her malaise ¨C and found it in the form of a large clump of inert, baleful physique energy resting near her brain and eyes, likely contributing to the constant sleepiness and lack of energy that this woman had felt despite being permitted to rest for far too long. Naturally, she absorbed this as well, bringing her one step closer to the physique itself and the ability to rest in the Ning District for a while.


    As she finished, she realised that this only proved her ability to deal with illness, not pills, so she dove beneath the woman¡¯s bed and removed a few of the herbs that had been stored there for some uncertain reason, throwing all of them into the spiritual will pill furnace.


    She did not need to create much besides a one star energy pill, so she rushed it with her normal refining process ¨C utilising the Cherry Revolving Blossom Art rather than the inverse Antithesis energy method, which tended to produce significantly better results despite the seeming vulgarity of it ¨C and tossed one of the pills into the receptionist¡¯s mouth, storing the rest away for use as initial merchandise.


    The woman woke up only a minute later and nearly threw herself off the bed with the quantity of energy that she had found within herself.


    ¡°I have dealt with your issue and gave you an energy recovery pill. If the symptoms return, come to me,¡± Wei Yi explained what happened so that she wouldn¡¯t be too confused about the rapid change, ¡°Payment will only include service fees, as the ingredients for the pill were taken from your residence.¡±


    ¡°Oh, really? Thank you very much,¡± the receptionist spoke quickly, turning around to put her robes back on before turning back around and continuing, ¡°How did you do it? I¡¯ve been suffering from this for so long, and although I¡¯ve been allowed to occupy that position due to how few people I need to speak to around here, but no-one¡¯s been able to help me out! How did you do it? Could you tell me? Please?¡±


    ¡®She¡¯s a chatty one in normal circumstances, then¡­¡¯ Wei Yi sighed inwardly, ¡°If you remember, I told you that I seek to provide my services here. I am Wei Yi, Master Pill Refiner. That¡¯s all.¡±

 V3C9: The Wane and Rise of Planar Energy

    Somehow, the receptionist was satisfied by such a simple explanation, and quickly hurried her back to the Chu Alchemical Store to grant her permission to be listed in their books and to be able to trade through them. With that, if anyone wished to purchase an item that she provided, or wished to make a more specific request, she could be included and offered as the potential pill refiner with whom to trade. It also offered her the opportunity to claim a residence for herself, as she was now a contributor to the district and thus deserved to stay within it.


    Less fortunately, however, there were few homes left, none of which were any more spacious than the receptionist¡¯s residence, and all of those were empty only due to the recent deaths of those who lived within.


    As she couldn¡¯t do much to assist in their housing crisis ¨C her lack of architectural understanding had been somewhat rectified by the books on Sanctuary within Sanctuary and the three Sanctums, but it was still incredibly barebones and lacked practical experience that had greatly assisted her in many other fields, meaning that she was incredibly likely to end up with many hidden flaws in any of her constructions that would greatly accelerate degradation of the structure ¨C she found a home that was closest to the Chu Alchemical Store and purchased the license to live within it, before entering it and placing a few things around it so that nobody mistook it for their own residence.


    At the same time, she added a number of simple arrays from stabilised spiritual will to guard against potential intruders and to alert her if anybody had come near it while she was away.


    Then, with what few funds remained, she acquired some basic ingredients for the general pills that would suit the largest audience, including simple Planar Gathering and Energy Recovery pills, amongst others, and created them within her new home, using standard methods to attain a high quality without doing so excessively.


    She had the ability to place anything she produced on sale with her own prices, alongside a description of the product by the analysts at the store that mentioned grade and quality, so she wanted to edge into the existing market by making things of higher quality for similar or lower prices. Whoever decided to try her items would be undoubtedly satisfied, likely spread good words about her to their friends, and would contribute to a quick growth in the number of customers.


    If she made something excessive, nobody would purchase it for a low price due to it seeming suspicious, and few would need or be able to afford a three star quality one star energy recovery pill if they simply wanted to recover after a vigorous session of¡­ training, as they¡¯d probably call it.


    Furthermore, excessive actions attracted attention. She knew that well and did not need to seem overly capable for now.


    After selecting every pill that wouldn¡¯t make her seem like some kind of aberrant master of the great art, as she was going for the impression of being a talented and young individual due to her youthful appearance, she stored the rest away within the House of Gold temporarily and returned to the Chu Alchemical Store to give them the pills for review while also confirming the typical price for her kind and quality of product, before setting her price to be one silver coin lower. Fortunately, an alchemist was present in the building at the time, and quickly confirmed that all of her pills were safe.


    When she was about to leave, she heard a rather curious thing.


    ¡°Pill refining seems to have gotten less stable as of late, don¡¯t you think?¡± one alchemist asked another, younger individual who also engaged in the great art.


    ¡°Really? For me, it feels like things have gotten easier. It¡¯s like there¡¯s more energy in the air to work with, you know?¡± the younger man replied, his cultivation being lower and thus benefitting far more from the thin planar energy that filled the atmosphere of all of the Planar Continents, ¡°However, some of the recipes do seem to be less accurate than before.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s certainly true. If it hadn¡¯t been consistent for so long, I¡¯d almost assume that the quantity of planar energy is slowly increasing.¡±


    The two of them dismissed this possibility quickly, but as Wei Yi exited the building and returned to her residence, she could not do the same. For one, she was already well aware that the levels of planar energy had changed since the days of the Master of Yi City, so them changing once more wouldn¡¯t be too surprising. However, she also knew that the last few days had led to some unprecedented events, such as the destruction of two planar anchors of two members of the Great Families.


    If anchors contained an immense quantity of planar energy and some kind of secondary force that she was then able to consume through the Truth of the Universe, was it possible for their destruction to also affect the overall quantity of energy within the continents as a whole?


    Depending on how accurate this assumption was, she would have even more of a reason to go after the Greats. Due to their current number, they would be able to consume an enormous quantity of planar energy, which, once freed, would allow the entire world to go up by a stage or two at the very least, so long as the shattering of anchors did not lead to diminishing returns. In the most optimal scenario, she might even be able to bring the entire population of the Planar Continents up by a single realm, ascending alongside some fortunate individuals into the eighth realm and taking a step towards reclaiming the legacy of Kong Shi Meng.


    However, before that could happen, she had to get stronger. Much, much stronger.


    As she entered her home, she activated all of her protective and obscuring arrays, as to ensure that nobody would be able to enter and discover the nature of her activities, then called upon Yi Shi Ming to return her into the Kong Prison Realm, specifically into her primary office within Beast¡¯s Rest, which, from a brief look into the realm, appeared to be mostly untouched in her absence.


    Crimson and white lit up around her, forming the transportation array, and would have shaken the ground around it if not for the preparations she had made.


    Her vision turned dark, and when light flooded back into her eyes, she found herself at her destination.


    Quickly extending her spiritual perception to cover everything she could, she found that everything was mostly in order, without anything problematic jumping out at her immediately. Most of the people in range were those that she recognised, and the few that weren¡¯t had clearly only been moved to their current positions recently, perhaps due to a promotion or some shuffling of positions. Her rooms and treasuries were all as she remembered them, and none of the items that she had left within had been taken.


    ¡®Excellent, nobody has tried to stage any kind of rebellion ¨C not an obvious one, at the very least ¨C while I was not paying attention. Good.¡¯


    With her vastly exceeding the ability of any non-otherworldly demon in the prison realm, she wasn¡¯t concerned about any uprising or conflict being beyond her ability to handle, especially due to her ability to peer into the prison realm at any time and observe anything within it, but it would waste time, even if it would only be significantly less in the outside world than in the prison realm.


    She stepped out of her office and headed towards Meng Chu¡¯s location, which was unfortunately not in his own office, despite the many times that she had insisted on him remaining there the majority of the time.


    By some coincidence, the closest path lacked any people, and thus the first person to meet and react to her unexplained reappearance was also the same person that she had intended to meet first, and he did so with surprising indifference at first. He saw her enter the armoury, where he had been considering which design of some new armour was best, and then looked back down to focus on his task.


    ¡°What exactly are these going to be used for?¡± she asked, since he seemed to be so focused on them.


    ¡°That tailor has been working on his designs again, so some actually talented people took them and made them work a little better, so I now need to decide which one is best so that we can drill that design into his head and make sure that he learns about it properly,¡± he replied to her.


    ¡°I see. Is he still struggling with learning about anything that he didn¡¯t create himself?¡± Wei Yi asked, ¡°Otherwise, I¡¯d recommend creating a proper set of armour and teaching him that instead.¡±


    ¡°Very few new things get into his head, which is surprising considering all of the new designs he had been able to create when it comes to female underwear and the like,¡± Meng Chu sighed, ¡°It makes little sense, but I can¡¯t deal with that, unfortunately.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­ So, were you expecting me back, or do you think you¡¯re talking to someone else?¡±


    ¡°What do you¡­¡± he looked back up at her, stared at her robes, then her hair and eyes, and then back down at her robe, and his eyes suddenly widened, ¡°Wei Yi! When did you get thrown back in here?¡±


    She rolled her eyes, outwardly this time, ¡°I did not get thrown back in. As I had told you when I had disappeared, I have gained a certain level of control over the prison realm, so I can come and go at will, take whatever I want with me, and even affect the passage of time in here. So, although a few days had passed for you, those same few days had passed for me as well.¡±


    ¡°I had always looked at your crimson robes and hadn¡¯t bothered looking any higher¡­¡± Meng Chu admitted, ¡°Have you found a place for us yet?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, not yet. I am currently in the Ning District of Yi City, heading to the north, where there was once an ancient fortress used by the Master of Yi City. If it is still there, I might be able to set up a permanent bridging array or gateway for us to use,¡± she answered, ¡°This will, however, take some time, as I would also like to get stronger before I get there so that I am not instantly slain by the Greats the next time I encounter them. I¡¯m sure you can understand that.¡±


    ¡°True¡­ However, are there any people that you would be able to bring out with you? I don¡¯t think I need to explain that some are getting a little restless after your disappearance, prime amongst which is Min Lian. I don¡¯t know what your relationship is, but she has been rather anxious lately.¡±


    ¡®Yeah, that would happen if she believes me to be someone she must protect¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought, but that was still something to keep to herself so she instead said, ¡°Could be a consequence of the method I had utilised to bring them back to proper condition. I don¡¯t blame her, and I could use someone to assist me out there, so if you can tell me where she is, I¡¯ll bring her back with me.¡±


    ¡°Understood. Anything else that you plan to do first?¡±


    ¡°Yes, actually. I intend to create a little something to measure the external levels of planar energy, so I will need a few things from the treasury¡­¡±


    ¡°Master, is this good?¡±


    ¡°Yes, now give me just a little longer¡­¡± Wei Yi carefully placed the Soul Gem into the middle of the large, almost man-sized structure that she had put together with the help of the hatred avatar assassin and the many useless items from the House of Gold that had previously been moved out of it in an attempt to clear out enough space for it to be usable as an actual method of spatial storage, rather than pure extraction.


    Once the gem was in its proper place, she put a few more items in front of it, allowing her and Min Lian to step back and admire the finished product.


    It was alike to an oversized vial placed atop a pedestal of gold and glittering jewels, with nothing being contained within just yet. However, she then opened a small tear modelled after the nascent rift within the centre of the vial, and controlled it with the assistance of Yi Shi Ming to only permit the planar energy from outside to pour into it, filling it with a thin violet mist.


    After a moment, it stabilised and became perfectly even, remaining visible only due to the lack of that same energy in the air around it.


    ¡°This... Master, I remember this. Planar energy, is it not?¡±


    ¡°It is.¡±


    ¡°The overall density appears to have lowered since I last experienced it. Is it connected to an area of lower planar density than most of the Continents?¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s just how energy is, as of late. I intend to measure how my actions against the Greats affect the overall density of energy, so this will allow me to easily confirm whether any perceived changes are just that, or if there are genuine modifications to the world¡¯s quantity of energy,¡± Wei Yi explained, observing this container for a little while to ensure that it was not damaged or negatively affected by the planar energy.


    It was not, so she got up, straightened her back, and transformed her right hand back from the spiritual will form that she had been using to allow for more delicate and stable movements during the construction of the Planar Measurement Device, as she decided to call it for now.


    ¡°So, Master, do you intend to take me with you?¡¯


    ¡°Yes. I require you to fit in as my assistant within the Planar Continents, and perform a few actions while I act as an above-average pill refiner in the Ning District. Are you aware of the arts of pill refining and the matters of the Ning District?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master. I am aware of most of the history of both up to the year of 1,096,910, so if there are any updates that I must know of, I can learn them immediately.¡±


    ¡°1,096,910? That¡¯s quite some time ago. Longer than I had thought, actually¡­ Well, since you supposedly accompanied me into the district, it is possible for you to be a little behind on the current events of the district. Knowing too much would seem rather odd, so just make sure not to appear too ignorant when discussing situations that would have likely changed from that time,¡± Wei Yi decided, ¡°Since your name is not too uncommon nor has it been made public, you will go by Min Lian while we are in the Continents, but ensure that you do not use any arts resembling those of the Searing Blades while you are under any form of observation. Understood?¡±


    ¡°Of course, Master. I would never make such a mistake, but I will heed your advice nonetheless.¡±


    ¡°In that case, give me your robes. I need to dye them so that they suit my current attire a little more,¡± she said, holding out her hand.


    As both an assassin who had been trained for many years to do exactly as commanded of her, and a hatred avatar that did not need to care for the typical shames and limitations of humanity, Min Lian did not hesitate for even a single moment in removing her clothing and passing it over for processing while she waited with her head and back slightly bowed.


    With a little more experience, changing a second robe to a dark green took far less time, meaning that the assassin was only forced to stand around for a few moments before her clothing was changed to suit Wei Yi¡¯s, albeit without the armour.


    Once she put them on, the assassin was told to bare her chest so that Wei Yi was able to lay her hand upon the avatar¡¯s cold skin.


    ¡°You still have the echoes of your former cultivation within your body, and I can manipulate it a little more freely than the bodies of other people, so I will awaken it within you and you will be able to return to your Active Core realm within a year or two at most, and significantly less if the quantity of planar energy is indeed affected by the destruction of the Great¡¯s anchors,¡± she explained while her threads of killing will spread throughout the hatred avatar¡¯s body and forcefully created a second set of meridians, which she then acclimated to planar energy using her cosmic energy warped into the state of the Dragon¡¯s Heart technique, ¡°If I have the time and opportunity, I will improve your previous technique to make it more suitable for the current condition of the world.¡±


    ¡°Understood. I shall eagerly await the moment when I can become more useful to you.¡±


    One of the many things that Wei Yi had investigated since the awakening of the assassin¡¯s memories was the cause for her complete obedience to her. It was convenient to have someone that obeyed her every word without any questions other than those that would permit her to do her task more efficiently or effectively, but she wasn¡¯t very fond of the very concept of mental manipulation, not to mention the complete control that she seemed to have despite not owning the dominant technique or method of the Scorching Blades.


    Her first assumption had been the fact that she had infused her spiritual will threads into the mind and mental domain of the assassin in order to repair the gaps in her mind, and so she could have potentially put herself in place of some superior of the Scorching Blades, resulting in her receiving her current treatment, but that seemed unlikely after the other hatred avatars that she had healed did not experience such an effect. They did gain a certain degree of loyalty to her, but not as a result of their pasts. As a result, Min Lian¡¯s case was rather anomalous in nature, since she was the only one to maintain her mental state even after all these years, not shifting to be a simple subordinate.


    If she understood the exact reasoning behind it, whether it was the spiritual will or the unrefined regeneration process she had performed upon her, or something that she hadn¡¯t even considered after all this time, she would be able to put this to use either in freeing people from similar methods of control, or, in the most extreme case, perhaps if she encountered a vulnerable member of a Great Family and could benefit greatly from gaining their knowledge, to control others in a similar manner.


    Naturally, she did not want to resort to such a thing, but as she had found out during her recent battle with two of the Greats, her strength was still lacking. Having another Great by her side, who she could further empower with her own knowledge, or transfer their knowledge and use it for herself and her forces, would turn the tides in her favour.


    In the case that she somehow controlled the patriarch or matriarch of a Great Family, which would be impossible without this particular method of control ignoring the very concept of realms entirely, she would attain quick victory, as she could easily double or triple the power of every warrior.


    Despite this potential, she had not had much success in her search so far. None of the other hatred avatars that she had been able to find throughout the Kong Prison Realm had any memories of being part of assassin organisations, or anything else that would allow her to see whether filling certain parts in with her own energy would garner her their complete obedience, and Min Lian did not have any obvious difference in her mental domain that stood out as much as, for example, a planar anchor would inside in the dantian of someone without a cultivation of any kind.


    Since there was little she could uncover for now ¨C even through the nigh-omnipotent abilities of Endless Calculation, as that wasn¡¯t able to create information when she absolutely lacked it ¨C she would leave it be for now, and had turned her focus onto the planar energy levels of the Planar Continents, as it appeared significantly easier to manipulate this factor without needing to go beyond simply continuing in her attack towards the Greats.


    The Planar Measurement Device was constructed in the centre of the former location of the storm wall vortex, and thus leaders from both sides were able to make it there on short notice, at which point Wei Yi explained her plans to them and requested them to continue building up the two sides of the Kong Prison Realm until she could finally lead them to freedom, then left alongside Min Lian.


    She had spent several hours in the prison realm, which translated to only a few minutes in reality, giving her most of the night to instruct the assassin in a few necessary aspects of her new job.

 V3C10: Needing to Prove One’s Ability

    By the next day, both Wei Yi and Min Lian would have been greatly exhausted if one wasn¡¯t a cultivator with a powerful physique and the other wasn¡¯t a hatred avatar that did not need to eat, drink, sleep or rest in any way to maintain her state. The latter had reached the state of the first realm of planar cultivation, Energy Gathering, and was roughly in the equivalent of the fifth stage, while Wei Yi had relayed the relevant memories for using the Cherry Revolving Blossom Art to her, meaning that she would be able to either assist in the process or perform parts of it herself, although she would need to recover to the point of the second realm to truly complete even a single pill on her own.


    That would take some time, but before then, she would do just fine in her act as a servant, especially with how much training she had in that field.


    On that note, she had also browsed through Min Lian¡¯s memories again during the process, and discovered a few more things to add to her general knowledge¡­ and less general knowledge, as the assassin had an incredible vastness of training, from typical servitude, acting as a maid, groundskeeper, guard and even a bed servant.


    ¡®Why her master in the Scorching Blades wasn¡¯t more explicit, I¡¯ll never know¡­¡¯


    Unfortunately, not every memory had been fully recovered, likely due to it being entirely wiped out between her death and pseudo resurrection and being entirely unrecoverable in her rough restoration of the memories. These memories tended to be those that would reveal the location of the Scorching Blades, the exact identity of her former masters, and those of her fellow assassins, although the latter wasn¡¯t a concern to her. Wei Yi had already integrated the techniques of her assassin organisation into the cosmic energy she used, and so she should not be automatically targeted without some confirmation from them.


    Even any word about the potential link between the Scorching Blades and the Blood-tinged Church had been lost, which was truly disappointing due to the research that had been done by that group into blood and bloodlines, and what they had been able to accomplish with the Lady of Ashes.


    If some of their knowledge could be taken, it would not be impossible for Wei Yi to figure out the reason behind her blood-type planar energy appearing different to common human blood, and perhaps even discover some way of using her powerful physique energy to suppress the negative effects of bloodlines and instead use them to amplify her abilities with little cost to her body, mind and reasoning, unlike those who had previously attempted the same thing.


    ¡°Well, whatever. With how many possibilities are present, I am bound to encounter one of them eventually,¡± she muttered to herself, following Min Lian out of the residence.


    The sun was just rising as they travelled towards the Chu Alchemical Store, to check whether any purchases or requests have or will be made in the near future, and to acquire a few ingredients to produce some more valuable pills to then sell for similarly low, yet sufficient prices to earn some coin from them while inching her way into the market.


    When they entered the building however, she saw three people ¨C one woman and two men, all three of whom were in pristine white clothes and with the badge of a three star alchemist upon their chest ¨C standing beside the front counter, speaking to the reenergised receptionist with a variety of emotion.


    One of the men was mostly conversing in a curious tone, inquiring as to the nature of the treatment that saved her from her previous predicament, while the woman was much more pushy and aggressive, with a few questions about the new pill refiner that had put lowered prices on their goods and the true worth of those pills. The other man, with grey hair and black eyes that meant that he was likely closely connected to the main Ning family, was focused purely on that latter topic, constantly pointing to the products listed in the books and trying his best to find out as much as he could.


    Although the receptionist had no reason to refuse most of that information, nor did she seem intent on doing so while she was still on her high due to finally being able to do whatever she wanted without the restraint of her lacking energy, with three people seeking different answers at the same time, she had only been able to provide Wei Yi¡¯s general appearance and nothing more.


    Thus, when the aggressive woman, whose straight hair and narrow eyes were equally brown, turned around in a huff after failing to get an answer immediately, she quickly recognised her target of inquiry.


    ¡°You! Right after you enter the city, you attempt to screw with the market? Do you think you can get away with doing whatever you want?¡± the woman whose surname was likely to be Chen exclaimed, pointing a finger at her.


    That caused the other two, including the business-focused man who had a bushy black beard, chest-length hair, yellow eyes that meant that he was descended from the Chao family, which focused on body cultivation above all else and managed to wear off on him in the form of a strong, brawny form uncommon for those specialising in pill refining and similar fields, to turn towards her and similarly recognise her quickly. When combined together, her attire, lack of a pill refiner¡¯s badge, unusually fit form and lengthy crimson hair made her rather memorable and recognisable.


    ¡°Are you saying that I should have stayed out of here entirely just due to your personal interests ¨C before even knowing about them?¡± Wei Yi spoke before the others could, folding her arms and allowing the sleeves of her robes to slip to reveal the toned muscle on her arms, ¡°That¡¯s not how the district nor this establishment work.¡±


    ¡°You are Wei Yi?¡± the yellow-eyed man slipped into the conversation, ¡°I would be very interested-¡±


    However, the business-focused grey-haired man did not allow him to continue, stepping forward with a significantly louder voice, ¡°I am Ning Fangtie. Based on your pricing, I must assume that you¡¯ve seen my listings as well, and I find it strange that you priced a similar product that low. Tell me the truth.¡±


    ¡°Shut it! I, Chen Shujin, have plenty of experiences with your kind. You¡¯re selling something of lower quality just because you cured this woman, who is now hiding information from me as a favour-¡±


    ¡°Alright, since everyone is interrupting one another, I shall do the same,¡± Wei Yi used the implicit ability of the Lion¡¯s Roar ability to force her voice above the others, instantly silencing even the ill-tempered Chen Shujin, ¡°First of all, a few things need to be set straight. The woman you are speaking to was indeed cured by me, but the appraisal of my product was done by a separate party. As such, my selling price and product are unrelated to her. Second, are you three accusing me of forgery, deception, trickery or anything of the sort?¡±


    ¡°No, no, I ¨C Chao Juzan ¨C am not doing that,¡± the yellow-eyed man quickly shook his head and retreated, ¡°I was simply curious to know how you succeeded in curing something that I could not. I have no grievance with you.¡±


    The other two, however, nodded, one staring at her in anger while the other looked upon her in suspicion.


    ¡®Here¡¯s what I get for attempting to do things smoothly and calmly. None of these three have likely tried the very simple items that I have created, and the two that are actually coming against me are probably doing so to either get me out of the competition, or to learn my secrets. Neither option is acceptable, but I believe that there is a certain ritual of sorts amongst competing pill refiners that might be able to settle this nicely-¡¯


    ¡°For this reason, I want to challenge you to a Refiner¡¯s Duel! What say you?¡± Ning Fangtie proposed.


    ¡®Oh, there it is. A Refiner¡¯s Duel involves no actual combat most of the time, revolving around the creation of a particular pill in front of an audience of both experts and normal citizens to prevent any kind of cheating or trickery. Since refining techniques, like those of the other great arts, cannot be learnt through witnessing them once or twice ¨C not even a million times, due to the complexities that typically go on under the surface of both the pill furnace and the energies within ¨C this is generally ineffective as a method for stealing techniques and methods, and is thus considered safe to participate in. However, that is common sense for most people. I have perfect, eidetic memory thanks to the Ascendant¡¯s Library, spiritual perception that is unnoticeable even to most arrays, and more than enough experience in replicating techniques,¡¯ Wei Yi quickly recalled and summarised the situation to herself while she glanced at Chen Shujin with a raised eyebrow, her question being obvious.


    ¡°Indeed, I wish to participate as well. I have always wanted to prove- I mean, compare my abilities with a fellow talented refiner, and display the folly of¡­¡± she paused while she desperately attempted to guess the age of the muscular woman before her, ¡°¡­ youth?¡±


    ¡°In that case, I will not object. Since you believe me to be some kind of trickster, I shall show you and anyone in this district that wishes to appear that I am the most capable out of you lot,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°Do any of you have the intention of making a bet? I wouldn¡¯t mind being rewarded for wasting my time with you.¡±


    Both of these people clearly believed her to be less competent than she appeared, while one was simply acting with an incredibly short fuse, so she decided to get the most out of the situation.


    As expected, the two struggled to propose their overly confident bet first.


    ¡°Since you¡¯ve agreed, I hope you intend to respect the custom of equivalent bets. I know who you truly are, so I put my own techniques and recipes on the line. If you win, I will give you my primary refining technique and fifteen of my two-star recipes, as well as five of my three-star recipes,¡± Ning Fangtie said, suddenly turning to look eagerly towards Chen Shujin.


    ¡°Hmph, you think you can best me in this? Same bet, then!¡± the woman stated.


    Both turned to face Wei Yi, as, whatever their rivalry against one another was, they both wanted to benefit from whatever knowledge they thought that she did actually possess.


    ¡°In that case, I will do the same. My refining technique, and my pill recipes,¡± Wei Yi said, as she did not want to mention a specific number of recipes due to the lack of significantly unique ones within her possession. Most of her recipes originated from the basic pill refining books she had read early on in her journey in cultivation, and the only exception were the Cherry Revolving Blossom Art and the variations that it contained, which were not typically considered sufficient to be completely individual recipes worth competing for. However, she did not intend to lose, and she would thus not need to reveal the deception of her words.


    It would be difficult for her to fail to begin with, purely due to the way that pill refining functioned. Whenever a pill was refined, it would need to reach a certain quality to even function. A one star pill needed to reach roughly ten percent of its possible quality, a two star pill would need to reach twenty percent, and so on.


    While it is difficult to go beyond that quality, once a one star pill reaches twenty percent quality, it nearly doubles in effectiveness for the same ingredients, and is thus significantly more valuable than normal pills while also being far cheaper to produce than the vast majority of the time. This was an area that Wei Yi had an immense advantage in, as the ability to ignore the cleanliness of a cauldron, the element of her energy and the impurities that the planar energy of others usually contained instantly brought the quality of her creations up by ten percent or so, which, when combined with the refining methods of the fifth realm that had once belonged to Chu Ling, meant that the only way for anyone to beat her while only at the level of three stars would be to utilise some incredibly uncommon methods, such as forbidden arts or overly expensive ingredients to make up for their lack of mastery.


    As a result, she was mostly confident about this Refiner¡¯s Duel, as it would net her some benefits regardless of the outcome, and, as she had intentionally left the quantity of recipes unspecified and had a refining method that relied on a cultivation of killing will that all other lacked, would not result in the loss of much more than a fragment of her knowledge, which would mostly be useless to everyone but her.


    ¡°I-In that case, everyone, why don¡¯t you allow us to organise it?¡± the receptionist suggested, shifting all focus from Wei Yi to herself, ¡°If you don¡¯t think that I am reliable, I can bring the suggesting up to the local manager, who you should be familiar with.¡±


    ¡°We are, even if the fraud is not. He will be able to officiate fairly,¡± Ning Fangtie agreed, not actually bothering to even glance in Chen Shujin¡¯s direction to judge her opinion.


    ¡°You¡­ Tch. I agree¡­¡±


    ¡°Great!¡± the receptionist exclaimed, getting up and waving them away, ¡°I¡¯ll introduce Wei Yi to what¡¯s going on, so you can go on and prepare! The pill you¡¯ll be working on will be decided by him later on, so make sure to practise as much as possible! Alright, go away now, I¡¯m not going to repeat myself again!¡±


    The two sent one last glare towards Wei Yi and did as they were told, departing the Chu Alchemical Store with angry faces. Chao Juzan stepped aside, to allow her to have her discussion with the receptionist calmly, although he remained in the corner of the main room so that he would be able to return to his previous attempt at inquiry as soon as he could. As he appeared to have no particular malicious intent towards her at the moment, Wei Yi did not bother too much about him and turned to the receptionist woman.


    In just one night, she had recovered greatly from her previous state, the bags under her eyes vanishing almost entirely despite seemingly receiving very little rest today.


    ¡°Tell me, does this kind of thing happen often around here?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it happens every now and then, you know? That lot in particular is very competitive amongst themselves and tend to pull in others to make their competitions less dull, if I understand their actions correctly. They haven¡¯t actually tried anything from you ¨C giving you money wouldn¡¯t be in their interests, of course ¨C so I¡¯m sure that they¡¯ll be greatly disappointed when you beat them and get all of their things!¡± she replied with a great deal of excitement and energy that still seemed to actively pour from her, ¡°Oh, and don¡¯t worry about the manager. He¡¯s a great guy who won¡¯t try to steal your knowledge or allow the wrong people to win¡­ by the way, how did you make any pills in my house-¡±


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s enough. If you want me to respond to anything you say, you should give me the time to do so,¡± Wei Yi interrupted her, ¡°I would prefer that we get straight to the point and either see that manager, or you give me the list of ingredients on offer and allow me to purchase some.¡±


    ¡°Ah, sorry. My apologies. Okay, let¡¯s go!¡±


    She nearly dragged her all the way to their destination again, but as Wei Yi refused to appear before whoever was in charge while being pulled along by an overexcited woman due to how bad of a look that would be to a serious, stern individual that she was attempting to portray herself as, she pulled herself free and followed the receptionist normally, heading through the door behind her desk and upstairs, past a few rows of doors leading into various offices before stopping at the last door at the very end of the corridor.


    The door was labelled with the name of ¡®Chu Huazhi¡¯, which only made sense due to the name of the establishment. Based on the chattering of the receptionist in the minute that it took them to get there, Wei Yi learnt that the Chu Alchemical Store was present in multiple locations and each one was managed by some distant member of the Chu family, created as a way to spread the mastery of their family to other districts and locations.


    As a result, Chu Huazhi, received plenty of support from the family, even if not directly. The label on the door was golden, the wood used for the door and the entire structure was clearly of a high quality and highly expensive, still shining with value and extensive amounts of cleaning and polish¡­ although that might have just been the receptionist spending her energy in a productive manner at night.


    ¡°Alright, here it is. You can step in first, I¡¯ll prepare the ingredient listing for you! Which kinds of ingredients are you interested in?¡±


    ¡°One and two star-quality herbs for restorative and enhancing pills. Some random ingredients to stabilise those would also be necessary, as well as a few to counteract their extreme elemental contents. I can go through a large quantity of information quickly, so feel free to leave in whatever you want. I¡¯ll handle it and may even discover a few things I hadn¡¯t anticipated needing,¡± Wei Yi said, waiting for her to confirm her understanding before glancing to Min Lian and knocking on the door.


    ¡°Come in,¡± a voice replied from the other side.


    She opened the door and stepped inside, allowing her subordinate assassin to shut the door behind her.


    The office of the local manager was similarly expensive and luxurious, with a central desk that appeared to be carved not from wood, but from the bone of some enormous creature ¨C one that fortunately lacked the same killing intent as the Beast, meaning that it did not immediately shatter the other furniture placed around it. Two chairs were placed in front of it, both made from wood and with comfortable cushions placed on the seats, and one occupied chair was placed at the back, ornate armrests supporting the arms of a man in green robes, long brown and grey locks flowing down from his head and covering much of his face, besides the green eyes.


    Much of the room was similarly decorated, with several large paintings of landscapes and creatures that might have existed somewhere in the Planar Continents, but that Wei Yi was personally unaware of and unfamiliar with. Several cabinets on the left housed bottles of dark authamite wine, with one of the bottles placed atop the desk to display the magnanimous artistry on its side.


    ¡°Chu Huazhi?¡±


    ¡°That is I. I hope that you will forgive me for hearing some of your previous conversation,¡± the brown-haired man said, his slight movement as he leant back showcasing the four-star badge on his chest.


    ¡°I was well aware. There are countless observation arrays all over this structure, to the point that I am surprised that you have not yet gone deaf from every sound and voice that must be transmitted to you.¡±


    ¡°You are familiar with arrays? Well done.¡±


    ¡°Is it not only natural? Every single one of the great arts connects closely to the other, such as blacksmithing involving a great deal of inscription, refining and talisman creation in its own ways. For me to learn of arrays was an obvious choice, and one that benefitted me greatly,¡± Wei Yi stated, not intending to hide her understanding of the many great arts due to the inconvenience that would cause her in the future, ¡°In fact, you appear to have done that exact same thing, have you not?¡±


    ¡°While I have recruited others to complete most of the work for me, I have indeed studied these arrays quite a lot, in the case that I have to maintain them without support,¡± Chu Huazhi replied, ¡°Now, the Refiner¡¯s Duel. Is that something that you believe that you can manage? Do you think you have a chance of victory?¡±


    ¡°I would not have accepted if I did not. Why? Do you have some interest in my victory or loss, perhaps to make a bet?¡±


    ¡°No, not at all. As my receptionist has told you, I wish to ensure that everything is fair. If you were coerced by the two troublemakers and lacked the confidence to deny their invitation to the duel yourself, I could call it off and refuse to organise it for any number of reasons.¡±


    Wei Yi shook her head, ¡°No need for that. I am not some coward.¡±


    ¡°Very well. If there is anything else that you would like to discuss, then we could do so now. Otherwise, I shall begin to consider which pill you three will be able to compete over. Any preferences?¡±


    ¡°None at all.¡±


    Oculus

 V3C11: Ingredients and Mysteries

    By the time that Wei Yi returned to the first floor, the receptionist had not only brought out a set of books containing the list of the ingredients available at the Chu Alchemical Store, but also a number of records regarding other available ingredients, various herbs in the area around the district, several documents on the topic of refining, legends about it and the supposed miracle fruits that could be found in the Ning District at some point, and a whole host of other scraps of information that made Wei Yi genuinely concerned for the receptionist¡¯s wellbeing.


    As she checked out everything written on the papers, she also looked through the overly energetic woman¡¯s body with her spiritual perception but found nothing of note that would be a cause for concern.


    ¡®Perhaps the removal of a latent physique has caused some kind of unusual reaction that allows the body to generate far more energy than normal due to not needing to maintain that physique energy¡­ Nothing within her would suggest that, but it is worth investigating if I ever need someone to lack offensive or defensive capability but retain the larger quantity of energy that cultivation typically provides,¡¯ Wei Yi considered while she picked out a few of the items from the enormous lists.


    Her requests were brought out almost in an instant, with several large boxes of products being delivered from various parts of the district in no more than a few minutes.


    ¡°Here¡¯s everything, and as your first-time purchase from our establishment, I¡¯ll give you my personal employee discount! Ten percent! Just joking, fifteen percent! Twenty percent! I¡¯ll give you a free item of your choice as well!¡±


    ¡°You will bankrupt this place in a few minutes if you do this for everyone.¡±


    ¡°Right. Sorry. You do want the free stuff, though, right?¡±


    ¡°Sure. Let me confirm that everything is to my standard first, though,¡± Wei Yi agreed, since there was never any reason to refuse free things when they did not come alongside any debts or costs.


    To not expose the full capabilities of her spiritual perception, she knelt beside one of the large crates and removed its lid, taking out a few leaves of the orange herbs within and inspecting them closely. If a herb was in some way infected by the wrong kind of elemental energy, or perhaps was afflicted by more ordinary flaws such as pests or insufficient nutrition from the soil, it could have all kinds of negative effects on the refinement process.


    On the surface, there did not appear to be anything wrong with any of them, but the more she looked at every individual leaf, the more she grew concerned. There were no specific flaws, no excess of yin or yang, no elemental imbalance¡­ and yet her intuition refused to give in.


    ¡°Min Lian, do you believe that there is something strange about this?¡±


    As she was unable to figure this out on her own, she would ask a few others. If they couldn¡¯t see anything unusual about the herbs, or if they also couldn¡¯t understand the reason behind it, she would reluctantly accept the herbs and then put them all through the House of Gold to let it tell her which herbs were and were not safe to use.


    ¡°Hm¡­¡± the assassin examined the leaf incredibly closely before leaning over to whisper in Wei Yi¡¯s ear, ¡°Master, there appears to be something unusual about this. While, insofar as I can tell, the vitality of these herbs remains, there is an element of death around them. It resonates with my hatred.¡±


    ¡®Interesting¡­ Indeed, when separated from the killing will, my killing intent also has a slight reaction to these¡­¡¯ Wei Yi noticed, slightly disappointed by the fact that her solution to the conflict of mental energies had such a flaw, then stood up and told the receptionist, ¡°My apologies, but I don¡¯t think I can accept these. Something about their quality is odd, and I would prefer to be confident in the ingredients I work with. Could you find out where these came from so that I do not make the mistake of acquiring these in my own time?¡±


    ¡°Eh? I¡¯m sorry! I didn¡¯t know¡­ I got these from a number of places, and those places all get it from a variety of places as well¡­¡±


    ¡°In that case, I will need to delay any more large purchases until I can figure out exactly what is going on here. I don¡¯t know how much experience you have with pill refining and the ingredients used during the process, but there is something odd about these. Anything other than what you¡¯ve already got here is not suitable for me, as I will be unable to verify its quality.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ I¡¯m sorry¡­¡±


    ¡®Alright, her mood is also odd. I need to take a proper look at her when I have the time,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, shaking her head, ¡°You hadn¡¯t noticed anything wrong, and neither have those who sold this to you. Don¡¯t worry.¡±


    ¡°Right. What about anything stocked in the Chu Alchemical Store? Is anything suitable?¡±


    ¡°Let me see¡­ Seven of the crates and boxes have nothing that putt me off them, whereas the rest do. I shall take those that are suitable and offer small compensation for the hassle caused by the rest.¡±


    ¡°No, no, I said that I would give you a discount, so I will do exactly that! After I had descended deeper and deeper into constant lethargy and sleep, I had started to save quite a lot of money thanks to not being able to actually spend it on anything¡­ So, since you saved me from falling into permanent sleep, I will repay you! You can¡¯t stop me, either ¨C I have a lot of gold and silver coins stashed away, so I can give you all sorts of discounts!¡±


    ¡°Do you want those things to be stolen from you?¡±


    ¡°No?¡±


    ¡°Then stop yelling about your wealth. You sound completely unstable, so you will benefit from a check-up of sorts.¡±


    ¡°W-Will that involve the same method as before?¡± the receptionist¡¯s cheeks reddened slightly as she recalled the shame she had felt when she had nearly been too lazy to go to her own residence for the treatment.


    ¡°No, I can check your body at less detail even without direct physical contact, but depending on the exact problem with you, that might still be necessary,¡± she explained, ¡°You do understand why I¡¯m doing this, by the way? You are aware that you are currently behaving somewhat erratically and, in the reverse of your previous condition, are actively radiating so much energy that I am concerned about you shattering into pure planar energy at some point¡­¡±


    ¡°It can¡¯t be that bad, can it?¡±


    ¡°It is.¡±


    ¡°Oh no, then we must fix this immediately! Let¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°I believe that my Master has a few other things to do first. Come back at the end of your shift,¡± Min Lian stepped in, releasing just a droplet of her killing intent to instantly calm the overexcited woman down, stepping back and bowing her head to Wei Yi immediately after.


    This achieved the desired effect, causing the receptionist to send the rest of the items back while calculating the exact cost of the ingredients that would actually be purchased, so Wei Yi did not reprimand the assassin for her actions, even if her tone was a little harsher than she would have intended had she been the one to ward off the receptionist. Then again, she was slowly slipping on her act as the stern alchemist that doesn¡¯t like wasting time, so in a way, her hatred avatar assassin was doing a better job of it than she was.


    ¡®At a later time, I had a few plans involving very convincing acting, so this is something that I must address. Perhaps if I find some techniques regarding acting ¨C planar ones, not those used by the common people in the occasional play or performance ¨C my mind will understand it better than now,¡¯ she thought, glancing at the Truth of the Universe interface for a moment, ¡°We shall go now. Come by in the evening.¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡±


    Min Lian carried five of the boxes and Wei Yi carried the last two, bringing them out of the Chu Alchemical Store and into their compact residence, stacking them atop the bed since it wouldn¡¯t see much use any time soon.


    The smallest box that she had purchased, full of stalks of a one-star ingredient, was not actually something that she had intended to use in her refinement, as it contained the strange aura that most of the other available ingredients did. She wished to research them in greater detail, as she had considered previously, but choosing to buy one of the ingredients despite rejecting them initially would seem strange, so she instead found the cheapest and lowest quantity affected box and acquired it instead.


    This also offered her the perfect opportunity to perform multiple experiments with similar samples, so to her, this was a fair and favourable deal.


    Taking one of the herbs, she threw it into the House of Gold, thrusting her spiritual perception into it immediately and reading the description beside it. It began commonly enough, describing the name and typical properties of the stalk, as expected from the otherworldly spatial storage, but concluded with the sentence ¡®Contains unfavourable traces¡¯.


    That was vague, and, more importantly, did not explain what about them was so unfavourable. Were they a danger for those consuming it, those refining with it, those selling or farming it, or even those who would deal with those that used it? All that she could ascertain with absolute certainty was that using it would certainly be dangerous until she could figure out the exact nature of the traces and how to either manipulate or extract them to achieve the result that was most favourable and beneficial to her, as having something that requires cultivated killing intent to discover any hint of it that could act as a poison or drug would be incredibly helpful if she wanted to weaken one of the Greats prior to battle. She could disguise as some trader, offer the Great Family member a powerful pill to prepare for a difficult challenge ¨C perhaps even a battle with her, if word of her combat prowess spread far enough through the encounter with the Ning and Chen family members ¨C then affect their ability to circulate energy by the time they got to fight her.


    ¡®The potential is there, that¡¯s certain. The question is whether I can take advantage of it myself, or if this is a part of a scheme of another that can only be used by that individual, in which case it would be in my favour to thwart it and gain some fame for my good deed,¡¯ Wei Yi considered, ¡®When the time for open conflict comes, perhaps when I am in the fourth or fifth realms and can confidently battle against small numbers of the third realm Greats, I could invoke it to gain more allies.¡¯


    Of course, if the unfavourability of the substance referred to the possibility of death after consumption, or if it was the result of some Great Family plot, she would stop it no matter what, as it would affect the entire district and easily reduce a large portion of Yi City¡¯s remaining population with ease. For her to rebuild Yi City, reform it into the titan that it once was and perhaps even surpass the past at some point, there needed to be people to occupy it and work within it, or else she would only rule over an empty land full of vacant homes and pointless shops, effectively controlling even less than a ghost city.


    After all, ghost cities still contained spirits, even if they could comprehend and do little. With enough time and influence, they could still function as normal citizens, working and living in homes as normal people would, even if they would require either pure planar energy or the lifeforce of creatures and plants around them to sustain themselves. In fact, that would be even more similar to regular humans, as they also required the lives of other entities to sustain themselves, and if spirits and people coexisted in some domain, they could split their harvest into material goods for the living and energy for the dead.


    However, beyond the ancient tales and fictitious stories of the modern day, even spirits themselves were rarely seen, not to mention entire cities of them.


    ¡®For this reason, I should stop letting my mind go off on its own, and focus on some experiments,¡¯ she thought, splitting the stalks into two piles, with two thirds in one and one third in the other. Wei Yi gave the second pile to Min Lian, suggesting a few experiments that she could perform while she observed with her spiritual perception, and kept the more challenging or involving ones to herself, as she could simply do far more than her loyal assassin.


    The first thing she explored was how the stalks reacted to her four energies ¨C five, if yin and yang-type physique energy was to be considered separately. Planar energy in any of its forms did not yield a result that was in any way unusual, nor did spiritual will. Killing intent would fluctuate almost imperceptibly upon touching the stalks, but it was so insignificant that she was forced to doubt her senses every single time. Killing will had a similar reaction, but it was dulled even more due to the stabilisation of spiritual will, rendering that attempt entirely null. Yang-type physique energy burnt the stalks to nothingness immediately, as was expected, and none of the unfavourable influence remained, so far as she could tell.


    It was yin-type physique energy that first gave her some kind of significant result. When it came into contact with the herb, it momentarily had a similar reaction to when it absorbed physique energy, although it did not increase the quantity of her physique energy and added nothing to the progress of her cultivation.


    Nonetheless, with two yin-type energies reacting, she was able to establish that something was indeed happening, and that she wasn¡¯t simply imagining it all. Furthermore, after her yin-type physique energy passed through the stalk and froze it slightly, the stalk would then no longer elicit the same response from her killing intent, meaning that the sensation of absorbing something wasn¡¯t an invention of her mind either.


    ¡®Thus, there is truly something within these herbs that is absent from the other ones, and it is something that is yin in nature. Whatever it is, it isn¡¯t intended as a positive, and may harm those that use it¡­ I guess I¡¯ll just throw every one of these that remain into the House of Gold and work on them one by one, and if I figure out a reliable and non-suspicious manner of removing the unfavourable traces, I could offer my services to the others after I find some reasonable method of explaining why I would need to clean certain herbs and not others.¡¯


    Provided that she was able to provoke any kind of unusual reaction from these herbs, the other pill refiners in the district would be certain to check it themselves and confirm that something was amiss, as well as that Wei Yi was able to correct it, but until then, she would need to try out every kind of alchemical technique and method available to her to find the most suitable one.


    ¡®Perhaps I should attempt to find some library that contains information on refining and alchemy as a whole, and seek some inspiration from it¡­¡¯ she randomly stepped towards her door when she noticed that someone was standing outside it, looking around every now and then as if he was not certain whether it would be a good idea for him to knock now. To save him the trouble of guessing it himself, she waited for Min Lian to complete one of her assigned tests ¨C which unfortunately did not provide anything of use to either one of them ¨C then opened the door herself.


    ¡°Chao Juzan, I believe. You wanted to speak with me at the Chu Alchemical Store.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, but I didn¡¯t wish to disturb you. I had initially wanted to speak to you about the pills that you produced, but then your mention of something unusual about certain kinds of ingredients caught my attention, and I inadvertently followed you all the way to your residence while considering it.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± she replied dryly, ¡°Had you noticed anything in your own work, or did you just wish to know what I had noticed?¡±


    ¡°Both, actually. Beside the seeming increase in the quantity of planar energy within the district, perhaps as a result of some new array within the iron walls or within the caverns beneath, I have also observed that certain refinement recipes have been more difficult than, say, a decade ago or so. In particular, I find the kinds of pills that could be described as containing or benefitting yang to be the most troublesome¡­ The specific types, they¡­ You know, the kinds of pills that benefit a male¡¯s yang root¡­¡±


    ¡°Is that so? Interesting. That would suggest an imbalance of yin within the ingredients, would it not? Have you questioned whether the areas where these things are produced have suffered from any kind of blight or been affected by a duel with someone wielding techniques of extreme yin?¡± Wei Yi asked, guiding this man to her own conclusion as he hadn¡¯t bothered unlike the other two alchemy masters.


    ¡°That is a possibility¡­ However, this is the case with most ingredients. For all of them to have been affected at once, it would require a fundamental change as large as the rising of planar energy all across the world.¡±


    ¡®Well, if you say so. I will receive evidence of whether that can occur through my own actions soon enough, but it is already fact that it had happened before. The only question about it is the exact cause and reasoning behind the fluctuation of planar energy from the time of the Master of Yi City to now, and that is something that can be learnt through the careful observation of what occurs upon the shattering of a planar anchor,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, but did not voice herself yet, instead saying, ¡°Until you can deduce the exact reason behind this abnormality, I would advise limiting your usage of those ingredients. Depending on their exact nature, it could greatly harm those who use them.¡±


    ¡°I have already done that, but there are very few alternatives around here. If I abandon my trade entirely, I will not be able to remain in the district for long.¡±


    That was true, and highly unfortunate, albeit understandable for a district that needed to maximise every single inch of space that was available to it. If they permitted people who no longer contributed to it to remain, they would quickly run out of residences that gave those living within them even the slightest hint of decency, and would be forced to cram everyone together into even tighter and more confined spaces to allow them a place to sleep.


    ¡°Would you be open to assisting me in a few experiments? If one of us can eliminate the issue ourselves, we won¡¯t need to endanger those who purchase our pills while still making a sufficient amount of coin to sustain ourselves.¡±


    ¡°Certainly. If any of us are able to make some progress on the matter, it would greatly benefit everyone in the district and beyond, depending on the nature of the issue,¡± Chao Juzan agreed, ¡°I propose sharing a few notes on our tests every now and then, so that we do not repeat the exact same experiments multiple times and waste our own resources.¡±


    ¡°That would only make sense. So far, I have confirmed that regular planar energy and spiritual perception do not affect the oddity of the herbs, so there is no need to test those particular things unless your cultivation technique is particularly unusual,¡± she said, although she could already sense that his energy was not significantly stranger than any of the basic wood-type techniques found in the Yi District, meaning that he would not find out anything that she couldn¡¯t, ¡°I¡¯d recommend finding things that are high in yang and seeing how they interact differently than with normal examples of an herb.¡±


    They shared a few more things before Chao Juzan departed to get back to his own occupation, while Wei Yi shut the door to her residence and quickly refined a few pills from the ingredients that lacked any oddity, both to her own observation and the seemingly omniscient ability of the House of Gold.


    Due to the rather specific selection of ingredients and herbs, the only kind of pill that she could create was a Nail Enhancing pill, typically used for those that use nails for the purpose of combat or those that prefer to have longer nails and then struggle to maintain them without the usage of any kind of planar energy or cultivation.


    Once a few pills were consumed by her and enhanced with her cosmic energy so that she would hopefully develop another part of her body that would be rendered immune to damage, just as her hair was, she stored the rest in a bag and brought them to the Chu Alchemical Store, where she once again put them up for sale at one copper coin less than the equivalent that were already on offer. After that, she had a few things she considered doing, but what caught her eye first were two figures that walked past the door of the store just before she left.

 V3C12: Curiosity of the Ning District

    They wore black robes and covered their heads with hoods, with little more than their chins being visible. Nobody that walked past them looked at them longer for a second, since people would dress in all sorts of ways and come from all sorts of places, meaning that those from the extreme south, where everyone was forced to clothe themselves in fifteen layers of fur to keep themselves warm, could end up at the extreme north, where some forgot that clothing even existed, but they caught Wei Yi¡¯s attention. Not due to their clothing, nor their pale skin ¨C one came from the other, and the former would only be natural if they wished to hide their identities for whatever reason ¨C but due to the odd energy within them.


    It appeared to be some form of yin, which was odd for two men without physiques but not entirely unusual depending on their hobbies and activities, but what was odd about it was that it was a sort of malevolent energy, which was far less common for anyone.


    Perhaps the only person who could be expected to have that kind of aura would be the receptionist, back when she still had her dormant physique energy within her, so for this to appear within two men without physiques and without it appearing to be a temporary effect of ¡®sharing one another¡¯s essences¡¯, one of the more roundabout methods of referring to sexual activity that existed within the Planar Continents, was worth quite a significant amount of attention.


    Wei Yi quickly launched her spiritual will threads out of the alchemical store to enter their minds while she headed towards her residence. Normally, this kind of thing would not be a challenge for her, considering the fact that most did not practise more than a single low-level mental technique, and mostly did so only to help them focus in times when they may otherwise be easily distracted, and thus had far weaker minds and the ability to detect spiritual will than those of the prison realm, as both of the dominant forms of cultivation focused on mental energies over almost everything else, while those who used physiques also hardened their minds through constant challenge and torment.


    However, when her threads attempted to burrow into their necks, they were repulsed by something, forcing her to stop and turn around while retracting them.


    ¡®First time for everything, I suppose¡­ This is yet another curious thing that I must investigate, especially if the unfavourable oddity in the ingredients has any link with these¡­ people,¡¯ she thought, as the items they had beneath their clothing did little to reveal their identity or affiliation, if they even shared one, ¡®Their cultivation seems ordinary, and I can see no traces of odd technique practise¡­¡¯


    They headed towards a part of the district that contained many clothing and outfit stores, so while she slowly caught up to them while seeming as inconspicuous as she could be without abusing her stealth techniques to become nigh invisible, she also looked into the prison realm.


    Every now and then, the tailor within would produce certain designs that he would then quickly remove, tear and incinerate via the nearest brazier, and although none of the things he ever created appeared to be practical in the slightest, it was still interesting to look upon them, especially when all that this spying required was a moment of her attention. The armour that she had appropriated was one of the surprising attempts to complete one of those designs, but there had been quite the number of other fascinating things emerging from the other world that Fu Zan belonged to.


    ¡®Let¡¯s see, this time he has¡­ hm?¡¯ her mental eyebrow rose as she beheld the latest hidden design.


    At first, she nearly thought that she had come across a very different type of imagery, but, despite the rather significant amount of detail put into the female body on that page, she realised that it was instead meant to be depicting some kind of skin-tight suit that covered the entire body, ending at the neck, and potentially allowing for the hands and feet to also be uncovered.


    According to the design document, it required the use of something similar to ¡®latex¡¯, which was some kind of material from his world, and could be worn by a range of words that she did not understand.


    While it sounded like a similarly insane idea to everything else he had created, it actually prompted some serious thought from her. First of all, while the otherworldly demon was unaware of any suitable materials, she could think of several that could make putting the skin-tight suit on incredibly easy, while also making it incredibly flexible and permitting her to sense anything and being just as protective as regular armour via an Armour Forming inscription. Also, if she then also covered herself in her current robes and a set of armour, then infused the three with various durable metals through Armour Forming inscriptions, she could protect herself against almost every attack in existence with only two of the layers being noticeable at most.


    Furthermore, it would allow her to practically leave herself open, just as she currently was, without needing to endure the occasional cool breeze passing through the cloth and causing some unneeded reactions.


    ¡®I don¡¯t have anything that could be used to create this at the moment, but I ought to memorise this¡­ Some of the metals could be found in the North, which is quite fortunate¡­¡¯


    As the design was committed to memory, Fu Zan had already decided that he had made a mistake in drawing it and destroyed it before eating a piece of the paper. It did not take him long to realise that this was a mistake, especially when that part of the paper was covered in a large quantity of ink that could upset the stomach even of a cultivator in the third realm of planar cultivation, although he was fortunate to have been living in a realm where proper food was hard to come by.


    She brought her attention back to the Planar Continents, where those black-robed men had entered an alleyway casually, forcing her to go past them and travel into a different alleyway before obscuring her presence entirely with stealth techniques and leaping to the top of the buildings around her to continue following the men.


    They went through a complex route through the buildings, seemingly using it more to actually be able to travel through the alleys rather than due to any other inherent purpose, and ended up near the edge of the district, near the iron wall. There, they loitered for a while, not making their intentions or purpose particularly clear as they did not look towards any particular direction or at any particular object. They did not even look at one another, instead sitting down and shutting their eyes to cultivate as they waited.


    If she did the same thing, she would instantly catch their attention due to how much planar energy would be devoured the moment that she attempted it, so she instead sat down on the roof and went through the designs of clothing and armour that she had accumulated so far.


    Out of everything she had come up with on her own and borrowed from Fu Zan, she had already been forced to select the outer armour and the robes ¨C mostly because she could not yet replicate the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival and did not want to switch them to something that would require repair after every single minor combat encounter ¨C and the skin-tight clothing was the only one of its kind so far, and little could be done to it nonetheless due to the nature of the outfit, perhaps adjusting it for the transformations of the killing will form, meaning that she effectively had little more to do than to perfect the designs and to unite them together into a single cohesive appearance that she could present to her forces and the warriors of the Greats when they inevitably fought.


    This wasn¡¯t a necessity by any metric, but as she couldn¡¯t focus on something more important and thus time consuming, this was the next best thing.


    ¡®Furthermore, I cannot go to Fu Zan for help, as he will create something incredibly odd, regardless of the nature of the oddity. In that way, he is actually similar to the odd herbs of this district, as his behaviours can also result in a whole host of random things,¡¯ she commented mentally, conjuring a mental desk on which to work.


    Eleven minutes later, or roughly two decades within her mental domain, she had made some progress on a design for a uniform for her forces as well as her own equipment when the two men below her finally acted.


    They rose and looked at one of the buildings near them, the back wall of which suddenly broke into two sections, with a small rectangle near the floor, the height of half the average man, separating from the rest and receding into the building, perhaps being carried by a person on the other side, or perhaps being moved by some mechanism. Wei Yi would not typically need to guess, but this building somehow had the same obfuscating barrier as the Kong Ancestral Hall and the items of the otherworldly demons, meaning that nothing seemed to be amiss until this movement began.


    ¡®There better be an otherworldly demon out there that is able to sense past such things, or else I will ensure that no records of how to create this effect are ever passed down,¡¯ she thought, looking a little closer while the two robed men climbed through the hole in the wall and were then sealed away by the door, which blended in with the wall and made it seem as if nothing had been there at all.


    So that she wouldn¡¯t miss anything, she leapt down and snuck around the front of the structure, where she found that both the window and door were blocked and entirely obscured. However, while the wall at the back seemed to reunite into one, there were still a few gaps between the door and the frame around it that remained uncovered by the planks of wood that were used to block them. A gap this slight and small would have been too insignificant for most, but it gave her just enough space to worm her spiritual will into the building without needing to break down the door and expose herself to the strange figures.


    As she had originally guessed, there was another person within, who looked mostly ordinary beside a small patch of greater malevolent yin on his neck.


    The two robed men raised their right hands and placed their index and middle finger on their foreheads, exclaiming, ¡°Aberrant¡¯s praise! Our mission to Him has been complete, and another step of our preparation is complete.¡±


    ¡®Did I¡­ stumble across some kind of cult? That¡¯s exciting and concerning. I wonder what kinds of things they have done, and whether I should be concerned with them,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, covering herself entirely with the technique of the Binder of the Dark to ensure that none of the random travellers going past this building decided to bother her and potentially alert the others, ¡®The next time I end up in a district, I wonder if I will find something similar. Perhaps my occasional fortune is counteracted with finding everything from otherworldly demons to strange assassin organisations¡­¡¯


    ¡°The Aberrant¡¯s eye has been on you, and He knows of your achievements,¡± the man with a spot on his neck replied, ¡°He is satisfied with your work, and does not require sacrifice.¡±


    ¡°Aberrant¡¯s praise!¡±


    ¡°However, He has decreed that we must hurry. The Fractured Mirrors have been moving more in the past few days and may have observed our actions in awakening the Mirror Plane. We must ensure that His work, His gift for all humanity, is not affected by them!¡±


    ¡®Fractured Mirrors? Is that a separate organisation of some kind, or some force that finds these people to be intrusive or otherwise inconvenient to their own purposes?¡¯


    ¡°We shall never betray the Aberrant¡¯s trust in us. The Mirror Plane shall be awoken!¡±


    ¡®And this Mirror Plane could refer to a number of things as well, none of which are in the many documents that I have previously read and studied. Potentially, they speak of some kind of spatial realm, which had somehow been shut or become dormant after excessive waste of the internal energy, and they might now be seeking to open it once more. Alternatively, perhaps it refers to a set of conditions or a state, wherein it will be achieved once a certain quantity of energy gathers in the city, or something of the sort,¡¯ she continued her consideration, ¡®Either way, with the malevolent yin and their general appearances, I would suspect that neither I or the citizens of the Ning District would benefit from this plan of theirs.¡¯


    ¡°What ought to be our next duty?¡±


    The man with a spot on his neck answered immediately, ¡°The infusion of the Mirror Plane must be accelerated for His glory. End anyone that opposes it and convert those who do not. His majesty must spread!¡±


    ¡°Aberrant¡¯s will be done!¡± the two hooded and cloaked men exclaimed, performing the same gesture as before while the other man removed the rectangular portion of the wall and permitted them to leave. She did not follow them immediately, as her spiritual perception could trail them for quite some time before she needed to accompany them on foot, so she instead remained in place and observed what the third man was going to do next.


    For a little while, he sat still, then suddenly turned to the side.


    An eerie air breached the walls of the building, gathering near the focus of his sight. It had no physical appearance, radiating only yin to give either one of them any impression of where it was. Nevertheless, the man with a spot on his neck immediately bowed to the cold air, smashing his head against the ground without any care for his health.


    ¡°Great Aberrant, what can this pitiful servant do for you? How can I fulfil your will after the disappointment that is my very existence?¡±


    ¡®That mist is their Aberrant? Really?¡¯


    Despite her confusion, the voice that appeared as suddenly as the mist sounded like it would belong to someone powerful enough to lead a large cult and would deserve that degree of reverence, ¡°Your progress on my task is lacking, worm. How long will you persist in failing to give me even a glimpse of the Mirror Plane? Tell me, weakling, how is twenty years not enough for you to go past basic poisoning of the herbs?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Great Aberrant! The Fractured Ones greatly slowed my progress!¡±


    ¡°What a pathetic excuse. I have granted you my strength, bestowed upon you my will, gave you my direct and precise bidding ¨C and yet you still fail?¡±


    ¡°The Fractured Ones hold too much power! Please, Great Aberrant, understand that I would never lie to the true ruler of this world! I could never do something so blasphemous without my very soul collapsing upon itself!¡± the man repeatedly struck his head against the wooden floor, begging again and again, ¡°Please understand, and permit me to continue serving you as I have done so far!¡±


    ¡°Enough of that, you unclean insect. I have had enough of your crying, so shut your mouth and listen. I have felt something touch my mark upon the rest of you. Did you come across the Fractured Ones?¡±


    ¡°I was unaware of any such encounters, Great Aberrant, and the others said nothing of it.¡±


    ¡°Then pay more attention, worm. Tell the others to do the same on your next meeting. I have greater matters to pursue than any of you can even comprehend, beyond any of your insignificant realms, so I shall be distracted for some time. Contact me only in dire situations,¡± the voice stated, the mist that it emerged from quickly scattering and falling apart, forcing Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception to rush towards it and analyse as much as she could before it collapsed entirely.


    However, she was yet again stopped from doing so when the mist appeared to lack any semblance of a reaction to her mental energy, meaning that all she was able to identify was the rough structure of the mist. It did not seem to be particularly unusual nor interesting to behold, but when it had almost completely dispersed, she finally realised what it had reminded her of since the first time she noticed it. Despite all of the immense differences, the significant oddity of it, the fact that it seemed to be condensed more of yin than anything else, and that it appeared to be entirely separate from anybody that it should have belonged to¡­


    ¡®This seems to be spiritual will that is even more different from normal than the twin energy of the Eternal Dark assassins¡­ Well, fuck. That¡¯s somewhat terrifying. My spiritual will, as insignificant as it appears to anyone that detects it, still has to be bound to me without the stabilisation of the planar anchor, which is unfortunately weaker out here than in the prison realm,¡¯ she thought, ¡®This, on the other hand, does not appear to have a limit on range nor quantity, seeing as this Great Aberrant has freely thrown away his precious mental energy¡­¡¯


    Then, there were all of those other things said by him. For one, the ability to detect her mental intrusion was rare even amongst the experts of the Kong Prison Realm ¨C or non-existent, as the only person to have any likelihood of noticing it was the otherworldly demon that she had killed in Sanctuary ¨C so the fact that he had perceived her contact with his subordinate¡¯s minds proved that he possessed a powerful intuition, even if nothing else.


    As he also claimed to have influenced something about the herbs of the district, it meant that he could be the one responsible for the eerily similar yin in the vast majority of the herbs on the market, infusing them with the same mark as his followers through those aforementioned followers.


    With how difficult it was to observe both him and his energies, it meant that he would prove to be a difficult opponent if they ever had to combat one another. Her strength was her power, ultimately, and whenever she could not use her spiritual perception her ability to actually affect her opponent would be reduced significantly.


    Nevertheless, it wouldn¡¯t be impossible for her to defeat this curious Great Aberrant so long as she could find his body and if he was beneath the fourth realm, as his anchor would be open to destruction and his form would not be able to regenerate from most of her attacks before she could do further damage, but if she did not understand how he attacked nor how he defended, she would waste so much more of her energy that she otherwise wouldn¡¯t need to expend.


    ¡®Then again, I have no idea what the Mirror Plane is, nor what this Great Aberrant actually wants. Perhaps it is only his ¨C for all I know, he isn¡¯t even a man, or not even human ¨C methods that seem suspicious, and the outcomes will be positive¡­¡¯


    She shook her head quickly, stepping away from the building and rushing towards the pair of robed men. Although the possibility was certainly incredibly tempting to believe in, she knew that things could and would never be this simple. The energy one used meant nothing, but to mark so much of the world in power that would cause it to deteriorate and decay would make it very difficult to make the case for the positivity of his cause. With a sufficiently high concentration of malevolent yin within the closed-off district, the average lifespan would decrease, the overall yang would decay ¨C as was already happening due to it becoming more difficult to produce pills that enhance it ¨C and eventually, the population would die out entirely.


    Regardless of the cause, such an act would be unlikely to be committed by someone seeking positive change.


    ¡®For this reason, I must keep an eye on this. Either I get an easy opportunity to raise my renown, or a potential ally, but even if something that I do not expect occurs, I must be ready. Never can Yi City be destroyed, regardless of who the destroyer it. It must survive and be reborn.¡¯

 V3C13: The Peculiar Cure

    The men in robes split apart and then headed off to do ordinary things, removing their robes and occupying normal positions in regular clothing. For several lengthy minutes, they did not appear to be in the proximity of anything unusual, so Wei Yi was forced to return to her residence for now.


    There, Min Lian was still working on her assigned experiments, seemingly not discovering anything of interest during the whole time that Wei Yi had been out observing those that worshipped the Aberrant.


    ¡°Master, I have completed forty-seven of the required experiments. Besides the already observed weakness to your ability to absorb yin, all I have noticed is that applying large quantities of killing intent can destroy both the herbs and the energy within, although never one or the other,¡± she reported, pausing her current attempt to explain everything of note respectfully, ¡°Some approaches seemed to be yielding more results than others, but ultimately accomplished nothing.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, as I have discovered something on my own. This may be the result of an odd mutation of spiritual will, instigated by someone called the Great Aberrant. He is difficult to detect and claims to be above the third realm at the very least.¡±


    ¡°Do you wish me to kill him?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯d be safer for me to do it, but even if I was to send you, we would need to know his location. At the moment, I am unaware of it, so we will require more time to track down him and his forces, or, otherwise, force him to emerge earlier than he plans. Before that, however, I need to know everything you might know about a Mirror Plane or a Great Aberrant.¡±


    Min Lian went through her memories for a while, then said, ¡°I apologise, but I know little on the subject. I don¡¯t have any recollection of an Aberrant, whether human or otherwise, and the only thing I have learnt regarding a Mirror Plane was a rumour about the Fu family, which was proven to be a false one fabricated in order to attempt to cover up the truth of their family¡¯s wealth. Even then, the Mirror Plane would have been one that reflected the world truly, not one that was home to an Aberrant that surpassed mortality.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunate, but we may not need to learn too much about him or his organisation. Before that can be decided, however, it is important to wrap up a few other things. Continue your experiments for now, and consider a few things that you can do here and outside to appear to be a trusted assistant-¡±


    ¡°Actually, Master, I have already considered a few typical tasks that a refining master might request of their subordinates, but I have not yet had the time to perform them.¡±


    ¡°In that case, you may perform them now. You may not have mortal flesh, but you still retain your mind, meaning that you are able to exhaust yourself. Take a break from these experiments for a little while and allow me to go through what you¡¯ve noted down, and perhaps you won¡¯t even need to continue,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Meanwhile, I will check on the state of that Refiner¡¯s Duel that had been initiated.¡±


    She bowed in understanding and requested a few coins to spend, which Wei Yi naturally provided.


    After the assassin departed without any explicit statements regarding her purpose ¨C nothing about her was unusual, so she just assumed that she decided to give her a pleasant surprise ¨C Wei Yi looked at the results of everything Min Lian had attempted and was forced to come to the same conclusion as the assassin had, prompting her to leave and go back to the Chu Alchemical Store.


    While she had been within her residence, and while she walked towards the store, she had been using her spiritual perception to observe her surroundings to ensure that if any more black-robed men showed up, she would be able to track them and observe their actions, slowly learning more about their intent and their approach to achieving it, allowing her to conclude whether they were a group that she would support or end the moment that she had the opportunity. She was already leaning towards the latter option, and if she confirmed that they were responsible for the infection of the herbs with the malevolent yin, that would likely be a certainty.


    However, she didn¡¯t detect any of them before getting to the store, where the receptionist forced her attention away from those kinds of people.


    For the second day in a row, the energy within her appeared to be actively pouring out of her, and she was still rushing around wherever she wanted without any semblance of exhaustion. It was certainly abnormal.


    ¡°Hey, eh¡­ you? What¡¯s your name again?¡±


    ¡°Me?¡± the receptionist turned towards her and smiled brightly, ¡°My name is Fu Xiu, and I¡¯ve been working here-¡±


    ¡°Not relevant. First of all, Fu Xiu, you have failed to appear at my residence earlier for the inspection.¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­ It¡¯s already the next day? I hadn¡¯t noticed¡­¡±


    ¡°Second, have you actually eaten or drunk anything since the day that I cured that case of narcolepsy?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡®Someone¡¯s out of it, then¡­¡¯ Wei Yi sighed internally, placing her hand on the woman¡¯s shoulder as she nearly began to walk away again, ¡°Then, I think that it will be a good idea for you to go on a short break, and you don¡¯t get to say no.¡±


    ¡°Your hand is so stro- Ah!¡±


    The receptionist was pulled upstairs and into one of the empty rooms upstairs, where there were none of the local manager¡¯s observatory arrays so that they could spend a little while in some semblance of privacy. This was achieved further with walls of killing will across every surface in the room, while a little more was used to pin her to the desk as she had transformed it into metal cuffs, sticking half of them into the surface of the desk so that she would need to break through the durable wood in order to escape.


    ¡°In case I forgot to tell you previously, depending on where this energy is coming from, you could end up aflame after exerting enough of it as your very body is consumed to keep that supply up.¡±


    ¡°R-Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes. It is vital that we confirm the nature of this oddity.¡±


    Wei Yi placed her right hand on Fu Xiu¡¯s forehead after it transformed into an inhumanely white, overly pure state, from which countless spiritual will and perception threads were able to emerge even more smoothly than they would have travelled through a pure, unfettered void.


    ¡°That¡­ feels so- uh¡­ strange¡­¡± the receptionist muttered as innumerable threads passed through the entirety of her being, their intensity intentionally being amplified so that any little detail could be observed and to ensure that she would always go to Wei Yi if she encountered similar symptoms and wouldn¡¯t try to continue using them to her advantage.


    ¡°It can feel much worse, but for now, I should be able to understand everything just from this,¡± she said with certainty, although she was actually rather uncertain as to the nature of this unusual malaise. Logically, it should originate from the physique that had been present within her, but even in the few cases of physiques being removed from people before this, she had never heard of an infinite font of energy remaining in its place.


    In the case of the Forbidden Deity of the End, when their inactive technique had been stolen near the beginning of their life, all it allowed them to do was cultivate a different physique for themselves in its place, permitting them to reach significantly greater heights and eventually earn their title. Another case of this, the Great Devourer, a being that cultivated the Mindful Eating art to its absolute peak and gained immense might, lost his physique after an undocumented encounter that had weakened him somewhat, but insufficiently to end his life or end his dominance over the region that he had controlled. Additionally, the third recorded case, in which the Fallen Saint had attempted to remove his physique and pass it onto his sister to save her, had confirmed that the removal of a physique would not benefit anyone in and of itself, as neither the Fallen Saint nor his sister gained anything through the encounter.


    The experience did push the Fallen Saint from his original mental state, which had earned him the title of the Forgiving Saint, into a path of anger and vengeance against those that had given him the impression that it would be possible to transfer his physique, which he undertook relentlessly.


    ¡®Although his tale is a curious one, proving why one should never trust others without reason, it has no correlation with my current situation¡­ Furthermore, every single one of these stories typically applied to either dormant physiques or fully active ones, while the receptionist¡¯s one was in a slightly different state¡­¡¯


    She shut her eyes and shifted the majority of the tendrils into the locations where she had previously observed the particles of physique energy, focusing immensely upon the spot where they had been densest, and finally discovered something. In place of the physique energy was seemingly ordinary flesh, but while it did not differ in yin or yang, nor anything else of significance that typically stood out to her, it did have an unusual formation of blood vessels, meridians and just raw energy that, when combined together, appeared to produce a most curious effect.


    Equivalent to an Energy Generation array, an art of five stars and above, this random placement of the flesh could create far greater quantities of life energy from far less than digestion would typically allow, thus creating the impression of infinite energy.


    Although it was not quite what it had appeared to be on the surface, it still offered great possibility.


    ¡®With this likely accidental arrangement, created as a result of some light warping from the physique energy, the power of a basic support physique has been created without one¡­ If bestowed upon others, it would allow even those without a cultivation to go on for far longer without food or drink, although it ought to be toned down in power prior to altering the bodies of more than a chosen few,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, checking her own body to find that in places near the physique meridians, her body also resembled Fu Xiu¡¯s, although the primary aspect of the array-like ability was made up of physique energy rather than simple flesh.


    As she understood this, she was able to send her spiritual will threads into specific locations on the receptionist¡¯s body in order to attempt to break the Energy Generation arrays.


    However, this was easier said ¨C or thought, in this case ¨C than done. Any attempt at manipulating the odd arrangement of the receptionist¡¯s body, whether aggressively or smoothly and calmly, could do nothing to these pseudo arrays, and sufficient force would only pierce and wound rather than affect the arrays.


    Wei Yi shifted her hand to the right so that she could place her left hand upon the woman¡¯s face, transforming only the parts that directly touched her skin as to not unsettle Fu Xiu any more than she already had, then infused her killing intent into her as well before merging the two sets of threads into killing will, hoping that it would somehow make a significant difference due to the general uniqueness of killing will as a whole.


    And yet, no matter what she did with her killing will, all she had deduced was that even if she removed these growths of flesh, they would simply regenerate after given the opportunity to do so. As a result, her mind quickly went through the many options, and came to one conclusion.


    She removed her hands from Fu Xiu¡¯s face, revoking her mental energy threads alongside them, then looked her straight in the eyes and said, ¡°It appears that the only solution would be to awaken a physique within you. For whatever reason, the removal of certain particles within your body has resulted in a peculiar array being created, and so we must now give it something to power unless you would like to lose your mind entirely after enough time has passed. That, or maybe you will slowly turn into a spiritual entity after your flesh burns.¡±


    ¡°I-Isn¡¯t your diagnosis getting worse every time you say it? Why is this even happening to me?¡±


    ¡°Your original malaise, the same one that was draining energy, was resolved correctly, but it revealed that, perhaps as an attempt to compensate for the constant drain, your body has developed the ability to generate significantly more energy than before,¡± Wei Yi presented her with a hypothesis, one that naturally excluded certain pieces of information that either required further research or were not suitable for her to hear, ¡°If an actual physique is formed, it will merge with these mutations and provide you with a significant degree of strength and energy, although not enough to constantly work without rest, food or drink.¡±


    ¡°And if you don¡¯t do this, then-¡±


    ¡°You will burn, or wither, or die of the exhaustion of your mental energy. Neither ending is good for you,¡± her claim was inaccurate, but was believable enough for someone that lacked an understanding of physiques and the like.


    ¡°T-Then-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll get you the things that you need within ten minutes. Don¡¯t¡­ well, you can¡¯t move anyway, so just consider how you will compensate me this time. And where you¡¯ll sleep. The latter is more important.¡±


    For a moment, Fu Xiu didn¡¯t even know what to say, trying to understand whether the request for payment was a joking comment to relax her and to clarify that she was certain about success, or a genuine requirement of monetary compensation, then finally said, ¡°Alright. Please don¡¯t take too long¡­¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t. Depending on your definition of those words, of course.¡±


    Before the receptionist had a chance to say anything else, Wei Yi left the room and shut the door behind her, sealing it with killing will so that nobody would barge in and discover a woman pinned to a desk with translucent cuffs and with rather dishevelled clothing, then headed to the manager.


    She didn¡¯t bother knocking on his door, as she was within range of several observatory arrays just by standing near it, meaning that if she gave him more than a second, he would be bound to notice her presence and either request her leave, or permit her into his room. It did not take long for this to be confirmed, as her spiritual perception observed him browsing through some of his arrays and then immediately glance up towards his door the moment that he noticed her.


    ¡°Enter.¡±


    When she did, she immediately said, ¡°I have two things to speak to you about, and one of them is likely to be far more urgent than the other. Are you aware of the situation with your receptionist?¡±


    ¡°I am, and based on what you have said so far, I assume that it isn¡¯t a passing phenomenon?¡±


    ¡°No, it is not. I will require a physique awakening pill of any quality or grade, or the materials to create one. As they appear to be rather pricy here, and due to the oddity of certain herbs that you must have heard me discuss previously, it is not yet something I can afford to throw money at. Before Fu Xiu is able to compensate me, will you use your position to grant these materials to me without immediate payment?¡±


    ¡°I would need to observe the entire process, and if you dare do anything to intentionally decrease the chances of successful refinement¡­ Have you heard of certain northern practises of indentured servitude and outright slavery?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re threatening to enslave me if I fuck up, right? Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± she replied, ¡°One batch and I can guarantee at least one successful pill, which means that if I get any more, you can feel free to sell them and pocket all of the earnings for yourself, but only if you permit me to work in private. Otherwise, I will keep any extras for myself.¡±


    ¡°You speak to a man in the fifth stage of Marked Core, with fifteen marks already being active. Are you certain that your negotiations are wise, Wei Yi?¡±


    ¡°Remember what I told you last time? I don¡¯t tend to do things if I am not confident.¡±


    ¡°¡­ So you say. I insist on watching. Even if you keep whatever secret art you use from me now, I will see it in a few days, alongside a large number of others. You can keep all of those pills that you will supposedly be able to create.¡±


    ¡°Alright then. Don¡¯t try and change the deal when you find it to be going against you,¡± she said.


    ¡°I also tend to act with confidence. On the topic of the Refiner¡¯s Duel, and of your privacy, would you prefer an audience of a few attentive pill refiners only, or an additional crowd of common observers?¡±


    ¡°The crowd. Why would I ever turn down free advertisement?¡±


    His eyes narrowed, ¡°You are confident in your success, aren¡¯t you? I suppose that we shall see whether you are right to assume your victory, but before that¡­ Here. This token will grant you entry into the underground storage. Pick out one set of herbs exactly and get back here with both them and the token. If you need it, I can even provide assistance while you work, but if you insist on working alone or only with that assistant of yours, then I will stay back and watch.¡±


    ¡°The latter option is preferable. My methods can be somewhat unconventional,¡± Wei Yi stated, taking the token and heading towards the door, ¡°You should have seen which room I brought Fu Xiu into, so if you want, you can wait near it.¡±


    He did not answer by the time she shut the door behind herself, and she did not pay much attention to his actions afterwards, as she was considering how to best optimise the refinement process for herself while not revealing the Antithesis method of intentionally ruining it as much as possible before reversing the process, as that would cause far more questions than she needed to deal with for now.


    There were fortunately few guards in the way, meaning that she was able to get into the storage rooms quickly and then managed to look through everything there without any interference, allowing her to discover the few herbs that lacked malevolent yin and a few that had the fewest quantity of it, allowing her to put together the necessary set of items. She was able to clear the latter portion of items of yin with a liberal application of her yin-type physique energy, and the process thankfully did little damage due to how limited the exposure to this energy was, leaving only a few portions of the plants frozen absolutely.


    When she returned upstairs, she found Chu Huazhi standing beside the door containing Fu Xiu, with several marks on the frame that clearly indicated his attempts to enter before she returned.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got everything I need,¡± she said, ignoring them and calmly opening the door and letting him in before shutting it after him. He turned around immediately, his eyes darting about to figure out the reason for his inability to break through something that she then opened easily. When in its combined state and while it is hidden within the walls of the room, her killing will was entirely invisible to sight and almost undetectable through common spiritual perception, or even the trained perception of a practitioner of the great arts, and so it was only natural that he was ignorant of it.


    Fortunately for him, there was a different question to distract himself with.


    ¡°Do you also intend to requisition my refining furnace, or have you already moved it here while I was not observing you? Do you perhaps have a method of shrinking its volume to be able to carry it in your pocket?¡±


    ¡°¡­ No,¡± Wei Yi replied, throwing all of her gathered ingredients into the air, where they froze as a solid layer of spiritual will formed beneath them, ¡°I¡¯m not intending to use one now, or in the future.¡±


    Before his eyes, her energy formed into the shape of a refining furnace, with its two compartments and fanciful ornamentation on the outside, which, unbeknownst to him, was modelled after the one that her pill refining teacher had used alongside her. As it was composed of mental energy, it benefitted from the close emotional connection and distinct memories that would have certainly survived even if she did not possess her Ascendant¡¯s Library.


    Most of the ingredients floated away from the furnace while the initial few began to melt through the raw power of killing intent that she had added to the upper portion of the furnace while a flame made of pure planar energy slowly warmed up beneath these ingredients.


    Not everything could be processed without the use of an actual flame, so in order to avoid the elemental corruption that would occur if she chose her golden flame to process these materials, she resorted to something that could reasonably be explained away as an unusual alchemical flame, even if she did not expect to have the opportunity to present this story as all focus would be ¨C and currently was, as even Chu Huazhi¡¯s spiritual perception was ¨C focused wholly on the refining furnace and nothing more, not even the ingredients within as they slowly split into nine distinct portions and began to rotate around the centre of the transparent furnace.


    Before any more ingredients were added, she prepared them appropriately with a few precise cuts and slashes of her spiritual will, and as they entered the furnace, they formed entirely separate clumps of matter that spun at a different pace from the previous ingredients as well as those that came after, with the third and fourth collections of herbs, stalks, leaves and roots orbiting closer and closer to the centre.


    This was all according to the first and only high-quality refining technique that she had learnt, and it was intended to allow the materials to burn at a pace that is sufficient to them without requiring precise manipulation of the flames. It was more difficult to control at least nine separate clusters of matter and keep them to a consistent speed, but as this actions achieved a significant quantity of other, greater things, like raising the quality of the resulting pill via a connection to the innate laws of the Dao ¨C hence it being part of a forbidden art, which Wei Yi somewhat regretted not learning when she had the opportunity to change Chu Ling¡¯s mind ¨C it was something that was worth learning and using.


    However, her next step was one that she had created through the Antithesis Reversal, or rather inspired by it. Without applying the Antithesis energy to the entire product and forcing every aspect of yang to turn to yin, and vice versa, she had discovered that it was still possible to apply her Antithesis energy in a slightly different manner, by targeting the typical waste materials of any refinement process and forcing them back into the successful elements, forcefully raising the quantity and quality of the product.


    Thus, when the spinning motions of the four groups of nine clumps each accelerated to the point of becoming a blur, she forced them together and simultaneously surrounded everything with inverted light, although it was overpowered entirely due to her intentional brightening of the alchemical flame, turning the entire process into a bright ball of planar violet light.


    When Chu Huazhi could finally see again, he was presented with the most peculiar sight ¨C two dozen pills, glistening like fine but uncut gemstones of a intriguing orange shade, as if containing the flame itself, lay before him on Wei Yi¡¯s hand, which calmly held them as if the refining furnace had never been there to begin with. Furthermore, although there was bound to be an extreme amount of warmth emanating from the pills, both due to their nature as Physique Awakening pills and the process which they had just undergone, she did not appear to notice as she closed her hand kept all but one of the pills, which she then placed beside Fu Xiu.


    ¡°I trust that your statement about sticking to your deal is still accurate, Manager Chu?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ How many stars?¡±


    ¡°Peak of three stars.¡±


    ¡°Within an Earth Awakening pill? With a perfect quantity? Without any flaws? In less than ten minutes? How do you not have a refiner¡¯s emblem?¡±


    ¡°So many questions that you did not appear interested in asking previously. Is your receptionist¡¯s description of your kind and non-invasive nature false, or have I somehow moved you enough to cause your very character to change?¡± Wei Yi asked, infusing the pill with cosmic energy in the meantime.


    ¡°No¡­ Nonetheless, a single pill won¡¯t be enough. What will be your catalyst?¡±


    ¡°Oh, please, you clearly don¡¯t know as much as you think you do about this particular field. I know what I¡¯m doing (or so I¡¯d like to believe) so let me handle it. Perhaps you could substitute your receptionist for now, or otherwise get out of here now that you have seen that there is little that you can learn from me.¡±


    ¡°I shall do so. Do not let your success grant you arrogance, however,¡± he replied, ¡°If you require assistance, I can provide it.¡±


    ¡°Sure, I won¡¯t forget, and will call you if I need it. Still, I have experience with this.¡±


    He shrugged his shoulders and left, the door sealing behind him with killing will to ensure that he or anybody else wouldn¡¯t bother her again. Turning back to Fu Xiu, she lightly slapped her cheek so that she would awaken.


    ¡°Mhm? W-What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s time for you to get a physique. Any preferences? Yin? Yang? Earth, water, wood, metal or fire? I¡¯m open to suggestion, although don¡¯t expect to get anything too impressive. I¡¯m working on a budget, after all, and I don¡¯t have any spare miracle fruits to force into your very being,¡± Wei Yi said, showing her the Earth Physique Awakening pill to give her a better idea of what had happened.


    ¡°Eh¡­ How about water, or, eh, ice?¡±


    ¡°Yin and water? Sure, I can do that,¡± she nodded, changing her cosmic energy that had been placed into the pill into cold, although she kept enough of it to function as a method of enhancing the pill¡¯s effects.


    Then, as the receptionist¡¯s mouth was still open, she threw it in and forced her to swallow it.


    ¡°I can¡¯t guarantee that this will be pleasant, so I¡¯d recommend getting it done quickly.¡±

 V3C14: Safeguarding the People

    ¡®No way¡­ Is everything I do twisted by some fate bestowed upon me by the heavens?¡¯ Wei Yi pondered, frowning as she watched the result of her work, ¡®Otherwise, how could something this coincidental happen the second time that I awaken the physique of someone of importance? If this is the kind of thing that happens to the otherworldly demons frequently, I can see why they think of themselves as protagonists and peerless legends¡­¡¯


    The reason for her shock was that the physique that had been created by her Earth Physique Awakening pill did not end up being one of the common or basic ice-type or water-type physique, nor even one of the more unusual, greater physiques.


    No, what she had given Fu Xiu was a physique that she believed to be called Redeemer¡¯s Frost.


    It was an absolute physique and granted the wielder the ability to manipulate frost and ice with ease with the only seeming negative being the decrease of their body temperature.


    To some, this may not sound all that impressive, but there was a reason that it had been named after one of the few legends to remain in people¡¯s memory after the Master of Yi City had completed his project, the Redeemer of Worlds, the Master of the Planes. They held more than fifteen spatial realms under their control even while the primordial gods and the like dominated many parts of the Western Continent. While the tales had entirely forgotten the true name, appearance or even gender of the Redeemer, much like how Kong Shi Meng was no longer associated with the Master of Yi City, their prowess in combat and their ability to freely control ice had remained in historical records.


    With a wave of their hand, the Redeemer was able to throw dozens of frost spears at their foes, and with a little concentration, could condense an enormous storm that was able to tear through the defences of the fourth realm with ease, and what made it truly impressive is that they had a planar cultivation, meaning that this ability was purely limited to the natural properties of the physique in combination with some planar techniques.


    ¡®I¡¯m not just trying to justify what I¡¯m considering doing, but I¡¯ve seen what happens when someone gains power that they are not prepared to have, so long as the otherworldly demons are to be believed. So long as she figures out what she has and puts it to use, she can easily get involved in some of the major conflicts that will soon begin within this world, but if she was to lose most of the power and keep only the physique itself¡­ That should resolve some of the previous issues, shouldn¡¯t it?¡¯ Wei Yi thought, residing within her mental domain so that she could take as long as needed to consider the matter, ¡®With previous experience, I should be able to manage and weaken the physique, and then she will be abnormally healthy for the rest of her life while I might have a better chance against the Greats.¡¯


    She ultimately decided that this was the best solution, as training her would be too slow and too inefficient ¨C not to mention the possibility that acquiring a set of meridians after already possessing a physique would leave them empty, forcing Wei Yi to progress the Redeemer¡¯s Frost physique so that it would fill those meridians and be properly cultivated ¨C while simply leaving her to her own devices could result in any number of outcomes ranging from acceptable to terrible, depending on how much reason and self-control this receptionist possessed.


    Ultimately, however, her choice wasn¡¯t to make Fu Xiu¡¯s life better directly, but to ensure that the Great Families were gone, and that Yi City was restored. If that required some actions that she would otherwise not consider, then they would have to be taken.


    If, after everything was done and she had perished, regardless of the means, she became known as a villain that far surpassed the Greats, the primordial gods and the many bloodthirsty beasts that had existed in the Planar Continents prior to the Master of Yi City, then even if she had the ability to view the response and react to it, she would have no choice but to accept it.


    ¡®Fortunately, I do not need to make this known to her. Siphoning most of the power of the physique only requires a little distraction¡­¡¯ she thought, approaching Fu Xiu as she rubbed the marks on her skin from the mental energy cuffs and placed her hand on the receptionist¡¯s wrists, sending a small quantity of life energy into them as to assist in the recovery, ¡°Everything should be better now, but to ensure your health has improved and that all of the problems have been resolved, I will quickly check your body. Don¡¯t move around too much.¡±


    At the same time as the spiritual perception and life energy mixed together, she sent a small quantity of balanced physique energy into the receptionist¡¯s body, mixing yin and yang so that she would neither freeze nor burn the moment that she touched this energy.


    ¡°I-Is this what spiritual perception usually feels like?¡±


    ¡°Why are you asking me? You¡¯re bound to have felt it numerous times before¡­ But no, this isn¡¯t just spiritual perception. I am also sending a quantity of life energy into your body so that it recovers a little more quickly.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ Right¡­ Should everything be feeling so slow and tiring, or is that going to go away eventually?¡± Fu Xiu asked.


    ¡°Partially, yes, fully, no. You¡¯ve consumed your excessive quantity of energy, so now you will just feel as if you are a stage or two higher in terms of your stamina, but little more. Do remember that continuing the way that you were would have likely resulted in spontaneous combustion, and make the most of what you¡¯ve got,¡± she answered, devouring the last portion of reasonable energy to remove from her, ¡®This won¡¯t be enough to activate the physique, but I have a few theories on that which I would like to experiment with in the future. Potentially, I only need a single fragment of physique energy to complete it within myself, which would be absolutely fantastic¡­¡¯


    ¡°That¡¯s a shame. I feel really sleepy now¡­¡±


    ¡°Then rest. Your boss is either covering for you or has found someone else to do the same, so he can wait for another day to ensure that you are healthy,¡± Wei Yi said, retracting all of the energy tendrils from her and removing the barriers from the walls, ¡°I wasn¡¯t joking about the request for payment, by the way. Either provide me with the equivalent of one three-star Earth Physique Awakening pill or owe me a few favours in the future. Which would be easiest?¡±


    ¡°I have one hundred and seventeen planar shards worth of gold and silver coins in my possession¡­ Is that enough?¡±


    ¡°Twenty planar shards, and you will have repaid everything you owe me.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a lot, but¡­ alright,¡± Fu Xiu nodded, laying back on the table and letting her eyes shut slowly, ¡°As you said, I¡¯ll rest¡­ I¡¯m not sure how long I¡¯d been awake¡­¡±


    As she fell into deep sleep not much later, Wei Yi did not bother replying, instead lifting her resting body easily and bringing her out of the office that they had been occupying, since it was bound to eventually be needed by another whereas there were plenty of other spaces for her to rest without leaving the Chu Alchemical Store. After scanning through the store, she eventually decided that the best place was in Chu Huazhi¡¯s office, as it was currently empty and had plenty of space that would not be needed even if it was not.


    With how light the receptionist was, and how strong Wei Yi was, carrying the former, bringing them into an office and then laying them down on a different surface was about as easy as doing the same to a small pebble, meaning that apart from the visual and physical experience ¨C which was nowhere near as enticing or interesting after over twenty years of experiencing all kinds of positions, techniques and acts ¨C she was essentially doing exactly that.


    ¡®It¡¯s still an improvement from the time I had just obtained the memories of the Thunder Lord, when I had gotten so embarrassed just from going into the women¡¯s baths. If I still acted like that at the age of forty, it would be rather embarrassing.¡¯


    While Fu Xiu slept and the local manager was still occupied, she removed the pills that she had stored away from her pocket and inspected them closely. Each one reached the same level of quality, a rather unusual state, but she did not intend to sell most of them, nor did she want to give them out to her forces, as the people there had plenty of other methods to stimulate their physiques.


    Instead, she intended to test her earlier theory about the nature of the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique and its ability to absorb other physiques.


    It was unlikely for the abilities of an Ascendant to include every single physique under the heavens, so it must mean that it acquires them during the absorption of other physiques, then replicates their effect when there are enough particles of energy flowing through her meridians. If that is indeed the case, then does it not mean that her body currently contains fragments of countless physiques, all waiting to awaken? Would the consumption of a Physique Awakening pill not grant her the chance to advance one or more of them into a greater realm, growing their power and the abilities of her entire being?


    That was something that had to be tested eventually, regardless of the cost, and now she just happened to have the right materials to do so, albeit not the time necessary just yet, meaning that if she did invest some effort into this, she could earn some incredible benefits for free.


    ¡®I¡¯ll put a few up on sale, just to be able to acquire more later, then get back to my residence and see what Min Lian had been working on, then attempt a breakthrough focusing on the Redeemer¡¯s Frost physique first, and any other physiques that have a similar kind of energy and focus second, if I have the spare energy, Frankly, I¡¯m not certain exactly how many pills I will need, nor what the quality of the result will be, so many experiments will need to take place¡­¡¯


    She glanced towards the resting receptionist one last time, confirmed that she was resting safely and that the removal of some of her physique had not harmed anything within her, and left the room, as anything of interest within it had already been scanned and stored within her memory, whether it was the documents hidden away in several compartments in furniture or the authamite wine that turned out to have a similar quantity of malevolent yin within it as a number of herbs, confirming at least in part that the Aberrant and his people had been working on this for twenty years.


    Authamite wine was a kind of delicacy not seen within the Yi District, mostly due to the rarity of trade between it and the origin of the wine, the Fu District.


    Unlike most wines, which were in some way created with various grapes and procedures, authamite was actually a type of rock found beneath mountains that were more than a kilometre high, or so the Fu family claimed. Such mountains were plentiful within the Planar Continents, but with the existence of spatial realms, it had been possible to create countless mountains of that size, and one of the theories surrounding that family was that they had a stable spatial realm that had lasted to this day and contained many such mountains, with all of the space above and around them being used for other things. Authamite itself was described as being a living rock, one that could regenerate and grow out even after most of it was removed and used, which had a purple shade with an interior of a sickly green, meaning that the first time it had been discovered, the people of the Fu family nearly exterminated it due to believing it to be some kind of disease.


    Fortunately for them, one of the miners that had uncovered it had decided to steal a rock for himself, and proved with his experience that not only was it not harmful to people in its normal state ¨C as only the rocks that had been rooted in stone could grow ¨C but that it was possible to create a peculiar beverage from a specific process involving that stone that had never been made public.


    After a number of people in his circle of friends unknowingly tried this drink, they accidentally uncovered where it came from and made an alchemist investigate, only for her to confirm that the wine was safe, and that the rocks merely had a peculiar shade and wouldn¡¯t grow out of control if they were surrounded by a few basic arrays. It was also when they discovered that the rocks would grow back after being removed, allowing a small part of authamite that they had missed to return to the mines and restore their supply.


    From there, a number of experienced wine brewers, alchemists and random people off the streets worked together to improve the miner¡¯s recipe, and eventually created authamite wine.


    However, from something that could be created within days, it turned into a substance that required at least eighteen years to brew, and would then need to be consumed within six days of the bottle being opened in any way, even if it was only through a small hole or gap somewhere in the surface. This meant that no matter which source of authamite wine was used, as some of the authamite was transported from the Fu District to closer districts in order to complete the production process and bottle it there alongside some of the items unique to those district, it would have had to be contaminated by the malevolent yin eighteen years ago or more, or would otherwise require something to be able to pierce the incredibly dense glass-like stone that was used to create the bottles.


    If this was indeed the work of the Aberrant and his forces, that meant that he had a presence beyond this district, and could infiltrate places with his energy with incredible ease, with this extending to his servants if he was not directly responsible for contaminating the wine.


    ¡®Still, unless there is a coming plague of creatures that feed on yang and thus require the population of the Ning District to be filled with as much yin as possible, then I see no reason for these actions other than negative ones,¡¯ Wei Yi thought while she added four of her physique awakening pills into the books of the store, this time pricing it exactly as one might expect due to the lack of similar products to undercut, ¡®Actually, I do have an idea, but it might not be a wise one. I will see¡­¡¯


    Leaving the store, she returned to her residence, but found a trail of smoke leaving the doorway.


    ¡®That doesn¡¯t seem to be a fire, so what in the heavens-¡¯ she could not permit herself to finish this thought as she rushed into the building.


    What she certainly didn¡¯t expect to find was a small table beside the bed, narrowly forced between it and the wall, with a number of dishes, bowls and trays full of food that was clearly prepared only a short time ago. Min Lian sat on the right side of the table, nearer to the pillows, and was completing the preparation of one of the dishes, pausing when Wei Yi entered.


    ¡°Master?¡±


    ¡°Fuck¡­ Min Lian, that scared me, even if I could tell what was happening with spiritual perception¡­ Is this what you meant by the duties of an assistant? Preparing food for me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is one of the duties that can be given to an assistant of a refiner. I apologise for the shocking surprise, as I had not anticipated that it would cause this exact reaction¡­¡± the assassin almost showed an expression of sadness before her face returned to normal, ¡°If it is not inconvenient, we can sit down and enjoy the meal for a moment, discussing any strategies you might have come up with while I had been unable to assist you.¡±


    ¡°I have told you that I cannot taste anything, haven¡¯t I?¡±


    She nodded, ¡°I am aware. However, the consumption of food is both an act that a normal person would engage in and permits you quite a lot of time to devote to conversation. I thought it suitable. If it is not-¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. Just unexpected. Just give me a moment,¡± Wei Yi said, turning around and shielding the entire structure in killing will to prevent anyone from being able to spy on their words.


    That took only a moment, after which she was able to shuffle onto the bed beside Min Lian, who moved a little closer to her so that they could sit beside one another nearer to the middle of the table, where the plates and most of the food had been placed. As per the customs of the northern regions of Yi City, they used chopsticks, with both of them taking some food for themselves despite neither of them truly requiring them.


    Furthermore, neither was able to tell exactly what the food tasted like, although judging by its general appearance, Wei Yi was able to guess that this had to be good enough to compare to professional chefs and cooks, likely thanks to the extremely extensive training previously received by the assassin, with her skills being allowed to flourish with plentiful access to spices and herbs that were either extinct or fully dried within the Kong Prison Realm ¨C on the topic of which, as it slowly recovered with Wei Yi and Yi Shi Ming¡¯s influence, the world was growing to be able to accept and contain life once more, although this would not complete until a long, long time later.


    As they sat together, one¡¯s warm body covered by the thin cloth of the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival pressed against the room-temperature skin of the other, they ate in silence for a short while, pretending as if they could truly distinguish any of the items from another with anything other than appearance and texture, consuming a significant portion of the meal before Min Lian spoke.


    ¡°So, Master, you had mentioned that you had a plan of some sort?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. My plan was to agitate the Aberrant and his forces into emerging, and then learn of their identities and bring them into a meeting in order to ascertain their intentions and allegiances, and I still believe this to be the best course of action.¡°


    ¡°It appears to be a sensible approach, Master,¡± the assassin agreed, ¡°If you wish, I can attack certain individuals while claiming to be part of their organisation, at which point they will be forced to emerge from whatever domain they occupy and ensure that their operation here has not gone rogue. Even if the Aberrant is able to do so from the safety of his domain, then it is bound to be easier to interfere with his actions when he is in a poor state of mind.¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t want to harm the people of the district until I can confirm their allegiance. Instead, I have a slightly better idea. As his plan is to flood the city with malevolent yin, then why not interfere with it while accomplishing the exact same capture of attention?¡± she said, chewing on a piece of bread out of habit and for entertainment rather than any typical reason, ¡°You¡¯ve been on quite a number of tasks before, so I assume that I do not need to instruct you on the best methods to aggravate someone while still pretending to be them, correct?¡±


    ¡°I do have some methods of that nature. Which specific one would you prefer, Master?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not the thing that¡¯s usually discussed over a meal, so far as I am aware. Instead, why don¡¯t we talk about the food that you have prepared? Is this what you have spent all of the funds I had provided on?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. I have enough for fifteen more such complete meals, mostly due to the low prices of the Ning District, and due to certain uncommon negotiation methods that I had employed. I had learnt that there is a small criminal gang within the district, mostly consisting of those in the first realm, that has been permitted to remain due to their general weakness and harmlessness, so I had impersonated one of their people to demand a few tithes from the merchants,¡± Min Lian explained, ¡°With my current cultivation, I had been very convincing.¡±


    ¡®So, the conversation returns to this topic without any prompting¡­¡¯ Wei Yi sighed internally, finishing off the bowl of noodles that she had chosen to consume, ¡°While that gives me another good idea on entrenching our influence within the Ning District to make the most of our stay here, I had intended to steer the conversation away from robbery and disguises.¡±


    ¡°I apologise, Master, I had simply intended to inform you of my methods¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. We¡¯ve gotten through most of this anyway, so finish up your food and we will acquire a few new outfits to play around with. After that, it will be time to engage in some further robbery.¡±


    ¡°Understood. What exactly shall we be doing?¡±


    ¡°Safeguarding the people, of course.¡±

 V3C15: Highway Robbery

    On the 28th of the second month, the weather was clear and pleasant. The sun shone straight upon the land, unobscured by clouds or various planar phenomena that occasionally clutter the air above the common populace, and there was no sign of incoming rain nor storm. Whether one was an average person or a cultivator within a high realm, they could appreciate the calm atmosphere this created.


    Nevertheless, that did not mean that some would not engage in criminal activities, and that there were no forces plotting all kinds of things beneath, above and on the surface itself, whether they thought that they would achieve an overall benefit to mankind or sink it in favour of some other species or being. Some desired the downfall of life as a whole, while others, the likes of the Blood-tinged Church if the rumours regarding their goals and methods were to be believed, desired to change the world¡¯s very perception of life as a whole, and to completely flip the nature of the world, cultivation and countless other things that only they had even considered to be important.


    The primary focus of the Ning District on this day was not on any of those groups or factions, but on a small group of traders travelling towards the portcullis that sealed the district away from the outside world.


    Their wares were limited in variety, consisting entirely of herbs and basic foods that could be brought across long distances without any requirement for expensive arrays or other methods of preserving them, thus making the journey far cheaper, more profitable and less risky than the delivery of something like authamite wine, which would begin to decay the moment that the bottle was damaged sufficiently to allow even a drop of the wine to come into contact with the air.


    As a caravan of people that were no higher than the third realm, their speed was limited and not too far beyond the typical human limits, since everything that they brought with them reduced their pace to that of their horses and carts and would have hardly permitted them to display their full abilities even if they did decide to carry everything on their backs.


    At this point in the journey, while they were only an hour or two away from the Ning District, they did not expect to have any stops or interruptions.


    ¡®How na?ve.¡¯


    All of a sudden, an enormous figure made of absolute frost and cold rose out of nothing, stretching out its arms as two spheres of blinding energy gathered within its hands. It easily shadowed half of the merchants and brought all of them to an absolute halt.


    Then, the two spheres of light burst into a beam each, a thick darkness surrounded by frost shot out and cut into the road, splitting that segment of the road away from the rest of it with two lines of absolute cold, converting the dirt and grass into white, unmoving sculptures after just an instant of nearing the twin beams, whereas that which was directly beneath the beams was obliterated utterly and completely, digging into the ground and creating a small trench on either side of the trader group.


    Any who would have scattered were forced to stay put as the figure slowly advanced towards them, floating above the ground without any sign of legs or feet with which it could walk, which, in combination with its ethereal appearance and the impossibility of such a giant existing outside of the eastern ocean caverns, instead made everyone look to the ground and to the hill behind which the figure had appeared from in order to learn who was responsible for the appearance of such a powerful apparition, and what the purpose of their appearance was. Of course, only the most experienced and calm amongst the merchant group, primarily the guards who had seen many ambushes before, were able to think things through to such an extent, but their final goal was the same amidst their panic to ensure that the horses did not flee and that they did not lose their goods.


    ¡°Traders, cease your advance!¡± a mysterious voice, like the combined conglomeration of many spirits, sounded from beyond the hill, advancing at the same speed at the enormous ethereal figure in the air, ¡°We, the Mirror Plane Aberrations, demand it!¡±


    Most of the traders and guards shared a confused look. None of them had ever heard of such a group, so for the mysterious voice to announce their identity before actually showing themselves was strange, to say the least, although there was the possibility that they were a faction that had appeared since their last visit to the Ning District, or that they were only exposing themselves now, which is what most of those with calm heads assumed.


    After a moment, the guards readied their weapons and headed to the side of the caravan, as to shield the traders that quickly retreated to the back and hid behind their merchandise.


    Finally, after a lengthy wait ¨C forced by the incredibly slow rate of advancement of the enormous figure ¨C they saw these mysterious aberrations. Their number appeared to be somewhere in the double digits, but it was difficult to count them precisely as all but two or three figures constantly flickered, shifted and moved, moving similarly to the two figures and yet acting apart from them, making it difficult to discern whether they were even real. The enormous giant apparition appeared to be bound to the larger of the stable figures, both of whom were shrouded in darkness and cold that completely obscured their features.


    The only thing that could be guessed from their figures was that they were female, based on their general slenderness and the shapes on the shorter figure¡¯s chest, although they couldn¡¯t even be sure that those weren¡¯t simply confusing mirages phasing into one of them, or that their appearance was not being warped by the broken mirror-like distortion around them.


    What couldn¡¯t be determined, no matter who looked upon them, was their cultivation.


    Neither of their energies were clear, so they were forced to rely on the absolutely immense power of the twin beams to estimate the abilities of the Aberrant¡¯s leader, and that placed her at the peak of the fourth realm, if not above. To so utterly obliterate everything in the path of the beams, including freezing the air itself to the point of near solidity, with several sheets of frozen particles dropping onto the ground after the cold had slightly dispersed within the air.


    ¡°What do you want from us?¡± one of the merchants called out, remaining behind his cart, ¡°We can pay you-¡±


    ¡°You must leave this land! It is ours, for here is where the Mirror Plane shall descend! You, the cracks in the mirror, must not intrude during this most delicate process, lest you corrupt our most sacred of tasks!¡± the larger figure proclaimed, gesturing wildly and with great excitement, although the continued oddity about her voice left her true feelings rather unclear.


    Some of the traders shared a glance from behind their carts and items, then decided that it was probably worth leaving for now, causing one of the merchants to reluctantly get up from the cart and say, ¡°W-We can leave! Just-¡±


    ¡°Your items shall be used as tribute for the Great Aberrant! Leave them and go back to your lands and tell everyone to never return until our Mirror Plane has finally come into reality!¡±


    ¡°Fuck, so they are just bandits! Guards, you should attack right-¡±


    ¡°Disruptions to our order shall not be tolerated!¡± the mirage-obscured woman shouted, her voice shaking the heavens as the enormous titan above her raised a hand, from which another beam shot out and struck in front of the merchant, instantly annihilating the empty cart that he had been hiding behind, ¡°You have only one opportunity to repent, so that the Great Aberrant may grant you forgiveness. Otherwise, you shall perish.¡±


    ¡°P-Please forgive me! Don¡¯t kill me! Don¡¯t!¡±


    ¡°This guy is so incredibly cowardly¡­¡± one of the guards muttered, just before he realised that his legs were also shaking, both from the cold air travelling from the frozen ground around him and from the absolute power of the beam.


    ¡°Then leave, mirror fractures, and do not return!¡±


    With one of the merchants surrendering and fleeing, the others did not remain in place for long, as they also fled with great haste. The entire reason for them choosing this particular route was that it would be cheapest and safest, so they would not stick around to protect cargo that barely put a dent into their plentiful funds. The guards were there just for the protection of the merchants and their goods, and while they thought that it was a shame to abandon so much to mysterious attackers, the ones that would pay them were the merchants, so they were forced to accompany them as well ¨C although one or two of them did grab a few items to feed themselves with.


    Since the road was cut off on both sides, they had to escape via the side of the road opposite to the aberrations, then run around the area of absolute yin and return onto the main road, when the Mirror Plane Aberrations launched a few more beams of immense frost at them to encourage their speed to increase.


    After they disappeared into the distance, the many mirage-like figures as well as the Titanic Demolisher both vanished, with Wei Yi dropping to the ground while holding her head.


    ¡°Shit, this¡­¡± she shut her mouth and continued the rest in her head as to not expose too much weakness in front of Min Lian, not that the assassin seemed to be responding with anything other than care and concern as she knelt beside her and ensured that she didn¡¯t strike the rough stone road on the way down, ¡®this hurts way too fucking much. How is this Red Phantom Flood thing meant to be used? It¡¯s like it splits your very mind into pieces!¡¯


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s exactly how it works¡­ for you,¡± pairs of green flames illuminated thousands of grins.


    ¡°Almost cruel, this. To provide something that can only be used by you to another¡­¡±


    ¡°It was you and her that agreed, so you should have been well aware. To torture a girl like that¡­ you have experience in that, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ Still, she¡¯s holding up quite well, all things considered.¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ yes¡­ I can see the beginning of something, can¡¯t you? An ember, a spark¡­¡±


    ¡°Indeed. It¡¯s not quite there yet, but I can already imagine where it might be going¡­¡±


    ¡°Master, have you recovered?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sorry for that. This technique is significantly straining on the mind, and something that I ought to replace in the future,¡± Wei Yi answered, with both of them no longer being surrounded by the darkness that she had created through the Binder of the Dark¡¯s technique, ¡°Go through the items in the carts and confirm that we had attacked the correct group.¡±


    ¡°Right away,¡± the assassin nodded, departing to look through a few of the carts while Wei Yi sat in place and recovered some of her energy through the external planar energy in the air.


    ¡®Fuck¡­ I¡¯m not going to use this without scoffing a thousand Will Strengthening pills first. Whoever created this must have been in a state where their mind was already fractured, as they would be able to break one of the pieces further away and not be hurt too much by this¡­¡¯


    She did not know how close to the truth she actually was.


    Even if she did, fathoming the exact scenario that had led to the creation, acquisition and development of the Red Phantom Flood would be difficult without much, much more experience in far stranger things.


    ¡°Master, everything appears to have been contaminated. This was a suitable target for immediate acquisition,¡± Min Lian reported back once she found a few items that had a particularly large quantity of malevolent yin within them, ¡°Furthermore, judging by the general behaviour of the merchants and their guards, they appear to have been intimidated to a suitable degree. In the future, they ought to be reluctant about visiting this district without clarification that the supposed Mirror Plane Aberrations have been removed, and ought to convince at least two people each that it is dangerous to make the same journey.¡±


    ¡°That was the plan. Go through those carts, I will look at these, and everything that is of vital importance will be stored away via spatial methods while the rest can be brought into the city under the cover of my stealth methods. From there, I had asked you to investigate that small gang you had mentioned. Are they suitable for this?¡±


    ¡°They are a group of young bandits who have slightly greater power than their peers but do not believe that they will rise further in any reasonable period of time, causing them to act in an antagonistic fashion against those peers. Some continue to speak of other or greater purpose, so I believe that there is a chance that they will be easily swayed so long as their general weakness can be overcome,¡± she said, ¡°Most are between eighteen and twenty-four, male, of central continental descent, without strong familial ties.¡±


    ¡°In that case, they should suffice. Let¡¯s go.¡±


    Both of them got to work, pillaging the trade caravan for everything and anything that they could find. As everything carried on the caravan was either a common herb or food, their primary interests were in things that were being smuggled alongside them, or in particularly exceptional examples of such things that lacked malevolent yin or were of a higher quality than the rest.


    Such items were naturally limited in quantity, but this ordinary trade caravan turned out to have several examples of them, with two boxes lacking yin contamination and several containing individual herbs of high quality.


    After they were stored away in the limited space available inside of the House of Gold, the rest was split into two halves. One was thrown into the Kong Prison Realm for the usage of the people there, so that they could adapt to the various foods of the Planar Continents slowly and before being thrown into this world without any of the Beast¡¯s blood or the dried herbs that were typically used for the creation of pills, and the other was to be brought back with them, for the small bandit group.


    They removed the last boxes from the carts and then froze everything that remained of the merchant caravan, allowing the horses to flee into the wilderness as they were in no way necessary for their plans.


    With these items in their possession, they hid behind the veil of the Binder of the Dark once more and returned into the city by leaping above the walls, avoiding the attention of others with a few stealth methods to make the shadow caused by them remain on the ground and then disappear into nothingness, emulating certain varieties of shadow-like planar beasts that can be found all throughout the Planar Continents and generally pose no great threat unless countless numbers of them accumulate and decide to target a single foe.


    Even if they did have some suspicion regarding the suddenly appearing and disappearing shadow, they would be forced to investigate the forest, not the interior of the city, as there was no possibility of the beast crossing the enormous iron wall that had been created by the Master of Yi City.


    In truth, the shadow formed by them proceeded into a part of the city where the cultivators were few and the common folk were not, with many stores, houses and lands owned by them. Amongst them, the highest realm to be found was the first, and the highest stage was the third, meaning that even the strongest were entirely insignificant in comparison to the weakest people around that segment of the district.


    Fortunately, that kind of thing was exactly what Wei Yi had been looking for. She had a loyal enough force in the Kong Prison Realm, but she needed to establish a secondary force outside, one that would be likely to remain loyal to her even if she left for a while to either go to one of the other districts or if she needed to disappear for a while due to the pursuit of the Greats. As she had learnt previously, one of the easiest methods of getting someone to trust her and act in her favour was by doing something irreplaceable for them. In the case of the hatred avatars, she prevented their downfall and ensured their safety. In the case of the people of Sanctuary, she prevented their slaughtering by the phantoms of the otherworldly demon. In the case of the guards of Beast¡¯s Rest, she gave them power, techniques and a greater quantity of land within which they had some authority.


    In this case, her approach was going to be the latter, as these people desired strength, and that was something that she could easily provide to any living ¨C or not, as in the case of hatred avatars ¨C soul.


    Since the bandits that she was looking for were effectively ordinary people in comparison to cultivators of her realm, not to mention her own abilities, finding one of their number trying to extract a bribe from an ordinary man was not challenging, nor was following him to their hideout, seeing as he lacked the ability to externalise his spiritual perception at his present cultivation.


    Their base turned out to be the large basement of one of the otherwise unassuming residences, presumably having been created before the other buildings were placed around it, giving it far more space than any of the modern structures would be able to afford for themselves. It was separated into several segments by the support pillars placed in various points in the room, with a kind of armoury, dining area and even a sleeping area, although it only had six beds while the group of bandits consisted of more than twice that at the very least.


    ¡®Clearly, this is not the most professional hideout in existence. Most of them are probably only here because they cannot find any work for themselves that would be more profitable than this, and because their neighbours are able to pay them a sufficient amount to allow them to live with little effort,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she scanned the area with her spiritual perception, ¡®That one is sketching himself in combat with a common depiction of Ahm, primordial cyclops¡­ Lofty ambitions, young man, but considering the fact that the primordial god was only in the eighth realm, it should not be entirely impossible¡­¡¯


    As she browsed through a few of the other scrolls, books and sketches that were present around their hideout, she noticed that most followed a similar trend. These people wished to combat ancient beasts, terrible monsters and impossible foes with overwhelming might and a pinch of clever strategy and cunning, but they understood that they could not do so with their own skills and talent. Intimidating others for money could never be as satisfying for them, but it allowed them to feel like they did possess that immense might, even if it was only for a moment of power over another.


    This was absolutely perfect.


    She bid Min Lian to follow her, entering through the front door to the basement without obscuring herself the moment that she got past the doorway. This time, her approach was going to be simple and straightforward, to display exactly what the young men and women desired, and to prove to them that she could deliver it to them without as many costs as so many other groups and sects would require.


    This time, as she did not wish to bring attention to Wei Yi the Alchemist or create ties with Wei Yi the Aberrant, she chose to follow the yang path to its extreme, adding a golden sheen to her skin with the Golden Form, coating herself in the illusory Pyromaniac¡¯s Coat, placing the Sun¡¯s Regalia on her chest and surrounding herself in armour of dawn light and gold, embellishing every detail that was already there with ludicrous quantities of light and vibrance, almost turning into a god that walked amongst humanity.


    To their credit, they detected her presence almost immediately, with one of the ¡®guarding¡¯ individuals leaping up and shouting to alert the others in the basement.


    ¡°Greetings, everyone. I can see that you are rather alert, so I will be straightforward and get to the point. I can offer you power ¨C of the third realm at the very least, and far beyond so long as you pay attention ¨C and all I need in exchange is your service to protect this district from those that would seek to bring it down,¡± Wei Yi introduced herself, speaking in a relaxed manner that would befit one that appeared as grand as her, ¡°Do you have any objections, or do you perhaps have a question?¡±


    ¡°You¡­¡± one of the men, a young fellow who had picked up a club to attack the intruder, stared at her for a few moments before asking perhaps the most obvious question, even if it was not one that was particularly reasonable in front of someone that looked like her, ¡°How can we believe that?¡±


    ¡°So, that¡¯ll be a question from you, young man. I don¡¯t think that there is any better way to display the truth than with combat, but¡­ I¡¯m afraid that I am entirely out of your league,¡± she said, glancing downwards in such a deliberate fashion that every other pair of eyes in the room, her personal assassin excluded, did the same thing.


    A collective gasp emerged from their mouths, as they saw that she was not standing on the ground, but floating an inch above it, her feet standing on the air as easily as one might stand on stone or dirt.


    ¡°For this reason, you may challenge my subordinate. She is only in the first realm and shall not use any planar energy whatsoever during her battle with you. Come all at once, or one by one, but I guarantee her victory nonetheless. Under my guidance, reaching her level will not be challenging. In minutes, I can grant you all kinds of powerful methods. With a few hours, I can raise your cultivation and impart you plenty of knowledge with which those techniques would be even more powerful. If you spare me days and weeks, I can allow you to oppose even the primordial gods.¡±


    The man at the back, who chose to guard his sketchbook over the entrance, visibly trembled, a number of thoughts undoubtedly passing through his head, including the possibility that she was aware of his interests and desires, although that seemed outrageous to him. How could he have not noticed it if someone this bright and outstanding had investigated or tailed him, and why would she even bother bringing it up?


    However, when he looked around and saw similarly shocked reactions, he considered that he might not have been the only one to fantasise of such things.


    ¡°So, what do you say?¡±


    Her words finally caused them to look at their potential opponent. Their immediate reactions were mixed, but as opposed to someone who could float and was covered in so much regal energy, the relatively plain woman before them seemed to be far less of a threat. None of them intended to look down on her because she was a woman, even if her assets seemed a little too large to not inconvenience her at least a little bit, but if she would truly avoid all planar techniques, they were bound to succeed through sheer numbers¡­ right?


    One person gripped their weapon more tightly and considered stepping forward, and although he did not do so, it did not evade Wei Yi¡¯s attention, prompting her to smile and take a step back while Min Lian went in front of her.


    ¡°Since you have some confidence, why not have a go? I promise, my companion shall not inflict any mortal harm upon you, and any serious damage that may be caused can be reversed for free, and in an instant,¡± she promised them, simultaneously encouraging some and scaring others due to the implication that she believed Min Lian to be capable of beating them half to death with ease.


    Nevertheless, the man that had spoken earlier did step up to the challenge, his club held so tightly in his hand that it went entirely white and would likely be unable to let go any time soon, and after he took a deep, deep breath, he proceeded to nearly stumble as he rushed forward and tried to smash the club directly down onto her head. Even by the standards of those in the first realm, his movements were slow and clumsy, meaning that even if some of his companions in the bandit group were up against him, they would be able to respond with ease to evade sufficiently for the strike to land on the shoulder or on the arm.


    When Min Lian was faced with such an attack, she was naturally able to respond even more effectively.


    With just a single smooth movement, she stepped out of the way of the strike and grabbed onto his arm, utilising his own momentum to throw him onto the ground.


    As she stood right in front of the stairs that had led to the surface, he landed with his back on the steps, several of his bones cracking audibly and painfully as he let out a cry that was entirely inaudible past an invisible barrier of killing will placed at the entrance of the basement, to ensure that no qualified authorities broke up their battle.


    Before he could suffer, Wei Yi lowered herself just enough to place her hand above his body, then channelled the immense pool of lifeforce stored within her into him, restoring his form in a single second.


    ¡°There, you are healed. Unless you have a greater strategy than this, one that could turn the tide of battle entirely, I would advise you not to re-enter the battle,¡± she told him, standing up and looking to the others with an intelligent and calm expression, ¡°In combat, pure might is important, but it must be tempered with tactic and intellect. When you oppose someone with greater might, raw power is insufficient and will only lead you to failure. For instance, if you limit the force of your attack but instead move more quickly and less obviously, you will have a greater chance of striking your foe.¡±


    The next two that rushed in did not stop to consider why she would be providing this much information to them, instead putting her advice into action immediately. As they got closer to Min Lian, they split from one another, with both deciding to strike at the same time to prevent her from being able to block one of the attacks without being hit by the other.


    Of course, as this was something they had come up with at the last moment, it was full of flaws.


    One attack was faster than the other, allowing Min Lian to grab the blade and easily force it out of his hand to block the incoming axe, which she was able to force out of his grip just as easily, tossing both weapons aside.


    Two light strikes later, they were also downed, failing to withstand even a single attack at the strength of the first realm.


    ¡°Do remember that you oppose a powerful foe. Strikes that are outright feeble and careless will not be effective in the slightest, as you must ensure that you are not simply offering your own weakness for her to exploit,¡± Wei Yi offered another piece of advice to them while the remaining bandits were considering their next actions, ¡°Do continue.¡±


    And they did, but to no great effect. After more than half of them went down ¨C with some rising once more to attempt a significantly different approach that resulted in similar failure ¨C one was finally able to land an actual hit on Min Liang¡¯s arm, but he was swiftly incapacitated all the same, with her wound recovering in moments through the continued support of Wei Yi¡¯s killing will, which meant that anything that did not outright cut or shatter would be rendered absolutely null.


    ¡°We¡­¡± one of them looked at those that were still standing and made a decision, ¡°We give up!¡±


    ¡°Is that so? Unfortunate, but expected. Get up, everyone, and form a line or two,¡° Wei Yi said, lightly helping some of them stand up with a push of spiritual will, then stood in silence for a few moments to let their situation sink in, ¡°As I have said, I can give you power, knowledge and fame. All you have to do is follow me. Before we begin, are there any that wish to leave?


    ¡°No? Good. Let¡¯s begin.¡±

 V3C16: The Yin and Yang of the Vibrant Phoenix

    The talent of these individuals was truly poor, in every single way imaginable. Their speed of comprehension would be insufficient for most sects and organisations to accept them, their general physical states were only slightly better than those of common villagers and farmers, and their dantians were either impure or common, meaning that their rate of energy absorption was also slow enough to prevent them from ever stepping into the third realm without outside assistance. Overall, they were effectively the worst students that one could ever have if they wished them to walk their own path and comprehend it in a way that their master never could.


    It was fortunate that this was not what she desired, nor what she expected from them. Perhaps one day, they would be able to advance the things that she passed down to them, but for now, she required those that would have no choice but to rely on her and follow her for many years.


    After figuring out their elemental affinities and general strengths, like whether they were better at using their legs or arms for combat, she imparted a few basic methods and techniques to them based on the absolutely immense quantity of techniques she had within her head. In comparison to what they had used to reach their present level, these techniques were roughly a dozen times more effective and a dozen times more efficient, equating to more than a hundred times more planar energy being absorbed in just a few moments.


    Besides leading to a direct breakthrough for one of the artistic men from the fifth stage to the sixth, all of them experienced an immediate improvement to their overall strength, albeit not one that would allow them to defeat someone with Min Lian¡¯s general ability through raw force, especially not if she actually put her killing intent to use.


    Despite that, when they finally witnessed what that period of training brought them, they were extremely eager to learn more, only to be told that they would have to wait a little longer.


    Gaining great power was all well and good, but it was difficult to adapt to great changes in a short period of time. She had gone through that experience many times, especially after she had finally left the prison realm and had to come to terms with the fact that the days were real and did not pass exactly as her internal clock had expected, so she would naturally simplify things for others so that they would not need to go through quite the same thing.


    After leaving them with some other instructions, which would be enough for them to occupy themselves for at least a few weeks so long as they did their work properly. She promised to return after they were ready to grant them the opportunity to do greater things, while also bidding them not to attack their neighbours for petty gains as they would be able to do far greater things very soon.


    To ensure that they heeded her words and didn¡¯t just return to their previous petty nonsense ¨C not to mention trying to go after some of their enemies in greater realms just because they thought that they received the blessing of someone akin to the old man of legends that would grant fortunate youngsters the abilities they required to combat the gods and possibly even the heavens themselves, as that would end incredibly poorly and would bring more attention to her than she would have preferred ¨C Min Lian was tasked with observing these bandits every now and then to ensure that they remained safe and to intervene if they ever did the wrong thing.


    While that was in motion, she returned to the Chu Alchemical Store and was informed that the Refiner¡¯s Duel may occur next week, meaning that she could only think of two things to do.


    The first was to acquire a number of pill recipes to learn and study as many of them as possible in order to be prepared for the upcoming duel, regardless of the pill she would be tasked with creating. The more that she was able to understand and study, the more complex kinds of recipes that she could comprehend and decipher, the more certain her victory would be, and the less effort she would need to invest into the duel.


    Strictly speaking, the other was not entirely separate, but it would require a different kind of effort and a separate investment of time, which could coincide to progress the first goal but would only do so in the case of a coincidence.


    That was to awaken her physiques, which she had delayed due to currently lacking the certainty of succeeding in a fashion that would benefit her the most in the future. If she accidentally prevented her own advancement through a mistake in the awakening process, she would have nobody to blame but herself, and would require the same kind of miracle that those youths experienced to regain her current potential in combat against the Greats. After all, with each engagement that does not end in the death of all the Great Family members present, they will learn more about her, her strengths and weaknesses, her abilities and her identity, with her former name likely not being entirely out of their reach.


    All that they would need to connect her to the weak servant Yi Wei would be the fact that she had suddenly risen from the first realm and first stage to the second realm within less than a year, without receiving many official resources and without any explanation of where or how she broke through, nor why every single person witnessed her using a different form of planar energy.


    With that much obvious information, they would be forced to consider whether she may have somehow escaped the prison realm, and whether it is still entirely within their control, at which point they may be able to defeat or otherwise sidestep Yi Shi Ming and either regain control over the prison realm, or destroy it and remove every single item that she had stored there and all of her forces from the equation in just one small action.


    Currently, the only thing that prevented that was her potential, and the peaks that she had not yet reached. Greater variations of physiques, advancements in cultivation, the purification of the dantian and many others steps could be taken to greatly increase her power, and there was still much information for her to learn and understand, boosting her ability to make use of that power in an efficient and intelligent manner. In a way, her current state could be viewed as a field of saplings, each one of which could grow to be an eternal oak or wither and die with the wrong kind of care and attention. Every single sapling that was lost would significantly limit her overall capability, and she could not permit this to happen unless she decided to outright abandon her current plans and just give up on some farm.


    Luckily, there was a physique within her collection that she had relatively high hopes of awakening using only her physique energy and the Physique Awakening pills, which was the Vibrant Phoenix physique.


    She had obtained it some time ago from one of the invaders of Automaton Point, but she had been unable to complete it with the physique energy available to her at the time, receiving only the Pyromaniac¡¯s Coat in the end. It was a useful thing to begin with as it meant that she would essentially obtain immunity to typical flames and fire-type energy, being able to recover through it, hopefully rendering the attacks of any fire-based Great Families null or significantly weakening them at the very least. Furthermore, it granted her the ability to partially transform into a phoenix, although all that truly meant was that some small part of her would light aflame and would boost all of her forms of energy by a certain extent, which was far more beneficial in her eyes that physically transforming.


    How this would interact with her yin-type energy, or what this transformation would look like was not something that she could guess at with any degree of certainty, so, for now, she could only seek it out.


    ¡®It would also be interesting to collect the Prime Dragon physique at some point in the future, and find some of the abilities that I had missed out on in the Kong Prison Realm, like the Dreadful Possession, Devil General or Spirit Mirage, as the latter especially would allow me to harmlessly split my form and hopefully decipher a method of using the Red Phantom Flood without risking complete mental collapse each time.¡¯


    Naturally, this was only something that she hoped for, and would likely not obtain due to how rare physiques were in the outside world, meaning that there would not be anyone who had entered the path of physique cultivation by accident due to the absolute abundance of planar energy to work with instead, but she had been surprised by many things before, and it made sense that there could be many surprises in the future. There were still some things that she had seen or learnt that she had not been able to investigate before the attack of the Greats, like the many illusions in the third Lock Obelisk, so it wasn¡¯t entirely unrealistic that something of interest could be found there.


    Amongst those locations, one returned to the forefront of her mind ¨C the scene of the pitch-black cave, where a crying woman was chained to the walls, horns on her head and enormous breasts on her chest ¨C and not due to the breasts¡­


    ¡®Fine, they were quite impressive to behold, even if I had not quite understood myself at that point,¡¯ she admitted to herself, glancing down at her own unimpressive chest without much regret for her decision to prevent their growth quite some time ago, as she had seen Min Lian fight and knew that she would be better off with a slightly smaller bosom, although it would also be true that Wei Yi would not have been harmed greatly by going one cup size higher back then.


    What she recalled more was the woman¡¯s absolute despair, and the extreme realism of the seeming illusion. If it was real, or based on some kind of past scene that was no longer present, then it was possible for it to contain remnants of whatever physique allowed the woman to look the way that she did. The possibility of it being some fever dream of the otherworldly demons was present, and one that became more and more likely with every day that she was able to browse through the designs of Fu Zan and ask Yi Shi Ming about small glimpses of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s own reality.


    ¡®I¡¯m getting a little off track again, aren¡¯t I? The key point now is to check whether I can awaken the Vibrant Phoenix physique, and if I can, whether the same can be applied to other physiques without any losses,¡¯ she returned to her original thoughts as she left the district once more and found a quiet place for herself to hide, where she then created a dozen arrays out of spiritual will to protect herself, ¡®The best place to test this is somewhere that I cannot possible be observed no matter what happens.¡¯


    And what better place was there than the Kong Prison Realm, where all power belonged to her?


    With all of that protection in place, she was able to disappear into that once-crimson realm and appeared beside the towering illusory library, which was shielded by a barrier that only she could cross due to her own connection to the Kong Prison Realm.


    It was partially illusory and partially real, neither solid nor fluid, and if she did walk through the barrier, she would be incapable of touching it nor interacting with it properly, although she could step into the room where Bai Hao was and talk with him if she so desired. However, it was not something that she needed or wanted to do, so she instead passed the Ascendant¡¯s Library and headed towards the whiter side of the realm, where there were large swathes of empty lands that nobody would be hurt in if she exploded once or twice.


    Hopefully, such a thing would not occur to her, but it was difficult to guess and estimate exactly what would occur during the awakening of a physique that wasn¡¯t the one active one within her.


    If the fact that certain physiques had a very impressive awakening process, sending out bursts of flames and energy as the body changed to fit the physique, was also taken into account, then there was a chance of her temporarily damaging the space of the prison realm if she accidentally awakened more than one physique of the same type at once.


    Wei Yi would prefer not to obliterate the surface of the entire Kong Prison Realm, so to ensure that she did the least damage possible, she found a small dip within the Silver Side and dug it out a little further, heading to the very bottom of it so that any blast would be redirected into the air and hopefully not reach the spires of Sanctuary in the process of doing so. If it did, then it would at the very least be limited to damaging the upper portions of the spires, and not their foundations, as that would make it easier to correct the damage.


    After sitting down at the centre of this indentation in the ground, she removed the many Earth Physique Awakening pills from her pocket and infused an even greater quantity of glowing cosmic energy into them, their form becoming even more star-like as all of their original shade was lost.


    ¡®Since there¡¯s cosmic energy, could there also be cosmic ingredients and cosmic pill recipes? I wonder what would happen if I combined all of them ¨C how powerful would such a product be?¡¯ she wondered for a moment, although she knew well that actually finding these things would also be entirely impossible without even greater luck than all of her previous hopes and dreams considering how immensely formidable her cosmic energy alone was, ¡®Now, the Vibrant Phoenix particles¡­¡¯


    She looked into herself, looking through the entire length of her physique meridian network to find the few remnants of the physique energy within it, locating only a few of them after quite a lengthy search. It was a greater number than those of physiques that were taken from weaker individuals with a smaller cultivation, but it paled in comparison to the quantity of physique energy from those that she was able to actively use. Nevertheless, since it was there, it meant that it could be affected by Physique Awakening pills, which in turn meant that it should be possible to increase the quantity or quality of that energy until it was possible for her to make use of it.


    Throwing one of the pills into her mouth, she melted it in an instant with her planar energy and forced the medicinal energy contained within towards that part of her physique meridians, locking off those specific particles of the Vibrant Phoenix physique away from everything else so that she wouldn¡¯t accidentally trigger any of the other physiques and potentially destroy her body.


    As she forced all of that energy to converge on that small point, it did not react with the physique energy at first, making her swallow several more pills and direct their energy to that exact same point.


    Finally, after consuming more than a half of her remaining supply, she saw a different response. The medicinal essence mixed together with the few particles of physique energy, surrounding and permeating them, filling them with fantastic cosmic light that mixed with the absolute yang which made up that portion of physique energy. It glowed and spun around the centre of the meridian, where they slowly came closer and closer together, partially simulating the movement of the Cherry Revolving Blossom art, perhaps through sheer coincidence, but it was also possible that it was following the same law that the refining technique had been based on, thus giving the process more energy and more efficiency than if she controlled the energy and particles without knowing how to do so best.


    They spun more and more quickly as they got closer to the centre, and the moment that the particles touched, they released flame-like sparks and brightened the physique energy within her meridians. Each collision generated more sparks, and not all of them vanished when the next set of sparks emerged, with some appearing to congeal together, seemingly forming new ethereal particles that joined the circulation and rotation, creating further sparks and energy.


    When it had reached a certain quantity, it suddenly attempted to expand and burst past the barriers that she had created, so, after forcing most of the other physique particles away, she permitted it.


    The particles, both real and illusory, flew into different corners of the meridian network and mysteriously chose to pause near the dawn stars of cosmic energy that still glowed within her body, getting into the same place within their own network as to best mirror the stars. There were one hundred and eight dawn stars, and after every particle that did not reach a destination decayed, there were also one hundred and eight particles of physique energy that brightly shone similarly to their matching stars.


    Then, they froze in place, and formed a strange connection with one another. A thin, thread-like path appeared between them, shivering in place for a few moments, then the particles moved once more, this time using them specifically.


    One precise circulation later, they reached the same place once more, pausing once more beside the dawn stars, and suddenly burst into absolute, blinding, immense flame that scorched the entirety of her being in a single instant, illuminating it with a radiance that she had rarely ever seen before, even from her own power.


    Although this phenomenon was different to what she had previously experienced with gathering physique energy to awaken its ability, the outcome appeared to be the same ¨C she had awakened the Vibrant Phoenix physique, and it was now hers to use and command whenever she desired, so long as she had sufficient energy to do so. The physique awakening energy from the pills was entirely gone, however, and all that she had to show for it was the particles of the physique potentially being slightly more powerful than they otherwise would have been.


    ¡®Still, this was, unfortunately, within my expectations, so now I have to test exactly how it will respond to my rather unique physique¡­ Although I would prefer to understand exactly how the Yin-Yang Ascendant functions and whether it is even the thing responsible for my ability to absorb other physiques and make use of them in the way that I currently do,¡¯ she thought, raising her hand.


    She was not simply planning to look at the physique energy, as she sometimes did, but was instead planning to observe some of the primary transformation points of the Vibrant Phoenix.


    From what she was aware about that particular physique, there were several primary areas of her body that would transform upon its usage. One of the most common were hair, which would either become crimson or become a kind of living flame, although that had never truly made sense to her when she had read the descriptions about it, then hands and nails, changing partially into claws a little like her killing will form, and eyes after that, modifying them into bright embers that could illuminate the darkness, then the veins and skin around the eyes, mouth and ¨C reportedly, although this was likely someone being unnecessarily lewd in their assumptions ¨C around certain erogenous areas, the last of which she did not intend to examine as it was highly unnecessary.


    Prompting the physique energy to activate the appropriate physique ability, she observed as her entire body filled with incredibly hot flame, mixing with her every other physique for the crimson to transform into a gold and blue shade as it became even stronger.


    Intense currents of heat flowed towards her head, flooding her eyes and hair, while the majority of the remaining energy travelled towards her hands, although there was still plenty of it left over to flow through her bones, skin and flesh in nearly equal measure. Her lengthy crimson hair seemed to catch alight, each strand rapidly melting into raw energy and changing without any significance since her physique and cosmic energy had made them nigh invulnerable already. All that made up her eyes seemingly collapsed into a pair of flaming embers, shining brightly as they looked upon the world with a concentrated power hardly seen elsewhere. The bright light at her nails had a similar effect, partially dissolving them while simultaneously leaving them in place, transforming the short nails into a darker, denser flame than her hair.


    ¡®This¡­ feels oddly unpleasant for a physique-based transformation, as those usually don¡¯t have any significant negative impact on their user ¨C albinism and a whole bunch of things notwithstanding. I wonder how this interacts with a few of my other physiques, that being the killing will form, and how the frost version looks like¡­ The latter seems more interesting. Let¡¯s see¡­¡¯


    She willed the absolute yang to be replaced with the absolute yin of her physique, causing the mixed physique energy and material existence to fluctuate as the flames cooled and transformed into such dense and cold ice that it actively froze the air around it into a solid film around her fingers. The embers in her eyes transformed into a cold light, the absolute frost transforming all the way back into heat that would have burnt anyone that neared it, and her hair froze into eternal ice that took the shape of her ponytail.


    When she transformed the relevant aspects of herself into the killing will form, the ice from her nails spread to cover half of her fingers, ending in a sharp point with which one could cut through metal with ease. Her hair was unaffected, as always, and the eye on her left side turned darker, a shade of crimson entering the otherwise blue light.


    ¡®Alright. I don¡¯t think I will allow my eyes to change frequently, considering how odd it feels to not look through a part made of physical flesh, but it is something to consider if anyone ever attempts to stab me in the eyes¡­¡¯ she thought, transforming them back with some careful manipulation of her physique energy, ¡®So, I ought to now witness what the results of the Vibrant Phoenix and the yang killing will form will be.¡¯


    Suddenly, ice changed to flame, blue changed to golden red, and her robes were instantly immolated by the growing flames, forcing her to put this experiment to an end.

 V3C17: Red Shaper’s Grasp

    Beside the ruined sleeve on her left arm, there was surprisingly little destruction to the terrain around her, and her power only grew as much as if she absorbed those particles of physique energy from others, rather than generating them herself, meaning that there was nothing different about this particular process than her usual method of acquiring physique energy.


    Thus, she did not bother to greet those within the Kong Prison Realm, and instead emerged only a few real minutes after entering, returning into the confines of the Ning District and into the guise of Wei Yi the Alchemist, who decided to head to the Chu Alchemical Store once again.


    ¡°Hello there, Fu Xiu. How are you feeling today?¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi¡­ I am feeling sleepy again. In comparison to before, it¡¯s like I have no energy at all, and doing so much as moving a chair can feel entirely exhausting¡­¡±


    ¡°How is that in any way surprising? In comparison to an infinite font of power, any finite quantity will feel limiting and insignificant, no matter how great the finite quantity is. After all, the moment a finite quantity surpasses an infinite one, one of the two ceases to be,¡± Wei Yi said, clearly causing the exhausted receptionist¡¯s head to hurt.


    ¡°I don¡¯t get it¡­ but I¡¯m not as tired and sleepy as I was, so it seems to be an improvement. Would you like something?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I know that you have exactly nineteen portions of physique awakening pill ingredients, and I would like them all. If you offer me a small deal, I can even sell them to the store for a far smaller price afterwards.¡±


    ¡°You really like physiques, don¡¯t you¡­? I think it should be fine¡­ Sure, take them¡­ yourself.¡±


    She nodded, ¡°Will do. I¡¯ll be back within a day.¡±


    In the end, the process of refining all of those ingredients using her Antithesis method took up only nineteen hours, during which she had figured out how to best balance quantity and quality of her products in such a fashion that it resulted in far more pill output for the same quantity of ingredients, getting an immense quantity for herself while still being able to accumulate as many funds as she wanted from the ones that remained.


    She also had enough time to calculate exactly how many pills she needed to consume per physique energy particle, and figured out that if they were at the same realm as before, roughly ten particles came from each pill, but for whatever reason, she required the consumption of all of the pills before they would take effect, which was something that was something that she could not figure out yet.


    Perhaps her own body would not waste the physique awakening energy until it could achieve something with it, or perhaps the Yin-Yang Ascendant would not allow any interaction between it and the pills until a similar requirement was met.


    ¡®Either way, if there are any more physiques I want to awaken, I will need to consume the appropriate number of pills first, and perhaps consider whether one individual physique might be less costly than another, perhaps due to their quality and grade. Perhaps if I attempt to advance the Energy Pylon physique, an average physique, it will require only five pills or so,¡¯ she theorised, glancing at the pouch within her hands that stored more than a hundred pills that were all of the same quality as one another, ensuring a level of consistency within any future experiments, ¡®However, with the gains I receive from lower physiques, it makes no sense to go for something that I do not require. If anything, advancing the Immortal Mortal, Sun¡¯s Regalia and Shaper¡¯s Grasp physiques would all benefit me significantly more, even if it costs ten times as many resources to do so.¡¯


    Any one of those three greatly enhanced her abilities, whereas the Energy Pylon physique would only slightly increase the amount of lifeforce that she could mobilise in healing others.


    Meanwhile, the Immortal Mortal physique would amplify the size of her meridians, significantly increasing the amount of energy that she could store and mobilise at once, the Sun¡¯s Regalia would boost her overall abilities while active, and the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique would allow her to manipulate materials at a greater level, with the first two being beneficial at increasing her own prowess while the third would mean that she could more easily equip her own forces with whatever they needed, be it armour, weapons or even trinkets.


    Essentially, so long as she chose the right kind of physique to advance, no matter how expensive it was to do so, it could potentially allow her to turn the tides of any battle that would otherwise be unwinnable no matter how many Restorative Spring and Vitality Siphon physiques she cultivated.


    For this reason, after much deliberation, she concluded that her Vibrant Phoenix physique was enough of strengthening herself for now, and decided to focus upon the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique over the other two in order to be able to provide herself and her forces with equipment that could match their general abilities.


    She returned into the prison realm once more, as that remained the best place to do her work as it was slowly saturated with planar energy due to her and Yi Shi Ming¡¯s influence over it. At this point, it could be used to cast talismans and power incredibly weak pseudo arrays, although if anyone attempted to cultivate it all they would be able to accomplish would be slightly reinforcing their bones after a hundred years of effort. To achieve an actual planar pool of any kind, or even to activate their meridians, no amount of effort could make up for the absolute lack of energy to mobilise within a kilometre of any one individual.


    ¡®Well, purely theoretically, if they were to construct countless planar gathering arrays all over the Kong Prison Realm and direct all of the energy towards one point ¨C utilising knowledge that ought to be entirely unavailable to them as few of the hatred avatars were masters of arrays and few regained their memories on that subject ¨C they could achieve the breakthrough for one of their number,¡¯ Wei Yi estimated, although even that would require a technique sufficient to make use of such thin planar energy, ¡®Regardless, they will realise when there is enough planar energy¡­¡¯


    There was no need to finish that thought, as the outcome of the first planar cultivators naturally appearing within the realm in what was likely to be millennia at the very least, depending on exactly when Kong Shi Meng had created the prison realm and when the Greats had decided to start tossing people into it, was easy to imagine.


    Before that could occur, she travelled to her earlier location in the Silver Side, sitting down in the same place and repeating the process of consuming ten pills to active the isolated particles of the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique, which had been in positions similar to the Vibrant Phoenix but were moved for this.


    They were desperately attempting to return to their original position, occasionally crashing against her spiritual will barriers with enough force to cause the energy that was an entire realm above them to tremble, so she was forced to complete her work as quickly as possible, accelerating the drive of the physique awakening energy towards the one hundred and thirteen particles of the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique, which were dark and almost resembled the night¡¯s sky when they were close to one another, matching nicely with the cosmic energy that flowed all through her body beside it.


    When all of the physique awakening energy filled the particles, they shook and collapsed onto one another, the combined collision threw out a dozen stable sparks of energy in one go, all of which also fell towards the cluster of particles and struck them, generating several more sparks of light. Every single one of them repeated this, but the repeating strikes generated fewer and fewer particles each time, making it obvious that they would not reach double of the previous number, even if that was all that she needed. Since the major stages, levels or realms of physiques tended to be incredibly different in power, with even a single increase in the level of a physique allowing anyone to defeat a more skilled and intelligent opponent with its power and nothing more.


    This gap widened with the grade of a physique, so an average physique would not affect one as much as the growth from Grim Mortality to Pure Grim Mortality.


    The cluster of physique energy suddenly burst outwards, piercing the barrier set up by her spiritual will and travelling all over her physique meridian network, bright threads of violet energy linking each individual particle as several more appeared between the longest gaps of the particles, the threads seemingly requiring a certain thickness beneath which the thinnest would be filled with more particles.


    So far as her understanding of the concept of physiques, energy, matter and whatever other concept applied here, this should have been entirely impossible, seeing as the physique awakening energy did not appear to be exhausted, and yet the physique developed, nonetheless.


    When the remaining medicinal energy did come into effect, however, it was clear and more than effective. In a single shallow breath, all of the threads erupted in physique awakening light, sending a burst of pure, unbound energy out of her body and at the ground around her, kicking up an enormous cloud of dust and cracking much of the stone beneath at the same time as the many threads broke off from their respective physique particles and coalesced within a single point, merging into new particles composed of much of the medicinal essence.


    Within just a few moments, her count of physique particles more than doubled, and it only continued to grow immensely with every single thread that was formed between sufficiently distant quantities of energy. Two hundred grew to three, then four and five within moments, flooding her body and meridian network rapidly.


    These particles paused beside the one hundred and eight points, each time they did so resulting in further bursts of energy that struck the ground once more at random intervals and into random directions, carving strange patterns into the ground within moments.


    As soon as their number reached nine hundred and seventy-two, this stopped. A red light surged out of all of the particles and clumps of energy, surrounding them in a radiant halo of crimson that crowned the darkness of the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique energy, sending out one final enormous blast of energy that scorched the entirety of the region in which she sat, turning the silver of the still unnatural sand into an absolute black.


    The crimson and dark focused around her hands, enveloping their soft skin with an unsettling glow that appeared otherworldly in nature, although not in the way of the otherworldly demons.


    With it, she felt that she could manipulate anything given to her in any way she desired, although she knew that this was a mere illusion of the mind due to the general limitations of every single physique under the heavens, which fortunately even included the otherworldly powers of the demons, as they had certain limitations and requirements for their usage, even if their power was ultimately made nigh unlimited due to the azure light contained somewhere within them or their gifts. Even those incredibly powerful individuals had certain limitations and restrictions in what they could do, and how, and then there was an absolutely enormous price to pay in terms of their sanity.


    ¡®I suppose that this would be the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp, the next stage of the physique¡­ Certain things have a degree of logic to them, but this is not one I understand,¡¯ she thought, examining the dark and crimson light that now surrounded her hands due to being composed of both yin and yang at once, equalising the physique into its true form, ¡®What connection does shaping anything have with crimson light like this? In fact, what does the cosmos have to do with shaping matter and reality? On that topic, how would the properties of an ascendant permit absorption of other energies¡­ Fuck it, I don¡¯t know¡­¡¯


    She gave up on figuring out the inner workings of the universe and the mind of the heavens for now, as they were impossibly complex and were likely influenced at least in part due to the otherworldly demons that had endlessly poured into the world in the past and possibly were still entering the world now, and instead scooped up a handful of scorched sand with a single hand.


    Influencing it with her newly advanced physique, she willed it to assume the form of an arrow, much like the combatant that she had witnessed in Automaton Point had done, finding that it morphed into the desired image far more quickly than it would have ever done before, recreating every single intricacy of her mental image of the projectile within the physical world. Furthermore, the arrow was incredibly tough and stable, meaning that she couldn¡¯t snap it in half without a great deal of effort despite the material that if was made from. It was far sturdier than anything she could have created before, and far more detailed.


    When she tossed it at the ground, the arrow impaled the sand and stuck into it up to the fletching.


    ¡®Curiously sharp, too. Everything that could have been improved appears to have been greatened by a high degree¡­ With this and my growing blacksmithing abilities, I should be able to effectively supply a large line of archers with little effort, and improve on these armoured robes that I¡¯m attempting to create,¡¯ she thought, grabbing another handful of scorched sand that she willed into the form of a pair of gauntlets.


    They were based on the discarded design from Fu Zan¡¯s attempt at armour, but she had modified them significantly. Now, they covered more of one¡¯s hand, and were connected with pseudo leather as to allow her more mobility than connected plates of metal.


    ¡®On second thought, there are several otherworldly materials that are more flexible and, given that the material itself is unchanged, just as protective as the fake leather, are there not?¡¯


    Crimson light surrounded the gauntlets for a moment, shifting the thick leather-like texture into a thinner material, something that was apparently called carbon fibre, a diagram for the creation of which had managed to stick in the tailor¡¯s memory and thus allowed her to replicate more than the mere appearance of it, shaping the particles of the individual specks of sand according to that diagram, adding in the properties of the material called latex in a significantly less elegant manner. Frankly, she wasn¡¯t even sure that she was accurately replicating the properties of that material and wasn¡¯t just imagining the perfect version of it to include, but the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp appeared to permit such vague additions to her creations.


    In general, one thing that she was relatively certain about Fu Zan was that he was not any kind of scholar or learned man in his original world, as his knowledge was incredibly limited and focused on all sorts of utterly unnecessary things, with things like carbon fibre being sourced from something referred to as a ¡®search engine¡¯, which was incredibly intriguing to her due to the nigh-omniscient description she had received of it.


    The resulting gauntlets were thinner and more pleasant to behold than the first attempt, with her finding the carbon fibre-like material to be especially interesting, but in combination with all of the gauntlets actually being made from charred sand, they weren¡¯t exactly comfortable to wear.


    ¡®Well, so far as I understand the advancement of the Shaper¡¯s Grasp, I can manipulate things into less realistic and more fantastic materials, using the power of the physique to ensure the stability of the equipment when it goes beyond what the world and the material can handle,¡¯ she considered what she had experienced of the physique ability so far, removing the glove from her hand once more and willing it to transform according to exactly what she wanted and needed from these gauntlets, that being flexibility, defence and as much anonymity as possible, so that she could entirely hide her identity if she wore a mark and equipment that covered the rest of her body.


    She also wanted to have a certain degree of symmetry between her left and right hands, so she allowed both of the gauntlets to retain the sharp tips that she adjusted to match the length of her killing will claws, although it would have been better to outright remove the gauntlet on the left hand as the metal ¨C or dirt and dust, in this particular case ¨C was inferior to her own body, and would remain as such until she had been able to obtain any kind of physique that allowed her to safely channel her various form of energy to coat her armour and enhance it.


    For now, however, as she was creating something that she intended to dispose of once she had completed her experimentation, she modified both gloves in the same manner, observing the material change once more to become even thinner, to the point that it was almost as thick as her own skin, with the metal doing something similar as to prevent it from getting in the way.


    As she put the twin gauntlets on, she felt that the resulting material was somewhat like silk, soft and tight while remaining comfortable. Even with the added length of the sharp tips on her fingers, she was able to do almost everything she wanted with her hands, tightly folding them into a fist not included. They also prompted her mind to browse through her extensive collection of combat techniques and pick out everything related to combat with claws or abnormally lengthy nails generated by one¡¯s inability to trim them or through certain physiques that prompted such things, which she had found amongst the many combat methods of the Yi family¡¯s libraries.


    After selecting a few of the best movements and skills from them and merging them into a basic combat technique of her own, as these would be useful either if she managed to extend the left of her killing will form onto her right hand or otherwise created these gauntlets to a sufficient standard, she assumed the posture required by the technique, with her hands raised to the level of her chest, fingers held apart from one another while the metal claws were pointed at some imaginary enemy.


    She stood in place for a moment, visualising how to perform the next few movements.


    With a glint emanating from her eyes, she suddenly stepped forward with a single foot, practically slamming it onto the ground as she thrust her hand forward, jabbing at the eyes of an imaginary foe. Powerful cosmic light gathered around her fingers and followed after her thrust a second later, piercing into the distant edge of the pit she had been awakening her physique in.


    A crated that was several metres deep and long formed within the ground as she returned to a standing position and slashed with both hands, two sets of cosmic light emerging from the sharp tips of the gauntlets and flying out at the surrounding walls of sand, cutting several metres into them before the energy dissipated due to getting too far away from her, rather than the inability to pierce the ground any further.


    She followed with a downward cut and a few other attacks, infusing as much of her other techniques into these strikes as she could without shattering the dust that made up her gauntlets. Slowly, she understood how to do this most optimally, and discarded several movements of her new technique while integrating others that functioned better, pursuing the potential peak that the Ascendant¡¯s Claws had to represent. In the end, she was able to understand a very things about this particular form of martial arts, and the first and perhaps most obvious being that unless she incorporated typical fist techniques and weakened her attacks by not utilising the advantage of the sharpened tips of the gauntlets. The second flaw was that her fingers were naturally weaker than the entirety of her hand, and would thus be more vulnerable than her fists.


    ¡®Nevertheless, it is yet another method of attack I can utilise while using part of my killing will form, so this is in no way a negative¡­ However, I should get out of here as quickly as possible,¡¯ she thought, communing with Yi Shi Ming, ¡®I don¡¯t want to deal with any attention for now.¡¯

 V3C18: The Refiner’s Duel

    ¡®If I think about this a little differently, my birthday would be tomorrow, on the 6th day of the third month, would it not? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll have the opportunity to celebrate, nor would I want to rejoice over reaching the age of 41 despite only living for nineteen years of Planar Continental time,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she walked towards the site of the upcoming duel that had finally been decided to be on the fifth, ¡®No matter. I should focus on today and see what occurs tomorrow rather than speculating about such insignificant things.¡¯


    On the topic of today, she had browsed through a large number of documents and recipes prior to today, having been satisfied with her Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp and deciding that knowledge was more important to acquire for the moment than sheer power, causing her overall awareness of pills and recipes to grow by several folds.


    There were many types of pills within the Ning District that were entirely unnecessary or unused within the Yi District, and were thus difficult to locate in the typical library of the latter district, and had not been mentioned by Chu Ling during all of the time she had spent learning under her, meaning that with several days of intense study, she had been able to accumulate an incredible amount of knowledge that would be unseen in her home district, and get different variants of the same recipes that she was already familiar with. Some would have viewed that as a disappointment, or otherwise a waste of time, but it ensured that she had the opportunity to further obscure her identity by combining those variants into something of her own creation, which would then mean that nobody could be certain of her exact origin.


    Fortunately for her, even those recipes that she only knew a single version of would not be sufficient for most to learn of her origins, as the vast majority of them were created before or during the time of the Master of Yi City, during which it was incredibly easy for the districts to communicate and share their knowledge with one another, meaning that the only reason for the existence of the many variants was that the alchemists of each district thought that they were able to improve on the original.


    Considering the fact that all of the originals appeared to be entirely lost, she could not confirm the truth of that sentiment, although based on Yi Shi Ming¡¯s descriptions of the world back then, it was likely that all of the ingredients used in the original recipes were long gone from the world.


    As a result, she could claim that any recipe was her own variation, and that it matched that of the Yi family¡¯s version was a simple coincidence, although she did not think that such an explanation would be necessary as the only people that would actually question her about this would be doing so with great confidence in her identity and would not be put off by the simple excuse, but there were plenty other reasons for someone to obscure their origins, meaning that unless the person¡¯s intentions were malicious, they wouldn¡¯t be inquiring about this to begin with.


    ¡®Actually, this also doesn¡¯t require this much contemplation. I already have a few plans on dealing with annoying people, so overthinking it won¡¯t do me any good right now,¡¯ she reminded herself as she approached the venue of the duel, dressed in clothing that appeared both familiar and yet new, which she had reworked and remade the day before as to ensure that she was at her best when the largest quantity of people since leaving the prison realm witnessed her.


    She naturally wished to look her best in front of a crowd, but it was more important to convey the proper aura of a master.


    That was exactly what she brought as she came into the sight of a small crowd that had gathered, subtly displacing them with spiritual will so that they could be moved out of the way without needing to come into physical contact with them, as random shoving wouldn¡¯t be suitable for someone that could alter countless lives with simple combinations of certain plants and herbs.


    Although some certainly noticed her actions, nobody understood exactly how she was moving them out of the way and found themselves incapable of resisting energy of the fifth realm, thus permitting her to ascend onto the makeshift stage untouched and unaffected by potential outside influences, of which there were several. A few people likely just wanted to speak to her, perhaps aware that she had supplied them with some pills that might have saved their lives or the lives of their friends or family, but two hid weapons that they might have intended to use against her, although the exact nature of their motives was not clear to her from a simple glance at their surface memories that she was able to view on short notice.


    Either way, she took her seat on the left of the wooden platform, waiting for her competition to appear and occupying the time by cultivating with the planar energy that was near her, keeping the range of absorption just low enough for nobody in the crowd to be able to notice anything.


    Most of the energy that she absorbed came from above her, slowly adding to her pool of planar energy and mixing with the constant supply of the nascent rift to progress her cultivation at a far slower pace than she would have really preferred, but if she had been able to continue at the same pace for a month, she would have achieved the second stage and the first perfected stage of the Emergent Anchor realm.


    On the topic of the crowd, someone that had never attended a public event such as a Refiner¡¯s Duel might wonder why so many would willingly gather to watch something that they did not understand and would not profit from, and was not intended to be entertaining as some kind of play or performance specifically tailored to the crowds, then the answers that could be given to them were rather simple and straightforward.


    Above all, people valued spectacle and entertainment in occupying their spare time, and even the calmest of duels allowed one to witness a complex performance that matched the complexity that could be shown by choreographed dancers attempting to portray a lengthy story. Alchemical flames, mixing ingredients, the occasional explosions and everything else that would typically occur made any Refiner¡¯s Duel an interesting sight for those that did not care about the craft itself, and for those that had any surface-level knowledge and wished to expand it, it permitted them to freely witness high-level masters at work, trying out certain techniques that they may otherwise never show outside of their personal laboratories and workshops.


    As for why they arrived so incredibly early¡­ that was difficult to state with certainty. According to the schedule, Wei Yi had arrived with up to an hour to go, so for the spectators to be standing there even earlier was not something that she could possibly understand.


    After a few moments of cultivation, she also began to circulate her cosmic energy throughout her body to take advantage of the innate properties of it, permeating throughout her every vein, meridian and part of her body to continue their seeming infinite refinement through the five elements infused into her characters and technique, a small part of her mind occupying itself with attempting to extrapolate the existing variations of the cultivation technique into new elemental combinations.


    Some time later, a little more than ten minutes after she had sat down, she felt the approach of Chu Huazhi.


    He had climbed onto the stage from the back, using the stairs that had been set up there, avoiding the crowd entirely as he approached the seat designated for him on a route that clearly and intentionally brought him close to her so that he could address her regarding some information and questions that Wei Yi was already able to guess, even though it was one that shouldn¡¯t need to be asked again.


    ¡°Is your servant going to be coming here with the refining furnace that you intend to use?¡±


    ¡°Min Lian will be here in time, and I think you already know the answer to whether she will be bringing anything of note with her,¡± Wei Yi replied, not opening her eyes as she still waited for her competitors while she thought, ¡®Frankly, I don¡¯t blame him for assuming that the stunt with refining something without the use of a proper furnace was a one-off case which I would not repeat again due to how expensive and difficult it could have been for me, but at the same time, it would be silly for me to do something like that if it was costly when I could have just asked for his furnace, so I am saying that his logic is somewhat faulty.¡¯


    The manager did not reply immediately, deciding to sit down in his designated seat in the middle of the stage. He called for a servant to bring him something to drink, ignoring those in the watching crowd that had assumed that his arrival meant that something of interest would finally occur.


    For a few more minutes, they continued to sit in place, before Chu Huazhi became bored of doing nothing and reached out to her with a combination of spiritual will and planar energy that bridged the two of them with a connection through which they could communicate without those around them being able to observe it properly. It was a rare technique, but not an unusual one, as it was far weaker than spiritual will communication that permitted one to show no signs of speech at all while speaking with even greater clarity and detail than through this method.


    ¡°Are you aware of the appearance of a strange faction on the outside of the district? They have singlehandedly reduced trade by a significant margin,¡± he conveyed, ¡°Have your activities been hampered by their interference, or do you typically use ingredients that can easily be gotten from within the district?¡±


    His kind questioning of her status was, naturally, also an attempt to learn more about her, which seemed to be this man¡¯s general modus operandi. It was for this reason that Fu Xiu had made him out to be a kind individual, but after all of the times that she had interacted with him, it was rather clear that he was not that simple. Wei Yi suspected that he was truly a softer individual than most, but had reasonably tempered his general kindness with reason, using it to gain information at the same time as expressing his usual tendencies.


    ¡®Of course, this might be a simple misconception of mine, but I doubt it will be relevant any time soon,¡¯ she thought before answering, ¡°I have heard some things, but I have not bothered with them. Above all, I am an alchemist, so the most I could do would be to provide my products to those that seek them for their attempts to ward off that faction.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I was not suggesting that you ought to go out there and fight. Personally, I would not do such a thing either,¡± Chu Huazhi said back to her, a trace of admiration in his voice from how well she was able to reply using this technique, ¡°They are said to be in the fifth realm, after all, with unknown numbers.¡±


    ¡°Frankly, I believe them to be using some kind of illusory technique.¡±


    ¡°I have heard this theory before, and it is one that can be believed. Out of all of them, only four or five are said to ever interact with anything around them, and that enormous phantom is¡­ curious, to say the least. Reports about it are even more mixed than those about the dark soldiers, as it is sometimes on the ground, sometimes in the air, sometimes above the leader, and occasionally even interacts with the people and the terrain¡­ It can be quite confusing,¡± the man relayed.


    ¡°You appear to have been researching this for some time, considering how much knowledge you have,¡± Wei Yi commented, breaking the connection before he could reply to her.


    She did not do this out of her usual tendencies to cut people off in the middle of conversation, which she did far more than she would like to admit, but because she had sensed the approach of one of her competitors in this duel, Chen Shujin, who did not appear to be in the best of moods and would thus benefit from immediate attention.


    As her range of spiritual will was significantly larger than the local manager¡¯s, he nearly recreated the communication connection before he noticed the woman¡¯s approach and thus stopped, seeing as it would be a complete waste of his energy, even if there was little to expend it on today.


    ¡°Those were clearly there just to obstruct me! They are trying to exhaust me before the duel as an obvious tactic! They think that I will not be able to understand their plots and will then fall to them and waste my energy enough for me to lose my concentration and fail at a crucial step of refinement that would then cost me my natural victory and the many recipes and techniques that I had bet on the victory that I was destined to have over the petty thief and coward that is the woman with red hair, so obviously¡­¡±


    The rather insane mutterings of the female competitor were so absolutely similar to Yi Henghua that Wei Yi instinctively pulled away her spiritual perception, afraid that she would somehow replicate her thought process and join the team of the absolutely insane women that she somehow had the misfortune of encountering.


    ¡®Is she another otherworldly demon? No, nothing about her would suggest that other than the absolutely maddening chatter¡­ Shit, she isn¡¯t even speaking to anyone, she¡¯s just muttering to herself while walking through the street¡­ By the heavens, what did I do to exist in a time so full of madmen and otherworldly demons that I can seemingly encounter them every other day without any effort?¡¯ she resisted the urge to change her position and posture and instead extended her range of energy absorption to make her cultivation more effective, ¡®Still, I don¡¯t think she was that irrational the last time that I had seen her. Perhaps she¡¯s just getting nervous.¡¯


    The local manager, although he was not gifted with the same level of awareness as her, also noticed her muttering and decided to allow her onto the stage without any attempts to speak with her, instead allowing her to set up her furnace and to prepare.


    Once more, some people in the crowd attempted to begin a cheer and applause as an introduction to the event, but they calmed down even more quickly when Chen Shujin raised her gaze and stared at everyone who dared to make a sound. After a moment, some of the more attentive members of the audience also pointed out that there was still an empty seat and an empty place for a pill furnace to stand, meaning that this new arrival would not begin the duel no matter who they were or how they behaved.


    Some more time passed, most of which the brown-haired woman had spent on staring directly at Wei Yi with such a furious expression that the target of the stare was concerned that an entirely new art would be created through the sheer dedication of Chen Shujin that would first make its mark upon the world with the absolute annihilation of her skull.


    It was unlikely, but there had been more unlikely tales in the past, and anything became ten times more likely when one of the otherworldly demons could have been involved.


    Almost forty minutes after Wei Yi had sat down at the stage, the other competitor came to the stage, with Ning Fangtie¡¯s entrance being far more reasonable and dignified as one of his apprentices brought a furnace beside him and placed it in front of him as he also sat down.


    He glanced at Wei Yi with an initially proud and confident expression, but it broke down almost instantly when he realised that there was no furnace in front of her, prompting him to look away and sit down while he muttered something about the competition intentionally being thrown or something along those lines. As if to demonstrate the appropriate method of preparing for alchemical refinement, he got his assistant to clean his furnace while he closely inspected every part of it with both sight and spiritual perception.


    Regardless of his actual intentions with this move, he became incredibly focused on it shortly after he began, entirely abandoning any of his original staring and distractions to purely occupy himself with this task so intensely that his assistant stepped away a short while later, glancing around to make sure that he was not being watched before departing from the stage and heading to a skewered meat stall.


    Judging by the familiarity with which he spoke to the vendor, and how he calmly sat down beside him to discuss all kinds of random topics, this was not the first time that this had occurred.


    If one continued to pay attention to the apprentice after that, as Wei Yi had decided to since there were still at least a few minutes left to go until the Refiner¡¯s Duel would begin, it was also possible to observe him go on to a local tavern to have a drink, not caring about the potential fallout of his master finding him away in the slightest, suggesting to her that not only was this a common occurrence, but one that his master was incapable of noticing or punishing him for.


    Since he appeared so nonchalant about his actions, she suspected that he would not reappear during the competition itself, so she did not continue to monitor him too closely, instead returning her attention to the other two competitors and the judge that was currently drinking some tea.


    The paranoid woman was not looking much better than before, but she did stop muttering and complaining, sitting and sulking in silence as she rubbed one spot on her furnace and seemed to glare at it in a manner that would indicate her to be imagining this one spot to either be Wei Yi or whichever person was the primary perpetrator for today¡¯s interference, likely unintentionally damaging her own equipment for no good reason and assisting the very same individual that would then benefit from the damage.


    Ning Fangtie continued to caringly clean his equipment, carefully ensuring that every small detail, every contour of the metal on the furnace and every single individual piece was as polished as anything could possibly be, taking far more care than his opponent to ensure that he would not damage his possessions by doing so.


    Chu Huazhi was not bothered by either of their actions, instead quietly speaking with one of the other high-realm cultivators presiding over the duel through his communication technique and giving him some instructions whilst also querying him about matters that included the subordinate of the grey-haired alchemist and Min Lian, as well as the Mirror Plane Aberrations and a whole host of other topics that Wei Yi could not assume to be important in the slightest.


    Finally, the cause of the entire event, Wei Yi, had finally decided to conclude her cultivation for now as she sensed Min Lian¡¯s approach. The assassin used a few side paths and alleyways to avoid the crowd and appeared on the stage beside her, kneeling with her head lowered as she always did.


    ¡°Master, it appears that there is some action from the other forces.¡±


    ¡°As expected, although not when it would have been most convenient. Now, look a little less submissive, please,¡± Wei Yi said, opening her eyes and looking towards the judge of the duel, transmitting her voice to him through a somewhat crude imitation of the technique he had initially used to speak with her, ¡°I seem to recall you speaking of other alchemists that would be presiding over the duel. Are we still waiting for them, or have they decided not to appear?¡±


    ¡°They¡­ They should arrive shortly. You really don¡¯t intend to use a refining furnace today, do you?¡± he almost spoke normally before he noticed the method of communication being used.


    ¡°As someone with experience in the field, you should know what this kind of refining allows me to do, and what it entirely avoids. I¡¯m sure that if you were competing against those two and wished to be absolutely certain that you will win, you would be using this exact same technique ¨C provided that you were be able to do so, of course.¡±


    ¡°That is true. Avoiding elemental contamination, structural weaknesses and more is worth¡­ hm.¡±


    He appeared to be about to ask about the way in which she accomplished the feat of freezing matter in mid-air and refining something with only some vague energy, but before he could do that the people that they had just been discussing finally appeared, walking out of the same tavern that Ning Fangtie¡¯s apprentice had entered not too long ago with a trace of an alcoholic smell around them ¨C for whatever reason, alcohol was not one of the things that Wei Yi was unable to perceive, perhaps due to the prevalence of it within certain alchemical concoctions that were more common in small countries to the west of the land, where pill refining was less common, making it less of a common drink and more of an ingredient ¨C and heading straight towards the front of the stage, which they ascended calmly in a professional manner.


    ¡°Finally, we may begin. We¡¯ve waited for quite a while¡­¡± Chu Huazhi commented, coughing loud enough to indicate his displeasure before turning to the crowd, who had now collectively come to the understanding that there was nobody else that could delay the event and began to quietly cheer for what felt like the thirtieth time, ¡°Quiet down, everyone. Before I tell you which pill we will be refining, I will allow the competitors to introduce themselves¡­ from my left to right. Yes. Begin.¡±


    The first on his left was Chen Shujin, who rose quickly and immediately began to speak, although she suddenly stopped when an invisible thread of energy stabbed into her back.


    She had wanted to turn around to figure out who it was, but whatever semblance of reason that still existed within her convinced her to shut up and instead say, ¡°I am Chen Shujin, and I will be victorious, understand?¡±


    ¡°Charming. I, Ning Fangtie, should be well known to many of you for the services I have provided you for a long time,¡± the grey-haired man finally rose and left his refining furnace alone, not sparing a single glance to the apprentice that should have been by his side, ¡°The audience has little involvement in this competition, but if any of you observe any kind of unfair behaviour from my opponents, or even from me, do not hesitate to shout it out and ensure that it has been noticed. Above all, this has to be a fair competition!¡±


    ¡°My name is Wei Yi, and I do agree with my opponent on this. A fair duel is the only one that can have the meaning it is intended to have. Nothing else will truly convey pure skill and knowledge.¡±


    Chu Huazhi gave her a moment to add something, but when she instead sat back down and focused, he said, ¡°Very well. All of you will need to work on the very same type of pill, but you need not use the very same recipe and ingredients. You will be provided with enough materials to prepare one set of pills alongside a single spare to allow you to recover from slight failures. Not all of the materials have to be used, but if they do not coincide with any of your known recipe variants, a recipe can be provided to you.¡±


    Although he stated this, it was known even to many members of the audience that a recipe needed to be practised and learnt carefully before it could be used proficiently. If any one of the three was to declare their lack of knowledge of the recipe, they would need to be several stars of knowledge above any of the others in order to still succeed.


    For once, Wei Yi wasn¡¯t really an exception to this. Even if she was to resort to the Antithesis method, she would still be unable to maximise the efficiency of the process without understanding exactly what and how to intentionally ruin so that it could eventually be reversed into perfection. In theory, she could even accidentally succeed in a part that she meant to fail, resulting in her losing out on the total quality of the pill through good fortune being inverted into failure. If this did occur, she could not be sure of claiming her victory, as there was always the possibility of the pill being one of those that the other two had mastered to an extreme.


    In the same way that most warriors would have a single technique or martial art that they used the most and potentially reached the level of the technique stages, all masters of the five great arts would focus on a single type or even a specific pill, array, talisman, inscription or piece of equipment which they would make and experiment with whenever they did not need to work on something else. Even if this was not done intentionally, those who chose a random known recipe to practise with would likely turn to the same one many times, eventually completing it reflexively and thus identifying it as their strong point. For her, the martial equivalent would be the Yang Elysian Storm, Storm Blade Wreathing and Elysian Palm, which she had used so many times that even removing the very knowledge of them from her mind would still permit her body to replicate the appropriate movements to execute them.


    Unfortunately, she had not been able to deduce what the preferred pills would be for her opponents. Spying on them and checking what they sold most frequently did not yield anything that was substantially more common than anything else, meaning that they were either diversifying their practise to ensure their success, or that they only produced their preferred pills at certain times and did not sell them, perhaps utilising them on their subordinates and apprentices.


    As such, she could only hope that the choice made was one that permitted her a calm victory, since there was a certain factor that meant that she would do best without unnecessary danger.


    ¡°Bring up the ingredients!¡± exclaimed Chu Huazhi, waiting for the boxes to be half-way to the competitors before he dramatically unfurled a scroll and looked upon the text concealed within. Whether or not he had actually seen what was written upon it, he did an excellent job of convincing everyone that this was the first time he had seen it as he stated firmly but not too loudly, ¡°Your task is to create the Extreme Yin Decomposition pill! As per the average requirement for this pill, you have two hours to complete it!¡±


    The eyes of all three competitors sparked, for this was a recipe that they had at the very least heard of, meaning that they still stood a chance. Chen Shujin leapt into action immediately, grabbing some of the ingredients being delivered to her and lighting a flame beneath her furnace. Ning Fangtie acted slower but was still confident, waiting for his ingredients to be set down before him while he deliberated on which recipe he was going to use. Wei Yi, on the other hand, had scanned through the ingredients some time ago and had pulled up everything she knew about the pill within her Ascendant¡¯s Library to understand exactly what she was dealing with.


    As far as she was aware, the Extreme Yin Decomposition pill was created some time after the disappearance of the Master of Yi City, intended to be used for the exploration of a certain ancient tomb of someone that had possessed an extreme version of the Yang Physique and had created an enormous stretch of land filled to the brim with absolute yang, with the tomb itself being built out of dense, solid yang energy.


    By consuming the pill, one could ward off the passive dangers of the ancient tomb that would attempt to invade the body and immolate it from within, or by breaking it and scattering the medicinal essence within over obstacles in the terrain, it had been possible for the expeditionary team to discover whatever it was that they had gone in search of in the first place, after which their usage had been limited to the occasional extreme yang fog that still spread from the former site of that tomb, meaning that the pill was only one to learn in order to understand how to condense yin and yang from substances that typically do not display them in extremes.


    Although this was not something that she had attempted to create more than once in the past, she did have a recipe for this pill that matched with the ingredients available to her, meaning that she would not need to request a different variant.


    There was only a single small issue with it, and that was that she did not have one of the primary ingredients required to achieve the effect of condensing immense yin, a certain kind of planar root that had become much rarer since the recipe that she was aware of had been created, meaning that she would need to somehow circumvent this issue. The only thing that she could think of, however, was not only rather unconventional, but also required quite the unusual approach. Otherwise, she would need to attempt the creation of absolute yang through what she already had and invert it via the Antithesis energy.


    The first option was somewhat preferable, mostly due to the issues mentioned previously, but it came at the potential cost of the judges not being able to perceive the truth of the final creation.


    ¡®Still, I don¡¯t think that I can bypass this without wasting a lot of time. I had mentally practised with the recipe a few times while in the Kong Prison Realm, so there is bound to be a method of making this work with enough work,¡¯ she thought, passing the ingredients that she did not require for Min Lian to put away while she condensed the furnace from spiritual will and cut the ingredients that she would need to use first via killing will.


    Before the furnaces of any of her opponents finished heating up and their ingredients were cut, she begun to toss her first ingredients into the invisible cauldron in the air, earning a collective gasp from the crowd as they witnessed the medicinal essence slowly flow out through the influence of her energy.


    That gasp also attracted the attention of her two foes, who had intended to only distract themselves for a moment and then immediately return to their work, but when they saw the same sight, they couldn¡¯t help but stare at the mirage of a pill furnace floating within the air, just at the right height for Wei Yi to access it comfortably ¨C not that she needed to do so when every single ingredient was carried by her energy rather than any kind of physical force.


    Fortunately for them, they had not yet begun to refine their pills, meaning that this distraction amounted to little in the short term, but their minds were somewhat shaken. Unless she was demonstrating some kind of false art, something that only looks good without the abilities that the art is supposed to have, then this would not only mean that their initial assumptions of her abilities being lacking were entirely false, but also that she had awareness of an entire art, if not something greater, that was wholly unknown to them, their students, teachers and possibly even the great masters that the two of them had the opportunities to encounter in the past.


    If that was truly the case, then what chance did they have?


    Alongside the negative thought, the positive did also appear within them, whether to make their previous actions seem more reasonable or to justify not dropping out of the competition and losing their pride. So long as they claimed their victory over her, would they not receive the very technique displayed to them right now?


    Depending on the true depth of this miracle, they had the potential of rising to a peak beyond any alchemists that currently lived, perhaps allowing them to rise in cultivation as well as knowledge and attain the realm of the former legends of the Planar Continents. None of them ever dreamt of surpassing the Master of Yi City, of course, for such a thing was akin to the highest blasphemy in a faith or the greatest betrayal of the past that anyone who is not truly gifted could make, but the potential of greatness did lie ahead of them. So long as they acted reasonably, they could grasp the opportunity to restore the long-forgotten work of the past heroes and let their names shine once more, putting their own titles alongside these ancient legends.


    On that note, the more knowledgeable Ning Fangtie suddenly recalled an ancient tale that was likely relegated to the dustiest pages of history even before the time of the Master of Yi City. It spoke of a refiner on the Eastern Continent whose name was not recorded, but the one deed that was firmly stated was that of completing the entire refinement process in minutes and to the absolute peak of quality through an art that involved processing every ingredient and its medicinal essence through nothing but the densely condensed spiritual will of the alchemist, which somehow allowed them to extract all of the essence without a single loss or impurity.


    There were no alchemical fires, no furnaces, no kindling nor planar energy, everything was complete in just a few moments through something that seemed to be a miracle.


    He had thought of it being a fantastic tale, for spiritual perception could do little more than cause a slight breeze even when used at the very peak of the sixth realm, so how could someone with a far lower cultivation achieve something so much greater?


    ¡®Is this that very art? Has this Wei Yi come from the Daoist Continent, where she had recovered a fragment of that fantastic ability?¡¯ he pondered, glancing towards her once more as he finally completed the necessary preparations to place his first set of ingredients into the pill furnace, which now glowed with a slight orange light as the entirety of it was filled with heat.


    Meanwhile, Chen Shujin, who had reached a similar point in the process, also had her own idea, but it went away from the direction of the ancient legends and towards forbidden arts, for they were the easiest method of acquiring power, and she was in no mood at all to ascribe anything but the least charitable explanation to her foe¡¯s ability. Since Wei Yi must have resorted to cheating and trickery to delay her ¨C in Chen Shujin¡¯s mind, of course ¨C then how could she have obtained anything genuinely impressive?


    It had to be something with an immense downside, or an outright falsehood, for anything else could not possibly fit within her vision of the world, in her perception of reality, and that was something that she could not break on a whim.


    Potentially, even if she had countless decades to work on her thoughts, such deeply engrained ideas could not be shaken.


    She did not know exactly what kind of forbidden skill would allow such miracles to be performed, but she wasn¡¯t even sure whether this was something that she really wanted. All forbidden skills came at a cost, without any exception, and as much as her foe might be able to accomplish with it, the costs that she has to bear could easily outweigh the rewards by an enormous margin. And yet, since so many people had previously fallen to their allure, she knew that if she got her hands on it, she might also struggle to resist, meaning that it would almost certainly be best to avoid coming anywhere near that technique unless she could guarantee that it could be destroyed.


    Every one of them began with similar ingredients, several portions being thrown into their respective furnaces before any differences appeared within their recipes. The first to change their ingredients was Chen Shujin, who confidently removed one of the core herbs that the other two were about to use and instead crushed a clump of violet moss into the mixture of ingredients within her furnace.


    The second change was made by Ning Fangtie, who replaced the Effervescent Root with the stalk of a black flower with black petals and black roots that would typically hover in the air and seek food not from the ground, as most plants would through their roots, but from various insects and small critters that approached it, feeding on their blood and lifeforce just enough to bring them close to death, but not directly to it. At one point in time, it was thought that the best way to harvest them was by allowing them to latch onto the harvester, giving them a gift of blood before plucking them from their aerial roots and using them in their own refinement. As with anything that required sacrifice, it was quickly learnt that the roots could be neutralised entirely with the combination of authamite wine ¨C funnily enough, the beverage that was never meant to be found yet another beneficial use ¨C and Plague Bearer¡¯s Rot, a variety of moss that tended to grow upon the long-dead cadavers and skeletons of plague victims.


    Some of that information was propagated throughout the audience, at which point their attention was turned to Wei Yi once more so that they could observe whatever trick she would display this time.


    They were disappointed to find that, at first, she did not seem to be doing something unusual nor uncommon. Those that were less knowledgeable turned to the more well learned, and those turned to the alchemists that stood in the audience, who turned to their superiors, with all attention eventually being bound onto Chao Juzan, who stood up whereas everyone else had failed to provide an answer and explained what he had noticed.


    Rather than changing the ingredients she used, her very approach to the refinement of the pill differed significantly, and not just due to the spiritual will furnace. Instead of forming a complete pill structure, as most would due to the obvious benefits of creating everything at once and achieving far greater stability, she instead used mostly the outside of the furnace to compose the outside layer of the pill.


    Once this was brought to their attention and their interest was caught, everyone naturally desired to understand exactly why this was done, causing them to turn to the alchemist once more in search of further answers. He wished to present the answer to them, seeing as the fervour of the crowd was rather significant whenever they were presented with rather small secrets that would still be revealed within a matter of minutes at least and hours at most, but as he thought more and more, he seemed to only be getting further away from their desired conclusion. He, too, had some familiarity with the Extreme Yin Decomposition pill, and so he understood well that the only time that this approach could be used was if she could somehow create absolute yin without the herbs typically used to manufacture it.


    However, Chao Juzan did not have a physique nor a yin or yang skill, meaning that he could not sense her physique, and nothing about her suggested that she could manifest a form of extreme yin on a whim, like she would need to be able to do.


    Wei Yi was not paying attention to this, but she still happened to act just in time to prevent the crowd from devouring the poor alchemist when she threw the last of her ingredients into the furnace and then placed her hand near the opening of the furnace, sliding her sharp nail across the skin on her finger to draw some blood that she then threw into the furnace, shutting it afterwards. She covered her hand with a simple black glove to obscure the wound as it healed in a matter of moments, then willed all of the physique energy she had stored within the blood droplets to explode outwards.


    Bright moonlight suddenly flooded the furnace of pure spiritual will, piercing the dense wall of medicinal essence and the impurities that hovered around it, illuminating the spectating crowd, the other two alchemists, the judges and even the sky above it, touching the clouds and softly shading them in ethereal blue.


    All of the essence that gathered around it did not immediately approach to seal the physique energy within itself, but instead divided itself into nine distinct segments while retaining the shape of the hollow sphere, spinning around the central physique energy without any intersections or collisions between the nine separate parts, which, the longer they remained in motion, seemed to resemble a dense stream of petals, each one being carried by an invisible stream of wind that slowly changed from a fixed circular shape into a complex figure that could not be named by anyone alive within the Planar Continents.


    Together, the medicinal essence slowly pursued the shape of twenty-four individual shapes, although one would be hard-pressed to see such a thing within the complex weave of the many flowing lines of essence. It was something that could be followed by experienced alchemists at first, but the longer it went on, the more confusing the shape began to become, eventually conveying something that was entirely beyond their understanding.


    Wei Yi had not created any new techniques in preparation for this, nor during the refinement process, but was instead accessing certain elements of the Cherry Revolving Blossom art that had previously been subdued without access to the full power of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao that she now unleashed to stabilise her physique energy as she sealed it within the medicinal essence that had been condensed from the parts of the recipe that would typically make up the outside of the pill, the shell that every pill would have so that the medicinal essence within would not seep out and deteriorate within the ever-changing air of the world. The shapes of petals mixing with the essence, however, was a little bit of a surprise to her, even if it did make sense due to the name of the art only being half accurate before.


    While she did this, the other two did their absolute best to look away and focus on their own tasks, with both of them adding their own elements of the eventual internal structure of the pills in order to begin the condensation of the extreme yin that needed to be contained within.


    For several lengthy minutes, nothing of note occurred, except for the luminance of the physique energy slowly growing despite the lack of support from her body or the planar anchor that rested within her planar aperture, as each one of them was building up to the ultimate conclusion of the duel, when they would be able to conclude the refinement process and then present their completed work to the judges, who would then need to establish whether they had cheated and what the final quality of the pills was.


    Despite the rather disparate approaches and the speed at which they had been able to complete certain steps, all three of them neared the conclusion of their work at a similar time, although it was difficult for either Ning Fangtie or Chen Shujin to overcome the head start that Wei Yi had enjoyed thanks to the spiritual will furnace, meaning that her medicinal essence and the energy within suddenly ignited, as if they were set aflame, a fantastic radiance that was many times brighter than that of the moonlight before it surged out with such brightness that it instantly blinded all that were in the audience and in the authoritative seats of the judges, with only the other two refiners managing to get away mostly unscathed.


    By the time the glow had been subdued, the inside of the furnace had changed to contain only twenty-four pills that each seemed to be more similar to a hollowed gem filled with fluid moonlight rather than the usual appearance of pills. The audience and the judges had been unable to witness how the process had concluded, much to the disappointment of the former and the dismay of the latter.


    Shortly afterwards, Chen Shujin also began to complete her pills, forcing the disparate pieces of medicinal essence together with her planar energy, doing her best to remove the dregs of impurities that still remained within the essence, a step that she suspected Wei Yi was able to bypass due to the particular nature of her unusual creation ¨C there was no need to clear away the impurities from something that lacked them in the first place, such as whichever energy she had used to substitute the manufactured extreme yin within the pill.


    A little after that, Ning Fangtie also approached the end of his refinement, making him the last to finish, slightly lowering his chances of eventual victory but hardly removing them entirely.


    With three sets of pills ready for review, the contest was up to the judges to conclude.

 V3C19: The Terrible Mirror

    ¡°The first thing that we can conclude with certainty is that Wei Yi wins when it comes to quantity. Twenty-four equally well-formed pills naturally place first, with Ning Fangtie¡¯s similarly stable but less numerous nineteen pills coming second and Chen Shujin¡¯s fourteen pills of disparate qualities coming last,¡± the judges were able to conclude quickly, for there was no need to experiment with things as basic as external pill stability and quality.


    Although this was what they had begun with, the actual significance of the matter was rather limited in comparison to most of the other fields, as the quantity of the pills would only become significant if their qualities, their effects, purity and quantity of stars proved to be balanced overall, at which point the victor would truly be decided by such a simple fact, although it would still be difficult to conclude that Wei Yi was the victor due to the seeming disparity in qualities of the three sets of pills. Wei Yi was most consistent, Ning Fangtie had more variety that could put him above her, and Chen Shujin¡¯s few excellent pills could be superior to Wei Yi¡¯s, so far as they were concerned.


    Chen Shujin was not particularly impressed by this, prompting her to go on another whispering tirade, ¡°I knew it¡­ Those two are cooperating to-¡±


    ¡°Moving on, the efficiency of production. Present all of the ingredients that still remain.¡±


    Although she continued to mutter under her breath, she and the other two did as instructed, presenting the boxes of ingredients that had only been used partially, or not at all. To no-one¡¯s surprise, while Chen Shujin and Ning Fangtie had used a similar quantity of resources, with the latter coming out ahead by a small margin, the one to use the least was Wei Yi, as she had entirely skipped the condensation of artificial yin through the combination of certain medicinal ingredients. In combination with the general efficiency of her work, it was only natural that she also won in this particular stage.


    ¡°Nonetheless, these matters are only of significance if our results are tied in the primary aspect of our work, so why don¡¯t you move on to the things that truly matter?¡± even Ning Fangtie wasn¡¯t entirely happy with these facts, trying to move onto the most significant matter as quickly as possible.


    The judges also did not intend to prolong the suffering of others any longer than necessary, as Chu Huazhi had shared a few details about Wei Yi to them and they all had a slight suspicion that they already knew who the victor would eventually be, so they did move onto the pills themselves. They quickly chose to put aside those they understood the least about to be looked at last, those being the moonlight-containing pills that Wei Yi had produced, and instead looked at the creations of those who finished after her ¨C Chen Shujin.


    In order to best ascertain the overall quality of her creation, they needed to go through every single pill and analyse them closely. It was a lengthy, dull process, one that many of the common public that had gathered to observe the Refiner¡¯s Duel would not stay for, since the most exciting element of the many, many minutes that would be spent on this was the element of testing the pills on targets, but that was only attempted when something could not be determined any other way due to the waste of materials that would incur. After all, although these pills were not the most frequently used, they still had a variety of uses, including being sold by their creators to other districts and possibly even the outside cities for great profits that would otherwise remain unseen within the Ning District.


    Naturally, if the product was damaged in some way and would instead harm the people who consume it, the refiner would not wish to sell it, but usually the entire reason for testing the pill on a target was if they had no clue whether the pill would actually function. Typically, this kind of testing would only occur when another alchemist believes that something had occurred within the refinement process that would render the pill useless or unsafe to consume, and when neither the judges nor the refiner himself is able to prove without testing it that it was indeed safe.


    Even then, all that would usually occur would be an unfortunate death of some rat, perhaps a small show of various lights and colours, but it was nothing compared to the earlier moonlight and would be incredibly unlikely to ever culminate in any kind of fantastic circumstance, which was the only reason everyone was here to begin with.


    As such, much of the crowd slowly returned to their homes, where they intended to have a small lunch before continuing with their day, returning to the more standard daily activities that they would typically participate in. Those that remained had some interest in the resolution of the duel, including those who had been customers of any of the three refiners and wished to see them succeed so that they might offer a kind discount and allow them to purchase more, as well as those that had knowledge of the great art or perhaps were alchemists themselves, as they would undoubtedly learn from any small commentary from the judges or the three competitors themselves.


    Wei Yi, although she was interested in this and was in no way opposed to learning as much as possible about everything that could in any way be relevant to defeating the Great Families and restoring Yi City, also found herself not having all that much interest in the extremely extensive and lengthy tests that the judges had to perform. Especially since she was able to skip many of these elements due to her powerful spiritual perception, choosing to keep a piece of it here while she observed the district with the rest, she had no need to learn from their methods.


    She wasn¡¯t looking at anything in particular, as doing that would be a complete waste of the enormous range of her energy, but she did catch some things of interest.


    There was the occasional thief or prankster that decided to operate at the wrong time, but little else was actually worth describing in any detail besides the slowly approaching influence from the northern side of the district, something that she was waiting for intently.


    While she did that, the alchemist judges slowly went through the entire list of the many tests that they had to perform in order to fully ascertain whether the pills produced were suitable for consumption, and that they were indeed of the same quality as demonstrated by their outside appearance, as it was possible to fake that part of the pill and fool less knowledgeable customers into purchasing an inferior product for a greater price.


    It took more than half an hour to complete this work, at which point they concluded that Chen Shujin¡¯s greatest pill neared the quality of four stars, whereas the lowest were only of two stars, with the average being as expected of a three star pills, that being three stars. Overall, the result of her work could not be said to be too bad by any metric, since she would have a variety of qualities to sell afterward to those that might not be able to afford a three star pill, or perhaps to those that require the four star variant, but it was inferior to absolute control over one¡¯s creation in the eyes of most refiners and alchemists, as the ability to create exactly what you desire is a greatly beneficial skill in every single one of the great arts.


    Next up, it was Ning Fangtie¡¯s turn, with his work going through the same process.


    There were several moments where Wei Yi and Chen Shujin were tempted to bring up some objection and point out a flaw within the pills, just as Ning Fangtie likely was while Chen Shujin¡¯s pills were being inspected, but the latter could not determine any certain flaws before they were shown to not be present, whereas Wei Yi could not find any particular flaw that would not be located by the judges and that would invalidate his position, as all of his pills, despite the minor inconsistencies, remained stable and well-made.


    Technically, there was nothing stopping her from meddling with them without being too overt about it, seeing as she had plenty of methods to do so without being noticed by most, but one person that she could hardly bypass and fool was the creator of the pills himself, who appeared confident enough not to ascribe any random fault to himself, and instead seek out the true culprit.


    If anyone here was aware of what they needed to look for to detect her activities, then they would be able to do so, unlike those who live in the Crimson Side of the Kong Prison Realm and are forced to rely only on their eyes and ears to discern all kinds of fanciful phenomena, or the population of the Silver Side, which was greatly limited in their own perception due to their lacking knowledge of the world and the inability to properly absorb the insights that the so-called savages had gathered. With proper cultivation realms, spiritual perception, and the innate sense of the dantian, detecting foreign influences became far easier than for anyone else. All that they needed was the incentive to do so, the understanding of what the thing that they were dealing with could do, and it was only a matter of time.


    Since it was not necessary to do this immediately, as such complaints could be raised at any times and could simply be attributed to a revelation that she had once her own pills were being inspected, she did not interrupt the process and thus permitted the inspection of his creations to be completed.


    When Wei Yi¡¯s work was the next to be examined, the judges had to pause and reconsider their approach, as her pills differed significantly from what they had dealt with before, both now and long ago, for reasons that should be incredibly clear by now. If they carelessly performed the same processes and tests as with the other pills, they could easily breach the medicinal barrier keeping the luminous moonlight within them, thus spoiling them and potentially ruining whatever would allow the pills to function as more than just a shell and a small puddle of energy.


    ¡®If that is what¡¯s going through their heads, then they are right to be worried. Just shoving my physique energy into the pill does allow me to interact with any yang or yin that touches it, but it would not be sufficient to fully perform the function of the Extreme Yin Decomposition pill, meaning that I had to do a little bit of work with arrays in the outside shell to manipulate the effects somewhat,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself while she made sure to be ready to intervene if they intended to do something wrong, ¡®Come to think of it, one of the major bottlenecks in my improvement in the great arts is the current array technique that I am using, which lacks most info on realms beyond my current one. Furthermore, what I have heard of Master Yi Yi suggests that his Prime Star Arts might have a fatal flaw at greater realms, which would mean that combining the Excellence and the Prime Star Arts would not benefit me as much as I would like¡­¡¯


    While she was deliberating on her current situation, with the Truth of the Universe in the corner of her eyes so that she could better ascertain the current state of her various techniques, the judges decided on a method that they considered suitable.


    ¡°Wei Yi, would undertaking the first, seventh, sixteenth and ninety-first tests damage your creation?¡±


    The judge that asked this was more than prepared to remind her of the exact nature of those tests, seeing as even he struggled to recall everything he had just done, but she responded with a quick nod, adding only, ¡°The sixteenth experiment should be performed with additional care not to influence the connection between the shell and the internal energy. It should be done by someone with a steady hand.¡±


    ¡°Steady hand?¡± that man repeated to himself before glancing down at his own, slightly shaking hands, and sighing, ¡°Understood. If these are not sufficient, we will need to consider some other options, so having some ideas to work with would be appreciated, especially if you intend to sell these later and don¡¯t wish to see any wasted on an experiment with a living creature.¡±


    ¡°I do have a few things in mind, although it would not be a huge loss for me to expend one or two pills a full experiment. I have plenty of funds.¡±


    ¡°Quite,¡± Chu Huazhi, the man that had full access to the dealings of his branch of the Chu Alchemical Store and could thus see how much she had recently earned from acquiring ingredients for Physique Awakening pills and then creating far higher quality variants of what should have been possible with them, muttered to himself, stepping forward, ¡°I shall work on that test, then, so you can decide on the others experiments on your own. For the sake of my income, don¡¯t damage anything beyond absolute necessity.¡±


    They nodded, and begun, with her two opponents watching carefully to see if they can spot something about her work, whether it was a positive fact that they could keep to themselves and learn from, or something negative that could be pointed out to reduce her overall score in the competition.


    As with the previous two sets of items, it was incredibly difficult to discern any faults, but with the additional element of the unconventional structure, one of the only things that they could assess with any reasonable accuracy was the outer shell of the pill, which, despite the contents being rather outstanding, appeared to be what one might expect from the usual pill, a thin, translucent gem-like surface that permitted the moonlight within shine through like sunlight would shine through water, painting everything and everyone around it in dancing silver lights, a feature that would likely make it the crowning jewel of any unknowing ordinary human¡¯s home, as it would function both as a source of illumination and beauty that even cultivators would have to acknowledge.


    Of course, this would only apply to those that are ignorant, as any reasonable ordinary individual would instead sell it as quickly as possible for the greatest price they could ¨C before someone could steal it from them and make a fortune for themselves instead ¨C and then live the rest of their lives in luxury without needing to bother with the world around them.


    Most cultivators tended to avoid bothering the common folk or stealing from them, as it seemed an unnecessary thing to do when they could easily purchase whatever they wanted from them; earning and keeping money was far easier with any cultivation realm, after all.


    With all of the powers and great gifts that a cultivator may access, one might wonder why exactly anyone would want to avoid becoming a cultivator, and why there are any ordinary people in a world so full of planar energy that it is essentially impossible to live in an area where reaching the first realm before the end of one¡¯s life is a difficult task. The latter relied mainly on aptitude and the ability to actually cultivate, as a proper dantian is needed to cultivate and absorb energy. Some can be born with inferior dantians, such as the one that Wei Yi had found herself with all those years ago, whereas others might have suffered an injury that prevents them from successfully sustaining enough planar energy within themselves to break into the first realm. However, both of these were rarely because of one¡¯s own will, so what may be more relevant are the reasons to avoid cultivation altogether.


    For one, those with the best chance of great achievements in cultivation were those with wealth, as they could afford to acquire pills and other resources to push themselves into greater realms than they might otherwise reach, and this is especially true of those that cannot rely on families or existing cultivation groups to progress. Those kinds of people would not always want to go from their position at the top of whatever group they were in to become a weakling in another, and not everyone wanted to switch from dealing with problems through money to resolving them with some form of power, as was common amongst cultivators.


    Then, there were the risks and conflicts involved in cultivation. It was difficult to get far without angering at least one person, whose friendship with someone else would eventually balloon into an entire district forbidding one¡¯s entry and putting out a bounty of several planar shards on their head. For those used to calmer situations, it was often easier to limit one¡¯s cultivation to the first few stages, wherein they would receive some health benefits but would not distinguish themselves sufficiently to no longer be considered ordinary.


    Truth be told, had Wei Yi not had to deal with the Great Families, the otherworldly demons, the seemingly silent and absent heaven¡¯s will and all of her other issues, if she had been born in a world similar to the one that the otherworldly demons tended to describe, without power and planar energy and so-called mystical arts, she would have liked to try out an ordinary life. To simply live, work and relax, much like many people of the Planar Continents had done at the best times of Yi City and whatever was happening on the Eastern Continent. There, she would be free, and would not need to concern herself with threats that were clearly bigger than her in every way.


    ¡®Well, with what I have seen of the behaviour of the otherworldly demons, I do not doubt that if I had been born into such a world from the start, I would be thinking the exact opposite. I would be doing everything to gain some kind of unusual power, and would thus fall for whatever had allowed them to be here now, with powers that ruin the mind¡­ Speaking of which¡­¡¯


    She raised her head in a manner that might appear innocuous, but that was in no way random, looking towards the great iron walls that protected the Ning District.


    For a moment, there appeared to be nothing. The district continued on calmly, as it always had. Some hunters were selling their wares to traders and craftsmen, a few beginner alchemists were running around and trying to convince others to purchase their wares over those of their better-established competitors, some children were playing around as children often did. Most of this happened indoors, as the empty space outside was highly limited and used extensively, meaning that if the casual observer looked at the district without spiritual perception, all they would see is a large number of buildings and a small gathering in one of the few empty areas of the district.


    Then, it all changed.


    Something akin to an enormous wave struck the wall. It trembled as the wave flowed over it, light breaking, bending and reflecting in manners that should not have been possible as it streamed down the wall and washed over the district, covering it all in a layer of broken, mirror-like surfaces that darkened the entire district.


    Darkness, both hot and cold, poured from this layer onto everyone observing the Refiner¡¯s Duel, as well as anyone else that stood within its path, flooding their bodies with an immense yin that could not be compared to anything lesser than the very essence of cold itself, and yet it inspired an odd warmth of terror in those with weaker minds. Everything about it and the mirrors above was contradictory, unnatural, and the very sight of one¡¯s twisted reflexion above them was a far greater attack upon a human than any mental techniques beneath the third realm.


    ¡°Who amongst you misuses my name? Which one imitates us!¡± the powerful voice of the Great Aberrant thundered from the layer of mirrors, the darkness of terror pulsing with his voice as if it was his very lungs, ¡°Your blasphemy shall not go unpunished, people of this district! Suffer the plane of terror!¡±


    Once the decree fell upon the people of the Ning District, so did the horror that he forced upon them. Terrifying abominations fell from the mirror shards, coalescing from many broken pieces of all kinds of glass and polished metals into creatures that resembled humans, and yet differed greatly from them, with proportions and limbs that would never fit upon a real person. Enormous claws the size of one¡¯s torso, horribly bulging and stretched stomachs that glowed with some kind of noxious substance within them, singular and multiple eyes that contained a power that was immediately apparent to anyone that beheld them ¨C these terrors also radiated power that was unmistakable to all present: the fifth realm.


    ¡°Witness the true depths of your-¡±


    ¡°There you are.¡±


    A single pill of moonlight suddenly flew up from the ground, flicked in a particular manner by Wei Yi, soaring towards a point in the sky.


    It flew and flew, for so long that any who watched it thought that it might hit nothing, but then it struck the empty air just below the mirrored layer, bursting into a miniature moon that completely consumed anything within it. The horrible darkness, the mirrors, and the very voice of the Aberrant suddenly disappeared from that spot, dissolving together with the pill into naught but dark grey fluid that splashed onto the ground, quietly and slowly flowing towards Wei Yi after a short while.


    After a few moments, the rest of the layer followed, the mirrors and the terrifying creatures shattering and bursting into nothing, as if everything about them was a lie and everything that they had witnessed been an unfortunate hallucination, brought on by some unknown cause.


    One of the judges was about to ask if anyone else had witnessed the same thing, when he suddenly found his legs going weak, causing him to fall to the ground before a word could come out of his mouth. Following him, more of the judges, the bystanders and Ning Fangtie all fell, their faces becoming pale and a darkness filling the veins on their face.


    Women were affected less than most of the men, and they were still able to remain standing, although it was clear that they would fall at any moment.


    Perhaps the only one that was in good condition was Wei Yi, who had absorbed the yin that had spread throughout her body with her physique energy in the same way that she had turned the temporary mirror plane to naught.


    ¡°Everyone, I might have a solution to this, but you must obey immediately,¡± she declared.


    As forcing them to answer her would simply drain more of their energy, she assumed that none of them were interested in meeting their end right there and grabbed the pills she had created from the table, throwing them out to select individuals in the crowd and amongst the judges and competitors, doing so in order to best affect everyone equally. All of them had enough strength to catch a pill and hold it in their hands, at which point she instructed them to consume the pill but not immediately dissolve them with their planar energies.


    ¡°Wait, is this not yin-type energy? How is the Extreme Yin Decomposition pill going to help?¡± one mind that remained keener than the others questioned.


    ¡°As you should have noticed, my pills were not produced in the normal fashion. Now, swallow it.¡±


    They all wanted to know more, as the human mind was rather inquisitive when on the potential precipice of death, but they complied as they either understood that they will not get a chance to do so otherwise, or because they were intimidated by the small burst of killing will that burst out of her body.


    At once, they suddenly shattered, and a similar burst of moonlight emerged as when she had thrown one of the pills at the mirage of the Great Aberrant, covering everyone in soft moonlight from within and through the skin and flesh of others around them, although this did not look as terrifying as one might imagine, with the light seemingly phasing directly through them as if they were not even there. This light touched the essences of all of these people, seeping into them and scouring the darkness from their minds, most of the light vanishing while the rest collected into small spheres of grey liquid that floated into the air and flew towards Wei Yi¡¯s hand, where it seeped into her skin leaving nothing behind it.


    ¡°Is anyone still experiencing the effects of the darkness?¡± Wei Yi asked without looking at the new line that appeared on the Truth of the Universe, mostly to not appear more omniscient than she should be.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m fine¡­¡±


    ¡°So am I¡­¡±


    ¡°And I¡­¡±


    With enough responses, she turned towards Chu Huazhi, who got up and caught his breath and was now looking around in an attempt to find any remaining traces of the strange layer of mirrors that had beset them only moments ago, ¡°Earlier, we had discussed certain possibilities about the group that called themselves the Mirror Plane Aberrations. What is your current view on this?¡±


    ¡°Current? Huh¡­ Well, I find this slightly confusing. Before that, however,¡± he turned to the crowd that remained, ¡°Everyone! Go back to your own homes and shops and check whether anything is missing, or whether anything has appeared! The guard will probably have other instructions, but for now, make sure that nothing has made it in, and nothing has disappeared. This invasion couldn¡¯t have been as simple as this!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that you don¡¯t presume this to be a mere attempt at intimidation.¡±


    ¡°No, that would be unlikely,¡± the local manager stated once most of the ordinary folk had retreated, ¡°Assuming that their leader is not incompetent, there is no possibility of a secretive group not making use of the fear created by some offshoot or imitators to advance their own goals. Even if they considered this group to be a significant affront to them, dealing with them in the open would not be wise, considering the fact that they had never been seen before, and since their leader was apparently incapable of handling a single pill being tossed at him.¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m sure that the leader himself is fine. This was probably a projection or technique of some kind serving as an anchor and conduit, if he is in a lower realm, or that he had simply centred his abilities on that point of the mirror layer and was thus thwarted rather conveniently.¡±


    ¡°Oh? That is more plausible, I suppose. Your pills were rather extraordinary, frankly.¡±


    ¡°If this is not exactly what it appears to be on the surface, perhaps if their group is actually a part of the Aberrations and this is some sort of setup, then what would you assume?¡±


    Chu Huazhi frowned at the rather extensive list of questions already being presented by her, but answered, ¡°Then they are likely doing as I had assumed, using this event to mask something else, perhaps stealing from the people, or perhaps preparing for a later infiltration by placing something inside of the people¡¯s homes.¡±


    ¡°Huh. Is there any situation that you think would lead to a leader doing this without any good reason?¡±


    ¡°Perhaps if the group is passed down from leader to leader, they could have a child responsible for their actions, and that child could have become aggravated that he was not being taken seriously and sent out a force to teach that other group a lesson.¡±


    ¡°Effectively, the person would need to be incredibly immature or unreasonable?¡± she repeated, raising an eyebrow.


    ¡°That¡¯s what I presume.¡±


    ¡°Alright, good to know. Now, I wish to discuss the victor of this Refiner¡¯s Duel before purchasing a few things from you, so, seeing as you have witnessed the effectiveness of my creations first hand, I don¡¯t think that there should be much argument about who that is, should there?¡±


    The Chu Alchemical Store¡¯s local manager wasn¡¯t sure whether he was even qualified to conclude anything about the duel, so he instead turned to the other two, who had recover similarly through Wei Yi¡¯s supposed variation of the Extreme Yin Decomposition pill, which he was beginning to believe wasn¡¯t actually what she claimed it to be and was instead some kind of miracle sealed within the relatively feeble shell of a pill.


    Out of her two competitors, the first to reply was Ning Fangtie, who looked at his own pills and then at himself, observing the results of her creation, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that I fail this particular duel. I concede.¡±


    Then, all eyes were on Chen Shujin, who, for a moment, did nothing at all.


    It was as if she needed a little longer to realise that she was being looked at, at which point her eyes widened, her angry aura disappeared in its entirety, and she suddenly looked into the sky, shouting at the very peak of her voice.


    ¡°MOM!¡±

 V3C20: A Competition’s Ultimate Rewards

    The cry itself was not imbued with any technique, nor did it appear to be intended to influence anyone other than the intended recipient, yet the sudden change forced everyone to take a step back and look in the same direction that Chen Shujin looked, wondering exactly what her call could summon.


    Some were convinced that they had misheard her, and that this was something more complicated than what it appeared to be, but, when it did indeed appear, they knew they were entirely mistaken.


    A figure surrounded by vibrant light and countless pouring petals of white flowers appeared in the sky, standing many metres above the ground atop a thick layer of flower petals that were spread just far enough to support her naked feet. Another layer of petals hovered beside her, ensuring that no observers could make use of their perspective to see anything that they should not be able to.


    ¡°My child, since you have finally called upon your mother after more than a year, tell me ¨C what has upset you so?¡±


    Even Chen Shujin herself appeared to be too surprised to speak at first, perhaps not expecting that kind of entrance so quickly, but she collected herself and, with tears pooling in her eyes, she called out to her mother, ¡°Please, these two have ganged up on me to take our techniques!¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± her mother turned to Chu Huazhi and Wei Yi, eyeing the latter for a few moments longer before continuing, ¡°I assume our local manager and this woman were involved. Tell me, you two, what exactly is the situation, and is it connected to that earlier annoyance that I had observed? If one of you had caused it, I will not hesitate to remove you from the district.¡±


    As she said that, some of the petals around her melted into pure planar energy, glistening like gold as they formed a pair of arrays, one on each side of the woman, nineteen thin threads of raw might connecting them to her body.


    She was in the Linked Channels realm, that much was obvious by the threads, for once a cultivator surpassed the fifth realm of Marked Core, all of their searing marks would be connected with the planar anchor, and would thus permanently affect one¡¯s planar energy and everything they did, often manifesting in reality if one invested a significant degree of power into an attack without similar focus to hide the channels from appearing beside them.


    Typically, a cultivator would possess only about twenty searing marks, but a little bit of talent or a good, suitable technique would bring that up to twenty five, then both would raise it to thirty and thirty five, like in the case of Chu Huazhi, who appeared to be heading for roughly thirty marks at the peak of his realm. Judging by the number of the thin threads, it appeared that Chen Shujin¡¯s mother had successfully cultivated a total of thirty-eight searing marks, the power of which wasn¡¯t split in half amongst the two arrays, created through the power of solidifying planar energy that one obtained within the fourth realm, but were instead empowering everything equally, with the threads being a purely visual factor that appeared due to some innate factor of the world.


    ¡°I¡­¡±


    ¡°Manager Chu Huazhi, allow me,¡± Wei Yi said, taking a step forward as she looked up at the superior cultivator without displaying any fear. Although this woman was far more powerful than the lowest-realm Great Family members were, she lacked any of the same terrifying presence and the mirage-like anchors around her, making her entirely unthreatening in Wei Yi¡¯s eyes. ¡°After a dispute regarding the prices of my products, which were set just a little lower than my common competitors to give me a chance to be noticed by the district and gain some customers, a Refiner¡¯s Duel had been organised with the bet of one¡¯s primary refining technique, fifteen two-star recipes and five three-star recipes from                               both losers to the victor. Judging by your daughter¡¯s reaction, I assume that she and Ning Fangtie had decided me to be the victor and is now worried about repaying her debt.¡±


    The woman looked down upon her for a moment, then her expression loosened and she rolled her eyes as the arrays of energy dispersed and the majority of petals returned to her body as she dropped from the sky, landing upon the ground without the support of any techniques to support her body despite the great height.


    She landed before the four them, manager and competitors, and looked sternly into her daughter¡¯s eyes before looking back at Wei Yi, ¡°Since this appears to be the case, I shall not punish you for doing what you needed to do. Business works like that. I understand. However, give me some face and spare my daughter from passing on our family¡¯s secret refining techniques over a simple bet made in the heat of the moment, if you would?¡±


    ¡°Although your daughter was the first to agree to that specific bet, I am satisfied with any technique that can refine the recipes that I will receive.¡±


    ¡°In that case, daughter, give her what you owe her, and learn from this in the future so that you do not make the same mistake,¡± Chen Shujin¡¯s mother stated, waiting for her daughter to nod and head off to retrieve what was asked of her, ¡°My name is Chen Jushu, and I hope that you can forgive my daughter¡¯s unfortunate behaviour. She is still young and needs far more experience in the world to build up the skill and resilience that someone of the Chen family must have. If you have spoken with anyone from my extended family, you are bound to know what I mean.¡±


    ¡°Even if I had not, the reputation of the Chen family had spread quite far.¡±


    ¡°That is good to hear. Which district are you from, Wei Yi?¡±


    ¡°The Jiang District. I began my learning of the great art of refining there and moved on once I felt that it was suitable. I had not the pleasure of speaking with someone from your family, but you have left a far better first impression than your daughter.¡±


    ¡°Now, now, as her mother, I may criticise her as much as I must, but you should not do the same,¡± Chen Jushu said, although she still nodded in agreement with Wei Yi¡¯s words.


    ¡®Clearly, this woman is well aware of what it can be like to speak and interact with her daughter. At the moment, she does not seem too unreasonable, but from my past interaction with one of the Chen family, all I can conclude with confidence is that she doesn¡¯t appear to have any trace of Great Family abilities, and that she is just as happy to spend money or resources to resolve her problems,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, intentionally brushing her spiritual perception past Chen Jushu to check whether her energy could be perceived by someone in the sixth realm, finding that she did not appear to be able to detect it, ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind, if I ever need to interact with her again.¡±


    ¡°So, what was that disturbance earlier, then?¡± the woman asked, glancing into the air where the layer of mirrors once was, ¡°I was working on something in my chambers when I sensed something incredibly peculiar, although it faded rather quickly.¡±


    Chu Huazhi took the opportunity to speak, which Wei Yi also used to get away from the discussion and follow Chen Shujin to figure out where she kept all of her recipes and supplies, ¡°It appears to be something relating to the Mirror Plane Aberrations, that group that had been attempting to close down the city. Whether or not they are actually part of the organisation, or if this is the result of a conflict between a real and fake group, they attacked the city with extreme yin and some kind of illusion.¡±


    ¡°It is like they are trying to force the guard¡¯s hand¡­¡±


    They began a similar discussion to Wei Yi¡¯s earlier inquiry regarding the local manager¡¯s opinions, so she did not bother listening in on them, speeding up to be able to pursue Chen Shujin at a closer distance. At first, the defeated alchemist had walked slowly, with tears still flowing from her eyes, but she sped up and appeared to recover by the time she had approached her house, which was a mansion in comparison to the miniscule structures in which Wei Yi and many others had to reside. It had two floors, several rooms that weren¡¯t simply the bedroom, and even that offered enough space for a person to lie on either side of the bed without any difficulty.


    One of these rooms was an alchemy chamber, with a furnace, many ingredients being stored in various conditions and states, presumably to allow for easier usage later on in Chen Shujin¡¯s common recipes, and stored several tomes that listed basic notes and observations on her previous experiences in refining, with most of the notes being labelled between 512 and 517, meaning that they were written more than five years before this, possibly coinciding with her breakthrough in some mental technique or just her cultivation.


    This was where she went to retrieve her recipes, approaching one of the corners of the room where she placed her hand on the wall as if to lean upon it. However, as she poured a little planar energy into it, one of the bricks in the wall shifted, revealing a small hidden compartment.


    Within lay a single jade slip.


    ¡®It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve seen one of those,¡¯ Wei Yi said to herself, standing at the very edge of the other woman¡¯s spiritual perception range as to guarantee that she would not be discovered, ¡®Multiple-use one, too, not to mention the rather stable condition. That¡¯s impressive, to say the least, but contradicts the earlier statement by her mother about any of her arts being a familial secret technique, given that the secret compartment is set to only respond to Chen Shujin¡¯s energy. Still, whatever the case is, I can learn everything within that jade, and pretend that I had never seen it, meaning that I would not need to meddle with whatever this situation is.¡¯


    ¡°Why can¡¯t I figure this jade out? I¡¯m sure I should have beaten that scheming bitch!¡± the alchemist that was ungraceful in victory muttered, causing Wei Yi to pause her plan for a moment.


    Jade slips were famous precisely for their ability to deliver all of the information within them straight to the head of the user, bypassing other knowledge and general understanding, so for someone to be unable to figure out the entirely of a regular jade slip was impossible, no matter how dense and incompetent they were.


    Furthermore, although Chen Shujin was rather ill-tempered and incapable of handling loss without throwing unnecessary insults and accusing the other party of cheating, not to mention breaking into tears when her loss was clear, she was not stupid by any regular metric.


    ¡®This means that there had to be something wrong with this jade slip as well. The first few were temporary and short-lived, this one is locked off somehow, perhaps? That would explain how it came to be so long after Kong Shi Meng left Yi City, and why it hasn¡¯t attracted greater attention,¡¯ she concluded, deciding to scan it anyway, ¡®The only question is how the lock functions, and why it does so. If it is an impassable obstacle that only allows one to view a certain quantity of information, that would be unfortunate, but if there is some way to bypass it, I could gain a great advantage in addition to whatever recipes Chen Shujin will provide me with regardless of the jade slip¡¯s contents.¡¯


    Her spiritual will touched the jade slip before Chen Shujin¡¯s could, and she found herself plunging into a great desolate void. Strange sparks of knowledge surrounded her, but all of them seemed to be just out of her reach.


    ¡®Hm. Not how I experienced the previous jade slips, that much is obvious. Let¡¯s see¡­¡¯


    Within this void, her mental energy appeared to coalesce into a reflection of herself, so she assumed that simply extending her spiritual perception would not do much, prompting her to instead mobilise her killing will and see what result that would achieve. It flowed out of her mental figure¡¯s hand, seeping into the abyss as paint might leak into paper, doing so slowly, but surely.


    As it slowly reached towards one of the spots of light, she realised that they were moving at an uneven pace, with some advancing through the void significantly faster than others, with their trajectories seeming to be entirely random. One set of sparks appeared to be moving together and past her, but some moved up, others down, and some even moved in an arc or spun around on the spot, seeming intent to be as confusing as they could possibly be.


    One thing that was fortunate, however, was the fact that there appeared to be a limit to this mental void, after which these sparks would either have to turn around or simply reappear on the other side of the immense abyss, meaning that she would not miss anything just because she took too long to understand the secret of this particular jade slip.


    The nearest spark was just out of reach, so her paint-like killing will reached it in less than a minute of the mental domain¡¯s time.


    When it touched it, she finally felt the proper effect of the slip that she had been awaiting. A great deal of knowledge surfed from the spark, flooding into her mind and forming into a hundred small tomes within the Ascendant¡¯s Library, with no red characters needing to be devoured by the Truth of the Universe this time. In comparison to the time that she took in six jade slips at once, or any other infusions of knowledge, like those from the Thunder Lord, this amount of information was rather insignificant in quantity, but she considered it more than worthwhile due to its usefulness.


    However, while her killing will was able to persist, the spark vanished, entirely being removed from the dark void. She could not be sure whether that applied to everyone who attempted to use the jade slip, at first, but when she released more killing will and acquired another few nearby sparks, she noticed a certain pattern to the appearance and knowledge that the sparks conveyed that suggested that she would not be able to find whichever technique Chen Shujin had made use of.


    In addition, the mental books that she was able to recover were incomplete, with several significant elements being entirely absent while certain sentences simply cut off in the middle.


    ¡®Once more, this library turns out to be immensely useful, as anyone without it would likely struggle far more to correctly remember and interpret these partial pieces of knowledge. This must be why Chen Shujin struggled so much, and why only a few of the pills turned out to be highly successful,¡¯ Wei Yi understood, sending out even more killing will to take as much as she could before retreating.


    She would have obviously liked to take everything for herself, given the immense boost that it would offer her general knowledge with even a single fully complete technique ¨C especially since she could likely divine much of the rest via the Truth of the Universe ¨C but if Chen Shujin had anywhere near the same ability to perceive the contents of the jade slip as Wei Yi did, then she would immediately notice that so many of the previous fragments of information had disappeared out of nowhere, certainly prompting some kind of investigation.


    This was only for now, since there could be many things that cause an ancient jade slip to crumble, meaning that if she took advantage of a time where the item seemed to deteriorate and took more knowledge for herself, any suspicion would likely be averted or placed on someone capable of damaging a jade slip, rather than someone that can steal a lot of knowledge quickly.


    ¡®Then again, I don¡¯t have the reputation of browsing through many libraries here, like I did in the Yi District, so such a thing wouldn¡¯t point at me even if I didn¡¯t put effort into concealing my actions,¡¯ she reasoned, picking up one last spark and retreating from the jade slip before the time in reality offered Chen Shujin the opportunity to locate her within this great void. She was well aware that her ability to read the jade slips was a little beyond normal, but she wished to be absolutely sure that she would not be discovered too early.


    When she saw how much time had passed, however, she realised that this fear was rather misplaced.


    Chen Shujin¡¯s spiritual perception was still only half-way to the jade, and slowly made its way over as Wei Yi¡¯s perception of time slowly returned to normal.


    It appeared that her reading speed was still absolutely incredible, and when the alchemist finally plunged her own spiritual perception into the jade slip and froze for quite some time, it finally confirmed that Great Dark had not been lying to her when he claimed that it would take a month to read through a normal jade slip.


    With this particular slip, the process appeared to be somewhat different for most people, as Chen Shujin stood still for several minutes before she shook awake and clutched her head, clearly trying to recover from whichever spark she managed to catch.


    Afterwards, she sealed the jade slip into the stone once more and headed over to one of her emptier notebooks, tearing out a few pages to write down some of the most basic recipes and the simplest technique that she appeared to be able to recall, with all but two of the three-star recipes already being known to Wei Yi, meaning that the overall gains from this competition were unlikely to be particularly great.


    ¡®Ning Fangtie still needs to give me what I¡¯m due, so perhaps he will try a little more,¡¯ she thought, returning to the spot of the Refiner¡¯s Duel before her absence could raise questions.


    With how easy it had been so far to avoid negative attention so far, she was beginning to think that her overzealous insistence on being extremely cautious about everything was slightly unnecessary, but at the moment, this was not to her detriment. Perhaps in the future, if an opportunity required her to act in a less safe manner, she would leap onto it, but for now, her ability to continue her campaign against the Great Families, as insignificant as it was right now, was of far greater importance than anything that appeared to be within that jade slip, or anything that could be discovered by random exploration.


    This line of thought did inspire her to attempt a certain approach to informing the people, however.


    After taking some unused pieces of paper from a nearby home ¨C where there were plenty more, so it did not appear that she would ruin someone¡¯s life just like that ¨C she wrote down various allusions to the Greats with the knowledge that she had of them, making sure to paint them in a terrible yet realistic image, so that, if someone was to read the account and then learn more on their own, they would not find much reason to reassess their view of the Great Families.


    Then, she scattered these pieces of paper all over the place while travelling back, putting them in books, homes, alleys and all kinds of random nooks and crannies where they would likely be discovered by curious travellers or people simply going about their daily business.


    Whether this would lead to an increase in the awareness of the Greats, a campaign by them to prevent such knowledge from appearing, or if these accounts would be taken as random nonsense or a work of fiction was not yet certain, as she knew that if she suddenly found something that described a terrible conspiracy like that of the Greats, she would be unlikely to believe it right away, and that was if the statements made were highly accurate and easily verifiable with other historical documents and recollections from those that had been at the relevant location. If the information was more vague and required access to knowledge that the regular person would not possess, she would likely dismiss it outright and focus on what she could confirm.


    She couldn¡¯t blame anyone for this behaviour, just like she couldn¡¯t blame people for becoming weak after a long period of prosperity, or the strong using their power to take advantage of the weak, for these actions were reasonable, no matter how much she disliked them. This is what made her ideal, just world more of a fantasy than a feasible accomplishment, not that it would stop her from trying.


    In the end, she returned to the site of the Refiner¡¯s Duel only fifteen minutes after leaving, finding that even more of the spectators had left and that most of the judges had retreated to the same tavern, likely to get over the strange sight created by the Great Aberrant.


    As Ning Fangtie was still there, going through a small journal that listed a number of pills and some of the more unique ingredients that they required, she appeared in a place that was not being observed and walked over to him, waiting for a few moments before getting closer and coughing audibly to get his attention.


    ¡°Ah, Wei Yi. I had simply been considering which recipes to pass on to you. In regards to the technique, I will not need to go the same route as Chen Shujin ¨C my refining technique will be given to you in full, as promised,¡± he said, ¡°As a descendant of the Ning, I must keep my word in matters of bets unless I wish to spoil the name of my family. If you are not opposed, I can take you straight to my workshop, where I will pass the technique directly onto you.¡±


    ¡°I would appreciate that, but only after Chen Shujin gives me her technique and recipes. Wouldn¡¯t want to miss them.¡±


    He nodded and waited with her.

 V3C21: Searching for the Mirrored Realm

    On the next day, exactly a minute after midnight, Min Lian reminded Wei Yi that it was her birthday, and that she had turned 41 just like that.


    It was not something that deserved any kind of celebration, so after the assassin repeated that she would always remain loyal to the Scorching Blades, they snuck out of the district yet again, finding few new security measures appearing since the sudden invasion and quick defeat of the Mirror Plane Aberration illusory mirror layer.


    After that brief appearance of the Great Aberrant, Wei Yi had been able to deduce a few things about the Great Aberrant, although the piece of information that had greatest significance to her was the direction from which that mirror layer originated. So far, everything seemed to suggest that this action, at the very least, was rather poorly thought out, so she hoped that the Great Aberrant had not taken the time to disguise the direction from which he invaded, meaning that he would be somewhere to the north of the Ning District, or, at the very least, one of his hideout was bound to be in that direction.


    She did not think that she would be able to defeat him today, nor did she think that she had a high chance of discovering him on her first attempt, but she was feeling confident in escaping him as the energy that he had used to congeal that mirror layer appeared to be in the fourth realm, and the physique energy that she managed to borrow from it, apparently belonging to a Mirrored Being physique, did not give her the same impression as some of the most powerful physiques she had encountered so far. Whether he was actually in the Active Core realm, or whether there was more to the physique that she could not yet discover before awakening it, she concluded that it was reasonable to assume that he could not, or would not, use energy more powerful than that without a serious threat being presented against him, at which point he could potentially unleash a more devastating ability at the cost of a recovery process, or his general health.


    ¡®I can easily hide my prowess in most fields, so it should be easy enough to convince him that I am not a significant threat to whatever plans he has ¨C unless he recognises me as the person that shattered the mirror layer, at which point I will naturally need to react according to his actual power.¡¯


    Since such things tended to be rather varied from person to person, with everything from core techniques to random trinkets coming into play during a battle, and that meant that raw realm was not necessarily the defining factor. Wei Yi was the prime example of this, since her planar cultivation was only in the third realm, but it alone provided strength equivalent to the fourth realm, with a killing will in the fifth realm and a physique in the fourth realm that, altogether, allowed her to survive encounters like those with the Greats that would otherwise obliterate any normal cultivator.


    Then again, such immense differences in power could not usually be produced by normal means, so unless the Great Aberrant was another otherworldly demon or a secret member of the Great Families, he should not be able to exceed the power of the fifth realm, as the gaps in realms grew with every single realm. Someone in the fourth realm acquired ten times the power of a normal person ¨C not in terms of physical strength, of course ¨C whereas the fifth realm granted the cultivator forty times their initial ability per stage. The stages of the sixth realm, on the other hand, granted someone one hundred and twenty times their initial strength, a gap that was significantly more difficult to cross.


    ¡®I think I¡¯m starting to overthink things again¡­¡¯ she muttered to herself, advancing on.


    Having some kind of clear and obvious trail to follow to the Great Aberrant¡¯s location would have been best, but either he or his abilities were too clever to allow for such glaring flaws, and as such the most she had was the rough direction of movement from the time that the layer of mirrors entered her spiritual perception until it shattered.


    This wasn¡¯t ideal, especially considering the fact that if the leader of the Mirror Plane Aberrations was truly as foolish as he could be, then he could have easily gone to all sorts of places before finally invading the Ning District, meaning that heading directly north would be a flawed plan.


    It was for this reason that after she had reached the edge of what her spiritual perception had been able to detect back at the Refiner¡¯s Duel, she told Min Lian to take a different path, instructing her to go to any nearby points of interest and investigate whether any sightings of the floating mirror plane had occurred, then follow them to confirm their validity. Meanwhile, she would travel in a straight line, where they will hopefully be able to unite and discover the location from which the layer had originated, although it would also be fine if one of them found the origin point and was able to inform the other afterwards, although Wei Yi would certainly prefer it to be her that discovers it, rather than the assassin, due to her actually possessing the ability to do something about it while Min Lian was still essentially powerless while in the second realm.


    She was advancing swiftly and steadily, but it was far from enough, no matter how competent of an assassin she was. If she cannot pierce the core of someone in the fourth realm or above, she is nothing more than a momentary distraction to most opponents at that realm, which, given that the Great Aberrant was unlikely to be lower than that, meant that all she could do upon discovering a potential origin point is stay far enough away not to catch attention.


    Wei Yi sighed to herself when she and the assassin had come far enough apart from one another, ¡®Perhaps I will find a planar stone somewhere out there, as that would speed things up greatly.¡¯


    Such things were significantly more rare than planar shards, naturally, and would typically be enough for someone in the second and third realms to achieve at least one full stage, although it was far more likely to be two or three, depending on one¡¯s cultivation and technique. When she had absorbed the entirety of the third Lock Obelisk¡¯s energy and only progressed by a small amount, that was due to the absolutely excessive quantity of energy required to attain a perfected realm and stage every single time. That, and the characters deciding to devour most of the energy.


    To the north of the district was a small road that advanced into the forests around the district, with the trees growing progressively closer and closer to the road itself before it slowly shrunk into nothingness. Only a small and thin path remained after that, barely sufficient for someone as tall as her to travel through without clearing some of the excess branches as she went, but it did not remain that way for long, as it expanded very gradually until, suddenly, the forest cleared entirely.


    An enormous plain lay before her, small rolling hills dotting its surface and a number of visible planar beasts frolicking on its surface. Most of the grass grew to be a metre tall, shading the entire area with a vibrant, verdant green.


    As a soft wind passed through the plains, their entire surface shifted slightly, following the wind as they rocked back and forth.


    It could be said to be a pleasant sight, if not for the fact that quite a few patches of grass were oddly grey and decayed, moving in ways that could not be caused naturally by the wind that Wei Yi was currently experiencing, and at times appeared to break the very laws of matter itself as the grass stalks reflected and refracted within unseen mirrors, multiplying at times and almost vanishing at others, fading into some kind of different realm.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s certainly a confirmation of his presence,¡± she said to herself, her voice fading away into the grass before her, ¡®Whether this is in any way connected to the layer of mirrors that overwhelmed the district is another question entirely, one that required some further investigation.¡¯


    To get a better view of the plains, she leapt onto the tallest tree in sight with a few chained aerial platforms, keeping the top of the tree stable with killing will while she looked around, looking for any kind of pattern to the grey spots, any hints of where they could be coming from, what might have caused them to remain in place, or anything else that could give her any idea of where the Mirror Plane Aberrations were based. Wei Yi was also curious about the full extent of the mirrored spots, like whether they extended into the ground and the air or if they were focused specifically on the solid matter in the area or the blades of grass themselves.


    From above, it appeared that it was not that precise, instead being more alike to small clouds of mirror-like energy floating beside certain patches of grass, just above the ground but low enough to hide that fact from the casual observers. There were even times when individual blades of grass went outside of the mirrored cloud, but that tended to be brief and uneventful.


    It did show that, at least to the grass itself, these strange clouds of visual deformation did not appear to be harmful, and that it did not appear to prohibit one from entering or leaving them, although it was almost certain that this version of the mirrored effect differed from the mirrored layer ¨C which she established mostly from the absence of the terrible abominations rather than anything else ¨C and the Mirror Plane Aberration¡¯s goal of creating their mirror plane, whatever that kind of effort would even involve.


    All of these mirrored spaces, from afar, appeared to share the yin nature of the mirror layer, so they were likely to be consumable by her physique energy, but their difference made Wei Yi rather reluctant to attempt it, especially due to how low the benefit from it would be.


    ¡®Then again, it is possible that the Great Aberrant is using these for observation and detection, so if I was to absorb these spaces, I could alert him to my presence,¡¯ she thought, ¡®I don¡¯t sense any traces of spiritual will or any other kind of mental energy connecting these to anything, but it could be either as imperceptible as my spiritual will, or something that I have not yet understood, such as the mirage anchors had been during my first encounter with the Greats.¡¯


    Once more, there was no necessity to keep dwelling on this, as she couldn¡¯t possibly act in a way that would deal with all possible instances at the same time in a satisfactory manner, so she kept up her stealth techniques and surrounded herself with the energy of the Binder of the Dark, making sure to be as ready to attack, defend, escape or negotiate ¨C depending on the circumstances ¨C as she could possibly be without already knowing what kind of situation she would need to be dealing with afterwards.


    She leapt off the tree, landing softly onto the grass, then continued through the plains, attempting to follow the general direction indicated by the mirrored spaces, although it was quite likely that they were simply random and that the shape of these plains, with part of the forest continuing on either side with far fewer trees than there were behind her, caused it to look like they originated from the north.


    That wasn¡¯t much of a concern, though. ¡®If that is the case, then once the plains widen, I shall be able to see the random pattern clearly, and then I can change my approach and investigate the spaces themselves with greater attention to the more minor details that I might have otherwise overlooked. In addition, perhaps there will be something of interest at the end of these plains, or at the beginning of something more than an enormous flat field. I won¡¯t come across a district through such a brief walk, but I might be able to locate a small settlement of some kind, perhaps something like that village where cultivation was accomplished through the consumption of the blood of planar beasts.¡¯


    The majority of Yi City¡¯s population lived in the districts for many different reasons, whether it was safety, comfort or convenience, and if she had lived in the time of the Master of Yi City, or only shortly afterwards, she would have likely not encountered many people living outside of the districts, as there would be no reason to do so unless they were ardent enemies of Kong Shi Meng. After he left this world, however, and the walls of each district slowly began to recede, some were left on the outside, whereas others thought to head out of them to attempt to reclaim that which they had lost, occasionally returning with great power and wealth. Most of the time, they did not, and instead remained somewhere out there with their companions.


    In time, that proximity and isolation fostered relationships, and eventually, with the occasional arrival of new residents from other attempts to acquire lost items, small communities that were incapable of returning grew within the wilderness.


    After the many, many years that had passed, more than a million years, everything about their surroundings districts was entirely forgotten, leading to the primitive cultures that they had to resort to in order to be able to survive. Some of the more specific behaviours, like cultivation through blood, likely originated from various superstitions or fragmented techniques that had been passed down to the descendant¡¯s of the original group, which they then turned to in order to endure the harsh environment around them.


    There was also a small possibility that someone had been passing through the area and had decided to encourage certain practises while subduing others, but that required too much effort to be likely.


    Then again¡­


    ¡®People in the Planar Continents, especially those that are far too powerful to have many opponents or those that are from another world and wield some kind of ridiculous ability, have a little too much time on their hands, so perhaps it isn¡¯t that outlandish at all. The particular village that I had come across could have been influenced by the Blood-tinged Church at some point, or someone trying to experiment with various techniques on people that had few of them.¡¯


    She caught herself getting unnecessarily distracted, so she activated her movement techniques and accelerated her journey through the plains, rushing past the many mirrored spaces at a speed that was just low enough to maintain her stealth techniques, just in case, while her spiritual perception followed behind her as closely as it could to scout for anything of note within her surroundings.


    For quite some time, there was nothing at all, just more grass, more mirrored spaces, more small hills that wouldn¡¯t be enough for most to hide behind, no matter how short and insignificant they would otherwise be, with the grass itself being far better as cover than any of the geographical formations on the plains. Every now and then, she would near an animal or a planar beast that would either notice something amiss and step away or remain in place and continue munching on the long grass that grew all around them.


    After a kilometre or so, she had still not encountered any people, but the road that had initially brought her here reappeared, separating the grass plains and slowly growing to be wide enough to fit a regular carriage.


    What this did give her the opportunity to confirm was that the mirrored spaces were concentrated towards the direction in which she was travelling, as the further away from this road she observed with her spiritual perception, the fewer of these spaces she witnessed, until they essentially disappeared entirely at the edge of her perception. Assuming that this wasn¡¯t another coincidence, she decided to follow the road until it either led her to something of note, or until the mirrored spaces before her also began to thin out and disappear, at which point there would be little reason to continue blindly unless she located some other form of hint to the Great Aberrant¡¯s activities.


    So, she continued, on and on, until, about as suddenly as the plains and the mirrored spaces appeared, she came across a small stick stuck into the ground, with a black and grey ribbon tied to the top of it, fluttering in the wind alongside the grass. It was placed atop a small mound in the road, one that was otherwise entirely inconspicuous.


    On the other hand, Wei Yi could clearly sense what the stick and ribbon were likely meant to mark, as, right below it, under several inches of strangely dense and solid dirt, lay several planar stones without any supervision or protection, other than the material that covered them.


    ¡®Uh¡­ What exactly am I seeing here? Did someone leave behind several full planar stones just like that? W-Why?¡¯ she wondered, bewildered by how poorly something of this value was hidden, ¡®I¡¯m certain I¡¯m not missing anything in terms of defensive arrays, traps, or anything else of the sort, so what the fuck have I just come across? And¡­ why is this surprising me to such an extent? As I had thought before, the Planar Continents are full of strange people, and I could have easily bypassed some simpler defensive measure without realising due to the numerous intrinsic defences that I possess, whether it is the Third Eye or my powerful body.¡¯


    At the moment, it didn¡¯t matter, as her cultivation had been mostly stagnant for a very long time, and something with a great quantity of energy was absolutely essential.


    ¡®Yi Shi Ming, would you be able to place something into the prison realm while it is underground?¡¯


    ¡°Underground? Oh, I see what you have discovered. I am afraid that I cannot currently do so, as I need most of the surface of the planar stones to be uncovered before I can take any action. Ah Shi Meng had not intended the transportation array to be used to transport items, so it must be placed upon or below the surface of that which is it to be transported,¡± she replied from within the Kong Prison Realm, beginning to create the exit array within it, ¡°You were hoping to remove it secretly, I presume?¡±


    ¡®Whoever left these here is bound to return, at which point I would prefer them to take as long as possible to discover their absence,¡¯ Wei Yi replied, transforming her left hand and digging the claws into the ground to lift the entire dirt cover from the planar stones, ¡®Give me a moment to shield these, and then you can begin.¡¯


    After releasing a cloud of Binder of the Dark energy to obscure everything, congealing some of her killing will into an illusory array, she watched as the total of nine planar stones fell into the prison realm, disappearing from the face of the Planar Continents.


    Immediately, she dispersed both forms of energy and placed the hard dirt back onto its original location, shaping the area around it to hide any evidence of her claws or general tampering, then left.


    She was already uncertain whether she could deal with the Great Aberrant, and now that she had gained several potential stages, it made no sense to rush into potential conflict before acquiring and accumulating them. Having already found quite a few interesting things, she could always return and consolidate her knowledge with Min Lian before setting out once more at the third or fourth stage, which would effectively put her at the fifth or seventh stage due to her perfected stages.


    If, by some stroke of fortune, she reached the sixth stage, then she would experience an effective breakthrough in realm, acquiring some powerful ability that would effectively allow her to match or surpass the fourth realm without much difficulty. At that point, she would be more than ready to confront the likes of the Great Aberrant, with her confidence becoming far greater than ever before.


    ¡°I apologise for my-¡±


    ¡°Stop that and just say what you have managed to discover.¡±


    ¡°Yes. I had found a small, abandoned camp that appeared to have been in use not too long ago, which had several sets of footprints leading from it. I followed them, seeking their origin, but once I reached the edge of the forest, I had lost my way entirely and had been unable to proceed. I suspect the presence of some confounding array, but I have been unable to confirm the existence of such,¡± Min Lian said, bowing just low enough to make it obvious but high enough to avoid earning Wei Yi¡¯s ire.


    ¡°Oh. So that¡¯s why it had been hidden so poorly¡­ You¡¯ve not missed much, Min Lian, as I was there as well, except the confounding array did nothing to stop me. If I am not mistaken¡­¡± she pulled a map to herself with her killing will and unfurled it on the wall, creating numerous killing will points that she then scattered across the map based on the location of the mirror spaces in reality, ¡°Hm, not quite what a confounding array would need to look like, unless the height is also of relevance, in which case, raising these and these¡­¡±


    ¡°That must be it, Master. I felt my vision distort just from that, but, in the future, I should be able to resolve it on my own. I will not make the same mistake again.¡±


    ¡°No need for that. You and I are going to have a little break ¨C for cultivation purposes.¡±

 V3C22: Perfection of the Endless Path

    ¡°Master, are you certain that is wise? One planar stone is enough to raise one¡¯s level significantly, but when spread out across a spatial realm¡­¡±


    Wei Yi nodded as she continued to draw the array, ¡°Indeed, but that¡¯s not quite what I¡¯m trying to do. This realm, while benefitting from the outside world, is also separate, so if I can forcefully raise the overall quantity of planar energy faster than in the Continents¡­¡±


    ¡°You could create a world of people at a greater realm, with greater, more focused techniques, and knowledge that only the Great Families would possess in the modern world,¡± Yi Shi Ming finished her sentence for her, assisting in the creation of the array by linking it to the entire Kong Prison Realm, digging small channels in the ground with her control over the entire realm according to the design created by Wei Yi.


    ¡°Exactly. This is a necessary thing to do, as, eventually, I would not need to do everything myself.¡±


    As the final part of the array was created, the enormous array¡¯s construction quickly followed, shaking the entire prison realm. The rumbling quickly ceased, but that was only because the planar stone that had been placed beside the Ascendant¡¯s Library slowly released a great quantity of planar mist into the air and ground, flooding the world with a quantity of energy that would have otherwise been sufficient to bring one person into the third realm with ease. However, the stone was not emptied entirely, with a few drops remaining in it, serving as an artificial inflation of the total planar energy capacity of the prison realm.


    Overall, this increase was almost entirely insignificant, but it would mean that someone would need a few minutes less to reach the first realm, some seconds less to reach the second, and less to reach the third, and this would only grow with every moment as the overall level of the prison realm rose. Someday, it would make all of the difference.


    ¡°So, Master, how much of the remaining energy do you intend to use for yourself?¡±


    ¡°Seven of the stones will be used by me, the remaining one is for you,¡± she answered, separating them with killing will before creating a new array around her seven planar stones.


    ¡°I underst- you meant an entire planar stone?¡±


    ¡°Yes. You are currently the only one outside of the prison realm, so it is important that you are able to perform more than the role of a weak assistant. Do your best to return to your former strength with the techniques that I had given you some time ago, and then we will both be able to survive against the Great Aberrant and his cult without me needing to observe you with great care at every single moment. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I understand. I shall not let you down!¡± Min Lian exclaimed, waiting for Wei Yi to complete the extraction array for her as well before sitting down and beginning her cultivation of the planar energy within.


    Wei Yi stood by for a few moments to ensure that nothing unexpected happened to her, as the technique she used had been adapted from the assassin¡¯s previous planar technique combined with some of her own insights, meaning that it had the potential of going terribly wrong and trying to generate another set of meridians for her if she practised it in a very particular manner. That should not occur, considering the fact that all of her techniques were separated in a very clear manner, but with the randomness of her discovery of the multiple meridian network technique, she wouldn¡¯t be surprised if something similar happened again, but this time with dantians or anchors or something.


    Fortunately, that did not occur, so she instead sat down in the middle of her set of planar stones and bid Yi Shi Ming to step away, just in case her existence as the spatial spirit somehow interfered with her array, or the other way around. It was unlikely to be as potentially damaging as some theoretical effects of Min Lian¡¯s cultivation method, but it was better to be safe whenever possible, especially when under the effects of significant time dilation.


    With the Truth of the Universe and the technique the characters displayed within her mind¡¯s eye, she began to absorb the energy from the planar stones at full force, employing the array based on the many that she had witnessed before in order to draw out, purify and concentrate that energy upon her.


    From the seven stones, dense beams of light emerged, most of them containing a foreign shade of silver, blue, red, brown or green, and moved towards her at first, but their direction quickly changed. Instead, they followed the array, assembling a small array of their own as the beams occasionally intermingled with one another. This was no show, done purely for the aesthetic value ¨C although it was fair to say that there was some within the mixture of colours produced by the beams ¨C but instead a method of accumulating energy and using the very properties of the world to benefit her.


    ¡®In theory, at the very least. Try as I might, with my limited comprehension of the heavens of the Planar Continents and the very nature of the world, there is only so much I can accomplish without fortunate revelation,¡¯ she thought, relaxing somewhat when she noticed that the concentration of the planar energy did appear to increase just a little bit, meaning that there was some truth to her theories.


    Eventually, this energy reached abdomen, where, after a momentary pause, it all surged into her dantian.


    Once it circled around the planar anchor several times, the energy flowed throughout her entire body, going along the circulation paths of her technique in order to bind the planar energy to herself before she could absorb it fully.


    She forced the circulation to complete numerous times, straining her meridians until they nearly began to burst and bleed from the growing pressure of the planar energy that was desperate to enter something that could actively sustain and maintain it, simultaneously circulating her existing energy to support and strengthen them, composing a small array through these channels of energy to increase that effect even further. After a moment of thought, she also ignited the dantian bone talismans to further empower that planar energy, as well as her own, before finally deciding that it was time to process the planar energy for herself.


    It sunk into her planar aperture, mixing with the cosmic light of her own energy and the constant mist that was exuded from the nascent rift that sat within the planar anchor, and as it was processed, the planar pool grew. After only a brief time, it began to press against the spectral walls of her planar aperture, slowly pressing against it further and further until the boundary of the stage was finally surpassed.


    At once, her planar energy surged out of her body, forming the vague outline of her anchor around her as it condensed, became denser and stronger, slowly coalescing into less transparent crystal.


    Shattering suddenly, it crashed back into her body before surging out as the breakthrough of the perfected stage occurred, cleansing every tiny particle of her body once more, purging the many influences that had built up over the many years since her last breakthrough, transforming her entirely without a single obvious change.


    ¡®Thus, the second stage and first perfected stage is reached, with roughly one twentieth of the energy. Considering the fact that the consumption of planar energy increases each time, and that I had already built up some energy myself, the next breakthrough might require one ninth, then one third, then the equivalent of everything I currently have, so I can expect to reach the fourth stage, possibly the fifth if I have a stroke of luck and figure out some method of reducing the quantity of energy that I require without compromising the power of my techniques,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, turning her head slightly towards the spatial spirit, ¡°Would you happen to have any knowledge of the specific techniques that your son had created and practised? It would help quite a lot to know of one or two.¡±


    ¡°Is your current technique not one that Shi Meng had compiled?¡±


    ¡°It is, but I am only able to obtain the current information for my stage, so I do not know how I will proceed and how much of the technique is actually applicable to my own situation. Getting a better understanding of the things he had created with the Truth of the Universe would be beneficial.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I can offer you some insights. Permit me a moment to gather my memories of his techniques.¡±


    ¡°Certainly. Before that, though, I¡¯d like to congratulate you on how quickly you¡¯ve managed to pick up the modern language of the Continents. A little longer and you might be able to go outside without anyone realising that you had been alive more than a million years ago, although I have actually met a few people that tended to use older words and terms despite not being anywhere near your age,¡± she said, the image of Chu Ling appearing within her mind.


    While she waited for Yi Shi Ming to pass along the relevant techniques and her understanding of them, she looked into her dantian and upon the anchor, which would be the primary thing to change during the following breakthroughs.


    What she saw was rather confusing. The overall power of the structure had clearly increased, as the energy that emanated from the five sides of the anchor grew brighter and significantly more vibrant, but the stability of the structure itself seemed to be decreasing, as if a force was pushing on the anchor from within and trying to break it apart. From all of the anchors she had witnessed previously, as well as her understanding of what an anchor was meant to develop into with every single stage that was reached.


    To put it a little more simply, this was highly concerning.


    ¡®A planar anchor is the core of a cultivator¡¯s advancement past the second realm, so if explodes or something like that, I will be in a terrible situation¡­¡¯ she thought, considering whether it was wise to temporarily cease all absorption of energy and rethink her cultivation path before proceeding, but with the array still functioning actively, she didn¡¯t have much of a choice.


    ¡°I have remembered all I could, but, even if you trust the assassin of the Scorching Blades, I shall speak to you through vocal transmission,¡± Yi Shi Ming said after a short while, using voice transmission to do so, ¡°My son was incredibly powerful, and it would be for the best if the majority could not learn of his secrets in the way that you or I have. I know that thou art¡­ I mean, that you are well aware of what granting everyone too much power can lead to, but as my son had said many times, even the wisest, smartest person in the world could benefit from the occasional reminder. Having said that, here is what I know¡­¡±


    As the third real stage and the second perfected stage were reached, Wei Yi saw that the effect on the anchor grew further, with small cracks appearing in the surface of the anchor that was slowly turning more and more crystalline.


    Meanwhile, what she gained from Yi Shi Ming was rather limited as well, providing her with only a little bit of information regarding the ultimate conclusion of her current cultivation path, but not much about the specific stages, as Kong Shi Meng himself had apparently been rather secretive about his techniques even to his mother, achieving most of them with experimentation and luck combined with the deductive abilities of the Truth of the Universe rather than raw knowledge.


    Thus, the most she could do for now was to adapt some of the circulation paths currently in use to be more suitable for upcoming cultivation stages before pressing on.


    After her second breakthrough of the day, she had only a little more than eight ninths of the energy remaining, which was being consumed rapidly as she approached the fourth ordinary stage and the third perfected stage. The changes in her circulation paths did make some difference, optimising the process ever so slightly, but it was mostly insignificant overall, yet again, prompting her to glance at the Truth of the Universe¡¯s interface and the 34 that represented her overall remaining anchor energy pool with an idea.


    The technique that the Master of Yi City had created was incredible, that was obvious, but he had made it for himself, adapting it afterwards to suit whoever would acquire the characters after him, meaning that it was not necessarily as optimal for her as it could be. Unlike many, she had an immense amount of knowledge about her own body, the advantage of multiple types of energy, seemingly the most powerful physique to ever originate in the Planar Continents and a library full of techniques from which to draw inspiration, meaning that so long as the Truth of the Universe did not require too much anchor energy to act, she could use it to quickly modify the Mysterious Character technique into one that would be perfect for her.


    Since the button was next to the technique, it meant that she could afford it, causing the only question to be whether she should.


    ¡®I don¡¯t have any answer other than yes, do I? Depending on how much there is to fix, this could immensely boost my abilities, potentially prevent the approaching collapse of the anchor, and give me a whole host of abilities that I can¡¯t even theorise about right now. With that, claiming more anchor energy would not be a challenge at all,¡¯ she reasoned, mentally pressing the button to advance the technique.


    The Mysterious Characters technique faded for a moment, the line it occupied becoming blank, before it flashed several times, each one consuming another point of anchor energy as if it attempted to complete itself but found, each time, that it needed more to truly be complete.


    Taking a total of eight anchor energy points to complete, the technique name finally returned with a flash, this time bearing the name of Ascendant¡¯s Path, and was now within the first stage, meaning that some great development had occurred behind the scenes, so to speak. Just as she began to think that this was nothing more than a random replacement, or a change in name only, she finally felt her body change in accordance with the change in the technique itself. All of her meridians trembled as the anchor within her body, the dantian and its bone walls, the spectral core, the bones and muscles and even the very air around her changed, completely and utterly.


    Despite that, when she looked upon the final appearance of her planar energy, as it slowly built up to a point sufficient to break through once more, the quantity she had already built up seemingly having been doubled through the development of the technique, it was almost indistinguishable, with the only thing of note being the increase of nebulae that she could see ¡®through¡¯ the planar energy, with the five colours of the elements being more prominent within the cosmic dust.


    What did clearly change was the power that the cosmic crystalline light contained.


    Once it surged out of her body once more, it was as if the very event that had begun her journey occurred once more, a wave of impossibly hot flame appearing to consume her body from within. However, just as sudden as that was, a wave of soothing earth-like energy replaced it, followed by a metallic silver light and then a torrent of freezing water. The next wave was not a wave at all, but instead seemed like a series of roots that grew from the dantian and entered every muscle, bone and organ of her body, although none of those roots, nor any of the previous waves were truly visible to the naked eye or her spiritual perception.


    She thought that this would be the end, given that the waves had gone through all of the five elements, but then an incredibly powerful electric shock struck her system, all of her muscles tensing for a few incredibly lengthy moments as all of the blood within her seemed to outright evaporate, leaving her dry and empty.


    The true final wave turned out to be one of blood, washing over her and refilling her blood vessels and resuscitating her in one moment, before all of these energies formed around her into a cosmic anchor, mirroring the one within her planar aperture. In the external mirage, she could see how all of the force that was threatening to pull it apart was concentrated on her head, a huge sphere of violet light that actively pushed away the solid matter of the anchor, resembling an enormous star.


    ¡®Alright then, that¡¯s something. With how little experience I have with five-sided anchors, amongst other things, I cannot think of anything to do to resolve this,¡¯ she stared at the violet light that floated near her head before it collapsed and rebuilt itself once more during the breakthrough of the perfected stage, bringing her to the fourth stage.


    Before she could observe any further changes to her anchor and her energy, the rest of the planar energy within the planar stones rushed into her dantian, filling it in a single go and putting her at the edge of yet another breakthrough in a single moment. This would have normally gone past too quickly for someone to comprehend, but her perception of time slowed as her focus returned to the Truth of the Universe, and the remaining twenty-six units of anchor energy that the large dark screen displayed to her.


    ¡®If this phenomenon will occur again, then I will receive the instant benefit of not only the planar energy cleansing my body, but also of each element and their effects, meaning that the key right now would be to maximise the following breakthrough and hope that it will not cause the anchor to shatter outright. Out of all of the combined elements, I will likely only be able to afford to develop one with the assistance of the Truth of the Universe, so I should probably make it count¡­¡¯ she thought, eventually deciding that out of all of the elements, metal and wood might produce the best combination.


    From what she had seen so far, the two combined elements in her possession, blood and lightning, had great abilities and could easily overpower most of the other simple elements in most situations, so she hoped that the infusion of metal into wood would somehow produce something similarly effective.


    As eleven points sank away from the interface, she felt seven waves flood her body yet again, this time occurring with a far briefer gap between them, passing in a single second and yet containing an even more intense power than before, followed by a new wave, which mimicked both the freezing cold metal and the roots that spread throughout her flesh, countless silver vines taking root within her while many equally silvery leaves grew upon them, with the most leaves sprouting near her skin and the air outside.


    Together, these eight forms of power formed into the spectral anchor around her, with metallic vines growing at the top of the anchor, bridging metal and wood together despite their lack of proximity nearer to the middle of the five-sided structure. This anchor radiated immense force, the ground beneath her cracking alongside the planar stones, which shattered into dust and then into nothingness as all of their energy was drained, while the anchor itself visibly bulged outwards as the sphere within it continued to grow, clearly being at the very edge of shattering the outside of the anchor when the perfected stage breakthrough washed over her body.


    The anchor should have looked unstable, terrifying, and entirely too risky to keep in the state that it was, but that¡¯s what confused her once she had a closer look at the anchor once it returned into her dantian ¨C it did not seem fragile, despite any light tap potentially causing the anchor to crack, and the fear that she initially had faded against all logic and sense that she understood.


    She frowned and was about to question Yi Shi Ming about this when she suddenly realised what this cracking, crystalline form reminded her of.


    ¡®Although this is incredibly strange, it is somehow reminiscent of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao itself. It contains an incredibly small fragment of the greater Dao of the world, it seems, so no matter how contradictory it appears, it means that there must be a correct path using the current effects on the anchor¡­¡¯


    Wei Yi relaxed slightly, then turned to the spatial spirit nonetheless, ¡°Do you recall how many sides your son¡¯s anchor had?¡±


    ¡°Three, same as most others. However, they were all violet, made from pure planar energy. They did not align with the typical five directions of elemental anchors, but that was not an exceptional aspect of his cultivation in particular.¡±


    Nodding in acknowledgement, she looked back into her planar aperture, ¡®Then, what exactly have I created?¡¯

 V3C23: Mysterious Silver-Leaf

    The arrays were cleaned up and Min Lian successfully reached the peak of the second realm, being only a few drops of planar energy away from the third, so they collectively took a break in order to adjust to their new strengths, although the only one that truly needed to do so was Wei Yi, as her planar energy had grown in power immensely after what was effectively eight consecutive breakthroughs. With each stage, her planar energy¡¯s ability had increased by the equivalent of five stages in the second realm, meaning that, effectively, she had gone through the entirety of the second realm four times.


    If she was to go out and attempt to do something basic, like refining a pill or holding back an attack, she could easily complete the mathematical calculation for how much less strength she would need to use, but actually doing it was a little more difficult.


    Furthermore, she also obtained a new form of planar energy, a new combined element, so understanding it was essential to being able to use it effectively, whether it was useful in refinement, combat, defence, construction or any other field. Even if all it could do was encourage crops to grow ¨C which was unlikely given the fact that the wood element already offered the ability to support the smooth growth of most planar herbs ¨C there were uses for it that had to be discovered and applied.


    Before she could deal with such delicate potential applications, she naturally needed to work out her full strength, so she rose and looked towards the one indestructible thing within this prison realm, the Ascendant¡¯s Library. It was a manifestation of her mental structure and could not be affected by the physical prison realm no matter what she or anyone else did, meaning that it was perfect for this.


    She manifested a blade from killing will, not wishing to damage any actual weapons, and sent her cosmic energy into it according to the shape of a common artefact, ignoring the cracks that immediately appeared on the solid energy¡¯s surface. By the looks of it, with the empowerment of the planar energy, it was now able to damage even her own energy constructs, meaning that creating an item that could withstand her cosmic energy became even more pressing than before. With a moment of thought, she decided to make use of the Scorching Blade technique, as it would be simultaneously the most destructive pure application of planar energy without the necessity for the combination of multiple techniques but would also yield quite the fantastic sight.


    Cosmic light focused around the killing will blade, not quite transforming into heat or flame, instead brightening and filling with more nebulae than most of her energy, the stars within them glowing so brightly that they almost blended together into an enormous cloud of light.


    As more and more cracks appeared on the weapon¡¯s surface, she did not spend any more time building up the power of the attack, instead transitioning into the first movement of the technique ¨C Dragon¡¯s Wrath. The cosmic light surged from her weapon, the form of a dragon¡¯s head emerging from it as it normally would, but then it changed suddenly and entirely, the dragon warping into an impossible amalgam of shape and colour that flew at immense speed at the illusory wall of the library, striking it and exploding into a sphere of absolute energy.


    The surface of the ground was torn away, all of the air melted beyond a gaseous substance, and the three of them were thrown back, with Yi Shi Ming stopping herself first and assisting the other two with a barrier made from a small quantity of her and the prison realm¡¯s energy, which was easily able to resist the remaining shockwave.


    However, this shockwave did not appear to be the least of their problems, as what was left behind was akin to a literal star, a huge sphere burning with such brightness that it even illuminated the mental library and domain without existing within it. It spun on the spot slowly, bright flares of pure white light occasionally bursting from it, and it did appear to be shrinking slowly, but the pace was incredibly slow and almost made it seem like it was going to remain in place for the rest of all eternity.


    ¡°This¡­ Now this is certainly what I¡¯d expect from something that is called cosmic energy,¡± Wei Yi muttered, realising that she might have made an even more incredible change to her technique than she had anticipated.


    To truly understand and regulate her strength, something this insane was unsuitable, so she instead used the Gentle Breeze Strike to gain a better grasp over her energy, using the enormous sphere of burning energy as a target in an attempt to get it to decay a little more quickly. She could, in theory, have just absorbed the energy that it was made from, but she found that it did not work due to the entire star being made from the natural materials of the world, that being the air and ground, just at an insane level of heat and stabilised significantly by the wonders of the Scorching Blade¡¯s interactions with the Ascendant¡¯s Path technique, nearly giving it a permanent place in the world through a piece of the Great Dao.


    Due to her ability rising to this level, it was a little more difficult to provide an exact mathematical comparison between her current and previous states, made even more difficult by the fact that she did not know how much of this came from the cultivation stages and what was caused by the transformation of her cultivation technique, but one thing that she could determine with some certainty was that if she encountered another one of the Greats any time soon, they would not be an impossible foe to defeat, even if she fought them fairly, without surprises or tricks.


    ¡®Not that those bastards deserve a fair fight, or anything of the sort,¡¯ she added mentally, punching at the decaying star once more as it finally lost stability and began to diminish in size more and more quickly, eventually shrinking down into a head-sized sphere and falling onto the stone-hard burnt dirt with a dull thud.


    When it did not immediately vanish, Wei Yi slowly approached it and lifted the ball of metal, picking it up without much difficulty due to her physique, and finding it to be a hand-sized orb of magnesium.


    ¡°So¡­ Does anyone have any clue what just happened here?¡±


    Neither the assassin nor the spatial spirit was able to offer an answer, forcing her to turn to the orb of metal for an answer. It wasn¡¯t expected to speak, of course, but she believed that if she was able to understand exactly what she was now holding in her hands, she might be able to deduce more about the strange transformation of the Dragon¡¯s Wrath move, or perhaps even learn more about her new cosmic energy as a whole.


    She held it tightly in her right hand, then, transforming her left into the killing will form, she carefully struck the top of the sphere, applying the principles of several techniques in order to break the object in half smoothly.


    The inside of the item appeared to be made from several layers, separated by hotter segments of metal. The first was magnesium mixed with some other substances, then some kind of blue and grey metallic substance mixed with sulphur, then nickel mixed with pure iron. After that, the final layer, the very centre of the sphere, was only as large as her thumb, but it appeared to not only weigh almost nothing at all, but was also something that she couldn¡¯t recognise from the top of her head, forcing her to plunge into the library in search of any document that might be relevant to it.


    Seeing as it was the product of a miniature star, she naturally searched through the few documents in her memory that spoke about stars, whether those that fell from the sky or those that were still up there, flipping through books regarding theories on celestial arrays, the nature of the heavens, the true forms of stars, whether or not the celestial bodies could be used as a means of prophesizing or predicting the future, and much, much more.


    Just like how the moon and sun captured the imagination of all that saw them, and forever trapped the minds of those that could read or hear of them without ever laying eyes upon them, the stars and the cosmos had long enraptured the world with its potential.


    At the fifth realm, temporarily standing in the air was possible, and in the sixth realm, and displayed by Chen Jushu, it was possible to levitate by using planar energy to resonate with the ground and keep oneself in the air. Once one reached the seventh realm, it should be possible to achieve freer flight due to the acquisition of chaotic halos, and the eighth and ninth should further boost those abilities to the point that one could fly with few to no restrictions. And yet, despite the plentiful number of those cultivators in the time of the Master of Yi City, not a single one had ever written down their experience of surpassing the world and reaching space, meaning that there was either some kind of immense secret there that all of them hid, or that it was not something within their reach.


    This made things far more intriguing for everyone, as the peak realms were those that possessed power close to outright omnipotence, so for something to be able to restrict them meant that they were either in the domain of the heavens, which were naturally above the powers that they bestowed, or something that presented a potential further realm for the mortal cultivators of the world, which was naturally extremely appealing to all who had built up enough power to eventually reach the peak of the known nine realms.


    Everyone had a different theory on what the secret the stars held. Some thought that their shapes, constellations and colours were connected to the very river of time, which would allow one to predict the future using them.


    That theory had been a little more popular in the Daoist Continent, where they used many divination methods to decide their paths and future, but it did not take hold in the Western Continent, where it was more commonly accepted that the paths of the stars conveyed complex secrets of the heavens that could be learnt, imitated, adapted and then used as techniques, cultivation methods and even forbidden skills, one of which might have led to the Broken Sky Brand.


    Others thought that the stars contained no such things, and that those technique were created through the insight of the cultivators themselves, and that the stars were instead part of the solar system alongside the moon and sun, and that more could be learnt through their actual structure and substance, as that would be bound to yield greater results.


    One of the people that the document regarding this claimed was in favour of this theory was actually the Master of Yi City himself, and after a little inquiry with Yi Shi Ming, it became obvious why.


    In his former world, the stars were supposedly the same as the sun itself, and they lived on a planet that was spherical, orbiting the sun regularly alongside a number of other planets and moons. There were various stars, which were powered by some kind of magical and yet entirely ordinary force that was able to transform materials into different ones, almost like alchemical transformation, despite the absence of planar energy and all of its manifestations within the world that was centred on the planet known as Orbis.


    To her, such a thing seemed fantastical, but plausible, especially considering the fact that the otherworldly powers from that place were just as fantastic, whereas the small star that she had just created appeared to achieve that very effect, condensing metal from the air and ground.


    Finally, after a great deal of mental time and effort, she found something that appeared to match the description of the dark and incredibly light metal inside of the star sphere, which was labelled simply as star metal within the dusty tome. According to the information within it, the metal was nearly perfect for use as a weapon or as armour, as they would not encumber one in the slightest, would not break or shatter or shift with heat, would not stain nor grow dirty, and would simply be a miracle in every way imaginable. The reason that this substance has not yet overtaken the world is that it was immensely rare, and nigh impossible to shape, as it arrived onto the world from the heavens in the incredibly resistant state that made it so desirable.


    In fact, it was said that the best skillset to manipulate the star metal was not that of a blacksmith, but that of a tailor.


    ¡®That¡¯s where I differ from most of the previous blacksmiths, however. I not only know of an otherworldly demon that can shape metal and cloth freely, but I have the Red Shaper¡¯s Touch, a physique that is bound to be able to manage something similar while enhancing the metal even further, if such a thing is even possible,¡¯ she thought, looking at the two halves of the metal, ¡®It likely broke due to still being hot, rather than my own strength¡­ The only problem is that it is rather limited, and I highly doubt that replicating it time and time again will be easy ¨C such things do not tend to be easy, after all.¡¯


    The consumption of planar energy to create that star was not too insane, using only a third of her planar pool, so she naturally tried it again, throwing a sun of the similar size into the air to investigate whether the ground was essential to the creation of the star metal.


    It struck them with a similar shockwave of force, but as they were more prepared, they only experienced their hair being thrown about and little more.


    Perhaps due to the lack of whatever was in the prison realm¡¯s ground, the star lasted far less, and what dropped out of it at the end was only magnesium and nothing else. For this reason, she naturally attempted this again after recovering a little bit of her energy through the nascent rift, but, as if the prison realm itself was rejecting the technique, she only obtained the same result.


    ¡°Shit. Do either of you know of a way to create more metal from nothing?¡±


    Min Lian shook her head immediately, whereas Yi Shi Ming thought for a few moments before shaking her head. The Scorching Blades, from what Wei Yi knew about them, did teach their assassins a whole host of different techniques, but the generation of metal was not one of them. It also appeared that the Master of Yi City had never spoken about any experiments to achieve such a thing to his mother, or that those memories were too insignificant and were eventually lost to time, effectively resulting in the same thing.


    Thus, there was only one more thing to try.


    ¡®As I¡¯ve decided to temporarily call it following the example of the other elements, Mysterious Silver-Leaf,¡¯ she released a small quantity of her planar energy while it was still in the form of that silver-like metal and wood energy, infusing all of it directly into half of the sphere that was in her hands.


    No immediate reaction followed, prompting her to glance up at the site of the last attempted star, but when she felt the planar energy within the metal disappear extremely suddenly, her gaze shot down at the product of her work. From the open side of the sphere, small branches and leaves began to emerge from each of the metals, growing the fastest from magnesium and the slowest from the star metal, but that did not change the fact that the metal was indeed growing ¨C and that did mean that it was growing still, taking in the planar energy from the air and slowly gaining additional mass. The magnesium, iron, sulphur and silicon were all progressing more quickly, with the magnesium having branches that were half a metre long whereas the star metal gained only a centimetre or two.


    That was still an additional centimetre, however, and it only cost her a small fraction of her planar energy before it would continue to grow, possibly without any limit and time restriction.


    It was like a dream come true.


    ¡°Min Lian, please locate a few hatred avatars that had some understanding of planar arrays and ask them to set up planar gathering arrays around these two halves of the star sphere. Harvest all of the materials regularly, and produce them into whatever is useful for the prison realm, and leave the star metal for Fu Zan and me, splitting them in half so that neither one of us can waste the materials that the other might find a better use for,¡± she said, infusing both halves of the sphere with more than half of her planar energy pool to stimulate the metallic growth as much as possible, ¡°Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely, Master. I shall complete your task immediately. Should I personally inform Fu Zan as well?¡±


    ¡°No, don¡¯t. I¡¯ll talk to him myself and see whether he knows anything about the star metal. Perhaps the people of his world had come across it before, and know of some methods of handling it in a more effective manner than blindly throwing physiques and otherworldly gifts at it,¡± she answered, shaving off the grown star metal from one of the halves to show to the otherworldly demon, ¡°Come back the moment that you¡¯re done.¡±


    The assassin did not provide another acknowledgement, instead rushing off to do what she had been told while Wei Yi departed straight to the centre of Beast¡¯s Rest, where Fu Zan now resided and, from what she could see through her dominion over this realm, was actively working on another nonsensical item alongside some new line of underwear for men.


    Although the latter product did look useful, it was completely irrelevant in comparison to the potential applications of star metal, so she did not hesitate to appear there with Yi Shi Ming¡¯s assistance and throw that design out of his hands, placing the star metal into them instead.


    ¡°Have you ever seen this before?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ What just-¡±


    ¡°I partially control the entire prison realm, so is it really that surprising that I can appear wherever I like? Now, answer.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. This looks very much like a sci-fi material, so if it did exist, I wouldn¡¯t have ever come near it,¡± he replied, taking a closer look at the branch and leaf-like structure of the metal as well as it¡¯s immense resistance to force, ¡°Looks really strong, though. I¡¯d imagine you¡¯d need a very good blacksmith to work with this particular substance.¡±


    ¡°It apparently requires the expertise of a tailor.¡±


    ¡°Then, go and¡­ Wait, what? Tailor? Are you telling me to weave it into a shirt or something?¡±


    ¡°No. I lack any concrete techniques on exploiting this material, so all I can tell you is what others have written down in the past. The most I can say with certainty is that your ability should be able to make use of the metal to some extent, and that I will not allow you to do anything stupid with it, as it is very precious at the moment. For this reason, I have taken some of your past designs and made them a little more reasonable. Have a look,¡± she said, placing a diagram for the gauntlet design she had come up while improvising with entirely unsuitable materials.


    ¡°This looks¡­ This actually looks cool! It¡¯s got the pointy claws, but you can also use them because the bottom is made from cloth or something similar instead!¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s the entire point. I will admit that I do not dislike most of the designs you convert from your previous world, but their impracticality has constantly tempted me to get rid of them ¨C which I might have done once or twice¡­ Can you attempt to shape these gauntlets using your ability and that metal?¡±


    ¡°I will try!¡± he explained with great enthusiasm, grabbing the metal and focusing on it intensely.


    As no progress would be made while she looked at him, Wei Yi shut her eyes for a few moments before opening them to find a series of incredibly thin plates of metal laid out in the vague shape of a hand, with a few plates on the side that didn¡¯t appear to fit in anywhere.


    When she glanced at Fu Zan, he explained, ¡°I didn¡¯t have any material for the gloves beneath the metal, so it worked out a little bit like this.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, possibly even preferable. I have a few tests I wish to perform on these, so it is possible that you will need to make them like this even when you do have all of your materials on hand,¡± she said, taking one of the spare pieces of metal and attempting to snap or bend them. A light application of force did nothing, and even when she infused her planar and physique energy into her arms in an attempt to damage the star metal even slightly, all she managed to do was deform it so insignificantly that it would likely never be noticed. ¡°That book wasn¡¯t lying about this star metal, then. Now, what if I¡­¡±


    She followed her words with the activation of the Red Shaper¡¯s Touch, infusing its energy into the material while not wishing it to actively transform in terms of shape or appearance, instead focusing everything about the physique onto enhancing the star metal even further, intending to turn it into something that surpassed the vast majority of materials to begin with.


    Her physique energy ebbed away rapidly, more than half of the incredibly powerful Yin-Yang Ascendant energy sinking into the star metal as it gained just a little bit of mass from the energy, or perhaps through some unknown process that transformed the very structure of the material.


    Either way, when she repeated her experiment, the plate was even tougher than before, remaining unbent and unbroken despite everything she tried to do to it, excluding throwing another star at it as she did not want to damage Beast¡¯s Rest any more than necessary, especially after having caused a significant amount of noise from the many attempts to break the star metal even slightly.


    ¡°Well then, I suppose I have half of what I need to complete my first gauntlet,¡± she muttered to herself, turning to Fu Zan, ¡°I¡¯ll take these and enhance them, while you should work on getting more practise with this metal. You¡¯ll be getting more of it in a while, but try not to waste it on non-functional designs, as the star metal grows incredibly slowly and there is too little of it to perform experiments that may not yield positive results even if they succeed. Is that clear?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry ¨C I think I¡¯ve figured it out!¡±


    She frowned and took a step away from him, as his eyes gleamed and planar energy actively surrounded him, granting him a slight violet glow, ¡°What exactly have you figured out?¡±


    ¡°The beauty of practical equipment! For so long, I had been influenced by the games and blatant fan service, but now I see what I must do! To truly use my ability in a good way, I must create things that are practical but sexy!¡±


    ¡°¡­ You go do that. I won¡¯t be sticking around,¡± Wei Yi said, using the World¡¯s Echo physique ability to depart before he had the opportunity to do anything strange, ¡®Has the otherworldly madness finally manifested within him, or has he just gone insane from constantly attempting and failing to create something that could actually be made and worn by his customers? I certainly don¡¯t mind either of the things he is striving for, but with his track record so far, I highly doubt his ability to succeed¡­ I need to check that he isn¡¯t going to do something stupid ¨C more stupid, that is ¨C won¡¯t I?¡¯


    Wei Yi rolled her eyes and looked into the room through her mental version of the prison realm, but found something contrary to her initial impression. Instead, she saw the man sitting at his desk and working on an outfit that was entirely different from everything he had ever created before. It wasn¡¯t that the design itself was particularly different, with this one being just as suited for a prostitute as most of his other creations, but the design was no longer a flat drawing on a piece of paper. Now, it radiated his creativity, his passion and his inspiration in order to appear more three dimensional and believable. With the addition of the sensible design, drawn around a figure that resembled one of the first people he had slept with in the prison realm, it seemed like the design could just jump out of the sheet and walk around, or perhaps be worn by another without issue.


    ¡®Not only was that quick, but also far better than most of his past work. Has his ability improved in some manner or is he actually someone with a reasonable head on his shoulders, just one that is typically misused?¡¯ she could continue to ask herself questions, but as she didn¡¯t know the answers to any of them, she saw no reason to do so, instead stepping away and finding a place to wait for Min Lian to complete her task.


    Of course, she would need to take a closer look at everything eventually, but that would require greater insight into otherworldly abilities in order to be of any use, which she did not currently possess and wasn¡¯t sure where to obtain it from.


    Ideally, she would eventually come across an otherworldly ability that she could absorb that would also be able to inform her about others, as she might then be able to scan their bodies for the azure light and forcefully activate the Truth of the Universe in order to repel it, leaving them with a weaker, but seemingly safe version of the gift, although even that wouldn¡¯t be a flawless solution due to how draining it appeared to be on the characters themselves. At most, she would be able to deal with an otherworldly demon a week, so long as more powerful cultivators and azure lights did not require more energy to handle.


    That, and there was a possibility that the characters were only able to send away an unbound azure light, which would mean that this tactic is entirely ineffective.


    ¡®On that note, I should check the House of Gold. My initial theory had been that it would grow according to my own development, so perhaps I will not be able to fit more than just my¡­ where was I going with that¡­ Anyway¡­¡¯ she briefly checked that her mental domain was still in a good state, then sank her spiritual will into the spatial storage.


    Everything within was still in a good state, but when she found a few things to toss into it, she found that she was indeed able to fill it beyond the previous limit, with the new storage capacity appearing to be roughly one and a half metres squared. This was not a great increase, of course, but it meant that the rise in her power would indeed increase the size of the House of Gold, which, assuming that this growth was as exponential as cultivation itself, would mean that the fourth or fifth realm would allow her enough space to throw whatever she wants into the storage space without worry.


    Once she emptied the House of Gold of everything that she had just thrown into it, she sat down and began to work upon the first of the many plates. It would take a lot of time for her to complete the enhancement of all of them, but it was bound to only get easier with experience.

 V3C24: Mastering the Branches of Energy

    They returned to the Planar Continents not long after, with Min Lian reporting her success and that the small branches of star metal were just thin and weak enough to be harvested,  from where Fu Zan had no issue handling the material while Wei Yi would either resort to requesting his help or try out the absolute yin and yang that her physique energy can produce, in combination with the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp, and discover whether any one of them was able to affect the form of the star metal in the slightest.


    Until she was able to get a hold of a cloth or flexible material of similar strength to the star metal, or figure out a method of warping the latter according to her desires, there was no point in actually completing the gauntlet plates, so once she returned to her residence, she instead thought to work on her refining. It was the field most likely to be affected by the Silver-Leaf energy, so she wished to understand that effect and exactly how to maximise its usefulness.


    Also, she had not had much time to practise the techniques and recipes she had acquired from her two competitors as a result of the Refiner¡¯s Duel, although they were all firmly locked within the Ascendant¡¯s Library and ready to be used at a moment¡¯s notice.


    She left Min Lian to continue working on her own practise of refinement and headed out to the Chu Alchemical Store, entering to find Fu Xiu in her standard place, but with a clearly healthier appearance than the last few times, being neither extremely tired nor outright burst with energy, processing the requests of some ordinary customer.


    After their interactions concluded, she was able to approach to approach the receptionist, who greeted her with a warm smile.


    ¡°Wei Yi! Thank you again for all that stuff you did for me! Look, I¡¯m not feeling tired or anything!¡±


    ¡°Yes, you appear to be doing fine. Please stop smiling that brightly, though¡­¡± she didn¡¯t mention that without the extreme fatigue and with some of the benefits from the previous partial awakening of her physique, the woman looked incredibly attractive, ¡°Can I purchase a few items from this list?¡±


    ¡°Certainly!¡± Fu Xiu continued beaming, entirely ignoring the earlier muttering, ¡°Almost all of this is available for now, although the recent appearance of the mirror layer has slightly dissuaded even more merchants. I¡¯m afraid that much of this may soon be unavailable unless the threat of that Mirror Plane Aberration group is dealt with¡­¡±


    ¡®By the heavens, how can a person change this much and affect me to this degree? If not for the excess of mental cultivation methods I had practised in the past, I could¡¯ve developed a crush or something¡­ Never really did that when I was younger, as I was too obsessed with cultivation, then cultivation, then more cultivation, but it would have been an excellent time, had I figured out that I like women before I had been dropped into the prison realm,¡¯ she thought to herself while the receptionist fetched everything that she had asked for, ¡°Do you happen to know if your boss has made any developments in his investigations?¡±


    ¡°No, unfortunately. He¡¯s been trying not to bother me too much as of late,¡± she replied.


    ¡°I see. Take care.¡±


    ¡°Good luck with whatever it is you¡¯re refining! Remember, discounts on everything!¡±


    Wei Yi nodded in acknowledgement and left, although her thoughts on the earlier subject hadn¡¯t ceased, ¡®Actually, with all of the random nonsense that exists within this world, there is almost certain to be an array or technique that specifically tests someone by putting them through common situations in order to test their maturity, age or something of the sort. At that point, it could easily be deemed that I am not truly as I old as I physically am, simply because I have never experienced common love or anything else of the sort. And yet, this is not something that I cannot possibly spare the time for now¡­¡¯


    If she slowed down and tried finding a partner with whom she could form a relationship, then form that partnership and spend enough time together to understand the complexities of it and go through all kinds of experience¡­ The Greats wouldn¡¯t allow that, for a start, but it would also waste so much precious time, just like most forms of pleasantries that did not occur within the prison realm, where her schedule was a little more relaxed.


    It was also for this reason that she couldn¡¯t even think of experiencing the whole process of having and then raising children, as it would put her in a poor state for a minimum of nine months, not to mention the fact that it would require either a forbidden skill of some sort, or her laying with a man, which was frankly too repulsive to her to be anything more than a feasibly path to a certain experience.


    At some point, she was almost certain that she recalled her being less opposed to it, but the many years she had spent in the prison realm having fun with beauties while using her spiritual perception to observe the other people in the brothel for more knowledge about everything that occurred there, from casual sex to secret discussions about things that weren¡¯t really within Wei Yi¡¯s range of interest, as they primarily plotted against one another to try and win over in some small store or field that wouldn¡¯t have affected her plans back then, had eventually led to her perception of men in the bedroom to drop significantly.


    Then again, she wasn¡¯t even sure if she could get pregnant. All of those physiques, breakthroughs, injuries and whatnot could have easily affected that at some point, preventing her from ever experiencing that side of life.


    ¡®As usual, all of this stuff is just speculation, given that I have no reason to investigate this in any depth at the moment, but assuming that I am ever able to succeed and defeat the Greats, that Hunger of the Beyond, one of which became known as the Beast, and whatever else is out there, if I am not too old by then, I might figure this out and find some route of passing down my bloodline. Perhaps my children could inherit some of my better traits and make good use of them once I am gone.¡¯


    She shook her head and threw that series of thoughts into the back of the mental library. This was of no relevance at the moment, and thinking about future possibilities would only worsen her mood without anything in return, while there were plenty of things that she could do with far greater return, like processing the ingredients that she had obtained and seeing whether the Mysterious Silver-Leaf energy was able to affect other ingredients just as it did metal, as that could allow her to multiply everything she comes into possession of until she had limitless supplies of all kinds.


    Well, it was only likely to work on metal-type ingredients, but that was still roughly one seventh of all ingredients and materials for the other great arts, which was immensely valuable.


    Not all ingredients and resources could be grown in all locations, with some simply requiring unique conditions while others relied on a series of phenomena that coincided to permit the growth of some miraculous planar herb, or the formation of a rare metal, just like the star metal, so to circumvent that was certainly an ability worth refining further, except not with the Truth of the Universe. Besides most of the results that it produces being incredibly lifeless and uninspired, in the literal meaning of the word, it also consumed too many anchor points to be throwing them around without much care. After some basic tests, she would have to consider going out and finding some reasonably powerful bandits to defeat and borrow anchor energy from.


    ¡®That¡¯s a decent idea in general, actually. Getting some more practise in combat, getting rid of some people that would harm the district regardless of the presence of the Greats, perhaps accidentally coming across another otherworldly demon or something else of that nature would all be beneficial, especially if that demon¡¯s abilities are those that I need and can obtain,¡¯ she considered while she entered her home and sat down on her bed, ¡®Getting distracted again. I should focus.¡¯


    Condensing a pill furnace from her killing will, she decided to work on one pill that took a long time and little effort to refine from Chen Shujin¡¯s collection while also experimenting with other ingredients in between that process.


    Once the flames of her planar energy began to burn the first set of ingredients, she moved on to an herb called Four-Leaf Copper Clover, which was a moderately rare planar herb that was sourced from the Fu District¡¯s seemingly bottomless supplies of materials, a phenomenon that seemed to interest even assassin organisations such as the Scorching Blades. In itself, the herb was nothing special, only being useful in its raw form when it comes to dealing with split ends of hairs and that kind of thing. In alchemy, it could be used to stabilise other ingredients, but it only thrived in very particular recipes that she knew only a few of.


    However, it was a metal-type herb, meaning that if her new abilities worked on anything, they would work on it.


    If this attempt was successful, then it would also meant that she could add Yi Shi Ming¡¯s plant resuscitation technique and her many lifeforce-granting physique abilities on top of it to vastly multiply the growth of any ingredient, making them available for the use of anyone within the prison realm and, eventually, her own faction on the outside.


    Raising the clover to the level of her eyes, she held it on an open palm and infused it with silver-leaf energy, carefully observing every little detail of the clover in order to better understand the features of her new planar energy.


    Whether she would only be able to understand it a little better, or if she was able to outright develop a forbidden skill that contained a segment of the Great Dao, any improvements that she could make without any cost to herself naturally had to be pursued, for there was no doubt that her foes would do the exact same thing, potentially leaving her behind and greatly overwhelming her with both knowledge and outright power the moment that she allowed them to.


    After a certain quantity of energy entered the clover, it rejected any more for a moment and slowly released roots from its severed stalk, the roots not finding a place to settle but instead going outwards, small seeds appearing on the roots and then bursting into more clovers, but these had a slight silver-like shimmer to their appearance that the original lacked.


    ¡®Alright, what have I done this time? Fortunately, these are small enough to be throw into the House of Gold, so¡­ Four-Leaf Billon Clover?¡¯ she raised an eyebrow at that description, throwing the rest of the clovers into the House of Gold to confirm that this wasn¡¯t limited only to that one herb, ¡®Well, the four-leaf clovers are typically rated by the metal they resemble, so if this now has a quantity of silver within it, doesn¡¯t it meant that it has been improved? What if I add silver-leaf energy to this mixed clover, then?¡¯


    She did exactly that, removing one of the Billon Clovers and applying that energy to it once more, which it was able to accept more of than the previous Copper Clover.


    Once it was full, it also refused any more for a moment and proceeded to grow and spread roots, from which more clovers grew quickly. They were similarly a mixture of silver and copper, but this time, they did indeed have more silver within them than before, and their quality likely increased by a similar degree.


    As if to make things more complicated, this time they were called Four-Leaf Tibetan Silver Clovers, and although she had no clue what that was referring to, it did appear to be another improvement.


    Naturally, she stored those clovers in the House of Gold and repeated the process once more, and this time, she managed to produce Four-Leaf Silver Clovers. Whereas the copper variant was a two-star ingredient, this was a four-star ingredient. The gold variant would be a six-star item, and the variant after it was likely to be an eight-star item, although there were no mentions of such a thing in any of the vast records within her possession, so she did not know what kind of metal it would resemble, nor what the specific properties would be.


    That did not matter, fortunately. She had plenty of other metal-type ingredients, and if this wasn¡¯t a one-off situation, then she would have a nigh-infinite supply of them very, very soon. She placed the clovers into the storage space, then removed some other ingredients and got to work.


    ¡°Who is she? You understand your master¡¯s powers, so how did she find me?¡±


    ¡°Oh, Great Aberrant, forgive me! I have failed you!¡±


    ¡°Shut your mouth, fool! Tell me her identity, and everything you know about her! Have you attempted to induce her into the Mirror Plane Aberrations?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ was an option?¡±


    ¡°You moron!¡±


    Her initial suspicions were confirmed by a House of Gold full of herbs and a prison realm that had no idea how to deal with a sudden appearance of thousands of various metallic herbs; she could only affect materials with a metal element within them through the silver-leaf energy, whereas everything else would barely be affected at all.


    Rather than making her disappointed, it made her incredibly eager to discover the other combined elements that could be invoked through the Ascendant¡¯s Path.


    The only two combined elements she had before this were blood, which had an incredible variety of uses that had helped her prior to the prison realm, and the lightning technique¡­ had become completed at some point. She suspected that it had occurred during the unification of all things into the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, but until she randomly tried to condense some lightning in her hand a few minutes ago, she had somehow overlooked it. Presumably, it was some remnant consciousness within the Truth of the Universe that played some part in it, just like how memories from the Master of Yi City occasionally leaked through, leading to her learning all kinds of words before she even knew that there was another world that could produce them.


    Lightning was the foundation for some of her most powerful abilities, so if she could uncover the combination of earth and fire, she suspected that she would be able to acquire the power of earth fire or magma or something else of the sort, which was bound to have great combat potential as well.


    However, something like earth and metal might let her condense dirt into various ores, or a combination of earth and wood could permit her to sense the very veins of the world, if they existed as some believed them to. Fire and water were almost certain to result in something resembling steam, although the exact abilities of it were far less certain, whereas her knowledge of the elements allowed her to guess that combining wood and fire would relate to the extraction of energy from other items, but not how this would manifest.


    ¡®Nonetheless, the power of combined elements stems from the individual six core segments of reality: fire, water, earth, metal, wood and planar energy itself. If metal and wood can grow herbs like that, then wood itself is bound to contain that secret as well,¡¯ she reasoned, storing the several sets of pills that she had completed on the side of her experimentations inside of opaque bottles, ¡®I just need to force it out.¡¯


    She was about to leave her residence, when she noticed a familiar presence outside her door.


    ¡®It¡¯s one of the people serving that Great Aberrant. I doubt that he could have figured out that I had watched them, so why would he come here?¡¯ Wei Yi couldn¡¯t come up with an immediate answer, but when he calmly walked up to the door and knocked on it, she decided to go along with it for now, opening it for him, ¡°Do you need something from me?¡±


    The one that approached was the ordinary-looking man with a spot of dark and malevolent yin on his neck, although it was far fainter now, almost invisible to the average human eye.


    ¡°You are Wei Yi, the alchemist, yes?¡±


    ¡°That is me. Once again, do you need something from me?¡±


    ¡°Have you heard the good word of the Great Aberrant?¡±


    She slammed the door in front of him immediately.


    ¡®I can¡¯t say that this is what I had expected. Isn¡¯t this an extremely stupid thing to do, considering the current reputation of the Mirror Plane Aberrations and everything that they have done? Why would they ever¡­ Huh. That¡¯s actually an opportunity for me, is it not? I wanted to know more about them, and I can resolve anything that person could possibly do to me, if he even dares to appear in front of me, so¡­ I could join their cult?¡¯ she had to pause for a few moments and consider whether this was actually reasonable, but her idea remained sufficiently sound, ¡®Yes, I can drop out at any time, and so long as I inform a few people about this shortly after I join, I should not acquire any suspicion after I betray the Great Aberrant. Even if they decide that I am untrustworthy, I can always just escape and move on. There is still a long way to go to the district that I am looking for.¡¯


    Opening the door once more, she found that the man on the other side had also realised that his approach had not been the most reasonable nor the most effective.


    ¡°I apologise, I should have spoken differently. When you have worked with your ingredients, surely you have realised that there is some kind of influence within so many of them, bl- tainting them to their core? The Great Aberrant knows, and he seeks to solve it, but he requires the aid of great minds!¡±


    ¡®You nearly slipped up there, you f- Right, I should be civil, even in my mind. There have been times when I have blurted out something inappropriate in the past, so I should try to avoid it this time,¡¯ she pretended to listen to him seriously and ignored the fact that he had nearly admitted that the Great Aberrant was responsible for the malevolent yin, just as expected, instead saying, ¡°That sounds very interesting, but you should be well aware of what people think of you around here. Are you certain that saying this to me, in the open, is a good idea?¡±


    Immediately jumping in with support would seem odd, so she instead decided to appear reasonable but doubtful, thinking everything through before acting.


    Fortunately, her acting abilities surpassed the member of the Mirror Plane Aberrations, and so he displayed no signs of distrusting her approach, instead nodding in acknowledgement of her remarks while stepping closer, ¡°Yes, I understand, but the Great Aberrant¡¯s condition is caused by the Fractured Mirrors ¨C a curse placed upon him for acting against them. As a result, he will fly into rages and assault districts, after which we must calm him down and bring him back to humanity.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. Very unusual, but plausible,¡± she said. Curses were rare, but they did exist, and damaging one¡¯s actions or perception of reality was common, which was the reason why they did not often appear. Had they had the ability to outright change one¡¯s mind, instead of deceiving it in various ways, they would have only occurred from the fifth realm and above, but their shortcomings meant that someone in the third realm could muster a curse upon their foes with a great deal of preparation and effort, usually requiring some kind of stationary altar to keep the curse active without needing to stay beside the target and stabilise it with their planar anchor.


    In other words, curses were complex, fancy techniques and arrays that most people avoided due to their impracticality and inefficiency. Typically, if you could curse someone, you could harm them in other ways that would be cheaper and quicker, so it was rarely studied by any.


    Wei Yi wasn¡¯t so much of an exception to this as she was someone who had simply read too much in the past, as well as present and likely the future, but even she only knew about the common functions and styles of curses, not their specifics nor how to perform one, or else she would have likely tried it against one of the Greats by now.


    ¡°I cannot change the perception of my master in one go, but if his curse can be cleansed and the plague dispelled, those who work with him will be known as heroes!¡±


    ¡®Now trying to lure me in through fame, are you? How did these people ever recruit one another to begin with? Surely, they could have sent that person over ¨C or were they too afraid to slander the name of the Great Aberrant and thus sent the person that was closest to him? I¡¯ll be making myself look like an idiot by going along with him, but I suppose that I can allow it seeing that he is unlikely to spread the word to anyone beside those in the Mirror Plane Aberrations, which, after I leave, will appear rather untrustworthy, if any survive,¡¯ she thought quickly as to not create too significant a pause in the conversation, then said, ¡°I don¡¯t care for that sort of thing. Come in and tell me more about the details instead.¡±

 V3C25: The Investigation

    The member of the Mirror Plane Aberrations was all too keen to share with her quite a number of details, most of which were unlikely to be accurate, although others did line up with her understanding of the Great Aberrant¡¯s situation.


    Frankly, she couldn¡¯t be sure that the story about the curse wasn¡¯t true, as the behaviour of the Great Aberrant would immediately be explained by it. While one was under the effect of a curse, it would be only natural for that person to behave in irrational, emotion-driven ways without any foresight and logic, but in the times that the curse was weakened, he could also act as a proper leader and ensure that the Mirror Plane Aberrations did not fall apart.


    Then again, perhaps there was a different explanation for all of this, like the leader ruling purely through his power and divine-like abilities, convincing the weak to join him with the promise of cultivation techniques and whatever else, at which point he could act however he wanted without any repercussions.


    There were many answers to her questions, most of which were sensible, some of which were less so, but they would not be obtained through idle thought, so she instead paid close attention to his many explanations and fantastical tales in the hopes of weeding out the lies from the truths eventually. He was able to continue for a long time, half-way through which Min Lian had returned from her errands and was made to stand outside so that she didn¡¯t disturb this strange attempt at recruitment, and only decided to leave once he had said so much that any other person would need a decade to process it.


    By the looks of it, his tactic was to instil curiosity within her and to inspire her to work with them, slowly sharing more and more of whatever the Mirror Plane Aberrations believed to be the truth of the matter, until a point that she was a loyal helper to them.


    ¡®Naturally, I would never allow such a thing to occur, but he has accidentally told me about several of his techniques. If I can replicate the mirror layer and enhance it with my own understanding about illusions, spawned by my possession of the Third Eye, amongst other things, then I will be nigh unstoppable in front of those that cannot deal with the illusion. Since I, too, had partially fallen into it, then perhaps even the Greats would be vulnerable to it,¡¯ she thought, although she was well aware that she shouldn¡¯t invest too much hope into success if she didn¡¯t want to genuinely be lured into the Mirror Plane Aberration¡¯s trap.


    The one thing he left her was a request for a basic pill, presumably to confirm her ability in the specific field that she was needed in, and a series of random questions so that ¡®they would be able to cooperate more effectively¡¯. From random inquiries about her favourite colours to veiled attempts to learn her sexual preferences, there were more than thirty of them, and she was told to drop them off near the house where she first found the man with the spot on his neck once she completed them.


    This, she found easier to explain. ¡®They have the power of illusions and, likely, some influence. They probably want to find some people to create relationships with me and keep me tied to them. Simple stuff, really.¡¯


    Since certain things could easily be discovered with a little observation, she did not lie on most of the questions. For example, she had no reason to lie about her preferences in bed when it would be immediately obvious to anyone that she never paid attention to men in the romantic sense, and that she would occasionally steal glances at the more attractive ladies around her. Other questions were different and significantly more important in nature, so she bent the truth a little, changing the most significant aspects of her answers while keeping them as something that she could easily and consistently emulate.


    The key to mind control, and general persuasion, was to understand the other party¡¯s desires and wants, so she would naturally not provide them in their exact state.


    ¡°Master, I hate to be constantly questioning your orders and pursuits like this, and I would accept any punishment you deem to render upon me, but are you certain that it is a good idea to join these madmen, even in jest?¡±


    ¡°Have you been learning from Yi Shi Ming?¡±


    ¡°Master, please.¡±


    ¡°It is an idea that is likely to earn be quite a few benefits, if nothing else. Depending on the exact outcome, I might either have to abandon this district, or I will become known as a hero within it. This depends on a variety of factors, ones that I know too little about to do more than guess at the outcome with Endless Calculation, but I know what I¡¯m doing. I can negate any of their negative effects, I already compulsively put up obstruction arrays whenever I talk about things that shouldn¡¯t be mentioned in public, and I have far higher goals than whatever it is this lots wants to do,¡± she answered, ¡°Essentially, this is very unlikely to go wrong, and the worst outcome won¡¯t matter too much.¡±


    ¡°Then, I shall follow your lead, Master. Still, preparing to leave ahead of time would be wise,¡± Min Lian decided to agree with her plan, but cautioned her, nonetheless.


    Wei Yi did not require her warnings, as she had taken that possibility into account, but she did not stop the assassin from offering her opinions. At some point, eventually, she would overlook something of great importance, and if everyone she was in contact with had just learnt to trust everything she did unconditionally by that point, she would suffer a great failure just through being unable to deal with any words that challenge the wisdom of her actions.


    Furthermore, Min Lian had never done anything that was in any way malicious to her, nor had she ever attempted to disobey her orders after being certain that the instructions were sensible and something that she did need to obey, so regardless of whatever formed the initial mistaken compulsion for the assassin to follow her orders, she had remained loyal the entire time.


    ¡®I can certainly see why so many of these assassin organisations functioned the way they did. Even ordinary people could perfectly control the actions of others so long as they entered the right position, so it allowed those with greater minds to control those with greater strength. It is also almost certain that, based on the common majority of women in the role of the assassin and the majority of men in the role of the leader and strategist, that they took advantage of this in other ways¡­¡¯ she glanced at the assassin while she completed filling out the questions from the Mirror Plane Aberrations, ¡®Anyway, those with lower strength did not need to worry about loyalty and could focus on advancing their agenda, whatever it was, with the certainty that they would have the forces to succeed.¡¯


    Once the questions were complete, she moved onto creating the pill that they wanted, which was a basic metal-type pill without any special properties other than enhancing one¡¯s spiritual energy by a small degree.


    Judging by the fact that the Great Aberrant used his spiritual will to speak with his followers, it was likely intended to bolster his abilities and support his mind, so she made sure not to do too well. She excluded any of her empowering planar energy, didn¡¯t abuse the Antithesis method, and limited the quality of the final outcome to one that could have been produced by any other ordinary master alchemist. She would have done less, but some trust did have to be earned with the Aberrations.


    With both of those tasks done, she did not immediately go to deliver the pill and answered questions, but instead sat around, sent Min Lian to sell some of the other pills that she had made, and generally spent her time on other things. Her reason for this was that it would appear strange if she immediately went along with the instructions of a strange man preaching about someone that everyone else considered to be villainous, so she would pretend that she did not follow their instructions immediately, instead considering it in detail and then acting only once she deemed their story to have sufficient plausibility.


    Thus, once enough time had passed, she headed over to the store once more and purchased a few of the ingredients that the pill would require, before requesting to speak with the local manager.


    Once inside his office, she released a vast quantity of her killing will to seal the entirety of the room, then looked towards him with a serious expression. ¡°Listen, you remember the Mirror Plane Aberrations, correct? I believe I have a method to figure out where they are based, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and eventually a way to deal with them.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Chu Huazhi¡¯s eyebrow rose as he thought that he understood the reason behind the barriers, ¡°They have been quite a nuisance to the district so far, so if we are able to find them and ask Chen Jushu and the rest of the district¡¯s forces to end them, it would be a great contribution.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Due to this, I have decided to attempt to join their forces.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Come again?¡±


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t really need me to repeat myself, as you seem to have a lot of sense. I am going to join them and learn as much as possible about them before my eventual ¡®betrayal¡¯.¡±


    ¡°If you put it that way, it does make more sense than what I had initially assumed¡­ Wait, are you telling me that there is a point of contact with the Mirror Plane Aberrations in this very district? You¡¯ve found one?¡±


    ¡°Well, I will technically become a point of contact, but as for the current one, yes, there is a small group of those loyal to the Mirror Plane Aberrations in the Ning District. However, if I give them away now, you will likely look at them in a different manner, causing suspicion from them to fall on me. I would rather avoid this, so, for now, all I will say is that they do not appear to be particularly important for the district itself. I doubt that they will be able to harm anything without the aid of the Great Aberrant himself.¡±


    ¡°Well, so far, you have acted in a reasonable manner, and since you¡¯re telling me this, I suppose that it may be possible,¡± he muttered, ¡°However, I think that more people should know.¡±


    ¡°While I agree, we should have as few people involved as possible. Anyone that is spoken to should be incredibly trustworthy, and it should not be done right away and without reason, as that would draw unnecessary attention to my actions. So long as there is a reason for me to speak with them outside of this, then it can be done,¡± Wei Yi agreed.


    ¡°I have been speaking with Chen Jushu quite a bit these past few days. I will simply ask her to question you about what happened, and then you can share anything you¡¯ve learned by then with her,¡± he suggested, writing down some notes on a nearby piece of paper, ¡°I would also advise checking in with someone that is knowledgeable on the mind and illusions, to ensure that you do not fall prey to them. If your abilities fell into their hands, it-¡±


    ¡°Not a chance. If you do know someone like that, feel free to recommend them, but I will not require their services, even if I may benefit from them,¡± she said, entirely truthfully. Her mind was set since her first kill in the prison realm, so changing it may very well be impossible even for the ninth realm.


    Chu Huazhi blatantly disapproved of this, but he saw that she was very certain and determined about this, so he let it go, saying only, ¡°You must be very careful in these kinds of situations.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know. Hence the arrays all around you. Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t realise that I was able to block your entry to your assistant with these, to the extent that you couldn¡¯t detect a single thing inside of the room? Please don¡¯t make this exchange any more difficult than it has to be, or else I might just turn to the Mirror Plane Aberrations in reality as well as in their heads.¡±


    ¡°I understand your abilities in refinement, and, apparently, in arrays, but no person can be perfect.¡±


    Perfection ¨C an unattainable goal, for it would require surpassing the heavens themselves. To be perfect meant to be without flaws, but what didn¡¯t have flaws? Any metal had its limitations, any pills could only fulfil a certain set of roles in certain conditions, all arrays required specific environments and configurations to function at their best, and even then, nothing could be said to do even its role without flaws. Everything could be broken, overcome, mitigated, bypassed and otherwise ignored.


    Some thought that in order to attain true perfection, one would need to rise to the peak of cultivation and then forge a new path, to overcome the heaven¡¯s will and throw aside the limitations of planar energy, but even the most optimistic people never thought that such a thing was possible. Planar energy was the source of everything within the Continents, and without it, life as they knew it would crumble in an instant, with so many dying of old age as their additional years of life finally caught up to them, while the rest would perish without the ability to provide food, water and energy for themselves without the assistance of planar energy.


    The meaning of his words was that Wei Yi could be excellent at refining, at arrays, even at blacksmithing or talismans, but it was impossible for her to also be immune to mental influence and to be perfectly convincing in front of all of the Mirror Plane Aberrations.


    ¡°No, perhaps not. Even the Master of Yi City had flaws, but that does not mean that a person cannot be good at multiple things. Have you never wondered where I appeared from?¡±


    ¡°You have experience with infiltration?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s one way to put it,¡± she answered, ¡®I¡¯ve lied about my abilities to almost everyone I knew before the prison realm, and still hide them even now. If I tended to reveal things that I shouldn¡¯t, or if I was easily susceptible to mental influence, I would not have been able to get away with things like that for so long.¡¯


    ¡°Hah¡­ I don¡¯t even know why I¡¯m trying to stop you,¡± he sighed, ¡°Well, it may be because you are rather talented, so the moment that they get you on their side, they will¡­ Ahem. When they are uncovered, by us or by you, I doubt anyone will intentionally avoid striking you unless you immediately declare your allegiance to the Ning District. I or anyone else that that learns about your plan will not hesitate to strike you down if you do not blatantly turn on them.¡±


    ¡°I have no allegiance to the Ning District, even now. I side with Yi City, and Yi City alone.¡±


    ¡°An unusual position, but one I can respect. Yi City could do with people that support the entirety of it. Perhaps one day, it can reach a tenth of its former glory,¡± he sighed again, lowering his head.


    There was a moment of silence, during which neither of them spoke at all.


    ¡°Do you want to make them suspicious, woman? What are you still doing here?¡± Chu Huazhi suddenly said, smashing his fist on the desk and staring at her with some degree of anger in his eyes, ¡°Get out and follow that plan of yours already!¡±


    ¡®I suspect that this is his kind nature clashing with whatever else is going on in that head of his. Either way, there¡¯s no reason for me to argue, not after getting what could be called his approval, so I might as well leave,¡¯ she did not attempt to continue arguing with him and instead nodded, turned around and proceeded out of the Chu Alchemical Store, putting on a thoughtful expression once she left the office and dispelled the arrays. She would not reveal the conversation that they had within the office to anyone, but she wanted the Mirror Plane Aberrations to assume that she had some kind of lengthy discussion that prompted her to consider their argument with more trust than before, slightly nudging her towards them.


    A little after that, perhaps a day or two later, she would be questioned by Chen Jushu, at which point she could make it seem that the routine questioning had revealed some detail that stuck out to her, after which point she would create the pill and submit it to the Aberrations. Such a progression seemed natural, so she decided that it was her best bet to emulate being convinced in a sensible manner.


    The only issue would be the fact that identical arrays would block all observation of her during her interactions with both the local manager of the Chu Alchemical Store and one of the stronger combatants in the district, which, if thought about for longer than a moment, would seem extremely suspicious, especially if those arrays only ever appeared during her visits and lengthy discussions in sealed rooms, but she had a few ways to get around that, even if the Mirror Plane Aberrations did realise this.


    Beside claiming that some legendary array master had created them for the Ning District some time ago, and that they were activated due to sheer luck during those conversations, there were quite a few other excuses she could present them with, all with pointers towards organisations that were so old that only the Kong Prison Realm had managed to remember them through the greater priority that they put on individual books and stories.


    They would need to investigate for a really, really long time to get to the bottom of those kinds of lies, and when they did, it would be unlikely for her to have any reason to continue tricking them.


    Things happened roughly as she expected, with her being greeted two days later, on the tenth of the third months, by Chen Jushu herself, who was dressed in a casual dress that did not befit a warrior such as her in the slightest, with only a small dagger hidden away on her person.


    ¡®She wouldn¡¯t be trying to take me out on a date, would she? Clothing like this doesn¡¯t suit an investigation or interrogation in the slightest,¡¯ Wei Yi remarked within her mind as she opened the door.


    ¡°Good morning, Wei Yi. I have a few things to discuss with you, but since you acted reasonably and respected our family during the appearance of the mirror plane, I wish to spend the time in a more pleasant manner. Would you mind going for a short walk with me? I know of a few places where you can get some mildly respectable refreshments in advance of our potentially lengthy talk, and I would love to show them to you,¡± she smiled, holding out her hand in an inviting manner.


    ¡®A date it is, but for the purpose of business. Fair enough, especially with that ring on her finger,¡¯ she thought, glancing at one of the few ornaments on the woman¡¯s body before raising her head to look her in the eyes and pretending that she had simply been admiring the item of jewellery as she accepted her hand, ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. Having spent most of my time at work, I¡¯m not too familiar with the more interesting sights of this district, so I would appreciate someone to guide me. As for whatever you wish to discuss, I¡¯ll gladly cooperate.¡±


    When their skin touched, Chen Jushu couldn¡¯t help but remark, ¡°You seem to take good care of your skin¡­¡±


    ¡°I am an alchemist, and I have some understanding of the body, so I will naturally ensure that I am always at my best,¡± she replied, grasping the combat cultivator¡¯s hand a little more tightly than necessary, ¡°If you wish, I could provide you with a few items for free.¡±


    ¡°No, there is no need for that. I will be more than happy to pay for anything you create.¡±


    Wei Yi wasn¡¯t going to intentionally decrease her profits, so she didn¡¯t argue and instead appreciated the sensation of the other woman¡¯s hand as she was led from her residence and towards one of the more prestigious and expensive areas of the district, where the cheapest items were valued in silver coins and the most expensive, although they were just fancy food and drink, cost planar shards.


    For a moment, she wondered whether she would get to experience such unnecessary luxury, but it turned out that even someone in the fifth realm did not have that much money to spare during, or, rather, prior to an interrogation, so she was instead brought to a small stall that still looked significantly better than any she had visited before, with silver and golden ornamentation that sold some drink within cups that were framed in gold.


    ¡®Although it looks similar to immortal gold, its value is far lesser, allowing this small business to not be too concerned about theft or anything else of the sort. In the worst case, two customers will immediately give them enough to make another one of these.¡¯


    ¡°The authamite wine served here is of an incredibly high quality. You absolutely must try it,¡± Chen Jushu said, throwing two gold coins to the vendor before passing one cup over to Wei Yi by gripping the cup from the top, with fingers on the outside and inside of the cup, which she did not do when taking a cup for her own consumption. Nevertheless, Wei Yi accepted it without complaint, taking a slow, careful sip while she actually analysed the structure of the liquid in order to estimate the taste of the wine.


    Since she had too little experience with this type of food prior to her loss of the sense of taste, this proved incredibly difficult, so she instead attempted a different method, saying to her, ¡°Interesting. I¡¯m sure that someone like you must have tried quite a variety of wines by now, so what made you show me this particular one?¡±


    ¡°Well, the taste of this one in particular is very sweet, contrary to the usual sourness of the authamite. Is it not to your liking?¡± Chen Jushu answered with a question of her own.


    None of the reactions from the people around her, the vendor included, suggested that anything about her description was inaccurate, but Wei Yi remained cautious and said, ¡°No, don¡¯t worry about such a thing. I don¡¯t often go out for personal entertainment, so I am open to all kinds of new experiences.¡±


    ¡°How diplomatic,¡± Chen Jushu smiled, ¡°This vendor is also partnered with the restaurant over there, so why don¡¯t we sit down and have a nice chat before getting onto the serious matters at hand? Their menu is very extensive, and I wouldn¡¯t mind paying for anything.¡±


    ¡®If only I hadn¡¯t yet been sent to the prison realm¡­ I¡¯d at the very least get a chance to enjoy the food, regardless of her actions,¡¯ Wei Yi scanned the place with her spiritual perception and confirmed that the place did serve a variety of items made from, as far as she could tell, fantastic ingredients, but unless a certain someone added a lot of poison or other malicious substances to them, all she would be able to tell was that something was present within her mouth, at which point there were a number of things she would rather have there than food¡­ which shall be omitted due to lack of relevancy.


    Even if she wanted to reject the offer, however, it was clear that the combat cultivator was very intent on taking her along a very particular route, so all she did was hesitate before accepting.


    ¡°Excellent! I¡¯ll recommend a few items to you, if you don¡¯t mind. Please enjoy!¡±


    Not a single one of the food items that she ended up trying was actually able to stimulate her sense of taste, nor any of the drinks that she was effectively made to taste, all the while Chen Jushu grasped her hand tightly, not giving her a single opportunity to flee ¨C not that she needed to, since it was her intention to be questioned from the beginning.


    For that reason, when she was finally pulled into an isolated chamber that was then sealed behind them, she was more than pleased.


    ¡°So, Wei Yi, do you know what it is that I want to talk to you about?¡±


    ¡°Judging by everything you¡¯ve been putting in my food and drinks, this¡¯ll be an in-depth interrogation.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Chen Jushu didn¡¯t seem perturbed in the slightest, ¡°Pray tell, what exactly have I put into your meals today, and when?¡±


    ¡°A basic mixture that will encourage a certain level of truthfulness, simple mindedness, and general submissiveness to questioning. To be more specific, you have added a total of thirty-seven doses into my food, although I was honestly quite surprised that you didn¡¯t add it to the cake. Out of all the things to reasonably touch in excess, the slice of cake which you so carefully fed to me should have given you plenty of opportunity,¡° she replied, that moment being one of the more pleasant ones, ¡°Still, I¡¯m not sure that feeding that many doses to one person is reasonable.¡±


    ¡°Trust me, I have a lot of experience in the matter. I¡¯d never go too far.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you wouldn¡¯t. Excuse me for a moment,¡± Wei Yi turned to the side, reached behind her back and took out an ornate golden glass from seemingly nowhere, into which she spat out a literal mouthful of viscous black fluid. She grimaced slightly as she put it on the table, ¡°Very unpleasant to behold, like a pit of tar.¡±


    That was when her expression finally changed, ¡°So, you seem to be very well prepared. Did someone tell you that I¡¯d be coming for you?¡±


    ¡°Based on the timing, I assume that it was the old man in the store. Did you not find it interesting in the slightest that he had suddenly suggested that you ought to confirm my actions on the day of the mirror plane appearance out of nowhere?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    ¡°That was why he wanted me to speak to you, huh¡­¡± her expression changed again, but she still clicked her fingers and activated a series of arrays around them, isolating the room even further.


    Before she could do anything else, Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception stretched out and encompassed the entirety of the room, reading every single array and inscription that made up the isolation effect and arrived at a conclusion within only a few moments of her mental time. It was decent, being able to distort sight, smell and touch to the point of entirely removing any traces of their presence at the moment, but due to the way in which it was constructed, it did not block sound when the insides were perceived by spiritual perception, so it was not impossible for someone to listen in on their conversation even with it established.


    ¡®While establishing an array for me is great, the weakness is not. In that case¡­¡¯ she frowned for a moment, then leaned forward and looked deeply into the combat cultivator¡¯s eyes, ¡°So, what exactly did you want to ask me about?¡±


    At the same time, she manipulated her planar energy ¨C in the shape of wood energy, as to not attract suspicion ¨C to form into words before her, saying, ¡®You can focus on two things at once, I hope. Don¡¯t make any remarks about this, or else they may be heard. Before you ask, this is on the topic of the Mirror Plane Aberrations as well, and far more important than the events of the previous day.¡¯


    To her credit, Chen Jushu only paused for a moment, then continued with a question that wouldn¡¯t be out of place in such an interrogation while responding with her own planar energy, although she had to shape it with her finger, ¡®What exactly is going on? I¡¯ll humour you, but not for long.¡¯


    ¡®Too bad. I might have a method of learning about the exact leadership, location, values, tactics and techniques of the Mirror Plane Aberrations, but it may be a bit unconventional.¡¯


    ¡®A promising start. Continue.¡¯


    ¡®I have made contact with a member of the Aberrations ¨C or, more precisely, they came up to me ¨C and I suspect that they wish to invite me into their cult. I have value to them due to my ability to discover the Great Aberrant himself, and I do intend to truly join their organisation for now,¡¯ she said, ¡®I will infiltrate it, gain information, and will attempt to uncover the Great Aberrant and make him available to other forces.¡¯


    ¡®You have found one of their number? We will end them right away.¡¯


    ¡®Terrible idea. You kill that person now, and they will notice, put more effort into hiding, and not speak to me anymore, removing any potential of finding them with ease and giving them so much more of an opportunity to take over the district successfully.¡¯


    ¡®Do you really think so?¡¯ she paused in both conversations at once, ¡®Alright, I may allow this.¡¯

 V3C26: Fractured Revelation

    Even at the end of their chat, Chen Jushu wasn¡¯t awfully fond of the idea of an infiltration being conducted by someone with no clear experience, much like Chu Huazhi, and she presented a similar stance as he did, making it clear that if she did not clearly display her allegiance at the beginning of an assault against the Aberrations, she would be struck down like any other member of the Mirror Plane Aberrations.


    This was fine, especially considering the fact that she did not expect to remain weak enough to be easily slain by someone in the fifth realm within a few months, when the Aberrations would be likely to allow her enough understanding of the cult in order to be able to figure out the identity and location of the Great Aberrant himself.


    For this reason, she concluded the interrogation with Chen Jushu, neither of them ultimately saying anything out loud, and returned to the Chu Alchemical Store and picked up a few more things for herself, alongside some ingredients that were metallic in nature but could also be used for the pill requested by the Aberrations, as she was certain that they were paying attention to her and she would lose nothing at all just through obtaining more ingredients to grow within the prison realm and acting in a more convincing manner.


    Once she had given herself enough time to ¡®complete¡¯ a pill, during which she was actually working on prompting more herbs to grow, she left the residence once more and headed to the part of the district that she was meant to deliver her items to.


    Before she even had the chance to put those items in the correct location, she could already sense the man with the spot on his neck approaching her, although she pretended to do so only afterwards.


    ¡°Ah, it¡¯s¡­ you. I don¡¯t believe you ever introduced yourself.¡±


    ¡°I was far too consumed with spreading word of the Great Aberrant to speak about myself, of course. Even now, we have little time. If you have any faith at all in our great master, then come with me. I shall show you to a place that truly demonstrates his will!¡±


    ¡®Very quick. Something is definitely happening, and I cannot say that I¡¯m very happy about this sudden change. Nonetheless, perhaps he had some time to consider his recruitment policy, and has now decided to speak with actions rather than words,¡¯ Wei Yi considered for a moment before following him, for she was curious to learn where this was going regardless of the role she was playing at the moment.


    Apparently, that man was so eager that he didn¡¯t even bother checking the things that she had prepared, reaching into that hidden spot and removing the pill from it and rushing away immediately, forcing Wei Yi to chase after him the moment that she completed some basic instructions for Min Lian and sent them away through spiritual will.


    The man led her to the very edge of the district, to the great walls that protected it since the time of the Master of Yi City, where there was a small shack that was extremely uninteresting in almost every single way. There were traces of it once belonging to someone, but they were so ancient that it seemed to be half the age of the walls themselves, with the door having fallen off so long ago that it had somehow been attached to a building several metres away, with the top half being used to seal a window while the other part had been turned into a table, on which there now lay several broken bottles of a cheap alcoholic beverage.


    When she was led into it, however, her Third Eye immediately realised the issue with it.


    ¡®Everything in here is like a thousand mirrors, shifting ever so slightly¡­ And this has to be old, at least twenty years old, so that Great Aberrant must have more presence here than I had initially assumed,¡¯ she understood, as this mirror layer was significantly denser and stronger than the hasty one that had invaded not too long ago. Furthermore, although it was almost opaque, she could see traces of passages beneath it, meaning that this place had seen quite some use already.


    ¡°This place has been blessed by the Great Aberrant. Walk into the middle and see it for yourself!¡± the man with a spot on his neck declared, keeping his voice down as a few people lived in the houses around this area.


    She gave him an appropriate glance of suspicion, before grabbing a stone from the ground and throwing it at a specific point of the inside of the building, causing the mirror layer to flicker wildly.


    ¡°You seem to have forgotten that I can see through illusions. What¡¯s in there?¡±


    Remaining unperturbed, he answered, ¡°A part of our domain, wherein some of us reside. Go inside and you shall be shown to the true power of the Mirror Plane Aberrations, our goals and our great knowledge! You shall be able to experience everything first-hand, and you will understand the truth of our words!¡±


    The promise of knowledge was enticing to the curious and insightful persona she was presenting to the man, and since she genuinely wanted to learn as much as possible about the Mirror Plane Aberrations, she proceeded into the mirror layer, stepping through it with a little discomfort as the vast quantity of yin passed around her body. Fortunately, it was only large enough to cover the floor of the shack and disappeared the moment that she entered the passage below and got beneath the ground-level wooden floor.


    As soon as she could see the passage clearly, she confirmed that this place had been used for quite some time. Everything was built from large bricks of stone, with many pathways leading away from the shack and away into the district, as well as many chambers containing all kinds of curiosities, ranging from simple books to complex artefacts, all of which were obscured from detection through the power of the mirror layer above them, even from the prying senses of Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception.


    ¡°Follow me and feel free to marvel at the things we have accomplished here!¡± the man with a spot on his neck continued exclaiming, quickly leading her into the depth of the passages on a somewhat indirect route, judging by the fact that they passed nearly every room there at least once.


    There were almost no other people there, with only a few figures taking care of the place by dusting, cleaning and repairing the rooms they were in charge of, and she didn¡¯t have the opportunity to thoroughly look at any one part of the passages with the powers that someone in the third realm would have access to, but even with the rush that the man with a spot on his neck was in, his particular route permitted her just enough time to scan through the many books and technique manuals that she had found within them. Many were rather ordinary in nature, with the only unusual factor about them being that they are all yin-focused, to the point that she already had many of them in her collection.


    One did jump out at her quickly, though: Poltergeist¡¯s Tendrils.


    It sounded odd, but the principle of it was exactly what she had wanted for a very, very long time. According to it, a poltergeist¡¯s greatest weapon was their hair, and thus it endeavoured to replicate their abilities to freely manipulate all of it, to use it to manipulate the world around the user, to attack their enemies, or even to cover one¡¯s own body.


    Based on how little effort was put into taking care of it, she suspected that it had been created by someone with too much spare time and without any intention of it being used seriously, as the hair of most people lacked meridians and would be incredibly weak when it came to dealing with any regular weapons or armour ¨C given that circulating energy through it would be significantly more difficult without them, and it being absolutely necessary to strengthen the hair even a little bit ¨C but it was something that she had wanted to find for some time.


    All of the effort she had accidentally spent on enhancing her own hair had resulted in it being entirely immune to most reasonable forms of damage. It was also rather long, with her always having the ability to grow it even further at any time by undoing her forceful cessation of growth, so if there was anything that was perfect for use as an offensive or defensive measure and was horribly underused, it was this particular part of her body.


    ¡®This, alongside some of the other manipulation methods, could become one of my strongest arts, especially if my hair continued to experience such disproportionate growth with every single physique realm,¡¯ she considered while she added it and everything else that she came across into the Ascendant¡¯s Library, merging any variations of techniques she already knew with them as to save space in the library and consolidate their combined knowledge for their eventual use, ¡®I did think about forming clothing out of hair before, didn¡¯t I? If I can also use this technique to dye my hair, I will pretty much be able to change my appearance freely.¡¯


    If she covered all of her own body in a skin-tight suit made from hair, although it would be likely to be somewhat uncomfortable, she could easily transform its appearance whenever needed and make it seem as if there are either millions of strange figures present at a scene without the use of the Red Phantom Flood, or otherwise avoid pursuit by becoming someone that she couldn¡¯t possibly be.


    Of course, only the most distracted or the simplest of men would believe that one skin-tight suit wearing woman and another, identically-built skin-tight suit wearing woman had no connection to one another whatsoever, although this method would still have some use if she wore something underneath and typically concealed it with the hair suit, changing from it to a set of robes would be far more likely to succeed.


    The next interesting technique that caught her eye was labelled as Eidolon Lunge, another water-type technique that had some potential. It wasn¡¯t the technique itself that interested her, as it was not particularly uncommon in the field of techniques for the third realm, but rather the exact method through which it achieved its effect. Depending on how she adapted it, it could work alongside the Poltergeist¡¯s Tendrils and a number of her other combat techniques to significantly strengthen her offensive abilities, and potentially anything that requires bursts of strength.


    Finally, after sorting through roughly a thousand different, yet similarly uninteresting techniques, was one that she had learned of many, many years ago, but did not have the opportunity to learn until now ¨C the Meridian Explosions Art.


    Combining it, the dantian bone talismans, and the searing marks that she would eventually obtain upon entering the fifth realm, she could theoretically achieve an immense degree of power for a while.


    It had a far more complicated principle than she had expected from such a well-known and seemingly basic technique, which she was rather pleased with due to the possibilities that it offered. The more complex a technique was, the more options it offered, the more she could extract from it. There was no guarantee at all that a technique as advanced as it didn¡¯t contain a fragment of the Great Dao within it, which would grant her an immense boost in overall power the moment that she comprehended it and was able to apply it to suitable methods and skills, whether that included the great arts, combat, or some other esoteric field.


    If it was possible, then comprehending the Great Dao in its entirety would likely put her at the level of the heavens, although she did not imagine that she would ever be successful in such a task. To understand everything about an entire system of energy, life and everything around it required such an immense amount of time, effort and general talent that she doubted that everyone in the world put together could reach such a level, even if legends like the Master of Yi City were included.


    ¡®It is especially unfortunate as so few of the people that are powerful today have acquired all of their skills through genuine comprehension, rather than otherworldly gifts and forbidden skills, making it all the more difficult to accumulate the Great Dao in a single age.¡¯


    She had enough time to process everything she had learnt before she and the man with a spot on his neck finally reached their destination, which was a chamber not unlike most of the others, with nobody at all occupying it and few books on any of the shelves, without a single technique manual or anything else that would be of any actual use to her. Instead, they appeared to be simple tales and stories, suitable for teenagers to read to ignite their interest in planar cultivation and adventure if the simple existence of those two things somehow didn¡¯t suffice.


    ¡°Stay here for a moment, and one of our number shall greet you!¡± the man declared, running off as soon as she took a seat on the couch.


    Due to him giving her no opportunity to question his actions, nor running away so far that she couldn¡¯t follow him, she decided to simply wait in place while scanning through everything that the room itself had to offer. At first, she looked through the bookshelves and the furniture, curious to learn whether any of them were also made from mirror layers and hid something behind them, but that did not appear to be the case.


    Her gaze of spiritual perception then returned onto the story books, mostly due to finding little else to observe, but it then stuck there for far longer than one might expect, as she uncovered something of great interest within them.


    In between the pages that described a noble hero¡¯s adventure into the lair of a primordial god to request a favour from them lay a small piece of paper, on which was written a most alarming letter.


    ¡®Second Shard, we have made an unexpected breakthrough in the development of the stabilisation anchors, and must put them into action now that we have caught the attention of one of the Fractured Mirrors, or else the Great Aberrant shall be endangered by their arrival on the 16th. To activate the Mirror Plane in this state, certain measures will need to be taken, but the followers ought to be prepared to give up their lives for our Lord¡¯s reappearance within this world. Nevertheless, do not display this to the followers, lest they have the opportunity to be scared off from their most sacred duty. Aberrant¡¯s praise!¡¯


    Two things stood out immediately, and the first was the mention of the Fractured Mirrors.


    She had heard the phrase from them before, and she suspected that they could mean nothing other than the Great Families, which was a piece of absolutely terrible news for her, as there was no guarantee that their number would be as low, and that their power would only be as weak as that of the two that she had fought in between the Ning and Yi Districts, who could have easily been the weakest of the Greats, while the presence of the Aberrant could easily warrant one of the more powerful members to appear.


    From what little Yi Shi Ming and she were able to put together, the Greats had three primary groups which they could be divided into. The third, second and first generations rose in power and age, and there did not appear to be more than that number of generations. The third was the youngest, and would likely have both the fewest planar anchors and the cultivation of the third realm, while the second generation were more likely to be in the fifth realm and the first was probably in the seventh or eighth realms, depending on their personal cultivation and the exact gaps between the generations. At the moment, she could handle a single member of the third generation without sustaining many injuries, but a single member of the second generation would obliterate her just as easily as the Great Yi Family had killed Yi Yaling so long ago.


    Her second issue was the mention of required sacrifice, as well as the implication of the ability for the members of the cult to escape it. If the scared Mirror Plane Aberrations could flee despite the sacrifice being somewhat concealed, then there was naturally a potential for others to be victims of this process that are not involved with the Aberrations in any way.


    Several of the chambers that they had passed neared the district above them, and it was not impossible to create arrays that would then siphon the life from those living above, possibly killing them entirely inadvertently in the rush to condense the Mirror Plane.


    With these two reasons combined, she could not permit it to happen.


    ¡®I must leave before the Fract- fuck, the Great Families appear, and yet I need to deal with Mirror Plane Aberrations before that¡­ If these chambers are in any way used for the condensation of the Plane, then so long as I endanger them and force them to proceed more quickly, the Great Aberrant is very likely to appear. At that point, I could challenge him with everything that I have learned and bring in those more powerful than me to finish him off, siphon his anchor energy, then flee with great haste to the next district northwards,¡¯ she decided, grabbing the book from the shelf with her killing will while she re-read the Poltergeist¡¯s Tendrils to ensure her understanding of it.


    ¡®I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d have to do this so quickly, but the Greats appear to be incredibly capable at detecting oddities around them, likely due to the strengthening and refining of their spiritual perception through the exuberant number of anchors, so I cannot risk remaining in the Ning District when they appear.¡¯


    Due to the nature of the hair manipulation technique, it did not benefit as much from cultivation as it did from understanding and practise, since no meridians were involved with the practise of it, so all she could do was ensure that her knowledge and understanding of the technique was at a sufficient level to accomplish everything that she required.


    Fortunately, while this was not helped much by the Truth of the Universe ¨C due to excessive cost for insufficient reward ¨C her Endless Calculation was finally given a chance to fully showcase its abilities, sorting through a million different possibilities in order to rapidly raise her understanding of the skill and to understand exactly how to manipulate it in order to achieve what she required from it. For now, she did not need to use it as a weapon, as her energy sufficed for that purpose, but as clothing.


    This was both simpler, as it only required a single series of actions to complete and a second set of actions to undo the hair suit, and more difficult, as offensive hair tendrils only needed to move in simple motions while wrapping herself in a suit of hair required some incredibly intricate actions and movements in order to create it successfully, giving her far less room for error than the majority of other actions she could take with it. If she was to make it too tight and not account for the full extent of movement that she would require, then it would effectively be a trap for her until she found a way to free herself from the prison of hair, while giving herself too much room would be like placing herself inside of a loose bag, with similarly distracting effects.


    ¡®And, given the slow approach of someone, I don¡¯t have much time if I am actually intending to hide my identity¡­ Some energy must be spared for the Endless Calculation to function at maximum efficiency, so¡­¡¯


    She funnelled her killing will into the enormous wall of pages that made up the structure of the Endless Calculation, many of the pages instantly turning to ash while only small passages from them merged with other pages, the deduction skipping along by the equivalent of several hours as a method of manipulating her hair in just the right manner finally came together inside of her mind.


    The moment that it did, with only a few moments left before someone from the Mirror Plane Aberrations approached the chamber she was in and saw her, she freed her hair from the ponytail and unsealed its growth, imbuing it with her cosmic energy as to further accelerate it. In an instant, the length of her crimson mane doubled, at which point the cosmic energy surged away from her head and throughout the many individual strands of perfectly smooth hair, merging with their structure and imposing movement upon them.


    As she rose from the couch and held out her arms, she was flooded by crimson, everything below the neck being covered completely while the lower half of her face was obscured by a mask-like arrangement of scarlet strands. Her robes were concealed entirely beneath this suit, and any sign of their presence was hidden through a little adjustment of the bodysuit.


    It was rather bright and noticeable in the dim chambers of the Aberrations, so in order to conceal herself further, she released a small quantity of Binder of the Dark energy, wrapping it in between the hair strands to darken the entirety of the suit into an absolutely abyss of black, resembling the outfit of the Weavers of the Dark to the extent that she was tempted to use their techniques while in this state as to pin all of the blame on their assassin organisation, but when she recalled what they had to endure and that Fen Zhi might still be seeking a method of freeing all of them from their binding to their leader, she threw away the silly notion and instead decided to focus on raw, physical strength as her weapon.


    This decision was made just in time, for the person that was approaching her ¨C a figure that obscured half of their face with a mask, with that half being so filled with malevolent yin that it was visibly rotting ¨C finally got close enough to the doorway to be able to observe her.


    His one working eye widened as he undoubtedly rushed to decide on the most appropriate course of action, but before it could occur, Wei Yi had already moved. In a flash, she appeared beside him, cracks appearing on the floor where she previously stood, slashing at the man¡¯s neck with her hand at such a speed that it pierced all the way to his spine before he even had a chance to blink.


    Even if that hadn¡¯t been enough to finish him off, the blast of air that caught up with her hand was more than sufficient, throwing him into a wall and embedding him several metres deep within it, the majority of his upper body turning into a red mist that dispersed as she rushed towards the nearest potential conduit anchor for the Mirror Plane. It was only a matter of time before the entire group of Mirror Plane Aberrations that resided in these chambers and tunnels noticed the oddity of her presence and mustered all of their forces to retaliate against her assault, at which point she would be at risk of exposure, injury or general exhaustion depending on their number and power, which she would naturally prefer to avoid whenever possible.


    With a combination of the World¡¯s Echo physique and the absolute raw power of her leg muscles, she appeared beside the doorway of that chamber in moments, bursting in to find several items obscured by sets of mirror layers.


    There were also several members of the Mirror Plane Aberrations within the room, all of them bearing the malevolent yin marks that the closer members of the cult tended to possess, that responded far more quickly than the man that had come to get her, their entire bodies being surrounded by fractured mirror-like energy that was thick and yet thin, defending every part of their body and yet seeming to exist only on the outline of their figure.


    Out of the five there, three took a step back to participate in some kind of group combat technique, seemingly inspired by the common ranged martial arts of the Bai family, while two ran forward to block her path, clearly sensing that she was not meant to be there, and that her allegiance couldn¡¯t possibly be with them due to the lack of any malevolent yin on her body, instead possessing a perfect balance of yin and yang that was not typically seen in men or women without some kind of physique. They also used a group technique, although it was more suitable to call it a pair technique, and likely intended to create a barrier to buy time for their allies to condense some kind of attack.


    It did not need to be stated that Wei Yi would not grant them the opportunity to do such a thing, no matter how strong or weak the barrier and their attacks would be.


    Wrapping both hands in energy, she raised them and slashed down, releasing that power in the form of a twin Hatred Split, imbued with cosmic light. The two bursts of energy cut straight through the two at the front and continued to strike at two of those at the back, bisecting them alongside an explosion of blood and gore.


    As the technique was forcefully interrupted by this, the last man standing felt his muscles lock up as the planar energy within his meridians ran rampant, giving him no opportunity to escape as the dark figure appeared before him and struck his abdomen, passing right through his flesh and striking the weak planar anchor within. With no core to guard it, nor sufficient free energy to form a barrier within his own body, he could do nothing as the anchor shattered within him, his dantian following it soon after.


    Without a force to control all of the planar energy within his body, every drop of it that remained violently tore through his meridians and burst out, melting into gaseous and unbound planar energy that merged with the constant layer of energy around them all.


    After confirming that her count of anchor energy rose by one, Wei Yi returned to the middle of the chamber and inspected everything that was obscured by mirror layers. Some of the items that were hidden did not appear to have much importance, regardless of how she looked at them, seeming to be only concealed only due to someone¡¯s desire to have their items untouched by others, but the middle of the room did conceal what she was looking for ¨C an array that clearly required a lot of energy.


    Since breaking it outright was likely to reduce the chances of the Great Aberrant appearing any time soon, she instead struck a few precise points to put it at risk and to minimize any ability to drain energy from those outside of the array¡¯s immediate reach, hopefully lowering or outright preventing the sacrifice of unknowing civilians above these tunnels and chambers. From the position of this structure, she deduced a few plausible locations for the other arrays, and immediately headed towards the nearest and most likely one.


    This one had two guards, both of whom were in the third realm and had already noticed her intrusion, for the moment that she appeared in the doorway, she was met with a large, humanoid planar construct that resembled one of the mirrored monstrosities from the initial mirror layer invasion, with gigantic claws and teeth and perfectly pale skin. It rushed at her, its jaws open and its claws prepared to attack, and some part of it generated a field that limited her movement to either side.


    Thus, instead of running away, she drew back her palm, and struck out with a single Elysian Palm.


    In comparison to everything that she had created and used up to this point, the Elysian Palm was a significantly simpler and weaker technique, but there was one incredibly valuable ability to it that had significantly benefitted her when she incorporated it into the Ascendant¡¯s Path.


    The biggest strength of the palm was that it could shatter planar constructs and arrays of significantly superior level.


    As the white elysian energy struck the planar construct, the latter quickly distorted and cracked, the mirrors fracturing into even more pieces before it collapsed entirely, while the elysian energy was practically unaffected, permitting it and Wei Yi to rush past the crumbling construct and eliminate one guard each, adding two more anchor points to the Truth of the Universe.


    A moment of searching later, she discovered a similar array that confirmed her initial model of the complete structure, and permitted her to ensure that the Mirror Plane would never be as impressive and powerful as the Mirror Plane Aberrations wanted it to be while still letting them have a chance at generating it and trying to prepare for the arrival of the Great Families. Although damaging two arrays was sufficient to achieve this, it also made it far easier to repair than she wanted it to be, so she persisted in her initial plan and tracked down the other anchors of note and damaged them similarly.


    By the time that she returned to the entry point to these chambers, she had accumulated a total of thirty-seven anchor points, granting her far more flexibility in her future cultivation than she had initially hoped for, but when she had the opportunity to explore the entirety of the underground complex, it also showed that she needed to take action even more quickly.


    The Great Aberrant and his cult needed to be stopped.

 V3C27: True Face of the Aberrant, Part 1

    ¡°You fool! Your actions have put my entry into the Ning District at risk, and for that, insect, you shall be crushed!¡± a powerful voice exclaimed, the conglomeration of spiritual will that relayed it floating opposite the man with a spot on his neck, who desperately kowtowed to it in the hopes of forgiveness.


    However, it was not to come.


    All of a sudden, the man and the spiritual will both vanished, and when they reappeared only moments after, the man was lifeless and the spiritual will was in perfect condition as it floated away into the beyond, fluctuations of pure anger and agitation pouring from it and resonating with the world around it.


    As it left, the arrays all around the underground complex began to ignite with mirror-like energy, each thin line and space between nodes lightning up.


    Despite how much of the underground complex was obscured through thick ceilings and mirror layers, Wei Yi was able to sense the slow growth of energy below the ground. It came about far more quickly than she had expected, but the growth was also slower than she had assumed it would be, roughly equalising the point on which the Mirror Plane would appear and stabilise, which effectively meant that her plans could continue unchanged.


    She willed her hair suit to come apart, using that same control to tie her hair into a simple braid as to make up for its current and extremely excessive length, then hastened to the place in which she sensed Chen Jushu and Chu Huazhi¡¯s energy.


    That place turned out to be a structure that she had seen before but never entered, where a number of powerful combat cultivators often resided and where a number of weaker individuals entered to hire their services. As far as she understood it, that place was intended to allow merchants, store owners and various other people to recruit warriors to complete tasks in the short term for a single fee, effectively allowing the powerful to act like mercenaries without fully investing themselves into that particular lifestyle.


    Although that was one more thing that she hadn¡¯t fully anticipated, this was another welcome change.


    Bursting into the building without any hesitation, she ignored the guard that began to charge at her and instead called out to the two that she was looking for, who stood in the middle of the room and spoke with a few warriors about seemingly unrelated matters, ¡°Change of plans! The Aberrations are beneath us, and they are preparing to summon the Mirror Plane right now!¡±


    The man that charged at her did not stop, likely too committed to the rush to even consider stopping mid-way, with his planar energy already moving through the meridians within his legs and arms in preparation for the execution of a powerful combat technique.


    She noticed his approach and, as one of his feet rose into the air, she quickly created an Aerial Foothold beneath it, then created another and another in quick succession, allowing him to step right over her and then drop to the ground once he was past her, resulting in his charge bringing him to nothing but the wall.


    Chu Huazhi, ignoring that man¡¯s actions entirely, questioned her, ¡°What are you talking about? I thought that this was going to take a long time?¡±


    ¡°Nope. They¡¯ve uncovered some method of acceleration their efforts, and even with the superficial damage I was able to do to their many arrays, I suspect that it will be complete by midnight. At that point, the same abominations that appeared before will certainly appear once more, but this time they will have mass, and power, and the ability to truly injure us, while we will lack any power to disperse them at will,¡± she explained as quickly as she could, ¡°At their weakest, I expect entities in the third realm, which would likely result in ten percent of the civilian population being killed before anything can be done about it, but at their strongest, they might reach the fifth realm, which would prove challenging even for you to take on while easily killing half of those below the third realm with the immense power of the Marked Core realm, especially if they have access to the searing marks themselves.


    ¡°This is if we do not act now, of course. So long as we take this into account, occupy the key positions from which the Mirror Plane ought to emanate, then hold the enemies that appear back while the Great Aberrant himself is searched for and destroyed, these casualties can be lowered to what I¡¯d personally call far more acceptable levels, although whether or not a twentieth of the district perishing is acceptable is something I will gladly debate.¡±


    ¡°Has your hair grown?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but that has nothing to do with the conversation.¡±


    ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t,¡± Chen Jushu admitted, her voice and expression becoming far more serious when she spoke again, ¡°This is all happening far more quickly than you¡¯d thought it would, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Trust me, not my fault, and not my choice. However, this is a positive for us, as they are not very well prepared and will thus be weaker than if they decided to create their Mirror Plane a year later, as they would then have the opportunity to strengthen their arrays and build up enough energy within them to easily manifest aberrations between the fourth and sixth realms, with their exact realm depending on their preference for numbers versus individual strength. I¡¯m not sure what the exact power of the Great Aberrant himself is, so perhaps he would be able to strengthen them further,¡± she said, recalling the physique energy that she had been able to obtain.


    She had never heard of the Mirrored Being physique before, and while it appeared to be the cause of his ability to condense mirror layers, she wasn¡¯t clear about much else of the physique. It wasn¡¯t responsible for the many mirror layers in the underground environment, so it was clearly not the only method of doing this, and the many arrays beneath the ground did not seem to be reliant on his power either, so there was very little for her to work from when deducing the Great Aberrant¡¯s exact capabilities. In such situations, caution was best, thus her extreme warnings.


    In actuality, she did not think that the Great Aberrant had the ability to manifest monsters above the fifth realm, if he could even reach such a level, due to his cultivation seeming to be in the fourth realm, but due to their previous tendency to overestimate the enemy ¨C especially in the case of Chen Jushu ¨C she wouldn¡¯t give them the chance to do so again.


    ¡°Have you any method of recording the exact locations in which you found the arrays?¡± Chu Huazhi asked.


    ¡°In fact, I can tell you exactly where they were, but we must hurry¡­¡± as she spoke, she also scanned through the entire establishment in the hopes of finding an easy way of recruiting all of the warriors around them to her side, as they were generally in the fourth realm and would prove incredibly useful regardless of the actual power of those from the Mirror Plane, finding it only a short while later in one of the rules that those who sign up to work as mercenaries here had to agree to, ¡°Furthermore, all of you who work here as combatants, your rules bind you to protect this district in the event of any threat that had the potential to cause significant damages that exceed the span of a single major street or seventeen normal streets, so you must come with us!¡±


    ¡°Since when¡¯s that a rule?¡± the man that had charged into the wall behind her thought to call her out, but she retrieved a copy of that page of rules and quickly gave it to him so that he could take a proper look, ¡°Shit, when did I agree to all of this?¡±


    ¡°When you signed up, presumably. Read all of your contracts in the future if you don¡¯t want to assist in the maintenance of architecture in the case of a major natural disaster, or anything of the sort.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s hardly the worst thing on those rules...¡± Chen Jushu muttered, clearly having consulted them in the past, before raising her voice, ¡°Alright, you¡¯ve all heard her. Those are the rules that you comply with, and as such, all of you must go to protect this district. In the case of this being a false alarm of sort, you should be very well aware of my identity by now, so you can trust that you will be repaid handsomely¡­¡±


    Her words veered off the moment that she observed a shifting presence in the streets outside, bringing the attention of everyone else to it quickly. A thin fog crept along the ground where she looked, so pale and soft that it was almost imperceptible, but what brought attention to it was the myriad of mirror-like surfaces that seemed to exist within it, causing light to dance atop it and distort.


    ¡°This is only the beginning, and a fortunate one. If I¡¯m not wrong, the fog will grow denser the greater the presence of the Mirror Plane, so it will be easier to judge when foes will appear and how powerful they may be,¡± Wei Yi took over, simultaneously testing a few of her less obvious attacks and techniques upon the fog to confirm its nature and whether or not it posed any threat to her or any of the other combatants that would be involved, ¡°Also, if any of you lot were present during the Refiner¡¯s Duel, then don¡¯t get your hopes up for the Extreme Yin Decomposition pill this time. The Mirror Plane and the mirror layers appear to function differently, and while you will be less likely to suffer an invasion of yin, you will have more regular threats to combat.¡±


    ¡°Understood!¡± a small group of people near the back of the building suddenly rose to their feet and declared, coming closer to the middle and revealing their scarred faces and bodies, as well as the ambient energy of searing marks, ¡°We usually take charge during larger operations, so if there are any specific instructions that we all must follow, give them to us right now!¡±


    Wei Yi provided these immediately, as she was once again uncertain that the two other individuals with some authority would be able to accurately judge the potential threat of the Mirror Plane, ¡°Don¡¯t let the abominations of the Mirror Plane escape from you, focus on holding them back rather than killing them ¨C since we don¡¯t know how many there will be ¨C and don¡¯t exhaust yourselves in one go! This could last a few minutes, an hour, or maybe even an entire day.¡±


    ¡°Got it!¡± one of their number, a woman with one eye and such a heavily scarred head that she could only grow hair on the left side, stated, turning to a number of the other combatants in the area and quickly issuing orders, while the others followed suit.


    ¡®It¡¯s like this lot were trained in some military force. Convenient and fortunate, so I¡¯m certainly not going to complain,¡¯ Wei Yi thought for a moment before approaching Chen Jushu and Chu Huazhi as they also got to their feet and prepared, ¡°I can¡¯t be sure of exactly where the Great Aberrant will appear, nor when, but there were a few areas in which the arrays were denser and more powerful, suggesting to me that it would be an excellent place for him to use if he wanted to fight at his full strength ¨C which, given the fact that I have weakened the entire Mirror Plane for now, is very likely.¡±


    ¡°In that case, take me there!¡± Chen Jushu ordered, glancing in the direction of the alchemist beside her, ¡°You¡¯d better focus on making us and the other fighters some pills. Make a few for my daughter, as well, since I¡¯ll personally punish you if she gets hurt.¡±


    ¡°I can fight just as well! You¡¯ve seen it yourself-¡±


    ¡°With all due respect-¡±


    ¡°The little that he deserves, you mean.¡±


    ¡°- I would suggest that you do exactly that. Everyone here will require pills to replenish their energy and heal their wounds, and you are the only one with authority to use all of the ingredients at the Chu Alchemical Store freely, while also being able to make the most pills in the shortest amount of time at the highest quality,¡± Wei Yi said, earning both a groan and a nod of understanding from the man.


    ¡°Fine, but I¡¯m joining in the moment that the fighting starts! I won¡¯t be able to focus sufficiently to make pills at that time no matter what I do.¡±


    As he left, Chen Jushu¡¯s attention came to Wei Yi, with a gaze that asked an obvious question.


    ¡°You might not believe it, but I am also a capable combatant with a lot of energy to spare. The pills that I produce won¡¯t be of sufficient quality to help those in the fourth realm and above, so it would be far better for me to remain on the battlefield, especially considering the fact that I have the best idea of what the Great Aberrant might look like and how he may fight, both of which is bound to prove incredibly useful,¡± she answered the silent question and did not wait for the woman¡¯s approval, heading straight to the nearest map of the district ¨C one lay atop one of the tables beside her ¨C and releasing several small sparks of planar energy, ¡°Everyone, these places are where I found the arrays-¡±


    ¡°Alright, we¡¯re going to the southern points!¡± one of the leaders quickly decided, him and his party rushing off immediately after.


    ¡°We¡¯ll take the west. They have some great beer there!¡± another followed suit.


    ¡°These central points are most concerning. My house is near there,¡± the one-eyed woman took action with similarly self-centred reasoning.


    ¡°The north is for us. We should also warn all of the sentries on the walls and the guard force, so that we won¡¯t be fighting alone.¡±


    ¡°I have a friend in the guard at the east, so I¡¯ll speak to him.¡±


    ¡°Hey, is that how you keep getting away with¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes, now shut it and run!¡± the last of the leading group chose his destination and headed towards it with a force of a dozen people, meaning that they would have no more than four per major array point, much like the other groups.


    However, the weakest in these groups was in the fourth realm, while the strongest had no fewer than fifteen searing marks already, so, alongside the assistance from the guard and any other bystanders with an impressive cultivation, it was figured that they would have enough power to hold back the monsters of the Mirror Plane for a sufficient length of time to make a difference, while gathering more people from this organisation would be difficult without putting in a lot of inefficient effort.


    As Wei Yi also left the building, she did not head to a random point, but instead towards one particular mirror anchor location that she had recorded while she had been searching for them beneath the ground. Despite what she had told the mercenary warriors, she did have a clue regarding where the Great Aberrant would be likely to appear, and that was due to her intentionally weakening one array far less than any of the others, meaning that if he had any sense or ability to think tactically at all, he would be forced to choose that point, where she would be waiting for him.


    To give her as much room to do whatever she wanted at that point, she also claimed that the spot wasn¡¯t a significant danger to the district, thus avoiding a single one of the mercenary forces being sent to it.


    If she mistook the true power of the Mirror Plane, the Great Aberrant and his forces, then this could result in the entire city being overrun from her location, but she considered that she had the ability to deal with the most likely possibilities so long as she did not receive constant observation and attention that would limit the number and variety of techniques that she could use. With a combination of physique energy, killing will and cosmic energy, enhanced by her planar anchor and the dantian bone shards to maximise her power, she had the potential to unleash force at the power of the initial fifth realm, which would be sufficient to handle the primary cause of the Mirror Plane and disperse it regardless of the other forces that it could summon.


    ¡®Since there is a possibility of failure, I should do everything to ensure that it doesn¡¯t occur, of course. I have roughly three hours before anything should be appearing, so if I create a basic inscription there, an array there, shift the geography a little to force anything to walk through a very specific path there¡­ The amount of work I will actually have to do afterwards may be significantly reduced.¡¯


    As soon as she got the point where the Great Aberrant was most likely to appear, she got to work, manipulating the streets of stone and brick into her envisaged battlefield, mostly by blocking certain roads and pathways to ensure that anything that walked would need to take the most complex route possible, while also setting up a few arrays to limit aerial movement as much as was possible without an incredibly specific, expensive and complex array that specifically targeted only creatures from the Mirror Plane, as the alternative would also affect the movement of allies with some ability to fly, resulting in an overall negative impact on the Ning District¡¯s chances of success.


    ¡®It is really unfortunate that I do not have a higher-grade technique for formation arrangement, as there is only so much that I can do using only my killing will, no matter how powerful it is,¡¯ she sighed.


    All of the great arts, their techniques and products were split into nine grades, or nine stars, and while it was not impossible for someone within the second realm with one-star techniques to complete a two-star item, it was impossible to go far beyond that grade, and it was entirely impossible to create something that had six stars or above, due to the massive difference between realms that caused the gaps between them to grow with each realm. Something that only had a single star could be made as powerful as something that had two, but it would essentially be substituting quality and craft for raw power, forcing as much of it into a product as possible with an extremely poor return in exchange for the effort, which made it so much more preferable to instead improve the number of stars to achieve the same effect at such an immensely greater efficiency that none could afford to go down the other route.


    For example, if a one-star item was boosted to five stars, it could require a hundred thousand units of planar energy, perhaps requiring ten average cultivators in the fifth realm to contribute their power, but a five-star item with the same effect would only require a hundred to a thousand units of energy.


    At the moment, Wei Yi had the energy to spare to empower her arrays and inscriptions in such a manner, and she was attempting to incorporate some of the techniques she had seen within the Ning District and the underground chambers of the Mirror Plane Aberrations, but without a proper technique and understanding of it, she would not have the opportunity to bring it up to the same standard as the majority of her crafting techniques.


    Her Cursed Talisman arts could complete talismans at the fourth realm at a high quality, and the fifth realm with a decent quality, the Hammer Semblance art was slightly lacking in comparison but was enhanced significantly by the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp while still producing items up to the fifth realm at an above-average quality, her Cherry Revolving Blossom art was far superior to both due to incorporating an aspect of the Great Dao and could be replaced by the Antithesis method to significantly overpower all crafting techniques combined, and the Earthen Heart art was also incredibly good for something she had incidentally obtained from an attempt to earn some money, so the array arrangement art was something that stood out as being the least optimal for her rising realm.


    Fortunately, with the map obtained from Master Yi Yi¡¯s last breaths, she knew that the technique that could be combined with the technique there to form something greater, but for now¡­


    ¡®For now, if I am to improve¡­ Hm. My killing intent proved incredibly helpful in pill refining, my physique energy is especially useful due to the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp, my blood and cosmic energy can complete talismans quickly and efficiently, so could I not make use of spiritual will in arrays?¡¯ she looked upon the arrays she had created through her killing will so far, then selected one almost at random.


    She purged it of all killing intent, leaving only the dense silver light of her spiritual will to form all of the individual nodes of the array. It did not appear too different from before, the colour excluded, but now that she had something to look for, a goal that she sought to pursue in the little time that remained before the first foes could appear from the arrays beneath the ground, she wasn¡¯t going to overlook a single thing, no matter how insignificant it appeared.


    A minute passed in absolute silence, as she even stopped creating more arrays within the air to focus.


    ¡®The flow of spiritual will differs from killing will and killing intent, it seems. It is slightly different from planar energy as well, so perhaps I should alter the structure slightly¡­¡¯


    Wei Yi did so, not altering the structure or nodes in any significant manner. If an ordinary array master observed the modified variant of the array, they would be unlikely to notice much of a difference, but together, these changes shifted the position of every single node, every single flowing line between them, bringing a second topic of interest to her attention.


    The exact weight and density of spiritual will, especially her own, differed from cosmic energy, but it was not something that she had not addressed before, continuing to use her existing techniques and known array layouts due to it not appearing to impact the overall quality of her creations, nor the time that she needed to complete them. This was something that she absolutely had to avoid now, since every array of note was already complete and all that they would require would be a moment of adjustment, but did need the power that could be obtained from seeking perfection with a crafting method such as this.


    ¡®Now, if I enhance this with the stabilisation of the planar anchor¡­ observe wind flow and landscape texture to further greaten longevity and decrease persistent energy decay¡­ re-add killing intent not to combine, but to imbue, to focus on spiritual will as the conduit of energy within the arrays¡­ increase the general density of energy to significantly reduce outside influence upon the spiritual will¡­ modify individual node height to allow for more rapid flow of energy¡­ contribute my understanding of the Kong Prison Realm and the structure of spatial realms to further empower everything¡­¡¯


    As she considered various options and implemented them within that killing array, she also looked upon a book within the Ascendant¡¯s Library and added everything that had any merit whatsoever to it, the label on the back not yet filled, not necessarily attempting to compile an entirely new technique, but instead hoping to memorise absolutely everything that could prove successful in the future.


    Time passed quickly both inside of her mind, where the book consistently grew in thickness until she was tempted to split it into two or three, and on the outside, although the difference in the progression of time was still significant, meaning that in the time that a man could take a single step, she was able to go through dozens of different theories within her mind and on the arrays that she had already created at once, with some ideas being thrown out the moment that she came up with them due to them blatantly failing within her mind, whereas others proved unsuccessful within reality, although some other attempts also proved to have some value that could be uncovered after a lengthy period of refinement that she could not engage in now.


    She had so much to consider that she did not even realise when the first foe from the Mirror Plane began to coagulate within the empty square that she had created the killing array over, with any citizens being scared away either by the fog that was slowly growing in density, the arrays that she was putting up all over the place, or the fact that it was currently night time and there was no reason for most to stay up in the same manner as in the prison realm, where days and nights were simply societal ideas.


    A large quantity of the mirror-like fog rose from the ground, quickly being shaped into the figure of a thin, tall humanoid creature made from countless mirrored shards that reflected and refracted light in maddening ways, with countless white eyes all over its body, five arms with blades and sickles on the end of scrawny limbs, and a gaping maw from which more fog spilled forth.


    It had a moment to unleash a roar before a spot in the sky, beside a roof on which Wei Yi decided to stand in order to focus on it and empower it to the best of her abilities, lit up with pure silver light and condensed into a single bolt of pure power that shot out and pierced the mirrored flesh of the monster, crashing into the ground and exploding the bricks into a burst of fine dust. The monster froze, the fog that spouted from its mouth being dispersed entirely by that singular blast, after which it suddenly scattered into nothingness.


    There was no remaining anchor energy after it, but she was sure that the foe that was just defeated was in the third realm, meaning only one thing of note to her ¨C she successfully enhanced the array.


    ¡®And significantly enhanced it, at that. It was incredibly effective at tearing through the creature despite originally being at the quality of two stars, so it appears that I have succeeded and bringing it up to three stars at the very least, meaning that all of my changes combined have resulted in the successful generation of some type of array arrangement method. Let¡¯s call it¡­¡¯


    As she thought, another monster congealed from the mirror fragment fog and was obliterated with the energy that the spiritual will array was able to build up in the brief gap between the appearances of two enemies, indicating with perfect clarity that this was not the best time for her to ponder such things when her imagination when it came to the naming of techniques was already mostly exhausted from the excessive number of skills and arts she had created in the past, and decided not to bother.


    With the Spiritual Flow arts compiled and stored in a prominent part of her mental landscape, named after the initial factor that caused her to reconsider most aspects of the array arrangement technique she had been using up to that point, she quickly rearranged every single other array to fit into her new design criteria, with some of the more complex arrays taking a little longer than others, although she believed that the invested was more than worth it. Besides bringing every single one of the arrays used up to the third realm or above, it also strengthened them to a significant extent that she wouldn¡¯t be able to achieve even if she simply doubled the number of arrays, which was considerably more than she had expected to achieve when she began.


    ¡®Assuming a gradual increase in the rate at which the monsters appear, and the power that they possess, I might be able to get away with creating a few more arrays at other key locations before I need to return here, so¡­ Why not?¡¯

 V3C28: True Face of the Aberrant, Part 2

    ¡°I hadn¡¯t seen those things before¡­ Must have taken some thought to make them that ugly,¡± Chen Jushu said to nobody in particular as she held out one hand, around which a thick cloud of petals had already formed. With a thought, a number of petals moved outward, melting into pure golden energy and forming an array of pure offensive capability, with every one of the searing marks on her core empowering it greatly.


    Just as the monstrosity fully formed, the array collapsed into a single golden projectile that splashed onto its fractured mirror-like surface and instantly melted it, destroying the horror before it could do so much as consider moving towards her and the group of other combatants.


    However, just as soon as the first monster dispersed into mirror-like shards, another three began to form from the fog, all three of them emanating the faint power of the third realm, forcing Chen Jushu to immediately begin work on three more array-based attacks as to end their existence as quickly as possible.


    That was when a figure clad in darkness appeared from the obscurity of the night, the only sign of identity being their crimson hair that disappeared into the shadow that covered the rest of her body. She leapt from a nearby rooftop and landed on the air itself, an incredibly thin and nearly transparent platform appearing beneath her as she released a significant quantity of strange silver and crimson energy that steadied itself in the air and formed a large array pointing directly at the point from which the mirror fog monsters were appearing from.


    In the time that those at the scene attempted to comprehend the array, she had already leapt away, seemingly moving towards one of the other key array points.


    ¡°W-Who was that person? Should we target the array?¡± one of the warriors asked.


    ¡°¡­ then the nodes pass through there¡­ the energy channels are routed in this manner¡­ huh¡­ Wait, did you say something?¡± Chen Jushu broke her gaze away from the floating array, then answered, ¡°So far as I¡¯m aware, this should be an offensive killing array focused on the manifestations of the Mirror Plane, but the design is not one I¡¯ve seen before. I wonder who that was¡­¡±


    As her gaze returned to admiring the array structure, the three monstrosities formed in their entirety, displaying similarly insane shapes to the horrors that appeared during the earlier invasion of the mirror layer. Unlike the first monsters to appear at Wei Yi¡¯s location, these fiends immediately charged at the foes before them, although they did still take the opportunity to roar at them in an attempt at intimidation.


    What did not change was their fate ¨C as a small prism of light seemed to form in the centre of the array, it only took a moment before three dense beams burst out from it, piercing the mirror-like bodies of the monstrosities and splitting them in half before receding.


    The parts that remained only did so for a short while before they turned to glass dust and then melted into the air and the fog beneath them.


    ¡°That was marvellous¡­ I wonder if-¡±


    ¡®- there¡¯s a number to the actual limit of these fragmented creatures?¡¯ Wei Yi asked herself as she set up another array that could sustain itself on the planar energy in the air and some of the energy released by the arrays beneath the ground and leapt away to do the same yet again, assembling as many as she could possibly manage without exhausting all of her killing will, as every single array that was created consumed a small fraction of her overall mental energy capacity. If she went too far and covered the entire Ning District in these arrays, she would likely have no energy to support her Ascendant¡¯s Library, although, considering the split between mental energy, mental capacity and general mental faculties, that might be an incorrect assumption.


    For this reason, she only created more than one set of arrays ¨C that being an energy gathering, focus and then killing array which she had combined into one based on one of Master Yi Yi¡¯s designs ¨C at the point where she initially began her work, and where she found an insufficient number of people protecting the array point.


    There were also a few individuals that were weaker than their realm and stage would suggest, who she also decided to assist by enhancing the number of targets that their arrays could strike at once, although they had fortunately positioned themselves near other, better fortified positions which they could retreat to if things did not go as they hoped, although she would be lying if she said that she hadn¡¯t modified some of the district¡¯s geography to make this easier for them.


    In an important battle like this, it was important to minimize the chances of something going wrong. She could control herself easily, whether physically, mentally or in any other fashion, but to control other people was far more difficult, so she had to use these methods instead of assassin-like control.


    When she was almost done with the last point of interest, near the Chu Alchemical Store, she happened to witness how Chu Huazhi emerged from his store with a large bag of pills on his back, with many more small pouches within to separate the pills from one another and allow them to be given out in small portions.


    After him, Fu Xiu also emerged, carrying a second bag that was even larger than his.


    ¡°Is anyone in need of- Oh¡­¡± his words froze in his throat before he could complete a single sentence, for he saw the current state of the Mirror Plane and the forces that attempted to hold it back.


    On the ground, a dozen large and half a hundred smaller creatures had formed entirely from the fog, and were now attacking some unaffiliated people from the district who had not gone to sleep and instead decided to protect their homes alongside the two combatants from the mercenary group. All of the terrific monstrosities were all in the third realm, regardless of their size or physical prowess, but the power that they were able to manifest nearly equalled the fourth realm, overpowering many of the common folk through the mysteries of the mirror-like fog.


    The hired warriors were faring far better, with some of them being in the fourth realm, thus allowing them to oppose the monstrosities with some success, but they began to spawn from the fog more quickly with every single moment, slowly multiplying more quickly than they could be slain.


    Above all of this, a figure stood on the air and channelled an immense quantity of crimson and silver energy into a gigantic array that floated in the air above these fog and mirror-like horrors, with a shape, design and overall appearance that seemed to be entirely different from anything that Chu Huazhi himself was familiar with, even including the arrays that he recalled the new alchemist in the district creating in a matter of moments.


    This figure only stood still for another moment before she leapt into the air and vanished under the cover of the night¡¯s sky, while the array that she had created finally came to life.


    Over a dozen different points on the array, some near the middle while others were located near the edge, burned brightly with silver light, almost turning into miniature stars before the excess energy from them surged down, countless vibrant beams crashing upon the abominations and terrors below, absolutely annihilating the smaller horrors while the larger were cut into a thousand pieces that shattered on their own, the remaining dust mixing with the rising fog and slightly accelerating the congealment of new phantasms, only for them to be struck down all the same, as if they were naught but the previous illusory foes that had been defeated so easily.


    ¡°This¡­¡± Chu Huazhi stood still for a few moments, watching the terrors be obliterated in moments, before he came to his senses and rushed to the exhausted group of civilian fighters with his enormous bag of pills, ¡°Everyone, take a pouch of recovery pills and prepare for their numbers to grow. I¡¯ll let you have these for half the price after this is all over¡­¡±


    When she returned to the point that she had chosen initially, she was able to confirm that her suspicion was very likely to be correct. While the other locations were slowly growing in number of foes into the hundreds, this place had already been filled up to the thousands, with the initial killing array being far from sufficient to stop their growth. As a result, the maze-like pathways that she had created displayed their purpose, with the many killing, barrier and general obstruction arrays activating a countless number of times to stem the tide.


    ¡®I suppose this is an excellent opportunity to try out a certain technique by the name of the Defiler¡¯s Point Beams¡­¡¯she leapt into the air towards the point where the greatest number of monstrosities had pooled up, then raised a hand into the air as forty-seven points of energy appeared within the air.


    She attempted to change the quantity of points from which to fire, but she could only reduce the number of points and increase the power compacted within them, while going beyond that quantity proved to be entirely impossible despite the principles for the technique seemingly allowing it. Considering the rather specific number, she could only assume a single thing, and that was that the anchor shards of the member of the Great Family that she had integrated into her own anchor were affecting the technique itself, also suggesting a potential correlation between the quantity of the anchors that the Greats themselves had and the number of point beams that they would create.


    Neither of the Great Family members that she had fought before had gone up to as many points as she did, and since their quantity of anchors remained high enough to facilitate more points than they typically produced, she assumed that their conclusion had been that condensing all of that energy into as few points as necessary was more efficient.


    Whether or not that was true didn¡¯t truly matter to her, as the most important thing now was to obliterate as many of the mirror abominations as she possibly could.


    After a moment of charging up, the forty-seven points of cosmic light fired out simultaneously, striking the mirrored monsters and piercing directly through several layers of their assault while disintegrating their bodies entirely, after which the remaining energy either impacted the ground and blew away a few more invading monsters or damaged some others, impacting their mirror-like structure sufficiently to allow some of her established arrays to finish them off.


    In the little time that she needed to build up the energy for one set of point beams, she analysed the process and made a small change to it as she created another set, repeating the process over a hundred times in just a few minutes as she hastened to cull the number of mirror-like monstrosities that were pouring into the rest of the district from the fog of the ground, occasionally being forced to undo one of the minor changes due to it not functioning in the manner that she expected. She wasn¡¯t necessarily pursuing a perfection in these attacks as she had been with the arrays, as the only thing that she needed right now was to be able to attack as quickly as possible.


    ¡®I could call this variation Defiler¡¯s Beam Barrage, or something along those lines,¡¯ she thought while deciding to attempt an even more significant alteration, changing the execution of the technique to repeatedly fire from a single point instead of requiring a constant repetition of the charging process.


    Unlike the arrays that she had been working on earlier, this technique was significantly more refined and of a higher quality, meaning that the only changes she could reasonably make were those that shifted the intention of the combat technique towards a different purpose. In theory, once she advanced to her equivalent of the fourth realm through her perfected stages, she would be able to uncover new ways of advancing her version of the Defiler¡¯s Point Beams, although considering the fact that the Greats appeared to use very similar techniques to one another, it was not impossible for the technique to have been developed up to the peak of whichever realm the Great Families had been able to reach at their best.


    The version that she was able to acquire wasn¡¯t complete, being a simple scan of what undoubtedly had a larger picture described through a technique manual, but so long as the base principles did not change significantly between different realms, she could theoretically extrapolate the exact superior variants of the technique just through what she already had.


    One issue that she did foresee was that her cultivation path already differed from the Greats and most other people, given her fracturing five-sided anchor, the nascent rift within it, and the combination of four different cultivation paths being followed at the same time, meaning that if she was in some way restricted by the anchor shards or the lack of multiple anchors, her progress with the technique would eventually either stagnate entirely or otherwise fail to advance nearly as effectively as it should, hence the work that she was already putting in to trying out different variants of the point beams.


    At that point, all of the current experimentation would determine whether she has enough information to come up with a suitable equivalent to the point beams, whether it involved combining the Dawn beam series with them or doing something entirely different.


    ¡®Speaking of the Dawn Slicing Beam, if I incorporate everything that I learned from it into the Defiler¡¯s Point Beams, I could create something like the Defiler¡¯s Cutting Beam¡­ Slicing Beam? Eh, fuck it¡­¡¯


    She dispersed the current forty-seven glowing points and instead rebuilt them, albeit limiting herself to only two points as to not spread her power too thinly across the energy nodes before she was able to master their execution. Out of all of her planar energy techniques, the Dawn Light series was perhaps the closest to the point beams in function and principle, and yet it did the most to show the difference between her own techniques and that of the Greats.


    It was something that couldn¡¯t truly be explained to someone without a great comprehension of planar cultivation, techniques and energy, although even understanding all of that wasn¡¯t truly a guarantee, considering the fact that this couldn¡¯t be summed up in simple diagrams and plain statements.


    Perhaps the simplest way to put it would be to first compare the techniques created naturally to those composed by the gifts of otherworldly demons, like the Gilded Library and Wei Yi¡¯s Ascendant¡¯s Library. One was unnatural, highly straightforward but limited in terms of how it could be extrapolated and expanded without inspiration, while the other was the collection of all insights from the Gilded and the Augur¡¯s Library, as well as every other technique that she was aware of, with a kind of natural flow and the potential for growth, even past the present incredible state that the mental library had reached after absorbing most of the killing intent and spiritual will of the Kong Prison Realm.


    Meanwhile, the techniques of the Great Families were clearly natural, but they were oddly powerful and oppressive in their nature, perhaps being the reason for the terrifying presence that they always exuded, as if they originated from dragons rather than from men.


    From what she understood, they were very different from actual draconic techniques, which were occasionally practised in the Daoist Continent, lacking any presence of powerful yang, the dragon bloodline, and every other attribute that could be ascribed to dragons, and instead possessed a certain order, a righteous property that brought her mind to the words that had slipped from one of their victims in the prison realm.


    ¡®Blessings of the heavens¡­ Certainly, that could be one possible source of that oppressive power, but I doubt the validity of their words, and although I have little respect for the heaven¡¯s will ¨C considering how little they appear to have done for me or for the world they presumably control ¨C I doubt that they would be so weak as to be unable to supply the Great with techniques that can match the abilities of an otherworldly demon,¡¯ she thought while dropping down onto the ground as an instance of her cutting point beams exhausted its power and finished tearing through a wave of mirror-like monstrosities, ¡®Regardless, this is enough practise.¡¯


    As powerful as her many ranged attacks were, the combination of her powerful physique and planar energy best suited a different combat style.


    ¡°Bone of the Beast. White Echo,¡± she said to herself as she removed them from the House of Gold and wielded them within either hand, imbuing them with absolute killing will until they glowed brightly with silver and familiar crimson.


    While she willed that energy to arrange itself according to the principle of the Moon and Sun Eclipse Split, the fog before her seemed to sense the threat that she posed to it, for all of it suddenly rose at once, over a thousand shapes filling the square that had been mostly emptied by her techniques and the constant barrage of the arrays above them. Few of them were large, but all of them could be seen to wield a maddening quantity of killing tools, whether natural or otherwise.


    The speed at which they formed was greater yet again, taking almost a tenth of the time that they would require during their first formation.


    ¡®I¡¯ve forgotten how long this technique takes to execute¡­ Excellent opportunity to waste all of those anchor points, seeing how many of them I have managed to acquire. Perhaps more of the Mirror Plane Aberrations will emerge from the ground and supply me with more, or perhaps their deaths beneath the ground will still result in me acquiring their anchor points,¡¯ she considered, before opening the interface of the Truth of the Universe and quickly pressing on the button beside the category labelled Eclipse Ire and Split.


    Since she could improve both, she would naturally improve both as much as was necessary.


    That line took only a moment to fade before it reappeared, with the label of Full Success changing to that of the First Stage. Perhaps due to the focus of her current need and desire, or through the natural route of the principles that permitted for the Demonic Ire and the techniques she derived from it, there was no great boost in her energy, as everything was instead focused on the very nature of the energy, transforming it from a violent power into¡­ well, it remained a violent power, but it developed a more controlled nature that greatly enhanced not only its offensive capability, but also the rate at which it could be used and how much she could control it.


    In an instant after, the sun and moon formed above her, carving the night¡¯s sky in two as it was split between pale moonlight and radiant sunlight. Neither provided much light yet, their form mostly obscured by one another and by a shadow of an eclipse, but this twin display still provided enough to slightly brighten the entirety of the Ning District, bringing the events to the attention of those that were still unaware of the Mirror Plane.


    Most importantly of all, that included the guards that were stationed on the top of the enormous wall, who quickly turned half of all of their ranged weaponry towards the inside of the district while they established exactly what the cause of the sun and moon was, as well as any other potential threats.


    However, their actions were of no importance to Wei Yi, whose attack progressed rapidly.


    The blocked sun and moon were slowly unveiled, the former shining upon the Bone of the Beast while the latter shone upon White Echo, until their light was at its brightest and fullest, illuminating the entire district even more brightly than the natural sun and the natural moon could do in combination with one another. Without the split itself being executed, the light alone was able to scorch the weaker horrors from the Mirror Plane, disintegrating the weaker ones while the strongest were slowed, held back and otherwise weakened.


    It was then that Wei Yi slashed through the air, the moon and sun passing one another as their blades cut the world in half.


    None could tell whether there was one slash or two, whether or not it truly pierced space itself, or even whether their colour in any way resembled that of the sun and moon, but what could never be denied by her, any random observer, or even the heavens themselves was that it occurred in a single instant, the slashes piercing through the area between her and the buildings on the other side of the open square, obliterating every single fog creature that stood there.


    They had no opportunity to break down into particles of mirror shards and assist further entities in reforming themselves, and even the great fog seemed to decrease in density after her cut. It almost seemed as if she would be able to clear out the fog entirely, so long as she persevered.


    Such a feeling did not last for long.

 V3C29: True Face of the Aberrant, Part 3

    All of the Mirror Plane fog that remained before her suddenly stopped flowing outwards and instead collapsed onto its origin point, becoming far denser than it had been during the entirety of the night.


    It expanded rapidly, but not just horizontally, as before, but instead shaped itself into a large sphere that grew with every breath, quickly becoming the size of her head, then her torso, and then almost as large as she was tall, before it slowly shrunk again, this time shaping itself into the figure of a masculine figure dressed in extravagant clothing, which was obvious even from the vague shape formed by the gathering mirror-like fog.


    Furthermore, it was immediately obvious that it would not be as easy to disperse this figure, as it had an aspect of reality that even the strongest and most convincing amongst the Mirror Plane monsters could never hope to possess.


    ¡®Most likely, this is either the big guy himself, or some phantom of him,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded quickly, ¡®I have not expended too much energy, and he only seems to be in the upper fourth realm, so I have a chance at this so long as he is not like the otherworldly demons, and does not possess an overwhelming power that defies simple realms and stages¡­¡¯


    She checked the characters within her dantian just in case, but found them to be still, or as still as they could be considering their constant movement and shifting.


    As his shape solidified and stabilised, it became obvious that his outfit was more complex than that. Every single one of the items he wore would easily sell for a ludicrous amount in the land of common people, such as some of the countries on the outer edges of the continent, but they were damaged, torn, ripped and cut in numerous locations, with his top that was decorated with jewels and wondrous designs having so many signs of wear that it looked to be hundreds of years old, with tight dark trousers that somehow retained their shape despite both trouser legs having been torn into a thousand different strips and ribbons of fabric, with even the shoes that he wore being more suited for the ruins of the Kong District.


    The only thing that was odd about his clothing was the style of it. It seemed as if it was from another world, for it was not anything that Wei Yi had ever seen before, no matter what memory she recalled.


    His face and body were also strange, although it was his face that was most obvious within his outfit. Everything about its structure differed from that of the typical person from the Planar Continents, with larger eyes and mouth, a different shade of skin and a whole host of other minor factors of note.


    Regardless, what distracted her was the wild look in his eyes that became prominent the instant that colour filled his flesh. It, far more than anything else, did not belong on the body of a man, or a human in general. They were bloodshot and wild, a feral madness and rage emanating from every aspect of his being the moment that his eyes came to be solid enough to be perceived within reality, without possessing the ability to comprehend the Mirror Plane in full.


    ¡°You are the one that has done this? Can they not handle a single person trying to burn this fucking world to the ground?¡± the powerful voice of the Great Aberrant emerged from this figure, confirming her earlier speculation, ¡°Since you do this, I know what you will do next. Go on, introduce yourself.¡±


    ¡°I doubt you know me as well as you think, but¡­ Whatever. My name is Wei Yi, and I highly doubt I need to provide you with a reason why I might want to avoid the destruction of a district by the mad energies of some insane individual, especially when you very well aware of what you and your followers are up to.¡±


    ¡°You are like the rest, then. Wishing to live in a stagnant world without a single change for many decades, where all innovations are silenced by the Fractured Mirrors while so many continue to live in their own filth, kept alive only by their ever-present planar energy, is foolishness!¡± the Great Aberrant exclaimed with certainty and anger, his ordinary hands momentarily manifesting the same mirror-like claws that so many of the creatures that his Mirror Plane possess, ¡°I have no doubt that you think of your life as being excellent, of course you will!¡±


    ¡°You prove your ignorance, then, Great Aberrant. This world is terribly flawed, and, so long as I am correct, I suspect that I know who you refer to as the Fractured Mirrors,¡° Wei Yi replied, ¡°The solution to their threat is not going to be the complete annihilation of the world. That much is obvious.¡±


    ¡°Oh, really? Then, tell me, primitive woman ¨C what is wrong with this world?¡±


    ¡°Do you want the full list? Just from my experience, there is an extreme and blatant divide between families and ordinary people, and even different members of the same family can suffer significantly if they were born to the wrong people. Cultivation has consistently stagnated since the time of the Master of Yi City, and even the quantity of planar energy has dropped since then. The ¨C as you call them ¨C Fractured Mirrors control much of the world from the shadows, likely having some influence over every single one of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in each of the districts, and they have free reign to do whatever they like, whenever they like, without a single person attempting to stop them. The strong can get away with a whole lot of things, just because there won¡¯t be anybody who tries to offend them unless it is really worthwhile, and even if you are weak, so long as there is reason for you to remain alive, you can still get away with far too many crimes,¡± she paused to take a breath, ¡°Need I go on?¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°As you mentioned, progress in other fields also appears to have stood still, whether that field is arrays, inscriptions, talismans, blacksmithing, pill refining or even technology, without a single item that allows the common man to live a better life having been made in all of this time despite the free time that quite a number of cultivators have,¡± Wei Yi continued, her eyebrows lowering slightly as she attempted to guess exactly what he was after and whether her speech would allow something negative to occur, ¡°In fact, things like farming methods have not grown in countless years, despite the benefit that it would bring to everyone and everywhere. Even cultivators in the highest realms use them, after all.¡±


    The Great Aberrant, for a moment, lost that mad look and nodded, ¡°Then I have mistaken your exact nature, child, but I still doubt that you comprehend the full nature of the wrongness with this world! You have had a million years, if not far more, but how can you not have invented proper roads? Vehicles that do not rely on beasts? Power that all can use? Proper ¨C FUCKING ¨C TOILETS!¡±


    Somehow, that was the straw that broke the camel¡¯s back, as the madness returned in full and an enormous anchor fell from the sky, landing below him and amplifying his presence by an immense degree.


    The anchor was unlike anything that she had ever seen whether it was compared to her own or to that of most cultivators. It only had three sides, as any more would have been rather concerning, but everything else was completely unfamiliar to her. Instead of being made from the usual violet stone, it ¨C almost predictably ¨C was made from countless shards of mirrors stuck to one another in the vague imitation of an anchor, with the general shape remaining accurate while being extremely jagged and unseemly due to just a few minor inaccuracies.


    What she could also sense was a presence that far surpassed the common anchor within that mess of mirrors and shards, that she recognised after a moment of consideration. It was the same kind of energy as her anchor energy, except it was concentrated in such quantities that her amplified senses led to it being outright overwhelming.


    She had little time to ponder the exact nature of it, however, as he reached into the air, where a mass of fog quickly gathered, and removed a weapon that looked like a cane, with a handle at the top and a flat surface at the bottom, from that cloud of fog. He held it in a horizontal position in front of himself, and, in an incredibly dramatic fashion, pulled on the top of the cane and removed it from the other half, revealing a sharp blade just in time to accept Wei Yi¡¯s first attack.


    Based on his behaviour, and his power, she knew that if she was to have a chance at dealing with him, attacking first, dominating the battlefield and not giving him any room to use his superior cultivation to his advantage was key. Attacking the anchor was not an option, since it was guarded by his core regardless of its position on the battlefield, and thus she was unable to forcefully weaken or distract any attacks from him. Furthermore, if she ran away or tried anything else more strategic, perhaps allowing him to recover from his madness and continue their conversation, she would just be endangering herself if he did not do so and instead directly attacked.


    Judging by his reaction speed, his insanity did nothing to his combat ability, for he took an uncharged Hatred Split directly, blocking it with what appeared to be great ease.


    As an impossibly strong wave of force passed through the battlefield, Chu Huazhi witnessed a vast number of mirror-like monstrosities drop to the ground and lose a significant quantity of their mass or outright vanish, with most of those that remained being finished off in moments by the glowing arrays above them.


    He turned towards the origin of that wave, looked back to check the current number of fog-spawned abominations, then sighed and tossed the bag on his back to Fu Xiu.


    ¡°I think that we may have been distracted, so I will go and confirm whether the Great Aberrant has appeared elsewhere. Stay here and distribute these pills based on your own judgement!¡± he ordered, looking to the other people in the area, ¡°If any of you treat her poorly, you will not be permitted to make any purchases within the Chu Alchemical Store, even after my passing ¨C do you understand that, you muscle-heads?¡±


    ¡°Be purged, fool!¡± he cried out, the cane blade momentarily warping into a huge jagged piece of a mirror that reflected Wei Yi¡¯s image perfectly, and yet what looked back on her was entirely different from what she should have seen.


    Her crimson hair was white, her body gaunt and her eyes sunken, as if she had not had any sustenance for many weeks, and since her hair in the reflection was too thin and feeble to maintain her current outfit, she could see her overly spacious robes revealing little more than skin and bones beneath them. Furthermore, while her true self current held two daggers filled with energy, the reflection wielded little more than sharpened metal sticks.


    It was a peculiar sight, but as it lasted only for a moment and had no effect on reality, she treated it as little more than a curiosity while she threw her blades into the House of Gold and instead condensed a weapon of pure cosmic energy, filling it to the brim with killing will while she surrounded it with Yin-Yang Ascendant physique energy and threaded every technique principle that was within the Ascendant¡¯s Dao into its structure, the final result transforming into a great two-handed greatsword that unintentionally bore a great resemblance to the Demon Killer that now lay broken within the House of Gold.


    Before the Great Aberrant had the opportunity to move his weapon to attack, she brought it down upon the cane blade once more, her muscles bulging visibly beneath the layer of hair and robe.


    He did not move, expecting a repeat of the previous situation, most likely thinking that his strength combined with the power of his cultivation would be as sufficient to take this blow as it had been when she used two daggers, but just as the blades were about to clash, Wei Yi¡¯s entire figure flickered for a single moment.


    His eyes widened and he attempted to move, but he could only consider it before her figure appeared once more, with her blade having passed his and now heading directly into his chest. The sharp point struck his chest, encountering glass-like resistance, but that was when she executed some techniques.


    ¡®Meridian Explosion Art. Piercing River. Scorching Blade: Dragon¡¯s Wrath. Finally, just in case; Elysian Storm Burst!¡¯ the point of the cosmic blade erupted and shattered into his body, digging a deep hole within his clothing and flesh before the actual techniques were executed, with every single one of them occurring at once.


    The Meridian Explosion art, executed at a safe level in order to prevent any accidental injury to herself, strengthened the Piercing River move as it dug further into his flesh, revealing more of the mirror-like organs and bone that made up his true body. Dragon¡¯s Wrath erupted into that gaping hole, scorching and melting the mirror shards into a vague mess that could not reflect a thing, followed by the crackle of lightning and a thunderous bolt bursting out of the shattered tip of the cosmic blade.


    She was still not certain whether this Mirror Plane originated from him, the arrays, his physique or something else entirely, so for this reason she attempted the technique that had proved to be of immense use at damaging planar constructs in the past. If there was any resemblance in the structure of the mirrors to the typical construct, then this would damage the body of the Great Aberrant far more than any of the other attacks combined, and judging by the way in which a series of thin cracks suddenly spread from his chest and covered half of his entire body, there must have been some truth in that assumption.


    To the credit of the Great Aberrant, he was not stunned by this, so far as she was able to tell. On the contrary, he moved with great precision and speed, not retreating or dodging any other incoming attacks but instead advancing towards the side of the shortened blade, slashing down on her wrist with his cane sword.


    For a moment, it transformed into the long and jagged fragment of a mirror once more, reflecting her weak and gaunt self holding a paper sword within her hands, the message of the reflection being obvious even if the origin of the image and the logic behind its appearance was less so.


    His intentions were blatant, but they were ones that were incredibly convenient to Wei Yi¡¯s own arsenal, so she did not block his strike, instead letting go of the cosmic weapon after thrusting it forward, so that it would fly towards the hole within his chest the moment that she let go and leapt back, keeping the planar construct of the blade intact as if she couldn¡¯t disperse it whenever she wanted with just her mind.


    When it left her hand, he sheathed the lower half of the cane that had acted as a scabbard into the fog that once more formed conveniently, although it seemed to act more as a place for the solidified entity to disperse into rather than an actual form of storage like the House of Gold, and reached for the hilt of the cosmic weapon. It would have been too far away for a normal arm to reach it, but his limb momentarily warped into that of one of the mirror abominations, and when it was back to normal a moment later, the weapon was already firmly in his hand.


    With it and the cane sword crossed in front of it, he blocked a simple punch, only to notice the cosmic sword developing a series of cracks along its surface.


    ¡®The oldest trick that I discovered with cosmic energy, potentially amplified to a ridiculous extent¡­¡¯


    Since the formation of the cracks correlated with her strike, he couldn¡¯t be sure whether it was caused by some flaw of the weapon or the impact itself, and the moment of hesitation cost him the opportunity to throw it away and minimize the impact of the explosion upon himself as the cracks spread and began to glow more and more brightly, changing from being overpowered by the rest of the cosmic light to being utterly blinding in just an instant.


    After a single moment of silence, during which the entire world seemed to cease its function, the cosmic blade exploded.


    The night¡¯s sky seemed to materialise around him, the darkness, nebulae and stars all emerging within the violet flames of the explosion, instantly devouring the ground and air around him and turning it to nothingness. A wave of pure force burst out from within, shaking the district before it seemed to collapse back inwards, crushing the cosmic light and finally putting it out in one final shockwave.


    Although the street was once pristine, it now featured a crater with the depth that was half the height of an average man, the surface melted and glowing brightly as if it had just been taken out of a blacksmith¡¯s forge. The air itself was steaming and smoking, a slight orange hue glowing in that sphere. Despite that, the Great Aberrant stood within the middle of the crater, albeit not unharmed. His skin and clothing were gone, showing only a layer of fractured glass that brought his appearance far closer to the monstrosities that his Mirror Plane spawned.


    His eyes themselves were absent, only two flames glowing within his sockets, and the cane sword had transformed into the jagged shard form once more, not appearing to be changing back any time soon, while his other hand was not just empty but outright gone.


    ¡°You¡­ backwards, primitive apes! Your filthy world must be destroyed!¡± the Great Aberrant yelled, his body pulsing with energy as it suddenly grew by several inches in every single proportion, the jagged shard blade growing the most as it changed from what was essentially a shortsword into an unusually wide and thick longsword.


    What Wei Yi thought to be most significant, however, was the combination of the appearance of a faint azure light within his chest, where his heart should be, and the slight rumbling of the characters within her dantian.


    ¡®So much for the faint, admittedly foolish hope that someone this abnormally powerful, who made so many comments regarding the primitive nature about this world, wasn¡¯t an otherworldly demon. Perhaps the only unusual thing about him was that his madness appears to be, at least partially, caused by the difference between his world and ours, whereas everyone else simply begins to lust for power and ascension beyond this supposedly small reality into something greater¡­¡® she thought, stretching out both hands as she began to channel the power of Eclipse Ire.


    This time, it was the Great Aberrant that acted first.


    He raised his empty arm and pointed it towards her, the apparition of an open hand appearing at its end, the palm pointed towards Wei Yi as something formed within it.


    ¡°You shall see¡­ Potential.¡±


    Despite lacking eyes, eyelids or a true physical form, the Great Aberrant felt himself blink, his vision turning dark for a moment before he awoke within the Realm of Potential.


    The ground, air and walls, if there even were any, were all pitch black, with the exception of the grey fog that covered his feet, lacking any of the mirror shard-like properties that were present within the fog of the Mirror Plane. As a result of this bare sight, his body and the distinct changes to it stood out significantly more.


    Gone was the layer of mirror shards and the tattered clothes that he had worn before them. The maddened eyes now look sane and intelligent, his face was well groomed and respectable, and he wore a striped blue suit and tie atop a white shirt and similarly blue trousers, beneath which was a pair of white socks and black shoes. The jewels and riches were entirely missing from his appearance, and yet he looked far more sensible and royal as a result, although most royal and imperial groups outside of Yi City would have still preferred him to clothe himself in something more suitable.


    More important than all of the superficial, purely visual factors was the power that now radiated from him.


    The shard-like anchor that had accompanied him into this darkness was now surrounded by a dense sphere, the completed core of the fourth realm, on which sixty-seven searing marks were linked to the anchor itself. The next feature, six halos that surrounded the core, were more ethereal, and the rift that overlapped the shape of the anchor was even fainter, to the point that whatever the ninth realm generated was entirely imperceptible beyond the power that it bestowed upon him.


    Furthermore, there was a faint aura of even greater force around him, making him appear as if he was an impossibly powerful being that had stepped down onto the world and challenged all of it in order to accomplish his own goals.


    ¡°This is the Realm of Potential. Here, everything that we can become is unleashed, and we can fight not as we are, but as we can be. The winner will leave with greater knowledge of themselves, while the other will perish,¡± he explained to the void, as he knew that he would not be able to see his foe immediately and had a moment to talk, ¡°You may be powerful in your world, but I am from Orbis! I have knowledge that you could never have! I can see this world in a manner that you could never understand! Do you even know about atoms, electrons, neutrons, protons, photons? Can you even imagine a concept such as quantum superposition? Of vehicles that move through nothing but their own mechanical and electronic movements? Your potential is limited in a world like this, while I can go beyond!¡±


    His head snapped to the side, for he finally felt the presence of his foe, the strange woman that was impossibly powerful despite her realm.


    ¡°Come, show me what you truly are, what you will become-¡±


    Countless chains suddenly poured from her direction, enveloping his arms and legs and stretching them outwards, before he felt his form being cut in four. He did not see, nor feel, nor hear a cut, an attack, any movement at all, but he knew that it had somehow occurred.


    Bright light from the direction of the chains filled his vision, almost blinding him.


    A sound that he was familiar with entered his ear next ¨C that of a gavel striking a hardwood block. As if it shepherded his memories, he found his head being filled with recollections of his past. He remembered how he was once known as Rong Sheng, and before that, as Jonathan Michaels, and how he lived a normal life in the Great Empire of Antania, how he grew up and became a pilot to pursue his interests, how he flew all over the world innumerable times, occasionally living in all kinds of places, staying in Antanord, in Roksgard, in Neria and the United States of Kopesh, in Scheshezad, and in so many more nations that he could barely recall them all. Then, his life had been good, and joyous, and his marriage had punctuated all of that with another pleasant note.


    Something had happened after all that ¨C something that he could not remember, or, more precisely, that he refused to remember, just in case he had truly been guilty of some terrible crime ¨C that placed him in the court, before the judge.


    He spent some time in prison, being permitted to keep and wear his suit and tie mostly due to how little life he was expected to have. There, he met with an old man whose life was also nearing its end, who had so many stories to tell, almost more than Jonathan himself. A day before he vanished from the cell, presumably having passed away in his sleep, he left a simple playing card behind. A King, with no peculiarity other than the fact that the top and bottom were mirrored rather than being duplicated and reversed, resulting in the figure and the letter K being strangely unsettling.


    How he came to be in these Planar Continents was a mystery to him, but he could remember what it did to him.


    After so long, as he looked once more upon his actions, upon the horrible downwards spiral that his life had taken, he suddenly realised everything. Everything that he had done, was doing at that moment, and what he had intended to do once he succeeded in taking over the Ning District. It was all horrible, so counter to what any of his actions should have been, that he recalled the judge that passed the sentence on him once more, and how he had looked upon his with obvious dislike.


    ¡°Unworthy!¡± a voice that did not belong to him or the judge shook him out of the past, as he felt his entire being crumble beneath the sound of the voice and the gavel combined. His body, his power, his potential within this realm all fell apart in an instant, and he could do nothing to stop it.


    Wei Yi nearly lost her footing and completely abandoned the channelling of the Eclipse Ire the moment that her vision faded, burst with light, and then threw her back into the world as she remembered it ¨C which was perhaps the most confusing part, for her more prominent memory of the Ning District was the state that it had been in prior to the appearance of the Great Aberrant.


    She looked up from the fogless, dark ground, towards the location of the Aberrant himself, and found the crater that she had previously caused, but within lay only a large pile of shards of glass, not a great foe in the fourth realm.


    ¡®What¡­ what just happened? Why? How? Wh-¡¯ she could not answer a single of those questions, so she instead focused on a matter that she could resolve, which was that of the azure light within the Great Aberrant. Provided that the pile of mirror shards was truly what remained of him, and not some distraction, then the azure lights were bound to still remain within him, especially if the momentary darkness and light only lasted for a few instants, as they seemed to.


    Rushing towards the crater, she saw them quickly, and almost as if they recognised her gaze, the azure broke free of his form and rose into the air. One began to move towards her, while another flew elsewhere.


    Whether the latter azure light intended to claim another host, or disappear entirely, she could not allow the first possibility to occur. Before the first light had the opportunity to accelerate and approach her, she ran past it and towards the other light, prompting the characters within her dantian to come to life, to realise the threat that she was facing, and to act in order to stop it before there was any chance of her or anybody else being consumed by the madness that was inherent to all otherworldly beings and their gifts.


    She used everything that she could in order to alert them, and one of those things must have worked, for the characters broke out of their typical arrangement, displaying the technique to advance to the sixth stage, and formed an impossibly complex array that was notably different from the one that she had witnessed before, seemingly brought about just to facilitate the additional shard that was added to it alongside the Truth of the Universe calculator.


    It built up a vast quantity of power, almost matching everything that she had witnessed Chen Jushu containing within her dantian, and erupted, a pulse of energy enveloping both and forcing them to stop in mid-air, before suddenly flying away into the sky and vanishing in moments.


    This time, she was a little more aware of what was going on, and made sure to observe the exact structure of the array and the nature of the signal that it released, and her discovery was off-putting to say the least. She had expected the characters to arrange some kind of repealing, destroying or outright killing array to damage the azure lights and scare them away that way, but so far as she was able to tell with the insights obtained from the Spiritual Flow arts, she could not perceive the seemingly fantastic array as anything other than a messaging array, doing nothing at all other than delivering a message to the azure lights.


    ¡®Based on what I know, Kong Shi Meng wished to deal with these azure things, so I would have thought that he wished to eliminate them, which, assuming that this is all true, is it possible that even at his full power, he could not create a single thing that could damage the azure lights?¡¯ she pondered, glancing one last time at the spot where the lights disappeared before returning her attention to the present.

 V3C30: The Gains of Battle

    Returning to the spot where the Great Aberrant fell, she first confirmed that her appearance was still presentable and obscured by her hair suit and the shadow-like energy of the Binder of the Dark, as she wished to have freedom to do whatever she wanted without risking any influence on her current persona, as she would soon escape and would be able to take advantage of any positive reputation if ¨C or, rather, when ¨C she returned to the Ning District.


    Fortunately, whatever had temporary stolen her perception of reality did not affect her energy nor cultivation, and so she was able to approach the Aberrant¡¯s shard-like body and take one of the things that she had first noticed about him.


    The immense quantity of anchor energy had somehow ended up above him and now glowed with such fantastic light that she was really curious to get someone else to inspect this gathering of energy and confirm whether or not they would be able to tell that something was there, for it seemed almost impossible to miss such a thing. However, she was short on time, and did not want to alert anybody else about her ability to interact with remnants of anchors, as she could attract a lot of attention and possibly become a target for some otherworldly demons that were able to do the same and wanted to collect every single otherworldly gift relating to this kind of ability.


    After the first particle of anchor energy began to approach her hand, so did the rest of the enormous cloud, flooding into her body and being absorbed by the Truth of the Universe.


    The count of anchor points swiftly rose by over a hundred, ending up at a total of two hundred and thirty-seven after every particle of energy ended up within her. At the same time, with every single point that she gained, she felt the air around her simultaneously get heavier and lighter, as if a weight had been added onto her that simultaneously strengthened her body.


    ¡®So, it is when I absorb the particles themselves that I affect the density of planar energy within this world. With so many bits of anchor energy being processed at once, the increase was noticeable at the point of origin, but will likely be far less so the further out someone is,¡¯ she theorised, kneeling beside the molten crater to take a closer look at the Great Aberrant¡¯s remains, ¡®If that set of flashes of light was due to some action of his, then he must have made a terrible mistake. Had he fought normally, with that larger and stronger form, he might have been able to kill me without too much trouble, so long as the excessive number of anchor points also increased his power in the same way that the multiple anchors of the Greats do.¡¯


    At first glance, there was nothing impressive about the pile of shards, but there was a trace of something within it, which she did not dare to touch with her own hands until she could be certain of exactly what it was.


    Depending on the nature of the item, it could be anything between harmless and absolutely deadly, so it was generally safer to interact with strange things using raw strands of energy that could be severed at any time without any harm to oneself and one¡¯s own cultivation, which is why she used raw, pure spiritual will to dig into the pile of shards and removed a small spherical object that appeared to be a large gem, although it still seemed to be made from glass.


    ¡®I wonder what this is¡­ Alright, I¡¯ll touch it, I suppose¡­¡¯ she sighed, and reached out to the glass.


    The instant that her skin came into contact with it, the object melted into fluid that remained oddly reflective. It poured into her body, literally sinking through the pores on her skin and into her veins and muscles, travelling through them towards her dantian.


    It was an unpleasant experience, and one that she did not ever wish to relive in the future, but it was hardly the worst she had been forced to deal with, so she just waited to see exactly what would occur upon it reaching its destination, although the current state of the mysterious characters was somewhat concerning ¨C they were far slower in their movements, their light was significantly dimmer, and they did not look like they would be able to repeat the earlier repealing signal array no matter what kind of situation she might get herself into.


    When it reached her abdomen, she witnessed it reach for the prison realm and sink into it, disappearing from the material realm.


    Naturally, her perception followed it, finding a thin sphere of fog sink into the middle of the Kong Prison Realm, vanishing into the ground beneath the library where it somehow found a small underground chamber that was previously entirely unoccupied. It sank into the centre of the chamber, creating a small circle in the ground from which a pillar made from mirror shards rose to what was roughly her height.


    ¡®What is that? Why in the heavens does one person have so many strange things?¡¯ she paused and realised that she was unintentionally describing her current state, with the Truth of the Universe, the House of Gold, the Kong Prison Realm, this mirror pillar and a number of curiosities that she had taken from within the House of Gold, so she brought her attention back to what was relevant, ¡®I don¡¯t know what it is or how it functions, but regardless of whether or not I need to be inside of the prison realm to interact with it, I should first wait to get out of this district before trying anything. Who knows how much of my time it may occupy.¡¯


    As her perception emerged from the prison realm, she immediately detected several presences near her, hiding away and observing her. Based on their behaviour and the things that they were muttering to one another, they seemed to have gotten here around the time that she scared away the azure lights, so they didn¡¯t see any of the battle or any other unpleasant moments.


    Wei Yi stood in place for a while, then turned towards each one of her observers in turn while covering her aura and exact power as much as possible in order to give an impression that was in her favour.


    ¡°Your presence here is obvious. Come out.¡±


    She used the same voice that had once been used for the identity of Da Gang, to ensure that it was even more difficult to connect her new form with


    Such a request would not usually be heeded, but her intentional stares at certain points also brought those hiding spots to the attention of the other observers, resulting in them realising just how many different people were there and how clear their placement was, meaning that there was really no good reason for them to hide where they were. If they were going to come out, they might as well do so now, before anyone had a reason to be angered by their presence.


    The first two that emerged were vary familiar to Wei Yi, for they were Chen Jushu and Chu Huazhi, with their faced covered by a veil and a basic wooden mask respectively. Judging by their designs, the veil was something that the former had already owned, but Chu Huazhi¡¯s mask was likely taken from someone who was going to use it to create a proper design and wasn¡¯t improved to have such things as eyeholes or anything of the sort, with the man in the fifth realm relying on his spiritual perception in order to navigate.


    After that, the leader of the mercenary-like group appeared next, a man whose head was covered by a hood and a scarf that was pulled up to cover the lower half of his face.


    The people after that were not ones that Wei Yi had the opportunity to meet, but judging by certain items that they attempted to hide by their own energy and spiritual perception, the next ones to emerge was the captain of the guard, one of the higher-ups of the Ning family, an array master that was the last to emerge due to her being too focused on examining the slowly dissipating arrays above them, and someone else from the Chen family, judging by the vast number of bags filled with coins on his body. That man¡¯s outfit in particular was extremely excessive, and it was rather concerning that he was able to walk around without making much noise.


    ¡°There is nothing to see here. This threat is gone, and the next shall not be one that you can beat.¡±


    The captain of the guard took objection to that statement, frowning beneath his helmet as he said, ¡°What do you mean by that, and who are you? Explain yourself!¡±


    ¡°I fight for the restoration of Yi City, for Their downfall, and for freedom from the otherworldly demons. You may be able to fight the demons, for their powers vary in all ways, but They are not your match.¡±


    ¡°Who are they? How can experts in the fifth, sixth and seventh realms-¡±


    ¡°You witnessed the fog, did you not? With just twenty years of preparation by some common men, an entire district was engulfed in chaos. A single man that was in the fourth realm was driven mad and could have grown to consume the entirety of Yi City. Together, your energy was drained quickly, and if he managed to reach the peak of the ninth realm, you would never stand a chance, even at the same realm,¡± she stated, ¡°As for Them¡­ Stating their names will draw their attention. I suspect that some of you are familiar with them. They share your names, but they live away from the districts, and have an aura that overpowers all others within the nearest realm. They will appear here soon, hence why the Great Aberrant was forced to act with greater haste.¡±


    As she spoke, she looked towards the important member of the Ning family, as well as Chen Jushu and the other member of that family, for they were the three that were most likely to have had contact with the Greats in the past.


    ¡°You oppose that group?¡± the array master asked, ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°They hold back the advancement of society, technology and cultivation. They force the world to serve their will, for many techniques to be hidden and forgotten as they could challenge their superiority. They rely on the power of multiple anchors to overpower all, and torture and kill anyone that dares to do so much as exist when that existence is not to their liking. Their Testament-¡±


    She was not sure how to proceed, as her own information about Testament was extremely limited beyond the name itself, but the person from the Chen family was more than sufficient to resolve that as he suddenly charged towards her, swinging a weapon made from gold and an edge of immortal gold that made the two-handed blade truly dangerous. That man was in the fifth realm, and thus his movements were immensely fast, crossing the gap between him and her in a single breath.


    And yet, when the edge of the blade should have cut into flesh, cloth and whatever else could have been beneath the darkness of her planar energy, it instead passed straight through as Wei Yi flickered for a moment, making no movements to evade in the eyes of the other observers.


    The World¡¯s Echo physique was not well known, and even those that knew of it were always misinformed about its true power due to the fact that physique energy could not reasonably come to be within the Planar Continents. As a result, not a single one amongst them entertained the thought of this being her method of escape for any longer than a moment, after which they had no choice but to consider the fact that she had not been scared in the slightest when the blade came at her, and had been able to defeat the Great Aberrant seemingly on her own.


    To them, great power seemed to be the only answer.


    ¡°Whether you attack because of some allegiance to Them, fear of the unknown, or some other factor, know that you cannot defeat me, nor end the Yi City¡¯s wish for freedom. Goodbye.¡±


    Her figure vanished alongside a burst of thunder, her movement covered by the darkness of the Binder of the Dark amongst some other phenomena, but to the observers, there was nothing but ease in her movements ¨C in the case of those that could see her movements at all, but most had no chance to do so as her body far surpassed that of the most intense body cultivators out there.


    The member of the Chen family, having failed to slay her, sheathed his blade and returned to the circle, glaring at everyone else in the area but not taking any action against them, not that it stopped every single one of them from preparing some defensive method.


    Although not a single one of them could be certain about the validity of the words spoken by the strange woman surrounded in darkness, they understood that even if only fragments of truth were contained within them, they would have all learnt something incredibly vital and important that had likely been hidden for a very long time. Chen Jushu and the member of the Ning family in particular had the greatest suspicion that it was all accurate, for they had indeed encountered figures that seemed humble and insignificant but had great influence over the leadership of the family and district.


    Everyone else primarily latched on to her mentions of stagnation and decline caused by the mysterious, unnamed group, for they were all sufficiently skilled in a field to know that it, and many others, had not grown despite the number of impressive minds that must have existed throughout history, before and after the Master of Yi City.


    Some had considered it to be some unfortunate coincidence, others thought that it was a plot or conspiracy of some kind, but if there indeed were others that were as powerful, if not more so, than the Great Aberrant and had control over the majority of Yi City, it would likely be incredibly easy for them to do whatever they liked, in whatever field they liked, and either appease the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the districts with exclusive access to greater techniques, or otherwise overpower them to such an extent that no thought of rebellion is even possible.


    One of the things that those with power sought the most was freedom, and the ability to do as they like. If there were any rules or laws to be imposed on them, they often wanted to know who the person imposing them was, and why they should listen to them.


    The people that had gathered here had much the same thoughts, perhaps excluding the member of the Chen family that had attempted to silence Wei Yi, and thus their thoughts naturally turned towards rebellion. If these Great Families were truly what she had described them to be, harming the entire world, then would it not be just to discover them and turn against them with the full might of Yi City, reaping everything that those familiar had taken and spreading it amongst themselves?


    Of course, those were the thoughts of most, as some were a little distracted by other matters. Chen Jushu and the other array master were wishing that they had brought along an empty journal or a lot of paper to note down the arrays that they had witnessed during the Mirror Plane invasion, as they could earn a lot from comprehending them fully. When they realised that they had a similar purpose in mind, after their eyes met and then simultaneously looked away towards the last remaining glowing nodes within the air, their gazes meeting once more as a result, they slowly began to walk away from the group to have a more personal chat.


    Contrary to what it had looked like, Wei Yi did not leave the district immediately, but instead returned to her current residence and quickly wrote a letter to herself that made it seem as if someone close to her was in great danger, which would be great enough to prompt her to leave without alerting anybody else about the situation.


    She made sure to leave every detail as vague as possible, so that if someone did have the time and energy to pursue her, they would need to travel around for quite some time to be truly sure that they would not be able to find her tracks. In order to not bother the original owner of this home, she didn¡¯t make a mess ¨C not that it was really possible considering how little space there was ¨C that could have made her leaving in a hurry seem an even more plausible scenario, although it would have been rather difficult to tell either way.


    The fact that the letter was supposedly left behind would likely be odd to some, but it was just a precaution to begin with. Most of her acquaintances in this district would likely not expect her to warn them ahead of time if she decided to leave, so it was just something to make it more convincing.


    After that, she tracked down Min Lian, who had apparently taken part in the battle against the Great Aberrant¡¯s Mirror Plane but had separated from the group after the fog changed and most of it had gathered on the Aberrant himself. She had also managed to get her hands on some Planar Gathering pills, which ought to allow her to break through to the third realm the second that she gets enough time to herself.


    Together, they left the district the same way that they had done many times, escaping under the cover of night and the Binder of the Dark technique and heading to the north-east, past the fields of mirror layers and towards the Luo District. Neither of them could be sure whether they would see any members of the Mirror Plane Aberrations, but with their leader gone, even if the malevolent yin within their bodies does not quickly lead to their deaths, the absence of the mirror layers and the lack of a powerful leader to bestow techniques and items upon them would be almost certain to lead to their collapse in the near future, especially if the Ning District as a whole decided to retaliate against them.


    Their goal would be to track down the location mentioned in Yi Yi¡¯s map, then proceed north through the Luo District, then the Ping District, all the way until the hidden fortress that belonged to Kong Shi Meng. Before that, though, they got far enough away from the walls as to avoid any detection by spiritual perception and hid beneath the roots of a particularly tall tree.


    ¡°I shall send you into the prison realm. Cultivate there, ask Yi Shi Ming if you require protection from anything, and I shall bring you out once you are needed again,¡± Wei Yi said, coordinating with the spatial spirit of the prison realm to create the portal array, sending the assassin to a place near the Ascendant¡¯s Library while she remained in the continents, as she did not want to enter the realm until she could be one hundred percent certain that the mirror shard pillar beneath the ground was something that was either safe or outright beneficial to her, as it would be quite the unfortunate fate to be harmed by her own spatial realm.


    First, she returned her spiritual perception into the cave below the ground and examined the pillar, finding it to be entirely unchanged from her last visit.


    It was still made from glass, it remained in the same shape as she remembered it, and the circle beneath it did not appear to be spreading out whatsoever, suggesting that the initial actions it had taken were simply to facilitate the appearance of the mirror shard pillar.


    She neared it with her mind and attempted to scan it, but the moment that she came into contact with it, she felt her vision be consumed by darkness much in the same way as when she had fought with the Great Aberrant. For a few moments, there was nothing but that darkness, until it seemed to clear. Nothing about her vision actually changed, and she could still only see darkness, but she had a distinct feeling that something had occurred.


    When she looked it, the answer became obvious. Somehow, she could now see her body despite seemingly remaining outside ¨C and speaking of which, she could not sense the outside world, although she was still distinctly certain that she had remained within the Planar Continents and had not been transported into the prison realm.


    ¡®This place seems familiar, somehow¡­ I appear to be standing on something, so there is some kind of ground here, meaning that there is also the force of gravity, amongst other things¡­ Perhaps I may be able to illuminate my surroundings with something like Sunlight Ire-¡¯


    All of a sudden, a figure appeared before her, surrounded by bright light for several lengthy moments before it solidified into¡­ her. This figure had the same crimson hair, the same tanned skin, an identical build and even the same clothing, with the only difference being the eyes that were instead solid globes of raw white energy, akin to two miniature stars trapped within the eye sockets of her skull, illuminating the darkness on their own and showing that, truly, there was nothing here but them.


    Wei Yi would have tried to speak to this figure, but before she had the opportunity to do so, it moved into the position required to charge up Sunlight Ire, with bright rays of light emerging from her and striking the ground in a large circle, drawing lines of sunlight on the surface of the dark as it appeared unable to pierce it.


    The technique appeared to be aimed at her, so her body instinctively retaliated with the same technique, assuming that this was some replica of herself that would not be able to overpower her.


    However, what she saw was contrary to this, as the technique used by her foe was not just executed with clear familiarity, but it appeared to be more advanced and refined than her own path, charging more quickly and clearly containing more power than her own attack would.


    ¡®This is¡­¡¯

 V3C31: The Realm of Potential

    ¡®If this is akin to the shard cane sword that the Great Aberrant had, reflecting a potential future, then could this not be reflecting my potential, or some of it, at the very least? A sort of Realm of Potential, for instance?¡¯ she guessed, trying to recall what she had witnessed during the battle at the same time as looking through potential counters to the Sunlight Ire technique that she had been confronted with, ¡®Did the Great Aberrant want to pull me in to this realm and beat me with his potential, or would we both have faced off against one another with the peak of our potential? Maybe it created copies like this, then one of us won and the other was killed as a result?¡¯


    She couldn¡¯t understand why she would lose against an otherworldly demon in a contest that he should have been able to cheat in however he wanted, but the exact deduction of what had occurred then could wait until she dealt with what was potentially a matter of life and death.


    As her strategy could be altered significantly based on the tools available to her, she tried to access the House of Gold and summon White Echo from within and met with a partial success. The weapon appeared within her hands immediately, but she felt no connection to the spatial storage, which led her to conclude that her body truly was still outside, and that this was a projection of her mind that could conjure whatever she wanted, although her perception of reality would likely stop her from simply creating a million White Echoes and using them to create a killing array to overpower her other self. Instead, she focused on the weakness of the Ire series of techniques ¨C speed. They were painfully slow, even with the improvements from the Truth of the Universe.


    Naturally, that was what she decided to exploit, covering her dagger in the energy derived from Storm Blade Wreathing and disappeared from the spot with the derivative of Storm¡¯s Edge Dash, all of which were enhanced by the Ascendant¡¯s Dao and were thus shaded golden despite their origin and principle not having been modified significantly.


    First, she dodged away from the direction in which the sunlight beam would come at her, then repeated the dash to appear by her side, stabbing the blade at her replica¡¯s neck.


    Rather than evading, the replica just interrupted the charging of the Sunlight Ire, failing to produce a beam but having accumulated enough power to create the wave that erupted across the entirety of the channelling circle. The force from the wave struck her and instantly threw her back, tearing countless wounds into her clothing and body, showing her first-hand exactly how powerful the sunlight condensed through Sunlight Ire was, even against a body such as her own.


    However, if this potential replica could only use Sunlight Ire, as she theorised, then this was the point at which it would be most vulnerable to an attack, and even if she was on the brink of death in reality, she wouldn¡¯t abandon a fight just because of some wounds. So long as success was possible, she would have to pursue it, for there would otherwise be no reason to her life.


    With another rapid movement, she reappeared beside the replica and plunged the dagger straight towards the replica¡¯s heart.


    This time, she thought that there was no possible way for it to use purely Sunlight Ire in order to defend itself, but as if the replica wanted to teach a lesson to a foolish child, it moved its hand towards her and simply opened her hand, a bolt of pure sunlight bursting from her hand and piercing her heart.


    She did not die. Instead, the replica vanished, the glowing lines on the ground vanished, the wound in her chest vanished, and everything about her recovered entirely. Wei Yi was able to straighten her back, stand up, and look around without a single trace of either her own demise or any of the injuries, no matter whether she looked upon her mind or body. And yet, it was not as if everything had been undone entirely, for she felt as if she had instinctively comprehended several things.


    The first was the function of this Realm of Potential, or, at the very least, what she had been able to access so far. It was to face the potential versions of techniques that could be created within a small timeframe, and with each victory or defeat, she would learn something from them, whether it was just the improvements to the technique itself or even her cultivation technique. Although this was very similar to the Truth of the Universe in the way that it would provide her with a certain variant of a technique based on its own calculations, from what she was able to tell so far, the strengthened potential techniques lacked the fully mechanical nature that the gifts of the otherworldly demons tended to have.


    Although she could not be certain, she guessed that this was due to the Realm of Potential using some esoteric method of prying into the future, perhaps deducing it based on the Planar Continents themselves whereas the Truth of the Universe contained its own method of calculation and would not turn to the natural world for answers. Of course, it still wasn¡¯t perfect.


    From this single bout, she had not learnt much, but the simple possibility of using the Ire series of techniques in such a manner was an intriguing one, and she suspected that if she repeated this a few dozen or hundred times, she would be able to grasp that improved version. However, the replica would likely grow more powerful each time, unless there was a method of controlling exactly how powerful it would be that she had yet to discover.


    It was also likely that a victory against the replica would be far more bountiful, as it would allow her to benefit from the victory itself while the Realm of Potential would be likely to grant her more knowledge as a reward.


    She could not be sure how the current state of this otherworldly gift compared to itself when it was in the possession of the Great Aberrant and connected with an azure spark, but it did seem a safer method of growing her arsenal rather than the more costly and dangerous Truth of the Universe, especially since most of the true improvement to the techniques would be through her comprehension of the possibilities of it and incorporation of them into the technique, rather than some mechanical process done through a soulless mind of the characters.


    Furthermore, she was still not certain that there was no remnant influence of the azure lights within all of these items, so to use something that relied more on her mind was naturally safer.


    Before proceeding with training any particular technique through this method, she went through a series of checks. The first was to confirm that she was able to leave and enter as she wanted, which she was able to do with a little effort, then to see what the exact rate at which time passed within the Realm of Potential was, which turned out to be identical to that of the prison realm, and finally, she returned into it and tried thinking up a very specific opponent for herself.


    When the light that shone upon the formation of a replica faded, she witnessed a very similar figure, except it now possessed the exact same energy as she did. It began to attempt a technique, but the very instant that it moved at all, the entire figure crumbled into the darkness, and disappeared.


    ¡®I guess that it cannot accurately replicate everything that allows me to wield the kinds of energy that I currently use. That¡¯s fine, since fighting against my exact copy would definitely be troublesome,¡¯ she thought, and, prompted by the consideration regarding the actual intelligence of these replicas, she decided to think of a figure that could only use some incredibly basic weapon technique with the lowest cultivation that the Realm of Potential would allow.


    As it turned out, it would allow her to create a replica without any planar energy at all, although she distinctly felt her own strength being reduced as the replica came to be, presumably in order to allow her to face off against the foe without being at too great of an advantage, so that their battle could be more focused on technique rather than her simply overpowering the replica with her cultivation.


    The technique that she chose to bestow upon this replica was the very first that she had learnt ¨C the Gentle Breeze Strike.


    From what she knew of that technique, it had little potential and even with the aid of such powerful factors as the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique or her mental energies it was significantly weaker than almost every single technique she had at her disposal, beside those that were not intended to have any use in combat to begin with. In her opinion, making the replica use it specifically would allow it to best showcase its intelligence rather than some great potential of the technique that she had not considered before then.


    Her expectations were neither met nor subverted, for the figure did not showcase any kind of incredible feats the moment that it began to move, but it did instead display an immense mastery of the Gentle Breeze Strike that even Wei Yi herself wasn¡¯t sure she could demonstrate.


    Every punch was extremely deceptive, no matter what they looked like. Whether the replica appeared to be targeting her or swinging wide, the direction of her strike could change at any time, shifting far more than she thought it possible, and then changing back the moment that she thought to block at the place where the strike would end up.


    Nonetheless, it was still of limited usefulness, barely managing to withstand a consistent assault from far superior techniques, forcing the replica to act consistently more effectively until it reached its limit. That turned out to not be as high as she had hoped, as it appeared incapable of deviating from the technique by any significant margin regardless of the effectiveness that such a move would deliver, and even when such things were not necessary, it did not always succeed in capitalising on certain faults within her attacks, although she could not be certain of the exact reason for it.


    Perhaps it was not able to perceive the faults that she permitted herself to display, or possibly it was actually clever enough to realise that they were something that Wei Yi had intentionally revealed and didn¡¯t act on them, or maybe it foresaw that even the flaws that were unintentional would not benefit it, although she suspected that she was beginning to overthink it once again.


    To spare herself the effort, she instead defeated this replica, processed what she could from the brief battle, then willed another into existence and repeated the experiment with a different technique.


    With the Kong family¡¯s Crushing Dagger technique, the Realm of Potential was given far more room for attacking rather than just ensuring that the replica was able to withstand far superior techniques. Still, in comparison to most of her arsenal, this was a rather lacking technique created a long time ago by someone that wasn¡¯t satisfied with the cutting potential of a dagger and instead decided to smash things with it, which was hardly the most reasonable response considering what a dagger is like.


    Nevertheless, with an ethereal dagger composed of the realm¡¯s darkness and a technique that was just slightly more advanced than her own understanding of it, this replica was still able to put up a challenging fight before it was defeated, and with a lesser limitation on the replica¡¯s strength and cultivation, the gains that she received were also greater the moment that it perished. It was able to roughly equal the gains from a loss with a far more powerful foe, and beside the knowledge on how to best crush things with a knife or dagger, she could feel her understanding of the Ascendant¡¯s Path deepen with greater clarity than before.


    To test whether she would be able to focus the gains from the Realm of Potential onto her cultivation, she tried to summon a replica that would only possess one of the branches of her Ascendant¡¯s Path so that it wouldn¡¯t immediately collapse once again.


    With such criteria, she did succeed, a replica manifesting before her with the distinct aura of the Mysterious Fire energy, its entire form illuminated brightly by the flames burning within it, and when it attacked, it used nothing but the planar energy within its control, throwing out simple bursts of flame and empowering its own body in order to roughly match the techniques that Wei Yi was able to direct at it.


    She found this fight easier than the other, however. The primary power of a cultivator was their techniques, and even the simplest techniques would multiply the power of any individual attack and strike by a significant degree, and the likes of the Elysian Palm would triple her power whereas the Elysian Storm Palm could even triple that in the best conditions, meaning that the raw cultivation of an individual would never be worth as much as a weaker cultivation supported by refined, practised and perfected techniques.


    When this replica was defeated, she confirmed that the exact benefits she earned from the Realm of Potential was based on what she fought, how powerful they were, and which techniques she decided to use against her foe. The most that she understood from the battle was on the topic of fire-type energy, and a little less on the element of water due to using it the most during the battle.


    ¡®Now that I think about it, the reason that it wasn¡¯t able to copy my full ability is likely that is has been deprived of the power of the azure lights, and, as such, it cannot copy the ability of a different otherworldly gift without more power than I currently possess,¡¯ she thought, switching her focus on the best way to use the realm for now before moving on and progressing towards her current destination, browsing through her mental list of techniques and eventually deciding on the persona that she would present within the next district.


    She had spent some time as an expert in pill refining, one of the Great Arts, so it seemed like a good idea to next experience the lifestyle of a combat-focused cultivator, especially since that would ensure that she didn¡¯t infringe on the primary field of the Luo family, which was talisman creation and research.


    Much like the Ning, they were rather fond of keeping dominance over the talisman market within their own district, so challenging them in that regard would not be helpful to keeping the peace, and things like array arrangement and inscriptions would both be looked down upon due to the reliance on talismans being so extreme that the Luo District also had the name of the Land of Flaming Paper, called that due to the flaming embers released by the activation of a talisman.


    As a result, it was a perfect time for her to hone her skills of combat, made even easier by the existence of the Realm of Potential, which, if she was to enter some kind of lengthy tournament with many battles soon after one another, then she could refine any flaws detected within her techniques by briefly pretending to meditate while actually using this otherworldly gift and the slow passage of time within the prison realm to her advantage. In order to still maintain some closeness to the Luo District, and to benefit the most from what was usually studied there, she decided that she should practise some form of fire-type techniques for combat and movement, and while she could transform most of her attacks into any element thanks to their inclusion in the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, she wanted to focus on something that was innately focused on fire.


    Naturally, her mental gaze turned to the Scorching Blade techniques, and the idea for another quick experiment appeared within her mind.


    So far, she had only attempted to fight against a single replica, but surely the rate at which she absorbed insight, even from failures, would be greater the more techniques and innovations she was able to witness within a single brief period of time. If not, that would expose a little more of the functions of the Realm of Potential, and if she wasn¡¯t even able to have multiple foes, then that entire moment of consideration would have been entirely worthless.


    Luckily for her, multiple opponents were indeed an option, and they were all able to showcase the same prowess with great coordination and fluid movements at all times, likely due to sharing a single mind that was as powerful as it would have been if all independent replicas were put together.


    There were several sensations and events that Wei Yi couldn¡¯t and didn¡¯t want to imagine experiencing, but it could be said that this fight was rather similar to one such event.


    One replica with techniques that were superior to her already put up a serious fight, but with five of them ¨C for some reason, she felt that five instances of her practising the Scorching Blade techniques would be the most suitable number, even though that was highly unnecessary and overly extreme ¨C she lasted far less than against the Sunlight Ire replica, but her original guess was accurate.


    Despite the shorter battle, less opportunity for either her or the replicas to display their full potential, and yet another loss, she felt as if she understood significantly more about their actions this time, and thus she progressed significantly more.


    It should be clarified that ¡®significantly¡¯, in this context, was still not particularly great, perhaps bringing her one percent closer to the next step of cultivating the Scorching Blade techniques, but she estimated that if she spent an hour inside of the Realm of Potential, she would be able to attain one tenth of the way towards the next stage, and this was just through the random defeats and the input of knowledge obtained from it. So long as she managed to attain some personal enlightenment, much like she did with the alternate method of using Sunlight Ire, then that could be increased to twice or thrice as much, if not more.


    After all, all that most people needed to advance one of their techniques was a lot of effort and a single revelation to advance their technique onto the next stage, so if she could gain the latter through one of these fights, previous hard work could then be invested fully or otherwise substituted with the Truth of the Universe.


    Before focusing on this task, she stepped out of the Realm of Potential and took a look at the night¡¯s sky, finding that the moon was still high in the sky and that the sun wouldn¡¯t rise for another few hours, so she made sure that her hiding spot was sufficient to obscure her any random passer-by that might travel towards or away from the Ning District before making herself look like she was asleep prior to entering the prison realm with her spiritual perception. She asked Yi Shi Ming to pay attention and attempt to free her from the Realm of Potential if anything of note occurred.


    Once within the darkness, she decided to focus upon two goals to achieve before the sun rose, with the first naturally being to raise her prowess in any of the Scorching Blade techniques until any one of them rose to the First Stage, at which point she would be able to accurately display the prowess that someone who had spent her entire life to practise combat techniques ought to have. The second goal was a purely emotional one, and it was to get used to loss.


    She had experienced some rather significant losses, mainly the one against the Greats upon their first meeting, but the majority of the time before and after that, she had been on a consistent streak of victories that did a lot to erase her past failures, like those from before the Truth of the Universe had awakened, and now that she had the opportunity to fight against enemies on a similar level to her that were able to consistently beat her, she could bring her confidence down to a more reasonable level, where it needed to be at in order to act more reasonably in the face of significantly more powerful opponents.


    More precisely than that, she needed to understand her own abilities with greater clarity, to understand exactly how she compares to those with superior skill or knowledge, regardless of whether such people existed.


    If she was to be asked on this matter, she would be able to confidently state that there had to be at least a few people that had a sufficient talent to reach a high realm and enough understanding of battle and of a particular technique to bring it into the realm of stages, and in theory, if one person focused on a single move of a single technique for the entire lifespan of someone in the fifth realm, for example, they could have reached such a high stage that they would be able to instantly defeat anyone who isn¡¯t using an element and a series of technique that oppose them entirely.


    Given the seeming consistency between the techniques of the Great Families, she could theoretically follow a similar path, but it did not appear to be a wise idea.


    Besides the Greats, she also needed to deal with the otherworldly demons, abnormally powerful individuals from this world that had decided to abuse their power to impede the progression of Yi City as a whole, and large organisations, assassin or otherwise, who have agendas that Wei Yi is significantly opposed to in order to force conflict.


    Having a technique that was perfect to combat the Greats but not to deal with any of the other forces would just work against her and would waste time and energy that she could otherwise invest in increasing her power as a whole. So long as she can defeat one opponent confidently with a variety of methods and techniques, then she will be able to defeat others with the same amount of effort and difficulty, which was far preferable to defeating one kind of foe with ease and barely surviving against anybody else.


    Thus, she summoned five replicas of herself, and prepared for a long night.

 V3C32: Travelling to the Abandoned Streets

    Four hours in reality translated to one hundred and twenty hours within the prison realm. This was a positive the vast majority of the time, since it gave her far more time to spend on whatever it was that she was busy with that time, and it was also beneficial here, although she did not enjoy it whatsoever this time.


    For the first real hour, she lost roughly every two minutes, which equalled a total of nine hundred losses before everything that she was slowly absorbing from the replicas finally started to pay off within her own combat ability and style. At first, it just led to her surviving slightly longer, but it eventually allowed her to actually retaliate against some of the replicas, and by the end of the second real hour, she had even managed to land a small scratch on one of their faces using nothing but the Scorching Blade techniques.


    Especially when the incredibly tough skin that she possessed was taken into account, that was an impressive feat, but it was not one that she could ever be satisfied with, so she continued.


    With time, exploration and observation, she slowly figured out which skills suited her best, and which ones were most effective at which roles. In particular, she came to like the Draconic Claw technique, as it meshed well with her killing will transformation and seemed to gain power when used with the claw-like hand, although that might or might not have simply been her imagination.


    This increase in power appeared to be somewhat unreliable, and as such she did not want to focus on it over more consistent forms of strength and power that would not force her to flip a coin to see whether they would succeed that particular time or not.


    Of course, elements of randomness like this tended to be those that she did not yet comprehend in full, and likely had something to do with the strengthening of yin-type energy on the left of her body during the killing will transformation, which perhaps extended to attacks that matched with the nature of killing intent being executed through her left arm. The issue was that this strengthening wouldn¡¯t always apply in the case of the Draconic Claw, so until she understood the nature of the technique to the level that this made sense to her, she would stay away from experimenting towards uncovering the reason for this at random.


    In addition, the Draconic Kick proved a strong fit for her long and powerful legs, which were likely tempered significantly by her use of the Violet Kick that, more than likely, was a technique as ancient as the Master of Yi City, and thus contained more power and potential than the vast majority of modern, commonly available techniques, preparing her well for another skill of a similar level of power, which did bring another factor to her attention for future consideration.


    In general, it seemed that the assassin organisations of the world had not suffered as much due to the decline of everything after the disappearance of Kong Shi Meng, which implied that they were either allied with the Greats, beyond their detection or interest, or sufficiently powerful to be able to oppose them and do enough damage to dissuade the Great Families from attempting to claim their knowledge.


    ¡®So far, the assassins that I have met were not particularly powerful, but Yi Bai seemed to get her technique by accident whereas Min Lian had been sent to attack someone a realm below her ¨C failing mostly due to a superior member of the Greats appearing ¨C so it may be that the strongest assassins aren¡¯t usually caught that easily,¡¯ she thought at some point during the third hour, although she was barely able to keep track of the timeline even with the Ascendant¡¯s Library recording every single thing that she had done, ¡®That would make sense, considering the fact that most assassin organisations, regardless of their preferred techniques and killing methods, tend to attack quietly and while attracting as little attention to themselves as possible, so the best would be those that have not yet been caught or revealed to the world.¡¯


    Fortunately, the Scorching Blades were one of the less known groups, as they and the tale of Chao Jianhong were far less significant to the history of the world than the Weavers of the Dark or the Endless Dark ¨C whose names are believed to be purely coincidental ¨C and appeared in far fewer books and tales than the latter two.


    As a result, her use of their techniques wouldn¡¯t immediately cause suspicion, and if she was able to control them with great accuracy, she would be able to showcase them in a different fashion that would cause most to doubt whether they could even be the same techniques. If she then used the power of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao to shift the form of the technique into a different shade or colour, like making the draconic flames golden, blue or green, which, while it would be a total waste of planar energy, would allow her to instantly separate herself from the assassin organisation even for those few that knew them.


    After all, techniques were typically rather static, changing only due to particular physiques and abnormal circumstances, so for there to be such a significant difference from the standard Scorching Blade physiques for seemingly no reason would imply that they have to be sufficiently different from one another to produce such differing effects, and that would mean that they were either only coincidentally similar, or that these were a different variant of the Scorching Blade techniques, perhaps created long ago and now used by an entirely different family, group or individual.


    Even then, some might fail to make such an assumption, whether they could be blinded by emotion or simply skip that detail to arrive at some conclusion that was more favourable for them, but at that point, she could probably use an entirely unrelated set of techniques and get a similar result due to some random person mixing up a dragon and a phoenix, for instance. And yet, despite that being such a random thought, it gave her an idea.


    ¡®Dragons and phoenixes are highly distinct in their actual nature, but at the same time, they are some of the closest mythical creatures I am aware of. Wouldn¡¯t it be rather simple to change a few things around?¡¯ Wei Yi pondered near the end of the third real hour, and immediately came up with another test for the Realm of Potential, which was whether it would be able to produce a technique that she had not yet obtained, as that would give her such an immense number of possibilities that she would essentially be able to replace the Truth of the Universe altogether.


    As it turned it, it did permit this, but only to a very limited extent, and only if it was a derivative of techniques that she already owned and understood, as the replica would either fail to generate or would just attack her with raw energy or its fists.


    It was obviously not going to allow her to do whatever she wanted, however she wanted, but that was enough for her to create something she called the Phoenix Transformation by the end of the last hour of work. The skill wasn¡¯t so much of an independent technique as it was a modifier of every single Scorched Blade technique, practically switching the prefix of most moves from ¡®Dragon¡¯ to ¡®Phoenix¡¯ and swapping their priorities from absolute damage to a greater focus on speed.


    She hoped that would prevent any of the confusion she had considered earlier.


    With only thirty hours of work, she was unable to reach beyond the Initial Accomplishment stage of the Phoenix Transformation technique, but as it was a part of the Scorching Blade series, her understanding of the other skills allowed her to use it at the equivalent of the Full Success stage while receiving the full benefits of the modifier.


    It did, however, get her thinking about applying this kind of principle to everything ¨C creating a universal modifier that could raise the strength of everything she had, and will, ever encounter or create without needing to develop it in either the Truth of the Universe or the Realm of Potential. If she was somehow able to stack these, so to speak, then that would be able to boost her ability just as much as the multiple anchors of the Great Families, effectively making her a force on par with them without even needing to learn of their secrets.


    Although it was an extremely enticing possibility, she couldn¡¯t spend much more time within the Realm of Potential without trying to tear her hair out, and neither did she have the time to do so, for she was informed that someone had appeared within close proximity of her on the outside of the prison realm, meaning that it would be best for her to delay this matter until another time, at which point she might be able to accumulate more insight on the matter of modifier techniques as a whole.


    There was even a chance of finding something like them within the Luo District, so long as they had similar thoughts to her in the past.


    She ¡®awoke¡¯ from the Kong Prison Realm and opened her eyes in the Planar Continents, finding that the sun was rising beyond the horizon, and that someone had decided to set up a camp not far away from the place that she had chosen to rest beneath. It was a young man, with only the trace of hairs above his lip, a thin frame and soft hands that had clearly not had to weather many years, and he did not appear to have realised that there was anyone else in the vicinity of his camp, which consisted of a small campfire and a branch covered in cloth that served the role of shelter and a bed to rest in without needing to worry about common annoyances such as rain or wind.


    This man ¨C although it would be suitable to call him a boy, considering his age ¨C possessed no clear cultivation, with his dantian being empty and impure, but his body was strengthened beyond the level of any ordinary person, with the traces of various medicinal essences and miracle fruits within his system.


    ¡®So, I don¡¯t think this is an otherworldly demon, but it also isn¡¯t someone akin to that hunter who was kept alive by an arrow. Let¡¯s see, does he have anything of interest on him¡­¡¯


    Of course, any items of otherworldly origin remained completely invisible to her spiritual perception, but if they were in one of his bags or some other tight space, she would be able to make out the trace of some item through the way in which it affected everything around it, but so far as she was able to tell, there was nothing of any interest anywhere near him beside the few low-grade miracle fruits that would be able to slightly strengthen one¡¯s body upon consumption, without the need for any preparation.


    Considering the fact that several of them had the same kind of medicinal effect as the ones present within his body, it was likely that he either lived somewhere where these items grew in large quantities, or that he had some tremendous fortune in stumbling across so many of these during his journey.


    This made him rather interesting and made her want to investigate.


    ¡®Kidnapping him would be a bit cruel, so I should figure out exactly what he¡¯s up to first, at which point I will have a better idea of what I can do with him¡­ Wait, that makes me sound like I¡¯m planning something suspicious¡­ and I suppose that I am¡­ Eh, I guess I¡¯ll just give myself away and see how he responds, and if a conversation follows, I¡¯ll try to learn whether or not he is fortunate, or whether there are some other circumstances I need to investigate first,¡¯ she decided, intentionally snapping a branch beneath her as she pretended to rise from a deep slumber, allowing herself a slight yawn, as being as loud as possible would be far too silly for her.


    There were a lot of different things she would do in order to succeed, and to get the most favourable outcome out of every situation possible, but she respected herself too much to make herself look like a complete buffoon. Ignorant and distracted at times was something that she would allow herself, but not outright folly.


    ¡®Perhaps that¡¯s another flaw of mine, but I think that some self-respect should be maintained¡­¡¯


    Fortunately, the young man had lived in the dangerous lands between the districts for long enough to notice something as obvious as her actions, so he stood up and raised his fists in preparation.


    ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡±


    ¡®Alright, so if I am already acting like a fool¡­¡¯ she considered for a moment, then responded, ¡°What¡¯re you shouting for? Couldn¡¯t you see that I was sleeping here?¡±


    She got out from beneath the tree roots, her long hair trailing along the dirt and leaves that were on the ground, covering much of her crimson locks with brown, green and crimson leaves that made her seem as if she had been beneath that tree far longer than one might assume.


    ¡°I bothered you?¡± the young man was confused for a moment, before he was able to somehow convince himself that she was right, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I hadn¡¯t noticed that you were there. How long have you been resting there?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ Is it still the sixth day of the seventh month?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so?¡±


    ¡°Then, is it still 1,051,961?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­¡±


    ¡°Listen, I am Da Gang, the greatest warrior of the Ning District. Tell me what you are doing here, and why do you have so many things in that bag of yours?¡± she questioned him, deciding that her approach would ultimately be, ¡®Act as unreasonable and unbelievable as possible so that he will doubt that I had even existed the moment that I decide to leave. Hopefully.¡¯


    ¡°Well, my village grows all of them. Do you-¡±


    He was unable to finish his sentence before Wei Yi¡¯s figure was suddenly enveloped in darkness, then vanished alongside it, with any traces of her presence disappearing as if she had never been there.


    Naturally, the young man looked around and tried to find her, but without spiritual perception, he stood even less of a chance than the ordinary cultivator, who would, at the very least, be able to scan the area around them and potentially track down some minute traces that might or might not point to her existence. After several minutes of explorative attempts, he settled back down at his camp and absentmindedly reached into his bag to grab a random miracle fruit.


    His hand went deeper into the bag than he had expected, but alongside the earlier encounter with what was either an insane woman or some hallucination, the young man didn¡¯t think to question this and just ate what he had.


    Meanwhile, Wei Yi reappeared far above him, standing on one of the branches of a tree and infusing a large quantity of metal-type planar energy into the miracle fruit that she ¡®borrowed¡¯ from him.


    ¡®Fortunately, it appears that miracle fruits are also affected by the silver-leaf energy, which means that I can strengthen everyone within the prison realm and my entire faction by allowing them to eat this kind of item on a regular basis,¡¯ she thought to herself, tossing the finished product into the House of Gold before glancing down at the confused man on the ground, ¡®If it is as he says, then I will need to search for the place he comes from and attempt to understand why someone like him is wandering around without any obvious supervision or cultivation. For now, I will need to move on, so I hope that this man will not go in the wrong direction any time soon.¡¯


    She waited for him to be sufficiently distracted to get one of the newly grown miracle fruits and place them into his bag, then quickly rushed away towards her earlier destination, releasing waves of spiritual perception every now and then to scan through the forest and look for wild animals, planar or otherwise, to practise with.


    Despite the majority of cultivators abandoning the practise and refinement of ordinary physical strength after the second realm, as planar constructs and energy would far surpass anything that ordinary body cultivation could ever reach, it was also commonly held that there were two primary elements to most techniques that did not purely rely on planar constructs, like her Elysian Storm. Those were the physical, and the energy sides of skills.


    In the opinion of combat cultivators city-wide, save a few notable exceptions, in order to truly comprehend a technique and be able to extract all of its power with any single attack, it was vital to understand and have practised both sides independently of one another, to maximise one¡¯s understanding of the physical aspects of each strike or movement as well as familiarising oneself with the exact planar energy flow and circulation required in order to turn those movements into something far superior to merely hitting one another with fists or legs.


    The exact truth of such a statement was somewhat varying, as some had little talent for regular fighting and would only slow themselves down with excessive practise of physical technique, although some others were better at that side of cultivation, hence the existence of body cultivators.


    Fortunately for Wei Yi, she was equally good at both sides of cultivation and combat, so balancing those aspects was easy for her and would greatly benefit her so long as those things were true, and some extension of the enormous Great Family conspiracy to obscure the truth about everything that could affect their hidden grasp over the world. If that was the case, she expected to be able to uncover this both in reality and within the Realm of Potential, at which point she would be sure to instruct everyone that she was allied within in order to prevent them from making the same mistake that she was currently engaging in.


    ¡®Such a thing is fortunately rather unlikely and is more likely to be me being rather paranoid at times. Fortunately, I can control myself, and such insane thinking can occasionally lead me to uncovering certain facts that I might have otherwise missed, and my assumptions regarding who is and isn¡¯t an otherworldly demon have proved accurate an unfortunate number of times¡­¡¯


    Despite the forests near the Ning District being rather bare the last few times that she had ventured into them, she managed to come across a suitable target for the practise of one half of the Scorching Blade techniques ¨C a wolf that was significantly larger than usual due to a similar diet to the young man from a few minutes ago, with the primary power of the miracle fruits having concentrated on its legs, causing them to be abnormally large and powerful even for a dire wolf.


    This made it a sensible target to experiment with the faster skills of Phoenix Transformation.


    She appeared some distance in front of it using a movement skill, then subdued all of her cosmic energy and approached it using only her body and physical strength. Even then, she was likely far superior to it through the consistent refinement of her physical form through cosmic energy and physique alike, but if she and the wolf could previously be compared to a deity and an insect, now it was closer to a battle between a titan and a small dog, which, while still highly unfair, would give her a chance to practise some control alongside evasion and efficient striking.


    The moment that she emerged from the green of the woods, the wolf noticed her presence and turned towards her, showing its teeth and readying itself to leap at her if she does not retreat.


    When she did not do that, it saw no reason why it shouldn¡¯t pounce on a large meal like her, especially with her wearing far less armour than the typical mortal might employ if they wanted to fight a large beast without the use of a bow, meaning that it would be far easier to devour her than most of the humans it had previously encountered.


    And yet, when it attacked, leaping towards her at great speed, not only was this strangely red human not taken by surprise, but she instead managed to evade, moving a little like a graceful or even intelligent beast, before slashing at the wolf¡¯s side with nothing but her hand and fingers.


    Worse yet, those fingers were somehow sharp enough to pierce its fur, skin and flesh, digging in deeply and leaving behind a series of five severe marks on its side, blood slowly pouring from them.


    As it landed some distance away from her and looked in her direction, it saw that one of her hands had turned dark and that a portion of her fingers turned to bone, with the tips being sharp enough to pierce through metal with far too little effort. If not for her ability to dull them, and to control exactly what she would and wouldn¡¯t pierce with them, they would be extremely bothersome and inconvenient for use in anything other than combat, although it would not have ever made her consider less conventional uses of claws.


    The wolf was not a particularly intelligent beast, especially in comparison to any planar beast, and thus it did not fully comprehend the nature of its opponent, thinking only that the human had some kind of trick which it needed to guard against, win as quickly as possible, and eat it before hiding away to recover.


    Meanwhile, Wei Yi was adjusting her own power so that she did not kill it before getting to use more than a single Phoenix Claw. She wasn¡¯t sure whether she would be able to locate more convenient animals to practise with, nor did she know where the nests of most planar beasts in the area was, so it would be best to make use of the wolf for as long as possible. In theory, she could heal it with one of her physique abilities or techniques, but that seemed highly unnecessary and inefficient, not to mention the fact that the infusion of lifeforce would implicitly raise the overall strength of an ordinary creature or person by a slight margin, effectively empowering the beast with both knowledge and physical ability every time she restored its form.


    This would provide greater challenge, but the requirement of lifeforce would increase with every single time that she healed it, so it would ultimately waste far more of her energy that simply returning into the Realm of Potential and practising within it, especially if non-human replicas were possible.


    Instead, she consciously limited her physical ability in every regard to that of herself at the peak of the first stage, as she was still quite powerful back then but would not be able to easily obliterate a common animal like this, meaning that some degree of thought will need to be invested during combat in order to avoid injury.


    ¡®Furthermore, it is commonly held that the likes of dragons, phoenixes and qilins are closely linked to the heavens themselves, with parts of their bloodline and cultivation techniques being connected to the Great Dao and thus making perfect material for forbidden skills to be borrowed from and based on. Doesn¡¯t usually work out too well, but since the Scorching Blades must have been studying these kinds of things for a very long time, I suspect that they might have a better grasp of dragons than most, and if my modifier skill correctly converts every principle, then I might be able to finally obtain a shard of my very own forbidden skill and uncover some part of the Great Dao,¡¯ she thought as she stared down the wolf¡¯s eyes, ¡®Come to think of it, creating this phoenix modifier might have actually been a very sensible idea, as I am a woman and will find it easier to uncover the secrets of a phoenix than of a hermaphroditic species like a dragon, even if my perfect balance of yin and yang is taken into account.¡¯


    Both dragons and phoenixes had only a single gender, and dragons were not technically female or male, despite their commonly masculine appearances while in their true forms and their incredibly feminine figures in their human forms, while phoenixes were only female. Naturally, it was significantly easier for her to understand and emulate the female form, even with her experiences of the male body as a result of memories from the Thunder Lord, and thus practising the Scorching Blade techniques through the Phoenix Transformation would grant her the highest chance of success.


    Qilins were similarly only male, but perhaps due to her own preferences, she had little interest in thinking about them. Given that she couldn¡¯t fully emulate any of their aspects either, there was little point in doing so anyway.


    Once the beast rushed towards her once more, its jaws open and fangs on display, she felt the full extent of the difference between herself now and then. With just the power that she wielded at the first stage, dodging this beast suddenly became significantly more difficult, and she found that evading this particular attack might be outright impossible for her.


    Instead, as the wolf was about to get close enough to tear off a chunk of her flesh, she plunged her claws into the wolf¡¯s neck and grabbed him with her other hand, using the beast¡¯s speed and momentum to throw it into the tree behind her while gouging out a large chunk of its neck.


    It crashed into a thick, large tree with the audible crack of bone and squelch of flesh, followed by a vast quantity of blood pouring from the several wounds on its body. Despite her intent to finish the battle after as much fighting as possible, the fact that she underestimated her strength yet again forced the conflict to end far more quickly than she could have ever expected. As it turned out, the spine and neck were incredibly valuable elements of the body, and damage to them was very effective.


    ¡®That much is obvious, of course, but perhaps I can incorporate attacking specific weak points into my strategy to maximise the efficiency of every single strike,¡¯ she considered as she restored her strength and glanced back at the excessively long hair pouring from her head and trailing along the ground, ¡®I do need to get rid of this, though. Since the old and new parts of my hair differ in strength, with the newer half being far stronger due to the hair roots being constantly strengthened during most of my cultivation, I can separate them as easily as the root and branches of the star metal, so I should probably make use of them¡­¡¯


    She scratched her head for a moment, making sure to dull the claws as it was actually more comfortable to use them than her nails, before glancing at that hand and getting an idea.

 V3C33: Seeking the Forgotten Lands

    ¡°Your hair?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. It is nigh indestructible, so if you weave it into the gauntlets, reinforce it with star metal, and if I then enhance the two via the Red Shaper¡¯s Touch, it might be the strongest combination of materials that is currently possible to us.¡±


    ¡°Is it also of the metal element?¡±


    She rolled her eyes at the question, ¡°I can just grow it on my own head. In fact, it may be the easiest material to produce, which is why, after I figure out a few more things about it, I¡¯d like to incorporate it into armour and clothing in some way. Make sure to tell no-one what it is, or else one of us will be dealing with far more questions than necessary ¨C and considering the fact that you are the tailor, it will probably be you.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ fine,¡± Fu Zan nodded, putting the bundle of crimson strands aside, ¡°I¡¯ve actually made a few things that range between highly practical and useful and mostly practical and somewhat useful. Do you want to take a look?¡±


    ¡°What kind of things?¡±


    ¡°Clothing, two sets of armour, some boots and shoes, a hat.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t need the hat, but everything else could be interesting, depending on whether your sense of reason and practicality had truly improved. Even if it useless as armour, having a sort of style that persists across the entire faction could bring people closer together without them even realising it,¡± Wei Yi theorised, avoiding viewing the items with spiritual perception to let herself be surprised.


    Fu Zan remained highly optimistic as he went away for a moment and returned with a human-sized mannequin hidden beneath a layer of thick black cloth, which was just thick and loose enough to obstruct any details other than the fact that it was clothing made for a woman, which made sense considering the individual it was intended to be presented to. He placed it down in front of her, then slowly raised and pulled the cloth away, doing so slowly enough to take a whole minute for it.


    What he had decided to show her first was an outfit made of something resembling leather, including a rather short jacket, tight trousers, a thin shirt and fingerless gloves. Despite their appearances, they had a slight metallic sheen and clearly contained a large quantity of metal-type energy within them, meaning that she had been able to make use of the many metals and materials grown through the silver-leaf energy to create something that looked like an entirely different material and substance. Furthermore, although she suspected that this wasn¡¯t an exact match of clothing from his world, it was close enough to be as effective as the real thing could be.


    It was also something that she wouldn¡¯t necessarily be against wearing, although it would be unlikely to fit into typical civilized society any time soon.


    ¡°This is something that resembles a biker¡¯s outfit,¡± the otherworldly demon introduced his creation, ¡°At least, I think it does¡­ It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve seen this sort of thing, so I had to off of what I remembered from the movies¡­¡±


    ¡°A biker¡¯s outfit? Mind reminding me of what that is?¡±


    ¡°A biker? Well, they¡¯re people that ride around on loud bikes, wear a lot of leather, and drink beer,¡± he shrugged, ¡°Again, it is has been far too long, so all I can state with certainty is the stereotype.¡±


    ¡°And a bike¡­ Right, I see. Is this the¡­ shall we say, fetish variant?¡±


    ¡°No, not at all! I have stuck to my new principle of practical sensibility, but I may have altered the design slightly in order to make it more attractive as a whole and to emphasise your body, since it makes sense to look good while you¡¯re saving the world¡­ or something like that,¡± he muttered the last part, ¡°Could you try it on for me? I need to know whether I remembered the measurements you gave me correctly.¡±


    ¡°Did you not write them down?¡± she asked as she removed the jacket from the mannequin, examining it closely in an attempt to understand not how it was made ¨C that much was obvious within this world, and likely involved the advanced machinery that the world of Orbis supposedly had back there ¨C but how someone got the idea to create something like this.


    ¡°I did, only after I made half of the things here¡­¡±


    ¡°Hm, I see,¡± Wei Yi sighed and put on the jacket over the not-so Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival, deciding that it wasn¡¯t worthwhile to keep them in their current state especially if she wanted to establish a new identity in another district, ¡°Tell me, do people in your world actually wear this kind of thing?¡±


    He stared at her for a moment, mostly checking that he had indeed gotten the measurements right, then absentmindedly shrugged, ¡°I¡¯m not too sure. I¡¯ve not lived in an area where this kind of thing was common, but if I saw someone dressed in the whole outfit, I¡¯d not ask any questions.¡±


    ¡°What a strange place your world is¡­¡± she said, knowing that he was telling the truth through the memories currently floating around in his head, ¡°Unless you need me to, I¡¯ll take the rest of this away and try it on some other time, perhaps if I ever decide to confuse some otherworldly demon by making them think that they returned to their old world. What would I need to act like in order to suit this clothing? Based on the appearance, I¡¯d assume these bikers to be some sort of dark faction, perhaps controlling an assassin organisation, so they are likely very aggressive and dominant in their approach.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I hadn¡¯t explained the entirety of Orbis¡¯ society and customs to you, have I?¡±


    ¡°Then I was entirely mistaken. Either way, I doubt that this is something that I will actually engage in, so no need to explain,¡± Wei Yi shrugged and placed the full set of clothing into the prison realm¡¯s underground storage with Yi Shi Ming¡¯s assistance, ¡°You mentioned several outfits, so I¡¯d like to see a few more. Armour, preferably.¡±


    ¡°Armour? Alright, I¡¯ve got a really good one for you¡­¡±


    He did not explain any further, nor did he give her any hints ¨C other than what was within his mind at that time, but she removed her spiritual will thread from his head by that point to permit him some privacy, amongst other things ¨C and simply returned into the back of the store, where he peeked beneath a few dark cloths before finding what he was looking for and bringing it to the front, placing the mannequin on which it was displayed next to the first, now empty one.


    ¡°I know that you can make things like this in an instant, but how many large, dark cloth squares did you make?¡±


    ¡°One for every item of interest, and then a few spare so that I wouldn¡¯t have to make more soon.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ Go on then, show me what you have created,¡± she said, curious whether the shape of the cloth was indicative of something or if he had intentionally altered the silhouette of certain items, perhaps forgetting that she could see through all of this in an instant if she wanted to.


    As it turned out, when he lifted the cloth and showed her exactly what he had made, the shape was not unusual, but it was hardly telling the whole story.


    What he presented to her was something that she couldn¡¯t quite name with ease. Perhaps the easiest to describe was the hat that crowned the costume, long and diamond-shaped with a point in the middle. Beneath that, near the neck, began a cape of something resembling feathers, with it getting wider and thicker the closer it got the ground, ending only an inch above it. The so-called armour itself was a long trench coat, ending at a similar height to which the long boots began, roughly at the knee of the mannequin. The rest was far less attention-grabbing, and all of it was in black.


    ¡°I thought you said armour? I hate to break it to you, but this hardly fits the definition.¡±


    ¡°T-This is armour, just¡­ well, it works well enough! The material is tough, the cloak prevents attacks from the back, and if you had a suitable technique, you could probably attack with it, too.¡±


    ¡°I was going to ask about that as well. Where did you get these from ¨C and since you probably didn¡¯t obtain actual feathers, how much time and effort did you need to spend on turning something entirely different into a literal cloak of raven feathers?¡±


    ¡°It might have taken a little longer than the cloth¡­ Significantly longer than the cloth¡­¡±


    ¡°Looks to me like you aren¡¯t quite out of your impractical phase, or is the overabundant imagination of your world to blame?¡±


    ¡°The latter¡­ Look, it looked great in the game! It was my favourite set¡­¡±


    ¡°Actually, if the cloak was to be taken out, replaced with something a little more sensible, and the coat was to be padded with star metal or something of the sort, it could work while certainly retaining a sort of presence¡­ Not a fan of that hat, however- Did you say game? Ugh, again? Does that game not have something more sensible to put onto your head?¡±


    ¡°A large cage?¡±


    She felt as if she hadn¡¯t just been stunned in the usual, conversational sense, but as if someone had literally struck her head with something sufficient to be senses even with her cultivation. After a moment, Wei Yi replied, ¡°What the fuck is wrong with your world? Is this why all of you are insane?¡±


    ¡°Well, it doesn¡¯t really protect against frenzy, so¡­¡±


    ¡°By the heavens, just stop talking and bring out something actually sensible, please. You mentioned something about boots, so bring those out.¡±


    ¡°A-Alright¡­¡±


    He headed back into the back room and remained there for a while, leaving her to stare at the second set of equipment. Although nothing would ever convince her that it wasn¡¯t made for aesthetic purposes over anything else, it did succeed in looking rather impressive in comparison to more practical items. If she had been an ordinary person living in some distant village beyond Yi City, she had no doubt that if she saw someone approach with such an outfit, perhaps bearing a large cleaver or sword as their weapon, she would be very intimidated.


    ¡®That¡¯s likely what the people of Orbis were thinking when they came up with this. However, if this is the kind of thing that they think is actually usable, then I suspect that the bikers have no connection with assassins after all, if there is any faction that even has an assassin organisation beneath them. I heard that they fight far more with words, so perhaps this is the kind of thing worn to gain an advantage in that¡­¡¯ she theorised, although if the other clothing of Orbis was to be considered, things like the raven outfit would stand out and look entirely unreasonable, ¡®Could they really have created something like this just for a game? The amount of free time and effort that they have, if that is the case, must be immense. I suppose that it is partly what I¡¯m looking to achieve in the future, although I¡¯m not sure how much I¡¯d like everyone to spend their time on such nonsense¡­¡¯


    When Fu Zan returned, he carried a pair of long boots, also all in black, with one feature that immediately jumped out at her.


    ¡°Are those heels supposed to be like that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, these are high heeled boots. I¡­ Could you tell me what you think about these?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ I¡¯m slightly reluctant to actually wear any kind of footwear, but do let me try these on,¡± she said, taking the boots from him and placing them on her feet with some effort. They were about as high as the boots on the feathered outfit, but in combination with the high heel, they simultaneously wrapped around an entire half of her leg and raised her height by a noticeable degree.


    It took some effort for her to stabilise her footing, and she suspected that she would need significantly more effort to be able to walk with any degree of normalcy, but this somehow inspired her.


    ¡°This might actually be a good idea. If I use this to train my own agility and dexterity and become able to fight confidently with this, then I would be significantly more prepared for any battle that may influence my ability to move around, or one that may require me to maintain balance on really small platforms¡­ Also, with the reduced surface area, something like¡­¡± she took a moment to scan the inside of the boots before trying any techniques to ensure that the boots would be able to withstand it, finding a layer of star metal that had been used to form the heel and the sole that meant that she could do essentially anything without the possibility of damaging them.


    Thus, she attempted to use the Earth-Shaking Step while moving a short distance to the side, and found that although it was rather difficult to achieve, the minimal force that she had exerted was more effective in the boots than with her bare legs.


    ¡®There is a bit of a strange effect on parts of my body, and there might be a risk of minor injuries if I hadn¡¯t had everything that I do have, but I might be able to mitigate this by a certain extent so long as I wear these responsibly,¡¯ she noticed the way in which much of her body had to adjust in order to maintain balance on the high heels of the boots, and decided to begin the composure of another technique, although whether it would turn out to be a modifier or a full-blown movement technique was a matter that she would decide on later.


    For now, she just practised a little more with the boots and, deciding that the persistent colour scheme of black was a suitable one for now, released a small quantity of her planar energy that she then infused into the entirety of her robes, changing it into the dark abyss of the Binder of the Dark energy, simultaneously creating the foundation for the second technique of the day.


    Both of them would take quite a lot of effort to be complete, but for now, some slight influence over her balance and centre of gravity would do wonders.


    ¡°I hadn¡¯t actually considered how you¡¯d become even taller¡­ You could do well in basketball¡­¡±


    ¡°Assuming that¡¯s a compliment, thank you. I¡¯m actually quite partial to these myself,¡± she mentioned, having noticed a certain accentuation of the sway of her hips while she walked more casually, ¡°They¡¯re also rather comfortable to wear, much more so than the majority of the things that I¡¯ve worn before. Well done. When you have the time, make some footwear for everyone within the prison realm of a similar quality ¨C without the star metal, of course.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m glad you liked it. I wasn¡¯t sure you would, actually¡­¡±


    ¡°And yet this is what you gave me after my earlier commentary?¡±


    ¡°Ehehe¡­ By the way, you¡¯re not displeased with my usage of the star metal, either? I thought that it may be a bit of a waste, but apparently it is very common for the heel to break in some way, so I fixed it before it could become an issue.¡±


    ¡°Since the star metal is renewable, to an extent, it should be used when necessary, else we may as well not be growing it actively. Since you were addressing a common issue, it is perfectly fine.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I will see if I can find any other uses for it and, hopefully, create a set of perfect, excellent-looking equipment and items! Someday, I will clothe and equip the entire world, and they shall know the wonders of Orbis mixed with the practicality of the Planar Continents! I will hold the first monopoly in the history of this entire world!¡±


    ¡°You¡­ go do that. First, though, make the shoes I mentioned and create a few more variants of these boots, without the star metal, of course. I want to see whether the heel should be higher or lower for optimal movement capability. By the way, why were you reluctant about these?¡±


    He sighed, ¡°On the internet, there were two types of people. The first would shove high heels onto the feet of female characters and ignore the impracticality of it, whereas the other would constantly point this out and proclaim how unreasonable wearing high heels in combat would ever be. Really, the first ones just wanted to make the character look good, and likely have no understanding of combat at all, whereas the second ones ended up becoming annoying after a while, even if they were right¡­¡±


    ¡°If these were to be presented to most other people, I think that the response would be similar to the second group. However, they are also an excellent opportunity to train and widen my horizons, so to speak, so the impracticality is actually the entire point,¡± she shrugged, before noting an element of what he had said, ¡°Do certain women and men in your world allow others to place whatever clothing they want onto themselves, or am I misunderstanding some aspect of Orbis society again, just as with the bikers?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­¡±


    Two figures appeared within the Ning District without anyone noticing. They were garbed in grey, a Ning symbol marking their breast, and had a mysterious aura around them that couldn¡¯t quite be understood nor accurately perceived no matter who looked upon them. Their features were incredibly similar, only a step away from making them twins, but one was male, tall and strong whereas the other was female, lithe and far less physically imposing.


    As they walked through the streets together, their movements perfectly matching, all that came near them retreated without being able to comprehend why.


    The man spoke, ¡°Ning Fu, I cannot sense a trace of the foul creature. This is contrary to reports.¡±


    ¡°Ning Chao, neither can I,¡± the woman replied, ¡°When should we report to Testament?¡±


    ¡°Confirmation of the creature¡¯s appearance must be made first. Who is the point of contact with our district?¡±


    ¡°Chen Wuhan, living in that direction,¡± Ning Fu pointed, ¡°He may know something.¡±


    They nodded together and disappeared from sight. Any who had seen them assumed that they had hallucinated, or that their cultivation had gone awry, for there was no trace of typical movement, nor of their footsteps. It was as if they had been walking on the air, not even touching the dust and dirt on the ground.


    On the morning of the seventeenth day, only two days after she had left the Ning District, Wei Yi finally approached a part of the Luo District, or, rather, what was once part of it. From her understanding of the matter, it had been lost only a hundred years ago, if not less, resulting in yet another major area being lost to the wilds, for the Luo family has had no capable warriors to reclaim the land, a task that was made even more difficult by their ardent refusal to use arrays in any but the most unusual scenarios. This increased the costs and difficulty of reclaiming and even just keeping land significantly and made it rather beneficial to them to let that part of the district go without much of a fight.


    This was all that was known in the Ning and Yi Districts, so there was a possibility that the information was false to some extent, or perhaps out of date, but what she was able to see so far suggested otherwise.


    As she journeyed through the dense woods, she began seeing traces of buildings, roads, carts, carriages and whatever else that people would commonly make use of in their day to day lives, but all of it was abandoned and consumed by trees that slowly got smaller and younger, suggesting that this part of the district had suffered the fate of slowly being abandoned piece by piece, rather than all at once.


    It was likely that something made it difficult for them to maintain their talisman-based protections, prompting them to retreat slowly until it was decided that the entire region was too difficult to keep.


    Based on the map provided to her, the person she was looking for was in the same direction as the area of the region that was abandoned last, so she was able to observe how the height of the trees rapidly declined until they cleared entirely.


    She entered a small clearing, the edge of which was within sight and close enough to be reached within a few minutes of a slow walk, within which there was but one thing of note: a structure with a single floor, flat roof and four large openings on the sides. It had a rectangular shape and lacked any semblance of a trace of human activity, webs, vines whatever else covering it in several dense layers. If she had just appeared here and had to guess where someone would live, she would sooner point towards the trees or ground rather than that structure.


    ¡®The map that I have is drawn from a sufficiently distant perspective to not point specifically at the building ¨C not to mention the fact that this area was previously full inhabited and full of different structures and residences ¨C but if Senior Yi Yi is still here, he should be in that structure, whatever it was originally supposed to be.¡¯


    Her spiritual perception was unable to sense anything within the building, nor below, but as she kept on discovering more and more things that were able to elude or trick it, she wouldn¡¯t be surprised in the slightest if the slightest oddities about the area turned out to be a field of hidden arrays that would instantly attack her with the power of the seventh realm the moment that she took a wrong step or otherwise made some mistake that the creator of the arrays would have intended and accounted for, or perhaps they could imprison her and rapidly move her into some jail to contain her.


    Of course, that was unlikely if the person hiding here truly was Senior Yi Yi, as she had decided to call him to make things less confusing between him and Master Yi Yi. Based on his known cultivation rate, he would not be any higher than the sixth realm now, and his arrays would be unlikely to have gone beyond the fourth due to the known bottleneck that he had intended to beat using the combination of the Prime Star and Excellence Arts.


    ¡®So long as every bit of information the world has about that man is correct, I am unlikely to suffer regardless of what he may have achieved in this time, and most of the arrays here are likely to only be obscuring and illusory arrays to hide his presence,¡¯ she thought as she approached this lone structure.


    The truth of the matter was revealed very soon after, when the entire rectangular building was suddenly illuminated by countless arrays, all of which turned towards her and released a ludicrous variety of attacks. Beams, bolts, blades, arrows, spheres, serpents, spectres, bricks, brick walls, brick houses ¨C why there were so many of these, or why they were all made of bricks and nothing else, wasn¡¯t a question that she could hope to answer ¨C and many more besieged her simultaneously, all glowing with flaming light and flying, moving, crawling or otherwise arriving at her position from all directions at such a speed that she would be struck by all of them at once.


    Her immediate reaction was to activate Endless Calculation to comprehend the nature and weaknesses of this combination of arrays, while mobilising her cosmic energy to prepare an Elysian Yang Storm Burst to target any weakness the moment that it was discovered to shatter this overwhelming attack.


    One of the first things she noticed was that while all of the energy was in the fourth realm, the arrays were in the third realm, which immediately made her worry less about the power of the individual attacks and instead moved her focus onto their combined effect, prioritising the dissolution of the overall offensive as it appeared to be similar to an array made from the effects of countless arrays, potentially intensifying their power to a level that would actually require evasion or mitigation to avoid serious harm.


    The second fact to jump out at her was that the arrays were actually significantly more powerful than one might expect, functioning at almost six times the effectiveness of the average three-star array, so if these were to combine together into another array of the same quality, the final result would be nearly thirty-six times as powerful as a normal array of that type, and that would most certainly require immediately action if she didn¡¯t want to lose her life right there and then due to an onslaught of brick houses and whatever else.


    Fortunately, while the combined array of attacks was still a moment away from striking, she finally uncovered a significant weakness and acted, also infusing Ire energy into her prepared technique.


    When it erupted from her hand, the sky seemed to darken as a bolt of gold, crimson and violet tore through the world and struck a particular point within the air where a number of flaming array constructs congregated. For a moment, it seemed as if they could offer up some resistance, but then a series of lightning arcs surged throughout the entirety of the field of attacks, each one changing in colour and each one creating enormous gashes within each planar construct until the last wave, full of pure golden light, completely shattered the vast majority of the constructs. The energy that remained arced towards the origin of the array energy ¨C the small building, and one specific corner of it.


    A moment before the golden light impacted the wall, a dense layer of protective arrays appeared before it, absorbing the lightning but doing so only barely, for great fractures within their surface appeared and faded only a moment after the protective layer itself did.


    ¡°For being one of their ilk, your knowledge of arrays and their weaknesses is commendable, but I will not allow you to steal my secrets!¡± a voice emerged from the structure, as did a figure that seemed as ancient and decrepit as the building itself. Webs, vines and random plants covered him from head to toe, with only his face and eyes being uncovered, presumably to assist his sight more than anything else. If he didn¡¯t need that, it was likely that he wouldn¡¯t have bothered to clear that away either.


    ¡°Before there¡¯s some misunderstanding, care to tell me who you think I am?¡± she asked, placing one of her feet before the other and preparing a vast amount of energy to unleash.


    ¡°You¡¯re one of Them, of course. I know your kind! When you won the War of Yin, you chased them all down! So many trapped by the white and crimson light¡­¡± the man sighed, his voice tired and strained, ¡°My legacy will not fall the same way to your greedy hands!¡±


    ¡°You are wrong! I am not one of them, and you should be able to tell by the absence of anchors around me, as well as the fact that I am not some stuck-up bitch who cannot stand a single negative thing being said about me. I would have certainly attempted to kill you with something like the point beams, or perhaps a force of raw anchor pressure,¡± she spoke calmly, preferring not to engage in combat if necessary, ¡°Furthermore, if you are the person that I think you are, then I have something from one of your descendants.¡±


    However, he did not appear to listen, energy surging from his body and encasing his entire presence with flame, ¡°You stole their hard work? How dare you, you disgraceful relics?¡±


    ¡®Watch who you call a relic, old man. I¡¯m only forty-one. And he¡¯s not going to listen to me, is he?¡¯ she understood, releasing more than half of her combined killing will to arrange as many arrays as she possible could within a single moment, although she then realised that her own Spiritual Flow arts were incredibly unsuitable for the control of anything other than spiritual will, prompting her to split the two energies apart and focus the killing intent into miniature Hatred Ire arrays.


    ¡°I shall show you why so many remember my name! I am Master Yi Yi, and you shall not leave alive!¡±


    After getting his introduction out of the way, he also created a series of arrays, throwing out his planar energy and solidifying it in the shape of burning circles of great complexity, although it naturally paled in comparison to the array the Truth of the Universe assembled.


    Perhaps the primary reason that it proved simple for her to decipher was that they, too, were three-star arrays that were very familiar to her, as they were incredibly similar to what was often created by Master Yi Yi in the Yi District. There were differences, quite a few of them, but it was clear that they had similar origins, amongst other things.


    ¡®The rumours are gaining more and more credence with every single moment, I see. I need to see the truth for myself, however.¡¯


    The rumours about Senior Yi Yi¡¯s work originated from the fact that he never created arrays over the third realm or three stars, no matter who he faced or what situation needed to be resolved. With the fact that the Excellence Arts were meant to be developed into the fourth realm, and then combined with the Prime Star Arts, she was already aware that there was a possibility that some of this was true, but the less frequent rumour was that he was indeed capable of creating four-star arrays with his Excellence Arts, but that they were incapable of replicating the same immense quality of his weaker arrays, making them weaker and therefore resulting in them never seeing any use.


    Depending on the truth, and how agreeable he was to siding with her, she wouldn¡¯t be opposed to recruiting him and assisting him with the development of a united and superior technique, but thinking about such a thing so early was clearly putting the cart before the horse.


    ¡°I shall warn you once, Yi Yi, and only once. If we fight, I may injure you, and injure you very severely. Don¡¯t force me to.¡±


    ¡°You are one of Them! I will never let you touch my legacy!¡± he shouted in reply, his many arrays finally completing their charging process and releasing vast amount of flaming energy, all of it solidifying mid-flight so that the impact of the many barriers, missiles ¨C more bricks, causing her to ponder whether he had slightly lost his mind or uncovered some kind of fragment of the Great Dao that focused on the shape and nature of the brick ¨C far more powerful.


    She met the many bricks flying towards her with a burst of killing will, shattering all of the third-realm attacks with the power of the fifth realm, then activated one of her own arrays to fire the most powerful beam she dared to throw at him.


    It struck a brick wall of planar energy and shot straight through only to meet a second and third set of walls, with the third nearing closest to blocking the beam, but much of its power continued through and flew at Senior Yi Yi¡¯s chest, targeting a point that wouldn¡¯t be fatal if it struck but would incapacitate him and allow for a calmer conversation than their previous one.


    However, it did not seem to be sufficient for the man to give up just yet. He pulled some of his solidified offensive arrays from his back and used them to block the attack, allowing a number of the arrays to shatter in exchange for withstanding the strike safely. While they broke and their energy scattered, he gathered even more of his power and condensed a new set of arrays at an even higher quality and with a greater variety of effects.


    ¡®Not a single four-star array, however¡­ I¡¯ll try more strength, but if that doesn¡¯t work, I could try a certain kind of persuasion,¡¯ she thought as she shattered some of her own arrays and put their pieces together into a single enormous set of offensive arrays that could fire all at once, and that couldn¡¯t possibly be withstood by such simple brute force, ¡°Remember what I told you, Senior Yi Yi.¡±


    Spiritual will was faster and thinner than planar energy, and it could be activated far faster due to its greater realm. As such, despite his advantage of starting first, Yi Yi was unable to attack her even once before the many points of her array ignited with white light, and countless small beams reminiscent of the Great Families¡¯ point beams shot out. Their speed was superior to her previous beam, and while their strength was lesser, she still made sure to aim every single beam at a non-vital part of his body to avoid any accidents.


    She did not recall swearing any oaths to her Master Yi Yi, but she wouldn¡¯t slaughter his ancestor just because she couldn¡¯t be bothered to be a little careful.


    ¡°You¡­ I know what you¡¯re doing! You¡¯re trying to make me divulge my secrets! I will never buckle before you, you Gr- trickster!¡± the elderly man cried out, the aura of flame around him suddenly amplifying by a large degree as the number of arrays around him doubled, with all that were present changing into defensive arrays that focused all of their potential onto his body.


    ¡°Look at me, you ancient relic, and understand that I am no member of the twisted families! I am Wei Yi, and I was your descendant¡¯s apprentice and learned the Excellence Arts that he had created. Stop wasting your energy fighting me and just listen to me!¡±


    ¡°Your techniques hold no trace of my or my descendant¡¯s techniques! If you¡¯re going to lie, then make your lies believable!¡±


    As all of his arrays broke and scattered once more, he was able to pull some of that energy back together into some offensive arrays that he aimed directly at her heart and brain, clearly having none of the same reservations that she had.


    Senior Yi Yi¡¯s words made sense, so once all of the point beams had fired, she broke the arrays apart and used all of their energy to form something that went against all of the practises that she had learnt over the twenty years that she had spent within the prison realm, as well as everything that she had done since leaving it. She used the specific arrays taught to her by Master Yi Yi and arranged a single defensive array, doing so slowly due to how little practise she had with the Excellence Arts and their derivative arrays.


    She finished just as Senior Yi Yi¡¯s attacks came, all of them landing on a translucent layer of blue light.


    The moment that it cleared, the ancient man¡¯s eyes widened, and he exclaimed, ¡°That technique is clearly something that my child had begun to work on! How did you obtain it?¡±


    ¡°Were you ever listening to me, old man? I am the apprentice of your descendant! I learnt his techniques! I came here to unite the two arts, and all you do is accuse me of being my greatest foe! Look at what your descendant had achieved!¡± Wei Yi shouted, not bothering to remain calm as the man finally appeared to be seeing sense.


    The great defensive array restructured itself, transforming into a purely offensive one that took inspiration from her opponent and condensed an enormous brick from the blue light of the Excellence Art, the simple presence of which was enough to damage nearby arrays.


    Senior Yi Yi understood this as well, and mobilised the rest of his energy into a single rushed array that clearly differed from everything else that he had shown her during their brief conflict. It aligned with his own energy, displayed the might of the fourth realm with four stars, and was remarkably strange in the power that it appeared to contain, for while everything that he had made so far was significantly more effective than usual, this lacked that same aura.


    When the brick struck the barrier, it was clear why ¨C his array at the fourth realm paled before anything else that he had previously created.


    The gigantic brick pierced this defensive layer and crashed into his, promptly knocking him out.

 V3C34: The Array Master and the Warrior

    ¡°Huh? What happened? Where is my beard? Where am I?¡± an old man rose quickly, looking around wildly as he tried to correlate his memories with what he saw ¨C or, rather, didn¡¯t see ¨C before himself.


    ¡°Of all the things to bring up, the one you chose is one that I hadn¡¯t even touched. You sure that you haven¡¯t spent too much time here?¡± Wei Yi¡¯s voice entered his ears, and he turned to find that she was right behind him, looking through his copy of the Prime Star Arts and comparing it to her own knowledge, ¡°I did get rid of someone of the unnecessary clutter on your body, whether that was the webs, leaves, vines and whatever else. It literally hurt to look at you, and considering my level of cultivation, that is saying something.¡±


    She wasn¡¯t joking, either. When she had a little more time to examine his state, she found that he might as well have been an inanimate object in the very middle of a thousand different nests of creatures and insects, as every little pocket, fold and whatever else was filled with some form of natural creation or growth.


    After reinforcing her eyes with some cosmic energy refinement, mostly for future use, she cleared away all of it, leaving him looking a little more like a human being, then healed a few of his internal injuries so that he didn¡¯t collapse only a moment after waking up, which, clearly, confused him.


    ¡°You¡­ Are you truly not one of Their number?¡±


    ¡°No, I am not, and I will never be. They killed a number of my teachers, including your descendant of the same name,¡± she said, ¡°I did end up meeting with a descendant of Meng Qi, the Thunder Lord. Since you mentioned the War of Yin, might you be familiar with that name?¡±


    ¡°Meng Qi¡­ Ah, the Thunder Lord!¡±


    ¡®That¡¯s what I just said¡­ He shouldn¡¯t be old enough to be suffering from any kind of mental condition, but his body has certainly not aged gracefully. There¡¯s a chance that his mind had also suffered.¡¯


    ¡°Yes, I remember him. He sure was an active young man, known to most women of the City!¡± Senior Yi Yi exclaimed, laughing for a little while before he continued, ¡°Most people respected him so much that when he explained his discoveries about Their actions, they immediately leapt to aid him, and I was no exception¡­ Don¡¯t recall him fathering any children back then, but with how much time he had spent with the wives of others¡­¡±


    ¡°I am well aware of the actions of Meng Qi. If you¡¯re going to speak about the past, I¡¯d prefer to hear about Great Dark and Great Light, who had the echo of the Thunder Lord within their Deadly Martial Colosseum.¡±


    ¡°You said my son had died, didn¡¯t you? Had he succeeded?¡±


    ¡®Of course, you won¡¯t listen to me directly, will you? Hah¡­¡¯ she quietly sighed and replied, ¡°He created the Excellence Art to match your Prime Star Arts, but I believe that he was a step from succeeding. Also, I believe that this was your grandson at the very least, if I got the timeline correct, and so long as I didn¡¯t misunderstand anything.¡±


    ¡°My grandson? Why wouldn¡¯t my son have visited me if he couldn¡¯t succeed?¡±


    ¡°From his actions, I got the impression that they were told not to do so until they were able to complete their task.¡±


    ¡°No, no, that¡¯s not what I had ever told any of them! They should have gone to me if they weren¡¯t successful, and we could have pooled our knowledge together, and created something fantastic together! We could have breached the barrier of the fourth realm and put up a genuine effort against the- Them once more!¡± he exclaimed, going silent for a moment before his voice became more sombre, ¡°So my son and my grandson have both passed. How long have I been here?¡±


    ¡°Quite a while. Have you not noticed how terrible you looked before I showed up?¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ Who are you again?¡±


    ¡°My name is Wei Yi. I was your grandson¡¯s student for a while-¡±


    ¡°No, no, what I want to ask is about your full identity. Why did you come over here to meet with a tired old man?¡±


    ¡°Besides wishing to complete the technique you two had been working on, I would not be opposed to recruiting you to our cause of obliterating Them until the world is free from their tyranny and their constant harmful behaviour. I have something that they¡¯re not aware anyone other than them can possibly have, and I have learnt that destroying their anchors grants the entire world a boost in planar energy concentration. If you can support others in the faction with studying, creating and developing arrays, we might have a far better chance.¡±


    ¡°What faction would this be?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a name, but I can tell you that I have something that They would never expect me to have, as well as a certain insight regarding matters that you might never imagine. Furthermore, as you should have been able to see from my earlier array arrangement techniques, I have a certain talent when it comes to creating and refining techniques of all kinds. Give me enough time and I match those used by Them, if not surpass them.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s led by you, a third-realm woman, without a single person standing by your side? You may hold my grandson¡¯s creation, but that does not mean I trust you.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s unfortunate. Don¡¯t really need your permission for this,¡± she shrugged, clicking her fingers as a large circle of silver and crimson appeared beneath him, ¡°Even if you do not decide to join our side, you will be far safer away from here.¡±


    However, the old man didn¡¯t listen to her words, instead paying attention only to the great transportation array that appeared beneath him. His eyes widened as he comprehended part of its function, and it enveloped him in light as he turned towards her and loudly exclaimed, ¡°You have a spatial realm of your own?¡±


    ¡°Yup. Well¡­ you¡¯ll see.¡±


    A second, smaller circle appeared beneath her, completing at a far faster rate due to how familiar she was with herself, allowing her to complete the transportation process significantly quicker even without Yi Shi Ming¡¯s assistance, although the spatial spirit still needed to contribute some of her ability.


    Thus, they both disappeared from the Planar Continents.


    Somewhere far away, and yet unbelievably close, two figures in identical clothing and with identical hairstyles stood beside one another, looking upon an array of impossible complexity.


    One of them was male, and the other female, but one would be hard-pressed to guess this from their appearances, for their figures were incredibly alike, making them seem more like identical twins rather than brother and sister. One wouldn¡¯t be faulted for assuming that a mirror stood between them, one that was invisible and yet all encompassing.


    ¡°They have learnt, I suspect.¡±


    ¡°They would learn.¡±


    ¡°We cannot add to the array with ease.¡±


    ¡°Changing it entirely would be a poor solution.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Indeed.¡±


    With simultaneous motions, they stepped away, placing their hands behind their backs as they walked slowly and elegantly, their long white robes not permitting them much room for rapid movement.


    ¡°The Yi girl. Have there been any sightings?¡±


    ¡°Too few with any credibility.¡±


    ¡°Red hair should stand out.¡±


    ¡°The name might differ. The Yi are unaware of her.¡±


    ¡°They appear submissive. They did not take action and subdued all rumours the moment that the child was found to be growing too powerful.¡±


    ¡°Could have been a trick to earn favour with Testament.¡±


    ¡°Further investigation might be useful.¡±


    ¡°Indeed.¡±


    Like this, talking to one another in short sentences, exchanging thoughts that the two likely didn¡¯t even need to share vocally, they slowly walked away from the great array, which would occasionally brighten and ignite a point on the great map that floated above it, prompting a man or woman in simple robes to rush out towards that location.


    It was called the Death of Words, and it maintained a tight net over the entire world.


    ¡°What is this place?¡±


    ¡°The former Kong Prison Realm, and also the former prison realm of the Great Families. Now, it is under my control, and I have brought planar energy into the world to allow everyone to cultivate in such a manner that would be most beneficial within the Planar Continents. Once, the Master of Yi City used this place to contain something that he named the Hunger of the Beyond, which you should be able to see over there¡­ It¡¯s only half, but it had filled the entire left side of the prison realm with killing intent that they used for cultivation,¡± she explained, before looking towards the Silver Side, ¡°That side believed themselves to be the elites of the world, chosen by the Greats, but that perception was shattered very soon after I arrived.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ snatched such a large spatial realm from Them just like that?¡±


    ¡°You can say their name in here, as far as I am aware. Even if you can¡¯t, it¡¯s too late, since everyone in here has been saying all of their lives.¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°They imprisoned me when I scratched the cheek of one of the Great Yi, so I took a while and took it from them. That great library that you see over there, in the very middle, is the core of my mental domain.¡±


    ¡°That is¡­¡± he gasped, ¡°amazing. To cultivate to such an extent¡­ A mixture of spiritual will and¡­ killing intent? Such a force truly exists?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, it does. In fact, spiritual will is an energy that can even occupy the meridians, if given the opportunity, and it can be cultivated in much the same way. The same goes for killing intent, killing will, and physique energy from obtaining and refining one¡¯s own physique. I suspect there is also a fifth force out there, but I have not yet stumbled onto it.¡±


    His mouth remained agape for a moment, but then Senior Yi Yi frowned, ¡°Why are you telling me this? Even if you want to bring me into your faction, this is a little much, isn¡¯t it? I know now that if I want to injure you, that this library is the key, and can study it with arrays whenever I want. If I¡¯m not mistaken, that also looks like a great facsimile of an anchor up there, which would mean that there might also be a way of damaging it if I try hard enough.¡±


    ¡°Both of those things are rather unlikely, but you can try. The library itself is intangible, whereas the anchor should be as well ¨C it¡¯s real, by the way. Want to see?¡± she asked, smirking slightly.


    ¡°Anchors have three sides. Don¡¯t be ridiculous.¡±


    ¡®At the very least he seems to be feeling a little better now that he has been removed from that place, which is fortunate. I wouldn¡¯t be very confident in dealing with someone with rather severe mental issues, especially since my only experience in dealing with similar things myself was when I had changed my name and my entire approach to life during my arrival here,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, summoning her cracking anchor from the peak of the prison realm onto the ground.


    It crashed into the ground before them, knocking up a wave of dust that was lit up by the violet light that glowed from within the dark crystalline structure of the planar anchor. Above it, forty-seven glistening anchor shards rotated around it.


    ¡°Personally, I like the look of it. What do you think?¡±


    ¡°This is impossible! How can an anchor have that many sides? How can it be glowing with the power of five elements- no, seven, eight elements? What is this? How did this ever happen? How?¡±


    ¡°Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°No!¡±


    ¡°Fair enough. Still, I would advise you not to go this insane from just one anchor, otherwise you will lose your mind entirely and you won¡¯t be able to survive the fact that Meng Qi¡¯s descendant currently practises two forms of cultivation at once, or the fact that I am using four.¡±


    ¡°Ah, of course,¡± his response was far different from what she expected, but she suspected that this was only his method of dealing with the matter of such great confusion, which was to shut it all away and pretend that he understood everything and that nothing could phase him, which, to his credit, was very sensible considering the fact that he would never learn everything that there was to learn within a short period of time, no matter how open she was about everything that she did.


    ¡°So?¡±


    ¡°Are you asking whether I would like to join you?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. You can feel free to walk around and see what¡¯s going on around here, but considering your relation to the Greats, I don¡¯t think that letting you outside would be wise in the slightest,¡± she said, ¡°If you want, I can lead you to the descendant of Meng Qi first, if you¡¯d like to know what your friends ended up causing.¡±


    ¡°What wording¡­ But I shall do that first. I need to know what it is that you have created here with your absurd anchor and whatever else.¡±


    ¡°Rude, considering the fact that your arrays are able to reach similarly absurd levels so long as they are three stars or below. If not for the fact that I am significantly more powerful than most at my realm, you could have won quite easily.¡±


    He muttered something beneath his breath, then said, ¡°I don¡¯t care. Show me to this person.¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged and clicked her fingers once more, the gesture being little more than emphasis on the command being given to the world and to the spatial spirit, both of whom coordinated to move her in an instant into the dome of Beast¡¯s Rest.


    After the entirety of the Kong Prison Realm was granted access to planar energy, she didn¡¯t wish to undo all of her work from her previous breakthroughs in terms of killing intent and spiritual will, namely the dome that they created to convert the killing intent of the entirety of Beast¡¯s Rest into her own energy, she instead decided to change the purpose of the great sphere of energy. Instead, it would focus the planar energy of the world around it, further amplifying the overall quantity of energy that the prison realm would naturally contain.


    There were several method of raising the quantity of planar energy within a spatial realm, or the continents themselves, but all of those methods consisted of giving it more space to exist, tricking it into flooding into a world and increasing its density without reducing concentration or spreading it out unnecessarily.


    She knew of several methods to achieve this, and the array of the great dome was suitable due to its ability to store planar energy, thus allowing it to perform a similar trick to the planar stones that she had used near the centre of the prison realm. Another effective approach would be to contain a vast number of precious materials that required planar energy to survive or thrive, as they would feast on the energy that flowed in, prompting a great quantity of it to arrive, before stabilising the space around it on a greater concentration of planar energy.


    Obtaining such materials was somewhat difficult, considering the fact that they needed to be of the sixth realm or above, containing what was essentially their own cultivation and meridian network that could use as much energy as a typical entity in the fifth realm, although she did believe that she would be able to force their growth upon entering the fourth or fifth realm, depending on the limitations of her silver-leaf energy. Generally, it wouldn¡¯t be easy to obtain such a material, as it included the likes of spatial metal that was absolutely essential to the creation of spatial realms, but if she was able to claim one and give it plenty of room to grow, then she could greatly raise the energy concentration of the entire Kong Prison Realm with relatively little effort ¨C other than whatever effort needed to be invested to claim the material, of course.


    For now, however, she was going to focus on the two men before her, who were currently looking at one another in some confusion.


    ¡°Wei Yi, there haven¡¯t been any major developments in the usage of the material, but I suspect that this is not what you wanted to talk to me about,¡± Meng Chu said as he looked towards the old man beside her, ¡°Who is he, by the way?¡±


    ¡°You do have some resemblance¡­¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    Seeing that the two of them weren¡¯t going to be straight-forward with one another, Wei Yi stepped in and said, ¡°Meng Chu, this man is Senior Yi Yi, someone who fought in the War of Yin and is an expert on arrays, although his technique will need a little work to reach the fourth realm at a decent quality. Senior Yi Yi, this is Meng Chu, the descendant of the Thunder Lord Meng Qi.¡±


    They looked at one another once more, their gazes different and yet similar at the same time.


    ¡°There certainly is some resemblance¡­¡±


    ¡°You are familiar with my ancestor? Most of his legacy here has been lost, save for what he had done at Beast¡¯s Rest and a few of the techniques that he had worked on,¡± Meng Chu said, raising his hand and letting a few sparks of crimson lightning arc between his palm and fingers, ¡°I¡¯d be very curious to hear about the kinds of things that he had gotten up to outside of here, mostly to know how this prison realm changed the man.¡±


    ¡°Hmph¡­ I can tell you, but¡­¡± he turned to Wei Yi, ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll stay here, but I still doubt your identity and motives. The name Wei is so rare that I¡¯ve never heard of it before, so you might be part of a secret Great Family, for all I know!¡±


    ¡°Fine by me, old man. If you want to speak to me, just sit down in a quiet room and speak. I¡¯ll hear you, although I can¡¯t guarantee that I¡¯ll be able to reply immediately. I might be fighting some great foe, or perhaps resting in preparation for said battle, or I might be visiting the public baths and stealing some glances at- ahem. You get the point,¡± she said, joking a little at the end in an attempt to make herself seem even less like the irritating Greats. Naturally, she wouldn¡¯t outright declare her interest in looking at any attractive women there ¨C she would do so without revealing her desire, unless she was mostly certain that she could take it further with someone of similar interests. ¡°If I¡¯m not available, my friend Yi Shi Ming might speak to you in my stead, although it isn¡¯t very likely.¡±


    Not wishing to disturb them any further, she initiated the transportation array beneath herself and faded out of the prison realm, returning to the area from which they had disappeared so unceremoniously. She did keep an ear on what they were discussing, just out of idle curiosity, but her focus was on the small clash they had previously.


    The thing she was most surprised by was how natural wearing these high heeled boots turned out to be with a little assistance from the Heeled Balance Art, while it was still at the Initial Accomplishment stage, denoting the fact that she did not yet have full comprehension of the best usage of her altered footwear. This was an incredibly good thing to her, as this meant that the technique possessed a great deal of potential for further development, the opportunity to merge it with other techniques to create a semblance of an independent path, and perhaps a hidden truth deep within it.


    Any technique with that potential was effectively another great increase in power for her, just with a slight delay before she was able to maximise the usefulness of the skill and best comprehend exactly how to apply every single one of them.


    She would naturally experiment with it later within the Realm of Potential, in order to comprehend it as quickly as possible, but she decided that in order to not overwork herself, she would only use that place at night, when she would otherwise only have time to rest or sleep if she didn¡¯t want to expose herself before attentive observers. For now, she instead turned her attention to the array arrangement techniques used by Senior Yi Yi, and how they compared to her own creation.


    Her Spiritual Flow Arts were very good, there was no doubt about it, resulting in roughly fifty percent quality of any arrays that she created, whereas the average was ten for the typical master of any of the great arts, but the Prime Star Arts were able to create arrays at sixty percent quality ¨C somewhere around sixty-three percent, to be more exact ¨C and would thus be more powerful than her own, given the same level of cultivation, energy used and supporting techniques. Due to this, she had carefully scanned every single array that was used and how it was set up, hoping not to replicate the technique but to comprehend the exact reason for the immense boost to the low-grade arrays.


    There had to be some reason why such a thing could occur, even if it was restricted the moment that the array gained a total of four stars, and if she understood them, she could elevate every single array she created even further, and, perhaps, one day reach the very peak of this great art, achieving the full power of an array.


    Such a thing was entirely unheard of, no matter whether one looked in legends, true historical documents, or even into the gifts of the otherworldly demons. For this reason, such a thing as a ten-star array, inscription, pill, artefact or talisman did not exist, and nine stars were the peak of any great art, following the limitations of cultivation stopping at the ninth realm. It was much like leaving the prison realm had been for those within it or seeing the sun and moon ¨C they had thought that it was impossible and concluded that it was not worth pursuing.


    Wei Yi was not going to do the same. The Hunger of the Beyond was powerful, from what she knew, possibly at the ninth realm or above, but it meant that there were indeed existences that weren¡¯t easy to obliterate at the peak of cultivation. She was already surpassing many perceived limitations of the world, whether it was in the number of paths she travelled at once, the number of sides her anchor had, the power of her individual techniques, her body, her cosmic energy, and the creation of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao as a whole went beyond much of what she had thought was possible, and at the core was the combination of countless previous paths, experiences and experiments that allowed her to compose something that was purely her own.


    One day, she would succeed. She would surpass the Master of Yi City, as she had originally intended, and she would confirm once and for all whether there were truly worlds beyond this one, whether the ninth realm was the peak, whether it was possible to transcend the Planar Dao and whatever else.


    Before then, however, she would need to take every opportunity possible to maximise her ability.


    ¡®It doesn¡¯t seem to have a fragment of the Great Dao, which is unfortunate considering the fact that I want to acquire as many of those as possible, but it also means that this should be easier to decipher¡­ I guess that¡¯s another thing I could focus on while staying in the Luo District for a while,¡¯ she decided, seeing as she wasn¡¯t experiencing an immediate revelation or breakthrough and would thus need to spend quite some time before cracking the secret of the Prime Star Arts.


    Instead, she reached into the air and removed a pair of gauntlets, a pair of crimson gloves covered in incredibly thin plates of black metal that made them seem like claws.


    Placing them on her hands, she experimented with them a little to see exactly how freely she was able to move and was ultimately impressed with what Fu Zan had been able to make in such a short amount of time. Furthermore, as they were made partly from one of the strongest parts of her body, she not only had a useful kind of connection to them, but they were also able to link together with the star metal and achieve far superior results to using almost any other material known to her, as the strands of hair could still be reinforced using her cosmic energy and physique energy and would thus never break before the star metal.


    ¡®Now, it is time for me to become a warrior. Good thing I have practise with claws, or else I¡¯d have no idea how to scratch my head or gently caress someone¡­ Not that I get to do such a thing frequently,¡¯ she sighed, raising her head and looking in the direction of the rest of the district, ¡°Now, onwards.¡±

 V3C35: Luo District

    Whereas the Ning District was surrounded by great metal walls, built in the days of the Master of Yi City, the Luo District had no such thing. In fact, there was essentially no proper physical boundary ¨C it was all made of talismans.


    Countless talismans were stuck to trees, rocks, grass, nests and whatever else was roughly near the position that it needed to be in to provide full coverage over the entire district, meaning that if anyone wanted to enter without the permission of the Luo family, they would be struck by one of the many talismans and the power embedded within, with the specific effects likely not being known even to those that created them, for their number was in the hundreds of thousands, if not beyond.


    Of course, trade and discovery of fortunate and talented individuals was necessary for every district to thrive, except for the Fu District and family that seemed to possess an infinite source of materials for whatever they wished to study and practise with, and so there were some places where people could enter without the need to bypass the talismans. Instead, they would face the guards.


    It didn¡¯t need to be said that they also wielded talismans, and in their hands were countless spare talismans created by the many Luo family craftsmen that resided within the Luo District, ready to be thrown at, or activated towards any potential intruders with negative intentions. The vast majority of them wore the brown and green robes of the family, and most had so-called blood marks around their robe sleeves, denoting them to be lower family members, above servants but beneath the middle and upper members of the family.


    That, too, was only natural, as none in a high position would choose to work as a guard unless they had really good reason to do so, at which point it would not be their main focus for long.


    Wei Yi ended up arriving at one of these gates, if they could be called that without a single physical reinforcement, just a day before it would have been a full month since her return to the Planar Continents. Now that she was further to the north, the weather got warmer once more, and the forests also became a little less dense, signalling that she was slowly nearing the savanna region of the continent, although she would still need to advance through a few more districts in order to come across the real thing, and then go even further in order to finally begin encountering the desert and the most peculiar behaviours of the cultures there.


    ¡®I¡¯ll certainly need to study those later, as I wouldn¡¯t want to stand out even more than I automatically will due to my complexion and physique,¡¯ she thought, although that might also not be a concern by the time that she got around to the deserts of the Planar Continents. She was already working on resolving her inability to shift her form, although it would take an immense length of time before it could be complete.


    That was one of the issues with having a body or cultivation that was too powerful ¨C certain things would greatly lose their effectiveness and could outright stop working when the difference between the method used and the target became too great.


    In her current state, her physique was in the fourth realm, but it might as well have been above that due to the nature of the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique, and with each realm, it was significantly more difficult to manipulate the body. The further she studied her physique, and the more she deciphered her path forward, the more she was forced to conclude that unless she obtained a fragment of the Great Dao, she wouldn¡¯t be changing her form beyond very simple aesthetic alterations until the sixth or seventh realms.


    Speaking of which, she had also come up with the names for the rest of the nine realms of physique cultivation after practising for a little while within the Realm of Potential.


    After her current realm, Progressive Difference, she would attain Blood Resuscitation, which she derived mostly from the fact that her physique energy made regeneration quicker and more efficient. In theory, so long as the path of physique cultivation didn¡¯t take a strange path, the next realm would permit her to regenerate extreme wounds within very short periods of time, further enhancing her immense regenerative abilities.


    Then, the realm of Physical Amplification would concentrate the changes from the previous realms, significantly empowering her body and physique to some extent, although the full degree of changes would depend on something that she decided to call the physique vein, which was something that she would need to develop within the Progressive Difference realm by significantly enhancing one of her meridians until their very nature changed to suit physique energy and empowered it through some process that she did not yet fully comprehend.


    With one physique vein, she would be able to ascend into the Blood Resuscitation realm, wherein she could construct an entire physique vein circulation that could push her onward into Mortality Extrication, wherein she believed that the new circulation network would truly integrate with the body, perhaps creating a physique vein heart or something of the sort, but the key would be transcending the common truth of humanity that could, in theory, permit her to modify herself as much as she wanted due to her core physique being the Yin-Yang Ascendant, which had the attribute of freedom and transformation.


    After that, since she had even less idea of what the next realm would achieve, she called it Superior Transcendence, as she knew that it would permit her to become even more powerful, even more than before, but all she could determine was that it was similar to the eighth realm of planar cultivation, wherein a great step was made towards the final achievement of the ninth realm.


    The ninth realm deserved a grand name, so she called it the Perfect Paragon realm, at which point the entire process of physical development would be complete. It would require the process of the eighth realm to be complete, and would hopefully bestow similar power to the Eternal Gate, Endless Battlefield, Everlasting Heaven or Timeless Reality realms, of planar, killing intent, spiritual will and killing will cultivation, effectively granting her unending energy that could be drawn upon endlessly while her cultivation remained intact.


    She wasn¡¯t sure whether these were entirely accurate, nor whether anyone would accept the names that she had decided to utilise, but she hadn¡¯t made any particularly extreme assumptions when naming and assigning significant elements to these realms, so most of them should be close enough.


    Fortunately, whether one was in the Daoist or the Planar Continent, the path of cultivation was straightforward in nature. The first to the ninth realms would always be identical, although there were some differences in the way that the two continents approached them and their names. This applied to all forms of cultivation, so far as she was able to tell, and although there were some ways to circumvent or otherwise acquire certain abilities at different times ¨C like in the case of perfected realms ¨C there would be no entirely unique cultivation routes.


    So long as she understood the vague route she had to go down, she would not make any significant mistakes and ruin her chances of successful advancement to the peak.


    ¡®Well, there is the matter of the planar anchor actively trying to burst, but as I had concluded before, there must be some reason for this that I have not yet deciphered. In theory, if it does explode, so long as I survive, I should be able to reach the third realm once more within a month or two, more if I find some suitable materials for cultivation,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, approaching the so-called gate of the Luo District.


    With her claw-like gauntlets, vibrant crimson hair, dark robe emphasised by a few protective metal plates and the powerful aura of her third-realm cultivation, she naturally stood out amongst the otherwise dull woods, as the area around the district was unoccupied due to the planar flora and fauna understanding that it was not a wise idea to remain around the talismans.


    Thus, after it became clear that she was approaching them, the guards at the gate prepared a few talismans just in case they needed to confront her.


    ¡°Stop right there¡­ you!¡± one of them exclaimed, turning to the other immediately after, ¡°Luo Bing, which family do you think she¡¯s from?¡±


    ¡°Yi family?¡±


    ¡°Why in the heavens would she have skin and robes like that? No, that¡¯s silly¡­¡±


    ¡°I can hear you. Do you want to be beaten up?¡± Wei Yi asked, putting on her most aggressive, least refined tone possible. For this particular role, she intentionally let her hair down and avoided anything that might even resemble makeup, not that she would usually use it without having a very good reason to do so, and thus she needed to make herself seem as straightforward and hostile as possible, since that would make most of her social interactions far, far easier.


    This was proven almost immediately when the two guards stopped their random chatter and returned to the original subject of her intentions, with Luo Bing asking, ¡°What are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°I wanna enter the district and get paid for beating the shit out of things. That a problem?¡±


    She had limited experience in acting like some sort of barbarian, mostly due to the fact that her personality was rather set in stone and tended to return whenever she spent too long pretending to be someone else, but what she couldn¡¯t achieve due to lacking knowledge she supplemented readily with killing intent that only seemed appropriate for someone whose only thoughts should be about violence.


    ¡°No¡­ There are several places that can support that¡­ We might even need to let you through, if that is the case¡­¡±


    ¡°Then what are you waiting for?¡±


    The first guard also appeared somewhat perplexed, their deliberation certainly not being helped by the way in which the slight crimson haze around her appeared to be growing visibly with every moment, but he eventually said, ¡°Alright, we have the ability to do so, to let you in. Catch.¡±


    He reached into one of his pockets and threw over a talisman, causing it to fly at such a great speed that Wei Yi was reminded of the failed talismans that Luo Xiuying used to throw out of his home whenever he created them. Due to it, she paid even greater attention to the flying piece of yellow paper and caught it deftly in her left hand, the metal claws atop her fingers striking the other with a vibrant metallic sound, not a single one piercing the talisman paper as a direct result of the careful placement of her fingers.


    This action brought the attention of the two guards to the clawed gauntlets, which then also caused one to look down at her feet after she had stepped forward in order to be able to catch the talisman.


    ¡°Eh, what¡¯re those gauntlets?¡± the first guard muttered to his partner.


    Luo Bing glanced at the first guard as if he was looking at someone without the ability of coherent thought, nearly slapping him on the back on his head as he pointed to her boots, ¡°What in the heavens are those supposed to be? You claim to be a fighter, but there¡¯s no way you¡¯re going to be able to-¡±


    ¡®Normally, I would be patient, explain his faults to him, showcase my ability to fight just fine¡­ Well, I will still do that last thing, of course, just less nicely¡­¡¯


    As she already had the entry talisman, she stuck it to her left shoulder and immediately charged forward, targeting the guard that had brought up her boots. Without the usage of any of her movement techniques, she appeared beside him in mere moments, the tip of her boot heading right for his ribs without a semblance of mercy.


    He reacted just before it occurred, his hand reaching towards one of the other talismans within his pockets, but while his mind appeared rather swift yet again, his body was not.


    Before he had the opportunity to activate whatever talisman he wished to use to resolve this danger, he found himself falling to the ground far too quickly to act, many of his paper slips flying out of his hands and scattering across the grass, before he was suddenly pinned to the ground by the thin point of the boot¡¯s heel. It seemed light, as if she was naught but a feather atop his chest, but he realised immediately that if he tried to move even a little, she could completely crush his lungs and heart within a single instant.


    ¡°You were saying something?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I am able to arrest you if do me any harm!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that only includes physical harm, right?¡± she replied, pressing down just a little more with her boot, ¡°I doubt that a hurt pride counts, and they might even commend me for showing that one of the guard can¡¯t keep their mouth shut.¡±


    ¡°But¡­ How can you fight in this?¡±


    ¡°How can you be a guard when you¡¯re weaker than a child?¡±


    He did not reply, but his friend¡¯s guffaw made it obvious that this line of argumentation would not work.


    ¡°Can I go?¡±


    ¡°S-Sure¡­¡± he muttered as he glanced up, hoping to benefit from this at least slightly by seeing something that would otherwise be concealed from most perspectives, but just as his eyes and head shifted, so did her foot, pinning his head onto the ground and craning it as far up as she could without causing injury, leaving him with naught but the view of the sky and grass.


    After leaving him here for a moment, Wei Yi let him go and departed quickly, heading towards the edge of the structures within the district that were easily within her range of spiritual perception.


    For some time, the first guard remained still, taking a few deep and shallow breaths to recover.


    ¡°Luo Bing, you ass¡­¡±


    ¡°What did I do? She was clearly unstable, and yet you had to confront her. Your fault, Luo Qing.¡±


    ¡°Hey, you know what the family¡¯s been saying! If we let weird people in, we will be punished and won¡¯t be allowed to observe the Artistic Comprehension Elaboration trial, and our talisman attainment will fall behind everyone else!¡± Luo Qing exclaimed, ¡°I swear, this family cares too much about them¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t they call behaviour like yours ¡®seeking death¡¯? You seem very adept at it,¡± Luo Bing grinned, tossing a one-star talisman onto his fellow guard¡¯s face.


    At that point, Wei Yi stopped listening in to their conversation, as they appeared to move onto insignificant matters that she had no interest in, instead discussing what kind of food they wished to try out as part of their privilege to eat for free at a long list of establishments due to acting as a guard. Since she did not expect to ever regain the sense of taste for food, she wouldn¡¯t bother memorising such useless information, as even if she wished to bring someone else to experience the food of the Luo District, she could justifiably tell them that she was unaware of much information on the subject and then seek a reliable source of information.


    Furthermore, a place that would be accessible for free to guards wouldn¡¯t be focused on taste even if it was of high quality, instead trying to provide as much energy to them as possible within a short span of time. Very few would appreciate something like that specifically for the taste, and she was not personally aware of anyone of the sort.


    There were a total of three layers of talismans around the Luo District, and all three could be bypassed using the talisman that she was given, but due to the way in which a talisman ¨C particularly a cheap one intended for only a single use ¨C worked, it would only last a single trip into the district, after which point she would need to obtain a new one, or a permanent one, in order to be able to safely traverse the talisman barrier without needing to confront the three layers and survive them first.


    The first layer consisted of various three-star talismans, typically contributed by those learning the great art and not by any particular master of it. Most of them were rather easy to bypass for Wei Yi, due to having no particular power that could stand up to the defence that her cultivation provided.


    After that, four-star talismans littered the various trees, rocks and foliage, these ones being spare items that the true masters of the district had created without much effort and freely gave away due to them not being particularly valuable in the current market of the district. As with the other layer, all of them were primarily offensive in nature and without any particular unusual factors, although there were a few talismans that were significantly more difficult to deal with than any of the rest, due to them being experimental designs of the talisman masters.


    Finally, the third layer contained talismans with five or six stars, and not a single one of them was simple. Entrapment, obstruction, destruction, offensive and all kinds of other talismans were placed there due to being so potentially dangerous and difficult to deal with that they were also difficult to sell, mostly because any customer would risk doing far more damage to themselves than intended.


    Whereas she had the possibility of handling the previous layer, this one was far too risky, as the level of the energy embedded within them alone would be enough to finish her off regardless of how much she prepared to handle them, whereas the unpredictability of many of these talismans, and her unfamiliarity with them would not allow her to estimate their effects and then do something to mitigate or outright prevent them, which she might not be able to do even if she did have this understanding, mostly due to nature of talismans themselves. Whereas arrays and inscriptions were complicated structures that could be disturbed so long as the flow of energy within them was damaged in an appropriate way, talismans were made and then set in stone ¨C or paper, as it were ¨C and couldn¡¯t then be altered without some incredible circumstances.


    In fact, she wasn¡¯t even aware of any previous cases of an existing talisman being altered by anyone, whether it was in legends or clearly fictional tales, and even the ancient primordial gods that could manipulate much of the world to their will were unable to influence the talismans that humanity had used against them, which indicated that this might have been something that was outside of the reach of any of the species of the Planar Continents, or that it required the ninth realm, which the primordial gods were apparently unable to reach.


    For now, every single one of these things did not concern her, for she was able to bypass all of these to approach the district itself.


    The Yi District was dense but left plenty of space in the streets and between buildings for most to be able to traverse them without particular difficulty. The particularly unfortunate or poor would have a large amount of space to themselves, but it would typically be useless or otherwise unused by others. The moderately wealthy would have little space, but all of it would be used by a building or something useful, whereas the most powerful would once more have more space to themselves, with large residences and plenty of space for a garden or something else of the sort around them, although the largest residence and plot of land naturally belonged to the patriarch of the Yi family.


    The Ning District didn''t have the advantage of expanding or occupying more space whenever they wanted, so every single plot of land was significant, and the poor and weak could not be given the same kinds of land. Those who couldn¡¯t afford abnormal homes would have the smallest residence possible, and then only the above-average in terms of ability ¨C wealth or otherwise ¨C would get more than that.


    Meanwhile, the Luo District had space. It had far, far too much space, to the point that the segment of the district to the south, where Senior Yi Yi had hidden away, could be thrown away without much concern. As a result, even at the edge of the district, she could see plenty of grass, trees and whatever else that typically existed within the forest, and only a few dozen of structures and buildings anywhere near her.


    Only one of the residences in sight had a fence, and from the way that everyone had glanced towards it with disgust in their eyes, it was very unlikely that this was commonly accepted so far out from the centre, although that was likely to change nearer to it due to the tendency of most to like their own privacy and to have control over the land that they owned. Presumably, such fences would appear more and more the closer she got to the centre of wealthy or powerful activity, and at that point few would have any reason to complain, so long as they wanted to remain there.


    ¡®From here, I need to locate some kind of mercenary group, or anywhere where I can invest my own strength and be rewarded for it, as I had claimed I wanted,¡¯ she thought, extending her spiritual perception to its peak to find any clue of what she sought, ¡®From there¡­ I¡¯ll need to get to work.¡¯

 V3C36: A Choice of Mercenary Group

    It took roughly three hours of lengthy walking for her to finally arrive at something that resembled what she was looking for ¨C an area of the district that was surrounded by a few wooden posts that imitated a fence and contained a large open area around which quite a few buildings and establishments existed, populated by people of all sorts that were clearly most skilled in combat over most other aspects.


    Much like the time that she had come across the Deadly Martial Colosseum, there appeared to be quite a breadth of choice for her to look through before she even entered one of the buildings. So that she didn¡¯t appear to be highly indecisive, she headed to a stall that someone had set up near one of the structures, containing a small but decent selection of three-star artefacts, and read through every single one of the introductory documents that those places could have provided to her if she did enter them. Most of the things that were described were the benefits that one would earn from joining, like certain perks, exclusions from particular costs or taxes, and the rest was mainly bragging about how few rules one would need to follow under their umbrella.


    Although she had not been very confident with her aggressive persona so far, the things that these documents focused on allowed her to be far more certain regarding the exact interests and desires of actual muscle-headed bloodthirsty combat maniacs, which was a great gain in and of itself.


    After looking through a large number of such lists of rules and benefits, she was able to rule out a few that were significantly inconvenient to her, like one that would have forced her to wear a uniform provided by the establishment and do a certain amount of advertising for them, which, while the latter portion wasn¡¯t too difficult for her to accomplish, the former would require her to swap out everything that she currently used and constantly showcase their colours in a way that wouldn¡¯t be suitable for her.


    However, she couldn¡¯t be certain where to go after that.


    Unlike the time that she had joined the Deadly Martial Colosseum due to her requirements at the time, which was the necessity of technique manuals to compile and cultivate more powerful combat techniques to further empower herself, she didn¡¯t have the need for any particular item or method at the time, which made choosing one significantly more difficult.


    ¡®I should seek one that will allow me to learn the most about the district and any potential secrets it may contain within a short length of time, but it is rather difficult to establish exactly how well-connected any one faction is without taking a long time to study them all in depth¡­¡¯ she thought while she found a few flaws within the artefacts she was looking over as an excuse not to purchase them after looking at them for a while, ¡®In a time like this, I have no choice but to act as any ordinary person without a clue regarding their next course of action¡­¡¯


    ¡°Oi, you cheating bastard, tell me the best place to work around here, and I won¡¯t punch your face in,¡± she said to the merchant that was trying to quietly pack up and leave after she exposed a vast number of flaws within his items.


    ¡°Work? Do you want to join one of the mercenary groups?¡± he asked with some suspicion.


    He didn¡¯t have any doubts that she would be a fine combatant, and her tone and language made it obvious that she would be suitable for such a position, but the way in which the conversation suddenly changed made him ponder whether she was plotting something against him, as much as someone as aggressive as her would be able to come up with.


    ¡°I¡¯ll get to beat things and people up, so yeah, obviously.¡±


    ¡°Will you leave me alone if I-¡±


    ¡°Start talking or I¡¯ll hit you once, and you won¡¯t like where the strike lands!¡± she exclaimed, showcasing her claw gauntlets while glancing at his crotch.


    He reflexively took a step back and said, ¡°The most well-known and praised one is the Skyward Blades, who work specifically towards the pursuit of the blade Dao and take up missions of all kinds to be able to train using their weapons. Some are combat- they do a lot of combat missions, but there are a few non-combat ones as well if that¡¯s what interests you-¡±


    ¡°Are they the ones that wear those uniforms?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes?¡±


    ¡°Nah, fuck them. I don¡¯t wanna walk around dressed like that. Also, why would you ever not be spending your time hitting things?¡± Wei Yi asked, finding it incredibly difficult not to retort to herself.


    ¡°Then¡­ How about the Blood-bound Pursuers? They specialise exclusively in tracking down criminals that the guard couldn¡¯t properly pursue in their own time, and their only requirement is that you participate in a bloodline scanning ceremony of some kind.¡±


    ¡°Bloodline¡­ I¡¯m not gonna cut myself for the sake of some random group! What kind of shit suggestions are you giving me?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any idea what you want, and I have no time to consider it properly if I ever want to have a family!¡± he barely managed to keep his voice down, sticking a protective talisman to his leg in preparation for her potential assault, ¡°If you want me to answer you properly, can¡¯t you tell me a little  more about what you actually need? And how about paying-¡±


    ¡°Listen up, since I won¡¯t repeat myself. I want to be able to hit and kill things. I want to be paid for it. I want to be able to use my own things, and my own weapons. I do not want to wear random gaudy shit, and I do not want to cut myself for no reason. What about that isn¡¯t clear?¡±


    ¡°What weapon do you use?¡±


    ¡°These,¡± she raised her hand again, a glint reflecting from the star metal into their eyes, ¡°Wanna see them in action?¡±


    ¡°No, not at all, I¡¯m sure you are very proficient in this¡­ Give me a moment to think of something¡­¡± the merchant took another careful step back as she had advanced slightly to display her gauntlet, ¡°Actually, there might be a better way for you to select something. Two of the best, most suitable groups I can think of are going to be duelling not too long from now, and they will be accepting people from outside of their organisations to participate within the duels. If you prove to be capable enough for them, they may even recruit you with some special privileges?¡±


    ¡®While that does sound nice, there¡¯s no way someone like the person I¡¯m attempting to portray would ever care about privileges ¨C not to mention how uncertain he sounds,¡¯ Wei Yi took note of that and grinned, ¡°Excellent! I will beat all of them up!¡±


    ¡°You go do that¡­¡±


    ¡°I will, you scam merchant!¡± she replied, rushing off before he had the opportunity to retort or notice that quite a few people had gathered nearby to observe their exchange, and would likely check out his wares in far closer detail and potentially spread rumours of his unauthentic items, despite the fact that he didn¡¯t appear to be intentionally selling faulty equipment, failing only due to his inattentiveness.


    She could consider fixing this misconception later, preferably with a different identity or if she decided to reveal her intellect at some point within this district, but for now, it was unlikely for most people to be convinced of him being a trickster unless he was a new presence within the district, in which case she would correct his reputation sooner, if he proved to be an honest individual that didn¡¯t have something wrong with him, or some intentional alliance with the likes of the Greats.


    ¡®Either way, I won¡¯t ruin this man¡¯s life just for a bit of acting unless he deserves something like that.¡¯


    Within this collection of structures, she did locate two that belonged to the two groups that were going to duel a few hours from now, called the Gang Hong (¸Õºë) Clan and the Brotherhood of Power.


    Ignoring the somewhat overly¡­ masculine name of the former, both of them were indeed suitable for the person she was attempting to portray. Both focused almost entirely on combat missions, both had a significant amount of presence and power within the district, both had plenty of techniques that they had collected and compiled that she could ¡®borrow¡¯ the moment that she found their location and came close enough to circumvent whatever protective arrays they must have had, and both would ensure that she would gather a lot of experience, knowledge and understanding, regardless of which field she pursued.


    Their rules and policies were rather lax in the areas that mattered to her specifically, and so far as she was able to gather without inspecting any of them in detail, no unusual methods of forcing compliance were used, whereas the Blood-bound Pursuers would obtain her blood in the initial ritual and have the potential ability to do quite a number of things through it.


    For most, this would almost certainly be impossible, but their name had a rather significant similarity to the Blood-tinged Church, and they were the largest and oldest organisation devoted to studying blood, bloodlines and whatever else that the world as a whole was aware of, meaning that if there was any possibility of using her blood ¨C or any part of her body, for that matter ¨C against her or anybody else, they would most likely possess it.


    Even if she was just being rather paranoid, allowing anyone to view her bloodline was an extremely dangerous thing to do, as it could expose her original identity and potentially alert the Great Families to her freedom, at which point she would be in extreme danger.


    Both the Gang Hong Clan and the Brotherhood of Power came without this risk, and had plenty of potential for entertaining activities to participate in when she wasn¡¯t hunting some foe, allowing herself to get a little more caught up with that side of life while she still had the opportunity to do so. If she was able to proceed with her plans without permanent interruption, the Western Continent would eventually break out into war, and at that point, if she stopped to explore some side of herself or of the society she found herself in, she would simply be letting people die for no good reason.


    Some of her thoughts and actions could certainly be described as morally dubious, especially when viewed from certain perspectives, but she wouldn¡¯t throw lives away to indulge in momentary distractions, regardless of how pleasing or entertaining they might be. She could either do so after the Planar Continents were freed from the grasp of the Greats, or not at all if she failed.


    With no reason to delay, she spoke with someone to get more accurate directions, then proceeded further towards the centre of the Luo District, confirming her initial assumption as she did so.


    The buildings around her, once extremely far apart and without a trace of borders within the land, now gained fences and grew closer together, the enormous gulf that she initially saw shrinking until only a few steps needed to be taken to get from one structure to another, although the largest buildings that were typically used by businesses and large trading companies still managed to reserve quite a lot of space for themselves.


    Although some of the stores that she came across contained rather curious items for the Planar Continents, she was rather used to the madness that Fu Zan could create and the oddity that she had seen within the House of Gold, so very few things were able to impress her to a sufficient extent for her to bother looking at them with her eyes, rather than just scanning through them with her spiritual perception. Some merchants were foolish enough to leave some technique manuals and recipes in their stalls without sufficient protection to guard from her spiritual perception, giving her plenty of opportunity to reinforce her knowledge of combat techniques and develop some idea regarding the common combat styles of the Luo District.


    As was perhaps obvious, with the district being the holy ground of talismans, so to speak, their combat style also focused around talismans and talisman-like tactics.


    A number of method involved the generation of single-use planar constructs that could be exploded for a significant degree of damage, and some even gain power the longer they remain active without being used or otherwise destroyed by the enemy. Some would leave these marks on their own bodies, others would attempt to attack with them directly, and others would instead protect their marks for as long as possible in order to finish off an enemy within a single strike.


    Whichever one she would encounter in the future, she was very curious to find out how to maximise the power of everything that was already within her possession, and she would be certain to try these out within the Realm of Potential once she had the time to do so.


    There were some traces of physiques on certain individuals, and they also had an unusual method of activation through either talismans or the planar construct marks, allowing them to trigger the effects and abilities that might normally be achieved through physique cultivation using these methods at varying levels of power and effectiveness. It was another interesting discovery, not due to the method itself, but because it reminded her of the fact that all other forms of cultivation were ultimately aspects of planar energy itself, meaning that so long as the right method was found, she could theoretically achieve anything typically restricted to physique, spiritual will or killing intent cultivation using planar energy alone.


    Of course, that didn¡¯t mean that it was ever a good idea to get lazy and skip out on cultivation just because she could theoretically achieve the same effect through another method, since combining the proper ability and the pure planar imitation could lead to even greater effects, or the discovery of something else that would be more than worth the effort required.


    If she capitalised on that potential, she could raise her power even further, and if an enemy was able to figure out how to resolve one of her executions of an attack or technique, she could always initiate a different variation of it to catch them off guard. Furthermore, when the Great Families would inevitably begin to share all of their knowledge about her past, present, and their deductions regarding her future, the more she was able to display while still keeping some cards close to the chest, the more difficult it would be for anyone to accurately decipher whether she still had more to show them.


    However, this was something for a later time. Comprehending the Great Dao and figuring out methods to entirely replicate an entire form of energy was something that took time, and even sudden revelations needed some kind of solid foundation to work from.


    ¡®For now, I should see if either of the mercenary groups would accept an insane woman using clawed gauntlets as her primary weapon,¡¯ she thought, glancing down at her hands before she approached the entrance to the arena in which she could sense the combatants of both organisations quietly cultivating and meditating in preparation for the upcoming conflict, ¡®It would be great if they had a similar entry process to the Deadly Martial Colosseum, as that would give me a few more jade slips to look through, but that treatment seems unlikely for a temporary fighter.¡¯


    Speaking of jade slips, she had returned to browse one more time through the jade slip that belonged to Chen Shujin in the Ning District, and found it as fragmented as before, with a few more sparks missing since the last time she looked through it. She took in a few more bits of information, then left it alone once more, as she was one of the few people disappearing from the district at that time, and so all suspicion would point towards her if the jade slip was to go missing at the same time as she did.


    A positive reputation was still important to her, as it would best facilitate the forging of alliances later on, which was also why she didn¡¯t want to do anything too extreme while in the Luo District.


    There was a sizeable queue to the arena, but it was for spectators, who would go up into seats above the action, whereas the combatants would enter from below, meaning that they did not need to intersect during their entries into the structure itself.


    A long, long time ago, such arenas were used for frequent matches between two factions, often coded by colour or some other defining characteristic of their armour or appearance. These factions would be a bit like the mercenary groups that would fight there now, but their only tasks would be to fight in the arena, either for personal profit and gain, or to risk working off some other punishment without needing to go to prison or withstand some other punishment.


    They gained and lost their popularity roughly six hundred thousand years after the age of the Master of Yi City, being one of many spontaneous trends that appeared and disappeared rather unceremoniously.


    At the door to the competitor¡¯s entrance, she came across a guard that was lazily leaning against the doorframe, having so much time and energy to spare with so little idea of what to expend them on that she was staring at her own feet, having removed one from her shoes, observing how the light would hit the nails and skin and what it looked like from any one perspective.


    ¡°Hey, are either of the groups still accepting fighters?¡± Wei Yi asked, but the guard did not respond.


    She repeated herself, being loud enough for those on the opposite side of the small entryway alcove to hear her clearly, but there was still no response.


    ¡®Alright then, don¡¯t blame me for¡­ this, I guess,¡¯ Wei Yi paused for a moment to consider which approach would be sufficiently aggressive to fit in with her character and to attract the right type of attention while not resembling an attempt to kill the other person, and eventually decided on something that seemed suitable.


    The guard, who was somehow still unaware that anything was going on around her, making one wonder how she was ever permitted to occupy such a position (besides the fact that guards tended to be weaker than those they protected and were thus mostly there to act as a force of intimidation for weaker foes to be warded off, minimising annoyance to the person or group they protected), suddenly witnessed a hand clad in black metal and fabric grab the front of her collar and pull on it. She instantly lost her balance and, without any preparation or anything convenient to hold on to, the guard was easily brought right before the face of a woman with sharp and refined features that one could rarely see even on the upper members of a family.


    Perhaps due to the sudden shock, she felt her heart skip a beat.


    ¡°I asked whether any of the groups that are going to fight here are accepting new fighters.¡±


    As she spoke, this woman used a rather brutish and aggressive tone, but that flew over the guard¡¯s head in its entirety as she focused on the pure pearl-like teeth within the woman¡¯s mouth, as well as the brilliant grey eyes that acted much like an unfathomably deep and enticing void, drawing her attention and enamouring her with ease.


    ¡°U-uhm¡­ I¡­¡± the guard tried to vocalise anything resembling a coherent thought, but it was suddenly so difficult, as if she forgot how to speak at all.


    Something about the woman¡¯s features, the magnificent texture of her skin, the expression on her face, even the faint scent around her that she couldn¡¯t possibly assign a name to, all of these completely enamoured her, to the point that even when the woman¡¯s face blatantly began to display her discontent, she couldn¡¯t bring herself to stop her folly and to respond properly. For a few moments, she wasn¡¯t even sure if she remembered to breathe, although having this be the last thing she saw before death somehow didn¡¯t seem like a particularly bad deal.


    ¡°Are you actually listening to me?¡±


    The blatant trace of killing intent within that question broke her away from her reverie, but not before she stole one final look at the woman¡¯s soft, moist, glistening lips that, by themselves, caused the guard¡¯s cheeks to redden.


    ¡°Y-Yes, if you go in, they¡¯ll speak to you t-themselves¡­¡± she finally responded, feeling strangely hot.


    Although the woman¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly, she didn¡¯t ask questions, saying only, ¡°Right. Pay more attention in the future.¡±


    The woman pushed her back against the doorframe, then opened the door. As she headed down into the combatant¡¯s section of the arena, a different guard came upstairs and gave the guard and the woman a brief glance, before leaning towards the former.


    ¡°So, what did that woman want?¡± he asked, taking out a small flagon from which he drunk a gulp of water.


    ¡°I¡­ think I¡¯m in love.¡±


    All of the water quickly left his mouth as he spat it out, wetting much of the ground and even causing some to splash onto the feet, boots, robes and trousers of the guests, earning several displeased glares from the most confident amongst them.


    ¡°Come again?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Wait, did I say that out loud?¡± the female guard suddenly realised, her entire face becoming bright red as she tried to hide it with her hands to little effect.


    Since Wei Yi tended to watch over everything that happened near her with spiritual perception, she also witnessed this moment, but unlike the male guard, she was far better at hiding her surprise, which was also significantly lesser than his. She was aware that her appearance was above average, to say the least, having been refined through both her planar and physique energy, with her mental energies enhancing it in a way, although they tended to affect her eyes the most, so it wasn¡¯t too surprising that someone found her form appealing.


    Furthermore, the further north one went, the more open and free everyone became with their bodies and sexuality, with far more cases of relationships between the same gender due to the different way in which they saw family, love and whatever else, so for another woman to find her appealing was hardly unusual.


    What she had been surprised by was the rather immature way in which the guard acted, considering the fact that her age appeared to be over thirty, by which point Wei Yi herself had extensive familiarity with far more than she probably should have, but one thing that should have been obvious to any adult was that outright love wouldn¡¯t develop from a moment of being a little too close to one another. Then again, the romantic side of a relationship was something that she also had little experience in, so perhaps she wasn¡¯t the best person to provide her opinions on such a thing. There was always a chance that she would experience a similar reaction in the future, regardless of how prepared she thought she was ¨C she remembered how she acted when she first saw Chu Ling, after all.


    ¡®Either way, I won¡¯t be able to reciprocate, regardless of what that guard concludes, since I have neither the time nor interest¡­ She is hardly ugly, most people that cultivate aren¡¯t so long as they invest even a moment to their appearance, but I have no interest in her in any other way.¡¯


    In addition, she would feel rather bad if she had developed some kind of relationship with another only to run away or possibly even die because of some conflict that the other had no ability to participate in or no knowledge of, so if she did ever get into a full relationship of the romantic kind, it would have to be with someone that was either already embroiled within the war against the Greats, or someone that would be able to protect themselves.


    ¡®Fuck, I¡¯m thinking about this kind of thing again. Oh well¡­¡¯ she sighed, finally descending to the place where she was apparently supposed to apply to the upcoming duel.


    There were three primary spot around which people gathered in this underground room. On the left and right of the entrance stood the larger groups, with those on the left wearing an orange band around one of their arms and legs, whereas those on the right used blue for the armband and white for the strip of cloth around the leg, the closeness of both groups and the angry stares they directed towards one another making it clear that this was what they had decided to use to ensure that their allegiances during larger battles were clear.


    In the middle was a small rectangular platform that was slightly higher than the floor, framed with stone and filled with sand, and contained three tall, rectangular rocks that were placed at different intervals to the left, right, and behind the centre of the platform.


    Although she was not personally familiar with these items, she had read about them in the past. They were stones that were not difficult to break or damage in most physical ways, and were thus incredibly convenient to use in measuring one¡¯s aura, which was far weaker than most cultivator¡¯s physical strength. In addition, they would recover if given enough time, meaning that they were perfect to investigate how powerful one¡¯s aura was, which was slightly more accurate to learning one¡¯s overall ability rather than looking purely at planar energy or physical strength.


    One person from each group stood near that platform, glaring at one another, beside a man dressed in a fanciful yet practical decorative robe, who appeared to be someone working at the arena and was trying his best not to become frustrated at the way in which they seemed ready to fight it out right there and then.


    The moment that he noticed her entry, he broke away from the two and approached her, speaking the moment that he was close enough, ¡°Are you here to participate in this large-scale duel as well?¡±


    His tone was hopeful, and his expression was even more so, but it didn¡¯t last.


    ¡°Yeah, I want to beat some people up. How do I do that?¡±


    ¡°Oh, excellent. Just what we needed,¡± the man said, although his voice was entirely flat, ¡°Stand in the middle of that platform, release your aura, then if you¡¯re able to affect the second stone, the two groups will debate who wants you on their side.¡±


    As he walked off immediately, both she and he questioned why he had chosen to work in such a place when he was clearly unsuited for a position where he would need to constantly manage duels and confrontations between various people, groups, companies, organisations and whatever or whoever else might decide that the best or easiest way to resolve some issue is to beat up some people that might even be unrelated to the group itself.


    Nonetheless, it wasn¡¯t her place to judge or question him, since it wasn¡¯t really of any significance to her at the moment, so she just walked onto the sand-filled platform and sat down in the middle with her legs crossed, shutting her eyes for a moment in order to gather her aura and to not appear too laid back or too powerful, as that could pull her into something that she wouldn¡¯t want to be a part of.


    Some of the gazes from the two groups turned to her, although none appeared to be holding particularly high expectations of her, which she couldn¡¯t fault in the slightest, as she was someone new within the district, and someone who was able to contain her presence sufficiently to not expose anything beyond a typical third realm cultivation, meaning that they would have no reason to assume her to be someone unusually capable. The two standing near the platform, who appeared to be either the leaders of the two mercenary groups, or temporary leaders of the assembled teams, looked at her with a little more curiosity, both of them looking towards her gauntlets and boots for a moment.


    Regardless of their opinions now, she was sure that she would impress.

 V3C37: Brotherhood of Power

    After a sufficient length of time had passed, after which the normal person would be able to gather their power and unleash it for long enough to affect the stones, she opened her eyes and unleashed her energy.


    Her silver eyes ignited with flame, traces of her planar energy surging from them, as her entire body was surrounded by an outline of a golden and crimson inferno.


    An invisible force burst out of her body, causing her robes and long loose hair to flutter in a wind emanating from her, the entirety of her power being released in a formless, shapeless and unseen form of energy that was unlike almost every other form of energy in the planar continents, for it was unbound to any form of cultivation and couldn¡¯t be used for anything other than blindly releasing one¡¯s force for all of the world to see and marvel, or mock, depending on its total power.


    From what Yi Shi Ming remembered, even the aura of someone at the ninth realm would not be able to do much in true conflict, only having an effect against the weakest of common men, and if not for the extremely feeble stones used in the testing process, the outburst of aura wouldn¡¯t even be able to shift the sand in the platform.


    Due to her condition, she had several forms of energy that would likely all contribute to her aura, so she made sure to restrain herself so that she wouldn¡¯t display anything that would immediately cause others to ask excessive questions, for there was only a certain level of power that could be reasonably reached by someone in the third realm. The moment that she revealed it, she could expect to be under constant observation of all three factions present ¨C that being the two mercenary groups and the people who worked at the arena ¨C in order for them to decipher the exact reason behind her rather significant ability, although how they would act next was not something that could be as easily predicted.


    If they assumed that she wasn¡¯t someone with a significant presence or background, and if they thought that her power relied on an item that could easily be taken from her, with or without taking her life, they would almost certainly kill her and take it, just to be safe, as leaving her alive could result in her sharing some information about her abilities to other factions to get them to help in stealing the item back at some cost.


    On the other hand, if they determined that all of her ability came from her, rather than from some outside source, they would continue monitoring her in order to attempt to replicate her ability while doing their best to recruit her and learn as much as possible about her, at which point they would either keep her on a tight leash or perform some experiments on her to try and extract this ability from her, or otherwise replicate it. This wasn¡¯t too unusual of a matter, so long as the target had few risks associated with capturing them. When she had encountered Great Dark and Light and received their aid even after they figured out that she had managed to reach every perfected stage on her cultivation progress so far, that was something rather fortunate, although they were technically pursuing the exact same kind of method, hoping to have her on their side as she developed and became more powerful.


    Such things were cruel and greatly unfortunate and unpleasant, but many found that such methods were necessary in order for them to be able to compete with others, for they believed the world to be a suitably cruel place where the weak had to bow down to them.


    Naturally, Wei Yi disagreed with that premise, but she couldn¡¯t comfortably stand up to someone in the sixth realm, not to mention the seventh, which was the realm that most patriarch and matriarchs of the districts of Yi City were in, so she was still at danger from the common factions of the world.


    She knew almost first-hand what happened when someone too weak showed something too valuable to someone who was too strong, as with the case of the Broken Sky Brand and a certain member of the Yi family, and it had been one of her many motivation to avoid similar actions at first, before later changing to be the reason why she desired the world to change, or, rather, to change the world and to prevent such things from ever being seen as necessary, and to ensure that all who persisted in such behaviour would see their just punishment.


    Still, she wouldn¡¯t make herself look like an absolute weakling, as that would entirely defeat the point of her entering the duel in the first place.


    In moments, the closest stone near her began to be eroded, grey dust flying off towards the Gang Hong Clan¡¯s group, causing their attention to move unanimously towards her, the interest of the Brotherhood of Power following only a moment later, when her aura reached the second stone and also left a mark upon it.


    ¡°She might be suitable,¡± a person from the latter group muttered to another, their words slowly spreading until the leader standing by the platform noticed giving them a covert glance alongside a subtle nod to indicate their agreement.


    The other side had a slightly different response, with the leader heading straight to the rest of the group and asking, ¡°Can any of you sense a strong presence of yang within her? Is she secretly a man?¡±


    ¡°Her yang¡­ is slightly higher than usual for a woman, but not too outstanding. In fact, it seems like her yin and yang might be balanced,¡± one of the group responded, a man who she quickly identified to possess a yang-type physique that had few effects beside granting one the ability to perceive yin and yang much in the same way that superior physiques do, ¡°As for her being a man, while her breasts are small enough, nothing else about her would suggest that.¡±


    ¡°Tch. We can¡¯t recruit her permanently, then. Might as well raise her price, then let her go.¡±


    ¡°Understood, boss.¡±


    ¡®I mean, the small boobs were a conscious decision, of course, but can you not go around making that kind of comparison?¡¯ Wei Yi mentally shook her head, ¡®Their policy is fitting for their name, however, so I can¡¯t blame them for that, at the very least.¡¯


    She allowed a little more of her aura to emerge, rapidly affecting the second stone to the same extent as the first and reaching the third one with the edge of her aura ¨C a highly admirable result for the particular setup provided to her, according to what she understood of these stones, without making her seem like some sort of superhuman madwoman.


    Once her aura remained in place for a moment, she allowed it to recede, pretending to be slightly drained as the flame in her eyes vanished and she let out a breath of turgid air, rising from the sand and glancing around at the stones as she pretended to check how much her aura had been able to affect, as if she was too concentrated to observe them at the time. Quite a few found it difficult to use spiritual perception and any other form of strength or energy at the same time, as she was seeing more and more within the Planar Continents. The lack of spiritual will cultivation was likely responsible.


    ¡°So, when do I get to hit things?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll take her!¡± the leader of the Gang Hong Clan group immediately said, looking sternly towards the leader of the other group in a very convincing manner.


    And yet, the woman opposite him wasn¡¯t persuaded in the slightest, quickly saying, ¡°Shi Taihao, we both know what you¡¯re doing. Your Clan never accepts women, rarely doing so even for a few minutes, so unless you¡¯re so frequently surrounded by dicks that you¡¯re starting to see them where they clearly aren¡¯t, it is clear that you will let us have her.¡±


    ¡°Not at all, Luo Lia Kun, that¡¯s not the case at all. This woman is clearly exceptional enough for us to have her, so we will-¡±


    ¡°You want to extort us, is that what you¡¯re saying? Go on, name your price. Maybe we¡¯ll let you.¡±


    ¡°How shameless you are to throw around such wild accusations. Her contribution would be so valuable that we could only ever even consider possibly letting her join your side if we received fifty Yang Surging pills, one hundred and twenty-one Yang Bursting talismans, sixty-three Yang Sprouting talismans, and your attendance to our Great Yang Enlightenment Ceremony as our most honoured guest.¡±


    ¡®Unless the names over here are different, aren¡¯t all of these-¡¯


    ¡°I would never appear at a literal dick-measuring contest, and I¡¯ll spare the city by not supporting your unhealthy obsession with such things,¡± Luo Lia Kun immediately refused, confirming Wei Yi¡¯s guess regarding the nature of the talismans and pills at the same time, prompting the latter to comment.


    ¡°You lot have trouble keeping it up or something?¡± she asked straight to the man¡¯s face, ¡°So much for the name of your Clan.¡±


    Shi Taihao¡¯s smile twitched for a moment, but quickly returned to normal as if she hadn¡¯t just questioned the very basis of their mercenary organisation without even attempting to hold back. ¡°You must be solely mistaken. These pills are used to bolster our natural yang and further demonstrate its majesty-¡±


    ¡°Sounds like the same thing with more euphemisms.¡±


    ¡°Very well, Luo Lia Kun, since you would refuse such a kind offer, I will rescind my invitation to the Ceremony. Everything else must still be provided, or else we will accept her service for today,¡± the man wisely ignored her and returned to the initial back and forth with renewed energy.


    Luo Lia Kun pondered his offer for a while, neither of them speaking for quite a while, until she finally came to a conclusion and looked back towards the rest of her group, silently mouthing some questions to them and, so far as Wei Yi was able to understand, confirmed that they would be able to afford a payment of that nature to the Gang Hong Clan without needing to compromise their own operations for any length of time.


    With that being certain, the woman turned back, looked at Wei Yi with narrowed eyes for a moment, then finally responded.


    ¡°Very well, the items shall be delivered before the beginning of the duels. You, get over here.¡±


    Seeing as Shi Taihao walked off with a satisfied smile and had nothing more to say, Wei Yi followed the instruction and walked up to the Brotherhood of Power group¡¯s leader, who leaned over to be able to whisper to her.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi.¡±


    ¡°You were quite frank and straightforward earlier, so tell me: was that investment worthwhile, or did I throw those planar shards away?¡±


    ¡°I highly doubt you will be disappointed.¡±


    Luo Lia Kun nodded, ¡°Confident, but not unreasonably so. Good. If you had said that you would absolutely best any opponent, I would either be highly disappointed, or greatly impressed if you managed to prove your words with action. Have you any familiarity with either of our groups, these duels, or even the district as a whole?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m new here, but I have some knowledge of the first and third matter.¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll be more comfortable with assigning your foes. In a little while, the recruitment phase will end, then you and I will go to a private room and you can show me how you fight. The possibility of the Gang Hong Clan spying on us is slim, but it does exist.¡±


    ¡°Got it,¡± Wei Yi took a step back and stepped around her, joining the large group of the Brotherhood of Power and taking advantage of the pause to take a closer look around.


    As expected of someone with her name, Luo Lia Kun had most of the standard features of her family, including the green eyes and the chestnut brown hair. She was tall, reasonably fit, with long hair that had the bangs trimmed in order to minimise the chances of them obstructing her view during battle. Her primary combat ability clearly lay in talismans and talisman-like attacks, for she had a large collecting of ready talismans within many of her pockets, in two pouches near her hips and in a few more areas, with some being more hidden than others. In addition, the vague aura of planar construct marks was present within her legs ¨C roughly near the knees ¨C her hands ¨C near the wrist ¨C and inside her chest, where a single one of these marks lay near the heart, almost entwining with it.


    Most of her skin lacked obvious blemishes or flaws, as one might expect from someone in the Marked Core realm, except for a large horizontal scar on her forehead that was just barely obstructed by her hair, presumably also being the reason why she hadn¡¯t cut it shorter to begin with.


    The people that represented the Brotherhood of Power in this set of duels had a variety of appearances, combat styles and cultivation, although it was fortunate that there was a roughly even split between the third and fourth realms on either side, meaning that her presence didn¡¯t ruin the balance in a way that might have been disruptive to the team or the duels themselves.


    On the other side, Shi Taihao appeared to correspond to most standards of male attractiveness that she was aware of, as inexperienced as she was in assessing such a thing, with a body that had clearly been developed through a larger than average quantity of pure physical exercise for a cultivator, a sharp, perhaps chiselled jaw, short dark hair and confident eyes, also matching the typical description of someone of his family quite well.


    ¡®Come to think of it, I wonder where Shi Luo Feng¡¯s Magnanimous Leech had originated from. She and this man have similarly impressive features, so could there be more to it than I had thought?¡¯


    Such a thought was idle, unfounded, and likely entirely incorrect, but it was something to keep in mind. Apart from the abilities and gifts of the otherworldly demons, nothing appeared in the world without an origin and reason, as vague, uncertain or obscure that reason might be. So, if the Magnanimous Leech wasn¡¯t something that was limited to the prison realm, where there appeared to be no more copies of it ¨C fortunately enough ¨C it would necessitate a great deal of attention from her due to the raw ability of that technique.


    To be able to actively steal everything good from a person and absorb it for oneself was unimaginably powerful, especially if it was silent, invisible, and if the person using it was surrounded by talented individuals, as they would be able to grow quickly without any obvious impact on their companions.


    She could sense no such aura from this Shi Taihao, so even if there was a connection, he might not have been involved.


    The group behind him was made up entirely of men and highly masculine women with a great quantity of yang within their bodies, all of them possessing either a form of a yang physique or some technique that was able to tap into their yang despite their inability to use it fully as someone cultivating physique energy might be able to.


    Curiously enough, the most feminine amongst them was actually the man that had reported the yang within her, who lacked the same muscular build that the others had and dressed in a way that could, had he made a few slight changes to his appearance, almost make him look like a woman, much like the possibility that they had been debating regarding her. Perhaps that is why they thought to ask him regarding the possibility of her being a man, although she didn¡¯t care to consider this further.


    Instead, she just sat around and waited for the recruitment period to end, seeing only two more people arrive and attempt to affect the two stones with their aura, with one person failing to affect the second stone while the other succeeded and joined the Gang Hong Clan.


    He was not as muscular or as filled with yang as the others, but he did have a curious outfit with two banner-like lengths of cloth on each shoulder, all four of which were marked with several symbols of unknown meaning. However, she was able to tell that they also followed the nature of talismans and would have some effect in combat that she would need to watch out for if she ended up facing him.


    After a little more time passed, the two groups separated into separate rooms below their current one, with most of who she assumed to be the regular members of the Brotherhood of Power standing off to the side to partake in regular practise while some of the individuals recruited today being assisted by the rest to help them get used to the team dynamics and whatever opponents they may have been selected to fight.


    Luo Lia Kun also assisted them for a moment before she looked over to Wei Yi and gestured for her to follow.


    They entered a small, isolated chamber, which was sealed from typical spiritual perception and other common forms of spying and observation through the activation of a talisman on the wall, and then Luo Lia Kun turned to stare at her for a few lengthy moments.


    ¡°You¡¯ve done remarkably well for someone in your realm, you know that? As such, Wei Yi, I truly hope that you aren¡¯t going to be someone thinking that you¡¯re better than you really are.¡±


    ¡°That is not the case. I am able to confidently fight anyone within my realm, and I have no issue with proving that to you or anybody else within your Brotherhood of Power whenever it is needed,¡± she stated, earning a curious look from the other woman.


    ¡°My Brotherhood¡­ Oh, you must¡¯ve made a slight mistake. I am only the vice-leader of the Brotherhood of Power, although the piece of shit from the other side is the Gang Hong Clan¡¯s actual leader. You might meet the leader of the Brotherhood of Power eventually, although she doesn¡¯t tend to come out of her seclusion very often,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, pausing for a moment before she continued, ¡°Now, here and in the arena itself, you can injure anyone as much as you want, but so long as you don¡¯t kill them, they can be healed very quickly. Is your combat style one that inflicts a lot of harm on others?¡±


    ¡°I can easily tear out someone¡¯s heart with these claws.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a yes, then. As the vice-leader, I give you permission to tear out the heart of anyone that you fight with, and I will cover for you. Avoid killing the weaker ones if you fight more than a few.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    ¡°Simple to talk to. I like that. Now, we¡¯re going to fight. Don¡¯t kill me, though, even if there¡¯s ever a moment where you think you can. Somehow, it feels like this is something that needs to be explained to you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d not kill you. You¡¯re cute and on my side,¡± Wei Yi shrugged.


    ¡°Uh-huh. As fine a reason as any¡­ I guess¡­¡± Luo Lia Kun said, ¡°Let¡¯s begin with pure physical force, and I¡¯ll judge what you¡¯re good at.¡±

 V3C38: The Competition, Part 1

    A few hours later, it was beginning.


    The crowds of observers gathered at the many seats above the main arena floor, arranged in a circle around the primary circular arena and an empty circle of space around it where various healers and those who would ensure that the talisman-based protective environment of the arena was maintained could stand, also giving some room for anyone thrown off of the arena to fly without striking the wall directly.


    Most of the combatants were gathered behind the doors on either side of the arena, mostly so that they couldn¡¯t easily observe every tactic of their future opponents or assist one another secretly, although it wasn¡¯t necessarily impossible given the right kind of skills.


    However, some of those that would participate last, as well as the leaders of both duelling groups, sat among the spectators, Shi Taihao and Luo Lia Kun glaring at one another as they always seemed to do.


    Beside the latter sat a few of the strategists of the Brotherhood of Power, as well as those that specialised in observation, spiritual perception, deduction and the like, and they readily observed the first two figures that emerged onto the arena, although neither looked to be particularly impressive in any respect.


    They bowed to one another, displayed their cultivations as some sign of respect, clearly displaying the fact that they were both in the third realm and the third stage, prompting the interest of some while also making others look away, for their conflict would either be rather dull, with one winning over the other just barely, or it could be a great demonstration of the manner in which one¡¯s cultivation wasn¡¯t necessarily the deciding factor, and how one¡¯s skill could create an enormous gap between two people.


    Both began with weaker, testing attacks, using physical strikes empowered with planar energy, resulting in several exchanges of limited visual excitement for the average observer, and to the more knowledgeable amongst the audience, entirely lacking in great talent or technique, demonstrating nothing of note. After their testing blows exposed some flaws in the defence of the other foe, they unleashed their first planar constructs, their energies colliding and splashing onto the arena, glowing light striking the ground and throwing up clumps of sand and dirt.


    However, when their powerful attacks proved unsuccessful, they limited their attacks to more tactical, weaker strikes, and all of the visual flare was limited even further, causing the casual spectators to yawn.


    It soon became clear that they were wrong to become hopeful over something like this, thus inspiring one of the Brotherhood of Power to question an earlier event.


    ¡°So, vice-leader, what happened with that woman that you recruited? Is she competent?¡±


    Contrary to their expectation, their vice-leader suddenly twitched, nervously turning towards the one that asked the question. She hesitated for a moment, making some of the group ponder whether the woman had somehow disappointed her immensely, but when she finally spoke, they received their answer.


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ one way to put it. She¡¯s a freak, like that Zhi Qiu Ya, but in human flesh¡­¡±


    ¡°What did she do?¡±


    ¡°Pure physical force? A¡¯ight, I can do that,¡± Wei Yi gave her a confident smile, raising her clawed hands and entering the appropriate combat stance to maximise their effectiveness, ¡°I¡¯ll avoid your face, though. As I said, you¡¯ve a cute face.¡±


    She acted the instant after, practically vanishing from the spot as she dashed forward and slashed at Luo Lia Kun¡¯s chest, the sharp tips of her gauntlets nearly cutting straight through her flesh and bone if not for the appearance of a barrier of dense planar energy. It wasn¡¯t even channelled through a technique, instead simply pouring from her meridians in order to avoid the attack as fast as possible.


    ¡®Fuck, she¡¯s so fast!¡¯ Luo Lia Kun found herself cursing within her mind, activating her planar energy and initiating a passive movement technique in order to greatly balance the odds, ¡®She must be a body cultivator of some kind, or else there¡¯s no way for someone to move that fast without an artefact, talisman or something of the sort. On the positive side, it does mean that she is more than capable of catching any opponent off-guard, and potentially inflicting lethal damage in just one strike.¡¯


    Just with her physical strength, this woman had been able to lightly affect planar energy of the fifth realm, albeit one that wasn¡¯t empowered by any of her marks, meaning that if she had focused and maximised her strength for one powerful defensive technique, she wouldn¡¯t struggle to ward off one attack and then retaliate.


    Then again, she doubted that she would have had the chance to consider something like this when her opponent hadn¡¯t demonstrated a single technique yet.


    While she was somewhat stunned, Wei Yi was not. As Luo Lia Kun retreated, she advanced, one claw heading straight for her heart while the other sought her neck, not to pierce her olive skin but instead to grab onto it and prevent any further movement from her.


    ¡°She¡¯s terrifying, that¡¯s what. You¡¯ll see her in action soon, since she¡¯ll be next,¡± she shivered, ¡°Is there a cold breeze here?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t sense anything, vice-leader¡­¡± the one that initially asked the question had begun, although he quickly became quiet as he understood that it was better not to press the matter any further, and instead looked onto the battle in the arena, where the two average combatants were combing close to exhausting themselves.


    They punched and kicked at one another, and then one finally succeeded in striking the other¡¯s head, stunning him for long enough for him to be thrown out of the arena with one final exertion of force, concluding the duel with very little excitement, bringing victory to the Gang Hong Clan.


    The crowd expressed their disinterest with various noises while the two men were removed from the arena, and the next duel was announced.


    ¡°We¡¯ve been told by both sides to expect far more from the following battle, everyone!¡± the announcer of the arena called out, his voice being projected throughout the entire arena through the use of a Voice Proliferation talisman that had a limited duration, forcing him to continue with little pause, ¡°It is also a duel between two groups of two, so there¡¯s far more potential for excitement! On the side of the Gang Hong Clan, a man with a flame-based cultivation and a woman that is somehow much bigger than him! Their potential cooperation is bound to be an incredible thing to behold, and they are all in the third realm!¡±


    Those two emerged onto the arena and bowed to the audience, looking towards the other side of the arena to be able to take in their competition properly.


    ¡°On the side of the Brotherhood of Power, we have an all-female team! One expert of the quarterstaff, and one¡­ come again? Claws? Does she have a bestial bloodline? No? Then what exactly is she doing with claws?¡±


    While the announcer was rather confused ¨C not that Wei Yi or Luo Lia Kun intended to blame him, since the like of her clawed gauntlets was not common in the slightest, even if finger or hand techniques based on claws were somewhat frequent ¨C the two combatants were told to emerge from their resting area and to ascend onto the arena.


    When they did show their faces, the audience was able to understand their description, for they witnessed the gauntlets upon the hands of a crimson-haired, silver-eyed woman that didn¡¯t have a single feature that might stand out too significantly, save the high heeled boots that most wouldn¡¯t be able to immediately notice from their perspective above her, but when her black robes, highlighted by thin metal plates, her boots, claw-like gauntlets, and her incredible features were taken together, she was quite outstanding.


    In fact, her tanned skin was perhaps the least notable feature, as there were quite a few people from further north within the Luo District, meaning that darker skin was far more common than in the Yi District, where a single person from the Endless Dark assassin organisation attracted great interest due to her skin.


    ¡°Oh, those kinds of claws. They¡¯re just decorative, right?¡± the announcer continued asking some unheard individual about her, ¡°Wait, don¡¯t-¡±


    He suddenly went quiet, although none cared for his loss.


    Without him, the timing of the battle was left up to the combatants, who quickly delegated it to a random guard from the arena, giving him a Glistening Spark talisman that would create a bright light to signal the beginning of the fight without needing someone else to vocally contribute his opinion.


    Before that occurred, the pairs from both sides stared at one another, trying to probe one another¡¯s tactics and strengths through their subtle movements. Well, Wei Yi was certainly doing this, being able to scan through all of them with ease without a single person being able to observe her spiritual perception, but the others mixed that with random examination of their opponents and partners, with the Gang Hong Clan in particular being rather interested in the bodily assets of their foes, paying particular attention to the quarterstaff-wielding woman¡¯s chest.


    ¡°They¡¯re staring at my boobs, aren¡¯t they?¡± that woman whispered to Wei Yi, who nodded quickly.


    ¡°You do have a nice chest. Do they not get in the way?¡±


    The quarterstaff wielder shrugged, ¡°I manage. I have some techniques that help, of course¡­ You¡¯ve got a nice butt yourself. You clearly manage with it as well¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s different, but I do. Are you interested in learning more about it?¡±


    ¡°So long as you¡¯re not proposing a long-term relationship, I am more than open to new experiences.¡±


    Even with the increased range of spiritual perception granted by the fifth realm, Luo Lia Kun was unable to sense exactly what they were saying, but something gave her the impression that they were not discussing battle strategy.


    ¡®Given that both of them seem to have those tendencies¡­ They wouldn¡¯t be flirting, would they?¡¯


    She had no opportunity to continue watching them, whether for better or worse, as the Glistening Spark talisman was finally activated, briefly lighting up the arena and causing some of the nearest observers to cover their eyes, which proved to be a significant mistake on their part, for the moment that their vision cleared, the situation changed greatly.


    The two from the Gang Hong Clan, and the quarterstaff wielder of the Brotherhood of Power, were mostly in the same place, but Wei Yi had practically vanished from her previous spot, appearing before her male foe while performing a jab heading straight for his eyes.


    ¡®That kind of move¡­¡¯ Luo Lia Kun unwittingly quivered again.


    Once more, Luo Lia Kun attempted to block using her planar energy, obscuring the entirety of her front as she did not have the time to properly defend herself in an efficient manner.


    With her vision blocked by the bright blue light, all she could see was how five dark points suddenly pierced it, heading straight for her neck, while five more managed to penetrate far enough to lightly touch her clothes that obscured her chest, nearly prompting a shocked cry from her mouth that she restrained with great effort.


    The claws did not appear to be able to pierce any further, but the fact that they had been able to go that far was enough to make the woman using them absolutely terrifying within her eyes. She could tell that they were made from an unusual material, as the metal parts of the gauntlet were incredibly thin and sturdy, as well as having a curious colour and shade, but she was aware of nothing that wouldn¡¯t require sufficient force to pierce a powerful barrier, or else power would be determined through artefacts and weapons rather than one¡¯s own ability.


    Since she was able to pierce energy of the fifth realm while only at the third, even if the barrier was poorly constructed and thus only as useful as a regular technique from the fourth realm, meant that her physical strength alone matched the fourth realm.


    Without knowledge of physique cultivation or killing will, Luo Lia Kun couldn¡¯t realise that she was actually quite close to the truth, given that Wei Yi¡¯s physique cultivation was in the fourth realm. Physique cultivation was actually weaker than planar cultivation in the boost of strength that it granted to the cultivator, although it was something that became clearest within the later realms, but with the empowerment of the Yin-Yang Ascendant energy, it matched the effects of a high-grade cultivation method and thus granted her sufficient strength to pierce the energy barrier, albeit just slightly.


    The moment that the barrier was dispelled, and her fingers were freed, she stepped back and awaited instructions.


    ¡°You¡­ Gracious sands, that¡¯s ridiculous.¡±


    ¡°Would you like to see more of my strength, or is that enough? If you keep using weak barriers, I might hit you by accident,¡± Wei Yi lied, as she had enough control over her own strength to avoid that.


    ¡°That seems to be the case, I suppose¡­¡± Luo Lia Kun sighed to herself, ¡®She really must be simple if she can¡¯t be bothered to show even a little bit of tact when speaking to the vice-leader of a large group of powerful individuals, which is fortunate. Having someone to speak to that isn¡¯t trying to decipher the meaning of your every word is bound to be relaxing in the long term.¡¯


    ¡°B-BREAK!¡± the targeted man cried out, desperately jumping back as talisman ash poured from his pocket.


    A golden light formed into a shield where he had just stood, and her claws pierced directly through it, as if it was just an illusion formed within the air. With it scattered, Wei Yi was able to charge through at an even greater speed than the person she was chasing, and in just an instant, her claws were once more heading for the man¡¯s heart, and he couldn¡¯t possibly react in time yet again, for his first reaction time came as a surprise even to him.


    The dark metal cut straight through the cloth that covered the man¡¯s chest and tightened on the beating muscle within him. For a moment, she did nothing, only gripping the heart and digging into it slightly when it beat, and the man did not dare to do anything, just standing there with panic in his eyes.


    Then, with seemingly practised movements, she dug in deeper, grabbed onto the heart, and tore it out with a great shower of blood, performing every action in an instant.


    By the time the man realised what had happened, his life had already soared away from him.


    Up on the spectator¡¯s seats, Shi Taihao gripped his armrests tightly, but he knew that he couldn¡¯t do anything, despite the fact that the man that had just died was part of his Gang Hong Clan and that he had quite high hopes for him in the future. However, no matter what he did, a dead man cannot be brought back to life, and he knew that he couldn¡¯t punish her any time soon, not just because that man would have done the same had he been given the opportunity, but also due to the fact that Luo Lia Kun had to be well aware of the loss that he had just suffered, and that she couldn¡¯t possibly let someone as capable or lucky as that woman go.


    He glanced over the arena below and at Luo Lia Kun, finding her looking back towards him with a barely contained smirk.


    ¡°That bitch¡­¡± Shi Taihao muttered to himself, looking towards the other pair of fighters with a little more hope, only to see the woman on his side being struck over and over again with a quarterstaff, without her being able to retaliate with anything more than feeble, ineffective strikes of her own, ¡°Long Jiu, bring an Energy Outburst and Yang Explosion talisman to every single combatant, and tell them that if they face a blood-covered, claw-wielding maniac, it doesn¡¯t matter how many they expend, or what resources they use. So long as she dies, they will receive a significant portion of our profits.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t she be a good fit for the Great Yang Enlightenment Ceremony, if she¡¯s that capable?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t question me when you are exactly what Luo Lia Kun describes us to be. I¡¯m the one with a Chen as a parent, not you.¡±


    ¡°Alright, boss.¡±


    While they spoke, Wei Yi and the quarterstaff wielder finished off their foe together, beating her but not killing her, once more impressing Luo Lia Kun and frustrating Shi Taihao, for she was naturally a weaker member of the Clan and thus her death wouldn¡¯t have given them much of an advantage while giving the Gang Hong Clan one more case of reckless murder to bring up to still receive some benefits from this conflict even in the case of loss.


    It was due to this that the Brotherhood of Power¡¯s vice-leader made it clear that only the strong and dangerous were to be killed, as it wouldn¡¯t be worth it to slaughter everyone even if it made a significant dent to the Gang Hong Clan¡¯s forces that couldn¡¯t be replaced for many years to come.


    ¡°Phew, that was easy. I¡¯m Chao Ru, and I have a bed with plenty of space for both of us.¡±


    ¡°Excellent. My name is Wei Yi, and I would love to become intimately familiar with it, and you, of course.¡±


    They smiled at one another for a moment, then looked up as the announcer¡¯s voice finally returned.


    ¡°Bleh, that was a terrible experience. Shoving random rags into people¡¯s mouths is not funny in the slightest, you understand that! Ahem, it appears that the Brotherhood of Power have claimed a victory as well, and that the first death of the day has occurred. That is truly unfortunate, and I am compelled to request future combatants to pay careful attention to the way in which they fight, and avoid further deaths if possible,¡± the announcer proclaimed, as he had to, ¡°Now, the next battle will be between three opponents, and all of them are near the peak of the third realm, so it is bound to be even more exciting! The first combatant¡­¡±


    He went on to introduce the participants from both sides, although the only one of interest to the three most informed people there, that being the leader of Gang Hong Clan, the vice-leader of the Brotherhood of Power, and Wei Yi, who was able to listen in on most conversations in the arena with the rather obscene range of spiritual perception that she had, only cared about one particular individual from the Gang Hong Clan¡¯s side, and that was the man that Wei Yi had seen earlier, with banner-like cloth on his shoulders.


    Wei Yi was interested in his abilities due to the traces of a physique within his body, and of its energy within those banner-like cloths, Luo Lia Kun had observed his performance during the aura test and noticed that although it did not reach as far as Wei Yi¡¯s, it was able to inflict a significant amount of damage to the two nearby stones, and Shi Taihao was curious whether he had made the right choice.


    The man himself, a tall figure with black hair and the Luo family¡¯s green eyes, appeared very confident, for he walked in a relaxed manner and took little time to examine his foes, instead simply getting into position and waiting for the beginning of the fight.


    When he was finally given leave to act, he moved more swiftly than any of the others on his side, raising his hands into the air, grabbing onto a pair of invisible objects, then slamming them into the ground, as if he had retrieved a banner or a battle standard with each hand and thrust them into the ground.


    To the surprise of most, that was what actually occurred, for a pair of great banners fell from the sky, ethereal in appearance yet containing a great quantity of energy, landing with a powerful impact at the very edge of an Emergent Anchor cultivator¡¯s range of control, which, in his case, appeared to be roughly eight metres, far enough away from his foes to avoid them being attacked while also being close enough for the circles of energy that sprouted from the banners to still be able to affect them and the man¡¯s allies.


    Every ally that was affected by the banner¡¯s aura was enveloped in a thin veil of pale light, one that stuck tightly to their skin and clothing, and the moment that it was struck by the enemy¡¯s greatsword, the function of it became clear. The low-grade artefact that would normally be able to pierce any common clothing and the skin of those that did not specifically cultivate it failed to do so, giving the one being attacked a magnificent opportunity to strike back, which he was able to capitalise on very successfully, severely injuring the shoulder of his attacker and then withdrawing towards the banner, which seemed to be almost divine in terms of power.


    The three foes were affected in an entirely different manner, which they only realised some time later, after they had begun to charge at the man that had set down the banners, Luo Rongmeng. They had thought that he was specialised in defensive techniques, and that his combat abilities would be nigh non-existent, but the moment that he confidently turned towards his nearest uninjured foe, they got the impression that this was not the case.


    He reached out towards the incoming fighter and closed his hand into a fist, seemingly accomplishing nothing, for his foes were unable to view his planar energy circulation due to his own spiritual perception obscuring them.


    Just as that combatant was about to strike, he felt a source of great danger appear above him, forcing him to stare up to ascertain the true danger he was faced with ¨C the very thought of using his spiritual perception fled his mind, as unpractised as he was with applying that wonderful power of cultivation to genuine combat situations.


    A great bronze fist loomed over him, dropping down seemingly in synchronicity with his gaze upwards. It crashed onto his head and thrust him onto the ground, burying his body half-way into the ground before the fist dispersed and allowed for Luo Rongmeng to casually step onto his back as to acquire a slightly higher perspective from which to observe the arena, as well as his two surviving foes and the two allies that chased after them while preparing planar constructs and techniques to deal with them quickly without requiring their teammate to struggle.


    However, he just put his hands behind his back and stood calmly once more, as if he couldn¡¯t be touched at all.


    When the two foes neared him, he only nodded, watching as the light from the banners enveloped them even further and seemed to seep into their very flesh and bones, although they were too distracted and preoccupied to notice the full extent of this effect until their limbs became incredibly heavy, and every movement appeared to be far too difficult to perform, getting worse and worse with every single moment until they dropped to the ground.


    ¡°This¡­ appears to be a victory for the Gang Hong Clan! I wish I had some idea of what just happened, but I don¡¯t think that I do¡­¡±


    Although he had little understanding of the matter, Wei Yi listed through the enormous list of physiques within her mind and settled on one that appeared to fit, ¡®Warlord¡¯s Banner, then. Something that is akin to the Redeemer¡¯s Frost of talismans and banners, and something that is either an absolute pain to deal with, or an absolute blessing on a battlefield. He is on the other side and won¡¯t be able to make the most of this even if I recruited him somehow, so he will be the next person I am absolutely forced to kill when I encounter him.¡¯


    She checked the order of the day¡¯s battles but found that she had not been placed against him today, causing a quiet sigh that was nonetheless picked up by Chao Ru, who moved a little closer to her and looked questioningly into her eyes.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°That guy with the banners looks like he¡¯ll be a pain to deal with, and yet I can¡¯t fight him today. I don¡¯t like this whole slow arena fight nonsense,¡± she came up with something that would suit her character.


    ¡°Most people use the time to relax, in my experience. Fortunately, I¡¯m not dealing with the guy either. I¡¯d probably not survive, given the fact that I¡¯m¡­ subpar, to say the least,¡± Chao Ru gave an awkward smile, although her tone made it obvious that she wasn¡¯t as comfortable with the matter as she tried to be, ¡°If Luo Lia Kun puts you up against him, could you kick his ass?¡±


    ¡°I think I could. I¡¯m fast, he deals best with slow people. It would work out.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I think so too¡­¡± she sat still for a moment, her head resting just above Wei Yi¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Say, do you rip people¡¯s hearts out frequently?¡±


    ¡°Not too often. Not always convenient or necessary.¡±


    ¡°Hm. I know that I¡¯ve said that I don¡¯t want any long-term relationship, but could you train with, or, at the very least, spar with me? You weren¡¯t even using an artefact, unlike everyone else, but none of those guys could do a thing to you¡­ If I could manage that, then maybe¡­¡±


    ¡°Sure, although I had the impression that you were interested in a different kind of exercise first,¡± Wei Yi smiled, grabbing the woman by the waist and moving her closer until she had no choice but to rest on her shoulder, at which point she moved her hand to her ass, tightly holding her with a confidence and deftness that only an insane warrior wielding claws could possibly possess, ¡°You¡¯re not changing your mind, are you?¡±


    ¡°N-No, I¡¯d never do-¡± before Chao Ru had the chance to decide whether to remain in her grasp or move away and wait for a more private occasion, she saw that the current battle had ended and that it would be her turn next, ¡°Sorry, I have to get going!¡±


    Wei Yi let her go, though not before confirming the slight blush on the woman¡¯s face with her own eyes, ¡°I¡¯ll be waiting, then.¡±


    As Chao Ru left and the others headed off to get a drink or some sustenance pill in order to prepare and replenish their energy, Wei Yi was briefly left alone, and she let the fa?ade drop for a moment as she sighed once again, looking towards the other side of the arena, where the man of banners sat on his seat with a calm expression, not unlike the one he had been displaying all day.


    ¡®Redeemer¡¯s Frost, Warlord¡¯s Banner, perhaps I¡¯ll find a Hunter¡¯s Toxin and Crusader¡¯s Runes and will be able to investigate those rumours of them having some kind of central link¡­ I will see, I suppose¡­¡¯

 V3C39: The Competition, Part 2

    Most of the day continued on without any unusual occurrences. Luo Rongmeng won most of his battles, save for one where his opponent was in the Half-Step Active Core realm and managed to overpower both the banners and the talisman-like marks that he had embedded within himself in order to defeat him quickly, and Wei Yi did not experience a single loss, as Shi Taihao had been careful and had made sure that she wouldn¡¯t face a single particularly powerful fighter, as a loss of another talented warrior would come at a great cost to him and his faction.


    Due to the prevalence of physiques within his forces, she had been able to accumulate some physique energy, but it was nigh insignificant in comparison to her present cultivation, and was only sufficient for her to awaken some incredibly simple yang-type physique abilities within herself.


    This had been within her expectations, and neither she nor Luo Lia Kun had the ability to change the day¡¯s duels and the combatants within them, so she didn¡¯t try to encourage the vice-leader to do anything of the sort. She believed that, after having witnessed her during training, as well as on the arena, Luo Lia Kun would very likely throw her into every difficult battle possible, which would inevitably include Luo Rongmeng, as he couldn¡¯t be countered for a second time by the same combatant according to the rules that they had agreed to. These rules were very limited in number, and their prime intention was to prevent the duels from continuing on infinitely by forcing every combatant to only be able to face another once.


    These rules were why she killed so decisively and quickly, for she would not receive a second opportunity to do so if they were brought out of the arena due to a surrender or a fatal injury.


    Every now and then, she would check the minds of her foes and allies with some spiritual will threads in order to try and find some convenient secrets, tactics, or intentions, but she was not able to accumulate much besides more mental imagery of women with little to no clothing, making her ponder for a moment whether the Thunder Lord Meng Qi would have joined the Gang Hong Clan if given the chance.


    After all of that was done, as the sun was setting and the first day of the duels came to a close, she and Chao Ru headed out of the arena together, with the latter leading them to a rather large structure that, according to her, was actually her home, and was not occupied by a single other individual, which Wei Yi pretended to suspect, if only because it wouldn¡¯t be sensible to reveal the full range of her spiritual perception over something that would range from a casual friendship to a potential close but brief relationship.


    Nevertheless, when they did enter, she was still quite impressed.


    Immediately, through the entryway, Wei Yi was able to see a beautiful but minimal interior of wood and marble, both highly ordinary materials that still managed to impress even with the Ascendant¡¯s Library constantly being within her mind, with most of the empty room and walls being dedicated to various training areas, conforming closely to the average image of the Chao family.


    Every district and every family had its own focus, something that they were perceived to focus on over everything else, and while it was not always the case, with quite a few individuals from the Yi family avoiding fire techniques, some of those from the Chen family being quite useless at trading, many of those from the Jiang family never having even seen a medicinal herb in their entire lives, amongst other things. The Chao family was famously one that stuck to body cultivation, being one of the most likely to have been exposed to physique cultivation outside of the prison realm, and Chao Ru was no exception, her home housing countless implements, talismans, some inscriptions and even a few arrays that would assist in the goal of optimising her physical training.


    The combined total of everything was so impressive for a lone person in the third realm, that Wei Yi had to question this, ¡°Are you the heir of the Chao family, or did you accumulate all this yourself?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s all me~. I¡¯ve had somewhat limited success with one thing, so I tried another, then another¡­ With a balance, I seem to be doing best, but that¡¯s still far behind anything the family would be likely to actively fund. They¡¯re very stringent when it comes to money,¡± Chao Ru said, bringing her to one of the more ordinary items in the living room, ¡°Here are a few weights, from ten to one hundred kilograms. People at the family are expected to be able to pick up the last one when approaching the peak of the third realm. I can barely lift fifty. Do you want to try?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± she replied, going straight for the heaviest weight and grasping it tightly with her metal-covered fingers, resulting in a quiet clang of metal. Then, as easily as a normal person might lift one kilogram, she lifted the hundred, playing around with it for a bit before putting it back.


    This time, it was Chao Ru¡¯s turn to comment, ¡°Well, this is like running straight into Mt Tai¡­ I¡¯m feeling a little hot all of a sudden¡­¡±


    ¡®The other commonly held belief, which is that the Chao family is full of muscle fetishists, must also be accurate, then. Charming,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, not being particularly surprised since Chao Ru had been feeling up her arms and abs the entire way here, ¡°We¡¯ll have the entire morning tomorrow, so why don¡¯t we skip the tour and get to the fun stuff?¡±


    ¡°¡­ My bedroom¡¯s right up-¡± the moment that the vague indication of direction was given, she was swept up by Wei Yi and carried there, her few attempts at protests quickly becoming silent.


    ¡°Gracious sands, if she and the others keep bringing home new recruits, we¡¯ll be just like the Gang Hong Clan, but in reverse,¡± Luo Lia Kun muttered to herself as she confirmed the fact that the two of them had entered Chao Ru¡¯s home, approaching the front door and easily letting herself in, ¡°With the way in which this Wei Yi acted, perhaps she¡¯ll join their recruitment efforts¡­¡±


    For a moment, she allowed herself a smile, as she assured herself that this was unlikely. The silly oaf must have just been giving her a casual compliment without understanding how she sounded, and without seeing what she had covered up with her hair, and there was no chance that she had used her spiritual perception, for that had to partially be affected by one¡¯s intellect, or so she assumed until she saw the out-of-place weight on the table to her right.


    One thing that she knew about Chao Ru was that she paid great attention and care to her various methods of training and exercise, so to see something so out of place, they must have indeed gotten distracted.


    ¡°For that training freak to forget something like this¡­ Don¡¯t tell me she¡¯s already jumped the new girl and took her down the wrong path?¡± she wondered, hastening to the bedroom.


    She wasn¡¯t expecting to catch the two resting in bed together after a long day of combat, since she had gotten here quite a lot later than they would have done, almost at midnight whereas they would have been able to observe the setting sun as they journeyed from the arena to this residence, so even if they were still in the same building, they would be unlikely to be actively participating in any acts.


    Normally, Luo Lia Kun wouldn¡¯t have even bothered to come here on her own, but she believed that the matter that she had uncovered was more than important enough to barge into the residence of one of the group¡¯s members¡­ Although she had done so quite a few times as of late, to the point that almost every single individual in the Brotherhood of Power had added her to the list of people that would be recognised by the talisman-based lock on their front doors so that she wouldn¡¯t need to break down or otherwise damage their residence just to enter, so perhaps she needed to reconsider her priorities in comparison to that of the Brotherhood.


    ¡®Well, I could ask the leader if I may host a meeting to do something of the sort later, but for now, I¡¯ll need to inform them to be careful,¡¯ she thought, finally getting up to the top floor, where Chao Ru¡¯s bedroom was.


    For aforementioned reasons, she didn¡¯t bother knocking or even listening in to confirm whether anyone was even in that room ¨C not that it would be of any use considering the fact that, besides talismans, the Luo family was most proud of their ability to build almost perfectly sound-proof rooms ¨C and just opened the door.


    Somehow, she had not expected to find exactly what she did see, to the point that her rather innocent mind couldn¡¯t even give a name to the act she was witnessing.


    All she was able to understand was that Wei Yi was on top, and that Chao Ru wouldn¡¯t be able to talk with her any time soon, not while she was between those muscular legs, her head being pressed up against the space between them by a similarly powerful hand and arm, while Wei Yi¡¯s other hand played with her breast.


    ¡°That¡­ has to be a new record¡­¡± Luo Lia Kun looked away quickly, her cheeks burning from the scene.


    She was still able to see Wei Yi casually turn her head and address her calmly, as if she was just relaxing and not in the middle of a sexual act, ¡°Do you want something?¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ I need to speak with both of you. It¡¯s urgent!¡± she declared, turning her head back towards them while keeping her eyes away by staring at the ceiling instead, ¡°So, stop all of this right now and we-¡±


    As if she was swatting away an annoying fly, Wei Yi waved her hand in the vague direction of the door, but her movement somehow generated an immense burst of force that slammed the door shut, the impact of which also threw Luo Lia Kun away and nearly caused her to collide with the wall beside the staircase, although she barely managed to land on her feet and prevent this fate. She felt her limbs shake for a moment, the rather steamy image that had been threatening to settle within her mind being entirely dispersed as the memories of the clawed warrior¡¯s overwhelming might during the entirety of their practise.


    For the vice-leader of a group by the name of the Brotherhood of Power, such a reaction towards the ability of one of her new subordinates seemed absurd, or at the very least unbecoming, but the feeling of being attacked with such ease by someone that should have been so much weaker than her, as well as the rather brutal, animalistic fashion in which it was done, was far too overpowering.


    ¡°M-my door-¡±


    ¡°If you have enough air and energy to be speaking, you¡¯re not putting in enough effort,¡± she forced the woman¡¯s lips back to their proper place and ignored her complaints. Although she made it seem like she had used only her physical strength to shut the door, she had actually applied her spiritual will to accomplish it, while the physical force that had moved more quickly was what had thrown Luo Lia Kun away. As such, the door, the frame and the walls around it were safe, for now, at least.


    It had been some time since she had engaged in this style of activity, mostly due to how long she had spent each day within the Realm of Potential, so she wouldn¡¯t allow it to be interrupted before having the opportunity to relax for a little while.


    Besides, regardless of whatever Luo Lia Kun had wanted to tell her, she wouldn¡¯t need to do much besides unleashing a little more of her own power, as the only instance of those above the fourth realm fighting within the arena would be at the end of the second day of combat, when Luo Lia Kun and Shi Taihao would fight together to conclude the event and potentially alter the winning side, depending on how the rest of the day went. That was no reason to disturb their so-called bonding session, especially when the intake of minimal quantities of physique energy could assist the development of Chao Ru¡¯s body, potentially lowering the risk of her sustaining any injuries as well.


    ¡®Still, being on top is clearly my calling. This is fun~¡­¡¯


    Luo Lia Kun had attempted to enter a few more times, but she did not succeed and got the message that she wasn¡¯t welcome. Since she was still adamant on delivering her warning, she decided that she would remain on that floor and make use of some of the food and drink available there, as her bedroom as on the same floor as the kitchen, amongst a few other rooms dedicated to training and exercise.


    Chao Ru wasn¡¯t the most talented when it came to planar energy, cultivation and techniques, so she had attempted to pursue the power that the Brotherhood of Power was focused on procuring through training her body, rather than any other form of attainment. However, the majority of the Brotherhood did not practise the same methods, and thus her extensive setup wasn¡¯t of any interest to them or Luo Lia Kun, who had chosen to specialise in her family¡¯s talisman arts and planar construct marks.


    ¡®She doesn¡¯t keep anything that doesn¡¯t taste like sand or paper, except¡­¡¯ she dove into one particular cupboard and removed most of the things there in order to uncover a dark glass bottle, which she removed and opened, smelling the contents with a silly grin, ¡®this wine! I don¡¯t know how she does it, but she¡¯s got the nose for the absolute best!¡¯


    The training-obsessed woman never drank the aforementioned wine, so after a few members of the Brotherhood of Power had attempted to ¡®borrow¡¯ it without permission, Chao Ru had simply decided to let them have it, so long as they drank in moderation.


    Most of them had pretended that they didn¡¯t hear the second part of her statement.


    Luo Lia Kun poured the deep red drink into a simple glass and took her time in tasting the crimson fluid, sipping a small quantity of it and letting it sit within her mouth, delighting in the complex taste of the wine and consuming it as slowly as she possibly could. She knew that she could wait there for a while, depending on the two women¡¯s stamina, so there was no good reason to rush herself.


    After a significant length of time that nearly made her consider whether she should expand her extremely limited understanding of sex, which had to be no less than half an hour and possibly as much as a full hour according to her somewhat tipsy mind, a figure finally emerged from the bedroom.


    She also headed to the kitchen, and the moment that she entered, Luo Lia Kun knew that she shouldn¡¯t have been staring that intently.


    Wei Yi had not covered herself up with anything other than her hair, which likely only obscured her breasts entirely coincidentally due to its great volume and length, and most of her sculpted form was on display. It was covered in a thin layer of glistening sweat, with occasional droplets sliding down her skin. It mixed with whatever other fluids may have gotten onto her skin, although the way in which she licked her lips as she entered the kitchen suggested that she hadn¡¯t cleaned herself before working up a sweat again.


    ¡°You¡¯re still here?¡± she asked in a tired tone, sitting down on a seat opposite Luo Lia Kun without any attempts to hide her body, instead spreading her legs as she leant back for her own comfort, ¡°Why¡¯re you here?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Is Chao Ru going to emerge any time soon?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t think she¡¯ll be able to walk until tomorrow morning, although I can fix that if she wants me to,¡± Wei Yi replied.


    For a moment, she did not know how to continue, so she instead glanced down to the glass in her hand and felt enlightened. ¡°So, I¡¯m not sure that she has shown you around the house, but she¡¯s got a great bottle of wine hidden in one of her cupboards. Do you want to try it?¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged, accepting the glass and draining the rest of its contents in one go, keeping them in her mouth for a little while before swallowing with a grim expression.


    ¡°Huh. What is it supposed to taste like?¡±


    ¡°Personally, I think that-¡± she was more than ready to explain, especially since it would not require her to be looking at the naked woman, but then she realised the oddity of the question, ¡°Wei Yi, are you unable to taste the wine?¡±


    ¡°I cannot. I can¡¯t taste any food, although I can taste something like stone, or poison, or you, if you let me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d¡­ rather not. That¡¯s quite weird, though. What causes this?¡±


    ¡°My physique, apparently. I have the Ascendant physique.¡±


    ¡®Ascendant¡­ Ascendant! That¡¯s one of the greatest absolute physiques, written at the beginning of every list of physiques in the district! She has that, and she just openly told me?¡¯ Luo Lia Kun¡¯s expression froze as far too many thoughts passed through her head, especially when she saw the nude warrior sitting before her, leaning back, without any clear care in the world, ¡®No wonder she is that powerful, and has such an impressive body. If I recall correctly, if she has the standard Ascendant physique, and not the Superior or Imperial Ascendant physique, then she will naturally be four times stronger than the ordinary person, so when that is combined with whatever techniques she practises¡­ No wonder¡­¡¯


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that this was a side effect of the physique. How long has it been since you tasted anything?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ Twenty years at least,¡± she remained vague, shrugging as if it wasn¡¯t a major concern.


    ¡®Twenty¡­ she only looks to be twenty years old, so¡­ Has she never tasted a thing?¡¯ Luo Lia Kun unknowingly arrived at a far worse conclusion than the conservative estimate had been intended to provoke, ¡°That is, well¡­ How about I tell you about the thing I had intended to mention initially? I wanted to warn you and Chao Ru, so I hope you¡¯ll warn her when she is able to listen.¡±


    ¡°Warn us? What for? Will I be fighting against people without hearts?¡±


    ¡°N-No, that¡¯s not it¡­ You didn¡¯t tear out Chao Ru¡¯s heart as well, did you? We really need her, now and in the future.¡±


    That appeared to be sufficient for even the simple-minded warrior to understand, as she looked down at Luo Lia Kun with a stare that could range between ¡®I¡¯m not that stupid¡¯ to ¡®don¡¯t make me angry¡¯, or perhaps both. ¡°You¡¯re pretty, she¡¯s pretty, both of you are on my side, so why would I kill either of you?¡±


    ¡°Right. Sorry. Dumb question. No, what I meant was that everyone that you¡¯d be fighting against, who were previously all near the peak of the third realm, either had or were in the middle of breaking through when another member of the Brotherhood of Power and I came across them,¡± she changed topic again, noticing that Wei Yi appeared to have a talent for entirely disrupting her typically calm state of mind seemingly unintentionally, ¡°If most of them succeed, your competition will be in the Half-Step or full Active Core realm.¡±


    ¡°So what?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean, ¡®so what¡¯? That¡¯s a full realm!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re in the fifth realm, right? Marked Core?¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t my claws go through your barriers as easily a knife through air? What¡¯s the point of worrying about it?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ huh¡­ But what about that banner man? He will be able to crush you if he manages to contain you long enough.¡±


    ¡°Nah. He won¡¯t have the chance. You remember how quickly I was able to move, right? His banners won¡¯t be down by the time I¡¯m able to dig through his insides with my claws,¡± Wei Yi stated with confidence, miming the motions with her left hand.


    ¡°Right¡­ By the heavens, you¡¯re an absolute menace. Just to be sure, do you mind if I try to cut you a little?¡±


    ¡°Go ahead,¡± she agreed quickly, raising her hand with the palm facing upwards, her fingers spread apart slightly to allow her to do whatever it was that she intended to do.


    While this rather surprised Luo Lia Kun, she was slowly beginning to think that her perspective of the world was rather limited and unclear, and that she needed to expand her understanding of the world in all kinds of ways that she had avoided up to this point, so she just took out a knife and got on with it, slashing her palm with minimal strength.


    To her surprise, the knife didn¡¯t just fail to inflict serious injury, but it failed to leave so much as a scratch, instead having no clear effect on her no matter how she looked at her hand. Whether she attempted to use spiritual perception, her eyes, or some other force, she found that there appeared to be no damage, nor any traces of natural or planar energy-based recovery that could have healed the cut before she had the chance to examine it, unless it happened so quickly that it was able to push the knife out of the wound the very moment that it was created.


    ¡°If you¡¯re going to cut me, can¡¯t you do it properly?¡± Wei Yi asked, letting her do it once more before she grabbed the kitchen knife out of her hands and brought it down onto her own hand with great force.


    The first that Luo Lia Kun realised was that the knife broke ¨C no, shattered into tiny pieces ¨C the moment that it collided with her skin. Then, after she made sure no metal shards went anywhere near her or Wei Yi, considering the fact that the latter wasn¡¯t wearing a thing and that there were numerous places where one wouldn¡¯t want a knife fragment regardless of their physical endurance and resistance, she also saw no traces of a cut upon her palm once again, making her question reality itself.


    ¡°Gracious sands, what even are you made of? Is your skin made of immortal gold?¡±


    ¡°No, that would be horribly uncomfortable. It¡¯s just skin, and beneath it is just blood and flesh, same as with any person.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve not met Zhi Qiu Ya, then. Perhaps you two will get along, seeing as the two of you are similarly incredibly physically capable, and how both of you seem keen on losing as many of your clothes as possible¡­¡± Luo Lia Kun muttered the last part, uncertain whether saying that was wise when the warrior had only unclothed at an appropriate time, and would technically be fully within her right to walk around however she wanted within the home of someone that she had slept with only a few minutes prior, ¡°By the way, would you be opposed to joining the Brotherhood of Power on a more permanent basis?¡±


    ¡°I dunno. You lot do contracts and stuff as well, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, like most mercenary organisations, we are available for hire and will kill things for money,¡± she nodded, feeling almost like she was addressing a child and had to invest a significant amount of effort to not change her wording and tone as well, ¡°Whether you¡¯re focused on physical, planar, yang, yin or any other kind of cultivation, we can obtain plenty of resources for you so long as you¡¯re on our side.¡±


    ¡°Eh, I guess there¡¯s no harm to it. You did mention someone called Zhi Qiu Ya, though ¨C could you tell me about her first?¡±


    ¡°Not before you confirm that you will join. She is a member of the Brotherhood, and I wouldn¡¯t reveal anything unless I can be sure that you won¡¯t go over to some random group and reveal everything to them, intentionally or otherwise.¡±


    ¡°Hm, you seem very insistent on this. What kinds of things could you give me?¡±


    ¡°Well, how about¡­¡±


    She pondered the question for a moment, then presented a list of things that the Brotherhood of Power happened to be capable of obtaining with relative ease while still being incredibly useful for someone like Wei Yi, who appeared to rely heavily on her body, the clawed gauntlets, and her Ascendant physique, meaning that there was little chance of refusal.


    Despite her certainty, the warrior was not only hesitant, but she also shook her head after a moment.


    ¡°Nah, I don¡¯t think I want that. Can I have a large pile of fourth-realm failed talismans, or several piles of third-realm failed talismans?¡±


    ¡°Are you¡­ sure?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked, as there was a major difference in price between the list that she had presented, and a large number of talismans that were thrown away by experts that were as plentiful as the people of the district, not to mention the fact that pills and training talismans were useful, whereas the very name of a failed talisman displayed just how useless it was for almost everything. If not for the energy contained within them, they would be readily torn apart and burnt in a large pile at the end of a long day of work. ¡°If I was to spend the same amount of your request instead of my offer, I could get you quite a lot, but¡­ I don¡¯t want to scam you out of making progress¡­¡±


    ¡°Scam me? Why not give me a small amount to confirm that they¡¯re useful for me, then give me the offer or the rest of the failed talismans after you¡¯ve seen the results for yourself?¡± she suggested, the unusually reasonable idea not registering as such within her mind due to the combined confusion of the day.


    ¡°Yeah, sure¡­ So, you¡¯re in?¡±


    ¡°Well, based on the price you paid for me at the arena, I can assume that you thought that I was worth this much at first, but now that you¡¯ve seen my abilities, you don¡¯t intend to raise the price?¡±


    ¡°This is¡­ What about¡­ how about twice the initial offer, then?¡±


    ¡°Excellent. Good girl~¡­¡± Wei Yi suddenly rose from her seat, leaned over the table, and lightly patted Luo Lia Kun¡¯s head in a series of actions that finally convinced the vice-leader that this was too much to deal with within a single night, and that it was best to just go along with whatever was happening until they would finally go to sleep, wherever and whenever that would finally be happening, and on whose terms that would occur.


    ¡°Uh-huh. Sure. Okay. You wanted to know about Zhi Qiu Ya?¡±

 Bonus Chapter: Chao Ru [R-18]

    Wei Yi was able to carry the woman as if she weighed nothing at all, much to Chao Ru¡¯s surprise. Her directions had been a little vague, but that was nothing that a little spiritual perception couldn¡¯t fix, especially when she didn¡¯t even need to hide this facet of her abilities.


    If she wished, she could always just claim to have a strong sense of direction, and then others could conclude that she was able to employ spiritual perception subconsciously, still fitting with the current brutish persona she was putting on. Then again, since Chao Ru was the only one with her, and since they were bound to get much more familiar with one another soon, she didn¡¯t expect word of her navigational prowess to be leaked to the rest of the Brotherhood of Power.


    ¡°Nice bed,¡± she said, gently placing her upon it, sitting down by her side.


    ¡°It sees a lot of use, so¡­ want me to help you get those off?¡± Chao Ru asked, looking at the claw-like gauntlets.


    Wei Yi wasn¡¯t opposed to it, so she reached her right hand over while bringing the left to her own mouth, biting down on the star metal and pulling it off easily enough. Meanwhile, Chao Ru grabbed hold of the bottom of the gauntlet and pulled it up, finding it to slide off easily enough, unveiling the pristine, soft skin beneath.


    Taking hold of it, she found herself marvelling at the smooth texture of the skin and the perfectly trimmed nails, as if she was looking at a piece of art in the form of a human being. Combining that with her perfectly natural look ¨C as there were no traces of any makeup anywhere on Wei Yi¡¯s body, as far as she could tell ¨C made her appearance all that much better. Her silver eyes naturally drew in Chao Ru¡¯s gaze, leaving her frozen for a while until Wei Yi took the gauntlet out of her hands and seemed to throw it to the side.


    She quickly looked away, ¡°Oh, sorry¡­ I got distracted.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Wei Yi said, somewhat glad that she hadn¡¯t noticed the gauntlets being thrown into the House of Gold, ¡°So, how do you usually like it?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    Wei Yi removed her robes, tossing them aside, putting her hands on Chao Ru¡¯s robes to do the same, ¡°You know what I mean. We¡¯re in bed, our clothes are ¨C almost ¨C gone, and soon we can move onto the main event. If there¡¯s a way you like to do it, you should tell me. Just so you know¡­ I¡¯ll be on top.¡±


    She whispered those last few words into her ear, and Chao Ru shivered visibly, a smile creeping into her expression despite her best attempts to subdue it.


    ¡°I¡­ would like tha-¡±


    Her open mouth was claimed without hesitation, the words being lost as Wei Yi took hold of the back of her head and turned it, kissing her open lips the instant they were close enough for her to reach.


    For a few moments, their lips were stuck together, each one tasting the other. Given that this was one of the few things she could still taste, that wasn¡¯t poisonous or otherwise unpleasant in some way, Wei Yi didn¡¯t rush it, feeling up Chao Ru¡¯s lips and getting accustomed to her flavour. She could have compared it to some delightful fruit, perhaps some planar variation of strawberry or cherry, but that would be doing as massive disservice to both ¨C that, and she had no clue what those tasted like. She hadn¡¯t had the richest diet back in the Yi District, when she still had taste.


    Whatever Chao Ru was able to perceive, she purred with delight as she did so, their tongues meeting after they had their fill of each other¡¯s lips. The warrior tried to shove her tongue into Wei Yi¡¯s mouth first, only to be beaten back and made to retreat into her own mouth, exchanging their saliva readily.


    As with all those she had gotten sexually involved with, Chao Ru appeared to overproduce fluids, her mouth quickly filling and forcing Wei Yi to swallow a mouthful of the woman¡¯s spit when they parted.


    ¡°Do you always drool that much?¡± she asked, pulling back and wiping away what remained on her mouth, ¡®I get the feeling that it¡¯s me and not them. It¡¯s like I get plunged into an alternate, hyper-sexual realm at times like these, and it¡¯s some part of the fetish for everyone to get as wet and lewd as possible¡­¡¯


    Somewhere in the beyond, amidst the void of fractured shards, a figure¡¯s violet eye sparkled with excitement.


    Behind that figure stood another, a length of dark hair flowing from their head and parted by a pair of curved horns. The figure raised an eyebrow as they gazed in the same direction as its peer, ¡°Are you looking in her direction again?¡±


    ¡°Yep.¡±


    ¡°Do you like to make things difficult for her?¡±


    ¡°Difficult? They¡¯re not going to die from dehydration, so what¡¯s the issue?¡±


    The horned figure rolled their eyes, ¡°Even my tendrils are less slick than that, and they¡¯ve flooded worlds.¡±


    ¡°Well, not this much¡­ You taste great, by the way,¡± Chao Ru exhaled a mouthful of steam, licking her lips afterwards, ¡°You¡¯re like a rare fruit, both sweet and sour, yet so delectable and delicious¡­ I want more.¡±


    In place of a reply, Wei Yi got up and pushed the woman down, pinning her to the bed as she resumed their kiss, moving one hand to Chao Ru¡¯s breast after she confirmed the amount of strength she needed in order to keep her pinned. Most likely, the woman wouldn¡¯t attempt to rise or break free even if nobody was holding her, but she enjoyed having control, and judging by the fluids Chao Ru was leaking onto the bed, she liked being controlled.


    The warrior¡¯s large chest was delightfully soft, giving way to her fingers and allowing her to grope them and feel up every inch.


    She kneaded the soft flesh, feeling it fill her hand and playing with the nipple when it entered her grasp, though even her hands couldn¡¯t grip these huge tits fully. Their size still impressed her, especially as they weren¡¯t on a prostitute in a brothel, but on a skilled and powerful warrior, meaning that the woman had to contend with them all the time.


    It didn¡¯t take her long to figure out what Chao Ru liked best. Whenever she pinched her erect, puffy nipple, the lass whimpered and moaned, prompting Wei Yi to break their kiss again. Before there were any complaints, she lowered her mouth to the nipple, lightly biting down upon it and sending a wave through Chao Ru¡¯s body. Her legs were kept in place by Wei Yi¡¯s strong body, and her upper half couldn¡¯t flail around due to her strong hand.


    ¡°The other one¡­¡± the warrior whimpered, ¡°Touch both of them¡­¡±


    With such an invitation, Wei Yi could hardly refuse. While continuing to nibble at the left nipple, she moved her hand to the right, holding onto it tightly and playing with it a little more gently, giving it time to warm up.


    She switched to pinching it soon enough, and closed her lips around the left nipple, sucking on it.


    ¡°YES!¡± Chao Ru suddenly cried out, fluid gushing from her pussy, spilling onto her inner thighs and onto the wooden floor, quickly forming a large puddle on the floor.


    ¡°Not excessive, you said?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not that uncommon for women. Sure, I might be amplifying it a little bit, but that makes it more interesting.¡±


    ¡°For you?¡±


    ¡°No, them.¡±


    The horned figure¡¯s face twisted into the very epitome of confusion, until another voice appeared in the void. Belonging to a woman with long white hair, tipped with black at the very end, it was plain and emotionless, in sharp contrast to the other two.


    ¡°You know the way she sees the world, Sayaka. Just ignore that sort of talk, since we will not get past the restrictions of template realities in the near future, not to mention the reality weave¡¯s veil.¡±


    ¡°I think there¡¯s a lot I need to catch up on.¡±


    ¡°Yep. So, let me enjoy my porn, please,¡± the figure with a violet eye grinned.


    ¡°Such sensitive nipples you have,¡± Wei Yi said, each hand gripping a nipple gently, ¡°Do you play with them when you masturbate? Do you like it when your hard nipples rub against the fabric of your shirt? You do, don¡¯t you?¡±


    Chao Ru affirmed with only a hint of shame, ¡°Yes, I do¡­ My breasts are always so sensitive, and when other women stare, I find myself getting wet¡­¡±


    For a moment, Wei Yi found herself wishing that she had a dragon¡¯s twin genitalia so that she could thrust herself in between those bountiful tits and fuck them as hard as she could, but she knew that such a thing was unlikely. Hence, she settled on simply pinching both nipples, eliciting another wonderful gasp from Chao Ru.


    ¡°No, don¡¯t mess with a reality just because you¡¯re horny,¡± the emotionless voice interrupted the rise of the violet-eyed woman¡¯s hand.


    ¡°I have enough sense for that, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll just duplicate this reality for a bit¡­¡±


    Unaware of what was occurring in the void between worlds, Wei Yi had flipped Chao Ru over and lifted up her ass, briefly parting her ass cheeks to glance at the puckered hole hiding there.


    It didn¡¯t appear to be as developed as Qiu Sheng¡¯s asshole, so she didn¡¯t touch it yet, though the faint breeze of cool air that touched it still caused the warrior to shiver, whimpering into the pillow she was resting her head upon.


    ¡°What are you-¡±


    ¡°Just taking a look. If we spend enough time together, I imagine that hole will get involved as well. For now, though, I¡¯ll restrict myself just to this gushing pussy,¡± Wei Yi slid her finger along Chao Ru¡¯s slit, acquiring a thick layer of her arousal by the end. She put the finger into her mouth, tasting the warrior¡¯s flavour, which only seemed to make Chao Ru more aroused.


    As if she decided that this much wasn¡¯t enough ¨C though her every step was a little more planned than this ¨C Wei Yi lowered herself until her face was right in front of the dripping cunt, the lips parted and inviting.


    With her face in the pillow and her gaze limited to the wall of her bedroom, Chao Ru could only rely on the sense of touch to understand what the silver-eyed woman was doing. She could extend her spiritual perception, but even if she was able to maintain it during an orgasm, she wouldn¡¯t want to ruin the surprise. The feeling of another woman using her, without any knowledge of the other¡¯s intentions, was enough to get her wet ¨C even more so.


    Thus, the lips that planted a kiss on her pussy lips came as a pleasant surprise.


    When it was followed by another and another, slowly lapping up the slickness that had gathered on her nether lips, she felt them clench in anticipation. Each touch sent a spark through her body, causing her back to arch against her will, quiet moans escaping into the pillow, subdued yet clearly heard by Wei Yi.


    Each moan almost seemed to be rewarded by her, with another kiss being planted on Chao Ru¡¯s lower lips, and it made her release each moan more openly, getting rewarded more as well.


    ¡®She¡¯s not even gotten into me yet, but I feel so good¡­ Is she some kind of sex goddess?¡¯


    ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking. Don¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Tch,¡± the figure with a violet eye grabbed a clump of her black hair and twirled it, the movement briefly parting it and revealing a white glow from the other eye.


    The moment that the dextrous tongue plunged into her depths, she felt all of the strength in her body leave her. It quickly reached every sensitive spot inside her, caressing and licking them with ease, and the endless fluids that poured from her were swallowed up with audible gulps, making Chao Ru realise just how wet she was getting.


    It was unlike anything she had felt before, for every touch and lick and kiss sent a wave of lust throughout her, making even the simplest, most familiar of touches akin to the best experience of her entire life. She had hardly been able to think before, but now her mind was being clouded only by the thoughts of Wei Yi¡¯s touches, as if everything but her pussy had lost all of its significance. That was where her thoughts were concentrated, and that was the only thing she could possibly care about right now.


    She felt herself attempt to speak, but all she ended up doing was drooling on the pillow, both due to her position and the orgasm that suddenly rocked her body.


    Any notion of time flew out of the proverbial window, leaving her in a strange void of lust and desire where she just felt waves spill over constantly, a climax following each time the liquid spilled from its container. Perhaps she simply sensed her own body cum time and again, or perhaps she had transcended the mortal world for a brief while ¨C she certainly had no clue what the truth was.


    All she knew was that the lips eventually departed from her pussy, and there was an unpleasant emptiness that remained. Chao Ru wanted something to take its place, anything, so long as it could fill that miserable void, but her arms refused to move and her legs were hardly going to be of use, leaving her struggling and groaning into the pillow until a helpful hand flipped her over, letting both of her eyes gaze at the light.


    ¡°You alright over there?¡±


    ¡°N-Never better¡­ Fuck~¡­¡± she found herself talking before she could even feel her lips, resulting in yet another strange yet far less pleasant experience, ¡°I don¡¯t know how you did it¡­ but I didn¡¯t think that you¡¯d be that good at eating pussy.¡±


    ¡°I had practise,¡± Wei Yi replied simply, glancing aside for some reason, ¡°Anyway, you¡¯ve certainly enjoyed yourself, so I think it¡¯s time that you do some of the work.¡±


    While she was never going to refuse, she did have to question what that would entail. Fortunately, her exhausted mind hardly had to work, for the question it couldn¡¯t formulate in time was answered when Wei Yi got onto the bed and sat over her, facing Chao Ru¡¯s lower half, and positioned her own drooling pussy over Chao Ru¡¯s mouth.


    ¡°You see, I got quite horny too. Since it¡¯s your fault, you better take good care of it.¡±


    Again, any words she could produce were pre-empted as the tight lips descended, Wei Yi¡¯s large ass completely obscuring her vision as she was buried beneath her.


    Even though her tongue was as exhausted as the rest of her body, which all felt as if it had been drained of a week¡¯s worth of energy, she still did her duty, sticking it out and pushing past the tight labia. It almost seemed unwilling to let her past, but the slickness that had already accumulated made her entry possible, simultaneously letting her get the first taste of Wei Yi¡¯s cunt.


    She had done her fair share of oral before, but never had she encountered a taste quite like Wei Yi¡¯s, for it seemed to infuse her with an energy she must not have recognised she had. From a single taste, she was able to push on and begin tongue-fucking the woman above her, at times swirling her tongue about and simply thrusting in and out at others. Each drop of liquid arousal that went past her lips and down her throat only made her all the more eager, until she would have been ready to remain beneath Wei Yi forever even if she herself received no additional stimulation.


    And yet, the owner of the delightful pussy didn¡¯t wait long before taking hold of Chao Ru¡¯s nipples, pulling on them in between rounds of breast fondling.


    Although she could barely remember how they had even ended up in her bedroom, Chao Ru wished for nothing more than for this encounter to continue for eternity.


    Had a certain violet-eyed figure gotten their wish, and not been restrained by the others that had access to the fractured void, perhaps that would have been the case. Unfortunately for that figure with a violet eye, and also for Chao Ru, the vice-leader of the Brotherhood of Power made her way to their home soon enough, though the warrior would argue that it was far too soon while the vice-leader would contend that they had been in bed for hours.

 V3C40: The Competition, Part 3

    Wei Yi made sure to keep to her word, granting some energy to Chao Ru to allow her to wake up in the morning with enough energy to be able to fight in the arena, although she pretended that this was a coincidence and entirely unrelated to her.


    She had gotten dressed after flaunting her figure a little more, obscuring any signs of her own excitement through her great level of control over her own blood flow, having cleaned herself with her physique energy while the other two were asleep, and left the residence early to get some time for herself.


    There were several things she had done the previous night, and the first thing of note was her idea to attempt physique cultivation through failed talismans, mimicking the very thing that had initially put her on her current route. The circumstances wouldn¡¯t be the same, as her mysterious characters were already fully saturated with the five elements of planar energy, but she knew that the more injured she was, the more her physique and cosmic energy was able to do within a short period of time to reconstruct and strengthen her body.


    Thus, if she swapped out physique and body-related pills for failed talismans, which were not only highly plentiful but significantly cheaper, she suspected that she would be able to get far more work done in equalising her physique and planar cultivation realms in terms of stages, and advance both at some relative pace in order to eventually reach identical realms and stages for both, at which point she would hopefully be able to advance both at the same rate.


    She couldn¡¯t be sure whether this would work, nor whether it was a good idea to constantly allow her body to be ravaged by incredibly violent energy when she wouldn¡¯t even let a woman do something like that, but she thought that it was worthwhile to investigate and attempt once, at the very least.


    It would also grant her a golden opportunity for learning more about talismans, potentially permitting her to create or deal with far more talismans without needing to make any of her own, and if the cosmic energy infusion worked on talismans the same way that it did on pills, then she would be able to amplify the effect of this cultivation method to even greater heights with ease.


    Besides that, she was rather curious to meet the woman that Luo Lia Kun had ended up describing when the combination of every action she had taken up to that point led to her logical reasoning being somewhat impaired, Zhi Qiu Ya.


    Apparently, Zhi Qiu Ya was a cultivator with some rather unique traits that had led her to being recruited to the Brotherhood of Power, prime amongst which was the plague that she had picked up from the previous district in which she lived. It wasn¡¯t contagious, so far as any member of the Brotherhood was able to tell, for it was some kind of unique entity that actively lived within the individual, but what was clear were the symptoms, including a great quantity of fur on various parts of her body, wolf-like fangs and ears, the latter of which appeared to function alongside her human ears with no issue at all, a tail, sharp claw-like nails and several mental conditions that occasionally made it rather difficult to interact with, according to Luo Lia Kun.


    Amongst those many tendencies, there was one to engage in more natural, animalistic behaviours, which were not limited to minimizing the amount of clothing that she wore.


    ¡®I can see that how that would be¡­ inconvenient to deal with, to say the least, which is why such a figure wasn¡¯t brought out today despite her significant strength ¨C especially since it does appear to be true, from what I was able to gather with my Mental Intrusion threads ¨C but I am curious to meet her nonetheless. Depending on the nature of the enhancements granted through the living plague, as she called it, and the side effects, it may be something that I can learn from, or learn to avoid,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, looking around with her spiritual perception but finding no trace of such a figure in her vicinity, ¡®Still don¡¯t know where their base is, though. I will need to wait until the end of the arena duels¡­¡¯


    As for the thing that Luo Lia Kun had rushed over to tell them, she didn¡¯t consider it to be significant in the slightest, as she was already placed into every battle save the one that involved one of the weaker men that she didn¡¯t kill the previous day. So long as she unleashed a few planar techniques and inflicted sufficient damage on all of them to overcome the protective effect of the arena, none of the Brotherhood of Power¡¯s combatants would need to worry about their chances of victory.


    What she did appreciate was that the fight between her and Luo Rongmeng was the second one to occur, after Chao Ru¡¯s battle with yesterday¡¯s survivors, which she expected the quarterstaff wielder to win with ease after the night¡¯s infusion of physique energy.


    ¡®Even if she, or anyone else on my side, faces any difficulties, I can always intervene with killing will, which none of the people present at the arena appeared to have been able to detect the day before. So long as a member of a Great Family doesn¡¯t appear, I doubt that it would be difficult to slightly nudge a blade away from an ally, or towards an enemy without anyone noticing.¡¯


    Furthermore, she had taken advantage of the little rest that she did opt to have and practised within her Realm of Potential, working mostly on the Phoenix Transformation and the Heeled Balance Art at the same time, as they were the core of her combat style and would be the easiest to improve with the least effort required due to their current low stage. She could always utilise the two hundred and forty points of anchor energy that she had obtained from the Ning District and the few deaths in the arena, but it just seemed highly inefficient when she could develop one of her primary cultivation techniques instead and potentially empower everything about herself with a single mental press of a button.


    By the end of her training session, she felt herself nearing the Minor Achievement stage of both techniques, bringing her so close that she was almost certain that a single sufficiently involved battle would elevate them both to that stage.


    Considering the fact that she was limiting herself quite a bit during most conflicts in her current identity, such a thing wasn¡¯t necessarily impossible, although she did not expect anyone other than Luo Rongmeng to be able to put up even a semblance of a decent fight, since he was the only one with a semi-decent physique and the skills to make use of it.


    As for the theory that she had recalled earlier, regarding the potential link of the Redeemer¡¯s Frost, Hunter¡¯s Toxin, Warlord¡¯s Banners and Crusader¡¯s Runes, it was one that called the combination the Conqueror¡¯s Eye. According to it, every individual bearing one of these physiques could be seen to possess a unique feature within their eyes that seemed to resemble a quarter of a circle, although it was thin, vague and easy to miss, even for those that were actively looking for it, which was likely why many dismissed the idea initially, in addition to the unfeasibility of combining physiques in one person.


    Given that Wei Yi was an exception to that rule, she might have been the first in countless hundreds of thousands of years to consider this possibility once more, starting with a basic confirmation of the presence, or absence, of this quarter of a circle.


    If it was present, she would know that there is an incredibly slim possibility of this theory having some credibility, although it was just as plausible that this was a random side effect of the four physiques that someone linked together and came up with something entirely absurd, even by the standards of the world that had just recently seen the absolute might of the Master of Yi City and the primordial gods that he had fought, meaning that they were really open to new ideas at the time.


    Finally, the last thing to pop into her mind before she came near enough to the arena to require any of her mental energy to understand the things around her, was the discovery about her own unhealthy tendencies, which were somewhat awakened so early as in the first weeks of her life in the prison realm, during that one attempt to attack her while she rested inside of an inn.


    Back then, putting on clothing to repel the attack seemed unnecessary, especially as her notably stricter focus on the goal of freeing herself and fighting back against the Greats would not allow such nonsensical ideas as shame or modesty to enter her mind ¨C what was the use of either if they could cost her life or the success of her goals? Now, having escaped and understood that some delays would be necessary before she could go all out against the Great Families, she had recovered some traces of both, making it very clear that there was a trace of enjoyment within exposing herself, or dominating others, or, in an entirely different way, patting the head of someone and watching them visibly struggle to comprehend what just happened.


    ¡®Still, no matter how much free time I do have, wasting it on this kind of thing is still inefficient when I could be attempting to improve my techniques, be observing Senior Yi Yi and his attempts to understand the process of making blood wine, and the like,¡¯ she reminded herself, having noticed that she had quite the ability to get distracted by tangents of the erotic or lewd kind, which could be highly dangerous if she encountered a woman that wielded the same technique as the one that Yi Jiazhi had attempted to use against her with little success.


    Her significant mental foundation would protect against those kinds of techniques, but if a first generation member of a Great Family attempted to do the same thing, with the power to cause entirely new ideas and thoughts to sprout within her mind, she might not be able to do much against such a form of attack.


    ¡®I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve checked whether mental attacks can be tested within the Realm of Potential. If they can, I will most certainly need to practise extensively, just to be absolutely certain that I can withstand any kind of influence or temptation,¡¯ she noted this in the Ascendant¡¯s Library, then brought all of her focus back onto reality, where she and a number of combatants from the Brotherhood of Power had arrived to the arena just as the doors for the competitors were opening, meaning that they would not need to stand around and risk standing around beside the Gang Hong Clan for an unpleasant length of time.


    Luo Lia Kun arrived some time later, her gaze having returned to the state it had been in prior to the sparring session with Wei Yi, granting her the aura of authority and confidence that seemed to have been entirely weathered away during her brief stay in Chao Ru¡¯s residence.


    As if on cue, the quarterstaff wielding warrior arrived soon after, also looking as she did at the beginning of the previous day¡­ until she glanced in Wei Yi¡¯s direction and blushed vividly, biting her lower lip as she looked away and pretended not to notice her. Due to the extreme vibrance of her embarrassed expression, however, she had been seen by everyone with functioning eyesight, and so her little act was of little use.


    She tried to hide for a little longer, but perhaps realising that the number of eyes on her would actually lessen if she acted as she had initially wanted to, she took a deep breath, raised her head and headed over to Wei Yi, although her hands continued to fidget in a manner that made it seem as if she was an inexperienced girl trying to ask out someone she liked.


    ¡°H-Hey,¡± she said, still unable to look her straight in the eyes, ¡°Last night was, uh¡­ really intense¡­ for me¡­ I would love to do that again, and again, and- ahem¡­¡±


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯m open to it. You did say you wanted me to help train you, too, didn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Train? O-Oh, shit, I did say that,¡± Chao Ru realised that it, amongst a lot of other things, must have slipped her head the previous night, ¡°Right, I still want that too¡­ Rather, I know I need that more than¡­ no¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, we don¡¯t need to spend as much time on one thing in the future, so we¡¯ll have plenty of time for training and fun,¡± she stated in reply, ¡°I¡¯d not ruin your chances here just to have some fun.¡±


    ¡°Well, with everything that you¡¯re able to do¡­ Maybe that would be a different kind of power that I could showcase,¡± the quarterstaff wielder managed to say with no stuttering, somehow redirecting all of the vocal embarrassment into an even more intense blush, ¡°I mean, I¡¯d been with quite a few people before, but those were usually limited to a day or two, and neither of us had much creativity besides, y¡¯know, the obvious stuff¡­¡±


    ¡®I do, but if you¡¯re intending not to be blushing all day, saying in this in front of a large group is rather counterproductive,¡¯ Wei Yi commented internally, although she wouldn¡¯t say something so aware out loud, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t be able to use these kinds of methods against most men, though.¡±


    ¡°Wha- ah. Yes¡­ You¡¯re right¡­ Fair enough,¡± she sighed, clearly put off by the idea as her blush diminished significantly.


    They stood beside one another for a while, with Wei Yi not attempting to engage in conversation while Chao Ru was in too confused a state to properly make an attempt of her own, thus standing by until Luo Lia Kun joined them, managing to keep her calm far better than the quarterstaff wielder even as she began to speak.


    ¡°Are you feeling well today, Chao Ru?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes, of course, why wouldn¡¯t I be?¡± she nodded, ¡°I¡¯m always up and ready to go!¡±


    ¡°Good. It¡¯s good to see that you¡¯ve recovered from yesterday. Has Wei Yi informed you about the slight change in your opposition?¡±


    ¡°Naturally, their cultivation has- wait, what do you mean? I-I didn¡¯t do anything that bad yesterday.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you and-¡± Luo Lia Kun stopped the moment that she understood exactly what the other woman was doing, prompting her to cough and hastily change the subject, ¡°Just in case you need a reminder, you are very likely to be fighting foes in the Half-Step and full Active Core realm in a minute, so make sure that you are very careful. Don¡¯t let your guard down just because you might have easily defeated them the previous day.¡±


    ¡°Alright¡­ and thanks¡­¡±


    While she continued blushing on her own, Luo Lia Kun turned to Wei Yi and asked to speak with her away from the blushing mess of a warrior.


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t think that I¡¯ve ever seen that woman be so flustered as she is today. I¡¯m rather afraid to ask any questions about what had happened, or I may be unable to fight with Shi Taihao properly at the end of the day¡­¡± she said, shuddering at the very thought, ¡°However, I would like to make sure that you are aware of a few things before you go off with any more members of the Brotherhood.¡±


    ¡°Oh, sure. What is it?¡±


    ¡°I just want to inform you about the Brotherhood¡¯s policy on relationships. Neither I nor the leader are against any kind of, shall we say, friendly interactions between members, but I would appreciate it if you could strive not to tire everyone out to such a great extent in the future,¡± Luo Lia Kun said.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I can control myself. I¡¯ve just been travelling for quite some time, so it¡¯s been a while, y¡¯know?¡±


    ¡°R-Right¡­ Anyway, I need to be anywhere but here, so good luck, and may your sands be still,¡± she used a phrase from the Northern Desert as she turned away and rushed off to the spectator stands, leaving Wei Yi there to wait for her turn in the arena. She could have remained there for a little while longer, but she saw her raise her hand as if to pat her on the head once more and did not wish such a thing to be seen by others in the Brotherhood.


    She also had no ability to stop Wei Yi, as her physical strength was far too great and drawing upon planar energy to resist a pat on the head would bring far too much attention to her actions, resulting in the exact same result as not avoiding it whatsoever.


    As Wei Yi was mostly doing this to explore her limits and to see what she could get away with, she didn¡¯t mind in the slightest, although she was curious what the vice-leader would do if they were the only ones in a room once more. Would she be a little more open to the rather uncommon expression of approval, or perhaps even something more, given that she had been showing some interest in their nightly activities, was something that she was curious to learn for the sake of her personal interest and entertainment, as well as a potential weapon to use later.


    Despite what she had said to Chao Ru, she did think that there were plenty of methods of succeeding, and that their numbers were more limited by which ones a person was willing to use, rather than their quantity. The likes of the Greats were very well aware of this, considering how much they had done in the past to ensure their dominance, and she had understood this as well, except the methods that she was willing to use and the goals she was aiming for differed significantly.


    Perhaps due to the extensive amount of time that she had spent right below a network of brothels within Beast¡¯s Rest, she had little opposition to the concept, and although she did not intend to actively sell herself to build up the funds for a war against the Great Families ¨C although establishing some brothels throughout the districts could be a wise idea so long as she was able to prevent overly eager individuals from harassing, attacking or possibly even trying to kidnap those that they find attractive just to force them to remain with them and only them ¨C if she could advance her goals through some use of her sexuality, she wouldn¡¯t necessarily be opposed to it.


    ¡®Yet again, that¡¯s something for far, far later down the line, since there¡¯s no way that I can establish and keep any kind of business open in the long term, as the Greats would be bound to hear of someone who fits the description of one of their prisoners and investigate, and if there is anything to make them assume that I am an escapee, they will be bound to investigate the prison realm and send in someone to confirm whether it is still in the same state as it had been. At that point, they would either avoid using it in the future, or send in a force to recapture it, and even with Yi Shi Ming¡¯s aid, keeping them away would be incredibly difficult,¡¯ she considered, as the strongest of the Greats should be in the seventh realm, the same as Yi Shi Ming, ¡®With everything from the era of the Master of Yi City, she should be able to deal with one or two, but if there is a Great Family for every single district, then she would have dozens of foes. Too many, in short.¡¯


    Instead of this, she brought her spiritual perception out of the room for combatants and followed Chao Ru as she left the chamber alongside another to face off against two foes from the side of the Gang Hong Clan, quickly confirming the vice-leader¡¯s speculation and observation.


    The two men were both in the Half-Step Active Core realm, made obvious by the faint sheen of solidified planar energy around their hands that remained within the third realm, suggesting that their core had formed, but that their energy had not advanced with it. That both of them managed to attain the same outcome was fortunate for them, as they would both be able to attack with far denser and harder energy that couldn¡¯t easily be dispersed or dispelled by powerful attacks, although if one had acquired fourth realm energy while the other had solidified energy, the latter could have sealed the former¡¯s power within his own energy and thus gain the benefits of both.


    ¡®Most don¡¯t choose which one of the two possible outcomes they receive, and not everyone has enough control over their own energy to be able to perform something like that without more than a single night to practise, so perhaps Shi Taihao decided that this combination would be superior against someone with weaker control over planar energy,¡¯ she understood, paying careful attention to them and to Chao Ru, as she did not want someone she had slept with the day prior to die on her watch.


    In the long run, she knew that she would not be able to protect everyone, so she did not plan to forge some kind of harem wherein she would safeguard anyone who she managed to bed.


    She didn¡¯t expect to need to provide much help during the upcoming battle, or in the future, as a result of her earlier actions, but it never hurt to remain on guard, especially if she could catch some meddling from the other side, which she could randomly comment on in the manner that would be expected from Wei Yi the Clawed Warrior, thus giving the Brotherhood of Power some leverage over the Gang Hong Clan with little actual effort required from her. Depending on the nature of the interference, she could even learn from it and use it against the other side.


    Perhaps the most fun thing that she expected from this, however, was the reaction that Chao Ru would have upon noticing a slight difference within her own strength.


    ¡°Alright, everyone, the second and final day of the duels begins! Our first battle features familiar faces, so I won¡¯t bother introducing them, but I will point out one detail I notice regarding each one instead! The two on the Gang Hong Clan¡¯s side have both advanced the previous night, so they now possess a cultivation of Half-Step Active Core! Exciting!¡±


    Some of the audience shared his excitement, but the rest wished for him to move on, so he did.


    ¡°On the side of the Brotherhood of Power, the man appears to have a good night¡¯s rest. As for the woman¡­ Heavens, she is practically glowing today! Can you see that, everyone?¡±


    Chao Ru froze, her eyes widening slightly as she attempted to inconspicuously glance down at herself to check his description for herself, at which point she felt her heart begin to race. She had not noticed it until then, but her skin did look as if she had lost a few years of age and had just exited the baths.


    In her surprise, she openly glanced behind herself, her eyes meeting with Wei Yi¡¯s.


    ¡°Ohoho¡­ Ahem. Now that everyone is seated and prepared, you may begin¡­ Now!¡±


    With the embarrassment of all of the eyes on her, Chao Ru moved first, and with speed that she did not expect to ever be able to produce, rushing towards the nearest foe without any care for the potential attacks that could be directed towards her. As a result of having slept around with quite a few other women, it had been a long time since she experienced either the immense sensations of yesterday, as well as any shame regarding her activities, so now that she felt it again, it was far more intense than she could handle without blatantly showing it.


    Her foe couldn¡¯t miss something this obvious, and so he capitalised on the obvious nature of her strike by quickly throwing out several layers of solidified energy to block her quarterstaff, then prepared a technique with which to target her heart.


    In his eagerness to capitalise on a lack of caution, he himself was unnecessarily reckless, forgetting to prepare a single defensive talisman.


    Chao Ru saw the barriers appear, and just as he expected, she paid no mind to them, thrusting her quarterstaff forwards with the intention of breaking through them, realising only the instant that the tip of her weapon came into contact with the planar energy that her meagre physical strength wouldn¡¯t be enough to do more than lightly crack the first of the series of four barriers. That was the limitation of her physique-less form, and to surpass them, she couldn¡¯t even imagine what she might need to do.


    And yet, even as she prepared to fail her attack and considered some method to defend against the strike that would have to be being prepared already, something beneath her skin, within her muscles, glistened like the sun, and the strength within her strike felt as if it had tripled.


    The tip of her staff not only went straight through the first barrier, but then the second and the third, the fourth only pausing the tip of her weapon for only a single instant before it shattered and the quarterstaff struck the man¡¯s ribs, knocking him back and entirely disrupting the circulation of energy within his body.


    Before he could react, Chao Ru delivered a second strike to his head, throwing him entirely off balance, then followed up with the hardest blow she could deliver straight to his abdomen, as the rules dictated that attacking any lower would be punished regardless of effectiveness and effect, but she primarily intended to target the dantian, even while knowing that it was protected by the core of the fourth realm. She couldn¡¯t tell whether this was just the overexcitement from her extreme success getting into her head, or if she actually stood a chance at disabling his cultivation, but as her staff was already descending, she saw no opportunity to change her intent.


    As if to cooperate with her attempt, that glistening golden light within her muscles infused deeply into them, vanishing in their entirety, but their strengthening effect appeared to only grow.


    Her quarterstaff dug into the man¡¯s abdomen, audibly colliding with some sort of invisible force that pushed ¨C no, threw ¨C her back with great force, practically sending her flying directly into her other foe, who disengaged from his current engagement and tried to take advantage of her uncontrollable flight to stab at her own dantian, which lacked the same protection due to only being in the third realm, but she deftly deflected the strike.


    ¡®Heavens, what is happening? Everything feels so much slower, and their attacks are so much weaker¡­ It couldn¡¯t be that just sleeping with a woman can do this? No, this is the first time something like this has happened, so¡­ Is it something about her physique, perhaps?¡¯ she guessed, becoming a little more comfortable with her newfound strength and speed by blocking a few more simple strikes from the second foe while she continued thinking, ¡®So she not only knows of things that I could never imagine, and is incredibly skilled with every part of her body, but she has somehow strengthened me to such an extent? I¡­ I might actually develop feelings for her¡­¡¯


    However, a combination of emotions that she couldn¡¯t name on short notice arose within her, prompting her to attempt to ward them off by engaging in combat with far greater effort and intensity than before.


    Each time she pushed herself further, she found herself gaining a little more power, encouraging her to go even further the next strike, quickly bringing her into a battle with both opponents, while her ally had little choice but to back away and to target those foes from the back so that he wouldn¡¯t get in her way, with both his cultivation and strength being inferior to her.


    By some fortune, she caught herself just before she attempted to go too far, limiting her exertion to a level where she could continue fighting for some time before focusing on ending this battle as quickly as possible, as the more time she spent at her current strength, the better her foes would become at managing it, and would eventually be able to regain their initial advantage and defeat her, at which point they would likely end her life due to the sudden growth that she had just displayed.


    ¡®I cannot let them do that!¡¯ she knew, for losing her life would be an obvious failure on her part, ¡®Whether I was gifted this by Wei Yi, or if I have just uncovered some hidden strength, I will not let it go to waste!¡¯


    She unleashed her planar energy at that point, flooding the quarterstaff with a deep green hue that caused a burst of wind to emanate from it, her short blond hair quivering in the localised wind, as the entirety of her body gained a similar light as the third-realm energy permeated her entire being. This method of infusing the self with planar energy might often be viewed as primitive and unsuited for those within her realm, but empowering herself through planar energy had allowed her to get as far as she did, being considered capable even within such an organisation as the Brotherhood of Power, so she would never forsake it simply out of shame or outside pressure.


    Dodging to the right in order to get both her foes closer to one another, she charged forward, practically shutting her eyes as she focused on nothing but maximising the effectiveness of each strike.


    Thus, it came as somewhat of a surprise when she suddenly heard the announcer declare, ¡°And so the Brotherhood of Power claims victory! Let me be the first to say that I had not expected this, and that I am now far more glad that I had made a certain bet the other day. Hehe¡­ Now, once these combatants leave the arena, you shall get to see the clawed maniac once more!¡±


    Chao Ru was so invigorated and lost at the same time that she was able to ignore her earlier thoughts.

 V3C41: The Competition, Part 4

    While Wei Yi couldn¡¯t say that she appreciated the nickname that had been given to her, it was one that made sense for the persona that she had been intending to portray, so she could not count it as anything other than a success alongside Chao Ru¡¯s victory.


    She hadn¡¯t had many opportunities to experiment with that particular method of strengthening another, given the fact that it required a rather intimate situation and what could only be described as an excess of fluid consumption by the one being strengthened, but it did allow her to confirm that through a slight stimulation of her physique energy, it could permeate the body and then affect another, albeit to a far more limited extent.


    In theory, blood or even saliva would be a far better conduit through which to transfer traces of  physique energy, given the fact that the former was somehow more conventional while the latter could be accomplished through numerous semi-casual kisses, but the former did bring her onto a slightly different form of power ¨C bloodlines.


    Besides the case of Chao Jianhong, the Lady of Ashes turned draconic hybrid, there were quite a few interesting cases of bloodlines of powerful beasts influencing the body, mind and energy of others. Some were born with the bloodlines of an ancient beast as a result of a long forgotten night shared by a human and what was hopefully a humanoid planar beast, or, at the very least, a planar beast in human form, gaining powers that were becoming rather subdued the more generations passed and the more human features one gained, whereas others attempted similar experiments with blood and bloodlines as the Blood-tinged Church and had some degrees of success every now and then.


    The primary point in all of this is that bloodlines contained a sort of inherent power that caused those who consume blood containing them to be transformed by the bloodline, especially when it is stimulated by a technique, array or ritual, or some combination of the three, and that her physique energy was currently behaving in a somewhat similar manner when similarly stimulated, suggesting a few possibilities straight away.


    One was that the long-term effects of the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique had altered her body permanently, changing the very bloodline within her and imbuing it with its properties, meaning that she had taken a step away from common humanity before even reaching the appropriate realms.


    Another was that there was a far closer link between physiques and bloodlines than she had initially assumed when first realising that all forms of energy were inherently linked with planar energy, thus also confirming the theory that was held by many that those born to large families gained greater talent not just due to the resources afforded to them, but also due to the powerful realms reached by their ancestors. This would be far more natural if bloodlines simply required particularly powerful energy to be altered, and it would mean that if she did ever have a child, he or she would inherit much of her talent and power, allowing them to advance in realms far more quickly than most other people.


    She still didn¡¯t have any intentions to test this without some secret method to impregnate another woman on her own, which was unlikely to be created or discovered any time soon, but it did give her a little more confidence in the possibility of having a child that could actually have the ability to take care of him or herself even if she was unable to take care of her at all times.


    ¡®The main point, however, is that bloodlines function on a sort of hierarchy, from what I understand. Humans have the weakest bloodline of all cultivating entities, and dragons, phoenixes and the like have some of the strongest. The weak become transformed by the bloodlines they attempt to take in, changing themselves to suit the blood, whereas the strong can take in features of the bloodline, changing it to suit themselves. In theory, if I was able to obtain a bloodline through the use of the Yin-Yang Ascendant, Ascendant¡¯s Dao and Path, and the killing will that I cultivate, I might be able to empower it with bloodlines of a low power until I am able to absorb a draconic bloodline without much risk,¡¯ Wei Yi theorised as she headed out onto the arena, the possibility being a rather enticing one, especially when she glanced inwardly at the empty meridian network within herself, ¡®Given that bloodlines are also a consequence of planar energy, it might be possible to cultivate them as well.¡¯


    Although she still didn¡¯t think that she should grab the blood of any random planar beast and consume it, she did want to visit the Blood-bound Pursuers and investigate whether they had any understanding of this matter, or if they knew of the Blood-tinged Church and had any relation to them.


    Even if they didn¡¯t, with a name like the Blood-bound Pursuers, they were bound to have plenty of interesting information stored away somewhere, hopefully without much protection from spiritual perception so that she would be able to read it with minimal effort and obtain as much of their knowledge as possible without needing to chase down their leader and defeat them, or something along those lines.


    Once again, that was something for later. For now, she was finally facing the Warlord¡¯s Banners physique ¨C or, rather, Luo Rongmeng.


    Beside him, there were two more foes for her to deal with, two overly burly and muscular women, both in the Half-Step Active Core, although one had the realm-appropriate energy whereas the other possessed the core that allowed him to solidify planar energy. Luo Rongmeng himself was only in the ninth stage of Emergent Anchor, but it was obvious to most that he was the most dangerous amongst the three due to his physique, which had won him almost every battle that he had participated in.


    Much like Wei Yi had been chosen to partake in every duel that she could, he was also set to participate in the majority of upcoming duels, which meant that if he fell now, he would either need to be replaced with another, weaker combatant, or the Gang Hong Clan would have to make do with one less person for those particular fights.


    Regardless of what they would go with, it was obvious that getting rid of him now was the best course of action, and she was fortunately quite prepared for this.


    She had spent a little more time within the Realm of Potential while waiting for the first duel to begin, and while waiting for the people beaten by Chao Ru to be removed from the arena, and although it had not given her enough time to raise the stage of any of her techniques, she had specifically planned out this fight to understand how to best defeat him while allowing him to expend as little of his precious energy as possible, as, although he lacked physique energy as she understood it, utilising the physique would still drain a form of energy separate from his planar energy.


    The less of that energy that he spent, the larger the chance of her successfully awakening the Warlord¡¯s Banners physique ability, empowering her own physique energy and adding a powerful tool to her arsenal with far less effort than consistently destroying her body with failed talismans.


    As for those on her side¡­ She had managed to convince Luo Lia Kun to submit a slightly incorrect version of the combatant order to the arena that listed two people that didn¡¯t quite exist within the Brotherhood of Power, whether as permanent members or temporary hires, meaning that she was free to fight on her own, without needing to watch out for allies.


    Up on the spectator stands, Shi Taihao noted the significant difference in quantity between the two sides and looked across at Luo Lia Kun, attempting to figure out something from her expression, but he only saw confidence, meaning that this wasn¡¯t an actual mistake.


    She had meant to submit that list, which meant that she was staking her hopes on that one woman.


    In her position, Shi Taihao would have done the same, although he would have still given her the same backup as he had given Luo Rongmeng, since fighting against crowds always put one at a disadvantage. It was well known that a cultivator in the third realm could be killed even by ordinary folk, so long as they had enough time, patience, and sharp objects to stab their dantian or eye with, and while this was made significantly more difficult in the fourth realm and above, it still wasn¡¯t impossible for someone with enough commitment to penetrate the core and shatter the anchor within.


    That there was no one to assist Wei Yi this time, to him, meant that just as he had managed to obtain a fortunate opportunity and advance the realms of most of his warriors, so did Luo Lia Kun.


    ¡®Hold on, I don¡¯t think that she had ever used her planar energy outwardly so far,¡¯ Shi Taihao recalled, his eyes narrowing slightly, ¡®Was that because she has little ability to use it, or is that because she has not yet needed to unleash it even once?¡¯


    With her claws at the ready, Wei Yi smiled with as much confidence as she could infuse into every single one of her expressions, silently circulating her cosmic energy as she prepared to follow a little bit of the advice that had been given to her earlier, to strike out at full force and not give a single opportunity for the banner-wielding man to utilise his few advantages to potentially inflict some serious form of damage upon her.


    Meanwhile, Luo Rongmeng did almost the exact same thing, for he had sufficient experience in battle to know that the foe that he faced was not a simple one.


    ¡°Following up on my earlier re-introduction, I will begin with the only individual on the side of the Brotherhood of Power ¨C she must have far bigger balls than all of those in the Gang Hong Clan combined to be going against one of their greatest fighters in the Emergent Anchor realm!¡± the announcer exclaimed, ¡°I¡¯m surprised she wasn¡¯t picked up by the Gang Hong Clan, frankly.¡±


    His voice went quiet as the talisman he had been using finally turned to ash, doing so at the perfect time to not broadcast the numerous complaints he received from some of the organisers of the event. By the time that he activated a new talisman, a few minutes passed.


    ¡°As for the other side, there isn¡¯t much to say. Everyone has advanced, two are now in the Half-Step Active Core realm, which feels far more common than any half-step realm has even been, except for the guy in the middle, who has carried the Gang Hong Clan quite far, much like that woman has brought the Brotherhood of Power far further than they would have otherwise gotten. Now, let us see which one is stronger! Begin!¡±


    Neither of them took their time to start. As always, Wei Yi disappeared, this time doing so in a flash of flame, a pair of five scorching trails appearing within the air and flying straight towards Luo Rongmeng, as if her claws were able to sever the very space itself with their flaming tips, ignited by the planar energy infused throughout the star metal.


    The two on Luo Rongmeng¡¯s left and right rushed forward to block her path and to protect him, intending to give him some time to set down his banners as to be able to confront the warrior with a little more preparation and more favourable odds, but the instant that Wei Yi¡¯s form reappeared before them, the twin trails of flame cut straight through their forms twice, severing countless blood vessels within their bodies and almost splitting them in half, with only feeble links of flesh and muscle keeping them together, while their clothing was absolutely ruined.


    In an instant, they were brought to the very edge of their life, but they did manage to delay her for just a moment.


    As she hastened towards him once more, the motions to set down a banner were already midway through completion, and thus she was in the perfect place to witness a banner drop from the sky with a fog of blood obscuring her vision, shading everything before her in a dark crimson.


    The banner fell behind Luo Rongmeng, far enough to the point that the range of its effect and the circle around it just barely included Wei Yi, but she couldn¡¯t think of retreating as the moment that she gave him the opportunity to set down more banners, or do something else that she had not yet witnessed. Instead, she directed an even greater quantity of planar energy into her legs, practically vanishing from sight once more.


    A set of five scorching lines descended upon Luo Rongmeng, who reacted just in time to activate the mark upon one of the banners hanging from his shoulders, a powerful banner-like barrier surging from it and blocking her strike, although it immediately crumbled the moment that her claws separated from it.


    It also didn¡¯t push her back in the slightest, so while he attempted to retreat, she aimed her strikes at him again and again. Each attack was able to deplete a single one of the protective marks, but it also permitted him to get closer to his own banner, and for more of the energy within to seep into herself.


    Due to nothing but the burning tips of her claws remaining visible for long, the slight smile that appeared upon her face was unseen by all that she was aware of, and those few that might have the ability to view her even during such fast movement would be unlikely notice it. She pressed on with great haste, slashing, cutting, and stabbing over and over, mark after protective mark cracking under her onslaught.


    Traces of impatience appeared upon Luo Rongmeng¡¯s face, as more than half of the marks upon the banners on his left shoulder were already absent, and they were almost being cleared away more and more quickly as if she had gotten even more used to attacking him specifically, and he almost panicked the moment that one side of his banners was entirely used up as he had delayed attacking for so long specifically so that she could be affected by the banner energy and be made slower and weaker. Just as he thought that he would need to attempt to use his combat abilities and try and find some opening within her attacks, she suddenly stumbled due to those strange boots of hers, falling feebly towards him.


    The opportunity was so perfect that he couldn¡¯t possibly fail to take it.


    He raised one hand into the air to call down a bronze fist, while using the other to focus the energy for another combat technique that he was slightly less proficient in, but that he needed to use to ensure this insane warrior would be defeated promptly ¨C using a second fist wouldn¡¯t have been practical.


    For the final nail in the coffin, he also activated all of the energy that had to have accumulated within her body, not necessarily intending to cause her to crumble to the ground, but to do anything to further contribute to the mistake that she appeared to have made. So long as he could guarantee a few powerful strikes, a few great impacts on the points of greatest significance, he would claim this victory for himself, for the Gang Hong Clan, and receive a great deal of rewards and resources, now and in the future, that would easily allow him to reach the fifth realm, at the very least.


    And yet, mid-fall of both her and the fist above her, the foot that had stumbled suddenly landed on the ground with unparalleled surety, allowing her to entirely dodge the area where the bronze fist would fall, and slashed upwards with both of her claws, the very air pressure from them cutting into the man¡¯s clothes, slightly cooking the flesh beneath due to the immense heat within it.


    Midway through the attack, all of the flame on the tips of her dark claws exploded to cover the entirety of her hand, and then expanded even further, transforming into the claws of a great flaming bird, the name of which could not possibly be mistaken.


    ¡°Shit, that¡¯s a phoenix! Wait, don¡¯t- no, stop hitting- ah!¡± the announcer was not having a good day.


    Nevertheless, the observation could not be denied. Although not a single soul within the Luo District had seen a true phoenix, as they were as long-gone as the primordial deities of the times before the Master of Yi City, their images were still clearly within their minds, for their might and grandiosity had once been cast in metal within the memories of a shattered world, and to remember what had been before the Master of Yi City rose to his place and freed them, they made sure that the great beasts of the past could never be forgotten.


    It was for this reason that so much knowledge had been available to someone who was only in the first realm at the time, although some of her information was obtained due to her identity as part of the Yi family, but even if she hadn¡¯t had access to libraries that were exclusive to that family, she could have easily learned all of the same facts without too much effort.


    Dragons, phoenixes, qilins and the like were all described with great clarity, and so, when feather-like flames, or perhaps flame-like feathers, bird-like claws and the faint cry of a majestic avian creature were perceived all at once by the crowd, and by the one being targeted by them, they couldn¡¯t possibly mistake the source for anything else. However, the question that arose within their minds was of the origin of the flames ¨C was this the cause of her physique, some distant bloodline that manifested with the use of flame-type techniques, or was a claw-based technique of the third realm capable of producing such a fantastic visage?


    With her spiritual perception, Wei Yi quickly gathered that her attempts had been successful, as her current techniques and usage of them bore no resemblance to the draconic methods of the Scorching Blades.


    Perhaps it was the strike itself that was far more successful, since even as countless talisman marks soared from Luo Rongmeng¡¯s banners, the flames tore straight through them with such might that the barriers did not have a single opportunity to form, nor did the attack that he had initially aimed at her have any chance of hitting. Furthermore, the suddenness of planar techniques from someone who had previously seemed to have no ability to use planar energy at all distracted him, albeit for a moment, preventing him from capitalising on the golden opportunity that had been handed to him. Perhaps if he had properly anticipated this, such an outcome would not have occurred, but alas, the seemingly victorious would not always observe everything as objectively as they could.


    Whereas the air emanating from her claws was enough to lightly toast skin and flesh, the actual phoenix flame and the claws beneath it were more than sufficient to tear through most armour and weapons made from common materials, regardless of whether they were artefacts or not.


    This was the gift of cosmic energy, and the incredible quantity of yang imbued into her every technique due to the Yin-Yang Ascendant, resulting in an inferno that a true phoenix would likely be proud of¡­ Well, no. That was simply impossible, as even the weakest dragons and phoenixes were said to be born in the fifth realm, then naturally rose to the seventh realm as they aged, having the potential to ascend to the eighth realm through stimulating their bloodline and gathering energy in a slightly different manner to most humans.


    For a moment, she pondered whether she could attempt to adapt some non-human techniques for herself, but then recalled that the Scorching Blades¡¯ techniques had already done exactly that, emulating the nature of the dragons in an attempt to make themselves more suitable for absorbing the blood of a dragon the moment that they understood how to do so in a proper, safe manner.


    Also, she was mid-slash with flaming claws. This was not the best time for consideration of one¡¯s cultivation path.


    With a burst of raw power, a shockwave shaking the entire arena, she left behind a shallow mark upon his front, instantly cauterising any semblance of an open wound, but also disfiguring his face and body in an instant, wide burnt gashes remaining upon his once pristine flesh.


    Despite that, he survived due to the defensive imbuement from the banner that was right behind him, as well as the deliberate restraint displayed by Wei Yi during her strike. She hadn¡¯t forgotten about her initial intent, but it was due to a discovery that she was no longer worried in the slightest about him running out of his energy by wasting all of it on his banner.


    It was also due to this that she immediately taunted him, ¡°Come on, you¡¯ve beaten so many people with those banners of yours. Use them on me! Come on!¡±


    Luo Rongmeng was not in the right mind to argue, nor to comprehend why she was not attacking him. He had little choice but to throw all of his energy into calling down two more banners, filling them all with the most strength that he could possibly infuse into any technique when most of his meridians were at the edge of melting due to the absolute heat that had flooded him only moments prior. What he was able to do, alongside the fact that he still moved and fought, prevented anyone from the arena from ending the battle, as they misinterpreted the odds due to the lacking damage dealt by Wei Yi.


    Even Shi Taihao couldn¡¯t warn his warrior in time, as he was too busy deliberating whether this was the provocation of an idiot who did not know her limits, or the action of someone who was very well aware of exactly what they could and could not survive, and exactly how she could do it.


    Thus, two banners fell from the sky, their energy merging with the one behind him, the one that he now practically leaned against to remain standing, and their circles of energy fractured as all of it was directed towards Wei Yi without any restrain whatsoever, despite the deterioration that it appeared to cause to both the cloth on the banners and the man himself, violating some key principle of the physique just to further this one, singular, decisive attack, a small part of him believing that it could truly work, that his attack could actually tear her down and kill her, defeating this flaming monstrosity once and for all.


    However, the smile on her face only grew as she gladly took in all of the energy from the banners and broke it down with the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique energy, not giving it a single chance to affect her in a negative manner as it slowly added to her physique foundation and unlocked the ability that she sought from him, although she could tell that it would be unlikely to come from this one encounter.


    Simply put, he was already far too exhausted, and his physique had never been cultivated properly. He lacked the energy needed to allow her to replicate the Warlord¡¯s Banners in full, regardless of how eager she was to obtain the power of another absolute physique.


    ¡®In that case, I suppose that I have no choice but to end it now. You tried¡­ you did try.¡¯


    She had talked a lot about tearing out hearts within her two days of acting in this district, so she did not intend to allow such a major foe to be defeated without displaying her well-practised skills before this audience, so that they could be certain that she hadn¡¯t just been talking out of her ass the entire time. Thus, she drew back her hand, holding her fingers in just the right positions to grasp the heart the moment that the claws pierced his flesh, and thrust it into him.


    ¡°AH! NO, I-¡±


    Whether he was going to surrender or offer her something to encourage her to keep him alive, she didn¡¯t want to hear any of it.


    Her clawed left hand grasped the beating muscle in his chest and held onto it tightly, before immediately pulling her hand out. The moment that the heart, alongside some ribs and other pieces of flesh, left his body, so did an enormous gush of blood, painting the arena ground in the life-filled crimson of someone with a wondrous physique, although none of that energy had the opportunity to leak out as she consumed it with a silent strand of physique energy burning any traces of it out of his body.


    Some might have the necessary understanding of physiques to realise what had happened and question it, but that was the benefit of her persona. Few would believe her to have the attention to do more than one thing at a time, and with how impactful the move was, even the more tactical amongst the audience wouldn¡¯t have been able to focus properly.


    Combat between cultivators took many forms. Some were clean and simple, and others were incredibly vicious, bloody, dirty and, some would say, utterly horrible, but certain things were still seen far less than others. Amongst that ambiguous list of things was the highly non-surgical removal of the heart, while it still beat, from the chest of another, for it tended to be far more practical to stab, cut, pierce or sever the heart rather than going through the effort of actively taking it out of the body.


    As a result, the sight was rather astounding, although few would view it in a strictly positive manner.


    Exceptions were present during that very duel, of course, like a lone guard that was staring, doe-eyed, at the battle and constantly cheering silently for Wei Yi, but cultivator society tended to view itself as somewhat more refined than that, hence the wines, robes and other stylistic choices.


    ¡°T-The Brotherhood of Power is victorious! Well, that was¡­ something¡­¡± the announcer was among those that couldn¡¯t quite handle the extreme outcome of the heart removal, although he gathered himself quite quickly and continued, ¡°With just one battle, the chances of the Gang Hong Clan winning have dropped significantly. Everyone who bet some money on their victory better not rush to try and undo their transactions, or else the guards around here will finally have someone to beat up, other than me.¡±


    Besides a few guffaws at what his wording suggested, most of the arena remained rather quiet, none being sure enough of themselves to begin an applause or do much besides staring at the enormous mark of blood left behind, being expanded even further by the crimson pool forming around Luo Rongmeng¡¯s body, not that the Brotherhood of Power or Wei Yi herself minded. After her victory was announced, she just walked out in an aloof manner, cleansing her body of the blood that had fallen upon it with yin physique energy as to not attract attention.


    The moment that she caught sight of Chao Ru, she smiled towards her and waved, breaking everyone within the Brotherhood of Power¡¯s area out of their trance.


    Whatever she had begun to morph into within their minds, whether that was a terrible demon, a merciless slaughterer of men, or the reckoning of a new age, she quickly returned to resembling an ordinary, somewhat foolish girl that was just acting in the most effective manner that she could think of, even if it wasn¡¯t necessarily the most efficient.


    ¡°Wei Yi, you managed it¡­¡± Chao Ru said, similarly recovering from the earlier sight, ¡°I was worried when I saw that you stumbled, and I thought that you¡¯d be killed¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, that guy wasn¡¯t very strong. He had way too many banners as well. What¡¯s the point of having so many of them when they don¡¯t even have anything on them?¡± Wei Yi questioned, earning a slight chuckle from those who hadn¡¯t fought against Luo Rongmeng, and an impressed look from those who did, as this was the strongest technique that he had been able to display. The bronze fists were far more solid than most planar constructs at the third realm, but they were rudimentary and weak in comparison to the weakening and strengthening effects of the banners, which could potentially allow even a normal human to endure the attacks of a cultivator.


    ¡°Right¡­ You can sit here for a while¡­¡±


    Oculus

 V3C42: The Competition, Part 5

    At first, the Gang Hong Clan was rather confident, claiming a few victories while Wei Yi and Chao Ru, the two aberrant fighters, weren¡¯t participating, but they were claimed less definitively than they would have preferred.


    When those two, as well as some of the stronger fighters from the Brotherhood of Power, did return into the arena, they began to suffer loss after all, balancing out the numbers to the point that the two groups were almost equal in terms of scores by the time that the day was coming to a close, meaning that there would need to be one more duel by the end of it.


    Before that, though, Wei Yi was able to conclude one more fight with one more final gain for the day, which was the advancement of the Heeled Balance Art and the Phoenix Transformation into the Minor Achievement stage, which didn¡¯t reveal any particular advanced abilities from these two principles, but did greatly raise their power and stability, meaning that she was effectively more capable of walking around in the heeled boots than on her bare feet, although she would be lying if she said that she didn¡¯t prefer the latter situation.


    The Phoenix Transformation modifier was also significantly easier to use and was now sufficiently stable to be applied to other techniques, beyond the small strengthening effect that it offered initially.


    Hopefully, if she was able to advance it to the Full Success stage, she would eventually be able to bring out the true nature of a phoenix rather than just the imitation that she currently displayed, much like the Scorching Blades showcased some approximation of the true nature of a dragon, perhaps allowing it to imbue her flame-based techniques in a similar way to the golden shade that oft appeared within them, or a similar shade that appeared within her blood-type planar energy.


    That would take time, and she didn¡¯t have it right now as the entirety of the Brotherhood of Power and the Gang Hong Clan were made to leave the lower chambers of the arena and led to the spectator seats, while the two leaders of the factions were made to go there instead.


    Nobody knew the exact scores at the moment, since the arena managers and the leaders of both factions had come up with them in private and did not share them with anyone, giving only vague answers every now and then, but they were aware that such a duel was only scheduled to occur if there was a chance for it to turn the tides, as it were, and grant victory to the losing side with the vast number of points that would be earned from it. The fact that it would occur wasn¡¯t a perfect situation for either one of them, as their power was relatively similar and their techniques specifically countered the abilities of the other, despite the wide difference in cultivation realm and searing mark count between them, but they wouldn¡¯t pass on this opportunity to ensure their victory.


    To give them enough time to prepare, the arena organisers instead brought out a performer, initially surprising everyone there.


    They had come there for bloodshed and combat ¨C perhaps less intense than what Wei Yi would provide, but combat nonetheless ¨C and now they were going to see some kind of trick being performed by a performer? It was only when a large sheet, resembling a talisman only in material, was brought out that the more knowledgeable amongst the audience had an idea of what was intended.


    ¡®Oh, I¡¯ve heard about the Flashes of Antiquity talismans¡­ This could be exciting, to say the least.¡¯


    After coughing a few times, the performer, a man obscured by loose robes and a hood that revealed only the tip of a white pointed beard, addressed the crowd, ¡°Everyone, are you familiar with the tale of the Fated Dragon Hatchling?¡±


    A few people indicated their awareness of the story, while most just nodded along regardless.


    ¡°Excellent. It is a simple tale, so even those that are unfamiliar with it will surely understand and enjoy what they are about to see. The sights will be extravagant, but they are all founded in reality.¡±


    He raised the talisman sheet and displayed it to everyone, but even those from the Luo family understood nothing other than the fact that it was indeed a talisman, as it differed entirely from normal designs, containing not just two or three characters, but countless symbols overlapping, weaving into, and merging with one another, resulting in something that either resembled an indecipherable mess, or a fantastic piece of art of an abstract kind.


    Wei Yi stared at it more than most, as she had personally experienced what it was like to create and use a talisman that was larger than usual. It had used her own blood, and was thus a somewhat messy affair, but she had accidentally managed to accomplish something that most wouldn¡¯t try, so she did not only have a basic understanding of it, but she also wanted to acquire as much knowledge regarding talismans as possible to ensure that it would remain as one of her viable great arts. As such, she made sure to store the image of the talisman in full within her Ascendant¡¯s Library and studied it as much as was possible before it was activated.


    Unfortunately, her foundation in talismans was rather lacking in comparison to the other great arts, and as a result, she lacked the proper understanding of the characters that were written upon talismans, understanding only their function in typical situations. To understand the complex web of writing upon the Flashes of Antiquity talisman, she would require far, far more understanding of matters than that, which would come from countless tomes and excessive practise.


    ¡°I present: Fated Dragon Hatchling, Seventh Iteration.¡±


    The man tore the talisman sheet slowly and carefully, almost like performing some kind of ceremony, or praying to a deity. It was split evenly, and once a quarter was torn apart, the edges of the torn portion began to light aflame, although it was no ordinary crimson fire but instead a soothing white glow.


    It consumed the talisman sheet evenly and slowly, only growing faster once the two halves of the talisman were finally parted entirely, at which point it rapidly grew in intensity and devoured the entire sheet in an instant, leaving nothing but ash on the ground, which was quickly picked up by the wind and carried away as it turned to naught.


    Before anyone had the chance to ponder whether something had gone wrong, the man kept his hands in the air and clapped them together slowly.


    The entire arena seemed to shatter into minute particles of stone, wood, dirt and other substances, scattering a little like ink within water. All sound, light, smells, tastes, faint sensations that could normally felt within the world, vanished entirely, scattering alongside the particles of substance and vanishing into absolute darkness.


    Even with the Third Eye, Wei Yi was only barely able to see traces of reality.


    ¡®That makes sense, though. If it was capable of seeing through all illusions without fail, the Third Eye Elixir would have been one of the most valuable items during any conflicts with those that use illusions. Since that did not appear to ever be the case, only receiving niche usage, it is likely either that illusions are generally lacking in higher realms, which is highly likely, that the Third Eye is only suitable for lower level illusions, or that both were true and had led to it becoming worthless in the eyes of most.¡¯


    Why the Master of Yi City had seen fit to place two copies of the elixir within the Kong District was a different question entirely, and not one she or Yi Shi Ming could answer readily.


    Instead of trying to decipher questions of the past, she focused on the present, and watched the effects of the talisman play out as she was certain that even if it wasn¡¯t simply a pretty presentation of a presumed historical event, she would be able to see through it and any dangers it could present.


    After a moment of absolute silence, a small flame lit up within the middle of the arena, although to most, this was a random point within the absolute abyss. It did not sit atop a pile of wood, coal, or any other flammable material ¨C it just was. Just as the flame had no source, the large plumes of smoke that began to emerge from it had no clear origin either, since smoke naturally needed to come from some sort of fuel to appear.


    What was far more attention grabbing to most people, however, was the way in which the smoke began to shape itself after a few moments, two figures slowly forming from it.


    They were feminine, with large breasts and shapely bottoms that quickly caught the attention of the more lecherous in the crowd, but as horns, serpentine eyes and traces of scales appeared as details within the fog, it became clear even to them that these were not ordinary humans.


    That was made even clearer when the smoke suddenly began to gain colour and texture, although it still retained the appearance of the grey gaseous substance. The skin of these figures was olive, their eyes were golden, surrounding black slit-like pupils and were themselves surrounded by white sclera, not particularly unusual considering some of the features that people of the Planar Continents have, but the black scales on parts of their bodies that did not need to bend or turn, similarly black horns sprouting from the middle of their hairlines, above the outer corners of their eyes, and the rather prominent bulge beneath one of their dresses that most certainly did not belong to a normal woman pointed to only one conclusion.


    ¡®These are depictions of the ancient dragons. Then, the egg that they are both looking at is¡­¡¯


    The figures made of smoke were far larger than people, but this was just a method to convey the story, not the actual size of dragons in human form, as, at that point, human form would be entirely pointless, and everything around them was still ordinary in size, while the egg between the two was very large, larger than the two of their heads combined, meaning that this was a dragon egg laid in dragon form.


    While she was pondering the overall composition of this image ¨C and was silently rather impressed by the size of the thing concealed beneath the fanciful clothes of one of the dragons, although she didn¡¯t have much interest in it besides a scholarly one ¨C the dragons began to move, breathe, and speak.


    ¡°My love, our child is going to hatch soon. Have you considered the name that we shall bestow upon her?¡±


    ¡°I have given it some thought, darling. In our current state, with the humans growing ever more aggressive in their expansion, we are in great danger for the first time in countless years. As such, I think we must bestow upon her an auspicious, hopeful name, to carry us through the chaos,¡± the other dragon said, placing her hand upon the egg as she looked into her partner¡¯s eyes, ¡°I had thought of Long Zhuding. What do you think, my love?¡±


    ¡°Dragon, and fate, in the language of the humans. Then, wouldn¡¯t Long Mingyun be closer?¡±


    ¡°Hm~, would it? Their language is ever so confusing¡­¡±


    Although she said that, the marks of the second name appeared upon the egg through some supernatural means.


    ¡®This is almost certainly the more human-favoured version of the story, since I recall seeing mentions of the draconic language. Each one of the letters in that is significantly more complex, so I doubt that any dragon would struggle with understanding the language of the Planar Continents,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, ¡®At least they didn¡¯t change these into enormous musclebound giants that kidnap women, or something of the sort. I¡¯ve heard of those versions of the story.¡¯


    As someone without any links to dragons, other than finding their powers and appearances quite pleasant, she didn¡¯t really care whether the story was changed one way or another, except for the fact that there appeared to be some truth in many tales of the past, meaning that with each major change to any one story, more and more of past knowledge was being lost. Due to this, any inaccuracies were significantly more unpleasant, and if her life was ever written down anywhere for any reason, she would naturally prefer it to remain as accurate as possible, so that nobody would have the chance to completely subvert her image and identity for their own pursuits and goals.


    Nonetheless, she wouldn¡¯t attempt to shatter the illusory darkness just for this. Most people would be unlikely to think of it as being real in the first place, so even incredibly large changes wouldn¡¯t really matter here.


    ¡°Long Mingyun, grow up wise and strong, and lead us forth¡­¡±


    The image in the smoke changed, advancing time and moving the scene to the top of a small mountain, in the midst of a great storm. Apart from the rain heading up, into the sky, everything was normal.


    Both of the dragons were in their ordinary, draconic forms, black wings keeping them in the air as they breathed flame and launched incredibly complex planar constructs of all kinds at foes that were too far to be seen through the smoke. In the middle of the image, the egg remained mostly as it had been, except that it now occasionally shook while its parents fought with all that they had to protect it from the attackers.


    It was slowly hatching, and its parents couldn¡¯t even watch it occur.


    While the scene had been playing out, the area that the smoke covered was also expanding, slowly granting all viewers the ability to see the ones that the two dragons were fighting with such great effort.


    They were all humans, with planar anchors standing tall behind them, surrounded in spherical barriers that displayed a vast number of scorching marks, all of which were linked to the anchor with constant threads of energy. This meant that they were, at the very least, within the sixth realm, and that there was such an incredible number of them that they were able to pose a serious threat to dragons.


    Through the Third Eye, Wei Yi was able to hear the faint gasps of amazement from some of those sitting near her, and after she took another look at the scene, she understood their feelings. The searing marks, linked channels and whatever else were quite impressive to behold, but their lustre had somehow faded in her eyes. Perhaps the number of times that she had witnessed greater things in the proximity of her own realm had caused her to be slightly less impressed, or perhaps it was the lacking presentation of these events that were clearly composed by those that did not have the full understanding of the realms they were portraying, causing them to appear far less impressive in comparison to the real thing.


    Nonetheless, as the smoke grew thicker and the image clearer, she was able to see numerous wounds within the dragon¡¯s scales, and their number only grew with every moment.


    Despite that, they did not move away, nor allow a single human to advance. They stood their ground ¨C while flying in the air ¨C and guaranteed as much time for their child as their rapidly weakening bodies could possibly allow. They were all in the Oblivion Halo realm, as all adult dragons would be, and yet they couldn¡¯t defeat a single human due to their powers combining and entirely stopping any attacks from the dragons.


    For a moment, Wei Yi wondered whether this was what it was like to have a close family and parents that cared about their child, and if she could have experienced this if her parents hadn¡¯t died when she was only a few years old.


    It was a tempting line of thought, but she tossed it out of the library the instant that it appeared.


    Cracks appeared within the dragon egg, cracks that slowly grew and covered the entire egg before a draconic child broke out of it in one go, exactly in time to witness both of her parents being brought down to the ground, their flesh being torn asunder and their eyes and scales quickly being gouged out and removed to be used by the people there.


    Although it was incredibly young, it still understood basic things due to the innate intelligence that such entities as dragons were born with. It knew that it had just seen its parents die, and that she would perish if she stayed behind, so she desperately broke out of the egg and rushed away, figuring out how to use her limbs as she was going, stumbling countless times and nearly trapping herself several times as it couldn¡¯t understand how to properly apply the body that it possessed.


    Still, she just barely managed to get away, as the humans were far too occupied with looting the two dark bodies and likely didn¡¯t even know that there was even an egg that the dragons were guarding.


    The smoke continued to expand as the image changed once more, but Wei Yi was able to tell that it was soon going to reach its apex, after which it would only remain in place for a short length of time before the illusion would begin to recede once more, meaning that the overall duration of the tale was naturally far lesser than the full Fated Dragon Hatching was. It skipped how the dragons and humans had gotten into a conflict due to misunderstandings and assumptions from both sides, nor did it display how long the dragons had fought to ensure that their child would survive, with many characters also being removed for the sake of brevity, although most were not that important.


    Thus, the scene finally transformed into one depicting a slightly older dragon, roughly matching the human age of ten. She stood opposite some other intelligent planar beasts ¨C who were almost certainly an invention of some writer, for there were few intelligent beasts in the fourth realm ¨C and breathed heavily, occasional tongues of flame emerging from her mouth.


    To someone unfamiliar with the tale, this scene might be rather difficult to understand, since no explanation nor narration was provided, but it was ultimately a simple moment.


    The child, Long Mingyun, had escaped the pursuit of humanity and was able to survive her first few days in the wild due to her inborn strength. Despite lacking experience, size, techniques and proper guidance, she was able to benefit from the draconic bloodline and grow while consuming what she could and when she could, eventually earning the attention of several planar beast packs in the area. More precisely, what she earned was their ire, as their easy hunting grounds had been unknowingly stolen by the dragon hatchling.


    As a direct result, in the oldest tradition of cultivation, they came over to beat her up and steal any gains that she might have made before letting her go in some location of great danger, where she would be unable to survive the night.


    When they saw that the entity stealing their food was a pure-blooded ancient dragon hatchling, already in the fifth realm from birth, although she lacked any of the searing marks that humans would accumulate due to the differences in draconic cultivation and progression, they were somewhat put off, but the least cowardly amongst them, the ice wolf, managed to convince them to attack regardless of their fears by pointing out the weakness of this young dragon.


    Furthermore, they had some methods of learning about human affairs, and so they knew that a set of weaker humans was able to take down two stronger dragons. If that was the case, why wouldn¡¯t they be able to take down one hatchling, even if they were only in the fourth realm?


    Like that, the wolf, the tiger, the lion, the hawk, the titan beetle and the snake surrounded the poor dragon, who could barely manage to produce a proper spark of flame due to her youth.


    The original story did not describe much about the dialogue that these two groups must have had, with negotiations occurring between the snake and the dragon, and this Flashes of Antiquity talisman ignored it as well, resuming time on the scene as conflict was already in progress, Long Mingyun desperately leaping at the snake as she thought it to be the weakest of the enemies before her due to its smaller size, while the other planar beasts lacked organisation and couldn¡¯t decide when to attack all at once, nor how to do so, resulting in most of them holding back and watching as the dragon tried to bite down on the snake.


    Immediately, they realised that the suggestions from the wolf were incredibly accurate, for the dragon could barely approach the slithering serpent, much less consume it in one gulp, which was what they were most afraid of.


    That did not help with their cooperation and coordination, but it did mean that, slowly but surely, more and more attacks were sent at the dragon hatchling. Planar anchors fell onto the ground behind them, not far away in the slightest as they had no more fear of this ancient creature of legends ¨C or, rather, not towards this particular hatchling. Clearly, tales of the immediate power of dragons were significantly over-exaggerated by those who had shared them.


    Quite quickly, this scene began to resemble that of the initial conflict between the dragons and humans, except there were fewer combatants on either side.


    Some of the audience gasped once more, seeing the wounds appearing on the body of this young creature, almost forcing Wei Yi to inspect them with her spiritual perception to confirm whether they were actually adults, or if some children had snuck in while she had been focusing on the scenes. Surely, they had to know what combat looked like, and the damage that it could result in?


    When she did check a few of these people, she also recalled that they were not worried in the slightest about the extreme wounds when they were on humans, as she vividly remembered one of the spectators casually watching as she nearly split three people into little pieces not too long ago.


    She hardly cared enough to actually go through with any kind response to this, so she just ignored their strange and nonsensical behaviours and continued observing, waiting for the action to turn in the dragon¡¯s favour, which it did almost the moment that she had recalled the relevant portion of the story. Just as the dragon seemed to be close to death, it felt the flames within its throat ignite with far greater intensity, and all of the bloodline power within it unlock something within its very body and soul, unleashing an abrupt and unexpected clap of thunder.


    It was followed immediately by a great burst of flame that instantly cooked the serpent and burnt half of the hawk¡¯s wing, forcing it to land in less than stellar condition. Long Mingyun wasn¡¯t able to fully control the flame at this point, and so she continued breathing fire at the rest of the attackers, melting much of the ice wolf and killing all but the titan beetle, that had burrowed into the ground long ago and was likely on the other side of the continent by now.


    Only when the dragon hatchling was nearly exhausted did the flames come to an end, at which point her form suddenly shimmered. Its wings retreated into the body and the entirety of its shape transformed into that of a humanoid child, with this depiction of it showing the child miraculously covered by plain clothing that it would have had no opportunity to acquire in reality.


    The wounds partially healed due to the change, but it also exhausted every bit of strength that was available to her, causing her to drop to the ground.


    In that moment, she was extremely vulnerable, and the mostly molten wolf and injured eagle were well aware of this. The moment that they put out the flames that were threatening to consume them, they approached this dragon once more, thinking of how they would consume it and which one of them would get which part. The ice wolf, as displeased as it was with most of its mass being turned back into water, suggested caution this time, but the hawk was having none of it.


    ¡°You said it yourself, Bing Lang! This dragon is weak, and it is just lying there, waiting for us to eat it!¡±


    ¡°Ye Ying, have you lost your mind? That hatchling was clearly unaware of what it was doing, and yet it torched all of the guardians of the forest in one go! One of the most terrifying things about these ancient beasts is their ability to recall their bloodline and grow immensely from it. The moment that it wakes up, it will probably eat us all!¡±


    ¡°Then why are you delaying us both? We should be rushing to eat it first! Don¡¯t suddenly lose your mind now-¡±


    An explosion in the distance shook the ground, forcing their eyes towards it. The image in smoke just barely included it and showed a group of people dressed in armour approaching, each one wielding an artefact, a series of talismans, and a small inscription plate with a defensive effect.


    ¡°See, Ye Ying, I told you! Grab the dragon and help me bring it out of here!¡±


    The injured ice wolf and leaf hawk grabbed onto the young child together, barely managing to drag it away with them as the humans advanced slowly, unaware of their presence as they hunted after various planar fauna and flora. Had they been able to glimpse the wolf, hawk and dragon in their escape, they would have most certainly chased after them, and the success of the humans would have been guaranteed, but as if the very heavens willed it, both sides moved in exactly the right manner for them to remain unseen.


    The scene advanced once more, the smoke ceasing to expand and remaining in place as the dragon, wolf and hawk now stood on the edge of the forest, clearly having grown from the previous moment.


    In the Fated Dragon Hatchling, several years had passed between these scenes, meaning that Long Mingyun had grown to a humanoid teenager while being unable to transform into a dragon once more. She formed a precarious alliance with the two beasts that had attacked her, as she did manage to unlock a few of her abilities and understood as well as they did that if they didn¡¯t work together, they would be unlikely to survive for long.


    Having spent some time together, they ended up growing surprisingly close, becoming friends that would only occasionally cast hungry glances at one another. Long Mingyun was tempted to eat them in order to gain a much greater quantity of energy and grow significantly in strength due to their fourth realm strength, while the other two were still drawn by the immense power that they could gain from her draconic bloodline, although neither side would actually commit to such an action due to their combined experiences.


    Now, they had made their way out of their forest, guided by the instincts of the dragon, the senses of the wolf, and the observation abilities of the hawk, and looked up at an enormous mountain.


    ¡°Is this where your blood has been leading us?¡± asked Ye Ying, standing on the back of the ice wolf, ¡°I doubt that either of you have any semblance of an ability to get up there, but I can tell you that I have no ability to fly that high, or up such a steep surface.¡±


    ¡°I cannot climb it, although the peaks would be good for my skin,¡± remarked Bing Lang.


    ¡°However, we must go up there. I don¡¯t know what we will find, but it must be significant enough for my blood to guide me there. We must ascend the mountain and see exactly what it is that we have been pursuing for so long,¡± Long Mingyun declared, turning to the other two, ¡°We¡¯ve been together for so long. Will you continue walking with me?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± said the leaf hawk, ¡°I will not be able to make it.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± said the ice wolf, ¡°My legs may be strong, but they are not strong enough.¡±


    Thus, they decisively turned away, as if this had nothing to do with them, and walked off, the hawk still resting on the wolf.


    The young dragon, despite all of the experiences that she had within this world, had never yet dealt with allies, friends that she had made despite the initial circumstances, leaving her at such an important moment, and so she fell to her knees and cried the moment that they left the scene. Despite her immense beauty, bestowed upon her by her draconic bloodline, this act could hardly be called beautiful, although the truth was likely changed by both the original story and this portrayal to look a little more dignified.


    After she had poured out her grief, however, she stood up and looked towards the mountain once again, as she knew what she had to do and wouldn¡¯t be stopped from doing so no matter what happened. Whether this calling was from her parents, ancestors or even the very blood itself, she would pursue it until the end, as it was essentially the only thing she had left.


    Without much preparation, she began the climb.


    As the smoke began to recede, the time within the scene also appeared to accelerate. Just as with every other moment, the centre of the smoke depicted the young dragon, with the mountain before her moving as she ascended it slowly, with occasional failures, falls and disasters on the way. It was easy at first, as the climb wasn¡¯t that steep nor particularly dangerous, but as the poor child rose higher and higher, it was more and more difficult for her to make even a proper step of progress.


    After a while, it was as if the scene had been slowed down beyond normal, although it was obvious judging by the dragon hatchling¡¯s growth that this was not the case. She went from being a teenager to a young adult, attaining the equivalent of the human age of nineteen, and continued up the mountain all the same, occasionally hunting various creatures that lived within the stone and skies of the mountain, the name of which was never mentioned in the scene or in the original tale, leading most to believe that even if any of the tale was actually true, the mountain itself was simply made up and that the thing found at the top was not truly there.


    Speaking of which, the peak of the mountain was finally revealed after a long enough stretch of time that those watching almost felt as if they had truly followed her all the way there, without the temporal dilation.


    They saw a small cave entrance, which the dragon entered and lit with a flame, although the reality of the situation would have likely been that she could see in the darkness through the natural fire within her heart, and that the added flame was probably just there as another aesthetic discrepancy. At first, there was little within the cave, but as she ventured further, all of the audience could feel a faint warmth from deeper in the ground that prompted their curiosity and Long Mingyun¡¯s haste.


    After a sudden turn, the nature of what she was searching for was finally revealed.


    Countless draconic eggs lined the walls, each one a different colour and size, but all of them contained the great warmth of a living thing. Further in, more eggs were also placed all over the place, with some coated in frost while others were nearly covered in plant growth, vines, moss and leaves. Even here, where there was no sustenance for these things, they endured due to the immense lifeforce of the dragons in the eggs.


    As for why they were still there, in that state, despite such a long length of time undoubtedly passing since they were placed there¡­ dragons were a curious species that often said quite a number of strange things to the other intelligent entities of the continents. Creating a secret vault of eggs for some uncertain time and purpose was hardly unusual for them.


    They were also able to prevent their children from hatching ¨C or perhaps warn their children, who would then control this themselves ¨C for incredibly long periods of time, as entities at the level of the fifth realm could certainly sustain themselves using nothing more than the planar energy around them, and they even had the insides of the egg, as well as the shell, to assist them further if the quantity of energy fell for whatever reason. From the representation of the eggs in the smoke, it did not appear like they had to go that far to survive.


    Long Mingyun was understandably amazed, standing in awe near the largest collection of eggs of all colours and textures for several minutes of real time, only looking back when she felt the ground tremble once more.


    While the smoke continued to recede, the image rushed ahead until the young dragon stood at the entrance of the cave and watched as countless humans rushed towards it in a mad mob. Somewhere behind them was a mount on which a dead ice wolf and leaf hawk lay, likely killed not long ago by the people before they began to pursue the last member of their small party.


    The young dragon couldn¡¯t possibly know whether or not they had told them about her, or if the humans had found some other source of information regarding this location, but she did know that she couldn¡¯t possibly allow them to enter and desecrate the countless dragon eggs that had been hidden away. Whether her blood had resonated with all of these eggs by coincidence, or if there was a force that had intentionally guided her here with some deeper meaning and purpose, she would never allow her fellow dragons to perish, much like she nearly did at the hands of very similar humans. She would do everything she possibly could to stop the wave.


    By some stroke of fortune, these particular attackers were primarily in the fifth realm, and they were only reasonably powerful by human standards, meaning that they were significantly weaker than any dragon, especially a dragon that was nearing the sixth realm due to her natural growth.


    Less fortunately than that, however, their numbers were immense, filling the smoke image in its entirety and likely carrying on far beyond it, countless individuals ascending the mountain in all kinds of ways, using flame, water, wind, stone and wood energy and planar constructs to complete her lengthy climb in a matter of days, whereas she needed years.


    For the third time, the scene before the viewers appeared to repeat itself. A dragon, guarding something they cared for, being struck and wounded, and perhaps due to the current humanoid form of Long Mingyun, the audience couldn¡¯t help but feel more for her, some almost experiencing the wounds themselves as they quietly cried out with each attack, prompting further annoyance from Wei Yi as she decided to look around once more.


    Just as the dragon was about to meet its end, it prepared to unleash a devastating attack to seal the caves and prevent the humans from discovering the things within, when a human emerged from the army and approached the dragon with extreme calmness.


    Some dialogue followed, but Wei Yi was already far more focused on his appearance.


    From the memories that she had seen within the Kong Prison Realm, this man looked, acted, and spoke exactly as the Master of Yi City, Kong Shi Meng, had, and thus she understood one thing.


    Whatever details were changed by the creator of these images, they had, at some point, obtained enough information to recreate the image of the Master of Yi City, even if they had no idea that they had achieved this. Judging by the way in which the man within the smoke spoke, it was likely that he was considered to be a powerful leader amongst humans, rather than their most powerful. However, since this was accurate, the image of the mountain might be accurate. The cave might be accurate. And, if things went as the Fated Dragon Hatchling described them, then there might now be countless dragons living here to this day.


    ¡®I must search for this place, some day, and uncover the truth. Countless living dragons¡­¡¯

 V3C43: The Competition, Part 6

    The Flashes of Antiquity talisman sheet stopped as Long Mingyun and Kong Shi Meng agreed to peace, with the smoke dispersing and the world reconstructing itself from the loose particles that returned from the void.


    As she was more prepared this time, Wei Yi observed that the many particles of matter didn¡¯t correlate to reality, but only to her view of it, meaning that this was truly a simple illusion and not some partial unravelling of reality in order to attain a fancy visual effect. This likely meant that this scene was not made by someone with an understanding of the true Master of Yi City, as that understanding would be bound to come alongside a great deal of power from some of the techniques that he had created in the past, even if they could only grasp the most basic ones amongst them.


    Once everyone came to their senses, they saw that the man had disappeared, and that Luo Lia Kun and Shi Taihao had taken their place in the arena.


    Both of them were clearly taking this very seriously. Luo Lia Kun wore several middle-grade artefacts as armour, including a dense grey chestplate that would be more suitable for a regular human warrior rather than a cultivator, a set of metal greaves and gauntlets, and wielded a whip, of all things. It brought back some memories for Wei Yi, but she knew that this whip and the one that she first destroyed with her cosmic energy were entirely different entities.


    Meanwhile, Shi Taihao stood with his chest bare, his legs covered by similarly dense metallic armour of the artefact variety, and held an unnecessarily large war hammer that was almost as big as his chest, earning a comment from Chao Ru the moment that she saw it.


    ¡°Told you that guy was compensating for something.¡±


    ¡°How rude. It¡¯s hardly his fault if that is the case,¡± Wei Yi replied, mostly in jest. She didn¡¯t intend to use her spiritual perception to confirm those kinds of things, especially not with men.


    ¡°Everyone, now that the strange experience of the Flashes of Antiquity is over, we may proceed onto the main event! Don¡¯t ask me where that man went, though ¨C not a clue. I was¡­ eh¡­ too busy watching the dragon girl. Anyway, I was asked to avoid stating names in previous duels, but there¡¯s no point to doing that now!¡± the announcer spoke, another talisman being burned away just like that, ¡°On the side of the Brotherhood of Power, the vice-leader, Luo Lia Kun! Wielder of her family¡¯s cultivation techniques and combat arts, she is bound to fight hard for her victory!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯d be great if you could shut up and move on, Luo Shi. I can always ask the family to reprimand you, and they will be all too happy to do this.¡±


    ¡°The next guy is apparently popular with women. Alright, let¡¯s- Ah! Don¡¯t hit me, didn¡¯t you hear what she said? Hm? What are you talking about? Oh. Ooh. I see¡­ That guy is Shi Taihao, and he has a big hammer. Is that good enough?¡±


    There were no more complains from whoever else was in the room with him, so presumably that was enough of an introduction after all. Shi Taihao himself was clearly not satisfied with this, but he overcame this quite quickly, preparing his war hammer in the most optimal position to toss it towards the announcer, although he changed his mind very quickly and looked back towards Luo Lia Kun, who also readied her whip.


    Both of them decided to ignore the announcer, as he was both unreliable and annoying, and instead considered someone or something else that could signal the beginning of the battle.


    For different reasons, yet at the same time, their gazes were drawn to Wei Yi, who sat almost perfectly in the middle of the spectator seats on their side, and when they glanced at one another, they knew that they had unintentionally come to an agreement.


    Wei Yi knew that even the character that she was playing would understand their intentions, but it would also not be strange for Wei Yi the Warrior to confirm exactly what they wanted while unintentionally getting to a convenient spot where she could perform the request with greatest ease and effectiveness, so she did exactly that, getting up and running down to the edge of the seating area, where a chest-high wall prevented most from accidentally stumbling off.


    ¡°Did you need something?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Could you wait a few seconds, then initiate the battle in an impressive manner?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked, not perturbed by the delay in the slightest.


    She nodded in reply, then muttered to herself, ¡°There¡¯s no-one here whose heart I can tear out¡­¡±


    A momentary glance was cast at Chao Ru, who could do little more than cock her head and try and understand the strange things that went on within the warrior¡¯s head, before she looked back towards the arena and then into the air. Most of this was just to waste time, as she had been asked to do, although she did consider for a moment whether she could stretch the definition of the word impressive and do something attention-catching and highly unnecessary, hence the glance towards Chao Ru, but it was hardly a good idea and so she dropped it before deciding on a display of her improved Phoenix Transformation mastery.


    Wei Yi took in a deep breath, then activated both forms of Lion¡¯s Roar within her body at once through flame-type energy and activated the Phoenix Transformation modifier, fusing planar technique and physique ability in a rudimentary yet effective manner.


    As her voice left her mouth, it morphed into the mirage of a great phoenix, soaring from her form and flooding the sky with its ancient splendour, unleashing a cry that was loud enough to be deafening, and yet incredibly delightful to listen to, without the negative effects of losing one¡¯s hearing. It filled the arena in an instant, a bold, noble and elegant sound, then the mirage almost seemed to take the sound and fly off into the sky, bringing the cry further and further out.


    The bird¡¯s call quickly spread throughout the Luo District, countless people, cultivators and normal humans alike, emerging to see what the source of the sound was, only to be momentarily entranced by the phoenix that rose into the heavens, almost as it if was returning to its proper home in the clouds, and some kept staring even when it vanished.


    Some were naturally bothered that a disturbance had forced them out of their home, but most were satisfied with getting to listen to a lost sound and witness a lost sight, so few even bothered to learn what the origin of it was.


    The leader and vice-leader in the arena were distracted for a moment, seeing this fantastic vision above them, but recovered almost at the same time and leapt into action, setting down their planar anchors from the very beginning to amplify their might, their three-sided structures surrounded by glimmering cores and with a series of searing, flaming scars on their surface. Shi Taihao had forty-two marks at his current eighth stage of the Marked Core realm, whereas Luo Lia Kun had twenty-one within her fifth stage, suggesting at she would attain roughly thirty-seven once she reached the peak of the realm.


    Nevertheless, both were confident, and both were ready to end the other¡¯s lives if possible ¨C it would be far more difficult due to the greater attention upon them, but it would be incredibly useful to do so.


    The leader and vice-leader of any mercenary company were incredibly important, as they led the group, directed its path and growth, and often provided and modified techniques for the usage of their group¡¯s members, meaning that the moment one of them perished, they would be unable to develop in their current direction and thus fall behind most of the other organisations that are in direct competition with them.


    Since the leader of the Brotherhood of Power never seemed to emerge from whatever deep cavern she had decided to settle down in, Luo Lia Kun appeared to be the one that had been doing most of the work for quite some time, so if her leadership was removed, even the return of the leader wouldn¡¯t do much to restore their cohesion, also meaning that ending the life of the leader might not even be noticed by the Brotherhood, although there were also some issues with targeting this leader. Unlike Luo Lia Kun, she was believed to have the combat ability of the lower sixth realm, and that was not something that Shi Taihao could handle no matter how good of a day he was having.


    It was a little like how cutting off the head of a hydra would result in two more heads being grown, but these heads being able to do less than the one before them, as their size would be ever so slightly smaller, their strength inferior and their room for movement would also decrease.


    Most people thought otherwise, and so they strained too excessively when attempting to slaughter various hydra-type planar beasts, trying to reach the heart, lungs, or some other vital organs, only to be overwhelmed and forced back, whereas they should have been focusing on depleting their energy by repeatedly severing heads until the beast ended up as nothing more than a tangled mess of flesh that could be slain by any common man.


    The situation with Shi Taihao was similar, as he had no leader to replace him and was one of the few with a mind that did not reside within the groin, meaning that his removal would be extremely detrimental to the Gang Hong Clan in a slightly different, yet similarly significant manner, as his underlings would likely be able to follow his techniques and improve upon them but would most certainly struggle to replicate anything resembling his mental capabilities, meaning that the Clan would decline nonetheless.


    As such, neither Luo Lia Kun nor Shi Taihao would dare squander this opportunity.


    Due to the former having a weapon with longer range and more room for fluid motion than the yang-oriented flame-type hammer techniques of the latter, Luo Lia Kun was the first to make a move towards the other, cracking her whip in the air and manifesting a layer of tidal foam within the air that flew towards her foe like a great crescent blade.


    It flew far more quickly than any tide could, however, and was almost cutting into Shi Taihao when he brought down his hammer upon it, scattering the planar construct into nothingness and giving him the chance to raise his weapon and swing it horizontally, creating an enormous wave of scorching air that was compressed into a projectile through the combination of the strike and his planar energy before being sent back towards Luo Lia Kun with as much speed as the tidal foam crescent.


    In response, the whip struck the air once more, and the sphere of heated air was met with a blow of great force that shattered it and dissipated any of the power within it.


    ¡®This is the rather dull part of organised conflict that I usually don¡¯t see, since I manage to get into far more serious conflicts with the Greats, otherworldly demons and hungry nests¡­ They¡¯re bound to use far more force soon.¡¯


    After a few more attacks, sending small bursts of energy at one another, they clearly concluded exactly how their foes had developed and grown, and thus they were finally able to unleash the full strength of the fifth realm that had been hidden just beneath the surface. Their marked cores lit up, and a mark from each of their cores was suddenly extinguished as the planar energy flowing in the meridians beneath their skin ignited in the colour of the searing mark, empowering their simultaneous attacks with twice their usual power.


    Luo Lia Kun lashed the ground, causing a large rift surrounded by water to appear within the floor of the arena, innumerable swords sprouting from the ground and chaining towards Shi Taihao, each one emerging out of the ground higher and higher up until they burst out up to their hilt, their speed also accelerating greatly.


    Meanwhile, Shi Taihao thrust his hammer into the air and flooded an immense quantity of energy towards it, some kind of complex array-like structure emerging from the hammer and resting within the air, composed of several layers that continuously rotated at different speeds and thus formed the vague shape of a circle via the oscillating movement of various different shapes, through which great quantities of energy poured like an upwards waterfall, heading towards some kind of effect that wasn¡¯t yet obvious to most those in the spectator seats.


    When the swords were almost upon him, almost in a repeat of the initial exchange, he thrust the hammer into the air once more, colliding with the great series of arrays within the air and causing them to burst into a blinding light, sending a great beam into the air.


    It travelled at an immense speed, not giving a single chance for another sword to rise from the ground, before it suddenly fell back down, cutting into the rift surrounded by water and tearing it asunder, preventing any more swords from rising. Those that did, escaped from the rift and rose into the air, aiming their tips at Shi Taihao, momentarily pausing within the air, then soaring towards his heart.


    A second instance of the beam fell from the sky, right onto those swords, shattering the majority of them while the rest were slowed significantly, allowing him to knock them out of the air with his own strength. However, the bright light remained in the air, an individual beam falling from the sky once again and directly targeting Luo Lia Kun¡¯s position, the beam seeming to be significantly more powerful than the other two, both of which had been enough to gouge out enormous holes within the arena ground that made the organisers empathise just a little bit with the man that had been asked to handle the recruitment of the two.


    Luo Lia Kun didn¡¯t panic, instead attacking with her whip as a great quantity of energy passed through it, the mirage of a wave manifesting as it passed through the whip¡¯s length and emerged as a thin, incredibly powerful vertical wave that went straight towards the centre of the beam.


    When the two met, neither one was destroyed, nor was there any kind of grandiose explosion to mark the collision of the two. Instead, the wave cut straight into the beam, splitting it perfectly in half, directing both sides just far enough away for them to completely miss Luo Lia Kun without forcing her to take a single step.


    Neither one appeared to care about that exchange, as they immediately activated more marks and attacked one another again, not caring for the immense planar energy consumption nor the destruction caused by their repeated strikes. They just launched strike after strike, planar construct after planar construct, and successfully confirmed the very assumption that many had made regarding their abilities ¨C they were about as evenly matched as a pair of people could be, and that this would take a while.


    Several more of the array-bound beams were shot into the sky and then back down onto the ground, the necessity for such a usage of energy evading Wei Yi and most others, but the fact that they resided within the air for quite some time even after all of the beams were fired did catch her attention.


    ¡®I wonder, regardless of whether that¡¯s just waste energy from his technique or something he plans to use later, if I could, perchance, absorb some of that energy for myself and take advantage of some free fifth-realm power falling straight into my lap¡­ Well, not literally, but I know of one way in which I can take it without anyone noticing¡­¡¯ she thought, focusing on that cloud of energy.


    Whether or not she would be able to make use of it was not her immediate concern, as she had a place that would certainly permit her to store it for as long as she wanted without needing to care about the possibility of anyone noticing that she was the one that took it, which was the Kong Prison Realm. Her only concern would be that if she randomly opened it within the sky and stole the energy, it would undoubtedly catch the attention of those present, and if there just happened to be a member of a Great Family anywhere near, her entire advantage over them would be exposed that very instant.


    As such, she would never allow it to be exposed without absolute certainty that she was ready for a full war or that she would be able to cover it up in some manner, meaning that it was far more important to conceal the prison realm than to acquire every single bit of the energy of the sky. In order to act in accordance with this, she decided to release a great quantity of her spiritual will into the sky, making sure to only permit it to flow along a very specific path so that no traces of it would leak to any potential observers in the area, willing it to form a large array that would not obscure anything seen here, but instead distort and divert it, as that was notably easier and less conspicuous than outright removing something from existence.


    Completely hiding the opening of the prison realm would be highly difficult without creating something else to draw the people¡¯s attention, so it would be safest to redirect the attention to something insignificant elsewhere and, most importantly, hide any semblance of the spatial aura of the prison realm.


    ¡®I¡¯m not entirely sure what to use, however¡­ What exactly would Wei Yi the Warrior do that would be both reasonable from the perspective of those around her, and that would cover up the opening perfectly?¡¯ Wei Yi wondered for a moment, before she realised that she didn¡¯t even need to come up with anything new, as she had already established the exact action that the character she played would take during the experiment that set off the duel.


    When she completed the array in the sky, she waited for a while until another impressive exchange occurred between the two of them, one that the majority of the audience found exciting enough to elicit some kind of vocal cheer or response, and joined in.


    ¡°Go, vice-leader! You can do it!¡± she exclaimed, infusing the Lion¡¯s Roar into her voice again.


    This time, she made sure to further empower her words, meaning that she didn¡¯t just create a casual phoenix cry once they were transformed by the Phoenix Transformation modifier, but instead manifested an enormous mirage of the full body of a phoenix that soared into the sky and caught the attention of all that viewed it once more.


    It flew up to the location of the gathered glowing energy and seemed to let out another cry on its own, garnering a second glance from both participants of the duel before they also understood that letting themselves get distracted would only allow their opponents to take advantage of their weakness and potentially decide the battle, thus returning all of their focus onto one another, although Shi Taihao did appear to look up for an instant longer than his foe.


    Whether that was by accident or not didn¡¯t matter, as the phoenix¡¯s aura, as vague as it was, distracted from the truth that occurred behind it, and when it vanished, so did the array behind it.


    Most of the glowing light left behind from the several beams fired into the sky vanished, but enough remained for it to not immediately catch the attention of those that observed the phoenix mirage¡¯s disappearance.


    Everything that was taken away appeared within the prison realm, where Wei Yi¡¯s consciousness observed it only a moment later. Without the control of Shi Taihao, or, rather, the support of his anchor and core, this energy was slowly breaking down into a liquid state, which was hardly ideal if she wanted to make the most of the situation.


    She quickly analysed it, considering whether or not it would be possible for her to absorb and process the energy in some way before it lost its usefulness, and ultimately concluded that it would be a little beyond her capabilities for the moment. If it was unbound from another cultivator, or if Shi Taihao was only in the fourth realm, it might have been possible for her, or perhaps if she had already achieved a breakthrough into the next half of the Emergent Anchor realm and witnessed the improvement brought about by the culmination of nine stages of progress, but for now, only the Kong Prison Realm itself would be able to process the energy effectively.


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming, could you force all of this into the planar stones for me? I don¡¯t exactly have the opportunity to enter and do this myself.¡±


    The spatial spirit appeared beside the location of her spiritual perception and nodded, ¡°I will. If you do not mind me saying this, you seem to encounter quite a few interesting individuals when you travel to new districts.¡±


    ¡°What do you find interesting about this particular quantity of energy?¡±


    ¡°It was stabilised not as a planar construct, but through the energy of a searing mark. It¡¯s not the greatest achievement I have witnessed, but it is clever.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, it is. I¡¯m guessing that the energy could then be controlled to strike again as a beam?¡±


    ¡°If that is indeed the method used by the cultivator, then yes. With the combination of several searing marks infused into this energy, it will likely be significantly more powerful than the individual attacks that had gathered it, so if that Luo Lia Kun is someone that you do not wish to perish, removing this energy will likely guarantee her victory,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, a large array surrounding all of the bright energy and connecting it to the planar stones that still stood in the dirt, allowing them to be filled before they would then disperse the energy into the prison realm in an unrefined state some time later.


    At the same time, the size of the planar stones would grow by a certain extent, thus allowing the overall quantity of planar energy within the prison realm to rise.


    ¡°So, how¡¯s Senior Yi Yi doing?¡±


    ¡°Well enough, for the moment. I¡¯ve had to bring food over to him several times as he is too invested in exploring the great dome around Beast¡¯s Rest, having sealed himself away from the outside world to the point that anyone else wouldn¡¯t be able to get near him,¡± she said, both of them quickly travelling to that point of the prison realm with their own abilities, ¡°You don¡¯t need to speak with him now, but it might be a good idea in the near future.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Continue watching him. Has Min Lian done anything strange while I was distracted?¡±


    ¡°She has been meditating in wait for you, and I think that speaking to her soon would also be wise.¡±


    ¡°That much is obvious. Could you tell her that she may need to spend some more time here? I¡¯m not certain how well any kind of assistant figure could fit in to my current circumstances, and since we would be under the jurisdiction of Luo Lia Kun even if I manage to get her in, there would be many times when she will need to get quite far away from me. I¡¯m not certain that would be safe until she reaches the fourth realm, at which point her existence will be entirely stabilised by the active core,¡± Wei Yi explained, although it was highly likely that the spatial spirit had already come to understand some of Min Lian¡¯s nature even if she had no awareness of it before.


    ¡°Of course, I will do so the moment that I am certain that the energy you sent here won¡¯t go berserk in any fashion. I will also attempt to refine the energy in a certain manner that would leave some for you to use, as I understand that you require a breakthrough as soon as possible,¡± the spatial spirit said, ¡°Just don¡¯t forget about that woman. As with most assassins, her mind was affected for the sake of controlling her entirely, and since you have mostly replaced her memories of her master with yourself, she is, rather unfortunately, dependant on you in more ways than one. Take care of her.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, then brought her focus out of the spatial realm and back to reality, where the phoenix mirage was only beginning to fade due to the different speed of time within the prison realm whenever she entered it.


    She retreated to her seat and continued to watch the battle, noting that the number of seared marks upon the cores of both combatants had decreased significantly to the point that they no longer used their most powerful attacks, clearly saving them up to unleash one final strike the moment that they thought that they would have the best chance of victory.


    As a result, the cloud of planar energy that was left from the many beams was not refilled nor reinforced by any further attacks, and while it did not dissipate due to being within the range of his control of planar energy, Shi Taihao did not appear to realize that anything had occurred, likely making the exact same mistake that so many warriors in the world did and failing to confirm their surroundings at all times with their spiritual perception, a flaw that could easily extend up to the seventh realm so long as someone didn¡¯t put in the effort to refine their abilities a little like Wei Yi did. The Oblivion Halo realm would grant a great range of spiritual perception and an immense amount of power that would make it highly difficult not to constantly understand at least a small space around the cultivator.


    Furthermore, that great amount of power would be unlikely to leave one¡¯s mind as simple as before.


    It was almost twenty minutes later that the moment of final confrontation finally seemed to come about, and Shi Taihao initiated it, all but one of his remaining searing marks dimming as a great burst of light surged from him, containing the light of every single mark and soaring into the sky.


    ¡°Now, don¡¯t you dare stand still, Luo Lia Kun!¡±


    ¡°What?¡± the vice-leader questioned, hesitating for a moment as she couldn¡¯t guess whether the man was being a fool that intended to use his power to intimidate her into doing the wrong thing, or if he was trying to trick her by making it seem like he was doing the former whereas it would be more beneficial to do the opposite.


    That was exactly the effect he had required, for the moment that the blinding light from his body made contact with the gathering of energy above him, his victory would be assured.


    Before she had the opportunity to move, once she had concluded that it would be wiser to move away than to stand still, especially if the attack was to be similar to the multiple beams that he had used previously, one final, wide, seemingly all-encompassing beam fell from the sky, crashing upon Luo Lia Kun with immense force that seemed sufficient to shatter not just her every bone, but also obliterate all that remained of the arena floor beneath them, finally collapsing the damaged structure.


    ¡°This- why¡¯re you hitting me? What do you mean she-¡±


    From the light, a figure emerged at great speed, the whip in her hand following a moment later and wrapping around Shi Taihao¡¯s neck, allowing her to pull him over while channelling her planar energy and the power of a searing mark into a water-like blade, which she aimed directly at his throat.


    ¡°You had your chance!¡± Luo Lia Kun replied, thrusting the blade into him without allowing him any action or words, ¡°I win!¡±


    The water blade pierced directly through his skin, his flesh, the bones in the neck, and then out the other side, requiring only a little more force from the vice-leader to cut through one side and then come back to cut the other way, chopping off his head within a single mighty blow. His head fell onto the ground with his expression radiating shock, rather than pain, loss or disappointment.


    Wei Yi understood his silent question better than most, but she wouldn¡¯t bother to answer even if he had won. Instead, she focused on the anchor energy that fell from him, as well as all of the energy that had gathered up within the arena, and willed it to enter the Truth of the Universe before checking the interface that she was quite familiar with now. It confirmed that the anchor energy of someone in a greater realm didn¡¯t affect the number of points she received, and that only those from the Great Families and otherworldly demons with unusual anchors would be able to grant her the same kind of immense reward as the Great Aberrant.


    Nevertheless, her total number of anchor points rose to two hundred and sixty-three, giving her significantly more room for exploration and experimentation, although she was still tempted to hold back on trading in any of those until she found it to be absolutely necessary.


    ¡®For now, I need to focus on other things. The moment that some technique of interest appears, I can instantly raise its power to the Full Success stage and elaborate on it myself before completing the process via the combination of the Realm of Potential and the Truth of the Universe,¡¯ she thought, looking around to confirm that nobody had noticed the movement of anchor energy. They did not.

 V3C44: Accommodation and Introduction

    The Gang Hong Clan was not happy about their defeat. Fortunately, they had enough of a spark of mental capacity to recall their initial agreement, and so they completed the agreement that they had set with the Brotherhood of Power before departing to their Great Yang Enlightenment Ceremony, which Wei Yi did decide to spy upon as to actually understand what this involved and whether it was as simply and crude as Luo Lia Kun believed it to be.


    After everything was sorted, she and the Brotherhood was permitted to leave. She was led back to their headquarters, through the centre of the district and to that isolated portion of it, where a few individual buildings faced one another, and several shops were placed specifically to service the mercenaries and hired killers that typically resided there.


    Having already scouted this area, she was somewhat familiar with the structure she was brought to, and upon a second viewing, she noticed an area where her spiritual perception was unable to view a single thing, regardless of how much effort she invested into it while still trying to remain inconspicuous. In theory, she would still be able to look into it if she stood right next to it and used the full extent of her fifth realm killing will cultivation, but that would certainly alert whoever had enough knowledge to create a barrier that would fully obscure the spiritual perception of someone with a realm that didn¡¯t exist within the Planar Continents.


    Judging by the location of the chamber, and what surrounded it, this would likely be where the leader of the Brotherhood of Power was closing up, and if what was said about her was true, then she would have the power of the fifth realm in a number of aspects, including a five-star comprehension of arrays, talismans, inscriptions and potentially even blacksmithing, which would give her plenty of opportunity to complete something like the obscuring chamber that she was now in.


    Whether or not that was the case, Wei Yi did not intend to question the matter just yet, instead following Luo Lia Kun with some outward eagerness.


    ¡°And here is the location of our Brotherhood of Power. Here, many of our members that have not found housing of their own rest at night, or after they come from missions and hunts. Training halls and the like can be found around the building, as well as two bathing areas, one that is separated and another mixed, although any¡­ romantic interaction is strictly discouraged within both,¡± Luo Lia Kun introduced her and a few others to the headquarters, although she glanced meaningfully at Wei Yi in a manner that the intended recipient of the message decided to ignore for her own convenience, ¡°Further specifics can be found out from older members, or from me, if I have the time. Before I go on, is there anyone who currently doesn¡¯t have a residence within the district, or has a camp and wishes to move into a proper building?¡±


    Only a single person raised their hand, and their name did not need to be stated.


    ¡°Alright then, I will sort something out for you. Everyone else, go and get acquainted with the headquarters,¡± the vice-leader said, waving the others away before sighing, ¡°Tell me, how long have you been within the district?¡±


    ¡°Two days.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯d you¡­ ah, right. Chao Ru¡¯s house¡­ Hm. There should be a place for you, but you would need to stay in a room with a few other women. Can you promise not to make advances towards them?¡±


    ¡°Boss, I think you¡¯re misunderstanding what happened yesterday. I didn¡¯t start that.¡±


    ¡°Could you resist any advances if they were made towards you? This is very important, as this will decide whether I am able to provide you with a room to stay in or if you need to live out in the fields and plains most of the time,¡± Luo Lia Kun warned, almost glaring at her in order to make the correct answer as plain as possible.


    ¡°I thought you said that there was no policy against relationships and the like. Was that not true?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just that simply being in the same room as you at night exhausted me immensely¡­ If not for that Shi Taihao¡¯s final attack proving to be far weaker than he or I expected, I¡¯d probably not have won.¡±


    ¡°Ah, well, if that¡¯s your concern, I know how to hold back. It had just been quite some time since I last got to spend any quality time with someone, so she and I may have gotten a little overly eager. In the future, I won¡¯t do something like that again. Is that good enough for you?¡±


    The vice-leader sighed, ¡°Well, I suppose I cannot expect any more from you without needing to go to the leader and question her about the rules, so¡­ Very well. Come with me.¡±


    She brought her into the structure, through the open front door, although Wei Yi did observe the fact that they had a planar energy-based locking mechanism, presumably allowing the Brotherhood of Power to lock up at night or during certain situations and avoid those who hadn¡¯t been permitted to use that particular door from accessing it. The fact that it wasn¡¯t explained to her immediately suggested that they would either not permit her to have such access yet, or that adding someone else to the list of permitted users, as it were, was somewhat of a hassle.


    Judging by a cursory glance at the inscription responsible for this ¨C that it wasn¡¯t a talisman was understandable, as the consumption of talismans to open and close the door constantly would be absolutely excessive not due to the materials that would need to be expended, but due to requiring a master of the great arts to constantly recreate them for every single entry and exit, an inscription was clearly deemed more effective.


    The Luo of the Brotherhood didn¡¯t appear to mind in the slightest, so she likely had the same opinion.


    Just as a mansion would have a large open chamber at the entrance, typically with a large staircase at the front to create an impression of size and complexity, so did the Brotherhood¡¯s headquarters feature a similar display, although it also had a desk to the side where those with the intention to hire them could go to converse with someone who had some connection to the Chen family.


    Strictly speaking, such a lineage wasn¡¯t absolutely necessary, but much like talent could be passed down generation through generation, so was the natural financial sense of the most money-obsessed and business savvy family bestowed upon even the far-removed children, with little obvious resemblance to the Chen family. When searching for a secretary, most would prefer to have someone who seemed less competent so long as they had the bloodline of the Chen, although that line of reasoning was often used by men with ordinary proclivities to hire generally attractive women, so perhaps that was not the most representative of statistics.


    In this particular instance, the person currently standing by the counter was both a woman and a Chen, with their distinctive brown eyes and hair clearly accenting a pale face.


    ¡°Vice-leader Luo, you¡¯ve returned. I congratulate you and your on your victory,¡± the woman said, bowing respectfully to her and then giving a shallow bow to Wei Yi, ¡°Is the person with you a promising new member of the Brotherhood that you found at the arena?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Organise a meeting with the inscriber whenever possible to add her energy to the locking system at these doors,¡± Luo Lia Kun instructed, not spending any more time there as she continued on.


    Wei Yi, however, took advantage of the pause to scan through this figure in greater detail, confirming that she had a rather low cultivation of only the fourth stage of Planar Pool despite being seeming to be a member of the Brotherhood of Power, rather than just a random hire from the district that would have no reason to match any kind of strength standard.


    Although she didn¡¯t show this explicitly, the question must have been asked frequently enough for the vice-leader to begin explaining the moment that they were far enough away.


    ¡°Chen Shifu, the front entrance receptionist and, on occasion, our business manager, has some excellent talents when it comes to handling and making money, or negotiating with others, but even with several planar shards worth of pills and cultivation resources, she has struggled to make much progress. Since power comes in all forms, there is no problem with someone like her,¡± she clarified, ¡°She is not bad at individual planar techniques as well, but she struggles to use them in combat.¡±


    ¡°Does she have blocked meridians, or perhaps a poor dantian?¡±


    ¡°You know about dantian quality?¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t I? I have a bright white one, some people don¡¯t, and they tend to struggle much more in cultivation. Is this not obvious?¡± Wei Yi spoke in a confused tone, making sure that her question couldn¡¯t be seen as anything other than a genuine inquiry and not some attempt to probe.


    This was made notably easier due to the fact that the several seconds taken by the vice-leader and the front door receptionist to speak with one another were more than sufficient for her to obtain the full map of the latter¡¯s meridians, her dantian, cultivation and the state of her body as a whole, so even if someone could read the intentions of her voice, they wouldn¡¯t be able to see it as anything more than a simple question made out of curiosity by someone without intent or ability to do anything about it, since she was hardly someone who went around and improved the talents of others for no good reason.


    Furthermore, Chen Shifu seemed to be in a good position in life, so it wasn¡¯t like she would perish within a few days if someone didn¡¯t improve her cultivation. With enough resources, even a regular human could live for several hundred years, although there were few cases of anyone managing to sustain themselves for quite that long.


    ¡°I suppose that much is obvious. Here at the Brotherhood of Power, we have three qualities that we assign to dantians, which are: impure, common and cleansed. Most people obviously have the common one, which has a slightly yellow tone akin to a common man¡¯s teeth, the impure dantian is outright grey, and a cleansed dantian has a natural white colour,¡± Luo Lia Kun explained, ¡°An impure dantian inhibits your ability to cultivate and sense energy, while a cleansed one assists it. Some claim to have been able to develop their dantian by a stage, as we could call it, but it¡¯s rather rare and nobody has been able to figure out a consistent method of achieving this.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s interesting. I have a cleansed one, then.¡±


    Judging by the vice-leader¡¯s immediate nod, it seemed that she was slowly understanding the impression that Wei Yi was intending to convey.


    In theory, one of the best methods of hiding a secret of any kind was to make someone think that you were absolutely incapable of doing so. By giving away smaller secrets partially, or only as partial truths, like her claim to having the Ascendant physique, she was trying to make it seem as if she would just spill anything to anyone so long as they asked her about it. This would also hopefully create the impression that she didn¡¯t understand the true value of most of the things she talked about, and conversely imply that if she was informed of the importance of a piece of information, she would be able to keep it to herself.


    So long as people thought that she was simply na?ve and uninformed, they ought to be more likely to share more secret and private information while thinking that she would either fail to understand it, or that they could just clarify that this was something she shouldn¡¯t share to prevent her from doing so.


    ¡°Good, that explains some of your ability. Listen, in the future, don¡¯t just tell everyone everything, alright? Speak to me about anything outstanding first, and I can confirm whether or not that is something that would be safe to reveal,¡± Luo Lia Kun said after a moment of thought, ¡°If I am ever not available to speak to, and you think the matter might be something significant, I give you permission to enter wherever I am so long as I am not meeting with someone else. Does that make sense to you?¡±


    ¡°So, if you are sleeping, I can wake you up?¡±


    She had clearly failed to consider this fully, so she was forced to pause and think for a moment, ¡°Eh¡­ So long as you genuinely believe this to be something important, I won¡¯t chastise you.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I will do my best!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, ¡°So, where will I be staying, and who with?¡±


    ¡°The first person is someone that I have already mentioned,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, leading her up the stairs and into the depths of the Brotherhood of Power¡¯s headquarters, so to speak, ¡°Zhi Qiu Ya, who you have to be especially careful with if she decides to jump onto you and try anything strange. She can act a bit like a dog at times, so just tell her to stop, give her a-a pat on the head or something, and she will usually calm down¡­ I didn¡¯t stutter, there, by the way. I did not.¡±


    ¡°Is that the person with the living plague? Just to be sure, it isn¡¯t contagious, right?¡±


    ¡°Not so far as we can tell. If you have any respect for people¡¯s will, don¡¯t take advantage of her while she¡¯s in a bestial state,¡± the vice-leader ordered rather harshly, perhaps to distract from her earlier slip-up, ¡°The second person there ¨C well, both of the other two, actually ¨C is someone who knows a lot about bloodlines and blood in general, who is monitoring Zhi Qiu Ya to make sure that nothing strange occurs, and is trying to figure out some method of holding back the living plague. She is called Long Huang, and you will recognise her by the red hair and eyes, as well as her very pale skin.¡±


    ¡°Red hair? Is it as red as mine?¡±


    ¡°No, not really. You put most members of the Yi family to shame with that, actually,¡± Luo Lia Kun remarked, ¡°Finally, Mo Zhouquan is somebody that specifically focuses on plagues and diseases, and she¡­ is exceptionally strange. I¡¯m sure that you¡¯ll know who she is the moment that you see her.¡±


    A certain way into the building, the general rooms around them changed to bedrooms and various shared living spaces, ranging from rooms within individual beds and most of the space around them occupied by various items intended for training, practise, storage and information collection, to four-bed rooms that only offered enough space for each person to place a small chest worth of clothing and equipment.


    This was mostly due to how many people were living within the structure, and not the restriction of space within the Luo District, as the headquarters were already enormous and would hardly be permitted to use up more space within the rather busy district centre, where a great number of other organisations, businesses and wealthy residents competed for space. As a result of the somewhat conservative living space, several thousand could fit within this one building, most of whom lived in the upper floors of the structure while the first and basement floors were reserved for other kinds of rooms and spaces, like storage, training and cultivation.


    The room that was provided to her ended up being at the very end of the building, through a set of long corridors that led to a large window that currently displayed the last remnants of the setting sun, and much of the sky was already black, with stars and nebulae not entirely unlike those within cosmic energy appearing within it.


    ¡°Your room is on the left. Come on in, introduce yourself, and sleep for as long as you need to. I won¡¯t allow anyone that participated within the duels to go on missions until tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°What would the leader say about that?¡±


    ¡°I try to base most of my decisions upon the things that she had done, so she would have done something similar to me. If not, I don¡¯t expect her to emerge any time soon, so it¡¯s not like we can confirm with her,¡± Luo Lia Kun stated, lightly nudging her towards the door, ¡°Come on, one night of not tearing out hearts can¡¯t be that difficult.¡±


    ¡°But the hearts¡­ Fine, I¡¯ll survive without it, somehow. Just let me in,¡± Wei Yi said, rushing into the room with blatantly faked irritation that the vice-leader would hopefully pick up on and understand that she wasn¡¯t actually an insane murderous maniac.


    The door to the room did have a locking inscription similar to the one in the front door, but it was currently inactive and actively required the infusion of planar energy in order to enable it, presumably to allow those on the inside to keep away intruders without needing to be able to use solidified planar energy to arrange arrays manually. When it was active, much like the lock at the entrance, a barrier would reinforce the entirety of the door and the frame that it was connected to and prevent most from breaching it in a short period of time.


    As she entered, she witnessed two women, one of whom could only be Long Huang, arguing with one another.


    ¡°I can clearly tell that there is an effect on the bloodline of Zhi Qiu Ya, and your whole corruption crap is not relevant to this, Mo Zhouquan!¡± Long Huang declared, addressing the figure that perfectly fit the description provided by Luo Lia Kun previously.


    She, that being Mo Zhouquan, had an incredibly unusual appearance. Perhaps the most ordinary was her hair, which was a combination of red and white flowing down to her waist, although even it seemed to tingle and shift around in an unnatural way, as if it was alive and moving on its own, although an immediate scan of it through spiritual perception didn¡¯t reveal any trace of such a thing occurring.


    Her skin had the natural olive shade of someone from this area, but her blood was dark, almost black, flowing through her veins with great clarity and making her look entirely inhuman.


    Besides the slightly unusual purple eyes, which were occasionally seen but not as a core characteristic of any particular family, her eyes had purely black sclera, perhaps due to the effect of the blood flowing through her veins, or due to the same thing that had caused the rest of her transformations, like the extreme difference between her internal organs and those of the vast majority of humans. Their inhuman nature aside, from the few moments that Wei Yi dedicated to fully understanding the modified internal structure of this woman¡¯s body, these changes did appear to yield a more efficient and effective system in most regards, which was highly useful considering her intent to achieve some breakthroughs in her physique in the near future, which would be helped greatly by understanding how to optimise various internal systems.


    Not all of the changes were purely for efficiency, that much was obvious from the oddity of her appearance and the fact that her heart looked like it was a large parasitic creature that could devour someone¡¯s face if it had been outside of her, which she would naturally avoid copying.


    ¡®I have never heard of any kind of corruption that causes something like this, and I truly hope that some element of my cultivation or physique prevents such a thing from occurring,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, as having certain parts of her body transformed into something resembling that woman¡¯s internal organs would highly lower her chances of getting into bed with anyone.


    That¡¯s not the only thing she thought of when it comes to her appearance, but just as with her killing will form, she could forgive quite a few things if they would allow her greater power, or superior ability when it comes to some particular pursuit, but she did wish to have something that she could comfortably enjoy without needing to bother about every single other matter that she was typically concerned with, and random changes to her internal structure would not be conducive to this pursuit no matter the result.


    ¡°Oh, corruption crap, is it~¡­ You are quite na?ve, aren¡¯t you~? I have plenty of experience with corruption, and I can clearly tell that it has affected that young woman, although I cannot be sure whether any other influences were also present,¡± Mo Zhouquan said, her voice somehow resembling a slick, slithering tendril, which was not a comparison that Wei Yi expected to make at any point in her life, ¡°If you wish, I could unravel the very nature of it and show it to you~¡­¡±


    ¡°Hello, everyone! What are you discussing?¡±


    ¡°What a cute one~!¡± the black-blooded woman exclaimed the moment that she had a chance to take in Wei Yi¡¯s appearance, ¡°Darling, would you mind if I defiled you~?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­¡±


    ¡°Shut your mouth, monstrous bitch. Don¡¯t come onto someone like that when they first arrive.¡±


    ¡°Should I be waiting for her to reveal the true darkness beneath that bright exterior, eh~? That could be delicious as well~¡­¡±


    ¡®What the fuck have I stumbled onto?¡¯ Wei Yi was tempted to retreat and enter another room, pretending that she had entered the wrong bedroom, ¡°I guess it¡¯s none of my business, then. Which one of these beds isn¡¯t occupied?¡±


    However, she didn¡¯t need to ask that question, no matter how foolish she was pretending to be, as only one of the beds within the room ¨C two of which were placed above two others, leaving the middle of the room for a desk and some sets of drawers ¨C looked to be untouched in the recent past. One of the others, the left upper bed, was covered with a lot of fur, another, the right lower bed, seemed to have been affected by the exact same influence as Mo Zhouquan was, seeming uncomfortably flesh-like and moist, a thin mist of moisture residing above the bedsheets, and the last one, the left lower bed, being stained in far too many fluids and colours to possibly guess what any single one of them was, although that did also result in any of their odours being mixed together and being entirely imperceptible as a result.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take that one, then?¡± she pointed to the empty bed, and leapt onto it before anyone had the chance to dispute her claim.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to be staying here?¡± Long Huang asked, then realised that her question was just as unnecessary as several of Wei Yi¡¯s before, ¡°Right. Don¡¯t touch my bed if you don¡¯t want to obtain the bloodline of a flesh hungry nest, and don¡¯t touch it even if you do, since there are quite a few other bloodlines scattered all over my stuff.¡±


    ¡°Another hungry nest? What would it let me do?¡±


    ¡°I bet it would allow you to be quite fantastic~ at su-¡±


    ¡°Shut it, black-blooded beast,¡± the bloodline expert interrupted, tossing a slipper at the woman opposite her. Mo Zhouquan was able to evade it, forcing Long Huang to catch the flying item in mid-air with planar energy and bring it back towards her so that it wouldn¡¯t land on the moist surface of the bed, as she also appeared to consider it to be a rather unpleasant sight and would almost certainly ruin the nice slipper with a single touch.


    ¡°The vice-leader said something about Zhi Qiu Ya, who, I assume, sleeps over there. Where is she right now?¡±


    ¡°You want to see the humanoid mutt? I don¡¯t know where¡¯s she¡¯s gone to right now, but I will be as crass as to assume someone will come over soon to complain about her trying to approach their backsides,¡± Long Huang glared at the woman that sat down opposite her, who seeming to positively delight in the slight squelch that emerged from whatever was left of the bedsheets.


    Since they didn¡¯t seem to have anything useful to offer, Wei Yi lay down on the bed and got a feel for it, since she might need to remain there for some time until she decided to leave the district.


    In theory, she could acquire a residence at any time, via theft or some of the planar shards that she had saved up, but that would create unnecessary hassle and force her to manage a home of her own. Allowing this mercenary organisation to take care of it was far easier, and allowed her to remain in close proximity with them and their leaders, who she was curious to learn more about due to the rather finite amount of information she had been able to obtain so far.


    Depending on who they were and what their stance was, the Brotherhood of Power could end up as anything between a great ally for Wei Yi¡¯s faction, or a foe that would need to be crippled and removed as quickly as possible to ensure that they wouldn¡¯t have the opportunity to do the same to her.


    The best outcome wouldn¡¯t even be the acquisition of an ally, but information regarding a foe of the Great Families specifically, since encountering a faction that had invested a great deal of effort into figuring out the best methods to combat the techniques, methods and tactics of the Greats would immediately boost her chances of success in any attempt to target them, whether on a large or small scale, with or without assistance from others. Meanwhile, even the most powerful faction that dealt with the regular world might not be capable of doing a single thing against the Greats, especially if they are a well-known and established faction that the Great Families might have already prepared to go against.


    Due to most such factions being either obliterated entirely by the Great Families after a failed attempt to combat them, like what appeared to occur with the War of Yin and those who participated in it, or being successful enough for the Greats to be unable to deal with them quickly and thus resorting to removing all knowledge about them from the world, as to prevent them from being able to garner support and more forces from the rest of the population.


    Only a short while after she focused on her thoughts, Mo Zhouquan¡¯s eyes appeared from beneath the edge of her bed, gazing at her with curiosity, ¡°What is your name, unblighted flower~?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Wei Yi, and I¡¯ve heard your names from the vice-leader already.¡±


    ¡°Excellent~¡­¡± she quietly giggled to herself as she returned to her own bed with another wet squelch.


    ¡°Wei Yi, were you recruited for the arena fights the day before?¡± Long Huang asked, waited for her to nod, then continued, ¡°Do you mind if I ask you some questions regarding your abilities and particular features, so that I may know what kinds of bloodlines you may be compatible with?¡±


    ¡°Sure, I guess. Have you figured out how to induce bloodlines into others?¡±


    ¡°Not yet, I am experimenting with it and Zhi Qiu Ya has been quite helpful so far¡­¡± she glared at the woman sitting on the opposite bed once more to stop her from trying to argue with her statement, ¡°However, there appears to be a certain compatibility factor that makes certain bloodlines more effective, or less dangerous to interact with.¡±


    ¡°I see, that sounds very interesting. Alright, go ahead.¡±


    ¡°Good. First question: do you have the blood of any major family?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t most people have some?¡±


    ¡°You could have come from one of the nations outside of Yi City, although that is truly rare,¡± Long Huang stated, having taken out a board that had a sheet of paper pressed onto it with a clip, ¡°Do you have a physique, and if the answer is yes, what type is it?¡±


    ¡°I do, and¡­ I think it¡¯s a yang one?¡±


    ¡°Interesting. You don¡¯t seem to have any physical deformities caused by a physique.¡±


    ¡°Are you implying that the pure flower has some deformities unrelated to a physique? What a naughty~, rude~ girl you are¡­¡±


    ¡°Ugh¡­ Have you ever drunk, consumed, or in some other way absorbed the bloodline of a planar beast? For example, have you ever decided that it would be a good idea to bathe within a pool of draconic blood without doing a thing to purify it of the powerful bloodline resting within it?¡± the bloodline researched gave a strangely specific example, to the point that she confused herself slightly.


    ¡°I¡­ I have had some baths in blood, but I don¡¯t think there was any particular bloodline in there,¡± Wei Yi admitted, recalling the numerous times that she had decided to use the Beast¡¯s blood to refine her own body, ¡°How is this stuff relevant, anyway?¡±


    ¡°If you have a bloodline already, that greatly influences what effects a new one might have on you.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask that flower~ if she has ever received the seed of another¡¯s bloodline more directly?¡± Mo Zhouquan asked.


    ¡°You are particularly insufferable today, you monstrous amalgamation of oddity,¡± Long Huang muttered, sighing as she shook her head, ¡°Fine, since this is also somewhat important, I might as well ask. Have you ever been pregnant?¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t really interact with anyone that could do that.¡±


    ¡°Good, keep not interacting with them. It is surprisingly rare to find a good test sub- I mean, good research mater- I¡­ It is rare for someone not to influence their body with a major process like that. Even the female only club that seems to be forming in this particular bedroom doesn¡¯t seem to be entirely immune, as the bi- woman sitting beneath you is almost certainly providing some of her body to strange entities and creatures for prolonged occupation,¡± she said, ¡°Although, whether that will result in pregnancy or not is something I have yet to learn or understand, not that I wish to.¡±


    ¡°Oh, but why~? You are so~ keen to learn more about blood, and yet the moment that I show you the truth, the wonderful corruption that soaks through us all, you shy away~¡­¡±


    ¡°I thought it would be obvious. You are, and look like, a disgusting thing that should be burnt and sealed the moment that the opportunity arises, and the things you create around you are even less deserving of the privilege of existence. Furthermore, you fuck with good test subjects and prevent them from being suitable due to some seed of pure filth settling in within their bodies. Why would I ever tolerate something like that?¡± Long Huang questioned, turning back to Wei Yi, ¡°Oh, and make sure not to ever sleep with or near the creature beneath you, understand? She will ruin anything you hold dear, and grin like a fucking idiot while doing it.¡±


    ¡°So rude~¡­ Not all girls are as forgiving as I am~¡­¡±


    ¡°Stop breathing your noxious gases in my direction. I¡¯ll be resting now, so shut the fuck up.¡±


    Before she had the chance to hear anything else come out of Mo Zhouquan¡¯s mouth, the interior of which appeared to contain and frequently release the same moist air as the one that hung above her bed, Long Huang leapt into her bed without bothering to remove a single article of clothing, simply putting the thick, stained sheets onto herself and covering every part of her body.


    With how much was infused into them, and with how surprisingly little of it resembled blood despite her focus, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if they were able to obfuscate sound as well as smell or sight.


    ¡°Well, I suppose there is only so much I can say to one person in a single day¡­¡± Mo Zhouquan also sighed, a thick cloud of moist air pouring out of her lips and settling down on the bed. Her head looked up, and then she stood up and stared intently at Wei Yi, their eyes meeting when she couldn¡¯t pretend to be lying still any longer, ¡°My dear flower~, surely you will not be as reluctant to embrace the wonderful corruption as she is? Won¡¯t you spend the night with me?¡±


    She shook her head quickly, ¡°I¡¯ll be honest, I am very reluctant to get any nearer to you.¡±


    ¡°I suppose that is exactly what I should expect from a flower like yourself~¡­¡± the corrupted woman remarked, ¡°Do not attempt to ward off curiosity when it comes for you. Embrace it. Allow it to seep into you, and fill your heart with the seed of delectable corruption¡­ I promise, you will love it¡­¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that I will do that. Also, stop breathing like that onto my bed. It will be all wet in a moment.¡±


    Mo Zhouquan only laughed quietly in response, although she did take her eyes off the top bed and also decided that it was time for rest. She took off the moist robe that covered much of her body, as well as the gloves that clung tightly to her fingers and almost half of the arm, both of which sounded far more fleshy than they ever should have been, then lay beneath the corrupted sheets with an eerie grin upon her face that managed to unnerve even Wei Yi, who should be mostly immune to all but the most significant and powerful poisons, diseases, toxins and whatever this corruption classified as.


    Judging by the fact that Zhi Qiu Ya and Long Huang did not yet resemble her, as well as the fortunate reality that there were no traces of the aforementioned corrupting seed within the latter, it didn¡¯t seem like being corrupted was something that could be accomplished with breath alone, but she still made sure to circulate her physique energy throughout her body constantly as she, too, undressed and decided to go to sleep ¨C that is, pretend to do so while within the Realm of Potential.


    ¡®Alright, I think a good idea now would be to combine the Phoenix Transformation and the Vibrant Phoenix physique ability together, which might take quite a long while¡­¡¯

 V3C45: Execution and Cultivation

    Her nightly training session went along smoothly and effectively.


    As could be expected from a physique by the name of the Vibrant Phoenix, the ability that it bestowed went along perfectly with the Phoenix Transformation modifier, empowering it significantly without the need to do much beyond having the ability active.


    This allowed her to learn the method and integrate it into her combat style without needing to spend all that much time within the Realm of Potential, giving her a lot of time to spend of training with a lot of her other techniques, polishing them and remembering how to use them in the best manner after some had gone unused for some time. Had she been able to practise any of the great arts properly, she would have likely spent the rest of the night improving various recipes and her limited list of techniques for utilising them, but, unfortunately, while the various ingredients and surfaces could be created, they wouldn¡¯t work quite as they do in reality, meaning that it would be entirely useless to practise.


    Instead, she decided to make some more progress with both the Heeled Balance art and some of the other movement techniques within her arsenal, not managing to raise the stage of any but successfully managing to combine them in a smoother, more efficient method than before, meaning that there would no longer be any more difficulty to using, for example, Storm¡¯s Edge Dash with heeled boots than without.


    To begin with, the problem was rather insignificant due to the properties of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao unifying the techniques she used into one, meaning that the Heeled Balance art and any of the other skills she had already had a close link together. All she needed to do to improve was connect them fully.


    She was tempted, for a moment, to use the Truth of the Universe to raise the stage of the entirety of her Ascendant¡¯s Movement Dao, as it could be called, but it wouldn¡¯t be a good idea for the same reason that she avoided using it the majority of the time to begin with, since she didn¡¯t currently have a clear image of how to progress the technique that would allow her mark to truly be made upon the skill and limit the mechanical nature of the Truth of the Universe.


    Eventually, if all of these techniques were to be united perfectly, their every single move could contain a fragment of the Great Dao, and their power would be elevated into a forbidden skill, hopefully without the same side effects as most of the skills that she was aware of. It could also potentially lead to no longer requiring any excess energy to be consumed for the execution of a technique, meaning that she could use the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash just as she might actually dash from place to place, necessitating only as much physical exertion as that movement despite the vast disparity in effectiveness.


    That would take time, so she wasn¡¯t yet intending to push towards such a goal. Instead, she observed that the day was coming, so she pretended to wake up.


    As she did that, she saw that the last person that lived within the room had finally returned, and that she was currently sitting on top of her stomach, a tail wagging with curiosity and wolven ears twitching alongside it.


    This figure had nothing but a strip of cloth covering her chest and another around her hips, fully exposing a body with large patches of white fur, nails on both her feet and hands that resembled something that might be seen on a wolf, and long grey hair that flowed wildly and without anything but the most basic of grooming. Her slightly open mouth displayed a set of elongated canines, as well as sharper teeth more general, as well as a trace of a moist, inhuman tongue behind them. In a similar way, her eyes were amber, and they seemed to have a slight glow within them, while they looked into Wei Yi¡¯s eyes with an unreadable intent and expression.


    ¡°Hello, Zhi Qiu Ya. How¡¯re you doing?¡±


    The animal-like woman didn¡¯t respond with words, instead leaning down and getting close enough for Wei Yi to be able to feel the warmth of her breath and skin, and made it very clear just how sweaty the woman was, her skin glistening after whatever strenuous activity she had engaged in before this.


    In the corner of her vision, she was able to wolven ears twitch in response to her as Zhi Qiu Ya lightly sniffed her, perhaps trying to make use of the typical powerful sense of smell of wolves and other canines to figure out something about her, although that wouldn¡¯t be particularly useful against the constant purification of the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique energy that she had continued throughout the night, which eliminated everything but the natural scent of her body.


    ¡°Um¡­ Are we going to be here for a while, or are you going to get off of me?¡±


    The wolven woman did not reply, but a hand did suddenly grab onto her neck and pulled her off the bed.


    ¡°There you are, mutt. Get away from her,¡± Long Huang singlehandedly managed to throw her onto the other bed, the one with a dense covering of fur upon it, ¡°Wei Yi, were you? Tell me, does that look like a bloodline, or that corruption bullshit that the Mo Zhouquan keeps prattling on about?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say I understand exactly what corruption is, so it¡¯s difficult to say.¡±


    ¡°So long as you¡¯re not siding with her right away, I will not slip the blood of a cobalt spawn into your food,¡± she said, checking that Zhi Qiu Ya wasn¡¯t hurt by her actions before heading out of the room.


    Mo Zhouquan appeared to still be asleep, breathing steadily and slowly beneath the thick layer of flesh-like bedsheets. The corruption, or whatever it was, hadn¡¯t spread at all from yesterday, so that alongside Zhi Qiu Ya lacking any semblance of the same corruption appeared to confirm that it wasn¡¯t something that would be quickly spread through the air or simple touch.


    She still had no intention of actively remaining anywhere near that bed or the person responsible for it, but it was good to know that she shouldn¡¯t turn into some strange approximation of humanity if she stopped paying attention for a little while and genuinely went to sleep at some point. The fact that she, hopefully, wouldn¡¯t need to regularly cleanse and incinerate anything that comes near the corrupted woman was also quite convenient, as she already had too many things to be paranoid about without needing to worry about her gauntlets developing a fleshy interior that would attempt to permanently bond with her hands, or something of the sort.


    Meanwhile, Zhi Qiu Ya had sat up in her bed, rubbing her forehead as she looked to her right, a strange degree of surprise appearing within her expression when she saw Wei Yi.


    ¡°What are you doing here? Who are you?¡± she asked, speaking with an oddly refined accent for someone who had been wagging her tail ¨C that was still happening, although to a far lesser extent ¨C and sitting on top of someone just a moment prior.


    ¡°My name is Wei Yi, and¡­ weren¡¯t you just sitting on top of me?¡±


    ¡°Oh, did that occur? I apologize for the actions of my other, primitive mind, but I am not in control of myself when she takes over, nor do I recall a single thing from that time,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya stated, glancing at her sweaty hand and lowering it in disgust, ¡°Note that this doesn¡¯t give you the excuse to do whatever you want when I am not conscious. I have ways of learning what occurred around me and to me, with or without my enhanced senses, and as inconvenient as this wolven form is, it does grant me great strength.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Do you have all of the senses of a wolf, or are those ears just for show?¡±


    ¡°I do. Taste, smell, hearing, even my sight has changed. Unfortunately, it makes the actions of my other mind even more unpleasant, since I can all too easily detect the stench of myself and others.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ must not be pleasant, I guess.¡±


    ¡°No, it is not,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya confirmed firmly, ¡°I will be heading to the baths. Since you seem to be new, I can lead you to them at the same time, and I should hopefully remain conscious for long enough to provide some semblance of conversation for you.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do that. Would you mind telling me a little more about yourself while we walk? I¡¯ve never seen someone like you.¡±


    The wolven woman shrugged, ¡°It¡¯d be a relief to speak to someone other than the pair of maniacs that sleep beneath us, so I could, even if the topic itself is one that bores me immensely and tempts me to engage in my baser instincts even without requiring the other consciousness to overwhelm me. You couldn¡¯t have known that, so I apologise for throwing that onto you.¡±


    ¡°No, no, I understand entirely. I should have known, given the questions asked about these,¡± Wei Yi raised her claws and clicked them together several times, ¡°Not the same, of course, but still.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Come on, every moment wasted increases the chance of me reverting to my previous state, although it doesn¡¯t usually occur before thirty minutes have passed,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya stated and got down from her bed, waiting only for a little while for Wei Yi before she headed out of the door.


    ¡°Wait, don¡¯t you want to put something on?¡±


    Wei Yi managed to get dressed within an instant due to wearing nothing but the leather boots, gauntlets and black robe, with her clawed gauntlets being kept on at all times due to them not being inconvenient to her, but the wolven woman hadn¡¯t bothered to put on anything other than what her animal self had chosen to wear.


    Besides understanding the remark that Luo Lia Kun had made regarding Zhi Qiu Ya often losing her clothing, presumably while in her animalistic state, but the aura given off by her right now did not seem to imply a fondness for the same kind of behaviour.


    ¡°I don¡¯t own too much clothing at the moment, since anything complex will be torn apart by my other mind the moment that it decides that I am covering too much of my own body. Furthermore, we are going to bathe. I will not stain anything with my sweat just because I wish to retain some semblance of modesty, assuming that I still have any of it left,¡± she explained, giving Wei Yi just enough time to catch up with her before she hastened off towards the baths.


    Based on the direction in which she headed, Zhi Qiu Ya preferred the separate baths, which were located on the first floor at the back of the building, while the shared baths were near the middle of the building and on the left, making them somewhat less popular due to the decreases quantity of sunlight shining into them.


    ¡°You were going to ask me questions. Ask them before we get there if you want answers.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I was-¡±


    ¡°The flower and wolf of corruption meet at last~¡­¡± Mo Zhouquan appeared behind them, coming dangerously close to both of them and prompting them to flinch away, earning a sad pout from the corrupted woman, ¡°Aw, don¡¯t distance yourselves from the succulent heart of corruption¡­ You both have such fantastic potential~¡­ In particular, you, Wei Yi. You stayed above me for the night, and yet you lack the blatant flavour that belongs to me¡­¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about, and I don¡¯t really want to know.¡±


    ¡°Black-blooded maniac,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya spat, ¡°Are you going to be ruining the baths with your stench as well?¡±


    ¡°Why, of course~! It has been some time since I have cleansed my form, and I would never pass up on the opportunity to share in conversation with those I oft reside with~¡­¡± she replied, ¡°I do find your comments on me rather rude~¡­ I have no stench, only the delectable scent of corruption pouring through my veins at every moment.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care what you call it. Stay away from me unless you have something useful to do.¡±


    Giving her no opportunity to reply, Zhi Qiu Ya grabbed Wei Yi¡¯s arm and dragged her away, as if concerned that she would stay behind for too long and be corrupted, although whether she didn¡¯t want to lose a reasonable person or if she didn¡¯t want to give Mo Zhouquan the opportunity to spread her corruption further wasn¡¯t made obvious by any part of her behaviour. What could be seen was her strength, which, although it paled in comparison to the monstrous might of Wei Yi, was truly far superior to the physical abilities of most within the Planar Continents, at least in the same realm as she was.


    With them travelling at an even greater speed, they reached the baths in no time, put away their things into a protected drawer that could be reopened with the talisman that lay within, and entered the baths only to find Long Huang already within them.


    The baths were located in a large chamber, with one entrance at the front and a set of large windows at the back, made from blurred, unclear glass that would obstruct vision and spiritual perception similarly, allowing only the faintest glimpses to be seen of the people bathing within. The walls and ceiling were lined with a light wood that kept in the warmth of the hot waters in the centre of the room, while the floor was made from tiles of dark, porous stone that managed to resemble black, polished marble without the same risk of slipping and falling when getting out of the baths.


    One could walk with two friends around the rectangular perimeter of the bathing pool itself, which was carved from several large stones in such a manner that the baths had three levels of elevation, with the first two resembling steps as they were just wide enough for one person to stand on them, and just tall enough to be able to ascend them without much discomfort.


    It was possible to sit with only one¡¯s feet within the water, or get in deeper up to one¡¯s chest, which was the position that Long Huang had chosen to occupy, or go even further in, arriving at the depth of most of the bathing pool, where only the tallest could stand while others would easily be able to dive beneath the water, which wasn¡¯t usually recommended but was occasionally done to see things that would otherwise be obscured by the subtle waves and refraction of the water.


    From a quick look through spiritual perception onto the other side of the wall, the male baths were identical, except the colours of the floor and walls were reversed for some aesthetic reason.


    ¡°Ah, Zhi Qiu Ya. Have you regained your human mind for now?¡±


    ¡°I have. Otherwise, I¡¯d never be here, judging purely based on experience,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya confirmed as she headed to the showers at the side, ¡°Don¡¯t try to take a sample of my blood again while we¡¯re here.¡±


    ¡°For the moment, I have enough of them. Furthermore, I typically ask for permission.¡±


    ¡°¡¯Typically¡¯ doesn¡¯t mean always.¡±


    Seeing their exchange, with both acting slightly differently than she would have expected, especially given yesterday¡¯s comments, Wei Yi didn¡¯t have much of an opportunity nor desire to step in, so she calmly washed herself and then stepped into the warm water of the bath, sitting down a short distance away from Long Huang as to not bother her too much.


    ¡°And you. Have you made friends with the mutt?¡±


    ¡®Oh, so she still calls her that. I was wondering whether she only used that for the wolven state of Zhi Qiu Ya, and I guess that isn¡¯t the case,¡¯ Wei Yi pondered how to reply for a moment, then said, ¡°I¡¯ve only spoken with Zhi Qiu Ya a little, but I¡¯m hoping that it hasn¡¯t been going too poorly so far.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t dislike you, so that is more than what can be said for most,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya said as she got into the water as well, sitting a similar distance away from Wei Yi as she was from Long Huang, ¡°Furthermore, you haven¡¯t yet attempted to experiment on me in some way, and you are not an unpleasant creature like Mo Zhouquan, so-¡±


    ¡°Do you miss me already, delectable~ seed?¡± the person she brought up finally arrived at that point, not bothering to enter the showers before she went straight into the water, thankfully having enough sense and empathy to avoid them and sit on the other end of the baths. The very moment that her skin touched the water, a thick, dark violet fog began to spread throughout the water, turning it opaque and entirely obscuring all of the woman¡¯s activities within that darkened mist while also releasing a thin vapour that hung around it and released an unpleasant smell that both Zhi Qiu Ya and Wei Yi quickly attempted to retreat from.


    Just as with most of the corrupted woman¡¯s actions and creations, it was difficult to accurately explain or label them in words alone, but the vapour seemed to be the combination of the best and worst scents of passion, humanity, and life itself, appearing highly disgusting to the extreme senses of the wolven woman and the above-average sensory abilities of Wei Yi.


    Long Huang appeared to be able to ignore it, although her eyes did narrow as she stared at the woman opposite her.


    ¡°Nobody in this world could ever possibly miss you, Mo Zhouquan,¡± Long Huang stated, getting a little out of the water to the point that her nipples rose above it, ¡°Just so that you know, Wei Yi, every time that she enters the water, the entire bath has to be cleaned and refilled. For this reason, everyone constantly asks her not to bathe, and thus she manages to get away with remaining in the building very frequently and not cleaning herself for weeks or even months, at times.¡±


    ¡°Fortunately, whatever is going through her veins doesn¡¯t result in sweat or dirt accumulating on her, or else she¡¯d have had her neck bitten off some time ago,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya added, almost growling at the woman before catching herself.


    Seeing as Mo Zhouquan had nothing to add, as she was simply leaning back and enjoying whatever had become of the water, Wei Yi decided to ask, ¡°Is there any reason why she is allowed to be doing whatever she wanted with her, er, corruption, as she calls it? How does a bed transform into a living thing, anyway?¡±


    ¡°Well, the creepy bitch is rather knowledgeable about way too many things and is able to cure the majority of diseases and poisons within an hour of learning about them. Additionally, she has some connection to a faction that also specialises in corruption, which the Brotherhood of Power, that is, we, occasionally benefit from,¡± Long Huang explained, reluctantly getting a little deeper into the water so that she could enjoy the warm water above the waist as well, ¡°Our vice-leader also believes that they have some credibility, though I dispute this whenever I can.¡±


    ¡°I see. Does she¡­ ever transform people¡¯s things like she has her own clothing and bedsheets?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s been¡­ convinced by us to stop that kind of behaviour,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya said, sharing a glance with Long Huang that likely meant that she was included in that group.


    ¡°Right¡­¡± Wei Yi bit her lip as she pondered about some other question to ask the three of them, but she couldn¡¯t think of much that wouldn¡¯t raise some suspicion the moment that they learnt a little more about her, so she instead took advantage of the location she was in and took a proper look at the people around her, as the previous time necessitated spiritual perception rather than her eyes.


    The first person to catch her eye was naturally Mo Zhouquan, mostly because she was sitting directly in front of her, but she was also the worst to look upon within the baths due to the damage that she had inflicted upon the waters.


    All that she was able to see was that her chest was large, her skin soft, and her eyes were incredibly curious and inquisitive, making Wei Yi somewhat reluctant to look upon her for a prolonged period of time despite everything that she had endured before, and that she expected to experience later, especially if the corrupted woman assumed that she was also interested in being affected by that corruption and put in great effort to inflict it upon her.


    Instead, she turned to Zhi Qiu Ya, who was currently meticulously trying to clean the fur that grew on her arms, armpits, back, parts of her belly and on the sides of it, on her legs and on her head, although that was more of a mix of human hair and animal fur, getting closer to the latter near her animalistic ears, which somehow coexisted alongside her human ears.


    Unlike the somewhat top-heavy figure of Mo Zhouquan and the comparatively bottom-heavy figure of Wei Yi, Zhi Qiu Ya had a balanced body, having both muscle and fat in just the right places, above-average breasts seemingly emphasises by the fur that grew around her chest, fitting onto her body significantly better than Mo Zhouquan¡¯s assets did on her inhuman, unnatural form that was, admittedly, still highly appealing if the corrupted features of her body were to be ignored entirely, as they significantly lowered her appeal in her eyes.


    To her left, Long Huang finally managed to relax enough to sit back down, fully immersing her chest within the warm water, which was perhaps the second smallest out of everyone in the baths, perhaps caused in part due to the overall thin appearance of the pale figure.


    Out of everyone here, she seemed to be consuming the least food and had the most bones showing through her skin, beside spending the least amount of time in the sun, so this thinner figure was likely caused in part due to the excessive amount of time spent in some dark room experimenting upon bloodlines and whatever creatures she would be permitted to interact with, which was either her loss or gain depending on whether she was like Wei Yi, valuing efficiency and convenience over having slightly larger boobs.


    ¡®Anyway, it has been a while, so I might as well relax, circulate my physique energy to prevent that corrupted sludge from coming into contact with me, and occupy my mind with something slightly more relevant than the bodies of those beside me,¡¯ she thought after a while, leaning back and focusing.


    Some time later, without being accosted by anyone that she knew within the Brotherhood of Power, she found a board that had a large number of contracts pinned to it, picked out a simple one requiring her to chase down some criminal and kill her, and left the district quickly, as the target had only left recently and because she was eagerly awaiting the opportunity to integrate the energy that she had obtained from Shi Taihao¡¯s failed plan to win his duel with Luo Lia Kun.


    It wouldn¡¯t be sufficient to breach the fifth stage, even though it was a significant amount of energy for someone in the fifth realm, not only because reaching any stage of the fifth realm would actually require a hundred times the energy someone in it would actually possess due to the way in which energy refinement and absorption functioned, but also due to the overly inflated amount of power that Wei Yi required for every single one of her realms and stages. With a fraction of the total pool of someone in the fifth realm, she would obtain energy that was only roughly five times more powerful than her own, meaning that she would need twenty times more of it to cross the entirety of a stage.


    Still, miracles had occurred in the past, and if she did achieve a breakthrough, whatever occurred during it would certainly drawn unwanted attention. She would rather avoid that at all costs, while she could.


    Furthermore, she wanted to get some opportunity to practise without potential observation, and while she couldn¡¯t be certain that she would avoid the attention of someone with the seventh realm within the district, given that their energy could be significantly more powerful than her own and potentially avoid her gaze, but she could easily stretch out her perception within the wilds and be safe.


    Once she arrived at such a place, she did exactly that, finding no people of a high realm within reach, even if one of them was within the seventh realm, at which point they could reach out to one hundred and twenty three metres with their spiritual perception without requiring any kind of spiritual will cultivation, which they wouldn¡¯t be able to commit to unless they were somehow born with a physique that included additional sets of meridians, or if they somehow uncovered the same method that she did via the insane and rather dangerous combination of countless body cultivation techniques.


    ¡®Every time I recall that, I realise how close I had been to killing myself back then. Had I not been successful, there would have been more than just excruciating pain¡­ On the topic of which, time to cultivate and attempt to come up with some more new things. Perhaps I¡¯ll find some fortunate combination of techniques and principles again, at some point, and figure out bloodline cultivation or something of the sort,¡¯ she thought as she sat down and reached out to Yi Shi Ming.


    Within the prison realm, a cloud of purified energy floated in the air, kept in place by the might of the Oblivion Halo realm spatial spirit, above a series of planar stones that were slowly releasing their energy into the space around them and saturating the entire spatial realm to a greater level.


    ¡°Are you ready, Wei Yi?¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City asked, raising her hand in preparation.


    ¡°Yes. I am prepared to activate an obscuring array and to defend myself even if the Greats all congregate upon my current position without warning¡­ I¡¯m prepared to fail almost instantly, that is. I don¡¯t expect to survive for long enough to get away if their first generation appears, especially if they are able to accumulate more anchors than those in the second and third generation,¡± Wei Yi thought idly, ¡°I wonder what technique allows them to breach the laws of planar energy cultivation to such a large extent.¡±


    ¡°Actually, you might be being worried over nothing, as the Great Families tend to maintain a similar number of anchors across their generations, and from first public appearance to their deaths, the number does not usually change.¡±


    ¡°Oh, really? Then, does that mean that I have dealt a great deal of damage to Ning Wu and Chen Wu?¡±


    ¡°Potentially, so long as their technique does not set a fixed number of anchors, akin to the way in which searing marks may be obtained at first but will only ever regenerate afterwards.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d prefer it if they couldn¡¯t recover easily, but it is far more likely that they can,¡± she agreed, ¡°I was just being uncharacteristically optimistic for once. Being so paranoid and worried about every minor possibility can get quite draining, far more than I must have expected when I first began to engage in this kind of behaviour. Anyway, you can begin.¡±


    Without saying another word, Yi Shi Ming opened a gateway between the Kong Prison Realm and the Planar Continents, containing it within Wei Yi¡¯s dantian and thus avoiding any obvious traces of the prison realm¡¯s opening. Since all that would be transported was energy, it was also entirely safe even though the physical location of the dantian and its contents were somewhat vague, as it was only ever in existence when it was being interacted with by a weapon or some physical technique.


    The refined energy of the fifth realm seeped into her body, quickly being cultivated by the Ascendant¡¯s Path technique and absorbed into her cultivation, the crystalline planar pool within her body rapidly growing during the few moments of absorption.


    Just as predicted, however, it was fully consumed before her planar aperture was anywhere close to being full.


    ¡®Still, this is good progress. One or two more planar stones, and the first nine stages of a realm will be under my wings, so to speak. After that, I should experience a great boost in strength, planar energy quality, and whatever else, and hopefully correct the rather unstable situation of the planar anchor,¡¯ she reminded herself, glancing inwards at the trembling anchor, with the many bulging pieces of dark stone and the bright sphere within still prompting a certain degree of wariness from her, ¡®What exactly could this result in, anyway? I don¡¯t see any reason to break a perfectly good anchor, but who knows¡­¡¯


    She rose, thanked Yi Shi Ming, and proceeded onwards. She had a criminal to catch.

 V3C46: A Secretive Faction

    ¡°I understand that you were successful¡­ but did you need to bring her heart with you?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ You cultivate the element of fire, right? Just burn it outside or something. I don¡¯t really want to see this kind of thing right now,¡± Luo Lia Kun instructed.


    The hunt was easy, but it had forced Wei Yi to trek quite far to locate her target, resulting in her returning the morning of the next day, at which point she headed straight to the vice-leader before the heart that she had decided to use as proof began to rot or otherwise became unpleasant to keep in close proximity to herself.


    She hadn¡¯t seen any clarification of the proper method of confirming the demise of a target, so she acted as Wei Yi the Warrior would have done, performing that persona¡¯s favourite execution.


    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll be right back,¡± she nodded, as she wasn¡¯t too keen on keeping the heart to begin with.


    Due to the vice-leader¡¯s office being only a short distance away from the leader¡¯s sealed chamber, and due to that being within reasonable distance of an entrance to the building, she was able to come and go within two minutes, barely giving Luo Lia Kun the time to gather her thoughts, or so it seemed based on the somewhat conflicted expression of the vice-leader when she returned. That wasn¡¯t something that her brutish persona would recognise, so she just carelessly entered and sat down on the chair on the visitor¡¯s side of the vice-leader¡¯s desk, waiting for further instructions.


    ¡°I see you rushed off the moment that you could, huh?¡±


    ¡°The three I was staying with were too¡­ strange, at first, at least, so I decided to get a different itch out of my system first,¡± Wei Yi confirmed, ¡°By the way, why were you so concerned that I¡¯d sleep with one of them?¡±


    ¡°Mostly because I hadn¡¯t had to deal with Mo Zhouquan in some time, so I¡¯d forgotten the impression that she gives most people. Also, you¡¯re strange enough yourself, so I figured you might like one of the three,¡± answered Luo Lia Kun as she wrote something down on a document and stored it within her desk, leaning onto it afterwards while she looked into Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, ¡°Listen, do you remember how I had told you to keep some things secret? How have you managed with that?¡±


    ¡°Well, Long Huang asked about my physique, but since that sounded important, I only said the type of physique that I had¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s good. You can share some things with the Brotherhood of Power, but remember to be careful with other groups and organisations,¡± she clarified, ¡°The reason I had asked this is because I wanted to tell you something, and I was curious whether you¡¯d be able to keep it to yourself. What do you think?¡±


    ¡°To myself? I¡¯m really good at doing that. What is it?¡±


    Luo Lia Kun looked onto her with sceptical eyes, but she had clearly already resolved to share this secret piece of information with her and thus continued nonetheless, ¡°First of all, do you know of something called the War of Yin?¡±


    If not for her great control over every aspect of her body ¨C and the fact that she had long removed all hair that originated below the neck so that she wouldn¡¯t need to deal with impervious leg hair or something of the sort ¨C every hair on her body would have stood up as the pace of her heart would have raced past anything resembling normality. With those things under control, and the minimization of the dilation of her eyes, she managed to reply as an ignorant person might.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Why would anyone want to fight over yin, anyway?¡±


    ¡°The name might be slightly unrepresentative of the true nature of the conflict, but it has some accuracy. You see, it was a war between two factions, neither of which I can name, to obtain and keep a forbidden skill by the name of the Paradigm of Yin. It had the power to threaten the aggressors of the conflict, whom you must only ever address as Them. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡®Paradigm of Yin¡­ I don¡¯t think that I¡¯ve ever heard the name itself, but I do know something about the war. Great Dark and Great Light had participated, and they were entities of absolute yin,¡¯ she considered while answering, ¡°Maybe?¡±


    ¡°One faction was led by a man by the name of Great Earth. He was a master of inscriptions and his physical body contained immense power due to him training it from a very young age with an ancient training set. He had found the technique and learned that it was so closely tied to the true nature of reality and the Great Dao that it would be able to oppose Their abilities despite the usual gap between Them and normal people. In order to cultivate it, he even split himself into two, naming himself Great Dark and Great Light for one contained the brighter aspects of yin while the other held the darker side. Are you following so far?¡±


    ¡®This¡­ I regret not being able to scan their bodies properly back then. A forbidden skill that could threaten the Greats enough to start a war¡­ If this is true, then I technically possess something of a similar nature, so the moment that Ning Wu and Chen Wu share that fact about me, I will be in far greater danger. Fortunately, they think me to be from the Yi family, and thus likely believe me to bear the surname of Yi, which should confuse them for a short while,¡¯ Wei Yi¡¯s mind was slowly accelerating once more to comprehend and use the information that she was obtaining, as well as to check it against what she knew to ensure that no falsehoods were being fed to her under the guise of the sharing of secrets, but on the outside, she just nodded as if she was barely understanding this.


    ¡°Alright. Unfortunately, the War of Yin ended in the loss of Great Dark and Great Light, both of whom went into hiding, perhaps together, perhaps not. Most members of the Forces of Yin were captured, slain, or otherwise made non-dangerous for Them, but this does not apply to every single one of them,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, ¡°Some remained, and call themselves the Remnant of Yin. They seek to regain power in secret, and to face Them once more.¡±


    ¡°Is that good?¡±


    ¡°Listen, Wei Yi; do you hate bad people? Oppressors, brutal and unjustified killers, those who would lower the entire world into dirt just to be able to dominate it?¡±


    ¡°I certainly don¡¯t like them, and I suppose that it could be construed as hate¡­¡±


    ¡°Then I wish to extend a proposal to you, as vice-leader of the Remnant of Yin ¨C join us, and ensure with your own hands that They, a group of great power and greed, do not maintain their grip on the world for any second longer than necessary.¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ Do you mind if I ask you some questions first? For example, why are you telling this to someone who has only been part of your organisation for two or three days? Also, are you really the vice-leader of both the Brotherhood of Power and the Remnant of Yin? Are those two the same, or is there some difference?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know why you had asked for my permission when you clearly didn¡¯t need it, but¡­ I am telling you this because you are immensely powerful, and because the mission you took yesterday involved ending the life of someone on the side of Them. Likely without even knowing it, you took care of one of their agents, even if she was significantly weaker than any of their true members. Still, I think that you have the chance to succeed where many do not,¡± said Luo Lia Kun, ¡°I do happen to be the vice-leader of both, but I hold my position with great pride. Finally, as you should have already noticed, there are indeed some differences in the two organisations. Not all members of the Brotherhood of Power are part of the Remnant of Yin, and vice versa, just as you weren¡¯t a part of the latter when you joined.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡± Wei Yi was tempted to ask whether she would be permitted to tear out hearts if she did join, but such a moment did not seem to allow for such an action, regardless of how tactless she pretended to be, ¡°Still, don¡¯t these kinds of things first require a great amount of trust?¡±


    ¡°You see, Wei Yi, you are¡­ straightforward. Yes. That¡¯s a fitting word for you. As a result, you don¡¯t tend to lie, which is a pretty good thing in a world of secrecy and trickery. Furthermore, They wouldn¡¯t expect an entirely new warrior to have joined our side, so you would also have an advantage when it comes to catching them unaware and executing plans alone that would otherwise require far more people to handle due to some of your strengths and talents.¡±


    ¡®Calling someone simple as a compliment¡­ It¡¯s what I was going for, again, but it is still surprisingly effective,¡¯ she pretended to consider this for a while, ¡°What would be different if I joined your Remnant of Yin?¡±


    ¡°Rather than getting common missions, I would specifically assign those involving Them to you, and you would receive more payment and rewards than if you had chased these targets normally. Furthermore, there are several chambers within this buildings, and outside of it, reserved for us Remnants, which you will be able to access and benefit from so long as you do not abuse their resources, as that would force me and others at our side to bar you from using those chambers,¡± the vice-leader explained, ¡°Additionally, I can increase your reward of failed talismans, if you still insist on having them and not something else.¡±


    ¡°I do want failed talismans specifically, yes¡­¡± she said, dragging out her words to delay for as long as possible, ¡°Can I leave if I don¡¯t want to remain?¡±


    ¡°I am sure that you know the answer to that. This information is too secret, so if you refuse now, I might not even be permitted to let you go, unless you can swear several oaths and permit yourself to be cursed,¡± Luo Lia Kun admitted, ¡°However, you won¡¯t regret siding with us, no matter what you do or believe in. If we truly succeed, now, or ever, it will be for the best of everyone in the continents.¡±


    Since that was already said, Wei Yi had no reason to refuse, ¡°I don¡¯t have much of a choice, then.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll join, then. Do I get anything to commemorate the occasion?¡±


    ¡°No. You would have received the talismans regardless, and neither I nor anyone else from the Remnants would be able to give you anything exclusive to us without having you prove your loyalty, since a single seemingly insignificant word from you could easily expose us and ruin everything that we have been working towards for so long,¡± she admitted, ¡°Eventually, you will be able to ask for quite a lot of things, like knowledge obtained from the Paradigm of Yin and mostly forgotten techniques, but not yet.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll wait for that. Is there anything else that you wanted to tell me, or can I finally get the failed talismans?¡±


    ¡°No, there¡¯s nothing else for the moment,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, leaning back against her chair, ¡°Remember that this is a secret, and unless you are certain that the person you are speaking to is part of the Remnants of Yin, you must not spread a single thing that I¡¯ve told you today. Your talismans are in your room. Go outside before using them, no matter what you will do with them.¡±


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll do that,¡± she shrugged, leaving the room.


    Wei Yi managed to get as far as her shared room, which was currently empty, and sat down on Long Huang¡¯s bed, not wishing to endure whatever the bed on the other side of the room had changed into, before she plunged deeply into thought.


    ¡®So, this is not only extremely unexpected, but also rather strange. For the remains of the faction that was part of the War of Yin to be found here, actively operating within what must be the domain of the Great Luo, is incredibly curious, considering the fact that the Greats are typically extremely good at removing potential threats from everything that I¡¯ve been able to observe. So many factions and wars must have been fought in the past, and yet this one remains¡­ There are some possibilities here, and not all of them are necessarily good,¡¯ she considered, looking through countless books within her library while she thought in order to confirm certain ideas and theories, ¡®Fortunately, I seem like a dim-witted simpleton to the vice-leader of the entire group, and their leader is likely the same as for the Brotherhood of Power, so she won¡¯t interfere for a while, although she may be fooled as well¡­ I will need to continue observing, and then act the moment that I think I have to.¡¯


    She raised her head, looking into the prison realm with her consciousness while her eyes were faced with the monstrous entity that was Mo Zhouquan¡¯s bed. Much like her hair, the bed seemed to pulse and breathe and shift around as she looked upon it, thus releasing the thin warm vapour, but it was truly moving, and as she was able to tell with spiritual perception, the underside of the sheets was covered in thin, numerous tendrils and cilia that weren¡¯t moving for the moment.


    For someone to actively sleep beneath something like this, and do so calmly, it was even more disconcerting when in combination with every single other action of the corrupted woman.


    And yet, her cultivator¡¯s senses were once again telling her something that she couldn¡¯t yet comprehend, but it did mean that those who lived within this room were of some significance. Whether that was as enemies, allies, or forces of chaos that could destabilise any situation that they would be thrown into.


    In part, she did know why such a sensation could be occurring. Mo Zhouquan was part of some organisation that studied something that she had very little understanding of, and something that could potentially allow her to inflict great damage to the plans of the Greats, depending on the true nature of the corruption that she and the group behind her specialised in. Long Huang had far more understanding of bloodlines than any regular person should be aware of, which, if Wei Yi was able to learn all of it, could potentially push some of her own plans forward by a great extent, and there was always the chance that she was also connected to an organisation with similar focuses to her own, like the Blood-tinged Church, which she had been interested in for quite some time.


    Zhi Qiu Ya appeared less knowledgeable overall, but the wolven form that she possessed granted her great power without the requirement of cultivation or a physique, which was something that had great potential, especially if the strengths of her new form could be introduced into others without bringing along the canine mind, even if it required the body of a cultivator to develop the same wolven ears, tail and fur as she had.


    ¡®I wonder if any of them will be willing to cooperate with me eventually. Mo Zhouquan would almost certainly want to use her corruption on me, Long Huang may try to feed me the blood of strange creatures, and Zhi Qiu Ya¡­ I don¡¯t think she had anything particularly strange about her, hopefully.¡¯


    The most that could be expected from the wolven woman¡¯s particularities would be excessive attention to smell, or some attempts to mark her territory while in the animalistic state, which was somehow the least dangerous and annoying act out of those that could be committed by the three that would spend some time beside her.


    If she was able to figure out how to excise the living plague from her body, or otherwise cull the wolven mind that occasionally surfaced within her, that would likely earn her a significant amount of gratitude and an ally without much of a requirement for the same kind of complex maintenance that the other two would necessitate, although her usefulness appeared to be limited to acting as a warrior or a heavy lifter, while the other two possessed far more potential to radically alter her approach towards defeating the Greats and reforming Yi City.


    ¡®That is all while making the assumption that I will be able to successfully persuade them to side with me. If they are already on the side of the Remnants, and they aren¡¯t lying to me, then it may be as easy as saying that I wish to bring them to a secret location to assist me in combatting the Greats¡­¡® Wei Yi recalled, feeling the stained bedsheet beneath her hands, the slight crusty sensation of the sheets not being pleasing to any of her senses in the slightest, ¡®Best case scenario, I get all three of them, the vice-leader ¨C as she is rather cute when I bully her ¨C and perhaps the leader herself, worst case, I should get at least one of them on my side, even if it has to be done with some trickery or force. It is a little too important to pass up on this opportunity.¡¯


    All of a sudden, she turned to the doorway just as Zhi Qiu Ya leapt out of it, crashing into her and pinning her down on the bed in an instant.


    ¡°Zhi Qiu Ya, what are you-¡±


    The moment that she heard a low growl emerge from her mouth, her elongated canines on display, it became quite clear that she was not in a state where questions would be answered with anything more than growls, roars or vague expressions.


    Whether by accident or otherwise, Zhi Qiu Ya had grabbed both of her arms and pinned them to the bed, and sat over her stomach, much like the time that she had woken her up the day before, and just as she had done on that day, she drew her face closer to Wei Yi¡¯s, sniffing at her scent, or, likely, the absence of it due to her frequent cleansing through physique energy.


    Before she could do anything else, Wei Yi said, ¡°Look, even excluding all of the ethical issues, I am not exactly fond of being on the bottom. As such¡­¡±


    While the animal mind of the current Zhi Qiu Ya was distracted, she used the World¡¯s Echo physique ability and momentarily flashed her arm out of existence. It appeared beside the wolven woman¡¯s ears, at which point she began to follow one of Luo Lia Kun¡¯s instructions and scratched behind her wolven ear.


    In her youth, Wei Yi had never had the opportunity to play with any animals, whether they were ordinary or planar beasts, not that she would have had the opportunity to encounter a tamed planar beast regardless of the place or position she could have been in instead as taming of planar beasts was extremely unconventional and rare, and she hadn¡¯t stumbled across many people engaging in this activity throughout her journeys in the prison realm and outside of the Yi District, so this was one of the few skills that she had never had the opportunity to practise or indirectly learn about.


    That did not appear to bother the wolven girl, as she quickly began to show an ecstatic expression as she panted, her animal tongue hanging out of her mouth.


    Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s grip on her weakened to the point that even a child could break free, but she did not do so immediately, instead freeing her other arm and using that hand to pat the woman on the head slowly, which was something that she did have a little more experience in.


    It did not take long for the wolven woman to be entirely incapacitated and distracted, at which point she pushed her off and laid her down on the bed while she sat down beside her, continuing to scratch behind her ear absentmindedly while she looked at Zhi Qiu Ya and examined her unreserved expression of pleasure.


    ¡°Not what I¡¯d expected to be doing today, but this is¡­ fine¡­¡±


    The wolven woman didn¡¯t appear to even notice her words, as she was entirely consumed by what she was currently experiencing. Even if she was able to reply at the moment, she didn¡¯t expect much more than some animalistic noise or an attempt to lick her, as canines were apparently keen to do.


    ¡°Tell me, how did you become like this? Did you act like this even with your human mind at first, or did you never get any bestial inclinations at the start?¡±


    ¡°I did¡­¡±


    ¡°Hm? Zhi Qiu Ya, have you come back?¡±


    ¡°When I¡­ let go of you¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh, do you happen to enjoy ear scratches?¡±


    ¡°A bit¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, I suppose there¡¯s nothing wrong with that. Should I keep going, or are you unable to answer any questions while I¡¯m doing this?¡±


    ¡°I can¡­ Just be a little slower¡­¡±


    ¡°Like this?¡±


    ¡°Yes~¡­ Alright, you were asking whether I had¡­ unfortunate inclinations at the beginning?¡±


    ¡°I was just a little curious, and I did want to figure out how and why you change from one mind to another. Also, it¡¯s a good opportunity to practise scratching with claws, which I don¡¯t often end up doing,¡± Wei Yi said.


    ¡°Y-You¡¯re doing this with the claws? You¡­ it shouldn¡¯t feel this good¡­¡± Zhi Qiu Ya said in a conflicted tone, ¡°I didn¡¯t realise what was happening until I suddenly grew a tail¡­ However, I had been feeling strange at times¡­ My sense of smell had been getting very strong, to the point that I could barely stand near everyone in the town that lived in¡­ They were all in the first and second realms, and they could never be bothered to wash themselves¡­ The men, in particular, were horribly sweaty at all times¡­¡°


    ¡°My sense of smell isn¡¯t as strong as yours, but I can still empathise. Spending a lot of time near Mo Zhouquan yesterday was quite painful, to be entirely frank.¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ she¡¯s a total bitch, and yet she¡¯d take that as a compliment¡­¡±


    ¡®Well, she is far more free with her language at a time like this, I see. Far less guarded, too. What a nice, non-violent method of interrogation that I¡¯ve just discovered for people like her. If the living plague has spread to people other than her, I could employ this method against the women against them,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, ¡°So, what happened then?¡±


    ¡°I got a tail¡­ grew fur, ears¡­ it was strange, but not too painful, almost making me think I was dreaming¡­ But the people around me confirmed that I was not¡­ some were fine with this, thinking that it was a physique of some sort, but most didn¡¯t think so¡­¡± Zhi Qiu Ya released a satisfied growl involuntarily, ¡°At first, I accepted their treatment, but over time¡­ I began to hate it. I fought back, somewhat childishly¡­ destroying thing that belonged to those that weren¡¯t at fault¡­ I regret it, and yet, I think I did the right thing when I finally escaped.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly what happened, nor exactly why, so I can¡¯t really comment with any accuracy, but I suppose that it¡¯s fine so long as you have learned from any of your mistakes and strive to avoid them in the future. Can¡¯t really change the past, after all.¡±


    ¡°I suppose¡­ I miss my brother. He was a silly boy that, at one point, after being encouraged by his friends¡­ He tried to peep on me while I was bathing, and failed so horribly that he had to be fed miracle fruits for a week¡­¡± the wolven girl giggled, ¡°I hope he isn¡¯t doing anything stupid like that nowadays¡­ He¡¯d get hurt again¡­¡±


    ¡°Miracle fruits? Is white and grey the natural colour of your hair?¡±


    ¡°No, that was the transformation¡¯s fault¡­ Why?¡±


    ¡°You said that he had to be fed miracle fruits for some time, but a normal town of mostly ordinary people would hardly be able to obtain a large number of them, even if they are the worst, least desired, and least effective of all.¡±


    ¡°I hadn¡¯t realised that it was odd before I left¡­ They just grew in our farms, and on our trees¡­ However, you haven¡¯t explained yourself yet,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya tensed up slightly, as if preparing to attack.


    ¡°It¡¯s just that I think I might have seen him during my travels.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Oh? You¡¯ve seen my brother?¡± she rose immediately, pushing away the hand that had continued to scratch near her ear absentmindedly, ¡°Tell me what that person looked like, what he did, how he spoke like, everything! Tell me!¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ He had brown hair, dark eyes, looked thin and very young, carried a bag full of miracle fruits, and was rather lacking in caution and wariness despite being in the wilderness.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that must have been him!¡± Zhi Qiu Ya exclaimed, her tail wagging vigorously, ¡°That silly kid would never pay attention to me or his parents. He has eaten the most miracle fruits out of everyone there, so he¡¯ll probably be fine if he has any form of cultivation-¡±


    ¡°He does not.¡±


    ¡°That moron. Then again, he wasn¡¯t ever good at anything to do with energy, so he probably decided that eating more fruits would be just as good as cultivating¡­ That silly kid¡­ He is a good person, however. When I was being mistreated, he was always on my side, making sure that I would always have enough food and be able to remain in our home, even if he was the younger one¡­¡±


    ¡°Seems like you had a nice time before the living plague¡­ If I could look directly at your memories, I¡¯d do so to enjoy that kind of experience¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered, doing that exact thing.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t have family?¡±


    ¡°Not in the closer, more limited sense. My parents died when I was young, I had no siblings ¨C not that I know of, anyway. Perhaps there were countless brothers and sisters that I knew nothing about, but I don¡¯t think that really counts,¡± she replied, storing away the memories obtained through the spiritual will thread into a specific section of the Ascendant¡¯s Library, ¡°Out of interest, has your condition been deteriorating, or is it mostly as it was when the transformation initially completed?¡±


    ¡°Mostly the same. I don¡¯t know what it depends on, but it changes on occasion. At times, I will change every few hours, for a few hours, sometimes there will almost be a gap of an entire day. The smallest amount of time that I have had between my animal mind stepping in was half an hour.¡±


    ¡°You did mention that¡­¡±


    After a short pause, Zhi Qiu Ya looked outside and noted that the sun had already risen quite significantly, ¡°Anyway, we have spent quite some time here, and I would like to do something else on my own. If there¡¯s nothing else, I¡¯ll see you later.¡±


    ¡°No, nothing. Have a good time and try to control your own state of mind. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s some way to correct your issue,¡± Wei Yi said, as the prolonged contact with this woman allowed her to gain a little more of an insight about the living plague and the effects that it had upon her, although she wasn¡¯t yet confident in suggesting any actual kind of approaches to correcting or otherwise influencing it.


    Perhaps the only thing she could be certain about was that cultivating spiritual will would likely lead to improvement, although it could empower both states of self instead and allow the wolven mind to develop into a secondary identity with its own set of memories, opinions and views, at which point it would develop into something classed as split personality disorder, which wasn¡¯t something that she wanted to inflict upon the poor wolven woman, hence why she didn¡¯t suggest it.


    Zhi Qiu Ya departed, leaving Wei Yi to remain in her seat and ponder.

 V3C47: Development

    After checking that the failed talismans were what she wanted, she did not use them immediately, but instead headed out of the building yet again with more requests and tasks for her to complete, which would also be rewarded by even more failed talismans that she hoped to use to break through into a great physique stage while simultaneously forcing her planar energy to undergo a certain degree of refinement and potentially obtain a new stage, although that was far less likely than most other potential benefits.


    Since she hadn¡¯t been told exactly how to acquire the specific tasks of the Remnants of Yin, she took advantage of this to momentarily ignore them while learning more about the locals and the Brotherhood of Power as a whole.


    The majority of the tasks that she had selected were incredibly easy to complete, so she made sure to finish them quickly, then returned with either a heart or a recognisable token from the individual that was mentioned within the request in order to easily prove her success. She used the latter more than the former due to Luo Lia Kun and the few others that she ended up meeting not being too fond of the constant bloodstains on their floors and carpets, as well as the stench of burnt flesh that would be left behind after they would inevitably tell her to get rid of the still organ, rarely even bothering to use any kind of technique to check their authenticity.


    During this time, she did not end up speaking with the three that she now lived with all that much, as most of her time was spent outside of the Brotherhood of Power¡¯s building, but she did give them and their matters some thoughts while she was travelling there and back again with still-beating hearts in hand.


    The living plague that she had detected within Zhi Qiu Ya had the form of a large, spherical, plant-like entity with many pointed thorns all around its form.


    She had no knowledge of such things until a short time ago, so she didn¡¯t even know whether this was unusual, but she could tell that it was strangely powerful for a small ball that sat within someone and changed them into an animalistic caricature. Although it did not possess a cultivation of its own, as it was smaller than a thumb and possessed no clear traces of thought or reason, it felt as if it could potentially inflict great harm on her if she tried to extract it, not that she knew how it would do this.


    Alongside the fact that she had already shown too much of herself to Zhi Qiu Ya during their chat on the twenty-first, she didn¡¯t have any intention of doing anything about this plague yet, so it suited her just fine to wait a little longer and see if any curious developments could occur from her simple advice.


    Wei Yi had no intention of causing some kind of miracle just by advising someone to do something that they likely already attempted to do with great regularity, but at times, an obstacle was only there because someone was convinced that it existed. The moment that they were presented with the possibility that it was not there, or that it was far less insurmountable than they initially assumed, it had the tendency to weaken quite significantly, giving the person the opportunity to breach it and achieve whatever it was that they sought.


    Whether the obstacle of the wolven mentality occasionally forcing its way into her life could be overcome in a similar manner was not something that she could determine yet, but it never hurt to try.


    She did attempt to use the Realm of Potential to combat the living plague, but she wasn¡¯t able to recreate anything that could view the entity within them as a strength, nor was she able to summon an entity that wasn¡¯t some variation of herself, so that plan was about as unsuccessful as any that involved the Realm of Potential being used in an unconventional way.


    It would be interesting to learn whether it would develop in a similar manner as the House of Gold, or if it would require some development and personal control over the prison realm due to being bound to it instead. What she was most curious about was the ability that the Great Aberrant had tried to use against her, as she wanted to understand exactly what he did to end his own life that quickly without her realising that it had even happened. It was bound to be something that simply required sufficient power, which it now lacked due to the absence of the azure light, and the only question was whether she could achieve it before reaching the peak.


    Whatever the ability that he had used against her, it had been sufficient to instantly kill himself and end his Mirror Plane, so it was bound to have some power if used in the correct manner.


    ¡®That, or he was suicidal, although that does not appear to match his state before he used the Realm of Potential on me,¡¯ she considered at one point, a week after she began taking on and handling missions, when she left the district to finally pursue her breakthrough with a sufficient quantity of talismans.


    As with the absorption of planar energy, she couldn¡¯t remain within the district if she wanted to keep any part of her own abilities hidden, so she found an area akin to the one she used previously ¨C reusing the same place twice would be risky, so she didn¡¯t even bother checking it ¨C and sat down in the grass, removing the enormous bag of failed talismans from the House of Gold and placing it down on the ground in front of her.


    She released a great quantity of spiritual will and killing intent separately, forming protective arrays with both, as she would be far more vulnerable during this particular attempt than during any of the previous breakthroughs after leaving the Kong Prison Realm.


    Destroying her body repeatedly within a short span of time is bound to tire her out temporarily, and fighting at that stage might only permit her to use the strength of the lower third realm at best, which would be nowhere near sufficient if she faced someone that would usually pose any kind of threat to her.


    As a result, she prepared ahead of time, setting up all kinds of arrays to obscure herself, to attack possible intruders, to drain their energy and to confuse them into fighting one another instead of her, although not a single one of them would have any effect upon any foes in the fifth realm or above due to her lacking attainment in the matter of arrays, which was based on the limited understanding of one man with a strange technique that could hardly create arrays of the fourth realm and another that hadn¡¯t managed to reach the fourth realm with a variant of that technique, meaning that her overall abilities were somewhat restricted by the lack of appropriate arrays.


    Some inscription were also carved into the ground, but she lacked practise and greater experience with them, so she didn¡¯t expect any of them to be able to do much more than hinder some random travellers, possibly attracting more attention than they would ward away.


    Due to the nature of the nature of the cultivation method that she had chosen to use, much of her body, and anything on it, was likely to suffer, so she placed everything on her into the House of Gold, where it would have no chance of being affected by the repeated activation of failed talismans, nor would there be anyone that could reasonably steal it from her without being a significant enough threat to make the matter of clothing mostly irrelevant. Then, she took out one of the failed fifth realm talismans and stuck it onto herself, infusing some cosmic energy into it as she did so.


    It had been quite a long time since she had first experienced a failed talisman acting upon her flesh, searing, scorching and obliterating it as it travelled towards the dantian for some unknown purpose, but the experience and, more importantly, the pain still resided firmly within her mind.


    When it returned, it almost felt as if she had been transported back to that moment, when her journey of twenty-five years began. She knew that it wasn¡¯t the case, as travelling through time was impossible, especially not from a random failed talisman, but the things she saw at that time flooded in, nonetheless. She was shorter, thinner, her skin was lighter, her hair was less vibrant, and her eyes were duller, she was notably more ignorant and na?ve, and most importantly, she was weak.


    Back then, she couldn¡¯t achieve a single thing that she wished for, and the awakening of the mysterious characters was akin to a glimpse of light within the abyss, a single hint of hope that had allowed her to travel so much further than she would have ever expected, since she hadn¡¯t thought that she would even be able to reach the third realm within her lifespan, and yet here she was, pursuing the fourth realm and the fifth realm of physique cultivation. Due to her getting stuck in the prison realm for quite some time, it took far longer than she would have hoped, but that was still nothing in comparison to what she had been and expected in the past.


    Thus, when the pain struck her, she quickly realised that it was not the same as it had been. The pain of the past was no longer the same, even despite the fact that the talismans were far stronger this time.


    ¡®Even back then, I faced this, but I did not fall. I was afraid, but I did not need to be. I should never be.¡¯


    All of a sudden, the talisman on her chest burnt up, and the bag before her also lit aflame, an immense quantity of the five elements merging together into a great ball of light that instantly enveloped her, in the moment of which she felt her mind reach her limits, ceasing time in its entirety as darkness overwhelmed her.


    The instant that she was able to see her own body, and the fact that it was dressed, she understood that she had either entered an illusion, or the Realm of Potential, since the absolute darkness was rather similar to the one present there.


    What wasn¡¯t quite fitting was a book that appeared to casually rest on the air at a slight angle, as if it was on a lectern that she simply couldn¡¯t see. It was a thick and large tome, a title seemingly drawn in pure gold on the front reading, ¡®Not all realms are clearly labelled. Not every stage is based purely on strength. Not all paths can be shared unto others, as some exist purely within the depths of one¡¯s own mind.¡¯


    She frowned, but reached out to take the book nonetheless, for something this thick had to contain some knowledge of use to her.


    Nothing seemed to resist her actions, and so she was able to pick it up and open it. However, after the first page, the entire tome was empty, devoid of useful information for her to take from it, although she did not view that as a failure or a disappointment. Something that she did likely caused this strange change within the Realm of Potential to appear, and so she presumed that she could obtain more if she was able to repeat or continue upon that action.


    As for the first page of the book, she couldn¡¯t call it anything other than a confusing mess. Perhaps it was a code, perhaps it was gibberish, but all she knew was that it was written in the letters of the otherworldly language of Antanian and had only a few words that seemed to be¡­ well, words.


    ¡®This isn¡¯t something that I¡¯ll be able to figure in a short amount of time, will I?¡¯


    She shut the book, the image of the text already firmly sealed within her mind, and placed it back into the air, finding that it was able to float in the same manner regardless of where she left it, whether it right on the ground or as high above herself as she was able to stretch her arm. Furthermore, after a moment, she figured out that it was possible to recall it to herself no matter where she left it, so she promptly leapt into the air of the abyss and left it in as high a place as possible, mostly to entertain herself.


    It was somewhat difficult to find time and space for doing silly things in the real world, so she took the opportunity to do them elsewhere every now and then. She wasn¡¯t a particularly silly person, but she had to balance the constant focus and seriousness in her life with some amusing things.


    Then, she shifted her attention to herself, and the fact that her body should, theoretically, be burning up right now due to the sudden activation of all of those talismans in front of her, and she should be able to feel that even while immersed into the Realm of Potential, and yet she could sense nothing of the sort.


    From her limited understanding of this otherworldly gift, she could only guess that she had either managed to dull her own pain without meaning to do so, that her body was handling it, somehow, or that she managed to have already processed every single one of the failed talismans in the time between the ignition of the talismans and her entry into the Realm of Potential, which was even less believable. However, there was the coincidence that both occurred at the same time, so she did suspect that one could have either triggered the other, or have cancelled out the other, resulting in her not suffering the full brunt of the talismans.


    Still, she wouldn¡¯t know much until she left this space and checked it out on her own, so she did that.


    The first thing she saw was that the bag that had contained the talismans was entirely absent, and that there was a large hole in the ground were it had been, with traces of the five elements pooling around it in such dense quantities that they were almost visible.


    Her own body, meanwhile, remained unclothed and uncovered, but she could tell with great clarity that it had changed. In addition, her physique energy had also advanced by three stages.


    Far more importantly than any of those things, however, was the fact that she felt a number of additional physique abilities awaken within it. They must have been subdued subconsciously by her, which was why she wasn¡¯t immediately met with glowing eyes, flesh or anything of the sort, but now that she was fully aware of her own situation, she went through them one by one.


    The first ability that she noticed was the Bright Star physique, which had little more of an effect than causing her eyes to glow with wondrous light, which was emboldened by her combination of yin and yang, alongside the plain effect of slightly enhancing her overall physical state.


    After that, she noticed that the energy of the Golden Form had grown, so she activated it at full strength, finding her skin changing into a more powerful, vibrant golden colour, slowly developing into a shade that was akin to the dark gold that made up much of the Ascendant¡¯s Library, and the Augur¡¯s Library before it. In terms of actual physical ability and resistance, the increase wasn¡¯t as significant as obtaining the regular Golden Form, but the Superior Golden Form ability was still very useful against less conventional attacks.


    Next on, she summoned the dark veil of the Grim Mortality physique ability and saw that it had grown thicker and denser, clearly progressing into the Pure stage of the physique that effectively doubled the overall power of the physique ability, especially against those that were devoid of hope, which was what the standard stage of the physique was worst at handling.


    She noticed that she also obtained Bright Glimmering Heart physique, as her heart was now more powerful and more adept at negating poisons, which she didn¡¯t truly require due to how many other methods of dealing with poisons that she had. It was still beneficial in improving the regular beat and circulation of the heart, but she had not yet faced many situations where she would actually benefit from that particular aspect of the physique ability. Regardless, it was still an incredibly convenient thing to have, and it would make certain activities that limited her ability to breathe far easier due to the greater amount of energy that would be pumping through her veins with every beat.


    A little time after that, when she had confirmed exactly how long she was able to avoid breathing, she noticed two new physique abilities that had awakened seemingly at once.


    The first was one that she would have appreciated greatly a long, long time ago, as it was the Energy Pylon physique ability that she had failed to acquire when she was searching for physiques that could handle energy and lifeforce within the prison realm. It was still a very useful physique to have, especially if she managed to create a conduit for it within the Kong Prison Realm and permanently provide her spare lifeforce for the people living there, but that would require quite a lot of work to complete.


    It was the other physique ability that seemed far more exciting to her, which was called the Soul of Cinder. She had encountered it in the past and must have readily taken it due to it being an absolute physique that promised great potential.


    With that physique ability, one was able to take a certain energy from fallen enemies ¨C and allies, although some contribution to their deaths was required from what she knew about the physique ¨C that were called cinders due to looking a little like them, and absorb it to grow one¡¯s own power by a small amount, with this increasing the more powerful a foe was.


    If she defeated one of the Greats and took their embers for herself, she might gain an immeasurable degree of might in a very short period of time, especially due to that power growth remaining constant regardless of her realm. Whether she remained within the third realm or advanced to the ninth realm, it would still boost her overall strength by the same percentage, meaning that it was yet another ability that would multiply her overall strength by an extreme extent if she managed to maximise its potential.


    There were also rumours of a state that could only be achieved in the proximity of many embers.


    Unfortunately, she did not feel the Existence Trace physique ability awaken, although the presence of it within her physique energy had grown by a substantial degree, as that would have boosted her power even further.


    She did, however, obtain the Elder Eldritch Hold ability, one stage above the ordinary Eldritch Hold physique. It wasn¡¯t something that she typically used, and so she was not that familiar with how the tentacles it produced usually looked and acted, but when she summoned them this time, they were blacker, thicker, and gained a certain physicality and substance that they lacked previously. A faint scent akin to the one produced by Mo Zhouquan¡¯s corruption hung around them, though it fortunately faded the moment that she dispelled them.


    ¡®Could it be that the corruption is actually some extreme physique, which the Eldritch Hold is connected to in some way? Also, now that it is significantly less unpleasant and overpowering, it could almost be described as¡­ lewd? I can¡¯t say that I appreciate that, although I have managed to make the claws work in my favour, so maybe it isn¡¯t actually so bad¡­¡¯


    That appeared to be it when it came to awakened physique abilities, as well as improved ones, but what struck her as a little odd was that none of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye physiques, as well as neither one of the otherworldly physiques that she had within herself, awakened. The quantity of their energy within her rose quite a lot, but they seemed to remain a step away from fully awakening despite the fact that just a single more particle of physique energy would have been enough.


    Such a thing could have obviously been a coincidence, but she had seen enough such occurrences not to assume that this was unlikely to be one.


    ¡®Come to think of it, certain physiques were said to have no advance stages for quite some time, until, suddenly, without any obvious reason for it, their advanced stages were discovered. Is there something about otherworldly physiques that causes them to be separate from the world for some time, until they finally merged with reality in a weaker state and could be developed in the regular manner?¡¯ Wei Yi contemplated, carefully looking over the particles of physique energy within herself as she attempted to find any potential confirmation for her theory but failed to do so.


    Seeing the actual workings of the world, the heavens, or some other force would likely require her to reach the seventh realm at the very least, since that was the point at which most cultivators had a chance to create a spatial realm, which would certainly require comprehension of some basic spatial laws even with the assistance of spatial metal, which naturally made the task somewhat easier.


    At that point, perhaps she would be able to glimpse some of the secrets of the world, maybe even learn the truth about the heavens and the amount of will that they truly possessed.


    Were they a force that tried to protect humanity, or were they a vicious, heartless entity that simply wished to see those beneath it suffer for as long as possible with the lengthy lifespans bestowed to them through planar energy? She didn¡¯t know the answer, nor could she reasonably guess it at the moment, since she had never witnessed a recognisable act of the heavens, but she didn¡¯t have the best opinion of heaven¡¯s will after learning that the Greats supposedly enjoyed its blessings in their actions.


    Whether or not that was true, she would avoid expecting anything positive from them until she could somehow conclusively prove whether or not they were truly on the side of the Greats, or, at the very least, whether the heavens actually had any will of their own.


    There were quite a few tales in the past about the heavens interfering and acting, and some even said that the Master of Yi City was in some way closely connected to them, but given the fact that he was an otherworldly demon, that sort of thing seemed highly unlikely, and humanity did have the tendency to ascribe certain events to causes far beyond themselves for no good reason. It wasn¡¯t at all unlikely that all of the past tales of heaven¡¯s will were just misunderstandings, tricks or outright lies on the part of the one that first shared the tales of heaven¡¯s will, although if that, one of the most well-known realities of the world, was false, then what were countless other ideas and assumption?


    Was there even a limit to anchors that the Greats had broken, or were they just the only ones practising a technique to have more than one?


    ¡®Unlikely, but it is an unfortunate possibility. The moment that I get the opportunity to do so, I must do a lot of searching and investigation into the very nature of the world, planar energy, and all the rest of it. Given the fact that I already understand the connection between planar energy and every other form of so-called supernatural power, this should be a little easier than for most, but even with Yi Shi Ming¡¯s help, I doubt I will get many results until a long, long time after initiating this project¡­¡¯


    Wei Yi sighed at that, but she understood that some things couldn¡¯t be rushed.


    Removing her items from the House of Gold, she got dressed and dispelled the many barriers, finding that, as usual, nobody had stumbled into them, and there were none that were interested enough in her activities to stride into the arrays knowingly.


    This was for the better, so she cleaned up the terrain a little bit and began the journey back to the Luo District, when she caught sight of someone using her spiritual perception.


    It looked to be a mostly ordinary woman in the third realm, at the very first stage of her cultivation, who was striding through the woods in a slightly dazed state. She appeared to only have a single, ordinary anchor and no other outstanding traits, so Wei Yi intended to walk past her and return to the district without incident.


    And yet, when she saw the woman with her own eyes, finding her to be a reasonably attractive figure with green eyes and short dark hair with messy bangs that were just a little too long, and tried to walk near her but past her as to not go too far from her initial path, this woman didn¡¯t seem to notice her at all. She walked straight into Wei Yi, and being someone without any attainment in her physical cultivation, the woman was the one to suffer, falling to the ground onto her backside without any grace, confirming that she should have been unlikely to be pretending unless she had no care about her own image or clothing whatsoever.


    After all, this woman, whoever she was, wore a dress made from an extremely delicate material, with a low-cut top that showed off much of her ample breasts, that went down to her knees and ended there, achieving a balance that allowed the cloth to be relatively tight while still permitting sufficient movement. The design and material weren¡¯t too uncommon on their own, but one rarely used such a delicate material for the creation of an outfit intended to be used in casual occasions and combat.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Wei Yi asked, brushing some of her loose crimson hair behind her ear while she offered her other hand to her.


    However, rather than taking her hand, or even standing up on her own, the woman instead drew back, dragging her clothing through the dirt as she looked at her with extreme suspicion, as if she could have been some sort of ancient evil in disguise, aiming to use this innocent action to ruin her life.


    Before she needed to question that particular impression, the woman called out with bright red cheeks, ¡°Are you some sort of succubus?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Eh¡­ You are referring to a kind of female demoness, right? I don¡¯t have any connection to them, in blood or in person¡­¡± Wei Yi kept her hand reached out, since she couldn¡¯t determine whether this was a brief inquiry of if the woman had grown afraid of her to the point that she¡¯d never touch her, ¡°So, are you going to take my hand, or¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡­ fine¡­¡± the woman took her hand, rising from the ground with a light pull from her, ¡°Thank you¡­¡±


    ¡°You should pay attention to where you¡¯re going. I¡¯m Wei Yi, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m¡­ eh¡­ Bao¡­ Chang¡­ da? Bao Changda, yes. That¡¯s what I¡¯m called,¡± the dark-haired woman nodded with faux-confidence.


    As their hands were still gripping one another¡¯s, Wei Yi simply tightened her grip and looked directly into her eyes, ¡°You don¡¯t look like you¡¯re from the Bao family. Look, I have enough familiarity with false names and identities, so I will give you a chance to try another one. I will even pretend that I never heard this first attempt, so you don¡¯t need to feel ashamed or anything.¡±


    ¡°No, Bao Changda is definitely my name. I just¡­ forgot, that¡¯s all.¡±


    ¡°You forgot your own name?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± she nodded with absolute certainty.


    Since she didn¡¯t want to crush the delicate hand that she was holding, Wei Yi didn¡¯t tighten her grip further at this extremely suspicious response, but she did make sure that the woman wouldn¡¯t be able to run away before deciding to confirm one of her theories about this incredibly strange figure.


    It was obvious that the name was fake not just from her actions, but also due to the nature of the Bao family. They were rather reserved with their name, and those with similar sounding family names were often pressured by them to take on another. Out of all of the families, it was easiest to notice one of them in a crowd as they possessed eyes that resembled gemstones, and hair that glistened with all sorts of unnatural colours. The person before her, while hardly unattractive, did not possess those same kinds of features.

 V3C48: Totally not Conspicuous

    Since she wasn¡¯t going to change her answer, Wei Yi wouldn¡¯t press on that particular manner, but there were plenty of other questions she could easily ask that would be far more revealing.


    ¡°So, tell me, Bao Changda, which one of the Monolithic Towers do you hail from?¡±


    ¡°Towers¡­ eh, well, which ones are in the area?¡± the woman asked back, confused but not as much as any normal person should have been.


    ¡°Sheesh, don¡¯t you even know this much? To the north is the Phoenix Tower, to the south is the Dragon Tower, to the east is the Black Turtle Tower, and to the east is the Belligerent Mutt Tower.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s quite the naming scheme¡­¡±


    ¡°I hope you¡¯re not from that last Monolithic Tower, or else you¡¯re not going to see any kindness from me or anyone else in the area. People from there are absolute dicks in all the worst possible ways, and I am almost sure most people from there hate themselves just as much as others from all of the other towers. Even if you are from there, just make sure to lie and claim that from elsewhere, since most will prefer outright lying to the truth.¡±


    ¡°No, I am absolutely not from there! I am from the¡­ the Phoenix Tower!¡±


    ¡°Oh, really? I¡¯ve always wanted to go, but never had the opportunity to do so. Tell me, what do the Tear Pools of Absolute Sexual Satisfaction feel like?¡± Wei Yi continued asking, her intention being to go as far as it even possible to go to be absolutely certain of the identity of this woman before acting.


    ¡°W-what? That¡­¡± Bao Changda looked absolutely terrified at the notion, although she probably thought that she was hiding this expression quite well, ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ve never been there¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s too bad. Which realm are you in? If you haven¡¯t yet reached the third realm, then it would only be natural for you to never have experienced the most famous attraction of the Phoenix Monolithic Tower, seeing as it isn¡¯t something that can be endured before you reach that realm,¡± she claimed, rather curious to see where the woman¡¯s imagination could take her.


    ¡°I am¡­ well, I¡¯m rather forgetful, so could you just-¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t even remember what the realms of cultivation are? What a terrible excuse of a cultivator you are. Naturally, the first realm is the Harmonious Congregation realm, then the Polarizing Expansion, then the Entropic Propulsion realm. Come on, you have to know something this basic, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Of course I do! I am¡­ in the Entropic Propulsion realm, yes, and¡­ so are you? How many realms are there?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s four, you dummy.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I knew that, I was just making sure. You know, it never hurts to be absolutely certain, right?¡± Bao Changda said, a hopeful smile on her face that clearly conveyed her hopes that Wei Yi would just accept this and let her go.


    ¡°Mhm.¡±


    ¡°So¡­ can you stop holding my hand, please?¡±


    ¡°Nope. There¡¯s something that we will need to do first,¡± she said, drawing closer to the woman until their faces almost touched.


    ¡°A-Are you going to seduce me with your succubus powers?¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m going to kidnap you.¡±


    ¡°Oh, then that¡¯s fine.¡±


    ¡®I don¡¯t think that she was even listening to me after I said no. Why is she so concerned with this, anyway? From what I know of the other world that all otherworldly demons seem to hail from, their culture is very permissive of¡­ everything, really. Not sure how there are still any of them left, but perhaps they have some otherworldly gifts over there as well, but most of them are unaware of this,¡¯ Wei Yi pondered as she willed the prison realm gateway to appear beneath them.


    ¡°What is that? What exactly are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear what I said? I am currently kidnapping you, and you do not have any choice in this situation. Furthermore, it¡¯s not like you have anyone to speak to, right?¡±


    ¡°How do you-¡±


    Before she was able to finish her question, she and Wei Yi disappeared from the Planar Continents, the gateway to the prison realm fading away from the ground in a matter of seconds, soon removing any trace of their presence.


    Within the skies of the prison realm, the glow of the five-sided anchor in the centre of the realm, as well as violet light that constantly surged from its centre, illuminated the land and brought clarity to the people of the realm. The planar energy around them, that they had only recently remembered and became acquainted with, had grown thicker as of late, and their abilities slowly rose alongside it.


    It had encouraged them to cultivate as much as possible, as they wanted to be capable of matching up to the people on the outside with great haste and actually engage in battle against the Greats as their ancestors had done. As a result, they remained within their homes as the new master of the prison realm returned to the centre of the realm, as always, appearing beside the eternally untouchable Ascendant¡¯s Library and beneath the towering anchor.


    When they entered the spatial realm, Wei Yi let go of the other woman, who appeared ready to sever her own arm to get away, although whether she¡¯d actually do that was something that she doubted.


    ¡°Where is this? What happened?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the ancient Kong Prison Realm, although it is currently home to a group that aims to defeat the Great Families. However, you probably know even less about the things that I¡¯m saying than the average person, right?¡±


    ¡°I-¡­¡±


    ¡°I did say that I kidnapped you, but we can speak on amicable terms, and with great honesty, so long as you do so first. Now, tell me, Bao Changda: are you from this world?¡±


    The woman didn¡¯t answer immediately, instead looking around anxiously as if searching for something of interest to her, but no matter what she looked at, nothing appeared to encourage or relieve her. It did, however, expose a notable quantity about her, especially since it gave Wei Yi an easy opportunity to confirm the slight tremble of the mysterious characters, as well as the presence of something within the woman¡¯s eyes that appeared and disappeared constantly as she looked around, presumably due to some kind of interface being projected into her sight.


    Before this, she did theorise whether or not this could be someone with extreme memory loss, but someone like that would be more keen to disclose their ignorance and certainly wouldn¡¯t possess an otherworldly gift, no matter what.


    ¡°Are you going to answer, or must I do something impolite?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I¡¯m from around here¡­¡±


    Wei Yi sighed, ¡°Are you absolutely certain about that?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    ¡°Right, so you¡¯re from that country called Antanord, or, at the very least, you speak that language. Wonderful. Thank you for your entirely unintentional cooperation.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome¡­ Eh?¡± her expression changed quickly, and she blurted out a few words in Antanorden.


    ¡°Do slow down. I don¡¯t have much practise with that language, so I can¡¯t do much if I don¡¯t consider the entirety of the sentence ahead of time,¡± she admitted, holding up her hand to mentally bring out her dictionary of Antanorden, ¡°Alright, I asked you a question in a different language, being lucky enough to guess the right one on the first try, and I was able to do that by knowing someone else who knows how to speak it. Does that answer your question?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right¡­ You¡¯re scary¡­¡±


    ¡°I get that a lot, although not always in words. Now, will you cooperate?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Wait, if we¡¯re being honest with one another, then you have to be honest with me as well!¡± Bao Changda demanded, momentarily gaining a strange degree of boldness that lit up her entire figure.


    ¡°Sure, I can do that. What do you want to know?¡±


    ¡°Are you a succubus?¡±


    ¡°¡­ No. I am not. I have never been. I have no relations to succubi that I know of. I have no knowledge of any groups of succubi, nor do I even know whether they are real or myths based around demons or devils that the observer found abnormally attractive and thus misconstrued it as some kind of miraculous effect upon them. I have no intention of contacting any of them at the moment, although that may change the moment that I am able to meet one and confirm their abilities and their typical allegiances,¡± Wei Yi stated, going through every scenario possible so that she wouldn¡¯t have the excuse to continue making stupid assumptions, ¡°Furthermore, I have done nothing to you besides speak to you. If that is enough for you to feel something, then that is your fault, not mine.¡±


    ¡°But¡­ No! I have been affected by something when I appeared here, that must be it!¡± the woman asserted, ¡°I, Aimi Miyu, have always been straight!¡±


    ¡°Aimi¡­ Miyu¡­ Interesting. Listen, why don¡¯t you talk to someone from the same world as you? Perhaps you two might get along better?¡± she offered as she pointed to the great dome in the distance, ¡°I can bring you to him, though you shouldn¡¯t distract him if he¡¯s busy.¡±


    ¡°Yes, do that, and I will prove that I am not¡­ well, not interested in you.¡±


    Wei Yi did not respond, but she felt that with every single moment that she had to spend near this woman, her very mind was being besieged far more than any previous mental attack had been able to. She was almost certain that this Antanorden woman wasn¡¯t doing this intentionally, since she was rather aloof and ignorant, from everything that she had displayed so far, but it was still painful to deal with her and so it seemed like a better idea to pass it along to someone more familiar with the world she came from that might be better suited at handling the matter.


    Her only available otherworldly demon was Fu Zan, so she naturally referred her to him, warping her over to the entrance of his workshop the moment that she finished muttering something stupid under her breath.


    ¡®Yi Shi Ming, had Kong Shi Meng ever acted like that?¡¯


    ¡°Not so far as I recall,¡± the spatial spirit appeared beside her, also frowning at the interactions that she had just witnessed, ¡°He was always good at controlling himself, albeit less good than he had thought. I believe that this is some form of insecurity or shame. Perhaps she has convinced herself that something about her response to your current appearance is improper and is trying to dissuade herself from feeling that way.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with my current appearance?¡±


    ¡°Have you not looked at yourself since your breakthrough? I am unfamiliar with the path of physique energy cultivation, especially so since you are one of the few taking it beyond the initial few realms, but it does improve your body and appearance with frightening regularity.¡±


    She hadn¡¯t done this, occupied as she was with confirming her physique abilities and their growth, so she did that this very moment.


    It was then that she realised why she encountered yet another overly flustered girl, with the first one currently sitting some distance away hoping to get another glimpse of her while being too afraid to approach. Her eyes retained their wonderful silver, the depth and vibrance of the colour becoming even greater, but they were the least noticeable factor despite the amount of attention they often drew.


    Her skin had similarly maintained the colour of the Yin-Yang Physique and became smoother, more pleasant and generally far more attractive to behold, while her hair seemed to be even more lustrous and soft, tempting her to keep at least one hand upon it at all times to be able to stroke it and enjoy the texture and feeling of it, although she suspected that it would be even more difficult to damage or change it in any way. Such changes were not entirely unexpected from the development of a physique, but after a moment of pondering, she realised that there was a very plausible reason for why these changes showed themselves now ¨C her meeting with Mo Zhouquan.


    Besides a few other matters, she had realised a few things about her own preferences in terms of appearance and aesthetics, as well as some optimisations she could make to her own biology, so it was very likely that the properties of physique cultivation led to these affecting her development.


    The only problem ¨C aside from the fact that she would eventually develop some form of narcissism through having to check herself out constantly ¨C was that this was making her even less conspicuous than her appearance had already been. With every single physical improvement, her appearance caught more attention and would be even more likely to belong to some ordinary figure that didn¡¯t deserve attention. Furthermore, even if she somehow evaded attention as a person of interest in terms of strength or value, there was no chance of some men and women not seeing her and falling for her in the exact same way that the guard from the arena and this Aimi Miyu had.


    Even if that caused her some benefits, she was aware that some were rather aggressive in their pursuits, and could stoop to some terrible things to claim some people without realising that the people they were interested in had a will of their own, a little like Yi Jiazhi had charmed many people through his techniques, expect the truly dedicated would do far, far worse things.


    Although she was mostly immune to techniques that didn¡¯t create entirely new thoughts and desires, she still didn¡¯t wish to catch such forms of attention.


    ¡®At the very least I had not developed enormous breasts in my teenage years. If I had, I would have literally everything someone might look for in a woman¡¯s appearance, and then I would need to deal with a constant wave of overly annoying individuals trying to get into my non-existent pants,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, glancing over in the direction of the spying guard and then over at Fu Zan¡¯s store, ¡®Maybe it¡¯s time to finally get rid of that particular poor habit.¡¯


    The guard had managed to be near the area where she met with the otherworldly demon, and she had been spending an excessive amount of her time following Wei Yi. Seeing as the strange obsession wasn¡¯t fading even after a few days, Wei Yi decided that it might be best to bring her along when she and Miyu were brought into the Kong Prison Realm. Judging by the fact that the guard had yet to visibly realise that they were in a spatial realm separate from the main world, this didn¡¯t appear to be a big problem for the guard.


    Naturally, she first set up an array to lead the woman spying on her away first, then brought her spiritual perception into the store, looking through a few items before glancing at the two otherworldly demons.


    Fortunately for her, she wouldn¡¯t need to disturb the people there, as she understood the exact proportions of her own body quite well and knew that he already had something of interest to her, which she promptly ¡®borrowed¡¯ the moment that neither of them were looking in their direction, and put on once they were in her hands.


    This item had quite a few unnecessary descriptors applied to it by Fu Zan, presumably taking all of them from his world, but she and most of those that actually purchased anything in his store would simply know them as black lace panties. They were made from some of the various metallic materials that Wei Yi had been consistently bringing into the prison realm since the creation of the silver-leaf energy, and so managed to retain the comfort and thinness of the original product without being highly vulnerable to all forms of damage. The originals were rather risky to wear if one wanted to retain them after a tough fight where they would endure an attack that surrounded and consumed them entirely.


    After a moment of consideration, she also borrowed a similar bra and something that he called ¡®shorts¡¯ to cover herself up further, as the absence of clothing beneath the robes while both her feet and arms were covered made her seem and feel rather odd.


    There did not appear to be anything else within his store that was of any interest to her at the moment, so she made sure that none of her new purchases would hinder her movements before calling upon Yi Shi Ming to initiate her exit from this realm, as she wanted to be back and ready to participate in whatever missions Luo Lia Kun would be able to present her with once she finally has the opportunity to do so without her running off or pretending not to hear her.


    As soon as she appeared within the Planar Continents once more, she confirmed that no new individuals of note appeared within her enormous range of spiritual perception and began to run back.


    ¡®It seems that my fears have come true far earlier than I would have ever assumed or hoped,¡¯ Wei Yi remarked to herself, finding that the further into the district she proceeded, the more eyes were upon her, not due to her rather odd outfit, nor due to some immense feat of physical might, not even due to her fame spreading across the Luo District as being someone with great power, but instead due to her appearance and features.


    Previously, her clawed gauntlets, high heels and strength would usually attract the attention of most, preventing them from noticing her appearance, but now it had overpowered all of those factors, which made her understand incredibly well why Aimi Miyu had accused her of being a succubus.


    With this much attention on her after this particular breakthrough, she wouldn¡¯t even be surprised if even her sweat would be sweet, or something of the sort. She had been thinking of tastes and, more importantly, smells as of late, due to the constant presence of the horrid bed of corruption beneath her when she had to pretend to sleep, as an ordinary cultivator might, so it wouldn¡¯t be surprising in the slightest, although it would presumably follow the same trend as the rest of her body and instead become more appealing without changing its very nature.


    In short, it was probably another source of attention that she really did not want or need.


    ¡®Then this means that I need to force one of my traits to overpower the other once again, forcing them to see literally anything else as my most notable aspect,¡¯ she concluded as she finally got close enough to the Brotherhood of Power building to be able to look into it and view the task and request board, where she looked for anyone that was nearby that she could capture.


    She did not need to look for long, as she quickly noticed a figure that closely matched the picture on one of the requests that asked for the man to be delivered with minimal harm.


    The person seemed to be wanted for nothing more than a simple debt, and everything about his state, cultivation and body appeared normal, so she turned towards him and practically vanished from the spot with only the faintest rumble of thunder heralding her actions.


    Some people near her noticed that she disappeared, but those at her destination had no choice but to observe as a great burst of flame appeared beside one of the people walking through the streets and struck him down, a great explosion of fire throwing the others away with enough force to move them but not too powerful to inflict any harm upon them, or on the target, for that matter. He was pushed to the ground, his consciousness and vision both suffering from the sudden shock, giving him no opportunity to act.


    It was only when she grabbed the man and carried him off that most of the passing audience understood what had happened.


    Their gazes didn¡¯t change immediately or completely, but that was within her expectations, ¡®A single simple capture won¡¯t make everyone believe that I am some kind of combat genius or anything of the sort, but if I manage to track down enough people near the district and catch them with as much force as I can display, then rumours will be bound to spread, and then the only ones who can spend all of their time staring will either be exceptionally confident, arrogant, or looking to get my attention.¡¯


    Before she could do that, however, she needed to look at the board of tasks in person, as it would otherwise cause some questions if she was able to catch and bring in people before ever seeing the request.


    She recalled that the task to capture this poor cultivator of the first realm had been there the last time she looked at the tasks, so the moment that she ran into Luo Lia Kun at the entrance to the building, she wasn¡¯t befuddled in the slightest and dropped the man off at her feet as casually as she greeted her.


    ¡°Hey there, vice-leader. I¡¯ve brought one of the targets over.¡±


    ¡°The target¡­ ah, yes, I remember that face. He is wanted for owing three gold coins to a tavern not too far away from this place,¡± the vice-leader also seemed to remember him, leaning down beside him to look into his eyes, ¡°Are you going to give that back, or is further force necessary?¡±


    He stared at her in horror for a few moments before reaching into his pockets and throwing three gold coins to the ground.


    ¡°There¡­ It¡¯s just three gold coins! You didn¡¯t need to terrify me to death!¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t terrify anyone. I just hit him in the face,¡± Wei Yi said in reply to the questioning gaze of Luo Lia Kun, ¡°I didn¡¯t take the task with me, but I don¡¯t think that it prohibited hitting.¡±


    ¡°No, it did not. Ping Ju, in the future, do not attempt to escape paying at that particular establishment. Do you understand that?¡± the vice-leader asked him, and, without waiting for any kind of response, she looked to Wei Yi and said, ¡°Could you throw him away without crippling him permanently? That should be enough for him to understand.¡±


    She nodded and grabbed the man¡¯s neck, lifting him with great ease before finding a suitable place with her spiritual perception and tossed him away with just enough force for him to end up right in the middle of a cool pond, where he could cool off from her earlier usage of a great fire technique to capture him quickly. It was unlikely that he would appreciate this action in that same way, but it wouldn¡¯t do much harm to him while also giving him the opportunity to wash himself, which, judging by the hint of alcohol about him, was something that he would benefit from.


    It was still more care than she should have given to his treatment, given her current fa?ade, but it could always be passed off as an accident.


    ¡°So, you¡¯ve returned¡­ Have you had some success with those failed talismans, or did you uncover some kind of new physical technique?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked, looking over her with a great deal of focus, which fortunately lacked any semblance of the wrong kind of interest in her gaze.


    ¡°I have had some success, yes. I¡¯ve gotten a little stronger, but I don¡¯t think that it should be that noticeable,¡± Wei Yi said, immediately changing topics, ¡°Do I need to be doing anything right now, or may I go and take on even more missions and requests to accumulate a significantly greater number of failed talismans?¡±


    ¡°Actually, there is something. Mo Zhouquan and Long Huang are intending to perform some tests on the twenty-ninth, and they had asked you to participate. I¡¯m not entirely certain why, but while both of them have their odd moments, they have been rather reliable when it comes to their area of expertise,¡± the vice-leader explained, ¡°I don¡¯t think any of them actually intend to dissect you, but I will order them to stop if you are truly incapable of cooperating, or are unwilling to participate in any particular experiment.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ don¡¯t think¡­ that any of them want to dissect me? Uh-huh.¡±


    ¡°Alright, that was not the best way to word that, but the point still stands. No harm, nor corruption, will come to you. Nothing permanent, that¡¯s certain, and any temporary damage will not last longer than a few hours,¡± she reaffirmed.


    ¡°That makes you sound even less confident,¡± Wei Yi remarked, but since both of them had a chance to be connected to bloodlines which she also wanted to investigate, perhaps also incorporating the power of blood into one of the great arts that she practised, she had to use the role she currently played to her advantage and claim, ¡°Alright, sure. Tomorrow, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, tomorrow. For now, I can get you some more talismans for free, if you like.¡±


    ¡°Could I get a planar stone instead?¡±


    Luo Lia Kun raised an eyebrow at what seemed to be a sudden change of mind regarding the resources that she needed, but ultimately said, ¡°The contribution from this one task isn¡¯t sufficient, but it can be accumulated over several tasks. In fact, I propose that we do that regardless of what you wish for. In place of the standard rewards and payments, I can give you a certain allowance of points that you can expend on services or resources of the Brotherhood of Power. We can consider the exact system later, but it will ensure that you can retrieve whatever you want, whenever you need it.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll go and pick up some-¡±


    ¡°No, you¡¯re going to rest. Again. Trust me, those two can go to some extremes, so you will need to have plenty of energy.¡±


    Although she had some disagreement with that, Wei Yi shrugged and returned to her shared bedroom, where she found Zhi Qiu Ya on her bed, sleeping there with a cute smile on her face, as if she wasn¡¯t in a constant struggle that could lead to a complete loss of her identity.


    With nothing else to do, she decided to lie beside her and get back to scratching beside her ears.

 V3C49: Bloodline Trace

    When Zhi Qiu Ya awoke, she was surprised to find herself quietly panting like a dog despite awakening in her human state.


    Before the fear of succumbing to her bestial side could appear, she realised that a set of sharp, firm but surprisingly gentle claws were scratching near her ears, and when she turned her head, she saw Wei Yi resting beside her, lying on her side with her eyes half-open. Although Zhi Qiu Ya was certain that she had slept for quite some time after her latest attempt to follow the vague advice offered by the woman before her, Wei Yi did not seem to have awoken recently.


    That did not disturb her as much as the scent that flooded her nose when she breathed in upon awakening. It clearly emanated from the red-headed woman, and beside the fact that she couldn¡¯t recall sensing anything of the sort only a short time ago, she couldn¡¯t believe how pleasant it was.


    She couldn¡¯t suggest even a single comparison with anything that she had sensed before, as she did not believe that any single one of them would ever be able to match up to this enticing scent that had just the right combination of flavours that prevented it from being too sweet, as many other supposedly pleasant scents that she encountered before were.


    It took her a moment to comprehend what this could possibly be, as she imagined this to be some kind of perfume applied by the warrior before her for whatever reason, but she soon dismissed that theory as she was very familiar with what anything unnatural would smell like. As a result, she was left with only a single conclusion ¨C she was currently sensing the redhead¡¯s natural scent, and she actually found it appealing while remaining human.


    Zhi Qiu Ya felt blood rush to her cheeks as she turned away and muttered, ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°You were sleeping in my bed, and I didn¡¯t want to disturb you, so I decided to do something nice,¡± the warrior replied, removing her hand from the wolven woman¡¯s head, ¡°It¡¯s also a good opportunity to practise restraint and nullification of sharp points with energy.¡±


    ¡°Your bed? I¡­ My animal self must have taken a liking to you¡­¡± she guessed, although she was still blushing, even more now than at first as she continued breathing in her fragrance, causing her to speak her next words even more quietly, ¡°A bit like me¡­¡±


    Neither one spoke for a while, although Zhi Qiu Ya was almost certain that the redhead warrior had heard her and was just being polite by not responding.


    ¡°By the way, I have been able to make some progress. I can hold on to myself for longer, but I will be more tired afterwards, and I will sleep longer. That¡¯s probably why I fell asleep for a while in my animal state¡­¡± the wolven woman said in order to try to move her mind onto another topic that she was comfortable with, not really caring whether Wei Yi would allow it, ¡°It happened after I heard a few people speaking about my animal state, and how I seemed to have very similar behaviours to my usual self. I¡¯m not certain why, but since then, the bestial state has been a little more cooperative.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good. Do you think that the bestial mind may have been born of your own, with most of the human intelligence and sensibilities removed, and thus possesses the same basic instincts as you would? Or, perhaps, do you think that both of your identities are actually the same, and their memories are just forcefully separated by your rejection of the wolven identity?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I don¡¯t think so¡­¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t think that is likely, or would you prefer it not to be true?¡±


    She squirmed in response, as she knew and understood quite well that it was the latter answer. The possibility did exist, of course, but to think that the beast she shared her body with, the creature that so frequently seemed to be in heat as it pursued women without any appreciation for public decency, the beast that delighted in base emotions and delights while ruining any semblance of the image that she might have otherwise possessed, could possibly be a product of herself was¡­ disgusting.


    There were no other words for it in her mind, no matter what anyone said or suggested. She couldn¡¯t allow such a thing to be true.


    ¡°Well, I could easily be wrong. Did you want to get up, or-¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll do that. Sorry for occupying and dirtying your bed so shamelessly,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya said, climbing down from the bed and rushing out of the room the moment that she grabbed some things from her own bed.


    Once she was gone, Wei Yi sighed, ¡®So, it is as I thought. My body has changed quite significantly from a single breakthrough of three stages. Good thing that I don¡¯t have any kind of physique that might make such a thing more drastic, or else I¡¯d be in an absolutely terrible state right now. As for the nature of her bestial form¡­ it seems that she has considered it before, but I won¡¯t push the idea onto her. Who knows whether or not I am even correct in the slightest, or if this conjecture based on very limited information is entirely inaccurate.¡¯


    At the moment, she still didn¡¯t know whether giving her any kind of technique would help or hinder her process, so she would allow Zhi Qiu Ya to figure out things on her own and see where that would get her. If it worked out nicely, she would certainly keep note of every single discovery made by her for future use.


    She couldn¡¯t rush her at the moment, even if she wanted to, as she had to go and see exactly what it was that the two that slept on the lower beds wanted from her, and from whoever else they would experiment upon. They hadn¡¯t been in the bedroom since she entered to find Zhi Qiu Ya upon her bed, so she couldn¡¯t even be sure how long they had been preparing for the day, which also limited her ability to estimate the extent to which they would go with any of their actions.


    If she was forced to point out one positive, it would be that the abomination that was once a bed that existed beneath her did not lose much of its unpleasant stench while Mo Zhouquan hadn¡¯t been near it. Hopefully, that meant that corruption on inanimate objects could be dispelled if given enough time.


    ¡®I would tear off a piece and steal it, if it wasn¡¯t so noticeable or conspicuous,¡¯ she thought, ¡®Or if it wasn¡¯t this unpleasant to touch. I¡¯ve ripped out several hearts, seen the Mirror Plane¡¯s monstrosities, and yet the bed of someone who regularly rests under it with perfect calmness is what manages to disgust my senses to such an extent. Perhaps that book in the Realm of Potential was right about the realms and stages of progress that are impossible to classify with the same clarity as typical cultivation often is.¡¯


    She considered her own mental development, and how it had hardly gone the best way it could have done. The fact that her most major push forward came from an insane woman showed this perfectly.


    Naturally, Wei Yi did not believe that her growth and mind-set was wrong, certainly not with the way the world was now, but if one random mental step could grant her a pain free breakthrough in terms of physique and physique abilities, she fully intended to make as many such steps as possible. The only problem was that if they could be made on a whim, they would obviously not be as valuable.


    She suspected that getting over this strange dislike of certain sensations and appearances would count, or perhaps her absolute refusal to ever pretend to have any interest at all in men, but neither of those could be made just because she wanted these to occur.


    Much like her recollection of the start of her journey, as well as the earlier understanding that the world wasn¡¯t one where an innocent person could succeed against a group that would do whatever it wanted and needed to succeed, these were somewhat unexpected and perhaps unprompted, meaning that it would take her a lot of time to locate the right opportunities to force her actual thoughts and her preferences to line up.


    ¡®For now, I can just proceed through life, and hope that those opportunities arise,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, leaving the room and locating the vice-leader through spiritual perception to be able to head straight towards her, ¡®The more prepared I am, the more confident I am with myself and the reality around me, the fewer weaknesses I will possess in all regards.¡¯


    The moment that Luo Lia Kun saw her approach, she threw over a small map of the building with a cross on one of the rooms on the lowest floor, presumably marking the location where she wanted Wei Yi to go, and then immediately turned back to a figure that she was speaking to at the time.


    Her being busy wasn¡¯t anything strange, as it was the reason why she had been able to evade her and do tasks of her own for so long, but the way in which she just passed a map onto her was less ordinary, as she would usually provide the bare minimum explanation before going off to do something else. In any other situation, the reason for this would be less obvious, but since it involved the two terrors known as Long Huang and Mo Zhouquan, it was significantly clearer.


    It was very likely that those two had some kind of mad idea, and that the vice-leader had learned something about it and now wanted to get Wei Yi through it as quickly as possible without giving her a chance to realise that the situation was far worse than they had anticipated. Unfortunately for her, while the Wei Yi that she had come to know would certainly fail to understand this, her true self had no difficulty whatsoever in understanding this course of action. On the other hand, she also had no intention of fleeing from this unless she was absolutely certain that this would result in something negative, so the vice-leader wouldn¡¯t be called out on her actions just yet.


    If there ever came a time that they were able to speak with one another honestly, then she would certainly be reminded of this time.


    Since she didn¡¯t know when the two would be awaiting her arrival, she decided to go straight to them, as giving them the time to set up even more experiments and plans would certainly not be helpful in avoiding anything too extreme.


    Until today, she had never descended so far into the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Power, but she had viewed them enough times with spiritual perception to not be surprised at the great change in design the moment that she went beneath the initial basement floor. From typical wooden floors and simple painted walls of the first floor, everything changed to a dark stone called abyssal basalt, found only at the extreme north of the Western Continent, far beneath the Glass Wastes that were formed by the absolute heat there, preventing any human from living there regardless of the techniques, physique and other preparations that may be used.


    The only entities that lived there were commonly known as glass men, since they were composed entirely of glass-like shards or were simply large masses of glass that would occasionally resemble humans, and some of them possessed sufficient intellect to communicate with people from their south, but most of the abyssal basalt was obtained through digging into the sands of the Northern Desert until reaching sufficiently dense and stable sandstone, then digging north until stumbling across the stone in question.


    It contained an innate heat that meant that it was perfect for use in communities that were reluctant to use passive setups such as arrays, allowing them to heat up colder areas just by placing some of this strangely common stone all over the walls, floors and ceilings, or by placing them around rooms as decorations or furniture.


    After the first basement floor, the second had all of the primary surfaces in the room made entirely from abyssal basalt, the third also used it as a material for most of the furniture, and the fourth, the one to which Wei Yi was going to, even used abyssal basalt as the primary material for all of the smallest items there, including some of the buttons and ornaments on the clothing of those that were there, and any that was stored there.


    Thus, while the first floor was closer to a pleasant home in appearance, the last one was highly suitable to function as a prison or the basement of some ancient fortress.


    This certainly didn¡¯t serve to make either of the two madwomen that slept on the lower beds any less intimidating in appearance, for the moment that she entered the room where the two of them were, she saw one of them stained in blood, illuminated only by a feeble light on the ceiling, while Mo Zhouquan was heading behind a separator with a large chunk of corrupted matter within her hand.


    ¡°There you are. Come with me before the black-blooded bitch sees you,¡± Long Huang said she looked to the door and saw the one that entered, ¡°Trust me, you¡¯ll prefer dealing with me over that monstrosity any day.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have much of a choice, do I?¡±


    ¡°Nope, none in the slightest. Come on, come over here and sit down on this chair. Don¡¯t mind the restraints ¨C those are for those that don¡¯t behave,¡± she stated, clearly intending to push her into the seat before she saw Wei Yi obeying her quickly, ¡°Good, you know what¡¯s good for you, unlike Zhi Qiu Ya. That mutt was even going to attempt to correct her issues with her mind rather than accepting my experiments and treatment. What a joke, am I right?¡±


    ¡°Define ¡®treatment¡¯.¡±


    ¡°No. Instead, tell me whether it is possible to pierce your skin with a low-grade artefact needle,¡± Long Huang asked, raising a hollow needle.


    ¡°Do you want some of my blood, or do you specifically need to use this needle in some way?¡±


    ¡°The latter.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, then raised her arm and stabbed one of her claws into her arm, holding it there for a while she presented it to Long Huang, ¡°I regenerate quite quickly, so you¡¯ll need to put it in before the wound heals.¡±


    The bloodline researcher nodded with some astonishment, although that did not deter her from placing the needle into the wound the moment that the claw was removed from it. That astonishment remained when she saw the flesh recover at such an immense pace that blood did not even have the opportunity to spill from the wound before it looked to have been entirely untouched for several years, no mark of trace of a cut to be seen.


    ¡°Impressive. Out of curiosity, has this led to anything that isn¡¯t meant to regenerate, well, regenerating?¡±


    ¡°Nope, nothing of the sort. I¡¯ve never lost teeth or anything else that doesn¡¯t usually grow back, but I¡¯m mostly sure that it would stay gone if it did happen,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, quickly confirming that this was indeed the case, ¡°Although it may be that anything since obtaining the physique will recover.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d love to investigate, but I won¡¯t go around stabbing and cutting just yet. First, I will attempt to figure out whether or not you have any bloodlines in that wonderful body of yours.¡±


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t quite understand the exact process that Long Huang was following, nor the exact structure and nature of her experiments, but she was able to tell that the thin tube the woman connected to the needle would carry her blood to some complex combination of inscriptions and arrays that would then do something to her blood.


    She had very limited familiarity with bloodlines, perhaps the only technique directly relating to it within her arsenal being the Disciple of Iron, which had affected her blood to a certain extent when she added it to her Mysterious Characters technique, before it had been renamed, but she was still able to deduce that the amalgamation of arrays and inscriptions was more focused on bestial rather than human bloodlines, meaning that even if she was able to uncover something of interest from the blood sample, it would be in relation to some unexpected ancestry of the Yi family, rather than her identity as a former member of the aforementioned family.


    Fortunately, even that particular fact wasn¡¯t something that she was afraid to have revealed, as most people had some connections to the major families of the world, so the strangest thing would be how pure her blood was, not that it was present there at all.


    Even if that somehow raised suspicion, it would be difficult to see her as anything but some escapee from the Yi family, perhaps a servant that went out to get a better standing elsewhere, or perhaps a lower or middle member of the family ¨C which would be more likely due to the extremely vibrant crimson of her hair or the perfect silver of her eyes ¨C that had some conflict with the family and decided to pursue a freer life elsewhere. These things were merely uncommon, and wouldn¡¯t point to her true identity without a lot of guesswork, conjecture and assumptions being made using information that Long Huang or Luo Lia Kun almost certainly do not possess, even if they were to speak directly to the Great Yi Family that had imprisoned her.


    In essence, the very laws of reality would need to be flipped on their head for this test to be of any true and immediate danger to her, which did not seem likely.


    ¡®Come to think of it, Luo Lia Kun had told me that she would order these two to stop if they went too far, and yet she¡¯s conveniently busy. Did she think that I wouldn¡¯t notice, or has something actually come up?¡¯ she wondered, sending a thread of spiritual perception up to the vice-leader¡¯s room to check, finding little of note or relevance occurring besides the negotiation of a new task and its reward.


    When she brought her focus back to the room she was in, the needle was just being removed from her arm due to the mixture of arrays and inscriptions being full of red liquid with a tint of gold, although it was slight enough to be easily overlooked.


    ¡°Before you ask, the needle assist me in extracting a very particular form of energy from your blood, and help filter out the trash from the bloodline, although there was surprisingly little of the former,¡± Long Huang did notice something, but she quickly switched her attention to her device instead of the blood itself and didn¡¯t bother to look directly at it for any longer, ¡°You don¡¯t need to know how any of this works, but, if there is any trace of a powerful bloodline within you, it will be amplified by as much as possible so that an echo, a mirage of sorts, can manifest above the centre of the device. It is typically faint, so if you have decent eyesight, pay attention with me.¡±


    ¡°I can see as far as the world allows, so I think my sight is good,¡± Wei Yi said, looking towards the device even more intently than before.


    For a few moments, the blood rotated through the channels within the inscriptions, their power acting upon it while the arrays intensified and focused that power towards the open centre of the device, where a thin light slowly coalesced, a mixture of gold, crimson, silver and violet that mixed together and yet had a very distinct dividing line between them.


    ¡°Oh¡­ interesting-¡±


    All of a sudden, the gold and crimson grew a dozen times, filling the space between the inscriptions and arrays, forming into the shape of a four-legged beast with large, expansive antlers, an eastern dragon¡¯s head, the body of a ram on powerful legs. A dense aura of pure might emanated from it, causing the arrays around it to momentarily flash and flicker in response, despite the fact that this was simply an illusory entity formulated from the response of a bloodline.


    This beast turned to Wei Yi, looking right into her eyes, and stood there doing little else.


    ¡®This¡­ is this not one of the many descriptions of a qilin? I do recall noticing some resemblance between my blood and the blood of a Golden Qilin, I believe, but I didn¡¯t think it would be this literal.¡¯


    ¡°That is a far more vivid-¡±


    The silver lights suddenly grew as well, splitting into forty large sprites that orbited around the illusion of the Golden Qilin, seemingly causing some annoyance to it as it turned away and huffed at the orbiting sprites.


    ¡°What am I seeing right now?¡± Long Huang asked herself in a daze.


    As they grew, the arrays flickered once more, the planar energy fluctuations around them getting even more intense. For several more moments, it continued functioning in an unstable manner, almost being driven to the brink of absolute extinguishment, but it somehow stabilised just in time while only the violet light remained in a dull state.


    Before she could contemplate the nature of the silver sprites for any significant period of time, even within her mental domain, the state of the last light changed as well, erupting into a large cloud of energy that consumed both the Golden Qilin and the silver sprites of light, countless nebulae and stars igniting within it, completely overpowering both of the previous mirages with its absolute radiance. In particular, several galaxies stood out amongst the rest: a crimson one, from which great might mixed with the qilin¡¯s aura, a silver one, which was tied to the crimson and paled in comparison while still attracting a great deal of attention, a bright dawn and moonlight congregation of light, and then one nebula that seemed to encompass all of these at once while being primarily formed of an entirely different energy that even Wei Yi herself couldn¡¯t properly identify it.


    She did want to use this to her own advantage in some way, attempting to replicate the phenomena within her own body, but she wasn¡¯t able to do much more than heat her blood slightly.


    Even if Long Huang could have understood the meaning of this phenomena, she had no chance do to do as the fluctuation of planar energy around the device soared to new heights, instantly extinguishing the light of the arrays and dulling the working of the inscriptions, dispersing the three illusions with a slight delay. Any trace of them vanished, and the blood dried up in an instant, all of the gold vanishing from it and leaving behind only a dull, dark red.


    ¡°Uh¡­ um¡­ Your ancestors¡­ were they the product of an ancient qilin and a bunch of strange lights fucking in space?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t recall any such tales, nor do I think that most would appreciate you referring to any ancestors in such a manner,¡± Wei Yi commented, sharing that opinion if it was her ancestry that had gotten the Greats to attack her, as that would likely mean that her lineage had some redeeming features in comparison to that of the Great Families, ¡°Did you learn anything from this?¡±


    ¡°That making sure that something stops rather than exploding is incredibly useful,¡± Long Huang muttered, still trying to comprehend the series of events, ¡°I must say that I have no familiarity with any of what I had just seen, and I have never seen something this bright and immense¡­¡±


    She continued staring on for quite some time, her mind visibly rushing to comprehend and memorise everything of note before it began to fade and erode from her memory, while Wei Yi could do little else than attempt to guess about the series of events on her own. From her minimal experimentation with her own blood, there did seem to be some connection between it and the mirages, although she wasn¡¯t able to provoke them within herself and thus couldn¡¯t figure out whether the nature of the illusions was somehow affected by the particular setup of the experiment.


    The formation of the Golden Qilin surprised her the least, as she had previously noted some similarity between her own blood and that of the ancient planar beast, but the rest were rather ridiculous. Nothing about the silver sprites was familiar to her, and she had no idea whether their appearance was as literal as the cosmic cloud or the ancient beast or if they had decided to appear as something more metaphorical, perhaps representing a splintered bloodline or something of the sort.


    Finally, the cosmic cloud was one that she was most familiar with, especially the imagery of the galaxies within ¨C or, more precisely, visible through it, much like her planar energy looked more like a crystalline portal to the cosmos than the cosmos itself ¨C but why it manifested within her bloodline was an entirely different matter. So far as she was aware, it was her Yin-Yang Ascendant energy that had the greatest effect on her blood, while the cosmic energy should have been making changes to her and only her, with the exception of raising her bloodline¡¯s talent that could be passed on to future generations.


    ¡®Perhaps it affected more than I had initially assumed. Still, it shouldn¡¯t be that overpowering, and it really doesn¡¯t make sense why the qilin is separate from the cosmic cloud, since the technique that had caused my blood to change was incorporated into the current Ascendant¡¯s Path from the very beginning,¡¯ she sighed in her mind, as everything was once more getting far too strange for her to understand as quickly as she would have liked, ¡®Maybe the Golden Qilin is part of the Yi bloodline, and then the cosmic cloud is my influence¡­ what are the silver sprites, then?¡¯


    Their number didn¡¯t correlate to anything within her possession or in her body, either, so she couldn¡¯t assume that they had come from the planar anchor shards that she had placed into herself, or the Truth of the Universe, which had far, far more individual pieces than that, and everything else that came to mind was also off.


    The House of Gold had no connection to that number, neither did the Realm of Potential or any of the other otherworldly gifts that she had come across so far, so it would be unlikely for any of them to have induced such an effect on her bloodline.


    As a result, she was far less comfortable with this test than she had anticipated, and yet she had the hope of invoking her bloodline for her own gains, eventually. The fact that the cosmic cloud overwhelmed both other factors also gave her hope that it might be usable a bit like physique energy, in order to absorb traces of bloodlines from others and gain their strengths for herself without changing her state in any significant or negative manner.


    ¡®That¡¯s for later, though. I need to create some semblance of bloodline power first, if I intend to go down that particular route,¡¯ she thought, putting her line of thoughts to an end for now as she saw Long Huang also recovering from the earlier shock and regaining some of her usual demeanour.


    ¡°So¡­ I don¡¯t want to do any more tests on you for now. Go and talk to the black-blooded bitch and tell her to bring the mutt over. Also, do not touch anything else on my side of the room unless you want me to cut you apart. I have a high-grade artefact specifically for severing flesh, and I¡¯ve been told by several participants that it can be rather unpleasant to be dissected while still fully conscious,¡± the woman said, pointing to a box near the back of her side of the room, ¡°Most of my things lack the same safety measures, you see, so they would be irreversibly damages if a specimen like you touched them.¡±


    ¡°I see. I¡¯ll not do that, then,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡®My internal organs aren¡¯t quite ordinary either, especially not since the latest breakthrough, so I wouldn¡¯t want to attract more attention.¡¯


    With that, she went to the other side of the room as to get Zhi Qiu Ya out of there as quickly as possible.

 V3C50: The Madness of Corruption

    ¡°We were just getting to the best part¡­ What a shame~¡­¡± Mo Zhouquan said, licking her lips.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure that it is,¡± Wei Yi nodded as she looked at the extreme differences between the two sides of the room. On one, everything was reasonably clean and sensible, with the biggest problem being the somewhat excessive clutter of different tools, devices and arrays to influence them, but on the corrupted woman¡¯s side, every loose piece of furniture had been covered in the same corruption that overtook the bed, causing the entire half of the room to be filled with an unpleasant amount of moisture.


    It made her rather glad that the bedroom they slept in didn¡¯t have more random furniture or items near her side of the room, as that would have allowed Mo Zhouquan to corrupt them as well and would have flooded the bedroom with the same unbearable stench that she was currently able to smell here.


    Fortunately, out of all the things to greatly improve from her breakthrough in physique energy, her sense of smell was affected the least, likely due to how many unpleasant things she had encountered a short time before the brief cultivation session. As a result, she wasn¡¯t entirely incapacitated by the mist created by the many corrupted objects, although she was tempted to seal any sensory capabilities within her nose and just pretend that she was enduring it normally.


    ¡°Well~, since I cannot play with her, I will instead get to know you much~ better¡­¡± the corrupted woman turned to her with hungry eyes, grinning eerily, ¡°Do you have any preferences, darling~?¡±


    ¡°Being as far away from this side of the room as possible would be a good start. How do you even manage to influence everything like this? Do you have to lick everything here, or is it more of a passive phenomenon?¡±


    ¡°You do have curiosity regarding corruption~¡­ good~¡­ If you wish, I can set you onto the right path, of the wonderful miasma of corruption, and bring great changes to your life and body¡­¡± Mo Zhouquan said as she got closer, either disregarding or not hearing the actual intention of Wei Yi¡¯s words, ¡°Imagine a body that can recover even if it separated into a thousand pieces¡­ the ability to shift your form according to your desire¡­ the ability to hear the delicious~ whispers of corruption within your head at every single moment of the day¡­¡±


    ¡°One of those is not like the other, just so you know. Just finish whatever you wanted to do and let me go.¡±


    That did not seem to faze the black-blooded woman, nor diminish her enthusiasm, as she took Wei Yi¡¯s hand and pulled her over to a chair covered in the fleshy, breathing matter of corruption, forcing her to sit down on it despite the wet squelch that it produced, and the amount of sickly moisture that instantly seeped into her robes, almost threatening to dispel the dense threads of energy woven into them simply through the concentration of the miasma.


    ¡®I truly hope that physique energy will be enough to wash all of this away the moment that I am done with this. Also, if that ability to hear whispers isn¡¯t some joke on her part, then I can see why she is so¡­ insane? No, obsessed would be a more suitable word in this case,¡¯ Wei Yi thought while Mo Zhouquan walked back and forth saying vague things about her favourite topic, ¡®This does make me wonder what her original state was like, and whether this seed of corruption that she loves to go on about was planted in her and the rest with a malicious intent, or if she and the rest of her organisation are keen to listen to some mad ravings from some unknown source constantly.¡¯


    The latter option seemed rather impossible until a number of other cults, organisations and individuals out in the world was considered, as something as simple as constant whispers paled in comparison to some of the strange things that people do. For instance, the Mirror Plane Aberrations were constantly praising a maddened, murderous otherworldly demon while gladly taking in his malevolent yin, the Blood-tinged Church frequently experimented with bloodlines and made countless people drink the blood of ancient entities, if Chao Jianhong was any indication of their typical activities, and then there were the mystical group called the Preservers of Eternity.


    It wasn¡¯t known whether they were even real, but the rumours about them was that they were so committed to preserving history and not making their mark unless absolutely necessary, that they cultivated techniques to erase all traces of themselves from the past and that prevent them for making a mark in the present, ensuring that they wouldn¡¯t affect the future.


    In their eyes, they were not relevant to history, and thus they could be erased, but any other who interferes has to be stopped.


    That didn¡¯t make much sense to her, nor to many people that criticised the supposed myth of the Preservers, but it would also be inaccurate to claim that every single group out there was founded on an entirely reasonable premise, or that their intent couldn¡¯t be twisted over time. Perhaps they were originally a group that simply made sure to store scrolls and books carefully so that they wouldn¡¯t be damaged by natural causes, and their ambitions slowly grew and mutated ¨C much like the corruption, in fact.


    ¡®In much the same way, perhaps her organisation had been started to study the corruption, then they attempted to use it for themselves, and then they ended up in this situation. Perhaps it had been the action of a single person tricking the rest, or maybe it was an agreed change in their plans, but-¡¯


    ¡°The Corruptor¡¯s Enclave is the name of my organisation, and we study the path of corruption. You sit on the chair of whispers, a simple conduit for the corruption¡¯s whispers. Listen to it, learn to love the slithering words burying themselves within your ears, burrowing deeper and deeper into your mind as they feel up your mind~!¡± Mo Zhouquan exclaimed with absolute ecstasy, her cheeks burning with excitement, ¡°Oh, what I wouldn¡¯t give to hear its words as I did at first!¡±


    As she laughed more and more loudly, it forced Wei Yi to reconsider her earlier assessment of her.


    ¡®Perhaps she is insane. This is far beyond mere obsession, especially that insane laugh. I would hate to hear something like that in the night, in a dark room or in the forest¡­¡¯ she looked away from Mo Zhouquan as to not encourage her while trying to remain as still as possible on the corrupted chair as to not let any more of her body come into contact with the living matter, ¡®While I¡¯m here, perhaps I should attempt to listen to these whispers. I don¡¯t know what secrets they hold, but I may benefit from them if I am careful.¡¯


    As Wei Yi was very keen to keep her mind intact, she called upon Yi Shi Ming to keep an eye on her while also focusing her killing will upon her mind, placing her mind within the Ascendant¡¯s Library as a form of protection from any outside influences.


    Then, and only then, did she attempt to listen to the faint whispers that she was hearing from the corruption beneath her, which seemed to have partially shaped itself to fit her firm behind in the time that she had spent upon it, ready to distance herself from it at any moment and even tear it apart if it became too dangerous, since even attracting the attention of a Great Family might be less dangerous than letting her mind be influenced and corrupted by this strange force.


    After all, the Greats might just kill her, but if her very purpose was corrupted by some outside force, she could spend countless years pursuing something entirely antithetical to her without realising it.


    Something like that would be absolutely terrible, especially if a part of her came to understand this and then tried to stop herself, only to realise that her body had been overtaken by this mysterious force and that she could do little but watch as she went further and further in the wrong direction, slowly changing to be some avatar of the corruption¡­


    ¡®Unnerving myself like this is not a good idea at all,¡¯ Wei Yi stopped herself the moment that she noticed this getting out of hand, taking a deep breath to settle herself and recover before focusing on the whispers.


    For a moment, she wasn¡¯t certain whether she had actually heard them, as they did not appear to get any louder or clearer no matter how she attempted to listen to them, as if it was just an illusion within her mind that had been created after hearing Mo Zhouquan¡¯s claims about the corruption and its effects, but she did not permit herself to lower her guard no matter what she or the chair beneath her ¨C which had begun to squirm a little as if attempting to encompass more of her body¡¯s surface without needing to actually grow ¨C as she continued to focus.


    Then, the world around her suddenly went quiet. All sound, all light and all matter vanished.


    All that surrounded her was the dense fog of corruption, trying to flood into her body in whichever way it could, clouding her every sense with that unpleasant scent that surrounded every one of Mo Zhouquan¡¯s things.


    Before her, a vague figure of a woman came into view, seeming almost ordinary at first, but it only took a single moment for Wei Yi to realise that she was the source of the miasma that currently surrounded her. As if in response to that, the woman giggled, a grin appearing on her face, showing strange black teeth that clearly didn¡¯t belong in a human, or any creature of this world. The woman¡¯s body, which she now realised was entirely naked, should have been an appealing sight, but with the slight movement of her breasts and belly during her laugh, it was as if her body had come undone, showing the truth beneath.


    She was not one solid mass of flesh and bone, as humans were, but instead a great congregation of tendrils and chunks of inhuman matter, interlinked and coiled around one another in the attempt to create a facsimile of humanity. The moment that she moved, all of those carefully arranged pieces broke apart, ruining the illusion so significantly that Wei Yi couldn¡¯t even attempt to see her as a woman.


    The illusion of the absolute entrapment suddenly shattered, with the last thing that she saw being a glow of dawn and moonlight, but it did not feel like it had ended fully.


    Something was trapped within her throat, but she did not have the time to confirm what it was, nor when it had even appeared. All she could understand at that moment was that she had to get rid of it, as soon as possible.


    Fortunately, while her experience with communing with corruption was clearly insufficient, every single muscle in her body was more than sufficient to force out that object, allowing her to spit it out as she rose from the moist and fleshy chair, unwilling to spend any longer upon it than she absolutely had to.


    It landed on the ground with a moist squelch. Looking upon it, she saw a large chunk of flesh that was very similar to the body of the woman in the vision and bore even greater similarity to the many corrupted objects that occupied this half of the room. A thin mist of unpleasant moisture quickly gathered around it, prompting her to take a step away from it before it had any chance to move towards her, influence her, or otherwise leave any more of a mark upon her than it had already done.


    Before she could analyse it with her spiritual perception, Mo Zhouquan suddenly leapt to the ground, picked up the chunk of matter and placed it in her mouth, swallowing it with a loud gulp.


    ¡°E-Even if you reject the seed,¡± she coughed, clearly having acted in too great of a rush, ¡°do not treat it so irresponsibly! The corruption blessed you and you must treat it with reverence, not get rid of it without consideration!¡±


    Before speaking, Wei Yi made sure to circulate her physique energy throughout her body several times until no traces of that vile mass, or any of the miasma that she had been in close proximity to, could possibly remain within her, then looked at Mo Zhouquan with the most powerful gaze she could produce, ¡°I don¡¯t care what you think of this, but in my eyes, everything here is insane. I¡¯ll be going.¡±


    ¡°No, you still need to follow my instruction! The vice-leader-¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t really give a fuck about that. I don¡¯t know exactly what that was, nor why you seem to be getting even more unpleasant every time I see you, but I am not continuing, especially when no-one¡¯s around to stop you,¡± she interrupted her, getting even further away from all of the corruption, ¡°If you want, complain to Luo Lia Kun, but only after showing her all of this. I¡¯m sure that she will have some questions first.¡±


    Wei Yi tied to walk away, but the corrupted woman continued talking.


    ¡°The corruption, it spoke to you, it bestowed its seed upon you, and yet I have sought to hear its fantastic voice, its moist and slimy touch, for so long! Please-¡±


    ¡°No. This is insane, nonsensical, and not something that I will participate in. If you want to pursue this corruption of yours, go ahead. If you can convince somebody else to go along with this, sure. However, if you try to force any more strange things onto me, I will not hesitate to destroy all of your corruption. Is that clear, Mo Zhouquan?¡±


    The red and white-haired woman appeared utterly devastated by this as she froze on the ground, one hand outstretched while the other supported her stance. Her eyes, a mixture of black and violet, released a dark liquid that slowly flowed down her cheeks, staining them in its colour.


    She clearly wanted to beg Wei Yi to stay, but she wouldn¡¯t remain there for another second, having already turned around and reached the door by the time Mo Zhouquan managed to open her mouth to say something. By the time an idea regarding which words to actually use came about, Wei Yi was already gone, loudly shutting the door behind her, also catching the attention of Zhi Qiu Ya and Long Huang, who were in the middle of some experiment of their own, interrupting them for only a moment before the latter continued with whatever it was that she was doing.


    Once she distanced herself from the room sufficiently, Wei Yi stopped and brought her mind into the prison realm, where Yi Shi Ming was already waiting for her.


    ¡°How do I look?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ You appear to not have changed your mental image of yourself, and I don¡¯t sense any of the same aura from you as from any of those corrupted items. Furthermore, your physique energy is typically sufficient to destroy any unwanted intrusion, so I hope that you will be safe.¡±


    ¡°So do I, of course. Pay close attention to my library for the next few days, and if anything strange occurs, inform me immediately. That should be where any changes manifest, given that it is the manifestation of my mind given form,¡± Wei Yi said, sighing shortly afterward, ¡°I can still taste that disgusting thing in my mouth¡­ Do you have any idea what might be responsible for something like that, or what takes the form of a woman made of tentacles?¡±


    ¡°Actually, I do recall one entity that had a close connection to corruption. As you certainly recall, my son had fought against the primordial gods during his efforts to build up Yi City, and while their numbers were small, each one had an immense degree of power in the eighth realm that proved to be quite a challenge. Some of them might not have been forgotten entirely, like Primordial Inferno, Primordial Earth, and so on, but one fits the image that you saw far more than any of the others ¨C Primordial Corruption,¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City recalled, ¡°Her body was nothing more than a set of tendrils united in the semblance of a human form, and while some found that imagery to be alluring, the first sight of the god¡¯s true form tended to dissuade some thoughts ¨C so long as they got away.¡±


    ¡°Does that mean that this Primordial Corruption had some connection with lust?¡±


    ¡°Perhaps. I had never fought with them myself, given that my realm in life had been incredibly low, but I do not believe that it was a specific power of any of the primordial gods. At most, she would be capable of corrupting that concept.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Wei Yi nodded as she considered the recent series of events, ¡°They were all destroyed though, were they not?¡±


    ¡°No. The primordial gods cannot be fully slain, but they were all incapacitated and plunged into perpetual slumber on the precipice of this world and beyond. What we could be seeing with Mo Zhouquan and her Corruptor¡¯s Enclave is a technique derived from the nature of the Primordial Corruption, most likely one that grew out of control and now has more dominance over them than they can control it,¡± Yi Shi Ming suggested, ¡°However, I may be wrong.¡±


    She pondered the matter on her own for a while but couldn¡¯t arrive to any definitive solution just yet. At the moment, she knew too little about the Corruptor¡¯s Enclave, the primordial deities and anything else of note, so beyond just making arbitrary assumptions based on information from a million years ago, Wei Yi was able to do little else. Additionally, if she did attempt to deal with the faction of corruption and then managed to catch the attention of Primordial Corruption, she would certainly be unable to deal with her, meaning that it would be far safer to avoid it and any of her servants until she had the ability to challenge her properly.


    As such, she momentarily decided to let the extremely strange behaviour of Mo Zhouquan go, and not attempt to introduce her to the concept of common sense, nor did she want to figure out exactly who Long Huang was allied with, just in case they also followed the ancient path of some primordial gods with their study of blood.


    Neither of them seem close to killing themselves or Zhi Qiu Ya, so it wasn¡¯t something that she would need to rush even if she was keep to prevent her or another from suffering.


    ¡°So, what did you think about the bloodline test? Do you have any idea what the silver sprites could have represented?¡± Wei Yi asked after a while longer, after she had spent enough time debating whether or not to incinerate the bed that Mo Zhouquan slept on to avoid having any chance of the corruption getting close to her or someone else again, ¡°I can guess why my bloodlines were so pronounced, given that I had practised a technique that focused on blood, but that particular image still doesn¡¯t make any sense to me.¡±


    ¡°No, I am afraid not. Bloodlines were not studied much in the Yi City that I remember, and my son had limited interest in them as well, as he believed that one¡¯s bloodline was not what defined them,¡± Yi Shi Ming replied, ¡°The current system of servants, lower, middle and upper members of the family was derived from something that he created, but it also differed greatly from what he had wanted.¡±


    ¡°A shame. Out of interest, what was the initial system?¡±


    ¡°Everyone would be a citizen of the district after a short process, and they could join the ruling family by performing noteworthy deeds, rising through the ranks until they could compete in something called an ¡®election¡¯ at regular interval.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ I can¡¯t imagine any election continuing without a duel to the death, nor would any present patriarch permit their descendants to not succeed them afterward, so it would effectively become the current system after a really short while¡­ Come to think of it, is that exactly what had happened after the Master of Yi City departed?¡±


    ¡°Essentially. Any newcomers were stopped from joining the ruling family, then existing citizens were stopped from doing this as well, then ascension through the ranks was stopped, then marriage outside of the family was heavily restricted¡­ I think that Ah Shi Meng was aware that his dream was slightly unreasonable for this world, but he had hoped to make it last with his own long life,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, her voice getting a little quieter, ¡°Since waking up, I have wondered what the world would be like if he had not left. Perhaps everything would have been peaceful, and the Great Families may have never risen to power¡­¡±


    ¡®That¡­ is exactly what I want to do, isn¡¯t it? Create a system that cannot survive without me, and hope that I will be able to endure for long enough to figure out some way to deal with that issue¡­¡¯


    ¡°Had he not been forced to run away that quickly, perhaps he would have had enough time to prepare something to handle this rather unfortunate outcome¡­ It would have taken quite a lot of time for our continent to possibly accept such a different system, but even then, I think that most would begin to take advantage of any aspect of the system the moment that they were given the opportunity to do so.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll keep that in mind. For now, I shall focus on other matters, however.¡±


    ¡°Hm? Yes, I suppose learning from the mistakes of my son would be beneficial for you,¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City nodded, not quite making the connection that Wei Yi had but agreeing with it nonetheless, ¡°I shall not bother you any further. Soon, you¡¯ll have spent too much time in a daze.¡±


    ¡°Noted,¡± Wei Yi said, bringing her consciousness out of the prison realm and into reality, where she returned to her walking and headed back upstairs to speak with Luo Lia Kun, who had now concluded her earlier dialogue with some random people and was sitting by nervously, tapping her finger on her desk as she waited for something.


    Whatever it was that she anticipated, Wei Yi decided to step in first, not bothering to knock since she was well aware that she would have no excuse to deny her entry.


    ¡°Hello, vice-leader.¡±


    ¡°Hello¡­ Are you done with Mo Zhouquan already?¡± Luo Lia Kun questioned, unconsciously retreating just a little bit while one of her hands reached beneath the desk for one of the many talismans that were stored there, ¡°Must say, I expected that to take far longer¡­¡±


    ¡°I left after she made me sit on the whispering chair. It was unpleasant, and if I wasn¡¯t wearing my favourite robes, I¡¯d have burned everything that came into contact with it, then taken a long, long bath.¡±


    ¡°That bad, huh? You¡¯re probably going to ask why I wasn¡¯t able to oversee these tests, but I can assure you that I was incredibly busy with handling a very important matter, both to the Brotherhood and the Remnants, so I trusted that you and Zhi Qiu Ya would be able to handle things down there. If needed, I can strictly reprimand both of them. Did they do anything particularly egregious to you?¡± she asked, still continuing to withdraw towards the back of her seat.


    ¡°Well, besides attempting to plant a seed of corruption into my throat, the most the chair did was attempt to grope my ass. I didn¡¯t appreciate that in the slightest, but it didn¡¯t do me much harm,¡± Wei Yi said, noticing how the vice-leader¡¯s speed of retreat increased, ¡°I got rid of that seed, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ Wait, what do you mean? How did you do that?¡±


    ¡°I threw it up and spat it out, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re asking. Have some other people struggled with this part?¡±


    ¡°Fortunately not, as I had made certain to inform her that, if she permits anyone to develop one of her seeds, she would suffer greatly for it, but I had only needed to say this in the first place as she had informed me that they are nigh impossible to remove once they form within one of the vital organs. You say that it occurred within your throat instead?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, and once I got rid of it, that woman swallowed it instead.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ is unpleasant. Still, I am glad that I did not lose you to this, as you have completed as many tasks in a week as most do in a month.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome, boss.¡±


    ¡°Now, since you are apparently fine,¡± Luo Lia Kun returned to her original position on the chair and then leaned forward, crossing her arms on the table, ¡°What would you say about a proper task from the Remnants? You have not yet completed one, and-¡±


    ¡°Hm? Is that Chao Ru? Hold your explanation for just a moment.¡±


    Before the vice-leader had a chance to stop her, Wei Yi rushed out of the room to greet the blonde, who was passing by with a tired expression.


    Luo Lia Kun crashed back into her chair with a sigh, but she didn¡¯t bother to consider reprimanding her as she thought that she understood Wei Yi¡¯s nature quite well. In her eyes, this wasn¡¯t some intentional slight or shirking of duty, but an honest difference in priorities and desire to get back together with a so-called friend, although they were closer than most.


    Furthermore, a part of her felt almost glad that this particular task was delayed.


    ¡°We¡¯ve both been busy, I know, but we should finally train together! I¡¯ve wanted to see how you got this far ever since¡­ well, you know,¡± Chao Ru said, still being a little shy about the events of that night due to how vivid the memories were within her mind, ¡°Were you talking about something important with the vice-leader?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Besides, even if she was about to get onto something vital, training is always important. I¡¯m sure that, whatever it would have been, we¡¯ll both be able to handle it better if we are prepared.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that makes sense. Alright, give me a moment to pick up my staff, then let¡¯s go!¡±

 V3C51: Training

    They returned to Chao Ru¡¯s home, where both of them made sure to confirm with one another that they weren¡¯t going to just end up in the bedroom within ten minutes, although neither were opposed to doing so after everything else was complete. Since the one that tended to take up the more dominant and active position also happened to have far more strength and stamina, it would work out even if the latter was effectively dead by the time they got to the bed.


    Of course, they¡¯d both prefer not to end up in such a situation, as that would significantly limit the enjoyment that both of them would get out of this, but it would still be acceptable.


    However, since they didn¡¯t want the last time they attempted this to repeat, Chao Ru in particular had to remove these thoughts from her mind as she lacked the same self-control that the other had, instead focusing on the matter of training.


    They began with a simple warmup exercise. Chao Ru attempted to follow along with Wei Yi, but they both quickly saw that if they were to truly attempt to follow a similar routine to one another, either one of them would get absolutely nothing from it, or the other would get so tired that they would have to end this attempt right there and then.


    ¡°Your strength seems to have increased even more¡­ Am I ever going to be able to catch up to you?¡±


    The answer was blatantly obvious, given the existing gap between them and Wei Yi¡¯s ability to develop far more quickly just by burning herself with some failed talismans, but she didn¡¯t want to discourage the young woman before her too much. Instead, she said, ¡°You don¡¯t really need to. So long as you¡¯re able to improve at a consistent pace, you can still get much stronger than everyone in the same realm, while I go way too far.¡±


    ¡°I suppose¡­ Fine, I¡¯ll tone things down for myself¡­ Come on, let¡¯s get back to it! I want to sweat enough to thoroughly soak my robes!¡±


    ¡®Great enthusiasm, but after today¡­ actually, no. After the unfortunate time spent with corruption, changing the association of that feeling to a more recent and pleasant experience would be fantastic,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, nodding as she looked for the heaviest set of weights and most challenging training environment in the house.


    Even with her absolutely immense physical might, her body was still able to sweat from the same level of effort as anyone else, which was how she managed to make her strength seem slightly less immense than it truly was in front of anyone that watched her, like when Luo Lia Kun had arrived on the night of the first day of the duels and witnessed them in bed. Typically, she would prevent this from happening whenever it would be inconvenient, such as during battle or at times when she could freely display her full ability, but she decided to not do so this time as she offered a few suggestions on how to best train their bodies to Chao Ru, basing them slightly on experience but mostly on scanning her body with spiritual perception.


    As for why this occurred, she couldn¡¯t be entirely sure, and previous encounters with physique or body cultivators didn¡¯t shed much light on this either. Some would require far more exertion to sweat as much, while others would not, but as it hadn¡¯t bothered her before she never looked too far into it.


    Despite her body being so powerful, she had actually done far less typical exercise than one might assume, as her primary source of progress after being thrown into the prison realm changed from raising the pressure of the training set during battle to plunging herself in a pool of blood, and so her experience with training her body regularly ended near the power of the second realm, whereas Chao Ru was already at that point and needed more particular training to truly make use of all of the muscles in her body and allow them to bring her to new heights.


    Thus, a new training regimen specifically tailored to her had to be made on a very limited timeframe, or in more specific terms, a few seconds.


    Unlike her own body, Chao Ru had trained from beginning to end without the usage of any abnormal methods or physiques, so while she never had any moments where she needed to re-familiarize herself with how her body functioned or exactly how strong she was, she did lack a degree of uniformity with her physical development. Before further progress could be made, if she wanted it to be as pain-free and efficient as possible, the rest of the muscles that would typically be overlooked would need to be brought up to the same level.


    It might come as a surprise for some to learn that there were far more muscles within the body than those that would typically be trained by such things as sprinting, lifting weights or swimming, although that last method was one of the better ways to train as much as possible at once.


    However, the Luo District lacked access to large oceans in which one could swim freely, and it was still not the absolute best approach due to the existence of techniques that could influence the body in similar ways by allowing a great degree of control over the many internal muscles, allowing them to be stimulated with relatively little movement from the cultivator.


    Strictly speaking, Wei Yi had never learned a technique for that specific purpose, but she was able to convert her ability to freely control every part of herself into a technique that she swiftly taught.


    ¡°I-I really appreciate this, but isn¡¯t this incredibly complicated? Also, it uses all of the meridians, so-¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to cultivate something to use it. Right now, you don¡¯t need the technique to have strength, but to function at a decent level, so all you need to do is understand how to drive your planar energy through your meridians, which shouldn¡¯t be too tough. Let me assist you with that, and then you will be able to perform the technique yourself. Even if it¡¯s a little slow at first, it will also help you to practise your control over planar energy,¡± Wei Yi explained, approaching her from behind and resting her hands on the sides of her torso.


    ¡°Is this the sort of thing that you¡¯ve done?¡±


    ¡°I have a physique, so I trained that. For you, it¡¯s slightly different, but this should work just as well. Be prepared for any discomfort ¨C I¡¯ve not had much of a chance to test this.¡±


    Once she nodded, Wei Yi shut her eyes to focus and brought two clumps of planar energy to her hands, weakening it until it was at the level that one might expect from someone in her realm and stage, at which point she changed it into a calm, golden flame and carefully poured it into her body.


    She couldn¡¯t perform the technique for her, but she could assist her in pointing out exactly where to direct her energy at any one time, and with enough time and effort, Chao Ru would need less and less assistance with this technique until she could effectively use it instinctively, allowing her to activate it whenever she wanted especially during other forms of strenuous exercise to boost the development of her muscles at all times.


    ¡°Now, begin to circulate your energy. I will point out where it needs to be focused.¡±


    Chao Ru followed her instructions, initiating her planar energy circulation and focusing all of her attention on it and any traces of another¡¯s energy within her body.


    Her planar energy senses were far weaker than that of most, so she had to strain significantly more in order to be able to detect subtle movements of energy, especially if they¡¯re similar to the energy around them and have no obvious factors that would allow them to stand out to their perception. In a way, it was a similar effect to partial blindness and colour blindness combined into one.


    Since Wei Yi appeared to be a fellow physical cultivator, with her primary strength being her own body, she expected her to have a similar prowess in planar energy to her, thinking that the display in the arena had been the effect of some particular technique that managed to resonate with her physique and allowed the flames to be amplified. This would mean that her actual planar energy would be fainter and weaker, and Chao Ru would need to focus all of her attention to detect it, especially after this energy was controlled to not negatively impact her body.


    The outcome was not one that she expected, however, as the energy that surged within her body was absolutely immense.


    It flared like the sun, instantly drawing her attention without giving her a single chance to miss that burst of energy, making her mind and body instantly act in accordance with it before she even had the time to understand exactly where the wisp of planar energy was.


    Another and another spark of golden flame lit up within her body, and she followed them as well, quickly feeling her own planar energy acting upon the many muscles in those areas and forcing them to contract and expand and strain while balancing each other out, resulting in her almost sitting still despite feeling her energy pour away like water in a waterfall, although her sweat did certainly do exactly that.


    It took her quite some time to finally understand a semblance of what was occurring to her, and how to replicate this herself. Eventually, she was able to predict or otherwise follow Wei Yi¡¯s directions, performing the technique being bestowed upon her with far less guidance than before.


    That didn¡¯t mean that Wei Yi stopped supporting her, however. Instead, she changed the points that she lit up with her own planar energy, instead using them to correct some of Chao Ru¡¯s mistakes and slowly develop her usage of the technique, improving efficiency and implementing any changes that she came up with since they begun to train. For a technique made in literal seconds, it was filled with an impressively few number of errors and holes, but that hardly meant that there was no room for improvement. In fact, with every moments that were spent assisting Chao Ru, she found more and more issues that she hadn¡¯t anticipated whatsoever, making her glad that she didn¡¯t just let her get on with this the moment that she seemed to be getting the hang of this.


    ¡®This sort of thing is bound to be great practise, since even far more complex techniques can fall apart due to a few simple mistakes. So long as I avoid these in the future, I will not need to rely on otherworldly gifts as much, which will not only boost the speed at which I can create and improve techniques, but will also minimize the chances of them affecting my mind.¡¯


    In fact, the recent unfortunate encounter with what appeared to be an avatar of Primordial Corruption had made her ponder once more whether or not she was already under the effects of some mental influence, and how much it might be affecting her. She had, after all, spent a lot of time with the otherworldly gift of the Master of Yi City, and her current plans were rather similar to his, down to the major flaw within them, but so far as she was able to understand, this was mostly due to the current state of the world, and the people within it.


    If someone like her was to step in, all of a sudden, and attempt to set up something new and unprecedented, she would face far more resistance than if she proposed the reformation of Yi City, as many people are very keen to see such a thing occur for various reasons.


    At that point, it would be much easier to do things according to her own ideas under the guise of strengthening or expanding Yi City in some way, and if she was able to repeat some of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s feats or find some artefacts that he may have left behind, it wouldn¡¯t be difficult at all to persuade everyone that her plans were in line with his.


    Her distrust of the Yi family, which partly mirrored Kong Shi Meng¡¯s distrust of the Kong family, was also not unprovoked, given how little they tried to do against the Great Family members that attacked her, and how little they cared for a potential talent that was brought along to an expedition mostly to handle dull matters that the lower and middle members of the family did not wish to participate in, so she didn¡¯t really consider this to be unusual, besides the series of thoughts being prompted by the memories of the Truth of the Universe.


    Wei Yi did not know enough about Kong Shi Meng¡¯s views of the heavens, as that was something that he likely wouldn¡¯t share with his mother if it was significantly different from the usual stance, but from what little she knew about the otherworldly cultures, it was highly likely that he had some doubts about their trustworthiness and nature, but her own views on the matter were clearly provoked by hearing the words of the Greats being spoken back to her, after the point that she had established a firm mental stronghold in the form of the Augur¡¯s Library, so it seemed unlikely for anything of an otherworldly nature to have caused this.


    ¡®Then again, I say this now, but I may realise at any point that I¡¯m just overlooking something obvious¡­ I truly hope that this is not the case, but I cannot remove any of these things from my body or the prison realm at the moment, even if I wanted or could allow myself to do so,¡¯ she thought, ¡®Nevertheless, so long as I remain cautious and attentive, I should remain myself.¡¯


    She brought her attention back to reality, where she confirmed that her improvements were working, at which point she quickly found some more changes to implement, while Chao Ru struggled to keep up.


    ¡°This is¡­ impressive¡­ you say that¡­ you¡¯ve never used this?¡± the woman could only produce enough energy for coherent speech by taking deep breaths every other word, ¡°With how¡­ strong you are¡­ and how bright¡­ your planar energy is¡­ I was just wondering¡­. whether you¡¯re some¡­ kind of¡­ genius¡­ heavens¡­ so tired¡­¡±


    ¡°Only a minute left. Remain on your feet for now, or I¡¯ll start groping your breasts,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing jokingly at the woman¡¯s impressive chest, ¡°Also, no, I don¡¯t think that I am. Some are much stronger than I am, some are much smarter ¨C probably ¨C and quite a few have access to better opportunities than I. Personally, I think that I have just made the most of what I had, and learned as much as I could about all of it. This sort of thing is included.¡±


    ¡°Hah¡­ right¡­¡± she managed to say but was unable to make any more legible sounds afterwards.


    Still, she managed to remain standing just for long enough to give Wei Yi the opportunity to complete her study of the technique and do the most with the technique that she could do far. There was always more work to be done, but she now had a basic technique that could be taught to others in order to allow them to quickly train their strength. If she was to stand around them and supply them with lifeforce through the Energy Pylon physique ability, an army could potentially stand around for an hour and reach the second realm in terms of physical strength regardless of where they were when they began.


    If she made everyone in the prison realm train this technique every single day ¨C she could call it something like the Rapid Muscle Exertion, or something of the sort ¨C then by the time that they emerged into the Planar Continents, they would be able to handle cultivators in the third realm simply by using their bodies, which could then be amplified through physique or planar energy to bring them to the fourth or fifth realm in terms of power even if they were nowhere near those two realms.


    Some more adjustment would be needed, of course, especially when it came to men or those with unusual bodies and physiques, but once it was complete, a powerful army would be within reach.


    ¡®Incorporating something to prevent the unnecessary swell of muscle, much like I had done all the way back when I had first trained my body, would also ensure that all the pretty women- I mean, everyone in the prison realm doesn¡¯t turn into walking slabs of muscle, which, while it would be intimidating in a way, wouldn¡¯t be very convenient.¡¯


    Since she was already holding onto Chao Ru, she didn¡¯t let her fall to the ground, needing to use only a little more force to keep her in place, then brought her over to a nearby seat and placed her onto it delicately.


    ¡°Are you still awake?¡± Wei Yi asked after a short while, seeing that the only movement in her body was caused by her breath.


    ¡°¡­¡± the woman¡¯s half-lidded eyes shifted slightly, her mouth twitching a little before she was able to produce even a single word from it, ¡°¡­ Yes¡­¡±


    ¡°Good, just wanted to be sure. Would you like some water?¡±


    When she provided a semblance of a nod, Wei Yi headed over to the her kitchen and took out an empty cup that she filled by condensing some water into it through the use of planar energy, resulting in a cool and clean clear fluid, although she naturally made sure not to create pure water as to not poison her.


    She returned to Chao Ru and held the cup up to her lips, waiting for her to part them sufficiently for her to be able to begin pouring water into her mouth at a slow pace, giving her enough time to swallow it fully before giving her any more.


    While this was happening, she also silently funnelled a little bit of her excess accumulated lifeforce towards her, not providing her with enough to cause any major changes to her body but just enough to allow her to recover more quickly, to soothe those many aching muscles and to grant them sufficient power to be put to use within a short period of time, as Chao Ru would otherwise be incapacitated for the rest of the day, which was not desirable for either one of them.


    When the cup became empty, Wei Yi refilled it, but used a fire technique to do so.


    There wasn¡¯t anything that said that a fire cultivator couldn¡¯t make use of water techniques, including condensing water or water-like planar energy, but it was always far more likely that someone would figure out how to improvise the effects of another form of energy via their own rather than use a notably weaker technique just out of stubbornness, so it was safer to use the former kind of technique.


    As for her actions in the kitchen area, she wasn¡¯t concerned that she would be seen by Chao Ru or anyone else, with the former being too tired to possibly use her spiritual perception without the kind of experience and training that most of those within the north of the prison realm possessed due to spiritual will being their only tool and weapon within the hostile environment of that formerly silver realm, while everyone else that thought to spy upon this residence would only be able to sense the fire-type planar energy that she kept around her every usage of external energy. Her internal energy was far more difficult to detect at any one time due to her powerful physique, cultivation and killing will blocking the prying gazes of those that she did not permit to look into herself.


    Someone in the sixth or seventh realm could likely look into her and see a number of unusual things, but from her own experience she knew that most wouldn¡¯t be able to see anything but her dense planar energy and unusual body no matter how hard they looked, since the other three sets of meridians and forms of energy seemed to be obscured from the gaze of all until they learned about their existence, much like she didn¡¯t know about her spiritual will until coming across the man from the north of the prison realm.


    After a while, she decided that feeding the woman any more water would not be advisable, especially while she struggled to move, so she put the cup back and sat beside her, waiting for a little while.


    ¡°So tired¡­ this is insane¡­¡±


    ¡°Not really. I was doing it alongside you to confirm that I wasn¡¯t trying to make you do anything unreasonable, and, as it turns out, I was not. I mean, it¡¯s obviously not the same since I am significantly stronger and more used to this kind of activity, but the next time, I could raise things to my level for myself to make it a little more fair,¡± Wei Yi suggested, putting a sudden look of horror onto Chao Ru¡¯s face.


    ¡°You were doing what? How do you¡­ fuck, I shouldn¡¯t have done that¡­¡± the woman leant back in her seat, realising that her mouth and tongue were not prepared for that outburst, ¡°How were you¡­ able to stand so calmly?¡±


    ¡°Technically, the muscles in your body don¡¯t actually move much while the technique is active, so I¡¯m not surprised you didn¡¯t notice it when I was also able to resist the force without much effort.¡±


    ¡°What¡­ You know what¡­ never mind¡­ I don¡¯t want to be¡­ thinking about this now¡­ Could a¡­ massage of some sort¡­ help?¡± Chao Ru wondered, ¡°Would you know¡­ something about those¡­ as well¡­ or am I just making too many¡­ assumptions about you? You can¡¯t know everything¡­ can you¡­ Wei Yi?¡±


    ¡°No, not everything. I do know a little about this, however. Want me to try?¡±


    ¡°You know¡­ sure¡­¡±

 V3C52: Further Training

    ¡°Thus, I will be teaching you the first technique on your path to freedom. Train in it diligently, make use of the Pillar of Vitality, and you will be able to equal the second realm without needing either planar energy, or physique energy. After practising for an hour, spend ten minutes practising the Muscle Compression art to condense your training, then you may get back to it. Anyone who does not currently perform another vital role is obligated to partake in this training for four hours a day at the very least, and those that do should spend an hour practising before going to sleep or after waking up. If you have no intent to fight, or believe yourself to lack talent, spend at least one hour nonetheless, as a strong body will help you no matter what you end up doing.¡±


    Wei Yi addressed the people of the prison realm from the base of the Ascendant¡¯s Library, facing neither side but instead looking towards the peaks that separated the two sides of the world, believing that it would be best not to prioritise either side while they were trying to get along better.


    She had gathered them there after leaving Chao Ru¡¯s home at night, once both of them had their fun, and entered the prison realm as an idea entered her mind. The main issue with the Energy Pylon physique was that, despite its great range, it couldn¡¯t be used without her presence in that world. As it so happened, the Kong Prison Realm was a high-grade spatial realm that was separate from reality, which meant that it would be difficult to make use of the physique, but then she performed a quick test with the planar anchor mirage in the prison realm.


    As it turned out, the conduit of the Energy Pylon physique ability wasn¡¯t the physique energy, but any part of the body, including the flesh, blood, dantian, or even the planar anchor.


    This meant that she could easily supply everyone within the prison realm with lifeforce without needing to be there at all times. Naturally, such a realisation prompted another few tests, which allowed her to discover that she was able to siphon lifeforce from the plants that were slowly attempting to grow within the spatial realm through the anchor as well, which had a somewhat exaggerated range that seemed to match its immense size.


    She could also infuse it into weaker plants to allow them to grow more quickly, settle into the world, which would then allow her to harvest their lifeforce at a later point in time, effectively allowing her to rapidly bolster her supply of it if she had to.


    Most of the other physique abilities that she had were more difficult to use within the prison realm, although she was able to faintly replicate their abilities using the mirage of the anchor that lit up the entire world. This would produce a significantly weaker effect, much like how the Lion¡¯s Roar technique was far inferior to the physique at the equivalent realm, but with enough refinement and practise it could still serve to permit her to influence the Kong Prison Realm without relying on spatial abilities, Yi Shi Ming, or the limited abilities of her consciousness.


    Since she wanted to be certain that nothing could rise within the spatial realm, or enter it from the outside, and overpower her, she needed to be able to use as much of her power there as possible, which naturally led her to envisioning a small pylon of her energy that could permit her to use as much force as her person could produce, while being elsewhere.


    There was only one small problem, and that was that she would need to sever a limb in order to achieve this, and then not regenerate the meridians when she recovered the rest of it. The issue was that her energy could be used to refine things that had already left her body, but they could not be stored there, especially considering the long history of things exploding the moments that she added her planar energy to them. To store or even regenerate physique energy, something with meridians had to be present, but there was a certain uniqueness to their structure, especially when it came to her own five networks. In order to guarantee that a set of meridians would be stable, there could only be one of it.


    This was what she knew about the matter, and it could easily be wrong, since few would be able to recover their bodies at the same speed as she and the Greats were able to and would thus have few test subjects, but she suspected it to be accurate. There had to be a reason why so few had ever messed around with meridians as she had done when creating her body cultivation technique, and why adding a second set put such immense pressure on the body.


    It once again amazed her that the addition of the four sets hadn¡¯t outright killed her then and there.


    ¡°Now, return to your lands and work hard. I shall return here when I finally arrive at a suitable location for our exit, or when there is another significant development that I wish to share with you.¡±


    With that, she willed the gateway array to appear beneath her feet, and left the prison realm without another word, exiting into the Planar Continents, some distance from the Luo District, where she had once more set up some arrays¡­ or so most would assume, as she intentionally displayed that image behind herself when she disappeared.


    It wouldn¡¯t do to make it seem like she was someone lazy or otherwise failing to actively pursue her goals, which is how some may interpret the fact that she chose to go straight to Aimi Miyu instead of the outer world.


    At the moment, the Antanorden woman was within Fu Zan¡¯s shop, sitting there opposite him as he was displaying a new product to her. Since the last time that Wei Yi had seen her in person, she had removed the overly delicate gown that she seemed to have appeared in the world with and instead wore something that looked like it was right out of the other world that she and Fu Zan came from. A short skirt descended to her knees, forcing her to keep her legs closed, and a simple white blouse covered her upper body, partially revealing a hint of a white bra beneath it.


    ¡°So, these tights are the same as on Orbis?¡± Aimi Miyu asked, feeling the dark fabric with one hand, ¡°And you can make them out of¡­ that stuff?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s my otherworldly gift, as Wei Yi calls them. Yours doesn¡¯t seem too bad, though.¡±


    She shook her head immediately, rising quickly to put the new item on, ¡°That¡¯s nonsense. I can only identify things that I already know, and if I get it wrong, then it will still tell me the same thing with absolute certainty. I was so certain that the Entropic Propulsion thing she mentioned was real, but apparently it is something called Emergent Anchor instead¡­¡±


    ¡°How did you not realise that she was messing with you after that Absolute Sexual Satisfaction thing?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ shut up!¡±


    Wei Yi, who was watching this from the side, noted her blush and the momentary bite of her lower lip, and was almost certain that her earlier guess regarding her preferences was accurate.


    However, she couldn¡¯t figure out exactly why she would be this insistent on hiding them, no matter what the outlook on such things could have been on their original world. She wasn¡¯t sure whether this was due to being unable to come to terms with the fact that she was now in another world, some internal belief of hers that she hadn¡¯t yet revealed, or another reason entirely, but if she was to be of any use, it wouldn¡¯t do for her to get distracted by such things.


    That would be something to figure out later, once that otherworldly gift was tested further.


    ¡°Alright, they¡¯re on! How do I look?¡± Miyu asked, showing off the black tights with a proud expression, as if she had done something besides just putting them on.


    ¡°Hm¡­ I think that if you put these on as well, you will look much better,¡± Fu Zan stated with a pair of high heels in hand, ¡°That Wei Yi is very fond of them, but if you aren¡¯t, I also have these shoes that look similar with far smaller heels.¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi is?¡± Aimi Miyu had initially looked at the first set of footwear without any interest, but that phrase quickly made her disregard the second set and focus on the first with involuntarily glistening eyes, ¡°Well, back on Orbis I¡¯d not really wear such things, since I could never figure out how to walk normally in them and I didn¡¯t leave the house much, but now that I am in a world like this, I should try new things. Give those to me.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t recommend that,¡± Wei Yi said, choosing to enter the conversation now, ¡°I can ¨C and do ¨C walk in them for the purpose of a technique, whereas you would just ruin your legs for no reason.¡±


    The Antanorden woman nearly dropped the pair of high heels in surprise, falling back down to her seat, ¡°S-Since when have you been there?¡±


    ¡°Since a minute or two ago. I wanted to confirm whether you¡¯ve been settling in well, and whether you¡¯d be interested in having something to do within the prison realm so that you don¡¯t just spend the rest of your days sitting about and doing nothing.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by the rest of my days?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not letting you out of here until I can figure out a way to remove the corruptive azure light from your body, and that might be impossible without killing you. As a result, you may need to stay here permanently. At the moment, the quantity of resources here is rather limited, even if they are able to grow, and as much, we may not be able to provide you with as much food as you might need or want if you don¡¯t do something to deserve it,¡± Wei Yi explained, taking advantage of a moment in which Miyu looked down in horror to glare at Fu Zan to prevent him from talking, ¡°You can identify anything so long as you have the correct information, which is why I can provide you with a lot of accurate facts. If you then put that to good use, you can live as comfortably as this fellow over here.¡±


    ¡°Do¡­ Do I have to?¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t I just answer this?¡±


    ¡°No, I am asking whether somebody else might be able to house me like¡­ well, for instance, the Great Fam-¡±


    ¡°The Greats want to kill you, destroy your otherworldly gift, and ensure that none of your kind may ever appear within the Planar Continents again. Depending on the kinds of people that end up here, I¡¯m frankly not against the last part, and depending on how much you miss your original world, you may not be against it either,¡± she cut her off, ¡°Regardless, if you want to keep your life, that wouldn¡¯t work.¡±


    ¡°That, and, as I told you, she has a rather major grudge with the Greats,¡± Fu Zan added, ¡°She wouldn¡¯t allow someone useful to come into their hands regardless of their future treatment of you.¡±


    ¡®Good, it seems that he has figured out what I¡¯m doing, and isn¡¯t against it. Good job, you otherworldly moron,¡¯ Wei Yi jokingly praised the man in her mind before turning back to Miyu, ¡°The other factions in the world are also unlikely to look at a na?ve, silly otherworldly demon as anything other than a threat or an opportunity to exploit you in all kinds of embarrassing ways. The moment that you accidentally spill that you are not interested in women, they¡¯ll make you constantly travel everywhere with an escort of naked, beautiful ladies constantly tempting you with mental techniques.¡±


    ¡°No, that can¡¯t be something that any sane man or woman would do!¡±


    ¡°Oh, but why do you assume that everyone here is sane? Why do you assume that your definition of sanity aligns with that of another person? Your actions might be sane from your point of view, but in the eyes of another, that will be far from the case.¡±


    ¡°Then I will follow you! Protect me from the horrible seductresses!¡± Miyu begged, dropping to the ground with her knees, head and hands placed onto the wooden floor, ¡°¡­ ow.¡±


    ¡°Get up. We don¡¯t need you dirtying the floors like that. So, how fond are you of reading?¡±


    ¡°I love reading! I was top of my class at Otsuma and Senshu!¡±


    Wei Yi had never heard of such things, she could do little more that shrug, ¡°Uh¡­ I¡¯ll assume that¡¯s a good thing. Anyway, let me give you some accurate documents to read through, and then you can get on with it. I expect you to read them in great detail, and to have at least four of them completed by the time I check your progress in a few days. Is that all clear, Aimi Miyu?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely! I will not let you down! I mean¡­ I¡¯ll make sure to be useful, so that I can eat!¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± she pretended not to notice the obvious blush that appeared on the woman¡¯s face, raising one hand and focusing an immense quantity of killing intent into the shape of pages, then books, forming a total of a dozen tomes on the basics of the Planar Continents, planar cultivation, physiques, bloodlines and whatever else that she felt confident in including, as there were still certain facts that she couldn¡¯t be certain about and really didn¡¯t want to ruin the perfect abilities that Miyu possessed.


    Although the way in which the Antanorden woman was so easily flustered was something that she wanted to improve, it was somewhat pleasant to be on the receiving side of what she had experienced during her meetings with Chu Ling, where her young mind was rather unprepared to deal with her visage and body.


    It was, in a way, yet another depiction of the way in which power could come from anything, even something as simple as looking pretty. With just that much, an inexperienced individual could be incapacitated, effectively becoming malleable according to her will, although she doubted that most would be quite as susceptible to appearances as those that had as little understanding or acceptance of themselves as Yi Wei and this Aimi Miyu, since one of them hadn¡¯t had the time to explore herself while the other appeared to be reluctant to accept it.


    Still, she had experienced quite a few improvements in appearance over essentially every single cultivation path that she had taken, so she knew that she would eventually get even more attractive, if that was even possible. Perhaps at the ninth realm, a single glance from her could seduce the world.


    ¡®Silly, but this sort of thing would certainly help in certain situations.¡¯


    For now, she couldn¡¯t do much more than provide as much accurate information to Miyu as she could, then let her learn all of it. Eventually, if the otherworldly demon learned all of it, she would be able to effectively assess any situation and prevent Wei Yi from falling into traps, or being deceived by either illusions or tricks, no matter how complex or simple.


    At that point, she would have yet another magnificent weapon against the Greats, against any ancient creatures and entities that might awaken during the course of her pursuits, or even against the Hunger of the Beyond, if she needed to combat them at some point in the future. Whatever their tactics or methods, so long as she could provide sufficient data for the otherworldly demon to be able to use her gift and to possess sufficient accuracy, she could instantly see through every single falsehood that they might present.


    ¡®Or rather, I¡¯d hope that this could happen, but it might be that she needs to see something in person in order to understand it, or perhaps she can only see very rudimentary information¡­ Many tests will need to be done, just not yet,¡¯ she looked at the Antanorden woman eagerly accepting the books and sneakily glancing at Wei Yi as she did so, and sighed internally, ¡°Go on, get to work.¡±


    ¡°Yes, boss! Wait, can I call you that?¡±


    ¡°Sure, do whatever. I¡¯ll be speaking with Fu Zan here, so if you could use the back room, or some other area, that¡¯d be great.¡±


    Miyu nodded, running off to let them talk, although she did sneak one glance back at her before she forced her gaze back to her front and slightly struck her cheek with the book that she had decided to hold in her right hand. Once she shut the door behind herself, Wei Yi was able to move on.


    ¡°Fu Zan, those tights ¨C do you have a spare?¡±


    ¡°Did you like them?¡±


    ¡°They look nice, and I see no reason not to grant myself more layers given that I¡¯m already starting to put things on. It¡¯ll make for yet another nice feature for my current identity in the Planar Continents.¡±


    ¡°Please tell me you¡¯re not going to act like that woman¡­¡±


    ¡°Nope, not doing that. I am fully capable of admitting what I do and do not like, especially when you¡¯re not someone in any position to act against me with whatever information I may provide you with, and perhaps I will come to like that thin material on my legs, whether it is the appearance or the effect that will impress me more,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°Also, you noticed her behaviour as well?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯d be hard not to. Is she¡­ well, interested in you in that way?¡± Fu Zan asked while he removed another pair of tights from a large pile of clothing and items that was forming beside him after a long day of work.


    ¡°Not necessarily me, but it does appear to be the case. Does Antanord have some problem with it?¡±


    He shrugged, ¡°I¡¯m not really sure when it comes to her. It could be that her parents were strict and traditional, or something along those lines, but, frankly, I¡¯m not even certain that we¡¯re from the same world as one another.¡±


    ¡°Not the same world? Considering the fact that you and she speak the same Antanorden, can casually converse about your own world, and are not surprised in the slightest at one another¡¯s otherworldly oddities, preferences and, in your case, clothing, it would be very hard to convince me that you are not from the same world¡­ Unless you suppose that there may be multiple Orbises?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but that¡¯s not an uncommon trope in many stories, and it would hardly be strange considering everything that¡¯s already happening. It¡¯s just that there are a few times when she mentioned something that contradicted my knowledge, and I could tell that there were some times when she came across the exact same thing. When we had a brief conversation at the start to make sure that we weren¡¯t making some mistake, some of her important dates were off by several days, like the end of the world wars, the invention of computers and the internet, that sort of stuff.¡±


    ¡°Do remember that I know the words and their definitions, but not what they actually are.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ It doesn¡¯t really matter right now, though. The point is that we may be from different versions of the same world, or two worlds that are extremely alike, or we could just have terrible memories when it comes to dates,¡± he suggested.


    ¡°Coincidences like that, especially when they seem to point themselves out to you, are not something to be ignored in this world,¡± Wei Yi replied, frowning, ¡°That being said, we are looking too far into something like this when the original question was why Aimi Miyu would be so keen to not appear to be interested in another woman, so that we could use this information to help her break out of that unfortunate shell.¡±


    ¡°Oh, is that what you¡¯re planning to do? I¡­ probably shouldn¡¯t be stating exactly what I thought you¡¯d do¡­¡±


    ¡°If you thought I was going to seduce her, then, most likely, no. I can hardly enter any semblance of a proper relationship any time soon, and I cannot say that I feel very comfortable going out with an otherworldly demon like her. Too much of a gap in pretty much every way, you see,¡± she said, glancing towards the back-room door, ¡°Also, I don¡¯t see much chemistry between us.¡±


    ¡°I suppose¡­¡±


    Seeing that the man had nothing more to ask, she raised the black tights that he had given her, ¡°Now, these are made from some of the metal materials that I had provided to you, correct?¡±


    ¡°Yes, they are. Since they¡¯re using the same things that the durable underwear is made from, they should be impervious to common attacks, and difficult to damage with stronger ones, although I don¡¯t know how true that is at your level. I¡¯m also not certain how well they will handle your own energy, or any physical expansion that might occur in regard to musculature, but they should be good in high temperatures, if nothing else.¡±


    ¡°Excellent. I will test them for you, so prepare to receive a report on your successes and failures the next time I¡¯m around. Also, don¡¯t forget to do the regular exercises that I have mandated for everyone. It isn¡¯t a form of cultivation ¨C technically, anyway ¨C so it shouldn¡¯t worsen the otherworldly gift¡¯s influence, while also increasing your stamina and strength, which will be very necessary the moment that you need to mass-produce some major order per my request,¡± Wei Yi informed him, storing the tights and some other items of interest to her within the House of Gold for later viewing and inspection, ¡°Now, anything else to report, or was that everything?¡±


    ¡°Nothing¡­ Will you let us see the outside world at some point?¡±


    ¡°Probably. However, I do not want to let any of you out due to the possibility of the azure lights getting more uppity within a superior realm, so you will not see it in person until I remove it from your bodies.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that make our abilities¡­ not work?¡±


    ¡°No, not at all. At that point, you will be able to safely cultivate, and as your power increases, so will the power of the otherworldly gift. My House of Gold belonged to an otherworldly demon like yourself, giving him an infinite amount of space to work with, filled with all kinds of treasures, but when I took over, most of them disintegrated, and the size shrunk immensely. However, as I get stronger, it is also growing, and when you have a similarly great amount of energy in the ninth realm as the azure lights possess, you will be able to make use of most of the gift¡¯s potential on your own.¡±


    ¡°Alright¡­ By that point, what would the planar energy concentration within the prison realm look like? Would there be enough for it to be forming solid structures in places where it is particularly dense?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be going for crystalline structures myself, but we¡¯ll see, eventually.¡±


    She willed another gateway to appear beneath herself, although this time she didn¡¯t bother with a fake background to her teleportation, since Fu Zan was already well aware of the slight deception that she was presenting to the others, albeit lacking the knowledge of Yi Shi Ming. That gap in his knowledge was somewhat filled by the different experiences of the world he originated from, where a number of significantly stranger events were documented within fictional tales and thus changed the way in which someone looked at the world.


    This wasn¡¯t always a positive improvement, since their Orbis seemed to be fond of complex plots and immensely deep conspiracies that would rarely truly occur within reality. The Greats were one of the few to truly exist beneath so many things and prevent the development of the world from occurring, while most groups would often prefer to do far simpler things, like killing an enemy instead of executing a complex plan to get someone else to do the same while thinking that they were saving the world.


    Wei Yi was keen to comprehend the kinds of plots that those from another world were able to think of, but she would need to temper it with reason that they struggled to incorporate at times.


    ¡®I¡¯ll need to get him a lot of paper to copy whatever stories he can remember at some later time, but for now, I should take advantage of the time until day within the Planar Continents,¡¯ she glanced out of the prison realm for a moment to confirm that it was still some time from day and sat down on the ground, far away from any life so far as she was able to tell through her sight of the prison realm.


    The previous day, she had not made full use of the techniques that she had generated, and she wanted to rectify that while she had the chance. Based on her experience of being forced into the Realm of Potential while cultivating through the failed talismans, it seemed that her body was able to continue doing something while she was within that realm, so she naturally wanted to check whether she needed to somehow trigger the Realm of Potential to gain this benefit or if she could use it at any time. If she could train both her techniques and body at the same time, it would naturally raise the efficiency of the process significantly.


    Thus, in order to test this as well as possible, she sat down in the place with the greatest concentration of planar energy within the prison realm, set down a few arrays with her spiritual will, then activated as many training techniques at once as she was able to, then entered the Realm of Potential.


    Just as the last time that she was here, there was a book floating in the air, although either she had ended up being higher than she had been before, or the book had descended somewhat since she left the realm, as it was once more on the level of her eyes, rather than being unnecessarily high in the air. Its contents were also the same, listing a series of letters, numbers and things resembling normal words, although they were more likely to be the names of locations rather than typical words that one might find in a dictionary.


    Since both of her otherworldly demons specialised in languages other than Antanian, she didn¡¯t expect them to be familiar with whatever this book was trying to convey, and as such didn¡¯t ask them about it.


    She put the mostly empty tome away and willed a reflection of herself into being, one that wielded the complete set of abilities that she presented to those in her current warrior persona. After a little consideration, she decided that if she was going to go all out in her physical self, Wei Yi would also invest her all into the training of techniques, and thus summoned a dozen more reflections of a similar level of power.


    Then, she got to work.

 V3C53: Semblance of Eternity

    Wei Yi was able to endure several minutes of fighting against herself, after which she got out of the Realm of Potential to observe whether or not this experiment had ended up benefitting her in the slightest.


    As it turned out, it had done quite a lot. Her muscles had indeed remained active after she had gone into the Realm of Potential with her mind, proving that it allowed her to carry on with continuous, simple tasks even without her overseeing them personally, and it appeared sufficient to even continue at full efficiency, while her personal participation might occasionally sway from absolute perfection. Her refinement and training of spiritual will and killing intent, which she put through the Third Eye and a few training techniques, was also able to carry on at the same high level, although her current methods did little to energy of the fifth realm.


    Perhaps the most noticeable was her practise of the Ascendant¡¯s Path technique. It was easily the strongest cultivation method that she possessed, and that was made obvious by the whirlpool of planar energy that had formed while she hadn¡¯t been outside of her body, leaving behind an entirely empty area of energy around her.


    This did cause her to realise another aspect of her current step in cultivation, and that was that she would need far more planar energy to increase her stage than she had anticipated. Through several minutes of absorbing a denser energy than in the Planar Continents, she had made a slight degree of progress, but it was blatantly less than it should have been. In other words, she had encountered the famous bottleneck of a realm four stages early, and it would be very unlikely for her not to encounter another one at the proper time.


    Despite the obviously increased amount of effort that she would need to invest into the following breakthrough, it also meant that the change and growth that she would receive from it, either now or in the future, would be substantial enough to warrant such a roadblock.


    Given that she was already really curious what the stable shattering of a planar anchor could accomplish, this made her curiosity grow even further, and made her contemplate what to call this particular advancement, especially so that she wouldn¡¯t need to change the name the moment that it turned out to be something entirely different to what she was expecting due to her impression of the intended path of cultivation.


    Names weren¡¯t essential, but they were one of the few things that she could consider prior to truly knowing the abilities of a shattered anchor, and it was also something that she would still need to spend quite some time on, seeing as her ideas for names were being exhausted with every stage and realm that she had to name, as well as every technique.


    One of the ideas that was firmer in her mind than most was the concept of perpetuity and eternity that pervaded the names of the final realms of cultivation, and it was something that she was, technically touching upon due to the presence of the nascent rift within her anchor. If the next breakthrough had something to do with it, or perhaps made way for it to eventually be integrated into an Imperfect Rift, the eighth realm, then it would also be fitting to call it something that was related to these concept.


    Naturally, while she was pondering this, she wasn¡¯t just idly sitting around. Since the area around her was mostly devoid of planar energy now, and would be that way for a little while until it filled up once more, she quickly transported herself to the other side of the prison realm and repeated her earlier attempt with far more surety, creating slightly different opponents that would require less mental concentration but more physical force to be exerted in order to be defeated, then continued thinking.


    For a while, a short while, everything was quiet save for the sounds of colliding blades and the cuts of flesh, although that was hardly off-putting to someone who lived in the prison realm for so long.


    When she left the Realm of Potential for a second time, she found that an even larger quantity of planar energy had been taken from the air around her, perhaps due to the fact that everyone within the Silver Side, which it soon wouldn¡¯t be called due to the fact that the silver and crimson from both sides was being replaced with more natural colours every day, with only a few particularly unique items of that colour being likely to remain after enough time passed, was within the four primary settlements. Since she was effectively taking in a sixth of the energy within the entire prison realm over these two planar energy intakes, her total accumulation rose significantly more quickly than a normal cultivator¡¯s might have, but the second cultivation session appeared to achieve even less than the first.


    That was only on first glance, however. When she viewed the five-sided planar anchor within her body and at the centre of the prison realm in greater detail, she saw that the black stone was slightly brighter than before, albeit without actually gaining any lightness, as odd as that might sound, and that it gained a slight crystalline texture that had been absent from it previously.


    It wasn¡¯t sufficient for anyone to notice it on first, second, or the fiftieth glance if they weren¡¯t looking for it, as was made obvious by a brief inspection of those within the prison realm that were observing her anchor while she had been cultivating, but it was clear that it was slowly progressing towards something greater with the vast amount of energy that she had absorbed. So long as this continued in the same direction, the final state of the anchor by the next stage would be crystalline, much like her planar energy was.


    With this knowledge, an image was conjured within her mind of a great monolith that bulged outwards, containing a glowing sphere of cosmic violet light within a prison of crystal strands of varying thickness, various forms of energy arcing and surging through them in an imitation of the current arrangement. It might not necessarily be the true conclusion for her anchor, but it was certainly a plausible one, causing her to think of the name of the Endless Monolith.


    So long as she survived, it could last forever, and with the nascent rift within it that would grow the more effort she invested into developing it, the energy within it would also never be exhausted, no matter where she ended up or what she did. Such a thing would be deserving of such a name.


    ¡®That is only if I¡¯m not making things up right now, which, technically, I am, so I¡¯ll need to wait and see what the true Endless Monolith shall be. Maybe it will resemble those silver sprites in that it will have a top and bottom that are then orbited by a number of pieces that contain the energy of different elements, or perhaps it will collapse into a whirlpool of pure energy that somehow functions like an anchor¡­¡¯ Wei Yi pondered, contemplating how plausible any of those options even was, ¡®Well, I don¡¯t know, and I won¡¯t figure it out just by thinking. I¡¯ll need to continue observing, paying attention, and trying to make sure that I am not doing anything counterproductive¡­¡¯


    She glanced at the interface of the Truth of the Universe, noting the hundreds of anchor energy points that were not being used at the moment.


    ¡®Hm¡­ I have certain techniques that I understand well enough to be able to advance them without worrying about them being corrupted by the Truth of the Universe, which simultaneously increases the quantity of my planar energy in order to make up for the cultivation that I had skipped, so I could skip a little closer by using up some of these points¡­¡¯ she thought as she looked through the list of her techniques and their current stages.


    Perhaps one of the simplest techniques that she had, while also knowing the most about how to progress it, was the Heeled Balance art, and it was also the most useful for her as further developments would allow her to move at an even greater speed and precision than she could without heels.


    As such, it would naturally be a good choice for the development of her cultivation, and, since it was hardly the most complex thing under her belt, nor the technique with the greatest comprehension of any Dao out there, it would not cost her all that many anchor points to advance, even if she tried to push it into several stages. In theory, any technique that was as simple a burst of planar energy being propelled through the arm¡¯s meridians could be elevated to an immense realm before any semblance of a Dao would be unveiled, although that did carry the potential danger of uncovering a Dao of simplicity or absolute force.


    Despite that potential threat, or rather due to it, she immediately composed a technique of that nature.


    Deciding on the best route through the body was easy, and since she didn¡¯t want to transform her energy in any particular way, she couldn¡¯t make the technique complex even if she wanted to. Using it once, she immediately confirmed a number of ways in which to make this more efficient, more difficult to dodge, more useful against multiple enemies, but she had to stop herself before this became a reasonable combat technique, since that would evade the entire point of the technique, and greatly raise the cost of developing the technique.


    She considered any options to make it even less complex, implemented one that did work, and then decided to name it Absolute Force, causing the text within the interface of the Truth of the Universe to change to that name.


    At the moment, it was classed as Uninitiated, so she followed her understanding of the costs of advancing any one technique and willed it to advance as much as it was able to with a single point.


    Since she always made use of the explicit options available on the interface, she wasn¡¯t sure whether or not that would actually accomplish anything, but when a point disappeared from her interface, and planar energy violently surged out from her dantian, she knew that it worked. The label for Absolute Force blurred, then trembled four times, pausing after that, then trembled five more times, with each one forcing even greater quantities of energy to burst out.


    Due to the nature of the technique, it demanded far more energy than anything with even a semblance of refinement, and thus the quantity of planar energy that appeared within her body matched the amount that would typically be needed for a far, far better and stronger technique than this one. It pushed her even further into the fifth stage, the planar anchor within her getting purer once more, but it was still far from being enough. She checked the interface and found that it had grown all the way to the Fifth Stage with just a single point of anchor energy, which, while impressive in its own right, as the force that it released would match a normal combat technique now, gave her another idea.


    ¡®Due to the particularities of my planar energy, I can heal and strengthen myself through injury, hence the masochistic approach that I am so often forced to take. Then, why don¡¯t I simultaneously damage myself, and recover it?¡¯ she smiled, ¡®Why guide planar energy at all?¡¯


    Just like that, Absolute Rupture, a technique that didn¡¯t even bother to guide energy through the meridians, was born.


    With one point, it practically flew straight into the Ninth Stage, a total of thirteen bursts of energy surging into her, making yet another minor advancement. With no guidance towards her arms, no guidance through meridians, and a method that practically begged the energy being used to tear the cultivator¡¯s body apart, it was a technique that could be released all around her body, instantly damaging it as much as a failed talisman of the third realm would, despite the absolute inefficiency, stupidity, and outright insanity of this technique.


    However, in a way, that contributed to the absolute nature of this technique.


    ¡®Wait a minute¡­¡¯ she paused, raising her hand and releasing a little bit of energy to confirm her suspicion, ¡®Unburdened and unfettered, unrelenting and unceasing¡­ The basic path of the Absolute Dao¡­ Fuck, I did something stupid again¡­ Means that it¡¯s time to go even further into insanity, then. I wonder, how far can I push my first piece of the Dao?¡¯


    She decided to even out her quantity of anchor energy points in one go an expend eleven points on developing Absolute Rupture further, since it could allow her to completely ignore the necessity for high-realm failed talismans in her physique cultivation, although she would need to be careful not to raise its power too significantly if she didn¡¯t want to bring herself to the edge of death each time that she used the technique. With the rise of a Dao, all things under it were elevated, as one¡¯s very being slowly connected to the true nature of the world, to the Great Dao itself, so it would be far more difficult for her to hold back the power of any Absolute skill with any advancements within the Absolute Dao.


    The label of Absolute Rupture faded again, and it began to rumble again and again. Each time, more and more energy was drawn into her body from seemingly nowhere, although it was obvious to her that the anchor energy, whatever it was, could easily be traded into planar energy, as well as power for the calculative abilities of the Truth of the Universe to decipher some method of progression for her techniques.


    Regarding that particular otherworldly gift, she was not concerned about it affecting her progress at the moment as there was very little that could be done with the Absolute techniques, as she technically understood how they were meant to function already. All that the Truth of the Universe could do in this situation is complete the advancement for her, since it could add nor subtract nothing.


    Just like that, in an unreasonably fast and efficient manner, her cultivation seemed to near the peak of the fifth stage, although the gulf between it and her next step seemed to remain just as large as before. Her anchor had clearly changed significantly, and those who looked upon it were naturally able to tell this, especially due to the short time in which these changes occurred. Whether for better or worse, most lacked sufficient knowledge regarding anchors as a whole to even begin to comprehend what they were seeing, but most eyes were still drawn towards the towering anchor in the center of the prison realm.


    As for her Absolute Rupture, it reached the absolutely immense Seventy-Sixth Stage, equaling the power of a low-grade fifth realm failed talisman, although what was far more notable was the appearance of a new section of the Truth of the Universe interface labelled simply as ¡®Dao¡¯. Within it, she saw the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, within which were contained the Cultivation Dao, Combat Dao, Movement Dao and Crafting Dao of the same names, with the overall category being classed at Full Success, then the Absolute Dao, labelled to be at the level of Minor Achievement.


    The fact that she already possessed a mostly complete Dao was good, but she was aware that it mostly meant that she understood her own path, not the true depth of reality. Whether or not the Ascendant¡¯s Dao existed prior to her, or if she outright created it, it would need to be elaborated out of herself and into the world around her before it could truly count.


    Meanwhile, the Absolute Dao could bring her some benefits even at this low stage, as it began from the derivation of an external concept. It could empower all of her attacks, removing restrictions and limitations from them until they would become naught but absolute, ignoring any and all defences, obstacles, distractions, diversions and whatever else, although that would not be achieved in full until the Full Success stage at the very least, and possibly some obscenely high stage at the most, since this was a simple yet incredibly high level concept. Something like a Fire Dao would likely count as a mildly complex and medium level concept, meaning that it would give her fewer immediate benefits for any one stage, although it could have far more uses due to the greater complexity.


    It should be noted that the fragments of the Great Dao within forbidden skills and the current Dao that she was able to develop were somewhat different. A single fragment could grant the user immense power, but it would be limited and restricted to a very particular usage, as it was the entirety of a small part of the Dao. Meanwhile, her usage of the Truth of the Universe brought her to the Dao themselves, which would take far longer to bring themselves to the same level of power but would be both less restrictive and more general.


    If she had a Wood Dao, for instance, then she could empower all wood-type effects and innately understand them to a certain extent, with that understanding increasing the fewer elements of other Dao were incorporated into any particular method. A fragment, on the other hand, might bind her in a similar way to Chu Ling¡¯s forbidden skill, which tied her life to her Timeless Grove.


    ¡®Due to the way in which the Dao empowers all, much like how the Phoenix Transformation can empower all forms of fire techniques, I should probably glean some insights into a few other forms of Dao before I go. The most complex and most beneficial would probably be the Yin Dao and Yang Dao.¡¯


    Having learned her lesson with the Absolute skills, she made the next two techniques even simpler.


    Yin Condensation would resonate with the yin in her body. Yang Condensation would resonate with the yang in her body. Neither of these would have much use until she reached an immensely high realm with them, but if she did, they could allow her to amplify those energies in a form of cultivation that could also be beneficial to her Yin-Yang Ascendant physique in a less destructive manner, and could even ¨C in theory ¨C permit her to slightly modify her body with the aid of a few other techniques.


    ¡®That¡¯s all for later, though. For now, five more points to both¡­¡¯


    The labels for both condensation skills blurred, then trembled over and over again at great speed. Very little planar energy actively appeared or moved within her body, but she did feel a certain connection with her yin and yang growing beyond what she could experience before, although it wasn¡¯t sufficient to permit her to do more than look.


    Both rose to the Twenty-Seventh Stage in one go, consuming five points each, bringing her total supply of anchor energy points to two hundred and forty.


    Finally, the most important part of the process, the Yin and Yang Dao both appeared within the appropriate section of the Truth of the Universe, both labelled to be at the Initial Accomplishment stage, one step beneath the Absolute Dao.


    This was along the lines of what she expected. Yin and yang as concepts were far more complicated than simple, pure absolute force, as they could apply to essentially everything and everywhere, with some things being both yin and yang in nature while technically being neither one in practise, which is also what made both of them so useful. So long as both were balanced, they would not interfere with one another, and could be used together to raise the power of anything that wasn¡¯t absolute yin or yang.


    She did have some methods of that type, mostly due to her physique, but that only prompted her to realise a method of circumventing that limitation as well.


    ¡®At the moment, I possess only the Ascendant¡¯s Dao at Full Success, but that could be a good thing. It is all about my own path, my own rise, so if I use it to mould the other Dao to my whims, I could both avoid any flaws of those Dao and increase my strength no matter what I do, since I could just interpret an absolute force to be the one that I am using¡­¡¯ Wei Yi glanced at the Ascendant¡¯s Dao in the interface, ¡®I wonder, how expensive would it be to raise the level of that directly?¡¯


    Willing the Truth of the Universe to expend no more than fifty anchor points upon it, she waited for a moment to see whether anything would occur, but nothing did. The label didn¡¯t blur nor tremble, and the fifty points remained within her possession. This too, was within her expectations, and it would have been rather concerning if her prized Ascendant¡¯s Dao could be improved with just fifty anchor points, not to mention the fact that it would inevitably slip away from her if the Truth of the Universe was given enough leeway with the principles of the Dao. If she was to comprehend it sufficiently and only required the jump from the Full Success to the First Stage to be made for her, it would still undoubtedly be costly, but far less so.


    Since this was the case, she closed the interface and once again moved her position, this time into the boundary peaks of the prison realm, where there were a few relatively flat areas with enough space for her to sit down comfortably, and focused on her Absolute Rupture technique, moving into the Realm of Potential the moment before her body would experience the pain.


    There, she did not leap into a practise battle, but instead looked into her own imitated form, primarily at the blood that endlessly pumped through her veins. It had been able to conjure some images that were of great interest to her, but she had struggled to uncover the method to bring them out in reality, or otherwise make use of them during her own combat or cultivation. Her intuition told her that the power of the blood could be an incredibly useful one, and so she wished to obtain it as soon as possible to supplement everything else that was already within her arsenal.


    It was especially vital to have another advantage if she was going to actually contend with the Greats, and not simply their servants, as they might be on greater guard than before due to her fight with the Ning and Chen families.


    Due to this, she naturally needed to figure out a method of forcing resonance with her bloodline that would function within her body, but that appeared to be significantly more difficult than the device used by Long Huang, as she could not replicate the exact manner in which energy rotated and orbited within it while within the confines of her own body.


    In her eyes, attempting to replicate that part fully wasn¡¯t the most effective nor efficient method of attaining her goals. Instead, she needed to decipher the reason behind this, then apply it in a manner that was reasonable, a little like she created the dantian bone shard talismans and array network specifically to function within her body, rather than trying to copy something that couldn¡¯t possibly work from the outside world.


    Understanding the concept of bloodline resonance, however, was rather difficult. Even with the Disciple of Iron cultivation technique that appeared to rely on a similar concept, bringing it and the bloodline resonance device together to unite their powers and truly awaken her bloodline was rather difficult to the different ways in which they acted upon her body. The former purified her blood more than anything, so while it would certainly make it more straightforward to generate a greater resonance with less energy, it would not be sufficient to enable said resonance on its own.


    ¡®Also, the question of what causes a bloodline resonance might be more complicated than the question of what that phenomenon is to begin with and requires that to be answered for the greatest effect,¡¯ she considered, summoning a large white board and a piece of charcoal to draw with.


    So far as she understood the matter, a bloodline contained the energy of something or someone with great power, which was sealed into their blood through the mysteries of planar energy. To cause resonance with it is to amplify the power of the past, rendering it tangible to one¡¯s eyes and increasing the amount of it that was available to the cultivator.


    Thus, she needed to somehow expose more of that energy while keeping the blood within herself, which was an unduly daunting task only due to the exact principles of this resonance not being known to her or most of the world, judging by the fact that only the Blood-tinged Church and the faction behind Long Huang had any success or even interest in the field. The latter¡¯s actions did give her a single direction to follow, which was to focus energy upon it in a very particular manner.


    ¡®I wonder whether this has any relation to the properties of time and space,¡¯ Wei Yi asked no-one in particular, realising a moment later that Yi Shi Ming was unable to hear her within the Realm of Potential, ¡®Right. One potential lead to explore has been found, time to search for more¡­¡¯


    She wrote that onto the board, using it for no better reason than to brighten up the void a little.


    ¡®The rotation and particular infusion of energy within the bloodline resonance device ¨C the name of which I came up with myself and haven¡¯t asked Long Huang about, so I will need to do that later ¨C clearly plays a part, but I don¡¯t quite understand what causes it¡­ Perhaps bloodlines have a physical component as well, as the rotation somehow assists in the uncovering of the bloodline itself¡­¡¯ she pondered, conjuring an incredibly weak version of herself to provide some spare blood, ¡®I don¡¯t think that I can do this in here, but maybe it¡¯ll be enough to figure something out¡­¡¯


    With one straightforward cut that unintentionally made use of the Absolute Dao, she slaughtered her replica and collected all of the resulting blood within a large sphere using some spiritual will, then replicated the arrays that made up the resonance device using it, deciding to make use of planar energy to duplicate the inscriptions, since she had far more experience in using it for that purpose.


    She was about to begin, but then recalled the seeming significance of the needle used to extract her blood, and dispersed the containment of the blood.


    ¡®I had taken a look at the needle and hadn¡¯t found much of interest, but perhaps I simply missed something. I should use it to remove some of my blood, then compare it to what is now on the ground. Perhaps the resonance device isn¡¯t the optimal method of achieving resonance, and it is the needle that actually permits it within a flawed system,¡¯ Wei Yi theorised, conjuring that implement and yet another copy of herself, ignoring the panicked expression on the duplicate¡¯s face.


    With another full orb of blood, this time extracted by the needle, she allowed the existing array and inscription structure to activate, observing the entire process incredibly closely as the sphere trembled and a vague fog of various colours emerged from the large spherical pool, but it was not the same as when Long Huang had been experimenting.


    ¡®The Realm of Potential is clearly not replicating me perfectly, but something was happening. That means that I need to continue¡­¡¯

 V3C54: Bloodline Power Uncovered

    When she finally emerged into the Planar Continents, she looked outright miserable. She looked tired, her eyes were dim, but at the very least her skin and body appeared to have been made a minute ago, since they had constantly been refined by failed talisman-like effects for several hours until it pushed her into the fifth stage, bringing only a single physique ability into the next stage, although it was most certainly a good one.


    The Titanic Demolisher ability, which she had considered using to great effect in a short while as it would function well alongside her current phoenix aesthetic, rose to the Vibrant Titanic Demolisher stage and allowed her to form a significantly denser gigantic shadow behind herself.


    Other than that, she slightly regretted getting so lost in her thoughts within the Realm of Potential, as all of the pain that had accumulated from the constant burning and rebuilding of her body struck her the moment she left, as the process ceased a moment after she regained the feeling within her body, whereas her previous cultivation had ended before she could leave the Realm of Potential. It wasn¡¯t that significant in comparison to her many previous experiences, but it was lingering and pervasive, with every single part of her body suffering ¨C and benefitting, although that was rather difficult to feel at the moment.


    To feel certain kinds of pain in certain kinds of places was hardly the most pleasant she had ever felt, and did make her question certain things about human physiology, but it did prove not only that her Absolute path was successful, but that it could be brought forward to the ninth realm, so long as she was able to continue improving it for such a small quantity of points.


    So long as she improved the Absolute Dao directly, the fact that the Absolute Rupture technique was rather limited in terms of what it can reach will be significantly less important and significant.


    Before that, however, she needed to perform an operation within the best conditions possible, and that meant that she would not be able to do this within the prison realm due to the separation between it and the Planar Continents, which turned out to have some relevance.


    From what she was able to determine, there were two forms of bloodlines: one contained the echo of some particular past figure and relied entirely on it to provide power and direction for the cultivator¡¯s growth through the blood. It was an effective method for someone weaker to gain great strength, but it would affect their path significantly and had the terrible limitation of requiring a connection to that person from the past that was provided by the world, and would fade significantly over a brief period of time the moment that the connection was broken.


    The other type was more generic, relating to a particular type of entity or lineage that would persist regardless of one¡¯s position in the universe, and would force one¡¯s development far less while still providing as many, if not more, benefits overall. This seemed to be the type that she possessed, with all three of her primary bloodlines not being reliant on any specific entity ¨C save for the cosmic cloud that might be bound to her, but, since she is the only one to own it, it did not appear to matter which world she was in at any time ¨C but just to be safe, she wanted to give her bloodlines as much room to resonate and grow as possible.


    In order to guarantee this, she decided to approach this with the most preparation and prudence possible, which involved the setting of four sets of arrays and inscriptions around her, all of a varying size, that mimicked the resonance device used by Long Huang but included some modifications that she was able to make after her prolonged stay within the Realm of Potential.


    The largest had a radius of ten metres, the smallest had a radius of one, and then there were a few more experimental arrays set on and within the body that attempted to replicate that same effect without the need for constant rotation, as she was sure that it would be rather unpleasant to experience one¡¯s blood trying to flee from the body. Then, she also created a certain circulation pathway for each of her forms of energy, uncertain whether the bloodline would generate any kind of energy of its own but hoping to create as much of it as possible if that would indeed occur.


    After that, she also set down a few inscriptions within the ground that might have similar effects, although they were only certain to be effective and beneficial. Their actual effect was to be determined, but they were far more certain not to kill her than the meridian growth technique she had created.


    With ten minutes of preparation complete, she sat in the middle of all of these things and focused upon manipulating all of them to achieve her goals, keeping her clothing off just in case the awakening of a bloodline was going to cause some disastrous effects and tear her and her surroundings asunder. Then, she took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and activated all of the arrays and inscriptions around herself.


    It could take a lot of time to reach her goal, and she didn¡¯t have much to waste.


    Her intention was to return before everyone at the Luo District was awake and going about their day, which meant that she had about an hour to complete all of this and get back through the border. Technically, she had no obligation to be there at that particular time, but she had no task that she could conveniently complete out there, and had no other normal reason to be out of the district at this time, the action of leaving the district for no reason might be seen as odd and unusual, prompting greater attention on her and the need to be even more careful.


    Whether this was a bout of paranoia or a genuine concern, she would rather not need to figure it out. Fortunately, she expected the process to take no longer than forty minutes, so she had a high chance of success.


    With an infusion of her will, the many arrays and inscriptions around her began to function, whether by sitting still or rotating around her.


    If an outsider was to observe this, they might assume that she had changed little about the principles that she had been attempting to study and replicate, but they would be greatly mistaken for one simple reason ¨C Wei Yi hoped that she had been able to remove the necessity for the needle being involved within the process, thus permitting her to actively cultivate without needing to extract and then reabsorb her blood in some way.


    That could have technically worked, so long as the effects upon her blood would remain for long enough and not be rejected by her body, but the goal was to create something that could be maintained within the body to empower her blood at any time. The rotating arrays around her were only for the initial awakening process, and hopefully wouldn¡¯t be required unless she wanted to rush into strengthening her bloodline resonance at any one point, in which case she could set up more of this kind of array structures to assist whatever technique she is able to extract from them.


    For now, her energy was focused onto her blood both from within and without, slowly causing her every vein to tremble as it grew hotter with every breath, although not in the way that a flame might heat something held near to it, as that would be negated by her Yin-Yang Ascendant physique. Instead, it felt like the raw energy within her blood was growing, innately conflicting with the flesh around it.


    Wei Yi had been able to claim that she was mostly impervious to pain and discomfort for quite some time, but it couldn¡¯t be more true at the moment, as much of her body still ached from the effects of Absolute Rupture, even if that was more likely to be a phantom pain since the entirety of her body was effectively brand new. Any unpleasant sensations caused by her own blood trying to destroy her own body were easily subdued by everything else she currently felt, making it seem more like a casual stab from a needle or two¡­ or a couple thousand, although that would be getting even further off topic than her mind already was.


    Some time passed, during which she had continued to focus intently on ensuring that her blood was able to circulate properly while ensuring that every drop was equally exposed to the resonating energy.


    If she showed only a small quantity of her blood to the appropriate level of resonance, it could cause a number of problems, from simply decreasing the amount of power that she could access from it to entirely preventing the development and creating some lingering issues within her body, although that did not seem to be something that couldn¡¯t be resolved by another round of Absolute Rupture, perhaps two.


    When the sun had shifted in the sky, she finally felt the resonance of her bloodlines. Within herself, her mind, and within the same half-true space that the dantian occupied, she felt three distinct traces of energy, each one separate yet linked. Due to seeing the resonance of her blood previously, she was easily able to recognise them as the blood of the Golden Qilin, the silvery sprites, and the cosmic influence upon herself. As before, the first two were somewhat equally matched, while the third stood out amongst them, but they were now standing or floating apart from one another without any clear interaction, as if they were presenting themselves to her.


    A vague mirage formed from and within each cloud of energy, but the images differed somewhat. The Golden Qilin was taller and prouder, seemingly posing to look more impressive, while the silver sprites formed into a particular arrangement that was pleasing to the eyes, and it was only the cloud of cosmic energy that didn¡¯t seem to change, although, considering the fact that the stars within were always in motion, she wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it had.


    ¡®Is my own blood presenting a choice to me? If so¡­ why would I ever need to ponder the correct answer. It is obvious,¡¯ Wei Yi affirmed, mentally reaching out towards the cosmic cloud.


    The closer she got, the more the other two seemed to glow more brightly, becoming more elaborate and complex, their gazes landing upon her with a judgemental look, as if they were questioning why anyone would ever select another bloodline over their own. For a moment, she wondered whether she was misunderstanding this part of the process, and that perhaps this was her choosing which bloodlines to eliminate, but the cosmic cloud was not growing weaker when her will approached, and just remained resolute and constant.


    With no clear and concrete evidence to base her decision on, she had to go with her intuition.


    As her mind came into contact with the cosmic cloud, she felt nothing in particular except for greater clarity. The two other bloodline manifestations seemed to glare at her for a moment, but when she looked back at her they suddenly drew back, looking small as if facing some great threat that they couldn¡¯t possibly defeat.


    The cloud of cosmic energy burst and surged behind her, seemingly vanishing into the void of this domain.


    She looked down upon herself, finding her body to exist within this strange space beside reality and the mind, but it was made from the same portal to the starry skies that her energy was, and the cosmic cloud appeared to surround it, expanding slowly but noticeably with every single moment. When she took a step towards them, she saw that it was this combination that the other two bloodlines feared, prompting her to advance further.


    Whatever those bloodlines were, no matter what the silver sprites represented, she had no interest in them. They were something of the past, some remnant of an identity that she wished to forget and remove, and only the cosmic light was truly her own, forged and shaped by her journey.


    The closer she got to the Golden Qilin and the silver sprites, the weaker they looked, the more they trembled, the less impressive their forms became. From golden and silver monuments to some unknown powers, they changed to little more than phantoms of the past, to useless remnants within her blood. As soon as her expanding cosmic aura finally came into contact with one of the sprites, she saw it melt, rot and crumble at the point of contact, prompting her to lunge forward to grab onto it, the silver instantly dissolving into a sliver of light that merged with the nearest galaxy within the cosmic aura, while the other two resonances looked even weaker.


    Since one of the sprites was gone, the others seemed even weaker, causing her eyes to glisten as she rushed forward, enveloping the rest of them with the cosmic cloud of bloodline resonance, allowing her to quickly shift her attention to the Golden Qilin, which seemed to be covering in an invisible corner at her approach.


    At this point, the cosmic cloud was nearly five times as large as she was, and thus she couldn¡¯t come into physical contact with it before the erosion took place, seemingly being even more powerful now that the energy of the silver sprites had formed into a small constellation amidst the many stars and galaxies that could be seen through and within the cloud of her bloodline resonance, looking far more pathetic than they ever were on the outside.


    Within moments, the Qilin melted into naught but a wisp of golden energy, merging into the same constellation as the silver sprites except the one star that it produced was brighter and larger than the rest, effectively possessing the same quantity of energy as all of the sprites combined.


    As it disappeared from the domain, so did her consciousness begin to disappear from it, the very domain seeming to slip away as if it had never been there. For a moment, she tried to hold on, but the way in which the other two bloodlines crumbled suggested that this space, whatever and wherever it was, was composed in part of the three separate resonances. With two gone, and the cosmic cloud sinking fully into her astral mental form, there was nothing more to keep this particular space stable, and thus it returned to its origin.


    For this reason, she let it go, and watched darkness fill her sight.


    On the outer border of the Luo District, between the first and second layers of talismans, two guards stood beside one another and looked into the distance, one maintaining the semblance of a proper posture while the other was lazily standing by and chewing on some herbs.


    ¡°A quiet day, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Aye.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d be cursed by the Great Worm, but I would actually want to have to deal with some intruders.¡±


    The other guard nodded, although it did not stop him from continuing to munch upon his herbs, ¡°Aye.¡±


    ¡°I hear that quite a few kids from the Luo family are currently nearing the peak of their realms and will soon be breaking through. Imagine if we came across one of them and happened to borrow some of their stuff while they weren¡¯t paying attention. By the gracious sands, we¡¯d get away with it, and then, a whole lot of free resources are in our hands!¡±


    ¡°Aye.¡±


    ¡°Do you know any other words?¡±


    ¡°Aye.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you, man. Here I am, trying to lighten things up, and you-¡±


    All of a sudden, everything around them seemed to dim, save for a point far in front of them, where an impossibly bright violet light surged through the trees and hills.


    It quickly mixed with all kinds of astral colours, illuminating the forest in a way that seemed impossible even for a fallen star. The colour of its radiance was so intense that it singlehandedly looked to put out all of the light within the district, although all those that observed it knew deep down that this was merely an illusion.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, the report stated that they resembled silver particles orbiting around an invisible point.¡±


    ¡°I see. Take your reward and go, before someone realises you are absent from your position,¡± a pouch filled with coin was passed from one to the other, the giver remaining in place for some time after the other left.


    That person then turned to the outer portion of the district, staring into the beyond with little obvious purpose. They were about to go when they saw a light of immense brightness, colour and volume deafen the world around it, seemingly cutting through the world itself to shine into their eyes despite everything between it and them.


    It was filled with planar violet at first, but the longer they looked upon it, the more shades emerged. Solar orange and yellow, star-like gold and silver, nebula crimson and more shone together and yet separately, forming an entirely unique image to their eyes, as if they looked into a world wholly unique from this one, with a different sky and different void, and they were fascinated. For a moment, their mind was blank, for they could not focus on anything other than the astral glow.


    They were only broken out of their reverie by the sudden tremble of the ground, and a realisation that this was no mere light, but the release of force.


    An immense wave of energy surged out from the origin of this glow, crushing trees and flattening grass and extinguishing any life within the nearest kilometre, cracking ground and shaking the stability of caves. It reached all the way up into the clouds, throwing them asunder and clearing a wide-open circle within the orange sky, entirely overpowering the rising sun with its splendour.


    ¡°No, not overpowering¡­ It even has that light within itself, and yet it does not stand out at all¡­¡±


    They were astonished, to the point that they were unable to find a single thing that they believed to be more vibrant, despite everything that was certainly within their memory.


    For a moment, they weren¡¯t sure whether to be ashamed or proud of this discovery, but the answer soon became clear. Their position and identity simply did not allow for them to view anything but a single image in their past as anything but the most vibrant and impressive sight.


    ¡°Still, this is the closest anything has come¡­¡±


    Every tree within a few dozen metres was obliterated outright, melting into the cosmic light and never reappearing, but those further away were only corroded partially, with the rest of their bark and roots being torn out of the ground and throw away without any possibility of resistance. Certain smaller stones ¨C the kind that were only a few hundred tonnes in weight ¨C were also consumed and sundered, wrenched from the ground and throw far, far away.


    From the origin point of the light, countless fissures in the ground spread out, some small while others were absolutely enormous, sufficient for a house or two to fall into them with ease.


    Some were dark, partially lit only by the cosmic flare of light, while others actively surged with crimson light from some underground veins of earth flame. This great brightness mixed with the cosmic violet, but even the glow of a dozen earth fire veins could not overpower the birth of a new galaxy.


    The moment that Wei Yi regained her sight, she realised that she was sitting at the only safe spot within fifty metres, surrounded by a dense mist of light that was only now beginning to fade, prompting her to immediately disappear as quickly as she possibly could. She was not immediately able to determine exactly what had happened, nor what the benefit she had earned from the process was, but none of that was as significant as ensuring that the entirety of the Planar Continents, or at the very least the entirety of the Luo District, didn¡¯t have the chance to converge upon her and learn her secrets.


    Only once she was far away, fully dressed, and any trace of that violet light was removed from her was she able to confidently relax and look upon herself and her last meridian network.


    At first, she did not see a thing, but she knew that nothing that ridiculously destructive would occur if she didn¡¯t succeed in doing something and kept staring at the network waiting to see anything of use. After a while, once enough time had passed for her to have looked away countless times if she hadn¡¯t been so sure, she finally saw it.


    Within that last network which had gone unoccupied since she began this path was a thin strand of light that stretched all the way through the meridians, made up of a cosmic glow with a red and gold tint, reminiscent of both her blood and cosmic energy.


    Upon further inspection, she realised that there were actually two separate strands that were simply entwined with one another, but both were so thin that they barely looked thick enough to hold on even when they were together. Looking even further in, incredibly thin yet lengthy strands that resembled capillaries extended from many points on the primary two lengths of bloodline power, moving rapidly to enter and recede from any meridians by the extremities, withdrawing into the primary lengths when they were not needed at an immense speed, even by the standards of everything that she had seen.


    She tried to analyse this based on what little she understood about the idea of bloodline cultivation, and determined that this would likely correspond to the second stage of the first realm, which, for now, she named Blood Trace, as it reflected her blood and the bloodline at once, but only the trace of the full potential within them.


    With that name, her knowledge of the other paths, and some guesswork, she began to lay out the other realms as well. If the first realm traced the past and potential, then the second would need to awaken or act upon them in some way, thus receiving the name of Echo Awakening, and which point she presumed that some notable part of the bloodline would be made manifest within the cultivator, although she was not certain what such a thing would be for her, nor whether this would be achieved with nine strands of Blood Trace or some greater number. All she could be absolutely certain of was that all four other cultivation paths had nine stages and should have nine realms, so this should function according to the same rules.


    After that, she presumed that some major trait could be extracted from the bloodline and imposed upon a cultivator, and hence gave it the name of Trait Acquisition. Whether this would be a single trait per stage, or one per realm, was another thing that she couldn¡¯t guess with ease.


    Going beyond the fourth realm in terms of guesses and estimations was not something that she was in any way confident with, so she limited herself to that, naming it the Semblance Extraction level due to her presumption that much like the other four forms of cultivation, the fourth realm was bound to possess a unique trait, which, in the case of blood and bloodlines, would likely be the ability to invoke a greater portion of the bloodline¡¯s secrets at once, manifesting a kind of second form.


    ¡®I can make some guesses of what this would look like for a draconic or wolven bloodline, but I am not so certain when it comes to my own. I have no second form, save for the killing will state, so there isn¡¯t really much that could manifest in the fourth realm, nor in the third and second, unless I will gain cosmic eyes or nails or something of that sort¡­¡¯ she frowned, glancing at her nails and concluding that she could easily do without such an unnecessary change, even if it brought increased strength and endurance to them, ¡®I am a little worried about what any breakthrough will look like. If this wasn¡¯t a one-off thing, my path will be littered with horribly fissured and destroyed landscapes.¡¯


    Such a thing was not likely, given quite how much energy was released from her body at this time, but it was not impossible for such phenomena to recur upon crossing realms.


    To attempt another breakthrough any time soon and not make appropriate preparations would be rather remiss of her, both due to the attention that it has already caused and since she did want some semblance of the Planar Continents to remain whenever she managed to defeat the Greats and reform Yi City.


    ¡®Now, what exactly does my bloodline power do? I do not seem to be able to project it outside of the body,¡¯ she tested the possibility and found that she was indeed correct, ¡®Then what exactly does any of this stuff do? Right, I should first confirm that nothing about my body has changed, shouldn¡¯t I?¡¯


    She released some spiritual perception outside of her body, and immediately noticed an oddity. Nothing about the very nature of the energy had changed, not so far as she was able to tell, but the range and power of her spiritual perception had risen notably, albeit not immensely. It was roughly two tenths stronger than before, and it could reach two tenths further than before, which she immediately noted that it coordinated with the number of stages achieved by her bloodline.


    Finding it odd that a bloodline would enhance her spiritual perception of all things, she checked out her other forms of energy and realised that it had not done just that ¨C all four of her other forms of power had grown by the exact same amount, but without any changes in her actual cultivation.


    This finding was not just phenomenal, but absolutely fantastic. It was, perhaps, one of the greatest things that she had ever uncovered without expecting to, as such a skill was absolutely invaluable no matter how difficult it would be to raise its stage and realm. Even if each stage only increased her power by the same amount from the first to the ninth realms, that would still be a multiplier of nine to her strength in every regard. Combining that with the perfected realms, the amplification of technique stages, her physique and everything else in her possession, she would be impossibly more powerful than any cultivator of the same realm even if she had the worst cultivation technique imaginable, which she naturally did not.


    In a word, this was exactly what she needed. With all nine realms, she would, in theory, possess a similar boost to her overall prowess as that of the Greats and their multiple anchors, although it wasn¡¯t just that simple boost that made them terrifying. With that boost and the combined might of all of her forms of cultivation, if she wasn¡¯t able to defeat any one third generation Great Family member in a one-on-one encounter, nobody would.


    ¡®Still, there might be more to this, and that means that I need to continue investigating. First off, I forgot to actually take a look at myself¡­¡¯

 V3C55: A Mission Briefing

    When she made her way back into the Luo District, she avoided the guards at the edges of the district entirely, not wanting to be added to a list of potential suspects in relation to that earlier burst of energy, since that would only cause unnecessary stress for her even if she was dismissed as a suspect early on.


    This wasn¡¯t made difficult at all by the lack of guards, who were likely being called upon to prepare for an investigation, and it did allow her to ponder some simpler things.


    Her appearance, which she had been able to confirm after checking that all of her energy had not changed in any unpredictable ways, and that the bloodline power was indeed incapable of doing much rather than augmenting her physical abilities by an extremely small margin when active, was not changed in any significant way by the bloodline. In fact, she wasn¡¯t at all certain whether this was the effect of her physique training or the recent breakthrough, since the changes were all rather similar to what she would expect from the former.


    As usual, all of her features were slightly more refined than the last time she looked upon them, although her eyes did gain a certain gem-like quality that they had first developed a semblance of a long time ago, all the way back when she had achieved her crystalline energy. Now, it was amplified by being a result of two forms of cultivation at the very least, and so it would likely be even easier to get lost within her eyes. It would take some getting used to.


    There was little room for the likes of her vision or hearing to develop, but there was some slight improvement in both, as well as her sense of smell and taste when it came to things other than food. Since these were even slighter than the effects upon her eyes, she didn¡¯t expect it to matter too much.


    One thing that she did expect to change quite a lot with future breakthroughs was everything that had come about since her first physique cultivation session involving the Realm of Potential, as there was no chance that these weren¡¯t implemented within her bloodline in some fashion. As one developed, the other would be bound to encourage it, eventually amplifying the positive effects to the point that her body would probably be able to consume and process anything without ever needing to worry about waste or poison, even without getting physique energy involved.


    So long as she came up with some new concept of the ideal eye, or something of the sort, they would likely be included in both physique and bloodline as well, at which point she could look forward to major changes with every single lengthy period of cultivation, but she didn¡¯t think that to be very likely. After all, the eye worked quite well as it was. Changing it significantly would certainly require some very unexpected insights.


    ¡®There¡¯ve been plenty of those as of late, so maybe it isn¡¯t that unlikely after all,¡¯ Wei Yi said to herself, proceeding down the road towards the Brotherhood of Power headquarters calmly and casually, ¡®Maybe the likes of phoenixes and dragons have some good ideas on the matter¡­¡¯


    ¡°Oi, clawed woman! Stop right there!¡±


    ¡®Hm, it¡¯s been a while since one of these. Alright, I¡¯ll play along,¡¯ she turned to face the speaker.


    The moment that she observed him to be a muscular, tall man with a large body but small head, and saw his friends surrounding her, it became rather obvious which group they were a part of.


    ¡°Hey, how did you like walking around peacefully for so long?¡±


    ¡°Not gonna lie, it¡¯s a bit boring. Why do you lot care?¡± Wei Yi asked back, although their stances and the circulation of energy within their bodies made her question even less necessary than it already was, ¡®No guards in the proximity of this, either, so they¡¯ve either paid them off or all of the guard has been called in to prepare to search for me. Either way, not too afraid, but I will need to be careful.¡¯


    ¡°Well then, we have a perfect distraction for you!¡± announced the man that called out to her, ¡°How about getting beaten up?¡±


    She was barely able to resist rolling her eyes externally, so she did so internally instead. There was so much wrong with their plan, whatever that was, that she wasn¡¯t sure whether it would be better for her to just leave and let them realise their own mistakes or to sit them down and explain it to them in detail, since she couldn¡¯t handle it on her own. Even with the alcohol on their breaths making it quite straightforward that she wasn¡¯t dealing with the most reasonable or sober men, to try and attack a monster like her with only third-realm combatants was equivalent to suicide.


    For a moment, she did wonder whether that was what they were intending to achieve, but one look at their defensive artefacts made it obvious that they did have some semblance of self-preservation, even if it was blatantly obscured by whichever drink they had before this.


    ¡®Also, that line was absolutely abysmal. I suppose that is what alcohol does to someone who already has limited mental capacity due to all of his work going towards his body rather than his head,¡¯ she commented to herself, looking around once with her eyes before shrugging, ¡°I highly doubt you¡¯ll manage, but sure, go ahead. I¡¯ll give you a moment.¡±


    ¡°Get her!¡± the man ordered right away, prompting all of them to run forward.


    ¡°Stop right there!¡± a different voice suddenly reached them, prompting most of the charging men to either stop and attempt to find its source, or, in the case of two of them, fall over and drop into sleep.


    This individual was also male, but his appearance and aura differed significantly from the people within the Gang Hong Clan. He was properly dressed in robes not indicative of any family, his hair was long but swept back and his demeanour was clearly presentable, especially if it was to be compared with the extreme opposite of those standing around him. Around his waist was a thick belt with several large pouches attached to it, one of which he was grasping firmly.


    Once they stopped, he made his way into the circle and towards Wei Yi.


    ¡°I need to confirm something with you, and we may do so here, or in another place of your choosing. What do you say?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Here¡¯s fine. Those guys-¡±


    ¡°Begone,¡± the man interrupted her, glancing towards the Gang Hong Clan¡¯s members. In tandem with his voice, a pulse of energy expanded from him, pushing the encirclement away with extreme ease, making it obvious to even those that couldn¡¯t sense his cultivation that he was far above them.


    ¡®A man in the fifth realm mysteriously approaches me for some kind of confirmation¡­ He doesn¡¯t have anything too strange about him or on his body, save for the thing in the pouch that he¡¯s holding onto, but I cannot immediately conclude what it is or what it¡¯s for¡­¡¯ Wei Yi watched as the man waited for the muscular men to disperse before looking back at her.


    ¡°You must provide a droplet of your blood,¡± the long-haired man said, opening the pouch and removing an item the size of his palm from within.


    It was shaped a little like an elongated pentagon, with a small panel of glass on the front that he opened and presented to her with an outstretched arm, holding it at just the right height and distance for her to be able to hold a finger over the portion of the item previously concealed by glass.


    This was rather concerning, seeing as she had just torn an enormous tear into the Planar Continents, but nothing about the item seemed capable of drawing out the same kind of resonance that Long Huang¡¯s device could, since she was now able to recognise a small degree of the reason behind the appearance of the images from the blood. They necessitated the rotation of arrays around the blood, and thus something with no moving parts shouldn¡¯t be able to draw out that kind of image from her, especially if it doesn¡¯t have the assistance of the special needle.


    Furthermore, she now had some control over her own blood and bloodline, meaning that it should be more difficult for anyone to draw out some phenomenon from her body without her permission.


    ¡®Still, this is strange. Either this is someone related to Long Huang, or someone caught wind of one of the bloodline resonance phenomena and decided to investigate, meaning that one of them is of some importance to an individual or group. I wonder which one, and why,¡¯ she thought, biting through the skin on her finger and allowing a drop of blood to land on the strange item.


    The glass panel was quickly closed, and the item withdrawn, the man staring closely at it for quite some time in absolute silence. His expression was still for quite some time, prompting Wei Yi to frown as she pondered what he was looking for and whether he was or wasn¡¯t noticing such a thing, until it slowly changed. One eyebrow rose and fell quickly, from surprise to great focus and attention, he brought the item ever so slightly closer to himself.


    He withdrew it slightly after a few minutes of close attention, then looked up at her with a conflicted expression.


    ¡°We appear to have been mistaken. You are free to go.¡±


    Before she had a chance to ask a single question, he turned around and walked away quickly, although his spiritual perception did linger in the area for as long as it was able to before he got too far away. He did not give back her drop of blood, not that she expected him to no matter what his intentions had been from the beginning, nor did he bother to explain what it was that he was investigating to begin with, although he likely didn¡¯t expect her to have paid incredibly close attention to the entire process and the tool that he put back into his pouch.


    It appeared to be following a similar idea to the one that she intended to use to develop her bloodline power, as it didn¡¯t attempt to draw out some previously unseen resonance but instead amplified a particular form of energy within the blood, one that would need to be known about before it could be drawn out.


    In other words, if the man was looking for a particular bloodline within her blood, this item could be made or somehow configured to detect it specifically. Based on his reaction, and the absence of any kind of feedback from the item, he didn¡¯t manage to detect such a thing, which was fortunate and simultaneously allowed her to add this design to her memory, and if she ever encountered it working and detecting something within another¡¯s body, she would be able to identify what this was meant to detect and use it in the future.


    The only issue right now was that of the nature of this sudden inquiry. Since it was about her blood, and since most couldn¡¯t possibly know that the cause of the sudden burst of energy to the west was related to bloodlines in any way, it meant that it had to be about the resonance experiment.


    Just as with the burst of energy, the cosmic cloud that formed the resonance of the Ascendant¡¯s bloodline shouldn¡¯t be known to the world, so the matter had to relate to one of the other two bloodlines that had existed within her blood. If she had to guess, the Golden Qilin would be the result of the Yi bloodline within her, and while that could bring some attention to her, it would be rather unlikely due to the immense number of people that did possess a bloodline from one of the major families within the Western Continent. Thus, she could only presume that it was indeed the silver sprites that caught their attention, but that raised questions of its own.


    At the moment, she couldn¡¯t answer the most significant one of all of them, which was, simply, what the bloodline was supposed to originate from, or what it represented. The primary reason why she didn¡¯t believe that this could be some other family¡¯s bloodline was due to the nature of the resonance. It was composed of several sprites, rather than one, and corresponded to no mythical beast or ancient technique that she was aware of.


    From her expansive but admittedly limited and occasionally shallow knowledge of all of the ruling families within Yi City, not a single one of them corresponded with any small creature, nor did they live within the proximity of any former nest that belonged to any creature that was small, lived in large groups, and had no obvious living features so far as she was able to tell.


    That ruled out the possibility of it being the heritage of some ancient creature or planar beast, and it didn¡¯t resemble any kind of flora either ¨C not that most vegetation, planar or otherwise, had any ability to reproduce with or using humans, as far as she was aware ¨C so it had to be the result of an artefact or technique that had changed the blood of some ancestor to such an enormous degree that it manifested within the bloodline even after all this time, even despite all of her features clearly favouring the Yi side of her blood.


    The issue was that she knew of no such familial tale, which was odd considering the fact that certain families, like the Ning family, would absolutely love to advertise such an origin for their familial beginnings, since their obsession with blacksmithing was plain to see for all.


    As such, there was a possibility that this was not related to the ruling families of each district, but then she had even less of an idea who or what such a bloodline could have originated from. Her parents, from what she knew, weren¡¯t particularly strange, with her mother possessing the Yi name while her father might have had some other common name. Even if she assumed that her father was from some ancient group that had an incredible bloodline, not only would the bloodline be significantly weaker than that of the Yi family, which it was not, but would make it far less likely for anyone to be able to recognise this bloodline and come after it, or for it.


    ¡®Then who in the world could that man have been, and why exactly are they curious about my blood?¡¯


    No answer to this came about by the time that she entered the Brotherhood of Power headquarters and came across Luo Lia Kun, who had clearly noticed her approach and went out to meet her.


    ¡°Wei Yi, come to-¡± her words got lost within her throat when she beheld Wei Yi¡¯s appearance once again, and just like last time, she needed a few moments to contemplate exactly what could have caused such a transformation, ¡°Uh¡­ Office. Right, go there. Now.¡±


    ¡°Sure, boss,¡± she nodded, following the confused woman while she continued thinking.


    ¡°Were you cultivating near the west, by any chance?¡±


    ¡°Nope, north-east of the district. There¡¯s a nice field of grass there that I like to rest in, and an apple tree grows a few minutes to the north of that spot, which I may or may not plunder every now and then,¡± Wei Yi claimed, having taken care not to expose herself anywhere near the border and only presenting herself once her origin and direction of movement would be far more ambiguous, ¡°That¡¯s not an issue, is it?¡±


    ¡°No, shouldn¡¯t be. Did you see anyone coming into the city while glowing bright violet?¡±


    ¡°None that I remember. By the way, did you know anything about a guy that wanted to check my blood for something?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ I don¡¯t remember anything like that being said by Long Huang or Mo Zhouquan, so no, I do not,¡± Luo Lia Kun stated, although she wasn¡¯t able to keep her gaze to her front and looked to the side, as far away from Wei Yi as she was able to, ¡°I appreciate that the last time we spoke, we were interrupted by¡­ matters, but this time we must finish our conversation. The task that you must complete is incredibly important, and although you may think differently, it is significantly more important than snogging someone.¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°That¡¯s unlikely.¡±


    ¡°As I said, you may think differently. Unless you¡¯ve got something to do immediately, I¡¯m not letting you run off this time,¡± the vice-leader said as she let her into the office, locking the door behind her, ¡°Do sit down, as we may need to talk for a while.¡±


    She nodded and sat down in her seat, although she displayed a bit of reluctance in doing so, as would be expected of someone that had other things to do, that they were more interested in. They had walked past a number of people that she would have wanted to be near no matter which persona she was trying to present, including Chao Ru, who was only around the nearest corner on their path, where she could easily have been noticed via the spiritual perception of the average third realm cultivator.


    Luo Lia Kun noticed this, and sighed, but she did not intend to let her go this time. The matter she was going to entrust her with was very important, and no matter of lust nor entertainment could interrupt.


    ¡°Alright, do you recall what I had been about to say back when you ran off with your friend?¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I have a mission for you, which is of extreme importance to the Remnants of Yin. We have learnt of a servant of Them that will be travelling alone, not far from the district. This is an incredibly rare opportunity to get rid of them without much difficulty, and it is one that we must absolutely take no matter the cost,¡± Luo Lia Kun declared.


    ¡°Quick question, is this actually one of Them or-¡±


    ¡°No, a servant. They do not practise the same techniques, so they are less dangerous, and they handle matters that They do not are too proud and arrogant to do themselves. The person you must defeat is someone who is relatively high ranked amongst them, and will handle matters that are almost at the same level as those resolved by Them. So long as this person is removed, Their work here might be held back significantly.¡±


    ¡°So, who is this person, and what are they doing here? Who am I even going to be killing? Are they cute?¡±


    ¡°No, they are not. It is a man with a mutated Devil General physique that caused his features to warp into that of some demonic creature, with pure black eyes and discoloured skin and flesh. He has several sets of horns, and a series of black bone growths on his chin as well,¡± the vice-leader described an entity that could barely be called human, although it hardly interested Wei Yi as much as the potential of getting the physique that she had once witnessed within the prison realm, ¡°As for his exact activities, he has partaken in a number of operations that have prevented our own efforts and have removed several significant collections of knowledge from the grasp of the district.¡±


    ¡°Wow, sounds bad. What kind of knowledge was it?¡±


    ¡°You are being far more inquisitive than usual today. Did you hit your head on the way in?¡± she asked with a raised eyebrow.


    ¡°That¡¯s rude¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right. So, did you?¡±


    ¡°I would need to hit my head on the side of an ancient dragon for it to actually affect me, and I don¡¯t recall encountering any such things in the area,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing to the west, ¡°That bit of light over there was very nice and all, but it looked nothing like a dragon¡¯s fire¡­ I don¡¯t actually know what that looks like, but I doubt that it would look like a bunch of stars.¡±


    Luo Lia Kun shrugged, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t be dragon fire, and you wouldn¡¯t have come across a random dragon sitting out in the district, so I doubt anything of the sort occurred. Fine, the knowledge included things like cultivation techniques, methods of empowering oneself in a manner that They dislike.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see. Can I get any of those?¡±


    ¡°No. They have taken everything, and unless we find whatever library or archive They use to store such things, if they even keep the things that they take, we won¡¯t be able to get it all back. It might be that we will need to seek out a different source of information if we want to prevent such knowledge from disappearing entirely,¡± she said, her expression darkening for a moment while she looked into the distance with a complicated look in her eyes, ¡°Now, tell me, Wei Yi ¨C how much of your power have you made use of so far?¡±


    ¡°Some amount, but not everything. I can do a bit more planar techniques and release more strength, but I can hardly put that into a number,¡± Wei Yi claimed, entirely contrary to the truth as usual.


    If she was to attempt to actually quantify the amount of her strength that Wei Yi the Warrior had revealed so far, she could estimate it quite easily. Judging purely by her five paths of cultivation and their realms, she had made use of no more than one sixth of her total ability, and less if the full potential extent of her cosmic energy was considered. After all, she had not yet made use of physique energy, nor killing will, and she had only obtained her bloodline power a short time ago and has thus obvious not displayed it to anyone either, meaning that all anyone had ever seen was a fake state of planar cultivation and a powerful body.


    At that point, it could be said to be less than one tenth of her total power, since she hasn¡¯t yet used the upper limit of either, although such a calculation would naturally fail to take into account the actual usefulness of any one form of cultivation, the benefits that they provide, and more.


    ¡°A shame. Could you ever double your physical strength, even if it is only for a short time?¡±


    ¡°Maybe. However, this Devil General, what is the number of troops that he commands, and shouldn¡¯t I be worried about them more than him?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s where his mutation truly comes in. You see, he has no subordinates at the moment, none that we¡¯ve been able to identify, anyway, but he is able to display the might of a Ten Thousand Man Devil General all on his own. It is an incredibly powerful state, and one that bestows a great deal of physical strength that must be met with similar force. His planar energy is weaker, formidable, but less significant.¡±


    ¡°So, what you¡¯re saying is that I should rush in, grab his heart, and rush out?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s one tactic that won¡¯t work, so you don¡¯t have to try to bring it back like you seem to like doing. There are quite a few dense bone growths on his body, and most are protecting vital points on his body. The heart is included amongst those,¡± Luo Lia Kun revealed.


    ¡°I never knew that the heart was important. Thank you for that.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± her vice-leader noticeably deflated at that gratitude, ¡°You¡¯re welcome. Try and put that knowledge to good use in the future, or else I¡¯m sure someone else will do the same. Now, unless you happen to have some experience in fighting against those with this kind of physique and believe that you need no further knowledge, I will go through every combat move, technique and skill that this person had displayed in the past, and make sure that you understand how to deal with them, even if it is just in theory. Even that much will greatly reduce your chances of dying.¡±


    ¡°Have you been monitoring him long? Do you know everything, or just a few simple techniques? Can you be certain that he had been at his best during those times?¡±


    ¡°How do you switch from that to reasonable questions? How do you do this? Why?¡± Luo Lia Kun sighed when Wei Yi tilted her head to the side as if she didn¡¯t understand a single one of the questions, ¡°Yes, we have been observing him for quite a while. We know most of his techniques at their peak, though he will likely have at least one major hidden trick up his non-existent sleeves, so you will need to be alert.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I am capable of that. You can begin.¡±


    ¡°First off, his basic combat style. It involves his large and heavy body, leading to slower but more powerful attacks further boosted by his wood-type cultivation. Your priority shouldn¡¯t be to block or parry any kind of attack, but instead to dodge, as a single hit can injure even someone with preparation in the fourth realm. He has a great recovery speed and takes care not to overdo any particular attack, so you won¡¯t find him throwing a punch too far and then being incapacitated for a short while.¡±


    ¡°Am I meant to attack him during one of his attacks, or does he have something like the Gentle Breeze fist?¡±


    ¡°Gentle Breeze¡­ Ah, yes, I remember that technique. No, he has never displayed it before, so it should be safe to attack him during attacks, although he can still affect the trajectory of a strike in the same way as any normal person, and will likely put far more thought into his every move when he sees that you aren¡¯t a pushover,¡± she detailed, ¡°At that point, expect to see a lot of feints and attacks meant to draw your strikes without investing any strength into his own. Also, he will likely take advantage of the many bone growths on him, so watch out for his right hand, left knee and foot, right foot, left shoulder, and, obviously, his head. If he uses any of those and hits you, he will do far more to you than he otherwise would, and you will have more difficulties damaging those spots as well.¡±


    ¡°Noted. What should I do once he stars being smart?¡±


    ¡°At that point, longer distance attacks will be absolutely necessary, since he is also able to move quite quickly once he puts his mind to it, but not for too long. If you have the stamina to wait him out, he might become exhausted and make it far easier for you to finish him off, but he might be well prepared with a number of pills and methods for faster recovery. If he has those, then¡­¡±

 V3C56: Concern

    Sitting at the crossroads some distance outside of the Luo District, Wei Yi¡¯s expression was rather grim.


    In her hand was a document that she read over several times, carefully and attentively, then she didn¡¯t even burn or destroy it but instead stored it within the House of Gold, where it could be carefully confirmed and examined again if she needed to do so.


    On the papers that she had read were several things of note, and while she did suspect some of them, the rest came as a large surprise to her. It stated without a shred of doubt that the faction she had been forced into joining, although there was no kind of binding agreement upon her that would prevent her from exiting, was not at all what it seemed.


    According to what she learnt, the faction that had made up the primary opposition to the Greats within the War of Yin had split up into two separate groups, and only one of them held true to their ideals.


    The other half, the one that was now called the Remnants of Yin, had fallen under the control of the Great Families, and their actions were now dedicated entirely to ensuring that another faction of the same sort wouldn¡¯t rise within their area of control by attracting those with the tendency for rebellion and binding them to their cause through trickery and deception. They would send out new recruits to kill those that were truly interested in opposing the Greats, or otherwise continuously presented warped perspectives until they had been persuaded to side with the Great Families without even realising it.


    Fortunately for her, not only was she already well prepared for something of this nature, as wary as she was from the start, but her simpleminded persona had also prevented Luo Lia Kun and the rest from attempting the latter sort of persuasion, trying instead to make her kill people without truly questioning why.


    With this information, the lengthy explanation provided by the vice-leader on the man with the Devil General physique and his ability to persuade people when he sees that he is in a poor place, serving to distract them so that they wouldn¡¯t kill him in time, made far more sense. It was quite clearly intended to prevent her from listening to any of his pleas and to make someone who already seemed eager to kill whoever she could as quickly as possible do so even more quickly.


    There was a chance that this wasn¡¯t true, of course, but that was only if this one man¡¯s claims were false. With the evidence from several individuals, as well as her own observations, this became significantly less likely.


    During her stay within the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Power, she had always been careful not to reveal anything within the range of the sealed chamber where the leader should be, and always paid careful attention to every minor thing in the area. There were quite a few interesting movements on the part of certain individuals that she presumed to be a part of the Remnant of Yin faction, and while none of them outright exposed them, there were certainly signs of behaviours against the wrong side of the conflict, not to mention the fact that the Greats would never use someone with the Devil General physique as one of their agents.


    She had encountered them twice in the past, and she knew that they had somewhat of a disdain for more normal individuals. They wouldn¡¯t recruit some ¡®mutated freak¡¯, as they¡¯d likely call the man she had been sent to kill, perhaps even if they believed that it was absolutely necessary for their future endeavours.


    Perhaps this was different for Great Families other than the ones that she had the misfortune of encountering, but that also appeared to be rather unlikely. For all of their differences in apparel and the seeming divides between certain ones of them, the Greats appeared to have a lot of similarities between different families, and thus their views on the others shouldn¡¯t differ all that significantly. At most, one would have those not from the Great Family a little less than others.


    From the outside, Wei Yi looked to be one of the most ordinary people out there, so if they somehow found a fault with her, this Devil General would fare no differently.


    ¡®Then again, I still don¡¯t understand what my exact crime was, in their eyes. I could be misunderstanding this particular aspect of their beliefs, although I doubt that it would truly make much of a difference. They¡¯re still abhorrent entities either way.¡¯


    In theory, she could charge down the Brotherhood of Power, confront their leader, and try to end things in this district, but she did not consider this to be a reasonable solution whatsoever. First of all, her combat prowess was not infinite. She was much stronger than she let on, but only so much stronger. With enough people between the third and fifth realms, she wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against them all, especially not if the leader possessed some techniques of the Great Families and truly had fifth realm combat strength.


    Then, there was the fact that she was still not certain which ones amongst the Brotherhood of Power were a part of the Remnants of Yin, nor who amongst them, if any, were acting out of their own free will rather than some form of coercion. Perhaps the Greats found some way to end their lives instantly if they disobeyed, and thus they had no choice but to go against their former allies.


    It was also unknown how much interest and attention from the Great Families was focused upon the Brotherhood of Power and the Remnants of Yin. If they were always observing it, then her reckless charge would only invite a pair of third generation Greats to attack, if not someone from the second or first generation in the worst-case scenario. With those in the second generation being in the fifth realm, she wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against them and their excessive number of anchors, and she would certainly be incapable of doing a thing against a member of the Great Families in the seventh realm even if she had the full support of the heavens on her side.


    Since that didn¡¯t seem to be the case, caution was necessary, as well as patience.


    Her intention was to return to the Brotherhood of Power without making a fuss, pretending that she had completed their task much like those before this one, then attempt to train as much as possible and raise her power as much as she was able to. Ideally, she would reach the second half of the Emergent Anchor realm, obtaining the Endless Monolith and whatever powers that it held, as well as the second realm of bloodline cultivation and a new stage of physique cultivation, preferably with some physique abilities ascending, but since all of that would be rather unlikely, she would take all that she was given, make the most of it, then attack the very instant that she thought herself to be in the best possible position.


    That was all that she could possibly do, given the current overwhelming state of the Great Families in comparison to what little she had to herself. It would be a long time until that could change, and the process could only begin with a safe place and sufficiently trained soldiers.


    As such, she made her way back with the appropriate level of personal exhaustion and harm that one might suffer after a lengthy battle, all of which was self-inflicted for the most optimal effect. She naturally refrained from creating anything that would resemble fatal injury, not because she was concerned that she couldn¡¯t recover from it ¨C depending on the kind of wound, she was almost certain that it could be recovered in seconds ¨C but because it would be rather odd to have suffered so greatly with so much preparation, personal power, while also surviving and winning.


    Furthermore, there would be no reason for her to walk back towards the Brotherhood of Power before healing any fatal wounds, so the most that would be shown would be a few stains of blood and scars.


    That much she could easily recreate, and so she did so, although she focused the most on bruises, seeing as that was what one would expect from a battle against someone who focused the most on his fists and other blunt strikes, with a few cuts that could be expected from a sharp bone growth somewhere on his body.


    Despite a day having passed since her last breakthrough, there were still no guards to be found anywhere near the borders of the district, a fact that was made obvious by the large quantities of talisman ash floating away from the first and second lines of defence. Whether they were caused by men or beasts, such things would not be seen if there were even a few guards around to ensure that the talismans were being used properly, and most wouldn¡¯t even bother to enter without permission if they saw armed patrols guarding the area.


    Within the district, there were also very few armed troops of the Luo family, to the point that the streets were quiet as most remained indoors, likely afraid that this unexpected exodus of warriors meant something bad for them and their business in the district.


    ¡®Have they found something interesting as a result of my breakthrough, or are they still focusing on that?¡¯ Wei Yi wondered to herself, pretending to walk in a highly fatigued manner on her usual route towards the Brotherhood of Power, and even acted as if she didn¡¯t notice the person that was obviously intending to bump into her, ¡®Either way, I will need to watch out for anything that they may find, and steal it if it proves either incriminating or significant to me as well. Now, as for this¡­¡¯


    The person that was walking towards her wore a hood with some basic spiritual perception obstructing properties, but they were insufficient to block all but the most basic and weak glance with it for the average third realm cultivator, not to mention someone like her. For this reason, it was rather clear that this was the same man that had approached her last time.


    Even if she was mistaken, somehow, and this was his twin brother or some mimic, the item in one of his pockets was certainly the same.


    They collided just as she had expected, and during their brief period of contact, a thin point attempted to pierce her skin. It was made from a very high-quality material, but it was not enhanced by planar energy, nor was it an artefact, meaning that all it was able to do was bounce off her skin without making a noticeable mark. For this reason, Wei Yi didn¡¯t even bother to slow down and talk to him, perhaps to ask what he was up to, and instead walked off before he could notice.


    He also distanced himself from her before taking a look at the small spike that he had tried to use, finding out only then that he had failed to draw any blood at all. Visibly holding back some curses, he looked towards her and sighed, heading off with a grim look.


    ¡®That guy will probably try it again, won¡¯t he? Is he just trying to be sure?¡¯


    Once again, he left her range of spiritual perception quickly, so she did not have the chance to see what he was going to do next, nor whether there were any nearby individuals with whom he conversed and that gave him orders, but so long as he was not doing anything malicious to her beyond just trying to confirm her bloodline, she was not going to display any suspicious actions like suddenly turning around and chasing after him when he clearly didn¡¯t take anything from her.


    Although she had tried to avoid an odd encounter then, she immediately ran into another one the moment that she entered the Brotherhood of Power headquarters.


    ¡°Ah, there you ar- Did you find your target already?¡± Luo Lia Kun had been prepared to speak casually until she saw all of the injuries on her body, at which point she rushed forward to examine them carefully, ¡°Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, fine¡­ What¡¯re you lot doing?¡±


    She was standing beside Chao Ru, Zhi Qiu Ya and a few others, who all looked on with varying degrees of worry for her and curiosity about the treatment that she was receiving from the vice-leader.


    ¡°We were going to do some mental strength tests, but¡­¡± Chao Ru explained, but once she confirmed that Wei Yi did not appear to be dying straight away, she looked towards Luo Lia Kun mischievously, ¡°Say, boss, you don¡¯t ever look after us like that, even when we are heavily injured¡­ Is this a bit of favouritism I see?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with me confirming that one of our strongest third realm fighters is fine?¡± Luo Lia Kun didn¡¯t appear phased, ¡°I¡¯m also not the one sleeping with her.¡±


    ¡°I d-don¡¯t know a thing,¡± Chao Ru looked away, her face quickly reddening.


    In her stead, Zhi Qiu Ya seemed to take over, ¡°Are you going to start shaming someone for encouraging said strongest fighter to remain in our Brotherhood? Keep in mind that she is also helping both me and the pair of crazy people, so that¡¯s all doubly important.¡±


    ¡°What are you two doing?¡± the vice-leader didn¡¯t so much ask as she stated, having already passed a pill to Wei Yi and moved her attention fully to the original matter, ¡°I don¡¯t remember seeing any of you be this coordinated with one another in combat, or even in casual conversation, and yet you are actually defending one another¡­ What have I missed? Zhi Qiu Ya, have you finally come to like someone outside of your animal state?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t let your imagination get the better of you,¡± the wolven woman quickly evaded the question, ¡°You said it yourself. Wei Yi is very capable. I appreciate that.¡±


    ¡°Right. So-¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, do you want to come along?¡±


    Luo Lia Kun, ¡°She is tired, and so it would not be a good idea for her to participate in any kind of mental trial.¡±


    ¡°Actually, I¡¯m perfectly fine. It¡¯s only physical stuff, so if this is related to the mind, I¡¯m sure I can handle it,¡± Wei Yi stepped in ¨C literally and not ¨C since they did not appear to realise that they were still right next to her, ¡°What¡¯s this mental trial thing about?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s something that we¡¯ve been able to obtain while you were out. They are similar to jade slips, but instead of holding information, they are capable of challenging your mind like a slip might. If you¡¯ve ever encountered a functioning fragment of a jade slip in the past, whether it was part of a permanent or one-time-use slip, you might be familiar with the way it overloads your mind with information if you absorb it recklessly.¡±


    ¡°Not too familiar, but I can certainly imagine it. I¡¯ll go, then.¡±


    ¡°Very well. Also unlike temporary jade slips, these do not have limited uses, so anyone can use them so long as they aren¡¯t worried about their brain exploding from too much stress. If it feels like that might happen, do not keep using the mental trials,¡± Luo Lia Kun instructed her, ¡°Do you understand that?¡±


    ¡°Sure, sure. Where are they, and how many are there? Can I do them multiple times in a row, or do I need to pick different ones each time?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± there were clearly many things that the vice-leader of both the Remnants of Yin and the Brotherhood of Power wished to say, but seeing as Wei Yi had obviously not been listening to her from the start, and had her own ideas of what she could and couldn¡¯t manage, she felt like she had no choice but to give up, hoping that the first trial she takes would convince her that this was a bad idea.


    Perhaps the dim-wittedness would prove to be a boon, and somehow allow her to bypass the extreme mental stress that equated to learning the contents of a jade slip in one moment, allowing her to survive for another day.


    Meanwhile, those on the side that had some familiarity with Wei Yi¡¯s more knowledgeable and intelligent side, mainly Chao Ru and Zhi Qiu Ya, were of the opinion that she was actually taking the situation exactly as she should. Her mind was clearly capable of handling a lot of information quickly, as made obvious by the creation of Chao Ru¡¯s new training technique and her rapid comprehension of Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s condition and possible solution of it. For someone like that, it would hardly be impossible to go through several mental trials, although they weren¡¯t very familiar with the exact difficulty of the trial.


    Only Wei Yi understood the true challenge that it would present to anyone but her, and thus she made sure to make it seem like an unreasonable matter for anyone but her.


    Then again, she had no idea whether the people around her had some secret talent that resembled her own, not that she had a perfect understanding of that, either. All of the information about the effects of the jade slips on others was mostly from Great Dark and Great Light, or the twin halves of Great Earth, who had inadvertently or otherwise inserted malicious will into their own jade slips, so they were hardly the most reliable sources out there.


    Experimenting on others would clear this up really quickly, but she lacked both suitable test subjects that she wouldn¡¯t mind losing and jade slips with which to test them, although if she was able to pocket some of the mental tests, that would likely solve both that problem and the issue of teaching her captive subjects more and more with each jade slip they successfully manage to withstand, making it easier and easier for them to resist her actions and eventually escape. She wouldn¡¯t give anyone the reason nor power to do the same that she was currently doing to the Greats, as that would just be foolish.


    With Luo Lia Kun in the lead, their small group was brought to one of the many rooms within the building, one that had previously been mostly unoccupied save for a table and a few chairs. Now, it contained a large number of small square tables atop which lay items that resembled jade slips, but clearly differed significantly.


    It wasn¡¯t a clear visual difference, nor even one relating to energy, but one of instinct. When looking upon the empty surface of the mental tests, it immediately conveyed a feeling of emptiness and of the void. Not even the most ignorant and foolish of bandits seeking to steal knowledge from somewhere would assume these to contain it, although they may be convinced that it could steal knowledge from others¡­


    ¡®No, that doesn¡¯t seem to be an ability that these things possess. Jade slips have to be manufactured carefully and be filled with information before they can be used at all, so these wouldn¡¯t have the ability to actively take in knowledge from others unless these are far more advanced than they should be.¡¯


    The random thought was rather wild and unlikely, as was often the case for unprompted, unconsidered thoughts, but it did remind her to be cautious of these things, no matter how useful they may be. Before she could use a single one herself, she would naturally need to see several other people using it, which wouldn¡¯t be difficult to achieve if she pretended to be hesitant and stood at the back, or if she claimed that she didn¡¯t know how to reach out with one¡¯s spiritual perception and inspect the mental test slips.


    For someone like Luo Lia Kun, it might even serve to boost her confidence in being able to do whatever she likes around Wei Yi, since someone who can¡¯t even reach out with spiritual perception can¡¯t possibly know everything that she does around her, can she? It would be revealed as a rather unlikely thing the moment she listened to any of her roommates, but it wouldn¡¯t hurt her no matter what.


    At worst, such a claim could be dismissed as a poor joke and nothing more.


    ¡°Alright, there they are. You¡¯ll be the first ones testing them, so be careful, but they certainly do function, and will not destroy your head if you are careful and reasonable. They¡¯re all of a similar level, and their effects should last for a few minutes before you are able to move, so don¡¯t be worried if you suddenly come to with a dry mouth and tired limbs,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, presenting the test slips to them, ¡°I¡¯ll be watching over you for now, then, after a while, I¡¯ll go and get some more people to try these while getting someone else to keep watch on you, someone who knows what they¡¯re doing when it comes to physical and mental health.¡±


    ¡°I hope you¡¯re not describing either of those insane creatures that sleep below us,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya muttered, earning a shake of the head from the vice-leader.


    ¡°No, I am not. I would not entrust the safety of our organisation with those two. Now, go on.¡±


    She waved her hand towards the many test slips while leaning against the back wall of the room. Some people rushed to a mental test slip right away, others hesitated, and Wei Yi did the latter by pretending to look around for some particular slip to make use of, even though she and most people here should be well aware that the contents of emptiness wouldn¡¯t differ from slip to slip, not unless they had been misled by Luo Lia Kun.


    Still, she did not need to wait long for some people to plunge into the test slips with their spiritual perception, at which point their eyes quickly became hazy and still, as if their very consciousness left their bodies.


    Within them, she was able to notice a great degree of pressure upon the mind and their mental energy, with some enduring it far better than others. It could be likened to a large hammer being brought down upon something that could be as fragile as a precious pot at one time, and as tough as a fortress at another. Those that had not been ready generally fared worse than those that were.


    Fortunately, that is all that it appeared to be. There was no hidden point within the hammer through which knowledge could be siphoned away, nor was there any hint of any kind of energy travelling from the cultivator towards the slip. The moment that they touched it with their spiritual perception and were put in a daze while processing the lack of information that they had just obtained, their spiritual perception withdrew, whether instinctively or otherwise, and there was no damage nor corruptive influence upon it.


    All of that still couldn¡¯t guarantee her safety, but she was confident regarding her own mind, and so took a step forward and reached out with a wisp of spiritual perception.


    The moment that she touched the slip, she immediately felt a sense of relief, as if she had just gone through some cumbersome and complex trial, and it took her a moment to realise that the effects of the slip ended before they could even be felt by her, a little like what she expected due to her comprehension speed likely having been boosted over the years by spiritual will cultivation.


    She did not have much time to ponder that, however, as she found her mind being drawn elsewhere instead ¨C the Realm of Potential. It beckoned her, but it did not swallow her up like last time, only threatening to do so soon if she did not enter. Due to her not being willing to reveal herself just yet, she decided that spending some time in there would act much like her being consumed by the mental test slip, so she went along with this unsubtle invitation and decided to see the reason for it.


    Quickly, her consciousness appeared within the familiar void, with the book once more appearing at an appropriate level for easy reading, in the same orientation and position as the first time that she saw it. However, she could tell that it had changed.


    Opening the book to the first page revealed the same text as before, but the second now contained words that it previously did not.


    ¡®¡­ from there, I headed to the north, rising by a thousand feet the moment that it was appropriate. This was my first commercial flight, and I wasn¡¯t going to ruin my chances now¡­¡¯ the passage was cut off on both ends, rather blatantly in fact, but that wasn¡¯t what caught her attention as much as the contents themselves. For whatever reason, she could almost recall seeing something exactly like what was being described, which hardly made much sense given that she had never been part of any kind of commercial flight.


    However, there was one person that would have obviously known about this.


    ¡®The otherworldly demon who held the Realm of Potential left this behind? No¡­ perhaps it was created from the last spark of his memories, and the reason that I remember it is due to something that he did the first time I was in the Realm of Potential?¡¯ she pondered, trying to recall that time, ¡®I was definitely in there longer than an instant, but I still cannot recall a fucking thing¡­¡¯


    This strange ignorance bothered her quite a lot, given that her primary strength at the moment was the great amount of knowledge that she had been able to acquire and use to get to where she is now. It either meant that her memory had failed her at that time, or that something happened that was able to affect even her own mind, without her noticing a single thing through the Ascendant¡¯s Library or any other technique or factor.


    Unfortunately, it was rather difficult to comprehend the matters of the mind, so all she could do then, and now, was follow the clues that she did have.


    ¡®I specifically received a series of directions, almost. Perhaps it is trying to lead me somewhere? If so, I need to get however much more information I require before setting out, since I seem to reappear near the book every time ¨C or perhaps it reappears near me, confusing matters further,¡¯ she closed the book, placed it back exactly where it had been, then left the Realm of Potential, ¡®I¡¯ll need to do more tests, if it will help, and figure out what this is all about.¡¯


    Due to the temporal dilation of the prison realm affecting the Realm of Potential, she had barely been in there for a few moments in reality, so she kept up the fa?ade of being stunned by the mental test slip for a minute before supposedly breaking out.


    Through this particular timing, she hoped to show a level of ability that was certainly above the common folk, but that wouldn¡¯t make her seem entirely abnormal in the eyes of any that were observing her at the moment, like her true, instant completion of the test would have. Hopefully, such actions wouldn¡¯t encourage some third insane researcher to appear.

 V3C57: The Mental Maze

    Sometimes, having the leader of a large organisation care for you specifically could be a good thing, especially if it meant being rewarded in resources that were needed at the time. This was not always the case, however.


    One example of such a situation was the way in which Luo Lia Kun adamantly prevented her from coming anywhere near the test slips after she had gone through four of them in a row, out of the total of twenty-four that were laid out there, and did so for the entirety of the day, forcing her to quietly interact with some of them from afar while pretending not to be able to do so with the usual reach of a third realm¡¯s spiritual perception.


    In truth, she did have a certain limit of mental pressure that she could endure at once, and while going through it instantly did certainly help, it didn¡¯t alleviate the fatigue entirely.


    The only real issue was that her limit, and the one that the vice-leader thought that she had, differed quite significantly. In the eyes of Luo Lia Kun, she could not handle more than four mental test slips in a day, no matter how prepared she claimed to be nor how quickly she could go through each one. In her own eyes, however, going through eight within a day was fully acceptable and feasible, as it did just enough for her to notice, but not so much as to be impaired in any way for the rest of the day. In fact, all she needed was an hour of intensive rest, typically completed within the Realm of Potential by challenging a variation of her that could be beaten with brute force, and she could get right back into it.


    Since she wished to make use of more of the mental tests, it was perhaps obvious that using more of them did benefit her and the development of the Realm of Potential journal, albeit she found that using the same test slip didn¡¯t give her the same benefit as a new one would, although it also affected her less, meaning that she quickly stopped the attempts to benefit infinitely from one mental test.


    Every single usage of a new test provided her with a single new passage within the journal, and each one appeared on a new page. Although the book did seem quite enormous the first time she flipped through it, and still did now, it was as if the tome was shrinking with every new passage, the total number of pages drawing closer and closer to around twenty five. With nine pages filled after the effort of the first day, it meant that she only needed two more to fill it completely.


    At that point, she would have the ability to confidently attempt to follow the directions towards whatever goal they led towards, hopefully with beneficial results to her.


    She couldn¡¯t be certain whether the outcome would give her more options within the Realm of Potential, reveal some technique or secret to her, or if it would just finally provide her with something to look at beside herself and the book while in there, but it shouldn¡¯t be anything outwardly malicious. The Realm of Potential was an otherworldly gift, after all, and while they did clearly have a hidden purpose behind their existence, their basic functions were generally purely beneficial to the cultivator, so long as they were used reasonably and in moderation.


    It was the same as with the House of Gold, not just in terms of the unimaginative name, but also the way in which it worked without the support of the azure light. Both were strictly beneficial on their own, and grew based on the cultivator¡¯s ability, although the Realm of Potential seemed to be tied more to the Kong Prison Realm than anything else. Perhaps that was the reason behind it being able to imitate most of her techniques accurately, given that the prison realm was a high-grade spatial realm.


    Due to the possibility of discovering something incredibly beneficial through this strange journal, she was not going to take any unusual actions until she could safely receive it, at which point she would be able to ascertain whether or not she was in a sufficiently powerful state to challenge the Remnants of Yin, and whether she will have accumulated a sufficient amount of information about them to be able to fight them without endangering the innocent or otherwise failing to deal with those that were not. For this to be feasible, she would need to investigate a lot more, but she was hopeful that this might be made significantly easier for her judging by Luo Lia Kun¡¯s actions.


    Since the vice-leader was providing something like these mental tests to people, it seemed that she could be preparing them for something, and depending on the individuals that she would be selecting from the Brotherhood of Power, it could be determined why this was occurring.


    Regardless of the reasoning behind it, the sudden introduction of the mental tests meant that Luo Lia Kun expected them to be fighting with those that used some form of mental influence or techniques, and the only major difference would be whether it is the Brotherhood of Power that will need to fight with them, or the Remnants of Yin. If it was the latter, then the majority of the individuals involved in the training would be members of that group or important individuals from the former.


    This is what Wei Yi was hoping for, as it would eventually allow her to get all of the Remnants of Yin in one room as part of another briefing, at which point she could confirm some theories that she had developed on her own and learned from her earlier encounter with the Devil General physique user, some of which were very interesting.


    She had noticed several curious matters about Luo Lia Kun, but she couldn¡¯t be certain whether she was noticing some general abnormalities within her body or some larger problem before investigating a sufficient number of people that she could be certain were in the Remnants of Yin. For instance, there was that mark entwined with her heart, which she had previously noticed and presumed to be part of her general talisman mark technique, but that had the potential to be a number of different things that would all require close attention to be dealt with efficiently.


    After all, she didn¡¯t want to accidentally kill anyone just because she misunderstood or misinterpreted something, which wasn¡¯t impossible due to her limited awareness of the present situation. She had the view of those against the current Remnants of Yin, but not the opposite.


    Who knew what kinds of things they had gone through, and why they did what they did?


    ¡®I know for certain that the Great Families have a certain method of persuasion that involves permanently scarring someone with the marks of their own ideas, but they have likely employed a different method here seeing as the vice-leader is fully capable of stating all kinds of negative things about them,¡¯ Wei Yi recalled the old man from the Silver Side of the Kong Prison Realm, and how he could barely handle any proper conversation about the Greats, especially after the otherworldly demon had encouraged and intensified his trauma, ¡®Depending on the truth, it wouldn¡¯t even do to kill any one of them, and I may even need to protect them, so long as they are useful¡­¡¯


    Thus, she was going to head off on another mission for the day, but Chao Ru approached her and invited her to come along with Zhi Qiu Ya for some training, then, more likely on their own, for a bit of personal fun. Apparently, the wolven woman had some interest within the training technique that Wei Yi had devised and wanted to join in and participate in what Chao Ru hoped to be a semi-regular training session.


    She suspected that Zhi Qiu Ya had at least one other reason for doing this, no matter how slight it might be within the wolven woman¡¯s head, but she didn¡¯t mind. From the beginning, the training wasn¡¯t meant to devolve into sex every single time, even if it did seem to have that tendency purely from their mutual interest in one another, so having someone else there would simply put it back on track.


    Even if the wolven woman developed a similar interest, she would likely not act upon it for quite some time, by which point this entire dynamic would change significantly, at least once.


    After all, Zhi Qiu Ya still had some issues with her animal state and many of the emotions and sensations associated with it, and since it had a tendency of getting intimate with people she was somewhat reluctant to do the same. Only once she did get over this would she be confident with any kind of emotional state or compunction shared by her wolven self, and then she could make a reasonable conclusion of her own regarding what and who she was and wasn¡¯t interested in, and Wei Yi had no need to rush such a thing.


    When she had some spare time to carefully look at both of them while they were practising her technique, she was tempted to nudge things along a little bit, ¡®Actually, the more I look at them, the more I am amazed at the variety of human appearances¡­ As human as all of the animalistic features are, of course. Frankly, I¡¯m sometimes quite happy that I am attracted to women. If I hadn¡¯t been, I¡¯d have missed out on viewing such sights, and I might have even been afraid that they¡¯d steal my man from me, or something of the sort¡­ Alright, maybe that¡¯s just in the less believable stories, but still, being able to appreciate this is truly nice.¡¯


    She smiled quietly as she observed their practise of her technique and occasionally corrected them when they made some small mistake, but one had plenty of practise while Zhi Qiu Ya appeared to have a very sharp mind when it came to the practise of techniques.


    ¡°Heavens, this is incredibly draining¡­ You made this?¡±


    ¡°You could say that. You¡¯re learning it quite well. Did you have any particular talents when it comes to understanding and cultivating techniques, or was this one special?¡±


    ¡°Special? No¡­ I don¡¯t think so, but it was incredibly clear and straightforward. It was much clearer than most of the basic techniques described at the village I grew up in, and it¡¯s like it was made specifically for my body¡­¡±


    ¡°It was, partly. I modified it for you.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ That¡¯s incredible. You know so much about me through spiritual perception alone? How¡­ how long have you been examining me for that?¡±


    ¡°A few se- minutes?¡± Wei Yi shrugged, changing her answer mid-way since she realised that either option would sound rather odd. One would suggest that she had been observing her for quite some time, while the other would mean that she had to pay incredibly close attention to her for a brief period of time, either one of which would not be appreciated unless the other person already wanted to receive said attention. Instead, she went for the most realistic answer.


    Fortunately, she appeared to be the only one in a condition to be thinking things through like that.


    Zhi Qiu Ya was already exhausted from just a few minutes of basic training, and much like everyone else in the Planar Continents, or perhaps the Western Continent specifically, she lacked much training when it comes to using the mind independently of the body.


    From what little she knew about the Eastern Continent, the practises of cultivation differed in quite a few ways over there, and beside the practise of transcending tribulations in order to ascend through realms, they were very fond of utilising their spiritual perception for all kinds of things, from spiritual musical instruments to some unique form of art that had never been properly transferred from one continent to another. There, they were somewhat more adept at keeping it around themselves at all times, like Wei Yi was.


    ¡°So, have you given any thought to what I said before? Have you had any luck with extending your human time further?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ Let¡¯s not talk about that,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya said, looking away with as much energy she could possibly spare for embarrassment, ¡°Do you two have any more special techniques that I¡¯ve never heard of, or was this the only one so far?¡±


    ¡°I actually know another technique, which I can teach the both of you if you want.¡±


    ¡°Oh, what is it?¡± Chao Ru asked, perking up with her slightly greater supply of energy earned only by her greater experience, ¡°Is it another training method?¡±


    ¡°Actually, it is a very simple type of attack that anyone can learn. In fact, I can confidently state that there is no simpler attack in the world that you could use without hurting yourself, and I do know of quite a few techniques,¡± Wei Yi smiled as she thought to her Absolute Force, which, while being a terrible technique, was pushed to the fifth realm through the Truth of the Universe and granted her quite a lot of understanding on how to improve it for actual use.


    ¡°I¡¯d like that!¡±


    ¡°I suppose I have some interest as well,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya added, relaxing a little, ¡°What technique is it?¡±


    ¡°It is called Absolute Force, and it is literally just that ¨C it is an attack that could be used with any direct set of meridians, meaning that you can attack with your arms or legs, and it relies purely on your energy.¡±


    ¡°Oh, is that so? Is that efficient?¡±


    ¡°Not as much as it could be, but it is an extremely plain and straightforward technique that can be used with no thought whatsoever. It helps in stressful situations, hopefully.¡±


    ¡°Could you show it off?¡± Chao Ru asked, although her eyes were already glistening.


    Wei Yi shrugged, but stood up anyway and rubbed her palms together, warming them up a little bit before turning towards the nearest wall. A moment later, however, she frowned and turned back, saying, ¡°Actually, I don¡¯t think that it would be a good idea to do this in here. You care about your house, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I do¡­ Yeah, actually, I do think that destroying the house wouldn¡¯t be a good idea,¡± she nodded, ¡°Not sure we¡¯re fit to go anywhere for now, though¡­ Massage?¡±


    ¡°Massage?¡± Zhi Qiu Ya raised her eyebrow, ¡°You know how to do that as well?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, so¡­ alright, I can do ones for both of you. Let me carry over¡­¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, a mission¡­¡±


    ¡°I need to do a few mental tests first, if you don¡¯t mind,¡± Wei Yi said, preparing to ignore her and go through eight of them again while the vice-leader thought that she was heading away, ¡°It¡¯s very important.¡±


    ¡°Oh, if that is what you¡¯re going to do, then I agree. The person that you will need to face has a lot of abilities that influence your mind, so being ready for it is incredibly important,¡± Luo Lia Kun nodded, ¡°In fact, go there this very moment, and I shall watch over you to confirm whether you¡¯re overexerting yourself or not. The moment that you use too many, I¡¯ll bring you out and instruct you on what your mission will be for today.¡±


    ¡°Strong in mental techniques? Alright, I¡¯ll keep that in mind¡­¡±


    She headed off towards the mental test slip room, and the vice-leader followed her, not revealing a single thing to her despite walking so close to one another for several minutes. Once within that room, she allowed her to go towards her next set of mental test slips, of which she had already completed four on the way there just to make sure that nobody would be able to interrupt her.


    In the morning, the room was mostly empty, as everyone who had been there last time and who would be invited today decided that it would be wisest to challenge the mind nearer to the end of the day, at which point any kind of mental exhaustion would only help with sleep and not hinder any of the day¡¯s activities, no matter what kinds they intended to participate in. One or two did come at that moment, but one came to examine the slips in closer detail while the other was there as he intended to sleep soon in order to be prepared for a task that he needed to do in the night.


    Naturally, they ignored one another, since even a single distraction could worsen their ability to process the mental trial and would then lead to a great degree of mental exhaustion and potential damage, as their concentration needed to be absolutely focused on processing the absence of knowledge.


    ¡®Not the case for me, of course, but I¡¯m hardly amongst a crowd of people, whether that would be of those that had experienced a jade slip personally or those that could handle one without any issues.¡¯


    Beside it being highly difficult to create a jade slip, this difficulty of use was one reason for them not becoming quite as common as the Master of Yi City certainly hoped them to be, according to what Yi Shi Ming was able to remember of their original creation and shared with Wei Yi. If they were used to store only a small amount of information, they wouldn¡¯t be worth the costs of their creation and if they were filled with everything that they could store, then anyone who wanted to learn them would need to suffer for just as long as they would if they were to learn this information themselves.


    The only major advantage that they truly presented was the ability to skip the aspect of comprehension, and allow learning without requiring physical activity, but not everyone saw it as being worth the effort and costs.


    ¡®The temporary, limited use jade slips are doubtlessly cheaper, and these somewhat resemble the ones that I saw being used by Great Earth¡¯s halves, so¡­ it must be something about the method of information storage that causes them to disintegrate with time, while these are able to endure far longer since nothing comes or goes from within,¡¯ she analysed the jade slips while pretending to be incapacitated by one, ¡®How interesting. Some time ago I had seen these and marvelled at them¡­ How things have changed, or, rather, how I¡¯ve changed. Back then, things could be marvelled at, while now, I have to be cautious of them all.¡¯


    It wasn¡¯t a change in dynamic that she was happy with, of course, but it was the cost that she needed to pay to have even the slightest chance of success in the future.


    For the rest of the three training jade slips, she abandoned the philosophical pondering and just got them done as quickly as possible, quickly confirming after each one that the book was being updated just as she was intending it to. One of the jade slips did fail to provide the expected result, but that turned out to be due to someone picking one of them up and switching their place with another training slip, for some reason that she didn¡¯t have the ability to divine no matter how much she pondered it.


    Perhaps they were simply bored and wanted to mess around, or perhaps there was a better reason, but the ultimate outcome was the same, and one that she was able to deal with by simply reaching out towards a different training slip while standing by this one.


    Nobody around her other than a member of a Great Family would be able to sense her spiritual perception anyway, and even they might have used some other method to detect her presence other than her spiritual perception, which she had intentionally positioned away from them so that she wouldn¡¯t be unnecessarily caught.


    Once she pretended to be done with the last mental test, Luo Lia Kun immediately stepped in and dragged her away, holding her by the wrist all the way to her office, where she forced her to be seated.


    ¡°Alright, now we may begin. How are you feeling?¡± the vice-leader asked as she also sat down.


    ¡°Just fine, really. All I did was complete a few mental tests, which wasn¡¯t that hard,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°I still don¡¯t get why you keep stopping me from doing more. They just cause a slight buzz in the head, and nothing more¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s exactly why I don¡¯t let you continue,¡± she answered, ¡°You may be unaware of this, but when your mind start feeling pain, or any kind of unpleasant sensation, that is usually an indication of something. It could be exhaustion, damage to your very mind, or something else, but it is rarely a purely positive thing. Keep that in mind in the future, if you¡¯d prefer to keep your head.¡±


    ¡°Is it important?¡±


    The vice-leader raised an eyebrow, but could say nothing in direct response, ¡°¡­ So, time for me to explain the contents of your next task. Pay attention.¡±


    ¡°Will do. Is it as difficult as the last one?¡±


    ¡°Depends on your strengths, but seeing as you are able to endure four mental tests in a row without much suffering, it might be easier. The opponent that you will face might possess some physical capabilities, their exact amount and power being rather uncertain, but it is her ability to influence your mind that you must be most concerned about. She can influence your body, your mind, or both, in several ways, especially those that you in particular must be most concerned about.¡±


    ¡°Me?¡±


    ¡°Unlike your previous foe, this one is indeed an attractive woman,¡± Luo Lia Kun said with such seriousness that it took some effort not to laugh.


    ¡°Oh dear, that is quite an issue. If she has large boobs, I might even hesitate for a few moments before attacking, which could give her quite a lot of time to do something else to me, like convince me to side with her instead¡­¡±


    ¡°Indeed, and you must be careful about this. If you have the methods to do so, make sure to block your nose to prevent any gaseous substances from entering it, and possibly block your ears or hearing as well, since she may strive to confound you with sounds either enchanting or revolting,¡± the vice-leader stated, ¡°Blocking your vision might also be advisable, but then you would be at a severe disadvantage with only your spiritual perception. However, the more that you can do, the less she should be able to do to you.¡±


    ¡°Very well, I shall keep this in mind. What kinds of things should I be expecting?¡±


    She paused for a moment, as if debating whether to answer, or how to do so in the safest manner, before licking her lips and leaning in a little closer.


    ¡°Actually, you and she might already know one another. This person is someone that you¡¯ve spent some time with, and you know her by name, even if you may not appreciate every action that she had taken up to this point. If¡­ somehow, you still don¡¯t know who I am talking about, her name is Mo Zhouquan.¡±


    ¡°W-What? How did that happen?¡±


    ¡°You see, she had been studying various matters for quite some time, and, at some uncertain point in time, she came into contact with Them. Whatever they promised her, whatever she wanted, the case now is that she had turned to their side and has attempted to flee the Brotherhood of Power unseen. As you might have noticed, she has an incredible variety of knowledge, so you must capture her before she flees and finds refuge with Them,¡± Luo Lia Kun stated.


    ¡°Right¡­ The Greats are accepting someone that is blatantly insane, unstable and constantly speaking about the voices that she hears from some unknown source?¡±


    ¡°It seems so,¡± she affirmed, also expressing some confusion in her voice and expression, ¡°Whatever they want with her, if They get their hands on everything that she had researched, not only with They be aware of many of our identities, but they will also be able to use the many corruptive methods that she had put all of her effort into researching. It would be extremely dangerous to all of us.¡±


    Wei Yi frowned, ¡°Right¡­¡±


    On the third day, with the completion of the last few test talisman slips, she finally obtained the last passage within the journal that had prompted her to go through all of the slips to begin with. With them done, she found a quiet place for herself and entered the Realm of Potential, opening the book and looking onto the first passage with a great deal of care. She wanted to be certain that she understood all of the directions with great clarity, as it was feasible that even a single mistake would force her to somehow return to the start and repeat everything.


    The first direction bid her to ascend, and while that seemed to be a somewhat difficult thing to do and then remain at the same height, she did have two potential methods that she could utilise for this purpose.


    Besides the floating book, which should be able to support her position, she could make use of the very laws of this reality to prevent gravity from acting upon her, either by forcing it to occur as part of a manufactured conflict between herself and another duplicate or by somehow making it set her new position as the new ¡®home¡¯ point of the Realm of Potential¡­ if that was how it worked. She wasn¡¯t too certain how the rules of the realm functioned, given that she hadn¡¯t needed to explore such things yet.


    Before that, however, she needed to figure out where the north of this place was, which was naturally made incredibly difficult due to the absence of a sun, land, or anything else within this place.


    ¡®Might a compass work?¡¯ Wei Yi asked herself, creating one for herself and checking where it pointed, finding that rotated slowly and without ceasing even after a full rotation, ¡®Doesn¡¯t seem like it does¡­ Then again, no instructions regarding moving from this spot were provided, so perhaps I shouldn¡¯t be doing that just yet.¡¯


    She lowered herself to the ground, then leapt into the void above, trying to provide herself only with upwards momentum, and nothing to move her from this spot. The very moment that she reached her required height, she placed an Aerial Platform beneath herself, keeping herself still while trying out her ideas to keep herself from falling back down the very moment that the platform shattered, which it would do shortly no matter how much energy was provided to it.


    As it turned out, she didn¡¯t even need to. She attempted to place the journal beneath herself with her killing will, but it struck something as she was bringing it down, with this mysterious barrier expanding all the way out, as if the very ground had risen towards her.


    ¡®Alright¡­ That works too. Now, before I proceed, this says that I need to go around in a circle once or twice, which, unless it is absolutely necessary, isn¡¯t something that I will repeat. In order to verify whether or not it is, I¡¯ll need to leave something here and see whether it remains after I¡¯ve followed the instructions. If it is, then the directions might be unnecessary. Otherwise, everything must be followed precisely,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, conjuring an easily noticeable and recognisable pair of red panties and a bra from Fu Zan¡¯s catalogue, ¡®Something like this won¡¯t be lost or overlooked easily, after all.¡¯


    The second entry did have precise instructions for the length of travel, the size of the circle, and so on, so she was able to follow it with ease, and this precision even gave her the freedom to notice exactly when the red underwear was suddenly partially obscured by a wall as black as the rest of the void, one that couldn¡¯t be seen unless someone already knew what to look for.


    Taking a step back, she was able to regain sight of the entirety of the panties and bra, confirming the wall theory. She tried to reach out to it, but there was no physical trace of a wall, nor did her hand absolutely vanish at any point, suggesting that this wasn¡¯t as simple as just a casual obstacle.


    One thing that she could be certain of was that her idea of simply figuring out the final destination wouldn¡¯t work.

 V3C58: A Trial, The Lockbox

    In the interest of being careful, she took as much time as she needed to complete this journey, which turned out to be roughly half an hour within the prison realm, or one minute within the Planar Continents, meaning that she ultimately hadn¡¯t spent all that much time at all. At the end, there was still no trace of a solid wall, floor or roof anywhere, but she did locate a small box that hovered above the ground at the level of an average table.


    Made of metal and lacking any decorations, it didn¡¯t seem to be very interesting on the surface, but she was unable to see a trace of anything within, as her spiritual perception was blocked completely.


    Thus, she had no choice but to ponder the strange combination lock on top. There was a total of six spaces with five numbers each, which were separated by a decimal point located between the third and fourth digit. All of the rotating sections were set to zero, so she didn¡¯t have the chance to rely on someone else¡¯s efforts to decode it with ease.


    While this did only give her a single option when it came to which sets of numbers to pick out from the first page, which was the only one to list six series of numbers of a row, the more she looked at the first page, the less she was certain that they would be in the correct order.


    In any other circumstance, she could have easily tested all combinations until she got what she wanted, whatever that was, but the lockbox featured one final prominent element that made her rather reluctant to take this approach. On the top, above the six sets of five digits, were three rotating segments of a similar design, with all three painted green. She could not turn them herself, but she suspected that the moment that she attempted to open the box with the wrong order of numbers, one would turn, and she would have one less go.


    Although this might not be true, and the green indicators might have some other purpose, she did not intend to test it until she had some vague idea of what the order was supposed to be.


    With only three potential attempts, messing up even once would significantly decrease her chances of success, and depending on what was within the box, that might range from being an unfortunate outcome to being an absolutely devastating one. If the box hid a development for the entire Realm of Potential, some secret of cultivation, or perhaps a glimpse of some immense potential that could be fused with her, then she needed to obtain it, no matter what.


    Thus, for now, she didn¡¯t try to open it, but instead left the realm and went over the contents of the journal in her head, since she was already catching some attention at her present hiding spot despite the briefness of her stay there. She had the entire journal memorised anyway, so there was no good reason to remain within the Realm of Potential if she wasn¡¯t going to train or cultivate.


    She instead headed through the markets of the district, glancing through all kinds of manuals and books with her spiritual perception out of curiosity, interest and to gain some inspiration while she tried to put the entries of the journal into the correct order. Although only six entries held the same kinds of numbers that she would need to enter into the combination lock, in order to be certain of the correct order she would need to trace the journey described from beginning to end, as she would otherwise be no closer to the answer than when she started.


    When talismans and their respective manuals didn¡¯t prove to be very inspiring, she moved on to the far smaller street dedicated to trading materials regarding arrays. The Luo family wasn¡¯t fond of attending this part of the district, but they couldn¡¯t do much to prevent a few small stalls from opening, although they did take any opportunity possible to limit that number as much as possible, kicking out anyone who broke even the smallest of arbitrary, random rules that changed frequently.


    Indeed, arrays proved to be more engaging to her mind, likely due to her slightly greater talent with them, so she wandered around this street, not directly engaging a single soul but simply taking in the sights.


    In comparison to her Spiritual Flow arts, most of the things on display greatly lacked behind them in one way or another, just as she expected, but there were a few things that she was able to borrow from them that she hadn¡¯t known of from her previous reading. Most of these things were minor, but after the basics were established, it were the minor things that would make the difference in the higher realms of crafting and array arrangement. Only the likes of the Antithesis method were able to truly change the way in which a process was completed, and such methods were practically unique.


    For example, her method of drawing talismans with blood was extremely basic, her method of array creation were intricate but still lacking, her blacksmithing had only decently become decent in combination with the Shaper¡¯s Grasp, and her inscription method clearly needed a lot of practise given how little she had been able to use it as of late.


    ¡®Actually, that reminds me that I might be able to test this in the Realm of Potential. There is clearly more to it, so I should explore it far more than I already have. Yi Shi Ming had been exploring the possibility of accelerating the passage of time within the Kong Prison Realm further, even if only on a localised scale, so I should ask her about it the next time I intend to utilise the Realm of Potential for an extended period of time. The opening to that realm should be able to stabilise the space around itself sufficiently for a localised dilation of time to be completed successfully, so long as I understand the properties of space correctly.¡¯


    If there was one place where she could absolutely state that she stood out amongst all the rest was the raw knowledge that she had accumulated. The Gilded Library was likely considered to be a sufficiently powerful technique by Kong Shi Meng, and yet she had expanded it by several folds and even surrounded it by an enormous mental world that mirrored the prison realm created by the same man, and she would likely need to add new wings to the library if she wanted to be able to contain everything that she kept putting into it.


    However, if she was able to travel all of the twenty-four major districts and accumulate their knowledge, she would eventually obtain most of the present knowledge of the Planar Continents. If she managed to find out some of their secrets as well, while she was at it, she would obtain most of the hidden truths as well. With them, she could, in theory, match those with far superior techniques.


    That was not her intention, of course, but all advantages had to be taken and used, if possible.


    ¡®All of this is nice and everything, but I seem to have drifted from my initial line of though. Unfortunate, but I did not appear to be getting anywhere anyway. In order to understand the journal fully, I may need to participate in some of this ¡®aviation¡¯ mentioned within it,¡¯ she thought.


    As she was walking towards the next street filled with shops and stalls, she came across a curious sight that seemed to be straight from a generic tale popular amongst the young that sought stories of adventure, power and defiance, describing weaker men rising against the strong with miraculous talents, techniques and artefacts that were, in truth, entirely unseen within the Planar Continents, causing most to lose interest once they had to focus on life.


    Before her was a scene that had to appear at least once within such a story: two men stood opposite one another, one adorned in treasures and artefacts while the other was plain and used naught but a simple blade, with a large group surrounding the two of them but clearly supporting the first.


    Not a single one was in the second realm or above, and yet they were clearly about to participate in a vicious duel, perhaps not to the death but certainly until one or the other was heavily injured.


    This was, of course, a rather rare sight. Most had enough reason to limit themselves to light injury, much like when Wei Yi herself had been harassed in her youth. Few would ever go too far, and whenever they did, they did so out of folly and ignorance rather than an intentional attempt to injure the other.


    ¡®And yet, they want to go that far? I wonder why¡­¡¯


    While maintaining the limited stealth method that she had used while travelling around as to not attract unnecessary attention from those that weren¡¯t looking specifically for her, she got closer to this circle and paid attention. She didn¡¯t think this to be very likely, but there was a chance of anything prompting inspiration for any number of issues and quandaries. To ignore a curious event and to simply pass by when such inspiration was needed would be rather foolish.


    Before even a single one of them spoke, she was able to tell that the scene would differ greatly from the tales that she remembered, for none of her senses could perceive a single peculiarity about the plain man, nor in regards to his sword or clothing. Not even the Truth of the Universe shook in response to his presence, meaning that he shouldn¡¯t possess an otherworldly gift.


    Even Yi Shi Ming couldn¡¯t detect a single thing, so it probably meant that he would be suffering today.


    ¡°Ju Zhang, with that stance, you clearly show that you are weak, and that you know it well!¡± the first man, the one currently holding a treasured saber glistening with planar energy flowing within it, ¡°You couldn¡¯t even comprehend such a technique as the Bone Dragon¡¯s Reverie, and yet you think to challenge me without your family¡¯s precious toys? You need to be taught your place, and I will do so gladly! I have been fed with the finest medicinal herbs from birth, and my talent is superior to yours!¡±


    ¡®By the- uh, no, I should stop saying that. Still, what the fuck am I seeing, an actual recreation of one of those stories? Had he practised that¡­ yeah, he had. That satisfied smirk makes it obvious¡­¡¯


    Although that made quite clear, she couldn¡¯t really understand the situation as a whole.


    For example, she was aware of the Ju family, which was one that existed within an area with an incredibly low concentration of planar energy, leading them to focus on a field that the vast majority of the world neglected ¨C mechanisms and traps. They used weapons and equipment that barely relied on planar energy, if any was involved at all, and they were so secretive about it that they did not permit outsiders to enter their inner district, nor did they bring their weapons out of the district unless they were going to war.


    She had encountered the Bone Dragon¡¯s Reverie technique at some point in time and knew that it was a complex technique that wasn¡¯t really worth practising no matter what situation someone was in, nor who they were or what talents they had.


    ¡°Luo Rong, you are going too far!¡± Ju Zhang exclaimed, but he was able to provide no suitable rebuttal.


    ¡°Too far? For you, someone without talent or skill, to try and go against me is going too far! My family rules this district! You, Ju Zhang, were asking for everything!¡±


    ¡®Maybe I should just go. This is either the rehearsal for a play, or the minds of current¡­ future generation? Current generation, I suppose¡­ Ahem, or the minds of the current generation have fallen far behind the minds of the previous ones, exactly as the Greats intended. Still, that Ju Zhang has been able to annoy that Luo Rong enough without the use of excessively fancy techniques, so he must be someone capable enough. I don¡¯t need to be here¡­¡¯


    ¡°As for the Bone Dragon¡¯s Reverie, I was able to learn it within a week, reaching the Initial Accomplishment stage within that time, while you used that week to study nothing but the beginner¡¯s blade arts! Clearly, you are a fool!¡± Luo Rong continued, causing Wei Yi to roll her eyes.


    There was so much wrong with his statement that she was tempted to run in and provide him with a quick lecture on why picking something based purely on the name was never a good idea, why the basics mattered, why wasting his time attacking someone else at this early point of their lives wouldn¡¯t do them any good¡­


    ¡°It is obvious why she left you, Ju Zhang. You are unsuitable for cultivation! Scatter your cultivation before me or die!¡±


    ¡°I would never throw away my life¡¯s work, no matter what my family, you, or Shi Xiuying say!¡±


    ¡®That Shi Xiuying must be some attractive woman that the two of them are interested in. If this is going exactly as one of those stories, then she was likely a childhood friend of Ju Zhang, and she broke up with him in favour of Luo Rong¡­ for whatever reason. Could¡¯ve just found someone like Chao Ru¡­ oh, right, that¡¯s only me that thinks like that¡­¡¯ Wei Yi tried to calm herself with something, before the two had the opportunity to do something even more silly.


    However, she couldn¡¯t possibly miss the shift in Luo Rong¡¯s stance, and the way in which energy flowed throughout his arms and weapon that blatantly followed the circulation of the Bone Dragon¡¯s Reverie, creating the vague primordial aura of the technique around himself.


    With a proud yet angry expression, he stepped forward and pointed the tip of his weapon at his opponent.


    ¡°Behold the art that you have failed to practise with your lacking talent! The Bone Dragon¡¯s Reverie is a top quality technique that utilises the power of the seven principles, nine cores, eleven circles and fifty-eight revolutions to bring out the power of a bone dragon into reality, to manifest their power and to strike at the weaklings that stand against the geniuses that are able to practise it!¡±


    ¡®No, that¡¯s not-¡¯


    ¡°With three primary moves, I shall destroy you and your cultivation! Watch as I use the first move ¨C Snapping the Skull! It combines the seven principles and the eleven circles into one mighty move that can break any bone and destroy any man! Take my move!¡±


    He attacked swiftly, as swiftly as anyone could after having displayed their attack for several minutes before actually using it. This did allow Ju Zhang to block the first strike, then the second and third, all of which were aimed towards the same place. While each movement was extremely fanciful and adorned with a dense aura of power, as dense as anything that could be produced while still in the first realm and in the fifth stage, the attacks themselves were the epitome of predictable, partly due to the design of the technique, but mostly as a result of Luo Rong¡¯s incompetence.


    That someone without exceptional talents in the third stage was able to handle it with ease made the opponent¡¯s incapability rather obvious.


    And yet, the warriors that surrounded them were blatantly on Luo Rong¡¯s side, and seemed to have received whatever script that he was reading from, as they quickly began to cheer and chatter about matters in his favour.


    ¡°Look at Young Master Rong¡¯s immense talents! That set of moves has already reached the Initial Accomplishment stage after only a week, and now his every attack can quake the heavens and the earth!¡± one man exclaimed without a single trace of shame, as if he wasn¡¯t saying something blatantly false and absolutely nonsensical, ¡°I aspire to reach his level by the end of my life!¡±


    ¡®You¡¯re in the ninth stage already, you imbecile!¡¯


    Obviously not hearing her mental cries, another warrior eagerly nodded along, ¡°Indeed, his movements are so intricate and powerful that he will doubtlessly become the strongest in the future!¡±


    Wei Yi was incapable of offering up a comment at that time, as she struggled not to act at that very moment. With so much knowledge and experience under her non-existent belt, she had developed somewhat of a fondness for accuracy and legitimacy, neither of which was present here. Furthermore, she was currently seeing a familiar situation that had previously provoked quite some emotions in her, even if this one was exaggerated to a ridiculous degree, and while she had gotten better at controlling her emotions after twenty years of sitting about in the prison realm amongst some other things, there were still matters that were able to provoke them quite easily.


    For instance, someone that was akin to Kong Dong Ming in his ridiculous ways, not only proclaiming the technique he¡¯d use ahead of time, as the shadow did, but also explaining it fully before attacking with it.


    ¡°So, you have managed to withstand my first attacks? Do you think that this is something to be proud of, talentless fool?¡± Luo Rong asked, withdrawing and changing his posture, holding his blade straight up, ¡°Let me display the second move of the Bone Dragon¡¯s Reverie to you, so that you can truly understand the enormity of your mistake in choosing such a basic, primitive technique-¡±


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s ENOUGH!¡± Wei Yi suddenly appeared between them, shocking them, the warriors, and those few that thought to observe this situation in addition to her, ¡°First of all, what the fuck are you two even fighting over? Huh? You go on and on about how impressive you are, even your subordinates do, and yet you are frustrated that someone else decided to pick something easier than your shitty technique? Are you drunk?¡±


    ¡°Y-You are¡­?¡±


    There were a few things that one might inquire about with such a question, but his earlier monologues made it obvious what he wanted to know, so she told him straightforwardly, ¡°Third realm.¡±


    ¡°O-Oh¡­ I¡­ Sister, I was just-¡±


    ¡°Who the fuck are you calling your sister? I¡¯d be so embarrassed if I had any relation to you!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, causing his face to go red while the warriors around him went quiet, ¡°Explain yourself before I disperse your cultivation instead!¡±


    ¡°H-He is just a weakling¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright, since you are too stupid to understand your own actions, let me explain it for you. You are a young, arrogant moron, and your lacking abilities have been a bit of a problem for you. Because you cannot accept your own uselessness, so you even brag about shit like consuming medicinal herbs¡­ By the way, doing something like that is absolutely moronic! To derive the entirety of your cultivation and power from plants is like intentionally filling a bucket with dirt before going to draw water. You are ruining your own chances!¡±


    The young man couldn¡¯t figure out a single thing to say, and he didn¡¯t dare contradict a single thing said by the powerful existence before him, both due to none of this being wrong, but also because he was afraid that a single careless movement from her could obliterate him. Unlike many cultivators that he knew of, Wei Yi looked strong both physically and in terms of planar energy, although he was unable to sense it precisely due to the lack of externalised spiritual perception.


    Furthermore, her style and appearance did not make her resemble the calm and collected kind of cultivator, but rather the wild and easily angered ¨C as seemed to be confirmed to him by her outburst.


    ¡°Also, I heard you mention talent? What fucking talent are you talking about? Just because you can understand an unnecessarily complex technique doesn¡¯t mean that you¡¯ve got any kind of superior talent, and if you¡¯ve only reached the fifth stage after years of planar herb consumption, you are a total fucking waste!¡±


    ¡°B-But¡­¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re going to be attacking, you do it immediately! What the fuck is with your bullshit explanations? Do you want him to block all of your attacks with ease? Have you received many injuries on your head? What has he even done to you?¡±


    ¡°S-Senior, if I may¡­¡± Ju Zhang mumbled behind her, ¡°He challenged me over a pill¡­ and I happened to win¡­¡±


    She raised an eyebrow and looked between the two of them, ¡°¡­ Really? That?¡±


    It occurred to her that she had encountered a very similar situation, and while she did need to fight a pair of people after winning such a duel, a smarter person showed up by the third time, preventing the fights from escalating further. That this didn¡¯t occur here showed that the overdressed man had not only not gotten helpers to fight his battles for him yet, but that nobody else seemed to care.


    ¡°So, you lost because you were a useless idiot and instead of going off to learn, you keep repeating the same thing over and over again? What the fuck is wrong with your head? Stop and fuck off!¡±


    With a single wave of her hand, she released a burst of force that threw all of the warriors, as well as the overdressed man, away, while leaving Ju Zhang untouched with a little bit of careful energy manipulation.


    This action didn¡¯t damage anything, nor any of them, allowing them all to run off as quickly as they were able to, with two of the warriors practically carrying Luo Rong away as he did not possess a movement technique that would allow him to keep up with stronger, fitter and more agile individuals than himself. All of the bystanders also distanced themselves, for there was little more to see, and few wanted to earn the ire of this mad woman.


    All of this left her pondering her own actions.


    ¡®I¡­ just broke character quite immensely, haven¡¯t I? Wei Yi the Warrior wouldn¡¯t go into a rage just because two kids are fighting one another¡­ As I thought, acting is something that I can do, but it is not for me,¡¯ she concluded quickly, taking a deep breath to regain her proper countenance, ¡®Still, it seems that one can go for days away from their home and still encounter the exact same scenarios there¡­¡¯


    She revoked her energy into her body and prepared to leave, but the young man behind her remained focused upon her, and immediately acted when she moved.


    Without any hesitation, he leapt onto the ground and kowtowed before her, ignoring the fact that the road was more dirt than stone in this part of the district. ¡°Please, senior, take me in as your student! I wish to cultivate, and I will do anything to do so!¡±


    ¡®I don¡¯t want to take in any students, but if I just say that, he may not be discouraged as much as¡­¡¯ she turned her head toward him and said, ¡°Not interested. Turn yourself into a woman first.¡±


    She obviously had no intentions of only ever having women on her side, as that would eliminate at least half of the world¡¯s human population from cooperating with her, working under her or above her, which would just be unnecessarily restrictive for them and for herself, since talent came from all sorts of places. It also shouldn¡¯t need to be said that she wasn¡¯t looking to get some kind of harem of students, or that she would only teach those that were attractive to her.


    The reason that she went for this particular condition was that it was one of the most difficult ones to achieve for someone in the first realm, and without any backing or funding. At the later realms, it wasn¡¯t impossible to change one¡¯s body to such an extent, and at the lower realms, certain methods did exist, but it was something that would seem close and yet endlessly distant for someone like Ju Zhang.


    Hopefully, while he sought that way, he would get stronger, earn the cultivation realm that he wants, forget about her and make use of his strength for whatever it was that he needed it for. In that way, he would still benefit, due to being provided a reason to persevere and push himself to his limits, and could go on to do some good without needing to be involved with all of the madness and insanity that Wei Yi frequently engaged in. Furthermore, the fact that she had sided with him in this confrontation should dissuade Luo Rong from attacking him for some time, giving him enough space to grow or escape, depending on what he wanted to do.


    ¡°¡­ I understand! I will achieve this!¡± he loudly stated, remaining on the ground while she walked away.


    She pretended not to hear him and continued to distance herself from him, hoping to make a bad impression by ignoring his attempts so that he would focus more of his efforts onto advancing on his own rather than seeking an unlikely method, but she couldn¡¯t be certain that would occur.


    Some people had very interesting thoughts and ideas, which was perhaps the kindest way to put it, and if he did go all out, he might even discover some method that she hadn¡¯t thought of up to this point. While the chances of this were low, she did ponder for a moment whether she should carefully examine the area to remove all possibilities of such a thing occurring, but ultimately decided that it wasn¡¯t worth the effort.


    There were quite a few things that she needed to do other than making sure that one young man was not wasting his time and energy.


    ¡®I need to open up the lockbox, and deal with the Remnants of Yin¡­ I¡¯ll certainly need to personally reconstruct the flight described within the journal, and as for the latter, there seem to be more and more people appearing within the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Power. Some are bound to be related to the Remnants, so there should be a major meeting soon,¡¯ she concluded as she finally moved on from that market street to another, ¡®That means that I should focus on the former, and stop getting into random situations that seem to be torn straight out of the dullest tales I¡¯ve ever laid my eyes on. Hm¡­¡¯

 V3C59: A Glimpse

    On the eighth of the fourth month, four days after the lockbox had been found, she finally thought that she had the right answer.


    It wasn¡¯t that the journal entries were that difficult to put together, but because she needed to be absolutely certain of the correct order of directions, which didn¡¯t include the beginning or the end of the journey, nor the destination and the start. That meant that she wasn¡¯t able to simply ensure that the journey brought her from one place to another correctly, and instead had to figure out what the journal wanted from her with very little to go off of.


    Eventually, she did arrive at a satisfactory arrangement of journal entries, or, more precisely, three of them. One of them had to work, and if she had only three attempts, then she would be guaranteed to open it successfully.


    She had accomplished that the day before, and the only reason she had taken a little longer was due to wanting to try and get it right on the first try. Whatever the contents of the lockbox were, there was a small chance of the first guess being successful providing a greater reward than using the other two attempts would, so she would naturally do her best to guarantee obtaining that reward if possible.


    In truth, the more time that she had spent within the Realm of Potential, the more that she felt that she was remembering something, or that she was approaching that memory, but it had still not come, and it seemed as if it would forever remain out of her reach. If this lockbox had something that could either recreate whatever had happened in the encounter, or otherwise showcase something notable once more, she could potentially benefit greatly, especially if she was able to interpret some of those images to obtain techniques far before she could genuinely gain them.


    That could theoretically permit her to create a technique out of nothing, since that future or potential self could have also obtained that same technique from the same source, meaning that it would have no origin nor any true conclusion.


    Whether or not this made any sense at all wasn¡¯t something that she intended to argue, because she neither cared nor had any interest in the matter. If she could obtain a benefit from it without shattering the fabric of reality, then she would naturally take it, but if she was unable to do so, then she wouldn¡¯t. There was no point dreaming about things that were impossible in literally every way, unless she just happened to obtain whatever it was without needing to go out of her way.


    There were plenty of things that could be obtained more easily than a technique made in the future, or one that couldn¡¯t have ever been made, and they would be far more beneficial together.


    ¡®And yet, I still do not understand what any of these numbers mean. 114.50, 116.40, 114.35¡­ Fu Zan and Miyu have no idea what they mean, so they are clearly not something universal within their versions of reality ¨C if that is indeed what is happening¡­ It must mean something relating to planes and the like, so perhaps it is something used by pilots, as they¡¯re apparently called¡­¡¯


    Whatever the answer was, it didn¡¯t matter so long as she had guessed accurately.


    One by one, she entered these numbers into the lockbox. 114.50, 116.40, 114.35, 116.25, 114.75, then 115.10, which meant as much to her as the concept of bloodline resonance likely meant to otherworldly demons.


    Once she made sure that these were accurate to the journal, to her own recollection and that the order was correct, she lowered her hand to the button near the bottom of the lid, close to the gap between it and the main body of the lockbox, and delicately pressed down upon it with a single slender finger.


    She heard a click, and then the lid opened.


    ¡®Shit, it worked! I still have no idea what any of this is, but at the very least I have now obtained¡­ something. Let¡¯s see,¡¯ Wei Yi took hold of it with both hands, then opened it up.


    Immediately, she felt as if her very being quaked as a single sight appeared within her mind. A single frozen scene, without a trace of action nor movement, but it alone seemed capable of shattering the very world, of shaking her mind, of crushing the laws of reality and remaking them to its whims, as if what she beheld was no simple image but a deity of immense power. A divine being that surpassed the so-called primordial gods and stood beyond the realm of mortals.


    All it showed was a single figure surrounded by bright light, so bright that her features were indistinguishable, although her feminine build was still observable, as well as the long hair and the bright glow of her eyes that stood out amidst the rest of the ambient light.


    Countless chains were coiled around her, behind her, and before her, as was a strict and unshakable aura of authority and absolute law. Somewhere far behind her, a set of scales hovered in the air, although they were so faint that they could barely be seen. Before her, the vague outline of a gavel also floated somewhere near her hand.


    As a whole, this image was discordant and chaotic, with so many elements that didn¡¯t seem to quite belong beside one another. Most of these weren¡¯t something that she could explain, especially not as the image instantly disappeared after only an instant of existence, and even her memory of it could barely endure as the mere concept of the image still possessed that same unimaginable might, causing it to be a million times heavier than anything that she had stored within the Ascendant¡¯s Library before it, causing the entire mental structure to tremble madly.


    Whatever it was trying to depict, she did recognise it from somewhere, but she had no time to contemplate this. Instead, her focus had to be on any concepts that she could learn from this image before it forced itself out of her mind, leaving her with naught but a vague and ineffective recollection.


    She observed it with the most attention that she had to invest into anything since the day that she was born, and yet, no matter how much she tried to understand, everything seemed far too complex for her to ever comprehend even a fragment of it. Every object was ordinary, save for the overwhelming aura and the light, and yet they contained countless concepts that bordered on the Great Dao itself, if not surpassing it through mere existence.


    If her understanding of the world was like a pond, then this image promised and required a boundless ocean-like realm that had no bounds nor borders, without a single interruption or impurity, just in order to permit even the faintest of understandings to be glimpsed from it. For a such a thing to even be possible was terrifying, for it certainly couldn¡¯t have belonged to the limited field of planar energy cultivation. No, if there was one thing that she could understand from the momentary existence, it was that it contained no traces of planar energy as she was able to understand it, if at all, and yet it stood so far above everything else.


    There was a moment when she was stunned by it, and then it disappeared, leaving the aforementioned attempt to recapture its true complexity within her library.


    At some point, she had even fallen to the ground, her eyes and mouth had dried, her head trembled, and her hands and limbs were incapable of being still. Her breath was unstable, and much of the inside of her body seemed as if it had suffered a major burn just moments earlier, when her consciousness was most unstable.


    ¡®What the¡­ That¡­¡¯ she couldn¡¯t even form a proper word for some time.


    When she finally managed to rise and recognise her own surroundings, she found that only a few minutes had passed, but it felt as if a decade had gone by.


    She readily ignored the dirt on her robe and knees, as well as on her hands, which she had apparently used in order to support herself from falling entirely at some uncertain point in time, and instead looked back into herself to see whether anything at all had been obtained from that impossible sight. To have received such an enormous mental and physical shock and yet receive nothing would have been rather terrible, but, fortunately, she recognised her gains immediately.


    The planar anchor that floated within her dantian and was reflected within the prison realm was currently glowing with an immense light, washing over the entirety of the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s surface, temporarily bringing all of it into daytime with a fascinating glow that was neither white nor purple nor even cosmic in colour, with all of them present and yet absent as the pillar illuminated this spatial realm. With every breath, the glowing anchor pulsed with immense power, surpassing even the power of the spatial spirit in the eyes of all that beheld it.


    It seemed as if it filled the realm with energy, although all that it did was disperse the planar energy that would typically float beside the planar anchor.


    Her realm appeared to have advanced to the very edge of the fifth stage, sitting seemingly just a single drop away from the next stage, although it only took her a moment of consideration to understand that this was not the case. Instead, it was in the space between the two stages, simply sitting by and building up energy in preparation for that gap to eventually be crossed.


    ¡®This seems to be the approach to the Endless Monolith, I suppose. It seems like this will take some time until completion¡­ about a day or two¡­ not ideal, but at the very least this is finally complete, and I can move my attention onto anything else,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, taking one last look at the glowing anchor within her dantian and prison realm at once, ¡®I still have that scene in my mind, but a mere image is far inferior to the full thing. So far as I can tell, I don¡¯t seem to have acquired anything beside the energy for the anchor to begin transforming, which is a terrible shame. Judging by the power of the image when I first saw it, the Realm of Potential shouldn¡¯t be able to produce anything like it for a long time.¡¯


    In fact, she didn¡¯t even know whether it was possible, since the azure light of the other world appeared to have an infinite quantity of energy that couldn¡¯t be matched by cultivators, nor by the spatial realm within her possession. The image must have been created back when that light was still present, and yet it was still only able to produce a single still moment.


    She released a small quantity of planar energy from her hand while she pondered the extremely vague ideas she had obtained from the image, but it suddenly scattered as she felt an enormous bout of pain flood her arm, everywhere where that wisp of energy had passed through.


    She gritted her teeth and endured the sensation, before carefully examining the inside of her arm.


    ¡®Fuck, everything in here burned!¡¯ her eyes widened as she witnessed the inside of her left arm, which was closer to charcoal than to living flesh. Everything that her planar energy had touched was utterly annihilated, although the rest of the energy that remained was quickly forcing her body to repair itself as quickly as it could. ¡®I suppose that I was wrong. I did indeed receive something from the Realm of Potential and the strange image, but it has led to greater difficulties in controlling my energy¡­¡¯


    On closer inspection, she noticed that this wasn¡¯t just some kind of fire-type energy, but rather all of the elements, as well as raw planar energy, that appeared to have affected her. There were traces of regular burns, planar burns, which were less pleasant than regular burns by a significant extent, frost and freezing, some parts that turned to stone, others that were cut by a thousand incredibly small blades, and more that were affected by a strange natural force that was clearly the consequence of wood energy.


    Despite all of this, everything affected by this overly aggressive force was in a better state than the rest of her body by far in terms of purity and the like.


    It was as if a thousand rounds of planar energy refinement had occurred and failed to fully recover before the energy had been expelled from her body due to her unnecessarily hasty actions. From this fact, her situation became a little clearer, since it became rather obvious that she had indeed gained some kind of enlightenment from the Realm of Potential, even if she didn¡¯t understand it.


    Fortunately, it was something that was now within her possession, so she would be able to control it soon and eventually understand it completely, but before then, she intended to make full use of the power that she currently had within herself, just in case her subconscious mind understood the way to dampen the effect of her energy before she did and prevented her from using the full extent of its current state.


    For this reason, she found a place in the prison realm that was far away from any living being, set up a few arrays to protect herself from others, to assist in the recovery of her flesh, and to prevent anyone or anything from being damaged by her, then slowly began the circulation of her energy. It instantly burned, painfully and unpleasantly, but she kept her concentration and persisted.


    The first time that she had made use of this method to empower herself, it was not a pleasant sensation by any degree, and after it, she had experienced countless injures and painful feelings on purpose and otherwise, all as she strove to grow and rise. For this reason, she had the absolute confidence to state that this particular feeling, this particular sensation of her body being absolutely destroyed and remade in a manner that refined it, was easily the most painful thing that could be felt on the Planar Continents without expressly attempting to cause pain.


    Every part of her was obliterated and reborn within an instant, and constantly. Seconds passed, then minutes and then even an entire hour.


    At first, it had been nice to see the surprised reaction from others upon the improvement of her appearance, or her techniques or some other matter, but after it had happened so many times, she was becoming rather tired of it.


    With such a start to the day, perhaps it wasn¡¯t necessary to say that she had once again experienced a certain degree of improvement, this time in all fields of cultivation. Her planar cultivation had already partially risen thanks to the shocking image, but during the period of refinement her bloodline power had risen to the third stage, thankfully without unnecessary incident, her physique energy had also gone up by a stage, reaching the sixth stage, while her killing will ¨C or, more precisely, spiritual will and killing intent ¨C rose to the second stage.


    Her overall ability increased by another ten percent thanks to the one stage of bloodline power progress, which, in combination with the empowered developing anchor and the growth of the other cultivation paths meant that if she would ever go against the Remnants of Yin and any Greats that hid behind them, she would need to do so soon if that action was to mean anything.


    Besides the more useful kinds of developments, her appearance had somehow changed once more. She barely knew enough words to describe herself differently each time, so all that she could definitively say about herself at this point was that she was ascending even further into the realm of a transcendent beauty unparalleled in all the world, even if things like taste and preference would likely cause some to prefer others over her due to preference alone.


    If one was to observe her from a purely objective view point, however, it would be difficult to argue that she had very few flaws remaining, to the point that she would be very impressed if anything about her body changed as part of some visual change. Every one of her features was at the peak of what they could be, her skin was perfectly soft and resilient, and¡­ well, not every part of her body necessitated a full description. All that needed to be said was that nobody could genuinely find her lacking, no matter how they looked at her.


    ¡®In theory, this means that any future changes would need to be improvements beyond the essence of humanity ¨C ascendant changes, I guess,¡¯ she momentarily glanced down at her hands while walking past an unfortunately large number of observers in the Luo District, ¡®While that¡¯s great, it has effectively thrown off any plans to change the way they look at me. I think most would rather enjoy any kind of pain I could cause than ignore my beauty¡­ Shame¡­¡¯


    Even if it was somehow possible to prevent half of the world from seeing her in that way, having every woman in the world stare at her in either lust or jealousy would still not be pleasant.


    ¡®At this point, it might be that I would need to lose an arm or something for them to notice it¡­¡¯


    Naturally, losing an arm would not be a productive nor efficient way of achieving her goals, so she wouldn¡¯t go that far no matter what. A single missing finger could affect one¡¯s ability to properly execute certain techniques, so getting rid of a whole limb would be absolutely catastrophic to her or anyone else in the world.


    It would always be easier to disguise herself in a more overt way to force attention to that rather than her physical features, which she could so as soon as she departed the district. That would come the moment that the Remnants of Yin met in large enough number for there to be enough of them to very any of her hypotheses. While that was almost certainly a rare occasion, seeing as they were meant to be a secret group supposedly unknown to the Greats, she had already noticed the signs of their gathering, and the fact that she was called for by Luo Lia Kun meant that it would occur soon.


    ¡°So, are you going to stop staring, or¡­¡±


    ¡°Sorry, Wei Yi. Don¡¯t know what came over me,¡± Chao Ru apologised, as she had entered to relay the vice-leader¡¯s message but was instantly distracted by Wei Yi¡¯s face, ¡°She said she wanted to tell you something.¡±


    ¡°Oh, okay. Have you tried out the technique I taught you?¡±


    ¡°I have, but¡­ I don¡¯t see why it would ever be of any use. It is far less effective than anything I am able to do already¡­¡±


    ¡°Everything has a purpose, and you should make sure to remember that. Sometimes, you need the most complex method in existence, but at others, such a thing would be entirely to your detriment. I¡¯d liken your affinity in planar energy to this, since you have pursued a somewhat different path due to it, which may eventually benefit you far more than planar energy could.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ you really think so?¡± Chao Ru clearly had some doubts, as would anyone in her position.


    One¡¯s body could bring one quite a long distance, but in the eyes of those within the Planar Continents, it could never match the power of planar energy, which seemed omnipotent so long as it was brought to its absolute peak. This wasn¡¯t strictly wrong, but to those ignorant of the existence of physique energy and other derivatives of planar energy, mistakes were often made in the judgement of the quality and effectiveness of certain paths.


    She could hardly tell Chao Ru to discard her cultivation and attempt to condense physique energy, but perhaps the woman could figure it out on her own if she gave it enough thought.


    ¡°Yeah. I do,¡± Wei Yi said, then smiled, ¡°I could show you some nice uses of that body today¡­¡±


    ¡°Uhm¡­ You should first talk to the vice-leader first, I¡¯ll¡­ I¡¯ll get cleaned up and do some training first¡­ not in that order¡­¡±


    ¡°You know, I¡¯m amazed just how shy you can be after everything. I thought you were experienced.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ It had never been quite the same¡­ You¡¯re very¡­ eh¡­ adventurous, and¡­ skilled¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see¡­¡± her smile grew even larger, ¡°In honour of that admission, I¡¯ll try something even more adventurous and skilful, so be sure to be very clean and very prepared¡­ and do consider the best order of bathing and exercise. I¡¯m sure that there are some very good reasons to go for either combination, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Chao Ru nodded shyly and rushed off, clearly putting exactly as much thought into the matter as she had been asked to, leaving Wei Yi to visit the vice-leader on her own.


    As usual, Luo Lia Kun was within her office, dealing with various matters that didn¡¯t concern the Remnants of Yin directly, although some of the documents and tasks that she was going through almost certainly did relate to it in a covert manner, perhaps making use of codes and general omissions of information that anyone beside her wouldn¡¯t need to know of in order to handle whatever the documents described.


    The moment that she entered, the vice-leader immediately put the papers down and rose.


    ¡°Finally. I¡¯d called for you earlier, but you sure took your time¡­ Listen, I need to be out of here right now, so would you like to go out and drink something?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Sure?¡±


    ¡°Good, come with me,¡± Luo Lia Kun instructed immediately, going around her desk and leaving the room swiftly. With such rare insistence, as if she had been annoyed for a very long time by someone and had to get away from them as swiftly as possible, Wei Yi didn¡¯t really have much of a choice if she didn¡¯t want to cause a disturbance.


    The vice-leader brought the two of them out of the Brotherhood of Power headquarters and towards the market streets of the Luo District. There, she immediately headed towards a particular part of the area, clearly showcasing her familiarity with the area as she lead Wei Yi towards a stall being visited by only a few individuals, although all of them were most certainly satisfied with their decision to purchase the product on offer.


    With a simple gesture from Luo Lia Kun, some of those people parted and allowed them to sit down beside one another, while also serving to confirm to Wei Yi that this was indeed where they were headed.


    ¡°Have you ever tried a food called chocolate, Wei Yi?¡± asked the vice-leader, continuing when she saw her shake her head, ¡°It¡¯s made from some kind of bean, and is an ordinary food without a hint of planar energy, but if mixed in a particular way with milk and some other ingredients, it can become a rather pleasant thing to consume in liquid or solid form. Here, they sell something they call hot chocolate.¡±


    As if to take over the advertisement pitch, the owner of the stall came to the front and said, ¡°It¡¯s mostly a melted bar of chocolate, but in a specific mixture, it can be dense and filled with flavour!¡±


    ¡°He tells that to everyone, all the time. I just thought to speed the explanation along,¡± Luo Lia Kun admitted, passing over two coins, ¡°Two cups for us.¡±


    The stall owner nodded and ran off to the area where he prepared this mixture.


    ¡®Oh, wonderful. More things that I cannot taste¡­ Maybe the texture of the drink won¡¯t be too bad,¡¯ Wei Yi hoped, looking at the preparation process with some idle curiosity, mostly due to the vice-leader beside her deciding to say nothing after they sat down.


    Some time passed until the product was ready, at which point the owner turned back around and brought over two cups filled with a brown steaming liquid, which he delicately placed before them.


    ¡°So¡­ are we-¡±


    ¡°Just drink the hot chocolate and stop talking. I got away from that for a reason, and we¡¯re in a public space nonetheless. If you don¡¯t like it, I can finish the drink for you, but I have to drink at least one cup before we go.¡±


    Seeing as the vice-leader was being extremely insistent, and seemingly forgetting about her inability to taste a single thing, she lifted a cup and tried the drink.


    ¡®Hm¡­ sweet¡­¡¯ her eyes immediately widened, and she threw the cup at the stall owner while shouting, ¡°Poison!¡±


    Although Luo Lia Kun obviously couldn¡¯t have known what provoked such a reaction, if there was one thing that she could understand and recall at that moment it would be that Wei Yi the Warrior did not perform common tricks or attempt to fool others. Whatever she had noticed was genuine, and even if she, an expert in the fifth realm, hurt someone for no good reason, it would be forgiven quickly.


    Thus, she thrust out her hand and readily used one of the glowing marks within her body, causing a binding stream of energy to encase the shop owner, who was distracted for a brief moment by a cup full of hot liquid striking his forehead at an immense speed.


    Like that, he was easily subdued and thrown against the stall with the side of his face lying on the wooden surface, being held down by the vice-leader.


    Wei Yi wiped away the stain on chocolate on her lips and quietly burned it away with physique energy, while doing the same with any traces of the substance on the inside of her body. She had noticed, after some experimentation with poisonous substances back in the prison realm, that the intensity of a poison¡¯s taste and its strength tended to correlate. Since she was able to perceive the poison with such ease, it was clearly something to watch out for, and even though her body could handle most things of that nature on its own, it was always better to be absolutely sure in such situations.


    Meanwhile, Luo Lia Kun had all of her attention on the stall owner, asking, ¡°Who are you? What are the properties of the poison that you have placed inside of my drink? Have you begun doing this recently, or have you-¡±


    She did not have the chance to finish as a subtle movement of the man¡¯s mouth caused a small drop of poison to come into contact with his tongue, spreading all over it in less than an instant, disabling it and taking his life only a moment later. This action had been so minor that even the perception of the fifth realm didn¡¯t give her a chance to interrupt him.


    ¡°Shit¡­ Well then¡­ Wei Yi, how were you-¡± this time, she interrupted herself as she finally recalled their conversation at Chao Ru¡¯s residence, ¡°You can taste poisons, right? Sorry, nearly forgot.¡±


    ¡°Eh, it¡¯s fine. Any idea who this guy was? One of Them, perhaps?¡±


    The second question was thrown out as an invitation, but as Luo Lia Kun shook her head with a confused expression, it seemed that this wasn¡¯t someone involved in the conflict, ¡°No clue, I¡¯m afraid. I don¡¯t even know if this is something that he had just started doing, or if I had been drinking some form of poison all along.¡±


    She picked up her cup, which was still full and steaming, and cautiously held it away from herself.


    ¡°I¡¯ll get Long Huang to take a look at this¡­¡±


    ¡°By the way, since everyone else seems to have been scared off, could you tell me whatever it was that you had called me for?¡± Wei Yi asked, waving towards the recently emptied surroundings.


    ¡°That? You see, our organisation will be convening in my office tomorrow. You need to appear in order to participate in the official entry ceremony, and so that you may finally meet with our leader. She¡¯s coming out of seclusion for once, so if you miss out, you may never meet her in your lifetime.¡±

 V3C60: The Truth, Part 1

    The next day came, and Wei Yi was prepared. Her House of Gold had been emptied of all extraneous nonsense and filled only with relevant talismans, pills and materials that might be useful to her in a confrontation. Her energy had been filled to the brim, leading to all of her meridians and her dantian to be aching form the great quantity of power that she attempted to force into them.


    For all she knew, this would be unnecessary, but to take more action that necessary was usually better than to take too little, especially when this excessive action would not be punished in the slightest while the lacking action would.


    Her planar anchor was still in the pulsing state, seemingly making no progress at all, although a careful eye would be able to identify that it was getting brighter and slightly larger, which was especially noticeable when viewed within the Kong Prison Realm. Her other cultivation pathways were also in the same place as the previous day, but she had taken the opportunity to practise with every single one of her forms of energy, every technique and any possible move that she could theoretically make within the office of Luo Lia Kun. Whether she would need to fight one or a hundred, she had some idea of how the battle could play out, and how she would need to handle it.


    Obviously, she couldn¡¯t say that she had thought of every single eventuality, but the little that her Endless Calculation was able to definitively conclude was taken into account to limit her necessary preparations. Although she had a skill as powerful as that one, it needed definitive, accurate knowledge, and that was not something that she could confidently claim to possess due to the extremely limited interactions that she had been able to record between confirmed members of the Remnants of Yin.


    There were a few individuals that she had been able to label with absolute certainty as those that were under this secretive organisation.


    Most of them did not appear to be particularly powerful nor interesting, so she had labelled most of them as lower members of the organisation that wouldn¡¯t have much of an understanding of the truth, nor would they be able to exert much influence upon the final outcome of today¡¯s confrontation.


    The more powerful individuals clearly had more experience in matters like this, and so they had reasonable excuses for being in particular places at particular times, making it far more difficult to deduce whether or not they had anything to do with the Remnants, the Greats or even the third faction that had gotten involved with Luo Lia Kun, although some did slip up and give away some clue that allowed Wei Yi to be rather confident of her assessment of them.


    Two such individuals were in the late fourth realm, but even they did not appear to pose any kind of serious threat or danger to her, since their techniques were far inferior to her own. When the fact that a stage of the Active Core realm was only twice as powerful as that of the Emergent Anchor realm was considered, her other strengths allowed her to bridge that gap with great ease.


    Other than them, however, everyone else who came and went to the Brotherhood of Power could be from any faction and there for any reason.


    It did not stop her from experimenting and contemplating one technique and tactic that could be used to deal with each traveller that had come and gone, just to be sure. That didn¡¯t force her to create any more combat techniques, nor even any variations, but it had forced her to reconsider certain uses of individual methods in order to benefit more from each individual drop of planar or other forms of energy.


    If she was to attempt to use techniques with insufficient refinement in the worst-case scenario, she would be almost certain to fail, especially if several of the Greats ended up showing up to forcefully induct all new members of the Remnants of Yin with their interrogation techniques.


    Of course, that was unlikely. In her current experience, they tended to appear exclusively in twos, whether for some particular reason or just coincidentally, but if their number was limited to that during the meeting, she currently had the confidence of being able to escape them without significant personal loss, although she would greatly prefer to deal with them one by one, preferably while they were in some wounded and exhausted state so that they would be unable to provide much resistance to any of her actions. At this point, she wasn¡¯t sure whether it would be best to take on more risk and kill a member of the Great Families, or if shattering most of the anchors of two of them would bring more benefits, but she was certainly not going to let them get away unharmed if they do appear.


    She would ask whether the anchors could be regenerated, but the only person that would have a high chance of knowing this, Luo Lia Kun, would immediately notice something amiss if a person with no understanding of the Great¡¯s methods asked whether or not their many anchors, of which she should have no knowledge, could regenerate.


    The vice-leader of both the Remnants and the Brotherhood would also not be the most reliable when it came to this particular kind of information. If she was entirely honest, she may be unaware of have been tricked by some false intelligence or research, and if the Remnants of Yin were controlled by the Greats, then there would be no way that the truth of the multiple anchors would be revealed to Wei Yi, even if she seemed to be highly optimistic at the prospect of joining the Greats.


    Perhaps even the Greats didn¡¯t know whether they could recover their own anchors, as it might have been something that they hadn¡¯t encountered for countless centuries.


    Nonetheless, none of that mattered now. She had no more time for preparation, and so she descended to the office of the vice-leader with a calm outward expression, slowly joining a few others as they also gathered by the door.


    Somewhat unexpectedly, she encountered several people that she knew and thought to not be part of the Remnants, although the ones that mattered, like Chao Ru, came and went quickly, leading her to conclude that apart from the day¡¯s meeting, there was also quite a lot happening that she mostly ignored due to her attention being focused on something entirely different, namely the preparations for the inevitable combat encounter. Most of the events that occurred around her were recorded within her mind, as she never stopped observing her surroundings with her spiritual perception, but she would need to go over them at a later point in time in order to truly understand everything.


    After a long period of time, in her perception of time at the very least, the doors to Luo Lia Kun¡¯s office finally opened.


    ¡°I see everyone¡¯s been waiting for me. I¡¯ve just been making my office presentable. Please, come inside,¡± the vice-leader said after she took a look around and mentally counted everyone who showed up, before letting them into the room.


    Wei Yi knew that she had been doing a little more than that, but obviously chose not to comment and stepped inside after a few of the more powerful cultivators did the same, finding that the vice-leader¡¯s desk had been extended into a large table that made use of most of the room, allowing for two dozen people to be seated at it without much difficulty, and more if additional chairs were to be brought in and spaced out properly.


    Seeing as the seating arrangement seemed to be based on one¡¯s cultivation, seeing as those in the peak of the fourth realm sat nearest to Luo Lia Kun while those at the third realm chose to occupy the bottom of the table, Wei Yi followed their lead and sat at the furthest part of the table, near another woman in the first half of the third realm and opposite a man that was a stage above her, although neither one had a single perfected stage. Further to her right were a number of other men and women, some plain, others scarred and ugly, a few standing out with physical features or particular choices of clothing and jewellery.


    In her eyes, however, all she could see were the elements that were shared between them, as those would be the ones that would indicate whether or not they were her of their own free will.


    ¡°It¡¯s been a while, hasn¡¯t it?¡± Luo Lia Kun said after a period of silence, in which everyone looked around at everyone else, some doubtlessly finding their friends and allies absent and new faces filling their seats, ¡°I have set up the isolation array, so all of us can speak freely¡­ save for Their title, of course.¡±


    At that moment, most seemed to relax and let out a breath of relief, although a few were still rather tense. There were no obvious differences between one type and the other so far as Wei Yi was able to tell, but she still made note of this just in case, as that subtle difference in response might distinguish them as either allies or foes, or perhaps those that knew more about the situation than the others.


    While she was quite on edge, everyone else quickly began to chat with one another, sharing small tales and anecdotes without a care in the world.


    Their reaction wasn¡¯t just understandable, but expected, since possessing a major secret and being part of a group that appeared to be at odds with the biggest force in the entirety of Yi City tended to weigh on people quite a lot. The moment that they were placed in an environment where they could discuss all but a single word without any repercussions, they would naturally do so, and if Wei Yi had been more involved in the matters of the Remnants of Yin without knowing the potential truth behind them, she might have reacted similarly, finding those with similar experiences to her own and sharing parts of her history with them.


    She did pay attention to everything they said. They spoke of some encounters with the servants of the Great Families, some conversed about their more casual actions and adventures, but all the while she did not hear a single mention of any interaction with the Greats themselves. On its own, this wasn¡¯t that strange, given that they were too powerful for any one cultivator to handle on their own, but this put doubt on whether any of them were truly contending with the servants of the Greats.


    After personally encountering a case that put that question into her mind, she would naturally need to go over this with them if it turned out that most of the Remnants were truly being fooled by the vice-leader, or even the leader herself.


    A few minutes went by without any words from Luo Lia Kun, nor without any ceasing to the chatter, but without any clear cause to her actions, the vice-leader suddenly tapped on the table and stopped all conversations. ¡°I appreciate that all of us haven¡¯t seen one another in some time, and that some have never even met before, but to ensure our safety, we will need to proceed with the induction ceremony as quickly as possible, after which the rest of the day can be devoted to whatever we like. If the three new members would rise¡­¡±


    Wei Yi stood up readily, as did the man opposite her and a woman sitting closer to the middle of the table, who was within the early fourth realm. Those two turned towards the front of the table and approached it, seeming to have received some instruction prior to this, so she followed them, since nobody could blame her for making any mistakes if she just followed the lead of another.


    Her choice appeared to be correct, since Luo Lia Kun nodded and stood up as well, waving one of them over to the back wall of the room, where the leader of the organisation supposedly resided.


    ¡°Place your hand on the wall, then wait for the leader to speak with you. Ask whatever questions you want with your mind, she shall answer some, and then you may accept the oath to side with the Remnants, not with Them.¡±


    All three of them nodded, the other woman being first to approach. She placed her hand on the wall just as instructed, and not too long after, a bright light emerged from her chest, prompting her to step away and seat herself at the table once more. The man walked up next, repeating the process, taking a little longer to acquire that same momentary light before also returning to his seat. Throughout this process, their facial expressions did not change, although Wei Yi certainly made sure to monitor every single small shift and movement within them, leading to her forming some conclusions.


    Finally, it was her turn.


    She approached the wall without much hesitation, as others would expect of her, and placed her hand on the wall. However, she had no intention to sign any kind of oath, even if it could be ignored, and instead wanted to confirm one single thing before acting.


    It did not take long for a dense energy to reach out to her through the wall, coming into contact with her skin and trying to seep deeper into it. The energy was powerful, especially if it was to be compared with the average cultivator of the third realm, but not only was it unable to pierce her flesh as it pleased, it was also repealed for just a moment, during which Wei Yi learned exactly what she had been intending to find out.


    ¡°Third realm.¡±


    Before the others could understand this sudden proclamation, she drew her left hand back from the wall and struck it with immense force, instantly shattering the dense material and breaking the boundary between the two rooms, finally revealing to herself and to the others what was present on the other side.


    ¡°You¡¯re one of Their third generation, aren¡¯t you? Great Luo family, correct?¡±


    On the other side of the wall was a pristine white room with perfectly clean walls, floor and ceiling that did not have a trace of age nor decay. Besides a bed, table and chair, it was barren, and even those pieces of furniture were perfectly clean, although they were hardly simple. Each item, each tile of stone on the walls and even the sheets of the bed were extremely intricately designed, to the point that no item seemed to have a clear end to the complexity. It looked as if you could infinitely descend into any one of them, and continue to see new details.


    The only person in there sat in the very middle, dressed in a white gown of similar detail. She had a balanced, beautiful body and a pristine face, chestnut brown hair crowning her head and highlighting her green eyes that made it clear that her surname was Luo.


    ¡°Indeed. Luo Zhong. You¡¯ve made an unfortunate mess in my room, but you will be sure to clean it up shortly,¡± the member of the Great Family appeared entirely unphased, although the dense wall of mirage-like anchors around her clearly showed that she had needed to block the stone chunks and dust from landing upon her. She looked behind Wei Yi and said, ¡°Servant. Get your band of idiots to subdue her.¡±


    Luo Lia Kun immediately advanced upon her, alongside most of the others in the fourth realm, radiating power, but her face clearly contrasted with it.


    ¡°Wei Yi, I-¡±


    ¡°That feature that appears within all of your hearts is something that she can use to control, or, at the very least, force you to do what she wants, is that right?¡± in the moment before any of the attacks landed upon her, she turned her head and asked the vice-leader with an entirely different aura to what she usually displayed, ¡°If you want to have even the slightest chance of being free, tell me everything that you know!¡±


    After that, she would naturally not remain still, as even someone with her strength needed to fear the strikes of someone in the fifth realm, and the moment, she was facing one person in the Marked Core realm, twenty-three in the Active Core realm, and the rest were in the varying stages of the Emergent Anchor realm. Together, this group could certainly injure her severely even without the assistance of the Great Family member ¨C who, perhaps deciding that she would rather sit calmly within her white room did not choose to participate.


    When the vice-leader heard that request, she was stunned for a brief moment before she felt the familiar pain from within her heart, forcing her to do everything within her power to follow Luo Zhong¡¯s instruction.


    ¡°Wei Yi¡­¡±


    ¡°Servant, what do you think you¡¯re doing?¡± Luo Zhong asked, but it was this that helped the vice-leader to decide.


    ¡°You should know that from the very beginning, I¡¯ve been doing everything in my power to understand the exact principles of this controlling method!¡± Luo Lia Kun suddenly called out, although her body continued to chase after Wei Yi, ¡°You have instructed me to subdue her to the best of my ability, and I am doing that. Nothing is prohibiting me from saying every little thing I have ever learnt about your family of monstrosities! Listen up, Wei Yi!¡±


    ¡°You-¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s something resembling a talisman nested in the heart. It follows a strict set of rules that cannot be broken, and when we near breaking them, it will cause pain as a warning, but will not kill without the express control of Luo Zhong. If she wished to use this while we are disobeying orders, the death will be instant, otherwise, it will take three minutes to activate, perhaps just in case, or perhaps to ensure that she wouldn¡¯t kill anyone just by thinking about us. It is rather obvious she constantly contemplates killing everyone other than herself and her family, after all,¡± she began to speak even more freely.


    ¡°The talismans have no ability to kill you on their own?¡± Wei Yi asked, having confirmed that the mark on the inside of their hearts did indeed possess those kinds of properties.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. She is connected to every single one of us via her spiritual perception, and it isn¡¯t something that can be blocked easily. I¡¯ve tried, trust me,¡± the vice-leader said, a powerful strike from her just barely missing Wei Yi¡¯s form, ¡°That room of hers blocks spiritual perception only in one direction, and due to this talisman, it seems to be able to stretch out by an extreme extent. If you were to go to the Absolute Frost or the Glass Desert, you might get out of her reach, but she would have more than enough time to force our death if we were to try that.¡±


    ¡°Do you really believe that I won¡¯t kill you?¡± Luo Zhong suddenly asked, her eyes glistening with a thin killing intent, ¡°You said it yourself. Three minutes. Subdue her within that time, or else your entire group perishes.¡±


    For a moment, the vice-leader¡¯s eyes widened, as did those of most of her subordinates, but then they quickly narrowed in the same focus and anger as before.


    ¡°You think you can intimidate me and the Remnants of Yin just with that? Every single one of us joined because we despise you! Your families are the cause of the Western Continent¡¯s suffering, and most of us even fought against you, knowing full well that any one of you could kill a hundred of us! If you think that your threats will be enough to cause us to bend to your will, you are very much mistaken! Wei Yi, do not-¡±


    ¡°Spiritual perception, is it? In that case, so long as you can endure the pain, you won¡¯t have a single thing to worry about,¡± she announced, releasing her killing intent without any restrain to instantly fill the two rooms, now connected by a large hole in the middle of the wall between them, ¡°Killing intent opposes spiritual perception and will, you see.¡±


    All of the members of the Remnants of Yin felt their hearts relax, whether they were those that were in the organisation for a long time and were in full agreement with their leader, or those that had just joined and had some doubts on whether it would be worth it to lose their lives just to allow one woman to live. Now that this matter appeared to be solved, they were also unable to find any fault with Wei Yi, whose killing intent permeated the room and greatly intimidated all of them, even though she had not focused it on a single one of them.


    Luo Zhong¡¯s reaction also made it clear that the killing intent was truly effective.


    She rose from the ground with gritted teeth, warding off the killing intent from advancing with her anchors, although their slight constant tremble under the pressure of the crimson light made it clear that this wasn¡¯t effortless.


    ¡°Now, hold back, everyone. If this is the only one here, I can take her on all by myself,¡± Wei Yi stated when she saw the others attempt to muster their strength towards the member of the Great Family. Although Luo Lia Kun was in the fifth realm, when it came to opposing the powers of the Greats, raw numbers weren¡¯t as significant as they usually were. The power of numerous planar anchors surpassed simple planar energy, and could match the vice-leader¡¯s power, if not surpass it.


    Additionally, she had to be careful. If they fought against Luo Zhong together and all became exhausted, any other enemies would be able to take them out with very little effort, which would hardly be conducive to success. Finally, she was more used to fighting on her own, and didn¡¯t want to watch out for others in combat.


    ¡®The true reason, of course, is that I want to punch that bitch in the face a few thousand times¡­¡¯ Wei Yi focused all of her killing intent on that barrier of anchors, forcing it to violently shake.


    For this confrontation, no spiritual will could do. Only killing intent was appropriate.


    ¡°You think you can defeat me? You?¡±


    ¡°Yes, me! Ask the Ning and Chen family what they think about a crimson-haired woman with an absolute hatred for them!¡± she said, setting down her planar anchor onto the table behind her, instantly turning it to dust with the simple power of the impact, ¡°I have waited for twenty-three years to cut off the head of one of your kind, and if you think that stupid threats will ever stop me, you couldn¡¯t be more wrong!¡±


    Her blinding anchor instantly caught the attention of those observing it, enemy and ally alike. For several moments, it was difficult to distract oneself from such a radiant sight, especially as planar energy appeared to constantly pulse within it, growing with their every breath.


    More importantly than that, however, it instantly boosted Wei Yi¡¯s energy by a fold, doubling it and stabilising the killing intent in the air, empowering it in the same way that it strengthened the rest of her forms of energy. It did not strengthen the natural effects of her bloodline cultivation, but the anchor itself was affected by that boost, causing it to be more stable and denser, making it far more difficult to inflict a single bit of damage upon it. In addition to that, the Remnants of Yin immediately surrounded it with their own bodies and various defensive techniques, understanding that they couldn¡¯t allow the enemy to lay a single hand upon it.


    ¡°An insect dares to touch me! Die!¡± the member of the Great Luo Family exclaimed, condensing a number of glowing energy points around herself while keeping the anchor barrier steady.


    ¡°You call me an insect, and yet all of you use the same fucking techniques. It¡¯s like you don¡¯t have separate minds,¡± Wei Yi leapt towards the barrier of anchors and released as much of her bloodline power as possible to dull the impact of the point beams, for she had discovered that all five forms of energy do indeed follow a similar convention to the elements.


    Killing intent was perfect for subduing spiritual will, as it was madness incarnate consuming perfect reason. Spiritual will could oppose the feebler minds of those focusing on physique. Planar energy was far superior to killing intent in most circumstances and could subdue it easily. The physique of someone could overpower the bloodline of another and was demonstrated fully in the way that her physique had formed a far greater impact upon her blood than her other two bloodlines did.


    Following on with that, it was only natural that bloodline power suppressed planar energy, for while it was still born of planar energy, it was the essence of this omnipotent force elevated by past deeds and the unity of physique and planar cultivation.


    This allowed her to be somewhat less focused on the beams that rapidly formed within the air and shot towards her, instead giving her room to throw her hands into the air as per the necessary movement of her remade Ancestral Call. While the beams impacted the bloodline power and were instantly dulled by a certain extent, countless totems rose from the ground. Just before the many thin beams struck her form, she and all of the totems unleashed the energy of Eclipse Ire, detonating it in one go without bothering to charge it at all, for there was no intent to damage the other just yet.


    The eclipse energy collided with the many beams, scattering most of their force and leaving little to land upon her. Everything that did touch her clothing or skin was effectively rendered null by her body or by the energy infused into her robes, resulting in no marks being made upon her.


    ¡°Fuck you!¡± Wei Yi shouted, her killing intent intensifying further as the totems filled with golden and white light, ¡°Yang Elysian Storm!¡±


    A boundless mass of storm surged from the totems, while her own body was crowned by raw, absolute energy. It coated her in a cosmic light, mixing with her bloodline power to make her resemble a celestial being made of stars and galaxies, all of which passed through her form as if she was naught but a portal to some other reality.


    However, just as the previous two members of the Great Families that she had encountered before, this one was quick to adapt, and she wouldn¡¯t just stand in place to receive her attacks. While the storm grew, she created one more point beam, focusing all of the energy of her thirty-five anchors on it, and at the same time she attempted to evade by seemingly teleporting to the side and then closer to Wei Yi, moving her many anchors to surround her rather than blocking the gap between the two rooms.


    In the case of the typical attack, which was focused and greatly concentrated towards one point, such movements would indeed allow her to evade it, but in the case of the Elysian Yang Storm, evading it was impossible.


    The very first time that it was used, the storm covered the entirety of a large arena, and now that they fought within only half of two tight rooms, there was even less space for her to avoid the enormous storm that filled their combat area quickly, only giving her the choice of blocking it with her anchors. Both of them knew that this wasn¡¯t the best solution to the attack, since the quivering of the anchors was slowly getting more and more significant, but the Great Family member had no other choice or appropriate technique while the other would never suggest anything that could ever be beneficial to the Greats, and so watched how their stability was slowly decreasing while waiting for something else.


    After a few moments, the denser beam was about to strike her, but as before, she shielded herself with most of her bloodline power, following it up with a move that was perfectly suited to dismantling any kind of complexity and devolving countless decades of work into the simplest force, at which point it could contend with it directly.


    Her Absolute Force hit the beam, empowered by both the Yin and Yang Dao, as well as her Ascendant¡¯s Dao, causing the Fifth Stage technique to function as if it was at the same level as Absolute Rupture.


    It naturally didn¡¯t stand a chance against a proper technique executed by one of the Greats, but it was the essence of the Dao that it had led to that was most important, for once it was imbued with her united comprehension of every move that she had used and created, it projected a small aura of the Absolute Dao that was unmatched by something that lacked a force of a similar nature to counter it. The moment the beam came into contact with the aura, the technique broke apart, leaving only raw planar energy.


    Without the support of a Dao, such energy was as ineffective as the previous few beams.


    ¡°Was that¡­ you wretch, how did you claim an actual Dao for yourself?¡± to her credit, Luo Zhong understood the event incredibly quickly and threw out a question that, perhaps, she wasn¡¯t even sure that she would have answered.


    ¡°How long have your kind been around? Haven¡¯t been able to get even a fragment despite your decades of dominance?¡± Wei Yi asked back, taking the opportunity to observe her own energy levels, ¡®As I thought, Absolute anything will absolutely waste energy. I should hold back on that kind of thing unless absolutely necessary¡­ and end this quickly.¡¯


    Although much of her technique collection consisted of energy-based, long range techniques, her preference from the start had been with more direct combat, especially when the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique allowed her to gather a variety of physique abilities for her own personal usage. The Titanic Demolisher, Cleaving Axe and even the Martial Aspirant physique abilities could be used without a single weapon, and since the Demon Killer was still broken and incapable of boosting her strength by absurd amounts, nothing suited her better than her fists.


    In a single breath, her left arm transformed into the killing will state, while her right was already covered by a gauntlet made with star metal, meaning that the empowerment of the killing will state would be of little benefit to it.


    With two clawed hands, she charged forward to meet Luo Zhong, sparing none of her strength as she and the Demolisher behind her simultaneously struck down upon the anchor barrier around the member of the Great Luo Family. The barrier of anchor mirages caved in slightly, and a number of anchors audibly cracked, but she was able to evade the attack and headed towards the anchor.


    ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it!¡± she called out, taking out a small arrow from the House of Gold before throwing it at her foe with the most force that she could muster.


    There were a number of things that the member of the Great Luo Family expected, but it was never for this ordinary projectile to suddenly accelerate in mid-air, pierce and instantly shatter one of her anchors, and then impale itself into her flesh, missing her heart by a wide margin but still causing a major wound. What she expected even less was for her breath to randomly get caught in her throat, before her entire body just fell to the ground without a trace of life.


    By the miracle of the Arrow of Artemis, one of the Greats fell that day, having failed to realise what killed her.


    Almost immediately after, Wei Yi also fell to the ground, although her breath and pulse remained. Mid-way through the arrow¡¯s flight, she had felt all of her forms of energy be drained at an immense pace, stopping once she had little more than a drop of each. Due to the way in which the arrow accelerated at the same time, and then successfully killed the member of the Great Luo Family, she assumed this to be one of the many rules and requirements vaguely alluded to within the weapon¡¯s description.


    Her initial plan was to throw it out as a distraction to either stop Luo Zhong or to force her to evade, giving her some time to use Eclipse Split or something of similar power, but she hadn¡¯t expected the otherworldly gift to cooperate with her this once.


    Even then, she was clear that if she tried to attack any more enemies, it would likely require the same amount of energy to kill them, if not the same lunar arrangement or something else of the sort. In other words, no matter how useful this seemed, she wouldn¡¯t be able to use it again unless some kind of great coincidence occurred and permitted the otherworldly gift to showcase its full splendour even without an azure light.


    In fact, it was likely that light that allowed its original user to bypass at least one set of conditions to freely kill the servants of the Great Families without much costs to himself.


    Since her energy was almost drained, she didn¡¯t hesitate to return the anchor to her dantian, where the nascent rift within it could begin to replenish her energy more readily, and when her extended spiritual perception felt a different one brush over it with a great deal of force, she also revoked it while retreating into the space where her anchor had just been.


    ¡°I think there¡¯s another one!¡± she exclaimed, prompting the Remnants to immediately gather around her, ¡°Your talisman marks appear to have disappeared, so even if this person can control them, you shouldn¡¯t have any problems¡­ If you can hold them off for half a minute, I-¡±


    Her words were interrupted by the sudden collapse of the roof onto the chamber in which Luo Zhong had resided, followed by a man dropping in after the chunks of stone and wood that preceded him, landing on top of one particularly large chunk with surprising grace. Nobody needed to question his identity, for a dense barrier of mirage-like anchors surrounded him, alongside a number of floating talismans that were all pointed in the direction of the Remnants of Yin, alongside the fury of the man controlling them.


    The man¡¯s eyes first looked upon the corpse on the ground, then all of them with an even greater degree of hatred within his every action.


    ¡°You worms dare to kill my sister?¡± a man that she presumed to be named Luo Wu, based on the naming conventions of the Greats, questioned, all of his floating talismans releasing powerful beams of their own, shooting not at the individual Remnants but instead at the defensive techniques that were meant to protect her, and her anchor before her.


    They pierced it in an instant, and as she wasn¡¯t even able to release her bloodline power in time, they pierced her flesh and robes with horrifying ease. At the last moment, she was able to guide some of her hair to guard her most vital organs, preventing herself from perishing at that exact moment.


    ¡°Thirty seconds¡­¡± Luo Lia Kun muttered, glancing at her Remnants in the moment that the talismans were unable to shoot out another beam, ¡°Everyone, attack! Throw all caution to the wind!¡±


    Perhaps for the first time in countless years, one of the Greats fell by unnatural means, but it also happened right before them, directly due to the actions of a single woman that now sat behind them. Even if this was due to some miracle, even if it was something that could never be repeated again, they saw hope. It brought them courage that they hadn¡¯t imagined they would be able to acquire in a time like this, and so not a single one of them had any doubt.


    Together, they attacked.

 V3C61: The Truth, Part 2

    Not all of the members of the Remnants of Yin had fought together before, and most had no chance against one of the Greats on their own, but the situation managed to bring their combat styles into a unified state, allowing each one to cooperate with one another without flaw.


    All five elements were unleashed at once, talismans and artefacts being used to barrage the member of the Great Luo Family with attacks while protecting against the many point beams that he was easily able to shoot out rapidly. Although this man appeared to have the exact same cultivation realm as his sister, as well as the same number of anchors and the same techniques, he was somehow significantly tougher, albeit they did lack the defence of Wei Yi¡¯s bloodline power that had dulled most of Luo Zhong¡¯s attacks.


    For the first few moments, Luo Wu was overwhelmed by this sudden rush of attacks from people with such great enthusiasm, as he had never encountered so many men and women who could attack one of the Greats with eagerness and readiness, even as he managed to wound a few of them within seconds of the battle beginning.


    However, with every further second that passed, the rage in his mind cleared, and he was able to put up more of a fight. The whip wielded by Luo Lia Kun that previously evaded his grasp entirely was struck and then shattered by one of his beams, the floating flaming axes that attempted to barrage him from behind were scattered by one careful pulse of the energy of his anchors, and many of the third realm combatants were severely injured not long after the battle began.


    ¡°It seems that I was right to believe that scum like you would only harm our Yi City. Once I am done with you, I shall exterminate some of the other groups in this district to clean it up.¡±


    ¡°Good luck with that,¡± Wei Yi suddenly said, ¡°Nothing in Yi City belongs to you.¡±


    ¡°What did you-¡± Luo Wu was about to reprimand her, when her words brought a faint spatial fluctuation to his attention, causing him to look down onto the ground. A large array had enveloped the entirety of the two rooms, although there was now little separation between them, and lit up the air with silver and crimson light.


    As a member of a Great Family, he couldn¡¯t possibly misidentify what he was seeing.


    ¡°Our prison realm-¡±


    ¡°IT. ISN¡¯T. YOURS!¡± she interrupted him, the transportation array activating at that moment and plunging all of them into darkness.


    Everyone in the room, the corpse of Luo Zhong included, were sent into the prison realm exactly as they were positioned in reality, and while none of them were made unconscious, most had to recover from the sudden movement.


    As the owner of the Kong Prison Realm, as well as someone that had come and gone into it countless times, Wei Yi recovered from the move between reality and the spatial realm far quicker than anyone around her, and instantly reached out to Yi Shi Ming.


    ¡°Apply the planar energy draining and conversion law to that man¡¯s location, right now!¡± she shouted, knowing that the spatial spirit would hear her, then released what little energy she had managed to recover ¨C mostly bloodline power, which seemed to regenerate most quickly, surpassing the recovery rate of both her mental energies and physique energy by a wide margin ¨C to restrain Luo Wu.


    ¡°Done.¡±


    Before the member of the Great Luo Family was even able to awaken, the air around him suddenly became crimson, all of the planar energy around him vanishing at a great speed, restrained only partially by the anchors around him. Wei Yi pulled back her energy in order to prevent the spatial law from devouring all of the energy in the prison realm, forming a barrier around Luo Wu that was just strong enough to keep the unbound planar energy in the air from entering.


    He did come to only a moment later, and immediately attempted to kill the person he saw before him, but he felt any planar energy that he attempted to release instantly transform into a red mist that was entirely out of his control, suppressed by a far more powerful, unrelenting will.


    Furthermore, his many anchors, some of which had already been slightly affected during the combat before this, were audibly cracking.


    ¡®Had this fucker not been one of the Greats, with their anchors always on the outside of their bodies, they might have endured until the rest of his cultivation was lost. With that many anchors, however, I don¡¯t even know if he is able to put them back into his dantian¡­ Serves the asshole right,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, watching with glee as the man¡¯s anchors constantly suffered from more and more damage.


    ¡°What is this place?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked when she and most of the Remnants of Yin also recovered.


    ¡°The Kong Prison Realm. I will explain more, but for now, you should remain on guard and watch this cunt suffer all the way to his death¡­ If I get to kill more of them this leisurely, I¡¯ll run out of curses to throw at them, won¡¯t I¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered to herself, ¡°Just stand back and be careful.¡±


    Although she hadn¡¯t used any of her killing will, the vice-leader still found herself being intimidated by her voice, prompting her to immediately call out, ¡°Understood!¡±


    She and the others retreated, although that did not stop them from looking around the prison realm, especially at the enormous anchor in the distance that lit up the entirety of the world in a mixture of colours and lights that altogether resembled the sun¡¯s light, but only barely. It took most of them a moment to realise exactly what they were seeing, for none of them had anticipated that anyone¡¯s anchor could possibly become as large as what was now before them.


    In addition, while they observed the anchor from below, with it towering above every single one of them, the impression that they received of it significantly differed from before.


    No matter how attention grabbing it was, it was unable to prevent those who fought the Greats for many years from looking back down upon Luo Wu, who had lost the entirety of his furious nature and was now confused and terrified, as some of them had been for far too many years.


    When he found that he was unable to mobilise his planar energy outside of his body no matter what he did, as it would melt immediately due to the prison realm¡¯s entire planar energy conversion ability being applied to a single small area, he tried to break out of the barrier that he thought was responsible for this. However, with a physical form that had never been trained beyond the bare necessity, his body was entirely incapable of penetrating energy of the third realm.


    ¡°This is our prison rea-¡±


    ¡°NONE OF THIS BELONG TO YOU! This is the Kong Prison Realm, made by Kong Shi Meng for a purpose that you clearly did not understand if you simply used it to deposit individuals into it that you did not have the chance to kill! You were never the masters of the prison realm, and the only time one of you entered, they were turned to naught but a corpse with a bunch of anchor shards around it,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°The prison realm is not yours, Yi City is not yours, and yet you defile it each day with your presence, siphoning away knowledge and understanding from the world ¨C and for what? What do you achieve besides driving us all into the ground?¡±


    ¡°You mere mortals would never understand! It is our destiny to rule and protect this world in our own way! It has been bestowed upon us by the heavens!¡±


    ¡°Again? Have you nothing new to say?¡± she asked, summoning a number of people from the prison realm to her position so that they could see a members of the Greats finally perish, ¡°All of these people had been forced into this spatial realm, where you did not even know of the spatial spirit that controlled it, all for trying to save the world! If you are working for that goal, then why will you not say a single thing to us? Why are you weakening the Planar Continents with your actions? You are all either liars, or your plans are so foolish that you do not deserve to exist.¡±


    ¡°No! You are insignificant! A pathetic mortal! You-¡± his words were cut short by a shattering.


    One of his many anchors, the one that had suffered the most during his thirty second battle with the Remnants, finally succumbed to the pressure of the prison realm and shattered into many little pieces, with one remaining while the rest turned into slightly denser clouds of killing intent and filled the air around him with denser crimson.


    As powerful as a large collection of anchors was, it required the full amount to sustain its full ability. With one gone, the next cracked within seconds, and then the next, and the next.


    ¡°My anchors! No! No!¡±


    No matter how much he cried out, not a single person would ¨C or could, for that matter ¨C do a single thing to stop the conversion of planar energy, especially since Wei Yi was the only one that actually understood what was happening. In fact, the more she watched, the greater understanding of the process she gained, taking a step towards some kind of greater comprehension of the very nature of the force before her, and not just its direct effects.


    ¡®Wei Yi, since you have begun to cultivate the Dao itself, I shall intensify the effects for you. If you are able to comprehend something like the Conversion Dao, it would doubtlessly be immensely beneficial to you,¡¯ Yi Shi Ming spoke directly to her, slightly altering the law within that space in a small manner.


    To the other observers, little changed, but she greatly appreciated the gesture.


    With every broken anchor, the look on the Great Luo Family member¡¯s face grew more and more panicked and it seemed that the breaking anchors, as well as the draining of energy within his body, finally began to inflict physical pain alongside the mental one that he had been dealing with since the sudden appearance of the prison realm.


    One of the new recruits shakily stepped forward, still injured from the earlier battle, and asked, ¡°Um, Wei Yi¡­ should we stop¡­ that-¡±


    ¡°Why did you join the Remnants of Yin, and so decisively at that?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I heard about Their-¡±


    ¡°In this spatial realm, you can say the name of the Great Families as much as you like. It¡¯s been said here for countless decades, and it will continue to be said until they are wiped out.¡±


    ¡°T-Then, I heard about what the Great Families do¡­ I wanted to stop them, but¡­ doing this¡­ isn¡¯t it too much?¡±


    ¡°Too much?¡± Wei Yi practically whispered that, not taking her eyes off the man before her, but the woman that asked that question felt as if a mountain had been dropped onto her, as a boundless quantity of killing intent poured out just from the question being asked, ¡°I suppose that you haven¡¯t had everyone you know be slaughtered by these people. I suppose that you have not yet noticed how many innocents have been sent into a realm of torment, where they expected these people to die, just because they went against their plans. I suppose that you haven¡¯t heard how ready Luo Zhong had been to kill every last one of you because of a single thing not going her way!¡±


    Her words reminded the new recruit of what had just happened, and gave her little choice but to step away if she didn¡¯t want to be stared down by everyone else within the Remnants of Yin, which, given her plainly weak spirit, was not something that she wanted.


    The way in which Wei Yi didn¡¯t even bother to look at her also made her question whether she would even have a place in the Remnants once this was done, as the authority with which she spoke seemed to supersede that of Luo Lia Kun and their now-dead leader by an enormous degree. Of course, she didn¡¯t know that her focus was simply on the process of one kind of energy transforming into another, nor that she would indeed not see much kindness from Wei Yi for her remarks.


    Only once the last anchor cracked did she step forward and press the member of the Great Family down to the ground with her boot, making sure that he got at least a little dirt in his mouth before shifting her position slightly and jamming her foot down with greater force, intentionally cracking a rib in the process.


    ¡°You have one chance to tell us what the thing you¡¯re supposedly protecting us from is before I kill you,¡± she stated, having already recovered more than enough energy to be able to kill this man at any point, no matter how she chose to do so, ¡°I¡¯d also advise you not to say any more bullshit like you¡¯ve been trying to, since I am certain that there are numerous individuals here who will have far more patience than I and could easily torture you for decades, until you forget that the outside world even existed.¡±


    ¡°We are¡­ chosen¡­ by the heavens¡­¡±


    Adhering to her words, she instantly brought her foot down once more, piercing his back and crushing his heart without a moment of hesitation.


    ¡°Fuck you and your kind, Luo Wu. I¡¯d never let you live, no matter what,¡± Wei Yi said quietly, pulling the heel of her boot out of his back and cleansing it with physique energy, turning around only when she felt that she had calmed herself sufficiently, ¡°Sorry for bringing some of you here without proper warning, but you may step away now. Meng Chu, claim a spot for the Remnants of Yin, and bring them there. I shall be back in a moment.¡±


    She quickly left the prison realm, not giving them an opportunity to question her instructions nor her actions, instructing Yi Shi Ming to move most people back to where they should be while placing everyone from the Remnants at the border of Beast¡¯s Rest to let them be guided by Meng Chu.


    The moment she regained her senses on the other side, she took the half-lit transportation array and forced it to expand further, covering the entirety of the Brotherhood of Power headquarters in order to bring everyone within it with her. So far as she was able to tell, not a single member of the Brotherhood had anything suspicious about them, whether they were current members or those that had caught wind of the situation and attempted to escape, like Mo Zhouquan, and so she decided that they could follow their leadership into the prison realm.


    Due to the day¡¯s occurrences, almost everyone was present at the building, and by some fortunate coincidence the few that weren¡¯t were those that Wei Yi didn¡¯t really care about.


    Before they had a chance to flee, the transportation array enveloped all of them and forced them into the spatial realm within her dantian. She allowed herself to remain and shrunk the array once more, attempting to wipe out any traces of it that she could to not give her abilities away to the Greats, and then brought herself back into the spatial realm with an array of the minimal size to envelop her entire body.


    Naturally, the structure of the Brotherhood of Power was left behind. It was possible to bring across large physical objects such as a residence or headquarters, but it wasn¡¯t so much that she lacked the power to take everything and more that causing the place to suddenly vanish wouldn¡¯t be very helpful to her goal of avoiding too much attention.


    The disappearance of a single organisation, while obviously unusual, could be explained by countless means, including that they decided to depart for another district in hopes of better success and business. Since all of their items were taken as well, save for everything that was bolted down since it would take far too much effort to remove all such things from the floor before bringing them with herself, it could easily be seen as a rushed but reasonable departure by the majority of the Brotherhood of Power.


    Perhaps even the hole in the ceiling and the broken office would be explainable under that same theory, as it could have resulted from some conflict that prompted this sudden relocation.


    Some lengthy exploration of the matter would naturally expose numerous flaws, but the few members of the Brotherhood that remained would be unlikely to bother, since they could just join the other groups that sat around the same area. It would be far, far too costly to get some cultivators skilled in various investigative methods to understand what happened, and too time consuming as well.


    Once more within the prison realm, all of the other members of the Brotherhood of Power came to in a large, open field, lit by an unnatural light, with numerous items that were previously near them lying on the ground, with no trace of their rooms nor furniture in most cases.


    The occasional floorboard and cabinet did end up in the prison realm, but that was less common than not.


    Since their rooms didn¡¯t make it, all were able to look around and notice a woman standing atop a hill, with a few others beside her. Not everyone was able to recognise the crimson-haired woman, but everyone knew of Luo Lia Kun, who stood next to her, albeit slightly lower on the hill. From this alone, it was clear that the crimson-haired woman had to be on a similar level to their vice-leader, if not superior to her in some way.


    ¡°Wait, Wei Yi? What¡¯s going on?¡± Chao Ru unknowingly answered one of the questions that everyone had, and the name itself finally brought recognition and understanding into the eyes of many.


    Not everyone had been present during the duels between the Gang Hong Clan and the Brotherhood of Power, but most had learnt of some of the things that happened there, including the insane recruit that had a fondness for tearing out the hearts of others and had a rather fantastic set of phoenix-related techniques that allowed her to light up the district for a brief moment.


    ¡°Hello, everyone. You have all been pulled into this realm ¨C my realm, for the moment ¨C and unfortunately, if you prefer to keep your life, you cannot leave. If you do not care less about this and just want to go off and find something to do here, go ahead. The nearest city is in that direction, less than an hour away. It is called Beast¡¯s Rest, and so long as you pay attention, you won¡¯t get into trouble,¡± she said, resulting in no end of confusion amongst everyone present, ¡°If that is not to your liking, get a seat somewhere and listen up. There¡¯s a lot that you need to learn.¡±


    Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, the secretary of the Brotherhood stood up straight away.


    ¡°I would prefer not to get involved. Is there a role similar to my previous one that I can occupy?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure there is. Do you mind acting as the secretary for a brothel?¡±


    ¡°No, not at all. So long as coin is involved, I will do whatever is necessary¡­ Although I would prefer to be near a bunch of attractive women all day.¡±


    ¡°Same, actually. Go on, then,¡± Wei Yi said, letting her depart from sight before turning to the others, ¡°If none of you intend to do the same, then we should proceed. You have one final chance to stand and depart, and if you do not, then you will need to bear the full extent of the danger associated with the knowledge you will gain.¡±


    She allowed them another chance, but after a few moments, none of them rose.


    As giving them any more chances to leave would be unreasonable, she raised one hand and created a great wall of killing will, which was the energy that she was able to stretch out the furthest, solidifying it to prevent a single person from leaving before everything could be explained.


    If someone was to rush out during the explanation, perhaps thinking that they got the entire story without hearing some vital part of it, they could be troublesome to deal with, which would not be advantageous to Wei Yi or Luo Lia Kun, who had not really been consulted before being thrown into that arrangement on the hill but who was not against inducing the rest of the Brotherhood into the Remnants, or whatever group Wei Yi was leading in the prison realm. There had been no explicit confirmation of her status, but judging by the fact that it was her anchor that illuminated this spatial realm, it wouldn¡¯t be unreasonable to assume that she was either the leader, or someone extremely close to them.


    ¡°Very well. Everyone, let us begin from the founding of Yi City¡­¡±


    ¡°The Master of Yi City was called Kong Shi Meng?¡±


    ¡°The Greats are the remnants of those clans that sought to undermine his legacy and claim it for themselves?¡±


    ¡°The dreaded prison realm was made by Kong Shi Meng for the sake of refining dangerous energy?¡±


    Questions, or, rather, requests for confirmation, flooded in quickly, and she answered them similarly quickly, giving only a single response to a single question before ignoring it, since she knew that it would be difficult for everyone to accept a number of the things that she told them without letting them have some time to themselves. At the moment, such a thing would naturally not be convenient, given how they were in a sealed area with not too much room to spare.


    Although their placements did resemble those of their original positions in the Brotherhood of Power headquarters, that building had many floors while this field had only one, giving them less room.


    Ultimately, however, Wei Yi was able to relay everything that she wished these people to know, simultaneously showcasing some of her abilities as proof that the previous persona was a mere fa?ade, making sure to look just enough at certain people for them to understand that this didn¡¯t mean that their interactions were false as well.


    Chao Ru and Zhi Qiu Ya were the primary receivers of this gaze, but not the only ones.


    By bringing up her injuries, even those that were able to heal, she was able to avoid questions that were relevant but those that she either didn¡¯t wish to answer, or couldn¡¯t answer for whatever reason, and brought this meeting to an end, allowing everyone to head off to Beast¡¯s Rest to find themselves a place to stay and to get used to the routine of this spatial realm. They also received the training techniques Wei Yi had created so that they would be able to stand together with those of the Kong Prison Realm in goals and methods, allowing the descendants of the ancient warriors that participated in the War of Yin, as well as many others, to join the new generation that would carry on a similar fight.


    When everyone had left, Luo Lia Kun the former vice-leader included, despite the many questions that she also had, Wei Yi was able to return to the site of Luo Wu¡¯s death, where his body and that of Luo Zhong still lay.


    Within their bodies, the faint light of embers emanated only to her, just as the energy in the place of their former anchors could only be observed by her and nobody else. While the anchor energy was timeless, these embers, as well as the potential physique or bloodline that she could plunder to strengthen herself in return for the weakening of the Greats, had an expiry date, and it was not one that she wanted to risk any longer than necessary.


    She kneeled beside the body of the man first, lifting the glowing embers out of his body and pressing them against her chest, allowing their power to become one with her own, then moved on to the woman, performing the most gracious of the looting actions before moving on to the things that were slightly less pleasant to behold.


    Next came their bloodline, which would likely be burned if she attempted to scour their bodies for physique energy first.


    To make things quicker for herself, she grabbed one of the bodies and tossed it onto the other, forming a dense viper of bloodline power which she promptly sent into their bodies, allowing it to fill one and connect to the other at the same time. It slithered through their blood vessels, devouring anything relevant to itself that it was able to find, acting much like her physique and showcasing that it was the correct choice to select her Ascendant bloodline over the other two.


    When the energy of their bloodline was absorbed into her own, nudging her bloodline cultivation forward, she was able to see vague images that much resembled the scene of her initial bloodline awakening, except the Golden Qilin was now absent, the cosmic cloud was much stronger, and that it was now devouring a set of forty sprites that were almost shaped like talismans.


    ¡®Wait a minute, forty sprites?¡¯


    These images did not last long, given that her awakened and wholly unique bloodline appeared far superior to their own, at least when not awakened, but it was more than enough for her to comprehend one possibility that she had never considered before.


    Although it was most certainly a wild theory, it was able to explain why they told her to blame her parents for their actions, why her blood appeared so pure when she first added the Disciple of Iron to her cultivation technique. It would be obvious why her Yi family features were so clear even before she had begun to cultivate at all, and it would explain a part of her natural talent, as well as why someone would go to such effort in order to prevent it from being exposed, even if they did fail in the end.


    Perhaps it was even responsible for the ease with which she was able to integrate those anchor shards that now hovered and floated around her anchor ¨C and did bear a resemblance to the sprites.


    ¡®My father was no one unusual, but my mother was newer, and I knew less about her. On the day that they died, I recall her being the one to ask my father to take me outside to play. My father was in the family records, but my mother was not. He did not have particularly distinguishable red hair or silver eyes, but my mother most certainly did¡­¡¯


    It pained her to even contemplate the possibility, but it seemed that there was one likely possibility.


    ¡®I may be a child of someone from a Great Family¡­ the Great Yi Family, at that¡­ If that is the case, then my parents were clearly killed because they couldn¡¯t tolerate a child being born to one of them and a normal man, although to go to such an extent, they clearly had a greater reason for acting,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded quickly, given that the arrays beneath her shack in the Yi District were more than sufficient to have dulled all of her strengths in the time that she had lived there, ¡®Given that they usually only have two children, for them to so readily kill one doesn¡¯t make sense unless there is something hidden from the world¡­ The method of acquiring so many anchors, perhaps?¡¯


    With this potential possibility, not only did she not hesitate to loot, pillage and destroy the bodies of the Greats, she did it even more quickly and readily.

 V3C62: Endless Monolith

    Even after a visit to both Chao Ru and a few brothels around Beast¡¯s Rest, her mind still wasn¡¯t calmed, so she took the opportunity to re-enter the Planar Continents and depart from the Luo District with utmost haste, heading directly to the north. The moment that she left the district, she appeared back in the Kong Prison Realm.


    With the death of two of the third generation, there would be no chance of the rest of them not getting cautious and aggressive, seeking to find and kill whoever endangered their family line like that. Even if it was only the Great Luo Family that got involved in this process, their second generation was in the fifth realm and their first should be in the seventh realm, meaning that so long as any one of them appeared, they would be able to take Wei Yi and her entire current faction out before she could possibly force them into the prison realm.


    Furthermore, even assuming that the Arrow of Artemis had no conditions other than sufficient energy, she needed most of what she had to kill one third-realm Great. To kill someone in the fifth realm would obviously be far more costly.


    This meant that she couldn¡¯t tarry in the Luo District, especially when she wasn¡¯t certain what kinds of methods the Greats possessed when it came to tracking or investigation. It would be safest to be as far away from them as possible, as quickly as possible, and preferably somewhere like the desert fortress mentioned by Yi Shi Ming.


    Before she would be able to do that, there was one other matter to resolve.


    The planar anchor within her was steadily becoming brighter and more powerful, making it even more difficult for those in the prison realm to sleep than usual, but it meant that it was approaching the actual breakthrough process. Given how flashy and explosive these tended to be for her, it absolutely wasn¡¯t safe to attempt a breakthrough in the district, nor anywhere near it in the regular world. For this reason, she retreated into the prison realm after getting far enough away to be able to come and go without a high likelihood of observers, as she would be able to return and run off the moment that she needed to.


    Her visits during the day were also to make use of the spare time, although she did truly need to get some stress out of her system. There were no more Greats available for this purpose, so sex would do.


    When that didn¡¯t spend enough time, she also performed some bloodline cultivation away from Beast¡¯s Rest, confirming one more time that the advancement through stages didn¡¯t have the same destructive capability as the initial awakening upon reaching the fourth stage of Blood Trace. She was not yet certain about the breakthrough to a new realm, but that would not be relevant immediately.


    It took less time than expected, mostly due to her being able to empower the process with energies of the fifth, fourth and third realm, whereas any regular bloodline cultivator would need to rely solely on it for their advancements.


    Her cultivation method was still not one that most suitable for that form of energy, given as it was replicating the awakening method more so than a proper cultivation method, and necessitated outside influence in the form of the arrays and inscriptions that needed to rotate around her. An actual bloodline cultivator would likely possess some kind of basic cultivation technique to start off with, much like those of the other four paths had their own methods, but she had no clue whether there was a single soul out there with even a trace of bloodline power, let alone a full cultivation based around it.


    If there was, she would like to eventually meet one, but if there was not, she would simply forge her own path forward.


    When that proved to not be particularly time consuming, she went on to contemplate the principles of the Dao that she had observed while Luo Wu was suffering the loss of his anchors ¨C the shards from which, as well as those from Luo Zhong¡¯s anchors, were collected for later research ¨C and found that it was not quite what Yi Shi Ming had suggested.


    She certainly received some comprehension of restriction and conversion, but it felt like this was only one miniscule part of her gains, and that the Dao that she attempted to understand earlier was something greater.


    If she had to put a name to it without having a full understanding of it first, she would call it something like the Dao of Law ¨C in that particular order mostly because it sounds better than the other way around ¨C and that it might hold a vast quantity of potential, but for now, unless she intended to make use of the Realm of Potential and the Truth of the Universe to boost its level to a usable degree, she couldn¡¯t utilise something so broad without putting in a lot more work.


    However, it was not her intention to do anything of the sort. The Realm of Potential could be used, only in a passive way, without directly attempting to develop this new Dao, but the Truth of the Universe was entirely out of the question. Besides the undoubtedly high anchor point cost of developing the technique, even bearing in mind that she now had three hundred and ten points, it would still result in some corruption of the nature of the Dao, unless she already had full understanding of it. It would be ideal not to afflict any of her Dao understanding with such things, which is why she made sure to only develop things that she already understood well enough, but she also wanted to have one separate Dao that would be entirely her own.


    Due to this, she didn¡¯t do so much as look at the Dao panel of the Truth of the Universe, although it would likely display the same name that she had given it, and instead committed to understanding and developing it on her own.


    After all, she was keen on setting some kind of law in the Planar Continents that would prevent all of the current flaws of society from existing, so it was exactly the sort of thing she needed.


    There was also that image that still remained within her head, and that was finally able to cause the anchor to begin transforming. It featured a set of things that made one think of a judge or a court of law, as envisaged by Kong Shi Meng and the other otherworldly demons, so if this was indeed what she saw, then it could be said that she had some degree of fate with the field of law and order. In theory, with the hidden insights that she gained from the image, she could develop the Dao at great speed.


    To test this, and to allow more time to pass, she sat down with her eyes shut and focused on her own comprehension of the matters of law, both in terms of the rules and laws that existed in Beast¡¯s Rest, those that had been made by Kong Shi Meng and those that still remained within Yi City, and natural laws such as that of water turning into steam at high temperatures.


    One thing that could be immediately observed about both of these things was that they were hardly immutable. Typical laws, set by humans, could be broken with ease so long as someone had enough power, and even if such a method was to be ignored, even the natural laws could be broken. For instance, the ocean around and in between the Planar Continents, water would experience a strange change and become impossible to boil, even at the temperatures present near and past the Glass Wastes. Water taken from the ocean would remain in that state for five minutes, no matter what was done to it, and revert to normal after that, and any water placed into the ocean would immediately mix with it and gain the same properties.


    Perhaps this was simply one natural law superseding or overcoming another, but it still showed that each law could be overcome.


    If she wanted to benefit the most from such laws, it would be reasonable to focus on the strongest and most oppressive one of all, so to speak ¨C the law of the strong dominating the weak. It was a rule that she despised quite intently, but it was also the one that she would need to use if she wanted to keep Yi City in some semblance of peace and reason.


    Just in the same way that anything could break so long as one had enough power, so could any law be subverted and broken with enough strength. Anything that seems impossible is only so because one lacks the ability at that moment, and not due to some impossibility. Even travelling through time, or at the very least altering past events, shouldn¡¯t be outside of the reach of a cultivator so long as they are able to accumulate enough energy and knowledge to achieve their goal, and so long as they aren¡¯t worried about the repercussions of their actions.


    Out of all natural rules, it was perhaps the most all-encompassing, and the most obvious to both common men and transcendental cultivators. It applied in business, in daily life, in combat, and anywhere else. So long as the right form and quantity of strength is possessed, any misdeed will be ignored or outright praised. The only reason that any district is even able to enforce a set of rules is due to their patriarchs typically being in the seventh realm, meaning that anyone beneath that realm would be suicidal to try and upset order too greatly. If cultivators of the eighth realm were as common as grains of sand, then it would be they that set the rules, and the districts could do nothing.


    By that logic, so long as there was something that stood above the entirety of the world, something that surpassed the damned heavens and towered above the rotten earth, then that entity would be able to demand any kind of order they wished for and guarantee that it was enforced.


    ¡®That had been my intention for some time, hasn¡¯t it? It means that I have comprehended far more of the nature of the Dao of Law than I had assumed,¡¯ she thought to herself, ¡®If it isn¡¯t yet developed enough to empower by abilities, then that must mean that my chosen Dao is as complex as I had thought it to be, and I won¡¯t make much progress with this particular law. Then, I should ponder another, like that of the suppression of elements.¡¯


    She had understood long ago that the elements weren¡¯t separate factors that had no relation to one another. Rather, some supported one another, while others opposed the other. Fire burned wood, for wood empowered the flame, whereas water subdued flame due to opposing it. A water cultivator would stand a greater chance against a fire cultivator than one that practised earth-type techniques.


    Again, as she considered it in greater detail, she realised that she had a rather great understanding of this notion as well, and that her evaluation of her own comprehension of the Dao of Law might be incorrect.


    Comprehending a Dao allowed it to empower everything done by the cultivator, in the cultivator¡¯s favour, through an unconscious application of the Dao¡¯s laws and tenets ¨C a set of terminology that didn¡¯t escape her notice, of course ¨C that would bend any action towards the most positive outcome possible through that Dao. Due to how useful her understanding of the forms of energy that support and oppose one another, she suspected that it was already being partially imbued by her comprehension of that law, which finally prompted her to confirm the status of the Dao of Law within the Truth of the Universe.


    ¡®Minor Achievement? What the¡­ when did that happen? I could swear that it wasn¡¯t¡­ oh. Comprehension of the Dao isn¡¯t as simple as understanding parts of it, but realising how they relate to the Dao that I wish to practise¡­ so that¡¯s how it is. By realising my comprehension of certain matters and applying it to the Dao of Law, I was able to advance it¡­¡¯ Wei Yi realised, ¡®I truly have some affinity with this Dao. A good choice on my part, then.¡¯


    This was truly fortunate, and so she pondered all of her other realisations and understandings to see whether they could be applied to the Dao of Law.


    Besides a few minor matters, she was unable to consider much until she witnessed the planar anchor in the prison realm finally lit up to the point that it was absolutely blinding, and audible cracks resounded from it, echoing throughout the Kong Prison Realm and drawing much attention to it.


    ¡°Everyone, get inside and seal your windows. Ignore the commotion!¡± she yelled out, empowering her voice with the Lion¡¯s Roar technique and physique ability before further boosting it with the minor amount of control that she possessed over the spatial realm, as she suspected that staring too much at the intense light would hardly be beneficial to anyone with eyes.


    Even if the excess light burning the retinas of everyone that witnesses it without refining their eyes to the same extent that Wei Yi had somewhat recently wasn¡¯t a major concern, then the vast quantities of energy that would inevitably surge from the anchor should most certainly be avoided. Even if they weren¡¯t naturally malicious, the immense concentration of power that would come from her anchor in particular, in a realm where her will was the closest thing to absolute that anything can be, could easily be fatal to anyone who isn¡¯t in the equivalent of the fifth realm in terms of their power.


    At the moment, only Luo Lia Kun was at that level of power if the spatial spirit of the land itself wasn¡¯t taken into account.


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming, block off as much of that possible!¡± Wei Yi instructed after her voice began reaching those in Sanctuary and Beast¡¯s Rest, ¡°You¡¯ve never seen anything like this before, have you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not,¡± Yi Shi Ming was able to calmly reply despite creating an immense and complex circular barrier around the entirety of the central region of the prison realm, obscuring as much sound, light and energy from passing through it as was possible.


    To block everything entirely would not only cost much more energy to maintain, which, depending on the duration of the breakthrough process, might lead to it failing to contain the last portion of the process, but it would also rid the population of the prison realm of their light entirely, which would plunge them into near-complete darkness for however long this would take. The sky above them all would be of little use, given that it lacked a moon or sun to illuminate them, and being in absolute darkness after many years of perpetual light would be rather disconcerting to most.


    With a shielding barrier that allowed a little percentage of the energy to come through, the people of the Kong Prison Realm would retain light and gain some of the energy released, whatever it was.


    So long as they were able to cultivate with it, or otherwise gain some advantage from it, it would naturally be far better than simply allowing everything emerging from her anchor to go to waste. Since it would probably not be something useful to her, given that it would be removed from the anchor prior to its development, the rest of the Kong Prison Realm might as well become stronger at the same time as her.


    After a few brief moments of respite, the anchor pulsed immensely, a far greater quantity of energy shaking the prison realm and the barrier that surrounded the anchor itself, forcing a far larger amount of light and power to surge through the restrictive barrier and wash over the surrounding cities. Houses and businesses shook, much to the displeasure of the few that thought to ignore the commotion and continue their efforts in one of the many brothels around the Kong Prison Realm. However, neither the spatial spirit nor the master of the realm could spare their attention, for they had their focus solely on the anchor itself, and the rapid expansion of its centre.


    Much like it had been over the previous few stages and perfected stages, the anchor was slowly bulging out further and further, the sphere of pure planar energy in the middle and the nascent rift being exposed more with every breath.


    Since this was happening, Wei Yi decided that it was a prime opportunity to widen the rift further.


    With five forms of energy available freely to her, all of which had recovered fully by the time that her anchor got around to developing, forcing the nascent rift to grow would be notably less challenging than when she had done it prior to claiming the Kong Prison Realm for herself, when she only had spiritual will, killing intent and physique energy on her side, all of which were in a significantly lower realm back then.


    Furthermore, she gained a greater understanding of planar energy as a whole, had experience with developing energies that seemed entirely unused by the people of the Planar Continents, so she was more than confident in making some significant progress today.


    Cosmic light, silver and crimson, dawn light and moonlight, and the blood-tinged stars of her bloodline converged together upon the rift in the centre of the absolutely blinding anchor, their united power forcing open the quiet rift and pulling apart its edges, unwittingly summoning quite an inappropriate image in her mind as they did so.


    She was able to put that particular thought aside, as she did not yet comprehend anything resembling the Dao of Lust, and instead forced the anchor¡¯s stabilisation to intensify upon its own centre to further assist the growth of the nascent rift. Before her eyes, it rose from being only slightly open at ten percent of its maximum size to eleven, then twelve and thirteen, slowing down once it approached fourteen percent openness. Nevertheless, she continued forcing her energy into the rift, using her own body to withstand the constant radiation of energy from the anchor.


    It didn¡¯t so much hurt as it seemed to be intent on distorting her very being, the close proximity likely impacting her significantly more than it would those behind the barrier, who would only endure strictly beneficial changed in terms of endurance, but she was able to keep herself stable and resisted all such effects, learning a great deal about how to do this most effectively in the process.


    Eventually, it rose to fifteen percent openness, and then ceased at sixteen percent, although she was mostly certain that it could go far, far further so long as her energy was powerful enough.


    While this change seemed insignificant in terms of numbers alone, it was absolutely immense since it transformed from allowing her to recover a tenth of her planar energy per four minutes to bringing her to nearly twenty percent per four minutes, or a similar kind of recovery as before but only in two minutes. Once it was raised to forty, it would be like recovering a tenth of her energy per minute, and if she could open the rift all the way up before reaching the eighth realm, a quarter of her overall energy would recover per minute. Furthermore, that was all if it was assumed that there would be no great change upon the full opening of the rift.


    To be able to recover any kind of energy expenditure in just four minutes was absolutely worthwhile to pursue, and it would guarantee that all of her pools of energy remained filled with at least a drop of energy at all times, and would aid her in resisting any kind of energy conversion if she ever came across it again.


    However, since she was unable to achieve this now, she stepped back and cast down the anchor within her into the prison realm, allowing it to merge with the mirage fully.


    In that moment, it shook the realm once again. This time, the enormous concentration of light that had gathered on the anchor burst outwards in a sphere, completely surrounding the anchor and, for a brief moment, it resembled the core of the fourth realm, as well as the illusory core that had formed since the Planar Pool realm. For a moment, she pondered whether she was mistaken about the nature of the Endless Monolith, but then the overwhelming light revealed its purpose.


    Following it, the anchor similarly exploded outwards, the many chunks and pieces of glistening black crystalline matter bursting out of the structure while the light itself sunk back it, passing through the chunks of the anchor without difficulty. The light settled down around the globe of pure planar energy, enveloping it perfectly and almost multiplying the brightness of the globe.


    Without it blinding everyone including the owner of the anchor, Wei Yi was now able to see the new appearance of her planar anchor, or, as it should rightfully be called, the Endless Monolith that now presided over the prison realm.


    In terms of material, it was naturally still made of a material similar to the one that composed a standard planar anchor, being black and crystalline as it had become due to her cultivation towards perfection. The major difference was the power that it now contained, and the shape that this structure now possessed, with only the top and bottom of the anchor remaining where they had been prior to this.


    The rest now floated around the centre, where the bright light melded with the planar energy and occasionally revealed waves of violet beneath the pure white. These pieces were large, and each seemed to contain a single element, or a single combination of them. One contained sparking golden lightning, another was covered in silver leaves, yet another was coated in flaming cracks and actual flames, which had a tint of phoenix and qilin flame at the same time, as well as yet another that was covered in a thin layer of blood that dripped from it, but never actually led to the decrease of fluid.


    They joined the anchor shards from the Great Family member that had perished in the Kong Prison Realm long ago, floating around the Endless Monolith together.


    The other pieces, from the anchors that belonged to the third generation of the Great Luo Family, which conveniently produced only one shard per anchor ,were not yet added to the Endless Monolith, as Wei Yi was interested in studying them a little more before doing this. If the bloodlines of the Greats were anything to go by, they usually didn¡¯t surpass forty or fifty anchors, so to have more shards than she already had might simply be inviting disaster.


    For now, such a thing wasn¡¯t even necessary. From the fluctuations of energy around the monolith, she was able to tell that the effects of the anchor¡¯s empowerment had not just grown by a little bit, but outright doubled. If she was to set it down now, her every drop of planar energy would have four times the power that it usually would, and with the rapid recovery of the nascent rift, the passive empowerment of her bloodline, and her other four forms of energy, as well as the support of her several Dao, her fighting ability would certainly match that of someone in the fourth realm, or even surpass it without requiring the usage of a single combat technique.


    To make it even better, this was only the first part of the breakthrough process.


    She reached the equivalent of the next realm through her perfected stages combining with regular ones, thus attaining this Endless Monolith, but that still left the perfected stage to break through to, and all that was left was for her to undergo the breakthrough process somewhere other than the prison realm.


    Since one breakthrough didn¡¯t lead to an enormous fissure forming in the ground, the next one that didn¡¯t have as great an effect upon her cultivation was bound to also be safe to undergo.


    Having entered the Kong Prison Realm from the outside of the district, the moment that she left, she was already safe from immediate observation, and with just a little bit of effort, she was able to get a little further away and obscure herself with a few arrays to prevent any unwanted intruders from making their way into her vicinity. Then, she allowed a small quantity of planar energy to seep into her monolith.


    It instantly lit up again, the white energy surrounding the planar sphere expanded and surrounded the monolith, much of it separating from the monolith and wrapping around her body, floating around it for a brief moment before seeping into it.


    Unlike the first time that she had to deal with the white energy, it had no negative effects on her this time, perhaps due to having merged with the pure planar pool that existed within her monolith ¨C funnily enough, that sphere of pure planar energy was many times larger than the usual planar pool of most in the second and third realms, and yet it was not even a source of energy but just an aspect of her former anchor ¨C and instantly mixed with her five forms of power, but did not truly merge with them, instead floating about within them as if it was sand in water.


    ¡®Based on the way that it previously attempted to change my body, I have to assume that this time it will do more of the same. Perhaps I need to circulate my energy myself?¡¯


    If that was indeed the case, then she would be in luck as she would have the ability to focus her energy on whatever she wanted. For example, if she felt that her left arm was in need of some strengthening and improvement in some way understood only by those at such a high plane as the heavens, then she could focus all of her efforts on that arm, and receive far more benefits than if it was just dispersed over her entire body.


    In addition, since it was infused into her own energy, rather than acting out of its own accord, there was a chance that it would follow her own will and understanding of the right path forward, invoking the Dao that she did understand to strengthen herself greatly.


    ¡®Speaking of Dao, I should someday test out whether or not having more of them can negatively affect me, or if it just a straight up improvement,¡¯ she considered while pondering the best place to utilise her energy, ¡®Also speaking of the Dao, this time the Dao of Lust¡­ I should have a decent understanding of it by now, given how much I¡¯ve slept around. Maybe I should try to comprehend it in the future.¡¯


    Since she was already wondering whether it was better to go for more or less in this situation, she kept that in mind and concluded that the best things to enhance this time would be her bones, the framework that made up the body of any human being. If she was right about the white light, whatever it was, then she would have as many chances to use it as she would have breakthroughs until the next realm, or seven more at the very least. With that many chances, she would be able to separately temper her muscles, blood vessels, meridians, vital organs, skin, external organs and her extremities, not necessarily in that order and not necessarily only them.


    The was to make good use of the energy that she had, and so wasting it by spreading it all around her body in one go, when one part might be insufficient to support another, would be foolish.


    It might even be the case that once her foundations are enhanced, the other parts of her body can develop at a faster pace and benefit more from the white energy, and it could even be that if she devoted all of the energy to strengthening nothing but her bones, the eventual gains would be far, far superior to any other approach to this situation. She intended to discard the theory, not because she didn¡¯t think that this could be plausible, but because she simply didn¡¯t know how to strengthen her bones to such a degree.


    While some stories might describe the ability to progress infinitely, reality wasn¡¯t that simple. There was only so much that raw empowerment could do, for even if it was possible for her bones to develop endlessly, it wouldn¡¯t solve certain flaws so much as simply negate them via the same law of strength suppressing weakness as with many things in the world.


    Thus, the only improvement that she could achieve with the energy that she did have was one that affected the core structure of the bones, which is where her problem came from. Due to all of the cultivation and refinement that already happened, she was close to the limit of what she could envisage. Even if she pulled some inspiration from every mythical creature that ever existed in the continents, she would not have much further to go.


    ¡®As a result, unless I accidentally break through in the Dao of Bone ¨C if such a thing can even exist ¨C and receive some great insight into a further development path, a single stage of refinement is all that I can manage.¡¯


    She shut her eyes and retrieved the anchor into her dantian, focusing on her bones.

 V3C63: To the Ping District, Part 1

    It took her half an hour to completely use up the energy that had been sourced from the Endless Monolith, and it ran out just as she also ran out of ideas for how to strengthen the bones any further.


    She had already pulled everything that she knew and understood in order to improve them, with some ideas taken from the frame of the Beast, from the state of her bones during the killing will state, the bones of certain powerful individuals that she had met so far, and even forced her Endless Calculation to deduce some more optimal changes to her body, and all of that was wrung dry in just thirty minutes, showing either the immense capabilities of the white energy or the lack of her proper understanding of bones.


    Either way, there wasn¡¯t much that she could do about it until the next major breakthrough, so she didn¡¯t mind it too much and instead cleaned up the scene, removing any and all traces of her presence that she could before departing from her place outside of the district.


    With the amount of commotion that she caused within the Luo District, even if she got out of there as quickly as possible, the Greats would still realise that something had occurred that could threaten even their immense authority. While they may be unable to gather whether this is only a single instance of rebellion that led to the collective deaths of both sides or the first sign of a greater threat, they would be certain to pay more attention and act with more care in the future.


    This meant that she had to speed up and track down a suitable base for her own group, name currently undecided, or else the Great Families would be more and more prepared each time she sees them, eventually learning of all of her techniques and abilities and finding some methods to counteract everything she could do. Alternatively, they could just summon one of their first-generation cultivators and obliterate her in a single moment, which would not be particularly preferable due to the absolutely immense power that they held.


    If one of those people was to appear, they could change the very geography of the world with one strike, and they would certainly notice the fact that she possessed the spatial realm that they had been so keen to use.


    Fortunately, such individuals typically didn¡¯t leave their hideouts, where they focused on cultivation and management of their families, so there would be little chance of them appearing until the second generation was threatened. Most of the time, this was due to the age at which individuals reached the seventh realm, leading to them being within an old body by the time they are able to make use of that power, giving them little choice but to reserve their strength for when it as truly needed.


    Wei Yi was likely to be able to avoid this due to how quickly she was able to progress now that she was free from the prison realm¡¯s restrictive conversion property, but that didn¡¯t mean that she should threaten those that lacked this opportunity until she could actually achieve something as a result of that threat.


    Due to this, she rushed to the next district in line during the day, and during the night, she returned into the prison realm to get back to a few important discussions.


    ¡°Hello there, Mo Zhouquan. Did you enjoy the sleeping pill I made?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ What have you done to the whispers?¡± the woman questioned, her eyes widening and her black blood blatantly rushing through her veins, ¡°Why did you silence them?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything in particular, so it seems that your corruption is indeed something within the Planar Continents that is able to influence you, and not an inherent property of the things that you have inflicted upon yourself and everything around you. Fortunately, I¡¯ve figured out how to stop the bed you are lying on from changing into flesh, so at the very least that much was solved with little difficulty,¡± Wei Yi mentioned.


    They were within a room beneath Beast¡¯s Rest, within the carcass of the sole Hunger of the Beyond, where Mo Zhouquan had been sealed and put to sleep after being captured as part of the task set by the Greats through Luo Lia Kun.


    The bed that the black-blooded woman lay upon was not a particularly important or valuable thing, made using various metal-type materials now highly common in the prison realm, but it would still be a pain for everything in close proximity to her to constantly need to be switched to avoid the transformation into the corrupted substance that her previous bed had become.


    Wei Yi stood beside the entrance, facing that bed and the woman that had been laid upon it.


    Her inference was expected to be met with denial, or something of the sort, but instead Mo Zhouquan sighed and nodded, ¡°Yes, that is likely. The Corruptor¡¯s Enclave sought to learn, but this was not something that we were able to test.¡±


    ¡°Well, now you know, and your speech appears to have become notably more coherent. Is that what not having constant whispering in your ears does to you?¡±


    ¡°¡­ You have either changed, or you show a new face. Then again, you were able to extract the heart of corruption from your being, so you had already revealed yourself then, and I was simply too lost to notice,¡± she once again impressed Wei Yi with how calmly she was able to handle the situation, ¡°I had not been able to sense your realm, but it was said you were in Emergent Anchor. Was that not true either?¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s correct. If you¡¯re asking why I have a spatial realm, that¡¯s a different story, and one that I can easily share with you if we are able to come to an understanding and work together,¡± Wei Yi said, although she couldn¡¯t easily showcase her anchor to prove it.


    ¡°What kind of understanding do you want? I may see the situation clearly, but that doesn¡¯t mean that I will spill everything I know just for a chance of cooperation.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunate, although I hardly expected you to. Yi Shi Ming, could you-¡±


    When she spoke those words out loud, she was doing so for several reasons, but prime amongst them was the fact that the Corruptor¡¯s Enclave had to be an ancient organisation to be aware of anything resembling the true form of Primordial Corruption. Since Mo Zhouquan appeared to be quite corrupted, it could be assumed that she was not low in the ranks of her group, especially if authority and placement in the hierarchy did not depend solely on cultivation within said organisation. So long as some ancient knowledge was maintained, it wouldn¡¯t be impossible for certain names and words to be retained.


    In fact, there could be countless groups, districts and factions that know the true names of the Master of Yi City and his mother, but most might lack the information needed to ascribe that name to the correct person.


    What she didn¡¯t quite expect was for Mo Zhouquan to leap off her bed, stand up straight, then bow respectfully in the direction of the door, which happened to be to Wei Yi¡¯s side.


    ¡°I apologise if I have said anything rude so far¡­¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­¡±


    The spatial spirit appeared within the room and carefully examined the woman bowing to her, then looked to Wei Yi and shook her head, ¡°I am afraid that I have no knowledge of this woman, nor her organisation, or else I would have informed you of it earlier. I also do not know what you or I have done to provoke this reaction.¡±


    ¡°There is a piece of information known to the Enclave, and that is of a name and place where the person by that name is said to rest,¡± Mo Zhouquan explained, raising herself until she could look at more than their boots while still remaining in a bow, ¡°That name is of the mother of the Master of Yi City, Yi Shi Ming. That place is known as the Refinery to us, although that is not likely to be the true name. One is thought to have become a spatial spirit, the other is a spatial realm that is greatly separated from the Planar Continents.¡±


    ¡°So, you managed to put it together with just that little bit of information. Quite impressive, really. Tell me, what relationship does your Enclave wish to have with the Master of Yi City and what remains of his efforts?¡±


    ¡°You mean to ask whether we would have sided with Primordial Corruption or her¡­ him?¡±


    ¡°The Master of Yi City was a man, of that I am certain,¡± she confirmed.


    ¡°Then let me say this with absolute certainty ¨C we would have been on his side all throughout the conflict with the primordial gods, had we existed at the time. It is what I have been taught of our past, and I am almost certain that the rest of our Corruptor¡¯s has those views, for the name of Yi Shi Ming is quite revered, and we greatly respect every effort by the Master of Yi City,¡± Mo Zhouquan affirmed, finally relaxing her bow and straightening her back again, ¡°Our study of corruption was not meant to bring us to the primordial god, but perhaps it did result in such a thing. However, that is yet to change our alliances.¡±


    ¡°Good to hear. Does that mean you¡¯ll spill a bit more information than you initially planned, or will some action need to be taken?¡±


    ¡°I can speak in some detail about our actions, but if you would seal me within the Refinery and get some use out of me, I would rather work and study. I am sure that a place like this has a lot that can be learned from.¡±


    ¡°Before that, I wish to ask a question,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, ¡°Were there no other names passed down?¡±


    ¡°To answer the ancestor, I am afraid not. This knowledge comes from a document that was ancient even when we had first found it, and it was greatly decayed then. All it told of was an aspect of the Master of Yi City¡¯s life, and how his mother was greatly respected by him, and served to guide him in many decisions. A version of this story that is more recent does exist, but it lacks any reference to names.¡±


    ¡°I see. Carry on, Wei Yi.¡±


    ¡°In fact, I only have one major question for you, after which I could easily let you stick around without forcing you to work ¨C not that I will do that. I just want you to answer this,¡± Wei Yi said, pausing for a little while, ¡°If you had to pick between the people of Yi City and the Great Families, the existence of which you supposedly learned of when I captured you, which would you select?¡±


    ¡°You are referring to Them, yes? I did learn of them, and that they were present at the Brotherhood of Power, and that they would go against the principles of the Corruptor¡¯s Enclave. Also, by your wording, it is obvious what you wish me to say¡­¡±


    ¡°Then say it.¡±


    ¡°I would side with the people of the City, and I would certainly hope that my faction would do the same. If not, I would leave it, if I can.¡±


    ¡°Excellent,¡± Wei Yi smiled, holding out her hand, ¡°Then, I will indeed wish to make use of any of your skills and talents for my gains, and that of Yi City as a whole. When a safer place for us has been found, you could even leave freely, so long as you don¡¯t do anything to betray my trust. In other words, don¡¯t do anything stupid, and don¡¯t throw that corruption of yours all over the place, either.¡±


    ¡°I will strive to do my best,¡± Mo Zhouquan gripped her hand and shook it.


    Some time later, Wei Yi and Luo Lia Kun stood at the balcony of one of the many Beast¡¯s Rest brothels that also featured offices for the former¡¯s faction. As a result, their walls were even more soundproof than those of the regular brothels, which already had to prevent all of the customers that didn¡¯t wish to overhear those in neighbouring rooms from being constantly bombarded with such things. Even the balcony at which they stood was mostly devoid of the sound of moaning, among other sounds.


    ¡°So, you are telling me that most of the people that I had sent you to kill are still alive? How did you fake their deaths?¡±


    ¡°Well, the first thing should be obvious, seeing as that guard is still thinking that she is able to stare at me and is trying to do so from over there,¡± Wei Yi nodded towards the shy guard, who was, at the very least, slowly getting tired of this unnecessary stalking, ¡°Also, I had never really put much effort into tricking you. All I did was present you with a heart that I grew from a particle of flesh.¡±


    ¡°Is that¡­ even possible?¡±


    ¡°Unless you don¡¯t believe me, which you really should considering what you can see from here, then I¡¯m afraid your question doesn¡¯t make much sense to me?¡±


    She waved towards the Endless Monolith that lit up the spatial realm, as well as all of the metal-type herbs that were growing on the outskirts of Beast¡¯s Rest. While there were a few herbs, trees and miracle fruits of other types planted within the Kong Prison Realm as part of the effort to repopulate it with life and benefit the entire realm, they were easily overshadowed by the vast number of plants with metallic shades, golden sheens and many other features present in metal-type flora.


    Most of them were medium and high-grade material regardless of their nature, as she had enhanced most of them significantly and allowed the rest to be empowered by that which grew around them. In turn, they would contribute slightly to the rise in planar energy concentration, which would develop the rest of the materials further.


    In combination with the slight rise in energy that occurred after the death of two of the Greats, which affected both the prison realm and the Planar Continents despite one occurring in the Kong Prison Realm, where the connection to the outside world was only in one direction, the spatial realm¡¯s harvests would soon promote one another to their highest qualities, so long as care was taken when handling them and they were planted as to guarantee that a plant of high yin wouldn¡¯t be placed beside one of high yang. This was something that Wei Yi would occasionally check, and had planned out when first getting these materials into the realm, so it would be unlikely for this aspect her plans to go wrong any time soon.


    ¡°No, I was referring to your ability to create a heart from almost nothing. Wouldn¡¯t that mean that any injury could be rendered null so long as you are able to create a new organ and replace the old one. Certain healers know how to transplant organs¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes, and that might be a good application. I haven¡¯t experimented with it much. All I know is that with enough lifeforce, I can force plants to grow, bodies to recover, and if a piece of flesh cannot connect back to the part of the body on which it belongs, it will grow out again,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°I could show it to you, but I¡¯ve been told that it is quite painful, and that there is a brief moment in which it seems that the heart is connected to them, although it never is.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­ To be frank, I had never expected anything like this to come out of recruiting you¡­¡±


    ¡°That means my plans worked. If you were able to tell that I would be able to lead to the death of the third generation of the Great Luo Family just from my actions before then, I wouldn¡¯t have succeeded. That being said, I think we should discuss the recruitment, as well as the fact that your Remnants of Yin are now in my territory. Just like for everyone else that ended up here, I will not let you go until a safe place is found, but before then we should establish whatever factions will end up working for the liberation of Yi City,¡± she stated, ¡°First and foremost, do you want the Remnants to be separate?¡±


    Luo Lia Kun pondered the question for a moment, before shaking her head, ¡°If Great Dark and Great Light were still here, it might have been better to be apart from one another. However, all that is left is me, and I have never been good at direct leadership. So¡­ could I be your vice-leader too?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. If anyone will have that role, it will be Yi Shi Ming, or perhaps Meng Chu, but not you. It¡¯s nothing personal, but I don¡¯t know you well enough.¡±


    ¡°No, I understand¡­ even if it is a shame¡­¡± the former vice-leader sighed, ¡°Then, what exactly would you want me to be doing? My combat skill is not low by any means, but as you said yourself, you do not intend to let us out of here prior to getting to safety. Do you want me and the rest of the Remnants to bring our information together?¡±


    ¡°Exactly, that is what would be best. I require more knowledge about the Greats, about the wars that had been fought against them, their outcomes and so on. You and your Remnants ¨C who can keep the name as part of the greater faction, if only for convenience ¨C know more than most of the people here, since most aren¡¯t part of the first generation of prisoners, and did not have the tendency to take good care of their books and historical records,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing back at some of the old books that sat atop a lone shelf behind them, ¡°You, on the other hand, have a more recent understanding of events, which might be of great use depending on the nature of it.¡±


    ¡°I hope so. By the way, how much of your persona was false? If I am to work beneath, or alongside you, I would like to know who I am working with.¡±


    ¡°Given how little I showed you, that much is easy to say. I am very powerful, but I am by no means mindless. In fact, I would like to say that I do possess some intelligence, and if not for my strongest weapon being my body and not some sophisticated weapon, I would be focusing on it more. I do like being straightforward, since it makes most conversations much clearer and nicer,¡± she explained, ¡°Finally, I am indeed a very energetic lover of women.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ was not something that I needed to hear,¡± Luo Lia Kun turned away for a moment, ¡°Still, at the very least that was a genuine action, not another act. If it had been, I would be rather afraid to believe a single word from you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, while my acting can occasionally be decent, I am not at all fond of doing it. If I could, I would always show my true face,¡± Wei Yi said truthfully, ¡°Perhaps I will get my wish someday.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps. Is there a place where I may write some things up for you? A study, office or library somewhere?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll get Meng Chu for you, and you can figure it out with him. Beneath the main city, there should be quite a few spare rooms, and I am sure that there is one near our offices that you could occupy. Perhaps it will even have a bedroom nearby, if you still need sleep at your realm,¡± she smiled, knowing perfectly well that there was indeed an empty room like that with her perception of the entire prison realm.


    Later, Mo Zhouquan, Zhi Qiu Ya and Long Huang, the last of which was quite difficult to pull away from all of the native residents of the prison realm due to the bloodline potential contained within them, were all brought to a chamber in the tunnels beneath the city, with Wei Yi now standing before them. The wolven woman was seated on a large surface in the middle of the room, a stone object that could almost resemble the coffin within a large mausoleum save for the lack of a lid, and the other two stood on either side of her, with the expert on bloodlines being a little more impatient than the one on corruption.


    ¡°Judging by the people here, you have something to say on the topic of bloodlines?¡± Long Huang inquired, turning her head to Mo Zhouquan almost expectedly. When the latter woman said nothing, something that resembled disappointment appeared on her face.


    ¡°Yes, that is the case. Somewhat recently, I have achieved a breakthrough in terms of my bloodline, and besides uncovering a new form of energy,¡± Wei Yi stated. Showcasing her bloodline power to all three of them with varying levels of curiosity arising within every single one of them, ¡°With it, I can confirm that the phenomenon that has occurred to Zhi Qiu Ya is indeed related to a bloodline, although there is also a trace of something that does indeed resemble corruption.¡±


    ¡°So¡­ What exactly does that mean for me? Can you get rid of it?¡± the wolven woman asked, leaping up from the stone surface.


    ¡°That much is not guaranteed, but I may be able to remove some of it. You see, while I have the ability to absorb bloodlines from bodies, I have not experimented with live subjects just yet,¡± she explained while ignoring the slightly excited hopping of Long Huang, ¡°I can test it on you, and hopefully stop any chance of death, but it might be rather unpleasant.¡±


    ¡°More unpleasant than all of the things that she has done?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Wei Yi hesitated for a moment since both of the women to their sides were rather keen on unpleasant experiments, and shrugged when she couldn¡¯t decide which one would be worse, nor what exactly they would get up to, ¡°I intend to make no incisions, nor drain any of your blood, nor shove any kind of corrupted matter into you, if Mo Zhouquan ever did such a thing. Furthermore, I have a very good understanding of what is and isn¡¯t painful, so I will strive to avoid it whenever possible.¡±


    ¡°Assuming that you do have some success, would it entirely cure me? Would I lose the ears and tail and everything?¡± Zhi Qiu Ya asked again, ¡°Actually, that¡¯s not too important. Will it remove the other self?¡±


    ¡°That particular aspect may be caused by one of two things, or both, actually: the core of the bloodline in your body, which I may be able to remove, but what I cannot alter is the depths of your mind, where the wolven persona might have been born as a method to live out some experience that your conscious mind refused to provide, or to deal with something that you weren¡¯t able to confront. If the latter is the cause, then you must be the one to resolve it if you don¡¯t want to wait for me to reach the ninth realm so that I have the ability to change as much of your mind as possible,¡± she said.


    ¡°Are you telling me that you were the one to suggest that?¡± Long Huang asked, nodding immediately after, ¡°Yes, that would explain where such a thought came from.¡±


    Since she answered herself, the other two that were involved in the conversation looked at one another for a while before the wolven woman sighed, her hopes of the mental problem being resolved in a far less embarrassing ¨C in her mind, at the very least ¨C manner than the alternative.


    ¡°I see¡­ Alright, I will go for it anyway. Do I need to sit down? Prepare? Do you need to prepare?¡±


    ¡°Nah, just lie down on that thing and consider how exactly you will shout or cry out if you feel extreme pain. Most people shouldn¡¯t be able to hear you, but Mo Zhouquan and Long Huang most certainly will, so you might want to sound your best,¡± Wei Yi suggested, ¡°Depending on whether you want to make yourself seem sensible or unnecessarily erotic-¡±


    ¡°If I end up screaming in pain, I will do so in my own way, thanks,¡± she stopped her, lying down on the stone.


    ¡°Yes. I keep doing that as of late. I think I need to go for a break somewhere and ponder nature or some stalks of grass or something. Anyway, once you are prepared, I will begin, and shall not stop until I either cannot proceed, or I succeed. After this, I might be able to do more, either soon or not, but I cannot guarantee that no matter what I would like to say. Also, do consider whether you would like to keep your wolven parts, or if you would prefer to have them all removed and all of the changes to your body undone.¡±


    Once Zhi Qiu Ya confirmed her understanding of the matter, she shut her eyes and took a breath.


    Wei Yi allowed her to complete several deep breaths before placing her hand upon the woman¡¯s stomach, letting her get used to the mere proximity of her bloodline just in case the bloodline within Zhi Qiu Ya had some kind of rejection to her own energy.


    Fortunately, even when she made her bloodline power come into direct contact with the woman¡¯s skin, there appeared to be no adverse effects, so she didn¡¯t delay any longer and thrust the exact amount of energy that she believed to be necessary into her body, immediately eliciting the exact kind of cry that the wolven woman hadn¡¯t wanted.


    ¡°Is this process meant to be pleasurable?¡± Mo Zhouquan asked, a piece of her former energy returning.


    ¡°Not really,¡± Wei Yi replied, taking a glance at the Truth of the Universe to find that a Dao at Initial Accomplishment had appeared despite her attempts not to invoke it as a Dao, ¡®Well, using that one for experimentation is no longer an option. I would prefer to know why this has suddenly occurred, given that I didn¡¯t do anything that would typically lead to the creation and condensation of a Dao, but I¡¯m sure it¡¯s fine¡­¡¯


    In a realm surrounded by the broken shards of reality, all bending and breaking, a katana made of pure black metal floated beside a woman whose right eye was covered by her long, straight hair, while her other eye was a dark violet that enticed and drew the attention of all.


    On her inviting face, an alluring smile formed as she looked into the distance.


    Consuming the bloodline of a living individual appeared to be notably safer than attempting to drain physique energy, which was either impossible or guaranteed to kill, but it was immediately more difficult when it came to the source of that bloodline. That object, which she assumed was the living plague that everyone had spoken of, immediately caused a great burst of pain that was heard clearly by everyone. Unlike a number of previous cries, this one had no mixed messages whatsoever, and was even followed by a drop of blood pouring from her nose.


    ¡°I sense the agitation of corruption, although it is not the same that I am familiar with,¡± Mo Zhouquan explained, ¡°It is quite notable in strength.¡±


    ¡°I can tell, thanks. Do you think it would kill her if I tried to destroy the living plague?¡±


    ¡°If it acts in any way like our seed of corruption, then it would be incredibly dangerous.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°Since you have more experience with this, I¡¯ll trust your judgement. Withdrawing bloodline power in a moment, get ready for the extreme sensation that might lead to.¡±


    The wolven woman was naturally unable to reply since she was rather preoccupied with everything that she was already feeling, so it was assumed that she heard her, and Wei Yi proceeded. Seeing as keeping her bloodline power near the living plague wasn¡¯t working in their favour, she withdrew it slowly, checking the exact distance that she had in order to avoid immediate suffering. When she found that distance, she kept her energy at it in a small sphere while sending the rest throughout her body.


    Once everything but the living plague was gathered, she withdrew a part of her energy and observed how it would react, finding that it did not immediately begin to spread out the bloodline traces if she no longer surrounded it in energy.


    ¡®Well then, this should be enough for now.¡¯

 V3C64: To the Ping District, Part 2

    ¡®A bloodline that resembles a tree with a wolven head poking out of the trunk¡­¡¯ Wei Yi noted to herself while she conquered that energy and integrated it as her own power, ¡®If the seed of corruption is in some way influenced by Primordial Corruption, could this living plague be some remnant influence of Primordial Nature? Given the apparent similarity between them, it certainly wouldn¡¯t be strange.¡¯


    Yi Shi Ming did not have much knowledge on the matter besides being able to confirm that the living plague did resemble something that Primordial Nature would create and use. Besides that, she had no clue whether or not this was the work of the actual primordial deity, someone¡¯s imitation of it, or even a natural part of the world that had come to be since the mother of the Master of Yi City had the chance to look around the Western Continent. She did express some concern at the possibility of absorbing the bloodline of anything close to Primordial Nature, but after Wei Yi confirmed that her path shouldn¡¯t lead to any negative effects, she did not argue with her about it.


    With that out of the way, Zhi Qiu Ya was able to rise, albeit barely. She was exhausted, as anyone would be, but her body remained strong.


    ¡°Just in case you didn¡¯t hear us a short while ago, the living plague could not be removed, but any traces of the bloodline have been. It may return later, in which case I could just keep cleaning it up until a more permanent solution is found, or such a thing may turn out to be unnecessary.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­¡±


    ¡°Just to be certain of things, there¡¯s one thing that I wish to try that I never managed to observe due to you always being away when you transformed into your wolven state ¨C could you please allow that personality to emerge, even if you aren¡¯t that keen on it? I promise that I won¡¯t let you do anything stupid if you won¡¯t be able to control yourself, and I may even accidentally figure out how to help you out with that personality.¡±


    She had looked like she wanted to refuse at first, but when the request was fully presented, Zhi Qiu Ya had been swayed just enough by everything up to that point, prompting her to say, ¡°Alright, I believe that I am able to do that. Please don¡¯t allow me to do anything¡­ unbecoming¡­. Here I go¡­¡±


    Despite her words, it clearly wasn¡¯t something that she could do at will, nor immediately. Even if Wei Yi had so little control of her spiritual perception that she needed to fan it over to her target with her hands or a fan, she would have had enough time to do so before traces of the other self finally began to emerge.


    It began with the slight twitching of her shut eyes, then of her fingers and muscles. Her very blood seemed to be agitated for a short while, flowing rather erratically and wildly throughout her body, before her eyes suddenly opened.


    And yet, they were not the same as before, for they had clear understanding and cognition.


    ¡°Eh? Am I back already?¡± Zhi Qiu Ya questioned when she found herself standing in the same place, with everyone else looking at her strangely, ¡°What did I do? Did I do something?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ I suppose inaction is, in a way, an action in its own right, an active stance that one could take¡­¡± Wei Yi replied, letting her attempt to figure that out for a moment before plainly stating, ¡°The thing is, you¡¯re still in your bestial state, or, at the very least, you should be. The living plague¡¯s influence, its tendrils, sort of, have extended all throughout your body, primarily attaching to your animal characteristics. However, as I most certainly don¡¯t need to explain to you right now, you are still yourself. This is actually what I was talking about when I mentioned control.¡±


    ¡°It¡­ it is?¡±


    ¡°Yes. As I had mentioned before, your animal self is clearly born of your mind, at least in part. The fact that it acts more like an animal than some wild human is probably related to the living plague, sure, but the nature of it is still a version of you. You¡¯ve never attempted to enter it intentionally, have you?¡±


    ¡°No, I would have never purposefully thrown my body away to some wolf before you specifically asked me to¡­ How is that significant?¡±


    ¡°To allow it to dwell in your body is, in part, an acceptance of it. Once you accept it, understand it, and then resolve the things that are truly not to your liking, you will be rid of it, and the two minds will unite. Perhaps you may even gain some mental strength from the process, as well as some of your memories from the bestial state,¡± she explained, placing her hand on Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s head and brushing past one of her animal ears, ¡°Now, if you would, see if you can hear it right now. A voice, or just some feeling¡­¡±


    The wolven woman nearly shook her head, but the steady hand upon it stopped any kind of movement, forcing her to listen closely if she wanted to be able to go anywhere after this. For a few moments, her eyes were shut.


    When they did open once again, they had lost some of their clarity, but only a small amount, so small that a less observant individual than the three other people present might not have noticed anything at all. They remained that way as they focused on the world, then looked at Wei Yi. A spark of interest appeared then, only to disappear alongside the haziness in Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s vision.


    Since she was paying attention to the interior of the woman¡¯s body, Wei Yi was able to see the tendrils of the living plague stretch out just a little further when clarity returned to her eyes.


    ¡°I felt it¡­ something. It was clearly interested in you, for some reason¡­¡±


    ¡°Now that makes a lot more sense. The living plague takes a greater degree of control the moment that you begin denying the truth and trying to separate yourself and the wolf, as we shall call your other self for now,¡± Wei Yi stated, causing the wolven woman to shiver as she was seen through immediately, ¡°If you had told me that you had no idea what your other self gets up to, then I¡¯d believe you, but you had clearly known that it has certain primal interests. How can you possibly not have a clue now?¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± Zhi Qiu Ya bit her lower lip, drawing a little bit of blood with her sharper teeth, ¡°It has other desires as well-¡±


    ¡°It? As I said, that is still you. The best explanation I could give you, if you need me to repeat myself, is that that it is essentially a part of you seen through a wolven lens of sorts, slightly twisting the final image and amplifying certain parts while negating others, but a simple lens cannot create that which isn¡¯t there. Clearly, you have some degree of attraction to people, even if you try to ignore it.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ no¡­¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t force you to do anything ¨C as I said way back when we were first talking about this ¨C but it would be for your own good to give this some proper thought. The moment that you are free to change between states, with neither one binding you down, that¡¯s when you¡¯ll get the most out of life.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Wait, what would the difference in states be? If these two parts were indeed to merge, then wouldn¡¯t I be both at the same time?¡±


    ¡°Right, I forgot to mention another theory born from my own comprehension of transformation and alteration,¡± Wei Yi said, transforming her left hand to and from the killing will state while also checking the Truth of the Universe to see whether that would conveniently appear as some advanced Dao for her to utilise, ¡°In theory, you possess the capability for changing parts of your body with ease based on the extension and recession of the tendrils of the living plague, so there is a slight chance that when you do change back, you-¡±


    There was little chance for her to finish before Zhi Qiu Ya went right back to her primary mind so quickly that one would miss it if they simply blinked. Besides how impressive such a thing was, what with how she had taken so long to change into this state, it also allowed Wei Yi to witness the tendrils within her recede at an immense speed, eliciting a yelp as a number of other things went with them.


    Right before their eyes, the tail, ears and the extended nails all sank into the woman¡¯s body, whose descriptor could hardly remain as ¡®wolven¡¯ when almost every major feature of the animalistic physical state disappeared, leaving only the minor changes from Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s original appearance. Her hair, no matter where one looked on her body, was still white and somewhat fur-like, her eyes were still like that of a wolf, and judging by the fact that no changes occurred to her nose, her sense of smell was bound to remain exactly as it had been, although it was difficult to say that this was a major disadvantage most of the time.


    At the moment, however, the white-haired woman clearly couldn¡¯t care less.


    ¡°It worked! They¡¯re gone! Those stupid ears are gone! The annoying tail is gone!¡± she almost shouted in her excitement, practically bouncing up and down with every sentence, ¡°It¡¯s great! Amazing! Fantastic! Wei Yi, I love you!¡±


    ¡°Ahem.¡±


    ¡°Hm? Did I¡­ say that last part out loud?¡±


    Long Huang muttered to herself, ¡°I swear, when I had figured out how to stop you from marking everything, you didn¡¯t celebrate nearly as much. Only got a ¡®thank you¡¯¡­¡±


    ¡°Besides those matters,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing at the woman to her left for a moment before deciding to speak with her alone at a later time, ¡°you may be celebrating too early. Even though you¡¯re not in the wolven state, those tendrils are slowly growing outward. I hope that I don¡¯t need to remind you of what that means?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ I¡¯m rejecting myself again, right?¡±


    ¡°Exactly. If you do it too much, those things will grow out again, and then you¡¯ll be back to doing all the stuff you hate, likely prompted specifically by that fact. The tail and ears ¨C which disappeared in a most fantastic way, by the way, leaving no trace of their presence despite the integral changes that they had made to your constitution ¨C aren¡¯t necessarily a part of your true personality or anything, but they are, at the moment, a part of you. Instead of simply celebrating their disappearance, ponder how you can use this ability to your advantage, both the features and the power to call them out.¡±


    Zhi Qiu Ya didn¡¯t immediately reply, but judging by the cessation of the tendril¡¯s growth, she had clearly understood her words.


    ¡°¡­ Will I be able to sleep and remain in my hu- normal state from now on?¡±


    ¡°So long as the tendrils do not reach out all the way to the outer edges of your body while your regular side is on display, you should be able to, although subconscious thoughts may lead to the decay or improvement of your situation depending on their contents. When you do call upon your other self, put some thought into what it wants, why, and where such a desire might have come from,¡± Wei Yi advised, ¡°Eventually, you will understand it perfectly.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I-I will try. Just before I go, could I ask why this other self is so connected to the living plague? Do you have any ideas?¡±


    ¡°Naturally. I think that the living plague, just like the seed of corruption that she has, is born of some other will, and contains a part of it, or is perhaps an extension of it. When it attached itself to you, it sought a weakness in your mind, and probably found it in the form of a series of aspects, desires and whatever else that weren¡¯t allowed to emerge. It took them, separated them even further, and amplified them with its own twist of the wolven state, allowing it to gain control over your body and do as it wished with it. If you had lacked such a weakness, or if you were able to reconcile with your other self quickly, perhaps you wouldn¡¯t have been transformed much at all. Then again, this is only a theory.¡±


    ¡°Even if it just a theory, I will keep it in mind¡­ You have proven to be very clever, and so you are probably right. You have to be right often, or else you wouldn¡¯t have been able to get as far as you have with this realm, and your actions outside of it¡­ Right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, something like that. Now, go on, rest, see if you can¡¯t gain some insights during sleep. Do try out some of the local businesses and sights, if you aren¡¯t afraid to do so. Some of them might do you and the mental split some good, while some may just be entertaining and relaxing,¡± Wei Yi recommended to her as she began to leave, ¡°Just look for me or Yi Shi Ming if you need to.¡±


    ¡°I will.¡±


    She left, her mind clearly forgetting about her recent exhaustion even if her body didn¡¯t, resulting in somewhat shaky movements.


    With the not-so-wolven woman gone, only three remained in that room, with one being significantly more eager to speak than the others, with her still unconsciously bobbing up and down from her earlier excitement from witnessing a number of developments in the field of bloodline research.


    For a moment, there was silence, before that woman decided to speak.


    ¡°So, can I get any explanation of what is happening here? That one is suddenly all quiet, you suddenly have transformative abilities and I¡¯m not even allowed to take blood samples from anyone,¡± Long Huang asked, folding her arms, ¡°I don¡¯t really care about all of the business with the Brotherhood and all that, but if I¡¯m not going to be allowed to experiment with whoever I want, then I really don¡¯t see what my purpose here is.¡±


    ¡°Actually, I would like you to continue with your research, but on willing participants, and to combine your knowledge with my own. I managed to step onto the path of bloodline power by observing one of your devices, but you are bound to know a lot more than that. If you¡¯re successful, I may even guide you to develop bloodline power on your own.¡±


    ¡°Bloodline power ¨C is that literally power born of your bloodline? It¡¯s not just some particular manifestation of planar energy?¡±


    ¡°You just had to ask the most complicated question, didn¡¯t you? Bloodlines are, in themselves, a manifestation of planar energy, as are physiques, spiritual will and perception, and killing intent. None of them are likely to be able to exist of planar energy itself was to not exist ¨C and not merely absent, as it was here for quite some time. As a result, whenever I showcase bloodline power, it is indeed a side of planar energy, but it is separate from it and can be condensed by someone even if they lack a planar cultivation,¡± Wei Yi explained, wishing that she had prepared a few diagrams or something in order to make this easier, ¡°It is reliant on your bloodline, its power changing based on it, but what you have to keep in mind is that it requires a full set of meridians to cultivate it.¡±


    ¡°The human body has a number of wasted meridian pathways. I¡¯m sure that can be dealt with,¡± Long Huang said with great confidence, prompting Wei Yi to consider that very topic in far more detail than she had before.


    Due to the way in which she obtained her sets of meridians, she had been able to experience the freedom of practising all five paths of energy without any difficulty nor overlap, and was able to optimise the combined meridian networks into something with no hint of inefficiency, and since most others also cultivated the entirety of a single set of meridians, this idea had never entered her head. However, as she could see from the meridian networks of both Mo Zhouquan and Long Huang now, she was able to notice quite the number of connections that weren¡¯t all that useful nor often used.


    In particular, the bloodline expert appeared to have only ever touched the necessary meridians to complete a full circulation, giving her just enough room to, in theory, run a second circulation of energy alongside it. There was even potential for them to never come into direct contact into one another, so long as a sort of pulse was maintained.


    ¡°You know¡­ What is your stance on experimentation involving your own body?¡±


    ¡°If it is to do with bloodlines, and if it might allow me to be the first in accomplishing something, I shall not hesitate unless it looks like a blatant attempt to kill myself.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°That¡¯s a reasonable attitude for a researcher. Then, I will put together everything I can tell you about the meridians, circulation, bloodline power and planar energy, as well as cultivation itself, and you can attempt to be the first to achieve two forms of cultivation in a single meridian network.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind aspiring to such a thing¡­ Even if the specificity and the fact that your hand can freely change to something rather unnatural makes me think that you¡¯ve already got a few individual paths under your control.¡±


    ¡°Five, to be exact. However, I had the luck of five meridian networks, while you do not. I think it would be interesting to see what such a cultivation path could result in, whether that result is a greatly beneficial one or not. While I will provide you with as much information as necessary, you may not share this with your faction, whatever it is,¡± she stated, ¡°I don¡¯t care whether it¡¯s the Blood-tinged Church or some offshoot, but this information is staying with us.¡±


    ¡°I suppose you could call us that¡­ But we are no longer connected to the maniacs of the Blood-tinged Church. As the Blood Alchemists, we were committed not only to obliterating the maddened worship of those madmen, but also to paving the way to the usage of blood without insane tests that seem more intent on killing all than actual advancement. What they did with Chao Jianhong was terrible.¡±


    ¡°In that case, we might be able to get along a little better than I initially assumed.¡±


    ¡°Why? Are you familiar with either one of us, or were you convinced merely by my simple declarations?¡±


    ¡°I am familiar with the occasional rumours of the Blood-tinged Church, and I am very familiar with the story of Chao Jianhong, the Lady of Ashes. She¡¯s the reason I didn¡¯t dare mess around with blood until I was at least somewhat certain of how to do so safely,¡± Wei Yi explained, earning a quick nod from Long Huang as if she was confirming that her actions were valid, ¡°For that reason, I much prefer any faction that isn¡¯t so keen to make use of those fearing death to learn more about the interaction between an overly powerful bloodline and a human.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that was the kind of thinking that had led to the separation of the Blood Alchemists from the rest of the Church, and the abandonment of most of their practises. With your knowledge, you could easily have a position within it.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps. I¡¯ll think about it later. For now, pay attention¡­¡±


    ¡°What is this?¡± Wei Yi was forced to ask when she saw Fu Zan and Aimi Miyu playing around with something that was most certainly not what she had asked either one of them to do.


    ¡°This is a game!¡± Miyu declared, as if that much wasn¡¯t obvious.


    Those two sat around a tower of small wooden bricks, made to be longer than they were wide or tall, stacked in sets of five that faced alternating directions, with some of the bricks having been removed and placed on top in a similar manner.


    At the moment that she entered, Fu Zan had been carefully tapping the ends of certain bricks while Miyu stared at his actions attentively, occasionally giggling in a childish manner that clearly put the former off to an extent that he was unable to commit to any actions, whatever they were meant to be. Since Wei Yi hadn¡¯t been paying attention from the very start of their game, and since no rules were discussed as both seemed familiar with it, she couldn¡¯t be certain of everything that a player could and couldn¡¯t do, and had to assume that this moment only allowed for the removal of bricks.


    After another moment of careful examination, the clothing artisan drew back and said, ¡°It¡¯s something from our Orbis. It is really simple, requires no great effort to make, so we decided to make it.¡±


    ¡°He did most of the work, I sat by.¡±


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s good to hear. Did you do the things that I told you to, or were you too lazy to?¡±


    ¡°You mean the reading? I did it! I did all of it! I haven¡¯t even slept yet, although I don¡¯t know whether a day has passed yet¡­ For example, I can check your status, if you want?¡± receiving a small nod, she focused on Wei Yi and a shape appeared in her eyes, ¡°You¡¯re in the third realm, Emergent Anchor, sixth stage and fifth perfected stage. Is that right?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, but that is also the most basic thing that you could have learned. Everyone in the prison realm knows about these things, so you could have easily overheard someone else and learned these terms from them. In fact, Fu Zan was supposed to tell you, no?¡±


    ¡°I Know more! You¡¯re in the second stage of Hatred Augur and Balanced Being, and in the sixth stage of Progressive Difference!¡±


    ¡°That kind of terminology should still be even more common around here.¡±


    ¡°B-But¡­ I can¡¯t see more! That¡¯s all it tells me¡­¡± she almost cried out, dropping to her knees with enough force to topple the tower of wooden bricks, ¡°Please, I did actually read all of it, but I don¡¯t know how to prove it to you!¡±


    Her insistence was difficult to argue with, and given how poor she was at lying, it did appear that she had actually done as she claimed, ¡°Alright, that¡¯s fine. So long as you have paid attention and memorised everything, I won¡¯t complain. When I have the time, I¡¯ll get you some more things to study, but you don¡¯t have to rush that. Also, if you hadn¡¯t started to try and prove your words with things that aren¡¯t very convincing, you would have been fine.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Miyu asked about one of her statements while she grabbed onto Wei Yi¡¯s hips and pulled herself closer, ¡°Are you telling the truth?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Which part should I confirm or deny? I¡¯ll not be complaining if you do what you can, you don¡¯t need to rush in studying, and you could have just said that you were doing what you were meant to be. Was that what you wanted to know?¡± she answered, ¡°Also, you spoke in Antanorden again.¡±


    ¡°Right, I did¡­ Sorry, when did I get here? Why am I here? You look much prettier today¡­¡±


    ¡°Fu Zan, just how long has it been since she last slept?¡±


    ¡°Since you asked her to read all of those red books. I was actually quite surprised that she was able to speak coherently, but cultivation apparently does wonders for that.¡±


    ¡°That, training and practise. I didn¡¯t sleep much even in the first realm, if I recall correctly, so it¡¯s not something that everyone can manage. To be entirely honest, I don¡¯t always remember that fact, amongst certain other ones¡­¡± Wei Yi said, tapping the back of Miyu¡¯s head in accordance with a technique to put her to sleep, ¡°Let me just put her somewhere more comfortable than your floor, at which point she should be allowed to rest.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡±


    They found a place for her at the back, in between the shelves of white shirts and the many instances of silk sheets for future use for both the customers and the owner of the store himself.


    After she was laid down and something resembling a pillow was found, they returned to the front of the store, where the once tall tower of wooden bricks still lay on the ground with no hint of their initial structure.


    ¡°So, should I just assume that this was a draw?¡±


    ¡°Well, she is not going to be able to play any time soon, so, even though I can do this¡­¡± Wei Yi raised one finger and brought out her killing will to lift up the many wooden blocks and rearrange them exactly as they had been before the tower had been unfortunately dropped by their earlier interactions, ¡°Actually, do you mind if I play? Is this something that requires a lengthy explanation?¡±


    ¡°No, it really doesn¡¯t. Would I be able to win against you, though?¡± Fu Zan asked, and when he saw no direct response, he sighed, ¡°Fine. Come on.¡±


    It did not take long for him to lose, and then lose again and again.


    Zhi Qiu Ya walked through the streets of Beast¡¯s Rest with a lost expression and unfocused eyes that only had enough attention within them to be able to not bump into someone directly in her path.


    Her earlier exhaustion had caught up to her, although it was less significant than she had expected, and it made her ponder what she had been told, and what she had said. Although she did want to resolve the problem of the bestial form, she still struggled with believing that the part of her that was able to be entranced by someone¡¯s scent, not to mention that it was the smell of a woman who she barely knew.


    The amount of times that she awoke within Wei Yi¡¯s bed was also extremely embarrassing for her.


    Thus, she didn¡¯t know whether she could truly take any such behaviours as ones that her mind could possibly ever conceive of.


    ¡°Hello there, young lady. You look to be quite tired today,¡± a woman¡¯s voice entered her ears, prompting her to stop and look after a moment of delay, ¡°I¡¯m sure you would benefit from a nice, long, hard massage. Our first customers from the outside world can even enjoy the enormous discount of¡­ one hundred percent. What do you say?¡±


    ¡°Um¡­ I¡¯ve never-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re all very experienced here. We know exactly how to make you feel good and relaxed,¡± that woman continued to speak in a sultry tone, ¡°Come on, why not try it?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ alright, I guess I can go for it¡­¡±


    ¡°Perfect! Come, come, let me show you in!¡± she immediately smiled, grabbing the wolven woman by her hand and dragging her inside before she had any opportunity to argue or reconsider. Even if she did have any such ideas within her head, Zhi Qiu Ya completely lost the ability to articulate any of them as the woman gripping her hand touched it in just the right way to elicit an odd degree of pleasure, to the point that she had no idea how such a thing was possible.


    The wolven woman was quickly brought into the massage parlour, not to be seen again for quite some time.


    It is said that the establishment gained a reluctant but very pleasant customer, while the customer realised that it might have just been easier for her own mind to step into a brothel and get it over with there and then, since she now had a whole host of confused feelings wholly unrelated to her animalistic mind.

 Bonus Chapter: A Massage [R-18]

    The woman with a sultry voice soon introduced herself as Su Min, and was very eager to present anything and everything that the massage parlour offered.


    She might have been very effective in her explanations, for all Zhi Qiu Ya knew, but she found it difficult to listen to. On one hand, she had her bestial side, or perhaps just her amplified personal desires, causing her to focus on every smell and sound that her sensitive nose was able to pick up, with there being plenty to perceive within the structure. On the other, there was the fact that this woman was quite attractive, and her boosted instincts made her want to leap onto her and do¡­ something.


    Frankly, she wasn¡¯t sure what, since those feelings were rather vague. Even when her other side had been given charge, prior to Wei Yi¡¯s arrival at the Brotherhood of Power, it never quite committed to any particular course of action. Seeing as it was apparently born from her own mind, it made some sense, seeing as she knew little about the topic as well.


    Her exhaustion wasn¡¯t helping much either, as both physical and mental fatigue made it all the more difficult to force herself to focus upon certain things.


    ¡°¡­ and here we are. As promised, I could give you the full, one hundred percent discount on a luxurious, delightful massage that even Patriarchs would die for,¡± Su Min said, finally reaching the wolven woman, pausing before muttering, ¡°Was it actually Patriarchs? What do they have out there¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes, Patriarchs, mostly. Some of the districts may have Matriarchs, but¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh no, that¡¯s fine. Luckily, here, everything is very simple. Our ruler is Wei Yi, the Moon Splitter, and whatever she says goes.¡±


    ¡°Oh? I mean, ehm, I hadn¡¯t known about that. I haven¡¯t been here long.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to say the same thing twice, you know,¡± Su Min smiled, guiding her gaze to the side with a wave of her hand, ¡°Let¡¯s begin with the massage, and we can converse during it, if you please. There¡¯s the changing room, so take off everything on you and put on the underwear provided.¡±


    ¡°Everything? Underwear?¡±


    ¡°Yes, our business has underwear provided by the best tailor and designed in the Kong Prison Realm, Fu Zan. He is an absolute genius, in my personal and professional opinion,¡± the woman explained eagerly, her hands falling to her skirt for a moment before she seemed to reconsider whatever she had intended, ¡°As for the massage, how would I be able to do it correctly through stuffy layers of clothing? Also, would you want them to get messed up by the oil I¡¯ll be using?¡±


    ¡®Oil? What is¡­ Oh, forget it. This place listens to Wei Yi, and I have decided to trust her, so I should be able to get out of anything they try to do if I so choose,¡¯ Zhi Qiu Ya decided, stepping towards the changing room, ¡°Please don¡¯t look at me with spiritual perception while I change.¡±


    ¡°Spiritual perception? What¡¯s¡­ ah, that. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    Zhi Qiu Ya tilted her head in confusion, but then remembered hearing something about the different forms of cultivation practised within the Kong Prison Realm. From that, it quickly became clear that the sultry woman might not be capable of, or particularly knowledgeable about the aspects of spiritual perception that were more commonly known among the people of the Planar Continents.


    Hence, she proceeded into the changing room. After shutting the curtains behind herself, and taking a longer time than she¡¯d like to admit attempting to look through it to confirm it was fully opaque, she removed her clothing and underwear, then looked to what would serve as the temporary replacement.


    ¡®She wasn¡¯t lying when she said the creator was unique,¡¯ Zhi Qiu Ya noted as she lifted up the panties by the sides, stretching them apart and finding their coverage to be rather minimal.


    Due to the limitations of common tailors in the Planar Continents, most underwear was simple and loose, as to permit as many people to purchase and wear it. Only specific orders with precise measurements could allow for more precision, and that tended not to be worthwhile unless the customer was at least moderately wealthy, especially if they were a cultivator. In that case, they would either require a valuable and powerful material, or enough spare bras and panties to swap to after fights.


    Elastic materials weren¡¯t common, and making inscriptions or artefacts that would adjust to the wearer¡¯s size was usually limited to armour or outer clothing, so that wasn¡¯t an option available to most, either.


    However, the tailor of the prison realm appeared to lack those limitations, for the panties were made from a soft, stretchy fabric that managed to retain a semblance of opacity even at their limit. There was a certain similarity with the bras she found, though they only offered a flexible strap, instead opting for multiple sizes to suit the customers of the massage parlour.


    With some hesitation, the white-haired woman bent down and slipped into the elastic panties, finding them to sit snuggly on her body and around her hips, though they only barely concealed her lower regions. If they had been just a little smaller, wearing them would have made it entirely obvious where her lower lips were, though it was still easy to see their shape thanks to the elastic nature of the fabric, much to her embarrassment.


    Still, at least her nipples weren¡¯t blatantly visible through the firm bra. Zhi Qiu Ya couldn¡¯t decide whether that was actually worth much, but she wasn¡¯t able to think about it for longer than a second before getting exhausted.


    After a moment, she stepped out of the changing room, taking one final look at her things just in case.


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re done? Good, as I¡¯m ready as well. Please, lay down here, face up please,¡± Su Min requested, though the formerly wolven woman didn¡¯t follow her instruction right away.


    Instead, after staring at her own body for a while, and still feeling a little embarrassed about her current appearance, she found herself staring at the woman in front of her. When she had been brought inside, she barely had the time to take a look, and it only felt right to do so now, before she was about to be massaged by her.


    Su Min was wearing a simple one piece dress, exposing some cleavage but little else. The dress was sleeveless, with nothing at all covering the woman¡¯s dainty arms, and reached down to her knees, with the only other item of clothing visible on her body being a pair of simple white slip-on shoes.


    In fact, most things in this place had a shade of white. The underwear she put on was white, the clothes on Su Min were white, the surface she was invited to lay upon was white, as were a number of towels on the side, and even the bottles of oil previously mentioned were made of a milky white glass, partially obscuring their contents. It hardly made for the biggest difficult in identifying the oils, given that Zhi Qiu Ya had no clue what kinds of things were present in the prison realm nor what kinds of substances they might concoct.


    Instead, her interest was on the woman¡¯s body, which had a below-average chest in comparison to someone like Chao Ru, and a below-average ass in comparison to someone like Wei Yi. For some reason, she had presumed that she would have had a more endowed body than either one, and seeing this not be the case proved a slight disappointment.


    ¡®Wait, what am I thinking¡­ Her body doesn¡¯t even matter, so I should stop staring,¡¯ Zhi Qiu Ya looked back to the waist-high massage table and walked up to it, ¡°Face up, right?¡±


    ¡°Yep. By the way, it isn¡¯t a problem if you stare, since I expect that there is a lot you wouldn¡¯t have seen before. If you have any questions, I don¡¯t mind answering them, since we might be here for a while.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be providing you with an exclusive, four course massage, and it can last for as long as three hours, depending on the state of your body,¡± Su Min said, ¡°I have a lot of practise with it, and so I can easily focus on other things while I work. So, just settle in and do whatever feels comfortable ¨C so long as you don¡¯t try to wriggle out of my grasp. You will get rather slippery when all that oil is applied, and it wouldn¡¯t do for me to be unable to massage you properly.¡±


    The wolven woman might have offered up some kind of protest, but when she lay back on the table, she felt unable to rise back up, nor to shift any more than necessary.


    After a moment of panic, she realised that she had already been moving on a supply of energy she barely understood the origin of, and the instant she lay down somewhere comfortable, it ran out, leaving her in the state she should have been while wandering the streets of Beast¡¯s Rest.


    Su Min didn¡¯t seem to mind any of her actions and instead focused on the table placed at the lower end of the massage bed, where the oils in milky white containers stood in a neat line. She picked up the first one on the left, popped out the cork, and poured the slightest bit of the transparent fluid inside onto her palm. Quickly sealing it again, she spread the fluid over her hands, covering every inch with practised ease. It made her skin look even softer than before, a faint shine clearly separating her hands from her arms.


    ¡°Now, heating this up will take just a moment, so if there¡¯s anything you¡¯d like to ask¡­¡±


    ¡°Actually, yes. Is there a reason for the colour scheme in this place?¡± Zhi Qiu Ya asked quietly, keeping her voice quiet as to not waste what little energy she still had, ¡°Everything is so¡­ white.¡±


    ¡°Right, for someone from outside, I guess it would be strange. You see, for the longest time, this world was split in two, with one crimson side and one silver side. Just as it sounds like, everything was red here, and white there,¡± Su Min picked up a second, spherical bottle as she spoke, holding it in her hands as if to warm it with just her own heat, ¡°When we were able to make something that wasn¡¯t grey or red, everyone just leapt on the opportunity.¡±


    ¡°Oh. What about the bottles?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re made from a special glass that the Silver Side had, and inside them are a number of oils and substances guaranteed to make you feel better, your skin feel smoother, and your whole body feel lighter. One of our alchemists learnt from Wei Yi herself.¡±


    ¡®There¡¯s Wei Yi again¡­ At some point, someone will be able to say that she made the whole of the Planar Continents and I¡¯d probably not bat an eye,¡¯ the wolven woman found a smile creeping into her expression despite her best attempt to stop, ¡°Will you walk me through each one as you use them, or will I just have to guess?¡±


    Su Min gave her a suspiciously wide smile, ¡°Oh, I¡¯ll be sure to go through the important parts. It¡¯s best when a customer knows what they¡¯re getting.¡±


    Their brief exchange appeared to be sufficient for the bottle to be warmed, as she stepped over to the side of the massage bed, to Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s left, and popped it open, slowly turning her hand so that it would spill out onto the wolven woman¡¯s stomach.


    It dripped down and instantly spread a pleasant warmth throughout her abdominal muscles, and that quickly increased as the volume of oil increased, spreading across her belly and covering most of it by the time Su Min stopped. The bottle was sealed, same as the first, and the sultry woman¡¯s hands finally touched Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s mostly nude body.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have any fancy names for these, but this will do wonders in loosening your muscles and removing tension ¨C when combined with my delicate touch, of course,¡± Su Min said, placing her hands upon her stomach.


    She began slowly, sliding her hands up Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s stomach, up to her chest, stopping before the breasts and rubbing it in with slow, careful movements. Perhaps it was just the warmth of the oil itself talking, but the wolven woman quickly found her body losing the agitation and tiredness that had built up in the years of dealing with the wolven characteristics. It wasn¡¯t a complete recovery by any means, if such a thing was even possible, but it made her want to fall asleep right there and then, letting Su Min take care of her, then awaken fully rested and restored.


    ¡°I can feel the muscle in your abdomen. It¡¯s firm and hard, like you¡¯ve been a warrior for most of your life. Could you tell me a bit about yourself, and how you built up a body like this?¡±


    Su Min¡¯s hands remained in the same region for now, gently sliding across her front and getting that oil into every part of her skin, rubbing it in a little more each time she looped back and repeated the process. She didn¡¯t seem to be in a great hurry to move onto other parts of Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s body, which was somewhat disappointing for the wolven woman.


    ¡°It¡¯s really not that interesting¡­ I lived in a village for a while, then I caught this living plague and suddenly grew wolf-like ears and tail and everything¡­¡± she paused when Su Min rubbed her stomach again, almost letting air pour into her body on its own, ¡°I had to leave, and I ended up in a mercenary group¡­ From there, I just had to do some amount of fighting, and the plague¡­ well, it stimulated a certain degree of activity as well.¡±


    ¡°I did think there was something interesting about you,¡± Su Min suddenly brought her hands to Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s waist, brushing up against the edge of her panties, ¡°Some of your hair is very unusual, but it feels nice.¡±


    Although she found herself tensing up again, Zhi Qiu Ya replied, ¡°Um¡­ thank you?¡±


    ¡°You are welcome. By the way, don¡¯t worry about me. If I had intended to go past certain boundaries, I wouldn¡¯t have asked you to put anything on,¡± she smiled, ¡°Unless you ask me for it, your underwear is staying on, and I¡¯m not doing anything¡­ inappropriate. Though, this is quite an extensive massage, so I will end up pretty much everywhere on your body.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Uhm, if you know what you¡¯re doing, then, I guess¡­ it might be fine?¡±


    ¡°No, it will be fine. Come on, you can trust me. You could always get up and leave if you feel like you absolutely must, though I¡¯d encourage you to accept the invitation to the bath before you do so. Wouldn¡¯t want to be walking around all oiled up.¡±


    ¡°I suppose,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya tried to relax, but the brief brush against her pubic region put her on edge and she simply couldn¡¯t get it to go away. So, after considering it for a moment, she asked, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t do anything bad to a friend of Wei Yi, would you? I mean, we¡¯re not the closest of friends, since we¡¯ve only known one another for a short while, but-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t need you to explain a thing,¡± Su Min paused for a moment, ¡°I knew you were from outside, after all, and anyone that comes in nowadays is sent by Wei Yi.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right¡­¡±


    ¡°Now, just don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ve heard she can see the entire prison realm at any time and any place, so if she thinks I¡¯m doing something wrong, I bet you wouldn¡¯t even be able to lift a finger before she shows up and tells me off,¡± the sultry woman smiled, though her expression at that moment lacked the same seductive property as when she had pounced on Zhi Qiu Ya in the street, ¡°Let yourself relax, and then everything will be a thousand times better for you.¡±


    The wolven woman exhaled and shut her eyes, letting Su Min spread the oil to her legs.


    She continued moving gently and without applying much pressure. Still, Su Min made sure to rub the warm fluid into every portion of her skin that she was able to reach, gently caressing every single inch of her legs, from the thighs to the feet, taking particular care to get the oil in between every toe.


    Her work was so focused that Zhi Qiu Ya had to wonder whether that woman had a thing for feet, as she had spent as much time on them as on the rest of her legs.


    ¡°All of us walk around so much, so our feet get rough and tired¡­ Don¡¯t worry, after today, you¡¯ll feel like you¡¯ve never walked a day in your life ¨C not in a bad way, of course,¡± Su Min said, seemingly noticing her curiosity, ¡°We¡¯ll be coming back there, of course, but for now, I¡¯ll just touch you gently right¡­ here¡­¡±


    True to her word, the woman was so gentle that Zhi Qiu Ya nearly missed the fingers landing upon her labia, rubbing it through the surface of her thin panties.


    Her eyes snapped open, ¡°What are you-¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s an important part of you, so it deserves to be massaged as well, don¡¯t you think? Remember, I¡¯m not going to do anything sexual, anything that you wouldn¡¯t want, but this is just a massage. It¡¯s completely fine.¡±


    ¡°That sounds extremely illogical, you know?¡±


    ¡°Is anything involving that part of you automatically sexual, inappropriate, lewd? What, do you bathing is sexual?¡±


    ¡°Bathing?¡±


    ¡°You do keep yourself clean, right? You wouldn¡¯t miss out on this particular point just because it¡¯s lewd, right?¡± while she spoke, she didn¡¯t stop rubbing up and down, some of the oil soaking through the white fabric of the panties, ¡°I sure hope not. Even as a cultivator, you should have some care for your own hygiene. Wei Yi certainly encourages it, and she¡¯s¡­ she is like a god compared to us.¡±


    Zhi Qiu Ya certainly couldn¡¯t debate that, and she was starting to feel a pleasant warmth down there, but she simply couldn¡¯t relent that easily, ¡°Still, you shouldn¡¯t-¡±


    ¡°I shouldn¡¯t do¡­ what, exactly? I¡¯m just providing you with a massage and letting all those muscles relax¡­ Trust me, one day, you will really appreciate this, and depending on what you end up doing, you might appreciate it a whole lot.¡±


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Nothing in particular,¡± the woman smiled, blowing away a lock of hair that went in front of her right eye, ¡°It never hurts to have your body in perfect condition, feeling relaxed and loose, ready to accept new experiences¡­ You need to stretch out, adjust to everything that had happened so far, and then you¡¯ll manage to deal with whatever comes later.¡±


    Somehow, Zhi Qiu Ya noticed a certain hint of something in her voice, but she was almost certain that it was due to the fingers digging progressively deeper in between her labia, reaching the sensitive flesh within.


    Too tired of arguing, the wolven woman was almost ready to accept this ¨C whatever she would have called it with a clearer head ¨C but then the fingers left her groin.


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Is something wrong? I¡¯m just moving on to your arms,¡± the woman said, her voice sounding so natural and calm that Zhi Qiu Ya almost believed that she had imagined the past few minutes, ¡°They¡¯re very fit, very pleasant to touch. I bet any woman would love to be held in these, or to hold you in theirs, if that¡¯s more your thing. Actually, I forgot to ask, you are interested in women, right? I would hate to be presumptuous.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ haven¡¯t thought too much about it. So far, things have just happened around me. However, I do think that women are¡­ um¡­¡±


    ¡°Attractive? Cute? Hot? Sexy? You can tell me, I won¡¯t say anything bad.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡­ I¡¯m not really sure¡­¡±


    For a little while, Su Min didn¡¯t push the topic, but when she finished rubbing oil into the wolven woman¡¯s arms, they landed right on her chest and gripped it firmly, in a manner that didn¡¯t seem to be purely meant for massage.


    ¡°And this?¡±


    ¡°There is plenty in your boobs that needs to be massaged. Come on, just let me¡­¡±


    At this point, Zhi Qiu Ya knew she wouldn¡¯t be able to win whatever argument would ensue, so she just let her eyes close and tried to ignore the woman¡¯s ministrations. It was challenging ¨C very much so.

 V3C65: To the Ping District, Part 3

    Outside of the Kong Prison Realm, Wei Yi returned to her journey towards the Ping District, having done everything that she wanted to do within the prison realm for now. She had retrieved an outfit for use in the next district which would allow herself to cover up and present yet another side to the people of that district from Fu Zan, made sure that Miyu would be prepared if she needed to be consulted on any matter, and checked in with the massage parlour that got their hands on Zhi Qiu Ya to make sure that they wouldn¡¯t do anything too hasty.


    She wanted to carefully guide the wolven woman into accepting at least some parts of herself, and while the careful touch of a professional would most certainly help, that particular establishment was immediately connected to a far more carnal place. Such a thing had to be had in moderation, above all.


    At that moment, she intended to reach the Ping District in a single day, observe it for a short while, then dress up and assume some new identity within it either that day or the next day, depending on her mood at that time. If it was a place that she thought it to be from the records, stories and the occasional rumours from people in the previous districts, she would fit right in.


    However, things rarely went according to plan at all times, and this was certainly one of those times.


    Midway through a step, a voice entered her ears, prompting her to look back to see who this odd yet familiar voice belonged to.


    With her spiritual perception reaching this figure even more quickly than her gaze could, she was sure that she would recognise the woman that was trying to run up to her, but there appeared to be no one with the exact features of this figure in her memories. Furthermore, despite the long distance that she must have sprinted, she had so little planar energy within her body that it wasn¡¯t even sufficient for the first stage of the first realm.


    In addition, she was extremely poorly dressed, wearing a rag on her body that failed to hide either of the areas that one would usually keep obscured, to the point that it would have been more effective just to keep one¡¯s arms and hands there instead.


    ¡®She doesn¡¯t look half bad, so she certainly couldn¡¯t have faded from my memory if I did encounter her in the past. Who in the world is this woman?¡¯ Wei Yi asked herself, countless tomes and books within the Ascendant¡¯s Library flying out to contribute their knowledge but failing to produce any results, ¡®With her cultivation and absence of¡­ everything, I doubt that she will be able to injure me in a second or two, so I suppose that it would be safe to allow her to approach, so long as I remain on guard.¡¯


    As she still had no clue who this person was or what they wanted, given that all they were asking for was for her to stop and wait for them, she did exactly what they wanted, stopping and standing still.


    If the woman wanted to get closer, she would need to do so on her own.


    When she saw her from a far closer distance ¨C after quite a bit of waiting, as the woman was finally getting tired and thus slowing down with each step taken ¨C Wei Yi finally realised why this individual was so familiar to her.


    ¡°What the fuck have you done, Ju Zhang?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡­¡± the woman whose features looked remarkably similar to that of the man she met a few days earlier in the streets of the Luo District, except with a far more feminine look and the obvious features of a woman without the hint of ones that belonged to men, stopped to take a breath, then finally replied, ¡°I did as you asked! I¡¯ve found a place that let me become female!¡±


    ¡°What? How did you¡­ how did you do that?¡±


    ¡°There was a store that I found, which promised to be able to change my gender and rid me of my yang so long as I agreed to the usage of all of my planar energy.¡±


    ¡°Did you now?¡± Wei Yi asked with an entirely unsubtle hint of doubt in her voice, not hesitating at all to plunge a strand of spiritual will into the woman¡¯s neck to figure out more, ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s what happened. Just so you know, Ju Zhang, you have been scammed, and quite severely.¡±


    ¡°Eh? What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°The shop¡­ well, let me begin with exactly what happened to you. When they put you to sleep, they removed your root of yang, the meaning of which I shouldn¡¯t need to explain to you. While doing so, they funnelled all of your energy into it, possibly taking some pure yang with it, so that they could later process it and sell it off to someone with very little sense. Typically, the procedure would make you a little more feminine at most ¨C and rid you of your dick, if you were attached to that ¨C but your sudden dedication to fulfilling the requirement to be accepted as the disciple of some random woman you met on the street caused you to make use of the remnant medicinal essence in your body and transform into a woman fully.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Ju Zhang could do little more than blink in confusion at all of this, as she had clearly thought matters to be far simpler.


    ¡°That is, technically, a possibility, but I don¡¯t think that either their usual visitors, those looking to make some money by receiving a share of the later earnings, or the owners of that establishment considered that someone would be that dedicated. If nothing else, I have to commend you on that accomplishment. However, you heard nothing about payment, did you?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ paid them everything I had.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s too late to come back. Even if Primordial Greed itself ¨C if such a thing even existed ¨C returned to demand your share, they might not relent. Also, they¡¯ll have probably completed their sale once you return on your own, so they wouldn¡¯t give you a single thing anyway.¡±


    There was a moment of pause, but then she raised her head and declared, ¡°This does not matter to me. I had gone to that extent for the sake of reaching a greater realm, and I would repeat it countless times so long as you will accept me as your disciple! I will do anything and everything you wish for and ignore any other obligations that others would ascribe to me, so long as you can guide me to the fifth realm!¡±


    ¡°Come again?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ Which part?¡±


    ¡°Did you say fifth realm?¡±


    ¡°I did. With it, I would be able to do everything that I needed to in my life. You are the third realm already, clearly having reached it at a young age, so I trust in your ability to go further.¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s not what I meant with that question. I am indeed quite young ¨C relatively speaking ¨C but are you certain that you want to make the fifth realm your destination? You could have just sat in some pit somewhere and cultivated with your existing technique, and you would have had it by the age of one thousand or so. That¡¯s the worst case scenario, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Are you certain? Oh¡­ Then, sixth realm?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s just say seventh realm. I can allow you to reach that before I turn fifty, if it is the realm alone that you want. With a simple technique that gives you little strength, it can be done in a year or so.¡±


    ¡°And if I wanted enough power to match another cultivator of the seventh realm?¡±


    ¡°The Oblivion Halo realm is quite dependant on the realms before it in order to make the most of your potential, so that would be a little more difficult, but five years should be enough. Technically, if not for the absence of knowledge, I could have reached the third realm in a day, so you should be able to manage it in a week. From then, fourth might take a month, the next could be six months or so, and the one after might require a year or two, presuming that the correct technique is found and developed sufficiently.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any techniques like that? I will begin cultivating them this very instant and shall not stop until I have met your expectations, no matter what it takes!¡±


    ¡°Tune down that fucking enthusiasm, please. It is rather excessive,¡± Wei Yi asked, shaking her head, ¡°I am in the third realm, just in case you don¡¯t realise. I cannot take you that far just yet. I myself won¡¯t need the Oblivion Halo realm to raise you to it, but I will need a polished and compete technique.¡±


    ¡°Alright, mast-¡±


    ¡°Nope. For now, you shall be a servant. I will teach you a technique for the Energy Condensation and Planar Pool realms, you will practise it and do things for me. Once you¡¯ve confirmed your commitment, I will let some others train you most of the time, since I have far better things to be doing than taking care of you. Oh, and have you gotten used to that female body yet?¡±


    ¡°What exactly do you mean? I don¡¯t feel odd while looking like this, if that¡¯s what you mean, and I don¡¯t stumble or trip anywhere.¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s not it. Have you¡­ You know what, I¡¯m certain you will realise what I mean before the end of the day. For now, take this,¡± she said as she reached into the air and condensed a scroll from killing will, ¡°Read it, remember it, then practise it as you follow me.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s possible to practise cultivation techniques while moving?¡±


    ¡°Once again, no. This is for training your body in preparation for that, and it is best to train your body through some kind of physical activity, which walking happens to be. I¡¯d give you some weights or something, but I happen to have absolutely obliterated my last set and, as such, cannot provide them to you even if I truly believed you to be my disciple.¡±


    There was a moment of disappointment in the woman¡¯s eyes, but it quickly changed as she must have understood why this was necessary.


    For a cultivator, their body mattered regardless of their path as they needed to be able to handle all of the energy that would course through their body as part of their cultivation. Everyone understood this to a certain extent, but this would usually be completed in the first realm and not thought of much. Ju Zhang clearly needed to have some above average abilities in order to bother someone to such an immense extent that they would hate his ¨C at the time ¨C life to a ridiculous extent, so it must have been rather obvious to her that if she wanted to make great progress, she would need to prepare for it accordingly.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t I need to reach the first realm in order to be able to practise it?¡±


    ¡°You already have some energy within you, and although your gender has changed, your meridians remain. You can still circulate the energy that you do possess, and so long as you make good use of it, you don¡¯t need to get any more at all. Once you¡¯ve prepared your meridians, you will be able to rush straight into the second realm with a good technique, and at that point you can continue alternating between the two for the smoothest progress. Get it?¡±


    She read over the technique given to her once more, then nodded as she gave back the crimson scroll with silver words written upon it.


    ¡°Since you are done reading, get to practising the technique. I¡¯ll watch over you for now,¡± Wei Yi said, although she naturally intended to keep watch for the rest of their journey together not just out of caution about the woman, but also due to not wanting to randomly kill someone for no good reason.


    The technique that she created wasn¡¯t entirely new, but it was something that she quickly adapted from her own abilities, which was where the danger lay. She was able to regenerate, recover and rapidly empower herself from any injuries, making Absolute Rupture something that is actually worthwhile for her, but that did not apply to most others. As a result, she couldn¡¯t be entirely certain whether or not the technique that she had modified would be likely to work on a normal person ¨C as normal as that person could be.


    Ju Zhang nearly tried to sit down to practise but was grabbed by the arm and forced back up.


    She quickly corrected her mistake and followed behind Wei Yi as they walked north together. After a short while, the slowness of their travel at the moment forced Wei Yi to make use of a group movement technique to accelerate them, although that would still not be anywhere close to the speed that she had originally wanted to achieve.


    ¡®Why did this person even go in this direction? I didn¡¯t tell her that I would be heading to the Ping District, nor did I even imply it¡­ Did I walk towards the north in the street, making her assume that?¡¯


    Regardless of the reason, Wei Yi could neither throw her into the prison realm, just in case there was something that she missed and somehow endangered that spatial realm as a result, nor did she want to throw the woman away, at least not until Ju Zhang had the opportunity to learn about her new body and consider whether she truly wants to follow her and not someone with a little more life experience and stability.


    Thus, they proceeded onwards, mostly in silence save for the occasional advice from Wei Yi.


    Despite her best efforts, and what could be seen as the best effort of Ju Zhang, who kept moving at her top speed despite the blatant signs of exhaustion upon every part of her body, they were not able to get to the Ping District in time. They were forced to stop near the end of the day, when her companion could not continue any longer, and make camp.


    It also then that Ju Zhang learned of one of the differences between the male and female body.


    Fortunately enough for her, and for all women of the Planar Continents, all that she was faced with was understanding how to relieve herself with her new parts and nothing else yet. Since stepping onto the path of cultivation allowed for the suppression of the worst aspects of the monthly cycle, she wouldn¡¯t need to deal with more than the occasional mood swings, which was one of the many reasons that most women in particular pursued at least the first stage of cultivation. Regularly bleeding wasn¡¯t something that anyone was fond of, after all. Even the most extreme of masochists tended to prefer some control over the pain and discomfort.


    They had nothing to sleep on or cover themselves with, but since Wei Yi didn¡¯t intend to sleep and Ju Zhang was too tired to care, this did not cause issues for either of them, and they were able to pass the night uneventfully.


    ¡®I wonder what this person would be best at. If I can get a loyal servant that I can personally train from the very beginning, as with Min Lian, then I will naturally not throw that opportunity away, but I shouldn¡¯t waste it by teaching her things that will not be compatible¡­ I suppose that I do have some knowledge of quite a number of weapons and techniques, which I could put to use,¡¯ she considered, bringing up the Truth of the Universe to remind herself of the exact enormity of that list, ¡®Perhaps it is time to search for more Dao¡­¡¯


    She rose silently, using a simple stealth method to obscure the sound of her footsteps and easily holding in her breathing to guarantee that Ju Zhang wouldn¡¯t awake early, and snuck off into the distance, where she would be able to see the former man without having a chance to wake her with an overly loud punch, or something of the sort.


    Due to her familiarity with fist and hand techniques, including punches, jabs and palms, she decided to seek this Dao first. She would have a great likelihood of possessing a sufficient quantity of insight into the field to unlock something about it, even if it was only the Uninitiated state within the Truth of the Universe. So long as it was founded, comprehending more of it and connecting existing insights to it would be notably easier than if she possessed no clear foundation from which to work from.


    As for that foundation, she decided that it was best to unite it to her Ascendant¡¯s Dao, since it was one that she had the most understanding of ¨C she was the one that created it, after all ¨C and would thus result in the overall strengthening of the Hand Dao alongside the development of the other Dao.


    Wei Yi began with a simple but precise punch, striking the air without any target in the world before her, nor within her mind, then followed up with a palm, a jab, then a finger, then a claw. She heavily restricted her own strength, for even a light attack with her immensely powerful body could fell a thick and ancient tree some distance away, and carefully observed both her own body and how it impacted the world around her. With both spiritual perception and sight, she watched the way in which her muscles moved, how the air was displaced by a stronger attack, and compared some particular methods of attacking to examine their strengths and weaknesses.


    If she wanted to comprehend the Dao of a very specific branch of attacks, she would need to fully understand the basics of each move involved at the very least, or else there would be little chance of success no matter how much anchor energy she forced into the Truth of the Universe. In fact, it was probably best to think all Dao through in order from the simplest and most base concept before moving on, as her understanding could otherwise be warped quite significantly.


    She suspected that something of the sort could have already happened with the Dao of Lust that appeared within the display recently. While she was aware of a whole range of possible sexual interaction and activity, amongst other things, her mind treated the matter of lust as something that occurred between two women first and foremost, which was naturally not the case in reality, as the population of the world would be in quite the steep decline if it was. This either meant that it was easily possibly to step into an incomplete Dao, or that it was not as simple as a single Dao per topic.


    Perhaps a number of the Dao that she had stepped onto weren¡¯t full paths at all, but instead branches of the overall truth. It could be that her Dao of Law was the Absolute branch of the overall Law Dao, inspired by her intense desire to surpass many of the common laws of the world to assert an order that she believed to be best, or that her Dao of Lust¡­ well, there was no need to explain that one.


    If that was correct, then that meant that there was yet another aspect in which she would need to maximise her development of the Dao. Depending on the way in which the branches would function, there was one of two likely possibilities: either individual branches would simply mean that one acquires different power and control over the Dao based upon it, with no obvious inferior branches, or it could be that there is a sort of hierarchy to every Dao, where the branch that one comprehends could immediately put one in an inferior position to another.


    The first option would mean that all she would need to do is perfect her own path and strive to discover its absolute limit, no matter what that was, which would suit her just fine.


    It would be even better if taking a new road that most had never even conceived of could grant her more overall capability than if she took on a branch that most with comprehension of that Dao also occupied, although that would be yet another possibility.


    On the other hand, if each branch had a different power and degree of potential, then she couldn¡¯t possibly just get Dao after Dao without giving proper thought to which branch she would step on and pursue, although not every Dao that she had unlocked so far gave her the opportunity to do much thinking in that regard. It could also be a good idea to attempt to cultivate multiple branches, or otherwise advance an inferior branch to a superior one, although she would much prefer to find some method of discovering all such routes either before or after she stepped onto the path of the Dao, rather than simply stumbling around in the dark.


    Unfortunately, in a world such as the one she lived in, that wasn¡¯t something that could be obtained easily. The nature of the world, of the Great Dao, of heaven¡¯s will and whatever else wasn¡¯t plainly put out there for the people to see, so the only chance she would get of seeing such branches laid out clearly would be with an otherworldly gift, which carried its own set of risks and problems.


    Even with the azure light cleansed, there was no guarantee that any otherworldly gift would convey reliable, complete and wholly accurate information. As such, obtaining one would do little.


    She could still use it as a very basic guide, like a map drawn by a child, which a person could consider to be vaguely based on reality but hardly reliable as anything but a suggestion towards the true nature of the depicted area, but it would be best not to.


    ¡®Well, I trust in my own Ascendant¡¯s Dao, so I will certainly continue with the basic Hand Dao inspired by it, but as for everything else that doesn¡¯t perfectly fit with it, I will certainly need to take great care not to accidentally take the wrong step forward before I am absolutely certain of what I wish to do,¡¯ she thought, continuing her slow and repeated practise and deliberation, ¡®I have six or seven hours before she wakes up at the very least, so I should put it to good use.¡¯


    The next day, Ju Zhang opened her eyes and found the blue sky above her, without a single thing obscuring it.


    It had a slight grey shade to it, and there were quite a few clouds at the edges of her vision, although none seemed to dare intrude upon the space above their camp. A cold breeze was blowing past her, taking with it a number of fallen and dried leaves.


    Although much of her body still hurt from the previous day¡¯s travel, and the technique that she had been told to cultivate, the cold air upon her mostly naked skin finally brought to her attention the fact that she had ran all the way from the Luo District with barely a rag on her body, and that anyone with eyes was free to witness everything.


    For a moment, she could almost imagine the woman that she had chased questioning why she was having such stupid thoughts, but a quick look around showed that she was not resting near her, but instead standing far away on a hill, repeating a simple series of movements that nonetheless had the ability to enrapture the viewer, for she acted with incredible smoothness and proficiency. As someone who had focused on cultivation and martial arts even before she was able to cultivate, she knew that her chosen teacher had a great comprehension of every action that she took, whether it was her seemingly casual punch, or the palm that barely displaced air yet contained great potential.


    She couldn¡¯t help but stare at the woman for a while, a mixture of feelings arising within her mind but all failing to distract her.


    The scene repeated, again and again, with perfect accuracy, to the point that Ju Zhang couldn¡¯t help but wonder whether she had somehow come across a mythical immortal being that had no need nor concept of time, and could exist within the Planar Continents in perpetuity to focus on whatever they found interesting. Perhaps this immortal cared about combat techniques, and spent her eternity practising them until they could reach perfection.


    It was silly, for no such thing as immortality existed, but it felt believable.


    That impression could only deepen when she suddenly saw the woman¡¯s hand blur, and the shadow of a dozen fists emerge alongside a punch that seemed to be no different than any of the others. With the use of planar energy, such a thing would not be in any way unusual ¨C planar constructs allowed for far more insane things to occur ¨C but there seemed to be no sign of the flow of planar energy in her.


    Ju Zhang had never reached the second realm and had thus never been able to send her spiritual perception outside of her body, so she could not confirm this, but when her teacher proceeded to perform a basic palm strike and displayed the same phenomena, followed by a finger, jab and claw that all showed her hand blurring into numerous shapes, she paid really close attention. With her vision, one that was only barely tempered by her cultivation from before, she looked out for any typical signs of planar energy circulation and fluctuation.


    She tried to find the slight glow of energy beneath the skin, but not a trace could be found, although that much would be expected from either an immortal or someone with a lot of experience and control. Then, she attempted to discover the faint weight that such energy could often add to one¡¯s movements, but that, too, would never be seen within an expert.


    This exercise, as futile as she quickly found it to be, proved one thing to her without a shadow of a doubt ¨C she had too little knowledge about planar energy, about its circulation, about everything to do with cultivation.


    In part, this was the fault of her teachers at the Ju District, who all disliked the extreme obsession with planar energy that the world possessed. To them, they did not live within the Planar Continents but rather the Continents of Discovery, where it would be their research, their creations and their creativity that would allow the world to step into some new age, rather than the attempts to recreate the ancient failures of the ancestors of those other districts. As a result, finding their child to have such a fascination was entirely impermissible. As the teachers of that young child, they believed it to be their responsibility to stamp out the foolish illusions that he had about the world and correct them.


    Perhaps they understood why he had left then, or perhaps they thought that he had been kidnapped and that it was a prime opportunity for them to display the might of their hidden knowledge and weaponry against a foe, whether old or new, forgotten or not. Regardless, she would not return until she could show them that her path was not a mistaken one, that she did have some ability, and that her path had worth as well.


    ¡®I picked the right person to teach me¡­ Wait, did I ever get her name?¡¯ Ju Zhang was suddenly distracted by that fact, the realisation that she had forgotten to ask this all along, and so she missed the moment when a faint cosmic light arose within the shadows of her teacher¡¯s hands, fading quickly.


    For a brief moment, Wei Yi was distracted almost entirely from the world around her, her mind focused solely on the faint revelation she felt somewhere in the distance, far away yet clearly within reach. She barely even knew what it was, other than the fact that it had something to do with both her Ascendant¡¯s Dao and the Hand Dao, which could do with a better name than that.


    However, this deep focus faded quickly, not just because she seemed to lack some vital key to comprehending the matter that she had felt the existence of, but also due to the rather insistent stare upon her body that she knew the origin of, both in terms of the purpose behind it and why it was currently able to look upon her. She understood it perfectly well, since anyone would be bound to look upon her form during her practise, especially with so little else around to observe, but she wouldn¡¯t allow a chance like this to slip away without a single benefit for herself.


    In a sudden shift from her previous hours of consistent and smooth repetition, she returned to the motions of her punch, this time infusing the principles of her Elysian Storm Burst, the Rising Dawn fist, her Absolute Force, and the very core tenets of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao all at once.


    It completely broke the atmosphere, and shattered any potential of her obtaining some other natural revelation from this particular contemplation session, but her punch was akin to a hand shooting out to grab the trace of hidden knowledge regarding the fist within this condensation of a mental realm and the possibilities present within the world. With a firm grip, it took that trace and brought it back to her, pushing away the rest of the knowledge.


    Her eyes opened, and she quickly confirmed that she had indeed claimed the Initial Accomplishment stages of both the Hand Dao itself, and the Punch Dao that lay within it.


    So long as the Dao worked the same as techniques and their primary groups, then her actual comprehension of the Punch Dao would actually be equivalent to the Minor Achievement stage, bringing her half of the way to the goal of a second Full Success within a Dao, bringing far more progress than randomly jabbing at it with the Truth of the Universe¡¯s calculative abilities.

 V3C66: At the District of Assassins

    ¡°Ju Zhang, do you mind?¡±


    That shook the former man from her confusion, prompting her to look away entirely while calling out, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, teacher!¡±


    Wei Yi sighed, crossing the gap between them with the faint rumble of thunder echoing somewhere in the distance. She placed her hand upon the woman¡¯s shoulder and said, ¡°If I¡¯m not hiding myself somewhere, then you may look, but try to be less intense with your stare. It can be rather distracting at times. Also, teacher is better than your previous attempt.¡±


    ¡°A-Alright¡­¡± Ju Zhang swiftly said, ¡°I just wanted to ask¡­ what is your name?¡±


    ¡°Did I not tell you? It¡¯s Wei Yi, of no district nor any family. I am not subservient to any particular group, nor do I have any titles which you can use, not at the moment anyway.¡±


    She nodded, ¡°Got it. Wei Yi¡­ I have another question, but it might be rather silly, so I¡¯m not sure if I should be asking this¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re going to tempt me to give you so many long lectures on how to best make use of your time¡­ Listen, Ju Zhang ¨C if you even intend to keep using that name, given that nobody will recognise you anyway ¨C if you have a question, and we¡¯re alone, ask whatever you want. I am able to refuse to answer you, or even those in the seventh realm, so long as I don¡¯t mind suffering some harm,¡± she paused for a moment, pondering the validity of her own words, ¡°If you have an important question of some sort, then you fail to ask it and lead to something terrible, you will be the only one to blame.¡±


    ¡°I understand! Then, are you an immortal?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Wei Yi kept her mouth shut for a few moments, ¡°Then, there are the questions that you should know are silly. Most questions aren¡¯t, but something like this¡­ No, I am not an immortal. If I was, I wouldn¡¯t tell you. I am only forty, and I am most certainly not some ancient relic.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ Then, could I ask what you were doing on that hill, and whether that was some kind of technique?¡±


    ¡°Much better. This is a reasonable question, but also one that I may refuse to answer. In this case, I¡¯ll tell you a little bit. I was attempting to comprehend a Dao, and you didn¡¯t really help with that.¡±


    ¡°A Dao? The Great Dao?¡±


    ¡°No, not the Great Dao. While everything is, theoretically, part of the Great Dao, to comprehend a fragment of it is very different from seeking an individual Dao, and brings its own advantages and disadvantages,¡± she explained some of her own understandings on the matter, ¡°In particular, I sought the Punch Dao, as you might have noticed from the way I finished that little comprehension session.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not¡­ quite sure that I understand, but I promise to study it until the end of my life if you need me to!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t. You¡¯re not a cultivator just yet, so there¡¯s isn¡¯t much a point for you to pursue any Dao, for they are born of planar energy and will be useless to someone that has not yet made good use of it. Just keep practising that technique, and I will tell you when you may stop.¡±


    Ju Zhang nodded again, although she still wasn¡¯t certain what exactly her new teacher had been doing, nor whether her claim of being forty was accurate. As she saw it, Wei Yi could be either twenty, for her face and body was certainly no younger than that, but even if she was actually in the third realm, as she had stated a few times, she could have easily lived to one hundred before her features would begin to decay.


    Furthermore, she knew just too little about planar energy, cultivation, and the Dao, so she was unable to do more than listen and obey what she had been told to do.


    Since Wei Yi was intending to reach the Ping District today, she decided to lightly soothe the aching muscles of her new servant ¨C although she suspected that neither of them were going to remember that particular label since the roles of a servant and disciple did often intersect ¨C with a small helping of lifeforce infused into them.


    With the little amount that she provided, Ju Zhang would likely not even notice it immediately, but as they began to walk away from the camp, with any traces of their presence quickly erased and reset by Wei Yi the moment that they started to leave, she did feel as if a light, quiet, small stream of energy dripped into her body, drop by drop, filling it up just enough to allow her to continue on without exhaustion but not enough to permit her to act in complete perpetuity.


    This energy gave her enough time to ponder one of the things said by Wei Yi that she was able to understand right now, and after she gave it some thoughts, she raised her head and asked, ¡°When you talked about my name, were you suggesting that I should get a new one?¡±


    ¡°I was suggesting the possibility of it. There¡¯s no real reason for you to adhere to it, given that you¡¯ve both left your district and your previous identity is now effectively gone, so if you ever thought that you weren¡¯t happy with the name that your parents had given you, the destiny they perhaps considered for you, then I don¡¯t think anyone should have any objections,¡± Wei Yi answered, ¡®If she does become a disciple of mine and follows me along to the upper realms of cultivation, even the patriarch of the Ju District may be unable to contend with her eventually¡­¡¯


    However, even if she trusted this woman entirely, even if she thought that this Ju Zhang could never possibly go against her and her plans, intentionally or otherwise, she would never state these things to her right now. They key, whether in life or in cultivation, was to not let one¡¯s dreams get too large, too quickly, without the proper comprehension of what achieving that dream would entail.


    To tell someone without a cultivation that they could best a patriarch would be a foolish thing to do.


    ¡°Any name? Really?¡±


    ¡°Sure. If it¡¯s something silly, though, I will advise you to change it once, just so that you don¡¯t embarrass yourself in the future.¡±


    ¡°Alright¡­ I think I have something. Could I be Ju Yazhu? Ya, as in refined, and Zhu, as in build.¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°It works, I suppose, and on a number of levels. Your new technique, the moment that I complete it, and you will most certainly be building up quite the great cultivation, so long as you are able to. Just make sure not to forget it, if you want to keep it.¡±


    ¡°I will not. I will remember this name that you have gi- I mean, that you have permitted me! Ju Yazhu shall always follow your instructions without hesitation, teacher!¡±


    ¡°Do they often do that in the Ju District?¡±


    ¡°Do what?¡±


    ¡°All of these formal procedures, the whole following instructions without hesitation bit, and the reluctance to use my actual name? I do also have a name, just so you know, and I don¡¯t mind people using it.¡±


    Ju Yazhu nodded, although her pink cheeks did expose some embarrassment from her apparently unnecessary actions, ¡°It¡¯s the standard requirement for a teacher and student relationship in the Ju District. We don¡¯t often go outside, so it may be that we just don¡¯t know that the other districts no longer act in that way.¡±


    ¡°No longer? Was that an instruction from the Master of Yi City?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t really know, but my teachers back at the Ju District had said that this was the proper way to act since the ancient times.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. I¡¯ve never been in one of these proper teacher-student relationships ¨C probably because most assumed that there¡¯d be no point to placing me into one ¨C but I¡¯ve never been taught that particular part of the customary interaction. Nonetheless, while you¡¯re with me, don¡¯t bother with all of that, as it¡¯s rather unnecessary and, frankly, rather annoying. You can keep calling me your teacher, if you prefer that.¡±


    ¡°I will keep that in mind, teacher,¡± she began to bow, but then stopped mid-way until Wei Yi sighed and nodded, ¡°By the way, where exactly are we heading to right now?¡±


    ¡°The Ping District.¡±


    ¡°Oh, the Ping District¡­ Wait, what? The place that is full of assassins? That Ping District?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve heard of it, I see¡­¡±


    At one point, perhaps such a description of that district would have been entirely accurate, for it was indeed the origin of many assassin organisations quite some time ago, and, if certain rumours are to be believed, then that was hardly the only danger to society to emerge from that place. Endless Dark, Weavers of the Dark, the Serpent¡¯s Fangs, the Worldly Barbarians and the Devastating Wave were all assassin organisations that had their origin in that district.


    However, it was believed that most had left it afterwards, and that the Ping District was now a far safer place for someone to inhabit.


    The truth of those words was uncertain, given that travel between districts was far rarer than it would have been in the days of the Master of Yi City, and the people that did travel often would often be very reserved about the matters of the Ping District.


    As a result of this, quite a number of wild theories about it had arisen over the years, with some being far more interesting than others. For example, some said that the assassins that seemed to leave had in fact taken over at some point and would demand ludicrous protection fees that the merchants would then try to trap others with by hiding this information from their competitors. Others believed that the patriarch of the Ping District had mastered an ancient art of mind control, allowing them to erase the memories of the district from the minds of all those that visited it.


    Most of these tales were ludicrous, but as most didn¡¯t ever consider visiting the Ping District, it just so happened that there were few interested in correcting any of those rumours. It could even be that they had been created intentionally, either to ward off certain people or to attract them.


    Whatever the case was, as they finally arrived at the district, they had already prepared for their entrance into it. Wei Yi retrieved the outfit that she had prepared while Ju Yazhu had been provided with a regular and plain robe, so that she wouldn¡¯t stand out too much among the people of the district more than she already would.


    Wei Yi chose to dress in a black outfit that covered most of her body, much like the outfit of an assassin, while her face was covered by a dark mask made from black iron jade ¨C a metallic material sourced from the prison realm ¨C which she had shaped in cooperation with Fu Zan in order to create a sharp but subdued item that obscured her nose, mouth and jaw, sticking close to her skin while giving her just enough room for speech. Additionally, it had been designed as to affect the sound of her voice while not muffling it due to several thin channels through which air could pass out and into her mask, hidden from the gaze of all but the most attentive.


    Her hair was able to cover the rest, and with the colour of it changed to a dark brown via the infusion of carefully controlled energy, her silver eyes wouldn¡¯t be able to give away her ancestry due to a number of families having grey or silver eyes as prominent features within their blood, like the Bai, Shun or, on occasion, the Bao family.


    In addition to all that, her darker skin would make most think that she originated from somewhere further north than the Yi District, so even if she came across someone that knew her, or someone that she knew, she could easily avoid recognition so long as she didn¡¯t drop her act or didn¡¯t reveal some piece of information that someone other than her shouldn¡¯t know. It wouldn¡¯t do much to trick those that had met her in the Luo or Ning Districts, as she already possessed that tone there, but the difference in hair colour, aura and overall aesthetic would be enough in her mind.


    Ultimately, the key was to prevent the Greats from catching on to her plans too early, and since they would now need to be on the lookout for dangerous individuals capable of killing or kidnapping, either on their own or with some group, two of the Great Luo Family, simply changing her persona would not do any longer. A change in appearance, style, voice, tone, techniques and persona, on the other hand, should be.


    Surprisingly enough, Ju Yazhu was not at all opposed to all this, and was very eager to see what kinds of things they would end up doing, although any reminder of the name of the district still scared her.


    ¡®It seems that she has a bit of an adventurous spirit, which is quite suitable for the possible adventure ahead,¡¯ Wei Yi had thought about her servant when they stood on one of the hills within the savanna that overlooked the Ping District, and took in the sight beneath them.


    Out of the three districts that she had been to, all those that were no longer standing being excluded, the Ping District could most easily be compared to the Yi District, for it had walls surrounding it, but they were nowhere near as grand or imposing at the walls surrounding the Ning District. Instead, they were rather simple, consisting of two sets of barriers. The outer layer was made from everbark wood, serving as more of a suggestion than a true preventative measure against those that wished to intrude, and the inner walls were pure hardened stone, reinforced with a number of hidden inscriptions and arrays that allowed the rather plain walls, on top of which guards would occasionally appear, to serve its purpose in a world of cultivation.


    Most of the structures were rather traditional in design, made of wood and stone with brown tiled rooves. Unlike the buildings of the Ning District, which were forced to be greatly condensed and lacking in interesting details, and the homes of the Luo District, that had so much space that they could do whatever they liked, the Ping District was not so keen to absolutely waste their land, and as such the buildings ended up as a mixture of the two. Each building and residence had some individuality, but not enough to cause the entire district to look like a wild mixture of colour from the side, or above.


    It was not as restrictive in terms of space as the Ning District, for the walls were hardly something that couldn¡¯t be shifted by someone with skill or strength, so the internal layout was quite relaxed and varied, with numerous open streets and spaces on which all kinds of things were being done, from trading and bargaining to various acts and performances to amuse the crowd.


    However, for every open street and part of the district, there was also a dark alley and quiet corner, where it was quite easy to notice several attempted robberies and assaults take place from their position. By the looks of things, while the outside presentation of the district was about as clean as one would expect from the outer walls and populated streets, much of the Ping District could not enjoy a safe life.


    Then again, while she watched one such robbery, she also saw another group of people wearing hoods or bandanas or even masks approach and attack the thieves, warding them off quickly and then retrieving a small bag of coin from the initial victims.


    ¡®I see, this is a district where crime does still rule to an extent, but instead of assassins and the like, there are thieves and bandits instead. From what I am able to make out from here, most people that have any kind of wealth or business pay money to one of the many groups that occupy some part of the district, a sort of protection fee, and they ensure that there are as few other factions attacking them as possible in exchange for a share of the earnings from whatever job or venture requires their protection. Those who own homes also pay, and those that don¡¯t likely work for one of the gangs.¡¯


    It was a simple system, at least for those that managed to find the right group to pay from the start and didn¡¯t need to constantly switch based on which faction managed to obtain dominance within their area of the district, but it was also a prime example of what was wrong with the current structure of strength and power.


    These bandits, thieves and thugs had some degree of power in the district, whether through raw force alone or through a man or two near the position of leadership that allowed them to remain unbothered by the guards ¨C one of whom also accepted some coin from the thieves right as she looked away from the robbery, seemingly for not entering a particular part of town at a particular time ¨C and that also ensured that any potential hero or seeker of justice would have a hard time doing as they liked.


    This was exactly what Wei Yi did not want to be permitted to occur. Under a single overlord that couldn¡¯t be defeated even if the entire world came together, people such as this would have no chance but to follow the law if they wished to live a free life. It would be bound to do them some good.


    Perhaps they could even find better things to do, and eventually forget that a societal structure such as this one even existed, allowing the name of the aforementioned overlord to fade away without any negative consequences after several generations of people that acted fairly, got what they deserved for their actions, and would always face consequences when they broke the law.


    Naturally, this was a dream right now, and just as she had considered not too long ago, dreams should not be allowed to get out of control. It was, in theory, possible, if she achieved the ninth realm and was able to either seal away the Hunger of the Beyond or even outright destroy it. At that point, there would hopefully be no more threats to the safety of Yi City, or whatever it would be called at that point, and so long as she didn¡¯t give out her cultivation techniques and materials constantly, most would probably be unable to reach the same realm, giving her absolute dominance.


    Such a thing would, however, stride quite close to what the Greats did, which was hardly pleasant.


    Wei Yi remembered well that she had committed to the path of doing what was necessary and then facing the judgement of the people once she was done, but it was often difficult to control her heart.


    ¡®Luckily, I¡¯m not some Daoist cultivator from the Daoist Continent, or else I might develop some heart demon and need to wrestle with it for control over my body and mind, or something like that,¡¯ she joked to herself, although she also recalled that such things could arise with or without the cultivation methods of the east, ¡®I¡¯ve already decided on what I¡¯m doing, and I will stick to it. One day, this district will be safe, and free of the countless thugs that occupy it.¡¯


    She memorised this promise to herself, and, in part, to the world, and put it aside for now.


    ¡°Ju Yazhu, follow me and keep your guard up. You have nothing valuable on you, so even if someone was to pickpocket you, it won¡¯t matter. Ideally, get them near me instead, so that I can deal with it,¡± Wei Yi told the woman by her side, trying to get into the habit of a new style of speech.


    Previously, she had played the part of a more sensible individual, then a straightforward but less sensible one. This time, she wanted to take the straightforward part of the second persona and combine it with the intellect that she did possess, allowing her to act in a sharp manner and say what she liked by being able to back it up with her current strength, and the mastery of inscriptions that she was able to include within her weaponry and mask when she had prepared them.


    Hopefully, with everything combined, that would be enough of a difference between this self and her other identities.


    ¡°I understand,¡± Ju Yazhu replied, ¡°Are we going to encounter assassins?¡±


    ¡°Possibly, but if we do, that won¡¯t be something that you can deal with. Just let me handle things and focus on bringing me something to drink when necessary. Come on.¡±


    Her servant didn¡¯t quite understand the change in attitude that Wei Yi displayed, nor did she understand the reason for it, but so long as she wasn¡¯t going to ask unnecessary questions or question why she did or didn¡¯t act in a particular way, that was fine with her. She would be likely to be preoccupied with all of the assassins potentially skulking about, so that was even better.


    Together, they headed towards the nearest set of gates, of which Wei Yi could see at least six on one side of the district. It seemed that they were not as concerned about intruders as the Ning District had been, although they didn¡¯t have much of a choice when it comes to their particular choice of stance as it had been concluded long ago by the construction of their enormous wall. Even if they wanted to let everyone in, the walls would dissuade most.


    Here, there were gates at every single entrance, but they were open wide, and guards would only occasionally look in their direction, for a reason that soon became obvious even to her new servant.


    Around all of the corners in sight, one or two men, with the occasional scarred or large and highly muscular woman amongst them, hid and waited for their approach, each one likely aware of at least one other such group. Before their corners stood another set of people, this time those that looked as friendly and as amicable as possible, who walked towards them the moment that began to near the gates.


    ¡°Ladies!¡± one of the many people decided to call out, ¡°It¡¯s dangerous to be travelling alone around here. Just one gold coin and you¡¯ll be kept safe for a month!¡±


    ¡°That lot is not to be trusted! Also, that fee is really too expensive! Only ninety-nine silver!¡±


    ¡°Ninety-nine, and we¡¯ll even guide you to a nice place to stay!¡± another offered.


    It reminded Wei Yi of arriving at a busy market with a great deal of wealth on display. It would immediately attract attention and prompt all merchants to seek to sell their goods at a price that the wealthy customer would find acceptable while still profiting as much as possible.


    She did not respond to them, hoping to see whether or not they would go away the moment that they showed no interest in their advances, but although not a single one of these thugs was above the third realm and should thus be able to detect that she is superior to all of them in terms of strength, they did not seem too keen to back down no matter what.


    As if to explain why, an old beggar that sat by one of the buildings inside of the district spoke up, ¡°In this district, it¡¯s customary to pay someone for protection to avoid the ire of most of the gangs.¡±


    ¡°And are you paid by them as well?¡±


    ¡°Hehe¡­ It¡¯s hard for an old man in the first realm to survive without doing an unusual job,¡± he admitted it immediately, calmly remaining in his place while a number of those protection fee seekers stepped in front of him, ¡°It¡¯s not bad, really.¡±


    ¡°I see. Get out of here if you don¡¯t want to be hurt,¡± Wei Yi told him.


    Although his movements before this were very slow and lazy, the moment that a semblance of danger arose, he leapt up and ran out, showcasing the full extent of his limited cultivation.


    However, her words were obviously heard by the others. Some grinned and quietly laughed to themselves, others looked at her with blatant disapproval, and others were filled with rage. Whatever the reaction was, it was clear that they were very used to getting their way, which wasn¡¯t all that strange. To most cultivators in the third realm and above, a single planar shard would not be too hard to earn within a week, so a single gold coin for a month of peace would quickly be paid by most.


    Even those that were more reluctant to part with their coin would likely understand that if they didn¡¯t follow the rules of the district now, they would suffer the consequences, which might be something as minor as simply getting in their way of their business to outright forcing them into a life or death battle with a foe that they could not possibly contend with. Whatever the imagined trouble was, most would find that it was best to avoid the chances of encountering it by sparing some of their funds, made easier by the fact that most travellers would carry a decent amount with them.


    In fact, that was likely part of the reason that they were so prepared to approach her. She was traveling from afar, and even wore a set of high-quality clothing complete with a very intricate mask, so she must be able to afford quite a lot.


    ¡°Ladies, you aren¡¯t going to challenge us, are you? Your servant has no cultivation, and one of you won¡¯t be enough for all of us. We may be thieves, but we have no problem sharing coin between us.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Wei Yi asked, reaching behind herself and removing a large pouch filled with coins from seemingly nowhere, ¡°In that case, I am sure that you will appreciate it if I do that work for you, don¡¯t you agree?¡±


    Before they could reply, she opened the pouch and reached into it, removing numerous copper coins. She threw all of them out, countless pieces of copper falling at the feet and into the hands of all of the thugs that were gathering in front of her. For a moment, as coin after coin hit the floor loudly, they maintained their focus upon her, as if they couldn¡¯t be phased with something as insignificant as copper.


    That was only for a moment, however.


    ¡°This one¡¯s mine! Mine! None of you can take it!¡± one thief declared, leaping to the ground to pick up a coin for himself.


    All of the others immediately followed, their attempts at being presentable and amicable shattering until they were just the same as their compatriots that hid within the corners and alleyways. One or two was able to catch a coin without much effort, but holding onto it was far more difficult as everyone around them leapt onto them, doing their best to wrench the small pieces of copper out of their hands as if they were not fighting over coin, but a life-saving medicine.


    Wei Yi herself seemed to be entirely forgotten.


    ¡°Come on,¡± she said to Ju Yazhu, prompting her to follow before the thieves realised that they had been played not just in one way, but two.


    Not long after she escaped from this ambush, the thieves in hiding being quite confused as to why their allies had let them go past so quickly and easily, without any accompaniment, the truth of the matter was finally revealed. The coins, as shiny and eye-catching as they were, suddenly melted through their fingers, mixing into the air and disappearing from their grip no matter what they did.


    They were very quick to pin the blame onto their allies and opponents alike, but none were willing to shoulder the blame for something that they did not do, especially when they had failed to gain a single thing from it.


    For those that were previously in possession of the coins, this was not sufficient. Their last act of the day could have earned them something with which to feed themselves, and now that the copper piece vanished from their hands, there could be nobody else responsible other than those beside them, especially since the trust between thieves was rather lacking even at the best of times, and it had dropped even further now that something this inexplicable occurred.


    At that moment, the one that gave them the coins in the first place was, somehow, forgotten.

 V3C67: Futile Tricks

    Once the spiritual will that had created those copper coins returned to Wei Yi, she breathed a sigh of relief at her rather successful attempt.


    This time, in order to trick those people, she had made use of her mental energy, forming it into the shape and colour of money, something that she could easily accomplish with her spiritual will cultivation, but she also embedded her comprehension of the Dao of Law into her movements. She had focused upon the natural tenet of greed, upon the desire for wealth, upon the fact that power was truly absolute, so long as it was the right kind of power being used in the right place, at the right time. This time, that power was money.


    She had not expected it to be quite that successful, however. To completely consume the minds of the assailants spoke either about their lacking minds, or about the might of the Dao of Law, and she preferred to believe that it was the former, as overconfidence could be a slow and insidious killer.


    It did do quite a bit to convince her that the Dao of Law was a good thing to focus upon, and that the absolute principle that she pursued was also highly effective. So long as she had been able to convince a group of simpletons or outright idiots, which might or might not be an accurate descriptor for the people she had dealt with, she would one day be able to stand her ground against the Greats with naught but her Dao.


    ¡®Unfortunately, that will not be possible for a long, long time. The first two stages are bound to be significantly easier than the latter two, and significantly simpler than ascending to the First Stage or beyond, which is where the most power would be,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself as she and Ju Yazhu strove to walk with long but unhurried strides, ¡®So long as this is alike to typical techniques, it is from the First Stage onwards that I will to be able to significantly affect the Dao that I practise, and truly change the world around me.¡¯


    For now, she would need to be satisfied with doing little more than playing tricks on others, intensifying certain matters while negating others, unless she intended to fight them.


    ¡°Ju Yazhu, we are very likely to struggle to find a good place to stay for some time. Be prepared to stay either on guard or in a very uncomfortable room for quite some time,¡± she warned the woman accompanying her as she approached something that resembled a common inn, a place where a normal traveller in a normal district would be sure to find a bed.


    It was neither rundown nor overly prestigious, and would thus be neither associated with thieves or petty criminals or with the overly rich, allowing it to receive the most business with the last trouble. Typically, such places would be as keen as possible to decrease the number of limitations for their customers, allowing as many people to spend their times there as possible. It would earn the inn owners a good amount of profit, while the customers would receive a pleasant rest.


    This was far more complex in the Ping District, however. When they entered, the owner looked at them hesitantly, her attention less on them than on the empty spots behind and in front of them, where an escort would usually be.


    When she saw none appear even after a few moments of hesitation, she raised her hand and pointed to the door, saying, ¡°We¡¯re not interested in your coin. Get out.¡±


    ¡°Not even a planar shard?¡±


    ¡°No. Get out of here, before I need to call the boys,¡± the inn owner declared, not hesitating even for a moment, ¡°It wouldn¡¯t end up in my hands anyway, so I don¡¯t care about anything that you can offer, get it?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Wei Yi replied, turning around and leaving with just as little hesitation.


    They moved onto the next inn, then the next and the next, passing through a dozen places that all offered the exact same response.


    Due to the influence and control the gangs of this district seemed to possess, this was no surprise to her, and after a while, Ju Yazhu seemed to catch on as well. In every single inn, a figure would usually stand or observe the inn owner while seeming much like a normal customer enjoying a drink at a table near the back, who would be glanced at the moment that a bribe was offered. Even if the bribe was accepted, it would not remain in the hands of the inn owner, so they had no reason to accept it.


    Furthermore, those gangs and groups clearly liked the order that they had set up for the district, so those that attempted to subvert it would need to be dealt with if they were able to retain their power for longer than a single moment.


    Although a planar shard was most certainly quite the incentive to the common thieves that were able to fight over a copper, someone at the top of their gangs must have made it clear to them that so long as they forced someone with that kind of wealth into their system, they would be able to receive far, far more, albeit in smaller packages that could then easily be distributed amongst them.


    ¡®Of course, if they think that they can manage that with me, they are very much mistaken. Just as power is, unfortunately, absolute, so is the law of dissidence. In every system, there are those that wish to rebel. Those that can bend or break the rules, or, rather, dare to do so,¡¯ Wei Yi expanded her comprehension of the Dao of Law, ¡®These kinds of people may be hidden, so if I wish for them to emerge, I will naturally need to make their emergence worthwhile. They may be interested in several things, so I might as well declare as much of them as possible to be in my possession.¡¯


    With the constant flouting of her supposed wealth, which she did technically possess so long as one accepted a fake planar shard or two condensed from her energy based on the array that had created the identity token for the Yi family, which could then be immediately returned to her dantian the moment that she needed it back, she presented one such thing.


    Speaking of which, the energy that had composed that token was probably still present in that immense pool, somewhere. If she ever wanted to falsify an identity token of that sort, she could easily modify the existing energy, or otherwise create a new array with a new character upon the front.


    To continue, she would need to present another strength, and one of the easiest to show in a moment would be literal, physical, and planar strength, and all that she would need to be able to display this easily would be for one of the many groups that she had doubtlessly upset with her flaunting of disobedience to come and try to suppress her in a different manner. At that point, she might even have a few observers from both sides, at which point she would be able to present her best side to them.


    Much as she expected, Wei Yi sensed a number of powerful warriors approached her position not long after.


    At first, none of them came close to her right away, instead observing from the side as she stood around a small plaza, where a number of people travelled through towards their homes, where they would go to sleep after a long day of hard work ¨C for it was already evening, as this was the earliest time that she was able to arrive at the Ping District with the handicap of a non-cultivator.


    To encourage them, and to safeguard Ju Yazhu for now, she sent her away with a coin made of spiritual will to purchase a drink from a nearby store. She didn¡¯t care whether or not she would actually receive it, given that she had no need for one, and could retrieve one for her follower at any time she wanted from the prison realm, but instead wanted to give those waiting for an opportunity an excellent one. At least one of them would be bound to come to her, or for her follower, although the way in which she barely spoke with Ju Yazhu should discourage them from believing that she cared about her enough to make her a worthwhile target.


    Indeed, not a moment after her servant began to depart, one figure resumed his walk towards her.


    He didn¡¯t walk in a straight line at first, instead acting much like a regular person might while navigating the small crowd, but once he came within the range of the usual person¡¯s spiritual perception he began to walk straight towards her, perhaps as a form of intimidation.


    ¡°Woman, do you understand your mistake?¡± he called out as he approached, a deep and loud voice matching his large physique, ¡°You have gone against our very district. Repent for your mistake!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t intend to,¡± Wei Yi replied, not just because of her intentions, but also due to her detecting a most curious thing within his body, ¡®The Crusader¡¯s Runes physique. One of the four that make up the mythical Conqueror¡¯s Eye¡­ This man will need to die today, unless he is very amicable and gives me no reason to act.¡¯


    Depending on the truth of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, she could obtain an immense quantity of power for herself, perhaps even the comprehension of a number of Dao so long as she paid attention to the unification of the four physique abilities into something greater, but even if there was no validity to that theory, it would still be another powerful physique ability within her control. At the moment, although she did have the ability to face the weakest of the Greats, she needed more power, more options, and more flexibility with everything that she did.


    After all, to the regular person, even one physique could be enough to put them above the rest, so if she was able to unify four into a cohesive fighting style, she would have yet another distinct face to present to the world, when needed.


    ¡°You misjudge your power and profundity, woman. The Great Worm has clearly cursed you. Permit me to deliver you from your own failed existence!¡±


    For a moment, Wei Yi was rather tempted to ask whether his surname was Kong, then she decided that she might as well do it, since that kind of random question that is only relevant to her own interests seemed like the exact kind of thing that her current persona would ask, and ask loudly, without reservation.


    ¡°Are you from the Kong family?¡±


    ¡°How¡­ How dare you insinuate such a thing? I would never be related to a failed, fallen, cursed family that should never be reborn!¡± the man suddenly shouted, ¡°Die!¡±


    While that did solve the question of his identity, his opinion of the Kong family, what much of the world likely thought about the Kong family at this time, and a number of other facts, the most significant thing that she got out of the exchange was a perfect reason to kill him right away.


    As he raised his hands and shouted, numerous round blue circles appeared upon the ground beneath her feet, each one releasing vibrant blue light from the ground, focused around a symbol of uncertain origin and nature. However, what was clear from their appearance was that they contained a great deal of power, radiating a different, golden light from the rest of the rune that diffused into the ground.


    From what she knew of the physique, it had two particular abilities that it would bestow upon the cultivator, although it was more like two variations of a single power. Each one was to summon the runes that were the Crusader¡¯s Rune¡¯s namesake, but one rune was large and square-shaped, while the other was a smaller, round rune, which was what she appeared to be witnessing. The only issue was that their individual effects were clear, but which one belonged to which was less clear. It seemed that most didn¡¯t survive their encounters with the physique.


    One was a slow drain upon those standing within it, temporarily stealing the lifeforce and energy of those that stood within it from the moment that the symbol ignited, while the other would charge up for a few moments then explode upwards, harming thing in a five-metre pillar above it.


    Whichever one it was, Wei Yi did not want to remain above it, so she used the World¡¯s Echo ability to disappear from the spot and appear beside him, igniting her gauntlet ¨C which she naturally kept with her current outfit, although only on her right hand ¨C with her yang physique energy before punching at his heart.


    It was more of an unconscious decision, but an effective one.


    Her punches were naturally immensely powerful, for her physique of the fourth realm was nothing to be scoffed at, but once it was empowered by her Hand Dao and Fist Dao united into one strike, the physique of a simple fourth-realm cultivator was not up to par, not by a long shot.


    With a single strike, his robes were sundered, his chest crushed inwards, and his breathing was entirely disrupted to the point that the runes on the ground vanished entirely. He was not thrown back, despite the absolute force that struck him, but anything that was within the proximity of his heart, like his blood or other vital fluids, was displaced as far away as possible, stopping the beat of his heart for several lengthy moments.


    In that time, her left hand gripped his neck and threw him to the ground, smashing his face into the ground with the accompaniment of the cracking and shattering stone road.


    ¡°Your contribution to the cause is very welcome,¡± she said, jamming her fingers into his back and crushing the spine from within. That appeared to be sufficient to finish him off, and so she sent in a few dozen threads of physique energy to harvest all of the Crusader¡¯s Rune physique for herself, obtaining it all in a few breaths of time, taking the ember from within afterward.


    She rose and decided to momentarily ignore the blood upon her fingers, which, in combination with the fingerless gloves that she wore on that hand to allow for the killing will form to be applied with minimal damage to her clothing, almost made it seem like her hand was fully crimson, covered as it was in the pure blood of someone with a physique. It was a thin and natural layer, too, making it even more alike to skin or flesh, allowing it to fully cover her nails and fingers while also stopping it from staining any of her clothing.


    Looking around, Wei Yi found that as many people had accepted this as she had expected, for in a district of rampant crime and in an encounter where one person blatantly cried  for the death of the other, to find her actions as anything more than distasteful or excessive would be rather difficult.


    ¡°Teacher, I have¡­¡± Ju Yazhu returned at that moment, noticed the body on the ground, looked about to find very few people even looking in their direction ¨C everyone that had initially been approaching her decided that this was a bad idea, and remained at a distance ¨C and realised that this was beyond her, prompting her to continue, ¡°I have brought you a cup of water.¡±


    ¡°You took that long for a cup of water? Is it poisoned?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, I didn¡¯t try it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re in a district of thieves, killers and idiots,¡± Wei Yi glanced at the body at her feet, ¡°Furthermore, we have offended most of it. Why would the cup have been given to you if it was not poisoned?¡±


    A voice suddenly entered their ears, coming from one of the alleyways that could be seen from their position. It belonged to a man, that much was certain, but everything about it seemed vague and hazy, as if it was a blurred image in an ancient scroll, making him seem rather ethereal. ¡°So, you were aware of the consequences of your actions.¡±


    Both of them turned in the voice¡¯s direction, but neither saw a thing with their eyes.


    ¡°I have noticed that you are interested in lodging. We happen to be able to provide it to you, so long as-¡±


    ¡°I know where you¡¯re standing, young man. That voice of yours doesn¡¯t hold up to scrutiny to someone familiar with a basic voice-altering technique,¡± Wei Yi said, addressing the very point where a scrawny man with messy blue hair and red eyes cowered from the world, ¡°Neither is your control over planar energy all that impressive.¡±


    The strand of energy used for voice transmission quivered, but it remained stable enough and endured the stress.


    ¡°It would be best for us to talk elsewhere.¡±


    She didn¡¯t argue with that particular statement, and instead led them straight into that alleyway, grabbing the air in a seemingly random manner that managed to breach into the wall as easily as one might otherwise pass through thin air.


    As if she was peeling away wallpaper, she removed that illusory wall from sight and revealed the person that had been speaking to them to her servant, although he had made himself slightly more presentable than he had been when he had been spotted by Wei Yi, and was mid-way through standing up when he was revealed.


    ¡°Your family is famous for its control over energy, and in your case, it seems accurate,¡± she commented, ¡°Have you met a Lan Mei Xing before?¡±


    ¡°I may be from the Lan family, and even the Lan district, but I am hardly familiar with everyone in my family. Even if you were to say that she has our full distinctive characteristics, practised all of our techniques and had our typical strengths, I would know more than a dozen Lan Meixings.¡±


    ¡°Lan Mei Xing, and¡­ it doesn¡¯t matter. You would know which one I was talking about if you knew the one that I meant. Now, since you decided to speak to me regardless of everything that I have done so far, you are obviously involved with one of those groups that stand against the common disorder of the district. You probably wish to extend an invitation of some kind, although I doubt that you wouldn¡¯t be interested in benefitting from me just a little under the guise of a test. Am I right?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    The man from the Lan family nodded quickly, ¡°These are all thoughts that I had, and I was given permission to act upon them. At the moment, we are not in a good state-¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care. I¡¯m not joining you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve done a lot in a short amount of time. The man you killed wasn¡¯t some nameless nobody. We are your only chance-¡±


    ¡°You think I, a respected inscription master, would join someone just because they were the first to notice me within a district? Or do you think that I was impressed by your abilities, to the point that I would seek to aid you as much as possible? No, not a chance, young man, not a chance. Unless you have something wiser to say, begone.¡±


    He frowned, ¡°Is this all about the benefits, then?¡±


    ¡°No, not at all. I just don¡¯t think that you are my only choice, and I would like to consider all choices before going anywhere.¡±


    ¡°This may be a big district, but we are the only faction-¡±


    ¡°Again, I call bullshit. You are the only faction that you want me to pay attention to, that much I can believe, but the rest of your words do not matter. Begone.¡±


    For several moments, he appeared absolutely stunned, opening and shutting his mouth without a single sound emerging, his gaze focused entirely on her. It was possible that Ju Yazhu could walk between the two of them, and he wouldn¡¯t even notice.


    After that, he did recover, shaking his head and walking out of the alcove in the wall.


    ¡°You¡¯ll regret your petty tricks, you can be sure of that,¡± he declared confidently, making it some distance from them before adding, ¡°This was my hiding place, so you better get out of here soon.¡±


    With that, he ran off, probably attempting to get far enough away from her spiritual perception before diving into another wall with an illusion-obscured alcove. There, he could easily hide from the common thugs of the district, unless they were also familiar with those hiding places and tended to avoid them unless they were necessary and return once they were gone.


    Fortunately for him, Wei Yi did not intend to remain in place after driving him out, nor did she have any need for this particular alcove, as there were plenty more within the range of her spiritual perception. At the moment, she was still expecting several more encounters for the day, so even if she was correct in her earlier assumption that they wouldn¡¯t be finding a proper place to rest this day, they would likely find a nicer hiding spot than this one.


    She looked at the cup of water that had been given to her and smelled the water.


    ¡°Sour, with a hint of¡­ spice, I guess you could call it. If you were to take it, even with a cultivation,¡± Wei Yi looked at Ju Yazhu, who instinctively trembled, ¡°you would be in great discomfort and significant pain for around a week.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ Sorry.¡±


    ¡°As I said, I was fully aware of what would happen. So long as you pay attention and remember what you learn, there will be no issues,¡± she said, pouring all of the poisoned water onto the ground and tossing the cup in the vague direction of the store that it was purchased from, ¡°Now, come with me and pay attention. It is possible to learn a lot just from watching someone use techniques.¡±


    The implication behind her words did not need to be explained, not even to the rather ignorant servant beside her, so she didn¡¯t waste her time with it.


    Instead, they left the alleyway, proceeding onwards to another street, although they did not bother to actually visit a single inn nor home, since it was obvious enough that news seemed to spread rather quickly within this district. Even if they found somebody that was not yet aware of their status, they would likely kick them out the moment that they found out that she was the enemy of a number of significant groups within the district. She could, if she really wanted to, force them to permit her to remain, but she didn¡¯t want to implicate someone else when they were just trying to protect themselves.


    At the moment, she only seemed to be a powerful cultivator of the third realm, someone that had no chance of truly disrupting the order and permanently improving it, so people were fully permitted to side with the safer, more established side in the conflict.


    She would only consider that to be a decision to mark one¡¯s allegiance if she showcased her full ability and presented her power to bring the Ping District under her control ¨C not something that she currently possessed, but something that she believed to be within her reach eventually ¨C as it would then be a person choosing to support a bunch of thieves over forces attempting to restore Yi City to its former glory. Then, she would make things as inconvenient for them as she wanted to.


    For now, she hoped for nothing more than a few more enemies with physiques, as she would then obtain some more power for herself, or that more groups with the same kind of intentions as the one the blue-haired man was in contacted her, since that would bring her more options from which to choose the moment that she felt the need to join any of the actual groups or organisations. Depending on the circumstances of the district, the mood of the bandits that seemed to mostly run the district, and anything that she could find out over the next few days, she might not even join the resistance against the bandits.


    For the moment, while she did despise the actions of the thugs and thieves, she wouldn¡¯t be taking any significant action against them for the moment, as per her policy of doing whatever was necessary in the present to guarantee a better future. If they proved to be the ones with whom it was safer and more beneficial to cooperate with, she would do so as her current persona, and then get rid of them the moment that their usefulness was exhausted, or if their harm to her efforts otherwise outweighed their ability to assist them.


    Truthfully, she did not believe that to be very likely, as the bandits that she had met so far were all very weak minded and useless, but it was always something that she would need to keep in mind.


    The thing is, she did not expect the bandit groups to be too keen to remain on her bad side for long, as there would be a time when the costs would outweigh the benefits ¨C in essence, the same line of thinking that she followed in their regards. Eventually, they would try to bring her on their side, although they would almost certainly plan to humiliate her in some way, or otherwise teach her a lesson for going against them in the first place.


    It could take quite a while so long as they decided to make good use of her strength to rid themselves of some of their other enemies, perhaps some powerful individuals from other thug gangs, which she was practically counting on due to the benefits that it would bring her.


    ¡°- and so her pointless stunts will not be tolerated!¡± a man of impressively enormous weight declared to all of his followers, who had to sit quite far away from him in order to endure his presence with the imitation of a smile, ¡°Round up everyone we have and get them to divert attention to everywhere else in an obvious manner. The others should get curious.¡±


    ¡°Boss, should we also spread a rumour that we have invested a lot into her?¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯d we do that?¡±


    It might have seemed like a foolish question, but the man that had offered the suggestion initially knew better than to ever assume that before his leader. If it was his question, then he must have been asking about¡­


    ¡°We overheard that she might be an inscription master. Due to the recent fault in our vault¡¯s security measures, needing one of those would be entirely natural.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Do that, then.¡±


    ¡°Those bastards are trying to trick us again, are they? Their vain deceits shall not work on us!¡± confidently declared a woman in a perfectly clear and smooth voice, in spite of the man currently on top of her, ¡°Send everyone to kill that woman and get it over with!¡±


    ¡°E-Everyone?¡±


    ¡°Did I fucking stutter?¡±


    ¡°N-No! It was my mistake! I stuttered! I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯ll get right on it! Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll get it done before you can even get out of bed!¡±


    After clearing another avenue full of inns, most of which were clearly preparing to kick her out the moment that they saw her out of their windows, Wei Yi suddenly had a strange feeling.


    ¡®I would have certainly annoyed at least one group, but I don¡¯t think that I would have this sudden feeling out of nowhere just due to one group. Since my natural perception has been accurate enough so far, I don¡¯t want to dismiss this as some mistake, so¡­ just how many people did I manage to annoy this time? More importantly, will any of them be able to provide me with the kinds of things that I currently want?¡¯ she pondered, spreading out her spiritual perception, ¡®Oh¡­ Neat. So much for my silly tricks, huh?¡¯

 V3C68: Devastation

    There was not just one, or two, or even five distinct ¡®packs¡¯ of people, as it were, but instead it seemed like the entire district had decided to converge upon her position. It seemed rather absurd, enough to be certain that Ju Yazhu wouldn¡¯t believe a single word, so she instead tossed her into the nearest alleyway alcove ¨C of which there were far too many ¨C and proceeded to an open square.


    As the sun was already close to setting, the number of people on the streets had decreased further, leaving only the thugs that were heading in her direction and those that worked in the night.


    Unfortunately, those converging crowds were rather slow in their overall movement, their large numbers clearly not benefitting their ability to perform whatever task had been bestowed upon them. This gave her quite a lot of time to be doing other things, and since it was rather difficult to find such things to do due to her current status within the district, she decided that she would bend the rules a little before either a fight or recruitment occurs.


    A bar was within the vicinity of her, so she entered it and got to watch all of the customers part immediately, as if they were too afraid to touch her. The owner of the store also wanted to get away, but there was too little space behind the counter for him to do more than shuffle.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to serve you!¡± he declared instead.


    ¡°You might as well. A lot of people are coming here, and regardless of which side wins, nobody should be able to blame you for accepting a silver or two,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Come, just one drink. Any drink.¡±


    While they spoke, the majority of the customers vacated the bar, although they did do the owner the favour of leaving behind their cups, glasses and whatever else, although most were not precious nor ornate enough to be worth stealing in the first place. This rapid exodus did include the watchers that kept track of the bar, so the moment that it was empty save for them, the owner was able to relax slightly.


    His body stopped shivering, and he stepped back up to the front of the counter, staring into her eyes for a little while before he was forced to look away from her deep, unblinking gaze by the sheer pressure of her mental energy, even while it was still contained within her body.


    ¡°Sure, I could offer you something. However, not a word to whoever¡¯s coming.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say a thing anyway. I don¡¯t care about the politics of this district, and, frankly, I might not stay here long. Not that any of you would mind.¡±


    ¡°No, we would not,¡± the owner poured her a cup of a red alcoholic drink straight from the already opened bottle that had stood behind the counter, clearly not being willing to open up a new one just for her, ¡°We also don¡¯t appreciate you messing around. Our district has stood as it does for many decades, and no outsider has needed to interfere before.¡±


    ¡°Really? The Master of Yi City must not count, since he was most definitely both an outsider and not a fan of rampant crime.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be so brash, outsider. You¡¯re strong enough to stand your ground so far, but you are only in the third realm. That lot starts out with leaders in the fourth, and goes all the way up to the sixth, although there are certain rumours of some reaching the Half-Step seventh realm.¡±


    ¡°Rumours, though, are not always to be trusted. I can start a rumour with just a random word.¡±


    She glanced behind herself, mostly for effect rather than to confirm how long it would take for the gangs to finally arrive, then leaned forward as she took the cup with her clean, clawed hand.


    ¡°For instance, I could declare that I am a genius that is able to craft five-star inscriptions at just the third realm, and will soon be able to reach the level of spatial inscriptions the moment that I comprehend the correct technique. I could claim that I have a planar anchor unlike any other. I could hint that I even know the name of the Master of Yi City, in full,¡± she said, quietly giggling after a short pause, ¡°Of course, none of those are mere words, but you know what I mean. You may not be sure whether any words that I have said are true, but the moment that one is said to another, it will spread, won¡¯t it?¡±


    As the owner had no immediate reply, she raised the cup up to her mouth, pondering for a moment how to best drink the contents without needing to expose her face, but the necessity to figure it out was notably lessened when the first group of thugs arrived.


    Since she hadn¡¯t expected to be able to get much drinking done anyway, she put the cup back down.


    ¡°Sorry to say, but I have to get going. Keep the coin and drink for yourself, if you want, although you can conceal one or the other so long as you keep quiet about it,¡± she suggested, stepping away.


    ¡°I was thinking that myself,¡± the bar owner muttered, hiding both at once before running right out of the bar. He had noticed the approaching group, and whatever would happen, he did not want to get involved in the matter as it would doubtlessly cause the damage of some of his property that could easily be intensified if either side would some fault with his behaviour. To avoid such things, not being there entirely would be safer, even if both decided to pillage his bar.


    Fortunately for him, Wei Yi similarly left the bar, albeit heading the opposite direction, to meet the approaching group with her arms open ¨C figuratively, of course, since neither an amicable nor an aggressive group would possibly go in for a hug.


    Something about their appearance, perhaps the obvious aggression, the weapons in their hands, the energies that they were already readily circulating throughout their bodies, made it seem like they just might not be the kind to go for the amicable approach, however. In addition, they did not bring a single gift or offer to settle their differences, as such people might, but instead were dressed in armour with all kinds of equipment at the ready, including talismans, artefacts, inscribed weapons and plates, amongst other things.


    After being stuck near the Luo District for some time, seeing such a variety of equipment was truly rather refreshing.


    ¡°So, fight or talk?¡± Wei Yi asked, just to be absolutely certain.


    ¡°You¡¯ve upset the boss, you¡¯ve upset the order, and so we will eliminate you, flat-chested bitch!¡± the man leading the group declared, slamming down his shielded planar anchor on the ground behind the ground right away, ¡°If you want to die quickly, we can make it happen quickly, but if you try to defend yourself, we will take our time¡­¡±


    ¡°Good luck with that. I hope you certainly won¡¯t mind if I begin first, will you?¡± Wei Yi asked back, removing a dagger from a sheath at her waist.


    The next instant, she seemed to vanish from the spot, several quiet rumbles of thunder sounding somewhere in the distance. It struck the attention of certain combatants, with some outright trying to find the source of the noise rather than attempting to figure out where their foe had gone.


    Thus, they missed the dagger that split their necks in two, separating their heads from their bodies, a thick blade made of golden lightning extending from the handle of the dagger and increasing its reach by a great deal. It disappeared a breath after it severed the heads of numerous second-realm combatants that must have come along expecting an easier time than they got. Within a single strike, a dozen lives were culled.


    Just as the group had the chance to notice her location, she disappeared once more, a further set of echoing rumbling sounding in the sky,


    ¡°Her movement technique causes thunder! Watch out for it! It might relate to her resulting position!¡±


    That insight seemed obvious, but it had been enough to shock quite a few out of their confusion. Since it was a rather obvious tell to her movement, a loud sound that appeared to originate from a specific distant direction, all that weren¡¯t absolutely deaf were able to make use of it to their advantage, accurately locating the direction from which Wei Yi next appeared.


    It was not enough to stop the second and last batch of those in the second realm from perishing to the lightning blade that extended from the weapon.


    Even if their reaction speed, movement speed, and circulation speed of their energy was accelerated by a thousand times, they would have simply been incapable of stopping the immense power of the lightning, which did not seem to be something that could possibly be created from the energy of the third realm, especially without the anchor placed upon the ground. As such, their thoughts were naturally directed towards one piece of information they had heard from their superiors regarding certain skills that their foe might possess.


    ¡°An inscription? Watch out for that knife of hers!¡±


    Such an assumption was only natural, given that they had no clue about the nature of White Echo, nor the existence of killing intent as a form of cultivatable energy that can be used in combat, and that can have an immense range which can then be masked with Storm Blade Wreathing.


    That did work for Wei Yi, so she did nothing to change their minds. She also didn¡¯t disappear once more, instead plunging right into the group of combatants, for the second group slowly arrived, meaning that she not only needed to deal with this one as quickly as possible, but would also benefit from obscuring her abilities from them so that she would be able to abuse her power as much as needed in front of them as well.


    Furthermore, if more groups decided to converge and join in, then the more tactics she would be able to present, the more difficult it would be for any one individual to remember every single one of them and respond to them properly, while she had no difficulty in switching between techniques or even weapons at any time since her dagger was still mostly hidden by the movement and lightning.


    Her lunge allowed her to pierce the heart of two in a single go, the killing intent-based blade of the dagger reaching far beyond its actual size, prompting the large crowd to split with a single stab.


    ¡°You are all so easily scared. A bunch of fools that will never reach the apex!¡± she exclaimed with an evil grin that ¨C unfortunately for everyone involved ¨C could not be seen beneath her mask, although the aura of killing intent that rapidly began to pool around her was most certainly obvious to anyone with even the poorest ability to detect energy around themselves. That, combined with the words that essentially meant nothing, drew out the image of some unfathomable and deadly expert, causing a number of thieves to outright drop their weapons and run off.


    At that moment, it did not occur to a single one of them that they were just proving her right regarding her words. However, it was only the weakest of the lot that fell to this ploy, with those that required genuine effort, as in cultivators in the upper third realm and above, remaining steadfast.


    ¡®To finish as many off in one go¡­¡¯


    One of her feet suddenly crashed onto the ground, digging into the stone, as she drew her dagger back and filled her arm with cosmic energy while supplying the dagger with killing intent.


    Then, she drove the dagger forward, parting the air and shaking the world with a single move, causing a sonic boom from the sheer speed and might of her thrust. Killing intent and sheer force erupted from the tip of the blade, splitting into a thousand cutting streams of energy that stabbed into all of the foes before her.


    ¡®Eight Great Changes, Tidal Flame!¡¯ she thought in her mind, willing the countless supposed flames to transform into something formless through the all-unifying Ascendant¡¯s Dao.


    In an instant, countless lives of the third realm were lost, their hearts and brains being penetrated and torn apart by the invisible flames of the technique, although the moment that they passed through a single person, the many blades transformed to lightning and accelerated, slicing past a number of foes at the back and ultimately scattering on the front wall of the first building they struck, mostly due to her lack of desire to damage the district itself for no good reason.


    The only person to remain in fighting condition after that was the leader of the small band, who had managed to dodge to the side while she had been executing the attack and only suffered minor cuts to the side of his right arm.


    He snarled at her, a primal snarl that had some clear influence from the Lion¡¯s Roar technique, but that also incorporated a very different intent, focusing on sheer ferocity rather than intimidation. It took form and surrounded his body, armouring him in solid planar energy that was much akin to the killing intent armour of the Hatred Augur realm.


    Unlike the spike-filled, literally sharp appearance of the protection formed from killing intent, this more resembled the equipment of a savage barbarian, with heavy but dull illusory metal appearing upon shoulders and body, fur-lined gauntlets bracing his hands and a thick set of boots appearing upon his feet. Together, it was as if they formed a great array, for they visibly resonated with one another and caused the air around him to quiver.


    This effect intensified even further when he pulled out an enormous axe, with a shaft suited for usage in two hands but a head that wouldn¡¯t be amiss on the axe of a giant, or some titan.


    ¡°You have upset our organisation! We have been in control of a street for over a dozen hundred decades! For this, you have no choice but to die, flat-chested bitch! If you have anything else to say, then I will not hear it!¡± he announced, raising the axe into the air.


    ¡°Second time, already. I¡¯m done with you,¡± Wei Yi replied, calling upon a small amount of physique energy to manifest into the Titanic Demolisher, which she wreathed in the same lightning the moment that any semblance of it appeared. It also gripped a dagger, but within the hands that were ten times as large as her own, the weapon also grew by the same extent, easily matching and surpassing the enormous axe head used by her foe. With it, she struck down at him while his axe was still in the air, while simultaneously stabbing at him in reality.


    Even if the man knew about the Titanic Demolisher physique, he couldn¡¯t possibly associate it with what he saw occurring before him, for the enormous phantom was not only made from lightning, but it also moved as fast as it and didn¡¯t follow Wei Yi¡¯s actions, all unlike the traditional physique ability. Thus, when two attacks came at him at once, he could protect against no more than one.


    Instead of playing by her rules, he decided to charge forward and cry out, ¡°Live or die, you bitch!¡±


    Wei Yi merely rolled her eyes, for his behaviour made it even easier for her. The Titanic Demolisher had already been behind her, so its strike would land on all space between her and him, while there was no point in attacking it. That meant that, no matter what he did in an attack, it would fall upon him, while all that she needed to do was evade to the side, without even requiring a technique so long as she was able to move swiftly enough.


    The only reason that he even thought that he could get away with this was due to the way in which the Titanic Demolisher, or whatever technique he believed it to be, was bound in some way to herself and her position, meaning that if she did evade to the side, as she would need to in order to dodge the long shaft of the axe, it would cause both of them to miss, whereas her remaining still would lead to some damage being inflicted to both. In essence, he was betting that a trade of sorts would need to take place, with both sides potentially weakening their attacks in order to be able to get out of them alive. From there, the armoured man would have the ability to switch up his approach, and potentially place himself in a more favourable situation.


    In the end, she did dodge to the side, as he had hoped she would, pretending to have supplemented her speed with the use of the Storm¡¯s Edge Dash by falsifying the rumbling of thunder.


    However, the Demolisher did not dodge alongside her, and all that the man ended up achieving was delivering himself straight into the best place to be struck by the great dagger that was being used by it.


    The dagger¡¯s edge came down right on his head, splitting him in two with little difficulty. His armour, his body, his clothing beneath it, and the bones, snapping the dantian into naught while his anchor and core had been outside of it, causing the latter two to shatter a second after, the one point of energy within the anchor joining countless others from fallen foes within her Truth of the Universe.


    Just as his body parts fell to the ground, the second group finally got there, and numerous other thief factions also appeared to within the vicinity.


    ¡°Brutal murderer! Our mistress shall have your head!¡± the leader of the second group, a scantily dressed attractive woman leading a band of similarly dressed women, called out and rushed towards her with all kinds of weapons drawn.


    Those other factions that were able to see this also accelerated, wanting to join in hurriedly.


    ¡®For fuck¡¯s sake¡­ If you want to call me a killer, then I shall show you exactly what true killers can be like!¡¯ Wei Yi exclaimed within her mind, manifesting her ample killing intent.


    She did not attempt to condense it into weaponry or some attacking force, nor did she try to summon the killing will form, since that would be rather inefficient for her current purposes, but instead spread it out as much as she possibly could, diluting it as much as necessary for it to reach as far as her spiritual perception was able to.


    Nonetheless, her killing intent was in the fifth realm, empowered by the stabilisation of the anchor, and born of her own boundless hatred and immense mental domain with a half that had been dominated for endless years by the power of killing intent. Even at its most diluted, at its weakest, her killing intent crashed into stone and the walls around her, eroding them as quickly as countless years would, sand and dirt flying away from her, carried by the dense currents of the faint red energy which rapidly saturated the air.


    It struck the approaching woman, stopping many of them in the tracks as their eyes widened.


    To every single one of them, the world seemed to turn dark and grim, and a fog rapidly filled the world before them, obscuring most of the district from sight. The skies, previously dark with hints of crimson and orange from the setting sun, became absolutely crimson, with maddening storms rumbling throughout them. Bolts of ruby lightning lit up the skies as if it was the morning, and their light gave them just enough light to see the thing behind Wei Yi.


    A great titan, towering above them all, with glowing eyes of crimson and silver, looked down upon them. One half, the one with the crimson eye, was outright demonic in appearance, its arm not covered by a single thing and fully exposing the jagged and murderous tips of her claws, the black bone plates covering the inflexible parts of her arm, and the inhuman skin that covered much of it.


    The other half was bright and white, soft and somehow even less human than the other half, for while the first presented a potential corrupted form of a human, the other was unnaturally pure and white, odd in the simplest yet most unsettling way. Simply by looking upon it, one might easily assume that the skin did not belong to any individual member of the human species but was instead the flesh of some entirely different entity that had some minute relation to it. That arm, also covered by naught, lacked all traces of the sharpness that filled the other one, but nothing about it seemed to be any less dangerous than the other hand.


    However, neither of the individual hands mattered, for the sheer size of that colossal horror, akin in part to the vague image of the Titanic Demolisher that had been presented through the lightning arcs and bolts, would allow it to crush every single one of them with a single step.


    Furthermore, a faint rhythm could be heard all around them ¨C or so it seemed within their fear and terror addled minds ¨C akin to that of a heart, bringing forth the image of an impossibly powerful beat that could dominate the world with naught but its boundless and unsurpassable body. In their eyes, this thing was omnipotent.


    In the eyes of most, Wei Yi was forgotten, for how much could a single woman do in comparison to such a great terror?


    Although this effect was incredibly efficacious, it was hardly an omnipotent ability, nor could it suppress all. Those in the second and third realms would need quite a few minutes to be able to extract themselves from the terrifying illusion, and some might even die from the horror induced by the beat of the heart, and the colossal figure, but there were several in the fourth realm and were far closer in terms of power to her killing intent, at least in terms of pure cultivation, and thus it would only hold them for only a few moments before they would begin to recover and notice traces of reality once more.


    At that point, all they would need to do was shake the others from their stunned states, and the battle could resume anew, with the aura of killing intent being little more than a distraction unless it was modified or otherwise focused on particular targets in greater densities.


    Really, the only thing that could not be stopped with such ease was the erosion of all that the killing intent met, quite a few intricate details that had been on homes or scratched onto the road at some point literally floating away, having been ground into dust and rendered null, as if they had never been present. After the battle, regardless of the victor, most would find their surroundings to be entirely new, or at least oddly clean, so far as they would be able to tell.


    Since the effect could be thrown off quickly, Wei Yi naturally didn¡¯t intend to waste her time, or otherwise play around. She could control the Titanic Demolisher separately from herself, so she bid it to partially mirror her movements and then headed towards the nearest foe in the fourth realm, for they would be the most dangerous.


    Her tactic was rather simple ¨C eliminate the biggest threats and take out as many of the weaker ones in the process as was reasonable without obliterating the district itself.


    Strictly speaking, no death or killing was necessary to remove a foe from a conflict in the world of cultivation; the breaking of a dantian would be more than sufficient to purge one¡¯s cultivation and remove their ability to participate as anything more than slightly stronger meat shields that wouldn¡¯t be useful to either side. Destroying a planar aperture was more difficult from the fourth realm onwards due to the presence of the core, from which the name of Active Core is derived, but that did not mean that the barrier was impossible to break.


    In a way, the core resembled the strongest defensive technique that the fourth realm cultivator could manifest with all the preparation in the world, in terms of power more so than effect. Most did not believe that it would actually mimic any of the cultivator¡¯s known defensive methods, but this description was still apt for clarifying the protective power of a core.


    Essentially, any technique that a fourth realm cultivator could deploy has the potential to be powerful, especially in ideal circumstances, but that did not mean that it would be invincible, especially if the cultivator does not possess some kind of secret power or knowledge that allows them to act as gods that have descended into the world. Similarly, a core, no matter how sturdy, is not invincible, and has a lot of room to grow, just as the cultivator¡¯s realm.


    So long as an attack is sufficient to break the defences of a fourth realm cultivator, it can damage the core. So long as the core can be damaged, it can also be destroyed. So long as it can be destroyed, both the anchor and dantian can be broken alongside it, and one¡¯s cultivation can be scattered.


    Thus, while all of her foes in sight and spiritual perception range were consumed by the illusion brought on by her killing will, Wei Yi would naturally use her strongest techniques to break the dantians of as many as she possibly could. The nearest target happened to be that attractive woman that was part of the second group to arrive at the scene, so she rushed to her while preparing the likes of the Elysian Storm Burst, combined with the power of the Yang Elysian Storm and unified together with the essence of the Touch of God for maximum effect.


    Independently, those effects were powerful enough to threaten both otherworldly demons and the Great Families, but when unified together, their abilities combined into an excellent weapon against all kinds of techniques and planar energy-based methods, for the Elysian property had the ability of targeting the weakness of any and all planar techniques, whereas the Yang Elysian Storm itself took that further to allowing her to shatter arrays just by lightly touching them.


    That lone punch carried as much power as the previous set of attacks against the first bandit group, and that was before her comprehension of the Hand and Punch Dao kicked in at the last moment, suddenly causing the many bolts of gathering lightning to multiply on the spot.


    Each replica was slightly weaker, but as her target had been the fourth realm woman and her alone, every single one instantly struck her alongside the main force of her attack, landing upon her abdomen.


    Whatever that woman was capable of, and whatever she had prepared for, she had not only failed to cover the place where her planar aperture resided, but she had not cultivated a single method to prevent it from being damaged. Perhaps she had been overconfident, assuming that so long as her anchor and core were within her body, they could not be damaged, or perhaps she had not even had the time to consider exactly what she would be doing before she had been plunged into the nightmare of Wei Yi¡¯s killing intent.


    Either way, the deafening lightning storm that was focused within the essence of a single fist crashed upon the core, landing on its surface and causing it to tremble in the very first moment of contact and interaction. The moment after that, it was cracking, and the moment after that, it shattered completely.


    With one strike, the cultivation of someone in the fourth realm was torn apart, leaving naught behind.


    However, there were multiple flaws with her attack, perhaps the least of which was that the planar energy consumption had been unexpectedly large, perhaps due to the unification of some incredibly powerful and hard-hitting techniques. It was less of a problem for her due to her possession of the nascent rift, but even that wasn¡¯t instant.


    The more dangerous property was that the strike was so mighty that it tore a hole within both the air and killing intent, one that couldn¡¯t be filled for several long breaths as if the very fabric of reality had been endangered for a short time. Just as regular lightning was accompanied by loud thunder, so was this mixture of energy and intent accompanied by a roaring rumble, instantly bursting the eardrums of several warriors near to the female leader and caused minor bleeding in others.


    What that accomplished was alerting them that there was a greater, or, at the very least, different and more important threat to take care of first.


    As a result, several were thrown out of their bewitched state with just one attack, bringing several opponents in the upper third realm back into the fight, and their cries and yells brought further attention to the scene, throwing more and more out of their confusion.


    It was a miscalculation regarding the exact outcome of the technique, and it was one that she couldn¡¯t afford to make again, nor one that she could easily ignore. Luckily, the equivalent usage of the technique by her Titanic Demolisher failed to be as impactful, nor as powerful, but it did succeed in bursting the core of a fourth realm leader and snapping their anchor in two, which was less effective than outright disabling them but did suffice to reduce their power to the second realm.


    Thus, she activated Endless Calculation on a number of matters relevant to the moment, then got back into the fight, moving onto the next fourth realm cultivator. Since raw power was not entirely appropriate in this instance, she coated White Echo in her bloodline power, channelled a part of her killing intent that was no longer necessary into it to fill it up with as much energy as possible, then empowered it and herself with Storm Blade Wreathing, doing all of this in a single moment before the dagger stabbed into the abdomen of her next foe.


    The weapon faced no resistance in penetrating to the core, and when it did come into contact with it, it merely changed from slicing through thin air to cutting through old and dried meat.


    Her White Echo pierced the dense shell of the active core and only needed to tap the anchor ¨C although her tap was as powerful as a giant¡¯s, if they had been a cultivator of the same realm and had the freedom to stab at the anchor without interruption ¨C to crack it into countless pieces.


    On the opposite side of the battlefield, her Titanic Demolisher stabbed at the abdomen of a different foe, the enormous dagger point barely making up for the deficiency of the phantom¡¯s body and the lack of all of her forms of energy around it, and crashed into the core of their dantian. The surface of the solidified energy fluctuated and cracked, but it was not sufficient to break the core completely, which was why the Demolisher had moved more quickly than she had.


    Since it was able to replicate her own movements, she willed it to act twice, stabbing again to pierce the core and break apart the anchor.


    Five combatants in the fourth realm had been incapacitated only several seconds apart, a feat that the vast majority ¨C no, likely everyone within the third realm other than Wei Yi ¨C would have rejoiced at, but that much wasn¡¯t enough, for over eleven groups were caught up in her killing intent field, and more still seemed to be pouring in. It was as if the entirety of the Ping District had decided to converge upon her position and was now intent to take her life alongside every other participant in the battle. The fact that someone in the fifth realm or higher still hadn¡¯t appeared was actually rather surprising, given the fact that any organisation powerful enough to maintain even the slightest grip on a district would require a force like that.


    Still, she hardly wanted to deal with anyone capable of using a searing mark, so she obviously wasn¡¯t going to challenge them to battle, or otherwise encourage them to enter the one that was already occurring. Instead, she would do whatever possible to end her current situation quickly.


    In order to accomplish that, she called upon a certain power that she had mostly avoided using in the past, not just due to her own lack of understanding on the subject and the way in which her warped cultivation might affect it, but also due to the uncanny way in which the hallmark of the fifth realm of both mental paths of cultivation had ended up manifesting within her. For most, the Hatred Scar or Mark of Balance would manifest upon their own bodies upon entry into the fifth realm and would be a clear indicator of it.


    Wei Yi had not received such a thing, and for quite some time, she had sought to figure out the answer, going through countless possibilities until one suddenly jumped out at her.


    For her, the Mark of Balance and the Hatred Scar were not on her heart or in any of her other vital organs, the brain included, but a review of what she understood about the path of mental cultivation confirmed that this was not a necessity by any means. All that was vital was for either one, or both in her case, to be within the body, somewhere relevant to the technique being practised.


    What some also forgot was that the Hatred Scar, for instance, wasn¡¯t just a meaningless term, but instead more of a descriptor. It was indeed a scar upon the cultivator, just as the Mark of Balance indicated a semblance of balance and peace within the cultivator¡¯s mind. Thus, beside the place where one¡¯s cultivation gathered killing intent or spiritual will, those two symbols of the fifth realm could also appear on the part of the body that best aligned with the meaning of either of those terms.


    In her case, she happened to have a place were both could reside, and one that she had not paid enough attention to until somewhat recently, having overlooked the initial moment of the formation of both symbols during her absorption of the walls of the prison realm.


    Within the Kong Prison Realm, the inhabitants of the former Crimson Side suddenly observed the ground turning bright crimson, somewhat alike to the initial state of the realm, except that the light was not only impossibly immense, but that it far surpassed even the concentration of energy that had been present within the outside and separating storm walls.


    Fortunately for them, it appeared to do them no harm, and simply passed through them as if the energy was merely illusory, or outright existed in a different reality to them.


    It was a much bigger shock to the newer arrivals to the prison realm, the Remnants of Yin and those that had belonged to the Brotherhood of Power, for they had never seen the original state of the spatial realm, and thus when their every surrounding suddenly became dyed in an overpowering crimson, an extreme shade that would never appear in reality, no matter what kind of power had appeared, even if the ancients that had been in the ninth realm resurrected and all pursued a single goal within the Planar Continents as a whole.


    For this reason, Yi Shi Ming had been forced to appear, although it also took her a moment to comprehend the matter. When she did realise the nature of the crimson light, her eyes widened as she looked out of the realm.


    There, the cloud of crimson light suddenly doubled in brightness, each minute particle of energy seemingly changing into blades that cut into those already affected by the crimson light, digging even further into the things that it touched and wearing away the surface layers. Those that were in the fourth and third realms had some natural resistance due to their stabilising anchors and cores, but the common soldiers in the second realm that had been brought along were not so lucky.


    Their skin was actively torn away from their flesh, and much of the muscle and fat beneath it was also rapidly eroded all the way to the bones, in just a few seconds.


    Countless people fell to the ground after mere moments of exposure to the empowered energy, and this was even more intense for those that dared to enter the field of killing intent after this change, those from the groups that had yet to make it to the battlefield in the centre of the Ping District. Those people got to experience walking through a barrier of knives and swords, each one slicing their skin and clothing, countless small gashes appearing within them, blood rapidly pouring from the open wounds, turning the ground wet with the lifeforce of humanity.


    A number of people ran out, terrified, as blood poured down the streets, for anyone that could cause such a massacre was blatantly not within their ability to cross, no matter what kind of backing and support they had. Others were horrified by the faces and bodies of their comrades being torn apart right before their eyes, and a few were prompted to flee by what they saw within the crimson.


    There, in the centre of the overwhelming fog, a great silver blade formed within the right hand of their target, containing a boundless celestial sky within its narrow blade. For the woman¡¯s allies, such a thing would likely act as the perfect lighthouse, for it shone with perfect clarity through a hundred metres of ever deeper crimson fog, but now, for all that saw it, it heralded naught but their deaths. Each and every one of them could see the great ire of their foe gathered within the sword, and they could state without a shadow of a doubt that they had never witnessed anything as horrifying as it in the past, and that they would never witness such a thing again, not from any other soul.


    Wei Yi raised the blade high, so that the last traces of sunlight might fall upon it, while invoking the power of Moonlight Ire to force an illusory moon to appear within the skies.


    Together, the two sets of light merged within the blade of killing will, forming into the power of Eclipse Ire that was enhanced by both bloodline power and her cosmic energy, but she did not intent to merely cut through a line of warriors. That much would certainly be effective in ridding her of at least one fourth realm foe, but it would bring even more out of their stupor, making if far from being a worthwhile action to take.


    Instead, she decided that she would put the flexibility of her techniques to use, as per her right as the Ascendant for whom restrictions are little more than suggestions that are imposed upon others, and once her weapon was charged with her ire, she lowered it.


    It glimmered with boundless power, seeking to free itself in one mighty strike, and she would deliver exactly that, except she turned the blade the side, suitable more for a cutting or rending motion than a downward slash, then, ignoring those that had already begun to approach. Wei Yi positioned herself in a stance that would make it easiest to perform the move that she had in mind, then took a breath.


    Her heart and the heart of the titan beat in perfect synchronicity, thumping incomparably slowly, as if her very existence had stopped in time. One beat passed for every hundred of that of her foes.


    ¡®Three¡­¡¯


    The blade within her hand grew heavier as more and more energy flooded to it, weighing it down within the space itself around it, causing the world to distort around it as it was unable to withstand the absolute force of the Eclipse Split being concentrated on the weapon.


    Her foes were now only a dozen steps away, the steps of a cultivator with a complete and powerful movement technique, and each one of them was in the third realm at the very least, suffering significant but hardly deadly lacerations upon their clothing and faces, droplets of blood spilling from their injuries with every movement.


    ¡®Two¡­¡¯


    All energy around the weapon distorted and blurred. Her killing intent quivered and fluctuated, and the space seemed to both expand and contract, everything that could be seen in the vicinity of the blade seeming to stretch out in a strange and unbelievable manner, as if someone took a length of flexible material, painted something upon it, and then stretched it out, distorting the image that could once be seen upon it.


    Several steps were cleared by her enemies, as they saw these unnatural phenomena occurring around the solidified weapon of someone that could only be in the third realm, without her planar anchor even being placed upon the ground, and knew that they could not delay even a little bit.


    ¡®One¡­¡¯


    Her weapon, the one that had caused so many of these phenomena already, also began to suffer under the immense pressure of the power within it.


    Thin cracks formed within the surface, although its physical form as much of a suggestion to the energy within as the laws of reality were to Wei Yi, the Yin-Yang Ascendant, the cultivator of five paths, the pursuer of the restoration of a city that had once reigned over the Western Continent. However, while the laws that would bind her could be weakened with her Dao of Law, the things that she created, technique or weapon, were all empowered by it just as much. Thus, her weapon remained in a suitable state, albeit barely.


    On the other hand, many of the weaker third realm cultivators that had been able to approach felt an overwhelming feeling of terror occupying their mind. It was not one born of killing intent, not even of their cultivation and spiritual perception, which was heavily hampered by the killing intent in the air, but instead a natural sense belonging to all humans, from the start of history to now.


    It was their innate sense of fear, one that would only be sparked when facing someone or something that was not just impossibly deadly, but outright surpassing the very world they lived in.


    Most of them doubtlessly lacked the knowledge of her physique, of its name and power, and of the things that she had been able to accomplish in her time. That much was only natural when half of her life had been spent in a spatial realm, and when she had did put some effort into disguising herself in every district that she visited, to the point that not a single person from the Yi District even had a clue that she had returned from the Kong Prison Realm.


    However, they could sense the innate might that was contained within her. It bid them to flee.


    ¡®And¡­ now!¡¯


    Her eyes snapped open, her muscles filled with power, and the energy that had been filling the weapon forged from killing will finally had the chance to pour out. She slashed the air, spinning in a full circle, easily piercing the armour, flesh, dantians and even the anchors of her nearby foes.


    Those that were further away could see little more than the eruption of blinding light, completely overwhelming every single sense that they had, and yet it was still insufficient to warn them of the full extent of what was coming for them. A circular blade of endlessly sharp force tore through the air, splitting it and killing intent alike, obliterating the cultivation of all that were in the way of it.


    The weakest were torn in two, their planar aperture snapping in half, while the strongest managed to remain in one piece even while their cultivation did not.


    In just one second, with one technique, several hundred lost their lives.

 V3C69: Descent of the Powerful

    With the horizontal Eclipse Split diving the many attacking forces in two, it also broke apart the cover of killing intent, which she quickly retrieved into her own body while the weapon in her right hand broke apart.


    The majority of her foes lay either dead or dying, some buildings were split in half, although that did not do much more than damage some of the items within, since the structural integrity of the structures remained intact, but that did not come without a cost. Most of her energy, regardless of the type and cultivation realm, had been drained away, some wasted by striking distant objects that were of no threat to her, but most had been expended in a useful manner.


    Unlike the time that she had absorbed the storm walls, she still retained enough strength to stand and properly interpret what she could see around herself. For example, she was able to observe the enormous increase in her planar anchor points, raising them all the way to six hundred and sixty once every single bit of energy entered the characters.


    In addition, she saw countless small embers glowing within the hearts of all of them, which quietly shook in unity as their number likely vastly exceeded anything that any previous user of the Soul of Cinder would have seen.


    She would have readily collected them, since there was no detriment whatsoever from becoming more powerful without needing to raise her cultivation or expend any resources, if not for the fact that she could sense an immensely powerful aura approaching, one that she wouldn¡¯t be able to contend with no matter what she did and that would be unlikely to appreciate the act of borrowing the embers of the fallen, unless he was acting against the many thieves and thugs of the district. Even then, he might not be so keen on looting the very essence of the dead.


    A few moments later, she saw a figure walking in the sky that approached her slowly yet rapidly, each step seeming small yet covering countless metres with each one.


    ¡°Tyrant! Killer! You have shed the blood of countless innocents!¡± the man that walked on the air itself declared, doing so relatively calmly while stroking his short beard. As if his words weren¡¯t enough to make it obvious who he would be siding with, his fingers were adorned with rings of immortal gold, which were labelled with some of the same symbols that were present on the bodies of the dead.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure the people that I¡¯ve killed managed to harm at least one innocent each.¡±


    ¡°Hmph. If you think that you can get away with what you¡¯ve done, no matter the justification, no matter the reason, then you are terribly mistaken. The streets run red with blood! You spilled it!¡±


    ¡°I was here when it happened, so I¡¯m very well aware, thank you. Explaining it to me a second time wouldn¡¯t matter, and even if you were doing this out of the kindness of your heart and for the sake of justice, you wouldn¡¯t let me get away no matter what I said,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°So, can¡¯t we just get over it and move on? If you are going to kill me, go ahead and try. If you will not do that, then stop talking already.¡±


    Unlike a few of the committed scoffers that she had spoken to in the past, this one didn¡¯t bother.


    ¡°As the protector of the district, I will kill you. You could have gotten a way out, had you listened, but you clearly don¡¯t want it.¡±


    ¡°No, I do not. How are you going to do this? Stabbing? Crushing? Burning? I¡¯m not a wood-type cultivator, so that wouldn¡¯t be satisfying to watch in the slightest. Perhaps you want to impale me on some spike and drain my energy for your own gains. Which one?¡±


    ¡°For you, I will allow nothing more than an instant death!¡±


    True to his word, he raised a hand and conjured a great quantity of planar energy, forming it into a great planar construct within an instant. It was so quick that Wei Yi was barely able to process the way in which it formed, for the potential eventual replication of the technique for her own usage in a later realm, although she did manage to get most of the relevant major details.


    Then, the enormous construct that resembled a huge fist crashed down upon her.


    However, before it struck ¨C and indeed before it had begun to descend ¨C she observed how the countless embers around her had begun to shift slightly in her direction, unlike their usual still state.


    As the fist descended, and the embers sparked, all of them suddenly converged upon her position, leaving the bodies that they had spawned within. They flew even faster than the fist, and simultaneously filled her body, all of the hundreds of burning embers of varying size, heat and intensity entering her chest and seeming to ignite an entirely new flame within her heart. It moved even more quickly than the embers had, and expanded all over her body, filling her with a heat that seemed to surpass even that of her physique energy, at least in terms of its effectiveness upon her.


    Once it had filled her being, it burst out, flame exploding out of her, meeting the planar construct fist and instantly causing a vast amount of damage to it. It did not crack, nor was it eaten away, but it was instead disturbed at the structural level, the stability of the fist turning from absolute to naught.


    When it did strike, it was but a shadow of its original strength, doing little more than throwing her tied ponytail about.


    ¡°What?¡± the Linked Channels cultivator exclaimed, the many illusory channels between him and the fist scattering just as it did upon striking the ground, ¡°You have the Soul of Cinder physique? Why were you using lightning? How were you able to¡­ you couldn¡¯t have slaughtered enough for the special state?¡±


    As the fist construct vanished, her state could be seen.


    Her eyes glowed like a pair of embers, their silver colour absent entirely as the bright orange consumed them, a thin trail of energy following their every movement. Traces of flame covered her clothing, sitting on them but not doing a thing to harm them. Everything that was not covered by her clothing was marked by thin fissures of flame, as if it was burning through her skin, although no harm was done to it either.


    In that moment, with the exclamations of her opponent, she was able to deduce and understand several matters. First of all, her Soul of Cinder physique ability had indeed activated, and all of the embers had merged with her, empowering her by an enormous degree similar to the gains that she earned from the death of two of the Greats. Then, she was able to confirm that she was currently in an abnormal state, the same one that she and her foe had heard rumours of in the past. It matched some of her knowledge, although it differed in other places.


    So far as she was able, it was temporary, and it would only last sixty seconds from that moment, although whether that would change depending on the number of embers absorbed was entirely unknown to her. The effects appeared to be a great increase in her defensive ability, a temporary state of full meridians, no matter how much energy she used, as well as a minor increase in overall power.


    Additionally, any attack that involves fire, even if it was only as one of the component elements, would be empowered significantly.


    Since she only had that little while to act, no matter what she wanted to do, she had no room whatsoever to hesitate. Perhaps the man would be keen to work alongside her after seeing the special state, perhaps he wouldn¡¯t be aware that the special state had a limited duration or that it wouldn¡¯t make her outright invincible after the initial moment of activation, but she simply couldn¡¯t make any assumptions. It was necessary to either do as much damage as possible or flee as far as possible.


    ¡®This man is also one of them, so I might as well make use of what have to weaken him,¡¯ she decided, ¡®With the apparent boundless energy of the Soul of Cinder, so long as I maximise my usage of it in the last few moments, I should be able to leave the district in that time.¡¯


    She empowered herself with her bloodline power, flooding her body and skin with her cosmic light, then leapt up towards her foe, who was still in a state of absolute shock from the sudden eruption of the Soul of Cinder state, unleashing the full might of her body at that moment through the most effective manner.


    With bottomless supplies of energy, no matter how such a thing could even be possible, there was no need to worry about efficiency, only scalability. It was the reason that so many techniques were typically delegated to a particular realm or set of realms, as they required far too much effort to be raised to the power of a technique designed specifically for a particular realm due to the different principles which could be accessed with every major advancement. However, it was rather difficult to create a technique that was able to be used well at every single realm without causing it to be highly costly, exactly like her Absolute Force and Rupture, which were inordinately costly for what they did.


    However, that was not currently an issue, so she made sure to use exactly how much energy she could.


    In other words, she utilised far more energy than a third realm cultivator should ever be able to, being forced to set down the Monolith behind herself while in mid-air just to keep it stable, more than something that a person in the fourth realm should be able to manifest, and probably more than most in the fifth realm would wield by the upper stages. With her natural regeneration, the immense absorption rate of her cultivation method, and the replenishment of the Soul of Cinder state, the power that she produced was great, but it was still not infinite, and thus it was unable to match the sheer quantity of energy that her foe in the sixth realm could manifest.


    This much energy was not simply planar energy, not since she had obtained the Absolute Dao, as it had been empowered by the Minor Achievement stage of the Dao and the Fifth Stage of the technique, resulting in a combination that just barely reached the level of the sixth realm.


    All of that force, shaped by little other than her will, lit aflame at the last moment, for the absolute energy would be unable to withstand the sudden introduction of the flame for longer than an instant, even with the Ascendant Dao bringing everything into a single, clear, cohesive whole, as the enormous quantity of power could hardly be set aflame without some consequences relating to the odd stability of simplicity.


    Nevertheless, Wei Yi did not need to have a technique that burned the whole time. She did not need the Absolute Force to be particularly showy, either, and she most certainly did not need to give hints to her opponent, who was in the process of creating a shield for himself when her attack was in the middle of its journey to him, having finally been shaken from his amazement and surprise.


    For fire to empower fire was only natural, so defence against it would be at its peak if it was clear that a flame-based attack was incoming. However, if all he saw was planar energy, albeit in a partial cosmic state, being projected in part by the technique and in part by the sheer physical force of her fist and arm, then he could at most assume that fire would make up some small part of the attack, perhaps providing the essence for the energy¡¯s movement while the damage itself would be dealt by whatever element her energy was.


    Indeed, when the Absolute energy suddenly turned to golden flame, it came as a great shock to him, nearly causing him to dispel the barrier that he had set up as to create another, more suitable one, although his mind had unfortunately realised how foolish that would be.


    Rather than wasting his energy or attempting to evade, the latter action being a very risky move due to his lack of understanding of her methods, he sunk his own energy into the barrier without any restraint, empowering it as much as possible before the structure of the planar construct would accept no more without outright shattering or even popping from the excess amount of solid planar energy within it.


    The two collided in silence, for there was no crowd, and neither one seemed keen to exclaim anything.


    A barrier of the sixth realm, stabilised by an internal anchor and core, empowered by a mark, amplified by all of the other searing marks through the illusory channels between him and the barrier, met with power of the third realm, empowered and stabilised by an external Endless Monolith, guided by the Fist Dao and Absolute Dao, amplified by perfected stages and realm, the force of the Soul of Cinder physique ability and the embers that had contributed to the current special state that she had found herself in, all uniting into one.


    It was only after that collision that any noise reached their ears, and it was from the complex structure of the barrier quivering, cracking and breaking, all in a single second, unable to withstand the sheer concentration of power.


    From this alone, it was clear that he not only had few searing marks, but that his stage was low, for a single stage of the Linked Channels realm was more powerful than the entirety of the Active Core realm gains, while Wei Yi wasn¡¯t even in that realm yet. Furthermore, the unsuitability of the barrier, the lack of sufficient preparation, and the poor tactical planning on the part of her foe all contributed to that outcome, as she made sure to repeat to herself as to not get overconfident.


    Still, that did not change the fact that most of her energy did successfully pass the barrier with a bang.


    All of the remaining force crashed into the sixth realm cultivator, throwing him away from his aerial position and plunging into his every bone and muscle with immense might, cracking quite a few of them in an instant, making him regret not practising a single body cultivation method in his youth. However, with the energy inside his body, and after the initial impact, he had far more power to resolve it.


    He released the power of his anchor and marks, suppressing the rampant energy within him in an instant, then expunged it from his body alongside a mouthful of blood that had become caught in his throat.


    ¡°You are truly pushing it, woman!¡± the man exclaimed as he set down his anchor and core loudly, crushing several bodies beneath it, ¡°You fail to understand the difference between our realms, and think to do more than minor harm to me? You are foolish, overconfident, and ignorant! Let me show you what you fail to comprehend!¡±


    As she had leapt far into the air in order to deliver that attack, Wei Yi was now falling back down to the ground, and in the eyes of her foe, she would be most powerless then.


    In any other circumstance, had he found a foe at her realm falling to the ground like that, without an obvious metal cultivation that would allow her to easily use the air to some advantage, he would act slowly, choosing to play around with his prey before finishing her off, since against any other foe in her realm, he would be outright invincible. Now, however, he did not dare to take her lightly, and so struck instantly, condensing countless fist planar constructs to barrage her body, surrounding her from every side in just a few moments.


    Each one of his planar constructs was empowered by the channel to a searing mark, as he chose to not activate a single mark in favour of equally empowering every single construct, and thus each one bore the full might of his cultivation realm, as weak as he might be in comparison to others.


    With such an arrangement, Wei Yi had no opportunity to use the Aerial Foothold ability to break her fall and get away, forcing her to extend her field of bloodline power to weaken the constructs as much as possible. She couldn¡¯t break all of them that very instant, as her planar energy had been exhausted once more by the excessive Absolute Force strike, and thus needed to delay or weaken them enough to have a chance.


    The first series of strikes landed upon her body, quickly showing her just how powerful the fist that she had initially evaded with her physique ability was.


    In just one instant, with them weakened and her defences raised, she felt countless parts of her body break and fracture, suffering minor and major injuries to her vital and non-vital organs, the edge of her mask breaking despite the material being enhanced with her Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp in addition to it already being a five-star material.


    That much was no surprise, however, for each stage of the Linked Channels realm granted an increase in power equivalent to three stages of the previous Marked Core, meaning that against someone who was only in the third realm in terms of planar energy, fourth realm in terms of physique, and fifth realm in terms of mental energy, even with the multiplicative properties of her endless refinement of her own form and that of her bloodline power, the man possessed overwhelming might. Even the Soul of Cinder physique was insufficient to fully resolve his attack.


    Perhaps the worst thing was that he had truly acted wisely this time, for he chose to attack with a set of fist constructs at once, meaning that the very moment the first set began to draw back, the second set crashed upon her injured body.


    Once more, Wei Yi got to experience her body break and be barely reformed through the combination of her surging planar energy and the Soul of Cinder physique ability, and made it very clear that it was not at all a wise idea to remain for any longer than necessary. Luckily, just those two sets of strikes had given her energy enough time to recover, so she waited for the fists to begin to recede to act.


    The very instant that they did, she threw out a web of tentacles formed through the Elder Eldritch Hold ability to distract her foe and his attacks, expending as little energy as was necessary to manifest them, then activated both the World¡¯s Echo and the Lion¡¯s Roar abilities at once. Similarly to the tentacles, the roar was merely a distraction, but the World¡¯s Echo was targeted to the furthest point that she could displace herself to without having prepared for it in advance by warming up the physique ability, so to speak.


    ¡°Petty tricks!¡± her foe exclaimed, seeing the mass of noxious tentacles and hearing the roar of a beast, but he still acted with caution and struck down with every single planar construct.


    They did not even need to collide with one another for him to be able to guess that something was amiss, leading him to stretch out and focus his spiritual perception while crushing the place where his foe had been for good measure, just in case he was mistaken.


    When the collision did occur, causing several cracks and instabilities to form within the fists, he also detected Wei Yi¡¯s reappearance behind the cluster of fists, where she fell to the ground quickly and did not use a single Aerial Foothold to slow herself down, for it would not be worth the risk of being caught. She felt his spiritual perception rather clearly, for he had not attempted to hide it in the slightest, and so had to react the moment that her broken feet, guarded by the boots, touched the ground.


    She thrust one hand into the air, causing countless totems to emerge from the ground, then linked herself to them and hurriedly circulated her energy.


    ¡°Did you fail to hear me, woman? Whatever you think you can accomplish, you are-¡±


    The sixth realm cultivator couldn¡¯t finish, for he witnessed countless points appearing around the spectral figures that formed on the totems, as well as around Wei Yi herself, all igniting with boundless cosmic light that much resembled the sword strike that had silenced the Ping District. All of the points were clearly aimed at him, and after only a moment of existing, during which he had been barely able to control his fist planar constructs to soar towards Wei Yi, each one of them fired a thin, dense beam of energy at him.


    Having felt the pain of her last attack, he did not dare to take this one head on, no matter how unlikely it would be for her to be able to throw out another attack of the same force and effectiveness in such a short amount of time.


    With nothing better at hand, he blocked the beams with the fist constructs, forming them into a wall that perfectly covered him, and observed with his spiritual perception as beam after beam impacted them, leaving no great mark upon any one of the planar constructs. However, the barrage simply did not stop, each point repeatedly firing again and again, each time aiming slightly differently and yet managing to impact upon similar points on the constructs.


    Those that fared the worst were the fists that had withstood direct collision with the strongest parts of Wei Yi¡¯s body, then with one another, especially when certain repeated beams would target the weakened spots on their surface, several of the fist planar constructs nearly shattering after a short while. He almost had to ponder whether this would continue infinitely, and if it would be effective to attempt to dodge, for the barrage appeared to have no clear end nor any hint of cessation any time soon, as if it was something perpetual that would forever chase and haunt him no matter where he went, when it suddenly stopped.


    The points flickered out, like the flame on a candle after an intense gust of wind, and the totems themselves fell apart shortly afterwards, the phantoms atop them vanishing as well.


    He found it so sudden that he stood in a state of absolute shock, one that came as a surprise even to him, perhaps extending that state further. It did break just as quickly when his unfocused vision realised that his greatest foe, a woman whose name hadn¡¯t even spread to him, was no longer within his sight, nor within his range of spiritual perception.


    With control over his body back in his possession, he searched the ground for any traces of her presence, but was able to find nothing, as if she had just vanished into the air, or as if she had not even existed. The latter was not a possibility, however, not with the injuries he currently possessed.


    They were nothing major, of course, only some slight internal bleeding and damage, but it necessitated the use of a medicinal pill for optimal and rapid recovery, which were not cheap when they were meant to work effectively upon the body of a sixth realm cultivator. This very fact enraged him, for if he had suffered due to the attack of someone in the same realm, or even in the fifth, It would make perfect sense due to his lacking cultivation, but that was not what had happened. Instead, it was someone that was not even at the peak at the third realm ¨C or so it seemed, although his opponent¡¯s energy was truly odd in numerous ways ¨C with a peculiar anchor that had also vanished.


    When he returned to the spot where he had initially confronted her, he even found that a number of the bodies had been looted when he himself went to look through them for some gains of his own. Only those that had been in the fifth realm were touched, fortunately for him, as that confirmed that his foe did not have absolute freedom to do as she liked after she escaped. It was only a small thing, but it did repair his state of mind and ego ever so slightly.


    ¡°That damned woman¡­ What kind of monster was she?¡± he asked himself as he stepped through the lake of blood in search of further gains from the battle.


    There was no proper time for ceremony when Wei Yi had managed to break away from the battle, so she did not even attempt it. She took valuables off every body that she could, naturally prioritising those that would be of greatest value to her and tossing them all in the House of Gold, then retrieved Ju Yazhu and just as quickly threw her into the prison realm with little explanation, leaving it up to the people on the other side to take care of her with the small amount of instructions that she was able to pass on to Yi Shi Ming before the Soul of Cinder state neared expiry.


    Then, while it was still preventing her body from falling apart, she rushed out of the district with everything that she could muster, be it physique ability or technique, only taking care to not be immediately noticed by another.


    That task in particular was made rather easy by the fact that the district had just experienced an enormous battle and massacre, and by the fact that it was currently night time, during which most sensible folk tended to remain in their homes or places of work in order to complete whatever they had to go and go to sleep.


    The thugs and bandits of the district had also seemed to get the message when all of the major gangs and group sent out large groups to attack someone, and also hid away, deciding that the day ¨C or, rather, night ¨C would not be the most suitable for robbery and banditry, and instead took it as the prime opportunity to do the things that they had less time to do, like spending time with their families, partying and occupying themselves however they were able to.


    As a result, none seemed to notice her departure from the Ping District.


    By some stroke of fortune, she had just enough speed and energy to make it some distance from the gates before she felt her energy ebb, the endless power of the Soul of Cinder physique disappearing as the embers sank fully into her body.


    She was able to sense a change to the physique ability itself, but she was unable to dedicate the proper amount of attention to it purely due to the absolutely horrible state that she had found herself in. Most of her bones were at least partially broken, her lungs had, at some point, been pierced a rib, many of her blood vessels poured blood into her own body, and even the lightest of injuries, which was to her skull, required immediate attention that she simply couldn¡¯t provide them.


    While she was still within the vicinity of the district, she would be found and caught, regardless of what she disguised herself as, since her basic figure and attire would remain, so she had only one choice.


    With the little remaining power that she had, she travelled as far away as possible, heading vaguely north, the world around her blurring quickly and turning into nothing more than a blob of uncertain colour.


    At some point, she just had to stop, since she wasn¡¯t even sure whether she was actually still moving.


    Her mind, which had somehow been holding all this whole time, finally lost consciousness.

 V3C70: Quiet in the Prison Realm

    If she had been asked whether she thought that she would successfully awake the next day, or at any point after the injuries that she had sustained, she wouldn¡¯t be capable of answering the question with certainty.


    Naturally, she would have preferred to survive, and she did think that her body was capable of enduring far worse things, but she had just pushed herself far too much without properly allowing for recovery. Had there been no chance of pursuit, and had she not gotten on the bad side of someone in the sixth realm, she would have stopped far earlier and did her best to heal the vital parts of the body, but she deemed that to be too much of a risk back then and certainly paid the price.


    For that reason, she was rather pleasantly surprised when she found herself within her mental domain, waking there first, as usual. She was still uncertain as to why this tended to be the pattern for her recovery from unconsciousness caused by excess exhaustion, but it was especially useful now that the mental domain was united with the Kong Prison Realm.


    In the past, if she wanted to make use of her time in the mental world, she could only explore the strange development that would occur whenever she underwent this kind of experience, such as her techniques advancing, the anchor condensing, or something else of the sort, but now that it and the prison realm were brought together, she could speak with Yi Shi Ming, address the people of Beast¡¯s Rest and Sanctuary, and, seeing as her physical form appeared to be projected due to her thought, even wander around the realm with little effort. Frankly, it was probably easier than walking around regularly, as she needed to expend nothing but the boundless mental energy that she possessed while within her mental realm and could freely move herself around without needing to physically act at all.


    ¡®Since I¡¯ll be here a while, I should make use of the time to resolve a few more loose ends that I have been a little too busy to handle,¡¯ she decided, leaving the library and heading towards Beast¡¯s Rest.


    There, as Yi Shi Ming had informed her several times in the past, Senior Yi Yi was residing beside the great array dome that surrounded the city, focusing on understanding it without having completed the necessary preparation for it.


    ¡°Senior, have you had anything to drink or eat yet?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Who¡¯re you?¡± he did not turn to her, nor did he attempt to scan her with spiritual perception, showing that he barely even cared about her.


    ¡°The person that put you into this place, old man. Also, how long are you going to spend on something like this without taking any time to consider how killing intent works?¡± she quickly became less courteous, ¡°Furthermore, are you trying to break this dome, or are you accidentally weakening its foundations?¡±


    ¡°And what do you know?¡±


    ¡°I put this thing up, you idiot. Are you seriously incapable of recognising my voice, or have you hurt your head at some point?¡±


    ¡°You did¡­¡± he finally turned to her and looked her up and down several times, before finally saying, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you. I had not recognised your voice at all, and you don¡¯t look much like yourself either. Wei Yi, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, although you don¡¯t need to lie that you were looking at me. I can feel spiritual perception.¡±


    ¡°I looked at you just now, so that should count,¡± Senior Yi Yi stated, ¡°I have been unable to bypass the barrier so far, so I have been working to break it.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Please tell me that you¡¯re joking¡­ No? Really? You can¡¯t possibly tell me that you have been unable to figure out that all this thing does is keep energy in, without affecting human travel unless it is activated? You are an array master, are you not? This can¡¯t possibly be that much more advanced than the kinds of things that you yourself have been able to make, especially seeing as this is no higher than a four-star array,¡± Wei Yi questioned.


    He looked at her incredulously, then reached out with one hand and tried to touch the barrier. When his finger was on the very surface of the dome, it continued onwards, passing through without any trouble when he slightly misjudged the distance between him and the barrier.


    When that much passed through, he pushed the rest of his hand through, then rose and walked through it all the way.


    ¡°Huh. That¡¯s surprising.¡±


    ¡°Your inability to perceive that was surprising. I am frankly rather concerned about giving you any freedom when it comes to messing around with arrays, as you might think that you are setting up something protective when you are instead creating a killing array to end all of us in a single go,¡± she muttered.


    He shrugged, turning around and examining her for a few moments, stating after a brief pause, ¡°You seem to be floating above the ground right now.¡±


    As odd as the switch in topic was, a quick glance down confirmed that while she was indeed at the height that she had gotten used to due to wearing the high heeled boots, her mental self was not wearing them, resulting in her floating a short distance from the ground in order to maintain the same height. It was nothing extreme, and if she was to walk through a large crowd most would likely not notice a thing, but it was still curious to observe the way in which her mind thought of herself.


    Her mental image of herself was still dressed in the unaltered Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival, still had her usual hair and eyes, and naturally had none of the injuries that it had accumulated in reality. With bare feet and hands, lighter skin and a younger face and voice, her mental image shared a lot of similarities with what she had looked like some time ago, while she had still been trapped inside the Kong Prison Realm without the knowledge of the true name of the Master of Yi City, of the identity or even presence of the spatial spirit Yi Shi Ming, amongst other things.


    It was something that she could probably change with a single conscious thought, but she decided to keep it, at least for now. As she was, her state was presentable, and the fact that she floated slightly should make it obvious to most that she was not in the prison realm fully.


    After all, it would be rather awkward if someone mistakenly assumed that she was present there in the physical sense, only for her not to be.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t try to change the topic, alright?¡±


    ¡°I am not doing that. While I can now see that the array does indeed function as you have described it, that was rather difficult to confirm given the fact that it does not contain a drop of planar energy anywhere within its structure. You see, part of the uniqueness of my methods, as well as the reason for my inability to create four-star arrays at the same level as the rest of my work, is that I have a different method of viewing and constructing arrays-¡±


    ¡°A method that is less beneficial when planar energy is lacking, and also the reason why you had to prompt your descendants to create a solution to it. It seems that they have had some luck.¡±


    ¡°Indeed.¡±


    ¡°It also seems to me that you¡¯ve opened up to me, at least when it comes to your techniques. Has speaking with some of the Remnants of Yin convinced you that I am not with the Greats, or that I have the intention of acting against them?¡±


    ¡°They have¡­ Goodness, that anchor of yours seems to have broken.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Have you actually gone senile, old man?¡±


    ¡°No, no, I am perfectly fine. I had just failed to pay attention some time back, when it seemed to have exploded,¡± Senior Yi Yi said, bringing his attention away from the sun-like Endless Monolith in the distance, ¡°You appear to be a reasonably powerful individual, you have the trust of my past allies, and you have carried on the legacy of my descendants. I shall work alongside you, for now.¡±


    ¡°Good. I¡¯ll give you some knowledge and information later, but for now, I have to speak with a few others. Get yourself settled in at Beast¡¯s Rest, and I will get to you later.¡±


    He nodded, and walked off, travelling towards the city that had grown enough to only begin within a few metres of the great dome, leaving her to ponder who to speak with next. So far as she could tell, most of the prison realm¡¯s population was doing fine for the moment, not requiring her immediate attention, save for Min Lian, so she moved herself over to the assassin¡¯s position, finding her kneeling in front of her desk in the office beneath Beast¡¯s Rest.


    To her credit, the assassin noticed her presence almost immediately, lowering her head further.


    ¡°I apologise for disrupting your space, Master. I have kept myself in a state and place where I would be most able to accept your orders at any time.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ you really didn¡¯t have to do that, you know. You could just go around, do what you like, train, eat, cultivate¡­ well, you have done that last thing, judging by your current cultivation, but you do not need to spend your every moment waiting for me,¡± Wei Yi said, then added, ¡°In fact, I may even command you against it.¡±


    ¡°Master, as you have stated in the past, I do not require sustenance, nor do I need entertainment.¡±


    ¡°Min Lian, don¡¯t force me to do this. I know that you have an interest in staying near me, which I do appreciate, but I am going to have to insist that we have a proper talk about this later ¨C for the moment, I am not certain how long I will be able to remain before I awake. Otherwise, I will give binding orders, and I will not listen to a single thing you say,¡± she threatened, ¡°Furthermore, you don¡¯t wish to anger the leadership of the Scorching Blades, do you?¡±


    ¡°About that¡­ Master, do you recall the time that you had absorbed the storm walls of this prison realm?¡±


    ¡°Did I unveil some new memories?¡±


    ¡°For a brief moment, when all of the killing intent in the air receded, I felt my mind change. I was unable to identify the exact nature of it, but I was distinctly aware that some part of my awareness had changed. As part of this change, I realised that I had indeed recalled something¡­ and that I was no longer bound.¡±


    Although she had guessed that something of the sort was possible, it was still rather surprising, until she confirmed that Min Lian did not appear to be shifting from her position.


    ¡°Since you were still acting the same way before and after this reveal, I suspect that you do not intend to turn against me now that you have regained your freedom and have announced it. In that case, what is it that you want?¡±


    The assassin ¨C former assassin, theoretically ¨C hesitated uncharacteristically, ¡°You believed that you had replaced some memory of one of my masters with yourself, right?¡±


    ¡°That was my assumption.¡±


    ¡°You might have also noticed that I sometimes behaved¡­ oddly around you. I would take great care in ensuring that you weren¡¯t harmed, I tried to remain in your vicinity as much as possible, and I tried to do as much as possible for you even when¡­ well, even when there was no point to it, due to our combined conditions.¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re going to declare your love for me, or something of the sort, you should understand my stance already.¡±


    ¡°No, I would never do that. It would be too much of a strain upon you, and I couldn¡¯t deserve it¡­¡± Min Lian stated, finally raising her head, ¡°Rather, I feel like I¡­ need you. I don¡¯t understand it, not after all the years I had faked many of my actions, but I just want to be near to you, to help you, to assist you.¡±


    Their eyes met, and the assassin looked as if she was on the verge of crying, although the physique of a hatred avatar could not produce tears in the same way as the body of a human. It wasn¡¯t this that was most shocking, but the sheer amount of emotion that seemed to finally seep into the world, being just a step away from manifesting into a visible aura.


    A mixture of all kinds of thoughts and emotions were contained within her eyes, some joyful and others far less so, but all of them changed her face immensely despite Min Lian continuing to control every other part of her expression and body. From an ancient assassin turned hatred avatar that could never express more a false, rigid imitation of human reaction, that simple thing made her seem as if she had become a different person, perhaps a poor girl that had been tormented for far too long without the ability to showcase that to anyone until now.


    In a way, that was an accurate description. Most assassin organisations did select recruits at a young age, since it would be easier to train them to be fully obedient regardless of the method used, so with all of the assassin training brought to the back of the mind, all that would be left would be her youth.


    ¡°I understand that all of this is unreasonable. You cannot make it more obvious that you are travelling through the world, nor where you are going, and having someone that can change their face less easily than you would be to your detriment. So, instead, I remain here, and wait for you to return. To see you, at least for a moment,¡± Min Lian admitted, ¡°If I had human senses, perhaps I would like to feel your warmth, or take in your smell, or something even more extreme, but I cannot.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Sorry. That was most certainly not what I had intended.¡±


    ¡°I know that. Actually, it¡­ it is nice to have some kind of yearning. It hurts, a lot, but¡­ it¡¯s pleasant to be able to feel. To truly feel, not to just pretend. That this is even possible is excellent, but¡­ Please, once you can open the gates, have a base where we have some semblance of safety¡­ could you let me stay around you? As a guard, servant, maid, slave¡­ I don¡¯t care. Just allow me to see you.¡±


    ¡°I had no intentions of doing otherwise, either when you became powerful enough, or when I could allow freedom for the others, as well¡­¡± Wei Yi stated, biting her lip while she thought for a moment, ¡°I tend to spend some time near the otherworldly demons in the store on the ground, so, instead of waiting for some assignment, could you stay there? You can choose what you do, if you like, but I think you may benefit from just spending some time near others. They don¡¯t know that you¡¯re an assassin, so you could even talk to them normally, and they won¡¯t have a clue.¡±


    ¡°Master, why would I¡­¡±


    ¡°As you know, I cannot do much for the moment, especially when I am only here in spirit but not physically, but since you possess some of the emotions that have been suppressed for too long, I think you it would help to have the freedom to express them to others.¡±


    Min Lian gave it some thought, ¡°Perhaps. I wouldn¡¯t want to become like the stalker guard that keeps trying to observe you, however.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve seen her too? I¡¯m letting her do it, mostly because she seems strangely good at knowing where to look and at what time, so she might prove to be a good scout at a later point, and since it seems that people without some form of mental trauma do not make it into the prison realm,¡± Wei Yi glanced down at her mental self¡¯s hand, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Judging by the way you speak to me, you intend to remain loyal, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master. There would be no point for me to act against you, no matter how. Even if it was possible to undo whatever it was that had caused this, I am not sure that it would truly be gone, since I have spent quite a long time with these thoughts. As such, I should do my best to remain with you.¡±


    ¡°In that case¡­ Is the Scorching Blades¡¯ method of control also gone?¡±


    ¡°It appears to be.¡±


    ¡°Well then, I might be a little more able to let you out into the Planar Continents. I was rather concerned that if you met with someone from your former assassin organisation, you would be brought under their control and made to share everything that you knew, but if that is not the case, it should be safe for you to travel with more freedom,¡± Wei Yi said, although she did not make a single statement nor believe a single word without the confirmation of its validity through a strand of spiritual will within the assassin¡¯s neck. For someone that had the ability to trick almost anyone with her acting, it would be risky not to assess every word after blatant confirmation that she had broken free of her control.


    Frankly, Wei Yi would love to not need to do such a thing, and to have the ability to believe every word spoken by every person, but that was simply impossible, likely even if she reached the peak of the Dao of Law and was able to impose her will onto the entirety of the Planar Continents, and anything within them. Rather than humans being inclined to lie, it was more that they saw many reasons for it.


    Some lied in an attempt to benefit others, to prevent harm or to improve someone¡¯s wellbeing, although they would not always succeed quite as they hoped to. Others would lie for malicious purposes, hoping to profit from someone¡¯s misfortune or otherwise create pain for another, perhaps out of vengeance or just to satisfy themselves or someone else. Then there were those that lied for more neutral purposes, seeking to avoid unnecessary trouble or otherwise conceal something that is of no relevance to others, but that would not be helpful if commonly known.


    Essentially, to stop people from lying would require her to alter the very nature of humanity and the world, removing all freedom from them in order to prevent the very possibility of lying, or to make it entirely unnecessary.


    As much as that might make conversation easier, it was something that she was neither able to do, nor prepared to do, not unless she was able to conclude with one hundred percent certainty that it would be a good change to the world¡­ and even then, she would prefer not to mess with such intricate things no matter how much power was granted to her. Her Dao of Law would merely prevent the worst examples of human nature from being permitted to succeed and propagate at its peak, and even that would have been something that she would have preferred not to be forced into doing, so to go further would be entirely beyond her.


    However, Min Lian did not appear to be lying, so she similarly replied with some true options.


    ¡°I will await that eagerly¡­ and will attempt to locate the otherworldly demons that you had mentioned, since I do not believe that I have had the misfortune of meeting them,¡± the assassin said, although she still didn¡¯t rise from the ground, ¡°Before I go, may I know how you would prefer me to speak to you? Should I keep my polite address, or¡­¡±


    ¡°You may do as you like, although do know that if you decide to continue addressing me as Master, I shall likely continue to order you around as if I am one.¡±


    A smile that would typically never appear on Min Lian¡¯s face suddenly adorned it brightly and proudly.


    ¡°In that case, Master, I shall ensure that it is well known that my life belongs to you,¡± she declared, getting up and delivering a full bow to her, ¡°If it would please Master, I may be available for you to resolve the day¡¯s stress with me.¡±


    Before Wei Yi was able to react, the assassin ran off, taking one last look at her as she went out of the office with a smile.


    It took the Ascendant some time to understand exactly what she saw, especially since she wasn¡¯t even certain whether her previous judgement of the situation was mistaken, or if Min Lian had been joking or otherwise acting, only to conclude ¨C with some uncertainty still remaining ¨C that the assassin may very well have begun suggesting these kinds of things some time ago out of some actual desire to remain with her in that way.


    This much was¡­ not uncommon within the prison realm, to say the least, especially in some of the particularly kinky brothels that were run by Meng Chu, and the assassin did not seem to be asking her for anything more than that particular kind of relationship, so she supposed that she could give it to her.


    As she had learnt quite a number of times, she was indeed fond of being in charge, dominating others, even if it was just in a minor way¡­ but there was always the concern that Min Lian was not quite in her right mind, besides the matter that she had been trained for many years in an environment that did not permit true emotion. At the moment, due to the unexpected outcome of an action taken many years ago, her mind turned out to have been warped in some other manner, which she was far less pleased with exploiting than her previous assassin training.


    ¡®However, do I honestly believe that it will ever be possible to fix this? Even if her mind was to be erased and reborn anew, experiencing a different life where she suffered from neither the assassin training nor my attempt to restore her memories, would that be anything close to her true self? What is someone¡¯s true state? I don¡¯t think I can confidently answer any of those, so¡­¡¯ Wei Yi shrugged, ¡®I guess I don¡¯t have any particular desire to sleep with her, nor use her in any manner, so its fine for now.¡¯


    She wasn¡¯t really interested in pondering these kinds of things now, especially not while she had the ability to easily and seamlessly travel throughout the prison realm and commune with whoever she wished, however she wished, while she might very well be unable to walk anywhere far in the Planar Continents the moment that she awakes and would thus have a lot of time for pondering.


    Thus, she instead descended to Meng Chu¡¯s office, but that place, as well as many of his typical gathering spots, was empty, but she was able to perceive something that had remained mostly unseen for her in the past. In the room where he had seen a strange phenomenon after acquiring his physique, she had previously only been able to see a slight trace of what he was mentioning and hadn¡¯t gone back to check it for some time. However, now, perhaps as a result of acquiring a series of yin-type physiques, or perhaps due to her mental form, or some other reason entirely, she could see exactly what he had seen back then.


    It was a pillar of energy, acting a little like an unusually tall flame surging from some invisible bonfire, although it was too thin, tall and smooth to truly be described as fire.


    The strangest thing about it, however, was the speed at which it moved. When the world was progressing at its regular pace, matching the passage of time within the Planar Continents, the flame appeared to move at an incredibly slow pace, as if it had been captured and then displayed at half of its regular speed, but the moment that she made the pace of the prison realm match its original state, with half an hour within passing for every minute without, it appeared to wildly accelerate.


    This was certainly no coincidence, either, as she was able to flip the metaphorical switch over and over again to observe the flame change each time that she did, although little else changed about it with every flip back and forth.


    ¡°Ah, there you¡­ are you floating?¡±


    ¡°I am, but it¡¯s no big deal, so don¡¯t worry. Where have you been, and have you noticed the changes to the point of convergence before?¡± she asked without turning around.


    ¡°How is that¡­ forget it. I was out looking at Sanctuary, taking in the sights while taking a break. It is quite different from Beast¡¯s Rest, even with all of the work put into it, and it is always quite pleasant to observe,¡± Meng Chu answered, ¡°As for the point of convergence, I had noticed it, and was able to guess roughly when you¡¯d appear within the prison realm, although you didn¡¯t always visit.¡±


    ¡°Oh, good, glad that you paid attention. Also nice that you haven¡¯t told me about it, although I can understand that you might think it to be something unnecessary,¡± she commented, choosing to ignore whatever he might have had to say as she continued, ¡°Anyway, things are not as good as they can be for the moment, so I¡¯m just warning you that I might not be able to come back in a while. You don¡¯t do much already, so just don¡¯t panic and don¡¯t let anyone else panic, alright? When I am free to return, I will tell you, and anyone else that matters.¡±


    ¡°Is that connected to your hovering?¡±


    ¡°You see, I¡¯m not actually here. Rather, it¡¯s my mental projection of myself, which must have adapted to my regular height but not taken into account the different clothing that I have begun to wear.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s quite impressive. I couldn¡¯t tell any difference between you and your regular state, save for the floating thing, of course,¡± Meng Chu said, ¡°If you¡¯d placed yourself on the ground, you could have gone into one of my brothels without anyone being any the wiser.¡±


    ¡°Nah, most people there are more attentive than you. Anyway¡­¡±


    There was a brief pause, during which both thought of something to say to the other. However, before either one was able to speak up, Wei Yi¡¯s form suddenly quivered, and she felt a certain pull upon herself that was not physical, but spiritual in nature. It did not move her form, but she was able to sense herself being pulled outside of the prison realm, slowly at first, but if she was to force herself to remain for any longer, it would become overwhelming quickly.


    ¡°Well, shit. It seems that I¡¯ve got to go, so seen you soon¡­ hopefully. If I don¡¯t return any time soon¡­ Eh, unlikely. Goodbye!¡±


    Her form vanished from the prison realm before Meng Chu could say anything.

 Bonus Chapter: A Massage? [R-18]

    ¡°I¡¯m so happy to see you again, Ah Qiu Ya. Please, come in. You know the way.¡±


    She hated to admit it, but that was true. Having experienced the first massage, she felt inexplicably violated, and yet it was incredibly soothing and¡­ satisfying. Being an adult, she did have a notion of what it felt like to orgasm, and she was fairly certain that Su Min hadn¡¯t provided her with one, but she had felt a certain elation after their first session ended.


    Hence, she was very interested in having additional sessions, and found her way to the massage parlour very soon after.


    The next few massages weren¡¯t particularly different, but she was able to notice a pattern. The time spent on her chest and groin, as well as her ass and feet, increased by a minute with every session, and the other activities were shortened by a similar duration.


    This wasn¡¯t too drastic, but something told her things would be different today. It was a faint fluttering in her chest, a certain eagerness and anticipation that she couldn¡¯t quite describe or understand. All she knew was that she was looking forward to today, whatever Su Min had prepared for her, and she was going to let it happen, as she could hardly deny that she wasn¡¯t willing to experience it any of the other days.


    Even if the more questionable elements were excluded, she had never felt as good and relaxed as she did now, feeling as if she had been reborn and granted fresh flesh and blood. Simply sliding a finger along some of the less rotten wood in the Kong Prison Realm let her feel it in extreme detail with her sensitive skin, and it wasn¡¯t even overly sensitive.


    She had no clue how such a thing was achieved, but that was just one of many benefits.


    Given that she had effectively had a second identity within her body for most of her adult years, she had never been able to take proper care of her appearance, nor even pay much attention to it. Now that she had that time back, she couldn¡¯t help but admire the smoothness of her skin, the lack of any dirt or wrinkles, the excellent sensations from touching¡­ well, she wouldn¡¯t admit to touching anything inappropriate.


    However, in her private time, when nobody was watching ¨C so far as she knew, of course ¨C she had felt herself up just a little bid. While lying in bed, covered by soft sheets in one of Beast¡¯s Rest¡¯s best residences, she had slid a hand down to her waist, hesitating for a moment.


    Thanks to Su Min, she had felt a touch on her lower lips a lot as of late, but she had not touched herself in a long time. Hence, there was a certain feeling of perversion to her current activity, one that she couldn¡¯t quite overcome no matter what. If all that affected her decision was her own mind, then perhaps she would have sat around for many minutes, perhaps even stretching into hours, before she could have decided on whether it was something she should do, but her body took over in this case, making itself known.


    She could feel her body¡¯s desire, the moisture building at her groin, soaking through the thin fabric of her panties. It made her arousal known, and she couldn¡¯t simply ignore it.


    Her fingers emulated Su Min¡¯s approach and slid down her groin, three of them placed together and feeling up her puffy lips through the panties. Parting her lower lips with the middle finger, she teased the sensitive flesh within, finding a particular bud at the top which sent shivers throughout her body.


    In no time at all, her arousal completely soaked through the thin panties, forcing her to pull them down, just enough to expose her lower lips fully.


    Again, she hesitated, but her body took over even more quickly this time, her fingers returning to her lips and freezing as they touched their slick surface. The difference in sensations was immense, and she had to bite her lip to stifle a moan. With her middle finger, she parted the wet lips and slid between them, quaking when it touched her sensitive insides, nearly causing her finger to bend and enter somewhere that she couldn¡¯t handle.


    Even without that, her body experienced an immense pleasure, her whole body seeming to heat up in response, her finger quickly being covered in her liquid arousal. It was warm and sticky, and she couldn¡¯t stop herself from lifting her hand up and gazing at her hand, glistening in candlelight.


    ¡®I can smell it so vividly¡­ it¡¯s so¡­ lewd¡­¡¯ Zhi Qiu Ya felt her cheeks flush with crimson, ¡®Why do I want to taste it? Should¡­ should I?¡¯


    She was so embarrassed by her own desires that she quickly returned her hand to her groin, to the sensitive nub she had felt when touching herself. With the haste she had sought to get back to something slightly more reasonable, in her mind, she didn¡¯t restrain her strength, and in doing so managed to touch it in just the right way.


    The first touch surpassed all others, and from there she couldn¡¯t stop rubbing that spot, letting her instincts take over. A strange panting sound appeared somewhere within her perception, and it was only after a lengthy amount of time that she understood it was her own rapid breathing.


    Her other hand gripped the sheets tightly, nails tearing through the fabric with ease, and with no warning at all, she felt all of the built up arousal explode, the sheets and bedding quickly being soaked with her fluids. With a lot of effort, she managed to keep her mouth shut, thus keeping her moans in, but her whimpers still pierced through, lasting for several seconds that felt closer to hours as that great wave passed over her.


    When she recovered her senses, she realised that the stain she left behind was quite a bit larger than she thought. Furthermore, perhaps it was only thanks to her extreme sense of smell, but she could clearly perceive her own scent sticking to the bed and sheets, reeking of arousal even more so than her stained finger.


    ¡®Oh heavens, I¡­ I should stop. If I just keep going¡­ no, I should let someone that knows what they¡¯re doing take over. Yes, that¡¯s probably a good idea.¡¯


    Somehow, she hadn¡¯t realised quite how silly that sounded until she was in the passage parlour again, despite a few days and restless nights passing since then. It was blatant what she wanted, unlike the first time she ended up in the massage parlour, and judging by Su Min¡¯s expression, she knew it too.


    ¡°Get changed as always, and I¡¯ll be ready in a moment.¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­ uhm¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    Zhi Qiu Ya licked her lips, ¡°There¡¯s something in particular I¡¯d like you to focus on today. Those portions of the massage when you stimulate my, uh¡­ the chest and groin, area?¡±


    ¡°No need to be so embarrassed. Everyone needs a bit of focus on certain parts and certain places, and since it¡¯s my role to take care of you, it¡¯s perfectly normal to tell me about your concerns,¡± Su Min smiled innocently, taking a lock of black hair and bringing it before her right eye, playing with it as she continued, ¡°Since you have a particular need today, I¡¯ll switch up the usual plan, and change up some of the oils as well. Luckily for you, we have just recently received a few new types, and I¡¯d love to try them out.¡±


    There was something about her demeanour that stuck out today, but when Zhi Qiu Ya was already half-way to the changing room, shaking slightly in anticipation, she was hardly going to notice anything of the sort.


    Rushing into the changing rooms, she removed her clothes and took hold of the replacement panties, but she found that their material felt somewhat different. Due to her lacking knowledge, she couldn¡¯t identify the reason for it, but a moment of caution was all that she spared the matter before putting them on. The bra seemed to be unchanged, though it was obviously replaced after every session and every customer, so she was able to put it on and secure the strap behind her back easily.


    ¡®Wait, I¡¯m going to come off as being far too eager, and even that woman might be concerned¡­ Yes, I should take a breath or two, calm myself, let things happen slowly,¡¯ Zhi Qiu Ya did so, holding on for as long as she was able to ¨C a total of seventeen seconds, though in her defence, it felt like several minutes at least.


    It ended up being enough time for Su Min, who was already at the bottom of the massage bed, by the small table that held all of the oils for the session. This time, there were only three large bottles there.


    One was the familiar substance that always began their sessions, but the other two were new. Their containers were large, and she could swear that a faint scent was piercing through the bottles from both of them, though she had no notion of what the smells were, nor what they were even similar to. Previously, some of the oils that had been applied to her did have somewhat suspicious scents, rather similar to something lewd in nature, but these weren¡¯t. Hence, she had no choice but to trust Su Min, though she was already doing that.


    If she didn¡¯t trust her, then she wouldn¡¯t have returned to the massage parlour, or perhaps would have never stepped in the first time. Instead, she was now going to surrender herself to whatever the woman had in store for her, and hope that things didn¡¯t change this time.


    ¡°Ah Qiu Ya, you look wonderful today. I¡¯m glad you¡¯ve brightened up since the first time,¡± Su Min said with a smile, waving over to the massage bed, ¡°Please, lie down, face up.¡±


    ¡°Alright¡­ What are we¡­ um, what are you going to do?¡±


    The smile only grew larger, ¡°Do you really want me to spoil the surprise? I know you¡¯re looking forward to it, waiting for something ¨C anything ¨C to come your way and relieve you of those aches and desires that you¡¯ve built up. If you think it¡¯s worth it to waste some of that build up, then I can share it with you ¨C in vast detail, if you like.¡±


    Zhi Qiu Ya swallowed hard, finding her mouth to be unusually wet all of a sudden, ¡°Well, I think I might be able to wait-¡±


    ¡°Excellent! Please, lie down and let me do my work. I know you¡¯ll enjoy it.¡±


    She was hardly able to argue with that, as she knew those words to be true. Laying down on the massage bed as soon as she approached it, the wolven woman found that she was shaking in anticipation, and it wasn¡¯t an unpleasant sensation whatsoever. Rather, she wished to have more of it, to experience such a sensation more often, though she believed that she was even more interested in what that anticipation would lead up to.


    Popping open the cork of the first oil bottle, Su Min poured it into her hands, sealed it quickly, and placed her hands upon Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s body, applying greater force than usual and rubbing the oil into every part of her. With the haste and precision she employed, she managed to cover the wolven woman¡¯s front in just a few minutes, though she didn¡¯t give much attention to her covered areas.


    Zhi Qiu Ya was somewhat dismayed at this, nearly letting out a puppy-like whimper, until her gaze landed on the remaining two bottles.


    ¡°Turn over for me. I still need to cover your back, after all.¡±


    She obeyed, flipping over and feeling dextrous hands working on her body the moment she laid back down. Rubbing oil into everything below the neck, they worked on the arms first, then went down her back, pausing at her ass.


    There, the hands took their time, massaging the large buns, digging into the soft flesh and clearly enjoying the process, either due to the feeling itself or the rather unsubtle moans that Zhi Qiu Ya produced after only a few moments. It was a combination of the more ordinary enjoyment one might derive from a massage, and the sensual sensation of being touched in a place not meant for ordinary people¡¯s hands.


    Most of her ass was completely exposed, the panties sitting in the crack between her cheeks, and thus there was no obstruction at all between Su Min¡¯s fingers and Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s skin. Her sensitive body picked up on every subtle movement, delighting in it, and it was a great shame that Su Min eventually moved on.


    She slid her hands down the wolven girl¡¯s legs, massaging the muscles she hadn¡¯t yet touched the first time, and ended up at Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s feet, where she also spent some additional time.


    ¡°I probably should have asked this one of the other times, but¡­¡± the wolven woman reconsidered her question mid-sentence, but she felt that stopping would be worse, ¡°is there some particular reason you put so much oil on me each time?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s an oil massage.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but today¡­ um¡­¡±


    ¡°You were saying?¡±


    ¡°Please continue. I¡¯ll just enjoy it¡­¡±


    Su Min giggled, ¡°A little late for that. The initial application has been finished, and now it is time for the second oil¡­ We have no names for these ones either, but everyone¡¯s who has experienced them has not been disappointed. The first shall be¡­ let¡¯s call it the outer oil, shall we? Please, remain right as you are.¡±


    The wolven woman would have wanted to see what occurred, as the fluttering in her chest was suddenly joined by a pinch of anxiety, not helped in the slightest by the sound of a cork being removed from a bottle and just a little being poured into Su Min¡¯s hands.


    ¡°This will make you a little more¡­ responsive to my treatment. More sensitive, shall we say,¡± the woman introduced the fluid, ¡°It only needs to be applied to certain portions of your body, and then we can move on. However, I will need to be incredibly thorough with this, so let me just¡­ oh, I forgot how effective this is if I apply it without gloves. Alright, I¡¯m going to be skipping a bit of that speech and moving right along.¡±


    An unusual tone creeped into the woman¡¯s voice with each word, never having appeared prior, but as the woman¡¯s hands returned to Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s ass, her own feelings made her recognise it.


    Arousal. A thick arousal dripped from Su Min¡¯s words, and it spread to the wolven girl as the oil soaked into her body. Every drop intensified her senses at the spots it touched, that feeling growing with each breath, but it also affected the way in which she perceived the same touches. Previously, the pair of hands on her ass cheeks was erotic, but not directly stimulating, whereas now that was the only way in which she could describe it. It became sexual, arousing, simply amazing ¨C and she knew that it was only the beginning.


    ¡°No wonder I usually wear gloves¡­ Oh goodness, this is¡­ What I was going to say was that this will be¡­ ah¡­ helpful in preparing you for¡­ hah¡­ the proper massage¡­ but now I just to rub these cheeks¡­¡± Su Min¡¯s fingers dug into her ass, groping it without a hint of restrain, ¡°You have a nice ass, you know? Large, but not fat, firm and not hard. I just want to bury my face in there¡­¡±


    ¡°Are you sure you¡­ shouldn¡¯t be continuing the massage?¡±


    ¡°Fuck, do you still want to go with that? Both of us are horny ¨C I can see you leaking through those panties, just so you know ¨C and we could just get to the good stuff.¡±


    ¡°B-But¡­¡±


    ¡°Tch. Just so you know, whatever you¡¯re feeling, I¡¯m feeling a dozen times over, because I don¡¯t have your planar energy coursing throughout my body,¡± Su Min said, the reason behind her heavy breathing becoming eminently clear, ¡°So, you want a massage? You¡¯ll get one, you slut.¡±


    Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s words were stopped mid-way in her throat when one hand momentarily parted from her ass and returned with great force, spanking her hard. The wolven woman¡¯s ass cheek jiggled from the impact, and before it could finish another slap came down, leaving a faint crimson mark upon her oiled skin.


    At any other time, Zhi Qiu Ya might have cried out in pain, for the strikes were impressively forceful for someone without planar cultivation, but instead ecstatic moans burst from her lips. Somehow, every drop of pain that should have been felt transformed to raw infusions of lust straight into her mind, and she was barely able comprehend the sensations as they rushed into her. Before she could recover from any single strike on her ass, another followed, both cheeks receiving their fair share.


    ¡°By the way, those panties of yours are specifically meant to let as much fluid through as possible, so I can see your arousal gush out with every spank. You¡¯re loving it, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes! I am!¡±


    Su Min¡¯s response was to grab her hips and forcefully flip her over, climbing atop her in a second, managing to fit her knees on the massage bed around Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s waist. She stared directly into the wolven woman¡¯s eyes, her own pupils wide and her gaze burning with lust. Her breath was heavy and hot, steam bellowing from between her lips each time her chest rose and fell.


    ¡°You¡¯re lucky this is a massage for you, and not for me, otherwise I¡¯d make full use of that mouth of yours,¡± the woman managed to say, her stare falling to Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s chest, ¡°I¡¯ll use this instead.¡±


    The white bra was torn off and Su Min grabbed her chest, putting her skilful hands to work.


    ¡°Please d-Ahh, my nipples, don¡¯t grab them so ro-AAh¡­¡±


    She had not experienced too much enjoyment from simply having her ass touched before the oil came into the equation, but she had been delighted whenever her heavy tits were groped. With the effects of the oil, that sensation was multiplied a thousand fold, nearly making her cum her brains out within the first few seconds. However, Su Min only got better with every seconds, figuring out her way around the wolven girl¡¯s breasts until she had located every spot that she could touch to elicit a response. Given that the only responses Zhi Qiu Ya could fathom at the moment were those of pleasure and lust, they all rushed to a climax.


    Everything she had experienced up to this point, including her own touches in bed, paled in comparison to the rush that came then, her whole body becoming numb as the only sensations were concentrated in the breasts and vagina, both feeling like they would explode.


    She felt a warmth pour from her pussy lips and quickly cover the massage bed, dripping out through and around the fabric of her panties, staining her inner thighs with her lust.


    Zhi Qiu Ya was ready to let her mind fade away and drop into blissful sleep, but the words of the woman straddling her forced her eyes to snap open and gaze into the other¡¯s orbs, ¡°Finally¡­ I can get started properly.¡±


    Her voice had gotten calmer, but her eyes seemed like a predator¡¯s, undisguised hunger aimed directly at her, seeming to pierce her body and peer into her very soul. It was ¨C should have been ¨C terrifying, and yet her wet pussy clenched with arousal, feeling an immense desire to be claimed like the little bitch she was.


    ¡®Where is that coming from? Why do I¡­ why does this make me so warm inside?¡¯


    ¡°Fuck the massage thing. You¡¯ll be putting that mouth to use ¨C and memorising my smell while you¡¯re at it,¡± Su Min flipped around, putting her hips above Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s mouth, revealing a complete lack of underwear upon her groin.


    It revealed widely-parted puffy lips, form which dripped thick fluid in strings, the viscous substance hovering above Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s lips.


    ¡°Put that tongue to work, you naughty slut.¡±


    With that, she sat down, letting her pussy sit directly on the wolven woman¡¯s mouth and nose, her passage placed right atop Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s tongue, so that it might enter it directly and with ease. She leaned forward, holding on to the wolven woman¡¯s thighs for support, causing her cunt grind against the woman¡¯s face and slather it with her juices as she pulled down the white panties and exposed the similarly wet lower lips of her sexual partner.


    While she began to rub Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s pussy, focusing on the clit at its peak, the wolven woman also began to lick, trying her best to figure out how to handle this new treat. Her overly sensitive body felt every detail of the lower lips with perfect clarity, and her nose was flooded with the musky scent of another woman¡¯s sex, overwhelming her mind completely.


    Her primal mind might have had more experience with it, but this was one of the first times she got to smell just a thing so closely, and she found that it was absolutely wonderful. She knew not whether all women smelled like Su Min did ¨C she suspected that most did not ¨C but this woman had a primal, lustful scent, sending Zhi Qiu Ya into an even more aroused state, filling her head with nothing but thoughts of sex. At that moment in time, she wished she was able to mate, like some animal, with Su Min in the lead, but their physical characteristics meant that she could only put more effort into pleasuring the woman with her tongue.


    As soon as she found a particularly sensitive spot inside her, Su Min rewarded her by plunging one finger into the wolven woman¡¯s gushing depths, finding the same spot with such ease that Zhi Qiu Ya would have been embarrassed ¨C if not for cumming right away, clenching around the intruding finger.


    Not to be outdone, she stuck her tongue out further and invested more effort into her actions, trying to make up for inexperience with all the enthusiasm she was able to muster. It was difficult even with her current sensitivity, but she knew she was onto something when the juices dripping into her mouth turned into a waterfall, nearly drowning her and forcing her to gulp down the fluids in order to not drown in them.


    ¡°Oh, yes, you horny bitch¡­ Drink it all!¡± Su Min exclaimed, though her words barely reached the wolven woman¡¯s ears.


    Quickly, more fingers plunged into her, and then she felt lips closing around her clit, sucking on it and licking it with even superior precision that her fingers exhibited. It would have been terrifying to see someone capable of moving more dexterously than Wei Yi using her claws, but Zhi Qiu Ya was too overwhelmed with lust ¨C emotional and liquid, perhaps in equal proportions ¨C to notice or care.


    Their arousal climbed and climbed, and eventually they reached their peak together, as the wolven woman could sense Su Min tightening around her tongue, and her own vagina clamped down on the invading fingers.


    Zhi Qiu Ya felt her vision, occupied mostly by Su Min¡¯s ass, turn white, her consciousness fading, leaving her only to feel the greatest pleasure she had ever felt, alongside a large volume of fluids pouring down her throat and filling her stomach. If not for that being a reflex, she might have been drowned by the thick liquid lust, but she was fortunately able to endure until she was released from beneath the woman¡¯s groin, being permitted to take a proper breath.


    At that moment, her vision returned right away, letting her see the woman get off the massage bed and steady her footing, barely managing to keep her legs straight.


    ¡°Oh goodness, I have overdone it a little. Are you alright, Ah Qiu Ya?¡± she asked.


    Her voice was impressively calm despite the clear difficulties she had with standing, and her flushed cheeks clearly showcased the amount of arousal still remaining within her system.


    ¡°I¡­ oh, heavens, why did I ever run away from this?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a yes,¡± Su Min smiled for a second, her expression quickly breaking down into breathy lust, ¡°Hey, how would you say my smell compares to Wei Yi? I heard that you had gotten a good sniff of her ages ago.¡±


    ¡°How do you¡­ yeah, I did, but I hadn¡¯t-¡±


    ¡°Come on, you can be honest with me. After that, if you¡¯re still going to be all shy, I will be extremely disappointed with you.¡±


    ¡°No, I really don¡¯t remember it well enough! However, I¡­ not to be rude, but I think she was better.¡±


    Su Min shrugged, ¡°That¡¯s probably fair. She¡¯s way beyond me in most regards, especially while I haven¡¯t figured out planar energy or anything like it. I¡¯ll be able to compete with her properly, at some point.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°You know, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m talking straight. Let¡¯s lie down ¨C there¡¯s a great place in the building.¡±

 V3C71: Honeyed Poison, Poisoned Honey, Part 1

    Since she appeared to be waking without any great incident, Wei Yi had come to the initial conclusion that wherever she was, whatever the state of her body, regardless of what had happened to her since losing consciousness, she was still alive, and thus had the possibility of recovery with a single good opportunity.


    Thus, she did not need to consider whether or not she would actually awaken, or if that strange pull was actually the world trying to end her consciousness.


    Instead she was able to question exactly where she would awaken, and how she would do so. For the moment, while she was no longer within the prison realm but not yet in her body, she couldn¡¯t guess whether or not she would be in the same place where she fell, or if she had been tied up and chained somewhere, or if someone had taken the opportunity to remove her limbs and seal her somewhere in such a manner that she wouldn¡¯t be able to regenerate due to some obscure poison or array.


    Such a thing was unlikely, since she shouldn¡¯t have been in the way of many who would have a reason to target her, nor did she imagine that she wouldn¡¯t notice something like that even while in the purely mental state.


    The opposite, some positive outcome of a person assisting her, was even less likely, since that would require not only effort but also goodwill that her current persona shouldn¡¯t have been able to earn from anyone, save for, perhaps, that man that she had dissuaded from staying around before the massacre. Even then, he would not bother doing anything more than giving her a single recovery pill.


    Due to this, awakening to a unique and pristine ceiling was very much a surprise, as was the surface that she lay upon.


    It was soft, incredibly so, to the point that she felt uncomfortable due to the sheer softness of the mattress, as well as the sheets that covered her. However, they were all incredibly clean, as if they had been made just for her usage, which was highly unnecessary if that was the case.


    For this reason, she immediately sat up and, as the sheets slid off her body, she was able to easily confirm that her clothes had indeed been removed, leaving her with naught but her bare skin and hair, which had fortunately remained the same brown shade that it had been made as part of her disguise. She also found her clothing at the edge of the room, carefully laid out on chairs, with the boots being placed on the ground beside them.


    ¡®My injuries have also mostly recovered, although my killing will is still slightly exhausted, so my spiritual perception can¡¯t reach out as far as I¡¯d like it to¡­¡¯ she noted, tossing away her sheets.


    She rose from the bed, preferring to stand rather than rest, but even the carpet beneath her feet was ridiculously pleasant to stand on, akin to consuming an entire barrel of sugar and honey together, which could easily cause someone to be sick if they didn¡¯t have the same inability to perceive the taste of food and the same powerful stomach as Wei Yi had.


    Now that she had come up with that description, she also found that it perfectly suited everything else. The room was made of something akin to white marble, perfectly polished to the extent that she could perfectly see her naked reflection within each piece of it, the walls were decorated with immortal gold that would put the current state of the Yi Ancestral Hall to shame, much of the floor was covered in a beautiful carpet that had already been described, the bed was extremely intricate in terms of design and had enough space for three to lay beside one another comfortably, although the state of that was also made clear already. Several paintings hung on the walls, presenting her with various landscapes that included four-star arrays to empower their aura.


    Whatever this place was, the value of this room alone was probably sufficient to purchase several of her star metal-plated gauntlets with ease, although she doubted that there was enough star metal out there to make the aforementioned gauntlets.


    Frankly, just looking at all of this made her rather uncomfortable, perhaps due to never having been exposed to this degree of luxury since birth, although she honestly doubted that anyone would be entirely comfortable with living in such a place. Even if they had countless servants and maids to assist them, touching anything seemed like it would damage the place, forcing unnecessary amounts of work onto whoever was responsible for cleaning it, and even the slightest spill of wine or tea would stand out horribly.


    She looked to her items, and found that all of them were near one another, including the mask, which was rather interesting to her. Whoever brought her here would surely have seen her face, after all.


    ¡®Perhaps they think that its for my own comfort, or something like that. Either way, as much as I don¡¯t personally mind seeing myself like this, they clearly wanted me dressed before I left the room. Let¡¯s see¡­¡¯ Wei Yi came over to the chairs and examined all of her clothing carefully, ignoring the occasional dull ache from her muscles and limbs, ¡®Seems like everything is in a good state. Most things have been cleaned, but nothing has been pulled apart, nor has anything been stolen. Hm¡­¡¯


    To make things even more interesting, she didn¡¯t feel a single hint of spiritual perception within the room, nor any observation arrays or simpler methods of viewing her without revealing themselves. This either meant that they were respecting her privacy ¨C unlikely, given the fact that she was left entirely naked in the bed ¨C or that they had no interest in looking upon her at that moment.


    Whatever the case was, she would be more able to resolve it in a readier state, so she quickly put on everything that she had, deciding to wear the mask after a bit of hesitation. Whether or not anyone within the building had seen her, she might as well maintain her appearance and discuss it with whoever brought her to that bed and allowed her to rest in this room, since it was rather difficult to tell what certain individuals with a great deal of power or wealth did or why they did it. Perhaps they had intentionally avoided gazing upon her face, or perhaps it was of no interest to them.


    Either way, she was able to put everything on without any difficulty, although the cleanliness of both her body and her clothes did once again put her off slightly.


    Thanks to her physique, she was able to consistently clean herself whenever she wanted, so she was no stranger to the sensation of cleanliness, but she did not bathe or use soap of any kind as often, meaning that she was far less used to the kind of feeling that one would get specifically from them.


    ¡®I can sense some people outside of the room, so I should speak with them¡­¡¯


    Her metal heels loudly tapped on the marble with each step that she took towards the large pair of doors, which she carefully opened and pushed open.


    The corridor on the outside was exactly the same in terms of style and appearance as her room had been, but before she had much of an opportunity to examine it, a maid came from around one of the opened doors, taking a brief look at her with the seeming intent to confirm her healthiness before bowing respectfully and deeply, holding that position for several seconds before choosing to address her.


    ¡°If you are capable of walking and eating, the Master of the house would speak with you,¡± the maid said in a polite and polished tone, her every manner and feature being just as elegant as the rest of the house.


    Her clothing was clearly of the same quality as the bedsheets had been, and they appeared to have only been worn for a few days over their entire lifetime, in sharp contrast to the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival which had endured literal lifetimes, although they did possess both a self-repairing and self-cleaning capability. As part of the traditional look, said to have been popularised by someone likely to be an otherworldly devil from many decades before the Master of Yi City, this maid wore a black and white dress that could easily be seen either on an actual servant or on someone in a brothel, due to its design that appeared to invoke both professionalism and lust in the eyes of many.


    It was quite difficult to conclude anything based on those things alone, other than that the master of the house must care to some extent about the appearances of his servants.


    ¡°Is that so? Very well, I suppose I can see him.¡±


    Wei Yi was quite keen to learn about the exact nature of the people that she was dealing with, how they saw her, and why she had been brought here in the first place, so she chose to not speak as politely, instead speaking as if she barely cared about the matter. If the maid became upset, or showed any signs of contempt, it would be clear that she wasn¡¯t in the house of a trustworthy ally.


    However, whether due to good training, acting, or some other reason, the maid had no such response, instead bowing again and saying, ¡°Please follow me. It can be easy to get lost on your own.¡±


    She turned and began to walk slowly, waiting for Wei Yi to follow before she sped up to match her pace. The maid was not a cultivator in a high realm, being only in the Planar Pool realm at a low stage, but it was clear that her body had been trained well, allowing her to easily move at an unnecessarily high speed set by Wei Yi for several minutes without a single sign of exhaustion or complaint. Her body was also lacking in impurities, displaying an absence of unnecessary low-grade pill consumption.


    In other words, she was highly capable, beautiful, and seemingly talented in the field of cultivation and, presumably, servitude, although that last part was not too surprising due to the traditional features of the Shun family being present.


    As a family, the greatest export that the Shun District had since many decades ago were well-trained workers, servants, guards and soldiers for the people of the other districts, most of the people in the family possessing light skin, blonde hair and eyes of various light colours, including grey or silver. Much like their surname, Shun (˳), might imply, their primary focus was not on the typical form of domination, combat, or general prowess that the other families subscribed to, but rather on servitude, following and submission to greater forces for the betterment of Yi City and the world as a whole, although it was unlikely that all of them got to truly participate in such a thing.


    Together, they headed through a series of corridors and rooms, all of which were based in the same kind of opulence and excess that her room had been.


    Such an atmosphere made it quite tempting to steal a small ornament or two, since they would be unlikely to be missed due to the sheer size of the building ¨C which she was slowly able to see with both how long it was taking them to walk to their destination even without unnecessary turns and circles, and due to her slowly expanding spiritual perception ¨C and would likely be able to fund a small army all on their own.


    For now, she decided that such a thing wasn¡¯t necessary nor would it be a particularly friendly gesture towards the owner of the house. If they proved to be her foes or otherwise not on her side, she might take a thing or two before going.


    In some of the corridors and rooms, she found more servants, some female dressed in the same manner as the maid that was leading her, and some male, whose outfits were also the standard for male servants, although they were notably less commonly worn in the aforementioned sexual environments.


    Had either one been exaggerated in some way, she might have at the very least been able to guess the gender and outfit that the master of the house was interested in, giving her a little more to work with, perhaps explaining why she might have been found and brought to the house, but that was not present, nor did she see any obvious traces of frequent physical contact with the servants that she walked past, causing her to wonder whether anything of the sort occurred at all. Now, if the master of the house did want to ask her to work for him, or something like that, he or she would naturally make it clear to her, but she still wanted to be sure ahead of time.


    After a little while, she decided to say, ¡°Will you answer some of my questions?¡±


    The maid did not stop walking, nor did she look back at her, and instead continued on at the same pace, answering only after they left the room they had been in.


    ¡°If you are curious about anything, the master of the house may answer them. If not, we shall be available afterwards.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡±


    They continued onwards, with Wei Yi hardly being satisfied with the answer, but understanding that she did not currently have much of an opportunity to get a different one. Unless she intended to outright torture this person ¨C the option of scanning her memories was not currently viable since the maid was neither thinking about the things she wanted to learn nor did Wei Yi have enough energy to use the standard method properly ¨C she wouldn¡¯t get much out of her.


    Also, there was always the chance that this was a new maid, or one that wasn¡¯t aware of much more than the few responsibilities that she had been given, so she didn¡¯t bother to push the topic. Depending on how the conversation with the owner of the house went, then they might speak again.


    Before she had the chance to get completely tired of the opulent aesthetic, they finally arrived at what appeared to be their destination. The maid stopped before another set of double doors, walked up to the side, then bowed to her, keeping her head lowered as she said, ¡°The master is waiting for you inside. You may enter.¡±


    There were no door handles, so she stepped up to the large doors and pushed them open, finding herself at the very end of an enormous dining table.


    It easily had enough space for a hundred people to sit on each side, and was filled to the brim with all kinds of food, preserved and kept hot or cold depending on its best state with the use of a number of arrays on the underside of the table. Each item was placed within an overly intricate white plate decorated with immortal gold, the table itself was clearly made by some of the greatest craftsmen that could be afforded, for it was one of the few things in the house that were able to contain boundless luxury without hurting Wei Yi¡¯s eyes.


    Roughly fifty chairs stood by the table on either side, giving more than enough room for anyone that wished to sit at them, and behind each chair stood either a male or female servant, alternating from chair to chair, and each one varied slightly in appearance and cultivation, although not a single one could be said to be flawed in any significant manner.


    Some of the women ¨C she didn¡¯t bother going beyond a single glance at any of the male servants, for reasons that should be beyond evident by now ¨C had large breasts, others were nearly flat, some were masculine, others were at the very peak of femininity, others displayed notably more of their body with their outfits, others still wore a great amount of makeup that managed to remain sensible. There were those with lithe bodies, larger bodies, wider or narrowed hips, and perhaps the only thing that she did not find was a maid with draconic blood, or at the very least not one with one of the more notorious features that such individuals tended to possess.


    Finally, at the very head of the table, with two maids that had the highest realm and subjectively the best looks on either side of his high chair, sat a pudgy man garbed in excessively rich clothing, the absence of facial hair showcasing his large chin and small mouth.


    He was just at the edge of her current spiritual perception range, but she was able to tell with near certainty that he was in the sixth realm from his aura, as well as the spiritual perception that she could sense clearly in this door and realised that she had observed it in quite a few places before, although it had still stayed out of the room she had awoken in perhaps due to his mental energy simply being unable to reach that far.


    ¡°Welcome,¡± the man said, not standing up while he raised a glass so that it would be filled by the maid on his side, ¡°If you are able now, it would be great to have a talk with one another.¡±


    At the same time, he gestured with his other hand to one of the male servants, prompting every single one of them to step away from their chairs and depart from the room, walking past Wei Yi on either side and shutting the door after themselves, proving that the man must have been in the sixth realm, as she had guessed. Otherwise, she doubted that he would have been able to notice the slightly longer period of time she had spent looking at the maids rather than the male servants, since the difference was just a few moments.


    Once they left, he gestured towards the table, indicating none of the chairs in particular for her to sit at.


    ¡®He¡¯s clearly trying to present himself favourably, trying to please me with his choice of servants, so how far from him should I sit, and would any particular seat suggest that I prefer any of the maids?¡¯ Wei Yi pondered, not needing to look around again since she had already memorised the features of everyone in the room, ¡®I am already being a little arrogant, so I might as well ignore the first point and settle for the prettiest one here¡­¡¯


    She silently accepted his invitation and approached the front of the table, walking up to one chair.


    Before her hand could even reach out to pull the chair away from the table, the maid did it for her. It was another descendant of the Shun family, possessing the standard blonde hair and soft blue eyes that would be expected of her, but the reason that she in particular drew Wei Yi¡¯s eye was her large chest and supple behind that was quite pleasant in her eyes.


    Her suspicions were confirmed the moment that a number of the other servants left the room while seemingly being unprompted to do so, with all of them being on the opposite side of the scale to the servant that remained standing behind her after she had pushed in her chair. Those with almost flat chests, masculine characteristics, or a set of other features that were blatantly opposed to that of her chosen servant removed themselves, and those that were left repositioned themselves within the room as to be spread over it evenly.


    The only two that didn¡¯t move were the two maids on either side of the master of the house, who she believed to be serving him directly and thus didn¡¯t participate in whatever was going on.


    If she had attempted to ¡®select¡¯ one of the two, she wasn¡¯t sure exactly what the owner of the residence would do, but she suspected that she would soon be able to figure it out depending on the next actions of the man to her left. If he would invite her to bed the maid behind her as part of some deal, whether he did so directly or indirectly, he might be fine with selling off his other maids as well, and if not, then perhaps he would treat his servants with some human dignity.


    ¡°Please, help yourself to whatever you want. Shun Liu Min will bring you anything you want.¡±


    She raised an eyebrow at him, but decided to go along with it and began to reach out for a cake that was in her vicinity, only to find Shun Liu Min reaching out for her, taking a knife and cutting off a moderate slice of the cake before carefully moving it to the plate that had already been placed before her.


    After similarly acquiring a glass of some kind of juice, she did not eat immediately but instead looked to the owner of the house.


    ¡°Were you the one that found me?¡±


    ¡°It was. Are you wondering whether to remove your mask? If you prefer, I will look away, as it was my lovely maids that took care of you, cleaned your wounds, fed you some medicinal pills ¨C which were digested remarkably quickly and to little effect, I might add ¨C and saw your whole body. My Shun Liu Min was one of them,¡± the man said, smiling at the maid that stood behind her, ¡°However, I don¡¯t think that there is any reason to hide your face. You know how things are in the world of cultivation ¨C our faces are, to some extent, malleable, but our techniques and energy is far more difficult to hide.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d still prefer to see my face, wouldn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Of course! I am a man and seeing the faces of women does interest me. However, I do think that it would allow us to become a little friendlier.¡±


    As he pointed out, most cultivators, especially at the higher realms, have the ability change their face whenever they want with the use of certain techniques or pills, and he naturally didn¡¯t know that Wei Yi was somewhat of an exception for the reasons of her physique cultivation. Meanwhile, for most, to change a thing about their cultivation, especially the element of the energy that they used, would be impossible without a miracle or two, which was also inverted for her thanks to the Truth of the Universe. Due to this, for most, revealing their face would, at most, prevent them from using it in the future if they committed some terrible crime while using it, while revealing their cultivation, anchor and searing mark quantity, amongst other matters, would force them to scatter their cultivation and begin anew if they wished to hide from the consequences of their actions.


    Wei Yi could ignore such things, and would, eventually, obtain greater ability to change her appearance as well, so it was far less dangerous to show herself to this man, especially since she saw no reason for him not to just question his maids at a later point to learn about every part of her body with ease.


    Since she was also rather curious to figure out exactly where he was taking this conversation, although she did have quite a few ideas already due to the particularities of his actions and words, she sighed and removed the mask, placing it on her lap.


    The very second that the lower half of her face was shown, every single person in the room gasped. All of the maids that could see her with their eyes had been pretending not to be looking directly at her, but that fa?ade broke that very instant for several of them. Some were able to look away quickly, but a few blushed and others were unable to look away, keeping their eyes on her. A few even bit or licked their lips.


    It did not escape the attention of their master, but it actually seemed to please him, as he gestured for all those that had not had that kind of response to leave.


    ¡®He will suggest that I sleep, or at the very least enjoy the company of one of them, won¡¯t he?¡¯ Wei Yi was able to tell right away as she raised a fork, removed a small piece of cake from the larger slice and placed it in her mouth, ¡®Of course. Frankly, I don¡¯t know what I expected, although this doesn¡¯t necessarily confirm anyone¡¯s intentions. There any number of drugs that can be placed in food¡­¡¯


    ¡°Well. Your mask had suggested a very different situation.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t take a look with spiritual perception? Your sixth realm should make it easy to get past the material that I had used.¡±


    ¡°I wish us to be on an amicable relationship. To look at your face when you would reveal it yourself, so long as you had any interest in speaking with me, would just be a waste of your trust. Still, your face is¡­ noble, if you understand my meaning.¡±


    ¡°I do not. What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?¡±


    Once again, he seemed not to mind, instead simply nodding as if her cold reply was perfectly understandable. This was very unusual for someone in his realm and with his degree of wealth, as both tended to foster arrogance and pride, but less strange when every other matter was considered. He was trying to achieve a positive impression, and whether this would be in order to recruit her, take advantage of her, or use her for some purpose that she was currently unaware of, it was clear that he was not acting out of the goodness of his heart.


    In order to achieve such a thing, he could probably put aside some of his pride for now, especially if he intended her not to be able to speak of this matter to anyone, either due to her death or some other fate. Whatever the case was, she wasn¡¯t too keen on remaining in his residence for any longer than necessary, especially if he happened to have some methods to harm her that she couldn¡¯t alleviate.


    ¡°You caused quite the stir at the Ping District, from what I hear. A masked fighter using lightning and raw energy to cause quite a lot of harm to someone I know¡­¡±


    ¡°Not a friend of yours, though.¡±


    ¡°No. The man you hurt was Ping Waqing, and although my surname is the same as his, we never got along. It just so happens that it was also quite exciting to witness the destruction at the district, as well as the damage to the many criminal groups that had settled down there.¡±


    ¡°It is in your interests for those groups to perish?¡±


    ¡°Of course. Wouldn¡¯t you want to have fewer enemies in your path to taking over the district? The Ping family is powerful, but without the wall of the criminals and thugs, anyone powerful enough amongst them could easily take over¡­ Such as I, Ping Gangze,¡± the man smiled, a large slice of cake to match the one she had chosen being placed onto his plate, ¡°However, I do not need you to get involved any further than you already have.¡±


    ¡°What do you want, then?¡±


    ¡°I wish to recruit you, of course. You are clearly capable, and I could easily provide you with the resources to cultivate to the fifth realm, if not higher, while also easily providing¡­ entertainment¡­¡±


    ¡°You mean her?¡± Wei Yi pointed to the maid behind herself with her right hand, using her left to sip on the juice that she had been given, ¡°What exactly would you make me do if I did agree to be recruited?¡±


    ¡°People under my wing get to enjoy luxury most of the time. You may visit my residence and have your own with an excellent selection of servants. If you enjoy her beauty, I could even gift you Shun Liu Min. In exchange, all I would need for you to do is act according to your strengths at certain times. You won¡¯t even need to share all of your techniques with me, and I will instead reward you if you choose to provide any to me,¡± after presenting those offers, he pointed to another plate as he continued, ¡°However, you don¡¯t have to decide right away. I have all of these items prepared, so you can recover your energy as much as you like with whatever you like.¡±

 V3C72: Honeyed Poison, Poisoned Honey, Part 2

    Several hours passed, during which Wei Yi decided to indulge the man and try a few things to confirm some of her hypotheses.


    Had she been in the possession of her sense of taste, she would have most certainly tried even more things, just to get it all out of her system, but unfortunately it did not seem to have any intention of returning, nor was there any trace of possibility that it would be something that she could experience properly if her taste did return, although she would be more than happy enough to be proven wrong.


    At the very beginning of her encounter with him, she might not have been opposed to working with him, at least for a short while, but the way that he had treated his servants, being open to selling any of them for his own gains, and the fact that every single piece of food and drop of drink contained some kind of substance that he had likely prepared an antidote for, that he had either consumed already or intended to do so later, convinced her that it was not a good idea. When it came to resources, she could obtain them easily enough, especially if she was willing to go as low as the man would make her go.


    His offers of beautiful women to sleep with were also highly ineffective, not just because she already had quite a few people in the prison realm who matched her sense of beauty and were rather keen to find some physical companionship, but also due to the circumstances involved.


    Had there been a few individuals genuinely looking to accompany her, without any pressure exerted upon them to force them to do so, she could accept one or two offers of the sort, but she was not interested in supporting someone who would treat people as if they were disposable property to be used for their own gains. Even when there was no other party involved ¨C such as in the case of Min Lian ¨C she would still avoid taking advantage of others, especially when there was no reason to do so.


    Instead, she ate enough to be full, drank enough to be even more so, then once she was clearly displaying the intention of departing, whether to the room provided to her or elsewhere, Ping Gangze suggested it himself, as to allow her to get away easily.


    By that point in the evening, all but the maid that stood behind her, Shun Liu Min, had left, even including the two maids that had stood by the man¡¯s sides, and it was that maid that had been asked to bring her back to her room. Before they left, Ping Gangze even hinted that there would be no problems at all if Wei Yi decided to occupy her for the rest of the day, his intentions being obvious.


    She had no reason to stir things up then, so she quietly accepted the offer of guidance and left the dining room.


    All the way back, she monitored as much of the house as possible with her spiritual perception, finding a number of interesting things in certain rooms, but the owner of the house himself maintained a miraculously calm attitude and did nothing odd, remaining in the dining room while he finished off some of the things that had remained on his plate. He did take a few of the things from her plate, but he did not appear to be doing so out of some perversion or malicious intent, but just to finish off the meal while leaving as few things uneaten as possible.


    If that was his regular approach to any meal, then it only made sense that he had managed to build up some weight despite being a Linked Channels cultivator that apparently engaged in occasional conflict with the main Ping family.


    At this point, her spiritual perception had not yet expanded to its regular range, but it was able to stick around at its usual range so long as she had placed it there beforehand, which meant that she was able to maintain her observation of Ping Gangze all the way until she arrived in her own room, giving her the opportunity to confirm with certainty that his spiritual perception wasn¡¯t merely absent from the room she was in, but that it wasn¡¯t able to reach all the way up to the bed.


    This alone meant that she would likely be able to escape so long as no-one found out about her attempt to escape, which immediately brought her attention to Shun Liu Min.


    However, the woman had a really strange expression on her face, which became even more obvious the moment that she crossed the same gap that Wei Yi had perceived, meaning that she must have also known how far the spiritual perception of her master would be able to reach.


    ¡°Shun Liu Min, do you have something to say to me?¡± she decided to ask after a while.


    That question prompted the maid to look around nervously, with both spiritual perception and her regular sight, before she came closer looked at her with worried eyes.


    ¡°You are in great danger. All of the food that you have consumed so far had contained a high-grade drug which will significantly weaken your muscles and contained a powerful aphrodisiac that will send you into an uncontrollable lust until-¡±


    ¡°First of all, take a deep breath.¡±


    ¡°But-¡±


    ¡°Second of all, I have the tendency of being immune to the vast majority of poisons and substances, and I cannot currently feel anything of the sort functioning within my system. Even if I get affected, it will be quite some time until it takes hold fully, so you don¡¯t have to get all panicked just over me,¡± Wei Yi said, putting her mask away while the maid wasn¡¯t looking.


    ¡°O-Oh¡­ That¡¯s great¡­ Finally¡­¡± the maid nearly began to sob there and then, but she managed to control herself before she continued, ¡°You don¡¯t know what kinds of things that man does!¡±


    ¡°I can guess.¡±


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t just target people from outside, but also us, and regularly! All of our thought, preferences and opinions are ignored, and we¡¯re all just treated as objects for him to use! He forced us to practise a technique that will ensure that our bodies don¡¯t change from the regular¡­ well¡­¡±


    ¡°As I said, I can guess. You don¡¯t need to say a single thing,¡± Wei Yi said, although she had naturally confirmed that at least parts of this were true with a spiritual will thread, finding that there were indeed some incredibly authentic memories within her head that confirmed both this and a number of other matters that she didn¡¯t intend to bring up with the maid, ¡°That you¡¯re bringing this tells me that you¡¯re intending to, at the very least, not let me experience the same fate.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. I know that you are very capable, and I¡­ well, I would like to escape as well.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d like to tag along while I get out, essentially. I wouldn¡¯t object, so long as you¡¯re being truthful. Are you?¡±


    She nodded furiously, ¡°Of course I am! In fact, I can show you exactly how much my body had experienced and give you a few things to prove my honesty. For the first, just use your spiritual perception to look at my neck, or wrist, or some other part, if you prefer.¡±


    Although Wei Yi was already doing this, mostly as a precaution to avoid overlooking a weapon or a technique being prepared to target her while her guard was down, she focused a greater amount of spiritual perception on the maid¡¯s neck, as instructed. The moment that she conveyed this to the maid, she suddenly witnessed all of the pristine skin upon her skin blacken and bruise, causing her to let out a subdued cry of pain before it suddenly reverted to its previous fresh and prefect state.


    ¡°You managed to reverse that technique?¡±


    ¡°I have some skill when it comes to them. It¡¯s not much, but it lets you see all the times that man felt like choking me for his own entertainment. The physical traces go away, but the wounds themselves¡­ They don¡¯t fully heal.¡±


    With this understanding in mind, Wei Yi was able to observe significantly more such subdued injuries all over the woman¡¯s body, and when she checked out the bodies of a few maids walking around in nearby rooms, she was able to find incredibly similar marks upon their bodies, and even witnessed a few quietly trying out various methods to soothe aches and pains in those areas when they were outside of the master of the house¡¯s spiritual perception. It seemed that all of them knew how far it could go, although most had likely learnt the range itself and weren¡¯t able to actively sense it.


    Due to just how many layers of previous injuries were present on Shun Liu Min¡¯s body, it was made almost certain that she hadn¡¯t been lying so far.


    ¡°Does Ping Gangze prefer injuring you over more conventional activity?¡±


    ¡°Prefer? That man has lived in this kind of environment for at least a hundred years, with all the women he ever wanted at his disposal and everything else that he could ever wished for within his reach. He expects to be able to get to the seventh realm without much trouble, too. I¡¯ve heard that he had normal tastes at first, but after you¡¯ve had it all, no amount of unique beauty or technique would please that thing,¡± the maid¡¯s expression twisted in undisguised disgust, ¡°If there¡¯s any vaguely sexual act out there that can possibly be thought of, he has probably done it. At first, getting his way with someone who had no attraction to men pleased him enough, but after a few years¡­¡±


    ¡°I see. The same goes for most other maids, correct?¡±


    ¡°All of the other maids, yes. Those two by his side are simply his favourite for the week. He can switch them out at any time, and only a few have ever proved to be able to please him for long. I have managed to survive ten years, while some endured as many as forty. The luckiest will be beaten lightly, as to let out some minor stress, but the others¡­ me¡­ not so lucky.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ I get the feeling that discussing this is neither advisable, nor particularly safe for the moment. What exactly are your offerings towards our escape, then?¡±


    ¡°Simple. Some techniques, some simple pills and resources, and knowledge of the way out.¡±


    ¡°The last one seems most important. Judging by what I can sense about the other side of the back wall, this leads into some kind of garden, right? If I was to break out there, where would we need to go from there?¡±


    ¡°The house itself is protected by a number of inscriptions and arrays, and some of the decorative pieces are even artefacts, but luckily the only alarm arrays are for intruders, not escapees. You were able to harm a sixth realm cultivator, from what I heard, so a five-star barrier should be feasible, right?¡± when Wei Yi confirmed that the possibility did exist, albeit slim, Shun Liu Min continued, ¡°From there, guards are present in certain positions, but their regular patrol should begin two minutes from now. Then, there will be a brief period of time when a certain path through the fifteen hedge mazes ¨C don¡¯t bother questioning it, he certainly didn¡¯t ¨C is entirely unobserved, so we can use it to our advantage. From there is a route towards a low point in the wall, which we should be able to leap over.¡±


    ¡°How long have you spent on this plan, exactly?¡±


    ¡°Since the very first day. I had learned of his nature, of what I would be made to do, and I wanted to run, but I couldn¡¯t. I wasn¡¯t strong enough. Instead, I trained in gardening, cooking, landscaping and whatever else I needed to do to be able to see as much of the premises as possible. My memory isn¡¯t always the best, but I have seen all of these things enough to know exactly where to go.¡±


    ¡°Well then, no matter what happens, I will just congratulate you on the effort. Good to know that you have not lost your drive after ten years, did you say?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ Actually, I, and everyone else¡­ we¡¯re hardly unscathed, no matter how you look at us. We all strive to avoid his ire as much as possible, so most of us will do whatever necessary to direct any punishments at others, and I¡­ I am not exactly innocent of that myself¡­¡±


    ¡°You did what you had to, so that one day, it would no longer be necessary. I understand that, and while others may have a problem with this, I certainly don¡¯t intend to judge you for it. Since everyone has been participating in this system, I suspect that most of you are aware that it isn¡¯t done out of malice,¡± Wei Yi said, paying attention to the matters outside of the room with her spiritual perception, ¡°Now, it seems that the guard are chatting with one another about a change in shift. Is this what you meant?¡±


    ¡°Exactly! We must hurry!¡±


    By that point, Wei Yi had quite a bit of time to look at the defensive measures in the wall, as well as those in the vicinity, and confirmed that there appeared to be no arrays dedicated to alerting the owner of the house about escapees or those that were leaving the building without permission, and also gave her plenty of time to confirm the location of the weakest point in the wall.


    Furthermore, the techniques that she harnessed were specifically capable of targeting the weak points of arrays, like in the case of her Elysian techniques, so that meant that the difficulty of breaching the five-star defences dropped to that of four-star, at most. Perhaps for some that would still be too great of an obstacle, but when something as powerful as star metal was thrown into the equation, even a normal third realm cultivator may be capable of breaking out of the house on their own.


    Before doing that, however, she glanced to the maid and asked, ¡°Any valuables outside?¡±


    ¡°Nothing significant. If you want to take something, I can use my shrinking bag to take it with me,¡± Shun Liu Min managed to reply quickly.


    ¡°No need for that,¡± Wei Yi said, drawing back her hand, ¡°Get behind me.¡±


    Once again, the maid did not ask a single thing, nor did she question the exact course of action that Wei Yi intended to follow, instead getting right behind her and, perhaps understanding that she would be covered in dust if she did not go further, she also made herself as small as possible.


    She did so just in time, as well, as the very moment that she fully cowered behind Wei Yi¡¯s tall figure ¨C which did make the task somewhat easier ¨C the latter plunged her hand into the wall at an immense speed, with boundless force behind the strike. The tips of the metal claws pierced right through the wall, as if it was made from something as weak as paper, and then the immense energy she had contained within her hand erupted, piercing into the arrays nodes and inscription paths that were embedded within the wall.


    The protective measures trembled and shook, a powerful shock spreading out throughout the wall until it covered nearly the entirety of the wall of this room. It was there that it ceased, for going any further would doubtlessly alert someone else and risk ruining this plan of escape before it could even properly begin. For a short while, everything quaked, then, with surprisingly little sound, it fell apart.


    ¡®I don¡¯t seem to have made any significant advancements in cultivation as a result of my bit of sleep this time, so I¡¯m not certain how the wall broke so easily,¡¯ she thought as the chunks of the wall fell apart, revealing a landscape bathed in moonlight, ¡®This also doesn¡¯t seem to be a trick or scheme, since nothing about this situation seems outright false¡­ Did this man just have absolutely terrible walls, or have I accidentally comprehended the Great Dao itself?¡¯


    A quick look at the Truth of the Universe showcased a few things that could explain the situation.


    She noticed that her Soul of Cinder physique had advanced to the state of True Soul of Cinder, which seemed to suggest both that acquiring further embers would advance it, and that its improvement, alongside all of the embers that she had absorbed, might have been sufficient to display a significantly greater improvement in her strength than she would have anticipated.


    As for the Dao in her possession, and with her comprehension, she found that the Sword Dao had risen to the Minor Achievement stage while she hadn¡¯t been paying attention, which she guessed to have originated from the killing will sword that she had used to finish the battle in the Ping District. Apart from that, she could see no great changes to herself or any part of the items listed within the Truth of the Universe. Either the wall was truly as poor as it seemed, or just those two changes were somehow sufficient to elevate her power far beyond what it should be.


    The wall itself, so far as she could tell, wasn¡¯t greatly flawed, especially not in the eyes of someone who couldn¡¯t even create arrays of that many stars, but there were some minor hints of decay.


    ¡®Since that shouldn¡¯t be enough¡­ could the Sword Dao, due to my rather unconventional uses of sword techniques in the past, be innately applying to some of my other attacks? If so¡­ the fact that I don¡¯t realise this is rather concerning. Then again, such a thing as spontaneous and unexpected enlightenment does exist and has occurred in the past, so it isn¡¯t too unreasonable. I¡¯ll need to pay a lot of attention to this kind of thing in the future.¡¯


    Had her mind not been capable of thinking at a significantly faster speed than the world around her progressed, she wouldn¡¯t have even stopped to consider that much, since it would just waste far too much time.


    The moment that the wall crumbled, she ran out, and the maid followed, barely managing to match her speed as they raw towards a distant hedge maze.


    Ping Gangze¡¯s residence was located in the middle of what looked like an enormous oasis in the desert of the northern part of the Planar Continents, for it was green and lush and filled with life and water, fountains and small pools littering the grounds. Even within what her eyes and spiritual perception could see, there were several major sections and areas that were decorated with various exotic trees and plants, most of which were some variety of planar flora, causing the entire domain to be filled with dense enough energy to allow for an Energy Condensation cultivator to ascend a stage in an hour.


    She was quite tempted to connect the prison realm to this place and leech off the high energy concentration for her own gains, but it would take quite some time and give the man an unfortunate opportunity to sneak into the prison realm so long as he noticed the disturbance in energy, which would be rather hard to miss.


    Tall walls surrounded certain parts of the domain, with enough space for a pair of guards to stand beside one another and pay attention to either side of the land, although the guards that she was able to see maintained their attention upon the outside, likely not expecting anyone to escape the domain any time soon. They would still occasionally look towards them, as she had been able to see during her return to her room a short while ago.


    For the moment, they were looking away, so she and Shun Liu Min were able to make it without being noticed, at least so far as they were able to tell.


    They ducked into the hedge maze itself as soon as possible, taking advantage of the planar nature of the hedges, as well as their height, in order to obscure their presence as much as possible, although Wei Yi did further hide them with stealth techniques.


    ¡°We don¡¯t seem to have been noticed¡­ If you wouldn¡¯t mind, could you check your body?¡±


    ¡°Are you still concerned about the toxin? It doesn¡¯t seem to be affecting me, and I don¡¯t feel anything remaining within my body,¡± Wei Yi said.


    ¡°Hm¡­ Be careful. If something does happen, I¡­ well, I won¡¯t be able to do much. I know of a way to resolve the toxin, but it would be inconvenient to use if we don¡¯t have the space and time for it,¡± Shun Liu Min said, tapping the shrinking bag that she had brought with her, ¡°I had brought some pills, but none of them would help with the mixture of substances he uses.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. For now, is there anything beyond here that requires our attention?¡±


    ¡°A few trapped areas, some that are just confusing for the sake of it. Most of them aren¡¯t intended to catch those that flee, fortunately, and he should be expecting both of us to be fucking like rabbits, so he¡¯d have no reason to send out any patrols. Things should be easy enough from here.¡±


    Since the person that had been working here for ten years said so, and since Wei Yi was unable to discover anything of significant danger or risk within the nearest two hundred metres through her spiritual perception, she agreed with that assessment and contemplated the best way out. The maze itself wasn¡¯t an issue, especially if they decided to break through it, but how to best progress from it to the outside was a little more challenging.


    The further out they went, the more guards they would have looking in their direction. From what Shun Lia Min was able to tell her, there was a minimum of fifteen guarded walls or barriers that they would need to pass to get to the outside, with the weakest guards being in the third realm while the highest were in the fifth. Most only had thirty marks or less, and their actual combat ability was not that high, since they mostly acted to discourage invaders into the territory, but if the guards became alerted, then it should be easy for them to alert everyone else and overwhelm them with sheer numbers.


    Although Wei Yi had been able to resolve one situation in which this tactic was used, she really didn¡¯t want to repeat that experience.


    Since most of the guards looked outward, going further out would bring more of their eyes on them, although it would also mean that they would also need to go through more challenges in order to get to them. In theory, the worst place would be in the middle of these sets of walls and would get easier and easier to deal with on either edge, since there would be fewer guards within a certain radius.


    However, with a great degree of concentration and effort, they made it.


    No great battle broke out, although they had gotten quite close to quite a few due to the sheer quantity of guards all over the place. There were no other visitors, so far as they were able to tell, and both of them were able to get away without much planar or other forms of energy being expended, which was a pleasant surprise.


    Ultimately, they were able to find a weak point underneath the last wall, get out through it, bring a few treasures with them for use or sale later, and leave.


    They didn¡¯t stop being vigilant, nor did they stop running, since that would just be utterly foolish. Even if Ping Gangze was intending to actually give them the whole night before coming over to take advantage of his work, the closer they are to his domain the easier it would be for him to track them down again. In order to get away as far as possible and greatly reduce the chances of them being noticed, that was when they decided to make use of their energy, although Shun Liu Min required quite a bit of assistance the further on they went.


    When they had begun their escape, the moon had just begun to shine down upon the world, and by the time they finally stopped, it had gone over their heads and was slowly beginning to descend, although it still remained near its peak. They had run north, for that was Wei Yi¡¯s destination, and stopped as the savanna changed to sand and dunes.


    At that point, while she couldn¡¯t be certain exactly how far they had gone, it would be very unlikely for random exploration to lead him in their direction. Their trail should have been disguised by her ample usage of Aerial Footholds and general care, divination was hardly viable in any regard, and while it was possible to track down planar energy and aura, following her extensive use of physique energy would be significantly more difficult due to how few people in the Planar Continents were even aware of its existence.


    Even then, Wei Yi took quite a few precautions to conceal them after they found a spot to hide, resulting in them settling down in a small sandstone cave that led to a small yet cool underground oasis, where a small pond of cold and crystal clear water was surrounded by a smooth, wide border of sand.


    They sat down beside one another and faced the water, breathing hard.


    ¡°How far do you think he¡¯ll chase us?¡± Wei Yi asked, since they weren¡¯t capable of having this discussion once they began running.


    ¡°For a third realm and a second realm woman? Even if you are able to regularly perform the same feats that he had sought you out for, he can probably train someone up to the sixth realm just as quickly, if he believes it to be necessary. The primary reason he sought you out in the first place, getting rid of his opposition, has already been done,¡± Shun Liu Min offered her view on the matter, ¡°As such, I think he will keep an eye on us, but not for too long.¡±


    ¡°I suspect that you might be right. Now may be a good time to see what you¡¯ve brought.¡±


    ¡°Yes. First, a managed to sneak away some of his cultivation materials, hoping that you would be able to do what you did¡­ I have some practise, sneaking things away and bringing them back, but you can check these if you believe this to be suspicious,¡± she said, taking out a few small pills, ¡°I would¡¯ve taken along some pure planar stones, but-¡±


    ¡°Sixth-star pills?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Is that alright?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s quite perfect, actually. A six-star pill containing the energy of the sixth realm is bound to be immensely helpful!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, her excitement originating from her ability to empower pills by an enormous degree through her planar energy.


    Usually, this method came with a decrease in duration, but it just so happened that from the Marked Core realm onwards, pills were not created to pull in the energy from the air outside, but instead contained some purified and concentrated energy from the alchemist that would often possess the bound element of the refiner, but that was not going to be an issue for her. So long as her cosmic energy could modify the stored energy in the same way as she influenced medicinal energy, that would provide her with an absolutely immense boost, potentially throwing her all the way to the fourth realm.


    It could require as little as a single pill for that, and then she might be able to use the rest to rise to the half-way point of the fourth realm, attaining the perfected stage benefit for it.


    ¡°As I had mentioned, there are also a few healing pills, but if the substance still affects you, they won¡¯t be of use¡­ By the way, could you check your state yet again? If the substance still remains inside of you, then it is imperative that it is treated with the utmost speed!¡±


    ¡°You really are insistent¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered, but she did look into herself, since she was not very keen to experience whatever surprise Ping Gangze had prepared for her. She was rather confident in her own abilities, but the very second that she found a thin substance in various parts of her body, she realised that the maid had not been wrong to worry. ¡°There¡¯s something greenish-violet inside of me.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the substance! We must purge it immediately!¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°Ping Gangze had designed it for his own use, so it has one method of purifying it ¨C I¡¯ve even heard that it can be beneficial if cleansed promptly,¡± Shun Liu Min mentioned, before focusing, ¡°An exchange of innate yin and yang is required-¡±


    ¡°In other words, dual cultivation. Judging by the fact we¡¯re not running anywhere, you clearly don¡¯t intend to get me to sleep with some man to resolve this, so, what¡¯s your plan?¡±


    ¡°I mentioned my small degree of skill in techniques, right? I have seen quite a few of Ping Gangze¡¯s techniques, and I have modified a few that I thought might be useful. Amongst them was an ancient method of dual cultivation that was intended specifically for two female partners, which he abandoned when he learned that it was both incomplete and useless for men,¡± she explained, removing a thin tome from her shrinking bag, ¡°It is called Yin Soul Yang Root, and I think that I¡¯ve been able to repair it correctly, although I have not had the opportunity to ever test it for obvious reasons.¡±


    As she spoke, she opened the book and allowed Wei Yi to study it, quickly allowing the latter to learn it in full with some aid from spiritual perception, resulting in the addition of the Yin Soul Yang Root to the Truth of the Universe in the Uninitiated stage.


    ¡°Also, I¡¯m feeling a little warm right now. This is due to the substance, right?¡±


    ¡°Exactly. It should be tame at first, so please ignore it. Now, either of us could use it to purify the substance in your body, but one of the conditions that I have been able to notice is that it requires a greater quantity of yang within the body than a regular woman would have. Considering your appearance, I hope I¡¯m not wrong in assuming that it would be the case for you?¡±


    ¡°No, you are not mistaken. I have a perfect fifty-fifty balance of yin and yang within my body, if that¡¯s enough.¡±


    ¡°Actually, that might be the perfect state,¡± Shun Liu Min said, ¡°The introduction mentioned something about balance and the correct collection of yin and yang within the body, so it should be optimal. Now, I know that it might take a while to learn the technique, but it is essential for you to do it quickly.¡±


    Wei Yi could do so at any time if she wanted to, whether through her own comprehension of yin and yang or with the aid of the Truth of the Universe, but the direction of the conversation raised a question that she promptly asked. ¡°Seeing as you¡¯re giving me this, asking me to cultivate it, and requiring me to do so quickly, are you intending to allow me to sleep with you in order to resolve this issue? After everything you¡¯ve been through?¡±


    ¡°Two major differences between then and now, in my eyes. The first is that you are a woman. No matter what, it is better to be with you than with him. The second is that I am doing this out of my own free will, to help you, not at the bid of some greedy man who wants to earn another slave for himself.¡±


    ¡°I suppose that is a sensible line of thought¡­¡±


    However, the maid suddenly looked away, and her body clearly became warmer, with her cheeks reddening.


    ¡°Also, I¡­ I think I may have been fed that substance as well¡­¡± she said, gasping as her calm countenance broke in its entirety, her skin quickly becoming covered in sweat as she breathed deeply, ¡°Don¡¯t let me interrupt you¡­ learn the¡­ ah¡­ the technique¡­¡±


    As sudden as this was, Wei Yi was able to confirm that the woman did indeed have a significant amount of that same substance within her body, all over her muscles and bones, in vastly larger quantities than there were found within her own body, which she had previously overlooked due to whatever property allowed it to hide from her perception in the first place. It appeared that her physique energy had been able to nullify and disintegrate some of the substance, but the rest proved that she shouldn¡¯t get complacent when it comes to high quality poisons and drugs just because of her physique energy.


    The poison was likely six-stars in grade, concocted by a similar or even the same alchemist that had made the pills that had been passed along to her, and it was significantly more durable to her energy than everything that she had previously dealt with. Meanwhile, with some slight shifting around of yin and yang, she saw the substance move in response, but it was not sufficient to resolve the problem.


    ¡°No need to worry, I can learn techniques very quickly. Instantly, in fact.¡±


    She had scanned over the description of the Yin Soul Yang Root, and went through all of the text for it within her mind, confirming that it was safe to practise, checking every single minor thing just to be absolutely certain that this technique had nothing wrong with it.


    So far as she was able to tell, this Shun Liu Min wasn¡¯t lying to her, and was genuinely afflicted with the drugs that she had also consumed, with the rest of her story also seeming absolutely legitimate, but even if everything that the former maid had told her was true, there was always the chance that Ping Gangze had set them up from the start, allowing an easy escape with several items that would be intended to disable them from fleeing further no matter where they stopped.


    The moment that it had been confirmed to be safe, she decided not to skimp on anchor energy points and straight away raised the Yin Soul Yang Root technique to the Full Success stage.


    It cost her only four points, but she suspected that this was due to her comprehension of the Yin Dao and Yang Dao, since that would mean that her understanding of the technique itself was naturally higher than it would have otherwise been. In combination with her thorough reading of the technique and the study of it within the Truth of the Universe, perhaps it was only natural that the technique cost had been lowered by such an extent ¨C since her understanding of the Yin Soul Yang Root allowed her to tell that it was a very high grade method.


    As soon as her body was affected by the technique, she felt her nether regions warm slightly, and a pleasant tingle pass through the entirety of her body alongside a small quantity of planar energy manifesting within her.


    ¡°I¡¯ve finished comprehending the technique-¡±


    That woman instantly leapt onto her, her whole body trembling, tightly grasping her arms as she panted. Shun Liu Min¡¯s face was red and covered in sweat, while her eyes were unfocused and barely able to remain on Wei Yi as she said, ¡°P-Please, I¡­  I can¡¯t¡­ hold on¡­ u-use¡­ the¡­ the technique¡­ and¡­¡±


    Instead of replying, Wei Yi removed the maid¡¯s hands from her arms and pushed her down, pinning her to the ground.


    ¡°Sorry, but I prefer to be on top.¡±

 V3C73: Curious Surprise

    ¡°I am so sorry! I hadn¡¯t¡­ I had no idea that such a thing could possibly occur! I wasn¡¯t trying to trick you!¡± Shun Liu Min exclaimed loudly, prostrating herself before Wei Yi with as much sincerity as any human could possibly display.


    At the moment, her previously immaculate maid dress was torn and stained with various substances, her neat blonde hair had become quite messy over the previous night. The frilly headband that she had worn was lost somewhere in the sand, and the thin layer of makeup that she had worn the day before was absent save for the small amount of eyeliner that had been smudged by tears.


    Everything about her actions, her memories and her thoughts appeared to be entirely truthful, and even if they hadn¡¯t been, Wei Yi would not have blamed her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I checked the technique myself. That I hadn¡¯t realised that such a thing could occur was my own fault¡­ and besides, this would be a very strange thing to implement in order to harm me. I can understand how this might occur as a natural result of the technique that you had modified,¡± she said, sighing, ¡°I mean, if you or Ping Gangze wanted to hurt me, you could have shredded my meridians, made me lose my mind ¨C or tried to, rather ¨C or even caused me to instil the idea that he was my master for my entire life, since it is considerably easier for someone to influence their own mind than that of another.¡±


    ¡°Still, I am so sorry! That¡­ I had worked on it, and it even outright mentioned it in the name, but I hadn¡¯t actually considered it¡­¡± the maid had raised her head for a moment to look into her eyes, but quickly lowered her gaze with a blush returning to her cheeks, ¡°I should have known!¡±


    ¡°Again, that¡¯s not the case. You had no chance to experiment with it, and it may even be influenced by my own physique and state¡­ Look, can you just go outside and pick up a few of the dry branches you saw there? Depending on how far away we are from our destination, we may need to rest elsewhere, and not all sandy areas will have a convenient spot or rock. You still have some of that drug remaining within you, so it should be dealt with regularly.¡±


    Shun Liu Min nodded, getting up and immediately turning to face the exit to their small cave, ¡°I¡¯ll come back once I¡¯ve gathered everything.¡±


    The former maid slightly shifted what little remained of her dress to hide herself a little more, then left the cave and headed into the area above it, where several trees had dried out and dropped a number of branches, which they could use to fashion a surface for themselves to sleep on. Sand was not the most comfortable surface to rest on in the nude, after all.


    Meanwhile, Wei Yi had followed the maid with her gaze, then looked down on the subject and cause of the discussion that they¡¯ve just had.


    It parted her robes and stood up tall, forcibly drawing her attention to it. The thing in question had appeared during their sleep and brought some attention to itself by waking the maid due to them facing one another.


    ¡®I can¡¯t exactly ignore this, can I?¡¯


    Although she had been rather vague with Shun Liu Min, she suspected that the reason that this new feature on her body had been able to appear was due to a few reasons. One would be connected with the fact that her body had become rather static after obtaining her physique cultivation, which should have made it so that she couldn¡¯t possibly gain anything as major as what she now possessed, but she suspected that the excess quantity of yang that had been present within her for quite some time had made an impact upon her.


    Without a technique, the excess yang influence upon her would have done little, but now that she had gained the Yin Soul Yang Root technique and practised it, the excess yang was focused in the one place where it would be most at home, so to speak. After all, there was no better place for it to gather than between her legs.


    The other was specifically related to the technique itself, which, as she was able to confirm now, did cause the growth of something unexpected. She suspected that the sudden elevation of the technique¡¯s cultivation and the warm tingle that she had felt in her crotch had signalled the growth that she now experienced, and that it had been able to bypass the static state of her physique by simply progressing her body in a natural manner.


    ¡®It¡¯s finally going down¡­ Judging by all examples of this-¡¯ she interrupted her own thought and sighed, ¡®I can¡¯t keep doing this. I can easily refer to my boobs as such, so I should really call this what it is ¨C a dick. I have gained a dick, and, somehow, it is rather large. Hm¡­¡¯


    She had awoken with it in the morning, experiencing the phenomenon that was apparently called morning wood, and thus got to see it at its full size, getting a perfect opportunity to compare it to everything that she had seen during her many stays in the brothels of Beast¡¯s Rest, where she would passively observe the other rooms with her spiritual perception.


    As such, she knew that at its full, it was not the largest to exist in the world, but it would be at the perfect size for the majority of her partners. When it was in the flaccid state, however, it shrunk quite immensely, meaning that she could hide it in her underwear so long as she acquired a special set of underwear to place it into, save for the other aspect of a male¡¯s root of yang that she now also possessed.


    Just as with her erect penis, which grew a little strangely near the spot where the top of her lower lips had been and seemed to replace that cluster of nerve endings that could previously be found there, growing over the urethra, the two orbs beneath it were not on the small side either.


    It was them that would bother her the most, especially due to the obvious weakness that they would present to any foes that were aware of their presence. She had seen just how sensitive they were on men, and from a few explorative touches, she could confirm that they did appear to be similar in that way. They were also distracting to her overall sense of balance, which she had gotten used to after all of the years of stagnancy. The addition of the complete root of yang, which was notably heftier than she would have hoped, would doubtlessly require quite a lot of work to get used to it.


    As for the appearance, it was¡­ strange, in a word. The skin on it was darker, which wasn¡¯t uncommon so far as she was aware, but despite the size and prominent veins in its erect state, it was almost prominently feminine, meaning that if someone was to witness it without seeing the rest of her body, they would implicitly know that it belonged on the body of a woman, even if they wouldn¡¯t be certain about it.


    The balls were large, round, and fortunately didn¡¯t hang too low, so they weren¡¯t as bad as they could have been, at the very least. The entire thing radiated warmth whenever any quantity of blood went to it, and that was yet another issue.


    Not the warmth, which she could innately possess with her physique in any part of her body, but rather the fact that she appeared to have gained the same eagerness for action as some men that would usually possess such an appendage. Her own lust and libido had not changed much, at least not so far as she was able to tell, but the moment that she experienced or saw something that even slightly tickled her lustful mind, she could feel blood rush to her crotch. She did have the ability to cease that and prevent unnecessary displays, but it was rather annoying to manage.


    With how much she had looked at the bodies of both men and women, she was able to understand the exact changes to the inside of her body with ease, and noticed that while most of her female parts remained as they were ¨C the clitoris not included, of course ¨C the male differed quite significantly from what men typically possessed.


    All that she could be even vaguely sure about was that the refractory period that made certain types of pills a rather lucrative business shouldn¡¯t be necessary to her.


    It was hard to compare with a dragon¡¯s genitalia, given that she had not yet met a single person that either possessed their bloodline or was a full-blooded dragon, so she wasn¡¯t sure whether this was a commonality among the hermaphrodites of the Planar Continents. It could be that the sheer might and regenerative capability of her body permitted her to overcome such human trivialities the instant that the penis manifested itself, not that this would be to her advantage in the slightest while she was still attempting to maintain some level of decency.


    The feminine appearance of her new part made it look far less unappealing than she would have assumed it to be, and judging by Shun Liu Min¡¯s gaze upon it and her reactions, it seemed that she also had the same opinion about it. This, combined with the fact that her body would just regenerate something like this the very moment that she attempted to do anything to it, dissuaded her from attempting to remove it and instead made her rather curious what it would be like to make use of it.


    In response, blood quickly rushed down there, proving that her ownership of the Bright Glimmering Heart physique was incredibly beneficial and a good choice. The small, flaccid rod quickly grew, the skin atop it receding as it expanded all the way to a great pillar, radiating heat and visibly releasing steam.


    ¡®Fuck¡­ This feels strange¡­¡¯ she thought, feeling as if she had somehow returned to her state all those years ago, when she had never experienced the touch of another woman, for this sensation was new and entirely unique to her. It was pleasant, there was no doubt about that, and she knew that the moment her light and delicate hand touched the great length, it would be even more so.


    She pondered whether it was a good idea to do this now, but she couldn¡¯t arrive at an answer before she heard the returning footsteps of Shun Liu Min.


    As they had already seen one another fully naked, and since the former maid had seen it in quite a lot of detail when she had woken up, Wei Yi did not bother to hide her towering length, simply pulling her hand back from it and trying to get it to calm down on its own.


    ¡®If there is one thing that I learn from this, it is that I can perfectly understand why men can be rather more openly eager for sex than women ¨C and why they tend to ogle them so often. This thing can easily be described as not only having a mind of its own, but also being capable of controlling the person that it belongs to, and this seem to be even more true when it is both new and amplified by my physique and constant physical refinement,¡¯ she tried to distract herself a little, although she could tell quickly that it wouldn¡¯t bring her mind far from the original topic.


    Shun Liu Min entered the underground chamber, saw her sitting at the end of it, and quickly diverted her attention to the side. With the bunch of dry branches in her hands, she walked up to wall and put them down, haphazardly for now.


    ¡°Is it still not going down?¡±


    ¡°It had, but I was a bit careless and it¡¯s decided to rise again. I¡¯m guessing that, for the moment, I will be about as eager to go as someone with no experience at all,¡± Wei Yi shared her earlier thoughts, ¡°I¡¯ll probably deal with it later, then prevent unnecessary blood flow to that part of my lower regions so that it doesn¡¯t even become an issue again.¡±


    The former maid nodded as she stepped away from the bunch of branches. She paused for a moment, absentmindedly licking her lips, before she decided to step up to Wei Yi.


    ¡°Since I had¡­ accidentally¡­ caused this, I¡­ I can do something about it¡­¡±


    ¡°Remember that I don¡¯t blame you, nor do I believe that you did this intentionally. If this is something that you feel obligated to do as a result of your guilt, then you don¡¯t have to. On the other hand, if this is something that you¡¯re interested in, I won¡¯t object.¡±


    ¡°I-Interested in¡­ Wei Yi, you know my situation¡­¡±


    ¡°Very aware. However, while I may be playing dumb in certain matters, that doesn¡¯t mean that I can¡¯t see just how often you were looking at it. If you¡¯re concerned that this is a male appendage, then I can assure you that it, in fact, isn¡¯t. Not quite,¡± Wei Yi alluded to what she had noticed earlier, but was able to understand the mood of the conversation well enough and didn¡¯t mention it directly, ¡°Furthermore, so long as you don¡¯t develop a sudden interest in men as a whole, then nothing about your mental state has changed.¡±


    ¡°Why do you sound like you have a lot of experience in this?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because I do. You¡¯d be surprised how much someone can pay attention to their own mind when under the threat of permanent mental changes. By the way, have you never been affected by the drug before now?¡±


    ¡°Only a few times, and only long ago¡­¡± she said as she looked more openly at the tall rod between Wei Yi¡¯s legs, which twitched in response, ¡°It¡¯s, uh¡­ bigger than-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t need to hear it. In fact, I would rather not even think about that. If you are going to do something, I recommend that you do it now. Otherwise, we can both calm down and consider leaving this place,¡± Wei Yi stopped her from sharing information that she either already knew or had no interest whatsoever in hearing, ¡°So long as you do intend to do something, please don¡¯t leave me waiting.¡±


    Although she didn¡¯t clearly show it on her face before this, it was also quite difficult for her to sit there with a constant temptation before her and do nothing.


    Whether from her perspective, or that of another, the great pillar at her crotch drew quite a lot of attention, and was rather imposing, so even her sturdy mind struggled with outright ignoring it when it had yet to ever be placated¡­ and that made her think of some unruly beast, which was also not an inaccurate comparison. Such a comparison was especially apt when the previous problem of a will of its own, the large size, and a few of the attention-grabbing elements were considered.


    After a little more thought, Shun Liu Min finally decided what she would do.


    She came up to Wei Yi and slowly kneeled in front of her, her face becoming as red as it had been the night before, as if that drug had filled her system. In her anxiety, she inhaled deeply with her nose, prompting her to nearly turn away.


    ¡°The smell¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah Min, are you going to just talk? It is very sensitive, you know, and your breath keeps hitting it¡­¡± Wei Yi gently dug her fingers into the former maid¡¯s hair, getting a tight grip on her head, ¡°As for the smell, you can be sure that you will become intimately familiar with it, seeing as it¡¯s been able to gain it overnight¡­ Now, get to it!¡±


    She forced the former maid closer to it with her firm grip, an evil smirk formed by her lips.


    It was only later that she realised that gaining something like this may have intensified her dominant tendencies even further, and that it might not be a good idea to let it get too much out of control.


    However, for now, she got to enjoy the skills that Shun Liu Min had gained over her ten years of forced service combined with an obvious passion that she was more than eager to tease her about at some later point. Contrary to what she had heard about a man¡¯s ability to endure stimulation during their first time, it appeared that she had far greater endurance that seemed to give her alternate internal organs the opportunity to generate as much fluids as they could hold.


    When she did experience her very first male orgasm¡­


    ¡°Hah¡­ ah¡­ so much¡­¡± the former maid gasped even after their bodies had separated, her hand on the front of her neck as she struggled to catch her breath, ¡°And so hot¡­¡±


    Her whole face was flushed and much of it was rather messy as a result of their earlier activity, but she had a silly smirk on that she didn¡¯t appear to be able to subdue no matter how hard she tried to do so.


    Wei Yi, meanwhile, was mostly unaffected, both due to how little she actually needed to do ¨C especially in relation to the strength and stamina that she possessed ¨C and her ability to cleanse her own body at any time she liked. With that ever useful function of the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique, all that she needed to do before she could look entirely presentable was cleanse all of the saliva from her dick and then put it back into her panties, which were, just barely, capable of holding it and her balls.


    ¡°Sorry, I might have gone slightly overboard. Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡­ actually, I¡­¡± she coughed, finally managing to both regain her breath and subdue the smile, ¡°I don¡¯t dislike it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, really? I wouldn¡¯t have thought that this was the kind of treatment you¡¯d like.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t-¡± Shun Liu Min only began to deny it when she realised that nothing about her actions in the previous few minutes suggested anything but that she didn¡¯t enjoy it, ¡°Well, I¡¯m more of a switch, actually. It¡¯s just that I need to be with someone that I don¡¯t absolutely hate, and you fit that description.¡±


    ¡°Aw, what a nice thing to say. Come here,¡± Wei Yi easily lifted the former maid off the floor and planted a quick kiss on her lips, allowing her to stand on her own afterwards while frowning slightly, ¡°Well, that is¡­ seems I might need to get used to it myself.¡±


    ¡°Is it that strong still? I thought I was just imagining it still¡­¡±


    ¡°It got into your head, did it¡­ Literally and mentally, I suppose,¡± she muttered, ¡°By the time we get to any settlement or district, if you still have that drug remaining within your body, we will absolutely need to avoid oral, otherwise a lot of questions will be raised in the best case scenario, and we won¡¯t be permitted inside in the worst.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll need to get it out of our system before then,¡± Shun Liu Min agreed, ¡°After everything at Ping Gangze¡¯s residence, all of this is a very welcome change.¡±


    ¡°It very much is, although it will take some time to get used to it all, for you and me both. So that there is as little chance of returning there as possible, we should be moving on as soon and as quickly as possible, so let¡¯s get back onto what we had been discussing when we first got here.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ I¡¯ll be honest, one thing takes precedence over the rest in my memory, and that isn¡¯t it¡­¡±


    ¡°The things that you¡¯ve brought with you from Ping Gangze¡¯s estate, the cultivation resources and dick excluded. I¡¯ve heard something about healing pills and other techniques, and if all of them are secretly so miraculous, I will be both incredibly concerned ¨C since I don¡¯t think I have many more organs that can possibly grow on my body ¨C and significantly more powerful after I learn all of them.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that, yes,¡± the former maid looked around and found the bag that had been thrown away quite some time ago when they had been placed into the mood the previous night, retrieving a few manuals from it, ¡°These are not all of a high quality, but some might prove useful.¡±


    She passed them to Wei Yi, then removed a rag from her clothing and wiped her face with it, since the rag itself wouldn¡¯t be of much use to her, occasionally glancing in the Ascendant¡¯s direction while Wei Yi read through the technique manuals. Some were truly not that great, like the Magma Spines that she had seen one of the Yi family use during the expedition to the Kong District, but some were far more interesting.


    ¡®This Black Sun Blade, for example, is clearly either based on, or had been used as a foundation for the energy of the Endless Dark organisation, as it has a similar ability to consume sunlight. It also uses it to attack foes, which is even more sophisticated, but it could have been removed as part of the cultivation technique,¡¯ she thought, committing that technique to memory, ¡®God Burial Sea, while it does sound far more impressive, is mostly useful only for weaker foes. Anyone that is weaker than the cultivator will supposedly be pulled into the ground and kept there for as long as the technique lasts, giving me the ability to kill them or trap them with it.¡¯


    The first technique was a sword technique, so she quickly understood it to the same stage as her Sword Dao, and the second appeared to fit the nature of the Dao of Law quite well, so she similarly gained Minor Achievement in it.


    Then, she looked through the Destruction Brand, and found that it was rather similar to something in her memories, prompting her to look through the countless tomes within the Ascendant¡¯s Library before she realised what it was ¨C the Broken Sky Brand. Based on what she had seen of that manual, and of the technique in use, this Destruction Brand had really similar principles behind it, except for the fact that it was a fire-type technique and also appeared steeped in the Dao of Law.


    It was a pleasant surprise, to be sure, even if it did remind her of some slightly more unfortunate matters. The ability that it possessed to weaken foes against other fire-type methods was bound to work well alongside other techniques with similar abilities, and the ability that it possessed to ¡®stick¡¯ to foes regardless of the speed of their movement was also highly useful.


    Furthermore, there was a chance of her being able to recreate, or at the very least imitate, the Broken Sky Brand, potentially permitting her to reclaim the technique and eventually return it to the grave of the boy that had been the one to discover it, if he had even been permitted one. Seeing as her techniques tended to become rather insane the further they progressed and the more freedom she had to mess around with them, Wei Yi suspected that the only similarities that would be shared between her Broken Sky Brand and the real thing would be the basic principle and name.


    ¡°A bunch of decent techniques. The only one that I am not fond of is the Magma Spines, but the rest should be highly effective,¡± she said to Shun Liu Min, who, by this point, had cleaned her face of all the mess and makeup alike, ¡°Also, I can get you some clothes or rags for cleaning, depending on what you want.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll use the rest of this outfit while I have it, since it just brings back bad memories. Did you bring along a shrinking bag that we hadn¡¯t found on you?¡± the former maid asked, throwing away the rag.


    ¡°No, I have a spatial treasure. At the moment, it isn¡¯t very large, but it does have a few items that may be useful. Alternatively, I can also teach you a technique that might be able to cleanse your body, although I¡¯ve not tried it before, and it might have side effects¡­ just kidding.¡±


    Judging by the cautious step back that she had taken, Shun Liu Min had gotten quite a different impression, but one that she didn¡¯t voice, instead saying, ¡°Again, that was accidental¡­ I can try learning it, although I¡¯ve never been very good with actually cultivating techniques. Instead, modifying and altering them has always worked out better, not that I¡¯ve been able to practise either one all that much under Ping Gangze¡¯s gaze.¡±


    ¡°You do know that the more you say, the deeper the grave you¡¯re digging for yourself is. If I learn that you also completed the modification to the Yin Soul Yang Root with your eyes closed and your mind focused on something irrelevant, like cake, then I may get annoyed after all,¡± Wei Yi pointed out, unsubtly pointing down, ¡°Before that happens, let¡¯s just pretend that you didn¡¯t say that and move on, shall we? So long as you truly want to cultivate any particular technique, I should be able to help you out with that.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I will consider it¡­ Spatial treasure?¡±


    ¡°Took you a while, didn¡¯t it¡­ Yes, that¡¯s right. You¡¯re not going to sell my information to anyone, are you? Or is there something that you¡¯d miss too much?¡±


    ¡°P-Please stop¡­¡± Shun Liu Min muttered, but she appeared incapable of denying the implication, ¡°I guess I shouldn¡¯t be that surprised, seeing as you are likely to be well connected with the strength that you possess. Then, where are we heading? Is there a base of operations for a faction that you belong to?¡±


    ¡°You could say that, if you want, but we¡¯re heading towards the next district, first.¡±


    ¡°Hence the need to not be chased out. I understand,¡± the former maid said, ¡°I won¡¯t ask more questions that I need to. Do you have something to drink to¡­ you know¡­¡±


    ¡°Nothing for the moment, especially nothing that you¡¯d like to drink. I do have a method of retrieving something, but I will not use it here, nor now. Perhaps once we can both be certain that we¡¯re not acting in any malicious manner towards one another, I will show you exactly what my faction and situation is, but for now, I am sure we will be able to find some source of water for you to drink.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Did you know that you can look rather terrifying at times, even when you¡¯re just saying mundane things?¡±


    ¡°I said nothing mundane, especially not in my first sentence,¡± Wei Yi smiled, but did not elaborate, ¡°Anyway, I think that it is time for me to take one of the cultivation pills and reinforce those wooden bits, for you to pick them up and take them with you, and for us to go. Anything you want to do first?¡±


    ¡°No, nothing. Why not take the pills now, by the way?¡±


    ¡°You see, it will likely do a lot for my cultivation ¨C obviously ¨C and will require some time to be accommodated by the body. I also have no idea whether any of these contain the same drug that had threatened both of us, so it would be best to be in a good place to fuck. If we try to handle all of the pills in one go, then we will be here for a long time, which will give that man a higher chance to find us,¡± she explained to her, taking out one of the small scentless pills, ¡°In addition, the effectiveness of dual cultivation should be increased immensely now that the technique¡¯s changes have completed, so you could reach the third realm soon. Excited?¡±


    Her gulp told them both everything that they needed to know.

 Bonus Chapter: Shun Liu Min [R-18]

    At the moment that she was forced to confront that enormous thing, partly of her own creation and responsibility, Shun Liu Min could barely understand what her own senses were telling her.


    Not that long ago, there was only dread when she was confronted with male genitalia, and yet, when she gazed upon the rock-hard cock before her, she felt the same attraction as she had for Wei Yi herself. It was very distinct in appearance, with soft, feminine skin and a complete absence of pubic hair, which made it rather feminine, but the other side was also present. Veins marked the surface and bulged out visibly, blood flooding the dick to its absolute limit, and it was large and thick, almost intimidating.


    The two balls below, clearly visible within the sack, were no exception, softness contrasting with their sheer size and heat. Naturally, the latter wasn¡¯t exclusive to the sack below, with all of that warmth causing her to sweat even before she could get particularly close to it.


    With the heat came its scent, and she suspected that she would never know whether she hated it, or loved it. It was strong, virile, and wouldn¡¯t be mistaken for anything else, yet it had the same odour as Wei Yi herself, something she found pleasant during their night together. The balance was skewed slightly by the drop of white that appeared at the tip while she had been staring at it, though it also brought its own scent into the mix to make it even more complicated. Still, she knew of a sufficient way to describe it.


    It was musk, the powerful musk of some mighty dragon that had come to mortal women to breed and sate its vast desires.


    ¡°The smell¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah Min, are you going to just talk? It is very sensitive, you know, and your breath keeps hitting it¡­¡± Wei Yi gently dug her fingers into the former maid¡¯s hair, getting a tight grip on her head, ¡°As for the smell, you can be sure that you will become intimately familiar with it, seeing as it¡¯s been able to gain it overnight¡­ Now, get to it!¡±


    With such an instruction ¨C and the presence of a firm hand on her head which ensured she couldn¡¯t retreat ¨C she had no choice but to comply. She licked her lips to moisten them, suddenly finding them to be awfully dry, and neared the shaft.


    The gap was shortened just a little, yet that smell went from overwhelming to seemingly omnipresent, replacing all else that was in the cave. She couldn¡¯t stop herself from inhaling the strong musk, and she noticed that it appeared to be exactly what Wei Yi wanted. Aside from the droplet of precum growing larger and her cock twitching, there was also an obvious glint in Wei Yi¡¯s eyes that couldn¡¯t be subdued by the usual brilliance of her eyes.


    She was so consumed by these sensations that she barely heard the words directed at her, ¡°Are you scared?¡±


    ¡°¡­ No. I¡­ I want this. I want you.¡±


    ¡°Then come and get me.¡±


    Seeing as she had intended nothing else, Shun Liu Min closed the gap and arrived at the middle of the shaft, laying her lips on it while taking in another helping of its scent through her nose. The sheer heat seemed to burn her lips, but it wasn¡¯t uncomfortable in the slightest.


    It was delightful. She wouldn¡¯t have imagined that she would think such a thing about a cock just a few days ago, and yet here she was, willingly kneeling before another, just a moment away from tasting them due in part to her own desire. For a brief while, she considered whether it would be best to say something ¨C anything, really ¨C but in the end her desire won out. Her lips parted, hot air escaping from within, and closed around the shaft.


    The moment her tongue touched it, she felt that extreme juxtaposition again, for the taste was like nothing she had ever felt before.


    She couldn¡¯t see herself from the side, but she knew that her cheeks grew redder in that moment, though she could hardly imagine the expression on her face. Thanks to her unfortunate experiences, she had seen women in various kinds of sexual bliss, mostly induced by the same substance that had been forced into their bodies only recently, but she had never imagined that she could get such a thing from another person without anything as nefarious. It was just an anomalous delight for her senses, and yet she felt as if she could never bear to part with it.


    Even then, she knew that she wasn¡¯t getting everything out of the dick before her, nor was she going to satisfy Wei Yi this way. Hence, she slowly moved her mouth up the shaft, leaving a slick trail on the dark skin, and stopped just before the foreskin gave way to the head. She needed to cover the whole length, and so she went back, making her way to the base of the penis.


    At that point, she just couldn¡¯t resist dipping down to smell that, as well.


    Wei Yi¡¯s sweat had built up there, covering the base and her balls, which only added to the perverted mixture. For a moment, the idea of burying her nose into the spot between Wei Yi¡¯s cock and balls came to mind, just so that she could get even more, but her body moved quicker than her mind.


    ¡°I swear, it¡¯s like everyone is possessed by Zhi Qiu Ya when we get around to this¡­¡± the silver-eyed woman muttered, though Shun Liu Min only heard her when she raised her voice, ¡°Since you¡¯re down there, you better start with my balls. I know a lot of guys like it, so you better show me exactly why that is.¡±


    Although she heard those words, she barely even registered them, even barely reacting when her head was thrust forward and buried in Wei Yi¡¯s crotch. She felt almost as if she was being drowned in scent and taste, to the point that it seemed to fill her head and let nothing else inside.


    Reaching out to wrap her lips around one ball, struggling to fit it in, Shun Liu Min lathered it with her tongue, a layer of spit quickly replacing the sweat that had built up there. Apart from a few drops that spilled past her lips, slowly sliding down her chin and dripping onto the sandstone floor, the rest of the fluids could only remain within her mouth, letting the taste build up before she was forced to swallow. The mixture slid down her throat and seemed to spread out, flooding her consciousness and obscuring even more of her rational mind.


    She couldn¡¯t even tell where her hands where, or whether the prolonged kneeling on the stone was having an effect on her knees ¨C the only thing that existed was the sweaty, throbbing cock before her, and, somewhere past it, barely visible in her current position, its owner, who was sure to be looking down with a smile.


    After she had polished one ball, she switched to the other, ensuring that the left one obtained the same bright shine as the right one. It was delightful for her, and when a pleasured moan managed to penetrate the fog that overwhelmed her mind, she knew that Wei Yi was enjoying it just as much.


    Beneath the layer of skin, she could almost feel a vast quantity of cum being produced at that very moment, its heat easily reaching her eager lips and tongue. The longer she remained there, the more its scent reached her, overwhelming her brain to the point that she couldn¡¯t endure it any longer. She felt her hand at her pussy, two fingers easily sliding into the sopping wet hole, prompting her to shove in a third and pound away.


    Her arousal gushed out, dripping onto the sandstone, a wet puddle quickly forming.


    Shun Liu Min was prepared to do this forever, or certainly felt like it in that moment, but eventually she found herself being pulled away, brought back until the hard tip of the cock was just above her nose and parted lips. A few strands of saliva remained between her sweat-stained lips and Wei Yi¡¯s dark sack, breaking after a moment of laboured breathing.


    It seemed like her lungs desired air, even though she couldn¡¯t fathom breathing anything but Wei Yi¡¯s musk.


    ¡°Now I know why guys like this so much. You look so fucking hot!¡± her voice breached the fog that covered Shun Liu Min¡¯s mind, her sight recovering just enough to see silver eyes looking back at her, ¡°Take a deep breath while you can, because you¡¯re getting back to work in a moment.¡±


    Although the former maid could barely process the words, her body moved regardless, flooding her lungs with air mixed with musk, for the entire cave was filled with both. It made the air thick and heavy, forcing her to invest a great deal of effort into every breath, but the simple satisfied gaze of the woman above her made it all worth it.


    Once the balance within her lungs began to lean towards air, Wei Yi decided that she had gotten enough, and tilted Shun Liu Min¡¯s head as to position her lips just an inch from the tip of her cock.


    ¡°Can you see how much I liked that?¡±


    Given her position, Shun Liu Min barely had the opportunity to miss it. From the few drops of white that had been at the tip, right on its slit, there was now so much that it began to slide down, dripping down just as her mouth was moved to catch it. Almost by instinct, she stuck out her tongue, just in time for the first drop to land upon it, the taste instantly spreading across her tongue and rushing to her brain.


    It was like nothing she had ever felt before, and it pushed her over the edge she hadn¡¯t even realised she had been near.


    A great wave rushed through her body, a great volume of fluid spilled onto the ground, and her arms went limp. Had she not been on the ground already, and had Wei Yi not been holding onto her head, she wouldn¡¯t have remained upright.


    ¡®Wow, that¡¯s¡­ a reaction. Even with the substance still in our bodies, there¡¯s no way that this is normal,¡¯ the Ascendant¡¯s eyes widened, though she couldn¡¯t deny that the sight was incredible.


    There was something wonderful about the enraptured expression of a woman kneeling before her, with her cock only a few centimetres from Shun Liu Min¡¯s face. Even before she had gotten to enjoy a full blowjob, she was already glad to have received her new appendage, and she felt like she could understand why so many men were so eager for sex. When the possibility of an experience like this lay before them, it suddenly made a great deal of sense to leap at every possibility of sex. She didn¡¯t think that it was fine to go beyond mere suggestions or invitations, still.


    ¡®Well, since I¡¯m so into it, I might as well go further,¡¯ she didn¡¯t restrain her grin and put her other hand to use, taking her hard length and raising it a little, feeling both the weight and the heat that readily emanated from it.


    The sad look on Shun Liu Min¡¯s face when the object of her desire was pulled away nearly made her stop, though she wouldn¡¯t be brought down with just that. Besides, she knew that the former maid would appreciate her actions as soon as her clouded mind had the opportunity to realise what was about to happen.


    Before the dazed maid had the chance to miss the warmth, she slapped it against her face. Drops of precum flew off the tip of her cock, landing on Shun Liu Min¡¯s cheek and hair, causing a familiar excited shiver that made Wei Yi want to do it again.


    So, she did. She pulled her dick away, then slapped it against her face, alternating from side to side to ensure that her scent stuck to the maid¡¯s pretty face and left it marked forever. Of course, that was unlikely, but her primal, animalistic side loved the idea very much, and so she indulged it while she could, feeling her dick throb with each slap, more white fluid gathering at the tip and being splattered onto Shun Liu Min¡¯s face.


    Each time, the former maid¡¯s eyes followed the vast length, going back and forth, from right to left, seemingly unable to focus on anything other than the great, dark dick before her.


    ¡®Come to think of it, she was very keen on smelling it earlier, so I imagine she wants nothing more than to be as close to my dick as possible,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, finally pausing after the former maid¡¯s cheeks had grown almost as hot as the Ascendant¡¯s cock, ¡°Alright, that¡¯s enough. Get back to what you¡¯d started with.¡±


    Such an instruction must have floated around in Shun Liu Min¡¯s mind for a long few seconds before some part of her finally understood it. With great reluctance, she moved back to the underside of the shaft, sticking out her tongue and sliding it up, feeling the slight bulge beneath as she did so.


    Some part of her mind recognised that it was where precum travelled through to emerge at the tip, and where the proper load would pass through, so she made sure to give it an appropriate level of care, returning to the base for a second lick as soon as she reached the head. As the fluids at the tip kept growing in volume, she managed to get another dose of milky white liquid, sending another wave of euphoria through her body.


    The two licks left a thick coat of saliva on the underside of the cock, and was soon added to when she moved to the side, placing her lips over the side and letting her tongue trail along.


    Giving the same treatment to the top would be rather difficult in her current position, so she had nowhere else to move but the head, where the heady musk and the building odour of cum drowned her the moment she inhaled. It was almost terrifying, given that this was only the build-up to the actual climax, which would be guaranteed to be larger and more intense.


    If she could barely endure now, what would happen to her after she got a load out of Wei Yi?


    She might find all of her memories overwhelmed and replaced by the cock before her, all corners of her mind covered in a sticky white. In that moment, that just seemed delightful.


    The maid brought up one hand and placed it near the base, taking hold of Wei Yi¡¯s cock and guiding it to align with her open, eager mouth. A waft of steam from within joined the cloud that had formed around the entire dark length, and after she took a moment to raise her gaze and meet the Ascendant¡¯s own, she moved her head forward.


    In the very instant that her lips closed around the head of her dick, Wei Yi felt something akin to an orgasm coming over her. Thanks to her years in the Kong Prison Realm, she knew exactly what they usually felt like, but the addition of a new appendage appeared to have an effect on that as well. She knew that she had clearly not climaxed fully, for her cum was still within her body and not filling the maid¡¯s warm mouth, but there was a certain dampness that appeared below, staining her thighs.


    Regardless, it almost felt as if her clit had grown into the dick, maintaining the same level of sensitivity, making it nigh unbearable simply to be touched by moist lips.


    ¡®I get the feeling that I will get addicted to this¡­¡¯


    Shun Liu Min barely heard her even when she spoke aloud, so she obviously missed the stray thought and placed her tongue on the bottom of the head, slowly swirling it around and lapping up all of the thick precum that had accumulated. For a while, she left the precum on her tongue, covering the whole cockhead with it and her saliva, occasionally licking the slit from which it poured and earning a grunt or moan from Wei Yi. After a while, however, the instinct to swallow won over her self-control, and so she briefly removed her tongue and did so.


    As her lips tightened around the head, settling between it and the foreskin, Wei Yi found her free hand digging into the sandstone, easily crushing it and separating a large chunk from the rest of the rest of the stone.


    It was just too good, eliciting another small orgasm, yet her balls refused to give up their boiling-hot load, only building up more.


    Whether or not Shun Liu Min noticed, she resumed her work after a moment, giving the head a few more licks before she slowly went down, placing her tongue at the bottom of her mouth so that Wei Yi¡¯s cock could simply slide deeper into her mouth. Since she couldn¡¯t employ her tongue as easily, she switched to sucking instead, quickly bringing another inch into her mouth, for a total of two.


    There were eight more inches of the steamy behemoth to go, but her throat was clearly unprepared for it. When she tried to swallow it in one go, Wei Yi could hear the maid gag for a moment before she went back up, leaving a slick layer of spit on the six inches she couldn¡¯t yet handle.


    Despite the disappointment that began to radiate from her eyes, which Wei Yi picked up on with ease, she took it slowly, using her hand to slowly stroke the larger portion of the hard rod while sucking and licking the top. When combined with the warm tongue and the delightful lips, the feeling of her foreskin sliding back and forth over her glans was clearly getting a reaction out of her body, as Wei Yi felt her balls grow heavier and her cock somehow harden even more, as if it wasn¡¯t already beyond the hardest material she had ever come across.


    Her arousal was only intensified by the eye contact, which was maintained nearly constantly by the dutiful maid. It was a simple enough thing, yet it made this whole process so much more personal and involved than it would have otherwise been. She knew that this was a commonly done thing by most of Beast¡¯s Rest¡¯s prostitutes, but having gained a penis, she somehow viewed it in a different light.


    Roughly a minute later, Shun Liu Min had finally grown accustomed to the length already in her mouth, and was able to slowly descend once again, bobbing back and forth as she made her way down.


    Each time, she¡¯d make a little progress, then retreat to let herself breathe and to stop herself from gagging, as even the length she had already enveloped was just a hair¡¯s width away from touching the back of her throat. When combined with the sheer girth of Wei Yi¡¯s cock, it was not surprising in the slightest that no amount of practise could have prepared her for it.


    Her every bob left a thick layer of saliva to coat the hard length, and it quickly accumulated, covering the maid¡¯s lips and wetting the base of Wei Yi¡¯s dick, a pool of it slowly joining the Ascendant¡¯s liquid arousal on the sandstone.


    Still, even as she managed to dutifully take more and more the musky shaft into her mouth, slowly managing to get used to it sliding down her throat, it was obvious that she wouldn¡¯t be able to manage all ten inches. Her mouth and throat might be able to handle it, but in their current position, she wouldn¡¯t be able to fit the length inside. Such a thing would require her to move to the sandstone block that Wei Yi currently occupied, with her head hanging down and her mouth agape so that the Ascendant could simply pound away until she was satisfied.


    However, she wasn¡¯t going to interrupt the current blowjob, so she settled for making a note of it for the future and enjoyed what she was able to receive, and what the former maid was able to provide.


    Shun Liu Min managed to reach her seventh inch before she simply couldn¡¯t take any more. Disappointment flared up in her eyes again, but it was quickly replaced with a glint of determination as she withdrew, exposing more and more of the dark shaft, until her lips returned to the head, stopping half-way before she went forward again.


    While at the tip, she teased it with her tongue, then focused on the underside of Wei Yi¡¯s dick as she went down. Her endlessly salivating mouth provided plenty of lubricant for it all, quickly making the blowjob even messier, yet the wet sounds of her lips sliding up and down more than made up for the cleaning that would need to be done afterward. Also, Wei Yi would be lying if she said she didn¡¯t like the sight or the physical sensation of such sloppy fellatio, nor the dedication it portrayed.


    The maid began slowly, taking a while to go up and down, stroking the remaining length at a similar pace, then sped up, losing some of the finesse and exchanging it for raw lust. Quickly, the sloppiness made its way into the sounds of their sex, her hand slapping against Wei Yi¡¯s lower abdomen while she stroked.


    Finally, the arousal that had been growing within her began to reach an edge that had previously remained far out of reach. It was amazing, yet it was still too slow, too far away.


    She conveyed this with an insistent look, which Shun Liu Min picked up on quickly and sped up further. Her hand shifted from the rock-hard shaft to Wei Yi¡¯s thigh, and her other hand rose up to settle on the other side. Both were equally slick and wet, despite the very different places that they had been, but it was hardly an issue to begin with, becoming even less important when the maid let her mouth do all the work.


    Whatever finesse had remained before was gone, relying on speed and intensity to bring pleasure. The former maid¡¯s lips slid up and down, her tongue following suit, and the head of Wei Yi¡¯s cock would quickly plunge into her throat before emerging and being caressed by soft lips and a skilled tongue.


    It was blissful, and she felt that edge getting closer with bob up and down. Everything was coming together in glorious harmony ¨C if it was right to describe something that involved the cacophony of wet, sloppy noises as such ¨C and she felt her breath quicken and her cunt tighten, prompting her to lift her hand from the sandstone, wipe away the dust with a flash of physique energy, and insert a finger into her pussy. That made the experience much better, as if she fed the hunger and sated the want of her lower lips, and so she began fingering away while waiting for her arousal to overflow.


    As to permit the former maid to pleasure herself at the same time, she gripped the maid¡¯s head more firmly and helped her maintain her pace with only one hand on Wei Yi¡¯s thighs, permitting her to return her slick fingers into the confines of her vagina, passing the sopping wet labia with extreme ease, adding her own sounds to the symphony.


    In the back of her mind, Wei Yi could almost hear a countdown, and she could feel her balls rise in anticipation.


    Her cock twitched and throbbed, and when Shun Liu Min only accelerated, she attained her release.


    For a moment, she remembered the first time she had sex, when Ah Li had been able to bring her to orgasm when she barely understood the notion of such a thing. She had thought that she would never experience something as extreme again, not when she had gotten used to sex a long time ago, but her cock proved her completely wrong. The wave of white that overwhelmed her vision, the sudden tide of pleasure, the twin sources of stimulation that came from her dick and pussy ¨C it was incredible.


    As she finally came, she sensed the bottom of her cock bulge as a massive volume of fluid surged forth, exploding into Shun Liu Min¡¯s mouth.


    It was so thick that she could barely see it as a fluid. Her mouth was flooded to the brim, some pouring into her stomach when the tip had gone into her throat, but most of it built up in her mouth, and she couldn¡¯t force the cum down her throat.


    She couldn¡¯t even begin to chew on it to make it a little more manageable, for Wei Yi¡¯s cock remained behind her lips, still spurting cum.


    With nowhere else to go, it overflowed, and only then did she realise just how hot the thick fluid was. It seemed to burn her skin as it dripped out of her mouth, mixing with her saliva and dripping from her chin, but it also encouraged her to work harder. Drawing upon every last bit of strength that remained in her body, she forced herself to swallow, feeling a mouthful of cum descend down her throat only for more to take its place.


    Her first time was the hardest, and the fluid that took the place of the first load was a little easier to swallow, so she handled the second without spilling a drop, then went back down onto the Ascendant¡¯s cock, letting the tip reach the back of her throat again.


    The third wave was able to rush right down, flooding her stomach to the point of slightly bulging her belly. It was as if she had fed herself until she was full, except the distinct scent of cum ¨C specifically Wei Yi¡¯s semen ¨C still lingered, and its taste seemed to have infiltrated her taste buds, permanently staining them.


    Above all, it was still immensely hot, even after lingering in her mouth for a while, to the point that she could sense the heat within her from all the cum she¡¯d swallowed.


    Once it was joined by what remained in her mouth, she was finally able to part with Wei Yi¡¯s cock and breathe, letting her lungs be filled with something other than the Ascendant¡¯s undiluted scent. She almost regretted it, finding the musk growing weaker as air flowed over to replace it, but even the most lust-addled of minds knew that she had to take in something other than another¡¯s scent if she was to survive.


    ¡°Hah¡­ ah¡­ so much¡­¡± she gasped, her hand on the front of her neck as she struggled to catch her breath, ¡°And so hot¡­¡±

 V3C74: Rushing through the Stages

    It took some time to remove as much of their influence and traces from the small cave as was possible, and then they set off, with Shun Liu Min carrying the dry branches for the sake of training her body. Beside it not being beneficial whatsoever for Wei Yi, who could carry several trees without much issue, it would also help them due to the district that they would likely approach next ¨C the Chao District.


    Located north of the Ping, Ning, and Yi Districts, as well as to the east of the Ju District and the west of the Bai District, a place that Wei Yi wished to check out at some point simply due to the strangeness of a family of mostly pale individuals coming from a place like the desert of the Western Continent, the Chao District was obviously home to the Chao family, and was on the border of the modern Yi City, as well as being the northernmost major district.


    When Yi City had stood tall and strong, it was comprised of two types of districts, unsurprisingly named major and minor districts. There were twenty-four major districts, and each was named after the family that had been allocated to rule over it. These were clustered near the centre of Yi City, where they could be in close proximity to one another and trade their precious resources and talents between one another when necessary. Their positioning was decided by the Master of Yi City in order to ensure that the central region of Yi City was not weak and wouldn¡¯t crumble to internal dissidents or potential threats such as the primordial deities or large bandit or assassin organisations.


    After the twenty-four districts were established, the districts that were formed around them became the minor districts, without a unique family name to the district itself.


    That didn¡¯t necessarily mean that they were entirely inferior to the major districts, or that they were considered to be less important, but they were simply not part of the great bulwark of the central major districts. The families that lived there did often come up with their own family names, but there was far less focus on familiar inheritance than in the other districts.


    As such, it was not too strange that over the years of stability, the rulers of the minor districts had changed several times. It was also not too strange that once the great Yi City began to fall apart without the aid of the Master of Yi City, a few of the minor districts decided to become independent, although quite a few of those were swallowed or forcefully united by nearby kingdoms and empires. Those that did not go willingly still fell, in the end, for far less focus had been placed upon them from the very start, causing them to lack particularly unique techniques that they could employ in battle, or teachings directly from Kong Shi Meng, which could have boosted their combat ability enough to allow them to remain in Yi City as many had wanted back then.


    In the end, no matter what they did, the districts were no longer districts, and even if some retained their vague shape, system of governance or primary export, none would be recognisable to anyone who could travel from the past, skipping over the million years, in order to appear in the present.


    For this reason, and the fact that most of the former minor districts were now against Yi City, even if it was just through passivity and the ignoring of danger that would head directly for one of the modern major districts, the modern border of Yi City was defined by the major districts and the land that they were able to hold on to. Some defined their own walls as the border, while others would protect or otherwise occupy large areas and thus allowed the influence of Yi City to not shrink as much.


    The Chao family was one of body cultivators and purely physical fighters, placing a great deal of focus on one¡¯s physical ability. Unlike the Wu family that dedicated itself purely to physical martial arts, meaning that they avoided the use of planar energy in most situations and sought to perfect them and only then strengthen them with planar energy, the Chao family cared less for finesse and technique, believing that so long as their bodies were powerful enough, and they were able to endure the stress that many of their planar techniques brought, they would be able to handle anyone.


    Considering the fact that they had remained at the border at the north of Yi City for so many years without a single significant defeat to the groups beyond, it appeared that this idea, or what it resulted in, did have some validity.


    In the north, it was supposedly common not only to have a varied and rather open sexuality, perhaps due to the significant heat of the desert making it rather inconvenient for people to be in tight, enclosed spaces during their hottest moments ¨C in both meanings of the word ¨C or due to the varied culture of the people there. This did mean that they should, in theory, be quite alright with Wei Yi¡¯s unique body and the frequency in which she and the former maid would need to physically interact with one another to fully resolve their internal issues and raise their cultivation together, but any kind of open community had its limits.


    For this reason, as they slowly travelled through the sand towards the north, they sought out something that would be able to obfuscate the rather distinct scents that resulted from their activities, amplified significantly by the rather over the top properties of her newly acquired parts. Just as the heat within them seemed rather excessive, the volume of liquid that it resulted in, as well as everything about it, was also rather extreme.


    It made her ponder whether or not that Dao of Lust may have played some part some part in what the Yin Soul Yang Root created upon her body, and a quick inspection of the Truth of the Universe confirmed that it had, at some point, risen to the Minor Achievement stage. This also reminded her of a few techniques that she had once learned to incorporate into her own body cultivation method.


    She could remember with quite some clarity that at least one of them, the Yang Concentrated Body, was able to focus and magnify the yang within the yang root. In theory, if such a thing was to occur without the existence of a yang root, then collect within her body and apply itself to the results of the Yin Should Yang Root¡­ well, it seemed rather clear that even if this wasn¡¯t the sole reason behind any of her current troubles, it certainly hadn¡¯t helped things. With how many things did appear to have affected her and led to the situation at hand, it seemed that even if she had not practised the technique, had the Dao of Lust, and hadn¡¯t had the True Ascendant physique for so long, there would have still been plenty of reasons for it to appear mostly the same way.


    ¡®My body certainly doesn¡¯t appreciate the current topic of philosophical pondering, does it? Hopefully, sealing off unnecessary movement of blood, amongst other things, won¡¯t cause impotence or something.¡¯


    Some time ago, she had considered the option of having children, and had been forced to conclude that unless she was able to obtain the ability to impregnate another, she wouldn¡¯t be able to ever have children prior to the conclusion of conflict within Yi City at the very least. Now that she did obtain a method of doing exactly that, seeing as everything about her new appendage seemed rather virile, she now had that exact option, and did want to try it out at least once.


    Quite a few parents had described the process of having and raising children to be quite life changing, and Wei Yi would rather experience as much of life as she could before a potential untimely demise.


    It did mean that she had to be careful on any future visits to a brothel, just in case.


    ¡°I¡¯d forgotten how hot it is out here,¡± Shun Liu Min said, noticing Wei Yi¡¯s gaze upon her but being unable to understand exactly what her intentions were, ¡°I can keep going, although I¡¯d appreciate something to drink soon¡­ Or, otherwise, somewhere where we can spend some time together, since you don¡¯t seem to have any troubles with water¡­¡±


    ¡°The sooner we can get you to the third realm, the better. At that point, you will be able to mostly fuel yourself with your planar energy, which is significantly more plentiful around here. Otherwise, I suggest that we learn as much as we can from any travellers that we come across, since they are bound to have some methods of keeping themselves hydrated¡­ save for drinking their own fluids, of course.¡±


    ¡°Ew.¡±


    ¡°You do not have the right to act like that, not after the things you¡¯ve been through,¡± Wei Yi said, looking away and into the distance, ¡°You know, I had once been in a desert-like environment like this one, except it was far less hot. I don¡¯t have the right to act like that either, and I don¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Do you¡­ did you¡­ drink¡­ that?¡±


    ¡°How are you managing to act so embarrassed about this? I really don¡¯t understand you. Still, no, I did not do that. I got lucky, and then I killed a person or two. It was nice.¡±


    That seemed to confuse the former maid even further, so she also looked away into the distance, clearly pondering something judging by the loss of focus and attention in her gaze. Her face occasionally twitched, at times in disgust, at others in a strange curiosity, and she occasionally glanced towards Wei Yi with that confusing mixture of thoughts.


    After almost half an hour of trudging through the sands, she finally gathered the courage to speak.


    ¡°Ehm¡­ by the way¡­ Since you now have a dick, does that mean that you would also¡­ you know¡­ use it for that?¡±


    ¡°Have we actually decided to move our topic of conversation to piss? Really? Fine, I was trying to avoid it, but yes, so far as I can tell by observing the internal structure of my body, the urinary tract has indeed moved to my penis. Is that good enough for you?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± she did not reply, but the slight nod confirmed it, ¡°Does drinking it actually-¡±


    ¡°Oh, look, there¡¯s a nice place to rest up ahead! Let us rest there right now and get a different source of water than what we are currently discussing. Also were you actually thinking of drinking it?¡°


    ¡°¡­ Shut up¡­¡±


    Dual cultivation had two particular uses and practises. One was for the cultivator to use another as a so-called human furnace, using their energy to refine their combined planar energy and then fuel the primary cultivator, typically leaving the furnace full of yin and thus highly attractive, but weak and feeble in all other matters. It was only an acceptable trade to the most committed of nymphomaniacs, and so the rest of the population would only enter such a situation under some kind of threat.


    The other method was for the two cultivators to benefit semi-equally. Energy would be spread out throughout the primary and secondary cultivator, and each would receive a portion of the energy according to their ability to handle it. It was a method used by powerful cultivators who fell in love with normal humans or those in a significantly lower realm, since it allowed them to gather energy, accelerate the cultivation of their partners, get them used to a suitable cultivation method, and gave them a good excuse to have fun together.


    Since Wei Yi had no reason to employ the first method, and did want to assist in Shun Liu Min¡¯s cultivation, now that their primary concern of the aphrodisiac drug was subdued and the first of the many cultivation pills was taken, she would naturally make use of the Yin Soul Yang Root technique to spread out that energy.


    Over another half an hour, the first portion of energy was split between them, some of the drug that had indeed been hidden within the pills had been neutralised, and they split to process it equally.


    As she wouldn¡¯t spy on every single thought in the heads of every single soul, the Ascendant didn¡¯t know what she was thinking about as they attempted to consolidate the planar energy that they had absorbed ¨C Wei Yi received the vast majority of it, and yet Shun Liu Min still found herself with a little too much to be comfortable ¨C but she had considered that the drug they consumed might not have been a drug at all. It was present in every bit of food and every pill that Ping Gangze had, and was fixable with ease, so a different possibility had come to mind.


    Often, in order to nullify all flaws in something, many advantages would also need to be removed, which lowered the efficacy and benefit of all products of the five great arts, and so some would occasionally request certain flaws that they can handle to be left in on purpose.


    These flaws would often be those that were insignificant to the cultivator the item is intended for, like something that weakens the fertility of a woman when the item is intended for a man, but that could often result in incredibly improvements, depending on the nature of the pill they intended to consume. At times, such things would even be used to the advantage of that cultivator, like if they were being robbed and some bandit decided to consume their pills without the proper preparation.


    Due to this, it was not impossible for the so-called drug to be one such side effect. Ping Gangze appeared to frequently have sex with his many maids, so he would be able to nullify it before it could even affect him, especially since it had less of an effect on men, and the boost that it could result in would certainly not be one that anyone that cares about wealth could ignore. It would make it very convenient for him to lure in anyone he wanted and feed them, before either allowing them to recover without noticing anything or forcing them into his bed and would explain why it was located absolutely everywhere.


    Then again, for something at the sixth-star level to be present even in more common foods, it meant that some of it was intentionally thrown about.


    ¡®Such a thing wouldn¡¯t be impossible to do by extracting the impurity causing this within other substances, and the alchemist that creates these pills might have figured out how to separate that individual property a long time ago,¡¯ she guessed as she completed her preparations, ¡®Once I ascend to the next realm, I should be able to make these things out with greater clarity, so, before the characters have a chance to try and devour this stuff, on to the breakthrough.¡¯


    She took one breath, completed something she had started in the prison realm, and focused.


    The Truth of the Universe characters displayed their technique as usual, but since she had created her Ascendant¡¯s Path, they no longer fit her path perfectly, forcing her to modify the instructions before she was able to make use of it fully.


    As soon as she did, however, she witnessed her planar aperture fill with seemingly boundless energy, the entire planar pool rapidly becoming full with cosmic light. It overlapped with the bright white glow of the sphere within the Endless Monolith, the lights seeming to touch without ever merging with one another. For a short while, her aperture simply bulged outwards, trying to expand even further than it already had, then, with an audible pop, the next stage was reached.


    Her Monolith¡¯s shadow emerged from her dantian, surrounding her in reality and lighting up the entire area with the various lights that shone from the many fragments that orbited the centre.


    The white glow, which appeared around her head, sunk into her body as it had before, waiting for her to make use of it, and so she did exactly that, directing the refining and enhancing energy towards her muscles, exactly as she had intended. Unlike her bones, which she had previously enhanced without too many ideas on exactly how to best optimise the mixed white energy, she had already strengthened her muscles immensely and yet possessed countless ideas for how to go further and elevate her compressed musculature to a further level.


    After all, she was the one to create a technique that was capable of simultaneously expanding and compressing muscles back when she was in the first realm, and also the person to accidentally add four more meridian networks to her own body, so she knew of countless ways to improve even her own muscles.


    Due to this, the energy did not take half an hour, like last time, but only five minutes, a short enough time for Shun Liu Min to not have noticed the blinding anchor in her own concentration, and she was thus able to move onto the perfected stage breakthrough process.


    It was more of the same, and so she naturally directed her efforts towards the next thing on her list ¨C her blood vessels. Seeing as she needed to mess around with them far more frequently than before, and due to the appearance of something that was able to interfere with her body even with all of the methods she had of cleansing herself, it was even more important than before to ensure that her blood vessels, her veins, arteries and capillaries, were as strong as necessary, and capable of delivering her lifeforce all over her body at any moment, under any pressure.


    Given that it might also be capable of enhancing her Bright Glimmering Heart physique ability further, she would naturally focus on this.


    With her experience with meridians and blood vessels, some of which was gained during the restoration of Min Lian¡¯s body from her hatred avatar state back in the prison realm, finding some ways of enhancing these things further was much less difficult than when it came to her bones, with which she had spent the least amount of time and effort, but it was slower than empowering the muscles.


    Taking a total of ten minutes, she completed the second breakthrough and completely absorbed all of the energy of the first pill, bringing her to a stable position within the seventh stage, at the sixth perfected stage.


    That degree of growth, in combination with the empowerment of her muscles, meant that her strength had risen significantly, but not enough to truly make a difference if she found herself within the same set of circumstances as when she had been nearly killed by Ping Waqing. At that time, she had only been able to endure and damage him to any extent due to the endless energy provided by the temporary Soul of Cinder state, and even then, neither her attacks nor defences proved sufficient to do much. If she was able to enter that state again, she would likely be able to inflict one or two more incredibly minor injuries, but to truly make a difference she would need the fourth realm and the perfected realm breakthrough that would come with it.


    At that point, she would effectively experience her power multiplying by several folds, allowing her to be as much of a threat to weaker members of the sixth realm as she currently was to those in the fifth realm, more or less. The gaps between realms, stages, and personal ability did grow with every single realm, so while she was able to easily compete with the second realm while in the first, if she was to reach the eighth realm, any foe in the ninth might be significantly more difficult to defeat.


    However, that much didn¡¯t matter, since she would just advance as far as possible regardless.


    ¡®The only issue now is that I do not have enough energy from this first pill in order to progress further. A shame, but it does confirm that the requirements will just rise each time.¡¯


    Since the next quantity of energy shouldn¡¯t be absorbed too quickly afterwards, as she would otherwise encounter the familiar situation of being unable to properly control her strength for quite some time, she instead rose and observed Shun Liu Min¡¯s efforts towards breaching the second stage of the day.


    At the beginning of their journey, even at the beginning of the day, the former maid¡¯s cultivation realm was the seventh stage of Planar Pool, which was now rapidly rising to the ninth stage with just the little bit amount of energy that she had been able to obtain from their dual cultivation.


    ¡®Such a wide disparity in the requirement of energy for cultivation. Hm¡­ Since she is about to reach a new realm, changing cultivation techniques will be somewhat easier than usual. I could share the same technique that I had attempted to create for that Ju Yazhu with her, convert it to the wood element that she currently uses, and therefore make it more difficult for her to break- I mean, make her stronger, and not make her ponder the efficacy of consuming anything that can emerge from genitalia as sustenance,¡¯ Wei Yi considered, opening up the tome within her Ascendant¡¯s Library and looking through it to begin making the changes necessary, ¡®She won¡¯t reach the next realm from this quantity of energy, so I have some time¡­¡¯


    Shun Liu Min opened her eyes after a fruitful session of planar energy consolidation to a large water container made of dark leather that appeared to be filled with liquid being held in front of her.


    Due to everything that had been going through her mind as of late, she instinctively sniffed at the opening of the container, but found that it contained none of the scents that she had become familiar with, nor one that she had begun to imagine despite her best efforts not to. So far as she could tell, it was water.


    ¡°Don¡¯t do that, you¡¯ll look like Zhi Qiu Ya,¡± Wei Yi commented, bringing the container opening a little closer, ¡°Just drink it. I remembered that I can just condense some water for you, which, while slightly worse than the stuff you¡¯ll find in a fresh spring due to the absence of minerals and all that, does still serve to relieve your thirst for a little while. The added planar energy certainly won¡¯t do you any bad, either, so you might as well.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a lightning or a fire cultivator? How did you-¡±


    ¡°You said that you weren¡¯t going to ask unnecessary questions. Really, you should be wondering where these came from,¡± she shook the container slightly, ¡°Take it and drink.¡±


    Having been reminded of her own words, the former maid took the container and cautiously drunk a mouthful of the water inside, confirming that it did indeed appear to be what Wei Yi claimed it to be. It was almost strange to have something so tasteless in her mouth after everything else, but it was a great relief to finally sate her thirst properly.


    She drank up the rest quickly, throwing her previous caution to the wind.


    Since she appeared to have controlled herself well enough not to endanger herself, Wei Yi did not stop her, although the more devious (and incredibly small) part of her did regret not doing literally anything to the water at the bottom of the leather container.


    ¡°I can make more. You could have paced that out. Now you¡¯ll probably need to go and that very thing you-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t continue with that. I had just barely begun to shift it off my mind. Can I get some more?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but remember that consuming too much isn¡¯t good for you. It¡¯s obvious that you were really thirsty now, so I won¡¯t blame you, but you need to give this kind of water some time to get through your system before you drink more,¡± Wei Yi instructed, creating enough water to fill up the leather container once again.


    ¡°I know, and I will not go too far. However, the desert and the breakthrough have exhausted me quite a lot.¡±


    ¡°I understand the former, seeing as it bothers me too. The latter, however, confuses me. Don¡¯t breakthroughs generally imbue you with energy and strength, often leading the overly eager to their death against some foe that they were ill-equipped to face?¡±


    Shun Liu Min nodded, ¡°That¡¯s normally the case. In my case, the technique had been given to me by Ping Gangze, and he obviously modified quite a few things. I did my best to undo as many of them as possible, but without the original, and without permission to view as many techniques as I want, I could only substitute certain flaws for others. In its initial state, my lust would have risen with each stage, I would develop an interest in men against my will and my memories would be more easily toyed with, so I think that being a little weak every now and then was a better choice.¡±


    ¡°While I won¡¯t disagree, I do suppose that my timing for adjusting a technique for your usage was quite suitable. Have a look,¡± Wei Yi conjured a tome with her killing will, giving it to the former maid, ¡°It should be compatible with you, incredibly so, but if something is wrong, I would advise you not to modify it without consulting me first. There are some rather complex principles in that technique.¡±


    Although she clearly thought that she had been exaggerating at first, the moment that Shun Liu Min read through the first page of the tome, her eyes widened.


    She silently mouthed a curse or two, her hands shaking as she continued to read through the following pages, stopping at the end with arms that trembled so much that one might assume that the very earth was quaking beneath her.


    ¡°What is this? How did¡­ what¡­ hah?¡±


    ¡°First time I got that exact reaction. Mind telling me whether this is a positive or a negative first impression?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­ It¡¯s just that¡­¡± she shut her mouth for a little while, trying to gather her thoughts, ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem bad, but it is very different from anything that I am familiar with. What realm can this go up to?¡±


    ¡°The fourth realm should be safe, from then on, I would need to enter them myself in order to gain a better grasp of them, then update the technique accordingly. It is rather difficult to base my understanding of the higher realms just from a few battles and flawed techniques that I encounter, after all,¡± Wei Yi explained.


    ¡°You made this? Yourself?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ you must be some kind of genius, then. I have seen one of Ping Gangze¡¯s techniques, which he gave to one of his trusted subordinates, and while it was made for cultivation up to the sixth realm, the insights that it contained to every realm from the first to the sixth were vastly inferior¡­ or so I think. I¡¯ve never been above the second realm, not yet,¡± Shun Liu Min said, taking another look at the manual, ¡°I would¡¯ve asked whether you¡¯re accepting students, but I am clearly not qualified¡­ Will you take a maid, instead?¡±


    ¡°You want to become my maid after everything that you had endured as a maid? Are you sure that¡¯s a wise idea?¡±


    ¡°In the Shun family, most of our education relates in some way to servitude. As such, although I am somewhat capable, I have very little experience and skill in taking things into my own hands, which is why I had needed your help, amongst other reasons,¡± she explained, ¡°When it comes to important matters, I am much more comfortable with following someone¡¯s lead rather than taking it myself. Also, I have plenty of experience in the field.¡±


    ¡°I have been able to tell. Your cleaning is certainly very enthusiastic.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright, since you¡¯re the one suggesting this, I shall temporarily accept you as my maid until we get to my faction¡¯s base. At that point, your status may change according to your abilities and contributions. Does that sound fair?¡±


    ¡°Perfectly fair, Wei Yi. I¡¯ll do my best.¡±

 V3C75: Traders

    They continued to travel over the next few days, and on each one, quite a bit of cultivation would be completed by both of them.


    In this case, cultivation included both the standard aspect, wherein a cultivator would absorb or process planar energy that they had gained from another source in order to deepen their cultivation and advance their realm, and the so-called act of dual cultivation, wherein the pair would experiment with Wei Yi¡¯s new appendage and get used to its presence via all kinds of lewd means.


    With the Ascendant¡¯s Disciple technique, the one that Wei Yi had made for Ju Yazhu and then modified in a way that would make it easier for any cultivator to condense the appropriate kind of energy for them without needing to change the script of the technique itself again, Shun Liu Min did not face any difficulties whatsoever when it came to reaching the next realm. The cost of the breakthrough was also far lesser than in the case of her new master, and the increase that had occurred was mitigated quickly by a session of dual cultivation.


    When she broke through to the Emergent Anchor realm, creating a curious anchor seemingly grown from wood that had the semblance of five sides while only possessing the standard three, she also managed to gain a perfected stage in the second realm, which didn¡¯t boost her cultivation by any significant degree but did provide her with a small bonus, as perfected stages usually would for normal cultivators.


    The next day, however, the requirement for the breakthrough rose significantly, and it was barely met.


    At the time when she finally reached the third stage, where she remained as of the following events, she obtained another perfected stage, which did enhance her anchor but once more had little effect on her overall ability.


    While she advanced and demanded more energy with each cultivation session as part of the natural balance created by their usage of Yin Soul Yang Root, Wei Yi was hardly remaining stagnant in her own path. Although she required more time and energy, she successfully reached the ninth stage at a similar time to Shun Liu Min reaching the third, and she naturally gained every perfected stage as she went.


    Using the mixed white light that emerged with every single stage that she reached, she proceeded to improve her meridians, then the heart and other vital organs, finally reaching the Blinding Glimmering Heart version of the physique ability at that point, then moved on to her skin, deciding to darken it slightly as to return to an earlier state and stand out a little less in the north while improving it generally. After that, she also touched up on her external organs, primary the eyes, nose, ears and mouth, although she also used the opportunity to increase the durability of her dick by as much as she could.


    With each time that she achieved a breakthrough, the quantity of white light decreased, and more of the violet planar energy at the core of the Endless Monolith shone through, making it rather obvious that the last perfected stage would also be the last time that she gets to use this energy.


    She wasn¡¯t sure whether there would be two instances of it, one for the perfected stage and one for the perfected realm, but she did know what to do with it regardless of the answer. After the white energy was exhausted, she was wondering what kind of surprise to await from the Active Core realm, and whether her core would be something outstanding from the very start, or if it would require her to obtain an effective ten stages within that realm in order to obtain a major change, just as with the Endless Monolith.


    Also, she didn¡¯t know what kind of role the illusory core that floated around her dantian already would have to play. Logically, it would transform into the true core, but she had already experienced her cultivation resulting in something highly unexpected, so there was no guarantee that it wouldn¡¯t occur again.


    Perhaps she would get a dozen layers of cores, or it could be that her illusory core would shatter in order to then create parts of the true core. None of this was impossible on the strange route to perfection and ascension, and even the things that happened ordinarily were hardly reasonable if one was to think about them properly. For example, where in the world did a solid anchor emerge from a pool of otherwise unremarkable energy? Why was a core created, then marred with searing marks?


    It wasn¡¯t all that strange that the otherworldly demons raised far more questions on the matter than the indigenous people of the Planar Continents, but she had initially dismissed it as being something irrelevant and silly to question, just like how none would question gravity or light.


    However, as she tried to study her own Dao, in particular the Dao of Law, the natural laws of the world would need to be considered, and thus her thoughts would, on occasion, delve into the properties of planar energy itself, as well as why it could be so different in each individual while sharing so many common features. On first glance, it seemed much like any other force or energy in the world, but the way in which it was singlehandedly responsible for the state of the world being as it was did cause a few questions to appear within her mind.


    As many others, she wasn¡¯t able to answer them yet, so she stored them away in the Ascendant¡¯s Library so that, one day, they may be solved and used for the development of her faction, Yi City, and the entire world. Depending on the nature of the answers, they might even necessitate an attack on some higher powers, such as the heavens themselves, although that was far out of her reach now.


    She would also be lying if she said that was the only thing on her mind, but that much was hardly surprising.


    With how little she was able to do to rush them along to the next district, or any point of interest, as well as the large distance between the Ping District and Chao District, even taking into account the journey that had been made for her to Ping Gangze¡¯s land, she and Shun Liu Min ended up spending quite a few days together, and that did result in some exploration. Due to her previous state being that of an ordinary woman, more or less, quite a few things that a man and a woman, or a dragon and a woman could do together never really entered her mind as something that she could ever engage in, and the acts themselves had only been something that she had recorded out of a scholarly duty.


    Such a thing did make her realise just how limited interactions between two women could be, and while it did make her glad that her range of possibilities had expanded so immensely, it also brought to her attention just how creative the people of the past must have been to come up with quite so many acts to take place between two women. Had she known who any of them were, she would have most certainly thanked them for their hard work, but those kinds of details were lost to time.


    Hopefully, these ancient figures would be satisfied with their ideas, positions and techniques being utilised in the future by someone dedicated to their path, without any straying onto the other paths of sexual interaction.


    By the time she reached the ninth stage, she had just enough pills that contained just enough energy for her to break through into the next real. Before she could make use of it that day, she spotted tracks in the sand ahead of them, prompting her to raise her hand and stop Shun Liu Min, who was currently handling the dull trudge through the desert by zoning out until some thought needed to be used.


    Due to this mind-set, she bumped right into Wei Yi¡¯s arm, her large breasts absorbing most of the impact.


    ¡°¡­ Eh? Are we going to do it here?¡±


    ¡°What exactly were you thinking about just now?¡± Wei Yi asked, but since she was clearly too distracted to answer, she continued, ¡°I have found some recent tracks, so might be catching up to some travellers. Regardless of who they are, they will have something normal to drink.¡±


    ¡°Drink. I want to drink. Where do I drink?¡±


    ¡°Are you certain that you¡¯re alright?¡±


    The maid¡¯s eyes finally refocused then, causing her to blink several times as she adjusted to the sun and to the tanned skin blocking her path.


    ¡°Sorry¡­ I was falling asleep to the rolling dunes of the desert. You said something about drinking?¡±


    ¡°About finding people up ahead, actually. Come here for a moment,¡± Wei Yi lightly grabbed her chin and closely examined her face and eyes, scanning the rest of her body with spiritual perception in an attempt to discover some sign of significant dehydration or general deterioration, ¡°No, you seem fine. Just mental exhaustion then. Anyway, as I had said, there are footprints in the sand, heading north.¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t been far outside of Ping Gangze¡¯s residence since I arrived there from the Shun District, so I¡¯m not too aware of the things that go on here, but there are occasional merchant caravans that travelled to and from the Ping District. I¡­ I can¡¯t see all that well, so could you see if there are any tracks that are too small and thin to be human feet?¡± Shun Liu Min asked, ¡°If there are, then it is almost certainly a trader caravan.¡±


    They got a little closer to the footprints as they spoke, allowing Wei Yi to easily find such tracks both with her eyes and spiritual perception.


    ¡°What do these tracks belong to?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Would you mind if I didn¡¯t say? It can be quite surprising to see it for the first time, so I¡¯d like to give you a chance to see it like that as well,¡± the maid said, speaking shyly.


    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s fine, so long as they aren¡¯t a great danger and don¡¯t require very specific actions in order to handle them,¡± Wei Yi replied, straining her spiritual perception to reach out as far as possible in the hopes of catching sight of the back of the caravan, but failing. ¡°Would you be fine with speeding up?¡±


    ¡°So long as the caravan is close up, and so long as we can afford the water, I¡¯ll do it.¡±


    ¡°We can afford the water, so don¡¯t worry about it. I and some of my people have gotten very good at replicating coins, although we do also have quite a lot of legitimate coins taken from people that didn¡¯t need them,¡± she said, removing a few from what seemed to be the air, ¡°They might also be kind.¡±


    ¡°Considering the traditions of the north, they might also ask to sleep with you as payment, or otherwise enter into some form of servitude for a while.¡±


    ¡°The first part of that isn¡¯t necessarily bad, but I would prefer to avoid the latter. Anyhow, would you prefer to hold my hand or run on your own? Have you grasped the principles of the movement methods within the Ascendant¡¯s Disciple technique? If not, I could probably just carry you, although that would certainly give the wrong impression if they were observing their backs.¡±


    ¡°Depending on how quickly you¡¯d like me to run, I should be able to manage on my own.¡±


    ¡°As far as I can tell, the caravan in front of us is moving at regular walking speed, so all that we need is a slightly greater pace in order to catch up to them. Highest speed you can manage would be ideal.¡±


    ¡°How long?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s say roughly five to ten minutes, unless the sands are particularly still as of late¡­ That¡¯s a northern saying, isn¡¯t it? May your sands be still?¡±


    ¡°I believe so,¡± Shun Liu Min nodded, preparing for the run, ¡°May we be aided by the gracious sands.¡±


    Since neither of them wanted to waste their time going through more of the sayings of the Northern Desert, seeing as such sayings were likely boundless and hardly relevant to their current situation, they stopped talking and ran.


    The one to set the pace was the maid, for her speed was significantly lesser than that of Wei Yi and would be holding them back either way ¨C she wouldn¡¯t be left behind, since her truthfulness and loyalty couldn¡¯t be validated fully, and could thus reveal a lot if left on her own, although Wei Yi also didn¡¯t want to abandon people who helped her in the middle of an environment that they couldn¡¯t handle ¨C so it would be utterly meaningless for her to run ahead only to then wait for the maid to catch up.


    In addition, by empowering her with the Group Movement Art, it was possible to accelerate her a little more, thus shortening the duration of the journey by a significant amount.


    With the movement principles inside of the Ascendant¡¯s Disciple technique in combination with the Group Movement Art, they could have easily travelled at a far greater speed elsewhere, perhaps in a clear plain or relatively empty forest, but the sand interfered with their attempts. It was fine and plentiful, and every step would cause it to give way just a little bit, which was hardly ideal when one wore heels and the other had shoes that were designed for walking slowly around the house, and were only worn as to not burn her feet on the sand.


    Judging by the entities that the traders in the north apparently brought with them, they were likely far more experienced with traversing these kinds of environments and would be likely to possess some movement technique to assist them, as well as insights into how to best walk and run on sand. Wei Yi would naturally learn them, with or without their permission, the moment that she came across an eager teacher or a manual, but due to their present distance, she could only figure it out herself.


    Fortunately enough, the immense quantity of techniques that she had stored into her library all those many years ago was still benefitting her, and the inclusion of all of them into the Ascendant¡¯s Movement Dao permitted her to incorporate them into her regular movements.


    After a little bit of experimentation, she understood that some individual elements of something like the Earth-Shaking Step were able to mitigate a part of the sand¡¯s difficulties.


    However, there was only so much that could be done within the first attempt to optimize one¡¯s movements alongside another. If she had the time and space to act on her own, removing the Group Movement Art from the equation, then she suspected that she would be able to move at a similar speed to what she could achieve within the prison realm at her best, which wasn¡¯t particularly fast by the standards of the sixth realm or her usual best but it was still more than sufficient to cross the gap between districts in a day or two.


    With their sprint, they finally caught sight of the people that they were chasing.


    As both of them had noticed by that point, there were quite a few people travelling ahead of them in two lines, around the entity that had been leaving the smaller and thinner markings upon the sand, and their features, dark and mostly exposed, hardly surprised anyone.


    It was that aforementioned entity ¨C or two, as it turned out ¨C that caught Wei Yi¡¯s attention most of all, for they were not horses, nor camels or any kind of slow but sturdy planar beast that she was aware of. Instead, the entity appeared to be a gigantic insect, roughly twice as high as the shortest of the people travelling beside it, with two openings on either side of either entity that seemed to lead into them.


    The creatures appeared to have some internal planar energy, suggesting that they were also some variation of planar fauna, but they were ones that none of the books within Yi City had ever recorded.


    Unless someone had done a particularly terrible job keeping the records and ensuring that they weren¡¯t destroyed by, or lost as a result of time, it seemed that this was something that had been discovered quite some time after Yi City had lost its leader and began to break up, although it couldn¡¯t have happened all that recently either, seeing as there was no discomfort nor unfamiliarity from any of the people around the insectoid creatures. It was very curious, that much she could say with absolute certainty, and if not for Shun Liu Min running beside her, she would have probably changed her disguise and attempted to join the caravan to take a closer look at the creatures.


    She would have scanned it fully with her spiritual perception, but one of the properties that did attract her interest was that the carapace of the entity protected from it sufficiently to block all but the most basic understanding of what was within the carapace. If someone else was to attempt the same, they might not even be able to sense that much, seeing as her spiritual perception easily surpassed the energy of someone in the fifth realm, not to mention the third that she was currently in.


    Not having that option, Wei Yi opted to stick with her current brown hair and dark outfit, and with the skills that her persona would have had and chose to wear the mask the moment after she called out.


    ¡°Wait for us!¡±


    With the Lion¡¯s Roar physique ability, it was impossible for her voice not to be heard, causing all of the armed members of the trader caravan to turn in their direction with their weapons either drawn or about to be taken out, depending on how much of a threat they assumed them to be.


    When they saw who was approaching them, however, most of them lowered their equipment. Even if this was some kind of energy assault, it was perhaps the worst one that could ever have been formulated. One of them was near naked, and what she was wearing was unlikely to be anything even resembling intentionally revealing, while the other wasn¡¯t even attempting to bring out her energy, nor any kind of weapon. In their eyes, even if they were attacked or robbed by a group like this, they would just get an entertaining story to tell.


    They did slow down, fortunately enough for Shun Liu Min, who had clearly over-estimated her own capabilities this once, and was currently on her last bit of energy. The moment that they got close enough to them, the pair stopped their usage of movement techniques and stopped, with the maid nearly dropping onto the ground before she was caught.


    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s going on around here?¡± a man and a woman stepped out of the insectoid creature at the front, noticing that it had stopped, with the man asking the questions, ¡°Who are those two? What do they want?¡±


    None of the guards of the caravan knew the answer, so Wei Yi spoke up before they could and answered, ¡°We want to accompany you and purchase some water.¡±


    ¡°Did I ask you to speak?¡±


    ¡°You were asking a question that only I would be able to answer, at least at the moment,¡± she glanced down at the exhausted maid in her arms, who she had decided to pick up fully so that she could fully relax and recover, ¡°Besides that, some clothing would also be appreciated, but not necessary. That can be purchased at the district, if necessary.¡±


    ¡°You-¡±


    ¡°Darling, don¡¯t those two look rather cute together?¡± the woman suddenly interrupted, ¡°If that¡¯s all they¡¯re doing, why don¡¯t we let them stay?¡±


    ¡°Honey, why¡­ why do you always find some reason for the people to stay? The profit margins will-¡±


    ¡°Just sell the water for twice the price, then.¡±


    That caused the grim look to disappear from his face, and he immediately bid one of the men that emerged from the insectoid creature beside them to retrieve some water, ¡°Of course, that¡¯s exactly what we should do! We weren¡¯t even planning to sell the water, so the money that we¡¯ll make¡­ I love you, honey.¡±


    ¡°Love you too, darling.¡±


    They went in for a light kiss, causing Wei Yi to move her attention elsewhere while they got done with their own activities.


    Naturally, the first thing that she would observe were the accompanying guards and merchants of this trader caravan, out of curiosity regarding their typical trade route. There was a similar number of men and women involved, with the women wearing little more than a length of dark cloth around their chest and a very short garment to cover their groins. The men did not differ much in that regard, except that most had nothing on their chests at all.


    All of them had dark skin, similar to Fen Zhi, and it was not the kind that could be accumulated simply from living within the Northern Desert for several years. They were either locals, or they had gotten here near their youth, getting used to both the customs and techniques of the north.


    Each one had a metal plate somewhere on their clothing, with some having it randomly tied to their arm or leg, but while they differed greatly in the material used and the exact inscription upon them, every single one of them clearly functioned for the same purpose ¨C to make up for the lack of armour worn within the north. They were Armour Forming inscriptions, the kind that Wei Yi had wanted to obtain and study for quite some time in order to allow herself to protect herself with the star metal without needing to cover herself fully with it.


    The only ones to greatly stand out from the majority were the pair that seemed to be leading the caravan, whose surnames she could confidently assume to be Chen and Xin, based on their features.


    Neither one had more than simply tanned skin, but the man had brown hair and eyes, marking him as someone with the blood of the Chen family showcasing itself prominently. He covered himself in a thin robe with the sleeves and half of the part that would cover the legs removed, compromising with the heat without fully revealing his unmuscular form.


    While the woman lacked the black hair of the Xin family, instead having ginger hair, she did have eyes that had three distinct circles around the pupils, separating the iris into clear, individual sections. Unlike the black hair, this feature was very rarely inherited across several generations, and thus it had to have come from a close descendant of the family. It was technically inheritable, but it required a certain upbringing in the Xin District exclusive to family that ruled over it.


    She was clothed in a similarly thin, pink dress made from a combination of an opaque and translucent materials that allowed her to partially cover up most of her body while only warming up a small part of it. It showcased her thin body quite well, perhaps having been intended for the eyes of her lover or husband rather than everyone in the area.


    Both of them were in the fourth, Active Core realm, with the man being in the fifth stage while the woman was in the third. They did seem like the type that would be able to protect their caravan from any potential thieves or bandits, since most of them outside of the districts tended to only be within the third realm, as those above it wouldn¡¯t still be engaging in common and petty banditry. If a bandit did obtain enough resources for the fourth realm, they would either be recruited as warriors or guards, or they would seek out a different form of employment on their own, while the rest would be slain the moment that they became too much trouble for those affected.


    Once they finally got their little show of affection over with, they returned their attention to Wei Yi and Shun Liu Min, who had fallen asleep in her powerful arms. The man stepped away with disinterest, clearly caring only about the money that he would receive, but the woman stepped forward.


    ¡°Here, the water. Only four copper for a jug,¡± she said, beaming as if she was just saying hello to some old friends, ¡°Have you been travelling for a while?¡±


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t have to worry about money, seeing as she was getting more adept at manifesting fake coins, so she passed them along and took the jug, pouring a very small amount of it into Shun Liu Min¡¯s mouth while holding on to the rest, since trying to drown a sleeping woman would hardly be a good idea.


    ¡°Is there a place where we can sit, even if just for a while? We can return to walking at any moment if it is a bother for you.¡±


    ¡°Sure! The second strider has a place to sit and sleep for guests, and you do count. I¡¯m Xin Fu, by the way. Didn¡¯t expect to be meeting anyone new just yet, but it is a pleasant surprise!¡± the woman exclaimed, leading them to the second insectoid creature and to the left opening.


    She crouched to enter, and Wei Yi followed, managing to bring Shun Liu Min with her.


    The inside of the creature was something that she had already had the opportunity to partially inspect but seeing it in person and without the obstruction that the carapaces of the striders imposed upon her spiritual perception, it was quite a different experience. Contrary to what it looked like, most of the carapace did not appear to be occupied by the beast to which the legs beneath it belonged but was instead inanimate and un-living.


    Whoever had carved out the inside of the carapace used most of it for the storage of whatever goods they wanted to preserve within, as the temperature on the inside of the carapace appeared to be far lower than it was on the outside, even with the two openings on either side of the creature. The rest of the space was adapted into a small seating area, and a bed, although neither one would be fully comfortable for a full-sized adult. They were not covered by any cloth nor material, revealing the material that made up the inside of the creature, which proved surprisingly soft and comfortable when she sat down on it, having placed the maid on the small bed.


    She had to shift her seating position slightly to accommodate the things between her legs, placed the jug onto the semblance of a table in the middle, and looked at Xin Fu.


    ¡°Have you ever been inside of a strider before?¡±


    ¡°No. Interesting place, and I would love to learn more, but there¡¯s something else that I would like to cover first. That man and you ¨C are you two married?¡±


    ¡°Yes, we are. Don¡¯t we make the perfect couple?¡± Xin Fu continued beaming, the question seeming to act more as an invitation to for her to recount her favourite stories of the past rather than continuing the conversation, ¡°We had met a long time ago and fell in love on first sight. He had defeated my parents when they tried to convince me to marry someone else and took me all the way to the north. He cares about me greatly, although he can be a little insistent when it comes to money and his savings and whatever else¡­¡±


    ¡°Right. Running a business together?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    ¡°Will I be allowed to come along?¡±


    ¡°Certainly! You two are both beautiful,¡± the woman stated, ¡°Would you mind sharing how you have managed to make yourself look as good as you have? Also, is it some kinky play with the torn clothing? Was it fun?¡±


    ¡°Northern openness?¡±


    ¡°Southern calmness, rather. Why be all worried and high-strung when you can be calm?¡±


    That much couldn¡¯t really be argued with, so Wei Yi did not bother doing so, as it would likely only lead her to hearing more about the woman¡¯s husband, which was not something she was interested in whatsoever. Instead, she pondered whether or not she wanted to form any kind of long-term relationship with them, or if she would just get out the moment that she could.

 V3C76: Momentary Enlightenment

    After a little while, seeing that Shin Liu Min was still asleep, she concluded on what she wanted to achieve on the journey.


    ¡°Will we be able to stay on the inside of the strider?¡± Wei Yi asked the woman in front of her.


    ¡°I think my husband would take exception to that. He is very fond of investments, trades, value for money and all that ¨C the Chen blood is very influential on him and his family. As such, he will probably step in here in a huff, demand that you need to guard the caravan for the rest of the few hours before we finally arrive at the Chao District,¡± the woman stated, her smile remaining the same, ¡°I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll try to kick out your girlfriend, though. He does have a conscience, somewhere.¡±


    ¡°Very reassuring. You haven¡¯t been able to figure out where such a thing is even after all of the time that you¡¯d spent with him?¡±


    ¡°I have found quite a number of curious things instead, but¡­ you don¡¯t care about that, do you?¡±


    ¡°Not at all, especially not when it comes to your husband. You would be more interesting, but there are quite a few things I can do instead before bringing up those kinds of topics,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°For example, would you mind telling me about your caravan?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d prefer to discuss business instead of pleasure?¡± the woman pouted for the first time since the beginning of the conversation, ¡°I suppose I can tell you a little. We¡¯re delivering a few items from the Ju and Bai Districts to the Chao District, who tend to produce things that the district we¡¯re heading to doesn¡¯t like bothering with. You know of the tendencies of that family, right?¡±


    ¡°All brawn and no brains, I¡¯ve heard.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that tends to be the case. Exceptions are far and few between, like one Chao Juzan that has been making a name for himself in the Ning District. Besides those that are capable of creating inscriptions, they don¡¯t like most craftsmen, despite making use of their creations very frequently. So, people like my husband deliver goods to them, so that they don¡¯t have to stray near the ¡®gear-heads¡¯ of the Ju District and the ¡®pale devils¡¯ of the Bai District.¡±


    From what she heard from Chao Ru, such was the usual way of things over there, so it wasn¡¯t all that surprising that the rumours were true. Hearing of Chao Juzan was a little more interesting, but to avoid making it obvious that she had been in the Ning District not too long ago, she chose not to comment.


    ¡°This time, we¡¯re bringing along some cloths and fabrics that had been brought to the Bai District from the Jiang District, as well as some inscription plates for the inscription masters of the Chao District to work on and improve their craft,¡± Xin Fu continued her explanation, ¡°We¡¯d have gotten completed inscriptions, but we had an unfortunate lack of talent around the time of our arrival and departure.¡±


    ¡°Would that be more profitable?¡±


    ¡°I believe so, from what my husband mutters at night. He is a terribly poor sleeper and tends to have a lot of dreams.¡±


    ¡°In that case, if you had someone with inscription skills to create a few things of great value, how much could be shared with that great art master? Their work is guaranteed to be of incredibly high quality, in case that is important to your caravan or the Chao District buyers.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d do that for us?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind earning some money and getting the opportunity to stay out of things. Acting as a guard is something that is within my abilities, but not something I enjoy doing all that much,¡± Wei Yi said, dropping the more ambiguous angle of her question since Xin Fu appeared to understand her right away, ¡°Having something to work from, an idea of which inscriptions to make, would help, though.¡±


    ¡°My husband may have that, but I would need to ask him first. He can be rather picky when it comes to his business decisions.¡±


    Since she wasn¡¯t able to make that decision, she naturally left to speak with her husband, while Wei Yi brought her attention back to the sleeping maid beside her, who was currently curled up as best as she could in the limited space available to her.


    Due to their sudden discovery of a trading caravan, they had not been able to prepare for the meeting of other people quite like how they¡¯d have wished to, seeing as she could still distinctly smell several things that civilised society tended to prefer to ignore. However, perhaps they had simply had too little else to smell as of late and became really sensitive to things that other would immediately miss, or perhaps Wei Yi¡¯s refining of her sensory organs had placed her in a similar spot to Zhi Qiu Ya, but nobody else seemed to notice.


    Perhaps it was a little more common to have a so-called ¡®natural¡¯ smell out in the Northern Desert than it was in the Central Plains, given the fact that any perfume or method used to counteract the constant sweating and exhaustion would need to be at the ninth realm in order to last longer than a day or two, even less the closer one go to the Glass Wastes. Whatever the case was, they were going to need to abandon their daily schedule at least for now, especially if Shun Liu Min was to go outside.


    Since she was temporarily employed as a maid, she could be used to gather information or purchase things without forcing Wei Yi herself to distract herself from whatever she might end up doing within the Chao District, but it would be important for her to not be mistaken as some prostitute.


    It wouldn¡¯t do for someone to make that assumption, then act in an impolite manner just because they think her to be someone disposable. Then again, Shi Liu Min was already in the third realm, so if someone was to attempt to do something to her, she could easily deal with most potential assailants, who would need to either be incredibly ignorant or arrogant in order to mistake someone at the third realm for a common whore. She also didn¡¯t know whether the Chao District even permitted those kinds of businesses, which could result in other issues if the guards decided to arrest her for personal amusement.


    All of these situations could be dealt with, either through force or tact, but she would rather avoid unnecessary trouble, as always.


    ¡°Mhm¡­¡± the maid breathed out, her eyelids twitching before they opened, ¡°Sorry¡­ I hadn¡¯t thought that I would collapse quite that easily, but I suppose that I was wrong. I hope I hadn¡¯t caused you any trouble?¡±


    ¡°No, not really. You¡¯re not that heavy, and you look cute when you sleep, so there¡¯s no issue with it. This trader caravan apparently trades in fabrics and cloths on this particular journey, so it should be possible to obtain some new clothing for you here. What kind of thing would you prefer? I could probably make something myself, since I do have some minimal experience in sewing, but I would need a clear idea of what I would be working on.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t really know, I¡¯m afraid¡­ What would you like to see me in?¡±


    ¡°How little autonomy do you actually like to have? If I was, for instance, to go tell you to never wear underwear again, would you just agree?¡±


    The maid smiled, ¡°It¡¯s not too different from the current situation, is it? I would just be doing it on purpose instead of being forced to make do with what little I have. Although, I¡¯m far too lacking in any interest in exhibitionism in order to voluntarily be doing that kind of thing outside. I suppose I wouldn¡¯t mind if it was just us¡­¡±


    ¡°Just to be sure, there is one thing that I want to ask,¡± Wei Yi checked the area around them with her spiritual perception, which was easier to bring out of the strider¡¯s carapace than into them, just to be sure, ¡°Are you interested in me? Beyond just sexually, that is?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I may not be the best to ask about such things. My world view isn¡¯t exactly the best after-¡±


    ¡°Yes or no is sufficient. I can accept and provide lectures on all sorts of topics at a later point, if you want to provide one.¡±


    ¡°Then¡­ I¡¯m not sure. It¡¯s not something I¡¯d reject, I think.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I would just like to inform you that those kinds of relationships are not possible for me, not for the moment. If you don¡¯t change your mind by the time that this changes, I will also reconsider it, but for now, the moment that I decide to give anyone that kind of attention, they will be in danger, and a danger as well,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°I, and the faction I am part of, are opposing a very powerful group. So long as they are given the advantage of a weak romantic partner that I care about to any significant extent, they will not hesitate to use it as much as possible.¡±


    ¡°I see. Even if this was something we were trying out, I think that it would be a bit early¡­¡±


    ¡°Perhaps, although I¡¯d say that we certainly know enough about each other¡¯s bodies to meet the requirements. As for the more casual stuff, I don¡¯t engage in it much and you haven¡¯t had the chance yet, so it isn¡¯t like we can learn more about one another in that respect,¡± she shrugged, glancing outside, ¡°Anyway¡­ There¡¯s some water in the jug, if you want it. I might be a little busy soon.¡±


    Shun Liu Min didn¡¯t bother asking what she meant, keeping to her earlier word of not bringing up unnecessary questions, but she received her answer nonetheless when Xin Fu and her husband entered.


    The latter appeared to be in a mixed mood, with a frown in his brows but eyes that glimmered with the excited lust for wealth, alongside lips that couldn¡¯t decide which one of the two they would rather portray and thus twitched from one position to another. His wife had her standard smile that reached from ear to ear and followed her husband inside to sit down opposite Wei Yi and Shun Liu Min, keeping an arm around him as she did so.


    ¡°You are an inscription master? Prove it,¡± the merchant said, getting straight to the point.


    ¡°Give me an inscription plate, and I will.¡±


    ¡°Do you not have the credentials of any of the inscription alliances within Yi City? Do you not have a badge?¡±


    Wei Yi shook her head, ¡°Nope.¡±


    She could, if necessary, create a fake badge to display her status as an inscription master, since she had seen one or two of them in her life, but she did not intend to do so as she wouldn¡¯t be able to prove its validity with any of the organisations that could legitimately issue them. Also, she wasn¡¯t truly certain of the level of inscription master that the man before her wanted, nor how she would be rated if she was to attempts to get a legitimate badge. Her crafting technique could create inscriptions up to the five-star level, but her energy and cultivation might not permit it in the same manner.


    Furthermore, her three-star inscriptions might not be at the same level as that of most inscription masters, also for the same reasons.


    ¡®I should also consider whether or not one of my types of energy may be used in order to optimise and improve the inscription process, like spiritual will can assist with array creation, or how my bloodline is bound to have some effect on talisman creation when I utilise my own blood,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, showing none of that uncertainty to the people before her.


    ¡°Do you think I will pay you just because-¡±


    ¡°Darling, don¡¯t you think you can give her a go? Look at her outfit ¨C doesn¡¯t it look pretty valuable? If she wastes materials, you could ask her to sell her clothing to make up for it!¡±


    ¡®Woman, whose side are you on, and what exactly are you doing? Do you just want to see me in an embarrassing situation, or does your mind just work in strange ways?¡¯ Wei Yi tried to understand, but could hardly do so without outright asking those questions, ¡°I will not need to do so. Give me a basic plate.¡±


    ¡°Only if you agree to my wife¡¯s condition.¡±


    ¡°Why should I? The Chao District is not far away now, so I and my companion can depart, go there, and earn money for some other person with the very inscription plates that you¡¯d be delivering.¡±


    ¡°Do you really think you can bargain with me like that?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely. You may want to see me naked, but it won¡¯t do you much good even if you manage it. In addition, my clothing is not something that you can afford to handle, surnamed Chen. In addition, you should remember that not every single trade can be made without giving up anything.¡±


    She wasn¡¯t even exaggerating her words in order to put herself in a stronger position, since he would indeed likely find her current state to be unusual at best and completely in conflict with his preferences at worst, seeing as his wife had a far more standard figure in every way, and he would truly get into a lot of trouble if he was to acquire her clothing and attempt to use it or sell it. Even if her current appearance differed enough from what she showed in the Ping District, there would still be countless individuals from that place who would pay a lot of money and invest a lot of effort to see her pay for what she did.


    If the merchant was to be found in possession of her items, it would naturally invite certain kinds of theories, and even if he managed to convince others that he was not on any kind of amicable relationship with the woman that had done so much damage to the bandits of the district, he would still need to endure quite a few attacks and raids before they calmed down.


    With him only being in the fourth realm and possessing only a small merchant caravan, he would be unlikely to be able to handle many such attacks, especially if Ping Waqing was to get involved. Even a few cultivators in the fifth realm would be enough to permanently scar the business he ran.


    However, the man with the surname of Chen did not know that, ¡°No trade is occurring yet.¡±


    ¡°Oh, really? A merchant should be very well aware that trades occur all the time. This very statement is a trade, offering wisdom in exchange for patronage and the purchase of other services, as well as an offer of friendly relations,¡± Wei Yi stated, smiling somewhat ominously despite the fact that nobody could see her lips, ¡°You¡¯d do well to accept.¡±


    ¡°Are you threatening me?¡±


    ¡°Xin Fu, dear, would you mind getting an inscription plate for me? One-star will be enough. Your husband doesn¡¯t seem to be too keen on accepting risks.¡±


    ¡°Wait-¡±


    ¡°One-star? I think I know what those look like. I¡¯ll get it right now!¡± his wife exclaimed, leaving before he had even the slightest opportunity to object further. He would certainly have done so, but since all that Wei Yi wanted was a one-star plate, he would not lose more than a silver coin or two.


    As such, he decided that since the choice was made for him, he might as well see where this would go, and whether or not the masked woman truly did have some ability in inscriptions. If she did, then he could easily get some more money out of her, especially if she was a capable inscriber, but the investment required otherwise wouldn¡¯t be too bad. He was simply reluctant to waste any of his materials when the trip was already not performing as well as it could have.


    Wei Yi, meanwhile, was able to see traces of those thoughts with her spiritual will thread, but that would do nothing to discourage her from experimenting with free things. If she succeeded, then this man would have quite a lot more money from this one journey, and if she did not, she had already managed to evade the condition of needing to give up her things ¨C not that anything on her body was worth only two silver coins ¨C and could just fake the inscription working for long enough to get to the Chao District and escape from them.


    She did, after all, have some comprehension of the Dao of Law, and inscriptions were part of it. Everything was part of it, so long as one understood the basic nature of reality.


    In theory, that also applied to the Fire Dao, or Water Dao, or even the Dao of Lust, for the first could be described as existing within all things as the spark of life, the second could be said to be the source of all life and the thing that keeps it going, and the last could be said to be one of the primary driving forces that are part of the base instincts of humanity and the beasts that exist around it. So long as someone dove deep enough to understand the essence of any Dao, they would be bound to discover a part of the Great Dao¡¯s truth, and might eventually reach a full comprehension of the Great Dao through the lens of whatever Dao they chose to pursue.


    Wei Yi did want to avoid such a thing, however. To focus on one thing tended to be better than focusing on everything, but to mistakenly view everything through only one lens and with only one perspective would result in a warped view of the world, one that would force her into potentially seeing things in the same manner as the Mirror Plane Aberrations or the Great Families, which was hardly ideal. Instead, the approach of comprehending the nature of all things in the current approach, wherein she studied all Dao while focusing on the Dao of Law as the means by which to empower the rest, seemed better.


    ¡®In a way, that too is a part of the Dao of Law. One thing could act as a lot of others, but only one will truly be the original. Fire could be used to burn wood, or boil away water or even eat through stone and melt metal, but boiling water simply turns it to steam, devouring stone with naught but flame is wasteful, and metal requires a high temperature in order to melt, with the resulting molten liquid still being potentially harmful¡­¡¯


    The longer she was able to think on the Dao of Law, on the principles behind law itself, behind the very fabric of the universe and the rules that allowed it to exist, the more she felt that she was approaching something akin to the state of enlightenment that many cultivators wished for. The world around her seemed to be changing ¨C not breaking, or shattering, or even dissolving, but simply transforming from one state to another. It was as if someone had taken an image that was only meant to be viewed from a single angle and placed it at that appropriate angle¡­ No, it wasn¡¯t someone else that did it. She had placed it there herself, or perhaps even grabbed it from some malicious entity that wasn¡¯t willing to let her see things as they truly were.


    Right before her eyes, countless abstract matters and concepts seemed to become clear and plain, their laws baring themselves before her. Fire burned in the heart and body of the man before her, keeping his body moving. Earth made up much of his flesh, creating the solid shell of humanity. Metal coursed through his veins, the blood keeping him alive. Water was the source of his volume, permitting him not to be an empty husk. Wood was the nature of the countless veins, arteries, meridians and nerves that were spread out across his body, supporting every single one of the other elements.


    It was rather fascinating to see things in this way, especially her sight seemed to expand even further.


    The planar energy within each of his meridians became plain to her, nearly prompting an immediate comment on the inefficiency of the energy flow. A faint crimson light permeated his form, the slight sheen of money and the sound of colliding coins manifesting from it. His spiritual will filled his mind, occasionally encountering and defeating brutal motes of killing intent that emerged within it, but also spread out throughout his flesh and the air around him. Traces of physique energy littered his body, but they were faint and weak, barely able to show through all of the other forms of energy within him, a hint of his ancestors once awakening a physique.


    As she observed the world around herself, seeing more and more principal laws hiding within the simplest of objects, she was instinctively able to feel a faint circle appear within her irises, dividing them in two with a brighter colour than the rest of her silver eyes.


    ¡°So, will you tell me your name?¡± a voice suddenly broke her out of the enlightened state.


    She was concerned that everything that she had gained would disappear, save for the understanding of the five elements and the Dao of Law that she had gained from it, but while it did become less clear, the change in perspective that she obtained did not appear to vanish. Everything still looked different to what it had been before, and that strange circle remained as well.


    ¡°I am Wei Yi,¡± she said casually, but nearly stopped herself when she realised that her voice and words, which should have been no different to before, all contained vague differences and traces of energy that made her clearer and more powerful, ¡®Great Stride stage?¡¯


    After the Minor Achievement stage, the Great Stride stage permitted the application of many common principles of the technique within more common actions, such as making use of a movement technique¡¯s systems to allow for easier and more efficient travelling without the need to use planar energy at all. Thus, it made sense that once a Dao reached the Great Stride realm, it would permit for many of its insights to be put to use.


    If that was accurate, then not only had she reached the Great Stride stage in one go, but it had given her an entirely different way to observe and interact with the world, as per the laws she understood.


    While it was an incredible thing to attain, given the fact that it would naturally raise the power of nearly every technique at her disposal, it did show that it would be significantly more difficult to reach the next stage unless she grasped something even more intrinsic to the nature of reality, and to reach into the stages beyond would naturally be even more complex. This was both a negative, simply due to the additional time that it would require, but also a positive, since the more difficult a Dao was to comprehend, the more it covered and the more power it could grant her.


    Eventually, it might even permit her to manipulate the world around her according to the Dao of Law without requiring anything more than her will, although it would likely be far easier for her to create a technique to take advantage of this before that stage.


    ¡®That¡¯s something that I will need to get onto to¡­¡¯


    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of the Wei family, let alone them being proficient in inscriptions.¡±


    ¡°On the other hand, I am highly familiar with the Chen family, and I have to say that I am incredibly surprised that you are so poor at business when you are a part of it. Did you renounce that name?¡±


    ¡°You-¡±


    ¡°What that was meant to teach you is that viewing someone solely according to their family name is foolish, and you are likely only doing it due to distrusting me and trying to find some excuse not to see whether or not I am speaking the truth. If I am, then you will feel stupid and will think that your face had been slapped, so to speak, whereas if I am lying, you will have wasted your money. Am I wrong?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± he stared at her with an annoyed glare, but did not choose to answer her question, instead moving on as if nothing had been said, ¡°Are you telling the truth?¡±


    She smirked as audibly as she could, ¡°If I began with lying, I¡¯d have no reason to stop.¡±


    That only made him grumble more, but a statement that couldn¡¯t be argued with did finally stop him talking. Unfortunately, the damage had been done, and she was no longer able to return into the full enlightened state, only finding herself able to retrieve the remnants of what she had begun to grasp while in that state. It was a shame that she didn¡¯t get to observe some of those within the prison realm with that kind of vision, as she would have doubtlessly learned a lot, but she knew that even that much hadn¡¯t been expected, and was enough to nudge her along nonetheless.


    Since neither of them was going to get much from one another, they didn¡¯t continue talking, with the merchant turning away to look at his own goods while Wei Yi chose to take a look at Shun Liu Min¡¯s state.


    ¡°You doing alright?¡±


    ¡°Mhm. The water has helped, although I can feel ¡®it¡¯, still,¡± the maid whispered back, despite hardly needing to do so since Wei Yi could sense the remnant energy within her body.


    It was made even more easy due to her new perspective through the Dao of Law, which resonated with her own comprehension of the Dao of Lust and permitted her to see its influence upon the maid¡¯s body. While she couldn¡¯t compare to what it had been like before, especially when she had first been affected by the side effect of whatever medicine it had been extracted from, it was clearly weakening and decaying quite quickly, and would soon be entirely out of Shun Liu Min¡¯s system, at which point they would be able to do what they liked far more freely.


    Before then, they would still need to get opportunities for dual cultivation away from others.


    ¡°I¡¯m back~! Is this what you wanted?¡± Xin Fu entered the strider and presented them with a one-star inscription plate alongside some other things that could be said to have some vague relation to inscriptions.


    ¡°Some of this is, the rest I¡¯ll make use of anyway. Give me that large metal plate and put everything else on the¡­ table?¡± she glanced at the surface between the two seats inside the strider.


    The merchant¡¯s wife chose not to clarify or correct her, so it seemed that it either didn¡¯t matter to anyone else, or that she had been correct. Xin Fu placed that large metal plate before Wei Yi, the rest near it, then sat back down beside her husband, resting her head on his shoulder as she watched what Wei Yi would do next.


    ¡°Do you require some tools?¡±


    Ordinarily, perhaps she would have answered affirmatively, but as she looked onto the inscription plate now, she saw it in a completely different manner. It was still a piece of metal that was suitable for the channelling of planar energy, and it was still something that needed to be carved out in order to create an inscription, but none of that seemed anywhere near as mystifying as before. It had gone from an attempt at divination to merely reading a letter with someone¡¯s exact location described in full.


    For that reason, she simply shook her head. She did not need tools, and if she was to just create a one-star, simple inscription to prove her ability, did she even need a technique?

 V3C77: Solar Inscribing Arts

    Perhaps it didn¡¯t need to be said, but the moment that Xin Fu and her husband witnessed Wei Yi lift her hand, reach out with one finger, atop which sat a metal claw made with an unknown material, and begin to carve the metal as easily as if she used the proper tools for it, they were rather astonished.


    In the Planar Continents, it was not that uncommon to see unusual individuals, and that didn¡¯t extend just to one¡¯s style or appearance. Sure, there were plenty of people like Mo Zhouquan, or the Great Earth twins, or even Wei Yi herself, who had at least one outstanding feature that would quickly be talked about if it even became known to the public, but those kinds of things were far less significant to most than the so-called abnormal geniuses.


    They had uncanny abilities, and uncanny characters to go alongside them. Certain array masters would, for instance, make use of peculiar methods to figure out how to best lay out their arrays, such as tossing stones into the air and seeing where they land or forcing rats to run from a single point and then chasing them down one by one to stab them with array flags.


    Some blacksmiths would attempt to temper their weapons with the blood of their enemies, or their loved ones, others used something from their own bodies, and others would seek out the hearts of beasts in order to stab scorching hot blades into them and temper them like that. It worked surprisingly well at times, although it had the tendency to vary depending on the exact methods of the cultivators and blacksmiths, and certain famous weapons had been forged in those kinds of ways, but to those who observed the process from the side, it certainly looked incredibly strange.


    For examples of odd alchemists, none were better than Wei Yi herself. While most would seek to make the best pill possible, she would do the exact opposite of it, scatter ingredients as much as possible, remove as much of the medicinal essence as possible, then invert all of it to create a pill of a significantly higher quality due to the principle of an energy that is contrary to life as a whole. That¡¯s not to say that some didn¡¯t employ similarly odd methods to the previous few examples, but it seemed less strange.


    When it comes to inscriptions, neither she nor Xin Fu and her husband knew too much about the particular oddities of the great art, but they were quite aware that the approach that Wei Yi took wasn¡¯t all that common.


    Most didn¡¯t have clawed gauntlets that were sharp and strong enough to carve out metal, after all.


    Her actions were beyond their grasp, so all they were able to do was watch. Since she was acting so quickly and confidently, there was a chance that she did have some understanding of inscriptions, and if the man surnamed Chen continued annoying her, she could easily abandon this inscription or outright leave with it once it is complete, robbing him out of a lot of potential earnings.


    Wei Yi herself was not particularly focused on her work, despite what it might have looked like, as she was currently immersing herself into the remnants of her enlightenment state and using her new perspective to discover some new inscription that she could create.


    If she got it wrong, she wouldn¡¯t mind, and if she got it right, all of this would still demand far more work for her to complete a full system and technique. As such, she wasn¡¯t too worried about the exact results of her crafting process, nor the function of the inscription, not even what the quality would be. So long as something came out of this, it wouldn¡¯t have been a waste of her efforts.


    Thus, she didn¡¯t mind it at all that the shape of her inscription was far beyond anything that she recognised from her immense storage of techniques and blueprints. It was likely what the first people to experiment with the concept of inscriptions had to deal with. Each new attempt would need to delve beyond their present understanding, since they couldn¡¯t have possibly began with their full list of inscriptions and only need to improve their structure in minute ways in order to optimise them beyond their initial level.


    The problem for them would have been the chance of failure, but the more that Wei Yi worked on this, the less she felt that such a thing even existed. Energy that flowed through inscription channels would gather and then cause particular phenomena due to some principles of the world, a set of laws that humanity didn¡¯t quite understand, but did have the ability to interact with.


    With her present view of the world¡¯s laws, perhaps granted in part by the circle in her eyes, or perhaps the vision changed something about her irises to cause such a phenomenon, to create something wasn¡¯t all that challenging. The more difficult part was whether she¡¯d create something worthwhile.


    After a little more work, however, she knew that she was indeed creating something that could fit under that category. Judging from the more familiar lines and channels within the metal plate, it was going to be some kind of protective inscription, and judging by some of the auxiliary storage channels, the amount of planar energy that it would be able to reserve and make use of in times of need would also be rather high, especially if it was to be judged by the standards of what it was actually meant to be, which is a one-star inscription.


    Those tended to be rather weak when it comes to at least one significant element, since they were usually placed inside of improper materials and used only by those who couldn¡¯t afford two-star inscriptions, but the thing that she was currently creating appeared to be anything but, and much like most of her creations it was bound to have a lot of room to grow.


    ¡®I wonder if I should come up with some kind of name for it¡­ no, I can do that later. First of all, the method that I am currently using need to be elaborated into a technique. It has potential.¡¯


    She focused on her work a little more, and soon, a faint flame appeared around the claw that she was using for the purpose of inscription. It grew continually until it enveloped the entirety of the metal at her fingertip, but since it was star metal, and due to her careful control, neither it nor the metal it cut through appeared to be experiencing the heat at all, as if the flame was only being imagined by all those that saw it.


    The husband and wife that were observing her became worried for a second, but they knew that they couldn¡¯t interrupt ¨C well, the man with the surname of Chen knew that. His wife wasn¡¯t all that concerned and was more interested in the appearance of those gauntlets.


    When the flame suddenly changed from orange to the golden yellow of the sun, then they were almost entirely convinced that they had gone insane. It looked as if a miniature replica of the light that warmed all of the Planar Continents had surrounded her claw, and was now bathing the entirety of the inscription plate in its light¡­


    ¡°Wait, is she-¡± Xin Fu began, but stopped when she realised that she might be interrupting the woman before them, ¡°Chen Xiu, darling, are those rays of light also carving out more lines?¡±


    ¡°Honey, I¡­ I actually know very little about this¡­ Maybe? It does look like it, I guess¡­¡±


    Wei Yi did hear them, somewhere in the back of her mind, and she did record their words just so that she would remember the name of the merchant, but she was not interested in them in the slightest, for now.


    At that very moment, she was contemplating the relation of planar energy itself to inscriptions, having concluded that out of all of the forms of energy she had at her disposal, the most suitable for this was it. One of the forms that her planar energy took most frequently was dawn light, for it had been powerful for quite some time and merged well with the principles of the Elysian Fist, among other things. As such, an idea began to blossom within her mind.


    It was rough, unpolished, and vague, as all initial ideas often are, but she was quickly refining it with what insight she did have, then simultaneously using it to obtain new leads for her ideas to pursue. Such an approach allowed her to quickly develop the very basic foundation for something that she eventually decided to name the Solar Inscription Arts.


    The reason behind such a name wouldn¡¯t need to be explained to anyone who witnessed it.


    She had a lot of things that she wanted to include within the technique, but one of the core factors within inscription was the careful carving of specifically sized channels into whatever was being inscribed, as to get a very specific effect from the energy that would flow through it, but such a thing was difficult without a number of proper tools to work with. As someone who travelled a lot and didn¡¯t have space in the spatial realm to waste, she could hardly carry all such tools with her, and regulating the size of her claws would be a little too inconvenient, thus the cutting beams came to mind.


    Wei Yi was rather pleased that she had come up with the Dawn Slicing Beams all that time ago, for they were incredibly useful regardless of their typical offensive potential.


    In addition, she decided to make use of the Dawn Flowing Light¡¯s principles in order to create smaller channels within the surface of the metal that the slicing beams would simply not be suitable for. With the ability to create numerous even channels of an even smaller depth, she was able to develop the inscription that she was working on to an even greater level, making use of all of the space that she had on the plate to bring it to a greater level.


    Once she ran out of ideas that could be put into action right away, she simply made use of all of them to finish her work, going as far as her current state of vision permitted her to before finally concluding that her work was complete.


    ¡°There, done. Will this pass your inspection?¡± she asked, showing him the results of her work to Chen Xiu.


    ¡°Uh¡­ I don¡¯t know what this does¡­ or can do¡­ or anything¡­ so could I get some kind of demonstration?¡± the merchant asked, speaking far more cordially than he had been at the start, ¡°Could I not get some kind of explanation of what it does, then a demonstration to prove that it works as intended.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯ll take too long. Stop your caravan for a little while.¡±


    She glanced at the maid, softly patted her head with an unseen smile, then left the strider with the inscription plate held tightly in her other hand.


    After a short while, Chen Xiu decided to follow her, and his wife also came along, since her curiosity had been peaked by the things that she witnessed. As someone who often accompanied a man that traded inscriptions and inscription plates every now and then, she had seen a few instances of inscription masters performing their great art in front of them, but she hadn¡¯t seen such a method being used in any of those instances.


    It wasn¡¯t the technique itself, since techniques were plentiful and quite a few accomplished inscription masters would have their own style and approach, but what it was capable of doing. One of the core requirements for every single realm of inscription masters were a set of good tools, even if they were amplified or mostly made up of their planar energy, although only those in the upper realms would likely have a chance of making more than an edge on their inscribing knife out of planar energy. However, from what Xin Fu was able to see, this technique was able to replace all of that, at least in one-star inscriptions, and allow for far more intricate and complex shapes to be created with seeming ease.


    Thus, those three left the strider, and Shun Liu Min did rise to look out of the opening within the insectoid the moment that it stopped, and so all relevant attention was on the inscription plate.


    ¡°You¡¯re in the fourth realm, right?¡±


    ¡°I am. Is it an offensive inscription that you¡¯d want me to endure?¡±


    ¡°Wrong, it is a defensive inscription. Before we test it, do you believe that I as someone at the peak of the third realm, will be able to protect myself from one of your strongest attacks? You can be honest, if you want.¡±


    ¡°You mean if you use your energy, or no?¡± she shook her head, so he shrugged, ¡°It depends on the nature of your defensive technique. Some are more suited to deal with those kinds of attacks.¡±


    ¡°Do you mean that you have no confidence at all in your cultivation? You are in the fourth realm, fifth stage, having accumulated what are effectively ten additional stages of the third realm over me, and yet you do not believe that you have even the faintest guaranteed chance of striking me?¡± Wei Yi poured as much venom into her tone as she was able to, ¡°I have to say, beyond your lacking business sense, it seems that even your basic cultivation ability is insignificant.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I know what you¡¯re trying to do. Strongest attack I can possibly manage, right?¡±


    The venom suddenly vanished from the air, ¡°Of course. Aim it at the plate, and observe whether or not I channel any of my energy. It won¡¯t even be necessary for my energy to completely fill it.¡±


    She raised the inscription plate and held it out in front of herself, allowing him to see how a violet mist collected within the channels of the plate with the air around it at an immense speed. In the time that it took him to prepare the technique that he was going to use, it appeared to fill to the brim with the planar condensation segment of the inscription that he hadn¡¯t even realised was present.


    It was only when he had fully prepared his attack that he realised that he was facing a one-star inscription, or, at the very least, an inscription within a one-star plate, meaning that it would lack many of the advantages of a superior conducting metal of the superior types of plates.


    Even the energy wasn¡¯t her own, meaning that this was simply first realm unbound energy within a one-star inscription plate facing against the strongest attack that someone who isn¡¯t absolutely useless at combat within the fourth realm was going to strike with. Such an attack likely wouldn¡¯t kill the woman behind it, given the fact that she was near the fourth realm already and was wearing some decent equipment, but it would destroy whatever profit he might potentially be able to earn from selling that inscription to a wealthy buyer.


    As if Wei Yi realised that this was something on his mind ¨C which she did, given her nearly obsessive use of the spiritual will threads ¨C she looked at him with eyes that seemed to fill with that same venom from before, although there was also an immense degree of incitement within them that seemed impossible from a mere gaze. Such a look instantly drove his mind into a frenzy, to the point that he couldn¡¯t control his own actions, causing the flow of his planar energy to suddenly surge and complete without his own input, although he did know that it had been his own mind and body that had caused these actions.


    Thus, as befitting of a Chen family member, a dozen golden spears formed in the air before him, being quickly scanned by Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception as to note down the nature of this technique for her own usage at a later point. Each one brimmed with energy, red light literally spilling out of it and being driven by an invisible wind, and after a moment of charging, they shot out.


    Each one moved far faster than any normal cultivator of the third realm could, almost reaching the immense movement speed that those in the fourth realm could manage with their unique movement skill, and fired right at the centre of the inscription plate, which had not yet done anything in order to guard itself from the incoming attacks. Chen Xiu could see it in his eyes with great clarity ¨C the inscription plate shattering, his wealth going down the drain, and his future crumbling alongside it, although one was almost certainly an exaggeration regardless of the outcome.


    The first spear nearly impacted before a small quantity of energy suddenly burst out of the inscription plate, striking the tip of the spear and applying an immense degree of force that shouldn¡¯t have been possible for a one-star inscription.


    It wasn¡¯t destroyed, nor greatly harmed, but it was thrown entirely off course, soaring past her and hitting the desert sand, throwing up a large cloud of it.


    After that, spear after golden spear threw themselves at her, having no restraint whatsoever, but each time, a clump of energy from the inscription channels shot out and collided with the spears, being disintegrated instantly upon contact but still managing to throw them off course. Projectile after projectile threw up large clouds of sand some distance behind her, striking a dune that happened to be a short distance from their chosen path through the Northern Desert, and while there were several rather close misses, all of the attacks ended up doing nothing at all to Wei Yi or the plate.


    Just like that, a fourth realm attack that used up a notable amount of his energy was effectively negated entirely by a single inscription made with materials of the first realm, and there still seemed to be some energy within it.


    ¡°Gracious sands, what exactly is that? How does that work?¡±


    ¡°Why would I tell you? I am an inscription master, and I was to share my secrets with everyone I met, I would not be of much use at my profession. Are you satisfied with the inscription?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ is it going to be that effective on all techniques, or just on those with projectiles as their primary form of attack?¡± the merchant quickly questioned, clearly having enough sense to recognise that something this seemingly miraculous couldn¡¯t possibly exist just like that, ¡°It¡¯s got to only be effective against those kinds of strikes, right?¡±


    ¡°Incorrect. Anything that isn¡¯t instantaneous or bound to an attacker should be deflected, and since most don¡¯t have attacks of that kind, it will protect against most attackers. It is a four-star inscription, after all.¡±


    ¡°Where?¡±


    ¡°In my hands, you foolish man. Have you once again made a silly assumption that a one-star plate and unbound energy automatically results in a four-star inscription? Do you not know that alchemical pills made with one-star recipes can result in four-star results so long as the one creating it is skilled? In fact, this inscription could have been better if I didn¡¯t just make it up right now,¡± Wei Yi pointed out, taking advantage of her current position to be as arrogant as she could just to get it out of her system, ¡°And yet, you thought I was lying. Silly man.¡±


    ¡°Darling, I get the slightest suspicion that she is enjoying this to some extent,¡± Xin Fu pointed out, although she did nothing to stop her.


    ¡°I just didn¡¯t expect to come across a real master out in the desert, running along with a near-naked woman beside her, and bringing no tools or anything with her,¡± Chen Xiu admitted, ¡°Also, not a master of any of the great arts, so I had no idea that it could work this way.¡±


    ¡°Now you are aware. As for that assertion, Xin Fu, I will assure you that it is entirely slanderous. And true. None of your business, however,¡± she commented, bringing the direction back onto its proper path, ¡°Listen, I am able to offer my services and make use of all of the inscription plates you have in order to create a series of high-quality but varied inscriptions which should be guaranteed to sell for far higher prices than the plates themselves. For this reason, I¡¯d like half.¡±


    ¡°If they¡¯re all as good as this one, then I will immediately agree. This is immensely valuable.¡±


    ¡°Good. Then, I would also take advantage of some of your services and identity while we are both at the Chao District. In particular, there¡¯s something I would like to find, and you could help.¡±


    ¡°I can assist you with that, but it depends on what you want. If it is just a location, or a group that isn¡¯t greatly dangerous to search for, then I could do it even for free, but if you want to find something that is highly disagreeable to the Chao District or the powers there, I think I will demand some further compensation.¡±


    ¡°We will discuss that, I suppose. For now, let me give you this¡­¡±


    Wei Yi raised her clawed hand into the air and condensed a crimson and silver page, on which she created an image of something near the desert stronghold that Yi Shi Ming was able to pass onto her.


    Naturally, she wasn¡¯t going to give away exactly what that fortress looked like, seeing as she didn¡¯t want them to snoop around nor did she want to give it away to whatever contacts this merchant might make use of, not to mention the fact that it was likely to survive due to the way in which it was hidden. To ask him to look for some unusual dunes would hardly yield all that many results, regardless of how resourceful he was.


    Instead, finding an area near the fortress that was likely to remain constant even after all these years was a safer bet. While it would give them some idea of where the true destination for her and Shun Liu Min was, it would be vague enough for the desert fortress to do its job and avoid their gaze.


    The merchant, as he accepted this page, must have understood this, as he frowned.


    ¡°The sands move frequently and quickly. If we were to go to sleep here, the landscape around us might not remain recognisable when we wake. Something like this is probably buried under the sand now.¡±


    ¡°Just because it might be, doesn¡¯t mean that it is. There are quite a few landmarks that I am searching for, and so long as you do look for them, I could agree to create more inscriptions for you for a discounted price while we remain in this district. Once the things I am looking for are found, however, I will be leaving, and I don¡¯t intend to return in the immediate future.¡±


    Chen Xiu shrugged, ¡°Then I will need all of the images of the landmarks, at which point I could get some searching parties out to look for them. If there¡¯s anything valuable at any of them, you will need to come along for some just to be sure.¡±


    ¡°No, they themselves aren¡¯t valuable, so make sure to tell whoever you use for this that. If they steal anything they find just because they think that they will be paid a handsome sum, they would be very wrong,¡± she conjured a few more killing will pages for him, including a reasonably detailed image of the place, some descriptions of it, as well as guesses regarding its current state on each one, ¡°So, I figure that we¡¯re agreeing on the deal, then?¡±


    ¡°Yes, agreed. You can return to the strider, the inscription plates will be passed along, and if you need anything else, you can ask me or Xin Fu and we can give it to you at a low price. Give me the inscription.¡±


    Some of his earlier rudeness had returned by the end of their conversation, but she didn¡¯t mind it too much and quickly asked for some reasonable materials and basic equipment for sewing without giving much information on why she needed it, since the reason was obviously standing within the strider. Once he agreed and sent some traders to get that and the inscription plates, Wei Yi returned inside.


    Shun Liu Min had already gotten up from the bed-like area she had been laid on, so they instead sat side by side while they waited for the items to be delivered to them. She would occasionally glance at Wei Yi¡¯s various features, but it would be rather improper for them to engage in anything too extreme while inside the caravan near dozens of strangers, so the former and current maid could only hold the slowly rising desire in for now.


    Due to her far greater familiarity with spiritual will, Wei Yi needed to do no glancing, whether to admire her current travelling companion or understand her issues, but she wasn¡¯t particularly constrained by what the merchant couple and the other people around them thought.


    For the moment, she simply lacked the right idea for how to handle their situation, but that wouldn¡¯t take her all that long the moment that she knew how much she needed to work with when it came to the inscription plates. So long as all of them were made randomly, drawing upon her Vision of Law ¨C as she did not intend to call her different view of the world that other than this once ¨C to create successful inscriptions, she could probably complete everything in an hour or two, without needing to devote all of her attention to her work, but it didn¡¯t seem like the best thing to do. Other than the money, which wasn¡¯t a great concern to her for the same reason as that which allowed the easy creation of inscriptions, she did want to gain some understanding of the world and of the Solar Inscribing Arts, which couldn¡¯t happen if she just acted haphazardly.


    The moment that the inscription plates were brought over, however, she understood exactly how much time and effort they would require.


    ¡®Fifteen one-star plates, eight two-star plates, four three-star plates and three four-star plates¡­ Not the largest purchase anyone has ever made, of course, both due to the poorly planned nature of the purpose and due to the fact that inscription plates were not used anywhere near as frequently as artefacts and other items within inscriptions inside or atop them. To purchase too many would not be helpful in the slightest,¡¯ she thought, grabbing one of the one-star plates, ¡®Since that¡¯s the case, I might have some freedom after all.¡¯


    ¡°Remind me, Shun Liu Min; is that drug intensified or weakened by regular nightly activity?¡±


    ¡°You mean¡­ it is slightly alleviated, but if it not handled properly with the full exchange, then it will eventually grow out of control nonetheless,¡± the maid replied.


    ¡°Oh, in that case, come a little closer. I have a few ideas for how to occupy my other hand while I work on all of this, and I don¡¯t want to be reaching too far while we can be seen from either side by particularly slow or fast guards travelling beside us.¡±

 V3C78: Approaching the Chao District

    Once she got into a comfortable pace with one hand, she switched to creating inscriptions with her other hand, putting one in front of herself and then sinking into thought for a few moments while pondering the nature of what she wanted to create. Fortunately, she had a lot of ideas, so all that she needed to figure out was which one she¡¯d go for first, and where to pull inspiration from.


    It didn¡¯t take long for her to decide that creating some version of the Armour Forming inscriptions as to get some practise with them, understand exactly how they worked, and provide some fortunate soul with a piece of metal that could make their entire body as tough as it just so long as it is kept on their body. Something like that was a second realm technique at least, and even the Copper Skin Toughening pill wasn¡¯t as effective as an Armour Forming inscription, so it would be an excellent deal for whoever ended up getting it.


    Judging by the enormous price the merchant would likely sell it at, it probably won¡¯t fall into the hands of someone who couldn¡¯t get a better piece of better metal and get an inscription on that instead, but that didn¡¯t seem like much of a problem to her.


    What some people did with their money and free time didn¡¯t concern her, even if the case resembled that of Ju Yazhu and the other man that she had been fighting with. Such things happen, frequently, and even if she could observe each one at all times, to stop all of them would be an exercise in futility until she was able to reach out with her Dao of Law and change the very structure of the land. Until then, the moment that she vanished for even a moment, such behaviour would just re-emerge.


    In her eyes, it was better to let a few such injustices and unfortunate events occur out of her reach while seeking to stop them than to attempt to end as many as possible without coming any closer to dealing with the underlying reason behind them. Earning money and learning about the location of the desert fortress would be advancing that goal, so it was fine even if it allowed some things to happen.


    To make an Armour Forming inscription, with which she had very little experience, she naturally took a close look at those worn by the people in the caravan from afar with her spiritual perception, finding that they were indeed not all the same. There were some differences based on material, quality of the inscription, tier of the inscription, and quite a few other minor variations that seemed to have been made by various inscription masters out of some personal touch or as an attempt to improve the schematic that they were following.


    Despite all of these differences and intricacies, all it took was a glance for her to be able to tell some of the intrinsic functions and variations within the inscriptions.


    The Vision of Law appeared to function better when she saw things with her own eyes, rather than just using her spiritual perception, but what little she was able to see through the two openings in the strider gave her enough understanding to raise her clawed finger above the inscription plate and begin with something very basic.


    Well, she began with that, and it quickly got out of hand.


    Just a minute later, the inscription plate was covered in all kinds of thin lines, channels and complex shapes made of straight and curved lines that twisted and travelled in all sorts of strange ways. It was confusing to observe for Shun Liu Min, at least, although that was also due to something else diverting far too much of her attention, but from the inscriptions that she had seen, this was certainly way more complex than the common five-star inscriptions out there.


    Wei Yi herself would have struggled to understand it if she hadn¡¯t been the one to make it, and even then, it was not the most intuitive structure to create. However, her intuition and some quick Endless Calculation told her that this was the best way to go about creating an efficient and effective Armour Forming inscription, and the moment that she allowed planar energy to pour in, she confirmed it.


    As soon as enough energy filled the inscription channels to create the basic defensive field around her body, she felt it gain the endurance of the metal used, which wasn¡¯t particularly high but still notable. It didn¡¯t override her natural endurance and resilience, as that was far higher than that of the metal in the inscription plates and would open up a completely different use for these inscriptions, but it added it on top of that instead. In theory, so long as she had multiple Armour Forming inscriptions that didn¡¯t overlap in terms of their energy and structure, she could add several layers of star metal defence to herself if she made some rings out of it.


    ¡®Alternatively, if I was to make a sort of scale armour with each scale being made of star metal and having an Armour Forming inscription upon it¡­ that would be insane, yet incredibly useful¡­¡¯


    Such a thing was not yet possible, whether due to the requirement of star metal or because of the amount of work that would go into developing, creating, inscribing and then connecting all of the separate inscriptions into a cohesive and effective whole, but it was something to experiment with at a later date, that much was certain. Even if she just made a chain that was worn around one¡¯s wrist or neck, so long as it had plenty of pieces, it could boost someone¡¯s defensive capability by a ridiculous degree.


    Regardless of future possibilities, the current fact was that she had created an Armour Forming inscription for the metal used in the one-star inscription plate, and that she now had a grasp on how inscriptions of this kind functioned. If she wanted to create one in the future, she would need to put in far less effort to comprehend it after this, regardless of the material she wanted to work with.


    She obviously wanted to learn how to make the most of star metal, and perhaps how to extend the defensive aura of the inscription into other things, like adding an edge to a blunt weapon by extending it from the same defensive piece of metal.


    The Armour Forming inscription offered a lot of possibilities, and most of them weren¡¯t ones that Wei Yi had imagined on her own. Quite a few people before her, the Master of Yi City included, had wondered how to take further advantage of the inscription, as well as how to optimise it to the point that an incredibly small piece of metal could be used to enhance something enormous, like the wall that surrounded the Ning District, and they hadn¡¯t all failed in their pursuits. It was just that certain attempts had far less success and effectiveness than they would have liked, and thus their exact details got lost to time.


    Perhaps it was only natural that she intended to uncover them, develop things on her own, and eventually complete something that would be able to rival those past creations, allowing each warrior under her to wield weapons as sharp and sturdy as star metal could be, with perfect armour covering their bodies at the same time from a small ring on their finger, or a necklace around their neck, or even just a random chunk of the metal in their pockets.


    ¡®So long as everyone isn¡¯t likely to die the moment they emerge onto a battlefield, our numbers would actually mean something,¡¯ she thought as she put that inscription aside, ¡®War wouldn¡¯t be impossible.¡¯


    She shifted her focus to Shun Liu Min for a moment, confirming that she was still able to hold her voice in regardless of the persistent and incredibly skilled stimulation that she was receiving, then took out another inscription plate and pondered it for a moment. While she had been able to make a variant of the Armour Forming inscription, she did have quite a lot to work from, so it wasn¡¯t particularly difficult for her to elaborate on what she already had with the Vision of Law. Even if she could somehow produce an Edge Forming inscription, it would merely project the dull edge of the plate.


    Instead, Wei Yi decided to allow herself a similar state to when she created the Bolt Deflecting inscription, and see what such a thing could lead to, merely modifying her thought process slightly to focus on an offensive principle of some sort.


    An hour later, both of her hands were free to work on the inscriptions, even if she didn¡¯t need them, while Shun Liu Min chose to rest on the bed-like area inside of the strider for a while.


    Several inscriptions were completed, with all of the one-star plates being used up for various experiments and interesting ideas that popped into her head. Not all of them were as good as the Armour Forming or the Bolt Deflecting inscriptions, which were certainly very impressive in almost every regard, but they would still make a decent amount of coin if sold to the right people.


    Perhaps the most popular would be the Temperature Regulation inscription, which could allow someone to cool down a room and then use the inscription to keep it in that state for as long as it had enough planar energy. Most people had gotten used to the heat after living in the Northern Desert for so long, but there were guaranteed to be those that still wanted a lower temperature, or just wanted to have some relief from the constant blazing sun above them.


    Her work on all of those things did make her ponder on the nature of her Vision of Law, which had unfortunately become common enough of a term to stick with her. It would make sense to be some particular result of the Dao of Law, but the state of vision itself wasn¡¯t what was bound to the Dao. The things that she saw were.


    In order to help her figure it out a little more quickly and easily, she called for Xin Fu when she was passing by the second strider, and asked her a simple question.


    ¡°The circles in my eyes?¡± the wife of the merchant repeated, innocently blinking several times, ¡°Ah, the heritage of the Xin family, right? All who are born to it receive them when they are very young, but I cannot say that I remember it all that clearly. I was no older than four at the time, and the whole process is confusing to me to this day. I think it may have had some effect on my vision, but I honestly cannot be sure. Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°I just thought it was interesting. I have a circle like that too, you see.¡±


    ¡°Where¡­ oh, you do. It is much fainter than mine, but I have no clue whether that is a good or bad thing.¡±


    Since she knew so little, as was confirmed by a quick look with spiritual perception, it was rather unfortunate but little could be done about it unless Wei Yi was to grab her and force her to return to the Xin family in order to learn more. She said, ¡°Fine then. You can bring these to your husband.¡±


    ¡°I will¡­ and you put labels on them too. How kind of you! Thank you!¡±


    Xin Fu took the one-star inscription plates and carried them out of the strider, heading back to the one at the front before passing by not long after in order to get to whatever it was that she had initially left the strider to do. All the while, the insectoid creatures that they were travelling in, as well as the escorts around them, continued to travel forwards, moving relatively slowly but very consistently.


    In fact, their movement was barely noticeable inside of them, as if they were just hovering over the ground.


    Wei Yi¡¯s view on the Vision of Law was that it could be a certain result of the Great Stride stage of Dao development, and that it would mark a significant departure from the standard technique stages that she and the Truth of the Universe appeared to be following before this. According to her theory, so long as she developed any other Dao to the Great Stride stage, she would also be able to use their state of vision to view the world from another perspective, but she couldn¡¯t be certain whether she would need to switch between states or not.


    It would be ideal if they could overlap, granting her far more insights from any particular view at once than any individual state would allow, since she would then retain the freedom of world without needing to bind herself to one perspective.


    Since her theories appeared to be accurate so far, it presented two matters for her to consider, the first being the three circles in Xin Fu¡¯s eyes. If they were some marks of the Dao, with one per Dao, then that would mean that she possesses the vision state of three separate Dao, with their quality being dependant on the brightness of the circles. Whether brightness was a positive or negative in this case was yet to be established, but from Xin Fu¡¯s actions, it didn¡¯t seem like she had a very unique view of the world, at least not one that would be immediately noticed by someone who focuses on Dao as much as Wei Yi has.


    That would mean that the dimmer the circles are, the greater one¡¯s comprehension of a vision state is and the more in tune with it they are, causing it to be less prominent and foreign within their irises, or that a vision state could be induced in another without them comprehending it, perhaps leading it to laying dormant in the eyes of whoever received it until sufficient comprehension was accrued.


    If the latter possibility was true, the former could also be, and it would mean that the Xin family possessed something relating to three individual Dao, perhaps without even realising it exactly.


    Judging by the focus of the Xin District being spirits, souls and the like, it was very likely that their three Dao were something like the Soul Dao, Wraith Dao and Ghost Dao, which would be based on the three classifications of spiritual entities that the Xin family had established for themselves. Unfortunately, Wei Yi knew too little about them and about the general understanding that the Xin family had, so she couldn¡¯t do much more than theorise, but she soon wouldn¡¯t need to, as the moment that she acquired another vision state, most questions would be answered.


    She thought this to be within her reach, not just because she had quite a few Dao at her disposal already, but due to the first vision state being that of Law. The Dao, too, were a part of the natural laws, and that meant that she would instinctively be able to observe them in other entities.


    With enough careful observation and close attention, she would slowly pick up on natural aspects and manifestations of other Dao, and then that could be incorporated into her existing understanding of them in order to advance them to a greater stage. Eventually, no matter how few casual breakthroughs she had, she would reach the Great Stride stage with at least one of the many Dao that she would observe.


    For the moment, she had two Dao that were closest to that stage, as they were in the Minor Achievement stage, but she wasn¡¯t sure whether she actually wanted either one of them to advance.


    Having a constant vision state of lust would either cause her to constantly observe the arousal of every single person she saw, or it would bring attention to the innate yang and yin of those individuals in some way that was different to the way that the Yin Dao and Yang Dao would permit her to see things. There was also a chance of it allowing her to see exactly how and why certain things attract the kinds of sexual interest that they do, essentially explaining fetishes and certain toys to her the moment that she witnessed them.


    She could already be called a rather lustful and knowledgeable individual, so expanding her knowledge of lust would not be particularly helpful to her mind or state. Sure, it would have some use in certain scenarios, especially if she came across some kind of test that requires such knowledge in order to pass it and obtain something that she needs.


    The other option, a Vision of the Absolute, or perhaps Absolute Vision, or just Vision of Absolute, depending on what kind of naming scheme she would go for, was not significantly better. Frankly, she didn¡¯t even have a clue what kind of thing a vision state like that would grant her, since the vast majority of entities didn¡¯t possess any kind of Absolute laws or energy, unless simple things like gravity or the movement of light was considered.


    However, she already saw and perceived such things, so it wasn¡¯t all that useful to her, not so far as she could tell. Perhaps it would unveil something that she hadn¡¯t anticipated, like with the Vision of Law, but it didn¡¯t seem like the most optimal route to pursue.


    It did cause her to ponder the nature of her Ascendant¡¯s Dao while she worked on the two-star plates, since she lacked both a vision state and a circle within her irises that would indicate her achievement of the Great Stride stage, and yet she did have the Dao at the Full Success stage. That would¡¯ve broken her theory of the Great Stride stage granting the vision state, if not for the fact that the Ascendant¡¯s Dao was her very own creation. So far as she knew, there wasn¡¯t any other person out there with any attainment in the Dao, and there was nothing other than her that used any energy born of it.


    That meant that she wouldn¡¯t be able to see anything unique with a vision state, whether she had one or not, and the absence of the circle in her eyes could be born of the same cause as the Ascendant¡¯s bloodline not causing any physical changes to her body. The Dao was already fully her own, and any vision state would essentially be her existing vision. Naturally, the circle in her eyes wouldn¡¯t be present if she had a perfect comprehension of it, or if it already covered the entirety of her eyes.


    As such, it was plausible that she had attained a vision state all that time ago, when she had developed the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, and was viewing everything through it all along.


    After some more time, she made full use of the two-star inscription plates as well, completing a series of curious things that were mostly distinct from the ones that she had implemented into the one-star inscription plates, although she did remake the Bolt Deflecting inscription just to refine the initial ideas that had gone into creating it, and to see how much she could change with her greater understanding.


    With a better inscription plate and some developments of her Solar Inscription Arts, she was able to get a lot of improvements into the finer structure of the inscription, but the general framework of her work remained the same, as quite a lot of changes that could be made would significantly alter the inscription and make it a little too powerful. She didn¡¯t want to sell items that could be used against her later, and while she knew how to deal with the vast majority of her techniques and inscriptions, the more she had to work around them, the less efficient any battle would be.


    During her work on these, she had pondered some of her Dao and did uncover a few minor things, but none were significant enough to nudge their stage even a little bit, and she did need to stop the moment that she got onto the three-star inscription plates.


    It wasn¡¯t that she couldn¡¯t just make the same inscriptions on them as she had on everything else, but the costs of the metal used for the plates rose with each star, meaning that if Chen Xiu was to sell the one-star plates with four-star inscriptions, he would make a lot of money. On the other hand, if a three-star plate was sold with a four-star but relatively simple inscription, there would still naturally be profit, but it would be notably lesser than from the one-star plate, since it wouldn¡¯t take full advantage of it.


    Since she was aiming to get him to do much of the searching for her, the more that she was able to make for him in one go, the more he would feel that he needed to do for her, and the more effort he would put in. Even if he didn¡¯t bother amplifying his efforts himself, she could always speak to him or his wife and point out how much money she had made, and that if he chases her away by performing poorly, she could easily improve in her craft and go to some competitors with the inscriptions that she would be able to produce at that point. It might take a certain amount of finesse to create just enough incentive for him to act, while not encouraging him to make her stay for as long as possible, but she could do it.


    As such, the only Dao that she could ponder was one that related to one of the inscriptions that she was putting onto one of the four three-star plates, which she decided would make use of the Absolute Dao after a lot of thought.


    She still wanted to get another one of her Dao to the Great Stride stage, and as she had considered before, the Dao of Lust wouldn¡¯t make for a suitable vision state, so she could only pursue the Absolute Dao instead. It would have a lot of uses in inscriptions, and even if the vision state proved utterly useless, it would be able to confirm or deny many of her theories.


    ¡®I swear, at some point I¡¯ll just find a Dao of Dao sitting in the Truth of the Universe interface, since I seem to be working on them the same way someone else may practise their techniques,¡¯ she thought, mostly jokingly, although she did need to check the grey interface just to be absolutely certain that no such thing had popped up already, ¡®Still, that would be bound to allow me to do a whole host of things. Perhaps all of my faction could make use of various Dao if I had something of the sort.¡¯


    It was an amusing possibility, but an unlikely one, so she shut her eyes and focused on the inscriptions.


    When it came to the four-star inscriptions, she decided that she would go all out and create the most insane things she could. They would probably be quite niche in terms of their usefulness or appeal, but that in itself could raise prices due to their exclusivity, so she didn¡¯t see any issues with her idea.


    What came out of it was certainly quite interesting. She had three inscription plates to work with, so, naturally, she made three different inscriptions, all of which had a different purpose and contained her own method of negating or at the very least detecting them if she ever came across them being used against her, which, as always, was an unfortunate possibility.


    The first was called the Fifty-Five Channels Defence, and it was a rather ludicrous thing. Once activated and guided to guard a certain area, which would not be alterable unless it was first entirely powered down, it would generate fifty-five separate channels of energy within the air that would move, alternate, and change their direction of flow at random intervals to make it very difficult to deal with it. Those that weren¡¯t specifically permitted to enter would be repelled at first contact, but if they attempted to enter again or encountered it while it was within its offensive mode, they would be struck by one of the fifty-five different methods within.


    Despite the rather excessive number of defensive methods, she actually found this one to be the easiest to create. She had more than enough techniques to come up with all of them.


    It had its flaws and strengths, as any method and inscription would have, likely even at the ninth realm, but it would certainly be useful at preventing any short-term intrusion into an area. With how many defensive techniques ¨C and offensive techniques that were masquerading as defensive technique by being made to fire the moment that they were needed ¨C were present, and how difficult it would be to track exactly where any one of their relevant channels was, it would require sheer force or a lot of testing in order to successfully break into it.


    Then, since she had recently obtained the Destruction Brand, she decided that it wouldn¡¯t be nice not to incorporate it into an inscription, especially seeing as the inscriptions she was putting into the four-star plates were five-star in complexity and quality, which happened to match the approximate intended level of practise for the Destruction Brand.


    With it, she made the Brand Alternator inscription, which was a similarly stationary protective measure, but one that was far more aggressive and offensive in nature than the Fifty-Five Channels Defence. The basic function of the inscription was to conjure, recall, and intermittently empower multiple Destruction Brands at regular intervals, with each one having some variations in order to make them particularly dangerous despite the regularity of the changes to it. As she had not yet had the opportunity to mess around with the brand-type techniques all that much, she didn¡¯t have much of a chance to create anything particularly extreme, but some of the brands would have a higher spread of damage, others would focus on weaknesses, and some would be dedicated to fire and burning foes.


    Perhaps it wasn¡¯t the strongest kind of skill that she could have put into her inscriptions, but it was an effective one, and from what she knew, brands weren¡¯t a common technique in any part of the world, to the point that she had only seen two after having been through five districts on her way to her sixth.


    After that, she decided to make something that would also have a use, but not for combat, instead seeking to tap into a market that wasn¡¯t very well saturated. Thus, the Projecting Visage inscription came to be, with a single but powerful function of being able to project a cube of the world above itself at a size of the user¡¯s choosing, from a location also dictated by the cultivator that would make use of it. Strictly speaking, it wasn¡¯t superior to spiritual perception itself, but most lacked sufficient talent to make use of it in a proper way, and thus it would give a far clearer image for them.


    It was also able to bypass certain types of spiritual perception blocking material due to a difference in the way in which it functioned, but it did make it easier to notice, meaning that if someone was in the fourth realm or had spiritual will at an equivalent level, they would be likely to notice the inscription¡¯s effect of spying upon them if it lingered for longer than an instant.


    To make up for it, the range at which it could operate was as high as five hundred metres, save for the fact that it would require far more energy than it could provide for itself to keep functioning at that distance. With the assistance of a fourth realm cultivator pouring their energy into the inscription, or the addition of a few additional energy condensing inscriptions or arrays on the side, it would be more than sufficient.


    She suspected that those who purchase it would want one of two things ¨C to spy onto their opponents, or some targets of importance, or to peep on people changing, but there wasn¡¯t much she could or wanted to do about it.


    If someone wasted an inscription like that just doing what their spiritual perception should already be able to do, it would be entirely their fault, and she wouldn¡¯t allow herself to get involved unless they were stupid enough to spy on someone that she cared about personally, or herself for that matter. Fortunately, while most with sufficiently powerful spiritual perception or natural senses would be able to make out the presence of the inscription¡¯s effect, she also knew how to track it down, so it would quickly be taken back if they were too brazen in their actions.


    Just to be sure that nobody would be foolish enough to blame her for the actions of another, she didn¡¯t leave any traces of her name, and the channels within the inscriptions themselves weren¡¯t particularly identifiable, although they did all share common characteristics that could be recognised if someone familiar with her work was to witness it.


    She had just placed the inscription plates aside and pondered whether she¡¯d able to get away with some light interaction with her maid when she was distinctly able to feel the striders slowing down.


    With her spiritual perception always scanning about, she quickly saw Xin Fu heading towards the second strider, and some of the merchants and guards going ahead to speak with someone beyond her range of usual spiritual perception. Before the merchant¡¯s wife could get close, Wei Yi had already reached out with the amplification of her killing will, allowing the range of her senses to expand just enough to catch a glimpse of something at the edge of it.


    The moment that Xin Fu came up to the entrance of the strider, she decided to ask her about it.


    ¡°Have we reached the Chao District?¡±


    ¡°We have! Once we are permitted to enter, then me and my husband shall be bringing you inside and to a residence that we own. He said that you can stay there for as long as you like, although he will probably try to force you to make some inscriptions while you¡¯re there. Nobody will bother you if you don¡¯t want them to, which is great!¡± she replied with some unnecessary but useful information.


    ¡°Alright. To not make things more difficult for you, I will remain inside of here. I have put a label on each of my inscriptions, so if they don¡¯t make sense, I¡¯ll explain their function for you.¡±


    The merchant¡¯s wife nodded and went back to the first strider, while Wei Yi leant back and relaxed.

 V3C79: Relaxation

    The Chao District was a large place, and it was surrounded by a wall of sand-like stone that was far sturdier than it looked. Each metre was manned by large and muscular figures, all of whom were eagerly looking at anything that moved in the hope of getting a chance to fight them.


    That a group like this somehow managed to remain on the wall for more than a minute before charging down to attack someone was an outright miracle, but that¡¯s beside the point. It was all well-guarded and heavily protected, and inside of the bland and inconspicuous walls were countless defensive inscriptions to guard against anything that either evaded or defeated the men and women that would jump down from the walls the moment that an intruder appeared. Amongst them were quite a few individuals with physiques, although there wasn¡¯t a single physique cultivator in their midst.


    It wasn¡¯t much of a surprise, even if the tendency for physiques to play a large part in the matters of the district was well-known across the world, as nobody would accept a first realm physique cultivator onto a guard force made up of third realm fighters at the least, and they might not be able to cultivate at all, even if they find the right materials and resources to do so.


    Most of them wore as little as the other inhabitants of the Northern Desert, and there were some that didn¡¯t even bother to cover themselves, perhaps thinking that it didn¡¯t really matter, or wanting to ensure that their skin was equally tanned in all places. Those that Wei Yi did see succeeded in that.


    The minority wielded weapons, and out of those that did, most women had a short dagger or blade by their side, while most of the men had large and heavy bows with arrows that didn¡¯t quite match the standard of Yi Fenwu¡¯s greatbow and spear-like arrows. Still, they were notably larger and heavier in every regard than those more commonly used to the south. Judging by how normal this appeared to all of them, this was also a tradition of the north, although it was quite hard to say exactly how this one came about.


    Beyond the walls, all of the buildings were blatantly different to any that Wei Yi had seen in the other districts. Rather than making use of wood, almost everything was made of more regular sandstone, most buildings having a rather simple rectangular shape without much decoration or even doors on the outside, although most did manage with something that would prevent people from entering whenever they wanted, and wherever.


    The only notable exceptions were the Ancestral Hall, which had some very intricate decorations, and the largest public structures, which had a lot of work put into their shape and ensuring that they would be able to maintain it for long periods of time, although sand still covered much of them and obscured their true forms.


    Most of the major streets, to and from the various gates and major structures, were large and open allowing several caravans of the kind they were travelling in to travel alongside one another at the same time, but the streets beyond that were narrow and cast into shadow by the tall sandstone around them. There, fewer than four thin men could travel beside one another, and there was little space to move out of the way considering the fact that people were fully surrounded by sandstone. Meanwhile, the alleyways that weren¡¯t used often were even smaller, with less space than necessary for two, meaning that it would be incredibly easy for someone to be encircled, but also rather easy for a combatant to use the bottleneck to their own advantage.


    For the moment, however, the merchant caravan was not travelling there but towards one of the larger buildings on the main road, where most of the items within both of the striders were dropped off and Wei Yi and Shun Liu Min were left to sit amidst very little, with the former using this time to work on some clothing with the little that remained. Her new maid did still require a new outfit, and she would rather get it done as soon as possible.


    By the time that they made it to the closest point to the residence at which they would be staying, she had already gotten most of her work done, and only a few finishing touches remained, which she could easily complete elsewhere. She picked up what she¡¯d worked on, Shun Liu Min exited the strider after her, and they followed the merchant and his wife towards their residence.


    It was at the end of a wider path than most, and it was clearly larger than most as well, although it had nothing on the mansion from which the two of them had escaped. There was even a proper front door on the property, with quite a few open holes in the walls which some could call windows. Cold air poured from all of them, making it rather obvious that there were quite a few temperature regulating methods on the inside, as that would otherwise be an immense waste of someone¡¯s time and energy, whether they spent it on delivering ice or generating cold air with their planar energy.


    That did make her think of something that she had learnt from the pair of otherworldly demons in the prison realm when she occasionally listened to their conversations. Apparently, the world or worlds that they originated from were powered by electricity, and that electricity needed to be paid for regularly. That meant that those that wished to cool their homes in something that they called the summer would need to pay constantly, and keep the windows shut as to prevent their investment from simply spilling out into the street and being wasted. Similarly, in something that they called the winter, where the world would become cold like the south, they would need windows that kept in the heat, and heaters.


    To someone who had free energy all around herself, now even in the prison realm, such a thing was rather difficult to imagine, but it did explain why the otherworldly demons had a tendency to get rather overexcited the moment that they began to cultivate, aside from the curse of the azure light. To them, something so free and boundless clearly drove them to get more and more, to acquire as much of it as possible, and since their stories often tell of worlds akin to the Planar Continent having countless tiers and heights, they naturally seek to obtain something that they couldn¡¯t have in the past, the azure light likely empowering that desire beyond any normal extent.


    ¡®If that is the case, then it may be that an azure light has just as many difficulties creating foreign thoughts within another¡¯s mind as cultivators do, and a thought needs to be plausible within the mind of another in order to be spawned. Then, it could be that the azure lights are equivalent in power to a tenth realm, where they have even fewer limits but are not utterly omnipotent.¡¯


    While such an idea had very little evidence behind it, seeing as she had no opportunity to ever interact with an azure light in a manner that didn¡¯t leave her susceptible to being infiltrated by it, it could potentially allow Fu Zan and Miyu to cultivate beyond their current realms and still retain their sanity, although she would still much rather get rid of the azure lights within them than risk their presence. At that point, they could become powerful enough to use the otherworldly gifts themselves, and it would be far safer and better for their character.


    In fact, the power of their otherworldly gift was certainly a factor in how quickly they fell to the azure light¡¯s influence and their desire for power, as it gave them the feeling that they could be invincible.


    As for the removal of the azure light, she did have some very vague ideas. The only thing that she believed to have any chance of being relevant was the energy of the fourth realm that she would soon obtain, as the Truth of the Universe, currently the only thing capable of repealing an azure light, was first nourished by the energy of that realm. If she had more, it could allow her to activate the repulsion array at will.


    Such a thing was unlikely to be usable regularly nor frequently, but so long as she could supplement the energy of the characters even by a little bit, it would accelerate their regeneration and possibly allow her some control over when and where they activated.


    Before she could get started on that, however, she had the large residence to consider. They had stepped inside while she was pondering, and she got to see that the interior of the buildings was truly far more complex than anything outside, as there was far less concern about sand getting in ¨C courtesy of the inscriptions, once again ¨C and fewer chances of the heat damaging anything. All kinds of expensive rugs, furniture, paintings and decorations were all over the house, and the doors that separated the sandstone rooms were no exception to the change in the level of complexity.


    In fact, the entrance door was completely different on either side, with one being flat and bare while the other was painted and decorated in a more traditional manner.


    ¡°We tried to have a more southern aesthetic on the inside, since we both came from the south. You look to be from a more local area, so we hope that you appreciate the result,¡± Xin Fu introduced them to the residence, interpreting the general appearance of Wei Yi to indicate a more northern origin, ¡°Darling, could I lead them to the rooms?¡±


    ¡°Go ahead. I will need to prepare for an auction of all of these things¡­¡±


    ¡°Are you intending to sell the inscription plates via auction? If so, I would like to attend, just for fun,¡± Wei Yi said.


    ¡°For fun? Well, whether that¡¯s buying or just watching, the auction house will be reserved by me, so you can enter for free. If you do buy something, do not purchase your own inscriptions, since I want them to earn me a reputation, and do raise the price as much as possible. I better be making as much money as I possibly can!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d be almost certain that it is against the rules of whatever auction house you¡¯ll use, but I will take it.¡±


    ¡°Excellent! Now, I¡¯m leaving. Honey, you may lead them to the guest rooms, but make sure to take the valuables from there first. If they take something with them, then my profit margins will drop, and we can¡¯t have that,¡± the merchant stated, turning away and heading off quickly.


    His wife just smiled casually and bid them to follow her through the residence towards one of its corners, where several rooms were dedicated to whatever guests might visit the residence. Despite what Chen Xiu had instructed her wife to do, there seemed to be no particularly valuable items in any of the rooms, nor did Xin Fu choose to actually take anything away. It appeared that this was not only a common request, but one that didn¡¯t actually need to be enforced.


    There were four room for them to choose from, but for obvious reasons, neither of them intended to stay away from one another, so they occupied the nicest room they could find.


    After the merchant¡¯s wife told them that they could look for her if they needed anything, and that the walls were soundproof just in case they intended to do anything loud and explicit, then shut the door after herself and left for a different part of the residence, making sure to revoke her spiritual perception.


    ¡°Well, the implication of what we¡¯re meant to do here is rather obvious. Their walls are actually rather good, despite their ordinary appearances,¡± Wei Yi chose not to get into anything straight away, and instead sat down on the double bed within the room, looking about casually with her legs spread apart slightly, ¡°I¡¯ve seen quite a lot of building occur in my time, and while the design was clearly hampered by the limitations of the structure and the general fragility of the material, quite a lot has been done with very little.¡±


    ¡°I suppose so¡­ Not really familiar with these things. I was more occupied with cleaning back then.¡±


    ¡°Cleaning? Why don¡¯t you¡­ No, I¡¯d feel like an idiot if I went with that line, so pretend like I didn¡¯t say anything,¡± she said, ¡°Still, you would have seen most of the house, so I doubt that you¡¯d be entirely unfamiliar with what one extreme looks like. How does it compare, in your eyes?¡±


    ¡°In my opinion, it¡¯s certainly different. It¡¯s rather strange, actually. This place is similarly expensive, but it has an entirely different aura.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps. It is still far, far less golden and overdone than Ping Gangze¡¯s home, and I suspect that you wouldn¡¯t say the same thing if it had been created by the same interior designer. Even if it was far less sickening to observe, there needs to be such a thing as moderation in order to make something look less like a simple display of wealth.¡±


    ¡°That is certainly true as well,¡± Shun Liu Min agreed, standing uncertainly beside the bed.


    From her perspective, the maid could see into the parted robe and what lay beneath, and while she did not recognise the underwear that Wei Yi wore and had no clue where or when she had put it on, understanding what lay within hardly took a genius.


    It drew her attention, despite her best attempts to focus elsewhere amidst the rather dull discussion on the design of walls and general architecture, but the rather ambiguous posture and positioning of Wei Yi¡¯s body made it rather difficult for her to figure out whether or not her current master was interested in accepting the obvious invitation from Xin Fu to take advantage of the silence. She would have asked, but despite her own words, the aura of the place was still suppressing her to an extent.


    ¡°Perhaps this is a law as well¡­ When a human has resources, they will seek to use them. When there are too many, those usages will become excessive,¡± Wei Yi suddenly said.


    ¡°I¡­ suppose?¡± it was a rather sudden statement, but despite no comment having been made on the topic that had occupied the maid¡¯s head ¨C and had done in more ways than one ¨C it seemed to lighten the mood just enough, ¡°Wei Yi, do you intend to get to it now, or are we going to wait?¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a needy one,¡± Wei Yi removed her mask and smiled, but she quickly returned to a more neutral expression, ¡°However, have you not yet noticed that Xin Fu had been looking at us for some time, and is clearly more than a little interested in any potential physical relationship? There are even places in all of these rooms where it is possible to spy on those inside of it quite easily.¡±


    ¡°You mean that she¡¯s a voyeur?¡±


    ¡°The observation spots were likely created for a different reason, but it does seem like that woman does use them quite often. She is also waiting nearby, possibly expecting that we will not get into anything right away, on which she is quite right. I still have your clothing to complete, and then modify slightly to fit you perfectly. There is only so much that can be done with close observations of spiritual perception, after all,¡± she pointed out, picking up the clothes that she had been working on and getting back to it.


    With the existence of the spying points revealed to her, Shun Liu Min reached out with her own spiritual perception and confirmed that there were several spots where it wasn¡¯t particularly challenging to look inside, but was very difficult to look out.


    ¡°Why doesn¡¯t she just use her spiritual perception? She is of a higher realm, and we could easily miss it.¡±


    ¡°She doesn¡¯t know much about you, which could make that somewhat more doubtful, and she does know that I am an inscription master, meaning that my mental energy has to be higher than average in order for me to be able to get my work done so quickly, consistently and effectively as I had displayed in the strider,¡± Wei Yi explained while she quickly got her finishing touched on the clothing done, ¡°The moment that we notice, we won¡¯t do anything, and she won¡¯t get her fill for today.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ That¡¯s not the only reason you have keen spiritual perception, is it? To spot that detail so quickly, you must have had a lot of experience and training with this kind of thing. Was the organisation you are in responsible?¡±


    ¡°Would you like to take part as well? So long as you don¡¯t mind losing your cultivation, you can.¡±


    ¡°Is that a necessary part of the process? How can there even be spiritual perception without planar energy?¡±


    The Ascendant smiled, but did not reveal her secrets that quickly, especially not when she could easily be observed at the wrong time by someone choosing to finally step away from the wall and get to her plans, unaware that the circumstances weren¡¯t in her favour. Instead, she said, ¡°Technically speaking, it cannot, but that is only without the existence of planar energy, not the lack of it.¡±


    ¡°Right, I think I may be able to see where you¡¯re going with that. Spiritual perception is an aspect of the mind and exists within everyone, but is amplified by planar energy?¡±


    ¡°You got that surprisingly quickly. Yes, spiritual perception is an existence that exists in all, but it is precisely that planar energy¡¯s very existence has caused it to exist as well. If the very concept of planar energy was to be erased, spiritual perception would follow it. While the concept, and the things born of it, persist, spiritual perception can still be brought out of the mind, out of the body, and into the world around you. It just takes effort and cultivation.¡±


    ¡°Hm, everything requires cultivation. The body, mind, energy¡­ Is it all due to planar energy?¡±


    ¡°Depends on what you mean, really. If you are talking about physiques and spiritual will, then yes, that¡¯s the direct result of planar energy, but if you are referring to the mere fact that the body can be trained, and the mind can be practised, then no, I don¡¯t believe that to be the case. If all planar energy was to never have existed, then muscles should still be something that you can train, and the mind should still be something that you can refine with frequent practise,¡± Wei Yi supposed, glancing towards the door while continuing to work upon the fabric in her hands, ¡°I doubt that it would be otherwise.¡±


    From what she knew, it wasn¡¯t at all a strange concept for the otherworldly demons, who supposedly had no planar energy whatsoever, so unless they had merely failed to discover it despite the countless stories of energy akin to it they had created, it meant that the development of the body and mind was independent of planar energy, instead only being enhanced by it.


    ¡°That is very interesting. I suppose that you have done a lot of study into this field alongside your inscription work. I¡¯d love to join in at some point.¡±


    ¡°In that case-¡± Wei Yi began, but suddenly turned to the wall with the doorway and said, ¡°There, finally. Go away, so that we can actually get onto something interesting, and then we won¡¯t share your tendencies with your husband.¡±


    They could immediately hear some shuffling on the other side, contrary to the previous silence. It seemed that the person who was preparing to hide there had not expected to be called out like that, and her methods of keeping quiet failed right away. Even without focusing, it was possible to hear faint footsteps rapidly retreating from the hiding spot, although whether she did that due to believing that she was actually found or due to her fantasy being ruined, or some other reason, wasn¡¯t certain.


    Perhaps she hadn¡¯t been caught before, and so she hadn¡¯t considered that it was possible to just remain quiet and keep watching, unless the people inside the room decided to leave and investigate.


    ¡°Well, that was easy. I¡¯ve not finished your clothes just yet, but that does give us enough time to keep watching just in case she returns,¡± Wei Yi said, lowering her gaze, ¡°If you don¡¯t want to, you don¡¯t need to keep the conversation going.¡±


    ¡°No, no, it¡¯s something that I¡¯m interested in, although it did sound dry enough to catch her off-guard if you hadn¡¯t called her out right there and then,¡± Shun Liu Min replied as she sat down beside her and watched the progress that her master made without so much as a single direct comment, ¡°To consider the nature of the world in depth and to try and understand why it functions as it does might eventually lead us all somewhere. I don¡¯t know what it could be, or who will find it, but could you imagine developing some new path as much as the Ju District had developed their mechanisms?¡±


    ¡°I certainly can. You will see something like that if you stick with me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be looking forward to it, then.¡±


    ¡°- and, done! This better fit you properly,¡± Wei Yi rose and presented her creation to the maid, who had gotten up in this time and was inspecting the wall through which they could be watched, doing so with some fascination at just how difficult to notice the hole in the wall was.


    ¡°I will try it on immediately. Could you-¡±


    ¡°Come on, turn around and I¡¯ll put it on. Since it has been a while since I last did this, I may have not been quite as accurate as I would have liked to be, but it should still be perfectly fine.¡±


    Perhaps if she had been as inaccurate as a typical person who hadn¡¯t done something in years, Shun Liu Min would have voiced some complaints, but it was difficult to do so when she couldn¡¯t notice any flaws in the admittedly minimal amount of work that had been invested into the two pieces clothing. She wasn¡¯t even sure whether there were some that only Wei Yi had noticed, or if she was just trying to be humble.


    The first piece was a cloth top that covered her chest and wrapped around her back and shoulders, with short sleeves and a shape that emphasised the breasts more than just a little bit. It was put onto her after the remaining cloth strips from the maid dress were torn away and fit well.


    ¡°Wei Yi, you really are fond of them, aren¡¯t you?¡± Shun Liu Min asked, looking down at her chest.


    Although most of her skin there was covered, the shape was not obscured in the slightest, and if one was to look from below, the loose fabric revealed most of the lower half of each breast with little obstruction. It was also easy to either one of them to be groped and felt up due to the rather thin nature of the cloth used for the item of clothing.


    ¡°Naturally. If not for the issues that come with them, I would have made sure that my own were larger by a size or two.¡±


    ¡°And this is this the kind of outfit that you prefer?¡±


    ¡°I designed it like that because of the northern heat, as well as the shortage of materials. When I create a small temperature modifying inscription that you could carry with you, or when you cultivate a technique to deal with the heat, then I can get a proper professional to make something that is specifically to my tastes. Before then, this works well enough, I think,¡± Wei Yi said, going down on a knee as to assist the maid with putting on the lower portion of her new outfit, ¡°Come on, get out of those rags.¡±


    Shun Liu Min did so as she asked, ¡°Do you know of any professionals in this field? I could also offer a few ideas to them, based on the kinds of things that I had seen at ¡®his¡¯ residence.¡±


    ¡°In fact, I have one working for me, but until we can get back to him, let¡¯s not bother with thinking about that sort of thing. Just memorise every decent idea or note them down and give the notes to me, and when we get around to it, I will be sure to watch you try out every single outfit in as much detail as necessary.¡±


    With the remnants of black and white fabric gone, and stored away just because a single torn strip of the maid outfit could likely sell for a couple gold coins, more if the material was enhanced via the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp to be made more durable, the other piece of the new outfit was placed onto her.


    While the upper portion of the outfit was loose and free, the bottom pair of shorts was very tight, making sure to emphasise the butt just as much. Unlike the pale and partly translucent cloth used for the top, the shorts were made of a dark leather, meant to mimic some of the designs that Fu Zan had himself copied from the world of his origin, and if not for the slight inflexibility of the material, it likely would have exposed certain shapes that they were meant to obscure.


    ¡°However, being made out of leather¡­ I will sweat quite a lot.¡±


    ¡°You do so anyway, so get used to it,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Besides, didn¡¯t you say that you wanted these to satisfy me? I am very much satisfied with this.¡±


    ¡°I will make sure to remember that¡­ Oh, that does explain a few things about the previous days. No wonder you didn¡¯t want me to get cleaned up after those few times¡­ I will be entirely honest, this is significantly more comfortable to move around in than those large dresses from before,¡± the maid said as she tried out her range of movement, the implication of what she meant by it being rather clear.


    ¡°Noted, although I do walk around and fight in robes, so anything can be designed to be comfortable so long as you do it properly. Now, don¡¯t be alarmed if you suddenly feel-¡±


    Her warning didn¡¯t quite get to Shun Liu Min in time as she felt a cold sensation suddenly envelop her body, wrapping around it tightly as if she had been sealed in a form-fitting bubble that followed every little curve of her body, including the countless strands of hair on her head, the minor irregularities of her skin, her teeth, and a trace of that coldness even reached into her body, although that felt far fainter and seemed to vanish right away.


    Although she managed to avoid making any kind of noise when the cold touched her, she still released a gasp when it slowly faded, leaving her to ponder whether or not she had just imagined that effect after hearing Wei Yi¡¯s words.


    ¡°What was that?¡± the maid asked, her spiritual perception being unable to find a thing.


    ¡°You probably didn¡¯t notice that I had left a plate of metal inside the shorts, which is good, as that was the intention. It¡¯s an inscription, compressed quite significantly.¡±


    ¡°A temperature regulation inscription?¡± she asked again, but when her only answer was a shake of the head, she frowned, ¡°How could that be? The cold sensation was rather distinct, and I doubt that another inscription would result in such a thing¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because it is a modified Armour Forming inscription. It will have that effect when it activates, but it should already be going away.¡±


    Indeed, the moment that she tried to feel the membrane around herself again, Shun Liu Min found no trace of it that she was able to perceive with her regular senses. Her spiritual perception informed her that there was indeed something around or even on her, and with a little more searching she was able to find that aforementioned golden piece of metal at the back of the leather shorts, within the region where they ended and her light skin began.


    ¡°Now, I hope you¡¯ve gotten used to that, because now that our audience has finally concluded that it isn¡¯t in her best interests to remain, we should have quite a bit of time for ourselves. As such, I¡¯ll let you decide exactly how we shall be spending that time ¨C at least at first.¡±


    With that, a familiar smile beginning to form and a glimmer in her eyes, she parted her legs further, although she didn¡¯t take any action beside that.


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ not fair¡­¡± Shun Liu Min complained, but it was difficult to take any complain seriously when she was already on her knees, pulling down the underwear that concealed her goal while looking into Wei Yi¡¯s eyes with a gaze full of desire. Some small part of it was due to the remnant imperfections from Ping Gangze¡¯s food, drink and pills, but most of it was coming from her own mind, unaffected by such things.

 Bonus Chapter: The Cute Maid [R-18]

    Even after their journey through the sands, when she had seen Shun Liu Min on her knees a dozen times, it never got old. Now that she had switched from the rags of a maid¡¯s outfit to something vaguely presentable ¨C made slightly less so by the infusion of Wei Yi¡¯s tastes ¨C her appeal had grown and changed quite a bit.


    She hardly needed to express her approval in words, for her cock did it for her. As Shun Liu Min pulled down her underwear, it sprung out, hard and ready, throbbing and steaming.


    ¡°You really are satisfied with this outfit¡­ and you haven¡¯t cleaned your body in a while, have you?¡± the maid muttered as she brought her nose close to the shaft, taking in a deep breath, ¡°You know, I¡¯m starting to get used to it¡­ the thick musk¡­ the sweaty scent¡­¡±


    She placed a quick kiss upon the tip, staining her lips with the drops of precum that had already emerged from the tip. Wei Yi¡¯s cock twitched in response, but she had pulled away before it could smear any more of her face. Instead, she took a firm hold of the shaft, wrapping her fingers around it just beneath the head, shivering from the extreme warmth that it exuded. Without much subtlety, she licked her lips.


    ¡°You sure you¡¯re used to it?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll never be completely used to it¡­ especially not while it¡¯s so greasy¡­¡± the maid looked at the cock with loving eyes, ¡°I might not even need to lube it up.¡±


    Despite saying that, she stuck out her tongue and let her saliva drip onto the head, quickly covering the tip and sliding her hand down the shaft, letting it be covered in a second layer of slick fluid all the way down to the base. Her tongue retreated into her mouth, though not before licking her lips, and she began to slowly stroke the whole ten inches of the shaft while her other hand went to Wei Yi¡¯s sack, feeling the twin orbs within with a lustful expression, seeming intent to sense the cum bubbling within, eager to emerge.


    ¡°Starting out slow this time?¡±


    Shun Liu Min smiled, ¡°I figured I should. Maybe I¡¯ll be able to shove the whole thing down my throat this time. You¡¯d love that, wouldn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Actually, I had a slightly different idea. I¡¯ll tell you once it¡¯s time.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± the maid¡¯s eyebrow rose, but when she followed Wei Yi¡¯s gaze, she had the feeling she knew what that idea was, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go with that. For now, though¡­¡±


    As she continued to stroke, Shun Liu Min lowered her mouth to the Ascendant¡¯s balls, sucking on them. Unlike the first time she had gotten a taste of them, when they were covered only with a thin layer of sweat built up since they appeared upon Wei Yi¡¯s body, they had now gotten the time to build up a thick, greasy coating that, on any other person, she might have found disgusting.


    After all, cleanliness was sought after in most times and places, so the very antithesis of it shouldn¡¯t be pleasant in the slightest. And yet, just as with the Ascendant¡¯s musk and her feminine scent, she couldn¡¯t get enough of this sensation either, leading to her meticulously polishing every inch of her balls, worshiping them without a hint of restraint or hesitation. If there was any care for her face quickly becoming stained with sweat or her own saliva, which dripped from Wei Yi¡¯s throbbing shaft, then she certainly didn¡¯t display it.


    She wasn¡¯t going to object to her maid doing her job, so she leaned back and enjoyed it. The tongue slithering across her balls, the lips squeezing on them lightly, and after a while, the maid also switched up her stroking, twisting and rotating her hand to introduce a new layer of sensations into the mix.


    Wei Yi had not had enough time to comprehend exactly what her preferences were for this new appendage, but it seemed very pleased with the treatment it was receiving, and the sight of someone beneath her was satisfying whether she had a dick or not. What she knew she enjoyed was seeing her sweat and precum cover another, and she might have encouraged it to produce and spill even more fluids onto the maid.


    Her cock hardly needed help with that, though, as she was usually just holding it back, as if it was some raging beast ready to devour gorgeous women.


    For now, though, it had to be satisfied with coating the maid¡¯s hair with milky white, and ensuring that any hopes of ridding her scent from Shun Liu Min¡¯s mouth were gone and buried forever. In seconds, the amount of precum exceeded the average male¡¯s ejaculation, and that seemed to be a good time to change things up.


    ¡°Alright, get up.¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± the maid gave Wei Yi¡¯s balls one final suck before parting from them, half a dozen translucent strands parting after a further few inches, ¡°I think they¡¯re going to notice, by the way¡­ your taste¡­ oh, it¡¯s so strong¡­¡±


    ¡°The voyeur will, probably, but I didn¡¯t think we were hiding the fact that we were fucking,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, spitting onto her cock to refresh the layer of saliva, ¡°I don¡¯t think this one time will change anything. So, put your boobs to use.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, thought so¡­ That¡¯s why you made the shirt that way, right?¡± Shun Liu Min asked, straightening her back and leaning forward, guiding her breasts around the Ascendant¡¯s shaft, easily sliding it between them, adding more of her saliva into the mix once the tip of her cock emerged from between the twin peaks.


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t answer, but her cock did it for her, throbbing when a pair of breasts slid back up her length.


    ¡°I know you¡¯re just letting me do this, but I¡¯ll enjoy it anyway,¡± the maid said, taking hold of her tits and tightening their grip upon the shaft, ¡°It¡¯s different from when it goes into my mouth, but I like it. I might almost call it calming¡­¡±


    Her large breasts were lifted up and slid down the slick cock, the soft flesh enveloping them perfectly, but even their prodigious size was insufficient to contain the entire ten inches. By the time her cockhead emerged from the maid¡¯s chest, a few inches still remained beneath, leading to most of it remaining within the warm air, as opposed to the heated embrace of her bosom, quickly leading the two to share a glance.


    Without any words, Shun Liu Min leaned her head down and parted her lips just as she brought her breasts down again, letting the cockhead enter into her open mouth and be enveloped by her tongue.


    It took her a few tries to get used to it, but eventually she was able to angle herself just right to permit the dick to reside between her lips at all times, sliding further in when she slid her tits down and sliding out until only half the head remained inside her hot mouth. Although her lips were sealed tightly around the Ascendant¡¯s cock, plenty of her saliva covered each part she had gotten to envelop, leaving it behind when she rose back up, letting it be slathered across the entire length while it dripped down and pooled at her crotch. Before it could stain Wei Yi¡¯s black underwear, she made sure to remove it with physique energy.


    Aside from that, Wei Yi was able to focus purely on her sensations, their gazes connected. Slick lips slid along skin, breasts slapping against the Ascendant¡¯s crotch, and sloppy sucking punctuated it all sounding more whorish than the work of actual prostitutes.


    ¡°If your mouth wasn¡¯t so delightful, I would make you tell me just how much you enjoy this,¡± Wei Yi smiled, putting her hand onto the maid¡¯s head, ¡°One moment¡­¡±


    She produced a thin string that had ended up in the House of Gold as a spare to tie her hair with, and put it to use on Shun Liu Min¡¯s light hair. Their current careful activity prevented her hair from getting in the way, but the Ascendant had far more planned for the day, and there would be no way for her hair to not become dishevelled and messy. Although messiness was something she appreciated during sex, there was no need to ruin a woman¡¯s hair in the process.


    That it provided a point to grip onto was a convenient benefit, one she made use of the moment that she finished tying the string, forcing the maid¡¯s head and chest down onto her cock until it was wholly enveloped in her warmth.


    Her tip struck the back of Shun Liu Min¡¯s throat, but the maid¡¯s practise allowed her to endure that for a while, even managing to hum some tune to provide some additional stimulation while she couldn¡¯t move the rest of her body. At the same time, she breathed in through her nose, managing to remain in place for an impressive length of time.


    Wei Yi wasn¡¯t able to resist lightly stroking her cheek, avoiding the greasier, sweatier parts, before providing her with a few pats on the head.


    ¡°You¡¯re a quick learner. I¡¯m glad that we ended up meeting one another.¡±


    The statement didn¡¯t distract the maid enough to break her composure, though her cheeks did blush just a little. If not for the huge cock in her mouth and all the traces of their activity so far sticking to her face, it might have even been a calm, friendly moment between the two of them, but one had to contend with something that pushed her jaw to its very limit to ensure she didn¡¯t bite it, while the other was able to feel the results of those efforts constantly.


    Even though it¡¯s been some time since the Yin Soul Yang Root produced a full set of male genitalia upon her body, Wei Yi wasn¡¯t able to get used to the vast range of sensations that the behemoth could have, nor the warmth that it exuded, literally causing the air around it to turn to steam and add yet another layer of moisture to the face of the maid that waited for her next action.


    Unfortunately for Shun Liu Min, Wei Yi had no intention of pulling her up, off her cock, until she saw the maid falter in her efforts, for there was only so long she could endure.


    After the first minute was up, signs of strain quickly began to appear. Her breathing became uneven, and her throat muscles were clearly breaking out of her control, attempting to contract around the pillar of flesh invading it. Even then, Shun Liu Min was able to maintain eye contact and inhale enough air to keep herself going, but as the second minute came around, a hint of pleading entered her eyes, being received by Wei Yi, who provided only a smile in response.


    Her position must not have made it very easy to think, for that pleading first turned to confusion before switching to a mix of lust and fear. Neither one of them could say which was more plentiful, but what was clear was the inability to maintain her breathing.


    It showed as her face reddened and her throat became more active, trying to inhale something and finding only the tip of a cock, the precum flowing from it as if from a spring, and the musk that constantly poured from it in even greater quantities. The heady scent took the place of air within the body, by which point her failure became inevitable.


    By the fourth minute, she had been inhaling pure cock musk for over a minute, and it finally caused her to break eye contact and glance down to the little that was exposed of the shaft.


    Luckily for her, that was the moment Wei Yi pulled her up and off her dick, quickly using a pulse of energy to prompt the maid to breathe in something that would actually keep her alive and sane, though the latter couldn¡¯t be handled just with air.


    Shun Liu Min gasped and coughed, but as soon as she was able to resume her previous position, she did, gazing back up into Wei Yi¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Sorry¡­ what were¡­ you planning¡­ on doing?¡±


    ¡°Do you recall the first time you gave me a blowjob?¡± a simple nod sufficed as an answer, so Wei Yi continued, ¡°You weren¡¯t able to take all of it, and I think that it¡¯s about time that we change that. I just wanted to make sure you were prepared for holding your breath for a little while, since I won¡¯t hold back much longer.¡±


    The confusion vanished, and lust took over her expression, ¡°How will we do it?¡±


    ¡°Simple. On the bed, head off the edge, mouth open and ready. I¡¯m sure you can figure it out from there.¡±


    After a moment of hesitation, spent inhaling Wei Yi¡¯s scent in an unsubtle manner, the maid nodded and got onto the bed, while the Ascendant stood up and turned around. While waiting for Shun Liu Min to assume the proper position, she idly stroked her own cock.


    ¡®This will be the first time I properly get to use my dick. Before, she¡¯s been doing all the work, but now my legs will get¡­ well, I¡¯d call it a workout, but if I was to use my full strength, I think the results would be rather unfortunate,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, ¡®A dragon or a phoenix, especially in a higher realm than mine, might manage, but the chances of me just running into one are, unfortunately, rather miniscule at the moment¡­¡¯


    That term couldn¡¯t be applied to her cock, especially not from the maid¡¯s perspective. As she let her head hang from the side of the bed, gazing straight at her huge balls and up at that behemoth of a dick proved to be quite intimidating. Even after all of the precum she had gulped down, a thick drooping string of it still hung from the tip, growing in size with every throb.


    Knowing that it was nothing in comparison to what her full load was led to it being even scarier, though not in a bad way. Due to her many years in Ping Gangze¡¯s so-called employ, she knew that the typical man, even with various methods of enhancing their own sexual ability, could only produce a few teaspoons of cum during ejaculation, though they always wished to produce more. In Wei Yi¡¯s case, she regularly leaked that much precum just after growing aroused, and from her occasional mumbling to herself, Shun Liu Min knew that it felt excessive at times.


    Naturally, she made sure to voice her disagreement when she could, and provided other forms of encouragement the majority of the time, for it was rather difficult to speak with a throat full of hot, hard dick.


    ¡°You ready? Tap my thigh if you need air,¡± Wei Yi said, advancing towards her.


    As it neared, the familiar scent practically pouring from her balls was drawn towards her nose, flooding into the maid¡¯s mind and making her realise something about her position.


    ¡®Her balls will be right in front of me, right by my nose¡­ I¡¯ll have their musk flooding into me the whole time¡­ Fuck, why does she make me so horny¡­¡¯ Shun Liu Min felt her pussy clench and moisten her leather pants, though she could sense the leather responding differently than she was expecting it to. She hardly had the time to consider why, though.


    Another step forward brought the tip of Wei Yi¡¯s cock to her lips, and the balls even nearer to her nose, nearly making the maid faint from the waft of musk that flooded her senses, causing her cunt to gush even more.


    Before her mind was enveloped fully, she held a brief hope that the Ascendant wouldn¡¯t notice.


    ¡°Getting so wet from just the smell, aren¡¯t you? Naughty girl. You just want me to pound that greedy hole of yours, right? Here you go, then,¡± one final movement finally slid the cock into the maid¡¯s mouth, the head filling it while Wei Yi leaned forward and placed her hands around her body, just below her chest.


    Her fingers gripped the maid¡¯s body firmly, though not painfully, and slowly slid into Shun Liu Min¡¯s open mouth.


    Sliding her cockhead across the maid¡¯s tongue, feeling every small detail, Wei Yi made it into her throat, leaving more than half outside. Even then, it had gone further into her than any of their previous sessions, and stretched her throat with every moment that it advanced.


    It was so big, so terrifying, and yet she couldn¡¯t help but delight in its taste. The musk, the precum, the sweat, the remnants of their previous activity ¨C they all mixed into a cocktail that her mind couldn¡¯t comprehend in its current clouded state, yet filled her with a bliss she had never even imagined. To make it even better, as her tongue worked to lick up every hint of taste it could, she kept tasting a different part of the enormous cock, her experience changing with each moment.


    Shun Liu Min was almost distracted enough to miss the balls slapping against her face as Wei Yi fully hilted herself inside, but her sheer love for them would never allow such a thing.


    As soon as their sweaty grease stained her face, she inhaled with all the power she could muster, seeking to forever imprint their musk upon her sense of smell. In that moment, she wished for nothing more than to ensure she would never forget it, so that her every future moment would be marked by it, never letting her forget.


    It was an intoxicating sensation, and she wished for it to last forever.


    There were many things that others did, which Wei Yi simply couldn¡¯t understand, and believed she might never understand. For instance, the love of money that the Chen family had appeared entirely irrational to her, as she saw money as a pathway to some other goal, at best.


    She most certainly didn¡¯t understand why some would do terrible things not for their goals, but simply for the money, as that was even further from her field of comprehension.


    At an earlier point in life, she believed that she would not know why some men were so eager for sex ¨C any kind of sex ¨C that they would go to immense lengths just to accomplish it. Sure, her own experiences in the Kong Prison Realm had confirmed that it was a highly pleasant thing, but there was something very different about penetrating someone with a dick.


    Feeling it slide inside a warm, tight, wet hole, with a willing participant that was somehow more eager than she was, was a feeling beyond compare. Better yet, it wasn¡¯t the one hole that all natural instincts guided her towards, hidden between the gushing labia of the maid before her, so how good would that feel? If she hadn¡¯t been tempered by her years of weakness, followed by her time in the Kong Prison Realm, would she even be able to resist its allure?


    It was best not to consider such things, since she might well fall into temptation.


    For now, she knew that she couldn¡¯t resist Shun Liu Min¡¯s throat, and the second she had hilted herself fully within her, she had to draw her hips back again, pulling out as slowly, just so she could extend her experience. Any time now, she would be reduced to thrusting mindlessly, like some kind of animal seeking release, and so she wished to fully appreciate the moment while she could.


    ¡®Fuck, this feels too good¡­ and this slut isn¡¯t helping. Her throats keeps pressing down on my cock and making it feel so much better,¡¯ she thought, sliding back inside, biting her lip to maintain her pace.


    Seeing the maid¡¯s throat bulge with her length, even when she pulled back as far as she could without taking another step, made for an even more sensual experience. After just a few slow thrusts back and forth, she couldn¡¯t take it any longer. If she kept teasing herself, she would eventually lose control to her primal instincts, and that would put the maid into genuine danger. Letting go just enough to satiate herself was the far better option, so, after she pulled back one more time, she took a breath in to ready herself.


    Then, Wei Yi slammed her hips forward, plunging into the depths of the maid¡¯s throat in a second. Her sudden insertion made Shun Liu Min¡¯s throat contract and choke on her length, the sound and sensation combining to make her cock throb even harder as she settled into a faster rhythm.


    Her thrusts were careful at first, as she couldn¡¯t be sure of her own strength while in such an aroused state. Hence, her hips and balls slapped lightly against the maid¡¯s face, barely making a sound, though the audible attempts to inhale via her nose whenever Wei Yi was inside most deeply suggested that she was handling it well enough.


    She slid in and out, speeding up gradually. The slaps of flesh against flesh grew faster and louder, her hips moving back at forth with more force, eventually getting a firmer grip on Shun Liu Min¡¯s body so that she could keep raising the pace. Despite the omnipresent spiritual perception enveloping her surroundings, she hardly knew what the maid¡¯s state was, as her reliance was on the maid to inform her of when things were getting out of hand. For now, all she knew was that Shun Liu Min¡¯s chest, still slick from the earlier titfucking, bounced and jiggled with each thrust, her whole body being pushed around by the force of Wei Yi¡¯s cock.


    A large stain had formed on the bed, centred on the maid¡¯s crotch, and its familiar scent added to her desire to simply drop into an animalistic rut. It would be so easy, yet infinitely pleasant.


    ¡®No, I have to keep myself¡­ under control- fuck, her throat is tightening¡­¡¯ the Ascendant breathed in through clenched teeth and glanced down at the maid, staring for a while at the bulge in her throat, ¡°What, do you want me to go faster? Do you know what you¡¯re asking fo- oh fuck, you¡­ don¡¯t complain afterwards, got it?¡±


    The air she exhaled was hot, even in comparison to the desert¡¯s dry air, and a spark lit up within her eyes. She gave her body a small piece of the control it craved, and it immediately showed as she dropped any hint of restraint.


    Her thrusts sped up until she was outright pounding the maid¡¯s throat, her balls slapping against her face constantly. She felt saliva being forced out with each push forward, spilling from Shun Liu Min¡¯s mouth and making the whole process sound even wetter than before. It was hard to not get even more forceful and even faster, moving at the peak of what her body could manage, absolutely ruining the maid¡¯s throat until it wouldn¡¯t function as anything but a hole for her to fuck.


    Fortunately, she managed to hold herself together, and rode the maid¡¯s face at that speed until the sweet release of an orgasm finally came to her.


    She barely had the chance to consider her female parts before she thrust forward one final time, lodging herself in the maid¡¯s throat and releasing a tidal wave of semen straight into her stomach, each spurt causing the bottom of her cock to bulge from the cum within.


    The amount she released caused Shun Liu Min¡¯s flat stomach to bulge out, growing in visible bursts until one could almost assume her to be in early stages of pregnancy. Even then, just as she was about to pull out, the maid¡¯s tight hole milked out one final spurt of cum, leaving the Ascendant as empty as she could be, at least until her body rapidly refilled her supply within the next few minutes.


    ¡®I will definitely get addicted to this at some point,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, taking a step back to let her cock emerge from Shun Liu Min¡¯s throat, still slick with their mixed fluids.


    She raised the maid up so that she would be sitting upright on the bed, and brought in some of her physique abilities to allow her to recover as quickly as possible. Though Wei Yi was sure that she would inflict no lasting damage upon her partner, certainly not while she was still in full control over her own body, it might well take a few days for her to recover if she had been too rough with her. Even if they weren¡¯t going anywhere any time soon, it would still be best to avoid such a thing.


    ¡°You alright?¡± she said, once the maid seemed conscious of her surroundings.


    ¡°Y-Yeah¡­ I feel so full¡­ I-¡± Shun Liu Min¡¯s eyes widened as her lips were closed by the Ascendant¡¯s own lips, their tongues quickly getting involved until they were ravishing one another¡¯s mouths without a hint of tiredness.


    They parted only after a minute, by which time the maid found her face suspiciously clean, and her belly as flat as it had been when they got here.


    ¡°What did you do?¡±


    ¡°Some minor tricks that worked better than expected. Essentially, I let you take in all that protein without needing to digest it for ages,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°Cleaning you up happened to be easy enough as well, so I did that too.¡±


    Both of those involved the careful application of physique energy, so she saw no reason not to get as much done in go as possible. Still, the maid clearly didn¡¯t see it that way, a faint blush lighting up her cheeks as she looked away, biting her bottom lip for a few seconds before she found something to else to say.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re not bothered about kissing me while¡­ well, you know¡­¡±


    ¡°While the taste of my dick is still in your mouth?¡±


    ¡°W-Well, that¡¯s not how directly I¡¯d be putting it, nor the only thing I meant, but yes¡­ You probably know, but a lot of people I¡¯d had to encounter were of a different mind, and so I was ever so slightly worried¡­¡±


    ¡°I certainly know one person who¡­ never mind. Yeah, I don¡¯t have much of an issue with it, especially while the scent of my cum isn¡¯t too heavy,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, briefly turning her attention over to her spiritual perception to regain some understanding of what was happening around them, ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s a good thing I¡¯d tied your hair up, because we can just go straight to our next activity. Are you ready for it?¡±


    ¡°Next? I don¡¯t mind giving you another blowjob so soon, but-¡±


    ¡°Okay, that one¡¯s on me. Not quite what I meant. Instead, it¡¯s time for you to do some learning¡­ and maybe I¡¯ll throw lewd stuff in if I feel like it. Now, come here¡­¡±

 V3C80: Visiting an Auction

    Several hours later, when Xin Fu came to them with less nefarious intent than before and knocked on their door, the merchant¡¯s wife found the two of them sitting side by side, with Wei Yi¡¯s arm embracing Shun Liu Min, with the two of them looking at a small tome produced from killing will.


    Judging by the way that the maid was pointing to things on the pages and asking questions about them, while Wei Yi was quietly whispering answers into her ear ¨C occasionally resulting in subtle gasps and blushes from the maid ¨C Wei Yi appeared to be teaching the other something, although both of them spoke quietly enough while Xin Fu was outside of the room and essentially stopped when she entered, so she wasn¡¯t able to understand much. The book itself was also unreadable from her position, even with spiritual perception, to the point that she questioned whether they were just putting on an act.


    Both of them were in a presentable state, almost making her think that they had not done anything explicit together, until she noticed that Shun Liu Min¡¯s hair had been tied into a ponytail at some point, and that there was a faint yet strong scent in the air that an experienced voyeur like she was able to recognise easily.


    ¡°How have you been finding the residence?¡± Xin Fu asked, pretending that this had been the first time that she had returned to the proximity of the room.


    ¡°Very nice. The lights produced by the arrays above us make it very easy to read, unlike certain artificial lights that are occasionally in use in large residences,¡± Wei Yi replied, talking in a similar manner, ¡°I have noticed that some of your inscriptions require improvement and renewal. Some of them are close to being worn away entirely, and the protective inscriptions amongst them would endanger you quite significantly if someone was to notice.¡±


    ¡°I see. I will tell my husband about that the next time we speak. Other than that?¡±


    ¡°Is that the only thing that you want to talk about, or has the timing of the auction finally been decided?¡±


    ¡°It has, but¡­ No, never mind. Would you to go and visit the auction at this time?¡±


    ¡°You aren¡¯t very good at answering questions when your kink hasn¡¯t been satisfied, are you? Look, Xin Fu, just tell me when the auction is happening, where it is, and whether there is something that I need in order to be permitted entry and a place to sit.¡±


    The merchant¡¯s wife froze for a moment, but she recovered quickly, and her standard smile soon filled her expression, ¡°It will begin in an hour, although most of the sales won¡¯t begin until midnight. The auction venue is where we had dropped off the materials on our way here, so it isn¡¯t that far away. Finally, I believe that my husband has instructed everyone there about special guests, but just in case he forgot to include you in the hope of making you pay again, then I can lend you one of the VIP cards for now. Would you like it?¡±


    ¡°Obviously. From a day in his vicinity, I already know that he¡¯ll try to charge me for entry.¡±


    Xin Fu nodded in agreement as she took out a simple metal card with a certain inscription on it, which she passed over and lightly bowed.


    ¡°Really, though. Can¡¯t you avoid spying on your guests?¡±


    ¡°My apologies, it has been quite some time since anyone had noticed¡­ Chen Xiu has been quite busy as of the last few months, and it¡¯s one of the only things that happen to be opportune,¡± the merchant¡¯s wife explained with a melancholy smile, ¡°Had he not been so concerned about me, I would have just spied on willing individuals, but, alas, that is not something I can do.¡±


    ¡°People do that openly around here? Would be a surprise elsewhere, but this is the northernmost district, after all. Do the people beyond Yi City act similarly?¡±


    ¡°There aren¡¯t many visitors here from those parts, given that the relations between Yi City and them is still rather strained,¡± Xin Fu stated, ¡°However, the miners of the Glass Wastes don¡¯t really bother with any kind of privacy, no matter what they do. I¡¯ve heard that it¡¯s rather difficult to mine in the extreme north, and so digging out an isolated spot just to relieve themselves in any way is rather inefficient and excessive, in their eyes.¡±


    ¡°That much I can imagine¡­ How soon is entry to the auction going to be permitted?¡±


    ¡°Right now, if you wish. My husband has simply reserved an unoccupied time at the venue which would have gone on, nonetheless. I¡¯d explain, but I am not too familiar with it. Someone there will likely do a better job,¡± she said, retreating by a step, ¡°Now, I shall go. Sorry for disturbing you.¡±


    Wei Yi and Shun Liu Min watched her leave ¨C and leave the door open ¨C for a while before turning to one another.


    They truly had gotten their share of action just now, although they did not risk taking the planar energy pills due to the potential consequences of Wei Yi¡¯s breakthroughs. In this case, there would be three consecutive breakthroughs that would all escalate in severity, from the standard step up to the next realm, then one for the perfected stage, and yet another for a perfected realm, and if any of them had a similar effect to the bloodline breakthrough, that would destroy the district.


    To be fair, that would be a slight exaggeration, as all of the districts had a series of defensive measures put in by the Master of Yi City to prevent them from falling to natural causes, so even if she managed to crack the earth and scatter some buildings, it wouldn¡¯t suffer as much as the countryside.


    Still, obliterating a part of the district, no matter how insignificant, would earn her quite a lot of bad will from the people of the Chao District. In the future, so long as anyone figured out that Wei Yi the Inscriber was connected to Wei Yi the Ascendant, which wouldn¡¯t be all that difficult no matter how one went about it, that bad will would move from the fake persona onto the realm person, and depending on how much she affected by her breakthrough, it would make developing an alliance with the district all that much more challenging. For the moment, she was mostly certain that she could enter into a friendly relationship with the district due to her mastery of physiques and body cultivation, but that could be made very challenging at any time.


    It would be especially difficult if the desert fortress of the Master of Yi City was being used in some way by the district, whether by the common people or the patriarch himself.


    At that point, if she ¡®stole¡¯ the fortress from them, even if she had the endorsement of the mother of the Master of Yi City, damaged the district, and then attempted to lure them in with her techniques and understandings, they might get rather angry at her actions and attempt to lash out at her due to it, possibly even turning to the Great Families instead.


    This would not be ideal in the slightest and might even necessitate an alliance with one of the other districts or some major outside faction in order to take over the district and take its resources and experts for herself in the upcoming inevitable conflict. She¡¯d prefer not to do that in most cases.


    The only one time when she would readily attack a district and replace its leadership would be in the Ping District, due to the fact that the Ping family seemed to be a group of terrible individuals, or absolutely incompetent ones, perhaps even both. After their decades of rule, the district was filled with crime and it appeared to be encouraged by a part of the family, while the other sought to install some other leading groups at the cost of the people.


    If they were removed, the Ping District would likely get better within just a single moment.


    ¡®Regardless of their situation, or of any other district, I should follow my standard procedure and just travel outside for my breakthroughs. I should go out every now and then to search for the fortress myself, so it would even provide me with a perfect excuse to anyone who cares about it,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, looking into Shun Liu Min¡¯s glistening eyes, ¡°Anything you want to do before going?¡±


    ¡°Could I get something to drink first? Something with a very strong taste, ideally,¡± the maid replied, taking somewhat shallow breaths with her mouth.


    ¡°You mean something with an overpowering smell, right? We can, although I suspect that teaching you some technique to suppress it would be far more efficient in the long term,¡± she supposed, ¡°For now, however, I observed a store on the path to the auction house that sells several things that meet your requirements. Come on.¡±


    They stood up, Wei Yi scattering the killing will pages containing various insights and speculations on planar energy and returning them into her meridians while putting on her black mask, and left the room, a slight awkwardness within the steps of the maid.


    ¡°Was I a little forceful?¡±


    ¡°No, it was¡­ good. Very good. I¡¯m just not used to it yet,¡± Shun Liu Min replied, striving to correct her walk as soon as possible so that others did not notice.


    On their way out, they passed by Xin Fu again, who silently allowed them to walk by after a nod of acknowledgement towards them, but otherwise left without encountering any servants or anything else of note, not even something to temporarily borrow from them in order to make themselves look a little richer.


    Despite them not having gotten out of the door just yet, Wei Yi had already come up with a few things that she wanted to do at the auction, and how she intended to make the most of the visit, and one of them wouldn¡¯t work quite as well if she didn¡¯t have the proper appearance and aura.


    The latter was easy to fake, since she had witnessed quite a few people of the right kind and could easily replicate it so long as she didn¡¯t need to spend more than a few hours in that state, but the former condition wouldn¡¯t be quite satisfied by her and her maid¡¯s current appearance. Certainly, the mask, robe, gauntlets and boots did not give off the aesthetic of a poor common woman, but if she was rich enough to throw out planar shards as payment for a cup of tea, she would have some more decorations and items on her body, even if she was very reluctant to spend money¡­


    ¡®Well, with that comparison, I wouldn¡¯t be throwing planar shards out for something that cheap, but that¡¯s beside the point¡­¡¯


    The residence belonging to Chen Xiu and Xin Fu was far more tasteful than that of Ping Gangze, and thus they didn¡¯t make their walls, floors, plates, cutlery and any random item they could with gold or even immortal gold, nor were they rich enough to possibly afford such a thing, which was an issue right now. By the time they left it, Wei Yi had not managed to find anything appropriate, and thus reached into an inner pocket and removed a golden ring and placed it onto one of the fingers on her left hand, confirming that it was harmless before retrieving a few more things to decorate herself with until she achieved just the right aesthetic.


    Her maid noticed it quite quickly, but she suppressed her burning questions for now.


    They got to the small shop where the aforementioned drinks with a strong but not particularly unpleasant smell were sold, purchased a pair of water-resistant paper cups containing a blue drink that resembled crushed and small pieces of ice while remaining rather easy to consume, alongside some straws, then departed and proceeded onwards.


    It was certainly an interesting taste, and very sweet, but it did its primary job well enough. Shun Liu Min consumed it quickly, using her energy to endure the cold, and got through most of it before she felt confident enough to speak.


    ¡°So, what is all of the gold for, and where exactly did it come from? I¡¯m not asking about the method of storage, but rather that I don¡¯t recall ever seeing such things here or at ¡®his¡¯ residence.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t expect you to recognise it, but this did originate from that man¡¯s mansion. I have just melted some of the less distinct things that I had taken, and now I have this stuff. As for the reason¡­ well, just like you didn¡¯t want to tell me about the striders, I would prefer you to wait and see. It will be really amusing for me, and I hope that it will also amuse you quite a bit,¡± Wei Yi smiled beneath her mask, causing her to ponder whether she should get a veil the next time she intended to obscure her features, so that her various enigmatic smiles could still be shown, ¡°Just be sure not to disturb me then.¡±


    Such an ambiguous plan did interest her quite a bit, and it was exactly what the maid herself had done just a short time ago, so she couldn¡¯t really argue with that. It took her a little while to understand what wasn¡¯t to be disturbed, but they were going to an auction, so it was almost certain to be something resembling poor haggling and bidding skills.


    Whatever it was, she was no longer concerned that something about herself would give away their earlier activities, and since her new master was unlikely to do anything particularly stupid without a good reason behind it, Shun Liu Min had no real reason to be afraid that she would be led into a situation akin to the one she had been forced to deal with in Ping Gangze¡¯s residence for ten years. In fact, the more she saw what Wei Yi was capable of, the more she believed that if the two of them were to get into some kind of trouble, the only time it would defeat them would be if the world itself was to turn against them.


    It was an odd, likely entirely inaccurate feeling, given the fact that anyone in the sixth or seventh realm should be able to take the two of them down without much trouble, but it was still highly reassuring.


    What was most important for her was that the previous situation that she had been in wouldn¡¯t return, and although it was quite clear already that Wei Yi was not the least perverted and lustful individual out there, and could be quite scary at times, she was responsible and caring.


    Perhaps Shun Liu Min wasn¡¯t the best judge of that, seeing as her typical examples of care would be not being violently tortured for missing a speck of dust, but she knew very well that nobody in the residence of the man that had kept her for ten years would ever care to ask whether they had been too rough, or confirm that she was still alright after any particular action. It did also help that it was surprisingly enjoyable, whether she was to mean the woman¡¯s body, the appendage that she had unintentionally granted her, or the smell of any part of her.


    They got to the auction venue not long after, and while the guards truly did want to refuse entry without further action, the card given to Wei Yi by Xin Fu did get them through without further trouble.


    Whatever the typical practise with those VIP cards was, they didn¡¯t question why she had it on her nor whether the original owner would be coming over soon, and instead opened the door for them and informed them of where to go if they wished to reserve a seat in the primary auction chamber, whether in the VIP area or not. For the moment, it seemed that most seats were unoccupied, as people had better things to do than pointlessly sit around, so they would have a lot to choose from.


    Once they got some distance from the guards, the maid asked, ¡°Which seat will we get?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you asked, because for this to work out best, you will need to be the one reserving it. After all, what kind of wealthy individual does their own work? Me, but that¡¯s beside the point,¡± Wei Yi commented, glancing towards an attendant that they had been informed about, ¡°Ask for a prominent seat, where I can observe the auction house in an arrogant manner¡­ without that part, of course.¡±


    ¡°Got it. Since I think I understand what you¡¯re going for, should I also act incredibly arrogant, or would that be too much?¡±


    ¡°Just don¡¯t scare the poor woman. She already seems to be rather nervous.¡±


    Shun Liu Min nodded and coughed quietly a few times, getting her voice ready for a display that she hoped wouldn¡¯t be seen by too many, even though that was likely to be the point. While word of her would likely not get out as much as that of her current master, with her being a simple footnote in the story, she had more than enough of one group of individuals acting overly arrogant, and didn¡¯t want to add to that number and scare a poor worker who didn¡¯t deserve it.


    As such, she hardly needed a reminder to be gentle, even if she did want to comment that her master would benefit from such a thing.


    The maid walked forward with the most proud and arrogant walk she could manage without exaggerating it too far, and got right into the attendant¡¯s face, staring down at her as obviously as she could. Although they were of similar heights, Shun Liu Min was just a little higher, making this slightly less awkward.


    ¡°You, servant! My master desires the most prestigious seat in the entire auction house. Get it for her!¡±


    Although she had seen the maid approach, the attendant still nearly leapt back when she was shouted at. She looked between the maid ¨C although she could hardly guess that from the light attire that Shun Liu Min wore at the moment ¨C and her apparent master, a tall woman dressed in black and with a mask covering her face, and decided that there was only one reasonable course of action when faced with such people.


    ¡°Sure, come along, right away! Hehe¡­ I¡¯ll show you to the absolute best place in this entire building! Are you interested in the auction that is coming up in fifty minutes?¡±


    ¡°My master¡¯s actions are none of your concern. Just lead us to a place where she may appropriately display her wealth and power to all that will attend, and do so without unnecessary chatter,¡± the maid demanded, glancing back at Wei Yi to make sure that she didn¡¯t overdo anything, or do anything wrong.


    It seemed that she hadn¡¯t judging by the fact that the Ascendant had yet to do anything to stop her, and the attendant decided that it was best for her just to be quiet and get this over with as quickly as possible. She had no business inside of the auction hall anyway, so the quicker that she could bring them inside and leave, the easier it would be for her.


    They were brought through the outer parts of the venue, where a number of other events and gatherings were occurring, with some using a large dining area to meet with business partners, while others had decided that they would host a small competition inside of a small fighting ring over something insignificant. It made it very clear why the place was not generally referred to as an auction house, as even the hall dedicated to auctions could likely be used for large presentations, plays, and illusory performances akin to the one that Wei Yi had witnessed in the Luo District.


    Thus, to call it an auction house would be to wildly misrepresent the actual enormity of the place, as well as the sheer variety of different types of areas that existed within it.


    It seemed that whoever had constructed it did so with quantity in mind, as the building contained over thirty sections, chambers and halls that all had a special purpose. For the moment, not all of them were in use, and some were blatantly being utilised for the wrong purpose, but it was still more akin to a busy marked than a regular building of any kind.


    Perhaps the only place where such a level of indoor activity could also be seen would be in the Bai District, as the entire district was said to be covered in shadow, allowing for the pale skin and red eyes of the Bai family to endure the extreme sunlight. There, everything could be said to be indoors, but that wasn¡¯t enough, most markets, arenas, stages and occasionally even gardens were constructed inside of large buildings that blocked the sun and used special inscriptions and arrays to take the sunlight and dampen it until the people and flora there could bear it. Sometimes, it was even said that the district had a large underground area that was undistinguishable from the outside due to those same methods.


    Whether or not that was true, the poor attendant that they had selected brought them into the primary auction hall, which consisted of a large stage at the front and rows after rows of seats that were lowest to the ground near the stage, and towered over it at the back. In addition, numerous balconies were visible above all of those seats as well, some with curtains and others without, the seats likely being meant for VIP customers.


    The attendant didn¡¯t bother to explain this, and instead just asked, ¡°Which seat is most to your preference?¡±


    Wei Yi looked around, mostly for show, and then pointed to a part of the seating area.


    There, the smooth ascent of seats was broken by another platform that rose from the ground, where the height of the seats was nearly at its highest despite being only near the middle of the room. The seats behind it rose at smaller intervals than those around it and created an interesting wave pattern as a direct result.


    ¡°That seat is¡­ yes, it shouldn¡¯t have any reservations. Just check if there is some sort of card on any part of the seat, and if not, you can sit there! Can I go now?¡±


    Seeing Wei Yi nod subtly, Shun Liu Min affirmed, ¡°Begone now.¡±


    That attendant didn¡¯t hesitate for even a moment before running off at the greatest speed that she was permitted to walk at. She had just managed to avoid one potential terrible event, and she didn¡¯t want to get right into another one just due to being careless and reckless.


    Meanwhile, Wei Yi and Shun Liu Min ascended to the seats that the former had selected, at which point the latter carefully inspected the seats by eye while the former confirmed it with spiritual perception just to be sure. So far as they could tell, there was nothing on, beneath, above, or even inside of the seat, so it didn¡¯t seem like anybody had chosen to reserve it this time. Thus, Wei Yi sat down first, confirmed that the seat was comfortable, and seemed to reluctantly allow her servant to sit beside her.


    Since it would be some time until the auction itself, the Ascendant chose to look around the hall and at some of the other people that decided to attend.


    There were very others inside, and everyone that had chosen to appear at such an early time was either in the middle of a nap or were keeping to themselves and reading or examining something with their heads down. There were also quite a few cards placed onto seats that differed from the VIP card that Xin Fu had given them, so there seemed to be a card for reservations and one for personal use.


    ¡°Master, since you are here, in a prominent position, intending to participate in this auction-¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re guessing, but as I said, keep this a surprise for yourself, and others, seeing as it is hardly impossible for people to listen in,¡± Wei Yi stopped her, creating an invisible and thin barrier of killing will to prevent anyone from listening in on their conversation, ¡°Also, don¡¯t get started with the whole ¡®master¡¯ thing. There¡¯s already someone who won¡¯t stop saying it, and they¡¯re as much of a sub as you.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s someone else? Master, should I prove that I can be better than them? What would you like? Would they even be able to handle your large new-¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not serious right now, are you?¡±


    The maid smiled, ¡°Mostly no, partly yes. I wouldn¡¯t mind being able to remain near you in whichever faction you¡¯re a part of, but if there is someone else who will take care of you, then I suppose I won¡¯t butt in unnecessarily.¡±


    ¡°Since when do I need to be taken care of? If you meant in the sexual way, then that wasn¡¯t much of a problem previously, since there are quite a few out there who don¡¯t mind sleeping around, and even if they didn¡¯t exist, brothels are also highly common. While I won¡¯t deny that you have a lot of experience, I¡¯d imagine that you fall short of the vast majority.¡±


    ¡°Now you¡¯re making me more and more curious about the nature of your faction. Running brothels isn¡¯t exactly common¡­ Are they all willing workers, by the way?¡±


    ¡°As willing as anyone who works, I suppose. That place did end up with several nymphomaniacs, somehow, so the vast majority of workers have some interest in the specific field, while the rest don¡¯t really mind,¡± she replied, ¡°By the way, if you haven¡¯t figured it out already, we can¡¯t be heard for now.¡±


    ¡°I figured. Talking about such things with such a degree of openness wouldn¡¯t suit whatever it was that you were going for.¡±


    ¡°Depends on how you imagine an overly rich individual who has nothing better to do than throw around their money. Personally, if I ended up in such a situation, I would speak about my various sexual preferences incredibly openly, so that I could let everyone know just how much they were missing out on with their miniscule quantities of coin and pathetically small dicks.¡±


    The maid looked over with a hint of fear in her eyes, ¡°Uh¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m joking. People already know what I like well enough, and I don¡¯t care whether or not someone knows that I do have an impressive member.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true- I mean, I figured, but you have a talent for managing to make yourself look absolutely terrifying no matter you say, especially when it is something that doesn¡¯t bring back the fondest of memories.¡±


    ¡°Did that man brag about such things?¡±


    ¡°When he believed that it would impress whichever crowd he was attempting to leave a good impression with. Somehow, people would actually be impressed by such unnecessary bragging, not to mention it only being true after he had consumed some very suspicious pills that almost certainly contained something that will lead the fucker to being an impotent cunt after few more years go by¡­ Ahem.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve gone on worse rants, and while the other person was there to hear it. Perhaps I don¡¯t need to mention it, but they did die soon after.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Right. Do you think, perhaps, that both of us are slightly unhinged?¡±


    ¡°No, not both. You might be slightly unhinged, whereas I am entirely insane. I just hide it¡­ not so well, if you and some others that I have spoken to are to be believed,¡± Wei Yi stated, glancing to the side, ¡°By the way, we¡¯re going to need to cut this chat short, and resume it eventually. Someone¡¯s coming.¡±


    Shun Liu Min nodded, and returned to her previous act quite quickly, certainly managing to do so before the killing will barrier came down.

 V3C81: An Engaging Prelude

    Another woman approached them, dressed the same as the attendant from before, so unless their full clothing was strangely common in this district despite everything that they had seen so far, she must clearly work here. Judging by her slight trembling and the speed with which she attempted to approach and get things done, she must have also spoken with the previous attendant on the topic of them.


    ¡°Would you like to drink or eat anything? Here¡¯s a menu,¡± the attendant spoke as quickly as lightning, handing them a large sheet of paper with a large list of items, ¡°I can go if you don¡¯t want me to observe your selection, so-¡±


    ¡°We will be having these items,¡± Wei Yi said before the woman had a chance to flee, handing the paper back with a number of slight burn marks beside the items of interest.


    The attendant noticed this, looked between the menu and the Ascendant, then departed in silence with a forced smile on her face that was slowly getting consumed by absolute terror. Whatever she had been told by the woman that had brought them to their seats must have been slightly exaggerated, or else she had a very keen imagination and was already envisaging the worst-case scenario.


    As she left, Wei Yi would have raised the killing will barrier again, if not for the fact that the appearance of the attendant appeared to bring the attention of a few others in the hall towards them. Several were in the fourth realm, and one old, wrinkled woman at the back was in the first stage of the fifth realm, so they shouldn¡¯t have the ability to perceive the killing will shield that was, in itself, a fifth realm creation made in part by energy that had the special attribute of being nigh invisible to all others, but the more they looked, the more they would be able to notice.


    Ideally, regardless of what they assumed the barrier to be, she wouldn¡¯t give off the impression of being very secretive and quiet, as that would clash horribly with what she was planning to do later, so it was best to not give the wrong ideas a chance to appear in the first place.


    She didn¡¯t directly confront anyone who looked at her, since that would be going overboard no matter what she was trying to do, especially when she had chosen to sit in the most prominent seat in the entire auction hall. For now, she focused her attention on the front of the hall, at the empty stage, and waited for the food and drink she ordered to arrive.


    With her energy, she transmitted her voice to Shun Liu Min, saying, ¡°I hope you wanted to eat today, because I would prefer to touch as little as possible. I can¡¯t taste regular food, so it is rather tedious.¡±


    ¡°You¡­¡± the maid nearly spoke out loud, but restrained herself in time and used the established channel to reply, ¡°That¡¯s an¡­ unfortunate fate¡­ You ordered just to make it clear that you have money to throw around, right? In that case, it would be great to take a break from eating just one thing all the time, although if anything is too fancy in appearance, I¡¯m afraid I will have to pass. Bad memories and all that.¡±


    ¡°Nothing is excessively fancy. It should be filling, but not sufficient to overwhelm a single person.¡±


    As the kitchen in the area wasn¡¯t exactly spending every moment creating all of these items, she couldn¡¯t be certain about the sizes nor the exact outcome of most dishes and drinks, but the menu did make most of the things out to be rather limited in quantity.


    Either way, purchasing a lot was the mark of someone with too much money to spend, and if they weren¡¯t able to finish it off, they would even have the opportunity to complain about the quality of the food and amplify the impression, but that should be unlikely since Wei Yi didn¡¯t intend to maintain that presence until the end of the auction. By then, they might offer the food to others.


    It could work as a nice peace offering to those that she wouldn¡¯t need to compete with in the moment.


    That purchase, which she had yet to pay for, drew more curious eyes that all attempted to observe covertly and without immediate notice, although whether they did this with their spiritual perception or their gaze, it was difficult to disregard them even if she wanted to.


    Those that were nearest to her, within the typical limited range of spiritual perception, naturally made use of it, since it tended to be difficult for those in realms lower than one¡¯s own to detect it, but from further away they had little choice other than looking at them past something else to make it look like a coincidence. Most of the people that were drawn to observe their actions seemed to be those with more limited funds, as well as those that had decided to sit in less conspicuous places, and when their limited resources were considered, it wasn¡¯t much of a surprise that they paid that much attention to them.


    If they wished to acquire something at the day¡¯s auction, they would need to compete with others, and the more money any one competitor had, the less likely they would be to obtain victory, no matter how much they were willing to spend of their budget. After all, their entire budget might only be one percent of the competition¡¯s, meaning that they wouldn¡¯t be as reluctant to spend it as they would be.


    ¡®Unfortunately for them, not only do I know exactly how much they¡¯ve brought with them, but I can even understand how much they might be willing to spend,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she continued to ignore their gazes, since it didn¡¯t make sense for someone who seemed as rich as her to care about the opinions of the ¡®poor¡¯ folk around her, whereas the inscriber persona would take note of all that observed her and track them down and stab them at some later point if they annoyed her enough.


    Some time later, everything that they had ordered was brought over to them, carried not on trays but instead delivered on tables due to the sheer number of things that they needed to deliver.


    Had they only brought the trays, only a few would have fit onto the surfaces available near them, and so the inconvenience was necessary for them in order to actually have the purchased items laid out before them, paid for with an illusory bag of gold coins. They would vanish in time, but for now, it satisfied the attendants and they fled once more.


    The observers of their actions did not act then, not a single one attempting to approach them, so Wei Yi simply tried a few of the things that had been delivered to them before allowing Shun Liu Min to eat and drink the rest, whether for pure sustenance or to wash away certain tastes.


    There was still quite a lot of time until the auction, so she simply leant back and waited.


    Over the next hour, people slowly entered the auction hall, some doing so with attendants, servants and friends, while others came alone and didn¡¯t even try to converse with others.


    All kinds of people were interested in the upcoming auction, or so it seemed based on the money that they brought with them and the clothing that they wore, not to mention the conditions that their bodies were in. Some were barely in the second realm, so they were most likely there either with some inheritance, allowance or came at the bidding of another, to reserve the seats or to bid on certain items for them. Wei Yi hadn¡¯t asked about the order of the items at the auction, nor whether there would be any beside her own submissions, but since she wasn¡¯t intending to acquire anything anyway, she didn¡¯t really care about it.


    So long as she was able to maximise the profits from the sales of her inscriptions, then it would all be fine, even if some more items of interest were sold. It would hardly affect her unless they took up all of the budgets of the other participants in the auction, which she couldn¡¯t stop even if she really wanted to.


    Robbing or otherwise disturbing the auction just for something like this really wouldn¡¯t be worth it.


    Even if they didn¡¯t report the occurrence to any of the guests, which would be rather unlikely, the fact that certain items won¡¯t appear might cause certain visitors to leave and spend no money at all, or else wait until the end for their items to show up and avoid spending until they can be absolutely certain that they will be able to afford it. Meanwhile, if she was to do nothing, then they could simply spend what they intended on whatever they wanted, then spend the rest of their budget on her items.


    As she had nothing better to do, she instead paid attention to the design of the hall itself, and examined the ways in which it differed from the one in Beast¡¯s Rest.


    There, most of the VIPs, namely the owners of the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival, would be sitting behind walls that couldn¡¯t be seen through, bidding with their voices obscured, spending motes of condensed hatred belonging to them and the Beast, long dead as it was, and the items of offer were all curious weapons, items that could have potentially led to the escape from that realm, and curiosities that contained mysteries of their own that couldn¡¯t be explored without the capacity for spiritual will, nor the knowledge from beyond the Kong Prison Realm.


    It had a very different atmosphere to this venue, where every single seat could be seen from the majority of locations, but both did place the most significant seats at the top, just as with the auction house in Beast¡¯s Rest.


    The exact reasoning behind it could have differed, given that it wouldn¡¯t have been very opportune nor convenient to place the seats behind the primary walls at the same level as the seats in front, since that would have only allowed people to stare at the backs of those who did not receive VIP seats, and there were several levels of those seats as well, so those matters weren¡¯t particularly alike either.


    After quite a few of the seats were filled, although none were in the proximity of the wall of food and drink ordered by Wei Yi, the auction itself finally began, in a way.


    As had been mentioned by Xin Fu, the selling of any items wouldn¡¯t begin until midnight, and there was still quite a lot of time until then, so what did begin was the event itself. A number of attendants stepped onto the stage at the front, all dressed in far more than the usual person would be in this region, although parts of the women¡¯s stomachs, arms and legs were still exposed, while she didn¡¯t bother looking at the men.


    They all formed a line near the back of the stage, and kept their heads lowered while they waited for another to ascend to the stage. All those that had decided to keep an eye on Wei Yi looked away then, waiting for some presenter or auctioneer to appear. Judging by the amount of attention focused on their imminent appearance, it seemed that they would be someone important.


    Due to this, she also decided to pay attention, if only to keep up appearances.


    It took a few minutes, but nobody looked away unless they needed to momentarily do so, but their eyes would immediately return to the front, confirming that initial assumption. Had they been waiting for someone of lesser significance, the wealthier and more powerful would have certainly chosen to look elsewhere, and the poorer and weaker individuals would have probably believed that it wasn¡¯t any of their business anyway, but that did not happen. In fact, the longer they waited, the more people began to focus on the front.


    ¡®Are they waiting for a master of mental manipulation arts? Or, perhaps it is some attractive woman, since the majority of people can appreciate looks, men and women alike¡­¡¯


    Such wild speculation naturally did not end up being accurate, for the person that did emerge was someone that she wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with. An old man who coughed with every other step, requiring a cane in order to walk, a beard covering his face and front by reaching down all the way to his feet, and dressed in a familiar silver robe with red highlights of the Yi family.


    ¡°Good evening, everyone. I am Yi Laoshi¡­ and I thank you for waiting for me,¡± he coughed numerous times, although he somehow to stand up more steadily than he had the last time that she had seen him, ¡°Normally, I would be invited to lecture¡­ on realms and stages, so I am¡­ somewhat unfamiliar with auctions. I hope that you will not¡­ be inconvenienced by my lack of knowledge and experience in the matter¡­¡±


    ¡®This man is still alive, and is in the Chao District? Furthermore, he rose from the eighth stage to the ninth of Active Core? Uh¡­ alright, I guess¡­¡¯


    His appearance was not something that she had expected, but it was unlikely to cause her any trouble. Even if the old man somehow remembered a girl that had intentionally chosen an unassuming location in a lecture hall and didn¡¯t interrupt a word that he said, he would be hard pressed to liken that visage with her present state. Her hair, body, clothing and demeanour had all changed since then, and she was currently occupying the most significant position in the auction hall. The fact that he shouldn¡¯t even need to bother her did not need to be mentioned with all of these factors, but it was still relevant in a way.


    ¡°I hope that everyone¡­ is having a good day. Since there is¡­ some time until we begin¡­ I shall talk about my insights¡­ into the Active Core and subsequent Marked Core realm¡­¡± Yi Laoshi broke out into another coughing fit, but none seemed to mind, ¡°My apologies¡­¡±


    Although his sudden appearance here was certainly coincidental and unexpected, what was more astounding was the fact that his attitude was completely different from what it had been back then, and yet everyone remained highly respectful. Of course, the reason that he was acting in a more assured manner when it came to a bunch of children was due to his vastly higher authority and power, and if he hadn¡¯t done so, most would have likely cared even less than they had at the time.


    It was pretty natural to link that with more adult minds realising the importance of knowledge, and especially of someone who had a lot of it, and would share it more freely due to it benefitting him.


    To needlessly upset or alienate someone like that, such as a man that practised something called the Manual of Impartation which was said to permit someone to cultivate and develop through teaching and sharing of knowledge, would lead to terrible consequences if their enemies managed to earn a lecture or two from him in their stead.


    While his realm was obviously not the highest in any of the districts, save for the abandoned Kong District, he did possess an immense amount of knowledge when compared to anyone else in the same realm. Whether or not it could be put to use in combat or elsewhere, rather than simply being shared, wasn¡¯t certain from his appearance and feebleness alone, as even the weakest men could topple giants so long as they knew exactly what to do, it did not matter so long as others could receive it from him. It explained why everyone had been waiting patiently for him.


    Normally, Wei Yi wouldn¡¯t pass up the opportunity to learn some more things ¨C and she wasn¡¯t intending to miss some additional insights on the realm that she was approaching ¨C she was rather put off by the fact that she couldn¡¯t detect a single hint of a Dao around him.


    Most of the people in the room had an incredibly basic, likely unconscious grasp of one Dao or another, depending on what they had chosen to focus on with their techniques and cultivation, but Yi Laoshi lacked such a thing. He did not possess the aura of an elemental Dao, nor a more abstract thing such as the Dao of Teaching or the Dao of Learning, both of which would likely be present around someone who had dedicated most of his life to teaching.


    That was strange, to say the least, but she seemed to be the only one with any kind of vision state, not to mention one as broad in its applications as the Vision of Law. She could hardly call him out, nor did she really need to. With someone like Aimi Miyu at her side, as well as a mental library that she could freely sort and manipulate, she didn¡¯t need to worry about learning and sticking to false information, and if he did fill his lectures with falsehoods, the only ones to actually suffer would be the other visitors of the auction. Depending on their nature and allegiances, it might actually benefit her to let him spread as many lies as possible.


    ¡®Then again, assumptions, again. I should avoid them unless it¡¯s necessary.¡¯


    ¡°First of all, the Active Core¡­ realm¡­¡± he began coughing even more heavily than before, prompting one of the attendants behind him to finally step forward and give him a small pill, which he quickly consumed and digested.


    He took a few deep breaths, taking advantage of a clear throat, and drank a glass of water before he was able to resume properly.


    ¡°As I was saying, the Active Core realm¡­ mhm. It is the fourth realm of planar cultivation and is believed by most to be the moment that a cultivator takes a true step towards the power of planar energy. With the ability to condense solid planar energy, using it to condense arrays, inscriptions and to create planar constructs that are more solid than true creatures and objects, we truly become different from many of the common men of the world. However, I believe that it also has a different purpose.¡±


    Yi Laoshi paused, letting everyone else get their surprise out of the way, but everyone either didn¡¯t dare to speak, or didn¡¯t care enough to do so. Wei Yi was in the latter category, since she had some ideas on the realm of her own in part thanks to Yi Shi Ming, so she was curious to compare notes.


    ¡°With my current cultivation, I believe that it is merely a realm in which one builds their foundation, just as with the Energy Condensation realm. Some already believe this to be the case due to the Marked Core realm, which I will also mention, but I don¡¯t think that is the full extent of it. You see, through my comprehension of cultivation itself, I believe that everything that is done now is done in service of the eighth realm! The planar pool, the anchor, core, marks, channels, halos ¨C all of it!¡±


    That did earn some hushed whispers, but they were still really restrained.


    It was quite common to refer to one¡¯s cultivation as an endless process of constructing a foundation, although few would believe that this was truly a perpetual process. Whether it was at the third, fifth, or ninth realm, the great structure that the foundations were for would finally be constructed, and they believed that it was merely a matter of time.


    ¡°Energy is condensed, then formed into a pool. From the pool rises an anchor, which supports a core. The core is emblazoned with marks that empower it, these marks link to the anchor, and a series of halos form around it. I believe that by that realm, it is no longer that the anchor supports the core, but the other way around! At the eighth realm, the anchor might no longer exist!¡± Yi Laoshi¡¯s tone was changing from a lecture to mad ravings, but nobody stopped him, ¡°The core would be there to support the new creation, to contain and make use of it via the channels and the halos. At that point, whatever is created might allow for the near-limitless power of the Master of Yi City and his disciples!¡±


    In the ears of many, it sounded rather ludicrous, especially with the way that he chose to present it, but one knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was correct.


    ¡®The Imperfect Rift realm is exactly that. The anchor collapsed into the rift, from which energy pours out endlessly, connecting to some unseen and unknown realm from which all planar energy is said to originate. Odd. How has he failed to comprehend any Dao despite figuring this out?¡¯


    With how many potential paths and Dao there were out there, it seemed really unlikely that there wouldn¡¯t be a Planar Dao that was separate from the Great Dao, as the latter included all things and not just those influenced and created through planar energy. Thus, with someone understanding the eighth realm while only being in the fourth, they would certainly possess the qualifications to possess such a Dao.


    She couldn¡¯t think of many possibilities for what she was seeing with that in mind. Most of those around her still had traces of Dao comprehension without being aware of what they were achieving, but this man, who should have known very well what he was doing, lacked it. That meant that he had obtained this insight in an extremely strange manner where he failed to properly comprehend it and relate it to planar energy itself, or that he was told about these things, and that he was merely reciting something that he had little understanding of.


    The latter would be more dangerous, as it would mean that there were still entities and beings out there that knew or possibly even were in the eighth realm, which would be able to greatly limit Wei YI¡¯s ability to do anything if they chose to side against her.


    ¡®What kind of person or entity would know such a thing, however? The Great Families certainly would, but they refuse to share any information with anyone, so there¡¯s little chance that they would permit this old man to spread his theory. If it is someone that goes against the Greats¡­ Great Earth¡¯s twin halves could possess that knowledge, although I¡¯m not sure how they would get this out either¡­¡¯ she pondered the matter while the old man took a moment to drink a little more, ¡®More work for me¡­¡¯


    ¡°However, you haven¡¯t come here to hear the conjectures of an old man, and instead wish to understand the fourth and fifth realms. I can share that with you as well. First of all, I believe that taking your time through each stage of the Active Core realm contributes to the final number of searing marks that you will obtain. Each stage, you must reinforce the core as much as possible before moving onto the next stage, or else you shall waste a prime opportunity to become incredibly powerful in the next realm! In addition, the purity of your energy is vital. If you rushed through the first two realms, or if you got that far due to the supplementation of pills, then you will not get as far. Only by absolutely cleansing the impurities from your body will you be able to attain a good number of marks.


    ¡°Also, I believe that it is vital to state that if you ever damage your core, you must do so carefully and minimize the harm. I have heard some wild guesses that by damaging your core, you will be able to prepare the space for marks when you reach the fifth realm, and while I have not experimented with it myself, I do not believe that you should ever do so unless you have a fifth realm expert or above by your side! Even then, the searing marks of all individuals are in different places and may take on different shapes, so unless your techniques and physiques are highly similar, recklessly damaging your core will bring you no benefit! Do you understand that? No benefit whatsoever,¡± Yi Laoshi stated with great confidence, staring at some in the audience who seemed likely to have damaged their cores.


    His earlier humble attitude appears to have been somewhat forgotten by him, showing that he might have been far more comfortable and used to lecturing foolish children and young adults than respected members of society.


    Wei Yi hadn¡¯t heard of such an approach before, but she could see both why someone had come up with it in the first place as well as why it would likely be a terrible idea. The searing marks that appeared upon one¡¯s core did indeed seem like damaged areas of the core, and it seemed that it would be beneficial to make the core weaker in areas where they would appear as to make it easier for them to do so. However, this was at odds with the nature of the progression of planar cultivation, wherein the core would support the anchor, rather than the other way around, so it seemed foolish to do so.


    Of course, it might be that if the spots were repeatedly weakened, then stabilised back up to the regular endurance of the core, it might grant one strength now and later, but she doubted it.


    ¡°Now, beyond this, I would also advise spreading your energy throughout your core equally whenever you cultivate. Do not support one spot and then cover the rest, but instead ensure that everything is empowered equally. It should increase the chances of getting more searing marks.¡±


    After he provided some more pieces of minor advice, all of which Wei Yi did record for the sake of later study and investigation when she reached the fourth realm and witnessed what kind of technique the Truth of the Universe prescribed to her, he moved onto the more basic elements of the Active Core realm. These were also recorded carefully, both to allow Aimi Miyu to learn from their truths and falsehoods, but also to allow Yi Shi Ming to go through them and correct any elements she could.


    As someone who obtained her realm only through her son¡¯s support and her becoming a spatial spirit of the Kong Prison Realm, she wouldn¡¯t be as aware of most principles of cultivation as others of her realm, but she should still be able to point out the most flawed elements of the old man¡¯s lecture so long as she focused on it for a while.


    Then, when he ran out of things to say on the topic of the Active Core realm, he moved onto the Marked Core realm, which was of significantly greater interest to many in the hall.


    While quite a few were still in the fourth realm, even amidst the higher realm crowd in the auction hall, most had gone far enough with whatever they had or had not done, and as such it would be rather difficult for them to change much about their path without shattering the core and beginning anew, although that would come with its own complications aside from the most obvious ones of losing their power and certain privileges temporarily.


    However, they had not yet made any mistakes in the fifth realm, since they hadn¡¯t stepped into it yet. If they could avoid as many as possible, they might even be able to near the ultimate limit of ninety-nine marks.


    ¡°Now, in the Marked Core realm, a certain number of marks will appear with each stage, and that number cannot be changed. The moment that the fifth realm is entered, your fate is sealed. However, that doesn¡¯t mean that your marks shall be as powerful as that of another person, or that they have to remain the same. So long as they are nourished and supported properly while you cultivate, they can become as much as twice as effective. However, you must be careful, or else your dantian will not be able to support the stress of the superior energy,¡± Yi Laoshi continued, ¡°I can provide some insights on that matter as well, so¡­¡±


    He continued, talking about many things and in great detail, but it was somehow only then that Wei Yi realised just which district they were in right now.


    ¡®Is somebody going to go inside and clobber that poor man? I doubt he¡¯d appreciate it, although I also have no idea who let him in here¡­¡¯ she glanced around with her spiritual perception to confirm something, ¡®Most of these people aren¡¯t from the Chao family, so perhaps the threat to his life is lessened here¡­¡¯


    Aside from that random thought, she kept observing carefully, paying attention to the things that he was saying while noting down everything of interest within the Ascendant¡¯s Library and the prison realm, where she would let the Antanorden otherworldly demon go through it at her own convenience.

 V3C82: A Delightful Auction

    ¡°¡­ And so, I¡­¡± he was continuing one of his long speeches when he broke out into another long cough, at which point one of the attendants stepped forward, whispered something in his ear, and unhelpfully patted him on the back a few times, as if something as simple as that was going to be sufficient to deal with the horrendous cough.


    In fact, whatever had been said to him caused an even worse reaction, and he persisted to cough until several minutes passed and he seemed to have lost a few grams of weight by the end of it.


    ¡°So¡­ it seems that I need to move on¡­ My apologies,¡± Yi Laoshi said, taking a step back, ¡°It is now finally time to move on¡­ to the auction¡­ and introduce it to all of you¡­ Especially those who entered just now.¡±


    Some of those that decided to participate didn¡¯t show up until the end of the old man¡¯s lecture, with most of them being members of the Chao family, so it seemed that they had been aware of the kinds of things that he would be discussing and simply decided to avoid being there while he was doing it. Those that weren¡¯t part of it did feel somewhat displeased that they had ended up missing some potentially useful insights into the topics discussed but didn¡¯t assume that they had missed all that much.


    While all of them got seated, the old man took some kind of healing pill before taking the one that he had taken at the start of the lecture, presumably to allow for a clear and smooth voice despite all of the issues with his body. The likely downside for the latter pill was that it somehow negatively affected him in the long term, or at least it would if he consumed another one soon after the first stopped affecting his body, perhaps due to overdrawing on some internal energy reserve.


    Then, he wet his throat again, remaining in place.


    ¡°Now that we have gotten to this part, let me briefly explain what kinds of things you may expect. This auction is hosted mostly due to the contributions from Chen Xiu, who has submitted thirty-one inscription plates that are of four-star quality or above. These will be introduced one by one, so make sure to watch out for anything that is of interest to you,¡± Yi Laoshi said, which seemed to be within the audience¡¯s expectations, ¡°Also, the inscriptions shall be separated by certain artefacts of four and five-star levels, or middle-grade artefacts. They are all also highly valuable, so don¡¯t miss out on them.¡±


    From her observation with spiritual perception that she enhanced with her mental energy, she was able to see six artefacts being prepared, so it seemed that they were to be brought out every five inscription plates.


    ¡®Some of those are interesting, to be sure, so I think I might actually buy some of them. It would make my whole scheme a little more credible, which is rather fortunate since I was concerned that they might think that I was just trying to waste their money¡­ which I am, but that is entirely beside the point,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, noting down their internal structures in order to eventually duplicate them even if she failed to obtain them in the auction.


    She still had her Living Spear technique, and with the assistance of yin and yang, laws and whatever else, she could likely modify it into a Living Weapon technique quite easily.


    ¡°If this is your first time, bid by making yourself known and calling out, if you wish.¡±


    There were no questions raised, nor did anyone decide to make a fuss over anything, so the old man looked over the gathered crowd and then nodded to one of the male attendants, who went around the back of the stage and likely requested for the first item to be brought out onto the stage, leaving Yi Laoshi and the other attendants to wait.


    ¡°I have not done this before, so I apologise if I am unable to get quite the same excitement as those with more experience,¡± he said.


    He took the short break to have another drink and look around the audience some more, perhaps searching for those that were particularly keen to listen to him, or perhaps he was just making himself seem confident.


    Either way, the auction hall was quiet for a little while, with most groups of people keeping their voices down even when they did decide to talk to one another. Wei Yi was looking forward, Shun Liu Min was sipping on what remained of the veritable feast that they had ordered for her, and none of the people within their vicinity had the confidence to question them about anything that they were doing, since both did their best to manifest some light killing intent, with neither of them succeeding as well as they would have preferred to for various reasons.


    One of them had too much killing intent in order for it to be dispersed in a limited quantity, while the other lacked any proper training other than the few snippets mentioned within the Ascendant¡¯s Disciple technique, which weren¡¯t there for offensive usage but instead simply to get one used to the mental energies within their body and mind.


    Some of those who had been observing them initially and had turned away while all attention had been on Yi Laoshi now looked back, although they were simply directing occasional glances back for now.


    After several minutes passed, the first inscription was finally brought out to the front, carried atop a red pillow that highlighted the otherwise drab appearance of any traditional inscription plate. From the other side of the stage, a stone pillar was brought over to place the pillow and plate atop it, with it somehow being carried over more quickly than the significantly lighter plate, although it was rather close regardless.


    The pillar was placed, the inscription plate was put on top, and Yi Laoshi went in front of it.


    ¡°Everyone, this is a Bolt Deflecting inscription, although you shouldn¡¯t be misled by the name ¨C it is not solely useful against pure projectile attacks. Anything with a travel time, be it a beam, bolt, wave or arc will be affected by the inscription, and will be deflected from it into the area around it, not including the holder,¡± he introduced the inscription, ¡°So, not the best if there¡¯s something behind you that you want to protect, but in most other scenarios, it is absolutely incredible. The seller has personally vouched for its effectiveness.¡±


    ¡°A one-star inscription plate? Did you not say four-star?¡± one of the people near the front called out a question.


    Those with familiarity with inscriptions, or those that had spent a lot of time around one-star inscriptions, looked over and confirmed that it was indeed a simple one-star plate, albeit with far more channels than they were used to.


    ¡°It is a four-star inscription, and it can easily handle a powerful attack from someone in the fourth realm! Chen Xiu, a trusted merchant and favoured contributor to the venue, has confirmed this with his own attack, and if not for the danger to the auction hall itself, they told me that they would have allowed you to experiment with it as well.¡±


    Much of the audience had their doubts, since few were actual inscription masters.


    However, they suddenly witnessed a woman at the front of the raised platform near the middle of the hall stand up, throw her hand into the air, and loudly declare her intentions.


    ¡°I am bidding. I shall have it!¡±


    ¡°¡­ The, uh¡­ The starting bid is ten silver coins, so-¡±


    ¡°Ten silver? That¡¯s low, and something that only the commoners would trade in. I demand that it must be twenty silver at the very least!¡± Wei Yi called out, making sure that she didn¡¯t speak in a voice that could be even slightly familiar to Yi Laoshi just in case he did remember her despite all the odds.


    The moment that this sudden bid was made, everyone else seemed to be thrown into a frenzy. They hadn¡¯t experienced the inscription for themselves, nor did they know exactly why the person in black was so interested in it, but since she was willing to double her own bid, there had to be something of worth about it. It was such a silly notion, one that would have needed no more than a second to be challenged by a single reasonable thought, but it seemed to them that if they didn¡¯t get to it in time, someone else would manage to outbid this person and receive this prized inscription for themselves.


    What made it even easier was the price. It was merely twenty silver coins ¨C a sum that most cultivators in the fourth realm and above could pay easily, and one that even those in the second realm wouldn¡¯t need to worry themselves about so long as they were willing to put some effort into their work or go out of their way to earn funds.


    Perhaps if they were asked to pay out one planar shard or more, it would have been somewhat difficult to accept it, and they would have given it just a little bit more thought, but just like countless other possibilities that did not occur in place of those that did, this would only ever be something that would be considered after the fact. For now, the law of greed, of desire, of haste in a time of pressure, forced them all into action, prompting them to discard all semblance of reason and simply raise their hands.


    ¡°Next is thirty- alright, then forty- fifty-¡±


    ¡°Old man, raise it to one gold coin! This lot clearly wants to bid high, so why not let them get to it?¡± Wei Yi called out to Yi Laoshi, prompting most others to agree with her.


    ¡°Then, one-¡±


    ¡°Five gold! I¡¯ll bid five gold!¡±


    ¡°Just five? I¡¯ll pay ten!¡± another person declared, seeming to forget about the person that began this, ¡°And before anyone else starts, I can bid up to ten planar shards! Before any of you think to compete with me, know that!¡±


    That did not dissuade the majority of bidders, who kept raising the price over and over again until it reached the price of five planar shards. It was sold to an unlucky buyer, and the auction continued.


    After five inscriptions plates were sold at nonsensical prices, at least in the minds of those that had spent their money on them and had yet to experience the power of the inscriptions, the people had slowly caught on to the fact that there was something odd about the person that initiated all of these ridiculous bets, as, no matter how quickly the auction house wanted to go to capitalise on this sudden influx of interest, they could only bring out items so quickly.


    This gave people enough time to think in between each round of rapid betting, and they noticed that the person that began the bets never tended to keep going after the prices started to leap up to the level of being excessive.


    Most didn¡¯t share their suspicion, but they hardly needed to. With how blatant it appeared, they didn¡¯t need to do much pondering to understand the oddity of the matter, and with the five inscription plates out of the way, the auction momentarily paused as the first of the artefacts was being prepared, and everyone had plenty of time to ponder this, even if they hadn¡¯t wanted to.


    As a result, they were paying close attention to her when the sixth item of the auction, and the first one that wasn¡¯t an inscription plate, was brought out.


    Carried on a similar kind of pillow, it was a weapon that was long and lacked an obvious hilt or handle, instead resembling a large spike that was nearly as long as a regular sword. It was filled with faint patterns atop it, although they seemed neither carved into the spike nor painted on top, as if they were some natural occurrence within the light metal utilised in the creation of this weapon. Judging by the internal channels of the weapon, it did indeed seem to be a middle-grade artefact.


    ¡°This is the Piercing Needle, with a property of being significantly more effective whenever used in order to pierce or penetrate defences. Be it flesh, metal or even stone, this is a worthwhile weapon for those that require such aid,¡± Yi Laoshi introduced it, inserting his own commentary as always.


    In the same way, it could easily be predicted that Wei Yi would rise and question him.


    ¡°How much?¡±


    ¡°Fifty silver-¡±


    ¡°Two gold. I will acquire this weapon, and it will be perfect within my collection of sharp things, beside the collection of dull things,¡± she said excitedly, although she maintained a calm expression beneath the mask as she had yet to get to the truly fun part, ¡°I have plenty to spend, so come on, just try and outbid me, you common fools!¡±


    It was the first time that she had resorted to such a provocation, but everyone was more alert now. They wouldn¡¯t lose their self-control quite as easily.


    ¡°Three gold,¡± one person hesitantly raised the bid, then watched Wei Yi carefully.


    She did not hesitate to reply, reaching into her pockets and casually removing a number of golden coins, ¡°Just three? I bid six gold coins.¡±


    According to the undisclosed estimates of the auction venue, the Piercing Needle was worth two planar shards, and with the previous estimates being easily broken by their eager customers, they had hoped that the bidding would be just as heated as the last five times. Obviously, since the management of the place wasn¡¯t bidding, they had already noticed that Wei Yi was rather quick to raise the bid then go quiet, but it wasn¡¯t against the rules to participate in the bidding process, and they hadn¡¯t hired her to do this, so nobody could complain to them no matter how much they might have wanted to.


    They did wish that they had found someone who was able to stoke the fires so quickly, since putting someone like her in every auction after this could easily triple their profits until the people understood what was happening.


    However, the person that had chosen to raise the bid went quiet. It was difficult to tell just how far the woman would raise the price before stopping, so if he kept going, he might need to spend far more than he had expected on something that he did not have enough interest in, which would hardly be to his advantage. He was more interested in finding out her reaction when she ends up needing to pay, as he wasn¡¯t even sure that she wasn¡¯t employed by the venue, or by the people selling things at it.


    As a result, he chose to stay quiet and say nothing.


    ¡°Eh? Uh, six gold coins going once¡­ twice¡­¡± Yi Laoshi nearly forgot what to do in such a situation, but barely managed it before finally ending this bid, ¡°Sold for six coins, payment-¡±


    The coins that Wei Yi had taken out flew at him with great speed, barely giving him enough time to shut his mouth and dampen their flight with some of his planar energy, before catching them with it and the speed that was still present within his body, no matter how little remained after the years. He had intended to tell her to come to the back at the end of the auction, or when she decided to leave, and pay for it then, as he had done for all customers that he had been informed about in advance, but had to settle with this.


    Everyone that had chosen to skip out on the bidding was now somewhat confused, with the one that had chosen not to raise the bid being rather frustrated, but at the very least they had been able to confirm that this woman was able to bid, and that she did have some funds, at the very least.


    ¡°Ehem¡­¡± the old man on the stage passed the coins along to one of the attendants, then proceeded, ¡°Now that this artefact has been purchased, we may proceed onto the next set of five inscriptions. Just as the ones before it, these have been made with one-star materials, but they are still of four-star quality, you can be certain of that. In total, there will be sixteen such inscription plates, so now that five have been sold, only eleven more will appear before two-star plates with four-star inscriptions¡­¡±


    The following rounds continued in much the same way as the first one had. Having been swayed by the purchase of an artefact, the crowd once more got into willing bidding wars with her, only for Wei Yi to go quiet and stop raising the bid not long after enough people joined in with sufficient energy, wealth and vigour. If they weren¡¯t managing well enough on their own, she would occasionally shout out another bid to bring them closer to what their budget was and what they were willing to spend, but that didn¡¯t end up being particularly necessary most of the time.


    Over the five rounds of inscription sales, doubt in her would grow, but when she was able to easily acquire an artefact even with a little more competition than the first time, they were convinced once again, and the cycle began anew.


    Just like that, without needing to pay all that much at all, she was able to purchase the Blistering Book, an artefact that was able to create a variety of flame-based attacks based on the page it was opened to, something called an Abyssal Eye, which was able to release a dark energy to confuse and damage foes, a Monstrous Glove that seemed to have been made of dried skin and could rapidly drain the blood of those it struck, a simple Spiralling Twig that could aid beam-type skills, and something introduced as End, Signet Ring, although its functions were not explained whatsoever. She doubted most of these.


    Even with the knowledge that Wei Yi did possess, figuring out a potential use for it was rather challenging, although she did have a few ideas by the time it was brought up to her.


    All of these artefacts went for far less than they had been predicted to cost, even if the sale price did rise with each one. It was simply not fast enough to rise to the level of planar shards, meaning that the amount she had paid in total was akin to the expected price of the first item, the Piercing Needle, which she had passed to Shun Liu Min as she didn¡¯t need it.


    Since she had been able to observe them from afar with spiritual perception, she had also scanned all of them, and was able to make use of their internal structures for whatever purpose she might find for them, she technically didn¡¯t need any one of these items, but she could still find a use for them when they were so cheap to acquire. In fact, she had paid for all of these with her very first sale of the Bolt Deflecting inscription plate, so even if she had thrown out even more money, it would have been fine.


    Just as how people were able to understand her actions after the first five inscriptions, being thrown off by the easy acquisition of the first artefact, after it had repeated with all thirty of the inscription plates sold so far, they began to realise what was going on, and some even called for the attendants of the auction to question them on whether Wei Yi was someone planted to raise certain prices, with her reward being the artefacts that she ended up obtaining. However, every single one of them was informed that this was not the case and were referred to the VIP card that Wei Yi would occasionally present.


    Due to this, when the final inscription was being brought out, people were prepared to not bid too much, as to not fall into her trap again, although their definition of much for four-star plates and five-star inscriptions differed significantly from the typical price for one-star plates.


    Thus, when Yi Laoshi stepped up to explain the function of the last plate, as well as its price, those who still had funds left weren¡¯t particularly surprised about the latter, only the former.


    ¡°This inscription is called the Brand Alternator inscription. It is based on something called a brand technique and is able to conjure a number of them to attack foes in its vicinity, with allies needing to be added beforehand, as with the earlier Fifty-Five Channels Defence inscription. Each brand is at the level of an average fifth realm cultivator, meaning that it will pose a significant threat to most careless individuals that might attempt to invade whatever space it is intended to protect,¡± the old man explained, a few coughs making their way into his words.


    ¡°How much is this inscription, and will we finally get a demonstration?¡± one person beat Wei Yi to it.


    ¡°The inscription is of an incredible quality, but unlike the other inscriptions, this one can be demonstrated safely. As such, I have been asked to do things slightly differently. Instead of setting an initial bid, you shall be shown the inscription functioning against some planar constructs and may then set the price yourself!¡±


    This certainly got the attention of those who still had funds on them. If an auction was willing to do such a thing, then they certainly believed the inscription to be worthwhile, to the point that it couldn¡¯t be praised sufficiently with words. Perhaps it would even be as interesting as the previous Projecting Visage inscription, which was rather interesting based on the description provided, even if nobody would be able to find out how it actually worked without testing it themselves.


    As a result, most of the people with any interest in the item leaned forward slightly, some doing so unconsciously while others intended to get a better view.


    Everyone who had been in the vicinity of the inscription distanced themselves so that they wouldn¡¯t be affected by a stray brand, then a number of warriors employed at the venue appeared on the stage, each one clearly having practised a very specific set of techniques in order to be able to contribute to the demonstration.


    In fact, a number of them stood close by and had unusually pale skin and red eyes, almost resembling those with the Eclipsed Sun physique, except that these people were clearly part of the Bai family, with matching tattoos on their left arms, similar bands tied around their right arm, a similar tear within the shoulder portion of their light tunics, and a number of other details that would have seemed extremely coincidental otherwise. Seeing as they were part of the Bai family, a family that had dedicated itself to learning about every minor aspect of group combat techniques and cultivation.


    Besides being the primary creators of most group combat arts in the world, they were also known for some stranger things, such as being responsible for most of the dual cultivation techniques as well. The groups of soldiers taught at the Bai District were said to live, sleep, fight and die together, and so seeing so many shared features on their bodies and clothing was nothing strange. It was also not uncommon for them to relieve their stress together, but that was another matter.


    One of the common applications of group combat techniques was to enhance the strength of a force by working in unison, but certain other methods led to being able to avoid engaging in combat personally by instead conjuring planar constructs that would be able to execute their combined techniques on their own, whereas different interpretations instead created duplicates of each soldier and sent them in to fight in the stead of the original body. Whichever method was used, it allowed for far fewer injuries and permitted soldiers to keep fighting for significantly longer periods of time, as the only type of exhaustion they would face would be a planar and mental one, both of which could be supplemented with the right kind of pills and occasional rest.


    It was this kind of method that the participants in the auction were able to see now. Each combatant, whether they were from the Bai family or not, assumed their position and began to activate their techniques, with the inscription plate hungrily absorbing planar energy all the while.


    The glow of planar energy lit the stage, brown and grey light primarily emanating from those of the Bai family while the rest of the fighters on the stage used fire and water-type methods to achieve similar results. One by one, phantoms, mirages and dense constructs that vaguely resembled the ones that summoned them emerged, some doing so out of the bodies of the cultivator while others appeared out of the ground, or thin air, some way ahead of them.


    For a few moments, they stood by, doing nothing, waiting for the channels of the inscription plate to fully fill, and acted only then.


    Even with the coordination of the Bai family, the planar constructs could hardly move in perfect synchronicity when there were so many cultivators involved, none of whom had previously trained together. It was a simple group of guards hired from all kinds of places in order to protect a single location, and it was the first time that they had needed to display this kind of skill before a crowd.


    Those in the audience did not know what the invisible circle of protection covered by the Brand Alternator inscription was, but even though the guards stood a great distance away from it, at the very edges of the stage, they still presumed that the inscription would be guarding a smaller area, and that the space provided was merely there for their own safety, but they turned out to be entirely wrong, more than they believed they could be.


    The very instant that the humanoid planar constructs charged forward, the inscription plate burst into life, a pulse of orange light emanating from it as a portion of the stored energy dissipated.


    Ten flaming circles appeared within the air, and none were quite alike. Some were large, wider than any individual person, while others were more akin to needles. The light of some of them was rather bright, making it difficult to see the individual details of the brands, but others were very dim but rather erratic, as if they were barely holding on within the air. All of them did have a set of lines and symbols within the circle, making up the actual structure of the brand, although they did not correlate to any inscription, array or artefact known to the people at the auction.


    What they could be certain about was that the moment that they appeared, they fell upon the approaching constructs with immense speed, although even this wasn¡¯t shared exactly between the different variations of the brands. The slowest still fell within a second, but the fastest couldn¡¯t be seen by the common human eye as it struck the construct over and over again, cutting countless holes within its target.


    The moment that it struck the ground, it seemed to return into the air in an instant, doing no damage on the way up but travelling far faster than any of the brands was able to, regardless of luminosity, size and power.


    Whether by coincidence or some intentional action on the part of the inscription or the one that made it, the brands appeared beside those that they were most able to damage and affect. Above the largest groups, the largest and most powerful brands appeared to finish them off right away, while the singular targets that were frail or feeble were met with small and equally feeble seeming brands.


    Those that had been maddening and erratic turned out to be the fastest, but they also switched between targets every time they fell, getting through several weak constructs in just five seconds.


    After that time, the inscription plate pulsed again, and all of the brands that were still hovering in the air suddenly appeared beside it, all of them switching around before they returned to the air above the few foes that remained from the particularly sturdy group combat arts of the Bai family¡¯s warriors, crushing them with one final strike. They landed on the ground and sat there, a faint spark passing through the thin lines of the brands for the last four seconds before they vanished again, this time without reappearing beside the inscription plate.


    The crowd had been silent, but that did not mean that they were not impressed. This four-star inscription plate was able to power a five-star inscription that had the ability to tear through a large number of fourth realm combatants in less than ten seconds, and it seemed that it had the capacity to do more if placed in the right place and if given the right opportunity.


    Some were considering bidding for it seriously, even if they had to compete with the woman in black clothing again, but then they saw Yi Laoshi shaking his head and waving to the combatants that remained on the stage.


    ¡°No, this isn¡¯t it. Try it again!¡±


    For those that didn¡¯t know exactly what Wei Yi had intended for the inscription, they couldn¡¯t have known what it could result in. However, the old man didn¡¯t seem to be trying to trick them, unless he suddenly became far better at speaking than he had been before, so they saw no other choice but to remained seated and observe. If there was truly more to the inscription than they had already seen, they would certainly pay as much as they needed to obtain it.


    Even if the inscription itself wasn¡¯t particularly useful to them specifically, obtaining it could mean getting to interact with the one that made it, allowing them to commission something more suited to their own needs and thus benefitting from a true expert in the great art.


    Certain auctions prepared this kind of meeting ahead of time, usually when the great art master wished to get more patronage and requests from those that could afford to pay him or her, but at other times, the master in question might linger around to see how their creations perform and whether there are any glaring flaws that they might correct.


    Some have even been known to challenge their own inscription plates after a while, experiencing them and the other defences the owner might have acquired in order to see how they were being used and whether it would be possible to merge some of them, or to take some elements from other defences and incorporate them into the inscription either as something new or old, depending on what was most convenient and feasible. The people at the auction had been told nothing about the creator of the inscription, and as such, they were unable to guess which one of the two might occur. They could only hope.


    The warriors prepared their combat arts again, and a series of planar constructs appeared once more, charging into the range of the inscription at nearly the same speed as before.


    Although the constructs were rather demanding when it came to planar and mental energy costs, when they were around for only a few seconds, they didn¡¯t suffer all that much and could likely create quite a few more warriors to send at the inscription, although the heightened cost of creating the constructs as opposed to maintaining them would limit that number somewhat.


    Fire, earth and water energy in all kinds of forms and shapes ¨C mostly humanoid ¨C entered the range of the inscription once more, and after only a short delay, the orange pulse of energy from the inscription appeared once again. A set of ten brands appeared over the heads of the groups of planar construct combatants, although they had chosen to space themselves out differently in order to potentially allow for a few more different brands to appear and be showcased to the current engaged audience.


    Eight of the brands had already been seen in the previous instance of the inscription¡¯s activity, but the last two appeared to be mostly different.


    One also pulsed regularly, like the inscription plate that it came from, while the other appeared to be alight, as if someone had managed to set a blaze to the manifestation of energy within the air. The flame travelled behind it as it fell onto the foes beneath it, setting them alight as well.


    This was very effective, and seemed to make the other brands even more powerful, but it was the first unique brand that caught the attention of the vast majority of them, as it struck the ground beneath the chosen foe and didn¡¯t immediately disappear again, as it instead released a burst of unusual crimson energy that seemed to be some kind of mix between lightning and solidified light that didn¡¯t provide an immediate name for itself to anyone that witnessed it.


    It exploded and instantly obliterated the entirety of the Bai family soldier¡¯s planar constructs.


    ¡°I must have that inscription!¡± the first person to question its price exclaimed, for the power of that was truly equivalent to a typical fifth realm cultivator¡¯s powerful attack, meaning that it could easily match or even surpass even their own capabilities to protect something, allowing them to be elsewhere and yet maintain an optimal level of security.


    However, since one person had noticed the value of such a thing, others did as well, and they looked around greedily to try and guess who would be their opponent. Some might be their friends or allies, and they could compromise or make some kind of deal between themselves, others might be enemies that would be particularly keen to force them to raise their prices just to annoy them, even if they didn¡¯t want the item itself.


    Then, there was the woman in black, with silver eyes, who seemed to be some kind of mysterious spirit that came out of nowhere, had no background that they knew of, yet was intent to make them pay as much as possible whenever possible. Would she interfere now, or finally give up?


    Perhaps the only thing that didn¡¯t make sense for some was why the inscription wouldn¡¯t create those powerful brands all the time, since they seemed able to handle one foe, many foes, strong foes and weak foes alike. Most did understand it after they considered the way in which the brands appeared and disappeared each five seconds, since having varying brands able to appear and disappear at any moment would make it significantly more difficult to figure out a countermeasure to them than if it was one brand every single time.


    With the second wave of planar construct warriors gone and Yi Laoshi, alongside the organisers of the auction, seeming to be satisfied, the old man returned to the stage, disabling the inscription and turning back to the audience, many of whom were currently counting their funds by hand just to be certain that they were getting it correctly.


    Some looked at gold coins, but the majority had tossed them away and were instead inspecting planar shards, making sure that none of them could be said to be faulty in some way.


    Although the old man was merely a guest that had been invited to host the auction, Yi Laoshi still felt the corners of his lips rise when he witnessed it, a fact that did not go unseen by the woman in black. He had seen the effects of the inscription before, although with far fewer participants and thus less variety in the brands, and simply witnessing that one unique brand was enough for him to want something like this himself. If he had more funds, he would have joined in betting on his own.


    ¡°So, it seems that you¡­ have seen it as well¡­ Who shall begin?¡±


    It was a calm question, punctuated on either side by a dry cough, but it might as well have been the declaration that the sky was falling, and that the world was coming to an end, as it immediately led to countless bidders rising from their seats and calling out their bids as loudly as they could.


    ¡°One shard-¡±


    ¡°No, five-¡±


    ¡°Twenty-¡±


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t even need to do anything, and they had gone into another frenzy, earning her an incredible amount of funds in mere minutes.


    It was a good way to begin a new day.

 V3C83: The Search Begins

    ¡°In total, with all of the deductions from the auction house, your work has made me and you¡­ two planar stones and seventeen planar shards! That is far more than I would have made even if the artisans I usually work with went all out! You deserve it!¡± Chen Xiu exclaimed, giving her the seventeen planar shards before pointing to the two planar stones that were being carried inside, ¡°I will go all out to find those landmarks that you¡¯re interested in, don¡¯t you worry. I may have done otherwise if you had only made a few planar shards, but now, I could fund five or six more trips with this alone!¡±


    ¡°Glad that my work is being appreciated. My participation won¡¯t cause any problems, I hope?¡±


    ¡°No, it will not. As someone with a VIP card ¨C ahem,¡± he glanced at his wife, who simply looked forward with a smile as if she hadn¡¯t accepted the card back just a short time ago, ¡°you automatically prove that you have the funds to spend, and so long as you have funds, you can bet.¡±


    ¡°Excellent. How soon with the searching parties be sent out?¡± Wei Yi asked, pocketing the shards and instantly storing them within the House of Gold to ensure that they wouldn¡¯t get lost.


    ¡°It should be in an hour or so, since nobody will be willing to go out without any warning at all,¡± Chen Xiu said, taking one last look at the planar stones that will not end up going to him, ¡°I can inform you the moment that it happens, if you want to remain here, but if you go elsewhere, then I or someone from the teams can deliver reports.¡±


    ¡°I think that I will be going out soon, so the reports will be preferable.¡±


    He nodded and left as quickly as he was able to, so that he wouldn¡¯t need to look at the planar stones for any longer than he already had, leaving Wei Yi and Xin Fu in the room on their own, with the latter being able to maintain her calm smile even with the former¡¯s gaze focused strictly on her.


    For a few moments, they simply looked at one another ¨C Xin Fu was mostly looking to the side, in her vague direction, but it seemed to require as much willpower from her ¨C with neither one moving or speaking. It seemed like this could go on for a while longer, but when the door opened again, the merchant¡¯s wife instantly rushed off as quickly as she could without seeming hurried and without bumping into the one entering.


    Shun Liu Min, who had opened the door, saw the merchant¡¯s wife run off with her usual smile, guessed that something had occurred with her again, and entered the room.


    Her hair was still moist from the bath that she had taken, and her skin was flushed beautifully. Although she had already covered herself by this point, since she wasn¡¯t keen to expose herself to most of the people living in the residence, the minimal outfit that Wei YI had made for her still emphasised the best features of her body to the lone observer in the room.


    ¡°I¡¯d guess that the bath in this place is pleasant?¡±


    ¡°It certainly is. Due to the natural heat, all they need to do is warm some of the stones outside and get them to heat the water inside.¡±


    ¡°Very interesting. How do you feel about going outside the district and killing, or at the very least robbing, a whole bunch of people? I suspect a few of them may even be using my very own inscription against us, so you can look forward to that,¡± Wei Yi said, prompting a momentary confused look.


    It took her a while to understand just what the implication of those words was.


    ¡°The people at the auction are going to try and take their revenge on someone that wasted a lot of their time and money?¡±


    ¡°Essentially. It would be difficult to obtain so much without riling someone up, not at such short notice and so quickly,¡± she explained, taking the planar stones and storing them away once she guarded them with her mental energy as to prevent anyone from noticing her exact method of removing them from this world, ¡°However, some of them might just want to attack someone who seems to hit a vast amount of money. The people there must already have some wealth, but in their eyes, getting more would never hurt. In their defence, I can understand that kind of thing.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure about that? Certain things can very much be in excess, right?¡± Shun Liu Min asked.


    Following her gaze downwards, Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°I suppose that can apply in certain cases, but when it comes to simpler things like wealth and power, so long as it doesn¡¯t attract danger, I believe that it is difficult to have an excess.¡±


    ¡°I guess so,¡± the maid shrugged, ¡°Could you help with my hair?¡±


    The Ascendant raised her hand and created a small ball of absolute heat, containing most of it within the sphere so that it wouldn¡¯t instantly cook the majority of the building and kill everyone but her, since she had a perfect yin and yang physique that could produce and endure such forms of energy. Just by bringing it into the vague vicinity of Shun Liu Min¡¯s head, every drop of water atop her hair evaporated within moments, causing her to immediately dispel the energy as to not overdo it.


    For the moment before the sphere of energy went out, it almost resembled a miniature but dim sun, illuminating the room softly.


    ¡®Hm¡­ Right, I did witness the process of a star burning up a short time ago and can replicate it at will. I also have energy that I literally call cosmic energy. Surely all of this deserves a Dao of its own, right?¡¯ Wei YI thought, focusing on those images.


    She hadn¡¯t arrived at the concept of cultivating Dao at the time of creating her orb of star metal, so it hadn¡¯t occurred to her then, but since she had already completed a few to a decent level, and since she had the perfect experience of the birth and death of a star, she just had to contribute it to yet another one. So far, each one had brought her immense benefits, and would likely do so in the long run, so she would be mad to not take the opportunity presented to her. Thus, with that understanding, the countless images of the cosmos that were contained within her cosmic energy, the theory of the exact nature of the creation and end of that star in the prison realm, and everything that seemed to apply to this world from the knowledge of the otherworldly demons, she momentarily shut her eyes.


    ¡®What is a star? Why do they exist? Are the stars that I and others have the chance to create identical to the ones in the sky, or do they differ? Is the sun another star, as it is in another world, or is it something different?¡¯ she pondered, glancing into the cosmic abyss of the Kong Prison Realm since looking up into the sky of reality wasn¡¯t much of an option, ¡®Regardless of the answer, is there planar energy out there? Why is it not something that can be reached?¡¯


    These were questions to get closer to the nature of the Cosmic Dao that she was attempting to condense within her mind, but they mostly only revealed the fact that she knew very little about the cosmos, other than the fancy colours of it. Her only understanding was of the otherworldly space, as well as the miniature star that she was able to create, but the small star differed from what the other world was said to have, lacking a number of vital properties that were documented commonly on Orbis, which confused the matter further.


    She was able to compile just a little bit of information within the expansive domain of the mind and unify it together into the concept of a star ¨C going any further was impossible for now.


    It was the first time that she had attempted to solidify any concept into a sold shape within her mind, with the rest simply remaining as ideas in the library and all around the place. Such an idea might work, from what she understood of the concept of the Dao, and might even be more helpful than her earlier attempts, or it could end up harming her in the long run. Experimenting with such an important concept to her own cultivation might not have been the smartest decision, but one that made sense then.


    With her eyes in reality still shut, and with only a moment having passed, she checked the Truth of the Universe. Confirming that there was a Cosmic Dao at the Initial Accomplishment stage, she intended to return to the matters of the Planar Continents, but an event in the Kong Prison Realm drew her attention almost immediately.


    Since she didn¡¯t want to bother anyone with her condensation of a Dao concept, she placed it in the core of her Endless Monolith, where it would only add a little bit to its light, but the core of the monolith suddenly grew a dozen times brighter, nearly blinding those who were still insisting on looking straight at it out of curiosity. From it shone numerous lights, crimson and flaming, light and cold, with certain ones that could barely be described no matter what words and methods one had at their disposal due to the sheer complexity of the phenomenon.


    Those that hadn¡¯t lost their sight temporarily were overwhelmed with the colours and sensations, for each distinct beam of light produced a different feeling as well. Some were like fire to the touch, others seemed to turn their heat to cold and the cold of the air to heat, some made their skin incredibly sensitive and warm, and some were thankfully as uneventful as simply forcing their bodies to move in accordance with the light for a few moments before it faded.


    To those that had the misfortune to be caught inside these rays of light, this was probably akin to another breakthrough of the owner of the great Endless Monolith, but she could tell that it was not.


    After all, no matter how oblivious it was possible to be, Wei Yi knew that she hadn¡¯t broken through in any regard just yet, so no phenomenon could occur as a result of it. The only thing that she had done was place the solidified Dao concept inside of the monolith, and what everyone experienced now were aspects of the various Dao that she had comprehended so far.


    In other words, everyone in the prison realm was currently facing a barrage of pure Dao thoughts.


    ¡®What exactly keeps happening with everything I do? Stars, Dao as abundant as techniques, and now¡­ Could the concept of the Cosmic Dao somehow equate to the Ascendant¡¯s Dao in complexity and result in a temporary conflict of ideas? The former is individual of the latter, so they don¡¯t mix quite as well as the others¡­ This might actually end up being a problem,¡¯ she frowned mentally, her mind having accelerated to keep up with all of this some time ago, ¡®For quite a while, my cultivation method had not been fully adapted to my own Dao, so I technically possess a lot of insights into a Dao independent of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, and it has all of my earlier creations categorised under it¡­¡¯


    She had nearly perfect comprehension of the base five elements, high comprehension of pure planar energy and blood, and some minor understanding of lightning and the silver-leaf energy techniques of her earlier Mysterious Characters technique, which also appeared to resonate with the Cosmic Dao, hence  creating the problem that she was currently occupied with.


    These things were at odds with her new interpretation of these matters, which was currently being blasted at everyone within the prison realm.


    ¡°Wei Yi, is everything alright? Even with how your anchor has been behaving as of late, this doesn¡¯t seem to be right,¡± Yi Shi Ming¡¯s voice reached her out of the prison realm, the spatial spirit hastily assembling some barriers to try and block this energy to no avail.


    ¡®Do you remember how I told you about my attempts to study various Dao in order to empower myself? Well, there¡¯s now a bit of a conflict, and it might very well be caused by the fact that I had created a star in order to represent it while everything else is very much an abstract idea somewhere in my head,¡¯ she explained to her, slowing down the time in the prison realm so that she could speak at her current speed without it going over the spatial spirit¡¯s head.


    ¡°If that is the case, shouldn¡¯t you solidify your other concept as well? That of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao?¡±


    ¡®I¡¯m not even sure whether this is a good idea but judging by the fact that a Dao in Initial Accomplishment is disturbing a Dao in Full Success, I suppose that I should do it for now.¡¯


    She didn¡¯t mention the fact that she had no idea whether this was even something that could be undone, since she didn¡¯t want to complicate matters. The barrage of ideas should stop eventually, but in that time the Kong Prison Realm would be distorted so immensely that it might as well have been a second instance of the storm walls falling and the world recovering both planar energy and life.


    Even if she had wanted to say it, there was a far larger problem, and that was that she had no clue whatsoever what to stabilise the Ascendant¡¯s Dao and everything it contained with. The Cosmic Dao had a very clear image to it, one of the stars and galaxies and nebulae, so creating one of those things was almost natural, but as she had considered before, the very representation of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao was herself. However, the Cosmic Dao had a star in its prime, while she¡­


    ¡®The image from the Realm of Potential¡­ potentially an otherworldly gift¡¯s trick, but it seems to have done a lot of good for my cultivation so far, so¡­ Fuck it.¡¯


    With those extremely unsuitable words for the situation at hand, she called upon that remaining mental image, the initial magnificence of which had long decays, and focused on what little she remembered of the true state of that memory.


    Frankly, she had no clue whether that image was of her, of some extrapolation of the concepts that she had pursued so far, or something else entirely. Regardless, Dao of Law had resonated with its imagery, as did a number of other things, so it seemed to be the safest bet that she could think of for the moment, which meant that it was also the only one that she could go for on short notice. Perhaps it would be something that she would highly regret later, or maybe it would come to be highly disadvantageous right away, but she needed to go for it right away.


    There were quite a few Dao covered by the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, as was evident by the amount of them currently affecting the Kong Prison Realm, but as she went through them one by one, she found that they had a place within that image. The chains, scales and gavel fit with the Dao of Law, the bright light appeared to be made up of the basic elements, the glow within the figure¡¯s eyes contained many aspects of yang and Dao that related to it, and that was hardly the full extent of it.


    Something that had initially seemed like an overly complex puzzle suddenly fit together as if there was no ambiguity to it at all, and the comprehension of Dao within her mind followed suit.


    All of the scattered thoughts regarding each one of them fell into the centre of the mental domain and the centre of the prison realm, blocking out the beams of thoughts that were besieging the population, and then formed into a different blinding light, the pure energy that existed within the image that had elevated her planar energy immensely with just one look.


    Somewhere behind it, to the side of both halves of the realm, an incredibly vague figure appeared, a hand reaching out to touch the sphere of light, before her head suddenly turned towards the exact location from which Wei Yi¡¯s mind was observing all of this. With the light that existed both behind and in front of the figure, it was difficult to see a single feature, but she could almost swear that the figure smiled towards her.


    Then, just as suddenly as it had entered the realm, the figure vanished, and the bright light subsided.


    The monolith and the sphere of pure planar energy within it seemed to have gone unchanged at first glance, but the centre of the planar sphere had changed from pure violet to containing the cosmos, just as her cosmic energy did.


    ¡®Well¡­ Uh, I think I solved whatever was happening¡­ If that figure was the result of something that I did, which, frankly, I can¡¯t be certain about. Why would I randomly smile to myself?¡¯


    She couldn¡¯t answer that, not at the moment, but there was one thing that this did teach her, as vexing as the idea itself appeared to be. Her Ascendant¡¯s Dao and the Cosmic Dao, the first being her deduction and extrapolation of the second, did not appear to be fully compatible with one another. Whether due to her empowering one more than the other, or due to some other reason, the Cosmic Dao was able to momentarily overpower the former, and it had nearly caused some serious damage to the spatial realm under her control.


    For now, the Cosmic Dao itself seemed to be restrained and controlled by her Endless Monolith, something that might or might not have occurred even if she did not practise the Ascendant¡¯s Path, so she didn¡¯t know how much of a part that manifestation of energy itself played in this, but it was working.


    ¡®Excellent. One problem is averted, and one mystery is added to the list. Anything else?¡¯ she asked nobody, making sure that her words didn¡¯t get out to anyone in the hopes that it wouldn¡¯t cause any further trouble, but it should have been obvious to her by now that if she wanted to avoid trouble, her current path wasn¡¯t the most suitable.


    As she planned once more to return to the matters of the Planar Continents, her gaze was marked by a strange black spot that emerged in the corner of her vision. It did move as she moved her mental vision, and when she figured out where it seemed to be originating from, she sighed.


    Before she could do much, she was swallowed by the dark spot, and found herself within the Realm of Potential. She had no clue what it was trying to do this time, and all that she could be certain of what that it had been a good idea to slow down the time of the Kong Prison Realm the moment that a problem had occurred within it. It could be another image that could permit for the formation of a Dao or a huge leap in her cultivation, or it could be something negative, but it would waste time either way.


    While her mind had focused on the Dao, the darkness of the Realm momentarily filled with light, but it faded very quickly after, prompting her to frown.


    Usually, whenever the otherworldly gift created anything, it either would or wouldn¡¯t exist, and there wouldn¡¯t be any vagueness nor uncertainty. This time, however, there were both, and it hadn¡¯t occurred from a technique but the very thought of the Dao instead ¨C the pondering of which once more conjured that vague image.


    This obviously prompted further investigation, so she focused on something that she understood reasonably well, but not as much as her prime Dao, just in case it would lead to some more complications. As nice as the outcomes of certain complications could be, she had enough for the day.


    Her chosen Dao for the test was the Absolute Dao, and just as before, when it was focused upon, a vague image appeared before her. However, the more she focused upon it, the more the image became clear, and the clearer it became that it was not the same one that the very concept of the Dao led to. While that contained much of the light that the image the Realm of Potential had given her before had, the Absolute Dao had only the vague shape of something piercing all things.


    ¡®No, not piercing. The Absolute does not need to care for something of the sort. It passes through, whatever the material, whatever the place- wait, what did-¡¯


    The image before her flared up all of a sudden, growing denser and brighter, the earlier concept becoming far more obvious to her even when she did not look at the image at all. Furthermore, she felt her vision blur for a moment, recovering the next, and while it made no difference inside the realm, she could notice one direct change with the simple conjuring of a mirror.


    Another circle had formed within her vision, another Dao reached the Great Stride stage, and she achieved another vision state, all through an unplanned, second-long visit to the Realm of Potential. In short, it was the most confusing day in a long time.


    ¡®What is happening to me today? Things are, technically, going well, but can¡¯t the world not throw back all of the agitation I had encouraged while at the auction? I was much nicer than this¡­¡¯ Wei Yi got that complain out of her system before focusing on the more important matters, ¡®So, judging by the way that this is responding to my thoughts, it seems that it now allows me to comprehend Dao more quickly. I must have been on the edge of the Absolute Dao¡¯s next stage after my work with the inscriptions, so getting in here sped up the process significantly. The notion of the Absolute not simply destroying all but instead overcoming it completely had already been somewhere in my mind, but the otherworldly gift must have pushed it to the forefront. If that¡¯s all, then this should be perfectly fine.¡¯


    As she had concluded before, the Truth of the Universe completed everything that she hadn¡¯t in a mechanical, artificial manner that was possibly tainted by the azure light that had inhabited it, but the Realm of Potential was effectively allowing her own thoughts to be focused far more precisely than usual, guiding her to the answer instead of forcing it onto her.


    It had some modification of the perceived future in order to suit her, that much she could be sure of, but it had much less of a chance to negatively affect her due to the differences between the approaches.


    That meant that cultivation of the Dao should be mostly safe within it, so long as she believed the acceleration of her thoughts to be worthwhile, but with the way in which she occasionally became enlightened to all kinds of things, it wouldn¡¯t be a good idea to use it for the primary Ascendant Dao, Cosmic Dao or the Dao of Law, which were her most significant Dao so far. Everything else could benefit from it, although moderation and some individual contemplation would still be for the best.


    She sighed, then left the Realm of Potential once she confirmed that she was able to.


    Just to be certain, she looked around the spatial realm to confirm that nothing significant was damaged, and that there were no more oddities intending to appear before her, and seemed to find none, finally allowing her to leave.


    Within the Planar Continents, very little time had passed, so when her eyes reopened, it seemed as if she had just blinked unusually slowly.


    ¡°That¡¯s a very useful ability. Shame I went for wood-type cultivation when I¡­ Wei Yi?¡± the maid paused, looking her directly in the eyes for quite a while. She didn¡¯t seem to be satisfied with just that, so she took a step forward and looked even more closely, her own eyes narrowing as if she was searching for something. ¡°Has anyone ever told you that you have beautiful eyes?¡±


    Everything that had just occurred was rather draining, but Wei Yi managed to regain her calmness and leaned forward, until their faces nearly met, ¡°At this point, I might have said the same about your lips, and we could have had a moment, but the voyeur is around again.¡±


    This time, they didn¡¯t even need to rely on her words or on their spiritual perception, as the sound of something falling over on the other side of a wall was heard.


    ¡°I guess this wall isn¡¯t soundproof, then,¡± Shun Liu Min said, not turning to look towards the sound but instead maintaining a focused stare into her eyes, ¡°Your eyes do seem to get more and more brilliant with every day I see them.¡±


    ¡°Back onto that topic¡­ Let¡¯s not spend all day doing this and nothing else.¡±


    The maid was naturally reluctant, seeing as she became entranced with her eyes in the first place, but when Wei Yi stepped away and put her mask back on, no amount of sudden fascination would make her think that it was a good idea to keep pushing something that even she didn¡¯t fully understand. After all, save for a thin circle within the iris of her eyes, nothing else had changed from a minute ago, and yet she wasn¡¯t so focused on her then.


    Remembering the discussion they had during their journey to the district also helped, since it was clear that her current behaviour was not so different from an attempt at flirting, which wouldn¡¯t be of much use even if Shun Liu Min had a lot of experience and skill in it. Due to her circumstances, she did not.


    As such, she also prepared to leave, quickly adjusting her hair and taking the weapons that had been prepared for her.


    With a third of her life having been spent within the mansion of Ping Gangze, she lacked much experience with combat beside what she had been taught back in the Shun District, so in order to make it easiest for her to be able to contribute, Wei Yi chose a spear for her. First of all, the spear as a weapon was one of the easiest to learn, it allowed for a lot of range between a user and their foe, and tended to benefit from raw strength more so than a sword might. For someone who needed to get to grips with a weapon quickly, it was perhaps the best choice, not to mention all of the techniques that Wei Yi already had to teach her.


    Just as with many other ideas and notions, the Ascendant had embedded most of her basic comprehension of various weapon arts and elements into the Ascendant¡¯s Disciple technique, so it would be easier for Shun Liu Min to learn these things than it would be for those without that same technique. She would be given the Living Spear and the Eight Great Changes the moment that she was able to wield the spear effectively, which would make her a little more competent in battle.


    Once she had that grasped, she would be able to pick up other techniques a little more naturally, using her understanding of the spear as a foundation, and if she invests a lot of time into practicing it at a later point, she could even condense some kind of spear intent or Spear Dao, depending on whether there was even a difference between the two.


    ¡®Come to think of it, I technically possess a Law Intent and Absolute Intent now, don¡¯t I? I¡¯ll need to see whether I can make use of it in today¡¯s encounter,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, glancing over at the Truth of the Universe while Shun Liu Min was placing the spear on her back, ¡®If I also develop my Hand Dao and Sword Dao, I could resemble the supposed heroes of the Wu family, who have mastered their techniques to such an extent that they don¡¯t require planar energy in order to perform the abilities that it would usually bestow. Depending on how they practise their martial arts, that might not be false¡­¡¯


    When they were prepared, they left, not bothering to speak to Xin Fu, who had considerably more trouble maintaining her smile this time.


    They headed out of the residence, out of the district, ignoring those that tailed them since they had already figured out a way to handle them, and left through the gates with the aid of a pass given to her by Chen Xiu alongside the many planar stones and shards.

 V3C84: Petty Revenge

    Just as expected, their tail continued after them, getting more and more daring the further out they went, until they had reached a sufficient distance from the Chao District that no methods of empowering spiritual perception or otherwise observing them would be able to catch even a glimpse of their actions.


    Even if they didn¡¯t intend to kill anyone, and even if they were just going to rob a few things to make themselves feel better, nobody wanted to risk angering some brute from the Chao family.


    The notion that such a brute wouldn¡¯t be able to manifest much spiritual perception was actually rather misleading, as a simpleminded focus on a single path of raw strength did not mean that the mind was weak. On the contrary, to be able to endure all kinds of troubles and tribulations and come out of them with more strength, it required an immense resilience, which could manifest in a well-trained mind, and thus it could lead to a very powerful spiritual perception that was used entirely unconsciously, giving a kind of sixth sense to some without them even understanding the origin of it.


    As such, to look down on those with high strength was foolish, even if they did not appear to use any kind of technique consciously. All they needed was a push then, and all kinds of powers and abilities would open up to them.


    People of the Chao District understood this well enough, and so they avoided going against the rules of the district within the sight of those that enforced them.


    It was quite fortunate for them that their prey decided to head out to the desert so soon after the auction, and that they made no effort to change their appearances, or so they believed. After all, a whole host of fourth realm cultivators against two in the third realm¡­ What could go wrong?


    ¡®I wonder whether I should make use of God Burial Sea or some of the brands instead. Both should be rather interesting to witness, although one might give away that I made the inscriptions¡­ Could be amusing to see how they react,¡¯ Wei Yi, the primary target of these people, was thinking to herself as she and Shun Liu Min proceeded through the desert, no real idea of where the things that they wanted were.


    Even though Yi Shi Ming had seen the fortress they were looking for and would be able to identify it the moment that she witnessed it, she was currently occupied with observing the strangeness of Wei Yi¡¯s Endless Monolith and didn¡¯t know what had changed in the area around it, so she wasn¡¯t able to do much yet. The landmarks that should have remained constant could be located anywhere in the vast desert, hence the search parties that Wei Yi had made the merchant organise, so until any one of them could be located, they would only be wandering blindly.


    Of course, Wei Yi would keep track of where they had gone and what they had yet to see, and provide that map to the exploration teams to contribute to it, potentially allowing for the area to the north of the district to be mapped out in far greater detail than anyone had before.


    It would lead to the people of the Chao District having a slightly better idea of where the hidden fortress was once it was found and activated, but the natural obscuring ability of the fortress should prevent them from detecting it no matter how much effort is put into it, and whatever protective measures were already in place there might be sufficient to ward off greedy individuals in the fourth and fifth realms, although it would certainly be bad if the Greats managed to hear of it.


    Until any of this could be verified or experimented with, however, neither she nor the spatial spirit could come up with any better options.


    ¡°Those dunes over there look perfect for an ambush. I¡¯d imagine that if we go through there and then make it obvious that we intend to go back, they wouldn¡¯t miss the opportunity,¡± Wei Yi said, pointing to a very tactically advantageous spot, ¡°I think that the part beyond there, the small sand hill in the middle of the flat terrain, could also be raised quite easily for a great vantage point over the area.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re far more familiar with this kind of terrain than I would have expected. I thought that you¡¯d come from the area near the Yi District, but you¡¯re far more able to get through the sands than I am,¡± Shun Liu Min said, ¡°Everything about you is very impressive.¡±


    ¡°You can, and probably should, have stopped some time ago. I get it, but the enemies behind us don¡¯t need to be aware that I am very capable, not that most of them have even the faintest chance of hearing us due to their own incompetence. Instead, you could be focusing on learning my methods, paying attention yourself, figuring out how to draw the spear quickly if they don¡¯t decide to talk first, that sort of thing,¡± the Ascendant suggested, silently flickering in and out of the killing will state to practise also.


    While she was far more confident with every single aspect of her every technique, save for the Destruction Brand and God Burial Sea that have not yet seen much use other than in inscriptions, the latter even less so than the former, it never hurt to be more prepared and more confident. The recent changes in the Cosmic Dao could have easily affected every aspect of her cultivation, and to not be certain that she was able to do everything without any harm to herself or any accidental damage to Shun Liu Min and other allies would be reckless at best.


    Fortunately, it seemed that the only change that she was able to witness was that her current cosmic energy simply had a lighter outline around the internal cosmic gateway, and it did little more.


    It differed in strength as well, but that had occurred so many times to her that she would probably be more confused than if it hadn¡¯t occurred, since she would then be expecting her energy to grow in power and would instead find the same old peak third-realm ability as before. So long as nothing intrinsic about it became different, she wouldn¡¯t have any issues.


    ¡°I just think that you deserve the praise, and I have been focusing on everything else as well.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t meant that you aren¡¯t able to focus more,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°That¡¯s the one universal law of things ¨C whatever you do, it can be done better.¡±


    ¡°There have to be more than that, right? Like, for example, all people will be attracted to-¡±


    ¡°Enough from you. Just because I treat you nicely, that doesn¡¯t mean that you should repeatedly do the same thing over and over again, especially after I specifically ask you to stop,¡± Wei Yi said, nearly flicking the maid¡¯s forehead before she thought better about it and kept her hand where it was, ¡°It would be one thing if you were just randomly doing this, but you¡¯re also trying to remain a maid, a maid that happens to be very good at following or even predicting certain kinds of instructions. I am no expert in the matter, but shouldn¡¯t you be trying to please your master?¡±


    ¡°Alright, point taken, I understand. Today, however, it is much more difficult to keep my eyes away than usual, and it seems to be extending to conversation as well as my attention.¡±


    ¡°Is that so? What exactly is drawing so much attention this time?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ it is difficult to explain exactly what this kind of attraction looks like¡­ Perhaps a little like a star that has descended to the ground, and now illuminates the world around you? It¡¯s like that today, although I can¡¯t name a single change beside those thin circles in your eyes.¡±


    ¡°Like a star?¡± Wei Yi raised an eyebrow, and instantly realised an aspect of what she had accomplished with her Cosmic Dao. Since she lacked much of the necessary comprehension of space itself, as well as the way in which most of it functioned, she must have filled in the amazement that many including her felt about it instead, using the entirety of the world¡¯s feelings about the cosmos to reach the Initial Accomplishment stage.


    In that case, it would make sense why she drew this much attention from the common people that she passed as well as those that were currently chasing her. Something with the equivalent amount of potential importance and power had passed them, and if they didn¡¯t look at her because of either that or her appearance, they would either need to be incredibly busy or outright blind.


    She didn¡¯t even need to inflate her own status in order to say such things, as her knowledge, power, cultivation and accumulated otherworldly gifts placed her in a rather unique position where she could change quite a few things so long as she managed to grow sufficiently to reach a sufficient level. Perhaps even without reaching the ninth realm, she could dominate the Great Families and permanently bring them down, and possibly deal with whatever threat they claim to be guarding against. On the topic of which, while she did not believe most of the claims that they made, especially the one about being tasked to do their deeds by the heavens, she did think that most of their words had to originate from some semblance of reality in order to convince all of them sufficiently.


    Perhaps there was no commandment from the heavens, but there had been some trustworthy prophet or augur that informed them of it. It could be that there is no great threat to all humanity, but a force that wishes to end them and thus needs to be faced in full force.


    She didn¡¯t know whether any of these assumptions were accurate in any way, as there was plenty of room for them to be speaking the truth but warp it in some way, or they could even be fully honest at all times, but fortunately enough, that wasn¡¯t the current focus, nor a pressing matter. When she did obtain the ability to oppose the Greats beyond taking down one or two of their third generation with some luck, she would be sure to learn everything.


    They proceeded through the conveniently formed dunes, then, the moment that those following them advanced to them, they stopped and had what might be interpreted as a quick tactical discussion.


    In truth, that was not at all what they were discussing.


    ¡°Do you think that you could ever teach me some of the necessary skills of being a maid, since you¡¯re quite knowledgeable on the subject?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Eh? Teaching you¡­ how to¡­ why in the heavens would you ever want to know that? I could probably teach you a lot of other things if you really want me to share something for once, like any of the Shun family¡¯s techniques, or even something basic, like how to bake bread, if you¡­ right, you don¡¯t eat much¡­ eh¡­¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly what¡¯s going through your head, but I am just curious. As you should have noticed, there are times when I tend to act in order to benefit the situation. If I ever need to act the part of a maid, would it not be better for me to be prepared?¡± Wei Yi stopped her, explaining it before the maid had any chance to go completely insane, ¡°If you want, you can even teach me the skills themselves, the etiquette and so on, without the whole ¡®maid¡¯ part, and I can just fill that in myself when I need to.¡±


    ¡°S-So you¡­ are planning to replace me with a clone of yourself?¡±


    ¡°Woman, you need to start making sense. Unless you¡¯re just trying to put on an act as well, in which case I will join in just this once.¡±


    ¡°No, I was¡­ could it work as a way to fool them?¡±


    ¡°You were certainly speaking very passionately just now, so I think that if none of them have brought anything to enhance the range of their spiritual perception and hide it from the attention of someone like me, they will be fooled,¡± she answered, pausing immediately after, ¡°Come to think of it, reading lips is also possible. I barely ever need to do it, so I¡¯ve pretty much forgotten about that.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s be difficult to read your lips, or any of your actions, and I don¡¯t move my mouth that much, so it might be effective¡­¡±


    They looked at one another for a while, with Shun Liu Min keeping her gaze on the other¡¯s eyes while Wei Yi was more focused on her own thoughts. While this was not initially part of any kind of plan that they had, seeing as they hadn¡¯t discussed much prior to coming out here, they both thought it worked.


    For the moment, it did not matter exactly why those following them believed that they were intending to head back, only that they were not immediately put off from remaining in place and being robbed for the rest of whatever remained of their funds. They could have gone back due to some disagreement, realisation, or perhaps even the wild idea of the woman that was highly keen to spend far, far too much money on something that she wouldn¡¯t even benefit from, but only the outcome itself mattered. No matter what they made them think, they would be convinced otherwise the moment they were defeated.


    ¡°So, shall you teach me, and shall we get going?¡±


    ¡°I guess that I can do so, but if you could, please promise me that you won¡¯t just replace me for yourself, or someone else with the knowledge that I pass onto you.¡±


    ¡°First of all, let me tell you that you currently have a somewhat sane mind, so don¡¯t immediately tarnish it with an unnecessary and unwise obsession on a person that essentially happened to rescue you in order to benefit themselves. There are some that don¡¯t have as much of a choice, and if you intentionally join their ranks, I would say that you are both disrespecting them and needlessly harming yourself. Second of all, if you are satisfied by some simple words, it¡¯s no wonder that you prefer to be on the bottom,¡± Wei Yi said sternly, ¡°Lastly, I could do so.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ You know, whenever I speak with you, I feel rather bad about the vast majority of the things you say, as if I have failed in every aspect in my life and you are now judging me much like the heavens would at the end of my life¡­¡±


    ¡°Going or not?¡±


    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s go! I¡¯d gladly be back in that place, fighting countless people that we scammed, rather than remaining here and dealing with whatever it is¡­¡±


    ¡°Just casual advice and recommendations, nothing more. As I mentioned, you are in a better place than some, and you have the opportunity not to get to the same place as they are through your conscious actions. Just take advantage of it, for your sake and my own, as well as for the sake of the world. Take your pick,¡± Wei Yi instructed, turning around and forcing Shun Liu Min to follow.


    The maid didn¡¯t quite understand how she could do anything for the sake of the entire world, given that she did not yet know of the Greats, the groups going against them, or even of the existence of the Kong Prison Realm, but just as Wei Yi was able to appear rather scary no matter what she did when she put her mind to it, the Ascendant was also extremely convincing in the way she spoke. Even if she ever said something that wasn¡¯t true, it would be impossible to judge purely based on her words or her intonation.


    Since she wouldn¡¯t be able to figure something like this out until she was given more information, Shun Liu Min instead brought one hand to rest upon the shaft of her spear, doing so lightly as to not make it too suspicious.


    They were about to get into battle, and even if she wouldn¡¯t be able to do much with her cultivation, she would still need to be able to protect herself against any sudden attacks that Wei Yi couldn¡¯t stop. The latter would have naturally preferred to be in control of it all and avert any such strikes, but reality was hardly ever so kind as to give her a group of enemies that had no semblance of thought at all. If they weren¡¯t taken out immediately, they would be bound to notice that she was protecting Shun Liu Min the first time they attacked and would then be interested in killing or capturing the maid in order to obtain an advantage against her.


    Even with the most powerful strikes of someone in a realm above one¡¯s own, it was possible to deflect or block them so long as it was done wisely, but that would usually only be limited to a single such attack. Any more than one, and there would be no way for the energy and body of the usual cultivator to endure such a thing.


    With the power of the Ascendant¡¯s Disciple technique, Shun Liu Min was in a slightly better position than most, but that did not put her anywhere near the level of someone like Wei Yi, who was an utter aberrant through and through. Just from what little she knew about her past achievements, the maid was aware that Wei Yi did not need to sleep or eat, could defeat foes in the fourth and fifth realms even when she was only in the fifth stage of the third realm, and now had an absolute massive¡­ well, from her limited experience so far.


    ¡°They are going to emerge soon, most likely, so be prepared to draw your weapon.¡±


    Keeping her speech hidden with some spiritual will and the mask, Wei Yi proceeded onwards, entering the area where the people that had followed them now hid with the convenient opportunity they had been given.


    They proceeded in a calm manner, save for the maid¡¯s hand on her weapon, while Wei Yi merely needed to tense her fingers in preparation for any physical confrontation that might need to occur in the situation. With their walking calm and their postures not clearly communicating their readiness to battle, those observing them couldn¡¯t see a hint of danger to themselves, judging by their silent signals to one another, and thus emerged.


    From all sides of the dune-formed encirclement, men and women emerged with weapons ready, some already channelling and preparing techniques while others pulled out various inscriptions and inscription plates, with some of them being immediately familiar to the pair, and to those that had not seen them outside of the auction just yet.


    ¡®Attempting to use my own inscriptions against me¡­ I knew this would happen, and yet they are still managing to surprise with just how careless they are. A new person in the district, a new set of inscription plates, and they don¡¯t even question whether there might be some coincidence?¡¯ she mentally chided those that had brought out their inscriptions plates right away, since those that hadn¡¯t at the very least reserved something that they could pull out at a later point and surprise her even if she was expecting it ¨C in their minds, at least ¨C while most did not, ¡°Are you lot begging me to take you down painfully?¡±


    The question was rather sudden, and it threw quite a few people off guard for just long enough for her to raise a hand and diffuse a vast quantity of energy into the air and ground.


    Before those that were closest to her had any opportunity to react, they suddenly felt an enormous pressure force them down into the ground, seemingly digging their feet through the sand itself as it parted for them. The invisible pressure and pull were not particularly strong in the first instant, but after only one was able to escape, it seemed to double and triple within the next moment.


    While the one to escape was in the fifth realm, and was thus able to leap into the air and step away from the enormous influence, the rest were all in the fourth realm, and with every breath they felt more and more of their bodies dig into the sand, which didn¡¯t remain unchanged.


    Right before their eyes, the sand became darker and thicker, seemingly turning into mud without a trace of water pouring into it, with this area expanding from them and forming into a large circle that ended beside Wei Yi and Shun Liu Min on the inside and almost consumed the foot of someone who failed to retreat in time on the outside. They tried to strike the ground with techniques, they attempted to leap out and flee, some even attempted to decisively slice off their legs and get away without them, but no matter what they did, something conspired to keep them there.


    ¡®It is relevant to the Dao of Law indeed. That fifth realm cultivator supposedly has more raw strength, so he could flee, but they will not be able to escape the God Burial Sea,¡¯ Wei Yi observed.


    As it seemed that both the description within the technique manual and her own interpretation of its power and effectiveness appeared correct, she looked to those outside of the circle and raised a hand in preparation, although she did not do anything just yet, allowing them to ponder it for a little while to test their nerves.


    ¡°Tell me, everyone ¨C what exactly is this about?¡± she asked after that while, just to be sure.


    She did not bother using her previous attempt at an arrogant and wealthy tone in this confrontation, which only caught some of them now, but with one major surprise, they seemed far more prepared for more.


    Their confusion passed quickly, and they looked to one another in silent pondering regarding the best answer to provide. Judging by the rather sour expressions on some, mostly those currently buried within the mud up to their waists and continuing to descend, they had not anticipated this level of trouble, not from the very start, and as such whatever threadbare plan they had concocted before rushing out to chase after her was not sufficient.


    Finally, one of their leaders, a fifth realm cultivator who had not appeared at the auction proclaimed, ¡°This is about the money that you stole from the people that came to trade fairly at the auction!¡±


    With a direction decided, the others also joined in, proclaiming that she was a thief, scoundrel, liar and whatever else, caring not for the exact word used so long as it was able to supplement the wave of accusations around her. Some even empowered their voices with vocal techniques, although they did not risk anything beyond simply raising the volume of their voice sufficiently.


    ¡°Theft? You intend to accuse me of purchasing and bidding for items fairly?¡±


    ¡°You did not plan to purchase any of the inscription plates, did you?¡± that fifth realm cultivator, a younger man wearing robust trousers and a harness diagonally across his torso that helped hold the scabbard of a sabre, proclaimed, ¡°Did you not incite ridiculous prices?¡±


    ¡°Please, ridiculous prices? How many of you have used these plates already? Are you impressed? Would you have been happy if you knew just how powerful they were from the start? Also, how can you possibly judge my intentions? I did like them, but I could hardly deal with the sudden increase in price and the insane bids that seemed to occur the moment that I decided to attempt to acquire an item. Hardly my fault,¡± Wei Yi replied.


    ¡°Don¡¯t play smart with us!¡± another fifth realm fighter exclaimed, clearly less able to deal with her than the first, ¡°Give us some compensation!¡±


    She raised an eyebrow and paused for a moment.


    ¡°Compensation? Sure, I can do that. Why don¡¯t you stand still for a moment, and you shall see exactly how much you will be compensated? It¡¯ll even be incredibly obvious for those of you who might be somewhat hard of sight, how about that?¡±


    The hand that she had raised into the air shut into a fist, causing another storm of energy to emerge from her body. It filled the air above her and rather than barraging people in such a state, it instead coalesced into countless crimson circles within the air, each one pulsing and beating with powerful energies. A complex pattern filled each one, differing from glowing symbol to luminous mark, but even though this was not exactly what they had seen, they still understood immediately what the label for such a thing should be.


    Innumerable brands filled the sky, each one glowing with the same radiance as all of the different brands produced by the Brand Alternator inscription.


    ¡°You are-¡±


    That figure amongst the fourth realm cultivators had no chance to speak as the brands pulsed outwards, one appearing above everyone within the encirclement, even those that had been mostly hidden up to that point with some combination of the desert sand and stealth methods. Not even those in the ground were spared.


    Before they fell, each person desperately attempted something to ward them off, be it a physical barrier formed with planar energy or even an attack to counter the falling brand.


    Regardless of their power, intent and ingenuity, the next instant saw them being struck by the orange and crimson Destruction Brand, each one filled with the ire energy of the rarest brands produced by the inscription as well as several other forms of power that they couldn¡¯t recognise, whether by name or appearance. Together, they fell and instantly branded their flesh, exploding the next instant with that internal energy and blinding those in the ground, for they were now up to their necks in the mud-like sand and were thus faced with the brands striking near their eyes, sometimes even them precisely.


    However, the injuries or even deaths that some expected did not occur, as the exploding energy suddenly froze mid-explosion and left them in the very dangerous proximity of those things instead. They hoped that this was the act of another, but Wei Yi¡¯s following actions put those hopes to rest.


    ¡°You, the coward hiding in the sand. I know you¡¯re there. Come out, and if you are honest, this brand might not fall onto your head right now,¡± she said, looking at a particular point in one of the dunes.


    The person inside, a common thief that had risen to the fourth realm through constant petty thefts, scams and whatever else he was able to manage, was absolutely flabbergasted. To be found so quickly despite his technique being meant to block spiritual perception from being able to tell him apart from his surroundings indicated a terrifying ability, and one that he did not wish to cross no matter what, prompting him to emerge.


    Little did he know that spiritual perception wasn¡¯t even required in the eyes of Wei Yi¡¯s memory, which allowed her to quickly confirm that some of the dunes had moved after their initial pass through the area unlike the way in which they should have done, giving her a good idea of what has occurred.


    ¡°W-What do you need me to tell you?¡± the thief quickly asked.


    ¡°Tell me the exact plan and intentions of your group. Did you just want to relieve me of some of my wealth, or were your actions less righteous than that?¡±


    The scared man didn¡¯t hesitate for even a second, answering, ¡°I¡¯d been told that we¡¯d be catching you, getting all of your money, and leaving you to return to the district with nothing more than your underwear, if you were lucky¡­ It was that man that suggested it! That guy with the stupid belt thing around his body!¡±


    ¡°I see. Your contribution is appreciated,¡± Wei Yi said, clicking her finger.


    All of the ire energy, alongside a new brand that instantly fell on the thief, exploded, finishing off all those within the sand and greatly injuring those outside, only for the brands to rise and fall one more time to finish the job.


    Blood covered the dry desert sand that day.

 V3C85: Analysis of Ire

    After the Kong Prison Realm, Wei Yi had no problems with killing, and that had not gotten any less true after she gained the ability to freely look into the thoughts of those she was dealing with.


    So far as she was able to tell, some of those people did have families, or businesses that they were keeping afloat with their contributions, and some even took care of the weak and poor when they could. She could hardly deny that these were significant things to many, but she also knew from the day¡¯s experience that they would commit to an attack and theft of a person that had done little to most of them. There had been many people in the group, but only thirty-one had spent more money that they had wanted, while only ten of those people were present.


    That meant that most were simply present to steal something from her, like the recently deceased thief that had made the mistake of trying to sell out those he had come along with in an attempt to earn her favour.


    So far as she could tell, there was no reason to finish them off for her own benefit.


    From their demise, she earned a few more planar anchor points, bringing her to seven hundred and twenty-three, meaning that they could soon contribute to the increase of planar energy within the air of the Planar Continents, and from their hands she could reclaim some of the inscriptions that she had sold, as well as quite a few valuable items that could be used so long as she found a use for them.


    Something like this could potentially lead to a great change in the world, while their lives would be unlikely to.


    Just as she had thought back when she had slain the Black Terror of Beast¡¯s Rest, she did not believe that she was necessarily doing the right thing. In fact, if she was to be her own judge from some independent, unbiased perspective, the act itself was not a positive one at all, since their occasional inclinations to theft did not necessarily outweigh the positive contributions that they had been able to make throughout their lives, if supposedly good and evil deeds could even be balanced in such a fashion.


    However, this was her path, her risks, and her pursuit. If she failed, then, as she had imagined quite a few times, the world could judge her for her misdeeds, and find some terrible fate for her to suffer. On the other hand, if she managed to succeed and convinced the Planar Continents that she had done so, she wouldn¡¯t need praise or wealth. So long as she could ensure that the stable state she wished for the continents could persist and endure any trials and tribulations, or, in other words, so long as she had the power to continue such a thing, whether on her own or through somebody or something that she could trust absolutely, then it would be fine.


    Even then, if the world found her methods to be inexcusable, it would be something that she could accept, although it would be a shame if she had managed to achieve most of her goals only to be disposed of by a world that did not agree with her vision.


    ¡®Again, my mind seems to drift. Something like that is useful at times, but most of the time, focus is far more important,¡¯ she thought to herself, returning her attention to the remains of the God Burial Sea technique within the sand and dirt, ¡®Now this is something far more recent, and more interesting. It seems that the ire energy embedded in the brands dispelled the law of restriction.¡¯


    Most of the sand within the thick circle around her was still dark and mud-like, but in the spots where the dead bodies of those who got captured still remained, it was far lighter and less restrictive, likely being far less of a challenge for most people to cross than the God Burial Sea itself.


    In a word, this was interesting. Not just due to the conflict between energy that shouldn¡¯t have occurred, but due to the seeming cause of it. When she set down a few more brands, with varying levels of energy infusion and alterations to test out their effects, she found that only the brands with ire energy inside of them were able to inflict any damage to the God Burial Sea, whereas the rest collided uneventfully and returned into the sky as they were meant to.


    So far as she was able to understand this, it seemed that the ire energy didn¡¯t simply destroy the restriction technique, but instead caused a conflict of Dao that dispelled its effects.


    ¡®The God Burial Sea is heavily bound to the Dao of Law, so the ire energy is in opposition to law? No, perhaps it is even a direct opposite? Yes, ire is another word for fury, indignation, and in extreme, rebellion. My Dao of Law is absolute, so what I witness here is absolute rebellion against it¡­ In other words, ire energy of all kinds, despite its mechanical origin, is in fact a branch of the Dao of Law itself?¡¯ she contemplated, bringing her focus into the Kong Prison Realm for a moment, ¡®The Ire Dao, a rebellion against the law, against restrictions, against fate¡­ Judging from the descriptions of the man that had used it, he was most certainly intent on rebelling against the order of things on the Silver Side¡­¡¯


    Her mental gaze returned to the Endless Monolith, the core of which glowed brightly, barely showing a glimpse of the cosmos in the very core of it. With her thoughts, however, the light became brighter, and the amount of energy threatened to increase again.


    ¡®I can restrict everything with the Dao of Law, binding rebellion into a lawful matter, but in order to do so, the condensation of ideas must change somewhat,¡¯ she understood instantly, but the exact shape that this changed form should take was a little more difficult to guess, especially considering her earlier encounter with some vague figure that had seemed to see her, then vanish entirely.


    To prevent a repeat of that time, even if it did seem to end well, she decided to focus and pay close attention to her actions and deductions, making sure that every thought that she invested into this was considered in proper detail and wouldn¡¯t cause problems in any kind of timeframe.


    After a short while of her mental time, and essentially no time at all inside of the prison realm and especially outside of it, she came up with a few ideas that should work, and was now contemplating the most optimal one to choose from. Among her ideas, something like edicts stuck onto the sphere of light seemed to have some potential, as it would replicate the way in which law could bind with mere words, but that only led her to decide on a better idea.


    ¡®In a way, the law binds. It restricts and ties one down, for to act within the law is to abide by restrictions, whether in nature or in modern human civilization. The law, regardless of the way in which it appears, is a mass of chains, each one binding more and more, until one¡¯s freedom is restricted to an immense degree.¡¯


    Around the sphere of light in the centre of the monolith, a series of illusory chains, thick and powerful, formed, wrapping around it and being held taut on either end with some invisible attachment to the air.


    ¡®However, the law also protects, for to act within it means that it is possible to benefit from that which may hinder another. To understand it and to use it to one¡¯s own advantage means that any who seek to break it in order to attack you will be met with the full force of the law, whether it is a natural response like the retaliation from a hunter carnivore or the heat of flames being able to burn those who set it, or supposedly unnatural, like guards attacking a criminal that sought to end the life of a respected and protected man,¡¯ she added, ¡®With perfect mastery of it, no additional action must be taken in order for its full benefits to be bestowed upon you.¡¯


    The chains around the sphere became denser and tougher, no longer seeming like an illusion that could be broken with a mere touch. Each link transformed from mere iron to steel, becoming thicker and more secure, tightly enveloping the sphere of light without blocking a single glimpse of the light itself, as if they remained as illusory as before.


    ¡®The law is also a weapon against those that obey it or are still bound to it. So long as the chains are wielded properly, they are as much of a boon to the chained as they are a threat to any other¡­¡¯


    All of the restrictive chains suddenly loosened, but their number grew denser and they seemed to hold the light even more securely than before, protecting those outside from within and the within from outside.


    ¡®Finally, the act of rebellion, in itself, is law. It occurs whenever the law strays too heavily into weakness or strength, being able to hold a man without benefit or keeping him lose with all of the power that one could use. It is an attempt to restore balance, to reclaim that which must be had, and it occurs always and freely, unrestricted by the views of human society. Beasts may engage in rebellion, insects may, matter can, even energy can do so. It is not about a conscious desire for chaos, but the will to see a change that one believes to be right¡­¡¯ her eyes, mental and physical, shut.


    Meanwhile, the chains in the centre of the anchor, unseen by most, gained a crimson vibrance in their core. Much like how the Cosmic Dao had bestowed the core of the anchor¡¯s pure planar energy light and the star that resided within it with a gateway to the cosmos, the ire that spread throughout the chains granted them a slight hint of a similar portal to a domain of absolute crimson rebellion.


    However, even something like that was bound by the chains themselves, the ire supporting the very things that kept it in place.


    ¡®The world is bound by law. And yet, through it, it attains freedom. What a contradictory thing, and yet¡­¡¯ her eyes reopened, witnessing this sight as it settled down, the Dao concepts finally settling again, ¡®Actually, I still don¡¯t know whether these Dao concepts actually reflect reality, or if they are merely stable here because I see no flaws with them. If I encounter a contradiction that I cannot solve, will my entire understanding of a Dao simple shatter? Would such a thing occur even if I hadn¡¯t solidified them like this?¡¯


    As was often the case in life, one¡¯s questions could be many, but the answers would be limited and not immediate, even at the best of times. In order to test those questions, she¡¯d need to risk her current strength and find something that heavily contradicts her current view of the world, which was tough.


    The issue with such a thing was that she naturally believed herself to be correct in the interpretation of everything so far. Her idea of the Dao of Law, the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, and everything about the world itself was only stable because she had been able to confirm it numerous times. That meant that if she wanted to test it, she would need to locate someone who heavily disagreed with her stances and also had the evidence and interpretation to prove it, and would then not capitalise on momentary weakness if it id did occur, meaning that the likes of the Greats were immediately out of the question.


    If that possibility was true, it would be rather disappointing for her, not due to the threat that it caused, but due to the fragility that the Dao would force upon her. In order to survive, she had needed to change certain perspectives quickly, and an immovable Dao would prevent such a thing from happening without causing even more trouble than the circumstance.


    At that point, it would be more worthwhile to discard it and return to pure technique cultivation, supplementing her strength with raw cultivation and power rather than something that forces her to avoid risking anything that could shatter a Dao. Even if it was easy to put it back together and incorporate the new insight, it would still take mental energy, effort, and likely some time, meaning that it wouldn¡¯t be something she could do freely.


    In other words, to rely heavily on something like that was effectively equivalent to putting an inscription that was being controlled from afar by a hostile, powerful cultivator into your home without even checking its nature. It could end well, but it would be more likely to result in pain or even death.


    She presumed, based on her current understanding of the Dao, that this wouldn¡¯t be the case, as she had already figured out that there are separate branches that embody different aspects of a Dao. With her Absolute Branch of the Dao of Law, and the image that is based on her views of it, it should be that the image will allow her to make use of that interpretation of reality, no matter what the actual truth of the matter is. Under that assumption, so long as she did not personally seek to scatter the Dao and dismiss everything about it, there should be no danger, although she really didn¡¯t like taking such a risk.


    ¡®To avoid the risk, switching my focus back to the techniques that I do have would be the sensible choice. I have plenty of anchor points to spend, and need to do so in order to increase the concentration of planar energy, so once I deduce a path for some of them, I should immediately improve them just in case,¡¯ she decided, glancing at the Truth of the Universe interface once before moving her attention.


    With this pondering of Dao being the second one of the day, even though she hadn¡¯t been spending hours of real time on it, she still felt that a lot of time had passed, and that moving on would be wise.


    There were still the matters of desert exploration to consider, after all, and if she kept shutting her eyes and then emerging with new Dao insights and circles in her eyes after opening them a moment later, Shun Liu Min would at the very least figure out that something was going on, and might even start taking advantage of the brief pauses to resume her staring while Wei Yi was unable to handle her immediately.


    This time, when she brought her focus back onto the Planar Continents, the maid had fortunately not yet noticed anything about her actions as she had her focus purely on the bodies around them, some of which were slowly being brought out of the ground as the God Burial Sea ended.


    ¡°Have you not seen a dead body before?¡± she asked.


    Her question, although not intended to scare the woman, managed to cause her to tremble momentarily, a noticeable jitter spreading throughout her body.


    ¡°I¡­ Well, not really, unless you count those who would be dead soon¡­ Neither the Shun family nor that man had any interest in me being able to resist them or be able to fight for them, so I didn¡¯t really get to experience anything of the sort¡­¡±


    ¡°I see. In that case, here you go. Death. You can get used to it, because the further we go, the more of it you are likely to see,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°You don¡¯t need to like it either, since I don¡¯t, but if you get scared like that in the future, it wouldn¡¯t be good for either one of us. Mostly you, since I can get out of most situations easily, but I wouldn¡¯t want to let you get hurt just to save myself, not unless I had no other choice.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ I¡¯ll try to get used to it¡­ Somehow, great pain and death seem to differ significantly, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    ¡°I suppose they do. People often talk about a fate worse than death, and other such things, so there is clearly some difference between perishing and endless torment in our eyes, amongst other things. Witnessing it, or even experiencing them, also differs in that long-term pains lacks a sense of finality to it, meaning that you will be able to persist regardless, whereas death is not all like that.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ You can also talk about some very heavy things¡­¡±


    ¡°Comes with experience and the necessity to be thinking about them. Not to put you down, but I have done and intend to do quite a bit more than training for and then becoming a maid, although I might not have necessarily gone against such a thing back when things were simpler.¡±


    Shun Liu Min did not reject such a statement, but she did ask, ¡°Could I hear something about your past? Later, I mean.¡±


    ¡°Sure, I don¡¯t mind. However, for now, let us go in that direction, since that is where we are supposed to be going today. Let¡¯s continue on until the evening, patrol around, then get back to the district and see whether anything interesting has been found. Look out for these,¡± Wei Yi gave the maid a copy of the killing will pages just to help her remember, ¡°If you spot anything that looks vaguely like those landmarks, remember to tell me right away, and if some kind of desert creature attacks you, quickly view it with spiritual perception. Second realm and lower should be safe, third realm you could defeat, and the fourth realm onwards should be directed straight to me.¡±


    The maid nodded and readied her spear, glancing at it and momentarily wondering just why she had been thinking about drawing it in the first place if she had no experience with attacking or killing, which then also made her question when she could have ever used it in the earlier so-called battle when Wei Yi was able to wipe out all foes in a few seconds.


    As Wei Yi was about to take a step forward, she stopped, put her foot back down, and raised a hand into the air, causing numerous tendrils of killing will to reach towards the bodies around them and reached into their hands and pockets, removing numerous items from each one of them. She did attempt to loot the embers from the bodies of the fallen, but unfortunately, she was unable to touch them with anything other than her own hands. Everything else proved far easier to take, and so she brought it to her, taking one of the inscription plates that had been brought along directly.


    ¡°Oh, and since we have looted ten inscription plates, I will let you have a few of them. Tie the Bolt Deflecting inscription to your back, and it will ward off sudden attacks that you might otherwise miss,¡± she instructed, passing it to Shun Liu Min, ¡°I could also give you either the Lightning Spear or the Tormented Spines inscription, seeing as they happened to be on these people. Truly, what a waste of decent craftsmanship.¡±


    ¡°The method of using a lightning spear seems more straightforward, so I will take it¡­ By the way, what is that manual? It doesn¡¯t have a label¡­¡±


    Wei Yi looked in the direction she had pointed, finding that amongst the many items she removed from the bodies of those she had defeated was a small tome with no particular detail on any part of it, with even the pages seeming ordinary and only slightly aged. If she had seen such a thing in a library, she wouldn¡¯t have presumed it to be anything more than a foundational cultivation method.


    She scanned through it with spiritual perception, then quickly picked it up and confirmed that the inside of the book was exactly what it seemed to be, at which point she placed it inside one of the pockets of her robes, where it was sent to the House of Gold.


    ¡°What was it?¡±


    ¡°Just look at the man¡¯s body and you should be able to guess exactly what it does. I¡¯ll make use of it to gain some more understanding of what I¡¯ve now got and whether I can manipulate it further, but using it without any modification will be equivalent to simply asking to be found out,¡± Wei Yi said, pointing in the vague direction of three bodies in the bloodied sand, their heads mostly gone from their bodies.


    However, one of them did have a highly prominent feature in his trousers.


    ¡°That¡­ is not how I would have liked to learn the function of the technique, and it most certainly didn¡¯t help with dealing with all of the death¡­¡±


    ¡°On the contrary, getting used to all kinds of things involving the dead, be it their blood, organs, or certain physical characteristics should bring you right along to not being bothered by it¡­ It helped me, that¡¯s for sure. If I recall correctly, after I had killed for the first time, I had to borrow the deceased¡¯s clothing¡­ Not telling you where that ended up, however,¡± she muttered at the end, patting her robe.


    It seemed that the maid was already struggling with what she was saying, so she didn¡¯t need to know that she was in the presence of that very clothing, taken from the body of the Black Terror and worn to this day.


    Even without such contributions, Shun Liu Min appeared to have been realised something on her own, and looked back onto the body for a little while longer than before.


    ¡°I suppose when you compare it to that, this is¡­ not as bad¡­ How old were you?¡±


    ¡°Eighteen, and a bit, if that matters. Back then, I had quite a few difficulties I had needed to deal with, but I managed to figure them out and continued on. It took a while to get back from there, but I ended up succeeding in the end, and here I am.¡±


    ¡°Eighteen¡­ When I had left to meet that man¡­ I had thought that I was in a weird place, but I guess I¡¯m not the only one¡­¡±


    ¡°Rather than considering who is and isn¡¯t in a strange place in their lives, you should consider the differences. I had not needed to deal with your exact experiences, and you have managed to avoid killing all the way up to today. We won¡¯t be able to go through life without some odd experiences that will change us greatly, and we should strive to learn rather than being stuck with them. They won¡¯t ruin us, not so long as we understand who we are and who we wish to be. Who do you wish to be?¡±


    ¡°I wish to¡­¡± Shun Liu Min pondered it for a while, but she was unable to answer even after a minute of thinking, ¡°Actually, I haven¡¯t considered it¡­ ever. I never thought that I would ever have a chance to change myself in any way, so-¡±


    ¡°So, consider it now. We¡¯re walking through a huge desert, looking for some ancient fucking rocks, so you have the rest of the evening to ponder it. For example, do you wish to be honest, or do you believe that lying is something permissible? Regardless of the answer, why is it that you believe this? Would you leave an ally and friend behind for the sake of pursuing a particular goal, or would you never dare to do such a thing? Once again, why?¡± Wei Yi suggested, ¡°The key is not necessarily the questions themselves, but why you wish to act in a particular way. What is it that you wish to achieve, why do you seek it, and how far would you go?¡±


    ¡°And, once I reach some conclusion, what would it do?¡±


    ¡°If you comprehend and settle on your goals, morals and so on, you might be able to significantly decrease the effects of all kinds of mental and physical stimuli, such as death and killing. That¡¯s what helped me the most, although I don¡¯t know whether it will do the same for you. I can occasionally be rather anomalous in the way I do things.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­ I will ponder it as much as I am able to, and I will share any progress I may have as soon as I can!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t rush it. I had a bit of an epiphany due to the raving maniac that I looted, but I doubt that you will be so fortunate, or that the questions they had asked will make as much sense for you as they did for me, so I won¡¯t try to recreate the experience. Just take your time, consider things, process why you conclude anything, and you should eventually be able to handle anything that strives to affect your judgements or question your intentions. So long as you remember why and how you act, you will not be stopped by anything.¡±


    ¡°So that is how it is¡­ I wondered how you were able to remain so calm all of the time,¡± Shun Liu Min mentioned, ¡°As I already said, I promise that I will do my absolute best in order to stabilise my mind and be of greatest use to you¡­ and to myself, I suppose.¡±


    ¡°Good girl¡­ wait, you¡¯re twenty-eight, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°In that case, I do suppose that you¡¯re young enough. So, once again, good girl. I don¡¯t expect you to be able to do much in a short span of time, but you should do your best nonetheless, alright?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Wei Yi! I shall not let you down!¡±


    ¡®Now she reminds me of Miyu, but¡­ eh¡­ That¡¯s better than becoming someone with an absolute binding to me like in the case of Min Lian, in my eyes, nonetheless,¡¯ she stored the rest of the things that she had looted while talking to the maid, and was thus able to move on the very moment that their conversation ended with quite a bit more wealth than she had started with.


    For whatever reason, these people had come along with quite a lot of currency on them, and also had a number of the shrinking bags that Shun Liu Min employed, although the latter were more sensible overall.


    They had clearly intended to take things from her after surrounding and defeating her, and so they would need a place to store anything larger than what could fit within their pockets. Some of them wore too little to fit many pockets, although it was customary for such outfits to have one or two very large pockets instead, and so such a bag was almost necessary if they intended to have any serious gains from her today.


    A shrinking bag was an old invention that had occurred somewhere to the north, although it was never recorded exactly where it occurred, nor how. It was a derivative of the concept of spatial storage, but much like how the blacksmithing hammer Wei Yi had obtained from Ning Guanting was able to shrink without needing to outright rupture space, so were the bags able to affect other things in a similar manner by a certain set of principles and methods. All of them were difficult to replicate for anyone that wasn¡¯t either a blacksmith, inscription master, or array arranger, for the principles would be entirely foreign to a pill refiner or talisman creator due to the differences in the great arts.


    The principles of most of the great arts were interchangeable to a certain extent, but the three arts that related to the creation and enhancement of channels for planar energy to flow through in order to achieve certain results relied on greatly different principles to pill refining, which handled herbs and medicinal energy, while the way in which talismans handled planar energy also different greatly.


    Essentially, all that the shrinking bag did was compress the fundamental nature of an item to an immense degree, a little like an excessive version of the way in which things shrunk in the cold.


    It did tend to make things inside of it a little cold, but it also had the property of slowing certain kinds of decay while not interfering or outright accelerating others, sometimes within a single item, causing them to not be the best for storing food or other products that tend to rot, rust or generally decay in some fashion. Combined with the cold property, they had the most use in the north, less use in the centre, and essentially no use in the south at all.


    They did catch more of her interest the more she saw them, which prompted her to begin the drawing of a new schematic within the Ascendant¡¯s Library. She wanted to develop something with this shrinking or compression ability and then put it to use, although the details would be covered later.


    ¡®For now, I suppose I should¡­ no, adding more things like that for her to think about would almost certainly be too much. Maybe later¡­¡¯


    With a few items in hand, most in the House of Gold or the Kong Prison Realm ¨C although the maid, Shun Liu Min, was not yet aware of that fact that believed that it was some variation on the method of spatial storage that was flashier and needed more time in order to be completed ¨C and some thoughts in both of their heads, they proceeded into the depths of the sandy wastes.

 V3C86: Forging and Waiting

    They returned that day without finding much, although they still passed on everything about that terrain to the merchant and the teams that he had recruited to assist them in their efforts. A few teams came back at a similar time to them, having gone out and returned at similar times, and their contributions allowed a basic map of the near areas of the district to be created. Had they been searching for something in the near vicinity of the district, it would have been enough.


    Unfortunately, while Wei Yi certainly couldn¡¯t compare the exact size of the Chao District today to what it had been before, she knew that the fortress was some distance away from the northern district even when it was at its peak, with the largest territory and most strength, so it wouldn¡¯t be close.


    All that such a survey allowed them to confirm was that the district hadn¡¯t been drifting towards the north as if it was some sea-bound ship that was being dragged along by the waves over thousands and thousands of years while the captain, presumably the patriarch in this comparison, is unaware and more focused on other matters.


    It also gave them the opportunity to rush ahead at the beginning of the next day, set up some camps, then explore more distant parts of the sands.


    At that time, Wei Yi and Shun Liu Min joined in, with the latter getting some combat experience over the course of that day and the previous one, although the greatest threat she had needed to face was in the very first stage of the second realm and was thus a complete pushover.


    Combine that with its identity being a fat but short sandworm that moved no faster than a similarly fat snail, it was hardly some immense achievement when she manged to not die to it, instead stabbing it once or twice to some minimal effect before Wei Yi came over to finish it off and harvest anything relevant. The experience did tell her just a little bit about how to wield a weapon and strike at the weaker points of a foe, but it was quickly clear to both of them that she was no genius in combat, strategy or desert survival.


    Given that neither of them had that expectation in the first place, it was no big shock, although it did disappoint the maid quite a little bit. She got over most of it fast enough, but she didn¡¯t forget.


    There were no pursuers this time, both due to the lack of people who would want to kill or rob from either of them in the local area and due to the large number of people that they had gone with, mostly to see how the hired and recruited groups would operate, so the day was less filled with action than before.


    With the expert desert explorers around them, it soon became obvious that while Wei Yi did have experience with deserted locales and environments, and did have an obscenely large field of spiritual perception that others beneath the seventh realm could only dream of without cultivating their spiritual will, she was no skilled and experienced professional in this particular field. She was able to learn some things from them as she observed them, but they appeared to have quite a number of methods for getting through as much of the sandy wastes in the shortest amount of time possible, often acting faster than she would have in their place.


    As a result of that dull day, amongst some other things, Wei Yi decided that it would be best to leave things to the experts for now and focus on something a little more interesting.


    So that she wouldn¡¯t just be sitting around and enjoying the dull stillness of a room far more than the horrid sands, which somehow had even less detail and character than a single rug being stared at for a decade, she decided to get to work on something with one of her more neglected great arts.


    For the moment, she was unable to create much when it came to the shrinking item plan that she had before, so she instead got to work on something that was far more familiar ¨C a spear. She had used one for a while thanks to the constant usage of arrow spears by Yi Fenwu, and had even scanned the interior of a high-grade artefact back then, so in combination with everything that she knew now, and every technique ¨C mainly the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp and what it allowed her to do ¨C that she had, she decided to make her own for Shun Liu Min to make use of.


    The maid had pointed out that there was little need for a new spear when they had purchased one not long ago and had barely used it, but there was hardly a lack of materials in the Kong Prison Realm.


    As such, she found a quiet and remote place and got to work.


    Naturally, Shun Liu Min watched her from a safe distance, and couldn¡¯t help but marvel at how the process seemed to differ when it came to standard blacksmiths and Wei Yi. The former was nothing more than mere fireflies in the face of a star¡­ The more she thought about it, the more the likeness to a star applied, much to her own curiosity.


    Whereas normal blacksmiths needed a flame, forge, anvil and strong hammer, the latter two were the only ones that Wei Yi had chosen to use. She instead supplemented them with a hammer condensed of killing will, flooded with physique energy, and empowered further with flaming planar energy.


    With each strike of the metal, it was as if a small star fell to the ground and struck the metal instead, the flames bursting out in a spherical shape that quickly collapsed onto itself with little obvious effect to the unskilled eye. Perhaps more so than most, Shun Liu Min did not know much about the exact process of blacksmithing, nor whether a single one of the techniques used by her current master were even practical, but she could hardly deny that it looked amazing.


    To supplement the lack of a forge with which to heat and regulate the metal, the Ascendant instead used her other hand. She did not bother holding the metal in place, instead allowing each strike of the hammer to do that for her, but when she did reach out and touch it, she would imbue certain properties into the material, slowing raising its quality so that it would be as good as the high-grade material used in Yi Fenwu¡¯s ultimate arrow-spear despite using only some medium-grade goods. She was also imbuing some of the preparatory channels that needed to exist within an artefact in order to allow for the smooth passage of planar energy through the material and to convert it into the desired effects.


    Like her maid, she also noticed that her hammer strikes resembled collapsing stars, which wasn¡¯t fully intended by her but was instead the Cosmic Dao showing through to enhance the process.


    When she needed heat and force, the star-like flame would emerge, turning the planar energy that covered her killing will hammer into the infernal surface of a star for just one moment, although it turned back to the standard crimson and gold not too long afterwards.


    For the moment, even if she focused on the Dao and attempted to extract its full potential, she wouldn¡¯t be able to produce much more than that without advancing it, which seemed dangerous to do until she could confirm with certainty that there wouldn¡¯t be a repeat of the earlier Dao eruption incident, and the easiest way to do so seemed to be to enhance the various Dao at her disposal until the Cosmic Dao could not overwhelm them. After that, she could merge it with her understanding of natural law, or flame, or some other Dao entirely, and avoid her current problems with much less risk.


    At the moment of forging, of the hammer striking the metal, however, this was pushed to the back of her mind, as she had only made use of her full comprehension of the proper nature of blacksmithing only a few times, so she needed a few more completely focused experiences in order to complete her grasp of it.


    Even without it, something made with the aid of the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp certainly wouldn¡¯t go down the drain of quality, so to speak, but that would only be in the eyes of others. In her own view, something like that was mostly insignificant and worthless, and she saw no reason to give anything other than full effort when she was making something for someone on her side, seeing as it would take about the same amount of time and energy regardless of whether she did or not.


    When she was able to help those on her side, or those she cared about, without any risk to herself, she saw no reason not to do so. When there was some risk, then it would be weighed, but before then, she would have completed the spear and would have no reason to debate any further.


    That dedication and focus, while their nature was not obvious to Shun Liu Min, did get through to her, as she was able to tell that every single action and movement of Wei Yi was smooth and flowing, each actions proceeding onto the next with such fluency that she couldn¡¯t help but wonder whether her master was currently forging or performing some kind of flaming dance. While she had not seen much death in person in her life, she had witnessed quite a few dances of various kinds, and she certainly had to put this one above the majority- no, above all the rest.


    It wasn¡¯t even a judgement made despite the sparks, sweat, impacts and constant bangs of metal, no ¨C it was made due to them.


    To her, it almost seemed like such a dance was far more suitable to the Ascendant than a typical one, as a peaceful and simple set of movements would not be fitting to her master¡¯s identity. However, with the flurry of flaming sparks surrounding and washing over her, occasionally settling and going out within her hair, the repeated and almost rhythmic strikes of the hammer onto metal, the intense focus on her work, and countless minor details that Shun Liu Min couldn¡¯t even begin to mention due to her own inexperience, this fit nearly perfectly.


    Had she known what her master looked like when she first attempted blacksmithing, her opinion might have been somewhat different, but for now she was able to remain blissfully ignorant, even with their earlier talks.


    After they had expressed a desire to learn about and from one another, with the request put forward by Wei Yi being far more strange than the one made of her, the maid didn¡¯t hesitate to ask her past, but beside the vague details already mentioned, she managed to say almost nothing at all. She instead explained that she was a rather significant individual in the eyes of some that would do a lot to capture and kill her, so speaking in a place that was not fully safe would only mean that it would be easier to find her, even if she attempted to put the proper precautions in place. To avoid such risks, she would be more open, but only when safety could be guaranteed.


    Meanwhile, Shun Liu Min had no such excuses for not explaining the intricate details of maid work and tasks, and while she didn¡¯t want to speak about it, she wouldn¡¯t let down her current master just because she was shy or reluctant. She would share everything and anything she knew, even including the sexual aspects that she had been forced into after Wei YI confirmed that she wanted to hear it.


    Such insistence on the details made her rather afraid that her master was going to run off and become a maid somewhere instead of committing to whatever great task she wished to undertake, but a single glance at her either in bed, during battle or at work, as she was now, crafting something great, would immediately dispel such silly notions. With the immense strength of body and mind that Wei Yi possessed, even if she attempted to become a maid, most would likely be too afraid to let her remain near them or ask her to do anything more than remain near their residence.


    That was nice for her to consider, but it did not explain the reason behind her curiosity. She had tried to ask, but besides the standard vague response of being curious and wanting to expand her range of knowledge, the maid couldn¡¯t get anything out of her.


    As such, she had to make do with simply telling her as much as possible and hoping that the information would be used for some fantastic purpose, perhaps to topple the Ping District or to track down some foe of the world itself and defeat it by tricking it into believing that she was merely a simple submissive maid.


    The earlier imagined scenario did come to mind at such a possibility, but it still seemed more likely.


    While she had no clue about the actual principles and craft of blacksmithing, she could still understand when the process was nearing completion, and even if she couldn¡¯t tell by the slow formation of the overall shape of the weapon that was being worked on, it would be difficult for her to miss the incredibly bright light that was slowly consuming the space around it. If the earlier strikes on the metal were akin to fallen stars, then what she was currently witnessing was an entire distant galaxy coalescing into a single entity, all of the separate stars and nebulae becoming one at Wei Yi¡¯s behest.


    In her mind, this sounded fantastical, but she was not far off from the truth. Indeed, the Ascendant had put in a lot of effort into creating the spear for two primary reasons, and now all of those elements were being united into one to make the weapon whole.


    Her first reason was naturally her desire to invest all of her effort into her work, especially when an ally like Shun Liu Min or some other spear wielder after her could benefit from the weapon immensely. Much of the maid¡¯s weakness could be supplemented with a suitable weapon, and with her current cultivation technique originating from Wei Yi, the latter naturally knew of a few methods to empower them further.


    The other reason was that this was her first attempt to create a weapon that would not be corroded and exploded by her own planar energy. She still didn¡¯t understand exactly what part of her cultivation method had resulted in the absolute rejection of her energy, but at least a small aspect of it had to relate to the fact that most weapons were built for specific elements of planar energy.


    To prevent this from being a problem, she instead built the spear, which did not yet have a suitable name, to be able to contain energy itself, not binding it to any one form of it. It could be used with one¡¯s average planar energy, or it could benefit from the infusion of killing will that would allow its properties to be extended and inverted at will, or one could even fill it with physique energy or bloodline power, although the exact effects of that were difficult to predict due to her not yet having made use of these things in weapons beyond their minimal involvement.


    She did not think that it would solve the problem entirely, so she then spent most of her time working on the spear by reinforcing the parts that would make up the channels and the thinnest points of the spear shaft and tip by an enormous extent, making use of the property of metal to change its state with heat to apply the effects of Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp far more than it would likely be useful in regular circumstances.


    Then, by ¡®washing¡¯ the metal with her planar and bloodline power, she hoped to prepare it for the potential infusion of her cosmic energy, although she would naturally never risk destroying this weapon unless it was absolutely necessary.


    In the end¡­ Well, nothing could be concluded until the weapon was finished, and there were still quite a few things that she needed to complete before it could be anywhere near that state. Some of these things were simple, merely requiring her to touch certain points of the spear in order to infuse it with the penultimate quantity of Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp energy ¨C which she had been tempted to forcefully improve with some focused cultivation and Absolute Rupture, but decided to not undertake for now as she hardly knew enough about its initial state, not to mention where it could go from there ¨C but one she decided to take far more seriously, and invest far more into it.


    For an artefact forged of metal to be complete, it must be placed into a pool of suitable liquid to quench the metal¡¯s heat and stabilise its form, and depending on what was being created, and whether it was done through hot or cold forging, the necessary fluid would naturally be different. Cold forging was rare and performed rarely in the extreme south, but the essence of it was to replace yang with yin and then replace the finishing yin with yang to achieve similar effects to usual blacksmithing.


    Her current work was naturally done with the standard hot method of crafting, and so the liquid that the weapon would need to be doused in needed to be yin in nature, balanced just enough to avoid curving or bending the metal in the wrong way and ruining the spear at the last step of the process, wasting several hours of work.


    The idea that she had come up with reminded her a little of those insane and unusual cultivator blacksmiths that would make use of extremely odd methods to create and complete their weapons, for her choice was certainly on part with certain ones made by that kind of person. She did not reach for something inside of the prison realm, nor the few things that were usually kept in the House of Gold, nor did she request or purchase something prior to beginning the forging process, all for one simple reason.


    Control. She could get all kinds of things to cool the weapon that even she felt some heat from, but they would all be independent, giving her insufficient control to be certain of perfection.


    Instead, she decided to go for something that she had in abundance, and something that she would have perfect control over, especially due to the fact that it tended to be filled with her physique energy at all times, especially when she explicitly made use of her physique abilities, like now. She decided that the best fluid for the completion of the spear, potentially confirming its state as a high-grade artefact, was her own blood.


    She had not shared that decision with the maid, which made for quite the scare when she suddenly thrust her palm down onto the tip of the spear, weakening her flesh sufficiently to allow it to pierce seamlessly, reinforcing it again as she did so.


    It was so shocking that even her expression remained stuck for a few moments.


    In that time, the golden and red blood within Wei Yi¡¯s veins already poured from her hand, but it was not warm as it would be in the body of a normal individual. No, she had the physique of the Yin-Yang Ascendant, and so with a single bidding her flesh and blood could freeze, turning to absolute yin that overwhelmed all other forms of energy, and yet gave her perfect control over every step of the process.


    Even in the cold state, it covered the spear nearly instantly, the temperature of the weapon dropping rapidly as the blood around it wouldn¡¯t heat up no matter how much warmth passed to it from the spear contained within. The metal lost its bright white hue and glow, rapidly descending to yellow, then orange, then red, the rather unnatural colour of the completed work slowly showing through beneath the blood.


    Although the metal that she had started with was silver, as most middle-grade metal-type materials were, what she currently had in her hand had turned a mixture of crimson with platinum, resulting in quite the colour combination that slowly showed through as she recovered her blood.


    The tip of the spear was purely crimson, with the largest quantity of blood having covered it at the beginning and thus infused it with a small fragment of the bloodline power within it. In terms of design, it was simple and useful, sharpened on two edges so that it could be used to cut as well as to stab, whichever would be easier for the maid to manage.


    Below that, the shaft was ornamented with slight extrusions that resembled chains, although they also served to guide the hand of the user into optimal positions to hold onto the weapon while aiding them in keeping their grip on the weapon and doing little to impede the potential of throwing it at a foe, although even with the many ideas borrowed from the golden arrow spear used by Yi Fenwu it was not intended to be used for such a purpose. On the bottom was a flat and blunt point to strike someone without stabbing them, either for utilising blunt force to kill or to aid in knocking someone out.


    A faint glow surrounded the weapon, both figuratively and literally, making its state as a high-grade artefact rather indisputable and unmistakable.


    ¡®I did succeed in that, then. The internal structure also seems solid and sound, which is good. Whether or not it achieved the exact effects I wished it to¡­ that much is not something I can conclude. Even a drop of my current planar energy could be sufficient to shatter the weapon in an instant, so long as I did not properly secure it from such a fate,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, examining the weapon from various sides before looking over to her maid.


    At this point, while she had been able to understand that she had not imagined the scene of blood pouring from her master¡¯s palm, she had not understood why such a thing was occurring, and so it took her a while to realise that attention had returned to her.


    ¡°Take the spear,¡± she was instructed, which she obeyed quickly and gingerly, ¡°It should have a series of functions that I will allow you to make use of and try out, but we should probably not do so in a place where we can demolish numerous buildings by stabbing in the wrong direction. We¡¯re going out, just not too far.¡±


    Even if she had wanted to argue, there was little room for her to do so, prompting Shun Liu Min to follow with the spear in hand.


    It earned quite a curious gaze from the guards at the gates, but besides that, it did not draw too much attention from the crowd of the district. As if to supplement that, the maid gave it far more than enough attention instead, examining the weapon closely and very carefully.


    She knew that she was holding a powerful and durable weapon right away, but she couldn¡¯t help but treat it with more care than needed when she looked at the extremely intricate details on the shaft. While she was able to understand the reasoning behind the placement of the chains easily enough, since they matched the exact principles bestowed to her by Wei Yi in their occasional training lectures, she couldn¡¯t understand the reasoning behind the shape and design of this ornamentation, much like she failed to comprehend exactly when they had appeared on the weapon in her hand.


    Besides the matter of the crafting process, which she did not expert to understand to any degree within her lifetime, the chains were something that she had expected to be aware of, and yet wasn¡¯t. It was difficult to tell whether they were related to her or to Wei Yi, perhaps evoking a chained and restricted past of one or both of them, or if there was an entirely different meaning to them.


    While they were travelling, she decided not to ask the question until she saw just what the weapon was able to do, as she would then be able to understand her master¡¯s thought process a little better.


    They headed to a part of the district¡¯s outskirts where a few dunes would prevent any casual observers from seeing them by accident, and then stood together so that Wei Yi would be able to guide her maid through the proper method of using the spear.


    ¡°So, as I see you have noticed already, the proper grip positions have been made a little more obvious with the chains. They are thin and small, so if you need to move your hands you should be able to manage with little challenge or discomfort, but in most cases, those positions are the only ones that you will really need,¡± the Ascendant explained, shortly before conjuring her own version of the spear through a modified variation of the Living Spear technique, ¡°I have attempted to embed three active states and two passive, so let me take you through them.¡±


    Saying that, she took it in a basic stance and performed a few simple attacks to test it out for herself.


    ¡°Looks good, actually. Fits well for me as well. Now, any attack made with it will be affected by the two passive abilities, so let me show you those first,¡± she said, performing a simple thrust after sending a small amount of energy into it, choosing to use spiritual will just in case her planar energy caused the fake to explode.


    As soon as a strike was made with some energy inside of the spear, a small fragment was expended, but the force of the thrust seemed to be greatly increased, as if the power of her very attack was somehow multiplied. In addition, despite her weapon reaching only so far, a large cloud of sand that had been passing by was struck by a seemingly solid spear tip a metre away from where it had actually stopped.


    With how obvious this was, it didn¡¯t need to be said that these were the two abilities that she had mentioned so far.


    ¡°This will allow my weaker attacks to still be effective, while letting me still hit things when I judge the distance poorly?¡± Shun Liu Min quickly figured out some uses for these abilities, injecting a quantity of her own planar energy and repeating the same strike.


    When she performed it with her weapon, it had a distinct wooden shade, and the extended spear was also more visible, but it did not differ other than that.


    ¡°Exactly. The three abilities that you have to consciously use are more impressive, however. First, assume this position, hold the weapon tightly, and aim at something in the distance,¡± she demonstrated these things, using her spiritual will to raise some sand far away into a vague humanoid shape, ¡°Before you try anything, it is important to mention that you shouldn¡¯t actually throw this, no matter what. It may turn out to be effective, but you will lose your weapon and lose most of your advantage over any foes. Not a good idea, in other words.¡±


    ¡°Then, what am I supposed to do from here?¡±


    Wei Yi loosened her stance and placed the end of the spear onto the ground, instead choosing to observe for this demonstration, ¡°Just perform a throwing motion, but keep a tight grip on the weapon.¡±


    Such instructions were strange, but when she was the one providing them, Shun Liu Min felt that she not only had nothing to fear, but that there was little room for them to be any more sensible. After all, these directions were provided by someone with far more experience than her in almost every way, meaning that there could be countless layers of reason behind every word.


    With this in mind, she brought her hand back, then thrust it forward like she might imagine a spearman throwing their spear, focusing on the distant humanoid figure made of sand. If she had thrown the spear, she did not believe that it would be able to hit this target, given that she had never done this before in her entire life, and since her physical strength was unlikely to be sufficient to clear such a large distance between them with one flimsy throw, but she trusted her master¡¯s words.


    Just as the spear began to stop at the end of her thrust, however, she witnessed much of her energy launching out of the weapon, passing through the metal and emerging from the tip as a replica of the spear in her hand, except it was made of her planar energy and forcefully coalesced by the weapon.


    It glistened and glowed with a wooden colour as it flew and miraculously hit the sand dummy. Not a moment after that, all of the energy exploded as suddenly as it had appeared, scattering the sand and throwing up a large spherical cloud of sand to obscure anything that might have remained of that figure of the desert.


    The wood-type planar energy scattered into the air, slowly melting into the natural universal layer of energy that existed all around them, showing just how little was necessary to achieve this effect.


    ¡°See, if you don¡¯t release the spear, it doesn¡¯t leave your hand and you can get straight back to doing something else, which seems rather important in most battles,¡± Wei Yi said, grabbing her replica of the spear again, ¡°Now, this demonstration will require you to stand away from me if you¡¯d like to keep your limbs, although you aren¡¯t going to miss much since we¡¯re in the desert with all of this sand around. It should show the exact effects very clearly.¡±


    Since the maid would be unable to distance herself quickly, the Ascendant instead jumped away herself until she would be outside of the range of the second unique ability. It was a highly damaging one to those of lower cultivation realms, and since she effectively had four times the stages of each realm with her perfected stages and realms, she would likely be able to inflict great harm with a poorly placed strike. Fortunately, she was the one to create the three embedded techniques and knew exactly how they functioned with the use of their original forms of energy, and it just so happened that spiritual will was the original catalyst for the second technique.


    With the replica spear in hand, a tight grip on a particular point of the shaft, she raised it into the air and then stabbed down, the weapon seemingly igniting as it neared the ground. Even with only her mental energy being in use, the flames were emboldened in mere moments until they were alike to the same flame of the stars as she had used during her creation of the original weapon.


    On the moment of impact, a vast quantity of crimson light formed around the spear and rapidly descended to its tip, reaching it fully only a moment after the spear itself.


    At that moment, it burst out of the spear itself, erupting in a great shockwave that grabbed the upper layer of sand on the desert ground, forcefully tearing it away and throwing it asunder, clearing a large area all around her within a two metre radius with no movement being necessary other than the simple downward strike. Some crimson sparks and arcs remained in place and warned of the true nature of the energy, but it would not show its full potential until it was utilised against a true foe.


    ¡°That would be to push enemies away when I am unable to handle them, right? Can I control how much energy is used on this, or is it just something that I need to learn and get used to?¡± Shun Liu Min managed to understand the ability¡¯s purpose rather quickly.


    ¡°You can control it to an extent, but until you are certain about what you¡¯re doing, it would be ideal to let the spear do its thing. Depending on how you do this, you might even be able to learn a thing or two about the technique that is makes use of, then implement it into your own life, one way or another,¡± Wei Yi explained, tapping the side of the spear, ¡°The channels inside of an artefact are alike the meridians, although they are rarely even an exact match, or else every blacksmith would also be a devoted combat cultivator.¡±


    ¡°I suppose¡­ To be honest, I can¡¯t get my spiritual perception into the weapon yet¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll manage eventually¡­ knowing someone with average levels of spiritual perception will also help matters in the long run,¡± she added, tossing the spear into the air and then grabbing onto the bottom end of it, holding it like that for a little while, ¡°I¡¯ll let you try out that one in a moment, but here is the third ability. Take the spear like so, then¡­¡±


    She pulled her hand back, then, without any warning, thrust it forward, stabbing out as far as possible before revoking her hand just as suddenly, causing the spear to fly backwards the instant that she released it, allowing her to return her grip to the usual point on the spear within seconds.


    Meanwhile, as she had stabbed the air, rather than the usual metre of range bestowed to all by the spear, a great wave of force that was four metres long emerged from the end of the weapon, stabbing out but not following the spear¡¯s return back, resulting in all of the carried force exploding at the end of its trajectory. That burst of force exceeded her original thrust¡¯s power as well, the automatic empowerment of the spear affecting even this.


    ¡°Wow¡­ Does that technique come with the spear, or do I need to figure it out myself?¡±


    ¡°It does not, but the movements are hardly all that complex, especially when planar energy is involved. You also don¡¯t need to make them, since it is only the thrust itself that matters.¡±


    She demonstrated it again, this time keeping her replica spear reached out at the end of the thrust only to result in the exact same outcome. From there, she was able to return her grip on the spear to the usual location however she wanted, and the attack would have still successfully completed whatever she had wanted to achieve with it, so long as it could.


    ¡°Essentially, this is for you to be able to attack something without needing to get too close, or perhaps for striking something that would endanger the weapon itself if it was brought near it, like someone or something with an immense degree of control over metal. This should give you the chance that you need to strike at it without any risk to yourself, which should be the best in your situation. Once you are able to confidently fight, even if it is only at a low level, you will be able to use this for more tactical purposes,¡± Wei Yi explained, playing around with her replica spear in the meanwhile, ¡°Go on, have a go with these. I¡¯ll just be¡­ watching over you.¡±


    With all of the information she needed to remember and make use of, the maid did not notice the pause in her master¡¯s words, nor how she quickly disappeared from the scene and departed to a dune in the distance.


    There, Wei Yi focused on the planar stones within the Kong Prison Realm that she had already embedded into the ground, preparing one to add to the spatial realm¡¯s planar energy pool while the other was to be used for her. She was not too far away from the fourth realm at this point in time, so she wouldn¡¯t need to use the last of the pills for this purpose and could then either give them to someone else or use them for herself to be able to reach the second stage a little more quickly, although she expected the quantity of energy required to be even more immense at that point.


    With her earlier experience of using these for her cultivation, she was able to quickly absorb the energy of the planar stone, nearing the next realm, but she did not proceed onto the next realm.


    She stopped only a short time before reaching that threshold, however. Wei Yi felt the approaching realm, but something about it prompted her to pause, whether it was the potential explosion of energy that would occur or some potential use for the breakthrough that could be found at a later point. She couldn¡¯t understand it right away, but after a moment of further thought, she momentarily abandoned her pursuit of a greater realm, merely taking in the energy and storing it.


    As she returned to the place where Shun Liu Min was practising the techniques embedded within the spear, she found the maid making decent progress in simply utilising them, although that hardly meant that she would be able to seamlessly make use of them within any actual combat.


    ¡®If she was interested in achieving this, however, I¡¯ve got good news for her. There¡¯s still plenty of waiting to go¡­¡¯

 Bonus Chapter: Trying Something New [R-18]

    ¡°You¡¯re staring at my ass again, Wei Yi,¡± the maid said, turning her head while keeping her ass pointed towards the Ascendant. Although her words could be interpreted as a complaint, the way in which she shook her behind very much suggested otherwise.


    Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°It is rather difficult not to. I¡¯ve been told I have a nice ass, but I¡¯ve never looked at in that way. However, in your case, my cock and I are certainly in agreement.¡±


    ¡°Well, is there anything you¡¯d like to do with it? Do you want to spank it? Would you like to grope and feel it up? Maybe stick your dick between those cheeks and fuck it until you cum all over my back, covering me in your seed?¡±


    The Ascendant raised an eyebrow and stared at Shun Liu Min for a while.


    ¡°You alright?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Yes, I¡¯m fine, why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not usually that thirsty. Did something happen?¡±


    ¡°Well, I may have gotten a little bored from practising your techniques ¨C not that they¡¯re bad or dull, of course, but making little progress and getting nowhere the whole time isn¡¯t exactly exciting,¡± the maid admitted, ceasing the shaking of her ass, ¡°Our usual breaks are also not ideal, since my throat is getting sore.¡±


    ¡°Even with the things I do afterwards?¡±


    ¡°Yep. It may just be a phantom ache, but it¡¯s there anyway,¡± she said.


    Wei Yi sighed, rising from her seat and advancing towards the maid quickly, stopping once she was in direct contact with her. The suddenness made Shun Liu Min freeze, though she couldn¡¯t help but shiver in delight once the Ascendant began to kiss her neck.


    Soon, she also felt a hard thing press against her butt, temporarily contained by some underwear.


    ¡°Pretend to focus on the technique for a while, and I¡¯ll give you what you want. To be honest, I¡¯ve been wanting to try a few more things, but we always end up with a blowjob.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t help it. Your dick is too delicious¡­¡± Shun Liu Min licked her lips.


    ¡°Your mouth is great, and your throat is so tight and wet that I just love getting in there¡­ Ahem. You¡¯re going to make me rip my undies, so let me have my fun if you don¡¯t want me to fuck your throat again,¡± Wei Yi said, placing her hands onto the maid¡¯s tits and rubbing the nipples through the fabric of her shirt.


    ¡°I do want you to, but¡­ convince me to try the other optioAH! Why are my nipples always so- oh fuck!¡± the maid cried out, desperately trying to resist grinding against the hardness behind her.


    The Ascendant might have made a comment, but Shun Liu Min¡¯s dripping pussy made for enough embarrassment for the maid. Instead, she went back to kissing her neck, enjoying the maid¡¯s whimpers, while she pulled up her shirt to expose her breasts.


    Her hands quickly returned to roaming Shun Liu Min¡¯s chest, letting her previous experiences guide her, while focusing upon the newer sensation of her cock grinding against the bountiful ass of a beautiful woman. It may have been far inferior to what she could have had if she removed her clothing and let her skin come into direct contact with the maid¡¯s ass, but she was willing to take a single step at a time.


    ¡®These boxers are really tight on me, though. My balls already fill up all the space, and now there¡¯s a hard cock in there¡­ Fuck, I really want to take it out,¡¯ Wei Yi bit down on the maid¡¯s neck, just enough to make a clear mark.


    ¡°Are you¡­ are you okay?¡± Shun Liu Min asked, breaking her out of her stunned state.


    ¡°I underestimated my dick¡¯s sensitivity ¨C again. At this point, I¡¯m starting to think that it¡¯s getting more and more sensitive as time goes on, which would make for some very bad news if that¡¯s the case,¡± she replied, putting her lips over the bite mark to let some of her healing physique abilities be applied, ¡°Fuck the whole ¡®pretending to study a technique¡¯ thing and take off your pants.¡±


    Shun Liu Min obeyed readily, her shorts dropping to the ground with a moist sound. Wei Yi removed a hand from her breasts and moved down to her own underwear, forcing it down just enough to let her cock spring free.


    Neither of them could have missed such a thing occurring, for it burst out and slapped against the maid¡¯s back, its heat quickly reaching the maid¡¯s core. It nearly burned the maid¡¯s skin, and yet she wished to have even more of it. She desperately tried to grind against Wei Yi¡¯s shaft, but she was too short in order to get most of it between her ass cheeks. Hence, she tried to turn and beg the Ascendant for it, only for their lips to connect in another kiss.


    She was distracted just long enough to miss Wei Yi bending her knees and sliding into the crease of her ass, their kiss breaking when the Ascendant pulled her head away and moaned.


    ¡°Oh, fuck¡­ I will have to get inside you before we¡¯re done. This is already too good,¡± Wei Yi said, her hips thrusting into the maid¡¯s ass even when she tried her hardest to hold back, ¡°Are you up for it? Will you be able to take it?¡±


    ¡°I have had others there before, though none were as large¡­You¡¯ll need to lube me up a bit.¡±


    Wordlessly, Wei Yi shoved a finger into the maid¡¯s mouth, who sucked on it without hesitation. At the same time, she encouraged her already prodigious fluid production to accelerate even further, letting her precum spill from her cockhead in between the maid¡¯s cheeks, allowing her to more easily slide her cock in between them.


    Moving rather slow at first, she found her hips speeding up soon, the sensations provided by the tight embrace overwhelming her senses. It was different from the inside of the maid¡¯s throat, which was incredibly pleasant in its own way, but that didn¡¯t prevent it from absolutely charming her, making it clearer with every moment that she had always been giving men a difficult time when they ¨C some of them, at least ¨C did not deserve such a harsh view.


    If they had to deal with the same desires that her cock gave her, then they would have no chance of focusing on anything other than those desires. Once they had even the faintest notion of how good it could feel to use their dicks, they would never be able to go back to doing anything else.


    One may think a comparison such as this one would be rather unfair, since her cock appeared to exceed that of most men in the world, but she also had the cultivation of killing will and the twin energies that formed it, meaning she could nullify some of the impacts of her size upon her mind. Had she not had her killing will, she felt like she would be unable to do anything but indulge the desires of her lower body. She might become a greater menace to the world than some of the otherworldly demons she had met.


    Fortunately, she had a perfect hole to release her pent up lust into. Once she felt her finger being covered in enough saliva, she pulled it out of the maid¡¯s mouth and brought it down to her backside, slipping it in between the two bountiful cheeks and into the hole located there.


    ¡°Oh, that¡­ take it slow, please¡­ The techniques I¡¯d practised before this never let me get¡­ stretched out,¡± Shun Liu Min said, subduing her moans and finally managed to stop grinding against Wei Yi¡¯s cock, ¡°Should I¡­ take care of you while you¡¯re¡­ helping me out? I should be able to manage even with your finger in there¡­¡±


    ¡°Sure, go ahead,¡± the Ascendant took half a step back and to the side, letting her dick stick straight out and easily go past the maid¡¯s hips, giving the latter plenty of length to work with her hand.


    After licking her lips and relaxing her asshole as much as she could, Shun Liu Min put her fingers around the dripping head and covered them in precum. Then, tightening her grip just enough, she slid her hand down along Wei Yi¡¯s cock, pulling back the small portion of foreskin that still covered the tip.


    She moved down the length, hitting her own waist and being forced to stop there, still a short way from the middle of the hard length. A slick noise marked the collision, to an audible and absolutely adorable whine from the maid, who had clearly wanted to proceed down the entire length of the rod, but she couldn¡¯t move her hips back without getting the Ascendant¡¯s finger further into her ass. So, reluctantly, she began to stroke what she could.


    Eventually, their rhythms matched, both moving back and forth at a slow rate, maintaining their arousal and slowly opening up the maid¡¯s back entrance.


    They lost track of time quickly, but they knew they had to stop once Wei Yi¡¯s finger had no difficulty in penetrating the maid¡¯s asshole. A second finger proved challenging, but only for a moment, and a quick glance with the Ascendant¡¯s spiritual perception confirmed that the pattern would be repeated with a third or fourth.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s time. Wanna bend over, or take me like this?¡±


    Shun Liu Min very deliberately took her time, performing a few more strokes before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s start like this. I want to feel you holding me and thrusting as hard as you can¡­ Please, shove it in already!¡±


    ¡°And here I thought I was being the horny one,¡± Wei Yi positioned herself behind the maid and carefully guided the tip of her cock to the parted pucker, ¡°I¡¯m not going to stop until I cum, get it?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me¡­ mhm, I can take it.¡±


    As the maid spoke, Wei Yi had begun to push forward, finding the hole to still put up a significant amount of resistance. The current opening was only as large as the very tip of her cock, whereas most of her length was almost two inches in diameter, thickest at the crown and the base, meaning that she would need to push the maid to her limit in order to make it in past the head.


    Fortunately for her, the maid didn¡¯t mind, showing no indications of feeling pain or displeasure. Instead, with every little bit that she managed to shove inside, more arousal dripped from her pussy, and moans burst out of her mouth regularly. If not for her spiritual perception, which she was able to monitor just enough to confirm that Shun Liu Min wasn¡¯t actually losing her mind from this kind of treatment.


    Then again, even if she was going to go mad from this, Wei Yi might not be able to stop herself. She knew that the second that she finally managed to plunge some way into the maid¡¯s ass.


    It was extremely tight, and thanks to Wei Yi¡¯s plentiful precum, it was also slick and slippery, meaning that she managed to push most of her cock head inside. The tight ring of muscle clenched down on her cock, with the rest of the passage being just a little looser but still sufficient to provide her with stimulation.


    She hardly wanted to pull out, but she needed to move back to give herself room to thrust forward. Drawing back just enough, she pushed back in, feeling the head of her cock slide in by another millimetre. Still, she had much more to go, so she was forced to repeat that motion, just barely making her way into the tight orifice. Each time, her thrusts became more forceful, and Shun Liu Min certainly wasn¡¯t presenting any objections, though she clearly struggled to relax her asshole enough to permit the Ascendant entry.


    ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck, if I don¡¯t make it in soon, I think I¡¯m not going to be satisfied with just one go!¡±


    Each time she slid in and had to withdraw, her sensitive cockhead was pleasured by the maid¡¯s clenching hole, and it was a far tighter entrance than either her lips or the cheeks of her ass, which continued to grip her cock tightly while she thrust in and out.


    ¡°Just¡­ push in! I¡¯ll take it! I can take it!¡± the maid cried out, inhaling deeply, ¡°I know it can fit, but I just can¡¯t- FUCK!¡±


    Whatever she had wanted to say vanished from her head once Wei Yi¡¯s throbbing, veiny shaft finally slid up to the crown, and then past it, letting it go a third of the way in with just a single thrust. Not letting herself be stopped with just that, the Ascendant took a step forward and forced the rest of her cock inside, eliciting a long gap from Shun Liu Min.


    For a moment, none of them were able to speak, as they were trying to get used to these sensations.


    ¡°Oh, heavens¡­ holy fuck¡­ shit¡­¡±


    ¡°Wrong word to use at this time, but yes¡­¡± Wei Yi pulled the maid into a close embrace, these movements causing her cock to slide just a little deeper and moved around inside, further widening her passage, ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m going to start moving, alright?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t decide whether I want you to be gentle, or break me in half, so¡­ Just fuck me until I lose my mind!¡±


    The Ascendant could never refuse such a thing. Hence, she pulled her hips back and thrust forward with more force, her hips slapping against the maid¡¯s ass and causing her butt and boobs to jiggle. A large mass of precum flooded in, bulging the underside of Wei Yi¡¯s cock, but that was just a drop in comparison to the full load brewing in her balls.


    ¡°Warm¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s going to get much warmer, don¡¯t worry,¡± Wei Yi¡¯s eyes lit up with a glint of crimson as she rocked her hips back and slammed them forward again, tightening her grip on Shun Liu Min so that she would make for the best hole possible.


    The slapping of flesh quickly filled the room, settling into a comfortable rhythm for at least one of them. With the length of Wei Yi¡¯s dick, even the greatest of hip movements couldn¡¯t pull more than half of it outside Shun Liu Min¡¯s asshole before she would thrust in again, but that didn¡¯t stop her from stirring up the maid¡¯s insides and completely rearranging them to the shape of her cock. Even if numerous healing methods were applied afterwards, it felt as if that shape would return a moment after her cock penetrated her once again.


    One thing that Shun Liu Min was sure of was that she would never be able to forget the sensation of such a beast within her. It felt like it was always a moment from tearing her apart, and yet it never did, producing a wonderful experience that made her cum her brains out over and over again with every single thrust. Her insides readily yielded to it, and she couldn¡¯t be happier.


    To an extent, their shared delight was also produced from the lustful grunts and moans that the two of them produced with each movement, for it demonstrated their combined enjoyment fully.


    All of a sudden, Wei Yi paused, grabbed onto the maid¡¯s legs, and said, ¡°Hold on to me.¡±


    With no further explanation, Shun Liu Min managed to figure it out, just in time for her whole body to be raised up by her legs, almost folding her body in half and leaving her entirely in the Ascendant¡¯s control, to be used purely as a hole for her pleasure.


    In this position, the movement of her hips could be joined by the movement of the maid¡¯s body, allowing her to slide nearly two thirds of her cock in and out of her asshole. Her balls slapped against Shun Liu Min¡¯s ass with every thrust, and what little remained of the maid¡¯s sanity dripped away with her liquid arousal, quickly adding to the existing pool on the ground.


    The maid¡¯s tongue was hanging out of her mouth, her eyes were rolled up into her head, and her mental energy seemed to be sinking away at an ever-increasing pace.


    As to ensure that Shun Liu Min retained some semblance of a mind after this, Wei Yi stopped holding back her own pleasure and felt her cock grow as hard as star metal, throbbing intensely as she felt the familiar heat rise up within her. She hurried her pace even further, and let the wave come.


    When it did, her balls rose up, a vast quantity of fluid manifesting from somewhere within her body and rushing through her urethra, the first rope of cum being close to a bucket in volume. It filled the maid¡¯s body, creating a visible bulge in her belly, and then it only grew until she looked to be many months into a pregnancy.


    Some even made its way up, landing into the stomach, but it did not rise beyond that, fortunately for the residence itself.


    The sheer volume of semen could have glazed the entire room if it spilled out, and there was no need to make the matter worse by providing another outlet for it. While she was still hilted within Shun Liu Min, most of her seed remained inside, some spilling out during the last of her thrusts, and so she first had to figure out the best way to deal with the mess that she would inevitably create. Also, there was another matter that quickly came to mind, even at that point in time.


    ¡®It seems like I am producing more and more cum each time I ejaculate. If this goes on, I might actually need to find some method to prevent this ¨C or find an actual dragon, who should be able to manage things like this. Doubt I would be able to convince a dragon to be my cum dump unless they¡¯re not as proud as ancient beasts are said to be,¡¯ she thought, carefully lowering the maid onto the table before them while keeping her cock inside, ¡°Hey, Shun Liu Min, are you still in there? I didn¡¯t do any¡­ significant harm, I hope?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ uh, I feel¡­ um¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright, you can speak, that¡¯s good enough¡­ Tell me, how do you want to deal with all of that cum? I can help you get rid of it, but you will need to do a lot of exercise after this.¡±


    Understandably, the maid didn¡¯t have a good response for this at the time, and simply rested on the hard surface of the table, trying to breathe in clean air and finding only the musk of their sex, a mixture of scents that completely overwhelmed any semblance of oxygen in the room they occupied. Hence, she would need a long time to gather anything of use.


    Neither of them had a problem with that, though. Wei Yi loved being inside Shun Liu Min, and Shun Liu Min loved being filled to the brim. Both loved the warmth of the Ascendant¡¯s cum, a thick volume of white fluid that could fill a bathtub, and both derived their own enjoyment from the resulting scent of it all. If not for having other needs outside of this, they might have been willing to remain together for hours, if not days.

 V3C87: Familiar Acquaintances

    There was a lot of the desert to explore, and as such, a lot of time was needed in order to go through all of it and learn everything that there was to learn about it. Since Wei Yi limited her ventured out of the district, mostly due to the sand being far too irritating to handle day after day, the explorers had to look around carefully, not being able to rely purely on their spiritual perception to learn about everything that existed within two hundred metres of them.


    Even if she had followed them wherever they went, there would still be far too much of the sands to explore within a day or two, so it instead four more days until they were able to locate something within the desert.


    The news came on a day when Shun Liu Min was continuing to practise with the three abilities of the spear, getting used to the differences between it and her previous weapon, as well as learning how to better handle it under the watchful eye of Wei Yi, who had decided to make a few more inscription plates as well as some low-grade artefacts for her own entertainment.


    Despite that, she was able to maintain an eye not just on the maid, who would always be warned just before she committed to a mistake in her training, but also on everything around them, including the occasional attempts by Xin Fu to ¡®accidentally¡¯ walk in at a wrong time to catch something interesting.


    To her credit, she seemed to have learned that she would probably be beaten up if she tried to repeat her attempts to spy on them for a third time, but the voyeuristic nature of the woman appeared to prevent her from giving up right away. Wei Yi was almost tempted to similarly ¡®accidentally¡¯ uncover a spot somewhere in the nearby baths from which it would be easy to spy on all of the bathing women on the other side of a wall, then guide her to finding it without directly explaining her involvement or knowledge, so that she would leave them alone and happen upon passionate kisses and relations elsewhere.


    It was this vigilance that allowed her to notice right away when one of the survey teams returned with a large map scroll in their hands, finding that the door was opened for them before they could even knock.


    ¡°What have you found?¡± Wei Yi asked right away.


    ¡°Your hair¡­ it¡¯s on fire-¡°


    ¡°Don¡¯t care. Also, it isn¡¯t on fire, there¡¯s a burning ember inside of it that doesn¡¯t want to go out. That¡¯s an entirely different matter. Tell me what you have found, or else we shall see whether you can burn.¡±


    ¡°Yes, got it!¡± the man instantly said, noticing not just the flame hovering above one of her hands, but also the killing will hammer held in her other hand being raised, ¡°We have discovered one of the landmarks you were searching for. It is those four rocks arranged in a strange shape, with one of them lying above the others. I don¡¯t know what it is, but it looks just like the picture.¡±


    ¡°Give the map to me, then,¡± Wei Yi said again, dispelling the flame above her hand and lowering the hammer so that she could accept, unfurl, and then examine the map, ¡°The red mark on the map is it, right? Good. Go get Chen Xiu to pay you, then continue exploring.¡±


    ¡°Do you need the other landmarks as well?¡±


    ¡°For safety purposes. One might be wrong, but all of them won¡¯t be,¡± she said, rolling up the map scroll and then flicking the air in front of her in a casual manner.


    This simple gesture exerted a vast amount of force on the explorer, who could barely understand what happened before he was suddenly pushed out of the doorway and into the wall of the corridor behind him.


    Closing the door so that there wouldn¡¯t be another supposedly opportunistic voyeur in the area, Wei Yi turned around and dispelled the hammer, deciding to abandon her current project for now as it was of little interest to her to begin with. She stood there, waiting for Shun Liu Min to complete her current activity, then stopped her as well, waving her over to show the map that the exploration teams had ended up creating.


    ¡°It seems that one of the landmarks is still relatively close to where it had been before. That means that the other points would be here, here and there,¡± the Ascendant pointed to several points on the map that had not yet been explored, ¡°This means that our destination on this journey will be right there, give or take depending on the accuracy of their map. Get prepared to leave.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not going to wait for the other points to be confirmed?¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t like going out will hurt anyone. If my guesses are incorrect, they will continue to explore and find the rest of the points of interest, and if not, they will still be paid by the merchant, who we may continue to have friendly relations with in the future, so long as he doesn¡¯t do anything stupid.¡±


    Shun Liu Min nodded, ¡°Okay. The place we¡¯re going to ¨C is it very dangerous? Should I have my spear prepared?¡±


    ¡°You should always have it prepared, but there shouldn¡¯t be anything there that you will have a chance to fight with. Either the occupants will be far more dangerous, or there will be none at all, and given the nature of the place we are searching for, the latter option is far more likely. Don¡¯t let me discourage healthy caution, of course, but you will either survive or be killed instantly,¡± Wei Yi said.


    ¡°That¡¯s hardly reassuring, but I trust you,¡± the maid repeated, taking her spear and placing it on her back, ¡°I know even less about that part of the desert, but I suspect that we will need quite a bit of water. Should I go and get it?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know why you¡¯re so keen to run off on your own. We are going together, although I don¡¯t think that taking water or some kind of juice will be most practical. The stall that was selling those Moisture Recovery pills may be the right thing for us, depending on how effective those pills actually are¡­ We shall purchase a few for our consumption, some for experimentation, and then we shall proceed out into the world, seeking the fortress. Any more questions or requests before that?¡±


    ¡°No. I shall follow your lead.¡±


    Since they had decided to go, they prepared quickly. The half-finished low-grade artefact she had been attempting to create was discarded, transformed via Antithesis energy back into the unrefined material it had been, a notice was provided to Chen Xiu that if she didn¡¯t return for a long time, someone would either find him to report how he could obtain more of her creations to sell, or she would have to be dead, and some minor matters in the district were settled. Out of all of the stays in one of the Yi City¡¯s districts, Wei Yi¡¯s stay in this one was perhaps the calmest and most peaceful, which was good since she didn¡¯t need to damage or tear down yet another modern power, nor did she speak to many people.


    As such, other than her potential business relationship with Chen Xiu, there was little more to do before they were able to set out, hoping that they wouldn¡¯t need to return again and then run into some threat or danger that they hadn¡¯t encountered the first time they had remained in the district.


    In other to be able to proceed confidently, Wei Yi decided to bring along a barrel of water alongside the pouch of the Moisture Recovery pills, which supposedly contained a vast quantity of water compressed into a small and ordinary-looking pill. If one proved to be lacking, then they could use the other to supplement their resources.


    The journey itself would take around a day of consistent walking through the desert, mostly due to the map in their possession allowing them to navigate the sands efficiently.


    Had Wei Yi gone on her own, she might have been able to clear the distance in less than an hour, running and leaping at her fastest speed with the aid of some movement techniques to ignore the dunes and get right to where she wanted to be in a single go, but she did not think that it was necessary to hasten to such an extent and leave Shun Liu Min behind. Defeating the Greats was naturally an important thing to accomplish at some point, but a day wouldn¡¯t be what allows them to win or lose, but what she does after settling in the fortress, so long as it still stands.


    In theory, so long as she was able to get the patriarchs of most districts on her side, she would be able to have them defeat the third and second generations of the Greats while she, the moment that she reached the seventh realm, would be able to compete with the first generation on equal footing.


    However, she was under no illusion that it wouldn¡¯t be an incredibly difficult task to get even one of them to side with her, even with a lot of actions in their favour. Most of them were old, and were sparing their energy for other things, and had most likely chosen to conceal or ignore the Greats while they were in their territory. Some would almost certainly be interested in fighting them, but they would need assurance that their participation couldn¡¯t lead to the fall of their district.


    In other words, if she wanted any district to be on her side, she would need to get the majority of them on her side. The only exception would be when a patriarch had been significantly affected by some actions of the Greats that would convince them that it would be worth going against them even with risks, at which point they would instead be seeking strength and wisdom that would be sufficient to topple that ancient group without suffering a quick and unfortunate defeat. Obviously, Wei Yi aimed to match that requirement and exceed it, both on her own and as the entire faction she had founded, hence the teaching of techniques and various methods to enhance the strength and spiritual will of all under her leadership, but it would take some time until the third realm was exceeded by her forces.


    It would take even longer to reach the fifth or sixth, at which point they would be genuinely able to compete with any of the Greats due to their superior strength and energy in comparison to most.


    Another danger was that the increases in planar energy density and quantity around the world would also benefit the Great Families, since they were also cultivators and would naturally be able to make use of the increases to cultivate more quickly and reach greater heights at a speed that other cultivators may be unable to match.


    If they were able to raise their cultivation realms to the eighth, sixth and fourth realms respective to the first, second and third generations, then they would no longer be a reasonable foe for any of the forces in the Planar Continents, not on the Western Continent at the very least. At that point, it may be necessary to head over to the Eastern Continent and investigate the abilities of the cultivators there to hopefully acquire some capable allies, but that kind of growth would only mean that they would have more control in the time that there was no resistance against them. With enough time, they could do some terrible things, and she was naturally not very keen to allow any of them.


    Then, there was also the matter of the Primordial Deities and the seeds of their influence in the likes of Zhu Qiu Ya or the Corruptor¡¯s Enclave, which would be a great threat to everyone if they did rise. Neither she nor Yi Shi Ming knew of the exact approach that they would take if they were to rise once more, so while it was a rather safe bet that they wouldn¡¯t appreciate another force having control over much of the continent alongside them, it wasn¡¯t guaranteed that they would resolve the matter in any manner that even slightly resembled sensibility. Perhaps they would reshape the very continent in its entirety, shredding and tearing terrain until the sands were in the south and the snows were in the north, and any trace of regular human life would only be found deep, deep underground.


    It was obviously not ideal, and not something that Wei Yi ever wanted to risk, although choosing between that and victory for the Great Families would certainly be a tough choice, and one that she wouldn¡¯t make.


    Fortunately, both of these possibilities, as well as many others, relied not on them reaching a safe place to link with the Kong Prison Realm, but rather on the enormous pool of anchor points within her Truth of the Universe, which would begin to fill the world with planar energy the moment that she used them all for whatever goal she would find. As such, it did not matter as much as it could have whether she reached the fortress now or in a decade, although she certainly knew which option she preferred.


    She intended to store up quite a few anchor points at first, prepare the environment of her faction to be able to handle it, then raise the level of energy in one go, hopefully overwhelming most experts in any enemy factions and giving her the chance to make her mark upon the world. To be able to make an impact, she would need to lead a recognised power, and it would be easiest to gain that recognition by a grand feat of some kind, and exceptional circumstances tended to be very suitable for all kinds of grand feats and achievements.


    Perhaps they could root out the Great Families from one of the many districts, at least for a while, then reveal their existence to the world so that even if the Greats were able to return, their name would be said constantly and everywhere, preventing their methods for detecting individuals from being anything other than a map of the whole world and its population.


    It would depend on exactly what she was able to achieve and what strength she had by the time she felt the need to expend those anchor points for the development of a Dao, or a technique, or something else entirely.


    Quite a few hours into their journey, and sand still surrounded them, much to Wei Yi¡¯s growing discomfort. While she had been fine on the way to the Chao District, now that she was heading even further to the north, it was rapidly becoming less and less endurable. The heat, the typical enemy of those who venture out that far, was not the main problem for her, but it was instead the way in which the seemingly perpetual sands managed to look more alike with every breath that she took.


    It was generating quite a lot of frustration for her, and so she quickly spotted that something wasn¡¯t quite right with her state of mind, and then proceeded to seek the reason behind it.


    ¡®A mental technique shouldn¡¯t be able to affect me directly, and the Third Eye can see through illusions, so¡­ perhaps it isn¡¯t that I am being fooled, but instead that the sands and heat are being manipulated in a precise and slight fashion to promote uniformity and dullness, causing explorers to feel tired and bored?¡¯


    She glanced at the maid behind her, and quickly figured out that she would be of no use to her at this time as she was currently struggling to simply traverse the sands, not to mention becoming bored of them. If anything, Shun Liu Min would be tired to taking step after step towards some unknown and unseen goal, and wouldn¡¯t be able to comment a single thing about the shape of the desert dunes, their pattern, or anything else of the sort. For it to affect her, she would first require the ability to focus on the sands.


    However, after a short length of time, that was finally something that she could accomplish, for ahead of them they saw a set of three standing rocks, with one lying sideways above them.


    ¡°Eh¡­ Ah! The landmark! Is this the one that we were looking for?¡±


    ¡°Exactly the same. It seems that it hasn¡¯t been touched all this time later, despite the proximity to both Yi City and the outside powers. That is interesting, to say the least, but also something that needs to be explored at some other time. For now, the¡­ Hm.¡±


    ¡°What did you find?¡± the maid asked, tiredly looking around but being unable to find anything with the sun shining right down upon them, making the desert sand bright and lacking in detail.


    ¡°Footprints over there. They seemed to come here from a different direction, then must have seen these stones and turned north. Judging by the number of prints, and their arrangement, there must be no fewer than ten, no more than thirty ¨C yes, a wide range, but some of them seem to either be drunk, or moving weirdly, or higher in number than I presume. Sometimes, sets pf prints appear and disappear without obvious landing points, so it doesn¡¯t seem like anyone is randomly jumping, either¡­¡± Wei Yi listed her findings, frowning as she looked into the distance and found nothing, ¡°I¡¯m not entirely sure who these could be, but nothing about this says ¡®Them¡¯ to me.¡±


    ¡°Them?¡±


    ¡°Did I not explain that to you yet? The ones that I and my faction oppose. A group of families that reside within the background, occasionally stepping in to forcefully change the course of events to their whims. As far as I can tell, most of them are terrible people, and those that aren¡¯t can¡¯t do much to change the rest.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see¡­ Well, I don¡¯t see anything around here, but I understand¡­ Should we be following them, or are they likely to be going somewhere else?¡±


    ¡°As I said, their direction of travel changed the moment that they were within sight of these stones, so they must have some clue about something relevant to them, so far as I am aware, the fortress is the only thing that can be identified by the location of the stones, and unless the information about it had been shared with someone that shouldn¡¯t have heard it, only those who would have some vaguely similar intentions to me would know about it¡­¡± Wei Yi answered, ¡°As such, we should follow, for now.¡±


    Whoever was within that group of travellers, and whatever their purpose, she couldn¡¯t learn much from her spiritual perception other than finding all of the odd and unusual tracks all over the place. It told her little, and she did not know enough to make any judgements right away.


    If she had any clue regarding the factions other than the Remnants of Yin that had been attempting to deal with the Greats, or even knew about any of the major factions to the north, she might have been able to estimate who the people they were not following were, but aside from the fact that they likely came from the Ju District before turning to the direction of the fortress, she knew little else.


    These people could be potential allies, foes, a neutral party, some merchants, perhaps some strange bandits that use these stones as a landmark for whatever reason, or even some force from outside of Yi City that is patrolling the area. It could be anything from that list and more, and even as they followed the prints, they didn¡¯t get much of an idea about them. Judging by the prints, they were wearing some form of footwear, and they weren¡¯t too heavy, but that hardly narrowed things down to any significant extent.


    Anyone could be wearing any kind of clothing for any reason, to the point that even the standard assassin outfits of the Endless Dark and so on weren¡¯t necessarily a giveaway, so knowing that little did not help whatsoever, leaving them in the dark for now.


    Furthermore, the further they went, the more they realised was that the people they were following were moving rather quickly, far more quickly than any ordinary human would be able to move. While this did confirm that they were cultivators, at least at the second realm of above, this did rather little for them as anyone that ventured out this far would need to be a cultivator or a regular human with an immense quantity of resources to protect themselves from the heat, or some unique physique.


    With a little more travel, they also figured out that the realm the group before them was adhering to was the third realm, meaning that this was a group with a minimal strength of the third realm and an uncertain maximum strength, with those stronger cultivators slowing themselves down for the sake of the rest of the group. That much also didn¡¯t tell them much, save for the minimal strength of the group, but it did show that this was likely an organised, united team that wasn¡¯t just formed from casual travellers in the same direction. They were likely working together, although it was difficult to tell whether all of them knew where they were going.


    For this reason, Wei Yi instructed the maid to draw her spear, since she might be required to protect herself against a number of organised forces with them being capable of tactical thinking, and even if they were simply scattered and wild in combat, that did not make them any less deadly ¨C potentially.


    After all, it might not even be that her earlier presumptions had any accuracy at all. There were plenty of reasons for certain groups and certain types of people to act in certain ways and guessing at it without any evidence at all was rather difficult if one sought to get actual results. Instead of attempting to continue guessing baselessly, they decided that it would be best to catch up until they were either in sight or in the range of the Ascendant¡¯s spiritual perception, and work from there, using any physical clothing or characteristics to determine their approach.


    There was a chance that the group would have at least someone to watch over them and make sure that no threats came from the sides or from behind, so such a move could potentially expose them, but it seemed necessary. If they did know about the fortress, and knew of a way to use it, letting them claim it would be a very risky thing.


    So, with Shun Liu Min climbing onto Wei Yi¡¯s back in order to not slow them down, they hastened alongside the footprints in the sand, doing so as silently as was possible.


    Minutes passed, and while the footprints were becoming somewhat fresher, it still seemed like whoever they were pursuing were incredibly far off, as if their travelling speed was somehow increasing, or the sand that they were affecting moved slower than all of the sand around it.


    In fact, that was indeed occurring due to a powerful presence of yin that Wei Yi was able to sense more now that she was locating fresher prints. Two set of feet left behind a cold aura that partially froze the sand and prevented it from moving as much as it would otherwise do due to the cold sticking the individual grains together. This did help to establish that they were nearing whoever was leaving these prints behind, but it did not illuminate their identity as much as she would have hoped.


    While a cold-type cultivator in the north might seem like an oddity on first glance, one only needed to consider the fact that it was horrendously hot in the north and that most would prefer to have some method to mitigate it in order to realise that this was not the case. Fire-type cultivators were prevalent as well, dealing with the heat by attuning to it, in a way, but some instead handled it by keeping a cold barrier around themselves, or intentionally cultivating a particular physique, or otherwise maximising the cold within their energy to negate the outside heat.


    Really, the only thing it was able to confirm for her was that these individuals had a very powerful yin presence, as it was both pure and dense, unlike what a normal cultivator focused on cold might attain.


    Had this been planar energy, she might have been able to figure out what realm the cultivators were in, or whether there were in fact two of them, but all that remained was the yin aura and any energy that might have been expended during the journey had already been unbound and scattered long ago, meaning that it would be of no use to her without some miracle to permit her to travel back in time.


    Since that was and will remain an impossibility so long as the very laws of the Planar Continents remained, she didn¡¯t put much hope into it and carried on, deciding to run even quicker as to catch up with them before the sun moved far from the top of the sky.


    Perhaps they had been accelerating, or perhaps she had majorly misjudged the duration for which the yin aura of those two cultivators was able to remain in place, but it took her not a few minutes, but almost two hours, and that was with her rushing far more quickly than someone in the third realm would ever be able to without an absolutely unique movement technique or an immensely powerful body.


    Nevertheless, after all of that effort, as the sun was slowly descending, she finally caught sight of those people, and slowed down immediately as to observe and not catch their attention too quickly.


    She did so just in time, as well, for the moment that she stopped and hid behind a dune¡¯s peak in order to observe them from afar with spiritual perception, the two figured covered in cloaks, one of which was black while the other was white, that had been leaving the yin aura behind turned around at the same time, looking in her vague direction for a brief moment before looking back.


    As she was able to feel their spiritual perception, she was able to confirm that they couldn¡¯t reach her, but she also noticed that they had to be in the sixth realm at the very least in order to reach out as far as they did. Fortunately, her own spiritual perception was hidden even from their attention, or so it seemed, as she was able to calmly observe the entire group of seventeen people travelling towards the north, doing so intently and with a clear idea, even if it was only a minimal one, of where they needed to be going.


    ¡°These people¡­ Shun Liu Min, they¡¯re moving slow enough for us to catch up on our own ¨C as in, without me carrying you,¡± the Ascendant said, letting the maid down and giving her a little bit to drink, ¡°I don¡¯t believe they will be immediately hostile, no matter what.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re not with ¡®Them¡¯, then, right?¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t be. You can¡¯t really rule out anything until you have some method to confirm it with absolute certainty, but for now, I do believe that they are not going to be hostile, as I said. We shall walk up to them, have a chat, see where that leads us, and if we are successful in either getting along or just not killing one another, we can proceed, with or without them.¡±


    ¡°Would it be safe to take them with you if they aren¡¯t guaranteed to be one hundred percent safe, and if we¡¯ve just met them?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ Let me just show you instead. Seems easier that way.¡±


    She rose quickly, and forced the maid to follow as they climbed over the peak of the slowly shifting dune and strode calmly towards the group, doing so with Wei Yi¡¯s mask on as to continue what was likely a rather unnecessary obstruction of her identity at this particular point.


    They had been able to notice them the previous time, when they had charged up the dune, and now that they approached a little more slowly, it only took the two a little longer to turn around again.


    When they saw the two of them approaching, clearly walking in their direction without any ambiguity to it, with Wei Yi looking straight towards the pair in black and white while Shun Liu Min was more focused on the group as a whole, they raised their hands in unison to prompt the group to stop, then turned their whole bodies to face them, waiting with brows furrowed beneath black and white hoods but making no other immediate move.


    Once Wei Yi got close enough to for her voice to reach them smoothly, but not too closely as to appear unnecessarily dangerous and imposing, she paused and met the gaze of the pair for a little while, confirming something,


    In the end, the man in black spoke first, asking, ¡°Did you want something from us?¡±


    ¡°Actually, yes, I did. It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve seen the two of you, so I figured we could have a nice chat.¡±


    That sentence alone was enough for the whole group to draw their weapons, the two hidden by black and white formed weapons from their planar energy, which was as cold as ice and as dense as the stone deep beneath the earth, compressed over decades. A set of forty-six channels spread out across their two weapons, but not from them individually, but instead from a point between them.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± the man in black asked once more, the man in white glancing at him once but saying nothing afterwards.


    ¡°I know who you are, twins of Great Earth. I didn¡¯t expect to be able to put that knowledge to good use only a short time after obtaining it ¨C short being relative in this case. You two don¡¯t like to give people the most pleasant reception, do you?¡±


    Their eyes narrowed, and they threw back their hoods to reveal androgynous faces with flowing locks of black and white hair respectively pouring from their heads.


    Great Light had wanted to speak this time, but his brother was faster and repeated, ¡°Who are you?¡±


    ¡°I guess I am that unrecognisable, or perhaps you two simply forgot. Let me briefly remind you,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing to her maid for a moment before removing the mask from her face, putting it into Shun Liu Min¡¯s hands.


    Then, she reached out grandiosely with the other hand, in the other direction, opening it as she condensed a shape between her fingers, grasping it the moment that the killing will creating it began to stabilise and solidify. At the same time, she dispelled the planar energy within her hair and clothing, causing the brown atop her head to rapidly gain a crimson tone that mixed with the silver of her eyes to provide a distinctive look. Her clothing regained a similar shade, although this was hardly beneficial to the look that she was attempting to present.


    With that object in her hand, she brought it to her face and placed it on, simply holding it in place as she slightly changed the pitch of her voice through a basic voice-altering technique.


    ¡°I had called myself Da Gang,¡± the Ascendant said in that voice, keeping the mask just until she saw the glimpse of recognition with their eyes, at which point she dispelled it and fixed her voice to continue, ¡°However, my name is Wei Yi, and I believe we might be seeking the same thing.¡±


    ¡°Wait, Da Gang-¡± Great Light barely held himself back from cursing as he turned to his brother, ¡°I thought we were both certain that was a man with a pure yang physique or something?¡±


    ¡°So, we believed¡­ but the deceased Chu Ling had noticed something about him¡­ Our initial suspicions were also along these lines, and if not for our desire not to violate his or her privacy¡­ We would have known some time ago,¡± Great Dark answered, frowning, ¡°Your name, Wei Yi¡­ It is what I think it is, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Perhaps, but it is not going away. Ever. Even if the entirety of the Yi District begs for her return, they will not see her again,¡± she answered, ¡°I am rather interested in your own state, having learnt some rather interesting things about you, but before that, I think that we would all benefit from a few quick confirmations, said explicitly and clearly so that there can be no ambiguity or uncertainty. It would be terrible if we got all close and then discovered we were no longer on the same side as one another.¡±


    Great Dark and Great Light offered their silent agreement, so she continued.


    ¡°First of all, are you still loyal to the cause of the War of Yin?¡±


    ¡°We were the ones to begin it, kid! Do you think that we would just stray from it because of a few of Them?¡±


    ¡°The Remnants of Yin had been forcefully subjugated, so I don¡¯t see why it would be impossible for you to be under the grip of Their first generation. Also, your training set ended up being burnt up. Sorry about that.¡±


    ¡°What are-¡±


    ¡°We have answered that, and the set was old and unnecessary¡­ Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Are you seeking the fortress in the sand?¡±


    ¡°I would ask how you know of it¡­ but you seem intent to control the conversation, so I shall not do so yet¡­ That is our destination, and it seems to be yours as well. We seek to activate it¡­ if we can.¡±


    ¡°How nice of you, Great Dark. Although you are clearly very capable of doing whatever you like for the moment, I would like to point out that you seem to have made a single stage of progress in the time since we last saw one another, while that is hardly the case for me. Your Paradigm of Yin appears to be struggling now that it has expended the other forbidden skill you had used alongside it,¡± Wei Yi noted, ¡°Also, this current tone is hardly necessary. I am here as the new leader of the Remnants, killer of two of the third generation, and as the only one to escape from Their prison. You should know of it, seeing as you lost Meng Qi to it.¡±


    ¡°Prison¡­ You? How did you¡­¡± Great Dark restrained himself, having expressed far more emotion than it had seemed plausible for him to in the past, ¡°You began this, not I. I have no objections to speaking more amicably¡­ First, though ¨C who is that woman?¡±


    ¡°Temporary maid and disciple. We escaped from one Ping Gangze together.¡±


    ¡°I think that he was trying to ask whether you believe this woman to be trustworthy, or if she already knows some of the things that we seem to understand.¡±


    ¡°She will not harm us by listening. Will you, Shun Liu Min?¡± she asked the maid, who promptly shook her head despite barely having a clue about what was happening. Right before her eyes, her master apparently revealed one or two other identities to these strange people, then showed a different colour of hair and robes, although she had no clue whether this was their true colour or not, and was now talking in vague terms about vague things. Even if she wanted to spy on them, she would understand nothing.


    That much must have gotten across, as Great Light sighed while Great Dark nodded to the others accompanying them and turned back north, readying all of their items and equipment to resume their travels into the desert.


    ¡°As you appear to match certain descriptions that have made their way over here¡­ We shall walk together. We can also work on the fortress together.¡±


    ¡°No need for that. I can handle it on my own, so long as there is nobody else around to interfere,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°Besides, now that former master and student, employer and employee reunite, I am certain that there is plenty for us to discuss other than the fortress, so why don¡¯t we catch up a little. If things go well, we might have plenty of time for all kinds of important discussions later.¡±


    Great Dark did not voice an immediate objection, so they set out.

 V3C88: The Forgotten Fortress

    Over the next hour, Wei Yi was able to learn quite a few things, while Shun Liu Min was able to pretend to understand most of them.


    No matter how much the maid tried to connect the various dots presented by both sides in the conversation, she didn¡¯t seem to be able to understand them fully, making her ponder whether they were using some complicated code or if her impression of having an above average mind was just a mistake made long ago, one that had somehow passed until today.


    Since she was unable to get much from their talks, she ignored them and focused on her techniques.


    Meanwhile, the Ascendant confirmed that the tale shared with her by Luo Lia Kun was accurate, and that they were indeed once Great Earth who split himself and partially shattered his cultivation in order to practise a forbidden skill in the hopes of beating the Greats. As was perhaps rather obvious by their current state, they had not succeeded as well as they would have hoped, and while most of their companions were either captured, killed or lost in some other way, they managed to travel to the Yi District to recover and build up their strength.


    They joined the Deadly Martial Colosseum and quickly got into a leadership position and kicked out most of the old guard, who did not enjoy their actions even a little bit but had little choice but to permit them at the time. That was why they were keen not to permit a recurrence of this once the twins left.


    As she had come to suspect after learning of their Paradigm of Yin, they very likely had the ability to benefit from forbidden skills focused on yin, which would explain a little about why their cultivation was able to advance quickly after the man she had first fought at the Deadly Martial Colosseum had been defeated by her. It must not have been easy to acquire more, so their cultivation had not changed much.


    In the time that Wei Yi had spent in the Kong District, the Greats must have shown themselves coming to the Yi District, prompting Great Light and Great Dark to flee earlier than they would have hoped.


    From the knowledge of the combatants of the War of Yin and all of the research that they had completed, they had likely come to know of something to the north, something that would be of great use to them, and left in that direction to search for it. At some point, they were able to confirm the existence of an ancient defensive fortress, as well as some potential methods to interact with it, and thus chose to head towards it in order to potentially obtain a place where they and their last forces could reside peacefully.


    That journey brought them to the north, then once they caught sight of the relevant landmarks, they would correct their course, such as what they did earlier in the day when they had encountered the three stones and one atop them.


    On the way, they had some interesting encounters, but none of it could really be equated to what they wanted to know about Wei Yi. Just from the reference to the prison, there seemed to only be a single thing that she could have been referencing, which was why they waited patiently to hear what she might have to say. So long as the prison of the Greats was not infallible, they hoped that countless people could be freed from their grasp and returned to the world to act.


    She did not tell them anything right away, simply because it would be better to show them instead.


    Thus, they travelled north, with the twins of Great Earth saying no further information until Wei Yi would share some with them, leaving neither one with a complete image of the other¡¯s activities in the last year since they had last seen one another.


    The rest of the group that they were travelling with appeared to be a small group similar to the Remnants of Yin in that they had once been allied with the forces that went to war against the Greats, but ended up failing and splintering, being found a short time ago hiding in the Ju District by the twins. They seemed to be relatively comfortable with one another, but they did not speak to one another while near Wei Yi or Shun Liu Min, so they weren¡¯t able to learn anything from incidental conversations like that.


    Fortunately, the Ascendant hadn¡¯t been interested in learning from them in this manner in the first place, and so she did not ask any more questions once it became clear that they wouldn¡¯t speak.


    So long as she had any degree of success with activating the fortress, whatever that meant, and setting up a gateway into the Kong Prison Realm, Great Dark and Great Light would likely be very open with sharing pretty much everything so long as she made even the faintest hint towards being curious about one matter or another. That was how momentous capturing the prison realm from the Greats was, since it would mean not only that everyone inside can go free, but that anyone that is imprisoned afterwards can be released before they age, have children, die, and pass along whatever they have three or four generations down like in the case of Meng Qi and Meng Chu.


    Control over the prison realm would likely remain a boon even after it was discovered, since it could then be used openly wherever she wanted to summon armies, move to more advantageous battlefields, and generally make use of the spatial capabilities far more openly than she needed to at the moment.


    Only the first generation of the Great Families would have much of a chance to interfere with the prison realm at that point, but so long as the conversion laws of the realm could be externalised and focused on those individuals, even their seventh realm would only hold on for so long until it would be torn away and broken into nothing other than husks that could be defeated as easily as any other regular human, perhaps even more easily due to their presumed lack of regular combat training.


    On the topic of cultivation, Wei Yi was able to observe that Great Dark and Great Light alike did have a slight build-up of spiritual will and killing intent within their minds, empowering their spiritual perception by a small degree, but it was effectively limited to the first realm due to the absence of sufficient meridian networks in order to allow for the ascension to the second realm.


    As the sun was nearing the horizon, they finally came to a spot of interest.


    To the naked eye ¨C and to spiritual perception and even the Third Eye, for that matter ¨C it appeared to be no different than any other spot in the desert, whether one looked at the dunes, the heat, the air or even the amount of effort one needed to raise a foot into the air.


    It seemed inconspicuous, but that annoying sensation of similarity and dullness that had been bothering Wei Yi for some time was strongest there, and the moment that she saw this place and relayed that sight to Yi Shi Ming, who had finally become able to relax some time ago due to the Endless Monolith not acting up since the time that the Dao concept was solidified, the spatial spirit¡¯s eyes glistened.


    ¡°This is the right place. The sands of the fortress never change, even though it looks like they are in constant motion,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, ¡°Go to that spot, and then release a vast amount of energy.¡±


    ¡®What will it do, activate the fortress, like they mentioned?¡¯


    ¡°As I said some time ago, my memories are hardly perfect, and Ah Shi Meng had not shared everything in perfect detail or clarity, but so far as I understand it, in order to reveal the fortress once it has been hidden, it must be awakened with a great burst of energy. It might not necessarily be planar energy, given that it should be something that anyone can easily produce in higher realms, but¡­¡±


    ¡®I¡¯ll have a look. That spot, right?¡¯ Wei Yi confirmed, then looked to the twins and said, ¡°Stop here. It should be in this area, although I might need a moment to find the exact spot.¡±


    ¡°You are aware¡­ how to active it?¡±


    ¡°More or less. I do not, however, know whether or not it will be safe for everyone to stand around, nor do I know how much energy it will require, so stand a few metres away and pay attention to your surroundings just in case. That includes you, Shun Liu Min,¡± she said to the maid, then walked forward until she stood over the spot that Yi Shi Ming had mentioned to her. So far as she could tell even with her spiritual perception, there was nothing amiss here, but if this place did hide a great fortress, it would be an absolute miracle of creation, regardless of the method used.


    She kneeled down beside that point, feeling the sand a little before she found a spot that seemed harder than the rest, as if she was touching not fine grains and particles but a dense stone instead.


    While she couldn¡¯t determine what it actually was, nor whether that was the true sensation of the spot or if it was an illusory feeling while the rest of the sand was true, she didn¡¯t have much she could do beside pouring in her planar energy and hoping for the best, which she did straight away. At first, nothing happened.


    However, once almost five percent of her incredibly vast and powerful pool of energy was exhausted, even with the slow regeneration of the nascent rift, she finally sensed something in the ground. It was still highly uncertain and vague, but she was at the very least able to inspect it in order to figure out exactly how much energy was needed, and where she would need to pour it into, as well as how. That process alone took several minutes, during which time the others waited patiently and had surrounded her some time ago, standing in a circle both to prevent anything from charging in and harming her as well as to be able to stop anything dangerous from emerging from the location in which she stood.


    A little more scrutiny confirmed that while the object, whatever it was and whatever it was connected to, would be satisfied with planar energy to an extent, she would require a vast amount of it in a state different from what her energy would usually be in.


    ¡®It may not be in that state normally, but when I break through, not only are vast waves of energy released, but it is also momentarily transformed. In a breakthrough to the fourth realm, perhaps with the inclusion of some bloodline cultivation on the side, might be sufficient to fulfil the conditions of this object, and hopefully show what it is so that I don¡¯t have to keep wondering,¡¯ she thought, checking her full planar aperture, ¡®I should be able to do this right away.¡¯


    She stood up and turned to Great Dark, effectively ignoring his brother¡¯s existence.


    ¡°I think that I will require a breakthrough in order to active it. As such, you will need to double your distance,¡± Wei Yi instructed, sitting down with her legs crossed immediately after.


    ¡°A breakthrough? You want to just achieve one out of-¡±


    ¡°How long will you need, and to which realm? Your perfected stages¡­ muddle things¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be getting to the fourth realm for now, and that will involve a perfected stage, then perfected realm, then finally the first stage of the Active Core realm. With my current accumulation of energy, it will be done before sunset, although I cannot guarantee whether or not it will be particularly explosive. I don¡¯t know whether you have heard anything about the Luo District, but if you have, then that massive rupture in the ground was my fault.¡±


    ¡°Rupture¡­ no, I do not believe we¡¯ve had that come to our attention¡­ the Ju District is not one to listen to many tales and rumours¡­¡±


    ¡°Good. Then, just know that depending on what I do, it is possible for quite a lot of damage to occur for what can be called no good reason. Just remain careful, don¡¯t let Shun Liu Min get hurt, and it should be perfectly fine,¡± she said, shutting her eyes, ¡°I¡¯ll be getting on with it now, so hush.¡±


    She focused on her dantian and on the energy that had accumulated within it, then on the minimal remains within the planar stone in the prison realm, as well as on the energy all around her, and then took it all in at the full speed permitted to her by the Ascendant¡¯s Path technique, instantly creating a vast vacuum of planar energy around herself that the Planar Continents couldn¡¯t instantly fill.


    The pull was so great that the air nearly got dragged along with it, causing Shun Liu Min to lose her footing for a moment before Great Light was able to catch her with his hand, as he didn¡¯t dare to risk using his planar energy. It seemed that the pull would be able to absorb anything within an enormous radius, and if that somehow resulted in his energy being pulled in as well, he could potentially even lose some of his cultivation due to whatever absurd technique she was practising, and that would hardly be ideal whether she was going to be on their side or not.


    It should be known that this kind of energy absorption wasn¡¯t entirely foreign to the Planar Continents or even the Western Continent, since certain experts of the seventh realm have been documented to be able to drain vast spaces of energy in seconds, but that was the seventh realm.


    Wei Yi was only in the third, and it didn¡¯t even seem to be enough for her as she quickly took out a few planar shards and drained them as well, although their meagre quantity of energy was barely sufficient for her purposes either, so she also made her Endless Monolith absorb the energy of the prison realm in order to be able to benefit from the planar stones that had been added to the central array.


    Once the very skies of the prison realm distorted due to the great force acting upon all of the energy in the air that had not yet been claimed or used by the people below, and with everything around her being drained for every drop of planar energy that it would allow, save for the small group of people currently observing her actions, her current realm and stage finally budged.


    The previous feeling that she shouldn¡¯t break through did not recur, making her ponder just how much her intuition was able to tell her and where exactly such keen senses could even originate from, but for now she focused strictly on her breakthrough, taking a look at the Truth of the Universe to confirm the method that it recommended before infusing it into her existing work and using them together to prevent her planar pool from bursting before she had just enough energy to reach the perfected stage, as which point she permitted it to progress.


    At the same time, she created a series of arrays to float around her with her killing will, manipulating them in order to act upon her bloodline power and rapidly caused it to bubble and heat up within her.


    Together with all of the planar energy passing through her system, her bloodline cultivation spiked rapidly even before she decided to go all out and activate Absolute Rupture, at which point she sank into the Realm of Potential for a few moments as to allow these things to occur all at once and at the best efficiency that her body and mind would allow for without the chance for any kind of fluctuation in the process.


    With a united set of two fifth realm forms of energy and her current cosmic energy, the first realm of her bloodline cultivation rose with immense speed, and each stage strengthened these same forms of energy, meaning that it was able to develop more quickly. If there was no such thing as realms and only stages that all required similar, linear quantities of energy development and gathering to progress she would have been able to rush into the tens or even hundreds of realms in one ago, attaining effectively limitless amounts of power within only hours, but those were not the laws of the world.


    Only techniques were able to skip realms, but as a result, individual stages were far more difficult to attain, especially after the first unnamed stage after Full Success. Whether or not there was some limit to the development of a technique, it was not one that was ever seen due to the sheer difficulty of heading past the First Stage with most techniques.


    As a result, her progress with her bloodline power stopped at the ninth stage, wherein the step onto the next realm not only appeared to require far more energy, but was also something that she did not wish to rush as the next realm might have some complexity and requirements to it that couldn¡¯t be met, either sufficiently or at all, by her current method of simply exciting the bloodline power until the hidden power within was invoked. To rush might mean a weaker bloodline power and less potential for growth in the future, which was not ideal or even sufficient if she wanted to stand a reasonable chance of success in the future.


    She exited the Realm of Potential the moment that the state it allowed her body to be in was no longer useful, and then focused on her impending planar energy breakthrough.


    It was first heralded by the forced appearance of the Endless Monolith¡¯s shadow around herself, the great structure entirely covering her figure as it ruptured the space around her, the glowing and shackled sphere of white energy at its centre settling just above her head, illuminating the desert with its light.


    Just as her initial draw of energy, this sight was also a shock to those that saw it, but they had little time to marvel at this entirely different anchor as a vast quantity of energy surged from the centre, into her body and, under her precise control, into her head, hands and feet, merging with the Absolute Rupture in scattering her every minute piece before forcefully reconstructing it to be even more power and efficient. For a moment, her body transformed into the killing will state, splitting her into two distinct halves, the claws on her left hand growing even sharper and more imposing while the finest of irregularities were purged from her right hand, the skin on that whole side becoming even paler and whiter than before.


    The last of the mixed light was exhausted then, as she thought that it might be, and a vast quantity of her own planar energy surged out with enough speed and strength to shake the very world.


    It flowed almost ceaselessly to form a great sphere around herself or, more accurately, her anchor, but a fraction of that energy surged into the ground beneath her, into an unseen node that hungrily consumed more and more of her planar energy, but was unable to surpass the regeneration of the nascent rift that was able to keep it fed all the while.


    Still, this was not sufficient for the object beneath the ground, but it was also not the end.


    As the great flowing light grew denser and denser, it transcended fluidity, became solid, and then went even further beyond, being compressed and refined until it gained crystalline properties akin to that of the illusory core that still remained within her body, around the dantian. Through the crystalline gem-like facets of the glowing sphere, the sight of Wei Yi was slowly replaced with that of the stars, countless nebulae and galaxies glowing with great radiance, although something faint could be seen in the distance. Only Great Dark and Great Light were able to see them with any clarity, and they appeared to be a boundless, dense field of chains that covered the rest of the cosmos.


    The moment that they saw this, the core burst out with an even greater degree of force and energy, scattering the sand beneath them and, despite only a thin layer seeming to be removed from the ground, it unveiled a layer of stone tiles arranged neatly beside one another beneath their feet.


    On the point where Wei Yi sat, just in front of her legs, was a square tile with a complex shape drawn upon it, which was glowing with a violet light that brightened with each passing moment.


    They would have continued to watch on, but alongside the revelation of a stone floor beneath them came the surfacing of a number of desert apparitions, all of which rose from the sand near the area which had been revealed, as if the resurgence of the fortress came as a danger to them and forced them to act. All of the forces that surrounded Wei Yi knew that they could do nothing at all to contribute to her final breakthrough, whatever that would look like, and instead turned to face these new threats in order to make it as smooth as possible for her.


    Shun Liu Min didn¡¯t hesitate to do the same, for amongst these creatures she was able to sense those in the second and third realms, and it seemed that some were significantly more lacking in intellect that others, for some could only shamble and take the hits from the other fighters while some would actively fight and evade against Great Dark and Great Light¡¯s attacks, although it was futile due to the difference in realms.


    The maid grabbed the spear and tossed it into the air, much like Wei Yi had done, barely managing to catch it once it began to descend, gripping the lowest past of it before looking at a nearby easy foe, pulling her hand back, and then bursting out with all of the power that she had.


    Although the attack was certainly rather unconventional, it proved its effectiveness as it instantly scattered the second realm foe, leaving naught but its sand core to drop onto the ground while the rest of the sand that had provided a poor facsimile of flesh was thrown into the wind and brought far away from where the entity had stood.


    Emboldened by this success, no matter how minor it may have been in this situation, she turned towards one of the more distant foes that was preparing some kind of planar technique. It waved its hands about as more and more energy gathered around it, a small sandstorm surrounding it with an ever-rising density. Quickly confirming that there was no nearby foe that could strike her any time soon, as most of them were dealt with either by Great Dark or the man that had stood on her other side while they were in the circle, she took the spear normally and raised it, bringing it back to aim for a throw.


    Then, as her hand thrust forward, a spear made of wood-type liquid planar energy that was compressed by the artefact itself in order to allow it to function at the level of solid energy just for long enough for it to fly towards its foe and land inside of the sand that made up its body. The next moment, it exploded, obliterating the third realm creature. Whatever core had made up its body was thrown far away, and the sand that it was made from joined the sand of the storm that it had been creating.


    Meanwhile, Wei Yi was attempting to understand exactly why the core that the perfected realm appeared to be condensing in preparation for the first stage of Active Core was separate from the illusory core, which continued to reside around her dantian.


    Typically, a cultivator would naturally possess a single core, and it would remain around the anchor at all times, whether it was within the dantian or outside. This was a significant vulnerability for those in the fourth realm and above, although it could be negated by placing the anchor beside oneself when using it in battle or some other situation that required both power and protection, since the core would defend anything inside of it, even an enemy if a cultivator was careless and slammed down their anchor without checking whether it would be safe to do so.


    When the anchor and the core were outside, the dantian could easily be attacked, and when it was inside, it was unable to protect the rest of the body, so to have what appeared to be two cores was highly unusual, since it might allow for her to have advantages of both at the same time, with an anchor on the field to increase the potency of her energy while simultaneously guarding her dantian as usual.


    Besides everything that already put her far above the vast majority of cultivators, this would make her far more difficult to finish off, since both her Endless Monolith and her dantian, the two primary sources of a cultivator¡¯s power, would be defended at all times. If one of the cores was damaged and breached, so long as it wasn¡¯t entirely scattered, it could be regathered and rebuilt with little damage so long as it was done with some modicum of skill, which she did have, meaning that her foundation wouldn¡¯t suffer unless she faced an enemy that was far, far above her level.


    At that point, she would hardly be able to put up a fight anyway, but the threshold for the overly powerful foe was rising from the sixth realm at this point to the seventh or eighth, depending on the strength of the core that was being manifested at this very moment. She didn¡¯t dream of having absolute immunity from the last two realms since they would have the same ability as she did during the Soul of Cinder state but at all times, meaning that they would be able to throw around any kind of technique they wanted without caring for the costs. At the last two realms, it was very likely that all techniques changed from attempting any semblance of efficiency to instead going all out, delaying the process of technique execution so that it could build up as much force as necessary before taking out any foe in a single strike.


    If that was the kind of thing that she needed to face, only the Soul of Cinder state would have a chance of saving her, and even then it would be only for as long as it was able to last, no longer.


    Fortunately, to her knowledge, there was not a single entity in the eighth realm anywhere in the Planar Continents, whether on the Western or Northern Continents, so she could be safe for now and worry about those sorts of things when entering the eighth realm was a real possibility, and when she could be reasonably expected to encounter them.


    Just before the final wave of the breakthrough, she pushed her spiritual perception out for a moment.


    ¡®It seems that they¡¯re handling themselves well enough for now. The moment that the breakthrough is complete, either the fortress will be out, or I will be able to contribute. Either way, nobody will get hurt,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, before shutting her eyes again.


    Then, the great core around her and the illusory Endless Monolith suddenly burst outward, erupting with a vast amount of force that also partially sank into the ground, causing the blue pattern on the ground to finally erupt with energy of its own. All of the sand around her and the group currently engaging in combat surged out, as if an ocean suddenly dropped on the spot where she sat and expanded outwards, carrying all of the sand away while revealing more and more of what truly lay beneath.


    A large plaza lined with stone tiles appeared to be in the centre of the space, around which were numerous buildings constructed from similarly smooth cut stone blocks and tiles that resulted in a very specific aesthetic to the buildings, but certainly resulted in them looking very strong and sturdy, especially when any traces of sand disappeared from the area.


    The wave of sand being washed away expanded even further, revealing building after building, street after street, but did not always do so by clearing a dune. At times, the thin air itself would be brushed away to reveal some new structure, although a similar amount of sand in dunes was removed to reveal nothing at all. Everything was placed on a flat plane, so that everything could be perfectly seen from one edge of the fortress to the other, and when the wave finally reached an edge, it did not simply fade.


    Instead, the wave of sand stopped and rose into the sky, forming a tall barrier of sand that remained in place, with sand constantly rising further before washing outwards, only for more to be picked up and carried in the same manner.


    Every creature made of sand was either torn apart or carried away, much to everyone¡¯s pleasant surprise.


    As the energy had burst out of her body, it pushed past the bones of her dantian and tore off another fine layer, bringing away a series of purified bones for later usage one again, although she did not have the immediate opportunity to confirm exactly what had changed from the seemingly final purified state that she had achieved a long time ago.


    Meanwhile, the great core and illusory anchor sank into Wei Yi¡¯s body and planar aperture, revealing her body in its normal state, with the killing will state having faded and her body having been purged of some of the sand that hat managed to gather upon it.


    Without a word, she gathered a large sphere of killing will into her hand, then threw it down into the glowing tile on the ground, instantly spreading it out into the shape of the gateway array to the Kong Prison Realm, linking it to the superstructure of the fortress. Despite the simple appearance, an immense quantity of energy needed to gather in the fortress, and it seemed to have almost been designed specifically to permit for a stable gateway.


    Naturally, she made full use of it, letting the portal open behind her as she turned to Great Dark, Great Light and Shun Liu Min.


    ¡°This fortress is called Paragon, and I, Wei Yi, claim it for our cause!¡±


    END OF VOLUME 3

 Volume Four | Paragon

    The crimson and white gateway opened up within the air, widening until ten people could pass through it at once. Although it was somewhat under her control, Wei Yi chose not to model it on what she saw at the entrance of the Kong Holy Grounds, as that not only made her think of the wrong thing all that time ago, when women were not so prominently on her mind as they could be now, but also didn¡¯t seem like the optimal method of approach.


    Instead, she decided to have a plain, flat gateway that linked to the centre of the prison realm and could only be accessed from one side in either realm, as it partially sealed off the entrance on the other side in the Planar Continents.


    Having passed a notice in advance to the people of the Kong Prison Realm through Yi Shi Ming, the moment that the gateway opened, they were met with Meng Chu, Min Lian, Liu Lia Kun and a number of others. All of them stood by to witness this momentous event, and the moment that Great Dark and Great Light realised what they were seeing, their eyes widened, and they lost their ability to speak.


    ¡°Told you I¡¯d manage something,¡± Wei Yi said to none of them in particular.


    However, they were unable to respond, and some may have in fact been unable to hear her as they were too amazed by what they witnessed.


    To the people in the prison realm, although they now had a false sun through her Endless Monolith and had gotten to witness an illusory sun and moon when Wei Yi practised with the Eclipse Split or Eclipse Ire, they had never expected to be brought out just in time to witness the setting sun shining into their eyes from the world outside. They didn¡¯t think that the outside air would be entering their lungs, or that they would see sand that hadn¡¯t been crimson only a short time ago, or that they would have such a wide gateway to travel through in such a near future.


    Meanwhile the few people in the Planar Continents hadn¡¯t expected that this great mystery of the Greats, the prison from which no man or woman has escaped, would not only be broken out of by a woman that was in the third realm just moments ago, but also seemingly stolen from the Greats.


    It was an impossibility, and should have been one in every way imaginable, and yet, here they were.


    They saw a foreign sky, showing a number of the same chains that Great Dark and Great Light had glimpsed within the core that appeared around Wei Yi, with a light that emerged from some point behind them, and felt a dense flood of planar energy surge towards them from within the prison realm that surpassed the Planar Continents quite significantly.


    ¡°Is this¡­ is this why you had been unable to return for some time? Have you been preparing something like this?¡± Meng Chu asked, barely managing to finally say this after a long pause of silence.


    ¡°Partly. In truth, I had gotten into something rather unfortunate and needed to run off for a bit, but it took me in the right direction, so it was rather fortunate. I won¡¯t tell you the details, but I will say that this gateway into the Paragon Fortress will remain for so long as the fortress itself stands. That means that you, the people with you, or anyone in the Kong Prison Realm can come and go whenever they like unless we fall,¡± she answered, ¡°So long as we are not found and defeated, freedom is ours for the rest of our lives.¡±


    ¡°You mean¡­¡±


    ¡°Come on, walk through. From experience, this kind of thing should be harmless, not unpleasant, and not disorienting at all, provided that the gateway over at the Kong District wasn¡¯t somehow superior to the work of the Master of Yi City himself.¡±


    He was about to take a step when he realised what he¡¯d heard and was stunned into silence once again. Luo Lia Kun managed to avoid that same fate, not that she had no questions to voice.


    ¡°This place has been constructed by the Master of Yi City? Is this something as extreme as the Kong Prison Realm itself, or was this one of his earlier constructions?¡± the vice-leader of the Remnants asked, recalling what Wei Yi had told her about the Master of Yi City some time ago, ¡°If this is something created at the ninth realm, it might be entirely invincible¡­¡±


    ¡°I believe it was the seventh realm, but even if it had been his proudest work, that wouldn¡¯t change the fact that the planar energy in the world has decreased, the fortress itself has been around for quite some time without care or maintenance, and that Kong Shi Meng himself isn¡¯t here to utilise it. As such, the most that will be gotten out of it is significantly weaker than its initial state, although it will not only grow alongside the quantity of planar energy, but it also wouldn¡¯t have been of any use against the strongest of Their number. Speaking of which¡­ anyone wanna say Their name?¡±


    ¡°Is that even a good idea?¡±


    ¡°It all depends on whether he had foreseen something like this and blocked the method that They utilise. Judging by the fact that it had remained for however long, there are some obstructions methods being used here, but I don¡¯t really know how much they cover,¡± Wei Yi admitted, ¡°In essence, no.¡±


    While they were conversing, Great Dark finally muttered, ¡°Luo Lia Kun?¡±


    ¡°Hey, boss. I see you know Wei Yi as well,¡± the perpetual vice-leader smiled, ¡°How have things been for you?¡±


    ¡°They¡­ Not everything went according to plan¡­ neither then nor now¡­ I didn¡¯t think that you would still be alive after They had captured you¡­¡± Great Dark said, his slow words combined with the constant dense aura of yin around him resulting in a rather dark and cold atmosphere, ¡°Before my brother suggests this¡­ should we move inside?¡±


    ¡°Nope, the people of the prison realm shall be going outside instead. While some, like Luo Lia Kun over there, haven¡¯t suffered all that much while inside, others lived there their entire lives. It¡¯s only right that everyone gets to see the world with their own eyes,¡± Wei Yi instructed, waving Luo Lia Kun and the others on that side in before heading inside on her own, ¡°I¡¯ll just bring this to the attention of a few others, and we can proceed to get this place active and fill it with life and all that.¡±


    She didn¡¯t say anything else before she leapt up onto one of the spires of the prison realm that separated the two halves for the moment, then amplified her voice via her methods so that it would be able to reach all of the world.


    Most people had moved into either Sanctuary or Beast¡¯s Rest by now, but there were still a few that were further out, and some that would venture out to seek out the mysteries of the rejuvenated land, as well as others that figured that the best place to plant the abundance of metal-type crops would be somewhere far away from the two main cities.


    It was important to reach them all, and it wasn¡¯t like she didn¡¯t have energy to spare right now.


    ¡°People of the Kong Prison Realm. I, Wei Yi, announce that the gateway outside has finally opened. From now on, you may leave the realm freely, so long as you speak with more care once in the Planar Continents. Two gateways will open in the centres of Sanctuary and Beast¡¯s Rest, and one is open now in the centre of the realm. If you wish to live in the Continents, or if your craft will be of greater use there, I encourage at least one visit to find a residence for yourself. Otherwise, it is your choice.¡±


    The Planar Continents were a mythical place in the prison realm, even with all of the more recent arrivals, but that didn¡¯t mean that everyone wanted to leave their lives in the Kong Prison Realm just to move there. Some would be satisfied with a look, although that could easily grow their interest, while others would have no interest at all due to the time and effort that they had already invested in setting up businesses and homes in one of the major cities. Not everyone was a combatant, either, even with the techniques that she had openly provided to the world, so it wouldn¡¯t be safe for them to be out there if Paragon was to be discovered at some nearby point in time.


    In addition, she didn¡¯t intend to move everyone from the spatial realm and into the Planar Continents, and certainly not just into this one spot on the map that was smaller than a regular district. That would be equivalent to putting all of their eggs in one well-hidden basket and would result in all of the development done in the Kong Prison Realm to go to waste.


    Instead, linking the two spaces seemed far wiser, as that would allow the use of far more space by the people of the prison realm, and would give them the chance to experience the outside world. The best situation would be if roughly half of the population of the Kong Prison Realm decided to settle down in Paragon, as they would then be able to develop families and grow into both environments, eventually filling them both with worthwhile individuals and talented people that would be of use to their places of residence and to the cause as a whole.


    Once a foothold like this was established, and a group of people got used to the Planar Continents and the Kong Prison Realm alike, it would be easier to expand to any other district or location with a group that is already familiar with the challenges of the Northern Desert.


    To allow everyone to travel back and forth, she naturally needed gateways for them to pass through, but the desert fortress was only able to support one, at least as far as she was aware. So, she instead made use of the existing gateway and split it into three, with all of them leading to nearly the same place in the fortress, allowing for two or three to pass through each one at once, but an opening was now present in the two cities she had mentioned.


    In a way, this didn¡¯t just make it easier to reach Paragon from within the prison realm, but also made travel between the individual cities and locations far quicker, since a single gateway would bring one from, for example, Beast¡¯s Rest to Paragon, then either to the centre of the realm or Sanctuary, depending on which one was required. Since she anticipated such usage of the gateway, she was also aware that widening it or otherwise creating more would be invaluable and could eventually be made into a whole set of transit gateways just for going from one place to another. If it could be expanded all over Yi City, it would grant them all an immense advantage over regular merchants, mercenaries and, most importantly, the Great Families, who would struggle to travel as quickly regardless of their powers.


    With the fortress uncovered, the method for setting up one gigantic superstructure that was able to support a gateway like this nearly permanently was also in her hands, so long as she took a little time to research it and understand exactly how and why it functioned, and setting up similar gateway stones in other places would only be a matter of time after that.


    The bigger challenge would be to ensure that they couldn¡¯t be used by their enemies, or by anyone intending to invade their prison realm through one such gateway, since that could easily lead the Greats to realising just what had happened to their precious prison realm and what it was being used for, at which point all one of the second or first generation Great Family members would need to do was disguise themselves and make it into the prison realm with a second to do as they like.


    From there, using the ability of the seventh realm to meddle with space, it might not be impossible for them to forcefully reclaim the Kong Prison Realm, although recapture would be a more suitable term.


    Once she had enough gateways and enough risk of such a thing occurring, she would probably create a large transit point where all gateways would end up, from where they would then need to travel to the gateway that they wish to go to. It wouldn¡¯t prevent something like this from happening, but if the prison realm wasn¡¯t the first place one ended up, those travelling through it might not realise the importance of just three of however many gateways she would have at that point. Ideally, it would be watched over constantly as to prevent anyone with multiple anchors or any oddities ¨C effectively, any otherworldly demon or wierdo ¨C from proceeding, and the problem could be mitigated, even if the solution still had many flaws.


    Her biggest problem had been her own abilities so far, and while she did not yet have the power to freely and fully control the Kong Prison Realm with just her mind, the breakthrough did deliver some immensely useful developments that would lead her far closer to being able to put up a genuine fight against any forces that might seek to go against her.


    The dantian had once more received an unexpected refinement, jumping from a pure white tone to almost resembling liquid that had been frozen in mid-air by some unknown means. As before, this lead to an increase in her natural energy sensitivity, benefitting all of her forms of energy in various ways.


    Her new core provided her Endless Monolith with additional defence and empowered her by an immense degree, not just due to the increase in her planar energy¡¯s effectiveness, but also due to most of her otherworldly gifts relying on her cultivation in order to show some semblance of their original power. The House of Gold had grown up to three cubic metres at this point, having gained an additional ten centimetres at some point in the same way that cultivation stage benefits tended to occur a total of ten times despite there being only nine of them, leading to those in the second realm having three times their original power rather than 2.9.


    The Realm of Potential had not befitted much, as it seemed to be more tied to the prison realm than her, but she did sense a slightly larger amount of energy within it, meaning that it might lead to quicker results than before. Since she was going to need to improve quite a few techniques soon, that was highly useful for her, and it also meant that there was a slight chance of some new great development occurring, just like with the momentary image that had easily boosted her understand and cultivation.


    Other than that, she also gained quite a few more years of life through the fourth realm, and the ability to externalise solid planar energy and stabilise it whenever and however she wanted.


    While it was immediately obvious that it could be used in order to replace her killing will or spiritual will in the creation of arrays, although those forms of energy would also benefit from the core, she did not intend to make use of that, and instead wanted the ability to create weapons from her most powerful form of energy that would be able to endure it.


    In theory, her planar energy should be able to endure itself, and she would thus finally obtain a weapon that didn¡¯t explode whenever she injected her cosmic energy into it, giving her another great advantage through something so simple. She didn¡¯t use weapons all that much, not after gaining the killing will state, but nothing prohibited her from creating artefact channels inside of her claw gauntlets via her planar energy and turning them into pseudo artefacts with that method instead, boosting the attacks from both hands easily.


    However, the quickest benefit of all that she would experience from her new realm would be the greater balance of her five states of cultivation, as well as the ease with which she will be able to boost her bloodline power up to an appropriate standard. In theory, once she had all of her five meridian networks and forms of energy up to the same stage and realm, she could advance them all together and receive greater benefits through their careful collaboration.


    ¡®Still, that is for later. For now, since those gateways are up, I can go back to the Continents.¡¯


    Hopping down from the mountain peaks, she quickly reached into the air and built a small array purely out of her cosmic energy, using it to light up this point in the prison realm for any that wished to travel to it instead of the two main cities to see the world outside.


    It was just a little test of her strengthened energy, but it was able to confirm the differences and similarities between this kind of solidified energy and her usual combination of spiritual will and killing intent. In most aspects, these two energies were alike, save for the mental energy being notably weaker than her cosmic energy, but there was a notable difference when it came to using them in arrays. Most of her spiritual will-based creations would still draw on planar energy once in a place with rich ambient energy, but her cosmic energy array could utilise itself without requiring a typical flow and gathering process.


    In fact, the array could simultaneously draw more energy from around it and expend itself to maintain itself for so long as it was within the range of her stabilisation field.


    This did allow the arrays to be of significantly greater power than her standard killing will one, but it did not equalise them to the level of the spiritual will arrays created by the Spiritual Flow technique. That technique was simply too significant and too in tune with the nature of arrays to be substituted by an inferior power and realm.


    Perhaps the best solution would be to merge the two once the realms are equalised, since that would permit the effectiveness of her spiritual will to be imbued with the overabundance of her cosmic energy to achieve powerful arrays that can operate for extreme periods of time. There would naturally be a few challenges in achieving a perfect mixture, but she didn¡¯t consider it to be impossible. After all, planar energy birthed the other four paths, and the four paths could return to planar energy, so mixing them together was essentially combining two states of planar energy into one.


    While that didn¡¯t mean that it was particularly easy, she had been able to accomplish far stranger things and far more difficult tasks, so she would get onto it the moment that she had the time and ideas to spare. For the moment, there was no great rush.


    On the other side of the gateway, Luo Lia Kun and the Great Earth twins had concluded their chat, although they clearly wanted to speak about far more things in private. Some of the descendants of those that fought in the War of Yin were also interested in conversing further, which wasn¡¯t something that she would stop, only delay.


    ¡°Everyone, this fortress is our own. For now, settle in random residential areas and we can decide the proper arrangements later, and once we have any idea of what we¡¯ll be doing out here, everyone will be able to speak with one another in their own time,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing back at the gateway behind her, ¡°To help out with things, there¡¯s someone that I would like to introduce to everyone who isn¡¯t yet familiar with her.¡±


    They all turned to the gateway section leading into the centre of the prison realm, and watched as a figure in a simple grey robe that modestly covered her body, with a head of crimson hair that flowed smoothly down her body and bright grey eyes, emerged from the prison realm.


    Those who had been looking towards the gateway before this noted that they had been unable to see or detect this woman with any of their senses prior to this, and it was as if she had simply appeared while they were momentarily distracted by Wei Yi¡¯s words. It was incredibly strange, especially for the Great Earth twins that were nearest to being able to feel even things like spatial fluctuations with great clarity, but in comparison to the gateway itself, a person appearing out of nowhere wasn¡¯t really all that strange, especially if Wei Yi also controlled the spatial realm fully.


    ¡°Good evening, everyone. I am Yi Shi Ming, and while I do not have much administrative experience, I do have a good mind and the ability to observe this entire fortress, as well as the prison realm.¡±


    ¡°The entire realm¡­ Wait, her realm-¡± Great Light blurted out before he was stopped by his brother.


    However, that mention did bring to their attention that while the woman¡¯s cultivation realm was partially obscured by some means, those in the fourth, fifth and sixth realms were able to sense the faint halos of energy that surrounded her, echoing from within the woman¡¯s planar aperture. It was also strangely ethereal, as if it wasn¡¯t quite there in reality.


    While Yi Shi Ming was crossing through the gateway, she had visibly hesitated just before putting her foot through it the first time, but it had gone unnoticed by those that were distracted by her realm, and not understood by others that did manage to pay attention to her movements and expression.


    Out of everyone there, only Wei Yi was already aware of both her cultivation state and her identity as a spatial spirit, for whom it was difficult to leave the realm they were in unless there was a stable connection between it and the world outside. After having spent quite some time within the Kong Prison Realm, even if most of that time had been spent asleep, Yi Shi Ming must have been slightly afraid that she wouldn¡¯t be able go to outside again, hence the hesitation in her movements.


    Fortunately for all of them, nothing stopped the mother of the Master of Yi City from returning into the Planar Continents, from where she had originated, and after that first cautious step, she was able to proceed smoothly and stop on the other side, breathing a silent and disguised sigh of relief at her newfound freedom.


    ¡®Wei Yi, do you intend to share it with them?¡¯


    ¡®I don¡¯t see why not. Most of them can tell anyway, and having someone in the seventh realm to protect Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm alike should make them far more confident in our eventual ability to succeed in our goals,¡¯ Wei Yi replied with their mental connection, then looked to the Great Earth twins, the vice-leader, and the other leaders of the opposition to the Greats, ¡°As some of you might have already figured out, Yi Shi Ming is in the seventh realm. She also has a special talent relating to being able to observe specific spaces, so you can be sure that if someone or something was to sneak inside, she would be able to discover them quickly.¡±


    ¡°Indeed,¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City confirmed, ¡°I can help anyone so long as I am not otherwise occupied, and if anyone would prefer privacy, I also understand when not to pay attention.¡±


    ¡°The seventh realm, that is the same one as the realm the patriarchs of Yi City are in, correct?¡±


    The question raised by Meng Chu sounded somewhat silly, but not only was it hardly unusual for someone that had gotten into planar cultivation only a short time ago, it was also a reasonable one from a certain perspective. Depending on the exact nature of someone¡¯s realm, they could be far stronger or weaker than someone else in the same realm, and even in another realm, with Wei Yi being the best example of such a thing.


    It certainly could have been phrased better, but he was already the most refined and elegant individual in the prison realm until the appearance of the Remnants and the like, and even he barely knew about the realms beyond the fifth ¨C Wei Yi hadn¡¯t wanted to overwhelm them all at once, so she had only shared the specific details up to the fifth realm with them.


    ¡°To be more precise, I am in the seventh stage of the seventh realm. I do not know how that compares to most of the current patriarch, but so long as they have not reached the next realm, even in a half-step stage, I should be able to contend with them,¡± Yi Shi Ming stated, displaying a small sphere of dense, solid planar energy that was linked to an uncertain number of channels and surrounded by a vague image of several halos, although their quantity could also not be determined by a single person observing them, Wei Yi included, ¡°As such, I can also assist any of you with any projects, so long as you require it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d suggest we go right out there and attack the districts, capture them from Them, and-¡±


    ¡°Great Light, you and I should both understand that it wouldn¡¯t be this simple,¡± his brother stopped him, ¡°Forgive our rudeness¡­ but you are not simply human, are you?¡±


    The melancholy expression returned to the spatial spirit¡¯s expression, ¡°You are not incorrect, Great Dark. However, since you had said that in the first place, you must have understood that this was not something that I or Wei Yi had intended to say.¡±


    ¡°Her? Could I confirm¡­ exactly who she is in relation to all of this?¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi is the current owner of my son¡¯s Kong Prison Realm, and the leader of the faction that she has yet to name. That is all that I will say, and if you intend to get more out of me, you will be disappointed,¡± Yi Shi Ming stated, ¡°You are aware that the technique you practise had been specifically prohibited long ago, yet you had done a lot of damage in order to acquire it, and now try to unveil things in public when they should clearly be discussed in private. That is not a good impression to make.¡±


    The twins¡¯ eyes widened, but they could hardly discuss whatever the spatial spirit had brought up as publicly as her identity, nor was that the most prominent thing in their mind after her words.


    Although none of the participants in the War of Yin had known the name of the Master of Yi City, nor did any of them know that he had made the Kong Prison Realm, they did know that the realm that could be seen through the gateway behind her was a high quality spatial realm, and that someone who had been only in the third realm minutes ago wasn¡¯t exactly the usual person to control a domain like that.


    Furthermore, Shun Liu Min and those like her that had not yet gotten to know Wei Yi¡¯s position within the unnamed faction of the prison realm were even more surprised to learn that a third realm fighter was commanding an entire spatial realm and many of the Remnants without any difficulty to be seen.


    It was a topic that was easier to approach, however, so Great Dark immediately sought to switch to it as the focus of the discussion, perhaps hoping that Wei Yi and those on her side would just forget those earlier words, ¡°How exactly did this happen?¡±


    ¡°Again with your questions, Great Dark. You were significantly less inquisitive when I had been playing around as Da Gang. In fact, tell me ¨C those jade slips of yours, were they intended to contain a fragment of your will meant to compel those that used them? Did you want to make them more subservient to the Deadly Martial Colosseum, or perhaps your entire faction? Did you want Da Gang to become one of your soldiers? If not, how exactly did this happen?¡±


    The question being thrown back at him prompted him to get quieter, ¡°We can discuss that in private.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I am sure that we can. Still, everyone, I have one thing to correct from Yi Shi Ming¡¯s earlier words,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°I wish to correct a misconception. While the faction certainly did lack a name until recently, I have thought of a suitable name for it, and I hope that you two will join it. We all intend to defeat Them, do we not?


    ¡°In a way, we are correcting the countless decades of their forceful control over the Western Continent, over Yi City, and returning things to how they should have been according to the natural progression of the world. Their forceful destruction of progress and techniques that are not to their liking, their forceful binding of the world¡¯s energy, their constant insistence of deciding how the world ought to go, it must all go, and as the people that are going to enforce this, under the leadership of someone with the Yin-Yang Ascendant¡¯s physique, there¡¯s only one suitable name, isn¡¯t there?


    ¡°We will force them to face the laws of the world, enforce them, and execute those that refuse to follow them.


    ¡°The Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. What do you think?¡±


    She hadn¡¯t used a voice technique, nor any mental technique, and she hadn¡¯t even manifested her physique energy to prove her own words, but she hardly needed to. Whether as the one to control a spatial realm in a time when they were nearly gone, someone to have killed two of the third generation of the Great Families while at the same realm as them, and as someone who had stolen a spatial realm from those same Greats without them even realising, she could hardly be argued with.

 V4C2: Reminiscence

    Thus, on that day, the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, the ones that would restore the natural order of the world where all would reach to the peak and ascend to the ninth realm as they had done long ago, before the Greats existed, were founded.


    Due to their somewhat strained reintroduction that day, the Great Earth twins, Great Dark and Great Light, weren¡¯t initially so keen to join this faction as subordinates, even with Luo Lia Kun and his other previous allies, as well as their children, attempting to persuade him to join in, but when they considered that they were currently within the fortress that was under the full control of Wei Yi and Yi Shi Ming, they didn¡¯t have the opportunity to deny her offer. In addition, while they weren¡¯t thrilled with Wei Yi in particular, given that they currently had no clue what she had truly been like in the Deadly Martial Colosseum, all of their other previous allies were here, as was perhaps one of the best chances to remain hidden from the Greats for long enough to make a difference.


    As such, they figured that it would be best for them to remain inside for the time being, see how things develop, and figure out exactly what had happened back in the Yi District as well as the exact approach that Wei Yi would take in the future when it comes to resolving the problem of the Greats, freeing the city, and then keeping it out of the control of other similar forces seeking to claim the position that the Greats would open up. Additionally, they still had a few questions to answers.


    Before getting to that, they were allowed to either find a place for themselves in the fortress or the prison realm, since Wei Yi had a few other things to take care of first.


    She shared with both parts of her faction¡¯s domain their new name, mission statement, and repeated request to check out Paragon and find some place to stay. In particular, those that could set up a store or a workshop in the Planar Continents were encouraged to do so.


    Then, she claimed the primary defensive building slightly to the side of the central plaza as the faction¡¯s headquarters, placed some killing will banners on it to allow the people of the prison realm and fortress to recognise it from afar, and quickly designated a few different rooms and chambers for various purposes. Naturally, they needed a planning room for whatever operations and tasks they intended to undertake in the future, as well as an archive for important information so that it wouldn¡¯t need to be revealed by words over and over again, and a few bed chambers for those that would need to remain near that area for most of the day.


    When she found a sort of guard barracks, she naturally brought out some of the strongest warriors acting as guards and protectors within the Kong Prison Realm and allowed them to settle within it, instructing them about some basic locations that they should patrol and monitor on the outer walls of the fortress.


    After that, she also designated which building was intended to be residential, commercial or used for some other distinct purpose, so that it would be possible for them to be occupied by others without requiring direct supervision, since that would just be a waste of time. Nobody had any money from the Planar Continents to begin with, not unless she had given it to them, so making them purchase or otherwise rent property would just be a complete waste of time. That could be implemented at a later point, with any potential travellers or visitors from the Continents, but before then, this would do.


    In essence, she did as much as she could to allow Paragon to be used for the moment, since she had something else that she wished to occupy herself with for now.


    As any person did, Wei Yi had her own needs to take care of, and while she could technically handle it in a number of ways, she wished to confirm whether or not her old acquaintances would have any issue with the major change to her body since the last time that she had seen them. If they did, while she would be rather disappointed especially in the case of some of the more beautiful and capable sexual partners, but if they had no problem with it, she would be able to visit them even more frequently now that there was a permanent and stable link to the Kong Prison Realm within Paragon. She was slightly concerned that certain people ¨C the two from Meng Chu¡¯s previous faction in particular ¨C would get even more obsessed with her if they weren¡¯t displeased with the change, but evading them was easy.


    On the topic of the prison realm, she did consider changing the name to something more positive, since continuing to live within something called the Kong Prison Realm was hardly an optimistic prospect, but she did not yet have a good name, given that her previous one took quite a long time to come up with. Something like the Ascendant¡¯s Realm did come to mind, and Yi Shi Ming did not object to a change in the name, but that didn¡¯t seem to be good enough for several reasons.


    One was that she didn¡¯t create the realm, so taking complete credit and ownership for it when even Kong Shi Meng, the one that hated the surname Kong, chose to title his techniques with that very name, seemed unnecessary and unsuitable. The other was that she did want to have a more decent name than that, but her imagination was really running out now.


    Putting up a request for some ideas could work, but then she would need to have enough organisation in the fortress to make such a thing viable.


    Since her mind had thought of the two vice-leaders under Meng Chu, she decided to head to them first, detecting them significantly more quickly than before with her greatened spiritual perception and the enhancements provided by her new core, which, in the prison realm, mixed with the border of the cosmos around it and stabilised the space to an extent. The chains in the background were visible to keen eyes, but hardly prominent.


    While a number of things had changed within the prison realm since she had entered it for the first time, one thing that hadn¡¯t was the constant tendency of those two to shirk responsibility and find some new place to hide and attempt to copy the behaviours of rabbits.


    Had they been a male and female pair, one capable of having children, it wouldn¡¯t surprise most people who knew them if they had a family of four or more even in their young age, given that it took Wei Yi¡¯s excessive understanding of the female body in order to convince them to stop going at it so frequently, and instead switch to begging her for release instead. This kept them mostly pacified while she was able to remain near them for prolonged periods of time, such as when she had been trapped in the prison realm, but when she had begun to spend most of her time outside of the prison realm, they had mostly returned to their old behaviours.


    In fact, the more they had to spend without her precise ministrations, the more lustful they became, and so Meng Chu had reported that he was considering some drastic measures either to deal with them, or to replace them with someone that had some semblance of control over themselves and wouldn¡¯t lose their minds quite as quickly.


    This time, Dugu Wei and Qiu Sheng had chosen the latter¡¯s office, since it had a comfortable bed.


    When Wei Yi entered that room, those two were on that aforementioned bed, and they nearly failed to notice her entrance, although when they did realise her presence a short time later, they did so simultaneously, looking at her with hungry eyes.


    ¡°Wei Yi! You¡¯ve come back¡­¡± Dugu Wei frowned, sniffing at the air for a few moments, ¡°What is that smell?¡±


    For a moment, she felt as disturbed as when she had first discovered them having sex in their room, although she didn¡¯t back down and asked, ¡°What, has everyone around me started to gain the same abilities as Zhi Qiu Ya? Wait, have either of you even gone out for long enough to meet someone that isn¡¯t inside of your brothels?¡±


    ¡°Can you use less words? It is hard to focus¡­¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Still as horny as before?¡±


    ¡°Of course! You¡¯ve left and we¡¯ve not been able to relax at all, even though we¡¯ve been constantly practising¡­¡± Qiu Sheng replied, her breathing heavy and wet.


    ¡°You call this practising? Actually, no matter, I have a solution for this. You two still want to sleep with me, is that right?¡± the question was hardly necessary, but they nodded immediately, their heads nearly colliding due to their proximity, ¡°In that case, there¡¯s something that I need to introduce to you.¡±


    They might have already noticed a trace of it, or perhaps Dugu Wei had been referring to something else, but they were certainly not prepared for what they saw when Wei Yi opened her robes and lowered the underwear that she had specifically requested from Fu Zan through an anonymous commission, since she didn¡¯t intend to advertise her genitalia to the rather innocent and ignorant man since it would cause too much trouble, amongst a list of other issues.


    Those two would have leapt onto her if not for her immediately correcting their misconception that they were in any position of authority, eventually deciding to just go all out with everything she had.


    She had ended up being within that room for long enough to force her to test whether she could still slow down time within the prison realm without disturbing anyone going through the gateway, and eventually confirmed that while there were some slight oddities and discomfort resulting through the temporal distortion, it was fine for most.


    As such, she didn¡¯t hesitate to make full use of that ability and get everything out of their systems once and for all, simultaneously making use of this to satisfy herself and her various ideas on a pair of very willing ¨C and soon collared in killing will due in part to how subservient they quickly became ¨C participants that managed to temporarily equal her level of energy despite a vastly inferior cultivation, body, physique and everything else that might typically lend strength and energy to a person during any circumstance.


    Nevertheless, they only had so much energy to spare, so in a few hours, they were entirely exhausted, covered in various fluids, and very much done for the day.


    They had fallen unconscious, so she didn¡¯t hesitate to cleanse herself with her physique energy, then repeat the process after she left the room so that the air that had built up inside of it wouldn¡¯t keep travelling with her. She did intend to reveal more of her abilities now that the gateway between the prison realm and the Planar Continents was open, so she might have done so anyway.


    Afterwards, she really wasn¡¯t interested in visiting any more people that could jump onto her with just as much eagerness, as her new equipment also had a certain limit that she couldn¡¯t bypass even with the extreme speed of regeneration that she possessed, not to mention her own mental exhaustion.


    Instead, she headed over to the shop that Fu Zan and Miyu now occupied, with the two otherworldly demons having decided to live together for now as Miyu had no opportunity to earn any funds or had any need for a vast living space, while Fu Zan did appreciate the large amount of books that were placed all over the place for her to study. Also, he got a free model for some of his new attempts to recreate the clothing of the world he originated from, one that didn¡¯t appear to care at all that a man was looking at her with little clothing on while she would immediately cover herself if even a glimpse of Wei Yi appeared in her vision.


    He and Wei Yi were obviously aware of what was happening there, but since Aimi Miyu wasn¡¯t yet understanding or admitting to her own feelings, whatever the details of them were, they had no reason to press her on them. Wei Yi in particular had no interest in provoking any degree of romantic interest in herself, so if Miyu could avoid realising just what she felt until the war against the Greats was over, or until Wei Yi perished in it, that would be fine for her.


    Obviously, dying wouldn¡¯t be very enjoyable, but it could give her the rare and prized opportunity of questioning the heavens about their many faults.


    When she came to the shop this time, she found Fu Zan working on a painting, of all things.


    It depicted a strange landscape, with one side being covered in trees, grass, bushes and all kinds of natural life, while the other was filled with tall grey and blue rectangular and featureless towers that soared into the sky with no clear purpose or reason behind it, nor any method to keep them standing like that. The colours weren¡¯t particularly varied, nor masterfully used from her perspective, although she was hardly an artist in any usual meaning of the word, nor had she seen many paintings before. It just didn¡¯t look quite right.


    Meanwhile, Miyu¡­ was posing for the painting, despite it lacking any human life within it at all, and she was doing so with a surprising amount of effort and dedication, as if this would result in some magnum opus being produced as the first painting of a tailor.


    ¡°Uh, Fu Zan¡­¡±


    ¡°I did tell her, but she said that she wanted to do it anyway,¡± he replied immediately, ¡°How did that thing you were doing go?¡±


    ¡°Well enough, and, speaking of which, how would you feel about moving this place to Paragon, a desert fortress built by one of your fellow otherworldly demons? It looks nothing like what you are drawing, but it should come together if given enough time and effort from all of you. Having a tailor on hand would be highly useful,¡± Wei Yi stated.


    ¡°Moving this place? To what?¡±


    ¡°Paragon. It is a fortress on the outside of the prison realm, in the middle of a large desert, although it has a few arrays to resolve the temperature situation which I will activate soon.¡±


    ¡°Outside? I¡¯m in! Where do I go? Where do I sign u-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t ruin your painting,¡± she stopped him from flailing about and prevented any of the paint droplets from landing on the canvas, ¡°If you want to leave, there are gateways in the centre of Beast¡¯s Rest, and in the centre of the prison realm, if you¡¯d like to see the Endless Monolith before witnessing the world outside for the first time. There¡¯s no rush, really, since you can leave at any time you want and¡­¡±


    Wei Yi would have continued if not for the fact that he had already begun to run in the direction of the city¡¯s centre, completely disregarding the half complete painting and Miyu, who only seemed to realise that she couldn¡¯t even pretend to be painted only when he ran out of the building.


    That also appeared to be when she noticed that the Ascendant had entered the room, for she suddenly made herself look very small, carefully checking everything about herself to make sure she was looking her best. Her behaviour became only more obvious when she glanced up at Wei Yi to confirm that she was appreciating the minor things she had done, although she looked away swiftly in a vain attempt to prevent this action from being noticed. It was cute, in its own way, but it would hardly go beyond that for anyone if she couldn¡¯t communicate her actual thoughts to people.


    ¡°Hey there¡­¡± Miyu tried to start the conversation after several minutes of fidgeting with herself, ¡°I see your, eh, hairstyle has changed! It looks great!¡±


    ¡°I see that you have managed to sleep since the last time we spoke. Have you been doing your homework?¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course! I¡¯ve read everything and studied everything with the most focus I could possibly dedicate to it all, so, uh¡­ Congratulations on the fourth realm! That¡¯s right, isn¡¯t it? I didn¡¯t mess up? It¡¯s called Active Core, right?¡±


    ¡®¡­ I guess she could be compared to a younger sister, naively trying to prove herself to a sibling, although that brings up unfortunate memories that I would rather not provoke for the sake of a silly otherworldly demon that does, admittedly, have a high reading speed, amongst other things,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, casually nodding, ¡°That is correct, although if you hadn¡¯t been busy pretending to be painted, you might have seen part of the breakthrough process.¡±


    ¡°I could¡¯ve¡­ I mean, what was that about pretending? I was definitely-¡±


    She didn¡¯t even let the otherworldly demon finish her sentence before taking the canvas, making sure to grab it by a dry spot, and flipping it around to show her exactly what was painted on it.


    ¡°That¡­ That Fu Zan! I-I had been-¡±


    ¡°He also told me that he had plainly informed you that he was not going to be painting you, and, for the moment, I trust him more than you, especially since both of you are rather poor liars,¡± Wei Yi said, putting the painting back before anyone had a chance to damage it, ¡°What did you want a painting of yourself for, anyway?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I had wanted to¡­ give it to you¡­ as a friendly present!¡± although Miyu managed to produce that explanation, her face looked like it was on the verge of tears.


    While it made it highly obvious that she hadn¡¯t wanted Wei Yi to know, and that she was not telling the full truth, it did effectively discourage any attempts to tease her, since there were few enough simple yet pure people like her in the world that pushing her too far would simply not be worth it.


    It would be difficult for her to remain that way the moment that she needed to be confronted with any kind of ordinary fight in the Planar Continents, or the many brutal truths of the world, and it was a miracle that she had managed to remain this way even in the other world, which apparently had its own range of terrible things within it, natural and manmade alike. Fortunately for her, or as fortunate as sheer ignorance could be said to be, Wei Yi had no intentions of bringing her out to any kind of battle or tense confrontation, and instead wanted to keep her in the Kong Prison Realm until such a time when she was freed from the azure light inhabiting her otherworldly gift, as she would then be able to stand a chance against foes. Even then, she would allow the otherworldly demon to remain where she preferred to be, since she would be unlikely to be particularly effective in battle anyway.


    Seeing that Wei Yi was not going to raise further questions, Miyu¡¯s expression and body relaxed, with her attention moving to the corner of the room.


    ¡°Uh, Wei Yi?¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°Do you have some spare time today? I¡­ I realise that I don¡¯t know you very well, but I¡¯m going to be working for you, so¡­ could we go out and have a drink and something to eat together? Maybe spend some time playing games from Orbis?¡±


    Besides the offer to play games, the setup for the rest was obvious.


    ¡°I am not going on a date with you, Miyu. Please focus on yourself, and if there is ever something that you do want to express, you do know that you can just do so straightforwardly? All of this obfuscation merely makes it more difficult for everyone else to understand you, and I would hardly say it does so to your benefit.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± the Antanorden woman had clearly wanted to reply to a number of things at once, but, as it turns out, trying to speak several different words and sentences at once didn¡¯t result in much more than opening and shutting the mouth repeatedly with various confused sounds emerging from it.


    Still, for her to manage to endure the mention of a date without going on a tirade of her not being swayed by Wei Yi¡¯s succubus magic, or whatever it was that she had been convinced was occurring at first, seemed to be somewhat of an achievement, even if it was purely accidental. The Ascendant was tempted to give her a brief round of applause, but it would clearly not benefit the situation, so she didn¡¯t do it.


    After a few moments of this uncertain partial silence ¨C a complete silence of coherent words, perhaps ¨C she seemed to finally figure out what she wanted to say.


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s difficult to speak my mind, sometimes¡­¡±


    ¡®Who are you and what have you done with Miyu?¡¯ Wei Yi asked mentally, not that she suspected that the woman had actually been replaced at any point in their conversation, or even before, ¡°That¡¯s fine, but whenever certain things are spoken about, you just run away. Something like that is hardly helpful, either for you or for the person you are speaking to.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I understand. I will attempt to improve¡­ Still, couldn¡¯t we¡­ you had already said no, didn¡¯t you? Sorry¡­¡±


    ¡°Stop apologising already. Either change, or don¡¯t. However, you are correct if it was on the topic of a date. I do not intend to go out on any dates, any time soon, so if there is something that you want to talk about, we do it here, and without the need for food and drink. I can¡¯t taste it, after all.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ When you are here, could we play something?¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll ask ¨C what is it with you and games? Back on Orbis, was that something you did often, or is it just due to you missing the forms of entertainment that your world had?¡±


    ¡°Both¡­ I had played quite a few games back then¡­ and I worked for a game company as well, although it was as an accountant rather than a game developer¡­¡± Miyu answered, tapping her index fingers together while she continued to speak nervously, ¡°Actually, that might have been why I can identify things like I can¡­ That old man said so too¡­¡±


    ¡°Old man? Game developer? There¡¯s a link between your previous status and your otherworldly gift?¡±


    Wei Yi had never heard of that kind of occupation, nor did she know why a company would focus on games of all things, nor why they would need more than a man or two to come up with a new idea once a decade, but before that, the mention of an old figure from the previous world intrigued her significantly. A number of otherworldly demons have mentioned encountering one on the last day of their lives within their world, so if there was yet another example such as this, it would be very interesting to learn about it.


    Depending on the nature of these old figures, they might play a significant part in the entire process of transmigration and reincarnation that the otherworldly demons seem to experience, and it might reveal part of the mystery about their otherworldly gifts.


    Finally, the link between occupation and the ability that one acquired after appearing within the Planar Continents, or the Kong Prison Realm in certain instances, was also rather intriguing, since it seemed to differ from person to person. Fu Zan and Miyu apparently had a link between their past and their current ability, and Kong Shi Meng might have also had a similar connection, but the Martial God of the Crimson Side seemed to get an ability opposite to his personality.


    In general, the more that she and the other otherworldly demons could understand about their gifts and abilities, the greater the chance of the azure light being either removed or negated in some way, and the possibility of completely preventing random people from ending up in the Planar Continents also existed. In fact, it would be an ideal scenario, since the Continents could then obtain full autonomy and independence from the other world ¨C or worlds ¨C that seemed insistent on directing souls towards them, flooding the world with all kinds of unique abilities, gifts and traditions that should have never occurred.


    Obviously, it couldn¡¯t just be said that all of them were purely negative, but it was rather frustrating to simply be a pawn in the hands of another group that simply repeated the path of their own world, as best as they were able to due to the differences between the people, energy and technology.


    Kong Shi Meng had done a decent job of minimizing unnecessary interference, attempting to unify the people of the world without outright obliterating past history and events, but some were far less interested in aiding the path of the Planar Continents rather than simply forcing it into whatever they want. Yi Henghua and Chang Fang He clearly had their own ideas of how the world should work, and they didn¡¯t permit dissenting opinions, nor could they even be bothered to see the Continents as a proper world at all, instead thinking it to be a simple grain of sand amidst a vast desert.


    Frankly, she had no idea whether this was true or not, and she didn¡¯t intend to blindly theorise with nothing to go off of, but she did know that it didn¡¯t matter.


    To her, to the people of the Planar Continents, to those living in Yi City and the Daoist Continent, to those that have spent all of their lives there in an effort to better the world or to better themselves, or simply to gain power and wealth, or even just to waste their lives away with meaningless activities, this world was real and whole. It was complete, as any world could be, and even if there were millions of realms above it, all of which had more energy, more power, more wealth and more of whatever anyone wanted flooding them, it wouldn¡¯t make the Planar Continents insignificant. After all, if there was this degree of exponential perpetuity, why would any of those worlds be the top either? How large or powerful would a realm need to be to truly be worthwhile in the eyes of those otherworldly demons?


    Perhaps there was an answer out there, one that would satisfy her and the people of the Planar Continents, but so far not a single one of the otherworldly demons had successfully brought anything other than their memories of fiction. Their myths did not affect this world, no matter what they were.


    ¡°Well, before I went to sleep, as I was going back to my apartment, an old man had been sleeping on the stairwell. He woke when I approached, and I offered him enough cash to get a better place to sleep, and he said that I was very attentive and accurate, since I gave him just enough to get a room in a place nearby¡­¡± Miyu said, ¡°I didn¡¯t really think so, since I¡¯d just given him the spare change that I had, but¡­ This happened afterwards¡­¡±


    ¡°An old man did that? Did you see him walk away, down the stairs?¡±


    ¡°I was tired, so I went straight to my place. Wait¡­ you don¡¯t think that the old man was a god that had come to judge me, do you? Do you think I passed?¡±


    ¡°For f- How do you come up with these things? A god? Just randomly chatting with mortals for some reason? Actually, that doesn¡¯t sound too unlikely, but still, can you ever not jump to conclusions?¡± Wei Yi sighed, ¡°Anyway, my other two questions.¡±


    ¡°Well, a game designer designs games. Our company worked on visual novels, mostly, so they didn¡¯t really get to do much work,¡± Miyu said a list of meaningless terms that weren¡¯t assisted much by a glance at her memory, where some incomprehensible sights came to Wei Yi¡¯s attention, ¡°As for that last thing¡­ I don¡¯t know, really¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, I didn¡¯t expect you to. If you can make any of those things in this world, go ahead. If you can effectively substitute certain elements, that¡¯s fine too. I should be around more often in the near future, but if you really want to show me something, or just speak to me in general, just find Yi Shi Ming and ask her to call me over. I can¡¯t guarantee that I will always be free, but I won¡¯t tell you to go away unless you start doing this every few hours. That¡¯s not an invitation to do so daily, either,¡± Wei Yi warned, turning to the side in preparation to leave, ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°No, no¡­ I¡­ I enjoyed your company-¡±


    The otherworldly demon¡¯s words were cut off as Wei Yi shut the door behind herself, although she had still heard her perfectly.

 V4C3: Developing the Foothold

    Their discussion had given Wei Yi a few things to think about, but through some principle of non-existent correlation or something along those lines, it reminded her about the unfortunate spectre that was still residing within the echo of the Ascendant¡¯s Library.


    He had fallen asleep at some point in time, shortly after she had spoken with him last, and so he had few chances to remind her of his existence, though it did also mean that he got to avoid sitting around while doing nothing at all. His soul was still stable, and it did not seem to be decaying while within her mental domain, but since she had already released one spiritual entity into the outside world, she figured that it would only be fair for the man to finally have a chance to see some of the architecture of the Planar Continents.


    After all, Bai Hao had been very interested in her impression of Sanctuary when they had first approached it, so she might as well be kind to him and show him the world with more than words.


    Due to the link between her mental domain and the Kong Prison Realm, and, by extension, the gateway between it and the Planar Continents, it was not impossible for her use the prison realm to stabilise his spirit without the need for the same kind of crystal that he had used while in the grasp of Ding Wen, then permit him to wander Paragon unshackled.


    In fact, with her greater cultivation realm enhancing her ability to stabilise all forms of energy, inside and outside of the Kong Prison Realm, it was rather easy for her to do so, and all it required was a bit of waiting for the man in white to awaken once again.


    That took a few minutes, but since she made sure to make him face the gateway in the centre of the Kong Prison Realm when he awoke, he got to experience the world on the other side, with the moon illuminating the stone structures of the desert fortress alongside the energy of numerous cultivators and guards.


    ¡°What¡­ Where am I?¡± Bai Hao questioned the moment that he became conscious, his head shifting back and forth but remaining unable to look away from the world outside.


    ¡°The prison realm, except there is now a gateway into the outside, and the ground is no longer painfully crimson and silver. Neither is the air, or people¡¯s cultivation, for that matter, and quite a few have managed to get over that annoying labelling of anyone from the west as savages,¡± Wei Yi briefly explained, much to the spirit¡¯s surprise, since he had not yet managed to observe her presence due to his extreme focus on what was in front of him.


    ¡°The outside?¡±


    ¡°The Planar Continents. You know, the place full of planar energy? That one that you were interested in seeing?¡± Wei Yi reminded him, seeing as he was still in a rather state, ¡°The fortress on the other side is not a good example of our usual architecture, but it is close enough.¡±


    He looked outside, through the gateway and onto the fortress that was active in the night, with some people appearing and disappearing on either side of what was visible.


    ¡°That is¡­ the Planar Continents?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s exactly what you¡¯re seeing, and you are free to leave, if you wish. If you would be able to contribute to Paragon, the fortress that you are seeing, with some of your skills, that would be best, but I suppose I can¡¯t stop you from sitting around and doing very little. Really, it will be your choice, but you won¡¯t be able to leave the fortress until your soul is somehow stabilised on its own.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I must have fallen asleep at some point. We have gotten out of here this quickly? Where have those familiar colours gone?¡± Bai Hao questioned, although he shook his head shortly after, ¡°No, that doesn¡¯t matter¡­ I¡¯ll go¡­¡±


    As he rose and left through the gateway, his movements uncertain and staggered, he was able to proceed onwards but it was clear to Wei Yi, and to the few that paid attention to him, that he wasn¡¯t fully awake and active as he could have been. While she couldn¡¯t be certain of the exact reason behind this, given that his soul appeared to be as stable as it had been when she had first taken him into her mental domain, she did know that this was unlikely to be something that she could correct with any of her own actions.


    In theory, the spirit was closely linked to spiritual will, so through cultivating it Bai Hao might be able to stabilise himself, although she could hardly be certain about this. She did not want him to die at random because of her negligence, but she also wasn¡¯t very keen to repeat what she had done to Min Lian and accidentally force an obsession of some kind onto the man, not that she knew many other methods of repairing minds. That was one of the many, many things that she needed to study and learn about in the future, so that she could avoid unnecessary harm and possibly undo anything that she had already done, or at least minimize any future changes to the minds of the innocent.


    ¡®Speaking of the Scorching Blades assassin, she is still standing around here, I see¡­¡¯


    Min Lian had been present at the opening of the gateway, and she had avoided entering the Planar Continents this entire time as she appeared to be waiting for Wei Yi to speak to her, and now that some things had been gotten out of the way, she finally approached her.


    ¡°You know you can have just gone outside at any time, right?¡± she asked the assassin, ¡°You didn¡¯t need to wait for me.¡±


    ¡°I figured that I would nonetheless, Master. You had promised that I would eventually have freedom to go outside and be with you, and now that I do, I wish to take the first steps outside with you,¡± Min Lian replied, holding out her hand, ¡°If you wouldn¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°No, not at all. Let¡¯s go,¡± Wei Yi said, taking the assassin¡¯s hand and bringing her towards the gateway, confidently bringing her through so that she wouldn¡¯t hesitate in the same manner as Yi Shi Ming had done. The assassin had confirmed that she had regained her regular thoughts quite some time ago, and so she didn¡¯t want to give her the opportunity to become reluctant or afraid of anything before her mind could fully restore itself to the level at which it should have been.


    Fortunately, that did not appear to be an issue, as Min Lian followed her without hesitation, eagerly stepping into the Planar Continents with the vaguest semblance of an excited smile upon her face.


    It was rather obvious that she still had difficulties with expressing anything on her own, without doing so to deceive or trick someone else as she had been trained to, but that much could be resolved, if she wanted to do so. Having some control over herself was likely something that the assassin would keep, especially while she still had the possibility of needing to make use of her abilities.


    They strode out onto the stone plaza, stopping at the edge of it as to not disturb anyone else that wished to travel through the gateways. For a brief time, they gripped one another¡¯s hands and observed the fortress, saying nothing to one another. Min Lian¡¯s expression did not change much while they did this, but she did take very deep breaths every now and then, savouring them and the air they bestowed upon her before breathing out. As an entity manifested and animated through killing intent and, thanks to her current cultivation, planar energy, she did not require breath, nor could she perceive the vast majority of the sensory experience that one might usually relate to it, but that did little to stop her from trying.


    When she did finally speak, she regained a calm expression, a faint hint of a smile gracing her lips and filling her eyes.


    ¡°Before anything else, Master, can I ask how long you intend to remain here?¡±


    ¡°The minimal time would be however long it takes to get settled in, establish a plan to begin the fight against Them, and to prepare everyone here for dealing with any potential threats that might assail them here, as rare as those are likely to be within the near future,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°After that, it all depends on how long it takes to decide on a suitable approach to a district that would require my presence, and before going out, I would hope to make some advancement in my techniques and cultivation, even if it is not in terms of realm.¡±


    ¡°As it often is with cultivation, something like that may take a while, or it may come in an instant, correct?¡±


    ¡°Yes. After that ¨C since I do know why you¡¯re asking this ¨C I cannot guarantee that it will be a good idea to bring you out with me on certain tasks, or whether it might be better to assign you to completely different places, but as I had mentioned previously, I wouldn¡¯t do any of that simply to push you away.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Master,¡± Min Lian said, ¡°Would you mind if I was to accompany you as frequently as possible while we are both still here at Paragon?¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°Not at all, although there are still certain things that I wish to keep private, for a variety of reasons, nor do I intend to sleep alongside you if I ever go to bed after now. In a way, I could even assign you as my bodyguard, not that it would be in any way necessary due to my abilities, but it would be a formal declaration nonetheless.¡±


    ¡°I do not require such a thing, but I will make sure to appreciate it greatly. While I am sure you remember my comments on sleeping with, or alongside, you, I¡­ won¡¯t repeat them,¡± the assassin noticed the stern gaze aimed at her and did not attempt to continue the topic, removing her grip from Wei Yi¡¯s hand, ¡°I will not restrain you for any longer. Do not be afraid to inform me if you do wish me to separate, but please come back and get me if you do not leave by the same door.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, I am not that heartless, especially not with pleasant enough people such as yourself,¡± she said, pointing into the distance down one of the streets, ¡°I intend to check out a place over there, so let us go.¡±


    Min Lian nodded with a pleasant smile, although it was clearly more forced than her earlier natural expressions, and they proceeded onwards.


    The place that Wei Yi pointed to was a large field amidst the many rectangular buildings in the fortress, all of which were laid out according to a simple square grid where every building would occupy a certain quantity of space. From above, some were square, some were rectangular, and a few almost seemed to be constructed from several of those shapes, not that it appeared that way from the construction quality itself, and this field was akin to a set of four squares by four squares that stood out amidst the tall stone structures around it, especially since it occupied the entire width of a section of the fortress.


    On the field, as with the majority of the fortress itself that wasn¡¯t covered in the stone plate streets, was a layer of dirt that must have endured the prolonged cover of sand for however many decades the fortress had been beneath the ground, but there in particular, the dirt was clearly far more fertile and suitable for the growth of plants and crops than elsewhere.


    Furthermore, from her admittedly limited understanding of planar flora growth and harvesting, these areas appeared to be filled with a decent amount of energy and nutrition for any kind of elemental plant, even those that relied on pure planar energy, so each one of these fields would be highly suitable for the growth of any chosen miracle fruit or herb. All that would be needed were some experts on those kinds of matters, and there were already quite a few in the prison realm that knew about such things.


    After confirming that Min Lian did not have much input on the matter, since she possessed only cursory and minimal knowledge of farming as part of her training to allow her to fit in as any kind of individual in any kind of position, the fields were designated for the growth of certain kinds of plants. Some were dedicated to that which could feed the people of Paragon, others were for cultivation, and some were for crafting and refining. She did not specify exact crops, since that would be for those more knowledgeable than her to decide and could be altered whenever needed if it seemed that it would be better to replace one type of herb or fruit for another.


    In addition, she was able to observe that the enormous array beneath the ground of the fortress had a link to the fields as well as numerous other things within it, and could be used to either manipulate the quantity of certain kinds of energy or to simply boost it within the soil, allowing the environment for the growth of certain materials to be made even better than it would be in more natural yet naturally suitable environments.


    In fact, alongside the sand barrier that kept the place hidden, creating a sandstorm that would occasionally fluctuate to seem realistic, and obscure a further portion of the desert with a similar illusory method to the one utilised to obscure the fortress in the first place, it also had the ability to prevent planar energy from escaping from the confines of the square space. That meant that the free flow of unbound planar energy from within the prison realm wasn¡¯t going to spread to the rest of the Planar Continents and would only benefit the small space itself.


    She directed a notice regarding this towards the farmers on her side, then moved on to some of the tallest structures in the fortress.


    It was a large tower, two spaces by four spaces in size, and it contained numerous rooms within that were illuminated by small lights akin to the one in the very centre of the fortress, albeit without the same capability as that possessed of supporting gateways into spatial realms. They had plain stone shapes resembling beds, chairs and more, but wouldn¡¯t offer that much space for anything else.


    For her, such a space was akin to the Ning District¡¯s tight environments, which was not a pleasant place to live in whatsoever, but since it was available, she quickly considered exactly how such a space was to be used, drawing from the setup of Sanctuary and their three smaller cities.


    There, they separated people based on their ability, not just in cultivation, but whether they would be able to contribute to Sanctuary and beyond. If they couldn¡¯t, their living space would be inferior and the resources they would have access to that would naturally decrease, although only after they had a chance to prove themselves. It seemed like a reasonable thing to do and placing people that were going to live in Paragon without doing much to improve it inside of the smaller and more tightly packed residences seemed like a reasonable solution.


    They could live there, be safe from the Greats while having the chance to cultivate in the planar energy-rich atmosphere of the fortress, and if they did ever decide to get to work, or contribute in some way, they could naturally be moved to a place that would be of greater use to them and that would permit for them to best perform whatever task they wish to dedicate themselves to.


    She hoped that there wouldn¡¯t be many with a lazy nature that she would have to let inside of the desert fortress, but there might always be those that cannot do much work either, for whom one of the more spacious residences wouldn¡¯t be particularly suitable.


    Alternatively, given the fact that most buildings lacked windows and had doors that were easy to secure in the first place, and might be more or less suitable depending on the exact population that would settle in Paragon, the building could be used for those that did not appear to be immediate threats, as a jail or prison would be better for them, but for those that were also not guaranteed to be entirely allied to the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters or otherwise posed some risk to the people that should be contained for a time.


    Once they proved themselves, they could be brought out to other residences.


    Of course, all of that depended on the amount of space that would be ultimately available. If the prison realm was constantly full of people, making use of such spaces for ordinary people would be necessary, since Paragon was in much the same situation as the Ning District due to the extreme limitations of the available space, and the array beneath the fortress prevented them from digging any deeper than what was already there ¨C which wasn¡¯t insignificant.


    ¡°Hey, Min Lian, what do you think about vast underground networks with a variety of different spaces that are all intended for different purposes?¡±


    ¡°Master, that seems like an unnecessarily vague way to explain that the desert fortress contains a series of such spaces. I can¡¯t say that I have a strong opinion on them one way or the other, even with all of the time I had spent within one as a hatred avatar.¡±


    ¡°Really? Well, in that case, we¡¯ll just take a look at them together with our own limited interest.¡±


    Naturally, the assassin didn¡¯t intend to argue about that, so the two of them proceeded to one of the buildings that seemed to be designed specifically to connect to the large expanse beneath the fortress that Wei Yi was able to sense due to the prison realm effectively uniting with Paragon for now, extending her and Yi Shi Ming¡¯s ability to sense everything within the prison realm to the fortress as well, although it was limited only to Paragon itself and not a wide radius around it.


    That much was still enough for her to observe plenty of curious things that she was now going through one by one as she was coming across them, but there was so much to see underground that she could hardly just glance past it.


    Beneath the ground, accessible through that building which contained little more than a staircase spiralling around itself and a small space that could be dedicated to storing anything that might be necessary below the ground, although there was little that Wei Yi could see that was necessary for the environment down there. There was a full circulation of fresh air throughout the underground area, there was plenty of light, some flowing water, and the air was even pleasantly cool, as one might expect from an environment that didn¡¯t need to suffer from the sun.


    After all, even the Glass Wastes that would immediately incinerate the vast majority of life and turn them into the same form of glass as that which made up the rest of the absolute north would permit someone to endure beneath the ground, so long as they were deep enough for the solar rays to be unable to penetrate the glass. The part of the desert in which Paragon was located in wasn¡¯t so hot, nor did it have abyssal basalt beneath it, but what was beneath the ground was certainly interesting.


    Requiring only a short journey down, they quickly came into the open once more, being met with the bright interior of the cave and a number of other sets of stairs that were also descending from the surface to the bottom of the cave. All of them led to similar buildings at the bottom, surrounded by similar structures to the ones that were placed above the ground, but the underground portion didn¡¯t just stop with replicating the layout of the fortress and instead extended past its normal borders, leading to the underground version being almost twice as large in terms of area as the one above.


    Also, at the edges of this area were countless minerals and ores that appeared to have been half-dug during the time that the fortress was established and used, and were now all for their taking.


    The least significant materials had a medium-grade and were four-stars in terms of quality, while the most impressive thing that she was able to find was seven stars and of a high-grade, meaning that it could be of use to the highest realm that was currently available to the world and could be used to create a powerful weapon, incredible inscription, or construct the flags for an impeccable array that would pose a threat even to one of the Greats in the first generation so long as a capable seven-star array arranger worked on the project. In short, it was an absolutely incredible discovery, and it was not just present but prepared for them to be used the moment that the appropriate tools and methods were procured.


    Naturally, drawing upon some of these would take a long time, since some of the most powerful materials essentially required one to be in the seventh realm in order for them to be dug up, which would take even the likes of Great Dark and Great Light quite some time to achieve.


    Yi Shi Ming was able to fight at the level of the seventh realm, but she had never cultivated any mining methods, nor did she know as many techniques as would be needed for all of these materials, and simply extracting them with a spatial method would make it easier to set up some other preparation for the processing and the refinement of the ores. However, many seven-star ores also possessed spatial capabilities and abilities, so they could resist the spatial control of a seventh realm cultivator, and it would essentially be no different from any other cultivator if she did attempt to interact with them.


    Ideally, the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters would have a few expert miners, diggers and resource harvesters that specifically practised techniques and even a cultivation method that was specifically aligned with the intricacies of the process. At that point, it would be very easy to harvest all of these things once the cultivators reach the necessary realms, and they could keep focusing on that specific task in order to obtain as many of those materials as necessary.


    Such a system would permit a constant supply of those precious materials, resulting in more weapons, defences, armour and potentially even goods to be traded with districts and merchants such as Chen Xiu, whereas forcing warriors or other cultivators focused on other fields to work as miners would prevent them from doing other things and lead to far less efficiency and effectiveness in the process.


    ¡°So, what do you think? Personally, I believe that this place looks quite nice, although there¡¯s clearly a lot of room for improvement the moment that people settle in.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t really have much to say on this, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Go on.¡±


    ¡°The way in which the dark stone reflects light, the glow of the blue lights, the many different glistening ores and gems embedded within the sides of the cave, and the way the many buildings are arranged¡­ It is rather¡­ nice to look at, I suppose. I think.¡±


    ¡°I can see that as well. Also, you don¡¯t need to double guess yourself when it comes to your views on beauty and general attractiveness, since that is something that anyone can disagree with and it really won¡¯t matter,¡± Wei Yi said, patting the shy-looking assassin on the shoulder, ¡°I mean, I¡¯m sure you know that as well, but I figure that I might as well say it so that you don¡¯t keep looking like that.¡±


    ¡°Like what?¡±


    ¡°Like¡­ a small, scared animal, I guess?¡± the Ascendant shrugged, ¡°Look, I think everyone around here needs and deserves a little more confidence in their actions, and you, as someone with a lot of training in the field, should know that things like these are hardly unusual for people to say. Just don¡¯t worry about it as much, especially when you¡¯re only around me. I¡¯ve done some strange things myself, so I won¡¯t be harsh about anything.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ Master, if an enemy was to oversee this scene, as well as one where you slaughtered countless physique cultivators while being covered in blood, they would be highly confused about your nature. If I had to say it, I think that you would make for a good father¡­ as strange as that is,¡± the assassin said.


    ¡°Is this some innate skill of other women that I never experienced?¡±


    ¡°What is, Master?¡±


    Wei Yi coughed, ¡°No, nothing. Let¡¯s take a look around here and see if we can¡¯t find anything interesting around here as well. My spiritual perception doesn¡¯t reach as far here, so¡­¡±


    Although Min Lian was somewhat confused at the exact response of her master, she was hardly able to confirm what a number of women ¨C three, for the moment ¨C had already experienced first-hand, as Wei Yi¡¯s cultivation and spiritual will was able to block out any attempts at spying on her body without her even needing to make it do so. Due to the knowledge that she possessed about the common faults of any obstruction and disguise methods, it would even automatically hide the exact features of her body as to not unveil anything that she did not want to be see, and that did usually extend to the results of practising the Yin Soul Yang Root technique.


    She wasn¡¯t exactly ashamed of it, nor was there much that could shame her after everything she had already been through, but she did not have any interest in seeing it become common knowledge, and she especially didn¡¯t want someone who had already asked to be used however she liked to learn that there was yet another way in which she could be used.


    Also, she wasn¡¯t quite sure what to make of the compliment, or perhaps the observation. If she was going to have children at any time in the near future, or possibly later depending on the exact state of her reproductive system after all the times that her body had been burnt up, torn apart and what not, she would need to take the male role in the process, but that did not mean that she wanted such a thing to be easy to guess.


    So that the conversation had no chance of returning to the topic, Wei Yi used a method that was bound to work, asking, ¡°By the way, could you teach me some of the more common skills you had learned at the Scorching Blades?¡±


    ¡°Master? Not that I will say no, but why exactly is this of interest to you?¡± Min Lian asked, reacting less than Shun Liu Min but also more than she usually would, ¡°I could see why further Scorching Blades combat techniques, of which I do not unfortunately have any more, would be of interest to you, but not this.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ Actually, you might have an answer for this ¨C in front of what kind person would you speak most carelessly?¡±


    ¡°Most carelessly¡­ Ah,¡± the assassin seemed to understand, ¡°Servants and the like are one thing, but unless they earn someone¡¯s trust, they would hardly say too much in front of them. However, if one was to deal with a fallen foe, one without any chances of recovery, someone who had lost completely, one might go out of their way to taunt them, especially if this foe had proven to be a great nuisance in the past. At that point, information would practically flow from their mouth.¡±


    ¡°Exactly. As such, I should be prepared to act accordingly, should I not?¡±


    ¡°Master, I would not¡­ no, let me change my phrasing. I don¡¯t think that this is something that should be planned for until you have some idea of the nature of your foe. If they have no interest in capturing you, then they would never allow this kind of situation to occur.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it is rather clear what those people act like, in private and in public. All I need to figure out is exactly how they satisfy their desire to express their superiority, and then¡­¡±

 V4C4: Growth and Subterfuge

    The underground areas of the desert fortress proved to be much alike to those above ground, including the planting areas which would guarantee a plentiful harvest, and the buildings that extended beyond the structures of the surface were just repeated along the same pattern that had been established in the fortress already. There were a few more residences, a few more of those tall and densely packed structures, some of the planting and farming areas, and even some workshops for the craftsmen and great arts masters of the prison realm and the Remnants to occupy, but little of particular note.


    Seemingly the only thing of any relevance to the underground nature of that part of Paragon were the structures at the edges of some of the ore veins and mineral clusters, created with the clear purpose of storing anything dug out of the cave walls. Each one was large enough to fit the entirety of the material vein on the surface, although there was likely much more beneath that not even Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception was able to perceive due to the high grade of the materials.


    Since there wasn¡¯t much more to be seen there, Wei Yi and Min Lian ascended back to the surface using a different set of steps, confirming that there were few differences between any individual spiral stairs or the structures that they connected to.


    With a basic understanding of Paragon in mind, it was possible to begin assigning certain people to certain specific tasks, particularly those who had already emerged from the prison realm but also those that had come along with Great Dark and Great Light, or those that still remained within the Kong Prison Realm for some reason or another. She did mention that they possessed freedom, but certain positions that they were currently occupying and certain jobs that they were handling might be able to benefit from some of the spaces in the fortress, so they would be likely to emerge even if she didn¡¯t tell them to.


    She reached out first to some of the farmers and gardeners that had chosen to focus on the regrowth of life in the prison realm, as well as handling everything that she had been sending into it whenever she got her hands on some new metal-type materials and then developed them as much as possible through the silver-leaf energy, letting some professionals take care of the rest.


    Out of those people, some were eager to see the new plots of land on which they could grow more herbs, fruits and trees, with the last type being rather rare amongst wood and metal-type materials for whatever reason. There were plenty of types of wood out there, but most weren¡¯t imbued with significant quantities of planar energy nor any specific properties. As a result, some of them were expensive for the non-cultivating population of the Planar Continents, but to those who could trade in planar shards, that price was nothing.


    A few weren¡¯t that interested until she took advantage of her and Yi Shi Ming¡¯s ability to transport people within her realm through space and forcefully brought them over to have a look at the land they would be getting access to, at which point most did realise that it would be beneficial to use it.


    Generally, the problem for most seemed to be that they were rather afraid of leaving the prison realm after all of the time that they had spent there, and although they didn¡¯t want to admit it with words ¨C and may not have even realised it beyond a subconscious level ¨C the moment that they were forced out, they realised quite a few advantages to being outside.


    The only thing that almost everyone didn¡¯t like as much was the sand that covered the outside, and the small amount of it that still remained within the fortress. It hadn¡¯t been part of the illusory obstruction that ensured that the fortress wouldn¡¯t be found for a long, long time after someone decided to hide it away. It was dealt with quite easily, since all that one needed to do was gather up all of the sand on their property and then rush to the edge or the fortress and toss it into the sand wall, at which point they might even be contributing to the defence of Paragon.


    Also, the heat wasn¡¯t to the liking of those that had gotten used to the temperature within the Kong Prison Realm, which was constant and moderate, being near the warmth of the human body but just a little cooler. Some in the prison realm were keen to get rid of more clothing, possibly due to having descended from people of the north, but it was generally agreed that the temperature regulating array was to be kept on constantly.


    For that to happen, Wei Yi did need to boost the quantity of planar energy that would be pulled into the enormous network beneath the ground, but that much was done easily with a few small arrays. Due to the prison realm technically extending to Paragon, her stabilisation field of energy also spread out across most of the fortress, and she didn¡¯t even require materials to set up the vast majority of arrays within her Ascendant¡¯s Library. As such, she planned for a few more that she could set up to make things easier for the people of the fortress and her Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, but did not rush to it so that everyone could properly appreciate the differences that they made.


    After the farmers and herb experts got to work in the gardens, she sought out every earth-type cultivator that was in either the prison realm of the fortress, and gathered those that might be of some use when it comes to mining at the underground walls.


    Due to their cultivation, she had also gone to Great Earth¡¯s twins to see if any of them would like to participate, and, curiously enough, Great Dark was more than happy to volunteer his brother for it.


    ¡°He has continuously grown more and more erratic¡­ so something to get the energy out of him¡­ would be most beneficial to our development,¡± he had said, practically shoving his twin brother out of the structure before looking back at Wei Yi, ¡°I don¡¯t know whether you intended to mention this, but¡­ it seems like a good time to return to our earlier conversation.¡±


    ¡°If you say so, I will not object. First of all, the question that I¡¯d asked a while back ¨C answer it.¡±


    ¡°Like most of the techniques we practise, the method for creating jade slips¡­ was not perfect, nor is it now. Some steps had to be filled in roughly¡­ and the creation of the mental influence you mentioned must have been a consequence¡­¡±


    ¡°I see, so you had no intention of causing Da Gang, the person who was rising so quickly in terms of power and physical strength, to suddenly develop a great trust in the Deadly Martial Colosseum, and a great deal of obedience to the two leaders of the place?¡± Wei Yi asked, ¡°Not that I don¡¯t believe you, but I hardly doubt anyone in need of capable subordinates would pass up such an opportunity, especially given your apparent history.¡±


    ¡°That would not have been entirely against our wishes¡­ but it had not been the intention. As for our history¡­¡±


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming clearly knows something about it. What kind of thing did you do for the forbidden skill?¡±


    Great Dark hesitated, his dark eyes momentarily shutting as he thought. For some time, he maintained his focus within his own mind, then finally arrived at some conclusion as he opened his eyes and looked directly into Wei Yi¡¯s silver eyes.


    ¡°According to Luo Lia Kun and the rest, you are a trustworthy and capable figure¡­ As such, I will be straightforward about the actions that I ¨C Great Earth ¨C had taken during the War of Yin to cultivate the Paradigm of Yin, and to obtain a vague chance¡­ one that had not been used well,¡± he said, ¡°As Yi Shi Ming had said, the name of forbidden skills came not from fearing crowds, but from the Master of Yi City. He had declared them forbidden, for they did not merely exaggerate humanity, but warp it beyond anything imaginable. They were not the right path, but the fragments of the Great Dao were.¡±


    ¡°For that reason, they hadn¡¯t been entirely eliminated while he had the chance to do something like that?¡±


    ¡°From my knowledge, yes¡­ They were to be read and studied, but never practised¡­ Only the Great Dao itself was a safe thing to pursue, and warping humanity was not necessary. It is said that, in his words, it was not the Demonic God or the Monstrous Aberrant physique that will be supreme, but the True Ascendant.¡±


    ¡®Kong Shi Meng knew about such a physique and had predicted I would show up¡­ No, rather than that, I think he is far more likely to be referencing the Ascendant physique, and how someone who truly masters it and bring it beyond a mere physique would be the one to master humanity itself,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, although her mind did conjure the image of the Truth of the Universe labelling her physique the moment that she had acquired it, causing her to wonder whether it had been filled with the information relating to all physiques, or if it had speculated on its own, to some degree, ¡®Perhaps it had named it according to some specifications that Kong Shi Meng had about the True Ascendant, and I happened to match them by a stroke of fortune¡­¡¯


    ¡°If that was my only fault, the practise of the Paradigm of Yin, perhaps the spatial spirit would not have seen my actions as particularly wrong¡­ but in order to acquire and cultivate the forbidden skill, some things that were less than ideal had to occur¡­¡±


    He sighed, glancing out of the door before looking back, as if to check whether his brother was going to suddenly return.


    ¡°One soul in two bodies, that is what we would have been. However, a soul, mysterious as it is, does not permit such a thing¡­ Practising the forbidden skill as Great Earth was out of the question, as I was a man with no yin-type physique, and so some way to modify myself was needed¡­ A split into my two extremes, with both inheriting extreme yin through a twist of the nature of our severance. It required sacrifice, pain, and the tearing of a soul in two,¡± Great Dark explained, ¡°The Master of Yi City was not very pleased with the concept of tearing souls, either.¡±


    ¡°While I understand some of the reason behind that, what was his one?¡±


    ¡°To tear the soul is to break a human¡­ it requires some excessive means, and results in permanent damage to a person that can never be restored, and in his words, if our souls pass on and do not simply dissipate, each time this happens, we ruin a soul for the rest of all eternity.¡±


    ¡°I am guessing that he wasn¡¯t of the opinion that the heavens had the ability to recover such damage?¡± Wei Yi asked, although she already knew that the otherworldly demons did not hold such things in high regard and would likely trust a mysterious force like that little, especially if they kept witnessing even after event that seemed to come straight from their tales where the heavens are of no use, or are not even on the side of humanity.


    ¡°The Master of Yi City was said to not mentions the heavens often and speak minimally on them when needed¡­ but this point was one that was difficult to disagree with. In the Xin and Ling Districts, the soul was studied, and they found¡­ that in those with weaker or outright broken minds, the soul appeared to be partly fractured¡­ It was what had brought on those words to begin with, if our history of him is accurate,¡± Great Dark explained, ¡°To this day, the exact nature of the soul, spirit and the mind is not fully clear to either district, but they do agree that being born with a fractured soul is terrible.¡±


    ¡®That¡¯s hardly surprising. Bai Hao¡¯s soul hasn¡¯t degraded, from what I can tell, and yet he seems to be fading away already, so if someone was to be born with a soul split in half and barely held together, there are quite a few things that could occur¡­¡¯ she thought, ¡°Things like split personalities can occur from this, can they not?¡±


    ¡°So it is believed¡­ The Master of Yi City, it is said, had been uncertain whether it could be the brain that causes these things first, or the soul would alter the mind¡­ but he declared that if there was any chance of souls passing on, they must never be damaged¡­¡±


    ¡°Thus, when you went against that, sacrificed some lives, performed some kind of strange ritual and tore yourself into two pieces, one calm and another agitated, one slow and another fast, and, in a way, one yin and one yang, just in a different way than what would cause your bodies to cease containing any amount of yang energy. You went against the strict instructions of Kong Shi Meng, only to then fail. No wonder his mother would be unhappy with you suddenly showing up and trying to question her about things far better than what you had done.¡±


    ¡°I did not act in the best way possible¡­ I will admit that. Even if I did not fully trust you, to- Hm?¡±


    His eyes widened, and when considering the things that Wei Yi had said or done that could possibly draw this kind of response, there was only one thing that she could think of.


    It seemed that he had somehow failed to realise something that Luo Lia Kun should have already explained to him, and he was now displaying his reaction to some part of the concept of Kong Shi Meng being the Master of Yi City, and Yi Shi Ming, his mother, being the one to have pointed out his faults a short time ago.


    ¡°I¡­ had spoken to his mother? Why¡­ why did I need to get confrontational with her¡­ and bring up her current nature¡­¡±


    ¡°Could¡¯ve thought about that earlier. Fortunately for you, Kong Shi Meng and Yi Shi Ming are both decent people, whereas some others are not. In particular, the Master of Yi City stands out as one of the few otherworldly demons to not have gone completely insane.¡±


    ¡°¡­ What?¡±


    ¡°The short story is as follows: the Planar Continents are a frequent destination for the souls of those from other worlds, although they tend to be from one place with one set of languages more commonly than not, and these people have insane abilities. Those abilities, either due to their sheer strength or due to a property of their otherworldly gifts that prompts insanity within those that use them and their source of power, cause them to lose their minds if they do not die early on, and with their insane power and their powerful insanity, chaos ensues. They, as well as Them, are one of the bigger threats to the world, although unlike Them, I do not believe that most of them are malicious agents from the get-go, so there is no need to go into all-out war with them, especially if they stand apart from one another.


    ¡°Our goal, as the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, should be to ensure that they too follow the laws of the world. They may be capable, but that does not mean that they get to simply do as they like without understanding the consequences of their actions, nor without truly realising that the world they find themselves in isn¡¯t just one of their stories. After they realise that, and their ability is either restricted or purified so that it no longer causes the same corruption, they can be free to go.¡±


    ¡°Even with their abilities?¡±


    ¡°Hey, just look at me ¨C in a way, I have a bunch of outstanding characteristics that put me above the vast majority of those in the Planar Continents. If anyone was to attempt to purge all of the talented, gifted and naturally strong, not only would the world rise in rebellion, but even they would be unlikely to think that it was a good idea to do something like that in the first place.


    ¡°The difference, I think, is that everyone born here has a chance to understand the world, how it came to be, and why it does the things it does. At that point, they can attempt to push any kind of change they like, as I am, as you were, as They are, in a way,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°Apart from Kong Shi Meng, however, I do not know of a single otherworldly demon that had lived through the entirety of the life of a native individual, perhaps because whatever force affects their otherworldly gifts wasn¡¯t keen on seeing them all bring about peace and prosperity, as the Master of Yi City had done.¡±


    ¡°You have clearly put a lot of thought into all of this¡­ and studied the otherworldly¡­ Do you have some evidence for all of this?¡±


    ¡°At the moment, I have two otherworldly demons participating in the Arbiters, with the person that has made this clothing being one of them,¡± she showed off her gauntlet, the boots, and the mask, bringing out the more specialised assassin outfit out of her House of Gold as well, ¡°They are not cultivating, so their powers have no chance to get out of control, or so it seems, and I have dealt with several otherworldly demons that had gone mad, being able to repel the influences within them via a secret method. Due to the greater complexity of the otherworldly matter, it isn¡¯t really something that we need to concern ourselves with until we control a single district or region safely.¡±


    Great Dark nodded, ¡°I see¡­ I shall speak with that person later, to satisfy my own curiosity¡­ But since you have brought it up, other than to inform me about Kong Shi Meng¡¯s identity¡­ you want us all to begin considering the otherworldly demons already?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Depending on where they end up, and what they learn first, they might come to different conclusions about things, and if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time, deciding that They are the righteous side in the conflict is not impossible. Orbis has some very strange concepts of morality, both in their stories and in reality,¡± Wei Yi mentioned, recalling some of the stories she had managed to obtain from Fu Zan, ¡°The key, if any one of us comes across an otherworldly demon, which is usually very easy by certain misconceptions and mistakes that they make, is to make their situation clear, and to inform them that their lives are at stake if they don¡¯t cooperate.


    ¡°They can be brought to live in a particular place where some kind of field to weaken the otherworldly gifts could be set up, or perhaps just one where they can meet the best people of the Planar Continents and come to realise that they are not in some kind of game or story and that they are interacting with real people, then give them the opportunity to occupy themselves with something.¡±


    While Great Dark did not know much about any otherworldly entities, as they tended to be little more than myth within the Planar Continents due to the seeming rarity of their appearances, he did know that Wei Yi had shown herself to be a serious person who wouldn¡¯t just throw random stories or ideas in his direction if she didn¡¯t think that they were reasonable, especially not when they were having a conversation like this one. As such, he was willing to defer to her expertise in this, then inform his brother at a later point so that he couldn¡¯t interrupt them now.


    The idea of otherworldly demons being prevalent and common enough for planning like this to be necessary, as well as the nature of the powers that they apparently acquired, was all rather strange as well, but if the Master of Yi City had been one such person, then perhaps countless famous figures had also been from the same world as he was, except that they had arrived in the bodies of others and developed a different set of ideas for the Continents.


    ¡°Anyway, that isn¡¯t what I want you and your people to do, if you are going to properly participate in the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. Having spent some time in the Yi District, hiding away from Them, you should be aware of a way to blend in, right?¡±


    ¡°Depends on exactly what you require¡­ Both I and the forces that had participated in the War of Yin know many methods of hiding ourselves, but we would need details¡­¡±


    ¡°We need to learn about the district patriarchs and their views of Them, amongst other things. We need to figure out what most of the districts think about these kinds of families, and whether they would side with those that can offer them prosperity and the ancient power of planar energy that had faded away significantly in recent times. In short, we need spies.¡±


    ¡°Spies¡­¡± Great Dark considered it for a moment, then said, ¡°I know of a few people that had been in the Remnants, but¡­ there are a number of difficulties that I am able to foresee¡­ Is there a way to get out of the fortress, for one?¡±


    ¡°That is actually the easiest part. The Kong Prison Realm is located near the Yi District, so anyone within it can be brought out near the true location of the realm. It happens to be a very central location in Yi City, so from there, it is rather easy to reach any district with a bit of walking. After that, communicating any information to the prison realm or to Paragon is a little more difficult, but some letters to the Yi District that encode key information and are then passed into the prison realm could work,¡± she suggested.


    As she spoke, she also brought out a map made from killing will, as there didn¡¯t seem to be one inside of the House of Gold for a convenient display.


    Placing the map onto what appeared to be the dining table in the residence the Great Earth twins had chosen to occupy, she spread it out and marked the individual districts, as well as the potential routes towards them, with more of her energy, taking full advantage of the special nature of such a material. The routes between the Yi District and the Ning, Luo, Ping and Chao Districts were mapped out highly accurately, as she had made the journey herself, half of the route to the Jiang District could also be completed due to her visiting the Kong District that was on the direct path to it, although she did not include the Kong District itself on the path as it would be inefficient to leap down into it.


    She was also able to guess the vague route that one would need to take to the districts that neighboured those that she had visited, such as the Chen, Chu, Ju, Bai, Jiang, Ze and Xin Districts, which did make up a majority of the districts in the Planar Continents, but for the rest she could truly include nothing more than what she was able to obtain from the maps that she had seen before. Such information wasn¡¯t entirely accurate, as could be judged from how long it took the Chao District to remake their maps of the north in order to allow her to find Paragon.


    ¡°With these routes, anyone appearing beside the Yi District could head out, settle in, and blend in with the people there. The matter of reporting back is a little more difficult, but it could be arranged that there will be a specific action taken by whoever comes to contact them to make reporting back easier.¡±


    ¡°Most of those that had been in the War of Yin have gotten used to that kind of work¡­ Many of us were known to Them, but they never revealed our identities to the districts¡­ for They couldn¡¯t be known to have any kind of failure¡­ and for the districts to know of those that they weren¡¯t able to obliterate¡­ and that put up a fight¡­ would not be in their best interests,¡± Great Dark mentioned.


    ¡°Good, that means that it might be possible to send out known participants in the War of Yin, although I think that it would be safer to avoid being quite so direct. You had nearly been found before, due mostly to me if I understood the situation correctly, so if we have people that appear to have no connection to either the War of Yin or me, and who don¡¯t do anything particularly unusual, it should be easy enough to not cause any suspicion. However, to avoid such a thing, sending a person into every district at once wouldn¡¯t work.¡±


    Great Earth¡¯s dark twin nodded, ¡°Even with the minimal communication between most districts¡­ to see a number of people seeing from the Yi District appear at every district would be¡­ strange.¡±


    ¡°Exactly. They might assume that the Yi District is attempting to infiltrate them and blend in to harvest intelligence regarding their activities, so they might not immediately think that the second War of Yin might-¡±


    ¡°Astral War?¡±


    ¡°Astral? Hm, I think that wouldn¡¯t be as suitable as some other names, but it does appear that you have thought about it before. Was it when Da Gang was ascending your pagoda?¡± Wei Yi asked, not waiting for his answer, ¡°Regardless of the chosen name, it will be important to avoid such an impression since it could eventually reach Them so long as it becomes significant enough.¡±


    She looked to the map again and highlighted several of the districts, those being the Lan District, Fu District, Huang District, Xin District, Ling District and the Ze District.


    ¡°Before you ask about my decision, even if you already have some ideas, let me explain,¡± she said, ¡°The Lan District is the only coastal district on the eastern portion of the Western Continent, and is thus most likely to receive interesting visitors from the Eastern Continent. Their focus on the precise control of energy is also extremely useful, and if we can learn something about their methods, it would benefit all of us in the long run.


    ¡°The Fu District is associated with their seemingly endless resources more often than anything else, so just like many others, learning and possibly obtaining the source of them would naturally make it far easier to resist Them in future confrontations. If it is a technique or skill, we could learn it, if it is a place in their district, we might be able to capture it, or even move it to the Kong Prison Realm in order to easily harvest it without needing to endure frequent attacks from the Fu District¡¯s people in their attempts to recapture their land.


    ¡°Like the Ju District, the Huang District is held to be rather mysterious, and some interesting people and abilities have emerged from it. Whatever causes this reputation, it might reveal quite a lot, and potentially benefit us significantly as well, depending on the nature of the mystery.


    ¡°The Xin District focuses on the research of souls and spirits, as does the Ling District, so we may be able to learn a lot from them, whether in a possible method to easily defeat one of Them by targeting their souls and, for example, forcing them to move on early, or another method to weaken foes. Either way, those two have the potential to be incredibly beneficial, but we should make sure that the two districts don¡¯t learn that we have sent agents into both of them at once. From what I hear, they aren¡¯t particularly fond of one another.¡±


    ¡°They are not, from my experiences with them¡­ The Bao District that is nearest to both borders often suffers from minor battles between the two, although they rarely attempt to steal the gems that they are so proud of¡­ As such, they do little to interfere, and encourage them merely to fight away from their mines,¡± Great Dark said.


    ¡°Good, we¡¯ll try to not make it obvious then. Finally, the Ze District specialises in their development of perfected stages, as well as reaching them with the minimum of one per realm, and so their methods may be useful to enhance my own. I can teach some individual people techniques to help them reach perfected stages, but I am hardly an expert in the field,¡± Wei Yi admitted, ¡°My own fortunate outcome is due to a certain other reason, and it is difficult to transfer entirely to another person.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­ The choices are reasonable, and the districts are far enough apart¡­ I shall attempt to prepare something for this, but it will take some time to be ready¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s perfectly fine, since it will be silly to rush out of here and start all kinds of operations before we can even be certain that we will be able to stay in Paragon for long. There may be certain reasons why we cannot remain here, and if everyone was to expect someone from here when we have actually moved over to the extreme south, there may be certain problems. By the way, has your brother ¨C or Great Earth, for that matter ¨C ever done mining?¡±


    ¡°No. I am sure he will learn.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­¡±

 V4C5: Traces of Strife

    Great Dark may not have been concerned about his twin, and, frankly, neither was Wei Yi, but it seemed like a good idea to check up on him in person to confirm that he wasn¡¯t accidentally messing anything up, or otherwise not dead or dying.


    Those possibilities were unreasonable, and both of them would have known if it did happen as he likely had a link to his brother through their splintered soul whereas Wei Yi could observe everything within Paragon, but one could never be too careful when it came to entities that had split their very souls. Given how little was fully understood about souls, Wei Yi would hardly be surprised if they could somehow interfere with her spiritual perception, as it wasn¡¯t completely infallible.


    After confirming that a few other matters on the way to one of the connection points were settled, she descended down the stairs into the underground portion of the fortress and found that even before she got onto the stone floor and began to head towards the outer edges, she could already hear the sounds of something striking stone and metal ore veins. It was a distinct sound, although it lacked the rhythm that she expected from a group of able miners digging away in some mine within the rest of Yi City.


    Most of the ores tended to be focused on certain points, with the highest grade of ore being found nearest to the centre of the point, as if whatever energy had led to the development of those specific materials had gathered in one place and then affected the things around it to a lesser degree. As such, even if she couldn¡¯t have observed Paragon at all times, she still had an idea of where to go.


    Despite his realm, Great Light did lack any training with the handling of ores and materials, and so he couldn¡¯t begin his work on any of the six-star metals and minerals that were plentiful beneath the fortress. Instead, he was attempting to dig the weakest of the five-star materials.


    Even then, with an obvious lack of experience and insufficient practise, he was working far more slowly than those in the fourth realm, simply due to their techniques reaching the Full Success stage and their many hours and days spent on practising things like this severely outweighing any of his. Of course, that didn¡¯t mean that either one of them was working quickly, or that they were getting much out of the process, but it was still progress, one that could be of greater use to the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters than lower grade materials.


    That was primarily due to Wei Yi¡¯s presence, as she was able to process materials far above her realm at any time with the combination of her Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp and her crafting methods, which she would need to work on a bit more in the future, meaning that each piece of high-grade material could contribute to a high-grade, high-quality item that would surpass a dozen items made from inferior materials.


    At the moment that she arrived, the Great Earth twin was standing alongside a series of other miners, all of whom had dressed themselves in defensive equipment atop some of their usual clothing in order to prevent a stray falling rock from ending their lives in one quick go. There were a number of other threats that a cultivator would need to watch out for when they mine ore or stone beneath the ground, since the world tended to be rather dangerous even with proper preparation, but due to the haste with which they had assembled, the majority had not yet had the time to prepare full sets of equipment to boost the flow of their planar energy and to negate strikes or various gasses that existed beneath the earth. Some of them could kill a man in minutes without them even realising what was happening, but one fortunate thing about them was that they did not tend to appear near the surface of caves, only deep within them.


    In other words, since this part of the cave had been standing for several decades at the very least, even if it wasn¡¯t immediately obvious due to the lack of the typical signs of age or decay that one might find outside of a great superstructure that had managed to avoid detection and observation from the outside world for far longer than that, there were unlikely to be any deposits of dangerous matter beneath the very surface of the ore and stone.


    ¡°Greetings there, Great Light. How are you faring?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± he opened his mouth to provide a reply but was only able to cough when a mouthful of dust flooded his lungs, giving him little choice but to get rid of it before he lost his life.


    Since she couldn¡¯t force her physique energy into his body to purge the dust, she could only glance at the miner beside him that had been responsible for the dust being thrown up into the air. To her, it was no issue, but if the figure was to continue being careless, they could damage the lungs of weaker men.


    ¡°Bleh¡­ You could have been more careful than that, young man- fuck, woman? Are you absolutely certain that you are actually female?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean? If you¡¯re referring to my current balance of yin and yang, it is perfectly balanced, so that isn¡¯t it¡­ Did that splitting of your soul cause you to lose the very ability to not be constantly agitated at every single person out there?¡± Wei Yi asked, ¡°Seriously though, you had scanned me with your spiritual perception, didn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°We had avoided looking at anything private, hence why we hadn¡¯t realised who you were¡­¡± he admitted, coughing a few more times, ¡°What are you doing here? Has my brother stopped being entertaining to you?¡±


    Before she had the chance to question his incredibly strange perspective on the world around him, the great mass of undug ore before them suddenly began to tremble and quake. Every miner around it hastened back, uncertain of the exact nature of these tremors, which momentarily ceased after a period of uncertainty.


    Due to the vast number of potential situations and threats that they may be facing, these miners didn¡¯t attempt to approach once more right away, not even with Wei Yi and Great Light on their side, since there was little that the two of them could do if some entity of the seventh realm suddenly appear, or if the entire cave collapsed onto them, since there was only so much that those without the ability to manipulate space were able to do.


    As such, they observed as, after the third series of uncertain trembles, a sphere of the amber-coloured ore that Great Light had been mining suddenly burst out of the ore vein, with around a hundred smaller shards that were all elongated and with sharp ends on either side rising alongside it, following after the sphere with a strange series of varied delays that caused them to move in a strange manner.


    It was difficult to perceive regardless of the spiritual perception that entered it, but inside of this entity was the equivalent of a planar beast¡¯s core, glimmering with vast power.


    ¡®Living ore, the metal version of typical planar fauna,¡¯ Wei Yi recognised it quickly, and, judging by the expression of some of the miners, they must have done so too, ¡®They must have awakened within the ore some time ago, and the lack of action upon it prevented them from ever rising. This one has the same realm as the ore that spawned it, that is, the sixth realm, but I am not so certain exactly how powerful it is if it had the ability to unconsciously cultivate while lying dormant within the metal ore. However, this does open up possibilities¡­¡¯


    One of the biggest troubles with handling certain metals and ores, before any cultivator could even process them, was removing them from the ground, as they tended to be in dense clusters that would need to be chipped at extremely slowly to get piece and piece after a great deal of effort.


    Meanwhile, this entity rose from the wall and quickly spat out a series of the shards that it had brought out alongside with it, throwing them all at Wei Yi and Great Light, both of whom were able to evade the projectiles with ease as, while they did rush swiftly, the warning before they shot out was more than sufficient for them to evade each one of the spikes. As they flew past them, due to the angle at which they were launched, they struck the ground a few metres behind them and pierced the stone with ease, the toughness of the material being far greater than that of common stone.


    ¡°Well, look at that. It¡¯s just mining things for us. How about we let it?¡±


    Wei Yi¡¯s suggestion could hardly be considered before the entity fired out even more shards at her, perhaps deciding that her suggestion was not one that it appreciated. While she evaded it yet again, she could see how the metal ore beneath the entity slowly grew up to substitute what it had used up, the newly grown chunks quickly flying up to it and replacing those spikes that could no longer orbit around the spherical entity.


    ¡°See, it¡¯s even growing new metal pieces for us, so we really shouldn¡¯t obliterate it before we figure out if this can be duplicated by some part of it¡­¡± she stated, glancing back at the launched shards.


    With some curiosity, she had noted that the shards contained both metal and earth-type energy, and then she noted with even more interest that one of the pieces had slightly broken during the flight. Within it, surrounded by a thick layer of the impure ore, was a small radiant piece of the metal that was actually being sought out by those that had begun to mine it.


    It glowed with an immense degree of energy, far greater than anything on the outer portion of it.


    That was hardly unusual, given that the ore was a valuable one and would naturally produce a great deal of resonance with the world that would then provoke the glow, but it caught her eye as it caused her to consider the very nature of metal ore ¨C as strange as that might sound to some.


    In a way, it was the very concept of the merge of earth and metal united and materialised within the real world, for the metal, a sharp and powerful element, was constrained and diluted by the earth, making it inferior or sometimes even nullifying it until the metal was refined and made into appropriate alloys with other metals in order to achieve the desired outcome. The earth weakened metal in this instance, and in the case of those materials that could harm a person through mere proximity, it would suppress their power so that it would not be as deadly to those that came across it unknowingly.


    Furthermore, this in itself was a law, and applied in almost any instance. If a weapon was covered in dirt, the edges would be dulled and the effectiveness that it possessed would be decreased, unless it was a blunt one, which would more frequently be made of wood rather than metal. If one was to fire an arrow into the ground in an attempt to reach someone on the other side, even a metre of earth would do far more to nullify the strength of the projectile than ten metres of air, with both the tip of the arrow and the wind being a metal-type force that did not wholly counteract nor act alongside one another, instead making it the matter of those using them. No matter how an arrow was shot at dirt, however, it would never become more powerful if not appropriately.


    The earth suppressed all kinds of powers, stopping water from flowing as it wishes for many decades until erosion and so on occurs, preventing flames from spreading past where they should, permitting wood to prosper, but only to a degree depending on the energy and nutrients within the soil.


    ¡®So that is one way to interpret the relationship of earth and metal¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought, slowly raising her hand as thoughts raced in her mind.


    However, before she could fully complete them, a larger shard than usual was shot out at a greater speed, with far more of the amber metallic radiance showing through it than in most of the projectiles thrown at her so far. It flew right at her, perhaps taking her hand as a convenient target to aim at and pierced it even as she activated her killing will state at the last moment, embedding itself almost ten centimetres into her flesh and bone before stopping.


    ¡°I suppose that this is the power of the sixth realm, even in a mindless thing like that,¡± she muttered, pulling the shard out of her body with her other hand and letting it recover rapidly, ¡°Not as powerful as you could be.¡±


    She stretched out her arm once more, pointing her palm at the floating entity, and released a strange form of planar energy that appeared to cloud the air, obscuring sight through it in a manner that seemed to be less of a usual obstruction and more of a warped, blurry window. It spread out to the entity, which appeared to be capable of having no thoughts other than to fire another shard at her, this one bigger than the one before, and more radiant also.


    However, the moment that it came into contact with that energy, it instantly lost half of its speed, and seemed to be rapidly covered in a dense layer of her planar energy, as if it was a metal being embedded in stone. Before it had even the slightest chance of impacting upon her arm, the additional virtual weight caused it to fall to the ground, the layer of stone vanishing after a short while.


    The energy surrounded the spherical entity fully, then, with a grabbing motion, she made it press down upon the creature, rapidly embedding it within the same stone-like energy that had trapped its attack. It did attempt to escape, but it only did so after wasting several precious moments simply residing within the dense mist, and by that point it was barely able to remain in the air. As such, all that the escape attempt yielded was a quicker drop onto the ground, as it had wasted the precious last drops of its own energy in it.


    ¡°Did you¡­ the sixth realm? How did you just do that?¡± Great Light immediately asked, his amazement plain within his expression.


    ¡°I quickly comprehended a new mixture of two elements. In line with my previous creation, metal ore energy seems appropriate, and the power against mindless things that follow simple laws is very effective,¡± she did not deign him with a proper response, instead approaching the entity and examining it closely, ¡°It is still active, just far, far slower than it had been before. Anything that it does is also far weaker, but I would still advise evading anything it shoots.¡±


    ¡°You plan to just leave this thing here?¡± he asked again, the other miners being too shocked to speak.


    ¡°Naturally. This produces more ore than simply mining, so it would be best to keep it around. While it is within the fortress, it can be stabilised, to leave it in a place with enough ore to grow the shards from, then harvest the shards either before or after it throws them at you. Everything around it can be dug up, but a chunk of the material should remain unless the metal somehow becomes useless,¡± Wei Yi stated, then quickly shook her head, ¡°Actually, leave it be no matter what, set up some walls that it cannot breach ¨C I can call some builders for that, if none of you have the expertise ¨C and keep harvesting it anyway. A use may be found quickly, even if any original uses are discarded.¡±


    To say that this had cleared up anything for any of the miners wouldn¡¯t be accurate in the slightest, but they had at the very least received clear instructions that they could follow regardless. As such, they got to work right away, and Great Light was forced to follow.


    She didn¡¯t care to explain the law-based principles of her newly invented state of her cosmic energy, seeing as it wasn¡¯t something that she could explain properly without first going into the depths of the law of the world, which in itself was something that she had a rather specific understanding of that would be difficult to fully convey. That was one of the problems of her Dao, and the understanding that it then bestowed upon other techniques and methods ¨C it was extremely difficult to spread.


    In many ways, it relied on epiphany, on the right course of thought leading to a special understanding of reality that permitted one to manipulate it based upon them. When those same understandings were shared, no matter how much detail was dedicated to them, that key element of thought would be absent no matter how much she could ask the people she was teaching to consider the reasons behind every word she spoke, simply because her insights would be quickly accepted rather than considered. It was a handy thing about being a powerful and reliable figure when teaching techniques, but not so much when teaching intricate philosophies and views.


    Furthermore, she still didn¡¯t know whether the exact power of Dao came from their exclusivity, or from one¡¯s specific understanding. If her views of the world did not bestow upon her the most powerful aspects of certain Dao, such as the Dao of Law, then she would rather let others come to their own conclusions and then derive their own branches of the Dao, then permitting their comprehension to be combined into techniques, methods and systems for others to follow to benefit from their insights without needing to understand them in the same way.


    Achieving something like this was quite easy through a clear and finalised technique, but her Mysterious Metal Ore was hardly something that could be called that. She did not have full understanding of it just yet, and it was part of a set of techniques that only she appeared to be able to practise due to the particular circumstances of her body and mind.


    As such, she would first need to extract the very principle of the technique into something more straightforward, adapt it for typical cultivators to be able to handle it as part of a cultivation technique, and then return to those who she wished to learn it with the completed manual.


    Perhaps it didn¡¯t need to be said, but something like this could take a very, very long time.


    Instead of sitting around and just doing that, she leapt over to the next group of miners, and found that their primary ore vein also contained several of the living ore entities, whose existence she was able to detect after seeing how the first one came to be right in front of her. Naturally, she stirred it up with the miners¡¯ assistance, waiting for it to emerge from the ground and attack her in the same simplistic manner as the entity from before.


    Since they had chosen to mine in an area without a six-star material, she only faced a fifth realm foe, and did not need to worry nearly as much about receiving any kind of injury from it.


    For that reason, she was able to calmly stand and get struck by another shard at nearly full force as she converted her relevant understanding of the new form of energy from one focused on that particular ore to ore in general, getting a better idea of the base principle she had based her sudden creation on.


    With her body, a weak fifth realm attack was only able to pierce a minimal amount, and by the time that the living ore had the chance to throw another shard, her metal ore energy was already spreading out to it. The next shard was nullified even more quickly than on the amber entity, and the creature itself fell soon after, being unable to contend with energy that nearly equalled its realm through sheer power and purity. She passed along her instructions to the miners there, then moved on again.


    Much as she expected, the vast majority of the ores beneath the ground of the fortress contained a number of these entities, and perhaps one of the few positives about their wild behaviour was that they would attack anyone, but only once they were awakened by force being exerted in very close proximity to them, effectively requiring a direct strike with a sufficiently powerful technique or pickaxe to even faze them. That meant that they did not all need to be restrained in one go, which would waste a great deal of energy for some time until her planar pool adjusted to the amount that she was attempting to stabilise, but it could be delayed until it became necessary.


    Since she had a decent understanding of the abilities of her miners after having observed them for a little while, she was able to guess with sufficient accuracy in regard to their mining speed, and thus paced her awakening and weakening of the living ores according to it, deciding that she would need to confirm the miners¡¯ safety every now and then just to be sure.


    The majority of ores that were at a three-star grade or below did not contain a single one of the living ores, while four-star metals onward seemed more and more likely to contain at least one such consciousness. It appeared that they would spring up based on the total planar energy content of the ore, as well as its general strength and ability, so the greatest of ores were naturally those with the most of these living entities, which was fortunate considering how long it would take until they could be mined at any reasonable speed.


    Besides effectively giving her even more time to resolve the danger that they posed, it did make her ponder whether any of the spatial metal that was used for the creation and enhancement of spatial items, whether storage or realms, would be found beneath the fortress. In theory, it would be a good reason for someone to dig up such a vast amount of space beneath any structure, and it would further encourage a hidden environment that couldn¡¯t be detected by any potential foes due to the value of spatial metal even in the golden days of the Master of Yi City, not to mention the time after his disappearance and the decrease in the overall planar energy content of the atmosphere, prompting a regression of two realms in the entire populace.


    ¡®Come to think of it, what exactly does spatial metal even look like? All I know is its name, not anything about its properties ¨C other than it being difficult to process, just as with star metal, except the methods for the latter were rumoured about while the former had nothing of the sort ¨C or where it can be found, how it can be found, and whether it is even a pure metal or an alloy. Hm¡­¡¯ she tried to find any mention of star metal within her mental library that might contain anything of interest, but found little, ¡®Well, that isn¡¯t good for me. For all I know, all of the stone around me is spatial metal¡­¡¯


    When there appeared to be no one in her vicinity, she chipped off a small amount of stone and carefully examined everything she could about it just to confirm that there was no chance that it did somehow contain even a small trace of spatial metal. That did not appear to be the case, unfortunately.


    If she had been able to obtain free spatial metal just from harvesting the plentiful stone beneath the ground, she would naturally be incredibly pleased with it, since she would have the chance to obtain as many spatial items as she wanted so long as there was more stone to dig. So far as she understood things, she wasn¡¯t able to get anything of the sort from the piece of stone she had selected, and while she could still be missing something due to her low cultivation, she wouldn¡¯t waste more time on experiments unless she did obtain some evidence that there might be a chance of obtaining her desired items from it. At that point, she would devote far more effort to it.


    ¡®Once I have a chance to figure out something about it, I could also confirm whether spatial metal is even a metal, or if someone had just named it that without understanding it, or intending to confuse others,¡¯ she added to the list, tossing what remained of the piece of stone away, ¡®Now, there¡¯s something on the outside, so I¡¯ll need to take a look¡­¡¯


    She did not bother to ascend the steps this time, quickly appearing beside Min Lian who had been left behind at Great Dark and Great Light¡¯s residence to bring her to the fortress¡¯ border.


    What she was heading to investigate was something that she sensed at a certain distance from the fortress, and she wanted to confirm whether or not this was something that she needed to worry about, and whether or not it would require immediate action to avoid danger.


    As the two of them got onto the walls and looked into the sandy distance, even if barely anything was actually visible through the incredibly dense wave of sand. Due to the particular properties of the fortress, and the enormous array that caused the sand to be in a perpetual sandstorm, it was also nigh impossible to reach out far into it with spiritual perception, but one thing that seemed to spread incredibly well was sound.


    When it came to sound, beside the constant storming sound of countless sand particles colliding with one another, there was a faint rumble somewhere far in the distance.


    It was incredibly difficult to make out, and it did not immediately bring anything to mind, but it was certainly there, and it appeared to be drawing closer the longer they stood by to listen. At first, it seemed like the source might be close and soon within sight of the walls, but that was not the case, for the sound got louder and louder with no end in sight.


    ¡°Min Lian, get Luo Lia Kun, Great Dark, and¡­ Miyu. She could prove to be of use.¡±


    ¡°Right away, Master,¡± the assassin answered, running to get those people at the greatest speed that her techniques would permit her.


    Even within a large fortress such as Paragon, a third realm cultivator with high quality movement techniques was able to get all of them within a few minutes, at which point they came to the wall one by one to observe and listen to whatever was making those noises. With what appeared to be growing proximity, it seemed that the source of the sound wasn¡¯t travelling directly towards them, but it must have been making a great deal of progress nonetheless to cause that much noise.


    Great Dark arrived first, mostly due to his realm, and asked, ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t ask me. I don¡¯t have a clue. We might have done quite a bit less research on the place than you and your group must have done, so if this is something that we should have expected, then I had not received that information.¡±


    ¡°It is not something that we were aware of either¡­¡± he reported, just as Luo Lia Kun arrived.


    ¡°That is¡­ no, that wouldn¡¯t be possible¡­¡± the vice-leader clearly had some ideas on the matter, but before she could voice them, Miyu and the assassin returned.


    Now, that would hardly stop her, but alongside them, they finally witnessed the source of the tremendous noise and the noticeable tremors in the ground that had, fortunately, been limited significantly by the sturdy structure of the fortress. It was only a shadow at the very edge of the visible radius within the sandstorm, but it was humongous.


    A titanic shadow of a sandworm surged out of the ground, somewhere far in the distance, appearing to easily be a hundred metres in width if not more, and rose into the air with much of its body before plunging back into the sand, displaying its length as being even more enormous.


    ¡°The Great Worm?¡± Luo Lia Kun gasped, ¡°H-How can¡­ something like that¡­¡±

 V4C6: The Ancients

    Her declaration went unchallenged and unquestioned while they watched the worm pass through the desert, travelling away from them in a vague zig-zagging manner. It rose out of the sand and then sank back inside, getting further and further away each time. The worm¡¯s actions did kick up a whole lot more sand to flood the sandstorm, but that hardly made the great entity any less terrifying.


    For a while, all of them unconsciously circulated energy within their bodies as to prepare a combat technique with which to strike at it, save for Aimi Miyu who had no idea how to do such a thing.


    Wei Yi and Great Dark realised their actions quickly, but the least fortunate amongst the small group of observers had to suddenly restrain their energy as to not harm themselves. With the other cultivators around them, this was accomplished easily, but it still showed them just how much such a sight affected them. With the distance that had still been maintained between it and the fortress walls even when they were closest together, it was impossible to determine the worm¡¯s realm, appearance or sheer physical might, but the aura that it created was certainly overwhelming.


    Once the rumbling of the creature¡¯s movement finally died down, they were able to consider other matters.


    ¡°What did you mean by the Great Worm? The one from the northern phrase? It is¡­ real?¡± Wei Yi asked, turning to the one that exclaimed it. During her stay in the Chao District, she had been able to overhear exclamations mentioning the Great Worm, and figured that it might be based on some entity from the past that had caused sufficient fear or reverence for it, but she certainly didn¡¯t expect it to be something living now and roaming around the desert.


    ¡°I¡­ I hadn¡¯t been aware, but¡­ it is considered to be both a physical thing, and a spiritual one. Some believe the ancient entity to be powerful, but it is the spiritual one that is able to bestow curses, hence the ¡®curse of the Great Worm¡¯, ¡®cursed by the Great Worm¡¯¡­¡± Luo Lia Kun explained.


    ¡°So, the Great Worm is an ancient sandworm that is THAT large?¡± she asked, taking the silent shrug as a response, ¡°Well¡­ Fuck. I don¡¯t know exactly what that was, nor what the Great Worm is, but that thing did not appear to be interested in eating Paragon just yet, so we can at the very least assume that we will be safe until it returns ¨C if it returns at all¡­ Seriously, that thing was absolutely enormous¡­¡±


    Miyu, who was not as shocked as the rest of them, smirked at the statement, but an unamused glance from Wei Yi stopped her right away.


    ¡°This is rather¡­ unexpected. As it turns out, Paragon may not necessarily be the safest place, but it should bring about quite a few opportunities,¡± Wei Yi posited before leaning down to whisper in the otherworldly demon¡¯s ear, ¡°And just so that you remember, this isn¡¯t a game. That thing could eat you as easily as a person could pluck a drying stalk of grass, so while I do appreciate the way in which you were able to remain unphased, I would advise you to keep that in mind.¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ but¡­ I was just believing this to be funny¡­¡±


    ¡°I appreciate all humour of that kind ¨C if you did mean it that way ¨C but this is a warning of your own good. Imagine, for instance, if you were out in the sands, and that thing was coming straight for you. If you think of it as some illusion, some trick of the light, you will die very quickly.¡±


    ¡°R-Right¡­¡± Miyu looked out into the sandstorm wall and suddenly had a trace of fear within her eyes, an expression of concern appearing upon her cute face.


    Seeing that the point was made, Wei Yi straightened her back and returned her attention to the group, but their interest, Great Dark¡¯s in particular, was already on the Antanorden woman, and so she had little choice but to explain.


    ¡°This is one of the otherworldly demons that I had mentioned, Aimi Miyu. Besides being a bit silly about certain things ¨C don¡¯t pout, you have to understand that I¡¯m right or else I will be seriously concerned about your mental state ¨C she has the otherworldly gift of being able to identify and recognise anything, but only with the information that she possesses. So long as she has the accurate knowledge, she will be able to recognise anything, and so I¡¯ve been making her read every book I could,¡± she said, patting her on the head when she wouldn¡¯t stop looking glum.


    Due to whatever magic her patting seemed to contain, for it had proven to work many times, it also calmed the recipient this time, nearly causing her to purr before she stopped.


    Meanwhile, Great Dark looked at her inquisitively as he thought about certain matters for a while, and a hint of doubt clearly appeared on his face. The reason for it was rather obvious, as it was naturally something that Wei Yi had considered in the past, as was confirmed the moment that he voiced it.


    ¡°You say accurate information, but is this something based on her own perception, or something else?¡± he asked, ¡°If it is the former¡­ no information will ever be reliable, as it will be just as accurate as the assessment of any other¡­ Requiring something of the sort will put us all at risk, especially if she will just assume any knowledge to be true¡­ even if it contradicts previous information¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, that much is easily verifiable, isn¡¯t it? Miyu, I will admit that I had lied to you once again and made sure that nobody would be able to tell you otherwise.¡±


    ¡°¡­Eh?¡±


    She did not meet the Antanorden woman¡¯s gaze and partly covered her face, the shame seeming to outright radiate from her, ¡°In truth, while the first three cultivation realms of planar cultivation were just as I had described to them. You accumulate planar energy, form it into a pool, condense an anchor, reaching the state you are currently in. However, the next realm is not the Active Core realm, but instead the Radiant Crystal realm, wherein the anchor is refined into a crystalline form, becoming an Endless Monolith, looking just like¡­ well, just like this.¡±


    Turning around, she reached out and pointed to the roof of one of the lower buildings, setting down her Monolith atop it. For a moment, everyone was astounded once again, even though most of them had seen the perfected state of an anchor in the past during either her breakthrough or within the Kong Prison Realm, but Miyu only seemed to be confused at this declaration.


    ¡°Are you sure about that? It¡¯s still telling me that you are in the Active Core realm¡­ Oh, I get it!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad that you do, and I hope that everyone else understands the outcome of this experiment,¡± Wei Yi said, turning to Great Dark, ¡°Judging by this, she was intending to be convinced, but the otherworldly gift did not change what it displayed. It could be that she wished to confirm it via the interface first, but if that is the case, then we needn¡¯t be worried about her easily getting misled. Would you disagree?¡±


    ¡°I suppose that I could not¡­ In that case, would you say that her skill might¡­ be of use in identifying the Great Worm, if that is what it is?¡±


    ¡°Not quite. Miyu, feel free to share how your ability works.¡±


    She had looked at her, as if to be sure that it was what she wanted, then reluctantly said, ¡°I need to be able to observe whatever I¡¯d need to identify, and currently, the big sandworm thing isn¡¯t anywhere in sight¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah. Nonetheless, if the Great Worm is discovered in the future, and Miyu studies everything about it intently, including every minor guess and assertion¡­ we might be able to confirm whether or not that entity is something truly dangerous? Could be beneficial.¡±


    ¡°It could, but before then, I think that we must have a discussion about certain ancient entities, so, Min Lian, if you could request Zhi Qiu Ya and Mo Zhouquan to make their way over to the primary keep, as we could call it, that¡¯d be great,¡± Wei Yi said, waiting for the assassin to affirm her understanding before continuing, ¡°If the Great Worm, or something that appears to resemble it, is able to exist, then I would say that it cannot be the only entity of its kind. We have already found traces of the primordial deities, and since this thing is so close to us, it could harm us, but so could the deities. This must not happen, and so we must prepare.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d agree. If the living plague and the seed of corruption alike are caused by primordial deities, then there could be countless other such plagues out there that would put us all at risk, and we must be prepared to handle them,¡± Luo Lia Kun agreed, although her gaze was still focused at the distance, where the Great Worm first appeared.


    ¡°Indeed, that is the best course of action¡­ not that I can imagine that we would be able to do much against the eighth realm¡­¡±


    ¡°Do you think we can do much against Them?¡± Wei Yi interrupted him, speaking sternly, ¡°At the moment, we cannot defeat the first generation, simple as that. However, if we just stop right here and now, give up, and throw down our weapons, this world as a whole shall suffer. I know you were just mentioning it offhandedly, but this is very important to remember for us all. Also, any one of those things may have the identities of deities, but they are hardly all-powerful. Remember that.¡±


    He nodded, ¡°The primordial deities had been felled once before, I suppose¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes. Come on, let us get to the discussion as quickly as possible. The other two are already there, so we¡¯re the ones delaying.¡±


    Amidst the newly repaired structures of the Ping District, empty as they were these days, stood two figures in black robes, one male and another female. They had the same black hair and eyes, and looked at the same spot on one of the structures that had not been touched yet.


    There, they could see the marks left behind by an immensely powerful slash, as well as the burns from some kind of immense flame, combined with footprints on the ground that seemed to have appeared far after they were left behind due some immense force contained within them. It was as if a seed of power was planted into the ground, then burst some time after and shattered the sturdy stone into broken fragments and pieces that were no different from dust due to their sheer fineness and fragmented state.


    ¡°Different techniques.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. The natural agitating force was affected, and the rest of the city might relax for a little while.¡±


    ¡°Destination was north-bound, judging by the prints. Creating a rumour might be necessary to force the filth to swarm towards the Rebel,¡± the male offered, the dense aura of uncertain mirages plainly visible around him.


    ¡°Bai, Chao or Ju?¡±


    ¡°The Chao District would be optimal if they thought to find his legacy.¡±


    ¡°All mention of that was purged. Only the prisoners might still be aware of it, and none of them should be able to escape while it still stands.¡±


    Both of them suddenly turned to the side, where they saw another figure with pale skin, white hair and red eyes approach, covering herself from the sun with an ornate umbrella. Her face contained the hints of both a smirk and scowl, and seemed to fluctuate between the two with an uncertain regularity. The same aura covered her as the two in black.


    ¡°I see that more trouble has occurred around here. The Ping District has not contributed well to Testament¡¯s goals.¡±


    ¡°Bai Fu, your comments are unnecessary,¡± Ping Fu chided.


    ¡°As are most of your actions, it seems. The Rebel has been confirmed to have ended the lives of Luo Zhong and Luo Wu, and yet they were able to pass through your lands unharmed. Luo Fu has reported that she is very unhappy with the need to remain at home for so much longer just to raise another child.¡±


    ¡°Our happiness is of no relevance to Testament,¡± the female in black replied, ¡°Our families must endure, and both of us have done what was needed to make it happen.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, we have, but I will not need to labour once more to replace the dead. Will you?¡±


    Ping Chao barked, ¡°Enough. As you are here, you must assist in the persuasion of the right individuals. The Rebels tracks belong to a worshipper of a primordial deity, seeking to raise that deity from the dead. Ending it is their priority.¡±


    ¡°What deity? There are so many to choose from.¡±


    ¡°Primordial Cosmos. They know little of it, and will be terrified by the prospect. It should rouse enough interest in cutting the Rebel¡¯s life short.¡±


    ¡°The woman that had been accompanying you to Paragon, what happened to her?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked, sitting down at the stone table to find that the chairs beneath them were surprisingly comfortable for things made entirely of stone.


    ¡°We had a somewhat rough journey and were exhausted. She is currently resting in one of the bedrooms of this place, waiting for the ache to pass.¡±


    ¡°The¡­ Oh¡­ You two did it also?¡±


    ¡°While I wish to criticize the speed with which you rushed to that assumption despite me saying nothing suggestive whatsoever, not so far as I noticed, I also cannot say that it was not the case. There were some certain circumstances that forced it,¡± Wei Yi admitted, coughing as she changed the subject, ¡°So, Zhi Qiu Ya, how has your time in the Kong Prison Realm been?¡±


    ¡°It¡­ actually, for such a name, it has been really relaxing,¡± the wolven woman, her animal features now completely hidden save for her white, dense hair and yellow eyes, replied with a subtle blush, ¡°I hadn¡¯t expected the place to be quite like this.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have expected anyone to, given the same reason,¡± she said, turning to the other recent resident of the prison realm, ¡°And you, Mo Zhouquan? Faring well so far? Also, now that we have left and gone back up to here, how go the whispers? Have they returned, or is that not something that we need to be concerned about for the moment? I¡¯d hate to lock you in there, or even forcefully isolate you in another area of the realm, if they manage to breach whatever barrier the fortress has.¡±


    Since the last time that she had spoken with her, Mo Zhouquan had regained some of her former cheerful attitude, except it did not seem to be going quite as overboard or lewd as it had previously been, much to Wei Yi¡¯s pleasure. As someone who did technically own quite the number of brothels, and who had slept with quite a few people by now, she had no objects to lewdness at all, but just as with anything in life, there was a certain limit one could reach before it would just be too much to handle regularly.


    ¡°So far, I am only hearing them faintly, and with the thinking time that I have had, I have reconsidered some of my previous actions, nor do I wish to listen to them as intently. That being said, the void they have left is still rather uncomfortable¡­ Other than that, I have been doing just fine, even with Long Huang residing in close proximity to me.¡±


    ¡°Not a fan of her either?¡±


    ¡°Honestly, it has become the dynamic of a strange friendship more so than regular dislike or even hatred, although she can still be rather annoying,¡± she replied.


    ¡°I see. Still, that¡¯s good enough for me, and that is also enough random chatter. Let us move on to the primary topic of discussion, which is the matter of ancient entities, primordial deities, and whatever else may live on within this world,¡± Wei Yi said, standing up for effect, ¡°They are not entities that act in our interests the vast majority of the time, and, as such, we must be prepared for an attack from them. It could be now, in a week, a year, or in a century, but it is likely no matter what we do.¡±


    ¡°Even if we were to be on their side?¡± Mo Zhouquan asked, ¡°I mean, I am technically a worshiper.¡±


    ¡°Even then. Remember, Primordial Corruption is hardly the only primordial deity, and we cannot even be sure if she is still alive. If not, then there is no chance for her to be able to protect you, even if she wanted to.¡±


    ¡°Actually, what is the whole list of deities? I know of only a few, given where I grew up, and they might not be accurate either,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya asked.


    A quick shared look between the others immediately confirmed that they also knew little about these ancient entities, for while there were plenty of records of war against the primordial deities, there were far less records of their exact natures, abilities or even names. The fact that it was hardly necessary knowledge, combined with the interference of the Greats, was likely to blame for this, but just understanding the cause would hardly correct the issue. Instead, Wei Yi contacted the person that would be able to teach them.


    Out of nowhere, Yi Shi Ming¡¯s figure suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the table to Wei Yi, putting her at the end of the long table while the Ascendant was at the front. Her posture in the chair was calm, but it seemed as if she had been sitting there the whole time, much to the slight panic of certain members of the current discussion.


    They weren¡¯t concerned about having someone like this on their side, but while her existing and known ability to observe the people of Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm was vague, the power that seemed to permit her to reside wherever she wished without a single person observing her appeared to be far more real and worrying. They could be anywhere and doing anything and Yi Shi Ming would be able to observe them from any point and any location, without them having a single clue about it, even if she was to be standing right over them as they slept.


    Their worried looks made it more than obvious enough for her to mention, ¡°I was not here from the beginning. I had come to tell you of the Primordial Deities, for I am perhaps the most knowledgeable in the fortress on the topic of those entities.¡±


    ¡°Since I wouldn¡¯t want to be caught off guard by another appearance of an entity like the Great Worm, I¡¯d like you to get straight to it.¡±


    ¡°Of course. The first five Primordial Deities should be well known to most of you: Primordial Inferno, Primordial Earth, Primordial Metal, Primordial Ocean and Primordial Nature. They were prominent in the battles between the deities and Kong Shi Meng, and they are thus reasonably well known to me. As one might expect, those five are all heavily influenced by the natures of the elements that they represent, those being fire, earth, metal, water and wood.


    ¡°Primordial Inferno represents flame, and her behaviours is as one might expect of a flickering flame. To expect consistency from her is difficult in all but one aspect ¨C sheer fierceness. If she attacks, all will be scorched and obliterated. If she defends, not a single particle of air will get through. Dealing with her is dangerous, but some humans had found it to be possible to ally themselves with her, so long as they were able to act in accordance with her many whims without needing to fully submit their minds and bodies to her,¡± Yi Shi Ming explained, Wei Yi choosing to assist her with a vague feminine image made of flame-type energy, ¡°Actually, that was not far off from her appearance, save for her being gigantic, and her form shifting almost every time one might blink.


    ¡°Primordial Earth is different, almost opposite. He is stagnant, slow and lumbering in every way, with a huge, static body and a reliance on pure physical might that is nigh unsurpassed by anything that I had ever witnessed. He was fortunately slow enough to anger for my son to have had a battle on his body with one of the other primordial deities, but when he acted, he was extremely fierce.¡±


    ¡°Before you go on, could I ask whether their genders are of any relevance, perhaps aligning their element more with yin or yang, or if they simply looked male or female?¡± Wei Yi questioned.


    ¡°There is a yin and yang relevance, but it does not mean that the element they represent is necessary yin or yang. In a way, the Primordial Deities are not the manifestation of the elements, but a tumour made of them upon the world. They are a form of the elements, but they must not define them ¨C if that is what you were curious about, Wei Yi,¡± she replied, providing her with a soft, momentary smile, ¡°May I continue?¡±


    ¡°Sure. That being said, I would be interested in studying them eventually.¡±


    ¡°You may do so if they have not awakened, or if we successfully defeat them at some point in the future. Kong Shi Meng had also studied this, but I do not believe that he had been particularly successful, as unfortunate as that was.¡±


    She looked to the other people in the meeting, found that they were listening to her attentively, and so the mother of the Master of Yi City proceeded.


    ¡°Primordial Metal is akin to a suit of armour, and will often act in accordance with that. Its bound followers and summoned entities will be guarded, and it will often take attacks to inflict greater harm upon its enemies. By the way, I am not mistakenly saying ¡®it¡¯ in this case. Primordial Metal does not have a single distinguishing characteristic that might make one assume it to be male, female, draconic or anything else. It is humanoid, but that is the only thing known.¡±


    ¡°He won¡¯t be the only one like that¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered, without attracting any attention.


    Her contribution was noticed by Yi Shi Ming, who was likely aware of her exact current circumstances, so she did not say a thing and continued, ¡°Primordial Ocean is also a woman, but she is calm and slow in her actions, like Primordial Earth, but she is more alike to regular people in the speed of her actions, but her attacks and defences are nearly as powerful. We had the fewest encounters with her, but I can confirm that she looked much like what Wei Yi is depicting¡­ save for the size of her chest. I can see your fondness for such things being large in moderation, but it is even larger than that.¡±


    ¡°Really? I went on the large side for this one,¡± she admitted, increasing the size of the model¡¯s breasts, ¡°Is this enough? I¡¯m not going any further than that no matter what you say or do, so that will be it.¡±


    ¡°It is close enough. Just make the fluid that creates it significantly denser and it will be a sufficiently accurate representation of the entity that we had fought long ago. Now, I shall move on to the last one of the five primary elemental primordial deities, Primordial Nature. I have heard, then and now, some mentions of the kindness of nature to those that live alongside it, but Primordial Nature is not that at all.¡±


    Zhi Qiu Ya frowned, ¡°The living plague is related to it, correct?¡±


    ¡°The energy seems to be partly shared with it, yes, so you might have an idea of the way in which it behaves. Primordial Nature is brutal, decisive, deadly. If you do not succeed in defeating him or one of his servants and summoned or bound entities, then you will perish, or he would do his best to make certain that this was the case.¡±


    ¡°On Orbis, is there not a phrase like ¡®mother nature¡¯?¡±


    ¡°I am¡­ somewhat familiar with that, I think,¡± Aimi Miyu said, residing deep in thought for a little while before exclaiming, ¡°Ah, right, I remember! Yes, that is said on Orbis!¡±


    ¡°¡­ Why did it take you so long, exactly? One would think that you would have a good idea of what your world¡¯s culture had been getting up to, but whatever¡­¡± Wei Yi looked back to Yi Shi Ming, ¡°I am guessing that this Primordial Nature deity is embodying the natural law of the survival of the fittest?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, that is what it appears to be. I, myself, am not the most familiar with the natural laws, nor anything to do with the primordial deities themselves, which I do regret with the hindsight that I now possess. Nevertheless, the five Primordial Deities of the primary elements are as I had described them, and save for those that naturally change constantly nonetheless, all of them should remain the same now as they had been all that time ago.¡±


    Mo Zhouquan said, ¡°However, they are not the only ones, are they?¡±


    ¡°Of course not. We knew of twelve primordial deities, but I had been exposed less to most of them. You already know of Primordial Corruption, but we know little of her exact identity besides that she corrupts all she comes across, turning them into perversions of their natural forms. Her preferred state to transform things into is tentacles and horrific entities, but so-called succubi-¡±


    ¡°Eh? Where?¡± Miyu suddenly leapt to her feet, her eyes opened wide in alert as she wildly looked around the room.


    ¡°She¡¯s talking about the past, not the present. Sit down and calm down.¡±


    ¡°Ahem, as I was saying, certain entities that had received the moniker of succubi, amongst other things, were rumoured to exist, but it is uncertain whether any of those tales were true, or if she had corrupted the very tales that spoke about her.¡±


    ¡°Primordial Corruption could do such a thing?¡±


    ¡°They did wield certain kinds of powers that went beyond mere cultivation, or so it seemed. That is the reason that they were called Primordial Deities, and not just not powerful entities. Besides those six, the others were Primordial Yin and Primordial Yang, whose appearances and focuses you might be able to imagine, Primordial Blood, which I had not personally seen, an entity by the name of Entropy, who was supposedly one of the most terrifying Primordial Deities that my son had contended with, Primordial Energy, some manifestation of planar energy, and, finally, Primordial Cosmos.¡±


    Wei Yi¡¯s eyebrow rose, ¡°That¡¯s an interesting one. What does it get up to? Does it help the world see the stars, or is it something significantly more vicious?¡±


    ¡°Actually¡­ Primordial Cosmos had never been killed. It just vanished.¡±

 V4C7: Plans and Actions

    That was not what Wei Yi had expected to hear, not just due to the tales of complete defeat of all of the Primordial Deities, but also due to the unmistakable cosmic element of her own cultivation, or, rather, the technique that had ended up being passed down to her from Kong Shi Meng.


    If he had defeated Primordial Cosmos and then gained some kind of insight from its death, then it would make a great deal of a lot of sense why it was so overtly leaning in this direction from the very start of her path, but if it disappeared, then that brought up quite a few questions. Amongst many of those was why anyone would ever assume that the war against the Primordial Deities was over if there was no body nor any trace of the entity¡¯s demise.


    In response to that question, Yi Shi Ming could only shrug, ¡°I am afraid that I do not know, but my son had been able to conclude with certainty that it wouldn¡¯t bother Yi City before he declared it to have perished. Had he reported the entity absent, it would have stirred up fear amongst those who had experienced the damage that it was able to cause, even when it did not appear to be heading for any individual armies or settlements. In fact, Primordial Cosmos was not reported to have attacked a single fort or district directly, and any damage done was supposedly through mere proximity.¡±


    ¡°Mere proximity¡­ was it not overtly hostile, then? Was there a neutral Primordial Deity?¡±


    ¡°From what I remember, there was sufficient reason to conclude that the entity known as Primordial Cosmos was against us, and with the other primordial deities, but my long sleep may have muddled my memories more than I realise. If so, then perhaps there was one that did not intentionally bring harm to humanity,¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City admitted.


    Before the golden age of the Master of Yi City, the world had been partially occupied by the Primordial Deities, with each one controlling a sizeable portion of the Western Continent at the time of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s birth. They had cults and cities that were fully controlled by the Primordial Deities, and they had settled in their regions after what must have been a long period of combat between them that ended up causing them to conclude their territorial wars and no longer attempt to overtake the world.


    The appearance of a foe as powerful and unifying as they were rapidly bringing together the human cities and clans that they had been unable to control on their own sent them all into a frenzy, and thus war resumed.


    It took a long, long time for it to be settled, and the Master of Yi City had grown from the peak of the seventh realm all the way up to the peak of the ninth before it was concluded. Countless skirmishes, scuffles and major conflicts broke out before any one of the Primordial Deities fell, and when they did, the others only seemed to grow stronger and gain power from the fall of the others. This time was rather damaging to the world, destroying quite a few ancient relics and sites of history from before the time of the Master of Yi City that had led to a number of people initially having a rather negative view of Kong Shi Meng when he first rose to power as the Master of Yi City.


    However, none of those people, even the most dedicated worshippers of the Primordial Deities and those that had been under their influence but not been fully converted by their energies and methods were able to contend that he had been incredibly successful with what he had sought to accomplish. Yi City was a marvel, and as it stood for a million years, any such negative sentiments outright vanished.


    One thing that was unilaterally agreed upon, however, was that the Primordial Deities were bastions of hatred and disgust towards humanity, and that they only kept humans around to twist them to their whims and to witness them being forced into their servitude.


    If this was not true, then while nobody would suddenly view the Master of Yi City as some terrible villain, especially if the only such Primordial Deity also happened to be the one with the least exposure and control over the world during its existence many years ago, it would likely cause those who are slightly more critical of him to review his past deeds and confirm just what he had gotten up to back then.


    ¡°Just a thought, but what if we were to spread this kind of thing as rumours? We could say that the Primordial Deities had a neutral one amongst them, or that there were some kind of strange dealings between the Master of Yi City¡¯s forces and Primordial Cosmos, or any other Primordial Deity. It doesn¡¯t have to be anything with even a shred of actual evidence, but the key is to make people dig into history, to review what they know, and to seek to learn more after the many years in which so many had happily forgotten the past,¡± Wei Yi suggested, ¡°If this was to spread out far enough, They could hardly control it without bringing themselves to the forefront.¡±


    ¡°So long as They do that, people would begin to question why something isn¡¯t being permitted, and why a group has so much control, especially when They generally present themselves as being simple men and women in clothes of high quality but low price. It might bring them to the attention of the whole Yi City,¡± Luo Lia Kun continued for her, ¡°They might even seek to rebel.¡±


    ¡°They have little interest in the people, but not only will the great gathering of cultivators seeking answers or freedom pose a certain threat to the third and second generations, it will also mean that if they were to eliminate them, they would cause a large number of deaths. Since they haven¡¯t killed us all yet, they must have some interest in us, just as the Primordial Deities had. Perhaps they believe that the mission supposedly given to Them by the heavens includes safeguarding human lives? It would explain why the districts have not yet been broken down.¡±


    Great Dark nodded, ¡°They seek to stay out of the public eye¡­ In Their eyes, such knowledge cannot possibly be out there¡­ Perhaps they believe that the prison realm that they had stolen gave no way for a single soul to survive¡­¡±


    ¡°Certainly, a possibility. This could be one of the things that your spies, once you send them out, do while remaining hidden. After all, we don¡¯t need any conclusive evidence, so we don¡¯t have to leave anything suspicious on them. So long as the rumours can spread, it will be enough, but it wouldn¡¯t be sufficient for Them to deal with some people that just seem like ordinary travellers, merchants or warriors,¡± the Ascendant suggested, glancing at the map that she had brought over.


    It had the marks that she had made upon it previously, detailing which district was to be visited by their spies and investigated, but she brought out a strand of killing will from a finger and pointed at it.


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming, if you would, could you tell me the location of every other potential fortress that you would have suggested for our use, as well as any locations that had been occupied by the primordial deities?¡±


    ¡°The latter is simpler, so that is what I shall begin with. The districts were founded on the locations of cities, and some, naturally, happened to be the same as those that had been inhabited by the Primordial Deities. So long as the district territories haven¡¯t shifted significantly since the last time that I had looked at the map, most of this will be simple. The Shi District housed Primordial Ocean, who had occupied it for at least a thousand years before my son rose to prominence. The Huang District was founded atop the territory of Primordial Blood, which had resided there for no less than two thousand-¡±


    The mark that she had placed at the Shi District was different, but no larger than the one at the other districts of interest, but the mark that had already been at the Huang District suddenly grew significantly, almost bubbling for a short while before it settled.


    Although nobody was able to understand just what had caused this, they saw that it was clearly connected to Wei Yi, who had, at some point, bit her lip with enough strength to cause a drop of golden blood to flow from it, with her body regenerating too quickly even against her own sharp teeth to allow for any more than that.


    ¡°Great Dark, we must pay even greater attention to that district. The more I hear about it, the more I am concerned that it might be home to some dangerous things.¡±


    ¡°Understood¡­ even if I do not quite understand your worry¡­ I understand nonetheless,¡± the dark twin of Great Earth said, noting it down in his own mind as he looked at the map created from the Ascendant¡¯s energy with some concern of his own.


    ¡°Anyway, you may continue. Sorry for that.¡±


    ¡°You need not apologise, Wei Yi. The only other district that appears to currently exist on the same territory as the one that had been occupied by the primordial deities is the Qiang District, which was once home to Primordial Energy for an uncertain period of time. What I can confirm from more recent events is that it has a prosperous planar ore and stone mine, and that the people there have a lot of expertise with handling it, leading me to conclude that the influence of Primordial Energy can be felt to this day.¡±


    ¡°Then, this shall be investigated as well, separately from the original few districts. More rumours can be spread, less information can be safely gathered, and just to be safe, whatever contact procedures that we have with each agent should be separate, as to prevent anyone from being able to deduce it one way or another,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°After all, when we meet, both of us may be in disguise. Who can be certain that the other person is who they claim to be without a safe method of interaction?¡±


    ¡°To give each person a separate method¡­ it would be difficult for others to remember each one¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. I intend to be the one doing it, and, as you might be able to tell, I have rather decent mind and memory. Don¡¯t forget that I had absorbed everything within those jade slips of yours within a matter of seconds, when you said it would take months.¡±


    ¡±Ah¡­ To be frank, I had believed that you might die then¡­ I thought to get you out so that your blood didn¡¯t cover everything inside of the physical part of the pagoda¡­ When you had been fine the entire time, perhaps we should have paid more attention to you¡­ although that might have attracted more from Them, as well¡­¡±


    ¡°Too late for any of that, Great Dark. Anyway, Yi Shi Ming, what about the fortresses? Any suitable ones?¡±


    ¡°I do not believe that most of them still stand in anything resembling a presentable condition, and that does include potential evidence of the events at the time. If there are any, they would have been looted by now, whether by Them or by ordinary thieves.¡±


    ¡°Would They be aware of every single hidden fort like this one, or were they just built a little more shoddily than this one?¡±


    ¡°Paragon was one of the strongest superstructures that my son had constructed in his time, possibly even including any spatial realms or structures that he had made with or without my knowledge,¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City replied, ¡°I had hoped that they wouldn¡¯t need to be used, hence why I hadn¡¯t mentioned one that was nearer to the Yi District, as you might have gone to it before you could fully consider the dangers. The issue is that any fortresses and bases that were used directly in the conflict against the primordial deities have been destroyed a long time ago, mostly so that the materials could be moved to the border of Yi City rather than letting them stand around and gather dust.¡±


    ¡°Sensible, but unfortunate. Your son wouldn¡¯t happen to have had some place where he would stash all kinds of historical documents, whether in our language or Enian, that we could just dig up and put to use right now?¡±


    ¡°I am afraid not. Had there been something like this, something that I knew of, then you can be sure that I would have mentioned it to you by this point. It would have been too valuable to ignore.¡±


    ¡°Alright, not an option then. A shame, but hardly unexpected¡­¡± Wei Yi frowned for a while, staring at the map, ¡°Fortunately for us, this is meant to be more of a long-term project, so we can first focus on the more immediate things ¨C gathering information on Them. The spies won¡¯t be in the best place to do such a thing, so I would like to get back out there and get on it. If they realise who I am, I have the leeway to escape once, at the very least, so it shouldn¡¯t be particularly dangerous, and I am uniquely positioned to have the widest range of roles available to me.


    ¡°Depending on the necessity, I can be a warrior, farmer, beggar, or even a maid, so long as it can get me more information¡­ One question for everyone present for the moment: do any of you have any idea what Testament is?¡±


    The others met her eyes with the answer clear in their gaze.


    ¡°Well¡­ We must learn right away, because it seems to be something of interest to Them, and it is thus of interest to us. When I had gotten into a fight with the third generation men of the Chen and Ning families, I had overheard one of them mention the name before they either realised where I was, or while they were trying to trick me into a false sense of security to make it easier to jump me.¡±


    ¡°Testament¡­ Is it some kind of document that guides them?¡± Great Dark suggested, ¡°It could be¡­ that it is the source of their motivations. Perhaps it contains some hidden truth¡­¡±


    ¡°Could also be some artefact that gives them their anchors. Perhaps they have some kind of reverence for it after the many years in which it had been helpful for them, time and time again,¡± Luo Lia Kun offered her idea, ¡°Gracious sands¡­ The more I think about them, the clearer it seems that we know very little about all of them. Their motivations are vague, their methods are strange, their limited number is odd, their primary bases¡­¡±


    Miyu chipped in, ¡°On the topic of bases, it could be their base, couldn¡¯t it? Imagine the residents of Testament going against those of Paragon¡­ Would sound absolutely awesome, wouldn¡¯t it? Could be a great PvP game¡­¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ Aside from that last bit, could you not verify it through your otherworldly gift?¡± Zhi Qiu Ya asked.


    ¡°¡­ Not really. Do we know for certain that we have a single accurate guess here, or is everyone just throwing ideas together? Can we even be sure that it is just one thing, and not some overarching thing that keeps all of them together?¡± Miyu sounded strangely reasonable for a little while, ¡°Maybe it is a person, or a deity of their own, or some vehicle or ship, or maybe an ancient skeleton that they worship for some reason¡­ Maybe it is a sort of hive consciousness for them, or perhaps it is the souls of all of Them that had come before and died in service to their goals?¡±


    ¡°Even with all of these, assuming that one of them will be correct at some point, until we obtain the certain truth, your otherworldly gift will only tell us what you believe to be true, not what actually is,¡± Wei Yi sighed, ¡°This is an issue, but one that I think can be resolved so long as we go about things the right way.¡±


    ¡°What exactly does that entail?¡± the perpetual vice-leader asked.


    ¡°To explain that, I would need to mention that I made a bit of a mess in the Ping District when I came to the conclusion that it is a hive of the worst aspects of modern society after everyone there swarmed in to rob me. Judging by the fact that They had allowed such a thing to remain and perpetuate for many years, I can only assume that it is somehow of use to their goals. That means that there will likely be a bunch of Them there, presumably a pair or two, looking about and trying to figure out where I went.¡±


    ¡°Are we in danger of being found?¡± Great Dark questioned right away, ¡°To be discovered this early¡­ wouldn¡¯t be beneficial.¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think that they will be able to find us¡­ right?¡±


    She looked at Yi Shi Ming, who, after a moment of though, said, ¡°They should be aware of the existence of this fortress, even if most of Yi City no longer is. However, fortunately for us, the exact location of Paragon had never been exposed, with the majority of those that had resided within it either being highly loyal or had perished in one of the battles that Yi City had been involved in then.¡±


    ¡°Good, so they shouldn¡¯t be able to just walk right up to our walls and knock on the gates. They will be trying to send people to us, that much we can be almost certain of, so we should try to cause them to emerge and go for us directly.¡±


    ¡°Surely that wouldn¡¯t mean exposing the fortress?¡± Mo Zhouquan chose to ask the question that everyone else had on their minds after her proposition.


    Wei Yi calmly shook her head and pointed to the map of Yi City, adding Paragon to its edge, then another, smaller region to the south of it, where it would be partially protected by the edge of the sandstorm caused by the actual fortress without making it obvious where it was localised. She then added on a few small symbols to represent the forces inside of both fortresses, leaving most in Paragon, and two dots to represent the Greats, surrounded by a cloud of people.


    ¡°The idea is simple. They will be trying to get us through the people, since that would make it easy for them to not expose themselves unnecessarily to a person that might not even be aware of them. So long as the people cannot easily breach all the way to the fake fortress, they can be deemed to be insufficient, and necessitate Their involvement in the matter, at which point they would naturally send the people back while They came forward to deal with me, the rebel and the thug daring to go against their plans,¡± she depicted this on the map, changing it accordingly, ¡°At that point, my full might, combined with that of Paragon and you lot, can be put to use.¡±


    Miyu traced a thin line on the map, ¡°What about that big, old worm slithering about?¡±


    ¡°As we have already seen, the Great Worm didn¡¯t get too close. Whether that was for some personal reason, or due to the fortress itself, it shouldn¡¯t be dangerous to us right away. However, if it does get onto the battlefield, I¡¯d imagine that it would be more keen to eat two more than one, and that while They should have no spatial methods on their side, that is not the case for us.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t They retreat if they believe us to be too dangerous, and if their Testament is indeed a spatial realm of some kind?¡±


    ¡°The only reason that it is so easy for me to pull people in is due to me effectively carrying the true spatial realm around with me. None of Them, unless they are in the seventh realm, at which point it hardly matters which tactic other than fleeing we employ, are likely to own their own spatial realm,¡± Wei Yi said to Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s questions, ¡°So long as we can bring them in close enough, then make use of our stronger techniques and methods, we should be able to finish them off. Also, They have a tendency to look down on everyone, which does include us.¡±


    ¡°If they recognise you¡­ that disdain will turn to even greater caution, however,¡± Great Dark stated.


    ¡°They should only be able to associate me with a single major event at a time, at most, and if they do conclude that I helped their Luo family lose its inheritors more quickly as well as making a significant impact on the Ping District¡¯s immediate prosperity, then that may make it easier to bait them out into action. If they decide to shove me in the prison realm, for instance, then I can easily stop the transportation array from forming beneath my feet and go in for the kill.¡±


    Yi Shi Ming said, ¡°Wei Yi, I would be concerned with the possibility of Their second generation choosing to appear instead of the third. If they had noticed that you and the killer of two of their number are the same, then they would be very likely to send at least one such individual.¡±


    That much was easy to guess, since it would only be natural to send a greater force at a perceived greater threat, so Wei Yi created another layer to the map, zooming in on the location of Paragon and setting out the potential encounter with more detailed lines and symbols. To signify the potential change from the third generation for the second, she made the Great Family¡¯s symbols brighter, as well as adding a number into them.


    For a few moments, she looked upon the scene in silence, glancing up at the mother of the Master of Yi City after a short while.


    ¡°They are in the fifth realm, usually, correct?¡±


    ¡°That is what would be expected from their cultivation pattern. Each generation will be two realms apart, so it would be the third, fifth and seventh realms for the third, second and first generations respectively.¡±


    ¡°It is also what we had been able to observe from our own observation,¡± Luo Lia Kun added, ¡°There might even be a reason why they are staying in those realms, and perhaps they are building up energy that they do not then use so that once the second generation becomes the first, they can swiftly ascend to make up the difference in their cultivation at that point.¡±


    ¡°If that is the case, any of the world¡¯s geniuses should probably step back. They are able to cultivate to such heights while holding back at that point. Imagine if we rile them up and they decide to just break through as many realms as possible? Most of us wouldn¡¯t really stand a chance,¡± Wei Yi said, turning her attention back to the floating second layer of the killing will map, ¡°I cannot cultivate that quickly, not without a lot of resources, but each stage is twice as significant due to my perfected stages. Nevertheless, I wouldn¡¯t like to face one of Them while at an inferior realm, even if I am able to perfect my physique, killing will and bloodline cultivation¡­¡±


    ¡°That is a lot of cultivation paths for a single person to embark upon¡­¡± Great Dark, who had not yet been made aware of the full range of things that Wei Yi attempted to do with her time, commented, ¡°Would any of them¡­ be easily advanced in order to make up the difference?¡±


    ¡°What I meant was that even with my killing will being in the fifth realm, my physique energy being in the fourth, and my bloodline enhancing everything else by a significant factor, I do not want to face Them with any disadvantage. The further we go, the wider the gap in realms, but so is the power that They have in comparison to the usual person. I could contend with the fifth realm while being in the third, but when it comes to Them, without a great deal of luck, I wouldn¡¯t have successfully killed the two at the Luo District.¡±


    ¡°You say luck¡­ was it that arrow that you used?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked.


    ¡°That, and the chance that I took in setting up the transportation array while you fought the other one. Both of these wouldn¡¯t have worked if I had not been fortunate, and so it wouldn¡¯t have been enough to confirm that I can reliably finish off the third generation. Now, however, I think that it will be within my reach, but now it is the second one that we might need to worry about¡­¡±


    ¡°Then, it would naturally be most prudent to limit Their power as much as possible, while growing your own, all in the shortest time span possible,¡± Yi Shi Ming stated, ¡°You would not be able to make use of the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s property to converting planar energy from the distance that you intend to fight at, but I would not advise getting any closer than that unless we can guarantee absolute success, as it would risk discovery of the fortress. Advancing your planar cultivation, then bloodline, then the methods you use to empower yourself would be my recommendation, prioritising them based on the amount of time required for a certain return.¡±


    ¡°I agree, but¡­¡± Wei Yi paused, looking at the two layers of the map before her before turning to Great Dark, ¡°Alright, the matter of spies is independent of the potential upcoming fight, so you can get them sent out as soon as you and they are ready. Ideally, they should be out of here before any of Them have a chance to get near, as they might otherwise be able to notice some kind of spatial fluctuation through the control that they do have over the prison realm¡¯s transportation array.¡±


    ¡°I shall get started on that, then return¡­¡± he said, getting up quickly, ¡°I will also call for some pillows¡­ The seats are quite cold and rough¡­¡±


    ¡°Tell me about it,¡± she muttered, shifting a little in her seat.


    For her and her Yin-Yang Ascendant physique, taking care of the temperature difference between the bottom of her legs, as well other things that were able to touch the stone through a layer of fabric, was rather easy, but that hardly meant that it was pleasant for her to be sitting on simple stone, with or without the strange nature of it that made it far softer than one would usually expect from stone.


    Also, it would always be nicer to sit on something specifically made for that purpose, rather than needing to make do with stone that would fit in with an aesthetic.


    In general, she didn¡¯t really know whether the lack of anything but stone and dirt was due to some great decay of all but those things, or if the person designing this place had never taken comfort into account, but the latter seemed less likely. The most likely case would be that Kong Shi Meng had been responsible for most design decisions, and as he had originated from a world that supposedly permitted for significantly more comfort than this one ever could, nor would he had been unable to consider the fact that morale would be greatly aided by any ability for relaxation and relief from stress.


    However, with the way in which the entirety of the fortress was preserved so well prior to their coming, it would be strange if other materials weren¡¯t also able to be stored in the same way. While cloth did have a greater tendency to decay than stone, there were plenty of high-grade materials that avoided such faults ¨C or were able to repair themselves, such as that which made up the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival ¨C so it would have been rather odd.


    ¡®Perhaps he didn¡¯t realise it was an option due to his otherworldly perspective¡­ Also, none of this is relevant to the current situation, so I¡¯m just wasting my time, it seems,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, bringing her attention back to more relevant matters, ¡°In order to maximise our chances in the event of an assault, regardless of the cause, we shall begin training. So long as everyone in the fortress can hold their own against anyone of the same realm, the number of enemies that I might need to contend with shall be lessened significantly. Luo Lia Kun, Zhi Qiu Ya, you¡¯ve met with Ju Yazhu, right? Bring her along as well. She¡¯ll be a decent example.¡±

 V4C8: Instituting a Strict Training Regimen

    It did not take long to gather everyone inside the open plaza of Paragon, for few had chosen to enter and occupy the fortress just yet.


    Besides the miners and farmers, everyone was either someone tired of the prison realm, or a combatant and guard, but the majority were keen to fight regardless of their current identity. Not all wished to be on the front lines, or directly embroiled in conflict constantly, but even Ju Yazhu, the woman who had only become who she was now to get to greater heights with her cultivation, was interested in fighting off this threat that seemed to envelop the world.


    Speaking of Ju Yazhu, she had made more than a little progress in the little amount of time that she had spent in the Kong Prison Realm after the impromptu evacuation to it within the Ju District. With all of the plentiful energy in the realm, the high-grade technique given to her, some natural talent that she was fortunately endowed with, and the teaching of a few confused people in the prison realm who had little chance to confirm exactly what was happening with Wei Yi, she managed to successfully reach the first stage of Planar Pool in just fifteen days, managing to attain one perfected stage during the breakthrough to the second realm.


    From what Wei YI understood, the former man had been attempting to condense as much energy as possible to yield a smooth and effective breakthrough into the next realm and attained a greater planar pool than the usual cultivator of the same realm would have.


    A single perfected stage wasn¡¯t worth much, unfortunately, but so long as she was able to maintain that and get an extra stage each time, it would eventually add to a notable, if not absolutely defining, difference between her and those in the same realm. If she was able to reach these perfected stages nearer to the beginning of a realm, it would also mean that she would have a greater chance of opposing someone in the first stage of the next realm while she was in the last stage of her current realm.


    As everyone gathered in the central plaza, Wei Yi and Luo Lia Kun took their place at the top of the primary structure of the fortress, with everyone else who had been there with them either heading into the crowd just in case they might benefit from the additional training, or having gone elsewhere to do their duties somewhere else. Great Dark had grabbed some of his own people, as well as Min Lian for the sake of contributing her knowledge from the Scorched Blades for the purpose of ensuring that everyone would be able to fit in as well as they possibly could with the minimal training that they would be able to receive before being sent out on short notice.


    ¡°Good morning, my Arbiters,¡± Wei Yi began, glancing up at the sun that was slowly rising from beyond the horizon, ¡°As most of you should be aware from your experiences in the Kong Prison Realm, we are all striving to become stronger. Now that we have a fortress with an enormous array within it, I intend to raise the difficulty of things just a little bit and bestow yet another technique upon you.¡±


    There were a few murmurs within the crowd, but most of them remained quiet as they wanted to see just what she would be able to provide this time. Since the last time that they had been given a technique that she believed to be worth mentioning, everyone had made a significant amount of progress with the physical training method, allowing them to become much stronger in the span of just a few weeks.


    In terms of pure physical strength, even the weakest of the teenage girls that lived within the prison realm would be able to contend with a muscular adult man from the Planar Continents with nothing other than it. Since those at lower realms benefitted from physical might significantly, as the first realm only multiplied one¡¯s physical force to a certain extent, it would also make a massive difference in the realms that most of the population of the Kong Prison Realm occupied, and as Wei Yi had noticed, it wasn¡¯t immediately useless at greater realm either.


    ¡°This is a base cultivation method, and it should be able to merge with whatever you have been using so far. I call it the Ascendant¡¯s Warrior technique, which should fit with your duties now and in the future, and it will assist in cultivating both your body and energy,¡± she announced, raising her hand.


    From it, a hundred strands of killing will emerged, each one forming into small manuals made from her energy and floating down into the hands of those in the plaza. Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t perfectly modify every single one of the manuals for every single person, although she would have certainly liked to do so in order to best guarantee the power of every single person and to make it as high as it could possibly be.


    Instead, she only adjusted them all to best suit the element that the person was either cultivating already, or that she thought they would be most suitable for, knowing all too well that they would need to cultivate once again in order to reach their current position. However, that was something that she had considered, and a solution in the form of the planar energy state she had recently created came to mind as a potential solution. The core of her metal ore energy, so far, was to encase power and energy and to weaken and dilute it so that it would be less dangerous for others to handle, and that appeared to be exactly what she needed.


    Save for the more combat-focused applications that she had already thought of, like encasing every planar anchor of the Greats with it before engaging them in battle and thus preventing them from utilising their full strength, as well as the energy of the mass of anchors that they would often use, it should also be suitable for diluting significantly stronger energy and then providing it to those that required it, such as her followers and warriors. She could pass along a drop of her own energy in the correct state, and their cultivation could leap into the second or third realm in minutes.


    For such a thing to work, she would need a little more experimentation, but she was almost certain that this was possible to achieve without much additional effort.


    ¡°To those that believe that they have received the wrong elemental type ¨C you are mistaken, and I shall explain in a moment. Before then, however, take a look at the latter portions of the manual, where I have included a number of basic combat principles and techniques that you should be able to implement into any other technique you use, whether it is new or old. Most of the time, the things I have written there should take precedence, but if you have a very particular technique that you do not wish to share with me or the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters as a whole, you may instead practise the specific instructions if they are necessary for the function of the technique. Don¡¯t blame me if things don¡¯t work, however,¡± Wei Yi said, bringing up a copy of the manual for herself to look through, mostly for show.


    ¡°Today, we shall be learning these, and getting used to them. If you are not someone who fights with a blade, hands or legs ¨C in which case, do enlighten me what you use for combat later on ¨C there is still quite a lot here for you to learn from, and I am open for any contributions of insights from experienced combatants that I may not have understood just yet. To best get used to this, you shall all be fighting in small groups, from pairs to five people, and you must do so at your full strength.¡±


    From the way everyone below immediately glanced down at one another, she didn¡¯t even need to hear the question to understand it.


    ¡°Yes, go all out, just without killing anyone. So long as you keep them alive, the same thing that keeps you alive in the prison realm will work here. In fact, it should be getting more and more effective very soon, so you will be able to nearly end someone¡¯s life and still see them recover. I¡¯d recommend not pairing up with someone you hate just to do that, but if they¡¯re masochistic, it can be a nice exercise.¡±


    Judging from the reaction to the first half of that sentence, some did have those ideas, but the latter portion dissuaded them simply because it had been spoken about so casually. They were afraid to start a trend where everyone would be going after one another to beat them to within an inch of their lives just to get some stress out of their system, as both the men and women present much preferred the prospect of heading to a brothel for that kind of thing.


    The way their interest quickly faded was fortunate, since the lifeforce that Wei Yi was constantly providing to every single one of them was still ultimately finite, and could only be used so much before she would eventually run out even with the regenerative measures she had in place.


    ¡°Alright, since none of you intend to do that, that¡¯s fine. Just remember to use everything you have. Fighting nicely and calmly may be nice, especially for those of you not from the prison realm, but for the rest, I don¡¯t think I need to explain that merely tapping one another with fists is going to be as effective in teaching you a single thing about actual combat as¡­ well, actual combat,¡± she stated, jumping down from the primary keep of the fortress, ¡°I shall be around to teach you, so do not worry if you thought that I was going to fight you directly ¨C I won¡¯t, not yet.¡±


    Just that assertion could have been enough to terrify anyone who knew of her power, but that wasn¡¯t all.


    ¡°Later on, after you¡¯ve learned all of this and are confident with it, I shall make sure to show off just how difficult a fight may be, and how well you will need to have understood the principles you will begin to learn today in order to succeed, so feel free to get excited for when that happens. I know I am,¡± Wei Yi smiled, ¡°One more thing. I mentioned the great array around us all, right?¡±


    The warriors nodded.


    However, they almost immediately shook, as they realised that they would be set to fight already, so if an array was to be involved, then all that could mean is-


    ¡°Some of you are already getting it, good. I was wondering whether I¡¯d need to explain. Have fun!¡±


    With a snap of her fingers, everyone in the fortress suddenly felt a great weight press down upon them, as if a great slab of stone was dropped down not just onto them, but equally across every part of their body. In fact, it was closer to the gravity around them being intensified significantly without a single other thing around them suffering even a little bit. It was mysterious, but one person that was able to appreciate it more than most due to her realm recognised it after a short while.


    ¡°That¡­ Wei Yi, is this based on the training set that Great Earth used to wear? The effect seems incredibly similar,¡± Luo Lia Kun asked, jumping down to the ground beside her.


    ¡°Since you already know, is there any point in asking? Yes, that¡¯s exactly what I copied, but the exact effects are not going to be as they had been with the set, as it was bound to a single person in equipment while this is an application of an array that was not actually designed for something like this, which is something that will be being applied to the Kong Prison Realm the moment that I finish the modification to the array on which the prison realm is concentrated,¡± she replied, raising a hand and looking calmly at her fingers and nails, ¡°Honestly, after all the time spent wearing those things, this is rather dull. Should I raise the weight?¡±


    Luo Lia Kun immediately shouted out, ¡°D-Don¡¯t you dare! Some people here are really frai- The fuck?¡±


    Her exclamation was made when she saw an old, frail-looking man walking through the street of the fortress, his back hunched and his eyes nearly blind, but he appeared to have no difficulties at all while she was struggling to maintain a proper posture amidst the massively increased pressure.


    ¡°Hey, just because you are weak, doesn¡¯t mean everyone else is. Did you skip out on your physical training when I had started that in the prison realm?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    Drawing upon her planar energy to reinforce her form and allow her to remain standing tall, she responded, ¡°I was busy with a number of things, and that was an entirely different matter from this? I don¡¯t know what kind of thing you are used to, but this is easily three times the gravity the vast majority are- should be used to!¡±


    ¡°Too bad.¡±


    Days passed, and while neither the Great Worm nor any of the Greats made an appearance in that time, fortunately enough, the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters had made a significant amount of progress in that short amount of time mostly due to the absolutely extreme levels of work that was forced onto them ¨C according to Luo Lia Kun, anyway. Most of them couldn¡¯t say that they were finding their tasks or training particularly difficult, so many would say that it was the vice-leader being annoying.


    It was something that she couldn¡¯t understand for a little while until she finally got around to intensively practising the body training methods that had been given to them some time ago at the greatest possible intensity. After a day of intense pain, then a few days of horrible suffering, she realised that she had indeed been the one in the wrong.


    The Rapid Muscle Exertion technique that Wei Yi had made for the prison realm was incredibly intense, and if it was used with the full power of someone in the fifth realm, it could forcefully raise someone¡¯s physical strength at an immense pace. Of course, merely training the physical form did not allow one to raise their power all the way to the one that physique cultivators possessed, but it was more than enough when combined with the rapid regenerative effect bestowed on those within the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters within the fortress and prison realm. As it both developed and compacted the muscles, very little about Luo Lia Kun¡¯s appearance changed, but her strength certainly had.


    At the last day of the month, she was able to crush a small rock dug up from the underground area beneath the fortress with her own hands without the use of a drop of energy.


    ¡°You know, Wei Yi, I¡¯m thinking that the gravity isn¡¯t actually all that tough. Wanna raise it?¡±


    ¡°Fourth day of training and you¡¯ve changed your tune so much? I have to say, I am certainly impressed by that,¡± the Ascendant replied, taking that same kind of stone and biting down on it, finding that it was able to put up very little resistance before her teeth, ¡°Also, this is some kind of salt, and isn¡¯t very tough. I wouldn¡¯t be very proud of crushing it¡­ Bleh¡­¡±


    She spat out the crushed pieces of rock and burnt away the rest of it that was already within her system. While it was some form of salt, it did not seem to be the kind that should just be consumed without any processing at all.


    ¡°What¡­ are your teeth made of?¡±


    ¡°They are¡­ is there actually a name for it? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever come across anything like that in all of my time of reading. Even the Master of Yi City didn¡¯t seem interested,¡± Wei Yi noted, finding no trace of the proper names for a number of things within her exhaustive Ascendant¡¯s Library, ¡°That can be our project after we successfully end Their dominance. Finding names and definitions for all kinds of ordinary and unimportant things, just to be sure that they exist.¡±


    ¡°Actually, I think that on Orbis, it was called¡­ uh¡­ um, I think I forgot as well¡­¡± Miyu pouted, her head hanging low in shame.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be ashamed, I don¡¯t know it either,¡± Fu Zan stated, ¡°Is this the effect of the azure light?¡±


    Luo Lia Kun and Wei Yi, the two that started this, looked at one another in confusion. For whatever reason, the otherworldly demons got extremely grim all of a sudden, and it all appeared to be prompted by a random conversation, the initial question of which, that being the reason for the immense endurance of Wei Yi¡¯s body in all places, failing to receive an answer.


    The Ascendant quietly gestured that they should probably get out of there while the demons got over their own problems, and so they made their way out into the hallway, where they quietly shut the stone door behind themselves and leaned on a stone wall near it.


    ¡°You really went all out with your physical refinement, didn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I? My energy has the property of being able to regenerate my flesh and make it stronger, so I would obviously take advantage of such a thing. Combine that with a physique, mental energy that can impose a physical effect, and a bloodline, and I would naturally be as strong as possible,¡± Wei Yi stated, transforming her left hand into the killing will state, ¡°Add this on top, and I could probably chew through a thin piece of immortal gold.¡±


    ¡°Bloodline, you say¡­ How does that work? Having spent some time in here, I¡¯ve encountered physiques, spiritual will, killing intent, but I don¡¯t think anyone has been able to do more than display the heritage of some family or ancient clan. If you were to give birth to a child, would they inherit all of your abilities to some degree?¡±


    ¡°Not going to happen, but if someone was to have my child, they would be very likely to inherit everything related to the bloodline, but not my achievements and cultivation overall.¡±


    Luo Lia Kun frowned at her, ¡°¡­ Wei Yi, how are you going to have a child with another woman?¡±


    ¡°How do most men do it?¡±


    Her frown grew deeper, ¡°¡­ You do not have a penis.¡±


    ¡°I do.¡±


    The perpetual vice-leader seemed to reach the peak of her frown, for the expression was only able to change a little further before stopping, ¡°¡­ I have seen you naked, if you remember. I can recall most features of your body quite well.¡±


    ¡°I grew one recently. Dual cultivation method gone wrong, you see.¡±


    She stared at her incredulously, her eyes periodically trying to gaze down before she forced them back up, as to be staring at someone so overtly wasn¡¯t the thing she had wanted to do, nor had she expected she would be doing at this point in time.


    When they had come together in that room, something semi-reasonable had been intended to occur, and yet they were now discussing something like this after a question that should have been easy enough to answer, even if the answer would have been an expression of uncertainty. For a moment, Luo Lia Kun pondered whether it would be a good idea just to get away and pretend that this had never happened, but a little like what happened at Chao Ru¡¯s residence in the Luo District, her curiosity got the better of her.


    ¡°Really? Can you¡­ show me?¡±


    ¡°Finally expressing an interest in me, are you? Just so you know, I find you- Alright, fine, I¡¯ll stop,¡± Wei Yi said, the sudden stern edge to the other woman¡¯s expression confirming that it was, unfortunately for her, not that kind of interest, ¡°Want me to just do it here, or are you concerned that those two might emerge at just the wrong moment?¡±


    ¡°I may not be able to look through the walls with as much ease as you, but I am not going to be ashamed even if we do get caught. For quite some time, I had gone to the bath with Mo Zhouquan.¡±


    ¡°Ah, yes. That one had the tendency to turn every little thing both lewd and extremely disgusting with a single touch, figurative or otherwise,¡± the Ascendant nodded, remembering how her own visit to the Brotherhood of Power¡¯s female baths had ended up after the member of the Corruptor¡¯s Enclave had appeared, ¡°For the sake of not permitting a situation like that to occur again, I shall be quick and brief, so observe.¡±


    She swiftly parted her robes and revealed the specially tailored item she had acquired from Fu Zan, a bulge being prominent with a single glance from any angle. Just as quickly, she covered herself, mostly to prevent anyone getting the wrong idea.


    After all, while she might tease others, she knew that with the wrong person, certain things could stick for far, far too long, leading to unnecessary bother and complications that might be exasperated into far more significant issues at a later time. With the stress that they are already forced to go through for the sake of ensuring that no possible offensive from the Greats, and any riled up crowds that they might manage to bring along with them, adding any more to the fire might be fatal.


    That, and when she remembered just how flustered the vice-leader had been at Chao Ru¡¯s residence, as well as seeing the wide eyes she currently had, it seemed that no outside force might be necessary.


    ¡°That¡­ you¡­ do you have a draconic bloodline of some kind? Or, can dual cultivation methods seriously do that on their own?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked, the slight panic being rather prominent in her voice and highlighting a certain possibility that simply couldn¡¯t be questioned.


    ¡°Have you practised one before, vice-leader?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Alright, fine. I had been married at one point. My husband was a weaker man, but he had wealth, and we had gotten along. Then, he died, in part due to his weakness, the other due to Them. He is one of the many reasons I had decided to found the Brotherhood of Power when I got to the Luo District again, and why I had been in the War of Yin to begin with,¡± she divulged, sighing at the memories.


    ¡°So that is how it is. Don¡¯t worry, unless you were trying to find a way to stick it in him instead of letting him sleep with you normally, you should have zero chances of encountering a situation like this, although it has partially come about as a result of certain other factors as well. Do you, or any of your close family, have physiques with a significant yang property?¡± with the answer being quickly given in the form of a shake of the head, she continued, ¡°Then, the chances are further decreased. As for a draconic bloodline, I have been unable to observe any traces of it. It shouldn¡¯t be relevant in my instance.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ Phew¡­¡±


    ¡°Still, I should have figured that you¡¯d care a lot for your appearance and your figure. I must say, your previous confident retorts to the words of the Gang Hong Clan are currently dearly missed.¡±


    ¡°Why did you have to remind me of those people? Those men were absolutely disgusting¡­¡± Luo Lia Kun said, freezing momentarily, ¡°Wait, what was that? My appearance and figure? I don¡¯t care about it in any particular way!¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. Your hair is cut that way for personal preference, then?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±she touched the bangs that had just enough length to mostly cover the scar on her forehead, then looked away in defeat, ¡°We¡­ we didn¡¯t get to spend much time together, me and him¡­ Whether I think that I will find another one like him, or if this is just in his memory, but I would like to keep myself looking decent¡­ The scar doesn¡¯t help with that.¡±


    ¡°You think so? I must say, I disagree. Even if you dislike scars, it is out of the way and does fit with the rest of your athletic body rather well, and gives you more of an air of a warrior, which can be appealing to some, provided that the men ¨C or women ¨C in question have some sense.¡±


    ¡°R-Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes, really. Imagine, if you will, being tough like a warrior might be to everyone, bossing them around and so on, but when you get home, you¡¯re all nice and pleasant and caring. From what I know, men can be fond of that sort of thing. I wouldn¡¯t know about your husband, or anyone fit to replace him, but a small scar like that is hardly worth mentioning when put against all of your better features,¡± Wei Yi stated, pulling in part on the remnant memories of the Thunder Lord to give her words a little more accuracy and authenticity, ¡°Just note that I will be extremely jealous of anyone you do end up getting with, since you are rather attractive in my own mind as well.¡±


    The vice-leader looked at her for a few moments, her gaze remaining still, until she looked away with a faint blush on her cheeks, ¡°Has anyone ever said that you can be extremely¡­ nice, at times?¡±


    ¡°I have heard that, believe it or not. It¡¯s what happens when I don¡¯t have to deal with the annoyances of Them, as they tend to make me rather furious whenever I am forced to interact with Them. Whenever They aren¡¯t around, I tend to try and be a little nicer, more light-hearted and so on, though not too much, of course. Can¡¯t let all of you think that I¡¯m someone that¡¯s a friend rather than a leader.¡±


    ¡°I am not so sure that you succeed in that, but I appreciate the efforts,¡± Luo Lia Kun smiled, ¡°So-¡±


    Before she could say another word, no matter how short, the door to their side was opened with the hesitant but frustrated aggression of someone trying and failing to open the door normally. Fu Zan and Miyu emerged and noticed them quickly, failing to notice the atmosphere that they had just shattered in an instant.


    ¡°There you two are! We had just overcome a terrible crisis, and are ready to discuss¡­ whatever it was that we had intended to talk about,¡± the tailor said, ¡°Is it still relevant?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Yeah, sure. Let¡¯s go back in-¡±


    She stopped mid-sentence, as she was able to detect a guard running at his speed towards the fortress¡¯ central structure, prompting her to turn around and head straight for him instead of waiting for him to come to her.


    Faced with this sudden change in direction, the two otherworldly demons momentarily felt like they might have just experienced a reversal of the situation they had just been in, but both dismissed it as merely being a product of their imagination and continued on, following after her and Luo Lia Kun. As a group, they headed down and then to the entrance of the structure ¨C one of many, although it was the only blatant one from the outside ¨C where they waited for the guard to arrive.

 V4C9: Creating a Decoy

    They did not need to wait long, for the guard was fast while Paragon was ultimately limited in size, the biggest limitation to one¡¯s speed of traversal inside it being the maze-like structure of the outer portions of the fortress. It was shaped like an incredibly complex labyrinth at the outer edges, and the only saving grace for those living inside of it was that the maze was short and static.


    Had residences and homes been able to rise out of the ground to block current paths while other buildings descended or outright disappeared to form new ones, the vast majority of people forced to live there likely wouldn¡¯t be doing so, not without a lot of techniques to keep themselves aware of the situation around them, and something to prevent their own residences from sinking. The small size combined with the static nature meant that it was only a likely obstacle to invaders or the particularly careless, although it would do quite a lot to stop both such groups for a brief amount of time. It wouldn¡¯t be enough to completely flee the fortress or anything of the sort, but it would give anyone enough time to set up a proper ambush.


    It was likely to have been the original intention for the design, or perhaps it had begun life as a much smaller and simpler structure that was then grown and made more confusing on the outside layer.


    The thought of a moving maze, and an enormous one at that, did grab Wei Yi¡¯s interest quite a bit, as it could not only be an effective way to prevent others from approaching, but could also serve as an extremely effective mental weapon if someone was to be put inside of the maze while everything around them is obscured with something akin to the sandstorm currently raging outside of the fortress.


    So long as any changes occurred silently and outside of the range of perception for those attempting to navigate it against her will, the right path could always be blocked and a new route could be opened up some distance back, meaning that when they travel back in search of some other path, they will keep finding new pathways that shouldn¡¯t be there. It would be able to serve to constantly and effectively give the unwanted intruders the feeling of making progress while simply taking them in an enormous circle and straight back out to the outside of the labyrinth, wasting a lot of their time while also forcing them to question whether it was their fault, or the fault of the labyrinth itself.


    In fact, she was so interested that she quickly confirmed the range that she had under her limited control around Paragon, as well as how much empty space there was within the Kong Prison Realm between the end of the world and the first settlement or residence that would be bothered by an enormous maze without them being an enemy intended to suffer from it. The first had no chance of working for the moment, as that range was only a metre or two, but the latter had more potential.


    From her understanding of spatial realms, so long as someone attempted to breach the Kong Prison Realm without her permission, they would need to traverse the void outside of the world fragment that the prison realm technically counted as. If they succeeded, which, since a Half-Step Emergent Anchor cultivator like her was able to stabilise a large segment of the world for a long time without proper training or preparation, one of the Great Family¡¯s members should certainly be able to do the same, and would end up on the outside portion of the realm.


    There, in order to limit their expenditure of energy and to best make use of the innate laws of the spatial realm, Great Family member and regular invader alike would most likely land on the ground and attempt to locate whatever they were looking for on foot, or otherwise within the confines of the realm.


    That meant that so long as she was able to further discourage any kind of flight or hovering within the Kong Prison Realm, stabilise a large portion of the invisible and imperceptible barrier between it and the spatial void outside everywhere but where it would be advantageous for her, and then limit the visibility and energy availability to those caught within the maze on the outside of the realm, she could have a very effective method of stopping invaders for lengthy periods of time.


    If she also had the planar energy conversion law apply to the outside and made it so that whatever material she used for the maze was not easily broken without plentiful energy, she could keep physically weaker individuals in there forever. Perhaps they would even be thankful to her ¨C all but the Greats likely would be ¨C if she then showed up and freed them from their predicament, even if that was only by throwing them back out into the void. Doing something like that slowly enough to let part of their cultivation be corroded while not breaking it down entirely, she could seem to be a timely rescuer, just not one with precognition or omniscience within the prison realm.


    The only issue was that if the Great Families were to learn of a potential danger to their precious method of keeping their enemies afraid and in check, they wouldn¡¯t send in one or two people. So long as they had any reason to believe that the thing that had been trapping everyone inside was no longer active, or diminished enough that others would be able to endure it, they would charge in together, several families and likely numerous members of the second and third generations charging in at once, at which point only instantaneous planar energy conversion would have a chance of working.


    For the moment, that is not something Wei Yi had access to, and as such, she could hardly let anyone learn of the prison realm just yet. She did still consider a basic layout that she could use on the outer edges of the Kong Prison Realm, and hardened some of the stone and soil with a little assistance from Yi Shi Ming so that they could be raised at any time to block any sudden invaders, but did not go further.


    ¡®Perhaps, rather than having a simple maze with the planar conversion law being applied to it, I could instead add the God Burial Sea at the bottom to inconvenience them further, implement ire energy to stall and damage them further, then add the essence of the Elysian Yang Storm atop that as to further prevent any distant observation or investigation, using killing intent and spiritual will atop physique to create two separate layers that add onto the distraction of the people in the maze¡­¡¯ she thought, watching as the guard was running towards them, ¡®It would also make for a border for the world that would be far clearer than the current sudden end to everything¡­¡¯


    She made some notes on the topic in the Ascendant¡¯s Library, then returned her attention to the outside world as the guard finally arrived.


    ¡°Speak, then you can take a break,¡± Wei Yi said when he tried to stop for breath.


    ¡°Someone¡­ spotted¡­ outside¡­¡± he said, managing to remain standing even though the heightened gravity was greater nearer to the centre of the fortress in order to prevent the outer guards from being tired out before they are required to deal with any potential threat.


    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll take a look. Go in and feel free to relax for the next half-hour or so, then you should return to your post,¡± she told him, nearly patting him on the shoulder before considering that it would knock him down to the ground even if she was careful and get her hand covered in his sweat, which currently covered him in a dense layer, ¡°Was it a humanoid figure, or something else?¡±


    ¡°Human¡­¡± the guard confirmed before rushing inside with what energy he still had left.


    Meanwhile, they headed out straight away, with Fu Zan and Miyu following them out of curiosity more so than due to their ability to contribute to the situation, whatever it even was. The former could likely weave something quickly if there was a need for it, and the latter might have something in that head of hers that would permit her otherworldly gift to recognise a potential threat before either Wei Yi or Luo Lia Kun could, but her current pool of knowledge was insufficient for this to be highly likely. With more knowledge and more study, it could be different, but not yet.


    What all of them did share was their ability to run fast. The Rapid Muscle Exertion technique wasn¡¯t something that required planar energy cultivation, and did not seem to be something that would encourage the azure light ¨C not so far as any one of them was able to tell, anyway ¨C so all of the otherworldly demons were able to practise it in the same way that the rest of the prison realm had.


    On their way, they passed by Great Dark¡¯s location, who emerged when he sensed them rushing past with his spiritual perception. Since he had something to tell them, he followed them to the walls.


    ¡°Was something finally found?¡± he asked, following them with a movement technique that needed to drain far less of his physical strength and effort than the purely physical movement that Wei Yi or the otherworldly demons used.


    ¡°What do you think? We¡¯re going to check out the sighting of a humanoid figure on the outside, and since you¡¯re already following us, you should probably keep going,¡± Wei Yi replied, extending her Group Movement Art connection to him as well, ¡°Depending on what or who it is, we might need to be preparing our defences, or we might be getting the first warning of an upcoming swarm of people trying to find us.¡±


    ¡°There is a difference¡­ between those two statements?¡±


    ¡°Yes, there is. In one case, there is already a swarm of people heading towards us. In the other, there might be one soon. Simple, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    He couldn¡¯t disagree, so he just remained silent. With that exchange, and then a few moments of quiet, they already got close to the outer walls, and a few moments after that, they were able to leap atop them, with the otherworldly demons deciding to take the stairs as they were simply not prepared for that kind of activity.


    There, in the space partly occupied by the guards that would have been stationed further to the left and right a few minutes ago, they stood and looked out into the sandstorm that guarded them, with Luo Lia Kun momentarily feeling as if she would see that Great Worm again in the distance.


    When she did look out there, she instead saw a faint silhouette in the distance, still some way from having any change to see the walls from his perspective. It had two arms, two legs and a single head, as one might expect from a human, and from the way the figure walked, it also seemed to be no different from the way in which any other man might walk in the same situation, with sand constantly blasting in their face, eyes and ears, with no reprieve no matter how much energy they wielded.


    ¡°How interesting. A lone wanderer decided to go all the way out here, seemingly on his first try. Let¡¯s go over and have a chat, shall we?¡± Wei Yi said, leaping into the sand.


    The others hesitated, giving them the perfect view for the way in which the sea of sand actively bent away from her as she entered into the sandstorm and hastened towards the man within. However, only a short distance in, the wall of sand closed behind her again, and so they decided that it would be best to wait for her return and see the man then.


    ¡®How slow of them. They should know that I and Yi Shi Ming control the fortress, and yet¡­ Whatever. I get to act however I want with this guy, then,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, slowing down as she got closer to the shambling figure.


    As it appeared from the fortress walls, this was indeed a human male, with most of his body intact but terribly marked by the constant harsh assault of sand, leaving blood to slowly drip from a few particularly significant wounds. His eyes were shut and his ears were likely blocked by all of the sand, partially explaining how he might have been able to traverse the wall of sand without getting lost as most regular explorers would have ¨C luck, seemingly, and nothing else.


    There appeared to only be a shortsword by his side, with it already being as battered as he was, and nothing else about him suggested blatant or significant aggression. Due to this, she decided that rather than striking him down quickly and looting his body for any hints of a letter providing instructions for him, from which they could learn both his intentions and those of the person undoubtedly responsible for a random, weak man¡¯s appearance out here in the desert, she would instead try and get information out of him the more reasonable way. Even if she had wanted to go the first route, a cursory scan with spiritual perception confirmed both that he was only in the second realm, and that there were no scraps of paper anywhere on his body, nor a full sheet of one.


    When she got close enough to him for the safe area around her to force some of the sand away from him and his eyes, he gasped and fell onto his knees, landing in the sand and immediately dropping his head down until it struck the sand with a dull thud.


    ¡°Please, worshipers of the Primordial Cosmos¡­ save me! Let me join you!¡± he cried out.


    She would have replied, if she had anything to say to such a sudden request, if he didn¡¯t lose consciousness the very next moment, remaining in his current position. His hoarse and exhausted breathing calmed, and he soon splayed out on the ground, unable to maintain his kneeling position without his awareness to keep him in it.


    ¡®Eh¡­ How fortunate that we had that discussion on the Primordial Deities not long ago, or else I might not have even known what he was on about,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, wrapping an arm around his torso and lifting him with ease, ¡®I suspect that this is the plan that the Greats have ¨C make me seem like someone worshiping a foe of all humanity, set the nearby warriors against me and let them chase me down, then, if necessary, end me themselves. Fortunately, since he appears to be alone, and interested in joining me instead of attacking me, I have time to prepare, and an idea¡­¡¯


    Just in case there were any other wanderers in the sands, she did not linger there for long, leaving the moment that she had cleared any track of him from the terrain.


    Normally, the sand would accomplish the same thing even without her intervention, but it seemed safer in the instance that someone had been following him while hoping that his intentions to side with the primordial deities rather than fighting them would somehow grant him the power to traverse what they could not. If they realised that he had been found by someone and brought away, they would be certain to follow, causing unnecessary trouble if they had any ability to communicate across distances.


    Leaping back with much more of her full speed this time, she returned to the wall with ease, then used a few methods to ensure that he wouldn¡¯t wake up early, not that there was much a chance of it happening in the first place.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got an idea for a way to confuse the potential attack that would arrive¡­ any time soon, I guess. This person was looking for the worshipers of Primordial Cosmos, meaning that someone had very likely put out some rumours about us ¨C me, more likely, since They shouldn¡¯t be aware of your presence,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°In order to dissuade them from attacking us, or the decoy fortress or camp, we should make it so blatantly obvious that we can¡¯t be the people they¡¯re looking for, that is, the normal people of Yi City, not Them, that they don¡¯t have any chance to go after us.¡±


    ¡°You mean to say¡­ if we were to fake a group hunting Primordial Cosmos, then¡­¡±


    ¡°Then unless They managed to plant some evidence against us that was able to entirely convince everyone involved, their little rumour would be of no use, and they wouldn¡¯t be able to use it against us. They would either need a new story, which would take time to take effect, or they would need to attack us Themselves. The best-case scenario, in my opinion, would be if they themselves were confused by our actions, and went elsewhere to investigate.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you have the ability to disguise your energy however you want? If they are looking for a fire-type cultivator, finding a metal-type would do much of the same,¡± Luo Lia Kun suggested.


    ¡°It isn¡¯t disguising, but outright changing. Observe.¡±


    She raised her left hand, the one not covered by her gauntlet most of the time, and released a sphere of planar energy in its usual cosmic state, although the chains were slowly claiming prominence over the stars. Then, she transformed it into the metal ore state, then the silver-leaf state, then lightning and fire and water all in short succession, giving everyone just enough time to observe the energy and confirm that it appeared no different from what one might expect, at least when it comes to the energy of the primary elements. As for the rest, none of them could really guess much, so they just assumed that it was as she claimed.


    In truth, they hardly needed to witness this to believe her, since Wei Yi was capable of far too many unreasonable things to rule out the switching of elements. Back in the Yi District, Great Dark witnessed her earth cultivation, in the Luo District, Luo Lia Kun witnessed a fire-type phoenix oriented cultivation, and neither of those could have been achieved, swapped, or faked in any amount of time.


    ¡°Very neat. I recommend trying this at some point,¡± Wei Yi smiled, clearing the expression from her face a moment after as to not unnecessarily annoy, ¡°Anyway, we will need to prepare, and to figure out things that will make ourselves seem as different from who we actually are, like disguises and so on. I personally have a good idea for myself, but it is more difficult to imagine what the rest of you could do. Before then, however, this man should be brought back out.¡±


    ¡°Will you put him outside of the sandstorm? I¡¯m sure he¡¯d remember something at that point, which wouldn¡¯t help our case,¡± Fu Zan pointed out.


    ¡°No, we¡¯re getting a decoy, and he is being put right into the centre of it. That¡¯d trick him, don¡¯t you think?¡± she replied, ¡°We will need to bring materials to make some kind of camp, and add some arrays to resist the sand to a certain extent. After that, we should have plenty of time to think of the other things, especially if the rest of you take the opportunity to claim you are returning from scouting.¡±


    ¡°You seem to already have things planned out¡­ You do have a lot of experience in tricking people¡­¡± Great Dark sighed, ¡°Before this¡­ I was going to tell you that the spies are ready to be sent out¡­ All that is requires is your or Yi Shi Ming¡¯s ability¡­¡±


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll get right on that as well. Before then, would you mind telling me whether that speech pattern is something that you can alter without the requirement for the complete reconstruction of everything related to your voice, breath and whatever else resides in the body? So long as they had ever heard you speak, the short but frequent pauses are guaranteed to have been noticed by Them at some point, and would be a clear giveaway even if you dyed your hair white and acted like a moron all the time.¡±


    ¡°Fortunately¡­ Yes, that is something I can do. While I cannot speak as quickly as I could while I was Great Earth, I am able to speak continuously and straightforwardly if it is required.¡±


    ¡°You just had to include that one last pause, didn¡¯t you? Whatever¡­¡± she shook her head, ¡°Let¡¯s get through this as fast as possible, then we¡¯ll pick up the tent materials and whatever else, and then we can finally get out there and do some more acting¡­ Ugh, now that I think about it, I was hoping I wouldn¡¯t need to do so again¡­¡±


    ¡°For now, we still don¡¯t have enough strength to allow us to do that, but eventually, we will.¡±


    The man that had gone into the sandstorm had not expected to awaken ever again. In his eyes, this was a desperate effort that wouldn¡¯t pay off, since there¡¯s no chance that he would possibly find the people that he had been seeking just by walking into the centre of the storm.


    He wasn¡¯t even sure if the worshiper of a Primordial Deity was a suitable person to side with, but at this point, he had no choice. He had suffered and been deprived of nearly everything that he could have had, and at this point, he didn¡¯t have the certainty that anyone siding with Yi City would ever take him in, whether as a member, ally or even a prisoner that they would treat with care.


    If it came to a person or group that worshiped Primordial Cosmos, however¡­ To be entirely truthful, he wasn¡¯t really aware of what that entity was, what it wanted, stood for, or would ask of him, but at this point, the binding that the Primordial Deities had with their servants and believers was the only thing that could possibly save him. Whether he would need to do some terrible things to join or not was a concern, but it was one that he had readily subdued within his own mind, as nothing could be more important than his own life at this point.


    When he had gotten far enough into the sands, he had been forced to close his eyes and navigate purely by walking straight forward, doing so as best as he was able to.


    The moment that something disturbed the sand before him, whatever or whoever it had been, he dropped to the ground and begged. If he was found by the person he had sought, then that would be good, but if it was someone lured in to kill Primordial Cosmos, then he would rather announce himself quickly and get them to kill him while he was still unconscious, sparing him the pain that he would inevitably suffer. Hopefully, no righteous man would try to torture someone as weak as him.


    And yet, despite all of that, he did not awaken on the sand, or in chains, but instead on a surface that resembled some kind of bed, as unpleasant as this one was. In fact, it seemed like something that one may find in a camp, with a length of fabric stretched out on a short frame just sufficient to lay on.


    There was still sand around him, but it was far more limited in quantity, and in comparison to what he had endured before, this might as well have been non-existent.


    ¡®Who¡­ who did I find out there? Am I still all the way inside of the sandstorm, or have they brought me out?¡¯ he questioned, trying to rise as he found that there was surprisingly little pain within his body. There were also few marks and scars left behind on his body, much fewer than he would have ever expected had he simply been put into a bed without proper care. ¡®Did I come across the right people?¡¯


    With some effort, he rose out of the bed and looked around, confirming that he was in a tent and that he was not restrained whatsoever, with the tent simply being open to him, meaning that he could leave at any time he wanted.


    After only a little hesitation, resolved the moment that he confirmed that the sand outside was also far less intense than what he had gotten to, he stepped out, and certainly didn¡¯t expect to find himself in a large yet mostly empty camp with a dozen other tents laid out. Each one was pinned to the ground by a large metal nail, the shape of which made it seem as if they had been made hastily from chunks of spare metal. He saw no anvil nor forge around him, so it almost seemed as if someone had just beaten them into shape on their own.


    Whatever that was, it certainly succeeded in keeping the tents in place and from the slight shimmer in the air, he could tell that there appeared to be some array guarding the camp from the sand.


    ¡°You¡¯ve woken! Finally!¡± a voice suddenly reached his others, prompting him to turn to face the speaker right away. It sounded feminine enough for him to presume that it was a woman, and the tone already gave him a certain impression of what she looked like, but he had not been prepared for what he saw.


    He had come northward from the Chen District and thus his skin was lighter and his clothing sense was notably more conservative and actually effective than the items of the north, but the person he saw now was even more extreme than what he had seen at the outskirts of the Ping and Chao Districts.


    The woman he saw was covered in naught but a length of cloth to obscure her small breasts while a loincloth covered her crotch, doing an extremely poor job of hiding the highly prominent feature it should have been obscuring. Her skin was highly tanned, and every part of her body outright rippled with powerful muscle, causing her very skin and flesh to seem like a far more effective method of defence than any ordinary piece of armour could.


    From her head poured black hair, although most of it was tied up in a braid that came down to her knees, with the loose strands around it being just as long.


    ¡°What¡¯re you lookin¡¯ at?¡± the woman asked, bringing to his attention that after he had noted the rest of her body, his gaze involuntarily returned to the loincloth, ¡°Never seen dragon blood before?¡±


    ¡°M-My apologies¡­¡± he said, averting his gaze, ¡°No, I have not¡­ Are you¡­ a worshiper of-¡±


    All of a sudden, her expression became far more serious, ¡°Primordial Cosmos, right? On that topic, there is something that we will need to hear from you first. Why were you lookin¡¯ for someone like that? Have some affiliation with it already, or just lookin¡¯ to join?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know. I was just looking for protection¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah, good. So long as you¡¯re not on its side, then the two of us are just fine,¡± she smiled, ¡°You see, we¡¯re a company that are hunting Primordial Cosmos specifically, and anything related to it. So long as you aren¡¯t, then we have no reason to hurt you. Feel free to rest here while you want, although we won¡¯t be giving you water for free unless you¡­ no, never mind that. No water, and that¡¯s final.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ Then¡­ What is your group called? You¡¯re here with others, aren¡¯t you? Does your group have a name?¡±


    ¡°We are the Hunters of the Cosmos, of course! Do you need something from us?¡±


    ¡°I need protection because there are a lot of people after me! I had lost a small bet in the Chen District, then the family I offended by failing to pay the final copper coin of a large payment chased me all the way here with more and more effort in each district!¡± the man exclaimed, ¡°So, I, Huang Yu Di, beg for your protection! Don¡¯t let me get killed over a single copper coin that hadn¡¯t been paid on time two whole years ago!¡±


    ¡°¡­ Kay. We can do that. Just sit in a tent, and if anyone comes looking for a Huang Yu Di, we¡¯ll tell them to fuck right off,¡± the woman confirmed, ¡°I¡¯m Wei Yi, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Thank you so much!¡± he cried out, dropping onto his knees again as tears began to pour from his eyes, ¡°If you keep me safe, I will forever be in your debt! I¡¯ll never join the Primordial Deities, and I will always send you a share of anything I ever make in the future, I promise!¡±


    ¡°Right. D¡¯you mind not doing this again? Carrying you last time was annoying.¡±


    ¡°My apologies!¡± Huang Yu Di cried out, although he did rise from the ground and walk back into the tent, where he fell onto the bed and simply stared up at the top of the tent, watching as the sturdy material above fluttered and shifted with the sand, although it never came close to being torn apart or falling over.


    For him, it felt as if a terrible weight had been lifted. He knew nothing about the Hunters, nor whether they were even a true organisation of some kind, but something about the situation provided him with boundless confidence and surety. It was as if the world itself was telling him that they would succeed.


    Meanwhile, Wei Yi confirmed that the man wasn¡¯t going anywhere, then returned to the tent from which she had originally emerged.


    The discovery of the man¡¯s exact situation was both fortunate and not, presuming that he was being entirely truthful with them. Having some more people around with no bias towards the Primordial Cosmos one way or another should make it easier to convince everyone that they aren¡¯t worshipers of it, but having a potentially hostile bunch like that was likely to lead into conflict if they confirm that the man was present in the area but was not being handed over.


    If they acted up before the situation could be calmed, it would turn the tide against them.


    Just from one interaction, the upcoming matter had already escalated significantly, and if more people like him were to appear within the sandstorm, then they might truly need to contend with an army by the time the battle starts.


    ¡®The day they arrive will be a long one, won¡¯t it?¡¯

 V4C10: Forming the Character

    There were two options that she had considered before deciding to assume the role of a group purely opposed to the Primordial Deities.


    One was naturally that, but the other was to play along to the rumours and pretend to be a devoted group of worshipers. However, the issue with the Primordial Deities, regardless of the specific nature of Primordial Cosmos, was that they had some connection to or reliance upon prayer and worship, and the moment that they began to engage in it, even if simply in jest, there was a chance of something like the living plague or the seed of corruption appearing within them, possibly without them even being able to notice it.


    As such, even without the many other considerations that would need to be made, it was not reasonable to play those kinds of roles, even if it would allow a scheme where, instead of nudging the incoming crowd¡¯s interest aside, they could cull it entirely by allowing themselves to ¡®die¡¯ and therefore get rid of the common population, leaving only the Greats to deal with. The danger was simply too great.


    The Primordial Deities weren¡¯t named that simply because of their power, after all. As any good deity out there ¨C good, in this instance, defining one¡¯s quality rather than moral character ¨C they had a connection to prayer, and could either make use of the faith itself in some way, or were able to use the prayers as conduits for their power, perhaps even using it to magnify their abilities. It was one of the reasons that they appeared to have had for not killing all human life within their territory, as they instead forced the people to worship them and thus benefit them in some way, and the prevention of such forced prayer was recorded to have some effect on their strength, although that particular effect tended to vary to the point that it was difficult to confirm.


    What she could be certain of was that something with the aura of a Primordial Deity was out there, two of them at least, and that more of them might not be dead and already active to some extent, so any action done in their favour would be highly unwise, while the opposite would also be true.


    Thus, with that being decided upon, they had gone on to figure out the kinds of changes they would need to present in order to make themselves seem as unlike themselves as they could, with some taking far longer to conclude a viable option than others. She had thought that it would be particularly important not to let her present character mix with any of the previous ones, so she made sure to discard everything that she had stuck to with everything she had done before.


    Typically, she¡¯d wear a decent amount of clothing in the form of her robes, then she also began to wear her gauntlets and high heeled boots, but all of those were too noticeable so she swapped them out for nothing. Her physique had fortunately been the source of her tanned skin in the first place, so the fact that she had worn so much, so frequently, did nothing to alert anyone to this fact now. In addition, to make herself seem much more physically powerful, she made use of some of her physical training methods to temporarily boost the definition of her muscles, causing them to stand out far more than they regularly would.


    Also, it could be safely presumed from her previous appearances in the Ping District and before then that she was a regular woman, without anything amiss in her nether regions, so she decided to emphasise the new addition to the point that it would be hard to miss, even intentionally, as Huang Yu Di had confirmed for her with his stare.


    She wasn¡¯t too keen on showing herself off just for this, especially since something like this might actually make her more notable in the eyes of others, as well as putting a greater deal of suspicion onto her if Ping Gangze was to let it be known to the Greats that she had escaped and ended up taking a technique manual or two with her. At that point, if the Great Families have any decent understanding of techniques, the principles of yin and yang and so on, they wouldn¡¯t necessarily be incapable of arriving at the conclusion that the Yin Soul Yang Root technique was capable of altering the body.


    After all, the reason she had presumed this to be impossible was due to not seeing that as a possibility, whereas they would already know the final result and would only need to question which technique, physique or drug out there was able to cause it.


    Her claim of possessing draconic blood was also a somewhat risky one. On one hand, there were very few out there that had any decent understanding of bloodlines, and blood in general, and from what she knew, neither the Blood-tinged Church nor the Blood Alchemists had any friendly relations to the Greats. However, if she was found by someone that did understand this, like Long Huang had, and were able to prove her claim of draconic blood wrong, then it would make her far more suspicious.


    Fortunately, this wasn¡¯t something that she intended to keep up for very long, only however long she needed to in order to attract the Greats over without the aid of the common warriors of Yi City. Once they were within her reach, she could do as she likes, so long as she brought them away from Paragon while doing so.


    That much was easy to accomplish, so she didn¡¯t expect to have much difficulties in the case of the warriors being tricked. Most wouldn¡¯t think to question her claim of bloodline in the first place, as she did not expect most to be randomly suspicious of her dick, of all things, rather than any of the other claims that she would be putting forth, or even the appearance of some of the other new members of the so-called Hunters of the Cosmos. So long as these other things pulled away their attention, even actual bloodline experts might be fooled, not to mention regular people.


    Before attempting this, she did attempt to find any source of a draconic bloodline within the remaining stockpile of treasures from the House of Gold, or within some of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, but none had it so far as she was able to observe, nor was she sure whether the amount that anyone would have would be sufficient to be able to present her own bloodline as a draconic one. If it functioned like her physique energy, which wasn¡¯t implausible, then she would need a sufficient amount to satiate the blood, but that wouldn¡¯t be obtained from anything but a highly concentrated bloodline without leading to the death of the blood donor, or the destruction of whatever may somehow be storing the blood of a dragon for whatever purpose.


    She suspected that if she had been able to stabilise her House of Gold at a larger size than it ended up being at first, which she would have been able to do if she had a stronger cultivation while in the prison realm, there would be something that fit her needs. The other world from which many of the items had to have been obtained, or sourced from at the very least, had a fondness for dragons, from what she understood from Fu Zan and Miyu, so to have no draconic items would be really unusual.


    It didn¡¯t even matter if it had been some strange draconic bloodline that wasn¡¯t seen in this world, since few knew of any kind of proper list in the first place and would be unlikely to notice one small thing being amiss so long as it was still obviously related to dragons.


    For instance, something from the House of Gold would be likely to have some relation with gold, or metal at the very least, and she might have obtained the blood of a gold dragon rather than any well-known variants ¨C not all were known to the world in the first place, so there was no guarantee that there was no gold dragon out there ¨C but so long as the bloodline resonance that it produced was more similar to a dragon than to the metal or to gold coins, it would be hard to complain. Even if some unknown genius pointed out a problem, she could always play the fool and claim that she also had no idea, and that she had always believed her endowment to be the result of a draconic bloodline.


    Most would believe her, especially if she seemed genuine, since they would have similarly believed the same and wouldn¡¯t want to let their own lack of knowledge seem as obvious. Rather than them being wrong, they were convinced by the surety with which Wei Yi had spoken, leading them to make a mistake, and so on.


    If everyone else had been able to practise bloodline cultivation with her Ascendant¡¯s Bloodline, and if she did have enough draconic blood not just for herself but for others as well, it might have been highly effective to let the entirety of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters showcase it during the mission. It would contrast greatly with anything that the rest of the world would expect from the participants in the War of Yin, which most of the faction were, as if the others gained the ability to change their bodies as dragons could, they could always display or hide any draconic endowments much more easily than she could.


    On the topic of the draconic ability to hide and display their male genitalia, she wasn¡¯t certain whether that would affect her if she was to add it to her own powers through the Ascendant¡¯s Bloodline, or if she would need to have grown the yang root through the bloodline itself in order to benefit from it.


    She didn¡¯t really mind having a dick, and she had gotten used to most of the challenges it presented, allowing her to go without constantly and blatantly presenting any traces of arousal, physical or mental, to others, but it was still a rather obvious target to anyone that was aware of it, and so long as they could injure her, going for the balls would likely hurt her far, far more. That was inconvenient, to say the least, hence why she would greatly appreciate the ability to hide it at any time.


    ¡®Still, that¡¯s enough about me. Great Dark should be ready to present himself soon, and once the others arrive, we can begin the play for as long as necessary¡­¡¯


    Confirming one more time that Huang Yu Di was still inside the tent, having fallen into a bit of a daze as he lay there, staring up without moving much, she pre-emptively turned to the tent from which the former leader of the forces of the War of Yin would emerge and waited for whatever he would be able to present to her.


    While they had decided to disguise themselves in complex ways together, they decided that most people travelling together wouldn¡¯t know every little detail of one another¡¯s character and identity, so it would be more believable if they encountered one another for the first time without full knowledge of what they were going to do. In the moment of the first encounter, they would be likely to seem a little too surprised at any alterations, but the general atmosphere should be a little more accurate after that, which should be fine seeing as any other forces wouldn¡¯t arrive for some time.


    They had decided to place the fake camp some distance away from Paragon, nearer to the end of the sandstorm rather than the beginning, to ensure that any accidental wandering wasn¡¯t going to lead anyone to the fortress, but the camp was still some way into the storm.


    For most to decide that they were going to traverse a sandstorm, especially one that seemed to encompass as much as this one did, they would be very likely to require appropriate preparation and items, like plenty of water to satiate themselves on the journey, so anyone that wasn¡¯t as hurried as Huang Yu Di wouldn¡¯t wander in until a day later than him at the very least. Given the fact that they prepared and completed this camp within a day, it meant that they were highly likely to have at least one more until the fastest of groups was going to be rushing into the sands in search of a worshiper of the Primordial Cosmos.


    At that point, if they were still showing behaviour that was unbefitting of the group they were pretending to be, then that could only be said to be their fault for being so utterly incompetent.


    One thing that they hadn¡¯t considered all that much was the possibility of there being a true variant of the Hunters of the Cosmos out there, whether they would be going by the same name or some other one. It wasn¡¯t an absolute impossibility, especially not when the Great Families prompted rumours of Primordial Cosmos worshipers heading north in order to catch Wei Yi and anyone that they thought was accompanying her, but she hoped that she would be able to get away with it even then.


    Larger organisations, or those that travelled frequently, tended to have many branches and separate parties, and not all of them would know one another, or be identical in the way they do things. If some lone member of a true Hunters of the Cosmos was to recruit a few more to his cause then leave them shortly after, it could easily result in a group that understands the basic intentions of the group without anything else about them, perhaps not even their usual traditions and etiquette, which would be especially likely with a group that would be unlikely to see much action while under the leadership of this experienced person.


    This was the kind of story that Wei Yi wanted to present if some member of the group they might have accidentally named themselves after shows up and demands to know why they aren¡¯t following the proper rites and traditions in their hunt of the Primordial Deity. She didn¡¯t know whether that person would believe her, but so long as most of the hunters coming after her were convinced, it would be fine.


    After a short while, Great Dark finally came out of his tent, his body also mostly uncovered, and his skin darkened via certain means as to appear far less suspicious that he normally would.


    He lacked the same physical training and reinforcement as her, so it would be unreasonable to even attempt to bolster his muscle definition to the same extent, prompting him to instead bring out a bow and to let his hair cover much of his body, giving the impression of an untidy ranger. His hair had been dyed a slight crimson, difficult as it was to alter the black shade into anything workable, and his aura or pure yin had been subdued as much as it was possible to hide the effects of the Paradigm of Yin, with this being accomplished through the slight fa?ade of yang to cover the weakened yin.


    To anyone with an expertise in yin and yang, this would do little to cover his true nature, but from what they were aware of regarding the Greats, they did not practise physique cultivation nor did they tend to possess physiques, substituting them with their bloodlines instead, albeit unconsciously.


    As such, they would be very unlikely to be able to interpret the yin aura to any significant degree and would at most conclude that Great Dark had a mixed physique relating to ice and fire, or something of that sort. Combined with the differences in his appearance, if they were aware of it in the first place, they shouldn¡¯t be likely to jump to the wrong conclusions.


    His features, cultivation and soul were far more difficult to alter, as they were all in part tied to Great Light as a result of the way in which Great Earth had originally chosen to cultivate the Paradigm of Yin, hence the long and loose hair to cover his facial features, as well as a kind of frost-fire technique that he could use on his arrows to make it seem like he is either a fire cultivator, or someone using frost to create flames due to his preference. This too would be unlike Great Earth and the twins born from him, hopefully making it even more difficult to guess who he is without the full understanding of him, his history, and his cultivation.


    Really, they were unable to hide anywhere near as well as they probably should have been considering the kind of foe they were up against, but various disguise techniques and methods were far more complicated than changing one¡¯s face once or twice. Even if that had been enough, to change one¡¯s appearance a significant investment of time is required to procure the correct pills and the expertise of someone knowledgeable in the craft, neither of which was a possibility for them.


    Then, even if Wei Yi¡¯s body wasn¡¯t only malleable to her own physique and if Great Dark could change himself however he wanted, altering the bones and internal organs would be incredibly difficult without harming their cultivation, which they would need to do if they wanted to truly hide from anyone with spiritual perception. It had been a risky thing for Wei Yi to do back in the Yi District, when she grew her additional meridians, and it was even more risky to do now, even if they did not intend to modify the body to such a large extent as she had.


    Even after all of that, only she was able to alter her energy entirely and on a whim, whereas Great Dark and everyone else that had been brought along to the fake camp would need to hastily cultivate back up to their current realm. For some, that had taken close to forty years, so even if their lifespan and whatever else remained while they attempted to regain their power, they would need at least half of that time to complete the process unless Wei Yi¡¯s plan to dilute her energy and provide it to others worked, at which point it would still take an eighth or a quarter of the time, which would still be far, far longer than a day or two, which was all of the time that they currently had on their hands.


    In other words, it was not a viable solution for now, and unless the basic structure of the Truth of the Universe, the method that permitted Wei Yi to switch her energy whenever she wanted, could be replicated and passed on to everyone else, it would never become viable.


    ¡®That is an interesting prospect that I should consider at some point. I don¡¯t know exactly how the Truth of the Universe works, nor do I know what material it is made from ¨C otherworldly gifts and their resistance to spiritual perception are still rather frustrating ¨C but it shouldn¡¯t be impossible to replicate their storage capabilities to a far, far lesser extent,¡¯ she considered while she stared at Great Dark, ¡®They store far more than necessary, so if I limit it to just energy or techniques, perhaps I might be able to do this before the ninth or even eighth realm.¡¯


    Successfully allowing everyone under her leadership in the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters to be able to switch between the cultivation methods that they had learned would be an enormous boost, as it would allow them to fulfil far more roles than any regular cultivator ever could. They would also be able to ignore the weaknesses of any of their chosen techniques, as they could just switch from one to another.


    As such, it was a worthwhile project to embark upon, even if it wasn¡¯t currently something that she understood with any degree of sufficiency that might allow her to get on with it.


    ¡°Do you intend to stop staring at me, Wei Yi? It¡¯s like you¡¯ve never seen an archer before, Wei Yi.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, boss, just amazed that someone as weak as you gets to be a leader around here,¡± Wei Yi replied, pretending to absentmindedly display her muscles as if to present a comparison between his and her own, ¡°Back in the west, they¡¯d have made you a pet of some stronger man, you know?¡±


    ¡°I do, but that is none of your concern. We¡¯ve already fought to confirm my strength, haven¡¯t we?¡± he asked, continuing after she nodded readily, ¡°So, shut up and do what you¡¯re told. Have you learnt who that man was, and whether he is someone that we must purge so that the primordial deities do not rise again?¡±


    He had to inhale quite a lot of air to make up for the prolonged sentence he had just spoken, so the Ascendant made sure to give him enough time.


    ¡°Boss, that guy said that he was just lookin¡¯ for protection since a bunch of bastards were after him, so I told him that he¡¯ll be gettin¡¯ it. He also said that he has nothing to do with any Primordial Deities, especially not Primordial Cosmos.¡±


    ¡°You just believed him? He could easily be lying to you. Make sure to watch over him and see whether he tries anything strange, and tell me the moment that he does, or if the patrol returns. Got it?¡±


    ¡°Somethin¡¯ strange? Can¡¯t say that I¡¯m too familiar with what kinds of strange things you guys tend to get up to, but the moment I notice a single thing, I¡¯ll let you know!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, turning towards the tent that Huang Yu Di was in and proceeding to stare at it intently, as if he was going to do the aforementioned strange thing at any moment.


    After a brief pause, Great Dark let out a two-layered sigh, one layer being entirely fake while the other contained the frustration that had gathered from many years of encountering subordinates of similar levels of intellect and comprehension. Fortunately for the two of them, both knew that the other was just acting, so any levels of actual frustration that might be generated were lessened significantly, and it also made it very clear why Wei Yi was more suitable for acting as someone unlike herself than Great Dark or someone like him was.


    Even now, he was playing a role that he was mostly familiar with, in a character that was also similar to what he had acted like in the past, but while Wei Yi didn¡¯t like to constantly act, and was also rather poor at keeping her character for prolonged periods of time, while she was still at the top of her game, it was far better than anyone else in their fake Hunters of the Cosmos could act. Considering that she had started deceiving all kinds of people from early on, that wasn¡¯t much of a surprise.


    He returned to his tent while thinking back to the tactical meeting they had earlier in the day.


    Then, the man had not yet awoken, so they were able to speak with one another freely while Wei Yi kept her attention on him with her spiritual perception to make sure that they wouldn¡¯t be surprised by him and so that he had no opportunity to eavesdrop.


    At this point, Wei Yi had yet to forcefully raise her muscle definition, Great Dark hadn¡¯t yet dyed his hair, and the others had not yet gotten to the preparations that they were also going to make, meaning that if they were to be seen at that point, anyone familiar with them would likely recognise them after a moment of questioning the actions that they had taken at that point. Such acquaintances would be likely to discover them even after their attempts at a disguise, but they could hardly do better in a few hours.


    ¡°Alright, the plan is as follows: I and Great Dark will greet that guy when he wakes up, giving him a sudden impression of the most prominent people within the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and the participants in the War of Yin respectively, making it more difficult for him to connect our appearances with the people that are being sought out by Them. You guys can take more time out there and then return as if you were scouting out the sands, and pretend to have found nothing at all,¡± Wei Yi pointed forwards.


    Luo Lia Kun glanced in that direction and frowned, ¡°Isn¡¯t that the direction of Paragon? Won¡¯t they know right away that there is something there if they learn who we are at some point?¡±


    ¡°Why should they? I mean, it is an assumption that can be made, but with the way in which the barrier works, the more you are attempting to head in a certain direction with care and attention, the more likely you are to stray off course,¡± she replied, ¡°The key is that they don¡¯t have any particular reason to assume that we are in control of the sandstorm, and so they could easily conclude that we got lost as well, while some other group activated the sands. In fact, they might do that whether or not They spread tales of whatever they know about the fortress, so we should be reasonably safe from at the very least.¡±


    ¡°What about¡­ our names? You seem to use Wei Yi now, but¡­ the rest of us, me in particular, can¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Just call yourself Da Heian or something. Nobody figured me out so far, and I doubt that even if they think us all to be idiots that they will assume that we would just use our real names most of the time.¡±


    ¡°What about me? They might have records about me as a result of what had happened with the Luo District and Their Luo family, so just swapping it to Lia Kun Luo or something might tip them off, especially if every one of us goes this route,¡± the perpetual vice-leader pointed out, ¡°I am also not very good at coming up with names, so, any ideas?¡±


    ¡°While I do think that they might ignore this as well, seeing as They are a strange bunch to say the least, but if you don¡¯t want to go with that¡­ To tell you the truth, my ideas for names are also limited, hence constantly using Wei Yi, but¡­ Yin Baishu?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ I suppose that works as well as any other name¡­ This is going to be a temporary thing, one that we¡¯re not returning to any time soon, right?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it was that bad, but yes, I don¡¯t intend to be getting back to this any time soon. That being said, I hadn¡¯t expected to be doing this either, so you might want to take such assumptions with a grain of salt. Essentially, you won¡¯t be hearing that name being spoken at you after this in the best case scenario, won¡¯t hear it for a while with a good outcome, and might be hearing it a whole lot more in a bad one.¡±


    ¡°Right, that¡¯s just great. What about everyone else?¡±


    Wei Yi looked at the other people they had brought with them, mostly those that were originally from the Remnants of Yin as the people of the prison realm would look far too pale for a group originating west of the Chao District, and shrugged.


    ¡°I think it will be better for everyone if we just flip your names. None of you should be particularly famous, so as long as you don¡¯t mess up or make it obvious you¡¯re messing up, nobody should notice,¡± she said, her gaze freezing on Chao Ru for a moment before continuing, ¡°The key is to just play along with whatever happens between us. One of you decide that you¡¯re in a relationship with someone else? Good, either go with it, or make it obvious that the first person is some annoying pest that keeps trying to get your attention. Ideally, none of you would do that, as it could cause unnecessary strife between us, so just remember that this is temporary. If there¡¯s someone you do want to go out with, just speak to them normally.¡±


    She didn¡¯t expect anyone in the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters to act in such a fashion, not while it was a rather pure group without the participation of countless other forces from around the Western Continent, but it was safer and ultimately quicker to remind them not to do anything stupid than it was to wait for something like this to occur first.


    Depending on the scrutiny of those that would be heading in their direction eventually, even a minor mistake could escalate, and mistakes were more often made when someone tried to take advantage of a situation for their own benefit while the rest couldn¡¯t tolerate it.


    ¡°Also, don¡¯t try to act like someone you really cannot imitate. That will seem far more unnatural, and would just attract attention, again. If you cannot act at all, don¡¯t, and stay out of conversations as if you don¡¯t do well in them or something like that, since it will be far more believable than a stiff and uncertain sentence spoken by someone constantly glancing at their audience to confirm that their words were achieving the intended effect,¡± Wei Yi stated, leading to some breathing a silent sigh of relief, ¡°Essentially, be believable for a day or two, then we may be able to get people to fuck off. Got it?¡±

 V4C11: Uniting

    That day would pass without any outside interruptions, at least so far as they were able to tell.


    After he had rested a little bit, and after he confirmed that he wasn¡¯t about to be stabbed from behind, he emerged from the tent to find Wei Yi staring at him with an intense degree of concentration.


    ¡°Are you goin¡¯ to be doing somethin¡¯ suspicious?¡± she asked before he had a chance to ponder her actions, ¡°¡¯Cause if you¡¯re going to be doing something like that, I will need to report you to the boss straight away. He looks silly so I¡¯d rather not do that, so if you could restrain yourself that¡¯d just be prime.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I am not going to be doing anything suspicious at all!¡± he declared.


    It didn¡¯t take him much effort to understand what had happened outside of the tent he had laid in when he was only able to hear faint murmurs, nor was it challenging to know that Wei Yi wasn¡¯t the leader and hadn¡¯t bothered to consult him before letting him remain.


    Judging by her behaviour, she had also failed to consider whether or not he could be lying, so the moment that the leader of the camp had heard about it, he had told her to keep a closer eye on him than before. For him, it was a perfectly understandable response to a strange person suddenly appearing, but it was hardly pleasant to be stared at by someone that might have beaten the metal used as nails to keep the tents in the ground into shape with her bare hands, so he tried to be as confident and direct as he was able to be.


    ¡°Really? Hm¡­ The boss had said that you might do, though. Which one of you is more trustworthy?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ I am at least as trustworthy as your boss!¡± Huang Yu Di stated after considering that answering that he was more trustworthy might make even the woman in front of him suspicious of his words.


    Indeed, even when he toned down his statement, she still stared at him with narrowed eyes for a little while, as if trying to decipher whether or not he could be trusted to answer whether he could be trusted. Perhaps she was even realising that asking someone with doubtful reliability about the value of their words was not the most intelligent thing that she could have done.


    ¡°Yeah, I guess that¡¯s right. He isn¡¯t trustworthy at all. The jerk had told me I¡¯d get a week off to fuck some whores, and then he just forced us out here,¡± she said, spitting at the sand.


    While the man naturally lacked most of the context for that conversation, he still understood that this was his best chance of confirming exactly what was happening at this camp, how many people there were, and whether any of them would try to kill him the same way that so many before had, so he asked, ¡°By the way, how many people are there meant to be at this camp, and are any of them related to the Chen family?¡±


    ¡°How the fuck should I know?¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡­ uh¡­ Are any of them named Chen?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I dunno. The boss is called Da something, and I am Wei Yi, but almost everyone else is boring, so I never listen to them. You don¡¯t want to listen to them, do you?¡±


    ¡°Nope, not my intention at all!¡± Huang Yu Di said right away, since he didn¡¯t want to lose the best bet to figuring anything out within this mysterious Hunters of the Cosmos group, and returned to an earlier question as he said, ¡°What about the number of people here? Is the number of tents similar to how many of you there are, or is there two or three people per tent?¡±


    ¡°Maybe two. I don¡¯t count the people coming along with us. Most of them don¡¯t speak with me either, so I just pretend they don¡¯t exist. After all, they can¡¯t hit things as well as I can, so why should I care?¡± Wei Yi asked, grinning as if she had just asked something profound.


    The man was unable to muster the energy to even pretend to agree with her, so he didn¡¯t.


    For that matter, neither of them were able to continue this strange conversation as their attention was quickly pulled up and to the side, where, almost above the sands, they saw a crimson spark rise into the skies and remain in the air for a little while before falling back down, disappearing from their sight once it got too low to the ground, and was obscured by the heavier layer of the sandstorm. Looking for guidance, the man turned back to Wei Yi.


    ¡°That must be Ru Chao. She¡¯s hot, so I like her a lot,¡± she stated, ¡°I don¡¯t know if everyone else will think that you¡¯re suspicious, so you might want to get into the tent and sit there.¡±


    He did not need to be told twice, and he had no doubts regarding what the woman before him meant with her remarks. Assuming that she was the simplest person in the group of these strange Hunters of the Cosmos, which everything about her suggested was the case, unless they were somehow even worse to the point that even she didn¡¯t want to listen to them, the rest would be far more likely to question his story, his actions so far, his attempts to learn more, and would be the most likely to try and end him before he could cause trouble. As such, she rushed inside the tent right away.


    As the man was only in the ninth stage of Planar Pool, and he did not seem to be practising any special techniques for extending his spiritual perception, it could only reach out by a metre, and it didn¡¯t seem to be something that he had a significant amount of practise with, as the strands of his spiritual perception were haphazard and weak, so the moment that he had entered a tent made of a rather dense material, he couldn¡¯t perceive Wei Yi even if she stood right next to it.


    Due to this, and as a small test to confirm that this was indeed the case and that she wasn¡¯t just being unnecessarily careless, she relaxed her expression just a little bit, finding that he did not react whatsoever and just lay down on the bed.


    ¡®It seems that he has been heavily reliant on things other than his spiritual perception to evade whatever pursuit he may have faced,¡¯ she concluded, noting that he did lay down in a manner that would allow him to leap up and flee the moment that he detected any sign of danger, ¡®Either he is also acting, and doing a decent job of it, or he had simply managed to get away without his cultivation. Perhaps he had been fleeing since the first realm, and never had the chance to get much practise with the powers of the Planar Pool realm?¡¯


    She was able to make all sorts of guesses, but she would hardly be able to confirm any one of them without the pursuers themselves making an appearance, so for now she focused on the direction from which the so-called scouting team was going to return from. So long as they made enough of a ruckus, the man would probably have a look at them regardless of how safe he was trying to be, so she wasn¡¯t concerned that their performance might be wasted by the only observer being absent.


    The primary point of it wasn¡¯t intended to be convincing this man in the first place, since he would hopefully believe them enough to not try pointing his suspicions at them, but instead to help them get into character.


    At this point, they only had one potential observer, at least so far as Wei Yi with her monstrous range of spiritual perception was able to tell, so they were able to do quite a few things wrong and likely not have it be noticed, and they would be unlikely to make mistakes due to the pressure of too many gazes upon them. However, when the primary groups searching for them will arrive, they will have far, far less space for error, and they will also need to know one another¡¯s character well enough to not get into any awkward situations that wouldn¡¯t be expected from a group that knew one another after some time of travelling together.


    In order to prevent any mishaps later on, whatever that lot had done out in the sands and the reunion that was about to occur ¨C with Chao Ru¡¯s flare indicating their imminent return and a supposed failure to find anything ¨C would hopefully give them enough to work with for the rest of their time in disguise. So long as they did this properly, they could effectively recreate their existing relationships and behave so convincingly that they might not even be able to distinguish truth from fiction themselves, although such a situation would obviously not be entirely ideal.


    They had discussed a few things together, such as the very basics that everyone would need to know of the supposed past few months of the operations of the Hunters of the Cosmos, which was what Wei Yi had mentioned to Huang Yu Di, and a certain physical relationship was reignited for the sake of this, but the rest would be up to them to create on the go, or otherwise hide as any group might.


    After all, not every little secret of any group would be spouted out the moment that someone asked for them. Certain things were usually kept quiet, and everyone had some shameful past that they wouldn¡¯t wish to have exposed. Still, it was better to be aware of as many possible matters relating to their supposed group as possible, and if some of them weren¡¯t mentioned, they would hardly suffer from getting to speak with one another in a way that was different from their usual forms of interaction. Perhaps some of the people in their group would learn new things about one another, and some might display new sides that they had been too afraid to show before, and this would bring them closer together.


    She couldn¡¯t be certain of this either, nor whether they would have much of an opportunity to put these things to use before one of the Greats could suddenly appear and just break their illusion right away, but in this case, over preparation would always be superior to preparing insufficiently.


    ¡®That being said, Chao Ru hadn¡¯t been here when I had swapped my clothing, so I haven¡¯t yet mentioned this to her¡­ I mean, judging from our previous interactions, she might even accept if I was to tell her to do it right here the moment she gets here, so that might not be a particular issue, but I wouldn¡¯t want to do the same thing that I had instructed others not to by misleading someone and forcing them into something that they aren¡¯t comfortable with¡­ I guess we¡¯ll see.¡¯


    To make sure that there wouldn¡¯t be any unfortunate surprises, she directly faced the angle from which the so-called scouting party would approach and waited.


    Although the sands still assaulted them, they were under the partial protection of an inscription and the desert fortress itself, so even Chao Ru and her current cultivation of the seventh stage of Emergent Anchor was able to endure the sandstorm without any significant damage to any of her exposed skin, of which there was quite a lot.


    Fortunately, she was from the Chao District, so she was used both to clothing that covered nothing and to the sand, although the latter did not tend to be so extreme anywhere near the district itself. Whatever inscriptions had been placed inside of the walls a long time ago had assisted in the prevention of the assault of natural sandstorms, while most did not dare to besiege a district in modern times, when any foes had already claimed the territory they wanted and knew that they wouldn¡¯t be able to face the last remnants of Yi City¡¯s former greatness.


    As such, besides needing to try a second time to get that flaming signal into the air, as per Wei Yi¡¯s instructions, she faced little trouble in getting out of the camp to change, then getting back with the people around her to assume their roles within the Hunters of the Cosmos.


    Finding the camp itself did take a few moments, seeing as the sands were still rather dense even this far out from Paragon, but it was eventually located by Luo Lia Kun, whose spiritual perception was able to endure the sandstorm for just long enough to permit her to find the traces of the protective array around the camp. From there, all that they needed to do was to keep walking and they would get to their destination.


    The moment that she got out of the sand, she caught sight of Wei Yi, immediately putting a smile on her face.


    Back in the Luo District, when they had first met, they had agreed to not go into any kind of long-term, romantic relationship, and as far as she knew, that had not changed up to this day, but she couldn¡¯t help but light up a little when spending time with the Ascendant. At times, she was a little forceful, but as Chao Ru had figured out rather quickly, that appeared to be something that she enjoyed being on the receiving end of just as Wei Yi enjoyed providing it, so that did nothing to diminish that uncontrollable smile upon her face.


    When she saw how Wei Yi was dressed, she did have the urge to giggle slightly due to the sheer difference from her usual and highly dignified appearance, even in bed, but she managed to restrain herself just before her breath was caught in her throat.


    It wasn¡¯t the style of her clothing, or her muscular body ¨C for which she, like many of the Chao family, did have a bit of a thing for ¨C that caused it, but instead the extremely prominent feature that, instead of being covered by the loincloth Wei Yi had chosen to wear, was brought to one¡¯s attention instead. The pathetic piece of cloth simply couldn¡¯t contain what it obscured, no matter how it tried to.


    She had already heard from the Ascendant that there had been some changes to her body since the last time they had been able to spend some private time together, so she was a little more prepared for this than she might have been, but rather than freaking out over the appearance of such an organ on the fantastic body of someone she cared about, she was forced to ponder whether this was something that she could accept as easily as Wei Yi had.


    Due to her own preferences, she had never before slept with a man, and so she had no clue whether she could possibly handle it, nor whether it was something that would be of interest to her.


    ¡®However, these butterflies in my stomach¡­ I¡­ I think it just might be fine¡­¡¯


    Without even realising it, she broke away from the group and hurried towards Wei Yi, her cheeks burning up as her breath got heavier. Her mind may not have known what she thought of the new addition just yet, but she could tell that her body had decided on the answer the moment she saw it.


    ¡°Ah Ru-¡± the Ascendant began when she saw her rushing forward, but she was stopped by Chao Ru¡¯s lips pressing against her own, before the latter broke the kiss just as quickly as she had started it and stood on the tips of her toes to be able to reach up to Wei Yi¡¯s ear, into which she breathed out a hot mouthful of air.


    ¡°Take me¡­¡±


    Wei Yi only hesitated for a moment before she lifted Chao Ru¡¯s back and legs and carried her off to a tent.


    Wei Yi easily carried Chao Ru into their tent, closing the flap that served at a door on her way in. The Ascendant brought her to the bed, but didn¡¯t lay down on top of it, instead lowering her down onto the large sheet of cloth that acted as a semblance of a regular floor atop the sand, letting her kneel on the side of the bed.


    With the way she ended up being positioned in front of the rising loincloth, and immediately got the full sensory experience of what had been behind it, she hardly needed to ponder where this was going.


    The others had no words for any of this, but to Huang Yi Di, who had predictably decided to take a look at what was happening, this seemed as if they were already familiar with this kind of behaviour and could say little about it that they hadn¡¯t already mentioned numerous times.


    Fortunately for them, and not for him, with them having no choice to interact with Wei Yi at this time, their attention naturally moved to the tent from which he had been peeking, and so Luo Lia Kun, who had been at the forefront of the group, walked towards him as to join in the interrogation that Great Dark would undoubtedly be interested in participating in.


    After all, what kind of proper Primordial Cosmos hunting organisation could possibly ignore someone who had outright wished to join the worshipers of a Primordial Deity right to their faces? It was only proper that they would question him fiercely and intensely, and that they would show him the appropriate interrogation methods that they reserved for potential heretics, or something of the sort. Mostly, they just wanted to verify how freely they would be able to talk, as a man that was secretly spying on them all would make it far more challenging to converse about ordinary things just by changing a few terms or words there and then.


    ¡°You, come out here, or stay in there and we¡¯ll surround you,¡± Luo Lia Kun stated, leaving out the fact that both options were essentially identical save for the locale, ¡°We have some questions for you.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I am meant to be under your protection!¡± Huang Yu Di exclaimed, remaining in place as his feet refused to be lifted off the ground, either to come out of the tent or to step back and allow them to enter as well, ¡°You¡¯re not meant to be trying to kill me!¡±


    ¡°Kill you? We said nothing about that. If we are going to be protecting you ¨C I¡¯m guessing the boss said that ¨C then shouldn¡¯t we know who we¡¯re protecting? Do you expect us just to stand by and let someone potentially dangerous sit in our camp while we¡¯re hunting any remaining traces of Primordial Cosmos? Don¡¯t lie to yourself if you did,¡± she said, ¡°Fine, just come out here, and we¡¯ll be nice in how we ask you things, unless you refuse to answer. Then, we may not be so nice. It is your choice.¡±


    ¡°Just answering questions¡­ I am not some suspicious person, I-¡±


    ¡°Get the fuck out of that tent. Now. You don¡¯t want to have your heart torn out, do you?¡± Luo Lia Kun raised an eyebrow threateningly as she replicated the motions that Wei Yi had previously displayed as best she could.


    In her replication, she also managed to convey the same terrifying air that the Ascendant had been able to manifest as Wei Yi the Warrior, so the man in front of her had no chance of knowing that she had never once attempted to tear out a foe¡¯s heart in all her life. Given her strength, grown as it has as of late, she might be able to accomplish it, but it wouldn¡¯t be so polished as the one she was mimicking.


    ¡°F-Fine, I will get out in just a-¡±


    His sentence was cut short by a loud moan of pure pleasure originating from the only tent that could produce such a sound, being followed soon by the wet slapping of flesh against flesh.


    The atmosphere that had built up between Huang Yu Di and the supposed Hunters of the Cosmos broke in an instant, as one was rather dumbfounded while the other averted her eyes and did her best to restrain her blush. Neither of them was used to the typical openness of the north, so although this kind of behaviour wasn¡¯t too unusual in their current geographical location, they lacked the same practise that everyone else in the Chao District and beyond would have.


    ¡°Um¡­ Let¡¯s go inside the tent instead. I think that would be better,¡± Luo Lia Kun muttered to him.


    ¡°Yeah, I think that might work best¡­¡± the man replied in a similar low voice, stepping back into the tent to allow her and a few others to enter. The rest went off to pretend to perform some other duties elsewhere, since it would be too irregular if the entirety of a group would focus on one random guy.


    They stood in silence for a few moments, listening to the traces of sound that were still able to make it into the tent from outside. Almost at the same time, they realised that this was, somehow, even more awkward, so Huang Yu Di instead sat down on the bed while Luo Lia Kun stood beside him, staring down at him with as much intensity and menace as she could possibly generate while the sounds of sex permeated the moment. Everyone that had gone in with her, including Zhi Qiu Ya, who manifested a small amount of her wolven strength to add to the lacking threat, stood around him in a semi-circle, all also staring down at him in a disapproving, interrogating or outright hateful manner.


    ¡°So, what do¡­ what do you want from me?¡± he asked, unable to stand this discordant atmosphere for long.


    ¡°Who are you, what are you doing here, and why were you looking to join Primordial Cosmos?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I already answered all of- Alright, fine, I can repeat myself,¡± Huang Yu Di was unable to tell them to look for Wei Yi as the number of powerful people all staring at him at once, applying a significant amount of pressure through the gaze alone, not to mention their cultivation, was simply too much for him to handle.


    ¡°I am Huang Yu Di. I came here from the Chen District, although I had passed through most of the districts on the way here, as I had been made the Chen family¡¯s enemy after I had underpaid a single copper coin during a transaction. The further I ran, the more they sent after me, until I thought that I wouldn¡¯t be able to survive unless I found the protection of something truly powerful, no matter what it would take. Primordial Cosmos sounded like the right kind of power, but if I get your protection, even for only a few days, they might finally stop chasing after me! Please, let me stay with you!¡±


    ¡°A single copper coin, you say? Sure, we¡¯re familiar with the Chen family around here, but them sending enough after you to bring you all the way here doesn¡¯t sound likely. Is that the absolute truth?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I promise! I have no reason to lie to you! I just want to survive and be able to go back to my parents, and tell them that I am not dead, that I¡¯m not a failure, that I will make him proud of me again!¡± he cried out, his eyes becoming a little red.


    Nobody around him expected quite a reaction like that, and it seemed to take him by surprise as well as he paused and tried to prevent any tears from forming within his eyes, managing to do so well enough. As he wasn¡¯t paying attention to them, the interrogators momentarily raised their gazes to try and commune with one another without being noticed. On their own, it was difficult to figure out whether or not he was being entirely truthful, but each one hoped that another would manage it.


    And yet, not a single one could do more than send a questioning gaze towards the others, somehow making them more suspicious of the situation for the wrong reason.


    That was until a strand of spiritual will wormed its way towards Luo Lia Kun, one that the vice-leader was able to track all the way to the tent from which Wei Yi and Chao Ru were continuing to fill their camp with the sounds of their activities, with the occasional loud moan or exclamation managing to pierce even more than usual into the tent they had chosen to hide in, and she didn¡¯t dare to venture further. However, judging by its stability, length, and the difficulty with which she was able to see the spiritual will, Luo Lia Kun was able to easily confirm that the Ascendant was attempting to speak with her.


    Wei Yi¡¯s voice practically wormed into her ear, sound entirely calm and collected despite her own circumstances. ¡®I have been checking his memories while you were speaking with him, and while I had talked to him as well, and they appear to be entirely accurate with his claims, although their legitimacy and similarity to reality are more difficult to confirm. Even if it is false, he isn¡¯t aware of it.¡¯


    ¡®How in the world are you so calm? Are you faking those sounds to distract him and make it more difficult for him to focus?¡¯ the vice-leader just had to ask, as she wouldn¡¯t go into the other tent with her own spiritual perception unless her life depended on it.


    ¡®Are you trying to accuse me of being unable to perform in bed? Of all of the issues I can think of relating to the possession of this particular dick, erectile dysfunction is not one of them. On the contrary¡­¡¯ a sigh was transmitted through the spiritual will thread, ¡®I am just decent at doing multiple things at once after some forced practise with it. The method of practise still fucks my head worse than¡­ sorry, you¡¯re the shy type, right? Anyway, can¡¯t do the thing that let me do this, but that¡¯s fine.¡¯


    ¡®Right¡­ Well, you can focus back on that¡­ I¡¯ll be doing this¡­¡¯


    The thread separated, and Luo Lia Kun had to hold back her own sigh. The mention of her shyness brought back the memories of her husband, and they were not particularly happy ones.


    In general, she had a rather good time with him when he had still been alive, and it was part of the reason that she had avoided experiencing much to do with sex outside of her relationship with him. He had been a strong enough figure in most matters, but whenever it came to their time in bed, he would take care of her and make sure that she would be happier than him.


    At the time, she had simply been too lacking in knowledge on too many lewd acts, so rather than forcing her into them, he allowed her to take her time, and never complained to her or anyone else that she was stopping him from getting what he wanted, like the husbands of certain acquaintances that Luo Lia Kun had back then. Back then, he had said that he could do just fine with his hand for the rest of his life, and that was somehow an understatement, for she had never witnessed him going to a brothel nor taking care of himself on his own.


    The commitment that he had for her made her feel bad that she had never strayed beyond her own comfort zone in sexual matters until he had perished, and it was what had encouraged her to take a far more active role in life than she had before then, leading to her current position.


    One thing that she couldn¡¯t ever go far with was the very thing that prompted this very change, and that was because she did not believe that it would be fair for another to experience more than her husband ever could with her, and she did not think that there could possibly be anyone out there that could ever substitute him in any way.


    That did not mean that she was free of all desire, and she suspected that it would be the cause for her to eventually take things forward even if she thinks it would be wrong in some way.


    Some time ago, she had though that she would need to do so with some random man, just to get her lust out of the way and to be able to move on to more important matters in life, but now her thoughts involuntarily went to her new leader instead of some vague masculine figure. She certainly couldn¡¯t say whether she was or could be as good as her husband was, at least within her own mind, but she did seem to be the best choice.


    ¡®Wait, no, what am I thinking? I¡¯m meant to be questioning this man, not¡­¡¯ she shook her head while Huang Yu Di¡¯s head was still down, trying to clear her thoughts.


    Unfortunately, she was unable to move her focus to a continued interrogation, as the confirmation that he appeared to be being honest about most things effectively ruled out pressing him further until some flaw or discrepancy was found. Until then, he would need to be treated nicely.

 Bonus Chapter: Celebrating a Reunion [R-18]

    Wei Yi¡¯s cock easily lifted the loincloth and grew right before Chao Ru¡¯s eyes, the head sliding along her groin until it reached its full size, at just over ten inches.


    ¡°That¡­ is that actually your dick? It¡¯s not just some fake, right?¡±


    ¡°It is. Since I wouldn¡¯t want to dirty any clothing, let¡¯s just get rid of all this stuff¡­¡± Wei Yi removed their clothing quickly, and soon the warrior from the Chao family was able to confirm that everything was exactly as it seemed. The cock was truly attached to her body, there were large balls hanging below it, though she couldn¡¯t establish the state of her vagina from there.


    Fortunately for her, the Ascendant knew what questions one might have after finding out someone had suddenly grown a cock.


    ¡°It¡¯s still there, except the clit is now a dick, and I piss out of it. If you have any other questions, I am willing to elaborate later,¡± she said, returning her attention to Chao Ru¡¯s chest, ¡°I¡¯ve missed these, you know. You have really nice boobs.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad¡­¡± Chao Ru¡¯s cheeks grew red and warm, ¡°Would you like to put that thing between them?¡±


    ¡°If you want me to, then I will certainly not refuse,¡± Wei Yi smiled and moved up, straddling her and positioning her shaft over the valley between her breasts, ¡°Incidentally, would you have any problem with kissing me once I stain your lips? I can tell you that my seed can leave a mark for days, as you might be able to confirm if you chat with a certain maid.¡±


    ¡°Are you really talking about another woman at a time like this? I approached you almost feeling like I was a teenager, falling in love for the first time.¡±


    ¡°Then it¡¯s all the better to make sure you know earlier. I haven¡¯t got a doubt that you¡¯ve slept with plenty before me ¨C I know that for a fact, actually ¨C and we had agreed not to get into any kind of close relationship. If you understand that, and are fine with it, then we can go on and fuck however you like, for as long as you are able to endure. Otherwise, it might be best to stop before we do something we regret.¡±


    Chao Ru sighed, ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t like thinking about it¡­ you with others¡­¡±


    ¡°You should meet Shun Liu Min, then. She¡¯s clever and very nice to be around. You two ought to get along wonderfully.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d protest, but¡­ the longer that thing¡¯s been out in the open air like this, the less I¡¯m able to focus. It¡¯s like it¡¯s flooding this tent with something.. .and I can¡¯t help but smell it,¡± she inhaled deeply before she caught herself, too late to do anything but exhale, ¡°Can we just focus on this while we¡¯re alone? I have just really missed you¡­¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°Sure. By the way, make sure to breathe it all in ¨C I happen to like that.¡±


    The immediate deep breath through the nose made the Ascendant giggle despite her best attempts to restrain herself. It was rather cute, though it was hard to bring up such an innocent word when her cock was out, hard and ready, a bead of precum already on the tip.


    Hence, she drew her hips back, lowered the head of her cock and guided it between the twin peaks of Chao Ru¡¯s chest. For now, neither of them were wet enough for the insertion to proceed smoothly just like that, and so she spat at the tip, easily covering it in her spit. She took hold of Chao Ru¡¯s chest and held the bountiful peaks in place as she moved her hips forward.


    Her cock was quickly enveloped in warmth, pushing through with ease and emerging on the other side easily, leaving a slick trail in its path.


    ¡°Why¡­ why does it look even bigger from here? Is this something a human being can even take?¡±


    ¡°At least one person can. I have no reason to doubt your ability in this regard¡­ though it might take some time before I can fuck your ass properly,¡± Wei Yi pulled her hips back until the tip of her cock returned into the snug embrace of Chao Ru¡¯s chest, and thrust them forward to get used to the position.


    ¡°My ass? You¡­ did you know you would grow a dick like this? Is that why you were touching me there the first time?¡±


    ¡°The first¡­ ah, I remember now. No, it was just some variety for the both of us,¡± she said, beginning to slide in and out, ¡°If I had known that this would happen, I imagine I would have done certain things differently¡­ For now, though, let¡¯s focus on this, as you suggested. Tell me, what is more exciting to you ¨C when I pinch these puffy nipples, or when my cock slides in and out your cleavage?¡±


    The warrior was quickly left blushing again, leading to the thrusting speeding up a little. In addition, the Ascendant soon combined the two, holding onto Chao Ru¡¯s nipples while bouncing her chest up and down her shaft. Her hips could only move so far without some spatial movement method, so by sliding the warrior¡¯s boobs along her cock at the same time, she was nearly able to thrust the entirety of her length in between them.


    She quickly settled into a decent pace, pumping her cock in and out slowly, letting herself enjoy the tight embrace of Chao Ru¡¯s tits, while she was able to feel every inch of her dick in great detail.


    ¡°Both feel¡­ nice¡­ It¡¯s rather strange, though. I¡¯ve never done anything like this¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m happy to be giving you new experiences, Ah Ru,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Would you like to take a more active role, though?¡±


    ¡°What should¡­ ah, you mean my chest? Alright, I¡¯ll try.¡±


    It was fortunate that Chao Ru was quick on the uptake, moving her hands to her chest and grasping her breasts from the side, quickly getting into the rhythmic thrusts. With her hands free, Wei Yi leaned forward, holding onto Chao Ru¡¯s shoulders for support, and further increased the length of her thrusts, keeping the same pace so that she wouldn¡¯t throw the warrior off too quickly.


    The quiet slaps of her groin against Chao Ru¡¯s chest soon filled the tent. Wei Yi¡¯s leaking precum made the whole affair progressively wetter, milky white beginning to gather on her chest and spilling down the sides of her body.


    ¡°This feels so¡­ so lewd. I love~ it¡­¡± the warrior whispered, her gaze firmly stuck to the head of Wei Yi¡¯s throbbing length as it pumped in and out, ¡°I was a little scared at first, if I¡¯m to be honest¡­¡±


    ¡°Scared of what, exactly?¡±


    ¡°That I wouldn¡¯t be able to accept the changes you¡¯ve experienced. That after the initial¡­ excitement of seeing you again wore off, I¡¯d be scared off by your body, but I¡¯m not feeling that at all. Maybe it¡¯s because it¡¯s you, but even the things I¡¯d normally dislike are so¡­ so¡­¡± Chao Ru licked her lips and unconsciously inhaled the musk that was building up in the tent, ¡°pleasant, I guess. I¡­ I think I like your dick.¡±


    She could feel the throb of the aforementioned cock even before it popped out from the confines of her boobs, spurting out a small string of milky fluid.


    ¡°I love that blush and the embarrassment. If you don¡¯t want me to get rough and go hard later, then you might want to stop with that,¡± Wei Yi said, a faint growl entering her voice, ¡°For now, though, I¡¯m going to make things a little more fun.¡±


    Before she had the chance to question the statement, Chao Ru felt a faint jolt pass through her body, concentrated on her chest and suddenly making her chest incredibly sensitive. Every faint contour and vein upon the Ascendant¡¯s cock became immensely prominent, and the bump of her head making its way through her chest was incredibly striking, as if it was within her and not on her outside, simply touching her breasts.


    She couldn¡¯t stop herself from releasing a moan, and when one burst out from between her lips, more followed without any restraint.


    When Wei Yi began to fuck her breasts with greater intensity, any attempts to subdue her arousal became meaningless, as that sensitivity only grew with every moment. It was absolutely intoxicating, and she grew to like- no, absolutely love the sensation. Chao Ru wished she could have experienced such a thing earlier in life, when things were simpler and there was far less danger all around them.


    Instead, she had to settle upon tightening the grip her tits had on the cock between them, trying her best in order to provide the best possible experience for her partner, and she experienced a familiar delight from seeing the pleasure manifest upon Wei Yi¡¯s face.


    If asked, she wouldn¡¯t be able to tell how much time had passed from when they began, every moment mixing into a blur of lust and delight until the Ascendant slammed against her tits and let out a moan through her teeth. At the same time, a wave of white gushed from the head of her cock, flying straight into Chao Ru¡¯s face and coating her in seconds.


    As her mouth was open, much of the substance flooded in, sending a shock throughout her body as she got the first taste of Wei Yi¡¯s thick cum.


    It was strange and salty. There seemed to be a fishy scent to it, though it was overwhelmed by a different taste that she couldn¡¯t quite identify. She didn¡¯t think she could like such a thing ¨C it seemed gross, even.


    Despite that, she felt her pussy clench and a small wave of pleasure wash over her, prompting her to fully take in the sensory experience she was suddenly met with. She allowed herself to feel the taste upon her tongue without holding back the sensations, as she had learnt she had been up until now. With her eyes shut, at least one glazed in cum, she rolled the thick substance around on her tongue, letting it seep into her taste buds.


    ¡®Oh, gracious sands, it¡¯s¡­ delicious¡­¡¯ Chao Ru felt her tongue emerging from between her lips, licking up everything she could from her face.


    ¡°You like it?¡± Wei Yi asked, though the answer was blatantly obvious to both of them.


    ¡°Are you going to be able to go again? Can you cum in my mouth next time? Your seed is so¡­ so delicious!¡±


    In the brief pause that followed, Wei Yi rose from the warrior¡¯s chest, though Chao Ru was unable to follow her precisely. She did feel her lower lips clenching in anticipation, though even she couldn¡¯t be sure whether she wanted her to simply get down there and stick her cock in, or if it was too fearsome of a beast for her to even consider taking on.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you like it,¡± the Ascendant¡¯s voice got closer, and a moment later, her lips joined with Chao Ru¡¯s, her tongue entering the warrior¡¯s mouth and exploring it eagerly, despite her own taste vastly overwhelming any of Chao Ru¡¯s own taste.


    As shaken as the warrior was by her experience, she was able to suck on the intruding tongue and meet it with her own, their tongues entwining and cum mixing with their saliva.


    They weren¡¯t together for long, but when Wei Yi pulled her lips away and raised her head, using a finger to clean away some of the cum that had splattered on Chao Ru¡¯s eyelid, the latter got to see the marks of their kiss remaining on her face. The Ascendant¡¯s lips were wet, and several spots of thick seed were stuck to them, though not for long. As soon as she saw ¨C and smelled with great clarity ¨C those spots, Chao Ru practically leapt up and licked them off.


    ¡°I could¡¯ve¡­ ah, never mind. I don¡¯t often get to taste myself in such a manner, but it isn¡¯t too bad.¡±


    Chao Ru almost felt fury rise within her at the gall of such a statement, but she calmed it right away. Even then, she thought, ¡®Can she not taste that same divine wonder that I can? I just wish I could have more, and she just says it¡¯s not bad? Hah¡­ Why do I like looking at her face so much? Why¡­ oh, I can feel her down there. She¡¯s so close¡­¡¯


    Whether the Ascendant knew of her thoughts ¨C she did ¨C she didn¡¯t show it, ¡°You can feel me, can¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Chao Ru bit her lip, ¡°It feels even larger than when it was right in front of me¡­ I¡¯m not sure if I should¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s up to you. I have no reason to hurt you, after all, so if you feel like you can¡¯t continue, or if you would rather keep my dick near your breasts and nowhere else, then I can understand that. I¡¯ll happily return to my usual methods of pleasuring you,¡± Wei Yi said, though she didn¡¯t stop grinding her dick against the warrior¡¯s slit, slowly and gently.


    Naturally, her persistent movements didn¡¯t help Chao Ru decide, as a drop of arousal would disturb her thoughts whenever anything of value appeared. She was still able to come to a conclusion, albeit in double the time.


    Her gaze rose from her groin, obscured as it was by her chest, and back to Wei Yi¡¯s gorgeous silver eyes.


    ¡°I will take it. Go as fast as you¡¯d like, and I¡¯ll take it.¡±


    ¡°I warned you about the blushing, but since you want me to go hard, let me tell you something that¡¯s sure to make your cheeks burn,¡± Wei Yi brought her lips to the warrior¡¯s ear, parting them and breathing out a mouthful of hot air before speaking, ¡°You¡¯ll be the first person I ever fuck in this way. Your pussy is the first I will ever claim.¡±


    Chao Ru felt her face burn up as the tip touched her lower lips and pushed forward. Her slick labia was parted with ease, and the vaginal entrance was no different, though she could feel the resistance that it put up. The northern warrior had never slept with a man, and the most she had to handle were fingers and tongues. In comparison, nearly the full length of Wei Yi¡¯s shaft was larger and thicker, causing her to struggle a great deal in order to take it inside herself. Fortunately, her slickness of her pussy meant that it took only a little longer before the head entered her.


    ¡°Oohhh, that¡­ f-fuck¡­¡±


    The wet sound of her pussy making way for the gigantic intruder caused her to clench up even more, gripping tightly around the Ascendant¡¯s dick.


    ¡°Should I pause for a moment?¡± Wei Yi asked, not a hint of impatience in her tone, ¡°I know I¡¯m not exactly small, so-¡±


    ¡°NO! N-No, please, keep going. I¡­ I want to feel you inside of me, fully inside of me¡­¡± she paused, licking her lips, her gaze wandering up and down before it settled on the Ascendant¡¯s moist lips, wetted in part by Chao Ru¡¯s own tongue, ¡°Just kiss me and don¡¯t let me change my mind, please. I want you to take me- mhm!¡±


    Her wishes were obeyed immediately, their lips meeting as Wei Yi pushed her hips forward, allowing her to enter past the head. As soon as she passed the thickest part of her cock, it became easier to slide inside, so the Ascendant did exactly that, stopping half-way.


    The reason?


    ¡°Oh fuck fuck fuck Fuck FUCK!¡± Chao Ru cried out, her fingers gripping Wei Yi¡¯s shoulders with such force that even the Ascendant was able to feel it, ¡°This is¡­ Oh gracious sands, this feels so strange¡­¡±


    ¡°You sure you want me to keep going?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ve never felt anything like this¡­ no finger or tongue has ever been that thick, or that hot, or that¡­ oh fuck, I feel like I might break¡­¡± she spoke quickly, slightly loosening her grip once she managed to adjust to the sensation a little more, ¡°It¡­ it doesn¡¯t hurt, not exactly, but I need to get used to it, more so than I thought¡­ shit¡­¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, stroking Chao Ru¡¯s head, ¡°How about we stick to this depth, then? Most guys are only five inches or so, after all.¡±


    ¡°How do you know that? Also, I forgot, how large are you?¡±


    ¡°I have spiritual perception and lived under a brothel for twenty years,¡± she said, her explanation helping little, ¡°I am a bit over ten inches.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯re fucking a dick virgin like me with that beast?¡± Chao Ru cried out, finally managing to let go of the Ascendant¡¯s shoulders and instead lowering one hand to her groin, gasping when she felt the bulge from the thick shaft within her, ¡°Oh heavens, this¡­ this is so terrifying and hot at the same time. What are you doing to me¡­¡±


    ¡°Relax, Ah Ru,¡± Wei Yi embraced her, pulling her cock back until only the first inch was within her pussy.


    ¡°Oh, that¡­ f-fuck, I feel so empty now-¡±


    She was cut off when the Ascendant thrust back in, audibly hilting herself inside just a little deeper than before. It caused the warrior to clench her hands, gritting her teeth as she felt it stretch her vaginal passage apart. The sensation was extremely overwhelming, and yet she felt a certain sensation of pleasure creeping through when the shaft travelled through places it has already forced apart. That brief hint just made her want more.


    ¡°I-I thought you said you¡¯d stick to¡­ eh¡­¡±


    ¡°Half-way?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s half-way?! Oh sands, I¡­ please stick to the first inches, for now.¡±


    ¡°Gotcha,¡± Wei Yi leaned in and embraced Chao Ru, her cock rearranging the warrior¡¯s insides as she changed her position, ¡°Just relax and focus on the sensations. The discomfort will fade soon enough.¡±


    Her calm and authoritative voice helped more than either of them expected, for the moment that the Ascendant began to thrust, Chao Ru was able to relax enough to overcome the greatest of discomforts, permitting her to return to that previous sensation of pleasure. It remained faint, but grew as she focused further.


    She sensed every faint feature of Wei Yi¡¯s cock, every throbbing vein and the protrusion at the bottom, as it moulded her pussy to its shape. For a while, the two were silent, enjoying one another¡¯s company, with the Ascendant meeting her gaze whenever Chao Ru managed to focus her eyes on anything.


    Eventually, the discomfort had all but faded, and with the wonderful background noise of wet flesh against flesh, her arousal being forced out of her pussy with each pump, only the pleasure remained. Although she had pleasured herself many times before ¨C and been pleasured, including by Wei Yi herself ¨C she could now feel every single part of her vaginal passage being filled to the brim, the hot dick touching everything at once, her warmth quickly spreading throughout Chao Ru¡¯s own body, joined by the growing pool of precum growing within her cunt.


    ¡°A-Alright, I think you can go further. I should¡­ should be able to take it,¡± she said, her voice heavy and breathy, incapable of supressing the growing pleasure.


    ¡°In that case, mind if I change position a little?¡±


    Chao Ru raised an eyebrow, but didn¡¯t refuse, feeling awfully cold when the Ascendant¡¯s body separated from her own, relishing the continued presence of her cock inside her. Unlike before, she wanted to continue, and she couldn¡¯t wait to see what the Ascendant would come up with.


    She watched intently as Wei Yi sat up on her knees and straightened her back, grabbing the warrior¡¯s legs and raising them up, pushing her knees in so that she would have full access to Chao Ru¡¯s dripping pussy. Then, with her arms beneath her calves, Wei Yi gripped onto the warrior¡¯s thighs and pulled her closer.


    In one go, the five inches inside her grew to eight, a loud moan bursting out from her lips.


    ¡°There we go¡­ How do you like it, Ah Ru? Do you want me to be even deeper? You know, with my length, I might be able to reach your womb,¡± Wei Yi suggested, nudging her hips forward to insert just a little more of her cock into her partner, ¡°I¡¯ve heard that some enjoy it quite a bit.¡±


    Chao Ru¡¯s only reply for quite a while was her heavy breathing, struggling to recover from the sudden penetration. Once she did, however, lust lit up within her eyes as she shifted her legs to rest them on Wei Yi¡¯s shoulders, saying, ¡°Then show me and stick that whole monster inside! Fuck me until I am unable to walk!¡±


    She only realised the danger of saying such a thing when a smirk appeared on the Ascendant¡¯s face, filled with an even more primal lust than her own.


    With permission given, Wei Yi resumed her thrusting, pumping her cock in and out with growing speed, her balls quickly beginning to slap against Chao Ru¡¯s ass. They were full and heavy, and joined with the Ascendant¡¯s cock, they beat the northern warrior into submission in seconds, moans pouring from her mouth with every firm thrust. Joined by the slick sounds of flesh against flesh, and the subdued grunts and moans that Wei Yi herself produced, their tent became home to a lustful and debauched chorus.


    As she was being penetrated so deeply, she felt the throbbing tip of her partner¡¯s cock slam against something in her depths, and each time it happened, an intoxicating rush of arousal washed over her, making her experience numerous small climaxes one after the other.


    The ever-growing volume of precum inside her wasn¡¯t helping. She hardly knew why it made her depths warm up, why it left her blushing even more, nor why she just wished to be completely covered in the Ascendant¡¯s seed inside and out until there was more of it than her, leaving her bathing within it¡­ had she been speaking, she would have attempted to shift topics with a cough, but an inner monologue didn¡¯t get that privilege.


    Chao Ru did understand exactly why she loved clenching around Wei Yi¡¯s thick, hard, throbbing shaft, aside from the obvious ¨C each time she felt herself cum a little, the Ascendant¡¯s expression wavered just a little, and a hint of her true lust emerged. It was beautiful, in her eyes, and she couldn¡¯t help but wish to see it more.


    In short, she wanted to please her.


    ¡®Gracious sands, she¡¯s the most beautiful person I¡¯ve ever seen¡­ I¡­ I love her¡­¡¯ she thought, the whole world seeming to disappear around her as she came to that realisation, ¡®I love her¡­ It may not be full-on, romantic love, but I love her!¡¯


    The world returned in a single flash, and she realised that she was cumming, her pussy becoming as tighter than it had ever been, intent to force the cock inside it to cum and fill it beyond bursting ¨C and she seemed to succeed, as she heard and felt Wei Yi plunge into her depths with a lustful groan, finally breaking her composure. Her balls rose up, her teeth clenched, and her eyes met Chao Ru¡¯s, the message being conveyed wordlessly and perfectly clearly.


    Even without that, Chao Ru could never have missed her partner¡¯s orgasm. In an instant, her depths were filled with a blazing heat, thick fluid instantly occupying every inch that wasn¡¯t already taken in full by Wei Yi¡¯s cock. It spilled into her womb, filling it within the first gush of semen, and the second forced her insides to stretch, her belly quickly growing with each audible pump of cum.


    More and more filled her body, not a drop able to emerge past the tight seal formed by her shaft, and soon Chao Ru felt like she was pregnant, awed by the sheer volume of seed filling her body.


    ¡°Whoa¡­ That can¡¯t be normal¡­¡±


    ¡°For me, it ends up being very normal¡­¡± Wei Yi replied, exhaling a mouthful of hot air towards the top of the tent, ¡°It¡¯s common enough for me to have a method to deal with it for you, though I¡¯ve never tried it with this hole.¡±


    She put her hand on Chao Ru¡¯s belly, feeling the immense volume of fluid within for a moment. Both of them were amazed by such a thing, but it didn¡¯t stop the Ascendant from applying her methods and letting the fluid break down into pure nutrition and energy, dissolving most of it into her body save for a bit. It wasn¡¯t about attempting to leave the possibility of pregnancy around ¨C she had no clue whether it was possible, even ¨C but due to the fetish that the two of them appeared to share, which prevented the seed filling her from being an inconvenience.


    With that settled, she let Chao Ru¡¯s legs go and quickly felt up her ass, brushing past her asshole for a moment.


    ¡°Hey!¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡±


    ¡°Where are you going with that?¡±


    ¡°Your asshole, obviously.¡±


    ¡°Pervert¡­¡± Chao Ru blushed, glancing away before her gaze returned to her groin, and thus her partner¡¯s vast shaft, ¡°You can still go on, right?¡±


    ¡°Obviously. I can cum that much again in just a few minutes, but I can keep going all~ day.¡±


    Oculus

 V4C12: A Difficult Question

    Since that was what they needed to do, they did it.


    Naturally, they wouldn¡¯t apologise for suspecting the man, especially since they didn¡¯t want to reveal that they could easily verify his angle on the information that he was providing until it would no longer be of use to them, so they instead asked a few more basic questions as to be able to confirm his identity later through regular means.


    They weren¡¯t intending to actually do so, since that would require them to go to one of the districts and risk a greater chance of recovery just for this one man, but so long as he believed that they would do so imminently, he would hopefully be discouraged from telling any lies whenever he does tire of the truth. All but Luo Lia Kun weren¡¯t even aware that his words had already been checked, so they only knew that there was nothing suspicious enough about him so far.


    Still, before he did lie to them, or otherwise did something that would make them doubt his motives, they had no choice but to let the man go and allow him to spend his time in the camp peacefully.


    Some of his interrogators left at that point, since they also had their own things to do and questioning the man proved less interesting than they would have hoped. They were quickly confronted with the sounds emanating from the furthermost tent, so they couldn¡¯t help but be grateful that those two hadn¡¯t decided to occupy some nearby tent from where they could likely both see and hear all of the activity within. Most of the less voyeuristic members of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters decided to occupy themselves with something that would be further away, while those that were either interested in, or were able to ignore the sounds, chose to remain in closer proximity for whatever they had originally wanted to do.


    Luo Lia Kun and Zhi Qiu Ya decided to remain in the vicinity of Huang Yu Di, mostly to watch over him as they hadn¡¯t thought of something to occupy themselves with yet. In a static camp, where nothing was being grown and the food was already being preserved well enough without any interaction, there wasn¡¯t much that demanded their attention.


    For a while, the man was reluctant to do much, but after seeing that he had somehow remained alive for more than twenty minutes, and that the people of the supposed Hunters of the Cosmos weren¡¯t being actively hostile towards him, he decided that it might be safe to leave the bed and speak with them. He was still curious about their activities, of course, as well as the exact targets and methods of the Hunters of the Cosmos, who could hardly hunt the primordial deity itself due to their lacking strength and the fact that it was currently dead, as far as he knew.


    He had wanted to leave the tent, but a single step outside showed that while the voices from the furthest tent did quieten down after a prolonged period of activity, it was more likely that, rather than stopping, Chao Ru¡¯s body was simply tired of exclaiming its pleasure with such vigour.


    As such, he took that one step outside, glanced towards that tent, where the flap had slightly come open as a result of the sandstorm, although it didn¡¯t reveal anything from his perspective, then turned around and went right back inside. Two of those that had questioned him earlier were still around, and they seemed as good a people as any to ask some questions to.


    Since he had already noticed that one of them, the one with a scar on her forehead being partially displayed by her parted black hair, had found the situation as awkward as he had while they were outside of the tent, he also supposed that it would be easier to speak with her while that still continued.  It was not his intention to act in a suspicious manner and prey upon the more vulnerable to gather as much knowledge as possible ¨C which he realised he seemed to be doing as he approached the woman that had initially frightened him ¨C so he tried to remember to act in a more natural way, without questioning constantly whether anyone around him was going to reveal their allegiance to the Chen family and pull out a knife.


    In fact, for a moment he considered whether or not such behaviour might have even put him into some of the troubles that he had previously encountered, although that thought passed quickly.


    He knew for a fact that the Chen family was after him. He knew for a fact that some of the people that had chosen to either betray him or deceive him were being paid by them. He also knew that they had indeed pursued him. It would only make sense if all of the encounters were of the same nature.


    ¡°Would you mind if we talked a little?¡± Huang Yu Di asked the two women present, ¡°Sitting here might be better than out there, but the silence is also rather unpleasant.¡±


    ¡°Finally trying to get information from us, are you? Be careful with that,¡± Luo Lia Kun warned.


    ¡°No, I just want to talk. If you want, you could lead the conversation, or even ask me things, so long as you don¡¯t report me to the Chen family!¡± he declared, both due to believing that he would still obtain something of use to him and also because he would much rather have a random talk than to prompt one of them to go out of their way to announce his presence to his pursuers.


    ¡°Quite sure about that? Fine, I¡¯ll talk with you, but you better to continue answering truthfully if you want to remain here, safe and sound. Got that?¡±


    After two hours, the camp was finally quiet and free of the constant sounds of two people making the most of their limited time in a bed that wasn¡¯t even comfortable to sleep on, not to mention other activities.


    They lay beside one another there, one being covered in far more than the other, embracing as they looked into one another¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°You¡¯re amazing¡­¡± Chao Ru muttered, feeling the results of their actions all over her body, especially where they had focused on the most, prompting her to shift one hand to her belly that was still sticky from sweat and other substances, ¡°By the way¡­ are you able to get women pregnant with that?¡±


    ¡°Not something I¡¯ve experimented with, but it is possible,¡± Wei Yi admitted, ¡°In most ways, it is no different from that of a man, and the parts that would normally permit the siring of children should still do so. I¡¯m not sure whether I myself am able to a child, even if I wished to at this point, since the changes that happened to my body did affect those other parts, but I¡¯ll not concern myself with that just yet¡­ Are you worried that-¡±


    ¡°Worried? No! I could never be, not about that¡­ You know, I¡¯ve thought about having children before, after I¡¯d already figured out that I only had an interest in women. My mother had talked about having me like it had been some kind of magical experience, although she might have meant the sex before that, and that raising me had been great¡­ I wasn¡¯t sure if I was going to be missing out.¡±


    ¡°You decided not to, and so you pleaded me to fuck you hard even though you hadn¡¯t taken anything that size before? What a naughty girl you are,¡± Wei Yi said with a grin.


    ¡°Stop that¡­ I just knew that I wanted you the moment that I saw you today, so my mind went to that, and I figured that we could¡­¡± Chao Ru licked her lips, catching some of what remained on them, the tastes of the woman in front of her being particularly prominent, ¡°I¡­ I know that you had said that you wouldn¡¯t want to get into any kind of romantic relationship before the end of the war, whatever it shall be called, but¡­ after that, how would you¡­ choose, I guess?¡±


    The Ascendant¡¯s expression immediately mellowed, ¡°Ah Ru¡­¡±


    ¡°I-I¡¯m not going to say that you shouldn¡¯t be spending your time with anyone else, I¡­ well, I know that I probably couldn¡¯t be with you the whole time, but-¡±


    ¡°No, that is not what I was going to say, although that was going to be part of it. The thing is, I don¡¯t want to be considering things like that now, because it will be the same as getting attached to someone. The whole problem is that I cannot form such permanent bonds because it may cause everyone to suffer, not just me, and I would advise you to do the same. Don¡¯t just get stuck with me, because I cannot be sure that I will survive, nor can I know that you will,¡± Wei Yi sighed, ¡°As such, I think it would be best if both of us didn¡¯t let ourselves be tied down. You can be with whoever you want to be with, I will probably do the same, and once it does end, and we are alive¡­ Then I think we should try to get to know one another anew. Without the conflict, the risks, the secrecy¡­¡±


    ¡°I know what you mean¡­ What about the child? How would you treat her?¡±


    ¡°As well as I could, although¡­ It¡¯s the same problem, isn¡¯t it? Fuck¡­ If I had to say something know, I would think that it would be better to act more as a friend taking care of her- You already assumed that it will be a girl?¡±


    ¡°Well, you probably know the stories. A phoenix and a woman, human or not, get together, and they will always have girls. A dragon and a woman end up having either girls or those with draconic features.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ You appear to have given this much more thought than I had, much to my own peril. I suppose that there might be some truth to the stories, although there are just as many false tales out there as true ones, from what I know,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Anyway, assuming that this war does go on for a year, or two, or even twenty, I¡­ Shit, I really failed to think about that¡­¡±


    She released her grip of Chao Ru and moved onto her back, keeping one arm on her own stomach as to not let it hang off the bed, and stared at the top of the tent as she attempted to consider all of this properly.


    ¡°Um¡­ You don¡¯t seem to get very emotional most of the time¡­¡±


    ¡°That is because I strive to avoid such things. If you¡¯d seen me when I had fought Their Luo family, you would have seen how pissed off I can be at a couple of bastards¡­ Still, if you share with her that I am the father, and I remain in any proximity to Paragon, or wherever you will remain to raise her, then the very thing I¡¯d wanted to avoid will happen¡­ and if you keep quiet and do it on your own, they will lack a parent¡­ I¡¯d thought about this in the past, but just forgot about it now¡­ Ugh¡­¡±


    Chao Ru witnessed this rapid decline in her calmness and got rather worried herself. Neither of them had given as much thought to this as they should have done, and it was clearly showing.


    Before the matter got any worse, she tried to think of some kind of sensible compromise, as she did not wish to see her potential future child be harmed by poor arrangements, but in the moment, she especially didn¡¯t wish to see the very leader of the strongest force against the Greats so far to collapse over a single decision that they had failed to ponder.


    ¡°What if you were to help me with her, but not reveal your relationship to them until-¡±


    ¡°Same problem as before, as I will get attached to her¡­ Not to mention the fact that I won¡¯t be near you most of the time anyway due to this fucking war¡­¡± traces of killing intent passed into her left hand, momentarily transforming her fingers into claws, although she dispersed it quickly, ¡°All of this wouldn¡¯t be a problem if there was no conflict here. We could have all been wherever we wanted, and nobody would need to be regularly concerned about their child¡¯s life¡­¡±


    She shut her eyes and sighed again. Although she wouldn¡¯t voice her ultimate intentions for the world just yet, that being the realm of justice and surety that she had envisaged a long time ago, this matter effectively confirmed in her eyes that such a thing was absolutely necessary.


    Whether she cared for any children now in the future, her own or not, she would obviously not want them to see their mother and father die, and then live in the exact same way that she had, except without the gift of the Truth of the Universe that had permitted her to turn her life around and already reach heights that she might have thought impossible before understanding what it could let her do.


    In fact, that was one of the driving forces behind her current hesitation. She didn¡¯t know whether or not she could get Chao Ru pregnant, whether the warrior herself was fertile, or whether the war would continue for long enough to be an issue for them, but she suspected that all of those were likely to be true. Nothing about either of them suggested the inability to reproduce, and there was no chance that the Great Families were just going to let them go even if she did something as unthinkable as attempting to surrender.


    What she did know was that missing even one parent could significantly affect the one way a child would grow up, and that it was often a team effort between even more people than just two.


    ¡°Chao Ru, do you intend to go out to battle in the future?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ I am in the Chao family, so if I don¡¯t come to my parents with the ability to beat my mother in an arm-wrestle and with no trophy of strength to display to my father, they might conclude that I am not worthy of you, or something¡­¡±


    ¡°Then let them.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Who are they to decide who is and isn¡¯t worthy of me, or of having my children, or of even being close to me? That is my decision, and if you want to be with me after the war, as friends with benefits, lovers or whatever else, then you can choose to do so on your own as well. It does not matter whether they disapprove.¡±


    Chao Ru gasped at the sudden return of confidence to the Ascendant¡¯s voice, ¡°Wei Yi¡­¡±


    ¡°I was just reminded that those who fight for justice and freedom aren¡¯t necessarily better than those they oppose. They would kill any parent that opposes them, while we intend to outright get out there and put down our own lives with minimal care¡­ I cannot be with any children that I may have until the conflict ends, so if I have to compromise a little bit and risk damaging their future, then I will at the very least ensure that I compromise nowhere else,¡± Wei Yi stated, turning back towards her, ¡°You must live, even if I don¡¯t. While the child is still young, you must stay with her. Alright?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I will. I promise.¡±


    ¡°Also, if I cannot provide her ¨C at this point, if it turns out to be a boy, this entire conversation will feel rather awkward, but whatever ¨C with my own company, I would prefer to let her have friends and other people that she could talk to and get along with, other children especially. Would you mind?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ I know what you¡¯re saying, but¡­ since we aren¡¯t together, and for her sake, I suppose that I do not.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, if we¡¯d been out of the war and we¡¯d gotten in a proper relationship, this would effectively be me asking whether I could be cheating on you¡­ I¡¯m not sure whether to say that it is funny or sad that it only took me a few weeks of having one male feature to start resembling some of the worst stereotypes of men,¡± Wei Yi commented.


    ¡°You¡¯re hardly the worst. You are trying to take care of any children you have, even if it unconventionally, while those types would probably not even consider it¡­¡±


    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s also a way of looking at things.¡±


    Chao Ru nodded, ¡°Also, if I do get a child, and she is here, alone, without anyone of a similar age to speak to, I suspect that it wouldn¡¯t be the best way to grow up. If I was to be here without anyone else to speak to while everyone was out fighting, it would also not be that good¡­¡±


    ¡°That, too, is very accurate. When I had been growing up, my parents died when I was young, but I did have some people that I was able to speak to, even if most of the kids around me were rather rude and keen to fight me for whatever reason¡­¡± she recalled that time and pondered, for a moment, whether they had some better reason for it or if they just found the weakest child they could and used her to satisfy their desire to fight that had been instilled on them from a young age, ¡°Speaking of fighting, I do wonder whether it is a good idea¡­¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°To encourage kids to want to fight one another, to have constant competition in every way over everything. It¡¯s common in Yi City, or it certainly was in the Yi District, but besides thinking that such focus on fighting is rather unhealthy in a way, I am also wondering whether it is even a good idea,¡± she explained, ¡°Some competition is necessary, that is obvious, but to force random divides between servants and other members of the family, the need to fight one another for resources, the freedom to do so especially¡­ In a peaceful world, I can guarantee that this wouldn¡¯t be suitable, but in the world we are in, it is much more difficult to say.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ You said that I had given more thought to all of this than you, but you seem to have plenty of questions ready this quickly¡­ All of this while we still aren¡¯t sure that I¡¯ll get pregnant.¡±


    ¡°I may not be a particular expert on this, but I¡¯d imagine that something that thick being delivered straight to the womb would hardly struggle to impregnate anyone¡­ Say, would you like to practise for something?¡±


    ¡°Hm? For wha- ah!¡± she let out a surprised cry when she felt a finger wander to her behind, pressing against the hole there, ¡°R-Really? You definitely have a thing for that¡­¡±


    ¡°A thing? I do not. I approve of variety, and I also think that being further away from the womb would be far safer than the usual form of sex¡­ Also, if you think that this is unusual, you have not looked around any of the brothels in the prison realm. Almost everyone there does it at least once a day, especially after all of them got to drink the miracle fluid in place of other forms of food.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t change the facts¡­¡±


    ¡°Indeed, it does not,¡± Wei Yi smiled, ¡°You¡¯re here being all shy again when you want it as well. Come here¡­¡±


    The camp did not get to enjoy a calm night, as much as they would have liked to, although the two of them did not go for as long this time, and did have some sense to control their voices rather than letting them blast all over the supposed Hunters of the Cosmos camp.


    Fortunately for the people of the camp, especially those that were being more than just distracted by the noises, Wei Yi soon amplified the barrier that she had already put at the tent entrance to prevent the surging of sand into it and also caused it to block out most of the sound, allowing the rest of the night to pass with one set of poorly subdued sounds being replaced by a significant amount of shuffling in beds and far better subdued ones.


    After everyone fell asleep, Chao Ru included, she stepped out of the tent with her clothes on ¨C as hard as it was to call her current outfit that ¨C and breathed in the cool air of the night, incinerating any particles of sand or dust that attempted to enter her throat and lungs. She stood there for some time, gazing into the distance, having no particular goal in mind while she did so. Even if someone was to suggest that she was simply standing there to relax, that wouldn¡¯t be entirely right either as she had relaxed more than enough already, at least mentally, but she also had little more to consider to occupy her mind.


    So, she busied herself with the view of the shifting sands and the sandstorm.


    It was harsh and powerful, but when it came into contact with the barrier manifested by the array laid out within and throughout the tents, it was quietened and weakened until the terrible storm acted as little more than an unpleasant breeze to most of those within the camp.


    There would be an occasional strong gust of wind that wouldn¡¯t be entirely blocked by the array, as she had intentionally limited the amount of her strength that she invested into it as to not make it seem entirely unrealistic for something that a person in the fourth realm could create, but after it caused the sides of the tents to flutter for a little bit, it would pass and things would return to normal. It was simple, calm, and while she couldn¡¯t know exactly how many would attempt to come after her, now or in the future, she knew that it was not at all representative of the conflict to come the moment the war starts.


    Ideally, there would be as little combat as possible, and things could be resolved in an easy way that would allow her to take care of all of the people she had taken under her wing, but it wouldn¡¯t happen that way, that much she could be certain of at any time. The Great Families were too invested in their current positions, and had too sturdy a foundation, and it was similar for other threats as well.


    For instance, the primordial deities that had been put to sleep as to save the world from their influence and hatred could rise again at any time, especially if the forces that the Greats were keeping at bay were exactly those entities, and they would be even less interested in staying down than the Greats were. After them, the Hunger of the Beyond was also a potential threat, and if it was greater than the primordial deities, which seemed to be the case, then defeating them would be even more challenging, especially if they had no interest whatsoever in human life, as they would then be nothing more than food for those entities, provided that their names were suitable for them.


    Then, if the otherworldly demons and their stories had any validity, there might even be a greater world and greater threat that they have to face, where even she might not be able to put up much a fight. At that point, casualties and prolonged battles would be outright guaranteed.


    Essentially, no matter what she did, no matter how much she hoped to avoid death and bloodshed, she wouldn¡¯t be able to do so, and thus she had only one alternative. She needed to finish things as quickly as possible, to prevent any more people suffering than absolutely had to, so that the world could one day become the embodiment of justice, where all could be made fair for the many people living within it, even if that required even more death than might otherwise come.


    One day, perhaps countless years later, the world will know of her actions, and they would have a view on them and on her.


    Perhaps they will conclude that she acted righteously, and that her deeds and achievements justified the means, just as they said the same thing about whatever Kong Shi Meng had undoubtedly done within his own life, and just as the Black Terror had told her many others were seen as heroes. It could be that they would view her as a terrible monster that had upset the balance of the world and ruined so many things that others had sought to build up without putting up a single thing in their place. They could even believe her to be some insignificant person that did nothing one way or another, although that was unlikely. People did not tend towards neutrality, as unfortunate as that was.


    If she succeeded and survived, she could hear their words and receive their judgement, and if she did not, perhaps her soul would either be dispersed or permitted to reincarnate in some form depending on the people¡¯s response to her. Perhaps heaven¡¯s will itself would pass judgement in their stead¡­


    ¡°What are you doing out here, Wei Yi?¡± Great Dark asked as he emerged from his tent, finding her standing in the middle of the camp without any notable movement.


    ¡°Thinking about things, staring at the sand, that sort of thing. Even with boundless stamina, there¡¯s still the matter of exhaustion for yourself and your partner to consider, so I unfortunately couldn¡¯t spend the whole day and night in a more pleasurable activity¡­ Not that it, too, is free of things for me to consider. What about you?¡±


    ¡°Not quite as vague as your thoughts, but¡­ I have been curious about our repeated utterance of Their title in the prison realm¡­¡± he paused, taking advantage of the lack of other listeners to get it out of his system, ¡°How can we be sure that they can only detect us when the word is spoken?¡±


    ¡°You mean to ask whether they might have a method of observation that can simply be directed at us now even if none of us say Their names? While that isn¡¯t necessarily impossible, especially considering the spatial shenanigans that the seventh realm and above can pull off, after giving it some more thought, I don¡¯t believe that they will be able to detect our speech in the prison realm at all, even if it partially open like this.¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡±


    ¡°To explain that, I¡¯d need to reference some eastern tales that I¡¯ve heard. Do you know of the notion that the tribulations of the eastern Daoists do not fall upon them if they are in a spatial realm?¡±


    ¡°I have not heard that, no¡­ Is this true?¡±


    ¡°Not a fucking clue, frankly. The Eastern Continent is a strange place, and the people there are even stranger. Apparently, they greet every random cultivator as a Fellow Daoist, and are particularly fond of sects that effectively blanket their entire continent,¡± Wei Yi commented, ¡°Anyway, not the original point. It is something that may be verified, but I do think that there is a certain dissonance between the prison realm and the Planar Continents, at least. If they were not manipulated to have a connection with them, then there wouldn¡¯t even be a trace of planar energy, so it is very likely that it is far more difficult to look in or out of it than it is to view any place in the world around us.¡±


    ¡°We will need to confirm that at some later point¡­ If spatial realms are effective for this, we may be able to create spatial barriers¡­ to allow any of our lands to speak freely even while They are still in a position of strength.¡±


    ¡°There is potential for that, but it would require a proper seventh realm cultivator first. As you know, Yi Shi Ming is not in quite the perfect state, given that she is a spatial spirit, whereas none of us are yet near to the seventh realm. You are closer in terms of the number of stages, but I believe that I may be able to cultivate more quickly, judging from past experiences. We will both need resources, though.¡±


    ¡°Indeed¡­ How long has it taken you to reach this realm?¡±


    ¡°Do you want to hear the time taken to cultivate, specifically, or time in general?¡±


    ¡°Both could be of use¡­ although some time would naturally need to be excluded due to the prison realm¡¯s limitations¡­¡±


    ¡°Technically, I started cultivating on my 12th birthday, but I effectively began from scratch on the first of the fifth month of the twentieth year, or the year 1,201,520. I had been sixteen, and I am now forty-one. That means that I have spent twenty-five years, more or less,¡± she said, ¡°However, the actual time taken is closer to one or two months of continuous cultivation, since I had been forced to take quite a few breaks on the way there.¡±


    ¡°¡­ You are very likely to reach the seventh realm before me, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Yup. The moment I reach the fifth with every form of energy I use, my cultivation speed is likely to surge significantly as they will all be in harmony with one another. At that point, if we are already fighting Them in full force and looting their many storage points, I should have enough resources to rush into the seventh realm and beyond.¡±

 Bonus Chapter: The Back Door [R-18]

    ¡°You really are a pervert¡­¡±


    ¡°And it¡¯s your hole that¡¯s parting so eagerly. Maybe I¡¯ll just be able to shove my cock inside to the hilt without even needing to loosen it up,¡± Wei Yi smiled, her finger already half-way inside Chao Ru¡¯s ass.


    ¡°Jerk¡­ this feels strangely embarrassing even after what we¡¯ve been through,¡± Chao Ru muttered, raising her voice afterwards, ¡°Please do loosen me up, though. I¡¯ve had things in my pussy before, but I¡¯ve never had anything large there¡­ Also¡­ I¡­¡±


    ¡°You want to feel my tongue, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°If you know, why do you keep asking? You¡­ I was going to call you an asshole, but that¡¯s a poor choice of words¡­¡±


    ¡°Yep, it¡¯s a poor choice of words. I love it,¡± Wei Yi smiled, pulling her finger out and pushing Chao Ru down onto the bed, helping her flip over onto her belly and rise onto her knees and hands, ¡°Now, keep your ass up while I work. Feel free to bury yourself in the bed if you want, though. I bet the camp will appreciate the quiet moment.¡±


    ¡°Wait, has the camp been hea-ah! Oh heavens¡­¡±


    Her gasp was prompted by the Ascendant¡¯s tongue prodding at her back hole, her slick muscle as powerful and dextrous as the rest of her body. With little difficulty, she was able to enter the puckered rosebud, tasting her insides.


    It delved deeper and forced the tight ring apart, saliva coating it and building up around it, leaving her ass moist. With every lick, a bead of arousal dripped from Chao Ru¡¯s nether region, adding to the large volume of slick already collecting upon her thighs. Her tongue almost seemed to bring with it an aphrodisiac that turned every movement into an explosion of wonderful sensations that she had previously felt only with her pussy.


    For a moment, Wei Yi pulled her head back, ¡°Have to say, I don¡¯t do this often, but I like it. How are you faring? Wouldn¡¯t want to trust only your gushing lower lips, after all.¡±


    ¡°I swear, you can be such a bitch sometimes¡­ Yes, I¡¯m enjoying it¡­¡±


    ¡°Good. Let me open you up some more,¡± Wei Yi almost certainly smiled as she parted the warrior¡¯s ass cheeks and dove back in, planting a sloppy kiss on Chao Ru¡¯s ring of muscle before sinking her tongue inside it again, finding far less resistance this time. In addition, with the warrior figuring out how to relax her muscles, there was even less difficulty in tasting her ass.


    That didn¡¯t stop her from feeling extremely embarrassed, however. Back when the Ascendant had suggested the option of anal sex, it seemed absolutely ludicrous. She had believed that nothing should go back there, even if the powers of cultivation permit most to keep themselves clean in all the places that matter, especially if they substitute all food with planar energy or pills, as the latter would dissolve into raw medicinal essence and satiate the body.


    Despite that, it was pleasant. She loved feeling herself stretch out, perhaps even more so than when her pussy was being split apart by Wei Yi¡¯s cock, and she still wanted more. She just couldn¡¯t say it.


    Luckily, there was only so much that a tongue could do, and only so far that it could go, and so the Ascendant soon had to withdraw a second time, lightly spanking Chao Ru¡¯s ass as she repositioned herself.


    ¡°Alright, now it¡¯s time for you to relax that butt as much as you can,¡± Wei Yi said, audibly wiping her lips from the spit and saliva that had accumulated upon them, ¡°This will be a challenge for you.¡±


    ¡°I-Is it that bad?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a massive difference between my tongue and my dick, as you ought to remember. If not, your pussy would¡¯ve been able to take me without a problem after our time together in the Luo District. Anyway, brace yourself and don¡¯t try to clench around me while you adjust,¡± the Ascendant said, rubbing her ass a little more gently while she used her other hand to align the tip of her cock with the rim of her anus.


    Chao Ru wanted it. She knew perfectly well, without a shadow of a doubt, that she wanted this, right here and now. Despite that, there was nothing that she could do about the extreme difference between her asshole¡¯s current capacity and the cock that attempted to intrude.


    Thus, as the head of Wei Yi¡¯s cock entered her, and attempted to slice forward, she experienced a great deal of pain, only barely dulled to tolerable levels by her lust. Her tight ring was brought to its limits, and then pushed past them, and if she felt like she would break before, she hardly knew how to describe her current experience.


    Her desire didn¡¯t diminish no matter what she felt, however. She almost wished to force her ass back, to let more of that great cock fill her, to be broken¡­ but she endured, the pain keeping her in check.


    ¡°This is¡­ very different from your pussy,¡± Wei Yi stated the obvious, taking a deep breath while keeping her hips still, ¡°This time, I really can¡¯t just push in¡­ I¡¯ll go slowly, and you tell me if you can¡¯t take it.¡±


    Chao Ru produced a noise vaguely reminiscent of speech, and it seemed to be in agreement with her words, so the Ascendant proceeded on as she intended. Making the slightest of movements each time, she pushed her cock a little further in and then pulled back, forcing the warrior¡¯s asshole to get used to the tip of her cock, and then to the shaft as a whole, though it was minutes before she actually managed to push past the head.


    ¡®Oh heavens¡­ So¡­ big¡­ How does it suddenly feel so big? It was inside me only a few minutes ago!¡¯ Chao Ru¡¯s mind retained the ability to articulate her thoughts, albeit poorly, and the only thing she could focus on was the vast girth inside her. It felt larger than her whole body, gripped by her ass cheeks as well as the pucker between them.


    The Ascendant bit her lip as she pumped her hips back and forth, the tight hole gripping her cock with such tightness that it was a struggle to move at all. However, it was not an unpleasant sensation by any metric ¨C it was delightful, tighter than any hole she had previously penetrated.


    It would have made her cum the instant she got the tip in had this been her first experience with her cock, and it proved a challenge even now. Thanks to her efforts, the hole was wet and slick, letting her use the looser part of Chao Ru¡¯s ass as easily as her pussy, and it made every moment positively divine, in all the best meanings of the word. Every thrust seemed to milk her cock, more and more of her precum flowing out and into the anal passage, filling up the northern warrior with a growing quantity of fluid that made her progress forward a little smoother, but only a little.


    ¡°Goodness, I might not last until you¡¯re fully loosened up,¡± Wei Yi realised, glancing up from the warrior¡¯s ass, ¡°Mind if I help you along?¡±


    Chao Ru had given up on keeping her head and body up, letting her head and rest on the bed, but she still had control over her hands. She formed an OK symbol with her fingers, her breathing heavy and her body exhausted, although the possibility of finally getting the difficult part over with did grant her a certain burst of vigour.


    In moments, it was joined by a vast surge of energy that caused her eyes to burst open, and brought attention to how much she had drooled upon the bed. Her drool joined the other fluids that had built up upon her face, but that was hardly the main thing to focus upon.


    Rather, she felt her whole body come alive, as if she had just broken through with the assistance of numerous alchemical ingredients of the highest quality and purity, causing everything about her to be invigorated. The ache in her mouth and throat vanished, any remnants of discomfort from the stretching of her pussy went with it, and her ass experienced the greatest change of them all as the Ascendant thrust in more deeply than before.


    Her tight rim seemed to have transformed entirely, in order to accommodate that enormous girth. It was as if she was meant to contain Wei Yi¡¯s vast beast.


    ¡°Gracious sa-ANDS!¡± Chao Ru cried out as she felt half of the shaft settle within her, entering with none of the previous difficulty, ¡°What in the world have you just done to my ass? Explain yourself, you¡­ big-dicked¡­ um¡­ hot¡­¡±


    ¡°A bit of my physique energy coming in handy as always. I¡¯ve helped your body accept me, and from now on, we should have a much easier time whenever we fuck like this,¡± the Ascendant almost certainly smiled as she said this, spanking her ass and grabbing onto it while finally beginning her anal pounding, that smile almost certainly expanding to a grin.


    With her sphincter left gaping, the rest of her seemed to accept the insertion with far greater ease, and so the five inches inside her soon rose to six, then seven, and it was only once Wei Yi managed to insert the eighth that she encountered difficulties.


    Of course, that didn¡¯t stop her from simply pulling back and slamming her hips forward, again and again, forcing her way inside, parting the inner walls and soon plunging in deeply enough for her balls to slap against Chao Ru with each thrust. As she got even further in, they began to strike her pussy lips as well as her thighs, their size and weight making itself known in the most obvious way possible, though the changes to Chao Ru¡¯s body averted the pain from the experience.


    Instead, the northern warrior just got to feel the pleasure from each sensation, the throbbing rod reshaping her insides ¨C literally ¨C so that she would be the perfect vessel for the Ascendant¡¯s perfect dick.


    ¡®Oh fuck, I¡¯ll never be able to recover. Even if my body goes back to normal, I¡¯ll never be able to forget¡­¡¯ Chao Ru realised, her moans rapidly rising in volume.


    Both of them experienced bliss. Their arousal climber higher and higher, their hips slamming together and Wei Yi¡¯s cock almost seeming to slam against her stomach, feeling thicker and harder with every moment, until their lust could go no further. Chao Ru¡¯s anal passage clenched around Wei Yi¡¯s cock, causing her to throb and thrust forward again, burying her length within the warrior¡¯s depths.


    Then, she unleashed the ocean contained within her balls, letting out a tidal wave that filled Chao Ru¡¯s guts in an instant. A wave of satisfaction surged through her, and before she knew it, she was cumming.


    ¡°YES! FILL ME!¡± she cried out, unsure where the words came from for a moment, but it got her exactly what she wanted. Her ass milked out another load from the Ascendant¡¯s cock, then another and another, flooding her insides beyond any limits she imagined she had.


    Once again, her belly bulged with an obscene volume of cum that practically burnt within her, the heat surpassing her own, and she felt some travel up, nearing her throat. Fortunately, Wei Yi¡¯s orgasm was finally dying down, and she didn¡¯t have to experience throwing up something that came in through her asshole.


    ¡°Hah¡­ that was different. We¡¯re going to have a lot of difficulties cleaning up after this, aren¡¯t we?¡± Wei Yi muttered, her breathing heavy and strained, ¡°You¡¯ll need to do a lot of exercise after this.¡±


    ¡°I dohn¡¯t¡­ uh¡­ too full¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m amazed that you¡¯re not able to make your fetishes a little less obvious, Lily¡± a figure that seemed to be one and ten thousand at the same time, blazing green flames sitting in her eye sockets, ¡°I thought that I had been unsubtle before, but never like this.¡±


    ¡°It makes complete sense, though,¡± the figure with a violet left eye shook her head, ¡°Just because it ends up satisfying me doesn¡¯t matter.¡±


    ¡°Sure¡­ I¡¯ll go and leave you to masturbate, or whatever it is you plan to do. I have a world to burn¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I can¡¯t get rid of any more than that, so get back to clenching your asshole as tightly as possible unless you want to leak all over the place,¡± Wei Yi said, the belly of the northern warrior reduced to a small bulge that could be hidden easily enough beneath some loose clothing, ¡°However, I don¡¯t think we¡¯re done yet.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not?¡± Chao Ru asked, her voice having recovered from earlier, though there was still a certain hoarseness from her earlier cries and moans, ¡°Do you ever feel exhaustion?¡±


    ¡°Sometimes.¡±


    She pulled out, her half-hard dick still dripping with a thick coating of thick white fluid. Without explanation, she moved over to the front of the bed and nearly shoved it straight into Chao Ru¡¯s mouth, though she had the courtesy not to prod at the warrior¡¯s lips until she was granted entry.


    ¡°Really? After it¡¯s been¡­ there?¡±


    ¡°Were you never going to touch my dick again? Besides, I thought we have agreed that it¡¯s clean enough for me to put my tongue in there,¡± Wei Yi said, tracing a finger around the gaping rim of her asshole, ¡°Are you never going to kiss me again, either? I wouldn¡¯t have minded had you refused anal completely, but no...¡±


    Chao Ru struggled to reply for a while, ¡°How¡­ how are you able to make me feel bad about not wanting to taste my own ass?¡±


    ¡°I have my ways, though I¡¯m mostly teasing you. If you really don¡¯t want to, then¡­¡±


    ¡°I do¡­ Alright, give it here, just don¡¯t¡­ don¡¯t cover my face in your cum, not with that¡­ if you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°Not at all. Say ¡®aah¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Aah-¡±


    By this point, Wei Yi¡¯s shaft had grown to full mast once again, and so Chao Ru¡¯s small lips were forced apart to fit the entire girth. The thick coating of cum quickly coated her pretty red lips, making their mark upon her face as the rest went inside her mouth, the shaft stopping just before striking the back of her throat to make things a little easier for her.


    The northern warrior muttered something, but it was completely muffled by the girth filling her mouth, leaving her with little choice but to suck on what she was offered, licking the shaft all over.


    With no other method of expressing herself, she contended herself with staring up at Wei Yi with her pretty eyes, her gaze becoming even more pleasant once she felt the cock between her lips throb and push her jaw open. She sucked and licked the rod at her own pace for a while, finding the peace and quiet about as delightful as the one that was having her dick sucked. For a while, that was all that they did, for there was a lot to clean up, even on the tip.


    ¡°I appreciate your effort, but you might want to get the rest before it dries up¡­ if it ever dries up.¡±


    Chao Ru drew her head back and popped the cock out of her mouth, quickly sitting up on the bed and gazing down at the full length, ¡°We both know it doesn¡¯t. Your cum from hours before is still warm and wet, down here¡­¡±


    She rubbed her abdomen, feeling the heat radiating her full womb, finding a smile creeping onto her lips. It was a strangely sweet thing to feel, to the point that she felt like she was just drowning in sugar and sweetness, completely unbecoming of a situation where her ass had just been ruined by a monster cock still smeared in cum and whatever else. There was still some viscous semen trying to drip from her asshole, barely held in by her best effort to clench that hole shut, though that didn¡¯t help the ache from their vigorous fucking.


    ¡°I¡¯ll not be able to walk straight for the next week. You¡¯re a beast, you know that?¡±


    ¡°And you like it, don¡¯t you?¡± Wei Yi replied with a lewd grin, though her expression became more caring instantly, ¡°Need some help with getting into a more comfortable position?¡±


    ¡°Nah, I¡¯ll manage. At this point, when you undoubtedly fuck my throat, I might not even notice the strain on my throat.¡±


    Getting down to her knees, Chao Ru took a moment to keep her sphincter clenched, then looked up at the great length towering over her. She swallowed involuntarily, inhaling the scent that had accumulated around it. As they had been together for a while, and the Ascendant hadn¡¯t cleaned herself, she could smell her usual musk, as well as the scent of her own pussy and the thick stench of cum that desperately tried to overpower both, like the substance itself.


    ¡°Sands, you¡¯re going to make me wet and horny all over again¡­¡±


    ¡°And that would be a bad thing because¡­? Just kidding, just kidding. We can go on for as long as you¡¯re comfortable, and I won¡¯t mind even if you stop right here and now,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s possible to satiate my dick completely.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t say¡­ come here, you insatiable thing¡­¡± Chao Ru muttered, nuzzling the head of her cock and then moving over to the rest of the shaft.


    Sticking her tongue out, she licked up the thick semen, letting it rest upon her tongue as she got more and more. Chao Ru filled her mouth before parting from the cock and rolling the substance around in her mouth. It was stained with the taste of their bodies, producing a naughty mix that should have been utterly disgusting, especially given the place it had last penetrated. Despite that, she found herself unwilling to swallow the substance, wanting it to remain on her tongue for as long as possible.


    She was almost disappointed by the fact she needed to breathe something other than the thick mixture, but it wasn¡¯t a method she had yet mastered. Hence, the northern warrior tilted her head up, shut her eyes, and forced the mouthful of cum down her throat, feeling it bulge from the effort.


    When she was left with only a thin coating on her tongue, she opened her eyes and found the Ascendant looking down upon her with obvious pleasure.


    ¡°That was extremely hot. You wouldn¡¯t want to do this regularly, would you?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ sorry, a bit hard to move my tongue with all that¡­ I would love to, but I don¡¯t think my body can handle it,¡± the warrior admitted, ¡°I also think that I might get addicted to your cock¡­ and your cum¡­ and your musk¡­ and¡­ oh fuck, we will have to go against at least once more, or else I¡¯ll never be able to sleep.¡±


    ¡°We did talk about this a moment ago, so don¡¯t worry about it,¡± the Ascendant patted her on the head, interrupting Chao Ru as she was about to return to her work.


    ¡°Is there something about head pats that you like?¡±


    ¡°Not really.¡±


    ¡°Hm. If you say so¡­¡± she frowned and got back to cleaning Wei Yi¡¯s cock with her tongue, getting done with the left side and swallowing before proceeding to the right, her gaze locked onto the Ascendant¡¯s eyes with a great deal of care within her eyes.


    Even after she was done, she continued to lick the side of her cock, slathering it in more and more of her spit until it dripped from the shaft and her chin, her expression morphing into raw lust.


    They had a long way to go until they would be satisfied.

 V4C13: First Arrivals

    The next day, most people awoke satisfied. They were also not being barraged by the constant, unending sounds of sex, which was also a positive to those that wanted to get on with actual work.


    One person awoke with the blatant inability to sit down in the near future, so she stood around whenever it was necessary, and while great care had clearly been taken to help her clean up, it was hard to avoid a number of the signs of her activity the day before, especially since they had all clearly heard her moaning in ecstasy with an impressive volume.


    Her partner, on the other hand, only to the surprise of Huang Yu Di as the others knew at least about her immense stamina, while some also knew of how calm she was able to remain in so many instances, appeared to be as clean and as calm as anyone that had spent a night in a usual camp. Even her hair was in a perfect state, as if it had been tidied the moment before anyone laid their eyes upon it. That also didn¡¯t surprise most people from the prison realm, but the one that was meant to be under their protection, at least for now, looked upon her once again and noticed something else.


    The previous day, he had been too afraid of her, and too focused on the features below her face, to actually pay much attention to it, but now that he looked at her again a little more calmly, he saw that she actually looked rather beautiful.


    No, not just beautiful, but absolutely gorgeous, as if her every feature was the absolute peak of what her facial type could possibly be. Even with everything about her that did not fit his particular interests, as well as the aggressive manner in which she so often behaved both in and out of the bed, or so it appeared, he found himself taking quite a liking to her, although he was able to stop himself from wanting to get to know her better.


    In his eyes, such a thing was either a truly fortunate coincidence, or a plot of some kind, and if it was the former, he was sure that he could try his luck later to see if she had any similar interest in him.


    If it was not, then the plot would truly be devious in order to deceive his sturdy mind and twist his own preferences against himself, and so it would be prudent to stay as far away from her and these Hunters of the Cosmos as he possibly could. If they were just playing nice for a little bit to earn his trust and then stab him in the back, it would truly be a failure on his part to simply go along with it.


    ¡®I had thought he might have been odd at first, but this confirms it. Even if he isn¡¯t outright delusional, he is certainly very paranoid,¡¯ Wei Yi noted as she viewed his memories at the same time as performing some basic exercise in the sandstorm to keep up appearances, ¡®To be entirely fair to him, he is right that not everything is at it seems, but I had certainly never done anything to make myself look more attractive in front of anyone¡­ Then again, the Dao of Lust¡­ Still in the Minor Achievement stage, good. Even if I don¡¯t use it intentionally, it might very well be influencing the people around me to an extent.¡¯


    She didn¡¯t think that she was controlling the minds of those she spoke with, as that was too difficult a task to accomplish unconsciously even for the mighty Ascendant that she was, but it was likely that the Dao nudged things along to cause those who had previously not shown interest in women to suddenly discover them, or for some to develop a longing for her more quickly than they might have done without the Dao¡¯s influence.


    As a great enemy of mind control of all forms, she wasn¡¯t entirely sure to feel about this.


    On one hand, as this was a mere nudge, one that could have occurred just as easily by accident if Wei Yi or the person it was affecting had taken some particular action, or did it in a particular way, and did not require any influence to be placed onto the mind.


    On the other hand, this very same kind of nudging was what had caused her to dislike Yi Jiazhi, even if she was later forced to work alongside him in order to get out of the Kong Holy Grounds with even a single person surviving rather than being devoured by the void and the warped space that was being generated at an incredible pace.


    Neither one was the full picture, and neither one suited her entirely, but it was rather difficult to choose any stance without partially ignoring at least one other. For now, all that she knew was that she did not possess full control over the Dao of Lust, nor any other Dao that might be influencing her or others like this, although she thought that she could soon obtain the Full Success stage of the Dao of Law and then see what that would bring her. At that point, perhaps it could grant her additional influence over the other Dao, or perhaps it could somehow assist her with arriving at a conclusion that she could agree with in full without any argument against it.


    ¡®Still, what a kind guy Yi Jiazhi was. He had pointed out so early on that I had no feelings in my mind for men, and me, the na?ve kid that I was back then, didn¡¯t take the hint for quite some time. That naturally doesn¡¯t make up for any other thing he had done, but¡­ he¡¯s dead anyway, I guess¡­¡¯


    She did not like thinking back to what happened in the Kong Holy Grounds, nor in that district in general, even if she had gotten better at it than she had been when it first happened, but it had been a truly terrible tragedy for the Yi family. So many people were lost, and the only survivor was quickly hunted down and forced into the Kong Prison Realm before they could learn anything from her. Seeing as she never ended up reporting to the guards or the family, it was possible that they never even understood what had occurred.


    Perhaps some would assume that the only survivor had played a part in it, and that perhaps she had killed some of the people there and led to the collapse of the mission, or that everyone within had decided to flee and she was chosen to report the false information of their deaths for some reason, but that hardly mattered to her now.


    When she does return to that district, she would not do so with the same name, and even if some of the people there recognised her, she would not respond to the old name. The Yi family had not cared for her then and failed to protect her when only two of the third generation of the Great Yi appeared on their doorstep demanding her head. If any of the upper members of the family truly wished to stop her death or imprisonment, whatever the Greats had wished to do at first, they could have interfered and stopped it, and might have even gotten away with it if the Great Yi Family didn¡¯t think that it would be a good idea to stir the Yi family too much.


    However, even without a full comprehension of the potential danger of the Great Family, or perhaps in part due to it, they did not act, and left alone when she had needed them most.


    Now, they could whatever they wished until she had some authority over the continent, after which point there would be a stern interrogation involving whoever had been able to step in and yet refused to do so.


    She glanced into the distance, ¡®Now, I wonder where the first group will be by now¡­¡¯


    Judging by Huang Yu Di¡¯s speed as a second realm person with average techniques and little training, anyone with more experience would be able to get to a place closer to the outer edge of the sandstorm in a short period of time, and if they had set out at a similar time as he had by stopped for supplies and a bit of rest or preparation, they would be nearing this fake camp within the day, possibly getting here near the night depending on their speed and wariness.


    Ideally, they would arrive nearer to the day so that nobody had to rise from their sleep to deal with random intruders, and so that none of them had the chance to come up with the plan of sneaking in and killing them or robbing them before asking questions. They wouldn¡¯t have anything valuable to steal, and Wei Yi never slept in the first place, so they wouldn¡¯t¡¯ be able to catch them off guard, but to need to respond to a bunch of people already interested in killing you while being forced to retaliate wasn¡¯t the best possible outcome.


    At best, they would distrust them for the rest of their time together, and at worst they would conclude that they were the people they were searching for due to their actions and try to attack them nonetheless.


    Naturally, given everything that they had done to put the camp together and prepare, that wouldn¡¯t be ideal. While she was pretending to exercise within the sands, which wouldn¡¯t do her any good in reality, she was also looking about for opportune spots to plant some kind of evidence that other groups could use to find them, perhaps even including something to completely ward off suspicion within it.


    First impressions often made a big difference, as she could attest to with Yi Jiazhi and a number of other people and entities, so to set them into the right mind-set from the start would be ideal.


    ¡®The only issue is that I have no idea what everyone else thinks they know of Primordial Cosmos, Primordial Deity worshipers, or what they believe to make a group suspicious. If they find mostly obvious trails suggesting a particular outcome, would they consider it to be the truth, or a ruse planted specifically to fool them, and what would they then conclude from it?¡¯ she asked herself, finding quickly that she was unable to replicate the exact thought process that an average person would have, ¡®I hope they don¡¯t make it unnecessarily difficult, regardless of what I do.¡¯


    Since she and the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters were fighting for Yi City, its restoration and freedom from the Greats, she naturally didn¡¯t want to randomly slaughter those who inconvenience her, nor did she want to attract unnecessary attention as it could easily be used against them, but avoiding those things was much more easily said than done. Had they all come here as illusions, forming any kind of impression and suffering any kind of damage or attack would be entirely fine, but no planar construct or manifestation of spiritual will could condense anything that would fool everyone within the fifth realm or above, no matter what methods they used.


    Even if there was something, it would likely require very specific conditions and circumstances to perform at their realms, which would likely create more suspicion than having no such preparations at all.


    Essentially, they once again needed to have more power, and they lacked it or the ability to get it quickly, so they had to make do with what they had. Depending on the people that find them, and how much interest they have in all of their actions, everything could go perfectly smoothly, and might not even have required them to put as much effort in. The only group that would be almost certain to understand things right away would be the one called the Hunters of the Cosmos.


    That did not appear to be something that actually existed, fortunately enough, or else¡­


    ¡®Someone¡¯s coming,¡¯ Wei Yi noticed all of a sudden, quickly passing the message along to Great Dark so that he could be prepared for any potential questions, ¡®Not sure who yet. The sand is too dense.¡¯


    ¡®Got it¡­ If they are someone that might be hard to deal with¡­ we should prepare for battle right away, appearances be damned,¡¯ he used the spiritual will thread to get back to her, as his range of spiritual perception wouldn¡¯t be quite enough within the sands, ¡®If that happens¡­ so long as we finish them off quickly enough¡­ we can plant some of your planar energy on them.¡¯


    ¡®Could work, although someone might be able to link my energy to me through the stabilisation of the Monolith and the core.¡¯


    She broke their link right away then, as it just wouldn¡¯t do to have someone so seemingly dull converse with the leader through spiritual will, although it would be unlikely to be something that the vast majority could observe no matter how much effort they put in.


    Regardless of all that, the policy that needed to be adhered to before they had enough strength to make it through regardless of any potential failures, and even then, was that taking unnecessary risks was never a good idea unless they could pay off immensely. At that point, they would hardly be unnecessary, so the absolute statement would no longer apply, which would render this entire tangent as having been entirely pointless in the first place.


    So that she would not seem suspicious, she got back to her exercise routine, stopping only when a more normal person would have been able to tell that someone was coming towards her.


    Turning towards them, she kept her guard up and assumed a pose that would allow her either to defend herself, attack, or even flee if the situation demanded it, she did not immediately call out to the person. That wouldn¡¯t do for someone that wanted to fight everyone, nor would it make sense to bring attention to herself if she had not yet been seen.


    The person got closer ¨C a man, as she was able to tell at that point ¨C and nearly cut the gap between them in half before he demonstrated any sign of recognition. He paused, squinted, as if that would give him a better view through the sand, then proceeded onwards a little more quickly.


    Once he got far enough that his voice would reach her through the sands, he called out.


    ¡°Announce yourself, woman!¡±


    ¡®He was able to tell that I¡¯m female despite the distance? Didn¡¯t realise that my figure implied that, but whatever,¡¯ Wei Yi noticed, already being able to tell that this man was not entirely simple despite his third realm cultivation, which she was able to see now that he had gotten even closer, ¡°My name is Wei Yi, from the Hunters of the Cosmos. Who are you?¡±


    ¡°Hunters of the-¡± he repeated before a stray mass of sand entered his mouth and forced him to spit it out. In that time, he got close enough for the two of them to be able to distinguish one another clearly, and that revealed a few curious details about him that she had not noticed before this, and that also exposed something that nearly caused her eyes to widen. As per the typical fashion of the north, he wore little but the most vital pieces of armour, all of which were made from a pure black metal.


    It wasn¡¯t just dark, as that would not be unusual with the vast variety of metals and alloys in the world, but what he had on him was entirely black, as if it didn¡¯t just have no light but also absorbed the light from around it, creating a rather curious effect.


    Furthermore, on his back was a weapon, the scabbard being held by a strip of cloth tied around his chest that appeared to be loose and feeble enough to allow it to be torn off at any moment and be put to use if necessary. She couldn¡¯t see much of it with her own eyes, sand or no sand, but her spiritual perception told her that it was likely made either with the same material or the same process as the pieces of armour, so it would be just as dark and consuming as the armour, if not more so due to the greater degree of work that went into it from what she was able to tell.


    ¡°Ahem. Hunters of the Cosmos? You are? Where¡¯s the squad leader at?¡± he asked with strange familiarity.


    ¡®Wait a minute, this guy¡­ A random fucking name got me this? The fuck are heavens at this time? If I next claim to be from the Great Chen Family, will I come across one of them just striding casually into camp to confirm that we¡¯re doing everything according to regulation?¡¯ Wei Yi questioned internally, but on the outside, she simply pointed behind herself, ¡°Thereabouts somewhere.¡±


    He raised an eyebrow at the carelessness with which she spoke but did not question it.


    Instead, the man headed directly in the direction pointed out by her, and after walking for a dozen more steps than he absolutely needed to, he ended up within the barrier of the camp, where he raised his other eyebrow as he saw the state of things.


    After a little while, the amount that someone curious but not particularly so would spend before following the subject of their interest, she followed him, and was able to confirm that even if he was not from the real Hunters, which she hadn¡¯t even known existed prior to this, he had to have some familiarity with how they typically did things. Their camp, while not perfect, was laid out sufficiently well, so he would need to have some very high standards to be disapproving of things just for the sake of it.


    As such, she sent over a spiritual will thread that she severed before it even connected, carrying only a short message.


    ¡®Step outside in a natural manner. It might be the real Hunter of the Cosmos.¡¯


    Even without being in Great Dark¡¯s tent herself, she could almost feel the confusion emanating from him, one that she shared in its entirety. It has to be mentioned that the world was a large place, with two full continents that were apparently not that small when compared to the greater number of continents in the other world the demons all come from, but the number of names that were yet to be used, or that no longer saw use, was incredibly large.


    If a series of words were to be strung together entirely at random, the chances of them being in use as the name of some group were really low. The Wind Chasers Alliance? Didn¡¯t exist. Poachers of the Purple Pen? Those did, but that was a very specific story relating to the year 666,666. The Pursuing Pursuers of the Pursuit of Parity? Those did as well, but that was an even more specific story.


    In a way, the more uncommon names saw more use, so to see something as the mundane as the Hunters of the Cosmos, with the only outstanding part being the last word, for few hunters generally attempted to hunt either the sky itself, or the countless stars that lay within it at night, or even the Primordial Deity itself. She was almost tempted to ask whether the man had come up with the idea himself a short time ago and was now pretending to know what was going on just to fit in with what he thought to be the real Hunters of the Cosmos.


    That theory, as amusing as it would be if it was true, did not seem likely, so she didn¡¯t want to approach him like that until she could see some evidence that actually pointed at something suspicious.


    He came to the tent in which Great Dark stayed almost at the same time as the twin of Great Earth was attempting to exit in a natural manner, the two quickly catching one another¡¯s eyes. As the supposed leader of the group in the desert, Great Dark had been placed within the largest and most prominent tent, although Wei Yi¡¯s was smaller by only a small amount height-wise, and so a quick check around himself allowed the man to tell that this would be the leader.


    ¡°Your squad is also in such a terrible state? Was it as bad on your end as it was on ours?¡±


    The question, sudden as it was, outright confirmed his status, making it some degree easier for Great Dark to play along than if he had no clue on him and needed to stride carefully as to not be too overt in either direction of the conversation.


    ¡°It was terrible,¡± he agreed promptly, stepping closer, ¡°We¡¯ve lost most of our supplies, so we had no choice but to keep looking with what we had.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, same on my end. We had so many people in our squad, but they were all jumped by some pale bitch with an umbrella. Everyone scattered right away, and I hadn¡¯t seen anyone else since then. You¡¯re the first ones,¡± the man confirmed, almost eagerly providing more information to help Great Dark fill in the gaps, ¡°I¡¯m Long Wuchu, and I managed to keep my things. What about you, and those people?¡±


    He looked at some of the other Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters that emerged from their tents to check out this new arrival to their camp, and rather than being unimpressed he now seemed sympathetic to the rags that they were wearing, which they were in comparison to the light-consuming armour that he had.


    ¡°My name is Da Heian. These people, well¡­¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re recruits you picked up to bolster the ranks, aren¡¯t they? I understand the pain of having such stragglers join your side¡­ Each moment spent besides them is utterly terrible¡­¡± Long Wu spoke as someone with far more experience in the matter than he would have liked to have, ¡°I¡¯m guessing that most of them weren¡¯t even remotely normal, and were just going north because they liked the sound of taking a look at some stars, right?¡±


    ¡°You¡­¡± Great Dark hesitated for only a moment before readily nodding his head, ¡°You understand me so well, Brother Wuchu. It is good to finally meet with a like-minded soul.¡±


    ¡°Same to you, Brother Heian,¡± they got closer together until the true Hunter of the Cosmos wrapped his arm around Great Dark and pulled him to his side, ¡°This is your tent, right? Let¡¯s go inside. I have managed to bring a single bottle of wine, but it should do¡­ Oh, how much we must have suffered¡­¡±


    ¡°I-Indeed¡­¡±


    He was pulled into the tent, with the flap shutting on its own from a gust of wind, while the others were left to stand around and gaze at one another questioningly.


    Rather, that was what they did until they realised that they could speak about as freely as they wanted to since that would be exactly what someone treating them as inept and strange people would likely expect from them, and would thus ignore even some of the weirder remarks as they would all be fitting for them.


    ¡°Do you think the two of them are going to¡­ You know, like Wei Yi and Ru Chao?¡±


    ¡°Why did you have to put that image in my head? No, only those two can get away with something like that,¡± someone else said, shaking their head vigorously as if to get rid of the image, ¡°They¡¯ll probably get drunk then be all whiny to one another.¡±


    ¡°I think they really might, though-¡±


    ¡°If you have a fetish, don¡¯t go shoving it on other people! Keep it to yourself and if they do go at it, then you can enjoy it on your own. Alright?¡±


    ¡°Tsk. Fine¡­¡±


    While they were conversing, Wei Yi drifted towards Chao Ru, who similarly drifted towards her, resulting in them getting back together rather quickly. The latter was still visibly flushed from the previous day of effort, but on the positive side, she had been gleaming ever since then, as if to signal to the world how much she had enjoyed their activity together.


    ¡°What do you think?¡± Chao Ru asked first, ¡°Actually, what has even happened just now?¡±


    ¡°That Long Wuchu is a member of the Hunters of the Cosmos ¨C a proper one. He got away from a strange ambush like the boss did, but he did so with a bottle of wine that these two are now going to drink. Are you doing okay, by the way?¡± she said.


    ¡°Just fine. It just takes a while to get used to, for me and my body. In a few days, you wouldn¡¯t even be able to tell until you decide to do it again.¡±


    Wei Yi smiled, ¡°That depends. Are you going to finally admit that you enjoyed it, or do I need to give it to you hard again? Or, is it that it is exactly what you want, so you keep passively denying it like that? Come on, you can tell me¡­ I promise that I¡¯ll just give you what you want, the moment that you want it, just how you like it¡­¡±


    ¡°Guys, they¡¯re flirting again.¡±


    ¡°Flirting?¡± Wei Yi responded incredulously, ¡°You lot haven¡¯t seen flirting. Here, we¡¯re just talking about how we¡¯ll fuck next. Actual flirting would be much steamier and romantic than this.¡±


    ¡°Sure, it would be¡­ By the way, would you be interested in me?¡±


    Wei Yi promptly ignored that girl, cute as she was, and focused instead on the conversation that was occurring within the tent, as it was far more significant to her than the chatter outside. After all, she would be the one that would need to think up of a correct response to the supposedly real Hunter of the Cosmos, while the talk here could be had with anyone at any time, so long as she didn¡¯t just dismiss them entirely while most of her focus was elsewhere.


    The practise of the Red Phantom Flood, which did not seem to have any links of the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp and seemed to be titled as such mostly due to the colour of the entities that it would usually create when powered normally with killing intent, had tempered her ability to perform multiple tasks at once, although the more she did so, the more unbearable and painful that ability seemed to become. Eventually, she was going to need to modify it to not outright cut the mind into separate pieces but instead to give her less exact control over the phantoms it creates, but before then, she could still put the skills she obtained from it for multitasking and general complex tasks.


    Within the tent, Long Wuchu removed the sword from his back and put it against one of the wooden stools, sitting down on it as he took a bag that had been tied to his belt and opened it.


    ¡°Here¡¯s the wine I mentioned. It¡¯s actual authamite, and not just that watered down crap they sell over to the south,¡± he said, showing off the bottle proudly, ¡°Is there a place to put this, or are we just going to need to drink it here?¡±


    ¡°I have another stool,¡± Great Dark answered.


    He only managed to bring it near to them before the man slammed down the bottle ¨C carefully, slowing down at the last moment to not damage it ¨C onto it and sighed, raising his head and stretching his neck before he looked back down. Fortunately, as a sixth realm cultivator, even if he lacked the physical strength of some of the warriors from the prison realm and the Chao District, he was able to quickly strengthen his arms and hands to keep a tight grip on the stool, which he then placed down on the cloth floor between them.


    ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m just too tired and thirsty. The group I was with had been bringing a lot of food and water with us, but that pale bitch took all of that down. All of the water was spilled, and I think she snuck away with some of the food,¡± he explained, ¡°What about you? Which group were you with?¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡±


    Before Great Dark could say a thing, Long Wuchu opened up the bottle loudly and poured a small amount into the cap of the bottle.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you needn¡¯t say anything. I didn¡¯t get to see that woman¡¯s exact realm, but it felt like even someone in the seventh wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything against her ¨C not that I¡¯d know of course¡­ Here, you can have the first taste of it, Brother Heian.¡±


    Great Dark accepted the cap and was informed almost immediately by Wei Yi that she was unable to detect any traces of poison or other strange substances within the wine, as well as that she was very unlikely to even be able to overlook anything below six stars due to her recent experiences, as well as her increased cultivation realm.


    For that reason, he didn¡¯t hesitate to drink it, swallowing the wine in one go and feeling it descend down his body, the taste of alcohol being significantly more prominent that usual.


    ¡°You weren¡¯t joking about it not being watered down¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d never lie to a brother in arms, or a brother in wine!¡± Long Wuchu exclaimed, pouring a small amount for himself and swallowing it in a far more experienced manner, ¡°You know, I think we should just relax. If the higher ups didn¡¯t die to her, they¡¯ll probably come and get us with new supplies, sooner or later. For now, let¡¯s just get drunk, share tales of our youth, and forget about all of the shit that¡¯s happened recently. Alright?¡±


    Given that neither Great Dark nor Wei Yi, who could technically advise him at any moment, wanted to put more effort into persuading him than they had to, they had no reason to disagree with his proposal.

 V4C14: A Drop before the Rain

    Neither of them could have said exactly what they had expected when the man had said that he wanted to forget some things, but they certainly didn¡¯t think that he would be taking his own words that seriously. Normal authamite wine was not particularly strong due to the way in which it was brewed, but this one contained more alcohol than any other taste or substance, meaning that besides being extremely effective at getting one drunk, it would also be the most likely to damage the liver after excessive drinking.


    And yet, Long Wuchu was perhaps the best example of excessive drinking, as he consumed most of the bottle on his own, quickly abandoning the pretences of drinking slowly from the cap to instead drink straight from the bottle.


    Even had Great Dark wanted to get drunk alongside him, it would have been rather difficult to do so, prompting him to instead ask more and more questions the more intoxicated the other man got, veiling them less each time, in order to gather as much information about the Hunters of the Cosmos, him, and anything else in the area, such as the rumours that had attracted the Hunters.


    The simplest thing to learn about was the man himself. His name did appear to be legitimate, as did everything he told about himself when he was sober, and from a little prodding from words and Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual will they were able to confirm that he had indeed been attacked by an albino woman without a clue of who she was or why she was seeking to hurt them. His memories revealed that she had likely been within the fifth realm, as there was an absence of the channels between any of the attacks she had used, but the barrier around her almost seemed to be made up of the core that most would contain within themselves, along with several illusory searing marks.


    This also suggested that the attacker had been one of the Greats, for the barrier seemed suspiciously like the field of anchor mirages that typically protected and surrounded them, and it appeared to confirm that the core of the fourth realm and the marks that form upon it wouldn¡¯t be multiplied across every anchor, but would instead surround the cultivator if they had a vast number of anchors as the Great Families did.


    Overall, that was actually a beneficial thing for her and anyone else seeking to oppose them, as having a field of anchors protected and empowered by cores and each with fifty searing marks would be absolutely devastating, whereas a single core and a single set of marks could be overcome with similar ease to the core of any other person. It would obviously be much tougher, that much she didn¡¯t doubt, but when something was singular and monolithic, a single flaw or crack would endanger the whole thing, whereas a series of thirty cores would each need to be broken independently.


    Now that she was in the fourth realm, she also didn¡¯t need to exert herself quite as much to damage or break the cores of regular cultivators, and likely would be able to survive a hit from one of the second generation, who this woman appeared to be.


    Judging by her features, she was very likely to be from the Great Bai Family, invoking the rather natural question of the purpose behind her actions, but Wei Yi had an idea that she believed to be rather plausible. After all, the people attacked were from the Hunters of the Cosmos, professionals that knew and understood the Primordial Deity they sought at least to some degree. If they showed up in full force, other forces would be discouraged from getting involved, and if they concluded that she had nothing to do with Primordial Cosmos, then all of the preparation invested into getting people riled up would have been wasted entirely.


    The easiest way to prevent that was to either eliminate the Hunters of the Cosmos entirely, at least those that were intending to investigate the rumour, or to break up that expedition and cause enough damage and chaos that they would be weakened and sufficiently agitated to pronounce Wei Yi a heretical worshiper of the Primordial Deities despite all of the evidence to the contrary.


    She had no doubt at all that if she had failed to prepare for the rumours accordingly, and if she had set up a decoy camp where she might have attempted to gather information about Primordial Cosmos by sharing tales of its potential neutral nature, even a calmer Hunter of the Cosmos might have found her suspicious at the very least. Someone as shocked and agitated as Long Wuchu would have certainly attempted to attack them had they taken that approach.


    As such, she concluded that it was in her best interests to ensure that this man wasn¡¯t randomly thrown out, but instead kept reasonably happy with the situation. If others arrived and tried to accuse them of being worshipers of Primordial Cosmos, whether they would do so as a result of their own misconception or due to the instructions of the Greats, then he could easily step in as someone with the proper knowledge and items of the Hunters of the Cosmos and decrease the doubts about the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, even if just a little bit.


    Since he wasn¡¯t a high ranking individual in the Hunters, she didn¡¯t expect his word to carry much weight, but if a few of the Hunters survived and made their way over and none disagreed with his judgement, they might even side with him and further dissuade suspicion ¨C or accept it as well.


    In that case, they could potentially be introduced to the Arbiters themselves at some later point, as they could become the enemy of the Greats if they refuse to play along and possibly the enemy of many factions in Yi City if they became convinced that the entirety of the Hunters of the Cosmos had turned away from their original purpose, and might be more keen to act against those who had placed suspicion on them and had forced them to seek out a false lead in the first place.


    Even if that didn¡¯t end up happening, there was no reason to antagonise the only real member of the Hunters of the Cosmos around the, especially due to some of the things that they had learned about them as a result of his words and loose mouth.


    For one, someone among his superiors seemed to have a trace of the Hunter¡¯s Toxin absolute physique, the last one that Wei Yi needed to complete the potential set of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye. Theoretically, it would be better to kill them at that point, as it would make getting the physique a significantly easier task, but seeing as there were apparently several such people, it was feasible that the Hunters possessed some method of obtaining an appropriate physique and developing it for themselves over all of the other options.


    If they were able to do it, then she could naturally replicate the process, or otherwise loot the bodies of the fallen Hunters of the Cosmos until she had what she wanted.


    Then, she could have both allies and her Conqueror¡¯s Eye, combining the two to accomplish some great deeds at some point in the future. She did not yet know of the exact effects of the Eye, if it was even a possibility, nor did she have a clue whether the Hunters of the Cosmos were anywhere close to being sufficiently powerful to make any semblance of a difference in the brewing conflict, but bringing them into the cause could be akin to creating a new branch in a very distant district.


    Essentially, there was no reason not to do it so far, so she would naturally not abstain.


    Most of the Hunters of the Cosmos used the same black weapons and armour that the man had, which were labelled by them as abyss equipment. Each Hunter was meant to have an abyss blade and an abyss set of armour, although the amount that it needed to guard from naturally varied depending on where they went and what tolerance they had to high temperatures. Despite the similar names, the material used was wholly distinct from abyssal basalt.


    While the black stone did have the same heat-containing properties as the abyss metal, they had no relation to one another, and neither one could be used to make the other unless someone knew of a method to generate a sufficient amount of heat to transform regular basalt into abyssal basalt with nothing more than an inscription or array made solely with abyss metal. It might also be the same the other way around, but the sole true Hunter amongst them did not know of the way in which the weapons or armour were created save for the fact that his measurements had been taken, his combat style and ability was analysed, and then a weapon and armour were provided to him some time later.


    Finally, the information that had brought them here wasn¡¯t known fully to Long Wuchu, not because he had been drunk while it had been provided, nor because he had not bothered to listen, but due to the information supposedly being significant and reliable enough for only the higher ups to listen to it before sharing only what was necessary with the rest.


    According to the implications of his words, the Hunters of the Cosmos tended to limit their own knowledge of certain matters relating to the Primordial Deities, especially the one they sought, as they thought that the more they knew about them, the more the Deities would know about them, and that they would become more susceptible to any kind of Primordial Deity influences and methods with each piece of relevant information that they obtained. She had no idea if this was in any way accurate, or even related to the truth, but if it was, there was little she or Yi Shi Ming could do about it.


    Even if the Primordial Deities would wake soon, and even if it would put them at great risk, they could only expand what they already knew so that they wouldn¡¯t be in a place where they knew enough to be affected, but not enough to do anything about it.


    The Hunters of the Cosmos themselves got around this issue by learning the tactics and techniques necessary to combat Primordial Cosmos ¨C although they primarily fought against small cults that had been started in someone¡¯s basement when they and their friends were drunk, according to Long Wuchu, due to the shortage of the Primordial Deity in question ¨C without fully understanding how they helped, or why.


    As he had shared, most of these methods were of some use, but as Wei Yi could easily guess, most of the common troops of the Hunters of the Cosmos would not be capable of modifying their techniques on the go to suit the situation, or even properly responding to a complex threat on their own if they did not have a guide with them that had been written by someone more knowledgeable.


    If this was a necessary weakness in return for far less dangerous encounters most of the time, she could understand it, but if this had no use and yet crippled the majority of the Hunters then they would need to reconsider their policy if they were going to work with the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and actually contribute. There was also the possibility of the leadership of their organisation knowing something about Primordial Cosmos that they were afraid to share, either because it would weaken their position or due to it being able to shatter their group if it was widely known, but that would require some better evidence than the drunk words of a random man.


    They would, at the very least, need to get someone higher up in the ranks of the Hunters of the Cosmos to speak with them, even if it was just for Wei Yi to be able to browse through his memories.


    Once Long Wuchu had consumed the entire bottle of authamite wine, he did not end up lasting too long, and so before much more could be extracted from him he had to be put in a bed and permitted to sleep off the excessive alcohol. As a third realm cultivator, he would fare far better with it than a normal person, and might be able to overcome the hangover rather quickly, but for now even his mind was in too poor a state for Wei Yi to dare to tread within it without getting a bizarre and maddening mixture of images.


    She wasn¡¯t sure if she should be glad that she¡¯d never get drunk due to her physique energy quickly burning through everything that tried to affect her body while her killing will and mental plane could easily result the mental influences, or if she was missing out on quite a few things, but the question seemed happy to make itself irrelevant rather quickly.


    That random thought occurred to her some hours after the sole true Hunter of the Cosmos amongst them fell asleep on Great Dark¡¯s bed while the twin had occupied himself outside of his tent, when the morning had turned to evening yet again, and only a short time after that some of the Arbiters that they had kept out of the camp to permit them to report on matters of interest returned with interesting information.


    There were news of new arrivals, and it wasn¡¯t just one or two lone individuals this time, but instead large groups, most of them seemed similar enough in the distance when looked at through the obstruction of the sandstorm. It was either some coincidence, or a number of other groups had come.


    Since it would be impolite to let them arrive un-greeted, and since Wei Yi wanted to gather as much information as possible on them before they had any chance to learn anything about them, she came to the edge of the barrier around their camp and was soon able to sense them as well, although they needed to get closer before she could perceive them in any detail.


    ¡®I have to say, while the sandstorm is hardly a perfect defence method no matter how you look at it, it is certainly very effective against observation through spiritual perception. If I cannot look through it with ease, the vast majority of the Western Continent will likely also struggle, and it might even be that the Greats ¨C if they had detected me themselves back then, and didn¡¯t do something that I had been unable to perceive ¨C will struggle to some extent when it comes to looking through here,¡¯ she thought while she waited, ¡®Amplifying it for our enemies while minimizing the effects for me and my allies would be an ideal path of progression, but not one I can pursue any time soon, unfortunately.¡¯


    The number of things that she wouldn¡¯t be able to resolve or otherwise act upon within the near future seemed to only grow alongside her cultivation realm, grasp over the world, and even her comprehension of the Dao, which was rather annoying to say the least, but at the very least the Planar Continents had a limit of the ninth realm, after which any further progression wouldn¡¯t be a matter of the world any more, even if it was possible. Eventually, anything that could be done would be available to her to deal with.


    Fortunately, that too didn¡¯t remain on her mind for long as the first bunch of people spotted her and the camp in the distance, tried to mutter to one another before needing to shout to get through the noise of the constant sandstorm.


    Once they arrived at some decision, they rushed towards her with immense speed.


    As a result, while they did not outrun her spiritual perception, since that would be rather challenging, she got to look over them with it and her own eyes at very similar times, letting her get a good look at the exact kinds of people that were going to be intruding upon their territory. Their tall, muscular, dark bodies, covered in little and yet managing to withstand the sand, made it obvious that they were from the Chao District, or somewhere near it, and the insignia of a hammer on their belts confirmed that they had some relation to one another rather than having come together at the same time and in a group for the sake of better withstanding the sand.


    ¡°Who¡¯re you lot?¡± Wei Yi asked to get their version of things, keeping her words short since their earlier failure to consider the volume of the sand implied a thing or two about them.


    ¡°We are the Hammers! We smash!¡± a man at their front declared right away.


    ¡°Yeah, we smash!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t forget that we smash, also!¡±


    ¡®The Hammers¡­ Some body cultivating bunch from Chao District, most likely, and with the brains to go along with it. I don¡¯t even know whether they meant three different things by their proclamations, or if they just didn¡¯t listen to one another while they had been talking¡­¡¯ Wei Yi sighed internally and asked, ¡°What do you want?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯d like to smash! Any of ¡®em Cosmos things around?¡±


    Another man first nodded, then shook his head, as if he was onboard with the smashing but not the target. He said, ¡°Nah, you got some tough walls?¡±


    ¡°Got any bitches? Smash the bitches, haha!¡± the third exclaimed, answering her earlier question.


    She had to hold back another sigh as she said, ¡°Don¡¯t know nothing about that. Boss is a skinny, weak guy with a bow, chat with him.¡±


    They immediately ran off to pursue Great Dark, who she did not intend to apologise to after the fa?ade was ended. He was the leader of the War of Yin itself, so he should be more than capable of handling some people whose heads had been too damaged by repeated cranial attacks on their path of having a body so strong that the aforementioned cranial strikes would be unable to damage them. Rather than achieving that, regular body cultivation, from which physique cultivation was wholly distinct, tended to only make them a small degree tougher, and never sufficiently so.


    Within the Chao District, this practise was popular, and so there were quite a few groups that had simple names and were dedicated to the sole pursuit of making their bodies tougher and then having fun with them, as per the third man¡¯s comment.


    These kinds of body cultivators were more of a stereotype than what most usually were, but she just happened to have the fortune of meeting them today ¨C and she did mean that, as much as she didn¡¯t like the all that much already, since she would likely need to beat them all up several times before they would stop trying to assault the women of the camp. Most would be able to handle it just fine, but it would still be an unnecessary source of stress that should be avoided.


    The reason that she thought their presence to be a positive one was due precisely to their simple way of thinking. At the moment, they were in a somewhat risky situation due to their nonconformity with the typical practises of the Hunters of the Cosmos. With sufficient evidence, if it wasn¡¯t considered that they were the worshipers of Primordial Cosmos that were being sought, they would still be attacked either to kill or to detain, depending on the ultimate conclusion and mood of those that would be watching their behaviour for any further oddities. What they needed were groups that wouldn¡¯t be likely to contribute to such a situation in any way that might be positive for their foes, or that might even be easily persuaded to be on their side.


    She could think of two types of people or groups that might easily be drawn to their side, or that would at the very least refrain from unnecessary investigation: those who acted for the sake of money, as they could easily be paid off through illusory coins and the Dao of Law or might not even be bothered to do anything that they hadn¡¯t been explicitly paid to do, and the dim-witted, who wouldn¡¯t notice the oddity of the situation and would thus leave it alone when they really shouldn¡¯t.


    The Hammers seemed to fall into the category, and so she believed that it would be fine to put up with them for however long they would stay in or near their camp, and since she could maintain her view of the entire camp at all times, she could always be there the moment one of them decides to seek the third type of target for smashing.


    ¡®Come to think of it, I tend to be far less welcoming to men that to women when they have some interest in sex, either with me or with other ladies of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters¡­ My Dao of Lust is obviously on the Lesbian branch, if that is even possible¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she kept an eye on the members of the Hammers while they walked through the camp towards Great Dark¡¯s tent, ¡®I should ponder on my biases at some later point. Even if I am interested in women only, I have a way to get more than just sex out of it, while the others cannot do so as easily, if at all. For the Arbiters to withstand a prolonged conflict, and to be able to occupy lands that might have lost a large number of people, we would need¡­ well, people, which come from the union of men or those with draconic blood with women.¡¯


    If she somehow managed to plunge everyone into the depths of lust for women and women alone, then any potential partnerships would never result in children that they could raise and ensure the best upbringing for, and would instead need to recruit others frequently if the war continued for a long time or if their numbers were no longer sufficient for any one of a countless list of reasons. Those recruits wouldn¡¯t have been able to practise the best techniques, to learn all of the principles and beliefs of the Arbiters, nor would they have as much of a reason to keep developing and growing.


    For a moment, she considered whether giving out the Yin Soul Yang Root technique to every lesbian couple in the prison realm and Paragon might be a good idea, if only to avoid a complete cessation of natural births.


    ¡®I could also find some dragons¡­ Yeah, like they¡¯d just wander into Paragon like Long Wuchu wandered into the camp. Also, I could hardly force anyone to sleep with the dragons if they didn¡¯t wish to, although most dragons and those with draconic blood tend to be attractive to both genders, so it might not be a problem in the first place¡­ Not common enough, that lot, unfortunately,¡¯ she sighed properly.


    As if specifically to take her mind off things, the second group that she had been warned of came into view.


    Judging purely from their highly vague silhouettes, they did not appear to be another bunch of body cultivators, and they might even be somewhat reasonably dressed in some manner of dresses or robes, depending on exactly what the fabric shifting in the storm was.


    In time, they too came closer, and she was able to see that while they had managed to get dressed in the morning, or whenever they had ventured outside, they had not done so in a manner that one might expect from the Yi District, or the districts to the south of it, and certainly not like the people of the Qiang District needed to clothe themselves as to avoid being turned into an ice statue for the people around them to marvel at.


    Most of the group was made up of women, but none of them had any defining characteristics that might connect them to a family save for their absolutely incredible and charming features. Each woman ¨C for she knew naught of the reasons to enjoy a man¡¯s body and thus did not pay attention to them ¨C had a gorgeous face, with perfect lips and eyes, flowing and shiny hair, flawless skin that was slightly darker than Wei Yi¡¯s own at the moment, and their breasts and bottoms, varied in size as they were, did not fail to match the standards that the rest of their bodies set. They wore pink outfits made of translucent silk that pretended to cover their chests and nether regions, with some also wearing a length of similar fabric to pretend to cover the lower half of their faces.


    There was only one family that could so consistently and successfully have children with such varying yet perfect features, and it was the Shi family.


    ¡®If these are all members of the Shi family, then they are very likely to be some sort of organisation within the district and the family, which may mean that I already know of their existence¡­ Unfortunately, I do not know of many of the Shi family¡¯s activities and the factions within it, so it is rather difficult to guess their identity simply from their appearance.¡¯


    Just as with any family and in any district, there were plenty of things that people could get up to in their free time. Some wanted to sit around in their own homes and do nothing, other wanted to constantly be in the midst of combat, and some never wished to see their home districts again for whatever reason, and so people would often form groups based on their shared interests to do whatever it was that they were interested in. Some would consist solely of family members or some close friends, others would end up becoming large organisations, and all had their own tendencies. Some would dress in particular ways while others wouldn¡¯t, for instance.


    These things did not always remain individual, especially when they were based in part on some common trend of the family, such as the colour of their robes, or some insignia, or something else of the sort. The particular pink garb that she saw on the women of this group was not special to any one organisation, nor the Shi family itself, so it was hard to assume anything based on that, and they lacked any immediately defining insignia or physical feature that might have brought them together, leaving her to look at their cultivation.


    Each one of the people before her, who had now slowed to a walk as they got nearer to her, had a water-type cultivation, and while that in itself wasn¡¯t particularly odd for the coastal Shi family, they also appeared to be sharing a few techniques amongst themselves, with only three different water-type cultivation techniques spread amongst the two dozen people present. Once again, for a family to share techniques wasn¡¯t unusual, but for them to follow the same principle was.


    Even if a family focused on one element for their cultivation, they would still have some variance in their interpretation and usage of it. Fire could be instant, long-lasting, devouring or blinding, and water could be still, flowing, falling in many droplets, subduing, freeing, obscuring and revealing, but everyone in the Shi family group shared the concept of a powerful tide overwhelming land in their cultivation.


    That did narrow things down to a certain extent, allowing her to guess at their identity.


    However, she couldn¡¯t reveal it, since a westerner that didn¡¯t spend much time near the Shi District or Yi City in general wouldn¡¯t be aware of them, so she instead called out, ¡°Want something?¡±


    They didn¡¯t hesitate to call back in reply, asking, ¡°Is there a camp behind you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Want in?¡±


    ¡°If you wouldn¡¯t mind letting us in,¡± one of the ladies said, smiling as they kept their eyes on her face and didn¡¯t wander any further, ¡°Could we¡­ I just ask whether you have any relation to the Shi family? You have a wonderful face.¡±


    ¡®Um¡­ That is an interesting way to word that kind of praise, but alright. Maybe they¡¯re fond of doing it that way in the Shi District, although¡­ Well, I am not, so it shouldn¡¯t lead to much,¡® she shook her head straight away, ¡°Never been there, never fucked anyone from there, nor have I even been that far south.¡±


    Contrary to her expectation, that did nothing to dull the interest of the woman, who quickly said, ¡°Oh, that¡¯s great! Would you mind if we talked soon? I¡¯d love to get to know you better. I¡¯m Shi Bao Ya!¡±


    The others in the group had already gone forward without her, although Wei Yi was able to notice them listening in on their words, and so she ran off to catch up with them with an excited smile on her face. While she couldn¡¯t know the exact reason for it, she did know the cause.


    ¡®The Shi District¡­ It is said that the people there can be rather unusually secretive despite their northern location, and it is most often theorised that there is some ancient reason behind that which is kept from all but the Shi family itself¡­ Another thing that requires further investigation, and another unexpected encounter¡­¡¯ she thought to herself, remaining in place at the outer edge of the camp¡¯s barrier to keep observing incoming groups, ¡®Their overly perfect appearances remind me of Shi Luo Feng again. I swear, if they are related, I won¡¯t be able to trust beauty¡­ Not that I really should¡­¡¯

 V4C15: The Full List

    She was unable to detect any trace of anything related to the Magnanimous Leech on their bodies, whether in killing intent, spiritual will, planar energy or even physique energy forms, so she temporarily shelved that theory again. If she was given a reason to suspect that there had some been some strange actions on the part of the Shi family, now or long in the past, she would naturally attempt to get to the bottom of things if it had any relevance or danger to her, but for now, more paranoia would only bring her closer to the state of Huang Yu Di, which she really didn¡¯t need. She had enough to worry about without making up threats and mysteries at the same time.


    For a while, she stared out into the sands once more, keeping an eye on the interaction between Great Dark and the Hammers, which had little substance to it beside them trying to actually speak.


    The group that she suspected to be the Flood Kings of Shi, a group that specialised in water techniques that acted as a flood would, overcoming obstacles and tearing down anything in their way, found their way to Great Dark soon enough as well. They stepped into the conversation by accident, as they had walked in while both were silent for a while.


    It didn¡¯t take long for the Flood Kings to recognise the nature of the Hammers, if not their identity as well, so they shared a quick glance with one another and managed to decide on a tactic just like that. The women approached the Hammers, distracting them before they had a chance to do a thing to interact with them, and then brought them out of the tent simply by walking out of it and simultaneously showing off their butts to the empty-headed men from the Chao District.


    They led them out to the edge of the camp, spreading some kind of powder as they got far enough from the tents, and once the Hammers caught up with them, their movements were already slow and unsteady, and as was quickly becoming a trend, the women did not need to do another thing before the Hammers fell. Presumably, they had spread some kind of sleeping powder, but judging by the confused expressions they had shared with one another, they hadn¡¯t expected it to be anywhere as effective as it had proven to be.


    ¡®You lot thought you¡¯d need to distract them for a while until they had inhaled enough of the powder and had no chance to get it out of their system, didn¡¯t you?¡¯ Wei Yi thought, not actually speaking with them as it would be rather sudden to get commentary from the heavens.


    While most of the women were out handling that, the rest of the group, two men and one woman, spoke with Great Dark.


    ¡°I think you¡¯ll agree with us that any negotiations we might have do not require their presence, nor would they appreciate their contribution,¡± one of the Shi family men said, ¡°I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll have some place for them to sit around and ogle people while the rest of us actually hunt that worshiper of Primordial Cosmos, right?¡±


    ¡°No objections on that front. Mind introducing yourselves?¡±


    ¡°We are the Flood Kings of Shi, warriors that have come to seek combat experience against someone related to the Primordial Deities,¡± Shi Bao Ya introduced them, ¡°What about you?¡±


    ¡°I-¡±


    All of a sudden, Long Wuchu stormed inside, shouting, ¡°We¡­ are the Hunters of the Cosmos, damn it! We were fantastic, do you hear that! Then that fucking pale bitch tried to fucking kill us, and she will fucking pay! She will¡­ bleh¡­¡±


    Before he could randomly blurt out too much, Wei Yi appeared at the entrance of the tent and lightly tapped the back of his neck, spreading out some of her energy quietly to knock him out quickly and painlessly. She grabbed him in one arm, lifted him up, and turned around to bring him out of the tent right away.


    ¡°The guy¡¯s drunk! Sorry about that,¡± she said, leaving before anyone had a chance to ask.


    The three from the Flood Kings of Shi did have a number of questions, but before they could even ask Great Dark about a single thing, the women that had gone out to deal with the Hammers returned with similarly curious expressions on their faces.


    That caused them to pause again, before the other man asked, ¡°Uh¡­ You¡¯re from the Hunters of the Cosmos, right?¡±


    ¡°We are. I, and many others, were attacked by a strange foe, and I managed to recruit some people for the mission¡­ Brother Wuchu also suffered an attack in a different squad, and he is the only survivor,¡± Great Dark said, not saying anything that would go against the story that had been presented by the only true Hunter of the Cosmos, ¡°Just to get things straight, are you intending to camp besides us in search of Primordial Cosmos or any worshipers of it?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is our intention,¡± Shi Bao Ya nodded, ¡°This place seems to be well positioned in the sandstorm, and from what information we have, the worshiper would be somewhere nearby, camping out similarly. Have you encountered anyone yet?¡±


    ¡°Before we get to that, would you not want to spare me the effort of explaining this again to the people that will soon arrive? You are not the only people looking for information.¡±


    ¡°Of course we aren¡¯t¡­ We don¡¯t know exactly what the rest will want, nor whether they even expect anything out this ¨C most do, but that¡¯s beside the point ¨C but if there is any combat, call us. We want to participate within it to train and acquire more practise, so you better not forget to tell us a single thing,¡± the first man said, ¡°Alright?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll consider it, naturally.¡±


    The next group was coming from a slightly different direction, so Wei Yi adjusted her position to meet them properly under the guise of a casual walk. Long Wuchu had already been placed back in his bed with a restraint or two to keep him there, as she didn¡¯t want him to charge into Huang Yu Di¡¯s place next and scare that paranoid man any more than he already was, and the Hammers did not appear to have any intentions to awake within the near future.


    As such, she was able to calmly look onwards as the next group appeared amidst the endless sandstorm.


    Unlike the previous two, whose identities took some time to decipher, she was almost certain that she had gotten it right away this time. Every single figure moved in perfect synchronicity, and they managed to make far more progress with each step than they should have, and so there was only one district that she expected them to have originated from ¨C the Bai District.


    Not only were the Bai family traditionally focused on earth-type techniques, which would naturally benefit them in the traversal of any kind of sandy environment due to the ample quantity of earth-like materials to interact with, but their collaborative group techniques and formations also allowed them to intensify each one of their steps to cover more distance while using less energy. In addition, there was the faint trace of umbrellas above them, as one might expect from a family of those who are commonly affected by albinism, although she struggled to make out whether they were physical or made from stabilised energy hovering above them.


    Once they got a little closer, however, the slight glow of grey energy above them became clear, and the planar constructs that guarded them from the sun became visible as well.


    ¡®Fourth realm, all of them. This can¡¯t be some random group from the Bai family, not unless they have a far larger quantity and density of energy within their district than any other district I had ever heard of, which is very unlikely given the fact that there have no wars to capture it at all despite the fact that they are not as keen to keep their gates shut as the Ju District, meaning that they would be discovered almost right away,¡¯ she thought, keeping a close eye on them, ¡®Thus, it might be one of their legions¡­¡¯


    As with her other guess, verifying it straight away was impossible without endangering the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters¡¯ ruse, as a dumbass with a very limited scope of knowledge on things south or east of their origin suddenly figuring out the nature of the incoming forces would be odd, to say the least.


    Instead, she had to hope that they would reveal themselves when she called out, ¡°Who goes there?¡±


    They did not slow down or speed up at her question, making their way over to her at an impressively consistent pace despite the frequent changes in the sand¡¯s direction and the occasional hill and dune in the way. Perhaps their ultimate speed was slower than if they had decided to speed up once hearing her, but the reason that they and most of the forces that attempted to intensely focus on group martial arts of any kind needed to stay together in perfect unison at all times was that they would ruin the flow created by their method if one moved out of line while another did not.


    On a curious note, that did mean that it was entirely reasonable for certain soldiers to abandon battle together, as it might be less damaging to the smooth flow of their technique than to be beaten or otherwise matched by some other powerful enemy, especially if they had mental techniques that would only affect one of the group.


    In the north, their strive for this flow did result in frequent orgies, whereas the south had to be satisfied with simply sleeping together to share their warmth and not die in the cold.


    ¡°7th Legion of the Bai District. We are here to cull the threat of fanatic cultists and maniacs before the district can be threatened!¡± they announced themselves in perfect unison, even performing the same salute at the same time with impeccable harmony.


    The energy between them flowed almost as one, although, as with any human creation in the world, there were flaws to be observed within their actions. One of the men took a breath at the wrong time and was unable to lift his hand at the same time, and one of them stuttered as a grain of sand went into their mouth, and although these things were miniscule enough to likely not be noticed even by the ones that instructed this legion, they did affect that flow of energy.


    Every minor mistake staggered and destabilised it just a little bit, which in itself made it easier to break the flow and cause further instability that could effectively balloon out of control after a single careless mistake from one of the participants. For this reason, even though some were quite enticed by the prospect of frequent sex in large groups, there were not only the realities of such a situation to deal with, as well as a lot of the less pleasant stuff that such legions would do together as well, very few were ever willing or able to get into a group such as this one unless they had begun training with one another from birth and only decided to form a group like this at a later point in time.


    ¡°Why does the number¡­ Eh, forget it. If you want to see the boss ¡®round here, he¡¯s in the biggest tent. He¡¯s the smallest and weakest lookin¡¯ one, though.¡±


    She let them through as well, momentarily pondering whether she was even resembling a decent guard since she had yet to stop, search or even question a single one of the incoming groups beyond simply asking for their identity, as she had now. In theory, if she demanded a small tithe for disturbing her, or something of the sort, she could accumulate a decent amount of money by doing nothing at all.


    While she didn¡¯t need it, commerce was a powerful thing in the Planar Continents, hence the Chen family¡¯s prominence throughout it, and she could hardly be everywhere at once to complete every single transaction with her false coins, the concentrations of the Dao of Law. Even if she could be some omnipresent entity, there were still bound to be those that would be able to see through her illusions, whether due to their cultivation realm or some other unique property, so this would hardly be a solution to all financial problems until the end of it.


    It was within the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters¡¯ abilities to produce false coins through the many materials available at the Kong Prison Realm, and soon within Paragon as well, but while they might be able to fool common people, there were bound to be others that were less susceptible to such things.


    Furthermore, there was the matter of the value of the coins to be considered. If they were to constantly mint more of their own coins then use them for trade, then every district that they interacted with would gain more and more coins to work with. Such things would spread out throughout the district¡¯s people and eventually everyone would have more coins than when they started, but then the individual value of each coin was bound to decrease in the eyes of those with most significance.


    The Arbiters did not need to cause the value of the current system of currency to drop, especially not while it was as balanced as it was, and so it was naturally far safer to simply earn some money of their own. Plenty of the people in the prison realm were able to produce items of some value to the outside world, and there were plenty there that would be willing to purchase them, so all that they required was a channel to the interested parties. It would almost certainly need to be disguised as some kind of trading group that would have little to do with Paragon as often as possible so that any potential raids on them couldn¡¯t yield a great deal of dangerous information to the attackers, but this in itself was not that uncommon.


    In particular, it seemed that most of the participants in the War of Yin did wish to pursue the same method as this, since the Deadly Martial Colosseum and the Brotherhood of Power both earned a decent amount for their owners without needing to be explicitly related to the leader of the offensive and the Remnants of Yin respectively.


    This method could also be used to attain an incredibly degree of influence within the districts prior even to announcing the existence of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters to the world at large. If they provide a large amount of valuable resources and equipment to Yi City, then it would be incredibly difficult for the Greats to convince certain groups to work against them, and if they had spent some time doing this, they might earn a reputation of being trustworthy and reliable enough for the words about the Greats to be believed right away, allowing them to turn Yi City against them.


    Of course, there would still be others, most likely the Chen family, that wouldn¡¯t be fond of such an approach and would attempt to prevent it, possibly even siding with the Great Chen Family just to prevent their market dominance from coming to an end, but to think that they could easily spread out to all districts in the first place was essentially nothing more than a fantasy. Even if the roads between districts were to be fully rebuilt and guarded, that wouldn¡¯t be enough to guarantee that their trading forces could spread out however they want and trade wherever they like. There were already plenty of organisations and groups that wished to benefit from trade that would then have the desire to stop them, and they hardly possessed the best craftsmen in the world to surpass all of them with quality.


    Wei Yi and Fu Zan were indeed more capable than most, and both had some interesting ideas when it came to designs and equipment, but they were two people that would then need to compete against hundreds of skilled masters of the great arts in all of the other districts.


    Simply put, this was not the most viable solution to all problems, but as a single method out of thousands to eventually topple the Greats, this would work well enough. It could permit them to have a covert and an overt force in districts of interest, acquiring two layers of information about them at the same time, and could help with discovering talent or deals that might not appear at the house of a spy in the district.


    ¡®That¡¯s one more thing to pass down to the Arbiters, I guess¡­ Next group, then.¡¯


    The next group was arriving from a similar direction to the Flood Kings of Shi, leading her to conclude that they were either from a district in a similar direction, such as the Ju District or the Chu District, both of which were to the west of the Chao District and would thus arrive at the sandstorm at a similar angle.


    She was prepared to guess at their identity and origins, but even through the sand, the vague figured seemed to threaten to blind her with bright gleams, as if they were covered in an excessive amount of overly polished that would somehow reflect more than all of the light that fell upon it, threatening to devalue the very concept of light itself. This shiny annoyance was also golden in shade, as were the approaching forces, leaving only one reasonable conclusion that could be made even with the great distance from the group itself.


    They were almost certain to be from the Chen District, and they were certainly not shy about it. It didn¡¯t make it obvious which group they were part of, but only the Chen could spare that much gold for such useless things.


    Indeed, as they got closer and spotted her as well, she could see that all of them were wearing items made from golden threads, with some areas of the body being protected with golden chainmail or even golden plates that were almost certainly reinforced either with immortal gold or some other method in order to give them a minimal amount of viability, otherwise even the Chen family would likely not wear such an excessive amount of things on their body this far north.


    It was important to mention that Paragon, and thus the sandstorm surrounding it, was a good way into the Northern Desert, perhaps half of the way to the Glass Wastes of the absolute north, which were hot enough to turn anything into glass the moment that someone stepped into them. As such, the temperature outside of the fortress, in which the residents enjoyed the superstructure array that kept it down to a more reasonable level, was many times higher than it was in the Central Plains and thus the Chen District, easily being unsuitable for most ordinary people to be unable to live there for prolonged periods of time without a lot of water and some intensive preparation to resolve matters other than hydration.


    To make it worse for oneself by coating oneself in metal that was easily heated by the sun was a rather foolish thing to do just for appearances and was thus fortunately rare.


    Once they were near enough, she acted as usual and called out, ¡°Who goes there?¡±


    The Chen District group hesitated when they heard her, then strode forward until they could see her properly through the sandstorm, and then proudly straightened their backs and posed for her, leading her to question her assessment of their intelligence.


    ¡°We are the Golden Lords! We come from the Chen District to assist you with the troubles of the Primordial Deities!¡±


    ¡°Oh? Who paid you to come here?¡±


    ¡°The Chen family, of course!¡± they proudly confirmed.


    ¡°What for?¡±


    At once, with even greater synchronicity to the 7th Legion, they reached out with their palm up, gesturing for her to give them a suitable bribe.


    ¡®This lot has their priorities straight, I guess. It also confirms that they are probably here for more than one reason, although whether it is something really minor or significant is more difficult to determine,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, pointing towards the camp, ¡°Boss is in there. If you want, talk. Otherwise, get the fuck out.¡±


    They took no offense to her words, although any experienced moneygrubber should have known that if they had, they would have had a chance to getting a small settlement amount out of the time spent, but perhaps they already had enough to spare or had something else lined up for themselves. Returning to their prouder outward look, they walked past her and entered the barrier of the camp, leaving her to watch the outside for any further incoming groups and to ponder their actions. She could also watch over what the diplomatic talks between the four participating groups so far would look like, but for the moment, the 7th Legion and soon the Golden Lords went to sit or stand by the tent while awaiting further arrivals, as well as quietly checking out the potential disturbances to their plans.


    Before then, she only had their actions so far to consider, and some did catch her attention.


    The newest arrivals were looking at the others far more closely, and while it could be assumed that they were simply curious who they could take the most money from, their wandering spiritual perception was most focused on the weapons and armour of the others groups, save for when their spiritual perception was able to wander undiscovered. There was clearly interest in the equipment of the other groups, leading her to conclude that their intentions might not be as pure as they had announced to her.


    Given that they were sent by the Chen family, their goals were almost certainly related to the forceful repossession of as much wealth as possible, but whether they intended to do that by stealing the equipment and then selling it back or by some more nefarious means was more difficult to conclude.


    Then there was the 7th Legion, that also paid a strange amount of attention to the people around the camp. Unlike the Golden Lords, however, they only focused on the supposed Hunters of the Cosmos, and their gazes were even more intense and careful. For the moment, there was little outward tension, especially as they appeared somewhat confused by the clothing and weaponry of the false Hunters, but if they had some enmity with them then Wei Yi suspected that they would get look at them even less favourably when they learned that there was indeed a true member of the Hunters amongst them, for one of two reason that she could think of.


    The first would be if the Bai District had some allegiances with the Hunters of the Cosmos, in which case they might be rather suspicious of the odd outfits of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters poorly masquerading as the Hunters, made worse by the fact that if Wei Yi knew about them in advance, she could have easily manufactured some equipment that would seem to have been made from abyss metal to the untrained eye. At that point, only Long Wuchu might have known that there was something wrong.


    Alternatively, it could be that they were indeed opposed to the Hunters for whatever reason, in which case their gazes would be to confirm whether or not this squad of the Hunters of the Cosmos was something that the 7th Legion could take without much assistance in some remote area where they would not be observed by the other forces, as attacking them here and now would be foolish.


    Most of the attention of the Flood Kings of Shi was focused on the sandstorm around the camp, which they observed frequently and with a significant amount of attention, likely meaning that there was something out there that they wished to see. Perhaps they knew about the Great Worm, or maybe they were waiting for more allied forces to arrive from another district or another group, but whatever the case was they weren¡¯t talking about it, so Wei Yi couldn¡¯t just listen in on their words. Some of them were likely thinking about it, but the precision of her spiritual will thread declined significantly through the sandstorm, so she didn¡¯t want to risk anything just yet.


    Finally, the Hammers remained unconscious for the moment, with the reason behind their odd weakness becoming rather obvious the moment that she looked into their bodies.


    While their muscles and whatever else was trained more than sufficiently to bring them onto the same level as second realm cultivators with their bodies alone, as was the limit of ordinary body cultivation, their internal organs had not been refined anywhere near as much. As a result, a powder that would only be able to knock out an ordinary person in second did the same to them, as on the inside their bodies were effectively identical.


    One person that wasn¡¯t part of any of these groups but that Wei Yi was still rather concerned about was Huang Yu Di, who had been resting within his tent most of the time and thus hadn¡¯t seen any of the newly arrived forced just yet. There was a high chance that if he did see the Golden Lords, he might fly into a panic, and that the Golden Lords might know or pretend to know something about his situation to attempt to profit from it in some way, as the Chen were never put off by shoddy garbs so long as there was the potential for making money somewhere in a person¡¯s head or body.


    That would naturally not be ideal, so she remotely requested one of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters to monitor the man¡¯s tent and keep him busy if necessary, just so that this had no chance of happening without some exceptional circumstances.


    For some time after she looked through the camp a few times, she saw nothing out in the sands, making her ponder whether it was time to go back inside and also let Great Dark convene the meeting of the forces present so far, but just as she was about to turn around she felt the earth beneath her feet tremble ever so slightly, with a strange feeling spreading throughout her body. For a moment, she wondered whether it might be the Great Worm again, but the trembling didn¡¯t quite match in her mind.


    Most of the groups so far had come from the south, as they originated from Yi City, but this trembling had come somewhere from the west, where the outer districts of the city had once been, so she went there at once to keep an eye out on whatever was approaching them.


    It repeated once more after a short delay, then occurred again and again. Quite clearly, it was drawing closer, but the volume of the sound and intensity of the trembling did not appear to be increasing all that much, meaning that not only could it not be the Great Worm, which was highly fortunate, but it did also mean that the nearing group was able to produce a consistent and wide-spread tremble every few seconds without any obvious difficulty ¨C so far, at the very least ¨C to however many people were present within the group.


    Only after several minutes of repeated, almost rhythmic shaking was she able to witness the new arrivals, as well as hear them, curiously enough.


    ¡°Praise the Great Worm!¡± a large number of people chanted.


    ¡°It guards our world from the invaders beyond!¡± a singular voice exclaimed.


    ¡°Praise the Great Worm!¡±


    ¡°A being perpetual and immortal!¡± a second but very similar voice proclaimed.


    ¡°Praise the Great Worm!¡±


    ¡°We are but ants that benefit from its vigour!¡± a third, also similar, voice bellowed.


    ¡°Praise the Great Worm!¡±


    ¡°So that its foe perishes, we must do our part!¡± the first returned with the same vigour as before.


    ¡°Praise the Great Worm!¡±


    ¡°Men must fight men, while gods oppose gods!¡±


    ¡°Praise the Great Worm!¡±


    ¡°What was, will be, what will be was!¡±


    ¡°Praise!¡±


    With each repetition of their praise, the dull thud spread out throughout the ground once again, with the four chanting lines of people tapping the staves in their left hands on the sand in unison to cause it. On the right of the gap in between each line, numbering three in total, were figures garbed much the same as those in the lines, but rather than holding a staff each one carried a bead necklace that hung from their connected hands, the palms pressed together in prayer.


    Whenever the tips of the staves touched the sand, the necklace would light up momentarily with a sand-colour glow, shining through otherwise unseen patterns on the wooden beads and likely participating in whatever process permitted the ground to shake in the way that it did.


    Aside from the way in which she had come across three groups with a strange kind of unity in just a single hour being rather curious, her attention was mostly on the way in which their group technique was achieved, as it was clearly incredibly profound and effective but did not draw a drop of energy from the users, save for the physical exertion of each step and staff strike. Instead, whatever was used came from around them, and reverberated through the ground leading to a far more intense effect than that amount of energy should have been able to produce.


    ¡®I don¡¯t think that it would be possible to make use of that principle in everything, but they are certainly strangely knowledgeable on this method for a group of worm worshipers,¡¯ she thought, recording it all very carefully as to have some chance of deciphering the exact nature of the method at a later time with some practise and experimentation.


    So long as something of the sort could be mastered, any kind of environment with plentiful planar energy in the atmosphere would immediately become more favourable to her forces as they would be able to muster far more offensive, defensive or possibly just utility potential than if they lacked such an ability. All that she could understand about it so far was that the people participating in the chant and prayer somehow acted together, not as a typical group formation but as a complex array instead, tapping into some kind of strange energy while also releasing some of their own. From such a distance, it was difficult to tell whether their bodies suffered as a result, but they certainly weren¡¯t showing it.


    Their uncertain capabilities combined with their devotion to the chant made her reluctant to interrupt them as they got nearer, especially as that strange feeling in her chest still remained, so she let them come to her at their own pace.


    As it turned out, that pace was the same one that they had been following all of their journey there, for they continued to have something to proclaim about the Great Worm or something about life itself, with their statements ranging from somewhat sensible, like the statement that men should fight men while gods fight gods, but not all were anywhere near as reasonable. It did make sense that a man couldn¡¯t step into the battlefield of deities without suffering, and should thus restrict himself to battles where his presence would actually do some good, but being merely food for the worm was less profound and hardly as pleasant of a matter to consider, which, considering the fact that being weak was already something that many struggled with, was a small achievement.


    When they did get near enough to see her right before them, the group approaching in such a manner that the three on the side of the four lines were closer to her, they did cease their endless proclamations as the closest of the three stepped forward to speak with her face to face, still holding onto his prayer beads.


    ¡°This one would speak with you. Do you accept?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I guess so. Are you here to fight the worshipers of Primordial Cosmos, or¡­ am I misunderstanding something?¡± she asked in reply.


    ¡°These ones have come here for that purpose. The sky perpetually consumes the earth, which in turn devours it. The Great Worm must not be hindered from its endless path, nor may the cosmos be permitted to plan for its failure. As the supplicants of the Great Worm, those who are made by it and ended by it, we must ensure that it can persist eternally.¡±


    ¡°Good, you do that¡­ maybe. I am not going to be talking with you further, so go.¡±


    ¡°The Perpetuals of the Worm thank you.¡±


    The man nodded, stepped back, then the group proceeded onwards, walking past her and into the camp, ceasing their repeated striking of the ground much to the relief of those in the camp, as some of her Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters had seen the Great Worm and were still somewhat afraid of it.


    As they came into the area of the camp where the other forces gathered, the Flood Kings immediately began to pay attention to them far more than any other group in the area, prompting the natural question of whether they and the Perpetuals of the Worm, as these people apparently called themselves, had previously met or if the trembling of the group had simply been too shocking.


    They did not act right away however, and soon returned an eye to the sandstorm while the other remained upon the Perpetuals.


    Before anything else could happen, Wei Yi was already able to sense the next group arriving, and so headed back to the same point where the people from the Shi District and the Chen District had appeared, awaiting to see what kind of strange force would arrive upon their figurative doorstep this time. She hoped ever so slightly that they would be from the Ju District, since that would give her a chance to observe the various tools and methods they use to fight in place of planar energy, but the strong aura of energy surrounding them, and its wood element, soon confirmed a different identity.


    Out of the sands, with a thin green fog around them and the traces of small saplings growing out of the ground around them as they walked, only for most to dry and die soon after they went past it, came out a group dressed in green robes that were light and thin, yet covered most of their bodies.


    Unlike some of the skewed groups that had come before them, this one contained an equal number of men and women, each one walking as a pair with the other, creating a small resonance of yin and yang between them. It did not appear to be entirely coincidental, but she could tell quickly that they weren¡¯t taking full advantage of the potential of that resonance thanks to her rapidly growing experience in that as a result of her dual cultivation method.


    In comparison with the Perpetuals, their arrival almost seemed uneventful despite everything that they had put into their travels, so the moment they got near, Wei Yi pointed towards the camp.


    One among them saw this, shared it with the others, and they soon entered the camp as well. They did not attempt to speak with Great Dark as the two forces before them had, but instead neared the Flood Kings of Shi and attempted to remain in their vague vicinity, although they did not overtly communicate with one another.


    They did not change that within the next hour, nor did she witness the arrival of another force, so it was decided by the groups, and by Great Dark with Wei Yi¡¯s agreement, that it was time to begin, and that anyone that came later could be excluded from their temporary alliance.

 V4C16: Ethereal Threat

    The meeting between the leaders of the factions, the Hammers excluded, ended up comprising Great Dark, Shi Bao Ya, a man from the 7th Legion named Bai Hao, a figure from the Golden Lords that was apparently named Chen Chen, a figure from the Perpetuals of the Worm that called himself He Who Speaks, and a woman from the Chu family¡¯s group of the Keepers of Groves named Chu Lingshen.


    Naturally, Wei Yi and the random goons from the other groups were excluded, but while the tent and the barriers each one of the leaders put up might have been an issue for some of them, the Ascendant hardly needed to worry about them as she snuck in some of her own spiritual perception and used it to observe them. At first, they stared at one another across a table fashioned of some spare pieces from stools that weren¡¯t being used despite having been by Wei Yi for this very purpose, and all seemed reluctant to express themselves.


    Great Dark didn¡¯t have the exact rumours from the south to work with, so he couldn¡¯t say anything about them until he heard them, the 7th Legion leader only cared about the location of the threat and had no reason to speak about anything else, the Golden Lord knew that they shouldn¡¯t try to raise any possibility of money being paid to them until it was a more suitable time, the Flood King¡¯s Shi Bao Ya kept glancing to Chu Lingshen while she looked back at her, and He Who Speaks was likely intending to rename himself to He Who Is Silent, given the fact that he had not attempted to say a thing the entire time he had been in the tent.


    ¡®What a great start to any talks to have complete silence. I¡¯m sure all of this will go perfectly, and that none of them will ever have the desire to kill one another despite the dirty looks from Shi Bao Ya and Chu Lingshen towards He Who Is Silent¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought, sighing on the outside.


    Since none of them were going to act, Great Dark might as well take the initiative to break the ice and begin, so she recommended that he do so quickly before any of the others decided to just share their terms for any kind of clean cooperation and go off to do their own thing somewhere else, which wouldn¡¯t be ideal in any circumstances.


    ¡°As the person to set up the camp we are in, I shall speak first,¡± he said after a moment, bringing all eyes onto him, ¡°First, let us all confirm that we are here to deal with any worshiper of Primordial Cosmos. Is there anyone who wishes to do something different?¡±


    Shi Bao Ya said, ¡°We¡¯d primarily like to get combat experience, so that¡¯s technically correct.¡±


    ¡°In that case, you hardly needed to bring this up. The rest of you aren¡¯t saying anything either, so I shall assume that there are no objects. Next, gains and benefits. Aside from the clearing of a terrible threat to Yi City and the world, especially if the worshiper is up to resurrecting Primordial Cosmos or something of the sort, anyone who has come here for any specific purpose or item should state it now so that there is no conflict later on. So?¡±


    Some of the other leaders glanced at one another, although most rested their eyes on the Golden Lord, who did not object.


    Most of them did not have any explicit goals or intentions within the possible conflict with a heretical worshiper of the primordial deities, save for whatever loot that person might have on their body that could come to be of use to them, but the Chen family always had other desires.


    As such, even if Chen Chen was to lack such ulterior motives and claim as such, he would only seem to be more suspicious in the eyes of those that were staring at him right now. Due to his obvious nature of seeking money in all places that it existed, or making it where there was none, he naturally understood this fact, and so he smiled openly and held his hand out.


    ¡°You want information, you have to pay,¡± his smile turned into a grin.


    Expecting exactly that response, what he was instead met with was the drawing of blades and the ignition of techniques, although no attacks came at him.


    Nonetheless, he folded right away and said, ¡°We¡¯d appreciate it if you considered employing our services, and that of our Chen District. Visitation only costs a planar shard, and you can be brought through a comfortable experience for as little as fifty, although we do offer premium rates for a special package that can be purchased for only two planar stones! The price is so low that countless are already lining up to-¡±


    ¡°Shut up. We do not care,¡± Bai Hao stopped him, ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Nope. You may have a good day, so long as you intend to visit soon. Otherwise, we pray that you do not come across an unfortunate trap in the wilderness that shall crush your every bone to dust.¡±


    ¡°Noted.¡±


    While those two participated in some staring context, Yi Shi Ming, the spatial spirit that had been observing this play out, reached out to Wei Yi¡¯s strands of consciousness within the prison realm on the topic of this very matter.


    ¡°Wei Yi, I have just recalled the Chen family¡¯s origin, or, rather, the cause of their current situation. The Chen Clan from which they developed had not been as fond of money, wealth or power as the current Chen family, but that had changed when Ah Shi Meng became highly influential in their territory, more so than the leaders of the clan at the time,¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City shared while she listened and pretended to napping in her own tent, ¡°He had not been setting up Yi City back then, but they still sought him out and wanted to learn how he had done such a thing so quickly.¡±


    ¡®If I had to guess, I¡¯d say that he had imported some of his otherworldly knowledge and had made good use of it. Seeing as we are also talking about the Chen family, it was likely something related to business and commerce, as that other world is apparently highly proficient in it, selling almost everything to everyone,¡¯ she guessed.


    ¡°Indeed, it was something like that. My son had not been the strongest at the subject, but his experiences had very much overwhelmed that of the Chen Clan¡¯s leaders, and so he was able to make everyone interested in his goods, his abilities and his life within just a few weeks. Seeing the opportunity, he had told them that so long as they subordinated themselves to him, he would teach them not what he knew, but the core philosophy behind it, and they would be able to take it and leap to far greater heights than he ever could. After some persuasion they did believe him and agreed,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, ¡°I was not present at that discussion, but it has managed to lead to this. If I had to guess, I¡¯d say that they¡¯ve stolen most of the immortal gold from the Yi District, one way or another.¡±


    ¡®That has to be a common interpretation, but with all of the ordinary gold on all of them, it would be highly difficult to confirm whether or not any of the immortal gold from the Ancestral Hall had been melted and incorporated into something, not that they¡¯d do that most of the time.¡¯


    The mother of the Master of Yi City shook her head, ¡°No, they wouldn¡¯t. If they were to follow in the footsteps of my son, they would instead find a way to sell it to an interested party in the best state as possible after setting up enough of a mystique about the treasure. Perhaps they could claim that they had uncovered it after a long period of searching and that, in order to recover the costs of recovering such a valuable item, they would host an auction where they would throw in as many items as possible beside the immortal gold to attract purchasers to obtain them first. After that, when funds are running low, they could always claim to be permitting people to bid on funds that they did not have, provided that they would repay them later with an appropriately larger sum after interest, finally bringing out the item and making some planted Chen family recruits in the audience hike the price up more quickly.¡±


    ¡®At that point, with everyone betting using money that they do not currently have, they would be bound to get a little more careless than usual then spend much more than they otherwise would. After all, when you are given the illusion of having something, you tend to not be able to see exactly how much you do have,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, ¡®Then, when a piece is bought, the interest rate on the loan that they are effectively providing would be absolutely immense. They would need to either give the item back after paying off as much as possible, or provide that ludicrous quantity of funding right away.¡¯


    ¡°Indeed. Then, if it is brought back, the others would be even more hungry to receive it after failing to do so the first time, although most would be certain to confirm at least for a moment why the item had been returned so quickly and without any obvious action from the side that had claimed it first. Such a thing could be continued for a while.¡±


    ¡®So, did you son teach them that? If he did, he effectively created a terrible force to terrorise the Western Continent for some time, and they might have even spread to the Eastern Continent by now. I would be interested to know how the Daoists are handling it, if they are forced to do so.¡¯


    She lay on her back and looked up at the top of the tent, imagining the map of the Planar Continents upon it as she looked to the Daoist Continent to the east.


    ¡°It would certainly be an interesting thing to consider, although I am afraid that your curiosity will not be sated by seeing the continent in person, not in the near future, so long as you persist on your current path in pursuit of your current goal. To cross between one continent and another takes a lot of time, and while the Kong Prison Realm is now connected both to you and the Western Continent, there is a limit to how far it can go without the physical construction itself being moved with you, which would then impact Paragon and the people there,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, ¡°In the time it would take to go there, then back, so long as anyone realises your absence, they might be able to take down Paragon with unfortunate ease, leaving you nothing to return to when you come back.¡±


    ¡®I am well aware of that, hence why I am not thinking of travelling. Besides, even if the entirety of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters were to leave to the other continent, the Greats would just be able to get a firmer hold of the people here, and kill or otherwise negatively affect countless people while we laze about among the sects and empires of the Eastern Continent,¡¯ Wei Yi stated, ¡®That is not something that I will risk, not unless the other continent can permit me to undo their influence entirely.¡¯


    ¡°That I would doubt, but it is hardly impossible. So long as the east maintains a greater quantity of planar energy than the west, and hasn¡¯t suffered great setbacks in terms of their technique development, they are likely to be ahead of us¡­ But you are hardly looking for encouragement in that direction, are you.¡±


    ¡®Nope, so if you¡¯re going to be talking about things, I would rather hear more about the Chen family and their tactics. I do not get a good feeling from these Golden Lords, and not just because they remind me of Ding Wen from the Kong Prison Realm, as well as his House of Gold.¡¯


    ¡°While I do not personally remember that name, nor the person it had belonged to, I can confirm no similarities between any traces of energy belonging to the native people, so to speak, of the prison realm and those who are currently in the camp. As such, you can relax on your vigilance against that, but you shouldn¡¯t let your guard down around the members of the Shi family, so long as my senses are accurate,¡± she said.


    Wei Yi rolled over onto her side, dispersing the map that she had begun creating out of her killing will. She had checked them before and checked them again, then asked, ¡®Why¡¯s that? I¡¯m not able to notice anything odd about them.¡¯


    ¡°While the Chen family members bear no resemblance to the Ding Wen of the prison realm, Shi Luo Feng does have some similarities to the Shi family members. I cannot identify it myself, but there is certainly something about them that unsettles me and my senses,¡± Yi Shi Ming explained, ¡°I do not know if they are responsible, or if it is someone else, but you ought to be wary until you are.¡±


    ¡®¡­ I hate that I¡¯m getting a bad feeling about this. Can¡¯t the world just have a bunch of attractive women without them having something dangerous about them?¡¯


    ¡°While I will not dispute the sentiment, you should take a good look at yourself first.¡±


    ¡®Yeah, I shouldn¡¯t be the one to speak, but nobody else is this deep into all of the shit going on in the Western Continent as I am, so nobody else can comment. Even then, I am speaking only to you, so who is to say that others aren¡¯t also keeping some stuff to themselves? I certainly wouldn¡¯t be surprised, especially if they are not some otherworldly demon¡­¡¯ Wei Yi paused, ¡®Come to think of it, I should check whether anyone keeps any diaries in the prison realm, Paragon, or anywhere else I go. If they are written in one of the otherworldly languages I know, I could begin recruit a force of them.¡¯


    ¡°Are you certain that is a good idea? While I understand the usefulness of every single power in their possession, whether or not it is one that you can take from them or one that they can use for you, is there not a danger akin to the one of the Great Families? Just as they are able to perceive you through the usage of their proper title, wouldn¡¯t whatever entity was responsible for the otherworldly gifts know more about you the more otherworldly demons you bring to your side?¡± the spatial spirit questioned, ¡°If it is not something that can already end you in one moment, then the more it knows, the better it would be able to deal with you, especially if you are going against its intentions. Is that not dangerous?¡±


    ¡®I suppose that it is, and I have thought about this before. The more I hear about old men and women interacting in strange ways with the otherworldly demons, the more I am concerned that this isn¡¯t some sudden coincidence in a faulty system of reincarnation, but an intentional act by another. However, I do not know why it is happening, nor what someone would have to gain from sending out random people to our world. That being said, if I was a nuisance, they would have come for me already.¡¯


    ¡°So, you do not believe this to be a threat?¡±


    ¡®Not one I need to interact with any time soon. Given the amount of damage the demons have done to the Planar Continents already, this is almost certainly either a malicious or foolish act, but until I learn more about them or am forced to confront them I should¡­ Well, as the Perpetuals said, really. I should fight people, while whatever deity can create the otherworldly gifts finds some other foe.¡¯


    ¡°This coming from someone who had repeatedly wished to confront the heavens if they had any responsibility for the current situation of the world,¡± Yi Shi Ming smiled, if only for a moment.


    ¡®Don¡¯t get me wrong, if the heaven¡¯s will could have stopped the Greats, the otherworldly demons and all of the other bullshit that has plagued the Planar Continents, but instead just sat around and waited for someone else to do its job for it, then I would very much like to get in the heaven¡¯s will¡¯s face and then hit it repeatedly until not even its non-existent mother would ever be able to recognise it¡­ Ahem, got a little carried away,¡¯ Wei Yi turned back onto her back, ¡®In all honesty, I can¡¯t expect everyone to act about every little thing, but when you¡¯re right there, with the power to do something, and yet fail to do so, you are very much partly responsible.¡¯


    ¡°I suppose so. So long as our understanding of the heavens and their will is anything like the truth, then they have just been sitting around without doing anything that we can understand or perceive. That, or they have been helping the Great Families, as they would claim.¡±


    ¡®Then the beating would get worse. Perhaps the heaven¡¯s will can be killed, and someone else can take its place. Do you think I¡¯d do a good job if I tried, or would someone a little less¡­ radical in her ideas be more suitable?¡¯ she asked, a smile appearing on her face soon after, ¡®Nah, it wouldn¡¯t be that easy, nor would I get such a convenient chance. I do think I have some more balls than the current will, literally and otherwise.¡¯


    Yi Shi Ming certainly didn¡¯t intend to deny that, nor could she do so honestly.


    Besides the initial matter of the negotiations, there was rather little to actually discuss, so they concluded rather quickly with the decision that each group would camp near to one another, then would report any sightings of anything that was in any way related to Primordial Cosmos to the other groups immediately. At that point, they would rush at the worshipers right away and prevent them from doing whatever it was that they were doing, which wasn¡¯t something that any of the individual leaders appeared to have much knowledge of as far as Great Dark was able to gather.


    It certainly wasn¡¯t something that any of them would announce lightly and easily, since none of them chose to mention it, so he had to assume that he wouldn¡¯t learn it without making it obvious that he did not already know it, which would put doubt on him and thus the entirety of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters in the area. That wouldn¡¯t be ideal, of course, so he refrained from asking, although he did first seek out Wei Yi¡¯s advice by way of a glance in the vague area from which her spiritual will must have entered the tent from. As engrossed as she was in the discussion of the heaven¡¯s will ineptitudes, she noticed it quickly and did confirm that remaining safe for now was the better option.


    After the tactical discussion, the Golden Lords attempted to purchase their camp for themselves, the Perpetuals of the Worm went away immediately and simply sat in the sandstorm some distance from the false Hunters of the Cosmos camp, and the Flood Kings and the Keepers of Groves headed out to settle down near one another.


    Their friendly relations with one another may not have been obvious to some before this, but they were nearly impossible to miss now. All that was left was a proclamation of their alliance, really.


    When the Golden Lords and their offer was refused, they did not appear perturbed and instead brought out a lot of gilded materials from shrinking pouches and bags that they set up some distance from both the Hunter and the Flood and Keeper camps, although they did their best to position themselves in such a way that as much of the sandstorm as possible would be blocked by them. It was difficult to find a perfect position due to the ever-shifting direction of the storm, but they certainly did their best. They did, unfortunately, wake the Hammers in the process.


    That bunch of oafs did not appear to be particularly concerned that their opportunity to have some say on things was taken from them, nor did they seem to realise that they had been drugged, and happily went into the sands to find a place to sit around and smash things.


    Last of all, the 7th Legion had lingered around the most while they regained the flow that they had lost by separating from one another during the discussions, then went in another direction from the rest to build a more separate encampment where they would be able to continue with their improvement of flow uninterrupted.


    While the groups themselves did leave to their respective campsites, some didn¡¯t go with them, and among that number was Shi Bao Ya, who left once she could and stood around Wei Yi¡¯s tent, having learned of its location from one of the Arbiters before Wei Yi could tell them to keep the information to themselves. Fortunately enough, she didn¡¯t appear to be keen to interrupt her or walk in on her, so Wei Yi was able to continue monitoring the area and observing the actions of the other groups without any issues, but it was clear that the woman wouldn¡¯t leave until she got to see her at least once. After that, it might depend on her satisfaction with the encounter.


    As such, after she confirmed this to be the case by telling some of the Arbiters to try and pull her away inconspicuously and watching them fail right away, she decided that it was about time to see what the woman wanted, or if she could be made to leave for a little while.


    She stepped out of her tent and was immediately noticed and approached by Shi Bao Ya.


    ¡°There you are! I¡¯ve been told you¡¯re called Wei Yi, right? I¡¯ve never heard of that family name before. Is it from the west? By the way, could we talk for a long while?¡±


    ¡°If it is going to take a while, then not right now.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s fine too. We¡¯re probably going to be here for a while anyway. If something does happen quite quickly, I¡¯ll be sure to find you, but if not, when would you be able to chat? I say a long while, but it would only be ten or fifteen minutes at most, unless we end up learning some very interesting things about one another.¡±


    ¡°Tomorrow would be better. The sun is already setting, and I have other things to do,¡± Wei Yi said.


    ¡°Alright, tomorrow it is. Morning, afternoon, or evening? You don¡¯t need to tell me your camp¡¯s full schedule, but I would prefer to know whether I¡¯d be wasting my time standing around here was waiting for you only to learn that you were elsewhere the entire time,¡± she asked with a persistent smile.


    ¡°Just talk to me in the morning, so that we can get whatever this is out of the way.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I know that I¡¯ve not been very exact with what we¡¯ll be doing, but it¡¯s nothing bad, I assure you. I can¡¯t guarantee that you¡¯ll love it, but having a nice chat with a nice girl should be good, right?¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t argue with that, at least.¡±


    ¡°Wonderful! I shall see you tomorrow, and then we can get to know one another as well as you want!¡± Shi Bao Ya exclaimed, turning around and waving as she ran off towards the Flood King and Keeper camp.


    She still gave very little idea of what they were even going to be discussing, nor whether it would be limited to words alone or if they were actually discussing something that Wei Yi had very little reason to oppose ¨C sex or something like that ¨C but the vagueness of her words combined with the mother of the Master of Yi City¡¯s warning about the Shi family made her not particularly keen to find out. In this instance, she was probably arriving at a conclusion that was worse than reality, but it was still something that needed to be considered first.


    The reason that she didn¡¯t want to get it over with now was the same that prompted her to head to Great Dark¡¯s tent once the rest of the forces that had temporarily occupied their camp left for their own location, and it was that she needed to conclude something with him before anyone else had the opportunity to do it for them.


    When she arrived, the twin of Great Earth was sitting around and staring into the distance, seeing only the side of the tent, but when he saw her enter he rose and both of them spread out their energy as to obscure their meeting. His cultivation was ultimately larger, so he was responsible for more of the barrier itself, but Wei Yi made use of her own understanding of such barriers to fashion a basic illusion that would prevent others from realising that there was any obstruction if they just brushed past the tent with their own spiritual perception. As she did not have enough experience with the structure and creation of illusions, she wasn¡¯t able to completely recreate a fake scene inside the tent, but neither of them would allow any other to keep snooping around for long enough to see pas the basic illusion.


    ¡°So, should we talk about the current stalemate?¡± he asked.


    ¡°You realise the issue as well, then. For the moment, we¡¯re all doing fine, but after some time, the others will certainly get restless. Whatever information they have is apparently believable enough for them to have gotten together and moved out right away, meaning that they will be sure that there is something out there to find. If they do not, they may try to look over their supposed allies in the hunt far more closely,¡± Wei Yi confirmed, ¡°None of us actually worship a Primordial Deity, so far as I¡¯m aware, anyway, but whatever They had said must have accounted for that fact.¡±


    Great Dark nodded, ¡°None of them have mentioned it explicitly so far, but¡­ to have so many gather in one place, they must have some idea of what they are doing.¡±


    ¡°Essentially, yes. At this point, changing our weapons and clothing to more resemble the Hunters would be more suspicious than not, even if I am able to do so without anyone noticing the difference between the real thing and the fake, so what we must instead do is prevent the situation from being drawn out for too long. In a way, the false threat must become real, and it must be dealt with.¡±


    ¡°I doubt that you intend to come out there and let them kill you, even if you fake your own death.¡±


    ¡°No, that was not my intention, especially since it will take a little while to change my current appearance while being a process that I cannot skip without partially incriminating the so-called Hunters of the Cosmos that we¡¯ve got here. After all, if the terrible Primordial Cosmos worshiper was in the group for so long and yet hadn¡¯t been noticed by the experts in the group, then it would really cast doubt on whether the Hunters have any competency at all,¡± she said, glancing in the direction of Long Wuchu¡¯s tent, ¡°Some might not, but the issue is that with all of the strange activity going on around here, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if one of the other groups wishes to attack us due to our current disguise.¡±


    ¡°Some of them are clearly familiar with one another¡­ and not all would be entirely friendly over every matter. Out of all of them¡­ who would you say is the most likely to be a threat¡­ Besides the Golden Lords, of course. The Chen family will always cause trouble.¡±


    ¡°Judging from the random glances so far, as well as the information that we have, it might either be the true Hunters of the Cosmos, or the 7th Legion. The first is bound to be more clear about the typical practises of the force than the drunk and depressed man we got from them, and so they might be keen to eliminate fakes and replicas after they learn of what we¡¯ve been doing,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°As for the 7th Legion, I¡¯m mostly going off the identity of the person that had attacked Long Wuchu. A person clearly from Their Bai family, or alternatively a rare member of Them with a physique.¡±


    ¡°You think that they may have been sent here by similar forces¡­ to the ones that had set these rumours in the first place?¡±


    ¡°I think that it is possible. Certain regions and districts must be further under Their control than others, and even in the Yi District two of Them were able to rampage about killing and burning everything they wanted. To give a suggestion to eliminate the Hunters of the Cosmos would hardly be all that challenging for them.¡±


    The twin of Great Earth nodded, tapping the table made of stools that had been placed in front of him.


    ¡°So¡­ Oh, hold on. Huang Yu Di is attempting to dig out of the tent with his hands¡­ while failing to consider that sand is far more fluid than dirt or stone. I¡¯ll be back in a moment.¡±

 V4C17: Manufacturing Conflict

    As it turned out, although the man had been effectively stopped from leaving the tent, he had somehow developed rather extraordinary senses for anything relating to the Chen family, or otherwise managed to recognise a glint of light as being caused by an overly polished plate of gold.


    That led him to think that his enemies had finally come for him, and that it would be a good idea to dig out of the tent whether or not the Hunters would protect him, since he could then make some distance between himself and the pursuers again regardless of their actions. However, as someone that had run here from the south, he had less familiarity with sand than he needed, and so managed to do little more than cover the cloth surface of the tent with sand while making little progress. To be fair, that was also due to the arrays beneath each tent, but he didn¡¯t realise that, and nobody was in a hurry to help him with that knowledge.


    After all, he might conclude that the array is a trap planted a long time ago by the Chen family that would then activate once he spent enough time near it, capturing him and delivering him to them, and he would then be even more keen to escape. If he then ran into the Golden Lords themselves, his suspicions would be intensified, and it would be even more difficult to keep him safe, not that it was particularly easy in the first place.


    In order to help him out, Wei Yi employed the same method that she had used on Long Wuchu to knock him out quickly and put him to him until the next day, at which point the Golden Lords would not be returning to camp under most circumstances, meaning that he would have no reason to be panicked and afraid. He would probably also benefit from a few things to keep him occupied, so she passed along another anonymous request to Fu Zan to ask him to create a few of the games from his world so that the man could have something to do on his own, without needing someone to stand by him constantly.


    For the moment, there was no particular issue in terms of manpower, given that there was also no enemy to fight and that the desert tended to be pretty barren during normal times, not to mention a sandstorm, but if someone was to remain near him for long, he might suspect them as well.


    That would take some time, as the tailor was only any good at his job due to his otherworldly gift while lacking experience in most other fields ¨C according to Miyu, any items he made purely by himself would always feature the term ¡®crude¡¯ or ¡®low-quality¡¯ somewhere in the description provided by her otherworldly gift ¨C so the guard was maintained for now.


    Once Wei Yi stood around for a little bit to confirm that he wasn¡¯t going to try to run off again, she returned to Great Dark¡¯s tent and quickly relayed the situation to him. Since it wasn¡¯t that surprising nor confusing, he had no questions and so they were able to return to their earlier discussion, with her bringing over another stool to be able to sit down rather than standing around the whole time as she did before.


    ¡°So, we need to figure out a way to cause the fight everyone is looking for to happen quickly enough to capture everyone¡¯s attention, make it tough enough that they are convinced that they have defeated the foe that they had been looking for, and make sure that it doesn¡¯t look like there were any more forces to be defeated, since that would just mean that they would stick around longer. The last is perhaps easiest to accomplish with a few planted items and maybe some kind of sacrifice site stained in dried blood to make it seem like everyone other than who they fight has already been killed, but that still requires the other two requirements to be fulfilled,¡± she said, solidifying three squares on the table and marking one, ¡°Any ideas?¡±


    ¡°It is still rather difficult to guess¡­ what exactly they are expecting from the Primordial Deity worshipers. If it is something vague and simple, like simply worshiping Primordial Cosmos¡­ then it might be possible to push the blame onto some other group that is already hostile to us and them.¡±


    ¡°Assuming that we can find something of the sort in the desert, then yes, that is plausible, but if they go in shouting about the Primordial Deity as their justification for attack, the other force might believe that if they can convince them otherwise, they would get away with only minor losses,¡± Wei Yi placed her finger beside the first hollow square she created, ¡°At that point, it would be the word of, at most, two seemingly competent members of the Hunters of the Cosmos, against that group and anything that the others are aware of regarding the worship of Primordial Deities.¡±


    ¡°Do you have a method to create a copy of yourself¡­ or some phenomenon that couldn¡¯t possibly exist, to make them think that their sacrifice had led to it?¡±


    ¡°The first one is unlikely, given that it fucks my head up far worse than the jade slips combined with the memories of the Thunder Lord ever could, but the latter is easier. Our problem is that if they discover such a thing, they may not be particularly keen to leave, and may instead think that it would be a good time to take care of a group or two that they don¡¯t particularly like, which may include us, which may force us to expose our techniques, which would then cast doubt on all of us.¡±


    She joined Great Dark in tapping on the former stools that have now become a table as they thought about this in greater detail. In truth, she did have one idea that would make even an inanimate object a fearsome foe that they would remember well, as she had personally experienced something much like it, but she neither wished to inflict it on other unless necessary and didn¡¯t know how to cause it.


    Had she had a spare spatial realm to work with, creating it ¨C a wild spatial spirit simply tearing things apart through the warped space that it could manifest ¨C wouldn¡¯t be a challenge, as she had previously shattered a spatial realm while just at the Half-Step Emergent Anchor realm, but she neither had a realm of that sort nor did she intend to shatter one even if she did. Each spatial realm was precious in the modern world, and breaking any before they could become as prominent as they had been many years ago would just result in the chances of spatial realms becoming commonplace decreasing while also limiting the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiter¡¯s potential for growth through the usage of such realms.


    Furthermore, she was still not entirely clear whether the exact violent reaction of the merging between Yi Fenwu and the Kong Holy Ground¡¯s spatial spirit had been due to whatever methods she had been using, or if it could be manufactured anywhere. That, and after getting to know Yi Shi Ming, even if she hadn¡¯t originally been a spatial spirit, she was ever so much more reluctant to randomly inflict suffering on an intelligent entity for a potentially functional distraction.


    ¡°Let¡¯s say that we do use some kind of phenomenon to trick them. It has to appear incredibly dangerous to resolve and risky to leave in place, so there has to be a reasonable chance of injury and death among the present groups. We can likely stay back under the pretence of encountering something that looks more like it is related to Primordial Cosmos, but if we do send anyone, we have to do so while being relatively sure that they won¡¯t die there. All of this does limit our options ever so slightly,¡± Wei Yi said after a while, marking another square, ¡°Let¡¯s assume that we¡¯ve got something that works for that, and we¡¯ve got traces of death. What can we include that will allow them to reasonably conclude that there is nothing more to fight?¡±


    Huang Yu Di was not currently calm.


    Although his tent was shut and there was someone standing outside to protect him, as well as to prevent him from snooping around, of course, he could swear that he heard the approach of the Chen family time and time again.


    He had already seen the glint of gold, so he knew that it was only a matter of time until they came for him, but he didn¡¯t want to simply let himself be taken. He had to get out of here, to notify the Hunters¡­ no, they were permitting the Chen family to remain in their camp! They had to have accepted their payment and were now just letting him stew in that tent before he was taken by them! It wasn¡¯t something that he could just stand, but the tent simply wouldn¡¯t budge.


    When his hands didn¡¯t work, he drew the blade that had been by his side, weak and damaged as it was, and stabbed at the cloth, but right before his eyes it turned to gold and deflected him with ease.


    ¡®No! They¡¯re here! They¡¯re already here!¡¯ he exclaimed, ¡°The Chen family have come for me!¡±


    ¡°Oh? You¡¯ve got some problem with the Chen family?¡± a voice suddenly entered his ears, forcing him to turn despite all the effort that he wanted to put into breaking down the tent¡¯s wall regardless of the threat behind him.


    Against his will, he turned and glimpsed a figure covered in gold from head to toe, holding onto a golden weapon and wearing a peculiar featureless mask made of gold that somehow made his entire appearance hazy, as if the only clear thing around him was that mask. Judging by his voice, this was a man, but with the peculiar property of the mask, he could hardly be sure of anything other than his vague proportions and his weapon, a long sword that glistened with light the moment a single ray of the sun¡¯s golden radiance so much as touched it.


    ¡°You¡¯ve come for me! You will not get that money, you bandits!¡±


    He still couldn¡¯t see through the mask, but he could swear that he saw a grin appear on the man¡¯s face, ¡°Money? Where is it?¡±


    Huang Yu Di kept a sound of alarm from escaping his mouth and turned to the side of the tent once more, desperately clawing at the golden surface that only seemed to grow stronger as the man from the Chen family neared him, the weapon in his hands audibly cutting through the air as he walked.


    When he turned around again, he found that the man had already gotten to the middle of the tent, and that planar energy brimmed in his blade, flooding through his arm and chest to empower the imminent strike that he prepared slowly. It was as if he wanted to witness the despair and terror on Huang Yu Di¡¯s face for as long as possible before putting him down, just as he knew the Chen family would.


    ¡°Your choice. That money you mentioned, or your life-¡±


    Just as the man¡¯s voice had previously appeared out of nowhere, another interrupted both of them, ¡°Golden Lord! What are you doing in this tent?¡±


    Huang Yu Di and the man in gold alike turned to see a blond woman with short hair and yellow eyes standing at the entrance to the tent, a long quarterstaff in her hands as she was also driving her planar energy throughout her body. After a moment, both of them recognised her as someone from the Hunters of the Cosmos, and for a brief moment doubt appeared within the mind of Huang Yu Di. Could the Hunters not have betrayed him, and did this Golden Lord just pass through their defences without attracting their attention? Could he still have a chance to live?


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have found me, Chao girl. I¡¯m two stages higher than you.¡±


    ¡°That makes no difference! Either get out right now, or I will beat you and ensure that W- the boss sees you too!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not the one with a choice here¡­ although, neither are you, girl.¡±


    Despite his earlier slow movements, this time he moved with incredible speed, turning around fully and appearing in front of Chao Ru with his blade descending onto the space between her shoulder and her neck, where she wore no armour and where a great deal of damage could be wrought with ease.


    Her eyes widened at the sheer speed with which he moved, but as she responded with nothing more but her instinct, she knew that she had seen better.


    Blade and staff collided, pushing Chao Ru back into the tent¡¯s entrance by a single step. A small nick had been made on her weapon, one that burned with heat as if a searing hot piece of metal had touched it there, while the Golden Lord¡¯s weapon was entirely unharmed. In the inexperienced eyes of Huang Yu Di, it seemed like a good result for the gap in stages that the man had described a moment prior, but the Golden Lord presented a different assessment of the situation.


    ¡°A weak attack and you couldn¡¯t even take it without moving. Your body is fine, but your control over planar energy is lacking, Chao girl,¡± he stated, lunging at her with less speed, but with a far greater quantity of force, made obvious by the formation of a planar construct around his weapon.


    It looked like a wave of pure molten gold following behind his strike, ready to overwhelm anything it touched and consume all that was unlucky enough to be covered by it.


    With the decrease in speed, Chao Ru did have the chance to respond with something more than a simple block, but it only took her a moment to realise that if she did attempt to do anything other than defend, she would be overwhelmed without a single chance to damage the foe in front of her. She drew upon her planar energy, flaming red rushing through her meridians, and brought it to her hands and weapon in attempt to form some kind of defensive barrier in time. The energy got there in time, but before any cohesive barrier, his strike appeared to have accelerated with each moment that it had been stabbing through the air, and thus it reached her far more quickly than she had anticipated.


    Perhaps the only thing that he wasn¡¯t able to overwhelm her with was his lack of ability to shift the direction of his strikes, as neither the downward slash nor the forward stab had changed their trajectory to benefit him, resulting in this attack also hitting her quarterstaff.


    It dug some way into the staff but was easily dislodged by the sheer force of the strike throwing her back by another few steps, causing her feet to slide into the sand outside the tent, while the wave of molten gold crashed into her, meeting the scattered flaming energy that she had become surrounded by.


    As each drop of gold touched the fire, it was able to pass through, but each one diminished noticeably before it touched her skin, resulting in the overall damage easily being halved by the loose planar energy that dispersed soon after. That caused the Golden Lord to raise an eyebrow, although neither of those observing him could be sure what had given them that impression through the solid and featureless sheet of gold upon his face.


    ¡°Fire may oppose metal, but that is more than I¡¯m used to¡­ Very well, I still have time.¡±


    He may have said that, but Chao Ru was not intending to let him attack either her or Huang Yu Di without doing anything about it. She called out, ¡°Hunters! The Golden Lords-¡±


    ¡°I said I have time, girl. They¡¯re not aware of you or I, are they?¡±


    As he was yet to move again, whether to flee or to strike, she quickly turned to the side, where she had clearly seen a number of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters standing around before she entered, as they waited for the day to end or for some instruction to come from their leader.


    They were there, still, but everything other than her, Huang Yu Di, the Golden Lord, and the tent they were fighting in seemed dim and dull, moving just a little slower than usual with floaty movements. It was like they were all caught within a thick grey fluid slowing down their actions, while the three of them were able to observe them from a pocket of air.


    ¡°Now, you should die. Each moment wasted will come out of my paycheck.¡±


    He blurred again, appearing near her but a few steps further away from before as he swung his blade once. Before it could finish, the shadow of a second, third and fourth strike appeared to intermingle with reality, each one generating a golden wave with the same intensity as the one that had pushed her out of the tent in the first place, while each strike was as fast and fluent as the one that had begun their fight.


    Chao Ru was hardly able to contemplate how she would defend herself in the situation before the waves were already approaching, having grown far denser and stronger than the first, perhaps due to the greater distance between them in which to flow, and no simple block would help her this time.


    Her body also couldn¡¯t react on sheer reflex, as the training and practise that she had with Wei Yi and in Paragon with the rest lacked the intensive element of planar energy just yet. For a moment, the thought of defeat entered her mind, but the memory of the previous day, as well as of all the effort that she had put into going this far quickly overwhelmed it.


    She had done so much already, even if it wouldn¡¯t compare in the slightest to the achievements of someone like Wei Yi, and she might even have the chance to carry the Ascendant¡¯s child, so she couldn¡¯t simply let this man with his faceless mask and calm attitude defeat her! She was part of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, the group that strove to better the world, and in her eyes, the kind of thing that the Golden Lord was participating in was part of the countless issues that plagues the Planar Continents.


    For a brief moment, she heard a strange beat. It sounded like her heart, but, at the same time, it was nothing alike, being far stronger, more impactful. If her heart sounded as strong as two wooden spoons colliding, then this sound was more akin to a great war drum that heralded combat.


    Alongside it, she felt her vision brighten and intensify, the overwhelming golden waves almost shrinking as she looked upon them, allowing her to see past and through them at the man in the golden mask. Her every muscle pumped with power, and it was one that she could not restrain no matter what. Fortunately, she did not wish to.


    The Golden Lord witnessed the woman¡¯s eyes suddenly turn silver as a vast quantity of the same flaming energy as before gathered around her, flooding her weapon and muscles. Before, it wouldn¡¯t have concerned him in the slightest, but her strength had leapt up from what one might expect from that of the third realm to that of the fourth in just a single, seemingly ordinary breath, and the greater quantity of power caused her entire figure to appear ablaze as she vanished from the spot with even greater speed than he had been able to muster under the current perfect circumstances.


    She met the golden wave with a wide swing of the staff, cutting through and dispersing it as if it had been naught but a wave of hot air, and in the next moment Chao Ru was in front of him, the end of her quarterstaff flying at his chest.


    The moment before it struck, he had been able to invoke the power of the mask and accelerate himself, meeting the attack with his blade but clearly feeling the vast difference between everything about her in this moment. Just as he had done a second prior, she did not leave him with one attack, but, as her now silver eyes stared upon him with fury, she thrust and struck at him with the staff over and over again.


    His arm had become numb from just one of those strikes, so he would hardly sit around and take more as she had previously been forced to accept his attacks. While he used the mask once more, he made use of his great speed to dodge and weave away from as many strikes as he could, blocking all those that he had been unable to avoid or that otherwise managed to adjust to meet him nonetheless.


    However, he only had to go on for so long before he got the result that he wanted, at which point he ducked below one of her attack and thrust up, trying to impale her neck.


    Chao Ru, as quick as she was now, was able to see this sudden change in tactic and thus spun to the side, just barely managing to get away with a small and shallow cut on the side of her neck while she used her staff to prevent him from remaining that close to her.


    She had several ideas of how to take him down, if given enough time both in general and with the strange power that she had suddenly obtained, but before she could either strike or block she felt another attack coming from behind her, once that she had no choice but to wildly dodge away from if she wanted to keep her spine. Dodging to the side, she was able to see another figure in gold with a golden mask covering his features, but before she had even the slightest chance to rest she could feel yet another blow flying at her from behind.


    By whatever miracle had granted her the current speed and strength that she possessed, she was able to narrowly evade each opening attack, but as their numbers grew they all sought to strike her at once, with as many approaching at the same time as the space around her allowed, doing more than minimizing the damage upon her body was the most that she could achieve.


    Soon, once the tide of new Golden Lords finally seemed to end, the cut on her neck and the two marks on her quarterstaff were joined by far more similar marks, although each had been far more shallow than either of them had expected any one wound to be. Clearly, her physical endurance had risen with the rest of her strength and energy, with the latter allowing her to endure all of the golden waves that followed their blows with little more than a thick layer of sweat on her body that mixed with drops of blood.


    For a moment, both forces paused, with Chao Ru desperately trying to protect her every side while the Golden Lords looked upon her and were clearly pondering the fastest approach to ending her life.


    ¡°Has a killing strike been used yet?¡± one of the Golden Lords asked.


    Another immediately replied, ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°We are using the first killing strike then. At once, Golden Lords!¡± the first one called out, with all of them raising their weapons and readying techniques all at the same time. A dense sea of liquid gold seemed to grow around them, surrounding Chao Ru entirely, brimming with even more energy than any of their strikes had managed to muster before this.


    They shifted their feet to be able to thrust forward and end this.


    However, a hand suddenly appeared from the muddled grey around them and grabbed onto the mask on one of their faces, grasping it tightly and pulling.


    ¡°You can¡¯t take these off- AH!¡±


    His proclamation had been following immediately by a vague golden sheen appearing around the hand, which, as they were able to see now, was connected to the powerful body of the woman that had greeted them on their way here, her silver eyes glaring at them with far more killing intent contained within them than the woman that they had been attacking. As soon as the golden shade came in contact with the mask, it was pulled off his face, clearly causing some pain, and the masks on the faces of the others all vanished when she brought the mask behind herself, her hand quickly returning as an empty fist heading straight for the face of the Golden Lord that she had exposed.


    They were unable to see a drop of planar energy being used, nor had they even been sure of her cultivation, but they did know that she was striking at Chen Chen, a man in the seventh stage of Active Core, who was still able to muster some of his energy to defend even through the pain of the mask¡¯s violent removal.


    Despite that, as the grey veil that had been covering the world dissipated as its cause had vanished behind her back, they were able to see her fist easily penetrate the defensive layer of planar energy that Chen Chen had manifested, hitting the side of his face and audibly crushing a part of his jaw and skull as his entire figure was thrown onto the ground in the blink of an eye, the sheer impact burying him a metre into the sand while throwing up a large cloud of it.


    ¡°What the fuck do you think you¡¯re doing, Golden Lords? Are you tired of your life?¡± Wei Yi called out, her loud and clear voice immediately drawing the attention of the many Arbiters around them.


    Without any discussion at all, the remaining Golden Lords tried to flee, but they suddenly felt a great force push them down onto the ground, then into it as the sand beneath their feet turned to quicksand that they could do nothing about. At the same time, they saw Great Dark arrive on the scene, his eyes clearly blazing with energy of the fourth realm at the very least, leading to a false conclusion.


    ¡°What has happened here?¡± he asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s the Chen family, what do you think they were doing? They thought they¡¯d cause some chaos and some losses there and there, and they would then be able to profit from this in some way. I¡¯m right, aren¡¯t I, assholes?¡±


    ¡°We are from the Chen family, and they will not let you-¡±


    ¡°The Chen family means shit here! You enter our camp, try to kill our men, attack someone who we have decided to protect, and then have the fucking nerve to say that we will not be permitted to do something?¡± Wei Yi asked, approaching one of the Golden Lords and stomping on his shoulder with her foot, easily shattering a few more bones and dislocating the rest, ¡°Go on, you gilded fuckers, what were you going to say? Go on, speak!¡±


    ¡°They¡­ they¡­¡± the Golden Lord, a figure that had been near Chen Chen most of the time while they had been waiting around in the camp earlier in the day, couldn¡¯t provide a reply.


    ¡°If you had been spewing random bullshit, then maybe you should have refrained from speaking in the first place. Now, I¡¯ll break a few more bones and limbs ahead of time. Tell me, arm or leg? Which one do you lot prefer more? No doubt it¡¯s the hand for most of you, though,¡± she glanced at the two women in this group, ¡°Don¡¯t you try looking smug at their expense. Who told you I wouldn¡¯t injure you just as much as the rest? I¡¯m not someone that can¡¯t hit another just because they look pretty, or just because they¡¯re female, so you better give this some thought as well.¡±


    The Golden Lords now collectively glared at the man that had provoked her with their usual warning to those that tried to mess with their plans, entirely failing to take the meaning of her words to heart as they did so.


    Meanwhile, Chao Ru, whose hands let go of the staff in her hands a few moments after Wei Yi had appeared, finally took a deep breath of relief as she stumbled forward.


    ¡°Wei Yi¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡± the Ascendant quickly turned to her, bringing her into an embrace with one arm while she continued to observe the Golden Lords with one eye, even if she didn¡¯t think that they would easily escape from the God Burial Sea, ¡°All of your wounds are light, so if you stay close for a few moments, you¡¯ll recover fully¡­ Your eyes, when did they change?¡±


    As she spoke, she provided her with the lifeforce from the Energy Pylon and the Vitality Siphon physiques at the same time, causing much needed energy to rush into the woman¡¯s body and to accelerate the recovery of the wounds.


    ¡°My eyes?¡± Chao Ru repeated, momentarily trying and obviously failing to gaze upon her own eyes, ¡°What happened to them?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re silver right now, same as¡­ You got a sudden boost of power a short time ago, right?¡±


    She nodded, ¡°Mhm.¡±


    ¡°That explains it. It isn¡¯t permanent, just in case you were concerned, but it was caused by the sudden activation of a pool of bloodline power within you. Given that your eyes currently look like mine, I don¡¯t think I need to explain exactly what the origin of that power had been.¡±


    Judging by the slight blush that appeared on her face, as well as the awkward smile that followed it, there was truly no need to clarify it to her. Besides blood, one substance that brimmed with bloodline power had filled her all day long just the day before, and so Chao Ru remembered the sensation of it, the heat that had spread out all over her body, really well.


    That bloodline power could be shared and then activated in such a manner did come as a surprise to Wei Yi, who had thought it to be something that was only of use to the cultivator generating it. The way in which it temporarily changed one¡¯s appearance to match that of the bloodline¡¯s origin was also quite intriguing, giving her some ideas on the topic of bloodlines as a whole. However, she was sure that she could explore more uses of bloodline power the moment that she brought it up by a realm or two and could more easily manifest it as she willed it outside of her body.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯ll quickly deal with those bastards, then I should be able to get back to you. Rest in my tent for a while.¡±


    Chao Ru nodded again and departed from the embrace, her wounds having already begun to close and heal. Once she made her way past the gathered crowd of Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters observers, who had naturally cleared the path for her, and safely entered the tent, Wei Yi turned back to the Golden Lords that had sunk up to their necks into the sand.


    In the tent, the blond woman got to the bed, her legs trembling as she lay down upon it and released a tired breath, a significant quantity of unseen impurities escaping alongside it.


    Her body, which had brimmed with energy a moment prior, suddenly became weak, and she could feel a faint itch at her eyes come and go within seconds, likely wiping away the silver in her eyes that she had still been unable to see. Every muscle and bone that had obtained miraculous power no longer possessed all of it, but she was faintly able to tell that she had retained a small degree of it all through the enhancement that it had done to her body, as well as the impurities that the process had removed.


    Still, with the wounds that covered her body, even if they were sealing themselves quickly, and the pain that they caused, it was rather difficult for her to smile at this kind of personal improvement, especially not when the slight movement of the mouth led to the minimal shifting on skin near the neck, stretching the wound there a little bit.


    As such, she shut her eyes, did not move her body, and allowed herself to rest.


    ¡°You know what, I¡¯ve changed my mind. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be killing you slowly.¡±


    ¡°Who are you to make the rules around here?¡± the woman that she had called out before managed to find some drop of courage in her body, ¡°Isn¡¯t that guy the boss?¡±


    ¡°I suppose that you lot really are fucking idiots, aren¡¯t you? How long have I been the one talking to you rather than him? As I said, I will not kill you slowly, because you hurt the people of the camp, with your crime being made even worse due to you attacking someone that I know and care about. So, enjoy your last moments here in the sand. I¡¯m sure the verdict of death shall soon be passed upon you.¡±


    Indeed, not long after she said that, they could see and hear the approach of the other factions, all of whom the Golden Lords had been attacking prior to being called in to defeat one woman in the camp of the Hunters of the Cosmos.


    Some of them had thought that something was odd then, and some did want to flee, but none of them were able to deny that they could no longer change the situation. Even if they tried to speak, their bloodied weapons had already been pried from their hands by the sand and brought to the surface, and even a simple check would easily confirm that it had come from Chao Ru and the other people that they had attacked, so few words would be of any use.


    At that moment, even those that viewed money as the ultimate power understood that they would need to pay far, far more than they could promise in order to get out of this.


    ¡°Hunters of the Cosmos! Have you also been attacked?¡± the Keepers of Groves managed to arrive first, somehow making use of wood-type techniques to travel faster than those more used to the environment, ¡°Our camp has been hit by someone, and the only survivor out of four says that¡­ Are those the Golden Lords?¡±


    ¡°I highly doubt that is the testimony they had provided,¡± one of the male leaders of the Flood Kings of Shi said, ¡°However, we have also been attacked by- the Golden Lords? You¡¯ve captured them?¡±


    The 7th Legion and the Perpetuals both arrived a brief time after them, and did not grace them with any remarks of their own, although both were clearly looking at the Golden Lords with a great deal of hostility that they were unable to concentrate towards a single person due to the masks that had covered their faces during the earlier attacks.


    All of the 7th Legion had a number of cuts on their arms and a large cut along the chest, the damage having been spread out across them by their group techniques and the flow that connected them. Even then, the degree of injury that each one of them suffered showed that the Golden Lords may have taken them as the most significant threat and had invested the most energy into taking care of them as quickly as they could.


    On the other hand, the Perpetuals managed to get away with no obvious wounds on their bodies, but the appearances of those that were not covered by hoods seemed like they had aged a significant amount since the last time that anyone had seen them.


    Presumably, this was also part of their own odd methods.


    ¡°We¡¯ve had a method prepared to trap the worshiper if they attempted to enter our camp, but we had managed to lure them in instead,¡± Great Dark explained, ¡°They had attacked us as well, but they had failed to anticipate this and my own strength. Their leader¡­ appears to have died in the sand, so these are all that we have left. Should we kill them?¡±


    ¡°Those bastards must die!¡± one of the Hammers declared, having arrived at some point in time.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly why they had attacked some of us, but they must pay for their actions. We¡¯ll help, if necessary,¡± Shi Bao Ya said.


    One of the Keepers of Groves affirmed, ¡°They do not deserve to live.¡±


    All at once, the 7th Legion stated, ¡°End them!¡±


    ¡°This one believes that the Great Worm has sentenced them to die through his open maw. We need only strike them down.¡±


    Since everyone had provided a unanimous judgement of these people, Great Dark nodded to Wei Yi, who stepped up to the group of heads in the sand. For a brief moment, she stood there and did nothing, and the grip of the sand around them began to weaken, momentarily igniting the Golden Lords¡¯ hope.


    Before they could get too much of it, she combined her own fist, a combat technique, and the Titanic Demolisher to instantly crush their worthless skulls.

 V4C18: Consideration

    This sight may not have been as gruesome as the removal of a heart in the eyes of some, but it was still certainly above what most cultivators would usually strive for with their own techniques. Such a large amount of blood and the remnants of brains staining the sand was hardly the most appealing thing to observe with any of the senses, but at this moment, they all believed that this was the end that the Golden Lords deserved.


    After all, not too long ago, they had personally suffered from their attacks, and some of the groups even lost some of their forces to them. Naturally, some had even lost their friends in the battle, as brief as it had been from some of their perspectives, so they took some relief in the bloodshed instead.


    For some time, they looked over the dead bodies and considered how quickly things had changed from a stable state to one of strife, but after some time, they scattered back to their camps, the time being more suitable to sleep than observing all of this madness. So long as no more battles broke out, they would be able to handle all of this the following day.


    When they left to sleep, so did many of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters under the instructions of Wei Yi through Great Dark, which was something that they maintained as often as possible to ensure that any hidden observers wouldn¡¯t be able to notice such oddities. They had foregone that for a while when she had been furious at the Golden Lords, but that had occurred at a strange time that had captured the attention of the other forces on ensuring that any injuries were patched up before they could go and investigate, and there seemed to be no traces of recognition from them.


    Their actions also confirmed that if there had been any intentions from them to ally with the Golden Lords, it had not been something that they had been counting on, since none seemed particularly concerned with their demise, nor were there any suspicious looks sent their way from most.


    The only ones to maintain a careful gaze upon them was the 7th Legion, but that had been going on from the start and hadn¡¯t changed much after the demise of the forces from the Chen District, so whatever had been happening with them looked to be unrelated to that, at the very least. Given the way in which one set of forces acted so quickly after meeting with them, it was a little concerning to have another that seemed even more overt in their intentions, but they too had suffered damage.


    As such, Wei Yi didn¡¯t think that there would be any more attacks that day and could thus retreat with Great Dark to his tent to consider some other matters.


    Before, and even during some the attack, they had been discussing the matters of tricking the other groups, so she had needed to emerge in quite the rush to be able to protect Chao Ru from the attack of the Golden Lords, all of which seemed to be permitted by the golden mask.


    When she was in the tent, with the flap sealed, she reached into the air and removed it from the House of Gold, where it had been placed without any incident the moment that the House of Gold itself had assisted her with removing it. Curiously enough, this mask also showed her its name and description in the same kind of display that the otherworldly gift used, even when it was outside of it. At the moment, she was very highly interested in it for that, and the way in which it had evaded her perception.


    At the time of the attack, she appeared to have been affected in much the same way to the others, and the only thing that had helped her to break out of whatever the mask, which was apparently called the Mask of Yama, had done was the sudden feeling of resonance with someone on the outside that had prompted her to observe matters in closer detail and allowed her to see through their veil.


    Now she knew that it had been her bloodline that been placed within Chao Ru the day before, and that it had permitted her to enter whatever field the Mask of Yama had created and thus see past the usual imperceptibility of the otherworldly gifts.


    If not for its obstruction of her senses, she would have gone over to assist her and Huang Yu Di ¨C who had fortunately collapsed out of fear and had been placed back in his bed ¨C the moment that she had noticed the situation. Wei Yi hardly enjoyed seeing the people she knew and cared about to some extent, a thing that she desperately struggled to control as to not cause issues for herself at a later time, suffer under the hands of others, or even themselves for that matter. So, while she might have waited until the ability of bloodline power to influence others was revealed if she knew that it would have happened, she certainly wouldn¡¯t have permitted the Golden Lords to needlessly slash at Chao Ru so many times.


    Nonetheless, that had been then, and it was not something that she could change now. Instead, she read the description provided by the House of Gold of the item, which was, ¡®Mask of the God of Death. Those who wear it may be numerous, but they are unseen to the world and may act freely upon it for a time. The more is affected, the more champions emerge to divert the course of death.¡¯


    Aside from the vagueness bordering on that of the Arrow of Artemis, although this was still better, the way in which it had been removed so easily the moment that the House of Gold had touched the mask confirmed to her that the similarity between this and one of the many items she had seen within the House of Gold the first time that she had opened it, when it had been collapsing as a result of the removal of the azure light, was not merely coincidental. It was very likely that this was the same item that had not been shattered entirely but was instead spat out into the Planar Continents somehow.


    Therein lay the problem, at least for her. She had earlier presumed, based on what was commonly heard from the Eastern Continent, that the heavens were unable to see into spatial realm for one reason or another. This also meant that things couldn¡¯t just jump in or out without a proper gateway.


    However, there had not been a gateway that lead out of the Kong Prison Realm at the time that the otherworldly demon that called himself Ding Wen had perished, and so it should have been rather difficult for an item like this to come out in a perfectly reasonable state and be put to use by a bunch of thugs looking to earn some more coin for themselves. If this item could, then her question was: are the entities responsible for otherworldly demons more powerful than the heavens?


    Although they had been to force their influence into the world through their azure lights, if they themselves weren¡¯t those strange sources of power, there was no guarantee that they weren¡¯t simply hijacking some fault in a natural process to add a certain degree of baggage to the otherworldly demons. Perhaps reincarnation was standard for all, and when someone died in the Planar Continents, they would be reborn on Orbis, and then reborn on some other world where life, not necessarily human, existed. In that case, it would be that the azure lights are merely being taken along for the ride and may be assisting the demons in retaining their memories.


    If the case was instead that the azure lights and whatever created them were able to simply transport bodies and consciousnesses from one world to another and surpassed even the will of the heavens, then it would be a rather scary concept.


    As the Perpetuals of the Worm had said, men should fight men, and gods should fight gods. In her eyes, at least, this didn¡¯t mean that men should never confront gods, but that most men could do little in the face of them. Rushing into battle nonetheless would simply be a waste of one¡¯s life as all that a god would need to do to end it would be to will it to conclude there and then.


    By men, she did not take this to refer to actual men, nor did gods refer to the Primordial Deities, although that could very well have been the original intention, but instead to entities of completely different levels, less like the difference between a normal human and someone in the first realm but rather a normal human and the very peak of the ninth realm. At that point, no degree of effort could stop limitless, bottomless power that essentially transcends all human understanding, and this would be even more true if she, an admittedly powerful fourth realm cultivator, sought to oppose one that was effectively in the tenth, eleventh, or possible something ridiculous like the fiftieth realm, whatever the power of heaven¡¯s will could be considered to be, and the azure lights if they are superior to it.


    Her actions so far might have annoyed them, and if she crossed some line or happened to be in a place where she could be killed in a convenient manner, a force that powerful wouldn¡¯t be stopped by much.


    The only thing that relaxed her about the situation was that nothing had happened yet. Something clearly stopped or delayed the power behind the constant flood of azure lights into the Planar Continent, and whether it was a self-imposed limit or one of the gap between worlds, she was not going to simply let them do as they like for the rest of her life. Besides, no god could expect a human to act in a certain way without announcing it, could they?


    Furthermore, while Kong Shi Meng and his Truth of the Universe had not killed or obliterated a single one of the azure lights, and did not seem capable of such a thing regardless of how much energy she could provide, it could repel them. It proved that the lights themselves weren¡¯t omnipotent, only more capable than the heavens are believed to be. So long as she did not fight true omnipotence, she did believe that she would have a chance, since she already had the work of Kong Shi Meng with her and thus didn¡¯t need to start from scratch, as he had. She could use his work and develop it with her own ideas, eventually coming up with something better than just telling the azure lights to leave.


    That the Master of Yi City had been able to do that much also showed that they wouldn¡¯t, or couldn¡¯t, intervene as freely as they might have liked, even if they might have had a part in his eventual demise.


    ¡°So, what were those masks¡­ or was it just a single one?¡± Great Dark asked after she had stared at it for some time, also having noticed that despite a large number of masks being removed from the assailants, she had ended up with only a single one.


    ¡°It¡¯s something from the House of Gold, the otherworldly spatial storage gift I had taken from a man in the Kong Prison Realm. That thing had shrunk immensely when I got it, as the source of its power vanished, but it seems that not all had been obliterated by the spatial collapse. Some things remain, and once I touch them, they are returned to the control of the House of Gold,¡± she summarised for him, leaving out her speculation about the world, the power of heaven¡¯s will, and that of the creators of the azure lights, ¡°If you come across anything excessively golden, especially if it isn¡¯t in the hands of the Chen family or the Chen District, it might have some relation, although not all things in the House of Gold were golden.¡±


    ¡°If they are also as difficult to observe, then I doubt I will be of much use¡­ Even now, my spiritual perception tells me that there is nothing in your hand,¡± he said.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s part of the issue with them. Not even other otherworldly demons are able to sense these things, as I had found out with Fu Zan being unable to detect the House of Gold when I used it right in front of him,¡± Wei Yi agreed, ¡°Fortunately, not all items should be focused around disguising or stealth. Some might be weapons, and they may be in the hands of allies or foes that are too weak to make good use of them. Then, it should be easy enough to take the item if necessary, although if I recreate the link with the House of Gold then lend it to them, it might be even better than taking it outright.¡±


    ¡°At that point¡­ would you be able to take the item at any time you want?¡±


    ¡°In theory. Haven¡¯t messed around with items like this just yet, since the last set of exciting stuff either got used up, or broke. By the way, you wouldn¡¯t know any extremely good blacksmiths, would you? I need some help reforging a sword.¡±


    She brought out one of the shards of obsidian that had made up the blade of Sharen e Mo for him to look at, although she didn¡¯t expect him to be able to gather much from that alone. Even a blacksmith might struggle with that little to go off of, but someone who had mostly stuck to inscriptions and combat without the use of such weapons wouldn¡¯t know much.


    Indeed, after a few moments of observing it, he shook his head, ¡°I do not know of any that would be able to repair something like that with certainty.¡±


    ¡°Not repair, reforge. I don¡¯t expect the actual weapon to be remade as it had been, seeing as it possessed an incredibly powerful effect that made it extremely effective at tearing open holes in space, as well as killing those far stronger than me,¡± she said, putting the shard back into the House of Gold, ¡°Perhaps part of it might be able to be recovered, but what I want is to get what endurance this has and make it be able to resist my planar energy.¡±


    ¡°Resist¡­ your energy? In what way?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ Do you have an artefact on you, of any kind? I¡¯d bought some at the Chao District, but they seem to be useful, so I¡¯d rather not throw them away prematurely.¡±


    To her slight surprise, he nodded and then removed a small metal bead from one of the few pockets on his current outfit. It was a small, smooth ball no larger than the tip of a finger, with little of note on the surface of it, but the inside of it contained a thin channel akin to those usually found in larger quantities, complexities and sizes in other artefacts, with the channel itself seeming to match that of middle-grade artefacts.


    Prompted by her inquisition by way of a raised eyebrow, he said, ¡°During the War of Yin, I had several ideas of varying outcomes¡­ A weapon that would be easy to make, disposable, and effective in a different way to most¡­ was my intention. It did not work as well as I had hoped.¡±


    ¡°So you just carry it around with you? Alright, I suppose that works too, so let¡¯s go outside for a moment. I¡¯d suggest we put on the mask, but that would just terrify Huang Yu Di entirely if he woke up again and saw us blowing things up in a bright and exciting fashion,¡± Wei Yi said, placing the item back in her spatial storage and exiting the tent.


    He followed, and the two of them went to the outer edge of the camp, furthest away from their own tents and from those of the other camps as to not accidentally disturb anyone.


    There, as to guarantee that the explosion which would undoubtedly be even stronger than usual due to her strengthened energy wouldn¡¯t wake anyone else with either light or sound, she prepared a veil of the Binder of the Dark energy to minimize its impact and make it seem as nothing more than a shooting star, in the ideal circumstances. She couldn¡¯t guarantee such a thing when she couldn¡¯t be sure whether simplifying or making the artefact structure more complex would lead to larger explosions, nor was there necessarily a link between the size of the weapon and the explosion that followed.


    As such, she added a few more layers atop that, just to be safe.


    Once she was ready, however, she placed a small drop of her planar energy into the artefact bead and tossed it with great precision into the air, instantly covering it with the Binder of the Dark energy as to minimise the light from the explosion.


    Even though Great Dark had not been informed of the exact nature of her planar energy explosion, and he hadn¡¯t gotten to witness it before while she had been in the Deadly Martial Colosseum as Da Gang, he had already gotten a rather good impression of the kind of carnage that may be wrought by something like that if it had been tossed towards one of the enemy camps instead. In fact, it may have even been enough to frighten away one of the forces, although that would be less likely.


    The moment that it left her hand, cracks began to form within the metal bead, bright cosmic light shining through it and threatening to illuminate the camps around them if not for yet another barrier created through the dark energy of the Binder of the Dark, shielding the very area from outside eyes in addition to everything within it.


    It cracked and crackled just a little quicker than she had initially assumed it would, but almost as quickly as she had calculated it would, although even if she had been wrong here, she could have easily moved the field of darkness to cover the bead exactly where it would end up. However, just as most of the artefacts she had used prior to this, it retained its structural integrity all the way up, without a piece breaking off until it reached the peak of its flight within the layered barrier of absolute darkness, through which no light should be able to pierce.


    Then, light did pierce it, and did so spectacularly. Countless rays of light, violet, crimson, silver and orange, among others, all cut right through the sphere of darkness, momentarily turning the area around them to day with all of the lights combining into something akin to the usual warmth of the sun.


    A powerful shockwave emanated from the area of the explosion, but it was thankfully devoured by the sand and the many barriers they had put up together the moment that they saw it, with little spreading out beyond them. No pieces of the small bead followed, unlike an explosion that might emerge from a typical container, although Wei Yi was able to see a number of particles of something resembling ash floating up into the air and scattering.


    The explosion passed, and she cleared the darkness around them, finding Great Dark looking at her with an alarmed expression.


    ¡°That¡­ was more than I would have hoped for with such a weapon¡­ It had only been intended to deliver a typical close-range blow across a long distance¡­ How do you usually use artefacts if this is what you cause?¡± he asked, his widened eyes refusing to return to normal.


    ¡°It¡¯s the issue, really. I can¡¯t use normal planar artefact without things exploding for no good reason. Inscriptions, arrays, talismans, and all that are perfectly fine, but when it comes to artefacts, I have to make use of killing will or physique energy, or, more recently, bloodline power. It is more of a curse than a blessing most of the time, although I have made it work in my favour most of the time.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­ If something like that could be contained¡­ Every random soldier, regardless of realm, could guarantee an immense degree of damage to a foe¡­¡±


    ¡°There are some ways to store my energy, although I don¡¯t know whether that can be done without making things a lot more difficult for another user. Fu Zan and Miyu might know of it, though, as their world had something called a grenade. It is a thrown explosive device of some kind, and it can apparently contain materials as volatile as my energy without exploding the instant that it is made,¡± Wei Yi said, removing a steel leaf from the House of Gold and quickly shaping it into a similar bead of a lower grade, ¡°You can take this in that item¡¯s place, just in case anyone noticed it, then we should probably not participate in any more experiments like that for now. There¡¯s only so much that can be ignored or blocked.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, that would be wise¡­ Do attempt not to keep the soldiers awake again¡­¡±


    ¡°Relax, I¡¯m not some heartless bitch that can¡¯t tell when others are suffering. Neither Chao Ru nor the troops require a night of staying awake for the moment, and I won¡¯t overlook that just because I ¨C or she, for that matter ¨C have an excessive libido. Now, go and sleep on your own, if you care about that,¡± she said, waving him away as she also returned to camp and to her own tent.


    Inside, Chao Ru was already deep within her slumber, most of the wounds on her body having healed completely or left behind only minor marks that would likely be gone within a day or two.


    Just as they had the previous day, Wei Yi lay beside her in the bed, which had intentionally been made larger to accommodate their time together, although she made sure to face away just in case either one of them decided to be too active in the night. She wouldn¡¯t be sleeping, since that was something that she needed quite a bit of effort to get into that usually didn¡¯t work out anyway unless she had just done something that deserved a rest afterwards, but when her guard is let down and her body is a little more free to express herself, certain physical reactions can arise.


    She instead kept her focus on the camp and on its surroundings, doing her best to prevent another attack regardless of her foes¡¯ possession of some otherworldly gift or just extremely good stealth methods.


    Fortunately for all of them, the night passed without incident. There had been no signs of anyone sneaking in, no attempts from Huang Yu Di to escape through some miraculous awakening, whether in general or to some power of escape, and all of the other forces also appeared to be rather calm, although the observation of all forces by the 7th Legion didn¡¯t go unnoticed by her.


    Given that they had not previously showed much interest in anyone but the supposed Hunters of the Cosmos, she was mostly sure that this was simply a front for them to be able to observe her camp, but she also knew little about their intentions even now. Like most of the people present, the 7th Legion likely came to handle threats to their district, with that being their primary motivation, but it could be that they had decided that the Hunters were somehow also threatening them, or that they were suspicious of them and didn¡¯t think them to be true Hunters.


    The issue with the wildly discrepant possibilities was that taking action to help one would instead worsen their situation if the other was true, so it wasn¡¯t a good idea to act at all until something could be concluded with certainty.


    So, in the morning, Chao Ru awoke and found that, at some point during the night, she had placed her hands around Wei Yi and snuggled close to her, enjoying the warmth of the Ascendant¡¯s body combined with the cooling sensation that the plentiful yin in her body provided, resulting in the best parts of both experiences being combined. Her hand was positioned over Wei Yi¡¯s breast, although there was little there that could be groped or felt up, accidentally or on purpose.


    ¡°How¡¯re you feeling?¡± Wei Yi suddenly asked, breaking the silence, and nearly causing Chao Ru to leap out of the bed.


    ¡°Y-You were awake? Sorry, I hadn¡¯t noticed at all.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. I would have stopped you had I minded, or had I thought that you did still need to lie calmly for a little longer,¡± she said, freeing herself from the embrace and rising before kneeling at the side of the bed to get on the same level as Chao Ru¡¯s face, ¡°Only a few light marks remain, but they will go in almost no time. Your internal organs are all safe, too, so if there were any you were particularly concerned about, you needn¡¯t worry about them.¡±


    ¡°Right, thanks,¡± Chao Ru sat up on the bed, prompting Wei Yi to rise completely to keep up, ¡°By the way, yesterday, after I lay down, all of my newfound strength left me, but I felt like I had gotten a bit stronger. Could you check that for me?¡±


    ¡°Sure¡­ Yes, your body has grown a little stronger, although, rather than simply rising in strength, it would be more accurate to say that your overall potential has grown significantly,¡± she explained, ¡°Getting rid of impurities alone doesn¡¯t immediately cause greater physical capability, but does allow for a lot more development and growth. As such, you should get back to training when we return to Paragon, and maybe you¡¯ll find yourself far more capable than you had first assumed yourself to be¡­ Also, I had noticed that yesterday, but I didn¡¯t want to bother you. That, and your eyes have changed back.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a shame¡­ I wanted to see what I would look like with those¡­ There is something that I have to ask, however. You were effectively able to make me stronger, both right away and in the long term, with a bit¡­ no, a lot of sex, right? Wouldn¡¯t that mean that you should go around and¡­ supply everyone in the Arbiters with your bloodline power?¡±


    ¡°While I wouldn¡¯t say no to some, everyone has a limit to what they and their body can handle, and I simply don¡¯t think that it is a good idea to replace a training regimen with frequent orgies. As for providing bloodline power to others, that does not require any sex at all. If you remember its name, you should be able to think of the other source of that energy pretty much right away,¡± Wei Yi said, pointing to a blood vessel on her arm just in case Chao Ru was still exhausted from yesterday.


    ¡°Blood¡­ Right, of course blood would have a lot of bloodline power. Fine, that was a bit silly. Would it work, though?¡±


    ¡°Depends on what you mean, and what constitutes success in this field. The danger with this, as with any other bloodline, is that the consumption of it, especially when one lacks a stronger or equivalent bloodline to nullify its unwanted altering effects, can lead to such results as the body transforming into the original source of the bloodline, even if it is just in part. This won¡¯t happen with the method you learned of, as it is weaker and more inert in comparison, but blood does bring those risks with it,¡± she explained, ¡°The Blood Alchemists or the Blood-tinged Church may know a thing or two, but reaching either one is a little tough at the moment, to say the least.¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t be something that you could do any time soon, then?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, that does appear to be the case. I would very much like to give everyone in the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters as much strength as possible to permit them to cope with the world around us, but that is not something that is always easy to do safely.¡±


    Chao Ru didn¡¯t understand much bloodlines, bloodline power or what Wei Yi could and couldn¡¯t accomplish with the, but she nonetheless said, ¡°I¡¯m sure you will manage in the end.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for your confidence, even if I doubt that you or I see the full picture of bloodlines and their seeming nigh infinite complexity,¡± she replied, ¡°Now, I think that it is time to get going, so if you want to lie around some more, I can leave you to it. Otherwise, carrying you is an option, though not one I will commit to for long.¡±


    ¡°I think I¡¯ll try to sit around and cultivate, just to see whether I can make any improvements.¡±


    ¡°Alright, that is a good thing to attempt, so I¡¯ll not be bothering you for a while. Whether you¡¯d like to tell me of your accomplishments afterwards, or if expect me just to keep an eye on you as usual ¨C which I do regardless ¨C I¡¯ll come back somewhere closer to the evening, so long as nothing else happens.¡±


    Once Chao Ru nodded to show her understanding, Wei Yi considered giving the other woman a quick kiss on the cheek, but hardly needed to do much pondering to realise that it would only make it harder for the two of them to remain separate from one another in terms of their emotions and thoughts, so she just walked out into the sands, the sandstorm raging just as it had been doing for the past few weeks, and the other camps appearing to be waking up without incident.


    Everything looked fine, but there was still that feeling of alarm that wouldn¡¯t quite go away no matter what she did.


    ¡®Something will go wrong again. The only question is, what will it be this time?¡¯

 V4C19: Unwelcome Entrance

    A little while later, the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters that were masquerading around as the Hunters of the Cosmos also all awoke and got around to doing their own tasks, with just a few finding that the sand on one side of the camp looked a little strange, as if something had dripped into a pool of water that was then frozen mid-motion and turned to sand.


    They didn¡¯t know the cause, as sound had been completely prevented from exiting the many layers of barriers even if the light did pierce some, nor did they find any reason for concern as Wei Yi and Great Dark both appeared to be entirely unphased by the matter even as they walked near that area several times, so it was promptly ignored. It didn¡¯t take long for the wind and scattered sand from the sandstorm to clear the phenomenon away, making it look entirely ordinary, so in just an hour after most of them had woken up, it was only present in their memories.


    For some time, it was pleasantly quiet, without any interruptions or sudden attacks from other forces, allowing everyone to relax almost as much as they could within the Kong Prison Realm and Paragon, although they had to maintain an alert look on the surface as to not be caught out by the other groups.


    That was the case for most of them, but Wei Yi was met by Shi Bao Ya, who had come exactly when she had said she would. She was standing with some excitement at the side of the tent¡¯s entrance, waiting to be allowed inside, so Chao Ru was let out of the tent first before one of the leading members of the Flood Kings of Shi was allowed in.


    ¡°Have you had a good night, Wei Yi?¡± she asked once she entered and found a place to sit.


    ¡°As good as any, I suppose. Since you want to talk to me, would you mind explaining what it is you even want to discuss?¡±


    ¡°Well, I do think I should tell you something, at the very least. To disturb you from your guard duties, and anything else you need to do in the camp, I shouldn¡¯t just keep you guessing,¡± Shi Bao Ya nodded, gesturing towards the other stool in the tent, ¡°You might want to sit down near me.¡±


    That still didn¡¯t tell her what she wanted, but Wei Yi figured that she might as well go along with it for now and let this continue on without interruptions. Whatever the woman wanted, she didn¡¯t see anything suspicious on her body nor did she appear capable of harming her in any way, so unless Shi Bao Ya had an otherworldly gift somewhere on her without the Truth of the Universe noticing it and trembling in response, she had no power over Wei Yi.


    ¡°I had asked you about the Shi family when we had first met. This is related to that, and to some of the rumours that go around about our family¡­ especially in our own district, as unfortunate as that is.¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged before she could get too far, ¡°I¡¯m not from Yi City. I don¡¯t know much about it.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course. The reputation that we have is regarding our looks. You might have noticed that we all look¡­ no nice way to put this, but we look absolutely stunning, to the point that some of the people around us look practically dull in comparison, even if they are rather gorgeous in their own right,¡± Shi Bao Ya explained, ¡°Most of us would say that the rumours had been started by jealous men and women whose partners or lovers had been stolen away by our family in the past due to their superior appearances, but¡­ there is some truth to the rumours.¡±


    ¡°Which I have still not heard. I could have understood something from this if you didn¡¯t keep beating around the bush. Even the gracious sands won¡¯t stay still for eternity.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, sorry about that. The rumour that is most common is that of a curse, or some vile force, that had allowed us to obtain these appearances all those decades ago, and made them dominant in our family,¡± she said, although she hardly needed to continue at that point, ¡°I have found that there is a trace of truth to the words that they say. Something had affected us before, and it might either still be present, or it could return at any point.¡±


    ¡®Yi Shi Ming, you were fucking right. Why did you have to be right?¡¯ Wei Yi said to the spatial spirit while she faked an expression of continued confusion, ¡°What kind of curse makes one look attractive? Most people would rather take it, wouldn¡¯t they?¡±


    ¡°The curse was that it had to be stolen from others, and that it had to be stolen constantly and endlessly if the appearances were to be maintained. Supposedly, our Shi family had once been some of the ugliest people on the continent, but that effect had changed it, and we are now the complete opposite,¡± Shi Bao Ya sighed, ¡°Most of us don¡¯t care to do much, but I want to find out more. I¡¯d like to understand whether this is necessarily true, and, if it is and it is possible to disperse the curse entirely, whether it would be possible to attain beauty some other way. You happen to possess it, and you say you¡¯ve never heard of us before, so if you could tell me everything you know about your own appearance, that might help our district immensely. Maybe the others would finally listen if they didn¡¯t need to risk losing their pretty faces, large boobs and whatever else.¡±


    That was one of the nobler causes that Wei Yi had come across in some time, as it going successfully would permit everyone in the Shi family that had gotten used to fantastical appearances keep onto them regardless of the initial cause, while clearing away the rumours of a curse by having something else to show in reply.


    However, Wei Yi had attainted her own appearance though a combination of cultivation methods, a physique, and a lot of other factors that were rather difficult to explain or mention. It could be of use to that family, but it would also risk exposing secrets and might cause them to seek even further perfection beyond a healthy level, potentially reigniting whatever had begun their curse in the first place.


    As such, she decided to be polite and diplomatic in her reply, ¡°I can¡¯t really tell you much. I was born like this, then I did some cultivation, got the Titanic Demolisher physique, and here I am. Also, curse or not, something that enters the blood tends to stay in it. Unless you wish to ruin your own family¡¯s seed entirely, the good looks will likely remain.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ was what I was afraid you¡¯d say. Natural beauty is a hard thing to deal with, and I have heard of your physique before. It doesn¡¯t change facial features nearly to the extent that they might make you look that good, if at all,¡± Shi Bao Ya sighed again, looking down in slight but momentary defeat, ¡°While I have enough evidence of something having changed our appearances immensely, I know that nobody would ever dare touch it due to the risk of undoing its effects, even if that makes little sense. I suppose I¡¯ll just have to look elsewhere then. Thank you anyway, Wei Yi.¡±


    Her saddened expression lasted only a little while, after which she shifted as to be able to rise.


    ¡°Since we¡¯re already talking, and this lasted less than I had hoped it would, you could ask any questions you might have about us. I¡¯d answer anything that isn¡¯t secret, just in case it helps me as well.¡±


    Naturally, Wei Yi would not refuse free information, so after she pretended to ponder things for a while, she asked, ¡°Was it actually a curse, or was it just a power with too significant a downside? Was it some kind of forbidden skill, or excessively powerful body cultivation method that allowed an excessive degree of beauty to be obtained?¡±


    ¡°From what I know, it should be less the literal definition, and more the figurative one. No ritual and catalyst still stands to maintain some effect over us anywhere that I¡¯ve looked, and it truly would be a strange curse to place on someone, even with the downside,¡± Shi Bao Ya said, returning to her stable sitting position, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t tell you if it was a forbidden skill, but I don¡¯t think that is was, nor should this be a body cultivation method of any kind. At least, I¡¯ve not heard of anything that could achieve these kinds of results.¡±


    ¡°You might¡¯ve just overlooked it, but I do suppose that you¡¯re right. I¡¯ve got nothing else.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I shall see you later, Wei Yi, whether in battle or in a more peaceful manner. I¡¯ll try not to bother you in the near future, though.¡±


    The rest of the morning passed with Wei Yi monitoring the area around them, looking either for new arrivals or for someone or something on which she could easily pin the label of primordial deity worshiper and then eliminate to get all of them back to what they were meant to be doing. After a while, when the sun was right above them, shining directly from the peak of the sky, she returned to the camp and entered Great Dark¡¯s tent, where the twin of Great Earth was already sitting in wait for her.


    ¡°There was something that you wanted to test?¡± he asked once their barriers had been set up and stabilised.


    ¡°I had an idea, and an experiment. The latter can come first, since the idea will take some time, and you¡¯ve already experienced most of it so the only thing that¡¯s left is to figure out some way of actually accomplishing it,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°First of all, have you noticed the change that had occurred to Chao Ru¡¯s body when you had come over to pretend to be the one responsible for the God Burial Sea?¡±


    ¡°She was stronger¡­ her energy seemed purer¡­ Which of these do you refer to?¡±


    ¡°Her eyes, actually. You might have noticed that they had turned a very similar shade to mine, and that the moment they faded, so did her power. This was caused by the copious quantity of bloodline power entering her body and resonating with my own when she had been cornered and struggling to withstand the attack of the Golden Lords, but I suspect that if I was to provide my blood directly to another, I might be able to strengthen them without the need for the same lengthy process. You have a strong resistance to change as a result of your Paradigm of Yin, which should prevent you from permanently taking on any of my features if you do consume it.¡±


    ¡°You want me to be the first to¡­ try the effects of your blood? To be frank¡­ with everything that you have done so far¡­ I am tempted to take a dragon¡¯s blood before your own. It seems like it might be safer¡­¡± he said, shrugging after a while, ¡°You think that this will be safe?¡±


    ¡°Safe as anything of the sort can be. Don¡¯t worry, one drop of blood that isn¡¯t specifically aiming to assimilate you should not do anything even if it can somehow overwrite the link between you and Great Light, so the most that you¡¯d need to face is a prolonged period of terrible suffering,¡± she smiled, quickly correcting herself, ¡°Fine, just exaggerating there. It shouldn¡¯t be that bad so long as there is nothing unexpected to change the reaction.¡±


    ¡°While your words do not immediately fill me with confidence¡­ I shall attempt it nonetheless.¡±


    ¡°Good. Let me just give you a drop¡­ actually, no just open your mouth. Keeping my blood from spilling would be wise.¡±


    She was the one with far more knowledge on blood and bloodlines, especially due to him lacking almost any, so he just went along with what she was saying while bracing himself for the aforementioned unexpected alteration of the reaction between his body and her blood. While he wasn¡¯t sure whether she was entirely joking when she had mentioned terrible suffering, it seemed wise to be prepared for it regardless of the actual outcome of the experiment. In the best-case scenario, all he¡¯d need to do would be to relax the defences that he had prepared.


    As he opened his mouth just enough to let a droplet of liquid enter with ease, Wei Yi sliced through the skin on one of her fingers with her nail, resulting in a drop of golden red blood tinged with the shade of violet most prevalent within the cosmic nebulae of her energy. It outright glimmered and glowed with energy, the power of her ninth stage bloodline power cultivation hovering around it.


    For a moment, she considered whether something like that really should be consumed by anyone, no matter how they chose to do it, but then decided that if she was to test it out on anyone, Great Dark would probably be the next best choice after his twin brother. Nobody else ¨C other than her, but she didn¡¯t count due to being the one who possessed the bloodline in the first place ¨C had as much permanence to their bodies as those two did, and as she had already explained to him, that would be one of the best defences against any changes that the blood of a powerful being might impose on another.


    She did also consider whether this is something that could be dulled intentionally by the bloodline originator or by some other force, seeing as there had been tales of draconic empires a long, long time ago, where people would be blessed by the blood of dragons and permitted to hold higher positions based on it, but whether or not that was the case, all that she could do for now was subdue her bloodline power. The influential properties of her blood would still remain.


    The wound beneath the droplet closed almost instantly, and as the blood itself tried to re-join the rest of it flowing in her veins, she shifted her hand and flicked the droplet into Great Dark¡¯s mouth.


    As soon as it touched his throat, she could see his eyes suddenly widen and his mouth open in a silent scream, his hands balling up into fists with enough strength to draw his freezing blood from beneath his skin. She instantly provided him with plenty of lifeforce to keep him going while she inspected him.


    Rather quickly, the cause became obvious to her. Her blood was a perfect mixture of yin and yang as the result of all of her forms of energy, as well as her physique, acting upon it in unison and unifying the two disparate sides of yin and yang into one, but Great Dark, as someone that practised the absolute forbidden skill of the Paradigm of Yin, possessed only yin. That would not normally bother him, but when a force containing such a quantity of yang attempted to act upon his body, even if it did have some yin to balance itself, it was unable to balance the yang of her blood with the yin of his body.


    In fact, the way in which the Paradigm of Yin permitted the absorption of the vast majority of yin-type forces was more of a detriment, as it drew away the balancing yin of the blood for its own use while leaving him with the fire of the Ascendant.


    Fortunately, she had made sure to minimize the amount of blood that she drew, or else this could have easily been far worse.


    ¡°Never mind, then. Turns out I was not exaggerating at all. Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± he breathed out his first normal breath in some time, then mumbled, ¡°Had you tried mint when you had your sense of taste?¡±


    ¡°I did get to eat some at one point. You¡¯re not reacting to just that, are you?¡±


    ¡°At one time, when I had been young¡­ I had decided to drink a bowl of purified mint extract¡­ I was a foolish young man then, and to say that it had been unpleasant would be an understatement¡­ This is akin to that, but a thousand times worse, with flames instead of mint¡­ Perhaps I too will lose my sense of taste.¡±


    ¡°I doubt that will save you, but since I had lost it at a random point in time while in the Kong Prison Realm, you might be able to do the same. The problem for you is that you still eat every now and then, so it will not be as insignificant as it had ended up being for me,¡± she replied, ¡°On a more serious topic, though, you aren¡¯t burning up any more, right? Did you manage to get anything out of this, or was it just a really painful experience?¡±


    ¡°I think that I might have¡­ My Paradigm of Yin did absorb something, so it may assist in my cultivation¡­ and it feels like the fire had spread throughout my veins and meridians, so they may have been cleansed to some extent.¡±


    Naturally, she checked that right away, finding that his body had indeed been purified by a small degree, although it was not anywhere near as impressive as what had happened to Chao Ru¡¯s body. Furthermore, he had not enjoyed any kind of transformation, temporary or otherwise, that might have permitted him to yield some more benefits from the blood through his own energy momentarily gaining power and purity and allowing him to recapture that at a later time, so his gains were far lesser on that account as well.


    It did not yield as many positive results as she would have hoped for, but it did confirm for her that if she was to provide her blood to another, they might be able to benefit, although she did not think that giving even a single pure drop would be in any way reasonable even if they had a perfect balance of yin and yang within their body.


    Instead, it would be ideal to find some method to dilute the bloodline and the power within it so that everyone could be affected to a far lesser degree, even less than Chao Ru had been with her alternate intake of that energy, but so that they would have enough time to process and digest the blood. That should, in theory, prevent any unnecessary transformations, rejection of the blood, or any episodes of terrible pain and suffering, allowing everyone in the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters to benefit without causing every single one of them to look like Wei Yi, which would be ever so slightly strange, and would only be worse when considering the large number of relationships that she had with those within the Arbiters.


    ¡°Alright, thanks for that. Now, my other idea shouldn¡¯t involve any pain for you or anyone else in the Hunters of the Cosmos, but could lead either to the other forces fleeing, which wouldn¡¯t be ideal but would buy us time, or could lead them to conclude my apparent demise.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t need to consume anything¡­ will I?¡±


    ¡°Luckily for you, no. All that is required is me, a bunch of these metal materials,¡± she reached into the air and removed a number of them from the House of Gold, having placed them in there with a little of Yi Shi Ming¡¯s aid the earlier night, ¡°and some method of delaying the explosion, or otherwise causing it at the right time.¡±


    ¡°Your intention is to make those same metal beads¡­ then place them somewhere to scare the other forces in the area?¡± Great Dark asked, finally regaining a semblance of clarity in his voice.


    ¡°Not place, since that would contradict the theme of the cosmos that an entity known as Primordial Cosmos would be expected to adhere to, but instead in the sky, allowing them to fall some distance before exploding in a spectacular fashion that should be able to fool anyone but the real Hunters of the Cosmos, depending on what they actually know about the threat they seek to discover. If these are all in some way connected to a strange and bloodied altar that is made to crumble afterwards,¡± she grabbed a handful of the metal beads that she had created, ¡°Then it could seem like the worshiper somehow produced a response from the dormant Primordial Cosmos but failed to awaken it entirely. So long as that can all be done correctly ¨C perhaps using the Mask of Yama ¨C it might work out for us.¡±


    ¡°The mask could allow for us to evade detection¡­ but I am not certain how to create, pretend to discover, then destroy an altar without creating some discrepancy between our intentions and the results¡­ It would be rather difficult, no?¡±


    ¡°It would very much be challenging, that much I do not doubt, since most people are hardly stupid¡­ or so I¡¯d like to believe, but that¡¯s a matter for another time. For now, let¡¯s consider how we may be able to receive the incoming guest in a convincing way instead.¡±


    ¡°Wha-¡±


    ¡°Da Heian, can I enter? I have a report to make,¡± one of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters had come to the entrance flap of the tent and said, having been notified just as all of them had been prior to the creation of this camp that this would be a necessary procedure, ¡°There seems to be another person approaching us.¡±


    Great Dark shut his mouth and shifted the barriers alongside Wei Yi before calling out, ¡°You may enter.¡±


    He did so, stopping two steps in and providing his report, ¡°I only saw one figure, human as the rest, but there may be more. The air must have been particularly hot, since there was a lot of shimmering around him that made it difficult to make out anything of note about his features or equipment.¡±


    ¡°You think it¡¯s a man, though?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    ¡°It looked to be, but I could be wrong. I assume that he is wearing some kind of robe, the more traditional southern one, but again, it was difficult to see.¡±


    ¡°Since I assume that he was going in our vague direction, I guess that we¡¯ll need to prepare to welcome a guest, or a foe, depending on who that person is,¡± she said, dismissing him from the tent, ¡°I¡¯m not coming out there to greet this one as well, since for me to stand and wait out of the area of the camp every single time someone shows up would just seem odd and highly coincidental. I¡¯m sure that this person, man or not, can welcome himself in just fine.¡±


    ¡°It would still be best to be nearby¡­ whether to welcome him in, or to prevent any unnecessary injuries during battle,¡± Great Dark stood up from his stool, ¡°Also, you should be nearby to look at him with your own eyes¡­ just in case. He might have an otherworldly gift or something else of note.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I didn¡¯t mean that I¡¯d just sit in here and let everyone else do everything. I just won¡¯t be front and centre this time.¡±


    She rose also and the two of them left the tent at slightly different times, having quickly dispersed the barriers and the minimal evidence of suspicious activity, although most of it, namely the metal artefact beads, were stored in Wei Yi¡¯s House of Gold. Great Dark headed to a spot closer to which the man was spotted, while she took her place by the side of the route from there to his tent, where she would be able to see him walking past and make any judgements she needed to there. It was also even closer to the edge of the camp, so if this was some murderous killer intending to end their lives, she could also be there more quickly to help out the guards.


    While she waited, she focused on preparing more of the metal beads within the Kong Prison Realm, where she could do the same thing near the Endless Monolith as she could do in person, except that she needed a little more time and had a little less precision. It wasn¡¯t the best for forging anything intricate, but the creation of a metal bead with an energy channel within wasn¡¯t that difficult.


    Time almost flew by as she made several dozen of the explosive beads, all of which could be used the moment that she put any of her own energy into them. To cause some sort of delay, she could potentially encase her cosmic energy in any of her other energy to increase the time needed for the explosion to occur, but the most dangerous to planar energy was her bloodline which was currently also the weakest power available to her, meaning that the delay wouldn¡¯t be significant.


    Finally, she sensed that the person was near, walking past her location and towards Great Dark without incident so far.


    She turned to him¡­ and her boundless pool of killing intent nearly flooded the camp before she was able to stop it. Although she did not recognise his face, his clothing or anything else specific to him, she could flawlessly tell that the disturbances in the air around him were planar anchors, and that his mannerisms and arrogant expression were exactly the same as of those that had thrown her into the Kong Prison Realm, that had attacked and killed countless in the Yi District, which had enslaved the Remnants of Yin to seek out more of the forces that sought to weaken their hold on Yi City!


    Wei Yi turned away the very instant after, desperately suppressing both the flood of killing intent that rapidly arose in the skies of the Kong Prison Realm and the killing will state that was attempting to transform her left arm. She knew that she needed to restrain herself, that to attack a man like that directly would only lead to danger if she didn¡¯t give it enough thought, but it was incredibly difficult.


    After some time, when she was barely able to control herself, she raised her eyes just enough to be able to see most of his face, immediately lowering her gaze the moment after. Even then, she had seen enough. She could clearly tell that he had seen her, and while he did not seem to have noticed the killing intent, he had interpreted her lowering of her head as fear of him, prompting a smirk to appear on his face that only fuelled the fire inside her.


    Only after he left her line of sight, and after she had taken a bit of time to suppress all of the rage within her, did she realise that her fists were clenched more than tightly enough to draw blood and turn her knuckles white, that some of her teeth had gone into the killing will state regardless of her own intentions, and that the stool she had positioned herself on prior to this, as well as most of the sand around it, had broken to such an extent that the moment she shifted slightly, it fell apart into an incredibly fine powder. Due to the sandstorm, both were shifted and blown away before this could be noticed, but it had showed that she had not been good enough in controlling her killing intent.


    ¡®Those fucking bastards¡­ No, control yourself, you¡¯ve been far better at controlling yourself than this¡­ calm down¡­¡¯ she breathed slowly to stabilise her mental state again, ¡®Fuck whatever plans we had. That man must suffer as soon as possible, and we must take as much knowledge from him as possible. The Great Families cannot be allowed to traipse anywhere near Paragon.¡¯


    It was easy to guess why he, presumably a figure from the Great Ping Family judging by his appearance, with his name likely being Ping Wu due to his cultivation, age, and generation, had come here. The hunt for the so-called worshiper of Primordial Cosmos had not been completed yet, and so the people must clearly require some greater incentive to act, or perhaps they were too incapable to discover her when she was right in front of them, as the Greats must have thought.


    Whether or not they expected that she would literally be in front of everyone¡¯s eyes when they had first entered the fake Hunters of the Cosmos camp, they must have known that the more time they gave her, the more she could prepare, and so sending in someone who might be able to defeat her if she did not have assistance was the ideal course of action. Wei Yi didn¡¯t know whether they had known about the actions of the third generation of the Great Luo Family, nor what they had presumed had happened in that district and to the Remnants, but had she been them ¨C as disgusting as the very notion was to her ¨C she wouldn¡¯t have presumed that she had been the one to kill two of the third generation.


    Someone like Luo Lia Kun might have been the primary cause of their defeat, with her assisting in some smaller but highly vital manner, and so while they weren¡¯t sure where to find the perpetual vice-leader, they might have easily concluded that Wei Yi had gone north.


    In fact, it was rather likely that they didn¡¯t have a clue where the Remnants had gone, since they clearly didn¡¯t follow Wei Yi directly and had not been sighted elsewhere, meaning that if they did think they had gone to the prison realm, they should have taken some action to investigate what had happened and whether this was the act of one of the Great Luo Family, or some other force.


    Then, they would assume that apart from anyone else that Wei Yi was able to find on her journey to the north, she wouldn¡¯t be aided by the Remnants, and that a lone member of the Great Ping¡¯s third generation would be sufficient, although if there wasn¡¯t another member of that Great Family lurking about, she would suspect that the decision had been made in a very poor state of mind. Either way, if they did know of Paragon, or anything about it, they would almost certainly head towards it to confirm whether the sandstorm was responsible for it, and at that point, Paragon and the people there would be in danger.


    To endure a brutal fight was much better than to endanger the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and so she was prepared to fight two from the third generation on her own if necessary.


    Unfortunately, simply killing them wouldn¡¯t be enough if she truly wanted to make some progress. She needed to know more about them, more about Testament, and more about their plans and operations as to be able to best disturb or subvert them for her own gains, and that of Yi City as a whole. If they had an archive within which countless forgotten manuals could be found, she would need to find it and release all the manuals to the world. If there was a treasury where countless resources were held, she needed to release them from their grip. Whatever Testament was, it must be destroyed.


    That was one of the things that she didn¡¯t even think couldn¡¯t be redeemed by its usage towards a positive future, unlike the techniques that she had pilfered from them by way of observation. It must have been used for so long towards a terrible pursuit, and whether it was a book, a mansion, a location or a terrible abomination that was controlling the Greats, there was no choice but absolute destruction and immediate elimination the moment that it is possible.


    If she did not do this, then the countless souls that had suffered would never forgive her nor the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and they would never be able to rest wherever or whenever they continued to persist after a person¡¯s demise.


    ¡°Wei Yi, had you listened in on the conversation?¡± Great Dark¡¯s voice suddenly emerged in her ears.


    She knew that he had used an energy thread to connect to her, so she quickly reinforced it and replied, ¡°A little busy seething with hatred, I¡¯m afraid. Short version, if possible.¡±


    ¡°The Flood Kings and the Keepers of Groves shall go out in search of the worshiper, heading towards the source of the sandstorm. He will remain here for a while. I had waited until he was far enough for no spiritual perception of his to possible be able to sense us, so he is already some distance from the camp¡­ Are you-¡±


    ¡°Perfectly fine, but no time to chat. He might be up to something.¡±


    She severed the thread right away and ran out of her tent under the cover of all of her illusory methods, carefully feeling out any kinds of spiritual perception or otherwise observatory energy within the air. Having been caught once before, she did not intend to make it as easy for the Great Families this time, but she still needed to observe what Ping Wu did. Any little action could reveal the truth, or otherwise some hint, regarding Testament and their actions, and if she overlooked it due to fear or caution, she would be a far greater fool than anyone who had decided to side with the Greats willingly.


    On her way, she confirmed that the bodies of the Golden Lords, from whom she had taken the embers that resided within their hearts, had nothing on them that she could use to her advantage, which was unfortunately the case.


    With her great speed, she was able to find the Great Family member standing in the distance, near the weaker outer portion of the sandstorm, having stopped just a moment prior.


    He glanced around, using both his eyes and spiritual perception to cover as much of the area around him as he could within the sand, then placed his palms and fingers together. All of the illusory anchors around him shifted in a sudden manner, arranging an obstructing field through which neither spiritual perception nor vision could pass easily. Had she not known that he was standing exactly where she kept looking, and had her every aspect not been significantly more powerful than that of nearly any other cultivator, she would have lacked the ability to keep track of him through it. Fortunately, it appeared to be as good at obstructing her killing intent as it was his presence, so that didn¡¯t cause a problem.


    Lowering his head for a moment, he must have mumbled something before a ray of light shot out from his forehead at an immense speed, leaving her sight within moments, the barrier around him disappearing just as quickly with the anchors¡¯ return to a normal state.


    Nevertheless, that didn¡¯t mean that she had no clue of where the ray had ended up. She had seen how it appeared, the arc at which it travelled, the speed with which it did so, and so to estimate the vague landing location would hardly be impossible, especially not if the vague area had only a single thing of note for the ray of light to have been directed towards. It wasn¡¯t clear what it was, nor what the purpose of sending it was, but judging by the mumbling, it might have been some kind of message. If it had been a message, it would be directed towards someone that could receive it.


    The Greats would never communicate with some ordinary person, so it is likely headed towards an encampment of the Great Families. So long as that is where it goes, then there must be someone aware of the current situation present there to receive it. That person would be very likely to have some understanding of the situation of the Great Families as a whole, and thus¡­


    ¡®They might be aware of Testament! No, they would have to be, but there might be a document of any kind that I can reference!¡¯


    ¡°Wei Yi, the moment that they had left, the 7th Legion have attacked! We-¡± Great Dark¡¯s voice was suddenly cut off as the Great Family member turned towards her, clearly seeing right past all of her stealth methods.


    ¡°Tired of spying yet?¡± Ping Wu asked, his anchors forming a barrier between him and her as he confidently strode towards her, ¡°For intruding on what is not relevant to you, you shall die!¡±


    Her killing intent had already been overflowing at that point, and this was more than enough to tip it over, the great ocean of absolute hatred for the people that had forced her onto this path to begin with surging past the floodgates and flooding her body and the area around her. Sand turned to fine powder, the air scattered, and her left side instantly transformed into the killing will state.


    Not only was that the second attack of the second day of them attempting to convince a bunch of people that they were there in peace, with neither group having any sufficient reason to desire their demise, but this bastard before her dared to say that his pursuit of further devolving the world had no relevance to her. Her eyes surged with crimson light as she charged at him, drawing upon all forms of her power at once.


    ¡°LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT IS RELEVANT!¡±

 V4C20: Escalation, Part 1

    After a very brief talk with the member of the Great Family, both the Keepers of Groves and the Flood Kings of Shi had departed in search of the worshiper of Primordial Cosmos. To those that had no clue who the Greats were, such a speed of departure when they were previously more than content to sit around and wait might seem strange, but they obviously had some influence in each of the districts. So long as these groups, who were both part of the families they were from, had been told to be prepared for something like this in advance, none of them even needed to question it.


    With them gone, the Perpetuals of the Worm being rather far away and seemingly not bothered by the typical activities of the other groups so long as they did not get involved, and the Hammers doing their usual thing, whatever that was, the 7th Legion had nobody standing in their way of their intentions.


    As it turned out, their intention had been to attack, and to do so without a single word of explanation, so it wasn¡¯t even possible for Great Dark or any of the others to confirm whether their reasoning behind this had been due to their false identities, some fault in those identities, or something else entirely. All that they were able to do was stand and fight.


    Group movement techniques were powerful and versatile, but one thing that they lacked as a result of their excessive cohesion was a degree of individual flexibility.


    Whenever they attacked, it had to be in some way that maintained their flow, whereas individual members of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and most forces that didn¡¯t heavily employ such extreme movement arts, were able to move separately and act in accordance with their own perception of the situation. Individuals didn¡¯t always make the best decisions, whether as normal people or cultivators, but at that time, it was the best that they could do.


    The weakest members of the Arbiters, those in the lower third realm, immediately fled from the front of the battle, for they would do nothing but obstruct those stronger than them, and those that had the ability to fight against the fourth realm power of the 7th Legion, while Great Dark naturally didn¡¯t hesitate to draw on his power of the sixth realm to push them back.


    He lacked Wei Yi¡¯s expertise in an excessive number of topics, so he had no idea whether this had been prompted by something or someone or if it had indeed been their plan from the start, and so he wasn¡¯t interested in killing all of them before there was a chance to ask a single question. Furthermore, while his cultivation was in the sixth realm, he was a little like Yi Shi Ming in that his power was not entirely present when it came to combat, especially when he lacked the proper time to prepare inscriptions and tactics.


    Although Great Earth had been the leader of the movement that had then brought about the War of Yin, that did not mean that he had to have been an incredible combatant himself. In fact, most of the capabilities in that field that he did have went to Great Light, who had also inherited any of the brashness that Great Earth had once had tempered by his calmer side, which had become Great Dark.


    There had been no real opportunity to set up proper inscriptions without them being potential oddities for the other forces to discover and thus suspect their identities, especially if the Hunters of the Cosmos did not tend to specialise in inscriptions like those used by Great Dark.


    Thus, his combat ability was effectively in the upper fifth realm at best, while the 7th Legion was only in the fourth realm. However, their combat arts and the flow that they had been building up even the previous day, during the brief fight with the Golden Lords that had targeted them specifically, effectively brought their individual power up to the lower end of the fifth realm. When their group combat arts were added into this strange equation, they were effectively able to go against Great Dark on their own, but the presence of the other Arbiters did tip the balance slightly against them.


    They were able to focus either on keeping Great Dark from making any moves, defensive or offensive, or land small hits on the others, but they were unable to push the battle in any direction.


    Some time into it, a minute or two of struggling, a series of impossibly bright explosions suddenly illuminated not just the Arbiter camp, but every other camp in the area, completely overwhelming the otherwise blinding sun above them as if the very stars had fallen onto them.


    For a moment, neither side could stop themselves from looking.


    Wei Yi, to put it extremely mildly, had never gotten over the first meeting with the Greats, or, more precisely, everything that they had done and led to prior to her imprisonment.


    They had likely killed her parents due to them straying from the usual order of the Great Families, they had placed her in a home intended to prevent her from achieving anything, and when she did have the fortune of recovering, they tried to dash her hopes yet again. Just for that, they had burned not only her home, but the homes of all that had any relation to her, and countless other residences just to darken the horizon and the skies.


    In the past, her control had been partially tempered by caution. She had been in the third realm, without her full range of abilities, lacking the methods to guarantee her own success. To go against the third generation was already risky, forcing her to make use of such things as the Arrow of Artemis.


    That was no longer holding her back.


    She knew that she was still no match for the second and first generations of the Great Families, as there was no chance for her to go toe to toe with someone above her realm and with such a nonsensical power as the countless anchors of the Greats, not without another miracle like the otherworldly gift that had defeated Luo Zhong. However, she now exceeded the realm of the third generation, was close to advancing her bloodline power to the second realm, and had a list of methods she could employ that hadn¡¯t been as developed in the past, or were held back in some way.


    Thus, in a flash, she vanished from her position at the dune, where the powdered sand burst up and joined the sandstorm a moment after her disappearance.


    The moment after, she was already at the wall of anchors, her clawed fingers slashing down at it with the full power of her fourth realm physique, her claws surrounded by bloodline power to inflict even more damage.


    In the instant of collision, the entire area about them suddenly became clear of sand, all of it being thrown away by the same force that fragmented the stable barrier created by Ping Wu, although it failed to damage any of the anchors visibly. Not even a second later, her claws had already ignited with the energy of Eclipse Ire, which she brought down upon the anchors in front of her.


    At the same time, she motioned with her other hand, which she slowly brought into the killing will state as well as to balance out the current excess of killing intent rampaging within her body.


    Dawn light and moonlight exploded from the tips of her claws, throwing the barrier of anchors into complete disarray and breaching past to Ping Wu, who desperately recalled the many anchors to his own position and protected himself with the combination of them and his planar energy. Unlike many of his fellow members of the Great Families, he was not so keen on taunting or threatening, especially when he saw that the start of the battle had not gone in his favour, and so he quickly tried to turn and retreat, only to find countless small totems forming from the sand.


    ¡°YOU WILL NOT!¡± she shouted, her body suddenly being coated in flame and ice, ¡°RISE!¡±


    The totems also turned both white and gold, the one-eyed figures rising from them being echoed by a second set that both seemed to contain a glimmering heart and a star in place of their usual spectral eye. A glowing gold and silver emblem on their chest shone upon Ping Wu, and a moment after their complete manifestation, their illusory skin was coated in dense gold.


    Both the typical totem and the Titanic Demolisher replica behind them drew back their flaming left fists, a vast quantity of energy forming up around them as their ethereal states also brimmed with bloodline power, further empowering the mad combination that she had created.


    ¡°All of you always wanted to be the lights to guide people, no? HERE YOU GO!¡±


    She, the totems and, under her careful manipulation, the Titanic Demolishers as well as moved at once, punching at the Great Family member who still appeared to be unable to act in retaliation. The vast power instantly formed a ring around him that rapidly compressed, each moment making it more akin to the familiar light that usually illuminated the world. Even without the aid of a weaker world, Wei Yi forcefully manifested a star.


    At that moment, Ping Wu suddenly waved his hands, thirty-six points of focused energy appearing around him, before they spun and fired out concentrated and continuous beams.


    They shot beneath the gathering star and each cut at one of the totems, piercing the hardened sand easily as they rotated and severed totem after totem, obliterating the vast majority of them in mere moments, the rest only being able to maintain of the previous absolute degree of power that had been forming into a celestial object.


    Before they even stopped firing, their target changed to Wei Yi, the Great Family member clearly intending to damage her while the beams were still active, but she merely gathered energy in both of her hands and threw it out, the spheres of cosmic light splitting into countless smaller projectiles that met the beams and scattered them. All that landed upon her body were a few thin strands of the original powerful beam from each point, and while they did make weak incisions into her, she would not be stopped by something that insignificant.


    ¡°You are the Rebel, aren¡¯t you! You will pay for your-¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that fucking rich? You are the ones that must pay! YOU! Your fucking families, your bullshit order of the world, all of that shall fall, do you understand me?¡± she shouted, slamming her Endless Monolith behind herself without hesitation, ¡°If you think you¡¯re strong enough to be speaking, you are wrong!¡±


    In an instant, her power multiplied immensely, the Monolith being twice as effective as a normal anchor, and with the crystalline core around it, all of her forms of energy multiplied in intensity by several folds. Before the Great Family member could do a single thing, she set down a dozen Destruction Brands around herself, vanishing from the spot the next moment and releasing an enormous storm of gold, violet, crimson and silver, all colours of lightning and clouds around it uniting into a mad yet logical cacophony that instantly enveloped Ping Wu, striking his thirty-six anchors every instant that he remained under it.


    However, it was not enough to pierce it, nor would it be if he was to remain within it for the rest of its duration, forcing him to expand his spiritual perception to find her location.


    Contrary to what he expected, she had not distanced herself, fled, nor did she appear to be preparing a repeat of whatever method had permitted her and the countless totems to call down a star upon him. She had moved to a different direction, effectively rotating around him, and had gotten closer, but the totems were still absent and there was only so much energy gathered around her flaming and frost-covered form. Instead, the very moment that he had attempted to confirm her location, she grabbed something out of the air, directing a great quantity of her own energy into it before throwing it.


    Ping Wu might have had a chance against a slower technique, but against an arm that was more powerful than most in the same realm, he could hardly do anything to stop the objects ¨C for there appeared to be several small objects rather than a single one as he had assumed the moment before ¨C so he simply strengthened his barrier at the point of imminent impact and prepared for it.


    He had thought that he had a good idea of what kind of damage that would result in, but he was very much wrong.


    The instant that the small objects, the metal beads that had been thrown at him, collided, he realised that they were cracking and bursting with immense light from within, one that surpassed even the star that he had nearly been enveloped by, and that was only within one. When all of the small beads were combined together, all of them striking his anchors at a great enough speed to push them back just a little, and when their state finally went beyond cracking, he felt that he already knew his fate.


    Within a very brief period of time, one right after the other, with the delay only being sensed by the one attacking and the one withstanding it, a vast quantity of cosmic energy erupted from within the metal beads, some made only moments prior.


    Explosion after explosion rocked the desert, shattering the cohesion of the storm once more and fully clearing it in a larger and larger area with each new burst of energy.


    As the power of the explosion appeared to vary based on the power of the channels and the artefact combined, it meant that the material played a certain part in the final eruption of energy. Wei Yi naturally hadn¡¯t hesitated to infuse every little drop of energy that would fit into the beads as she was making them to reinforce the materials with her Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp, then boost the structure of the only channel inside of it, then using her planar energy to fill the things to the brim. With all of these things combined, she couldn¡¯t say with absolute confidence that this would match most high-grade artefacts, but she remembered exactly how destructive the explosion of the one and only that she had been able to damage so far was.


    What she witnessed now was hardly far apart.


    Each explosion was of pure cosmic energy, somehow amplified by the structure of the artefact in other to vastly multiply the power that a single drop of her energy could produce, but that also meant that when more and more explosions occurred after another, the energy didn¡¯t simply pass and dissipate, as it might in a regular explosion caused by any number of mundane factors.


    Instead, the energy gathered and multiplied yet again, the anchors that desperately tried to keep it out cracking after only three bursts, some shattering with an incredibly satisfying sound after five, and when the tenth bead exploded, she was distinctly able to feel and see thirty-six individual particles of anchor energy floating in the air, and alongside the sudden explosion of sand some distance back, she knew that Ping Wu no longer stood where he had been at the time the explosions began.


    Her change in position had been made expressly for the purpose of the displacement, one that she knew would occur whether she broke all of the anchors or not, to launch him into the right place.


    The result of her investment was shown only a moment later, when a dozen crimson light shot into the sky then fell back down with the crackling of immense cosmic flame within them. Again and again, the Destruction Brands fell, and the Great Family member had no choice but to withstand each and every strike, his only pride and primary power having been obliterated.


    Naturally, she did not wait to see the outcome, but first collected the anchor points, leading her current pool to grow all the way to seven hundred and eighty-two points after the previous killing of the Golden Lords combining with this plentiful bounty.


    As soon as she did, however, she rushed around the still continuing explosions and to the brands that repeatedly fell on the frail body of the Great Family member himself, one that was barely still holding on by some miracle. Perhaps it was the result of the time he had to have spent in proximity with his own anchors, or perhaps it was the numerous amount of resources that he had consumed during his years that had built up his body to be stronger and more durable than that of the average person.


    Whatever it was, it was either not enough for him to remain focused on doing anything beyond desperately shielding his face and groin from the repeated strikes, or the method that he had previously used to send a message required more than just the will to do so. Either way, she knew that it wouldn¡¯t be good if he managed to send even the most slightest and smallest of messages, so after another series of brand strikes, he grabbed him by the neck and lifted him into the air, his feet being unable to touch the ground due to the difference in height between him. She also recalled her Monolith, just in case.


    She held him there for just a little while, to allow him to see who had bested him in her natural state.


    During the battle, as to not waste her mental energy on the upkeep of things that would soon lose their necessity or value, she dispersed everything she had used to disguise herself, and so he could now see her silver eyes, crimson hair, and the killing intent side of her killing will state glaring at him.


    Whether or not he knew a single thing about Wei Yi, or if that had been settled by the Great Yi Family alone, she didn¡¯t care and directly asked, ¡°What is Testament?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ shall suffer it in time, I assure y-¡± his voice could hardly continue to leak out of his worthless throat when it was crushed, breaking his neck with the sheer might of her clawed fingers pressing down upon his flesh.


    She allowed his body to fall back onto the ground, reverting her killing will state as soon as she was able to influence it, and collected the ember from his body while it still burned brightly, feeling a small increase in her strength that did not in any way overcome the degree to which she had hated this man, and how she still hated the rest of the Greats with enough passion to easily light the world aflame so long as it had a chance to escape her mind and body.


    The moment that she regained a basic degree of calmness, she turned back to the camp and rushed to it, having scanned over it a moment prior only to find things in a rather poor state.


    Nobody from her Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters had perished, fortunately enough, but some had endured rather unfortunate wounds that would greatly benefit from some lifeforce to force them to close more quickly, while Great Dark was clearly struggling to figure out the best way to resolve the current conflict. Both of these would be helped by her presence, so she didn¡¯t hesitate to appear.


    Another weakness of individual forces that could, at times, be a strength, was the way in which individual morale and tactics were very much separate, while those in a group combat technique unified by flow would maintain a roughly equal level of morale and be able to coordinate any individual movement perfectly so long as it was properly maintained. That meant that individual members of the Arbiters would be becoming tired or afraid after a time, but the 7th Legion did not face the same issue, being able to strike fast and strike confidently whenever they wished to do so.


    As a result, over the duration of the battle, they were slowly making more ground as they were uncovering faults in the line of defenders on the side of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and more and more were getting near to landing some fatal strike on one of the defenders.


    At one point, when they nearly landed a proper strike on Great Dark, their united minds almost concluded the battle as being won by their side.


    Whatever that explosion of cosmic light had been, it wasn¡¯t immediately going for them, and it wouldn¡¯t help the very Hunters of the Cosmos that should be going against whatever is able to produce such a thing, so the only thing on their minds was the imminent conclusion and victory of the battle, as well as how they would either get away or justify this to the forces that had left into the sands.


    It was then that a stygian green light suddenly burst out of the ground between them, forcing the two forces to take a step back just as the 7th Legion were certain of being able to land a fatal strike on an opponent.


    The light quickly grew as the sand it shone through rapidly sank into the ground, revealing a strange dark objects of some unknown material rising from the ground, arriving at the surface as it shook for several moments, seemingly doing nothing of particular note. However, the moment that the legion considered that it might be a reasonable idea to move forward, the top of the black object burst outward, several shapes and terrifying monsters made of blackened bone and darkened flesh rose out of it.


    At the same time, several more pits suddenly appeared around them, similar monsters as well as simpler humanoid skeletons and various vermin rising from within and all turning to the 7th Legion.


    They did not need to be told that whatever had summoned those things was not on their side, especially not when that person emerged from yet another sudden pit, this one appearing behind the lines of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, holding a blackened eye.


    Although they were not able to recognise her due to the change in her outfit and appearance, the Arbiters would be hard-pressed not to recognise their saviour as being their very leader, Wei Yi, who pocketed the Abyssal Eye the moment that she had been able to confirm that the entities she had conjured would not need nor be able to receive any further commands.


    This eye was one of the items that she had purchased at the Chao District auction, and while it didn¡¯t get the opportunity to be used against Ping Wu, whose blood she had long cleaned from her body, it did offer her both the ability of rapid transportation through those strange darkened pits and the tunnels that formed to connect them, and provided her with a small supply of additional, albeit temporary, forces. Each entity was conjured from her killing will, allowing them to vaguely resemble their intended state if manifested through planar energy, but that also meant that they were effectively at the peak of the fourth realm of planar cultivation in terms of their strength.


    She had found the time to get changed while in the tunnels, although it did force her to hurry quite a bit.


    ¡°Everyone, attack the 7th Legion! You shall not die at their hands, and you shall not die today!¡± she shouted, reaching everyone on the battlefield, simultaneously removing another item that she had purchased at the auction from the House of Gold behind her back as to cover up the spatial fluctuations, ¡°The primary foe has already fallen!¡±


    Not all of her Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters had personally seen one of the Greats, nor had all of them been able to tell right away that the person that had entered their camp not long ago had been from such a family, but when she declared that their primary foe in the battle had already perished, they hardly needed to know that kind of thing. All that it meant to them was that Wei Yi was now present, and she alone was worth far more than any one of them when it came to combat.


    She said that they would not die at the 7th Legion¡¯s hands, and so they knew this with absolute certainty, not a drop less.


    So, while they got back into the battle, their spirits fully rekindled and the stygian abominations going a long way to assist them with terrifying scythes, claws and teeth, Wei Yi raised the Blistering Tome and pointed it towards the enemy side before opening it up.


    The book itself didn¡¯t technically contain a single page, but when it was opened, one part would suddenly break apart and display a page that did not always remain the same, as she had learnt when she tried it out during a bit of spare time some time ago. When any page was chosen, the primary symbol on that page would ignite, and one of a number of effects would occur, ranging from a simple ball of fire being launched to, as she had seen once after a hundred openings of the book, a powerful scorching ray.


    This time, the page that she had obtained was decorated with a simple rune that vaguely resembled half of a basic image of a tree united with a lightning bolt, effectively portraying the effect it created.


    As the symbol burst into flame, the killing will that she had deposited into the artefact was quickly drawn upon to condense a volley of fireballs, all of which shot out at a slightly different angle, while each being linked by a burning beam that looked to contain enough heat to turn the sand beneath their feet to glass right away.


    It struck the members of the 7th Legion that had chosen to step forward and face the attack directly, blocking it from affecting anyone behind them so that their damage mitigation method could then effectively spread out the wounds and ultimately limit their effects upon them so that they could continue with the battle unharmed. The fireballs exploded, and the line of flame did not hit a single soul, but instead of ending there and then, part of the flaming explosion on each one soldier that had been struck reformed into two fireballs each, these ones still being linked with the flames, and just as the first, they continued onwards, this time flying directly at the next targets.


    The 7th Legion immediately shifted their defences to the line behind the front, but even with their flow such a rushed action led to a slightly inferior layer of protection, while their threats had multiplied.


    While the fireballs struck the second line and the links of flame cut into and through some of them, mostly affecting clothing and thinner portions of their body such as fingers, the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters were hardly standing still, charging in to strike at the weakened front line with greatly improved vigour. They may not have been aware of the details of that item, but they knew that it was a mere artefact. Their boss had yet to place down her Monolith or use one of her own overwhelming techniques, so these were truly insignificant in comparison.


    She hadn¡¯t intended for it, but everyone present, Great Dark included, suddenly felt a great motivation to improve, whether to be able to fight on their own and be able to retain their life, but mostly so that they would not simply be worthless in any battles that Wei Yi is forced to participate in.


    Once the fireballs exploded once more, their greater force condensed into an even greater quantity of fireballs, all of the previous projectiles splitting into two once again while the flaming links between them cut at them with even greater power and caught a number of them off-guard. Some had mistakenly believed that the first split had to be the last, given that the multiplication of power was already insane then, but they had clearly failed to take a proper look at the rune that created the attack.


    Even on the burnt version of it, three distinct layers of branches could be seen on the simplistic tree.


    The first two lines didn¡¯t dare to move their wounds onto their allies, for that would only worsen the state of the third line when they received the attack of the flames, but that meant that they had to face the attack from the Arbiters with wounds and a decreased flow between them, dropping their effective combat ability to the peak of the fourth realm.


    With that drop, they lost their chance for victory. A number of the 7th Legion¡¯s members fell at once, whether from the charge of abyssal monstrosities, the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, or the last split of fireballs, and the rest were hardly in a condition to persist.


    ¡°Surrender right now, 7th Legion, or else you shall be put down, regardless of your reasons!¡±


    They had no time to reply before another call was heard from the distance, signalled by the sudden flood of water into the area that was echoed by the growth of countless saplings and trees all around them.


    ¡°The Hunters of the Cosmos are on the side of the Primordial Deity! Flood Kings, Keepers, we must take them down!¡± shouted one of the male leaders of the Flood Kings of Shi.

 V4C21: Escalation, Part 2

    Their sudden intrusion gave Wei Yi no choice but to momentarily affect the 7th Legion¡¯s remaining members with a God Burial Sea, even though it would not be as effective on them as it could have been had their stages been a little closer to her own. While the technique did mostly rely on exact power, it was slightly affected by stages, nonetheless.


    With their threat temporarily subdued, she and the rest of her Arbiters could turn to the incoming wave of green and blue.


    Out of the total number of the two groups, only around half were attacking them at the moment, so it was easy to presume that the other was currently either dealing with another perceived or true threat, or that they were preparing to surround them or attack them from two sides at once to increase their chances of victory. A brief look around performed by Wei Yi with her copious spiritual perception revealed none of their forces in the vicinity, so since she was unable to push far enough through the sandstorm, she could assume that they were not yet here, if they were coming for them at all.


    Shi Bao Ya was not amongst this group, and since she was the only person that she had spoke to at all in those groups, Wei Yi was not concerned with the rest of them. If necessary, all of them could be killed as quickly as the 7th Legion.


    ¡°You have one chance to turn back! We are not with Primordial Cosmos!¡± she called out first.


    If they were able to somehow turn back the tide of people, or otherwise stall them for a proper discussion, that would be the ideal scenario, and it was important to first give them a chance to either retreat or explain their full reason for attacking prior to trying to kill them all, even if their techniques had already turned the sand beneath their feet to wet mud filled with various plants growing from it.


    ¡°You lie, Hunters! This has already been predicted, and you will not get away with this!¡± the Flood King of Shi shouted back, turning to his forces, ¡°Everyone, at them! Charge!¡±


    That statement alone decided their fate, for the only person that would have been likely to predict such a thing, and that had obviously spoken to them prior to their departure from the district, was the now deceased Ping Wu. If they had listened to him readily, even though he was nowhere in sight now, they did not deserve to get away unharmed in her eyes.


    As such, she put the Blistering Tome back into the House of Gold and removed a long twig with a spiralling yet straight body from it, aiming it at the approaching forces while channelling her Eclipse Ire energy into it as to not risk damaging it with her planar energy, same as with the rest of the items.


    ¡°Everyone, take one step back from me now, and then we shall fight!¡±


    They had no need to question her orders or her intentions, and instead did exactly as they were told while dawn and moonlight gathered around the long wooden stick.


    Once she was able to confirm that everyone was out of the range of the burst of energy that usually occurred at the release of the ire type of techniques, she reached out with it, pointed it precisely at some of the more dangerous foes in the Flood Kings and the Keepers of Groves, then gave one more moment for her energy to charge before releasing it.


    She didn¡¯t have the time to check all of these items when she had first gotten them, nor was she intent on risking some of their effects, but she did know with absolute certainty that the Spiralling Twig, as it was called when it was sold to her, did have the ability to take in the energy of a cultivator and then manifest it into a technique, but other than that, she hadn¡¯t yet tested the exact effects that it would have on any one technique.


    As such, she was very eager to test it out, using her full power on the Eclipse Ire technique before shooting it at a foe, restraining only the typical burst of energy that would erupt the moment that it was fired.


    When the silver and orange beam shot out of the stick, it seemed to undergo no special changes, save for being more concentrated and thinner than usual. It reached out and almost instantly struck the abdomen of one of the stronger members of the Keepers of Groves, audibly tearing their flesh asunder and striking the core that protected their dantian.


    It did not seem to immediately shatter it, but significant damage was most certainly done.


    Only a moment after the first beam emerged, however, she felt the power within the twig suddenly reignite and return with even more force than before, instantly rebuilding the Eclipse Ire before it shot out as well, impacting the abdomen of a different target as she had shifted her hand slightly after the first attack had shot out and landed. Fortunately, she had made her troops distance themselves from her, or else the second burst of energy being more powerful than the first might have resulted in some rather unfortunate injuries on her side.


    For a moment after that, she wasn¡¯t sure whether this would be able to repeat again, but to be safe, she pointed the stick at one of the leaders of the Flood Kings of Shi. Sure enough, only a moment after the second strike, the energy within the twig returned and amplified again.


    A larger explosion of energy erupted from her body, and shot out at the foe she had targeted, who had seen the first two fall around him and tried to evade only to be struck directly by the moonlight and dawn light without a chance to resist them. They struck his abdomen in the same way as the previous two beams had injured the other two, but this time the technique was more powerful than its first usage and first failure to inflict a killing blow on a fourth realm target¡¯s cultivation.


    Thus, as it landed upon the core within his body, it splintered the surface with far more than enough sound for all those on the battlefield to hear. It was akin to glass shattering after being struck by a hammer, but this sound ¨C and the force that the shattering produced ¨C was amplified immensely, going from merely something that drew attention to a great eruption of force that tore through the man¡¯s body. Countless stray shards of his planar energy that had once protected his cultivation now pierced both the dantian and the flesh that stood between it and the outside world, turning into bursts of unbound energy after it left the prison of his mortal form.


    In an instant, one man in the third realm and one man in the fourth perished, while another in the fourth endured significant damage to his core. One strike dealt three heavy injuries.


    The charging Flood Kings and Keepers of Groves halted for a moment, while the Arbiters were only invigorated by the damage dealt to their foes and rushed in to capitalise on the brief distraction and chaos.


    Had Wei Yi been able to use this Spiralling Twig several times in a row, she might have been able to overwhelm the enemy forces in one go, but just as with the Blistering Tome and the Abyssal Eye, there was an unfortunate cost for the greater power of these artefacts. They could be used with the same amount of energy as most items of the same grade, but they had a certain time in which they needed to cool down, effectively, so that they wouldn¡¯t explode, shatter, or cause some terrible consequence that couldn¡¯t be resolved by the cultivator.


    For example, if she had tried to overtax that Abyssal Eye and managed to get it to work, it might overproduce the pits in the ground, the monsters within them, and do so without binding them to her extremely limited control over them. Then, there would effectively be a third army on the field that needed to be contended with, which would hardly be ideal in most circumstances.


    Even now, the abyssal entities had to be dispelled so that they wouldn¡¯t prematurely kill the 7th Legion members buried in the ground, so making use of them in battle wouldn¡¯t be possible without risking that, or the simple destruction of a highly powerful artefact that she had needed to pay for, even if the money she had made at the auction far overwhelmed the cost. Instead, she had one of three other items to choose from, and she was only sure regarding two of them.


    The Monstrous Glove and Piercing Needle appeared to have simple enough effects, with the former being able to hinder or affect the mind, perhaps the soul, through physical contact, while the latter made piercing through defences a vastly easier task. The last item was one that she had not fully understood even after looking over it for quite some time, and so she hadn¡¯t attempted to use it within the Kong Prison Realm just yet in the extremely unlikely case that whatever it was capable of could obliterate the spatial realm and everyone inside as easily as the collapse of it would do. Testing that wasn¡¯t worthwhile there, and it wasn¡¯t reasonable to experiment with it here, not when she hardly needed to.


    All of the forces on the side of the Flood Kings of Shi and the Keepers of Groves were only in the fourth realm, same as she was, so she could defeat any one of them on her own, not to mention the fact that she had wanted to hit them directly for some time now.


    She decided to draw the Monstrous Glove out of the House of Gold, deciding that the Piercing Needle was neither needed nor suitable for her preferred combat style of striking things directly in the face.


    As such, she decided that the best thing to do was join the fray, leaping into the air, nudging her position forward using the World¡¯s Echo physique, then allowed herself to fall as she prepared her next attack for just a little moment. It was her intention to be free to act for just a little while, and that would be easiest to achieve with a steady pool of energy being built up within her meridians so that she could unleash it continuously without worry.


    The moment that she landed amidst a group of the Keepers of Groves, they attempted to welcome her with their wood-type attacks, countless things sprouting suddenly from the ground while a series of planar constructs that ranged from resembling simple vines to complex monstrosities attempting to devour her were sent at her.


    However, wood fuelled fire, and although Wei Yi had quelled the flames of the Vibrant Phoenix, the power of the Phoenix Transformation and therefore the Draconic Punch remained within her grasp, and at her beck and call. With her right hand, the one that she had reequipped with her gauntlet while placing the Monstrous Glove onto her left hand, she manifested the powerful flame of a phoenix around her fist and claws, the powerful image of the dragon being subverted into the flaming immortal avian of the heavens.


    The claws of the phoenix tore through the planar constructs and struck at one of the ones that created it, tearing into his flesh, and clasping down on the core within his abdomen, forcefully pressing down upon it and piercing the surface with the claws.


    For a moment, the man whose core was being held could do nothing, for any slight movement felt both impossible and like it would be the thing that breaks the momentary pause not by freeing him, but by shattering the core. He didn¡¯t want to believe it, but it was clearly struggling to endure the grip of the planar construction, even though the woman in front of him was several stages beneath him.


    After a moment of wariness, he looked up at the woman holding him, only to find a smirk appearing on her face almost immediately.


    The next instant, his core collapsed inwards, the claws piercing through and crushing the dantian and anchor within with far greater ease, making it seem as if this had all been a game from the very beginning.


    Whether it would have made him feel better or worse, it was no game, but instead a ploy to get his allies to approach her in a mistaken belief of temporary safety, for she had broken his core not when he looked up, but rather when they were at the right place for her to act, which she did almost immediately. With her left hand, she grabbed onto the strongest person approaching her, activating the ability of the middle-grade artefact right away.


    The appearance of the glove instantly turned significantly more monstrous than before, with mouths, teeth and eyes forming all over its surface, and one mouth in particular bit down on the female attacker¡¯s body, touching her skin through her clothing but failing to actually penetrate it. Despite that, despite being entirely certain that there was not a single clear wound or puncture mark on her skin, the woman suddenly felt a terrible pain pass through her body, clearly feeling as if teeth had pierced and bit down on her flesh.


    That pain rapidly spread, and before she knew it, she was barely aware of anything. Sure, the pain had faded, but her vision seemed to as well, as did her hearing, and her thoughts¡­


    All of a sudden, it was just so hard to think¡­


    Meanwhile, her body lost the support of her waking mind, and would have fallen if Wei Yi had not easily lifted her up and thrown her body into the nearest group of Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters to manage, whether that was by killing her or capturing her, depending on what they had the most opportunity to do, or what they wanted to do.


    For a brief moment, she looked at the glove on her hand, and the bright white mote of light that surged atop one of her knuckles, or, more precisely, at the knuckle of the glove. Rather than simply affecting the soul, as she had initially presumed, and as the item had been advertised to her at the auction, it was actually able to capture the very soul from a body, albeit for a very limited time. It would remain within her grasp for no more than a minute, depending on how powerful someone¡¯s soul was, presumably, and once that time was up it would certainly emerge and return to its own body.


    If it perished, then she couldn¡¯t quite be sure of what the result would be, but something told her that it wouldn¡¯t be pleasant for the soul while also being unlikely to actually splinter or damage the soul to any significant degree. Most likely, it would simply result in the soul being lost for a little while before finding its way to wherever souls usually went after one¡¯s demise, at which point it would return to the usual cycle of life.


    She was forced to quickly end her contemplation and observation as the rest of the people around her all chose that moment to attack, forcing her to leap into the air once again and gather some more of her energy into her hands, which she focused into her palms that she then pressed together, stepping on an Aerial Foothold for a brief moment before deciding which point to strike.


    The moment that she did decide, she leapt down and waited for just the moment prior to her landing. At that moment, she brought her hands up to her face, and smiled.


    ¡°Black Sun¡­¡± she muttered, parting her hands to unveil a small black spot, a sphere that floated freely in between her hands. It was barely the size of a sesame seed, and it was cold, barely containing any semblance of power or energy, but every one of the Flood Kings and Keepers of Groves immediately felt their senses warning them of this small, strange particle that seemed to float meaninglessly in the air, harming none, especially not the person standing right next to it.


    However, the moment that Wei Yi touched the ground and suddenly sank inside, being devoured by one of the abyssal pits that she had placed here while falling, as the transporting pits took far less energy from the Abyssal Eye to create than the full-blow abysses, they realised that something was wrong.


    A strong force suddenly acted upon them, pushing them towards the small black grain, but what was more concerning was the way in which light around it seemed to be drawn into it, filling it without any clear limit as the grain slowly expanded more and more, a larger and larger area around it becoming dark and devoid of light. Those closest to it, those that had attempted to strike Wei Yi as she was coming down, felt an immense radiating wave of a strange semblance of, or perhaps combination of, absolute frost and boundless heat, like they were being burnt by ice or frozen by flame, but instead both occurred at once.


    In an attempt to quell the black sphere, which now grew all the way to the size of a man¡¯s hand, one such nearby Flood King of Shi attempted to cut it down, to split it in half with a blade, perhaps assuming that it was not as formless as the entity appeared and that it would still suffer if a blade, coursing with the energy of someone in the fourth realm hit it. He may have only been in the first stage, but in his eyes, that had to be the same as Wei Yi was, so what would be the problem?


    The moment his blade so much as touched the surface of the black sun, it was suddenly frozen in place, the surface of the metal melting away and into the infinite darkness as easily as if it had been water in a stream. It looked slow, as if it would take the rest of their lives, and yet as the one holding the weapon which was rapidly being devoured, the Flood King knew that it was everything but. It pulled on his hand with more force than even he thought he could ever muster in his entire life, forcing him to release his grip of the hilt and then execute a movement technique to flee without caring for his hand, which was still drawn to the weapon and the black star. As he managed to make a feeble step away, bones cracked and muscle tore, but he did manage to escape from it¡­ for now.


    Alongside the rapid growth of this entity, and the fact that many of the supposed Hunters of the Cosmos promptly retreated from it, they understood that this was going to be a threat to them.


    Even Wei Yi was a little impressed at how effective it turned out to be, despite being created moments prior, and a little disappointed that it forces her to stay away from the battle until the duration of the technique¡¯s planar construct, if it could even be called that at this point, expired.


    Together, a number of the Flood Kings of Shi and the Keepers of Groves surrounded it in a circle, ensuring that there was plenty of space between them and the black sun, as well as that there was still sufficient room between it and the sand below for it to not become another food source for the growing sphere. The water-type cultivators drew upon the plentiful water that they had created previously to flood the area and raised it into the air, forming a bubble around the darkness that barely resisted the immense pull upon it.


    After them, the wood-type cultivators of the Keepers of Groves willed roots reinforced by their cultivation to rise from the ground, surrounding and weaving into the defensive sphere to reinforce it as much as they possibly could.


    While their allies guaranteed their security, or did their best to do so, one of the Keepers that looked onto the Arbiters that surrounded them suddenly exclaimed, ¡°They¡¯re returning!¡±


    The Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters did not turn to look, as that would be foolish and extremely dangerous for them while they were at their current risky position, but Wei Yi did so for them, finding that the other half of the forces of both groups were approaching from the other side, from the direction of the Perpetuals of the Worm camp. No injuries marked their bodies, nor was there any blood on their weapons, so they must not have fought with them as they were currently confronting the Arbiters.


    Especially due to that, the sudden addition of another side to the conflict was hardly beneficial to her or her soldiers. She was also able to see Shi Bao Ya amongst that group, who had the barest trace of hesitation upon her nearly perfect features.


    ¡°The guess is confirmed!¡± one of the Flood Kings shouted to them, using a voice technique that was highly similar to the Lion¡¯s Roar to transmit his voice, ¡°The Hunters of the Cosmos are against us!¡±


    Their conflict was likely highly visible even from afar, but with their confirmation, the other half of their forces accelerated to meet them, resulting in them running straight into a series of bodies that turned out to be lying on the sand, covered partly by it in such a fashion that it was hard to see them while rushing past but easy to trip on them when they were not observed.


    ¡°What the-¡±


    ¡°We are the HAMMERS! SMASH!¡± a battle cry suddenly emerged from the sand, a dozen figures following it and all flying at the Flood Kings and Keepers that had run into them.


    Naturally, Wei Yi immediately gave the order to attack before the forces they were already fighting with could recover from the whiplash of expecting a pleasant entrance from their allies only to be interrupted by some people that they had likely forgotten about entirely, then disappeared from the spot again to arrive at the other side of the battlefield without being noticed. She had hardly formed any kind of tight bond with anyone in either one of those groups, but Shi Bao Ya did not appear to be too bad, and so she wanted to prevent her from being randomly attacked by some overly muscular men.


    She had few suitable methods of imprisonment, but all that she really needed to do to capture anyone was to give herself the chance to seize them, and the Abyssal Eye provided exactly that. The moment that the ground beneath Shi Bao Ya suddenly gave way, Wei Yi grabbed her with ease.


    Relying on the suddenness of the moment, she asked, ¡°What happened with the Perpetuals?¡±


    ¡°They ran off before we even got to them- Wait, what-¡±


    Before she had the chance to mutter another word, Wei Yi tapped her forehead and momentarily wrapped her mind in spiritual will threads, forcing it to rest and sleep so that she didn¡¯t need to be bothered by this woman for the rest of the fight, whether Shi Bao Ya intended to simply talk or to fight back, going along with whatever the Great Family member must have told them. She left her on the ground in the abyssal tunnel for now, since they would close only after five minutes of being open, thus giving her enough time to resolve matters on the surface before picking her up.


    If necessary, Yi Shi Ming¡¯s spatial spirit capability could be employed to bring her into the prison realm and thus into Paragon, but that would risk having any of the Greats nearby that might have accompanied Ping Wu discovering her connection to the Kong Prison Realm, which would hardly be ideal given how much effort she had put into attempting to hide it from them so far.


    She emerged once more and was able to find the battle in a similar state as when she left, the black sun still restrained by the bubble of wooden roots and forcefully stilled water. Some of the Flood Kings and the Keepers of Groves had been injured, some suffering in the remnant spaces of concentrated unbound energy from the earlier explosion of one of their leader¡¯s core, others falling to the attacks of her Arbiters, while most of her forces both endured and recovered further from the earlier fight with the 7th Legion due to the aid of her lifeforce. The two sides were hardly equally matched at this point, and as the Hammers displayed a mysterious degree of strength in easily smashing some of the weaker members of the offensive from the other side, the looks on their faces were clearly dark.


    Unlike the 7th Legion, Wei Yi would not assume her victory from just this. People had trump cards, tricks and skills that they left up until the last moment that they needed them as they would either inflict heavy damage to themselves or their allies, or due to the limited quantity of that card, as it were.


    Thus, when the eyes of some of the leaders of the Flood Kings of Shi and the Keepers of Groves met, she did not take this as a sign of their inability to conclude a plan and thus a sign of their imminent surrender, but rather they had decided that it was the time to make use of one of the aforementioned trump cards, one of the last things they wished to commit to.


    ¡°Everyone, we shall slay the Hunters of the Cosmos!¡± one of the leaders cried out.


    What he did not know, or perhaps did not dare to assume, was that there would be a mind other than the one present at the battle already that could hear their cry. And yet, not far away, an approaching legion, comprised of several powerful squads, was heading right towards them, their abyss blades and armour at the ready for conflict, but not one that they had expected to come as soon as it did, before the location of the worshiper could even be found.


    They couldn¡¯t understand the exact context, but what they did see was one of their blades in the distance, as well as a conflict amongst several groups. It might have been an offensive launched by their side, or perhaps a defensive effort from them against a tide of unforeseen opponents. Something that could be seen visibly and clearly was that they were besieged by a force in greater numbers, with two more fighting at the side with an uncertain connection, and that the attackers had a strange orb of wood and water that they were clearly collaborating on. This was clearly threatening the Hunters.


    In that case, they, especially when one of the generals of the Hunters of the Cosmos was present with them, had no choice but to join in first, and ask questions later.


    ¡°Hunters of the Cosmos, we must protect our own! Everyone, charge!¡±


    Wei Yi hadn¡¯t been there to see just how the explosions of planar energy had lit the horizon from the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters¡¯ camp, but she suspected that what she had seen now was much akin to what her troops had experienced only shortly before.


    It was naturally not the same, not in any way, but the rough degree of visual flair certainly had to match.


    The army that approached suddenly raised their blades and an incredible quantity of dark energy gathered above them, momentarily blotting out the sky and equating the dark sun that Wei Yi had been able to produce, although a quick comparison of the force and energy within did allow her to conclude that it was hardly equivalent in terms of the ultimate potential that the Black Sun technique possessed. What was more impressive was the speed with which it appeared, countless smaller bolts shooting out all over the battlefield.


    At least, that was what it appeared to be until she and her enemies both realised that the Flood Kings and the Keepers of Groves in direct combat with them were the only ones being targeted, and that the technique has insufficient individual accuracy but wouldn¡¯t hit an ally. The battle cry was also heard a moment later, as delayed as sound was, and the reason became clear.


    ¡°More of the Hunters¡­ stall them! We shall do it!¡± one of the leaders of the Flood Kings announced.


    Wei Yi did not immediately hasten to stop them, but instead looked back to the approaching charging line of the Hunters of the Cosmos, the true ones, then to the only Hunter amongst their group, and decided that it would be risky to trick such a large legion as well.


    If, in the middle of battle, it was decided that their false identity was a problem and that, for tricking the Hunters, the Arbiters deserved to be punished if not even killed, then it would force things to become far less pleasant than they were, and that would be far more dangerous than whatever trump card their foes possessed, especially while Great Dark was still present and given the time and space needed to work on something for himself. He could handle one attack with sufficient preparation.


    As such, she immediately ducked into another abyssal tunnel and willed it to open up an entrance near to the charging tide, opening it in front of someone that had the most armour on and seemed to be the most powerful, with his cultivation being in the fifth realm. He was fortunately charging in the middle of the group and on his lonesome, the others separated to either side of him, and so she had no chance of dooming random people to a sudden fall, not unless they failed to pay attention to the pits that still remained in the ground.


    The moment that she appeared out of the ground before the man, who was covered in head to toe in black armour that absorbed the very light around it, also clearly radiating cold from some cooling inscription within the thick abyss metal plate, he stopped and frowned at her appearance.


    ¡®Whether he¡¯s just confused or suspicious, the sooner he knows what is happening, the sooner I can either trust in his cooperation or otherwise deal with him before he can cause any trouble,¡¯ Wei Yi understood, taking two long steps to close the gap between them before saying, ¡°Are you the leader of the legion?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, my name-¡±


    ¡°Just a moment, general. I wish to explain everything to you before you think that we are trying to trick you and your forces into cooperating. First of all, only one person there is actually a member of the Hunters of the Cosmos. We will not pretend to be you any longer.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ what is your purpose in tricking anyone other than us? Have you done something to earn their ire?¡± he pointed his greatsword, which he held in a single hand, at the Flood Kings and Keepers.


    ¡°That is because we, or, more precisely, I, am the person that you think you have come here to kill.¡±


    The man¡¯s grip on his weapon tightened as he moved the point to aim towards her neck, ¡°If you are a worshiper of the Primordial Deity known as Primordial Cosmos, you must have some balls of immortal gold to come and speak to me!¡±


    He had been speaking rather loudly, so to ensure that his troops didn¡¯t change their current charge or intentions she quietly prevented the sound from passing any further past her, meaning that if any of the true Hunters of the Cosmos were to look back, they would assume that he was just moving his lips. If he was not agreeable, she could kill him and let the others get on with things while they were in the heat of the moment, and if he was, then there would be no need to confuse the troops while they are in the middle of a charge.


    ¡°That is the problem, general. You and your forces had been sent here to fight a foe that did not exist as she was described to you, then slaughtered on the way so that your early forces wouldn¡¯t correct the misconception of the others once I was found. We made sure to keep the only one of the group that made it safe within our camp, and you can still see him at the back of the battlefield!¡±


    For a brief moment, he lowered the tip of his black blade, only to raise it at her again with even more ferocity.


    He had not worn a helmet into the battle, with it still hanging by his side, and so the intense glare with which he was looking at her was more than obvious upon his similarly blackened eyes. After another breath, he also moved his greatshield to guard himself from her before proceeding.


    ¡°Then describe yourself as you would, heretic.¡±


    ¡°I wish to better Yi City, but that has made me enemies with a certain group that has been putting it down for years. After I had succeeded in beating two of them, injuring another two and now having killed another, they wanted me gone, and figured out where I was heading,¡± she said, but she noticed the stoic and fierce expression on the man¡¯s face dampen somewhat, ¡°I think you have encountered Them as well, judging by that look. That group has been actively attempting to push Yi City into the ground, and they are the very ones that had attacked your other forces!¡±


    ¡°And this? Are the people of the Shi District and the Chu District also part of this group?¡±


    ¡°They listened to one of the men responsible, and concluded me to be the heretic, and my group there to have sided with me. Although they were victims of circumstance, they showed no hesitation in going along with Their will, and if you do attempt to explain the situation to them, they will think it a mere ploy, I suspect.¡±


    ¡°Have you realised that persuading me is impossible?¡±


    ¡°No, not in the slightest. I just know that battles can end in moments, and each one we waste right now and here, doing nothing, is to the detriment of Yi City as a whole in the future, and to your men at this very moment! Choose, general!¡±


    He looked at her with undisguised anger, spitting on the ground, but he lowered his weapon nonetheless.


    ¡°The Hunters had stumbled across something that we had not been intended to see, and it has brought us great pain. Thing have been going strangely around us since then, and more and more of us failed to return with each simple scouting mission. Something is happening in this city, and we shall learn of it, and the Primordial Deity it relates to!¡± he announced, ¡°For now, I side with you!¡±


    ¡®You are too narrow-minded, general. In this world, you hardly need an outside influence to cause great devastation to the mind and body. All you need is a few humans whose desires disagree with your own,¡¯ she thought, for the Great Families were ultimately still as human as any other, but their long ancestry and inherited ideas had long driven them beyond anything that she considered reason. However, she would naturally not say this to him, for it would do her no good in persuading him to fight alongside her now and in the future.


    Instead, she proclaimed, ¡°Then let us end the threats to us, find safety, and talk for as long as necessary. Is that a deal, ge-¡±


    ¡°Wu Yi Tai! I, General Wu, agree to that deal!¡±

 V4C22: Cleaning and Escape

    With a fifth-realm warrior in a full set of middle-grade artefacts by her side, who donned a helmet a moment after he made his proclamation, Wei Yi charged into the battle, putting aside most of her artefacts as they would only be a hindrance to her at that very moment.


    She acted fastest and most readily when she had only her own body and energy at her side, and it was only her typical outfit of the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival, the star metal clawed gauntlet and the boots, to which she had long gotten used to especially in combination with her Heeled Movement Art, and the weapons that she could create from her energy that did not clash with her as much. With the ability to replicate the effects of most artefacts, arrays or inscriptions using her five energies and some ingenuity, she didn¡¯t even need the middle-grade artefact she had purchased now to accomplish the same feats.


    It would only take more time, practise and discovery, and in her eyes, especially when she entered the prison realm and the Realm of Potential within it using her mind, a run as short as a minute could suddenly stretch to half an hour. However, she was not interested in the artefacts for now, but instead the technique that the Flood Kings and the Keepers of Groves intended to collaborate on.


    On the topic of collaboration, she had easily figured out due to the fluency of their cooperation that they had intended to work together from the start and that this allied duo must have prepared something, which meant that their trump card would be of the water and wood elements. They were also funnelling much of their fourth realm energy towards one of their leaders, so it was clearly something to do with amplifying the power of the body.


    Combining that with the way the energy flowed throughout that man¡¯s body gave her all the individual details she needed to be mostly certain of what was occurring, and all she needed from there was the aforementioned time to put them together.


    Thus, she thrust herself into the Realm of Potential and forced a duplicate of herself to appear, wielding the energies of the enemy¡¯s technique and the cooperation of several more instances of herself. It wouldn¡¯t let her replicate the process exactly, as any alterations she made to her own replicas would be limited in scope due to the limitations of the Realm of Potential itself, but she did not need exact results, only a sufficiently close potential outcome. After all, even if every factor was copied perfectly, the direction that this otherworldly gift would take things in would likely differ, as it did have a slightly better tendency towards perfection than the majority of mortal minds.


    She allowed the many potential variations to occur time and time again, dismissing one the moment that it had any success or failure as she merely needed to figure out the best way to resolve as many of the possibilities at once in one go, rather than sorting through each individual one. All she did was toss any semi-successful results into the list of things for her Endless Calculation to go through, her mind flooding with all kinds of ideas and possibilities, the least likely and outright impossible being dismissed as greater likelihoods took their place. While she did lack the ability to properly draw upon her mental domain within the Realm of Potential, her mind on its own did still possess the full capability to sort through a few million pages of information and figure out their value.


    The moment that she returned to her body, she was able to confirm that the Realm of Potential had done what it usually did and kept her in the most efficient and effective state for performing her action at the time of entry, which was running into the enemy at a similar speed to Wu Yi Tai. As a result, she found herself near him still, now close to the Flood Kings of Shi and the Keepers of Groves that seemed to be dedicating their every effort to ensuring that they would not reach their secret technique site in time.


    With the time that she had spent in the Realm of Potential, not only had she gotten a few ideas on what it could be, but had also fought a few variations that turned out particularly powerful or troublesome, managing to absorb some innate understanding of the technique behind it.


    Ultimately, the conclusion that she was able to make was that the power of the Flood Kings and the Keepers alike was drawn in part from the world around them. The Flood Kings had wet the sand before their appearance, and the Keepers of the Grove kept creating plants around them to attack, defend, or even move around with, and she could distinctly see roots entangling the feet of the leader that had volunteered to be the catalyst for the technique.


    As such, whether he turned into a great beast or powered an immense planar construct with the shell of his body burning up as fuel, the best thing to do was limit the world¡¯s nourishment of their plans.


    ¡°Wu Yi Tai, you possess the Hunter¡¯s Toxin physique, do you not?¡±


    ¡°What is it to you, woman?¡± the general asked back, finally getting close enough to a foe to slash at him, cutting off an arm and plunging his blade into the side of the man¡¯s chest, ¡°If you are trying to gather knowledge of my weaknesses, you shall not succeed.¡±


    ¡°I need you to launch all of the poison and venom you can produce at that man there!¡± she pointed to the one whose feet were surrounded and enveloped by roots. Whether or not he would understand the reasoning behind her command, whether or not he would appreciate the tone or have any other response to her, all that was truly key was that he would poison the roots and waters of the two factions and guarantee that the final outcome of their combined ultimate technique wouldn¡¯t be as powerful as they wished it to be, if it managed to succeed at all with the potent poisons that the Hunter¡¯s Toxin physique could produce.


    Fortunately, and as she had expected, when she gave him such a direct and plain instruction with the obvious intention of hindering enemy plans in some way, he did not refuse.


    Wu Yi Tai leapt at another foe, impaled the blade into his heart and thus impaled him and it into the ground, then also set down his greatshield to obstruct several incoming attempts to strike at points in between his armour. With both his hands freed, he removed the gauntlet from his right hand, the one that held his blade, and revealed a hand absolutely covered in a vile green sludge that stuck in thick strands to the gauntlet, forcing him to violently rip the gauntlet away to have access to free movement with his hand.


    He swung it in the direction of the ritual being performed on one of the leaders of the opposing forces, a simple drop of green toxin suddenly and inexplicably expanding into a great stream, a tidal wave of poison and venom that seemed to burn the very air it touched at it flew through it. As soon as possible, he placed the gauntlet back onto his hand, leading Wei Yi to doubt that the physique was acquired either naturally or entirely successfully, but she focused first on the outcome of it.


    As the product of an absolute physique, in the hands of someone in the fifth realm, with whatever had occurred to it to bring it to its current state, the toxin had almost no difficulty in passing through any of the barriers and obstacles that either the Flood Kings of Shi or the Keepers of Groves attempted to set up in its way. The green mass pierced all of them resolutely, leaving what remained to burn and smoke as if it had been fire and not poison, and quickly landed upon the ritual site with a great splash that covered the focus of the technique as well as all around him.


    To their credit, they did not cry out in pain nor falter, but instead managed to endure while all contributing to assisting the one in their middle in recovering as quickly as possible, causing the toxins to slowly drip down from his body to reveal nearly pristine skin beneath them.


    Some smaller parts of their bodies literally melted for everyone to see the bones beneath, although they soon began to melt and break as well, and yet their focus remained on the technique they were using. It was almost commendable, but it was difficult for Wei Yi to have any positive opinions on their stalwart stance when she could see that the toxin still remained beneath them, with it bubbling more and more as some parts of the roots and water beneath the one the technique focused on were clearly directed towards him, pulling alongside them the toxin of the Hunter. He must have realised it too, given the way in which his expression changed, and he opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment, the process of the ritual completed.


    ¡°Take them down¡­ so that our lives were not lost in vain,¡± one of the melting cultivators said, her lungs mysteriously surviving up that point, before her body suddenly dried up quickly.


    This happened to every other participant in the ritual beside the man in the centre, who had clearly lost his ability to speak at the last moment. Roots and water from the ground, suffused with the Hunter¡¯s Toxin, wrapping around his body and even penetrating into it as their wrapping grew denser, then larger, rapidly expanding his size.


    In moments, he went from being a mere human to a small titan, towering above the rest by a dozen metres, a body made from dense roots with limbs that could crush a building using nothing but their mass alone. The moment that this was completed, the instant that the roots connecting him to the ground weakened, he charged into battle past his warriors and straight towards the foe he perceived to present the greatest threat to both the Flood Kings of Shi and the Keepers of Groves. He charged at Wei Yi.


    Once she could be sure that it was her he was targeting, Wei Yi shouted, ¡°Clear its path! Distance yourselves from it and me!¡±


    Her Arbiters readily obeyed the instruction, with few of them being in her vicinity in the first place, while the true Hunters of the Cosmos she assisted with a simple wave of spiritual will to throw them a little further away. Wu Yi Tai proved a little bit more difficult to push aside, but he fortunately understood her instruction and obeyed it on his own, putting enough distance between the two of them so that no errant strike from what remained of a leader of the Flood Kings would strike both.


    The great mass of roots and wood, with water actively flowing beneath all of it, either didn¡¯t care much for its allies or did not retain much of a mind at all, since it ran straight through the battlefield while dealing more harm to its own side than the one he was meant to oppose.


    Nothing about its charge appeared to be impeded, and judging by the speed at which it was able to move as well as the ferocity with which it did so, one might assume that its strength was also perfectly intact, causing Wu Yi Tai to glance at Wei Yi with renewed suspicion. Was her plan more complicated than what he had assumed, had it failed or was she actually just stupid?


    Had she known about his thoughts, which she did not due to choosing not to peer into his mind alongside everything else she was attempting to consider, she would¡¯ve smiled and told him to be patient, since her current behaviour of simply standing by and waiting for a colossal thing to attack her was indeed a rather strange thing to do when looking at her from the side. However, she had some confidence in her own deductions, and believed that that she had to have the will to test and rely on them at all times if she wanted to encourage her followers to do the same.


    That, and the World¡¯s Echo physique was incredibly handy at evading attacks with naught but brute force behind them.


    Thus, she stood there as the wooden titan sprinted to her, its feet digging into the sand as it raised one of its great arms and swung it down upon her with the most force that such a large entity was able to muster, traces of planar energy appearing within its movements.


    All of a sudden, just as it was a single breath from striking her, its fist already nearing Wei Yi¡¯s head, it froze up, the wood in its arm and shoulder becoming dry and unresponsive. Green toxins dripped out of it, the wood making up his limb looking dry and dead, and that condition soon spread to the rest of its body, leaving naught but a gigantic wooden husk standing before them, still looking fierce but containing no force at all.


    The forces of the Floods Kings of Shi and the Keepers of Groves had been putting up a resistance at that point, but when they saw this the half that was locked in combat with the false and true Hunters of the Cosmos felt all of their fighting spirit drain away from them. While they didn¡¯t think that their final technique, their last effort to truly have some success in battle, would be able to permit them a complete victory, especially not once those fully armoured in abyss armour and wielding black blades appeared, to have their technique fail this quickly and spectacularly was extremely embarrassing for some, and entirely demotivating to most.


    Some began to throw down their weapons or simply lay down onto the ground, partly drenching themselves in the waters of the Flood Kings, and the rest of that half soon followed.


    Once it stopped moving fully, Wei Yi approached it and looked through it with spiritual perception for a few moments before pausing on a portion of its chest. She raised her hand and condensed several points of the Defiler¡¯s Point Beams technique, aiming them to fire outwardly before making them spin, shamelessly copying the way in which Ping Wu had made use of this kind of technique.


    The thin beams cut a circle into the colossus, causing the portion they had separated to be easily parted from the rest with a light nudge from her killing will. It fell down onto the wet sand, poisonous water dripping from it, but she ignored it and peeled apart the wood to reach into the centre of the wooden mass as to uncover that which she was looking for. Fortunately for her purposes, this part of the wooden titan had been made of several distinct layers of wooden roots forming around the target of the technique, and so they were mostly easy to remove.


    Finally, beneath all of that wood and plenty more of toxin-filled water, she was able to find a hint of skin, and then the rest of the figure it belonged to.


    The man from the Flood Kings of Shi, whatever his name had been, was hardly in the best of states, with his limbs having been mostly devoured by the wood while much of his face had also been pierced by smaller wooden branches, but at the very least most of his torso had survived, with only the heart and chest being pierced. Because of this, the technique itself, and the poison that flowed through his system from a prolonged period of time, he had already perished.


    ¡°What an odd technique they decided to go for,¡± she muttered, mostly to herself, although she did not mind others hearing her, ¡°This would¡¯ve been fine against a large army of non-cultivators, and yet here they tried to oppose the fourth and fifth realm with it.¡±


    Then again, such a physical and straightforward approach was working strangely well for the Hammers, who were still going strong in their fight against a larger number of enemies that had not yet been disheartened by the failure of their allies, although they did still seem more than ready to give up thanks to their inability to inflict a single proper disabling wound to any one of their foes. They had been going for some time, and yet all that they managed to leave on most of the Hammers was a series of splash marks and the occasional leaf or branch on their bodies, despite their attacks being great planar constructs of tidal waves and trees.


    What made it particularly strange was that these Hammers were not above the Flood Kings and the Keepers of Groves in terms of realm, while many were even beneath them, and yet they were not only managing to shrug off most attacks one way or another, although it was still mostly via charging into them head on and smashing them, they also managed to inflict some injuries on their foes. With no better explanation just yet, Wei Yi presumed that their brute force and mindlessness somehow twisted the natural laws of the world in their favour. That sounded dumb, but so were they.


    She wasn¡¯t judging them by their appearances or previous actions either, but by the thoughts that they had during the several times that she had chosen to look through them with a spiritual will thread. They did not appear to be faking their simplistic behaviour, weakness to drugs, or anything else of the sort.


    Regardless of the cause of their strange success, they were currently benefitting the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and the Hunters of the Cosmos alike immensely, for the Hunters that split off to join in that confrontation barely needed to participate in order to inflict heavy casualties on their foes. Soon enough, with the combined forces of the two groups, the other half of the Keepers and Flood Kings surrendered to them.


    Without the maintenance from the northern group, the one that had initially attacked Wei Yi¡¯s camp, the bubble around the black sun disappeared, momentarily revealing it to the Hunters and Wei Yi.


    ¡°That¡­ Whose creation is that?¡± Wu Yi Tai asked after marvelling at it for a few moments.


    ¡°I made it, but they managed to lock it away, failing to consider that it grows even with planar energy. Had we taken long enough, it would have devoured their barrier as well, then made a big hole in the desert before it finally dissipates,¡± she replied, ¡°I don¡¯t know whether this fulfils anything that you require from your techniques in your typical line of work, but I could share some of the principles with you at a later point if we manage to get along well enough. For now, take a step back¡­ or fifty, if you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°This entire situation was misunderstood, but¡­ fine, I shall not stop you. This thing still seems to be growing, and the pull is becoming difficult to endure¡­¡± the general said, ¡°Everyone, step back and let her do the work. Prepare a barrier of the inverse variety!¡±


    His soldiers immediately followed his instructions, forming a circle around the black sun and plunging their blades into the ground. Their energy poured from them, quickly forming into a circular shield around the black sun that had initially been as dark as their blades, but quickly brightened and transformed from a black energy with a vague white corona to the absolute inverse. Quite clearly, that was what he had been referring to, and judging by the fact that the aura it possessed had inverted in much the same way, Wei Yi presumed that this was their technique of containing threats that were in some way similar to their own methods.


    They positioned their barrier around her, and only protected the sides, presumably so that they wouldn¡¯t need to expend their own energy on defending something that wasn¡¯t relevant, or by containing something that could otherwise be dispersed through the open top. Given that the technique appeared to have no clear physical element, it was a highly suitable approach, and one that she would gladly commend them on if she didn¡¯t die.


    ¡®Again, I don¡¯t think that I¡¯ll die, but that does not stop me from being prepared for an outcome like that,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, getting a little closer to the black sun, then raised her left hand and clicked her fingers, willing the great sphere of darkened energy to break apart.


    In most techniques, that would be enough for a cultivator in control of a technique to break their planar construct, with even the physical motions hardly being required, but this Black Sun method had not been polished particularly well before use and worked by actively draining and feeding on the things around it in order to grow in strength. As such, it had a great deal of foreign matter and energy embedded somewhere within it that now needed to either be removed or completely torn apart into fundamental energy so that the black sun would be nullified.


    Something like that was likely already partially complete, given the fact that what spiritual perception she had been able to pierce the sun with could sense no physical matter on the inside, but the question was whether the energy would remain volatile or not. Judging by a random guess that she made when using this method, there would be a greater chance of it still being rather explosive, potentially.


    At this point, it was equivalent to her own height doubled in height, and as it was a sphere, it was thus equivalent in width and length. Such a thing suddenly exploding in anyone¡¯s face would be dangerous.


    For this reason, she had prepared her own method of defence, which was the last item that she had purchased at the auction, the thing enigmatically titled End, Signet Ring. At the time of purchasing it, she wasn¡¯t entirely certain how it worked, since these items seemed to have been dug up rather than being produced by a more modern great arts master and thus lacked proper descriptions as could be easily confirmed by the way in which none of the items actually matched their intended purposes whatsoever. After all this time, however, she had figured out a very small degree of its ability, and one thing that she was nearly certain of was that it would be able to freeze or slow things down to some extent.


    This had a varied degree of usefulness depending on what it actually did and how it did so, since freezing something with ice-type energy ¨C or rather water-type, given that ice was merely a subset of the water element ¨C would only have a limited on earth or on anything with a hot enough flame to melt and evaporate that energy, whereas something more fundamental might have a greater degree of effectiveness on everything.


    No matter what it was, she was fortunately able to influence it with her own energy, and could make use of any delay in order to save herself or the people around her, depending on which one was in greater danger, so it seemed like a reasonable thing to use when her own defensive methods were rather limited due to her never focusing upon them.


    The strongest barrier that she had made, or perhaps the most stable one despite the consequences, was the one around her land ship in the Kong Holy Grounds, and even that only barely sufficed.


    As the control that she did have over the black sun attempted to force it to collapse, she quickly felt it destabilising and fluctuating as it did finally stop consuming the energy and the sand beneath it. However, that was not followed by the shattering or outright disappearance of the black sun, which would have been the ideal scenario, but instead a momentary pause within the entity¡¯s activity that was clearly not going to proceed onto that.


    Instead, after a moment of extreme silence, the dark suddenly exploded outwards, moving at an immense speed with the majority of energy being concentrated purely vertically, into the air and directly into the ground. All of that was extremely dangerous to be struck by, so it was rather fortunate that all that burst outwards was effectively only one percent of the black sun¡¯s overall power.


    That was still enough to kill anyone standing right next to it, though.


    Somewhere amidst a black void, a woman floating freely within it was looking somewhere into the distance, her lone revealed purple eye focused on something unknown.


    A sudden movement brought her just out of the way of an intense beam that shot through space and passed her, momentarily illuminating the darkness to reveal a strange room filled with all kinds of unsightly things.


    ¡°Sheesh, be careful with your quasars, would you? Now I need to rebuild the dimensional wall¡­¡±


    The woman brushed the hair covering her right eye aside, glancing back in the direction of the beam once it passed, ¡°That world is far too broken. Black holes beneath half-way¡­¡±


    Due to her position, Wei Yi could be said to be in close proximity of the collapse of the black sun, and so she did not hesitate to point the signet of the ring at the incoming wave of raw energy that surged at her body and flood it with her own energy, excluding all but her planar energy due to the concerns of accidentally destroying yet another valuable item. It gathered within the signet, building up and up as if it was a bottomless pool that could endlessly devour anything placed inside of it, to the point that she grew rather concerned whether this wasn¡¯t secretly an item made for the ninth realm.


    However, just as the incoming blast from the black sun was about to come into contact with her outstretched hand, and thus the symbol on the ring itself, it activated without any warning whatsoever, a great deal of strange greyish energy surging out of the signet in an incredibly odd way. It was not her own energy converted into this grey light, but instead something brand new that emerged from the signet and was instead merely called by her own power.


    That was a peculiar enough phenomenon on its own, but what it caused was even more significant.


    When the grey light touched the surging power of the collapsing black sun, both of the waves of energy froze in the air, and they did not do so with a layer of ice covering them. Rather, their very existence stopped in time, exactly as they were, without a single thing changing while the rest of the energy shot right past her and impacted the circular barrier of the Hunters of the Cosmos. It channelled that overwhelming energy into the air, joining the beam that had exited the black sun a moment prior, completely flooding the area around her as well, entirely covering her from sight while the rest of the greyish light also spread around, blocking most of the stray energy.


    It was incredibly intense even then, succeeding in slightly fraying and disordering her hair, although that was hardly as noticeable as the tearing of her skin and robes, with only star metal enduring it fully.


    Fortunately, the explosion lasted for only a little while, for it was an explosion and not some permanent form of radiation that would forever mark the continent like the outcome of her bloodline activation had back at the Luo District. That too would likely fade in time, but nowhere near as quickly as the exploding star.


    The grey light that had stopped the primary burst of energy from striking her began to dissipate a little before the rest of the energy had entirely faded, and when it did so, she could distinctly see the time flow for everything trapped within resuming right before her, giving her just enough time to dodge. Although the sudden burst of power did disturb the Hunters to a small extent, she doubted that they would be able to figure out the exact cause.


    ¡®This signet ring is certainly not a normal middle-grade artefact, no matter how you look at it. Stopping time¡­ less complex than undoing it or changing it entirely, but that is still extremely difficult for anything in the sixth realm or lower to achieve ¨C by which I mean impossible, really. I am able to sense it just fine, so it is unlikely to be an otherworldly gift, but that just means I will be able to study it more,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, removing it from her finger and storing it within the House of Gold before anyone had a chance to take particular note of it, for as the energy cleared, she and her nearly recovered body could soon be seen.


    Once the explosion of the black sun passed, the general must have shouted some order to prompt his soldiers to raise the barrier, but it was one that she didn¡¯t hear due to losing some internal parts of her ears in the explosion that she had only recovered after the command. Her spiritual perception was also contained to her own body for just a short while, as the explosion appeared more than capable of harming it in some way, even if it would only be a temporary one.


    ¡°This technique of yours, woman, is extremely dangerous, it seems,¡± Wu Yi Tai said, approaching her, ¡°However, the battle seems-¡±


    ¡°If you haven¡¯t noticed, an enormous beacon had just risen into the air. Anyone interested might be able to find us and kill us, capture us, or do whatever else they want to do to us. I recommend leaving this very moment, and chatting literally anywhere else, although I do have a place in mind. Also, my name is Wei Yi. Different character, though,¡± she interrupted him again, pointing into the distance.


    He was clearly getting frustrated with how often she was taking charge of the situation, but as he had been able to see from the outside, the explosion of the black sun had indeed caused quite the spectacle for them and anyone in sight to observe it. Getting away would be prudent.


    ¡°Very well. We-¡±


    ¡°Take all of the prisoners that you can, and run that way. I shall join you in just a moment.¡±

 V4C23: Acquiring the Hunter’s Toxin

    Naturally, Wei Yi was unable to leave without grabbing Shi Bao Ya, cleaning away any evidence of their presence, and just generally ensuring that there would be as few things to put them in danger later as was possible. In addition, she did not know the consequence of whatever message had been sent by Ping Wu, and thus couldn¡¯t tell whether there would be a swarm of Great Family members rushing in if they wasted a little too much time. Huang Yu Di was also put somewhere safe at the end.


    In general, it seemed wiser to avoid such things, and so that was exactly what she did, clearing the barriers around camp, removing their traces from the sand, grabbing up the embers and anchor points left behind just in case either one could be traced somehow. When she was ready, she followed the others.


    At her behest, they had run in the direction of the Desert Fortress, Paragon, and while they would be unable to reach it on their own even if she had permitted the obstructive properties of the sand to not apply to them, getting them closer to it would make it easer to mess with the current spatial gateway system that the fortress used. Making a new one would require either another point on which to stabilise the gateway, or for her to reach the seventh realm and gain some vague abilities to influence the world around her in spatial and temporal means, but moving one was always easy, and she had already split her gateway into multiple pieces. She just needed to pick one up and move it.


    With Yi Shi Ming¡¯s aid and her own cultivation realm that always put her nearer to the next one than her own, especially while she had the advantage of her fifth realm mental energy cultivation, doing something like that wasn¡¯t completely impossible, especially not if it was only for a brief period of time, but such complex operations were always made far easier by proximity. The less a spatial gateway needed to be separated from another, the less energy it would take to displace it and allow for travel through it.


    Thus, to make it easiest for herself while giving Wu Yi Tai as little time as possible to ask her questions, since they would just be annoying to answer without giving her all that much in return, she did not run as swiftly as she could, limiting herself to a speed closer to the one she had displayed while running alongside him into battle. It would seem more reasonable in his eyes, and it would let him get as closer as possible to the inner portion of the sandstorm alongside the rest of her Arbiters before she needed to bring all of them through. Fortunately, the volume and mass of the things being carried through a spatial gateway did not appear to matter, only the gateway and its size itself, so at the very least that much was made far easier by the laws of the world.


    Speaking of the laws of the world, she had acquired her Great Stride of the Dao of Law quite some time ago, speaking in terms of when she had first acquired her comprehension of Dao, not in terms of her overall lifespan, but she didn¡¯t notice it budging any further just yet. She had a slight perception of the way in which her Dao comprehension progressed, and it was not one that did change.


    This would be fine, given how much her Dao of Law shifted at sudden moments of enlightenment, but she had just witnessed the way in which a black sun, something that she didn¡¯t even know existed prior to a few weeks ago, exploded. She saw time stop, which confirmed that this was indeed possible. Wei Yi witnessed how a spatial gateway formed, feeling every part of the process and also came to understand the metal ore energy she had now put to use in the underground portion of Paragon.


    Obviously, she was neither the will of the heavens nor some embodiment of the Great Dao, so she couldn¡¯t be sure what full success required, especially not when she made the Ascendant¡¯s Dao seemingly on her own all of a sudden¡­


    ¡®Now that I think about that, I am suddenly concerned about my own Dao. It came out of nowhere, prompted by a physique that was prompted by cosmic energy which was, in part, prompted by the Truth of the Universe, whatever caused it to end up in me, and Kong Shi Meng before me¡­ Fuck, I¡¯m getting paranoid about things again. For the moment, my Ascendant¡¯s Dao is the best weapon I have, especially if the Dao of Law is not going to become developed at any point,¡¯ she frowned for a moment, clearing her expression soon after, ¡®Hm¡­ The Dao is a product of the world, in a way, no? Could the Great Dao lack comprehension of the Dao of Law?¡¯


    That was raised as nothing more than a random point, since she hardly had the capabilities to go and interrogate the heavens at the moment, even if she would absolutely love to do so.


    There were many issues that they ought to address, or at the very least explain to her if there was some clever reason behind everything they did so far ¨C which she could accept, although she would hardly enjoy it regardless of the way it was explained ¨C but it was difficult for anyone to conclude whether there was even a physical location for the heavens, whether it was in the ground or the sky. To get there would be even more difficult, and she didn¡¯t expect to be able to do it while she was only in the fourth realm.


    Whatever the heaven¡¯s will was, it would be no weaker than the ninth realm, given that it was the peak of cultivation in the Planar Continents, and if the otherworldly theories of there being a greater world and realm were accurate, then it might even be above that. Even if she had the best points, arguments and whatever else when she confronted it, whatever entity the heaven¡¯s will was could just swat her away and end her life the moment that it wanted to. She¡¯d just throw away her own life, then.


    ¡®I don¡¯t need to do that yet. If the heavens are in any way interested in a discussion, I¡¯m sure that they¡¯ll come down on their own, if they are able to. Otherwise, I shall wait until the way to the heavens becomes clear to me,¡¯ Wei Yi decided, speeding up as she noticed that Wu Yi Tai was getting close enough to Paragon for her to be able to act.


    After a brief sprint, she also got into view of the group of Hunters and Arbiters, then caught up with them a short time after that.


    ¡°Hey, Chao Ru, sorry for not chatting more but we¡¯ll be back in the fortress soon enough. See you in a bit!¡± she called out as she ran past her, waving for a moment while still in sight since Chao Ru had a slower reaction time than she did.


    Wu Yi Tai had been at the front of the group, given that he was effectively the second strongest warrior amongst them and was more capable at defensive techniques than Great Dark, at least while the latter had no inscriptions to work with. As such, Wei Yi had been able to check out what the general had made use of while sprinting through, and found that he had not chosen to surround her troops with his own, more numerous as they were, and was keeping them on equal level to his own forces.


    That certainly gave a positive impression, which combined with the previous ones to make her conclude, at least for now, that he wasn¡¯t particularly bad, certainly better than the Hammers. They had disappeared a short time after the end of the battle, and, frankly, she was now believing that they were spirits that rose to engage in battle, rather than being physical entities.


    Her Vision of Law did not point out any faults, but perhaps she lacked comprehension of the matter of spirits and ghosts that would have permitted her to notice the oddity before they vanished.


    She made a note to check out what the Xin family did to have all of their children possess three Dao Vision state marks on their eyes, then proceeded to greet the general while permitting the sandstorm to part around her, ¡°Hello there, General Wu Yi Tai. Had to take my time back there, but you needn¡¯t continue on for much further, since the gateway to our usual place of residence can be opened up almost any moment now.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ see? Gateway? Is a fortress being hidden here?¡±


    ¡°Not quite. Instead, the gateway is in the distance, and we need to open up a quick spatial gateway. I¡¯m sure that you wouldn¡¯t mind, would you?¡± she asked, glancing away as she realised how oddly she was talking, ¡°The fuck was that? Anyway, we have a fortress, and we¡¯ll be coming along to it quickly.¡±


    General Wu Yi Tai raised an eyebrow at this, but he hardly had enough energy to question every little thing that the strange person that appeared to be leading the false Hunters of the Cosmos did, so he didn¡¯t bother voicing his continued confusion and just carried on. Whatever it was, he was bound to witness it with his own eyes very shortly, so long as she was telling the truth, so he could judge whether or not this group truly was able to open up spatial gateways in the middle of nowhere, and whether they do have some relation to Primordial Cosmos.


    ¡°Oh, and before there¡¯s a misunderstanding, I need to warn you that when planar energy is all elements, including pure planar, at once, it can appear rather misleading,¡± she suddenly said.


    He had no time to question what she meant as she suddenly raised her hand into the air, solid planar energy forming around her hand and spreading out into a large vertical array in front of them. The process in and of itself was hardly unusual for those in the fourth realm, as she clearly was, save for the exceptional fluidity of the movements and the manipulation of energy, but what caused him and a number of his soldiers to tighten their grips on their weapons was the way in which that energy appeared to be akin to a gateway into an endless cosmos, barred only by chains somewhere far, far in the distance.


    With such a thing, having no warning at all would have resulted in him cutting her down where she stood without a single question asked, then destroying her body, her followers, and then checking whether they could have possibly made a mistake while looting them.


    ¡°Told you. This has nothing to do with a Primordial Deity, although I have come across two forms of their influence already. However, those were Primordial Nature and Primordial Corruption, while this started all the way in the first realm,¡± she explained, obviously having noticed the glares suddenly aimed at her, ¡°I could¡¯ve disguised it easily, but I didn¡¯t. I am trusting you, so you should trust me.¡±


    To prove the truth of her words, she revoked her hand once the array was complete and brought out a small sphere of energy, looking much like the one currently floating in front of them, then changed it to flame, and water, then wood, earth and metal, before switching it to blood, silver-leaf, metal ore and lightning energy. While the notion of disguising or somehow altering one¡¯s energy wasn¡¯t entirely impossible, if highly inefficient most of the time, doing so this quickly was.


    Had it just been visual, perhaps General Wu Yi Tai could have assumed that there was some kind of primordial deity disguise method at play, but rather than that, everything about her energy also seemed to change with it, meaning that this was no mere illusory trick.


    Truly, if she had wanted to, she could have completely changed her aura and energy while they had been heading towards the fortress and she stayed back, and upon her return they might not have realised that it was her at all. Such a thing did not convince him of her honesty or reliability, but it did confirm that if she did wish to hide some part of her identity, she could have easily done so when they met at the edge of the battlefield. If she somehow possessed the ability to instantly copy the planar energy of others, she could have even disguised herself as a member of the Hunters with incredible ease by simply altering her aura to one similar to Long Wuchu.


    As such, what he was left with was the question of their hideout, and the reason why she had decided to be so open with him. If she truly wasn¡¯t a worshiper of a Primordial Deity, they didn¡¯t need to talk at all. He could have just been on his way, seeking a different target or returning with word that the worshiper couldn¡¯t be found.


    Still, all of that thought and contemplation momentarily faded away when the space occupied by the array suddenly tore, a great rift forming within it and stabilising into a gateway.


    Through it, as clearly as one could see through air itself, Wu Yi Tai was able to see strange, rectangular stone buildings, people walking around, and a place free from the sandstorm raging around them, although some did make it in through the gateway itself. Everything seemed only a step away, and yet they couldn¡¯t possibly be that close to anything, not without there being some other illusion at play to obscure the presence of all the people and buildings, not to mention the absence of the storm.


    ¡°This is a spatial realm gateway, openable easily if one happens to control a spatial realm. Come through, I have only so much energy to waste on keeping this open,¡± Wei Yi said, partly distorting the truth with her words.


    It was only easy to open a spatial gateway like that with a stabilisation point, such as the one at Paragon, but moving it and displacing it within a limited range was very much doable without significant effort. Furthermore, she wasn¡¯t so much concerned about her infinite energy as she was about the potential of one of the Greats making it over to them and realising what was happening, at which point all of her plans, ideas and preparations would effectively be worthless. Using a gateway like this was safer than a transportation array, since it was merely displacing a gateway rather than opening a new hole into the spatial realm, but both were dangerous, nonetheless.


    If not for the fact that it is rather difficult to get into the desert fortress, Paragon, without at least partially disabling the sandstorm barrier that currently ensured that it was mostly free from outside interaction and interference, she would have preferred to simply lead the Hunters of the Cosmos into the fortress normally while obscuring their senses with the sandstorm.


    Fortunately, people tended to trust others more when they knew more about them and thought that there were fewer secrets to learn about them, so giving away a few to this man was useful. If he remained in the fortress, he would learn of it quickly anyway, and if he did not, he would be unlikely to make it out alive anyway. Only if he somehow earned her absolute trust would she let him go any time after bringing him inside, while his allegiances were still uncertain.


    After a brief pause during which he and many of the Hunters of the Cosmos couldn¡¯t help but stare at the gateway, the simplicity yet the sheer power of something like that awing a group that likely didn¡¯t possess a spatial realm or even a seventh realm expert of their own, General Wu Yi Tai managed to pull himself together and steady his posture, the slight movement causing most of his followers to also snap out o their daze and focus on the gateway. To prove that it was safe to come through, Wei Yi had waved over to Great Dark and any of the other Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters at the front so that they would come through first, and by now the Hunters could confirm that the gateway did indeed seem to work exactly like one should.


    Thus, with some remaining wariness, he stepped forward, and then so did his men.


    Just as Wei Yi had presumed, the Hunters did lack a spatial realm, and they had never had the fortune or misfortune of exploring a spatial realm of their own, and thus they lacked the knowledge of what it was like to cross space. Wu Yi Tai tensed up as he stepped in, perhaps presuming that it would be akin to being violently thrown from one place to another ¨C despite what he had already seen from others that crossed the gateway ¨C but he almost felt too little when he did cross. He had to double check that he was through, as it just seemed too simple.


    Indeed, spatial gateways were an incredible method of transportation, although few had ever used it even during the golden age of the Master of Yi City for that purpose. Most districts had at least one spatial realm in the past, and there were certainly stabilisation points that could be utilised for gateways, but to link two places in the Planar Continents was far easier than to tunnel to a weaker space like a spatial realm. As a result, almost every gateway was into one of the district¡¯s spatial realms, and since they would be positioned at different places, they might as well point to different parts of the realm.


    Essentially, it wasn¡¯t that the people of the past hadn¡¯t considered such an option, since Wei Yi knew that they must have thought about it at least once if she had done so nearly instantly, but it had not been needed when everyone could travel freely between districts with a higher cultivation than today.


    As their general passed through the gateway, the other members of the Hunters of the Cosmos followed with decreased wariness, and so they slowly poured through after him. Due to the limited width of the opening, they did need to limit the number that went in at once, but most seemed to be more disciplined than Long Wuchu, who was just following the Arbiters, and were able to properly adjust the width of their lines as to make it in.


    After they were all inside, looking around at the residents of Paragon while they looked with some curiosity regarding the identity of this new group, Wei Yi also brought in the Arbiters that had gone along with her, adjusting the height of the gateway just a little to allow more people through. On the way in, Chao Ru did try to approach her, having failed to take notice of her early enough before, but Wei Yi gestured for her to hurry through. They still had plenty of time to talk later, if necessary. With everyone in and passively surrounding the Hunters of the Cosmos simply by spreading out and talking to some of the other people in the fortress, Wei Yi was able to glance back, both with spiritual perception and her eyes, then step inside while bidding the gateway to return.


    The moment after she made it into Paragon, the gateway behind her distorted for a moment while the view went from the desert to the mountains at the centre of the prison realm, while the gateway that she had moved into that desert returned to its position on the left, where it led into Beast¡¯s Rest. At the time of her moving the gateway, few had wanted to come through in those two places, so she chose to borrow the spatial connection from them for a while.


    ¡°Alright, everyone! Arbiters, you can go relax for a while ¨C and I will find you, Chao Ru, when I get this done ¨C since there shouldn¡¯t be any urgent matters for a bit. Hunters, or, primarily, Wu Yi Tai, I think we need to have a chat first.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, I think so as well. Why have you brought us to this fortress, and through that spatial realm?¡±


    ¡°Fine, talking here is fine too. I wish to cooperate, and obtain something, strictly for myself. Let¡¯s start with that, since that is far easier and quicker to resolve ¨C or so I¡¯d hope,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°The thing that I want is whatever method you have for awakening the Hunter¡¯s Toxin physique within yourselves. I happen to need it.¡±


    ¡°The method?¡± the general frowned, looking at her with a gaze full of suspicion, ¡°You wish to awaken that physique in the people of this fortress?¡±


    ¡°Do listen to me sometimes, general. It might help you more than you think. No, I want to use it myself. If it is something physical, you can just give it to me and not tell me how it works, if it isn¡¯t, I won¡¯t bother promising that I¡¯d never use it on another since promises are worthless. However, judging by the state of that hand of yours, that method of yours isn¡¯t without flaw, so it would only be my enemies that I¡¯d try forcing it onto,¡± she told him.


    ¡°¡­ What do you need it for, then? Your body is strong enough as it is, so you likely have a physique.¡±


    ¡°All the suspicion for wishing to obtain a flawed method¡­ How harsh. Let us just say I benefit from having that method, you have it, and depending on how difficult it is for you to give it to me, I see no other reason why you wouldn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°You want to also talk of cooperation, do you not? What is it that you will give us, if I was to provide you with the method?¡± Wu Yi Tai asked.


    ¡°Knowledge. I have already told you that a group you might have heard of has sought to bring you down for your snooping, and that we happen to share the same foe in that regard. So long as we get along well, I can tell you more, you can pass that along to the higher leadership of the Hunters of the Cosmos, and our two forces could work together to rid the world of a menace besides the primordial deities,¡± Wei Yi explained, pausing for a little while before sharing, ¡°I could also tell you a secret you might or might not be aware of about them as well. Could help you a lot in your mission.¡±


    ¡°I find it difficult to trust you, but I shall allow this nonetheless. However, I would not speak with you in the open. Where can we talk, and where can my people rest? I would rather not leave everyone out here, standing out on the street.¡±


    ¡°We do have some residences for you, but they aren¡¯t the most spacious. They¡¯re good enough for a little while.¡±


    He had little space to shrug in his armour, but that was almost certainly the gesture he was going for before he told the rest of his men to prepare to move after her. Since they were apparently fine with the minimal space she had offered, she brought them to the large structures with countless small rooms within them, finding one that did not see any use by anyone else just so that there would be no disturbances for either side.


    When they got to see the residences in person, they remained accepting of the offer, so most of them could be assumed to have visited the Ning District at one point in time judging by the ease with which they occupied the spaces. A single structure had just enough rooms to fit the army of the Hunters of the Cosmos that had come with Wu Yi Tai, even if it didn¡¯t have much room after they began removing most of their armour inside of them, filling them with pieces of abyss metal, various bags, pouches and tools that they would presumably use for one reason or another within their regular hunts for the worshipers of Primordial Cosmos. Personally, Wei Yi was unable to see the use of most of them, but she did also lack vital understanding of the primordial deity that might explain their use.


    Since he had been satisfied with the accommodations, the general followed her into the underground portion of the fortress, marvelling at but managing to obscure most of his interest in the extreme amount of space beneath the fortress, as well as all of the ores and gems that glistened in the distance.


    This was a safer place than the prison realm simply due to the fact that Wei Yi couldn¡¯t be certain of whether the Greats might have some method of tracking people that enter or leave the Kong Prison Realm, or perhaps some way of noticing that a group had left the primary world through some means. If they were paying attention to the Hunters of the Cosmos and realised that they had disappeared into a spatial realm, one where their Rebel seemed to be, where Ping Wu died, and after someone with a strange degree of strength appeared seemingly out of nowhere only a few months back, they might check the prison realm, which wouldn¡¯t be ideal.


    Only going through the gateway that was made through the Kong Prison Realm didn¡¯t have as much risk, since it was an instant passage through space as far as she understood it. As such, it would be safe to employ in the future, if more spatial gateway points could be discovered and claimed by the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, for the use in instant transportation.


    They headed to one of the edges of the underground portion where no ore entity had manifested yet, and no wall was needed to block them from sight or from shooting their ore shards at random people, and sat down on an outcropping of stone facing one another.


    ¡°So, do tell me whether the Hunter¡¯s Toxin is obtained through cultivation or some kind of pill.¡±


    ¡°It is more akin to an elixir, and one that I do not know how to produce, so do not bother asking,¡± Wu Yi Tai stated, reaching into a part of his armour and removing a small object that resembled a glass shard, ¡°I have one of the elixirs with me, and I can provide it to you, but only so long as you will agree to meeting with the commander of the Hunters of the Cosmos, undergo some of the screening arrays and techniques, then share just what group is going after us and attempting to strike us down. So long as these conditions are met, I shall give you this.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t look much like an elixir¡­ Hm? Spatial properties? What is that, exactly?¡±


    ¡°Our commander calls it a spatial shard. It is a piece of fragmented space from something that had once been a storage ring, or some storage space, and it has managed to endure. It preserves things inside of it, so it is perfect for carrying anything volatile or dangerous,¡± he said.


    ¡°Oh, so that is how that works. Good to know¡­ I¡¯ll need to loot the Kong District, then, won¡¯t it?¡± Wei Yi muttered to herself, since the Kong Holy Grounds were a rather decent spatial realm that would be bound to leave some shards behind like that which could be put to use in storing and delivering things of value between districts, for instance, ¡°I can agree to that, since I do intend to share that information with quite a few people eventually. As for the screening process, I do not mind. I am personally rather interested in whether there are any Primordial Deity influences upon my body.¡±


    ¡°For your sake, you should hope that there are none.¡±


    ¡°If you do try to kill me just because I had once interacted with something vaguely related to a primordial deity, I am not going to even attempt to ally with a group like you. Murdering random people for some vague relation to an entity they might not have even been aware of is not something I wish to personally side with.¡±


    ¡°We shall see, Wei Yi,¡± Wu Yi Tai said, handing her the spatial shard with some reluctance, ¡°You know how spatial storage works, so I¡¯m sure you know how to use it.¡±


    In truth, she did not have much of a clue how a regular spatial storage method worked, as she was mostly certain that the otherworldly gift she usually made use of was significantly different in the way in which it worked from the usual methods of spatial storage within the Planar Continents. However, spatial laws in general were similar enough, and she already had some practise with the Kong Prison Realm, even if she had only done so much to it, so she did not choose to deny his words and readily took the shard.


    It did indeed resemble a shard of glass in many ways, being no larger than a finger, but upon closer inspection, the broken edges and the surviving surface reflected things that did not exist around her, with light that did not shine upon the shard. Under certain angles, this resembled stars, and under others, clouds, sunlight, and even a lake at one point.


    When an opening into her House of Gold was created, it did not resemble that exact, and it was quite a shame, since this did look like it would be rather impressive to utilise.


    Sending her spiritual perception into it, just as she could into the House of Gold, she saw a single elixir flask floating in the void, precariously positioned against the edges of the spatial storage. She was able to scan through it fully, sensing that the fluid within was highly toxic and yet did contain a noticeable amount of physique energy, although it was clearly impure and rather unusually formed, as could be expected from an unusual method of obtaining an absolute physique. It was likely this that caused the effects of it to be rather volatile in nature when consumed in terms of the effects that it applied onto the consumer, although it did raise a question.


    ¡°I know you lot are called Hunters, but is the Hunter¡¯s Toxin an effective physique against your foe?¡±


    ¡°In a way, although it is not ideal. The poisons and venoms that it can produce are far more effective than any ordinary poison can be, especially when used by someone capable in the field of cultivation and physique usage, allowing them to affect energy itself,¡± Wu Yi Tai said, ¡°The ideal would be the legendary Conqueror¡¯s Eye, or some aspect of it. It would empower the Hunter¡¯s Toxin and permit a certain degree of impact upon the world that no other physique would allow for.¡±


    ¡°So that is how it is. Very interesting,¡± she said as she found that removing something from a spatial storage method was more difficult than she had first imagined. Fortunately for her, she had a method that could work far better.


    The House of Gold was clearly a powerful spatial storage item, so why mess around with a small shard when she could just take the elixir and move it into the otherworldly gift, from which it was far easier to remove or place things? Furthermore, she had spent a long enough time holding this piece of glass-like substance ¨C possibly something relating to the spatial metal that had once made up the whole spatial storage item ¨C that she could likely figure out a solution to interacting with another one, if she found one, without needing to keep it in her hands. Perhaps she didn¡¯t even need to remove anything.


    ¡°Is this something that you have to return to the Hunters?¡±


    ¡°Spatial shards are rare and even that one is large for the usual size. Most would fit only a ring, or a seal, or perhaps a scrap of paper, if you are particularly unlucky with your find,¡± Wu Yi Tai explained, ¡°In other words, if you think you can keep that thing to yourself and do as you like with it, you are very much wrong.¡±


    ¡°I never said that, so do not put words in my mouth. I just wanted to play around with it for a while,¡± she replied, using the House of Gold to displace the elixir into it.


    While she also pondered how she could potentially use that power to steal from all kinds of spatial storage spaces without anyone being aware that she was even doing anything, since otherworldly artefacts do not appear before spiritual perception and using this one in particular requires no obvious outside action whatsoever, she reached out and grabbed at the air in front of the shard, pulling out the elixir. She made sure to do it that way as to not raise unnecessary suspicion about her own powers.


    ¡°There, keep it. So, did you just drink this, or is there some proper method of preparation?¡±


    ¡°First of all, you¡­ Gah, you wish to consume it yourself? You are insane¡­ You must first be prepared and at your peak, with all of your energy at the ready. Ensure that your body is prepared to handle the sheer power of the vile toxin within that elixir. Then-¡±


    ¡°Do I just need to let it spread out through my body? In that case, don¡¯t mind me, I¡¯ll just be drinking this¡­¡± she removed the cork and gulped down the elixir in several seconds.


    The sound of the container melting in her hands as she held and then drank the elixir was highly audible, as it was when she had tilted it to drink from the top. When it touched the inside of her mouth and sank down her throat, with some difficulty due to the unpleasant texture and consistency of the substance, she could distinctly taste the sheer killing potential within every single drop. However, while most would naturally throw such a thing away, spit it all out and wash their whole bodies just to be absolutely sure they were rid of the toxin, she rather enjoyed getting the occasional taste of something, and so just swallowed it calmly.


    Then, so that it didn¡¯t try to wreak havoc on her system without her permission, she surrounded every drop with her own physique energy, rapidly burning through quite a bit of liquid that seemed to be purely harmful to the consumer and leaving behind a smaller but purer quantity of green fluid within her body.


    It could be absorbed and affected by her physique energy, but it was clear that it wouldn¡¯t instantly merge with her and add another entry to her list of physique abilities just yet. While her energy could hardly provide her with a clear and concise report on why this was, she suspected that it was due to the impurity of the energy, as well as the strange way in which it was delivered, at least when compared to most of her previous acquisitions. Some time would likely be necessary in order for everything to be fully processed, then incorporated into her physique as it normally would be.


    ¡°Wh- How have you not burned yet?¡±


    ¡°Burned? Do you mean dissolved? Poison doesn¡¯t burn unless it is a fire-type substance made flashier than it needs to be.¡±


    ¡°While that is what I meant, I also don¡¯t understand how your throat is still intact. How do you have a voice after consuming that vile thing? After I had drunk that, I could barely walk for a month!¡± Wu Yi Tai shared unnecessarily, ¡°What are you made of?¡±


    ¡°Some part immortal gold, some part¡­ alright, just kidding. I¡¯m a human with a lot of opportunities, a lot of gains, and a great deal of personal power. When you have all of those combined in a specific field, you tend to go against most expectations with quite a lot of ease,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°I made some inscriptions when I had the spare time, and ended up surprising people for more than two planar stones with some plates worth far less than that on their own, for example.¡±


    ¡°If you say so¡­ The physique doesn¡¯t seem to be awakening within you.¡±


    ¡°It will, give it some time. I just need time to digest the elixir properly, and then it will be put to use. Thank you very much for your contribution, General Wu Yi Tai. You can remain in Paragon for a while, and if there is anything, Yi Shi Ming, the overseer of the place, can send you out to pursue someone or to report to your commander. For now, just relax.¡±


    ¡°What are you planning, exactly? What are those people that wished us dead to the point of slaughtering several squadrons?¡±


    ¡°Telling you here isn¡¯t particularly safe, so I will not do so. I could do so later, but in the near future, I expect to be busy, so you may speak either with Luo Lia Kun, Great Dark ¨C that sixth realm figure that came with us ¨C or Yi Shi Ming, all of whom can provide full explanations of a number of things.¡±


    Without giving him much time to speak, she vanished from the spot and placed herself into the prison realm, from which she then exited onto the surface of Paragon.


    She could¡¯ve left normally, but that would take too much time when she was in quite the rush to do something before the Great Families had any chance of interacting with whatever message that Ping Wu had sent to them. Since she hadn¡¯t been able to trap or interpret it, she was unable to know what it was or to whom it was sent, so she needed to find out as much as possible, as quickly as possible, if she wanted to have some chance to remaining in her current fortress safely.


    Thus, she rushed out and found Shun Liu Min in her residence, who had just woken up and thus looked delightfully cute with her half-shut eyes, messy blond hair, and her confused expression at the sudden intrusion. The maid was also not wearing anything beneath the sheets, and thus treated her abrupt intruder to a rather nice view.


    ¡°Wei Yi¡­ Sorry, have I overslept for something?¡±


    ¡°No, you have not¡­ and don¡¯t seem to be developing a physique out of nowhere, so I needn¡¯t worry about that, at least¡­ I would actually like to ask you to do something,¡± Wei Yi said, sitting down beside her on the bed, ¡°Would you mind contributing to my learning of everything related to maid duties?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Shun Liu Min looked at her in confusion, ¡°The fuck? Am I still asleep?¡±


    ¡°Nope. I can kiss you to wake you up, but then you¡¯ll not be able to go back to sleep for quite a while, so be sure whether or not you will agree first.¡±


    ¡°Sure, I guess. Go o-¡±

 V4C24: Preparation

    Wei Yi had been right about Shun Liu Min¡¯s inability to fall asleep after that brief yet extremely invigorating display of lewdness. Her energy had been positively overflowing afterwards, and she found it extremely difficult to ignore the sudden burst of lust within her body, but Wei Yi held back and then managed to sate it quickly so that they move onto the more relevant matters of the day.


    ¡°Wow¡­¡± Shun Liu Min still gasped at the end, ¡°Don¡¯t you think that you could just recruit everyone this way? If I had been free from that man, I would¡¯ve joined in a heartbeat.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve met the two horny idiots from Meng Chu¡¯s place, but that is the sort of thing that happens when I go a little overboard. Also, while something like that may be encouraging once or twice, you¡¯re not going to completely change what you believe just to get laid every now and then¡­ or so I¡¯d hope, anyway,¡± she replied, cleaning her fingers with physique energy, ¡°Anyway, the matter of teaching me, alongside Min Lian who you might have also met, is a very important one that requires immediate attention. We have a bit of a time limit.¡±


    ¡°Time limit? I think there may be something that I¡¯m not understanding about this.¡±


    ¡°There is, and I can¡¯t tell you.¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡± the maid asked as she looked around, as if she would spot someone else in the room with whom a secret couldn¡¯t be shared.


    ¡°Well¡­ Alright, let me tell you the bare essentials, and then you can stop with the questions. So, as you know, They are currently searching for us. One had come into the sandstorm, and even sent out some kind of message, so they certainly know that I went this way. I need to learn enough about their activities, plans and operations in order to be able to properly interfere with them, and in order to achieve this, I have a very stupid plan.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ hardly sounds encouraging. You know that, right?¡±


    ¡°Sure, I am fully aware. The problem is that it is this stupid plan that might work best, and in order for it to succeed as intended, everyone needs to be absolutely convinced by what happens. That does include you, Great Dark, Luo Lia Kun, Meng Chu and everyone else in Paragon and the Arbiters.¡±


    Shun Liu Min processed that for a bit, then said, ¡°Is this a case of tricking your allies to trick your enemies?¡±


    ¡°Something like that, yes, and it is very vital. I want Them to be as weak and as vulnerable as it is possible for Them to be, and I can see one very effective method right this very moment, but it is one that may require some knowledge that I do not currently possess. It will require blending in, and it is very likely that I will do the duties of a servant, a maid, perhaps.¡±


    ¡°So you need to be as aware of the way in which someone in that position behaves as you can possibly be¡­ It is obviously something that most of us, your Arbiters, wouldn¡¯t like in the slightest¡­ and presumably it is not something that we would respond to correctly if we are already aware of what you¡¯re up to. This is going to be really dangerous, isn¡¯t it?¡± Shun Liu Min asked, although she didn¡¯t wait for a reply, ¡°Well, that¡¯s fine. I trust you. Rather, I believe in you. You¡¯ve been able to get so far as this, get me out of that man¡¯s residence, deal with everything in your way to get here, clear out the Ping District of a lot of thugs and thieves¡­ You¡¯ve done a lot, and I do not think that this will stop you. Still, good luck on whatever stupid plan you¡¯ve gone for.¡±


    ¡°Aw, are people finally trying to take some of the encouragement pressure from me? Thank you, but I never thought about failure in the first place. I will do what I can, for that is what I must do. What all of us must do if we wish Yi City to be free.¡±


    ¡°Right, yeah. So, tell me, that Min Lian was that woman that follows you around frequently, right?¡±


    ¡°If that is the one notable property of hers you remember, then sure, you could say that,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°She was an assassin, and she tended to blend in to groups in order to get closer to her targets. As such, she has a lot of experience acting as a servant, which she has been passing onto me. You could assist me with that.¡±


    ¡°I will do that right away, if you have the time. How much time do you have, exactly?¡±


    ¡°Ideally, it would be done in a single day,¡± she stated, quickly seeing the expected return of the immense confusion in her eyes, ¡°I am a quick learner, but I could do it more slowly if that¡¯s too much.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Nah, fuck that. I can just ramble things off for the rest of the day, if you¡¯ve got the time. You¡¯ve got the time, right? Let¡¯s meet with Min Lian, and I¡¯m sure the two of us can just say word after word at you until we run out of all energy, right?¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ Yeah, sure. Give me some time to find a place for this, and I¡¯ll readily learn everything.¡±


    Meanwhile, Wu Yi Tai had intended to find his way to the surface, but was quickly distracted by what he found down there. At the edges of the underground portion of the fortress, Paragon as it was apparently called, there were walled off chambers in which living ore had been trapped and was being used for the purposes of obtaining greater quantities of materials than could ever be found through simply digging the earth.


    Although he was not a miner himself, he did have the basic understanding that authamite was a rarity amongst the metallic substances of the world, and that not everything would regrow with enough time. However, this living ore appeared to solve that entirely, as stacks and stacks of metal ore shards were piled up beside these enclosed areas, with the miners working hard to dig through the ore on the surface to get at whatever was beneath. They still tried to obtain and conserve as much material as possible, but when the focus was on digging through something rather than digging it up, a significantly different rate of progress could be achieved.


    ¡°Miners, are you permitted to speak during your shift?¡± he asked one of them, a blond man that barely appeared strong enough to lift a pickaxe, and yet he managed to do so perfectly ¨C in the general¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t any one of us be?¡± that figure replied, huffing with seeming irritation, ¡°Who¡¯re you and what do you want? Wait¡­ your armour and weapon are all black, and I recognise the technique. Are you a Hunter of the Cosmos?¡±


    ¡°I am indeed. I am General Wu Yi Tai, of the second host. You are familiar with us?¡±


    ¡°Of course I am. Your Hunters did a poor job during the War of Yin when you had been informed that the G- They might have very well been tapping into the power of all the primordial deities.¡±


    ¡°War of¡­ Who are you, miner?¡±


    The figure in white smirked for a moment as he lodged his pickaxe into bare stone and turned around, his sixth realm energy and aura radiating from him as he assumed a grandiose pose, a trace of happiness radiating from an attempt at a stoic and calm expression. He must have been waiting for a chance like this.


    ¡°I am-¡±


    ¡°Great Light, is that really necessary?¡± a voice much alike to his, yet profoundly separate, nearly opposite in some ways, emerged from behind the general, who quickly turned towards him.


    It had come from the mouth of the man he had seen in the sandstorm and camps outside of Paragon, but he had now switched from his previous attire and an attempt at a cold flame cultivation to an elegant dark robe and the display of a pure cold energy that froze the air around him merely by existing in proximity with it. His hair, which had covered most of his face previously, revealed the full extent of his androgynous features.


    ¡°Do not try to scare him just because he is related to the Hunters. He had no authority in that decision, and it was as much of a blind guess as They would have needed to make to presume that Wei Yi was the worshiper of Primordial Cosmos. I can see why such a thing might be assumed, but it is nonsense.¡±


    ¡°What are you two talking about?¡±


    ¡°The decisions of your commander¡­ what else could we mean, General Wu Yi Tai? Why have you decided¡­ to go snooping around, Hunter?¡±


    ¡°I was merely curious regarding the infrastructure of such a fortress. It is not in a suitable position for trade, yet people seem to be living here without issue,¡± the general claimed, although he was sweating beneath all of his armour as he noticed that both of these had been in the sixth realm, and weren¡¯t particularly weak ones at that if they were to be judged from energy quality alone, ¡°Neither I nor my Hunters are spies, I can assure you!¡±


    ¡°That is fortunate¡­ I suppose,¡± Great Dark said, ¡°So long as that is true¡­ we have no reason to observe you with great care¡­ but I would still suggest that you do not snoop around as you currently are. First confirm that Wei Yi does not object to your actions.¡±


    ¡°She had left too quickly for me to ask anything¡­ Are both of you genuinely on her side?¡±


    Great Dark and Great Light looked to one another in confusion, and Wu Yi Tai was tempted to join in after a while. The question may have been simple curiosity, which he considered that he was permitted to have regardless of his faction¡¯s final relationship with this one, but he had effectively gone in and questioned the loyalty of two of those in the highest realm while right in the fortress that she controlled. Given that Wei Yi was able to open up spatial gateways and vanish from the spot without a single clear drop of effort, for her to be aware of them right now would not be farfetched.


    Even if those two needed to tell her afterwards, for him to be doing such a thing in combination with looking around places he had never explicitly been permitted to see would be highly suspicious.


    ¡°I was merely surprised that you, in the sixth realm, are not just on her side, but seemingly below her in the hierarchy,¡± he tried to explain himself, more than aware that his earlier choice of words made him seem even more suspicious.


    ¡°You should have said that before you made a fool of yourself!¡± Great Light exclaimed, ¡°Also, do you think that this is all about realm? You¡¯ve not seen that woman when she had been a young girl in the first realm, rushing through every task and challenge that we could have had, breaking through in her techniques while walking up the stairs. She defeated someone in the second realm, who wielded a forbidden skill, while only being in the first! If someone needed qualifications to command others in the field of strength and power, she would have them, that¡¯s for sure.¡±


    ¡°Indeed¡­ you also seem to be forgetting the black sun she had broken before you¡­ You had taken the least of the power in that technique with your barrier,¡± Great Dark added.


    Wu Yi Tai nodded, ¡°My question was poorly considered. I shall not make the same mistake again.¡±


    ¡°Tch, you should¡¯ve. Then I could have done something slightly less monotonous than digging stone after stone,¡± Great Light huffed as he removed the pickaxe from the wall that he had forced it into and returned his focus to the ore vein.


    In the small amount of time since he had first been sent to work as a miner, he had not learned a great deal about some of the more complex methods that may be put to use in the process of mining, nor did he have some great technique that he could proudly showcase if asked, but he had figured out how to dig fast and well. His yin-type energy was highly useful at piercing through stone without dealing much harm to the things around it, nor raising the temperature and potentially causing some violent reactions for certain materials as an extreme yang-type energy might.


    As such, he was able to showcase his ability before the two of them, somewhat proud of his own accomplishment. Meanwhile they¡­ lacked much understanding of mining either and couldn¡¯t appreciate it whatsoever. In their eyes, it seemed slow and not particularly efficient, although when they looked around and saw some of the other miners acting similarly, they understood even less.


    ¡°I think I will leave this area, since I am not meant to be here,¡± General Wu Yi Tai decided, being afraid to question just what he was seeing when the miner was rash and in the sixth realm.


    Fortunately enough, his twin brother also nodded, ¡°Yes, I think that we should. I shall bring you away¡­ to ensure that you do not end up somewhere else where you really shouldn¡¯t be. Then¡­ we shall get going. Great Light, work hard.¡±


    The miner in white nodded and kept going as the two of them headed away, with the twin of Great Earth leading the general of the Hunters of the Cosmos to the nearest surface-bound staircase into the stone above. They climbed it mostly in silence, then Great Dark took him to his own residence within Paragon. They weren¡¯t sure what to talk about just yet, but not remaining in a mine where Great Light worked seemed sensible.


    ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want to get back to how we were?¡±


    ¡°No. The whispers are quiet, and I can ignore them most of the time. I also have no reason to mess around with you quite as much when you too appear more reasonable,¡± Mo Zhouquan replied, resting back in a chair that was only lightly covered by a thin layer of strange, viscous substance, but one that had hardly grown since she had chosen to occupy it some time ago.


    Long Huang nearly pouted, ¡°Come on, it is so dull now! Half of my drive was to show you just how much of a fool you are with your corruption, but it is now both more reasonable, and the atmosphere around here has changed entirely. In the Brotherhood of Power, there¡¯d been some tension, some drive, but now we all just sit around. I can call you a creepy bitch all I like, but it is hardly as fun as when you actually responded with something creepy.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ may just be stranger than the whispers. Are you really unable to just get over it and change the way our relationship works now?¡±


    ¡°Changing it is fine, but this isn¡¯t much of a relationship no matter how you look at it. You¡¯re too dull to light the match of my mind, and I barely have the drive to verbally abuse you when that chair and that bed are the only things to have been affected even slightly. It¡¯s even possible to bathe with you now.¡±


    ¡°It has gotten much quieter around here, hasn¡¯t it? We¡¯re getting most of our things without needing to fight or even work, and we can¡¯t go out much for the moment due to the sandstorm and Their persistent threat,¡± Mo Zhouquan agreed on one of the earlier points, ¡°Luo Lia Kun and the others appear to have found something to do, but I cannot research much on corruption when I have already fallen so far due to it¡­ while you won¡¯t leave me alone even if I was able to do so. Did you also have someone like me in your Blood Alchemists?¡±


    ¡°Not a disgusting thing like you, but¡­ see! I can¡¯t even do that anymore!¡± Long Huang exclaimed, getting closer and poking the corrupted woman¡¯s cheek, ¡°You¡¯re only a little moist, without that sickening layer of slime that seemed to exist around you. That could easily be mistaken for sweat!¡±


    ¡°Have you even gotten over your displeasure at touching me?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯d become some black-blooded bitch myself anymore, so I have no reason to hold back. I¡¯d love to dissect you, but I am scared of what I would find within you.¡±


    ¡°I think I have at least three distinct parts that resemble hearts in some way, so I am sure that would be an interesting thing to behold,¡± Mo Zhouquan mentioned, tapping on her chest, then the left of her abdomen, then the point where her neck and right shoulder met, ¡°They all beat when I listen carefully, so I imagine they have some kind of similar function.¡±


    The researcher from the Blood Alchemists wanted to look at her in disgust, but her facial muscles didn¡¯t wish to put in the effort to do anything more than a half-hearted grimace.


    ¡°Dull. Many things have multiple hearts. If you had a bloodline or physique, it could be the same.¡±


    In reply, Mo Zhouquan stared at her in silence for a while, clearly elaborating on something within her mind. At several times, her black and purple eyes glistened ominously several times, although her flat expression didn¡¯t change much. Still, to have this go on for almost a minute was rather unnerving for Long Huang, although she felt a little excited at the same time. Could Mo Zhouquan have been coming up with something that could then give her the chance to get her old fire back?


    She couldn¡¯t subdue that flicker of interest entirely, and so the spark grew and stabilised within her heart, causing it to speed up slightly as she took a step back and watched the corrupted woman think. After a while, she lightly bit her lip, unable to contain that feeling just to her heart and mind.


    ¡°You need something, right?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yes, something. Something to excite, to motivate, to give me a real drive to push the boundaries of bloodline research!¡±


    ¡°Hm,¡± Mo Zhouquan folded her legs and put a hand on her chin, ¡°Then get on your knees.¡±


    For a moment, Long Huang couldn¡¯t be sure of what she had just heard. From the more mild-mannered Mo Zhouquan that she had gotten to know since moving into the prison realm, and then into Paragon, something like that had been even stranger than if she had managed to reclaim her previous lewder nature, not to mention the fact that it was said with such a dry tone that she nearly ran off to get the corrupted woman some water.


    ¡°Sorry, could you repeat that?¡±


    ¡°I told you to get onto your knees, stupid worm. You lack the energy to be productive, so I will fill that void for you. Now, get down, and¡­¡± Mo Zhouquan removed her shoe and reached out with that foot, ¡°why don¡¯t you start with just massaging it for now?¡±


    Long Huang thought that she would be able to say with absolute certainty that she had never been this shocked in her entire life, and that she would never be this shocked again.


    Despite that, the little glimmer of excitement refused to go out within her heart, and thus she sank to her knees. For a moment, she had to question her own behaviour and actions, whether up to that point or at that very moment. Perhaps she had been wrong the whole time before this, and rather than bossing other people around, she was much more suited to being on the other side¡­ or perhaps she was currently intoxicated without her own knowledge, and was just doing what Mo Zhouquan wanted out of some random bout of curiosity.


    Either way, just that action alone felt strangely right.


    ¡°Thanks for visiting again!¡± the woman at the reception¡¯s desk of the massage parlour said, ¡°We hope to see you again soon!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, same!¡± Zhi Qiu Ya said back, walking out with the corners of her lips raised involuntarily. She had been visiting this same place for a month now, and she had to admit that she had felt far, far better than she had at first.


    Initially, everything had been highly awkward, and she could barely display what parts of her body remained in a bestial state to the people there, but after they essentially had to force her into the massage bed, she had managed to fully relax properly after a long period of tension and anxiety. As such, she went back soon after, and was slowly allowing the kind woman there to go further and further than before. Judging by the direction in which their treatment was developing, she was now almost certain that this place did indeed serve as a brothel at the same time, as she had begun to suspect when she had gone through that street with a clearer mind and saw just the kinds of business that the nearby stores tended to engage in, but some of the touches couldn¡¯t have been accidental.


    Some time ago, she would have almost certainly seen that as a reason to stop attending the place right away, as she wanted nothing to do with all of the primal experiences that the wolf enjoyed. However, as a result of their slow and pleasant introduction to those kinds of feelings, touches and whatever else, she was tempted to experience that as well.


    Even then, she did not wish to rush anything. She could barely believe that any of this was happening as it was, and to accidentally awaken that wolven side once more would be devastating.


    ¡®Still, that was¡­¡¯ her thoughts paused when she saw a familiar figure in the distance, ¡°Luo Lia Kun? Vice-leader, wait up!¡±


    The woman who she had correctly identified with her superior vision turned around, confirmed that she wasn¡¯t hearing things, and waited for Zhi Qiu Ya to approach, allowing her the opportunity to see the slight change in her hairstyle. Usually, Luo Lia Kun would have obscured her forehead as much as she could to hide the scar that most of the Brotherhood of Power had known about but didn¡¯t mention, but she now had it trimmed slightly, showing just a little bit more of it.


    It was likely the cause for her currently turning away slightly, as to minimize the number of other people that would be able to see the scar as they walked past her on the street. While the perpetual vice-leader managed to avoid any redness from appearing in her cheeks, perhaps having learned the method by imitating Wei Yi¡¯s masterful control over her own blood flow, that hardly changed the rest of her current stance and expression. For a moment, it was even difficult to liken this figure to the one that had led Zhi Qiu Ya, Mo Zhouquan, Long Huang and the others in the Brotherhood for many years, as one seemed to be nothing like the other.


    ¡°Hey, Zhi Qiu Ya. You are looking far better than usual today.¡±


    ¡°You could too, if you were making yourself a little less small,¡± she replied, ¡°Just brighten up and show yourself off.¡±


    ¡°For you to say that¡­ I know that all of you have seen it, but do you really think its fine?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked, lightly lifting just enough hair to reveal the scar fully, ¡°I¡¯ve heard Wei Yi say so before, and I¡¯m sure some of you have hinted at it in the past¡­ No, of course you have, but, right now, could you tell me exactly what you think?¡±


    ¡°What I think¡­ Well, is it just that?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ is something wrong with the scar?¡± the vice-leader asked, checking it right away with her spiritual perception.


    ¡°No, not at all. In fact, I thought that it was much bigger and scarier, but it is actually just that large. I don¡¯t see any reason to be hiding it that much, especially when all of us got into fights all the time,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya said while she got a little closer to take a proper look, ¡°Yeah, everyone¡¯s been in a fight or two where they couldn¡¯t quite recover perfectly. That¡¯s fine. I doubt that anybody would be particularly put off by that.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so that is indeed what all of you thought. I¡­ feel a little silly, to be honest¡­¡±


    The wolven woman quickly got closer and put her hand on the woman¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Don¡¯t be! Actually, I feel a little bit like that too, since I had been rather afraid of all of my wolven features, but I¡¯ve been getting much better lately! Look at me, I barely look the same, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you have changed a lot. Fine, I¡¯ll try to be a little less afraid of this scar, since you and Wei Yi have both said the same thing. I trust the two of you if you¡¯re being this direct.¡±


    ¡°And I will attempt to get over this whole wolven thing entirely,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya said, ¡°Imagining having the ability to switch between my human and wolven state while keeping my mind the whole time is quite exciting, so long as it doesn¡¯t lead me to throwing off my clothing constantly again. That is very much unnecessary.¡±


    Since the two of them had been standing around for a while, and both had initially been going in the same direction, they decided to get going and talk about a few things while on their way. While both of them had been in the Brotherhood of Power, the relationship between them had been far more profession than it was now, but the sudden spotlight cast on a few of the members of that organisation as a result of their involvement with Wei Yi while she had been faking her identity led to them getting to know one another much better.


    In addition to the relaxed way in which Wei Yi typically ran the Arbiters, if she gave any orders at all, it gave them a lot of opportunities to hold more and better conversations than before, and both were clearly being helped by the additional time they had to talk.


    The day came to an end with a number of things being learned, some being shared, and others being studied. Save for two members of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, the rest were barely even aware of the very notion of Wei Yi¡¯s stupid plan, and even she doubted that it was necessarily the best one out there. However, she could say with certainty that it was the best one she had at the moment, and thus she had no choice but to go along with it.


    Her first requirement of learning a vast amount of information on the proper mannerisms and etiquette of a servant figure was fulfilled easily enough, since she could just listen or read an endless amount of information then sort through it afterwards. It was all done in a single day as a result.

 Bonus Chapter: Flipped Relations [R-18]

    Long Huang had a significant problem with inspiration and with motivation. There was a lot that she could do, and that she wanted to do, but what was the point? Everything worked so much better when there was someone she could show up, or utterly destroy in some competition.


    She¡¯d never tried obeying others beyond minimal effort, not even in the Blood Alchemists, though there was far less structure to that organisation than one might imagine. Therefore, there was little for her to accept orders about even if she wanted to, and outside of that faction, everyone tended to let her have her way so as to prevent her from departing and taking her expertise with her to wherever else she can go.


    In other words, she had never experienced a figure giving her instructions like this.


    ¡®This black-blooded¡­ Well, I might as well try it. Perhaps being forced beneath her like this will motivate me to surpass her!¡¯ Long Huang thought, feeling her knees touch the stone floor.


    That simple feeling was already astonishing. She wasn¡¯t sure how to describe it, but it did make her pale cheeks blush, a fact that didn¡¯t seem to evade the olive-skinned, black-blooded woman sitting in front of her.


    ¡°You almost look cute down there, Long Huang. Don¡¯t keep me waiting.¡±


    ¡°What, do you expect me to just massage your feet? What am I to you?¡±


    ¡°If you want me to make things difficult for you, then I can do exactly that,¡± Mo Zhouquan stated, the smile on her face becoming tinged with malice, ¡°Would you prefer to be trampled instead?¡±


    She did not wait for a reply and simply thrust her foot, stained with some substance that was mid-way between slime and sweat, into Long Huang¡¯s face. Stepping on the Blood Alchemist as if she was just some decoration on the floor, and delighted in the expression of her human footstool, mixing blatant disgust and something approaching¡­ well, it wasn¡¯t possible to summarise, but it was very much the opposite.


    After a few moments that satisfied her immediate urges, Mo Zhouquan withdrew her foot.


    ¡°Had enough? Wouldn¡¯t you rather massage my foot and not force things to escalate beyond a point you¡¯re comfortable with?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad I don¡¯t usually wear makeup, or else I¡¯d be unable to simply wash this disgusting substance off¡­¡± Long Huang gritted her teeth, but her hands moved towards the bare foot, hesitating for a moment before grasping it as lightly as she could.


    It was just as unpleasant to touch with her hands as it had been while on her face. The foot was slimy. It was disgusting. It was sticky. Despite that, the Blood Alchemist couldn¡¯t stop herself from doing as she was ordered, massaging the foot as well as she was able to ¨C which was to say, just barely managing not to hurt either of them. Long Huang had never done anything of the sort before, so it would be strange if she was proficient.


    Fortunately, neither of them were especially fragile, and Mo Zhouquan was used to unusual and potentially unpleasant things. In addition, neither of them believed that the foot massage was the purpose of today¡¯s¡­ activity, even if it was currently on the forefront of their minds.


    Long Huang lacked the ability to read the mind of the former fanatic of Primordial Corruption, but it didn¡¯t take a genius to see her grinning as she attempted to improve her service. She believed that she wished to improve to wipe away that woman¡¯s smug smile and prove herself superior once more, but that didn¡¯t explain why the competitive flame within her chest was dying down with every breath she took, and why she barely felt the substance upon Mo Zhouquan¡¯s skin after a while, instead perceiving only her foot, and the muscles within.


    It was somewhat akin to an out of body experience, where her own form lost its meaning, though that didn¡¯t mean she lost all of her sensations just like that.


    She still had her sense of smell, and she could almost believe that Mo Zhouquan wanted her to keep that in mind. The old and overwhelming noxious mist that covered the black-blooded woman at all times was gone, but some traces of its scent still burned Long Huang¡¯s nose, not helped in the slightest when the foot had been shoved into her face.


    ¡°Alright, you ought to change to something you¡¯ll be more proficient with. Know what I mean?¡±


    Long Huang¡¯s fingers stopped, ¡°¡­ No?¡±


    ¡°You love using that tongue of yours to say all kinds of bullshit, so it should have plenty of training, Lick my toes.¡±


    ¡°I-¡±


    ¡°Did I ask you to speak? Do it,¡± her gaze went cold, as did the whole room.


    For some reason, the Blood Alchemist felt a chill go up her spine and her heart skip a beat. She felt disappointed with herself, as if she had done something wrong, as if she had betrayed herself in some manner.


    That emptiness was absolutely awful, and she couldn¡¯t get rid of the sinking feeling that threatened to swallow her up.


    ¡®What¡­ what is this? This feeling¡­ I¡¯ve never had anything like this before,¡¯ Long Huang clutched the robes at her chest, feeling her heart accelerate, beating faster and stronger as if it wished to break out of her chest, ¡®If it¡¯s because of failing to do as I am told¡­ then, I suppose¡­ I must do it! I cannot disappoint her!¡¯


    With renewed determination, she moved her head forward and parted her lips, placing Mo Zhouquan¡¯s big toe into her mouth and sucking upon it. Her gaze remained on her partner¡¯s face.


    ¡°Good girl,¡± Mo Zhouquan said with a smile, calming Long Huang¡¯s heart, ¡°Keep going.¡±


    She simply obeyed, licking up all of the substance on her big toe and ensuring that it was clean before moving onto the next. The taste was strong and lingered on her tongue, feeling like a cross between sweat and something poisonous, but to her surprise, she didn¡¯t find it as unpleasant as she knew she would have done before. It wasn¡¯t that the taste faded, but instead grew more prominent within her mind, and gained a certain association with its owner.


    The taste was improving with every moment, and although she felt fear at this prospect, that fear was tinged with arousal that forced itself into her thoughts the more she licked Mo Zhouquan¡¯s toes.


    It was almost disappointing when she had lapped everything up and was forced to depart from the foot, only managing to dip in briefly to lick up the strand of saliva that had attempted to keep them together.


    ¡°Good job¡­¡± Mo Zhouquan lingered on the last word, clearly considering something before the corners of her lips rose and her lips parted in an open, jubilant smile, ¡°¡­ my pet.¡±


    Long Huang¡¯s rational side knew what kinds of response she should have had. Throwing up a look of disgust would make for a good start, before distancing herself from the black-blooded being as quickly as possible and cleansing herself with all the methods available. Then, she could do all kinds of things to get back at this presumptuous bitch that thought she could put herself at some kind of pedestal. However, she didn¡¯t do any of that.


    She only felt an intense warmth in her chest, and a fainter sensation down below, in her nether region.


    ¡°T-Thank¡­ you?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome, my good girl. Now, take care of the rest of my foot as well. It¡¯s feeling cold now that you¡¯ve warmed up my toes.¡±


    The way in which she spoke should have been infuriating. It shouldn¡¯t have made her heart race, as if she was in love ¨C not that she had the faintest notion of what that was like. She shouldn¡¯t have had that feeling of satisfaction, but she couldn¡¯t stop it from overwhelming her, nor her head from leaning forth and licking the sole of Mo Zhouquan¡¯s foot.


    It simply felt right to do this, even if she didn¡¯t understand how her mind came to such a conclusion.


    Having gained some practise from the earlier cleaning of the woman¡¯s toes, Long Huang was able to cover her foot quickly, soon cleaning it completely until it shone with something other than the sweaty mixture Mo Zhouquan produced.


    Again, she was forced to pull away, but she was soon presented with another foot, removed from a shoe only recently. It had a heavier scent and a thicker layer of slimy sweat, but it was an absolute delight to her senses. The faint musk was superior to the scent of blood she had long grown used to, and when she saw the expectant gaze of the black-blooded master- that is, black-blooded woman, she knew she had to get to work.


    As she began with the ball of the foot first, Mo Zhouquan placed a finger at the corner of her mouth, her open smile still beaming openly, ¡°You¡¯re such a good pet. I will definitely ask you for more of these in the future¡­ Seeing you with my foot in your mouth almost makes me wish I¡¯d grown a cock, like our new leader.¡±


    Seeing excitement flash by Long Huang¡¯s face, fading as soon as her last fragment of self-control manifested themselves, she couldn¡¯t resist giggling.


    ¡°Perhaps I¡¯ll borrow her methods. For now, though, steady your back. I want to rest my feet a little.¡±


    Long Huang didn¡¯t even ask what she meant, though she knew that she should. Keeping her tongue on the sole of Mo Zhouquan¡¯s foot, she adjusted her seating and tried to straighten her back, ending up with plenty of her own saliva rubbing onto her face. At the same time, her master lifted the other foot and placed it onto her face, shifting the foot already present there as to make enough space for herself.


    When she found the right placement for herself, she leaned back in her seat and let out a sigh, making sure to rub her feet into Long Huang¡¯s face. It was visibly delightful for both, though the Blood Alchemist wasn¡¯t able to see her master¡¯s response as she was instead consumed by her scent.


    After a moment of inhaling her own breath, she began to smell Mo Zhouquan¡¯s sweat again, building with such speed that she was certain that she was accelerating the production of her sweat on purpose.


    It soon formed thick, oily beads that dripped onto her tongue, filling her mouth slowly but surely, though she adored it most when it pooled at her nostrils, forcing its thick musk directly into her nose. Even if she desperately wished to avoid it ¨C she didn¡¯t ¨C she was forced to have her head fill with her master¡¯s presence, overwhelming her mind, her motor functions, her memories, until all that was left was the one before her, resting her feet on her face.


    ¡°-up. Wake up. Wake up, my pet!¡±


    Long Huang shook as she heard those magic words. The warm touch of Master¡¯s- that is, Mo Zhouquan¡¯s feet was no longer upon her face, though she still sat before her while she kneeled on the ground.


    ¡°Are you alright? You seem to have fainted. I wouldn¡¯t want to hurt you much, unless~ we both want it,¡± she smiled.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, Mas- um, Mo Zhouquan.¡±


    ¡°I heard that. Don¡¯t you want to say that again, my pet? Wouldn¡¯t you want to make our relationship clear?¡±


    ¡°Not¡­ not in public. Whatever we¡¯re doing here, I don¡¯t want them to know,¡± Long Huang blushed, though she forced herself to maintain eye contact as to not make it too obvious, ¡°I don¡¯t hate you¡­ too much, but I wouldn¡¯t be able to handle everyone knowing that we do this kind of thing.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate. I had a very good idea when I first decided to make you my pet.¡±


    ¡°What is¡­ is that a collar?¡± the Blood Alchemist¡¯s eyes widened as she saw the length of black fabric that Mo Zhouquan had removed from somewhere.


    ¡°A choker, but the intent is very much the same. I want to mark you, and since neither of us wish for you to be corrupted like I had been, and since I can¡¯t think of any other good ideas, this is suitable. It fits your identity as a cute little pet for me.¡±


    The compliment finally caused Long Huang to turn away, her cheeks burning with a scarlet tint.


    ¡°You could always try to replicate the mutt in her prime animalistic state, if¡­ I mean, if you really wanted to¡­¡±


    Mo Zhouquan raised an eyebrow, ¡°Are you implying what I think you¡¯re implying? Did I hurt you somehow while resting my feet? Even with all the samples you¡¯d taken of me and the others, this seems¡­ unusual for your tastes.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ uhm¡­¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s discuss this later. Right now, though, I want something permanent on you. We can always try out all~ kinds of things when we¡¯ve figured this out a little more.¡±


    Long Huang¡¯s scorching hot cheeks cooled just a little, though she was still extremely embarrassed about the matter. Even if one asked her decades later, she might not be able to tell whether it was due to managing to be more perverse than Mo Zhouquan, or if the idea itself was simply too much for both of them.


    ¡°So, my pet~, c¡¯mere and show me your neck.¡±


    She obeyed her Master readily, drawing closer and tilting her head up, making sure that her neck would be easy to access. The choker was brought close to her, and then it was carefully bound around it.


    The moment it clicked shut, Long Huang felt her underwear moisten. A pleasant shudder passed throughout her whole body, and she had to clench her teeth in order to keep in a moan.


    It sat tightly around her neck, making her feel every detail when she breathed, but it wasn¡¯t enough to get in the way. She could still inhale and exhale without issue, but every single moment was filled with that wonderful reminder of Master¡¯s touch and warmth and scent. A smile grew on her face despite her earlier embarrassment, completely overwhelming it, and a delightful pleasant sensation spread from it.


    ¡°Who¡¯s a good girl?¡±


    ¡°I am,¡± the Blood Alchemist responded without hesitation.


    ¡°Then you wouldn¡¯t mind cleaning your master with that lovely tongue of yours? You¡¯ve done an excellent job with my feet, but I have another spot that really needs your assistance. I hope you don¡¯t intend to let me down.¡±


    ¡°Never!¡± she replied, looking around Mo Zhouquan¡¯s body, ¡°Where do you¡­¡±


    ¡°Right here,¡± she parted her legs, shifted aside her clothes, and revealed her groin, hidden only by black lace from the only tailor in the Kong Prison Realm.


    The fabric had already grown moist from her sweat, and there was a notable patch at the front that was even darker. It was akin to an oasis in the desert for Long Huang, but she first confirmed her Master¡¯s intent with a glance at her beautiful eyes.


    ¡°Come on, take care of me. Use only your mouth¡­ if you can.¡±


    It sounded like a challenge, and so she took it as one. Placing her hands on Mo Zhouquan¡¯s legs, Long Huang leaned forward and carefully took the top of the fabric in between her teeth, sliding it down. Her lower abdomen was revealed easily, showing spotless olive skin without a hint of hair, and with some difficulty, she was able to pull the panties down far enough to lay her eyes upon the moist lower lips.


    Despite the changes that had occurred to her insides, her labia and the flesh hidden deeper within seemed normal, aside from the colour. Her black blood made itself obvious by turning pink to a dark purple, her dripping entrance seeming like a pit to an unknown abyss.


    ¡®She really is beautiful¡­ and smells so good¡­¡¯ Long Huang thought, diving in straight for her Master¡¯s core.


    Parting the pussy lips with her tongue, she went in deep, lapping up every drop of arousal that poured from Mo Zhouquan¡¯s pussy. It had a stronger scent and taste than her sweat-like emissions, and she found her own pussy growing wet without even needing her to touch it. She thought to move one hand down there, but found herself unable to do so.


    Looking up into her Master¡¯s eyes, finding her expression filling with pleasure, seeing her slowly shift one hand over to hover above her head ¨C ready to press her down when her arousal reached climax ¨C was the only thing she needed. It brought her far more joy than touching herself ever could, and feeling that pleasure only made her more excited to do her work, as it confirmed the correctness of her decision to serve Mo Zhouquan.


    ¡°You¡¯re doing such a¡­ ah¡­ good job, my pet,¡± her Master moaned, sending a shiver through her body, ¡°So eager, and with such a good tongue¡­ I¡¯m so glad we¡¯ve changed our relationship¡­ Alright, be ready for me. Understand?¡±


    She did. She kept her mouth open and her throat ready, and was blessed a moment later as her Master let out a sigh. A thick fluid filled her mouth, as different from typical bodily fluids as the others, but its nature remained obvious, and the taste was even more so. It was acrid and dense, but she gulped it down without hesitation, letting it pervade her mouth and body until it was all that she could think of.


    At the same time, she continued working on Mo Zhouquan¡¯s pussy, and soon the relieved sigh transformed to a lusty moan as the last of one fluid was pushed out and another took its place. Her pussy clenched and released a tidal wave of arousal, her hand grasping Long Huang¡¯s hair tightly and forcing her to remain in place as she came.


    Only when she was done did she let Long Huang go, though the Blood Alchemist wished to remain in place forever, had it been possible or reasonable.


    ¡°¡­ Thank you¡­¡± were the first words out of her mouth when she did pull away, her face stained and her mouth practically reeking of scents that others would be certain to pick up on if they were in the same room, ¡°I came¡­ despite you not touching me¡­¡±


    ¡°What a good girl. Come here, pet,¡± Mo Zhouquan leaned down and wrapped her arms around Long Huang, lifting her up and into her lap before diving in for a kiss.


    Their tongues met and entwined, bringing a very different warmth to Long Huang¡¯s body.


    ¡°Just so you know¡­ I don¡¯t hate you, or think less of you just because you¡¯re my pet now. On the contrary, I¡¯ll make sure to take care of you in the future. I was just really pent up today, and you seemed to be in the right mood too¡­¡±


    ¡°I know¡­ Master.¡±


    ¡°Call me Mistress.¡±


    ¡°Sure, Mistress~.¡±


    Smiles tugged at the corners of their lips as they went in for another kiss.

 V4C25: Warning about Rumours

    On the next day, that being the sixth of the fifth month, a number of figures received a message carried through spiritual will that asked them to gather at a certain part of the desert fortress. Judging by the tone of the voice, not to mention the voice itself, the sender was obvious, but all of them collectively felt something odd about it.


    The exact oddity was rather difficult to put into words, so none of them thought to share it with one another and just assumed that it was merely some misconception or misinterpretation, but it still stuck with them as they got out of bed, parted from whatever activity they had been engaged in, or did something even less conventional, then proceeded to the location with great interest to learn exactly what the reason behind the sudden invitation was. She had been brief, merely mentioning the location, and so there was a lot of room for guesses.


    Naturally, the place where she chose to gather was the central headquarters of Paragon, not just because that place was most fitting for the collection of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, but due to it having a large enough meeting room to accommodate all of them.


    As soon as the first one of them, Great Dark, arrived, Wei Yi was already sitting there with Min Lian and Shun Liu Min on either side.


    ¡°Got here quick. Sixth realm abilities, right?¡±


    ¡°And my proximity¡­ the fourth realm is luckiest due to being able to obtain¡­ a movement method though a certain manipulation of stabilised energy¡­ which I do not recall you using yet,¡± he replied, sitting down in a random chair, ¡°Is there some particular reason behind your actions¡­ or have you never gotten around to it yet?¡±


    ¡°I saw some people using those movement methods, copied them partially, and don¡¯t find them particularly impressive. Perhaps if I figure out something particularly effective with whatever I can do with my solidified energy, I might start using such movement techniques, but until then, I will focus on combat and other things that are more relevant now,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°For example, I could benefit from acquiring the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, if that is even possible, or creating a technique to take advantage of my particular abilities and types of energy, more so than slightly increasing my speed.¡±


    ¡°That does make sense, I suppose¡­ It is still more flexible than common movement methods, so I would advise exploring it when you have the time¡­¡±


    Almost immediately after, Luo Lia Kun and Zhi Qiu Ya entered the room, with the former asking, ¡°What¡¯s that about movement techniques? I have a few ones that I could share, which should be especially useful to you seeing as you can switch between them freely.¡±


    ¡°No need, and you really should listen to the conversation first before making any kind of a suggestion, vice-leader,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°You should all also train your spiritual perception and learn to use it constantly, everywhere, and without thought, as you might not see something with your eyes or hear something with your ears. To need to use spiritual perception consciously is really impacting your overall abilities.¡±


    ¡°Noted,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, sitting down as well.


    As she did so, her hand involuntarily went to brush past the scar on her forehead, which was now even more visible than before due to her hair having been trimmed a little shorter once again. When she glanced towards the Ascendant, she saw Wei Yi giving her a quick encouraging smile, although it faded instantly the moment that the two of them looked away.


    A little while later, Mo Zhouquan and Long Huang also entered the room, and just as Wei Yi had no difficulty in observing that small detail on Luo Lia Kun¡¯s face, she immediately noticed a conspicuous choker on Long Huang¡¯s neck.


    To avoid bringing this to the attention of those that weren¡¯t meant to notice it, seeing as the bloodline researcher was blatantly attempting to make it as difficult to notice as possible with her hair and arm position, Wei Yi reached out with her energy. Mo Zhouquan had a slightly brighter expression than usual, so she was included in this communication, not to mention the fact that they had entered together and had clearly spent some time in the same building together as well.


    Due to her own focus on other things, she hadn¡¯t been able to personally observe every little action of everyone in Paragon, leaving that to Yi Shi Ming, but she still knew where everyone she called had been.


    ¡®So, is there a story to that, or no?¡¯ she asked, nearly causing Long Huang to stumble on the spot.


    That alone would have been enough information, but when the researcher followed that up with an extremely shaky reply, there was little more to guess, ¡®Nope, it¡¯s just a¡­ a thing.¡¯


    ¡®Uh-huh.¡¯


    ¡®It¡¯s a sex thing,¡¯ Mo Zhouquan corrected her, ignoring the surprised and panicked gaze she instantly received, ¡®She kept pestering me, so I tried something. If you want me to stop, get your research done and get over your boredom.¡¯


    Since she could hardly argue with something that she had first started and then agreed to, Long Huang sat down beside Mo Zhouquan, the attempt to remain calm not being helped by the latter¡¯s hand upon her shoulder to force her to sit down more quickly. When the corrupted woman saw that it was a little too much at that time, she quickly drew her hand back, but this gesture wasn¡¯t particularly prominent in Long Huang¡¯s mind specifically due to that shock.


    To the one person that was paying attention, that being the Ascendant, it confirmed that Mo Zhouquan was doing the whole domination routine less out of whatever perverted tendencies had formed within her during her time listening to Primordial Corruption¡¯s whispers, but instead to help out a person who was an odd mixture of friend and foe at once. Had it been something prompted by corruption, whether past or current, she might have considered putting an end to it, but she would hardly deny those under her unusual methods of encouragement and various kinky activities, especially not while she was going to be following her own mess of an idea.


    Great Light arrived some time after, having needed to rise from the mines in order to attend, immediately getting strange looks from most people present.


    As a result of his stay in the mines and the highly unprofessional and poor behaviour, most found it difficult to attach any importance to him besides the resources that he was able to bring in while the rest of Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm remained in too low a realm to handle it, including his own brother. In a way, Great Dark had more of what Great Earth had seen as his good sides.


    Then, Chao Ru also entered, her pupils doing their best to become hearts as she looked upon Wei Yi, although the approach of Ju Yazhu and the general attempt at being presentable that most humans strove for stopped her from simply freezing in the doorway, or, worse, trying to leap at her.


    While there were still a few seats left, Luo Lia Kun looked to Wei Yi and shared, ¡°By the way, I had kept one of the cups that the poisoner at the Luo District had been feeding me, and have not been able to conclude much so far. If everyone here, Mo Zhouquan and Long Huang primarily, do not mind, I would like to pass it along so that you could take a look at it as well. It would be great to know exactly what I had been drinking for some time.¡±


    ¡°I could take a look at it, although I do not know how much I will find from something that old.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ will also take a look, just in case. You think it is related to bloodlines in some way?¡± Long Huang asked.


    ¡°There is a certain chance, so I would like to investigate it. Wei Yi, how about¡­¡±


    ¡°For the moment, I am expecting to be somewhat busy. Yi Shi Ming might have already looked at it-¡± the sudden appearance of the spatial spirit in one of the chairs, as well as her prompt shake of the head, permitted her to proceed, ¡°- but if not, then I will take a closer look after that is no longer an issue. I¡¯d tell you what I¡¯m doing, but I will wait for everyone else to be here first.¡±


    Almost right away, Fu Zan and Aimi Miyu appeared in the doorway, with the former letting the latter through first before they sat some distance away from one another.


    ¡°I have to say, seeing the collection of people here, I am suddenly getting a rather bad vibe if even we were called in,¡± the otherworldly tailor commented, ¡°Naturally, this is not some fictional world, but¡­ do avoid setting off any flags, or jinxing things, if you can.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately for you, I can make no such promises, but I will assure you that if the heavens try to force me into something, I will promptly kick their ass and tell them to fuck off and let me handle things if they¡¯re that bad at resolving them on their own,¡± Wei Yi stated, earning two surprised looks from Great Dark and Great Light due to their lower familiarity with her usual way of not caring about heavenly authority like some might, ¡°Of course, my ass will probably be kicked first, or they might just decide to spank me for being a silly little kid, but I¡¯ll get around to reversing matters eventually.¡±


    There was little that could be said about that ¨C and if there was some heavenly punishment for this, they would prefer to be out of the spotlight and the lightning bolts that would be thrown down on them ¨C so they remained quiet for a little while as they waited for the remaining seats to be filled by whoever else Wei Yi had called.


    So far, most of them were not getting the same odd vibes as they had been from the initial message, but Fu Zan¡¯s words did remind them that she had put together a rather odd set of people to receive any kind of instructions, briefing or whatever else. Most of them didn¡¯t exactly understand his notion of flags or put much faith in jinxing, but the strange circumstances of the matter did make them suspect that there would be something not entirely positive about whatever announcement would be made, or whatever information would be shared.


    After a little while longer, Meng Chu had also arrived and finally filled the last seat, allowing all attention to move to the one that had called them there in the first place.


    ¡°First of all, good morning, everyone. My apologies for calling everyone out at this particular time, and disturbing those that were up to something at the time. I won¡¯t call them out, although the mere mention of their activities might serve to achieve that very thing,¡± Wei Yi said, making sure not to look directly at anyone while she did so, ¡°The reason I have done this is that I intend to depart from Paragon in a short while, in order to do something that I believe will greatly advance our cause in nearly every way it possibly can. However, it might take a while, so I figured that I¡¯d speak to a few people that I¡¯m more familiar with than most so that we can figure a few things out. I wouldn¡¯t want you to be left on your own without any warning.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you be able to speak to us through the spatial realm, and Yi Shi Ming?¡± Fu Zan asked.


    Unlike the rest of them, perhaps his otherworldly outlook on things gave him a slightly more detached view of the matter, or perhaps he had simply had too many questions before he could even begin to sit down and realise just what she had told them.


    ¡°Good, that question was asked. No, I will not. This is going to be an enormous risk that I intend to take, and for it, I will do my best to partly sever my connection with the spatial realm. It will still be somewhere within my dantian, and simultaneously out there near the Yi District, but I will strive my best not to interact with the realm unless it is absolutely necessary.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re going near Them, then, aren¡¯t you?¡± Luo Lia Kun said, immediately removing her hand that had wandered near her forehead yet again, ¡°That¡¯s why you want to sever the connection.¡±


    ¡°Of course I¡¯d be nearing Them- and I have just realised we could have been in the Kong Prison Realm and speaking far more clearly. Eh, too late,¡± she shrugged, ¡°Anyway, you¡¯re right, I intend to do something very dangerous and risky. It might take a while. I cannot guarantee whether it will be a week, two, or possibly even a month, and I also cannot be sure whether They will find you here and try to take advantage of my absence. Yi Shi Ming can protect you to an extent, but not entirely.¡±


    ¡°My seventh realm would permit me to subdue several of the second generation at most, I¡¯m afraid,¡± the spatial spirit confirmed, ¡°Furthermore, my appearance and connection to the Kong Prison Realm might only give them a different avenue of invasion.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, so I would prefer to avoid that if necessary. Try to keep going for as long as possible without other aid, and if you do reach out to me, do so only when it is absolutely essential. If I reconnect to the prison realm just to hear you checking up on me, I will be annoyed at the least, and possibly discovered and killed at most. In simpler words ¨C be incredibly careful,¡± Wei Yi said.


    For a few moments, the other looked at one another with a degree of concern in their eyes.


    Just to lose someone that was essentially their strongest force was bad enough, but they could make do without the assistance of their leader for some time if it was necessary. However, if Yi Shi Ming was also incapable of participating, and if the Greats might be tipped off by the usage of the spatial realm, then their list of defensive possibilities shrank while the number of things that the Great could do simply increased with each item removed.


    Furthermore, the fact that she was going off to do something dangerous near the Great Families, and could be found out by them, implied the potential of her capture by them. None of them thought that she would ever fold in any kind of regular interrogation, but the Greats were bound to have many methods, and might be able to use her to learn of something despite everything she conceals.


    If she was captured, then their morale would also drop into the ground, since the majority of them were currently present in Paragon in the way that they were due to Wei Yi. Great Dark and Great Light, perhaps the most powerful humans there, had been assisted to a certain degree by her victories at the Deadly Martial Colosseum since they provided them with a forbidden skill to add onto the Paradigm of Yin. Yi Shi Ming, the most powerful in terms of cultivation, had been awakened due to the efforts of Wei Yi in the Kong Prison Realm.


    Then, Luo Lia Kun and the Remnants had only managed to free themselves from the Great Families and get to where they were as a result of Wei Yi¡¯s intervention in what they thought would be another damning recruitment session for the false Remnants of Yin.


    Everyone from the Brotherhood of Power wouldn¡¯t even be here if not for the sudden abduction of their majority from their base of operations, and many of them might have fallen prey to some plan of the Great Families without even having a clue that they would have been affected. Zhi Qiu Ya wouldn¡¯t have been on her road of recovery from the effects of the living plague, Mo Zhouquan wouldn¡¯t have been able to quieten the voices, and Long Huang wouldn¡¯t have such an excellent subject to examine.


    Shun Liu Min wouldn¡¯t have broken out of the Ping family¡¯s mansion on her own, and it wouldn¡¯t have been certain whether any other guest to Ping Gangze would¡¯ve had even the slightest interest in freeing her, while Min Lian would not have regained her mind and a semblance of a full and proper body had Wei Yi not been intrigued by a hatred automaton whose mind had nearly stopped functioning.


    For some, it was only something minor, but for others their entire place in the world had shifted immensely as they learned things they could have never known otherwise, and got to go to places they might have never visited. They were almost certain that if she was to suddenly be confirmed dead, whether from an attack by all of the Great Families and their first generation members, or from a sudden illness that was simply not understood and cured in time, that their confidence in eventual success would drop significantly.


    This was especially true for the stronger ones amongst them, interestingly enough, as they were also most familiar with the power of the Great Families, and just how much it took to strike them down.


    The War of Yin had only been able to take a few Great Family lives that appeared to have been replenished by this time, whereas Wei Yi had already gone through and survived an encounter with more than five of the third generation, killing the Great Luo third generation and halving the Great Ping third generation.


    None of them could do so on their own, as Wei Yi had done, especially in the same realm as she had been. It was the simple discrepancy in power that couldn¡¯t be bridged without the sheer quantity of powers, techniques and energy types that she was able to use, and the number of coincidences and fortunate ¨C and otherwise ¨C events that could have only really happened to one person in a million years, if even then. A certain level of knowledge, circumstances, and mental ability were also required, and for that many individual matters to be placed together, to converge upon a single person, as it were, was obvious by the fact that the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters easily had the largest chance to act against the Great Families to ever exist, at least within the knowledge of the people present.


    The majority had no clue of what had occurred in the million years between the time of the Master of Yi City and their lifetimes, with there only being some clues that might not necessarily even be accurate on the rest of the modern age, but most doubted that there could have been a greater group.


    ¡°Anyway, I wish to give you a quick warning about anything you might hear while I¡¯m out. I don¡¯t actually know how much They know of us, or how much access they have to methods of spreading information, but if they learn that I¡¯m out of the fortress, They might attempt to spread some rumours,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°They could say that I am dead, captured, enslaved, have fallen to interrogation¡­ Basically, They might have quite a lot to say, and you should promptly ignore every single thing like that.¡±


    At those words, Luo Lia Kun couldn¡¯t help but frown. As a result of everything that Wei Yi had done so far, and the way she did it, they were guessing that the Greats were unaware of her identity, and of her ownership of Paragon, since the other option would put them in a great deal of danger. Now, she was warning them that they could somehow learn of rumours regarding her capture, which would necessarily mean that the Great Families would know that there was someone to share that with, and that they would know enough of her to know the moment that she leaves the fortress and to try to scare those she is working with.


    Either that would mean that the Greats know more about them than they think, putting all of them into significant danger as a result of Wei Yi¡¯s imminent departure, or that they would be able to find out Wei Yi¡¯s identity as part of her plans outside.


    Now, Luo Lia Kun partly understood where her strange feeling about this had come from when she had been heading towards the primary structure of the desert fortress. Something about this whole mission, this sudden departure, was blatantly going to be dangerous, hence the possibility of earning a lot from it, as the most dangerous tasks were often the most rewarding in the case of success. It might even mean that there is a high chance of her being genuinely captured, and that she was now telling them not to believe it either because Wei Yi thought that she could free herself on her own, or due to not desiring to affect the morale of Paragon and the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters in the case of actually being caught.


    ¡°Wei Yi¡­ You¡¯re not just going to throw your life away, right?¡± she asked.


    ¡°What are you on about? I¡¯m not throwing my life anywhere, since I think that I had plenty of opportunities to do so in the past and I never took a single one. If you think that whatever I¡¯m going to do is too dangerous, then that¡¯s something else, but this is not some strange attempt to cover up suicide,¡± the Ascendant replied, ¡°I will come back, the only question is when I will be able to do so.¡±


    Great Dark had already been frowning for some time before he said, ¡°You intend to search for their Testament, perhaps?¡±


    ¡°Might be possible, but I don¡¯t think that I¡¯d be able to find it without finding one of Their residences, manors, or whatever else They have, so don¡¯t expect me to return with full knowledge of what it is, or where to find it, if it is a physical entity in the Planar Continents,¡± she said, ¡°It is one of the things that I do hope to learn about, if I can. Whatever I do end up learning, you can be assured that I shall return with some valuable information.¡±


    The twin of Great Earth kept his frown on his face for a while as he considered something.


    ¡°Will you leave us with defensive measures¡­ at the very least? Inscriptions, arrays, weapons, armour¡­ so on? We might be able to attain success even in the event of a serious invasion¡­ but only if we have the tools required to fight back against those who try to attack us,¡± he stated, with the rest of the room either nodding or simply silently agreeing, ¡°I will naturally get on with creating something¡­ But as we have seen so far, it is your creations that tend to be the most effective¡­ even if you might be unable to leave behind your stabilised planar energy here.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, since I¡¯ve decided that I would leave, I naturally prepared with all of the tools that you might require to combat Them, at least so long as the second generation doesn¡¯t amass or the first doesn¡¯t show up. I¡¯ve got a whole lot of defensive inscriptions made over the day, some offensive ones, some arrays that Senior Yi Yi has also been attempting to learn in order to make some progress on his own creations, and I have worked on a few pieces of equipment as well.¡±


    Wei Yi waved her hand and a number of items were transported from the Kong Prison Realm into the room, ranging from common inscription plates to complex schematics that seemed to include the whole fortress and the land beyond.


    Another wave separated the pile based on the complexity and readiness of use of some of the items, with one of the most expansive schematics flying into her hand.


    ¡°I¡¯ve had a few ideas for setting up defences and retaliatory systems, but I¡¯m in a bit of a rush and thus am not fully able to set them up in time. Things like this don¡¯t need to be worked on immediately, since, if you notice, all of those particular drawings are of the same defensive system, just expanded further outwards each time,¡± Wei Yi explained, presenting that image to everyone present, ¡°You can start with the innermost layer, and then work outwards if the sandstorm walls are ever compromised, or if we ever decide to shut them down, which is hardly impossible. Shut them down¡­ is that an otherworldly term?¡±


    ¡°We use it when talking about computers or mechanical things,¡± Miyu offered, ¡°I don¡¯t know if it has seeped into this world, though¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, we have had plenty of otherworldly demons making their way in, using all kinds of strange terminology, so I would hardly be surprised if it managed to get into our language. That does bring up the question of just how you two are able to speak the language of the Planar Continents perfectly calmly without even realising it, but that is a question for another time.¡±


    Miyu blinked several times as she thought about that, then gasped ¡°Oh, you¡¯re right¡­¡±


    ¡°Anyway, another time. For now, you can prepare the internal defences, for if anyone breaches the sands and tries to attack you, and then be able to expand them quickly in the event of a total collapse of the sandstorm or otherwise an attack that simply forces you to take it down in order to have a better chance of going against whatever force is attempting to invade us. When I return, that can be expanded even further, and reinforces with a few things that only I can really set up, and then Paragon will truly be the most secure location in the entirety of Yi City against Them,¡± Wei Yi said, putting down the schematic in her hand and placing that hand on the table, ¡°So, while I¡¯m out, do your best to remain safe. The moment I return, we might even be able to prepare for outright war with them and decide on a suitable name for the offensive.¡±


    ¡°Names seem to be a difficult point for us, given that we had gone for twenty years without one,¡± Meng Chu noted, a few shocked stares being directed at him, ¡°What? You do know how time in the Kong Prison Realm works, right? It was sped up by quite a lot.¡±


    ¡°They may be surprised by the fact that you are not only here, but are also speaking. Not even sure that everyone here has had a chat with you yet, since you¡¯re usually too busy at your usual place of work to chat freely,¡± Wei Yi suggested, ¡°That being said, your two fountains of lust might finally calm down, depending on exactly how limitless a force like that can actually be. If not¡­ just kick them out. They¡¯re not worth the stress, not when there are so many better people around.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if I can do that, not after everything they have done for me up to this point. It would be great to send them to one of the Eastern Continent Daoists that teach the suppression of common human desires, but I am somewhat afraid that they would instead prompt the creation of some new sect focused on the opposite¡­¡±


    ¡°Perhaps. Not an expert on the matter of the Daoists, but they¡¯d probably call it a demonic sect and then try to exterminate it, so I wouldn¡¯t presume that to be a good idea¡­ Tell you what, if I come across some technique that helps them control their own urges, I will deliver it when I return. If I fail to find anything, I will attempt to create one when we have the time to do so,¡± she said after a brief pause, glancing to the side where those two were wandering around Paragon and bothering the other residents, ¡°When you get out, go to the north east and shove those into a bedroom so that they stop.¡±


    ¡°Stop¡­ Alright, I get it.¡±


    Another brief pause occurred, with everyone glancing nervously at one another, with Min Lian clearly clenching her jaw as she stopped herself from sharing what she suspected Wei Yi to be intending. Meanwhile, Shun Liu Min had kept her eyes down most of the time, her control over her own emotion being inferior to that of the professional assassin, hence why her own guesses needed to be held back with even more effort.


    As the people that had been teaching her everything they could while Wei Yi had worked upon all of the items that she had now presented to the people of the Arbiters, when presented with this presentation that they were perhaps the closest to understanding just what she intended to do.


    ¡°Anyway, since there seems to be nothing else, I shall get going. There is very little time for me to act and be successful, so long as I am interpreting information correctly, and thus every moment that I spend here is actually rather risky. Make sure that all of you are really careful, don¡¯t do anything silly, and I will be back the moment that I can be¡­ I feel like I¡¯m your dad, somehow.¡±


    Most of the people present would have liked to comment on that, but there were two distinct comments that would have been made.

 V4C26: A Presentation

    The atmosphere in the desert fortress of Paragon had changed slightly after Wei Yi departed.


    Most of the more ordinary people weren¡¯t as aware of the goings on at the top as those she had invited, since they were just able to live their lives as they wanted so long as they did something to contribute to the development of either the Kong Prison Realm or Paragon. However, the tension trickling down from above did eventually change their mood as well.


    Previously, communication could be ensured and maintained with ease no matter where she was, and she did have the tendency of appearing in the prison realm either mentally or physically to ensure that everything was going well, but as confirmed by Yi Shi Ming, she had truly sealed off her link to the Kong Prison Realm. From what the spatial spirit was able to confirm of the seal, it could be broken at any time with the conscious intervention of Wei Yi, but it would entirely prevent her from feeling anything but the faintest notions of what was occurring within the prison realm. If necessary, the spatial spirit could try to damage it, but she did not wish to do so in order to avoid affecting her plans.


    It was certain that the seal couldn¡¯t be opened up while she was doing whatever it was that she had decided to do, since that could easily expose her to any particularly powerful or sensitive members of the Great Families, but after they had raised the question at the last minute, Wei Yi had also confirmed that she would avoid opening it until she was in the fortress with all of the obscuring properties that it possessed.


    The reason was simple enough. If she had been spotted, and some method of remote observation was used, then it might be possible to detect the spatial fluctuations of the Kong Prison Realm within her. If that was then connected to the right spatial realm, then that would risk all of their lives.


    Theoretically, so long as it could be confirmed that this is not an ability that the Great Families possess, the seal could immediately be lifted and if they happen to need help, Wei Yi could return to them at any moment, although it would be more difficult to say whether she could then get back to where she needed to be. However, it was rather difficult to be certain whether someone did or did not possess an ability until there was a time where there would be literally no choice but to use it, and they were unable to do so.


    No matter what they believed Wei Yi to intend, they didn¡¯t think that the tracking of spatial fluctuations was going to be the last resort of any group, Great Family or otherwise.


    Furthermore, their Ascendant was only in the fourth realm, even with everything that she had done up to this point. She could potentially detect something due to her own experience and possessions, but if she had stumbled into a seventh realm member of a Great Family without being clearly aware of it ¨C and possibly even if she was aware ¨C it would hardly be a challenge for them to hide certain kinds of snooping. That much was made obvious by the fact that she had no clue that she was being watched when she had only exited the prison realm, and that was against someone in the same realm, albeit far more powerful due to their many anchors.


    Someone in the first generation should easily be able to track her and observe her without her having a single clue about it, and so, with safety being the primary matter in her intended actions, she wouldn¡¯t go against it unless absolutely necessary.


    With no ability to keep track of her health and success, as the seal also prevented Yi Shi Ming from being able to determine anything beyond her state of life or death, if they did receive some suspicious information, they would hardly be able to do anything about it, whether to confirm it or to check exactly where she was.


    Thus, several days after she had departed, everyone was just generally anxious and were hoping that they would hear something about her soon.


    ¡°¡­ There, now this is set up. You said something about a massage parlour?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked, rising from the ground where the inscription had been buried in order to link it to the rest of the network that was being set up around Paragon, ¡°I¡¯m sure I could use it after these few days.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m not certain whether it would be entirely suitable for you, vice-leader,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya said, blushing a little as she looked elsewhere to hide it, ¡°I only realised it after they pulled me in, but it might be that the place is also¡­ well, it¡¯s in the prison realm, and Meng Chu dominates Beast¡¯s Rest, and you know what he¡¯s up to¡­¡±


    ¡°You mean it is a brothel as well?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡­ I hadn¡¯t figured it out at first since I was brought straight to the massage table, without any other visitors¡­¡±


    ¡°That should be fine- not for that reason!¡± the perpetual vice-leader was forced to explain when the wolven woman¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°From my experience with it so far, it seems that pretty much everything in Beast¡¯s Rest has a connection to a brothel, whether it is a meat skewer stall or another brothel. Since they¡¯ve clearly not done another to you, I should be safe as well. That being said, it is quite amazing how everyone in that realm seems to have made themselves comfortable.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps that¡¯s what happens when your authority figure brought you the sky, sun and moon, even if most of them are now fulfilled by that Monolith,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya guessed, ¡°Yi Shi Ming is temporarily substituting that with an illusion, right?¡¯


    ¡°From what she told us, but I struggle to tell them apart. Seventh realm illusions are too much for me, it seems.¡±


    Having made sure that the inscriptions had been placed accurately and properly, as they intended to create a sort of array atop the existing one through the combination of more than a hundred different inscriptions as to provide them with a stable defensive barrier against any possible invasions, they stepped away from that point of the fortress and headed towards one of the spatial  gateways.


    Without Wei Yi being present, most of the aspects of the prison realm itself, and the abilities that it bestowed onto the Arbiters like far more living space and instant transportation within itself, and perhaps the biggest difference was the void outside of the Kong Prison Realm. After one of her more recent breakthroughs in something or other, the background of the void was filled with incredibly distant and subtle chains, but once her connection was mostly severed, none of them remained in the sky. Only a few of the common residents had noticed it, mostly those that tended to gaze at the stars most frequently, but it was still unfortunate to have another reminder of her absence.


    This feeling was part of what drove most of the people that she had called to inform them of her temporary departure to improve themselves as quickly as they could with what they had.


    None of them expected to just be able to match Wei Yi after a night or two of training, but the more effort they put in to being as strong, wise and practised at everything they already had any practise in, and at times things they had never been forced to learn before, the more the chance of them being able to actually contribute something in the future would be.


    If they were always too weak and could only fulfil the roles of common soldiers, they would be ashamed for themselves and fearful that the requirement for Wei Yi to handle everything on her own would eventually come at the cost of her very life. It did also bring to their attention that some of them had come to rely on their Ascendant to handle far too many different things. She had already participated in mining, building, crafting, arranging, inscribing, even farming and, at one point in the prison realm, cooking, and some of them were getting too reliant on her enormous range of abilities.


    The ones to suffer the least from this were Great Dark and Great Light, given that they had joined the smallest amount of time ago and had the least time to be affected by this phenomenon, but it was hard to deny even for them that they were getting lazier.


    During the peak of the War of Yin in terms of conflict and the number of battles, Great Earth would have spent an immense amount of time managing all sorts of minor and major things to ensure that the conflict would be proceeding smoothly. He could handle reports of battle, missives from spies, diplomatic and covert statements and allegations, as well as his own training and cultivation, but his preferred half currently needed to handle only the few spies that he had sent out, and even then, they were currently avoiding any contact with them as per Wei Yi¡¯s instructions. Great Light got away from that a little more, as he was busying himself with mining and thus training that unexpected skill but digging through rock was also far less involved mentally than what his original self could do.


    As such, they focused on finding something better for themselves to do in whatever free time they had, and brushed up on their inscription skills to create a few more inscriptions to bolster Paragon¡¯s defences. Since their creations would be greater in realm but inferior in quality or stability to the combination of a Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp and the inscription skill Wei Yi possessed, they would only add onto the defensive layer suggested by her, allowing their inscriptions to only reinforce the cornerstones of the defences.


    Luo Lia Kun, meanwhile, had decided that she would try to assist with that effort, in addition to learning some of the vast range of techniques that Wei Yi had stored in the Kong Prison Realm during and after her forced stay there. On the side, she also tried looking into array arrangement, since it suited her own element while also being something that was not covered as fully by the people of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters as some fields were, although she had not been able to get particularly far in just a few days. She had already known some of the basic principles of arrays, but to actually put that knowledge into practise and create even a pseudo array took far more effort than she had anticipated.


    With Zhi Qiu Ya offering to help on the second day of inscription placement, technique training and array studying, she had done more than expected, but was incredibly tired as a result of all of it.


    Thus, with the wolven woman by her side, Luo Lia Kun headed through to the Beast¡¯s Rest gateway, and then followed the former¡¯s direction to arrive at a decent looking place, one that she could distinctly tell was separated into two sections. One was far higher and more spacious than the other, judging by what she could see through the several rows of windows, where the walls were slightly thicker and less easily penetrated by sound. The other was far more reserved.


    ¡°You usually go to the right, I¡¯d guess.¡±


    ¡°Well, I access it through a side door, but it is on the right¡­ I¡¯d never actually taken a proper look, since I usually go here quickly then leave satisfied¡­¡±


    ¡°Since we intend to do the same, there shouldn¡¯t be any problems,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, approaching the door of the building, ¡°Besides, Wei Yi likely watched over these places before, and I¡¯m sure Yi Shi Ming is filling in for her right now. If anyone there was to have some bad intentions towards you or I, they wouldn¡¯t be remaining there for long.¡±


    With that, she stepped into the building, with Zhi Qiu Ya following right after her, which nearly caused the two of them to collide when she proceeded to stop right away, her gaze focused entirely on the person sitting behind the front desk.


    ¡°Chen Shifu? This is where you work now?¡± Luo Lia Kun questioned right away.


    ¡°Good morning to you too, vice-leader,¡± the brown-haired woman replied, brushing a loose hair out of the way of her vision, ¡°To be more precise, I am currently employed to assist in the financial management of forty-nine establishments within Beast¡¯s Rest that are owned by Meng Chu. There happened to be an absent receptionist, so I am currently filling in for them, and am therefore obliged to recommend the premium course to you over your original intention.¡±


    ¡°This¡­ Zhi Qiu Ya, were you aware of this?¡±


    ¡°Actually¡­ I¡¯ve never been to the front, so I had no clue that there was even a reception area like this. The back door-¡±


    ¡°You must mean the employee-only entrance, intended for the departure of employees when they are seeking to attract outside customers into the establishment. Your persistent usage of it is partly against the establishment guidelines, but you are still a trial customer, in a way, so I shall not chide you for your behaviour. Do become a paying customer soon, though, Zhi Qiu Ya,¡± Chen Shifu said.


    ¡°I¡¯ll consider it¡­ Have you been working here the whole time?¡±


    ¡°If you mean since I had appeared in the prison realm, then the answer would be ¡®nearly¡¯. It had taken me some time to acquire my position, but that process was rather short considering the fact that they required the aid of someone capable of handling the sudden influx of potential customers. They also appreciated my support in integrating more ordinary businesses into every brothel slightly more effectively than before.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m sure that you¡¯ve got your work cut out for you, so we won¡¯t be taking up too much of your time,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, approaching the reception desk properly, ¡°We¡¯d like¡­ well, I think Zhi Qiu Ya wants more of what she was already getting, while I¡¯ll take something basic.¡±


    ¡°Assuming that you are referring to massages and not our available choice of prostitutes ¨C female, mostly, which might not suit your tastes, vice-leader ¨C then there is an introductory course, as well as a VIP, premium version that is longer, more relaxing and in a vastly nicer room,¡± the secretary said, giving Luo Lia Kun a pamphlet with the list of options, amongst other things, ¡°As previously mentioned, offering you the premium course is indeed my obligation as an employee and temporary receptionist, but as someone who is permitted to experience the services of certain businesses for free due to my position, I can highly recommend the premium version.¡±


    ¡°I shall trust your-¡±


    Luo Lia Kun¡¯s words were interrupted when Yi Shi Ming suddenly appeared on her side, her hand placed upon the vice-leader¡¯s as she attempted to hand that pamphlet back.


    In the small amount of time that she had known the spatial spirit, this was perhaps the most alarmed that she had seen her, although little of that could be gathered from her expression if one wasn¡¯t already familiar with her more average look and the extremely small differences between the body language of her usual and current states.


    ¡°My apologies for the interruption, but Great Dark has asked me to request your presence in the keep of the fortress,¡± the spatial spirit said, her voice wavering slightly, ¡°I would prefer to take you there right away.¡±


    ¡°Uh, in that case, Chen Shifu, I¡¯d like to reserve one of those premium starter courses, if I could,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, turning away after the secretary nodded, ¡°Zhi Qiu Ya, you can come with me, if you want.¡±


    ¡°The atmosphere just turned really¡­ grim. I think I need to know what this is about, at the very least,¡± Zhi Qiu Ya stated, coming closer to the perpetual leader and the mother of the Master of Yi City, ¡°I can just come back at some other time.¡±


    Yi Shi Ming slightly nodded her head and then the three of them vanished from the spot, leaving Chen Shifu on her own as she leaned back in her chair and briefly stretched her arms. Such a sudden departure was naturally not within her expectations, and the oddity of the figure that took them away also caused her to worry more than she normally would. Had this been some other customers, she probably wouldn¡¯t have cared about it all that much, but this was her former vice-leader ¨C or perhaps current one, depending on exactly what the hierarchy of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters was, since she had never taken the time to study it ¨C and someone she was quite familiar with after the number of times that she had needed to report Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s actions in her wolven state to Luo Lia Kun.


    As such, she raised and sipped from a cup of strong tea, feeling the maintained heat pass through her body and warm her up.


    ¡°Chen Shifu?¡± another voice, this time from the back, pulled her attention, making her glance back to find one of the employees calling out to her, ¡°Was there a customer here just now? One with grey hair and this puppy-like look to her?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ve just left. Something important, I think.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s a shame. I had a feeling, so I started preparing things¡­ Do you think they- she came with someone else?¡± the employee asked, although she quickly disregarded her own question and continued, ¡°Do you think she will be coming back any time soon, or should I put everything away and prepare for someone else?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t prepare anything else, but don¡¯t put it away either. If it is something stressful, she might return here to unwind a little. She may even decide to let you take it further than usual.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll do that. Man, what would we be doing without you? Your predictions with this kind of stuff are almost never wrong, to the point that I¡¯m quite jealous. Imagine if all of us could be this aware of everything while on the job¡­¡±


    Zhi Qiu Ya and Luo Lia Kun appeared at the side of Yi Shi Ming, finding themselves within the same meeting room that they had used a few days prior when Wei Yi had called upon them. This time, the primary seat was left empty, and most of the group that had been present then had already arrived as well, with all of them staring nervously at something.


    In front of Wei Yi¡¯s seat, a large oval shaped screen of light floated, bobbing up and down ever so slightly while it remained within the air. Through it, it was possible to see a large gathering of people, a stage, and several people on it who were bound with ropes and chains. All of them looked to not be in their best states, although their bodies were free of obvious injury and a barrier even prevented anyone from simply throwing things at them, with their eyes barely being able to focus and their bodies not moving beyond simply breathing. No clothing covered most of their bodies.


    Before Luo Lia Kun and Zhi Qiu Ya had even a moment to question what that was, or why they had been asked to attend something that otherwise looked rather ordinary, they saw that reason.


    Amidst that crowd, in the same chains and with as little clothing as the rest, with only a rag to cover her chest, stood a figure that they were hardly ever going to fail to recognise, even if her condition was exactly the opposite of the way in which they had seen her last.


    Every feature was exactly alike. Her charming face, eyes with those two vague circles in each, couldn¡¯t leave their memories even through reincarnation. The long crimson hair that was currently freely flowing from her head was as pure and clean as ever, causing her to stand out amidst the rest of the people on that stage. Just as they remembered it, her body was free of injury or flaws, with musculature that was just pronounced enough to be immediately notable while not so significant as to entirely distract from her tall, strong, yet distinctly feminine figure. Even the feature at her crotch that only some of them knew about was clearly there.


    ¡°W-What the fuck is that? What am I seeing? What is that?¡± Luo Lia Kun questioned immediately.


    ¡°This¡­ using something left behind in the Chu District, I had been able to overhear something alarming,¡± Great Dark said, although his voice and hands were shaking while his eyes were partly glued to the screen of light, for he wished to remove his gaze from it and yet could not, ¡°I had used that same method to give us a view of what was happening¡­ and it appears to be this.¡±


    ¡°This is a fake, right? The G- fuck, They somehow learned of exactly what she looks like and are now attempting to trick us, right? Just how she said, right?¡±


    ¡°There is a possibility¡­ that man is certain to be one of Them, but¡­ Too accurate, I¡¯d say,¡± he replied, finally tearing his eyes away and instead moving them to the ground, as he was unable to meet the gaze of the others in the room, ¡°They would have been able to replicate certain features in mere days with the means at Their disposal¡­ but I do not think that it would have been easy to repeat that exact set of characteristics.¡±


    ¡°The man that had come to the camp outside before everything happened would have seen her, right?¡± Shun Liu Min said, ¡°That could have been part of his message. Also, the fucker called Ping Gangze might have set us up with a technique manual specifically intended to cause complications, and I might have just fallen into his trap¡­¡±


    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t mean a perfect replica, I¡¯m afraid¡­ Listen to it as well¡­¡±


    ¡°Hm, the papers sure are vague about her captor. One of our children must not have wanted for fame, or perhaps one of the others wasn¡¯t so fond of us,¡± a woman with vibrant green eyes and brown hair said, elegantly lifting a cup and taking a polite sip of what was within, ¡°Judging by the one that first got the information to us, I would assume it to be Ping Wu, but he tends to be far more expressive about his actions¡­ then again, it was about time for him to learn humility.¡±


    ¡°Sister, let us not bother with such unpleasant matters. We have such a wonderful show that we can enjoy. The Rebel is finally caught!¡± a figure with identical eyes and similarly coloured hair exclaimed.


    With the hand that did not also hold a cup of identical tea, he lightly waved in the direction of the stage, and the crimson-haired woman that stood upon it, her eyes blank and empty, the brilliant glimmer that had filled them before being all but absent.


    For a moment, there was a slight spark of something when their eyes seemed to meet across the great distance, but none of those that had even the faintest chance of understanding whether it had been a mere trick of the light or something greater. No matter how much they attempted to look closer at her, to detect another such glint, they saw nothing, even when one of the people at the stage, who were masked and clothed from head to toe so that their identities would not be revealed, decided to strike her with a whip.


    She barely moved from the strike, even though it was a middle-grade artefact, and her skin was barely marked, but due to the effect of the item it had to have hurt. Despite that, her expression did not change, causing them to doubt what they had seen even more so than when they first observed it in her eyes.


    ¡°Now, look upon this monstrosity who calls herself Yi Wei! She slaughtered the people of the Ping District, caused havoc in the Yi District, invoked the monsters of the Ning District, and destroyed an entire organisation in the Luo District!¡± one of the men on the stage announced to the crowd, who booed and chanted various things at those in chains and ropes, none of them even approaching neutrality, not to speak of positivity, ¡°She even hid this from the women she had forced into sleeping with her, defiling them while their friends and husbands knew nothing! This person is a beast, through and through, and yet she claimed to be some paragon of virtue! Look upon her now!¡±


    A pair of hands slammed onto the table as Luo Lia Kun rose, ¡°HOW DARE THEY!¡±


    ¡°Are you believing them, then?¡± Great Dark asked, immediately causing her to fall back into her seat, ¡°Do remember what she had said¡­ They might attempt to trick us, and this might be a greater attempt than we, or perhaps even she, had anticipated¡­ Yi Shi Ming-¡±


    ¡°I am afraid that I cannot confirm or deny anything through the method that you are using. From what I understand, Wei Yi is still alive, but that is all that I can say,¡± the spatial spirit responded quickly.


    ¡°What if that is her? What if they have captured her? Are we just going to sit around on our asses and do nothing? She had done so much to get us here and you¡¯re suggesting that we just abandon her?¡± Luo Lia Kun questioned, smashing her hand on the stone table once again without rising this time, ¡°They are just standing there, abusing her, spreading all kinds of lies, and we can¡¯t even stand up and fight? They aren¡¯t even using the right name, for heaven¡¯s sake!¡±


    ¡°Actually, that might be one of the few things that those people have gotten right in their declarations,¡± Great Light said, sighing, his typical irritating persona absent from his every feature, ¡°She¡¯s from the Yi District, and has the features of the Yi family, and went out on an expedition for them. Wei Yi even wore the robes that the servants of the family wear beneath her black robes.¡±


    ¡°Servant? The Yi family tried to keep her as a servant when she had done all this?¡± Chao Ru asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t she destroy a spatial realm while in the Half-Step Emergent Anchor realm?¡±


    ¡°The Yi family is very strict when it comes to their familial standings¡­ With the way in which talent is usually passed down, they must not have anticipated anything like this¡­ However, this should not change anything. Wei Yi had rejected her family, and if she is not interested in talking about it¡­ we should not bring it up when she returns,¡± Great Dark said, ¡°If¡­ No, I will not contemplate such a possibility. She had warned us for a reason. Whatever the case, she must not have wished for us to go out and fight.¡±


    ¡°Then what are we meant to do?¡± Luo Lia Kun questioned, ¡°Just sit and watch this?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately¡­ that is the most we can do, and we must do it. Depending on what this is¡­ we must understand their intentions, what They think they know, and what they do not. Perhaps Wei Yi might use this to her advantage¡­ or she might not even be aware that this is happening¡­¡±


    The vice-leader struck the table again before falling back in her chair with gritted teeth. She did not expect to react just like this to something that should, no matter how she looked at it, be fake, but Wei Yi seemed to have occupied a far larger position within her heart than she had anticipated, for every strike, punch, whip and other attack and weapon was thrown at the crimson-haired woman shown on that screen of light, she felt her own body hurt far more than it would have hurt the real Ascendant.


    Rather than only her skin and muscles feeling the pain, the thing to suffer most was her heart, as each hit seemed to go straight to it.


    Glancing to her side, she found that Zhi Qiu Ya was not taking things any better, and that she had bit down on her lip to the point of drawing blood with one of her sharp canines. Some of the previously suppressed animalistic features had returned, although they were clearly concentrated towards the parts that could best wound whoever had harmed Wei Yi, since her ears and tail remained absent.


    ¡°I think¡­ that we will go and get that massage after all. Since you¡¯re so much calmer than we are, I¡¯ll leave it to you to think this through¡­ but this shouldn¡¯t be shown to the people of the fortress and the prison realm. There¡¯s no way we¡¯d stay calm,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, rising again, ¡°Maybe I should¡­¡±


    She did not proceed with that line of thought, not directly in front of the others, but she was tempted to get more stress relief than initially planned.

 V4C27: Home of the Vile

    There was only so long that any kind of crowd could watch some kind of public humiliation before they would get disinterested for one reason or another, and this applied to the people of Paragon, the crowd that gathered there after having heard of an incoming fun display, and even the Greats that had been looking on at it. In the eyes of the latter especially, they already had their prize, and could enjoy her however they liked.


    For them, the only real issue would be that the trophy belongs to those that had earned it, and thus it would need to be sent over to the Great Ping Family¡¯s residence for their amusement.


    ¡°Judging by Ping Wu¡¯s message, he had expected to find some fortress of that pathetic Rebel in the sands. Perhaps he completed the procedure and then went out to try and capture it¡­¡± Chu Zhong pondered, completing her cup of tea just as the crimson-haired woman was removed from the stage and brought to the back.


    ¡°We shall hold another Life Spark Sensing ceremony when the month is up, sister, as seems to be the new tradition,¡± Chu Wu said, ¡°If only the other families weren¡¯t so incompetent, it would be relegated to the pages of history alongside the pathetic Fight of Yin.¡±


    ¡°That would truly be magnificent. The common pests of the world seem to lack the knowledge of what they are doing, and the lives they are endangering with their petty rebellion. As soon as they stop acting up and submit, so many of their organisations can disband, and perhaps their Yi City shall not be torn to the ground,¡± Chu Zhong smiled, rising elegantly from her seat, ¡°I would like to watch her be placed on the transport, if you would not mind, brother. It is a shame that our fellows at the Ping family prefer their slaves without injury, or else I would have loved to tear a thing or two off her body.¡±


    ¡°I have no objection,¡± her brother replied as he also stood up, unfolding a decorative fan as he did so, ¡°But I must disagree on your preference. The best thing to watch crumble is a great tower, without a flaw to be seen, not something full of holes and missing pieces. In my eyes, the satisfaction is simply not as great.¡±


    ¡°If you say so, brother,¡± the female member of the third generation of the Great Chu Family turned away and headed out, her brother following her.


    Together, wearing their simple robes, only the mirages of their anchors attracted any attention, but the common folk could barely understand cultivation itself while those with some attainment in planar energy had no choice but to assume it was some technique that they had practised. Even without the proper understanding of what one observed, the instinctual terror instilled by some many anchors facing someone at once were enough to dissuade most foolish minds from interrupting them.


    As a result, any crowds they approached parted, any people that were in their way had no choice but to get out of it before their lives were lost, and any that would otherwise prey on people ran off before they could become the hunted.


    It was a delightful experience in their eyes, one that brightened their mood slightly after the earlier discussion of the Life Spark Sensing ceremony. Although it had been meant to be put away with many other tools and weapons that they no longer used, the sudden damage to their people and unexpected deaths gave them no choice but to be more vigilant.


    With such a straightforward walk, they arrived at their destination in little time, coming into a large barn that covered up a wagon with two large planar beasts at its helm. In the back was space for all kinds of things, the items usually being transported from district to district, but in this case, a certain crimson-haired woman was also being loaded on. Of course, in this case, rather than being permitted to walk in on her own or being instructed to do so, loading implied simply picking her naked form up and throwing her into the wagon, doing so with only enough care not to damage anything else with her hard skull and skin.


    They walked in just as that was about to happen, although the sudden entry of the two of them prompted the driver of the wagon to let the woman in his hands fall to the ground as he went to bow to them.


    ¡°Is there anything that you require?¡± he asked right away.


    ¡°Proceed with the rest of the loading, wretch. I wish to remind that woman¡¯s body that she had chosen to go against the wrong people.¡±


    The driver, not a member of any Great Family but merely someone that they had intimidated into their service with their aura, making him transport something that the Greats had no time for, didn¡¯t dare to question a single thing and went right to placing the rest of the goods into the wagon, trying his best to shut out whatever sound or sights might occur as a result.


    He had some experience in transporting people like this in the past, which he had hoped to leave behind as particularly shameful history and not return to only a week later, and he knew that when someone¡¯s energy was being delivered somewhere, they wouldn¡¯t usually make it to their destination without a few bruises at the least, and without a complete ¡®facial reconstruction¡¯ at most. Naturally, nobody would be kind enough to alter the face of another in any positive light, so that phrase was merely an overly abstract thing to say about hitting someone in the face enough to completely reshape it and their skull.


    It was not something he wanted to see, no matter how mild it might be this time.


    Chu Zhong approached the woman on the ground, who lay there motionless save for her breathing, and kicked her side in order to flip her onto her back.


    ¡°What a tough skin this one has,¡± she said to her brother while she removed her shoe, ¡°If this is without her cultivation, I wonder what kind of stone she resembled with it. Ah, if her cultivation could still be rebuilt, alongside that mind of hers that must have been so confident, then I would love to see it and chip away at her flesh¡­¡±


    ¡°Sister, what an unnecessary thing to say. If that was possible, we would not parade these fools around so readily.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, but it would be most exciting, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    While they spoke, Chu Zhong imbued planar energy into her leg and foot, then slammed it down with as much force as she could muster onto the crimson-haired woman¡¯s neck, enjoying the slight degree of a proper reaction that she finally received.


    ¡°If Ping Wu did leave a wisp of will within you, then look at me now, woman. This is where you should have been from the start, beneath our feet, being there just for us to play with you as we desire, not trying to start up stupid conflicts. What a foolish girl you were¡­ and it is truly a shame that you can¡¯t say anything. I would have loved to hear it, whether you¡¯d try to look strong as your filthy neck was being crushed, or-¡±


    ¡°Sister.¡±


    ¡°Hm? Ah, of course, she does still need to breathe. I had gotten a little carried away, it seems,¡± Chu Zhong smiled, removing her foot from the woman¡¯s neck just for a moment before slamming it back down, ¡°There, that should be fine, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but we should not delay this much longer. You know how our friends at the Ping family can get when they are agitated. It is certainly a funny thing to watch, but there is only so much fun that we can have in a single day, and with a single person,¡± Chu Wu said, taking his sister¡¯s hand, ¡°If you wish, I am sure one of the worms will gladly supplicate themselves for your amusement outside, and that once the Ping have had enough of her, they will allow you to take her apart, piece by piece.¡±


    ¡°They are not fond of letting go of their toys, brother¡­ but I shall hold back. Driver!¡± Chu Zhong called out, causing the driver to nearly drop the item he was bringing on to spin towards her, ¡°Load her on.¡±


    ¡°T-This very moment!¡± he replied right away, placing that which he was holding into the wagon as quickly as he could without damaging anything, then picked up the woman from the ground and tossed her in as well.


    Once again, he couldn¡¯t help but notice but sturdy every part of her felt, and how there did not seem to be a single trace of injury besides a slight red mark upon her throat despite the sheer degree of force with which she had been struck several times. He did not know of the Great Families, or of the true identity of the figure he now had on that wagon, but it must have been someone truly impressive.


    After he had loaded her, he turned to find that the two had left the barn, leaving him to his own devices, but that did not mean that he hesitated to continue going even for a second. He did not know how they did it, nor whether his intuition was even correct in this case, but he suspected that they could tell exactly what he was doing, and perhaps even what he was thinking, from very far away, much further than the spiritual perception that they should have possessed. As someone that was only in the first realm, he barely had enough understanding of that to avoid it, so he did not dare to act against those that were even more powerful than typical third realm cultivators.


    Some time later, the wagon was loaded, and the planar beasts, a pair of terrifying wolven bears that had enough strength to carry the cargo and enough speed to do so at a reasonable pace, were awakened, with them giving him a hungry glance before turning away.


    It seemed that he wasn¡¯t even worth their attention, not to mention that of their owners.


    Fortunately for him, the beasts did not seem intelligent, nor were any of the terrifying people accompanying him out of the district. That meant that as soon as he was some distance from the district¡¯s wooden walls and the defensive line of trees, he was able to relax rather than becoming tenser, as he usually would on the outside.


    Typically, he would only have weak beasts to pull whatever cart he was able to use, but those wolven bears were clearly far more powerful than him. He had been told to loose one if there was an attack that his ¡®pathetic strength¡¯ couldn¡¯t handle, and that he would be able to leash the beasts again so long as he didn¡¯t display complete ineptitude, so all that was left for him was to ensure he kept heading north-west, and that he didn¡¯t forget to follow the instructions that he had been left with at the end of the trip.


    As could be expected from travelling through the open plains of the savanna in the north, there was not much for him to be doing, so he inevitably started glancing back.


    There, he was able to see the body- no, the living woman that he had thrown on, sitting there in some vague resemblance of conscious activity. Her head was vaguely turned towards the bars of the wagon that permitted just a little bit of light inside, but whenever the light struck her eyes, it seemed to be absorbed into their void, as if her very soul had vanished. It was rather unnerving to be constantly looked at, regardless of that fact.


    ¡°So¡­ are you actually alive, or just unusually warm?¡± the aging man asked after some time, earning no response at all. Given how little she had reacted then her throat was being crushed, he wasn¡¯t surprised by that, but it did give him an idea.


    He had nobody to speak to properly, to engage in conversation, but that did not mean that there was nobody who would listen to him. Perhaps the woman could still understand his words and might even wake up somehow and give him a reply by the end of the journey if she had been fed with something to cause her mind to vanish, which would eventually be bound to expire.


    While he had heard mention of wisps of her will from the two scary people ordering him about prior to this, he had no idea what that meant, nor whether it would be something permissible if she did suddenly wake up and regain consciousness. It might go against the desires of those for whom he was being forced to work, and he would then need to explain his actions to the people at his destination, or otherwise flee and hope that, with her mind returned, this woman would be able to do something against them and wouldn¡¯t wish to strike him down as well.


    Due to this dilemma, he found himself wishing that she would and would not awaken at the same time, that she would and would not turn out to be alive and well¡­ as well as someone that was effectively a living corpse could be.


    ¡°Heavens, this is too much¡­ I swear, when this is done, I will finally stop delivering weird things to weird people, and will settle down with my family¡­ My wife already had three kids, and all of them are missing me greatly,¡± he shared, glancing back to find no sign of recognition yet again, emboldening him somewhat, ¡°You know, those people just didn¡¯t feel right. Their words and actions were one thing, but there was something worse about them that I couldn¡¯t put a finger on. I wouldn¡¯t know what it was, as little as I know about the world and cultivation and all that, but if I had a choice, I would have never worked with them! Never! Their money, absent as it is, be damned!¡±


    There was still no word from the back, so he continued.


    He went through his fears and suspicions, his life with his family, all of the jobs he had taken on at this point, and everything else that he could think of. Even with fast and powerful beasts, to cross to another district without a wagon that floated over terrain still took quite a long while, and one of those was essential.


    With wheeled methods of transportation, bringing across fragile things, or anything that shouldn¡¯t be shaken excessively, the driver included, causes the highest possible speed to go down drastically so that every small bump on the road doesn¡¯t turn into a quake of the earth for the goods.


    However, when something floated and thus avoided terrain, all that mattered was speed and the stamina of whatever was pulling it through the world, meaning that the journey that he expected to take more than a single day could be cut down to a few hours of the wolven bear creatures running at the highest speeds they are capable of through the savanna of the north. It would have been better for him, and possibly for the woman he was bringing with him, but whoever had recruited him seemed a little too stingy to offer something like that.


    The driver also questioned the identity of the people that had forced him to act, and whether they were part of some organisation, and whether they were high up in its hierarchy or if they were some lowly and insignificant grunts that could only get their kicks out of bossing around people even lower in status than them. In his eyes, that would be particularly dangerous.


    After all, if they were someone of importance, then their activity, the beasts and everything else that they had shown him would be somewhat natural, but if some organisation could bring all of that, including their strength and eerie aura, to a bunch of mere grunts, then he would be rather terrified. Most organisations tended to have stronger members on the top, excluding certain assassin groups where the master of the assassins was merely controlling them through some specific technique and could be as low as the first realm, so if the weakest were this powerful, the strongest might be far too much for him to even look at.


    As one might expect, such a line of thought was rather scary to the driver, someone with little personal experience in fights and scary individuals having any kind of ire directed at him, so he switched topics quickly.


    ¡°¡­ and so, my father looked at me and said, ¡®Son, I will go out to purchase a few incense sticks.¡¯ He left, and I had never heard from him again,¡± the driver said, his tone partially torn between a melancholy and joking one, but as he glanced back and found his only listener in the exact same position as when they had started their journey, with the same emotionless face and blank eyes, both were inevitably lessened somewhat, ¡°Uh¡­ I don¡¯t know who you are, but I am sorry for you¡­ Never mind that.¡±


    He looked away quickly, since he was finally seeing the landmarks that had been mentioned to him, so he moved his attention away from the living corpse of a woman.


    Although his words were honest and direct, he was somewhat afraid of what might be done if they were heard by whoever was meant to receive the goods, and also couldn¡¯t be sure whether a single thing that he had said so far had been heard by anyone. The woman never reacted, no matter what he did or said, to the point that he would have believed it if someone had told him she was some kind of strange statue made of a soft and warm stone, while the two wolven bear creatures pulling the wagon never reacted to anything but were unnerving him more and more as he got closer to his destination.


    It would have been much safer to remain quiet on the rest of the journey, but he had been too bored in order to permit him that. Now, however, there was only a little bit further to go, and he could manage just a little bit of silence.


    After all, the moment that he was done, he could return to his home, and then promise to never go out again, whether for wine or incense sticks, as his father had done before him.


    By now, they were close to the Ping District, but he had been told not to proceed onto the roads towards it but instead to turn away, heading towards the mountainous region to then find a very specific passage through them into a clearing. These instructions had been vague when he had heard them first, but now that he was where he was meant to be, he did understand them just well enough to find his way through the hills and rocks and bring himself and the wagon through a particular narrow road. There were likely quite a few like it but judging by the way in which the wolven beasts restrained their own movement while clearly responding unnaturally, they must be familiar with the area.


    Indeed, after a short while he emerged into a clearing, and saw exactly where his clients were residing.


    A tall mansion stood there, standing amidst a field of short, trimmed grass that ended at the entrance of the clearing, having clearly been planted there by someone. It was expansive, but the outside was limited in terms of the usual flourishes that the wealthy would feature on their property.


    It was somewhat bland as a result, but if looked at without such a comparison, the building had just enough to be pleasant to look at, dissimilar from cheaper homes that couldn¡¯t be fully decorated or painted and overly expensive ones that did so far too much, cluttering the shape and basic architecture of the residence. Without every visual feature that would typically catch one¡¯s attention before them, he could clearly see the central doors, the small set of stairs that led up to them, the individual windows that were darkened from the outside but likely transparent from within.


    The driver was hardly an expert in such residences, hence he could hardly ponder much more than that as he approached it on the designated circular road, although he had been to a few distant homes and mansions during his earlier years to give him just a little insight. Out of everything that he had seen before, voluntarily or otherwise, this was perhaps the place that looked most comfortable to him.


    Still, he wouldn¡¯t live in such a place, since it would be far too large for him, his wife, and his kids. They would likely get lost around the house whenever they left their rooms, which would just be terrible.


    Finally, after a lengthy period of silence that the driver found difficult to endure after spending almost every moment of the rest of the journey babbling on about every little thing that popped into his head, likely sharing quite a few more embarrassing stories with the lifeless woman in the wagon than he had originally intended, he and the wagon got around to the closest point to the residence along the circular road.


    To proceed further, they would need to go down the smaller path, but it looked to be unsuitable for a wagon and beasts. Fortunately, the quandary of whether to sit there and delay or to drive forward and potentially affect the grass around the path, both of which could be terrible things to do in the eyes of those that owned this property, was quickly solved for him as two figures emerged.


    Both looked to be siblings, as they shared the same black hair and eyes, and even their every step was synchronised and smooth, as if they had practised this very walk a thousand times. They wore plain enough robes, the kind of thing that one might see in most districts where robes were fashionable, with a single Ping (ƽ) character on their chest in much the same fashion as the Ping family that the driver was familiar with. With the way that the people at the Chu District were also much alike to the usual Chu family, he was almost convinced that he had been made to participate in the deals between two districts without even knowing it.


    Whatever the truth was, these two made their way over to the wagon, and to the nervous driver.


    ¡°You have brought our goods safely to us, old man?¡± a woman said, surrounded by the same mirages as the other two but with a strange flame-like haze between some of them, ¡°Any trouble on the journey, or was it smooth?¡±


    ¡°I-it was perfectly smooth, I assure you. Not a single bandit, beast or breakdown.¡±


    ¡°That is good to hear. In a place like this, people do tend to go missing, but it would be a shame to see that happen when you have done such a¡­ decent job, old man,¡± a man with the same oddity occurring around him said, ¡°Come now, step down from there and we will take care of the rest. Ping Fu, would you handle his reward?¡±


    The driver had been a little nervous up to this point, since their words sounded rather ominous, but the mention of a reward broke down his wariness somewhat. He wasn¡¯t even expecting to get paid, so to be outright rewarded was rather fantastic in his eyes. With that being his primary focus, he got off the wagon¡¯s seat and followed the woman away from the road and path, with the two of them heading onto the grass, answering that earlier question of his at the same time, since the woman in front of him had no concerns with stepping onto it as she liked.


    When he was some distance from the wagon, the woman turned around and smiled at him, instantly causing a feeling of alarm to ignite within him.


    ¡°Afraid, are you? Too late for that, old man. Begone,¡± she waved her hand.


    An incredibly powerful force pushed against his neck and throat, one that seemed to both crush and cut, one that his aging body could only endure for a second before his head was separated from his body with the crushing and tearing of muscle, bone and skin, blood splattering all over him and the grass around him.


    Rather than being stained by him, the short green grass beneath his feet, and right below his head, suddenly surged, the individual stalks of grass gobbling up the blood and flesh that landed onto them. His skull and bones posed some resistance for a little while, but even they were quickly devoured by the grass, which grew at a rapid pace where it had been fed. The rest remained no higher than a centimetre or two, but the place where the most nutritious parts of his body had been grew almost to a metre in just a few minutes.


    Ping Fu admired the tall grass for a few moments, smiling as the tallest stalks began to gain vein-like red lines passing through them.


    ¡°We must remember to thank the Chu family for this. An excellent distraction once we get something even more pleasant. Is she in there, Ping Chao? Is everything as the letter described?¡± she asked, glancing back at the grass as she said, ¡°And we must get one of the servants to trim this again.¡±


    The two wolven bears eyed the flesh eagerly when it had fallen to the ground, but once the immense stalks of grass began to grow out, they suppressed their initial desire and remained still.


    ¡°Indeed, we should, but the condition of the woman appears to be what we were expecting. She should respond to our Empty Core Resonance method, at which point the last wisp of will within her can be revealed as well. Truly, your son had done a wonderful deed for us in her enslavement,¡± Ping Chao said, heading over to the back of the wagon and opening it up, ¡°Everything else also appears to be in order. The Chu did not forget a thing. Now, would you like to do it, or should I?¡±


    ¡°The last time, you had given me the pleasure, so I shall let you do it. I can¡¯t wait to see her expression.¡±


    The man nodded and raised his hand, a strange formless and colourless energy amassing within it as he waited for a few moments, then clicked his fingers. Within the wagon, the crimson-haired woman suddenly straightened her back.


    ¡°Come out, Yi Wei. Take a look at your new masters.¡±


    With partly stiff and mechanical movements, the woman rose and navigated through the various things in the wagon, emerging into the light of the rising sun quickly. However, her eyes had gained a single drop of consciousness, glowing amidst the dull grey of the stone mountains around the clearing in the mountains, and actually moved to observe their surroundings, whereas before she had only met the eye of the Great Chu Family¡¯s third generation. When they focused upon Ping Chao, an unmistakable hatred flared up within them.


    Despite that, she could do nothing other than what she had been ordered to do. With only a single trace of consciousness, that was all that she could muster.


    ¡°What a delightful sight, Ping Fu. It appears that your son had indeed done well. We should certainly commend him when he returns, although I do not think that he will require far more than the one he captured to amuse himself,¡± Ping Chao said, grinning at the sight, ¡°Ah, this disgusting thing believes that she can meet my gaze¡­ That is not something the like of you can do! Down!¡±


    Her head jerked downwards as to obey his instruction, satisfying the man for now.


    ¡°In that case, let us take her inside and provide all of the instructions she requires so that she may join the other servants. I shall go and invite the Bai and Luo families so that they may also join in the celebration¡­¡±

 V4C28: Servitude

    Within the house of the Great Ping Family, their mansion in the mountains to the south west of the Ping District itself, servants were clothed in garbs not so different from the ones that Ping Gangze had made his servants wear, except that they differed as much as their respective residences.


    Where every little tiny detail on the clothing of Ping Gangze¡¯s servants was made with the most valuable thing that he was able to include, many little details including immortal gold mostly due to his plentiful supply of it, the Great Ping had slightly more reservation as they kept themselves to simpler planar materials, limiting the female servants only to a plain black and white dress that could, depending on the servant, showcase any assets of interest, although to the Greats, most such servants seemed to be little more than walking sacks of flesh.


    In the case of the crimson-haired woman, there wasn¡¯t that much to display on her top, and her lower regions were obscured as they were not to the liking of Ping Zhong or Ping Chao, so she almost appeared half-sensible. Provided with a long list of instructions and commands that each of their servants possessed, she was loosed into the manor to clean and tidy things while the Greats enjoyed themselves.


    On the first day, she was mostly left alone, as the first generation was said to be absent, while the second and third busied themselves with sending out invites and generally relaxing without the requirement for a servant to assist them in their own activities. Some would occasionally stare at her or grab her while she was not occupied and enjoy the anger in her eyes, but such simple actions became uninteresting quickly for them.


    For instance, when Ping Zhong suddenly walked up to her and tried to strike her arm, it did more harm to her than the crimson-haired woman.


    ¡°If these people weren¡¯t always so insistent on acting up, we could have had servants with some parts of their mind left, allowing us to see her trying to thrash about as we threaten to do something¡­¡± she muttered, turning to her mother, ¡°Could we make her body less sturdy and beat her?¡±


    ¡°That wouldn¡¯t do, not this early on. We certainly possess some means like that, but we should let the others that were harmed by her see her in this state. After that, we can put her in the Bone Softening Pool, or feed her with an abundance of weakening poison, after which I am sure that you will be able to tear her apart without our assistance,¡± Ping Fu replied, ¡°Instead, why not focus on the displeasures of others? For instance, I believe that it has been confirmed that the Ning and Chen brats have both lost one of their anchors.¡±


    ¡°What? How incompetent were they? Who did they even lose to?¡±


    Ping Fu smiled ¨C or, rather, grinned, ¡°As embarrassed as those children were, they said that it was a woman from the Yi District, with striking crimson hair and deep silver eyes. Sound familiar?¡±


    ¡°This wretch had also attacked those two families? Also, isn¡¯t her name familiar?¡±


    ¡°Yi Wei? Perhaps¡­ some time ago, the Yi family had caught someone and thrown her into our prison realm, but I cannot rightly say that I recall that person¡¯s name. So far as I remember, they were very reluctant to speak of her at all, and¡­ well, have you heard that Yi Zhong has one less anchor than Yi Wu?¡±


    Despite knowing that the crimson-haired woman besides them would do nothing, Ping Zhong still glanced at her as she was silently wiping the table beside them, paying them no attention at all.


    ¡°If she was in the prison realm, how did she escape?¡±


    ¡°There are no guarantees, but the letter said that Ping Wu had been able to gouge out something relating to a small passageway out of the realm from her before he had to forever silence her mind,¡± Ping Fu said, ¡°Fortunately, she also supposedly remembered that doorway shutting, so she likely escaped at the last moment. We won¡¯t be seeing any more escapees like this, even if a mixed breed like her is even more delightful to torment.¡±


    Ping Zhong nodded along readily, ¡°It would also explain how she had been able to do so much to us. Her blood empowered her just enough to be able to do the things she had done, but in the end, she is still no match for us.¡±


    ¡°Nobody is a match for us. Now, come, daughter, let us find entertainment elsewhere.¡±


    They departed, leaving the silver-eyed woman to glare at the table that she was meticulously wiping with a cloth, going over the same spots several times to ensure their cleanliness.


    That was the kind of thing that she continued doing throughout that day, occasionally being pestered and occasionally being a point of interest for those of the Great Ping Family to gather around and discuss, but save for that, she was not treated as immediately harshly as the Great Chu Family had seemed to treat her.


    With the way that they had mercilessly killed the driver that had brought her there, however, whoever believed that this was going to remain that way had to be insane or blind, deaf, and stupid at once. Just like hunters playing with their prey once it is in a situation that it cannot possibly escape, not even with the assistance of the heavens, the Greats were intent to get everything they could out of her. They would first satisfy themselves with a more common form of servitude and obedience, and, just like with their other servants, once the Great Ping Family grew tired of their ordinary appearances, they would do as they like until the servant would inevitably be thrown away.


    In the crimson-haired woman¡¯s case, it was likely that they would stop before killing her entirely and send her off to wherever she had thought that she would be safe, just to permit anyone who had missed the display in the Chu District as well as the rumours that must have spread to despair.


    There were other servants in the halls as well, wandering about and performing their allotted tasks just the same. Some were men, other were women, some were made to wear little while others were clothed fully. All of them had an absence of will within their eyes, however, and their bodies moved only due to the commands provided to them prompting their brain and muscles into action when there was no consciousness to command them.


    Since they still needed to eat, as any living creature did, they had a room and bedroom to themselves, with the latter being mostly for the servants to be shoved into a room when they were not meant to be wandering the halls, and for when their bodies truly needed sleep. In the so-called dining room, a basic form of a planar herb grew from the natural planar energy within it, simultaneously ridding it of energy and providing them with a highly unpleasant meal to consume whenever they required more energy to continue. In that regard, their absence of a mind was a small blessing.


    On the second day, all of the invitations that had been sent out had arrived at their destination, and the ones that had been called for made their way into the manor, most of them coming on their own.


    The second and third generation of the Great Bai Family, and the second generation of the Great Luo Family had come and were greeted first by the servants made to do so, including the silver-eyed woman, then by the Great Ping Family themselves. Normally, that latter portion of the process would be of greater interest, but this time, the Great Bai Family were intrigued to learn just who had been worth the trouble they had gone to, Bai Fu in particular, while the second generation of the Great Luo, with Luo Fu clearly being pregnant, wished to see the face of the one that had killed their descendants. Naturally, they were both angry at her existence, wishing to punish her, and delighted at her capture.


    When Luo Fu went to strike at her, Ping Chao appeared to stop her.


    ¡°Do not be so hasty, Luo Fu. This is only the first day of your arrival, when we invited you for a whole week. Let her remain and fester, slowly letting whatever part of her conscious mind remains fall into absolute despair,¡± he suggested, ¡°Look into her eyes¡­ Are they not simply wonderful?¡±


    ¡°You may be unaware, Ping Chao, but to birth another generation is a difficult task, and a burdensome one at that. To sit around for several months in that state is an incredibly tiring thing, and this is the woman responsible!¡± Luo Fu disagreed, slapping the crimson-haired woman¡¯s face, ¡°To simply let her wander around is too good for her, with or without a wisp of consciousness.¡±


    ¡°Do not worry, Luo Fu, we have accounted for that. Since she had hated us this much, we have made sure that she will serve us fully for the rest of her days, however long that will be, and for the first day, why don¡¯t we limit that to more mundane matters?¡± Ping Fu said, waving down the corridor, ¡°We will have her prepare food and drink, then cater to your whims. The day after, we shall permit her to do even more than that. Ping Chao has already reserved the first go with her, but the rest of you may also opt to come after.¡±


    ¡°Hmph. My brother will almost certainly agree, but I want more than that. When can I torture her? Could we forcefully impose our technique onto her and force her to experience the same thing?¡±


    ¡°You truly are lost in your emotions, Luo family,¡± Bai Fu giggled, ¡°Her very cultivation had been dissolved to control her. How are you going to force a cultivation technique of any kind into her body, even if you do want to tax whatever is left down there?¡±


    ¡°Another issue is that we have been able to confirm her infertility, at least when it comes to her womb. The other part may still be fully functional, but I doubt that you wish to spread her pathetic seed around to anyone, be it another servant or some petty common fool in one of the districts,¡± Ping Chao said, grabbing the silver-eyed woman¡¯s arm and forcefully pushing her onto the ground in front of them, ¡°Do not worry, by the seventh day, we will let you do as you like.¡±


    ¡°Then I shall do exactly that. I don¡¯t care if you invite the Ning and Chen here, since I will dismantle every part of her by the time they can arrive,¡± Luo Fu said as she walked in the direction previously indicated.


    Her brother, Luo Chao, followed her with his gaze for a few moments, then turned back and said, ¡°That does remind me, she did shred a planar anchor of both of those children, didn¡¯t she? If she was going to go that far, she might as well have spared them the humiliation and have killed them outright, so that Ning Fu and Chen Fu could give birth to a new third generation with the full number of anchors.¡±


    ¡°Do not wish death onto our own number, Luo Chao,¡± Bai Chao shook his head, turning towards the dining room and stepping on the woman on the ground as he walked off, ¡°I¡¯d prefer to get to it.¡±


    The others also walked off, with Ping Zhong being the last to go as she turned and said, ¡°Get up and serve us the things you have made, worm. Maybe if you manage to not displease us for the rest of the day, Ping Chao will go easy on you¡­ He never does, though, from what I heard.¡±


    With that command, the woman rose and followed the Great Family members into the dining room, then into the kitchen, from which she brought them a number of dishes and drinks that she had been told to make and provided with the information on how to do so during the previous day¡¯s instructions. As a servant, she had naturally needed sufficient knowledge to serve, and as they were able to tell from her presentation, she had not done this many times before, even if she was good at following their orders.


    Everything that she had made, save for the water that she had poured for Luo Fu, was at the very bare edge of being acceptable and being appealing to their tastes, meaning that while they did eat what she had presented, those who were already interested in damaging her body or torturing what little remained of her mind were only spurred on.


    It was highly unfortunate in the eyes of those that liked her current appearance, but as even the youngest of them had lived for quite a while, they had grown to understand and accept the fact that none of their servants would last for long. To them, that was acceptable, especially as this woman was bound to only be twenty years old or so, and they could likely see another woman like this developing in just two dozen more years, albeit without the mixed blood that bothered all of them to an extent.


    As could be judged by an outsider if they simply looked upon their expressions when they looked towards or otherwise spoke about the crimson-haired woman, even those that looked with the least hatred towards her, all of them put together could match the absolute rage that remained within the woman¡¯s eyes, and not long after, one of them chose to put their feelings into words.


    Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Luo Fu that did this, smashing a fist into the silver-eyed woman¡¯s stomach with the full power of her fifth realm, finally eliciting a reaction as she was pushed back and nearly doubled over, her face twisting instinctively with pain. As part of her orders, she managed to keep hold of the dish she was bringing over to Luo Chao, and tried to proceed onwards, but her body was clearly quivering, and her limbs were shakier than before. From the sudden strike, a tear dripped from her eye, but without any instructions, she could not wipe it away.


    ¡°- and look at her! If she had lost her cultivation normally, she could just redo it all and get her anchor back. But now that my children are dead, I need to give birth to so many of them again, just so that we can graft the anchors onto the new Luo Zhong and Luo Wu¡­¡±


    ¡°That is a necessary process for us to guard the world, sister,¡± Luo Chao stated, lifting the plate out of the crimson-haired woman¡¯s hand and placed it before himself, ¡°If you would, could you not hit her while she is carrying the things that she has made? Her creations are barely passable as they are, and the more you shake them, the more difficult it is to find the few good qualities that she has managed to include.¡±


    ¡°I will not apologise for my actions. That reminds me, could we not transfer my experience to her? It is bound to be incredibly satisfying to watch her writhe¡­¡±


    ¡°Do any of you ever get the feeling that we might be a little too sadistic at times?¡± Bai Fu suddenly asked, earning a confused look from every single person present. Most of them did not believe themselves to be a particularly vile group ¨C nobody would typically consider themselves to be acting immorally no matter what they did, since they would otherwise act in a different manner ¨C but to hear such a thing coming from this person in particular was nearly as strange as if the crimson-haired woman suddenly straightened her back and launched an attack on all of them with a fifth realm power.


    To them, it was so odd that Ping Chao and Luo Chao both reached for their weapons.


    ¡°Just kidding! Pfft, all of you are so serious all the time. All of us need to display our power over the ordinary creatures out there that think that they have any right to decide their own lives, but what I actually meant was that you are thinking far too simply, don¡¯t you think?¡± Bai Fu asked again, this time the gazes towards her being more akin to curiosity rather than confusion, ¡°She¡¯s from the Yi District, no? We can just bring her there once we¡¯re done with our own fun. Show her to those she knew, those she had spoken with, maybe even her friends, and make her body and mouth do and say all kinds of things¡­ hehe¡­ Wouldn¡¯t that just be fantastic?¡±


    ¡°From what I could gather, she had few friends,¡± Ping Fu said, glancing at the woman as she walked past them again, the stain of a tear and eyeliner that they had made her place onto her own body clearly visible upon her face, ¡°Those that were present were likely killed.¡±


    ¡°Oh, please, you know how those ordinary things act. They speak with so many people, come into contact with so many groups, and there¡¯s no way the idiots at the Yi family got all of them.¡±


    ¡°Your tone is hardly acceptable by the rules of Testament, you know that, right?¡± Bai Chao said.


    ¡°Brother, those old people at Testament, who now sit around the realm and discuss whatever dull things they want now that they¡¯re the primary participants in the seal, likely talked exactly like this when they were Bai Fu and Bai Chao, and when we get to their place, we might carry on the same rules, but to say that we had never done this would be silly.¡±


    ¡°The point of age is for us to grow up, Bai Fu,¡± Ping Chao said, ¡°That¡¯s why I will take her how I like, and then tell my descendants to do the same.¡±


    ¡°You really think so? If those old fogies at Testament had those thoughts back then, as you say, they sure aren¡¯t doing this now that they are in their current place. Have you ever thought about the exact consequences of what they do? None of them are quite the same afterwards, so I do not think that we should rush a single thing. Take it slowly. Tear the remains of her lovely mind apart, turn her into our delightful toy¡­ and then crush her!¡±


    Her hand, with the power of the fifth realm, shut into a fist, crushing the air, and causing a small explosion of air that fluttered through her pure white hair. A grin was on her expression, one that grew as she looked at the back of the crimson-haired woman as she walked out of the room.


    There was a brief period of quiet as they ate what was left, with some contemplating what had been said so far while others, judging by their partial inability to prevent themselves from drooling at their very thoughts, were clearly pondering what they could do to the woman now in their possession, or perhaps some other servant elsewhere. Their family members would usually reprimand them quietly, but all of them understood one another well enough to not particularly care about the minor actions of one another as much as total strangers might.


    ¡°Could I ask something?¡± Ping Zhong suddenly said, waiting for one of the second generation to give her the confirmation she had requested, ¡°What does happen at Testament? To the west of-¡±


    ¡°Never speak of the exact location of Testament, daughter,¡± Ping Fu stopped her, involuntarily glancing over at the returning crimson-haired figure, ¡°We may be the strongest among all in the modern world, but some do not realise that they should not be meddling with our affairs. They try to intervene, to act, to attack us, and some of them try to listen in to our words. You know where Testament is, right? Then, none of us need to hear it again.¡±


    ¡°Sorry. What does happen to them?¡±


    ¡°They naturally have to participate in the seal, and that does take some mental power. Hence, they need to respond a little more instinctually than we may, and it is best not to bother them unless there is truly some kind of calamity, or else their grip over the seal will be slightly less stable. If too many of our first generations are forced to part from Testament, it would be in danger.¡±


    ¡°And thus, we do their job for them,¡± Bai Fu said, ¡°Annoying, but that was what they had chosen all that time ago.¡±


    ¡°I think we should discuss something other than this,¡± Luo Chao said, putting down his glass of authamite wine, ¡°We have a wonderful toy at our disposal, and yet we are all just sitting around worrying about things. That is hardly particularly amusing, don¡¯t you think? All of us need something to relax ourselves with, so, Yi Wei, come over here. Drop that trash that you¡¯re trying to feed us and stand still.¡±


    As with all of the other commands given to her, she had little choice in the matter, even while her eyes moved as much as they could to glare onto the people ordering her about. Even that was limited, since she needed to look forwards when her spiritual perception was just like her cultivation, non-existent as it was swallowed up by the void of the method used to control the slaves of the Greats.


    After being ordered once more to straighten her back, put her hands to her sides, and then present her figure to them without obstruction.


    With that sight, the Great Family members observed her and pondered just what they should do with her. Ping Chao¡¯s desires hardly needed to be explained again, but as the rest of his family kept insisting, rushing into things this very moment would be of no benefit, not when they had however much time they desired to play around with her and break her physical body down to whatever they desired. However, with his mood, the rest had also begun to think in the same direction, and soon they had a few ideas.


    ¡°Since everyone here seems to have forgotten to take care of themselves up to this point, we shall proceed with that,¡± Ping Fu said, although her voice was clearly reluctant, ¡°Just remember to suggest commands rather than giving them. If we all start ordering her about, the commanding technique will just cause her body to explode- don¡¯t you start, Luo Fu!¡±


    The pregnant woman huffed, but she did not start shouting out commands as she had wanted to.


    ¡°Alright, Yi Wei, remove the dress, and so slowly.¡±


    None of them had the opportunity to observe her back in the Chu District, occupied as they were with other matters, so they chose this time to take a look instead, with both their men and women doing so.


    Despite the strict structure within each Great Family, where any one of their third generation must marry to another next down the line, with the surname of the mothers of the children being considered to be more significant than that of their father, most of them tended to possess various tendencies. Of course, it could also be said that it was due to it, as the women especially had to endure a lot for the birthing of the next generation, and often came to prefer the company of other women in their free time. As a result of this behaviour, some of the men would also have the opportunity to experiment, and sometimes things would get out of hand with far larger groups ending up together.


    Due to the nature of the methods typically used by the Greats to reproduce, they are also free of any risks at other times, and their close relations to one another have mostly prevented them from caring about overly tight familial bonds, so to speak.


    The tightest boundaries would be around their direct relatives, and also between the three generations of the Great Families. As the first was almost always at Testament, only the second and the third got to interact outside of it, and the age gap between them tended to be around a hundred years due to the manner in which they permitted each new third generation to grow for a hundred years. While it was difficult to see simply based on their physical appearances, that gap did significantly affect their views of the world, as well as their mind-set.


    For them, such a gap could occasionally lead to very different thoughts and experiences, and that could be rather off-putting in more intimate situations than their current lecherous observation.


    Before their eyes, with the crimson-haired woman¡¯s eyes still locked onto them with fury blazing within them, she proceeded to slowly obey their command, getting through the various parts that kept the dress upon her body with a rigidity that could only be expected of someone that had no mind or proper intuition to follow. Without those, all that could be followed were the previous motions of putting the dress on, but to invert them and do so efficiently was more difficult without thought.


    Nevertheless, with the comparatively simple design, she was able to get her top out of the dress first, then pull it down and reveal the rest of her body to the members of the Great Families, earning a mixture of expressions and noises as if in reply to her actions.


    ¡°Damn, that girl is packing. Was she born with that?¡± Bai Fu asked, the look in her eyes changing.


    ¡°Not from what we know about her, but perhaps the Yi family had withheld a few things from us,¡± Ping Chao muttered, ¡°Also, our blood should be dominant over that of the wretch that must have caught the eye of the initial Yi Zhong, so even if it was some kind of strange creature with four sets of breasts and four cocks, those features shouldn¡¯t have made their way over.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care, I am taking that second spot right away¡­ I can¡¯t wait to crush them-¡±


    ¡°Can you not do so while the rest of us are here? Our balls hardly appreciate the implications, and what you are about to say.¡±


    ¡°Such a feeble thing you are, Luo Chao. Look at my brother, he doesn¡¯t care about my comments. He knows that I wouldn¡¯t do anything to him, so why are you getting so antsy, huh?¡± Bai Fu grinned, leaning forward with an evil grin that displayed her teeth, in particular her canines, ¡°Why are you so afraid, unless you know that you are weak, that you cannot do anything against me, that you will only be sitting there-¡±


    Ping Fu interrupted, ¡°If you are going to do this right here and now, you may want to head off to your room, and we can proceed onto this the following day. At that point, you will be able to relieve your frustrations as you like with her, so long as you don¡¯t permanently damage anything.¡±


    ¡°Have you seen that glaring bitch? She can take it. Her body needs the strength of the fifth realm to be concentrated, so more common acts will probably just bounce right off! Whatever is left of her mind may even like the touch, whether or not it wishes to do so,¡± she replied, although she did pull her hand out of her robes and rose, ¡°You¡¯ve gotten me all excited now. I¡¯ll be off. Brother, what about you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, those of us who are interested may get to her tomorrow. For the rest of us, it would be better to rest after the journey.¡±


    ¡°Tch, cutting it short. Let¡¯s just leave her standing here, then, it¡¯s bound to be fun to find her here the next day,¡± Ping Chao exclaimed, rising also as he looked to the silver-eyed woman, ¡°Stand there and don¡¯t hide yourself. I will find you tomorrow, you can be sure of that.¡±


    After him, the others departed quickly, although not before one of them also ordered to put her hands behind her head and to obscure herself even less. Many things could be said about the Greats, but they were nothing if not thoughtful about how to best take advantage of the people at their disposal, in whoever ways they could think of. For today, their creativity had been suppressed, but the next day they would be certain to unleash everything that they had come up with and truly make the little wisp of will within that woman suffer.

 V4C29: Obliteration

    On the morning of the next day, Ping Chao awoke as early as he was able without using any particular methods to do so earlier than usual.


    He had made a promise the previous day, and even if it was just to a nearly mindless body trudging around their mansion according to their every little whim, he felt that it needed to be adhered to. If he couldn¡¯t even stick to something as simple as fucking one of his new slaves, then what good would he be in other places?


    There was a strange feeling permeating throughout his body, akin to fatigue or exhaustion that would rarely strike any of the Greats when they possessed so many techniques and pills to ensure that they were always in their best condition, but he dismissed it nonetheless. It must have been something on the journey, or perhaps some kind of psychological or physical attack that he had missed before arriving to the mansion, which were hardly uncommon when some of the common people of the world got a little uppity and tried to claim some control over their pathetic lives.


    Whatever it was, satisfying both his mind and body was bound to improve his condition, or give him a better idea of what it actually was.


    Especially now that his focus had greatened, he was rather disappointed to find that the crimson-haired woman was not in the same place as he had left her, forcing him to go out there and search through the mansion both with his spiritual perception and his gaze, eventually finding her.


    For some reason, she had moved to the kitchen, and was working on a large pot of something that he, as someone that had never even attempted to cook on his own, couldn¡¯t even be bothered to attempt to recognise. It caused a displeased frown to appear upon his face, but he could hardly blame her. One of the others, Bai Fu being the most likely suspect, had likely instructed her to go elsewhere to spoil his fun, and he would be sure to resolve it with them when he figured it out.


    He headed into the kitchen, where the crimson-haired woman stood alone.


    ¡°Which one of those idiots told you to move?¡± Ping Chao asked, but he could hardly receive a proper reply from someone without a mind, ¡°Tch. What are you doing?¡±


    Pushing her out of the way and causing her to drop a wooden spoon on the ground, he took a closer look at the pot, finding it to be some mixture of boiling water and a green viscous substance of an unknown nature. It did not smell particularly appealing, nor did it look like anything that could be consumed by a human.


    That caused his frown to deepen for a moment.


    ¡°Too careless,¡± a voice suddenly entered his ear, almost at the same time a powerful clawed hand grabbed onto his neck and forced his face into the pot, his neck colliding with the side and, to his surprise, doing nothing at all to the metal despite the sheer force of the hand.


    Ping Chao thought to release his spiritual perception and observe the aggressor, but the moment that his skin had touched the mixture in the pot, it burned to an unbelievable degree, with his entire face instantly suffering from a combination of extreme heat and¡­ poison? If not for his position, his eyes would have widened, for the green substance was unmistakably extremely powerful poison that did nearly everything that a toxic substance could do to a person, judging by the extreme sensation of pain, disorientation, weakness, discomfort and everything else that surged within his face.


    Worse than that, however, and what had caused his surprise to begin with, was the way in which the moment that he came into contact with that concentrated substance, the rest of his body suddenly felt the same, that weak feeling in particular intensifying to an immense degree all over him, to the point that he could hardly muster any resistance.


    It was absolutely horrible, and horrifying, as he finally managed to pull just a bit of his spiritual perception out of himself and beheld the one that was attacking him.


    ¡°You think I can¡¯t sense that, you bastard? Your filthy spiritual perception will not be touching me again!¡± Wei Yi spoke with just enough volume to reach his ear and terrify him to the core, but not so that she would be heard in the rest of the mansion.


    Furthermore, she immediately kept her promise, for a vast quantity of power surged out of that clawed hand and right into his neck, immediately bursting out with a degree of power that he simply thought impossible. She was only in the fourth realm, while he was in the fifth, and even if there was so much poison in his system that he would barely be able to walk for the next year, there was no chance that anything produced by her could be this impactful.


    Of course, he could not have known that he faced the very concentration of the anger that Wei Yi had felt towards him and towards all of the Greats as a result of the wonderful display they had presented to her. There was simply no way for him to know that she had taken her understanding of the Dao of Law¡¯s Ire branch and combined it with the recently awakened four corners of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye in order to create the most devastating thing she could possibly imagine, or that she had been tricking them from the very start¡­ well, that was one thing that he could suspect.


    It was simply too strange, and their Ping Wu had still not returned. Something must have been wrong, and yet, just as she had said, they were just ignoring it, being too careless.


    At any other time, their behaviour might have been analysed by Wei Yi in order to figure out how to best progress with her current approach, but she did not have the mood or energy to do so now. With the energy unleashed, her killing will form assumed, and the entire mansion at her disposal, she had to unleash her anger.


    ¡®Obliteration!¡¯ she had named her technique, and thus unleashed it fully into his neck, digging into his flesh, bone and muscle with a terrifying speed, made only worse by the fact that Ping Chao only realised after a few moments that he had to and could defend himself.


    When much of his neck, instinctively protected by his anchors, had been burnt to shreds by a dark beam of surging, scorching energy, he managed to unleash the full force of his anchors upon her. It knocked her aside, the energy gathered in her left hand fading for a moment and gave him the chance to remove his face from the pot of poison, but he was already in a poor state. He could barely keep his neck up, and he wasn¡¯t even sure if he would be able to swallow a pill to recover his own state.


    To make it worse for him, all that the push seemed to give her was the opportunity to change her own state.


    In the blink of an eye, as she halted her momentum, her body was covered in a crimson robe, with a gauntlet on her right arm with claws identical to the ones on her left. A signet ring was worn on one of her right fingers, glowing with an ominous greyish light. Two boots covered her feet, showing a trace of a thin black material obscuring the skin of her legs, while her loose hair was somehow tied back into a ponytail with something unknown to him. Much of her left half was crimson and dark, with sharper teeth and a darker eye, while her right was unnaturally light and pale, making her seem rather inhuman.


    However, more so than any of that, what caught his attention while his mind desperately tried to recover was the energy that gathered in both hands and she put them together, undisguised killing intent flooding over him and further suppressing his already inhabited cognitive functions.


    That energy gathered in a sphere within her hands, a sphere of powerful void-like energy with a thick corona of crimson, almost seemed to contain all and none of the elements at once, flaring with a fire-like shimmer while looking oddly stable and flowing, like ice or water, arcs of blackened crimson burning somewhere within. Unbeknownst to him, it even contained the nature of physique energy, killing will, and the Ascendant¡¯s Bloodline, all merged into a single force, which, without even a single trace of hesitation anywhere within the process, was then unleashed upon him as Wei Yi pushed her hands forward.


    A dense beam with the same colouration and texture exploded from the sphere, impacting upon Ping Chao¡¯s weakened body, and instantly scorching his flesh, the sheer force throwing him backwards.


    He was thrown into the wall behind him, and nearly instantly forced through it, a great tear forming within it with the remnant flames of Obliteration lingering upon the edges. Through the kitchen, he flew into the dining room, through a couple chairs and tables, shredding through them with his back and receiving a number of other injuries at the same time, being forced against the wall and this time managing to not pierce through it.


    Despite that, his situation did not better but worsened instead, for once the physical force of the Obliteration beam was free to act upon him directly and the energy was no longer spread apart to other entities around him, Ping Chao was able to experience the full extent of the power contained within it. No matter how much he attempted to dissuade it with his anchors, the core around them, the searing marks that could potentially reinforce his defences, the beam burnt straight through them, devouring his flesh and bones, annihilating his lungs and spine and whatever else he had within that mortal frame of his.


    Only a little while later, the walls around him were broken through and a number of figures charged in, but that was not soon enough for him. All that he saw was the sudden explosion of dust and wooden chunks around him, then he saw nothing.


    A series of thirty-seven anchors shattered around him, the energy contained within instantly being devoured by the Truth of the Universe within Wei Yi¡¯s dantian, but the Greats that had arrived onto the scene could not perceive anything more than a strange sensation passing through them upon the death of one of their fellow Great Family members.


    ¡°What is this? How is Yi Wei-¡±


    ¡°WEI YI, YOU FUCKING IMBECILES!¡± she interrupted them, leaping towards them and pressing her hands together so that the stable sphere that had formed between them was fractured and ripped apart.


    Thus, before they could even come to grips with the situation, they suddenly saw a beam emerging from it fracture as well, splitting into countless smaller beams that resembled individual tongues of flame that feasted upon them and the anchors that they rapidly raised in an attempt to protect themselves. For a moment, it worked, fending off the Obliteration energy, but they soon found a strange glow emerging from Wei Yi¡¯s eyes.


    Four individual colours, green, red, yellow, and blue, united into one within her pupil, flaring out as a great figure appeared behind her, reminiscent of a Titanic Demolisher and yet blatantly not.


    It had two sets of arms, and each arm and hand were clearly distinct from one another even while they and the entire figure were coated in the same black and red light that the Obliteration energy possessed. One wore a robe, another was covered in armour, a third wore a leather glove and the fourth was covered partly in metal and in cloth. One radiated an impossible frost, another surged with righteous energy, although that was twisted by the Ire essence and made to look half-dark, the next dripped with a terrible toxin, while the last carried a certain authority that the others lacked.


    More importantly to the Great Family members, however, was the fact that this figure also replicated Wei Yi¡¯s stance, a vast quantity of energy gathering from the palms of each of the four hands and forming an even greater sphere of dark energy than the one Wei Yi wielded.


    However, the moment that they glanced back down upon the one that spawned such a monstrous entity, they realised that they had been overlooking the true danger, for the glow within her eyes, ones that were so dull only the day before, overwhelmed their very souls. Even that was not it, for as it burst from her, it seemed to wash over the world around them, pressing down upon them and partly shaping the world in a way that they could not even properly perceive, and yet knew would be detrimental to them. Arcs of blackened crimson lightning surged out of the ground, and the broken edges of the wall twisted in shape slightly, yet obviously.


    The most of that pressure was applied to them as the gigantic Titanic Demolisher¡­ no, Titanic Conqueror removed one hand from the orb that gathered within its grasp and flicked it at them, all of the poison that had been building upon the hand covered in leather instantly flying at them with far greater speed than they could imagine.


    It passed right through their anchors, and the moment that it came into contact with their skin, they felt their entire bodies weaken right away, the frailty spreading from within, not without.


    ¡°I am Wei Yi, the Ascendant, leader of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and I shall ensure that the world is free of the pests, the leeches that are the Great Families!¡± Wei Yi cried out, her features igniting in flame and freezing in ice as she activated yet another physique ability, empowering the flame and water properties within the Obliteration energy and causing them to suddenly surge through the weakened anchors of the Greats.


    At the same time, the Titanic Conqueror placed the Hunter¡¯s Toxin hand back onto the sphere of energy while the arm covered in a robe, with righteous energy surging from it, parted and pointed towards them with an open hand.


    Instantly, a dozen individual circular runes formed upon the ground, all of which glowed not in the usual blue light of the Crusader¡¯s Runes, but instead with the nature of the Ire that drove Wei Yi¡¯s entire being at this moment. Every single one of the circular runes was placed beneath the feet of the Greats she was currently facing, and not a single one of them had an anchor barrier on the ground.


    Had this been a force of the second generation, they might have been able to endure with the core that protected them, but instead they were all of the third generation, and inexperienced at that.


    When the runes formed upon the ground, they could do little more than exclaim in alarm before the Crusader¡¯s Runes hand turned over so that its palm would face up, then shut into a fist, causing each of the runes to explode in an instant.


    Bursts of energy, all of which tore through the air with immense ease thanks to the Conqueror¡¯s Eye subduing the very nature of the world as to permit her actions, surged from the centres of the runes and into the bodies of the Great Family third generation members. Bai Zhong, Bai Wu and Ping Zhong instantly suffered the full blow of a fourth realm ability empowered by all of Wei Yi¡¯s other forms of cultivation, resulting in the instant combination of all of them shredding through their bodies, tearing skin, scattering flesh into naught, and turning their bones to dust.


    In a single burst, all of them fell, but the Obliteration energy only glowed brighter as their anchors shattered.


    All of their points were naturally collected as well, but Wei Yi did not linger and instead directed the Titanic Conqueror to turn to the side, removing the Redeemer¡¯s Frost hand from the sphere of Obliteration energy and making it wave as it conjured a vast wall of ice at her side. As soon as even a fragment of ice appeared there, Wei Yi also separated one hand from the orb now resting within the other and employed the full capability of the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp, reinforcing every minute particle of ice in order to make that wall as strong as possible, assisting herself even further by conquering the area around her with her newly acquired physique ability.


    Out of everything that she had possessed so far, the Conqueror¡¯s Eye ability had affected her arsenal the most when it had finally awoken just a short time ago, following two days after the Hunter¡¯s Toxin physique, as well as her other three quarters of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye began to show their effects within her form.


    It was with the Hunter¡¯s Toxin that she had poisoned everything that the Greats had eaten from her, although she did not permit the poison to do anything more than rest within their bodies. With that, she could make it as fierce and terrifying as she wanted to, but it would not register within the bodies and minds of the Great Family members until another toxin from the physique ability was flung at them, or otherwise touched their bodies in some way.


    That much might have been enough for her to achieve something, but when the combination of the four began to ignite within her, she felt just how far it was able to spread. Modifying the Titanic Demolisher to wield the powers of the four quarters of the physique ability, affecting and further empowering her Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp, and even permitting her to conquer the very world around herself in order to force the Laws to side with her¡­ it was something of immense power, and yet it might never be awakened without another with the very Yin-Yang Ascendant physique that she currently possessed.


    The moment that her wall of ice was complete, a great concentrated set of beams impacted it from several sources of fifth realm energy, some of the power being refracted by the ice and turned to naught while the rest hit it head on.


    Wei Yi hardly required anyone to tell her that the second generation had come knocking at her impromptu wall, and that they were less than pleased with whatever she had done in the room so far, whether or not their spiritual perception was able to breach the conquered region of the world around her or not. Whatever those people felt, thought, or wanted from her now, be it vengeance or simply her immediate demise without any delay, she would disappoint them.


    All of the five beams that struck her came from vaguely similar directions, and thus she had a target that she could aim at even without directly piercing their onslaught.


    While one hand remained to keep reinforcing and correcting any flaws within the ice wall, learning much from the man that had once used the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique against her in the Kong Prison Realm, that being her right hand, her left was raised into the air and all of the hands of the Titanic Conqueror rose as well, aiming the orbs of energy within them at the sky.


    Together, they shot out a dense, thick, pure beam of energy from the technique, her eyes brightening for a moment as she conquered the ceiling and the rest of the floors of the residence as to make them as feeble as she could to minimize the degree of impact that would be absorbed by them. The beam that had converged was able to strike directly through the wood that now seemed to rot on the inside, as if it had been aged by a dozen years while moisture had been permitted to reside within each plank, piercing past the very roof of the building and collecting far above it and every combatant that Wei Yi could sense.


    As soon as the beam stopped shooting out of her and the Titanic Conqueror, she dispersed the energy within the latter¡¯s hands while she dropped the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp ability and rushed straight into the walls of ice, allowing Obliteration to surge up within her right had once again.


    Perhaps to the surprise of the second generation on the other side of the wall, all of whom looked absolutely infuriated at her intrusion and her actions so far, she pierced right through it, the large entity behind her following only a breath later as the entire wall began to melt into naught, having been created from nothing to begin with. In each hand, an orb of Obliteration energy gathered, and the moment that she was within sight of her foes, she let it loose.


    It struck the core that guarded Luo Chao, the one that seemed weakest out of the lot, although her choice of targets was also shaped partly by the fact that regardless of whom she targeted primarily, she would strive to shatter as many anchors of the others as she could. For her, at this very moment, it was essential not only that as many would die as possible, but also so that none of them could operate at their full strength, and if she needed to get right into harm¡¯s way in order to accomplish this, she would ¨C and already had ¨C throw herself into the task gladly.


    With the power split, and it being shot at someone who had not yet enjoyed a splash of toxin, the beam was able to do less than it did to the third generation, but at the same time as he was being attacked, Wei Yi directed the other beam to sweep past the others, impacting upon their cores and forcing them to remain on the defensive.


    Her eyes momentarily flared with energy, the conquering property of her new physique ability being spread as far as she could, but what was more significant was the four empty hands of the Titanic Conqueror being raised under her command as the Ascendant and Conqueror.


    The Crusader¡¯s Runes hand reached out and pointed in much the same fashion, but instead of circular, overlapping marks forming on the ground, a bolt of black and crimson energy shot out of its fingers and landed on the ground between the five. A square rune immediately formed within the ground, and rapidly expanded according to a grid, filling the entire room that had become their battlefield, with them all flaring up only a moment after they were set.


    Despite each one of the second generation being protected by their cores, the energy consuming properties of the Crusader¡¯s Runes struck them, forcing them to seek some escape.


    To deter them, the Redeemer¡¯s Frost hand was swept before the gigantic figure, countless small bolts and shards of ice forming in its path and flying out the moment that the hand stopped, crashing into the ground and their cores while the heaviest concentration of bolts was present at the edges of their possible escapes. Had they wanted to move, they would have needed to run straight into the shards of ice that contained enough energy to cause the core of the fifth realm to ripple even in smaller numbers, so they suspected that had they gone for it, they would have suffered something more long term than that.


    It was hardly assisted by the sweeping Obliteration beams, nor by what came next.


    The third hand, which belonged to the Warlord¡¯s Banners physique ability, was raised by the Titanic Conqueror, pointing disdainfully at the Greats. At once, the ground around them was shadowed by unseen things, which then seemed to fall from nowhere onto the battlefield.


    A set of banners, two near Wei Yi while the rest were scattered around the second generation of the Great Family members that had gathered to attack her, each one having a wide enough radius to cover all of them at once, with each banner applying some kind of different draining and weakening effect upon them. This passed even through their cores, likely assisted to some extent by the runes that weakened the cores and the beams and shards of ice which stressed them as the same time, weakening their defensive integrity.


    Finally, the Hunter¡¯s Toxin hand closed into a fist, then opened and threw out a great mass of vile toxin that burned the very air it touched, transforming the gas into noxious fumes that rotted and consumed the ceiling, rapidly devouring through the wood that had been used to make them as if it was not a high-quality planar material.


    The toxin itself was thrown directly at the Greats, splashing over the ground and their cores, making their escape even more difficult while trying to shred whatever stability remained in them.


    Normally, this would have been the full extent of the four physiques that made up the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, but Wei Yi was able to distinctly feel that they had more to offer her, and so she ordered them to act exactly as they should, unleashing everything they had on offer. At once, the four hands were shut as different forms of energy gathered within each one, yin and yang, baleful and righteous, all of which sent a clear, albeit momentary, trace of fear into her enemy¡¯s eyes.


    With the new instructions, the first to act was the Crusader¡¯s Runes hand, although that might have been due to the time that it had been given to rest and build up power after the first attack that it performed.


    All of the energy that it had gathered was once more released into the ground, but the runes that were targeted were not remade, but instead the energy seeped into them, brightening their Ire-filled interiors and causing a secondary shape to appear within the square of the runes, a series of complex marking surrounding the symbol in the middle of the square.


    Although Wei Yi had been unable to understand exactly what it would do at first, once the runes were reinforced, her keen eye immediately noticed the similarity between the markings and the circular runes, warped as the former were in comparison to the others. She also understood why the Titanic Conqueror was still keeping that hand at the ready, for all that it would require was her direct command, mental or verbal, and each one of the runes would ignite with all of the energy that they had gathered, and unleash it.


    After that, the Hunter¡¯s Toxin hand seemed to press down on the air, a sudden moisture and mist pouring from beneath the floor of the room. Through the floorboards, a great quantity of green toxins bubbled through and rose, flooding the room with a thin layer of impossible dangerous poison.


    Almost immediately after, perhaps intentionally acting in turn with the Hunter¡¯s Toxin hand, the Warlord¡¯s Banner hand closed into a fist then rose, before suddenly punching downwards. In the room before her, directly above Luo Chao, an enormous fist appeared, falling down with the same speed and vigour as the downward punch of the physique ability hand. It crashed into the core, a series of audible cracking and crackling noises following after, but more importantly than that it threw all of the poison that now lay upon the ground into the air, causing it to splash all over the cores of the others in the room.


    The last of the hands was the Redeemer¡¯s Frost, which had not gone for a new course of action but instead developed the old, gathering an incredibly large clump of ice before itself that it then threw down at Luo Chao, directly following the fist and choosing the same spot to target as well, to make the most out of the attack. It flew with incredible speed for something that large, and it did not simply crash into his defence but instead exploded outwards.


    Wei Yi would have stood by and watched as the explosion of ice caused further ripples in his core and struck the cores of the others, but she could distinctly feel the next step approaching.


    As such, she called out, ¡°Burn!¡±


    The Crusader¡¯s Runes hand instantly released the rest of the power that it had built up, causing the runes beneath the feet of the Greats to explode upwards, the combined power of the square and circular designs combining as they tore into the cores.


    Simultaneously, the ceiling above them suddenly collapsed inwards, all of the wood rotting with a crimson haze around it, as an enormous beam of Obliteration energy fell upon them, trapping them between it and the power of the Crusader¡¯s Runes, with Wei Yi vanishing just before it fell through the use of the World¡¯s Echo physique ability. It seemed to require less build up to transport her further in the regions that she conquered, and thus she brought herself as far away as she needed to for her own safety in this fight.


    Despite the double attack, the second generation did not appear hesitant in the slightest to act the moment that her guard was relaxed even a little by the sudden movement.


    Four sets of beams, some choosing to strike in a singular attack while the others split it into a few to target her best, shot at her, instantly piercing through her flesh with as little effort as her own Obliteration beams could, showcasing the might of the fifth realm empowered by dozens of anchors.


    Similarly, four figures burst out of the crashing beam, although the fifth was not just conspicuously absent, but his anchor energy points were already floating towards her Truth of the Universe for her to absorb and use at any time she wished. Each one was already preparing more point beams, while others seemed to have other things at their disposal, but they did not seem to expect her to fly at them with even greater speed than they could muster.


    While they had themselves not suffered much damage, their cores were clearly weakened, and thus Wei Yi took advantage of this by directly going for the anchors behind it.


    When a fist emboldened and empowered by all of her forms of energy, primarily her bloodline power, struck the core of Luo Fu, it did not crack or shatter it at all, but instead permitted a vast force to pass through it, directly striking one of the anchors that attempted to hide itself behind that barrier. It struck it and obliterated it.


    ¡°You bitch! Get over here!¡± the member of the Great Luo called out, firing a dozen point beams at her, empowering them with a searing mark, but only one of them managed to even graze her as she used the World¡¯s Echo ability to appear instead besides Ping Fu, who she struck with the same method.


    Again, with a compromised core and a technique that practically attacked right through it, one of the anchors behind it didn¡¯t stand a chance, as the anchors of cultivators did not become stronger with each realm, but were instead protected by stronger barriers and stronger people. The fourth realm offered a constant core, the fifth permitted greater action with one¡¯s energy in order to repulse one¡¯s foes, the sixth guarded both with greater energy potency, the seventh provided a series of halos around the core and empowered it and all of one¡¯s energy, and from the eighth onwards, the threat of losing one¡¯s anchor seemed to vanish entirely.


    Thus, while the Greats did possess a powerful core and plentiful searing marks, they did not have a superior method of protecting their own individual anchors than their third generation did.


    All the while, the Titanic Conqueror was also not floating in the air and doing naught to contribute, but instead threw out runes, toxins, bolts of ice and called down banners to slow the Great Family members further, mixing with the poison that was already within their systems and making it so much more difficult to resist a figure that was a realm below them, without the benefit of more than thirty anchors. Some of the banners could be destroyed, certain runes could be avoided, the poisons dodged and the ice bolts met in the air with a beam or pulse of energy to break them before they had a chance to impact, but all of this just further pulled their attention away from their main foe and gave them no choice but distract themselves while their anchors were damaged.


    Two anchors broken in just in an instant, the Great Families naturally all paid even greater attention to her movements, making sure to observe every single trace of her appearance and disappearance, their accuracy slowly growing with each time that her figure vanished from the world and reappeared elsewhere.


    ¡°How in the heavens is she doing this much without her anchor?¡± one of them cried out.


    However, that came at a cost for them, for each time that they were unable to force her to vanish before striking, which she was able to do more and more quickly each time that she tried it, her command over the world growing with each moment, allowing her to enter either into an attack or a retreat with less of a delay each time, counteracting the growth of their accuracy. Bai Chao lost two anchors, Ping Fu did so as well, Luo Fu was slower to react due to her condition and thus lost four in rapid succession, and then Wei Yi appeared beside Bai Fu.


    Opposite to her pregnant friend, Bai Fu had an amazing reaction time, and shot out several point beams at the vital parts of the Ascendant¡¯s body the moment that she appeared on her side, having yet to lose a single anchor. This time, however, Wei Yi did not flee the instant the beams came for her.


    Just as Bai Fu invested her full strength to get rid of her, the Ascendant gathered a dark crimson storm within her hand and thrust it out, striking at the same time as the Titanic Conqueror threw out a series of exploding runes onto the ground, launching a great deal of poison that enveloped a large ball of ice, while another one of those dark bronze hands fell from the air akin to a banner, striking the core that protected the many anchors within it, rapidly forcing Bai Fu to decide which attack she would guard against the most. It was a difficult decision, given that each one of the strikes came from a slightly different direction and would destabilise her core far too much if she chose to outright ignore any individual one, forcing her to go with outright force.


    The individual attacks from the four hands of the Titanic Conqueror were impactful and clearly left several cracks within her defences, but it was the crimson and black storm that gathered within Wei Yi¡¯s hand that was most devastating. It did not need to break or shatter her core, but it instead shot right through it, imbued with bloodline power amongst a number of other forms of energy, and spread out onto five of her anchors.


    She hardly needed to hear the shattering of stone to understand exactly what had happened to her precious cultivation, to the anchors that she had acquired many years ago.


    ¡°How dare you, whore?¡± Bai Fu shouted as all of the glowing points around her suddenly grew a hundred times brighter, increasing in size by a significant margin, and then launched powerful enough beams to burn the air itself, combusting it and causing a great explosion to occur around them. All of that force was directed specifically at Wei Yi, who could only vanish a moment after they hit her.


    This time, all of them looked in the direction that her body had moved prior to her disappearance, and all of them released similarly powerful beams into the wall that she appeared to have moved past, or perhaps into.


    Their energy shredded it with ease, but they failed to pierce the barrier behind it.


    As soon as their light faded, all of the Great Family members were met with a spherical core, made seemingly of crystal and not of solid energy, guarding a huge structure that they could hardly call an anchor, despite that clearly being what it was. Only a portion of it stood normally on the ground, supporting above it a glowing point wrapped in thin chains, around which pieces of crystalline matter hovered and spun, with various elements of energy surging from each one. Above that, the top of a standard anchor floated, but it had five distinct sides and was also surrounded by forty-seven smaller pieces of more ordinary material that gave them all a strange sensation of fear.


    ¡°That bitch had her anchor down the whole time! Attack it!¡± screamed Bai Fu, prompting the rest of them into immediate action as countless overlapping beams fell upon the core all at once.


    However, just as they thought they were making some progress in destroying it, they found that their beams had already destroyed much of the wall behind them, turning the Ping mansion into even more of a wreck, while the core and the anchor that hid behind it were nowhere to be seen, much like how Wei Yi also vanished from their sight.


    ¡°Find her! We must find her right now! She must die!¡±

 V4C30: Flight to Safety

    Wei Yi had indeed not chosen to stand by and suffer the attacks of the Greats, for despite her previous seeming inattention to each blow, she was currently bleeding from a number of severe wounds, with much of her arms, legs and even stomach being absent from her current body.


    Through the combination of her many forms of energy, as well as her sheer will, she had been able to put up an illusion through an enforcement of the Dao of Law, empowered by her conquering of the world within that room where she had truly placed her anchor prior to the beginning of the fight, also using the Dao of Law to bring their attention away from it and onto her, but she would not be able to endure for much longer. Fortunately, she had no need to do so, as she had already learned a number of key things during her act.


    It had started when she had caught sight of some of the other new servants being transported to the Chu District to be displayed, allowing her to learn of the method and disguise her own state to be akin to that displayed by these servants. With the combination of the Dao of Law and sheer luck, she managed to fool both the Great Ping and the Great Chu into believing that the deceased Ping Wu had been the one to capture her, with that benefitting especially from the fact that they apparently couldn¡¯t confirm his death or life without some kind of specific, monthly ritual. She then allowed herself to be placed on stage and abused for the liking of the crowd and the Great Chu third generation, and then all she needed to do was maintain her calm for just long enough.


    Most of it had indeed been sheer luck, allowing her to end up with the combination of actions and words within her letters to convince all of them for long enough to permit her to feed them her poisoned food, although she was truly unable to make anything better than that without a proper sense of taste nor much care for cooking in the past.


    That they had eaten so much was fortunate, and that they had decided to take it slow was even more so. As such, when she decided to act, she couldn¡¯t help but comment on their carelessness.


    She was sure that they wouldn¡¯t act like this again, even if they really hated one of the other Great Families and wanted them to be tricked in the same way by her. They would talk about it, let everyone know of the actions that she had taken, but that was just what she wanted. After all, Wei Yi had already said their title, their name in this world, and she was not going to let it be the last time. There needed to be war, and she would make sure that it would come for all of them.


    Before then, of course, she needed to return to Paragon, and she wished to do so without the use of the Kong Prison Realm, just so that the exact location of the desert fortress would not be revealed to the Greats before they learned of it some other way. There was still a lot that she could do if her location was unknown, so spilling it and unveiling the secret of the current state of the Kong Prison Realm would be a shame just to make it back more quickly. Once she had no other choice, then she could unleash the full power that instant transportation across the world offered, and the Greats would then learn just who they thought they could treat as a servant.


    Going straight back was an option, but for the moment that she was concealed from their gaze and spiritual perception, she had a much better idea in the form of heading to a room that she had found within their mansion.


    Due to not using perception in order to not break her cover, she hadn¡¯t looked into it before, but nearly everything about it screamed that it was a treasury or otherwise a place for the storage of valuables. If she didn¡¯t take at least something from them, she would be extremely disappointed with herself. Every little thing she takes, after all, is yet another loss for the Great Families, so why wouldn¡¯t she go all out?


    Wei Yi broke right through the door, ignoring the feeble attempts of the lock to resist her. The Greats did appear to expect at least one intruder to this place, but none of them seemed to expect anything more than a casual thug breaking in, hence setting up no inscriptions or arrays to protect it at all. On the inside, she was able to confirm all of the things that she had noticed with her spiritual perception: large boxes, bottles and whatever else of various alchemical materials, but, more importantly, pills and even some elixirs, some of which she could recognise from some of her earlier battles with the Greats.


    Some would undoubtedly accelerate regeneration, so she consumed those first, making sure to purge any impurities from within them while consuming them as to not suffer from any potential detrimental effects that might be lodged within them, then proceeded onto the cultivation resources that were also stored there, which did confuse her to a certain extent. There were plenty of materials sufficient for the regular person to reach the seventh realm a hundred times over, so long as they did not waste a single drop of the energy within them, and yet all of the Greats were still in their distinct realms, with the third generation being in the Emergent Anchor realm, the second being in the Marked Core realm, and the first being in the Oblivion Halo realm.


    This confirmed one of her earlier thoughts on the matter of them stalling their advancement until a very specific point in time, as they would have no other reason to stock up on that many items if they didn¡¯t intend to go through two realms in one go. This was something that wouldn¡¯t be advised unless their foundation had been fully established and prepared for a whole two realms of improvement, but it still seemed like a rather odd thing to do no matter how prepared they were.


    ¡®The only possibility that I can currently think of is that they are all aware, to some extent, of the limited quantity of energy within the world at the moment, and wish to maintain a certain balance through their disgusting practises. They can rest assured, then, that I shall put everything that they have collected to good use and cleanse them from existence, freeing the world of their blight once and for all,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she collected everything she could into the House of Gold, filling it up by as much as possible while devouring the pills that she could immediately digest.


    Mostly, that included the pills that already contained energy within them and simply needed to be converted into one¡¯s own power, since she not only had a vast pool of energy that was simply waiting to be filled, but also the bloodline of the Greats that she could trigger at any time. With it, absorbing their energy was easier, even if she hated doing it.


    All of this was complete in moments, with her entirely ignoring the few artefacts that were present simply because they would occupy too much space and be too difficult for her to use, and yet their attention already managed to return to her after breaking the illusion of the Dao of Law. She could distinctly sense their spiritual perception rushing through the broken door and towards her position, as she had made sure to learn exactly what it felt like as to be able to avoid it in the future, and thus finished up her robbery by punching right through the wall and escaping out of the newly made side entrance to their property.


    She could not move faster than spiritual perception of the fifth realm, not even if she was to manifest some divine movement skill of the fourth realm, but she did not intend to simply flee.


    Instead, she leapt onto a hill some distance from the mansion and gathered Obliteration energy within her own hands, as well as that of the Titanic Conqueror, then shot everything into the sky once more, using the surplus low-quality energy that she had already digested by that point to flood the sky above the building with as much of the black and crimson energy as it could possibly fit, not caring about the figures that rushed out of it, for they couldn¡¯t help but raise their heads to look.


    The moment that happened, she brought the skies down upon them, or so it looked like from the side, as an enormous sphere of energy that gathered in the air erupted into a devastating beam a dozen times the size that had previously pierced their roof. Even now, that hole was still present, and it helped Wei Yi to compare just how different their sizes were when this beam crashed down upon the mansion, completely consuming it and the hole within it, even catching those who were still inside and burning all of them with a similar fury.


    Naturally, she knew that there were other servants inside, others that had been controlled by the power of the Great Families, but from the way in which the technique to subjugate their minds worked, she knew that she could do nothing to help them recover.


    It took the very cultivation of a person, including their dantian, and forced it all into an energy that would forcefully drain the mind, turning the brain into something that would merely coordinate the signals forced into it by the Greats. The challenge wasn¡¯t just to break that, but to completely recreate the identities of the people there, which was far more difficult than repairing the damage to Min Lian¡¯s mind back in the prison realm. This needed a complete reconstruction, and even if she met everyone who had known those people and spoke to them, she would hardly get an ideal image. Furthermore, and one of the reasons that she didn¡¯t even want to try, was the way in which Min Lian had been permanently affected by a single mistake in the execution of the reconnection process.


    She had already inflicted it upon one, and she didn¡¯t want to create puppets for herself with those same flaws out of the bodies present at the mansion. Ending their lives was a mercy for them.


    As soon as the last wisp of Obliteration energy left her hands, she fled, and a moment later, the Titanic Conqueror vanished when the energy that it had been channelling also expired. All of that immense power that had been conjured from within the entity soared into the sky, not needing a guiding hand, joined with the crashing beam, and also fell upon the Great Ping Family¡¯s mansion, obliterating it entirely.


    Although she was able to hear the wavering of some of the cores, it was insufficient to shatter a single one despite her having her Endless Monolith down behind her, which she naturally picked up the moment that she rushed away, and did so with no hesitation at all.


    The moment that she vanished from that spot, a dozen concentrated point beams fell upon it, but she was already gone by then, combining the fact that the World¡¯s Echo physique ability permitted her to keep her momentum. She used it to soar into the air, conquer it with the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, and then blink further into the distance, using the built up momentum to extend the distance of each blink and vastly accelerate her own journey. In moments, she was gone from that clearing amidst the mountains, and on top of one of them, then hastened even further out through the mountainous peaks.


    Behind her, the Greats would undoubtedly be angry at her destruction of their property, and perhaps some would chase after her, but while she knew that they possessed some methods to rapidly free from her own attacks, she was much faster than any of them could ever be without the assistance of some high-grade artefact, all of which were either destroyed or damaged by Obliteration.


    When she had been arriving to the Great Ping Family mansion, she had been doing so with fury boiling within her heart, and while she left it with that having multiplied by a thousand times, there was also a trace of joy within her. She had learnt not only what Testament was ¨C that being a place, a spatial realm to the west of something ¨C but also partly what it was for, and more importantly now knew the right approach when fighting one of the Greats.


    If she couldn¡¯t kill them outright, then piercing their defences and wounding them was not ideal. Instead, she had to shred their anchors, each and every single one of them. That way, the Greats would lose them and then either be faced with the prospect of ending their own lives so that their generation could be remade with new anchors and weaker experience and cultivation, or to keep on going with less of their power available to them. Certainly, she was sure that assisting them in losing even more of their anchors than they already had through the passage of time would be glorious, for they had closer to forty-seven when one of them had entered the Kong Prison Realm, and only had around thirty-eight on average now.


    She could also instruct her Arbiters in ways to damage specifically the anchors and not the people behind them, preventing them from having the chance to end the lives of one of their own in mercy and then remaking their generation while impacting their future combat ability.


    To ensure that any of her pursuers didn¡¯t have a clue where to follow her, she split herself via the Red Phantom Flood as to travel as far in different directions as she could, scattering the ones she didn¡¯t need and then proceeding with the one that had been going vaguely in the wrong direction, before making use of Aerial Platforms that changed their element and aura with each one that she placed as to make it even more difficult to follow her. After all, even if they were to know that she could switch elements, they couldn¡¯t know whether any aura belonged to her or to someone else.


    However, she did not rush back to Paragon right away, for that would be slightly complicated with the vast quantity of energy that bubbled inside of her body at that moment. Wei Yi had eaten quite a few cultivation pills before rushing out of the mansion, and although she could handle all of them at first, the quantity of energy was truly quite high, and could be used for at least one breakthrough if she didn¡¯t squander it on the move.


    In order to best make use of that building power and to be at her best when arriving at the desert fortress, she concluded that she would be better off stalling for a few moments, although that meant something closer to around a few days in order to get through everything that she had wished to process. There were some pills that would be useful to ordinary cultivators of the fourth and fifth realm, which would greatly assist those in Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm, but some of the resources were solely useful to people in the sixth and seventh realm, which happened to also mean that it would be of incredible use to her.


    For the purpose of doing this smoothly and safely, she split apart with the Red Phantom Flood a few more times, enduring the horrific torment that the technique forced upon her mind, strong as it was in most other aspects, then finally found and settled within a cave on the side of a rather large mountain that she had found.


    She locked it away, sealed it off with rocks and arrays and inscriptions, then settled in and consumed pill bottle after pill bottle, consuming all of the energy within them to force her own advancement.


    ¡°Now, let us all begin the Life Spark Sensing ceremony. We must inspect and confirm whether or not Ping Wu remains alive, and whether the words of the Ping, Bai and the Luo can be confirmed,¡± an elderly figure shrouded in darkness said, a number of others like him nodding along with his words, ¡°Ping Fu, stand.¡±


    The woman obeyed, rising while she kept her gaze down, although a trace of anger within her mind tempted her to raise it and demand that action was taken by their word alone, without requiring the confirmation of the ceremony. After all, they had all seen that woman, Wei Yi, with her full cultivation despite the letter that had been sent. They had seen her shred through their mansion with a clear sense of purpose in her eyes and an obvious degree of consciousness and intelligence that could never be missed by anyone, no matter how terrible they might have been at their attempt to purge a mind.


    A number of their very own number died before their eyes while their home was destroyed, and yet the first generation wanted to wait? It was preposterous!


    ¡°Calm yourself, Ping Fu. Remember what we had spoken about,¡± Bai Chao reminded her.


    That helped the flames of fury to fade, just a little bit. The first generation tended to act more like machines than men most of the time, and to pull them away from such a state would greatly endanger their cause. As such, while their insistence on protocol and following the ancient rules of all proceedings was incredibly frustrating, it was something that had to be followed if the purpose of the Greats was to be followed and preserved.


    The figures of the first generation raised their hands, their power gathering in a single point amidst the darkness, into which one of the Great Ping¡¯s first generation released a droplet of blood.


    It was frozen in the air there, hovering for a little while before a faint light pulsed from it, moving slowly at first but accelerating rapidly, spreading out and coming into contact with Ping Fu. Her own blood trembled for a moment, the movements being relayed to the droplet, but for the light to go further, to sense more than those residing in that place, the very matter that caused it to be a monthly ritual needed to be put to use. A powerful array deep within that realm ignited, all of the energy that had gathered over the past month suddenly erupting outwards.


    There was no single point from which all of that energy came out in the Planar Continents. Instead, it surged from every single member of the Great Families, anyone that somehow possessed any of their blood, and the many objects that they had touched and left behind.


    It was an eighth realm principle, one that far surpassed the seventh realm capabilities of those currently using it, hence the build-up time. To resonate with the entire world consumed far more energy that could be manifested within a day by those of the limited seventh realm, but with a month to spare, excessive power could be siphoned off for the purpose of being used in all kinds of processes and rituals that the Greats required.


    All of the individual points pulsed with the same light that had spread out from the droplet of blood in the air, and quickly spread throughout the Western Continent, but the image that it provided looked grim, to say the least. Quickly, the individual districts were all ruled out, and soon the waves were spreading only into the wilderness while the second and first generation alike looked upon the map that they also used to track down those who used their title. Both had their eyes focused upon it, but the two generations had very different purposes in gazing upon the map, and very different reasons for being so focused upon it.


    The first generation naturally wished to learn of the location of Ping Wu, whether or not he was alive, but the second generation that had been present at the fight at the Great Ping Family mansion, Ping Fu especially, desired to know where it was that one of their children had perished, and whether it was truly the Rebel that had been responsible for it.


    Although they were confident of his demise, they had no idea whether it had been the woman calling herself Wei Yi, or if she had merely taken advantage of the situation, and whether Ping Wu had the chance to leave the place from which he had sent his message. While his body may have been dead and lifeless, without a beat or breath, the remnant energy of the anchors was bound to give them a better idea of his location, and answer those questions that burned at their minds as they waited for a spark to appear upon the map.


    However, there was nothing. Not a single light upon the map, nor a flash in some distant point.


    ¡°I knew it! I had told you, and¡­¡± Ping Fu attempted to quieten her rage so that her words could be delivered with any degree of reliability and be in any way convincing, ¡°The Rebel had already attacked us once, and we must prevent her from doing so again!¡±


    Bai Chao stepped up and added, ¡°Judging by the message from the late Ping Wu, we can presume that the Rebel and any forces she has will be residing somewhere near, if not in, the abandoned fortress once used by the Master of Yi City. If we assault it at this very moment, it is unlikely to be in a state suitable for proper defence and will allow us to root out the Rebels before they have any chance to influence our activities.¡±


    Their words were heard by the first generation, and they were considered for some time before a reply was given.


    Once five stages and four perfected stages were achieved, the next step was to unlock the unique feature of the fourth realm that only Wei Yi would achieve with her attainment of every single perfected stage so far, and she was very excited to see exactly what she would achieve. She had spent several days simply sitting around and cultivating, absorbing as much of the energy of the resources that she had taken as she could, and had naturally developed her other forms of energy at the same time.


    With the vast quantity of energy rapidly surging throughout her body, the easiest things to develop were her physique energy and bloodline power, both of which had partly lagged behind her mental energies. She had wanted to develop her own bloodline by a realm or two, but she was unfortunately only able to bring it up to the next realm of Echo Awakening, reaching the third stage by the time that her mid-realm breakthrough was approaching. As before, each single stage increased the power of all of her forms of energy by a small degree, and as most other states of cultivation and their stages, the moment that she passed from the ninth stage to the first stage of the second realm, she acquired the same benefit as she might have obtained from regular planar cultivation.


    Her bloodline power had naturally become denser and more stable outside of her body with the second realm, and it felt easier to switch between her killing will form and regular state than before, but other than that, she witnessed no grandiose transformations.


    That much was to be expected, however, since her bloodline was that of the Ascendant, not of some other inhuman entity. All that would deepen would be her own condition, making it more stable and difficult to alter, potentially limiting her own aging further than just her planar energy would, and her most striking features did become slightly more prominent¡­ which include the recently acquired one, although, fortunately, the change was slight.


    Without a full breakthrough of a realm, instead only reaching the ninth stage of her physique energy, she had also not gotten to experience any particular changes, but she had managed to ascend a few of her physique abilities by a stage or two. Her newly strengthened Superior Bright Star ability was able to make the shine of her eyes brighter, and more importantly strengthened her Conqueror¡¯s Eye through some collaboration of eye-based energies. The Human Immortal Mortal ability further increased the width and strength of her five sets of meridians, permitting them to channel even more energy than they could before.


    The Pure Restorative Spring and the Superior Vitality Siphon abilities would both permit her to heal the people under her more swiftly, allowing her to channel more lifeforce out of her body at any time, although that would first need to be refilled from the Kong Prison Realm before she could safely employ her full capacity.


    Being named in much the same fashion as many other physique abilities, the Superior Energy Pylon did much of the same, and would be particularly useful in advancing the cultivation of her Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, as well as hopefully permitting their level of cultivation to reach more acceptable and useful levels within a shorter period of time without her needing to invoke that which was held within the anchor energy points. Speaking of those, she currently had more than a thousand of them, and with what far fewer could achieve, she suspected that she might be able to revitalise the world with them.


    With the Mortal Lion¡¯s Roar and, more importantly, the Mortal World¡¯s Echo abilities, the names of which had also clearly been following a system of their own, she could achieve a significant amount, although only the latter was of significant use. As her ability to move further in a single blink of the world, and to remain absent from the world for a few instants longer, her ability to resist attacks and rapidly move on a battlefield would be greatly improved.


    Then, two movement type abilities had also developed, with the Mystical Bridge ability awakening to permit her to transport any troops that might travel with her to cross gaps that only she could previously handle, while the Superior Aerial Foothold would aid her own capacity in that field.


    Her Titanic Conqueror, which was now the permanent state of the Titanic Demolisher ability without sacrificing any of the initial abilities that it had possessed, and in fact strengthening it with double the number of hands that it had before this, had advanced, but she wasn¡¯t sure that the older names would be suitable for it. Instead, she pulled from the theoretical names for the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, and thus named the advanced state the True Titanic Conqueror. Each of the abilities that it could use were empowered, but if she made use of the four quarters of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye herself, they would be unaffected.


    Additionally, she had acquired the Humanity Lance ability, one that she had taken a long, long time ago and had not awakened so far. The rest of the abilities from a similar vein didn¡¯t prove to be too significant in her journey so far, but she did consider the acquisition of yet another combat ability to be an ultimately beneficial one due to the overall strengthening of her physique.


    Wei Yi had hoped to acquire one of the otherworldly physiques through these developments, but she did not feel a single one of them being even slightly tempted to awaken, and did begin to suspect that this would not be something within her range of abilities. Whether due to her lack of an azure light, some incompatibility between the Yin-Yang Ascendant and the otherworldly physiques, or something else entirely, it might be impossible for the Mirrored Being or the Martial God abilities to be acquired by her. A shame, but an expected one.


    ¡®The breakthrough is clearly approaching. My pool of energy is full, the core is shimmering with energy, and I am ready¡­ I had some clue of what the Endless Monolith might be, but the core hasn¡¯t been cracking, quaking, changing¡­ Really makes one wonder just what the world has in store for me.¡¯


    She briefly confirmed the state of her arrays and other defences, making sure that she wouldn¡¯t be in any danger while her core would be out in the world, surrounding her and the Endless Monolith during her breakthrough, then shut her eyes once more, immersing herself within the darkness. Allowing all of her energy to approach a breakthrough, to approach that edge until the next half of the realm, she prepared and waited.


    After less than a month of being in the Active Core realm, she approached the fifth stage.

 V4C31: The Shell of the Deep

    Her cosmic energy, the chains shining and shimmering from its depths, surged into the core, surrounding it, wrapping it, enforcing it, and enhancing it.


    Slowly, everything within her dantian, even the energy being provided by the nascent rift within her Monolith, was drained out, flooding towards that crystalline entity around her, filling it to the brim with more and more power, as if it wanted to ascend into something entirely different through the sheer concentration of energy. Perhaps that was what she was seeing, for with each breath, the crystalline surface deepened.


    After a moment, she also felt her physique energy and bloodline power rise out of her body and into the core, and, once she pondered it for a little while and considered what the best and worst possible result of allowing those two things to mix in such a way could be, she permitted it. There had been no poor reactions between her five forms of energy so far, with that only changing when she made use of the Dao of Law to force such a clash to occur, and thus all that she could reasonably expect were positive outcomes, of which she could imagine quite a few.


    There might be some benefits to her energy, to her anchor, to her future advancement, but what she cared about the most in the moment was whether it would permit any kind of power multiplier like the Endless Monolith had done before it. Any kind of extreme multiplier like that was immensely helpful when her energy was already this effective since it would just bring it to a whole new level.


    It had to be mentioned that Wei Yi had only been able to handle those in the Great Ping Family mansion due to her poisoning and tricking of her enemies, neither of which she expected to be able to do twice unless the Greats were fond of drinking from a particular well that she could poison in advance. As such, if she did suddenly become far stronger than before, gaining the benefit of the bloodline power and another doubling of her current strength, she might be able to display similar abilities on the battlefield even if she showed up out of nowhere, while the Greats were at their strongest. That would be ideal, and thus she didn¡¯t think that it would happen that easily.


    Rather, what was far more likely was something akin to the illusory core of the second realm, which had allowed her to prepare for this realm and thus reinforce her cultivation in advance, something that very few typically get to enjoy due to the difficulty of doing such a thing successfully.


    Either way, she would see the result soon, as all that she needed was a drop more of her energy to fill the core, and then she knew that she would attain¡­ it, whatever it would be. The effective half-way point of the fourth realm for the Ascendant, the reward for acquiring every single perfected realm that had been in her path so far. It could be enormous, or insignificant, or perhaps just something slight, but so long as she got it, she would hardly complain.


    With that one drop, she felt two distinct changes occur almost immediately.


    First, her illusory core, the one that still resided around her dantian, suddenly became solid, literally flashing into solidity and into crystal right before her eyes, as if it had been like that the entire time and only changed the state in which it appeared to her. It matched the state of the core around her Endless Monolith, which currently existed in an illusory state around her, but as the core around that solidified as well, it was the formerly illusory core that had actually begun to change, imposing itself over her momentarily as it entered the same breakthrough state as the rest of her cultivation attainments did in order to break through.


    It thickened, becoming denser and denser, until the core could hardly be said to be crystalline. Instead, it resembled some kind of thick shell, a dense chitin with a number of clear layers akin to scales, layering over one another and giving the entire structure a certain shape with the many individual steps of chitin or whatever it was.


    The illusory core that had previously seemed secondary was a little bit smaller than the core that always stayed around her monolith, and it remained that way, thus granting her two individual layers of defence around herself and, later, her dantian, or a layer for the defence of both it and the monolith. However, if that had been its only function, she would not have been as amazed by what it permitted her, for it instead almost forced her to observe the ability that it possessed as it forced what little energy she had managed to regenerate out of her body.


    Within the dark, her cosmic energy was particularly prominent, glowing brightly and overwhelmingly, permitting her to see that it was not a dense solid as before, but a perfectly cut and shaped crystal.


    ¡®Crystalline energy outside of my dantian and body? That is a reasonable step up, but¡­ does that not mean that I will be able to create planar constructs and arrays that are simply superior to that of others due to the sheer variance in the stability of solid and crystalline energy? If so, then that is something incredibly worthy of a mid-realm breakthrough, and only requires a name to be given,¡¯ she glanced at the Truth of the Universe, but the characters did not choose to shape themselves into new words.


    They still displayed the technique that she might have been using to advance her realm if not for the fact that she had stepped onto a path separate from the one that Kong Shi Meng had conceived, and nothing she could do seemed to stir them.


    Thus, with no better choice in this particular matter, she could do little more than attempt to figure out some proper term for the new core on her own. The last time, with her Endless Monolith, at the very least she had some basic inspiration from the other realms and the ideas of Yi Shi Ming, but now she had to turn to the stone around her, the darkness that she was currently in, and the thoughts of what creature might possess such a dense, dark chitin around its body. Perhaps inevitably, her mind was drawn to the images of the stygian entities summoned by the Abyssal Eye, and thus she knew that the name would somehow relate to the underground, and to the depths.


    ¡®With nothing better to go with, I shall call it a Subterranean Shell. If someone else had ever achieved this same state, perhaps they will have had a better name for it, but for now, this shall be what I use,¡¯ she thoughts as the shell and core alike retreated into her body, the breakthrough concluding without further fanfare.


    She stood up, managing to control herself better than the first time she had benefitted from a great deal of development and thus not impacting into the ceiling of the cave as she rose.


    With the renewed power of her physique energy, she cleansed her body, put her clothing back on, and then absorbed the energy from all of the arrays that she had scattered around in order to safeguard her position, energy and whatever else someone might be seeking. As her energy had become denser and stronger, it filled slightly less of her planar pool than the energy had originally taken up, but that deficit was quickly filled up with her nascent rift, which she suspected that she might be able to begin expanding if she was given a week or two of quiet to work on a way to push it directly into the thirty or forty percent state of openness. Once everything had been recovered and retrieved, she headed to the sealed opening into the cave and smashed the rocks in her path with ease.


    On the outside, through the small opening within the stone cavern in which she had found her resting cave, she could see the rays of sunlight pouring through, confirming that it was a new day, and that she ought to hurry.


    It had already been four days since she escaped, and nine since she had left, so while she did not believe that the Kong Prison Realm would be in any danger, nor would Paragon be under the immediate threat of assault or discovery, she did not wish to leave it alone any longer than she absolutely needed to. On one hand, she could offer her protection to it once again, but on the other, her strengthened physique abilities and general skills were bound to assist her forces significantly in their race towards realms in which they could affect the overall incoming war.


    Thus, she leapt out of that cavern, collapsed it so that there would be no convenient trace of her to follow that she might have somehow missed, ensuring that she covered it up with the Dao of Law to make the fall of rocks seem natural, and rushed out. Wei Yi knew vaguely where she was in relation to the things of interest to her, and so all she needed was to run towards the Chao District, then north.


    Something like that could be done within a day or two when without a handicap in the form of Shun Liu Min, who lacked the strength and speed to permit her to move at the optimal pace through the sands, and so she was intent on achieving it in no more time than was absolutely necessary.


    Before getting right into it, however, she briefly confirmed the range at which she was able to control and stabilise her own energy, as it was something separate from spiritual will or spiritual perception range that she had plenty of at the moment. Even with her perfected stages and realms, that was still far smaller than she would have liked, but, in theory, the core was one of the best methods for stabilising energy.


    As such, when she brought some of her crystalline energy out of her body and spread it in a gem-like thread into the distance, she was pleased to confirm that her guess did have some accuracy. Normally, her energy would only have twice the regular stable range of someone in the fourth realm, which was already decent at around fifty metres for the average person, but she was now able to stretch it far past a hundred metres while maintaining that crystalline state. Once it went up to two hundred metres, she found that while she was able to keep going, but it would lose the crystalline state if she was intent to continuing to control it as opposed to simply letting it float and dissipate on its own.


    With that experiment yielding some incredibly fortunate results, she proceeded on, hoping for no interruptions or delays on her journey.


    At times, when someone wished to do things one way, or when they had a particular focus on their mind, they would suddenly find something to distract them, and have that something be of significant enough significance that they have no choice but to be pulled away from their task and pursuit in order to examine whatever this distraction was. It happened to the scatter-brained, and to the most composed, and while there were certainly many things that could be said about her, Wei Yi was not immune.


    Only a short time after her departure from the cave in which she had completed her breakthrough, she had come across a series of tall mountains that were right by one another, creating a rather picturesque set of peaks on which to gaze upon. However, it was not this that caught her eye, but a strange sense of familiarity.


    It was that vague yet oddly accurate sense of the cultivator that she had previously followed to a minimum of an appropriate success, and sometimes even greater achievement.


    Due to this, when she encountered it this time, and the stronger that sense got, the more she was tempted to depart from her original course through the lands and see just what it was that was calling her towards it. She did not remember seeing this particular set of mountains anywhere, nor did coming closer rouse any memories, and yet that only seemed to encourage that strange focus upon these peaks, or, more precisely, the places in which they connected to the flatter ground around them.


    In her mind, at the very least, there was something of importance there, and she had to not miss it in order to attain success. This seemed doubtful, but she nonetheless sought out the very source of that odd sensation.


    That feeling was strongest at the opening of yet another cave, narrow and small as it was, so while she had no clear reason to go inside of it, she chose to pursue the mental lead nonetheless. Her trust of the natural sense of a cultivator was one thing, but she had also spotted a very faint yet noticeable aura around this place, one of incredible age and stability.


    In a world where some could live to the age of a million, this might not seem particularly unusual, but it had to be noted that the vast majority of current landscapes were not quite as they were only a few hundred years ago. Whenever cultivators of high realms fought, especially when a lone powerful figure was attempting to combat a larger group, they tended to get the terrain involved in order to benefit themselves as much as possible despite the disadvantage in numbers. One of the easiest ways to force people into travelling in a certain way was to raise impassable mountains ¨C Wei Yi had done it too.


    Thus, a number of modern landmarks were only created some hundred years ago, while others had been changed significantly over time as random people found some reason to fight near or atop them and deformed their shape until they were no longer recognisable, but interested people all over again, forcing maps to be redrawn. It was a tedious process for some, undoubtedly, but it became far less necessary as the individual districts lost more and more of their connections.


    By this time, there were few enough traders and travellers that only the local surroundings of a district needed to be known, and few dared to attack them, leaving their landscapes mostly stagnant.


    The mountains before her had to have changed as well, and yet there was this ancient aura to every single minor stone, pebble and weak stalk of grass that somehow survived as it grew out of a small crack in the stone. Something here was not as simple as it looked, that was certain.


    As a result, she decided to descend into the cave and find out just what it was.


    For the first few minutes of travel, ones that were cautious enough to avoid falling into any clear traps, of which she found none, but not so slow as to lead her to making too little progress, she did not come across much of interest, although that did begin to change as she got deeper and deeper into the cave. At first, the faint current of wind and air that still passed through the cave stalled, freezing entirely and disappearing to leave her with stale air that did not appear to have shifted for decades.


    Then, any traces of light that somehow still made it in also faded, leaving her in absolute darkness, forcing her to use the Superior Bright Star ability to be able to see a single thing.


    Even then, the light of the ability was somehow swallowed up by the darkness, as if it was a conscious entity that wished to feed upon the sustenance that she provided to it, preventing the rays of light from heading any further than they absolutely needed to go. The conquering of the area around her was also significantly more difficult, and she was barely able to maintain it with a large enough radius around herself to permit her to see the walls and floor of the cave. It was not necessarily dangerous, perhaps simply being connected to the ancient nature of the place, but it did not help the theory that there was another consciousness here.


    After some time, even the sounds that she made seemed to get muted out, leaving her with naught.


    ¡®This has to be the quietest, darkest, and least pleasant place that I¡¯ve ever been in. Even the Realm of Potential is brightened by my presence ¨C literally, since I am the only thing that stands out amidst the darkness until I summon something else ¨C but this has none of that. Even my energy can barely illuminate a single thing,¡¯ Wei Yi noted to herself, continuing to stride forward.


    It had been a vague sensation at first, but she now thought that she recognised the place to some extent, although she still couldn¡¯t find anything that matched it within the Ascendant¡¯s Library.


    To be entirely fair, there was hardly much that she could actually match without the walls, floor of ceiling of the cave being visible, nor without having any idea of what was contained within, so it was likely that it was closer to the sense of the area being familiar to her rather than the area itself. With that understanding, there were several things that she could think of, but nothing would be as effective a confirmation as finding whatever was at the end.


    Whatever it was, it either would or wouldn¡¯t be of use by the end, wherever that was.


    The fact that there was so much more to these depths than one might expect in terms of oddities, meaning the light-consuming darkness, the strange sturdiness of the stone beneath her feet despite it being no different from anything else she had seen in her lifetime, the absolute absence of sound and the simple way in which this place seemed to call her, did make her intrigued to learn whether there was a kind of potential peak to these phenomena. Was there a cave out there in which the darkness lived and spoke, in which sound would be devoured, or was this the full extent of what she was currently experiencing?


    One thing that she was able to confirm was the fact that her Subterranean Shell was named aptly when it comes to aesthetics, at the very least, as it looked to be something that she could find in a place such as this, where she was bound to be far deeper than any of those abyssal tunnels had taken her.


    It had no special abilities relating to the depths or the dark, which was hardly surprising given the fact that she had used nothing but aesthetics and coincidence to name it, but the Abyssal Eye would be very likely to be empowered in such a place, although she did not currently require it either to call out monsters or to transport her somewhere, as she would first need a destination in mind. She did believe that there was a destination, but the gap between that and knowing where it was is rather large, forcing her to keep on walking.


    Her natural clock, perhaps the best method of keeping time that she had at her possession without the Kong Prison Realm or Paragon being within reach for her to question someone there or to put a clock there to keep track of time for her, was struggling to understand anything by the time that she finally found something of interest. Even then, it was not so much of a discovery as a sound.


    A faint, metallic sound, from somewhere far away, being carried through the cave passages reluctantly, much the same way in which all other sound was utterly devoured.


    The sound was faint enough for many to have likely missed it in any area with even a bit more ambient noise than this, but it stood out amidst an absence of anything for her to listen to, and she had also been waiting for something, anything, to give her even the faintest clue of where she was supposed to be going. Most of the cave tunnel was entirely linear, but that didn¡¯t help when she couldn¡¯t guess when it ended or where it did so, meaning that she could only keep moving.


    Now, however, that could change, as she could put her Endless Calculation to use. Whatever the metallic sound was, it had reached her successfully, meaning that it passed through the tunnels and to her ear. It arrived in a certain way, meaning that she could calculate exactly where it came from.


    With only a single clue to go off of, the process was slow, but she then heard another, similar yet different noise from the same place in the void before her, and thus her mental skill was able to quickly confirm its guess and deliver her a very basic idea of where she was supposed to be going in order to reach that sound. Fortunately, basic or not, it still gave her far more of an idea than anything had up to this point, and it did mean that she didn¡¯t have to walk around and question why she even thought that it was a good idea to go into this place. It might still turn out to be a terrible idea, but at the very least she would find out why that was or wasn¡¯t the case.


    Wei Yi sped up, rushing through the cave as quickly as she could, taking advantage of the fact that the strongest forces that she was able to inflict onto the floor and walls did nothing at all to leap through the passages as quickly as she wanted to, which was rather fast for any cultivator. It could be said that her heels would have broken a thousand times if not for their material, but that was also true in many other situations, and would thus not describe the situation as accurately as one may want it to when bringing up such an example.


    After a while, her spiritual perception was finally able to glimpse some end to the cave, prompting her to slow down only to hear that strange sound again, close by.


    Due to her current proximity, she was able to understand that it was not some simple collision of metal, but rather the rattling of chains when one attempted to pull themselves free without much success. From the sound, it was clear that they were large and thick, and that this sound was coming from a point very near to her, prompting her to activate the Superior Bright Star physique ability to give her a little bit of light which she had previously removed just in case.


    It was what she saw then that made her instantly recall exactly why she knew this place.


    The furthest wall of the cave was flat and large, with enough space for ten people to lay themselves head to foot without reaching both edges, and with a height of eight metres. On the high left and right corners, two great and thick chains were attached to the stone, leading down and to the middle of the wall.


    There, a female figure was bound with them, the chains wrapping around her arms and forcing them to remain up in the air. Through the minimal light, horns that grew from the top of her forehead and then arced back and around could be seen on her head, the clear shapes of breasts and an obvious femininity to her figure could be seen, and the stone ground around her was covered in a number of faint stains of an uncertain origin, with all but their presence having disappeared over the years. At the moment that she arrived, the figure seemed to sleep, her head down, long and messy hair obscuring her face and trailing onto the ground. Something covered her body, although it was hard to know what.


    She was positioned at to be kneeling on the ground, which hardly made for a comfortable position to be in when combined with the chains forcefully stretching her arms out as far as they could.


    Despite the certain oddity of finding such a figure beneath the ground, so far into a cave, where no light or sound seemed to reach, Wei Yi did recognise the scene, all of it. Before this, she had seen it within the illusory array of the Kong District, where she had noted that such a scene being used to keep people out was certainly an odd choice by whoever had created it. Back then, she had theorised that the illusions may have been mirrors to the world, although whether they were merely inspired by it or if they showed the current state of things was uncertain at the time.


    Now, however, she was almost certain that she had been seeing what truly was at the time.


    ¡°I¡­¡± she remembered what she had said all that time ago, licking her suddenly dry lips, ¡°I appear to be able to rescue you now¡­¡±


    Her words did not seem able to reach anyone, and there should have been no way for that woman to still be alive after all of the time that had passed since the time that she had seen this place within the Kong District. So far as she could tell, this woman had no opportunities at all to acquire food, drink, to absorb energy to sustain herself as planar energy down here was nearly non-existent.


    And yet, despite that, Wei Yi could distinctly see the slight rise and fall of her breasts.


    She was alive, breathing whatever passed for air in this place. Blood pumped through her veins, passing beneath the inhuman looking skin, and her arms occasionally quivered. That was what had caused the chains to shake every now and then, giving her some notion of where the sound that had brought her here in the first place had come from. Despite all of the time since she had last seen her, and all of the years since she must have first been imprisoned, this strange woman lived on.


    Alerted by her voice, the horned figure raised her head slowly, perhaps not believing Wei Yi to be anything more than a figment of her own imagination.


    However, what she saw was the glow of a single pair of eyes, and a humanoid figure around them.


    ¡°You¡¯re¡­ back? You¡¯ve come back?¡± the woman¡¯s voice was also unchanged from the last time that she had heard it, except it contained an unmistakable and extreme degree of joy that seemed entirely impossible to top. It was if she had been waiting for a thousand years for her, ¡°I knew it! I knew that you would return, one day¡­ Thank you¡­¡±


    A tear fell from her eye, and then another and another, until they were streaming without anything to stop them. Not a single thing had even been done yet, and she was still overjoyed.


    After quite some time, since Wei Yi did not want to interrupt her while she was getting her emotions out of her system, she spoke up, ¡°Um¡­ I should be able to break those, but could I ask you one thing first?¡±


    ¡°Ask me? Sure. I can tell you anything you like!¡±


    ¡°Right. Those horns on your head ¨C were they always there?¡± she asked, since this figure acted, spoke and was in many ways akin to a human, but the horns and the oddity of the hue of her skin, which was an unnatural red that stood out rather significantly from the grey around her the moment that there was enough light present to see it, made her seem to be anything other than a human. She had no physique energy within her, so it couldn¡¯t have been some particular physique transformation, and Wei Yi could not sense any bloodline power within her blood either.


    Judging by the way that the horned woman cocked her head, her eyebrow rising in question, she was not the only one confused, ¡°What horns? Where? On me?¡±


    ¡°Yes. If you don¡¯t mind, I could come up to you and touch them, see if you can feel them.¡±


    ¡°Alright. Feel free to do anything. I don¡¯t mind. I just want to see the sun and¡­ maybe see my home again. It¡¯s probably been a while since I got in here, though, so it likely wouldn¡¯t be the same¡­ Maybe someone tore it down, or rebuilt it¡­¡±


    While paying attention to what the crimson-skinned woman was saying, Wei Yi got closer to her and lightly touched one of the curved, dark horns.


    ¡°Hm? I felt something¡­ I didn¡¯t have anything there when I got locked up here¡­¡±


    ¡°Also, about that. You were obviously chained up at some point, that much is clear, but could you tell me which year that was? It isn¡¯t necessary, but I think that both of us would like to have some idea of how long you¡¯ve spent here,¡± she said, noting the current odd eagerness with which she spoke before adding, ¡°Again, you don¡¯t need to, if you don¡¯t want to.¡±


    Despite that, she went to answer right away, ¡°I think it was¡­ the thirty-first year of the forty-seventh age.¡±


    ¡°¡­ The what now? Age? Years in an age¡­ How much is an age?¡±


    ¡°Each age is a hundred years.¡±


    Wei Yi frowned and completed a quick calculation, but the outcome was hardly were believable. However, it did cause a potential answer to dawn upon her, prompting her to ask, ¡°Do you know of a place called Yi City, or a man that is called the Master of Yi City¡­ or maybe someone called Kong Shi Meng?¡±


    The first two were well known all over the Western Continent and Eastern Continent alike, from what she knew, and had been for a million years, but the woman showed no recognition of them, or the earlier name of the Master of Yi City that he might have gone by at first.


    ¡°By the way, I am Wei Yi. What is your name?¡±


    ¡°I am Jia Rong,¡± the horned woman replied, although the enthusiasm had also faded from her words while she was deep in thought.


    ¡°Jia Rong¡­ I may be wrong about this, but¡­ you may have been alive for more than a million years.¡±

 V4C32: A Woman Lost in Time

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, while that did snap her out of the contemplative state that she had been in, she still looked at her in disbelief and almost amusement, perhaps interpreting the words as a joke. Anyone else would have likely done so, and it was hardly unexpected, but in one rare instance, Wei Yi believed that there might just be a chance of her being right.


    ¡°Y-You¡¯re joking, right? That is just¡­ well¡­¡±


    ¡°Look, I know that very well. However, I think that it may be reasonable, so I will attempt to explain it to you. One million, two hundred and one thousand, five hundred and twenty-three years ago, more or less, the age of Yi City had begun. A man known today as the Master of Yi City had moved out of what is now known as the Yi District and quickly managed to gain control of much of the Western Continent, which is where we are now, just in case you know it by a different name,¡± she explained to the horned woman, noticing that the cheery attitude that momentarily appeared was quickly fading, ¡°If there¡¯s anything you don¡¯t understand, or if you wish to have some time to process it, do tell me.¡±


    ¡°No, I¡­ I¡¯ve just never heard of any of these things, apart from the Western Continent. That¡¯s what we called it as well.¡±


    ¡°Alright. Back then, in just a few years, the Master of Yi City spread his control over the Western Continent and created a series of twenty-four major districts, each one ruled by their own respective family, and a number of auxiliary minor districts, without a specific family to keep them under control. With them, he spread various advancements and techniques all over the Western Continent and protected it from various threats like Primordial Deities and ancient entities like hostile dragons.¡±


    ¡°The place where we are now¡­ Is it near one of those districts? Did it have a name this whole time, or have those kinds of things changed in recent memory? I¡­ I and my family didn¡¯t get out of our area much, so maybe we just missed all of this, but we did know the name of the nearest city!¡±


    ¡°Where we are now should be somewhere between the Ju District to the west, and the Ping District to the east. Then, further away, the Chao District is to the north, then to the south-west is the Chu District, and to the south-east is the Ning District¡­ Judging by your expression, you don¡¯t know any of those, do you?¡± Wei Yi asked, hardly requiring the explicit nod to understand the situation, ¡°It is for this reason that, despite the seeming impossibility of it, I am forced to assume that you have to have come from a time before then, since you would have had to know at least one of these names had you lived in the modern times.¡±


    The horned woman¡¯s expression sank.


    Had she not already cried her heart out by this point, there might have been more tears emerging, but instead she just sat there and stared at the ground. It took her some time to comprehend just what had been explained to her, and even then, it did not seem to be sufficient for her to truly wrap her head around it.


    ¡°I¡­ I would like to see the place where our home was, just to be sure. Please. I¡­ I mean, you don¡¯t have to, but¡­ I¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright, calm down. Is it to the north of here, or wherever you entered this cave?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, I think¡­¡±


    ¡°In that case, I have no issues with bringing you there, since it is on the way anyway. I am intending to head north, and if you do not wish to remain at whatever remains of your home, I can bring you over to the fortress in which I live,¡± she said, glancing at the chains, ¡°Before then¡­ try to stay very still.¡±


    Although that was blatantly a rather difficult task when Jia Rong¡¯s arms may have been stretched to their limit for a whole million years, if not more, the woman did her best to do that very thing. As soon as she managed to stabilise her quivering arms, Wei Yi approached one of the chains and grabbed them, examining them closely and confirming that they had the same odd property as the stone within the depths of the cave. For whatever reason, despite them seemingly being made of entirely ordinary iron, these chains were far stronger than they should have been.


    The horned woman, who appeared to be in the peak of the first realm, would have been able to break through them on her own with just the energy that she possessed, and Wei Yi could have snapped them with an accidental press upon the metal with just a little bit more energy than she needed, but she could not do the same here. Instead, the chain forced her to draw upon her physique energy to amplify her strength to a rather extreme degree before she was finally able to snap one chain in half.


    Jia Rong¡¯s arm immediately dropped to the floor, striking the stone with quite some force as her body had likely forgotten that it could even more those muscles, but she said nothing and slowly tried to recover while keeping her other arm still.


    ¡®Alright, so I can already notice certain interesting matters here, besides the fact that she seems to be very keen to follow my commands and instructions, not entirely unlike Min Lian. I have obviously not done anything to her mind and have even kept my spiritual will threads out of it, so that should not be a possible cause. Instead, she is likely keen to be helpful to her imminent saviour, or so it seems, at least¡­¡¯ before she came to any wrong conclusions, she quickly asked, ¡°Hold old were you, by the way?¡±


    ¡°Seventeen¡­ I¡¯d thought I¡¯d be eighteen or nineteen if I did ever emerge, but¡­¡±


    ¡®Long life expectancy without food, water or energy, but that¡¯s fair enough for a teenager like her. With her having entirely lost track of time within this cave, and without much outside stimulus to be seen, she has likely not advanced much in age¡­ Hopefully, she won¡¯t try and see me as her mother, since that would just be unfortunate,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, stepping over to the other heavy chain, ¡®The other fact is that she has survived here for far too long, and so has everything else. If this place has truly been here like this for a million years or more, which it would have been so long as nothing about the history of Yi City has been falsified, then all of this should have crumbled long ago¡­ Something isn¡¯t entirely right here, but it doesn¡¯t seem to be an illusion or a trick¡­ That she can speak the same language as I without any significant difference is curious enough, actually. The otherworldly demons would be surprised, of that I am sure.¡¯


    She grabbed one of the thinner links and, after applying a similar level of pressure, managed to break it apart, letting the chain fall apart and permitted Jia Rong¡¯s arm to be freed from it, with it also falling limply onto the ground. Her other arm and hand were slowly returning to life, so she was able to support it with them and didn¡¯t have to withstand the cold stone ground again.


    The chains had been wrapped around both of the horned woman¡¯s arms, and so they could be shaken loose without much difficulty.


    ¡°How do you feel? Do you require any degree of healing and recovery, or would you be able to get going soon?¡± Wei Yi asked, not just because she was rather keen to move on and get to dealing with the Greats from Paragon, but also due to finding that most of the vital elements within the entirety of the woman¡¯s body were in a perfect condition, as if she had not been sitting in chains for a million years without any sustenance, proper rest, or anything else that¡¯s vital to one¡¯s survival.


    ¡°Uhm, I might¡­ be fine, actually. It¡¯s just that my hands and fingers¡­¡±


    She showed them to Wei Yi within the darkness, although the Ascendant had already noticed it herself while she was removing her chains. Just like horns had grown atop her head for no clear reason and without obvious purpose, the woman¡¯s fingers had also turned to claws of the same black bone that made up her horns, not unlike Wei Yi¡¯s killing will state.


    Just like the claws that the Ascendant possessed, they were not too much longer than her fingers would have been, and despite their sturdy and imposing appearance, they did little to limit the range of movement for her fingers, and they were also not sufficient to pierce her crimson skin without a degree of effort. Fortunately, these things did not extend to her feet, to which she rose after a short while, and little of her body was affected to any significant degree by whatever had caused her transformation in the first place. The only potential oddity that Wei Yi noticed was the fact that she had a head of full, ridiculously long, luscious hair, but none below, although perhaps the demonic transformation got rid of that in the same way that Wei Yi had resolved it herself.


    To confirm this for herself, Jia Rong moved about her fingers, wiggling and bending them both to regain her sense within them, and to understand just what she was able to do with her changed body.


    It did not take long for the issue of the aforementioned lengthy hair to arise.


    ¡°It looks a little more believable because of this, but it seems that my hair has grown way longer than the height of my body,¡± the horned woman stated, trying to find the end of one of the strands while she looked to Wei Yi for aid, ¡°I¡¯m not sure what would be in it, and I don¡¯t think I want to carry that much hair around¡­ um¡­ could you¡­ cut it, somehow?¡±


    Disregarding the shyness with which she had asked for assistance, reached into the House of Gold, removed one of the less useful items that she had stuffed into it just in case, and quickly shaped it into a perfectly sharp blade with which to give her a quick haircut. For a moment, Jia Rong flinched when the knife came into some proximity with her, so to make things easier and give her more space to potentially change her mind in the future, Wei Yi decided that she would trim it until it was about as long as her own hair, then leave something more suitable for cutting hair for her in the fortress.


    The woman had said that she wished to see her own home first, but there was no chance of something like that still standing regardless of the strange temporal properties of the area, which did seem confined only to the cave, not the area around it. As such, there would be no other place for her to go.


    Fortunately, the transformation from human to whatever she could be said to be now did not impact the durability or strength of Jia Rong¡¯s hair the same way as Wei Yi¡¯s own cultivation changed her own, and thus it was easily severed by the regular methods of hair cutting that no longer had any effectiveness on her. With the additional development of her recent physique cultivation, it would likely require a high-grade method in order to be able to trim her hair in the future.


    ¡°There¡­ How¡¯s that? I shouldn¡¯t have missed anything, but this should be enough for you to do¡­ whatever you want with it, really, so long as you take a bath¡­ or fifty. Out of all of the things that had stopped for you, it seems that the accumulation of dirt has not. Also, your hair is unfortunately dry, which I may be able to assist if I just¡­¡± she released a sphere of her lifeforce and then focused upon it, applying the Dao of Law onto it as much as she possibly could within the overpowering force of whatever force occupied this cave, ¡°Alright, I have not tried this, so if something strange occurs, please don¡¯t blame me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d never blame you! You freed me! Even if I have to walk back all on my own, you had given me hope just when I thought that I would lose it all¡­ or so it seemed, anyway¡­¡±


    ¡°Not going to do that. Brace yourself,¡± Wei Yi said, sending that sphere of lifeforce into the horned woman¡¯s body and watching carefully to see what the result of it would be. She had already been providing a certain amount of energy to her, but this was a directed effort to repair the hair that had grown out, and it was difficult to be sure on anything when it came to matters of her and hair.


    However, there seemed to be no extreme changes even after quite a while, with only the countless strands of hair upon her head slowly getting slightly more shiny and full, regaining the lustre that they must have had when she had first been placed into this cave. It was dark, causing the shine of Wei Yi¡¯s currently glowing eyes to be particularly prominent within it, and blended well with her crimson skin in terms of the aesthetic value. Without that mass of hair behind her, and with her no longer being pinned to the wall, she looked rather beautiful, except that her mind had clearly still not aged sufficiently to match her current body.


    Her certain behaviours aside, she practically radiated an aura of youth while her body was all grown up and mature, and being a forty year old herself, Wei Yi was not going to do a thing until she matured in mind just as she had in body, whether she was really a hundred, thousand, or even millions of years old at this point.


    ¡°It seems to all be fine! Look, my hair is all nice and silky again!¡± Jia Rong said, perfectly exemplifying Wei Yi¡¯s earlier thoughts on her mental age.


    ¡°Indeed, it does appear to have recovered quite well. Was it black when you went in here, or has that also changed?¡± she asked, curious to confirm whether the crimson-skinned woman was simply unable to notice the horns and claws, or if there was something that affected her perception until recently.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s always been that way.¡±


    ¡°Hm, a nice colour. Anyway, if you have nothing here that you would like to collect, then I would like for us to get going. Before I went in here, I was in a bit of a hurry, after all, and while I will not say that I consider this to be a waste of time in any way, anything that could be done on the move should be done on the move.¡±


    ¡°I should be able to go right away! Well¡­ my legs and knees in particular are less sore than I thought they¡¯d be after a day, not to mention years¡­¡±


    ¡°And you speak the exact same language as I, and your energy hardly appears¡­ stale, if you will, as it does sometimes in the case of particularly old figures attempting to masquerade themselves as younger individuals,¡± she nodded, ¡°This whole place is rather odd, and I would like to understand what had happened in order to bring you here, and to seal your life away for that long. As always, no need to answer if you do not wish to do so, but what had happened to seal you in this place?¡±


    As she asked, she softly took the horned woman¡¯s hand and led her out of the cave, step by step, allowing her to walk as slowly as she needed to. Jia Rong may not have felt any significant soreness, but as they had already seen with her hands, she could forget how to make use of something after a long period of not needing to use them. Her hands were still something that she could move around, even if there was no benefit to doing so, but due to the position that she had been forced into for however long she had spent beneath the ground, there was nothing at all that she could do with anything below the waist, which made leaving her to walk a dangerous prospect.


    They continued on for some time before either one spoke, giving them some time to return to the parts of the caves where there were still traces of light, and where sound could travel, and where the air had moved within the last million years. Their features became clearer, the glow of the Superior Bright Star illuminated more, and they were clearly nearing the surface, slowly but surely.


    ¡°I¡­ I should tell you¡­ I, I and my family, lived in the forest, near the mountains but not in or on them. We had a house a short distance from the nearest town, and we lived there happily. My mother was able to make use of planar weaving to heal people, to create interesting things, to use¡­ well, magic!¡±


    ¡°Sorry to interrupt right away, but what do you mean by planar weaving? On that matter, do you know about planar cultivation, or planar energy as a whole?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ I don¡¯t know anything about cultivation. We grew some things in the garden, but we had been able to purchase most things from the market¡­ not what you meant, I guess¡­¡± Jia Rong paused when she noticed the slight frown on Wei Yi¡¯s face, ¡°Planar weaving was a sort of¡­ uh¡­ spellcasting. My mother could grab energy from the air, control it with something inside of her body, and do as she liked with it, controlling it into spells and manipulating it as she wanted.¡±


    ¡°Right, well, planar cultivation is very likely to be the absorption of that energy you were talking about, the processing and adaptation to it, and then the usage of it in a similar manner. For example, this sphere of energy,¡± she raised a hand and manifested such a sphere, ¡°is likely to be the energy your mother was able to use. Now, however, we store it within the dantian, which is near the abdomen, inside of your body. You have one as well, and, at the moment, you appear to be at the peak of the first realm of nine in cultivation.¡±


    The horned woman felt up her bare stomach, with the minimal quantity of cloth on her body only barely keeping her top covered, and obvious found nothing there, ¡°I don¡¯t really know what that means, but I was beginning to show similar abilities as well, slowly.¡±


    ¡°It could be interesting to see it one day, if you manage to figure it out. So, what happened?¡±


    ¡°Planar weaving, it¡­ people appreciated it, but at the same time, it was seen as something unnatural. It really was, given everything that my mother could do, but I and most of the people that she had helped with it saw it as a blessing, a fortunate power to have no matter what you were up to, or who you wanted to help. Others¡­ didn¡¯t see it¡­ that same way. They called it evil. Devilish. Demonic.¡±


    ¡®Oh, that¡¯s just¡­ fucking great¡­ I can already guess what happened just based on that. A damaged and destroyed home, death of her mother and possibly all other family¡­¡¯


    ¡°One day¡­ one day, all of the people from the town came with torches¡­ not even because of that, but because my mother had failed to save someone when he was out of her reach, a day¡¯s travel away. They had all gotten used to her abilities, and when they didn¡¯t work¡­¡±


    Tears were returning to her eyes as she spoke, and while Wei Yi would hardly tear up at such a thing after everything she had also been forced to endure, she understood her very well. Had she been there when her own parents were killed for a flimsy reason that the Greats had decided to come up with at the same, and if she had then been sealed away in time only to return far later, she would have likely viewed things in the same way.


    For that reason, she pulled the horned woman closer and placed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her into a faint embrace while she was able to do little more than that.


    ¡°My mother¡­ she had been committed to not hurting people¡­ she had not wanted to do it¡­ and they¡­ they burnt the house, killed¡­ everyone. My brother, sister, father¡­ then her¡­ and when they found me¡­ they decided that it wasn¡¯t enough¡­ they didn¡¯t just want to kill, they wanted someone to suffer¡­ so they brought me into a cave, dragging me, hitting me¡­ I had tried to fight back, but I had no strength at all¡­ I was just a girl, it had never occurred to me that this kind of thing would happen,¡± Jia Rong said, taking a few moments to breathe, ¡°For some reason, they had that place prepared¡­ maybe they had wanted to put my mother there, but didn¡¯t¡­ so I went up instead, chained up, forced to sit there, as the lights from their torches receded¡­ and I was left in the dark. In silence. All alone¡­¡±


    At that moment, they found the first trace of light falling upon them, and emerged into the outside world. Jia Rong¡¯s eyes were still flooding with her own tears, with her only being able to follow Wei Yi¡¯s exact movements to get outside, but at that moment, she confidently pointed in a direction.


    Perhaps it was due to her tears rather than despite of them, as she would have very likely not recognised the area outside of her cave. The ancient aura still hung around the outside, but in comparison to what it was on the inside of the cave, and on the mountain itself, it was incredibly weak, and the ground beneath their feet was only a little bit tougher than what it ordinarily should have been. In other words, the region should look entirely different from what the horned woman remembered, and thus sight would only inhibit her.


    Wei Yi effectively carried the sobbing and crying woman in the direction that she had indicated, and although she knew that she wouldn¡¯t possibly be able to figure out where to stop on her own, Jia Rong was clearly immersed in the past. Perhaps she felt that she was reversing time, and that she could end up at her old home without a single thing missing, including her family.


    After a certain period of time, she did indeed tap Wei Yi¡¯s hand on her shoulder several times, then freed herself from the embrace and walked forward on her own.


    She did not go far until she stopped and wiped the tears from her eyes, straining them to see clearly within the bright sunlight, looking upon a particular spot. For a few moments, her expression was both hopeful and knowing, her eyes taking a while to adjust to exactly what they had to deal with. Nevertheless, she stood tall and steadfast, waiting patiently for her to be able to see the world in front of her.


    When she did, however, she felt as if she had been stabbed in the heart a few dozen times. The area had changed, just as Wei Yi had told her, but in her eyes, it was still so painfully similar. She was almost able to recognise where her home would have stood, where a small path would have led from it, where the garden would have been, where each of the doors, walls, windows and fences would have been positioned. It felt as if she could recognise so much of this place, so long as the light hit it in the right ways to make the resemblance most obvious.


    However, as the same time, everything that was different seemed positioned in just the right manner to make it clear that there was no chance for her to still be in the past. Blatant obstacles that her family couldn¡¯t have been managing obscured the spot for their garden, the foundations of their home, the location of the footpath, the last of which had outright turned into a shallow crag.


    It pained her to see such a thing. So close¡­ It was so close!


    The horned woman took a step forward, her teeth and fists clenched, her eyes dry for the moment, as if she thought that she would see something different, something to indicate that there was even the slightest trace of her family remaining.


    There was nothing. How could there have been? In the past, their area was ravaged by the mob that had come to hunt them down, and they would have obliterated everything in their path, so nothing would have stood even had she emerged far earlier than this. Now that more than a million years had passed, nothing could not have possibly returned to something, not without it belonging to some other family, in some other place, without the same points that had brought her back here in the first place. Obviously, there would also be no graves, for who would take the time to bury the remains of her family and maintain them?


    It had been a fool¡¯s errand from the start, a foolish hope that she could somehow discover a miracle greater than being alive and rescued after all this time.


    While she had been beneath the ground, away from the light, a sea of feelings and thoughts all gathered within her mind, expanded further and further even if she didn¡¯t realise the full extent of it back then. Jia Rong had pondered what she might do if she was freed only a short time after, what she thought should have been done to the killers of her family, and far more than that, but all of it was now worthless, useless, and entirely pointless. It only filled her head with sorrow.


    So, she let it all go. She raised her head and let out a lengthy cry that contained all of those emotions, freeing them to the outside world. All of the hopes and dreams that she had about a world which would now never come to pass.


    Wei Yi barely had a moment to deliberate on whether it would be best to just let her get things out of her system or to come to her and try to make her feel better, but a great deal of energy suddenly surrounded the horned woman. It burst from her body, exploding outwards, rapidly covering the entirety of the region as it blasted past her and the few trees that stood here. The trees, being as weak and dry as they were, crumbled quickly, but what was most shocking was that Wei Yi herself felt a great deal of pressure crashing into her, the power being almost equivalent to her own physical strength as her peak.


    Furthermore, as that energy surged out, she could feel the cultivation of Jia Rong push through into the second realm without any clear obstacle, bypassing any kind of breakthrough process entirely and achieving both the last perfected stage and a perfected first realm without any clear action on her end in order to achieve this.


    ¡®Is this¡­ what people feel like when they see me suddenly reach new heights? Wait¡­ No proper planar pool, only a vague cloud of planar energy of the fire and pure element¡­ She hasn¡¯t acquired either the perfected benefits, nor the second realm benefits¡­ What exactly is happening here?¡¯ Wei Yi questioned, trying and failing to understand either the source of that absolute power coming from the horned woman, nor where she had suddenly gotten her cultivation from.


    The fact that she was somehow in the first realm without even knowing that cultivation existed was one matter, since she could have theoretically absorbed enough energy without even knowing it within a million or more years, but to suddenly break through on the spot was an entirely different matter.


    After a while, the scream died down, and the woman lowered her head, before it suddenly snapped to the side, looking directly at the Ascendant. The dark green eyes that were usually present had vanished, and in their place were eyes akin to that of a serpent, with tall and thin pupils surrounded by scorching flame and blazing light, partly enveloping her face with the light of the flames. They looked wild, filled with an immense fury that no mortal being could match, and as her lips parted and jaw lowered, slightly, her sharp fanged teeth were even more prominent than before.


    Just as suddenly, the flames went out, her mouth closed, and her gaze returned to normal.


    ¡°S-Sorry, I¡­ I¡¯m not sure what just happened¡­¡± Jia Rong said, looking down right away as she apologised, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Whether you are referring to the crying or that stare¡­ Clearly, things are difficult for you, still, so I would just like to repeat my offer from before. Unless you wish to stay here and try to make do of what you have here, I would like to invite you to Paragon, the fortress in which the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters attempt to free the world. You don¡¯t need to participate, if you don¡¯t want to,¡± Wei Yi added.


    ¡°I¡­ There¡¯s nothing here. I should have known that¡­ I¡¯ll go. No¡­ I¡¯d like to help, as well. If I even can.¡±


    ¡°Then welcome aboard, Jia Rong. Now, if you wouldn¡¯t mind, we need to get to running, and we need to do so right away. Do you feel that you can?¡±


    The horned woman didn¡¯t say anything, and just nodded.

 V4C33: The Siege, Part 1

    ¡°Great Dark, it seems that the guards are about to request your presence. They appear to have spotted something outside,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, appearing beside the twin of Great Earth within the Kong Prison Realm, ¡°As per Wei Yi¡¯s recommendation, I will temporarily decrease the strength of the connection between the prison realm and Paragon the moment that you exit, so be careful. I will undo it the moment that the safety of the realm is confirmed, or if an evacuation occurs.¡±


    ¡°Does it seem like that is necessary?¡± Great Dark asked.


    ¡°I am afraid that my vision and spiritual perception are both lacking, and that I cannot sense exactly what approaches. Furthermore, if I was to do something like that, the chances of me being discovered would be increased. That would be just as detrimental as leaving the gateway fully open,¡± she explained.


    ¡°Ah, I see. I shall leave, then¡­ and you should be especially careful. If things are as she had predicted¡­ then any unnecessary spatial activity could give us away,¡± he said, rising from his seat and quickly heading out of the Kong Prison Realm.


    The moment that his whole body, hair included, passed through the gateway and ended up in the Planar Continents, the gateway behind him, as well as the other two passages into the spatial realm, shrank until they were just large enough to fit the single tallest person in the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. The quantity of planar energy that flowed out of it decreased, and the stability of the gateways increased, making it more difficult to detect any spatial fluctuation. He glanced back at the gateway, then rushed off towards the wall where the figure had been spotted.


    There, some of the guards on the walls had ducked down behind them as to not make themselves and the wall they stood on more obvious than necessary. While the wall itself could potentially blend into the sandstorm, figures standing atop it certainly wouldn¡¯t be able to do the same without the appropriate techniques, which they did not currently possess.


    He went straight to them, leaping through the air before landing quietly beside them, keeping his head down as well just in case.


    ¡°Report what you have seen¡­ is it another lone, lost figure?¡± Great Dark asked.


    ¡°No, it¡­ it is someone standing tall and strong. They haven¡¯t seen the fortress yet, I don¡¯t think¡­ but they are certainly more aware of matters than that old man is. There¡¯s still one over there, to the south east.¡±


    Great Dark made use of the earth-type techniques that he did possess to funnel a small amount of the sandstorm around himself, obscuring his form, then looked up over the edge of the wall to see who it was that they were talking about. It took some time, especially when he did not have any significant training in scouting and had not developed his eyesight as much as some of the guards, but he was able to spot a faint figure in the distance, at the very edge of what he was able to perceive, and the descriptions that had been given did appear to match.


    It was someone that wore a robe and had shoulder-length hair, although very little more than that was visible through the sands. There was a clear space around them where the sand wasn¡¯t able to pass into, instead striking the space or outright going past it without much clear incident, but the obvious deviation in the flow of the sand made it more than obvious that some kind of barrier was at play.


    From that distance, there was no way to make out whether or not that was a barrier of anchors or of a more conventional technique, not without the assistance of the Ascendant herself who was able to see the anchors clearly, but what he could determine was that it was stable and powerful.


    ¡°Prepare the defences¡­ We don¡¯t know how many are here, but if they have come¡­ we will need to be prepared to combat them all at our full strength¡­ Do not alert them yet, but the moment that something happens¡­ We must go all out and take them down right away!¡± Great Dark stated, with the guards immediately nodding, ¡°No reference to the prison realm at all, however. Do not say a single thing.¡±


    They nodded again, although they did not need to be reminded. Every combatant within Paragon had been told, in one way or another, to keep quiet about certain matters, which naturally included the guard force. They had been provided with the means to alert the fortress to intruders and invaders in a very blatant manner if necessary, but they would not alert those outside to their presence in the sands unless they were told to. For the moment, it appeared that the forces outside weren¡¯t acting in a manner that suggested their awareness of something so close to them, and so long as it wasn¡¯t an act by them, then bringing their attention towards the fortress would be stupid.


    As such, they waited, while Great Dark rushed back to the gateway to the Kong Prison Realm and sought out Yi Shi Ming, who stood right by the entrance to the spatial realm.


    ¡°We must call everyone, just in case¡­ Do you have any idea where Wei Yi is?¡±


    ¡°I am afraid that I do not. That being said, she does still appear to be alive, and so I shall call for her if it is absolutely required. Whether or not she answers, or if she is even able to, I will make that effort,¡± the spatial spirit said, nodding, ¡°I will call all capable combatants in a moment. What about the otherworldly demon with the ability to identify others?¡±


    ¡°I am not sure she is ready yet¡­ We know the most likely enemy. We do not require her aid just yet¡­ I shall go back,¡± he said, turning away while the spatial spirit¡¯s head was still lowered.


    Yi Shi Ming did not mind the speed with which he acted, for she also needed to hasten as much as possible. She was a non-human entity, and she could have split her form into many in order to reach everyone, but she still had her ancient memories, so she instead decided to use Wei Yi¡¯s method to reach everyone with her spiritual will alone and communicate the current situation to them that way. It did occur to her that it was curious that a seemingly normal person had so much over her, but she felt that it was perfectly fine. There had to be someone like her for the world to change.


    There were quite a few competent individuals in the Kong Prison Realm, Meng Chu and some of the Remnants included, and with some spatial realm trickery, the moment that they knew what was happening, she was able to bring them straight to the exit to the outside world, not widening the gateway just to be safe.


    Since they had also considered how they would act, they did not ask questions and just rushed out.


    It had been eleven days since Wei Yi had left on her ¡®stupid plan¡¯, as she had called it, and everyone who was aware of it was getting rather worried for obvious reasons. She had been the leader of the entire Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters up to this point, and even if everyone had some experience in leadership, they had been bonded together as a result of her actions. Without her, they had to rekindle the leadership abilities that they did possess, and came together with a plan to best make use of all of their resources and abilities to put up the strongest defence that they could against the threats that would inevitably reach out to defeat them.


    Over the past few days, they had further enhanced the defensive barrier around the desert fortress with as much as they were able to, with everyone from the most suitable for the task to the least suitable, that being Meng Chu and his non-existent knowledge of both inscriptions and arrays, adding anything that they could. Most of the elements were auxiliary, as to prevent any of their faults from weakening the barrier as a whole, but a few were integrated into the defences as there was no choice.


    ¡°Everyone, we must gather around the various defensive positions¡­ Those who are most familiar with the emplacements should naturally operate them, unless it has already been deemed worthwhile to teach them how to use certain elements¡­¡± Great Dark paused to reconsider his words, then corrected himself, ¡°Just do as we practised and prepared¡­ They may attack from any direction, so let¡¯s go!¡±


    Without another word, all of them spread out right away and hastened towards their positions, with those in the highest realms heading to the innermost regions of the fortress as to be able to reinforce the defences at their very roots, while those with weaker strength would only hamper them if they were not at the outer edges, repairing and strengthening the smaller damages that might occur over there. It was a very standard strategy for the defence of a fortress, and Paragon in particular appeared to have been designed with it in mind, as the outermost portion of the ancient fortress was the strongest, where the individuals would need the most assistance, while the innermost regions were somewhat weaker while giving more room for personal additions to the defences.


    When combined with all of the inscriptions and arrays set up in an enormous network, spreading out from a single central core in the middle that was made up by the stabilisation node atop which the spatial gateway was placed, this tactic was made even more preferable.


    Thus, Great Dark remained beside the centre of Paragon, as to be able to watch over the core inscriptions present there, and someone like Meng Chu, a figure with a half-decent cultivation as a result of the combination of killing intent and physique energy, but still far weaker than most of the regular planar cultivators present, headed out to the edge, to the place in which he had introduced some of his own methods of protection.


    In the many years that he had spent within the prison realm, he had the time to study quite a few inscriptions and arrays that did exist in that place, and he learnt the most during the last ten years or so that he had spent sealed in there due to Wei Yi¡¯s contributions to the library of Beast¡¯s Rest, from which he could access what he liked, when he wanted to do so. Naturally, he couldn¡¯t match someone like Great Dark, or Great Earth before him, who had significant mastery in inscriptions that only Wei Yi had been able to surpass due to her own unique methods, but he could replicate some of their creations as to establish a few more basic shields and barriers at the periphery of the fortress.


    Luo Lia Kun primarily understood talismans, having lived in the Luo District most of her years, so she wasn¡¯t able to contribute as much to the static guard of the fortress. Instead, she prepared a great number of talismans which she both handed out to others, particularly guards that stayed near the front lines, and kept in particular spots so that they could partially replicate the defence of the Luo District. Some would be activated on their own, from movement or some particular trigger that she had set up in advance, and the rest would be up to her or the guards to make use of.


    This variety was essential so that none of the invaders could trigger all of the talismans with a single sacrifice, or even a technique of the Bai, which their foes would be likely to possess.


    A combination of different methods made their defence slightly less stable than a single perfect system made up of a single perfect array, like the one that generated the sandstorm and lit the lights of the fortress, but it made it far more difficult to just unravel, since any one method could only take the attackers so far.


    Of course, to presume that the Great Families had only one method was foolish. According to Wei Yi, Great Dark, and the few others that had personally experienced combat with the Greats for longer than a few moments, while their arsenal did tend to be limited, they did have the ability to react to a vast list of threats and dangers that might seem impossible to handle purely with a set of point beams and their anchors. Even the youngest were over thirty years old at this point, with all of them having received plenty of training on a wide variety of matters that the normal people of Yi City could barely imagine, so they could all resolve the matter of a simple wall of inscriptions or talismans.


    Meanwhile, the combination of many methods forced cooperation between groups that might be otherwise strained to some certain extent, and also required that many individual fields be woven together in ways that were hardly intuitive if it was not something that one had a lot of practise in.


    In other words, if they weren¡¯t facing a swarm of perfect clones of Wei Yi, who would likely be able to wipe them out in minutes regardless of how much they sought to prepare, the additional complexity was worth the minimal risk. Additionally, the large number of people near the outer edge when compared to the inner portion of the fortress gave far more opportunities for them to make use of any targetable attack or defence methods, permitting even the weakest to have something to contribute to the defence of Paragon from the inevitable assault.


    The way in which they would be guarding the fortress had been discussed and practised before, and thus the majority of them got around to their stations in a matter of a few minutes, during which the figure standing around and occasionally taking a few steps in seemingly random directions out in the sandstorm hadn¡¯t moved much.


    Still, even a blind, deaf, and ignorant man could likely understand that this was not as simple as it seemed, and that the figure in the sands was blatantly aware of, or preparing for, something.


    All of a sudden, one of the inscriptions placed beside on the central points of the fortress lit up, displaying the vague features of one of the guards at the edge, ¡°Great Dark, there appears to be another figure wearing a similar robe without any significantly different features. The robe itself might be a different colour, but it has the same design and might even be a similar size to the one worn by that other person.¡±


    ¡°What about their hair? How close are they? Are they doing anything outwardly odd?¡± he asked back.


    ¡°Hair seems long, much longer than that of the other figure¡­ about the same distance apart,¡± the guard said, pausing for a while, ¡°They seem to be¡­ playing with the sandstorm? They¡¯re putting their hand into the sand, letting it wash past them. Their skin is¡­ being torn off by it¡­¡±


    ¡°Uh, that is certainly odd¡­ Not necessarily inconsistent with Their behaviour,¡± Great Dark muttered to himself before turning back to the vague figure made from light, produced by an inscription based off of the Projecting Visage inscription Wei Yi had created back on her journey to the Chao District, later providing the blueprint to Paragon as a whole, ¡°Be ready to activate the barrier.¡±


    The figure nodded and vanished, preparing to do just that the moment any kind of assault began. In some other situation, without the potential secrecy of their location and without the sandstorm wall around them, they might have done otherwise and had the wall up from the very beginning, but in order to not give away their location, the less energy fluctuations occurred near their location, the better it would be for them. Instead, they concluded that it was better to keep everything down and quiet, then spring them into action the moment that something necessitates such a thing.


    On one hand, it would mean that one or two of the Greats might be able to charge in, if they decided to do so, but on the other, the rest could then be sealed off with the full power of the defensive network right away, not to mention that they would easily be able to ward off any kind testing strike without using it. Then, without the barrier being disturbed in the slightest, having it appear before an overly confident force would naturally be far more effective than letting them understand it prior to attacking.


    For a few moments, they waited, wanting to see just what kind of attack they would need to deal with. If it was merely a force of one Great Family¡¯s third generation, the forces that they had on hand might be sufficient to resolve all of this using the defensive matrix as a sort of crutch to get through it. On the other hand, if this was a full-on assault from numerous families and their second and possibly first generations, bringing everyone who wasn¡¯t already in the prison realm into it then letting the fortress be obliterated might be a far safer option when compared to attempting to endure it without the aid of someone truly suited to resolving such matters.


    ¡®How did this happen? Not too long ago, I had no clue that Da Gang had any chance of still being alive, and yet¡­ Now my thoughts go to what she would be able to do¡­¡¯ Great Dark realised, ¡®Hmph. I still have more experience. I can manage things on my own, if necessary.¡¯


    He couldn¡¯t be sure of such a thing, but he knew for a fact that he wanted it to be true. After all, if he could do nothing, and if Wei Yi was either captured, dead, or too far to arrive on time, then the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters would be crushed before they had a single chance to show themselves to the world and fight against the Greats. It would be utterly devastating, not only to him, but to the Ascendant herself, if she was still capable of learning about such things.


    All of the defenders waited, and waited, before something else was finally seen.


    ¡°Another figure in the sands-¡±


    ¡°We are seeing someone else in the sandstorm, and they¡¯re also wearing-¡±


    ¡°There might be two or three of them out there, we-¡±


    A series of voices attempted to come through the modified variation of the Projecting Visage inscription all at once, clashing together and causing the things that pass through them to be muffled and distorted in peculiar ways. Nonetheless, that did nothing to change the fact that all of them carried the same message.


    Even though their intentions and identities weren¡¯t immediately revealed by their mere appearances, Great Dark knew that past a certain point, a series of coincidences had to be intentional, a warning of something greater to come. With all of those figures appearing in the sandstorm, all of them vaguely facing Paragon, and all of them clearly being up to something with their barriers and their steady, calm demeanours, according to the guards that reported their sightings, there was no more need to wait for their actions.


    Whatever they were, they would not be welcomed to stride right into Paragon and take whatever it is that they want from it.


    ¡°Raise the defences, now!¡± Great Dark ordered to every single one of them.


    All of them rushed to utilise whatever defences they had near them, activating the additional auxiliary arrays and inscriptions while Great Dark activated the central inscriptions, causing their power and energy to spread out into the web of defences that they had constructed. Planar energy surged from all around the fortress, flowing through the channels of inscriptions and into the air, manipulated by the entire network to manifest as something purposeful.


    Almost in perfect synchronicity with them, the figures outside of the fortress finally made their move, each one raising one of their hands and pointing towards the walls, a number of shining points of light appearing around them.


    For those that were more familiar with the Great Families, they immediately knew what would happen. Countless beams shot out of those points, surging at the sides of the fortress, passing through all of the sand that constantly flowed within the sandstorm with ease, being moments from striking the stone of Paragon when the barrier appeared.


    Various shades of light collided with the dense spherical barrier that rose over the fortress, quickly bursting out of the ground and fully covering Paragon as countless inscriptions and arrays, both large and small, some in the ground and others positioned at the top of the structures within, activated all at once, surging with power that they had stored and that had been supplied to them at that very moment by the vigilant guardians amongst the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. They may have been attacks from the Greats, but each beam was merely in the third realm regardless of all of their anchors, whereas the defences were up to the quality of the fourth and fifth realm on average.


    Thus, the beams couldn¡¯t pierce the barrier, not right away, but they did not stop after a few breaths.


    Each one continued to cut at the barrier of light, some moving and others remaining in position as they likely sought out weaknesses within the structure that they could target.


    ¡°How many are there?¡± Great Dark questioned right away, activating every method of communication now that there was no reason to be concerned with whether or not they would be discovered, at the same time as he infused more of his energy into the inscription at the heart of the defence.


    ¡°Two here!¡±


    ¡°We can see four of them from here!¡±


    ¡°Two more at this side!¡±


    The reports flooded in, and he was soon able to conclude that there were twenty-four figures visible. Given that there were only twenty-four families in total, if one was to count the extinct Kong family and the possibly extinct Great Kong, and since a number of the third generation had already been slain, it was more reasonable to presume that only half that number of Great Families were currently participating, and that they had come with both the male and female member of the third generation.


    ¡°Activate the Brand Projectors, prepare the Fifty-Five Channel Defences for activation, and watch out for any possible faults within the barrier!¡± Great Dark exclaimed, foregoing his usual lengthy pauses for the sake of extreme haste and brevity, ¡°Great Light, stop mining and get up here already! Why do you always come to like the strangest things?¡±


    His brother offered no response as he hastened to the upper portion of Paragon, pickaxe in hand mostly because he didn¡¯t wish to drop it randomly. If not for the speed with which the defence had to be called together and organised, and if there had been a better network of communication prepared all over the fortress¡¯ two layers, he should have been on the surface already, assisting Great Dark with the control and support of the great inscription at the core of the defensive measures installed all over the fortress.


    Among those defences were modified variations of the inscriptions first created on the way to the Chao District by Wei Yi, with the Fifty-Five Channel Defence inscriptions being scattered all over the fortress for the sake of preventing anything that might be able to get nearer to the walls from being able to advance, while the Brand Projectors were a greatly altered version of the Brand Alternator inscriptions. Whereas the original was highly automated and required little human input, this version was able to target further distances so long as an intelligent mind controlled the inscription to set down brands far further away than it otherwise would on its own.


    That combined with the nature of inscriptions, in that anyone with a bit of spiritual perception and planar energy could make use of them so long as they had the knowledge of their purpose, allowed all of those in the third realm that stood near the front lines to strike with the power of the fifth and sixth realm all on their own.


    Upon Great Dark¡¯s command, those soldiers activated the inscriptions and took a few moments to assume control over them. The moment that they had it, they targeted the inscriptions at the figures in the distance and prompted their activation.


    All of the Great Family members were able to stand around calmly even with the sandstorm raging on around them, and thus their postures were hardly suitable for evading the sudden appearance and activation of a series of crimson brands surging with flame, all of which emerged for a brief moment at their feet before vanishing into the air. Those brands were less random than the ones the usual Brand Alternator would conjure, since the whole process of usage was far more targeted and specific and were all based on the Ire variant of the Destruction Brand embedded into the original Brand Alternator.


    Thus, crimson bolts of lightning crackled at the brands as they fell, each one directly targeting the point of the body where they would be able to do the most damage, that being the specific centre point of the body¡¯s mass. It brought them down onto the heads of the Great Family¡¯s third generation, colliding with the barrier of planar anchors and significantly affecting the one that they struck first.


    None of the Greats targeted chose to divert their point beams away from the barrier of Paragon, and instead most of them dodged back and attempted to keep their beams on the barrier.


    ¡®They¡¯re clearly intending to achieve something with this, so they must believe that they have some method to pierce the dome with enough effort¡­¡¯ Great Dark pondered for a moment, attempting to compare their current behaviours to what he had experienced during his own time fighting with them, ¡°Let us push them back! Make sure to force them to move as much as possible, so that their beams cannot be maintained like they currently are!¡±


    His voice reached the guard force in moments, but many of them had already begun to act before then, taking some initiative to ensure that the Great Families wouldn¡¯t be able to progress with whatever plans they had. Those that did act still appreciated the command, for it ensured that they were doing the right thing when they ignited the power of the inscriptions fully.


    A number of the troops took out bows, spears and whatever else they had on hand to shoot or throw something directly at the third generation members of the Great Families outside of their doors, forcing them to move to the side in order to evade them most efficiently and thus potentially disturbing their aim. It took a few moments for the arrows, spears, and various throw-able objects to be prepared, then another moment was silently agreed upon so that they could fire them all at once, in a powerful volley that would give them no choice but to move. Then, with all of those on the ready, the arrow strings tensed to their fullest and their bodies being utilised fully to transfer all of the force required into the projectiles, they attacked.


    At once, countless objects filled up the sky, with some being joined by planar constructs or other forms of planar energy assistance whereas those most skilled with physique energy or those that were otherwise mostly focused on physical strength simply chose to throw bigger and heavier things.


    Most of them were launched into the air, as to arc down upon their foes, but some were launched and loosed directly at the Greats, allowing them to reach them far more quickly. The weakest attacks tapped against the barrier of anchors, hitting the space beside one of them and bouncing off without much harm or good being done, but the strongest pierced the faint barrier created by the sheer pressure of the anchors and their tips struck the anchors themselves. Of course, even that much was hardly sufficient to break them, since the pressure of the anchors wasn¡¯t a single thin veil but rather a constant field through which the attacks needed to navigate, but it still prompted them to glance up.


    If the attacks that came directly at them were sufficient to touch their anchors, even if it was just barely, then there was a natural risk from the arrows, bolts, spears and¡­ pans, of all things, coming at them from above. Whatever their strategy was, to die before it could be complete or to lose their anchors would hardly be beneficial to it.


    At least, that was how their actions were interpreted by those observing them when they suddenly withdrew.


    ¡®They¡¯re getting away, and their beams are able to do even less to the barrier¡­¡¯ Great Dark noted.


    However, he kept observing, and was more wary now than when they were standing calmly near the fortress walls. From his and Wei Yi¡¯s experience, he knew that they were proud and arrogant, and wouldn¡¯t retreat unless they had some reason to do so, other than fear.


    Thus, he pointed Great Light¡¯s attention to the core of the inscription array and then leapt into the air, raising himself with the power of the sixth realm in order to view his surroundings with greater clarity. The modified variation of the Projecting Visage inscription was helpful in getting a rough idea of the battlefield, but it was hardly sufficient to understand the true intricacies of what usually occurred in such a place. Only his eyes would do.


    His timing turned out to be perfect, for the moment that he was in the right place, he saw the lights from various solidified energy arrays igniting all around the fortress, in the depths of the sand.

 V4C34: The Siege, Part 2

    From the depths of the sandstorm, a number of figures emerged, their entire being surrounded by a sphere of clear energy marked by around fifty individual bright marks that even those unaware of the true natures of the Great Families could see and identify with but a little thought. In front of each one that emerged, a large array floated right in front of them, guided by their hand, with some using their left and some using their right. All of them exited the sands near to their third generation, and all of them were guiding the great arrays that they had constructed right at the spots that had already been targeted and slightly weakened.


    Great Dark had been correct in his assumption, and he hardly needed to keep watching in order to know what they would do next. He fell back down to the ground and joined Great Light in powering the defences.


    With those arrays prepared and pointed at the weakened points of the barrier, even if they had only been weakened by an extremely small extent in comparison to what would be needed to break through the first layer fully, they focused all of their energy and joined in to the attack, combining their attack beams with those used by their third generation as to further destabilise the protective dome that surrounded Paragon.


    The moment that their significantly more powerful attack struck, the entire dome fluctuated, the waves from the strikes flowing across the surface and spreading all the way around it. Some that looked up were able to see how the waves converged at the top, rippling and cancelling one another out but not without affecting the barrier¡¯s stability. It was connected to the sandstorm that guarded Paragon, and thus as the barrier shimmered, the sandstorm also wavered, albeit far more briefly than the dome itself did.


    Some might think that it meant that they withstood the attack, but just as the third generation did not stop drilling into the barrier, the arrays created by the second generation also persisted.


    ¡°Great Light, use that rash mind of yours! How long would it take them to break through the barrier?¡±


    Prompted by his brother¡¯s question, the twin of Great Earth glanced at the rippling of the dome all around them and stared at it with intense focus for a little while. He hardly appreciated the way in which he was seen by his other half, but he also viewed himself in an identical manner and thus preferred to focus on the things that mattered rather than those that did not.


    After a while, he came to a conclusion.


    ¡°So long as the entirety of the barrier is kept up, and they keep attacking it, the place is likely not going to endure more than another few minutes. We must use the second layer.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ Then we should ensure that they are pulled towards a single spot¡­ no¡­¡± Great Dark hesitated, glancing at the barrier, ¡®A single point will make it easier for them to invade, but it is possible to challenge them more easily if they are all funnelled towards a single point¡­ However, if they are spread out, then they will be taking down the entire barrier at once and make it far more difficult to rebuild it in any short amount of time, and they will all invade at the same time from all around the encirclement¡­ Heavens, they just had to all come at once while she was away, or even trapped by them¡­ No¡­¡¯


    He dismissed that thought. Wei Yi was safe, that much simply had to be true within his mind, and the true question was whether she¡¯d be able to arrive and assist with the situation in time if she was called upon.


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming, please call for Wei Yi. We may require her aid, depending on how well we truly believe the defences are going endure,¡± Great Dark ended up saying to the spatial gateway, wherein the spatial spirit nodded and vanished from the spot, retreating to focus on the task, ¡°Great Light, we must move the barrier and intentionally part the sands¡­ We will focus them on a single point with the most and strongest defences for the situation¡­ There.¡±


    The twin of Great Earth pointed to one particular direction, where Meng Chu, Luo Lia Kun and a few other notable figures were positioned and prepared to activate the defensive methods that they had access to. There, the smallest number of Greats was currently attempting to attack them, and there was where the largest number of defences had been set up. Most of the people present were naturally familiar with how to use them, and thus it ought to be the position from which the largest amount of damage could be done to the enemy without suffering too greatly on their own.


    In addition, the funnelling of foes towards a single position essentially guaranteed that any powerful methods that target a large area will hit at least a few of them, whereas their current, more spread out positioning made it difficult to get more than two or three at once, regardless of what kind of technique or inscription was used.


    Great Light also looked in that direction and contemplated it for a few moments, being mostly as conflicted as Great Dark had been moments prior.


    ¡°That might work,¡± he said, ¡°When are we preparing for the change?¡±


    ¡°Judging by their current progress, we should begin right away¡­¡± Great Dark concluded, ¡°The longer we hesitate, the greater the chances of our defeat!¡±


    Nothing more needed to be said. They knew their foe, the procedures to go through to achieve a certain state of the guarding barrier, and with his command being shared to every single soldier in range of their communication methods, they hardly needed to wait for the message and orders to be delivered to them before they could act. Thus, those who couldn¡¯t be observed from the other side of the wall stepped away and headed towards their chosen position, and the rest persisted in supporting the barrier for as long as they could.


    It took a minute to light up all of the inscriptions, prepare them, and to manipulate the sands as to give them what they required to collapse a portion of the sandstorm without destroying the rest of it at the same time, which was quite a lot more difficult to do than say.


    Before going through with it, the darker twin of Great Earth turned to the gateway and asked, ¡°Anything?¡±


    The spatial spirit appeared within the gateway, shaking her head as she said, ¡°I am not currently able to reach Wei Yi, although she does still remain alive. We had agreed that the message would be considered more significant with each attempt to contact her within a certain period of time, so the moment that we are more certain that we are at risk, I shall attempt it again.¡±


    ¡°Got it¡­ Do you think that she might-¡±


    ¡°Great Dark, such a thought is simply unhelpful in the current situation. Regardless of her true state, we have to act with care and not let ourselves fall, whether or not she can come to save us at the end or not,¡± the spatial spirit interrupted him, ¡°She had said herself that if this is all reliant on her, then it is hardly a true force as it is a person standing in front of a large crowd that simply follows her around while relishing in the results of her actions. The Arbiters must be capable, even if not as much as the Ascendant herself.¡±


    He nodded quickly, turned to the communicative inscription and activated it, calling out, ¡°We are shifting the sands at this very moment! Report changes and oddities right away!¡±


    No response was needed from the other side before he directed his energy into the central inscription and activated everything that they had just prepared. Countless inscriptions, connected to one another through the array web that now covered the fortress, lit up and performed various actions, with some directing energy in certain ways through the enormous array beneath Paragon¡¯s surface while others targeted the foes on the outside to force them to move.


    They needed the sands to calm in a single area by which Paragon could be approached, but they also needed their foes to see moving as being a viable alternative to their current position, in which they were clearly handling the sand on their own without too much trouble. If nothing gave them the information that the sandstorm did shift, whether that was through the methods of communication that they possessed or some other manner to alert them to a change in the situation. Something that would force them to act and potentially reconsider their avenue of attack would be ideal, and that was exactly what they had prepared.


    All at once, all of the inscriptions that were able to project brands, fire planar energy attacks or even direct killing intent or spiritual will towards the foes of Paragon and the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters were activated, an immense degree of energy being instantly directed at the Great Family members outside.


    Several scorching brands filled to the brim with crimson lightning, bolts and spheres of concentrated earth, water, metal, wood and fire-type energies that shot out straight at one of the anchors of their foes, as well as far more than that appeared all at once, soaring at the Greats or even appearing right beside them ¨C as was the case with the brands, for instance ¨C with no delays like those that the initial volley to repel them had. Each attack was times just right, and so they all ended up falling upon them within a few seconds.


    That finally got them to move in a slightly less leisurely manner than before, with many of the third generation and some of the second generation seeking to dodge the most dangerous of the individual attacks while focusing their strength to completely block those of lesser significance that might still impact upon their ability to participate in the battle.


    All at once, the sounds of explosions, thunder, crackling and cracking of stone and ice and far more spread out from all directions, converging upon Paragon with a wave of greater morale.


    Most of the soldiers weren¡¯t too familiar with the capabilities of the Greats, after all, so all that they wished to see, and believed would be sufficient, was a large quantity of attacks being sent at them all at once to bring them down a notch or two. With that many explosions and other noises of damage and destruction passing through the sandstorm to reach their ears, it was difficult to not be excited at the possibility of victory approaching them.


    Still, all of them had been taught to not let their guard down or underestimate the foes that they couldn¡¯t know the names and titles of due to the manner in which they would have discovered even earlier than this so long as one of the common guard and soldiers accidentally exclaimed something about the Greats while drinking in one of the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s combined brothels and taverns. Frankly, they couldn¡¯t be sure whether saying something like ¡®great families¡¯ in reference to the usual families that controlled the districts in the light would also alert them, and whether they had any idea at all what was being said beside their titles, but doing as much as possible to prevent any kind of accident from exposing a large quantity of people being in the desert for no good reason was still wise.


    As such, every guard, soldier and warrior had not thrown down their weapons and prepared to celebrate just because of a few explosions, not that it would have been easy to do so when the sandstorm around them suddenly opened, a large passageway that stretched up from the ground all the way up into the sky appearing in the sands. It was formed by the flow of the sandstorm itself, but the way in which it had suddenly appeared made it seem like someone had taken a sword and sliced the sands apart.


    Fortunately for the warriors at that location, they saw no great swordsman with his blade in the ground after performing that feat, or else some of them might have wanted to surrender. Given that there was no room for such a thing in the Arbiters, as they were foes to a highly vindictive group, that wouldn¡¯t have gone well for them.


    Due to the extraordinary nature of the sudden collapse of the wall, it immediately came to the attention of the Greats that surrounded Paragon, for the sudden drop of sand was visible from any direction as the fortress itself became more visible to the attackers.


    Most of them had gotten away from the previous barrage with few hits whatsoever, not to mention those that would be anything more than a passing inconvenience to them, and the most severe thing that happened to any of the Greats was a small crack on one of their anchors. Seeing as that kind of thing could be repaired with a little bit of effort by even a regular cultivator, not to mention one of the Greats, this was barely even worth mentioning.


    Just as had been predicted, they decided to converge upon the sudden opening within the defences. Whether they were aware of the fact that they were being lured there on purpose or not, that did not appear to be stopping a single one of them as they approached the sudden gash in the sands by heading around to it while getting further away from the centre of the storm, then running back to their original distance when they entered the calm region of the desert. For a few moments, the pressure on the sides of the dome was indeed lessened, but the moment that they entered the sandstorm-free zone, all of that distance barely mattered as their beams were able to proceed uninterrupted by the particles of sand that previously hindered them.


    Thus, as soon as their formation was remade within that narrow pathway to the fortress, their attack became significantly more effective and concentrated, and their collaboration truly shined.


    With that many beams of various densities and strengths targeting a specific pattern of points on the outermost barrier, the stability of it was rapidly being reduced, especially in that area. It was akin to applying an immense degree of heat to a block of ice, using it to cut through without needing all that much force in order to accomplish it.


    Great Dark and Great Light channelled as much of their energy into it as they were able to, but as they had already accepted and decided that it was time to surrender the first layer of protection that currently covered them, they waited for just a little longer before agreeing to revoke their supplementary energy from it and permit that part of the barrier to fall. The rest would still be maintained, as to force them to enter from a single point and thus give the Arbiters far more room to defend themselves with whatever methods they were able to muster, but it would still lose the ability to truly hinder the Greats.


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming, send a second attempt and then shut the gateways. Everyone who isn¡¯t intent on fighting to the end has already left, correct?¡± Great Dark asked, proceeding when he saw the mother of the Master of Yi City nod in the spatial realm, ¡°If you can, keep watching and continue your attempts.¡±


    ¡°I shall do so. However, even if I was to reach her, it would take a minimum of a minute to fully rebuild the connection and allow her to travel through the prison realm to reach you, so-¡±


    ¡°Then we shall last for as long as we can, then a minute longer,¡± Great Light interrupted, temporarily taking his hands away from the inscription and instead using his plentiful energy to summon large chunk of ice after chunk of ice, gathering them within the air until he was surrounded by literal tonnes of ice planar constructs, ¡°We may not have been the strongest at combat, but we are able to stand our ground for that much at the very least.¡±


    With that, he launched them all into the air, intentionally providing them with just enough forward and upward momentum so that once they reached their peak height, they would then drop right onto their foes while they were attempting to circumvent the next layer of the defences in their path.


    The display impressed some, and while Yi Shi Ming was obviously not within that camp as she had personally observed several momentous battles between Kong Shi Meng and a number of other figures of incredible prowess that few in the modern world would be able to ever match, she could not object to someone acting with bravery and passion. Once upon a time, her son would also be a little rash, and while he almost always won in the end, he had not always acted in the best way all the way through a battle or situation.


    She withdrew from the gateway, letting it shut into a small point that would barely result in any spatial fluctuation due to its miniscule size, then used the minimal connection that remained between her and Wei Yi to attempt to reach the Ascendant. One second passed, then two, three and four, then five, but there was no response, meaning that this attempt was also likely to be a failure.


    Out of everyone at the battlefield, Yi Shi Ming was perhaps the calmest, but even she couldn¡¯t help but feel slightly nervous when the woman who controlled the Kong Prison Realm didn¡¯t respond for a second time. As someone that was able to observe the prison realm and desert fortress alike with an immense degree of attention at all times, she naturally knew of some of the activities that Wei Yi had engaged in prior to leaving, and was aware of some of the things that she had been learning. That did allow her to have a far more educated guess regarding the intentions of the Ascendant, but even then she wasn¡¯t in any way aware how long she had intended to remain away from the fortress.


    If she was already heading back, then even if she didn¡¯t respond to any of their attempts to communicate with her she might be able to make it back just in time to catch the Greats before they have a chance to damage the fortress in any way, but if her intention was to remain away for a year ¨C as unlikely as such a thing would be when she should be well aware of the consequences of such a departure and the dangers it would bring ¨C then she might be in no position to respond any time soon.


    Then, the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters that were meant to develop to become a group capable of truly acting in their own name would fall, and she might only learn of it many months after it actually happens.


    It would be a tragic thing, to put it mildly.


    Yi Shi Ming sighed and returned her focus to the outside world, observing the situation. If it progressed in a poor manner and got much worse much more quickly than she and the other temporary leaders of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters theorised, then she would attempt to contact Wei Yi multiple times in short succession, making it blatantly obvious to the Ascendant that her presence was required.


    All that would be required then would be a minute of continued survival, and she could come in and¡­ there was the problem with that plan, really. Wei Yi was powerful, that much could hardly be denied, and she was certainly powerful within her own realm and even against the next realm, but she was not some omnipotent being that could defeat twenty-four of the second and third generation at a single time, not in the state that she had been in when she had left Paragon. Even if she was summoned, even if she invigorated everyone within the fortress and the prison realm, even if she managed to recover their exhaustion and injuries and even if she could endure the attacks of the second generation while still putting up a decent fight, there was no guarantee of her being able to attain even a pyrrhic victory.


    They had come to rely on her within their minds, and yet her capabilities weren¡¯t even sufficient to turn such a situation around unless some kind of miracle occurred, but the problem with miracles was that they were rare. Too rare to ever rely on.


    Less than a minute after the Great Family members regrouped, they were already close to shattering the portion of the defences that they had chosen to focus on, and only a moment after that observation could be made, they succeeded. Their many beams finally dug all the way into the spherical barrier, and with the sound of shattering glass that could be heard all over Paragon, a large chunk of the barrier suddenly collapsed.


    There wasn¡¯t even a moment of hesitation as all of them instantly rushed into the dome, acting in unison with a degree of accuracy that might impress even the Bai District¡¯s best and brightest.


    Their haste brought them straight into a secondary barrier just at the edge of the walls themselves, a couple of metres away from the outermost defensive layer, and also delivered them straight into the path of the numerous incoming chunks of ice, all of which were falling down upon that region with absolutely immense speed and force, leaving the range of Great Light¡¯s energy manipulation only moments from impact. As a result, they maintained an immense degree of stability as they crashed into the ground and the anchor-based barriers of the Greats.


    Altogether, the sound of a thousand individual chunks of ice all with a sharpened point as to make their impact most effective against the defences of the Arbiters¡¯ foes crashing into those very defences was nearly as loud and impactful as the shattering of the barrier, but while the latter delivered a significant degree of progress to the Greats¡¯ assault, the former did not.


    All of the chunks of ice fell not upon the third generation, which would have genuinely struggled with enduring the attack of someone in the sixth realm, but instead upon the second generation, who leapt up and created a layer of their anchors over the entire force as to prevent any of the projectiles from having a chance to land upon them. With their core and marks to empower a basic repulsive force, the ice chunks were slowed significantly before they could even impact the anchors, and were then further mitigated by the core. It all sounded highly impressive to someone with no ability to see what had occurred, and even to those that could see the upper portion of the crash but not the lower one, but the truth of the matter was more grim.


    Altogether, those numerous chunks of ice were made out of a significant portion of Great Light¡¯s total energy pool, which was now essentially wasted on the attack that did nothing but buy all of them a few moments in which the Greats were unable to attack and focused on defence instead. In comparison to what could have been done with the energy that they had, it was essentially a waste of his time and energy.


    ¡°Fuck, that did nothing!¡± Great Light himself cursed, sitting back down to focus on the inscription instead, ¡°I may have been bolder than I should have been¡­¡±


    ¡°You were indeed, brother. Do recall that our current state is not truly equivalent to what we had been back in the War of Yin, at our peak. Our realm is lower, some of our methods no longer work due to the change in our cultivation method¡­ and we are now divided, good and bad split into two individual parts. Both have suffered as a result¡­¡± Great Dark replied, his expression grim.


    Regardless of their own views on the matter, they had to persist in what they had begun all those years ago, so Great Dark quickly wiped the grimness from his face while Great Light refocused all of his energy back into the inscription core of the defensive measures they had created. Both of them still had a lot of energy remaining, so the barrier wouldn¡¯t fall too quickly without some unexpected event, and it was far more useful when it was spent in such a fashion than when it was thrown in a basic planar energy technique of the third realm.


    Additionally, the more they displayed displeasure or some trace of worry in their expressions, an issue more pressing for Great Light than Great Dark the majority of the time, the more the soldiers that were able to see them through the communicative methods would notice and worry alongside them.


    For the moment, morale was key, since most didn¡¯t currently need to actually be in combat and could thus have the illusion that if they ran away, they would be safe and free to rest in whatever residences they had chosen to occupy. It was necessary to ensure that no such fantasy entered their minds, and that it had no chance to develop. Essentially, they could only believe that the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters would be successful this day, and nothing else.


    If they had a single overwhelming force that they could display, then such thoughts could be overcome entirely instead and thus be handled far more permanently than simply forcing them away, but, once again, the only person who would be able to guarantee such a thing was not currently present. They needed to resort to more basic and common tactics instead, even if essentially lying to the soldiers wasn¡¯t the best course of action in the long term as it was able to erode trust and respect if they figured out that they had no chance and that Great Dark and Great Light knew it from the start.


    The Greats, having endured the barrage of ice, immediately reactivated their point beams and sought out another weakness within this new layer, their initial assault being highly split apart and unfocused.


    Unlike the first layer, where they had their third generation scout out the weaknesses before joining in with the prepared arrays of the second generation, the two halves of the attacking force needed to act together. To best facilitate this, the third generation constantly switched their points of assault, drawing the beams all over the dome that they were faced with once again, whereas the second generation would trace their movements up to the next weakest point that they discovered.


    That was, they were able to keep making progress and learn more about the weakness of the defence all at once.


    ¡°Everyone, activate the secondary defences! We must push them back!¡± Great Dark announced over the communication network after having examined and confirmed the exact extent of the damage to the outer layer. Due to the way in which he and Great Light had abandoned a portion of it after a certain point, it was relatively easy to repair it so long as they decided to go all out on the process, which they would be able to do so long as the forces of the Greats were pushed out of the inner layer of the domes for just long enough to begin the process of repair.


    After that, it would all depend on how much progress they were able to make with the time that they had, but in the best case scenario, it wouldn¡¯t be impossible to fully rebuild the outer layer by partially diverting the overall strength of the dome towards that point and refilling the rest with their energy.


    Regardless of the way in which they did it, Great Dark knew of one goal.


    ¡°We must ensure that Paragon is not breached! We must keep this fortress standing, and we can! We have that power!¡±

 V4C35: The Siege, Part 3

    Perhaps they truly did possess that ability, but in the eyes of the warriors and guards at that moment, this was the undeniable truth. The defences were there, the power of the sixth realm combined with a series of inscriptions of five and six-star quality were present, and they were only facing those in the fifth realm at most.


    They shouldn¡¯t necessarily be able to win and outright defeat the Greats in this encounter, as great as that would be, but surely they would be capable of beating them back without a significant degree of effort? That alone gave them the courage to act and persist in the defence, and thus every single inscription and array that had been installed in that region were activated. Some were offensive, others were defensive, some would slow the people within their area of effect down, and other yet would make the flow of planar energy less stable.


    Blasts of energy struck the anchor barriers, explosions of sand and the various elements occurred all over, and the energy within that area went entirely into disarray, partially weakening some of their own attacks but randomly empowering others while partially driving them out of control. Some of the brands simply exploded before they could even have had a chance to strike down upon someone, the Ire energy showering those who were caught beneath it.


    That was all met with a single fifth realm beam ceasing its attack and an immense burst of force that met the incoming attacks and collided with the inner layer of the defences, sending a ripple through them.


    All of the vast amount of power that had been focused on striking the Greats was either dispersed in a single show of force, or, worse yet, was repelled back at the barrier through which they were initially able to pass through seamlessly, resulting in that great wave rapidly spreading throughout the entire barrier¡¯s surface. In each additional portion of defences, where something was inserted into or overlaid the sphere itself, the wave would fluctuate, wavering or splitting for a few moments before it passed through that region and returned to how it was before then.


    On one hand, it seemed like the two sides had effectively cancelled out one another¡¯s attempts to harm the other, but as the beams of the second generation suddenly switched to some of those points in which the wave wavered, Great Dark realised that this was not the case. Most of the points where the wave was unstable was where they had added on one of their defensive methods after Wei Yi had left, and thus they were not integrated as effectively into the barrier as some of the others.


    In other words, this wave on the surface of the dome just revealed a series of weaknesses to them.


    ¡°Again!¡± he called out, not intending to reveal his realisation to the troops as that would just do exactly what they were aiming to avoid, which was endangering their morale and leading them to believe that their chances were far lower than they could currently seem to be.


    The worst thing about morale was exactly that the moment a battle was seen as being one that they were losing, the forces would immediately act less confidently, with more hesitation and less strength than they might otherwise be able to produce, and so they would transform that belief into truth. For their own sake, as well as that of the very cause of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, they had to believe that a victory, or a satisfactory tie at the very least, was within their reach so that they could best showcase their abilities to the invading force.


    Thus, he commanded them to repeat the attack, knowing that the second round would hardly be as organised as the first. In this case, that was exactly what Great Dark wanted, since a single perfectly timed attack was clearly something that their foe was able to handle without much difficulty, while a disorganised barrage of everything they had may prove more challenging to resolve.


    It was exactly what happened, with countless projectiles being shot out once again, all of them passing through the barrier without any difficulty due to the way in which it functioned, then soaring into the Greats, all of whom acted this time, with the third and second generation alike removing one of their anchors from supporting their primary attacking beams and releasing a burst of pressure from the anchors. Their simultaneous actions caused the wave of pressure to combine, and thus it fell upon the attacks with a similar degree of strength as before, except that they had to act while the greatest number of projectiles, bolts, brands and beams were in range, meaning that some had already crashed into their defences whereas other projectiles weren¡¯t reached.


    When all of this deflected energy hit the inner dome, the rest the attacks shot past and sought to strike at the Greats, except that the wave that once more spread over the barrier got to them first. As they were passing through, they clashed with the wave and caused many of the bolts and projectiles to explode within it, further exasperating the rippling and exposing the defensive patches to the barrier even more blatantly than before.


    One of those significant points suddenly flared during the rippling, and all of the point beams targeted it right away, cutting into it with such a degree of force that the dome caved in nearly instantly.


    ¡®What?¡¯ Great Dark questioned, his mind racing to comprehend why the dome was so close to collapse despite the attempts to breach it beginning only moments prior to this occurrence, and soon noticed a particular point of the defensive matrix that created the weakness that they were currently exploiting, ¡®The portion added with Meng Chu¡¯s help! It did not stand out at first, but when struck by the combined force of the Greats¡­ The weakness is then enormous¡­¡¯


    He could provide a vast quantity of energy to the barrier to try and keep it standing, but even emptying all of his planar pool, combined with that of Great Light, would give them a few more seconds while the Greats would not need to expend all that much more energy to defend it.


    Even had he wished to do so nonetheless, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to accomplish this when the dome collapsed.


    The forty-eight Great Family members surged inside. Every single one of them shattered their own beams into many, leaping atop the walls and directing them at the poor souls that did not have the speed to evade or the strength to endure their attacks. In moments, a dozen perished, and the rest fled with every drop of strength they had.


    Paragon was breached, and the joy on the faces of the invaders couldn¡¯t be overlooked.


    The one that could be held responsible for this, Meng Chu, ran to the front while so many others hastened away, lightning-type energy surrounding him alongside his physique energy surging through his secondary meridians. He wielded a blade that had not seen much action up to this point.


    ¡°Protect Paragon! Protect the people! Do not let these bastards get inside and ravage both!¡± he cried out, speeding up at the last moment before he tried to plunge a blade into the chest of one of the Great Family members. With lightning surrounding him, the soft ash of the Ashen Form whirling around him, any trace of his original weakness and incapability as a fighter vanished, and all that could be seen was his determination.


    Again, the soldiers might have been fooled at first, but when the blade struck the air before his white-haired, red-eyed target, and was stopped by it, they couldn¡¯t delude themselves.


    ¡°Shut your mouth,¡± Bai Fu said, seemingly calmly and slowly, as she pointed two fingers at him.


    A vast surge of raw planar energy burst out of her body, impacting into his body and audibly breaking bones as it rampaged throughout his body, a small quantity of that force keeping him in place as to prevent him from flying off. Blood spilled from his mouth, much of the organs within his body being crushed and torn by the rampant energy, and soon wounds were also torn within his body that allowed even more of his blood and even his energy to spill out. Some of the power of the Great Family member also sought out his dantian and gripped it tightly.


    Bai Fu stated him in the eye and asked, ¡°Anything to say for yourself?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ deserve to die¡­ She will¡­ kill you all¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll let you wait for me under the observation of the heavens, rebel!¡± she said, crushing his dantian and his heart within the same moment.


    All of his physique energy, all of his planar cultivation could do nothing for him as he fell lifelessly to the ground, his energy scattering and his very body melting into ash under the pressure of the Ashen Form physique that was able to do nothing to save his life, only being able to prevent his body from lying on the ground in its current broken and shameful state.


    What little had remained of the fortress¡¯ morale fell apart with his death, even when Great Dark and Great Light rushed to the aid of the remaining troops. Seeing one of their more courageous combatants fall without a single moment in which he was able to act, without leaving behind a single mark upon the flesh or armour of his foe, was absolutely terrifying, especially when he had managed to acquire a rather high realm among his peers, aided by the techniques of his ancestor.


    Of course, the moment that they were fully open to attack, and even before then, the Greats pounced on them, few doing so literally, as they cut them down with point beams and blasts of pure energy depending on what they wished to do more.


    In minutes, hundreds died, and the Greats flowed into the fortress unimpeded.


    Great Dark was able to hold a few of them back, but with three of the second generation acting together, he was forced to dedicate his all to protecting himself and a small area around him if he wished to remain alive. His brother, inheriting some of the more combative elements of their original identity, fared better, but even he was held back once a fourth member of the Great Families joined in.


    With seven occupied, the seventeen that remained were free to assist their younger generation in wreaking whatever havoc they desired, tearing through the defences that had been built up as if they were naught but wet paper placed in their path. Even then, they seemed to hold back, avoiding any damage to the structures of the fortress for now, focusing purely on hunting down all that they could and obliterating everything that had been put in place in order to protect against their invasion. If not for the rushed evacuation that had occurred only shortly before they attacked, countless civilians and bystanders who had merely happened to be in the prison realm would have likely perished alongside the warriors, for the Greats would have taken no care to ensure that they were attacking their enemy.


    The twins of Great Earth gritted their teeth and thought to turn to the centre of the desert fortress, intending to call out Yi Shi Ming to step in and act despite the risks, but the world suddenly quaked, and the sky turned dark, filling with storm clouds.


    All of it originated from the same gap in the sandstorm that the Greats had entered from.


    Thus, for a few moments, everyone turned towards the south, from which the strange phenomena approached, the number of which rose with every moment. The air filled with crimson and silver, strange shadowy and unstable figures arose within the fortress, all of them in combat stances and occasionally performing a move or technique that would not be completed before they vanished again, and a powerful pressure consumed the forty-eight members of the Great Families.


    Seeing as they were not affected, the Arbiters all withdrew while they were still able to, while their foes were distracted, and headed to the other side of Paragon to observe.


    A great surge of energy rose into the air, black and crimson entwining in a display that made Bai Fu¡¯s expression sour incredibly rapidly, becoming more and more grim and aggressive with each arc of the black and crimson storm that connected with the storm clouds in the air. Those dark masses of gaseous substances became thicker, denser and darker with each moment, and the air became heavier with something that prevented the very thoughts within the heads of the Greats from moving as they normally would.


    The silence was all that could be heard for some time, interspersed only by the occasional crackle of lightning, the ambient noise of the point beams, and the faint echoes of sound emerging from the ghostly figures that appeared and disappeared without warning.


    Then, the matter changed in an instant. A figure suddenly appeared upon the top of the walls of Paragon, their left arm wrapped in the blackened crimson lightning that had already spread to the skies, their right surrounded by a thin veil of light that seemed oddly insignificant and yet immensely powerful all at the same time. Their eyes burned with an immense hatred that instantly surpassed even the field of crimson and silver that they had been experiencing up to this point, and a towering figure floated behind them, with four arms channelling four different types of energy that gathered above their upturned palms in large spheres.


    ¡°So that is what all of you have been up to¡­ I wish to make declaration, to you, to my Arbiters, and to the world ¨C the Great Families shall fall! I promise it and stake my very life upon this purpose!¡±


    As she finished the sentence, Wei Yi, whose killing will cultivation had risen to the sixth realm with the mere realisation of what had happened in her absence, and as she begun to reconnect to the Kong Prison Realm, raised her hand and willed the countless embers scattered across the battlefield to surge towards it.


    The Greats did not stand idly by either, with all of them channelling their many point beams and methods towards her, with some in particular acting with a plain rage and fury that was absent from the rest, who simply looked upon her as a pest.


    Out of the crowd, she recognised Bai Fu, not just by her appearance, but by her lacking anchors.


    As these attacks raced towards her, they were met with the four powers of the Titanic Conqueror, each one throwing them out as the attacks were mid-way towards her. The Warlord¡¯s Banners came down beside her and her Arbiters at the other side of the fortress, their aura spreading out to strengthen and embolden them. The Hunter¡¯s Toxin had formed an enormous sphere that then scattered into a dense rain of absolute noxious horror that covered much of the storm cloud-filled sky with its own colour. Having formed a dozen enormous chunks of frost, the Redeemer¡¯s Frost threw them all out at the second generation, empowering them on the way through the banners that had fallen to the ground. Finally, the Crusader¡¯s Runes exploded from the Titanic Conqueror¡¯s hand and instantly peppered the battlefield, with all of them being the square runes that were then filled with the circular designs by a second wave of that hand.


    Together, these factors forced some of the Greats to cease their attempts to attack and to instead block the incoming torrent of madness, raising up their anchors and cores to protect themselves.


    The beams of the Great Families hit first, cutting into Wei Yi¡¯s body, many gashes and scorched lines being formed upon her clothing and body, but she did not let herself be moved by a single inch as she continued to gather the embers. Together, these attacks were enough for her to throw up blood and for her body to desire an end already, but her will had become even stronger than before. She endured it.


    With her poor state, the Great Families thought that the attacks that were coming for them would be weaker, and that they would only need to dodge the runes that were close to exploding already, but they suddenly saw a blackened crimson light wash over the entire fortress. Every building that had been hit before this was repaired, every mark upon the streets was corrected, and all of them felt as if a mountain had been dropped upon their shoulders. In addition to the crimson mist complicating their thoughts, the additional layer of energy made it even more difficult to endure.


    However, that was hardly the worst for them, as the rain of poison, chunks of ice, glowing runes and the many banners alike were also enveloped in this energy, and their radiance of power suddenly doubled in a single breath.


    They may have had an upper hand before her arrival, but Paragon was her territory. She did not need to conquer it anew, merely stake her claim with a power more official than her words.


    Chunk after chunk of dense frost concentrated into something solid crashed upon the anchor-based barriers of the Greats, exploding violently and scattering raw strength and frost combined with a shower of countless icicles that exploded from within the larger pieces of ice. There were many of them, and all of the miniscule ice shards contained the same force that the previous barrage of ice from Great Light had delivered onto the forces of the Great Families.


    Almost immediately, their anchor barriers buckled somewhat, the distance between them and the Greats themselves falling to an uncomfortably low level, but the pieces of ice were merely precursors for the torrent of horrendous toxin combined with the runes from beneath, the number of which nearly sent some of the Great Family members into a panic. When they had observed them initially, while there were still many, they had not covered the ground of the fortress quite as utterly as they did not, with there barely being any spots in which they were able to stand safely.


    That panic was what prompted them to finally drop their attempt to attack and to flee from the ground which was about to explode, and that had already been draining at their energy.


    Meanwhile, Wei Yi finally gathered every ember around her and placed them in her closed hand, bringing it near her chest as she glanced to her side and said to the crimson-skinned woman that had accompanied her here, ¡°These are the people that seek to bring the world to ruin. They slaughtered countless people and families just for the sake of getting at one person that had the unfortunate fate of being a child that they did not wish to see. I won¡¯t tell you to do anything, so do as you like.¡±


    Jia Rong looked to her, then to the countless bodies that lay on the ground around her, and a spark of her previous demonic expression returned then. Her method of cultivation, odd as it was, had been named the Demon¡¯s Cry by the two of them, and while it was uncertain what it was or where it had originated from, what was obvious was that it was strengthened and developed by emotion.


    That combined with the innate strength that she had possessed, her body having been developed in the same way as the stone of the cave she had been sealed in, meant that her might could be formidable. So long as she had even the faintest inclination to fight and even the slightest idea of what to do, which she did possess with the combination of her own knowledge and what Wei Yi had been able to offer her while they were on their journey back, then she could likely tear through the third generation of the Greats with ease.


    ¡®Do I¡­ Hm¡­ They would have done the same to me as those people had¡­ They would have torn my family and my life apart if we had displeased them¡­ I can see it in that one¡¯s face¡­¡¯


    One of the retreating Great Family members noticed her presence, and looked at her as one might at some unpleasant, disgusting, hateful thing that they would never tolerate within their proximity. Perhaps it was purely her demonic visage, or perhaps they had found something else about her distasteful, but that did not matter now.


    A trace of flame around her pupils reappeared as she leapt into the battlefield.


    Wei Yi followed her with her gaze for a brief moment, then back to the embers in her hand. All of them came from her own Arbiters, from the people that she had hoped would avoid a demise so early on in the war, before it even had a chance to begin, but that was not their fate this day. Now, with their last breaths gone and their energy gathered within these minute, flickering sparks of their last instant of life, they could only be used for a single thing.


    ¡°Hear me, Great Families! Your crimes shall not be forgotten! Your actions shall not go unpunished by Yi City! I, Wei Yi, the Conqueror and the Ascendant, declare the beginning of the War of Ascendancy!¡±


    With her voice spreading throughout the fortress with the Lion¡¯s Roar ability, she pressed those hundreds of embers to her chest, letting their power surge into her body, to flood her very being with the flames of life that would have otherwise been forgotten. As she also activated the Vibrant Phoenix physique ability, her figure was enveloped in flame that grew brighter and brighter with each moment, countless sparks surging from within as her skin was marked by countless burning points, wherein the flame seemed to be contained just beneath the surface.


    A single ember would have merely strengthened her, but as countless more occupied some space within her body, a boundless might and an endless torrent of energy surged out of her body, exploding out of her with flame powerful enough to mark the very wall she stood on with permanent burn marks and spots of molten rock.


    The moment that she felt everything that she had used up to this point instantly being recovered, she leapt down from the wall, her Titanic Conqueror following her, a sphere of Obliteration energy gathering between its four hands, and sought out those that had made her life a nightmare. She vanished mid-fall, and reappeared beside one of the third generation, slashing sideways with the claws on her left hand, releasing five thin lines of crystalline energy to meet the anchors and cores of her foes without hesitation.


    As the runes exploded behind them, and as only a little of the toxins dripped down upon them, some of the Great Family members turned to her and tried to meet her attack with their anchors directly, scoffing at her attempt.


    That expression was wiped from their faces the moment that the crystalline energy went straight through their anchors, cutting right through their bodies and severing them into many individual pieces. The rest of their anchors shattered and cracked the moment after their last breath, and the anchor energy from all of them surged into Wei Yi¡¯s Truth of the Universe. She had the interface opened, but she did nothing with it yet, instead looking to another large group and pointing at them.


    ¡°Rebel, don¡¯t you dare-¡± Bai Fu cried out as she ran towards her, but it was too late.


    The Titanic Conqueror released an Obliteration beam onto the group of the second and third generation, and while the former were able to withstand it for a moment, the change from solid to crystalline had truly changed their odds of survival. Before, Wei Yi would have been attempting to cut steel with her polished yet still rusted iron, but now she wielded something that was effective star metal. With it, her conquering of the region, Jia Rong¡¯s participation serving to further distract and confuse her foes, she had managed to once more level the playing field as she had in the Ping mansion.


    ¡°You dare to attack us again? Face me, you whore!¡±


    ¡°All of you just love turning to the meaningless insults, don¡¯t you?¡± Wei Yi spoke back, appearing in front of Bai Fu within a blink of the latter¡¯s eyes, ¡°Think about your own actions first, killer of families, destroyer of Yi City, and foe to all progress!¡±


    Her words were accusatory, and clearly tinged by her own views of the world, but there was nothing that the Great Family member could truly say against them. She had killed families, she had contributed to the decay of Yi City, and her family and her all opposed the development of the world for their own purposes.


    All of it sounded highly negative, and while the Great Family member could retort, she only had the very anger that had driven her to speak the moment prior on her mind.


    Wei Yi stabbed at Bai Fu¡¯s core, targeting one of the searing marks upon it with her flaming claws coated in a layer of Obliteration energy within a crystalline state in order to get the most out of this movement. Bai Fu condensed the force of all of her anchors, as well as the energy of a searing mark near the back of her core, and focused all of it into a point that she then aimed at Wei Yi¡¯s head, unleashing a vast and powerful beam from it.


    Neither hesitated in their actions, but while Bai Fu¡¯s was intended to prevent the attack upon her, Wei Yi also drove her mental energies into her hair, forming a thin sheet between her face and the incoming beam of immense power.


    It struck the layer of crimson strands and scattered into them, with some passing through and marking the face of the Ascendant while others were entirely absorbed by the strands and failed to make a single mark upon the excessively durable material. The beam was only able to last for a little while, as it had not been intended for the same purpose as the attacks that targeted the defences of Paragon, and when it ended, the layer of hair dispersed to show the blackened crimson glimmer in Wei Yi¡¯s eye as she hit the Great Family member¡¯s core.


    The power of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye that spread out in that moment added a layer of noxious fluid onto her claws, the movement of which already sent it splashing onto her opponent¡¯s core, while another banner fell beside her and a layer of conquered space surrounded her entire body. In an instant, an attack that had already concerned Bai Fu was suddenly elevated even further, being filled to the brim with so many elements that no single form of defence would ever suffice to completely prevent it from dealing a notable degree of harm to the marked core and the person hiding beneath it. The second-generation member of the Great Bai attempted to repel her with both sheer planar energy and the pressure of the anchors, but both were dissipated by a strange crimson mist surrounding Wei Yi.


    Thus, the tips of her claws struck, and the sound of shattering glass once more spread throughout the fortress.


    Against everything embedded within the attack, the dense barrier that separated the fourth realm from regular humans in the mind of some could only crumble and break, permitting her flaming claws to penetrate the energy that made up the core. Her entire hand sunk into the hole created within the marked core, and from the tips of her claws surged out arcs of Obliteration and Ire energy, both crystallised as they went straight for the anchors behind it and the person behind them.


    For a moment, panic filled Bai Fu¡¯s eyes. She had accidentally made use of the proper defensive formation for her previous number of anchors, but after the battle only a few days ago, that number had been decreased by five, and thus there wasn¡¯t even an anchor to absorb the blow from her foe.


    She was forced to decide, and she made that decision unwillingly, seeing no better option. As the energy came for her, Bai Fu attempted to flee, leaving some of her other anchors to take the fall, but she was barely able to begin moving as she suddenly saw a strange twig within Wei Yi¡¯s hand. It was rather plain, and the only notable feature of it was that it spiralled oddly, in a way that most natural pieces of wood or former branches never would. The moment later, she understood that it was a middle-grade artefact, and the moment after that¡­


    A sudden explosion of Obliteration energy emerged from the tip of that piece of wood, right through the tear within her core, striking those anchors and penetrating them directly.


    Before she could even comprehend their loss, that explosion occurred once more, but it contained a greater degree of energy, as if the energy had been placed within the twig and allowed to reverberate within it until its magnitude grew. The second beam struck Bai Fu¡¯s body directly, directly cutting off an arm within a single breath.


    There was no need to warn of the third burst of power, nor did she intend to be hit by it. Just before it surged out of the twig, Bai Fu pulled out a series of talismans and ripped them all at the same time by holding one end in her mouth and using her only hand to tear them. The beam still occurred, and it still shot at her location, but her body, her anchors and her core all vanished at the same time, appearing nearer to the wall through which they had entered the fortress initially. She had fallen on her knees at some point of the transportation process, but she rose once more and tried desperately to flee.


    Her fellow Great Family members had the same idea, many of them pooling towards the exit.


    ¡°Look at what you had been keeping from the world!¡± Wei Yi shouted as she glanced at the interface of the Truth of the Universe and willed most of the numerous anchor points that she had acquired, both during the battle and long before it, to surge towards Obliteration.


    It was a technique that was made purely of her own anger and power, and it was one that could hardly be corrupted by the machinations of any kind of otherworldly gift. Furthermore, it was a complex technique, one that encapsulated so many differing principles and thoughts that the number of points required to raise it to the next stage would be enormous, meaning that the thousand and five hundred points that she had dedicated towards it would be spent easily.


    With such a large number of points being used, the sudden increase in energy concentration around her could hardly be overlooked when the air momentarily became violet, and the slight movement of her hand caused a ripple throughout it. That wave of energy spread rapidly, soon consuming the entirety of the fortress, the violet fading but the greatened quantity of power clearly remaining within the air. While it was visible to everyone, they were also able to see how all of it suddenly converged upon the centre of Paragon, all of it forming into something that was familiar to all that had been in the Kong Prison Realm.


    As Wei Yi¡¯s connection with the Kong Prison Realm returned, and the energy density in the air rose to the extent of being a passive presence of the first realm all around them, she took both of those factors and pulled them towards the centre of Paragon, uniting them into her very own Endless Monolith, building it out of the increased quantity of energy, stabilising it with the prison realm and sending the projection of the Monolith into the condensed structure, causing it to manifest within reality.


    A tower, fractured yet whole, appeared within the centre of the fortress, occupying much of the central open space with the base alone, while the rest towered over the sands and Paragon alike. Around it, the crystalline core formed also, surrounding the walls of the fortress.


    However, other than all of that, the most pressing matter to the Greats, as well as to those that eagerly watched their fleeing backs, was the fact that the sphere within the centre of the Monolith that would usually be a chained sphere of pure planar energy and a bright white light was instead enveloped in blackened crimson. It arced and sent out bolts of Obliteration energy into the air, with none hitting the ground much to the relief of a few who had been close to it. That great sphere was clearly targeted at the fleeing Greats, and it seemed to be consistently rising in power as Wei Yi looked towards them.


    ¡°All of you ¨C burn!¡±


    The moment that the process of the Truth of the Universe ceased, she released the energy that she had projected out into the world, directing it all in a single dense beam at those that attempted to escape her grasp. With a deafening sound, a burst of absolute, overpowering light, and a tremble of the earth, they understood the folly of their actions.


    Just as the Endless Monolith was many times larger than it was when regularly placed outside of her dantian, the energy beam that it sent out was many times larger as well. It covered the entirety of the wide street leading out to the wall, and it impacted the ground with so much force that it nearly caused a small collapse of stone beneath Paragon. The blinding crimson and black energy covered the entirety of the fortress with its colours, but where its power was focused, the damage could be seen in the instant that it began to move towards the wall to chase after those that avoided the initial strike.


    There, a gash in the earth and stone that was at least three metres deep could be seen, the ground melted into dark crimson glass by the sheer power of Obliteration in the fifty-ninth stage.


    Several cores cracked beneath it, with others desperately holding on to flee, like Bai Fu, who was hit only moments after the rest of her companions had been. That overpowering beam of absolute destruction fell upon her cracked and damaged core, and her fate was sealed.


    It moved onto her with a deep, thunderous sound that could hardly be more perfect to herald the coming of such an attack, shaking the world merely through it. Had there been fragile portions of the fortress, made of glass or some similarly weak material, they would have cracked, shattered and exploded into little pieces from the sound alone. It would have left a secondary trace of destruction as it slowly and ominously travelled away from the centre of the beam, having already shredded several Great Family members as could be seen by the dissipating energy and their decreasing numbers.


    Even then, it persisted towards the wall, following those that leapt atop it, and tore it into shreds just as easily as it continued on, breaking the anchors and cores of several more that were unable to produce the same methods to flee as they initially used to get away from the beam and the damage to them in the first place.


    When it finally ended, all that could be seen were the fleeing backs the size of specks of dust in the distance, and a great hole within the wall of Paragon, in line with the gap in the sandstorm.


    ¡°The first battle of the War of Ascendancy has been won by us!¡± Wei Yi declared openly and proudly, even amplifying her voice in the hope that the Great Family members running away from them would be able to hear the announcement, ¡°My Arbiters, I guarantee that this shall not be the last! We shall cleanse the world of those monsters, and we shall set it free! Yi City shall be under their influence no longer!¡±

 V4C36: To Capture Districts

    It was difficult to argue with the results, and the results were plain before them.


    The force that seemed unstoppable was gone, there were traces of obliterated flesh and clothing where the beam had struck, and the mark that the beam itself left attested to the sheer power that the attack possessed. Best of all for the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, however, was that their leader had returned.


    Due to their cultivation and previous proximity to the centre of the desert fortress, Great Dark and Great Light were closest to her, and were thus the first to be able to reach her the moment that the people of Paragon realised that they had not just managed to survive, but that their foe had been pushed back by an absolute, overwhelming force. Its source still stood in the centre of Paragon, proudly reaching into the skies while the orb of energy at the centre shone down upon them, that blackened crimson now absent from it.


    They ran up to her, finding her still staring in the direction of the shattered wall and parted sands, in the direction that the Great Family members had fled.


    ¡°Wei Yi, what has¡­ no, what have¡­¡± Great Light stuttered, giving time for his brother to speak.


    ¡°There had been a kind of¡­ perverse presentation at the Chu District¡­ it seemed like They had been able to capture you, and so¡­¡±


    ¡°First of all, we will no longer use that attempt to hide their identities. They had wanted the words to die, so we shall ensure that they never will. The Great Families, the plague of this world, must end, and if the entirety of the Western Continent cannot hear of them, then we will likely fail in our task,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing back but not turning around fully, her left hand still clenched in its killing will form, ¡°Also, where do you think I¡¯d gone on a stupid mission? They thought they had gotten me.¡±


    ¡°You mean you got captured on purpose? You insane bi-mhm!¡±


    ¡°Great Light, shut it! You mean to say that your capture was not some orchestration on Their part, but you sneaking in to their territory?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, I sought to learn of the Great Families in the most effective way, and this was the one that I had selected. Took a while to pick everything up to be able to act in a convincing manner, but eventually, the Great Families were fooled for long enough. Also, there¡¯s no point to holding back now. The Greats know of our location, and if they ever decide to bring one of the first generation out of Testament, they¡¯d not stop themselves from flattening the area just because we chose to not mention their names a few times,¡± Wei Yi stated, her eyes shutting for a moment as her left fingers finally changed back from claws, and the crimson mist that was covering the fortress receded slightly, ¡°There, finally¡­¡±


    She turned around, her silver eyes glimmering with sparks of crimson that brought her already powerful gaze to yet another level, as it seemed to command the very world around her to act according to her will.


    ¡°Sorry, withdrawing killing intent can be rather difficult, especially when you have a mental domain drowning in it,¡± Wei Yi said, looking to the rest of the Arbiters in the distance, ¡°Come on, get closer. There is something that I wish for all of us to do, and I think that it would be best if we did it all at once, just to get the message across.¡±


    The Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters glanced to one another with some curiosity, the Hunters of the Cosmos that had been mixed in amongst them being particularly curious to learn what it was that they were intending to suddenly do, and came closer as they were instructed to.


    ¡°The sparks of life are heading rapidly in our direction. We appear to have failed in our plan.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. One of them even dares to utter our title, time and time again. The Rebel has no distinction between right and wrong, no shame, and only shallow arrogance.¡±


    Two figures spoke to one another, looking upon the Death of Words and observing the individual sparks of discussion about them as well as those that belonged to their own members. So long as the Life Spark Sensing ceremony was prepared in advance and the flames of life of their own were attuned to prior to their departure from the fortress, it was possible to keep track of them without needing to consume the energy used for the typical version of the ceremony, hence why these two members of the Great Families could see the sudden drop in their own numbers.


    ¡°Even she has the common sense not to speak of us too much. Look, she has-¡±


    The first was barely able to finish the thought inside of her head, not to mention the words that she was speaking, when the point that they had attacked suddenly ignited with point after point of the Death of Words array.


    They had no time to fade before their titles were spoken once again, the sparks doubling atop one another and growing brighter with every single repetition.


    ¡°She¡­ The sheer gall!¡± the second figure exclaimed, staring at the growing brightness of the points.


    It was no challenge to understand what they were seeing. It was a declaration, a proclamation and proud affirmation of the victory of the group that hid within that ancient fortress, and it was repeated time and time again to ensure that the Great Families had no possible chance to miss it. They weren¡¯t worried about being found out now, so they spoke time and time again, announcing the names of their foes without any reservation.


    With each call, the individual that spoke was highlighted on the enormous map, but that hardly did the Greats any good when it was every single person present, and when all that it did was confirm just how many of the group they had failed to defeat before the Rebel saved them. The Rebel obviously knew that they were being watched, and so presented each and every failure in the battle right to them, challenging them to come once more if they were truly brave enough to do so. Even without the reports of the attacking force reaching Testament, they could tell that they had the ability to protect themselves once, and that they would likely endure another similar attack¡­ not that they were able to call one.


    Around half of the attacking force perished, while the total number of Great Family members that had lived prior to their first deaths after the Rebel¡¯s appearance that could also act in the Planar Continents was only ninety-two, with half being in the third generation, and many of those had perished.


    Now, they only had around two thirds of their initial forces, none of which could develop much in strength while the forces that opposed them had clearly risen in power greatly in just the time that it had taken them to travel from the Great Ping Family mansion over to their fortress. If enough time to permit a new third generation to develop was permitted to the Greats, then their enemies might all rise to a similar level.


    ¡°Their arrogance knows no bounds¡­ They think that just because they-¡± one more, the first figure tried to speak, but a sudden phenomenon shook the entirety of their territory.


    A vast wind of pure planar energy spread out across the entire continent, the density of energy within the air rising rapidly by several folds, until taking a simple breath could be equivalent to regular cultivation prior to this change. The mist of violet spread into Testament as well, and caused the entire spatial realm to ignite momentarily as it desperately attempted to adjust to the sudden rise in the energy within it. As it passed through the bodies of the two figures, they almost felt it overwhelm them, surging past their anchors and into their flesh as the bodies that they had long been preparing to decrease the quantity of planar energy all across the world.


    Thus, when all of their efforts over the hundred years of their life were suddenly reversed by the matter of thousands of years, it took them some time to stabilise their states and adjust to the amplification.


    ¡°What was¡­ it came from the direction of the Rebel and her forces¡­ Did they release all of the energy that we had contained?¡± the first figure questioned.


    ¡°The Life Spark Sensing ceremony had been unable to detect the remnant traces of those that had perished under her fist¡­ She has some ability to capture the essences of our anchors and crush them, releasing everything we had worked for so long to subdue into the air once again!¡± the second exclaimed, ¡°To recover to the point that we could confidently strike once more¡­ argh!¡±


    ¡°¡­ and just to be absolutely clear, repeat their title, if you wouldn¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°The Great Families!¡±


    ¡°Exactly. We will destroy them all, wipe their influence from Yi City, release everything that they had stored away and return it to the people of the Western Continent, to whom every technique, artefact, piece of knowledge and drop of energy belong!¡± Wei Yi proclaimed, the blackened crimson sparks within her eyes surging alongside her words, ¡°All of us will begin to act at this very moment, and we will guarantee that we may live free of them! That those who we know, who we may love or even hate will be free of the monstrous grasp that they have over the world! We will be free, and they will have no chance to stand against us!¡±


    Her conquering presence surged throughout Paragon once again and mixed with the vast quantity of killing will that had spread throughout it and lifted it into the air, freeing the fortress from her mental energy.


    All that remained was sufficient energy for any common human to attain a cultivation realm with a single breath, and enough for even those in the third realm to benefit from regular cultivation without the assistance of arrays, pills or inscriptions to accelerate their absorption of energy and to increase the quantity that they were able to interact with.


    It was distinctly prevented from escaping due to the core that existed around the enormous Endless Monolith that stood in the centre, with the Monolith and core alike acting just as they would in the body of a regular cultivator. Within, the energy was able to gather at a greater density without any obstacles from the world around it, including the natural attempts of the world to dissipate all energy within it equally.


    Wei Yi had made use of this to allow Paragon to retain far more of the released planar energy from the anchor energy than the rest of the world received, although she was sure that it would still spread out a little more equally over time.


    Furthermore, she did not intend to hold back on her usage of anchor energy any more, since she had something that she could develop nearly endlessly without it being affected by the Truth of the Universe, since she already understood the technique of Obliteration perfectly. All that she needed to advance it was to increase its power, to ensure that the beam-based attack was able to match and overpower the point beams of the Greats and to prove to them that their ghastly methods were not even worth everything that they had done to acquire them.


    ¡°For that reason, I will place a library into this fortress. It will contain countless books and manuals infused with a degree of my own understanding of the basic principles, although I will not include anything other than that so that you may develop them on your own into a different direction,¡± Wei Yi said after everyone had calmed down slightly, ¡°Do not attempt to study more of these than you need to, and don¡¯t try to overwhelm your head just because of what happened today. There is no point.


    ¡°It is essential that every single one of us survives and is able to confront the Great Families together and to see the world that can be made without them, and if you try to obliterate your own minds just for the sake of minor improvement in a field that you do not even comprehend, you will not benefit. Focus either on what you know and understand, or on what you believe to be the most useful and appropriate path for you. If you are not certain about it, whether due to a lack of experience in some particular field or due to a general uncertainty about yourself, you can speak to anyone in the fortress, so long as they are free. Do this until tomorrow, for then we shall depart for a brief battle with a few forces.


    ¡°Great Light, Great Dark, Luo Lia Kun, Yi Shi Ming and the rest of you, we¡¯ll speak in the prison realm.¡±


    As she spoke, the image of her Ascendant¡¯s Library arose within the desert fortress, overlapping with some of the buildings in order to be able to contain just enough information to deliver across all of her powerful techniques within the physical structures of Paragon.


    With a quick wave, she gestured the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters towards it, then turned to the group that she had initially invited to speak with her prior to her departure from the fortress and into the lands of the Greats. They clearly displayed a variety of expressions, with Great Dark and Yi Shi Ming being the best at hiding what they were thinking from outright spilling onto their faces, but they hardly wished to object to speaking somewhere where they would not be the centre of attention for a lot of people that wouldn¡¯t understand them fully.


    As such, they followed her into the gateways of the Kong Prison Realm that had reopened, heading through the central entryway. Rather than arriving simply at the mountains, they instead saw a stairway of silver and crimson rise up and connect to a vague structure that was barely visible from the outside, but clearly contained a great deal on the inside.


    ¡°This is¡­ Wei Yi, you have reached the sixth realm already?¡± Yi Shi Ming was the first to notice.


    ¡°Sixth realm of killing will, or my mental cultivation if I hadn¡¯t explained that to some of you,¡± Wei Yi replied, taking the first step onto the staircase and finding that it was as stable as she hoped, ¡°When empowered both by my internal core, and my bloodline, it can rise to great heights. Manipulating space is not yet within my power, but creating some minor elements is hardly challenging.¡±


    Had someone like Wu Yi Tai been here, rather than standing in Paragon beside his soldiers trying to figure out whether they should also enter the library, he would have likely retorted at the proclamation that making something this complex out of nothing but her mental energy, but the rest were familiar enough with her typical activities to not be too perplexed by her accomplishment. Furthermore, while this may be somewhat impressive, the manner in which she absolutely tore through a great portion of the terrain of the fortress with her very Monolith was significantly more notable within their eyes, and far more prominent.


    After she confirmed the stability of her creation, they followed after her and rose to the structure in the air, stepping in to find that it was highly reminiscent of the meeting room within Paragon if it was entwined with the underground chambers of Beast¡¯s Rest and then combined with something else.


    They knew that there was some other influence present, but they couldn¡¯t recognise it.


    Additionally, their attention was grabbed by the woman that Wei Yi had brought in with her, who had crimson skin, long dark horns that curved back, and claw-like fingers. It was a highly strange appearance, even within the Planar Continents that were usually so full of insane entities and features as a result of physiques and bloodlines. However, they had seen her participate within the earlier battle, and she was also standing close to Wei Yi, so they presumed that she wasn¡¯t some monster.


    With the additional seat present, the woman had somewhere to sit, and then a few more appeared as the otherworldly demons suddenly found themselves within those new chairs.


    ¡°- and so¡­ Eh? Why are we in here?¡± Miyu asked, glancing about until her eyes locked onto Wei Yi, ¡°Oh, you¡¯re back! How are you doing? What happened out there? Your realm has advanced? That¡¯s great!¡±


    ¡°¡­ Here I thought I was the agitated one.¡±


    ¡°While I agree with the idea, I don¡¯t quite see how you¡¯re particularly agitated,¡± Fu Zan noted, for the difference between someone sitting and speaking calmly and someone doing the exact opposite was obvious in many ways.


    ¡°Oh, but I am very agitated. I¡¯ve just returned from a mansion belonging to the Great Families, and I happen to be incredibly angry at every little thing that I heard and saw there. If I could, I would most certainly go all out and tear through everything I can. However, I am controlling myself for the moment¡­ No, I am desperately attempting to do so. If you pay attention, you might be able to see that the skin on my left hand will occasionally change and twist into something more akin to bone, or Jia Rong¡¯s claws. That¡¯s Jia Rong, by the way,¡± Wei Yi nodded to her right, where the demonic woman sat.


    Jia Rong waved hesitantly at everyone else in the room, noticing as she did so that the Ascendant¡¯s hand did indeed flicker between skin and bone for a few moments.


    ¡°Let us not focus on that. There is some information that I need to share with all of you, and I would prefer to do so really quickly before we get into action, which we should be doing as soon as possible before the Great Families are able to recover,¡± Wei Yi said as she lowered her left hand beneath the table, resting it on her knee while the fluctuations of mental energy could be resolved, ¡°Before I do, have any questions or statements you wish to make?¡±


    ¡°We have seen a few images from the Chu District¡­ was that actually you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it was. If I had just appeared at one of their mansions, then no matter how stupid those fuckers are, they would have noticed that something was off. I had to pass through some system of theirs, and this was one that I found easiest to infiltrate.¡±


    ¡°Why did you not tell us in advance?¡±


    ¡°How did you react upon seeing this? Upon learning of my capture? It doesn¡¯t really matter, because the key is that your reaction was genuine, exactly as you would act in that situation because you did believe it to be entirely real. So, imagine if they were able to observe you then, and see your every reaction ¨C they would have had no reason to suspect me, because it would seem legitimate,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°Now imagine if I had told all of you what I¡¯d do, and when you saw something at the Chu District, you just grinned at the imminent fate of the Greats and carried on. Wouldn¡¯t it be odd?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ fuck.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. It seems that you didn¡¯t try to lash out, either, which should have led to the perfect atmosphere if anyone was to be able to watch your reactions. I would have preferred not to do something like this, but there are a lot of things that you may wish to do that you then cannot,¡± she put her hand back on the table as it had finally stabilised in its regular form, ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°I think that it would be best to move onto the strategy¡­ if it is as urgent as you say,¡± Great Dark said, with none disagreeing with him, ¡°What is our plan?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s very simple, really. We need to capture a district or two to truly make ourselves a power within the north of Yi City, and to prevent the Greats from having the opportunity to easily attack us. The other districts would not be keen to assist them, and the Greats themselves would need to invest far more effort into defeating that many warriors, especially now that the quantity of planar energy will spike so immensely¡­ I hope that the Great Families have been preparing their bodies for a continued decrease in energy density, since that would mean that they would be ravaged by the sudden spike,¡± the Ascendant grinned for a moment before lightly slapping her left hand, which attempted to revert to the killing will state once more.


    So that there was less killing intent and killing will flowing throughout it, she raised it and conjured a map of Yi City with the discoveries and markings that she had added to it over her exploration and travels of it, copying it from the one in her Ascendant¡¯s Library. Certain points had far more detail than others, and if she willed it, she could even add the third dimension to the map itself. If not for the decreased visibility that would have caused, she would have probably done it.


    On that map, the three northern border districts were highlighted ¨C the Chao District, Ju District, and the Bai District. Out of the three, the Chao District was smallest, with the Ju District being largest as a result of all of the space that was required to feed and house a population without the extensive usage of planar energy, but in the conventional view the Chao District was often seen as most dangerous.


    ¡°If we all attack together, the Greats will almost certainly seek to root us out even at some losses of their own. As much of my influence that I am able to spread with me, I cannot replicate the exact power of that Obliteration beam without something to stabilise a spatial realm and thus my Endless Monolith, so I would not be able to act in a matter that is as effective as I would like. To make things easier for ourselves, we will need to split up a little bit,¡± she pointed to the Chao District, ¡°The Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters shall go to the Chao District in full, surrounding it and presenting the ultimatum of temporary occupation to it under the threat of force.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ doubt that they will be keen to accept such a proposal, their characters being what they are¡­¡±


    ¡°For that reason, I would like to ask Jia Rong to participate as a sort of leader temporarily, and to challenge whatever diplomat they pretend to send our way to some test of raw physical might. She will win, and it will give us the chance to impose something basic upon them. You don¡¯t need to hold onto the territory for long, only until I get back and assist you with slapping the Patriarch in the face and telling him what is happening.¡±


    ¡°The question itself is likely obvious to you, but I shall ask it on behalf of the others. What shall you be doing, Wei Yi?¡± Yi Shi Ming asked in the stead of the rest of the gathered group, save for those that weren¡¯t paying attention at all and couldn¡¯t care less about the situation.


    ¡°We do need to capture a district, so I shall go to the Bai District and take it. I have a sixth realm energy, and my planar energy easily equates the common fifth realm. I understand the nature of Law well enough to overcome the vast majority of the group arts that they may employ, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve for disposing of groups of weaker foes that are strong together,¡± she explained, tapping the Bai District on the map, ¡°Whoever¡¯s in charge over there will probably try to stop me, but I am sure that some agreement can be reached with them or someone in a position to compete with them. Unless they are a particularly despicable candidate for leadership, I shall temporarily support them and let them take the place of the Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°Could the Bai family be aware of the Great Families already, and be seeking to act against them now that they know they are weakened?¡± Meng Chu asked.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not put our hopes into¡­ what? You¡­ Ashen Form physique permits resurrection?¡±


    Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, and after a moment of confusion, the eyes of everyone else, widened as they looked upon Meng Chu, who sat calmly in the room as if nothing at all had occurred. His body, clothing, hair and weapons were exactly as they had been at the moment of his death, and any wounds that had appeared upon his body were entirely absent from his current appearance.


    ¡°Resurrection? You mean¡­ I did actually die on that battlefield?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d imagine that I don¡¯t need to remind you of such a thing, but yes, you did indeed die. I had¡­ ah, now that I think about it, the number of supposed deaths did not match the number of embers that I had collected, so I should have known that something was up. Could¡¯ve still said something.¡±


    ¡°I would have certainly done that had I known that it wasn¡¯t just some terrible dream!¡± Meng Chu exclaimed, looking down at his hands and body with a newfound appreciation, ¡°Huh¡­¡±


    ¡°Care to tell us how you came back to life, or am I just going to need to move on from something like this without a direct explanation? I am sure that Yi Shi Ming would have spotted it ¨C yes, seems she did ¨C but having the first person perspective of events can make them vastly more interesting and detailed,¡± Wei Yi said, leaning back as she found that her hand finally stopped acting up. As it turned out, some good news every now and then helped to suppress terrible rage.


    ¡°I had been on the battlefield, then everything went white. It was strange, and lasted an uncertain amount of time, but then I suddenly realised that I was sitting on one of the seats in that room where the flame-like point is, and that I was perfectly fine physically, without a trace of the damage that had been inflicted upon me¡­¡±


    He stopped speaking, looking down at himself again. Nothing about him suggested in the slightest that he had been in a conflict that had literally killed him only minutes before this, and yet here he was.


    Perhaps the more significant and impressive matter was that he had not only survived but managed to recover in such a short amount of time, managing to make it to the entry gateway of the prison realm to join the rest of the central group of Arbiters following their Ascendant. If such a thing could be done repeatedly, then while he would still prefer to avoid it due to the extreme stress that something like death inflicted upon him, he could participate in any conflict with the full awareness that he would just return to Beast¡¯s Rest if anything occurred.


    ¡°Does that flame now look weaker, or is it about the same as it had been before this?¡±


    ¡°It¡­ ah, it did indeed look somewhat feeble¡­ Does that mean that I will not be able to revive in such a fashion again?¡±


    ¡°If I had to make a guess, I would say that the Ashen Form, based on what we can understand, results in a certain binding to the world, a certain anchoring of body and mind. That point in the room is an example of this, and perhaps it will recover with enough time. Seeing as you often used that room, it would make sense why the anchoring node appeared there, and why it could bring you back. You didn¡¯t go down without any regrets or desires, did you?¡± she asked, hardly needing him to nod to know the answer, ¡°Your wish to persist likely triggered the Ashen Form¡­ so long as what I know about it is even remotely close to the truth. That is not always the case.¡±


    Meng Chu knew even less, so he was hardly able to comment on the matter.


    ¡°Anyway, I would suggest we speak about this later. For now, the plan. Listen carefully, and if you want to raise questions or exclamations of some kind, do so after I finish talking. I am not joking about the time restriction we currently have.¡±

 V4C37: For a Foothold in the Bai District

    There were indeed quite a few various exclamations and questions, often the two coming together, but in the end there was little that could be argued with within her plan. Sure, it was insane and highly unlikely to work if they were some normal force attempting to combat the Greats, but that was not the case in the slightest.


    Jia Rong alone was enough to convince most of them that there was quite a high chance of accomplishing something, since her physical strength despite her mostly unassuming body was absolutely immense. It shocked even her, since she had only gotten to experience a little bit of it while running and a little more against enemies that could partially guard against it, and so to find that she was able to rip a solid slab of stone in half with a little bit of force was a rather fascinating experience.  Fortunately, controlling it didn¡¯t prove difficult for her, or else there might have been problems.


    The Chao District¡¯s leadership was very prone to acting in ways that often epitomised the stereotypes about the Chao family, so the moment that one of them emerged to attempt to contest the Arbiters¡¯ occupation of the district, they would almost certainly agree to some kind of physical challenge.


    So long as it was won, it would be possible to demand something of them, and their fellow Chao family members would be unlikely to contest the first request at the very least, even if they asked for something highly extreme or unconventional. The second and third demands would be less likely to pass without a second challenge, one that Jia Rong would be less likely to win as her strength was currently only at the level of the fifth realm or so, but a single demand was enough to claim to occupy the district for a little while. Once Wei Yi had the Bai District for herself, she would be able to accept such challenges and wipe out those that thought to issue them in terms of strength.


    As for the Great Families, it was likely that they wouldn¡¯t like to waste their forces coming after the secondary threat to them in this situation, and even if they had plenty of forces available to go out there and fight the Arbiters, they would be hesitant to put them to use if they saw that the Ascendant wasn¡¯t present at the battlefield. Her appearance at the Bai District would force them to shift their attention to it, but if there was one thing that she had experience with, it was swift fights.


    Thus, by the time that they arrived, she could likely spread knowledge of the Greats all over the place and incite the entire district to despise them for everything that they have done throughout their lives.


    At that point, even if they thought to fight her and take the district back into their own hands, both the district¡¯s leadership itself and the people living within in, among whom are bound to be some with highly impressive strength and abilities, would seek to put up a fight and prevent them from keeping control of the Bai District in the shadows once more.


    In theory, the threat of physical or planar force wasn¡¯t even necessary to take any one district, as the promise of continued growth of planar energy, countless techniques and room to grow back into what the districts had once been might be enough to entice the Bai or even Chao Districts, at which point they wouldn¡¯t want to simply fall back into the hands of a group that wished for all of these things to be lost. Since the Great Families were best at taking care of things in the shadows, without the notice of others, their reveal to the public would not only render their method of detecting those who speak about them entirely worthless, but it would make it nearly impossible for any one of them to appear within a district without being noticed.


    Both the Bai and Chao Districts enjoy frequent trade and visits from the rest of Yi City, at least receiving more visitors than certain places like the Ju District, so once the news spread through them, it would spread from them to the Ping District, then the Lao and Chu District, then the Ning, Chen and Jiang Districts, and then the word would likely keep going unless impeded with some great effort by the Greats.


    Something like that wasn¡¯t impossible for the Great Families to achieve at first, with one or two people passing through the semblances of roads between the districts, but that was where the other advantage of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters came into effect.


    ¡°You were able to attain the Conqueror¡¯s Eye¡­ How large is the area of effect? How long does it take to dissipate?¡± Great Dark had asked once he confirmed that the blackened crimson glimmering within the Ascendant¡¯s eyes weren¡¯t the result of her increasing mental cultivation realm, but instead the visual effect of the eye-based physique ability making itself known.


    ¡°All of those are actually the great thing about the ability, at least in my case. The Ascendant physique, and, in particular, my previous True Ascendant and current Yin-Yang Ascendant physique affect the abilities that they are able to replicate, and it is highly possible that they have made the Conqueror¡¯s Eye even more impressive than it could have been without it,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°The area that I can attempt to conquer and influence is practically limitless so long as I am able to observe it in some fashion and have enough energy to do so, but me being the bottomless source of energy that I am, this shouldn¡¯t be a concern at all.


    ¡°The best part is that, so far, it does not appear that any conquered land connected directly to a place that I genuinely control and command, that is, Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm, is seeing a decay of my influence. What that might mean is that so long as I can truly claim the Bai and Chao Districts, I will be able to spread my influence throughout the territory between them and effectively subdue the vast majority of threats to usual travellers, thus permitting for far more travel between them.¡±


    ¡°And with each district, this territory would expand, and travel may be even freer?¡± Luo Lia Kun enquired, ¡°I have to say, I did not think that we would see the return of the golden era of Yi City within our lifetimes.¡±


    ¡°I am not sure that you will, but it will certainly be vastly better than it currently is. I could effectively raise the realm of every human while decreasing the realm of all planar flora and fauna, without actually decreasing their cultivation, and make it so that even the toughest region can be traversed far more easily,¡± the Ascendant explained, ¡°In essence, the safest paths could be traversed even by a first realm cultivator, the least safe would be usable for fourth realm cultivators. Then, as the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, my influence, and the Arbiters become stronger, we can all increase the security between districts even further, paving old and new roads alike for all to be able to use. The old highways could return to us.¡±


    Fu Zan, who wasn¡¯t able to say much to any of this and was just waiting to be told whether he¡¯d need to get back to sowing something, suddenly perked up, ¡°Wait, that¡¯s an otherworldly term!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I figured. Kong Shi Meng, the Master of Yi City, was the one to come up with it, after all. For all that you lot are and are not able to do, it seems that originality was not your strong suit,¡± replied Wei Yi, tapping the map of Yi City as a series of thick roads appeared upon it, ¡°These should be a basic web of roads that supports most travel, and allows for easy trading between the various districts. If anyone has a Chen family ancestry, or some general understanding of trade that surpasses my own, do feel free to contribute, but if not, this should be a decent layout.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know a thing, but I had spent some time looking at maps back on Orbis. Could our road systems be useful here?¡±


    ¡°Let me see¡­¡± Wei Yi poked her spiritual will thread into his head and checked out the kinds of things that he was thinking about, ¡°Hm, I wouldn¡¯t say that most of these would apply as well here. We don¡¯t have those cars of yours, and while planar beasts do substitute a similar role, especially those striders at the north, they have very different requirements than your cars do. However, having wider roads is certainly a good idea, as to be able to prepare for the eventual growth of Yi City as a whole.¡±


    She altered the roads on the map with another tap, and did change their layout and shape ever so slightly, although she wasn¡¯t going to make significant changes without a proper comprehension of the matter or someone that understood it well enough. Perhaps if one of the otherworldly demons had some kind of ability relating to planning and construction of infrastructure throughout a region the size of a continent, they might be able to convince her to change something entirely, but for now, something like her idea should suffice.


    The key was to have a series of roads that led both through the districts, and around them where possible, as to give everyone as much room as necessary to traverse the route that was most effective for them. Most would likely prefer to avoid the Ping District until some major reformation of the district¡¯s nature and practises occurred, so letting travellers use the Luo and Bai Districts to go around it would be useful, and a good place to have a road. To let it also be used as a defensive measure against the eastern nations of the continent, who might attempt to invade Yi City if they see it as being a weakened place due to the War of Ascendancy, it should also be passing through the eastern edge of the two districts.


    Due to the positioning of those two, it would also be possible to place a road between the Bai and Jiang Districts, connecting it with a fork in the road to the one between the Luo and Bai Districts, or perhaps using it as the primary road to which the Luo District would then be connected to.


    Whatever the final look of the road network was, it ought to provide an incentive for the leaders of the other districts to support the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and their cause, giving them some reason to go against the Greats, even if it is just in some small way, other than the potential of freedom. To some, it was not a very enticing prospect if it meant that they may lose everything they have, which was fair, even if Wei Yi would not be keen to agree with them.


    The current Yi City lacked a stable road network, lacked particularly powerful techniques, lacked a surplus of resources and lacked a singular leadership that would allow it to be united together as it had been in the days of old. While the Great Families likely offered some subtle benefits to those that they ordered around, as to prevent them from trying to rebel with everything that they have, they would be unable to compete with the potential of all of that without completely changing their goals and what they were seeking to achieve. It was rather obvious to target those kinds of areas, and Wei Yi would be sure to think of more fields in which the Greats had restricted the world from developing so far.


    Perhaps the only thing that she wouldn¡¯t broadcast quite as openly as everything else was her intent to be the leader of this reunited city, as that might make a few people rather reluctant to support her to any significant degree. Instead, she wanted to proclaim that intention at a point where everyone else would have no real choice or desire to choose anyone but her.


    For instance, at some final battle between her and the Greats, or if entities like the Primordial Deities arose with their old power while everyone else had declined to a significant extent.


    It was a far-off matter to be discussing, but she was intent to make it occur as soon as was possible.


    ¡°I would like to end the conflict before nine months pass,¡± she had proclaimed after explaining some of her plans, earning the surprised looks and expressions of those in the room that were paying attention, or those that understood what she was saying.


    Some, like Jia Rong and Miyu, didn¡¯t have enough of an understanding nor interest in the war itself, so the scale of it wasn¡¯t sufficiently clear to them as to permit them to share in the reaction of the others. Neither of them had traversed the Western Continent for long, either, since Jia Rong had sat in a cave for millennia before being brought from the west of the Ping District, past the Chao District, to Paragon, while Miyu had appeared in some field and was then promptly sent into the prison realm, but if they had a better understanding of this, they would be aware that Yi City was absolutely enormous.


    Each of its districts matched a kingdom outside of it, and the entirety of the Kong Prison Realm was smaller than the city in its current state, which was notably smaller than it had been at its peak.


    To conquer all of that in less than a year, while their strongest powers were only at the sixth realm, while the Greats possessed an unimaginable stranglehold over Yi City for countless years and should have forty-six individuals in the seventh realm that could, in theory, emerge to combat them, and while they were barely even known to the world, was a fearsome task to say the least. However, when Wei Yi proclaimed this, she looked to be perfectly confident and assured.


    ¡°The time frame might seem arbitrary, but that doesn¡¯t matter. What does is that every moment that the majority of the city persists in their hands, it suffers. We must end this and bring back what we had long ago. At that point, whether the Primordial Deities arise, or some greater threat appears, we will be ready and capable to stand against it, and we will have Yi City in a united state once again.¡±


    ¡°In theory¡­ the first few conquests will be most challenging while we are growing¡­ After that, bringing the armies of districts alongside us could allow¡­ for most battles to end quickly, and for us to be able to obtain plentiful resources to grow and develop¡­ This is especially true if the Great Families will be incapacitated for a short while, as we are predicting they might be in the best-case scenario,¡± Great Dark said, ¡°Do you believe that we will be able to not only lay a claim on the Bai and Chao Districts¡­ but also keep them?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why we wouldn¡¯t be able to accomplish something like that. For the moment, we shall not impose any particular commands or restrictions on the districts, and can even shower them in techniques without risking them overpowering us in the short term,¡± she stated, ¡°All that changes is that instead of a shadowy pair of people in robes, they get a plain and straightforward muscular woman like me. I don¡¯t see why they wouldn¡¯t go for such a thing.¡±


    ¡°Not everyone has your exact tastes¡­ Just putting that out there,¡± Fu Zan muttered.


    ¡°Not about tastes, since I do also prefer a different kind of person. This is about being plain, clear, and visible. If we do something, they¡¯ll know about it. If we believe something, they will be able to learn what that is. The Great Families cannot afford to be as open, and so they will be less trustworthy. The district leaders, the Patriarchs, will be more keen to stay neutral or even side with us, and if they are, for whatever reason, loyal to the Greats, there will certainly be groups that will be more than ready to defeat them and take their place,¡± Wei Yi clarified.


    Indeed, when put that way, it made a lot more sense to those that were more confused by the notion. As the saying went, better the evil that you know rather than the one you don¡¯t, and even if both the Greats and the Arbiters were to be seen as some threat to the structure of the world, then one would be far clearer in their nature than the other, and would thus be far easier to deal with. To please the Greats, they would need to do quite a few things that go against their own desires, but to not attract the ire of the Ascendant and her Arbiters, all that they would need to do was act in their own interests while not acting against the Arbiters themselves. It was a significantly easier set of conditions to work with.


    Thus, while the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters were significantly weaker than the Greats in terms of the territory that they have control over, the majority of the districts would likely prefer them to get into a stronger position as to be able to prevent the Greats from being able to do as they like in Yi City.


    Although that situation would obviously change by the time that the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters come to have some significant influence over the Western Continent, it wouldn¡¯t matter all that much since Wei Yi and everyone she is able to support will be more than capable of protecting themselves and dominating the forces of the districts without needing their permission to do so. At that point, anyone who hadn¡¯t foreseen such a change would not have enough time or power to enact anything to prevent the Arbiters from assuming full control.


    In fact, they may not even want to if the Primordial Deities were to rise once more. Very few are equipped to combat any one of the primordial deities, while the Arbiters would likely include the Hunters of the Cosmos by that point, giving them some clue of how to combat at least one of those entities, while also having Yi Shi Ming and everything she knows about the Primordial Deities with them.


    ¡°Jia Rong, do you mind doing something like that? I know I tossed you into the plan all of a sudden without really asking you.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I can do it! I won¡¯t let the people of the city die due to those people!¡±


    ¡°Well, you should be able to manage, seeing as your cultivation realm has climbed up by a stage again¡­ Do you suppose that your body may have contained the million years of energy that would have pooled up in the cave you were imprisoned it, causing it to develop and get stronger, then permitting you to obtain a portion of it upon the intense fluctuation of emotion?¡± Wei Yi suddenly asked, stunning the demonic woman.


    ¡°¡­ I don¡¯t really know¡­ any of that¡­ really¡­ What does any of that mean? Does this planar energy pool up?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I probably shouldn¡¯t have asked you about it before explaining the principles of cultivation to you in any length. Uhm, Shun Liu Min, would you mind teaching her a few of the basic things?¡± she turned to the maid, getting close to her as to whisper in her ear, ¡°Also, her mental age is a little younger than it might seem, even with the million years I mentioned. Try not to say or do anything excessive, and don¡¯t be annoyed if she has no idea what you¡¯re talking about, not that I expect you to do something like that. You wouldn¡¯t mind, would you?¡±


    The maid had blushed a little when Wei Yi breathed into her ear, but shook her head the moment she was asked again, ¡°I¡¯ll get right on it. How much does she already know?¡±


    ¡°Basics, really. I didn¡¯t go too in depth before I started getting fluctuations from here, at which point I was forced to rush ahead and not really spend the time to carefully explain the complexities and nuances of planar cultivation,¡± Wei Yi replied, withdrawing a little, ¡°Don¡¯t worry if you don¡¯t get through much. It¡¯s fine so long as we can confirm whether Jia Rong can use regular techniques.¡±


    ¡°Alright¡­ It¡¯s good to see that you¡¯re fine, by the way¡­ We were worried.¡±


    ¡°To be fair, that was exactly what I had meant for you to do, so I understand that entirely. However, as you can see, I am fine¡­ more or less. I would recommend avoiding me whenever my hand starts acting up, though, since that¡¯s essentially a blatant giveaway that my emotions are getting a little out of control,¡± the Ascendant shared with everyone, raising her left arm, ¡°The moment I get another type of energy into a realm behind it, this should go away, but until then, I will apologise in advance.¡±


    ¡°Weren¡¯t your cultivation realms a little off even before this?¡± Meng Chu asked, ¡°Was it the fifth, fourth and third realms all at once?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but, as you have just said, there was something within the proximity of my killing will. Now, it is two realms away from everything else, which naturally causes issues that I would rather not deal with, hence why I need to get some more physiques. The Chao District would be nice for that, and so I¡¯ll go there second and find a few more of the Hammers, if I can.¡±


    ¡°Whatever happened to them?¡±


    ¡°No idea.¡±


    While they were trying to contemplate that mystery, Shun Liu Min rose and brought Jia Rong away with her, beginning to explain things to her as she did so. Neither of them were going to be participating in battle in the usual manner, since Jia Rong could only hit things with a lot of force due to lacking anything but the faintest idea of how to fight, while Shun Liu Min had only a little bit of combat experience and understood only a few suitable techniques for it. Even if they stayed behind, they would be doing little more than endangering themselves if they tried to participate beyond what was necessary.


    As such, just as Chao Ru should probably be out of the battlefield for a little while until it could be confirmed whether or not she would need to be preparing to welcome new life into the world, it was better for them to focus on ensuring that they will be able to stay alive.


    ¡°That woman¡­ who exactly is she?¡±


    ¡°Someone who I believe to be from a million years ago, if not more. Don¡¯t be surprised if she doesn¡¯t know much and do at the very least try not to look at her strangely. I doubt that she will benefit from it,¡± Wei Yi summarised, sitting back down in her chair and leaning back as she placed her hand on the table and tapped it with her claws, ¡°Now that they are gone, however, let me begin with saying that I want to shred those fuckers into little pieces and crush them!¡±


    ¡°So you were agitated, as you had said¡­¡± Great Dark muttered, ¡°You did not wish her to hear you like this¡­ Acting like a parent, are you?¡±


    ¡°I hardly need to be a father to understand that people need to be brought into things gradually, especially when they have a literal million years of suffering in some cave. I¡¯d thought that sitting in the Kong Prison Realm for twenty years wasn¡¯t all that pleasant, but that time had only been equivalent to a little less than a year in reality. Most of the things that I had left here were still around. Meanwhile, she thought that she had effectively spent a year inside, and yet it was far, far longer¡­ Why are you looking at me like that?¡±


    Out of all the people to answer the broad question, it was Miyu who asked, ¡°You said father¡­ I heard something about you being a futa- no, I mean, having the, uh¡­ male parts?¡±


    ¡°I swear, you otherworldly demons get embarrassed at the strangest of things. Yes, I have a dick. Regardless of what that earlier word was, I do also have my original parts as well, in case that was a major concern for anyone,¡± she answered.


    ¡°That¡­ mhm¡­¡± Miyu turned away, but there was a strange excited upturned curve to her lips.


    Considering what Wei Yi already knew about this otherworldly demon, she was curious whether or not this was Miyu being happy that she no longer needed to justify her interest in the Ascendant while continuing to believe that she wasn¡¯t interested in a normal woman, or if she was actually interested in the notion of a woman with both male and female parts.


    Considering what she did know of the nation known as Antanord ¨C called North Antania on occasion ¨C she could believe either one quite easily, so long as the people of those nations didn¡¯t move around much and got to absorb the same notions.


    ¡°If you do not mind, I have something else to ask. I do understand why you may want to avoid her being exposed to the angrier you, but¡­ must you see yourself as the father?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked, noticing the same reaction from the otherworldly demon but choosing to distract herself from it.


    ¡°Actually, yes, there is a reason. Putting aside what organs I have, a careful inspection by the cunts known as the Great Families appears to have confirmed my complete inability to have children in the usual manner¡­ Again, the way everyone is looking at me grimly is rather odd. It¡¯s difficult to have a serious conversation when I constantly get looked at as if I am some pitiful soul¡­¡± Wei Yi paused, ¡°Not untrue, to be fair, but still odd.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± all of them glanced at one another, unsure which point they wanted to bring up.


    On one hand, the matter of parenthood was quite significant in the world, and most obviously wished to have a descendant at some point in their lives. Having a different method to have children without needing to resort to strange means that involve a man that really didn¡¯t belong in a relationship between two women was good, but to never even have the option of conceiving a child of her own seemed rather significant in their eyes. In particular, Luo Lia Kun had always regretted that she and the one she had loved before the War of Yin never had the chance to have a child, and Chao Ru might have one within nine months and thus also had some investment in the matter.


    However, there was also the matter of her being felt up by the Great Family members, undoubtedly in some unpleasant and excruciating manner. None of them really wished to contemplate exactly what would have occurred, and so they did not mention it.


    ¡°Alright, we¡¯re moving on, since your thoughts are getting out of control,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°I would like all of us to get out of here the moment that we can do so, so let¡¯s get to something important¡­¡±


    ¡°Not sure how the door suddenly led to the underground portion of Beast¡¯s Rest, but¡­¡± Shun Liu Min muttered, looking around as she realised just where they had ended up after a few moments, ¡°So, I am Shun Liu Min, former maid and¡­ current maid. How about you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Jia Rong, and I am¡­ lost in time? Frankly, I still can¡¯t quite believe it, but it seems entirely real¡­¡±


    The drop in mood from what she had previously recovered during the meeting in the Kong Prison Realm was blatant, prompting the maid to consider Wei Yi¡¯s earlier words. Since the woman before her might very well be the oldest person she would ever speak to in her entire life, perhaps being older than the spatial spirit of the prison realm, and since she had been imprisoned since a young age, it might be both difficult and simple to get along with her. Difficult due to the lack of similar elements between her time and now, but easy as there would be quite a few things that could draw her attention and distract her from less positive and optimistic matters.


    For that reason, Shun Liu Min took another look at the crimson-skinned woman and contemplated what it was that might catch the attention of someone less mature than the usual adult.


    ¡°So, Wei Yi asked me to teach you a few simple things. Would you like to learn how to cultivate?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I guess that I would.¡±


    Cultivation, a universal interest for the young and old, the mature and childish, and the ambitious and otherwise. It promised so much for the world, for every person that engaged in it, and the simple matter of cultivation itself came at no cost whatsoever save for the time required to cultivate regularly. Nobody would ever pass up on the opportunity to empower themselves in all kinds of useful ways without spending a copper, and so the vast majority of the world had reached the first realm at the least.


    It was only natural for someone who had little personal understanding of the matter to wish to learn more, especially when it was something that suddenly surrounded her.


    ¡°Alright then, sit down and let me explain a few things to you,¡± the maid said, taking the usual cross legged pose on the ground in one of the rooms with a room with a carpet as to make the experience a little more comfortable, ¡°Don¡¯t worry if you don¡¯t get it at first, since you don¡¯t have much practise with it. It takes a while for most people to get it at first.¡±


    ¡°I would never do that. I will be fine no matter what happens.¡±

 V4C38: The Attack

    ¡°That is certainly very interesting¡­ It appears that your meridians and dantian act just fine, as I had predicted, but you are unable to drive anything through them in the usual manner. Instead, your energy is always manifested in the manner that would be expected from active physical cultivation, thus refining and empowering your body as you utilise it,¡± Wei Yi summarised as she looked through Jia Rong¡¯s body with spiritual perception again, ¡°With prolonged and repeated energy circulation, the stress on your body increases, but it takes a while to become an issue, and does increase the degree of refinement of your body¡­¡±


    ¡°And I don¡¯t appear to be able to sense that planar energy the regular way¡­ I cannot sense a single thing.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not as much of an issue for you, since you have enough energy in your body to, potentially, reach the ninth realm due to your particular method of progressing through realms. Also, do consider your eyes for a moment, since you should recall that you have been steeped in planar energy for a million years or so. Do look around.¡±


    ¡°What do you¡­ hm?¡±


    Jia Rong¡¯s eyes widened as she looked into the air, finding something that neither Wei Yi nor Shun Liu Min were able to see, as unfortunate as that was for the two of them. Unlike otherworldly gifts, which could occasionally be reflected in the eyes of those that used it, this phenomenon did not seem to share the same attribute. No matter whether her eyes were examined simply with one¡¯s own vision or spiritual perception that was then amplified with spiritual will or killing intent, nothing out of the ordinary could be seen nor perceived upon them.


    If Wei Yi was right in her presumption, then this was due to her effectively being able to see a different part of existence from her and the other cultivators of the modern day, meaning that they may very well be unable to see it for themselves without completely changing the way in which their eyes worked.


    Fortunately for them, they might not need to do something of the sort at all.


    ¡°There are faint violet particles around here, far more than usual¡­ I don¡¯t see anything unusual at all around here. Don¡¯t all people see this?¡±


    ¡°No, not normally. Was this around during your years in the past?¡±


    ¡°I think so, yes. I remember that my mother had made use of the violet particles for planar weaving, but I had not been able to learn anything about it. Why, is this significant for cultivation?¡± Jia Rong questioned, reaching out for one of those particles but grabbing nothing.


    ¡°Shun Liu Min, you did explain all of it, right?¡± nodding from both Jia Rong and Shun Liu Min confirmed that, prompting Wei Yi to raise an eyebrow, ¡°In that case, I will just be straightforward and as direct as possible, so forgive me if I sound condescending. In cultivation, you need to absorb planar energy, a universal form of energy that exists everywhere, typically in a gaseous state. Within your body, it can be condensed into a liquid or solid state, although it cannot be projected outside of your body without the assistance of an anchor and a core, just as I am able to do right here and now.¡±


    For the sake of showcasing this, she released a sphere of pure planar energy out of her hand, creating a small globe of it as to make it as obvious as possible.


    ¡°This is an example of that energy when it is in a liquid state, here it is in a solid one, and here¡¯s a crystalline version, although most people can¡¯t accomplish something like this. Anyway, this energy must be absorbed and refined by you, and then outside energy can be absorbed without the process to refill your planar pool and dantian, which looks something like this,¡± she presented that phenomenon to Jia Rong as well, ¡°Are the violet ¨C I¡¯d assume they were purple, but whatever ¨C particles moving?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, they are¡­ That is planar energy? Planar energy is the same thing that¡¯s used for weaving?¡±


    ¡°I would¡¯ve made that connection before this, but I suppose that planar weaving, planar cultivation and planar energy may be somewhat different from one another. It is likely that planar weaving can still be accomplished, if the world hadn¡¯t changed much since you were imprisoned,¡± she said.


    ¡°Oh, that makes so much more sense! So, all of this purple matter is planar energy, and I can see it despite not having that spiritual perception thing?¡±


    ¡°Yes, exactly. It is likely that the reason you see individual particles and not a dense mist, which would likely be quite infuriating and irritating to experience constantly, is either due to them being ones that are most suitable for you, or ones that fit whatever visual spectrum you are able to peer into, or perhaps both,¡± Wei Yi theorised, her own eyes glimmering with blackened crimson, ¡°Fortunately enough, even if you manage to absorb energy the regular way, this will be incredibly useful for you as you will be able to take in exactly what you require.¡±


    ¡°Planar energy is complicated like that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is. Although all of it is in an unbound state in most places, and thus without an elemental status, every particle of energy has a certain elemental preference¡­ I suppose, although the actual law that dictates this is far more complex than that, if I understand it correctly. To benefit from a drop of energy and to be able to utilise it for yourself, you will need to absorb the right type of energy.¡±


    ¡°For example, I am practising a wood-type technique, so I need to absorb energy that is suitable for the wood-type technique, as well as matching the exact details of the technique I use,¡± Shun Liu Min chipped in, demonstrating the absorption of a few drops of energy as she did so.


    Once it could be easily confirmed by her reaction that Jia Rong was not able to see wood-type energy being interacted with, both she and Shun Liu Min turned to Wei Yi, for one could guess that Wei Yi was special while the other was fully aware of exactly how extreme her ability to interact with nearly every kind of energy was. Based simply on the technique that she had been able to provide to Shun Liu Min, it was obvious that Wei Yi herself would have something more impressive.


    ¡°This will be the day of looking at me, won¡¯t it? I suppose that I should thank you for helping me get used to it,¡± Wei Yi commented, taking a step back and shutting her eyes.


    However, the moment after, she opened them again and took a few more steps back, heading all the way back until she was but one step away from the back wall. The reason behind this was not one that the other two questioned, since they were both certain that she knew what she was doing, but they were also quite curious to learn exactly what it was that she wanted to either cause or avoid.


    The explanation for that came moments later, as the very space around Wei Yi suddenly twisted and seemed to partially collapse upon her, light twisting and bending into her. It was extremely unnatural and insane, and with it came an absolutely vast quantity of energy surging into her body, enough to fill a regular third realm cultivator within an instant and satiate someone in the fourth realm like she was within moments. Despite the occurrence ending within those moments, and her opening her eyes again, it was still highly impactful.


    To see light and space twist because of something that appeared to be the simple absorption of energy was obviously not a common phenomenon, not even for the maid that had seen someone in the sixth realm cultivate regularly. For the less experienced Jia Rong, it was absolutely shocking.


    ¡°W-what was that? Is that kind of thing normal?¡±


    ¡°Nope. My cultivation realm is just getting out of hand, and since this place now has far more energy while being entirely controlled by me, I am able to interact with far more than I usually would be able to. For most, it is just a process of sitting down and grabbing at as many particles suitable for them as they can while ignoring every particle that isn¡¯t,¡± Wei Yi clarified, ¡°So, did you see any of your purple particles being absorbed, or did even the Ascendant¡¯s Path fail to absorb whatever you¡¯re able to see with those eyes of yours?¡±


    ¡°No, I did see a particle be absorbed, I think¡­ That was amazing!¡± Jia Rong suddenly exclaimed, having finally moved on from the initial shock, ¡°I wanna be able to do something like that! Imagine if I could twist space around me like my mother would weave planar energy¡­¡±


    ¡°For that, you¡¯d need the usual cultivation foundation, which includes a proper planar pool, anchor, core, then searing marks upon it, then channels to link it and the anchor, before finally concluding with a series of oblivion halos in order to be able to make an impact on space outside of a spatial realm, with a spatial realm being a place like this that is separate from the outside world and can be modified by the spatial spirit and the one that controls the realm,¡± the Ascendant said, replacing the blatant enthusiasm on her face with confusion, ¡°Unfortunately, you do not currently have a regular planar pool.¡±


    ¡°Wait, a planar pool¡­ That¡¯s the thing that comes after initial energy condensation, and is a specific pool within my dantian, right? The dantian is here, so¡­ uh, how exactly am I meant to¡­ oh.¡±


    ¡°Spiritual perception, which, presumably, you recalled you cannot access in the regular manner. This is an issue for cultivation, as spiritual perception is highly necessary. However, I would tell you not to despair, since the path that you are currently taking is highly unconventional and yet has vast and immense potential. A powerful physical body can take you far, with me being the prime example,¡± Wei Yi barely needed to point out how she had been able to carry Jia Rong for the second half of their journey together at such vast speeds that even the crimson-skinned woman and her unnaturally powerful body couldn¡¯t keep up, ¡°Don¡¯t get obsessed with appearances, and you might be able to attain far more than most cultivators could ever dream of getting.¡±


    ¡°Even if I cannot use that same kind of technique and do the same kinds of feats?¡±


    ¡°Precisely. For one, you currently appear to be immortal, which is not something that anyone else has achieved. If I had to guess, I would say that you shouldn¡¯t be able to have a lifespan higher than someone in the ninth realm, who would have about a million, six hundred and thirty-eight thousand and four hundred years of life provided that they reached it without flaws or complications to their health, so you might have a guaranteed two or three thousand years at the very least.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ might have lived that much of my own life already? Even if I may be able to go on for that long¡­ it still feels like much less after the time I¡¯d spent chained up,¡± Jia Rong sighed, glancing at her own clawed hands, ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Just as I had already told you on the way here, your strength is also far out of the realm of ordinary people despite you only being in the second realm at the moment. Since your increases in cultivation realm appear to affect your body, and also due to the way in which you can use your planar energy to enhance your own strength, you might be able to reach the sixth or even seventh realm in physical strength alone provided you manage to make full use of both the cultivation technique you somehow possess and the energy that you obtain from it.¡±


    ¡°Right, there is that! Alright, how do I do it? Do I just¡­ stand here?¡±


    ¡°It is currently related to your emotional state, so yes, that does work, since you have gotten to the third stage now,¡± Wei Yi said, looking at her with the full understanding of what it must have been like for the people that had known her in the Yi District to suddenly find her cultivation realm leaping up without explanation, ¡°You know what? I have an idea¡­¡±


    The sun set, the night passed, and then morning came once more. A cool wind passed through Paragon, entering from the southern tear within the sandstorm, although it escaped the notice of most.


    What could hardly be missed by those that remained inside it and the Kong Prison Realm was the departure of the Arbiters, of a large force led by Great Dark while a lone figure belonging to their leader left at a similar time but headed in a different direction than the rest of them the moment that the sandstorm no longer impeded her.


    Naturally, the primary force had set out towards the Chao District, which was directly to the south of Paragon, but Wei Yi intended to go around the side and to the larger Bai District, likely passing near the eastern coast at the same time. Whether or not she was actually going to see the ocean that separated the Western and Eastern Continents was uncertain at the moment, since it would depend on any possible obstacles on her path that might force her down a certain path, but she would be nearer to it than she had ever been in her entire life, allowing her to feel the breeze and hear the waves in the distance.


    Her forces would travel more slowly and end up at the Chao District around the same time, then challenge the leadership of the district using Jia Rong¡¯s power in order to get the upper hand in any kind of physical challenge that they might demand of them. They would not proclaim that they want to directly take over the district, of course, but rather state that they wish it to be included in the territory of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and that this would not come with any kind of difficult conditions.


    Since trying to say that they want nothing at all from the Chao District would be strange, and only demanding that they do not cooperate with the Great Families might not even make sense to more than one or two of those in power, so they would demand some light tithes or taxes, mostly making use of information or the few resources that the Kong Prison Realm or Paragon did not already possess.


    While they were busying themselves with that, Wei Yi would invade the Bai District and similarly seek their cooperation, although she believed that she might have an easier time of it than the primary force at the Chao District. The reason for that was simple, and it was to do with the number of the Great Family members that would be present at the district. While the Great Chao had not yet suffered any significant losses, save for those that had been mixed in at the siege of Paragon, the Great Bai Family only had a single member of the second generation, meaning that unless the first generation was to emerge, the Bai District would have no Great Family members to call upon without risking their lives immensely.


    That meant that those who are already aware of the Great Families might be that much more keen to act against them, if only to give themselves more freedom in their actions.


    The one person that would be able to do anything to her, named Bai Chao just as all of the other male members of the current generation were known by the same name, would not be able to defeat her on his own. If the district¡¯s leadership concluded that the Arbiters would be better for them in either the long or short term than the Greats, it would likely be possible to receive aid from several sixth or possibly even seventh realm combatants. After that, Wei Yi could potentially lure them into being assisted by her various physique abilities, spreading her conquering presence and utilising the essence of law to partly claim the hearts and minds of those she would free.


    Wei Yi was not particularly fond of such a notion, since it was yet another instance of manipulating the minds of others without them having a single clue that it would even occur, but a number of things had changed since she had departed to the Great Ping mansion.


    She was now certain that she would be able to win, simply because she had no other choice when the world was as it was, and she would do quite a few things differently if she had to. The fact that certain extremes would need to be taken was already clear in her mind, and the fact that she had let so many die just because she had not taken full and immediate action was prominent and clear.


    ¡®Really, I should thank the Greats ¨C as disgusting as the very combination of words is ¨C for proving once again that the philosophy of doing what I must, to be judged after I succeed or fail, is right in the current situation. If I had acted fully in line with that philosophy, I might have been at the peak of the fourth realm, or even at the sixth realm now, and I might have been able to do far more to stop the Greats, prevent the siege of Paragon, and do so much more¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself while she reached into the air and took a look at the Mask of Yama, ¡®I will not let these kinds of opportunities slip by me again. The Bai District will lose some items today.¡¯


    The theft of some items from the district she was heading towards, as well as the Chao District if she found a treasury to loot, might cause some issues, and might cause a few more people to suffer when they did not need to, but it was necessary to guarantee her survival and success, so she¡¯d do it.


    Placing the Mask of Yama on her shoulder for now, where it appeared to be able to stick easily without needing any further support due to whatever mystical properties that it possessed, she widened her eyes. The energy of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye surged out of them, the blackened crimson overwhelming the sand and momentarily turning it and the air above it a similar colour.


    Within that air, she could move at a thousand times her regular speed using the Mortal World¡¯s Echo physique, which she did right away.


    There were a lot of things that needed to be done, and she wasn¡¯t going to delay any longer.


    With that speed, the only thing that limited her was her pool of physique energy, which could be recovered incredibly quickly with her planar energy supply and the nascent rift, as well as the rate at which her conquering of the world was able to expand. The further away she got from Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm, which were the primary reasons for her ability to instantly take over the fortress and the region around it. In terms of her ability to conquer things so quickly in Great Ping mansion, that was due to the way in which she was able to exert her dominance both over the Greats at the moment of her sudden reveal of her power, and the way in which she was seen as a sufficient threat with the ability to control the world.


    In that way, it was clear to her that the Conqueror¡¯s Eye was partly bound by the people¡¯s view of it. Whatever laws controlled it meant that if she was in a territory where she was seen as a powerful figure, she would receive the most benefits from it, which meant that it would be in her favour to act as domineering and absolute in her actions as possible.


    So long as she was considered to be a force that couldn¡¯t be rivalled, the Conqueror¡¯s Eye could make that happen, and could allow her to dominate districts the moment that she entered them simply by causing the people within them to consider her as being victorious before she has any chance to act. Then, when her conquered territory allows her to win a battle that would otherwise be far more challenging, if not impossible, that perception would be reinforced.


    Out in the sands, few people believed that they actually controlled each grain and particle of it, so it was still easy enough to control it, but it did mean that she had no benefit from the people¡¯s belief that she had an extreme degree of power. The less that people cared about the parts of the land that she was traversing, the more individual opinions of the few that did live there would affect her, and they would likely consider themselves as the only rulers of their limited territory. Such an effect would further intensify the further out from common civilization she was, and the more certain some were of their control.


    Fortunately enough, the land to the east of the Chao District was not controlled by anyone in particular, not as far as she was able to tell, at the very least, and thus only affected her to a limited extent.


    Her overall speed did drop slightly, but it was to an acceptable level, and she was able to begin moving past the Chao District within an hour. If she had a full grip of the terrain before she began, and without needing to conquer it all and did not need to contend with the limited threats that did exist around the district, she might have been able to manage it within forty minutes, less if her physique energy was infinite, and she would then be at the coastal region of the east continent at an earlier time to appreciate the sight.


    In all of her life, there had only been one time that she had gotten to stay by a large source of water and take in everything about it, and that could be argued as not being a true visit of it due to being some kind of strange illusion or visual gateway.


    Now, she was seeing reality, as far as she could tell, and it was certainly something.


    Before her, only a few dozen metres away from her, was an endless plane of wonderful azure ¨C fortunately distinct from the azure light of the otherworldly lights that inhabited the items that the demons carried ¨C that slowly gained more and more fluctuation the further on she looked. Great waves rose and fell within the distance, and some of them managed to survive for long enough to reach the shore of the district, right where Wei Yi was able to see them.


    The usual blue fog that obscured the world and required spiritual will or killing will to be seen through was much clearer and fainter above the sea, and even without her mental energy she was able to see the faint trace of another landmass far to the east. It was a mostly flat territory, without many hills or mountains near the region that she was actually able to observe, although she did know that the south of the Daoist Continent was a mountainous and wild region with an innumerable number of the sects that their continent was so fond of.


    Much closer to her, over to the north-east, she saw a few islands that were, to her knowledge, entirely uninhabited in the modern day, as they had once been home to the ancient qilins. Just as everything beside the Glass Wastes, it was horrendously hot there, and thus it was most suitable for a species of ancient creatures whose veins were filled to the brim with fire.


    The Yi family must have had some interaction with the qilins of the past, so her ancestry was in some way shared with the entities that had lived there a long time ago, prompting her to stare there.


    ¡®It certainly looks unimpressive from here, although it is rather difficult to see anything from such a vast distance. Not particularly hilly from here, so perhaps they had lived beneath the ground and occupied some lava-filled caves, which are bound to be in a northern region like that,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, trying to perceive as much of that land as she could across the distance, ¡®I might visit that place when I get to the sixth or seventh realm, since I would then be able to reach it without too much effort, and will be able to endure the horrific heat.¡¯


    The Yin-Yang Ascendant physique was bound to benefit her in the department of heat endurance, but the extreme north and south were so dangerous precisely because the vast majority of heat resistance methods were utterly useless against what seemed to be the absolute peak and bottom of the temperature range respectively. To survive without being one of the entities that existed there naturally required an immense degree of preparation and sacrifice for just a few moments.


    Had the set of islands been beyond the edge of the Glass Wastes, rather than simply nearing it, she wouldn¡¯t have even bothered considering the possibility, since it would have been an unnecessary attempt at suicide.


    She intended to look away when she felt her gaze being forced back onto the islands by something.


    It was slight, faint, and almost certainly false, but she was almost sure that she had seen something moving on that land.


    ¡®What the¡­ Was that some tall wave, or has someone decided to move in while everyone else was more focused on the two continents? No, if it was just some person, I would have likely not noticed it, so¡­¡¯ she frowned, continuing to stare at it for a while longer only to find no more curious movements or changes of interest in the distance, ¡®Well, none of my business, at least for now.¡¯


    However, now that she did see something, whatever it was, her desire to visit increased further.


    The easternmost district in the Northern Desert, the Bai District, was famous for the particular way in which it was designed and built. The district was large, matching the Ju and Yi Districts in terms of general area, but every single inch and millimetre was covered by a dense layer of cloth created many decades ago when the Bai Family¡¯s prominent features became as common as they were now, and when their placement in the world became a rather significant issue due to the way in which their pale skin reacted to the sun.


    As a result, it was often called the roofed district, although those that came from the east and west, from districts close to water, would also call it the district of sails, for that was what the constant rippling covers of cloth supposedly look like from above.


    Due to being from the central district of the Central Plains, Wei Yi was not particularly familiar with sails or the like, and couldn¡¯t state with any degree of certainty whether or not there were any similarities between sails and the cloth top of the Bai District. She could, however, say that it was a very different sight to the one that may be gained from the other districts. Almost every other district, save for those that had a significant portion of their structures underground, was prominent, tall, with rooves visible for all to see whether they were friends or foes, as a way to proclaim the marvel of the district itself, and Yi City while they were at it.


    Meanwhile, the Bai District only showed a sheet of dark brown cloth for every few dozen buildings, resulting in countless individual sheets covering the district entirely, resulting in patterns not unlike the ones that may be found on the ocean and particularly large lakes. If anything was to attempt to sail atop them, it might not even look entirely foolish for a second.


    ¡®I¡¯d hate to ruin that in particular, but it may lead to that. First, however, I should do some looting¡­¡¯

 V4C39: The History of the Bai

    Every district of Yi City contained great wealth and power, somewhere within their depths. Even the most unassuming and uninteresting districts contained numerous secrets and techniques, plentiful jewels and treasures that had never been taken from the hands of the families that controlled them.


    Most of these were obviously sealed away, hidden somewhere so that no friend or foe could take them, and some were even partially forgotten about since none had been able to find and make use of them, but there were a few treasures and items of interest that were more accessible and obtainable for the more powerful members of the families that controlled each district. For example, at least part of the immortal gold that had been removed from the Yi family Ancestral Hall had to not only have gone away from the building, but some must have also been stored on the inside as an attempt to prevent it from being taken.


    The Ning District likely contained stores of blacksmithing materials and techniques for the usage of the family in particular emergencies, since there might be a time when they require materials to create an item of great importance but are unable to track them down and obtain them. Presumably, the Luo District would hold a vast number of talisman-related items, as well as more general stores just as all the other districts would, while the Ping District might just be brimming with everything that the assassins and thieves of the district had stolen and stashed away.


    In other words, most districts still retained something of value, although they likely lacked anything quite as valuable as spatial metal, which would have been incredibly nice to find.


    Taking something like that might put them on guard and on edge, perhaps even making them less likely to agree to work with the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters if they somehow conclude that it was either their responsibility, or that they were connected, but this was acceptable. Some leading groups would need to be removed or contended nonetheless, and while it might make things more difficult in one field, it would also permit Wei Yi to obtain power that is absolutely required at this moment in time.


    While the Bai District was unlikely to have anything that was highly useful and beneficial to her specifically, seeing as whatever resources it would have would be related to group-type techniques, but every district would have some more general items and resources. Those would be suitable for the usage of the most significant people there and would thus be for the sixth or seventh realm, which was exactly the kind of items that she required. If she obtained pills, she could enhance their benefit with her cosmic energy and the Dao of Law, and if it was something else that aided with cultivation, she could still benefit from it so long as she was able to claim it.


    The best thing to find would still be pills, however, as it was the type of item that she could enhance most easily and consume most quickly, whereas an inscription or array that boosts planar energy gathering would be less effective for her, and be less influenced by her energy.


    Before anything like that could be taken, Wei Yi would need to get inside, but that was where she currently excelled. With the featureless golden Mask of Yama upon her face ¨C she had attempted to keep it on her shoulder, but the effects simply wouldn¡¯t activate ¨C she appeared able to phase her very being into a slightly different realm from what everyone else was able to observe. With it, walking right through the open gates was effortless.


    ¡®Still, this item, as it is now, has its flaws. When it was held by those to whom it was not bound, a mere bloodline resonance occurring between me and the power of my blood in another was able to alert me to the presence of those wearing the Mask of Yama. That means that if I was to proclaim the name of the Great Families, they might be able to find me,¡¯ she considered as she looked around herself, finding that the district appeared to be operating rather ordinarily, ¡®Actually, that might not be that easy for them. My possession of the Mask and House of Gold means that they are stronger, and they lack such an obvious link to me, only having whatever they utilise to track me down. Also, I might be able to activate and deactivate it over and over again to just keep confusing them.¡¯


    Due to the Mask of Yama now being linked to her, it would also develop in strength with every realm that she reaches, just as the House of Gold was currently seven cubic metres in size and would continue growing with every single cultivation stage. She wasn¡¯t sure what the exact benefits of cultivation would be upon the otherworldly gift, but she had a few guesses.


    It was obviously an artefact that was focused on the obstruction of one¡¯s existence, and at changing the course of events in one¡¯s own favour at the risk of provoking powerful figures to counter one¡¯s efforts. The Chen family members had seen that very thing occur to them when the bloodline resonance had called Wei Yi in, and whether or not the description of the Mask of Yama had mentioned it purely coincidentally or due to its effect including the provocation of entities around its user, she did know that she should be careful not to provoke such a reaction while she didn¡¯t have the power to endure it.


    Thus, to minimize any unnecessary actions in the world before she had a reason to risk a response from a powerful figure, she did not act immediately, instead walking through the streets quietly.


    She looked around at the people that got on with their day, that engaged in small arguments or even brawls, looked at those that gazed out of the windows of their homes out onto the streets, and tried to listen out for their words.


    In the particular state that the Mask of Yama bestowed upon her, the sounds of the others did not reach her as well as they could regularly, as if she was attempting to listen to them through a wall, dense pool of water, and a large quantity of material to muffle the sound further, so it was rather challenging to make most of their words out. With some effort, she was still able to understand some of the basics.


    For example, she learned that they had also noticed the immense boom of planar energy, although that would be more difficult to miss than notice, that they were concerned about the absence of both the 7th Legion and the Hunters of the Cosmos, which had apparently been announced publicly to the people, and, most importantly for her, she found out where the Ancestral Hall was.


    It was in that place that the most valuables would be stored, and so it was there that she wished to go for the planned and unannounced material acquisition.


    Rather than rushing in directly, she decided that it would be better to approach the area cautiously and see what else everyone was saying, since that may offer her some greater understanding both about the security measures of the Bai Ancestral Hall, and give her some idea of what could be found inside. There was little chance of this, but if there was some possibility of the hall containing measures that were able to uncover even an otherworldly gift, she would rather be aware of it and lose a little bit of time rather than be discovered and lose the possibility of an easy alliance and a great quantity of resources for her own benefit.


    Unlike the overly golden Yi Ancestral Hall that she was most familiar, the one she found in the Bai District was more subdued, made of more ordinary materials in terms of appearance, although their value was still undisputable. In the same way that the Yi District¡¯s Ancestral Hall depicted a number of scenes forged from immortal gold, this hall featured carvings of historical moments from abyssal stone, with nearly every detail out at least half-way out of the actual wall of the structure.


    The majority of elements focused not on the Master of Yi City, as could be expected in a district where he had not remained for long and likely didn¡¯t have much to do when all of his attention would have been to the north or east, but on the very first legion of the Bai family, the one that had made the family famous for countless years to come. It was also organised in chronological order, so Wei Yi decided to follow that order while observing those that stood around the vicinity of it, having their conversations and gossiping about everything they could.


    Before finding a single conversation worth listening to ¨C hearing things ranging from talk about the most handsome man in the district to the opinion of two hunters on the best part of a sandworm was of no interest to her at the moment ¨C she was able to take a close look at the first scene.


    In that still scene, as if someone had taken an instant and frozen it in time to be able to behold it in its full majesty, she could see four figures, all siblings, standing side by side. They looked weak and feeble, with barely any muscle or fat in their bodies, and all had long hair that they lacked the proper tools to trim it. None of them looked to be in any suitable state for grandiose acts.


    However, from the limited knowledge that Wei Yi had of the history of the district, these figures were very much capable of them.


    She moved on from that scene, and tried to find someone a little more useful than the previous people she had gotten the opportunity to listen to. Nobody stood immediately next to the wall depicting the images, and so she decided that she might as well get through every single fragment of history as to learn a little more about the district that she would be looting for everything that she could fit into the House of Gold now that it was able to store far more than it had only a few days ago.


    ¡®The problem is that this muffling and distortion makes it incredibly difficult to understand what any one of them is saying¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she attempted to eavesdrop on a pair of people standing by the hall itself.


    A couple, male and female, were having a chat near the second scene, that of the four figures training together while something immense and dangerous loomed over them. This couple was standing right next to the feet of the most masculine figure amongst the four historical figures, although, at this point, none of them had any obvious features that would make them out to be either male or female.


    So far as she was able to tell, the man that spoke said, ¡°The new arrivals have been very keen to eye this place. I thought that the Eastern Continent looked down on that kind of thing.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re all hypocrites, from what I know,¡± the woman replied, glancing past the man¡¯s shoulder with a glare as if she might be able to catch the easterners that she was speaking about, ¡°All of them say whatever they want, then rob and steal.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll need to remind the Bai to keep an eye out for it, won¡¯t we? Whatever they want to keep hidden down there probably shouldn¡¯t be exposed to the Daoists.¡±


    The woman nodded in reply, then the two of them departed, leaving Wei Yi to move on and contemplate what she had heard before she had a good view of the third image portrayed on the side of the House of Gold.


    Putting aside the convenience of them talking about something like this right in front of her, which tempted her to emerge from concealment just to quickly thank them, she was curious to investigate both the matter in the Ancestral Hall and that of the Daoists that had apparently arrived here at some recent point. The latter seemed less significant for her, since the Daoists only had a few techniques and methods that she really wanted to study which she wouldn¡¯t necessarily be able to discover just due to the complex way in which something like tribulations worked.


    On the other hand, if there was something hidden within the Bai Ancestral Hall, she would be likely to come across it, at least if it was something prominent enough for the eastern people to find it if they tried to snoop around. It wasn¡¯t something that these figures supposedly knew about, which was a shame since she couldn¡¯t just follow them around to find out about it easily, but it was bound to be something of interest to her.


    Whether it was some kind of treasure, secret knowledge, or some kind of mystery that she could resolve, it was almost certain to be something useful.


    ¡®It could also be troublesome, but what I can do now more so than I ever could before is evade pursuit and attention from the world around me,¡¯ Wei Yi thought while she intentionally walked only an inch from a large crowd just to confirm that she wasn¡¯t just imagining the effect for herself, since that would only lead to herself embarrassing herself later on.


    The third scene that she saw depicted the four figures obtaining items of some significant power, shown by greater waves in the stone wall that formed the shape of these objects. Amongst them was a ring, something that looked to resemble a farmer¡¯s scythe, a glove, and a thin choker of some kind.


    ¡®Certainly an odd list of items, but I¡¯ve seen stranger. I¡¯ve got a ring and a glove, but a spike and an eye instead of the other two,¡¯ she noted, ¡®It seems that they belonged to the first of the Bai, an ancient group of four individuals that had been responsible for the creation of the first legion of the Bai family as well as the establishment of this district. Hm, it would certainly be nice if something belonging to them, perhaps these very items, were stored in the Ancestral Hall, but it is obviously not going to be that simple. They are either absent entirely, or in the hands of the most powerful figures in the district, from whom I cannot steal directly.¡¯


    Since there were still no conversations of interest to her at that part of the hall, she moved around to the fourth image, which showed these same figures wielding their items to face off not only against powerful foes, but also against themselves, for each one has something that binds them down and restrict them from becoming as free and powerful as they could be.


    The exact troubles of these ancestors were not portrayed, unfortunately enough, but what was shown was that they were pursuing something represented by an abstract circle with no detail at all.


    Had the images been able to move like the scenes of the Fated Dragon Hatchling, as displayed by the mysterious performer in the Luo District, then she might have been able to tell whether this was intended to be a representation of something unknown or uncertain, or if the circle was likely meant to be a depiction of some smooth circular object, but they did not, and she did not know enough about the story. Instead of trying to guess at it randomly, she moved on, continuing to listen around carefully.


    There were only eight or so full scenes around the entirety of the Bai Ancestral Hall, and the next scene was the fifth one, illustrating each of the figures confronting the very items that they were wielding. The ring contained some kind of maddened entity, the gauntlet contained boundless mouths likely representing absolute hunger, the scythe was home to a binding presence, and the choker around the neck of the fourth figure had transformed into a single slithering tentacle of an enormous shifting beast that seemed even more horrific than Primordial Corruption, at least from what Wei Yi had known and seen of it.


    Perhaps due to the particular imagery, none of the residents of the Bai District were particularly fond of hanging around this particular portion of the story, so she moved onto the sixth panel. It was split into four clear portions, with each figure being far smaller to permit this to fit in fully.


    On it, the wielder of the divided the rage-filled entity in two, splitting off a certain element and accepting it while the rest was scattered into naught. The one that made use of the scythe shattered the chains that had emerged from the binding presence, binding them around that presence instead. In a similar manner, the wielder of the glove stuffed the mouths with the glove, forcing them shut as they tried to gnaw upon it but failed. Finally, the user of the choker seemed to have somehow stabilised the form of the tentacled beast, turning it into a perfect reflection and shadow of the figure, although the exact meaning was lost without a clear description of the events being anywhere to be seen.


    Wei Yi had made sure to look out for some kind of plaque to look through and read alongside each scene, but neither eye nor spiritual perception were able to guide her to that which she wished to find.


    ¡®It is certainly an interesting origin story, save for the fact that nothing regarding the district itself appears to be mentioned anywhere. Did they do it on a whim, or is this more allegorical than the scenes on the side of the Yi Ancestral Hall?¡¯ she pondered, moving onto the seventh scene in order to get closer to a few figures that were chatting there.


    As they soon proved to also have no topic of interest to her, she returned her focus onto the scenes carved from abyssal stone, finding that the penultimate image still showed nothing about the district, instead displaying the four figures defeating some kind of enormous entity and simultaneously shattering a wall of chains, not entirely unlike the one that Wei Yi possessed within her planar energy. Aside from that, however, there was little to explain the image, making her almost certain that this had to be more symbolic in nature, even if the other images were purely literal.


    Returning to the same side of the Ancestral Hall as the one that she had started on, she was able to confirm that her guess about the last image also being the only one to show anything relating to the Bai District and Yi City as a whole was entirely correct.


    On the last scene portrayed on this hall, she saw the four figures looking to another one, whose features were absent and who looked to be more of a summary of a human being rather than actually being one, as their body also lacked any specific details that one may find on a man or a woman. The figures had left behind the four items of importance behind themselves, with their previous shine and waves of power absent, and it was now the four figures themselves that were surrounded by power.


    Meanwhile, that last entity, human or otherwise, stood with its hands together, presenting that circular object from one of the previous scenes to the four notable figures. Without a face of blatant expressions being portrayed, it was rather difficult to guess whether this was supposed to be the entity providing the circle to them, or if this was some kind of tease or even display that the circle belonged to it, but without any further context Wei Yi was forced to assume that, for whatever reason, this was a depiction of the Master of Yi City with everything about him having been removed at some point in time.


    ¡®Certainly a strange way to do it, but the Great Bai might have had some significant influence here from a long time ago, forcing the people creating these sculptures to depict the Master of Yi City as that instead of his true appearance. If so, a shame, since seeing how the world saw him would be interesting,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, ¡®I¡¯ll need to ask Yi Shi Ming about it after this.¡¯


    At the moment, if she attempted to reach out to the spatial spirit, it would likely work out just fine, but it would be guaranteed to increase the danger of discovery before she had even the faintest chance to snoop around in the Ancestral Hall. Something as insignificant as this could be discussed at a later time, the moment that it has a chance of being useful due to potentially needing to negotiate with the Bai District the moment that she gets out and repeats her entry in a more blatant and violent manner than this one.


    ¡®For now, I need things from the Ancestral Hall, and I would be better off getting in there as quickly as possible and getting out as soon as I can if I don¡¯t want to risk anything,¡¯ she said to herself, walking up to the door of the hall and placing her hand upon them, ¡®Each moment wasted is risky.¡¯


    Unlike the open doors of the Yi Ancestral Hall, which contained a number of commonly used items and arrays, as well as being regularly used by the people of the district for various purposes, this one was shut and lacked any open windows or similar parts through which she could enter unannounced ¨C lacking any obvious locations for entry other than this one door, in fact. So far as she was able to tell, the people of the Bai District had decided that the Bai Ancestral Hall would be a less public location and would presumably visit only when they needed to.


    That much could have probably been guessed by the presence of two guards in the fifth realm at either side of the door, which she now had little choice but to open.


    Ideally, the door would be quiet, and lacking in any obvious tells that something was interacting with it until it would be too late for the guards to notice and attempt to discover the cause of the sudden intrusion, although she knew perfectly well that no door of this size and design could possible be quiet. It would certainly have some volume, causing attention to be brought to her current invisibility, causing the effects of the Mask of Yama to weaken, allowing her to be noticed, eventually.


    In reality, the only question was whether or not it would give her enough time to loot enough things for herself, since it could give her the necessary edge for her to defeat the Greats the moment that the families that hadn¡¯t participated in the siege initially would get to work.


    She was mostly sure that she knew what she was doing, and what would happen, but she did not.


    The instant that her hand touched the doors of the Bai Ancestral Hall, she felt an immense force thrust her towards the door, sticking her hand to it and making it difficult to move away from it even slightly.


    It even warped the faint mist of the plane that the Mask of Yama placed her into, causing all of it to rush towards the doors, surging into the gaps between the door and the doorway, exemplifying perfectly just how powerful the force attempting to push her into the doors was. Even with every physique ability in her possession, even with her powerful physique and general ability, she could barely invest any force into anything other than resisting the attracting force of the doors, and even then, she was not succeeding.


    Her feet were slowly shifting, the hard stone ground being unable to assist her in preventing her entire body from being sucked into the metal doors, with the majority of her palm and fingers quickly being consumed by the dark metal it was made from.


    Perhaps the only positive thing about it so far was that there appeared to be no alerting arrays or inscriptions connected to whatever was pushing her into the Bai Ancestral Hall, as none of the guards around her responded to the sudden disturbance, nor was there any trace of the doors being opened from the inside in order to ambush her and potentially give her a chance to get out.


    ¡®This force is at least in the sixth realm¡­ No, maybe even the seventh! It is influencing the very space around me, even if nobody else around me can sense that¡­¡¯ Wei Yi observed, doing her best to pull her hand out of the metal without coming into contact with it with any other part of her body, ¡®The environment of the Yi District really made me underestimate the kind of nonsense that can occur with beings and creations of that power¡­ If I try to attack, it might be entirely useless, or even make things worse, but¡­ I have no real choice!¡¯


    She did want to get into the Bai Ancestral Hall, but whatever this was, it was almost certainly not going to bring her there in the way that she wanted to enter. It would either trap her in the door, send her to some prison or space in which to await punishment for her unsanctioned entry, or do something to her that she would rather avoid, whatever that may be. Instead of letting herself be pulled in without any resistance, she attempted to activate her killing will form.


    There was surprisingly little challenge to doing so, but it appeared to do nothing for her, as now she simply had a clawed hand stuck in the door instead of her regular one.


    ¡®Fuck. None of my physique abilities work, either,¡¯ Wei Yi had naturally attempted to make use of something like the World¡¯s Echo physique to phase through the doors before ever considering simply opening it, but it did not work then nor was it helping her now, as nothing she did to shift her position could do anything more than delay the force for a moment.


    If she had been able to keep that up indefinitely, she might have had enough time to simply cultivate to the next realm and break out either with the breakthrough process or with the added strength, but rather than being consistent, the force upon her grew with every moment that she was able to put up a fight. It may have begun as a low seventh realm power, but after her attempts to keep herself from falling in it developed to a high seventh realm, and seemed to be on the brink of the eighth realm within only a few minutes. There was little that she appeared able to do against it, save for appreciating the fact that it could break through even more quickly than her and Jia Rong combined, not that it helped anything.


    Since nothing seemed to work, she decided that getting out would be unlikely, and that she would be better off meeting whatever the door was attempting to bring her to on her own terms, rather than being forcefully pulled in while needlessly resisting it.


    Thus, as her wrist was beginning to fall into the door, she simply leapt at it.


    Without her resistance, the force was able to act at its full strength, and she was flung right into the metal, and right through it. It was as if she had simply passed through air, as it did not even feel like a solid object the moment that she had decided to go through it. What she saw on the other side was also not what should have been there.


    In addition, there were just a few things that would blatantly never appear on the inside of any civilized building that she might not even need to ponder before understanding that they did not belong inside of a structure.


    Her spiritual perception had been unable to go through the doors or the walls of the structure, so she did not know exactly what this particular Ancestral Hall contained, but she knew enough about them to be able to guess a few things. The structure was naturally one with walls, a floor, and a roof, and it would hold various tomes and materials from the ancestors of the Bai family. Due to the place appearing to be shut for the moment, there wouldn¡¯t be anyone on the inside, but there would still be no plants or moss growing on the inside that shows blatant disregard for the ancestors.


    Despite that, what she saw on the inside differed quite significantly.

 V4C40: The Figures of the Past

    Wei Yi found herself within an open area, standing atop a square region tiled with stone that was surrounded by grass in a circular shape, although the grass looked feeble and dried.


    A sun shone down upon her, warm and bright, without any obstacles save for the small cloud near it, for around her was the sun, sky, and seemingly nothing else of note. In fact, it went further than that, as the grass did not stretch out forever, nor switch to sand or dirt or even stone. Rather than any of the more reasonable explanations, it instead stopped abruptly, and as her suddenly free spiritual perception was able to inform her, it did so at the edge of a cliff into nothingness.


    Whether it was viewed with her eyes, spiritual perception, or the Vision of Law and that of Absolute, there appeared to be no particular differences or discoveries that she could make from mere observation.


    ¡®This is¡­ no, it doesn¡¯t seem like a spatial realm, not as far as I can tell, but then where could I be?¡¯ Wei Yi asked herself, finding to some alarm that the Mask of Yama was no longer able to keep her in a nearby plane of existence, forcing her to move it into the House of Gold so that it did not obstruct her, ¡®Is there anything other than¡­ oh.¡¯


    In her search of anything with some degree of value or purpose in this realm, whatever it was, she turned around and spread out her spiritual perception, only to find it almost immediately.


    Right behind her was a large set of stairs, each one exactly identical to the two above and below it. Each step was wide enough for a foot to be confidently placed upon it, and tall enough to stop someone without abnormal height or unusually long legs from being able to step up more than a single step at once. Every individual step, despite having enough space for a dozen people to stand on it side by side, seemed to be carved from a single stone, each one placed above the other to leader into the sky, surrounded by only small clumps of dirt and dry grass growing within them.


    She was able to see a total of a hundred steps, with nothing else to the left and right, but at the top was something obscured in clouds. Whatever it was, it must be large, for she could see numerous angled rooves that covered a large enough area even from her perspective to be able to fit a hundred rooms beneath them, and that was if they had been arranged in a flat plane beside one another.


    What she saw there were several layers and heights, meaning that there might very well be several floors to that distant structure. With that in mind, if it was a single building and not several placed together atop some irregular hill that forced such construction and architecture, she couldn¡¯t help but liken it to an eastern palace, the image of which she had once seen within the libraries of the Yi District. Such a palace was made of wood, with angled and tiled rooves, as well as plenty of paper sliding doors and paper windows that made it very different in appearance from the usual Western Continental residence or even manor.


    ¡®I don¡¯t know which one is more influenced by otherworldly entities, if either of these architectural styles even originated over here, but I have been curious to see one of those things in person,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, cautiously approaching the staircase while finding that the fog did not change based on her proximity, or with the added infusion of mental energy into her sight, which would usually help out at least a little.


    Whatever this place was, it obscured much of her abilities, otherworldly or otherwise, so since it presented her with a set of stairs, she had little choice but to climb them.


    The first step seemed no different from the rest, and was entirely unassuming in appearance. Had she seen it outside of this realm, she might have been convinced that there was nothing unusual about it at all, but she knew better than to presume this to be the case. If she was just brought her to climb an ordinary set of steps, that would be highly unusual.


    As a result, she was not surprised in the slightest to find the world around her suddenly twist and warp, transforming into a strange scene wherein she witnessed the Yi District in flames¡­ no, not fully. Only the parts that had burned when she had resided there, and when she had needed to witness the Great Yi Family attempting to tear everyone she had come to know down before coming after her with the same vigour.


    There was an impression that she could turn around and flee from the scene, but she simply scoffed at that potential. What reason did she have to flee from the past?


    Thus, she took another step, the scene instantly vanishing and the steps reappearing before her. As she saw this, she did not place her foot down right away, but instead looked around to check whether anything had changed. Nothing had, but that did make her ponder whether this was the full extent of what the stairs would throw at her. Out of all of the things that a staircase in a realm at the free disposal of someone in the seventh or eighth realm could throw at her, some simple memories from the past were hardly going to change her actions, regardless of which actions the realm wished to change, and she believed that if it had pulled in anyone with even a hint of desire to see the top of these stairs, they would also not be swayed by simple things like that.


    ¡®The prime question here should really be whether I got pulled in here because I simply touched the door, or whether the door was a catalyst for some other reaction. Is it even connected to the Bai Ancestral Hall, or am I in some realm belonging to the Daoist Continent¡¯s leaders?¡¯


    She naturally had many questions, but they could not be answered by thin air when she did not even risk voicing them, as that might either provoke a response from the realm, or perhaps even reveal that she was not somewhere else at all but instead trapped in some illusion which could prompt her to spill more and more of her history and life without her even realising that it was what occurring to her until it was far too late.


    Even if she did know, there didn¡¯t seem to be much that she could do to prevent such a thing.


    For that reason, with her lacking knowledge of the situation and general concern about the situation, she placed her foot down on the second step.


    Right away, a slight pressure fell upon her, trying to pin her to the ground and force her to descend, but it was far lighter than the one from the door, even if it did seem to penetrate her body and also affect her mind. In her eyes, the scene before her was more significant, since it once more came from her memory and tried to confront her, just as on the previous step.


    This time, it was the scene from her first kill in the Kong Prison Realm, where she could see the Black Terror on the ground, her head absent and her body as yet otherwise untouched by Wei Yi¡¯s hands.


    ¡®Really? It is trying to make me turn around again, but it is doing a shit job, no other word to use here. To bring up an event that had prompted me to do my all without caring for the bindings of being some good person, acting to achieve something even if it will endanger others, when trying to make me back down is perhaps the worst thing that could have been done,¡¯ she thought, only forced to think about it even for a moment as her foot appeared unable to rise from the step for a brief moment after she had set it down, as if specifically to force her to face the scenes from the past.


    The moment that she was no longer restricted, she raised her foot again and moved onto the next step, finding the pressure upon her grow and the scene reform into the one from Beast¡¯s Rest, where she had slain a number of figures that attempted to interrupt her rest.


    It could obviously do nothing to stop her, so she stepped onto the next step, then the next, and carried on, taking the forced pause while merely reminding herself of what had happened, casually striding up as it went from the deaths that she had caused, to the kills committed by others in order to get at her or some group she was a part of, then changing back to the lives she had personally taken. Whatever this place was, it could freely grab things from her memory, and it did not seem reluctant to do so.


    ¡®If this is caused by some asshole trying to look into my mind, I will be sure to remind them of the notion of privacy within one¡¯s own mind, a concept that I am rather fond of. Then again, this should be some kind of high-grade illusory method to pull upon my own memories through my own mind rather than needing to extract and create them, so they might know nothing,¡¯ she thought to herself.


    At the twentieth step, the pressure was finally growing to be notable, but even then neither her body nor mind faltered. The scenes seemed brighter and more significant with each step, but she ignored them, for she didn¡¯t care whether this was some test of her own consciousness, or an attempt to ward her off ¨C she had done what she thought she needed to do, or what she wished to do, and she would not back down or undo anything unless she could obtain a greater path that did not require acting in ways that she herself might not be so fond of. There were certainly moments that she wasn¡¯t too proud of, but she wouldn¡¯t chastise herself for them, only learn from them to do more in the future.


    Thus, regardless of the purpose of the world, she reached the fortieth step, approaching the middle of the significant events in the Kong Prison Realm as she did so, the pressure growing further to the point that it did finally require a bit of effort to ascend with each step.


    Fortunately, it was still light and insignificant enough to let her keep going after a moment of reminiscence, in which she hardly learned a single thing since her Ascendant¡¯s Library had kept track of everything she had ever done, and could be brought up even in this strange realm at any time. She had seen all of the memories the stairs showed her before, and she had already understood them then, and would not flee from them now.


    ¡®In fact, all this seems to be doing is making me surer that I acted in the ways that I should have. I already know that I did not do everything perfectly ¨C far from it, in fact ¨C but I doubt that there are any in this world who could genuinely claim to have lived perfectly their entire lives. There are very few that could even approach perfection, and the person who created this is not one of them.¡¯


    The sixtieth step made the force acting upon her mind and soul even more prominent, but all that it was able to do was bring to her attention the fact that she had not yet done anything to reinforce the soul specifically. Her mind and body were enhanced, but the soul or spirit, if it was indeed a separate thing, could also benefit, prompting her to circulate her various energies in order to connect with this mystical part of herself and attempt to strengthen it. Due to the pressure on it, she was able to just barely feel it within herself, and it was this that allowed her to affect it.


    Nothing that she had seemed perfect for interacting with it, but when all five forms of energy were combined in one consistent flow reminiscent of the array created by the Truth of the Universe for repelling the otherworldly azure light, an arrangement that seemed particularly effective on things that would drive people mad, she could distinctly sense a change. However, it came not just from her energy, but partly from her bones, which was not something that she expected to discover.


    From them, a golden energy travelled up and out, diffusing throughout her soul, reminding her for the first time in a long time that she had consumed some kind of Golden Bone elixir a long time ago in the Kong District. It had become rather irrelevant with all of her physique cultivation but came up now.


    It seemed that the elixir, whatever it had been meant for initially, could react with her energy, the pressure on the soul, and the particular flow that she had arranged with her five meridian networks, and thus release part of its effectiveness that had not yet been used into her spiritual side, fusing with it and stabilising it. The pressure quickly weakened, leaving her with little time to accomplish much with her energy, but she was able to tell that the decrease in pressure came from the fact that her soul was now much more able to resist it.


    ¡®While I do not fully understand what I am doing, nor what good this might do for me in the future, I do know quite well that souls and spirits are relevant in this world. The Xin and Ling families have both dedicated a lot of time to studying them, and they might have even come up with some methods of enhancing their own spirits. If they are able to attack through them, having a stronger soul is clearly not a detriment to me, so I should go further. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s some of that golden energy left.¡¯


    Whether or not the creator of this realm could have foreseen it, rather than simply ascending the steps and becoming more assured of herself, she had also found a way to greatly benefit from them, and now had yet another motivation to ascend them.


    Even if the top was an illusion and she would just be tossed out of the realm without any chance to make use of her soul for now, she would greatly benefit, and if the top would pose some risk to her soul, then she would be far more prepared for it than she would have been had she been permitted to go to the top effortlessly.


    ¡®It does make me wonder what exactly the azure lights are,¡¯ she thought as she stepped onto the sixty-first step, finding that the pressure grew just enough to get another drop of golden energy out of her bones, ¡®They seem to have some relation to souls and spirits, at least in that the same methods can affect them, and they are not entirely outside of the control of the Planar Continents, but it is strangely difficult to identify them as anything. Just a bright, azure light, acting in semi-intelligent ways every now and then¡­ What are they, and why are they in every otherworldly gift?¡¯


    She had plenty of other questions too, like why they could so easily be repelled by some array ¨C the term easily here being used not to say that a ninth realm array was in some way simple to create or acquire, but that it was just one complex array rather than an incredibly complex network of them ¨C but those could hardly be answered her. None of the memory provoking steps chose to bring them up directly, and no answers were given to any of her past memories, so she just kept going.


    Each step gave her another surge of the energy from the elixir and forced her body and mind and to endure a greater force as their strengths balanced a little more than they had been prior to this.


    On the seventeenth step, the pressure surged slightly, bringing out golden energy for two moments rather than one. Then, on the eightieth, it surged again, managing to remain powerful for three moments. It took significant effort to go through each step now, although certainly now due to the memories that they forcefully provoked, and it only got worse on the next series of steps, which forced even more of that golden light to pour out of her bones and flood her soul, not fusing with it as much as acting upon it and refining it.


    Finally, it was on the ninetieth where the energy of the Golden Bone elixir, if it was even suitable to call it that given that it had done more for her soul than her bones, ran out and completed the process that had begun thirty steps ago. All of the energy that had mixed with the soul, now and before this, lit up alongside the array she formed with her meridian networks, temporarily pressing upon the soul for just a moment prior to the soul suddenly bouncing back.


    All of that energy vanished from her body right away, leaving her only with a sensation that her soul had become stronger, a thing that she could hardly test or confirm when the pressure upon it fell also.


    She took the next step, but the pressure did not return onto her soul, as if it had vanished entirely. It still pressed down her body, and still forced her to delay when she attempted to take another step right away, but when it did permit her to move on, she was still unable to sense a single thing upon her soul. That was unfortunate, given that she had intended to experiment more and see if the current flow of her energies could allow one of them to reinforce and enhance her soul directly, but it seemed that this would not be this easy. Although she still didn¡¯t know what a stronger soul could allow her to do or to endure, nor whether there were any dangers directly targeting it out there in the world, she would hardly pass up on the chance to improve for free and without much trouble.


    ¡®I can still sense that there is something different about me, but nothing I currently possess helps with detecting it. I¡¯ll need to borrow Xin Fu for a bit when I get back to the Chao District and see if I can¡¯t steal the three vision states from her,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, getting onto the ninety-first step.


    Since she was currently circulating her energy, which she did begin from the first step that tried to push her down just in case, she had also been refining her body this entire time, using both physique energy and her cosmic energy¡¯s innate infusion of the elements to take advantage of the physical pressure as well as the spiritual. At this point, when she was nearly at the top, with the building at the peak still obscured but very much of interest to her, she felt that her body finally crossed a certain boundary.


    It was not one of a physique cultivation stage, which she would have very much liked given how much that would do for her, but it was still undeniably significant to her, for it was one of the prerequisites for achieving the next realm. Within her physique meridian network, she felt one of the meridians near her neck suddenly light up with dawn and moonlight, filling her body with them for just a moment.


    The light settled, condensing upon the meridian, surrounding and wrapping it in a double helix shape while continuing to flow passively, the strand of dawn light and moonlight alike permitting for energy to surge through them only to end up in the same meridian as they would have done otherwise. On its own, such a change was strange, and not entirely expected from what she had thought a physique vein would be, but she could sense the effect it had right away.


    With one of the integral meridians transforming according to her physique, she experienced the physique energy within her entire body swell in power, her entire body suddenly feeling significantly stronger even though her actual strength had barely been affected by this.


    What she was able to do with ease was take the next step, then the next, and then the one after that, with one more bringing her onto the ninety-ninth step of the staircase, with none of the steps managing to significantly impact upon her, just as they were now unable to affect her soul. Without those two pressures, all that the steps could do was remind her of the most recent events, of how Paragon had suffered while she had been away, but this step differed from the rest when she did not feel the ability to move on after just a moment.


    She looked at the memory that it tried to present to her, but instead found that she could distinctly feel two choices, seeing them as well despite one of them being behind her. It seemed as if the staircase had been shrinking behind her, for her spiritual perception sensed solid ground behind herself at the level of the previous step alongside the word ¡®Certainty¡¯.


    Meanwhile, in front of her, floating above the last step, partially obscured by a thick barrier of fog, was the word ¡®Freedom¡¯.


    ¡®Interesting. Is this trying to test me, or is this some kind of trick where the right person would need to act differently from the common one to succeed? I care not for certainty, not if it is the certainty of something negative, so I have no reason to select anything other than freedom,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, the most curious thing about this being the two words themselves, ¡®I can see this being related to the Master of Yi City and his proposition that must have been provided to the four ancestors of the Bai family, with them being given either the certainty of their previous lives or the uncertainty of new ones, but I doubt even those most fond of Kong Shi Meng would say that he was promising freedom. Yi City is not exactly free, binding one with a different set of laws from the previous nations that had been there, but binding one nonetheless¡­ Freedom is a restrictive thing as well, in a way¡­ Hm.¡¯


    As she wasn¡¯t even certain that this was the context in which she was supposed to interpret these words, she didn¡¯t stand around and continue pondering, instead taking the next step without any further hesitation.


    Just like the previous steps, this one caused the illusions around her to vanish, the two words going with them, the seeming flat ground behind her changing back to the stairs. However, she did not feel any kind of pressure fall upon her, nor did she see another illusion arise, as she was instead met with the dense layer of fog that slowly began to part.


    It started at a snail¡¯s pace, barely moving even when she tried to assist it with her breath ¨C her lungs had developed similarly to the rest of her body, and could exert a great deal of force onto the outside world if needed ¨C but it sped up until the fog was more akin to one of the larger waves that she had seen within the ocean between the Western and Eastern Continents. Wooden walls, paper doors and windows, and more of those slanted roof tiles were revealed to her soon, until the entire building was visible with perfect clarity.


    She was able to confirm that this building did indeed resemble the palace from the books she had read, and that she currently stood at the entrance of a square courtyard. The palace was partially wrapped around it, with two sections of the house stretching out on both the left and right to envelop the courtyard, which lacked anything of particular note, being flat and empty.


    However, she had little else to follow, so she proceeded into the courtyard with her energy flowing throughout her body just in case.


    As she walked towards the middle of the courtyard, her ultimate target being the front doors that were at the other side of it, she saw the sun suddenly shift within the sky. It sank with great speed, practically falling beneath the horizon, as a moon rose to make up for the absence of light. Whereas the sun had been just like what one might see outside of whatever this place was, the moon was enormous, being nearly double the size of the natural moon, with the light from it being bright enough to cause the world around her to almost resemble an unusually silvery morning. It rose not in the same place as the sun, but from behind the large palace, perfectly halting just above the roof from her perspective.


    In the courtyard itself, the light seemed to coalesce into a figure, whose body and face were covered by silver cloth that resembled the robes of a priest or priestess, being loose yet fitting closely around the figure¡¯s body and hiding any trace of their skin, revealing only long white hair, and showing their red eyes. There were no recognisable characteristics of either gender, nor could Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception pierce the cloth or anything else.


    She hardly needed to do so to guess that this would not be a friendly encounter, for the figure reached into the air while lowering its head, resembling the figure of a servant or vassal of another lowering themselves as they prepared to receive an item from their leader. What made that comparison so much more apt was the fact that only a moment after she had assumed that position, the very moonlight shining down upon the palace courtyard thickened and grew denser in front of her hands, forming into a silver scythe that was almost unimaginably intricate, as if it was not a true weapon but a relic and purely ornamental in purpose.


    A single long piece of metal was missing from the central portion of the scythe¡¯s blade, creating a strange groove on one side of the item that was absent from another, which was what made her believe that this was not an intentional design decision by whoever had created it.


    Regardless of that particular detail, it seemed that the figure looked towards Wei Yi, then pointed towards her with the end of the scythe¡¯s shaft.


    ¡®Really? This figure from the past, or whatever this even is, wants to fight me? Not even going to explain why? Whoever set this place up has no care whatsoever for those that might have no idea what they¡¯re getting into, like me,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, readying herself by changing her left hand to claws while placing her gauntlet onto her right hand, then deciding to risk it by saying, ¡°Are you sure that there won¡¯t be any explanation of why we¡¯re doing this?¡±


    No reply came back from the figure, although the way that it remained static while she was speaking and preparing brought to her attention the fact that the figure seemed to resemble the specific one from the abyssal sculptures even more so than she had anticipated. Just as the figures there were lacking in precise mouths and features, so was the one before her missing a clear mouth, distinct nostrils, or anything else that one may typically find on a human being, at least as far as she was able to tell through the silver fabric.


    Aside from meaning that it couldn¡¯t realistically talk to her even if it really wanted to, it made her question just what this place was. Why were the ancestors of the Bai portrayed in this manner despite this place likely having been made at a time when they were still within the memories of the creators?


    It was odd, but there was little that she was able to do when the figure didn¡¯t bother to say anything or couldn¡¯t do so. Perhaps it was some intentional restriction, or maybe the one or ones that had made the area she was in didn¡¯t anticipate that anybody would be attempting to speak with the historical figures, but whatever the truth was, she would not be receiving her answer from the mouthless figure, so there was no point in waiting for it. She¡¯d beat it, if possible, then learn the purpose later.


    If the purpose was something unreasonable or unnecessary to her, which it had some chance of being since she had merely approached the Bai Ancestral Hall and hadn¡¯t yet begun to search through some particular part of it, then she could track down the people responsible, or their descendants, and share her opinion about the realm with them, if they cared to listen.


    ¡®Well, I won¡¯t be asking them if all of this is to get a date with a guy, not that it would be likely,¡¯ she thought, raising her hands to the level of her chest, her claws ready and surging with energy.

 V4C41: Basking in Moonlight and Crimson

    The moment that Wei Yi clearly entered a combat stance, the figure similarly raised her scythe ¨C she looked feminine enough for her to make this conclusion, and so she decided that it would be easier to just deem her a woman and make things easier for herself in terms of guessing the weaknesses and physical attributes of this figure ¨C and prepared, giving her only a moment before her movements suddenly accelerated and she slashed horizontally with the scythe. From the crescent blade of the scythe, a silver light surged out, cutting through the air as quickly as light itself could, and travelled right towards Wei Yi¡¯s chest.


    She flashed out of existence with the Mortal World¡¯s Echo ability, finding that it worked about as well as usual, using the innate movement possibility of the physique ability to hasten towards the scythe-wielding figure. With her claws igniting and being covered in ice, as Ire and Obliteration energy surrounded them, she slashed at the figure lit by moonlight.


    Although the figure did not stand still after attacking, and quickly moved to perform some other movement, Wei Yi got to her first, her claws cutting through the silver cloth with ease and landing upon the flesh beneath, finding that it was in many ways akin to stone to the touch and in terms of strength. Her claws could still penetrate it, whether she used her killing will ones or the star metal gauntlet, but it meant that she was only able to make a shallow cut in the figure before leaping back to avoid whatever the next attack may be.


    The slash had been blocked by the arm of the figure, who continued in her movement without interruption and thrust the scythe into the air, seeming to use it more as a staff than a bladed weapon.


    As if it tapped the very moonlight, as it reached its peak, a wave of silver light surged out of the air, falling upon the figure and concentrating around the wounds on her arm, flooding them and causing cloth and stone-like skin alike to recover in moments. It happened as she had already lowered the scythe and spun it in her hand, a strange ashen mist gathering around the blade with each second.


    ¡®Healing ability? At the very least there¡¯s a specific movement that she seems to perform to use it, or else beating her might be a little difficult. Also, the blood that I had clearly felt has vanished, so I cannot steal whatever physique or bloodline this entity might have,¡¯ Wei Yi glanced at one of her claws as she rushed back to the figure as to prevent it from executing this slash as smoothly as she had the last. From the things that she had done so far, it was difficult to judge the realm she was in, or that she was representing, so she didn¡¯t want to risk being struck by something that she might not be able to evade if she is able to help it.


    Despite that intention, the figure surprised her yet again when it suddenly interrupted the spinning of the scythe and cut at Wei Yi just as she had gotten into range of the blade of the scythe, a wave of ashes following after the blade and rushing towards her.


    It moved quickly enough for Wei Yi to barely be able to react in time, and even when she attempted to use the World¡¯s Echo to remove herself from harm¡¯s way, it turned out that merely phasing in place could do nothing against the ashen strike. A little like how the Ashen Form physique was able to disregard the flow of time within a spatial realm and show the true passage of time within the flame that could be seen by its holder, these ashes ignored her temporary state outside of the world and crashed into her with unbelievable speed.


    Every single particle of ash cut deeply into her body, penetrating the bone layer of the killing will form and the air that she had threaded into her clothing alike with little trouble, although it seemed to pass through the latter more so than cut through it. Had it actually been able to trim her hair with just one attack, she might have been afraid.


    Still, the ashes and the scythe blade that followed them pierced her flesh deeply, striking bone and failing to proceed only then as she disappeared once again and phased over to the figure¡¯s side, jabbing at her throat with her flame-covered claws. As each particle of ash threatened to freeze her insides despite the constant flow of yin and yang throughout her system, it was clear that this figure was someone whose strength was yin, so it would be foolish to attempt to make use of it in an offensive action against her.


    On the topic of strength, that attack alone was able to confirm that this figure was no weaker than the fifth realm, although the exact ceiling of its power was not immediately obvious from that alone.


    ¡®The biggest changes between realms in terms of observable effects occur in the earlier realms, with the introduction of gaseous energy and planar constructs, liquid energy, then solid energy and stable arrays, after which it is possible to observe searing marks and oblivion halos from outside of the body,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she looked onto the figure mid swing, ¡®The issue is that the figure lacks any such defining features. In fact, if not for the fact that this does not resemble any of the other four cultivation routes that I am aware of, I might have even assumed that this was some extreme variance of the Ashen Form physique ¨C might still be, actually¡­¡¯


    Her claws plunged into the neck of the figure, but they did not hit stone as before. Instead, it was ice.


    With her strike, the entire figure shattered into small shards of perfectly transparent ice, scattering all over the stone ground of the courtyard, while the figure herself reappeared a few metres back, just out of the range of Wei Yi¡¯s claws, with her scythe lowered and her free hand raised into the air, collecting the rays of moonlight within the confines of her fingers.


    Once again, as Wei Yi thought to act against that figure, it suddenly accelerated by an immense degree, the moonlight in her hand instantly filling it and then being shot out as she threw the moonlight at her.


    She had learned from the previous attack and instantly phased out of the direction of the beam, getting as far away as possible with the Mortal World¡¯s Echo, but the abilities of this figure surprised her once again as the single moonlight beam suddenly merged with the entirety of the rays from the moon behind then palace, with every single place lit by it being scorched by the strange surging frost of the moon.


    It burned right through her clothing, dissolving much of the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival before it ceased, and her skin and flesh was partially burned with it, although everything was able to recover in moments after that. While the burn was not significant, it did confirm to her that this was actually a force that was somewhat equivalent to the sixth realm in terms of the energy concentration and purity.


    One of the key elements of the sixth realm was that the planar energy one wielded became purer and more refined, and if what she was seeing here wasn¡¯t refined energy, then she didn¡¯t know what she was seeing. Each ray of light created by the figure was pure and clean, lacking in any traces of impurities, and the attacks that they were capable of assisting with were also blatantly far more effective and efficient than the vast majority of techniques and methods that could be accessed within the fifth realm and below.


    Fortunately, the attacks themselves were only at the level of the fifth realm, meaning that she was able to endure it partially, but it was still something that she did not want to endure over and over again while trying to find some weakness of the strange entity.


    ¡®Fine, you want to do this? I don¡¯t need to treat whatever this stupid thing is nicely, do I?¡¯ Wei Yi thought as her killing intent surged out of her body again, her mind having particular difficulties controlling it as there was still a gap of two realms between it and any other form of energy. While that gap existed, her mind was keen to head towards unnecessary anger, and in this situation, she was not going to hold back.


    She flooded her hands with Obliteration energy, conjured the Titanic Conqueror, whose hands she also filled with that same energy. Wei Yi could have gone a little less extreme with her first attempt, but she didn¡¯t really see the point to doing such a thing when there were no explanations provided to her in order to know what kind of goal she was even meant to be pursuing her.


    ¡°Burn!¡± she exclaimed, finding that it was somewhat satisfying to call out certain things, although she would never torment herself with something as abysmal as actually calling out the name of her technique. It did give her a slight boost in strength as she aligned her mind with the technique that she was using even more than simply performing the correct motions could, not that she had any particular motions associated with the techniques that she herself created, so she wouldn¡¯t pass up on an opportunity like that while nobody seemed to be observing her.


    All of the Obliteration energy surged out at once and fell upon the figure, instantly causing the sound of exploding ice to ring throughout the courtyard, but that didn¡¯t mean that her beam would end.


    Instead, since she knew that the moonlit figure would reappear a few metres away from the place in which she shattered, she increased the concentration of her energy and shifted it accordingly, directing it in a horizontal manner as to be sure to cut through the figure regardless of where it appeared.


    Through the thick blackened crimson of the beam, it was difficult to see a single thing, but when the beam was suddenly collapsed and it burst out into nothing, covering the entire courtyard with crimson for a brief while, she knew what had happened, or, rather, that something did indeed change. As the blackened crimson dispersed and faded, it revealed the figure standing within it to have no damage upon it, but the scythe had vanished and it was looking straight at her, with palms and fingers pressed together as if she was about to bow to Wei Yi.


    ¡°What is your Path?¡± a strange voice, emerging seemingly from the figure, suddenly asked her.


    It was a voice that did not sound like it would come from a human, fitting well to the seeming stone forms that these figures were. There was no emotion to it, no trace of the typical human elements that one may find within the voice, and it was rather offsetting to hear her.


    Nevertheless, Wei Yi already had an answer for her, so long as the question as the one that she thought was being asked of her.


    ¡°The Dao of Law.¡±


    In reply, the figure bowed, shattering into moonlight as the figure¡¯s bow got all the way to a full right angle. All of that silver light surged out of the figure¡¯s outline and towards Wei Yi, flooding into her body and most importantly, her head. Just as with the first time that she had attempted to take in the jade slips of the Deadly Martial Colosseum, she felt her head fill to the brim in a single instant.


    Within the Ascendant¡¯s Library, it was as if a moon had appeared in the very windows of it, using one of them as a portal from its true position in the sky to flood her mental domain with its silver light. It shone upon the books, the shelves, the various decorative elements and the map in one portion of it, overwhelming all of the dark wood and gold that made up the structure of the library with the distinct silver of the moon.


    For a few moments, that was all that could be seen there, until she found a figurative thread to this light and grasped it, realising what it was that she just received.


    As it turned out, this was the partial knowledge of a Dao, the Moonlight Dao, and the moment that she understood that, the rest of the light faded at a rapid pace as she was able to take in everything about it and quickly compress it into the form that she recognised best within her mental domain, which was books, pages and scrolls. Everything that was vague and spread out collapsed into words upon pages of mental energy, and the cloud of light that had filled the entirety of her mental library, a significant portion of her mental domain, was quickly compressed into a few hefty tomes, with much of the information mixing with what she already knew of moonlight as a result of the Moonlight Split and Ire.


    The Bai District had been calm for the last few days, save for the suspicious activities of the eastern visitors from across the ocean. Most of them were rather suspicious and impolite in their actions, although it was difficult to judge whether this was something they did intentionally due to looking down on the west, or if it was simply some difference of culture and typical conversation. Nevertheless, most weren¡¯t particularly fond of their presence, and even though they did not know what they may seek from the Bai Ancestral Hall, they sought to prevent their intrusion.


    It manifested in a kind of blockade being formed wherein one could still pass if they wished to, but the sheer number of people looking impolitely towards the easterners was bound to be a deterrent.


    To give them no opportunities to seep in, the attention of the people that had arranged themselves in this manner was divided between the front and back, with most standing vaguely sideways. None of them could be sure if the eastern Daoists might be able to pass them without being seen, but they would certainly not be able to get into the Ancestral Hall.


    Due to this particular arrangement, the eyes of many fell upon the statues on the walls of the hall as the eyes of one figure, the one that wielded the scythe, lit up with blinding silver light. It surged out of the figure¡¯s eyes, flooding everything nearby with the same shade of colour, filling each street and nearby home with silver that was only accentuated by the blocked sun above them. Without the sun, nothing could stop the overwhelming moonlight from filling the district.


    ¡°What is this? What has happened here?¡± a figure from the Bai family, a man in the fifth realm, forced his way through the blockade and stared upon the glowing eyes after gazing in suspicion at the rest of the people present.


    ¡°We didn¡¯t do anything!¡± most of them replied, their wording differing but their meaning matching, ¡°It just happened out of nowhere! Is this significant?¡±


    ¡°I am not sure¡­ The Patriarch had been busying himself down there. Keep anyone from entering, and I shall see if I can reach him from here. If anyone disturbs me, you have permission to do what is necessary to keep them away!¡±


    When she was able to free herself from the moonlight, she returned her focus to the outside world, or what appeared to be some kind of world, having processed the knowledge sufficiently to use it and be confident about leaving it for later for further study even if it might need to be used right away.


    However, despite only a few moments seeming to pass within her mind and the outside world alike, the scene changed significantly. The moonlight that had covered her and the entire palace was missing, and the moon with it. What rose in its place was a bright crimson sphere, exuding an absolute force that couldn¡¯t be found even in something as astounding and bright as the sun. It was clearly closer, as she could see fluctuations within its surface even without much effort, and it instantly coated the entire realm with its aggressive light.


    ¡®What is even happening here? First a moon, now this¡­ Am I getting someone else to fight, or-¡¯


    She did not have the chance to continue that thought as it was answered for her when a figure emerged from the palace, prominently wielding a crimson glove upon its hand. Just as the scythe-wielder before it, this entity lacked obvious human characteristics and had the same red eyes and white hair, with everything else being obscured by a less traditional outfit.


    In place of something reminiscent of a dress was a pair of trousers, dark with tinges of red, with boots and a tight shirt above them, covered further by a jacket not unlike the ones worn in the south, except without the enormous quantities of fur that would usually line something like that. An ordinary dark glove covered the figure¡¯s other hand, and a light scarf was placed around the figure¡¯s neck, with one end trailing behind it while the other rested on the side of the entity¡¯s chest, right where one may have found the side of a breast if this was a female figure.


    Just as the moonlit figure before it, this entity reached out with her weapon, the glove, with a blatant intention and invitation to combat.


    ¡°No, really, explaining yourself would be too much? Fine!¡± Wei Yi decided that since she was going to be confronted with all kinds of random occurrences after one another just due to touching a door, she might as well not give them the respect or time that they were clearly not intending to provide to her.


    If she was going to be bothered by all of these things, she might as well bother them back with a plentiful dose of Obliteration energy directly to one¡¯s entire being until something of use happened to her. She executed it in an instant, having already prepared much of it during the previous fight, thus allowing her to simply regather the blackened crimson within her hands, and launched it directly at the figure before it had a chance to act.


    The last time she did this, the beam was forcefully dispersed, and she got to see the figure bow to her. This time, she also felt her Obliteration beam being forcefully weakened and scattered, and what she saw once she decided to save the rest of the energy she had for any future threat also differed. Instead of a defeated enemy, she saw the figure with its hand stretched out, almost grasping a great sphere of Obliteration energy from a distance, adjusting her hand as to aim the sphere directly at Wei Yi while the Ascendant tried to understand just how something like this was done.


    Then, with a slight push, a brief beam burst out of the sphere, travelling far more quickly than any of her uses of the energy usually would. It shot towards her, barely giving her enough time to phase out of the area with the Mortal World¡¯s Echo, and even that simply placed her right at the place that the next pulse shot at.


    She met this one with the Warlord¡¯s Banner hand of the Titanic Conqueror, which slammed a banner down in the path of the pulse that stalled it for just long enough to allow Wei Yi to use the physique ability again and dodge it as well. As it was clear that there was still more to come, as the great sphere only shrunk a little bit with each shot, the Ascendant didn¡¯t slow down and repeatedly appeared and disappeared from existence.


    Had she had the ability to do so here, Wei Yi would have made use of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye to take over the area, learn some more about it, and generally increase her own combat ability, but in the same way that the realm she had been forced into stopped her from using a number of methods, this one also seemed unavailable to her. It might not even have been some specific property of the area, since this place was unlikely to be known to many, and as such the only opinion that would affect the territory would be that of the realm¡¯s creator, who would be unlikely to know of Wei Yi or consider her a capable opponent that could dominate something that they created.


    Thus, she could only do her best with the base power of the Mortal World¡¯s Echo physique, which still allowed her to dodge blast after blast of Obliteration energy that raced towards her.


    It took almost two dozen shots for the sphere of energy to finally be expended, with the last blast being the most powerful and just barely grazing Wei Yi as it struck the ground, exploding the stone tiles on the ground only for them to fall right back into place without a crack or scratch. Although she wasn¡¯t hurt much, with her hair surviving and her clothing having already gotten used to being repeatedly shredded and remade, it still didn¡¯t feel nice to be scorched by her own technique.


    ¡®If I am guessing this correctly, the power that it wields correlates to the monsters within their equipment, so this would be something to do with devouring and consumption. I have one method that matches that element, which she may be unable to contend with, but¡­¡¯ even in the instant that it took for Wei Yi to process this, the figure had already begun to act once again, a great quantity of crimson lightning gathering around the entity¡¯s body and the gloved hand in particular, shredding into the ground beneath it.


    Just as it took only a moment to appear, the entity only needed a moment to use it, punching up with its gloved hand and causing almost all of that crimson energy to surge into the air, forming a series of miniature storm clouds actively crackling with it. Then, yet again, they did not remain in the air for long before all of them burst out and sent down bolts of red lightning down onto Wei Yi, who barely had an opportunity to begin the preparation for the Black Sun technique.


    She placed her hands together to nurture the black star, then shut her eyes and focused purely on evading the crimson lightning, using her comprehension of Law to force the lightning to surge towards clumps of metallic energy that she released after each use of the Mortal World¡¯s Echo.


    This method couldn¡¯t fully divert the lightning, as she lacked a full technique to apply the properties of the Dao and didn¡¯t even have the Full Success stage within it, but it worked well enough. A few individual bolts of lightning fell upon her, flooding throughout her body and frying her muscles and organs, but they had endured similar challenges due to her own methods of cultivation, resulting in each strike being and feeling much more mild than they might have otherwise been. Regenerating from them was easy the moment that the lightning passed, and she always had a few moments for it before the next bolt of lightning was unable to be deflected sufficiently.


    Each strike did also assist her black sun, as it could be fed just a little foreign energy to encourage it.


    While the clouds of lightning were falling upon her, the figure was still not standing still, even if Wei Yi would have much preferred it if she did take a break, and instead gathered more crimson lightning only to blast it out in a single pulse, striking nearly everything within the courtyard and the walls of the palace instantly. The Ascendant was no exception, but just as the lightning came for her, she opened her hands and presented the darkness within to this realm.


    As the pulse struck it, the lighting and the darkness seemed to clash in a strange manner, with the crimson almost turning into a sentient entity while the black sun needed to do little more than to increase the force with which it pulled upon the crimson electricity.


    For a moment, they were unable to overpower one another, but a stray bolt of lightning from above touched the black sun and gave it a small, almost insignificant quantity of energy as it passed by. It permitted the singular point of darkness to obtain just enough power to latch onto one of the points of the pulse, force it into the radius of full absorption, and consume it. With one small quantity down the black sun¡¯s gullet, for the sun was indeed gluttonous, it could take more and more until the entirety of the energy that had been caught onto it was devoured and filled the darkness to the brim, allowing it to grow further.


    Whether this confused the entity, or whether it was preparing for something that needed more than a few brief movements, Wei Yi took advantage of the moment when the clouds above were exhausted and nothing was heading to attack her in order to send a vast wave of her cosmic energy into the black sun, forcefully feeding it even more energy.


    The first time that she had used it, her actions were somewhat experimental, seeking to extract a fragment of the power of the Black Sun Blade and separate it from the aspect of a weapon. She was somewhat cautious with her usage of it, and she did not want the entirety of the sandstorm and the fortress that created it to be devoured by accident. Here, however, the world seemed impervious to harm, recovering the instant that it was permitted to do so, and it might very well not be the real world to begin with, since it was able to see past the Mask of Yama.


    Thus, whereas the black sun had initially grown slowly on the battlefield outside Paragon, here it surged in size, changing from a small seed to a large ball, then changed to the size of a planar stone, then went further to the height of a person, where it did not stop.


    Her application of energy onto it also caused the pull of the black sun to be partially targeted onto a single point, and that was where the wielder of the glove stood, having finally begun to gather more lightning and do something with it once more. When it was grabbed onto by the black sun, the figure¡¯s movements were scattered, the lightning partially fading, and its feet clearly shifted slightly towards the black sun itself.


    Besides confirming that the technique worked here, and did so as intended, it also prompted Wei Yi to leap back as far as she could while remaining within the courtyard just in case, where she raised a hand and assembled a blade construct from her energies. Influenced by her comprehension of the Sword Dao, it was far more stable and accurate than usual, and as it was flooded by her physique energy and killing intent, it glowed brightly with silver. To be sure that she got the essence of the Moonlight series of techniques without flaw, she didn¡¯t risk simply using yin-type physique energy, and thus executed the technique exactly as she remembered it.


    Her newly acquired Moonlight Dao, or perhaps just a Moon Dao, affected the matters of the cosmos in general, meaning that it did cover the black sun, but she knew that it would be most effective in enhancing her capabilities when made to affect something directly correlated with the concept of the moon.


    While she prepared this, the figure tried to stabilise itself on the ground, but as the black sun grew with each moment, it was not unlike the situation Wei Yi had been in not long ago, when the door had attempted to devour her and ultimately succeeded. The entity, silent and featureless as it had been at the start, strove to flee, to evade, to do anything but attack the black sun itself since the entity clearly possessed enough intelligence to understand that feeding a hungry beast that would try to eat her either way was not in its best interests.


    Still, no matter what it did, it simply couldn¡¯t stop the ever-growing pull upon it.


    The figure slid a few more steps towards it, and then tried to jump away from it, only to find itself being flung towards the black sun, the attraction of which was more than sufficient to overwhelm the lacking momentum and resistance of the jump.


    It landed a few steps away, and either in panic or some belief that the black sun could be overwhelmed to the point of forcing it to fade out early, the figure released a vast quantity of crimson lightning directly into the sphere of absolute darkness. Lightning poured out of it, mostly out of the gloved hand, and was all directed towards the black sun, which eagerly devoured more and more of the crimson without any hesitation ¨C not that there was anything within it that could even hesitate.


    However, all this meant was that the sphere grew more quickly, and that Wei Yi was forced to complete her technique with a little more haste. The illusory moon had already formed above her, and most of the steps of the Moonlight Split were complete, but she did want to build up as much power within it as she could before unleashing it, just to be sure that the figure couldn¡¯t take the final burst of power of the black sun and simply flip it back around at her, as it had with the Obliteration beam. To ensure this, she waited just a moment longer for the energy of the moon to build up within her planar construct blade, then swung it down.


    Boundless moonlight surged from the edge the moment that it moved, crossing the distance between it and the black sun instantly, plunging into its depths. One ray of light was naturally insufficient to damage or alter it significantly, but as the concentrated light of everything that Wei Yi had built up over the past minute constantly pooled into it, especially with the added aid of the crimson lightning, the black sun finally relented.


    At the same time, she also willed it to be dispersed, causing the resulting burst of energy to be intensified. The energy that had been stored within pulsed out in its raw form, shredding the figure in an instant, tearing it into naught but dust, but hardly stopped there.


    The energy was a mere moment from touching her when the realm acted upon it, forcefully dispelling it and the remnants of the black sun, and reconstructing the figure that was broken moments prior.


    ¡®This place is certainly not simple, whatever it is¡­ Well, at least I won again,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, finding that her energy recovered swiftly all the way to full. That should have been at least slightly encouraging, but considering the fact that there were two more founders of the Bai District, there were likely two more foes, and both of them might be far, far more difficult to contend with.

 V4C42: Darkness and Mystery

    The slightly panicked crowds outside of the Bai Ancestral Hall had thought that the eyes of one of the figures from the ancient tale of their founders might have been strange enough, so none of them had been considering the possibility of this going further.


    In their minds, whether this was happening due to the actions of the Patriarch or some outside force that might be hostile to the Bai District, the eyes of a single founder and ancestor were more than sufficient for their purposes, and there hardly seemed to be room for more of the glow that just eight sets of eyes could release. Merely the moonlight from the scythe-wielding ancestor covered the entire district, so if all of the four ancestors were to suddenly flood the district with the light of their energy, or whatever was happening here, it might completely overwhelm the district and force all of them to flee to safety.


    So, when that did suddenly occur, with crimson light flooding out of the eyes of the second figure, the glove wielder, everyone¡¯s attention returned to the Bai Ancestral Hall.


    ¡°Hm, your western districts sure are far less calm than we had been told,¡± some of the easterners made their way towards the crowd, with some smirking and the others looking with some concern at the sources of the immense light. One in particular, a man in the fifth realm that held a fan and calmly fanned himself as if this was insignificant to him, said, ¡°What is this supposed to be?¡±


    ¡°None of your business, easterners,¡± the Bai family figure said, stepping away from the Ancestral Hall as to block the foreigners alongside everyone else from the district, ¡°This is a matter for our Bai family, and none of you need to get involved.¡±


    ¡°Really? These lights seem to contain some form of energy. If they are an attempt to refine the very district according to some demonic ritual, we Daoists are obligated to step in.¡±


    ¡°There will be nothing of the sort! Step back, leave it to us, and, even better, get out of the district if you would prefer to be so nosy! I¡¯m sure the Shun District¡¯s people will be far happier to answer your random questions and endure your poking around, so long as you pay for a servant or two!¡± the Bai family member said, spitting in their direction and heading back to the doors of the Ancestral Hall, staring at them while trying to get through to anyone or anything on the other side.


    ¡°How far will you go?¡± the crimson figure asked, its hands placed together in a similar manner.


    This question was more ambiguous to Wei Yi than the last, for that one had a few select answers while this one might refer to anything from random walks in the woods at night to her intentions to free the world of the Great Families. She might not go that far on a walk, since she gets plenty of exercise in other places and at other times, but in terms of the latter goal, there was little that she didn¡¯t believe she¡¯d do.


    So, since she was already aware that the figures weren¡¯t going to be particularly cooperative in answering her own questions, she spoke more diplomatically than usual.


    ¡°As far as I must.¡±


    Once again, without any other questions, requests for elaboration, or any sign that her answer was even listened to, the figure in crimson bowed to her, going all the way before her body and clothing also exploded into naught, all of the Dao comprehension within the entity soaring towards her just as with the moonlit figure.


    Having experienced that sudden overwhelming force, and understanding roughly what it was meant to convey, she was able to take it in far more quickly and effectively, having prepared for it with a number of mental energy books, tomes and scrolls within which to store everything of use to her. It still took a few moments to sort everything out, but by the end, she comprehended that she had obtained something called the Entropy Dao, focused on the destruction and collapse of all matter and energy into a primal force. It aligned well with the Dao of Law, as this was a kind of innate law of the world, although she found it to be rather peculiar.


    It was due to the fact that there appeared to be no such force within the world. Matter didn¡¯t decay, energy could remain nearly permanently so long as it was sustained appropriately, and even after a million years, the Kong District had essentially remained as it had been. Sure, there was an element of decay and simplification within the world, but not exactly as the Dao comprehension bestowed by the crimson figure seemed to describe it.


    With such a situation, she couldn¡¯t help but consider whether this was the instance of another otherworldly demon appearing in distant history and making a significant impact on the world.


    ¡®Something like that would certainly explain the oddity of the situation, as well as the ability to interfere with my otherworldly gifts to an extent, since the Master of Yi City had also found a way to contend with such things as a result of his own experimentation, but this Dao does not appear to be as mechanical and rigid as the techniques that they often used¡­¡¯ Wei Yi frowned.


    That, like the further deliberation on the Moonlight Dao, needed to wait for her to leave the strange realm she had been forced into, since, just as she expected, the skies quickly changed. The crimson sphere of energy dispersed, and in its place rose countless black tendrils. Appearing from behind the walls of the palace, the edges of the ground and from beneath the staircase up to the courtyard and palace, they rose and enveloped the sky without leaving a single gap, plunging the entire realm into absolute darkness.


    The only source of light was the pair of stygian green glowing spots in the distance, emerging from what seemed to be the air itself. With such darkness, it was difficult to make out who the eyes belonged to, but they did light some loose strands of hair a similar green, implying that they were light in colour.


    Presumably, aside from the green glow of the eyes, this figure was likely identical to the previous two, wearing something simplistic save for the one item of note upon its body, that being the choker that was almost certainly bound around the figure¡¯s neck. With the aid of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye and the Superior Bright Star abilities, she was just barely able to see the curious object wrapped around the entity¡¯s neck, and found that of all the unique items she had seen so far, this one differed the most from the representation of them upon the sides of the Bai Ancestral Hall. The rest matched such things closely enough, with only the strange missing piece of the scythe catching her attention, but this did not.


    Rather than being something made of cloth, fabric, lace or even leather, the thing around the figure¡¯s neck was made of small black tendrils that subtly wriggled on its neck, slick with some kind of clear substance that unfortunately reminded Wei Yi of the Eldritch Hold physique ability.


    ¡®Alright, more tentacles¡­ Is this a worshipper of Primordial Corruption, or are the general themes of the Eldritch Hold and this figure purely coincidental with that Primordial Deity?¡¯ Wei Yi wondered to herself, uncertain of the answer and not even being certain whether it had any relevance while she considered the best approach that she might have against this figure, ¡®No other weapon besides the choker, but I doubt that it will be used directly¡­¡¯


    It also didn¡¯t evade her attention that the stygian green was highly reminiscent of the colours of the Abyssal Eye, and that the glove on the hand of the previous figure partly resembled the shape, albeit not the texture of the Monstrous Glove in her possession. The spike that she had bought first from the auction at the Chao District was also not entirely unlike the missing part of the moonlit scythe.


    She would have needed to be the most oblivious figure in existence to have failed to notice such coincidences, which she fortunately wasn¡¯t, but there was also something off about the items in her possession when compared to those that she had seen so far.


    The Piercing Needle was capable of piercing defences a little like the ash-based attack of the scythe, but they looked very different from one another and did not even seem to share the same element. Her Monstrous Glove acted upon the soul and looked to be made from some kind of flesh-like material, whereas the crimson lightning and the figure that wielded it specialised in the Entropy Dao, consuming energy and reverting it to a more primal state. The stygian colours of the Abyssal Eye did match the darkness of the tentacles she now faced, but one was filled with stone, chitin and bones, whereas this choker was made from fleshy, hot, pulsing tendrils, acting in complete opposition to the Abyssal Eye.


    In short, there was a strange series of variances and coincidences all at once, and it made it difficult to judge which ones were more significant.


    For that reason, she didn¡¯t try to decipher this without further knowledge of the situation, and instead raised her claws and prepared her energy circulation in order to be able to respond to whatever the figure was able to manifest and use against her. The previous instance of the crimson figure making use of her own Obliteration beam to damage her was obviously still fresh within her mind, and she would rather prefer not to risk something like that again.


    Thus, once she was ready, she made an obvious aggressive gesture toward the figure to begin.


    Just like the others, it didn¡¯t hesitate to do so, instantly reaching out with a hand and grasping something within the air, raising it forcefully while also bringing it closer to itself. Out of the ground all around them, shattering most of the tiles of the courtyard, rose countless tendrils, with a few strange pillars with green crystals atop them emerging nearest to the densest clusters of tentacles.


    Some of the individual tendrils were small, only about as thick as Wei Yi¡¯s toned arm, but many were almost as wide as her whole body, and quickly slammed down onto the ground with an obvious show of force. Their strike, aimed randomly or towards her if she was close enough, was filled with power that caused the entire floating land to shake and tremble, although the tentacles that held onto it and obscured the sky stopped the tremors after a few moments. These strikes exposed other fissures in the terrain, from which numerous eyes rose, all of them glowing with the same stygian green while spreading out and staring at Wei Yi with an unblinking gaze.


    Meanwhile, the figure itself stepped back into a round gateway made of black, dripping tendrils that swallowed her whole, shrinking rapidly into a small spherical mass of tentacles wrapped around one another.


    ¡®Someone that fights from a distance? Curious, and annoying, if that sphere is more akin to a gateway or portal than a space in which the figure is able to hide,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, glancing to the nearest tentacle to her, ¡®These are highly aggressive, but seem simply enough. Depending on how easy it is for her to create more of these, clearing them out might be a good idea.¡¯


    To give herself more room to attack, and a potential safe area from which to fire out Obliteration beams, she briefly gathered and then instantly unleashed a burst of Eclipse Ire, sending out a burst of energy that cut into and through the black tendrils. Most of them were culled in one go, and even those that survived due to being sufficiently thick were nearly cut apart and barely capable of flailing about. However, the large pillars with the green stones atop them were entirely unharmed, even in places where the tendrils surrounding them were unable to guard with their bodies.


    All of the tentacles that were cut in half sunk back into the ground, the gaps through which they came not recovering within moments and quickly telling Wei Yi everything she needed know about them.


    ¡®These things can regenerate and remerge, or else there is something unusual about this figure that the other two did not have, since they were unable to damage the ground. I should focus on the hovering mass of tentacles while the flailing ones are out of the picture for a moment,¡¯ she concluded.


    She conjured the Titanic Conqueror again and made it unleash a series of runes onto the ground as to obliterate more of the tentacles and try to damage the great spires as to prevent them from doing whatever it was that they were doing, or that they may begin to do if given the opportunity to do so. One of the other hands formed a series of ice chunks, all of which it then tossed at the mass of tentacles at once, hoping to prevent it from escaping like it might if she shot only one chunk.


    Despite that, the figure didn¡¯t even attempt to dodge, but instead a small opening appeared within its centre from which countless black tendrils surged out and all met the chunks of ice, crashing into them and absorbing the impacts. Some of the individual tendrils were frozen solid and broke into nothing, but everything that remained receded and sank back into the overall mass.


    ¡®This does look more like a gateway than just a mass, so I will certainly need to get at whatever is inside of it¡­ Considering the smell around here being even more intense than the corruption and the Eldritch Hold combined, I do not want to experience what will be within for longer than I must¡­ not sure I wish my sense of smell to vanish entirely, as I am missing the ability to actually taste food, but sealing it temporarily might be necessary,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she raised one of her own hands and manifested several intense points of physique energy above her palm and fingers, ¡®Fine. As some say, I¡¯ll fight fire with fire.¡¯


    Her Titanic Conqueror put all four hands together and condensed an Obliteration beam that was fired at the floating mass, which she did with less hesitation now that she saw that the usual methods of the tentacle-wielding figure did not involve the same energy manipulation that the previous one used.


    While the beam enveloped the mass, she rushed towards it, speeding up the moment that she realised that the entity did not seem to be moving, whether due to being incapable of doing so or for some other reason. Whatever it was, so long as she was able to grab onto it, she might be able to get inside, and if it wanted to make things easier for her, she would naturally not request it to do otherwise. She wasn¡¯t one to ignore something easy if it was effective.


    Doing something like that would just be absolutely foolish.


    She willed the beam to cease once she was close enough, waiting for just long enough to have already leapt into the air before the blackened crimson faded in the place where it most mattered.


    Indeed, the mass of tentacles was still there, and it had also extended a series of tendrils to meet the Obliteration beam just as they had reached out while the chunks of ice were soaring towards it. This was even more perfect for her, as it gave her something to grab onto that originated from inside of the mass.


    All of those spots of energy that had appeared above her hand morphed into tendrils, not entirely unlike the ones that surrounded her, although they were far slicker and slimier in appearance due to having been influenced by her encounter with the remnants of Primordial Corruption. They soared out, grabbing onto the tendrils that were receding into the mass of tentacles, and wrapped around them tightly, proceeding to stop extending and grow taut in order to allow their originator, Wei Yi, to be pulled into the open maw of the tentacle mass alongside the receding tendrils.


    Once the stygian tendrils felt her grip, they accelerated significantly, and she was thus launched towards the centre of the open tendrils. As she got closer, that smell did get stronger ¨C incredibly so ¨C but she ignored it and flung a Touch of God into the centre of the tentacles mass, forming her planar energy into crystal in order to apply as much force onto the opening as she possibly could.


    That energy pierced the tendrils and forced open the tentacled mass in order to permit it to not be obliterated by the beam, not that it would likely suffer quite as much as the beams that emerge from it.


    She dispelled her own Eldritch Hold once the tendrils that she had been holding onto were obliterated and made use of the Mortal World¡¯s Echo physique to make up for the insufficient size of the opening and get through it. The momentary phase in and out of the world, was odd, slow, and unusual, making it more likely that there was indeed some spatial gap between this place and the inside of the tentacled mass, although exactly what that gap was and where the other side led to was uncertain, but she was soon able to see just what it was.


    On the positive side, there was indeed more light here, and it was more feasible to see her foe here.


    That was the only positive for her, however, for the other side of the gateway was absolutely flooded with the same tendrils that had emerged from the ground in the courtyard. It seemed to be the inside of a huge ball of moist tentacles, all of which slithered and shifted slightly with each moment, pulsing with the beat of some unseen heart, although it was most certainly audible at the moment.


    Each beat loudly pulsed throughout the interior of the sphere, and it seemed to partially originate from the figure at its centre, who sat on a kind of chair that was made from more of these slithering tendrils, with a few wrapped around one of the entity¡¯s arms and hands.


    When she entered, the figure was already looking towards her, and was already in the middle of rising from the chair while the tendrils receded from the figure¡¯s arm. With the full light from the slight gaps within the tentacled surroundings, it was clear that the entity was indeed white haired, and the clothing that it wore was more akin to a typical robe, save for the traces of tendrils continuing to pulsate beneath it, possibly covering most of the figure¡¯s body. In addition to that, while the skin of the previous two entities was fully hidden, one of the hands of this one was revealed, showing a paleness and oddity that differed from that of the Bai.


    Whereas the modern family merely had a consistent tendency of albinism, the hand of this figure was entirely inhuman, with dark blood flowing through it, the skin being unnaturally thin and soft.


    It also looked notably feminine, whether due to the shape or the particularly soft features that likely came about as a result of whatever had caused the tendrils beneath the entity¡¯s clothing and its whole repertoire of abilities. For this reason, Wei Yi also presumed that this was a woman, not that she intended to permit this figure to do as she wanted for such a reason.


    Even if it had a mind somewhere in there that surpassed the kind of thing that she could create with the Brand Alternator inscription, the figure did not appear interested in conversing with her or even attempting to explain what it was that these fights were intended to achieve, if anything at all.


    Instead, she re-conjured the Titanic Conqueror, wrapped her claws in Obliteration, Ire and lightning energy, and unleashed her physiques as she charged at the figure, blocking her sense of smell as to avoid the rather unpleasant extremely potent stench that filled the tentacled space in the middle of nowhere. She hastened towards it with every little thing that she could manifest, since her energy recovered between every fight due to the combination of her nascent rift and the space¡¯s innate properties, throwing each of the Conqueror¡¯s physique abilities at the same time.


    Runes were set down within the tentacled ground, which was somehow able to act as typical solid ground, chunks of ice were covered from, and made with, poisons and toxins, and banners from the air, being conjured out of energy not far above the ground due to the absence of significant headroom for them to emerge.


    While the Conqueror¡¯s Eye itself was unable to work here, or in the courtyard, every aspect that created it seemed to function just as well, thus permitting the banners to empower every other attack, which she then further assisted by her own attacks, barraging this figure with her claws.


    ¡°You know, I¡¯d not be particularly lacking in defensive methods here. There¡¯s so much I could do¡­¡± the figure suddenly said with a voice that sounded profoundly human. It was still filled with oddities, the voice seeming to be made from inhuman lungs and passing through an unnatural throat and mouth, out of strange lips, but it was still clearly that of a human woman. There was no way that this could be from the same source and creator as the voices of the previous two figures.


    ¡°Who are you? What are you?¡± Wei Yi asked, not freezing, or stopping based on the figure¡¯s words.


    ¡°Can¡¯t tell you. Just as I cannot do a thing right now. Still, all of these techniques of yours¡­ Could¡¯ve been nice to have.¡±


    With that, the claws of the Ascendant, as well as the chunks of ice and far more than that, struck the figure, piercing her flesh and clothing, tearing her into pieces and blasting all of her flesh into naught, even though Wei Yi had wished to stop herself after she realised that the entity was not intending to interfere.


    She hardly knew why the tentacled entity had done this, nor why it had put up a fight outside of the mass of tentacles but not within, but it was something or someone that could speak with her. It might be aware of something, might understand a number of matters that Wei Yi had wished to receive an answer to, and might be able to inform her of the overall purpose of this domain, but there was unfortunately no chance for her limbs to stop moving after she had invested that much strength into her strike, boosting it with the Draconic Claw technique.


    The second set of glowing eyes had glowed for a little while, but the Bai family member was unable to get in touch with anyone inside of the Bai Ancestral Hall, having far more trouble in doing so than in any of the previous days.


    He could feel the gaze of the easterners upon him, with many smirking once they were able to confirm that the lights didn¡¯t immediately weaken or damage them and that they would likely have the ability to escape quite easily if they certainly needed to. Of all the things that he did know about them, it was that the east had plentiful methods to employ in various kinds of mystical situations. They possessed a great deal of knowledge that differed but did not pale in comparison to the Western Continent, on each of the five great arts, and in some, it seemed that they might have even been superior, like in talismans or arrays.


    If the twin lights emerging from the eyes of the ancestors were indeed intended to refine the people of the district, or some part of the district, then the easterners would likely be able to throw out a talisman and endure it for long enough to flee, whereas the westerners would have been unable to do much without having very specific training and techniques.


    ¡°The Patriarch better be alright, or else we-¡± he had begun to say when the situation changed.


    The third set of statues, that of the ancestor equipped with a choker that opposed a writhing, monstrous entity, changed as well, their eyes igniting with a green, stygian light that surged with even greater power than that of the other two sets of statues. It overwhelmed them and flooded out more quickly, filling the entire district with their light, piercing even walls and shading everything beneath the covers of the district with its radiance.


    It was this that also affected the Ancestral Hall the most. Whereas the previous two occurrences had been strange, they could be dismissed as nothing more than that, perhaps being some kind of odd situation that had simply never been documented before any of this, this one could not be ignored.


    The entire Ancestral Hall seemed to ignite with life, cracks of green bursting out all over the abyssal stone surface, with the figures of the ancestors moving and trembling into slightly different positions from before. None of the observers were able to see a reason for such a thing, since none of the movements and changes achieved any particular purpose, but it put both the easterners and the powerful members of the Bai family, as well as the other factions in the district, into a significant degree of alert.


    Something was happening in this district, and it was possible that it could lead to the obliteration of it. During the potential chaos, many things could occur.


    ¡°Not even going to get a question, huh¡­ A set of Dao comprehensions, then?¡± Wei Yi asked, looking around as she found herself back in the courtyard, the many tentacles receding while the figure itself did not reappear even after a few moments of waiting. She had wanted to try asking it more questions when it returned, but it seemed that she would not meet the figure again.


    Fortunately, she did obtain what she was looking for, as the moment that the final tip of a black tendril receded past the edges of the palace and the floating land, a surge of green light rushed towards her, flooding into her body again.


    She had attempted to prepare for it once more, but just as the figure itself was unusual, the Dao comprehension that it provided was far more complete than the understanding of the last two figures, flooding her mind and overwhelming her even with the books and scrolls that she had intentionally readied for the Dao that she had anticipated. It had some similarities to her Eldritch Hold physique ability, as well as the entity of Primordial Corruption, although that had seemed to be more incidental, and so she had prepared to place it alongside her understanding of those matters.


    Despite that, it appeared almost entirely unique, and the sheer quantity of it far surpassed the Minor Achievement stage of the other two Dao.


    It reached all the way to the Great Stride stage, and thus she found her vision morph and twist as the nature of her newly acquired Eldritch Dao imposed itself upon her, combining with the Vision of Law and the Vision of the Absolute to create a most peculiar view of the world. Everything contained just a slight trace of the eldritch nature that the Dao described and focused upon, and thus everything she saw changed just a little bit under her gaze.


    The individual stone tiles of the courtyard shifted and pulsed just a little, as if they were pieces of some enormous entity that lived within or beneath them. Every piece of the palace fluctuated, seemingly being composed of countless individual tendrils that kept twisting and moving with each moment.


    It was sickening, disgusting, and absolutely horrifying to behold.


    ¡®I had tolerated the previous two Dao, but this¡­ get¡­ out¡­ of MY HEAD!¡¯ Wei Yi exclaimed mentally, forcing that glow of out of the books and tomes of her library, the small circle in her eyes flickering.


    To push something that had attempted ¨C and partially succeeded ¨C in partially fusing with mind was difficult, and while she was able to displace a number of entirely foreign thoughts, the rest seemed insistent on remaining, and they would still force her gaze to see things that she had never believed in, nor comprehended on her own. For her, even if this could yield some advantage, this was simply unacceptable, and so she did the next best thing.


    With all of her mental strength, she forcefully suppressed all of it, shoving all of the books that she had already filled with the Dao comprehension out of the shelves and into one particular spot of the library, clumping them all together tightly and compressing them as much as she possibly could into a single point so that it wouldn¡¯t disturb the rest of her thinking process.


    On top of all of that, she forcefully pressed down upon it with every technique that could be manifested within her mental space, trying not to disturb those who were still within Paragon and going through parts of the content of her library without knowing exactly where the books they were studying came from. It was with all of this effort that the circles finally disappeared from her eyes, returning to there being only two within each pupil, and the Vision of the Eldritch finally faded away from her sight, permitting her to view the world as she thought of it.


    Perhaps she would miss out on quite a lot, but before she would do a single thing, she would first comprehend that Dao on her own.

 V4C43: The Imperfect Mirror

    With her mind calmed and her gaze returned to normal, although it was still partly tinged with the influence of the other two Dao that had been forced into her head, she was able to concentrate on the strange realm she was in once more.


    For the moment, nothing new reappeared to confront her, nor did she see anything changing to the sky, which had returned to a more stable, neutral state, with there being a sun shining down from above and lighting up the palace in bright light. Without all of that, it temporarily looked almost peaceful, since every bit of damage that had been dealt to the world had just been undone and recovered, looking as if this place had not been touched for countless millennia.


    ¡®What is this place, anyway? Nothing here makes that clear, and I just seem to be getting things thrown after me one after another without any explanation,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, calming her racing heart with something other than the Eldritch Dao that still lingered in her memory, ¡®That previous person seemed capable of speaking in a reasonable manner with me, but it appears that they were not particularly keen to speak with me. Maybe it was something I had done, or this is all part of something that I do not yet understand, but I am rather concerned that this is not something on the level of the seventh realm.¡¯


    Nothing that she had seen yet was necessarily above the seventh realm, since the attacks of the figures she had opposed so far could be achieved with the sixth realm, and the realm itself could have merely been a seventh realm creation, but the sheer quantity of Dao comprehension and the intellect of one of the figures made it rather unlikely to be limited to that.


    From what she had seen on the outside of the Bai Ancestral Hall, there were four figures of relevance to the story that belonged to the Bai family, so she was waiting for the appearance of the fourth. The figure at the end, who was presumably the Master of Yi City, might also appear in whatever this place was, but she did not expect his combat techniques to be in any way replicated by this space, as they would be far too powerful for them to be able to repeat unless this place was, in some way, otherworldly. Thus, she would only have the last figure to fight against, and that figure would be the wielder of the ring.


    There were two possibilities for this opponent, at least if she was to base her expectations on what she had already experienced within this strange realm. She might encounter a similarly driven and seemingly unintelligent entity as the first two, who were able to respond to her attacks but certainly lacked the ability of the third ancestral figure to actively converse with her. In that case, she might struggle somewhat, with that varying mostly based on the exact methods of her foe, but it should be easy enough to win in the end, obtaining whatever it is that they were hiding, or testing for.


    If she came across a second intelligent entity, it would all depend on the intentions of it, as they might be able to create and unleash far stronger methods than she or any of the previous three figures possess. Presumably, had the tentacle-wielding entity gone all out, she could have been able to win.


    She would need to rely on the entity having either similar interests to the third, who simply leapt into a realm then let herself be killed, or have a set of techniques that are the natural counter to whatever the next foe will be able to conjure in order to defeat them. Wei Yi wasn¡¯t assuming herself to be weak or incompetent in some way, but she did understand that she had limits, meaning that something in the seventh realm or above would still be able to end her quickly.


    It was simply the way in which the gap between realms worked. All of the gains of the fourth realm were equalled by less than three stages of the fifth, the gains of which were similarly equivalent to around three stages of the sixth, with the same situation repeating for it and the seventh realm. She might be powerful enough to fight the fifth realm easily and to be able to challenge the sixth, but when that power gap is added to the spatial capabilities of the seventh realm, the halos that they would possess as well as the boons of the fifth and sixth realm that she did not yet have, everything that she did possess would stand out that much less.


    ¡®So¡­ Where is it? If the Bai ancestors were split equally by gender, then I have seen two figures that seemed feminine, so this one might be male, not that it matters,¡¯ Wei Yi looked around, almost tempted to walk into the palace and see if that figure may be hiding inside of it, ¡®The other three had emerged from the palace¡¯s direction, but I am not sure that I am meant to be there yet¡­¡¯


    A few more moments passed, with her scanning everything that she was able to reach with her spiritual perception as to not miss a single detail, and the figure still refused to appear.


    She didn¡¯t know what the time difference between this place and the outside world was, given that she couldn¡¯t leap into her prison realm and check it through there, and so she decided to stop hesitating and simply go for it. Just as with all of her actions so far, there had been no explanations provided to her, so even if whoever created this place didn¡¯t want the palace to be seen just yet, they would only have themselves to blame for it.


    One step, two steps ¨C nothing seemed to be happening until she was just three away from the palace.


    Then, in a place that she was already looking at, a figure suddenly manifested without a single sign of spatial alteration, distortion or even rapid transportation. The entity simply appeared here, staring at her, and with powerful energy circulating all around it.


    All of that energy was so dense that it was impossible to see through it, whether with her gaze or spiritual perception, but it was still familiar, for it had a colour of blackened crimson, wherein the colour of red surrounded an overwhelming black which could swallow up the world even without the gluttony and Entropy Dao of the energy wielded by the second ancestral figure that she had dealt with.


    Underneath all of that energy, this figure presumably shared the white hair and skin, as well as the red eyes of the Bai Family, but she could not confirm this for herself, nor was that her focus. Just like the previous three, there was a certain connection between her, her possessions, and the figure she now faced. The first might have been wielding a weapon from which her Piercing Needle had originated, the second used a similar looking glove, and the third utilised something not entirely unlike the Eldritch Hold ability as well as the Abyssal Eye, and this one was likely wearing a similar ring.


    However, the similarity between the energy it wielded and Obliteration energy was too strange, as it wasn¡¯t just some coincidence in her ownership of several items but something that she had personally created through her own feelings and rage, combining what she understood to manifest the absolute.


    ¡®Is this realm something that was prepared, or is it that everything so far had been set up intentionally to coincide with what I do possess? What is this place supposed to be, and why can I not just be permitted to exit?¡¯ Wei Yi questioned, preparing her own techniques at their full power right away as to not permit whatever this entity was to deal any significant harm to her with an equivalent overwhelming release of sheer might.


    Like the last three, the entity before her prepared for combat, raising its hands. On one of its fingers, on the left hand, where Wei Yi wore the signet ring that appeared capable of affecting time itself, the figure wore its own ring that glowed with sheer crimson, piercing the darkness around it and making it stand out significantly.


    Whether or not it was actually going to use the time to prepare and strengthen itself, she wasn¡¯t going to let it have any more time that she herself needed. Thus, she shot an Obliteration beam burst quickly.


    It struck the figure directly, but it seemed to do nothing at all as it stepped forward, loudly stomping on the ground as it got one step closer to the doorway of the palace. As if bidden by the collision of its foot with the wooden floor, a vast quantity of energy suddenly surged out of the ground, cracking the terrain and stones on the courtyard. Countless fissures formed within the ground, blackened crimson surging from them, with several exploding beneath Wei Yi and forcing her to leap away.


    As she added her Mortal World¡¯s Echo to the mix as to evade the surprisingly high geyser of energy, she saw the figure step forward again, more energy surging away from it, with much of it gathering before the two hands of the figure in large spheres of burning crimson.


    The figure raised its head, looking at her, then shoved one of these spheres towards her with one hand, then switched to the other as she phased away out of the course of the blazing orb of sheer might. It threw these out one by one, remaining still as it did so, giving the fissures on the ground time to expire and seal right back up, confirming that it did still obey the laws of this strange realm, whatever it, the figure, or the laws themselves were supposed to be. Only once it ran out of spheres to throw at her, with none of them striking her, did it take another step.


    ¡®That was likely better against targets that cannot, or do not, move out of the way, so if I do ever replicate either of these, I should keep that in-¡¯ her thoughts stalled as the next step caused a vast wave of blackened crimson to explode through the top of the palace, concentrating in the sky of this realm into countless miniature stars.


    After hanging in place for just a moment, shining brightly and yet dimly as they consumed the light of the sun and sky and plunged the world into darkness, they quickly fell from the sky.


    Carrying a fragment of the sun, which had vanished from above them, the blackened crimson stars fell onto the ground in an expanding wave, each one exploding upon the collision with the ground and obliterating the stone tiles on the ground. With a single barrage, they covered most of the courtyard, giving Wei Yi barely any room to evade them, instead forcing her to dash back into the surging energy as it slowly diminished in order to minimize the amount of damage that could be inflicted upon her.


    With the increased proximity, she blasted the entity with her energy again, infusing every other form of beam-based attack that she had in her possession within her use of the Obliteration beam in order to guarantee that at least one of her many methods would be able to inflict some harm upon her foe even if the Obliteration beam itself was not one capable of affecting her current foe. It was, after all, surrounded with a great deal of something that was highly akin to that very form of energy, even if she wasn¡¯t able to analyse the very structure of it to go beyond the superficial elements, so she wouldn¡¯t be surprised if even the crystallised state of the Obliteration energy was not as effective as it might have otherwise been.


    All of these beams and forms of energy united together, combining the Defiler¡¯s Point Beams, the Humanity Lance, her Dawn Slicing Beam, the Ire energy that could pulse out in a mighty beam, and struck the entity, landing upon it, with most of it being absorbed by the body of the figure and without a single wisp or crystalline mass passing through.


    There wasn¡¯t a single mark upon the entity¡¯s body, yet again, but this time Wei Yi could tell that she was indeed having some kind of an effect upon it. The dense barrier of energy around it grew just a little weaker, and while it was hardly enough to make out anything beneath it, nor to be certain whether this will be permanent or not, she was still able to tell that it had decreased in quantity. It did not recover instantly, either, so there was still hope, as faint as that hope might be.


    As if in reply to her affront, the figure stepped forward again, gathering some of that energy and projecting it towards its hands, before it placed them close together and thrust them forward, that energy magnifying as it was shot out. One immediately after another, three immense linear bursts of power shot out of it, with only the first managing to hit her as she evaded the very instant that she saw this place repeat the same tactic against her for a second time, except this time through the energy belonging to the entity itself rather than her own.


    She was only hit by one of the beams, the first and weakest amongst them, and yet that caved in her ribcage, bones piercing her lungs, heart, stomach and everything else that was within her chest, everything burning with the blackened crimson of her foe¡¯s energy.


    Worse was the fact that just like her own Obliteration energy, this was the unity of the elements, of her energy types, and her power, meaning that the remnant effect upon her was not limited to burning, but also to freezing, shock, the cutting of metal and sapping of wood. It interfered with the flow of her blood, the empowering yang and overpowering yin of her physique, the circulation of her thoughts and even her dantian¡¯s perception seemed to stall for a little moment, incapable of handling such a strike.


    The entity was also not one that believed in letting downed enemies recover ¨C and why would it, when she would certainly not allow for such a thing ¨C and so it used the additional energy that remained around its fists and shot it out into two continuous beams, each one heading in a completely different direction from Wei Yi.


    Even though her thoughts were staggered, she hardly needed to ponder this to understand that this wasn¡¯t some kind of mistake, and that the beams were quickly converging upon her location.


    She hastened towards the entity, rather than trying to dodge back, as it was in close proximity that she had the most chances to attack and wound it, or at the very least chip away at the barrier around it, whereas remaining further away only gave it more chances to keep her there and flood the area around her with those strange blackened crimson fissures and geysers of energy, of which the entity might be able to produce an infinite number.


    Her body was slower than usual, and thus as the two beams converged behind her, they exploded into an absolutely immense spherical burst of blackened crimson, the outer edge of it striking her back. It torched her robes, the things beneath them, scorching her skin, muscles, blackening her bones and throwing her in the direction of the figure, eliciting a cry of pain to emerge from her mouth.


    Although she wasn¡¯t even aware of when her body had been able to produce such a sound, she forced her mental domain to stabilise and unleash all of the energy that was contained within to flood her body, forcing the individual strands of killing will to fill the wounds on her form and attempt to staunch the bleeding or even force it recover as quickly as she could force them to. Her spiritual will was more effective at recovering her wounds, particularly on her right side, so she drove out her killing will in order to direct all of it at the figure, keeping it to herself for as long as she could before that cloud would be sufficient to fully envelop the figure, which was about as tall as she was.


    ¡®Fuck¡­ when the energy pierces everything, it hurts too fucking much¡­¡¯ the parts of Wei Yi¡¯s mind that could still flow and comment freely managed that series of thoughts, then mentally gasped as the figure tried to take a step forward again.


    The last few times that it had happened, the attacks had simply gotten stronger and stronger, so she hardly needed her full mental capability to understand perfectly that this would not be pleasant for her, regardless of what ¡®it¡¯ would actually be. So, just as the foot of the figure came back down to the ground once more, she threw out all of the killing intent that she had gathered in front of herself, transforming it mid-flight.


    What would have been crimson meeting crimson instantly changed, for the killing intent inverted, shifting into Antithesis energy through which the scorching and overpowering energy of her foe looked calm and still, as if there was nothing dangerous to it at all. As they came into contact with one another, the surging Obliteration energy imitation transformed into that similarly quiet form, continuing to revolve around the figure, but that only allowed it to fully envelop the figure and transform its already mysterious appearance into something entirely opposite.


    As a wave of energy, powerful and blinding as it initially was, burst out of the figure upon its foot coming into contact with the ground, all of it was also morphed from an overpowering storm to something peaceful and slow, expanding like a pile of sand that was slowly being added to rather than the mad tide in the furthest reaches of the ocean.


    The raging energy that covered the figure calmed and settled down, changing from red and black to a soft white, the figure¡¯s movements slowing down even more than they already were.


    There were a few moments of quiet and calm, as the expanding wave merely passed through Wei Yi and stabilised her body, extinguishing the flames, frost and gathered static of electricity that had been placed onto the wounds all over her. It allowed her mind to recover, her body to heal, all of her energies to return to their standard flow and state and to rush throughout her entire being, causing it to radiate with unmistakable might.


    Everything about the entity and herself had stabilised, and so there was one thing that would be most effective to quell it, to end its existence and to forcefully push her through to what she hoped to be the end of this experience.


    In an instant, a blade appeared within her hand, filled with energy and artefact channels, was surrounded by Obliteration, Ire, yin and yang all at once, empowered with the Martial Aspirant ability and refined and enhanced by the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique in order to maximise the power of the blade as she quickly brought it down upon the head of the figure.


    While every part of the Ire energy¡¯s structure was unstable and not yet focused in the appropriate manner, it lacked much of the combat potential that the technique would typically have, but it would be excellent for sending the barrier of energy into absolute disarray.


    The blade crashed upon the stabilised energy atop the figure¡¯s head, and dug right into it, as if it was striking a skull and not energy, but as she further applied her strength and allowed more of the insane storm of energy atop her blade to scatter into the body, bypassing the Antithesis energy and striking directly with the most power that she could possibly manifest in her current stage and realm. After a moment, the blade sank further, and then finally began to fracture and crack with each further instant that she kept it within the head of the entity due to all of the planar energy that she had funnelled into her weapon, since even they weren¡¯t immune to the influence of her cosmic energy.


    She did not attempt to step back or get away from her foe in any way, for that would decrease the power of her Antithesis energy and risk giving the entity the chance to escape, so she would rather stand her ground and endure the explosion. Most of it would be localised upon her foe, and the most that she¡¯d suffer would be a few loose shards of crystalline energy.


    Up until the last moment, the entity itself did not even appear to be able to move, its body staying entirely still as the soft energy completely overwhelmed it.


    The cracks grew and expanded as the surging light shining from within the sword grew brighter and brighter, as if the chains and stars within were also growing and seeking to burst into raw energy to obliterate her foe. For a moment, that growth stopped ¨C only to explosively complete the next moment.


    Boundless energy burst out of the shell of the blade, destroying it and colliding with the shell of inverted pseudo-Obliteration energy of the entity into which the weapon had been plunged, instantly blowing apart both that and the Antithesis energy that surrounded it. The sheer power of the explosion threw Wei Yi back by a dozen steps, with her journey being so short due to being thrown right against the stone ground of the courtyard before she could fly too far.


    As the entity into which the blade had been plunged had no such convenient escapes, it bore the full brunt of the explosion, the energy shell being split apart and whatever lay beneath being shattered entirely. A vast quantity of the blackened crimson that was now freed from the Antithesis energy burst out, flooding the palace, gathering in an incredibly dense storm that it had likely meant to form before.


    Before it could expand to touch Wei Yi, it suddenly soared upward, storming through the palace, blowing it apart, shredding wood, paper and whatever else was inside as it tore out of the roof and flew into the sky, congealing into an enormous sphere. More and more energy was channelled towards it, and the sheer movements of energy caused repeated shockwaves to expand outwards, each burst being larger than the last and thus each one dug out a large portion of the courtyard and what remained of the palace.


    It caused a pattern akin to the ripple a droplet of water would create when landing in a pool to manifest, with the peak of each rippling wave being sharp and jagged.


    ¡®Everything that¡¯s gathering up there might be enough to obliterate the entire floating land, but by the looks of it, this violent energy can be stalled by the terrain to an extent,¡¯ Wei Yi observed the particular shape of the land and noted this to herself, ignoring the damage that she had once again sustained as she rose and tried to flee, ¡®If I hide behind the furthest and thickest obstacle in the terrain, I should be far safer than just standing here.¡¯


    She naturally began to run the very instant that she understood this, but almost as if the gathering star above acted in accordance with it, the sphere grew more quickly until it overwhelmed the brightness and, presumably, even the size of the original sun that lit up this realm, then, soundlessly, fell from above.


    It was soundless for only a moment, however, as the sound reached her a moment after it began to fall. The mere sound possessed enough force to shake the ground and tear through some of the thinner waves formed from the earth, but it was naught but a feeble herald for what was to come.


    As the star fell, it burst the atmosphere again and again, causing numerous bursts and shockwaves of air again and again. Some more of the waves cracked and were turned into dust, but the part that Wei Yi had chosen to hide behind had already been reinforced repeatedly through the Shaper¡¯s Grasp, taking advantage of each crack that formed within it to piece it all back together and reinforce it further as to correct every single minor flaw within the structure of the barrier as to guarantee her chance of survival. It drained a lot of physique energy, and might make it difficult to fight with it if the entity wasn¡¯t dead, but the other option was certain defeat at best, and death at worst.


    The drop was simultaneously fast and slow, for it seemed to travel at an enormous speed and with overwhelming force, but it felt like it took a minute to fall from such a short distance.


    Perhaps it was Wei Yi¡¯s mind still being a little slow from the previous barrage of pseudo-Obliteration energy, or maybe it was some warping of space that resulted in this, but either way, it did eventually fall. A vast surge of energy erupted outwards, tearing into the terrain, cracking through it and tearing what remained of the land apart.


    ¡°- and if you do not get back right now, I will be forced to act against you! No matter what your standards in the Eastern Continent are, we will not allow you to approach the Ancestral Hall!¡± the Bai family member declared, bringing out a vast quantity of planar energy out of his body to display that he was not kidding about his threats so far, ¡°As we had explained to you upon your arrival, Ancestral Halls are places that you cannot tread!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just hiding some demonic cultivators, aren¡¯t you? Some kind of ritual intended to consume the world, perhaps?¡±


    ¡°You dare-¡±


    Both of the arguing groups turned to the Bai Ancestral Hall as a blinding blackened crimson mixed with the stygian green that had overwhelmed the district before this, with the fourth set of eyes igniting upon the side of the hall.


    The cracks within the abyssal stone grew, expanding and widening and more and more mixed light emerged from within, each figure on the side shifting further as they raised their hands and heads to the sky. The light ascended with them, clearing from the homes and stores of the residents of the districts, striking the layer that covered the district and forcing it up, as if the light was solid and mighty enough to raise something that had endured the winds for decades. It pushed it higher and higher, until, finally, the combined four distinct shades tore right through.


    All of the light, green, red, blackened crimson and silver alike, soared into the sky, and the sheet that covered the Bai District was brought up with it, attempting to fly but being held down by all of the infrastructure around it. While the light itself acted as a beacon, all attention moved to the Bai Ancestral Hall, which now radiated a small yet still distinct quantity of energy unlike the other four.


    The figure did not reappear, but a series of words that seemed to be spoken, and yet were not, did.


    ¡°What is your name?¡± they asked of Wei Yi, a question that was even simpler and yet stranger than the first two.


    Still, she had the answer and wouldn¡¯t hesitate to give it.


    ¡°Wei Yi.¡±


    ¡°What is your true name?¡±


    She raised an eyebrow, for this was the first time that she had seen one of these asked her a question for the second time in a row, and one that seemed to be trying to get something different out of her rather than simply accepting whatever she had to say. It was odd enough to make her ponder it for a moment, but she did not intend to change her answer.


    ¡°I am Wei Yi.¡±


    ¡°What is your birth name?¡± the words that she was sure had some sound to them, and yet no voice, asked yet again.


    ¡®Not going to let me get away with this, are you? If this is some kind of intelligent entity asking me this, and not just some prepared set of questions to get those who intend to hide their identities to reveal them with enough pressure, I can guess that it wants the name before I switched it around, but¡­ Would that truly be accurate?¡¯ she considered, for there were a number of ways to look at one¡¯s name as well as identity in general.


    At one point, she did have another name, but between then and now, she could almost be said to have experienced rebirth, for her mind and body had all changed to such an extent that even if her parents were alive, they might struggle to recognise her.


    Would a name that did not represent her in any way still be correct? Wouldn¡¯t it just be like telling this realm a name that she had once imagined for herself in a dream, or perhaps one that she had used falsely to hide her identity? It did not seem like this would be the kind of thing that would be desired from the series of questions being asked, and she was certainly not keen to bring out her past when it effectively didn¡¯t matter in the slightest. Out of everyone who had heard her past name, who would even remember it now? Even the Greats would be likely to remember her current identity, for it was the one that had dealt them the most severe blow that they must have sustained in their entire history.


    For that reason, she concluded that there was only one answer she could provide.


    ¡°Wei Yi.¡±


    She wasn¡¯t even sure whether she¡¯d prefer to receive another question along the same vein, or if it would be better to not receive another word, but it turned out to be the latter.


    She did not even receive a single Dao comprehension from the figure.


    No more questions came to her, but she did find herself reappear within the courtyard of the strange realm, with the palace and every stone restored. She was able to navigate inside, and found that the interior was as simple as she had expected, except that a set of stairs up to the second floor appeared near the middle of the lower room, and she found a card floating right before it.


    Since nothing seemed to be happening to the realm, she decided that it would be wise to take the card and take a look at it before proceeding up, as she could sense a number of items of interest to her on the floor above and could grab most of them up with the House of Gold rather quickly.


    As she picked up the card and looked at it, her eyes widened, ¡®¡­ What?¡¯

 V4C44: Assumption of Leadership

    The card was made of metal and was not particularly outstanding in any way, save for the fact that it had a significant resistance to her spiritual perception, thus making it rather difficult to perceive anything written upon it with a protruding layer of silver without taking a close and direct look at it. It was that text that astounded her the most.


    It was simple, hardly sharing some kind of advanced technique or concept. Rather than that, it was a sort of commandment, an instruction to those whom it concerned.


    However, the nature of that instruction had left her so astounded that she immediately put it away and hastened to the upper floor, since she was rather concerned that the world, whatever it was, would change its mind and take it away from her before she had the chance to test its validity on the appropriate person. Her choice to hasten to the top was also informed by the fact that the distance to which her spiritual perception could reach had begun to shrink after a moment of stationary contemplation.


    As far as she was able to tell, her mind and mental energy was in a perfectly decent state, so it had to be related to the size of the realm, whether it was due to the space contracting around her or due to the illusion becoming less complex and thus losing unnecessary detail at the edges.


    Whatever the truth was, so long as the items on top were real, and something that she could take with her, she would certainly do so.


    Amidst everything there, she found pills that were highly helpful for her own cultivation, since they contained the energy of the sixth and seventh realm, various resources that would aid in the quick development of her Arbiters, and a number of artefacts that weren¡¯t particularly good in comparison to the kinds of things that she could produce with some effort, but could be refined to a suitable degree with the Shaper¡¯s Grasp. So long as she got the pills at the very least, and some of the other things if she had the time, she would be able to bring herself to the fifth realm, and she might then be able to reach the half-way point of the sixth realm so long as there was a similar number of items in the Chao and Bai Districts.


    Such a boost would be absolutely enormous, since her fourth realm cultivation was able to resist the attacks of the fifth realm Greats, albeit in ideal scenarios when they were either poison or surrounded in her conquered land. With the sixth realm, or even the high fifth realm, she would certainly be a match for the second generation, and might be able to endure a strike from the first, although she suspected that she would need to get to the upper sixth realm to accurately compete with them to any degree.


    That was simply what she assumed based on the enormous gaps between realms, as well as the fact that the first generation would have had plenty of time to make the most of their halos and the purified energy of the sixth realm. Due to their connection with Testament, they would also be able to mobilise a certain degree of spatial power originating from that realm, and since it is something that might have stood for countless generations, it couldn¡¯t be anything other than a high-grade, highly refined and extremely reinforced spatial realm.


    To ensure her survival in the future, she quickly looted all of the items on the second floor, managing to fit all of them in the House of Gold after an immense degree of effort, and was about to collect more on the next floor when she randomly turned her head and suddenly came face to face with fury.


    ¡°Who are you, and what are you doing in our Ancestral Hall?¡± the figure, an elderly man with a long white beard, red eyes, and a somewhat respectable countenance even as he was screaming at her, exclaimed, his energy radiating out of him. The hints of searing marks were present, same with the linked channels, and there were five faint shadows of halos around him and his dantian at the same time, with neither one being fully real.


    His energy was intimidating, nearly causing Wei Yi to take a step back, but she kept her ground and reached into one of her pockets to remove the card, showing it to him.


    ¡°You think that some explanation- Eh? T-This¡­ You cannot be! Impossible!¡±


    For what it was worth, she did empathise with his reaction, for she had reacted similarly when she had first read the card. It seemed absurd, but the more that the two of them had thought about it, the more that Wei Yi in particular realised that it might not be that at all.


    The place that she had been in was somehow related to the Ancestral Hall, and it was much more developed and advanced than anything she had come across before. It would only make sense for it to be related to one of the ancestors that still had the ancient power of Yi City, perhaps being in the ninth or eighth realm, permitting for the realm¡¯s creation.


    Such a figure would naturally possess an immense degree of importance in a district that valued its ancestry as much as the Bai did.


    On the card itself, the following was written, ¡®The holder of this token is suited to lead the Bai District and the current Patriarch. Any of their instructions and commands for the sake of freeing Yi City from a vile influence must be obeyed without question.¡¯


    Naturally, seeing something like that on a random metal card, even if it was somewhat resistant to spiritual perception, was odd ¨C no, completely insane. Any normal person would have to assume that this was some incredibly daring job, or that it was a terrible attempt to take over a district without taking a single action that required any degree of effort. In most cases, someone like that would be right in their assumption.


    ¡°The Bai Ancestral Hall was sealed as the ancestral tombs were acting strangely¡­ What did you do to obtain this? Who even are you?¡± the Bai Patriarch questioned again.


    ¡°My name is Wei Yi, and, as the card says, I am acting against a terrible influence that has taken over Yi City. You might have heard of the Great Families, and you might have heard of the battle that had occurred in the north-east, where a sandstorm was cut apart before twenty-four of the Greats fell in one go,¡± she explained, ¡°I am the one that made that happen.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ The Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters? You are the Ascendant?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. I was pulled into the Ancestral Hall by the four, and I was presented with treasures to take for myself. I might have gotten a little overeager with those,¡± Wei Yi claimed, feeling confident in her words as she herself barely had any idea of what happened or why, so to present such an assumption would hardly be incorrect from her perspective, ¡°I do not intend to loot any further, but I will need your aid, and that of your district.¡±


    ¡°You think you know of Them-¡±


    ¡°The time for that is over, Patriarch. They shall be known as the Great Families, or they shall be purged from this world. Both would be preferable, in my eyes,¡± she interrupted him.


    ¡°A mere fourth realm brat thinks she knows of Their terror? Your actions are putting a target on all of us! They know when we speak of them, they may even know what we say, and all of Yi City¡¯s districts have likely suffered when They thought to act!¡± the Bai Patriarch exclaimed, ¡°We knew that there was something near that battlefield, and so you must have made use of that, no? You must have used the power of the northern territory, pushed back some of the Greats, and are now so bold as to continue outside of your territory. You-¡±


    ¡°Bai Patriarch, you are the one that is uninformed. I am someone that possesses all perfected stages and realms that I have cultivated so far. I hold Paragon, a fortress used by Kong Shi Meng, the Master of Yi City, in the past to fight against the threats of the north, but I do not need it to fight with the second generation of the Great Families. On my own, I crippled the Bai, Ping and Luo Great Families in the residence of the Great Ping Family!¡±


    His facial expression was calmer than that of most people, but even the Bai Patriarch couldn¡¯t contain his combined surprise and suspicion. If what he was hearing was true, she would be incredibly capable, and the state of the Great Families would indeed be rather poor.


    The rest of the information that she had included could barely be processed by him before Wei Yi continued, ¡°I survived the attack of the third generation while at the third realm, was thrown into the realm that they use to imprison their enemies, the Kong Prison Realm, and then broke out of it with my own strength. I cultivate five paths at once, and I even know much of the nature of the world, the otherworldly demons that often enter it, and have comprehended numerous Dao. If I went up against you, I suspect that I might last for quite some time before you can truly defeat me, Patriarch.¡±


    To prove this, she released her killing will, her physique energy, her bloodline, and empowered all of that with her cosmic energy, causing her entire figure to be surrounded by and coated in radiant light, her eyes in particular surging with white and red, her blood radiating with cosmic colours, her muscles flooding with the unity of dawn light and moonlight.


    Around all of that, a faint layer of chains covered her body, tight yet failing to restrict her in the slightest, and a dense veil of the cosmos surrounded them. She kept that energy around herself, not forcing it towards the Bai Patriarch, and yet the pressure that it manifested tore against the inscription in the ground and pushed him back by the width of a needle. Against an opponent in the same realm, such a thing would not be particularly astounding, but still impressive, but with each further stage and realm, such a feat became more and more incredible. When facing someone three realms apart, this was astonishing.


    ¡°You¡­ Are you even human? That power¡­ a forbidden skill?¡±


    ¡°Not a single one, Bai Patriarch. None at all. By the way, this is not even the full pressure I can manifest. Want to see what that looks like?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Very well, woman, I shall let you showcase your full might! If you manage to impress me, I will agree to follow the instructions on the token and give you and your Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters whatever you require, but not a single drop more!¡± the Bai Patriarch said, ¡°But if you fail, I will take that from you and end you right here and now!¡±


    In reply, all Wei Yi did was smirk. Of everything he said, the threat was particularly amusing, since she had the freedom to put on the Mask of Yama this very moment and vanish from the world, or use the Mortal World¡¯s Echo, or any other method of her liking to disappear for long enough to escape.


    The fact that he thought that he could go against his ancestors when he wanted to do so was even funnier, since she knew that if the same figures as the ones that she fought went up against the man before her, the Bai Patriarch wouldn¡¯t stand a chance, especially not against their full power. If they had bothered to give her this card, then they would have almost certainly considered what to do if one of their descendants went against their wishes.


    For that reason, she couldn¡¯t be intimidated by him any longer.


    First, she unleashed the comprehension of the Absolute Dao, causing her presence to suddenly intensify ten-fold, the pressure from her energy finally tearing through several inscriptions and cracking the floor without even needing to touch it. It threw the Bai Patriarch one step back, with him stopping the moment that he sent out a few threads of energy into the ground.


    While he quickly attempted to reinforce them, he also tried to figure out how her strength had appeared to leap like that without her utilising any clear techniques or principles. It seemed like her eyes had simply flashed for a moment, and then the very world around her twisted according to her whims. Something like that was entirely contradictory to the nature of cultivation, and the way in which one must use planar energy ¨C or one of the four other types of energy that she was able to call upon ¨C in order to manifest their will in the world around them.


    That was even when skipping over such things as energy circulation, movements that would usually need to be performed, and the way in which energy would need to be manipulated to achieve something as precise and immense as the empowerment of everything that Wei Yi seemed to have. He had heard her mention her comprehension of the Dao, but to a world and city where understanding of such things was limited, how could such a phrase possibly relate to something as amazing as this?


    After a moment, the moonlight within her body suddenly intensified as well, adding onto that pressure, overlapping with the Absolute Dao and causing its effects to become significantly stronger. It changed slightly, but insufficiently to stand out to the Bai Patriarch.


    What might have otherwise simply been pale moonlight without the nature of the Absolute Dao became blinding silver, and might have been even stronger had she been able to refine the Moonlight Dao according to her own comprehension of the moon, rather than needing to rely on what the figure of the past had been able to understand.


    She again gave him a moment to behold that combination, noticing that the thickened pillars of energy keeping him on the same spot on the ground were not enduring the moonlight particularly well.


    Then, as she raised her left hand in its killing will state, with claws and blackened skin, she also unleashed her Obliteration and Ire energies, allowing them to gather around her fingers and the tips of her claws as to limit their quantity and density as much as possible while also displaying just how powerful the combination of those two could be. Her Ire was enhanced by her united comprehension of Law and Ire, but she did not immediately put the former to use, keeping it under control for a moment.


    Even with her holding back, the appearance of the unity of Obliteration and Ire, when further reinforced by her other states of power, instantly threw the Bai Patriarch back by half a dozen steps, with him needing to slam down his anchor behind himself in order to empower his energy to a sufficient degree to keep him on the ground and to pin his feet to it with even more energy.


    He also made use of a series of solidified arrays this time as to further reinforce the pillars that would bind him to the ground, manifesting a series of them around himself and stabilising them with his core and anchor so that they weren¡¯t simply blown apart.


    In the eyes of the Bai Patriarch, this has to be the end and the peak of her display.


    After all, that blackened crimson was localised to her hand, and was only present in a small quantity even then. It was certainly enough to impress him and make him believe that if she had given a few decades to cultivate up to the sixth or seventh realm, she might be able to oppose the Great Families, but he did not expect her to be able to showcase anything other than this. Surely, this much would be enough?


    ¡®The Dao of Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood. Together, they are part of a single perfect concept, a law of the world. The elements that represent all, and that are all represented. The Dao of the Elements,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, uniting the five disparate concepts that she had realised a long time ago into a single Dao, forcing them to empower one another while they empowered all around them.


    At once, everything she controlled became even more powerful, with the Obliteration energy benefitting from this the most as it united every element into a single extreme force. Even though she tried to hold it back, it spread into her arm, causing all of it to glow in such a way that it almost didn¡¯t look to be a solid entity, but instead something forged from raw energy, fabricating the shape of a human¡¯s body while matching none of the usual properties of a human¡¯s skin, fingers, flesh or even blood.


    ¡®Yin and Yang are two halves of the same whole. My body is both yin and yang, my energy is both raging and calm, my mind is fuelled by both and sustained by both.¡¯


    The heat and cold of every form of energy grew further, blasting the Bai Patriarch away by yet another step. Everything was, in one way or another, both yin and yang, as she had realised when it came to her killing will. The left, made of killing intent, an active, powerful force, something with an unmistakable yang nature, was, in fact, a force of yin within her. The right, made of spiritual will, a slow, passive energy, which could barely inflict harm without a gap of several realms, acted as yang within her body. There was a blatant oddity about this, especially when yin and yang should so clearly oppose one another, but she had understood it after experiencing the fourth figure¡¯s attacks.


    It was not that something could only be yin or yang. In fact, there could be no such thing as only yin, or only yang. Her yang-based True Ascendant physique had been able to endure extreme cold and extreme heat alike, and that should have made it blatant.


    Thus, the Yin-Yang Dao was formed within her mind, joining the list.


    ¡°You can¡¯t possibly be going further than this, can you? Look at the ground and walls, they are-¡±


    ¡°You think this is something major, Bai Patriarch? I must have underestimated the sheer gap between the potential and current states of the world¡­ It is just another reason why the Great Families must be removed from this continent. They must never again be allowed to hide away another technique, destroy another potential legend¡­ And with them gone, Law shall finally return to this world.¡±


    Law. A force that truly covered all. Something as simple as fire burning wood, or things falling to the ground, to notions as complex as those that permit the spatial realms of the Planar Continents to exist as they do.


    One could look at it and see a mess of contradictions and complications, with everything being thrown together by the heavens whenever a hole occurred within the laws, but Wei Yi did not see things this way. Whether or not this was how things had occurred, the current law was comprehensive and complete. It may be confusing to the otherworldly demons, and it may have such oddities as the nature of yin and yang, or, rather, that of yin-yang, but everything from the beginning to the end fell under law.


    It was the Dao of Law that was her most powerful, and it was what existed at the core of her Obliteration energy. After all, when everything was thrown together into the most primal matter in the world, how could it not destroy anything that stepped into its path? In fact, that only made sense, for how could something so chaotic not spread the chaos?


    It was entropy. It was creation. It was Law.


    All was Law.


    And yet, it was also not. The chains that bound everything were not the entities that they bound, whether those chains were used to one¡¯s benefit or not. There was something beneath that layer of restrictions, and it was what made up the truth of the world.


    She did not have access to it just yet, but she could manipulate all of it through the chains nonetheless. It was one step more than she needed, but she would make do with this much.


    ¡®What in the heavens¡­ That power!¡¯ the Bai Patriarch didn¡¯t need to be knocked back this time, as he stepped back on his own. He could hardly attempt to stand right next to someone who seemed to be having epiphany after epiphany, displaying an immense power one after another. Again and again, her every drop of energy intensified and became more and more immense, with her eyes surging with blackened crimson specks that seemed to overwhelm the very world itself.


    Faint black and red chains bound the air, the ground, the walls, the ceiling, the dust around them, and some even tightened around the Patriarch¡¯s body. He was afraid, but he realised that the chains were not something that had appeared anew ¨C they had been there the entire time, always binding him to the point that he had forgotten about them.


    He did not know their meaning, and he could hardly focus for long enough to understand.


    As Wei Yi¡¯s aura reached its peak, all kinds of shades and colours soaring around her, all of it suddenly calmed. Everything froze, and every chain, every arc of blackened lightning or the moonlight in her body ceased there and then. Despite that, they were no less frightening.


    ¡°I do not request control because of the token, Patriarch of the Bai District. I request it due to my own capabilities, and due to what I can promise the world. Yi City will be reborn. Law will surround us all. The legacy of Kong Shi Meng shall be uncovered for all the world to see, and it shall no longer be buried deeper and deeper with each generation!¡± she declared, suddenly looking at him, ¡°The Planar Continents shall see our past, and they shall watch our future.¡±


    The bright beacon slowly dimmed until it vanished entirely, the four colours of light disappearing into the air as if they had never been there in the first place.


    None of the statues and figures on the side of the Bai Ancestral Hall moved back to their original positions, confirming to all that looked that they had not endured some mad illusion, and that it had all happened. Those with powerful spiritual perception were also able to tell that the Ancestral Hall was no longer sealed away, and that there was something occurring within it.


    Thus, the westerners and easterners alike looked to the structure, standing some distance away as to not be hit by the light falling through the great gap in the canopy, waiting to see what would happen. Those of the Bai District hoped to see the Bai Patriarch emerge and showcase some newly acquired prowess from the ancestors. On the other hand, those of the east, who had come here with less than scrupulous intentions, naturally hoped that some vile force would emerge, which they could oppose to prove that their wild accusations had been correct, and that there was indeed a force they needed to face within.


    For the easterners, it would be the perfect opportunity to loot a few things from the inside.


    It took a little while, but their answer finally came as the doors to the structure were finally opened, with two figures emerging from within.


    One was easily recognisable by their age, as well as the colour of their skin and eyes, not to mention their outfit being unique amidst all of the traditional family robes. It was obviously the Bai Patriarch, and he appeared to have sweated to some extent while within, although he also had a trace of worry or fear in his eyes that those who had spoken with him more than one could detect.


    The figure that exited beside him, however, was unknown to the Bai District. She was tall, wearing crimson robes and had vibrant red hair and silver eyes, making some of the more knowledgeable and aware think of the Yi District¡¯s family, although there were some notable differences. Within her silver eyes, sparks of blackened red could be seen, and all around her, there was a faint field of something that the observers could not identify on their own. It was faint, subtle, nearly unnoticeable, but it was something that nevertheless caught the attention of all that observed it.


    A dark gauntlet covered her right hand, with each finger ending with a sharp point that made them resemble claws, while her left hand looked darker than most of her skin, although that was too subtle for most to notice.


    ¡°Bai Patriarch, what is this?¡± one of the easterners called out, but he was promptly ignored.


    In fact, the Patriarch didn¡¯t look to any of his people, and instead walked a certain distance out of the Ancestral Hall and looked up into the sky, blocking off the sun with a sheet of planar energy. Then, he reached out a hand and released a vast quantity of planar energy into the ground, all of it surging into the arrays beneath the ground.


    Just as in any district, the leader had plenty of methods with which to reach out to the people that they led, and currently, the Bai Patriarch was making use of one of them.


    ¡°People of the Bai District, I, Bai Yang, the Patriarch of the Bai District, announce that Wei Yi, the Ascendant, the leader of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, will lead us all in a battle to rebuild Yi City!¡± his voice boomed all over the district, being projected from numerous points beneath the ground, prompting all to cease in their activity as they attempted to understand just what they had heard, but he had not finished yet, ¡°For this reason, everyone that is loyal must obey her instructions, so long as they pursue this goal, and that of defeating a plague that has brought us down for far too long. She shall speak now.¡±


    The Bai Patriarch severed his connection with the energy threads and allowed Wei Yi to take over, but she didn¡¯t bother using even that. Instead, she reached out with her hand and tapped the air, touching one of the many chains that connected the array to the world around it.


    ¡°Good afternoon, everyone. I will only ask two things of you today, and this is the first ¨C listen. This continent has been controlled by a group known as the Great Families. That is the plague that has contributed so much to the decay from the time of the Master of Yi City. They do not wish to be known, so I would encourage you to speak about them as much as possible. The Great Families have three distinct generations, with the first being in the seventh realm, the second being in the fifth, and the third being in the third realm. Each generation of the twenty-three Great Families has two people, one male, and one female. They possess multiple planar anchors, and are able to do so through raising numerous children, allowing them to reach the third realm, then siphoning their anchors into a single pair. There had been one hundred and thirty-eight individual members of the Greats.


    ¡°After I have slain some, there are thirty less.¡±


    The voice of the person that replaced the Bai Patriarch began calm and pleasant, but the more she spoke, the more obvious it was that she was anything but that.


    ¡°Come on, speak their name. This is no order, but I do think that it would be nice for you to remember what their title is. They have, after all, taken away many of your techniques, and may have killed your friends and family without you having a single clue that it had happened. The districts have been afraid of them, but you shall all no longer be in the dark. Come, say it. All of you.¡±


    The people of the Bai District looked to one another, uncertain enough about everything else, and concluded that they might as well do so.


    After all-


    ¡°They can punish one person, maybe a family, but they cannot kill the entire district. Speak.¡±


    Everyone turned to one another, their mouths opening as they saw no flaw with that logic. It was just two words, after all. The only ones that weren¡¯t listening were the easterners, who barged through the crowd and towards Wei Yi.


    ¡°You, was it your actions that have caused that structure to flood the district with light? Are you a demonic practitioner that has controlled the minds of the people? Surrender yourself to-¡±


    She turned to them, and said nothing, simply raising a hand and tapping the air again. A faint clink of metal was all that the eastern Daoists were able to perceive before they suddenly found themselves being restricted and bound by an enormous number of invisible chains, forcing all of them to stop in place and take the shallowest breaths possible, for the chains felt as if they would cut them apart if they went too far.


    ¡°Do not sully the reputation of the Eastern Continent in front of the potential Master of Yi City.¡±

 V4C45: Targeting the Chao District

    With the way that Wei Yi acted, one might assume that she had accomplished the Full Success stage of the Dao of Law, and could now manipulate the very laws that bound people in order to do as she liked with the world, but this was not the case.


    The Dao of Law still presented the same obstacle to the higher stage, but with the combination of a set of Dao that could be unified along the lines of Law, the usage of the God Burial Sea and its effect upon the weaker individuals amongst the people of the world ¨C which included the Daoists from the east, even if they were a realm higher than her ¨C and all of the other methods that she possessed, she could act upon the world and forcefully enforce her will. The chains were there, and she did manipulate them, but it was still far from being a single step process like she would have wanted and would have had in the ideal scenario.


    Still, it was better than the fifty steps that people usually required to achieve the same kinds of results. It meant that she could skip over a number of steps and thus receive results that are diminished less by the restrictions of the world. Overall, this was more efficient, effective, and generally more difficult to see through, since it was simply her current resonance with the world that caused the chains to be visible.


    ¡°I do know what you usually mean by demonic cultivator, easterner. The only ones that definitely fit that label are¡­ well, you can hear their names being spoken right now.¡±


    Wei Yi glanced to the people behind the easterners, to the population of the Bai District, all of whom were sharing the same titles with one another right now.


    The Great Families were, after all, an enticing subject to discuss, and now that both the Patriarch and someone that he apparently trusted to lead the district had encouraged them to discuss it, how could they not? It was yet another law of reality, of people and their behaviour, and thus the air was filled with the repeated mentions of their names.


    ¡°Demonic? Hah, the Great Families¡­ I do not know of them, but they are not your biggest problem!¡±


    With that exclamation, the Daoist suddenly spat out something that turned into a bright golden light and impacted against Wei Yi¡¯s body so quickly that nobody could act to stop it.


    The light hit her and quickly burst out, expanding into numerous golden chains that wrapped around her and tightened, passing through her clothing and flesh and falling onto something that nobody could truly see or observe. Even Wei Yi herself could barely tell that it was latching onto something that she had sensed only a brief while before.


    From the outside, it easily stopped her movements as completely as the invisible chains around the others, and their constriction seemed to grow further and further, tightening more and more on her figure until there shouldn¡¯t have been any room for her to move or breathe.


    ¡°We are Daoists, of the Soul Sealing Sect! We will not be-¡±


    ¡°Fucking idiot,¡± Wei Yi suddenly said, cutting him off as she slightly shifted her arm and then brought it straight out of the golden chains, followed by her other arm and both of her legs as she stepped out.


    As she got out of the restriction of the chains, all of them collapsed upon one another. They hovered in the air for a few moments, still attempting to tighten further, chains colliding with chains and screeching as they did so, then unceremoniously vanished into nothing. All that remained was a talisman that appeared to be half burned, with a third completely turned to ash while the rest of the burnt portion was blackened but still present on the talisman paper itself. Judging by the faint golden energy around it, as well as it forming into the vague shape of chains, most were able to tell that it had to be the object that had conjured the chains in the first place.


    ¡°Out of all of the things that you could have done in this situation, using a soul-based method against someone who had just stabilised and reinforced their soul was incredibly moronic,¡± Wei Yi commented, reaching out and grasping the chains that linked to the easterners, ¡°If that is all that you can manage, I highly doubt that even your entire sect would be able to cause us problems. Tell me, what is your stance on the Greats?¡±


    ¡°We¡­ we have no connection with them at all¡­ but they are Great! How could they not be the greatest and most righteous?¡± the Daoist said, a grin appearing on his face as he began to laugh. He looked like an absolute fool as his fellow easterners joined in.


    They seemed to be acting without the proper understanding of the situation, and she didn¡¯t wish to give them the chance to make fools of themselves elsewhere. To guarantee that they would not have the ability to mess up again, she tightened her grip on the chains that connected to them and then pulled with a great deal of her strength.


    All of them were instantly freed from the chains, but they did not stand tall as before. Instead, all of them fell to the ground without a trace of strength within their bodies. Their breathing stopped.


    ¡°There. I am sure your sect will appreciate my effort in improving its reputation,¡± Wei Yi said to their bodies, releasing the chains and turning back to the people that had crowded around the Ancestral Hall, the state of which she had observed after emerging from it.


    She wasn¡¯t aware of the exact steps that the hall had taken to change from what it had been to what she found it to be, but she could guess what had led to the statues shifting, and the intricate displays all changing to what was effectively one image from several angles and with several details tossed in for no good reason. Her accidental intrusion into some ancient legacy of the Bai District must have changed the Ancestral Hall, which meant that it had been built with the legacy in mind, to some extent.


    That left quite a few possibilities, but none of them answered the oddity of the faceless figure in the last scene, which also raised its hands and head to look up into the sky.


    Still, that was something to be considered later, while at the moment, she was still in a highly powerful state as a result of her active resonance with the world. It would pass eventually, and while she could return into a state like this, it would need a lot of focus to regain it. In a spontaneous, unexpected battle, it wasn¡¯t something that she could reliably use, nor would the effects of her techniques be as powerful against someone in the sixth realm and above, or one of the Greats due to the simple difference in their power.


    That was one of the flaws of the God Burial Sea, and something that Wei Yi intended to improve at a later time to transform the law of ¡®restricting the weak¡¯ to simple ¡®restriction¡¯. In theory, such an absolute wasn¡¯t impossible, and all that she needed to do was find a way to accomplish it.


    ¡°Anyhow¡­ People of the Bai District, and everyone who wishes to combat the Great Families, to free your district, to bring the seventh realm and above into reach of all of you ¨C by the way, the sudden increase in planar energy quantity was also me, in case anyone was curious ¨C we will come to the Chao District to free it as well. We will do so this very moment, although all of you may return soon.¡±


    Yet again, the people of the Bai District were met with a sudden and unexpected condition, but the fact that they would be able to return soon and, seemingly, without any casualties amongst them was rather encouraging. She hadn¡¯t said so explicitly, but they couldn¡¯t help but rush to assumptions when considering the fact that they had to leave at this very moment. This would hardly give them time to prepare, regardless of who they were, so they could hardly spend all that much time out there in such a state.


    Those who had begun to think this were not surprised when they heard her continue after only a brief pause, ¡°Yes, you will only need to be out for a little while, so you only need the bare essentials. Then, you can return to the District, and most of you can remain there and simply benefit from our growth.¡±


    The next question was also obvious, and so Wei Yi answered it quickly.


    ¡°We will arrive at the Chao District far more quickly than you might assume, so I am not attempting to trick you with my description of the duration of our departure. You will not even need to participate in much combat, if any. All that my Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and I wish to see is unity and peace. So long as the other districts are not forced by the Great Families into acting against us, we will not need to disturb a single thing within your territory,¡± she added even more incentives for them all to act.


    Of course, she wasn¡¯t entirely truthful in her words. Some would need to change, and there was one district in particular that she couldn¡¯t wait to get to.


    ¡°The sparks just keep increasing¡­ That Rebel¡­¡± one of the Greats couldn¡¯t find any words to express the sheer irritation that they felt at what they saw. Their Death of Words had been functional and effective for so long, but now, right before their eyes, the entire district lit up, again and again.


    Had it been just once, then there may have been some hope for that district, but when it occurred repeatedly and irregularly, it meant that the people weren¡¯t being forced to speak ¨C or that the person forcing them to do so wasn¡¯t particularly good at their job. Even then, once a word, a term, or even a concept is repeated sufficiently, it will settle in the minds of the people.


    It could be anything, no matter how insignificant, but once it has settled in the mind of one, they would share it with their acquaintances, friends, and family. Once they did that, some of those groups would also speak with their circle of friends, and so the word would spread. Nobody needs to know what the Great Families truly are, what they do, what they look like, how many there are, nor anything else of the sort. The mere words and potential implications alone were enough to capture the minds of all that weren¡¯t meant to hear of them.


    ¡°We cannot even guarantee that she hasn¡¯t shared anything¡­ No, it is far more likely that she had said everything she could.¡±


    ¡°¡­ She does not seem to realise that you do not attempt to rouse the dragon in its den.¡±


    ¡°Is that what we are? The dragon? No, we are the humans that enact heaven¡¯s will! If some rebel attempts to act against it, whether or not she supports the primordial entities, or if she is one of those foul invaders, we will put them down and return the world to its rightful state!¡± the other voice said, showing a rare display of passion.


    The two of them looked back down upon the Death of Words and knew that they needed to act fast if they were to maintain any kind of grip over the world.


    If they were to just sit still and fail to act, then their name would spread to all corners of the Western Continent, and then not only would they be well known, but there would also be a number of groups interested in acting against them just like the fools that the Greats saw them as. There was only one significant enough rebel at the moment, but if all of the world was tempted to act against the group that had taken away their resources and techniques, the Great Families might not be able to endure fully.


    To prevent any chance of that, they needed to end the War of Ascendancy before it can begin.


    ¡°What will those resources that you have taken go towards?¡± the Bai Patriarch asked her.


    ¡°Me and my Arbiters. Do not worry, we have a source of production for nearly everything, so if given enough time, we will replenish everything taken, and reinvigorate trade throughout the districts,¡± Wei Yi promised, smiling, ¡°After all, I want Yi City to be rebuilt and reborn. Wouldn¡¯t you appreciate the trade routes between every single district to be rebuilt, and the roads to be built up beyond the state that they had been in at the peak? I know I would.¡±


    ¡°You need benefits in the short-term, right?¡± the Bai Patriarch understood, having calmed himself since the time that he had gotten to witness the sheer power that she had been able to concentrate within herself, ¡°What is it that our district will need to do?¡±


    ¡°Nothing much. In the best-case scenario, intimidation. In the worst, a wall to stop them fleeing.¡±


    ¡°The Chao District and fleeing do not usually go together¡­ Have you any objections with me commanding my own district in either case?¡±


    ¡°Of course not. Go ahead, just remember that I and my Arbiters fight to free the land. Let the people know that as well. I do not want to rule Yi City, even with what I have said, because I do not believe that it was what Kong Shi Meng Had done ¨C and yes, I mentioned that name on purpose. Even if you cannot confirm it with whatever knowledge you do possess, it should be enough for you to know that I have some kind of information,¡± she said, glancing out into the distance, ¡°Regardless of his thoughts, I merely wish to ensure that the law can be reborn within the Western Continent, and I do not mind if the districts retain autonomy.¡±


    She paused, looking down at her left hand which was currently in its regular state.


    ¡°Actually, I am not sure that I would make for a particularly good ruler. I can be rather selfish at times, which is not a good quality to have in such a position,¡± she looked at the Patriarch, who frowned at her comments.


    He didn¡¯t know whether she was trying to say something about him, his predecessors, the Greats, or if she was just being straightforward, but he doubted the last option the most. It didn¡¯t seem reasonable to give away one¡¯s faults, even when it was just one that was so prevalent throughout the world. Most were selfish to some extent, but some didn¡¯t believe in their own fallibility and chose to instead mask it with other ideas.


    The Bai Patriarch was a firm believer that they were all ultimately liars, but in the case such as this one, he wasn¡¯t too sure what to think.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think too much about this, not when I said something casually. The Bai District will retain the same degree of freedom that it had under Kong Shi Meng, and it will be free to retake some of the territory that had once belonged to it. That is what the growth of the city requires,¡± Wei Yi stopped his hesitant contemplation, ¡°You won¡¯t be able to war against the other district, but that changes nothing.¡±


    Indeed, he and his predecessors might have had the desire to capture another district and make it their own, fusing them together and adding the name of the district and family to that of the Kong in the list of extinguished names, as most Patriarchs of most districts likely had contemplated. However, it was simply not viable with their power. If they went all out, taking every resident of their district, perfecting some group combat technique to unify their power, then tried to take on the Chao, Ping or Luo Districts, they would merely go against the same kinds of forces.


    Furthermore, the place where a family was usually strongest was their home district. The Ning relished being in a district surrounded by metal walls that gave them inspiration for their Divine Blacksmiths, the Chu lived in something that was essentially equivalent to a huge man-made forest where they could put their techniques into practise most easily, and the Bai had naturally designed their district to permit for the optimal use of their own techniques, while covering themselves from the bright sun.


    The Patriarch even thought that the reason that the district was built in a place where sheets were needed to obscure the sun all throughout the day might have been due to some specific advantage.


    He naturally couldn¡¯t confirm it, not just because there had been no real reason to dig up ancient defensive measures, but also due the immense amount of history that had been lost over the years. Amongst everything that had disappeared at one point or another, nothing was as clearly drastic as the name of the Master of Yi City, for he had been a figure that had bound the Western Continent together.


    If he was to be forgotten, then how could some basic defensive measure endure?


    ¡°I¡¯ll travel at the side, just in case I explode while breaking through, so just follow the lead of me or any bright, exploding fireballs of madness and cacophonous energies all rampaging throughout the sands.¡±


    ¡°That is a¡­ specific description. You intend to attempt a breakthrough while on the move, with less than a day before we apparently reach out destination? As someone in the seventh realm, I should remind you that cultivation is not something to be taken lightly regardless of the resources you have obtained,¡± the Bai Patriarch said, ¡°Nothing there was even suitable for your realm¡­ not that it affects you, I suppose.¡±


    While the Patriarch didn¡¯t know exactly what techniques she was cultivating, nor what kinds of feats she was able to achieve beyond the vast aura she could manifest, he had no doubts whatsoever that the level of power she displayed would require far, far more planar energy to maintain than any other. In a way, that kind of thing was a method of balancing the odds by the heavens, for they allowed those with weak techniques and insignificant talent to need little energy to break through, while those that were considered geniuses and had nearly perfect techniques needed far more to reach the same level, even if that level hardly meant anything on its own.


    Once, a legend of a technique that required one wisp of energy that had been common throughout the world at that time to break through any realm and stage. Whether one was to be ascending to the first stage of the first realm, or the last stage of the ninth realm, all that would be needed was one single drop of planar energy.


    Some had desired to obtain it immensely, but someone weak and simple had managed to obtain it by sheer luck, quickly using the power that it offered to ascend to the sixth realm just like that. It seemed insane, impossible, and certainly heaven defying, but the moment that a first realm cultivator clashed with that person, it turned out that everyone else had been the fortunate ones instead when they failed to obtain this seeming treasure.


    It turned out that while the realm was reached, nothing about it was truly acquired. The energy of the unfortunate soul had only been equivalent to a few drops of gaseous planar energy, and his anchor, core, searing marks and linked channels all fell with a single blow from someone who merely had a few hundred drops of energy to work with.


    Naturally, this tale was one told often to remind children of many things, and some adults also reminded themselves with it, for it had several important messages to those that heard it. The first was that fortunate encounters may not always be what they seem, and that missing out on them may not always be detrimental or even a loss. That, in particular, needed to be said to younger adventurous spirits, for they were prone to going out and seeking fortunate encounters in the hopes that they become the hero of one of the more simplistic tales of heroism and power that the world enjoyed.


    Then, there was the matter of a solid foundation. A district such as the Bai District highly prided themselves on training their troops with this principle in mind, ensuring that every single member of a legion is at their peak before bringing them all to break through together.


    Often, it was possible to break through earlier and more easily, but all that offered was the heightened chance of weakness, although not to the extent that the One Drop Storm technique would impose on the cultivator. In fact, to remind the Patriarch¡¯s family in particular, the actual technique from the story was kept on display in a part of the Ancestral Hall, allowing them to go through it carefully and see just how it was able to achieve what it did, and why it was dangerous.


    Every now and then, some would attempt to use it nonetheless, but that essentially confirmed that those people weren¡¯t suited for cultivation.


    ¡°Do not try to lecture me on things like that. You may have the seventh realm of planar cultivation, but I have the fourth realm in planar and physique cultivation, the second in bloodline cultivation, and the sixth in killing will cultivation. Combined with my perfected stages, I have broken through more times than you have, that¡¯s for sure,¡± Wei Yi pointed out, ¡°I know what I¡¯m doing.¡±


    Since she said that, the Bai Patriarch essentially had to let go. If she did something stupid and killed herself, he wouldn¡¯t mind turning the Bai District¡¯s people around and just returning to the district with the resources that she had somehow managed to stash away without him noticing. The people might be confused, but he would allow them to continue spreading the word of the Greats simply due to the impracticality of doing anything else. The Great Families already knew about them, that was almost guaranteed, so it was best to shove the blame onto the rest of the world as well, as soon as possible.


    ¡°In that case, I shall get going. Lead us to the Chao District the moment that you can.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, then waited for him to leave before she popped one of the many pills stored inside of the House of Gold into her mouth.


    She may have intended to break through on the road, since that would be most practical in arriving to the Chao District as early as possible, but that didn¡¯t stop her from building up her energy while she had the opportunity to do so. As fast as the organised Bai District could be, it was still difficult to gather everyone on such short notice, regardless of their cooperation.


    ¡®I¡¯ll just get started now and eat the rest up later. I¡¯ve spend enough time near the Bai Patriarch to fully perceive his spiritual perception, make some interesting observations about it, and find a way to, hopefully, conceal the spatial connection,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, ¡®Yi Shi Ming, how are things over there?¡¯


    The spatial spirit appeared beside the centre of her consciousness within the spatial realm, and carefully examined it before replying.


    ¡°The warriors have left, so I am ensuring that Paragon endures in their absence. Have your attempts gone on successfully, or will my assistance be needed for something?¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City asked, glancing down at the Kong Prison Realm as she did so, ¡°I could share any successes with the realm and the fortress, as that might boost the morale of those that remain ¨C if it is something that you believe to be significant or necessary.¡±


    Most of the people that had lived in the prison realm had left alongside those of Paragon to participate in the diplomatic mission to the Chao District, as they had spent a long time practising and strengthening themselves in order to be able to go out into the world and truly make an impact upon it, but some did remain. Those who were old, or too young, or that had some particular attachment to their land and wished to keep an eye on it while everyone else was out of the spatial realm and travelling in the Planar Continents.


    Their morale and mood might not seem particularly significant seeing as they weren¡¯t going to be participating in most battles directly, but it actually mattered just as much. When the people that had left were going to return, they would come back to find those people and their activities, and if they came back to joy and excitement, it would be far better than the opposite.


    Everyone would likely still be keen to participate in combat and generally seek to continue the war against the Great Families, but if they regularly returned and found those left behind suffering and feeling miserable, that desire might slowly wane. It would be ideal to avoid anything of the sort occurring, especially if the War of Ascendancy might carry on for quite some time, as it would be detrimental when combined with other potential losses that the Arbiters might suffer.


    Wei Yi would have liked to achieve a perfect record without a single failure throughout the war, but she suspected that this would never happen.


    There would be losses, that much she knew. If she had attempted to lead every single battle herself, the Greats would be able to target her allies and forces while she was away from their territory. On the other hand, if she was to allow them full autonomy and took care of matters that only she could handle, then the same would occur but at different times and different places.


    ¡®You can do so. I have managed to obtain the support of the Bai District through their four ancestors, and some ancient trial that they must have left behind. It was a very odd situation, and not one I expected, but¡­ What is it?¡¯ Wei Yi asked, noticing a strange expression on the spatial spirit¡¯s face.


    ¡°I¡­ There is a possibility that this is one of the things that have passed from my memory, but I do not recall there being four notable ancestors of the Bai District. There was one figure that had allied with Ah Shi Meng, and he had led the Bai District to a significant position while taking on a number of wives from some of the slaves that had been present in the area. Both of them shared the blood that allowed for all of the Bai to share the same characteristics, and in my lifetime, one of the branches of the family had essentially become the primary one. I do not know what happened later.¡±


    ¡°¡­ What?¡±

 V4C46: The District of Brawn

    At the Chao District, the guards at the walls saw a large group of people approach them from the north. On its own, this was not particularly surprising, since travellers did exist, and some would come from the northern nations. What did put them off right away was the fact that every single person was constantly radiating their energy, showcasing that it was of a higher grade than that of most.


    ¡®A force¡­ the force of the supposed worshiper?¡¯ the Chao Patriarch pondered as one of his subordinates provided him with the news, ¡®What is their intention?¡¯


    He brought his spiritual perception as far out as he could and used some of the inscriptions within the district to project it to the edge of the district, where he could then observe the actions of this mysterious group. So far as he and his subordinates were able to tell, there wasn¡¯t a single seventh realm cultivator amongst them, so the district wasn¡¯t in significant danger of any particular outcome, but the Patriarch still needed to be wary.


    Depending on which of the narratives he had heard about was accurate, the group could either be a beneficial force to the district, or something dangerous and vile that they would need to address, but for now, he and his forces were only able to watch.


    The forces of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters marched on at a rapid pace, although it naturally paled in comparison to what Wei Yi was able to attain at her fastest. They had journeyed directly from the north, and they had limited their speed as to not arrive too early. Part of their plan involved Wei Yi, after all, and if they somehow managed to get to the Chao District too early, it might be difficult for her to join in.


    At the front were Great Dark and Great Light, the latter of whom had been brought out of the mines to ensure that he brushed up on his combat skills rather than digging up things when that really wasn¡¯t necessary at the moment, considering the fact that the Chao and Bai Districts were bound to have some resources for them to utilise instead.


    Behind them, although not significantly, was Jia Rong, who was somewhat nervous about the things she needed to do. Putting aside the fact that her strength did indeed appear to be so absolutely insane that her cultivation, whatever that was, had risen several times in just the past few hours, and she still had no issue at all with keeping up with figures that were far more powerful in terms of that energy that all of them possessed, she wasn¡¯t certain about the way that their plan would go due to everything about them, and the world that she had found herself in.


    To address the less obvious first, her experience with the world around her was strange to say the least. She had remembered what she had been told of the world around her before the incident.


    Now, however, while the sands should be similar to what she had been told about, they were also different, as each wave of sand was flooded with this strange purple mist of glistening particles that only she could see. As she had confirmed several times with the others, they could sense far more planar energy all around them, within everything, but she could hardly imagine what it would look like if her vision was entirely consumed by violet light like that.


    Then again, the demonic woman was also entirely different from the young, mostly regular girl that she had been prior to the destruction of her home. Her eyes could see that energy a little more clearly, her body had changed to an entirely different colour, and her strength had increased immensely while her age appeared to freeze.


    According to what Wei Yi had shared with them, the Eastern Continent was considered to be more focused on demons and devils than the Western Continent, but the west had also needed to deal with the devils of the past that had arisen when the Master of Yi City had taken in the continent.


    For that reason, the appearance of someone that was undeniably demonic in their looks had a high risk of disconcerting and misleading the people of the Chao District. Depending on what kind of conclusion they arrive on, it could lead to them treating Jia Rong as an ordinary person, or as some vile entity that needs to be obliterated, defeated and purged¡­ which would hardly be ideal for her, Wei Yi, or any of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, whether or not this was possible.


    She was, after all, incredibly durable as a result of the changes to her body, so it might be difficult for people to take her down, but it could lead to conflict when conflict would be undesirable.


    ¡°Things that looked like me¡­ were they terrible?¡± Jia Rong asked Great Dark, who seemed reliable.


    ¡°Like you¡­ Demons had looked like you, from what we know¡­ and they did do terrible things¡­ Although I am not sure how true that is,¡± the dark-haired man replied, gazing into the distance towards the strong walls of the Chao District, ¡°You also do not seem to be one of them¡­ They were an entirely different species, and while they could b- no, have children together¡­ they would result in warped mixtures of human and demon features¡­ From what I can understand, and what Wei Yi has said¡­ you should still be human.¡±


    ¡°Human¡­ What is a human?¡± Jia Rong pondered out loud, sighing only shortly after, ¡°Never mind that. I will be fine. Hopefully.¡±


    ¡°Our presence should ensure that you do not get treated a violent monster¡­ Don¡¯t start glaring at them or displaying your teeth, though¡­ might give them the wrong impression if they¡¯re quick to jump to conclusions¡­¡± Great Dark said, paused, then added, ¡°Which describes them perfectly¡­¡±


    ¡°Now you sound like the aggressive one, brother. I don¡¯t know about the old demons, but Jia Rong looks perfectly reasonable with her new clothing. Once again, Fu Zan has done well enough,¡± Great Light said to his other twin, then to both him and Jia Rong, nodding with great satisfaction at the clothing the otherworldly demon had produced as if he had been the one to create it.


    In his defence, Fu Zan had been rather inspired by the appearance of the demonic woman, and thus created an outfit more fitting for an emperor or king rather than a random girl from the forest. Nobody really cared about this, though, since their leader was essentially a random girl from the poor district.


    Aside from the layers below what was visible, which were taken from the existing catalogue of underwear that the otherworldly demon was acquiring more and more of as he continued to copy more and more of them from the Orbis he had come from, as well as trying out some of his own ideas when possible, the rest was unique. He might have used some star metal if not for understanding its preciousness ¨C and if Wei Yi hadn¡¯t slapped his hand when he reached for it.


    Her lowest layer after that was a set of tight trousers made from black-gold thread, ornamented with golden threads in esoteric patterns, and a dark shirt above that which hugged her body a little more loosely as to not overemphasise the chest. The sleeves ended half-way down her arms as to not stand in the way of anything.


    A cloth belt kept the two on her and stopped the clothing from shifting unnecessarily when she moved.


    Atop that, a robe that descended to her knees and was open at the front from the waist down as to not impede the movement of her legs if she needed to kick something, or run at a fast speed. A dark gold trim decorated it, with a few pockets on the inside and outside alike as to ensure that there would be places to keep her things. This was something that Wei Yi had made Fu Zan include, having learnt from her own experiences and deciding to provide all of her subordinates with all of the pockets that they might ever require in their daily lives, just to be safe.


    Jia Rong personally didn¡¯t think that she would ever need that many spaces to store items, since she had nothing left to carry with her, but Wei Yi was rather insistent and thus they were added.


    For the sake of allowing her something to cover her hands with, Fu Zan had also made some fingerless gloves which were made of especially tough material so that it wasn¡¯t breached by her claws when she attempted to put them on. On her feet, she wore black boots with flat soles that were imbued with a simple temperature controlling inscription attached on the inside, heading up part-way up the lower half of her leg, after which black stockings could be glimpsed beneath her trousers.


    Unlike her hands, her feet had managed to remain mostly unchanged, save for her toenails darkening and growing tougher, stronger and longer, so she was able to wear most ordinary footwear with few alterations. The only thing that she did need was to have the threads of the stockings and the material of the boots to be made stronger than normal, but since every little part of her outfit was created from materials that were suitable for cultivators of the sixth realm and above, so that essentially changed nothing at all. With items at that level, her body was able to perform at its current peak without risking damaging any of them.


    Her black-gold robes also had a hood which she could cover her head with, including the horns that she had on her head, but it was not currently up as they were not going to be entering in secrecy and instead broadcasting their approach. A figure with horns would certainly help with that.


    ¡°Alright, we are getting close¡­ let us focus on the matter with the district, and we could contemplate such matters at a later time¡­¡± Great Dark said, pausing momentarily as he looked towards the ones that were following the three, ¡°Everyone, stay back and prepare! We shall be heading forward on our own.¡±


    Their forces stopped and took out the inscription plates that had been prepared in order to create some basic defences in the case of an attack from the district if they concluded that their approach was too antagonistic, or something of the sort. There was no need to have a large number of people participating in the initial interaction with the Chao District, as that might give yet another different but negative impression for the people of the district that prided itself on sheer power and strength.


    If they assumed that they were going to be assaulted not with might, but with number, the leaders of the district might take some offence to it.


    For that reason, individuals going forward would be far more effective, and far more likely to succeed and not encounter certain complications that Wei Yi had contemplated and considered some methods for addressing before they departed.


    Great Dark, Great Light and Jia Rong continued forward, continuing on until all three of them were able to tell that they had approached the edge of some kind of defensive measures. The first two could perceive the energy flowing beneath the ground and through the walls with their powerful spiritual perception, but the demonic woman was able to see something that the rest of them could not floating around the district¡¯s walls.


    ¡°There¡¯s some kind of mist floating throughout the walls and ground¡­ Are those the defences?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re simply able to see that¡­ What kind of range does your vision have?¡± Great Dark quietly inquired, ¡°Is there a limit to your sight?¡±


    ¡°It got more noticeable as I got closer, although I think that¡¯s just because the energy inside began to flow more as I approached¡­ I think that I may be able to see this kind of thing from the same distance as I can see everything else,¡± Jia Rong posited, causing the other to share an uncertain glance that she didn¡¯t pay much attention to.


    However, if she had the ability to truly see everything from so far away, even if it was only in mist form, meaning that she was still limited to particles of energy relevant to her, that would still be incredible. There was a possibility that this method could even see through things that repelled spiritual perception, meaning that her presence anywhere would instantly allow for all kinds of secrets involving planar energy to be seen through, giving them an immense edge in any attempts at stealth or subterfuge from the enemy. Then again, the defensive methods of the Chao were hardly attempting to hide from them, so this speculation might not be accurate in the slightest.


    ¡°As I¡¯d said already¡­ we should focus on this¡­¡± the twin of Great Earth said, just in time.


    Only a little after he said that, two figures appeared upon the walls of the Chao District, with the rest of the guards that were already standing atop it parting and distancing themselves from these figures. Their number quickly made them think of the Greats, but they did not appear to have that aura.


    Both of them were also male, and in the same fifth realm as one another, although one was in the fifth stage while the other was in the seventh. They were tall, muscular, and highly strong in appearance, as might be expected from the Chao family¡¯s members, with black hair upon their heads and yellow eyes, and their every limb rippled with a vast quantity of energy, both physical and otherwise, including the might of a physique.


    Unlike many of the Chao family, and even the population of the Chao District, they did possess a physique each, with one holding the Perfected Realm physique thus possessing a significantly stronger body than most would from the moment that it had awakened. The other had the Prime Dragon physique, and thus his pupils looked partly reptilian and his skin was notably tougher than his fellow.


    The figures looked upon the group of three, then into the distance, and then back down upon the three.


    ¡°Explain yourselves, or fuck right off,¡± the Perfected Realm physique wielder said, ¡°We¡¯re the two strongest warriors of the Chao District, so if you want to attack anyone in the district, you will need to go through us!¡±


    Great Dark and Jia Rong looked to the third member of the group, for whom the task of introducing the challenge was given. The former was too quiet and slow in his speech to be able to present that challenge fully, whereas the latter was not yet confident with any part of her strength or state, and had never really been in a place where she had even needed to shout to someone else¡­ a particular terrible situation aside, of course.


    For that reason, Great Light was the best and most suitable for this task.


    ¡°Chao family member, we are the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and we wish to challenge you, since you are supposedly the strongest! We wish to test your might, with a single demand at stake!¡±


    ¡°What kind of demand do you dare to ask of us?¡± the Prime Dragon physique wielder called out, his physique causing a series of ripples to appear on his body and flesh, ¡°Be careful with your words if you do not want to be crushed!¡±


    ¡°Ha, as if you will even be able to¡­ The demand is simple! If we are victorious, your Chao District will agree to aid us with the attack upon the Great Families! If you know their name, then you will also know that many of them had suffered a defeat at our hands not long ago! We can lead all of you to more victories of that sort, and your Chao District will have much to gain!¡±


    ¡°Haha! What a notion!¡± the first member of the Chao Family laughed, ¡°What about our side?¡±


    The second said, ¡°If you think you can win, then so do we. If we can obtain victory, then your Arbiters will join our district!¡±


    The first one laughed again, but although the request sounded rather preposterous, so was the demand for the Chao District to assist the small faction, regardless of what it had been able to achieve. If one side was able to make insane demands, then the other would do the same, and both of them understood this perfectly well. For that reason, neither attempted to argue, especially since it wouldn¡¯t benefit the Arbiters to have the other two realise that there was no reason they¡¯d ever make such a bet without great certainty in victory.


    The Prime Dragon wielder leapt down from the wall and approached them with his arms changing to that of a dragon, with yellow scales lining his skin and with his fingers transforming to claws as he looked upon the Arbiters.


    ¡°So, which one of you ¨C heh, what a hideous thing you are. Are you going to fight me?¡±


    He had looked upon Jia Rong, who was only able to step up and nod in response to his words, ¡°Yes, I will.¡±


    The demonic girl was unable to reply to his words directly, as his figure was rather intimidating to her even with the height that she had gained since her imprisonment in the cave. She was, despite the strength she apparently had, still rather afraid, and so the most that she was able to do was take that step towards him and trust in Wei Yi¡¯s words.


    She had been able to come for her even after the world had forgotten about her, so she was naturally trustworthy in this regard as well.


    ¡°Oh, really? What kind of fight do you want to participate in, disgusting creature? Are you going to try to poison me to death with your blood, or should I instead be worried about you trying to poke my eye out with those claws of yours?¡± the man asked, smirking at her, ¡°Look at yourself. Your body isn¡¯t even that muscular, and yet your owners are trying to make you do something like this. They can¡¯t wait to beat you and get you out of their lives, can they?¡±


    A flash of anger appeared in her eye at the sheer disdain with which a man was able to speak, but she calmed herself as Great Dark put his hand on her shoulder and said, ¡°You will not fight, but contest your strength¡­ With neither side using anything more than their arm.¡±


    ¡°Tch. Pathetic. That¡¯s all you can manage?¡± the Prime Dragon wielder asked with blatant disinterest.


    ¡°That is what we offer! Either you take it, or else you can witness the power of our Ascendant if you decide to linger around and simply insult her Arbiters!¡± Great Light stepped back in, making sure to release a quantity of his yin planar energy as to showcase some kind of strength to their opponent, ¡°You should be well aware of what happens then if you have heard the word from the Ping District!¡±


    The Chao family member¡¯s gaze stopped on Great Light, his eyes narrowing, ¡°Oh, so that was true, then? A woman deciding to clean out the trash of that district and getting away with it despite her low realm? You lot follow her? In that case, I can accept just one of your nonsensical requests. Fine, as the strongest man in the Chao District, I shall accept your bet, and show you why our Chao brawn should not be taken lightly!¡±


    He also came forward until he was only a few steps away from Jia Rong, then glanced at the twins of Great Earth with a raised eyebrow. Their method of competition required an appropriate surface, and despite him talking for so long, they had still not prepared it.


    Those two ignored him and calmly channelled their energy into the ground, raising a large quantity of sand into the air and solidifying a large cubic block of it at the level of their arms. It was flooded with yin and absolute cold, so the moment that it approached the kind of shape that the Prime Dragon physique wielder was satisfied with, he opened his mouth and spat out a great quantity of flame.


    It grilled the sand right away, turning it black with the flame and clearing much of the cold energy away from the basic block that was created.


    That did also replace the cold with immense heat, prompting Great Light to immediately reply with another gust of cold of significantly lower strength, blasting that heat away and bringing the temperature of the table down to some semi-reasonable level, at least in the eyes of the two participants in the bet. The Prime Dragon physique wielder was satisfied with the heat still present inside, and didn¡¯t want to go too far with a pointless conflict not of the physical kind, but Jia Rong didn¡¯t actually feel much from the cube regardless of the heat or cold. She didn¡¯t know whether that was merely a sensory illusion or something more, but she didn¡¯t want to test it in the previous two circumstances anyway.


    Both of them took another step towards the block of solidified sand, then placed their right elbows onto the surface and grasped one another¡¯s hands. In order to test the demonic woman¡¯s strength right away, the Prime Dragon physique wielder attempted to tighten his grip on her hand to cause some pain, but he found that his grip was unable to make much of an impact upon her, as if he had no strength in his fingers at all.


    ¡°Let us begin, and then we may discuss further matters¡­ I don¡¯t need to count you down, do I?¡± Great Dark took a few steps back, grabbing his brother with him so that they couldn¡¯t be accused of interfering with the situation if either side lost.


    The Prime Dragon physique wielder shook his head, then activated his physique in order to cover all of his body, save for his head. There was no real benefit to changing his head into a draconic state, since the basic test of strength that they were currently employing did not require faster reaction time or better sight. It only needed strength, layered onto strength, more strength, and then some more strength. That was also why he was mostly certain that he would succeed, since he had the strongest arms out of anyone in the Chao District. His fellow Chao family member was strongest in his body overall, however, due to the Perfected Form physique.


    He looked into Jia Rong¡¯s eyes in an attempt to evaluate her ability and strength, but he found it highly difficult to figure out a single thing about her. On one hand, she looked worried and afraid of his high stature, as if she was some child looking up at a terrifying adult ¨C terrifying in her mind, at least. On the other, her body was perfectly calm, not shaking in the slightest as her clawed fingers held his hand.


    ¡®Contradictory¡­ Something is giving her courage¡­ I¡¯ll just crush her, then crush them, then go crush their fortress in the sands,¡¯ he, Chao Dongtai, grinned even more widely, ¡®Their fault for that bet.¡¯


    Many outside of the Chao District assumed that the Chao family, and many of those that chose to live inside of the district without being directly affiliated with the Chao, were, to put it nicely, unintelligent. The stereotype of their stupidity was well known even in districts that had little chance to interact with them without some extreme time being taken to travel out and communicate with this far-northern district like the Qiang or Ru Districts, and it was hardly one that the Chao were unaware of.


    However, they were not stupid, only single-minded. They valued strength and brawn over all else, but intelligence needed to be invested to acquire the most strength and the most power out of everyone in the world. Chao Dongtai, for instance, was focused on his draconic physique and his strength, but that didn¡¯t mean that he had forgotten tactics or planning. He knew that the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters were giving him a strange offer, but he trusted his own judgement more than anything. If the person in front of him looked weak, then they were weak, and nothing would convince him otherwise. Only a complete and utter defeat could indicate anything different.


    For that reason, he was not afraid, and neither was his fellow Chao family member that looked down upon them from the walls. They would certainly be victorious, and then they would learn whatever they wanted to know about the strength of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters.


    They began the moment that the other attempted to force down their hand, and, as might be obvious, it was Chao Dongtai that started first, using all of his strength from the beginning in order to win as quickly as possible, just to assure that nothing unexpected could occur to him while he was focused on this contest. The Arbiters had come here with a large group, after all, so he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they tried something untoward.


    He could see that his foe, Jia Rong, did not react as quickly. In fact, it took her several seconds to realise what had happened, and that she needed to respond.


    In any normal circumstance, that would have led to an immediate victory for him, but despite his every attempt to push her hand down to the hardened sand surface, he found that her arm didn¡¯t move ¨C not while he was attempting to move it. The moment that she used her strength, it was like all of his energy, all of the power from his physique, all of the time that he had spent developing his muscles was nullified, and he was back to some ordinary young boy while she was still in her current state, reacting with most of her strength as well.


    As a result, he suddenly felt the back of his hand touch, no, violently strike the hardened sand, with some of his bones loudly creaking and cracking at the moment of the collision. The mere impact also blasted apart the sand beneath them, causing it to collapse into a large pile of matter.


    ¡°¡­ eh? What?¡± he muttered, failing to notice that his hand had been released.


    ¡°This is a victory, clearly! I suspect that the Chao Patriarch will need to emerge to finalise this, but don¡¯t you think that this is a rather clear and telling victory?¡± Great Light immediately said.


    The Perfected Form physique wielder on the wall above, Chao Zhi, looked upon this with a stunned expression. The woman that he saw shouldn¡¯t have been able to do anything of the sort, but there seemed to be no movement of planar energy, no usage of a physique, not even all that much of her strength being used to ensure the victory. In fact, the moment that the woman released Chao Dontai¡¯s hand, she had to resist the urge to cheer in excitement.


    He had no idea what to say about any of this. It just made no sense.


    ¡°Here I am, Arbiters, but I do not see a victory for you,¡± a figure suddenly joined him on the wall, looking down upon the rest with a bright expression on his face, ¡°Tell me, do any of you have the power to enforce your supposed success?¡±


    Great Dark and Great Light glanced to one another, comparing their own strengths to that of the figure before them. Even together, and with everyone behind them, and everything that Wei Yi had prepared for them, they might not be able to succeed in defeating the Chao Patriarch. If they did manage it, they would have the rest of the Chao District up against them, which would not be particularly ideal.


    However, both of the groups were forced to turn to the south-east as a beam of light suddenly surged out and reached them, allowing them to see a vibrant blackened crimson light exploding into the air and then reaching out, growing more and more until it nearly reached the Chao District in a significantly dimmer state. It faded then, but just after they briefly glanced at one another to ensure that this wasn¡¯t a plan of the other side, they had to turn right back to see a huge wave of sand rapidly soaring towards them.


    At the front of that wave was the same blackened crimson light bringing them all forward.


    Great Dark glanced to Great Light and Jia Rong, then said to the Chao Patriarch, ¡°There is one that has that power in front of anyone.¡±

 V4C47: Contemplation and Hesitation

    That wave of dots and sand moved at an insane pace, crossing distances that would usually take hours within several minutes, and so they soon changed from mere insignificant points in the distance to legible entities.


    Only a little longer after that, the Chao Patriarch was able to make out just what it was that had led the charge towards the district, and who stood at the front.


    As was already obvious from such a distance, this was a wave of an enormous number of people, and all of them were surrounded by an energy that almost resembled chains that held onto them and forcefully launched them forward, keeping them moving at a ludicrous speed. Beneath their feet was a dense combination of rapid wind, thunderous crackling and more that the Patriarch couldn¡¯t properly distinguish, all of it further accelerating their movement. It also seemed that all of that energy was empowered by the single figure at the front, meaning that all of that energy and reach belonged to a single person of great power.


    Crimson hair, crimson robes, a dark and light arm, and an immense aura was all that the Chao Patriarch could see from that distance, and it would be quite a while until his spiritual perception would be able to reach this approaching force, but he already had a certain impression of the approaching forces. They surely had to be in the sixth realm at the least, considering the range of the figure¡¯s energy and the quantity that there was, and this was almost certainly the leader of those Ascendants.


    Considering what she had been able to achieve against the Greats, the identity of whom he had been able to connect with the most powerful figures that he had noticed around the district every now and then, she must have been someone impressive, far more so than the two on the ground, although they were also most certainly capable in their own right.


    ¡°Still, a sixth realm Ascendant isn¡¯t going to be particularly able to oppose me no matter what,¡± the Chao Patriarch commented, frowning when he saw a look from the twins of Great Earth.


    ¡°Our Ascendant is not in the sixth realm, Chao Patriarch. You might have heard of her when she passed through the Ping District and survived the attack of a sixth realm Ping family member while being at the third realm,¡± Great Dark managed a brief period of clear speech, slowing down a moment after that, ¡°Since then, she has gotten much stronger¡­ It may be that she will reach the fifth realm not too long from now.¡±


    He looked down at Great Dark, but he couldn¡¯t connect what he saw to what he was being told. There was simply no logic to a figure that wasn¡¯t in the sixth realm being able to stretch their energy out far enough to include hundreds of people within some kind of movement technique.


    It had to be remembered that there were distinct limits to every single realm. The first couldn¡¯t externalise stable energy, while most couldn¡¯t externalise it at all until the very peak of the ninth stage, at which point they could let it flow into their skin before dissipating into an unbound state. The second couldn¡¯t condense energy into a liquid state on the outside of the body and couldn¡¯t fully control their energy past a metre or two. Once one got to the third, they could liquefy their gaseous external energy, and had an anchor to place down to boost their planar energy.


    All of that was nearly immutable, as was the fact that each realm had a limit to how far their energy would be able to reach. The first had no ability to release it past their body, the second realm couldn¡¯t go past three, the third was limited to around nine, and so on. If the Ascendant was only at the fourth realm, then there should have been no possibility for her to reach out that far.


    Even at the fifth realm, something like this was just too unrealistic, so he had naturally presumed it to be the sixth realm.


    ¡°I shall wait and see. Chao Zhi, take care of Chao Dongtai. I will see if these people are worthy of our attention, or if this is some irritating farce that we must end as quickly as possible before going out to take down whatever¡¯s in the north,¡± the Chao Patriarch said, leaping down from the wall and landing on the ground without a single particle of sand being knocked aside as a result, as if he had no weight at all.


    He remained within the district¡¯s defensive inscriptions, but headed to their edge in the direction from which the people of the Bai District approached, their figures partly covered in energy acting as a replacement for the curtain of their district.


    With how quickly they were travelling, he wouldn¡¯t need to wait long.


    ¡°I see the Chao Patriarch up ahead. You aren¡¯t on bad terms with him, are you?¡± Wei Yi asked the patriarch by her side, smiling when she saw him shake his head, ¡°Good, that means that we¡¯ll be able to approach him with you on our side, giving him less of a reason to go against us. We¡¯re also arriving far earlier than planned, so whatever is happening there will not have devolved into anything dangerous just yet.¡±


    With the aid of all of the naturals laws and the techniques that she had in her possession, allowing all of the fighters from a district that were in the fourth realm and above to travel at an immense speed alongside her was not a particularly challenging task, not even when she was rather distracted.


    The cause of that distraction was exactly that conversation that she had with Yi Shi Ming when she had set out from the Bai District an hour earlier.


    ¡®¡­ What? What do you mean they don¡¯t have four ancestors? There are clearly four there. Each one has a distinct story, set of abilities, a message for the younger generation, all that necessary crap. I fought against them in some illusory space, or whatever that was,¡¯ Wei Yi had relayed that to the spatial spirit, manifesting parts of her memories within the Kong Prison Realm to further display her evidence, ¡®Were these four nor present in the past?¡¯


    ¡°I do not recall seeing a single figure like any of those four, nor do I have any clue what the fifth figure portrayed on the side of their Ancestral Hall is. I had seen it in its completion, and while the style was similar, it had portrayed the actions of my son more so than any other figure,¡± Yi Shi Ming had said, having examined those images carefully.


    ¡®With the contents of that realm, the rewards it gave ¨C partially from the Bai treasury, admittedly ¨C I cannot presume this to be some action of the Greats, so who or what would be motivated to do this?¡¯


    The spatial spirit hardly had an answer for something complex like that. She had spent too long within the Kong Prison Realm, sleeping and occasionally losing memories within the two-coloured landscape of the realm as it was then, so she would not have any recollection of anything that happened after the Greats had begun to achieve power. As far as she was aware, nothing of the sort had appeared upon the Bai Ancestral Hall during her human lifetime, so that was all that she could provide to the Ascendant in terms of information.


    For that reason, Wei Yi had been forced to ask the Bai Patriarch about these matters.


    ¡°Do you have any record of what had happened to the Ancestral Hall since it was first constructed? I had not expected to come across the four ancestors when I had attempted to enter, so it would be great to learn more about that place,¡± she had said.


    ¡°We keep a clear history of the entire district for us, the Patriarchs of each generation, to browse through and remember. I will not share it with you in its entirety, Ascendant, but I can tell you that the Bai Ancestral Hall is one of the oldest structures in the district,¡± the Bai Patriarch said proudly, ¡°It had suffered a few small damages over the years, but everything had been repaired nearly seamlessly. That being said, nothing in the records had mentioned that exact circumstance. You wouldn¡¯t learn anything even if you looked through the whole thing with great care, checking every single minor character, so I have no reason to provide it to you.¡±


    He hardly needed to give it to her even from her perspective, as her spiritual perception had naturally looked through everything she was able to find and found no records explicitly stating anything about a complete replacement of the Ancestral Hall¡¯s exterior or anything else of the sort, so she didn¡¯t need to cast doubt on his words. The real question was whether the records were true.


    If one of the past Patriarchs had decided that something within them wasn¡¯t to their tastes, then it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to destroy a portion, remake it, then forcefully age the material within by condensing a temporary spatial realm with a far quicker passage of time. It would only require a spare drop or nugget of spatial metal, and especially further back in history, it would be available to a district Patriarch. Such a method didn¡¯t consume the spatial material, nor was it particularly expensive or challenging to temporarily create a spatial realm wherein a single item ages far more quickly.


    Depending on the particular tendencies of a Patriarch, it wouldn¡¯t even be impossible for the entirety of the records to be copied and remade, with all undesirable information being removed while all desirable matters being intensified or left as they were.


    As such, written documents weren¡¯t the most reliable, and they would be even less so if these were the documents of the Ping District. There, every single paper and scroll was likely a fake copy of a fake that was faking a fake, intended to replicate a forgery of a duplicate of a counterfeit journal initially created by some drunkard for the purpose of tricking one of his friends at the bar, so nothing there was trustworthy at all.


    ¡®Still, for something like that to happen without a single obvious matter sticking out¡­ Could there be greater forces at play?¡¯ Wei Yi pondered both to Yi Shi Ming and herself.


    A Patriarch may be unable to completely fool all of their descendants and herself, but if something at the eighth realm or above attempted to do that very thing, they might very well be able to accomplish it. The seventh realm could interact with space through spatial metal and significant preparation, but the near limitless power of the eighth realm could go far beyond that, allowing more complex, detailed, and powerful spatial domains to be created by cultivators. If a ninth realm was involved, then one could be nearly omnipotent in the eyes of other cultivators below the eighth realm.


    For them, changing history wouldn¡¯t be impossible, even if they couldn¡¯t alter the past.


    The problem was that the only member of the ninth realm that was widely known within the world was Kong Shi Meng, and when he vanished, it seemed that everything that was on his level vanished with him. The dragons, phoenixes, qilins, Primordial Deities, ancient beasts, and demons; nothing was left, with some having been defeated, while others just seemed to disappear into thin air.


    This was not an instant process for the species that didn¡¯t strictly oppose humanity, but the last dragons to be seen were mere corpses that had already been rotting for decades ¨C figuratively, since dragon flesh and scales could endure for a very long time before decaying to any significant extent ¨C and even those weren¡¯t as powerful as the strongest dragons known to humanity. For instance, the dragon blood that Chao Jianhong, the Lady of Ashes, had consumed, came from a weak dragon of the Half-Step Linked Channels realm, while the strongest realm that dragons could reach was the peak of the eighth.


    Since dragons were born in the fifth realm, the progression of only a single realm was pathetic for a dragon, and clearly displayed that they weren¡¯t able to achieve the same heights as they could in the past after the Master of Yi City either vanished or died, and the Greats began to rise in his place.


    The decrease in planar energy density certainly didn¡¯t help, although it was now back to the level of a few thousand years ago. With more planar anchor energy being used up, more energy would spread out, and perhaps any more dragons out there might be able to reclaim their ancient fame and power, or perhaps humanity would overshadow them entirely and they would thus pass from history once and for all, disappearing alongside many others.


    ¡®Wait, I was thinking about the matters of the strongest entities out there, wasn¡¯t I? Got off track again¡­¡¯ Wei Yi had sighed to herself, ¡®If it wasn¡¯t something in the ninth realm, then¡­ the Hunger of the Beyond? Otherworldly demons? The azure lights? Something worse than that? Or is it simply Yi Shi Ming being old and forgetful?¡¯


    ¡°Spatial spirits don¡¯t age in the same manner, Wei Yi. Still, I will admit that many memories are absent. Amongst them, a phantom or false memory wouldn¡¯t be amiss.¡±


    ¡®And yet, as I¡¯m sure you¡¯d agree, such a specific and particular false memory sticks out rather significantly, doesn¡¯t it? To go through the rest of the list, though, the Hunger of the Beyond shouldn¡¯t have been able to get into the Planar Continents, nor would it have any reason to give me any kind of benefit like the token and the wealth of the Bai. The otherworldly demons have their own ideas about things, and guessing their exact natures and motives is difficult, but it still doesn¡¯t seem right for some otherworldly demon to have modified so much for no clear reason or benefit to him or herself,¡¯ the Ascendant continued to ponder, ¡®Unfortunately, I know the equivalent of fuck all about the azure lights, and if there¡¯s something worse than them out there, I would hardly stand a chance¡­ Do the four figures resemble anything or anyone else that might be significant? Perhaps it¡¯s related to some other matter?¡¯


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I haven¡¯t seen the exact methods used by those four figures in any other situation. The scythe user had a very particular set of techniques that I have not come across while accompanying Kong Shi Meng, the one wearing a glove also didn¡¯t use any skills I know of, the one with the tentacles did resemble Primordial Corruption to an extent, but not sufficiently to let me conclude their connection,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, ¡°As for the last entity¡­ Maybe it was based on you, somehow?¡±


    ¡®Yeah, there¡¯s some similarity, but it is just too odd. The techniques are close enough, but yet far apart, and many of them aren¡¯t ones that I¡¯d ever used or thought of using, so it would have needed to be able to calculate possibilities even more effectively than the Truth of the Universe and the Realm of Potential combined,¡¯ Wei Yi pointed out, ¡®If that is the case, then it is either a ninth realm creation or something belonging to an otherworldly demon, but, as we¡¯d already discussed, there¡¯s no real reason for an otherworldly demon to change the world and then not make their story prominent, regardless of the story¡¯s origin and purpose.¡¯


    ¡°Even with my time besides my son, my comprehension of otherworldly demons pales in comparison to your own, so I will not attempt to guess further as to not inhibit your own imagination. Instead, I would report on the state of the Kong Prison Realm.¡±


    ¡®Is there something going wrong within it?¡¯


    ¡°On the contrary, after the resurgence of planar energy as a result of your actions, there have been a few major changes to certain fields. The fields of low and medium grade planar flora appear to have spontaneously developed several new types of herbs and plants that are of higher grades, quality, and some that I and the portions of the library you have permitted me to view have no knowledge of.¡±


    ¡®Spontaneously? Even with you looking over things, the spatial realm still produced something without you noticing¡­¡¯


    ¡°I believe this to be a change caused by the nature of the world itself. When the world lost a great deal of planar energy density, the herbs that had relied upon it must have withered and wilted. Now that it is returning to earlier states, those plants are able to return through the energy influencing the weaker types of herbs during their growth. Once the quantity and density of planar energy rises sufficiently, the high-grade items will likely change in a similar manner.¡±


    ¡®No, I can understand that, I was just amazed that something of the sort can be overlooked. I¡¯d have imagined fireworks going off as the superior variants of plants occur within the gardens. Is the same happening in Paragon and in the mines beneath it, or is it limited only to the Kong Prison Realm?¡¯ Wei Yi asked.


    For a moment, the spatial spirit smiled at her comment, but her expression quickly returned to normal.


    ¡°The same is occurring in the fortress, and, likely, once the quantity of planar energy rises more within the rest of the world, the same changes will occur if they haven¡¯t already. The other forces of the world will get access to the kinds of things that you had been able to produce with your energy.¡±


    ¡®That was obviously going to happen, although the fact that it occurs right in our gardens is not ideal for capitalising on it more quickly than the other forces. Fortunately, our theoretical ability to grab up the Chao and Bai Districts quickly, then potentially get to the Luo and Ping Districts as well means that we will have the advantage of numbers, since no other individual district ¨C save for the Fu District, perhaps ¨C will be able to accumulate that much in such a short amount of time,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, although she quickly brought up the negative side to that, ¡®The moment that they figure it out, they will be that much less keen to join in.¡¯


    ¡°Indeed. One, two, or three districts can be managed, but the larger the number, the riskier it will be. Allowing for an extremely dominant force to rise will scare the Patriarchs, who will then have the thought of siding with the Great Families just to balance things out. In theory, taking more districts more quickly may not even be a positive option.¡±


    ¡®It depends on how strong and united we appear, and really are. If it looks like the alliance of the Chao, Bai, Ping, Luo and the Ascendant will break at any moment, joining in just to be able to rob our treasuries the moment that the alliance goes south may seem like a good idea. Otherwise, it would seem better to stand aside or to join the other side, as to not allow a strong alliance to grow stronger,¡¯ she thought, looking towards the Chao District.


    At that point, they were finally getting close enough for the majority of their forces to be able to make out the walls of the district in the distance, as well as glimpse of the situation that was occurring at one of the walls.


    For Wei Yi and the Bai Patriarch, the sight was even clearer, as the former could make out that one of the people on the ground was clearly staring right towards them with his hands behind his back, standing tall and proud as he waited for their arrival. Judging by the clothing of the figure, he was likely to be the Chao Patriarch, and thus his realm would be the seventh realm, making him the figure that Wei Yi needed to either converse with, or best in some fashion. Considering how the Chao family tend to be, the latter was more likely, but she did know that the Chao weren¡¯t simply idiots.


    It was for that reason that she made sure that the Bai Patriarch had no bad relations to the Chao, since that would affect the optimal approach.


    Speaking of the approach, with just a single question and reply, they had made it far closer to the Chao District than they had been the moment before, and thus the time nearly came for Wei Yi to stop, which she did as soon as they were a few dozen metres from the small group outside of the walls, throwing up a large wave of sand that headed directly towards the Chao Patriarch.


    He didn¡¯t bother with it, only with scanning Wei Yi with his spiritual perception.


    To his surprise, the moment that he tried to get too close to her specifically, his spiritual perception was met with a strong wall of crimson and silver, which he could push and press against, but that he couldn¡¯t simply breach. It was sturdier than his own purified energy, giving him no choice but to withdraw due to his lack of alternate methods for utilising his spiritual perception and the spiritual will that supported it.


    Wei Yi, meanwhile, suppressed a frown as she realised that when a seventh realm expert attempted to investigate her, his energy proved notably stronger than she had been expecting. The Bai Patriarch had also looked over her, but she had mostly shielded her own body only with the assistance of her other forms of energy, but she decided to stop the spiritual perception of the Chao Patriarch some distance from her, without making use of her other forms of energy. Thus, she got to see that his energy was far purer, stronger, and partly golden in appearance, whereas the spiritual energy of the typical sixth realm cultivator was far weaker.


    That alone gave her a hint of the change between it and the seventh realm, ¡®Spiritual perception is strengthened with each realm, so the seventh must be particularly special in that regard¡­¡¯


    She didn¡¯t pursue it right now, instead walking forward to meet the Chao Patriarch half-way from her current position, keeping the sand away from her and her Bai District forces with some more of her killing will.


    ¡°Are you the Ascendant, woman?¡±


    ¡°I am Wei Yi, Ascendant, Conqueror, and so on. The Chao District likes straightforward matters, so I had asked my Arbiters to provide you with one. Were you dissatisfied with it?¡± Wei Yi asked back.


    ¡°Simple matters, you say? If that is what you were going for, then you should know that we have a particular belief about leadership. When a leader wishes something done, they must participate in it themselves. Despite that, you sent out some abomination of nature clearly infused with a demonic technique-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t start with that. Simple matters don¡¯t require needless accusations, or, in other words, bullshit. If you want to fight me, or to repeat the same test of strength with me, then just say so, you ancient thing,¡± Wei Yi did frown then, one hand reaching back for a chain but stopping short of it.


    She could also put her understanding of the Dao of Law to use in this situation, but as the primary ability of the chains to restrict her foes was currently actuated through the principle of the God Burial Sea, all she¡¯d be able to do was hinder the man before her for a single moment. Even though her cultivation had risen, it wouldn¡¯t be enough for her to take him down in some convincing and defining showcase of her strength and would thus not be effective.


    Also, a glance from Jia Rong and Great Dark, first at one of the other Chao members followed by a look towards the Chao Patriarch and her, confirmed in her mind that this was likely not the first attempt to randomly insult and accuse another person for the sake of some personal advantage, of perhaps just their entertainment.


    ¡°That¡¯s the kind of behaviour I¡¯d expect from the Ping District, really.¡±


    ¡°Then tell me, woman, are you qualified to attempt any kind of test with, no, against me? You¡¯d be putting your faction on the line, so I don¡¯t think that you¡¯d want to throw it away.¡±


    ¡°Qualified? What is that supposed to mean?¡±


    ¡°Simple. What is your realm, and do you really think that any part of your body could compete with my weakest finger? If you are not as strong as the thing that you had brought out of some primordial pit of monstrosities, then I see no reason for me to care about this or about the initial bet that you had attempted to make,¡± the Chao Patriarch said, straightening his back further, ¡°Judging by your spiritual energy, you-¡±


    ¡°Do shut your mouth, oh moronic Patriarch. Must we check your lineage to confirm whether you originate from the Ping District? No? Then stop playing at clever deductions and contemplations. You are clearly not very good at them, and I would suggest that you stop before you embarrass yourself.¡±


    Despite the tone she had spoken with, she was anything but polite, nearly prompting the Chao Patriarch and the two that stood on the wall and in the sand to outright attack them. Before they had the chance to move, she dispelled the barrier of energy and simultaneously activated her physique and bloodline power, supplementing it with her killing will and then further amplifying her strength with her cosmic energy. Altogether, none of that left her body or even attempted to harm the Patriarch directly, but he had still felt it.


    At the moment that all of that power began to flow through her body, the sand around her had been thrown apart, as if a heavy object had just fallen from the sky upon her position. A sudden and immense force surged out of her, and her very presence transformed from one that he couldn¡¯t help but see as weak to one that blatantly radiated might.


    ¡°So, Chao Patriarch, are you going to showcase the strength of the district, or have you lost your nerve?¡±


    He opened his mouth to speak, but she acted first, slightly raising one finger of her right hand to cause her spiritual will to raise a table out of the ground, which she instantly reinforced with the Shaper¡¯s Grasp and cooked into glass with her yang physique energy, amplifying it all with law.


    Unlike the simple block that the group including Great Dark and Great Light had been able to create, this was undistinguishable from a normal table that one might find within the home of a reasonably affluent individual, and even included convenient places for them to rest their elbows while they attempted to push down one another¡¯s hands.


    Without caring about his reaction, she went up to the side of the table and waved towards it.


    ¡°If you think that I¡¯m trying to cheat, then you can pick whichever side you want. All I care about is that you get on with it, so that your district may finally prosper without you slowing it down.¡±


    The Chao Patriarch was grinding his teeth together in frustration, since his typical intimidating aura not only had no effect on her but was also overwhelmed entirely by the mad combination of energy within her body, and decided to occupy the spot that Wei Yi might have been at had she approached the table directly from the front rather than the side. If one of the sides was more likely to be unbalanced in some way, presumably to her favour, it would be this one.


    ¡°Fine. Any other complaints you might want to throw out before you end up losing and throwing them out then? If you don¡¯t say it now, there are two armies here that can confirm your own frailty and inability to accept a loss ¨C twice if I win. At that point, even if I don¡¯t get to work beside the Chao District, I would suspect that some members of your family would be very keen to replace you.¡±


    ¡°Just stop and get on with it! Come on!¡±


    ¡°There we go. That¡¯s what I¡¯d been hoping for after interacting with the Hammers, so it is quite amazing how long this took,¡± the Ascendant muttered, taking her place and grasping the Patriarch¡¯s hand.


    He stared at her for a little while, she just shut her eyes and didn¡¯t bother staring back. She could have done a number of things to push matters in her own favour, but Wei Yi understood her own strength well enough, as well as knowing that just as she could take advantage of the words of others, the Chao could also take offence to her supposed pursuit of simplicity before involving treachery. It, like many things, wouldn¡¯t help her get along with the district.


    Instead, she waited for him to apply any degree of force, and the moment that she felt his planar energy flow throughout his body, she gripped his hand even more tightly and directed all of her energy throughout her arm, applying all of the force she had within her body to overpower him before he had a chance to attempt the same.


    Only a moment later, the sound of yet another hastily created piece of furniture breaking was heard.


    Wei Yi had forced the Patriarch¡¯s hand into the table with such force that she had broken the glass despite all of her own reinforcement to it.

 V4C48: Preliminary Alliance

    ¡°Fuck.¡±


    ¡°Anything else, or are we going to get along now?¡± Wei Yi asked the Chao Patriarch, who looked down upon the broken table in despair.


    ¡°This makes no sense¡­ Have you been eating miracle fruits your entire life?¡±


    ¡°I know someone who has, but no, that¡¯s not the case. However, you¡¯re changing the subject again. Will the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, the Bai District, and your Chao District be able to unite together and oppose the Great Families on good terms, or will you make things far more complicated than they ever need to be?¡± she asked again.


    ¡°Even then, the peak of the fourth realm¡­¡±


    Wei Yi had been at the sixth stage of Active Core when she had departed to the Bai District, but now that she had arrived at the Chao District, her cultivation had risen all the way to the peak of the fourth realm during the journey, surprising the Bai Patriarch each time that she had a breakthrough. With one more breakthrough, she would be able to reach the fifth realm, significantly advancing her overall power, but she was not only reluctant to act upon it now, but she also found that the plentiful resources that she had been consuming on her way over were quickly proving to be less and less effective for her.


    It was getting ridiculous at this point, since she was already actively feeding upon the energy of the sixth realm for the sake of cultivation, and there wasn¡¯t much for the seventh realm and above out there at the moment.


    If she needed that to go past the fifth realm, she would need to find some otherworldly gift just for the sake of cultivating further, putting herself at greater potential risk just to have some chance of advancement. Fortunately enough for her, it was the first four realms that relied the most on increasing the quantity of one¡¯s energy, while the fifth, sixth and seventh did more to strengthen it instead. It would still require for her to collect more energy than she already had, but it would be easier.


    Even then, she was already gobbling up enough pills and resources to supply a hundred more people just to advance by a few stages. Adding more would be rather terrifying.


    ¡°Do stop already. I¡¯ll just borrow some things from you, we¡¯ll start trading, I¡¯ll occupy a spatial stabilisation point, and then you might occasionally need to come out to look strong. That¡¯s it.¡±


    The Chao Patriarch still looked hesitant, especially when he glanced at his hand that was still marked by the shards of the shattered glass table, but he eventually sighed and relented, ¡°If that is all that your Arbiters want from the Chao District, then it can be permitted. If we are attacked as a result of your actions, your Arbiters must fight alongside us. If you wish to make us participate in any battle that is not in our interest, we must be rewarded appropriately!¡±


    ¡°Again, your heritage interests me greatly. Were you raised by the Chen family?¡± Wei Yi inquired jokingly, although she returned to seriousness the moment that the Patriarch seemed intent to say something, ¡°If you haven¡¯t noticed, the quantity of planar energy in the world has risen quite significantly. That was due to me, my actions, and my victories against the Great Families. If you assist us in any way ¨C although the spatial nexus is mandatory ¨C then the whole district will benefit from more energy, a higher quality of energy, and even the potential for beneficial mutations within any materials that may be being grown and harvested here. Also, out of everyone, you¡¯re the only one that would ever really need to participate in combat unless the Greats are chasing down every last one of us.¡±


    ¡°So long as these conditions aren¡¯t broken, I shall agree. However, you must stop with the accusations regarding my ancestry.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Just because you have a stronger arm and faster reaction time than I do, it doesn¡¯t mean that you can do as you like, Ascendant. I can defeat you with ease, and end your entire rebellion against¡­ the Great Families? Are they a kind of group whose name should be known?¡±


    ¡°Of course not, so that is why you should¡­ no, I will prompt all of the district to say it all at once. I think it would be highly amusing,¡± Wei Yi grinned, leaping onto the sandstone wall of the Chao District and touching one of the chains that connected to the inscriptions of the district, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t mind if I announce something to the district, would you?¡±


    She asked the question, but she didn¡¯t bother to confirm it with him before activating the inscription of the Chao District and then further amplifying her voice to ensure that there wouldn¡¯t be a single person out there that would be able to miss her words. Although she could do as she had in the Bai District, she thought that this wouldn¡¯t be the best idea, so she instead decided to provoke interest instead.


    With a smile, she spread her voice to the entire district, ¡°The Great Families.¡±


    Wei Yi did not continue immediately after that, instead keeping quiet as she waited for her words to be processed by the people of the district.


    It took a while, but she could soon hear and sense most people looking to one another or otherwise muttering the words to themselves, trying to understand just what someone could gain from suddenly sharing such a cryptic thing. The silence gave them no indication of any continuation to the message, and so conversation was bound to erupt, especially when the words were tinged with Law.


    As they spoke to one another, the Ascendant grinned while she pondered just how the Greats must be feeling as their method of observing the world must have pointed out to them how their name was mentioned time and time again.


    ¡°Have you ever wondered where the majesty of the past had gone? Where the powerful planar energy, incredible beasts and spatial materials had gone, and why they had disappeared?¡± she asked again, allowing for another pause while she looked over the district and saw a number of figures emerge from their homes to see just who was speaking to them and why, ¡°I have an answer for you. The Great Families have been capturing the energy of the world and using it to fuel their anchors, creating enormous numbers of children that they then sacrificed in order to provide a single pair with more than thirty anchors each. They take away techniques, materials, and people to keep themselves in power.¡±


    Had the district had an inscription for the purpose of illusory manifestation, she would have filled all of it with her memories as to give her words more believability, but she needed to make do with what was available. As such, she limited herself to pauses and broad statements to bring up intrigue in a way that couldn¡¯t be argued against without a full understanding of the true situation, and even then, she said nothing false.


    Sure, the anchor energy that she obtained was present in all anchors, and the otherworldly demons with unique anchors had even more points of energy than that, but she had never said that this was something unique to the Greats. Other factions also obviously hid away techniques, but that did not contradict the basic statement that she had made. Materials, people and ancient entities were also obviously captured by them and others alike, and given their strength, the Greats had likely done a lot to wipe out the remnants of the ancient entities within the world.


    Their Testament also likely required plenty of spatial materials in order to be created, not to mention all of the functions that it possesses due to the arrays within.


    ¡°The Chao District, with the endorsement of the Chao Patriarch, will fight against them alongside the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. You will receive techniques, resources, and defensive assistance from them, and once the Great Families are defeated, the districts of Yi City will be able to reunite with one another as they had been a million years ago,¡± Wei Yi proclaimed, ¡°I¡¯ll let him tell you that.¡±


    She tossed the chains that she had been using to interact with the inscription over to the Patriarch, although to him it just manifested as a spiritual energy link to the inscription being passed along to him, which didn¡¯t do him much good when none of the energy necessary to activate the inscription was included. Although he did have a moment to question just how she had been able to make use of the inscription in such a state, he was forced to quickly focus on the usage of the inscription itself to ensure that the people weren¡¯t simply left in the dark.


    While Wei Yi carefully monitored what he was saying, just to ensure that he didn¡¯t mess anything up, intentionally or otherwise, she turned to Jia Rong, appearing at her side without a sound.


    ¡°Hey. How did it go?¡±


    The demonic woman trembled for a moment, both from her sudden movement and the gazes of the two strongest figures in the Chao District being strictly focused upon them, but she was able to reply, ¡°I managed to defeat one of them easily¡­ I had no idea that my body had gone to such an extent that the strongest people of one of these cities-¡±


    ¡°Districts. They are all part of a single Yi City, so it wouldn¡¯t make sense to have cities in a city.¡±


    ¡°Right. I had no idea that I¡¯d be able to accomplish that without ever realising that he¡¯d begun¡­ I had noticed that he had begun to push only by his muscles bulging,¡± Jia Rong muttered, ¡°By the way, is that what most people look like in the world today? I mean, apart from Great Dark and Great Light.¡±


    ¡°Like what? If you mean the muscles, then no, that¡¯s mostly the Chao District¡¯s people, if it¡¯s the skin, then that¡¯s what northerners look like, and if it¡¯s something else, I can¡¯t really guess what you mean.¡±


    ¡°I mean¡­ well¡­ um¡­¡± Jia Rong stood there for a while, fidgeting and nibbling at her lip, before she got closer and lowered her voice, ¡°Do you mind if I whisper it to you? I¡­ I don¡¯t really feel comfortable saying it in front of everyone.¡±


    That had a few implications, but for the sake of the demonic woman getting more open about any issues, she got closer and surrounded the two of them with a basic barrier to block out any unwanted listeners, ¡°Alright, I blocked away and attempts to listen in on us, so feel free to share whatever matter concerns you. I cannot promise a good answer or solution to any problems, but I will do my best for you.¡±


    ¡°T-Thanks¡­ Well, I¡¯m at that age, right?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I think I know a few places where this might be going. Is this something that would be better discussed inside?¡±


    ¡°No, not if there¡¯s a barrier¡­ My mother and father, they had said that when I grow up, I¡¯d probably find a boyfriend, and¡­ hm¡­¡± the demonic woman struggled to get the words out, but that did narrow things down to a certain extent.


    Seeing as the Chao Patriarch was doing well enough on his own and didn¡¯t require interference, Wei Yi brought her a little further away from the walls and then transmitted a request for her forces to move away to give them a little more space. Even if it was something minor, there was no particular reason to embarrass the woman by letting a number of people to stare upon her.


    They¡¯d gone towards the Arbiters, so the other group, consisting of the Bai District¡¯s forces, who had emerged and had been rather surprised to witness the situation conclude seemingly without them needing to take a single action. Due to the urgency with which they had moved towards this district in the first place, it had been rather natural to presume that they would need to partake in some kind of combat here, and yet all that they were faced with was an alliance being formed with them, the Chao, and the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters.


    Still, when they saw that the Arbiters took a step back, they did the same, with the Bai Patriarch retreating to the position of the forces from his district.


    ¡°Which part of that is troubling you?¡±


    ¡°Uhm¡­ Are- no, am I supposed to be finding men like that handsome? I¡­ I don¡¯t really see anything like that¡­¡±


    ¡®Oh boy. Have I accidentally flooded her mind with my wayward thoughts, or did I just happen upon another person that happens to have those kinds of preferences?¡¯ Wei Yi wondered, being fully aware that if the theory of Dao having branches was indeed correct, she was almost certainly comprehending the lesbian branch of it.


    She also knew that her Dao could influence others without them or her even being aware of it, so it was hardly impossible that a girl that had spent far too long underground was driven towards particular kinds of thoughts as a result of her undesired influence.


    ¡°Alright, let me first ask something. You were seventeen when you were locked away, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Did this matter never occur to you? Puberty occurs from twelve to sixteen or eighteen, so these kinds of matters usually come to one¡¯s attention.¡±


    ¡°We lived far away from the villages around us, so I didn¡¯t often interact with kids my age¡­ I had seen a few people when my mother was healing them, but I never tried speaking to them¡­ Was I supposed to have been talking to people?¡± Jia Rong suddenly realised, looking at her with alarm, ¡°My mother did tell me to talk to some of them, but I was always too afraid to do so¡­¡±


    ¡®That is just¡­ What kind of unfortunate life were you living before you were imprisoned? Even I managed to converse with some people, even if some were absolute perverts like that Yi Kun¡­ Hold on, have I been surrounded by people with the same preferences as mine since the Yi District without realising it?¡¯ Wei Yi recalled the tailor girl, Yi Kun, and a number of other figures who had all expressed an interest in those kinds of things with various degrees of subtlety, ¡®Has someone been forcing the Dao of Lust onto me all along? If so, targeting a teenager is fucked up, just so you know, mysterious figure.¡¯


    ¡°Don¡¯t start throwing the blame at me, girl. I think that it¡¯s just your world, since I only got here later and you still had a whole bunch of appropriately-aged suitors after you.¡±


    A figure with hair covering their right eye and revealing their violet left eye muttered to herself, looking down at the world below her. She gripped a katana with a black blade tightly as she looked out into the void, her brow furrowing while she saw something that most did not.


    ¡°You see, people have preferences when it comes to their partners. For most, they prefer the opposite sex, since that is typically the only reasonable approach for having heirs, children, and just generally getting the most out of things,¡± explained Wei Yi, trying to skirt around the kinds of topics that she certainly wouldn¡¯t have avoided had this person been someone that didn¡¯t freeze in time in their head, ¡°However, it is also possible to have an interest in both, or the same sex. That being said, don¡¯t jump to conclusions.¡±


    ¡°What conclusions?¡±


    ¡°Take your time to get used to the world and explore things on your own. Perhaps this kind of person is not one of interest to you, or perhaps you are finding it difficult to focus on anything even vaguely romantic due to the current state of the world and your own body, or maybe you are focusing too much on someone and that is twisting your view of things.¡±


    ¡°I could never focus too much on my saviour!¡± Jia Rong exclaimed, looking up at her with gleaming eyes.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t even say anything specific, so don¡¯t blame me for making assumptions.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d never blame you. So, um, if it is possible that I, uh, like girls, then-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t jump to conclusions, Jia Rong. Also, we will talk about this later, since I doubt that this is the right place for this whether or not I have done literally everything possible to obscure a single trace of what we are saying to one another,¡± Wei Yi said, gently placing a finger on the demonic woman¡¯s lips while she turned and dispelled the barrier she had made, ¡°So, Chao Patriarch, will you be showing me to your treasury any time soon?¡±


    ¡°You hid away and didn¡¯t even give me a chance to read your lips? How am I supposed to know that you didn¡¯t plan something nefarious?¡± the Patriarch of the Chao District asked back.


    ¡°I had already requested you to stop, did I not? I can break through on this very spot, right now, and I can guarantee at least one major explosion as a result of it, as well as the possibility of some insane searing mark or other phenomenon.¡±


    ¡°That is not a common threat in this part of the world.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t really care. The point is that the alliance has been made, and I think that I and everyone else deserve the right to privacy when we want it. If you want to know about every little detail of what your allies do, I wonder how you¡¯re able to rest when there must be plenty of enemies to be listening to at all times,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Where is the treasury of the Chao District?¡±


    The Patriarch huffed and shook his head, but still replied, ¡°I can show it to you, but to none of your Arbiters.¡±


    Since that was a random and arbitrary decision when considering the fact that she was the leader of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and would thus have the freedom and ability to share information with whoever she wanted once she obtained it, she shrugged and didn¡¯t contest it. It was clear that the Patriarch of the Chao District had spent too much time in the Ping District at some point of his life, and that he wouldn¡¯t be getting better any time soon, so she wouldn¡¯t be bothering him about it too much unless he got particularly annoying about something.


    It was easier, for now, to let him take her to the place of interest to her, then slowly develop his trust in the Arbiters as he realised that they didn¡¯t need to steal anything from him and that they might even be more wealthy and capable than the Chao District was overall.


    ¡°Alright, Jia Rong, we can discuss the earlier topic at a later time. For now, stay beside Great Dark,¡± Wei Yi instructed the demonic woman, turning to the Bai Patriarch, ¡°And your district¡¯s forces may follow along to a spatial nexus in the district, which is bound to be close to the Ancestral Hall and also the treasury, since it is likely inside.¡±


    ¡°We shall follow, then,¡± the Bai Patriarch nodded, telling his forces to follow him.


    So that everyone didn¡¯t have to go past the protective barriers of the district and leap onto walls, the Chao Patriarch led them to one of the entrances to the district, assigning a number of guards to keep an eye on them while they were inside of the district. Nobody cared to point out the insufficiency of the guards against someone in the seventh realm, as well as a figure that was capable of going up against the sixth realm while only being in the fourth, since they knew that it would just lead to more time being wasted.


    They were led through the sandstone streets of the district to the Ancestral Hall, but they stopped at the open square beside the hall where an inconspicuous point in the ground was highlighted by the Chao Patriarch.


    All of the troops from the Bai District had little idea what the point was supposed to be, since it differed quite significantly from what they had seen at the Bai District. Even then, they hadn¡¯t seen the usage of that other node, and thus only the Chao Patriarch and Wei Yi had any idea what the usage of the stabilisation node was, and it was only the latter one of them that approached it and kneeled beside it, channelling some energy towards it and feeling for the chains of Law that surrounded it.


    ¡°Has all of the sand worn this thing away, or¡­ ah, I see, so¡­ Hm¡­ I don¡¯t recall this with certainty, but wasn¡¯t this one of the last northern districts constructed by the Master of Yi City?¡± Wei Yi asked the Patriarch.


    ¡°It should have been. Is there some issue that your low cultivation cannot handle?¡±


    ¡°What an antagonistic person you are. Had this been the golden age of Yi City, I do not doubt that all of the other districts would have been intending to come over and capture you for their own sake, and Kong Shi Meng himself would have been tempted to assist them in that regard. Perhaps the Chao family could have been replaced with a Wei family,¡± she shook her head, returning her attention to the stabilisation node, ¡°Now, I think that if I just manipulate this part and adjust to a different structure, then¡­¡±


    She licked her drying lips as she infused her plentiful energy into the ground, igniting the many channels for her energy beneath the ground.


    As they reached some level of activation, she also infused a portion of the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s aura into the stabilisation node, sufficient to allow for the node to affect and connect with the transportation network that she was rapidly creating through the spatial realm. However, she limited the quantity that she directed into it as to prevent any excess aura from leaking out and potentially alerting one of the Greats, if there was one in the vicinity or if they would then pass through the district and notice it.


    Due to her already doing something similar in the Bai District, the people from there finally had an idea of what she was up to, and what the point in the ground was, although that hardly explained why she was doing it.


    At the last district, she had just activated the point but did little else, so it naturally raised questions.


    ¡°Chao Patriarch, Bai Patriarch, would you object if all our factions were able to move between our territories freely, trading and sharing in everything we have?¡± Wei Yi asked, taking a step back from the stabilisation node, ¡°If any of our territories is attacked, the other two should come to assist. If a harvest is particularly fruitful, the other may come to share. That would be fair, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    ¡°You have a spatial realm that is sufficiently stable,¡± the Bai Patriarch simply stated, ¡°I would be interested to see it.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you will not. Not from here, at the very least, or else the Greats would be able to seep in without any issue the moment that they slipped past one of you,¡± she smiled, ¡°However, if you come through to Paragon, perhaps you will be permitted to take a look.¡±


    Without another word, she prompted the stabilisation node to open up a spatial gateway, causing a rift of white and red to appear within the air, slowly widening further and further until it was possible to see something through it. Air and sand blew through the gateway, then back out as the air on both sides stabilised, allowing for the opening in the air to widen much more quickly, reaching the ground in no time.


    On the other side, one could see a few more gateways, although all but one was currently so small that only an ordinary fly could pass through it. Through the gateway that was open as widely as possible, the territory of the Bai District could be seen, with only a little bit of sunlight falling upon it as a result of the damaged canopy above the district. However, the primary focus was naturally on everything around the gateways, that being the oddly rectangular stone structures, the blue planar lamps, and all of the people that were observing the sudden opening of two more gateways within their central plaza.


    Most of them did not have the dark skin of the north, nor did they look particularly sweaty despite the vast wall of sand clearly visible behind the walls of the fortress.


    ¡°Through here, you may enter Paragon, the fortress of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and the ancient place in which the Master of Yi City assisted in wars against the nations that would become minor districts, as well as where he had defended against all kinds of powerful entities seeking to take down the territory of humanity,¡± Wei Yi introduced the people watching, pointing towards the other open gateway, ¡°If you go in there, you can come back to the Bai District freely, although if you wish to see where the other gateways lead, you will need to give a good reason for them being opened for you. Any more questions?¡±


    There were certainly those who were interested to learn more, and they would receive their answers in time, but for now, she took a step through the gateway to prove the fact that it was real. Her foot passed through easily, as did the rest of her body. In an instant, she had crossed countless miles.

 V4C49: The State of the East

    It took some time for things to be organised, and for people to get used to not only the existence of spatial gateways between two districts, but also the presence of an entirely unknown fortress out in the sands that was now occupied by an immensely powerful force. What was immediately obvious to the armed forces of both districts was that guards for merchants would be far less sought after now.


    To cross the great gap between the two districts, all that one needed to do now was just head to the centre of their district, and use the gateway to come over to the other one. If someone was in any danger of being robbed during that action alone, then they may not be a particularly good merchant due to the high risk that anything they may be attempting to sell would be stolen from them. Unless they could somehow sell an item immediately after acquiring it, none of their haggling abilities would have any use.


    Still, the vast majority of warriors had never been focused entirely on guarding traders that usually went between the two districts ¨C none of them were present in the area, at the very least, as they were presumably out focusing on guarding those very traders as they journeyed between the Chao and Bai Districts ¨C so it wouldn¡¯t affect them all that much. There were still plenty of sand planar beasts out there that could be slain and harvested for some degree of profit, so it was all fine.


    For most of these people, what was far more interesting and intriguing were the gateways through which they could only see faint glimpses of something.


    Naturally, despite what Wei Yi had said, many had attempted to peer or outright breach the gateways, with most doing so in what they thought to be an inconspicuous way, perhaps failing to realise that even if they stood at their district and acted calmly, they would still be noticed. The gateways that were opened up within their district weren¡¯t mere routes of transportation, but were also ways for the Ascendant to spy upon even those in the seventh realm without them having a single clue that she was doing it.


    While it wasn¡¯t as effective as the stabilisation node in Paragon, which allowed her to look over the entire fortress due to directly anchoring the Kong Prison Realm upon it, she was still able to reach out with her spiritual perception from any one of the gateways as if she was standing right inside of it, reaching out for hundreds of metres without issue.


    As the nature of her spiritual perception made it nearly invisible, and since it was channelled through the gateways rather than through her own body, anybody that was able to pick up on it would likely presume it to be the consequence of the gateways rather than something that she was up to. Most people didn¡¯t have a spatial realm within their dantian, after all, nor would they imagine that someone at the peak of the fourth realm would have a highest-grade spatial realm just sitting within their dantian as if it wasn¡¯t some precious commodity. Furthermore, very few owners of spatial realms had gateways to work with, and so they wouldn¡¯t know exactly how they worked.


    One thing that gateways were highly effective against was blocking people from entering, especially when the power of stabilisation nodes was combined with a high-grade spatial realm, a seventh realm spatial spirit, and a powerful Endless Monolith overlooking the Kong Prison Realm.


    Due to this, none of the attempts to breach the gateways succeeded, and all that they did get to witness was the gateway expand to permit the people of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters through them.  The moment that one of them attempted to enter while someone else was going through, a powerful force threw them away so that they stopped meddling with things.


    Eventually, they did get tired of attempting things that wouldn¡¯t have a single chance of working at their realm and returned to the districts to which they belonged, with the Chao Patriarch and the Bai Patriarch being asked to return the next day, after sunrise. There were things that needed to be done, but they could only be worked on after all of the soldiers had a rest, and everyone had the opportunity to get used to the new state of things.


    The problem with attempting to gobble up as many districts into an alliance as early as possible was that none of them would have a reason to trust that this would last, even with spatial-level abilities.


    So long as there were enough districts, one could easily decide to take advantage of the situation, rob the others, then forcefully shut down the spatial gateway and either use the items acquired for their own benefit, or effectively donate them to the Greats in the hopes of earning rewards. Whether or not they would actually get anything was an entirely different matter, since all that would be needed to cause such a reaction was a loose alliance with too many members to be certain about their relations with one another.


    Although Wei Yi might be able to get more of them onto her side if she rushed to as many different districts as possible in the hopes of finding amicable Patriarchs or something akin to what she found in the Bai District, it would then be far more fragile than a smaller alliance.


    It was also more difficult to get groups on her side when there was little backing to her faction, which would be improved once it was known that the Bai and Chao Districts both joined her side. Then, less effort would be required to pull in those that are already predisposed against the Greats, and the districts that are of another mind about them would also have more of a reason to presume that they would be risking too much by not joining the Arbiters, rather than the other way around.


    To put it another way, she essentially needed to decrease the uncertainty about her own group until it was far clearer in the eyes of the Patriarchs of the other districts, and provide the information that would make them more inclined to side with her. She was already doing that by being as straightforward and open about her intentions as she could be, and would keep making more and more about herself known the more districts she ventured into and got some allies in. With several Patriarchs and districts behind her, while her own strength wouldn¡¯t be fully explained, it would be backed up in a way that all people of Yi City understood.


    She was also looking to reduce her own uncertainty about matters, so, after she had been delayed by the Chao District¡¯s spatial stabilisation point, she decided to take a close look at both it and the one in the Bai District, which had proved significantly easier to use than the other point.


    For the guarantee of accuracy, she made sure to look over things herself, and not through the gateways, just in case the presence of her anchor, core, and physical body allowed her to uncover something of interest. Although the Bai Patriarch was cautious about her activities, as he was right to be, he settled on staying away from them as he had no use for the stabilisation point in the foreseeable future, and wouldn¡¯t care whether it was damaged or even outright destroyed unless the Arbiters won.


    In that case, they would have plenty of access to spatial materials, since the energy of the world would rise with them and repairing a mere stabilisation point would be easy.


    Even then, she didn¡¯t see much of a reason to be observed with such scrutiny, as she wasn¡¯t even intending to take apart the spatial stabilisation point. All that she focused on was the channels inside of the stabilisation point, as well as how it connected to the arrays around it, where it supplied some degree of energy and where it was provided energy.


    The points were interesting in that they were actually rather difficult to distinguish from the arrays around them without very careful scrutiny, or the knowledge of what they looked like and where they were placed. It was very likely that she had come across more of these in the previous districts that she had visited, and that there might have even been a large number of other points in the two districts that she had managed to ally the Arbiters with, but they were very difficult to spot due to their particular structure.


    So far, all three points that she had gotten to interact with lacked any precious materials such as spatial metal, at least as far as she was able to tell, and were effectively part of other arrays or inscriptions. They acted upon a connection with a spatial realm and allowed a breach in space to expand and become more stable through the dual forces of the point itself as well as the array that it was connected to, with even the Chao District¡¯s node being connected to an array which simply acted much like an inscription.


    This kind of system was rather interesting to observe, but it did make the matter of understanding the exact nature of a stabilisation point rather difficult. Each one differed from the other in the exact way they acted upon space, even while achieving identical results, and had very different structures.


    The stabilisation point at Paragon was obviously the most refined from her perspective, as it fused perfectly with the enormous array that the fortress was all part of and had the simplest network of channels within it. That meant that Kong Shi Meng had gotten better at the creation of these nodes by the time that he got around to making the fortress, which, considering the fact that it would have been built after the Chao and Bai Districts, only made sense. Then, the one at the Bai District was similar, implying either that they had managed to create a decent point by accident or that the point may have been rebuilt after the one at Paragon with the newfound knowledge from that time.


    As she had noticed before, the Chao District¡¯s stabilisation point was notably different from the other two, and looked to have more complex channels intertwining with one another in a web that was also quite a bit larger than the stabilisation points of the other district, as well as the fortress. It was essentially as crude as the majority of the Chao family¡¯s creations were believed to be by those that had never encountered them. Judging from the construction of this particular stabilisation node, perhaps those stereotypes weren¡¯t unearned or undeserved.


    ¡®Indeed, it might be that this point has been created not by Kong Shi Meng, but by some other individual, attempting to learn from his creation and improve it without comprehending the basics of arrays or inscriptions, thus adding more instead of decreasing the overall complexity of the stabilisation point,¡¯ she thought while looking over the node.


    The Master of Yi City might have been one of the first to bring humanity to the peak of the seventh realm and beyond, but once everyone else figured out what they were doing, others could have begun to create their own spatial items and nodes to interact with them. It was likely that the latest districts would have completed the largest number of such nodes on their own, thus meaning that they wouldn¡¯t have the same level of quality as the creations of the Master of Yi City due to their inability to make use of an incredibly powerful otherworldly gift to calculate the optimal method for arranging spatial nodes for them.


    In fact, the modern Patriarchs might not even be aware of the exact number and nature of most of these nodes, so the Chao Patriarch showed her to the one that he knew, while the Bai Patriarch did the same for a different node.


    Whether the node at the Bai District was one made by Kong Shi Meng or one that the Bai family had simply managed to create with a reasonable degree of quality was another matter, and not one she wished to guess at yet. At the moment, while she was able to benefit from the stabilisation nodes, she wouldn¡¯t fully understand them until she got anywhere near to properly comprehending and sensing spatial fluctuations like someone in the seventh realm could. With her unique state, it might only require the sixth realm, but it would still not be immediate.


    Until she understood such things as more than mere concepts, she wouldn¡¯t be able to realise the true differences between the various spatial nodes around the world and couldn¡¯t use them fully.


    ¡°So, how long are you going to be staring at this? You may not be standing in the way, but a lot of people have gathered around to observe you,¡± the Bai Patriarch¡¯s voice suddenly reached her, with his figure appearing by her side as he calmly shooed away the people that had begun to gather around her, ¡°Is there anything that you¡¯ve obtained from it?¡±


    ¡°You were fine with simply sitting about and watching, so I assumed that you didn¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°Perceiving that from such a distance¡­ As new allies, could you not share exactly how you have managed to accomplish something like this?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Wei Yi said, rising and promptly turning away, ¡°I can allow everyone in the alliance, meaning everyone within the districts that have sided with the Arbiters, to obtain power through that exact same route. All I need is a bit of time to prepare a way to do this without instantly killing the vast majority of the population through the sheer pain of the process. It is not a particularly calm process if done the way I did it.¡±


    ¡°What an¡­ enigmatic response,¡± the Bai Patriarch muttered.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t figured things out yet, so I can¡¯t really offer you much more than that. I could explain the basic premise, but if your spiritual perception still hasn¡¯t managed to breach everything I¡¯ve got, I¡¯m doubting that you¡¯ll understand much.¡±


    ¡°You are looking down upon the seventh realm. I may not be able to go through everything that you have around you, but there are a number of things that you may have no knowledge of. For instance, are you aware of the fundamental change that occurs to one¡¯s spiritual perception upon the entry to the seventh realm?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Intending to trade for information, are you? Fine, I don¡¯t mind. I do know that, although I have not had the chance to experiment with things. I noticed that your fellow Patriarch from the Chao District proved to have an oddly strong spiritual perception in comparison to what I had thought it would be, and if that extends to planar energy, it would be rather challenging to oppose the first generation of the Great Families due to the multiplicative effect of their multiple anchors ¨C although their spiritual perception would also be insanely powerful in comparison¡­¡± Wei Yi theorised while she had actually kept her attention on the spatial node, ¡°Now you have to tell me even more.¡±


    She didn¡¯t bother hiding her smile, mostly since she didn¡¯t consider him an essential source of information. With enough experimentation, she could easily learn the same from Yi Shi Ming, even if she didn¡¯t know much about her own realm due to her unique circumstances. The only thing that she needed from him was knowledge that only the family and the Patriarch of a district may know, and even then, only the Bai family¡¯s information was important.


    After all, she had another Patriarch to speak to already, and the more alliances she acquired and the more leader figures amongst the districts she met, the more chances she would have to learn the information that any Patriarch knew. In that case, unless there was something absolutely essential to study at this very moment, she would rather establish herself as someone that couldn¡¯t easily be ¡®fucked with¡¯, since that would ensure that she wouldn¡¯t be perceived as someone that could be pushed around if the Patriarchs wanted to.


    The Bai Patriarch gave her a look, but proceeded nonetheless, ¡°The texts of the Bai District mention that the spiritual perception of the seventh realm can also be called divine sense. Care to guess why?¡±


    ¡°It likely becomes sufficiently powerful to endure significantly more strenuous operations, a little like how spiritual perception of the first realm becomes sufficient to activate arrays and inscriptions upon entry to the second realm. Alternatively, it looks golden and thus partly divine in some sense.¡±


    ¡°Both. Once it is at the seventh realm, it is likely highly that it would be of use in interacting with spatial realms to a greater extent, and that it could properly perceive spatial metal¡­ You¡¯ve likely tried looking for it in the past, have you not? Ever wondered what that material looks like, and where it can be found?¡±


    ¡°I think I understand. I have some personal understanding of spiritual perception, so I can study something like that on my own, if you really don¡¯t want to share anything else.¡±


    ¡°All you¡¯re trying to make me do is tell you things that you actually want to know, aren¡¯t you?¡± the Bai Patriarch said, shaking his head, ¡°Fine, I will be cooperative with you simply because the younger generation needs to-¡±


    ¡°If you join in with your fellow Patriarch, I may need to ask you to stop. It would be best if our alliance could operate on more honest, informal basis, where we just say what we mean instead of acting like immature children¡­ That is what politics are, most of the time. If we don¡¯t need to get involved in it, I don¡¯t see why we should. Leave that to our descendants when they become bored,¡± Wei Yi suggested, ¡°We¡¯re fighting for a world free of the Greats, after all.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, but they are not the only obstacle to our development. If you do not wish to study divine sense, then I can tell you of the Bai District¡¯s neighbours instead. Do you know much about them?¡±


    ¡°That is one field I am less informed about. From what I know, the kingdoms and empires outside of the current borders of Yi City have grown to a large size and have mostly stabilised from the time when they had begun to spread after the Master of Yi City disappeared, although none of them have the same scale as Yi City itself,¡± she said, manifesting her map within the mental domain to take notes.


    The Bai Patriarch nodded, then turned towards the east, looking towards it pensively.


    ¡°For us, the most prominent nation is the Empire of the Dawn, which borders both us and the Jiang District ¨C a fact that must be remembered since the defeat of the Jiang will put us in great danger due to allowing them to surround us,¡± the Patriarch stated, ¡°For that reason, we maintain a patrol around that district, ensuring that their weaker forces wouldn¡¯t lose to any assault from the forces of the Dawn Emperor. Their leader is very militaristic and aggressive, and if he ever stopped targeting the poorly named Coastal Lord¡¯s Kingdom and focused his attention on Yi City, he might make some significant progress.¡±


    ¡®That is indeed a terrible name. A kingdom has a lord instead, which doesn¡¯t make much sense, and describes little about the nation itself, instead talking about a ruler¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought, adding a vague border onto her mental map, ¡°So, how much territory does the Empire of the Dawn have if it is dangerous enough to attack both the Jiang and Bai District? Is it also coastal? Actually, rather than all that, do you have a map I could consult?¡±


    The Empire of the Dawn was a nation that stretched out from the north to the south coast of the northern portion of the Western Continent, with the southern coast being near the coast of the Lan District. It was very narrow by comparison, with it being nearly three times larger from the north to the south than from the west to the east.


    With much of it existing in the Northern Savanna, the Empire of the Dawn didn¡¯t occupy the most fertile regions, needing to rely on the district-sized territory that it had in the Central Plains to feed most of their territory. Many of their soldiers were born and lived in the savanna region, and the portion in the Northern Desert was primary occupied by the craftsmen and blacksmiths of the empire. They did need some place to craft all of their equipment and armour, and they concluded that it was best to let them work in a place that was already hot so that their furnaces and forges wouldn¡¯t need to use up as much coal and the planar materials that they needed for higher grade items.


    As a blacksmith herself, Wei Yi had a few issues with that logic, but it certainly didn¡¯t do the blacksmiths much harm. Creating temperature control inscriptions wasn¡¯t that difficult.


    ¡°So, their armies are primarily in the fourth realm, are they?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is the case. With our legions, defending against them is not impossible, but our group combat techniques are rather costly in planar energy. To oppose large groups that the Empire of the Dawn can lead against us is rather difficult if they keep pushing,¡± the Bai Patriarch admitted, pointing to the map that he had within his residence near the Ancestral Hall.


    The map didn¡¯t cover the entirety of the Western Continent with much detail, leaving it to a large blob, but the relevant regions around the Bai District were incredibly details. To the north-west, it showed the Chao District, then to the south-west, the Ping District was marked with a number of crosses, and then to the south, the Luo District was labelled with a large talisman. Due to the tactical relevance of it, the Jiang District was also included, a long shape not unlike the Empire of the Dawn at a smaller scale, positioned to the north-east of the Jiang District.


    So that he didn¡¯t keep glancing at nothing, Wei Yi released some of her killing will and drew out the map more accurately, using the maps that she had seen before and putting them together into something coherent.


    ¡°There, that should be more accurate. While I¡¯m around, get someone to trace the energy before I leave,¡± she said once her energy settled on the parchment, having already added all of the detail already present to her own mental map as to expand her understanding of the nations outside of Yi City, which were the least reliably tracked by old maps.


    In the past, there were countless small territories outside of Yi City occupied by all kinds of interesting figures, from warlords to kings and emperors. However, after so many years, it seemed that the east of the Western Continent, at least in the region that was attached to Yi City via land and not by sea, had formed into only three individual nations, with the name of the most distant, one that was also not connected to any current Yi City territory by land, not being known due to their inability to influence the Bai District.


    Only if one of the other districts fell or allied with one another in an unexpected way would anything beyond the marked and labelled districts be relevant to the Bai family, or so they had thought.


    Obviously, that was now different as a result of the alliance with the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and thus the Chao District, putting the nations that the district of brawn is near onto the list, as well as the Ju District. With the map provided by Wei Yi, they would obviously alter their field of attention, although they wouldn¡¯t need to pay attention to every single district and outside nation simply due to the fact that they wouldn¡¯t need to have much influence on a district like the Qiang District, even with gateways.


    ¡°As I thought, the two nations are within the former borders of Yi City, and even the other nation that borders both of them is still partially within our great city¡¯s former lands,¡± the Bai Patriarch noted, ¡°A shame.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. In the ideal situation, we¡¯d kick them out as soon as possible and rebuild the minor districts, but unless they are aware of the situation inside of Yi City and will attack the moment that some kind of upheaval occurs, it shouldn¡¯t be a priority for us¡­ Actually, could you get some of your district¡¯s people to spread rumours that we¡¯re all suddenly becoming far more unified? If we appear to be a united group of districts, then the Empire of the Dawn may be inclined to strike at the Coastal Lord¡¯s Kingdom with all of their strength,¡± Wei Yi suggested, highlighting those two regions with her energy, ¡°From my understanding of the situation, the kingdom is primarily within the savanna, so it wouldn¡¯t be too beneficial for the Empire of the Dawn.¡±


    ¡°Apparently, they are highly prosperous due to the fish that they are able to harvest from the ocean. The particular planar beasts that reside and procreate within the coastal areas of the kingdom are supposedly highly nutritious and easy to catch, so they would be highly useful for the Empire of the Dawn if they manage to capture it. That would put them in a powerful place.¡±


    ¡°What realm are the planar fish?¡±


    ¡°If I recall the information correct, they are in the fourth realm, although they have enough to harvest a dozen kilograms per person on the most bountiful days, and still obtain two kilograms per person on the worst days.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a lot of fish¡­ I get the feeling I know what that place smells like quite well¡­¡± she muttered, recalling how she had travelled through the sands with the perfect example, ¡°Anyway, that is better for them than I had assumed, but I still don¡¯t think that this is significant enough. The fourth realm is decent, but with the increases in planar energy density, and the empowerment that I can impose upon the districts allied with us, we may be able to bring our average cultivation to the fifth realm at the least. It would overpower their armies easily enough, especially once we get the Ning family on our side.¡±


    ¡°Would such a thing be easy for your faction?¡±


    ¡°Potentially. The last time I¡¯d been there, they were affected by a faction known as the Mirror Plane Aberrations, and I did take the chance to share a few things about the world and the Great Families while I helped them out with their problem. Depending on what they did with my information, they might be in a very tense state with the Greats,¡± Wei Yi shared, ¡°We will get there in time, although I suspect it won¡¯t be easy.¡±


    ¡°Do you believe that the centre of Yi City will be home to the strongest of the Great Families, or is it simply due to the number of districts that are in our way?¡±


    ¡°Both. Due to the power that the Yi District initially had, the Great Family that resides inside is bound to be the strongest, and their Testament, the place in which their first generation sits around and seals something away, would also be incredibly powerful and wealthy. That strongest family would obviously be the Great Yi, and they even used some rather unusual techniques when I last fought them.¡±


    ¡°Interesting? How so?¡±


    ¡°Instead of point beams and the standard set of techniques, they summoned up a wolven jaw to bite me with. Unfortunately, that was essentially all that I got to see before I was thrown into the Kong Prison Realm, but it should be somehow worthy of study at a later time.¡±

 V4C50: Practise of Dao

    They continued to discuss matters for a little while, but there was only so much to be learned in the night, as the sun set, and the moon shone over the world. On the morning of the next day, there would be another expedition to the south, towards the Luo District, and before then, Wei Yi wanted to experiment with some of the things that she had received as a result of the Bai Ancestral Hall¡¯s mysterious set of challenges.


    Mostly, all that she had obtained was the change to her soul, if that was even what happened, and the three Dao from the three initial figures.


    There were also the cultivation resources that she had taken from the Chao District, which she decided would be most useful to be consumed during that kind of cultivation practise simply due to it permitting her to develop and improve her own control over her own energy while absorbing more of it.


    Also, she had the prisoners from the previous conflict to consider, like Shi Bao Ya, who was still locked up within Paragon and likely being rather scared and confused regarding the situation. After all, nobody would go out to speak with her when they weren¡¯t aware of the situation and how the Flood Kings were going to be dealt with. There weren¡¯t many other prisoners, and the only other person or particular relevance was Huang Yu Di, who had been settled at the edge of the fortress and permitted to wander around just enough to prevent him from being afraid of being locked up without terrifying him in some other way instead.


    His paranoia was quite significant, but it was something that could be resolved, fortunately enough. Unless it became enough of a problem for the entirety of Paragon, Wei Yi would not be attempting to meddle with his mind. That was simply too risky and reckless at the same time, and she had no need to impose herself on people like that.


    Thus, she only had a few matters to resolve, and she decided to get the one of Shi Bao Ya over with before anything else.


    As the owner of the Kong Prison Realm, the spatial realm connected to the ancient fortress created by the same figure as the realm¡¯s creator, she didn¡¯t need to enquire about the cell into which one of the leading figures amongst the Flood Kings of Shi was placed.


    ¡°Hello, Shi Bao Ya. Care to have a chat?¡± Wei Yi asked as she appeared at the doors of the woman¡¯s room.


    Naturally, such a sudden appearance, as if she came out of thin air, was rather shocking even to a knowledgeable cultivator of some years like Shi Bao Ya, who was in the Active Core realm and must have spent quite some time out of the district engaging in difficult training and cultivation to reach the level she was at today. Teleportation was simply impossible for those below the seventh realm, and possibly even for those in that realm, as that was simply too complex a matter.


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t teleport, nor did she engage the capabilities of the master of a spatial realm to simply place herself where she wished to be.


    Rather, she had decided to do exactly as she had been advised to some time ago, and came up with her own method of travel for the fourth realm, as it was about the right time to do so. She would only be in the fourth realm for a little while longer, and she had a perfectly suitable focus for a movement art as well, that being the natural binding of law.


    To move more quickly, she didn¡¯t employ the odd movements necessitated by the techniques that she had seen before this, both from the Yi family elder that had guided the expedition to the Kong District and the Thunder Lord, and instead focused on the principle of Law, since it was essentially the core of everything that she had personally been able to create in the world. The world itself may have been somewhat reluctant to grant her the Full Success of the Dao of Law, but she didn¡¯t need that to achieve her goals.


    The core of her movement method was that of investing energy and obtaining the result she wished of without requiring the time that would typically be taken. Essentially, it was the use of the Dao of Law to skip the process of actual movement, and to end up somewhere far more quickly and with far fewer obstacles than she might otherwise encounter. There was much room for improvement, but for now she was able to infuse all of her movement techniques into the principle and then skip ahead to the outcome. It did cost her more planar energy, since she needed to influence the chains of the world to complete her action before she had a chance to move in the regular manner, as one might upon usage of a typical movement technique.


    Still, with her plentiful planar pool, that much was something that she could afford, and so she did.


    Shi Bao Ya had gasped upon her appearance, but managed to calm herself quickly enough while she rose to her feet and said, ¡°Hey, Wei Yi, right? What exactly happened? Why am I locked up here?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re asking someone that you were intending to attack, just so that you remember. I won¡¯t be blaming you if that is not something that you decided, since your position in the Flood Kings didn¡¯t seem to be higher than that of the other two, but if you¡¯re also interested in wiping out the Hunters of the Cosmos, I don¡¯t think that we will be able to converse as calmly as you¡¯d likely prefer,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°So, do make up your mind now.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t really understand what happened, but¡­ You weren¡¯t being entirely real out in the sandstorm, were you? The whole camp, the claims of you being the Hunters¡­ If that was a lie, then we may not need to be at odds with one another.¡±


    ¡°That may be the case, but it would be easily resolved if you just tell me what your Flood Kings were up to.¡±


    ¡°Our target¡­ No, wait. Before that, the Flood Kings¡­ what happened to the rest?¡±


    ¡°What do you think usually happens in an intense conflict where everyone appears to be intent on killing one another? Death and destruction, save for the latter as it happened in a place where it is impossible to tell what happened after only a few hours due to the constant movement of the sands and dunes,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°Unless there were other members of the Flood Kings elsewhere, you are the only one I know of that still lives.¡±


    ¡°O-Oh¡­ That¡­ Fine. We had come here to track down and hunt down the Perpetuals of the Worm, as our and the Chu District¡¯s people had concluded that they were potentially dangerous. Whether or not they were connected to the Primordial Deities, they were a source of uncertainty for our districts and ones that we wished to get rid of,¡± Shi Bao Ya said, and although her voice had recovered, her posture didn¡¯t. She sat on the bed allowed to her and held her head in her hands, with her palms on her forehead as she stared at the floor without much movement.


    Wei Yi wasn¡¯t going to claim that she didn¡¯t understand the reaction, especially if Shi Bao Ya had been close to some members of the Flood Kings beyond simply knowing their names and abilities, but it wasn¡¯t relevant to her right now. She had a limited amount of time to converse with her, and the woman would have plenty of time to get over the same matters that Wei Yi had previously dealt with after the expedition to the Kong District and the deaths caused by the Greats.


    In fact, it was due to her experience that she had deemed it best to converse with her quickly. The more she sat around and was permitted to have nothing else to ponder about, the worse it would be for Shi Bao Ya.


    Back when Wei Yi had been treading back to the Yi District, and when she had wandered throughout the Kong Prison Realm before she had encountered the Black Terror, she had nothing better to do than ponder her past and present state. That had been rather unfortunate, since it flooded her mental domain with a crimson mist that had been able to contribute to her killing intent cultivation, thus causing it to be significantly more powerful than the killing intent of most, but it was simply not beneficial to her mental state even now. Her arm was still fluctuating into the killing will form to her normal state, and that wouldn¡¯t be an issue had she managed to comprehend her world view without needing to be shaken into it after a number of panicked days.


    The general state that she was currently in, willing to do anything and everything to achieve her goals simply because she believed that they were necessary, was suitable for her goals, but it wouldn¡¯t do well for her afterwards ¨C if there was an afterwards for her, which she would certainly hope for but didn¡¯t necessarily expect. There may be a need for her to sacrifice herself more than she would like.


    ¡°How did the Hunters of the Cosmos get involved, then? You could have stayed out of the fight between us and the 7th Legion.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ You hardly made the best impression¡­¡±


    ¡°I thought I had come off as a very pleasant person. I was very straightforward, showcased most things about me, and didn¡¯t begin the fight until the fucker known as Ping Wu appeared and forced my hand with whatever he was doing,¡± Wei Yi said.


    ¡°About that¡­¡± Shi Bao Ya raised her head, a trace of moisture within her eyes that she pretended wasn¡¯t there, ¡°You appear to be acting as the leader around here¡­ is that actually the case? Are you¡­¡±


    ¡°The way you¡¯re looking at me, it¡¯s almost as if you think that I don¡¯t look like a suitable leader. While I understand that kind of assumption when looking at my appearance back then, when I was intending to make myself look like some kind of brute, I think that my current state is both reasonable and dignified,¡± the Ascendant raised her gauntleted hand and projected a small spiritual energy map into it, looking into it for a moment as to display the full extent of her dignity.


    ¡°Uh¡­ I won¡¯t deny that you do look reasonable at the moment, but your other hand¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s something I¡¯m working on. Anyway, since you appear to have gotten over things for now, let¡¯s get back onto our original topic. On the condition that you share everything you learned from your time in the Flood Kings, I can permit you to wander outside of the prison cell without extensive supervision,¡± Wei Yi claimed, lying without a hint of hesitation, ¡°Otherwise, you will need to reside here for far longer, until the Shi District is allied with us and you lose any reason to attack us even with the gateway opening.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Sorry, what? You¡­ you intend to ally with an entire district? That¡­ this place might be larger than I presume, but that is very unlikely at your realm-¡±


    ¡°Peak of fourth, soon heading to the fifth? Perhaps, and maybe even the involvement of Great Dark and Great Light with their sixth realm might make things challenging. However, that hasn¡¯t stopped the Chao and Bai District from allying with us, so I doubt that it will necessarily be difficult to get together with a district when I understand exactly what they¡¯re concerned about.¡±


    Shi Bao Ya was tempted to ask questions about a number of things that the Ascendant told her, but the last part gave her no option but to immediately inquire about it if she didn¡¯t want to lose her chance, ¡°You¡­ you do?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if it is the same thing, but I had encountered something called the Magnanimous Leech, a technique for cultivating killing intent that leeches upon the features and qualities of others, distorting the self into a perfect form of all that had been absorbed, with their talents, strengths and intellects. The cost is that it forcefully attached itself to the person, and there wasn¡¯t a single thing that could be done to break it away. All that the person who cultivated it was capable of doing was feeding it more and more with each day,¡± Wei Yi shared.


    She appeared within the chamber of Shi Bao Ya while she spoke, doing so quietly so that she didn¡¯t notice, then created an illusory form of the cultivator of the Magnanimous Leech.


    ¡°I¡¯d ask you to guess what her surname was, but that would be far too cruel when you really don¡¯t deserve it. Instead, I can just tell you right away that she was called¡­¡± despite her own words, Wei Yi did pause for a moment as she reverted that illusion to what she supposed one of the three leaders of Beast¡¯s Rest might have looked like when she had first acquired her technique, ¡°Shi Luo Feng.¡±


    Even with the pause, the surname was already clearly revealed to Shi Bao Ya by the mere mention of it. Had the name been anything else, it would have been of no relevance at all to the situation, and Wei Yi could have just moved on with nothing but the allusion to her understanding of the plight of the Shi.


    Now, however, it was clear that the old plague of the Shi family had not ended yet.


    ¡°Even if the name is coincidental, the fact that such a coincidence can occur¡­ What kind of crime have we committed that the heavens punish us like this?¡±


    ¡°No clue, but it is not impossible to deal with the technique if it has been dispelled from a person. With enough effort, I could get rid of it for good, and do so while keeping the good looks of the Shi intact¡­ Theoretically. Depending on your stance on this, I could experiment on you so long as you let me, although I will not force you to. For now, just tell me about the matters of the Shi District, and then my Arbiters might be able to share the good news with them when appropriate.¡±


    Shi Bao Ya clearly hesitated, but as she remembered the reason that she had spoken to Wei Yi in the first place, upon her first arrival to the camp of the supposed Hunters of the Cosmos, she could hardly continue stalling for much longer.


    In the end, the member of the Flood Kings managed to arrive at the solution of writing down her knowledge for Wei Yi to browse at her own leisure later, since the Ascendant had indicated her own inability to stand around for too long. This was the optimal solution for both of them, exactly because Wei Yi would just be able to scan through everything the next time she came over.


    As a result, she had all of the time she needed to head into the Kong Prison Realm, slow down time, then go into the Realm of Potential to forcefully optimise her performance and slow things down further while she got to practising the three Dao of the Bai family¡¯s apparent ancestors. Out of those, only two were currently in a free state, with the third being sealed as to prevent it from affecting her mind, but that hardly meant that she couldn¡¯t contemplate all three of the them on her own. In fact, the sealed state of the Eldritch Dao simply meant that she could deduce matters about it on her own, without being influenced by what had been imagined before her.


    With the other two, their ideas didn¡¯t contradict her own worldview as much as the Eldritch Dao did, so she didn¡¯t need to suppress them with as much vigour and energy as she had the third Dao, but she still wasn¡¯t confident with simply leaving them be.


    The issue was simply that each matter contradictory to her current development would, overall, negatively affect her strength and resilience. The more doubts she had, the more uncertain she was, the less progress she would be able to make, and the less strength she would be able to invest into any one task. She had not been happy with this fact from the moment that she had acquired her Dao, but she had little choice but to make use of this system regardless of the costs.


    Dao were simply too powerful in what they allowed her to do, and while she might not be able to obtain every Dao due to their contradictory natures, she has been able to adapt certain ideas into a concept that was compatible with her. The Ire Dao, the very notion of rebellion and opposition, was made a part of the Dao of Law due to the principle of rebellion following and being part of law itself. She intended to do the same with the Moonlight Dao and the Entropy Dao, but she did doubt that the Eldritch Dao would be adaptable in such a manner.


    Unlike the Ire Dao, which was still a matter of rational thought, the Eldritch Dao was essentially the very antithesis of the Dao of Law ¨C and not one that could be adapted through Antithesis energy.


    Whereas the Dao of Law was about rationality and a clear cause and effect for all things, with everything following a clear and rational path due to the inherent laws of reality itself, which overpowered such matters as the heavens for they were also under the control of reality, the Eldritch Dao¡­


    ¡®It is madness itself, far worse than even the irrationality of Primordial Corruption. That has some semblance of reason, but the Eldritch Dao¡­¡¯ she couldn¡¯t even find appropriate words to describe the sheer nonsense that the Eldritch Dao in the form that she had received embodied. It was, perhaps, only natural that the third figure had been able to enter some kind of separate space full of tendrils and wrap the entire floating land in them without any obvious spatial capabilities of the seventh realm. If space itself was seen as false, then why bend it at all?


    Obviously, for Wei Yi, such a form of thought was entirely incompatible. She didn¡¯t think that everything she saw now was immutable, but she did think that there was a certain logic to all matters. If someone disliked another, it wasn¡¯t due to something random, but it could be a series of matters combining into a single outcome. When a beast was caught in a trap, there was obviously a set of events that had led the trap to being there and made the beast incapable of noticing it.


    The view of the Eldritch Dao that she currently had was different. If a person disliked another, it could be due to some figure on the other side of the world losing at a game of chess. At the time that a beast was caught in a trap, it wasn¡¯t because the trap was set up well, but due to it manifesting suddenly.


    There was no reasonable explanation of such things in her view, no possible way to see everything as the random whims of some entity beyond reality, if even that.


    For this reason, she did not begin with it, but with the Entropy Dao, which she was able to understand the most due to the way in which it tied heavily into the Dao of Law. If it was truly an otherworldly principle as she suspected, then it might even be related to the scientific path of the world known as Orbis, at least this version of it would. That would make sense, give her an easier time to adapt it to her own path, and would cause some problems in the long run, as entropy as a concept simply didn¡¯t exist in the Planar Continents.


    As she raised her hand within the Realm of Potential and summoned a foe for herself to practise some kind of Entropy Dao move on, or perhaps to give her an opportunity to integrate the Black Sun into that path, she considered once again why the current state of the Dao didn¡¯t suit her.


    Old things would be worn away, and complex structures would be returned to simplicity and dust ¨C that was true. If left without intelligent life, perhaps the Planar Continents would turn into a single mass of mud and nothing else. However, there was one thing that would always be at odds with the notion of returning to purity and simplicity.


    ¡®Planar energy contradicts this completely. It is permanent, infinite, and even when it dried up, it turns out that this was due to the Great Families forcefully claiming far more of it than they should have been able to. Perhaps they are even keeping their anchor energy within Testament, and thus they have prevented the full extent of energy from rising up. Maybe the planar energy around us was even meant to be closer to the ninth realm, allowing everyone to rise to that level so quickly¡­¡¯ Wei Yi pondered, striking at a replica of her while trying to grasp at the notion of absolute decay, ¡®Thus, it is important to ask whether planar energy is part of the laws of the world, or actually contrary to it.¡¯


    In many ways, it was planar energy that, alone, set this world apart from the Orbis that the otherworldly demons belonged to. Electricity could be created even here, and if all of the technological innovations that they had made were moved over to the Planar Continents, perhaps it wouldn¡¯t be impossible for them to not even notice that anything had changed. However, in energy alone, the nature of the world changed significantly, and thus it was important to conclude the order of matters.


    Depending on the truth, her Entropy Dao understanding could leap straight to the Full Success stage, provided that the world itself didn¡¯t also lack a proper understanding of it like it did for the Dao of Law.


    ¡®I believe I heard one of the otherworldly demons speaking about the conundrum of the chicken and the egg, with the contention being which one came first. From what I understand, their theory of evolution dictates that the egg would have come first, but, aside from that, it is not dissimilar to this problem,¡¯ she frowned, dispatching that replica with ease.


    To use the notion of decay was easy enough, but unless she understood it, she would not have a Dao, but a technique, or a set of techniques. It would be significantly weaker, simply due to the vast difference, no, the absolute gap between a movement and a concept.


    In other words, a single step was not usually particularly effective, especially when it was random and aimless. This was especially true when a step was made without understanding the situation, and thus led to the wrong place, or into a trap or towards the worst possible situation. That was essentially the nature of a combat technique on its own, without any additional care, observation, attention, or anything else. Obviously, no person would actually make use of a technique in a vacuum like that, but that was beside the point.


    On the other hand, a Dao was akin to the full understanding and realisation of the battlefield. It was making a step to avoid a hail of arrow fire, to evade a blade, to dodge a trap in the ground, and to crush a branch that would then lead to the fall of every single opponent around her. That would be the true complexity of Dao, the true power of it, and it was what she wanted to obtain.


    With the Entropy Dao of her own, she could use the Black Sun technique to not just defeat a small force, but to dominate a battlefield and to apply it in her every move.


    ¡®So¡­ what came first? What changed the other? Is planar energy antithetical to law, or the source of the current law?¡¯ she was forced to ask again, ceasing her combat with foes as she instead sat down and allowed a field of planar energy to surround her. It wouldn¡¯t do her any good to simply attack a problem without first understanding it, so it would be better to observe the energy around her and attempt to understand how it related to other matters.


    Eventually, she might arrive at a conclusion of some kind.


    ¡®Of course, how it could it ever be that easy?¡¯ Wei Yi asked herself as she stared up at an illusory moon.


    She hadn¡¯t expected things to go smoothly and be completed within a single night, but she still discovered just how difficult it was to poke at the very structure of the world when the nature of her exploration wasn¡¯t self-evident, like Law was.


    Without that, or the ability to verify a single one of her theories, all that she had ended up doing was going through a large pile of hay in search of a single particle of dust, and had few achievements in that regard. Although she did acquire a slightly greater understanding of planar energy as a whole, this was a minor change, accomplishing far less than she would have liked from several lengthy hours of contemplation within the Realm of Potential. Since this wasn¡¯t going well for her, she tried a different approach.


    From her knowledge, both Orbis and the Planar Continents had moons, and both had suns, and both had the cosmos. They appeared to be different, but that didn¡¯t change the fact that there was the potential of a common link between them. If she was able to understand the nature of the Moonlight Dao, she would then be able to deduce more on the matter of entropy.


    Unfortunately, the Moonlight Dao was also a strange one for her, as the insights that she had gained from the first figure didn¡¯t care about the moon as she understood it. Instead, the first figure treated the moon as an intelligent, cogent entity with its own goals and desires, and saw itself as a person bound to the moon, and someone that was subservient to it. This did align with what she had seen on the murals and statues of the Bai Ancestral Hall, but it did conflict heavily with the world¡¯s knowledge of the moon, what the moon could and couldn¡¯t do, and how the moon interacted with others, just to name a few matters of concern.


    In the eyes of the people of the Planar Continents, there were plenty of skills relating to the moon, and the Eastern Continent supposedly had a number of sects that focused upon them.


    The Moon Throne Sect, the Golden Moon Sect, the Eclipse of Moon and Sun on the Seventh Night Sect¡­ the last one was particularly nonsensical in terms of a name, but that was hardly the major problem. While there were techniques that were inspired by the moon and were influenced by it in some ways, none of them actually pulled on the power of a conscious mind when they made use of the moon itself.


    That wasn¡¯t to say that it was impossible, but Wei Yi could hardly contemplate a possibility that had never made itself known within the world. Furthermore, she didn¡¯t see herself as some servant of the moon, nor did she intend to allow herself to become one if that was even possible in this world.


    ¡®From what I know, the other world ¨C or world¡¯s ¨C don¡¯t have such a moon either, so¡­ Was there a Primordial Moon, perhaps? No, there is a certain pattern to the primordial deities, and this Dao doesn¡¯t quite align with it¡­¡¯ Wei Yi frowned, sighing, ¡®Not much point in looking at the Eldritch Dao either, so, for now, I suppose that I must abandon my pursuits. I have other matters to deal with.¡¯


    Since she had spent quite some time in the Realm of Potential, that meant a lot of time had passed for her body as well.


    Finally, she was nearing the fifth realm.

 V4C51: Marked Core

    The fifth realm was a powerful one, and to ensure that she would get as much out of it as she possibly could, Wei Yi had naturally made some preparations for her other forms of cultivation as well. It was about time for her to raise her minimum level of cultivation, and it would stabilise her form far more if she could bring her physique to a similar realm as her planar cultivation.


    Fortunately, her awakening of the physique vein had paved the way to the realm of Blood Resuscitation, and she wasn¡¯t going to let it go.


    As such, with all of her pills having been consumed and their energy circulating throughout her body, she had allowed them to be absorbed while she was in the Realm of Potential. Now that she returned, she could feel herself being ready to go, on the brink of a breakthrough, and she was going to get on with it as soon as possible. Obviously, doing so in the Kong Prison Realm was risky, as it could always endanger its hidden state by causing too many spatial fluctuations on the outside, or even be destroyed if her breakthrough goes a little insane, so she didn¡¯t attempt such a thing in there.


    Instead, she made her way to the Bai District with the usage of a stealth method, then rushed down towards the Luo District, only going as far as she needed to in order to be out of sight for anyone at the Bai District.


    For someone with her speed, that was not difficult at all, although the energy overflowing within her did make it rather difficult. If it had done the same as it had for the last few major breakthroughs, and began to pool up towards some particularly unusual achievement, it might have made for an easier trip, but considering the necessity of reaching a greater realm so that she would have a greater chance against her foes, she was glad that this wouldn¡¯t happen.


    There was always the perfected stage breakthrough, and then the next realm to await.


    She sat down in a greener part of the savanna, surrounded herself with a great deal of protection to ensure that nobody would be foolish enough to approach, then shut her eyes and prepared.


    Her planar energy filled her dantian to the brim, her physique energy actively trembled within her meridians, particularly inside the physique vein, and her bloodline, which she had elevated to the peak of the second realm since the last time she had cultivated it through the pressure of her other forms of energy combined with some particularly helpful pills from the stores of the Chao District, bubbled with unique power; she was close, and she knew that she would soon need to focus just to be sure that nothing went wrong.


    In order to allow herself to do that, she first brought out a few tomes from her mental domain, checking on what the regular breakthrough to those realms would look as to ensure that she knew what did and did not go as usual for her.


    First off, planar cultivation was rather straightforward when it came to the fifth realm. With it being the Marked Core realm, what any cultivator would acquire upon reaching it was a number of searing marks upon their core, the shield that guards the dantian and anchor. People with particularly poor attainment would still get ten or so by the peak of the realm, but those with a high degree of competency usually didn¡¯t reach beyond sixty.


    The marks would form upon the core, and there were a number of recommendations regarding the best way to obtain as many as possible. Some were wrong, others had a trace of truth, but, ultimately, Wei Yi decided to make use of the insights that she already possessed into her own techniques and allow them to take care of things. So far, she made excellent use of her perfected realms, so she expected that she wouldn¡¯t be let down by whatever happened today so long as she did everything correctly. She wasn¡¯t sure whether it was reasonable to expect more than sixty marks for herself, nor whether the fact that she had two cores would make a difference, but she certainly knew that ninety-nine was the peak of what she could obtain, Ascendant or not.


    Then, her physique would reach the Blood Resuscitation realm, also the fifth of the cultivation branch, and the greatest benefit that it would offer her would be the further development of some of her physique abilities combined with the possibility of regenerating from extreme wounds. She was already able to endure some rather insane attacks and injuries, but with the Blood Resuscitation realm, she would near the mythical ability of regenerating from a droplet of blood.


    Of course, such a thing was actually nonsensical in reality. A drop of blood couldn¡¯t possibly hold all of the knowledge of the mind, or sustain the soul fully, or allow for any kind of proper restoration.


    Still, if she suffered something that would be lethal to her at her current state, she might be able to recover, and do so with far more speed than she would otherwise possess. It would be ideal in ensuring that no long-term injuries are forced upon her, since it would make it nearly impossible for her to lose a limb or some vital organ.


    The development of the physique would also prompt the creation of further physique veins, all the way until she acquired a full physique vein circulation throughout her body, with each altered meridian empowering her physique and body as a whole. Only then could she have a chance of attaining the realm after Blood Resuscitation, with that being the Physical Amplification realm, in which all of the power of the physique vein circulation would be infused into the body in order to raise it to far greater heights.


    As that was still some way away, she turned her attention to the last realm that she expected to attain today, which was the third realm of bloodline cultivation, called Trait Acquisition. Had she possessed a normal bloodline, this might allow her to gain one particularly notable or significant aspect of her bloodline origin, like the heart of a dragon or something similarly impressive, but her circumstances made that a near impossibility for her.


    She was the source of her own bloodline, the origin of it, and even if the absorbed bloodlines could play a part upon it, she would still be the primary source of her own power. All that she expected was for the boost from her bloodline to become more significant, and for her hair to get even silkier and more crimson, or for her eyes to gain a further silver depth.


    Anything beyond that would be simple fantasy, all the way up until she actually acquired something of the sort. It was unlikely, but there had been quite a few unlikely events in the past, so she didn¡¯t outright rule out such a chance. She would prepare for it, but not expect it.


    ¡®If that is everything, I might be able to begin¡­ Searing marks shouldn¡¯t be anywhere near as painful as actually being branded, right?¡¯ Wei Yi asked herself, suddenly considering the fact that she was able to sense a very small amount from her core. If the sensation of numerous marks was suddenly transmitted, she would once again get to experience some kind of significant pain, and that would only add to her unnecessarily plentiful experience in the matter.


    Even if that was possible, she wouldn¡¯t throw it away just because there was a chance of pain. She would just make sure that the pain gave her something truly beneficial, so long as she had a chance.


    With her doing nothing to hold her energy back, and with it already being so near the breaking point, her breakthrough began only a few moments after she released her restraint on it. Cosmic energy bound in chains surged out of her body, dyeing the entire area around her in the light of the cosmos, with nebulae and stars transforming the area bathed in the rising sun to a seeming night.


    Much of that energy formed into the Endless Monolith, aligning the glowing and chained sphere with her head, while two layers of cores appeared around it, with one being translucent and crystalline while the other was dense and dark, like the carapace of a subterranean beast. Both layers radiated sheer power, pressing down upon the uneven ground around her and forcefully flattening anything that stood in their way as they attempted to perfectly surround Wei Yi, just like the real cores surrounded her planar aperture.


    Her energy pooled up within the spheres, just as it might within her body, and slowly grew denser and denser as it also pressed down upon her due to her own designs.


    With the state of her planar energy easily surpassing the fifth or possibly even the sixth realm at this point, she would be wasting it if she didn¡¯t make use of it to reinforce her own body with it while she could. Sure, it would be possible to bring out her energy at a later point, and the natural refinement of the cosmic energy would also still be present, but while she was in the middle of her breakthrough, it would be far more vibrant and impactful upon her own physique, making this the best time to use it.


    So, as the cosmos seemed to surround her, with traces of shining moons within and a force of entropy encroaching upon all of it, her physique energy was also forced into action, surging throughout her body and reinforcing her every particle.


    The bloodline within her final set of meridians was hardly unaffected by this combination of powerful energies, and thus the power within was also forced to surge out, bathing her body in various colours as everything within strived to burst out with more power than before. Everything was on the brink of being unleashed, and as some of her cosmic light travelled outwards, it began.


    To summarise everything in a single series of events would simply be impossible, so, instead, it would be best to go through everything one by one.


    Beginning with the simplest matter, from the perspective of the number of occurrences and changes to Wei Yi¡¯s body, her breakthrough of bloodline power began at the same time as the rest of her developments. All of the blood within her body suddenly rose to a boiling temperature, with her veins being forced to their limits as they were also supported by all of her planar energy to make them regenerate and strengthen themselves during the constant damage that was enacted upon the feeble blood vessels.


    As soon as the next realm approached, Wei Yi felt all of her body surge with unknown power, every part of her becoming strangely better, filling with energy, life, and everything else that could ever go inside of her body. Her skin became softer and yet far more stable and tough, her nails changed to glisten without their endurance being affected, her eyes became more intense and would have likely gained more depth had this been possible with what she already had.


    Whether the changes were subtle and small or the exact opposite, she felt everything about her being enhanced, although she was slightly distracted by the other matters that was occurring at that moment.


    Nevertheless, the energy that had begun to become denser within her since her last breakthrough in her bloodline power now grew denser once more, the cosmic mist thickening into liquid until it flowed through her fifth set of meridians. This finally made use of the incredible room now offered by her current meridian networks, and thus they were able to align with the quantity of bloodline power and enhance it even further, causing her more particular features to be amplified even further, like the killing will form which was in part supported by her blood.


    However, the bigger changes were also associated with her physique and planar energy, so it was the next matter that needed to be described. As her breakthrough began, all of her physique energy had exploded out of her meridians and the physique vein, flooding throughout her body, forcing all of the physique abilities to be ignited.


    The Titanic Conqueror appeared behind her, a number of the physique features also appearing upon it, including but hardly being limited to the Sun¡¯s Regalia, Superior Bright Star and Golden Form, as well as the more obscure abilities like the Eldritch Hold, which appeared in an illusory form around the Conqueror as well as wrapping itself around Wei Yi¡¯s own form. For whatever reason, it seemed to prefer her left arm, surrounding it tightly, whereas the right arm and both of the legs were essentially left alone.


    Her own body experienced all of the physique abilities at once as well, but as she felt the next realm approach, she suddenly realised that they weren¡¯t the ones being affected by her development. Rather than the usual development of a few physique abilities being awakened and developed, she felt her very foundations surging. She had previously contemplated the possibility of her physique becoming strengthened, and while she wasn¡¯t sure what it would do, she had thought of the stage names.


    ¡®Going off the traditional names for the stages of a few other physiques in my collection, I suppose that I could call it the Superior Yin-Yang Ascendant,¡¯ she had thought, albeit with far less calm as her body was barraged with all kinds of energy.


    All of her veins and physique meridians lit up with the mixture of absolute yin and yang as her very figure split into two, with one made of pure moonlight while the other was nothing but dawn light. Despite the bright light of both, her features weren¡¯t simply visible, but, in combination with her bloodline, they were further amplified, with nothing obvious changing and yet the impact being blatant straight away. Everything was made clearer, more distinct, sharper, and far more prominent, as if she was not mortal but a descendant of the heavens ¨C a phrase that she did not intend to use due to her own dislike of the heavens.


    Just as quickly as it began, her boosted features suddenly merged with her own, and the split halves of moon and dawn united into one, their distinct energies mixing with one another as they returned her appearance to normal, all of her flesh and skin returning to their rightful place with the boost of a strengthened physique far beyond normal bounds.


    Regardless of the other potential improvements, the Yin-Yang Ascendant alone had increased all of her power by an incredibly over the top degree, making her stronger than most physique cultivators of the third realm through the use of its boost alone, and went even further beyond when reinforced by everything else at her disposal. Now that it had ascended in its own right, it would likely elevate her to the fourth realm of strength with naught but it, certainly making her stronger than anyone else with a physique if compared on that alone. Only the absolute otherworldly physiques likely posed a serious threat to her in their own right, both due to the strange powers they had and her inability to absorb them fully.


    Naturally, she would go on to explore exactly what it offered her, but before that, her planar cultivation still needed to be mentioned. It had begun with the surging of energy into the core around her, and the real version of it within her dantian and the Kong Prison Realm, and it continued that way.


    An immense quantity of power flooded her entire inner core, the Subterranean Shell, and made a series of distinct channels within its surface. There was no carving, penetration, separation nor anything to damage the core, as it instead appeared to develop and grow in tandem with her energy, which grew even denser as the crystalline state lost most of its transparency and became a pure portal out in the planes beyond, to the distant chains of all reality.


    The channels slowly expanded, as if they were rivers that continually spread their tributary, until they covered most of the core in its entirety, filling it with strange patterns that seemed to be present not on the top, or inside of the core, but in the middle of the shell itself. They could be seen from either side, and some were even visible through one side of the core despite being on the other, but it was strange to observe, as if this wasn¡¯t actually the case. The channels were most prominent on their appropriate side, from the outside, and anything contrary to this simply didn¡¯t feel right for whatever reason.


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t understand this perfectly, but this was likely to be some twist of the Subterranean Shell making itself known. For that reason, and the other distractions, she wasn¡¯t too bothered about it.


    Instead, she directed her planar energy to flood towards these channels and to make themselves into searing marks, trying to make use of what little knowledge she did have to make the process as smooth and successful as she possibly could. The creation of marks couldn¡¯t be forced, according to her understanding, but she would certainly ensure that as many occurred as possible.


    Whether or not that helped her, she did see the marks appearing upon ¨C or, rather, within ¨C her core as more of her current built up energy flooded the core, somehow continuing to pour even after all of the channels would have been filled a thousand times over in a normal space, and did temporarily make her ponder the nature of the Eldritch Dao once again. Planar energy had been capable of quite a few strange things, and it could sometimes fit into spaces that it had no reason to be able to fit into, but whatever the truth was, it was usually not capable of simply disappearing into larger spaces.


    Instead, she suspected that the planar energy was capable of being compressed far more than it seemed, and thus her energy would simply expand once it left the meridians, or contract when it entered a small inscription or something of the sort.


    It was widely known that something like this could occur, especially when the dantian and the core was considered, and, frankly, she wasn¡¯t entirely certain whether it was due to those entities going into a partly separate space and simply being projected, or due to it everything being capable of shrinking and compressing to the point that the very nature of energy changed and became more difficult to affect and perceive. Something like that was beyond her for the moment, at least until she obtained the capability of sensing spatial fluctuations of the seventh realm, but, until then, she would simply be content with her understanding that something was indeed happening behind the scenes.


    ¡®All that matters at this moment is the number of marks. Each stage typically brings one ninth of the total number of searing marks, so the number that I find now will decide the total quantity for me¡­¡¯


    She was slightly nervous, that much could be said, as she couldn¡¯t be certain whether the methods of the Master of Yi City, further refined with her own new understandings, would be able to transcend the common limitations of the world and bring her anywhere near the limit of marks that humanity faced. If she didn¡¯t approach a minimum of sixty marks, she would start to fall behind quite significantly against the Greats, for their powers were simply too great to be overcome by an insufficient cultivation.


    The reason for her current prowess, everything other than planar energy aside, was due to her always reaching the peak of what she was capable of, and therefore attaining the highest number of perfected stages and reaching perfected realms. With crystalline energy, an Endless Monolith, and a Subterranean Shell, she posed a significant threat to the second generation.


    However, these realms were potentially separate from one another, although she couldn¡¯t quite be certain of that yet. What certainly wasn¡¯t independent from one another were the realms after that, since they were all specifically connected to the number of marks and halos achieved on the previous realms. She needed as many of them as possible to keep up with the Greats, and any threats that came after, and if she failed to have enough marks, she would have fewer channels, then a lesser number of halos, then the resulting rift at the eighth realm would be weaker, and the final result of the ninth realm would also be far worse.


    Obviously, she wished to have as many marks as possible, so she looked upon her core nervously.


    As she stared at the side of the core, she saw a number of strange symbols of scorching crimson appearing upon her Subterranean Shell, all of them occupying their own individual point on the carapace of the core. They differed in exact shape, but all seemed similar to one another.


    Wei Yi attempted to understand their nature at first, but the more she looked, the less certain she was of their meaning. The symbols didn¡¯t move around, nor shift as the Truth of the Universe did during the first four years of her cultivation, but they seemed even more esoteric and confusing to her than anything that did shift around like that. There had to be some kind of logic to them, for they aligned with one another and intersected at their edges in some representation of a web, but that was all the connections that she could confidently extract.


    ¡®Is this some kind of language, or are they forming some kind of pattern?¡¯ she asked herself, but was unable to get much more out of that, forcing her to instead look at the number itself for a moment, ¡®At the very least, it appears that I have ten¡­ no, that should be eleven marks¡­ Fuck, am I seeing this correctly? Has my spiritual perception or eyes been affected by cultivation?¡¯


    The reason for her disbelief was simply that the total number of marks that one could have was ninety-nine at the peak of a stage. Assuming that she would reach the total number by either the half-way point thanks to her perfected stages, or at the end while the half-way point brought about something else, she would attain a total of ninety-nine marks by the end of her fifth realm cultivation, and bring her to an absolute peak.


    From her knowledge, there was simply nothing superior to ninety-nine marks. The lowest number was nine, and the highest was ninety-nine.


    ¡®That means that I have the chance of getting all of the marks possible¡­ They seem to be vaguely aligned to the individual scales of the Subterranean Shell¡¯s carapace, but¡­ there is room for one more, so long as the marks are the same size and in the same pattern,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded, narrowing her eyes, ¡®Now, I wouldn¡¯t say no to more, but¡­ that¡¯s too much to hope for, obviously.¡¯


    As the Ascendant that wished to bring the world to a new golden age, she naturally had some high ambitions and some high hopes for the outcomes of her efforts, but there needed to be a limit to them. If she began to hope for obtaining items equivalent to otherworldly gifts every other day, she would be placing herself in a silly and unreliable position, since she would then be planning around something even remotely close to that notion. Instead, she tempered her expectations, and was more than satisfied with the regular maximum number of marks.


    ¡®After all, just because I got eleven now doesn¡¯t mean that I might not get ten next time. I doubt that half-marks are possible, simply due to the way that cultivation works,¡¯ she thought.


    Half-Step realms did exist, and she had been within one at one point in time, but that was very different from achieving half of a stage, or half of a searing mark. They were distinct steps towards a realm, with half of the overall benefits and more time to polish one¡¯s energy, whereas a half-mark would be random nonsense.


    The cores and the Endless Monolith receded into her dantian, the energy around her calmed, and she was able to rise and put her clothing back on. Before even thinking about removing the protective barrier, she needed to figure out what it was that she had just gained.


    Since it was the most prominent matter, she decided to start out with one of her searing marks, and check her other forms of cultivation later. A searing mark would recover within an hour or two at most, from her understanding of them, and her cultivation may even accelerate this, so she wasn¡¯t concerned about the potential loss of a mark by the time that she arrives at the Luo District to participate in a potential conflict. Even without enough marks, the raw improvement from the fourth realm to the fifth would make her significantly more powerful, and she could always abuse the sheer power of an exploding artefact combined with stronger energy to overwhelm foes who are unaware of her ability.


    Even without that, the simple rise to the fifth realm would be guaranteed to allow her to confidently face foes of the sixth realm without worrying about an imminent demise, especially when combined with the strengthening of her physique. The seventh realm was a little less safe for her to engage, but she suspected that she would still have the certainty of escape against most seventh realm methods, and might be able to injure them the same way as she had damaged Ping Waqing.


    With her clothing on, her hair tied into a ponytail securely with her usual strand of hair, and her energy drawn into a small sphere, she decided to try out a simplistic attack for easy comparison.


    First, without the usage of a searing mark, she threw out a sphere of planar energy at a nearby hill.


    It struck the hill after a little while, moving rather slowly, and burst into an explosion of cosmic light, tearing apart the side of the hill, throwing hardened dirt and dry grass all over the place. The sphere had been small, only ten centimetres or so in diameter, and yet the impact was easily more than a metre in size and depth.


    ¡®That¡¯s even without crystallization, a technique, or a Dao¡­ Neat, I guess,¡¯ Wei Yi smiled for a moment before she recreated a sphere exactly like it, rebuilding the hill with some earth-type manipulation at the same time.


    That degree of impact from unguided energy was decent, but hardly anything to brag about, since even her Absolute Rupture ¨C a method meant for nothing but shredding the inside of her body, failing to do anything other than this ¨C could do more when the entire point was to throw efficiency and effectiveness to the wind and achieve simplicity itself. Still, it was a nice way for her to play at being at a lower realm without needing to do a single thing to disguise her energy aside from not making full use of it. Had she tried something like this at an earlier time, when she was intent on using that tactic, it might have been useful to her, but not anymore.


    Having replaced both the sphere of energy and the hill she had targeted, she recalled all the previous uses of a mark that she had witnessed as to get a proper understanding not only of how to best make use of a searing mark, and how to do so in the first place. She didn¡¯t want to waste a mark, even if she didn¡¯t expect to use them on an enemy, as it would still give her a far better idea of how her own marks affected her own energy.


    From her understanding, searing marks were able to double the power of any one attack, which she did naturally contemplate using in something like the Black Sun to forcefully amplify her power for the long term without needing to make use of several marks for the same length of time.


    She understood it quickly since the process didn¡¯t seem to be all that complex, and infused the sphere of energy with her searing mark before throwing it at the hill.


    After the barrier was lowered and Wei Yi moved on, there was no more trace of a hill. Instead, a small plot of land was filled entirely with a fine sand of dirt and stone, and although it had been shaped into something that rose above the ground, it couldn¡¯t match the initial terrain that had been in place before this.


    ¡®Well, it may be twice as powerful on its own, but the Absolute Dao gets in the way¡­¡¯

 V4C52: Seeing the Luo District

    Her attainment in her bloodline power further brought up everything she did, and thus, as she stood on a Superior Aerial Platform while attempting to understand just how the fifth realm permitted walking in the air, she was able to see just what her physique development brought her.


    Aside from the pure improvement in strength, which was to be expected, she found that nothing about her physique energy itself was changed by a significant degree. It was still full of absolute yang and yin, which was brighter and more vivid but hardly fundamentally separate from what it had been before, but the physique abilities within her collection had indeed changed quite significantly, at least in her eyes.


    None of them had broken through to a new level during her cultivation, and yet she distinctly felt all of her physique abilities being far more powerful.


    For example, her Sun¡¯s Regalia looked no different from what it had been in the past, being just as bright and impactful as before, and yet it was at the same level that she expected the next quality, the Greater Sun¡¯s Regalia version. Her Immortal Mortal ability didn¡¯t make much of a difference to her meridians from their state prior to this morning, and yet each meridian was filled to a far greater level.


    From that, she was able to presume the effect of the Superior Yin-Yang Ascendant physique with ease. If the initial state of it allowed her to absorb all physiques and adapt their abilities for her own use, what the next rank permitted was for all of the physique abilities to exist at the rank after their current state, without actually making that development. It not only meant that it would apply to everything, but also offered an immense opportunity to her due to the existence of some physiques that had very specific and separate ranks.


    For example, there was a gemstone physique that changed its name with every individual rank, ending up at the Diamond Skin physique once it reached its peak. However, if Wei Yi was to get her hands on it, she might be able to elevate it to that level and then have the Superior Yin-Yang Ascendant physique bring it to something beyond diamond, and, if there were more ranks to the Yin-Yang Ascendant¡­ Her potential gains could be absolutely enormous.


    Already, her True Titanic Conqueror would be able to demonstrate the power of the Red Titanic Conqueror without a single change occurring to the physique itself, thus permitting her to experience just how powerful such a physique could be one step away from the peak.


    If she managed to bring it up to the highest rank of Awakened Titanic Conqueror, then brought her Superior Yin-Yang Ascendant to the rank of Absolute Yin-Yang Ascendant, then she might have as many as three additional ranks on top of the three ranks of the Titanic Conqueror. At that point, it would essentially be a double Awakened Titanic Conqueror (perhaps an Awakened Awakened Titanic Conqueror, if one wanted to call the physique something silly) and the power would also be multiplied. Every single chunk of ice would be incredibly dense and heavy, every drop of toxin would melt through star metal, any banner would be able to weaken an Imperfect Rift cultivator to the Energy Condensation realm in terms of power, and every single rune could have as much pure power as a dragon.


    Since the Titanic Conqueror physique interacted well with her Obliteration method, it would also mean that it would be boosted immensely.


    This made her far more confident in approaching the Luo District without bothering to hide a single thing about herself. So long as she could make use of all of these physique abilities at the increased stage, her confidence in protecting herself from unexpected attacks and in solving any kind of odd issue that might arise would naturally be significantly higher.


    In fact, she appreciated this improvement almost right away, as she came across such an issue quickly.


    As she was travelling towards the south, crossing miles so quickly that the expedition from the Yi District to the abandoned Kong District could have been done in a few hours, she made a significant portion of the journey in just an hour. She was not letting down her guard about anything around her, and she was thus able to notice a figure far in the distance that emerged from a small gap in the ground as she got close, fleeing quickly.


    This alone wasn¡¯t strange. There were plenty of odd figures out there that came and went from all kinds of places, and almost everything in the world contained something of interest so long as one searched long enough.


    No, the issue wasn¡¯t with that at all, but instead the appearance of this figure, and the energy within her. In terms of her physical features, she could almost be said to be an inverted version of Wei Yi, for she shared the vibrant crimson hair, piercing silver eyes, and a strong figure, except that her aura was cold, her body was shorter, with less muscle and explicit strength in her limbs, and her skin was also blatantly paler, as if she had awakened the opposite of the True Ascendant physique back when she had attempted to attain one.


    Her clothing differed, as did her cultivation technique, but what did catch Wei Yi¡¯s eye was that this seeming copy of her, or of someone from the Yi family that happened to share the build and characteristics of her, also happened to possess multiple meridian networks.


    It wasn¡¯t as impressive as her own set of five, but, despite her best attempts to come up with something for her troops, she still hadn¡¯t been able to create a safe way to attain three sets within one body. This person, whoever she was, did, and now housed a most interesting combination of energies within these networks.


    In the first, as one might expect, was planar energy, with a high degree of purity and the element of water, an anchor standing tall in the planar pool that was surrounded with a core. Then, in the second, physique energy of the first realm filled her meridians, pumping throughout them alongside the beats of her heart. Her third network was actually home to bloodline power, but it was of the second realm, causing a notable degree of suspicion and interest to spring up within Wei Yi¡¯s mind. Even she had taken a long time to discover a way to awaken a bloodline, and that required most of her other methods to achieve. This person had not only done it as well, but also reached the second realm in a short amount of time.


    As for why she presumed that this didn¡¯t take long, it was all due to the lifeforce of the person.


    Having spent plenty of time around all kinds of people with physiques that interact with lifeforce, she understood that simply having it wasn¡¯t enough to allow one to live forever, or to keep them perfectly young. Just like anything, lifeforce also had a degree of quality and difference, and this could be used to distinguish between something old and something new even when something else hid any usual methods of perceiving age.


    The person before her, and that was rapidly heading away from her, was not old at all, being no older than thirty, if even that. It meant that she had reached the fourth realm of planar cultivation, first realm of physique cultivation and second realm of bloodline cultivation in less than eighteen years at most.


    Although she wouldn¡¯t call a matter like this suspicious, she would call it unlikely. Even if the woman¡¯s coincidental features weren¡¯t anything important, then the matter of her unique cultivation state made her worth looking into, although that would hardly involve any of Wei Yi¡¯s preferred activities. Still, she seemed to be heading south, and thus she would stop at the Luo District even if she would continue on. Rather than blindly following her, it would be better to understand the reason that she had just been inside some kind of small cave.


    ¡®A time like this is making me wish I had some kind of marking skill, just to be sure that this person won¡¯t run off without me being able to track them. She shouldn¡¯t be fast enough to outrun me, not at that speed, but still¡­¡¯ Wei Yi was wary of strange figures, including this one, so she didn¡¯t wish to underestimate her due to her current speed and appearance.


    There was always a chance that this woman was more capable than she looked.


    As such, she intended to not spend a moment longer within the small gap in the ground than necessary, then follow the antithetical reflection of her.


    With a few stealth methods being activated to prevent detection from either the woman or anyone else that might be in the area, Wei Yi leapt straight down into the gap, finding herself within a small yet natural underground pocket of air that wasn¡¯t much bigger than a few metres. It looked mostly ordinary, but, with her spiritual perception always looking around, she quickly noticed a place where the earth had been shifted.


    She displaced the earth with her spiritual will as to affect her surroundings the least, and confirmed the presence of a small passageway that was just barely large enough for her to be able to fit through it.


    There were footprints there, and they correlated perfectly to the feet of the woman that had just left.


    ¡®So, it appears that she had found something of interest here. The footprints in were slower than those out, so perhaps she had been excited by something. I wonder whether there¡¯s still anything for me to loot, or if I will be left with an empty room,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, proceeding down this passage with as much speed as she could manage with the restrictive size of the tunnel. If she wasn¡¯t concerned about damaging something accidentally or causing a complete collapse of the terrain above, she might have broken through, but since she didn¡¯t, she could only slow herself down.


    Fortunately for her, the end of the tunnel wasn¡¯t that far away, and she got to it in just a few minutes, emerging into another small space, this time one made with stone slabs surrounding a small raised platform with a coffin lying on top of it.


    It was open, and a yellow skeleton lay within, its bones clearly disturbed by someone with no care for the proper treatment of the dead, nor proper tomb looting, since many items left behind in the coffin were still present, just tossed haphazardly around the coffin¡¯s interior. To be fair to the strange woman, most items had lost their value due to their effects having decayed over time.


    There were some pills of five-star quality, but their medicinal essence had long decayed leaving them as nothing more than pill-shaped masses of waste.


    This wasn¡¯t what interested her the most, however. A cursory glance through the remains of whoever lay in this tomb led her to find a small stone item that had the diameter roughly equivalent to the length of her hand at its longest. It had a spherical jewel embedded in the middle, at the front, and some engravings around it. Although she couldn¡¯t figure out what it was for from a casual glance alone, she was able to tell that it had a lot of energy around and within it not long ago.


    ¡®Interesting¡­ The woman took something from this, but there is no trace of it? Wait¡­¡¯


    She carefully probed the item with her spiritual perception and found that it wasn¡¯t actually as ordinary as she had assumed it to be. The surface looked to be slightly melted, as if someone had kept it near the edge of the Glass Wastes for a little while. It looked to be concentrated on a portion of the item, although the difference was incredibly slight, and was shaped almost like someone had taken a spherical object not unlike the gemstone at the front. Combined with the presence of energy around it, the theory of something being extracted seemed even more likely.


    That was also rather odd, since Wei Yi knew of no method to extract something without damaging the item in her hand. It may be possible to break an item apart and then put it back together once something was extracted, and it was feasible to open up something and remove a piece without damaging it too significantly, but to simply melt something through an item was much less feasible.


    ¡®I might lack the knowledge of how to do it, but a figure at the fourth, first and second realms managing something significantly beyond my understanding points to a few possibilities,¡¯ she noted, storing the item in the House of Gold.


    The spatial storage had now grown by a whole ten metres with just the first stage of the fifth realm, and so she now had plenty of space to fit in any random object just to make sure that she wasn¡¯t missing something or leaving behind an item that would be incredibly useful to her later. Whether or not the circular object had any use for her, and whether or not it could be remade if the former part of the object was returned to it, she could always just throw the object away if she didn¡¯t need it. Nobody would be able to perceive the fact that she had it, since her House of Gold was an otherworldly gift and thus imperceptible to anyone but the owner of the otherworldly gift, so there was little risk to it.


    After checking on everything else within the small tomb, finding nothing of note to keep for herself or to investigate later, she left the area as quickly as possible, departing from the tomb with greater speed than she had entered by making use of her Mortal World¡¯s Echo, which was now able to travel for longer distances, with greater precision, and more quickly than before.


    She left quickly, leapt out of the gap in the ground, and leapt into the air before momentarily stopping on a platform in the air. Looking around carefully, she tried to find her target of pursuit.


    ¡®Well, I had been afraid of this. I see some traces, but she¡¯s essentially absent already¡­ That woman either has some yin-type physique abilities already, since she could have a yin-type Ascendant physique, potentially letting her absorb something like the Frozen Step physique ability to travel more quickly while bypassing terrain, or she might have just hidden herself away somewhere¡­¡¯ Wei Yi frowned, looking in the direction of the Luo District, ¡®I guess I¡¯ll have to look for her over there. If I find her, a few questions might be in order.¡¯


    The physiques that a yin-type Ascendant physique would be able to absorb were actually incredibly powerful in terms of traversing the terrain and even going underground, as something like the Hidden Passage physique permits for a creation of a temporary underground tunnel like the Mystical Bridge creates a route through the air. If she was able to get her hands on them, then she could easily accelerate her own movement by a significant degree by diversifying the types of routes she could take.


    So far as she was aware, there were no interactions between the yin and yang variations of a certain concept like there were with the four physiques of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, but if there were, then there would be yet another excellent reason for accumulating more of them. If the Hidden Passage and Mystical Bridge could be united into some kind of Absolute Passage, or a Distant Wormhole, whether through their natural interaction or some purposeful combination of their energies, then she could simply bring herself from district to district through naught but these passageways. If they could then be stabilised permanently, or for a long period of time at least, she would have roads between districts without needing to construct them properly, enhancing trade right away.


    Before that could be possible, even if everything worked in the unusual best-case scenario, she would need to bring the district that she had arrived at after some time into the alliance of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters.


    She had been at the Luo District not that long ago, and much of what she had remembered of it looked nearly the same. Some structures had changed in appearance, some of the talismans on the outer barriers had obviously been replaced, but the most notable result of her presence remained essentially as it had been a month ago after her departure.


    There was still a clear damaged structure near the centre of the region in which various mercenary groups gathered, and although there wasn¡¯t any smoke rising from it, it was not being repaired.


    She hadn¡¯t been too attached to anything in the Luo District, so it wasn¡¯t much of a concern for her, but she was able to appreciate the fact that her sight now permitted her to look into such a great distance without much strain or effort. It still didn¡¯t let her find the mysterious inverted replica of herself, but that was to be expected with everything present at the district. If someone like her just happened to be outside, wandering about in a way that made her easy to notice, that would just be too lucky.


    Wei Yi fell from the air and landed on the ground some distance from the external barrier, standing tall and without any attempts to hide herself while she waited for someone to notice her presence, since she was intending to enter clearly and proudly.


    To help with that effect, she even went beyond simply allowing her energy to be clearly perceived, and instead allowed her vast cosmic energy to radiate outwards, instantly incinerating several of the weaker talismans nearby due to the sheer force within her energy. If she was to say that she didn¡¯t put some effort into ensuring the incineration of these items, she would not be speaking the truth, but even without the contribution of a searing mark, she could easily destroy third and fourth realm defences.


    That ignition immediately attracted attention, soon bringing over several guards who all trembled the moment that the next minor fluctuation of her energy hit them.


    ¡°Who ar-¡± one was about to ask, but he suddenly felt his lungs being forced to release all of the air within, causing him to spit out a piece of planar grass that he was chewing on before nearly falling over. His companion quickly supported him, making sure to use the minimal amount of strength necessary to not give the wrong idea about herself.


    ¡°Who are you, intruder?¡± the female guard asked for him.


    ¡°My name is Wei Yi, leader of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and I am here on behalf of that faction, as well as the Chao and Bai Districts. You likely don¡¯t have the authority, but do let the Luo Patriarch know I¡¯m here,¡± Wei Yi replied.


    ¡°P-Patriarch?¡± the woman repeated, her eyes widening, ¡°No, I won¡¯t¡­ You¡¯re only in the fifth realm-¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t do what, let me in? I don¡¯t need you to do that kind of thing for me, since these are just sixth realm talismans at most. They¡¯re not that challenging for me to overcome,¡± she stated casually.


    Her intention in revealing herself was to show that she and the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters were capable opponents to the Greats, and that she was not someone that could be pushed around even by the current leaders of Yi City. In order to do that, she would naturally need to make an impact, and the best way to start that before even setting foot in the district would be by first setting herself apart from the image of the previous Wei Yi that the Luo District had come to know, whether or not they remembered her.


    As such, while she had come in her favourite set of garments and kept her appearance as it truly was, she did make the effort of tidying up her clothing a little more than usual as she took a step forward. It brought her straight into the range of the first layer of talismans, but she didn¡¯t delay and just kept on walking forward.


    She wasn¡¯t foolish enough to simply take every single talisman that would activate head on, since that would just open her up to being attacked by something made by an oddity like her. Instead, Wei Yi activated the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, instantly feeling the improvement that the false True Conqueror¡¯s Eye bequeathed onto her. Although she was hardly considered to rule the Luo District, the fact that two guards had witnessed her capability was suddenly amplified immensely.


    The blackened crimson spread out and flooded the area, quickly enveloping many of the weaker talismans around her and simply prevented them from even noticing her presence.


    Those that had more strength, or, more precisely, those that were created by individuals to whom a significant prowess in talisman creation was assigned by the people of the Luo District, were less affected by her Conqueror¡¯s Eye, as she expected. With them, she instead used the Mortal World¡¯s Echo to destabilise her presence just enough to make herself invisible to most of the talismans, as they were intended only to target foes through a rudimentary adaptation of the properties of the net of talismans. Unless one had been intended for this from the start, which most of these talismans weren¡¯t, they wouldn¡¯t be able to target a figure that didn¡¯t really exist.


    ¡°W-Wait, no, don¡¯t¡­ These talismans are all-¡± the female guard was barely able to form a single proper sentence while she tried to bring her partner away from the rapidly approaching figure of the Ascendant. There might be some kind of misunderstanding occurring, but she didn¡¯t care to correct it.


    With just a few steps, she was through the first layer of the talisman defensive barriers, and was onto the second. Meanwhile, the guards had barely gotten back to the third, making use of their talisman to be free from the barrage of talismans that they would have otherwise suffered from. They were retreating behind the range of the third line of defences, where they could relax, but also where they wouldn¡¯t be able to go much further.


    Unlike the first line of defence, the second was typically made up of talismans with a clearer intention to be placed on the trees and stones of the outer edge of the district, rather than simply being thrown in for good measure. As such, while the combination of tricks was still successful against most of the talismans, it wasn¡¯t sufficient to entirely bypass the talismans.


    Fortunately enough for her, she wasn¡¯t expecting to actually make it through with nothing but her physique abilities. This was merely a distraction for the guards and those observing her, since it would naturally make them believe that she was able to make use of a strange method to bypass their carefully arranged security measures, whereas the reality was significantly simpler than they think, and as they would have assumed had she approached normally. There was a safe way of preventing any of the talismans from striking, and while she could show it outright, it would make her more concerning in the eyes of the Luo District, as well as putting up an unnecessary connection between the two versions of herself.


    As she drew into the second layer of defences, she kept herself in an unstable, half-absent state, but inside of her body, she prompted her energy to surge out of her meridians and arrange itself according to the talisman that she had personally held before, as well as the ones owned by the guards. The exact security talisman likely changed since her last visit, so she made sure to be careful.


    The moment that it formed fully, and as soon as she activated it, she felt the suppression of the talismans around her vanish. It had been getting a little intense, but it instantly nullified that sensation.


    ¡°I may be in the fifth realm, but that doesn¡¯t mean that I am insignificant,¡± Wei Yi said, pausing, then deciding that the two opposite her really were a little too nervous, ¡°I also don¡¯t intend to do anything to either of you. Just don¡¯t stand in the way.¡±


    ¡°Sister Yun, do you-¡±


    ¡°Not your sister, you moron!¡± the female guard spoke far louder than she likely intended, realising this immediately and taking another step back as she whispered, ¡°¡­ What?¡±


    ¡°Do you think that she might be related to that woman from before?¡±


    He may not have stated exactly who the woman was, what she looked like, or anything else about her, but that alone was enough to prompt the appropriate memories within his mind, allowing Wei Yi to view them through her persistent spiritual will threads that had plunged into the heads of the two guards some time ago.


    Due to the low level of mental cultivation of the male guard, not to mention his general mental quality that she perceived within him, the image wasn¡¯t that clear, but there were a few details. Red hair, silver eyes, small figure covered in dark silk ¨C there was no doubt who he was talking about.


    Wei Yi pondered the matter for a moment, then decided that discovering her nature and identity might be more important than making as bombastic an entrance as possible. She had considered a few methods of entry, of course, so she wasn¡¯t going to switch to something entirely inefficient and ineffective, but it would still be less optimal than she would have preferred. She didn¡¯t disperse the talisman inside her immediately, but she did activate her World¡¯s Echo physique to the fullest, instantly bringing her past the third layer of talismans before she had even gotten close to it.


    ¡°That figure is also relevant. Mind describing her to me in detail?¡± she asked, before they had the chance to realise that she had breached the defences just like that.


    Still, no matter how she might want them to pay attention to her question instead of other matters, even the power of Law couldn¡¯t overcome her sudden appearance next to them, despite their belief that she should have been unable to pass through all layers of the talismans without a scratch. It was too strange, and thus the guards attempted to flee a few steps back. The woman was accidentally tripped up by the man, although neither of them made much progress as Wei Yi blocked both of them.


    ¡°Speak to me, you two. You tried doing so at first, didn¡¯t you?¡± she said again.


    Although she intended to bring one of them up to not speak to them while they were in the ground, she was forced to take a step back quickly as a blade made of talisman light struck down upon her position, carving right into the ground.


    It was powerful, sufficient to pierce several dozen metres into the dirt beneath her, and the stone beneath that. The energy was of the upper sixth realm, and the wielder descended from the sky only a moment later, landing in front of the guards. He wore a large cloak made up of countless talismans joined together, with which he obscured the two guards and stared upon her.


    ¡°You said your name was Wei Yi? I am Luo Huang, guardian of the Luo District. State your intentions!¡±

 V4C53: A District’s Tensions

    The guardian had appeared with an attack, but he did not proceed to attack her after that, instead waiting for Wei Yi¡¯s reply. If nothing else, that told her that he was not intending to kill her just yet, or that he was very confident in his ability to succeed even without the advantage of a surprise attack.


    Either way, since he was giving her the time to talk while not drawing upon his planar energy, she wasn¡¯t going to waste an opportunity to prevent a random battle. She did not think that someone in the Linked Channels realm would be enough to finish her off, but she did know that if she got into a physical altercation, her chances of simply convincing the local Patriarch to work alongside her would decrease. That would not be optimal, to put it mildly, and even if this guardian was someone disliked by the Luo Patriarch, it would still be unlikely to earn her too much favour.


    ¡°I intend to enter the district ¨C which I had done already, as you might have noticed ¨C and then I wish to speak with the Luo Patriarch. Is there a problem with that?¡± Wei Yi said, folding her arms.


    ¡°You say that you were here on behalf of the Chao and Bai Districts?¡±


    ¡°Primarily the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, of which I am the leader, just so that you are aware. Both of the districts have aligned with us to oppose the Great Families, and whether or not your Patriarch wishes to align himself with this cause, I would like to speak with him nonetheless,¡± she stated, ¡°Are you able to make objections about the types of guests that your Patriarch will receive, or should I go straight to him?¡±


    ¡°You think your faction to be above two districts?¡±


    ¡°Of course. Have any of you killed a sizeable force of the Great Families in the last thousand years? If you have, was it done by a person that simultaneously uncovered the nature of their spatial realm, Testament?¡±


    The two of them stared at one another, with the guards quietly retreating into the district while they thought that neither of the high realm masters was paying attention to them. Obviously, they had both been reaching out with their spiritual perception, whether to ensure that the other wasn¡¯t doing anything suspicious or to prevent anyone else from sneaking up on them, so both Wei Yi and the guardian were well aware of their departure. Neither one moved to act, however, and instead kept watching the other.


    ¡°You are a suspicious figure. There is also that Wei Yi from before, and another woman with a yin-type focus in her cultivation. Before I will even attempt to let you through, tell me how you relate to them.¡±


    ¡°The Wei Yi from before is an annoying distant relative. Our Wei family has a certain style of dress, but she is an annoying brat that can only grab at, then pull hearts out of people¡¯s chests. We may have a certain resemblance due to our strong bloodline, but if you wish to confirm that she and I are not the same, you are free to look at my body. There is a rather major difference there,¡± she said.


    Although she didn¡¯t want to treat her own alternate identity in this manner, it did make for the perfect opportunity to not only introduce the notion of a Wei family, but also to separate herself from the foolish identity that she had previously displayed. Nobody should have been able to identify her usage of star metal in her gauntlets, and even if they could, they wouldn¡¯t be able to perfectly compare the star metal from before to the one she currently wore, since every single aspect of her clothing had already been enhanced once more by the empowered Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp. If anyone wanted to liken her to the previous Wei Yi, they would be unlikely to succeed in that way.


    As for showing off her own body, she wasn¡¯t particularly opposed to it so long as it served a purpose. Most people would have been able to learn of her appearance at the Chu District if they searched for knowledge about her, so even if she had issues with this before, there were none now.


    ¡°Then what about that other figure?¡±


    ¡°I know little of her myself. I have seen her as I was approaching the Luo District, but other than that, I know nothing. However, her similarity did make me ponder whether she was related to me as well.¡±


    The guardian couldn¡¯t help but cough at her words, since the Luo District was close enough to the Yi District ¨C with only the Ning District separating them ¨C for a number of the Yi family to have gotten to the Luo District for various reasons. He knew well enough that the red hair and grey eyes were a trait of the Yi family, and that, while her eyes may certainly be on an extreme that made them rather different from the Yi family¡¯s traditional features, to assume that anyone with such things was a member of some Wei family instead was certainly bold.


    ¡°Your Wei family, what character does it use? I have not heard of it before, but the Patriarch would certainly wish to confirm its existence first.¡±


    ¡°It is the Wei of extraordinary. I doubt that I need to explain the reason for that.¡±


    No, if that was something that needed to be explained to him, he would need to be both blind and deaf, or otherwise lack the very notion of a memory. From the two Wei family members he thought he might have encountered so far, one had been some kind of incredibly powerful maniac, according to all of the talk about her that he had heard, whereas the other was able to bypass one and a half layers of the wall of a district without any obvious trouble.


    This certainly did fit the definition of extraordinary, so if all of the other members of the family were the same, then the name would be the most perfect out of all the ones in Yi City.


    Naturally, some investigation would need to occur, since he had never head of a single person with the surname Wei, but if there was any evidence out there that this was a true name, then letting Wei Yi see the Patriarch might not be impossible. Of course, the Luo Patriarch would decide that himself.


    ¡°So, can I continue, or will I need to sit around until I am arbitrarily decided to be a worthwhile figure? The Greats certainly aren¡¯t sitting around while you conveniently ignore their identities. Being in the sixth realm, I am sure that you have some idea of their identity, so do you think that they aren¡¯t a big deal?¡± Wei Yi asked after seeing that the guardian continued to stand in front of her, ¡°Is your Patriarch even aware of my arrival yet? I don¡¯t recall observing a single thread of spiritual perception or planar energy being utilised, so¡­¡±


    ¡°Do you doubt that the abilities of the sixth realm cannot be perceived by a lower realm?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t doubt it, I know quite well that I can perceive matters of the seventh realm. You have only sent out an attempt to communicate now, likely due to my prodding, so don¡¯t try to look mysterious.¡±


    Seeing as he was exposed so easily, the guardian froze for a moment before turning around and pointing to one of the outer residences of the Luo District, speaking with his back still turned, ¡°Get into one of those and await a reply from the Patriarch. Otherwise, you-¡±


    He suddenly found her in front of him, having already gotten some distance from him. Although this was what he was telling her to do, at least at first, she soon deviated from a route towards one of the residences and simply went into the district itself, ignoring everything that the guardian obviously wanted to say to her, and about her. Luo Huang had his issues with this, but each time that he tried to leap towards her with a talisman or movement technique, he found her getting further away with each additional movement.


    Once it became entirely clear to him that, regardless of the method used to avoid him, he wouldn¡¯t be able to make it closer without some greater effort, Luo Huang was forced to make use of a stronger movement method, quickly closing the gap.


    However, it appeared that Wei Yi had also stopped, looking over at a street in which a large number of people had gathered, with there being a clear divide with a fuzzier middle point as some from either side stood near one another, staring at one another in a way unlike how the guardian and the Ascendant had been looking at one another not too long ago. None of them looked to be intending to escalate the situation, but that didn¡¯t stop the tension from being thick enough to cut with a knife.


    For that reason, both Wei Yi and Luo Huang stopped, glanced at one another, then used their own methods to get out of the way of the gathering crowds.


    Appearing at the rooftop of a distant structure, a little further into the district, Wei Yi turned to the guardian. He had appeared a moment after she did, and while he clearly wished to understand just how she had managed to do so, he wasn¡¯t going to be wasting his time asking questions that wouldn¡¯t be answered.


    ¡°So, guardian of the Luo District, don¡¯t you have something better to be handling?¡±


    ¡°That is not something that can be resolved with force. After the faction that your relative was part of vanished without any warning, the structure they lived in being torn apart and looted clean in minutes, and then the rumours of the Great Families spreading, things have gotten a little¡­ unstable,¡± Luo Huang said, ¡°The Patriarch sides neither with the Greats nor against them, at least publicly, so the people have chosen to express their own views in less than friendly ways. The situation isn¡¯t perfect, but our Patriarch does not see it fit to act.¡±


    ¡°No, that much is clear. Does that mean that he won¡¯t bother speaking with me, then? Will you finally admit it?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine too, I suppose. I suppose I shouldn¡¯t expect anything better from this district, seeing as the Great Luo had been operating right within your territory without you even knowing about it. That¡¯s what caused the destruction of the faction that my relative had gotten involved with, and if everyone managed to learn of it, I suspect that they will be leaning towards a certain direction once the other districts also come to support the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters.¡±


    Beside the mess that was the Ping District, there was also the Ning District, Jiang District, and, although it was a bit of a stretch, the Chu District also had a direct route to the Luo District. If they were to side with the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, then there would be a total of four districts surrounding the Luo District.


    Then, there were also the nations outside of the current borders of Yi City. If the Empire of the Dawn was to somehow be captured, then there would be an enormous territory full of people that could be used to prove to the Luo District that siding with the Arbiters was the better choice, especially if the boom of planar energy continued and was able to boost their trade and local specialties significantly. At that point, if the Empire of the Dawn was also to join with Yi City, then there would be no question that the Ascendant and her Arbiters would easily have contributed the most to the city in the last thousand years.


    The guardian froze as he suddenly realised what he was thinking. Where exactly did he get the notion that this woman would suddenly capture a nation?


    ¡°Fine, I guess I¡¯ll go.¡±


    ¡°Wait, the Empire of the Dawn isn¡¯t a force that you can defeat!¡±


    ¡°¡­ Wait, did you just assume that I¡¯d leave and try to take over an empire? That¡­ Actually, that¡¯s not a bad idea, so long as they don¡¯t have anyone in the seventh realm. Judging by the fact that the Bai, Luo and Jiang Districts haven¡¯t yet recaptured the outer nations, I assume that they do have that?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, yes, they do. Their Dawn Emperor is in the seventh realm, third stage at the least. Regardless of your ability at evading defences, attacking someone in the seventh realm without any preparation is beyond foolish,¡± Luo Huang felt the need to remind her, as that strange feeling from before hadn¡¯t fully vanished despite his best attempts to get rid of such an illusion, ¡°That being said, even if I go to speak with the Luo Patriarch, I will be unlikely to give you a different answer to your earlier questions. He will not speak with you.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s unfortunate. However, Luo Huang, you do realise that the world is changing, right? If we get better, so will our foes, and so will the Greats. I don¡¯t know if they can reach the seventh realm with their particular cultivation, and, frankly, it doesn¡¯t matter. They need to be taken care of as quickly as possible, and if a certain Patriarch doesn¡¯t wish to act on the threat, then¡­ I don¡¯t need to say it, do I?¡±


    She glanced towards the two groups in the open streets of the outer portion of the district, one of whom likely had the belief that the Greats were more stable and sure group for them to support, whereas the other likely sided with the view that the Great Families had too much influence while being too powerful. In this conflict, most of the people on either side weren¡¯t fully aware of what was happening, hearing only a little from various rumours and tales, but they were still convinced of the correctness of their own perspectives. In a way, that too was a law of the world, for none could ever know everything but would still act in a way that made them look as if they knew all.


    It was the best that a person could do if they ever wished to take action, and this was a time that absolutely necessitated it. The more they waited, the more one side could win over the other.


    After a certain amount of time, there would be no chance for the common people to participate, whether or not they were cultivators, since the Greats and the Arbiters would fight it out and then have a winner who would naturally reach the top, whether or not the people cared. At that point, both factions could once more hide themselves, although there was naturally a chance that the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters would be far more open about their actions than the faction they oppose.


    The moment that one side received support from a formidable figure, they could accomplish far more than a normal force, and those that had been uncertain about the right group to side with might decide that it was suitable to reveal themselves and pledge their assistance to that particular cause.


    So long as a sixth realm figure was brought to the forefront of one of these groups, it wouldn¡¯t even be impossible to replace the Luo Patriarch and place someone else in his place, although it would likely be someone else from the Luo family as to not suddenly throw that family away from their current place and change the district to the Wang District, or something of the sort. Ideally, Wei Yi wouldn¡¯t suddenly replace the ruling family of a district since that would just disturb things far too much to actually be useful to her.


    Even without that, there were still plenty of people that would like to take over the Luo District. The position of a Patriarch was incredibly valuable, since they would have access to an immense quantity of resources and power from the sheer status that they would obtain, not to mention the various techniques that they could gain as a result.


    ¡°Do not act foolishly. The fifth realm-¡±


    ¡°Too weak, insufficient power, gap between realms, right? Anything else you want to add onto this, or should I just get going?¡± Wei Yi asked, ¡°I don¡¯t need to hear it again.¡±


    ¡°Then I will instead remind you that I am the guardian, Luo Huang. I will not simply stand by and watch things occur within this district, especially not when you attempt to threaten the very person I have dedicated my life to protecting.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not doing much to stop me, though. Heard of Ping Waqing, perhaps?¡±


    ¡°The person that harmed him, was that another one of your relatives? I may not be quite as strong as he was, but I am sure that I will not lose in the face of¡­ Ah, damn it. Come with me, Wei Yi, the Ascendant of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. I shall explain a few matters to you, but we need to go further away, since the range of his spiritual perception-¡±


    ¡°Again, not a problem. I can sense that, and have more of a range myself. I do remember a good place for us to go, however.¡±


    Although the inside of the Brotherhood of Power¡¯s headquarters was in quite the poor state, there was a room that still retained much of its ability to seal away and isolate spiritual perception, or, as the seventh realm apparently referred to it, divine sense.


    To correct the fact that quite a significant portion of it had been destroyed during the battle against the two members of the Great Luo, Wei Yi siphoned away much of the unnecessary material from the floor and shrunk the room slightly, most of the furniture not being particularly helpful to her or the Great Family member that had resided here before her, and created a shell around them. It was thin, and thus likely far less effective, but she substituted the thickness of the shell with her own methods, adding everything she could to prevent their presence from being detected.


    With the contribution of her spiritual will, empowered by a searing mark ¨C since that turned out to be an effective combination, amplifying the invisible nature of her mental energy further ¨C she was able to guard herself to a sufficient extent for the guardian to consider them to be safe from potential observation.


    ¡°So, what is it that you wanted to say?¡± Wei Yi began first.


    She could have revealed a number of things first, since she was coming into the Luo District with more information than she might have been letting on thanks to a little bit of information from Shi Bao Ya, but she had still come to the Luo District as a leader of a powerful faction, not as some random cultivator. If she seemed like she would reveal anything anyone wanted at a whim, it wouldn¡¯t be good for the perception of her, and thus her power through the Conqueror¡¯s Eye would decrease, amongst other things. It was better to let him speak first, and she could then speak about anything else.


    ¡°The Luo Patriarch has lost the confidence of many as a result of his actions. He is slow and unwilling to participate in the vast majority of events that occur, and thus neither side of most debates considers him to be the most suitable person to lead us,¡± the guardian said frankly, ¡°If someone else was put in his place, it would be an improvement. It does need to be someone of the Luo family, however, so do not attempt to put yourself in his place.¡±


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t thinking of that. I have my own force to take care of, and even the Master of Yi City never bothered to directly control the district of his origin, not to mention any other,¡± she replied.


    While that was fortunate for the guardian, the implication of her words aside, that did make it more complicated. Had she been the one to select herself or someone from her own faction to take charge of the district, then the matter of deciding who would lead the district would be significantly easier.


    Now, even if all they needed to do was point at someone to put them into the leadership position, then they would need to figure out who was most suitable for the position of Patriarch, who wouldn¡¯t be thrown off right away by one of the others, who would have enough support to keep himself in place, and so on. It would be far more tyrannical to just introduce an outside contender, but, if the force behind them included two powerful districts, it happened to be far easier to enforce without being criticized for intervening where they were not wanted ¨C they¡¯d have already intervened far more.


    ¡°You¡¯re thinking it too, aren¡¯t you? Tell me, who are the primary contenders for the position? I am guessing that there are some out there who have sided with one side or the other and are now waiting for the right chance, so if I back one of them, they will easily overcome their foes. At that point, only the Patriarch would be left.¡±


    ¡°¡­ You likely don¡¯t care, but I don¡¯t like you.¡±


    ¡°Interesting name for a Luo family member. I would think that I¡¯d have heard something about someone with such a name.¡±


    ¡°The two main contenders for the position are Luo Na and Luo Yunzhen, with the former being on your side while the latter seems to be siding with the Great Families¡­ can they perceive us through here, or is this not sufficient to protect us from Their presence and perception?¡± Luo Huang asked, looking around nervously.


    ¡°Does it matter? The world speaks their names already. Adding one more mention of them, beyond those that both you and I have made, changes nothing at all. In fact, all of us should just keep saying their names again and again, the more the better.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ would rather not do something like that,¡± the guardian decided, ¡°Luo Yunzhen is a man in his prime years, and highly popular amongst the faction he is a part of. His cultivation is in the sixth stage of the sixth realm, and he cultivates a powerful flame-type technique called Flames of Perfection. Meanwhile, Luo Na is a talisman-focused female cultivator with the same realm but the eighth stage, practising our familial art of Searing Inferno. Despite that, their pure power is similar.¡±


    ¡°Interesting. Conveniently enough, the person I would like to support is the second one, regardless of her identity, so I might as well just go on with it. Where are they located, and what exactly is stopping the reasonable side from defeating the other one?¡± Wei Yi inquired, keeping that information within her mental domain.


    ¡°While it would be inaccurate to claim that both sides are equally matched, they are rather tied when it comes to their overall power. Those on the side of the Great Families have more control over our trade, whereas those on the other side are more capable in talisman creation and are thus more capable of repelling unwanted entry to the Luo District if the other side attempts to allow in reinforcements for themselves,¡± he told her, ¡°Then there are those that didn¡¯t go to one side or the other. There are still enough for the two sides to be incapable of fighting outright without involving those who aren¡¯t interested in participating, and some amongst them are sufficiently invested in keeping the peace that they would go quite far to prevent combat.¡±


    ¡°That much is to be expected. I won¡¯t waste more of your time than I absolutely need to, so do feel free to simply share the location of this group with me, or, more precisely, the position of the leader, and I shall get straight to it.¡±


    ¡°I can leave you with some more information, but her position is naturally near our talisman creation hall, since she is the elder responsible for it. Whether she¡¯s focusing on that, or on the conflict, she will be staying around there,¡± Luo Huang said, ¡°If you would like to speak to her¡­ Be careful about her. She is a strange person in some ways, causing most of her opponents to not be fond of her even if they don¡¯t care for the gender of the leader of the district.¡±


    ¡°Everyone¡¯s slightly odd, no? If you don¡¯t tell me exactly what I need to watch out for, then I won¡¯t have a single clue regarding the kind of behaviour that I¡¯m meant to be avoiding.¡±


    ¡°She¡­ she has a certain obsession with illusory talismans. One of them is always active somewhere around her, and, whether by accident or not, most of them tend to put those who enter into uncomfortable scenarios. Some are disturbing, others are concerning. It is said that there have been a number of people who entered, believed that they had been able to bed Luo Na, only to later learn that they had completely embarrassed themselves in front of some other cultivator who had passed through at the same time,¡± the guardian said.


    Wei Yi frowned. That was a very interesting hobby to be occupied with, that much couldn¡¯t be denied. Whether this was being done to become used to illusions, then allowing Luo Na to somehow overcome them, or if she merely enjoyed being in strange situations that didn¡¯t make any sense, but, regardless of the answer, it was not something that she needed to be afraid of.


    Her Third Eye was affected by the growth of her mental energy to a small extent, so she was still able to see through more simple illusions, although she would struggle to look through an illusion made with someone¡¯s full effort at the seventh realm. She would manage to realise that it was present, she was almost sure of that, but that was fortunately not something that she expected to encounter based on the description she had been provided. Casual usage of illusory talismans wouldn¡¯t usually result in such grades of illusions appearing around someone.


    ¡°Was she aware of what her talisman had wrought?¡±


    ¡°Are you referring to the example I had given? Yes, she was, although she had a very mixed reaction to it. Depending on who asked, and when, she was either pleased with the result, or unhappy with certain factors.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d presume that she had gotten some people involved and gave them the right idea, whereas others weren¡¯t wanted. Still, that seems like she isn¡¯t some kind of illusion maniac, so I¡¯ll go right away.¡±


    ¡°A girl joins your side, and you immediately send her out to fight?¡± a woman said, shaking her head in disapproval, ¡°What a terrible idea, in more ways than one. Are your people satisfied with following some unknown girl into battle? Can you be sure that she won¡¯t throw you to your death? Do you even know her name?¡±


    The one speaking was a figure with chestnut-brown hair and green eyes on a bold yet appealing face, with skin that was darker than that of the Central Plains, and yet lighter than the skin of most from the Northern Desert. A number of talismans poked out of her pockets, their frayed yellow edges rustling in the slight wind, while one was held in between two of her fingers. On that talisman, two large and imposing characters had a slight glow to them, illuminating the flesh beneath her skin.


    Opposite her, a number of figures gathered behind one that looked almost like she was on the brink of passing out from hunger and exhaustion. Her skin was pale, her body was thin, and yet she seemed oddly stable, as if she was the wind and the wind was the weak branch that could be torn down at any moment. Her long red hair was loose and covered large parts of her face, but her determined silver eyes could still be seen, containing a level of depth that was unmatched by most of the fifth realm cultivators standing next to her.


    ¡°I am¡­ Jian Hongchao. I humbly request a duel.¡±

 V4C54: Duplicate

    ¡®Jian Hongchao¡­ That is certainly an interesting name to select,¡¯ Wei Yi, who had arrived at the scene a moment prior and now looked down from another rooftop, thought as she looked upon her seeming copy.


    Due to the absence of mental cultivation in the duplicate, she was able to stand so close without being detected, although she was aware that this was likely not going to allow her to remain undetected for too long. She was intending to enter the moment that she was sure of the best course of action in regards to Jian Hongchao, and she would arrive at that conclusion as soon as she saw the way in which that woman was able to fight.


    If she was sloppy and unexperienced, she didn¡¯t think that involving herself would even be necessary, although it would leave a better impression with Luo Na, depending on her character.


    However, in the situation that this strange woman was far more able than she appeared on first glance, which should be the case since she is only in the fourth realm while going up against someone in the sixth with an army of those in the fifth realm, a combination that wasn¡¯t exactly guaranteeing success. Since she was directed here by another, likely Luo Yunzhen or one of his subordinates, it meant that someone expected her to be capable of winning this battle, and if that was on her own strength, then she wouldn¡¯t be too unlike Wei Yi in that regard as well.


    Then, the woman¡¯s name would almost certainly be one that she wasn¡¯t born with, since there was no such family in Yi City, and she could also be presenting a false identity to the world. At that point, she would also be likely to originate from a district that then allowed her to suffer greatly, and it would be wise to question whether or not the heavens were running out of ideas.


    ¡®I don¡¯t that this is the case, however. It seems that her life has been somewhat different than mine, judging by her eyes. They are distinct¡­ although I cannot understand just what kind of experiences she had through them alone,¡¯ Wei Yi thought while she looked over to the side of the talisman master.


    Luo Na stood alone, and while there were a number of people that were clearly in her favour, most of them didn¡¯t attempt to enter the scene. So far as the Ascendant was able to determine, they thought that if Luo Na wasn¡¯t able to defeat her foes, they wouldn¡¯t be of much use either, but if she could, they would also have no ability to participate. As such, the only one interested in participating was Wei Yi herself, and she would only do so after a little while, the moment that she confirmed the situation.


    ¡°Fine then, come at me. I shall see what you¡¯re made of,¡± the talisman master said.


    Jian Hongchao nodded respectfully and, after a brief pause in which she seemed frozen in her state, she suddenly attacked.


    In an instant, her skin seemed to transform to silver, her eyes gained a soft moon-like shine, and all of her planar energy exploded out of her body, as if her meridians were merely a suggestion and her body was the true vessel for all of her energy. The only place unaffected was the dantian and the core around it, with a small gap being left between it and the rampaging energy.


    Despite the appearance of this, Jian Hongchao didn¡¯t seem to be negatively affected in the slightest.


    ¡®That¡¯s a confirmation that she has a Yin Ascendant physique, or something of the sort. All of these are physique abilities, with the first being Silver Form, the yin variant of Golden Form. The second is Soothing Moon, variant of Bright Star, and the third is a variant of Immortal Mortal, which is¡­ Mortal Deity, I think? Instead of widening and strengthening the meridians, it instead weakens them in such a way that energy can be released freely, allowing it to rampage all throughout the body in exchange for great strength,¡¯ Wei Yi quickly identified the physique abilities at play, then focused on the fight itself.


    The mysterious inverse replica moved quickly, but so did the talisman master, needing only to throw out the talisman in her hand to make use of her abilities. With a single casual throw, that talisman somehow multiplied into four, and all four flew at Jian Hongchao from different directions.


    Each one had a different set of symbols on them, and once they were half-way to Luo Na¡¯s foe, they were ignited, and an attacking light emerged from them. Two swords, one spear and one hammer flew out of the talisman paper, all formed from dense and solid planar energy of the element of fire, causing them to brightly illuminate the streets in the afternoon sun.


    In the same amount of time that it took Jian Hongchao to take a single step, the four weapons all fell upon her silver skin, striking it with an immense force.


    The moment that the flames touched her silver skin, a portion of them were suddenly blasted back towards the talismans, causing them to burn through the rest of the talisman paper ten times more quickly than they would have otherwise lasted. This was the effect of the Silver Form, allowing for the repulsion of attacks at the ones that used them, although it was negated by the fact that these were merely talismans. It was possible to destroy them, but to target the one that threw them would only be possible if they were actively bound to the cultivator with their lifeforce or energy.


    Still, with only a greater physique ability being applied through something that didn¡¯t appear to be a True Yin Ascendant physique, there was only so much damage that could be mitigated in this way. The rest struck right through the silver, breaching the woman¡¯s skin and flesh, tearing into both viciously.


    Before it could pass too far into her, a strange blinding energy emerged from within her, stopping just beneath the skin and shining out only where there was a tear in Jian Hongchao¡¯s skin. As soon as Wei Yi realised that this was the Beaming Transience physique ability, one that hid a significant amount of detail from the observation of anyone that attempted to peer behind the veil, she put in her utmost to pierce the veil of the ability and see just what the woman was attempting to hide with her actions.


    Indeed, even had she been making use of a perfect Yin-Yang Ascendant physique at a high rank to manifest the Beaming Transience ability, a sixth realm energy could easily overcome one at the first realm, thus allowing Wei Yi to peer at a crimson energy rising beneath the veil, coming into contact with the invading flames. It didn¡¯t directly block them, but instead merely mixed with the planar energy, causing the intensity of the fire to decrease and the overall power of it to fall from the upper sixth realm to the lower boundary.


    Then, a second after, a secondary tide of far greater strength collided with the fire, putting it out in one immense wave.


    ¡®Bloodline of some kind, not the same one that I am making use of, then her planar energy that appears to be a blood-type variant of some kind of water cultivation method. Both differ significantly from my own abilities, but that is still rather odd. I know of only a few groups that have any idea how bloodlines work to begin with, so this person was either really lucky, or she has come into contact with them.¡¯


    The key point was that the combination of techniques, the odd appearance, and the odd manifestation of an Ascendant physique that Wei Yi had never heard of before all meant that this was either someone with an extraordinary life, or someone that was backed by an unordinary force. Either way, such a person wouldn¡¯t be here trying to kill themselves against a far greater foe unless they were acting in favour of some greater plan, and if that was the case, this plan would be one that she needed to interrupt so that the Greats did not earn more power than they already had. That might not be the faction responsible ¨C in fact, it almost certainly was a different group ¨C but seeing as Jian Hongchao was aiding the Great Family aligned faction, the success of one would benefit the other.


    For that reason, before either Luo Na or Jian Hongchao had a chance to clash with one another properly, Wei Yi leapt onto the street between them and blasted a wave of Absolute Force at the strange replica of herself without any hesitation.


    That wave of energy struck her silver skin, but rather than being reflected, it shattered it entirely, forcing Jian Hongchao back by a dozen steps. Curiously enough, her bloodline was able to dull the attack slightly, and then her planar energy was able to flood out and mix with her strong body and overall keep her alive with minor injury.


    ¡°You¡­ Who are you supposed to be?¡± Luo Na asked, noticing their resemblance.


    ¡°Wei Yi, leader of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. I would like to assist your cause. Do you mind?¡± she said quickly, glancing back and answering a question in advance, ¡°No, I don¡¯t know her at all.¡±


    ¡°You can do that. I will take care of the rest of them as I was the one they targeted!¡± the talisman master exclaimed, pulling out a series of talismans from her pockets and quickly activating one of them to place flame beneath her feet and accelerate her significantly. She hastened towards the group that had gathered behind Jian Hongchao, passing by that strange figure before she could even react to her accelerated movement.


    The red-haired woman tried to turn and stop Luo Na, but she was quickly met with an incredible wave of force from Wei Yi once more. It was simple and unfocused, but the sheer power contained within that fifth realm energy was extreme, going far beyond anything that Jian Hongchao herself was able to manifest. She had no choice but to confront the attack directly.


    Activating a yin variant of the Concentrated Humanity physique, the Displaced Sanity ability, a surge of cold energy burst out of her body, a chaotic vortex swallowing her figure right away and colliding with the incoming surge of cosmic light. The vortex of the Displaced Sanity physique was also able to extract the oddity of humanity from the dantian and, in regular circumstances, transformed it into a vortex of energy within which chaotic variants of the anchor, core and further structures would reside. It was a powerful manifestation of energy, able to send many other forms of energy into discord from the chaotic rotation of the vortex alone, but against the Absolute Force of Wei Yi¡¯s Absolute Dao, it was met with a mighty foe.


    Colliding with the black and white vortex, the cosmic light tore into it and attempted to shred it apart, and it was not entirely unsuccessful.


    When the vortex had merely appeared out of the body of Jian Hongchao, it was easily three and a half metres in diameter, but after a single wave of energy was done with ravaging it, the vortex had shrunk to half a metre, and much of the woman¡¯s body was exposed right away.


    ¡°Jian Hongchao, was it? Why don¡¯t we-¡± Wei Yi began, but was instantly stunned into silence.


    Right before her eyes, the figure of the red-haired woman warped into naught, disappearing from the street entirely. It was as if someone had taken a brush and painted over Jian Hongchao, putting back the world where she had previously been. The houses that could be seen behind her were now fully visible, and the vortex disappeared at the same time, leaving only a little natural physique energy out in the air for Wei Yi to claim as her own.


    This reminded her a little too much of the time that she had been forced to chase after a certain irritating archer in the Kong Holy Grounds, and annoyed her just as much. She might have overlooked some method to interfere, but the power of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye wasn¡¯t enough to seal space, meaning that such methods could still work, so long as a suitable one was used.


    ¡°Yin equivalent of World¡¯s Echo, Past¡¯s Call. Allows for near instant transportation to a place where the cultivator had previously been and formed a strong memory at,¡± Wei Yi muttered the description of the physique ability that had likely permitted it, sighing.


    She had a vast range of spiritual perception, but she was unable to observe the presence of the strange woman within it. That meant that her strong memory, if that wasn¡¯t just some superstition about the physique ability, was formed more than six or seven hundred metres away, if the buildings, walls and obstacles were to be accounted for. With the size of the spread out district, not to mention the wide shape of the territory, that wasn¡¯t unexpected, but it was unfortunate as she was looking forward to learning a little more about that woman.


    No, she wasn¡¯t attracted to a feebler version of herself, since, amongst other and far more significant things, Jian Hongchao lacked the kind of looks that appealed to her.


    Instead, Wei Yi was curious to meet either someone that might have lived through some rather similar things to her, or, alternatively, would have given her the opportunity to learn a little more about a faction that appeared to have some interesting methods at their disposal. Just collecting that many physique abilities in a short span of time would have taken some significant effort and ability, so learning as much as possible about them would have been incredibly beneficial.


    Since she wasn¡¯t able to do anything about this for the moment, the Ascendant turned to Luo Na, who, at this point, had dealt with a few of her foes and was finishing off the rest with a few more scorching talismans.


    There was a clear variety to the talismans that she had utilised, displaying a clear mastery of them and of the techniques that were essentially embedded with each talisman. She did not look particularly old, nor was her lifeforce aged, so Wei Yi quickly concluded that Luo Na had a great degree of talent in the field, as well as sufficient experience to have developed it to the sixth realm and six stars in terms of her great arts, so she was clearly being favoured for a good reason. That reason also appeared to allow her to circumvent the typical preference for a male leader of a district, a Patriarch, although Matriarchs weren¡¯t entirely unheard of in Yi City.


    ¡°Luo Na, that woman is not someone from the Luo District, is she?¡± Wei Yi inquired once the dust settled and the talisman master returned to her earlier place.


    ¡°I have seen her before, but she has not come from here. I would have hoped that her relative would be more aware of her situation. Wei Yi, was it?¡± Luo Na said, storing her talismans back in her pockets, ¡°Did you want to talk with me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I did, but I think that something needs to be resolved first. Relative?¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t she?¡±


    ¡°I do not recall having any relative ¨C not a close one, anyway ¨C by the name of Jian Hongchao, nor one using those kinds of techniques, for that matter,¡± Wei Yi stated, ¡°As for distant relatives, most of us have some kind of relation with all of the families, so that¡¯s hardly an accurate indicator of the relationships that one might have with another. Besides, the Shi and Bao families might both have vibrant red hair and grey eyes.¡±


    ¡°While that is true, you forget the blood connection between you. You and that woman are clearly very close in terms of lineage.¡±


    ¡°We are what now? Close? I find that rather hard to believe considering my particular parentage,¡± the Ascendant nearly rolled her eyes at this, since she knew rather well how rare it must have been for members of the Great Families to ever have children with a common person. Her parents only had her, and to claim that there just happened to be another was nonsensical.


    And yet, despite the obvious intent displayed by her, Luo Na said, ¡°You may be unaware, but the talisman masters of the Luo family specialise in making use of their very lives for their creations. That gives us a certain understanding over blood. With it, I can tell that she was very close to you in terms of blood. I don¡¯t know your exact relation, but you may very well be half-sisters, if not closer. Do you wish to hide your relationship with her?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re misreading the situation here, Luo Na. I first saw her today, and there is much more reason to assume that she has something to do with the Yi family from the south than anything else. Even if there was some kind of interaction between us that I am unaware of, I hardly think that is what we should be focusing on,¡± Wei Yi said as she got closer to the talisman master, ¡°I have an interest in assisting you in your faction¡¯s bid for power in the district, which I would presume to be significant enough to separate her from me.¡±


    ¡°What if you two have decided to have a friendly competition in this regard?¡±


    This time, Wei Yi did roll her eyes, as this was just too much. It was quite clear that the woman had decided to not make things easy for her, so even if she was able to provide her exact familial history, she might still insist that the strange copy of her was somehow related.


    For that reason, trying to argue about it wouldn¡¯t yield any significant outcomes, prompting her to change her focus to the more significant matter than her supposed sister. There might be something of interest about that inverse duplicate, but that is something that she would discover on her own once the figure was captured, and not something that she would be hearing from the talisman master without much reasonable evidence.


    ¡°I, as the leader of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, would like to prevent the Great Families from having a stronger grip on the district-¡±


    ¡°Will you repeat that every single time you talk to someone?¡± Luo Na interrupted her.


    ¡°Yes, I will. Some people may be unaware of my identity, and so I find that it is best to clarify it a few times. Doesn¡¯t really hurt anyone if it is unnecessary but might help someone quite a lot if they weren¡¯t aware,¡± she confirmed, since that was the entire point of her current open attitude. If the world didn¡¯t know about her after she effectively got control over several districts, there would be a problem.


    The talisman master shrugged but didn¡¯t continue the topic and instead headed to her place of work without another word. Seeing as she wasn¡¯t intending to simply let the conversation cease, Wei Yi followed her inside, noticing the presence of a few particles of ash flying out of the windows.


    ¡®The illusory talismans that I had been told about, I¡¯m assuming. Interesting. I¡¯ll need to pay attention if there are as many different talismans burning as it looks like,¡¯ Wei Yi was able to count the number of places from which the talisman ash was flying, and also perceive a large amount of flames within the building, although her spiritual perception struggled to get too far into the building due to the combination of general protective measures and the large number of influences upon her mental energy that were occurring within the building.


    From outside, this was still reasonable, but the moment that she entered, it seemed as if the entire world warped around her. The walls twisted and turned, the ceiling seemed to soar into the air, and the floor splintered into many pieces.


    If not for the distinct sensation of a solid floor beneath her, Wei Yi would have assumed that she had just been thrown into some other world and left to fall from the sky. Once she flooded her eyes with spiritual will and also funnelled a great deal of killing will into the Third Eye, she was able to see the vague image of the true room, but it was extremely vague.


    She paused for a moment to stabilise her attention of reality, then looked up at Luo Na.


    ¡°Is this the consequence of your fondness of illusory talismans?¡± she asked, noticing that there wasn¡¯t only a large number of active talismans, but also quite a few that continued to enact their influence upon the world due to the power of the talismans not being dispersed.


    ¡°Of course. You look experienced. Can you guess why I would want to constantly surround myself with these kinds of things?¡±


    ¡°It is difficult for people to perceive anything inside, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. It allows me to do whatever I like so long as I remain inside. Anything that people see might be true, might be false, and none will ever be the wiser¡­ Save for a few particular individuals,¡± Luo Na smiled, sitting down on a chair at the back end of the room, ¡°It does also make some confused about what is and is not illusion. For example, have you seen my eyes, for instance? They¡¯re a nice shade of green, no?¡±


    ¡°I would¡­ you¡¯re asking me for a reason, aren¡¯t you? If you are also able to perceive me despite all of the illusory talismans around here, then I would guess that you have one of the rare abilities that allow you to see through illusions. Physique or some unique technique?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a knowledgeable one. Care to guess?¡±


    ¡°No, you can reveal that yourself. You seem to be having plenty of fun with this, so I won¡¯t ruin your amusement.¡±


    Luo Na smiled, ¡°Your answer is the very source of my interest, however. Come, you have to have some theory of what allows me to stand here unaffected by everything. Consider all of the things that you can and cannot perceive properly, and-¡±


    ¡°Since you insist, I will not hold back. I am unable to see much of the truth, but my sense of touch is unaffected. The moment that I gained some control over my gaze, I was able to properly understand that I was, in fact, not falling, but standing on the ground. That means that the illusion is focused on sight, and that anyone who lacks ordinary sight would be less affected. You had mentioned your eyes, as well as illusions on the outside of the building, so I have to presume that you have something like the Milky Eye greater physique, which blinds you to more ordinary light but permits you to view certain entities like spirits or ghosts, and is said to allow you to view energy at certain ranks,¡± Wei Yi said, pausing for a little while, ¡°Am I close enough?¡±


    Although the talisman master didn¡¯t reply immediately, there was a smile on her face, one that lingered all the way until she spoke.


    ¡°You even made sure to give yourself an out there¡­ It¡¯s a shame you aren¡¯t a man. I would have appreciated your company beyond mere acquaintance,¡± Luo Na said, ¡°You were indeed close enough, Wei Yi. I do not have the Milky Eye physique itself, but a mixed amalgamation of physiques with the same effect. The other one prevents me from properly manifesting energy on my own.¡±


    ¡°Hence the talisman usage instead of combat techniques¡­ Also, I wouldn¡¯t object to learning about you in more detail.¡±


    ¡°No, I am sure that you would not. Still, the Searing Inferno may be a detriment to some, but to me, it is an opportunity to replicate the full prowess of my realm without having access to planar techniques. However, you did not come here to listen to me talk. Instead, you wish to oppose the Great Families.¡±


    ¡°Of course. Do you think that you can deal with the rest of the other faction?¡±


    ¡°So long as no random threats appear. That strange woman aside, there may be a number of other forces that appear to attempt to deal with us. If you can deal with all of them, then I will be able to attain leadership from that old thing in the Ancestral Hall. I will side with you, and when there is a reasonable chance for us to combat the Great Families, I could bring the forces of the district to battle,¡± Luo Na said, ¡°And you don¡¯t even need to worry about me betraying you with such a phrase. As long as the average soldier of the Luo District can participate in battle without being guaranteed to die, I will allow the district to heed a call to battle from our ally.¡±


    ¡°How kind of you¡­ The fact that the matter of betrayal even needs to be mentioned is a little sad, no?¡± Wei Yi pointed, out, earning a nod from the talisman master, ¡°I do not know exactly how things will go in the future, but I expect that there won¡¯t be that many more clashes between us and the Greats. If each one claims a dozen or two lives of the Greats, only a few more will be needed to get rid of their third and second generations. At that point, no soldier would be enough with their first generation.¡±


    ¡°I will never send anyone to combat those kinds of foes. Even if the legendary eighth realm is achieved, then-¡±


    ¡°Ninth realm might be sufficient, and even the eighth realm could be enough to contend with those bastards, but the question is whether this realm is currently feasible. The seventh realm is a peak for the Greats, and for all of the Patriarchs, and I am not sure whether this is merely by chance or due to something more complex than the quantity of energy,¡± Wei Yi disagreed, ¡°I also don¡¯t know whether they will be able to reach the eighth realm once that condition is met for the rest of us.¡±


    ¡°Well, either way, while I may be of some use, everyone else will take far too long to reach a capable strength. To throw them at a foe would simply be a waste, regardless of what you think about the people of the district.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ Not necessarily. There is a possibility of elevating everyone in the world to the fifth realm and beyond, to grant everyone the ability to practise multiple types of cultivation at the same time, to provoke powerful bloodlines and physiques within every single person. I don¡¯t know if this can be done prior to conquering the Great Families, but I guarantee that it can be done.¡±


    ¡°¡­ If so, I, as Matriarch, might not be opposed to truly being allied with you. That being said, I still won¡¯t sleep with you.¡±


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t really a necessity, but that¡¯s disappointing nonetheless. So¡­ let¡¯s get going?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. If the position of Patriarch is to be taken, then we must act quickly before any of our potential allies are claimed by benefits or explanations that work without our participation. I will vouch for anything you do but avoid killing anyone. The people matter.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t even attempt to argue¡­ Although I would like you to take a look at this first. Does it look familiar in any way?¡± Wei Yi asked, bringing out the round object from the tomb.


    Luo Na raised her eyebrow while she looked at the item, eventually shaking her head, ¡°Don¡¯t know what it is, nor where you got it from, but I don¡¯t see any use for it. Any energy that might have been there is now absent, and it looks to be extremely old¡­ Actually, did you take this from some kind of burial ground? It is covered in dust, to the point that I can notice it.¡±


    ¡°It may be something of note to the red-haired woman, Jian Hongchao. I¡¯ll keep it for now.¡±

 V4C55: Searching the Luo District

    They split up after a brief while. Luo Na needed to take care of matters that the people of the Luo District understood better than an outsider. There were people to be recruited, issues to be dealt with, foes to be defeated and taken out of the picture before they could become a significant problem, and this was something that the talisman master could resolve with the force that she had, and the connections that she had formed.


    Wei Yi would have participated in this had she possessed enough understanding of the district¡¯s internal situation, but, unfortunately, all that she had been able to learn about during her last visit was the nature of the Brotherhood of Power. That force was gone now, so it was all useless.


    Fortunately, the matter of bringing on allies was usually rather difficult, and not one that made best use of the methods that the Ascendant possessed. The power of Law could be used to convince people to some extent, but it was never sufficient to completely change someone¡¯s mind as proper persuasion would. Thus, she was more than happy to head out of the talisman creation chambers and out into the district, where she then obscured her presence and head out into the busier regions as to locate the threats to their goals.


    While there were also a few difficulties to finding people that supported the side of the Great Families without them being expressly one of the Greats, it tended to be much easier to take them out.


    There were two groups that she was expecting to deal with: those who were lured over to the wrong side, as she considered it, by promises of various treasures and rewards, and then there were those that had some agreement with the deeper ideas of the Great Families that had yet to be properly shared with her.


    The first kind was easy enough to deal with. The offering of any treasure and opportunity sufficient to overwhelm the one that the Greats offered them, or definitive proof that the offering of the Great Families wouldn¡¯t be able to reach them, or even that they would be killed the moment that their usefulness expired. Although they were easy enough to convince while they were calm, once enough people of like mind were collected and then put in a stressful situation, that would change right away, and their collective anxiety would merge into an obedience for the Greats due to their belief that it was their only chance for survival.


    Putting aside that this was yet another law of reality ¨C and one that would have been plentiful to advance her Dao of Law by now if the heavens weren¡¯t ignorant of it, as she was more and more sure was the case ¨C that could be resolved by dealing with them quickly enough, and without combat.


    It was more cumbersome to resolve the troubles of the second group, that of the loyalists to the Great Family cause. Whatever the reasoning behind it, those people would be keen to lower the power of the world, to prevent the seventh realm from being surpassed, to ensure that knowledge wouldn¡¯t be spread, and they wouldn¡¯t stand down with a mere offering of wealth or a guarantee of their life. Most would still care about their survival, but they would sacrifice far more to ensure that they succeed. Obviously, this made it rather difficult to do anything but fight them.


    Had these two been entirely separate, that would have been ideal for her. One could have been slain and removed, the other could have been traded with and convinced not to interfere, and everything would essentially be solved. And yet, things were never that simple in the Planar Continents, not when it concerned such a long-lasting conspiracy as that of the Greats.


    Rather than them being separate, it was far more likely that they would be grouped together, working side by side with some of those enticed by wealth or power having no idea that were right next to maniacs. They would think that all of them were bound by some sensible cause or notion, but once things became tough, they would be pushed on by those driven by some insane idea that they must weaken themselves, time and time again, just to guarantee that the world remained in perpetual decline. They would only assist that panic and anxiety of the others by speaking the right words to agitate and scare, and that would obviously not be in her interests.


    As such, she wouldn¡¯t just rush out and shred through everyone she found that displeased her in some fashion. That could be left to Luo Na, if she so willed it, although Wei Yi doubted that the talisman master was intending to go down that route.


    Instead of simply slaughtering foes, it was better to separate the two with various offers and suggestions, then defeat those that wouldn¡¯t fall for such things and let the rest run off to some other, weaker faction. So long as the strength of half of the district wasn¡¯t funnelled towards a single cohesive group, it really didn¡¯t matter whether they still tried to support the Greats or not, since their actions wouldn¡¯t be of much use.


    ¡®At the moment, it seems that the woman, Jian Hongchao, is playing some part in the faction of Luo Yunzhen. Ideally, I¡¯d take care of the faction leader, but getting to him might make too much of a fuss to let me be accepted by more peaceful means,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she positioned herself on an Aerial Platform in the air above the western half of the Luo District, ¡®All I need to do is find them.¡¯


    If there were members of the Great Families in the Luo District, then discovering their multitude of anchors could not only be easy, but incredibly beneficial overall, as it would go towards her pool of anchor points in the Truth of the Universe. Their presence among a larger group would also give her a rather good indication of who was on their side, and who was not. As if there weren¡¯t enough positives about such a situation, getting rid of one of the Greats while they were in the presence of those who had decided to side with them because they believed in their power would make things even better, as it would instantly turn those people to her side.


    For that reason, this was an unlikely possibility. Due to the current situation, and the damage she had previously dealt to the Great Luo, she expected the remaining living member of the second generation to be either in Testament, or in some Great Luo Family mansion off to the side of the district.


    The Greats did have servants, and if she came across one of them, she would be able to identify them, but, once again, she was not expecting to find one of them in the middle of a large group of powerful cultivators at the core of the faction intent on bringing the Luo District into the hands of the Greats. As she had experienced, the servants of the Greats lacked any ability to cultivate due to the restriction placed upon them in order to permit the Greats to exert their control over their minds, so no servant would be found at such a scene. At most, they¡¯d be delivering letters and leaving right away.


    Also, there was a chance that the Great Families would become rather afraid of their servants turning on them with new powers, as she had set a wonderful precedent.


    ¡®They do know of otherworldly demons, but cannot properly perceive otherworldly gifts, so they wouldn¡¯t know that I had faked it with the Truth of the Universe. It¡¯s likely that they think I had some kind of art prepared just for the occasion, so they would be paying a great deal of attention to their other servants just in case.¡¯


    While she was in the air, far enough to prevent anyone from casually bumping into her without realising it just by trying to avoid a large crowd through a bit of aerial travel but not so high as to limit the range of her spiritual perception, she searched for the simpler kind of opponent. Those that sided with the faction of Luo Yunzhen, and those that were following the Greats only for some small reward, were guaranteed to be acting in a less subtle way than those with a significant personal investment.


    To deal with them, she would simply leave behind a few marks near them, as they were mostly the kind that could be dealt with by Luo Na, as long as she knew who to deal with. For that reason, a set of marks made with energy that would then be buried within doors and walls and visible only to the woman with the warped physique. This would allow her to have a better idea of who to target, while Wei Yi could then focus on those that weren¡¯t as easy to deal with. If she and Luo Na worked together to dispatch the appropriate foes, things would proceed far more quickly, and significantly more smoothly.


    ¡®I can¡¯t find any of the Greats here, but there are some places that appear to be influenced by their kind of techniques. I¡¯ll mark those first, and then find out whether anyone here tries to be all clever and pretend to be convinced only to go away and simply plot against us. That seems to be my expertise¡­¡¯


    ¡°¡­ So, while I¡¯m waiting for that person to get out of the wardrobe ¨C not sure what he¡¯s up to, but he seems to be the best lead I have for now ¨C could you explain how that is assisting the creation of the array you mentioned? I can understand part of it, but the four particular beasts don¡¯t make as much sense¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered in the Kong Prison Realm.


    She looked down on it from above in her mental energy form, effectively standing at the peak of the Endless Monolith at the side of the spatial realm¡¯s spirit.


    Since the possibility of discovery and invasion from one of the Great Families, or possibly all of them at once if they considered her enough of a threat, was rising with each day that passed, since they would inevitably figure out that she was making use of a spatial realm for the sake of the instantaneous transportation between the various districts. It was a rather risky thing to do, even if the spatial gateway only had a very small portion of itself within the districts.


    All that would be needed was a single seventh realm expert, like one of the first generation, to appear and forcefully command the spatial realm, and they could then enter and invade. This might have been more difficult had they not possessed the physical entity that was the Kong Prison Realm, but since they did have easy access to it, they would be in a significant advantage against someone that was currently only in the fifth realm. Even if Wei Yi was then able to seal it away the moment after any access to the Kong Prison Realm was obtained, a number of the Greats would be able to arrive and endanger the people of Beast¡¯s Rest and Paragon. After that, if one of the first generation made it in, it wouldn¡¯t matter even if the Ascendant sealed away the spatial realm forever, since it wouldn¡¯t be of much use.


    If something of that nature occurred, the only thing left behind would be corpses and ruins, and there would be little reason to bother. That would hardly be ideal, and it was made worse by the fact that the first generation would likely have the ability to diminish the effects of her Law of Conversion, simply due to their power over spatial domains.


    In order to prevent them from being able to endanger the prison realm, Wei Yi and Yi Shi Ming had decided that while the former was out in the districts, the latter would come up with something.


    After a while, it turned out that she had concluded that it was best to work on a large array which would prevent intrusion anywhere but the outside, then fight off foes until someone more capable was able to arrive and resolve matters. It turned out to be something created by Kong Shi Meng himself, and, at an ideal state, would be equivalent to the eighth realm in terms of power, and could even manage this without a further increase in planar energy density.


    ¡°The array is based on the stories of his original world, wherein there were four powerful entities that corresponded to the cardinal directions. From his words, the north was guarded by the Black Tortoise, the east was protected by the Azure Dragon, the south was watched over by the White Tiger, and the west was defended by the Vermillion Bird, although he did say that it was a phoenix,¡± Yi Shi Ming shared while she similarly looked over the spatial realm and onto the countless small ridges and lines that had formed on the outside of the Kong Prison Realm, ¡°The issue is that this is not a array based purely on an arrangement of energy. This requires materials that my son had access to, and replacing them will be rather difficult.¡±


    ¡°What kinds of materials would be needed?¡±


    ¡°The least significant are items of the seventh realm, and I am not even certain that the modern world has names for them. To create something this advanced, I would drain all of the supplies of Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm dry a thousand times.¡±


    ¡°Then, it is bound to be effective, right?¡± Wei Yi asked, just to be sure, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want this to be a waste of time for us to decipher all of this only to be disappointed by the eventual power of the array. In other words, is it going to be stronger than two dozen people in the sixth realm without those materials?¡±


    ¡°So long as it is possible to create, then it will not just be a little stronger. It could crush anyone within the sixth realm, regardless of number, with the full power of the array being focused on four points at once. If all of the beasts are driven towards a single point, they are also able to combine into an even more powerful force, although this was something that my son had advised against due to the increase in the instability of the array. Supposedly, although the four entities are not living creatures, they still exude a certain degree of intelligence¡­ And do not get along.¡±


    ¡°A shame. If we force them to make up ¨C one way or another, depending on exactly how humanoid their minds are ¨C would it be possible to negate that?¡±


    Yi Shi Ming shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t think that is how it works, but my son only got so much use out of it. Perhaps there is something that I have not yet comprehended through the senses of a spatial spirit, or perhaps I will be incapable of discovering the true nature of the array until it is activated. Regardless, it is out best bet no matter whether they can be combined together or not.¡±


    ¡°Got it. How soon will you be able to transmit some notion of the array to me?¡±


    ¡°It will take a minimum of a week before I am able to comprehend the arrays I had observed my son create to a sufficient degree to provide only the vital information. I will attempt to learn more from this, but I am afraid I have limited talent.¡±


    Wei Yi would have said something, but both of them were fully aware that this was the truth. She was a relatively capable cultivator in life, but she lacked understanding of the great arts, with her focus now being primarily on history and the operation of the Kong Prison Realm. For that reason, while she could attempt to reassure her, it would hardly succeed when the person she was speaking with had countless years of experience and personal understanding, in the same way that Wei Yi was fully aware of her own limits.


    Instead, she looked over what was already present of the array, the very vague shape of the array itself that could be perceived by any common soul and tried to understand what it may lead to.


    ¡°With the way that the array lines primarily exist on the outside, with very little on the inside, it seems highly feasible to either stack some of these together, or to place a different array on the inside to make up for the weaknesses in the protection of the Four Cardinal Beasts array. Also, the structure seems slightly akin to that of the Restraining Phantoms array, although that is only a slight resemblance¡­¡±


    ¡°As I thought, a glance and you have more comprehension of this than I¡­¡± Yi Shi Ming had a slight smile on her face, even though those insights merely exposed her own incompetence more so than display Wei Yi¡¯s knowledge, ¡°If not for the manner in which my memories have slightly warped as a result of my current state, I would have given every relevant memory to you already¡­ I¡¯ll attempt to figure something out on that front as well, if I can.¡±


    ¡°I have some insights into mental energy, so I will include those fragments in the Ascendant¡¯s Library for you to look through. Keep working on this, and I will head out and continue following that man. I think that he might be going exactly where I need to go as well,¡± Wei Yi said.


    With a quick gesture, she was able to bring her mind out of the prison realm and back into reality, where little time had passed as it had been slowed significantly by the combination of the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s temporal distortion and the fact that their talks had occurred in their mental states. Almost everyone could think faster than they acted, as the body was slow and cumbersome in many ways, and this was especially true for a spatial spirit and a mental energy cultivator in the sixth realm, like Wei Yi was.


    After marking a number of residences and people with her energy, in a way that she had confirmed would display her intent to Luo Na, the Ascendant had been able to finally locate someone that could lead her towards a significant party in the conflict, and so she decided that she would focus her attention on them until something came out of it.


    It did take a while, but with a few more people and locations out of the way, she was finally on her way to wherever that person¡¯s information was going.


    Just as her scans through spiritual perception had confirmed when she had been above the western portion of the Luo District, the location of the important members on the side of the Great Families was nearly guaranteed to be to the east, or beneath the ground in that direction. The person that she was currently following, a large man that had come and gone to a number of buildings in which most were having quiet discussions near items that would obscure spiritual perception to some extent and on the topic of supporting the mysterious Great Families, was on his way to that direction with a few documents in hand.


    All of the documents were rather interesting, at least when considered based on the glimpses of them that she had been able to obtain before they were put into a binder that completely blocked out her mental energy, so she didn¡¯t doubt that this person was someone important, or that he knew someone that was. It was very likely that he himself wasn¡¯t a core part of the group, seeing as he was only in the fourth realm and didn¡¯t have many intellectual conversations on his way there, but he was related.


    Fortunately for her, another clue to his relative insignificance was the fact that there seemed to be no guards escorting him to his destination, and that he was left with no talismans to protect himself. Had he been an integral part of Luo Yunzhen¡¯s plans and group, then he would have been someone with more ability to defend himself, whether it was through internal or external means. It would have also been wise for such a figure to pay more attention to the things around them than he did, since Wei Yi could get quite close to him with him being none the wiser, although she couldn¡¯t entirely rule out the possibility of everything being smarter than she gave it credit for.


    Until there was a good reason to presume that he was faking his weakness, inattentiveness, and general incapability, she was not going to make that her primary assumption.


    ¡®Besides, of all the people to have the ability to trick my perception of their spiritual perception, someone that looks to be descended from the Luo and Chen families doesn¡¯t seem to be the most likely candidate,¡¯ she thought while she applied a few more layers of stealth techniques on top of her currently active ones, ¡®The Lan or Shi families are far more specialised in that regard.¡¯


    Even if the man was able to see her presence, he didn¡¯t make it obvious, and just continued on.


    After a while longer, as if he was making sure to take as much time as he possibly could on his journey, giving Wei Yi enough time to go through a few more residences and areas to ensure that she marked as many of them as needed, he finally came to his destination ¨C a large structure at the edge of the eastern dense portion of the district, just before the various buildings reached the point of being more spaced out between one another.


    The man coughed as he knocked on the door. The timing seemed coincidental, but considering the reaction from the other side, it was likely to be part of the password to get in. It was clever, but only in terms of ordinary methods.


    When it came to planar energy, there were far more things that could be done.


    ¡°Have you brought everything that was requested?¡± the person on the other side of the door asked once she opened it, ¡°That red-haired woman is creeping me out with the way that she looks at everything. It¡¯s like we¡¯re insects beneath her, you know? If she doesn¡¯t get what she wants, she might eat us alive or something¡­ she¡¯d probably start with you, though.¡±


    ¡°Stop calling me fat already, Xu Luo. I get it, I need to stop eating as much, but I can¡¯t! The Mindful Eating Art is too precious!¡±


    ¡®Oh, that¡¯s what¡¯s going on with his body, then. I was wondering what the strange energy about him was all about¡­ Still, less significant than the confirmation that someone similar to who I am looking for is here,¡¯ Wei Yi noted as she snuck inside with Mortal World¡¯s Echo physique as to avoid risking discovery by using a password that might have been dedicated to each person, not to mention the fact that she was not someone that either the man or the woman would know about.


    As such, if she randomly knocked on the door and provided the right password, it would cause a lot of suspicion about her identity, especially with the extreme similarity between her and Jian Hongchao. Luo Na even thought her to be related, which, if true, would not make things better for her at all.


    The building looked to have been a kind of hotel at one point, but it was currently devoid of residents and staff, with the only people present being the two that had entered at this moment, and a number of people beneath the first floor that she was not able to perceive fully. Although the foundation of the structure was rather thin, it was full of all kinds of materials and old arrays that had lost their strength some time ago, and thus it did quite a lot to distort her spiritual perception. It was less effective than an intentional method to block her mental energy, but it was still sufficient.


    ¡®Perhaps that is the kind of thing that their divine sense is able to penetrate¡­ The seventh realm is Oblivion Halo, and so the halos generated must be able to focus both mental and planar energy into a stronger form. In that case, the seventh realm of spiritual will, killing intent and killing will cultivation alike should form a similar conduit, that being the Condensed Lens, Raging Focus and Yin-Yang Conduit respectively. In that case, simply having killing will at the sixth realm and planar energy at the fifth won¡¯t be enough to push me through,¡¯ she considered while she found and then proceeded down a set of steps that had been blocked with a number of items of furniture.


    Just as usual, the World¡¯s Echo ability proved incredibly useful in bypassing such obstacles, as she did have some power in the district through the Conqueror¡¯s Eye and could thus pass through walls easily.


    The staircase was also disused, filled with dust and a number of small webs that formed near the ceiling. It looked as one might expect, however, this was rather undercut by the fact that much of the dust was not truly positioned as it might be normally. Instead, it was spread out nearly on each step, and it had not had the time to properly settle, resulting in it being easy to disturb.


    Even if Wei Yi had no clue that there was anyone beneath the ground, she would have still been able to learn that simply from the usage of what was likely to be a talisman to collect dust from the staircase, spread it out and then arrange it on the steps in a vaguely realistic manner. The craft of the talisman itself was certainly impressive, as it achieved a high degree of precision despite the instant and singular nature of most talismans, but it would not have been sufficient for anyone looking for clues to be misled.


    Then again, there was a table, wardrobe, cupboard and random pieces of wood in the way, so nobody who wasn¡¯t intending to search deeper would be here in the first place, so perhaps the talisman wasn¡¯t all that useful after all.


    After she descended to the first basement floor, she found that it looked even more disused than the first floor, but this was more genuine in all places but the ground, where there was yet another obvious trail of dust all the way to the next set of steps. As with the others, although it was not as blatant as a set of footprints in the grey and white of dust would have been, it still made it incredibly clear that there was something of note to be found at the end of the path.


    That was exactly where she went, descending again and again until she finally reached a door to the fifth floor of the basement that did not even attempt to blend in with the surrounding wood and stone.


    It was a dense slab of some kind of material that Wei Yi had never come across before, most resembling a kind of black marble despite clearly being metallic to the touch. There was a strange coldness to it, as if it devoured the heat around it constantly, even managing to cool her hand for a moment, as if her absolute yang and yin physique energy didn¡¯t matter in the slightest. While this did stop after a breath, with the door seeming to be unable to absorb any more of her heat despite not warming itself in the slightest, that was still rather concerning. The material also looked to be significantly stronger than the walls around it, and so Wei Yi did not intend to test it.


    Why go through the strongest portion of the wall when it was easier to do so elsewhere?

 V4C56: The Purifier’s Seal

    Due to being right next to the chaotic walls of what appeared to be the lowest floor, she was able to vaguely perceive that which occurred inside, and thus she sought out the location with the least traces of life and heat, then phased through the ceiling using her Mortal World¡¯s Echo ability.


    Landing in the middle of a small closet, wherein she only found a few old robes and some used and unwashed clothing, she quickly but carefully spread out her spiritual perception, making sure to keep it away from the more powerful entities in the rooms outside. Whether or not they were able to sense her snooping around, it would be better not to let herself be noticed before she had a chance to even know where she had ended up.


    The first thing that she was able to notice was that the rest of the area, save for that door, was no different from the rest of the basement floors. Everything was dirty and dusty, with this dust being extremely authentic and thus displaced according to where the people inside had taken steps and, judging by a certain mark in the dust, someone had been spending their time sitting around on the floor without robes or any kind of baggy clothing on. She wasn¡¯t going to make any kind of assumptions about that, since she had no interest in it unless it was related either to the Greats or to the red-haired woman.


    A number of people got in the way, most of them being those that were notable to some extent but weren¡¯t of prime importance and were only at the fourth and fifth realms, making them unable to sense anything about her spiritual perception, forcing her to look through far more than she might otherwise have done as to ensure that she didn¡¯t miss anything.


    In the room nearest to her, directly on the other side of the storage closet door she was now standing next to, two figures stood side by side, leaning against the wall and muttering things to one another. Their conversation changed focus very frequently, to the point that Wei Yi had to wonder whether they were in their right mind, but it did seem to be coherent enough, so she moved on from them and allowed them to keep speculating on the prices of jewels, if that¡¯s what they were actually doing.


    Then, in the direction of the person that she was interested in, a large room with a circle of couches and chairs that were currently occupied by some armoured figures, with men and women alike sitting with weapons in hand that they were maintaining and working upon.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think that those kinds of people would be interested in working alongside us¡­¡±


    In response to one of these figures speaking, another offered, ¡°They probably just want the resources for their own benefit. You know how those kinds of groups can be.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but for them to choose us instead of the upstarts¡­¡±


    ¡°Less surprising than you make it sound. The ones following Luo Na have been doing very little, and I suspect that the woman herself has a problem of some kind. She¡¯s still not participated in a single challenge, whether it was offered directly or not. I heard something about her physique, so perhaps she can¡¯t even use her own energy¡­¡±


    ¡®That one knows too much, so it may be wise to get rid of him the moment that it is possible,¡¯ Wei Yi frowned, noting the figure¡¯s voice and appearance in her own mind, ¡®What are they up to right now, I wonder¡­¡¯


    Most of them appeared to be Luo family members, and they were currently in their seats without any obvious intent to stand up any time soon. They looked to be doing nothing relevant to the situation at all.


    As if to help her, one said, ¡°What were those papers supposed to be again?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the files on the artefacts that the woman¡¯s group wants, I think. I don¡¯t understand how they¡¯ll be useful to a group like them, but¡­ eh¡­¡±


    ¡°So, what do you think about that new brothel that opened up?¡± one of the men asked, ¡°Their best offering is that blonde, and, trust me, she is the absolute best! You have to go and visit if you have the time-¡±


    ¡°Hey, you do realise who you¡¯re talking to, right?¡± a woman replied.


    ¡°I do! You were the one that first recommended her.¡±


    Their conversation rapidly turned away from anything of use to her ¨C even if the topic itself wasn¡¯t necessarily one that she opposed ¨C and so Wei Yi moved on to yet another room with her spiritual perception, then looked on and on. She wasn¡¯t in a major hurry at the moment, so viewing every single person and item of interest was essential to finding something of note.


    In one of the corners of the largest room on that floor, occupied mostly by scrap metal that had been thrown all over the place, sat a woman with red hair and grey eyes. At her side, a number of weapons, pieces of armour, random artefacts and even a length of tapestry lay in a large pile, with all of them looking to be slightly heated and melted, as if they had been held near the mouth of a volcano for a while during a time that they behaved as metal, for the tapestry shouldn¡¯t have been able to drip like it did. There may have been some metallic energy at play there, for all she knew.


    Rather than those kinds of details, which were interesting but hardly relevant, what interested her far more was the current activity being performed by this woman.


    She was sitting on the ground, with only a thin pillow beneath her, held an artefact that looked like a bloodied flag in one hand, and a small round seal in the other. The former was currently inactive, but the latter was glowing with a strange light of an unmistakeable shade, while the object itself mysteriously visible only by the fact that the world had an absent point in the exact shape of a solid object.


    ¡®Are you- f- How does this keep happening?¡¯ Wei Yi nearly shouted as she realised that this object was an unmistakable otherworldly gift, one that she was currently perceiving through a series of factors that allowed it to be visible despite the innate un-detectability of those types of items, ¡®She is an otherworldly demon? Well¡­ Actually¡­ That does offer up a few interesting possibilities¡­¡¯


    The Ascendant forced herself to calm down and look onto the situation from another perspective. Although it was an unexpected one, the fact that she was dealing with someone from another world did give her the chance of either negotiating with her, persuading her, or even tricking her with information that she didn¡¯t quite understand. Even without any of that, if the otherworldly demon was acting for the sake of some group without understanding it fully, there would be a lot of things that could be done which wouldn¡¯t work on someone who had a full awareness of the world and had acted for the sake of their own desires.


    Since that woman looked to be one of the stronger individuals in this underground chamber, the rest were unlikely to be able to perceive her, and thus Wei Yi decided to capitalise on the opportunity.


    With a few barriers to keep attention away from her, as well as a technique to rock the ground and cause some ruckus upstairs, she was able to force the attention of the other people present into that direction. They ran off, doing very little to communicate with Jian Hongchao as they did so, leaving Wei Yi with perfect freedom to approach the figure and speak with her.


    She placed her hand on the door handle, but didn¡¯t open it immediately. First, she activated every technique she had to strengthen her own body and mind in preparation for some surprise attack. There was no way to be certain about the person that she was facing, especially when there was the matter of the dispersed artefacts of the House of Gold, so she believed that it was only reasonable to do everything in her power to keep herself safe. Any energy expended would regenerate in time, so it was hardly costly to do so.


    Then, she shared her intention with Yi Shi Ming, who could then pass the matter on to the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters in the case of something going wrong. It would, at the very least, ensure that they weren¡¯t at the same loss that they had been when she had allowed herself to be taken by the Greats.


    After then following all of this up with a few more methods of lesser significance, she added on a bit more reason for the others to remain upstairs and to keep anyone from going down to the interaction between the two of them. Whether there would be a battle, a pleasant chat, or something else, privacy would be key to ensuring that it worked out in the best way possible, and that Jian Hongchao wasn¡¯t spooked by something that might cause her to act in a poor manner.


    ¡®Now, thinking of the otherworldly demons as animals might not be the wisest idea, if only because they would then be able to easily trick me, but the point still stands,¡¯ she thought to herself as she opened the door to the closet.


    That brought her out into the room of scrap metal, and directly into the view of one of the people that had not rushed to the top to figure out the nature of the commotion. That figure was a man at the fifth realm, and while he was able to react the moment that she appeared, he was unable to perceive the strands of spiritual will that restrained his limbs and gave him no room to evade her strike at his neck.


    She made sure not to kill him, since his ramblings to his friend made him look to be part of the less knowledgeable group amongst those that went against the opposition to the Greats. Due to her plentiful techniques, simply knocking someone out for a long while wasn¡¯t difficult, and she was hardly seeking to remain unknown within the Luo District, so even if the conflict continued for a long while and word of her appearance in the basement was spread all around the enemy side, she would not lose out on anything.


    Then, she moved onto the next room, and the next room after that, finding similarly useless and insignificant people that had remained within them. Making sure to incapacitate them and hide them away somewhere that they would be unable to interfere with her if they did somehow awake earlier than expected, she made her way to the room in which Jian Hongchao still sat, not bothering to check on why it was that so many of the people down here had ran off.


    Finally, at the relevant door, she slowed down and opened the door without any hurry in order to make herself look as unthreatening as possible.


    ¡°Jian Hongchao, right?¡± she said as she opened it fully.


    The red-haired woman had glanced up momentarily, but her attention wasn¡¯t fully on the Ascendant until her head flew back up and her eyes widened in realisation. For a moment, she couldn¡¯t decide whether she wanted to throw away the items in her hand and rush into action ¨C be that fleeing or fighting ¨C or stay in place and pretend to be invisible or something of the sort.


    ¡°No need to panic. We had met one another as enemies a little while ago, but it would not be impossible to be friendlier this time.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ are the woman that had defeated me, right?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. As I said, that doesn¡¯t mean that we need to fight again ¨C especially not when you appear to have recovered excellently after just a little while. Does the Silver Form physique create a secondary layer of skin instead of transforming your own?¡±


    ¡°I, uh, I don¡¯t really know that¡­ What do you want from me?¡± Jian Hongchao asked, her hands shaking while she put the flag in her hand aside and hid the other item behind her back.


    ¡°Actually, that¡¯s not a good idea. That item that you have in your hand is very likely to be dangerous.¡±


    There was an immediate glint of suspicion and aggression in her eye, but the otherworldly demon quickly restrained it. She looked around, confirming that there wasn¡¯t anything dangerous around her, then brought out the item and looked at it. Just as Wei Yi had been able to perceive with her spiritual perception, it was a round seal that looked to be made of a vibrant green jade, with specks of a flame-like colour within it.


    On the top was the sculpt of a qilin with an impressive degree of detail, but it did not look quite like the qilins of the Planar Continents. It differed in no obvious way, but there was a certain oddity to it that immediately stood out even to someone that had never personally witnessed such an entity.


    ¡°Judging by your behaviour, you are not aware of how spiritual perception is mobilised. Is that why you don¡¯t notice how odd that seal is?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with it?¡±


    ¡°Focus your mind and bring it out of the body. Imagine seeing something not with sight, but with the mind, and perceive that seal in your hand. Feel what it looks like, the material it is made of, all of that kind of thing, and then tell me about it without looking directly at the object. It¡¯s fun when you first get to do it¡­¡±


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t keep speaking as she could tell that she had intrigued Jian Hongchao, who shut her eyes and attempted to follow the admittedly vague instructions.


    Had she been in the first or second realm, she might have struggled to achieve anything in a short amount of time, but with the fourth realm of planar cultivation, first realm of physique cultivation and some kind of bloodline power at the second realm, her spiritual perception was naturally stronger than that of a beginner. With that much mental energy, she was bound to succeed after a little while, and succeed she did, only several seconds after she began.


    It was clear that she had never made use of spiritual perception prior to this, as her mental energy was not only unfocused, but emerged in an unstable blob that was clearly taxing her far more mentally than it should have. The overall mass of mental energy reached out, surrounded her hand and seal, then surge back into her body the moment that she was unable to maintain it.


    ¡°Eh¡­ That feels extremely weird. I know it¡¯s there, I can sense that it¡¯s there, but¡­¡± Jian Hongchao opened her eyes and raised her head, ¡°You know that something is wrong with me, right?¡±


    ¡°I can tell that you are either extremely unaware of the world¡­ or from another world. Your body might not be, but your mind is almost certainly from somewhere else, right? Would it be a world called Orbis, perchance?¡± Wei Yi inquired, and the immediate widening of the woman¡¯s eyes confirmed to her that she was most likely right. Even if she wasn¡¯t from that world itself, she was bound to have heard of it at some point.


    Meeting someone that had been to two worlds would have been great, but that was unlikely to be the case as anyone with the experience of two worlds wouldn¡¯t have been caught this easily, nor be this unaware of how things could differ. She might have come from an Orbis-like world, and then have appeared at Orbis and failed to realise the feasibility of such systems as planar energy, but, at this point, she was reaching far enough that even her mental energy wouldn¡¯t be able to reach the end, meaning that there would be little point to it.


    ¡°Yes, it was. Have you heard of it? Is it possible to come back? P-Please?¡±


    ¡°You aren¡¯t liking it here so far? Most of the others that I¡¯ve met weren¡¯t so keen to return, from what I understood.¡±


    ¡°It has been hell! I show up in some kind of evil scientist¡¯s lab, I¡¯m someone else, I am meant to understand and do a lot of things, then I have this strange seal that can separate blood and blood-type things from other items, and then I apparently need to fight and kill people¡­¡±


    The surprised expression quickly turned to panic, as Jian Hongchao grabbed onto her hands while the imperial seal seemed to just disappear from her hand. It had done so without leaving a trace in the world, neither to spiritual perception or Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, so it had clearly disappeared off to some space from which the otherworldly demon could then retrieve it without any effort on her part, but the way in which could occur while so easily evading her attention was still surprising, even now.


    ¡°I get that you haven¡¯t gotten the best introduction to our Planar Continents. I would love to introduce it to you properly, if you have the time, but before then, I would like to understand just what it is that you had in your hand. That seal, you said that it can separate something from items? Did you cause this?¡± Wei Yi asked, taking out the round object.


    Jian Hongchao nodded right away.


    ¡°Yeah, I took out a thing from inside of it, but I don¡¯t really know what for. The seal¡¯s called the Purifier¡¯s Seal, by the way¡­ Not sure how I know that, but-¡±


    A sudden crash through the door forced both of them to look back in surprise, for neither Wei Yi or the less experienced Jian Hongchao had been able to perceive the approach of someone to the doorway. They also looked to be disinterested in entering the normal way, but rather than merely passing through a wall, the figure slammed right into the door, resulting in it and the very frame around it falling inward.


    As it turned out, having a strong door didn¡¯t matter if the walls weren¡¯t on par with it.


    The moment that he was visible to them, the Ascendant was able to perceive the energy of the sixth realm radiating from him, as well as the faint yet thick scent of blood emanating from him. A single glance with her spiritual perception confirmed that he also had a second set of meridians within him.


    ¡®Is this now an art that everyone has at their disposal, or did I miss something?¡¯ she questioned for a moment, although she shelved such random inquiries until later, for she was currently met with the blatant killing intent of the sixth realm cultivator before her. Although it was not a force that he had cultivated, so far as she was able to tell, the amplification of his realm caused it to coalesce into a red mist around him. It paled in comparison to what a proper killing intent cultivator could manage, but it still caused a few cracks to appear in the floor and nearby wall.


    He did not set down an anchor nor attempt to figure out more about the situation; whatever he knew about her, Jian Hongchao, or the interaction between them, he had clearly deemed Wei Yi a foe. Instead, he instantly directed a blast of blood-like energy at her, with the crimson energy surging at an immense speed even to her perception.


    Due to the way that she and the otherworldly demon had been standing, if she simply moved out of the way of the wave, if that even worked and if it didn¡¯t just result in her being followed by the projectile regardless, the wave would end up striking Jian Hongchao with the full force of the sixth realm. Given that she was interested in learning more about her, the Purifier¡¯s Seal, and potentially even recruiting her if she was not against assisting the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, letting her be hit by such a strike was not a reasonable solution. Thus, with the eruption of one of her searing marks, Wei Yi merged the Elysian Palm with some Obliteration energy and struck the flood of crimson.


    Pale white and blackened crimson entwined into a simple yet fascinating spiral as they collided with the blood that was as solid as energy got and yet remained fluid, like liquid would be.


    At once, both of the attacks scattered, with their energy exploding at the point of their collision and cracking both the flood and ceiling in an instant. The sound reverberated throughout the room and the ceiling, with the sound of creaking continuing as if the entire building was on the edge of falling onto their heads and crushing them whole. Whether or not this was an actual possibility, the sixth realm cultivator certainly wasn¡¯t intending to stop there.


    With a hand flooded with more blood-like energy, he threw it at her, a dozen spears manifesting from the fluid and all flying at her from different angles. Inside of each one, a glowing symbol akin to one that may be found on the front of a talisman glowed with a distinct white, shining through the red.


    ¡®He¡¯s blatantly taking advantage of this, so the first thing to do is obviously to get rid of the handicap,¡¯ Wei Yi glanced back with her spiritual perception and confirmed that the otherworldly demon was currently frozen from some feeling or another, meaning that she was essentially a perfect target for the intruder whether or not he was actually intending to hurt her.


    During the flight of the spears, brief as that flight may have been, she manifested the Titanic Conqueror, forcing it to somehow exist beneath the low ceiling of the room, then advanced with both herself and it as to prevent any of the spears from being able to go past her and hit the otherworldly demon. At the same time, the four hands of the conqueror flooded with their respective energies, frost, toxin, righteous energy, and an aura of order arising from each one. None of the abilities may be perfect for the scenario, given that they thrived in open spaces, but they would still aid her greatly.


    ¡°Obliteration!¡± she exclaimed to further bring attention to herself.


    All at once, the dozen spears of blood were met with the four abilities of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, as well as an immense beam fired from one of Wei Yi¡¯s hands, while her left manifested a greatsword from her killing will.


    Just like the clash before, this caused a further explosion of raw energy to shake the structure, but this one was also followed almost immediately by an instant slash of Ire energy accompanied by the cracking, throwing and then the subsequent explosion of the killing will blade, which was unable to contain the planar energy that she had suddenly forced into it and thus began to explode the moment that she had let go of it.


    It seemed that only all of that was finally able to stir Jian Hongchao into action, as she finally moved from her position and hastened towards a wall with the most obstacles between her and the fight.


    The situation obviously wasn¡¯t ideal, and, against someone of the sixth realm, Wei Yi wouldn¡¯t have minded aid in the form of someone with abilities that she understood well ¨C which was easy with the otherworldly demon due to the partial mirroring of her physique abilities ¨C but she understood that the red-haired woman wasn¡¯t exactly a trained and practised fighter, nor did she have the right realm for this battle in particular. With all of that combined, if she did intrude in the battle, she would likely only be more of a handicap, one that wasn¡¯t needed against someone in the Linked Channels realm.


    Her killing will blade had flown past the midpoint between them, although that was shrinking as she still advanced further to place herself in a more advantageous position, and thus it exploded far more closely than the Hatred Split had been able to reach. The man was clearly forced to make use of a searing mark, although he still didn¡¯t place down his anchor.


    As he gathered his own energy, Wei Yi did the same, knowing that any attack made after a lengthy period of energy collection and focusing would not be one that she could just casually block with another one of her own attacks.


    However, what seemed to be an attack that would require far more energy to be collected was suddenly interrupted as he dashed forward and called out, ¡°Blood servant, attack!¡±


    There was no time to figure out who that was, nor was any time needed, for her to realise who the command was meant to be for, as the only other person in the room suddenly leapt out with a strained expression and threw an attack at her back. Jian Hongchao appeared to be moving entirely differently to before, and the speed at which she controlled and then made use of her planar energy confirmed that.


    ¡®Blood servant¡­ judging by the coursing of her blood and bloodline power, she might be being controlled by some kind of technique. Given that it is related to blood, and she said that she appeared in some kind of laboratory¡­¡¯ Wei Yi had a few ideas, but she knew that it was best to leave the guesswork for later. For now, she couldn¡¯t randomly attack the otherworldly demon no matter what.


    Whether the woman was attacking her due to the control of an overpowering art, like was the case with Yi Bai and other people cultivating an assassin cultivation method, or if she had been partially deceitful for whatever reason, it did not change the fact that she needed to have a better chat with her at a later point. If she managed to kill her here and now, it would simply bring more danger into the situation, as the Purifier¡¯s Seal would then attempt to latch onto another cultivator and thus require her to deal with it at the same time as her current foe.


    She kept her focus on the sixth realm cultivator and made her Titanic Conqueror turn and conjure a banner into the path of the incoming blood wave from behind.


    The two collided, the banner withstanding the energy of the fourth realm with ease, prompting the otherworldly demon ¨C or, as might be more accurate, her body, seeing as her eyes seemed rather reluctant to be participating in this ¨C to pull out the imperial seal and point it at the banner.


    Before she had any opportunity to figure out what that was about, Wei Yi had to first deal with the attack from her front, igniting a spark of lightning and striking at the incoming remnants of some greater attack with an Elysian Storm Burst. It was an old technique, but it had a lot of room for growth, and thus it was able to manifest the power of the fifth realm in full, a bolt of white and the gold of her electric energy shooting out of her hand and meeting with the wave, shattering it in one go.


    At the same time, she made her Titanic Conqueror to place down a series of runes, all gathered beneath the feet of the sixth realm cultivator, as it coated a number of enormous chunks of ice with noxious toxins that began to melt through the ceiling merely through the vapours that they released. The towering figure drew its hand back as it was about to throw the chunks of ice at whichever foe necessitated the strike first, although there were enough projectiles to hit both of them together simply by making use of two of the hands that the Titanic Conqueror had in excess. Mid-throw of the ice, however, the banner between it and Jian Hongchao suddenly shook.


    From the imperial seal in her hand, a vibrant azure surged out and latched onto the banner, as if it was a hand made of blue flames grabbing onto the cloth of the banner, the fingers tightening their grip.


    Then, as she pulled the seal back, something emerged from the banner, akin to a duplicate of the arrangement of physique energy which resembled cloth and a pole on which it was placed. It was pulled away, and as parts of it no longer touched the rest of the banner, the banner itself seemed to turn grey and weak. The stability of the object decreased, and something vital vanished from it.


    ¡®The Purifier¡¯s Seal is certainly affecting the bloodline power within the banner, but it is able to simply separate an object or energy construct into two! That is¡­ that might be one of the most powerful otherworldly gifts that I¡¯ve encountered so far!¡¯ Wei Yi exclaimed mentally.


    As more than half of the spectral banner was pulled away, made up of bloodline power, mental energy and some kind of innate structural force, the empowering banner itself suddenly broke apart, turning into a mist of energy while the separated portion also scattered, with the flaming azure hand disappearing only a moment after that. The imperial seal dimmed, but, judging by the fact that she did not lower it and kept pointing it at Wei Yi, it was clear that it would soon be able to affect her once more.


    ¡®So, I should do this quickly, before she has a chance to try out that seal on me¡­¡¯

 V4C57: Meeting with the Guardians

    Right away, the Ascendant slammed down a few banners behind her, covering them in ice, toxins and surrounding them with runes just to ensure that if there was a restriction to the amount of energy that could be separated by the Purifier¡¯s Seal, or if it would be more difficult in some way to separate them, that she gave the controlled otherworldly demon the toughest time possible.


    While focusing on the Purifier¡¯s Seal, Jian Hongchao did not appear to be capable of doing anything else, although that could have a number of reasons behind it. Regardless, so long as her actions prevented the otherworldly demon from attempting to run in and endanger herself against her own will, that would be better than doing nothing at all, so even if the banner and all of the toxins were dispersed in one go, it would still be fine if she could finish the battle in time, or if she didn¡¯t somehow increase the speed at which she split apart objects.


    Then, she focused her attention on the sixth realm cultivator, who had gotten closer to her and brought out a large spear that emitted a soft light that wrapped around him and prevented some of the noxious vapours that hovered in the air from getting near him, although it was hardly able to stop all of them. He was channelling his energy into the blood-red spear, causing that colour to deepen, but he was clearly ready to attack the moment that she tried to do so.


    With his energy and cultivation realm, taking him out in one hit would be difficult, but if there was one thing that could be definitively said about Wei Yi, it would be that she did not give up easily.


    Neither did she ignore the lessons that the world contained, for she was always on the lookout for methods to strengthen herself or improve her techniques in some way. After fighting with a figure that mimicked her Obliteration energy, she had naturally noted how it went about attacking her, and now replicated parts of the method as she similarly gathered energy within her hands.


    For a few moments, the two of them stared one another down. Behind her, Jian Hongchao thrust out the Purifier¡¯s Seal again, with the azure light spreading out and grabbing onto the banner and onto much of the surrounding energy, this time taking far longer to tighten, whereas there appeared to be nothing approaching the sixth realm cultivator, meaning that he either came down alone or that his allies were hiding away and waiting for some outcome in the fight between them, whether it was a conclusion or merely a part of it.


    Then, at the same time but without any planning for it in advance, they both struck out, with the sixth realm cultivator thrusting his spear out whereas she forced her hands together as a vast orb of Obliteration energy manifested within them.


    Just as the spear would have hit her, it was met with a blast of blackened crimson that engulfed it, the man wielding it, and most of the doorway that had been widened during his entry. It was forced to cease its movement, then was pushed back as a quiet surge of cosmic light prodded at the spear, attempting to make its way through the red light around it and enter the artefact channels as to draw this battle to a quick conclusion.


    It did not penetrate the spear right away, giving the figure the chance to draw his weapon back and attempt to strike again with the energy that remained within his body and weapon, and yet he was met with another sudden burst of blackened crimson. The time before, it had been fired with the intent to stop his spear and thus it was mainly dispersed by the point of the spear, but this time there was nothing to stop it from blasting directly into him, throwing him back into the steps of the staircase, tearing into the red barrier formed by the spear and making way for the strand of cosmic light to make its way into the weapon. That alone would have been sufficient to stun the man, who did not appear to be expecting this level of resistance from her, but then another blast followed with even more power.


    ¡®When I had been merely observing it, I hadn¡¯t realised just how effective this could be¡­ Each time the Obliteration beam is utilised, it is possible to reinforce and amplify it through the remnant energies of the previous beam, although the general cost of each beam is also increased, as one might expect¡­¡¯ Wei Yi analysed as she manifested enough power to fire out a fourth blast.


    Her current execution of the technique would have been sufficient to create five such repeated beams, but as she was able to view the situation behind her, she knew that Jian Hongchao was already close to dismantling the banner and energy that covered it. If she lingered for a moment longer, then the otherworldly demon would have been able to move onto something else, whether that would be making use of the Purifier¡¯s Seal on her or on attacking Wei Yi with some kind of technique that would almost certainly be insufficient to harm her.


    The final two blasts of energy threw the sixth realm cultivator back into the staircase, then broke him through it as much of his protective barrier was torn apart and his flesh was sundered, with a few of his bones certainly suffering from the barrage of energy.


    Normally, that would have been enough to down someone, but as she had learned both with the Great Families and some other frustrating factions, only if she was able to eliminate someone in one go was she able to guarantee that they wouldn¡¯t be able to stand right back up. In this case, he did not rise, but his body was suddenly covered in a dense sphere of blood, which surged around him and completely blocked out the remnants of her Obliteration energy, with a large quantity of it then exploding out and colliding into the minimal defences that she had set up the moment that the blood storm did occur.


    It pushed her back by a couple steps, with her stopping only an inch away from the banner that quickly fell apart into a mist of energy, some of which Wei Yi was able to collect but much of it scattered.


    ¡°Blood ser-¡± the man began, forcing the Ascendant to act immediately.


    She didn¡¯t know how the commands that he provided functioned, with the most important aspect to her at the moment being whether a vocal command was required and whether it needed to be heard by Jian Hongchao to take effect, so she couldn¡¯t simply block out the sound and hope for the best. To guarantee the highest chances of success, she had to prevent the words from being spoken, so she poured her energy into a leap up, slamming her fist into the ceiling.


    At the fifth realm of physique cultivation, merged with the power of the fifth realm of incredibly powerful planar energy, not to mention the enhancement of her bloodline power, a punch at a surface that was usually sufficient for the first and second realm to live within it without damaging the floors simply by walking, but not above, instantly shattered the ceiling. A wave of force spread out, crushing the ceiling and throwing a vast quantity of stone and wood that mixed together towards the sphere of blood that remained, impacting it with enough force to simply extinguish the sound that may have emerged from it, whether or not the words were spoken despite all of the force that had likely hit the man beneath the sphere.


    So far as she was able to tell, she successfully prevented the instruction from being given, but that came at the cost of the stability of the structure disappearing in a single go. The walls on the floor she was at cracked and broke, and with them out of the way, there was little to stop everything above them from collapsing in.


    Wei Yi glanced back at Jian Hongchao, concerned that she might be akin to Yi Bai in that she wouldn¡¯t escape unless explicitly provided with the instruction to do so, but that turned out to be an unnecessary concern when her figure disappeared through the Past¡¯s Call. As the sixth realm cultivator wasn¡¯t obviously escaping at that moment, since he seemed to still remain beneath the bubble of blood and wouldn¡¯t have the chance to flee from the collapsing rubble, she leapt back up into the gap she formed within the ceiling and repeatedly used the World¡¯s Echo to pierce the floors between her and the surface.


    Just as she passed through the roof of the structure and stabilised herself atop a physique energy platform, the entire building collapsed, with the centre falling in first while the rest fell atop it.


    The echoing sounds of the collapse spread out throughout the portion of the district, bringing the attention of everyone around to the commotion, especially those that had run out of the structure to investigate whatever had been going on outside.


    As they saw the collapsing building, they also saw the figure standing above it all, with Wei Yi¡¯s crimson hair flowing freely in the air as the ponytail had somehow come undone during the fight. She checked her back quickly with spiritual perception and confirmed that there were traces of an ash-like substance on her hair where the ponytail had been tied using the spare strand of hair that she had kept on her for quite some time.


    ¡®So, it seems that physical matter can also be scattered, so there must be a way for Jian Hongchao to decide what part of an object is separated from it¡­ not that I know what she removed from my strand of hair. Was it the same physique energy that she was targeting, causing the stability that my hair had achieved to fall apart and suddenly dissolve and scatter like it did here?¡¯ she guessed, although she was not sure of exactly when it fell apart and thus couldn¡¯t be certain if it was the last usage of the Purifier¡¯s Seal that had affected her due to her proximity to the banner, or if one of the previous ones had done that to her and it simply didn¡¯t occur to her until now.


    Regardless, she wasn¡¯t in a hurry to resolve that matter, even if it was slightly distracting, as she needed to deal with the fact that she now had the attention of the opposing faction.


    They only needed a moment to tell her apart from Jian Hongchao, who had far shorter and less vibrant hair, not to mention that her outfit was entirely different from the one worn by the otherworldly demon. Even with the usage of all of her available stealth methods, she wouldn¡¯t have been able to remove the attention that was naturally directed towards someone that had caused so much damage.


    In a way, that, too, was a law ¨C but that¡¯s beside the point.


    ¡°Get her! She¡¯s destroying our district!¡± one of the women, a fifth realm cultivator that had been inside of the old building, called out, pointing at her while her other hand reached into her pocket and pulled out a talisman.


    ¡°Uh¡­ In that case¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered to herself, activating the Lion¡¯s Roar technique and physique as she shouted, ¡°People of the Luo District, the Blood-tinged Church have invaded your lands! They seek to influence the course of your development by forcing Luo Yunzhen into the position of Patriarch! They wish to experiment upon you and draw out your blood for the sake of their own rituals, and Luo Yunzhen is complicit in this!¡±


    The previous figure may have been loud for someone shouting, but the Ascendant¡¯s voice completely overpowered it, rapidly spreading out throughout the district and nearly deafening some.


    However, that inconvenience for some only guaranteed that her voice and message was heard. The things she spoke of, be that the Blood-tinged Church or their actions, weren¡¯t well known to the people of the Luo District, since the organisation and their practises were essentially legends no matter where one looked, to the point that she was only able to call out what little she had learned from Long Huang. For that reason, she avoided getting into any kind of detail, since that would only make it easier for Luo Yunzhen or anyone from his side to expose her lies.


    It wasn¡¯t necessary for her to be absolutely correct on this, as it was only the risk itself that mattered. There were people that were blatantly not from the Luo District that somehow had multiple sets of meridians and practised bloodline power cultivation, with this including the otherworldly demon, and so the most obvious guess was the Blood-tinged Church.


    Even if they turned out to have nothing to do with this, that could easily be overlooked by her side, and the people of the Luo District, so long as the basic intentions that she had assigned to them weren¡¯t easily overturned or disproven, and she believed that she was in the clear in that regard.


    They were clearly seeking something relating to blood from the artefacts that they were gathering, and they weren¡¯t averse to making use of blood, so nobody would look at them and think them to be a reasonable group. It was also a good reason to remind her own people to not practise anything that made them look overtly harmful to those around them, whether it was something demonic or overly focused on blood, since the world had the tendency to judge by appearances.


    ¡°W-What? How could she-¡± one of the people staring up at her with an offensive technique prepared stuttered.


    In the air, the Ascendant couldn¡¯t help but smirk slightly, as that response alone was more than enough. Whether it was in shock at her proclamation due to the absurdity of it, or because she had accidentally gotten it exactly right, it was the perfect reaction to make it seem like the latter was closer to the truth. It was seen by a few people that had rushed in to examine the scene, some being common citizens while others were guards that had been patrolling the area, and all of them were able to see the reaction due to some light manipulation of Law.


    That was all that needed to begin rumours, and rumours grew to become facts in the minds of some after a while. It was all that was needed to excuse her behaviour, especially since she had hardly damaged anything of note to the common people, whereas the draining and experimentation with their blood was far more notable.


    ¡°What is happening here?¡± a voice overpowered the crumbling of the building and appeared in the air between her and the people on the ground, ¡°Everyone, calm your energy!¡±


    Wei Yi hadn¡¯t been preparing to fight to begin with, but the others were forced to lower and put away their talismans and weapons, staring with some degree of caution and anger at the Ascendant. They would have likely attempted to strike at her nonetheless if the man that appeared wasn¡¯t in the sixth realm, with his vibrant flame-like planar energy creating a dense barrier that wouldn¡¯t be penetrated by only the energy of the fifth realm ¨C in normal cases, at least.


    ¡°How do I address you?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    ¡°I am Luo Ling Zan, guardian of the Luo District. As you appear to be the instigator, I can-¡±


    ¡°If you wish for me to testify about the situation, then I would like to do so before all of the guardians of the Luo District. The matters of the Blood-tinged Church,¡± Wei Yi said, intentionally raising her volume at that point as to prevent anyone from possibly missing out on her words, ¡°are sufficiently concerning in my opinion to be heard by everyone that may have a chance of doing something about it. In fact, if your district has access to a method that can verify my words, I would gladly undergo it for the district¡¯s safety.¡±


    ¡°Wait, she is-¡±


    The guardian appeared to have no interest in it, not even bothering to turn to him as he said, ¡°We will talk to you in time. For now, remain quiet and do not disturb us! So, how should you be addressed?¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, Ascendant, leader of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. You might have heard of me.¡±


    ¡°We have. Come with me, and I shall bring you to a place where you will not be disturbed,¡± Luo Ling Zan stated, finally turning to the others then, ¡°You will come along as well. There is a large quantity of suspicious items in that ruin, and some of you look to be from outside of the district. Tell me, why is there such a large number of individuals from the Huang District here?¡±


    He pointed at all of the people that did not wear the robes of the Luo family, and that had been hiding inside of the house. Their features lacked a single unifying factor, with some resembling the Luo family¡¯s people quite a bit, but they did possess at least one blatantly inhuman feature each, making it clear that there was Huang blood within them. Out of all of the families in Yi City, while there were some with odd features, like the Bao family often having hair that looked like gems or jewels and that tended to glisten like them in the sun, the Huang had the most unusual appearances due to the presence of bestial claws, horns, teeth, eyes and far, far more spread out amongst them.


    There was no certain answer as to where they had gained such features from, although there was certainly plenty of speculation. The guesses that would be most popular now, as a result of the current situation, would undoubtedly be that the Huang District was a lair for the Blood-tinged Church and their rampant human experimentation, resulting in all of the children of that district coming out with some abnormality, typically a physical one.


    ¡°The Luo District permits entry to combatants and merchants. We are amongst their number!¡± one of the Huang family members proclaimed, with his peers nodding alongside him hurriedly.


    ¡°Is that so? The artefacts that you have left behind in the rubble suggest that even if your words are to be taken seriously, you must have been participating in some darker deeds alongside your trade. With so many artefacts robbed of their power, and the blood essence of the Luo contained within, you must have been intending to make a great deal from selling it,¡± Luo Ling Zan suggested, his eyes narrowing, ¡°However, is that really all you intend? Although I may not need to voice this, I shall still do so ¨C the people of the district believe that you have come at behalf of some vile organisation! For this reason, all of you shall be detained until further notice!¡±


    With a single word, countless guards of the Luo family emerged, surrounding the people that had been forced out of the collapsed structure, with all of them glancing at the most powerful members remaining in search of guidance.


    Ultimately, they decided that it wouldn¡¯t be worthwhile to get into conflict right now, and so they agreed that it would be best to submit for now and see where that would take them. Both Wei Yi and the newly arrived guardian were aware that this was likely not the end of their plans, and that there would be attempts to escape through one mean or another, so they were restrained and taken to some Luo District prison.


    Once they were out of earshot, the guardian turned to Wei Yi and said, ¡°While I do not disapprove of your intentions, or what you claim to be your intentions, we will still need to question you.¡±


    ¡°No, that makes sense. I will cooperate on that, as I have said already.¡±


    ¡°That you have¡­ Since you are here, you are bound to know that the situation here is rather imperfect. There is some struggle between two sides, and whoever brings in deplorable figures like the Huang District¡¯s scavengers of blood is immediately worsened in my eyes¡­ Not that I wish to endorse a conflict,¡± Luo Ling Zan quickly stated, ¡°No, the less conflict occurs, the better for our Luo District.¡±


    ¡°Do you not mind the involvement of an outside faction like my Arbiters? I¡¯d imagine that the Greats haven¡¯t been giving us a good name, if they¡¯ve released any information they claim is legitimate at all.¡±


    ¡°There is a difference between a group attempting to fight for freedom from a faction that you describe as tyrannical and someone focused purely on stealing our district¡¯s items. They have likely raided some of our ancient tombs in their search and pursuit, so they simply cannot be forgiven, regardless of which faction they wish to side with or who had recruited them,¡± the guardian affirmed, shaking his head as he looked towards the people being escorted away, nearly spitting at them before he realised that this would be unsuitable for his position.


    His words reminded her of the round object that she had acquired from the strange, small tomb within the ground, exposed by only a small crack in the terrain. Since that had likely contained the blood essence he had referenced, she had considered taking it out and showing it to him, but she was aware that it was better not to do so yet.


    From her understanding of the situation, she would be able to speak with all of the guardians of the Luo District and have the opportunity to provide all of the information that she wanted to show them shortly. At that point, she wouldn¡¯t need to risk him obtaining that evidence and either tampering with it, or preparing some kind of explanation to use for himself if he didn¡¯t want her to be able to convince the guardians to side with Luo Na, or against the Greats. If she did show it to him and he broke the round object apart before anyone else had the chance to see it, that would just be inconvenient at best, if this matter wasn¡¯t too significant for her and the guardians.


    In the case that it was somehow vital, perhaps being the best basis against Luo Yunzhen¡¯s faction, that would obviously be significantly worse of an outcome.


    ¡°I have some knowledge about that, by the way, but I will share that when the time comes. I believe that everyone in the Luo District would like to hear about the defilement of their ancestral property, right?¡± she said.


    ¡°Yes, of course! I shall await this information eagerly,¡± the guardian confirmed, ¡°On that, we should go to the stronghold of the guardians, as we sometimes like to refer to it as. In truth, it is simply a residence filled with a suitable environment for cultivation, training, and, in general, a perfect place to conduct an investigation into the current events. We would call the Patriarch to observe, but he is¡­ busy, at the moment.¡±


    ¡®I¡¯ve heard about that. Judging from his behaviour so far, it does seem that he is neutral, whereas that Luo Huang would be closer to favouring my and Luo Na¡¯s side¡­ I don¡¯t know how many more of the guardians are out there, but I hope that most of them are neutral at the least. If the majority is in favour of Luo Yunzhen, or the Greats, and have simply not announced it yet, that could cause problems.¡¯


    The guardians weren¡¯t the strongest force in the district, since that would be the Patriarch, but they were easily the most significant in the current situation as they were likely to all be in the sixth realm and thus had the most power to influence the outcome of the conflict. If they decided to side with one side over the other, then the power of even two in the sixth realm would make it far easier for that force to win over the other due to the combination of their realm and their influence within the Luo District.


    For that reason, it would obviously be ideal if most of them were currently neutral, since that would mean that convincing them would be that much easier, whereas a group that had already made up their mind would be more difficult to persuade regardless of their view. Even if there were some that favoured Luo Yunzhen, so long as the majority had no particular preference for him, she believed that she had a good chance to win them over.


    After all, Luo Ling Zan had expressed his distaste over the potential looting of ancient tombs for the blood of the Luo family, but if the others had already decided to side with the Greats and Luo Yunzhen regardless of the cost, then a single voice in opposition wouldn¡¯t do much.


    Even if all of them were to leap into action and enforce their allegiance, then one or two against, for instance, five on the opposing side would mean that so long as the stronger foes stand by and prevent those on her side from acting, the rest of the guardians on Luo Yunzhen¡¯s side could do as they like and there would be none that could stop them, save for the few unaffiliated people in the sixth realm.


    So, Wei Yi paid close attention to the actions of the guardian, as well as where he was bringing her, since she needed to watch out for any idea of which figure supported who, and why they did so. When one understood the reasoning behind someone¡¯s decision, it was naturally far easier to convince them either to stay away from conflict, or to switch sides, so with sufficient information, it was feasible to turn the situation around in her favour. Those that were siding with Luo Yunzhen or the Great Families for a reason unrelated to their goals, like if they believe that the Greats would simply make a safer, more stable world, would be far easier to convince than those that had some kind of attachment to the Greats themselves.


    He took her to the central portion of the district, to a large tower that stood high above the rest with a flat portion on top from which the district could easily be observed with strong enough vision. It was made from stone bricks, with thin channels carved into it for the purpose of either directing energy or water during rain, since having it randomly splash onto everyone below would hardly be too pleasant for the people of the district.


    There was a large double door at the front, sealed with an inscription that could be activated with the energy of the guardians. Since stealing or replicating talismans to bypass a defensive structure made with them in mind was possible, even the Luo District decided that it would be better for security to have something that required a very specific energy rather than a particular effect from a talisman, like most of the locks and defensive systems that existed within the district. That wasn¡¯t to say that it would be impossible to bypass with the right technique, but it was slightly more secure.


    ¡°Come inside, and don¡¯t let the door close on you. It is infused with fifth realm energy.¡±


    The guardian opened it for her and stepped through first, with the doors swinging open on their own through the infusion of energy. After a short while, they began to close again, so it was vital to step through before they shut if one didn¡¯t want to reopen them again.


    Obviously, Wei Yi wouldn¡¯t hesitate, so she stepped inside and found five other figures already there.

 V4C58: Imposition of Truth

    Having met Luo Huang before, she was already familiar with his figure, as well as the cloak of talismans that trailed behind him. As Luo Ling Zan joined the others, he became the second person that she knew to some extent. However, she hadn¡¯t yet encountered any of the others, so she took her time to take in their appearances.


    The first two that grabbed her attention were women, although, in her defence, they were simply standing near where the other two had stopped at.


    One was a younger woman, physically looking to be no older than thirty, who had her arms crossed and a bold expression, clearly looking down on the world around her. From one look, it was difficult to tell whether this was a malicious view, or if she simply believed that she was stronger than others and should be treated appropriately, but there was little challenge in noticing her beautiful figure and full breasts and ample behind. Those features were on full display with a dress that revealed much of her back, front and sides, with as much of her skin being displayed as not, if not more.


    She was also in the eighth stage of Linked Channels, making her the strongest of the six.


    Next to her, an older woman that would have been in her forties or fifties had she been an ordinary person stood by with a far more conservative robe, as well as a far calmer and serene expression. This woman wasn¡¯t looking towards any particular guardian and was instead frowning about something.


    At the fifth stage of the sixth realm, she was obviously not the strongest, but her energy looked stable and refined, so she had clearly not wasted the time that she had spent to reach her current realm. Perhaps she had gotten into cultivation at a later point, hence causing her lifeforce to diminish and her body to age more than the woman beside her, but had allowed her to cultivate with a greater comprehension of the world and of energy.


    On their side, some distance from them and one another, were two men of differing ages. One of them took the idea that Luo Huang had and made his entire set of robes out of talismans, with most of them having dried and crumpled after the length of time that he must have been wearing them. He was in the second stage only, with the quality of his energy being behind any of the other individuals in the room. With his old physical age, white hair, and low cultivation, it seemed that nearly anyone that broke into the sixth realm could replace him, so long as they were from the Luo family and had taken the time to cultivate properly.


    Of all of the figures, he appeared to be the most anxious and alert, even while he was inside of their so-called stronghold.


    Finally, to his right was a far younger man with a short beard and a cultivation of the fourth stage, as well as regular robes. He looked extremely ordinary, to the point that she suspected that he might be the most average person in his realm that she had ever seen.


    ¡®If he was a woman, he might have the most average boobs, too- No, stop that. Not the right time to be thinking of it¡­ although I am rather sure that he has his own average parts anyway,¡¯ Wei Yi dismissed those kinds of thoughts easily enough, tossing them into the portion of the mental domain that she had chosen to represent the Dao of Lust, and focused on the people themselves and what they might have wanted to attain from the day¡¯s gathering.


    Judging purely from appearances and her own views and stigmas, she presumed that the younger woman would be on the side of either Luo Yunzhen or the Greats, depending on which one she valued more, since her general presence seemed to fit those that would favour them. As she already supposed, Luo Huang would prefer Luo Na, and Luo Ling Zan would be neutral, or side with whoever cared the most about the peace and stability of the district. That much she could be relatively sure of, although she had seen quite a few proud people amongst her Arbiters and was less certain about the young woman.


    The others were more ambiguous in their allegiances and intentions, so it was far more difficult to guess anything about them from appearance alone.


    From the calmer demeanour of the older woman, it could be presumed that she didn¡¯t want conflict either, being a neutral party like Luo Ling Zan, and that the old man might be interested in any faction that could assist his family, or perhaps his cultivation, but the young man at the very right was too average in every way to give him any particular motivations.


    Since presuming too many things without reason wouldn¡¯t be beneficial to her, she did not do so, and instead stepped forward to greet them with a calm but proud expression, making sure that she looked the part of a powerful leader.


    ¡°Welcome to our stronghold, visitor from the north,¡± Luo Ling Zan introduced her officially, addressing the others more so than he was speaking to her.


    That finally caused the proud woman and the old man to turn their attention to her, as the others had already had an eye on her, with the old man in particular seeming curious about her presence. From his expression alone, it was rather difficult to tell what it was that intrigued him, but she still took note of that just in case. If he knew of the old her, or if he had encountered the red-haired otherworldly demon and was currently mixing them up, then both could be significant to her.


    As to make a decent first impression, she spoke first, lightly nodding to them, ¡°Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Wei Yi, of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. You are all the guardians of the Luo District, correct?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. I am Luo Ru Qiu, and it is excellent to meet someone that is taking so much action at a young age. Your exact goals may differ slightly from what our district believes in, but it is still something that our people should learn from. There are far too many amongst the Luo family that tend to avoid seeking change to the world,¡± the younger male guardian stated.


    ¡°Change is not always needed, Ru Qiu,¡± the older woman shook her head, her serene expression only deepening, ¡°I, for one, believe that if we had remained calm and not gotten ourselves into conflict, then we may have been better off¡­ My apologies. I am Luo Shiling. You said you were Wei Yi, no? Were you the one that had gotten herself involved in a battle between two small groups within the district some time ago? What were they¡­ Brotherhood of Power and the¡­¡±


    ¡°That was my relative. If you come across her in the future, please tell her to stop with her obsessing with removing hearts. Some people tend to do better with them than without.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, that is so¡­¡±


    The older woman didn¡¯t really know how to proceed, so the younger lady standing next to her took over, proclaiming, ¡°Ru Qiu, despite his faults, is far more accurate in this case. We need to act as the world is changing, and we should not be simply staying in the past while everything around us changes for the better¡­ or for worse, in certain cases.¡±


    As the woman said that, she locked eyes with Wei Yi and looked at her with a blatant dislike in her eyes. Regardless of the reason behind it, that made it highly obvious that this woman wasn¡¯t going to be neutral, nor on Luo Na¡¯s side, so she was likely to support either the Great Families or Luo Yunzhen. With how stern her look was, it seemed that this wasn¡¯t a random decision on her part, and so it would be difficult to change her mind and convince her to go to the other side without a particularly extreme method, or some extremely persuasive evidence that she didn¡¯t believe she had.


    ¡°Long Meng, your words are unnecessarily direct¡­¡± the older man, clothed entirely in talismans, said, ¡°I say that we should greet one another peacefully.¡±


    ¡°I am sure that you would always proceed like that, Luo Jian,¡± the proud woman replied, ¡°Simply being polite to people isn¡¯t going to solve your problems, and neither will that woman. You might as well drop it and not bother.¡±


    ¡°That is not the kind of view and perspective that us, guardians, should have, Luo Long Meng,¡± Luo Ru Qiu shook his head, ¡°A traveller from afar comes to us and wishes to share information, so why should we meet them with unpleasantness and conflict? I say that we instead greet her properly, then get onto the matters that we had initially wanted to discuss without any of the current tension. Surely that would be preferable?¡±


    ¡°No, seeing as we¡¯ve brought in someone like her, there should be an interrogation!¡± Luo Long Meng said, ¡°Did you attempt to break the peace, Wei Yi?¡±


    Seeing as the woman had suddenly forced the conversation towards this, their brief period of introductions had to be ended. The others might have had other matters to discuss, or questions to ask of her, but even if they were really keen to ask them, they understood that it was better to speak to her after it was decisively concluded that she wasn¡¯t going to be deemed an enemy.


    After all, if they decided to share something important with her and she was then concluded as being a foe to the Luo District, they would be implicated as a result, which would hardly be beneficial to them in any way. Even if they would be able to get away from any kind of punishment as a guardian, then they would be in a worse position as there would still be suspicion about them as a result, both from the neutral and opposing sides. This was also why Luo Huang looked at her for a brief moment but did not keep his gaze upon her, as it wouldn¡¯t do him any favours if he was seen as collaborating with her.


    If anyone cared about this at all, then they would obviously recall the fact that he had been the one to bring her into the district and had clearly gone somewhere more private to speak with her, but that wouldn¡¯t be brought up until it was beneficial to someone to do so.


    That was done just in case it turned out that she was somehow highly beneficial to those siding with Luo Yunzhen, thus making it a bad idea for them to promptly associate with someone that had also been helped by the opposing side, since that could make them suspicious as well. In essence, this was all complicated politics, and Wei Yi had to get involved for now. Eventually, she would have the freedom to do as she likes, but until then, she had to do as the people of the Luo District did.


    ¡°Very well. Come with me, Wei Yi of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and do not mobilize your energy. We have a way to ensure that the trial is fair, and it will be applied to all of us,¡± Luo Huang spoke, waving towards the staircase, ¡°You may be a strong individual, but there are six of us, and we can and will subdue you if you provide a reason for us to do so.¡±


    ¡°Noted. There¡¯s no need to worry about me since I have gone through worse than simple questioning. Some of you may have heard about it, but if you did not, then I shall not waste your time for now. After all, if you have no idea whether I am speaking the truth, then what difference do my words make?¡± Wei Yi asked none of them in particular, adding, ¡°I could say whatever I want, however I want, and so long as I am not blatant in a single lie, then none of you would be any the wiser¡­ Nor would any of you trust me.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I see no reason why you are still speaking,¡± Luo Long Meng spat, being only an inch from actually spitting at her, ¡°Your voice is unpleasant.¡±


    ¡°Just because you fail to have the voice of a goddess doesn¡¯t mean that you must attack others for being better than you, Long Meng,¡± Luo Shiling said, her voice somehow getting calmer as she said so, ¡°We will all talk properly, and if she benefits the Luo District, then nobody here would have a good reason to attack her in any way.¡±


    ¡®Hm. I don¡¯t think that she is helping me out as a result of some preference for Luo Na, the Arbiters, or anything else of the sort, so¡­ is she just intent on keeping the peace? Her planar energy seems to be regular fire-type energy, from a high-grade technique but nothing else, so this doesn¡¯t seem to be some kind of unusual method of cultivation. Is it possible for someone to want to avoid conflict to this extent?¡¯ Wei Yi questioned mentally, trying to figure out whether or not this was some act as she followed them up the stairs and to one of the upper floors of the large structure, all while carefully looking around herself with spiritual perception to avoid any potential traps.


    The tower was large, large enough to tower far over every single other building in the district, and each floor was only high enough to allow for a tall person to be just barely unable to reach the ceiling of most floors. As a result, there were more than ten floors, and she was brought up to the seventh.


    There, a large portion in the centre of the floor was empty, surrounded by seats that were all pointed towards the middle. It resembled a stage or a tribunal, with ten seats at the very front being taller than the rest and glowed with a slight aura of planar energy that was surging from within them through thin lines carved into their surface. Each one slightly differed from one another, and six of them currently carried a different energy within them, causing the planar energy to be shaded various shades of flaming orange and red.


    From this alone, it was not difficult to guess that they belonged to the individual guardians, all of whom practised fire-type techniques. Some were superior to others, but none of them were as significant as the Searing Inferno practised by Luo Na, which subsisted of consuming one¡¯s own lifeforce for the sake of developing the most powerful talismans possible.


    It was significantly stronger than anything that could be manifested by a cultivator that didn¡¯t make use of a technique like that, which did make Wei Yi wonder why she or Luo Yunzhen weren¡¯t one of the district¡¯s guardians. With the deficiency of sixth realm cultivators in the current world, each one of them would have been a significant addition to the strength of the Luo District, which could have been highly beneficial if the Empire of the Dawn attacked. Then again, if an attack like that occurred, anyone in the Luo family would likely participate nonetheless, whether or not they were officially a guardian, so perhaps their significant belief towards one side or another in the current conflict prevented them from entering a position that should have been neutral, and dedicated to the Patriarch.


    ¡®None of them are likely particularly worried about the Patriarch at the moment, which is amusing due to their stations, but I can see why that happened. In the middle of changes, revelations and conflict, someone that chooses no side nor presents his own perspective wouldn¡¯t be very popular,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, ¡®It might also be that he wasn¡¯t very persuasive when talking about neutrality. In that case, he might have been a poor leader overall.¡¯


    ¡°Go into the middle and stand there. We will make use of the talisman and present the situation to you,¡± Luo Huang stated, seeming to take on the responsibility of explaining things to her.


    ¡°Not going to introduce the talisman to me first?¡±


    She asked the question even while she was able to sense one of the others heading towards a part of the surrounding seating area, where a large talisman not entirely unlike the massive illusory talisman she had experienced during the duels that the Brotherhood of Power participated in. From that alone, before it was activated, she wasn¡¯t able to fully comprehend its functionality and purpose, but the few symbols that she was able to connect with others were rather encouraging ¨C no, extremely encouraging, as it seemed to be something that she had wanted for some time.


    When put together, those symbols would permit the transmission of memories from one¡¯s mind to the outside, and some of the other symbols utilized had the potential to mark lies when spoken with the knowledge that one¡¯s words were untrue.


    This, if it was indeed what she thought it to be, would allow her to not only convince some of the guardians of the Luo District, but, if she was able to transmit this to everyone in the world through some miracle, she could singlehandedly reveal everything about the Great Families to the entire Western Continent in a way that would simply be undeniable. Not everyone would know about the talisman, and some would obviously doubt that it was real or that she was actually using it, but all that would be needed to prove it would be for the people to investigate the Greats on their own.


    At that point, if they were going to continue their current trend of suppressing information and trying to weaken the world, they would be forced to act, and the fa?ade would break.


    In fact, if she had the chance to share knowledge worldwide, she could also elevate the level of techniques used by the whole world by a significant degree, as even a weakened and distilled variation of her Ascendant¡¯s Path, like the techniques she gave out to her troops and subordinates, far overpowered the vast majority of the techniques that she had seen out there in the world. There might be those that are better for specific individuals, being techniques that are perfectly suited for someone¡¯s body and mind, but overall, her creation would still win out the vast majority of the time, especially when united with certain combat techniques.


    She could spread some of the techniques that she had used before, those that have become less useful after the creation of Obliteration and the like, and the entire world would suddenly be raised to the level of deities so long as they can comprehend it. That might even do some good by limiting conflict, since everyone would have the same techniques and would be aware of how much damage they could do.


    ¡®That¡¯s one more thing to add to the list of options, then. I hope that I have a chance to do this, since it could be incredibly useful for my plans, and the world as a whole,¡¯ the Ascendant thought as she stopped in the centre of the central area.


    ¡°Your name is Wei Yi, correct? Do whatever gesture you wish to and promise that you shall be honest.¡±


    The one speaking was Luo Jian, and he was one that had brought out the talisman and now hung the large item from the railings of the seats, placing it right in the middle of the ten seats at the front so that it would be right before Wei Yi. Although the talisman was clearly aged and burnt, with parts having deteriorated quite significantly, the vital parts still remained and it might be able to continue acting for countless years if it was used in moderation, and with careful maintenance and repair in the future. With such talismans, it was possible to fix up portions that were burned away, although this would never fully allow it to recover.


    Their only other alternative would have been to create a permanent talisman, but those were difficult to make for a great number of reasons. Simply finding a large enough material that conducted and stored planar energy without any innate energy of its own with enough surface area to store all of the symbols needed to allow for this talisman to function would be excessively difficult.


    ¡°Will you do the same, guardians of the Luo District?¡±


    ¡°Why must we?¡± Luo Long Meng asked, scoffing at the notion, ¡°We are all honest, and we have no reason to trick someone like you.¡±


    ¡°Is that so? Are you going to tell me that none of you have any particular preferences or desires? Please, none of us are stupid enough to believe that. If everyone is honest, if any accusations are made using that talisman, and if all of us can be certain that everything said is entirely accurate, then nobody would be able to claim that we were mistreated during this trial¡­ Since that is what this is? You wish to confirm whether I am some kind of invader?¡± she replied.


    ¡°The talisman is likely to suffer too greatly. Each additional person consumes more of the Imposition of Truth than lone individuals,¡± Luo Ru Qiu pointed out, ¡°That being said, your suggestion is very good. Having an insurance of our honesty isn¡¯t too bad.¡±


    ¡°I happen to be a talented talisman master. If I can ensure that the talisman isn¡¯t consumed, what then?¡±


    ¡°You tampering with the talisman would make you far less likely to be honest, bi- woman,¡± Luo Long Meng barely stopped herself from insulting the Ascendant, although the expression on her face was more than sufficient to make it perfectly clear what she had wanted to say. There weren¡¯t many other words that started with that sound, and none of them would have applied anyway.


    ¡°Oh please, who do you take me for? Let me show you what I can do,¡± she suggested.


    ¡°Swear upon the talisman first, and we will then go along with it if you can confirm that you are not deceiving us,¡± Luo Huang stated, interrupting whatever Luo Long Meng was about to say.


    This much was all that she could reasonably ask for without being either blatantly impartial or in the seventh realm, since that would allow her to state whatever she wanted without anyone having the power to argue with her, so she wasn¡¯t going to try and push her luck too far. She could have done so, but it would have been a little too risky for her to actually consider it a worthwhile pursuit, as it could backfire absolutely horribly.


    For that reason, she did not hesitate in simply looking at the talisman and saying, ¡°I promise to be honest.¡±


    She had a very limited belief in the value of promises and the like, simply because she knew that they couldn¡¯t function unless both parties had the exact same degree of value in their promises and wishes. This could never be guaranteed without knowing someone well, and without knowing that there would be no reason for them to change their minds. As such, she had no method in which she would usually swear or promise anything, and the last time she had tried, she had gone against it nearly right away. Fortunately for her, this was not a requirement for the activation of the talisman, and the many intertwining characters upon it lit up with a vibrant flame.


    A wave of energy flooded towards her, surrounding her and reaching towards her mental domain, although the tendrils of energy did not outright touch it. The nearly invisible light did wrap around her entirely, seemingly scanning the outside of her mind for signals of deception.


    ¡®Alright, this is better than I was hoping for. I should be able to deceive this a few times if I need to, but I think that going more than twice will be pushing it a little,¡¯ Wei Yi smiled internally, the activation of the talisman providing her with a great deal of insight into how it actually functioned and thus permitting her to not only find a few ways to overlook it, but also gave her enough understanding of how to do as she had promised.


    ¡°So, Wei Yi, will you be able to grant the rest of us the same effect?¡± Luo Huang asked.


    She smiled, ¡°Of course. I will not tamper with it in any way, either, so you can be sure that when one of you says something, it will be the truth.¡±


    Her words prompted no reaction from the talisman or the energy around her, as she did not lie, nor did she even attempt to hide a lie beneath the truth. Although she could have modified the talisman structure in such a way as to be able to trigger a reaction akin to the one caused by falsehood when she wanted to, it would be both risky and rather foolish if she tried to make a statement look false when it blatantly wasn¡¯t. It would be too risky, and her statement only applied to the current situation, not the future. She could interfere with the talisman effect at any time without risking a lie.


    That was one of the many flaws with the talisman, although that much was to be expected from a seven-star talisman. If it was made by someone in the ninth realm, and was nine stars in quality, or perhaps even ten stars, then it might lack such a flaw, but before that, a flaw of failing to interpret intention and to broadcast meaning was to be expected.


    ¡°In that case, do go ahead. We will monitor you carefully,¡± Luo Huang said, although he was also a little wary of her. Even with the knowledge that she was on Luo Na¡¯s side, he was still cautious.


    The Ascendant nodded and placed her hands together, shutting her eyes as she focused upon the Dao of Law, as well as the countless chains that bound everything together, moving them in certain ways to allow the world to proceed as it was. Since her minor awakening to the nature of the Dao in the Bai and Chao Districts, her Vision of Law had somewhat receded, but she had managed to capture some portions of it and could return to full awareness of the chains through intense concentration.


    Luckily for her, she was able to accomplish that in minutes with the benefit of her mental cultivation, which had stabilised somewhat thanks to the lesser gap between her mental and planar realms, so she managed it after a moment.


    Once the chains were all locked onto, she reached out for a few of them with her energy, lightly tapping and manipulating them according to her will. Since she was going to maintain her version of the talisman as close as possible to the item itself, there was no need to figure out the exact nature of the chains and what they caused ¨C although she was still paying attention to it simply due to the research value of comprehending the chains of reality ¨C only replicate them accurately. That much could be done with enough focus, and she was being permitted it for now, and she expected to keep it in a moment.


    After all, while some might get rather impatient simply watching her sit around and do nothing, the moment that they saw the outcome, they would have no reason to stop her.


    Just as she predicted, Luo Long Meng sat up in her seat and prepared to say something when she suddenly saw the air in front of Wei Yi light up with a strange light that seemed to lack colour, and yet had a vibrancy that couldn¡¯t be missed. It was incredible, and with every moment, the light expanded into symbols, and the symbols formed a single cohesive fabric that merged into a talisman-like structure, except it was clearly ethereal.


    The talisman made of lightless light was weak and barely seemed to remain stable, but it did.


    ¡°Now, everyone, if you could promise to be honest, then we may begin,¡± Wei Yi raised her head and put her hands behind her, quickly hiding the fact that a number of small lacerations formed within her skin, all over her skin. They were small, but together they quickly turned her hand red, forcing her to cover it up with her mental energies and the other hand.


    Since she hadn¡¯t even been using her hand for the purpose of activating and touching the chains, she was rather worried what might occur if she had tried doing something even more complex.

 V4C59: The Tribunal

    They were naturally surprised, but after a moment of hesitation they all performed their appropriate gestures and said the appropriate words to trigger the effect of the ephemeral talisman light floating before her.


    All of their words came in at once, causing the tapestry of Law to shimmer and fluctuate, widening the gashes on Wei Yi¡¯s uncovered hand and forcing her to focus upon the chains as to make them shift in just the right ways. Simply creating the state of the ethereal talisman as it currently was insufficient to make it perform exactly as the talisman itself did, and so she had to maintain her focus for long enough to enforce the restrictions of the ephemeral talisman properly.


    If she somehow limited herself but failed to limit someone like Luo Long Meng, or any of the others that was against her, then she would have effectively hacked off a foot before she even began.


    ¡®The first thought that came to mind was shooting myself in the foot, but that seems to be one of those otherworldly terms. Nobody around here tends to be able to shoot themselves with planar energy and hit themselves successfully,¡¯ the Ascendant thought to herself once the Law talisman was stabilised, raising her head to address the six in their seats, ¡°So, shall we begin?¡±


    As she spoke, she shifted the Law talisman behind herself, this being far easier than allowing it to remain in the air, although that was eased the moment that six people with a consistent view of how the talisman should work acted upon it. It made use of the principles she had gleaned through the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, and made use of it to enhance the stability of something that she shouldn¡¯t be able to maintain with her Great Stride stage of the Dao of Law. It became far easier the moment that she was acknowledged to have some power, since that empowered her physique ability and resulted in a faint shimmer of blackened crimson to surround the ethereal talisman.


    The six guardians didn¡¯t appear to notice, for better or worse, and instead glanced at one another as they considered what they were actually going to question her about, and who would do it first.


    Eventually, Luo Huang sat up and tapped the armrest on his seat several times.


    ¡°Let us begin with a question that we seem to have had about you prior to the start of this. Some time ago, our district was visited by a woman called Wei Yi, who had a similar garb to your own, with a pair of the same clawed gauntlets. Before we proceed, can you confirm that you are not the same person as her?¡± he asked, choosing a question that was both valuable and not too significant.


    From her own understanding of the situation, as well as the reactions of the other five, while they were also curious about this matter, it would be of much use to any of them, since the most that it would connect her to would be the strange disappearance of the Brotherhood of Power, the name of which most of them likely didn¡¯t even know. If that was all that they could expect, then it didn¡¯t matter whether or not she was truly who she claimed to be, or not be, and so they were mostly paying attention to the talisman than her.


    If she lied, and it showed, then that would confirm that it was functioning, whereas the failure for the talisman to light up would not tell them much.


    ¡°I and that woman are related, but very different. If anyone is interested, I could prove it quite definitively, but only if any of you happen to know someone that had seen the previous figure called Wei Yi naked.¡±


    Again, the intent of the words changed everything, preventing a blatant lie from making a single change to the talisman hanging before her. She and the other Wei Yi were obviously the same, hence them being related, but she had grown significantly since then, even gaining an additional sex organ, so she was technically speaking the truth.


    Aside from disappointing Luo Ru Qiu for whatever reason, and making Luo Jian jump for a moment at the proposition for a reason of his own, it did confirm for a second time that the Imposition of Truth was hardly flawless. When it had been created, however many years ago, it was likely not meant for such occasions, but as the number of high realm items and individuals that could make them dropped with every generation, it had to take up that role. Anyone that didn¡¯t know of its flaws would likely only be able to overcome it by accident, and might even pin their success on luck or on the fault of the aging item without properly comprehending the way in which it worked.


    That would make it rather clear why it was a method that seemed to be employed on outsiders that would be less likely to know as much about talismans as the people of the Luo District would.


    ¡°No need for that,¡± Luo Huang shook his head, nervously glancing at the ephemeral talisman behind her for yet another reason that was likely to not be dissimilar to the one that Luo Jian had, ¡°In that case, I shall not bring up any of the matters relating to her. Does anyone have any objections to this, or shall we continue?¡±


    Luo Long Meng frowned as she likely thought of any methods to take advantage of the situation, but her brief contemplation resulted in no results that she seemed to deem suitable, as she spat out, ¡°Proceed.¡±


    She had also glanced at the glowing yet dim talisman, so the effort might already have been paying off.


    The others were clearly used to her poor mood since Luo Ru Qiu didn¡¯t wait long to speak, ¡°I think that it will be best for all of us if we get through the most vital points first, then handle anything minor that remains. As such, I would like to ask whether or not you intended any harm to the Luo District during your visit, or if you are present with any malicious intent to a significant beneficiary of the district that might impact us negatively upon your actions.¡±


    His question was broad, attempting to cover as many possibilities as he thought were relevant. There were a lot of ways to harm someone or something, and quite a lot of things could be considered detrimental to the district. Since someone could negatively affect a place or person without being aware of it, nobody could be blamed for doing so without the awareness of it, but if someone attempted to harm the district and still failed, they could certainly be blamed for the mere attempt in the current context. As such, he had worded it specifically to target any intention towards the Luo District at all.


    It did also include such factions as the Greats, as they were technically a significant faction that had a major effect on the district, although some did intend to debate the degree to which the Great Families aided the district, if at all.


    Given that she was part of a faction that was dedicated to taking out the Great Families and changing the world in a significant way, the only way for her to get out of the question without causing the talisman to indicate her as being untruthful would be to be absolutely certain that her own cause wasn¡¯t harmful to Yi City, the Luo District, and the like.


    Hence, she was able to confidently state, ¡°I intended no long-term harm to the Luo District whatsoever, although I may have caused some short-term harm simply due to the way in which taking resources that may have otherwise been obtained by the people of the Luo District can affect it. As for malicious intent towards other groups¡­ You should know that I have plenty of that towards the Great Families, although I would very much call it well deserved. It is also not in any way detrimental to you. In fact, there are only benefits for you to side with me and my Arbiters, whereas the Greats will only lead the world to ruin.¡±


    All eyes naturally turned to the talisman hanging from the railing before them, only to find that there was no reaction from it, as if she did not make use of it in the first place.


    There were only two feasible explanations for such a thing: one was that she somehow circumvented it and thus avoided detection, and the only other one was that she had spoken entirely honestly, and purely dedicated to her own purposes and goals. It was amazing, but so far as any of them were able to tell from their own understanding of talismans, it had to be the latter option, as she had done nothing with her energy that might possibly prevent the talisman from being able to pick up on a lie.


    ¡°That is what you genuinely believe?¡± Luo Jian questioned, his eyes flicking to Luo Long Meng a number of times, ¡°All of it?¡±


    ¡°What reason do I have to lie? However, I would like to address the lot of you-¡± she was interrupted by the talisman lighting up with a significantly stronger red for a moment, forcing her to correct herself, ¡°I would have preferred to do something else, but I shall do this instead as it is more civil and less likely to lead to conflict. I happen to have heard that the lot of you are going through some tough times right now due to the general indecisiveness of your Patriarch, and are pondering whether it might be a better idea to find a replacement as soon as possible. Mind sharing your opinions on who you prefer?¡±


    ¡°What does this have to do with your trial?¡± Luo Long Meng said.


    ¡°What trial? Was the whole point not to confirm that I am not a threat to the district? I have confirmed that I am not, so shouldn¡¯t we make use of the talismans while they are still active?¡±


    ¡°Do you intend to meddle with our internal politics, Wei Yi? Are you absolutely certain that it is wise to do so when you are only in the fifth realm, acting on behalf of a faction that is barely staying within our city?¡± Luo Jian asked.


    ¡°Yes, of course. That being said, I think that you are very much wrong when it comes to our position. The Arbiters shall grow with every moment, and we will defeat the Great Families, and we will ensure that the ancient legacies of Yi City and the times before shall all be shared with the world once more. What is it that you lot want to do? Do you want to let the Greats drag us all into an age of impotence and weakness, where we are all effectively unable to cultivate, or would you rather see Yi City rise into its past form?¡± Wei Yi questioned, turning to the old man, ¡°You in particular should want the latter.¡±


    The old man was the weakest and oldest of the lot, and he was very keen to speak of power and strength. For that reason, she presumed that he was someone that would be interested in rising up beyond his current limited station. Everyone had some degree of interest in power, as that was only natural, but some would view that power as some goal in itself, whereas most would see it as being something that they require for some other purpose, whether pure convenience or some higher goal.


    What she was hoping for happened nearly right away, as he quickly quietened down and seemed to sink into his seat.


    His peer and possible ally, Luo Long Meng, did not do the same, sitting up and slamming her hand down onto the armrest as she called out, ¡°Do you really believe that the supporters of Luo Yunzhen are a faction that intends to pull us down? Answer me!¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be the one answering me? You don¡¯t believe that they are a positive force either.¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± the young woman might have said more, but her eyes locked onto the ephemeral talisman floating behind Wei Yi and she couldn¡¯t utter anything definitive. Making theoretical statements was easy enough, but who in their right mind would ever support a group that was genuinely attempting to weaken the world as a whole? Even they were likely only doing because of their ancestry, due to strict upbringings, and the belief that they would ultimately remain the most powerful due to their techniques and methods.


    ¡°For this reason, I would like all of you to tell me what you lot think is best, and then we may be able to come to a resolution for the district as a whole. It might be quicker than waiting for Luo Na to win.¡±


    Most of the guardians were noticeably uncomfortable as a result of her proclamation, as one might expect from a group that mostly didn¡¯t wish to side with the candidate that Wei Yi had chosen, but they got over it quickly enough and decided to express their beliefs quickly. They obviously wanted to get it over with, both to avoid her hanging onto the matter and to ensure that the Patriarch wouldn¡¯t be able to listen in and try and dispose of them.


    Luo Ling Zan expressed his view first, saying, ¡°I wish for peace and stability, and thus I wish for neutrality. I do not care for the current conflict, and I would rather see it ended than having anything else occur.¡±


    ¡°I would say the same,¡± Luo Shiling said, ¡°The less conflict, the best.¡±


    ¡°I am forced to admit the same. I like change, but not when it comes at the high risk of the complete loss of stability for the district. A sixth realm expert, even if he or she were to be incredible in their own regard, would be insufficient to maintain the same strength and stability as the seventh realm Patriarch that the rest of the districts have,¡± Luo Ru Qiu also agreed.


    Luo Huang waited for a moment, saw that the other two weren¡¯t yet speaking, then hesitantly said, ¡°In my eyes, the best person to support the district would be Luo Na. We require change, and we require change that she can provide.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s where the reasonable¡­ where I disagree with you,¡± Luo Long Meng stopped herself from trying to label herself as honest or reasonable, since neither of those would be entirely true, ¡°Luo Yunzhen would be the far superior choice no matter how you look at it. He is suitable by tradition, by his ability, by his talent and with the contributions that he has made to the Luo District. Meanwhile, Luo Na has befuddled countless people just because they got near her talisman shack.¡±


    ¡°I am of the firm opinion that the Great Families are the best for the Luo District-¡±


    The words of the old man, Luo Jian, were interrupted by the ephemeral talisman flickering to crimson, prompting everyone to look at him in a very unfavourable way.


    ¡°I¡­ I mean that I believe that they are the best choice for the Luo family-¡±


    Another flicker of crimson confirmed Wei Yi¡¯s earlier guesses about him, mainly that he was not that concerned about the state of the district itself but only one person within it due to his present weakness and likely inability to proceed much further than his current meagre stage at the bottom third of his current realm.


    ¡°¡­ Fine. It would be best for me,¡± he finally admitted, much to his own shame and the unpleasant looks of the other five, although the Ascendant¡¯s gaze upon him was far more vicious and disappointed than that of all of the guardians combined.


    Had he been seeking some group that was a little dubious for that purpose, she might not have minded. Rather, she would have had no right to mind, when her own actions were hardly perfect in any regard. And yet, he decided that he would go to the group that sought the end of Yi City as it currently was, crushing it into something insignificant, ruled over from the shadows by whatever would remain of the Greats at that point while the Patriarchs would likely be only at the second realm, if not lower. That was not just a foolish decision, but an absolutely moronic one, and it was not something that Wei Yi intended to tolerate even if she had felt bad for him ¨C which she did not.


    Some people that had no chance to obtain power and suffered as a result had the right to demand a chance after everything they had endured, in her mind, for they had not only been given a bad hand by life but then persisted and attempted to succeed nonetheless. However, from what she was able to tell, Luo Jian was not this kind of person.


    He had the realm that many could only ever dream of, he had the position that most wouldn¡¯t even presume to be available to them, and he was living in a district that was one of the stronger and more stable ones within the current Yi City. It wasn¡¯t like he had been born and lived in the Ping District, where he would have needed to pay protection money to fifty different gangs all of the time, so it was difficult to presume him to be someone that had a tough time.


    ¡®Presumption isn¡¯t even necessary when mental scanning is taken into account. From his memories, it seems that his status as one of the relatives of the current Patriarch, Luo Ping Dong, has earned him a rather smooth road to the sixth realm, except that he wasn¡¯t confident with practising a high grade technique and used a weak one the whole way through. As a result, he has the realm, but not the strength to fully back it up. Someone at the ninth stage of the fifth realm could compete with him and likely not lose out too significantly,¡¯ she thought while she waited for the other guardians to make their own judgements.


    Regardless of their own opinions, which some of them did express with dissatisfied muttering, she would eventually speak, but it was best to give them some room.


    In this case, that room was no longer than a minute since she had an excellent idea very quickly.


    ¡°Naturally, some of you may be against my particular pick, so, before I espouse my opinion on the Great Families, I suppose I might as well explain why selecting Luo Yunzhen as your next Patriarch will lead you into the same pit that they will. Have any of you heard of the Blood-tinged Church? I know that Luo Ling Zan is familiar, but how about the rest of you?¡±


    ¡°Out of the bits that we know, I am most familiar with the tale of Chao Jianhong,¡± Luo Shiling offered helpfully.


    ¡°That much should be enough. The Blood-tinged Church is a group of maniacs and madmen intent on experimenting on all of you for the sake of furthering their own understanding of blood and bloodlines, an understanding that might not pale in comparison to my own, considering the things that I¡¯ve seen,¡± she explained, ¡°There are factions amongst them that have broken off due to the extreme nature of the Church, and I would advise all of you not to even attempt to aid them. They will take advantage of you just as they took advantage of Chao Jianhong¡¯s desire.¡±


    There was no response from the talisman, for it was nothing but her honest opinion. It may have lacked as much evidence as she would have personally liked to make a complete definitive statement, but the talisman was hardly equipped with the function to clarify it, and she wasn¡¯t going to do it herself.


    ¡°Luo Yunzhen must be working with the Blood-tinged Church, as a number of warriors making use of techniques that are only available to them have appeared in his service, not to mention the woman that resembles me, Jian Hongchao, who has been experimented on by them. I don¡¯t know their exact reason to be in this district, but I know that it is not one that any of you will like, even if it comes to some benefit to you,¡± the Ascendant stated, gazing at Luo Jian as she was doing so, ¡°If Luo Yunzhen is in favour of the Church, or if he is some puppet of theirs, then I would advise against selecting him as the Patriarch. Either case is terrible for your district, for your cultivation, for the people, and for the world as a whole.¡±


    In the eyes of the guardians, even those that were essentially on her side, the talisman should have acted by now. It should have done something, reacted to any one of her words, marking them as a lie, and yet all that they witnessed was an oval shaped light manifest above her head, roughly twice as wide as she could stretch her arms and about one and a half that amount tall.


    From the way in which it appeared alone, it was clear that this was the memory sharing function of the talisman, and that intrigued them even more. Words were deceptive in many regards. One could say a lot of things, and even if they were blatantly false, so long as the person speaking believed them to be true, the talisman wouldn¡¯t react. This did not extend to memories for the simple reason that the talisman didn¡¯t interpret them, only showed them as clearly as it was able to. All of the sound and visuals that someone experienced would be bared to them, and they could determine what they thought of it themselves.


    There was no way to deceive this method without having one¡¯s memories changed, and that was rarely feasible without an extreme mastery in mental manipulation methods. Even then, there would be blatant flaws that the one experiencing the memories would overlook, or fill in on their own, but others would be able to perceive almost right away, making such false memories blatant and not particularly effective in such situations.


    Either way, if there was any falsehood in her words, they would be able to tell from this.


    The light manifested into a scene of the Luo District, one that Luo Ling Zan recognised with ease as he had been there not long ago. He hadn¡¯t been inside of the building that he now saw, but he was able to recognise some of the walls in the state they were in before they had collapsed.


    It showed them how a sixth realm cultivator appeared before her in a building that was clearly being used by Luo Yunzhen¡¯s faction, and as the visual component almost broke down a little, they were also able to get everything that her spiritual perception had taken in. He was two sets of meridians, and a blood-like energy flowed swiftly throughout the second set, supporting energy that resembled it but paled in comparison, if it was to be assessed by how bloody it looked. What was clear was how it supported the planar energy of the cultivator, the two energies collectively pulsing like a heart.


    With the conversation that they had been having, they obviously thought to the Blood-tinged Church, and how the cultivation that they were currently seeing would make sense to have been the result of that Church¡¯s research. It might not have been the only possibility, but as the human mind tended to leap to conclusions, finding more and more evidence that assisted them.


    That sixth realm cultivator fought with her, making use of blatant blood-type methods, and even commanded the red-haired woman while referring to her as a blood servant, which naturally drew their minds further to the Church. It was clear that certain bits and pieces were skipped from the way in which the memory would suddenly leap forward by a few moments every now and then, but despite them being fully aware that they were facing something specifically intended to provide them with just the information that would influence them the most, they still couldn¡¯t argue that this was all clearly connected.


    ¡°I have no doubt that the person I had fought was part of the Blood-tinged Church, whether in the past or at the moment, if he is still alive beneath the rubble. Given that Luo Yunzhen was working with him openly, and Jian Hongchao was being forced to extract blood essence from various items, I don¡¯t think I need to explain who would have benefited from this,¡± Wei Yi said as she brought out the round object from the hidden tomb and showed it to them.


    ¡°That¡­ I do not recognise it, but there should have been something relating to the Luo family blood within it,¡± Luo Ling Zan said, ¡°That woman extracted it?¡±


    ¡°At the order of Luo Yunzhen or the people he is working with. Possibly both, depending on what they intend to do. However, whatever the exact situation is, she isn¡¯t the one to blame for all of this. If any one of you does encounter her and decides to take her out, I would ask that you incapacitate her rather than killing her, as it will be bad for both of us if she dies,¡± she didn¡¯t reveal the exact nature of the otherworldly demons, as she knew that some would be all too keen to obtain an azure light for themselves if they could, and instead expressed herself in that way, ¡°Before then, however, I would like to ask any of you if you are willing to endanger the Luo District with the madness that the Blood-tinged Church would bring.¡±


    Luo Long Meng gazed down at the ground; her eyes unfocused as she was deep in thought. From the thoughts passing through her head, which were rather easy to view with a spiritual will thread, Wei Yi was reasonably able to conclude that her decision to side with Luo Yunzhen was not due to his alliance with the Blood-tinged Church, nor the Greats.


    In her thoughts, the woman essentially saw a small number of things as being positive and worthy of her attention, but the rest were apparently worthless and insignificant, with the thoughts and memories relating to them being dim and dark while the select few were bright and vibrant. During the brief time that they were silent, the only positive thoughts were in regard to Luo Yunzhen, whereas the rest were mostly dedicated to the personal pleasures of her life and little else. She had apparently heard of the Great Families before, from a source other than the Arbiters, and hadn¡¯t thought of them positively either.


    ¡°Luo Jian, do you believe that the Blood-tinged Church can be a positive force?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    Unlike Luo Long Meng, the old man did not appear as obvious in his displeasure, if he was affected at all, hence forcing her to ask him directly.


    ¡°I¡­ I do not. However! I, as the guardian of the Luo District, label you as a foe of the Luo family! By my honour and name, I shall eliminate you and rid the world of the threat that you pose to us all!¡± the old man suddenly leapt into action, jumping onto the railing and manifesting a great deal of planar energy all while ignoring the repeated crimson flashes of the ephemeral talisman behind him.


    His peers also didn¡¯t perceive his actions as being particularly wise, for they remembered how the memory shared by Wei Yi had showed her competing and easily damaging the sixth realm cultivation she had fought with by a significant degree. Since he was likely to be someone from a powerful cult like the Blood-tinged Church, that would just mean that Luo Jian wouldn¡¯t stand a single chance against her, unless she couldn¡¯t be bothered to fight back.


    There was also the matter of his attempt to label her as a foe. Simply put, he couldn¡¯t do so on his own, so all that he did was proclaim his own intentions.


    Intentions that weren¡¯t too popular amongst most in the room.

 V4C60: The Luo Patriarch

    It was this combination of factors that led to him being targeted from behind almost instantly, with three of the five other guardians deciding that it was best to stop him before he had a chance to ruin anything for the rest of them. Luo Shiling and Luo Long Meng avoided interacting with the situation, with one simply sitting still as a corpse while the other wouldn¡¯t move to strike at a potential ally.


    She did give him the middle finger quietly, which was enough in the eyes of the others.


    He targeted Wei Yi with a powerful blast of energy, utilising an advanced version of the Scarlet Metal Strike in the hope of weakening her with the first blow and thus giving himself an edge, then turned to the attackers from the back and met them with a series of movements not entirely unlike the Eight Minor Changes technique. It lacked the usage of a spear, and had clear differences from either the standard variant or the Eight Great Changes that Wei Yi had deduced, but it was still recognisably related to that method.


    While she did have some spiritual will threads in the back of his head, it was difficult to tell just how well she thought that this would go. His thoughts were fast and vague, leaving her with little to work with.


    ¡®Doesn¡¯t change the fact that he really isn¡¯t paying attention, or else is in a poor mental state. There¡¯s no way for an attack modelled after something usable in the first realm to be effective against someone that could reasonably rival the sixth realm while only being in the fourth, so¡­¡¯ the Ascendant quietly shook her head as she faced the blast of heat and concluded, ¡®this might be the end of one of the six guardians. I didn¡¯t like him much anyway.¡¯


    She snapped her fingers, causing a small blast of Obliteration energy to emerge from her and collide with the wave of heat, with the latter dissipating instantly as a portion of the flame was devoured by the blackened crimson. Much of the energy continued on, striking the old man¡¯s back and stunning him for just a moment.


    That moment alone was enough for two talismans and a spear to effortlessly glide past his weak defence and impact him, with flames quickly spreading over his body. A number of bones broke, his left arm all the way up to the shoulder was disabled, and he fell from the railing down onto the open circle below, landing right in front of the Ascendant. He tried to reach into a pocket and bring out a talisman, but before his remaining functional hand could even get close, he found a set of six floating black dice grabbing onto it and forcing it back against the wall behind him.


    ¡°So, Luo Jian, are you sure that you wish to be my opponent?¡±


    ¡°The whole Luo family-¡±


    ¡°The whole Luo family will not oppose someone that is acting purely out of their own interests!¡± Luo Huang exclaimed, ¡°Had you been seeking to raise the Luo District to new heights and made a mistake, you could be forgiven, but this is not the case! You have sought conflict for your own purposes, and so you and the one you oppose should have the right to resolve it on your own. Who agrees?¡±


    The three neutral guardians quickly voiced their agreements, leaving it up to Luo Long Meng to decide whether she was going to side with the old man or the others in the room.


    ¡°Old man, I will not defend you. You are not worth it, for me or Yunzhen.¡±


    ¡°Thank you very much, Luo Long Meng. I shall not impose anything too significant, since I do realise that would be a little too presumptuous of me before I have any kind of alliance agreement with you, but I will still demand that this man is removed from his current position. He is harmful to you, me, and is generally a threat to the world as a whole if his self-centred behaviour is permitted to continue,¡± Wei Yi stated, the talisman on the railing not reacting at all.


    ¡°W-Wait, you can¡¯t-¡±


    ¡°Shut it, Luo Jian. You have shown yourself to be rather unreliable, and so your opinion will not be tolerated!¡± Luo Long Meng said, ¡°I do not believe that he is suitable to be a guardian.¡±


    ¡°He has done poorly at maintaining the peace. I would prefer to be rid of him,¡± Luo Shiling said.


    ¡°Perhaps my words are unnecessary, but there is nothing that could convince me that he is any better at being a guardian than anyone else in the sixth realm would be. After all, most people wouldn¡¯t attain their realm without a great degree of will and practise, which Luo Jian appears to be lacking in his later years,¡± Luo Huang expressed, although he was subduing a smile while he did so.


    ¡°His actions are not suitable for someone in his current position. I would not be proud to call myself a guardian while someone like him remains,¡± Luo Ling Zan stated.


    Luo Ru Qiu stroked his short beard for a while, then said, ¡°I have long said we needed change. I think that this is one change that every single one of us can not only get behind, but also wholeheartedly support, since Luo Jian has never been particularly popular as a guardian. He has done little in his career, and I am not even sure that most of the district¡¯s people even know that he is a guardian, save for those that he had shared the information with to obtain benefits.¡±


    ¡°W-What are all of you saying? I am not like tha-¡±


    A blatant crimson flash from the ephemeral Imposition of Truth forced him back into silence. So far as anyone could tell, the talisman had been highly accurate so far, and so none of them had even the slightest reason to doubt it.


    That applied to the man himself, who knew that he couldn¡¯t even fool himself, who was the true target of those words. He wanted to believe that he wasn¡¯t someone as terrible as the others described him, and that there was some room for redemption and improvement when the only bad thing that he had done, in his eyes, was pursue a greater stage of cultivation a little too intensely, but as he went through his memories, and as Wei Yi silently accompanied his mind, he just found more and more flaws to everything that he had done so far. So many things that he didn¡¯t need to do, that he had known that he wouldn¡¯t need to do, and yet did anyway.


    To say that the Dao of Law wasn¡¯t being used in this instance in the form of a more traditional definition of law, one that might lead to someone being judged in a court, would be blatantly false, although much less assistance was required than the Ascendant had initially assumed. It seemed that this man had a rather guilty conscience anyway, and that the knowledge of the Blood-tinged Church only made it worse for him.


    ¡°With that said, I can only ask you to follow the procedure of ridding this man of his status. It is not suitable for him,¡± Wei Yi said, although her attention did depart from the event.


    Luo Huang rose and opened his mouth to speak.


    Before he could express the judgement, a tremor rocked the entire tower in which they had been presiding, forcing the attention of all seven of them ¨C with Wei Yi having turned a little earlier as a result of her spiritual perception informing her of the situation more quickly than the weaker spiritual perception of the others ¨C to the back wall of the floor that they were on, near the stairs and where one might go to exit after clearing their name.


    Only a moment later, three figures ascended the stairs, although the one at the front was clearly floating above the steps as to take as little effort as was necessary. Behind him was a youthful but very powerful man in the sixth stage of the sixth realm, and, reluctantly by his side, was Luo Na, who held onto the bannister for safety.


    From the way in which she strove to be as far away from the youthful man, it was easy to presume that this was Luo Yunzhen, for his energy was indeed one that could only be produced with some excessively powerful flame-type technique that only someone in his position could obtain. The one at the front would have been far more of a mystery if not for his outfit, realm, stance, the way in which he walked, and the way in which all of the guardians instantly shrank back a little, glancing to one another in a combination of fear and concern.


    ¡°I do not see how you are the ones that are able to decide which of my guardians goes or stays.¡±


    ¡°Luo Patriarch, I presume? I had thought that you were sitting away from the conflict in your district, not striding into it directly,¡± Wei Yi replied to him.


    Rather than words, what she immediately received was a great wave of force generated purely by his energy, attempting to wrap around her and crush her bones and flesh into an unrecognisable pulp. Disregarding the impoliteness of such a gesture being performed upon their first meeting, the Ascendant quickly made use of the chains already ringing around her to divert that force a little further from her.


    It impacted a moment later, all of the floor and walls for the platforms on which most of the guardians sat cracking and fracturing, barely retaining even the vaguest semblance of a stable shape as he rescinded his force a moment prior to absolute destruction.


    ¡°It seems that you aren¡¯t fond of me. If you wish to do me harm, however, you will need more than just a little energy,¡± she stated.


    ¡°I see that the report of meddling from an outside force was indeed accurate. You really feel the need to force yourself into everything, don¡¯t you, Ascendant? You should have waited until you reached the sixth realm at the least, as you will find that I am not very accommodating to people like you,¡± the Patriarch said, ¡°I give you a chance to leave. Go, right now, and I will not kill you right away.¡±


    Wei Yi held back a laugh, albeit very poorly, ¡°Really, Patriarch?¡±


    ¡°You find my words funny, girl?¡±


    ¡°Very much so, whether or not you attempt to back them up with more rampant force,¡± she said as she was forced to divert another blast of force, ¡°You speak of an outside faction attempting to meddle with the district, and you don¡¯t even mention the Great Families? Assuming that you do not wish to see your district descend into nothing more than a few houses amidst an overgrown forest, I would be forced to assume that you are not yet aware of their meddling? Have you failed to inform him, Luo Yunzhen? Not that he should need you to do so, but I have heard that you favour the maniacs.¡±


    ¡°Keep the conversation between the two of us, girl. The heroes of the Luo District need not be involved.¡±


    ¡°I am forty-one, just so you are aware. I am no younger than Luo Long Meng, so unless you call her a girl as well, you should probably stop with your attempts to make me sound less significant simply due to my seeming age. In fact, why don¡¯t all of us just speak honestly?¡±


    ¡°Hah, I can afford to be honest, but- what is that?¡± the Patriarch had begun with confidence, but his eyes widened as he suddenly saw the ephemeral talisman floating near Wei Yi light up and link with his mind, surrounding it but not intruding upon it just yet, ¡°That is the effect of the Imposition of Truth! What did you do with our talisman?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s hanging right up there, as you should have been able to tell.¡±


    As Wei Yi gestured to the talisman that hung from the railing behind her, one that had been besmirched by the blood of Luo Jian, she intentionally showed her left hand, the one that was covered entirely in cuts and lesions. At the moment, her priority was to get the setup over with, and the easiest way to prove that she was the one manifesting a second talisman was to show the costs that accomplishing such a feat at her current realm had.


    Just as she expected, once he saw the original talisman, looked over the ephemeral one, and focused for a while on her bloodied hand, he grinned.


    ¡°So, you are the one replicating the talisman, somehow. A fifth realm kid like you trying to make herself seem strong and mighty, is that it? That talisman is very nifty, however, so I will take it from you once we¡¯re done.¡±


    ¡°You will not, Patriarch. That much I can assure you of regardless of the outcome of the day¡¯s talks. Tell me, you know of the Great Families, being someone at your position, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± he scoffed while he looked at the talisman above her, deciding to silently strike towards it with his divine sense as he pretended to pause. His golden mental energy got some distance to the ephemeral talisman before Wei Yi loudly and clearly raised her right hand, shutting it into a fist as a far larger quantity of her killing will mimicked that movement and clamped down on his divine sense.


    After a moment of keeping it in a tight grip, she let it shoot back into his mind.


    ¡°The whole point of honesty, Patriarch, is that everyone speaks the truth, just as I have been, just as the guardians have been. Or, more precisely, speaking while knowing that anyone will be able to perceive something you consider to be a lie the moment that you say it. If the talisman is tampered with or destroyed, the whole point of it is obviously gone, although the one thing that it proves more than anything else is that you fear what we might learn about you,¡± Wei Yi said, lowering her hand, ¡°You know about the Great Families.¡±


    This time, it was a statement, not a question, and the talisman hanging behind her didn¡¯t show a single trace of deception. Even if she was wrong, the guardians knew that she wasn¡¯t trying to lie to them about it.


    For that reason, Luo Long Meng suddenly rose, exclaiming, ¡°Patriarch Luo Ping Dong, your inaction and silence has made this district less and less certain of its own future. Tell us the truth!¡±


    ¡°Hm, so you have put the guardians onto your side that easily?¡±


    ¡°No, I have not done a thing to dissuade them from siding with you yet. Everything is your fault, Patriarch. You, as the Patriarch of the Luo District, are a leader of an enormous territory, with hundreds of thousands of people and a great deal of powerful entities and groups within it. As the leader, you are permitted to decide the fate and future of that which you command. When presented with a situation, you have the choice to stand down and let it happen or intervene. You have made no choice!¡±


    At the odd ferocity within her voice, the Patriarch nearly took a step back in shock, but managed to retain his ground and glared back at her, certain that she was making use of some kind of mental method to affect him.


    ¡°I have made the choice to not act-¡±


    The red flash gave the Ascendant the chance to say, ¡°You have made no choice, Patriarch, and that is the exact problem! If you wished to let the world change, and then assist the winning side as one might do naturally, then you could have communicated this to your citizens, to those that are supporting you! However, none of the guardians had a single clue about this apparent choice, did you?¡±


    ¡°We have never been told what he wishes to do. Fortunately, that has not been a problem during the previous peaceful times, but now that strife rises, his indecisiveness is becoming an issue,¡± Luo Shiling said with a surprising degree of frankness for someone with a voice like hers.


    ¡°Whether we wished for change or stagnancy, it would always remain the same from you, Patriarch. You say nothing, tell us nothing, and when we are clearly seeking guidance, you lie back and only emerge once there is an obvious group or person that you can target!¡± Luo Ru Qiu exclaimed, ¡°There is no instruction, no decision, and any attempts to obtain it are rebuked! You, Patriarch, fail to uphold the responsibilities of your station, and that is why most of us believe that regardless of the person to do so, you must be replaced!¡±


    His words were direct and clear, but most telling of all was the fact that the ephemeral talisman above Wei Yi did not light up with red a single time during his or Luo Shiling¡¯s speeches, which said more than enough to the Patriarch. Although he might have been in a respected position at one point, that had clearly decayed with time.


    With that in mind, he turned to the two behind him, his energy surging and causing his regal robes to flutter in the wind.


    ¡°So, the two of you thought that it would be a good idea to stir things up, did-¡±


    ¡°Nobody needed to stir anything, Patriarch. Do not attempt to displace the blame once more! You have made a mistake, and if you do not wish to decide on something even now, then I am certain that there will be others who will be more than happy to make their own decisions, just as they have done already,¡± Wei Yi stopped him, needing to physically throw aside a wave of force that crashed into the seats to the left of the court and completely disintegrated them, ¡°Either way, make your choice!¡±


    Luo Na and Luo Yunzhen looked to one another just as the Patriarch looked around the room, with all three having complicated expressions and looks in their eyes. For one, neither Luo Na nor Luo Yunzhen appeared happy to look into one another¡¯s eyes, or even to be anywhere near one another, whereas the Patriarch, Luo Ping Dong, was clearly growing more and more agitated by the second.


    ¡°Perhaps making a decision is tough without the proper knowledge. In that case, let me tell you just who the Great Families are, whether or not they want you to know this,¡± the Ascendant said after an unfortunate period of quiet, ¡°All of this will be true, in so far as I am aware, since I can hardly guarantee that the heavens themselves haven¡¯t been deceived at some point. If you are worried that I will alter the facts, then no need. I will not do so. I do not intend to do so. There is, really, no reason for me to change a single part of the story.


    ¡°For that reason, I will begin in the part that might seem the least positive to me ¨C I, Wei Yi, leader of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, am the child of a Yi family member, and of a Great Yi family member. By blood alone, I am related to one of the Great Families.¡±


    Gasping did occur, but she silenced it quickly by continuing.


    ¡°The reason that I share this is because it has permitted me to know just what the Great Families are, what they do, and what anyone that displeases them in the slightest will experience. It is what the Luo District will suffer the moment that they decide that it is no longer worth it to permit rebellion and resistance. It is what will befall us all if we do not fight against them together, to reform Yi City, to rebuild the glory of the past, and to bring it forward to even greater heights,¡± she said, ¡°The key to their power is a terrible method that involves the birthing of numerous children, all of whom will be trained to the third realm. Then, before they have the chance to muddle their body and bloodline through interaction with the outside, all but one pair shall be slaughtered, and their anchors merged into that lone surviving pair.


    ¡°It is a technique that only one of the Greats is able to use, but it is one that has been used consistently for numerous decades. That is the reason why there will only ever be a pair per every generation, and it is also why damaging the anchors that the Greats use is so vital. They cannot be regained once any are destroyed, not without killing that member of the family and giving birth to a whole new generation.


    ¡°I happened to be the child of someone that managed to run away from their family, fall in love, then have me, all before the Greats were able to find them. Once they did, my parents were killed, all records were wiped out, and I was placed in a death trap which would siphon my ability, intellect, clog my meridians and even corrupt my dantian, all to get back at my parents. All of that for a single planar anchor, which would only be relevant for a single generation of one hundred years, and that might not have even been needed had they not begun this war.¡±


    ¡°And? What reason would I have to conflict with them? Surely you are aware that most districts and families have their own dark secrets?¡± the Luo Patriarch asked, earning a laugh from Wei Yi.


    ¡°Trust me, I am well aware of that. The reason that you should avoid them is because their intention is to weaken Yi City, and the world as a whole. With each generation, they seal more and more of the world¡¯s potential energy into their anchors, and that is then preserved with each generation. Once upon a time, we had enough energy for the ninth realm to be feasible. Now, we do not, and they are the ones responsible,¡± she said, ¡°I have done a little to reverse it, but I am not yet done.


    ¡°They began this the moment that Kong Shi Meng, the Master of Yi City, disappeared from the world, and they have taken everything they could from him for the sake of doing this. Their prison realm was his Kong Prison Realm, made for an experiment to push the world into a new age while protecting it. They make use of Yi City and the structures that it established to keep themselves in power and to prevent rebellion. All this time, they have hidden his name away, and made sure that all of our history rots and burns away while we are none the wiser, fighting with one another over the indecisiveness of certain aging men!¡±


    ¡°I am not indecisive, you arrogant bitch!¡±


    ¡°Then make your fucking choice, Patriarch! Tell us whether you stand with Luo Yunzhen¡¯s view that the Greats and their perpetual leeching and siphoning will somehow benefit us, or with Luo Na, who believes that Yi City can be reborn. Choose!¡±


    Just to make sure that he was given as little of a chance as possible to evade this, Wei Yi threw in the full power of the Dao of Law, combining the expectant looks of all of the people present to drill into the Patriarch with as much force as possible, ensuring that to get away, he would need an impossible amount of mental fortitude. An amount that she knew he did not have, both from having tangled with his divine sense already and due to the fact that he had yet to make a choice after all of this time and effort to make things clear to him.


    However, even that seemed to be insufficient, for his gaze sank into the floor as he continued to hesitate more and more, perhaps hoping that if he stared at the ground hard enough, it would bring him through the floor and permit him to escape. It was a foolish notion, but what little Wei Yi could scavenge from the outside of his mind didn¡¯t necessarily rule this out.


    ¡®If that isn¡¯t going to be enough¡­¡¯ she loudly turned on the spot and addressed the guardians, not including the one that might as well no longer be in that position, ¡°Tell me, do you wish to see this district rot into the ground? Do you want to see everything that you have ever created be torn apart and forgotten due to some mad pursuit of a faction that lurks on the side and sacrifices countless children to keep up their perverse power? Are you going to see everything that had made Yi City such an impressive force be purged, until your descendants will have naught but their uncultivated bodies to support themselves?¡±


    ¡°Fuck that! We need the Luo District to stand tall! We need Yi City to stand tall!¡± Luo Long Meng exclaimed, and that seemed to finally breach the gates of hesitation.


    Luo Ling Zan, Luo Huang, Luo Shiling and Luo Ru Qiu all echoed her statement, except for the particular wording and tone, but the sentiment was unchanged. There was a desire for change, even amongst those who preferred stagnation, and that change was not in the favour of the Patriarch.


    He saw their exclamations and promptly turned to Luo Yunzhen, his eyes glowing with a mad light.


    ¡°I decree you as my s-¡± the Patriarch could barely get a syllable out before a fist wrapped with surging Obliteration energy crashed into the barrier that he was barely able to manifest.


    Although his barrier blocked it, the sheer force of the punch launched him towards the back wall, knocking any semblance of air out of his lungs as he was thrown off his feet. The sound of the strike colliding with the planar energy barrier heralded the beginning of the battle, as the moment that it reached the others, they leapt into action.


    Luo Na and Luo Yunzhen were the closest to the collision, and were thus able to react the quickest as both of them jumped aside. Due to her own predicament, Luo Na pulled out a series of talismans that she promptly activated, tossing some at her foe, whereas the competitor for the position of Patriarch had little choice but to side with the current Patriarch and fight back with all of his available strength. If he was to stand down and let the others take him on together, or even if he helped them, then the one likely to receive the position he desired would be Luo Na, not him.


    On the other hand, the Patriarch was clearly about to name him his successor, which would guarantee his ascension to that position the moment that Luo Ping Dong perished, which would inevitably occur far sooner than Luo Na deciding to arbitrarily forgive or even reward him for attempting to participate in the fight.


    At the front of the room, the guardians knew there was a first priority target to deal with, so all of them, even the peaceful Luo Shiling, attacked Luo Jian, throwing talismans and pulses of energy that crashed into him together and forced him further to the ground. In an instant, although the attacks were not well coordinated, they ruined his ability to flee and pushed him to the edge of his life, shifting their attention from him the moment that they also removed the talismans from his robes, rushing up to Wei Yi and Luo Na while Luo Yunzhen and Luo Ping Dong came together and took out a series of talismans with one hand while their other gathered energy.


    ¡°Luo Patriarch, you have been found unsuitable for your position!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, manifesting a blade held together purely with Ire and Obliteration energy, ¡°If you will not allow the Luo District to develop, then we shall!¡±

 V4C61: True Power of Law

    The moment that she finished speaking, the Ascendant slashed down with the blade, allowing it to collapse and send out a vast wave of force that forced Luo Yunzhen and Luo Ping Dong to step away from one another. At the same time, she reached out to the advancing guardians and forced a thread of spiritual will past their barriers, physical and mental alike.


    ¡°I have a method to defeat them despite their realms, but whether we focus first on Luo Yunzhen or the Patriarch, please follow my instructions. I can focus on one, but when I leap back, don¡¯t retreat with me. Is that clear?¡± she sent her message via the threads, gathering two more Obliteration blades so that she could circumvent the obvious charging process of both the Ire techniques and the typical Obliteration beam, as well as confuse her two foes. It wasn¡¯t the most effective method of dealing as much damage to her energy as possible, but it was nonetheless capable of damaging someone in the seventh realm, even if it would just lead to a small mark upon their skin at worst.


    All of the guardians were surprised to a varying extent, as one would be if a voice suddenly spoke in their heads, but they adapted quickly, with some nodding whereas others agreed through the thread.


    Since Luo Na was supposed to be their leader if they succeeded, she was the one to say, ¡°Although you may be powerful, it would be best for us to target Luo Ping Dong while you take on Luo Yunzhen. Otherwise, our power would essentially be wasted.¡±


    ¡°In that case, go for it!¡± the Ascendant exclaimed through the link, weakening it immediately so that it would not be discovered by the divine sense of the current Luo Patriarch. She did not think that he would be able to do much more than break the thread and force it to be remade, which would only take a little bit of time, but in the unlikely case that his energy could achieve something greater, caution was best.


    The guardians, as well as Luo Na, rushed towards the Patriarch, running around the wave of Obliteration energy and engaging him head on, with Luo Ling Zan and Luo Huang leaping to the front whereas the others stood back, making use of talismans or combat techniques to prevent him from entering the fight between Wei Yi and Luo Yunzhen, on whom the focus truly lay.


    While the five guardians and Luo Na may all be in the sixth realm, their power boosted innately by their linked channels, that was nothing compared to the seventh realm, Oblivion Halo, wherein a cultivator was able to further multiply their own power at all times without losing it if they ever decided to make use of a searing mark to empower a single attack, which could be done all the way up in the ninth realm if one so desired. It would lead to the linked channel temporarily ceasing to boost the cultivator by the typical amount while the mark recharged, but there was no major downside to using one or two marks in battle.


    As such, their battle would be likely to end up with neither side being able to obtain the edge that they needed, and so it would be up to Wei Yi to step in and swing the outcome one way or the other.


    For that reason, she didn¡¯t hesitate to leap towards Luo Yunzhen, swinging both of her Obliteration blades in turn to project a vast quantity of energy at him, empowering each slash with a searing mark to make the best use of them before she advanced to the next realm and lost the ability to use them quite as freely as she could now. Every single searing mark boosted the already immense might of her technique by doubling it, so Luo Yunzhen was met with two attacks that he had to block.


    He raised a hand and wreathed it in an incredibly bright blaze that was so hot that the flames turned white. One finger in particular seemed to be burning from the inside, and it was the one that he used as he reached out and pointed at the incoming waves of energy with it.


    At once, an enormous burst of white flame exploded out it, seeming to consume some of the wave¡¯s power, and engulfed it within moments. The first slash of blackened crimson was caught by the flames and slowed to a crawl, although it wasn¡¯t completely extinguished nor defeated, and the second blasted through it, striking his outstretched hand without mercy. It cut into his flaming flesh and drilled into bone, consuming it with a terrifying speed.


    While his face didn¡¯t change in response, the fact that the area around him suddenly became far easier to conquer with the Conqueror¡¯s Eye said everything that she needed to know about his mental state. Despite his appearance, he was blatantly afraid of her, or at the very least aware that she was capable of matching him.


    For that reason, both of them leapt towards the other, with one allowing the white Flames of Perfection, born of his cultivation method that happened to share the same name, to surround his entire arm and shoulder as he leapt forward, whereas Wei Yi did not yet call upon the Titanic Conqueror, only conquering the territory around him as she focused a vast sphere of Obliteration energy within one of her hands. She waited for them to near one another, then, with a smooth and simple movement, thrust out her hand and the energy contained within.


    A million sets of blackened crimson beams surged out of the sphere, spreading all over the man¡¯s body and cutting into his energy, then the cloth that covered much of his body, then his skin.


    That last layer seemed to be the only one in which the Obliteration energy encountered much trouble, as all of the rest were as effective before it as the air was at stopping a blade. As the white flame was blown away and forced to reveal that which lay beneath, Wei Yi was able to make some sense of the odd endurance of his skin.


    Aside from his face and hands, as well as the few parts that weren¡¯t covered by his baggy robes, the rest of his body was almost inhuman in appearance, with his skin being a sickly kind of red lined with bulging and pulsing veins of a strange ichor. Although she couldn¡¯t properly perceive what it was, nor where it came from, it was easy enough to guess that it had been the work of the Blood-tinged Church, for there were indeed few factions out there that were able to perform something this extreme with blood, regardless of what ¡®it¡¯ actually was in this case.


    ¡®All that matters is that his skin is a little tougher, so I should either put some effort into cutting it ¨C which would be moronic, but that¡¯s beside the point ¨C or avoid it entirely, heading for the organs that haven¡¯t been changed by whatever the fuck that lot had done to him,¡¯ she quickly concluded.


    With yet another Obliteration blade, she begun to swing at him, only to intentionally break apart the blade mid-way through her swing and allow the energy to explode wildly, completely flooding the man¡¯s sight and even harming one of his eyes. Before she could determine the exact nature of the damage, she attempted to punch his neck directly, with it being one of the blatant weaknesses that was exposed upon his current body.


    However, that too was somehow blocked, as an immensely powerful gust of raw planar energy suddenly erupted from him, blasting her away further than even Luo Na, who was standing quite some distance away to be able to throw out her talismans without needing to risk becoming involved first-hand. She was forced all the way to the back lines, and the cause appeared to be a talisman that was turning to dust as the rest of the surrounding energy cleared, and the flames on Luo Yunzhen¡¯s arm slowly returned, flooding past his shoulder and covering the entirety of his torso and other arm very quickly.


    ¡®There¡¯s the assistance from the Greats, I guess. They managed to spare him some talisman, and I can¡¯t say that I am very fond of the fact that they were made from a material that can¡¯t be perceived through spiritual perception,¡¯ she thought, stabilising her footing in a moment and narrowing her eyes, ¡®Since he kindly nudged me away, I guess I¡¯ll have a go at the less straightforward tactic.¡¯


    She turned and nodded to Luo Na, who acknowledged the gesture and took a step forward as she brought out another handful of talisman papers.


    Meanwhile, the Ascendant reached out with her bloodied left hand and tightly grasped onto one of the chains that she had noticed previously, one that had supported the ephemeral talisman before the battle and her loss of focus upon it caused it to disperse.


    Just like all of the chains of Law in existence, it was simultaneously an infinite distance from other chains, meaning that the hand of a normal person could search through the world for eternity without finding a single one, and yet they were close together, sometimes wrapped around one another in enormous balls of various Laws and ideas, with the one rule about them all being that they were always taut and stretching out to the beyond, into a realm that Wei Yi did not yet understand.


    As such, when one grasped a single chain, they could shift a thousand, and when one could mobilise a million chains, moving a single one wouldn¡¯t be a particular struggle no matter how it was considered or perceived.


    Before this, she had already seen how a large number of people had wished for the defeat of the Greats, even if they did so with knowledge that wasn¡¯t exactly complete. With the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, that could become an enormous benefit to her and a detriment to her foes, but what was far more vital than simply making use of them was to cause them to overwhelm the opposition despite their even match at the current moment.


    With everything that she had, as well as the chains within her grasp, it was possible, but she had not fully determined how to accomplish it. Instead, she could only do what came to mind.


    ¡°By my authority¡­¡±


    All of the chains in Luo District trembled, for a moment. It was as if they had all felt a shiver, with her words inciting it despite the vast distance from her and the outermost portion of the district. Some physical chains were affected alongside the chains of Law, but it was the latter that seemed to bring something to the forefront of the many people¡¯s minds.


    Images of victory, of success, of power, of accomplishment that those opposing the Greats possessed. They flooded in, unbidden, yet oddly welcome, and the more they thought about them, the more accurate these seemed to be. They had heard so much about the Great Families as a result of the Arbiters, but, in the end, was it not the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters that had endured their direct assault, that beat them back, that unveiled their long hidden secrets and that brought them to the forefront? Was it not the Ascendant that had entered the district not long ago, ready to lead them to a better future? How could they possibly lose with such a force?


    Even the people that didn¡¯t believe that the Great Families were a bad force, or that outright thought them to be superior to the Ascendants, whether morally or in terms of their power, were overwhelmed with countless thoughts of doubt. They had made their stand rather randomly, so what if it was wrong?


    There was a chance that this was the case, and with how much they had heard from their neighbours and friends, there may have even been a rather large chance of this. While the Greats hid away and drained the world, the Ascendant and her Arbiters went out and fought back, revealing the truth, sharing their power, encouraging the world to rebuild that which it once had, to rise back to the level that they had unfortunately lost since the ancient days.


    As this was happening, the guardians and the candidate for the position of Patriarch didn¡¯t know what had happened, but they were able to see the room around them turn a deep shade of blackened crimson, with their energy seeming to rapidly climb in power while their opponents seemed to struggle with every next breath.


    ¡°As Ascendant and Conqueror¡­¡±


    Again, the chains of the district quaked, this time as if they had been struck by an unseen hand. This time, the disturbance did catch the eye of a few curious bystanders, although all of them found their thoughts occupied with a far more pressing and important matter ¨C the Great Families, and the terrors that they had inflicted upon the world up to this point. More and more memories of such things came about, even though they were so strangely realistic and clear when they hadn¡¯t remembered such things before this point. Still, with such clear and vibrant memories, they couldn¡¯t belong to anyone other than them, so since their minds were roused, they might as well recall the things they thought they knew.


    What they did not realise was that the world around them seemed to turn slightly darker, with a shade of crimson surrounding and highlighting everything around them. It was subtle at the outskirts of the Luo District, and even close to the fortress of the guardians it was little more than a mirage in the eyes of most, but inside of the structure in which the guardians and the current Patriarch fought, it was like the difference between night and day.


    Everything and everyone other than the Patriarch and his chosen successor, Luo Yunzhen, was wrapped in blackened crimson, and it was all empowered to a ludicrous extent. The talismans of Luo Na had been powerful before, but now they seemed to be able to pose a serious threat to the Patriarch himself, as a number of offensive talismans that he had failed to block had pierced his robes and dug into his flesh, leaving behind burns and unveiling much of what had remained beneath his skin for most of his life.


    Despite that, it wasn¡¯t quite enough to bring them victory¡­ nor did they think it to be the end.


    ¡°I judge the outcome of this battle¡­ to be VICTORY!¡±


    The first time, it was a light tap, a subtle breeze, and the second had been a notable strike, although a weak one. This time, it was as if the entire room had been grasped by a tight fist, forcing everything within it to change as to conform to its desires.


    All of the mighty planar energy held within Luo Yunzhen and Luo Ping Dong seemed to just flow out with every action that they took, even if it should have remained for far longer than that. Their every attack was weakened, their defences were made feebler, and even their vision blurred with all of the blackened crimson that surrounded them. Everything within their bodies was simply trying to go wrong, and although they thought they knew who was to blame, they simply didn¡¯t understand how.


    As they looked past their current opponents for a brief moment, acting in a way that was clearly unsuitable for a difficult battle, they saw Wei Yi, the Ascendant, standing there with her eyes shut, fist locked tightly around something that they could not see. There were no traces of tiredness, exhaustion, or even particular strength in her grip, as if this was effortless.


    This also applied to every action that their current opponents took, for every talisman thrown out might as well have multiplied ten-fold and attacked them all at once, as the sheer strength and endurance of the guardians and Luo Na somehow leapt up with every breath. Now, blocking the talismans thrown out by the candidate for the position of Patriarch was no longer a viable tactic for Luo Ping Dong, as each offensive talisman was enough to breach the barrier that he would put up in an attempt to block a dozen attacks.


    Perhaps, had only a single side been affected either positively or negatively, he might have stood a better chance, but when he felt ten times weaker at the same time that his foe seemed ten times stronger, he was clearly losing his chance to achieve victory.


    Luo Yunzhen felt the same way, so he forcefully lit up the white flames to a great extent, allowing them to wrap all around his body. If he did nothing, then his loss would be nearly inevitable and he would then either perish or have his cultivation scattered, his dantian shattered, and his body be placed within a prison from which such a weakling would be unable to escape from. It was not an outcome that he desired, and it was one that he absolutely had to avoid. If he was going to end this in a way that was even remotely favourable to him, he would need to eliminate the cause of this sudden turn of the tides, and then he might survive.


    With a burst of speed that the others had not expected, he rushed past the guardians and focused his flames around one of his hands, with it clearly heading towards Wei Yi¡¯s neck in a similar manner to the one that she had attempted to utilise against him. He had been preparing for the response, intending to evade and simply endure whatever would occur, but there was nothing.


    It was as if he was approaching a dead person, or someone that had fallen asleep where they were standing.


    Only a moment from striking her, a talisman suddenly landed upon his shoulder and exploded upon him, sending him flying into the seats that still remained on that floor. As he crashed through them and broke a large quantity of them with his flaming body, setting them alight as well, a few more talismans latched onto him while two of the guardians broke off to finish him off, leaving Luo Ping Dong to combat Luo Na, who had thrown the talismans, and the other three.


    Although his realm had once put him far above the rest, with his energy quickly spilling away from his dantian while his foes made use of an absurd number of talismans that they had saved up throughout their lives, he was also brought to his knees after a while, with a number of his halos being shattered.


    There was no deliberation on whether to keep him alive. The moment that Luo Na confirmed that Luo Yunzhen was taken out, she ordered his execution, which was carried out promptly and successfully.


    ¡°That¡­ Just like that¡­ This is not how I had expected this to go,¡± Luo Na admitted as she turned to Wei Yi, ¡°I have to apologize for the doubts that I did have in your methods, although I would still ask whether it would have troubled you too much to just evade that attack-¡±


    Her words stopped when the Ascendant doubled over and threw up an immense quantity of acidic blood that quickly burned a sizeable hole in the floor. More continued to drip out of her open mouth as she similarly fell to her knees, nearly falling onto her face but just barely managing to use her arms to prevent that. Every part of exposed skin on her body was pale and weak, with her blood turning black beneath it.


    Naturally, even the partially blind woman could easily see that this wasn¡¯t the time for her earlier remark, if it made any sense at all.


    ¡°Luo Ru- No, Luo Long Meng, support her!¡± Luo Na instructed, running up to the Ascendant but being able to do little with a body that wasn¡¯t particularly physically capable, ¡°Was that the result of you turning the tide?¡±


    Although her mouth was occupied, Wei Yi was able to reconnect with their spiritual will thread and say, ¡°Unfortunately. You should have seen my hand after I had been maintaining the ephemeral talisman, so I think you can imagine what the inside of my body looks like right now. I¡¯m quite good at recovering from this, so I¡¯ll only be like this for a little while, but that little while will not be particularly pleasant.¡±


    Indeed, the increasing quantity of blood so acidic that it seemed to be sufficient to burn even through a dragon¡¯s scales was hardly an enjoyable sight to behold, but her recovery was also very quick.


    Just a few minutes passed before she was able to stand, although many of her internal organs were functioning at a far lower capacity than usual, causing her skin to remain pale enough to allow her to resemble her appearance back at the Yi District, before she had acquired the True Ascendant physique and everything that it had led to.


    The guardians and Luo Na waited for her to stabilise her footing before trying to do anything else.


    ¡°Alright¡­ I will not be able to make use of that again any time soon, so I hope that there are no secret Patriarchs in your district.¡±


    ¡°No, there is no such thing. We have won, except that we are still weaker than we should be. For us to hold the position of the district¡¯s leader reliably, one of us has to be in the seventh realm ¨C me, ideally, but it might be that pushing Luo Long Meng to the next realm would be easier in any reasonable amount of time¡­¡± Luo Na said, ¡°Her body is in a less strange state than my own, at least from what I know.¡±


    ¡°So there was something wrong with you¡­ Fuck, we could have had it¡­¡± the guardian muttered in the background, kicking one of the walls that still stood around the central area, finding that it turned to dust the moment that her foot touched it.


    Wei Yi glanced at that, then slowly shook her head.


    ¡°No need. I can bring you to the seventh realm. In fact, that would probably be easier. You are meant to be the next leader, so it would only make sense for you to be in the seventh realm¡­¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Did you not hear what I had said? The battle had been won because the people had deemed it so. If you are to be the next leader of the Luo District, then you ought to be in the seventh realm. That means that you can enter it, and that¡¯s that¡­ Don¡¯t force me to explain the nature of Law when I can barely speak¡­¡±


    ¡°How bad is your state at the moment?¡±


    ¡°My lungs have a million holes in them, and they¡¯re probably doing the best out of every other vital organ¡­ Just sit down and cultivate. I shall assist you.¡±


    Luo Na had her doubts about her current abilities, but she still sat down on the ground with her legs crossed, ready to cultivate according to whatever instructions the Ascendant would provide her with. It took Wei Yi some time to seemingly register that fact, after which she attempted to sit down in a similar manner.


    She managed to end up in the same place, although she did so by unceremoniously dropping to the floor and arranging her limbs later to put herself into the same position. After throwing up another mouthful of blood that joined the rest of the pool that was slowly dripping down to the floor below, Wei Yi barely managed to raise her head and look into Luo Na¡¯s eyes, although her energy was far more fluid and was thus able to reach out and link with the candidate for leadership and communicate with her with greater clarity.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to need to make use of some methods boost your energy absorption, as usual. I shall assist you once you make those preparations, although you ought to not take too long.¡±


    ¡°What would happen if I did?¡±


    ¡°The people wish to see their new Matriarch. If one doesn¡¯t emerge, then they may have some doubts about their perception of reality, and they may even deem that the Great Families may be the better side ¨C or, at the least, stronger side ¨C to follow, rather than one that cannot be bothered to appear before their people.¡±


    Luo Na nodded, turning to the guardians and making some quick requests before turning back.


    ¡°Begin absorbing energy already. Just do everything you can, then capitalise on every opportunity I give you¡­ Would you object if I kept an eye on the process, though? Not just for the sake of preventing mishaps, but to gather insight for my own breakthrough in the future?¡±


    ¡°You might as well. I will require strong support in the future, especially if the Great Families or the Blood-tinged Church ever wins over the Arbiters, so the quicker you advance, the better.¡±


    ¡°Noted. Fortunately, you needn¡¯t worry about that. We will either win completely, or lose completely. There will not be a middle ground,¡± Wei Yi assured her, with her cosmic energy surging within her body to continue to seal up the countless wounds that insisted on opening with each breath, ¡°As for the rate of my advancement, I would benefit greatly from resources, since I have the technique already. Once I reach the sixth stage, you might even be pleasantly surprised by the leap in strength.¡±


    Luo Na shrugged, choosing not to voice her various doubts and curiosities, and instead absorbed the energy around her just as any other cultivator might, except that her energy absorption radius was absolutely enormous.


    The corner of Wei Yi¡¯s lips twitched, as her own ability to absorb energy was similar if not greater than that of someone in the seventh realm, whereas her energy requirement was also unfortunately similar due to the perfected realms that she had stacked on top of her cultivation. If not for that, it would have been quite a lot more impressive, although she fortunately wasn¡¯t seeking to spend her time admiring the cultivation process of Luo Na. The only thing that she was going to pay much attention to was the breakthrough itself, which wouldn¡¯t happen for a while, and to make that happen, she would need to make a few talismans to help it along.


    ¡®With the things I¡¯ve done today, I have some understanding of talismans that I did not have before, but before I can make one with my blood, I will need it to calm down a little¡­¡¯


    She still took out a number of talisman papers that she had acquired during her stay in the district, then focused upon all of the techniques that she had managed to collect when she had been in the proximity of cultivation technique libraries.


    There was a lot of work ahead of her, since compiling a million techniques into something cohesive was something that she tended to achieve more through dumb luck and random enlightenments rather than a proper understanding of everything she threw together, since that was the unfortunate result of so many differing principles being thrown into one. With the ever rising understanding of Law under her belt, one that she did not wear and never had, she did hope to improve on that process as well, especially if she wanted to make some advances on her Obliteration while she did so.


    It was extremely effective, but there was always room for improvement, like adding in principles of ephemeral talisman assembly prior to energy release for the purpose of improvement.

 V4C62: Oblivion Halo Attainment

    With countless talismans draw in ink and blood, a number of arrays that had to be drawn out through the chains of Law as there was too little room for them to be manifested through any physical means, including planar energy, as well as a series of pills that Wei Yi managed to refine in a few moments with the herbs that happened to be brought over alongside the last set of talisman materials, Luo Na was finally approaching the seventh realm within just a few minutes.


    So many different things seemed to occur that she could barely believe it when the Ascendant told her that only a minute was needed for her to reach the ninth stage, and that it then only required two to reach the point needed for the breakthrough. It seemed absolutely impossible, and yet a single glance outside with her spiritual perception confirmed that barely anybody had moved. Even if nothing else that had happened today would have convinced her that the person she had chosen to side with was capable, then the rate at which energy just seemed to flow into her without much of her own intervention.


    ¡°Before I go through this¡­ Let me repeat my earlier promise. I will aid you, no matter what.¡±


    ¡°No need for that¡­ I don¡¯t have much more blood left, nor much bloodline power, so if you could get on with it, that would be nice¡­¡±


    Wei Yi was obviously not against assisting her, but even with the method that she had discovered, the Bloodline Character Art, which allowed her to make use of her bloodline power to substitute her blood in the creation of talismans, which she could also elevate to the eight-star grade if she so wished, her current supplies of blood and bloodline power were lacking for talismans that would be sufficient to assist someone of Luo Na¡¯s realm. For that reason, even her mental energy was rather exhausted, not to mention the internal damage that the Law arrays inflicted upon her.


    In short, she wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, and so she helped out with the gathering of energy so that she would be able to complete her own physical development. Just as with anything else that tore apart her body, she could take advantage of it to accelerate the development that her cosmic energy could yield, but there was only so much she could do with her energy.


    After a certain point, she would achieve little, but the pain would only grow to be able to affect even her own ruined nerves. She would rather stay out of that territory, if possible.


    Finally, the energy around Luo Na intensified to the point that the next realm was finally visible. Her anchor manifested out of her planar energy, surrounded by a gleaming core that was scarred by a number of searing marks that all flowed towards her due to the channels between the core and the anchor within. The number of searing marks, as well as the channels, was higher than Wei Yi¡¯s current count, but it was still less than fifty, which was something that she might reach by the fifth effective stage.


    ¡®That doesn¡¯t change the breakthrough process itself, though, so I will focus on that¡­ Well, I¡¯ll focus as much as possible while literally every part of me is trying to shred itself into pieces¡­ I think one memory of the Thunder Lord had contained him being kicked in the balls, but this is much worse¡­¡¯


    The mass of congealing planar energy expanded further, with more and more of it simultaneously surging towards and out of her dantian, with that pool of energy getting more immense with every single moment. It seemed to be boundless and bottomless, to the point that the slight fluctuations of the storm alone would have been sufficient to obliterate the tower they were in if not for the five remaining guardians to establish a series of defences to keep their structure standing.


    There was no clear boundary that she crossed, not so far as Wei Yi was able to tell from afar, or from within her mind. It was as if something simply shifted.


    All of a sudden, five illusory shapes appeared around the manifestation of her core, each one glowing with ten marks that were inscribed upon the core, connecting with the glowing channels within. Four were entirely lined with the searing marks, as one might expect, but the last only had four marks upon it, only four channels flowing to the four corners of the circular halo, causing it to look strangely feeble and incomplete even though this was the exact kind of thing that would occur unless one had a very precise number of marks.


    They caused a surge of energy to collide with the barriers that had been established around it, with the defences holding but cracking slightly under the pressure. However, that was only the first pulse of power, manifested by the fifth and thus weakest oblivion halo.


    Her other four halos were significantly stronger in appearance, and far more complete, even if their strength did not actually differ in practise, and so the pulse of power that they emitted crashed into the barriers again and again, with the following three nearly breaking them apart and leaving the last one to simply pass through.


    Despite appearances, when the final wave of energy came, the barrier suddenly withstood it fully, even recovering by a significant degree over nothing at all.


    Luo Long Meng had been like the others, looking around in an attempt to figure out who or what had been the cause of this strange phenomenon, but she was the only one to turn to the true cause of the event. She saw the Ascendant cough up another few drops of blood, then promptly meet her eyes and show a gaze of exhaustion. There might have been something that she had intended to communicate, but in the eyes of the guardian, that was all buried beneath the exhaustion.


    ¡®Shit, I am exhausting a little too much blood and energy,¡¯ Wei Yi also realised this, as she turned away and shut her eyes, ¡®The moment that all of this is no longer necessary, I will be able to recover rather quickly, but before then¡­ When does this end?¡¯


    Although the halos were formed in the air around Luo Na, they were not yet fully complete within, and they clearly demanded more energy as they acted upon the body just as the body acted upon them. She could see the mental energy, the spiritual perception, within the future Matriarch¡¯s body being compressed and refined by the power of the halos, slowly turning it denser and golden, not entirely akin to the shade that she had witnessed from the previous cultivators in the seventh realm, but also not entirely dissimilar.


    Quite clearly, when everything else was taken into account, it seemed that the cause of this abnormality was the mutated physique that had forced her to practise a cultivation purely based around talismans, as well as the lengthy period of time that she had spent within the effect of countless illusory talismans.


    Even if she was able to see through them with ease due to the changes to her eyes, they must have continued to have some effect upon her. Perhaps they continued to affect her other senses, despite what she seemed to suggest before, and thus the slight dissonance between her perceived reality and the truth thus tempered her mental energy. It was a method that had previously helped Wei Yi to gain a slightly greater degree of stability in illusory realms, since her Third Eye was not always sufficient to remove all illusions before her, and could have easily been utilised by sheer luck by the woman before her.


    Again, there was very little hint as to how or why the breakthrough proceeded, but it did so without the typical fanfare that one might expect from the development. The halos just formed, and the phenomena of the breakthrough collapsed into her body, the full oblivion halos forming and surrounding her true core, linking with her true searing marks through the true channels, and stabilised her within the seventh realm just that easily.


    ¡°¡­ So, you done?¡± Wei Yi asked after there were few changes in the woman¡¯s mind and cultivation for some time.


    ¡°I appear to be. I apologise for the delay. I-¡±


    Luo Na must not have expected her words to result in the Ascendant instantly dropping to the ground as all of the ephemeral shapes around her formed through the power of Law dispersed with the faint sound of chains sliding past one another as they returned to their original places.


    ¡°Wei Yi, are you-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine¡­¡± she replied, her body already healing and rebuilding itself, with her taking the opportunity to partially reconstruct certain elements to take advantage of her latest perception of the most optimal layout and structure for the human body, including that new part that she had not had the opportunity to adapt quite yet, ¡°My regenerative abilities are actually superior to most planar beasts, including those who specifically focus on regeneration as their hunting strategy, but when the body is being simultaneously torn apart and attempting to recover, it is difficult to actually put them to use. I¡¯ll be able to stand in a minute or two.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I shall not disturb you physically,¡± Luo Na said, ¡°That being said, I do wish to ask a few questions.¡±


    ¡°Go ahead, but don¡¯t expect answers to all of them.¡±


    ¡°In that case, what was all of that? The whole thing about Law, and the way in which the talisman was floating above you with no energy input at all, or the way in which the world itself seemed to assist us as the battle began. What was that?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Ever heard of Dao? Not the Great Dao, I mean, but individual Dao dedicated to specific aspects of reality.¡±


    ¡°I have heard some things, but not enough to understand how this¡­ a Dao of Law?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that. With my experiences, I happen to have understood a few Dao, and they can be used together to achieve certain things that I desire¡­ Combined with some physique abilities of my own, it can be used for anything from making an assumption turn towards a particular conclusion, or outright changing the world, just like now. I won¡¯t bother explaining it in more detail, since you really won¡¯t comprehend it even if I spent decades clarifying all of it to you.¡±


    ¡°In the same way that those with a fragment of the Great Dao cannot easily pass it along to another, even if they share the same technique?¡±


    ¡°Exactly. You can attempt to comprehend it on your own, if you want, but I won¡¯t be assisting you.¡±


    As they spoke, even if it was only for a brief amount of time, Wei Yi¡¯s voice was already recovering all of its confidence and strength, with the paleness fading from her body and her muscles seeming to pulse with energy after they had been attempting to wither only a short time ago.


    The moment that she was able to rise without simply falling back down, she did so, putting herself in a slightly more comfortable position in order to adjust the rest of her body to its perfect state. In particular, as she had already begun to modify her unexpected gains from the Yin Soul Yang Root, she completed that part of the process as quickly as she could to make it less vulnerable to outside attack while optimizing the internal processes, since she really wasn¡¯t likely to be able to make use of her original organs to ever have children.


    While she was regenerating her internal organs a little earlier, she did perform a check of her own on her feminine reproductive system and was able to confirm the conclusion uttered by one of the Greats.


    ¡®I don¡¯t understand the condition entirely, but the combination of all of the arrays and malnourishment in my youth as well as everything I had gone through since, possibly including even the loss of the taste of food, likely interfered with the typical developmental process and¡­ well, it¡¯s fucked, and I do not have enough understanding of physical modification to possibly undo it,¡¯ she had concluded, although she didn¡¯t attempt to do something as drastic and remove that part of herself entirely to replace it with something that would be of greater use to her, like a few spare hearts so that she would be safer against most attacks.


    Although it might be an efficient change, it wasn¡¯t something that she intended to modify unless her life absolutely depended on it. It might be a silly thing to do, but she was hardly in need of those extra hearts and introducing them would just create more difficulties as she would need to alter her circulatory system.


    ¡°So, does my voice sound alright? I didn¡¯t fuck something up, did I?¡±


    ¡°Not so far as I can tell. Have you already recovered?¡± Luo Na asked, although her attention was primarily focused on stabilising her own cultivation.


    ¡°I have recovered sufficiently. I don¡¯t know the process for becoming a Matriarch, nor how any of that works, but I expect that it won¡¯t be instant. Prepare for it, and I¡¯ll be right over to congratulate you on your rise to the position. I¡¯m afraid I have something that I need to deal with before there¡¯s a chance that I¡¯ll lose them.¡±


    The future Matriarch replied with a casual nod, so, without wasting any more time, Wei Yi headed outside with a prompt usage of the Mortal World¡¯s Echo. She didn¡¯t know exactly where her destination was, as she had failed to keep track of the otherworldly demon when she had used the Past¡¯s Call ability, but she was able to move around a lot more freely now that she was allied with the leader of the district. She also had enough spiritual perception range to scan through much of the district in one go, so it would only take her a little while to confirm whether her target was in the district.


    Naturally, as she had effectively leapt out of the tower on the seventh floor, she made use of her Aerial Platforms to traverse the district quickly and from above, looking over everything for signs of either the otherworldly demon or those that supported Luo Yunzhen.


    After the day¡¯s work, many such individuals were gone, having been dealt with by Luo Na or those that had supported her, and so any places where they were still active might indicate that they were able to take advantage of Jian Hongchao to keep themselves in place. Whether or not any particular group of his supporters was indeed benefitting from the otherworldly demon, finding them would still help Luo Na keep the position that she was about to claim as they could be dealt with as well.


    Most of the locations she passed by were not of much interest to her, leaving her only to put down a marker for them to be handled later, and it was only once she got back to the structure that she had destroyed to bury the sixth realm Blood-tinged Church member that she discovered something of interest to her.


    Aside from the fact that some of the rubble had been shifted around and some had even disappeared entirely, she found that there was no particle of anchor energy residing where it would have been had the expert perished. The meaning of this was obvious, so she quickly paused her search and took a closer look at the region in order to find some traces of where he might have gone to, since he seemed to be the most likely to be connected to the otherworldly demon beside simply being in the same faction.


    After all, he was capable of commanding her as a blood servant, so unless that was just an ability that everyone in the Blood-tinged Church would have ¨C which would mean that it might be dependant on their energy, which would then imply that Wei Yi could acquire that same ability through stealing their techniques and adapting them into the Ascendant¡¯s Path ¨C he would need to be someone of importance in the Church.


    ¡®With their field of expertise, it is no surprise that he hasn¡¯t left behind any trails of blood, but¡­ yes, there are some traces of movement away from the ruined building, and towards the outside¡­¡¯


    She hastened in the direction that he seemed to have travelled, quickly rushing out of the denser areas of the district and out into the outskirts, finding that his attempts to keep himself hidden became lazier as he went further out, likely due to hoping that he wouldn¡¯t be noticed, or possibly due to the injuries that he had endured during their battle. If he was trying to escape with those still marking his body, then keeping the path clean of his blood would take a great degree of effort and energy, not to mention his attempts to hide his other traces.


    That brought her to the conclusion that he would be nearby, or too far away to bother chasing him. Without any traces of Jian Hongchao¡¯s energy or footprints, it was hard to guess whether she was present with him at this point, or if she had ended up somewhere further away, but this sixth realm figure was still her best bet.


    Several minutes later, she finally found what she was looking for. In the distance, just at the edge of her spiritual perception range, a man covered in blood was feebly limping through the grass, drops of blood constantly dripping down his body and being caught moments before they touched the ground. Not far from him, Jian Hongchao was standing beside a hill, manifesting her physique energy towards in, forming the vague shape of a passageway through the ground.


    It was more than enough to understand what was being intended, so she hastened forward and cleared the gap between them in less than a minute, heading towards the sixth realm expert.


    She could have headed towards the otherworldly demon, but she knew that if she did so, the man would be able to forcefully command her to do anything from simply running away as quickly as possible to outright ending her own life, depending on the power of the blood servant method. This would not be ideal, to put it mildly, so she would rather see Jian Hongchao escape with a semblance of freedom than suffering as a result of an attempt to free her without the proper planning that she might have otherwise made use of.


    In the eyes of the sixth realm expert, she must have looked like a storm that appeared out of nowhere, a fist heading straight for his skull the moment that he was able to detect her presence. He looked like he was about to gasp, and his eyes were widening.


    With such a reaction, one might assume that she would be able to finish him off in one go.


    Despite that, she found the man¡¯s face twisting into a grin as some kind of pulse shot out his body and touched Jian Hongchao¡¯s form, with a word appearing out of nowhere and entering her ears as if he had spoken it directly to her. Even if she hadn¡¯t heard what it was, she would have been fearing the worst, and when she was able to understand just what it had been, that fear got even worse.


    ¡°Explode!¡± the projected words were vicious and with a blatant sadistic pleasure associated with the order.


    A moment later, his skull was destroyed with the sheer force of her punch, but Wei Yi was hardly able to stop and appreciate this as she was forced to rush to Jian Hongchao, who had a confused look in her eyes. It seemed that the Blood-tinged Church couldn¡¯t even be bothered to explain themselves to her.


    Only when the energy within her body suddenly began to rampage throughout her meridians and expanded into the rest of her flesh did she realise what the order had done to her, but even before then, neither of them were able to do much about the process. The very first instruction had sent her dantian into disarray, and her core and anchor both trembled and broke apart nearly instantly, only adding even more energy to the rapidly accelerating collapse.


    ¡°W-What is-¡± the otherworldly demon managed to vocalise before that destruction spread.


    ¡°No, that fucker¡­ Wait, Potential! How the fuck do I activate the Realm of Potentia-¡±


    The world around her froze. Sound, light, even smell and touch alike stopped, and it was enveloped in darkness.


    It was unmistakably the Realm of Potential, although it was manifesting in a strange way as Jian Hongchao, as well as the area around her, was almost stopped in time just as the world had been, but Wei Yi herself could move, think and act freely, except for affecting anything within that zone. Even if she could have an effect, it would only be inside of the Realm of Potential, whereas the outside would still proceed as it otherwise would.


    ¡°¡­ Wei Yi? What happened? Where are we?¡±


    ¡°This¡­ This is the Realm of Potential, but I am afraid that I don¡¯t have much time. At best, the Realm of Potential will only slow us down by a massive degree, but it will still allow time to proceed. In other words, whether we have a minute or a year, you will still die. For that reason, I would ask you to explain everything you can before there is a chance of all of it being lost.¡±


    ¡°D-Die? I am¡­ Just with a word?¡±


    ¡°No time to explain yet, since I don¡¯t know what the rate of temporal dilation is. Please, just focus and tell me everything that has happened to you up to this point.¡±


    Although only her eyes and parts of her face could move, and only enough for her to be able to vocalise her words, the despair was still clear in her expression. She could hardly be blamed for this, but just as both of them knew, there was only so much time that she could spend in this realm before passing unless a very extreme coincidence occurred. As such, she desperately tried to calm herself down while she attempted to recall the past.


    ¡°As I had told you, I had appeared in a lab of some kind¡­ The kind that you¡¯d see an evil scientist working in, with blood staining every surface, odd red and green lights lighting it up just enough to see everything. I had come out of some kind of large test tube¡­ thing¡­ I don¡¯t know what it¡¯s called, unfortunately¡­¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for most descriptions, actually, as you should be able to manifest the memories within the Realm of Potential ¨C if that¡¯s how this fucking thing works¡­¡±


    Her muttering was overlooked as Jian Hongchao attempted to do so, shutting her eyes and audibly struggling to project her mind out into the world, not managing to succeed right away. It was only after she was about to give up and admit defeat when the image from her mind finally came out, manifesting within the darkness. While it was still much fainter and blurrier than what Yi Shi Ming¡¯s memory fragments had been able to provide, this much was sufficient to ascertain quite a few things about the location she had apparently awoken within.


    It did also give her a clue as to what an evil scientist¡¯s lair looked like in the woman¡¯s mind.


    As she had described, the floor was covered in countless blood stains of various ages, with some still being fresh and red whereas others were as black as night. The floor was made of some kind of dull grey metal, or so it seemed to be where it wasn¡¯t completely dyed by blood, with many grates at regular intervals so that any fluids could, presumably, flow away without lingering as much as the blood. From the current staining on the floor, it seemed that a large number of the fresher blood had actually emerged from the very shattered glass structure that Jian Hongchao had come out of. That didn¡¯t seem to be a reasonable thing to fill any kind of container, especially not one that was meant to contain a person, but she was hardly the most familiar with producing or modifying people.


    ¡°I had suddenly appeared there after I had gone to sleep at home, and I found myself in a strange body, naked, coming out of a weird test tube¡­ I had no clue what was happening, but when I get into strange situations, I usually just go with the flow until I can figure something out¡­ That¡¯s what I did here.¡±


    The otherworldly demon got into her story, and the image thus changed according to her descriptions, the movement slowly being more and more fluid with each moment until it became entirely lifelike.


    In that animated image, Wei Yi was able to see Jian Hongchao being grabbed by someone dressed in hooded black robes inscribed with a chaotic character upon their breast, done using a blood red string that conveyed little due to the broken nature of the symbol. This figure had their face obscured by the darkness of the robes, but what was not hidden was the man¡¯s hands, which showed that they were calloused and scarred by countless small cuts.


    They looked like they were caused by something akin to a small knife or scalpel.


    ¡°This strange man held me when I couldn¡¯t stand on my own, and he¡­ didn¡¯t so much feel me up as he seemed to be searching for something, which he found after a while,¡± the otherworldly demon said, ¡°It was on my back, a little below the shoulders and on the spine¡­¡±


    As she talked, the Ascendant walked to her back, prompted by that detail, and made use of the little room that she did have to affect the frozen zone to remove the cloth that obscured the demon¡¯s back, finding a strange series of patterns and symbols that did not appear to be any kind of language that existed within the Planar Continents. Despite that, merely looking upon them instilled a slight degree of dread within her, as if she had seen something that she was never meant to witness, and that her mind was unable to fully comprehend.


    It was akin to the dread of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s warnings inscribed within the books of the Yi District and the mirror in her possession, although it was far lesser and seemed to have a different intent, if there was an intent to it at all. Far more likely in her mind was that the dread was an unexpected or unnecessary side effect of the true purpose of those patterns, confirmed by the woman¡¯s description of what happened after.


    ¡°He felt that mark, then did¡­ something. I didn¡¯t get it then, and I still don¡¯t, but he helpfully shouted something like ¡®Come alive, Jian Hongchao, and serve our Blood-tinged Church!¡¯ I felt another odd sensation, and I figured that it was best to do something at that p-¡± the otherworldly demon¡¯s words were interrupted by her form suddenly unfreezing, leading to her spitting out a mouthful of blood as it seemed to actively flood her mouth, with her entire body quaking with chaotic energy that sought to tear her asunder.


    ¡°Fuck, is this really all this place can afford¡­ Jian Hongchao-¡±


    ¡°No¡­ that¡¯s¡­ not¡­ my¡­ name¡­ it was¡­ what was it¡­ what was my name? Why can¡¯t I remember¡­ my name?¡±  the otherworldly demon questioned, tears appearing in her eyes as the darkness faded back to light, the wilderness returned into view, and time returned to how it had been, with her body quickly being torn apart as her consciousness was no longer able to endure the pressure, ¡°What happened to me?!¡±


    Wei Yi would have given her the answer, but there was no time, even if she had known the answer. She did not, with her only being able to guess that the combination of the way in which she had been brought into the world and the azure light of her otherworldly gift had done quite a bit to harm her mind.


    If she did have the ability to save her, she would have done her best. However, she knew of no such way, and instead had to do what she could to minimize the damage.


    ¡°I am sorry. I hope your soul gets some rest, at least.¡±

 V4C63: Analysis

    Before Jian Hongchao could explode, resulting in all of her energy surging out and rampaging in the area around her and possibly leading to a significant degree of damage being dealt to the terrain and to Wei Yi herself, the Ascendant manifested her planar energy and physique energy alike to surround the body of the otherworldly demon, tearing into her before the woman¡¯s own energy could.


    She added in her bloodline power, and with all of them together, she fed upon the energy contained within the demon¡¯s body, feeding upon every little drop that she could as they attempted to escape, imbuing herself with the power that was contained within each one. Despite the otherworldly demon only being in the fourth realm when it came to her planar energy, and only at the second and first when it came to her bloodline power and physique energy, the absolute density of the latter two in particular was absolutely immense.


    One after another, she felt physique ability after physique ability awakening within her. Hidden Passage, Past¡¯s Call, Living Conduit, Blood Refinement, Swallowing Organ, Beaming Transience, Displaced Sanity, Mortal Deity and more reinforced all of the power that she already had.


    The one to affect her the most was the Deepened Pool physique, which had a single ability that manifested upon the awakening of the physique within a body. It would drain one¡¯s current strength and ability, causing it to decline by a significant extent while developing one¡¯s potential and the depth of one¡¯s energy pool, permitting it to then be utilized to create a far stronger foundation and cultivation for oneself.


    In her case, just as certain particularly unusual physique abilities were altered by the Yin-Yang Ascendant, the Deepened Pool physique was also altered to be lessened in its effects, causing it to drain the energy that she currently had instead of her current cultivation. It sapped more and more of her planar energy, physique energy, mental energies and bloodline power, and once they nearly dried up within her body, the process ceased. Her planar pool had grown by half, her meridians had expanded, and her mental domain had changed too, although it was changed in the strangest way.


    Her domain grew similarly, but it already had a clear structure and shape, meaning that as it grew, it effectively needed to scale everything up at the same time.


    The result was odd, but it was not one that she was able to concern herself with at that immediate moment, although she did believe that it would be resolved with sufficient ease the moment that the growth of the mental domain was instead translated to energy density and quality. As that energy flooded her, and each of her energies was able to acquire some traits from the otherworldly demon, she also acquired some of the memories that were at the forefront of her mind.


    She saw the hooded man speaking, his words being lost within the last memories of the demon. Her position shifted around a lot as a lot of events that didn¡¯t seem to hold as much value in her mind passed by, freezing on certain points around the hideout of the Blood-tinged Church.


    There had been a smaller lab somewhere to the side of where the otherworldly demon had emerged from, wherein some further experiments had been done to her blood, and an armoury that could be accessed if one kept going towards a dim red light in one of the corridors. Both were filled with blood, and were focused upon it, with every weapon in the latter chamber being either made with, covered in, or somehow focused around blood, to the point that one had to ask whether the Blood-tinged Church had any reason left in their heads, or if they were in as bad a state as the Corruptor¡¯s Enclave, where each one of them constantly heard whispers.


    Within some of the rooms, she could see more figures in robes that were marked by garbled and mangled characters, matching none of the languages that she was able to pull out of her own memory, nor the remnants of the otherworldly demon¡¯s mind, making her more concerned about their meaning and nature. If they were merely some kind of code, that would be one thing, but if they were intended to trap and affect the mind, then that would be another and far more dangerous matter.


    That was not what caught her interest the most at that moment, however. Unlike the memories that had been solely placed into her mind through the Realm of Potential, which were difficult to deal with and recall in full, the things that she personally acquired would remain within her mental domain for as long as they needed to, so she could attempt to decode the symbols whenever she wanted to.


    Rather than that, she was most interested in the final memory that she was able to pull out of the otherworldly demon¡¯s mind ¨C rather, the last two memories that blurred together.


    The first half was almost certain to be something from the world she came from, just barely managing to pull through whatever had prevented her from remembering her true name. There were buildings that rose to the skies, with glass completely covering each wall in sight, and the road was made of some kind of black material with marks down the middle, with various lines possibly meaning different things. It was difficult to tell that without the people or entities that were intended to make use of the lines doing so within the memory, as it had no other figures present within the memory, not even the person that would need to be observing it to be able to remember it.


    It was akin to a ghost world, where the people that had lived there all vanished without any obvious cause. Such a sight might have been rather shocking had this been any district of Yi City, or Paragon, but in this strange wasteland, it was almost fitting.


    ¡®That place isn¡¯t entirely unfamiliar, although I still don¡¯t know why anyone would live in such a place. It is similar to the desert fortress that we are forced to occupy, but that is a fortress meant for survival, not aesthetics or pleasure. Frankly, if I did have the option to modify the look of Paragon, I would probably do so, but I am also not the expert on visuals and design, so I would need to call the Shun District¡¯s experts for aid on that,¡¯ she thought as she stored that scene in her mind and moved onto the other one.


    This one was certainly from the Planar Continents, although she was not familiar with the surroundings. She was clear on that as the effect of planar energy on the surroundings, as well as the minor tactile sensations that the memory was able to retain, and thus she paid the most attention to the minor glimpse of light that she did have within that memory.


    All that she was able to see was a small opening within some kind of cave, and the sun through it, shining down into the underground region. The sun was framed by two mountains that stood near the coast, as the slight glimpse of the sun¡¯s shine from the water, as well as a hint of the blue colour that was inherent to it. They looked to be covered in a grassy green, and their peaks were sharp and almost unnatural in appearance, although many landmarks in the world weren¡¯t entirely natural.


    In fact, most weren¡¯t, since they were caused by fights between the peak experts of generations past.


    ¡®I don¡¯t recall this mountain, but it should be in the Central Plains or some kind of spatial realm,¡¯ Wei Yi deemed, storing that sight into her mental domain to study it later and compare any twin mountains that she could come across in the future to try and match the sight to reality, ¡®In that case, we will approach it soon enough on our campaign, and if this is near any of the districts, then it shall be found and searched. This is likely to be the place where the Blood-tinged Church is hiding, unless there was a major gap between her memories.¡¯


    The memories receded, and so did Wei Yi¡¯s energy, revealing the only thing that was able to endure all of her power ¨C the Purifier¡¯s Seal, and the azure light within.


    As one fell to the ground, the other shot out of it and attempted to soar into her.


    There was hardly any need to hesitate, nor for her to personally do anything. With the power of the fifth realm, the Truth of the Universe was able to arrange itself into the repelling array in moments and activated just before the azure light could come into contact with her, prompting it to freeze in place before shooting off into the distance, disappearing to a world unseen.


    Her character fragments resumed their earlier arrangement, with it becoming less and less stable with each stage that she attained without relying on their exact techniques, and although they looked as drained as they usually would be, it seemed that the increase in her realm was indeed able to substitute a small amount of the energy that was required for them to function. Then again, there was also the possibility that the increase in the world¡¯s energy density had also benefitted them, although the most likely possibility was that the two combined ensured that they would not be sapped entirely by a single activation.


    It was still insufficient for a second usage in a short period of time, but the cooldown period would be shorter as a result.


    Just as the Purifier¡¯s Seal was about to touch the ground, Wei Yi grabbed it out of the air, straightening her posture and feeling the strange sensation of touching something that shouldn¡¯t exist within this world.


    Much like the other otherworldly gifts, this one quickly formed a link with her, seeming to partially meld with her body. She could still throw it away if she wished, but she would be able to return it to herself whenever she wanted to. In addition, it felt like she would be able to make use of the properties of the Purifier¡¯s Seal even without bringing it out of her, although that did make her question why Jian Hongchao- no, the otherworldly demon without a name had failed to make use of such a function.


    One thing that she knew was that the item in her possession was now likely to be weaker than the original, since it was no longer supported by an azure light, so it would simply not make sense for her to have obtained a version that was superior to the one held by the otherworldly demon.. That meant that she must have been able to make use of the same ability, but did not.


    ¡®Could she have failed to consider this even being an option? The people from the other world, or worlds, are rather strange about certain things,¡¯ she noted, hiding the Purifier¡¯s Seal within some unseen space within her body, near her dantian and yet infinitely far from it, ¡®Doesn¡¯t matter. All of this has brought some things to my attention, and made it clear that I need to take action quickly if I am to prevent things like this from happening, as well as to guarantee that certain factions and powers do not get too powerful while I am attempting to unify Yi City into a cohesive whole once more. That means that I will need to intrude upon Luo Na¡¯s introductory speech.¡¯


    She quickly headed back to the new Matriarch¡¯s residence, having already picked up the large quantities of anchor energy from the demon and the Church member.


    On her way there, she found that many of the people were heading towards the Ancestral Hall of the Luo District, so she was naturally able to guess that Luo Na had decided to hurry things along. This suited her just fine, especially since the other two districts happened to have their spatial stabilisation points near to the Ancestral Hall. If she went right there, she might even come across that point and have the chance to make her own entry a little more spectacular.


    With the speed of the fifth realm, amplified by an absolutely excessive amount of physique abilities, combined with quite a few bloodlines that she had managed to acquire from the otherworldly demon without the ability to properly identify them due to the degree of their distillation, she made it to the Ancestral Hall far earlier than any of the common people, even including some of the experts mixed in with those in the first and second realms. The Ascendant located a spot that looked akin to the ones in the other districts, and scanned it with her spiritual perception, quickly finding traces of the stabilisation point that she was searching for.


    From there, finding the point and then activating it was easy, although doing so covertly was a little more challenging. To ensure that she wasn¡¯t noticed and suspected of something untoward before she had a chance to clarify the situation, she filled the point with enough of her energy to bring it to the brink, and left it like that.


    After that, she quickly caught Luo Na with her outstretched perception, and headed over.


    ¡°¡­ and so, we shall be supporting the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, as well as anything that they¡¯re planning for that doesn¡¯t simply throw away our lives. Some of you may not be so keen on this but do spare your infighting until the conclusion of the conflict,¡± she was saying as Wei Yi approached.


    Luo Long Meng sighed, but she did nod her head, ¡°We¡¯ve already fought beside you. It¡¯s a little late for us to try anything else, especially now that you are the seventh realm.¡±


    ¡°Good, then-¡±


    ¡°Sorry for the interruption, but I need to say something,¡± the Ascendant entered then, to the shock of all but Luo Na, whose divine sense was able to see through the rudimentary stealth methods that she had employed, ¡°No issues? Good. I have something that I need to say during your¡­ inauguration? Yes, I suppose we could call it that¡­ It is important, and will be accompanied by the opening of the link to the other districts. If you have any objections, they should be voiced right away.¡±


    ¡°Do we have your permission to block the spatial gateway, or is that something your vision of Yi City requires?¡±


    ¡°Only if necessary, and never for the Arbiters, at least not while the Greats are out there. Also, do make sure to mention the name of the Great Families as often as you can, just to get everyone saying it. Imagining what they must be thinking is rather fun, and¡­ hey, do you think we can have some kind of celebration named after them, just to piss them off?¡±


    ¡°Your tone is¡­ prone to fluctuation, I see.¡±


    ¡°Just trying to get over a few things, so don¡¯t mind me. We can discuss all of that later, and should implement it within all of the districts to ensure greater unity between us, so it is best if we only concern ourselves with it at a later time.¡±


    ¡°That I agree with. As we can communicate via our energy, and since I am capable at handling several matters at once, I wouldn¡¯t mind if you enter whenever you see fit, although I will finish whatever sentence or thought I am trying to express before allowing you to intrude. Otherwise, it might give the wrong impression of the status of a Matriarch in comparison to the Ascendant, and that simply wouldn¡¯t¡¯ do.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. If I do end up as a Master of Yi City, I could always remind you of those words when I want you to do something for me.¡±


    ¡°In that case, you may do so,¡± Luo Na said calmly.


    The two of them shrugged, leaving the guardians rather confused about their actions and intentions. They had obviously never seen how the original Master of Yi City had interacted with the Patriarchs of his city, but they did not imagine that it was anything like this. There should have been some degree of formality and respect in ancient times, not random exclamations.


    ¡°Anything else?¡± Wei Yi asked, ¡°If not, you can go on.¡±


    ¡°No, nothing else. I will proceed, and you may do as you like¡­ Actually, if you could watch out for any unexpected enemies that might appear, then I would be grateful.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d do that anyway. If someone strong enough to defeat you, or otherwise endanger you, was to suddenly appear, then it would be rather unfortunate for us all,¡± the Ascendant said, nodding and turning away, ¡°I¡¯ll get going. If you do say anything about me, do be nice.¡±


    She left before anyone else had the chance to speak, heading out into the crowd with some of her stealth methods to cover her presence. As she did not need to intrude in the inauguration of the new Matriarch for a little while, she instead focused upon the many physiques that she had integrated into her Yin-Yang Ascendant energy, since she had felt the many different abilities coursing through her and didn¡¯t want to accidentally make use of one without fully comprehending it, resulting in some bad consequences.


    The Moon¡¯s Regalia required the least thought, as did the Soothing Moon physique. They were nearly equivalent to their yang counterparts, so all that would change was that she would no longer need to substitute them with the mixture of her killing intent and physique energy, as she had done prior to this.


    Silver Form was also similar, but as she had seen from the otherworldly demon, the layer of silver would be separate from her actual skin and would thus be an additional layer of protection that would also prevent her enemies from landing hits without repercussions. Mortal Deity would make it easier for her to circulate her energy outside of the meridians, and did not apply the weakening effect upon her own meridians, so it gave her the best of both the Mortal Deity and Immortal Mortal physiques.


    Then, Displaced Sanity functioned alongside her Concentrated Humanity, so she would be able to manifest either of the vortexes that the two physique abilities could produce.


    Wei Yi had experienced the Beaming Transience physique already, and she would certainly be making use of it to add onto her protective layers against unwanted inspection. She wasn¡¯t too shy about most of the things in her body, since the typical mind seemed to struggle with perceiving any of her otherworldly gifts and the five meridian networks unless they were aware of it ¨C something that did make her curious about the exact nature of spiritual perception and the way in which it inspected the world around her ¨C and the fact that she had a dick was already known to some, and would undoubtedly spread further, but if she ever needed to hide something from a powerful foe, this would be incredibly beneficial in obscuring things from them.


    Much like the Lion¡¯s Roar technique was greatly related to the Lion¡¯s Roar physique, the Mindful Eating Art was partly based on the Swallowing Organ physique. As one might be able to guess, there was quite a difference, but both were based around consumption and feeding, with the Swallowing Organ physique ability allowing for the devouring of the vast majority of things, even the kinds of items that aren¡¯t typically considered food. Certain types of metals and ores, soil, wood, bones and more would suddenly be edible, and yet it was the least useful one for her due to her not typically eating.


    The Blood Refinement physique was focused around the draining of blood and refining it into vitality, or lifeforce, and it was the yin variant of the Vitality Siphon physique, with it being one that made the most sense to originate from a creation of the Blood-tinged Church.


    Living Conduit functioned similarly to the Energy Pylon physique, although it bypassed the cultivator as the physique dispersed vitality and was thus another weaker version of the yang equivalent, at least in her eyes. That was unfortunate, but the sheer quantity of physiques that she had absorbed brought her a good way to advancing her current stage, with it requiring only a bit of her own effort and time investment to rise a few stages without much effort.


    Past¡¯s Call hardly needed to be explained, the Muted Whisper physique offered a method of communication that could traverse long distances without being heard by anyone other than the intended recipient, Hidden Passage had already been utilised by the otherworldly demon, Worldly Declination was something that permitted the weakening of foes and energy around the cultivator. Most of them were simple enough, and did not require much further explanation, and neither did Frozen Step nor Crushing Frost, with the latter doing little more than enhancing one¡¯s physiques attacks with more power.


    She would have loved to have received the physique ability that was partially correlated to the Shaper¡¯s Grasp, which was called Elder Watcher, but it seemed that the otherworldly demon did not have that, or the vast majority of other physiques that she was interested in acquiring. Something like Clairvoyance, Spirit Mirage or Dreadful Possession, with the latter of the two being abilities that she had definitely seen within the Kong Prison Realm during her earlier years in there, would have assisted her abilities in ways that benefitted her greatly.


    Both Spirit Mirage and Dreadful Possession would have improved her ability to manifest and control the Red Phantom Flood, as both partly split the mind in order to be able to control several bodies at once. The former in particular was extremely powerful at that, as she had seen from the warlord that had used it.


    ¡®It would be great if I got any of those, but, again, I seem to be getting a little greedy. There is only so much that I can actually acquire from a single person, and the fact that she had that many physiques is already more than enough,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded, ¡®Instead of this nonsense, let¡¯s have a look at what Luo Na is going to do. I¡¯m interested in the kind of thing that she will do, since she seems to be a rather competent figure when in a one on one situation. When it comes to her public speaking, however, anything could happen.¡¯


    There was a certain history of people with strengths that were focused on very particular fields, like a master warrior knowing nothing about diplomacy or a gardener having no ability to fight, and this was hardly unusual. One might cultivate and gain the ability to survive illness, powerful blows, live longer and be stronger, but that did not mean that one acquired absolutely everything that one could ever want from their lives. The particular methods that relied the most on one¡¯s mind and knowledge, and the various very specific skills and understandings that not everyone could acquire, couldn¡¯t be sped along with cultivation, so if one didn¡¯t have the knowledge, experience, or innate gift to speak well before others, it wouldn¡¯t matter whether one was in the first realm or ninth ¨C they would still struggle until they acquired the required skills.


    To put it in a vastly simpler statement, Luo Na may not have had much experience speaking before others.


    ¡®If so, I expect that she will strive to stand somewhere further away from the crowd, perhaps on that balcony that the Ancestral Hall of this district has,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, looking up towards that part of the hall, ¡®Either way, I can enter at any time, and do anything I like, especially since people would be unlikely to protest the ability to cross distances that typically take a day or more within an instant.¡¯


    That was the power of exclusivity, in a way. By having something that no other faction could offer, the Arbiters could easily dominate quite a few groups just by offering them access to the spatial gateways, or perhaps the Endless Monolith in the middle of Paragon, or the like. Had there been no conflict between them and the Great Families, some of the districts may have been even more keen to join them, especially if it would allow them to make use of the gateways to invade some of their foes without warning and thus expand their territories.


    Perhaps the Xin and Ling families would be most eager to take advantage of such things.


    However, she had no more time to guess randomly, or consider worlds that she would rather be in, as Luo Na did finally appear, choosing to do so from the doors at the ground rather than the balcony.


    The doors of the Luo Ancestral Hall were opened by the two youthful figures amongst the guardians, Luo Long Meng and Luo Ru Qiu. Luo Na emerged after them, then the other three guardians, after whom the two younger ones shut the doors and formed a line before them. They lowered their heads and subdued their auras as to prevent the attention from being taken by them rather than the true star of the show, so to speak.


    Frankly, they hardly needed to do so, as Luo Na was not someone that required that degree of aid.


    With her current cultivation, a simple release of her aura caused all eyes to be on her, with her flaming light surging out of the body even without requiring her planar energy to pass beyond her body. In addition, she was not an unknown figure, and thus her presence quickly caught the attention of those that had previously done any business with her or happened to be aware of her reputation.


    A single step could manifest an enormous degree of energy from the world, and, from the stage, Wei Yi could see the chains around her quake just a little bit. She smiled as she saw that, even if it wasn¡¯t an exact manipulation of the Law of the world. It still showed an attempt to learn.


    ¡®I don¡¯t think that she will be able to complete her own branch of the Dao of Law through that alone, though. She simply uses her strength to influence the world around her, and while that does align with some of the nature of Law, it is akin to taking a dozen steps around a simple floor tile just to make a little progress in a tunnel¡­ or something of the sort. I am sure I have had better comparisons than that,¡¯ she thought, folding her arms as she paid attention to what the woman would do next, ¡®Either way, having a stronger ally is always good, especially when their strength can be negated by my own.¡¯


    That was one of the strengths and Laws of cultivation as a whole ¨C if one person had a second realm flame, and the second had a fifth realm flame, the latter should win in all but the most exceptional circumstances. Since she had the power of the Dao of Law at the Great Stride stage, and may very well have been the one to advance it the most since the heaven¡¯s will itself, she would easily be able to subdue or subvert any attempts to use Law against her.


    For that reason, she was not concerned in the slightest, and instead just spent her time listening.


    At the same time, she had already made a few preparations for the very near future, so she had little else to worry about.

 V4C64: Town for the Demons

    There was not much of note within Luo Na¡¯s speech, nor any particularly surprising responses from the audience. She spoke about a fabricated event that had led to the previous Patriarch being unable to maintain his duties, the decision that she would take over, that she and the guardians would assist the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and that they would be contributing only what was necessary.


    That was to prevent anyone from panicking or questioning why this series of events suddenly led to the Arbiters gaining a significant degree of power from the district. Furthermore, only a few could ever know exactly what was absolutely necessary for the district or the Arbiters, and their number would only be limited to Luo Na, Wei Yi, the guardians, and perhaps a few others that would need to get involved. To the people of the Luo District, all that was necessary could range from simply standing by in the right place, to sacrificing their lives for the sake of their district and the Arbiter¡¯s survival, depending on their own understanding and perception.


    In fact, if necessary, they could even claim that one situation would be the other, and that could motivate the people of the Luo District to act when they otherwise wouldn¡¯t.


    Of course, she wasn¡¯t too interested in doing such a thing unless it was an absolute emergency. The usage of such tactics had been one of the many things that had pissed her off about the Great Families, so she was not going to employ them any more than was necessary, as per her own beliefs.


    ¡°As the new Matriarch of the Luo District, I will not disturb the-¡±


    ¡®You know what, I¡¯ll step in around about now. Would you mind?¡¯ Wei Yi sent her voice to Luo Na, finding that despite the suddenness of her voice, the Matriarch had no response at all, as if she had not heard it at all.


    ¡°- current proceedings of the Luo District, but I will be paying attention to our situation. Once I see something that does require change, I shall implement it. Now, I would like to introduce someone.¡±


    At her words, the crowd suddenly had one less participant, although nobody noticed it as their attention was captured entirely by the sudden ignition of the bright cosmic light in the middle of the plaza in which they had gathered. It surged into the air, soaring all the way into the sky before individual particles of silver and crimson dropped from the sky, forming themselves into a gateway within the air, forming a large circle partly embedded in the ground without a single obvious thing to be able to support them in place.


    When the gateway reached the point at which it was nearly without gaps, a figure finally reappeared upon the plaza, going through the particles of silver and crimson as if she was emerging from the gateway itself, having travelled here from afar. In a way, that wasn¡¯t entirely incorrect, but most of the people present weren¡¯t aware of this.


    ¡°You could have mentioned who you will be introducing, but nonetheless¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered, with most failing to overhear her remark, although she raised her voice promptly, ¡°My name is Wei Yi, the-¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re that Ascendant person, right?¡± a young man at the back called out.


    ¡°Oh, you happen to know me? Right, you were at the Chao District, so I suppose that you could share a few things with your friends if they decided not to attend,¡± she suggested, ¡°Anyway, for those that did not hear me, I am Wei Yi, Ascendant and Conqueror, leader of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. In the Chao and Bai Districts, I have assisted the Patriarchs and opened up gateways that allow anyone to travel between the districts within an instant, passing right through a spatial gateway. Now, I wish to offer the same for the Luo District.¡±


    ¡°This has already been discussed and will occur. We intend to have a very amicable relationship with the Ascendant and her Arbiters,¡± Luo Na added.


    ¡°Furthermore, there are two things that I wish to say to each district, so let me first open the gateway for you,¡± Wei Yi turned around and reached out with her left hand, focusing a vast amount of energy into it not just to empower the spatial stabilisation point, but also in order to cause a series of vague chains to appear around her arm, ¡°Make sure you aren¡¯t standing in the way of the gateway.¡±


    A few people had to step back in order to avoid the particles of silver and crimson, which they had wanted to touch, inspect, look at or do something entirely different with ¨C one did attempt to swallow the particle of light without realising that it was just an illusion put in place for the Ascendant to seem a little more impressive. After a little while, everyone stupid enough to stand near a spatial gateway opening point moved away, and she was able to trigger the opening with a shift of the many chains that she had manifested.


    Just as the spatial rift itself formed, someone did attempt to leap in, but just before they could come into contact with the spatial disturbance, they suddenly collided with a chain that forced them to bounce right back, with them not having enough time to get back in before it opened.


    The gateway opened horizontally, showing them a landscape of plain rectangular structures from which a number of people observed the opening of the new gateway to the district. Three more gateways could be seen, although one of them was sealed tight for all but the Arbiters and thus unavailable to the people of the three districts currently linked to one another via the spatial connections.


    ¡°What you see on the other side is Paragon, an ancient fortress of the Master of Yi City. It is there that the Great Families had attempted to attack, and that is where a great number of them fell against me and my allies,¡± Wei Yi stated, ¡°You are free to visit, although you will be observed carefully to ensure that you violate none of our laws, which are shared with the districts in the vast majority of cases. As for the two things that I wished to state, I will begin with that which will apply to the larger number of you ¨C in fact, this should apply to every single one of you that has ever wished to study a technique or cultivation method, whether or not you wish to actively pursue the path of cultivation all the way to the ninth realm, which will be possible for us all eventually.¡±


    As she spoke, she entered the gateway, reaching out again and willing the shape of the gateways to change slightly, temporarily preventing anyone from passing through but amplifying her voice.


    On the other side of the other two gateways, which became spherical and dedicated to projecting her instead of displaying what one should truly see through them, people in the Chao and Bai Districts were already watching, and were waiting to see what it was that the Ascendant would say that had prompted their earlier announcement.


    ¡°Again, hello everyone. I wish to present to all of you some information that you may wish to hear. Within Paragon, right over there, exists a library that you may freely enter and peruse certain sections without a single payment or struggle. Therein you may find the techniques that I and my Arbiters have studied and developed, and you may learn any of them. Cultivation techniques, combat methods, materials on the great arts, and quite a few unorthodox methods can all be found there, and some of them can bring you all the way to the seventh realm, the Oblivion Halos realm, at the very least,¡± Wei Yi presented the library that had melded with the Planar Continents to all that were looking, ¡°Once I finish my announcement, please do come and check it out even if you don¡¯t end up taking anything.


    ¡°Any book you check out can be studied in an instant for all information and comprehension within to be delivered to you, although I would strongly advise that you do not attempt to learn more than one or two. Once you feel a headache or any kind of mental struggle, back out and digest everything that you have gained, or else you will suffer and neither I nor my Arbiters will be held responsible. Reminders will be included inside just in case you didn¡¯t hear my reminder.¡±


    The gateways in the districts had been modified, but the ones in the desert fortress had not been, and thus Wei Yi was able to see the reaction people had to her words. Exactly as expected, the vast majority were extremely excited at the prospect, since one of the things that had held back many since the beginning of cultivation ¨C presumably ¨C was the absence of sufficiently powerful techniques that would allow them to take advantage of their bodies and abilities. If they could get whatever they want and learn it instantly¡­ that would be immense.


    ¡°Some of you may think that this is all that you need to hear, and while it may be true, I would encourage every single one of you to stay. That does include you, young girl in the Bai District, who probably should take care with those wounds. They don¡¯t look good, and you can permanently lose an arm if you aren¡¯t careful.¡±


    Over in the Bai District, the girl being addressed suddenly found a number of people looking towards her with concerned expressions, offering her various pills and methods to allow her to heal herself while also suggesting to guide her to her parents, or two whichever place she was residing at if she did not have parents due to whatever circumstances. She was rather overwhelmed at first, but as some of the scarier looking people backed down, she felt far more comfortable with taking some of their offered items.


    Once she was assisted by some people and consumed a pill that caused her numerous wounds to begin healing slowly, the Ascendant was able to return her attention to the announcements she had wished to make.


    ¡°Alright, now I shall explain the second point. Tell me, what do you know of otherworldly demons?¡±


    Everyone visibly froze for a moment, looking around in slight confusion and suspicion. The sudden mention of otherworldly demons didn¡¯t immediately let any of them know what was going on, even if there were any actual otherworldly demons listening to her right now, since that label was effectively created by her, but a clue could still be obtained.


    ¡°I do realise that even if you lot were to speak, all that this would result in would be three people in three districts, at the least, speaking over one another, so do stop if you were going to say anything. Otherworldly demons, as I call them, are people that have generally been forced to appear in this world without full knowledge of what they were getting into, whether due to some old man giving them a card or because of some kind of system that they do not understand. When they appear in our world, they will generally be lost and confused, but they will receive a power that typically surpasses that of normal people of the Planar Continents.


    ¡°You might think that this is a blessing, but even the most powerful and pleasant abilities come with a terrible downside. All otherworldly gifts that I know of come with a curse that causes one¡¯s mind to deteriorate until they become mad, being driven to kill and slaughter in a needless attempt to become the strongest, only to perish due to the very causes that had sent them to this world in the first place,¡± Wei Yi said, carefully looking around in an attempt to spot anyone with unusual reactions, ¡°If they perish, their otherworldly gifts will disappear and go to another person, corrupting them even further, which is a terrible outcome. As such, since they come here without meaning to do so, and since they are able to be as reasonable as we are, I think that we should let them recover from their curse.


    ¡°For that reason, I will not encourage any of you to be hostile against otherworldly demons. On the contrary, I will encourage all of you to be kind and respectful, and for any otherworldly demons in the audience to not be afraid to reveal themselves. If you come to Paragon and call out for Yi Shi Ming or Wei Yi, we will speak with you and help you. I can remove the curse upon you, and I can allow you to use your otherworldly gift without any cost to your sanity.


    ¡°Furthermore, I will be creating a settlement wherein you may live, share the culture of your worlds, and speak with people with similar experiences, as well as those that may struggle to survive in the districts. It shall be founded there,¡± she pointed to the space behind herself, wherein a map appeared, ¡°Between the Chao, Bai and Luo Districts, in the gap between the Bai, Ping and Luo Districts, right there. If you struggle with geography, you may speak to any of the locals, and I am sure they will assist you. In a situation where they do not, I will make sure to reprimand them, or delegate this to someone in the district. Either way, please do go to the Dimensional Domain, as I shall call it, wherein you may find hope.¡±


    If someone from the audience came out and announced their status, that would be particularly helpful, but she didn¡¯t particularly require an immediate otherworldly demon to experiment upon. The reason behind the announcement wasn¡¯t purely for experimentation, since she had people to check her theories out on already.


    The acquisition of the Purifier¡¯s Seal made it so that she had the potential, the incredibly slight potential, of separating the azure light from an otherworldly gift. With that, she could easily allow otherworldly demons to cultivate smoothly without harm to themselves, and so she would obtain something equivalent to an army of people with incredible abilities. Anyone that she couldn¡¯t convince to turn to her side she could slaughter and then separate their otherworldly gifts from their azure lights safely, and so it would eliminate most danger related to them.


    All that she needed was the time and effort to understand exactly how to apply her newly acquired otherworldly gift.


    ¡°Please, if you wish to retain your sanity, even if all you would like to do is sit around and contribute nothing to the Planar Continents, come to the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and let us help you. If you are not an otherworldly demon, but happen to meet one, direct them to us. Do not dare to mislead them, and do not dare to steal their gift. You will gain nothing, and you will be punished; it is not worth it, no matter what your situation is. On the contrary, if you assist them, we can help you too.


    ¡°In particular, anyone associated with, and suffering as a result of the Ping District¡¯s criminal elements will find that they will not need to suffer for much longer. Await good news, cultivate, and make your family, your district, and everyone relying on you proud. If we work together, Yi City may be reborn, and we will all be better off. Thank you.¡±


    She wasn¡¯t sure why she had ended up speaking in such a sentimental fashion, but from the looks being directed at her, and the sudden resolute expressions upon the people of the three districts, as well as Paragon, it seemed that it worked well enough. Things like that could obviously be faked, but what could never be obscured was the fact that the blackened crimson presence around her had grown immensely with each word spoke, to the point that her surroundings had lost most of the colour that they originally had.


    If she was to fight the Patriarchs and Matriarchs allied with her within this environment, she might even be able to win without too many injuries.


    As for the name of the town, the Dimensional Domain, she was mostly looking to simply add to the list of impressive sounding names in the Planar Continents without going for another one word name. Whether or not she succeeded will be seen once it becomes discussed more commonly, like Paragon is slowly turning into a topic for common discussion in the Bai and Chao Districts, but it would be some time until that happened.


    To her, it wasn¡¯t too significant what the actual name of the territory was, since she had enough other things to name with more attention than this new town, or minor district as it would be more accurate to label it due to its position within Yi City. All that was needed was for it to be sufficiently attention grabbing for anyone that heard it to be immediately intrigued by it, even if they do not find a reason to pay attention to it otherwise. At that point, whether they wanted to reveal themselves or not, they might go there anyway, and from there finding out who was and wasn¡¯t an otherworldly demon would be easy enough with either the aid of Aimi Miyu, or with one of the otherworldly gifts that Wei Yi has, or by some odd behaviour inherent to the demons.


    There were quite a few things that they would do in response to a variety of situations which would never even occur to the people of the Planar Continents. Before most of their customs that she was willing to allow to spread did so, encountering anything from the other world and being familiar how to deal with it would give away that they were either otherworldly demons, or that they were very familiar with their customs for some other reason. Any one of them with even a hint of sense would avoid falling for such blatant traps, however.


    Her spiritual perception would be able to see things ¨C rather, not see the things that should be there ¨C that they thought would act entirely normally. This had been something that she had already confirmed with her current otherworldly demon acquaintances, so she knew that most of them wouldn¡¯t be able to notice anything amiss with any physical otherworldly gifts that they might possess.


    Then, there was also the chance that they would have the foolish notion that they were somehow superior to all other beings in the world, which wasn¡¯t necessarily unique to those from other worlds. If they decided that it was their right to rule over the Dimensional Domain, then they would be very easy to discover and thus deal with appropriately. In their case, some of the other otherworldly demons may even be rather keen to stop them from wreaking havoc, so she might be able to bring them onto her side just by offering them assistance with keeping the peace against a bunch of fools that have lost reason before the azure light could even affect them.


    Since she did not have much more to say, Wei Yi bowed out and vanished from the spot, making use of the Past¡¯s Call ability to shift herself to the outskirts of the Luo District.


    Only a few steps away from her, the crack in the ground where she had found the tomb of the Luo family remained mostly as it had been, with nobody appearing to have disturbed it since her visit. It wasn¡¯t exactly where she wished to be, but it was the only memorable enough location that she could reference for Past¡¯s Call, so she didn¡¯t have much of a choice in the matter. Journeys between districts took little time anyway, so it wasn¡¯t like she was losing much of it.


    When she did arrive where she had wanted to be, at the point that she had indicated on the map to the crowds of the three districts under the unity of her faction, she was greeted with a few familiar faces. Soon enough, that number would become four, and an annoying blight might be removed from the world, but before then, she would need to get to work.


    ¡°Wei Yi, hey! How did it go?¡± Miyu called out, jumping up and down on the spot as she waved.


    ¡°H-Hey? Is that an otherworldly thing, or a modern world thing?¡± Jia Rong asked, one hand casually resting beside the base of her horns as she occasionally scratched them.


    ¡°Both, from what I understand,¡± Fu Zan said, sitting on the dirt without much care for his clothing. It both made sense, as he was the one to create it and could thus ignore the costs of creating a new set of robes for himself, but on the other, someone that had made every single piece of his current outfit should be all the more aware of the difficulties in creating and maintaining it. Still, he wasn¡¯t bothered, so Wei Yi wouldn¡¯t be either.


    Standing by them was Luo Lia Kun and Great Dark, with Great White remaining in the mines to train up further. Additionally, a few workers, builders, gardeners and more were brought out of Paragon, with most of them having rather low realms and thus requiring the assistance of artefacts to have been able to reach this place in such a short time.


    ¡°Good evening, everyone. I hope things haven¡¯t been going too poorly without me.¡±


    ¡°How can something go poorly when nothing has happened?¡± Luo Lia Kun questioned, ¡°You had said that we are going to build a small town, but mentioned nothing at all about the layout, appearance, intention or anything else of the sort.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s mostly because you aren¡¯t actually going to be building anything. This will be mostly me attempting to experiment with a few things that I have discovered, and if it does not work out, then we can call upon a few builders to assist us. Fortunately enough, I have previously studied a few things on architecture ¨C by accident and out of boredom, mostly ¨C so you lot won¡¯t even need to be providing that kind of guidance.¡±


    ¡°Then¡­ what is it that we are going to be doing?¡±


    ¡°Depends on what I can¡¯t achieve without some form of outside assistance. Just stand by and feel free to have a chat with anyone else¡­ although I don¡¯t know why I am telling you that, you lot have autonomy¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered to herself while she took a step away and examined the land that she had chosen.


    The others glanced at one another, then some shrugged while others simply returned to focus on whatever they were doing prior to her arrival. Fu Zan appeared to be daydreaming, Jia Rong split her time between paying attention to Wei Yi and daydreaming, and Miyu was entirely unabashed about focusing purely on staring at the Ascendant¡­ mostly because she was still under the impression that her actions were somehow difficult to perceive. There had been attempts to tell her, but she apparently reacted like some kind of stereotypical character popular in Antanord, so she must have somehow been made oblivious to her own behaviour no matter what.


    It was odd, and that was all that Wei Yi could really say about it.


    Rather than this, her current focus was upon the terrain, or, more specifically, a very specific square region of relatively flat land before her.


    She was hardly a professional builder, as she lacked all but the most basic experience in construction and had only acquired her architectural knowledge from books that she had studied during her years in the Yi District, which was why she was not intending to construct anything in the ordinary manner. Instead, she would employ the insights that she had gained from her usage of Law to forcefully cause Luo Na to win and then rise to the seventh realm, as well as the other that led to the death of the otherworldly demon seemingly made with her blood, or someone near to her, at least.


    Obviously, making use of the full extent of Law would be unwise, since the drain upon her very bodily stability was not one that seemed to rely on her strength or physique. By using Law, she was interfering with, or affecting, the very basic nature of the world itself, and that was not something that needed to rely on her cultivation to fight back in order to provide a sufficient cost.


    Instead, she intended to simplify her command to as simple an idea as possible, to minimize the draw upon the Dao of Law, and thus allow the world to bear the majority of the cost while she would enjoy the benefits. It had the potential of allowing her to optimize the usage of her energy by a significant degree, as she would only need to will for a residence to appear and all of the details could manifest themselves, but she knew that this would not be anywhere near as simple as she would have liked it to be. Prime amongst the issues that she would face was the fact that the more detail, the more words she tried to force into an instruction, the less safe it would be.


    ¡®Eh, might as well try something to see what I have to work from,¡¯ she shrugged, reaching out with her left hand and focusing upon the chains of Law, ¡®This area is deemed to be under my control by the others, so that should be helpful.¡¯


    Even though her stage of the Dao of Law was not increasing, her comprehension was still rising, and thus finding the chains was taking less and less time with each attempt.


    Once she did have them, all that she really needed to do was provide an instruction with which she would change the world, and with which it would know how to be shaped according to her will. In this, the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique ability and the concepts that allow it to function would also be helpful, although not for the most basic of changes that she was intending to inflict- no, provoke onto the world. The Shaper¡¯s Grasp was most efficient and effective at finer changes, not at shaping the very world.


    She slightly shifted her hand and then, with a deep breath, she shifted the chains of Law.


    ¡°Rise!¡± she commanded, finding that her voice seemed to transform upon her instruction, as if she had tapped into the will of the world itself. It was a rather impressive sound effect, if nothing else, and could be of use in psychological warfare.


    Although she had not given much in the way of detail for the command, she did impose her idea upon the world, and thus it wasn¡¯t the entire world that attempted to rise, only a certain square region. It rose out of the ground with a rumble, with flat walls on all four sides appearing as the lower layers of the region were revealed, including a small quantity of soft stone at the very bottom. Through the way in which it rose, a certain portion was left behind in order to create the foundations for the thing that rose.


    To call it a house would be silly, and to even imply that it could be lived in was rather difficult. There was no door, no windows, and even the small portions of open space on the inside weren¡¯t suitable for inhabitation. That much was to be expected, but the actions of Miyu were less easy to deal with. While she was examining her creation, the otherworldly demon suddenly leapt in.


    ¡°Oh, what are you doing? Are you trying to set up a house? Is this like a city building game, or is this part of this world¡¯s abilities? When can I do this kind of thing?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I know you didn¡¯t intend to do this, but you have slightly ruined my focus. You have wanted to be able to freely make use of your abilities and to cultivate to the same level that I am currently at, right?¡± Wei Yi asked, immediately receiving an enthusiastic nod in return, ¡°Alright, will you agree to participate in an experiment to rid you of the corrupting influence that is the azure light? It may be unpleasant, and it may hurt quite a bit, but it will be worth it.¡±


    The otherworldly demon froze for a moment, clearly considering her choices, but as she looked into Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, her own seemed to gleam. A smile appeared upon her face again, and she nodded with vigour.


    ¡°Sure!¡±

 V4C65: Purifier’s Separation

    ¡°Ow ow ow ow ow ow! Why do I feel like my atoms are splitting?¡±


    ¡°Your what now?¡±


    Fu Zan broke out of his daydream upon the mention of the otherworldly word and readily provided, ¡°They¡¯re small particles that make up all of the cells in the body.¡±


    ¡°First of all, I do have your memories on the term, but the mention of it caught me off guard. The Purifier¡¯s Seal shouldn¡¯t be able to split up your fundamental particles into anything else¡­ Unless there¡¯s something I¡¯m missing, in which case I will need to check up on all of the nonsense I had filled the Ascendant¡¯s Library¡­¡±


    ¡°Eh¡­ I don¡¯t remember the specifics¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a shame. I would have loved to learn something new,¡± Wei Yi muttered, turning back to the otherworldly demon that was squirming beneath the light of the Purifier¡¯s Seal, which had turned a blackened crimson rather than the original azure, ¡°Now, I think the problem is with your otherworldly gift. It usually appears like a rectangular screen, right? If so, summon it and then display exactly where it is supposed to be.¡±


    Miyu nodded and examined something with the otherworldly gift in her possession, following that by holding out her hand and framing the invisible display that was only visible in her own eyes.


    To anyone unfamiliar with her abilities, or with the notion of unseen otherworldly gifts in general, this might have looked like she was attempting to frame a portion of scenery within her mind and perhaps paint it, or engage in some other creative endeavour. While it couldn¡¯t be guaranteed that she wouldn¡¯t obtain some kind of inspiration from this, painting a simple rectangle would hardly be worth anyone¡¯s attention. There might have been plenty behind it, but it was not something that was easily seen through.


    Although the Purifier¡¯s Seal clearly wished to act upon a clear object rather than the air, when pointed at the supposed location of the screen and willed into action, it still had a reaction, no matter how slight. It was clearly able to latch onto something, causing the very air to tremble for a little while before she could tell that it wasn¡¯t going to be sufficient to complete the process.


    ¡®That much is only natural, though. I lack the azure light that tends to power these, and thus my usage of the Purifier¡¯s Seal can only function at the fifth realm, whereas the azure lights are essentially equivalent to the ninth realm, if not higher,¡¯ she considered as she attempted to use the slight quivering in the air to comprehend the nature of the otherworldly gift she was attempting to affect, ¡®I thought that it might be easy to view with my eyes, given that otherworldly gifts are usually entirely visible, but this does not appear to be the case with those that are¡­ hidden somewhere in the body. Indeed. Even if I cannot affect the gift with another at its current level, I should still target the right thing.¡¯


    She stopped using the blackened crimson light of the changed Purifier¡¯s Seal and took a step back, staring intensely at Miyu.


    ¡°Um¡­ Did we do it?¡±


    ¡°If we did, you would almost certainly feel it. It might be bright, loud, impactful, or anything else of the sort, but I can guarantee that this will not be something that you are capable of overlooking,¡± Wei Yi said, drawing upon her previous experiences of the azure lights escaping, ¡°Now, remind me ¨C that body, is it your original one?¡±


    ¡°It looks mostly the same, but I can¡¯t be sure whether it is the same¡­¡± the otherworldly demon said, squirming under the powerful gaze of the Ascendant.


    ¡°In that case, what features changed? Have you viewed your internal organs and seen if they were modified in any unpredictable ways? Are there perhaps oddities that shouldn¡¯t be present in someone from your world ¨C the dantian and the like aside ¨C which somehow evaded your attention until now, or whenever you decided to actually focus upon yourself? When you make use of the otherworldly gift, do you feel any particular part of yourself being affected even when there should be no reaction from it?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t really¡­ um¡­ I think my breasts got bigger¡­¡±


    ¡°That was kind of whatever or whoever had thrown you here. So, that¡¯s one response to one of my questions. Care to move onto the rest, or should I try this on someone with an easier otherworldly gift to locate?¡±


    ¡°No, no, I can do it! In general, I seem to have gone one step up the scale in terms of my appearance. Nothing significant, but it adds up¡­ The last time I had an x-ray on Orbis, I didn¡¯t really pay much attention to it. The doctors had just said that it was fine, so I ignored it¡­ My biology wasn¡¯t too good either, so I have no idea if anything is wrong inside of me- wait, no, that sounds wrong¡­¡± Miyu blushed, making her words lean far more in that direction than they should have been.


    Even without her taking the time to trim her hair and get rid of the unnecessarily long bangs covering much of her face, the amount that was revealed still made her look far cuter than Wei Yi anticipated. Usually, her blush was one that was prompted only by the seeming shame of being attracted to her own gender ¨C or Wei Yi specifically, since she appeared far calmer around most of the other women in the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters ¨C but when it was instead roused by lewd thoughts, it seemed significantly more appealing.


    The Ascendant wasn¡¯t going to comment on this, but she was becoming more and more certain that she had a thing for attractive women blushing. It had been quite clear even prior to this, but each time she came across a different set of vividly crimson cheeks, she was forced to control her blood flow.


    ¡°Anyway, if don¡¯t know any of the specifics, can you not move onto the other parts of my question?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Is she¡­¡± Luo Lia Kun muttered in the distance, also beginning to blush as she realised what she might have seen.


    ¡°I don¡¯t really feel anything in particular¡­ Oh, right, I should try it out and see, right?¡± with a confirmatory nod from the Ascendant and the few standing by close enough to hear them, she continued, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll focus on Luo Lia Kun, then.¡±


    ¡°W-Why me? What did I do?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, you were just nearby. Should I not be using the otherworldly gift on you, for some reason?¡± Aimi Miyu asked, tilting her head slightly in surprise at the reaction.


    ¡°Oh¡­ Well¡­ Alright, go ahead. I am still not sure exactly what that otherworldly gift is able to show you, but please don¡¯t look at anything you shouldn¡¯t, alright?¡± Luo Lia Kun said, ¡°Wait, you¡¯ve looked at all of us before? What kinds of things can you see? Is it just basic physical things, or can it go all the way down to one¡¯s mental state? Are you able to-¡±


    ¡®Luo Lia Kun, I¡¯m not going to question exactly why you are acting that way, but just like Miyu¡¯s behaviour makes her interests very clear, your current actions are showing how you are less and less capable at concealing your own emotions,¡¯ Wei Yi was forced to interrupt via a spiritual will thread, ¡®Calm down and just let her do what she needs to. This is vitally important, far more so than having some minor secret seen by a girl who, frankly, does appear to be rather airheaded most of the time.¡¯


    ¡°- see¡­ Actually, never mind that. I got a little too nervous. Just do what you need to do and don¡¯t peek at anything you don¡¯t need to.¡±


    Miyu was naturally quite surprised by the sudden turn, and glanced over to Wei Yi, perhaps assuming that she had been the one to convince the perpetual vice-leader to change her mind. However, their spiritual will thread was already severed, and she was doing nothing that might give them away, so the otherworldly demon was unable to spot anything and looked back with a nod.


    She opened her eyes a little wider than usual and activated her otherworldly gift, with it showing quite clearly in the reflection in her eyes. From that alone, it was difficult to read much of what was on the interface panel, but it was quite clear that the quantity of information available had increased since the first time that Aimi Miyu had made use of the otherworldly gift in front of Wei Yi. Given that the azure lights were able to influence the mind, and seeing as most otherworldly gifts could be commanded by it alone, the amount of information shown grew not only with every new fact learned, but also with the desire to know more about someone or something.


    If she wished to only know someone¡¯s name and cultivation at first, but later wished that she could learn about someone¡¯s age, or perhaps their weight, or even the state of their bones for whatever reason, the otherworldly gift was likely able to add those in once sufficient knowledge was available to accurately assess such a condition. Had Wei Yi not shared that the Monolithic Towers were something she had invented to test her, then gave out a series of criteria to identify which tower someone was supposedly from, the otherworldly gift would likely be able to provide that information as well.


    ¡°So?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t really know¡­ My eyes are straining a bit, but that¡¯s because I am opening them all wide for some reason¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­ Hm.  C¡¯mere for a moment,¡± the Ascendant instructed, although she was the one to come over since that was much quicker. She stared closely into the otherworldly demon¡¯s eyes, and soon found something that she had not recognised all this time, ¡°The interface appears in only the left eye! Fuck, and I missed that¡­¡±


    From her previous experience with Kong Shi Meng and the way in which his Truth of the Universe display manifested within his eyes, and later her own vision, she had assumed that this would apply to all others as well, but she had failed to consider the fact that the Truth of the Universe made use of the characters in her dantian to manifest any of its effects. If someone did not possess something like them, it would be necessary either for the effect to come from somewhere else in the body, or for the interface to not be projected out into the world at all. The latter option would thus require the interface to appear directly in one of the eyes, which would, by extension, mean that the eye in question had to contain the otherworldly gift in some capacity.


    ¡°In only the left? I-It looks perfectly normal to me, as it is right here¡­¡±


    ¡°Indeed, the fact that I was able to affect something without targeting the eyes means that this is a two-fold issue. First of all, the left eye must activate the gift, which is then placed before you as a projection. However, we can easily figure out if this isn¡¯t some strange trick of the light with a simple test,¡± Wei Yi stated as she reached out with her right hand, ¡°I¡¯ll block this eye, you shut it, and tell me what you see.¡±


    This was to prevent an instance where the otherworldly gift was able to see through one of the types of obstacles, like if it was able to ignore Miyu¡¯s eyelids or if it could look past Wei Yi¡¯s hand. If it was able to see through both, then any such experiment would be entirely pointless.


    Although the otherworldly demon¡¯s cheeks flushed again, she was able to focus and look at Luo Lia Kun once more, attempting to perceive her via the otherworldly gift in her possession. Usually, this looked to be something that required little to no effort from her at all, and this did not look to be too different from the last time, but this time, there wasn¡¯t even the illusion of an interface within the unveiled right eye, nor did she respond in a way that might suggest that it did appear. Even without voicing that fact, it became clear that Wei Yi¡¯s guess was accurate.


    ¡°So, we¡¯ve figured out where the gift itself should be. It is either in the eye, or is the eye itself. Either way¡­ I am guessing that if I do manage to purge the azure light, you will not emerge entirely unscathed. Tell me, are you willing to potentially sacrifice part of your eyesight in exchange for the ability to cultivate freely, and to be safe from the azure light?¡± she asked as she removed her hand from her face.


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t think that¡­ no¡­¡±


    ¡°No? That¡¯s fine, I suppose. We can just-¡±


    ¡°No, I will do it! I want to be able to cultivate, to live freely, to not be afraid that my mind will be stolen from me at any moment!¡±


    ¡®Not quite how that works, but¡­ eh, I won¡¯t break that to her. I¡¯ll need to do this sooner or later, if I want to keep her around and allow her to grow alongside the world, so it would be best if I got through it right now,¡¯ the Ascendant decided after a moment of though, prompting her to turn to the others that stood by nearby, ¡°Everyone, if you could watch over us and make sure that nothing goes wrong, as well as have some faith in our success, then the chances of it working out will rise significantly.¡±


    She hardly needed to explain why this was a necessity, as the power of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye had been explained to the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters before, but it did make it very clear that this was not something that she expected to be able to accomplish with ease.


    To absolutely require the belief in her success ¨C not something that could be manufactured on purpose, but could be amplified if this was needed ¨C meant that it was an arduous task.


    ¡°We¡¯ll do what we can, but I am not sure if we will be able to do anything when you are unable to manage it,¡± Luo Lia Kun spoke for the others, with Great Dark nodding along as he took out a few inscription plates that he had brought along with himself, ¡°If there is anything specific that you need us to do, I think that it would be best for us to be informed of it ahead of time. Otherwise, we may simply fail to react in time.¡±


    ¡°The issue is that I do not have a practised process yet, so the more I say, the more unnecessarily confused you may become if something does not go right. That would not be ideal, so I will let you respond however you feel is necessary once a reaction is required. Do try to stay back if Miyu is just screaming in pain a little, since that is going to happen no matter how I go about this.¡±


    Before either the target of this experiment or any of those that was going to observe them had the opportunity to voice their questions regarding this, Wei Yi placed her right hand back onto the otherworldly demon¡¯s face and covered the left eye, promptly activating the blackened crimson of the Purifier¡¯s Seal and focusing all of it upon the whole eye. Her experiment hadn¡¯t proved anything more than the fact that the physical aspect of the otherworldly gift had to be somewhere near it, so she couldn¡¯t pinpoint it just yet, and would need to risk damaging Miyu¡¯s body if she would have any chance to succeed.


    Now that the effect of the seal was entirely localized upon a single part of her body, the intensity of it was clearly increased, leading to the otherworldly demon quickly beginning to squirm and suppress a more vocal response.


    However, this time, Wei Yi was able to sense that there was something responding entirely differently within the eye than the rest of the body. There was some kind of presence there, some kind of entity that had used the rest of the otherworldly demon¡¯s body to mask itself and thus avoid the typical fault of being completely invisible to spiritual perception, resulting in a gap forming where it did not belong. It was still difficult to perceive in any way, but she was sure that it was there.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got something, but it will take more to remove it. Miyu-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll hold on! I promise I will hold on, so do whatever you need to do! Even if you pull out my eye, then¡­ wait, no, please don¡¯t do that!¡±


    ¡°Not going to, since that may be the cue for the otherworldly gift to fuck off to someone else, making things a million times worse for us all. We¡¯d not only lose the gift itself, but would give it away to someone else with a potential for a far worse response to the azure light, and all of that would come with the additional loss of a whole eye, while this might just lead to a drop in vision clarity or acuity,¡± Wei Yi stated.


    Luo Lia Kun muttered, ¡°I was worried that you¡¯d forgotten all about that¡­¡±


    ¡°Of all of the things to suspect I may be lacking in, memory was perhaps the worst choice. You do know that the library in Paragon is my mental domain being projected out, right?¡± she asked, promptly turning her attention back to Miyu, ¡°Now, shut it.¡±


    The vice-leader nodded and stepped back, sharing a glance with Great Dark, who was looking at the scene with all of his focus and attention.


    As the otherworldly gift was discovered, now what was needed was to pull it out, somehow. Once it was far enough out to be detected by the Truth of the Universe, whether that requires the method of obstruction currently in use to be broken or for the azure light to be literally pulled out of the gift, the characters could activate and force the azure light to retreat, hopefully leaving the otherworldly gift itself behind. This had been the case with most of the ones that she had encountered so far, save for the ones used by Chang Fang He and Yi Henghua.


    In the case of the former, the azure light had coalesced into some kind of gem that then vanished, whereas in the case of the latter the technique had vanished after only a simple trembling of the Truth of the Universe. Presumably, the azure light within the Fairy of Dust manual had disappeared at that point, being completely overlooked by the rest of them.


    So long as these two instances didn¡¯t repeat, then Wei Yi had high hopes for this experiment.


    ¡®First of all, for the Purifier¡¯s Seal to be able to do this properly, I need to focus on the very item I wish to affect. The previous owner might not have needed to do this, given that she had the support of the azure light, but unless I can replicate it myself without the seeming sentience, then I must figure out exactly which parts of the eye¡­ contain the azure light? Is that even how this works? What are these fucking azure pieces of shit? Ahem¡­¡¯


    The Ascendant was forced to quickly subdue her killing will transformation on her left arm, where it was most prone to appearing. If she couldn¡¯t determine the exact location of the azure light, then what she needed to do was to figure out some other way to distinguish it from the rest of the eye and the otherworldly gift. What the Purifier¡¯s Seal did was separate one distinct concept from another, and while an azure light was hardly a concept in and of itself, while it also might lack the characteristics that she commonly ascribed to it. The typical azure appearance might not occur within an otherworldly gift or may even be something unique to the azure lights she had come across so far.


    Thus, she considered the aspects that were unique to it. All of them were not from this world, so far as she understood it, but that could target both the otherworldly gift and Miyu¡¯s current body.


    It could be physical or spiritual, so that wouldn¡¯t be sufficient either. She could attempt to focus on the degree of power that the azure light possessed, but that had the chance of somehow targeting the rest of the eye as well by invoking the human potential to reach the ninth realm of above even without needing to modify their own bodies to a significant degree.


    ¡®Sentience? The azure cu- no, I am not ruining that word. The azure lights possess a clear degree of thinking ability, which should be greater than the eye of an otherworldly demon, even with their notions of cells, fundamental particles and whatever else, so that should be a sufficient separator. Fortunately, most of the gifts themselves that I have seen so far lack any intelligence of their own, so, hopefully, I¡¯ll be able to bring in the proper distinction between the two and separate only that which needs to be removed,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, prompting the Purifier¡¯s Seal to change its focus.


    That caused Miyu to let out a subdued cry of pain, although it came after a length of time during which her features were contorted by that sensation. As such, Great Dark stepped forward with one of his inscription plates.


    ¡°Would it be safe¡­ for me to contribute with healing? It might soothe the pain¡­ if nothing else.¡±


    ¡°You may, but keep it on the outside of the eye itself. Everything other than the eye can be affected safely, but since I don¡¯t know exactly how the azure lights work or where this one is, any energy provided to it might be used against us, which would obviously not be ideal,¡± Wei Yi stated, grabbing onto Miyu¡¯s arm and helping her stand while her knees tried to buckle, ¡°Actually, only the main orb part ¨C have you noticed that most technique manuals avoid talking about the proper names for these things? ¨C is relevant, so it would be best if you can ensure that they do not get damaged if you want her to keep her sight.¡±


    ¡°I want to keep my sight!¡± Miyu exclaimed, ¡°Also, I know that there¡¯s an optic nerve at the back-¡±


    Her words were promptly interrupted by another cry of pain as the she felt the contrast between the extreme unpleasant sensation within the eye itself and the sudden flush of soothing light that spread out throughout her body, nearly touching the left eye before Great Dark hurriedly prevented it from continuing further. He operated the inscription in his hand while keeping an eye on her.


    ¡°Stop speaking if you don¡¯t want to bite off your tongue. It could be healed, but it will be even less pleasant.¡±


    ¡°Alright¡­ Wait, can you not fix my eye th-¡±


    Since Wei Yi was quite certain that the danger of her doing something dangerous to herself increased with every second that she kept asking random things or saying something that did not need to be voiced, she manifested a large rag of spiritual will cloth and shoved it into the otherworldly demon¡¯s mouth. As to make it more pleasant, she did make it tasteless and soft, drawing upon the few experiences that she did have of holding a large amount of cloth within her mouth.


    ¡°While there is a possibility of restoring your eye if some kind of damage does occur to it, I would like to remind you that the eye is one of the more complex parts of the human body. I can easily remake the tongue, with the possible flaw of failing to accurately replicate a portion of your perception of taste, but to correct the eye is significantly more difficult for me,¡± she explained, ¡°Also, otherworldly matters can be rather difficult. For all I know, once your eye is damaged, the very world itself will consider that it is gone, and will thus prevent me from healing it. I hope that this will not happen, but I do not know enough about the phenomenon of your transmigration to possibly understand everything that might occur.¡±


    The otherworldly demon couldn¡¯t vocalise her response, nor could it be acquired from her mind as Wei Yi was focusing on the usage of the Purifier¡¯s Seal and didn¡¯t accidentally want to shift the focus of the seal to the wrong place.


    Furthermore, with the regenerative energies coursing through her, interfering with them wouldn¡¯t be safe in the slightest while things were on the brink of either success or failure. With the shifted priority of the seal, she had clearly latched onto something inside of Miyu¡¯s left eye, which did also result in a significantly greater intensity of the discomfort being experienced by her, thus causing her limbs to flail as she attempted to subdue her reaction. As she was being held in the air, that flailing made her resemble a fish out of water.


    Nobody nearby was in the mood to care about such things, as they suddenly saw Wei Yi shifting her grip to beneath the woman¡¯s shoulder as she slightly pulled back her right hand, an incredibly vibrant azure shining through the small gaps in her fingers and in the space between them and Miyu¡¯s skin. It was almost flowing with some degree of reason behind it, spilling out and slowly spreading out in an unnatural manner.


    ¡°Is that¡­¡±


    ¡°Azure light! This is the fucking thing that causes most of the problems associated with otherworldly demons, save for your tendency to poke your nose into literally everything you can,¡± she stated, ¡°Get back, just in case!¡±


    With how often she had mentioned the dangers of the azure lights, nobody needed to ask why she was demanding such a thing. Everyone in sight took a few steps back, with some putting up barriers for the others, although there was very little reason for them to waste their energy when dealing with the power of the ninth realm of above. Even the strongest amongst them was only in the sixth realm, so even if they pooled all of their strength together in an attempt to repel the azure light, they would fail miserably.


    As Wei Yi brought her hand further and further away from Miyu¡¯s face, a strange symbol could be seen in her left eye, seemingly being emblazoned upon it as azure light poured from inside each individual line. It was vibrant and would have been incredible to behold if it did not belong to such a vile force, although a great deal of attention was still necessary as the very tip of something made of a pure azure radiance finally emerged from the eye.


    Just looking upon it hurt the eyes, even Wei Yi¡¯s own, but the moment that it peeked out of the otherworldly demon¡¯s flesh, viewing it was no longer necessary.


    The Truth of the Universe had caught the presence of the azure light, and shifted within her dantian, almost seeming to become excited at the prospect of being able to participate in something again. As always, the stone-like characters rearranged themselves into an impossibly complex array that the Ascendant was still only able to roughly guess at the full purpose of, with energy flowing throughout them with a radiance both similar and yet entirely different from that of the azure lights that typically powered the otherworldly gifts. Unlike the Purifier¡¯s Seal, it was not as marked by her new blackened crimson, but hints of red bolts were entering its radiance.


    It blasted out a great deal of energy at the tip of the azure light that emerged from Miyu¡¯s eye, using nearly all of the power stored within the characters. They collided in a strangely anticlimactic manner, with the two lights seemingly cancelling one another out, before the azure light suddenly became a thousand times brighter.


    The entity left the eye in which it resided, floating out slowly, then lingered in the air for just a moment.


    With a blast of even brighter light, the azure vanished, leaving only the dim Truth of the Universe, and a dim, milky eye with an incomprehensible mark upon it, carved into the eye itself.


    One azure light was banished. Perhaps not even the heavens knew how many remained.

 V4C66: Dimensional Domain

    Once she saw that there seemed to be nothing else to worry about, Wei Yi put the otherworldly demon down onto the ground, supporting her for a little longer while removing the mental energy cloth from her mouth and letting her recover from the experience.


    The others lowered their barriers after a brief while, with Luo Lia Kun outright dropping onto the ground while gasping for air. Whatever she had been doing, it had clearly taxed her greatly despite the lacking necessity for such action. Her superior, Great Dark, was faring far better due to relying upon his inscriptions, although he was also out of breath and keen to back away from the Ascendant and the demon, his eyes narrowed due to the bright light that had suddenly shined into them.


    Still, Wei Yi was focused on Miyu, asking her, ¡°How is it? What works, and what doesn¡¯t?¡±


    There was no need to guess that something wouldn¡¯t go right, or that something would no longer be possible for her, since this was a hasty attempt at something that shouldn¡¯t have worked out as easily as it did. For that reason, the Ascendant didn¡¯t even entertain the idea.


    ¡°I¡­ Is my left eye shut right now?¡± Miyu questioned back, immediately alerting the others to what she had lost.


    Her eye was not shut, and it didn¡¯t even seem like she would need to bother with it in the future, as it had gained a strange appearance that made it seem like a fake that had been inserted into her head. If this wasn¡¯t just some temporary phenomenon but the true appearance of the eye from now on, perhaps prompted by the lack of an azure light to power it, then it might behave like one as well, no longer requiring her to blink or to even provide her blood and moisture to it.


    Of course, mentioning such things right away would be a little inappropriate.


    ¡°No, it is not. Can you still make use of the otherworldly gift?¡± Wei Yi quickly brought her onto the other important topic. So long as the gift remained, it would mean that attempting to handle this type of otherworldly gift in such a manner could at the very least ensure that it remained with the owner.


    ¡°Uh¡­ Wei Yi¡­ Forty-one¡­ eh¡­ I can¡¯t see much more than that¡­ Oh god, I can¡¯t see more than that?¡± she gasped, quickly turning to look at the others, ¡°Luo Lia Kun, sixty-four-¡±


    ¡°Oi!¡±


    ¡°Great Da- no, Great Li-, no, Great¡­ um¡­ I¡­ I think that we may have b-broken it? It¡­ It can¡¯t identify things properly anymore¡­ Um¡­¡± Miyu¡¯s breath accelerated as she looked at more and more people and things before ultimately returning her focus to Wei Yi, ¡°Did I do something wrong? S-Shouldn¡¯t the whole point of the ability to be able to see more than that? To verify truth from lies? To- ah!¡±


    She stopped the moment that Wei Yi took a firm stride forward and embraced her, with the otherworldly demon¡¯s head ending up near the Ascendant¡¯s chest due to their difference in height. Although she did continue to hyperventilate for a few breaths, that was also ended when she felt a soft yet strong hand stroke her head, Wei Yi¡¯s fingers brushing through her long hair and giving her little choice but to focus on them.


    ¡°Calm down, Miyu. From what I can tell, you have done nothing wrong. Your ability must have been one of those that was simply too powerful to be maintained by nothing more than a cultivation without any proper refinement, and so you can no longer tap into the heavens, or whatever it was that you used, in order to acquire the knowledge of truth and fiction,¡± the Ascendant explained, ¡°If your ability works the same as the ones I have managed to pick up, then it will return to some semblance of its original strength as you get stronger, so, if you are concerned about it, why don¡¯t I teach you a technique and let you have a go at it? Should be fun in the long term.¡±


    ¡°Um¡­ Can I stay here instead?¡±


    ¡°After you were so excited to be able to cultivate and become stronger? No, I am afraid that I can¡¯t let you remain in my embrace forever, although you can stay for a little while.¡±


    The otherworldly demon nodded ¨C as much as she could with her head pressed against Wei Yi¡¯s chest ¨C and finally calmed down, allowing the Ascendant to finally move her attention elsewhere.


    Their experiment had taken a little over a quarter of an hour, with the actual extraction of the azure light occupying the last few minutes, and while that wasn¡¯t enough time for anything major to occur either in the world or in the minds of those present, it had given Wei Yi a small idea of how to handle her current project of constructing a town. Naturally, her work would be limited once those keen on constructing came around, whether from the Planar Continents or Orbis, or some other realm entirely, but before then, she could optimise her newly created shadow of a technique, the Command of Law.


    It was far from being complete, but she was able to ascertain from the attempt to remove the azure light that the empowerment of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye could guide the Law to a certain extent, in a way that was not inconsistent with the way in which Law naturally functioned.


    To a certain extent, the rules imposed onto people by themselves were bound by one¡¯s interpretation and led to such things as following the spirit of a law, or the words of a law. At times, one contradicted or opposed the other, and so the one that was most often used came about as a consensus of the people¡¯s vision of that law. In more overarching, natural terms, Law seemed less malleable, but if it demanded human input, it meant that it could be changed.


    A demand of the land to rise was ambiguous, but what if she could simply instruct the land to form an abode? So long as everyone agreed upon the meaning of the word, and shared some vision of a residence within which they may reside, the chains of Law would be able to form the thing that they desire.


    The only question now was which command would best stimulate the minds of those present, as well as accurately instruct the world. Something like ¡®home¡¯ wouldn¡¯t work as it was not a verb, thus failing to actually satisfy the requirement of an instruction, whereas ¡®rise¡¯ could stimulate far too many other thoughts in order to actually be useful. It needed to be something clear, concise, with only one obvious interpretation for the otherworldly demons and the locals alike, although that was likely asking for too much for her second attempt.


    ¡®Alternatively, what if I provide a term and rely on the people¡¯s perception of its intention for the sake of manifesting an effect, even if, speaking purely about the grammatical side of things, a term shouldn¡¯t normally be used as a verb?¡¯ she thought, ¡°Everyone, could you think of a residence? Not the specifics, but the necessary concepts that you can all agree to, like a door, some windows, rooms and so on.¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡± Miyu shifted a little, seeming to have gotten a little distracted.


    ¡°You can keep resting, if you like. Otherwise, imagine the base essentials of a house, then focus on them.¡±


    ¡°Can I focus on-¡±


    ¡°No, you cannot. Stop trying to touch me there, as this is neither the time nor the place,¡± Wei Yi held the otherworldly demon¡¯s hand at bay as the woman attempted to reach something that she should not have been touching, ¡°Also, you are clearly acting this way due to the stress, so take a while to calm down and reconsider what you are doing. If, after that, you are still sure, then we can discuss it again. You alright with that?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Alright, I¡¯ll¡­ mhm¡­ you have a firm chest¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± the Ascendant pondered whether to nudge her away at this point, or throw her into a bed in the Kong Prison Realm or Paragon, but decided to let her be for a moment longer, ¡°Do remember who you are speaking to, please.¡±


    She sighed, turning back to the field before them. The previously raised structure raised by her was mostly standing, but it was already showing a series of clear instabilities that would need to be addressed with greater precision, with something like the Shaper¡¯s Grasp. Fortunately, some of these flaws came about as a result of the unstable and imprecise structure formed by the failure to accurately bring across the concept of a house. Some of them would be addressed the moment that a more accurate portrayal was created, but the rest could and should be kept in mind.


    Once the blackened crimson around them got even deeper, with a portion of it almost manifesting into the shape of a strange residence at a certain point on the flat landscape.


    It wasn¡¯t a perfect shape, instead seeming to be more of a congregation of features one typically associated with a home that floated vaguely near one another, but it was sufficient for what she wanted. From that, all that she needed to do was coalesce the many concepts into something whole by giving them a clear direction.


    ¡°Now¡­ Home!¡± she called out, stretching out one hand while manifesting another to keep Miyu¡¯s hand away from her crotch. In a more regular situation, it would have been quite appealing to have someone chasing after her with such vigour, especially if they were female and understood that anything even approaching a romantic relationship would simply be impossible for now, but as she had already explained to the otherworldly demon, timing and location were important.


    Her words provoked the world to twist once more, the chains shifting in order to accommodate her supposed command.


    The ground twisted and cracked, with stone piercing right through the dirt and forming an enormous frame of sharp spikes that piled up further and further, increasing in quantity until they were almost as plentiful as the wooden planks that one might use when constructing a regular structure. A space for a door was present, as were several tall windows and even signs of a complex roof, internal furniture, and a set of several stairs and two additional floors. They were not put together with much competence, nor were they that well planned out, with some of the rooms seeming to be far too small or large to be useful, but this resembled a home far more so than before.


    Even her own body wasn¡¯t harmed all that greatly, with her enduring only a few minor internal injuries that began to recover the moment that most of the structure slid into place, locking into two or more of the other stone spikes to result in something that appeared to be able to endure the pressure of the world.


    ¡°Woah¡­ That-¡±


    ¡°Is that thing what you¡¯re intending to house us in?¡± a voice suddenly came to them, prompting them to turn around.


    Wei Yi had been able to notice their presence some time ago, with her spiritual perception quite literally coating the world within the nearest half kilometre, but to the surprise of the fifth and sixth realm experts in the area, she appeared to be nearly entirely invisible, mostly because her energy was essentially absent from her body despite the fact that she was in the third realm by all appearances. Once they did notice her, they even noticed that her anchor was oddly misshapen, although they were unable to understand what it was meant to be.


    Their Ascendant did have a better idea, but only because she had just been forced to observe how the concepts of a house came together, not even mentioning the fact that her trained eyes and perception were able to observe a certain absent spot within the approaching woman¡¯s body.


    Rather than all that, what caught their attention a moment after was that her body looked rather unusual for someone that comes from the Planar Continents, as her eyes were larger, her skin looked to be a shade most similar to that of someone from the Central Plains, and her body was quite full in the best places. Judging by the subtle gasp of Fu Zan, as well as his thoughts, her long blond hair would have also been somewhat unusual for the places that he lived in if not for the variety of the Planar Continents. In the Western Continent, at the very least, the hair and eye colours included almost literally every colour visible to the human eye, if not more, so few colours surprised others.


    ¡°I presume that you are not from this world?¡± Wei Yi decided to confirm.


    ¡°I am, and I have that otherworldly gift thing you had talked about. Tell me, why do you call us demons in one sentence and then call us poor souls in the other?¡± the woman questioned.


    ¡®A fearless one, although I do not know whether this comes from her lacking understanding of the world or her belief that she could deal with me. Either way, I don¡¯t dislike some confidence,¡¯ the Ascendant thought to herself, replying right away, ¡°You appear to have a similar misunderstanding of the term as your fellow otherworldly demon had. When I call you demons, I do not call you vile entities, but, in essence, agents of chaos. With your knowledge, your powers, and your different views of the world, people like you almost inevitably end up causing significant changes to the world. For example, have you heard of Yi City? I know it is a small place now, not one to pay attention to, but it was directly caused by an otherworldly demon.¡±


    ¡°Yi Ci- Wait, you mean this whole nation? That¡¯s called Yi City, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, it is. You were either in the Bai, Chao, or, as I think to be most likely, the Luo District, where I think I saw you standing somewhere in the distance, frowning. Did my words cause any significant concern, or were you in a bad mood at that hour?¡±


    ¡°Both¡­ So that¡¯s how you were using that word. I see¡­ Frankly, I see no reason to trust anything you say, since any politician in Antania could say the exact same kind of thing at any time, but you seem to be the best choice so far,¡± the woman said, ¡°You were called Wei Yi, right? I am Sarah Wilson, Sarah being the first name. I think I could offer something to this new town of yours.¡±


    ¡°An otherworldly gift, or some talent in architecture, the understanding of houses and the way in which to construct something useful and yet not entirely unappealing, or perhaps the knowledge of good land and where best to build something?¡±


    ¡°My brother was good at architecture, so some of his mutterings have stuck with me, but it is the former that I can contribute. Is that safe?¡± Sarah asked, looking at Fu Zan first, and the woman in Wei Yi¡¯s embrace second, identifying them as fellow visitors from another world right away but not quite understanding quite what it was that she seeing right now, ¡°You said that they corrupt the mind and all that, right?¡±


    ¡°I was a little vague, and for a good reason. You see, most otherworldly gifts are composed of two parts at least, and one of those is the gift itself, while the other is an azure light that provides it strength. The gift itself can contain memories and thoughts, but is generally harmless, so far as I can tell. If the azure light is removed, you can safely cultivate and do whatever else you want, but even with it remaining, so long as you don¡¯t attempt to develop your cultivation and do not attempt to pursue power, it should not lead you into darkness,¡± she explained.


    The otherworldly demon¡¯s uncertainty and disbelief was blatantly expressed upon her face, but in a field as unfamiliar to her as this one, she had little choice but to trust the expert.


    ¡°My otherworldly gift, as you call it, is something apparently called Architectural Talent, but rather than granting me knowledge, it¡­ Well, this is something that is best shown if you don¡¯t know anything about our video games,¡± Sarah said, looking out at the two attempts at creating residences on the flat plain, ¡°Do you mind if I use it?¡±


    ¡°Go ahead, but don¡¯t destroy the stone structure if you don¡¯t need to. I want to study it later.¡±


    The blonde nodded and waved her hand through the air, calling upon something that could only be seen in the reflection in her eyes. Just like many of the other otherworldly gifts, a part of its manifestation appeared to be a grey flat interface, although in this case, Wei Yi could also see other colours within it. Judging by their quantity and complexity, this was something beyond a simple text box, so she was quite intrigued to see where this was going.


    After staring at the screen for a little while, the woman touched certain points of it, by which point the Ascendant had gotten into her mind and was thus able to see a vague approximation of what the otherworldly demon was seeing.


    It was a large grid, with one square being roughly sufficient to fit in either of the attempts at residences created by Wei Yi. Some were marked with labels that she couldn¡¯t understand, and there were several fields above the grid with the symbols of coins, wood, stone and other materials being next to them. As the demon tapped one of the squares, a series of options presented themselves to her, with all of them seeming to be some type of building with an attached cost and potential revenue from their activity.


    Some were unavailable due to the numbers at the top being insufficient, but despite the otherworldly demon seeming to be relatively new to the Planar Continents, she possessed enough for a number of fancy homes and even some commercial establishments. As otherworldly gifts did possess the ability to manifest something from nothing, or so it seemed, it could be that the resource values were currently false and were instead being pulled from the azure light when necessary, or that it had come with a certain amount that the light expected her to use to acquire more, perhaps creating a vast empire that she could construct in moments and thus acquire a significant portion of the world through that talent combined with the information that she would be able to obtain about her population, so long as Wei Yi was interpreting the various parts of the screen correctly.


    Needless to say, this did not seem to be one of the weaker otherworldly gifts, but it was also not one that was likely to have an obvious physical item that would be left behind upon the user¡¯s demise.


    Otherwise, she might have killed the woman on the spot, had she been in greater need of such a gift.


    ¡°Are there any particular plans for the layout of the town, or were you just planning to put things wherever until it worked out?¡± Sarah asked after she had selected several structures and placed them onto certain parts of the grid, ¡°If there was nothing, I think that I might be able to use my knowledge of city building games here.¡±


    ¡°Your people play with city building?¡± Wei Yi raised an eyebrow at Fu Zan and Sarah.


    ¡°Eh¡­ No, it¡¯s a game on the computer. No actual cities are created, so far as I¡¯m aware,¡± the former said.


    ¡°Computer? Are you from some poverty-stricken portion of Enia? Everyone uses their watches for that kind of thing. Computers are mostly for storing porn and making more, since they have larger screens,¡± the other otherworldly demon said, eliciting a confused glance between Fu Zan and Miyu ¨C or would have done so, had Miyu not had her face firmly in between Wei Yi¡¯s breasts.


    ¡°You can do it your way. While your otherworldly gift is at full power, it should be aware of far more than we are, so it is more reliable, in a sense. Try to learn as much as possible from it while you still can, by the way, or at the very least write down some plan for the future if it turns out to suffer greatly from the loss of the azure light,¡± Wei Yi instructed, deciding to temporarily not bring up the notion of many alternate variations of Orbis to the blond woman. Depending on how her world thought about such things, it could cause far too much mental strain.


    Sarah didn¡¯t seem to be too bothered by the exchange, perhaps assuming that her guess had been correct but a little insensitive, and instead looked back to the grey screen and shifted around a few structures. Everything but the basic residential buildings had various shapes around them and presented a lot of information regarding their interactions with other places, so she attempted to optimise the initial layout.


    To the Ascendant, much of that information looked like random characters being put together, but it seemed that the otherworldly demon understood whatever code the descriptions were in, quickly putting together something that caused her to show a slight smile.


    ¡°Alright, this should be good. I will have only a little wood and metal left if I put these down, but that store can apparently generate fifty-four units per working week¡­¡±


    ¡°If you are worried about resources, then, depending on which ones you require, the Arbiters and I may be able to assist you with them. We have a lot of access to nearly every kind of resource you might want, and in nearly infinite quantities as well, so we should be able to fill up whatever storage area you have quite quickly,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Actually, do you have a storage method of some kind?¡±


    ¡°I, uh¡­ don¡¯t know, actually. I just had this much stuff, and thought that it made sense because most games gave you a little to start¡­¡±


    ¡°This world isn¡¯t a game,¡± Fu Zan stated firmly, ¡°It is very important to remember that, since one of our fellows had lost his mind believing everything to be part of a clich¨¦ story wherein he could do as he liked.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, this isn¡¯t fake¡­¡± Miyu muttered, her voice failing to pass beyond Wei Yi¡¯s chest.


    ¡°I will keep that in mind. It seems to offer some kind of storage linking function, so perhaps if you have a warehouse, I might be able to pull from it freely,¡± Sarah guessed, briefly going over the description provided of the linking function, ¡°Yeah, it says something about automatically converting materials according to their value when it removes them from storage, so it may even be possible to substitute copper for gold this way!¡±


    The Ascendant stopped herself from vocalising her confusion at the pleased astonishment the otherworldly demon seemed to have at the prospect. From her own second-hand viewing of the description, it did indeed seem like materials of any useful type would be converted to the required material in accordance with their value, so if things like ordinary copper and iron were indeed used, something like spatial metal could likely be used to exchange one ingot of spatial metal for several million ingots of the ordinary materials.


    It did not answer where the initial quantity came from or was stored, but so long as the materials weren¡¯t being used to empower the otherworldly gift and the azure light¡¯s effect upon the user, it should be fine even if they were manifested from the cosmos.


    ¡°Okay, this is it. Let¡¯s see how this works!¡± Sarah exclaimed, pressing the confirmation button.


    To those that weren¡¯t actively looking through her eyes, that being everyone but her and the Ascendant, the action looked significantly sillier than it likely needed to be ¨C especially when the demon could have likely used her mind to press any of the options on the screen ¨C but that could hold their attention for only so long when the earth suddenly rumbled.


    Not far from them and the two attempts at creating homes, several spots on the ground seemed to suddenly sink in before being filled with various materials that appeared out of nothing. They modified themselves mid-flight, with wood being cut to just the right size and texture as it slammed down where one of the planks that would make up the wall needed to be, whereas other materials had even greater changes occur to them at the same speed. Right before their eyes, some invisible force rapidly assembled a series of buildings with a far greater quality than their own attempts.


    All of them went up at once, and so, in exactly one minute, they had five residences, two shops and one workshop up and ready.


    ¡°¡­ Wow. That is ridiculous. They even seem to be in the style of the Central Plains, so they are suitable for this world,¡± Wei Yi pointed out, keeping quiet about her worry that they might turn out to resemble the grey and dull structures that she had seen in the memories of otherworldly demons, ¡°Is it always going to take a minute?¡±


    ¡°If this works like the free watch game I played in my spare time, then after the first go, it will almost certainly demand a lot of micro-transactions to keep the pace up. Otherwise, it can take hours, days or even weeks,¡± the demon replied, visibly shuddering at the thought, ¡°Those were terrible¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯d say that a week to have a series of residences complete themselves is still quite sufficient for my needs, so that won¡¯t be that bad if it does happen. If this will be something that gets worse after each set of buildings is constructed, I would recommend stocking up on as many resources as possible, then creating the entire town in a single go. Oh, and, technically, this should be called a minor district of Yi City, not a town, so if someone asks you about it, that is what you should tell them,¡± she recalled, ¡°That being said, you don¡¯t really have to speak with anyone, but I am reminding you just in case.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, I think¡­ Does that mean that you are going to include me in your faction?¡±


    ¡°Anyone who wishes to keep the world safe and prevent the Greats from obliterating it is welcome in the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and since you seem to be capable of creating an entire town on your own, I wouldn¡¯t mind letting you be one of the leaders of the Dimensional Domain, although I don¡¯t yet know who the other leaders will be,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°I¡¯ll have to think about that when we get a few more residents.¡±


    ¡°T-Then¡­ could I also join?¡± another voice reached them, prompting them to turn around once more to see another figure standing some distance from them.


    She was covered in fresh wounds, with blood still dripping from many of them, but she looked to be far more concerned with her question than any of those wounds. Perhaps the worst thing about them was that while Wei Yi was able to recognise the girl that seemed to be a young teenager at most, she was not able to recognise a single one of the girl¡¯s wounds.


    ¡°What the f- no, what have you been doing to yourself?¡± she questioned.


    ¡°Ehehe¡­ Would you believe me if I said that this was related to my otherworldly gift?¡± the girl asked, her giggling looking rather unsettling due to the blood that dripped from her forehead.

 V4C67: Returning to the District of Thugs

    ¡°¡­ and so, I am Min Shi, and my otherworldly gift is Wound Refinement. Any wound on my body lets me get stronger in that area, as well as overall, so I just end up¡­ eh¡­ cutting myself¡­ that doesn¡¯t make it sound any better, does it?¡±


    ¡°No, it does not. How old are you mentally?¡±


    ¡°Twenty-two.¡±


    ¡°In that case, let me tell you that you are fucking insane, and that you should stop this immediately!¡± Wei Yi ordered her, scaring the girl into making herself look as small as possible, ¡°There is no need to constantly brutalise yourself just to become a little stronger! You are going to be driven mad, and it will benefit nobody at all! Look at yourself! You¡¯re young and have plenty of methods to improve in countless ways without needing to repeatedly injure yourself!¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Sorry?¡±


    ¡°You better be! When your body reaches adulthood, if you still think that you need to become stronger, then you can ask me, and I can offer you countless ways that are better than this! Otherwise, calm the fuck down!¡±


    ¡°Yes, dad, I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to upset you¡­¡± Min Shi muttered with a great deal of sincerity, with neither person realising what the exchange had turned into.


    Sarah, on the other hand, looked at the two of them and frowned.


    ¡°¡­ You know what, I¡¯m not going to question this¡­¡± the new architect of the Dimensional Domain said, glancing around herself and finding Luo Lia Kun and Fu Zan nodding along with her, ¡°I don¡¯t mean to distract from¡­ that¡­ but could you tell where we might be able to obtain resources and food from? I don¡¯t see any places suitable for acquiring food, water, or even more building materials anywhere near here.¡±


    Wei Yi glanced at Min Shi one last time to make sure that she understood the message, then relaxed and said, ¡°If your otherworldly gift doesn¡¯t have some method of resolving this problem, and, frankly, even if it does, I intend to make use of the power of the four districts in the area to clear a part of Yi City. With the planar beasts displaced and a portion of land opened up for easy travel with clear roads and the like, merchants and allies of the Arbiters and of the four districts will be able to deliver food to you with ease, as well as anything else that you may need.¡±


    ¡°Is that going to be easy? In a magical world like this, aren¡¯t those planar beasts going to be dangerous?¡±


    ¡°Dangerous? Obviously. That being said, the vast majority of planar flora and fauna is below the seventh realm, which means that anyone at my level power, or even just a few people in the sixth realm, could clear out enough beasts and hungry nests ¨C which I seem to come across often ¨C within a week at most. At that point, all that will be needed is someone to build the roads.¡±


    ¡°That might be within my range of abilities, possibly¡­ Some things haven¡¯t been uncovered yet.¡±


    She was referring to the various fields that Wei Yi had also been able to observe which were greyed out, as well as the four arrows at the edges of the screen. It was likely that Sarah would be able to create roads as well as residences, and if she had all of the abilities that should be related to the construction of cities, as she seemed to believe that she did, then having connections between them would obviously be necessary. Perhaps she could even manifest spatial stabilisation or spatial gateway points later on, although she doubted that it would be possible until Wei Yi had access to spatial metal herself. No matter how free the ability to exchange materials was, spatial metal would be incredibly costly and unlikely to be worthwhile.


    The only thing that such a function would benefit would be discovering what spatial metal actually looked like. It was still an unfortunate and an inconvenient mystery for all of them.


    ¡°I am sure that someone from the Qiang District will be more than happy to assist us regardless of your own abilities, so don¡¯t worry about it. And you, Min Shi, don¡¯t start harming yourself just because you have an otherworldly gift that rewards it. Keep your body and mind safe,¡± Wei Yi instructed, speaking from her own previous experiences, ¡°And if you ever want to do this to yourself for some other reason, do get some help. I or Yi Shi Ming at Paragon could help you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind, dad. Sorry for worrying you.¡±


    ¡°¡­ No-one is going to point it out?¡± Sarah muttered, addressing the otherworldly demon beside her.


    Fu Zan shrugged, ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a thing with her, so I am certainly not butting in. Also, Wei Yi definitely knows what she is saying, and I think that Min Shi will notice once she calms down a little bit¡­ How much blood do you think she¡¯s lost before Wei Yi healed her?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Healing doesn¡¯t clean the blood, though, huh¡­ I expected magic to cover that kind of thing.¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t magic, though. You¡¯re from Antania, right?¡±


    ¡°The Great Empire of Antania, yes. Most of our stories have magical healing instantly recover the appearance of the person as well, although that may be due to the blood essentially being put back into the body, or the censor and rating board.¡±


    He couldn¡¯t say much in response to that particular information, as he experienced yet another difference between his world and her own, so he returned to the original topic, ¡°The healing here is based around prompting the body to regenerate, providing the energy that it would otherwise require via planar energy. You can also strengthen the body via cultivation, which you may have heard of if you know anything about Daoism.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ doesn¡¯t really ring a bell. Another eastern thing?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, something like that¡­¡± Fu Zan nodded, uncertain whether this was another instance of worldly differences or if she was just not well informed, ¡°I or Aimi Miyu, the woman in Wei Yi¡¯s arms, could teach you about it, but depending on the kinds of magic that you have heard of, it might not be too dissimilar to them.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I will ask you about it later. The matter of us seeming to be from two very different times would also be interesting to discuss, I think,¡± Sarah said, stepping away from him.


    At that point, he really didn¡¯t know what to do, so he simply decided to make some distance between them as well and attempt to understand the matter. A single glance up confirmed to him that Wei Yi had also been paying attention, so he was able to breathe a sigh of relief and allow his mind to drift elsewhere. So long as the Ascendant kept her eye on something, she would remember every little detail, so nothing would be missed.


    In fact, she was already aware of the rough situation that the two otherworldly demons had found themselves in. ¡®By the looks of it, Sarah is more attentive than Fu Zan had been planning to give her credit for, and she had noticed that there was something odd about their usage of terms between the two of them. It seems that the theory of different worlds in indeed more likely, and it also appears that there can indeed be some rather major differences between the worlds, as the vision of the world that Sarah possesses differs greatly from that of Fu Zan.¡¯


    From the images that she could obtain, the year appeared to be the same, but one had buildings that looked to be far beyond anything that Fu Zan¡¯s world could even imagine, if she understood the memories that she did obtain correctly.


    That didn¡¯t necessarily mean that they did actually come from different variants of the same time, since Wei Yi was sure that if she had come across someone from the Eastern Continent¡¯s more isolated sects, she might find that they do not believe that the current year was not 1,201,523 but instead 1,605 or something of the sort. Such numbers weren¡¯t all that reliable, but in a more connected world like that of the otherworldly demons, they would still indicate that something significant was different in one world or the other.


    Rather than trying to figure that out, though, she was more concerned about the matters of transportation for the otherworldly demons, as well as anyone else that might need to go to and from the Dimensional Domain. It was something that had fallen to the back of her mind as a result of the ease of her own mobility, but without a nearby spatial stabilisation point or a district in the immediate vicinity, it was difficult for most to get to or from the Domain within a reasonable time.


    ¡®That means that I need to either make that route available far more quickly than I would have hoped, or obtain a spatial stabilisation point from somewhere¡­ I don¡¯t think that outright removing it from the Ping District, even if possible, would be wise, so¡­ This place is closest to the Ping District, so that means that I should get to taking over it as soon as possible,¡¯ she concluded, briefly glancing at a mental map to confirm that the location that she had chosen was not only near to the Ping District, but was also positioned well for travel due to the terrain between the district and the Dimensional Domain. With the Ping District under control, it would also ensure that there would be safety in this region even without requiring the otherworldly demons to cultivate.


    The whole issue was that the demons couldn¡¯t cultivate without provoking the insanity of the azure light, not to mention their innate desire for power driven by what seemed to be an unfulfilling and dull existence, and so they needed methods of transportation that those in the third realm at most could use.


    So far as she could tell, the two viable solutions were to use something like the striders of the desert, as they were rather effective at transportation anyone anywhere so long as they were appropriately kept alive, or the various methods of the Ju District. There, they had so many different methods that did not employ planar energy at all that Wei Yi was nearly certain that the district had to be founded in part with the contribution of otherworldly demons, since no one else should have had this much interest in doing such a thing.


    Keeping the otherworldly demons in mind, such a move was actually incredibly wise. It may even be that Kong Shi Meng had wished for their knowledge to be useful to his people.


    It just so happened that the Ju District became rather keen to stay away from the rest of the world, so any otherworldly demon that attempted to come to them would either be dissuaded from approaching, or slain upon an attempted entry. As a result, whatever their original purpose had been, the current Ju District and Ju family were limited to sitting behind their walls and preventing anyone from looking in, to the point that they occupied a notable portion of the mountain range between the Chu and Chao Districts, with their district reaching into two of the mountains as if they were just more land on which to construct residences and businesses.


    With the wall of mountains on one side, the ability to ward off anyone from the northern territories ¨C which called themselves the Free Tribes of the West, as they were to the west of another faction by the name of the Serpent Tribe that bordered the Chao District ¨C with their overwhelming methods, arrows, traps and ingenious battlefields where even an ordinary person could harm someone in the fifth realm or above, they were incredibly difficult to invade.


    As such, she had no intention of attempting something of the sort just yet, and instead wanted to take the Ping District. From there, the Ning and Jiang Districts could also be taken to assist in the defence against the Empire of Dawn, then the Chu and Chen Districts could be taken as well.


    Alternatively, via the convenient power of spatial gateways, the Arbiters could head as far south as the Qiang District, which outright bordered Absolute Frost, avoiding the central region and thus preventing the Greats from being encouraged to retaliate. Wherever their Testament was, it was likely to be near the Yi District, since that was the centre of Yi City in far more ways than one might imagine, and so any assaults in direct proximity to the Yi District would be likely to draw their ire before combatting the first generation was plausible.


    The Qiang, Ru, Gang and Bao Districts, for example, would also offer some significant advantages to her faction, as the Qiang District had an enormous mine of materials that could be used alongside the cave beneath Paragon, the Ru family had the greatest range and wealth of research of any known faction in Yi City, the Gang District had a significant understanding of tradition and the past, thus potentially enabling them to contribute to opposing the Greats, while the Bao District specialised in obtaining and refining gemstones that could be used by cultivators to oppose enemies of significantly higher realm without needing to personally cultivate. In short, every major district of Yi City was a power to keep in mind, and more allies rarely hurt a cause when they could all agree with one another.


    Seeing as the only thing that she currently imposed upon them was the ability to trade and protect themselves, there were unlikely to be too many disagreements on those grounds.


    ¡®Again, thinking a little too far ahead here. The Ju District will be something to consider after the Ping District, which is difficult enough to handle on its own,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, glancing down at the woman that she was still holding, ¡®I think I need to move on already, so I suppose that I could help her to find a place to live in this town, even if she doesn¡¯t spend all of her time here.¡¯


    To save herself some time, she lifted Miyu with both arms and carried her towards the small cluster of buildings that had appeared upon the terrain that had been flat only a short time ago. The Antanorden woman was rather shocked at first, with the light of the setting sun suddenly replacing the comfy and powerful embrace of the Ascendant, but when she saw where she was being brought to, she understood roughly what was going on even without words.


    ¡°Can¡¯t I stay with you?¡±


    ¡°Think of this like choosing a second home. Once travelling to and from the Dimensional Domain is easier, you could choose whether you prefer Paragon or here, and then have a place to stay in whenever you are in the other location,¡± Wei Yi explained, bringing her to one of the homes, ¡°How about this?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I don¡¯t really mind,¡± Miyu said, leaning her head on the Ascendant¡¯s shoulder, ¡°I don¡¯t need much¡­¡±


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll not waste your time. Here you go, occupy that house, and I¡¯ll be back after you and your otherworldly compatriots once you have had the opportunity to speak with one another and share your collective knowledge of the world ¨C or worlds ¨C that you have left. I¡¯ll be back in a day or two at most, so don¡¯t get worried until three days pass,¡± she said, promptly putting Miyu down at the doorway and vanished from the spot before she had even the slightest chance to argue, appearing at the edge of the Dimensional Domain via the Past¡¯s Call.


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t bother looking back, since she knew that it would only encourage unnecessary clinginess, and instead looked to the east and reached out her hand, grasping the chains of Law and tapping into the same power that she had made use of to raise the first two attempts at homes.


    As she lacked the proper preparation, including the support of the ideas of the people, she didn¡¯t expect this to work out in any positive way, but what she was about to do could prove to have an interesting outcome that could illuminate the potential and limitations of the Command of Law as she was using it currently. With those in mind, she could develop it into something complete and superior, but before then, she¡¯d need to fully understand this usage of Law.


    ¡®Come to think of it, those otherworldly demons have a profession called a lawyer on their worlds. If I was to find one of them, would they take to the power of Law with great ease?¡¯ she pondered for a moment, glancing back at Min Shi and Sarah with her spiritual perception only to find that neither of them seemed to possess the memories that would be relevant to such a profession, ¡®Even if I could somehow take their insights from them, or copy them, I would still not do so. Their minds are their own, and trying to steal many of their experiences will only come at a detriment to me. In other words, I would lose myself, even if I stow away the memories like I do with most of those I acquire.¡¯


    Sweeping away the distractions, she opened her mouth and said, ¡°Connect!¡±


    This time, she didn¡¯t try to make use of a term that wasn¡¯t a clear instruction or command, as it would obviously reduce the chances of success without the support of others. In the area closest to her, her power of conquering would prevent misunderstanding with the world itself, but closer to the Ping District ¨C which is where she wished to reach to ¨C that would not be able to support her.


    As her words seemed to echo throughout the world, a strange phenomenon occurred before her. It was as if the very world folded in on itself, the incredibly distant walls of the Ping District suddenly coming near while not moving at all.


    It was a wondrous thing, but she was forced to terminate it the very next moment as she felt a force press down on every single one of her vital organs, grasping them with sufficient strength to obliterate them despite all of the strength that they possessed. Another moment would have instantly destroyed them, so she did not want to risk it, even if she was in the Blood Resuscitation realm of physique cultivation. Despite the name of that realm, there were only so many wounds that it could fully heal, and she would rather avoid testing those limits.


    Nevertheless, her attempt still affected the world before her, for she saw that as the world unfolded, a thin yet visible path appeared all the way to the Ping District, where the trees seemed to stay clear, the grass got out of the way, and even a stream of water delved beneath the ground just to avoid interrupting passage.


    She was sure that these features weren¡¯t there previously, so the only possibility was that her command was still enforced, albeit to a lesser extent.


    ¡®If it had formed a direct link, would the world itself truly have folded, or would it be equivalent to a spatial gateway?¡¯ she found herself wondering, as the shifting of the world truly had been quite impressive to behold, ¡®Not to mention that this is the kind of thing that I can achieve at my current realm. When I get to the seventh realm, might it be possible to fold space fully, or cause such folds with my power of Law without needing to lose my organs as a result¡­ well, that¡¯s not quite how it works, but I will be able to overcome some of the restrictions of the world via my energy, so it might become more feasible.¡¯


    Again, that was something to be considered much later, so she didn¡¯t immediately rush to conclusions and instead intended to proceed towards the Ping District to perform some reconnaissance. Before she could get far, she observed that Fu Zan was rushing towards her, so she stopped and turned.


    He caught up with her quickly enough, not even losing his breath as a result.


    ¡°I just wanted to tell you about two things, since you seemed to just run off¡­ First of all, that set you had wanted me to make, I¡¯m close to completing it.¡±


    ¡°Set¡­ ah, that. I will be very excited to work on it myself, although you really didn¡¯t need to tell me, since I and Yi Shi Ming both watch over the Kong Prison Realm and Paragon all of the time, so we¡¯re aware,¡± she replied, ¡°You could have begun with that other matter, if you wanted to. So, what is it that you wanted to mention?¡±


    ¡°Do you want me to be staying behind here, or should I rush back to complete the project?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d recommend you to stay around and get to know people. You can always hasten back whenever necessary, and I can call someone else to assist you.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ No, actually, what I was more curious about was the matter of our otherworldly gifts. How long would it take for you to be able to do it again? I¡­ don¡¯t think I really need to explain it, but I would really appreciate it¡­¡±


    ¡°That much is obvious, but there¡¯s a slight delay between possible uses of my method caused by the necessity to recover my energy that is unique to this process. As such, while I would like to take every single otherworldly demon I come across and remove the azure light from them, it is not something that I can currently accomplish. I¡¯m guessing that you¡¯d like to get to cultivate properly soon, so I will get back to you when I can,¡± she replied, ¡°After that, I will help Min Shi, then Sarah, provided that no other otherworldly demons appear. Feel free to tell them that.¡±


    ¡°Alright, will do¡­ I¡¯ve just always wanted to be a proper cultivator, instead of just sewing things¡­¡±


    ¡°Fair enough. Again, I¡¯ll handle it the moment that I can,¡± she confirmed, turning back around, ¡°Now, I have to get going, so please don¡¯t delay me any longer than necessary. The Ping District won¡¯t just sit around once they figure out that something¡¯s going, so, if there¡¯s nothing else, then I¡¯ll come back at a later time.¡±


    He offered no response, so she continued on and swiftly made use of the World¡¯s Echo and her other abilities to quickly travel towards the west, taking advantage of places where her attempt to connect the two places provided the most speed. In those regions where the path had already been clear or otherwise inefficient to take for one reason or another, like where she needed to pass through an incredibly small gap in a tall hill, she used her usual Aerial Platforms and the like to pass over it with far greater efficiency.


    With that, the fact that most planar beasts either couldn¡¯t perceive her or were too afraid to approach her, and her limited familiarity with the outskirts of the Ping District, she arrived at her destination before the sun got too close to setting.


    Rather than making it all the way to the Ping District, however, she ended up a short while away, for she detected energy that was known to her in the area, prompting further investigation.


    It was the energy of the Endless Dark, one that she was familiar with due to her meeting with an assassin from that organisation, eventually resulting in her obtaining the Aeon of the Endless Dark, among other things. She still recalled the person that she had first been forced to name, Fen Zhi, and how she had assisted the woman in breaking through to a stage of the third realm and obtaining the Third Eye elixir.


    None of the energy that she was able to detect seemed to belong to the woman as she remember her, whether she was to consider her planar energy or mental energy, but if the Endless Dark was present here, then she might also be in the area.


    ¡®Come to think of it, the spiritual perception that we had been refining was actually our spiritual will, so that safely confirms that it is possible to attain one of the mental energy types without needing to have another set of meridians, but it will not be sufficient to reach the second realm or beyond, since a complete set of meridians is simply necessary to attain it,¡¯ she recalled, hastening into the direction that the energy had travelled, ¡®I hope that the process hadn¡¯t gone wrong for her. Merging two types of spiritual will¡­ could end badly.¡¯


    Back then, she had a rather lacking understanding of spiritual will, as well as mental energy as a whole, which led to them simply seeking something to refine energy in the hopes that the black side of Fen Zhi¡¯s spiritual will was only some form of impurity or corruption. With her current knowledge, a quick thought allowed her to conclude that there was a high chance of the disparate mental energies present in the two strands of spiritual will to blend together, resulting in unexpected side effects.


    Some of them could be rather beneficial, but others had the chance of entirely ruining her mental state and identity, which was naturally not particularly ideal.


    ¡®Hopefully, she hasn¡¯t fallen back under the Endless Dark¡¯s master, and that this person isn¡¯t in the seventh realm or above. With sheer strength, I can overpower the aura of someone in the seventh realm, but when it comes to true combat, I am somewhat below that realm, especially without the aid of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye¡¯s influence,¡¯ she thought to herself, ¡®We¡¯ll see, I suppose.¡¯


    After a short while, she noticed that there were more traces of energy, as if someone had been fighting in the area, and after a while longer, she finally came across actual signs of battle. Some of the feeble trees that stood in the area had been knocked down and damaged, there were several obvious gashes in the ground, as if they had been cut through by an enormous blade, and one spot seemed to have been dug into, resulting in a two metre deep pit. Judging by the large quantity of planar energy sticking to the walls of the pit, it was unlikely to have come from someone ordinary digging for lost treasure, or something of the sort.


    Finally, after a little while longer, she finally met with the fighting forces ¨C or, rather, an assassin dressed in black was thrown right towards her, forcing her to flick a burst of air towards the flying body as to stop it mid-flight.


    She hadn¡¯t used much strength, but the sudden cessation of the figure¡¯s flight seemed to cause a shockwave throughout the battlefield, bringing the attention of both sides towards her. On one, a small number of people stood with weapons held with more force than was necessary, with most standing slightly behind one that radiated the energy of the fifth realm.


    Meanwhile, the forces on the other side were significantly larger, with their number easily being thrice as large as that of their foes, and at their back stood a figure robes in black, with black energy surrounding him and a black anchor standing behind him, covered in a black core and marks that were partially blackened as well, with only some searing embers marking the fact that they were the symbol of the fifth realm. There were forty-seven of them, and there were channels linking them to the anchor within the core.


    At the moment, both of these sides looked towards her, with neither recognising her.


    ¡°If you¡¯re not meant to be here, then get the fuck out!¡± the leading figure in the smaller group, whose voice and body were clearly feminine, shouted to her, her greatsword still raised and pointed towards her foes, ¡°Otherwise, go to one side and hope that I won¡¯t need to fuck you up!¡±


    The other side said nothing, with the attention of a few of them turning to her, so she made her stance known right away, ¡°Either one of you know Fen Zhi?¡±


    Not a moment after she said that name, the woman¡¯s eyes widened.


    ¡°¡­ Yi Wei?¡± she asked, her voice sounding nothing like it had at first, with her very posture and aura changing as the greatsword in her hand lowered a bit, ¡°Is that you?¡±

 V4C68: Taking Down the Assassins

    ¡°It is Wei Yi now, but yes. Fen Zhi, have you reached the fifth realm already?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I have! How about-¡±


    ¡°Not now. I shouldn¡¯t have started it while you¡¯re fighting that man,¡± the Ascendant stopped her, as she didn¡¯t want the other side to have any idea of her combat ability if they weren¡¯t already familiar with her exploits to some extent. For the moment, they were being allowed to speak freely, but if it was decided that they were worthwhile targets to attack, then something unexpected could occur before Wei Yi had the chance to stop it, ¡°Is he the master of the Endless Dark Assassins?¡±


    ¡°You know of me?¡± a voice came from the absolute darkness that was the man at the back of the larger group of assassins, with his voice sounding like it was merely the wind passing by their ears, ¡°Do I have you to thank for interfering with my actions?¡±


    ¡°That depends on what interference you mean. I have not done much to you, nor your Endless Dark, but you can be sure that this will change this very moment.¡±


    ¡°Do you think that you can defeat my assassins?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t need to do that. I only need to defeat you. Fen Zhi, could you and your allies take a few steps back?¡±


    The assassin¡¯s voice suddenly returned to its previous aggressive state, ¡°Wait, we are-¡±


    ¡°Not relevant. I am guessing that you don¡¯t want the rest of your fellow victims of that bastard to suffer, so I can end this quickly, then you can resolve their control with whatever methods you may have, or I could assist you there as well,¡± she said, looking to the master of the Endless Dark, ¡°As for you, I would advise you to surrender.¡±


    ¡°No. You may be in the fifth realm, but that is not enough.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re at the fifth realm already? I knew you could do it!¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Fen Zhi, but not now. Master of the Endless Dark, your cultivation is not one that can endure what I am about to do. As such, I will be kind ¨C far too kind to someone running an assassin organisation that functions by forcefully replacing and controlling their spiritual will with their own, thus erasing their identities and forcing them to obey all of your commands ¨C and give you a chance. Go on, refuse. I would be very pleased to see it.¡±


    The reason that she said those words was due to the insight that she was able to gain into the man¡¯s cultivation after a moment of observation. He had an impressive quantity of searing marks, a stable anchor, a sufficient core, but his planar energy was pitifully low in quantity, and his body was weak as well. If someone with the typical strength of an ordinary body cultivator, one without physique energy, came over and tapped his shoulder, he would likely crumple over. As such, she naturally wanted to confirm whether she could extend her power over Law to affect him, and thus she was making sure to make herself sound as powerful as possible.


    That way, anyone with a mind would be able to empower her Command of Law, as they would automatically assume her to be more powerful if she seemed to not care about a foe in the sixth realm.


    ¡°Assassins, take her down!¡± the man instructed, not caring for her threats.


    She shrugged, put her hands behind her back, and then looked at him with her mental energy concentrated within her eyes, causing them to glow with crimson and silver as she spoke, ¡°Fall.¡±


    Her words suddenly shook the world, and the figure of the Master of the Endless Dark suddenly collapsed onto the ground, letting out a gasp that was not affected by whatever communication technique he had previously made use of. His face smashed down onto the terrain, and while it did not seem to be greatly damaged, his leg clearly shattered due to the sudden collapse.


    Despite that, the Endless Dark assassins weren¡¯t affected, nor was there much reason for them to be, so in order to make freeing them as simple as possible, Wei Yi set up a few invisible barriers ahead of her and opened her mouth again.


    ¡°Cease.¡±


    The world itself flashed grey, the entire area around the Master of the Endless Dark withering. Leaves dried and crumbled to dust, trees broke apart, the ground itself turned to sand as the life drained from it, and the Master of the Endless Dark breathed his last breath. At the same time, Wei Yi was forced to suppress a large amount of blood from rising up her throat.


    ¡°Pause,¡± she instructed again, this time targeting the assassins chasing towards her.


    All of them froze right where they were, with some even stopping right in the air, their hearts, blood, and everything else ceasing to move.


    Meanwhile, the assassins on the other side, standing beside Fen Zhi, quickly hastened towards those that were frozen in mid-air and grabbed them, their spiritual will coursing into the Endless Dark assassins, but they quickly found that their energy failed to properly interact with it, as if they didn¡¯t exist. Of course, with the limitations of Law ¨C and the rapidly increasing quantity of blood attempting to escape Wei Yi¡¯s body ¨C there was only so long that she could maintain the restriction, and so, the moment that they were ready, she dispelled the effect of the Command of Law.


    The bodies of the assassins fell into the hands of their peers, who quickly took them away and continued with their methods. Although the Ascendant would have liked to observe and pay attention to it, she had to move part of her attention to the first assassin that she had gotten to know in her life, Yi Bai not included due to her accidentally obtaining the technique that she and Yi Fenwu had made use of.


    ¡°Yi Wei- no, Wei Yi, you¡¯re amazing!¡±


    ¡°Thank you, I suppose¡­ If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what exactly happened to that speech of yours? Have you had this much practise speaking, or have you managed to correct your body at the same time as your spiritual will?¡±


    ¡°That is the result of the Third Eye, as well as the work I¡¯d been doing. After I¡¯ve refined most of my spiritual will, I had felt a lot¡­ braver. That¡¯s one word for it.¡±


    ¡°It indeed is. I barely recognised you.¡±


    ¡°Hehe¡­ It suddenly became very fun to shout out curses and to swear at every little thing possible. I figured that since I haven¡¯t been talking much before, I should start out with what felt comfortable. A little time passed, and so I ended up telling people to fuck off, or that some people are cunts, or something like that¡­ After a while, I found that the people I was able to assist ended up being rather encouraged by this, so I couldn¡¯t really stop¡­¡± Fen Zhi said, being rather embarrassed when compared to someone who stood tall and proud like some kind of scholar, ¡°How about you? How did things go with your family?¡±


    ¡°Not too well, as you might be able to guess by my name. Don¡¯t worry about it, I¡¯ve resolved most of the significant problems and am not even living in the Yi District anymore,¡± she replied, ¡°By the way, I see you¡¯ve figured out a method to partially replicate the refining effect of the Third Eye in others, thus empowering their spiritual will and allowing it to overwhelm that of the late Master of the Endless Dark. Well done.¡±


    ¡°That was mostly my fellow assassins, but¡­ thank you. I hope my techniques proved useful.¡±


    ¡°They were, incredibly so. By the way, if we keep at this, we¡¯ll just be thanking one another over and over again, so I would recommend that we get somewhere else if we intend to do this. I¡¯m not sure if there¡¯s anyone that cares about the Master of the Endless Dark, but I¡¯d imagine that anyone intending to take advantage of their actions won¡¯t be too happy to see the Endless Dark being defeated by someone that had already caused a great deal of trouble to the Ping District,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing around with both spiritual perception and her sight.


    However, that action seemed to cause Fen Zhi to point at herself in confusion, after she had joined in the observation of their surroundings.


    ¡°I¡¯m not that famous yet, I¡¯ve only been causing trouble with the Endless Dark¡­¡±


    ¡°No, I am sure that you have done what you could where you could, but I meant myself. A short time ago, I had dealt with a large number of criminal organisations that decided to attack me, then fought with one of the guardians of the district, Ping Waqing. I didn¡¯t manage to beat him, but I still injured him despite only being at the third realm at the time.¡±


    ¡°¡­ That¡¯s fucking great! Congratulations! I¡¯d love to learn something from you this time, but I do think that you are right. Were you going to the Ping District, or should we go to one of our hideouts elsewhere?¡± Fen Zhi asked, pointing first towards the district, then towards the north, ¡°We¡¯ve got a place in the district that¡¯s safe for us, but in order to have a place to fall back to, we also set up a hideout near a small lake over there. It¡¯s safer, so that¡¯s where we were intending to go, but we could always head into the district if necessary.¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°I am not going to disturb you more than necessary, even if you appear to have everything under control already. Let¡¯s go to the lake.¡±


    The former assassin of the Endless Dark nodded and glanced to her fellow assassins, most of whom were forced to carry one of their previous peers on their back and in their arms in order for them to be able to carry everyone without needing to drag them on the ground. For whatever reason, none of them said a single thing, but they did nod to Fen Zhi once they were prepared to leave.


    At that point, Wei Yi and Fen Zhi departed, with the latter providing a small degree of guidance to the former in terms of the location of the hideout that they were making use of. With just a brief set of descriptions, the Ascendant was able to figure it out, recalling a region that she had run past when she was escaping from Ping Waqing. During her escape, she had leaned to the eastern side of the Ping District, and she had observed an area with a small cave that did not seem to be occupied back then.


    There was the possibility that they had been present in the cave before this, making use of some odd phenomenon that allowed them to avoid the spiritual perception of someone in the third realm, but that was unlikely simply due to the highest realm amongst the previous Endless Dark assassins being the fourth realm at that time. There are few methods that can avoid spiritual perception and also affect those that are more powerful than the user, hence why it is often assumed that anyone who cannot be properly observed through spiritual perception has to have some immense capabilities. This was, generally, true, although it was only absolutely accurate when it came to the otherworldly gifts, which always vastly surpassed the power of any realm of planar cultivation.


    That was one reason that some with some awareness of themselves preferred to avoid risking combat with Wei Yi when they didn¡¯t know the realm that she was in, and then charged at her with more intensity when her true realm was shown without the appropriate display of raw power. Surely, if she somehow stopped them from observing her body and realm, she must have something of value on her body that they could then obtain. Certain elixirs and physiques can achieve this, but the more time she spent around the common cultivator, the more it seemed that she was one of the few to consider this.


    ¡°So, could you explain the exact method that you use to purify their spiritual will?¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t too difficult, actually. Do you recall how I had two strands of spiritual will? It was that which had allowed me to free myself, as I was able to act with some independence from the Master of the Endless Dark, whose name I shall not mention so that the fucker won¡¯t even have the satisfaction of being remembered, and so I tried to provoke that in the others in such a way that the darker energy wouldn¡¯t grow as strong as it had in my case¡­¡± Fen Zhi was forced to pause to take a breath.


    She had attempted to say all of this in one go, but just as anyone else that had attempted to explain something without proper preparation might know, it is difficult to know just how long one might need to fully put forward their ideas. This was especially so after lacking the opportunity to speak about them to someone who was more than a convenient ally.


    Nevertheless, even if she was to stop talking right there and not continue, Wei Yi had a rough idea of what Fen Zhi had ended up accomplishing. With all of the time that she had made use of the Third Eye within her head, she had understood a significant degree of its structure, and had incorporated parts into her cultivation methods in order to best refine her energy. Although the former assassin of the Endless Dark had far fewer years to contemplate this, discovering one of the simplest factors about the Third Eye shouldn¡¯t be too difficult.


    The third eye was indeed a manifestation of an array, and it could be used to drive energy into refinement, or into a process of separation, wherein the impurities are simply removed. With the right application of one¡¯s own spiritual will, which could be externalised without requiring the second realm and above, it was possible to project a replica of the Third Eye array into another person, and to stabilise it via their own energy to allow them to make use of it.


    Although the exact method of this was a little more complex than it may sound, or perhaps it was even the other way around for those that preferred not to use arrays in their daily lives, but it was possible to attain, then replicate over and over again to separate the spiritual will of a cultivator into two distinct strands. Such a thing wouldn¡¯t allow for two individual lines of thought, as nice as such a thing would be, and would still require further action to refine one¡¯s own will to overpower that of another. Fortunately, with the death of the Master of the Endless Dark, the assassin bindings of the faction were no longer of any use, especially if there were no tokens for it as the Weavers of the Dark.


    ¡°Sorry, ran out of breath¡­ I don¡¯t mean to insult the others, but they don¡¯t talk much.¡±


    One of the former assassins of the Endless Dark that was carrying only one person with them turned to her and shrugged, turning right back the moment after.


    ¡°No, they don¡¯t seem to be. Have you made sure that their lungs, throat, vocal cords and so on are in good condition? With a cursory glance alone, I am able to notice several for whom breathing is difficult, and many more in the group that had not yet been freed from the assassin organisation¡¯s leader. You have checked that, right?¡±


    Fen Zhi nearly stumbled on the spot, instantly turning around and examining one of her followers.


    ¡°Wait, were you lot injured?¡± she gasped, tearing away the black fabric that covered the man¡¯s neck to reveal a large scar that covered half of it, standing out on his otherwise smooth dark skin, ¡°Shit, I hadn¡¯t thought about this at all! I got too caught up in all of the fighting¡­¡±


    ¡°Since they won¡¯t be able to say much to you, let me say this instead. I am able to heal such damage to a person¡¯s body, but I would appreciate it if you could at the very least make the decision to reside in my territory after you decide to vacate this hideout. We have a nice fortress by the name of Paragon where you can reside without being concerned about any assassin organisations or the like, and even have the constant support of several physique abilities acting upon you at once to reinforce your bodies, and energy,¡± Wei Yi spoke quickly, skipping over any unnecessary advertisement to get to the point.


    She didn¡¯t want to force these assassins to continue performing the tasks that had been forced onto them by the Master of the Endless Dark, but she did want to have some people on her side that were capable of quick and decisive action.


    With the large number of people living in Paragon that weren¡¯t originally more than the residents of a violent but not too excessive city like Beast¡¯s Rest, while she could count on them to be decent in a fight with killing intent and their current physiques, they would be unable to notice quite a few things that an assassin might pay attention to, and then act accordingly. In essence, she wanted to have an additional layer of security in Beast¡¯s Rest, and considering the way in which Fen Zhi was acting after everything she had been through, it did not appear that every assassin of the Endless Dark absolutely despised combat as a whole.


    Those that did could still live in the fortress and constitute a larger fighting force in the eyes of the world, so she wouldn¡¯t be losing out even if most of them swore never to fight again.


    She did also want to provide safety to the former assassins regardless of their decisions after arriving at Paragon, but having a multitude of reasons for her actions would hardly be detrimental to her position, and would help convince any of the assassins that were particularly reluctant to go with a stranger that appeared to be able to control the world with a single word.


    Indeed, it seemed like many found her rather suspicious, with most turning to Fen Zhi for an answer.


    ¡°Will you be able to do something here, or should we hurry to the hideout? Is this something that needs to be handled right away?¡±


    ¡°Ideally, we¡¯d have dealt with the injuries the moment that they occurred, but I suspect that they happened while you were away, so that wouldn¡¯t have been possible. Now, I will need to repair the skin, modify the inside of the body, and that will require all of you to focus as well, so unless you are able to perfectly gather your thoughts and recall the exact structure of the human neck in a perfectly functioning state, then assist me, I would advise going to the hideout,¡± she spoke quickly, not because they were in any actual rush ¨C the most recent scar appeared to be several weeks old, and wouldn¡¯t get any worse from a few minutes of waiting ¨C but due to the rapidly rising agitation within Fen Zhi¡¯s expression.


    It reminded her of her own behaviour when the assassin had taken an elixir to turn her bones to gold but was harmed greatly in the process due to the relative weakness of her body. Somehow, they had changed their mental states greatly since the last time they had seen one another, although it wasn¡¯t that much of a surprise considering quite how long it had been since then. A year for the assassin, and it has been more than twenty for Wei Yi.


    ¡°We should go to the hideout. Come on!¡±


    Some hours later, the former assassin and the Ascendant left the main chamber of the hideout together, with only the former being exhausted. It turned out that most of the injuries on the assassins were dealt cleanly enough, and were healed in such a manner that it was possible to undo them with only a cursory understanding of the internal structure of the human body.


    When the power of Law, someone in the fifth realm that could compete with the seventh, and a whole bunch of assassins that were very keen to get their voice back all got together, it was simple enough to undo their wounds. They weren¡¯t yet able to speak, as they had as little experience with it as Fen Zhi had, not to mention the fact that their rebuilt neck needed some time to fully set, but they were in good enough condition to take care of their rescued peers while their leader and her friend sat down in an adjacent chamber, shutting the door behind themselves.


    The moment that Fen Zhi dropped down onto a shabby stool that stood at the edge of the room, it was as if the excited light faded from her.


    ¡°Finally¡­ it is done¡­¡±


    ¡°I see your speech pattern didn¡¯t change that much after all. I figured, considering the constant strain on your throat that I noticed¡­ So, is the reason for this what I think it is, or is there something else going on?¡±


    ¡°Depends on what you are thinking¡­ With how dire things were¡­ with how few I¡¯ve been able to rescue before then¡­ Someone needed to stand tall and bold¡­ Since I was getting some new inclinations as a result of the merging wills¡­ I used them as an excuse¡­¡± the former assassin admitted, sighing, ¡°I would have liked to be stronger¡­ but it is difficult.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to tell me that. Have you heard of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, perchance?¡±


    ¡°¡­ No.¡±


    ¡°Shame, I would have thought I would have become a little more famous in a place like this, considering how much damage I had done. In the district, I still see a number of homes and walls that have clearly been cut in half, horizontally.¡±


    ¡°¡­ That was you? It¡­ is rather strange¡­ The accounts were rather¡­ divided¡­ is one way to put it. I heard far too many different theories¡­ I suppose that everyone else decided that¡­ to mention you¡­ they would empower you, in a way¡­¡± Fen Zhi said, looking at her for a while, ¡°With that knowledge¡­ and the Arbiters you mentioned¡­ If they¡¯re significant enough for the district to pay attention to you¡­ it might be that you are indeed far more fearsome with that knowledge.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, that might be one reason behind their actions. Frankly, I think that they should have just dealt with the assassin organisations and the countless criminal syndicates that have festered in the Ping District long ago, but perhaps there¡¯s less of a difference between them and the Ping family than they like to admit.¡±


    Long ago, the Ping family and the assassins that they had trained and used for their own goals had supposedly broken apart, resulting in a number of assassin organisations being exiled from the district while the Ping family did its best to look as innocent as possible. However, with the current state of the Ping District and the power that some of the assassins managed to amass, it was far more likely that the assassins were simply sent off to places where they could develop more easily than in the district, while the Ping family continued to support them and to foster any and all kinds of criminals that they could control. If the district was ever to be in serious danger, a number of organisations might run in to aid them despite seemingly having cut all ties with the district.


    If the other districts were to have had enough power and reason to go against the Ping District, like resources or something else of the sort that was, in reality, absent from the district, then it would have likely been captured and either claimed by one of the other districts, or given over to new leadership.


    ¡°Hm. Fen Zhi, I know that this might not be the best time, and rather sudden, but would you, or any of the Endless Dark assassins, be interested in helping me capture the Ping District?¡±


    ¡°¡­ That is sudden¡­ but I don¡¯t necessarily dislike the idea. Do you¡­ actually have a large enough force to be able to handle¡­ the Ping District?¡± Fen Zhi questioned, glancing in the direction of the district only to be met with the stone of the cave that they sat in, ¡°If it was possible¡­ to clear the district¡­ then I think that many of us¡­ might be keen to help¡­ although I wouldn¡¯t force it on any one of them¡­ they, no¡­ we all deserve a rest, I think.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t deny that. I do have a large enough force, in the form of two Patriarchs and a Matriarch at the seventh realm, three districts, one fortress full of people with impeccable physiques and techniques, as well as a bunch of people that are absolutely insane by one metric or another. I fought those in the sixth realm when I was in the third, one has lived for more than a million years, another is trying to cultivate two types of energy at once by creating an alternating pulse within her meridians, and that¡¯s hardly the most unusual thing someone¡¯s done amongst us. We can beat the Ping District, that much I am sure of,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°With the help of a few others, it might even be trivial.¡±


    The former assassin stared at a random point in space for a little while, occasionally stroking her chin, before she raised her head and looked into Wei Yi¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Again¡­ I won¡¯t say anything for the others¡­ but I think that I am in. I want the Ping District¡­ to be a place where I can live¡­ properly, without the constant threat of the thieves¡­ bandits, assassins¡­ the rest¡­ I would like to do something to improve the district¡­ even after everything that I¡¯ve done already¡­¡±


    ¡°In that case, the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters ¨C the Ascendant being me ¨C welcome you into our ranks. If you want, I can give you a whole list of various benefits, but I¡¯ll start out with a simple technique to help you along,¡± the Ascendant smiled, manifesting a thin piece of bark upon which her Ascendant¡¯s Disciple technique was carved, ¡°In honour of our last exchange of knowledge, here you go. As for the people outside¡­ You can come out. I can notice you even with your stealth methods.¡±


    Almost immediately, the door opened and a number of assassins practically spilled into the room, their dark energy hovering around their necks.


    ¡°We¡­ would¡­ also¡­ like¡­ to¡­ join.¡±


    ¡°I had told you not to speak because your neck hasn¡¯t fully stabilised yet, so don¡¯t try it. You can still write, and even if you just showed up and did nothing, I would vaguely understand the situation. Any one of you that feels the need to rush into combat to repay some debt, I¡¯d advise you not to do so, but as for the rest of you, I can provide you with a good opportunity to deal with a few bad elements of the Ping District.¡±

 V4C69: Encirclement, Part 1

    The night came, and the day came after, and the Ping District was mostly unaware of the events that occurred so near to them. All that they were able to learn was that one of their assassin organisations, the Endless Dark, suddenly lost its leader, while the assassins seemed to vanish from the district.


    To most that were aware of the Endless Dark being present near the Ping District, this wasn¡¯t that unusual. Assassin organisations came and went from the district, especially if they encountered a foe that required the efforts of more than one assassin, so for them to leave for a while wasn¡¯t odd. If they didn¡¯t return after a month, then they would have cause for suspicion and concern, mostly about the ways to recover the techniques of a fallen assassin organisation and prevent them from being targeted next.


    In the world of criminals and assassins, those who would care for their fellows were few for the simple reason that it was a very inefficient thing to do. Even with the typical preference to avoid interfering with the actions of other criminals unless it was advantageous for them, it was rare for two groups not to come into conflict with one another for any number of reasons.


    At that point, if one happened to be fond of the people on the other side, all it would mean is that the other group would have a much easier time obtaining whatever they desire out of that conflict. This was especially true when going against groups that owned brothels or other forms of such entertainment, as any of the prostitutes that one slept with could have easily been loyal to that group and thus willingly put themselves in such a place where the one that saw themselves as their lover would be forced to pick between their false relationship and their own allegiances. For whatever reason, there have been a number of known cases where the former was chosen, and it was one of the many reasons that Wei Yi avoided relationships. She didn¡¯t suspect those near her, but being put into a similar situation wouldn¡¯t be pleasant regardless of the reason behind it.


    Still, this wasn¡¯t a matter of the Ascendant, at least not yet, so far as the Ping District were aware. As such, they did nothing.


    Unbeknownst to them, a number of forces approached them from all sides. To the south and south west, countless soldiers equipped with talismans took their positions some distance from the walls of the district, hiding themselves from casual observations as they waited. To the north, towering figures with countless layers of immense muscle beneath their skin stood tall and proud, idly pretending that they were occupying themselves with hunting and feasting ¨C an action not unlike the Chao family¡¯s people. To the east, it was as if a sea of umbrellas and various covering advanced towards the Ping District, although all of them blended into the sands and desolate dirt of the northern regions.


    The only faction that had to not be seen, and that did not originate from the direction that they approached, were the people that gathered near the west. Their numbers were smallest, and their forces were the least cohesive in appearance or cultivation, but if someone was to understand their true abilities, there would be many reasons to deem them to be the greatest threat to the surrounded district.


    And yet, the people of the Ping District barely had a clue. Most of the scouts that would patrol the outskirts of the district only reported in every so often, so no-one noticed that one or two of them were a little quiet.


    When the sun was directly above them, they finally understood that something was amiss.


    Even then, it was not due to some failure on the part of the forces that surrounded the Ping District, but instead specifically due to their plans, as a large cosmic flare suddenly rose into the sky from the district itself. It came from the central region of the district, and immediately caught the attention of those that stood near them as it appeared to emerge from the air, without a single person being present to manifest such a flare.


    Some wanted to dismiss it as a mere coincidence, but that was when the phantom of an enormous anchor suddenly manifested from that flare, spreading out until the base was wide enough to cover the entire range of spiritual perception for someone in the seventh realm.


    All of the guardians hastened to the centre of the district, their energy readied to either destroy the manifestation of the strange five-sided anchor, or to claim it for their family if it turned out to be some kind of legendary treasure, and were thus in a similar position to the other residents of the Ping District when the sound of war horns pervaded the district.


    It came from all sides, deep and droning, and yet each side was also different. To the north, the sound was simple, yet powerful, clearly produced with powerful lungs. Over at the east, the horns sounded more subtle and quiet, and yet they pervaded the streets with far more intensity than the powerful northern horns. Then, at the south, anyone that had ever been to the Luo District wouldn¡¯t be surprised to learn that the sound was produced not by an actual horn, but by several sound talismans being activated at once, their resonating sound being quieter than what the Chao could produce, but significantly more violent, with several windows and glass objects shattering from the mere sound of it.


    Yet again, the west displayed the greatest deviation. Rather than a mass of horns, there was only one, but it was the loudest and most intense. In addition, the sound seemed to bring out the memories of the past in those that heard it, as if the very sound was imbued with the history of countless ages past.


    None of those affected could have known this, and so the only thing that they were able to see were vague shadows of things that no longer were around the residences and structures. Some of the buildings almost lined up, but others were entirely separate from the current layout of the district. The shapes were also vastly different, with most buildings being made entirely of wood, their rooves angled and their windows large, some vague figures on the inside that seemed to be observing the people of the modern day.


    Their gazes weren¡¯t locking onto any particular person or object, and yet it felt as if they were staring at everyone at once, even when they were looking away from anyone or anything.


    With this and the illusory anchor that towered over the district, the leader of the Ping District¡¯s guardians, Ping Waqing, had little choice but to make a few decisions quickly, before the forces on the outside as well as the strange manifestations of the past and the unknown within the district had the chance to act out whatever plan or intention they had.


    ¡°One of you should go to each side of the district. I will stay behind, as I am best equipped to handle the centre and least suited to handle the outside,¡± he commanded, the other four guardians quickly deciding amongst themselves who would go where. Some of them had places that they favoured, others didn¡¯t really care where they would end up, and soon they dispersed towards the edges of the district, with him remaining at the foot of the illusory anchor.


    He couldn¡¯t recall where he had last seen it, but the anchor was strangely familiar to him, even while the energy that it was made from appeared to be entirely unbound and lacking in realm, meaning that it was essentially only the natural energy of the world formed into a strange shape.


    ¡°What is this¡­¡±


    ¡°Want to know?¡± a voice from behind him instantly reminded him of exactly where he had previously seen the anchor, and heard the voice, and his whole body tensed as he reached out with his spiritual perception and sought out the source of both.


    To the north, Ping Zheng leapt onto the wall of the district and looked out, finding a legion of equally muscular and tall figures staring back at him. Just as he was a powerful warrior, wearing nothing above the waist and choosing to expose his liberally oiled muscles, almost everyone that he saw was in a very similar state. The energy of the legion looking back at him was radiating from them and uniting together into an enormous muscular figure akin to the biggest of the troops, with their eyes focused entirely upon the guardian.


    At the front was one of the few exceptions, a powerful yet clothed man that boldly displayed the energy of the seventh realm.


    ¡°Are you intending to attack us, Chao family? Do you understand what you are doing?¡± the guardian questioned, his voice being projected out by nothing but the sheer might of his internal muscles and organs, ¡°Are you attempting to break up the alliance of Yi City that has stood for a million years? Are you?¡±


    ¡°We will not destroy Yi City. We are keeping Yi City intact, and it is the Ping District that most endangers the combined forces of the districts!¡± the Chao Patriarch replied, rising into the air as a great mass of energy gathered beneath his feet, bringing the rest of his forced up with him, ¡°The northern districts are united, and we will stand against the likes of you, the district that has been a blight on the rest of Yi City for so long! The criminals and assassins were meant to have left your district!¡±


    ¡°Remove the thugs!¡± the crowd behind him, the numerous warriors equipped with everything from bows to enormous war hammers thrusting their weapons into the air with excitement obvious in their stances, ¡°Heal the Ping District!¡±


    ¡®Madmen, all of them. They¡¯ve not actually been riled up to this extent by that Ascendant alone, were they?¡¯ Ping Zheng wondered to himself, glancing back at the enormous anchor manifestation with worry rising in his heart, ¡°Since you wish to strike at us, then we will fight back! Guardians, let us take them-¡±


    He was forced to stop as blasts of energy suddenly shot up from the west, east and south, and his fellow guardians refused, or were unable to, listen to his request.


    Although he would refuse to admit it, this did cause him to tense up. As if it wouldn¡¯t have been obvious enough without the energy radiating from the man that was quickly rising to his height, he was facing a Patriarch with the loyal forces of his district behind him, while all that he had on his side was himself and a few of his direct subordinates, who he had asked to hurry to his position as quickly as possible. Even in the best case scenario, that would equate to a dozen Linked Channels realm experts against one in the Oblivion Halo realm and a swarm of those in the sixth, fifth and fourth realms, with their sheer numbers allowing them to stand up against the twelve or thirteen that Ping Zheng would be able to muster.


    ¡®That¡¯s without mentioning their allegiances¡­ Some of them may just attempt to flee, so long as the other parts of the district are under less pressure¡­¡¯ he frowned, bringing out a great length of bronze chain that he wrapped around his arm, glaring at the Chao District¡¯s forces.


    If he needed to fight, he would do so at his full strength.


    Ping Liu Yang barely made it onto the walls before she was accosted by a sudden storm of humanoid planar constructs, all of which were constructed by large squads of Bai soldiers that stood a fair distance from the walls of the Ping District, preventing anyone from easily retaliating while their planar constructs were still manifested.


    While their numbers may not have been as impressive as if they had rushed in personally, the safety of using a planar construct to wage war meant that they didn¡¯t need to have a single care for the bodies they were making use of. Where a normal soldier might attempt to find a weakness in the walls or in the defences of their enemies, the Bai District¡¯s troops were able to simply rush at them and strike at the walls with all of their might, all while some of their constructs jumped atop them and rushed at the fair maiden that attempted to stop their approach.


    The guardian, Ping Liu Yang, quickly realised that even though she couldn¡¯t sense any forces in the seventh realm, she was faced with more than seven planar constructs whose power was in the sixth realm. In order for her to have any chance at survival, she naturally had to unleash everything she had all at once, from the very beginning, and hope that the other guardians would be able to assist her the moment that they resolved the threat on their side.


    ¡°Invaders! I shall be your foe!¡± she exclaimed, unfurling a red ribbon that looked rather ordinary, without any ornamentation or even much of a planar current flowing through it.


    Her weapon of choice also looked to be only two metres long at best, so when she grasped one end and swung at the planar constructs that were rushing towards her, some might think her to be mad to do so while they were still more than twice that distance away.


    Those people would, in turn, be quickly reminded that anything that a guardian of a district and a figure in the sixth realm uses as their weapon of choice would be unlikely to be entirely ordinary. While it was true that the most powerful could make use of the air itself as a sword far superior to any that could be forged within the Planar Continents, only a master that surpassed the very notion of a physical weapon would ever be at a disadvantage with a powerful blade in hand, as well as a layer of armour to protect themselves.


    The ribbon flew through the air as an ordinary ribbon might, at first, but a few moments prior to it entirely missing her foes, it suddenly stretched out and seemed to grow rigid, as if it turned from cloth to a sharpened blade. With a flash of crimson, the ribbon shot through the approaching planar constructs, instantly severing them in half as the ribbon returned to a more ordinary length.


    It did retain its new state, as it remained hard and rigid, resembling a bloodied sword.


    With it, Ping Liu Yang slashed at the reforming planar constructs, meeting their strikes with the side of the hardened ribbon while piercing through them with ease.


    The guardian to rush to the south was Ping Yin Wu, a figure taller and more imposing than most of the Chao District¡¯s men. She wielded an enormous axe in one hand, which she readied the moment that she saw what the south was being attacked by.


    Countless figures of all realms between the second and sixth stood some distance from the walls, having travelled between the nearest points of the Luo and Ping Districts while carrying enormous bags on their backs. Whether they were in the second or sixth realm, those bags were not heavy in the ordinary sense, but the power that they contained made them equally challenging and important to carry regardless of their physical prowess and identity. It was from these bags that they removed the first talismans that they had prepared, then threw them at the walls.


    As soon as they left their hands, the talismans transformed into a litany of energies and colours that besieged the walls, crashing into them, exploding by them, freezing them, cutting into their weaker points, and even seeming to only lightly brush past them. Weapons, natural phenomena and abstracts given form were all used, and while their intrinsic discrepancies gave them no benefit of natural resonance, the moment that they crossed an invisible threshold before the district, their power seemed to vastly amplify. Most were unable to see the source of this sudden development, but some keen eyes did notice a thin thread stretching out from the flying talismans to the distant mirage of an anchor, one that grabbed the attention of all when it first appeared.


    ¡°You cowards! Come and fight me if you dare!¡± Ping Yin Wu shouted out, being forced to leap away from the barrage if she didn¡¯t want to waste her energy simply on resisting the onslaught of talismans.


    However, the attackers paid her no heed and continued on, advancing by a step as they threw out even more yellowed papers with all kinds of symbols written upon them, with the uses of some completely eluding even those that that hauled them all the way to the assault on the Ping District. All that they could be sure of was that they had offensive use, so they threw them all the same.


    After one series of talismans, the walls were still holding up, having been prepared for attacks far worse than this one, but as the second set fell upon them, the stones were shaken greatly. Amongst the used talismans, there were those that eroded stone, that dispersed powerful connections between objects, those that disrupted planar energy and even those specifically intended to breach such defences, cutting a thin hole into the stone and the defensive measures within to quickly damage their operation.


    It was clear that, with enough time, the walls would fall, so Ping Yin Wu was forced to advance despite her own preferences.


    She waited for the Luo District¡¯s forces to reach into their bags for another volley of talismans, then leapt from the walls, her mere jump causing a sound wave to burst out from her position and knock into the Luo cultivators. For those in the second realm, it may have been difficult to deal with such a thing, but the moment prior to a collision, a hidden talisman beneath their robes ignited, pushing back against the wave with an equal strength, causing both to disperse.


    Those talismans did nothing against the beast of a woman herself, who landed at the front lines and swung the great axe with all of her might, not caring for the person she was slashing at or what their reasons for being present were. In her eyes, every single one of them was a foe deserving death.


    When Ping Mu jumped onto the western wall, he had already prepared his fists and had stretched out his legs in preparation for inevitable conflict. Although some saw him as dim in comparison to the wiser minds of the Ping District, he had a sufficient understanding of battle to know that when their foe announced their intentions with such vigour, they would be coming prepared and with a great deal of might, if at all. In this case, when he saw who stood on the other side of the wall, he almost doubted whether he was right.


    Rather than an army or a Patriarch, both of which were fearsome enough in their own right, what he saw was a small squad of people, all of whom looked to belong to different families and to make use of very different methods in combat.


    The hair of one shifted as if each strand was a tendril of a greater organism, the body of another looked to be demonic in nature, while a third, the one standing at the front of the group, seemed to act in a very strange manner. Each of her movements was very rhythmic, as if she was following some unseen and unheard beat, her every breath being synchronised with it.


    Strangest of all, at least in Ping Mu¡¯s mind, was that she was only in the fourth realm, albeit at its peak.


    ¡®Is this some kind of distraction? Are the real forces attacking the north, east and south while they are used as bait to draw away as much attention as possible?¡¯ he tried to understand the plans of his enemies while the woman with red hair and eyes, the one practically pulsing to an unheard rhythm, drew closer, ¡®No, that could be their intention as well. The others will or will not be able to hold on for a few minutes no matter what I do, so I should take these women out first and rush to Ping Liu Yang when I¡¯m done¡­ Right the battle! Don¡¯t blame me, strange woman, but I simply can¡¯t let you approach any closer!¡¯


    Ping Mu leapt down from the wall decisively, his fist aimed directly at the woman¡¯s face. The quicker that he damaged her appearance, the sooner he would be able to ignore the appeal of her beauty, allowing him to dedicate all of his focus on the fight.


    Naturally, being a master of the sixth realm, he used artefact gauntlets and boots, and further supplemented his physical might with the absolute power of a planar construct, which also formed into a great first that would smash down alongside his own, landing their attacks at the same time and hopefully taking the woman out before she had a chance to try anything.


    It should have been easy. The fourth realm was nothing against the sixth, in the vast majority of cases.


    And yet, still in time with the unseen and unheard pulse, the pale woman woman suddenly threw a punch at him, one that did not seem to harness any complex principles nor made use of any extreme techniques. A blood-like surge of light exploded from her fist, soaring towards him, the centre seeming to head towards his fist as if it wished to compare itself to him. In the eyes of the guardian, this was amusing enough to risk having his clothes muddied by some trick of his opponent.


    The crimson struck him with little force, but he instantly felt his planar construct becoming weaker as the crimson enveloped it, wrapping in a thin film around the construct fist before seeming to vanish from sight. In addition, some kind of immense pressure came from inside the Ping District, causing his body and energy to weaken at the same time, practically dragging his effective realm down to the peak of the fifth in just a few moments. Even then, that should have been enough for his punch to have sufficient strength behind it to knock the woman out, but the weak pulse of crimson was unexpectedly followed by an immense flood of silver and golden light.


    It was at the peak of power that one should be able to achieve in the fourth realm, but it also had a strange imbued strength that raised it higher, something that was then made even more significant when the same property of the illusory anchor towering above the Ping District that had weakened Ping Mu affected the woman as well. The guardian was about to rejoice before he had the sudden realisation that this did not weaken the power of the pale woman, but instead raised it just far enough for it to be equivalent to the first stage of the fifth realm.


    In other words, through that empowerment and his own weakened state, he was facing an opponent of equal realm.


    The blast of metallic light struck him and greatly dulled his speed, causing him to land on the ground a few steps away from the woman he was initially targeting. Before he could take even a single breath, the woman was already attacking again, and he suddenly realised that this movement was also in accordance with the unheard beat, with the first pulse of crimson and the burst of silver and gold that followed almost immediately acting akin to the twinned beats of a heart.


    At that point, he finally probed the woman with his spiritual perception, finding that he simply couldn¡¯t beat her to the ground with naught but his raw strength. If there was something within her that he couldn¡¯t see but that could allow him to best her, he would be a fool not to take the opportunity to find it.


    ¡®What the¡­ her meridians are pulsing with her heartbeat, and through them¡­¡¯ Ping Mu gasped.


    No matter how he looked at it, this was absolutely ludicrous, and yet he saw two distinct strands of energy that constantly travelled through the woman¡¯s meridians, never coming into direct contact with one another and taking different paths whenever possible. Each time that her heart beat, her energy coursed through her meridians, her body also moved in accordance with the energy, resulting in the strange rhythm that he had observed when she had been approaching him. When she struck out, the crimson thread of energy within her shot out first, releasing a small clump that was quickly recovered within the body, and the planar energy followed next.


    This alone caused a minor magnification effect that was further empowered by some property of the crimson energy, allowing her attacks to be of sufficient danger to Ping Wu, and it seemed that her heartbeat was slowly accelerating.


    In other words, her movement sped up too, and where the first few strikes were easy enough to observe, the ones that came after became progressively more and more difficult to handle. The closest thing that he could compare this to would be someone learning a combat technique on the spot, progressing from a beginner in the Initial Accomplishment stage all the way to Full Success in mere minutes ¨C and she might not even stop there.


    ¡®Just what has decided to attack our Ping District?¡¯


    ¡°You! You attack us again?¡± Ping Waqing shouted, in part in sheer aggression as well as to catch the attention of any allies that might be standing near him, but he found that only Wei Yi¡¯s attention was on him. The rest of his forces, as well as the people of the Ping District, were staring up into the sky, onto the enormous anchor manifestation.


    ¡°Of course. Did you think that nobody would be interested in taking down such a den of assholes and scumbags like the Ping District? The Chao District was for the idea, as was the Luo and Bai Districts. Even the assassins that you had used were keen to take you down, although it would be more fair to say that they were the ones with the most righteous reason. Your Ping family had forgotten what it had promised to do, and I, for one, believe that you should really pay for those crimes. However, I am not like the Greats in this regard,¡± Wei Yi stated, waving to the other people of the district, ¡°I will not arbitrarily kill those who have nothing to do with the problem. It is only you, your guardians, and the Patriarch that has actively kept the district in its terrible state. Only you and the factions you have fostered need to die.¡±


    Ping Waqing clenched his teeth and unleashed a series of fist planar constructs, instantly using his full strength as to guarantee that he would take her out as soon as possible, and even when he felt an energy emanating from her that weakened every part of him, he pressed on with the attack.


    It had only been a month and a few days since he had last seen her, to the point that most of his injuries from the fight have yet to recover fully, so he was convinced that no matter what she did, he would still be able to defeat her so long as she wasn¡¯t given the opportunity to repeat the kinds of techniques that she had made use of the last time that they had opposed one another. At best, she would have attained a few more stages in this time, which would still make him far superior to her.


    For that reason, when she just raised her head to look at the flying fists and casually spoke, he was stunned into inaction.


    ¡°Disperse,¡± Wei Yi ordered, her voice causing the quiver of chains in the air as all of the flying fist constructs were suddenly caught by them, their stable structures shaking and cracking in mere breaths, their shape and power rapidly draining away.


    The stable energy of the sixth realm, even if it was lowered to the strength of the peak of the fifth, should have been able to endure far more than a single word from a young woman, and yet they fell apart before they could even get near to her. Although the Ascendant did have to suppress a tremor that passed through her body, as well as evaporating the blood that was drawn within her, she was still in a far better shape than she should have been.


    ¡°What realm are you in?¡± Ping Waqing questioned the moment that he was able to move once more.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you like to know? Here, let me show you exactly how strong I am now,¡± she replied with a smile, quietly wiping a drop of blood that escaped from her mouth with the back of her hand, ¡°You¡¯d be able to identify my cultivation with a breakthrough, wouldn¡¯t you?¡±


    She thrust her left hand into the air, a vast amount of energy surging out as the anchor behind the guardian suddenly solidified, then crystallised, breaking apart until only the base and peak were whole. A vast sphere surrounded the entire district, warding off intrusion from the outside, and upon it eleven marks that blazed with crimson light shone through on either side.

 V4C70: Encirclement, Part 2

    Ping Zheng¡¯s chain was caught by Chao Dongtai, whose clawed hands easily held onto the red-hot metal. Meanwhile, the Chao Patriarch appeared beside the guardian and struck his face with a simple punch, breaching the layers of defence that he had manifested around him during the battle.


    The strike used only the barest amount of energy necessary, and yet it was empowered by the ethereal anchor in the district while the guardian himself was brought down to the lowest he had been in many years, meaning that the power of the strike was even greater than any attack that Ping Zheng would have been able to manifest against another foe. His skull and jaw barely remained in place, but cracks spread through the bones while his consciousness momentarily vanished as his body was unable to endure the sheer force of the punch.


    As soon as his grip on his weapon was no longer supported with a conscious use of planar energy, it was torn out of his hands by one of the other guardians of the Chao District. The Patriarch, meanwhile, struck at the man¡¯s abdomen and dispersed Ping Zheng¡¯s cultivation, handing him over to a different guardian of his district so that he would have free reign to do as he wished.


    At that moment, the ethereal anchor in the distance suddenly solidified, as had been planned, prompting the Chao Patriarch to turn to his men and exclaim, ¡°Rush into the district!¡±


    The ground beneath them had already been raised by the cultivators of the Chao District, and so they were able to rush onto the walls and over them without too much difficulty. Just before the enormous core solidified and crystallised around them, the army of the northern district made their way inside, and soon they were locked in with the rest of the district¡¯s people. Unlike others in the area, however, they knew exactly what to do next, as they and the other attacking forces were fully prepared for the exact outcome that they were currently experiencing.


    With one guardian defeated, they now needed to handle everything that was occurring within the district, like all of the thugs, bandits, thieves and assassin groups that were residing within it. As they worked on the north, the others would obviously handle the other parts of the district.


    At the east, the wall was broken into with Ping Liu Yang as the primary siege weapon, and the many planar constructs and the soldiers that were manifesting them were the primary source of the force that pushed her through, even detonating some of their construct soldiers in order to provide enough force against the defences.


    They did this just in time for the core to surround the district, with the wall effectively shutting behind them as they rearranged their legions inside of the Ping District.


    Obviously, their foe wasn¡¯t going to remain still, and the moment that she had the chance to influence her forceful flight into the district and into the pile of rubble that had been formed after the collision between her and the wall, she ensured that she would land on her feet. Her ribbon blade was still in her hand, albeit in a poor state and being kept there mostly by the planar energy linking it and her hand, as her fingers lacked the strength that they would have needed to hold onto the weapon for as long as she did.


    She tried to raise her head, finding her neck struggling to hold it up. Blood flowed down her face, covering half of her vision in crimson, while the other side of her face was obscured with the black hair of the Ping family. If not for her spiritual perception, she would barely have a clue of where she was, as her nose was blocked by blood or one of the many impacts she had sustained, her ears only delivered her a constant ringing that barely brought across the situation occurring around her, and her whole body felt numb, to the point that someone could grab her neck and she might still fail to notice. For someone in the sixth realm, it felt like a massive insult.


    There was little that could be done about it, however, as what little she was able to perceive in her current state made it very clear that her foes were rushing at her with their full strength, if not more than that due to the empowerment of the strange anchor that had formed in the district.


    What she wasn¡¯t able to perceive ¨C both due to lacking practise and a general lack of attention on it ¨C were their words, which were spoken in a relaxed manner and completely unlike the words that someone in a tense battle might share with one another. The majority of soldiers were quiet as they focused on keeping up their resonance, but the few lone warriors, including the Bai Patriarch, were more than ready to speak up whenever they wanted.


    ¡°Do you think we should spare this one?¡± one of the generals asked the Bai Patriarch, readying two techniques for either reply.


    ¡°What for? What do you even mean by that?¡± the Bai Patriarch asked back.


    ¡°The Ascendant is fond of women, from what I hear. Maybe she¡¯d like a prisoner from the battle, rather than a disabled woman with little life left in her,¡± that general answered, keeping those techniques readied and aimed at Ping Liu Yang, adjusting for even the slightest motion that she made as she attempted to attain stable footing and a proper view of the surrounding troops.


    One¡¯s cultivation was the source of their lifespan, and once it was dispersed, the lifespan that one had would rapidly decrease. The longer one had lived with the benefit of their cultivation, the more quickly they would suffer and the weaker they would become in the end, eventually decaying into dust if they were a million years old and had managed to remain in a relatively youthful state due to a quick ascent through the realms of cultivation. As a result, anyone whose cultivation was scattered and whose dantian was destroyed would naturally be weakened and would decay physically, with the most unfortunate cases leading to mental harm as well.


    For most people, reaching the sixth realm required a minimum of sixty years of their life in total, from the first to the sixth realm, although the far more common time was one hundred and above. As Ping Liu Yang appeared to be no older than forty when looking at her appearance, the gap between her true age and physical age would cause far more damage than if someone like Wei Yi lost their cultivation and was forced to confront their true age.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that the Ascendant approves of enslavement,¡± the Bai Patriarch said curtly.


    ¡°No need for that. She can be captured to just look pretty, or something like that,¡± the general tried again, ¡°I¡¯ve also heard that she favours women with larger breasts, so this one might be just right in her eyes.¡±


    ¡°General¡­ are you attempting to obtain favour with her?¡± the Patriarch asked, his eyebrow rising in a displeased manner, ¡°Fine, capture her, but as a prisoner! Don¡¯t try anything stupid!¡±


    ¡°How many talismans do you fuckers have?¡± Ping Yin Wu cried out as she ran from another tidal wave of yellowed papers, all of which finally broke down the wall and forced her to retreat a short distance into the district to avoid their activations and, in the majority of cases, some kinds of explosions. ¡°You¡¯re insane!¡±


    ¡°Keep at it, people of the Luo District!¡± Luo Na instructed, glancing up at the crystallizing anchor that overlooked them all, ¡°Rush inside and clear out the filth!¡±


    The guardian of the Ping District had no time to consider whether that was intended to refer to her or to anyone else, as she had little choice but to swat away the weakest talismans that approached while having no choice but to flee the strongest. In direct close combat, her immense physical prowess and the mighty axe that she carried with her might have been of some use, but now both seemed to only slow her down in her attempts to evade the constant barrage. If not for the natural properties of the Planar Continents, causing all materials to recover one way or another, such a flood of talismans would have drained all of the necessary items for the rest of all eternity from the face of the continents.


    That, and the talismans could be stored for many decades without decaying, especially those that were made of high-grade talisman paper. With materials measuring more than five stars, as well as the energy of a powerful cultivator infusing a high-grade ink, a talisman can last for longer than the talisman creator, especially if the creator was to be slain in battle while the talisman was preserved in a perfect environment to maintain it.


    Some of the yellowed papers that were being flung at Ping Yin Wu right now were many decades old, and some of their creators were no longer present in the world of the living to witness their creations.


    ¡®I can¡¯t keep going like this¡­ The district¡¯s sealed, there is at least one major force assaulting us, and I am facing some girl in the seventh realm. The only good thing is that she hasn¡¯t flung any techniques my way yet, although that is also the case for every other Luo warrior,¡¯ the guardian thought to herself, steeling herself as she turned to the weakest of the guardians that accompanied the Luo Matriarch, ¡®If this is where I am going to be defeated, then I must at the very least take one of their guardians with me!¡¯


    Again, she waited for a wave of talismans to fly past before she roared with all of her might and used her full strength to practically vanish from the spot, appearing beside Luo Ru Qiu and swinging down at him with everything that she had.


    Her axe radiated with immense power, flames wrapping around the outside of the axe while the inside seemed to fill with a dark fluid that shimmered beneath the rays of the sun that were able to breach the core that now surrounded the Ping District. As it descended, it caused space itself to shimmer, although it could hardly penetrate the stable space of the Planar Continents, and even the minor disruptions that it did produce were rapidly corrected by heaven¡¯s will.


    With the roar that she had produced prior to her attack, her opponent was not caught off guard by the attack, meeting it with the famous flames of the Luo family. The bright blue fire that Luo Ru Qiu produced was further elevated past his current fourth stage, bringing his combat prowess all the way up to the sixth stage at the very least, but his opponent was forced down from the strength of the fifth stage to that of the second at best. In ordinary circumstances, their battle might have been a close one, requiring significant strategy and luck on the part of one to win over the other, but now, the gap between stages made itself apparent.


    A single burst of flame was able to force the empowered axe to cease in the air, and the second that quickly followed engulfed Ping Yin Wu¡¯s chest, shredding through her tough muscle and forcing her back by a dozen steps.


    ¡°Ru Qiu,¡± Luo Na asked, her intention obvious from the talisman in her hand.


    ¡°I can take her down alone. Fighting in this state should make it easier for me to break through in the future, so I am not going to throw away the opportunity. Thank you, Matriarch,¡± Luo Ru Qiu replied as he rushed at the Ping District¡¯s guardian with all of his power, displaying the full prowess of his blue flames.


    The other guardians, as well as their Matriarch, lingered there for only a moment before spreading out across the southern portion of the Ping District, seeking out the foes that they had come to deal with. There were plenty of opponents for them to face, but there would be even more in both number and strength if they did nothing and allowed them to congregate and find ways to overcome their current handicap, so even the laziest among the Luo District¡¯s troops wasn¡¯t keen to stand around and let the Ascendant take care of things.


    All of a sudden, Ping Wu was forced to leap away from what would have likely been a powerful strike against his foes, as countless tendrils seemed to manifest beneath his feet. He had no idea where they came from, or what their purpose was, but he wouldn¡¯t allow himself to be caught by them easily.


    In place of attacking him, Long Huang¡¯s twin pulses of crimson and metal struck the wall, finally causing it to cave in after the damage that Jia Rong had already inflicted upon it, and allowing the small number of warriors accompanying her to enter the district before the dome of the marked core could descend behind them and seal off their ability to enter. Although it might have seemed coincidental, the Arbiters knew that the plan had to take into account the actions of all of the other groups as well, meaning that it must have been carefully calculated to ensure that none of the groups would be caught outside of the district.


    With the Ascendant¡¯s Endless Calculation, this wasn¡¯t an impossible feat, especially not with seventh realm mental energy boosting every single one of her mental processes, but what it did show quite clearly was that she had a sufficient understanding of the warriors on each side, whether they were for or against the current Ping District.


    Ping Wu didn¡¯t know that, but he was becoming more and more worried with each moment. The red-haired woman was bad enough, but the demoness had strength that was fitting for someone in his realm, and the woman with hair akin to tentacles was clearly also capable of far more than she currently did. They were only three women in lower realms than he was, and yet he was struggling more and more as each one looked to be growing stronger with each breath they took.


    In the case of Jia Rong, that was almost literal. Right before the guardian¡¯s eyes, her cultivation had risen all the way to the ninth stage of Planar Pool, and when that was combined with her unusual strength, he was almost convinced that she was actually rising to the seventh or even eighth realm right there and then. It was absurd, and yet if he knew the truth, he might be even more shocked despite the lower gap between stages and realms at the lower realms of cultivation. To simply advance from stage to stage in the middle of battle was simply unheard of.


    ¡°You are mad!¡± Ping Waqing cried out, tossing fist construct after fist construct with one hand while his other removed a sabre from his belt.


    All of the fist planar constructs that had posed a significant threat to Wei Yi during their first battle were now almost trivial to deal with, and she had more than enough options when it came to doing so. If she wanted, she could stop them all with the power of Law, although she would need to tone down her command to something that only weakened the fists, or that destabilised them without outright stopping or destroying them to avoid internal injuries. She could also strike them all out of the air, using the raw force of her physique energy, or allow her bloodline power to wash over them and weaken them to the point of the attacks being utterly insignificant.


    On the topic of bloodline power, just as her planar cultivation was effectively reaching a boiling point, so was her physique and bloodline power, causing her body to be surrounded by the radiance of all of them at once. Dawn and moonlight, the cosmic crimson of her bloodline, and the chained cosmos of her planar energy surrounded her in a strange yet cohesive layer of light, making her look ethereal.


    ¡°I¡¯d say the same about your Ping District. So many people acting as thieves and thugs that extort money from others can¡¯t possibly result in a healthy economy. Does anyone even make money normally in the Ping District, or is it always stolen from one person to another?¡± Wei Yi asked calmly, looking up as she saw a series of eleven more marks slowly being cut into the core projected from within her dantian, ¡°How do you lot survive here with such a state of things?¡±


    ¡°This is none of your business! The Patriarch will end your intrusion the moment that he is able to, so cease-¡±


    ¡°Let him try. The Luo, Bai and Chao Districts would like to have a word with him, as would I,¡± the Ascendant interrupted him, ¡°Still, since you are trying to push responsibility onto someone else, you are clearly not powerful enough to do anything, are you? Do you only have the fists, or have you stolen a few techniques from the other people of the district as well? Show them all to me, so that I can put you down once and for all, and finally begin the reconstruction of Yi City without the plague of the Ping family¡¯s criminal deeds.¡±


    The guardian wanted to say more, but as he saw even more energy surrounding her, with some seeming to wrap around invisible chains that flooded the space around her, he knew that if he was to ever have a chance at beating her, he would need to strike now. Her breakthrough might be unusual, but any breakthrough put the cultivator in a vulnerable position, while the outcome was always positive for the people of the Western Continent. Those who practised the techniques of the Daoist Continent would need to face tribulations, but those of the west would, at worst, reach a half-step stage, at which point the advantage that Wei Yi already possessed would only grow larger.


    She already had eleven marks, and could still break through a stage, meaning that she had to have received more than one per stage, and the slow manifestations of marks above them seemed to suggest that another eleven would appear after the breakthrough. This much in the hands of a capable combatant ¨C which Ping Waqing did consider Wei Yi to be ¨C was more than enough to turn any tide.


    With the sabre in hand, the guardian rushed forth, manifesting two dozen more planar fist constructs in order to provide himself with some further assistance that his warriors were unable to provide as their attention on the enormous anchor and the core that enveloped the district only increased with each passing moment. If Ping Waqing was to obtain knowledge that he couldn¡¯t know from standing in the middle of the district and fighting her, he would have been aware that the more successful the combined intruding forces were, the more powerful the Law that currently pulled attention to the anchor and core would become, and the more powerful everyone in the field of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye would be.


    The best thing to do would be to act against the invaders, warding them off to weaken the power of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye and to decrease the strength of Law, but he felt that he had no choice but to rush at her with everything he had.


    He was right about one thing ¨C Wei Yi couldn¡¯t personally strike out with as much force as she usually might, as that would have negative effects on her breakthrough and could lead to a lot of effort being wasted on correcting the damage that some mistake in the process could cause. Something external, like the Dao of Law, however, was entirely unaffected by this limitation, and so she naturally had something that she could easily manifest against her foe.


    As the Ping District¡¯s guardian charged, a looming figure rose from behind the Ascendant, with four outstretched hands that each contained a force of their own, although they were tinted by the power of Obliteration. The Titanic Conqueror needed only a moment to stabilise, and was immediately ready to throw out chunks of ice, banners to further weaken the guardian, large masses of noxious toxin and the runes to further amplify the danger of remaining near the ground. It did so readily, instantly obscuring Wei Yi behind the onslaught of all kinds of projectiles and dangers.


    Ping Waqing desperately attempted to evade, dodging to the sides each time anything neared him, but as he found out the moment that one of the toxin spheres crashed into the ground beside him, most of the attacks were dangerous even if one merely stood in their vicinity.


    As he stood in the range of a banner, he felt his body slow down just enough to throw him off, causing him to stand right next to the point of impact for an enormous sphere of green poison. Just as one might expect from a great mass of fluid, it exploded in a great shower of noxious green, coating half of his body in the substance that rapidly ate through the bronze-like defensive layer that covered him. He wanted to throw it off of him in order to prevent his skin and flesh being burned off, but his momentary pause only gave him enough time to be struck by an enormous chunk of ice that threw him all the way back to the puddle of toxin.


    He fell onto his back, the green melting rapidly through his robes, but what he noticed far more quickly was the bright righteous light shining from beneath him, intertwined with the blackened crimson of Obliteration. It rapidly rose and grew in power, with a secondary circle appearing within the square he currently occupied.


    In just one moment, his life flashed before his eyes.


    Everything from the first moment that he had in his memory to the current moment passed through his mind, including the random games that he had played with fellow children at a young age, before he had much care or knowledge of cultivation, to the first time he had won a fight via the techniques bestowed unto him by his family, and even a casual trip to a merchant that he had remembered as a result of something that he happened to oversee as a result, was brought to the forefront after years of dismissing it and pushing it to the back of his mind.


    There was a lot for him to contemplate about it, but one question floated ahead of all of these thoughts ¨C was everything he had done so far really worth it?


    From everything he had concluded in the past, that question shouldn¡¯t have needed any contemplation, but all of a sudden he found himself questioning whether some of the viler acts that he had committed had truly achieved what he had wished them to. For example, the criminal powers that he had consistently encouraged within the district in just the same way as his predecessors had done so much, and they seem to have earned the ire of the other districts. Was that the right choice?


    On one hand, it had kept the Ping District a powerful force for a long time, so if the Ascendant hadn¡¯t gathered powerful forces to strike at them, the district may have remained in power in the region for plenty of time.


    It could have allowed plenty of generations to keep their power, and it would have been sufficient for the many assassin organisations to potentially hold their own against either the Arbiters or the Greats, depending on the kind of stance that they would have portrayed to the outside world. In fact, they may even be able to resort to their usual methods and turn the war between the factions into something beneficial to them, allowing them to profit from the battles of the opposing parties while also maintaining the peace, or possibly even advancing their power by essentially offering their protection to districts most affected by the battles.


    For the people he cared about, including the remnants of his immediate family and some of his close friends, the power that he holds meant a far better life, not to mention the greater length of their lifespan due to the cultivation that they were able to do with less time wasted on other matters and more resources at their disposal. So far as he was concerned, that should have been the perfect outcome. His family was powerful, his immediate family and friends were in strong positions in the district, and they were able to get whatever they wanted easily enough.


    However, the words of the Ascendant seemed to force themselves into that view. Indeed, the streets of the Ping District were rife with crime. For each alleyway and street, there were a dozen gangs and thieving organisations attempting to profit from travellers and residents, and businesses had to constantly pay up if they wished to remain in their place.


    Perhaps that was part of the reason that so many weren¡¯t looking upon his struggle against Wei Yi at this moment. They may simply be uninterested in any chance of his success, and would only turn around the instant that he lost in order to congratulate his foe. After everything that they had been forced to endure under the Ping family, it may only be natural for them to seek the aid of another, even if they are an unknown force from another district that had barely been able to survive the last time.


    Had he been in their place, he wasn¡¯t sure that he would act any differently.


    That was the most difficult thing for his to accept, and yet it was also the most obvious one. Whatever he had ended up accomplishing, he had done so without a single care for the district and the people that lived within it. At the time, it seemed like the only path.


    It was a lie, and he knew that well. There were other things he could have done, other things he could have encouraged the other guardians and the Patriarch to do, and countless actions that he could have taken to improve the Ping District to heights that even the Master of Yi City would have been impressed to witness in the golden days of Yi City. Countless opportunities had laid at his feet thanks to his status and power, and he may have been one of the few that would receive the power to make them, and yet he had thrown every single one of them away as if they were some kind of lethal toxin to him.


    As if response to his understanding, a figure appeared before him, cloaked in radiance and surrounded by chains. It looked upon him, raising a gavel into the air with a neutral gaze.


    ¡°I judge you¡­¡± a voice that was both familiar and unknown entered his mind, ¡°Unworthy!¡±


    In an instant, reality returned to his vision, and he found himself enveloped by the righteous light of the rune beneath him. With the absolute power that it possessed within the manifestation of the core above them, it tore right through his weak and injured body, obliterating his cultivation, shredding bones, and turning him to naught.


    Only a moment after his soul was extinguished, a figure burst out of the ground, their body surrounded by blackened flame that completely obscured their physical features. All that could be seen was their energy, and that energy was undeniably in the seventh realm, being at least in the second stage while radiating enough power to match someone in the third or fourth stage of Oblivion Halo. With his realm and cultivation technique, there was only one reasonable guess to be made in regard to his identity, prompting the Ascendant to smile nervously.


    ¡°Ping Patriarch. Good day.¡±

 V4C71: Encirclement, Part 3

    The Chao Patriarch pried the chain from the hands of Ping Zheng, whose body now lay on the ground with barely any energy remaining within it.


    He wasn¡¯t dead yet, but that wouldn¡¯t be the case for long, as his organs were spilling out onto the street and his energy was rapidly dispersing, while there wasn¡¯t a single person in the vicinity that cared to assist him. All of his soldiers were already taken out by others in the Chao District¡¯s army, and the forces that were spread out across the Ping District would also be taken care of soon enough. Since he wasn¡¯t a woman, nor a particularly feminine man, none of the Chao soldiers had the idea of bringing him as some kind of offering to the Ascendant, so none would take the time to stop his bleeding.


    Even the Patriarch of the Chao District only bothered to approach his body to remove the valuables from his body, intending to bring some of them back to benefit his district after the battle was over and time could be dedicated to the matter.


    ¡°Good chain,¡± was likely the last thing that Ping Zheng would hear as the Patriarch stepped away from him and stored away the chain. He headed over to one of the invading squads, but he suddenly stopped when his spiritual perception caught something passing near to him with a basic stealth method to obscure them.


    It was a poor attempt, so the moment that these figures neared a wall through which it would be easy to break through without unnecessary endangering others, he punched in the wall¡¯s direction.


    He hardly needed to use any of his strength to cause the bricks to collapse inwards, falling right onto a small group that had been attempting to rush past him on the other side of the wall. As the Patriarch had shown some restraint, while the bricks did collide with some force, they only pushed a few of them back and left some minor injuries in the worst of cases, which was particularly impressive as the strongest amongst them was only in the fourth realm.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± the Chao Patriarch asked right away, manifesting a boundary around them to prevent their escape, ¡°If you aren¡¯t part of the district¡¯s forces, why are you sneaking around so close to invaders?¡±


    ¡°We¡­ we are a group that had been attempting to defeat the gangs!¡± one of the figures in the third realm, one with blue hair and a weak appearance, replied after a moment, ¡°We¡¯d been trying to make use of the momentum generated by that woman that had cut the district in half, but before we could get far, your forces appeared. We didn¡¯t want to get involved, so¡­¡±


    ¡°That woman?¡± asked the Patriarch, looking to one of the others in that group.


    ¡°Someone in a black outfit, with a jade mask and brown hair, according to Lan Rongqi,¡± another answered, although they still pointed towards the blue-haired man that had spoken first, ¡°She beat up Ping Waqing before running off, but she also cut through every structure and wall in the district.¡±


    ¡°Every wall¡­ Ah, that must have been Wei Yi. She had been here before, after all,¡± the Chao Patriarch muttered to himself, addressing the small group next, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be wandering around like this. You will be held here by some of my men, and once the battle is over, we may release you to go wherever you like. Throw down your weapons and we won¡¯t even need to restrain you while you¡¯re under watch.¡±


    Before a figure in the seventh realm that commanded a large army, even if they had any problems with this, they had little chance to argue. All of them readily threw down what little weaponry they carried and did nothing as some of the Chao District¡¯s warriors came over and surrounded them, primarily standing at the exits from their current position in a former alleyway.


    The Chao Patriarch stood around them for a little while, making sure that none of them were going to try anything, then departed to another part of the district where his presence would be more useful, leaving the group alone with the Chao soldiers, both of whom looked towards one another with a casual degree of scrutiny. The small group that had sought to change the district were being careful with the soldiers as to be sure that they didn¡¯t make enemies with a faction that could be worse than the ones they were replacing, while the soldiers naturally needed to confirm that these revolutionaries wouldn¡¯t try to fight against them in the same way as they supposedly fought against the Ping District and family.


    As such, they ended up staring at one another for quite some time, achieving little, but remaining somewhat tense the whole way through.


    The walls of a large, dark room hidden behind a number of homes and other walls in a natural manner were broken down with a single burst of power from the planar constructs being operated by the Bai family. Inside, the gang that had been gathering there in an attempt at a tactical discussion quickly tried to scatter, but the few soldier constructs that did enter were more than sufficient to block their exits and force them to remain.


    One figure that could do nothing was a man of impressively excessive weight that had sat near the front of the room, who desperately cried out to his subordinates to rescue him from this predicament that all of them were stuck in.


    His people obviously had trust and faith in him and his actions, although seeing him like this made the flames of both flicker in their hearts. He might have seemed to be wise prior to this, but now that he was in a true emergency, they couldn¡¯t help but conclude that he might be nothing more than a child that has yet to grow up mentally, having succeeded up to this point due to capable subordinates, a lack of pressure upon him, as well as some commendable luck. That would have sounded like a passing fancy some time prior, but as they thought about it more, it seemed to make more sense with every moment.


    This sudden contemplation did lead to them simply standing still while the Bai captured them.


    ¡°What are you doing? Fight back, you idiots!¡± the overweight man cried out once again before finally being silenced by an incapacitation technique of one of the Bai family¡¯s soldiers.


    The incapability of the man to put up even the smallest degree of resistance caused the warriors to simultaneously question this figures capability, as well as his status in the faction that they had just intruded upon. By the looks of him, as well as the commands that he gave, he should have been someone with power, and yet he did not do a single thing.


    ¡°Was that supposed to be the leader?¡± one of the independent troops asked, with the other legions shrugging, ¡°He was in the fourth realm, but didn¡¯t do a single thing¡­ Do you think he is some kind of distraction?¡±


    ¡°No, he¡¯s actually their leader!¡± one of the cowering figures in the second realm, a woman that seemed to have been present for entertainment purposes if her scarce clothing was to be of any indication, suddenly stood up and addressed the warriors, her hands rising into the air a moment later when one of the squads raised their weapons and glared at her, ¡°They¡¯ve been following everything that he¡¯d said, or, rather, everything that he agreed to after his advisors suggested it to him, thinking that he was testing them.¡±


    The Bai District¡¯s general turned to this woman, ¡°Since you¡¯re sharing this much, identify yourself.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m from a group that had been trying to lower the amount of crime in the district. We¡­ had limited success,¡± she admitted while lowering her head, her shame seeming to return to her as she covered up her breasts with one arm. Her clothing was minimal and partly transparent, so with the many eyes upon her, a number of things that she might not have wanted to be exposed could have been seen. ¡°I had blended it with this lot, but I didn¡¯t have the time to do much.¡±


    ¡°I knew it! She was a¡­ right¡­ we can¡¯t do anything now¡­ I still knew it!¡± one of the restrained men cried out before also being knocked out.


    For a few moments, the Bai general looked this woman up and down. With each moment that passed, she was both more nervous and ashamed of the state in which she had presented herself to the soldiers, causing her cheeks and ears to slowly become more and more red, with that redness spreading even to her shoulders.


    After a while, she looked to be near to breaking into tears, so the general waited for just a moment longer and then, with a sigh, looked away.


    ¡°Bring her out of here and write down everything else that she knows. After that, keep her safe somewhere,¡± the man instructed, his troops quickly following his instructions and getting the woman out of there the moment that they found her something else to cover herself with. While some of the other similarly dressed women in the room had tried to claim a similar status, every single one of them cowed the moment that the general stared upon them for a few moments, admitting their faults and explaining that they were simply attempting to obtain some resources and power and found that the incapacitated leader was easiest to ingratiate themselves with.


    They allowed themselves to be restrained and taken away to be imprisoned, although some of them weren¡¯t treated too well when they attempted to repeat the same trick with the warriors. Obviously, none of the soldiers would tolerate such a thing, but they did restrain themselves from doing much damage. So far as they were concerned while these women weren¡¯t the best people out there, their actions were understandable and they had likely resulted in little actual harm to the district, if any.


    This was not the case for the rest of the people in that room. Unlike those that simply sought to obtain a sufficiently good life for themselves, most of the people in this gang were interested in actively committing the very crimes that had harmed and infuriated so many people in the past, including the Ascendant herself. If they were simply going to let them go after the invasion, regardless of who was then selected to lead the Ping District, then they would either be able to return to the same criminal ways that they were currently on, or disperse to other districts and make them worse as a result. Given that all three invading forces were neighbours of the Ping District, this was not something that they could accept.


    Obviously, the easiest solution was to get rid of them forever.


    The blue flames wielded by Luo Ru Qiu collided with the energy that was akin to water covered in fire, used by Ping Yin Wu, but while the latter had only her weapon to attempt to repel her foe, the former still had access to countless hundreds of talismans made specifically for the purpose of this invasion, as well as saved up for other emergencies. Some were made with his own energy, but others weren¡¯t, allowing him to throw out whatever he wished to confound his foe at any time, which was especially easy with talismans of other elements.


    If the muscular woman prepared to deal with fire, he could always switch to an earth-type talisman to muddy her attempt, and if she brought out the full might of the flame coating her axe, then producing a metal or water-type talisman was also incredibly easy.


    The five great arts weren¡¯t necessary the easiest path to take, and they would rarely surpass the power of a cultivator focused purely on combat techniques with nothing but their craft, but their biggest advantage was the ability to prepare. Whether one worked with talismans, arrays, inscriptions, artefacts or pills, all of them could be made in advance, then unleashed at once against a fearsome foe, sometimes without much of a cost while the enemy would need to use their own energy to resist.


    Through preparation alone, someone in the first realm could, in theory, oppose those in the seventh realm even if they had the most ordinary techniques, the weakest sense of combat tactics, and the poorest planning imaginable, and even that wasn¡¯t the full extent of a well placed array or an appropriately used talisman. No, the true power came from the unity of spontaneous methods like combat techniques and the prepared great art, or arts, of choice. On their own, they had their own strength and weaknesses, but when used together, lacking pools of planar energy could be refilled with pills, attacks could be blocked with shielding talismans, an array could transform a region into one more suitable for one of the combatants while disadvantaging the other one, one inscription could provide just the right burst of force when necessary to knock an opponent off their feet, and an artefact filled with one¡¯s energy could be used to strike the foe down once and for all.


    Aside from the sheer utility of the great arts, this was why the masters of the great arts held so much value and power in the eyes of the people of the Planar Continents. Any one great arts master could completely change the course of a war so long as they had been given the time to prepare the items that they were able to produce, and this was especially true when they were both capable in their great art and had a powerful cultivation. Throwing around six-star talismans while using sixth realm energy, for instance, made Luo Ru Qiu significantly more dangerous to Ping Yin Wu, effectively putting him up to the level of a peak sixth realm combatant even before the anchor¡¯s empowerment was considered.


    With such an advantage, every moment led to another minor defeat for the Ping District¡¯s guardian, and after only a short battle, Ping Yin Wu was on the ground, her wounds bleeding and her breath short, while Luo Ru Qiu was standing tall and strong, with many talismans remaining and plenty of planar energy in his dantian.


    ¡°There¡­ Matriarch, what should be done with her?¡± he asked after catching his breath.


    ¡°The Ascendant doesn¡¯t need any of them alive. Kill her and put the body somewhere that she will be able to take whatever necessary from it, then move to assist the fifth group. We have much to do.¡±


    Thinking that he might obtain some advantage by targeting the demonic woman while she had not yet reached the third realm, he had lunged at her with an immense degree of force only to be struck directly in the head with a clawed hand, the sheer force of it crushing his skull and instantly ending his life.


    Just like that, a second realm figure ended the life of someone in the sixth, although Jia Rong was someone who was over a million years old, so her strength could hardly be compared to anyone else in her realm. With the strange power that came with that length of lifespan, as well as the technique that she seemed to have acquired during this time, it was even less fair to compare her to a typical Planar Pool cultivator, although the late Ping Wu hardly could have known about that and was thus entirely right to presume her to have some weakness.


    He wasn¡¯t wrong to assume this, either. The moment that his blood splashed onto Jia Rong, she froze, the violent light in her eyes vanishing as she looked upon the hot crimson that landed on her red skin.


    ¡°Ah¡­ I killed someone else¡­ again¡­ Mo Zhouquan, could you help?¡±


    The corrupted woman nodded, her eyes slightly dull as she was focusing on keeping the voices at bay. She raised her hand and brought out a small quantity of her dark energy, surrounding the demonic woman¡¯s hand and eagerly devouring the blood that marked her body. With the innate resistance that Jia Rong had to planar energy and the things that it manifested, there was little chance of harming her in the process, so Mo Zhouquan didn¡¯t hold back.


    Just a moment after she began, she was able to withdraw her energy and reveal the pristine demonic skin of the woman of the past.


    ¡°You could have left some for me¡­¡± Long Huang muttered, her hand involuntarily reaching for the choker on her neck as she spoke. A moment later, she had realised what she had been doing, but it was too late as her partner, Mo Zhouquan, had already noticed it.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure why you wouldn¡¯t be able to use the blood that¡¯s still in him, but you hadn¡¯t asked,¡± the corrupted woman replied, ¡°You¡¯ll be fine, right?¡±


    The red-haired woman might have had some complaints, but she was obviously the one to blame for failing to inform a scared demoness and a woman whose mind was operating more slowly than usual due to the mutterings of something ranging from a phantom to the one and only Primordial Corruption about her needs and intentions. As such, she didn¡¯t bother arguing and nodded, practically slapping her hand away as it seemed to reach for her choker once again. Fortunately for her, the slight blush that resulted from that action was not caught by the other two.


    Great Dark walked up to the corpse and looked over it, muttering something to himself for a few breaths before he raised his head and said, ¡°I am not as expert on distinguishing these things as either Long Huang or Wei Yi¡­ but it seems like there is something of note for both you and her in here¡­ Don¡¯t damage the body unnecessarily.¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to do something like that¡­¡± Long Huang huffed, although she was glad to have something else to shift her attention to, ¡°This man has a stronger bloodline than most, but it isn¡¯t too noteworthy. Either way, there¡¯s no reason to destroy it.¡±


    Having received her confirmation, Great Dark nodded and shifted the body to the edge of the street before looking out towards the enormous anchor and the core, his gaze freezing for a moment on the latter as the second set of searing marks were stabilised and another set seemed to begin forming within the individual portions of the core. Altogether, these added up to thirty-three searing marks, matching the number of marks that some of the weaker cultivators might have by the peak of their realm. That was impressive, especially considering the fact that she was only rising to the second stage of Marked Core, but what concerned him was the fact that another powerful force appeared near her location.


    He frowned but sighed a moment after. There was little that he could do in this situation, so he had to hasten to perform his part in today¡¯s plan.


    ¡°Good day? You dare to say good day after what you have done? Do you fail to understand what your actions have led to? Those armies of yours have already torn apart so many years of work and development, and now, even if you are slain, torn apart and fed to the masses, you will have still impacted our progress!¡± the Ping Patriarch shouted, his voice amplified by his planar energy.


    Wei Yi smiled, ¡°Are you trying to make me feel happier? This is exactly what I was trying to achieve.¡±


    ¡°You truly are a bitch, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Again with the name-calling. For whatever reason, the likes of you seem rather keen to find arbitrary insults to use against me, rather than taking even a moment to figure out what I have supposedly done wrong. Go on, tell me ¨C what did I ruin for you? Why is that something that I should have left alone? Will you really tell me that the countless wrongs you have committed have led to an overall right? You know, you¡¯re even talking to someone that would be most likely to agree with you, considering my own stance, so you have a reasonable shot here!¡± the Ascendant grinned, both her and her Titanic Conqueror holding out their hands as if to invite him to give it a shot.


    The reason for her smile was that she saw no way for him to justify himself, especially when he began with trying to accuse her of misdeeds rather than answering the very cause of her attack. Had he believed that he was doing good for the Ping District and Yi City as a whole, he would have attempted to persuade her that she was mistaken in her attack, and that she should turn around before it was too late.


    Of course, the loss of one of his guardians might have changed his intentions slightly, but Ping Waqing was only in the first realm of Linked Channels, so assisting someone else to reach the sixth realm wouldn¡¯t have been too difficult.


    Indeed, while the Ping Patriarch huffed, he did not reply to her inquiry, ¡°Enough of your attempts to delay. Die!¡±


    He didn¡¯t delay even a little bit after exclaiming, the darkness surrounding him moving a breath before he did, with both rushing at her with immense speed. They did, however, split up quickly, and soon two separate figures were flying towards her, one resembling a large cloud of darkness while the other was tightly surrounded by a thin black layer to obscure his exact appearance and identity.


    As he attacked, Wei Yi did not stand still. The initial stage breakthrough had been achieved, meaning that she now had twenty-two searing marks to work with, and her perfected stage would come soon and grant her another eleven searing marks while requiring far less stability to pass it smoothly. She had far more freedom to act than when she was dealing with Ping Waqing, and so she made use of that immediately, sending the Titanic Conqueror back while she amplified her own physical strength with her cosmic energy and punched out with both hands at once, directing the force of her strikes at the twin figures. Those pulses of force shot out of her palms, amplified by the principles of the various techniques she had collected, and caused space itself to tremble just a little.


    In one moment, they collided with the figures, darkness seeming to strike the light that descended through the core that currently surrounded the district. Being nothing more than force, the two pulses were easier to disperse than a solid and living human being, but that did not stop the secondary figure from being highly destabilised, the cloud of darkness turning into more of a mist as it attempted to recover.


    With a roar, the Ping Patriarch himself vanished from the spot and appeared beside her, a great spike of darkness manifesting before his hand as he thrust it into her chest.


    However, as it should have pierced her flesh, the Patriarch found that it had just barely reached the tip of her outstretched finger. Somehow, she stood two metres from where she should have been and had reduced the potential of that strike to doing little more than lightly injuring an index finger, an injury that could be ignored or healed in an instant.


    Due to the technique he used, the Ascendant found that her skin and flesh were struggling to put themselves together even with the physique and planar cultivation realms she possessed, so she chose the former option as she directed the Titanic Conqueror to strike.


    Since it had been preparing ever since the Ping Patriarch appeared, it acted immediately, placing its four hands together to unite their four spheres of Obliteration into a single mass from which a boundless force emerged, a blackened crimson beam surging out into the sky, flying all the way up to the enormous core and lingering there for a short while as her energy built up. In an instant, empowered by a searing mark, that beam surpassed any of her previous Obliteration bombardments, and yet the Patriarch was powerless to stop it as she also struck out, a large needle appearing out of her House of Gold as she stabbed at him.


    Her Piercing Needle was inconspicuous enough to potentially pass as a relatively ordinary weapon in the eyes of someone with weaker spiritual perception, but before the divine sense of the seventh realm there was no chance of being fooled. The Patriarch instantly understood that evasion would be key, so he leapt up to make some distance between the two of them.


    Before he could get far, the Titanic Conqueror had already returned to its typical activity and threw out a series of runes of both types onto the ground where the Ping Patriarch would have landed, with a few orbs of toxins and enormous chunks of ice being thrown around that position in order to make things even more difficult for the man and his shade, which was barely resembling a human once again after several lengthy moments of reconstruction.


    ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it!¡± he exclaimed, stopping in mid-air with the power of the seventh realm, leaping further up to avoid the rune explosions, ¡°Insolent!¡±


    With a wave of his hand, the ground beneath the district suddenly seemed to ignite, countless lines and symbols shining through the ground and plunging the district into darkness the moment after when their light turned to darkness. Within that darkness, a large mass of smoke surged from various points, and immediately rushed to the Patriarch as soon as the darkness claimed enough of the district to allow it to reach him. Each one travelled through the air like a serpent, slithering back and forth, ignoring the few shards of ice thrown at them by the Titanic Conqueror in a blatant display of their seeming invulnerability.


    Although Wei Yi attempted a number of other methods to stop the serpents of smoke while her Titanic Conqueror prepared and guided the Obliteration energy that had pooled in the sky, none proved to be able to stop them from massing around the Patriarch¡¯s body.


    He had already been obscured by his own energy, and with the smoke, it was impossible to see any of his features without something as powerful as divine sense or the Ascendant¡¯s spiritual perception. What could be detected even more easily than before was his energy, which seemed to grow in power more and more with every serpent that latched onto his form and the smoke serpent cloud, with his effective power rising from the second stage ¨C when unaffected by the various physique powers and Laws that Wei Yi had instituted within the Ping District in order to grant her side a great bonus and vastly raise the chances of success ¨C to the fourth, then fifth and even sixth, climbing to what appeared to be the peak of the sixth stage¡¯s condition before stopping at the very brink of advancement.


    ¡°I will teach you your lesson, dog!¡±


    ¡®Well¡­ at least he is consistent.¡¯

 V4C72: Encirclement, Part 4

    The four sides of the district lit up only moments after the darkness began to flood them, with the strongest part of each force providing their assistance in the matter.


    To the north, the Chao Patriarch and his strongest warriors used their energy to burn at the shadow. Over at the east, the Bai District¡¯s troops collectively made use of techniques for the exploration of abysses, with the Patriarch contributing power to all of them to increase the resulting effectiveness of their techniques. At the south, the Luo family¡¯s forces liberally threw out their talismans to light up their surroundings and to prevent any of the gangs they were attacking from escaping at the opportune moment. While the east lacked anyone in the seventh realm, the individuals present were odd enough as they were, and so Great Dark could produce an inscription of sufficient power while the others relied on their own unusual means to keep the light in their proximity.


    Some of the groups had caught sight of the smoke serpents that had wormed their way over to the Ping Patriarch, others hadn¡¯t, but all of them knew that this was a unique method of the Ping District and their ruling family. It was meant to be used in emergencies, with some such methods only ever having one or two uses, but now was most certainly a suitable time for such a thing.


    The Patriarchs of the three invading districts, as well as the small forces over at the east, didn¡¯t rush off to help right away. They couldn¡¯t be sure of the exact power of the Ping Patriarch at this moment, as the darkness also had obscuring effects even on their divine sense, but they were aware that such a thing had been expected. Before running off, they needed to complete their tasks at their respective invasion points, and only then would it be safe and helpful to their overall plan to take over the Ping District.


    As such, they urged their groups to hurry up and to deal with various prisoners and enemies more efficiently, then proceeded to do so themselves.


    ¡°Witness the Ping District¡¯s foundation!¡± the Ping Patriarch exclaimed for a moment as he seemed to be getting used to the power that he had acquired, ¡°I shall be benevolent ¨C one chance to submit and admit your crimes.¡±


    ¡°Do fuck right off, Ping Patriarch. Before you, I might as well be a saint,¡± Wei Yi replied.


    The Patriarch snorted, then rose a little further into the air as the smoke around it manifested into a humanoid shape, wrapping tightly around his body as it appeared to replicate it on a larger scale, surrounding the seventh realm cultivator in an additional layer of defence while also providing more scale and mass to the various attacks that he could make use of.


    Against most foes of the modern world, such a thing would have been incredibly unnecessary, but when facing someone like the Ascendant, it would have been foolish not to guarantee success.


    Still, Wei Yi smiled when she got a look at the final result of this transformation of smoke.


    She hadn¡¯t been driven mad by the towering replica of the Ping Patriarch, within which the Patriarch resided, but she was able to see a number of flaws within this amalgamation of energy, ranging from those on a fundamental level to those that couldn¡¯t have been foreseen. The more obvious one was that the individual serpents creating this smoke monster were still partly separated, meaning that the overall stability of the figure was lower as a result, although even that was less fundamental than the nature of the smoke entity itself.


    It was a huge figure, and that meant that even the most precise and masterful usage of it would leave one with less room to manoeuvre and far more room to be struck and damaged without the proper ability to retaliate.


    ¡®I think I can take this on even more easily than the Patriarch in his usual state. The empowerment of the smoke is the only thing that concerns me, as it doesn¡¯t seem likely that this is the only thing that he can do with it,¡¯ she thought, glancing up to find that her pool of Obliteration energy and the searing marks above were still visible, but only barely, ¡®The larger size is going to allow me to hit him more easily, so I should be able to prioritise evading anything he can throw at me without needing to pay as much attention to my aiming. If he can throw out those smoke serpents, then that might require more than just evasion, but the rest might be affected by my Dao of Law and pose little threat as a result.¡¯


    Even with the aura on her finger preventing her from healing it as quickly, that wound was already closing up, so the worst that she could expect from the strengthened smoke and darkness was an effect with doubled strength. That much could still be overcome, with a searing mark if absolutely necessary, and wouldn¡¯t do much while she was still able to circulate her energy.


    In fact, the lengthy state of injury would only contribute to the perpetual development permitted by her cosmic energy.


    Before the humanoid mass of smoke could advance upon her, with the other mass of darkness still remaining free to act on its own, Wei Yi manifested and threw out a dark sun, the darkness that it created quickly merging with the shadow manifested by the array beneath the ground, causing both to blend into one while still remaining a threat. The black sun was not similar in nature to the shadow, but that was not something known to the strongest figure in the Ping District at this moment.


    So long as the Ping Patriarch was certain that the black sun had the same power as his own secret method, the Conqueror¡¯s Eye would amplify it appropriately. Even if it didn¡¯t have the ability to add on the dark power that he believed it to have without requiring the invocation of the power of Law at a significant level, the sheer improvement to the speed of growth and the total energy encapsulated within the black sun would be more than sufficient to put enough pressure on the Patriarch to achieve that which she wanted.


    Indeed, the moment that the sheer draining force of the black sun appeared, the enormous figure retreated once again, waving its arms as countless small wisps of smoke fell away from it and flew away from him, heading around the current radius of the black sun¡¯s effect.


    These wisps initially looked to be meaningless, but the moment that they headed far enough away from the black sun as to not be swallowed up, they accelerated and turned back around to fly towards the Ascendant, twisting into smaller serpents that coiled within the air and glared at their target with white eyes that stood out on their dark bodies, even through the absolute shadow that enveloped the central portion of the district.


    Since they kept flying right at her even after she took a few steps back, she was able to confirm that this wasn¡¯t something that would be dodged by simple repositioning, so she called for the Obliteration pool above them to fall down while she rushed forward, seeming to run right into the black sun before her.


    Just as she was about to come into the dangerous region around the black sun, she made use of her fourth realm movement method to bypass the space and energy around the mass of all-consuming energy, appearing on the other side and promptly leaping right towards the towering figure of the shadow that covered the Ping Patriarch. In her hands, she gathered a vast quantity of flaming phoenix energy that she wrapped around the killing will claws of her left hand and the star metal gauntlet on her right, and as she neared the figure, she slashed down with both hands, the flames stuck to them erupting out in the form of an enormous phoenix.


    With the power of the fifth realm behind the combat art of the Scorching Blades, a group of assassin that were incredibly powerful in comparison to some of the weaker organisations due to their imitations of the dragons and their features, as well as the crystallised and vastly superior state of her cosmic energy, it was able to manifest the full force that the Draconic Claws in the Phoenix Transformation state were meant to possess.


    The phoenix slammed into the shadow figure and struck at it with its own claws, the force of her own claw strikes being further amplified by the manifestation of the ancient beast, cutting into the layer of smoke with a blaze forcing open the gashes in the physical manifestation of the district¡¯s power.


    ¡°Cease your insolence!¡± the Ping Patriarch exclaimed, punching the enormous phoenix with a fist covered in the same energy that he had previously used against the Ascendant.


    It pierced right through the flaming construct, tearing it to shreds, but the energy that it had been composed of remained, crashing onto his body and wrapping around the smoke of the towering figure, concentrating around the claw marks and using it to further spread and grow on his body flooded with smoke. The fire consuming smoke looked odd, but that did nothing to stop it from being incredibly effective, the smoke being eaten through more quickly than the large serpents could emerge from the array on the ground.


    On that topic, while she did wish to tear through the smoke in one go, ruin the array on the ground, and take him down before he had the chance to damage anything that would be better off undamaged and intact, it seemed that this was not something within her current ability due to the array rapidly recovering everything that she did, while her casual placement of the black sun had yet to overpower the array, meaning that the only thing she could count on for now was the Obliteration beam.


    That beam descended the moment that the phoenix was unleashed from her claws. She dodged away the moment that she could, throwing all six of the bone dice that she had on her to throw out her vast killing will at him without needing to be in his immediate proximity.


    Her Obliteration energy wouldn¡¯t be as effective against her, but it would still be unnecessarily painful.


    ¡°Hey, Ping Patriarch, how many battles have you personally participated in?¡± she called out, in order to catch some part of his attention and distract it from the descending beam and the incoming dice, ¡°All of your combat techniques appear to be rusty and weak, and you clearly seem to be lacking the proper practise necessary to fight against someone that is able to stand up to you in terms of their cultivation.¡±


    The Patriarch did not appear to be phased, seeing and swatting the artefacts away with a single powerful slap. It was a powerful strike, and it easily overwhelmed the rough artefacts that had been produced without the typical necessary powers and experiences to produce anything beyond a vaguely mid-tier artefact, although it was neither equivalent to low-tier or mid-tier artefacts in truth. Against someone in the seventh realm, empowered by the district¡¯s shadowy array, an item being pushed to the brink by her incredibly powerful energy coursing through every channel within it, the Beast¡¯s Dice were shattered into small pieces of black bone.


    That didn¡¯t stop the killing will from bursting out towards him, piercing the smoke and shooting into the Ping Patriarch¡¯s arms and body, bypassing the robes on his body and the layer of darkness that he had attempted to hide his identity with.


    ¡°You bitch-¡±


    His words were interrupted in an instant by a scorching beam of blackened crimson falling down upon him, completely devouring the enormous smoke figure and obscuring it from the Ascendant, who took a few further steps back in order to prepare a few more techniques while monitoring the black sun to one side while looking out to see what happened to the Ping Patriarch on her other side. The Obliteration energy did not prevent her spiritual perception from reaching in, but the combination of the smoke, darkness, and the divine sense sticking close to the Patriarch made it difficult for her to accurately establish his current state. All that she could determine with absolute certainty was that he was still standing tall, meaning that his legs weren¡¯t yet entirely turned to a crimson mist that could diffuse into the air and vanish from sight to never be seen again.


    That was disappointing, but entirely understandable, as he was currently being supported by something the size of a district, with darkness enveloping most of it without any difficulty. For him to perish that quickly from any attack, even if it was the strongest form of the Obliteration beam, she would need to suspect some kind of sabotage from another party.


    In some ways, that would be significantly more concerning than the current situation, as anyone that had the ability to kill or weaken a Patriarch to such an extent would be a great risk to Wei Yi as well, depending on their intentions and allegiances. Even if the faction or person responsible was someone that was currently on their side, the sheer possibility of them turning against her and the Arbiters would force her to act significantly more cautiously in every regard in order to not accidentally encourage them to shift sides.


    The problem of having powerful allies being relied upon as the primary force of the faction was that these allies would essentially take over the leadership of the faction, so if the Ascendant was to somehow find a group of former disciples of the Master of Yi City and add them to the Arbiters, then they would quickly obtain a far larger degree of control over the group than she did. When she reached the seventh or eighth realm, that degree of influence would naturally drop, but if the disciples wanted to change the ways that she went about freeing the world of the Great Families, she would have little ability to ignore them if she wanted to keep them on board.


    For that reason, Wei Yi made sure to keep everyone else at a reasonable level beneath her own, where they could still contribute without there being any risk associated with their growth.


    ¡®Not relevant right now, though,¡¯ she warped back via her fourth realm movement method and gathered some Obliteration energy within her hands, aiming it at the black sun and then unleashing several delayed pulses to flood it with more of her energy as to accelerate the entity¡¯s expansion. If the Patriarch wasn¡¯t going to be defeated in one go with the Obliteration beam, then she needed to have something else that would be able to strike him down.


    She was able to loose several delayed pulses into the black sun, causing it to grow to a one metre diameter and reach the ground with its all absorbing influence, the lines of the array finally being twisted and distorted just a little as the black sun was draining whatever aspect of planar energy was powering the array and growing even more rapidly as a result. When the blackened crimson beam started to clear, she was intending to release another pulse of energy into the black sun, but an instinctive reaction of her spiritual perception prompted her to leap even further back, avoiding an immense blast of smoke that suddenly shot out of the blackened crimson and struck the spot where she had been standing.


    It tore through the ground and created a hole that was several metres deep, all of the stone being shot up into the air and scattering into a vast cloud. However, the smoke remained, and instead floated up and formed into another large serpent that didn¡¯t fly right back to the Patriarch, instead remaining into the air and screeching at her with the same white eyes that the smaller serpents had.


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing that you can do against the seventh realm!¡± he exclaimed, a dozen more of these enormous serpents appearing out of the cracks in the ground that had been formed by the array.


    Wei Yi frowned. He wasn¡¯t necessarily wrong in this case, as the trump card array appeared able to regenerate with such enormous speed that it wouldn¡¯t be destroyed with most of the attacks that she currently had at her disposal. In order to take him down, the array needed to be destroyed, and to destroy the array, she would benefit from a lengthy period of time to attack it without interruption, which would mean stopping him from acting for some time. Fortunately, her plan had accounted for such forms of inconvenience, so her expression was displayed intentionally.


    Indeed, only a few moments after she paused as if stunned by his success, a bright light suddenly exploded from the east, a few distinct shining beacons rising into the air and covering the entire eastern region with their pale white light.


    There was no need to question the cause of this light, especially when the leader of the Bai District, the Bai Patriarch, appeared out of the darkness and shot out a blinding beam of light that pierced the darkness and shadow alike, slamming part-way into the cover of shadow and imparting a great deal of force onto the Ping Patriarch¡¯s body, causing his figure to be thrown back into one of the nearby structures, the exact identity of which was difficult to identify due to the darkness. The smoke had travelled with him, crashing into the structure as if it was solid, completely knocking down the building and falling into the rubble.


    ¡°That¡¯s not going to finish him off, but thanks for the entrance,¡± Wei Yi said, surrounding both of them with the greatest intensity of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye field, ¡°Helping the black sun grow would be better.¡±


    The Bai Patriarch turned to the black sun and was about to turn back when he froze, his eyes widening as he stared at the manifestation of something that shouldn¡¯t have been feasible within the stable space of the Planar Continents. It resembled a tear in space, one that was not just consuming the parts of the world that it touched but was also actively sucking things into it, only to be transformed to energy to further grow the tear.


    ¡°Is that¡­ a spatial tear?¡± the Patriarch questioned, his voice unsteady.


    ¡°No, of course it isn¡¯t. I can make one right now, but the heavens will simply shut it right back up. This is¡­ something different. Just throw some of your planar energy into it in one form or another, and I will handle the Ping Patriarch while he tries to interfere,¡± she replied, ¡°Stop the moment it damages the array.¡±


    She did not explain why this was the case, but she suspected that someone in the seventh realm would be able to notice the acceleration of growth. After a certain point, the black sun could, in theory, devour the entire world and transform everything into energy, which would then be projected out of the black sun in an enormous quasar, at which point she had no clue whether the energy would find some other world where it could settle and benefit the people. Whether or not it could, that did not matter to her, as all that she wanted was for the Planar Continents to thrive once more ¨C something that couldn¡¯t happen with the world transformed into raw energy.


    Letting him handle this, she rushed over to the building destroyed by the Ping Patriarch, but before she could get into the structure, she found a person standing just inside, at the edge of the ruins.


    ¡°W-Wait a minute, you?¡± she found herself freeze up as she witnessed a person that she had not expected to find here, nor anywhere for that matter, even if she had escaped alive the last time that she had seen her, ¡°Yi Bai?¡±


    The figure turned to her, but her eyes were blank and she wasn¡¯t even attempting to reply, looking as if she wasn¡¯t even perceiving the existence of the world. For a moment, she was concerned that something had been done to the woman that had accidentally become an assassin, but then realised that this state was akin to what she had looked like while being manipulated by the Weaver of the Dark technique she had cultivated.


    As such, she shifted her planar energy slightly and radiated the aura of the Binder of the Dark. Almost instantly, a slight degree of comprehension appeared in the blond woman¡¯s eyes, who promptly bowed.


    ¡°I have followed your instruction and escaped from the Kong Holy Grounds. The safest location I was able to find was the Ping District, so I had settled down here and awaited further instructions from the Weaver. Are there any further commands for me?¡± Yi Bai asked, her voice sounding even more unnatural than when she had been within the spatial realm, which, when combined with the lacking degree of humanity within her eyes and the mechanical nature with which she spoke, suggested that her normal mind had gotten even further from her assassin state than before.


    ¡°¡­¡± Wei Yi glanced over to the rubble, finding that the Ping Patriarch was still standing up with audible groans, so she returned her gaze to Yi Bai and focused, ¡®I should be able to bring her out of the assassin state¡­ but is that the right thing to do?¡¯


    She was not keen to control someone¡¯s mind like that, of course. For her, it was extremely antithetical to her intentions, and it was rather unpleasant to simply think about doing something like this to a person that she had some friendly connection to, but there was a problem that applied specifically in this case that she couldn¡¯t overlook. While others might have a particular life and particular tendencies, which might make controlling their minds even worse than in other cases, like if the person was someone that had gotten to know and love her for whatever reason, and that was specifically the technique used to generate a second mind within her mind to begin with.


    Yi Bai¡¯s mind was split into two. If her original, true state was brought into the world as it currently was, in the middle of this conflict, amidst destruction and darkness, she would likely be forced to participate in the battle to some extent and then adjust to the fact that her companions from the expedition were dead, the world was full of terrible things, and that she could be controlled at any moment.


    On the other hand, if she was kept in her current assassin state, she would be able to keep going and follow Wei Yi¡¯s commands, as her true Binder of the Dark aura was likely superior to any random tokens that would be found around the world, and once things were over, the world was freed, the Greats were removed and she had the ability to freely return and walk around in the Yi District, then she could be brought back to her regular state and be allowed to return to whatever remained of the district. If her family, friends ¨C other than those that perished in the Kong Holy Grounds or the former Kong District, of course ¨C and acquaintances were still there and still well, then they could pretend as if they had simply vanished for a while and return to a mostly normal life after a while.


    In fact, Yi Bai herself had likely not taken any lives nor done any deeds that she would deem particularly terrible, meaning that she wouldn¡¯t have any memories haunting her after her return.


    For that reason, Wei Yi did not want to force her out into the world as it was, as that would only make the situation worse than missing out on a year or two of active life in the Yi District, which she would have had if she had not gained an assassin technique and yet was able to return to the district with her life.


    Then, there was also the fact that she currently had a fourth realm cultivation, managing to acquire it despite her seeming inactivity in the Ping District. Presumably, she had spent most of her time cultivating and finding food for herself while waiting for further instructions, with her mechanical and focused mind resulting in lengthy and focused training sessions that could have been akin to the state that the Ascendant could enter if she leapt into the Realm of Potential while cultivating, increasing her benefits significantly without requiring any more resources than another cultivator.


    ¡°Wei Yi, you are struggling with this, are you not?¡± Yi Shi Ming¡¯s voice emerged from the mental domain, ¡°If you would like my input, I can help with any difficult decision.¡±


    ¡®That is true, but I don¡¯t think that I will need that. From the start of my attempts to get rid of the Great Families and restore the Planar Continents to what they once were, to rebuild Yi City and bring our cultivation back to its peak, I have done everything I could to achieve it. In the future, my actions may be seen as vile or villainous, but even if I am slain and torn apart to the glee of the world, it is irrelevant so long as the world benefits from my actions. I will not throw this burden to you.¡¯


    ¡°In that case, I shall not pressure you to act differently. Just remember that you are not alone.¡±


    ¡®Of course. There is nobody in the world that doesn¡¯t wish to see it restored to a greater place, but far too many believe that it will come at a cost that they would be unable to bear. I will ensure that this is not the case,¡¯ Wei Yi stated in her mind, ¡®Perhaps this will cost me greatly, or perhaps it will be incredibly simple to achieve ¨C no, that¡¯s a silly notion to even entertain ¨C but no matter what happens, I will ensure that my objective is complete. The Greats will fall. Yi City will rise. The Primordial Deities, if they decide to appear once more, will not hinder that, and if the Hunger of the Beyond dares to hunger after our world, I will ensure that they are promptly kicked back as well. Now¡­¡¯


    As the figure in the distance was slowly rising, even with the rate at which her mind could function, Wei Yi sighed and finally made up her mind, turning to Yi Bai as she also looked about with her spiritual perception, saying, ¡°Assist the western forces with their clean-up efforts. Come back when you¡¯re done, and don¡¯t unnecessarily risk yourself.¡±


    If her original self could still perceive what was occurring, just as she had been able to say some things to Wei Yi back in the Kong Holy Grounds, she didn¡¯t show any signs of it, simply nodding and rushing off right away. Just before she vanished into the darkness, cloaking herself in the combination of the district¡¯s current cloak of shadow and the Weaver of the Dark energy, she took out the same weapon that she had utilised in the Kong District, a knife that had been the inspiration for the design of White Echo, prompting the Ascendant to remove that weapon from the House of Gold and throw it towards her, using her fourth realm movement ability to make it appear right before the assassin.


    Although it was faint, there were traces of both spiritual will and killing intent within her, just as there were such traces in other people who had utilised either ability more intensely than others. Yi Bai might not be able to do as much with the dagger as Wei Yi could, but it would be better than nothing.


    Seeing the woman depart, the Bai Patriarch began, ¡°Was that-¡±


    ¡°None of your business. Focus on the black sun,¡± the Ascendant stopped him and focused on the rising figure made of shadow, coalescing the Titanic Conqueror and prompting both to gather more Obliteration energy. As she held out both hands, she found that her left had transformed into the killing will state once again. ¡°All of this isn¡¯t helping my mood¡­¡±


    She did not revert her transformation, but instead allowed it to fully take hold, stabilising the transformed state to amplify her energy.


    While she lacked the ability to change the past, or to undo the things that had been caused by the Ping District, the Ping family, and all of the groups and factions associated with them, she could at the very least make sure to end their reign today. She could wipe out the Ping Patriarch, clear the district of the thieves and assassins, and guarantee that in the future, there would be few that could repeat the things that they have done.

 V4C73: Encirclement, Part 5

    ¡°Now¡­ light!¡± the Chao Patriarch exclaimed, punching the air to release a great quantity of blinding energy that replicated the beacons he had seen at the east. He did not have the same techniques, but with brute force, certain things could still be replicated.


    With this particular move, he focused on creating a stable source of light that could be supported by anyone of a lesser cultivation realm, meaning that his troops could take over while he hastened to the middle of the district, where the great Endless Monolith was barely visible through the darkness. There was clearly something amiss there, so his participation might be necessary to guarantee that this assault would end well.


    As a Patriarch, he was naturally not fond of someone else taking over the authority that he possessed and commanding the districts as she saw fit. If times were different, and if her cause was different, he would prefer to get rid of her and do things on his own, as he saw fit, but the issue was that the self-proclaimed Ascendant, who did have some form of the Ascendant physique at the very least, might be the only person with the power to truly challenge forces like the Greats, or the other Patriarchs without being in the seventh realm herself. She could say a lot of complicated things at times, but she also spoke in the universal language of strength and power, and that couldn¡¯t be ignored.


    Once things were over¡­ well, he might not even have the chance to take back any authority, but if that was the case, then perhaps things would be better off even without his influence and presence.


    ¡°Patriarch, we have found another gang leader, who was¡­ in the middle of sleeping with a man as we intruded,¡± a soldier suddenly reported as he was gazing into the distance, prompting him to glare at the man for a moment, ¡°Did I intrude on something, Patriarch?¡±


    ¡°No, nothing significant. Carry on.¡±


    ¡°Should we take her out, or-¡±


    ¡°Obviously. Do you not remember the instructions that we had given you? The bandit leaders die unless there is an exceptional reason to keep them alive. Go, and fetch some men to support the light.¡±


    The soldier nodded and quickly rushed off to fulfil those instructions, leaving the Chao Patriarch to shake his head at the soldier¡¯s potential intentions before looking back to the centre and hastening off towards the only beacon visible to him and his divine sense at this moment ¨C the great anchor of the Ascendant.


    At the south, the Luo Matriarch threw out another light talisman to brighten several streets, clearing a way for her troops to take care of the enemies that could be found within on their way to the centre.


    Unlike the other two Patriarchs, Luo Na decided to prioritise bringing her entire force to the centre rather than going herself, for the simple reason of the primary strength of the Luo District¡¯s forces ¨C the ample quantity of talismans capable of doing nearly everything that one could imagine. With them in hand, even the weakest soldier was effectively in the fifth realm at the least, since there were talismans at five stars in quality within the bags of all soldiers, and the likes of the guardians were at the peak of the sixth realm or near the bottom of the seventh with the talismans in their hands.


    By coming alone, thanks to her particular state, she would be far less effective in assisting Wei Yi than those who could make use of their energy freely. Quite a few of the talismans that she and the Ascendant had helped to make ¨C with the latter kind not yet being put to use due to the power that they were supposed to have ¨C were spread out throughout the bags of their troops, so they were the ones that truly held most of the power in her forces.


    Rushing over would still be a bad idea, so that was why she had chosen the approach of a directional clearing of the southern region of the Ping District. With her forces clearing out people as they travelled to the north, they would be able to fulfil both of their missions at once, with the squads at the east and west being able to search out the rest of the places that they weren¡¯t able to clear with the indicators left behind by their talismans. At the moment, all of the district was also covered in both shadow and the projection of the Subterranean Shell, so chances of escape were also at their lowest, meaning that it would be a bit of a waste not to protect the one keeping things this way.


    ¡°Everyone, ready the cosmic talismans in a few minutes. We might need to face a Patriarch, so you should have a number of protective talismans prepared at the least,¡± she reminded her forces as she quietly slapped a dozen such talismans onto herself.


    With those layers of protection and plenty of offensive potential at the ready, they continued to advance and did so quickly. If there was one thing that the Luo District¡¯ forces knew how to handle well, it was the efficient and precise practise of completing a specific task, since nearly everyone in the Luo District had tried out and succeeded in talisman creation at one point or another. Acting precisely, quickly, and correctly was necessary to create a talisman, and it was a skill that could be applied nearly everywhere.


    ¡°I¡¯m not entirely sure how she expects us to clear all of this out without destroying too much,¡± Long Huang admitted as she struck down another thug that attempted to defend themselves, each word being spoken at a precise rhythm in order to not interrupt the current perfect state of her planar energy and bloodline power being synchronised in an exact beat.


    While she was able to act outside of that beat, it would result in the decrease of speed at which the two energies passed through her meridians, which would in turn lower her strength and speed in combat, and would require more time in order to be built back up. In a way, she was currently experiencing the troubles that a Bai family legion would encounter with their necessity for synchronisation, except that she had no one else to follow and copy. She needed to keep her own body functioning at its best instead.


    That was easier said than done, so, in order to adhere best to the heart-like beat and prevent it from damaging her, she had to follow every beat with every part of herself. The current speed of her energy pulse permitted her to act in an almost ordinary fashion, although it would need to match the speed of her thought if she truly wanted to be acting exactly as she had been prior to the cultivation of her new technique.


    ¡°The western portion of the district is the smallest¡­ It is only half of the southern territory that the Luo are attacking¡­ and has fewer criminal elements,¡± Great Dark explained.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel like that in the darkness, does it?¡± Mo Zhouquan noted, glancing up at the searing marks on the core surrounding them. At the moment, only twenty-eight were vibrant. ¡°We need to find a method to lure the rest out if we want to finish this in time, but this darkness doesn¡¯t align well with my abilities, unfortunately.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ Wait, that thing in the distance¡­¡±


    ¡°Great Dark?¡±


    ¡°There is a certain chance of the district suffering a great deal of damage¡­ It will mean that the destruction that we do cause is rather irrelevant¡­ but do take care nonetheless. If the destruction does occur¡­ we will need to find some form of protection.¡±


    ¡°That-¡± Long Huang began, but her mouth froze mid-sentence as a knife appeared right before her, heading right for her eye out of the darkness.


    The knife was held in a gloved hand, connected to a figure in a dark cloak with a large hood that covered all but the chin, which showed traces of stubble on skin displaced by some distension of the mouth, although it hard to tell exactly what this figure¡¯s expression was beneath that hood. All that was certain was that he was not going to stop before his knife was inside of her skull, piercing her brain and taking her life.


    Great Dark, Mo Zhouquan and Jia Rong alike attempted to intervene, but the first was furthest away and distracted by the distant black sun, the second relied mostly on various tentacle and corruption-based methods that were inherently slow and were only made slower by her current drowsy state, and the third only had physical attacks at the moment, as she was unable to manifest energy in the usual manner. As such, Long Huang had a moment in which she was afraid that her life would end right there and then, cut off unceremoniously and before she could complete and perfect her grand project.


    That was when an invisible force suddenly crashed down on the knife and pressed down upon it, diverting its course, a moment before it was split in half. One part of the blade flew past her in the space between her arm and body, just an inch from her armpit, while the other remained in the hand of the assailant and was also forced down, cutting into her side.


    Still, that cut was shallow and insignificant in comparison to what could have happened, prompting her attention to her saviour.


    The attackers also turned their attention to the one that intervened, but all that they found was a dagger made of black bone out in the darkness. It had only remained still for a single moment before rapidly moving again, slicing through the air several times without any clear purpose at first.


    It was only when those slices manifested within the world, cutting apart the cloaked figures that were attempting to attack with the same ease that a knife might slice through the air. The black dagger vanished into the darkness and reappeared in another place only moments later, stabbing and slashing at more of the attackers without a hint of difficulty or exhaustion, although they had yet to see whether the dagger wielder even had a body that could get tired.


    There had been traces of a hand gripping the knife, but it was as shrouded in darkness as the rest of the figure¡¯s presumed body, it was impossible to know whether the hand was physical, covered in skin, whether there was any blood that flowed through the limb, or if it was even attached to anything. For all they and the thugs opposing them knew, the only thing that was present was that hand, gripping that dagger, swinging it at their foes with some limited degree of intellect and merely acting in accordance with whatever instructions had been given to it prior to being released into the wild.


    ¡°Well¡­ We¡¯ve an ally on our side!¡± Long Huang exclaimed as she took a leap back and willed her planar energy to rush to the small wound on her side as to cease the slow flow of blood, ¡°Great Dark, could you give me a moment?¡±


    ¡°Understood!¡± the twin of Great Earth replied, appearing beside her and projecting a barrier with his energy in order to stop anyone else from getting near her while Long Huang¡¯s heartbeat stabilised once more. At the same time, he threw out several of his inscription plates out in order to intensify the barrier and lash out at those that attempted to get too close while he might be distracted with other matters.


    Meanwhile, the entity shrouded in darkness ¨C since there had to be something causing the dagger to move around, even if it didn¡¯t have a full human body ¨C advanced at one of the larger squads of hooded and cloaked men that had similarly appeared out of the darkness in order to attack them. Although the majority of the attackers were in the fourth realm, able to use both an innate movement technique from their own understandings and insights of their primary methods as well as powerful techniques achieved through solid planar energy, they found themselves incapable of resisting the mere movement of a dagger that did not appear to be backed by energy of a particularly high realm.


    As such, even though none of them cared in the slightest who they were killing, the hooded thugs found themselves attempting to comprehend who it was that they were dealing with.


    ¡°The more you fight, the more energy I will build up! You cannot defeat me!¡± the Ping Patriarch exclaimed, more and more shadows gathering around him as he carelessly shot them at everyone and everything in sight.


    ¡°You could be attacking me with all of the energy you¡¯re spending, but that works too,¡± Wei Yi found herself muttering as she kept hearing his various exclamations and dodging the smoke serpents repeatedly being thrown at her. Her occasional attempts to blast the smoke-shrouded Patriarch with her own attacks were met with limited success, with even her most successful mark-backed attempts were only able to knock him back down into a building. ¡°If you¡¯re going to keep spouting random shit in this direction, can¡¯t you say something new at the very least?¡±


    For whatever reason, incredibly resilient enemies that she had met in her life so far were very keen to shout everything, starting from the kids she had tangled with in the Yi District, to the Kong District¡¯s echo, to the overly proud otherworldly demons that she came across in the Kong Prison Realm and the Planar Continents alike. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more this Ping Patriarch reminded her of the demon she had slain in the Silver Side¡¯s Sanctuary.


    That person had also been summoning various spirit-like entities from the air, and he had also intended to plunge the place he occupied into a state of death and torment for his own gains.


    ¡°I have nothing else to say to you, woman! You have been given plenty of time to comprehend your own mistakes, and since you insist on forcefully interfering with my business, I shall ensure that you will not obtain peace- ah!¡±


    A sudden enormous fist struck the shadow colossus, throwing it down into yet another nearby structure. The energy composing the fist was clearly in the seventh realm, empowered by a mark in order to amplify it beyond the passive amplification of the linked channels connecting the Oblivion Halos and give it the chance to damage the person cloaked by the shadows. Although it was at this level of strength and power, the fist clearly didn¡¯t slay the Ping Patriarch, but the shock to his body was clearly more than sufficient to prevent him from standing up for a short while, allowing the Chao Patriarch to make it onto the scene and join the Bai Patriarch and Wei Yi.


    ¡°Greetings, Ascendant. Bai Patriarch, I greet you as well,¡± the Chao Patriarch said quickly, ¡°I am not familiar with arrays. What is the current situation?¡±


    ¡°Chao Patriarch, I am concerned that this array may go beyond simply shrouding the district and empowering the Ping Patriarch, so I would like to stop him as quickly as possible. The best way to break it so far is with the black sun that I have created over there, so, if you could, throw as much of your energy into it as possible,¡± Wei Yi said.


    ¡°Black sun? By the heavens¡­ that is a black sun? A spatial tear?¡±


    ¡°No. That is not a spatial tear. Just shove your planar construct fists into the fucking sphere, keep it growing until it starts growing quickly enough to become dangerous to you if you stand near to it. At that point, fuck off and let me kick that guy¡¯s ass!¡± the Ascendant shouted, raising her voice for a moment as her killing will state arm was infused with a greater degree of killing intent, ¡°Ahem¡­ Just feed the black sun!¡±


    Her commands were harsh, and hardly fitting for interacting with a Patriarch, but if one wanted to find some problem with her words the best place to look would be in the very commands that she had given them. If she had been some unknown individual randomly giving out instructions, then her demands for the Patriarchs to simply loose all of their planar energy into a random supposed spatial tear while their opponent was only getting more and more powerful by the moment would seem rather odd to say the least. Most wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the Patriarchs deemed her as some kind of agent working for the Ping District and attempting to intentionally weaken the two attacking Patriarchs.


    However, the fact that she was the one leading the assault, as well as the one that had the biggest personal issue with the Ping District and the Ping family, very few thought that she ever had the possibility in acting in such a manner.


    As such, although the Chao Patriarch didn¡¯t appreciate the way in which he was talked to, he did also realise that there was something odd with the current state of her left arm, as well as her condition in general, so he concluded that it would be unreasonable to say anything now, instead turning his full attention to the black sun. It still looked like a spatial tear, but if she stated that it was some kind sun that could absorb her energy ¨C which it was clearly doing with the energy of the Bai Patriarch and the array on the ground ¨C then that is what it was, no matter what he thought about it.


    Gathering his energy at his hands, he directed all of it into the black sun, restraining a gasp as he found the black sun growing noticeably with just a little bit of his energy.


    ¡°There, see? Now¡­ I really am being a bit of a dick right now, aren¡¯t I?¡±


    ¡°A little bit.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s something I¡¯ve done before, so I¡¯ll tone it down for today. Just make sure you don¡¯t decide to get distracted and either let the black sun grow more than necessary, or not grow sufficiently before the Ping Patriarch gets too many shadow serpents to throw in our direction. Get it?¡±


    ¡°Understood,¡± the Chao Patriarch said, his gaze having remained on the black sun all of this time, ¡°I have less energy than would be ideal, but I can regenerate it quickly enough for the moment.¡±


    He was referring to the current field generated by the combined Conqueror¡¯s Eye territory and the effect that the projected Subterranean Shell and Endless Monolith had upon the people of the district that were acting in favour of Wei Yi. Although he wasn¡¯t aware of this, the field was affecting even those that had only become known to the Ascendant a short time ago, like Yi Bai, allowing her lower cultivation attainment to match against significantly greater opponents due to the high grade technique she had cultivated that worked well with the White Echo designed with her on the Ascendant¡¯s mind. In fact, the weapon and the woman suited one another surprisingly well.


    In his case, the benefit of the sealed off area meant that the greater quantity of planar energy induced by the two manifestations could gather within the Ping District and be supplied to him and the other Patriarch due to their near proximity to the Endless Monolith, whereas the Ping Patriarch would be prevented from feeding upon that energy as freely, needing ten times the effort to get ten times less.


    With the additional effect of the Energy Pylon and similar physique abilities being spread by the manifestation of the Endless Monolith, that rapid recovery of energy was only amplified. The likes of the Vitality Syphon were also benefitting the Patriarchs on Wei Yi¡¯s side, although to a far lesser extent, since their vital energy was significantly greater than that of regular people, but the moment that their physical and mental exhaustion got beyond their ability to control and overcome, they would be able to replenish that with the lifeforce that was still plentiful inside of the Ascendant¡¯s body.


    That part in particular was present within her to a certain extreme. With the constant growth of new life within the Kong Prison Realm, with all of the grass, trees, animals and whatever else that people were managing to grow and rear within that spatial realm, within the physical portion of her mental domain, and the constant absorption of a portion of that growth, she was able to constantly get more and more lifeforce with which to feed herself and the world around her. It was incredibly fast and efficient, and with the constant development of the prison realm and the slow acquisition of domains in the complete Planar Continents, the amount that she was able to harvest grew with every single breath that she took.


    If lifeforce alone could win battles, then she would be able to win every single fight she participated in, since her particular circumstances were likely unique in all of the world.


    ¡®Then again, if I do that, does the heaven¡¯s will, an entity with the Dao that we merely peek at, not do the same? Logically speaking, any entity that rules or presides over others will necessarily need to develop the land it possesses in order to benefit itself, if nothing else. Whether that entity is human, a demon, a Primordial Deity or the heavens themselves, whether they practise physique energy, bloodline power, space or the base planar energy that is the foundation for the rest of the forms of energy, they need a powerful domain in order to develop themselves,¡¯ Wei Yi had a sudden realisation, ¡®Perhaps some even possess the ability to directly transform development and prosperity into power, and therefore become stronger. It may not be the best path, but it is undeniably a path¡­ Planar energy follows that. With stronger presences in the world, the planar energy quantity and density also increases.


    ¡®Back when the Master of Yi City was present in the world, the ninth realm was attainable by the clever, the persistent and the wealthy, but now, that has changed to the sixth realm. It is because the world was sent into a state of decay by the Great Families, wherein the heavens were not able to be as powerful as before. Perhaps even their attainment of the Great Dao fell, although that would be even less favourably received if I suggested such a thing¡­ Planar energy is not a lifeless force, then.¡¯


    All of a sudden, the space around her exploded with intense energy, a vibrant violet expanding to cover the entire district for a moment.


    That radiance surged out and simultaneously converged upon the Ascendant, shifting in an organic yet organised manner as it was first compressed into a large sea, then an uncountable series of thin layers stacked upon one another, and finally seemed to transform into a crystalline state that aligned with the whole world and momentarily seemed to freeze it, as if it had been enveloped in amber and frozen for anyone else to see.


    It collapsed the next moment, all of that violet surging into the Ascendant and, primarily, her head.


    Her eyes filled with sudden understanding, and another thin and vague circle appeared within them as the structure of the world suddenly gained another facet. In addition to Law and the Absolute, the third vision state permitted her to see how planar energy existed within the world, how it interacted and flowed, how a great mass of it gathered beneath the ground in the array of the Ping District and spread out across the battlefield, amassing primarily within the centre where it shrouded the Ping Patriarch and manifested the great serpents that he used against them.


    They were also elemental in nature, as was the ground, the air, the darkness, the Endless Monolith, and the Subterranean Shell. Just as the five elements made up the Dao of the Elements, the Dao of the Elements made up the Planar Dao, although she suspected that there were far more aspects to it that she had yet to comprehend.


    ¡®In one step, the Great Stride stage of the Planar Dao was attained? Had I simply failed to understand some vital aspect to attain the other stages prior to this, or was it that this aspect, that of development and the power of civilisation, was extremely integral to the Planar Dao?¡¯ she questioned silently.


    Of course, Wei Yi couldn¡¯t just ask the heavens themselves about this, so she instead looked back to the Ping Patriarch, who had just stood up and had not been able to observe the phenomenon of the comprehension of the Planar Dao. Even if he could, it wouldn¡¯t do him or her much good, since there was a far superior concept at the heart of the hidden array of the Ping District, as well as at the base of Wei Yi¡¯s abilities.


    It did offer her a bonus no matter how she acquired it, so she didn¡¯t hesitate to infuse an Obliteration beam with the five elements and fling it at rising figure of shadow.


    The odd mixture of the blackened crimson that typically pervaded everything relating to the Obliteration energy and the five colours of the elements, that being red, blue, brown, silver and green, struck the Ping Patriarch¡¯s defensive layer of smoke and, for once, visibly caused the smoke to recoil upon collision, an even circle being nudged aside as the beam passed further inwards.


    However, even if it did touch the edges of the old Patriarch¡¯s skin, the beam did not pass far enough, as the array within the ground actively glared with even greater intensity as if it was merely incited by the black sun feeding upon it. In conjunction with it, the smoke colossus gained a great degree of depth and intensity, the power hiding behind it rising to the seventh stage of the Oblivion Halo realm. Alongside it, the various smoke serpents that had been gathering around them bulged and grew, with even the smallest becoming larger than any of the people present.


    ¡°Was this array made by the Master of Yi City?¡± the Ascendant muttered to no one in particular, her Vision of the Planar revealing that the array was barely suffering from the growing black sun.


    It was amazing in that regard, so she couldn¡¯t help but think of the strongest figure to inhabit the Planar Continents within the last two million years. There might have been others with great attainment in arrays or other great arts that might be capable of establishing the array, but to resist such an unusual method of attack with such success ¨C or alternatively that it might have so much power that it was still able to reveal more despite the drain upon it ¨C the creator must have been someone incredible.


    ¡°Patriarchs, Wei Yi¡­ what is that thing?¡± Luo Na¡¯s voice reached them, prompting the three to glance back and find the Luo Matriarch approaching with a large group of Luo District warriors. Out of the guardians of the district, only Luo Ru Qiu and Luo Long Meng were present, with the other three being elsewhere in the Ping District, but they alone carried a vast quantity of talismans which they were holding onto and more than ready to throw out for any purpose and at any target. Together with the other warriors from the Luo District, they were radiating the energy of the seventh realm overall, with Luo Na seeming to only assist it.


    ¡°Which one?¡±


    ¡°I am not familiar with that spatial tear that looks like a black sun, but it appears to be far less significant than that monstrosity in the distance. It stands in a field full of tormented energy, and leers at us all¡­¡±


    ¡®That must be how her particular vision is interpreting this. Interestingly enough, my three vision states are currently showing something similar, at least if I view this in such a fashion, so I can understand how she has come to the conclusion without the ability to look at this in the usual fashion,¡¯ the Ascendant appeared beside the Luo Matriarch, ¡°That is the Ping Patriarch enveloped in the energy of the array that we¡¯re trying to destroy. Now that you¡¯re here¡­ Can you get Jia Rong for me?¡±


    ¡°Jia Rong¡­ The woman from out of time? Is she capable of resolving the situation and dispersing that man¡¯s energy?¡±


    ¡°She is able to interfere with planar energy as a whole, so, in theory yes,¡± Wei Yi confirmed, patting her on the shoulder as she sent her off while she turned to the rest of the Luo District¡¯s forces, ¡°Now, everyone, if you could direct all of your planar energy into the black sun, that would be great. The sooner this happens, the sooner we have a chance of wiping that fucker out.¡±

 V4C74: Supernova

    ¡°- and this,¡± Mo Zhouquan exclaimed while she struck down the last of the cloaked and hooded figures that had appeared to attack them, ¡°is the end of that¡­ Phew.¡±


    The moment that she let out her breath, her entire body seemed to lose a significant degree of colour that it still had, with her limbs clearly shaking as she struggled to keep herself standing. Her quivering limbs and gasping breaths were naturally noticed right away by her lover, who hastened over to her with a worried expression.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Long Huang questioned, supporting the other woman with the strength of the pulsing twin energies within her, ¡°What happened? Can I help, somehow?¡±


    ¡°¡­ She is going to be fine. The current state of the district is chaotic, disrupting her physical and mental state,¡± a voice unfamiliar to them replied, seeming to come from a point behind the black dagger that had been helping them all along.


    ¡°And who are you?¡± Long Huang turned to the dagger.


    ¡°I have been requested to assist you. If there is anything else you wish to know, then only my master will be able to give that to you,¡± the dagger said, the darkness around it drawing back slightly to reveal a vaguely feminine figure, one that did make sense with the voice that they had heard, ¡°Are there still foes that you have not defeated?¡±


    The western squad glanced to one another, with Long Huang and Jia Rong both deciding to turn to Great Dark for help in this situation.


    He frowned, his spiritual perception being unable to reach out far enough to confirm what Wei Yi and the Patriarchs and the Matriarch of the surrounding districts were currently doing, nor was he able to speak with any of the four in order to understand what they were up to and whether they were aware of the strange woman shrouded in darkness, but from what he could tell, she wasn¡¯t intending to harm them in any way.


    In addition, her dark veil could completely fool those that were in adjacent realms, but it was unable to overcome the spiritual perception of the sixth realm. As such, Great Dark was able to see the woman¡¯s blond hair, her light skin that was unbefitting someone of the north, suggesting a central or southern origin, and her expression was extremely still, regardless of her words. She looked to be an assassin under the control of an assassin¡¯s binding, and her master must have been someone interested in benefitting the attack on the Ping District.


    That was concerning, as the assassin organisations were known to rarely act in favour of any positive goal, but there was one other thing that he had to notice about the woman. Although it was not obvious due to her rather generic features, the study of bloodlines alongside Long Huang and the others allowing him to detect a trace of Yi ancestry within her blood.


    He and Wei Yi had first met in the Yi District, and the last thing she had done while he had remained in the district was leaving for an expedition alongside the Yi family. While he couldn¡¯t be sure whether this assassin had anything to do with the Yi family, the expedition, or anything else, but there was a high chance that this woman had come from the Yi District, and that there might have been some relation between her and the Ascendant.


    ¡°No, we have dealt with the majority of foes¡­ Should we head to your master?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Follow me,¡± the woman instructed right away, turning and rushing off without much care for the ability of the squad to follow her.


    At this point, it seemed that all traces of coherent speech and thought, at least on the surface, were beyond the amalgamation of smoke and the Ping Patriarch, as all that was released the moment that the figure stood up again was able to oppose them was a beast-like scream that was completely lacking any meaning so far as Wei Yi was able to tell.


    That would have been a positive had the battle been between two humans, two thinking minds that needed intellect and comprehension in order to succeed against the other, but at the moment, even with the two Patriarchs and the Matriarch on her side, Wei Yi was fighting as three capable combatants and a small pile of talismans held up by the Luo family against the entire district, for that was how much land the array spanned. Without the mind of the Ping Patriarch holding it in check, the smoke serpents rose not just from his body, but from every single part of the district, and they began to flood towards the invaders.


    ¡°This seems like an incredible array,¡± the Bai Patriarch said curtly.


    ¡°It is one. However, although I was initially suspecting that it might be created by one of the disciples of the Master of Yi City, if not the man himself, I now believe that an otherworldly demon might have played a part in this,¡± the Ascendant shared, ¡°Their skills are the only ones unfortunate enough to draw a person into such a terrible state.¡±


    ¡°You mean that it would be best not to replicate the array in our own territories? Even while the Great Families may come to knock at our doors at any moment?¡± the Chao Patriarch asked.


    ¡°Yes. Don¡¯t get stupid ideas just because you see power for a single moment. It is not worth it, and that¡¯s that. If you want to commit suicide, please do so after you have found a successor and do so as far away from our lands as possible, as to not injure anyone in the process. Otherwise, I and Yi City as a whole will not be too happy with your actions, to put it mildly,¡± Wei Yi said, manifesting a blade with which she casually slashed at one of the nearby smoke serpents, making use of the three Great Stride Dao.


    The Dao of Law strengthened the energy contained within the blade and improved the sword light that shot out as a result. With the Absolute Dao, the simple movement was made significantly stronger, and was able to manifest into a kind of technique without needing to make use of complex channelling of planar energy throughout one¡¯s body. Finally, the Planar Dao flooded the sword light with the power of the innate energy of the world, which in turn contained the five innate elements of life, which in turn contained the individual forces that truly composed reality, leading to the entire thing being coloured by violet, a five-coloured rainbow and five distinct colours at the same time.


    It flew at an immense pace and struck the shadow serpent in an instant, with both seeming to freeze.


    Only a single moment later, the sword light kept flying on, while the serpent suddenly exploded into tiny wisps of smoke that barely remained in a single piece. The energy scattered, and it transformed into five distinct shades of light that blended with the air.


    For a moment, all, even the screaming mass that was the Ping Patriarch, were stunned as they looked upon this madness.


    ¡°Oh. I didn¡¯t expect that to work. That being said, I can¡¯t do this often enough. Look, that energy is already being reabsorbed by that array,¡± Wei Yi stated, pointing with her clawed left hand at the mass of the five colours rapidly floating down and into the tears in the ground, even with various attempts to grab them by her and the other two Patriarchs, ¡°That¡¯s why we need to destroy it as soon as possible. Keep feeding the black sun!¡±


    Both followed her instructions, although the Bai Patriarch muttered, ¡°Could you not assist us?¡±


    ¡°Would you like to be repeatedly hit by the black serpents, and then need to find a way to stop this black sun from expanding without any energy? I know that I would like to survive this, so no, I cannot assist you.¡±


    Her reasoning was sound, in their minds, but they were quickly terrified by the prospect of this expanding void suddenly erupting out and devouring them all. With how much energy they were providing it, and how quickly it seemed to be able to grow from every single thing that it touched, both an explosion or an uncontrolled expansion would be fatal, even if most of the energy was simply thrown out without much direction. In fact, given the fact that the one that had created the black sun appeared to be able to turn a sword slash into such a powerful attack, it might be even deadlier without direction.


    Still, before they could say anything, Wei Yi had already turned to the squad of the Luo District, looking them over once before concluding that they weren¡¯t going to be of much use as individuals.


    ¡°Grab your strongest talismans and toss them at the smoke serpents, as well as these locations on the ground! It is not possible to destroy the array with this degree of power alone, but it should be feasible to decrease its efficiency, lower the quantity of emitted smoke serpents, and even increase the amount of energy that it feeds into the black sun,¡± she explained, pointing out some spots with casual slashes.


    Each one flew out of the edge of the blade and pierced the ground with incredible ease, cutting through it with perfect precision. The cuts were stopped by the structure of the array, but that did expose its physical location far more than the lights from below the ground could, giving the Luo District¡¯s forces a far better idea of where to target the array for the greatest efficiency. As the Ascendant turned away the next moment, they looked to one another and, through a few moments of pointing and meaningful looks, decided how they would split up and cover the points indicated by their current leader, with the guardians heading towards the furthest nodes.


    On their way, various talismans were thrown at the serpents that attempted to strike them and consume them, or otherwise explode before them and do a great deal of harm. Some were highly effective, with one talisman infused with Wei Yi¡¯s cosmic and Obliteration energy managing to nearly disperse one serpent, and while the rest were less powerful against this particular foe, they still reduced the speed of the serpents.


    Seeing that they were doing well enough on their own, the Ascendant naturally raised the blade construct in her right hand and infused it with Ire and Obliteration energy at the same time, leaping up into the air and landing onto an Aerial Platform.


    As if lured by her heightened position, a number of smoke serpents that had been heading for the group on the ground changed course and flew straight for her instead, their white eyes glistening with a hunger that shouldn¡¯t be present on purely mindless entities manifested through some strange mutation of planar energy. They approached in great numbers and at a high speed, completely blocking the path of a potential sword slash at the Ping Patriarch, who was currently standing at the back of the battlefield and simply releasing more and more smoke serpents while his voice continued to produce angered screams.


    One collision with her sword light could cut two apart with ease, while the third would be scattered only temporarily, whereas the fourth serpent it struck was able to catch the strike and finally nullify it, being distorted into a large cloud of smoke for a little while before the shape of the serpent returned. Still, that meant that each sword strike disabled four serpents for a while, and three of them for longer.


    In the time that it took for the last serpent she hit to reform, she was able to slash out once more, doing so twice more before the other serpents got too near for her to be able to continue.


    Thus, with the energy that she had built up within her planar construct blade, she unleashed the power of the Eclipse Ire, a massive circle manifesting within the air, arcs and bolts of Obliteration and Ire energy surging out at the nearest serpents.


    With every single impact, the circle expanded slightly, remaining within the air as if the blackened crimson carved into the world itself, and once it reached a sufficient size, another circle was carved into the air that matched the size of the initial one. After each strike of crimson lightning, the circles would grow, the arcs of electricity would blast out more and more frequently, and their power would also be greater each time. This was not a feature of the initial Demonic Ire, nor of the three aspects of the Eclipse Ire that she had created with her own insights, but amplified by the combination of the three Dao and the modified position in which she made use of the technique, it was suddenly able to reach new heights.


    The moment that she reached the number of ten circles in the air, at the brink of the arcs of lightning being able to hit her own allies, she released the mass of energy, but did not focus it.


    A blast of energy simply erupted out of her body, shredding through the Aerial Platform below her and continuing on without a trace of exhaustion or energy loss, striking every smoke serpent. The simple touch of the blackened crimson led to the thick masses of shadow exploding violently that very instant, and their explosions collided with other serpents, each one shattering into more and more loose wisps of colour and smoke.


    It continued to expand, tearing through more and more serpents, and by the time the crimson sputtered out, more than a hundred black serpents had been obliterated into naught but planar energy that could sink back down into the array beneath the ground.


    While the number may sound impressive in any other battle, at least when an entire district or even nation weren¡¯t involved, at the edge of the affected area she could already see over a thousand serpents that were at least as large as those that she had destroyed, although the vast majority had grown larger in the few moments that she had needed to strike those smoke entities down. In essence, for every one serpent she defeated, ten more took their place, and that would continue to intensify until the array in the ground reached the final limit of its capacity and power, which might be at a few serpents per second, or even a million.


    Nevertheless, Wei Yi manifested her Titanic Conqueror and prompted it to summon the empowered Obliteration energy, with the three Dao being infused into it in order to guarantee its success.


    The Luo Matriarch had not headed directly to the west, since she was attempting to travel above the ground and thus had to contend with the rapidly increasing numbers of smoke serpents that were attempting to assault her.


    Naturally, in her eyes, they were not made of smoke, nor were they particularly serpent-like. Instead, these things were terrible amalgamations of energy distorted from the five base elements, without a single one of them remaining in a stable form. They were constantly twisting and changing as a result of thin threads heading all the way up from the array on the ground, which was like an impossibly deep pit and a blinding light at the same time. It was not something that she could personally comprehend, and that meant that it would be even more difficult to share to anyone in the attacking force.


    Luo Na stopped in the air and dropped down to the ground as she found the western squad, intending to greet them. Before she could, she suddenly found a blade right before her, with the wielder enveloped in various energies that were not pleasant to behold with her mutated vision. The figure appeared to be guarding the squad that she was seeking, so she did not attempt to repel her with force at first.


    ¡°I am intending to help them make their way to the centre. Are you opposed to that?¡± she asked.


    The assassin ¨C or a woman that looked like an assassin due to her techniques, anyway ¨C promptly lowered her weapon, proceeding onwards as if she had not seen Luo Na at all.


    As such, those following behind her were left to speak to Luo Na on their own, with the assassin barely slowing down when they attempted to do so. Quickly, the twin of Great Earth relayed all of his observations to the Matriarch, with Luo Na sharing her own information with Great Dark, resulting in both frowning for a while.


    ¡°This is strange¡­ Is Wei Yi aware of this assassin?¡±


    ¡°She hadn¡¯t mentioned anything, unfortunately. It is likely that she had not deemed this something that she needed to state, but if they are related¡­¡±


    The two of them didn¡¯t say another word, but they did focus on their various thoughts and contemplations, with neither of them needing to invest too much strength in order to ward off the smoke serpents, as destroying them was unnecessary since they would only encounter a few that weren¡¯t flying above them towards the centre. To simply repel a smoke serpent and to prevent it from striking at the immediate best moment, a small blast of concentrated energy was sufficient, which Great Dark could achieve with his planar energy while Luo Na had plenty of weaker talismans.


    Together, they proceeded to the centre once more, with the others tagging along.


    Out of all of them, the one having the easiest time was Jia Rong, as her timeless body was able to essentially ignore planar energy of all forms, and the more unstable it looked, the less able it seemed to affect her. Had there been a proper sane mind behind the attacks of the smoke serpents, they would have done everything they could to modify the constructs in order to make them more stable and straightforward in the hopes of doing something against her, but that was not the case.


    ¡°Why does everyone have nigh infinite energy around here? None of my enemies are in the eighth realm yet, but none of them ever seem to exhaust their power,¡± Wei Yi muttered to herself, finding that the array and the innate cultivation of the Ping Patriarch combined were able to roughly match the rate at which she damaged the smoke serpents.


    That was hardly great, though, considering the fact that the array was still stable and standing. While this was the case, the serpents would forever recover no matter how much energy she spent, and then they would be endlessly firing back at one another with their seemingly infinite pools of planar energy. Wei Yi¡¯s nascent rift was currently one fifth of the way to being fully awakened, with that being the limit simply because to go beyond would mean to essentially invoke the seventh realm two realms early, although she did suspect that she could go beyond this limit if she used up everything at her current disposal.


    Nevertheless, that much was sufficient, as five percent of her energy would recover per minute from that alone, but she could also acquire more from the world itself, from various planar shards that were stored somewhere in the Kong Prison Realm, and more if she sought out the aid of the Patriarchs.


    ¡®None of that matters if Jia Rong doesn¡¯t get here soon, which, it seems, will happen quickly enough¡­¡¯


    With the Third Eye and the sixth realm of killing will, seeing through the shadows was becoming easier the more she acclimated to it, and her mind was also able to develop quite a few techniques to possibly bypass the darkness while she was performing the rather mindless task of repeatedly slashing at the mindless constructs that were repeatedly attempting to strike her down. With how many random and simple techniques she was throwing together, she didn¡¯t bother naming any of them and instead kept on with the effort.


    Once she had enough, throwing them together as she did with everything else would work well enough.


    ¡°How long until this black sun actually erupts?¡± the Chao Patriarch questioned.


    ¡°Do not attempt to suggest such a thing. With my growth in strength, the moment that thing attempts to explode without my control and suppression, this whole district will be¡­ well, completely and utterly fucked! Are you sure that this is the kind of thing you want?¡± the Ascendant warned, noting that the black sun this time had grown far beyond the state that it had been able to reach at the battle near Paragon, its size becoming rather concerning even to her.


    As such, even if she was able to rush back inside and make use of the signet ring once more, she might still endure a great deal of damage just from the energy that bypassed the area before her or bent around it.


    ¡°Now you¡¯ve given me a bad feeling. Patriarch of the Chao District, return to your family and order everyone to rush underground, or to the edge of the district!¡± she instructed.


    ¡°What? Now?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have much energy left, so your continued presence here wouldn¡¯t make much of a difference. What we need is to guarantee that the people of the Ping District aren¡¯t needlessly killed by either the array and the Patriarch controlling it, or the method with which the incredible array is going to be weakened and destroyed,¡± she said, ¡°Bai Patriarch-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll hasten off the moment that my energy is close to exhaustion. I¡¯ll also hurry up with this, then,¡± the Patriarch replied before she could finish, increasing the amount of energy he was funnelling into the black sun before him.


    Wei Yi nodded and looked back to the west, where the small group was already close enough for her to be able to perceive them fully. She recreated her planar construct blade one more time, slashing in rapid succession at the nearby smoke serpents as to give herself some room, then rushed off in their direction.


    In just a few seconds, while some of the sword lights were still flying, the two groups met with one another. Right away, Yi Bai lowered her head and shifted her position to stand behind the Ascendant.


    ¡°So¡­ you two know one another?¡± Great Dark asked right away.


    ¡°None of your business, broken half of a soul. I¡¯m going to need everyone with a lot of energy to feed that black sun and suppress the smoke serpents. Jia Rong, do those eyes of yours see any particular weaknesses in the array beneath us?¡± Wei Yi got straight to the point, ignoring the other inquisitive gazes as she spoke. In particular, the Luo Patriarch seemed most interested in her and her relationship with the assassin, perhaps because she was able to identify something about the energy Yi Bai used, but no matter how great her curiosity was, there would be a better time and place.


    ¡°Um¡­ Nothing in particular. There are some places where the sparks are brighter, but¡­¡±


    ¡°In that case, I shall mark down a few spots on the ground, so you should go over there, hit the ground until it stops working properly, and rush off to the next spot. The moment that I tell you ¨C and everyone else, for that matter ¨C to rush away from this place, do not hesitate to do exactly that. Got it?¡±


    ¡°G-Got it! Hit things! Which things?¡± Jia Rong inquired, promptly being shown how Wei Yi raised her hand and created a large number of glistening wisps that she sent out all over the Ping District.


    They flew to certain points on the array that had been exposed either by her own knowledge of arrays, the minor knowledge that Yi Shi Ming was able to contribute from her experience with the strongest master of arrays that the Planar Continents had seen in the last two million years, or the nodes that showcased some unusual phenomenon through one of her vision states. In particular, the Vision of the Planar was obviously incredibly useful at revealing all kinds of flaws in the flow of planar energy.


    Had it been something that she had from the start, she might have been able to reach the seventh realm or above by relying purely on her own abilities, rather than needing the Truth of the Universe and the other otherworldly gifts to provide her with an advantage.


    As to not run off too early, the demoness waited for just enough to see where one of the wisps would settle down, finding that the closest one did finish flying first, and hastened to it with her fists ready and her energy prepared. With her incredible physical might, she practically teleported to the node in the ground, and with the same speed her clawed fist descended onto it, striking the stone on the ground as if it was only air. From the outside, it might have looked light to those who did not use their bodies all that much, as her muscles were far less developed than the usual purely physical combatant, but the next moment revealed it to all.


    The instant that her fist touched the ground, a vast ripple erupted from it, with the peaks being several metres tall, each one violently cracking and shattering the terrain into dust that exploded out alongside the ground that was still solid. Her target, the various lines and nodes beneath the ground, shattered as if they were made of glass, the sound being carried by the violent ripples in the ground to the others.


    With just one strike, one punch, an area that was over twenty metres in diameter was torn asunder, the array that might have been seven stars in quality or above was damaged, and she could move on.


    Her first attack did not appear to do much to the array, which was only logical. Whenever an array was made, there were some redundancies and some safeguards implemented into anything that was meant to withstand attacks, be it a defensive or an offensive method. Things like healing or planar energy recovery arrays would have fewer such elements, as they were not usually used in the middle of combat as the primary method to repel invaders or more common attackers, but even they would occasionally implement a safeguard against damage to certain weaker points resulting in the complete obliteration of the array as a whole. Those who made arrays knew about many weaknesses in their craft, but they were sometimes unavoidable at their level of skill.


    As soon as Jia Rong appeared beside the next point, she was once again on the ground, raising her hand one moment and already striking the ground in the next. This time, however, as her fist connected with the ground, two rumbles of energy erupted from her, joining the wave of the ground itself. They were faint in comparison to the destruction, but Wei Yi was able to tell that she had just broken through to the first stage of the third realm with a strike against the ground. A rather enviable feat.


    That breakthrough might have come at the very end of her punch, but it did not stop the innate energy within her from becoming even stronger, resulting in this strike piercing even further into the ground, causing the wave to be even larger, for even more structures to be demolished, and for the mere soundwave generated to be sufficient to trigger some of the higher grade defensive talismans on the Luo District¡¯s forces. They rushed to put on more such talismans, and they were wise to do so, for planar energy development was not the only thing that Jia Rong could make use of in order to develop her own strength.


    Before that could be examined, however, the Ascendant and those standing near the black sun saw that the array suddenly began to release great quantities of unbound, aimless energy in random positions, presumably where certain nodes that had depended on that one were now failing to keep up. One such point was right below the black sun¡¯s mass.


    In just one instant, the growth of the black sun increased by several folds, with it becoming closer to the ground and the array and thus allowing more of that energy to be fed straight into it, propagating that cycle of gluttony.


    ¡®That figure in the Bai District¡¯s Ancestral Hall has made use of techniques that could certainly be called gluttonous. If only I had gotten that Dao instead of the Entropy Dao, or even alongside it, this black sun would easily be the most destructive thing I have,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, turning her attention to the Ping Patriarch and the shadow giant that enveloped him, ¡®Well, more than it already is. At the moment, there are still some that can overcome it through sheer force, but the empowerment of Dao would likely put an end to such things, while giving me more control over it.¡¯


    As the array still endured, so did the Patriarch, but much of the energy at the outermost portions of the colossus was getting restless and unstable. With a little more work, he could fall.


    ¡°Jia Rong, keep going! Destroy this array!¡±


    The demoness did not need that to be repeated, as she was already over a third node in the ground, kneeling beside it as to best drive her fist down into it. In the blink of an eye, her fist fell onto it, and again the street was torn to shreds, while the structures around her burst into little pieces, with some outright bursting into dust the moment that the wave of force collided with them. Most importantly, as the array node below her exploded, the array showed more changes yet again.


    Most importantly, several more wounds from which uncontrolled planar energy surged burst open near the black sun, with the energy naturally gravitating towards it as it was easily the strongest source of a draw upon the energy that could be found within the area. Even if the Patriarchs and Wei Yi worked together, their planar energy draw would pale before the black sun, which might soon grow large enough to be acknowledged as a true sun if someone was to launch it into the cosmos for it to take its rightful place.


    The Ping Patriarch was also not in an ideal state, with parts of the enormous wrapping of energy around him falling away, with one part exposing withered flesh. It was his arm, and yet it looked as it had been dead and rotting for a number of years, with skin peeling off and revealing bone beneath it.


    Theories could be thrown about even in the current situation, but it was certain that the screams were no longer coming from a living person, if they were emerging from the Ping Patriarch to begin with. Whether the array killed him, or if it was some technique of his that had failed him in this moment, it was undeniable that there was little chance of saving him, even if someone wished to do it.


    Some might have assumed that it would be a moment of celebration, but the reveal of lifeless flesh caused Wei Yi¡¯s eyes to widen. She was not shocked by this, since this had resembled an ability of an otherworldly demon, which did have the tendency of stealing the lives of their users in more ways than one, but rather by the fact that the moment that the array lost enough of its stability, it would no longer be able to resist the absolute draw of the black sun. At that moment, the energy that had been sufficient to shroud the entire district in darkness and conjure countless smoke serpents would suddenly enter the black sun, and it would expand greatly, leading to it feasting upon the terrain and thus growing with even greater speed.


    In other words, there was far less time to escape than she thought.


    ¡°Bai Patriarch, Luo Matriarch, Great Dark and the rest of you, stop right now and rush to bring everyone to the edge of the district! I might have a way to prevent this from ending incredibly poorly!¡±


    With her having provided a warning on the topic not too long ago, nobody thought to question the instruction. They rushed off to the parts of the district that had not been evacuated, and quickly shone down all kinds of sources of light to draw the people inside out. They shouted warnings and instructions, suggesting calmness, but little else mattered so long as the people rushed to the edge of the district. It was only once they were gathering there that they had to wonder what the use of it would be.


    Since the whole district was enveloped in the strange core, would they not just be at the edge of the eruption rather than the centre? Would her original instruction of heading underground be superior to this?


    ¡°Wei Yi, should I-¡±


    ¡°A few more, then run off immediately! You might be able to endure this, depending on your luck, but I do not want any of us to take random chances when there is no reason to do so!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, already focusing on the enormous Subterranean Shell and the Endless Monolith, as the smoke serpents were getting slower and less stable with each node destroyed.


    Contrary to the thoughts of some, the two phenomena were not her actual anchor and core somehow magnified to that size, but instead projections of them in a similar manner that she could project her Ascendant¡¯s Library. They wouldn¡¯t hurt her if they were to be destroyed or damaged, and they could thus be used as shields if need be. Since the black sun had been made so near to the centre, that was exactly what she wanted to do.


    It would be difficult to prevent the black sun from consuming anything, but it was possible to minimise the damage.


    One node, then another, then a third were broken, and it was then that the array went wild. Enormous quantities of energy flowed out of it, sinking into the black sun at such a pace that it touched the ground and began to feed upon it only a moment later. Most of the energy contained within the array sank away, revealing light from the outside, making the various lanterns unnecessary, but that did not remove the greatest threat of all ¨C the black sun needed to be detonated, or else even the Ascendant would be unable to prevent its perpetual expansion and consumption.


    She did not bother looking to the Ping Patriarch¡¯s body falling to the ground, but instead activated the collapse of the black sun and the shrinking of the Subterranean Shell. With Jia Rong having gotten the hint on her own, she was the only person remaining within the centre of the Ping District.


    Everyone on the outside saw as the dome around them suddenly shrank, passing through them with ease, with the outer walls of the district being brought to the outside in moments. Then, more and more was removed, but before half of the district could be freed from the confines of the core, they saw something incredible erupting within the shell, being able to see only the most major of details through the thick core.


    A vast light surged into the air, tearing into the core in an instant, marking the epicentre of the explosion. From it, an overwhelming force instantly covered the inside of the core, with cracks and tears appearing on the outside of the Subterranean Shell. Some small portions were penetrated entirely, and the weakest gusts of energy were able to cook the land into glass.


    Nevertheless, the core continued to shrink, albeit at a slower pace, forcefully sealing the holes shut via the compression.


    On the inside, Wei Yi had thrown out the power of the signet ring right away, and was rushing to make the false core as small as she possibly could before the effect would end. If she couldn¡¯t do so quickly enough, then she would be devoured in an instant, with the core vanishing and the energy contained within erupting with even more force, tearing through the land and scouring the nearest few kilometres of life. With just one failure, she could be the greatest bringer of calamity in the last few hundred thousand years at the very least.


    At the last moment of consciousness, she felt the confines of the core pass her.

 V4C75: Yi City’s Network

    When she appeared within the Kong Prison Realm, finding that her body was almost solid despite the fact that she did not enter physically, she was not surprised. In her mind, this simply confirmed the previous understanding that fainting of exhaustion and the like would bring her to her mental domain, with some things advancing as a result.


    This time, the prison realm did not look larger, nor was her mental energy significantly stronger. So far as she was able to tell, her planar energy was about the same as before, and her other forms of cultivation hadn¡¯t advanced either.


    ¡®No¡­ my bloodline power has leapt all the way up to the ninth stage of Semblance Extraction, meaning that my abilities are now nearly four times as great as they would have been without the passive amplification of the bloodline power,¡¯ she concluded from the vague aura of her bloodline that manifested within the spatial realm, ¡®I suppose my unconscious mind would appreciate seeing the last of my five paths reaching the fifth realm, which would, in turn, bring my advantage up even further¡­ Had I not dismissed the heavens already, I would have used them in an exclamatory phrase, but¡­¡¯


    She shifted her location to the gateway of the prison realm and passed through it into Paragon. Her body was stable while in the mental domain, which did include the desert fortress thanks to the range of her spiritual energy. There were few people present at the gateways at this moment, so nobody noticed her as she then continued into the Luo District.


    Without any confirmation of what was occurring on the outside, she wouldn¡¯t know the exact outcome of her actions in the Ping District, so she needed to take a look on her own.


    Obviously, as she was not conscious, she couldn¡¯t have activated the spatial stabilisation point in the Ping District even if it had endured the supernova without any damage, which she did not think to be likely, and she thus couldn¡¯t simply appear in the district and investigate things on her own, while speaking to the leaders of the other districts to get a better understanding of everything else. What she could do from the Luo District, however, she was able to get a good look at the distant wall and structures of the district of thieves and assassins.


    The very edge was fine, although there looked to be far more people gathered near it than would be usual for the district, even with the deaths that it had recently experienced. What was not fine was a point roughly mid-way into the district, and everything past it in a circular radius.


    From there onto the middle, and then the same distance out on the other side, there was an enormous crater marked by several more smaller holes, with the most notable being those that clearly carved out the array that had once been present there. Although it was not a deep crater, with the lowest point looking to be no more than three metres into the ground, it had completely wiped out everything that had stood there before.


    Somewhere in the middle, there should have been an Ancestral Hall, but all that she could find to resemble its remains was a pile of rubble that was too low in the ground, suggesting the presence of an underground floor or basement of some kind. There were also plenty of other structures there, but all of them, without exception, were turned to rubble and blended into the ground, resulting in terrain that could almost be said to be gravel-like, except with far larger pieces of gravel. In a way, it was as if someone looked too closely at it, leading to the stones being significantly larger than they should have been.


    ¡°Hey, who are you and why are you flying around in¡­ wait a minute, you¡¯re that woman!¡± a voice called out, prompting her to look down at the speaker.


    It was an ordinary enough man wearing the uniform of a guard, but he was clearly speaking with some degree of recognition of her appearance if nothing else. Since the fight against the other faction in the Luo District, as well as the announcement that she had made after that, were public enough, some hint of realisation would have been normal, but there was a certain degree of confusion in his voice.


    For that reason, she promptly appeared before him and asked, ¡°That woman?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes, you¡¯re the one that had been brought over here not long ago! You were unconscious!¡± the guard exclaimed, sounding like she looked to be in a rather bad state.


    ¡°Right. Where was I brought?¡±


    ¡°The Luo Ancestral Hall, but-¡±


    His words were not listened to, as the Ascendant returned her mental body to the gateway and brought herself into the Ancestral Hall, browsing for a moment with her spiritual perception before she found the right place, appearing in the appropriate room.


    There, she found her body, with Luo Na sitting beside it with a frown.


    As soon as she manifested within the room, the Luo Matriarch looked up, and a moment later, she looked to the unconscious body on the bed.


    ¡°Wait, that¡­ oh¡­ I think I understand. There was something missing from your body after we had found it, so we had thought it to be something other than your spirit, or your consciousness. Is that what you are right now?¡± the Matriarch asked with a great degree of calmness, having recognised the situation almost immediately.


    ¡°You got that far too quickly. Yes, that should be the case. For some reason, I will always end up in my own mental domain after losing consciousness like this, and I can then leave to other places where my spiritual will holds a great degree of power. With the gateway, this place is included,¡± Wei Yi replied as she approached the other side of the bed, looking down upon herself, ¡°You know, I don¡¯t want to sound narcissistic, but I look surprisingly great despite having been hit with quite a lot of that black sun¡¯s explosive energy.¡±


    ¡°I wish I could be as sure as you are, but you do look to have endured it well. You even got stronger.¡±


    ¡°That I did. Anyway, I don¡¯t usually get to see my body like this, but that isn¡¯t as important as what had happened over at the Ping District. How much time passed since then, what happened, and is there any intention at all to support it in the effort of rebuilding?¡±


    ¡°We rushed you straight back, covering it up so that nobody got too worried, and that was only yesterday. As for what happened¡­ well, you likely saw it just as well as we had,¡± Luo Na said, her lightless gaze turning in the direction of the Ping District, ¡°A large portion of the district was obliterated, although there did not seem to be anyone of note that remained within the area. The Patriarchs and I rushed in to confirm what happened to you, and found you lying unconscious but clearly still alive amidst the rubble. While we didn¡¯t know what had happened to you, nor why you had decided to remain within the core as it was containing the explosion of the black sun, we knew that it would be best to bring you away and let you recover in a better place than that. On the topic of rebuilding, however, I am not sure that it would be feasible in any short amount of time.¡±


    ¡°No, it will be. In fact, we need the district to be rebuilt as soon as possible, so if your Luo District has anyone skilled in construction, they will be needed.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not giving me much to work with¡­ that being said, it might be possible to collect a few builders and architects. I¡¯d encourage you to seek the Bai District for such a thing, however, as their forces are far more capable at organising large work efforts than we are,¡± the Luo Matriarch admitted, ¡°The way that the guardians had been divided wasn¡¯t a coincidental disagreement. We like to have diverging opinions, it seems.¡±


    ¡°Again, this is mostly irrelevant. What we need is for all of the districts to come together to assist the Ping District, or else the people that survived will think that we intended to destroy that much of it, and will not appreciate any attempts to ally with them. That, and we need to fix it up as quickly as possible before the Great Families take the chance to do something stupid¡­ Do you think that they will be able to perceive my mention of them even though I am currently in this state?¡± Wei Yi suddenly asked, glancing back down at herself.


    Luo Na rolled her eyes, returning her attention to the body on the bed as well. With her limited vision, she couldn¡¯t see either state of the Ascendant with perfect clarity, nor could she evaluate their beauty, but she had to agree with Wei Yi¡¯s earlier assessment of herself. There were no clear flaws on either the physical or mental part of her, which was the full extent of praise that she could offer.


    ¡°I cannot be sure. Is your mind still part of the mental domain you spoke of, or has it left it?¡±


    ¡°It is no longer in the mental domain, so that would mean that they could perceive it, but only if they are looking for any traces of their names and not something more specific like them being spoken by a physical being. If their method of discovering such mentions is anything like a spatial treasure, in that they both require a more complex and limited function in order to be produced with fewer materials and be less costly to use, then it is more likely that they would have taken into account the usual methods of communication between the relevant people of Yi City and had ensured that they would be perceived, but little else,¡± Wei Yi posited, ¡°In other words, this was a complete waste of time, since I cannot confirm their exact method just yet.¡±


    ¡°You weren¡¯t worried about them to begin with, so that is why it does not matter to you. The people in the southern districts will likely fear to say their names without proper caution.¡±


    ¡°Then that is their fault. The Great Families thrive on that fear, since any organised effort to ensure that they wouldn¡¯t have risen in the first place would have allowed the world to be free of their madness. Since that had not happened, and is not happening, they don¡¯t really have the right to complain,¡± the Ascendant stated, ¡°Anything else I need to pay attention to?¡±


    ¡°I would advise you to look in the mirror. There may be something that you¡¯ve missed.¡±


    She nodded and promptly vanished from the spot, with her being able to transport herself to any place in the extended mental domain without any effort on her own part. For her, it might actually be better to exist in her mental state most of the time the very moment that Yi City is united and the spatial stabilisation nodes are activated, since she could transport herself to any part of it at any moment, while taking on the majority of appearances that she had ever possessed.


    Before then, she wouldn¡¯t even entertain the idea, as sealing herself within the world that she had taken over at the moment would mean that she could never expand. Obviously, there was also the trouble of her limited power while in the mental state, as it was her body that could fully manifest her five energies. Without it, the Ascendant wouldn¡¯t be able to manifest her physique energy, or her bloodline power, or her planar energy, and only her own killing will would be of any use. Even in the defence of her territory, she would be far less powerful than the many potential threats, and that would only be intensified by the awakening of the likes of the Primordial Deities.


    The Bai District wasn¡¯t particularly different from what it had been the last time she visited. The layer that covered the district had been partially repaired, although there was still far more sunlight shining down upon the central region than there had been originally.


    As she appeared and found the person she was looking for rather quickly, the people present in the central region did not have the chance to notice her and properly perceive her appearance, with the most observant only seeing the glimpse of a crimson-haired figure appearing and disappearing beside the gateway. In theory, she could shift herself directly from one Matriarch¡¯s proximity to the area of another Patriarch, but it was nicer to have a quick look at the district as a whole first.


    The Bai Patriarch was back within the Ancestral Hall, sitting in a chair beside a desk filled with all kinds of books focused on group tactics and techniques. Some were old and likely contained much more information than the modern ones did, whereas others were brief and only went into minor detail about the technique that they were focused upon. Despite quite a few of these being far below his level, with a few describing techniques of the second realm and below, he was incredibly focused upon every single one.


    ¡°Looking to learn from the simpler methods of the world?¡± Wei Yi asked, approaching him.


    He did not turn around right away, instead finishing the page he was on before glancing back, ¡°You are already up? It seems you have the endurance to match a dragon.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t exaggerate. I have yet to reach that level,¡± she said, as she remembered the scenes from the illusory Fated Dragon Hatchling and just how much the adult dragons were able to endure, physically and mentally, before falling, ¡°That being said, you have failed to answer my question. I don¡¯t often see most Patriarchs doing this kind of thing openly.¡±


    ¡°Neither am I. The doors were closed.¡±


    ¡°That they were.¡±


    ¡°¡­ You¡¯re appearing as some kind of phantom or spirit, aren¡¯t you? We all found that there was something different about you when we recovered your body, but we weren¡¯t able to comprehend it fully,¡± the Patriarch said, pointing to his books, ¡°These techniques contain similar descriptions.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s certainly interesting, in two ways. First of all, you are right, but I had not been sure that my mind parted from my body this early. I only found myself awakening a short time ago, and yet it seems that I could have been busy all the while before that. Also, if those books mention it, then does that mean that your group methods have the ability to separate mind and body, then project one out into the world into a state similar to mine?¡±


    ¡°They are able to separate the two aspects of humanity, but none of these explicitly mention projection. However-¡±


    ¡°Integration of a spatial realm with a mental domain can allow that to occur via the amplification and stabilisation of mental phenomena and their externalisation into the outside world via gateways. I understand that much, and I highly doubt that you do not,¡± she cut him off, since anyone in the seventh realm should have been more than aware that there was a spatial realm permitting the gateways between distant lands, although he likely lacked the knowledge of the exact realm that she occupied, ¡°If there are no particular insights that you have personally gained, I¡¯ll take a look through these as well. Meanwhile, could you send out a few builders or builder squads over to the Ping District?¡±


    ¡°If you wish to rebuild it, then just a few won¡¯t be sufficient.¡±


    ¡°Again, does my current appearance make me look younger or something? There is no reason to say such obvious things. If I am providing instructions like that, then I am likely to be aware of such a thing, and I have likely considered a method with which to overcome the problem.¡±


    ¡°Now that you mention it, you do look different, although I cannot tell what the difference is. I can still feel the aura of your energy, so that wouldn¡¯t be the thing to change my perception of you¡­ in fact, it appears that even I don¡¯t really know why I was seeing you as someone lesser¡­ Perhaps you do look significantly younger,¡± the Patriarch shrugged, finding little hints regarding this, ¡°You are probably the best to understand this, so I will be able to offer you little in this regard.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Still, send your builder teams to assist those from the Ping, Chao and Luo Districts, and then I should be up properly by the time that they need someone to clear up the mess,¡± she said, vanishing from the spot and moving herself to another part of the district. It was a place where there did not appear to be anyone in the immediate proximity, and there happened to be a very good mirror right in front of her, so she naturally took the time to examine her current appearance in order to confirm that there were no blatant flaws within it. If she was somehow showcasing her original self to the world after all of this time, it would be rather awkward.


    Fortunately, it did not appear to be the case. Her features were the same as on her physical body, and her clothing was also not different from her present state. The clawed gauntlet on her right hand was slightly different in appearance, her right hand was slightly darker while not being in the full killing will state, and her eyes glistened with all four circles representing the vision states that she could call upon, if necessary, but the rest wasn¡¯t any different.


    What she could note quite easily was that her energy wasn¡¯t actually within her body, nor could she fully invoke the power of the Dao in anything more than the conceptual aspect, and it was likely that even though her mental manifestation was able to project the same aura that her physical body would possess at its strongest, it lacked the true power behind that aura. To those that weren¡¯t strong enough to face against her killing will alone, it likely didn¡¯t make much of a difference, but in front of the seventh realm leaders of the districts, that difference was significantly more pronounced and significant. It might even seem like she was an entirely unique person with far less power, far less notability, and one that couldn¡¯t be placed on the same level as they were.


    She didn¡¯t know whether this was due to their divine sense or simply their power, but it was something to watch out for in the future.


    ¡®I cannot change that right now, not unless I spend way more effort than necessary to maintain a false flow of energy throughout me that simulates a higher realm of cultivation than my mental self technically possesses, so I¡¯ll just be swift with the Chao Patriarch and then get back to other matters.¡¯


    Just as quickly as she had appeared in the Bai District, she was gone, and the Chao District only saw a glimpse of wondrous crimson hair as she entered the district and then moved herself to the Patriarch¡¯s position. A little like his fellow leader in the Bai District, he was found in the Ancestral Hall, but whereas his peer was dedicating himself to studying the phenomenon that occurred to Wei Yi, he was instead focusing on training himself. He made use of a specific space in the hall to exercise his body in a state of greater gravity, punching, kicking, running, stretching and doing everything else that one might be able to think of in order to develop his body.


    Even with his age, the Ascendant imagined that this kind of thing might interest the typical woman.


    ¡°Patriarch, I see that you are not that distraught. I am glad to see such optimising from the Chao District¡¯s best and brightest,¡± she said, ¡°Unless you absolutely can¡¯t talk ¨C or even listen ¨C right now, I don¡¯t mind if you keep training.¡±


    ¡°Can talk. What?¡± he asked, not even bothering to look in her direction. From his focus on his current punching routine, it was clear that he was far too invested in this to simply throw it away the moment that someone chooses to address him, so she found no problems with his minimal reply, nor with the way that he did not appear to be interested in her sudden return after her apparent loss of consciousness in the Ping District.


    Then again, even if he had noticed something amiss, like Luo Na and the Bai Patriarch, perhaps he rightly assumed that she would awaken nonetheless.


    ¡°I¡¯ll need you to send some competent workers and builders to the Ping District. We need to rebuild it, and if we don¡¯t all come together, the people there might get the wrong idea. Before they find a new leader that they trust, and will thus believe if he or she assures them that the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters are on their side and did not mean to cause that destruction, it is important to give the right impression.¡±


    ¡°Right. How many?¡±


    ¡°Oh, straight to it? Alright, here¡¯s what I¡¯m thinking¡­¡±


    Once she was done with that, she returned to the Luo District, appearing on the other side of the bed once more and sitting down with Luo Na to watch over her still body. It was a little strange to just sit alongside herself like this, but Wei Yi had experienced stranger things than this.


    ¡°So, while I¡¯m waiting around, why don¡¯t you tell me how things have been for you as of late?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°I- Wait, I think I¡¯m returning to my body. That was¡­ poorly timed and quite exquisite at the same time, considering that I wanted to get back into the action already, so¡­¡± the Ascendant shrugged, standing up as her form became hazy, while her physical body clearly began to stir alongside her movements, ¡°Give a moment to get into myself¡­ not the best word choice, there¡­¡±


    She hardly had the time to explain before her mental form vanished, and her physical body finally began to transmit all of its sensations to her. All of the pain that had built up from her effort the earlier day rushed to her, quickly prompting her to channel her energy and remove the rest of her injuries.


    As she did so, she opened her eyes and sat up in the bed, blinking several times to focus her vision.


    ¡°Ahem¡­ Everything looks to be alright. No major internal injuries or anything of the sort. Did I manage to avoid them, or had one of you provided me with something to assist in my recovery?¡±


    ¡°We did not need to provide anything. If not for the destruction we saw in the Ping District, we would have thought that the black sun had barely done anything based on the state of your body. Your robes were repairing themselves, your body was in a near perfect condition, and had you emerged with your consciousness and mind present within you, then we may have assumed that you had the ability to overcome the black sun with ease,¡± Luo Na said, ¡°I am rather curious about that, although if you do not wish to tell me, I will not be surprised.¡±


    ¡°Curious about me enduring the black sun? That¡¯s a personal method of mine that I will not disclose yet, so you were right to expect that,¡± Wei Yi said, brushing her hair back and tying it back into the traditional ponytail.


    ¡°Very well, then. Will you be going to the Ping District?¡±


    ¡°Of course. If you would like to visit, then wait for the opening of the gateway, which I should be able to do in no more than an hour or two. At that point, you can also send the builders over to assist in the reconstruction, and all of you will get to witness how the district is returned to how it had been physically, while the people get a chance to abandon the way of the assassins and the thieves, and rise to truly be one of the twenty four major districts.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure you are counting that correctly? The Kong District has not been notable for many decades.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been there, and I understand that perfectly. However, that¡¯s not to say that it cannot be lived in and restored to a better state, especially when there are so many things there that could be of use to me and to the new residents of the district. All that we¡¯ll need is to decide which family name they shall have, and, considering some of my own activities, I do have some ideas already,¡± Wei Yi said.


    She was someone with an entirely different surname to the vast majority of Yi City¡¯s population, and there was a certain chance that she would get a few more family members with that surname. If she didn¡¯t get them a district of their own, at the very least, what kind of father would she be to her children? Until she was able to actively participate in their lives as someone other than the leader of a faction they would be born into, she could at the very least provide them with a place to grow up where they would have room to grow and develop without the interference of existing families attempting to pointlessly assert their former dominance.


    Meanwhile, the few that still possess the Kong name are unlikely to want their district back, since none of them would have had any history with it directly. At most, they would be aware of what their ancestors had said of it once upon a time, and even that shouldn¡¯t be a positive recounting. For them, it would be far better if the children of another family occupied the fallen district, since they would do far better in the lands that they have moved to since then.


    Luo Na couldn¡¯t see much from Wei Yi¡¯s expression, but she had a faint feeling that the Ascendant was thinking about something silly. Despite that, she also felt that she might succeed at whatever it was.


    That was simply what the Ascendant did. She entered a stalemate that had mostly existed for a million years, and forcefully turned the tides against the Greats all on her own. Obviously, there were other participants in the War of Ascendancy, but none of the forces had made as great a contribution as she had.


    On the evening of that day, Wei Yi stood amidst the rubble, having dug out a particular spot where the terrain remained significantly flatter and higher than at other points. It was obviously the site where the spatial stabilisation point had been placed, and so she removed just enough broken pieces of stone to reveal the point. She was going to clear up more in a little bit, but the presence of the gateway would assist her efforts, so she didn¡¯t want to rush ahead and waste her own energy.


    Standing beside the point, she drew upon her cultivation and also willed the rest of her energy to surge out, forcing herself to the brink of her next breakthrough. It took a few moments, and then cosmic light surged out of her body.


    The vague manifestations of her Endless Monolith and Subterranean Shell glowed brightly, causing the Ping District to brighten to the level of the morning. Everyone on the outer regions of the district turned towards the centre, finding a familiar dome that was, this time, shrunk significantly, to the point that it actually resembled the core of a cultivator for once.


    Thirty-three searing marks were emblazoned within its surface, and right before their eyes, twenty-two more lit up the district, seeming to become small stars on the ground, and made them all look towards the core with the same degree of focus and attention as what they had demonstrated the previous day. That time, it was caused by the forceful invocation of Law to bring attention to the largest and most significant element, but this time, the small yet blinding light overwhelmed all on its own, causing the crowds to gather at the edge of the ruined region.


    Standing there, they were able to witness a great gate of two colours forming within the air, connecting to the ground, and manifesting into a large opening within the very world, surrounded by silver and crimson.


    As the gateway formed, a sudden pulse of energy exploded out of it, with three distinct lines surging towards the north, the north-east, and the south-east, with all of them going far beyond the perception of those remaining in the district within seconds, although the bright green trail that they left behind remained for nearly an hour. These lines, unbeknownst to anyone but Wei Yi in that area, connected to the gateways of the three districts in which she had opened gateways, and as this connection stabilised, she could sense that there was more to this than some kind of minor indication of a large number of gateways.


    This was a network of some kind, one created within Yi City long before she had ever set foot within it.


    ¡®And so, I see the Master of Yi City has once again done more than I imagined. Wonderful.¡¯

 V4C76: Repairs and Election

    She was able to figure out a number of things from the network in moments, but she put that to the back of her immediate priorities as she still had a sea of rubble around herself, one that was now being looked at not just by the people of the Ping District, but also by those at the other gateways. If she just left that as it was, she would hardly receive the kind of attention she needed.


    Instead, she focused the energy that she had collected after the breakthrough and spread it out all over the district, making use of the additional stabilisation of the gateway and the Yi City Web to further her own energy manipulation range while enhancing all of these aspects with the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, resulting in the entire ruined portion of the district being covered with the blackened crimson layer of her influence. Every stone, piece of wood, torn and ripped stretch of cloth and so on were enveloped by it, and all of these things began to tremble just a little bit.


    ¡°Now, if I just try and reverse things, I will be wasting my own energy. The power of the supernova does not need to be repeated in order to correct this, nor would the previous layout be the most optimal. Endless Calculation can generate a better layout based on mathematical probability alone, but the correction of the current situation should be done by¡­ two options jump out. Destruction or repositioning,¡± Wei Yi muttered to herself, ¡°Shattering all of this to dust could work, but the resulting structural stability¡­ Sarah might be able to work with it, since her otherworldly gift should be able to convert any form of stone to something useful, but I would rather not bring her to work on other territories for now. However, repositioning is also troublesome, since lifting this much is¡­¡±


    As soon as she got onto that, she paused. There was no reason to lift everything, by hand or with her energy, when she had enough influence over the Dao of Law to will a road to be formed from the Dimensional Domain all the way to the Ping District and survive. What she needed was for the objects to rise, but nothing guaranteed that this would be easier or simpler than modifying the very direction in which objects fell.


    After all, just as the principle of objects moving once an appropriate degree of energy was exerted onto them was law, so was the fact that everything was bound by gravity. Every piece of rubble on the ground should, in theory, be able to move the moment that the ground beneath disappeared, as the force would be acting upon it indefinitely, so to rotate that force and instead make them fall upwards wasn¡¯t impossible. In fact, she didn¡¯t even need to modify everything from the ground to the cosmos in order to make this happen ¨C instead, creating an area of upward gravity that congregates into a balanced gravity, above which downward gravity persists, might be significantly more feasible than someone else in her present realm might imagine. At that point, the only question would be whether to break the rubble apart prior to attempting this.


    While there should be no benefit to doing so in terms of modifying gravity, she considered it for a moment and concluded that it would be best to crush it into smaller pieces that could be worked with more easily.


    She raised her left hand and formed it into a fist, pausing for a moment as she focused on every part of the process that she was about to attempt. At the same time as breaking the rocks, she would allow the shockwave of the strike to carry her Imposition of Law, as her technique of modifying nature could be labelled, and thus raise them according to her desire.


    ¡®Collapsing Cavern Fist is a technique of the Fist and Hand Dao, both of which are at the Initial Accomplishment stage. It is also a form of the Earth Dao, which is at Initial Accomplishment as well, and of the Dao of the Elements at Minor Achievement, which are part of the Planar Dao, which is at the Great Stride stage. In total ¨C not to forget the Ascendant¡¯s Combat Dao, which is at Initial Accomplishment ¨C there are nine stages added to the technique,¡¯ she suppressed the urge to grin like a fool, ¡®Even though it is Uninitiated due to me never practising it explicitly, it still reaches the Fifth Stage.¡¯


    That was if she was just to strike down casually, without bothering to infuse it with the power of Law. With it, there were another three stages added on top of that, before the intrinsic principles of the Dao of Law were even considered. In other words, as she casually raised her hand and prepared to bring it down, she was invoking a technique with a power that some of those in the eighth and ninth stages might never have reached.


    Aware that she wouldn¡¯t be able to suppress a silly expression for much longer, she raised it as far as necessary before slamming it down, striking the air before her.


    ¡®This could also be said to be a form of inscription, array arrangement or blacksmithing, if I was to push it¡­ If nothing else, this teaches me that Dao are not something that should be limited by the power of a single path, but rather something that grows exponentially with every new branch and fork I comprehend. The Planar Dao includes bloodline power, physique energy and killing will, just to name a few things¡­ I comprehend all of them to some small degree, and with them, my power-¡¯ right before the force encompassed within her strike could explode, her mind suddenly reached out for more and more Dao and thus the force grew alongside their number. In one moment, it was as if the strike changed from the small fire of a match to that of a lighthouse overseeing the world ¨C the sun itself.


    The resulting blast was strangely quiet, but it was not unimpressive to behold. With just one strike, an enormous network of cracks and tears spread out throughout the fragments of rubble covering the district. Each piece of useless material cracked apart into smaller and smaller chunks, with the web gaining more and more individual lines the further out it went to compensate for the expansion.


    Every piece that was struck and broken was thrown into the air, or so it seemed to the onlookers, but as they reached a certain zenith in the air, they did not fall back down as they expected. Instead, the chunks and pieces bounced up and down for a few moments, reaching an odd equilibrium within the empty air as if they were floating in water rather than the transparent substance that they had gotten used to.


    An otherworldly demon might have been able to explain that there was more to air and water than met the eye, which many of the native population could confirm due to their own comprehension of the primary states of matter via their planar energy, but they wouldn¡¯t have an explanation for this spectacle. In fact, one figure that had thought about attempting to share some of their knowledge with those gathered beside them, but they found themselves stunned as they beheld the various ruined pieces of homes and shops rise in a smooth wave, emanating from the glowing centre, with the stones and chunks of wood and so on bobbing up and down in sequence before stabilising.


    This wave rapidly rushed towards the outer region of the Ping District, where the people reacted either by standing still due to their sheer amazement at this phenomenon, while other hastened back to avoid being struck, feeling rather concerned that a force this powerful could easily strike them all down.


    Luckily for them, even if Wei Yi did want to do this, she was already feeling herself being pushed to the limit, with many of her internal organs rupturing and tearing themselves apart as if this was the only thing they knew how to do as of late. If she was to go a little further, the diameter wouldn¡¯t increase all that greatly, but the area that she was affecting would be multiplied significantly, and her body might outright shut down if she wasn¡¯t careful enough. She made sure to restrain the wave, so that just as it reached the last bits of rubble, it would stop.


    That was made easier by the fact that the rubble began or ended ¨C depending on how you looked at it ¨C at the edge of the Subterranean Shell manifestation at the time of the battle in the district, and so it was in a perfect circle around her, with everything beyond it remaining mostly stable and sound save for the few buildings shaken by the supernova.


    The wave of rising rocks reached that edge and ceased, with a few of the pieces and chunks that had slightly gone over that edge as they fell ending up outside of the full field of altered gravity, allowing them to fall out after a moment of bobbing. However, that did not change the reaction of the people that saw this, for even the flaws at the end of the process couldn¡¯t be compared to the overall result before them.


    An enormous area that had previously been covered in broken pieces of their former homes, the shops that they had visited from time to time, and the structures in which the many gangs and criminal organisations of the district had resided and gathered, was suddenly cleansed of it all. They did not see fully flat land before them, as the uneven terrain of the region combined with the holes where the former district-wide array had been made that impossible, but they were able to see something far more significant than that. In place of the destruction, there was the potential for reconstruction, and for improvement.


    They no longer stood side by side with the worst of the district¡¯s people, and if they didn¡¯t allow for that kind of activity to rise once more, they would never have to see them here again.


    With the old removed, they could vastly enhance the foundation, and make use of it to create a Ping District that could stand up to the Yi District of the past, to the legendary place where even the greatest of people would be insignificant in comparison to the sheer might and glory of the district where the Master of Yi City spent most of his time.


    ¡°People of the Ping District, if you wouldn¡¯t mind, I would like to say a few things,¡± a voice reached out to all of them, carried underneath the floating rubble and above the free terrain, ¡°My name is Wei Yi, and I am the Ascendant that leads the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, as well as the one that had brought the Luo, Chao and Bai Districts here with the intention of removing the overwhelming plague of the thieves and assassins that had grown within this district. I had not intended to cause such excessive destruction, however.¡±


    The people she was addressing glanced to one another, various thoughts on their minds. Some were in agreement with her actions, having suffered greatly at the hands of the thugs that populated the district, whereas others had some ability to endure them or were rather upset by the damage that she had ended up causing with her invasion. That anger was mitigated somewhat by what appeared to be an effort to assist in the repair process, but they were curious what she would say.


    Wei Yi knew this, so she paused for a moment and then began once more.


    ¡°I have activated the spatial stabilisation points in the centre of the district, and through it you may come to any of the three connected districts in an instant. If you no longer wish to reside here, you may leave at any time, and I, at the very least, shall not stop you,¡± she stated, proceeding immediately so that some of the people did not get the wrong impression that she was trying to get them out of the district, ¡°That being said, I do not wish to throw this place away and let it become ruined like the Kong District. There is a vast degree of potential in the people here, and I believe that it is about time that you were able to display it to the world.


    ¡°For that reason, builders and workers from the three districts I had mentioned, as well as a few people from my own faction, shall come and assist in the reconstruction of the district. With the previous structures cleared, a new district may be built in their place, and I shall personally ensure that the Ping Ancestral Hall is rebuilt with the positive deeds of the Ping family being stored within.¡±


    That quickly changed the mood of some. The Bai District was not a district that was the most renowned for their builders, as that title could be claimed by the Chu family when it came to wooden structures or the Shun District¡¯s well-trained servants in most construction efforts, but their group techniques guaranteed swiftness, precision and strength, allowing the creation of several buildings in mere hours. With the additional assistance of the strong Chao District¡¯s people, and the talismans of the Luo, it wouldn¡¯t be impossible to rebuild a street or two within a single day.


    Furthermore, if they understood her correctly, it even seemed that the Ascendant had a plan for a different layout to their district that might be more efficient than the previous one. If that was the case, quite a few wouldn¡¯t object to adhering to it.


    ¡°You can rest assured that by the end of the week, you will regain your homes, and that within two, your legacy would also be safely stored within the Ping Ancestral Hall. However, before that can occur, I would like to ask something of you: after this unfortunate disaster, in which the Patriarch perished, who would you hold up as a worthy replacement? Who do you believe to be a capable leader, regardless of their cultivation?¡±


    The people looked to one another once more. Although it might seem like an easy question in smaller groups, or when there was a particularly exceptional figure amongst the masses, most of such figures had been part of vicious criminal groups that were no longer amongst them, clearly having been slain by the Arbiters and the forces of the other districts. Furthermore, turning to such people once more would simply plunge them back into the abyss from which they had just emerged, and that wouldn¡¯t be something that anyone would wish for unless they had no other choice at all. It would be difficult to find someone.


    Despite that, some found their thoughts turning to a certain figure that they knew, that was part of the Ping family, and that was unlikely to turn to the same kinds of deeds as the others.


    ¡°Ping Xiao Li!¡± a certain blue-haired man cried out, catching Wei Yi¡¯s eye.


    He was Lan Rongqi, and apart from appearing the previous day in one of the groups attempting to understand what was happening to the district while also seeking ways to weaken the Ping family¡¯s activities, she recalled that he had been part of some resistance group that had shown itself to her when she had first visited the district.


    As such, his vote was certainly an interesting one that caused her to look around in search of any other that would agree with him.


    Quite quickly, someone else decided to shout out, ¡°Ping Xiao Li! He was working to minimize the power of the thieves and thugs over all of us! If he isn¡¯t a good choice, then we might as well not call this the Ping District any longer!¡±


    From another part of the crowd, she also heard the words, ¡°Ping Xiao Li!¡±


    She quickly stretched her spiritual perception out and locked onto all of the Ping family members still remaining within the crowd, and then found one that was being looked at by some of those standing near him, who had gained that attention after his name began to sound throughout the crowd. With that, a small journal within one of his inner pockets, and a token inside of another pocket, all of which bore his name, she was able to be mostly sure that this was the person that so many were interested in.


    While her perception was looking through the crowd, she also noticed that some of those calling out his name looked at others in confusion, sharing glances with other groups as if to question the identity of the strange supporters. One thing that unified all of them were various tokens and symbols that were at once inconspicuous and recognisable, and with that she had an idea of who the man was.


    ¡°Ping Xiao Li, would you mind walking out and coming to the front? You don¡¯t need to step into the field of rubble if you¡¯re afraid of that, but it would make things clearer.¡±


    Hearing her invitation, and seeing a number of those standing near them also looking towards the man, more and more of the crowd slowly turned to him, and what was rather interesting was that most of them seemed to get brighter expressions the moment that they noticed his presence. Even before he could get out of the crowd and come to the front, simply confirming the identity of the person being mentioned appeared to encourage and excite a number of ordinary people, with very few of the reactions looking to be purely from his appearance, which, as far as she was able to understand it, looked to be average for someone of the Ping family.


    Although he did not look sure at first, when nearly everyone around him was calling out for him to come out, he had little choice but to go forward, the crowd parting before him as he made his way out of it.


    Once he did emerge, allowing everyone with good eyesight in the crowd all around the district¡¯s destroyed middle to see him, he took a few more steps out, although he stopped near the edge of the floating circle of rocks and didn¡¯t attempt to progress. His gaze flicked over to the rocks above him several times, and one of his hands appeared to be preparing to use a defensive technique, so what worried him hardly needed to be explained.


    ¡°Ping Xiao Li, right? Would you mind explaining why so many people are calling out your name? I have been to your district once before, and I did not have the chance to meet you.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ ahem,¡± he coughed as he remembered to make use of a voice amplification method so that his voice would reach her and those on the other side of the ruined centre, ¡°I believe it is due to my activities prior to this. I had¡­ I had founded a few groups with the intention of handling certain problems I felt were present within the district, but they weren¡¯t able to do as much as I¡¯d hoped.¡±


    ¡°Now, I¡¯m not sure why you are being so cautious about this. If you are to be selected as a leader because of this, I think that it is very important that everyone understands exactly what it was that you were trying to achieve. Oh, and if you are worried about me, then you needn¡¯t be. I¡¯m almost sure that I already know exactly what you had been doing, and I don¡¯t think I disapprove of the idea, at the very least,¡± she said, adding in a lowered voice, ¡°Execution probably could use more work, but then again, that is the case with most things.¡±


    The man looked around with a frown, but the more he looked, the more he seemed to realise something, causing his expression to lighten up. After inspecting everyone standing at the front of the encirclement, he breathed out and straightened his back.


    ¡°Before this, I had formed several groups to oppose the power of the many criminal groups that were present in the Ping District. Without many resources of my own, and with few allies amongst those who did have them, I ended up being unable to procure the necessary power for them to enact any of the changes I would have liked to see,¡± Ping Xiao Li finally admitted, ¡°Then, you arrived and brought those we opposed down in one day.¡±


    That made the many who had called out his name, but were then confused by such a large number of people willing to do the same, reach into their pockets and feel the various symbols within them. Their gazes lost their suspicion and were instead filled with a mixture of pride and comradery, for they understood that they had actually been part of very similar groups.


    ¡°Could you explain why you didn¡¯t simply form one large organisation with this intent?¡±


    ¡°They would be found out ¨C that was almost certain. All I could guarantee was that as few people at a time as possible would be discovered and dealt with by the family, and I did my best to separate the various groups into specific roles in specific parts of the district. If the chance of their arrest and the possibility of outright execution wasn¡¯t present, I would have done exactly that, and perhaps I would have been able to do more with the people that did support me,¡± the man said, with quite a few looking to him with appreciation.


    Considering the fact that most leaders of groups that opposed the Ping family would use pseudonyms and various false identities to avoid being caught, even he who gave out his own name could have avoided being caught simply due to the extreme plausibility that someone had used his name without his knowledge. Even the Ping family of yesterday wouldn¡¯t have chosen to imprison or execute him for a coincidence, and so he could have been safe whether he had formed one organisation or a thousand.


    Despite that, he did not, meaning that any one capture attempt by the Ping family would always result in fewer of them being caught. It was likely that many of those that could stand in the crowd and announce Ping Xiao Li¡¯s name were only there for that reason.


    ¡°Good. In that case, would you like to make a case for why you should be the new Patriarch?¡±


    He quickly looked down and shut his eyes, considering this option intently. Although he had attempted to do quite a lot, he was actually only in the fifth stage of Marked Core, with twenty-nine searing marks blazing on his core. At nearly six marks per stage, this wasn¡¯t too poor of a display, but in comparison to the overwhelming power that the seventh realm seemed to possess, it wasn¡¯t that great either.


    ¡°If you are worried about your realm, by the way, that can be amended. I don¡¯t expect to send you up to the seventh realm in one go, but it is very easy to assist you in rising to the sixth realm. From there, all of the world will slowly find it much easier to ascend to higher realms, so it will not be as much of a problem as it may have been a year ago,¡± Wei Yi said suddenly, causing the man to look at her in surprise, ¡°Assuming that wasn¡¯t your problem, or not your only problem, then do feel free to express it to me.¡±


    ¡°No, that was one issue¡­ Is that really possible? To bring someone up in realm in a short amount of time?¡± Ping Xiao Li questioned.


    ¡°Naturally. Anyone curious about it can visit the Luo District through the gateway and learn about the Luo Matriarch¡¯s rise to the Oblivion Halo realm, but I¡¯d advise doing that after a few safer paths through the rocks have been cleared. At the moment, it is possible to cause them to fall, and that wouldn¡¯t be good for any of us,¡± she replied calmly.


    ¡°I can trust someone like yourself, so I won¡¯t inquire further on that front. But¡­ I don¡¯t have the knowledge nor experience that the leadership of the entire district would require. I¡¯ve only done minor things within the Ping family, and I hardly have the experience required to manage all of the work that will need to be done in order to prevent the district from collapsing under the current pressure,¡± the man admitted, ¡°Without the Ancestral Hall, it also seems to be that we will not have enough time for me to learn such things before I will be required to act¡­¡±


    ¡°Perhaps that is why you had not achieved as much as you would have liked. Had you taken some risks and attempted to challenge yourself more, there might have been change¡­ Not that I will criticize you for attempting to keep yourself safe, which is only reasonable. That being said, you do need to remember that if you never attempt something, you will never be able to learn,¡± Wei Yi looked to the rest of the crowd around her, ¡°Any other candidates?¡±


    With how uncertain they had been at first, it wasn¡¯t surprising that there was no other name for them to select. She had not specified that they needed to select someone from the Ping family, but the traditional approach combined with the fact that the vast majority of the family had been eliminated as a result of their various misdeeds meant that there were very few choices for those that did wish to keep the bloodline of the Ping family in the position of leadership. Those that did not ¨C and there were a few that she was able to detect with her spiritual perception, with some considering all kinds of usual leaders to occupy the position of Patriarch ¨C did not bring their ideas forward because they knew that they would not be selected, and that they would just be wasting time.


    Frankly, Wei Yi wouldn¡¯t have been against one of them suggesting their favourite prostitute, if only to see what would happen, but it was the choice of the people of the district, not her own For now, their development was in their hands, and if they chose to leave it to one person, she wouldn¡¯t stop them.


    ¡°Well, there can¡¯t be much of a competition then, can there? Ping Xiao Li, please come forward,¡± she said, pointing at the region of rocks floating above the path that he would need to take.


    Even without excessive movements and the obvious circulation of energy, a single casual use of a finger technique caused an enormous wave of force to shoot through the floating field, countless chunks of material being torn to shreds in moments, leaving thin dust in the areas around the previous portion of the field. Some remnants of the materials did remain in that line, but even if they did fall, they would do little to harm him or anyone else that attempted to proceed down that particular path, meaning that even an ordinary person could traverse it.


    As such, the man was able to take a nervous step into the field, realising right away that something was suddenly acting upon him, attempting to bring his body up into the air. With the aerial traversal of the fifth realm, he stabilised himself, but not before noting that all of his shoulder-length hair was floating up as well.


    ¡°This¡­ gravity modification?¡±


    ¡°Of course it is. Do you think I am able to actively spend my energy to make each of these small rocks float in the air?¡± she asked, ¡°Come on, hurry up and don¡¯t waste your own energy.¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± he nodded, speeding up as he tried to pass through the field more quickly, confirming that the longer he spent within it, the more confused he felt. It was as if the very world was flipping over, and he was struggling to connect his vision with the gravity, and he was almost certain that if he had remained in place for too long, he would be tempted to commit to the pull of gravity and fall up to the layer of stones to wander it forever¡­


    Realising that his mind had gone elsewhere, he shook his head and hastened on, making it through far more quickly than he had anticipated. It was not as quick as a journey made with the innate movement ability of the fourth realm, but that could have some unforeseen problems when crossing a gravity field.


    ¡°So¡­ what do I do? Would you simply have me declare my leadership, or is there something else that you intend?¡±


    ¡°I will have some people pass through the gateway to assist with the clearing and reconstruction, and then I shall put you into the sixth realm. After that, I am sure that you and anyone else who has participated in previous management and leadership will be able to figure out how to proceed, and I am sure that the other districts will be more than happy to assist you with anything that you require so long as you don¡¯t attempt to take advantage of their kindness or re-establish the kind of systems that had prompted yesterday¡¯s battle to begin with,¡± she clarified, turning to the gateway, ¡°Now, let us begin the restoration.¡±

 V4C77: Elevation and Exploration

    On the other side, there were a number of teams already ready to embark and enter the Ping District, with their equipment, tools and various resources readied with them. They entered according to their distance from the Yi District, with the Luo heading in first, followed by the Bai and then the Chao.


    From the Luo District came a number of architects and builders that had worked on their own district, with the support of a large number of talisman wielding assistants to ensure that they have enough energy and power to proceed with any task needed of them. Most of the architects were aged and not in their best physical states, but even before they came through the gateway and were able to fully witness the field they had to work with, they were already sketching various designs on whatever tool they had in their hand. Some brought empty books and journals, others made use of a large scroll, while one seemed to be drawing in the air only to externalise that which he had in his mind.


    The Bai District brought two groups of twenty-four fourth realm cultivators, with each one dressing in cheap but durable armour that was good at mitigating the potential impact of stone and hard building materials against their heads and bodies. They were more muscular than the typical member of the Bai family, and while their composition was similar to that of a legion, their flow was not maintained at all times, only driven to its peak during construction.


    Even if someone who hadn¡¯t been present to see this was asked what the Chao District had to offer to the reconstruction effort, they would be able to accurately answer, for regardless of the task before them, the Chao would tackle it with their strength, and their bodies. In construction, such things were especially useful, as they were much easier to manipulate than external energy in the eyes of some.


    These groups emerged and looked at the things that they had to work with, with some from each having very different reactions. Overall, it appeared that the three groups saw a number of problems with the task ahead of them, but were enthusiastic to get to work and accomplish something as grand as rebuilding half of a district. In particular, one of the groups that came from the Bai District were practically salivating at the prospect of making their mark in the world, as they would be one of the first in many decades to rebuild any major district, with the majority of the districts avoiding any conflicts beyond the occasional raid from the nations outside, allowing them to remain mostly stagnant.


    However, after a short pause, another group entered, this time from the desert fortress of Paragon.


    None of them practised the Ascendant¡¯s Disciple technique, and so Wei Yi was not personally familiar with most of them, but they had come from the Kong Prison Realm and worked on the best buildings in Beast¡¯s Rest, with a few having the good fortune to assist in the reconstruction and repairs of Sanctuary¡¯s towers.


    They were incredible for the kinds of people that could develop in the Kong Prison Realm, where even basic construction materials were difficult to obtain, but even if they had been the average kind of worker from the spatial realm, they would still be highly helpful in the construction effort due to their high physical prowess that was shared between every single person in the spatial realm due to their regular training regimen. Younger people would be better in that regard, as they would grow up with the regular physical pressure forcing them to develop stronger bodies earlier in their lives, resulting in a stronger and more stable physique overall. After a certain point, it might even result in permanent changes to their bloodline, although that would need to be checked at a later point.


    Together, these four groups looked to one another and came together in a large blob to share some introductions and discuss what they were going to do, but, unbeknownst to them, Wei Yi had already accounted for the potential disagreements in ideas that these groups might have.


    She could have brought Sarah Wilson along and let her create a plan for the district that could then be transcribed onto a page of killing will and shared with the builders, but since she had already calculated a reasonable layout and structure to ensure the efficiency of the district¡¯s construction, she instead made use of the power of Law that was resting within the air of the field around her. With her mental image infused into the laws of the area, combined with the active thought regarding the structures and roads occurring in the minds of the builders and architects, their discussion suddenly resulted in a rather conclusive decision regarding those topics.


    Although they were surprised at their agreement despite the greatly different ideas that they had entered the district with, they didn¡¯t bother questioning it further and instead reached out for their various architectural papers to draw up their plans and organise the things that they were intending to create in the district.


    ¡°Now, people of the Ping District, tell me: do you agree with Ping Xiao Li becoming the new Patriarch?¡±


    Seeing as everyone had the time to think about it, and still found no proper alternative, they ultimately decided that it would be best for them to select him over someone else that had no reputation and no deeds known to the district. If they did not, then they might as well select the Ascendant and let her take the reins, as she was far more likely to do well than any random person chosen from the district due to her experience combined with her general power.


    As such, the resounding reply was positive, and some even threw their hands and fists into the air as a display of support.


    ¡°Good. Now, tell me, do you believe that a Patriarch should be in the seventh realm?¡±


    Everyone expressing their support paused for a moment, as the question was rather strange in nature. The premise itself, that their leader should be in the seventh realm in order to have enough power to repel potential foes and to be able to improve the district with their own power, was not illogical no matter how they looked at it, but the person before them was only in the fifth realm, as was the Ascendant herself. Some pondered whether she was attempting to dismiss their suggestion of leader, whereas others had no clue at all and were simply waiting for her to proceed.


    ¡°Come on, have a slightly better reaction than that. Fine, let me put it another way ¨C do you want him to be in the seventh realm? Would you like your new Patriarch and leader to rise to an appropriate level of power?¡±


    That question was easier to answer, so the vast majority regained their earlier energy and called out their agreement, their hands rising once again. Their selection, Ping Xiao Li, looked about and back to Wei Yi, recalling the information that she had shared with him, and had to question whether there was a meaning to these activities. Was it integral for her to achieve the same effect that the Luo Matriarch experienced, or was it just a performance she was putting on?


    Nevertheless, he did not interrupt. He would never speak out against reaching a higher realm when there seemed to be no danger to himself or to others, whether it was those he cared about or not.


    After listening to these people for a while, the Ascendant checked the current state of the power of Law and the Conqueror¡¯s Eye influence over the district, finding that the more the people called out and expressed their belief in the proper power of their future Patriarch, the more that seemed to resound with the space, slowly increasing her grasp over the district when it came specifically to affecting someone¡¯s cultivation. This was exactly what she needed, as she did not have any more foes that she might need to fight in the Ping District, and so she did not bother trying to expand that field of power to other elements of the world.


    ¡°Excellent. In that case, why don¡¯t we just make this happen? Why don¡¯t we bring Ping Xiao Li to the sixth realm at the least, and welcome him into his new position as Patriarch?¡± Wei Yi suggested, removing several pills from the air and passing them to the man, ¡°Some basic cultivation pills. They¡¯ll help, but the core of this will be up to you and the people. Sit down and begin.¡±


    He was still curious, but he followed her instruction and sat down with the pills in hand, shutting his eyes and focusing upon his cultivation method, which, without his knowledge, was quickly gained by Wei Yi, processed, refined, and then added to the Ascendant¡¯s Library, where they would reside potentially permanently so long as Wei Yi herself remained alive. Once he had calmed himself, and was able to proceed, he took the pills in one go, having recognised most of them as being four and five-star pills that wouldn¡¯t be dangerous to him even without any assistance in their processing.


    ¡°Good. Now, just cultivate. Don¡¯t pay attention to the outside, don¡¯t stop just because something strange occurs, and don¡¯t do anything silly. I am highly familiar with cultivation as a whole, and I can observe and cease the vast majority of negative events that might occur.¡±


    The man followed her instructions, energy slowly gathering around him. Well, it looked slow to the Ascendant, who was used to draining districts for her own cultivation, but for someone in the fifth realm with the pills that he had taken, he was doing slightly better than one might expect on average, meaning that he was not too bad when it came to cultivation as a whole. It was helpful, but not necessary to achieve what she wanted.


    At first, that was it, but as the cosmic energy she had stored within the pills began to activate, and the influence of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye was placed over him with greater intensity with each moment, both the range of absorption and the quantity of energy that was rising within him was increasing at a steady and great pace. Quickly, it was as if his talent increased, with the overall amount of energy being absorbed climbing by several folds over just a few minutes. Still, even with the full amplification of these properties, he would at most acquire one or two stages with the energy available within the district at the moment.


    For that reason, Wei Yi also made use of her cultivation technique to gather energy but did not grab it for herself and instead allowed to flow into him instead. She also took out one of the seventh realm pills that she had on her, placed it in her mouth, then bit down on the gem-like shell of the pill, cracking it after a moment of pressure being applied to the pill. Her jaw felt a little exhausted after this, as most pills required quite a great degree of effort to break their shell, especially if they are made to properly contain all medicinal essence, but it offered her another opportunity to enhance her body.


    That energy surged out within her body, but before taking any of it in, she split it into two parts, taking one and processing it into her own energy without absorbing it, directing it into the man¡¯s body while she processed the rest. Had she had someone to dual cultivate with, she might have been able to make use of both strands of energy a little more efficiently, but even if an attractive woman stepped forward, she was hardly going to engage in the method necessitated by the Yin Soul Yang Root in public.


    She had an image to maintain, after all. Without that¡­ she wouldn¡¯t consider it when there was little chance of it.


    With the infusion of cosmic energy, something that was easily dozens of times superior to that of regular fifth realm energy, further assisted by the crystallisation and refining of it, even if some of that was partially nullified by the necessity to unbind the energy that she was providing to him, the cultivation rate of Ping Xiao Li was accelerated greatly.


    In mere moments, he approached the sixth stage of the Marked Core realm, with the vague illusory core beginning to manifest around him as a number of additional searing marks were attempting to light up on top of it. However, with the infusion of energy from a superior cultivator and cultivation method, as well as the crystallised state of the infused energy, the quantity of searing marks started to fluctuate more and more with every moment that passed, and as the breakthrough itself neared, the number of additional marks slowly stabilised at a full six, although a number of partly illusory marks still glowed on the surface.


    As if that had ignited some kind of flame, before one breakthrough could complete, the next one was already on the brink of beginning, with the illusory light of eight marks adding onto his core in a most impressive manner. The second breakthrough began only moments later, just as the builders were able to remove the nearest floating junks of stone and place them elsewhere for the sake of using them in construction in that area, and it came with a far larger wave of energy bursting from Ping Xiao Li.


    Those eight marks solidified on the core as he reached the seventh stage, with the vast majority of those present suddenly contributing a great deal of power to the conquered region of the district, thus amplifying the process of cultivation and similarly increasing the effect of the various methods of assistance that Wei Yi was utilising. As a result, he was already approaching the next stage incredibly quickly, and this time a whole nine marks were manifesting themselves upon his core, ready to appear within reality and brighten his entire dantian with fifty-two marks in total, more than half of the maximum number of marks that can exist on someone¡¯s core. Better yet, that acceleration and the increase in the number of marks simultaneously made the crowd believe in his eventual success, thus increasing the amount of energy absorbed, processed and refined with each breath.


    Had this been a truly infinite cycle, and one that wasn¡¯t limited by the quantity of energy present within and near the Ping District, then the Ascendant would have certainly taken the time to call out all of her forces and put them beside Ping Xiao Li, allowing all of them to cultivate alongside him and reach the seventh realm or above in one go, instantly surpassing the Great Families in terms of numbers and general strength. Unfortunately, that was not how planar energy worked, even if she was to start using up her anchor points to unleash more energy into the world.


    The power of Law was also a finite one, at least with her current ability. Without a minimum of a Full Success in the Dao of Law, alongside whatever that would offer her, there was only so far that she could go with the amplification loop, and that limit approached more swiftly as he neared the ninth stage.


    As with the previous breakthrough, this one brought him nine more marks, bringing the total up to sixty-one, a respectable number for someone who had begun the day with only twenty-nine marks in the fifth stage. If others were aware of the possibility of such development in mere minutes, Wei Yi would have probably been hounded relentlessly by everyone who thought they could overwhelm her.


    Such actions were rare thanks to her being one of the few with the ability to truly hurt the Great Families, though, since she proved that she was more than capable of defending herself against opponents that could give the seventh realm Patriarchs some trouble, especially in larger numbers. Any faction that observed this from the outside would also realise that it was not a simple task, as the steps involved that they were able to witness still necessitated a district¡¯s worth of people wishing for one¡¯s development, with countless other potential requirements being prevent and hidden by her and her Arbiters.


    In just the time that someone would need to speak the previous paragraph, Ping Xiao Li was already breaking through into the ninth stage, with his number of marks finally solidifying as the peak of the fifth realm was attained. There were a few moments in which he reached out with his energy before pulling it right back in, mostly to experiment, before the next and arguably most significant breakthrough was about to occur.


    Thanks to Wei Yi¡¯s clarifications prior to this, nobody in the district was actively expecting him to reach the seventh realm today, and in one go, as that would simply be insane, but with further stage attained right before their eyes, their subconscious minds were not quite as sure, thus contributing to the influenced region. That alone wouldn¡¯t be sufficient to bring him to that realm, but the belief that it was a possibility was enough to amplify his cultivation progress by two folds, assisting him in smoothly ascending to the edge of the fifth realm, where it met with the sixth realm, where the Linked Channels realm would cause a series of links to be made between the anchor and the marks on the core, increasing the typical power of the cultivator by an immense margin.


    ¡°After this, I will give you one burst of energy to reach the highest stage you can, although I do not expect that the seventh realm is a possibility even with the oddly overwhelming degree of support that you are receiving from the people. Nevertheless, do your best. I won¡¯t complain if you do manage it,¡± the Ascendant¡¯s voice entered his mind through a spiritual will thread, which she promptly revoked.


    She did not need to hear his reply, nor would he benefit from a foreign influence resting near his mind during the breakthrough, and his technique did already possess the necessary material for reaching the next realm even before she secretly added onto a few parts of his memories of it, so remaining in his mind was not necessary. Instead, she took out a few more pills and prepared them by placing them into her mouth, channelling her cosmic energy throughout her body and, more importantly, her entire jaw and her set of teeth to guarantee that they wouldn¡¯t be damaged in the breaking process.


    With her abilities, forcing any teeth to grow back wasn¡¯t impossible, but it would be ideal to get rid of all of them before doing so to ensure that they were all at an equal level. However, that would require her to remove the rest herself, and that was not something that an Ascendant should be doing in front of those that she might be ruling over soon through Ping Xiao Li or any other Patriarch that might take his place by then. Doing so on her own would also be unpleasant.


    The man did not reply to her words in any way that she could perceive, and instead concentrated even more on the sixth realm, comprehending the relevant portions of his Spark of the Abyss cultivation method and applying them in practise to solidify his grasp over the next realm.


    Although the illusory core around him, and the vague manifestations of the channels going from it to the anchor, flickered in opacity and luminosity several times during this process, by the time that it finally ceased fluctuating, it was clearly stable and ready to approach the Linked Channels realm with the power and confidence that a Patriarch should have. His whole body brimmed with energy, his dantian and meridians being full of glistening light that came from transforming the rich energy he was receiving into his inferior planar energy, and the moment that he did begin the breakthrough itself, all of it surged out of him.


    The vast sea of white light blazed towards the marks on the illusory core that was manifesting around him, flowing into them and linking back not to the illusory anchor, but to his own core instead, creating a strange magnification and extension of what was truly occurring within his body and displaying it to the world around him. It may have been strange to some, but it was blatantly effective.


    With each breath, the lights grew more stable, and transformed from merely being projections of his energy to the true illusory manifestations of his internal channels, each one connecting to one of the sixty-one searing marks and amplifying his innate strength by half of what the marks themselves could provide. It was a most impressive breakthrough, to the point that even the builders and the Patriarchs and Matriarch that were watching through the gateways paused to take a look, but just as the materialisations of internal structures began to fade, Wei Yi bit down on the pills in her mouth and crushed them in one go, a deep purple light practically flooding out of her mouth even without her channelling that energy anywhere in that instant.


    Just as with the first pill that she processed, she first converted that energy according to her own methods, binding half of it to herself and making use of it in her own cultivation while the other half, converted to a fifth realm energy for easier use, was pushed into Ping Xiao Li¡¯s body in one go.


    His dantian and meridians were back to overflowing in an instant, causing the next stage breakthrough to begin quickly.


    What the Ascendant had not mentioned in her earlier words to him was that reaching the next stage, especially in these later realms, was typically better when it required more energy. Sure, having an easy time breaking through every stage was good in the short term, but in the long term, the overall energy capacity and capability of a cultivator were greatly benefitted by having every single stage be pushed to its limit, or, in other words, by attaining perfected stages and perfected realms whenever possible, just as Wei Yi had done.


    If he was able to jump to the peak of the sixth realm in one go, or even reach the Oblivion Halo realm, his large number of searing marks would benefit him, but he would be far inferior in comparison to someone who had attained those marks without outside assistance.


    As such, she paid close attention to him, as the next stage practically leapt into view, all of his energy being refined once in the process of the stage breakthrough. The individual stages of Linked Channels did not have specific details like those in Marked Core, with the channels and so on remaining constant, but each one was still highly beneficial as it ensured a layer of refinement and strengthening of one¡¯s planar energy.


    That alone could create an enormous divide between someone in the first and second stages, for instance, and was one of the things that would intensify the gulf between someone with an excellent cultivation method and pure energy against someone that had neither. The refinement and purification effect of each stage was only capable of acting most effectively when the cultivator was already prepared to take advantage of the refinement, and while the modified technique that she placed into his mind was an improvement, it was not enough to suddenly place him into the same position that she would be in the moment that she reached the sixth realm.


    His second stage came, and already Wei Yi was seeing good signs while the third stage approached. From the looks of it, the energy she had provided would only be enough for that breakthrough, meaning that his natural energy capacity was better than average, and that he wouldn¡¯t be a useless person when facing an opponent that was also in the sixth realm, or the seventh realm once he reaches it.


    With the energy of the district, and everything that she had transferred to him, he raced towards the third stage, with the luminous light of his planar energy flooding the district as it was rapidly consumed in order to pursue it. Quickly, the quantity that he possessed went from being absolutely excessive to merely filling every place that he could store it, and then, with one extraordinary pulse of power that caused the entire field of floating debris to be pushed back, the outer edge dropping out of the gravitational field and forcing the crowd to jump back, all of that energy was sent through the illusory channels, being woven together and refined as it progressed. The moment that it reached the edge of the manifestation of the core, it fell back into him, a smaller quantity but far higher quality of energy welcoming him into the third stage.


    The people would have wished for him to ascend further, but it was clear at that point that he simply did not possess enough built up energy to climb to the fourth stage and beyond, and the Ascendant had already consumed several pills just to aid him. She would be unlikely to continue.


    ¡®They are very much right about that, especially since the Planar Dao vision state is able to confirm that if I was to push him in his current state, it would not end too well. Fortunately, given that most of those in the sixth stage had been defeated in this district, he will not face much opposition from those that dislike the attempts to minimize crime in the district, and anyone he does face will be weaker if I simply pass along a few techniques,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, quickly selecting a few such techniques from a few that were superior to what one might usually find in a district, but not as good as her own arsenal.


    She manifested a killing will page imbued with some of her understandings and gave it to him while he was still sitting cross-legged on the ground, so that he wouldn¡¯t attempt to comprehend it while standing and embarrass himself as a result. Then, she raised her foot and stepped into the air, taking a few such steps in order to rise above the low layer of floating debris.


    ¡°As I had said, it is unlikely for him to reach the seventh realm. That being said, with him only attaining the third stage now, his foundation will be stronger, meaning that once he does reach the Oblivion Halo realm, he will be sufficiently capable to protect you as any other Patriarch might do,¡± she said, ¡°With the kinds of people that had previously led you, I expect that he will do a far better job regardless of his own cultivation, so continue to believe in his success, and that belief will be rewarded.¡±


    If she was to be honest with the people, she would say that she couldn¡¯t be sure whether the person that they had selected was a suitable one, nor whether he would truly be able to replace the previous Patriarch in anything more than name, as scanning his mind brought back varied results. For that reason, she made sure to speak clearly and address the crowd and him at the same time, making promises on his behalf as to ensure that he understood what she and the people expected of him. Following those expectations would be beneficial to him, even if his own talent is found to be lacking, but going against them and returning to the previous tyranny for any reason would be punished by her and the influenced stage of the district alike.


    He had yet to begin reading the techniques she had passed to him, as he was still getting used to the energy he had cultivated, but by the stray thoughts in his mind, he seemed to have gotten the message.


    The people of the Ping District were, overall, not so observant, not expecting such a warning to be delivered right in front of them, and specifically to them, but the more simplistic reaction to her words was very much positive.


    Some cheered, others exclaimed their support and praise of their new Patriarch, and their combined cries and excitement came together and surrounded him. What they did not see was Wei Yi vanishing before them, entering the gateway of the Kong Prison Realm but not proceeding to the prison realm itself, instead tapping into the web that she had accidentally activated as a result of the spatial stabilisation point¡¯s usage, using it to transfer herself into a field outside of the Ping District.


    She glanced back, finding that the new Ping Patriarch had looked around in an attempt to find her but stopped quickly. Presumably, he decided that she had left as she had intended, so it was perfectly fine.


    ¡®Alright then, he¡¯ll do well enough with what he has, and Luo Na and the Patriarchs will be able to stop him if he tries to do anything stupid, so I can focus on this¡­ web. There is a link between the four districts that I have connected to so far, with these connections seeming to create a kind of triangle with the Chao, Ping and Bai Districts, as well as the Luo, Ping and Bai Districts. Now that I have all three corners of both, the web was triggered, meaning that in the golden age of Yi City, the districts may have always been united by an enormous spatial realm¡¯s gateways,¡¯ Wei Yi observed, ¡®With the web, it is possible to transfer myself to anywhere within it, so, if opening a gateway is feasible¡­¡¯


    There was hardly any need to finish that thought, as the possibility of freely opening spatial gateways anywhere within her controlled regions would be immense. Having a gateway to the Dimensional Domain, to mines and resource sources, as well as to other areas of note, would give her an incredible edge over the Greats, who likely lack the resources and power to control the very spatial stabilisation points of the districts that they have a stronger hold over. In fact, they might not even know that such a web exists beneath the ground.


    Using the web to quickly transport herself to the Dimensional Domain, where the residents were busying themselves in one of the structures, she raised a hand and willed a gateway to form.


    Right away, she felt the flow of sliver and crimson from the Kong Prison Realm pass through the web, and make its way to the small village and rise into the air, manifesting into the vague shape of the gateway slowly but surely. It took far longer than when she made use of a stabilisation point, but she was able to see that it would form with enough time.


    After nearly fifteen minutes of waiting, she finally saw the spatial connection appear, stabilise, and open up, linking to a segment of the Kong Prison Realm and Paragon, with the gateway splitting into two to permit for this.


    ¡®Well¡­ excellent. Absolutely perfect, in fact. This will be incredibly useful,¡¯ she smiled.

 V4C78: Passing Time

    Several days passed after the integration of the Ping District into the spatial network that the allies of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters were able to enjoy. During that short span of time, the builders at the Ping District worked hard, expecting great results, and they were not only not disappointed, but they were rather amazed by the final result of the four days of work, as it was more akin to a month or even a year of difficult labour.


    They had expected a street or two to be built using the various resources at their disposal, but they found that the materials floating in the air were significantly more usable than they had expected, the gravity made it easier to lift whatever they needed, and their combined powers meant that they were not struggling with any part of the process. In addition, their complete agreement on the design of the structures, as well as their placement, made it so that they spent no time disputing what they were going to build, where, nor how.


    The first day brought them and the people several streets, all of which were complete with wooden and stone structures that were vastly superior to those that had previously stood there. All of them were placed according to a grid that they barely realised they were following at first, with plenty of space between them to allow for small crowds to travel along them freely.


    During the second, their progress seemed to increase exponentially, with the few streets rapidly growing and spreading out like the branches of a tree, albeit a highly geometric one. With each structure created, the speed at which the next one could be built rose alongside their familiarity and experience, so things that initially took them half an hour to build could now be completed in five or even fewer minutes, and even that was not the full extent of what their cooperation could achieve. With the second day alone, a snaking path was made to a portion of the outer district, connecting slightly awkwardly to the streets that are already present, but the rest of the streets were also expanded significantly.


    The third day brought about so much expansion that the outer regions were partially emptied as people returned to the inner region, occupying homes that had been vaguely near the original positions of their residences, while business owners took what little they had been able to retrieve from their original stores and placed these things in the newly constructed stores. It would take a lot of time for their businesses to return to their previous level of success, a process made slightly easier by the lack of powerful gangs to limit their growth, but they already saw some returning customers that day.


    As people slowly navigated the new streets, finding that they were simple and direct but different, requiring that they study this new layout and figure things out, the builders kept on working. Putting up more houses, filling the streets and constructing some small ornaments in their free time, the builders and architects continued to work.


    As the Ping District worked, so did Wei Yi¡­ in a sense. As she already decided that she would likely have a child as a result of her time with Chao Ru, and as she had been able to confirm that the woman was experiencing the typical symptoms of the early stages of pregnancy, the Ascendant concluded that she might as well give her future child some siblings to get along with while they reside in the future Wei District.


    She did quickly realise that she might be becoming a little irrational when it came to the prospect of providing an entire district to her family, especially before she even had one, but with the additional benefit of being able to dual cultivate with some of the women in the Arbiters, she felt that she might as well go on with it and see what happens. There was no guarantee that would successfully have a child with every woman she slept with even if she did try her best, and with her Dao of Lust combined with her apparent beauty, there were plenty of women that were more than interested in sleeping with her at least once in their lives.


    Shun Liu Min, for instance, was not expecting to be of much use in combat, as her strength lay primarily in the modification and creation of techniques. Although Wei Yi had attempted to assist her in that regard, it was clear that without some excessive mental manipulation, she wouldn¡¯t be able to acquire the necessary talents to shine in a combat setting.


    That didn¡¯t stop her from trying, though, and her persistence was very much appreciated ¨C and rather nice to look at.


    When the Ascendant arrived, she found the former and current maid working hard, practising a technique against a bunch of dummies. From a glance, one might assume her to be winning against them, but there were thousands of opportunities her foes could have taken to win.


    ¡°Attack,¡± Wei Yi muttered under her breath, ignoring the cuts forming on her exposed hand.


    To Shun Liu Min¡¯s surprise, the dummies suddenly moved and attacked, each one performing a basic swing, slash or jab with wooden limbs. Her eyes widened as she tried to fight back, but there was simply too much to consider at once. Half of the nearby dummies managed to land a hit, though it was only akin to an ordinary insect landing on her skin, and nothing more.


    ¡°Yeah, the effort is nice, but the results¡­¡± the Ascendant sighed, emerging onto the training grounds, ¡°You could have just put up a barrier with your planar energy, you know.¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi¡­ Sorry-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t apologise. You haven¡¯t hurt anyone with this, and I wouldn¡¯t want you to be a particularly good fighter anyway. The fewer people that should be on the battlefield, the better,¡± she replied, approaching casually, with both hands behind her back, ¡°Being capable of self-defence would be best, though.¡±


    ¡°Noted. So, have you come here for any particular reason?¡± Shun Liu Min asked, removing herself from the tangle of dummies.


    ¡°To see you, actually. I wanted to revisit an older topic from the days of travelling in the sands, all the way here,¡± Wei Yi said, helping her up and letting the maid rest an arm on her while they moved to a bench on the side, ¡°Should I remind you?¡±


    ¡°We had discussed¡­ a lot, back then. I think a reminder is necessary¡­¡± the maid said with a faint blush.


    It was clear which direction her thoughts had gone in, and it wasn¡¯t incorrect. Most of their topics of discussion at the time had veered into sexual matters, but from her surface-level thoughts, it was clear that she had forgotten about the one matter that had greater implication beyond that. Hence, Wei Yi allowed her to sit down and took a seat beside her first.


    ¡°The topic of pregnancy had come up after the first day, as you might recall.¡±


    ¡°Ah, yes. It would be an issue if you were able to get me pregnant while there was still no proper place to stay, or any guarantees that we¡¯d find one¡­ Not that it stopped us from doing just about anything else,¡± a smile bloomed on her face, despite her attempts to subdue it.


    That, combined with the blush, prompted her to tighten her embrace, ¡°You¡¯re too cute, sometimes¡­ Anyway, I would like to revisit that topic.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, but¡­ revisit? In what way?¡±


    ¡°Would you like to try having children?¡±


    The maid¡¯s eyes widened even more than when the dummies came alive, her mouth opening in surprise. For a moment, even her thoughts were so chaotic that the Ascendant couldn¡¯t glean anything from them. It was a rather sudden thing to suddenly bring up, so she let her think about it and didn¡¯t interrupt.


    After a few seconds passed, Shun Liu Min recovered, wiped the drool that was beginning to spill out from her mouth, and looked Wei Yi in the eyes with a firm gaze.


    ¡°Very well. Let¡¯s do it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ a reaction. Mind explaining why you¡¯re so keen on the matter?¡± Wei Yi asked, though she couldn¡¯t say she disliked her eagerness. Her dick certainly liked it, stirring beneath her robes.


    ¡°Well¡­ I guess that also goes back to our journey¡­ Rather, to the time prior to it. Ping Gangze, he¡­ he was the worst. Did you find him, by the way?¡± a spark of killing intent suddenly appeared in her eyes.


    ¡°Nope. His place was empty. He fled, and there are hints of him heading over to the Eastern Continent. Even if I had the time to go there, I wouldn¡¯t have much power there, and it would be exceedingly challenging to find him,¡± she answered, ¡°If I end up there, I¡¯ll be sure to tell him that he is dearly missed.¡±


    ¡°Please do. Sorry,¡± after calming the spark, the maid continued, ¡°There are a lot of things I hadn¡¯t thought I¡¯d be able to experience. Freedom from him and his beatings was one, but having a child¡­ that was another. He¡¯d never allow us to get pregnant, and I wouldn¡¯t want to bear his child either.¡±


    ¡®I¡¯d say that she shouldn¡¯t judge a child by the deeds of their parents, but that¡¯s hardly the reasonable thing to do when dealing with a rapist and, in general, a terrible person. If it was consensual, that would be a different matter¡­¡¯ Wei Yi nodded, ¡°Quite understandable¡­ So, how did that end up with your earlier keen attitude?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just as it was with my wish for freedom. When I thought I had no chance of escaping, I began to wish for it more and more. Similarly, when I thought I¡¯d never have- no, I¡¯d never even have the chance to have a kid, it turned into something I had wished for above a lot of other things.¡±


    She unconsciously moved a hand to her abdomen, only to pull it away the moment she noticed it.


    ¡°Mostly, I just wanted something¡­ normal. Working at Ping Gangze¡¯s place was normal for many in the district, but I knew that most of the other districts were different,¡± Shun Liu Min sighed, her gaze lowering to the ground, ¡°Over there, kids grew up, played around, acted rebellious in their teenage years, then found someone they loved and got together with them, working hard to ensure that their life, and the life of their kids, would be peaceful and easy¡­ I know it¡¯s not that simple, but when you are faced with nothing but one mansion for over ten years, it¡¯s so attractive all of a sudden.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I can understand that¡­ It really isn¡¯t that simple, but I think the two of us share an interest in having a calm world.¡±


    ¡°I know. You speak about your ideas often enough for me to have heard about it a number of times. Law and justice, if I remember correctly,¡± the maid said, ¡°Sometimes, it can even feel like you¡¯re a parent already, and the people are your rowdy children.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ I¡¯d rather not see it that way. It would be rather odd in a number of ways¡­¡± Wei Yi didn¡¯t appreciate the implications such a situation would have, especially when the conversation had begun with the topic of making children, ¡°I was referring more so to wishing for a child to be able to grow up in a peaceful and easy environment. Given that I have the ability to have kids now, the topic has naturally come to mind.¡±


    ¡°Was that while you fucked Chao Ru?¡±


    ¡°It did come up, yes. Just to be sure, you do remember what I¡¯d said about exclusive relationships and all that?¡±


    ¡°I know, and I¡¯m not complaining. Just teasing a little,¡± her expression was brightened with the flash of a cheeky grin, ¡°With how insatiable you were, it feels like you¡¯d need a dozen dedicated women like me just to keep you satisfied. You probably want exactly that, though you wouldn¡¯t admit it openly¡­ It is a little hot, to be honest¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, learning new things is always good, even if I didn¡¯t expect that. You may be happy to learn that I¡¯m planning to start a bit of a family, though I only have three people picked out so far¡­ You¡¯re one of them, obviously.¡±


    ¡°Great! I mean, it¡¯s¡­ ahem. That will be fine. Who will be the third one?¡±


    ¡°Have you been around Miyu much?¡± she gave away the answer right away, not that it mattered too much, ¡°You might have seen the heart-eyes she¡¯d been giving me as of late, specifically after she learned I had a dick. I hear North Antania in general has a very particular fetish for this sort of thing, though I¡¯d need to ask her about it to be sure.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d be curious to learn about that later, then¡­ She is rather cute, now that I think about it. Very unique look, as well.¡±


    ¡°Being an otherworldly demon can do that to you,¡± Wei Yi muttered, ¡°Now that this got brought up, I want to keep asking questions. It¡¯s rare that I get the opportunity to learn so much about a person, after all, so¡­ what¡¯s up with the multiple partner fetish?¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s similar to you. I like women, I like you, I like¡­ I like your cum, and I like it being on women¡­¡± Shun Liu Min licked her lips, ¡°Phew, it¡¯s suddenly really hot here.¡±


    ¡°I think that¡¯s just you.¡±


    ¡°Even though you have a nice bulge down there?¡±


    ¡°I said nothing about being aroused, though me getting hard only means that I¡¯m not preventing it from happening. My body just loves pumping blood down there on every opportunity,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°No explanation relating to your history, though?¡±


    ¡°To a certain extent, most of my current state is related to my experience in that mansion¡­ There were plenty of women there, but we didn¡¯t have the best of relations with one another. Therefore, I never got to sleep around ¨C not willingly, anyway¡­¡± the maid said, ¡°I¡¯d love to get the opportunity to get into a better relationship with some of the women you¡¯re close with once all of us have the time to waste.¡±


    ¡°Very well, I¡¯ll suggest it to the others when I have time. Alternatively, if you guys meet up, I don¡¯t mind if you get together on your own.¡±


    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t be jealous?¡±


    ¡°About what? We¡¯re not exactly in a full-blown romantic relationship, and we won¡¯t be while the War of Ascendancy and whatever else is going on, and none of you are going to get themselves pregnant, so I don¡¯t have to worry about that either. Besides, it would be a bit silly of me to fuck whoever I want, then insist that the lot of you never meet up and see what it is I like about you,¡± Wei Yi shrugged.


    ¡°¡­ I get the feeling you would be jealous.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps. Have a go, let me find out. Maybe you¡¯ll get a threesome out of it.¡±


    They paused for a moment, looking at one another in silence.


    ¡°We went off-topic, I think,¡± Shun Liu Min said, ¡°You wanted to talk about knocking me up and breeding your women, and-¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s one way to interpret our discussion¡­ We are going to learn so much about one another as a result of today, aren¡¯t we?¡±


    ¡°Yup. I¡¯d love to learn about more of your kinks as well, if you still have anything to reveal to me,¡± the maid recovered her earlier grin, ¡°How will you put a baby in me? Are you going to go hard and rough, ensuring I won¡¯t be able to walk for the rest of the week? Will I get to feel you go nice and gentle, for once in a while? Do you have some unusual method pulled from the memories of the otherworldly demons?¡±


    Wei Yi raised an eyebrow, ¡°You are really horny today. Fine, let¡¯s go somewhere else and get it sorted out.¡±


    She nodded in reply, taking the Ascendant¡¯s hand when offered. They rose up together, ignoring her erection for now, and vanished from the spot once the power of the Yi City Web ¨C the network activated by claiming the Ping District ¨C was manifested and manipulated to perform her will.


    ¡°This is¡­ interesting. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve been here before¡­ where is here?¡± Shun Liu Min asked, looking around the impressive bedroom. It was regal and pristine, decorated with the finest of woods and the most precious of metals ¨C or so it looked like, anyway.


    ¡°This is Beast¡¯s Rest, and we¡¯re beneath it, in one of the many tunnels. Here, we¡¯re not going to be interrupting anyone, not going to run into anyone, and nobody will care if I ruin everything with my seed, because this is my bedroom,¡± Wei Yi introduced the maid to the chamber, ¡°I have a feeling someone¡¯s been adding to it as of late, but that particular former assassin is elsewhere, so she won¡¯t interrupt.¡±


    ¡°Another woman you¡¯ve been fucking?¡±


    ¡°No, not every woman has been in my bed. For instance, Luo Lia Kun hasn¡¯t done more than consider it. The former assassin is a complicated case, so there¡¯s little chance of that.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t get it, still, but okay. So¡­ how do you want me?¡±


    Wei Yi withheld a sigh as the maid disrobed with the greatest speed possible, baring her naked body before the Ascendant without hesitation. To be fair, if she hesitated at this point, after all the times they had sex, it would be a little odd to still be shy about one another.


    ¡°What if I wanted to rip your clothes off myself?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I can put them back on.¡±


    This time, she did let out a sigh.

 Bonus Chapter: Eager Maid [R-18]

    ¡°You are so silly sometimes. Since that¡¯s how we¡¯re starting out, let me undress as well,¡± the Ascendant threw off the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival, got rid of her gauntlet and boots, removed her underwear, and threw it all onto a chair at the other side of the room.


    Her body had not changed much from their last night together, but the maid¡¯s gaze still lingered upon it. Mostly, she looked below the chest, upon the defined abs and the cock beneath, beginning to rise to half-mast from her attention. As always, her balls looked full and round, hanging low enough to demonstrate their weight and fullness. Beads of sweat rested on the surface of her hairless sack, their heat producing a cloud of steam around them.


    ¡°¡­¡± Shun Liu Min gulped, a heat spreading through her loins.


    It did not go unnoticed by Wei Yi, who smiled and pointed to the floor, ¡°Since you want it so much, come and get it.¡±


    She felt a certain amount of shame from the speed with which she dropped to her knees, and the extremely soft carpet beneath her feet didn¡¯t help. The lack of discomfort did nothing to offset the mix of shame and arousal, and it only made it feel more like she was meant to be there, before Wei Yi, before her enormous cock.


    When she thought of it that way, it made her position feel awfully right. Perfect, even.


    ¡°You¡­ you make me feel so¡­ so¡­¡± she tried to find the words, but all that ended up with was her parted lips and her tongue sticking out of her mouth, drooling without restraint as her mind was consumed by the sight and scent before her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t bother with words if you can¡¯t think of any. Just show me in a different way,¡± Wei Yi suggested, her half-hard cock twitching.


    The maid hardly needed to be told, but she accepted nonetheless. She leaned forward and placed her hand on the base of the dark shaft, lifting it up so that it would be about level with her mouth. With her lips still parted, she leaned in a little more and placed the foreskin-covered tip between them, sticking her tongue out and kissing it.


    Keeping her lips tightly sealed around Wei Yi¡¯s cock, even as it began to grow harder and larger, she forced her tongue beneath the foreskin, tasting the tip with delight as the Ascendant¡¯s musk grew stronger with every breath she took.


    Since the last time they were together, it seemed to have grown even stronger, quickly overwhelming the air to the point that it was faintly visible. It was heady and sexual, causing the maid¡¯s pussy to grow wet in moments, though she knew that she wouldn¡¯t fill the emptiness below until she made sure to satisfy the great shaft before her ¨C and the person connected to it, of course. As much as it was fun to focus on one part of her in particular, it was Wei Yi herself that she loved.


    ¡°Your hobby is really creepy, you know that?¡± a figure with a sea of stars for eyes said without hesitation, ¡°I doubt any of them agreed to this.¡±


    ¡°How is everyone starting to judge me now? You do remember what I usually do, right?¡± a figure with a violet eye replied. Of course, she didn¡¯t remove her gaze from the thing before her, immersed in the sight.


    ¡°Those people do ask for it. Besides, you don¡¯t just spy on them, you give them wet dreams. That¡¯s better.¡±


    ¡°If you say so¡­¡±


    With the rod stiff and straight, Shun Liu Min removed her lips from the tip, releasing one final breath of hot air onto it. Judging from the maid¡¯s smile when it twitched in response, Wei Yi knew she wasn¡¯t the only one that appreciated it.


    In a way, that almost felt as pleasant as her lips or tongue, though it was difficult to get by with that alone.


    The maid¡¯s hand slid up her cock until it arrived at the slick patch just beneath her crown, tightening her grasp and slowly returning her hand downward. As she began to stroke, her focus clearly shifted to the balls beneath. She practically dove into Wei Yi¡¯s sack, loudly breathing in the heavy musk, her tongue quickly darting out to polish her balls with impressive vigour.


    ¡°The way you act, I¡¯d almost assume you want to eat me up,¡± the Ascendant joked.


    Before replying, Shun Liu Min had to withdraw and let one of her balls pop out of her mouth, a lewd smile forming right away, ¡°I do! Just not in a bad way.¡±


    ¡°Could¡¯ve fooled me¡­ Are you going to move onto my dick?¡±


    ¡°No. Your balls still deserve so much more love¡­¡± the maid¡¯s breathy and needy tone only made the Ascendant¡¯s cock harder, ¡°They¡¯re so full, so hot, so musky¡­ Oh, you¡¯re absolutely perfect, and they are even better!¡±


    She went straight to sucking on one of her balls, doing so even more loudly and sloppily than before. Every detail of her tongue was felt clearly, massaging her balls and polishing them until there wasn¡¯t a hint of dirt or sweat upon them, replacing everything with her saliva. The whole time, she also kept working Wei Yi¡¯s shaft, pumping up and down at a moderate pace. It was fast enough to keep her cock hard and ready, but that alone wouldn¡¯t cause her to cum.


    When she pulled away, several strands of spit remained, adding to the thick coating of sweat upon and around her lips, making her look delightfully lewd.


    ¡°I can feel you twitching¡­ It¡¯s so hard for me, but it wants to get even harder¡­¡± Shun Liu Min exhaled, nuzzling against the shaft with her cheek, staining it with the remnants of her own saliva, ¡°You¡¯re going to fill me later, aren¡¯t you~? You¡¯re going to fill me to the brim and leave me with a bulging belly, won¡¯t you~?¡±


    Although she sounded half-drunk at this point, perhaps intoxicated by the Ascendant¡¯s musk, Wei Yi couldn¡¯t deny that it made her own arousal grow with every word. Some primal aspect of her wished to breed, and the blatant desire of her mate only encouraged that aspect.


    ¡°You better not regret this later,¡± Wei Yi said, realising her voice sounded as breathy as her partner¡¯s.


    ¡°I would never. Let me prove it to you, and this wonderful~, twitching~, musky~, hot cock!¡± the maid said, and dove forward to spear herself onto the Ascendant¡¯s cock.


    With the plentiful practise she had received during their previous times together, she didn¡¯t struggle to down the first half, enveloping the shaft within the heat of her mouth. She licked it vigorously, covering every inch quickly, seeming desperate to taste everything while she could, and Wei Yi absolutely loved it. Every hole on a woman¡¯s body had its own allure, and she loved the presence of a tongue to contribute to the feeling of penetrating a tight passage.


    The maid¡¯s enthusiasm combined with an obvious mastery made the experience even better, as she was able to swallow a further two inches with ease. Wei Yi¡¯s tip tapped against the back of her throat, and she struggled quite a bit to not just grab the top of Shun Liu Min¡¯s head and force the rest inside, physical limitations and other plans for the day be damned.


    However, she held back, and permitted the maid to continue while only performing a small thrust every now and then, to ensure that she wouldn¡¯t get too bored. From the hearts that almost seemed to form in her eyes, it seemed to have the right effect.


    ¡®I can understand why those otherworldly demons from North Antania love that kind of visual. It¡¯s really hot to see someone looking up at you in such a manner¡­ even if a real heart looks nothing like that shape,¡¯ her plentiful experience with hearts, human and otherwise, just had to interfere, but she threw that thought aside and focused on giving back the loving gaze of her dear maid and current partner.


    With her fine control, she could cum at any time, provided she was already aroused, so she was instead waiting for Shun Liu Min to satisfy herself until she would release her seed into her eager throat, or perhaps onto her gleeful face.


    However, it was best not to tell her that. A more natural, organic experience was generally ideal.


    Wei Yi was worried over nothing, as Shun Liu Min was so focused on the cock between her lips that she might not have heard anything even if it was said to her. Right now, her mind had to be divided between the overpowering, sweaty taste of the Ascendant¡¯s cock, building up with every moment that it remained in her mouth, the thick, pungent scent that had long seeped into her mind, and the beautiful face of her sexual partner.


    The last on the list wasn¡¯t especially erotic, even if the faint blush of her cheeks and the lustful gaze was very much appreciated, but when put together, she felt like she was in paradise.


    A sweaty, musky paradise, where her only source of oxygen was the limited amount of clean air amidst the musk, with a thick cock barring most of it from entering her throat and heading down into her lungs. She had been in vaguely similar situations prior to meeting Wei Yi, but even at the best of times, she recalled hating it completely. Not now. She could never hate this.


    Both her body and mind agreed on this, for she could sense ¨C every now and then, when the other factors were a little less overwhelming ¨C her pussy clenching in desire, desperately attempting to clamp down on an intruding length that wasn¡¯t there.


    She bobbed upon the shaft readily, adding more and more of her saliva to the length, building up on her lips and making the affair more and messier with every dive down onto the Ascendant¡¯s crotch. It soon coated her chin, dripping onto her breasts, but she was far more interested in the steady stream of precum that flowed into her mouth. She tried her best to taste every single drop, but it was difficult to do if she wanted to avoid drowning in the precursor to Wei Yi¡¯s seed. Hence, she permitted some of it to pour straight down her throat, and delighted in the rest.


    Every time the Ascendant¡¯s hips thrusted forward, just a little, the maid knew her gaze must have been filled with delight, for her partner smiled back and her cock twitched, providing yet another drop of divine ambrosia for her enjoyment.


    Just before she felt a climax arrive, Wei Yi pulled out and put her own hand on her cock, stroking quickly while pointing the slit straight into Shun Liu Min¡¯s mouth.


    She had no time to protest nor understand the situation before the Ascendant came.


    The first jet of seed rushed out from her cock, splattering onto her face and spilling into her mouth. It filled it quickly, numerous strings of cum quickly landing on her face, just in time for her eyes to shut and prevent any seed from going where it was not meant to end up. Depriving her of witnessing this excellent sight was unfortunate, but she could still sense the heavy landings of every drop, and how it built up to the point of dripping down and landing on her chest.


    ¡®This is¡­ not what I was expecting, but it¡¯s still great,¡¯ she kept her mouth full, not swallowing the pool of cum within, and relied on her nose to breathe, ¡®I should ask if she can fill a bath with her seed¡­ Oh, that just makes me more horny¡­¡¯


    In the silence that followed, she didn¡¯t bother releasing her spiritual perception. She let herself be drowned in the pungent stench of the Ascendant¡¯s seed, imagining bathing within it, letting it permeate her body and mind in its entirety. She wanted it to be marked for it forever, to carry Wei Yi¡¯s musk as if it was her own scent.


    That fantasy was, for better or worse, interrupted when she felt the Ascendant¡¯s tongue upon her face, quickly licking up the cum covering her eyelids.


    After both eyes were cleaned, Shun Liu Min opened them to find Wei Yi¡¯s face still right in front of her, heading in for a kiss. Without hesitation, she accepted, her lips parting and allowing the Ascendant¡¯s tongue to head past them, their lips meeting a moment later. Tongues entwined and fought for dominance, though even at her best the maid would never be able to defeat Wei Yi, especially when the goal of the latter seemed to be to feed her with the very seed she so desired.


    She let herself be fed, swallowing every thick drop, and when the Ascendant¡¯s tongue slowed, she took the opportunity to flip the situation around. Her tongue darted forward and gathered up any trace of cum that remained in Wei Yi¡¯s mouth, departing with her prize to swallow it as well.


    Soon, Wei Yi pulled away, straightening her back. Traces of semen from the maid¡¯s face had been left behind on her, mostly around her lips and on her nose, but she wiped those away with a hand.


    ¡°There. I know you like my smell, so I wanted to give you something to enjoy while we fuck properly,¡± Wei Yi said, her dick becoming fully hard in seconds, ¡°I happen to like seeing you like this, too, so it¡¯s a nice benefit for both of us.¡±


    Shun Liu Min exhaled, somewhat reluctantly, ¡°Ha¡­ Bath.¡±


    ¡°Bath?¡±


    ¡°You should¡­ fill up a bath, sometime¡­¡±


    ¡°With- oh, I understand. You kinky girl,¡± Wei Yi smirked, ¡°I¡¯ll consider it when my body starts producing even more fluids, but for now, that¡¯s a little excessive.¡±


    Even through all of the seed upon her face, the maid¡¯s disappointed expression must have been obvious, as the Ascendant reached out to pat her on the back of the head, one of the few places that wasn¡¯t covered in layer upon layers of thick semen. She eased her pout a little, though she was still hoping that she would be able to squeeze out enough seed from the Ascendant to fulfil her wish.


    ¡°Alright, you have the choice of how we do this. How do you want to be bred?¡±


    Shun Liu Min paused when she was about to rise. She knew she wished to receive Wei Yi¡¯s virile seed, whether that resulted in her having a child or not, but there would only be one first time. Whatever she chose now, she would forever associate with this act, and she didn¡¯t wish to waste the opportunity.


    This was somewhat silly, she knew that, but she had few major decisions to make prior to this. Even within Wei Yi¡¯s care, and as her in-name-only maid, she lacked many opportunities to make her own choices in anything significant, and now she was faced with far, far too many possibilities. Thousands of images passed through her mind, and from what she knew of the Ascendant, she had likely seen all of them as well, though she was too absorbed in her own thoughts to confirm that.


    Still, she found out soon enough, as Wei Yi squatted down before her and said, ¡°You may be overthinking this a little. In a situation like this, just go with what feels right.¡±


    ¡°Go with what feels right¡­ Everything would feel right if it¡¯s with you.¡±


    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be possible for you to be so cute after a blowjob like that¡­ Alright, let me just ask this ¨C do you want to facing me, or away from me?¡±


    ¡®She¡¯s cute and hot too, so it¡¯s not fair for her to say that¡­ I don¡¯t think I could keep calm if I was looking at her, so¡­¡¯ Shun Liu Min was sure her flushed cheeks were visible even through the layer of white upon her face, but she couldn¡¯t answer the question immediately, ¡°¡­ away from you. Not that I¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t mind. Standing or lying down?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Lying down?¡±


    ¡°Then come here and let me pound you into the bed,¡± Wei Yi lifted her up easily, helping her to her feet, and then bringing her to the large, emperor-sized bed in the middle of the room.


    ¡°Wait, I¡¯m still covered in your-¡±


    Before she was able to get her words out, she was already laid onto the bed, chest down, all of the cum on her chest going right onto the absurdly soft and pleasant sheets. She wasn¡¯t even sure what she had a problem with the most: the seed being squandered, or the sheets being marred and permanently stained with the Ascendant¡¯s musk and fluids. It was probably the former, as the latter felt incredibly¡­ desirable the more she thought about it.


    She couldn¡¯t resist quickly smelling the sheets, but to her disappointment, they were clean, or at least cleaner than her face.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°N-Nothing¡­¡±


    ¡°I doubt that, but if you wish to get acquainted with the bed, I¡¯ll give you a chance,¡± the Ascendant said, the maid turning her head to find her getting onto the bed and drawing near to Shun Liu Min¡¯s groin, ¡°Do as you like until then. The bed is rarely used anyway.¡±


    Only then did the maid recall that Wei Yi had the uncanny ability to remain awake for weeks without needing rest. If they had been in a peaceful time, with no other obligations, then she would have been sure to demand that Wei Yi slept more often, and allowed herself to sweat more as well. She liked that smell, but she was only able to experience it rarely.


    ¡®Heavens, she is just so attractive in every way, I-¡¯ her thoughts were interrupted by warm breath on her groin, ¡°Ah! Won¡¯t you just¡­ stick it in?¡±


    In response, Wei Yi simply planted a kiss on her pussy lips, sticking out her tongue and diving in. Her tongue was firm and strong, slick with saliva, and it easily parted her inner walls, reaching her sensitive spots with ease. The Ascendant seemed to know her every weakness, as she reached for them and quickly robbed the maid of all the energy she had recovered.


    She grasped the sheets as an orgasm shook her body, moans spilling from her.


    ¡°W-Wei Yi, please¡­¡± Shun Liu Min gathered her strength to briefly overcome the stimulation, ¡°Can¡¯t you just fuck me? Please?¡±


    A moment passed before the Ascendant withdrew from her cunt, ¡°Where would the fun in that be? There¡¯s plenty of time, in here especially, and I see no reason you shouldn¡¯t be well prepared for me. After all, you¡¯re going to have to deal with something much bigger in just a little while.¡±


    While speaking, she thrust her fingers into the maid¡¯s drenched pussy, easily inserting two dextrous digits into her up to her knuckles. They reached for the same spots as her tongue had done, playing with her body as if she was more familiar with it than Shun Liu Min herself was. It made it difficult for her to say anything, especially when the third finger joined the others, causing her to cry out in ecstasy. Still, she wasn¡¯t going to let it go.


    She pouted for a moment, when the Ascendant¡¯s fingers slowed just enough, but that seemed enough for Wei Yi to notice, as she didn¡¯t return to licking her.


    The intruding digits were removed from her snatch, and for a moment the maid was afraid that she had done something wrong. Fortunately, those fears were assuaged when a kiss was planted on her left ass cheek, with her right being used by Wei Yi to get up and onto her knees.


    ¡°Let me show it to you in a different way, and you tell me if you¡¯re ready.¡±


    As the Ascendant¡¯s hips moved forward, the tip of her cock touched the maid¡¯s pussy lips and slid forward. It glided across her lower lips until it reached her clit, and continued even after that, the shaft easily covering her dripping lips and continuing on and on, seeming to be infinite in length. She remembered it being within her when they had engaged in anal, but now it seemed far, far longer.


    It only stopped when it reached her navel, the tip heading just a little further and finally stopping, her abdomen meeting Shun Liu Min¡¯s ass.


    ¡°So, are you confident you can take this?¡±


    The maid was unable to provide a reply. Her eyes were wide and her mouth gaping, as the sheer size of the Ascendant¡¯s cock suddenly reached her. She had previously swallowed most of it, and she had taken it in her ass without any issues, but this seemed so different and so intimidating.


    ¡°Um¡­ It¡¯s so¡­ f-fuck¡­¡±


    When Wei Yi slid her cock forward and back, getting in a slow rhythm, stimulating the maid¡¯s parted lips, her size felt even more fearsome. She could almost imagine it splitting her insides, rearranging her insides, moulding her body to its whim ¨C and she loved the idea. Shun Liu Min wished for it, even if she was afraid at the same time.


    ¡°So?¡±


    ¡°Please fill me.¡±


    ¡°Since you¡¯ve asked so nicely, I suppose I will,¡± the Ascendant smiled and dove forward, her lips colliding with the maid¡¯s ear in a brief kiss, ¡°You will experience what it¡¯s like to be filled to the brim.¡±


    She bit the maid¡¯s earlobe, sending a shiver down her spine, while Wei Yi¡¯s hips withdrew until her tip was right at Shun Liu Min¡¯s entrance. It rubbed against it for a while, staining it with her precum and what remained of her seed, and just before she was able to get used to the sensation, it was thrust inside, forcing her pussy lips apart and instantly stretching her to her limits. A moan burst out from her lips, but all air was gone from her lungs when the shaft moved inward.


    The Ascendant didn¡¯t hilt herself right away, though she might have been able to given the comparatively loose state of the maid¡¯s vagina. Instead, she went in half-way, then drew back and pushed a little further in, stretching her insides and reaching for that vital point inside her.


    She pumped in and out at a high speed, her thrusts filling the maid¡¯s tunnel and making her feel incomparably stuffed, her belly bulging with the girth inside it. It was frightening when her whole body felt as if it was being pulled apart, as if that prodigious cock was moments from dominating her completely, leaving her as nothing more than a toy for its pleasure. That fear grew the more it filled, but she couldn¡¯t deny that it was exactly what she wanted. It was exciting to think of herself in that way, and her only regret was that the Ascendant could only be in one place at once.


    To have her mouth filled with her delicious cock and intoxicating scent while her ass and pussy were both pounded without restraint or hesitation would have been heavenly.


    Perhaps Wei Yi had scanned her thoughts, as the next thrust was incredibly forceful and struck something. The maid¡¯s body shook, the sensation almost shattering her mind, causing her to gasp and her eyes to widen in sheer amazement. It felt like the world stopped for a while as she processed everything, sensing her pussy at its absolute limits, pushed apart to an extent she had never imagined, even when dreaming about this moment minutes prior.


    Although she had not felt anything touch it before, she still knew for a fact that Wei Yi had reached the entrance to her womb, the very spot she had wished to fill at the start of all this. It caused her to tremble in anticipation, and her delight only grew when an arm reached around her neck, the Ascendant drawing in close, her small chest pressing against the maid¡¯s back.


    Her body already felt full from the throbbing length, and yet the slight change in position made it clear that there was still a way to go before it would be all the way inside. Prodding against the entrance to her womb, the tip wasn¡¯t going to take no for an answer, and soon it managed to part even that.


    With one firm thrust, Wei Yi hilted herself inside, slapping against the maid¡¯s ass as she did so. Her voice, a mixture of a firm groan and breathy moan, joined Shun Liu Min¡¯s, which was entirely on the latter side of the spectrum. There was a brief pause to their activity, both of them getting used to these sensations, but soon the Ascendant leaned in to her ear and licked it lewdly, her slight movement stealing the maid¡¯s breath.


    ¡°Sorry, but I want to see your face when we cum,¡± Wei Yi said, giving her only a moment to understand.


    The next thing she knew, Shun Liu Min was being flipped over, though that didn¡¯t bother her quite as much as the rod inside her, completely rearranging her insides as they had to accommodate to these changes. One might imagine that it would only be a small difference, but with the thick, throbbing veins on Wei Yi¡¯s cock and her large head located in the most sensitive part of her body, the maid got to learn every subtle detail on the Ascendant¡¯s cock with far more clarity and certainty than she had ever hoped for.


    ¡°Why¡­ ah¡­ I thought I¡¯d said¡­¡±


    ¡°I just wanted to see your face. You¡¯re beautiful,¡± Wei Yi said with a beaming smile, and suddenly the maid had no complaints at all.


    Her legs were lifted up and bent back, and then the Ascendant made use of her new position to withdraw and then slam right into her pussy, her balls slapping loudly against the maid¡¯s ass. With each move back, the tip of her cock slid past the opening of her womb, forcing it to stretch apart to fit, only for her to push in and almost knock her womb out of place, forcing her body to accommodate her vast size.


    Neither of them were holding back, and so climax soon came for both of them, though Shun Liu Min had long lost count of how many times she came. The Ascendant¡¯s orgasm was far more obvious, as her thrusts slowed but grew longer and deeper while her balls tensed up and a bulge formed on the underside of her cock. A sea of cum shot out from the tip of her cock, instantly filling Shun Liu Min¡¯s womb and pussy, forcing them to stretch as more and more fluids found their way inside and were unable to escape through the tight seal of Wei Yi¡¯s thick shaft.


    The bulge in her belly, formed only by the Ascendant¡¯s cock at first, soon grew, stretching her pristine skin until she seemed pregnant ¨C and that seemed an inevitability with how full she was.


    ¡°W-Wow¡­ This¡­ feels very strange¡­¡±


    ¡°Get used to it, because I can ¨C and will ¨C keep going. You don¡¯t mind, do you?¡± Wei Yi asked, her voice lacking even the slightest hint of exhaustion, making her the complete opposite of Shun Liu Min. The poor maid felt like she had trained for a dozen days without pausing, but the dull ache all over her body was a pleasant one.


    Hence, as soon as she gathered more breath, made rather challenging by her large belly, she nodded.


    ¡°More.¡±

 V4C79: North Antanian Perversion

    After a lot of other work and exploration ¨C which she did not find quite as interesting as the time she had spent with Shun Liu Min prior to it ¨C she had been considering visiting the Beast¡¯s Rest brothels for a less purposeful form of entertainment, but then she was visited by Miyu.


    A day had passed since she had sex with the maid, and she was sitting within the chambers of Paragon, having finished some duller tasks and contemplating opportunities to unwind. Shun Liu Min had become rather¡­ exhausted after their time in the bedroom, even if she disagreed with that assessment, and Wei Yi didn¡¯t wish to inflict any harm upon her through excessive use of her body. She had a hard time controlling herself around the maid, and she didn¡¯t wish to risk doing any kind of permanent damage to her.


    The visit from the otherworldly demon came as a slight surprise, though she had observed her appearance in Paragon several minutes before she actually knocked on the door.


    ¡°Come in,¡± Wei Yi said simply, deciding to question her before Yi Shi Ming or any others.


    After a moment¡¯s pause, in which Miyu must have been thinking about something, the door opened outwards. The Antanorden woman gave herself just enough room to enter, then shut the door behind herself, her cheeks flushed with crimson. Although the Ascendant hadn¡¯t yet confirmed anything, she did think that her appearance at the moment was incredibly cute ¨C and incredibly attractive.


    ¡°Uhm¡­ W-Wei Yi¡­¡±


    ¡®I am almost afraid of checking her surface-level memories,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, raising an eyebrow, ¡°That¡¯s me.¡±


    ¡°Can I¡­ sit down?¡±


    ¡°Go ahead. You really didn¡¯t need to ask, by the way. Nobody usually comes in anyway.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ Alright, I¡¯ll do that¡­¡± she slowly walked in, went around the chair, and found her way into the chair, sitting down cautiously. She looked like some kind of scared cat, or some other small, cute animal- and there she was, going back to calling her cute. It was going to be an issue if she was mistaken about her intentions.


    The wait for the answer proved to be rather long, as the North Antanian girl was rather reluctant to say anything. She fiddled in the seat, playing with her fingers and doing just about everything other than communicating her intent.


    Fortunately, Wei Yi had the ability to enter the Realm of Potential, among other spaces devoted to the mind, so she had plenty to do in order to keep herself occupied.


    ¡°So¡­¡±


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t wish to scare the woman, so although she had returned from several hours spent in the Realm of Potential, she didn¡¯t do anything aside from shifting her position in her seat.


    ¡°I want to¡­ admit¡­ something.¡±


    ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I think I like you¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d pretend to be surprised, but I¡¯d noticed that ages ago. You do remember how you called me a succubus when we first met, right?¡±


    ¡°You k-knew? What? How¡­ how did you know from that?¡±


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t the only thing, but succubi are meant to be attractive. If you mistake someone for a creature of lust and seduction, you either think they look like some stereotype of the creature, or that they are immensely attractive. Since I have none of the traditional attributes associated with a succubus, the other option is the only reasonable one,¡± Wei Yi explained, likely in more detail than was necessary, ¡°The only thing I hadn¡¯t quite understood was why you had issues with finding me attractive.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ Ugh,¡± Miyu exhaled, her head lowering, ¡°It¡¯s complicated. Family, expectations¡­ I¡¯d rather not go into it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, though I am not sure why you presumed that your family would care what you do in a different world. You were aware that it was a different world from the start, weren¡¯t you?¡± the Ascendant recalled their first encounter via a tome in the Ascendant¡¯s Library, ¡°You were certainly trying hard to fit in.¡±


    ¡°I was, but¡­ after getting used to doing things one way, it was hard to change.¡±


    ¡®Can¡¯t quite understand that myself, given how my temperament was forcefully shaken up by being shoved into the Kong Prison Realm, but it does make sense,¡¯ Wei Yi nodded, ¡°So, why did you decide to admit it now?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ I met with Shun Liu Min.¡±


    She hardly needed to explain why their latest meeting was abnormal. After Wei Yi was done with her, the maid was blissed out and completely exhausted for the rest of the day. After that, she had become rather cheery all of a sudden, and developed a fondness for touching her flat belly ¨C perhaps she intended it as practise, though the moistness of her panties at those times suggested otherwise.


    If Miyu got to meet the maid in that state, she would have also likely noticed a certain scent hanging around, for Shun Liu Min had fallen in love with it almost as much as she had with Wei Yi and her dick. With every other factor also taken into account, even the most na?ve and shy woman in the world would have recognised that the maid had a busy night in bed, and since she knew of Wei Yi¡¯s hermaphroditism, it wouldn¡¯t have been difficult to guess the other person involved even if the maid refused to divulge that information.


    ¡°How much did she say?¡±


    ¡°She¡­ she was blushing the whole way through, but she wasn¡¯t at all shy about smelling some kind of black fabric regularly. There was also this scent that hung around her whole room to the point of making it difficult to breathe,¡± Miyu said, her tone primarily that of confusion rather than disgust, ¡°She seemed so happy, though¡­¡±


    ¡°Did that convince you to make up your mind about attempting to get together with me? I remember you¡¯d had a go at it before.¡±


    The Antanorden woman kept her eyes down, ¡°Yes. She spoke of your time together vaguely, but everything was said with the same tone as one might refer to paradise, or a utopia of some kind. I had never seen anyone so happy, except¡­ well¡­¡±


    ¡°Well?¡±


    ¡°I remember how my mother had talked about being pregnant with me, and¡­¡±


    Another pause followed, the otherworldly demon¡¯s hands clenching into fists after a while. Fortunately, she wasn¡¯t especially strong, nor were her nails long, or else she might have hurt herself.


    ¡°I think we have to talk about my family after all. So, um, I¡¯m the only child of the Aimi family.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Okay?¡± Wei Yi raised an eyebrow.


    She was also an only child, and an orphan to boot, but she couldn¡¯t quite comprehend what that had to do with anything. It seemed to be similar to the time that Fu Zan seemed afraid to ask whether she was a lesbian, so perhaps it was another cultural difference.


    ¡°My parents¡­ They¡¯re kind. And nice. And helpful. However, they weren¡¯t able to get another kid after I was born. I¡­ never really asked for details, and mom never gave them away.¡±


    ¡®What does¡­ oh, I think I know. This may not be a cultural difference at all.¡¯


    ¡°They were open to me doing¡­ well, pretty much anything. That¡¯s how I got good grades and all the support I ever needed to go work in that games company. They even bought an apartment for me, just to make sure that I¡¯d not have problems with paying for it,¡± a smile finally returned to her expression, even if it was faint and fragile, ¡°However, they really wanted me to¡­ well, to have a child.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t want their bloodline to die out?¡±


    ¡°Um, w-well¡­ I guess that¡¯s one way to put it. We don¡¯t really want to have those on Orbis, but my family did want to get grandchildren. They wanted them for themselves, but my mother was also sure that I would be made happy by it.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°I can understand their thought process. What makes it so difficult for you to bring up, though?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I never liked men. Where I¡¯m from, there aren¡¯t any futanari, or hermaphrodites, or anything. The only place is¡­ in porn. So, from that, I knew that I didn¡¯t have a problem with that, but men¡­ To be honest, it made me a little sick to think about it,¡± the North Antanian girl finally looked up, her moist eyes meeting Wei Yi¡¯s, ¡°I wanted to make them happy, to make them proud, but¡­ I also didn¡¯t want to hurt myself like that, and hurt them by extension when they realise how I felt.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s why you insisted you were straight?¡±


    ¡°I wanted to convince you a bit, but I also wanted to convince myself¡­ Even in another world, I wanted to avoid going in the wrong direction.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡±


    Miyu glanced in the direction of Wei Yi¡¯s groin, though she was only met with a wooden desk that didn¡¯t permit her single eye to look through. There was an obvious hint of disappointed in her gaze, but she withdrew it soon.


    ¡°I couldn¡¯t resist after a while, when it came with you. You may not know it, but you¡­ you¡¯re beautiful. You have such deep, lovely eyes¡­ long red hair, nicer than any silk¡­ you¡¯re strong and dependable¡­ I loved being in your arms¡­¡± her cheeks flushed with crimson, but she wasn¡¯t able to stop, ¡°I had wanted to spend more time with you, but I could never muster the confidence to pursue you more than¡­ well, more than I had. I regret it now, but I couldn¡¯t have known¡­¡±


    ¡°Actually, I didn¡¯t have a dick the whole time you knew me, but do continue.¡±


    ¡°I just didn¡¯t want to lose the chance of having a kid at some point in the future, and if I had fallen in love with you, then I wouldn¡¯t have been able to see anyone else in that light in the future¡­¡±


    ¡°Lots of people are wanting children as of late¡­ I would like to confirm one thing with you, if you don¡¯t mind,¡± Wei Yi leaned forward, placed her elbows on the desk, and continued, ¡°You¡¯ve effectively confessed already, and I don¡¯t have any objections to sleeping with you, though I would ask you to delay any talk of romance until after we handle the whole War of Ascendancy business-¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine! I just want to be near you.¡±


    ¡°- again, a lot of people on that list, but alright. I just want to make sure that you aren¡¯t doing this because you feel like you have some obligation to your parents. So long as you are doing this out of your own volition, then I will not object to helping you maintain your family line.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ um¡­ Have you read my mind before?¡± she asked all of a sudden, their eyes meeting for a long while.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you just admitted it¡­ uh¡­ Well, I had mentioned porn before, and¡­ you might know that I¡¯ve read and watched a lot of it. Most of it was, obviously, futa porn of some kind, but there were plenty of other tags there¡­¡± Miyu said, her surface-level thoughts gathering with such concentration that they were almost visible without needing to deliberately scan her mind, ¡°If we are going to do this, I want to try some of those things in real life.¡±


    ¡°There are a lot of things to say about that, but first of all ¨C you¡¯re a virgin, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡±


    ¡°Just in the Planar Continents, or on Orbis as well?¡±


    ¡°Both. I¡¯d never even attempted to date another woman, and I¡¯m not that old, so¡­¡±


    ¡°In that case, it might not be a good idea for you to try and emulate everything you have seen in that pornography of yours,¡± Wei Yi advised, ¡°Try the basics first, and then you can try some of the kinkier stuff ¨C whatever it is. I haven¡¯t gone through the details.¡±


    ¡°Could you? Please?¡±


    ¡°Why? Why do you want to make me do that? I¡¯ve already had to deal with one lustful bastard flooding my head with his ideas, why should I be adding to that?¡±


    ¡°W-Well¡­ pretty please?¡±


    Wei Yi rolled her eyes, withdrawing from the desk and leaning back in her seat.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do it this way. You can think of those fetishes of yours, I¡¯ll look through and see what¡¯s reasonable, and then we can do it this once. I¡¯ll try to fulfil them to the best of my ability, and make sure that you get that child you¡¯re so keen on having.¡±


    ¡°Sure! Please, have a look, just¡­ I need a moment to focus.¡±


    After she received a nod in reply, Miyu shut her eyes and concentrated, the effort visible even from the outside. Since Wei Yi wasn¡¯t sure about the full extent of her mental capabilities ¨C her experience with this otherworldly demon wasn¡¯t especially optimistic so far, but she was rather quick at reading, so there was something there ¨C she gave her a whole minute before sending out a thread of spiritual will.


    She wasn¡¯t sure if she regretted that decision. On one hand, the sheer quantity of filth contained within her mind was astounding, and it was amazing when considering the stark contrast from the shy words Miyu usually spoke. On the other, there was quite a bit there to consider.


    The art and art style revealed through her thoughts was indeed a fascinating one, managing to be rather simplistic and abstract while simultaneously conveying the key details necessary to make an act arousing to the viewer. It also permitted for the enhancement of certain details without making them look especially unnatural or strange, as they might if one attempted a more realistic approach, and the style itself had plenty of variation from work to work.


    Presumably, there were many different artists employing this style, though that did carry the implication that there numerous people on Orbis that were focused on making porn. It was a¡­ strange concept, especially given the current state of the things in the Planar Continents, but she certainly wouldn¡¯t have complained if it was possible for the Western Continent to be so peaceful as to give people nothing better to do. It showed a certain degree of success if people were able to spend their time in ways one might describe as decadent, and that much she couldn¡¯t criticise.


    Such observations did avoid the content of the art, however, which was her primary focus on this particular mental incursion. Even if it was the style that Miyu liked, Wei Yi lacked the ability to transform the world¡¯s appearance, nor would she be entirely comfortable with doing so.


    ¡®Let¡¯s see¡­ sweat and scent make a lot of appearances, so she¡¯ll fit right in¡­ Huge dicks, that I can provide to an extent¡­ This, though¡­¡¯ the Ascendant briefly paused the scan to ask, ¡°You have quite a bit of material involving acts that might be seen as somewhat¡­ involuntary. How do you expect that to happen?¡±


    ¡°We can roleplay!¡±


    ¡°¡­ That doesn¡¯t mean much to me, so you will have to elaborate.¡±


    ¡°You can just pretend like you¡¯re some fearsome, horny futa that needs a wet, tight hole to fuck, and I just happen to be around when I get a whiff of your thick musk-¡±


    ¡°Please don¡¯t stain the chair. Unlike the bedroom, I prefer this room to not have such a scent.¡±


    ¡°Ah! Sorry!¡± Miyu leapt up from the seat, though both of them easily spotted a dark spot on the cushion, ¡°I just¡­ Ever since I started thinking about sex, this sort of stuff came to mind, but for so many years, there wasn¡¯t a single chance of it happening! I¡¯ve been so pent up¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I can tell¡­¡± Wei Yi sighed, ¡®I swear, if this is that Dao of Lust causing problems¡­¡¯


    A figure with a violet eye blew away a loose strand of black hair, returning it to the right side of its face.


    ¡°She just loves blaming me, doesn¡¯t she. Even after all of the time I¡¯ve spent helping in other matters¡­ though she doesn¡¯t know about that, and probably won¡¯t, unless Ruon is right, which she is¡­¡± the figure looked away, into the void of reflective shards, ¡°Oh well. At least the fifteenth wall is still safe.¡±


    ¡°Do I need to be standing on a towel?¡±


    Miyu¡¯s question was asked after she had already stepped onto said towel, just in time for Wei Yi to point out a bead of liquid travelling down her leg, ¡°You¡¯ve already made the chair wet, and I would rather not need to incinerate the floor every time someone visits. You¡¯re lucky the House of Gold has expanded sufficiently for me to fill it with random trash that doesn¡¯t have a better place elsewhere.¡±


    ¡°Sorry¡­¡±


    ¡°Now, think back to your ideas, and let me finish my scan. There¡¯s so much smut in that head of yours that I wasn¡¯t able to archive it fully even in the few seconds that I had to look through it.¡±


    ¡°Even in a few seconds¡­? No, never mind. Go ahead.¡±


    By the time she spoke, Wei Yi¡¯s mental energy was already inside her head, but it wasn¡¯t worth pointing that out. Knowing her, Miyu would end up getting distracted with something else again, and then the towel would need to be replaced and also burnt ¨C or given away to Shun Liu Min, who seemed like she wouldn¡¯t mind.


    Wading through her mental landscape, the Ascendant got past the surface-level ideas rather quickly. She already understood the basics from the reveal of the otherworldly demon¡¯s fantasy a little earlier, so the important thing to do was discover the specifics of what Miyu might want to ¡®roleplay¡¯ with her. Certain things that were impossible were obviously out of the question right away, and she lacked access to tentacles that she would ever put inside an ally ¨C her Elder Eldritch Hold carried a sexual scent, but she doubted that the tendrils would be safe to employ in a sexual manner ¨C but a lot was reasonable.


    For instance, acting as an aggressor that seemed to have no regard for Miyu¡¯s state was feasible, especially when she had the ability to read her mind at all times to ensure that she was safe and happy. Boosting her body¡¯s production of sweat was also incredibly simple, regardless of where.


    One recurring element was makeup, though not on her face but the otherworldly demon¡¯s. Apparently, some of the people on Orbis had a fetish for lipstick stains or mascara tears, which was easy enough to arrange, though ensuring that the makeup would be easy enough to wash away was a little more challenging. She had no clue how it would benefit Miyu, who wouldn¡¯t be able to see the results, but perhaps the thought of it was enough for her.


    ¡®She would also get to see her lips stain my dick, regardless of how her mouth is used, so maybe she¡¯s into that idea as well.¡¯


    With Miyu, it seemed like a good idea to consider what she wasn¡¯t into, rather than what she was, as the sheer list of fetishes on display was too excessive even for the Ascendant¡¯s Library to properly catalogue, but that wasn¡¯t how the mind worked. She had asked her to think of things she was interested in, and so it was best to stick to those unless she wished to attempt something later and sour their time together. Fortunately, she knew that her biggest issue was with men, and Wei Yi wasn¡¯t one, even if Great Dark and Great Light still occasionally think otherwise.


    There was an excess of material involving pubic hair which she considered for a moment, but dismissed. From what little emotion there was associated with that material, it seemed like Miyu was more fond of the smell of sweat that would inevitably build up rather than the hair itself, so there was no need to sully her body with that kind of thing.


    ¡°Is that¡­ a piss fetish? Miyu, we need to have a talk after this.¡±


    ¡°But didn¡¯t we agree-¡±


    ¡°We did, even if I am slightly regretting it. I suspect that all of your pent up lust has resulted in you developing rather unrealistic expectations of what sex and sexual relationships are,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°It¡¯s fine if you like imagining this kind of thing, but to expect it to be completely normal in reality is a completely different matter. Sex is good enough without going to such extremes, but because you had never gotten to experience it, you¡¯ve kept escalating your lustful thoughts until you¡¯ve reached your current state.¡±


    ¡°I just want to experience it once¡­¡±


    ¡°And we have already agreed to this, but I¡¯m just saying that afterwards, you ought to simply try things out normally. See what it feels like to simply touch someone you¡¯re attracted to, kiss them and so on.¡±


    The otherworldly demon nodded, albeit highly reluctantly.


    Wei Yi sighed, as her words clearly weren¡¯t getting through to the horny woman, a fact made obvious that she wasn¡¯t even looking in her direction and was instead busy fantasising about something while dripping onto the towel beneath her, already making a large stain upon it.


    She had no clue how she had managed to accumulate such a large group of thirsty ladies, nor was she sure why she was the one with the Dao of Lust when her thoughts were only focused upon that kind of thing on very rare occasions. However, she had made a promise, and since Miyu happened to be a na?ve soul, rather than a malicious one, she was going to honour her promise for so long as it wasn¡¯t going to hurt the young woman.


    If it did, she would naturally make sure that she was instead educated on what sex was actually like.


    ¡°Alright, I think I¡¯ve seen enough. Let me establish this: I will be monitoring your thoughts, so whatever you say or do in your ¡®roleplay¡¯, I will go along with it, but the moment you aren¡¯t feeling comfortable with what we¡¯re doing, you think about it and I¡¯ll know. Don¡¯t force yourself for any reason, don¡¯t push yourself to do something just because it was hot to think about, or because you think that I¡¯ll want it. Trust me, I don¡¯t have any issues with the vanilla stuff, because it still involves a lot of other factors that both of us should be happy with.¡±


    ¡°So¡­ can we fuck?¡±


    ¡°We need to agree on the specifics, and also, you need to tell me how you ended up here. Weren¡¯t you in the Dimensional Domain?¡±


    ¡°Actually, I can explain that,¡± Yi Shi Ming appearing at the doorway, as if she had entered the room naturally, ¡°She was interested in speaking with someone, so I assisted her with arriving at Paragon. Then, she conversed with Shun Liu Min and was then interested in reaching you. I saw fit to assist her. Is that an issue?¡±


    ¡°No¡­ Were you here the whole time?¡±


    ¡°I can always see everything in the area. Don¡¯t worry about me if you wish to engage in any kinds of activities. I have my own fair share of experience with all kinds of¡­ adult matters.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I don¡¯t think I need to know that.¡±

 Bonus Chapter: Roleplay, Part 1 [R-18]

    Miyu was trembling with anticipation. She had never been with another woman prior to this ¨C nor anyone, of course ¨C but she was also given the chance to experience some of the things she had dreamed of, the types of things that she had touched herself to in bed.


    It was a wonderful feeling, the anticipation that she was feeling. A part of her ¨C in between her thighs ¨C wished that she got everything right away, but she knew that every moment spent waiting made the final outcome all that sweeter. She had learned that lesson from her own life, in matters less mature than this one, and had seen it mentioned in plenty of her porn, which was the primary source for her expectations.


    After being spoken to by Wei Yi, she knew not to have unrealistic expectations, but she couldn¡¯t help herself. She had dreamt of something like this for years, ever since her sexuality had awoken.


    She glanced down to her chest, confirming that her outfit suited her. It consisted of a simple white blouse, black skirt and pantyhose, as well as simple red flats and a ribbon in her hair. It wasn¡¯t anything special, neither in general nor for her specifically, but it was slightly similar to a schoolgirl outfit, and North Antania was very fond of those kinds of things. Having lived her whole life there, with nearly her entire understanding of sexuality coming from that nation¡¯s culture, it only felt right to request the outfit from Fu Zan.


    To complete her outfit, and fulfil some more of her fetishes, she applied a thick layer of red lipstick and black mascara, likely going a bit too far. However, both would be worn away soon enough.


    ¡®I can¡¯t wait!¡¯ she exclaimed mentally, rubbing her palms together as a way to occupy her hands so that they didn¡¯t wander where they didn¡¯t yet belong, ¡®I have to do this right. I have to play the cute, innocent young woman¡­ I mean, I am one, but I should play one that isn¡¯t extremely horny¡­¡¯


    As she sat on a black couch with connotations she made sure not to explain to Wei Yi, though she probably knew anyway, she struggled not to rub her thighs together. It was hard to ignore the moisture between them, and the only thing that let her keep going was the absence of the Ascendant¡¯s scent from the room. If she had the chance to sniff her clothes, or, heavens forbid, her panties, she would have lost control long ago.


    The natural scent of Wei Yi¡¯s body was very unique, feminine and sweet but also heavy and musky, likely due to her unique physiology. Then again, she hadn¡¯t gotten to smell her much during their first meeting, when the Ascendant apparently lacked her other set of genitalia.


    She only realised that she had gotten dangerously close to touching herself when she heard footsteps outside, and promptly moved her hands away.


    ¡®It¡¯s time. Alright¡­¡¯


    ¡®You alright?¡¯ a caring voice appeared in her mind, ¡®I can always let you take things slowly.¡¯


    ¡®No! Please, let me try this¡­ also, you¡¯re kinda breaking the mood. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to take you seriously if you keep conversing with me like this.¡¯


    ¡®Oh, so now my acting abilities are being called into question¡­ Trust me, if its authenticity and taking me seriously that you care about, then I will provide you with plenty of it,¡¯ Wei Yi¡¯s voice began to fade, ¡®Remember, just think of whatever you wish to tell me, like if you wish to stop, and I¡¯ll do so immediately.¡¯


    ¡®I get it¡­¡¯ Miyu sighed, ¡®Why is she so protective of me? From what I hear, neither Chao Ru nor Shun Liu Min dealt with this.¡¯


    Certain factors clearly eluded her comprehension at that moment, as she failed to recall that she was not only from another world, but also had no sexual experience prior to this, had spent her time with exaggerated fantasies rather than reality, and failed to recall a recent case that had led to the Ascendant¡¯s acquisition of the Purifier¡¯s Seal. Had this only come up a moment ago, she might have had an excuse, but more than three hours had passed since their conversation in Paragon.


    The door to the room opened after a while, and the person of her dreams entered.


    Wei Yi had kept her crimson ponytail and did nothing to alter her face, though she was wearing a harsh, smug expression that made a surprising difference to the way she looked. It was rather intimidating, but also attractive in its own way.


    Her outfit was completely different, however. She wore a black leather jacket with an open front, exposing her abs and a white bra that covered her chest. Underneath that, she wore denim shorts ¨C or something that resembled that material, since the Western Continent lacked many of the materials she was familiar with ¨C that bulged rather obscenely with her flaccid dick, as they were deliberately tight in that area. The Ascendant¡¯s toned legs were mostly out in the open, save for leather boots that went half-way up her lower leg.


    It wasn¡¯t much to resemble a particular style from Antanord, but it had a slight similarity to a porn comic she had read once, so it worked well enough.


    ¡°You¡¯re the one applying for the job?¡± Wei Yi spoke with an accent, her arms folded, ¡°Well?¡±


    ¡°O-Oh, yes, that¡¯s me. I¡¯m Aimi Miyu,¡± the otherworldly demon wasn¡¯t able to reply right away, as the impression given by the Ascendant was so different that she wasn¡¯t even sure that she was conversing with the same person.


    ¡°Miyu, huh? I might¡¯ve seen your message, but my interviews are always a lot more¡­ hands-on, if you get my meaning,¡± Wei Yi walked over to the desk in the middle of the room, a little over two metres from the couch, and sat down on the desk itself, crossing her legs while she looked down on the young woman before her, ¡°So, tell me, Miyu, what could you bring to the company as a secretary?¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± she opened her mouth, but she found it hard not to simply drool, ¡®She¡¯s just sitting there, but why does it make my heart beat so quickly? It feels like it will jump out of my chest¡­¡¯


    ¡°You appear to be struggling to speak. That¡¯s an awful first impression to make.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m s-sorry! I¡¯m, uh, good with numbers, and money, and-¡±


    ¡°The finance department is already handling all of that. Besides, if we needed that, we could bring in any number of recent graduates with excellent grades ¨C we are the biggest company in Antania, after all,¡± Wei Yi spoke with a bragging tone, leaning down a little, ¡°So what can you, specifically, bring?¡±


    ¡°Um¡­¡±


    ¡°See, I have an idea. There¡¯s a position that¡¯s been empty as of late, after the last few in the role happened to¡­ depart somewhat unceremoniously. Something about personal relationships and unexpected pregnancies getting in the way¡­ No idea how that happened. Regardless, you might be suitable for the position,¡± her smile grew into a distinctly evil grin.


    Miyu had to restrain the eagerness from her voice, ¡°W-What position would that be?¡±


    ¡°Well~, I¡¯m going to need to see if you¡¯re eligible first. Wouldn¡¯t want to give you any false hope¡­ but just between you and me, I think you¡¯re going to do just great,¡± Wei Yi lowered her voice leaning even further forward, ¡°Are you up for it?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I really need the position, so I¡¯ll do anything.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s just great, Miyu. For our first test, hm¡­ There¡¯s a certain something that I need you to take a look at.¡±


    Uncrossing her legs and setting her feet firmly on the floor, she reached for the zipper on her shorts and pulled it down, releasing the terror within. Miyu had dreamt of it ever since she had learnt of the Ascendant¡¯s uniqueness, and had managed to get a few touches in when she lost vision in one of her eyes, but to see it was a completely different experience.


    At the moment, it was soft, but it grew right before her eyes, going from a rather small two inches to four, then six, then seven. It throbbed and seemed to stop, but she could tell that it was still at half-mast, for it was still not standing tall.


    Even then, it looked enormous. Better yet, when she inhaled nervously, she felt a powerful smell invade her nose, though she couldn¡¯t quite identify it from such a distance.


    That didn¡¯t stop her from guessing. Since she had asked Wei Yi for a number of things, she was aware that only one of her requests involved anything to do with the Ascendant¡¯s scent. Getting inspiration from some of her favourite porn comics, she had asked Wei Yi to get her crotch sweaty, as sweaty as possible. The magic of planar energy was bound to be able to assist in this regard, so it made sense to her that it would be possible to accomplish this in less than a day.


    It appeared that she was right to believe in this, as a second inhalation through her nose confirmed that the distinctive scent of feminine sweat was present in the air, clearly originating from Wei Yi¡¯s open shorts.


    ¡°Do I need to explain to you what you¡¯re seeing? You look dumbstruck,¡± the Ascendant¡¯s voice forced her attention back up.


    ¡°N-No, I¡­ uh¡­¡± she had answered genuinely at first, realising only after a moment that it may have been better to say otherwise. She was trying to play the innocent girl, after all, so familiarity with genitalia seemed a little out of character.


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t seem to mind, though, as she continued, ¡°Well then, what is it?¡±


    ¡°It¡­ it is a penis.¡±


    ¡°A cock, you mean. A dick that you will be getting closely acquainted with over the course of your employment,¡± she explained, ¡°Tell me, will that be a problem?¡±


    ¡°No, it¡­ I need a job. I can do this much to get it,¡± she tried to sound unsure about that, though it proved incredibly easy as she was also getting rather nervous about the throbbing thing on Wei Yi¡¯s groin.


    It was oddly feminine for a male sex organ, though she couldn¡¯t quite place why she even got that impression. She could, however, clearly see the bulging veins on the surface, the small drop of white at the tip, as well as the enormous balls partially contained within the shorts. Though, she could swear that she heard them strain against the fabric, threatening to burst out if they grew any larger than they already were.


    ¡°In that case, what are you doing over there? Get closer.¡±


    Miyu went to rise, only for Wei Yi to raise a finger and shake it, ¡°Crawl. You will be spending most of your time on the floor anyway, so you might as well get used to it.¡±


    She didn¡¯t want to argue, nor would it make sense for the desperate jobseeker of this particular fantasy to refuse. Hence, she kept her hands on the floor but instead used them to advance forward, only needing to take a few steps before she returned to being upright and ended up right before the half-hard shaft.


    The moment she inhaled again, she had no issues with making out the scent she had only guessed at before. It was thick, musky, overwhelming and hot, seeming to burn her nose and mouth as her lips parted, overwhelming her body and mind in an instant. She had never sensed anything like it before, having stayed far away from boys in her youth thanks to going to an all-girls school and men in her adulthood due to her particular attraction, and now she was getting the full experience with very little preparation.


    On one hand, it was absolutely awful. The stench of sweat was akin to a changing room used by a team of hundreds of athletes, with no air conditioning or proper ventilation, and it was difficult to see as her eyes watered from the wafting musk.


    On the other¡­ it was exactly what she had wanted. She had dreamed of it back on Orbis, and had even spent some time in a sauna in an attempt to capture some minor aspect of her desired experience. It caused her to pass out, sure, but that was just a minor complication due to her weaker body. She was far stronger now thanks to planar energy, and she wasn¡¯t just trying to cook herself, so it should be fine, right?


    ¡®Are you okay?¡¯


    Instead of dignifying that with a reply, Miyu simply forced herself closer, nearly slamming into Wei Yi¡¯s balls with her nose, taking as deep a breath as she could through it.


    Being so close to the huge pair, as well as the dick above, let her perceive the large droplets of sweat atop the skin, the darkness of which contrasted greatly with the rest of Wei Yi¡¯s body. It was like she stole it off some dragon of legends, and the primal, almost bestial pungent musk radiating from it only supported that theory.


    ¡®She¡¯s annoying. I keep telling her I¡¯m perfectly fine, but she keeps distracting me from her¡­ cock¡­¡¯ her thoughts immediately drifted, as she found herself unable to think about anything other than the beast before her.


    ¡°I hadn¡¯t realised I was speaking to a common beast. You¡¯re more suited for this position than I suspected, but I figure it¡¯s best to make sure,¡± Miyu saw something shift in the corner of her vision, which was otherwise occupied purely by cock, and realised that Wei Yi was moving only a moment too late.


    The tip of the shaft moved, and then the whole thing slapped against her face, instantly knocking her out of her stupor.


    ¡°Ow! Wha-¡± her words were interrupted by another cock slap, a dollop of precum splattering onto the side of her face, ¡°S-Sorry, did I do something wro-¡±


    Another slap silenced her, and made her realise something else. With every heavy slap, the copious amounts of sweat that had built up on Wei Yi¡¯s cock ended up on Miyu¡¯s delicate face, alongside the eye-watering natural musk that seemed to naturally emanate from the half-hard shaft, and the balls beneath it.


    With every slap, and every moment that she was in contact with the shaft, her body was forever stained with the Ascendant¡¯s smell, marking her as if she was just some bitch at the feet of her master, or perhaps her alpha.


    ¡°There, you look much better like this. Getting used to the smell yet?¡±


    ¡°No¡­¡± Miyu replied with complete honesty.


    ¡°Good. You have the potential to work at our company for a very long time. I wouldn¡¯t want you getting bored too early,¡± Wei Yi produced another evil grin, though it only served to make her look more enticing, somehow, ¡°Now, fun as this is, someone that can only huff the stench of my cock is not enough. You¡¯ll need to put that mouth to work if you want to please me properly. Being a busy woman, I¡¯ve not had the chance to clean myself today, so¡­ why don¡¯t you do it?¡±


    Stained as her face was, Miyu still remembered how extreme the musk was at its source, so she hesitated for a moment before leaning in and bringing her mouth close to the balls. Wei Yi helpfully opened up the zipper a little more, letting them come free from the confines of her shorts.


    With the full size on her genitals on display, approaching her balls felt even more terrifying, but it made her heart beat with excitement all the more. She wished that there had been a mirror set up somewhere near, just so that she could look upon her own messy face and witness the results of merely breathing in the Ascendant¡¯s heady scent.


    ¡°Get on with it. I have other things to do today,¡± Wei Yi suddenly remarked as she produced a two-sided small mirror from somewhere, holding and positioning it in such a manner that it perfectly reflected her cock and Miyu¡¯s beneath it.


    ¡®Right, she¡¯s reading my mind¡­ but the way I look is¡­ wow¡­¡¯ she could clearly see her unfocused eyes, the layer of sweat that had built up on her cheeks from the earlier slaps, as well as the faint crimson marks, the beads of milky white clinging to the side of her face. Her mouth was open, her tongue trying to escape and savour the treat just inches away from her, while her breath was as hot as steam, almost perfectly matching some of the porn comics she was most fond of.


    She had to wonder whether what she was seeing was manipulated by Wei Yi to some extent, though no line of thought could persist for long before the cock and balls in front of her.


    After taking another breath, having to force that thick scent-filled air to enter her lungs, she finally moved close enough to lick one of Wei Yi¡¯s balls. Her greedy tongue reached out and tasted the dark skin, picking up a large helpful of sweat and musk as it returned to her mouth.


    The taste wasn¡¯t one she could ever describe. With the musk placed directly into her mouth, it almost burned, from the heat and scent alike. It was intense, overwhelming, even a little disgusting ¨C but it was so arousing at the same time. She felt her body heat up, her loins grow wet and her lower lips desperately clench around nothing, as if expecting to be bred any moment now, but she couldn¡¯t force her hands to move away from Wei Yi¡¯s thighs, where they had ended up at some unknown point in time, even if it was to fill that need.


    Instead, she moved her face closer and buried it in the Ascendant¡¯s sack, feasting on the endless layers of sweat and grease in the messiest way she could.


    ¡°I suppose this is only fitting for a beast like you. Being able to apply makeup while you¡¯re down there should mean that there won¡¯t be any issues with having you in meetings, my dick hilted in your throat, swallowing any of the seed that spills from it¡­¡± Wei Yi commented in a seemingly innocuous tone.


    However, Miyu could hear the provocation, even if her mind was as consumed by the Ascendant¡¯s genitals as her mouth was. She was being told that her attempts to worship her wonderful balls was not enough to distract her from a complicated task, and that simply couldn¡¯t stand! Perhaps she wouldn¡¯t be able to match those with more experience, but she knew she had the ability to break Wei Yi¡¯s composure!


    She moved to slobber all over the Ascendant¡¯s left orb ¨C from her perspective ¨C and quickly cleaned it with her tongue, feasting on the sweat as if it was the nectar of the gods. It certainly filled her belly, and she was sure she would never be able to wash her mouth or face clean of the musky odour that accumulated in increasing quantities upon her.


    It made her fantasise about replacing all of her natural scents with Wei Yi¡¯s musk instead, letting everyone know exactly who she belonged to.


    ¡®I should copy Long Huang and wear a collar, maybe let her mark it with her cum so that it would always touch my skin and lend its scent to me, and then when I meet with Shun Liu Min and Chao Ru, they can know just how much of a degenerate pet I am!¡¯


    Just as she thought that, she moved onto the other orb, cleaning it with the same diligence, but Wei Yi didn¡¯t seem satisfied. As soon as she lapped up the last bit of sweat on both balls, the Ascendant grabbed her shoulder and pushed her back, forcing her away from the sources of her current delight, as well as the ambrosia that was inevitably churning inside, that being the cum that she was working so hard for.


    ¡°Do you think you¡¯re here to satisfy yourself, slut?¡± Miyu shook her head after a moment, ¡°Then what do you think you¡¯re doing? Let me put you to better use, if you like being buried in my balls so much.¡±


    With no further elaboration, she easily lifted the North Antanian woman and brought her back to the black couch, sitting her down on the ground and letting her back rest against it. She then turned around and pulled her shorts down, throwing them off to the side. Keeping her back to Miyu, she wiggled her ass a little, her full cheeks almost distracting her from the heavy balls visible in between her thighs.


    ¡®She does have a nice ass, too¡­¡¯


    ¡°Why, thank you,¡± Wei Yi said with an obvious and natural smile, ¡°Feel free to get acquainted with it.¡±


    She might have made some remark about how this broke their current dynamic of keeping thoughts and words separate had the wondrous backside not moved back and covered her vision, the Ascendant taking a seat right on her face. Her nose ended up pressed against Wei Yi¡¯s tight slit, allowing her mouth to be perfectly aligned with the heavy, practically steaming sack. As soon as that realisation hit her, she stuck out her tongue to lick the balls, though she was soon distracted by their smell.


    Given her position, she was right at the root of the Ascendant¡¯s shaft and balls, and unlike before, none of the musk produced by them could escape. It was all provided directly to her, and she could inhale it without hesitation, as she knew that Wei Yi would take good care of her.


    Hence, she let herself indulge in it, breathing deeply and providing whatever pleasure she could to the musky balls with her tongue.


    Time didn¡¯t seem to flow within her lover¡¯s searing embrace. Her mind was almost blank and empty, devoid of all thoughts. Instead, every spot within her head was taken with Wei Yi¡¯s heady, overwhelming musk, soaking into her flesh and blood, replacing any hint of her and forever transforming her¡­


    ¡°Alright, that should be enough for you,¡± a voice broke through the thick fog inside her head.


    All of a sudden, the darkness in her vision vanished, and she saw a large ass rising from her, the figure it belonged to seeming to trigger warm feelings in her chest. As she got to see the woman¡¯s whole body, as well as her face when she turned out, her empty mind recovered the first of many memories.


    ¡°Wei Yi¡­ aw¡­¡±


    ¡°Did you want me to keep sitting on you?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yes¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, I care for your health, and have a certain problem with mental manipulation and the like, so I won¡¯t hurt your state of mind for some kink,¡± she said, ¡°Additionally, I think that it¡¯s time I show you what casual, normal sex can look like, or else you¡¯ll never realise the possibility and just get addicted to this kind of thing.¡±


    ¡°I think I already am¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll be fine. Probably. Anyway, c¡¯mere,¡± Wei Yi kneeled down and brought her lips to Miyu¡¯s, though the latter was able to interrupt her with a thought.


    ¡®Wait¡­¡¯


    ¡°Hm?¡±


    ¡®Don¡¯t you have a problem with kissing me while I¡¯m¡­ well, like this?¡¯


    ¡°Covered in my sweat and musk? No, not really. I¡¯ve kissed people with my cum in their mouth before, and that was a perfectly decent experience as well,¡± she said casually, ¡°I can tell you¡¯ve got something else to ask, so go on.¡±


    ¡®I¡­ Oh, right, you¡¯ve dropped the roleplay thing!¡¯


    ¡°Yes, I have. I¡¯m telling you, it¡¯s fine to indulge in the fetishes you¡¯ve accumulated from Orbis, but your first time ought to be a bit more¡­ normal. For that reason, I¡¯ll clean myself a little.¡±


    ¡®No, don¡¯t-¡¯


    ¡°Remember, it took me a few minutes to get my body to produce enough sweat to nearly wipe your mind clean. I can repeat that at any point, if you or any others want me to, but you ought to be able to focus on other things for now,¡± Wei Yi interrupted that line of thought and, to prevent her from asking again, audibly released some of her physique energy, cleansing her body of all the sweat that it had accumulated.


    ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°¡­ How many of my thoughts did you read?¡± Miyu asked after a lengthy pause, during which she was rather pre-occupied with staring into the Ascendant¡¯s eyes, ¡°Also, why does my vision feel weird?¡±


    ¡°I read all of them, to make sure you were alright, so I can commission a collar for you if you really want one. As for the latter¡­ I may have been trying to compensate for your lack of vision in one eye. My spiritual perception is rather powerful, so I transferred some of its perceived reality to your mind. Fortunately, it doesn¡¯t seem to have hurt you, or distracted you.¡±


    With that, there seemed to be nothing else that they could discuss, and so Wei Yi closed the gap between them and let their lips meet. For a while, they simply indulged in that, shifting around slightly and lightly nibbling at one another¡¯s lips, but tongues got involved in minutes.


    Again, Miyu lost all track of time.

 V4C80: Heading Out

    Getting back onto the general timeline of events, Wei Yi did record a few of the more interesting and feasible ideas she obtained from Miyu¡¯s mind for later, and then proceeded onto the search for items of interest, as well as people with whom she could spend some quality time. The former proceeded without much particular success, with her locating only a few tombs alike to the one invaded by Jian Hongchao.


    From those tombs, she extracted the same kinds of blood essence items that the clone made from her blood pursued, but wasn¡¯t able to make use of any of them right away and instead stored them away for Long Huang to study on her own at some later point. If she was able to extract some kind of useful information from the blood essence, then the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters would only benefit from it, even if it was random information of no specific immediate significance to them.


    During that day, she was approached by the people of the Bai District, who reported that their captive had awakened. She was quickly forced to recall just what they were even talking about, and quickly did.


    ¡°Why exactly did you lock up Ping Liu Yang?¡± she had asked at the time, ¡°I had thought that I was very specific that you really need to kill the guardians of the Ping District in the vast majority of cases, so what exactly is it that you were attempting to do with those people? Did you learn something about her that might require my attention?¡±


    ¡°Well, there is this ribbon,¡± the man from the Bai District said, handing it over to her.


    Receiving the weapon, Wei Yi analysed it with her spiritual perception and was able to confirm that the ribbon was a high-grade artefact, one that could be incredibly useful if it was given to someone that could properly to make use of the weapon and its unique combat style. Other than that, however, it was not of any particular interest to her, nor did she need to keep the woman that used it alive unless she wanted to steal the methods for using it properly from her mind and kill her after that, prompting her to look up and stare at the man with a questioning gaze.


    He withstood it for a brief while before looking away in embarrassment. Clearly, this is not what he had been intending, or more likely expecting, since he was unlikely to have been the one to make the decision in the first place.


    ¡°Well¡­ She is attractive¡­¡±


    ¡°Okay, I think I understand. However, even if she is the most beautiful woman to ever exist, I am not just going to run into her cell and take her like that. What kind of person do you think I am?¡±


    ¡°I-I didn¡¯t come up with this! She might have some kind of useful information, or something else like that¡­ If there is something wrong, you should speak with the Bai Patriarch, as I am told that he had approved of this, so none of it is related to me and I had been nowhere near the scene of the battle¡­¡± the man stammered, prompting her to dismiss him before he had the chance to say any more stupid things.


    Since they had imprisoned her regardless of her own preference, she decided that she might as well visit the only living guardian of the Ping District and see whether there truly was anything that she could learn from her.


    Even prior to the capture of the fourth district, she had little trouble moving around the districts under her control quickly, and with the Yi City Web, she was able to accelerate that process significantly.


    As to not seem like a sudden intruder, she appeared outside of the cells that the Bai District was using to keep the guardian restrained, and approached the guard at the front doors, who let her in right away. He offered to guide her along to the area where the guardian had been placed, but she refused his offer and instead proceeded on her own, being able to detect the planar energy of the sixth realm with ease even with the kind of spiritual perception that someone at her realm would usually be able to access without the advantage of spiritual will cultivation.


    The woman¡¯s cell was at the end of a long corridor of identical cells filled with various inscriptions, arrays and artefacts specifically intended to nullify and weaken the energy of anyone present near them, but more specifically, within the cells. Their effect was likely intended to be aimed at the sixth realm, with the cells being constructed in the last five hundred thousand years at the latest, they were barely capable of affecting Wei Yi¡¯s crystalline energy but suppressed Ping Liu Yang just fine.


    ¡®If nothing else, she is not bad in terms of physical appeal¡­¡¯ the Ascendant shrugged mentally while she knocked on the bars, ¡°I was told that you are awake, and I can tell that you are. If you¡¯d rather have me leave¡­¡±


    ¡°No. Were you the one to lead the assault?¡±


    ¡°I organised it, and I was one of the primary reasons for its success, so you could say so. Would it matter to you, former guardian?¡± she asked, gladly meeting the woman¡¯s gaze as she raised her head.


    ¡°It would. Very much so. You had invaded the district, stolen my things, and have left me here with little more than rags upon my body. Do not think that I fail to see what you intend for me, you vile, lecherous woman,¡± Ping Liu Yang¡¯s expression twisted in disgust, ¡°To think that I would be brought so low for the sake of some petty revenge.¡±


    ¡°While I could be wrong, it seems to me that you¡¯re misunderstanding a few things. First of all, that was the actions of the Bai District¡¯s people, not my own. I was told they kept you alive only a short time ago, hence the visit. I have no intention of acting upon whatever desires they ¨C and you, it seems ¨C believe that I might possess,¡± Wei Yi stated, ¡°Also, if you honestly believe that a mass, organised attack against your district¡¯s leadership and the very structure of its society at the time would only be motivated by so-called petty revenge, then I am not certain that I will be able to continue speaking with you.¡±


    The guardian almost looked disappointed, ¡°I will not miss your company, then.¡±


    ¡°I should also mention that I can see your thoughts, you kinky bitch. Just because this is straight out of a fantasy for you doesn¡¯t mean that your identity will simply be forgotten about.¡±


    She froze immediately, her head promptly lowering in a vain attempt to hide her embarrassed expression. From the moment that Wei Yi began to approach her, her mind began to fill with rather explicit fantasies of the scenario, and it seemed that she was very much eager to get right into them, if her thoughts were to be regarded without any proper consideration. Unfortunately for her, she did not meet someone from the criminal portion of the Ping District, as they would have leapt onto the opportunity to have their way with her.


    Then again, fantasies were hardly so fantastical once brought into reality. Seeing as she had been a guardian and managed to maintain a scar-free body without practising some powerful physical cultivation methods, it was likely that she had avoided a number of hardships that her appearance could have resulted in otherwise. The moment that the fantasy turned to reality and she was forced to confront exactly what was happening, she would be unlikely to be pleased with the situation, and it could turn a scene from paradise to nightmare in an instant, with the former being a passing thought while the latter would hang around for many decades at the least.


    How this wasn¡¯t the case with Miyu, who turned out to be more eager than even her fantasies would suggest, Wei Yi wasn¡¯t quite sure, but they had been together entirely consensually at the very least. That likely avoided the worst possible scenarios.


    ¡°¡­ What do you want, then?¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we begin with some kind of sob story? I¡¯m sure that you¡¯d like to get out of this alive, but I wouldn¡¯t let that happen if you are not at all sorry about the things that you and your fellow guardians have led to, and have done. Remember, I can see those memories flashing through your mind, and they do not improve my perception of you in the slightest,¡± the Ascendant said while the guardian¡¯s memories of past misdeeds seemed to eagerly gush forth, ¡°So, if you want me to believe you when you promise to change and improve, you¡¯ll need to make me believe that you had no other choice at all throughout your whole life. Go on then, tell me, Ping Liu Yang ¨C what was it that forced you to act as you have?¡±


    She did not reply immediately, the slowly rising dread clashing with the embarrassment and fear to freeze up her mind. Had Wei Yi proceeded with something, no matter what, she might have been able to get out of answering, but since she was being stared at without any sign of exhaustion or boredom, she was becoming more afraid.


    Just like the vast majority of people in the world, she obviously cared about her life, one that was all too happy to flash before her with vividness that she had not had since the first time she had experienced most of those events. To speak poorly at this moment, she would likely lose that life, or, at the very least, any hope of a life that was not miserable, but she wasn¡¯t sure whether any of the contemplation would be able to get past the Ascendant¡¯s mind reading abilities. Perhaps she already knew everything that was on her mind and was simply revelling in her discomfort.


    ¡°That is a curious question, isn¡¯t it? I can answer it once you answer mine,¡± Wei Yi smiled.


    Even on the average day, her spiritual will was able to sneak into most minds she encountered without issue, and read quite a lot of surface thoughts with the same ease, and the guardian was not an exception to this rule. In fact, with the energy suppression in the cell and a limited usage of the power of Law to forcefully bring more subconscious thoughts to the forefront of one¡¯s mind, as well as to instigate more thought that one might usually have, it would be odd if she couldn¡¯t see everything.


    With that degree of insight into the guardian¡¯s mind, she was easily able to obtain the relevant memories of her past deeds, the reasons behind them, the various times that could just barely be referenced to suggest that she may not have been participating in everything entirely willingly, and a number of unrelated thoughts that simply shot by. There was little difficulty to any of it, and in the end, all that she got was the location of a few hidden treasures, most of which would only be of use to those in the fifth realm and below, and no memories at all that would cause her to reconsider her initial instructions prior to the invasion of the Ping District.


    The guardians and the Patriarch had worked together to cause the district to remain in the state that she had found it in, so, just like the bandits and thieves themselves, they deserved no mercy.


    ¡°Come on, give me something. Even just one word. Try me.¡±


    Suddenly, Ping Liu Yang steeled herself and raised her head, their eyes meeting once again. Without a trace of hesitation, she opened her mouth, an idea with which to get out alive rushing to be executed and the words flowing freely to her.


    Before a single word was spoken, Wei Yi stepped back and said, ¡°Cease.¡±


    No sound came out of her mouth, her lungs and blood alike stopping entirely. Her mind blurred, her vision lost its clarity, the faint sounds of the cells and the active arrays disappearing entirely from her perception. If she had not heard that word, Ping Liu Yang might have assumed that the world itself had collapsed around her, but since that was an impossible feat for someone in the fifth realm, regardless of her personal power, she knew that something had happened to her.


    Try as she might, however, it was difficult to determine the exact nature of one¡¯s own death.


    ¡®Frankly, I have no idea what those idiots intended when they brought her back from the Ping District. I suppose that¡¯s what I get for fainting after accidentally blowing up half of a district with a supernova,¡¯ Wei Yi sighed as she turned around and headed back out, ¡®What a waste of time this turned out to be for me¡­¡¯


    The rest of that day had not been any more productive, so the day after, she decided that it was finally time to proceed onto the next district.


    She had been remaining near the Yi City Web in order to be able to respond to any attacks or emergencies in her territory, but as four days passed without any such situations occurring, she naturally needed to move on and expand her territory once more. Due to the existence of the web, it was best to capture districts near her even more so than before, leaving her with a very limited selection of optimal districts to capture, with most of them being more useful due to what they were connected to rather than their own focuses.


    The Ju District was certain to prove a challenge, as they had mastered the usage of anything but planar energy to survive, so trying to go through it to either the Shi or Chu District wouldn¡¯t be wise, especially when it was also possible to get to the latter district via the Ping or Luo District.


    Despite that, the Chu District was also not the best place to go, as it would simply bring her closer to the richest district of all, the Chen District. The moment that the people of that district received the opportunity to trade with the Arbiters, they would be guaranteed to somehow buy out the entire territory, so she would rather avoid such a thing. Even aside from what was likely an exaggeration of the Chen family¡¯s proclivities, although she doubted that the exaggeration was that excessive, she had little reason to head closer to what was likely to be one of the more powerful strongholds of the Greats, as their power tended to correlate with that of the district itself.


    Attempting to obtain the alliance of the Ning District would thus be similarly challenging, with it being even more risky due to the proximity to what is likely to be the centre of the Great Family¡¯s power, that being the Yi District. It would make for an easier approach to the Kong District, but she didn¡¯t expect that to be necessary.


    After the discovery of the web, she also found little reason to invade the former minor districts on the outside of the current territory of Yi City, as they would be unlikely to have anything of interest to her. The Empire of Dawn was not a nation that she could easily overwhelm, the Serpent Tribe that bordered the Chao District did not appear to be interested in attacking Paragon or the district, the Free Tribes weren¡¯t particularly active either, and few of them had anything of note to offer her, as far as she knew.


    For that reason, Wei Yi concluded that it would be best to pursue the Jiang District¡¯s alliance first.


    On one hand, it might extend the range of her control of the Yi City Web, if the Jiang District was connected to the Luo and Bai Districts in that fashion, but if not, it would still bring her closer to the Lan District, which she had wanted to visit for some time. It would grant her the opportunity to meet with far more of the eastern Daoists and learn from their methods that also worked in the Western Continent ¨C as the differences in cultivation between the two continents meant that certain principles were entirely unusable by those using the cultivation system of the other continent ¨C and perhaps their usage of tribulations for cultivation might give her a method to overwhelm higher realm cultivators by forcefully inducing a tribulation that they are not at all prepared to handle.


    Additionally, it would allow her access to a great number of talented pill refiners that she could recruit into her Arbiters, giving her the opportunity to teach them the methods that she had and did not require the Antithesis energy, resulting in a large influx of decent pills into her faction.


    With that in mind, she exited the Luo District at the very edge of the Yi City Web and proceeded towards the south-east, intending this visit to be one that was more explorative in nature rather than an instant inclusion of the Jiang District into the alliance of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters. That would free up some of her own time, as they would be able to create the weaker pills that did not require her involvement and methods, allowing her to only create those that were completely beyond the typical alchemist.


    Their herbs would also be of great use to the refiners that she already had, and would add to the various gardens in Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm, which were sufficient for the fortress and spatial realm, but not sufficient for the rest of the districts that she was adding to the list of allies. If she was to ensure their ability to participate in future conflicts, and to guarantee their rapid development, she would need enough pills for all of them to use however they wanted, and this would naturally be significantly easier with both more resources to work with, and more pills to consume, allowing them to not only take advantage of the latter products, but also to practise pill refining on their own, which was something that Wei Yi very much wanted them to do.


    Simply put, if all of the districts had some expertise in all five of the great arts, then she would be able to find talented individuals from all of the districts under her control, and thus the number of experts would increase and greatly benefit her and her entire faction. She wasn¡¯t entirely sure why the Master of Yi City had created something that would prevent certain talents from shining, since his world should have given him more experience with such things from the various stories that he had back there, but unless there was some kind of hidden intention that she had yet to learn, she would much rather prefer to take advantage of every possible talent.


    There were almost guaranteed to be some hidden geniuses in the Ning District, for instance, that would have done far better in the Jiang District due to their hidden comprehension and innate realisation of certain principles relating to pill refining rather than blacksmithing, and once she ensured that every district could work with all of the greats arts, such talent would no longer be missed.


    ¡®Back to the previous topic, however, I do not expect to be able to force the Jiang District into the alliance within one visit, when I have previously not visited it at all. That would be unrealistic, especially after all of the luck that I¡¯ve already had in the previous districts. Nonetheless, I should learn as much as possible and get into negotiations with the Patriarch and form some kind of communication channel with him before attempting to move on,¡¯ she thought, rushing through the land and, finally, after a long time spent away from the Central Region, she finally returned to it.


    The green, tall grass and similarly high trees surrounded her with a pleasant air and smell, one that was fortunately not eliminated alongside her sense of taste.


    It was nice to be back.

 Bonus Chapter: Roleplay, Part 2 [R-18]

    Their kiss was a very different experience to the previous¡­ whatever one might describe their acts as. To put it simply, and in the only way that Miyu could describe it, the kiss felt more natural, loving, romantic, even.


    It was really strange to experience something like that after however many hours she had spent on smelling the Ascendant¡¯s balls, but she certainly didn¡¯t dislike it. Rather, it changed the experience completely, and that meant that she had two things she could do with Wei Yi without ever having a chance to get bored.


    By the time they broke their kiss, her mouth was filled with a very different taste, and a much sweeter one.


    ¡°So, wasn¡¯t that nice?¡±


    ¡°It¡­ It was¡­¡± she admitted, struggling to catch her breath, ¡°I always thought this was exaggerated¡­ you know¡­¡±


    ¡°What, kissing? It didn¡¯t appear in your memories frequently enough, so I can¡¯t really confirm or deny anything,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°Still, that¡¯s not the best thing we will be doing today. You wanted to lose your virginity, and I will make that you do so in the best possible way you can imagine¡­ Are you ready for it?¡±


    ¡°Nicest? Are you sure you can¡¯t do it in the most debauched, perverted-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll cut you off there. Not for your first time, and probably not for your second, either. We¡¯ve talked about this plenty, so I hope I don¡¯t need to repeat myself.¡±


    ¡°No, dad¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t say that. It just feels weird in this context,¡± the Ascendant shook her head and placed her hands beneath Miyu¡¯s shoulders, lifting her up easily and moving her over to the top of the black couch, letting her lie down along its length.


    Wei Yi removed both of their clothing with stunning speed, despite only moving as quickly as an ordinary person from Orbis might, and soon they were both fully naked and on display for one another. Miyu noticed that her nipples were hard as her bra was being removed, as they rubbed against the fabric rather noticeably, causing her to squirm even more than when Wei Yi went to remove her panties, which had been soaked through completely with her arousal.


    The Ascendant also seemed to have enjoyed their time together, as her cock had finally gotten completely hard, ending up at ten or eleven inches, with a slight upward curve and several raging veins along the length. It throbbed as she looked upon it, a bead of precum spilling from the tip, dripping down to join a slowly growing pool on the floor.


    ¡°Want to try sucking it? It¡¯ll fit either way, but it should be close enough to the kinds of things you like.¡±


    Wei Yi presented the shaft to her, leaving the tip a short distance from her mouth as she climbed atop Miyu, resting it in between her breasts. While Miyu took the time to consider, she slowly slid her hips back and forth, letting her cock be massaged by the twin peaks.


    She would¡¯ve answered, but it was rather difficult to focus when the hypnotising sight of the hard cock head sliding in and out was before her.


    ¡°Miyu? You alright?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes, I am¡­ Distracted, that¡¯s all.¡±


    ¡°Hm,¡± Wei Yi paused and leaned in, putting two fingers beneath Miyu¡¯s chin and forcing her gaze to lock onto the Ascendant¡¯s deep silver eyes, ¡°Focus on me and answer my question. You want to answer my question.¡±


    ¡°I want to answer your question¡­ Wait, what?¡± she felt strange, but she continued to answer nonetheless, ¡°Yes, I want to suck it.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, here you go,¡± the Ascendant slid forward and brought the tip of her cock right to Miyu¡¯s mouth.


    ¡®Is this¡­ vanilla?¡¯


    ¡°I mean, blowjobs are rather standard, and it is customary to begin with foreplay and oral before getting onto the main act. It¡¯s certainly less insane than some of the stuff you¡¯d been reading about¡­¡± Wei Yi briefly glanced away, as if looking into a library to find the memory, ¡°Something to do with ure-¡±


    All of a sudden, Miyu felt rather embarrassed about her browsing preferences, and concluded that the best way to change topics would be to put her mouth to use on the shaft before her. She parted her lips and let the tip inside, trying her best to keep her teeth away from it.


    It wasn¡¯t the easiest feat, given that Wei Yi¡¯s dick was above average even by her perverse standards, but she somehow managed it, using her tongue to lap up the beads of precum streaming from the very end while her lips worked the rest of the head. She couldn¡¯t quite envelop the crown, but she certainly made the effort.


    Wei Yi was not distracted, but she did have the courtesy to stop talking about that topic.


    ¡°Not bad. You might want to focus on the underside a little more, and then I¡¯ll start moving, alright?¡± she asked, faintly sighing with satisfaction when Miyu followed her advice.


    With all the sweat and other grime gone from her cock, the only thing that remained was the Ascendant¡¯s natural taste and fragrance, as well as the beads of precum that occasionally dripped into her mouth. Apart from the latter, this made her rather easy on the tongue after the endless volume of sweat she had previously swallowed, and even the precum wasn¡¯t so overwhelming as to make it difficult to swallow.


    It was not sweet by any metric, though. Rather, it was exactly what she assumed cum would taste like, which did make her wonder how much stronger the taste of Wei Yi¡¯s actual seed would be, encouraging her to strengthen her efforts to please her.


    ¡°Good girl,¡± the Ascendant rewarded her with a pat on the head while pushing her hips forward, slipping more of her hard cock into Miyu¡¯s mouth, ¡°I¡¯ll let you take it slow and get used to it.¡±


    Miyu didn¡¯t quite know how to reply, so she simply kept her teeth back and worked the head with her tongue. It was far enough inside her mouth to let her cover it all with her saliva, but gave her just enough room to move around her tongue around it. Had she not known better, she might have assumed that Wei Yi was just lucky with her positioning.


    With the Ascendant¡¯s groin moving closer, she did get a reminder of the scent that had previously entranced her. Although she had mostly recovered, it had still left a permanent mark upon her mind, and so she couldn¡¯t help but inhale more through her nose.


    ¡°Pervert. What am I going to do with you¡­¡± Wei Yi sighed, ¡°Well, this much is alright.¡±


    She rocked her hips slightly, letting the crown of her cock pass in and out of Miyu¡¯s lips, her breathing growing just a little faster as she did so.


    ¡®Um, Wei Yi, do you¡­¡¯ Miyu looked her in the eyes, ¡®Do you actually feel anything from this? You seem to respond very calmly to¡­ well, just about everything I¡¯ve done so far. It¡¯s a little discouraging, to be honest.¡¯


    ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s a combination of experience and my general physical endurance. I¡¯ll get a bit more vocal once we get around to vaginal penetration,¡± Wei Yi smiled back, using the hand that she had left on Miyu¡¯s head to continue patting her, ¡°You¡¯re not doing a bad job, though. If I wasn¡¯t trying to avoid drowning you, I¡¯d have filled your throat by now.¡±


    Whether or not that was true was impossible to tell, at least for poor Miyu, but she chose to believe it. She brought her hands to her chest and pushed them into the shaft between them, letting them wrap around it and envelop it in their warmth. Her mouth and tongue were already working hard, but she put in even more effort to satisfy the Ascendant¡¯s cock head, trying to focus on the underside and the crown, hoping to draw out at least a portion of the cum she had felt building up within her balls before this.


    It seemed to work. The drops of precum soon grew to a stream, which she readily drank while giving the neediest gaze she could to the Ascendant, hoping that it would be enough.


    Perhaps it would have been, but Wei Yi seemed rather intent not to cum in her mouth. She bit her lip for a second, seeming to subdue a pleasured moan, then pulled her hips back, withdrawing from Miyu¡¯s mouth. She tried to keep the tip between her lips, but there was only so much she could do with the limited strength of her lips.


    ¡°I appreciate the effort, but you¡¯re trying too hard when the only thing this¡¯ll get us is another half an hour of you recovering. After this, I¡¯m sure we could find plenty of time for you to practise your blowjob skills,¡± Wei Yi said, rising from the couch, ¡°Now, let¡¯s swap positions.¡±


    With the Ascendant¡¯s help, Miyu rose from the couch and had her position taken, while she was made to sit atop Wei Yi¡¯s belly, her ass pressed against the hard rod behind it.


    She felt compelled to grind against the cock, finding her hips moving even with no experience in the matter. It just felt right to do so, and it felt especially nice when its warmth reached her asshole, tempting her to attempt to take it inside her. Fortunately, she had enough common sense from her own minimal experiences with that hole and from porn to know that even if her mouth or pussy could handle Wei Yi¡¯s dick, her ass would struggle.


    ¡°Wow, common sense. That¡¯s unusual.¡±


    ¡°Shut up. I just get a little excited at times¡­¡± Miyu muttered, blushing as strongly as ever, ¡°So, what do you want me to do?¡±


    ¡°First of all, push your ass back and try grinding on me some more,¡± the Ascendant suggested.


    Having no reason to refuse, Miyu did exactly that, pushing back until the firm pillar was forced to bend, letting her slide onto it. The moment her lower lips touched the rod, parting to let it nestle in between them, she felt a wave of arousal flood her body. Even without her clit being touched, the simple promise offered was enough to elicit a moan from between her lips.


    ¡°Have you never put anything near your nether lips? To have that kind of reaction¡­¡± her words had an odd tone, but Miyu could hardly focus on that.


    ¡°I used a dildo before¡­ ah¡­ what about it?¡±


    Wei Yi delayed her response for a little while, ¡°It just reminded me of something¡­ At some point, I had literally never touched myself, so the first time I had a sexual experience¡­ Well, you don¡¯t need to know that.¡±


    ¡°Tease. Now I have to know,¡± Miyu pouted, going a little further back on the Ascendant¡¯s cock, feeling the glans rubbing along her entire slit, ¡°Come on, tell me~.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re going to need to get it out of me. Don¡¯t worry, though, I¡¯m not immune to the charms of your body, so you might be able to get something if you try hard enough,¡± the reply came to much irritation.


    She had no good reply, given that she was gradually losing control over her lips and tongue, so she instead put her lower body to use. Seeing that their current position wouldn¡¯t permit her to enjoy the full length of the shaft as she wished to, Miyu raised her hips just enough to allow Wei Yi¡¯s cock to stand tall once more and pass by her. For a moment, when it was lined up just right, she considered simply impaling herself on it and getting right to the good part.


    However, after feeling the tip of the Ascendant¡¯s dick at her entrance, she felt¡­ afraid. Given the kinds of things she had masturbated to, it seemed strange to be scared of anything related to sex, and yet she knew that this was well-founded.


    Whatever her body had been, and whatever it had become, she had never taken anything or anyone like Wei Yi before. It would be unwise to do so until she was fully prepared, and the best preparation she could think of involved getting herself as wet as she possibly could, and making the Ascendant¡¯s cock as lubricated as she could. Both happened to involve the same thing.


    By swapping the direction from which she approached her cock, she was able to press it against Wei Yi¡¯s firm abdomen and slide her lower lips up and down it without issue.


    ¡°It¡¯s unfortunate you didn¡¯t get an otherworldly gift for creating art,¡± said the Ascendant with a casual smile.


    ¡°I can¡¯t decide whether your constant foc- oh, this¡­ mhm...¡± Miyu bit her lip as she felt the head touch her clit, ¡°¡­ What was I¡­ Ah, right. Your constant focus on my thoughts is both cute, I guess¡­ and a little weird, as well¡­¡±


    ¡°Only surface-level stuff. If you wanted to hide something from me, I would overlook it.¡±


    ¡°Would you, though?¡± she asked, but she didn¡¯t expect any particular answer and didn¡¯t get one.


    What she did get was the Ascendants¡¯ cock throbbing as she imagined sliding it into her pussy, a bead of precum spilling onto Wei Yi¡¯s otherwise pristine belly. It wasn¡¯t much, but combined with the growing layer of slick on the rest of her shaft, Miyu was getting more and more excited to attempt penetration properly.


    Since Wei Yi had promised her a good time, she had no doubt that her pussy could fit her behemoth inside it, but she had a feeling that it wouldn¡¯t be easy. From her earlier attempt, she could tell that it would likely stretch her more than any toy she had attempted to use on Orbis, and the added warmth and bulging veins would make it even more challenging to take it all the way inside herself. At once, she wished both to rush straight to it, and to never risk it, but the former was easily winning out.


    ¡°My dick is about as wet as it can be from just this, so you can go for it whenever you want.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ almost don¡¯t want to¡­ this feels really nice¡­¡± Miyu said, moans continuing to emerge from her lips, ¡°You feel so nice¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s why I kept telling you to check out the basics, but¡­ you aren¡¯t listening, are you? Well, that¡¯s fine. Enjoy yourself for as long as you like,¡± the Ascendant surmised correctly, as her words might as well have not been said. Hence, she let her head settle into the armrest of the black couch and simply watched Miyu enjoy herself.


    It was probably for the best that she kept going, as she got to experience her soft petals being parted and stretched apart, especially when she moved as far forward as she could, then let the glans slide across the whole length of her slit. She got to experience a small portion of the rod touching her insides, and soon she grew addicted to the experience, especially when her clit was touched by the head of the Ascendant¡¯s cock, causing her whole body to tremble with pleasure. Had the world never moved on from there, she would have been happy.


    Still, her body began to desire more. She wished to be filled, the desire rising with every rock of her hips, and it eventually broke her out of her trance.


    Looking down to Wei Yi¡¯s stomach, Miyu saw a sizeable pool of pre that she dipped a finger into, placing it inside her mouth to taste it. She felt her mind go blank right away, nearly falling into the Ascendant¡¯s chest as orgasm shook her body.


    ¡°F-Fuck¡­ What the hell¡­ have you been eating?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I¡¯ll treat that as a rhetorical question.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s so¡­ so good! Can you replace my diet with your cum, please? Can I live off of nothing but your rich seed?¡±


    ¡°Good thing I didn¡¯t let you drink my actual cum,¡± Wei Yi muttered, grabbing Miyu¡¯s wrist as she attempted to collect more precum with her fingers, ¡°Now, calm yourself for a moment and focus on what we had originally planned. Remember, we can do plenty of things after this, so don¡¯t get distracted right now.¡±


    ¡°But¡­ Fine, I¡¯ll¡­ Just a little more?¡±


    ¡°Just raise those hips already, you slut,¡± the Ascendant resisted the urge to slap Miyu¡¯s ass, as she was concerned it would just encourage her to do the wrong thing.


    Miyu was tempted to ignore her, but the temptation to lose her virginity won out. With Wei Yi¡¯s help, she rose up, positioning her pussy over the hard tip of the Ascendant¡¯s cock, hesitating for a moment. She looked into Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, deliberating in silence for a few moments, before she lowered her hips.


    The moment her delicate petals were parted by the glans, she froze, gasping as all air seemed to rush out of her lungs. It was extremely overwhelming, but the encouraging gaze from Wei Yi prevented her from attempting to return to what she had become more comfortable with. She moved her hips around, trying to find a more comfortable angle for penetration, but it only made her moan in pleasure as her pussy was forced to accommodate the movement.


    ¡°Oh f-fuck¡­ So big¡­¡±


    ¡°Take a deep breath and relax. You can handle it, even if I don¡¯t get my energy involved,¡± the Ascendant assured her, switching from gripping her wrist to holding Miyu¡¯s hand instead.


    That was strangely calming and encouraging, but there was still one matter to consider.


    ¡°Do I¡­ um¡­ still have a hymen? Will this hurt?¡±


    ¡°No to both, but it will take you some time to get used to this, so just take it slow. I shouldn¡¯t need to explain that stuff to you, provided that you still recall some of your porn stories¡­ Yeah, you remember them just fine.¡±


    ¡°You suck at romantic¡­ everything.¡±


    ¡°Says the one that wanted to get addicted to my musk. If you had wanted romantic whispers, then you shouldn¡¯t have started with that.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Jerk,¡± Miyu could not arrive at a proper response, made more difficult than usual due to feeling like she was being split in half, ¡°Can you¡­ can you promise not to rush me? No thrusting, hip grabbing, whatever¡­¡±


    ¡°If that¡¯s what you want. I¡¯ll wait for you to ask twice before you change your mind.¡±


    She nodded, gripped Wei Yi¡¯s hand more tightly, then rested her other hand on the Ascendant¡¯s chest and brought herself down. Only a little movement was needed for her to envelop the whole tip, and every further inch further intensified the feeling of being utterly filled to the brim, her whole body being forced to accommodate something that seemed to have no right to be there.


    It was amazing.


    ¡°S-So¡­ so full¡­ ah¡­¡± Miyu struggled to speak, and found her vision to be blurring as well, ¡°Holy shit¡­ I¡­¡±


    ¡°Take it slow,¡± the words pierced through the fog, albeit barely, ¡°Move back up for now.¡±


    As thinking about the instruction was rather challenging, she simply followed them, her hips rising back up until only half of the tip remained inside her. It still made her feel absurdly full, but it was a little more comfortable than before. After a few laboured breaths, her mental state recovered.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe it¡­ you¡¯re too thick¡­¡±


    ¡°How kind of you to say. I think I¡¯m just about the right size, personally,¡± Wei Yi continued to be a little annoying, but the calmness with which she spoke helped Miyu focus, ¡°You okay?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ This is still terrifying.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m here, so don¡¯t be afraid. Even if you were to hurt yourself, I can solve any injury in an instant with my abilities. So, just do whatever feels right to you, and I will always stop you if you try to do anything¡­ unreasonable.¡±


    ¡°But¡­ being filled by you¡­ it¡¯s scary, but it also feels right.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s something you just need to get used to. There was a time that I lacked any experience with sex, and so, being touched by what one might call an expert felt rather overwhelming. However, it was worthwhile,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°Now, there was no dick involved, and I ended up taking control rather quickly, but you have more experience than I did, so it¡¯s roughly equivalent.¡±


    Miyu smiled shyly, ¡°I¡¯ll be honest¡­ I haven¡¯t been listening at all. This feeling, it¡¯s¡­ while it¡¯s only the tip, it¡¯s still comfortable¡­¡±


    ¡°At times like this, having a powerful mind seems to be a negative¡­ Whatever.¡±


    She was still not listening, but she decided to take action just after Wei Yi stopped. With her entrance recovering slightly, she somehow acquired the courage from somewhere to lower her hips again, letting the head slide inside. After that, the rest of the shaft followed, the thick veins causing the length to constantly part her nether lips in different ways. It was amazing, and¡­ well, the more she was taking, the less unpleasant it became. Whatever stress it put on her body, it wasn¡¯t making itself known.


    The only shock came when she felt the tip strike something inside herself, and be stopped by it. Whatever it was, the sensitivity at that spot seemed to be a thousand times of the rest of her cunt. Even with her faded sensations, it felt as if she had just felt the pleasure of a thousand lifetimes at once.


    ¡°AH! W-Wha¡­ fuck¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s your womb. It¡¯s great, isn¡¯t it?¡± Wei Yi said, her voice finally being stained by arousal, ¡°Didn¡¯t think you¡¯d take everything on the second go, but¡­ it was hot.¡±


    ¡°E-Everything?¡±


    ¡°Mostly. An inch or so left,¡± the reply was followed by a lengthy exhalation, ¡°I would love to rectify that, but you had asked me not to.¡±


    ¡°W-Well¡­ It¡¯s probably for the best,¡± Miyu restrained her lustful urges through some miracle and focused on what already inside, ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m not sure how much longer I¡¯ll be able to endure, so¡­ could you¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll cum as soon as you can¡¯t take any more, don¡¯t worry.¡±


    With that out of the way, Miyu focused solely on her own pleasure. Although it felt like she had cum a dozen times while simply taking the shaft inside herself, she had not even begun the proper act of sex. So, ignoring the small puddle of arousal that had formed on Wei Yi¡¯s groin and the black couch beneath them, she adjusted her position and began bouncing her ass up and down.


    She could only rise so far, but every time that she plunged down she felt her womb being hit again. It sent another wave of orgasm each time, but she forced her body to continue and experience that again and again.


    Every moment blurred together, as lust overwhelmed her body and mind. For all she knew, she had bounced on Wei Yi¡¯s cock for decades, as her body certainly felt that way, but one thing in particular broke any semblance of monotony that she might have experienced. After an especially powerful movement, she felt a barrier within her being breached, resulting in her hips slamming against the Ascendant.


    Something within her felt as if it burst, opening the floodgates of pleasure. Her pussy was already soaked, but now it gushed as she released a moan that seemed to belong to some beast, rather than a human. With her inner walls clenching as hard as they could around the intruding shaft, her body tried to signal her desire to Wei Yi, even when her mind could barely function.


    It was clear that the Ascendant understood when she felt an incredible heat flooding into her womb, filling it nearly instantly in a single burst.


    However, as she¡¯d heard from Shun Liu Min before this, that was just the beginning, and soon that viscous warmth spilled out into her vaginal canal and forced her belly to bulge in order to accommodate it. If she had felt full at first, every additional spurt of semen into her body forced her body to stretch even more, soon making her seem several months into pregnancy. Luckily, that was where the flood stopped, or else she might not have been able to endure.


    She wasn¡¯t sure how, or when, but she found Wei Yi sitting up and embracing her as tightly as she could without putting pressure on her flooded belly. With no energy to do much else, she rested her head on the Ascendant¡¯s shoulder, and soon felt sleep calling to her.

 V4C81: Reaching out to the Jiang

    She had to resist the urge to spend a little time simply rolling around in the grass, especially when there was little practical reason not to do it. Her physique energy was able to eliminate any leaves, grass or dirt that would get onto her body, not that this would be likely due to the intrinsic capabilities of her skin, and even her long hair wouldn¡¯t get tangled up or dirtied no matter what she did, unless she intentionally tied individual strands together in an inconvenient manner.


    As such, she decided on a certain compromise and instead headed through a large patch of trees where leaves were frequently falling from the trees, with them looking to be in their autumnal state.


    This was a state that most plants had where their leaves would fall and regrow after a certain time, and was apparently similar to an entire season in the world that most of the otherworldly demons came from where the vast majority of trees would experience this at the same time, but she had a hard time imagining the entire world suddenly transforming from green to yellow, red, and then the white of the south. Perhaps it was normal in the memories of the otherworldly demons, but she was certain that the laws of those worlds were greatly different from those in the Planar Continents, and that if any trees were somehow transported over, they wouldn¡¯t endure the difference in environment.


    In the Planar Continents, any plants that endured the autumnal state would typically do so according either to when they were planted, or when their seeds were produced, meaning that groves that appeared around the same time by human hands or the acts of nature would end up withering and being resuscitated around the same period of time.


    The grove that she decided to pass through did exactly this, the leaves falling upon her as the trees began to become yellow, with the stronger winds removing a leaf every time that they passed through the leaf canopy.


    ¡®Well, this feels much better than the northern deserts¡­ A little tempted to loosen my clothes and frolic about, but, again, this is not the kind of thing that I should be doing while attempting to pursue a diplomatic relationship with the Jiang District. Once I am not rushing to achieve something, then I¡¯m sure I can find a private grove and just take everything off for a while,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, frowning for a moment, ¡®Perhaps removing everything will not be too good due to all of the leaves flying about, though¡­ Eh, I can just have a thin barrier around the important bits¡­¡¯


    She allowed herself to become immersed into the atmosphere, taking deep breaths to adjust herself to the air of the Central Plains and recover some of her memories.


    In a grove with falling and slowly yellowing leaves, a man with long and loose red hair walked beside a line of trees. His silver eyes were dim, and his walking was lazy, with every step barely taking more energy than was absolutely necessary.


    A particularly strong wind seemed enough to knock him over, although his body and cultivation were sufficient to prevent any regular winds from being sufficient. That did not stop him movements from slowing down each time that he was met with a notable wind, his hair flooding his vision for a while until the winds were able to settle and his hair settled down to give him just enough room to look out onto the world.


    From his physique and clothing, it would be difficult to determine his age. His faded red and silver robes were old and so poorly maintained that they could be as old as a thousand years, and one of the sleeves was in such a bad state that it was more alike to a bunch of threads loosely hanging near the man¡¯s arm, although his other sleeve was not in a significantly better condition. With his face obscured, the rest of his body suggested him to be middle-aged physically, his skin dry and his muscle definition fading like one may find in someone who began to decrease their physical activity in order to prevent their body from being overworked.


    He had walked this way on quite a few days, and he did not expect to find anything different on this walk. Despite that, he did see a glimpse of something in the distance.


    There was a hint of colour that simply didn¡¯t belong in the brown, green and yellow of the woods. Red, or silver, or perhaps a shade of something different ¨C it was difficult for him to make it out, as too much of his own red hair obscured his vision. Perhaps it was just a stray hair that had been shifted into position by the latest gust of wind.


    It would have been easy to confirm this, but he found it unnecessary. Instead, he just proceeded.


    The colours were on his typical route anyway, so if there was something unusual there, he would encounter it soon enough and find out the truth in a few minutes. He sighed, unintentionally blowing the hair right before him away and confirming that he was not just seeing his own red strands.


    After a few minutes, he passed through a tighter region of trees and emerged into a more open area, finding a wondrous scene.


    Right before him, walking calmly through the woods, the occasional leaf falling upon her crimson hair and shoulders, was a tall woman clothed in a crimson robe. Each step was short and yet oddly glamorous, instantly grabbing the man¡¯s attention as he felt his breath catch in his throat, forcing him to stop and admire that which he saw.


    The robe on the woman¡¯s body was slightly loose, partly revealing tanned shoulders that shifted slightly as she traversed the woods, rising and falling with each slow breath. Something about that simple movement entranced him, his mind flowing back into the past, reminding him of times that had gone and events that now haunted him. He found that his steady yet lazy hands suddenly began to shake, with him being tempted to run away and avoid needing to face the situation, whatever it was that he came across, and whoever the woman was.


    Before he could move away, however, the woman suddenly turned, her undeniably perfect yet stern face framing the vivid, almost gem-like silver eyes that stared directly at him.


    ¡°¡­ Who the fuck are you?¡± Wei Yi questioned, speaking harshly as this man¡¯s form reminded her of someone that wouldn¡¯t have been caught in such a state as this, and one that really shouldn¡¯t have had the ability to stand before her.


    Clearly, the question and the particular wording of it surprised the man, as he visibly quaked while taking a step back, looking as if some unseen hand had pushed him back. He stared at her for a few moments more, then, taking a step forward to return to his previous position, he opened his mouth and released a long-held breath.


    ¡°You¡­ are you Yi Wei?¡±


    ¡°If you are Yi Jiazhi, then I don¡¯t even know what I should comment on first¡­ Well? Are you, or are you just someone that happens to have a similar bone structure, physique, same cultivation technique, a realm that could have been achieved within the time since the collapse of the Kong Holy Grounds, and¡­ fuck, you are him, aren¡¯t you?¡± she spat out her words, her peaceful mood being entirely broken to the point of needing to restrain her left arm from transforming into the killing will state, ¡°How are you still alive?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Ha, you¡¯re still¡­ oh, heavens¡­¡± he dropped to his knees, his long and messy hair landing on the ground and mixing with the fallen leaves, ¡°it was terrible¡­¡±


    His reaction did help her with restraining her killing intent, as she found the reaction and his whole appearance to be entirely different from what she might expect. Not to mention the simple fact that she met another survivor of the Kong District incident only a few days ago, he simply shouldn¡¯t have been alive due to being stuck somewhere in the spatial realm at the time of it collapsing and forever vanishing from the world.


    In addition, his state was rather miserable, to put it lightly, far more so than her own.


    ¡°Well, aside from answering my question¡­ Do you still¡­ no, that¡¯s not right either¡­¡± Wei Yi¡¯s words got more and more quiet as she remembered that she was not too proficient at handling something that appeared to be significant trauma that was not her own, especially without her own method for solving her problems being available.


    She sighed, then waved her hand to manifest a barrier around them so that nobody would be able to randomly intrude and ruin her already feeble attempts to deal with this. Approaching the man, she also created a long bench behind him and shifted him onto it, sitting down a short distance away from him while tightening up her robe. As this person had been one of the reasons that she had been mostly certain about her sexual interests due to his attempts to influence her mind, she couldn¡¯t be sure that he wouldn¡¯t get the wrong idea in his current poor mental state, so it was better to be careful with everything that she did.


    ¡°So¡­ Wanna tell me what happened to you in the Kong District, or should I go first?¡± she asked, finding no better place to begin their conversation.


    ¡°¡­ after I was nearly killed by Yi Fenwu, I had managed to take a healing pill and recover¡­ I saw some kind of floating chunk of land fighting with her afterward, and then the space changed¡­ I rushed to the exit as quickly as I could, I think, but I had seen how the space behind me seemed to be torn apart¡­ I didn¡¯t remain near the entrance, but when I was sure that it closed down, I could find nobody¡­ We¡¯d gotten so far, but one archer just¡­¡±


    ¡®So, it appears that he is facing a similar mental problem that I had been. Not surprising in the slightest. However, considering the fact that he is currently near to the Jiang District, I suspect that he had not gone in the same direction as I had, and that I hadn¡¯t simply missed him when I had returned and was then captured by the assholes- I mean, the Great Families¡­ The other name suits them better, frankly,¡¯ the Ascendant¡¯s mind drifted for a moment, although she returned to the proper topic quickly, ¡°You didn¡¯t return to the Yi District, did you?¡±


    ¡°No, I would never do that¡­ everyone had died, and I could never face the family¡­ I¡­ left. I took a direction and left. Turned out, I had gone to the east¡­ I would cultivate, hunt, eat, drink, sleep, but I was never sure why¡­¡± Yi Jiazhi admitted, his head still hanging low, ¡°Apparently, I ended up at a Jiang District.¡±


    ¡°You were that out of it?¡±


    ¡°I still am. I don¡¯t know what I¡¯m doing¡­ Look at me. Look at all of this. It¡¯s like I¡¯ve aged by a dozen years despite only¡­ um¡­ fewer years than that passing.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s been less than one, actually. You have not aged that gracefully, unfortunately. Have you been doing anything in the district, or just continuing to wander around and cultivate?¡± she asked, and hardly needed a reply to understand that this was indeed the case, ¡°Alright then. Have any interest in what I got up to, or have you completely lost interest in women at this point? Not trying to suggest anything, by the way, so don¡¯t get the wrong idea.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Did it go any better for you?¡±


    ¡°Eh, that depends. I came back to the Yi District, found my home burning, everyone I knew either missing, dead, or dying, was then imprisoned in a spatial realm with dilated time for twenty years, then came back and have been fighting with a force that has been trying to bring down Yi City for decades. Nothing much.¡±


    His mouth opened, but he struggled to say anything in response at the sheer extremity of the events she had just listed in such a simple and calm tone. One thing that he was able to understand right away was that their time had been spent very differently.


    ¡°Also, that technique of yours turned out to not have worked as I have zero interest in men, so it wasn¡¯t your fault that it did not work. That being said, I hope you do not intend to use it ever again, as actions like that are horrible and you should have realised this by now, no matter what it is that you have or have not being doing in the year or so that we¡¯ve not seen one another,¡± Wei Yi stated, ¡°I would offer to help with removing it from your memory, but that would just sound hypocritical, so I will not do that. Ahem.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ what happened to the Yi District?¡±


    ¡°The district should be standing and doing about as well as before. It certainly had been when I had last visited. However, if you were curious about specific people, then I cannot tell you much. I did not have the chance to speak with many of them, and certainly not those you¡¯d be interested in.¡±


    ¡°Was your home the only thing burned, then?¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡­ No. No, not at all. In fact, most of the poorer region of the district was a flame, then a grove that had been formed within was also burned, then entire streets were cleared and obliterated just to get at one of the people within, and then Yi Yaling was killed when she tried to help me out¡­ The smoke was what had alerted me to shit going down in the first place, so it was not a nice sight no matter how you look at it,¡± she sighed, recalling the woman that had acted much like a younger sister.


    ¡°O-Oh¡­ oh¡­ Yi Yaling, you said, right? Her father was Yi Fenhong, correct?¡± he suddenly raised his head, panic filling his eyes.


    ¡°You knew her?¡±


    ¡°We had been friends when we were younger, but we had ended up separating as we aged¡­ She also died?¡± he looked away, although she was still easily able to tell that tears were flooding into his eyes, ¡°Fuck¡­ I had thought that, somehow, avoiding the district would just keep the disaster of the Kong District away, and yet¡­¡±


    ¡°That particular incident had not been your fault. In fact I had no clue you were alive, and I barely managed to report anything to the district¡¯s forces, so they wouldn¡¯t have been able to act due to you, whether in a positive or negative manner,¡± she stated, ¡°You could blame it on me for daring to be friends with her while having the wrong mother¡­ or you could blame it on the Great Families, the group that I had mentioned previously. They¡¯re the bastards that are intent on keeping Yi City down for some stupid reason, and when they came across her, they waited for a slight provocation and immediately took her down. Probably wouldn¡¯t have come back if I had known about that, and that only.¡±


    ¡°And if you knew everything that would happen after?¡±


    ¡°I would have gone straight for them and stopped them from damaging as much as they had this time,¡± Wei Yi said.


    Yi Jiazhi nodded, his head falling down once more. However, this time he raised one of his feeble hands and shifted his hair away, revealing a dishevelled, bearded visage. Although it dropped almost immediately due to an apparent tiredness, he forced his hand to return to his head and move the other portion of his hair aside, before brushing the rest back as to force it to no longer obstruct his eyes, within which a small spark brewed.


    He slowly channelled his energy throughout his body, the flaming shade of it filling his meridians and momentarily brightening his entire body as a certain vitality returned to his appearance. It did nothing to clear away the age that had somehow accumulated upon his features, nor did he have the ability or precision to clear away his messy hair and beard with it, but that energy alone was enough to change his look from that of a hopeless wreck to someone still capable of rising after a fall, and someone that would no longer lay sleeping during the storm.


    ¡°I have to do something. Anything. I want to stop those people.¡±


    ¡°Won¡¯t be easy. Their third realm members are as strong as the typical fifth realm cultivator, and their seventh realm members would currently be unmatched, unless a ninth realm dragon is sleeping in some cave in the mountains near the Ju District,¡± the Ascendant said as she also rose from her seat, ¡°That being said, there is a group that I¡¯ve founded which you could join.¡±


    ¡°Can it do anything against them?¡±


    ¡°With the alliance between us and the Chao, Ping, Bai and Luo Districts, I suspect that they wouldn¡¯t lose to a third or fifth realm member of the Great Families, even without my assistance. With it, I suspect that it might be possible to endure an attack from one of their first generation, that being the seventh realm cultivators. In addition, my Arbiters ¨C the faction is called the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and since I am the Ascendant, they¡¯re technically mine ¨C have already gotten rid of a third of the Great Family numbers. Another few assaults, and I might eliminate all of their third and second generation and ensure that they will not be able to rebuild.¡±


    He looked at her in an understandably perplexed manner, ¡°What exactly have you been getting up to while I was rotting away?¡±


    ¡°Oh, you know, stuff. Perfecting realms, making black suns, stealing spatial realms from under their noses¡­ The normal thing women my age are doing¡­ in some other world, assuming that there is an infinite number of them with each having some small variation.¡±


    ¡°So, nothing common for someone in the¡­ third realm?¡±


    ¡°Fifth.¡±


    ¡°Ah. That was fast. Then again, you have always been rather fast in your cultivation,¡± Yi Jiazhi recalled with a sullen look.


    They looked at one another for a short while, with Wei Yi waiting for him to proceed while he looked upon her with a complicated mixture of emotions. He remembered what he had attempted to do to her, where they had gone together, and how they had interacted in the last few minutes of the existence of the Kong Holy Grounds. With the haze in his mind gone, he was able to recall those things with far greater clarity, and he needed some time to rethink the past.


    When he was ready, however, his back was straight, and his arms no longer hung loosely by his sides.


    ¡°I was heading to the Jiang District, so whether you¡¯d like to assist the Arbiters or go your own way, I think it would be a good idea to go together,¡± Wei Yi suggested, dispersing the barrier around them and pointing in the vague direction of the district, ¡°If not-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll go with you, Yi Wei.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that reminds me. For various reasons, I¡¯m going by Wei Yi nowadays. I¡¯d prefer if you called me that as well, although for different reasons, it doesn¡¯t really matter,¡± she mentioned.


    ¡°You¡­ are confusing. Wei Yi, then. Lead the way.¡±


    She nodded, and they set off.


    Before they could get far, she did find herself asking, ¡°I heard that you had lost an arm, by the way. Was that not the case?¡±


    ¡°My arm¡­ I don¡¯t think that I had lost either of them. I did have a technique to temporarily leave a mark on other things, making it look like my energy was occupying them seamlessly, but other than that¡­¡±


    ¡°Right,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡®It is possible that he had found someone else¡¯s arm when he healed himself and tried to make himself look like he had died or suffered a great injury so that he wouldn¡¯t be sought out and attacked by Yi Fenwu again. Perhaps that allowed him to bypass her while she was focusing on controlling the Kong Holy Grounds, thus leaving early but also setting him up for a disappointment when he failed to catch me or Yi Bai leaving the spatial realm.¡¯


    On the route to the Jiang District, which she was able to quickly improve and clarify the closer they got to it with her spiritual perception, they did not speak with one another much. Both of them did have things that they wished to say to the other, and Wei Yi was able to obtain a number of questions and general thoughts from the surface of his mind due to her near-obsessive intrusion upon the minds of others with her spiritual will threads, but neither of them felt that they had found the appropriate time to speak about them.


    They left the autumnal grove, then proceeded on throughout a far less dense forest and headed up a steadily climbing hill, progressing on towards their destination, a large district with tall walls that were, as odd as this might seem from the outside, were supported from the outside.


    To someone unaware of the district¡¯s circumstances, this would naturally seem to be rather ineffective in a defensive setting, since that just made it easier to destroy the walls from the outside and get in, but this was exactly why the walls were designed this way. Rather than keeping invaders out or others in, the walls were holding up an enormous quantity of failed pills and refining materials that were piled up as high as the walls themselves, reaching the height of ten tall men standing atop one another. If the walls were ever to be broken down from the outside, the enormous piles of toxic substances would collapse onto the invaders, leaving them completely covered in materials that they would never be prepared to handle.


    Certain refining materials were relatively harmless when they end up in the state of useless sludge caused by a failed refinement, but this was not the case for others. Some possessed extreme medicinal properties, and when they were unleashed and then not contained and suppressed by the other materials of a pill, as well as the shell of it, those who come into contact with the materials will suffer.


    For that reason, any invading forces wouldn¡¯t attempt to break down the walls unless they knew that they had every single possible medicinal effect accounted for, which was, in turn, impossible due to the sheer quantity and variety of these effects. It was theoretically possible to create a kind of universal antidote against the poisons in the failed pills essence, but that would only counter the strictly negative effects. To entirely prevent the effects of any pills affecting the body and mind, one would need a significantly different approach, and the only one that Wei Yi herself knew about was to acquire a certain absolute physique called the Medicinal Nullification physique.


    This would not be an optimal way to do this, as it was a physique that did not distinguish between positive and negative effects, instead blocking every single effect upon the body. If someone still wanted to acquire any kind of medicinal effect in the future, the physique was not an option.


    On the inside, this was blocked away with a secondary wall and a series of inscriptions to prevent the smells and medicinal effects from leaking out, and the inside of the Jiang District was filled with a particular type of tree to further cover up the smell of what was effectively a refuse pile bordering their territory. There were various people that claimed that the scent of the trees would change every now and then, with some of the results being less pleasant than others, but the reports on that were highly mixed and vague due to the distance that appeared between the Yi and Jiang Districts by the time that these trees became necessary.


    It was hardly the most elegant solution in the world, and it was not one that Kong Shi Meng had been responsible for, but it looked to have proved effective enough against the Empire of the Dawn. Some of the essences would naturally decay and would be refilled every now and then, and there were a few methods for leaving and entering the district that could be used for that purpose, also increasing the difficulty of entering the district without permission.


    Fortunately enough for them, the district wasn¡¯t against small groups entering it, especially when they did not look to have any hostile intentions against them, so as they approached the district, they had no reason to fear being prevented from entering it freely.


    ¡°This is the district? I think I¡¯ve seen it before,¡± Yi Jiazhi mentioned.


    ¡°You think? Was that when you were wandering about without really thinking about what you were doing, or prior to that?¡±


    ¡°I think it was after the Kong District¡¯s incident, but I can barely recall any of it. The days just blurred together, honestly. Maybe I had lived here at some point, although I would have probably been chased out considering what I look like,¡± he said, glancing at his weak and tired hands, as well as the exposed arm and the remains of his robe on the other arm, ¡°They may not be too happy to see me.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s too bad for them, really. I¡¯m entering no matter what, and if they do not let you in, then I¡¯ll come back out in a short while,¡± Wei Yi replied, looking up at the wall and at the nearest guard in sight.


    She had no reason to assume that he wouldn¡¯t be allowed in, however, as the moment that they were seen, the guard gestured towards a few of his fellow warriors and a squad of them rushed to the area where a long board for guests to ascend by was stored. It was a simple method, but it was also a safe one as it was able to ensure that no kind of mechanism or array could be the weakness for their defensive method. Sometimes, the simplest defence was the best, or at the very least a functional one, in this case.


    From afar, it was difficult to hear the guards, but the simple haste to bring the board over and place it for their convenience was enough to suggest that they were very likely to be permitting their entrance to the Jiang District.


    ¡°Look, it¡¯s the sullen sage! I didn¡¯t think we¡¯d see him today!¡± one of the guards said to another.


    ¡°There¡¯s a woman with him¡­ Is she human? Does the sullen sage actually speak with other people?¡± the other guard questioned, ¡°Oh, this is great!¡±


    Wei Yi looked over to the dishevelled so-called sage, finding that he lacked the ability to hear them, then waited for the guards to bring out the walkway board before saying anything. Even without his confirmation, his previous comment on recognising the district, as well as the fact that he or someone much like him was apparently well known around here, it was blatant that he had indeed made his way over to the Jiang District before. As such, he would also realise this in due time, with the only question being whether it would take him a few minutes or a few hours.


    ¡°Sullen sage, huh. Quite a name to earn.¡±


    ¡°¡­ What?¡±


    ¡°You do certainly look the part, even now. That hair of yours needs some care, or shortening, depending on what it is that you want to do with it. I know a few people that can help you out with both, although you would need to wash it either way.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I am a sage now? I¡¯m only¡­ I¡¯m only twenty-three!¡±

 V4C82: Looking Around

    ¡°Sullen sage, welcome back!¡±


    ¡°Oh, it is the sullen sage! Look, brother, it¡¯s the man that I had mentioned!¡±


    ¡°This is amazing¡­ I had never thought that I would be here just in time to come across the sullen sage himself¡­ I must not disturb him, only observe¡­¡±


    As Wei Yi and Yi Jiazhi walked through the streets, they were able to hear quite a few mentions of the latter¡¯s moniker. For her, it was rather amusing, since he had yet to show any reason why he would have such a nickname after less than a year spent away from the Yi District, but for him, it was clearly getting more and more embarrassing with every single mention of it, especially due to him appearing to lack any knowledge of where such a nickname even came from.


    If it had at the very least been something that he was directly responsible for, or even something that he had intentionally spread, then it would have been far less embarrassing. For instance, the Ascendant had gotten used to being called this very quickly as she had intentionally spread it throughout the world, using the name of the physique she was endowed with in order to make it something greater than a simple nickname that she could have thrown onto herself, or anyone else. She was, as far as anyone needed to know, an Ascendant, and since the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique appeared to be unique to her for the moment, she was also the only Ascendant.


    Yi Jiazhi was neither a sage, nor did he wish to be particularly sullen, although that part did make more sense due to his actions when they had met one another a few hours prior. As he was clearly getting more agitated with the name, Wei Yi found a small tea shop in the distance and brought them towards it.


    ¡°Interested in some tea?¡± she asked when they were close enough to it for him to observe it.


    ¡°Tea? I suppose we might as well¡­¡± he replied without much enthusiasm, although his expression quickly brightened when he realised why she had suggested this.


    Even from the outside, it was clear that the tea store was one that encouraged a certain degree of privacy, as every single seating area visible through the small windows was surrounded by thin but opaque walls that reached up to the height of the average seated man, meaning that they would be mostly obscured from other customers while they sat inside. That meant that he would have the chance to enjoy the peace away from the constant repetition of his nickname, while Wei Yi would be able to observe the district and look for any hints of the district¡¯s realisation of her presence.


    The reason that she was so sure that they would realise that she had come to them was that a person sitting not far from the tea store was holding something called a recollection stone. It was a trinket by most accounts, allowing for the easy manipulation of images and sounds stored within and thus making it highly useless as a method of reliably storing information, not to mention the fact that they decayed quickly and were unable to transmit memories directly into the minds of the users like a jade slip might.


    Even with the relative simplicity of creation when compared to even a poor replica of a proper jade slip, these were not seen often unless there was something particularly interesting to be captured and passed on with them. Once something like that occurred, recollection stones would be made with the memories of those who had been present, their images would be modified for the optimal view that the original viewer likely did not receive, thus creating a number of falsehoods within the stored information, and they would be sent out quickly to the closer districts in the hopes of acquiring some of the resources spent on them back in the form of gold coins or even planar shards, depending on the exact material found on the stone.


    It is said that in the golden era of Yi City, they were more common, and used more frequently for things like simple pornography, and, in a way, that had not changed even now. Instead of fulfilling sexual interests, however, the stone she saw was intended for a different purpose.


    On the recollection stone in the hand of the young woman sitting beside the tea store, one that was clearly different from the real event and yet still as interesting to her, was the scene of a strange hermaphrodite being struck and displayed to the world on a stage before a varied crowd. Trees and greenery surrounded the figure, and that alone made it more than clear that, if this was taking place in the district, it had to be occurring in the Chu District.


    Wei Yi was simply seeing that which had happened to her when she pretended to be caught by the Greats.


    ¡®That¡¯s how it¡¯s going to spread, is it? That¡¯s just great¡­¡¯ she sighed internally, hiding away her reaction as to not grab that woman¡¯s attention while she and Yi Jiazhi entered through the front door of the tea shop and came up to a small counter near the entrance, ¡®Still, recollection stones are limited in quantity and rate of production, and thus have a reasonably high cost. She is the only one in the nearest two hundred metres that is viewing this particular scene, so at least I won¡¯t be getting mentally undressed by men all of the time.¡¯


    She was hardly for every woman around her doing the same, but it was just a little better.


    After standing near the counter for a few moments, a woman came up from the other side with a small notebook in one hand and a pen in the other.


    ¡°Welcome to the Golden Pavilion- oh, the sullen sage! It is a pleasure to see you in our establishment!¡± the woman exclaimed, her cheery and bubbly voice making it rather difficult for Yi Jiazhi to found her quite as annoying as the rest of similar exclamations, ¡°I see you¡¯ve come here with your girlfriend-¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°No? Did I get that wrong?¡± she asked with the exact same tone.


    ¡°If you¡¯re new to this position, I could suggest that you do not presume romantic relationships between two people just because they enter at the same time,¡± Wei Yi offered, ¡°However, it seems that you have been here a while, so I guess that this advice wouldn¡¯t be as useful to you. Can we get a seat by a window or balcony?¡±


    ¡°Sure, we¡¯ve got a few of these. I would suggest the corner seat, where you can spend the time with your significant other-¡±


    ¡°No, really, what are you doing?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°You have to be attempting to force us together in your mind to completely ignore a suggestion from a customer that is not only in the fifth realm, but is also wealthy enough to buy out your entire business,¡± she explained, producing a bag filled with planar shards via the power of Law, ¡°If you want me to, I can pay you just to shut up, although I would much prefer not to do so for what I¡¯d like to think are obvious reasons.¡±


    ¡°Is it really that bad?¡± the oddly cheerful woman asked in the same tone.


    ¡°Well¡­ Do you like men, oh sullen sage?¡± Wei Yi turned to Yi Jiazhi, who had not been expecting her question but responded quickly with the shaking of his head, ¡°Didn¡¯t think so. You probably prefer beautiful, thin, voluptuous ladies with long hair, entrancing eyes and so on¡­ I think I¡¯m stating my own preferences here, actually¡­¡±


    ¡°Dear customer, if you could get to the point, then-¡±


    ¡°Now, imagine some random person suddenly deciding that just because you¡¯ve entered a building alongside them, that you must be romantically interested in a large, incredibly muscular man with a bushy beard, hairy chest and suggest that you get given the romantic seat in the corner with him. In addition, just to make this example much more significant, imagine if this figure was someone that you knew from before and also one that you had not gotten along with all that well, and had attempted to do some rather untoward things to you in the past ¨C again, note that this is purely an example ¨C and just try being entirely fine with some random girl trying to randomly decide your relationship with them,¡± the Ascendant said.


    His expression did not change immediately, but when he looked up and at the woman behind the counter, there was a clear degree of displeasure and something that almost amounted to a low-grade killing intent within his gaze. Clearly, he did not appreciate the suggestion, and while Wei Yi¡¯s complaints were ignored nearly completely, his displeasure was instantly noted by the woman, who quickly lowered her head in apology and stepped out from behind the counter to lead them up to the second floor.


    Without saying another word, she brought them up the stairs and to one of the small seating areas by a balcony, assisting Yi Jiazhi with getting seated.


    She rushed off quickly to retrieve some basic items and to give them space to figure out what they wish to order, leaving them alone on opposing seats with a cushioned seat and back, with their width being sufficient for someone to lay down if they so wished, meaning that several people could fit on one seat if they so wished.


    ¡°What¡­ was that all about?¡± Yi Jiazhi asked, ¡°With you and her¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh, I was just in a poor mood, and the mental image of us together made it far worse. I doubt that I need to explain the reason to you,¡± she replied, with the sullen sage also lowering his head slightly, ¡°I don¡¯t know what she is doing, however. Presumably, she is participating in the otherworldly tradition of ¡®shipping¡¯, as it is apparently called. Don¡¯t ask what it is, or why people do it, but I have it on good authority that it is unfortunately common.¡±


    ¡°Shipping? Uh¡­ That sounds strange,¡± he muttered, the word sounding ordinary and yet strangely unfamiliar at the same time, ¡°Is it some kind of hobby?¡±


    ¡°I think so.¡±


    Before they were able to proceed, the woman returned with a small bowl of snacks and a candle in the other hand. She successfully placed the first on the table, but as she attempted to put the second one down, Wei Yi casually raised her hand and flicked the air. An incredibly powerful fluctuation of air struck the tall red candle, instantly turning it and nothing else to dust, leaving her empty handed. Even the dust was blown away, ensuring that none of it got onto the table.


    ¡°T-This¡­ every table has a candle on it¡­¡± the woman began to mutter but stopped when a silver object was suddenly and similarly flicked into her hands, leaving her with a silver coin in place of the candle.


    ¡°Perhaps, but that thing only costs ninety copper, and is sold next door. I¡¯m sure that you¡¯ll be fine with an additional ten coins,¡± Wei Yi said, but before the woman could return those coins to someone that would then purchase a new candle, she added, ¡°Actually, spend two of those on two cups of the cheapest tea.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Certainly. I will be right back,¡± she said without any of her previous cheeriness, somehow making her more pleasant to look at in the Ascendant¡¯s eyes, likely due to this behaviour being significantly more normal than her previous mood.


    Once the woman left again, it was clear that she would be away for a far longer amount of time, since preparing tea was never an instant process if someone wanted to produce something that was not absolutely disgusting, meaning that they would have a longer time without any interruption. That time was spent by Yi Jiazhi in quiet contemplation, attempting to understand the peculiar interaction between the two.


    Eventually, he sighed and looked to her for answers.


    ¡°You have changed as well. Your physique looks to be about the same, but I think that your emotional state has worsened.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t comment on your own ¡®emotional state¡¯, as we could refer to it, but you are not entirely wrong. Seeing everyone die in front of you twice is quite uncomfortable, as you should know,¡± she replied, causing him to nod, ¡°Occasionally, I feel better, and at other times it gets worse, but that has yet to stop me from doing what I need to do.¡±


    ¡°Right. By the way, when we were entering this building¡­¡± Yi Jiazhi began, and quickly understood that it might be a good idea not to proceed with the question. If he was correct, then the poor mood of his former distant family member might lead her to hit him, which, with her fifth realm, would hurt.


    Despite that impression, not only did she understand exactly what he meant ¨C having seen the image that popped up in his mind while he was asking the question ¨C but she also responded by leaning back on the cushioned seat without a hint of anger. In fact, her calmness was about as odd as the previous cheeriness of the woman they had been speaking with, making both of them seem unnatural in the way that they behaved.


    ¡°That was me, yes. You weren¡¯t mistaken in that assumption.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you¡­ well, angry?¡±


    ¡°Angry? Oh, certainly. I am downright furious,¡± she answered, casually resting her left hand on the table between them to display its current state, causing Yi Jiazhi to involuntarily lean back in shock, ¡°The thing is, I was aware of the potential consequences of my actions, and, as such, I cannot really blame the one watching someone¡¯s recollection of me. I know who to truly blame for this.¡±


    ¡°The Great Families, you called them? They have such a long reach as to¡­ what is with your hand, by the way?¡±


    ¡°Did I mention I got imprisoned for a while? That place didn¡¯t really have access to planar energy, so it was a little difficult to make use of it. Instead, everyone cultivated killing intent and spiritual will, and I decided to go all the way and practise killing will, the balanced unity of the two. I have a killing will state as a result, and when my emotions aren¡¯t doing too well, the left hand tends to become a little dark and claw-like¡­ this time, I cannot say that you have any experience in the matter, for better or worse,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°I¡¯ll solve the issue the moment that my normal cultivation catches up to my killing will realm.¡±


    Although she was very clear and open about her situation and state, judging by the blank eyes of the man opposite her, it did not look like he was understanding anything but the most surface details from those words. She did not continue for that reason, glancing out onto the street.


    Noticing her gaze drifting away, Yi Jiazhi decided that it was a good idea to do the same, looking out to the streets and finding that, at this time of day, there were a few people outside but not so many as to constitute a crowd. Everyone had enough space to themselves in order to be comfortable, and one would have to attempt with a great deal of effort to actually bump into someone without the other party having the chance to evade. Some people walked together, others made sure to keep their distance from all others, but few acted in unusual ways.


    Every now and then, there would be a powerful cultivator passing by, some carrying a number of pills for their own use, or for trade, but most people did not pay much attention to them.


    ¡°Was there a reason that we sat down here specifically?¡±


    ¡°I wanted to look around, and if someone was to look for us, there¡¯s no easier place to contact us than out in the open, near a relatively busy environment. Since you also seem to be in the mood for asking questions, I might as well answer why I chose the worst tea in this place-¡±


    ¡°Your order, sullen sage!¡± the woman¡¯s voice interrupted her, two cups of tea being placed on the table quickly before the waitress disappeared down the stairs once again, leaving them with two perfect cups of wondrous quality. Their contents, on their other hand, were clearly prepared without much effort, to the point that one didn¡¯t need to have any knowledge of tea to understand some of the issues with them.


    Even those sitting in areas near them noticed this, with some even moving away as a result.


    ¡°This¡­ does deserve that name, I will agree,¡± Yi Jiazhi muttered, turning away from the teacups, ¡°You were saying?¡±


    ¡°Other than the value of this tea being entirely insignificant, it just so happens that I have no ability to perceive its taste,¡± the Ascendant said, taking a sip of the tea. She had intended to drink a little at a time, but the moment that her tongue felt the texture of the liquid, she had no choice but to put it back down and slide it towards Yi Jiazhi.


    It was extremely unpleasant even without her sense of taste, to the point that it was really not worth drinking it just to maintain the impression of normality.


    ¡°Well, you can have that. Your body, while doing strangely well for someone that appears to have aged a dozen years at the least, could always do with more sustenance, regardless of the state that it ends up taking,¡± she smiled, ¡°Go on.¡±


    ¡°Can I not do that?¡±


    ¡°You can, I suppose¡­¡± her voice trailed off as she looked out through the balcony, finding a figure approaching the tea shop that was clothed in dark purple robes which covered them entirely.


    In any district, odd figures were to be expected, but as this person approached, they looked up and met her gaze, almost seeming to nod as they came closer to the door. The robes were made of a material that obscured spiritual perception significantly, only allowing her to be sure that this was a figure with a high realm, and that their height was about the same as it looked, meaning that they were wearing nothing to boost it. Their face was covered with a layer of black material as well, their hands were covered in gloves that went over the sleeves of the robe and sealed that potential weakness, and the same material was used for baggy trousers beneath the robes, finished off with a pair of dark shoes.


    Whether this person was a friend or a foe, she couldn¡¯t be sure just yet, but if they were truly looking for her, then that would certainly deserve her attention regardless. As such, pretending to keep looking at something in the distance, she observed with her spiritual perception as the figure entered the store just in time to find that woman coming up to the front desk.


    ¡°Is something out there?¡± Yi Jiazhi asked after she had kept her gaze on the outside for some time, also turning in time to spot the figure heading back out of the building.


    The figure continued walking up to the place where Wei Yi had been resting her gaze, then turned around and looked back without any care for the people that had to walk around the figure¡¯s position. Whereas before the figure¡¯s gaze might have been coincidental before, now it was impossible to disagree that the person was looking right at her, waiting for something to occur just as she was gathering information about the figure at the same time.


    She did not reply to him, but it was not too difficult for him to notice the figure standing in the distance.


    Only a short time after, the woman returned upstairs again, this time carrying a black envelope with a hint of purple mixed in. Placing it down before Wei Yi, the woman stated, ¡°I was asked to give you this.¡±


    The moment that she stepped back to let her view the letter on her own, the Ascendant took the envelope and opened it just a little bit, allowing her spiritual perception to seep into the envelope and look at the contents of the letter. Other than making her look forward to obtaining divine sense all the more, as it would easily bypass the spiritual perception blocking properties of the envelope¡¯s material, she only needed a moment to fully comprehend the contents of the message and close the envelope again, preventing anyone else from taking a look alongside her.


    Putting the envelope away into one of her inner pockets, she stood up and nodded towards the figure that could be seen out of the balcony opening.


    ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s go.¡±


    ¡°W-Wait, sullen sage, can I ask you for something?¡± the waitress suddenly requested, her hands hovering near Yi Jiazhi¡¯s as he attempted to use the table for support as he stood up, ¡°My mother needs one of your healing medicinal pills. Would I be able to obtain one from you? I¡¯d do anything!¡±


    ¡°¡­ What?¡± the man looked between her and Wei Yi, confusion flooding his expression.


    ¡°Don¡¯t ask me. I¡¯d guess that you¡¯ve spent some time refining pills, and, for either popularity or effectiveness reasons, she wants one of them. Unless she¡¯s asking for something else, in which case I¡¯ll go and you can have fun together,¡± Wei Yi said, the instant shuffle back from both of them confirming that this assumption was not the case, ¡°In that case, get to refining, oh sullen sage. I have somewhere else to be.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ sorry, I don¡¯t have any pills with me,¡± Yi Jiazhi stated, showing off the decayed robes on his body and the lack of any pill bottles upon them.


    ¡°Hm? Don¡¯t you always have some in your left pocket?¡±


    ¡°Do I?¡± he asked back, reaching into the specified pocket and bringing his hand out with a small black bottle that clearly contained a number of pills, ¡°¡­ Wha¡­ You know what, you can have one. I don¡¯t even know where this stuff came from¡­¡±


    Somehow, the woman looked to be more confused than he was, but she accepted one of the pills from inside, bowed to him and thanked him, then hastened downstairs with the pill held tightly in her small hands. She did not immediately rush out of the building, instead doing as one might expect from the employee of a large and seemingly prestigious store, placing them in a secure container and into a safe inner pocket after a short while.


    Wei Yi had observed a few interesting points about her, but she did not choose to pursue or track her, as it wouldn¡¯t be that significant. If her guess about the figure in the dark purple robes was correct, then they would be far more notable than the waitress, and their mysteries might even intersect if given enough time. As such, she waited for Yi Jiazhi to stand up, then headed out.


    Together, they left the tea shop with only one of the cups having been touched, and with most of the tea remaining, and yet it was still a net benefit for the store.


    As soon as they emerged from the doorway, the figure clothed in purple turned around and headed into an alleyway on the left of the road, while she and Yi Jiazhi did not pursue him. Instead, they continued down the main road, then turned to the right and headed down a smaller yet still relatively busy street, as if they had nothing to do with that person at all. If someone was to have observed them all along, as Yi Jiazhi had been attempting to do while his mind was waking up from the year-long slumber that it seemed to have been in, they might have even assumed that Wei Yi had decided to simply ignore whatever had been written on the letter inside of the envelope.


    ¡°By the way, those pills were indeed made by you, so it appears that you do possess some knowledge of the great art. You might want to ponder your memories and extract them before they decay,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Pill refining is profitable, I can assure you.¡±


    ¡°Were you able to sense the presence of the pill bottle in my pocket?¡±


    ¡°Might have done.¡±


    ¡°Why did you begin implying things, then?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t really imply much about you, only about her intentions. That being said, while I can perceive the majority of what occurs in a large area, acting in accordance with it every single moment of my life can be tiring, especially when both of us are currently not in our best state of mind,¡± she answered, ¡°Also, I think some people might be rather worried if they realise that I can sense the nearest kilometre with ease.¡±


    ¡°A whole kilometre? If that¡¯s something that you want to hide-¡±


    ¡°Reach out with your hand and try to touch one of the other people on the street, and you¡¯ll realise that you can¡¯t. I have already prepared for this, and the earlier chat, so just come along and see who wants to speak with us,¡± she said.


    He decided not to reach out with his hand, whether or not he would meet something before coming into contact with another person, and instead mustered his spiritual perception, feeling the energy slowly being roused into activity as he had to manually lift it and help it to emerge from his body. As it came into contact with the air and reached out a little beyond his body, he found it colliding with a thin barrier that was entirely invisible to him. With his current strength of spiritual perception, he was unable to reach out further, but he understood by the lack of questioning gazes that this blocked the gazes of others.


    Since this was something that was beyond his realm, likely significantly so due to the capabilities reported by Wei Yi, he revoked his spiritual perception and instead practised weaving it around himself to regain control of it, following her down a number of streets, turns, corners and even a few alleyways, to the point that it seemed like they were traversing a maze.


    Despite that, after one random turn, they suddenly ended up in a dark space with only one obvious entry point, directly before the robed figure in purple.


    ¡°You have come.¡±


    ¡°I have. I¡¯m guessing that this place is sealed away from casual observation, right?¡± Wei Yi replied to the figure¡¯s statement, whose voice was warped by the robes to the point that it was impossible to perceive whether the figure was male, female, or even human.


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    ¡°In that case, do you mind if I make a guess about your identity?¡±


    The figure did not reply vocally, simply shrugging as if it wouldn¡¯t matter ¨C and, from the contents of the letter, it would seem that this was truly the case.


    ¡°Good evening, Jiang Patriarch. Are you doing well?¡± Wei Yi asked with a casual smile.


    As the figure removed the hood and showcased his face, which had a perfectly calm expression, Yi Jiazhi was the only one that was confused. He began the day with meeting someone that he had expected to be dead, she then turned out to be vastly more powerful than anyone should have been and have connections that he couldn¡¯t have imagined prior to that day, and now, in some underground space, he was now meeting with a legitimate, seventh realm Patriarch.


    It was certainly unexpected.

 V4C83: The Underground Meeting

    ¡°Good evening, Ascendant. Or do you prefer Conqueror?¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi is fine, really, but Ascendant generally sounds better than the other option. It is also more fundamental to my nature, whereas the other one is a coincidental property that I happened to acquire and now use frequently,¡± she replied, ¡°I had not been expecting to come into contact with someone in your position this soon, but I take it that you wish to get through things quickly?¡±


    ¡°I do, but that does not mean that we must rush these proceedings. You may not have had the best time in the place you had chosen to visit, but it would not be difficult for a Patriarch to request a few items for himself to enjoy,¡± the Jiang Patriarch said.


    She shrugged, glancing to Yi Jiazhi only to find him sitting in the corner of the large chamber with his focus being anywhere but on them.


    ¡°If you have something nutrition to provide me with, I will not object, but there¡¯s no need to give me anything with flavour. I don¡¯t know how much you know about me, but I entirely lack the sense of taste and the perception of flavour when it comes to food. Actually, if you want, you could even feed me food you suspect to be poisoned and I can confirm it for you,¡± the Ascendant suggested, ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll accidentally awaken some kind of poison physique if I get through enough things¡­ You¡¯ll need to let me take a look at that wall of failed materials at some point, for the same reason.¡±


    ¡°We do know a few things about you, but I see that it would be best to discuss the important things first. There is one thing of greatest significance, and it is something that we must resolve before we can proceed.¡±


    ¡°In that case, do go on. Depending on what it is, this should be easy enough to deal with.¡±


    The Jiang Patriarch nodded, ¡°What I need is for you to not appear within the Jiang District openly. It could greatly endanger our district.¡±


    ¡°You are afraid of the Great Families?¡±


    He visibly quaked as a result of the term, but answered, ¡°The Jiang District has not had the best history with them. If they decide that we have gone against them, then the district may suffer greatly or even be outright destroyed, with the current Jiang being displaced and some other family taking over the Jiang and Lan Districts. However, for this same reason, we do not wish for them to remain powerful, so we still want to cooperate with you.¡±


    ¡°I see. Is that why you have brought me to the location of a spatial stabilisation point? A nice place for it, and one where the vast majority of people won¡¯t be able to spot it, allowing you to direct only those that needed to proceed to it to locate it,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Is that the full extent of the deal?¡±


    ¡°We would like to contribute something to your faction as a sign of good faith, but we have been able to acquire limited information about the deeper elements of the Arbiters. Is there anything that the Jiang District can be assisting you with without being caught out by Them and thus suffering a terrible loss?¡±


    She would have pointed out how they would hardly be able to lose when she was involved, as her abilities were more than sufficient to confront large numbers of the third and second generation of the Great Families without enduring many injuries, and this was especially true if there was nobody that she needed to protect, but he seemed to understand that well enough. The issue was that he was still worried, and wished to act only once the success of the plan and the survival of the Jiang District could be assured. As this was not something that she could do until she connected it to the Yi City Web and prepared a larger force than herself, she didn¡¯t say anything.


    Instead, she considered the few things that did require further attention in Paragon, as well as the four districts within her current jurisdiction, and quickly ruled out the matter of inscriptions, construction, talismans, and arrays. Those things were covered by the districts that supported her, and they were also not the strengths of the Jiang District, nor of the Lan District that was subordinate to them. That left her with only a few choices, and only one that was fulfilled both requirements.


    ¡°Paragon, the fortress where at least forty of the Great Family members fell to me and my forces, could use some more aides in the matter of growing, harvesting and utilising medicinal herbs and materials. Is this something that you can aid us with?¡±


    ¡°There are a few masters in the Jiang District that tend to hide away from the public eye for many months and years, never emerging for longer than a few hours at a time. Some of them could be directed to the fortress you speak of, so long as you are able to provide the necessary seeds yourself,¡± the Patriarch replied, ¡°A few people are easy to bring over, but purchasing large quantities of materials is less concealable. If there is a discrepancy in the purchases and production of the Jiang District, the best thing that would happen is that our capabilities would be questioned.¡±


    ¡°And we both know the worst outcome, right?¡±


    ¡°Indeed.¡±


    ¡°Well then, you needn¡¯t worry about such things. The Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters have what you might call an excess of materials of high grades and qualities, provided in part due to my capabilities, so do bring over anyone that is keen to work with them. In particular, those who are unsatisfied with their current refinement methods.¡±


    The Jiang Patriarch did not question the request, as one thing that was more than common knowledge about the Ascendant was that she possessed a series of incredible techniques and abilities. From the various appearances that she, or her supposed siblings, had made in the other districts, it was also reasonable enough to conclude that she had a good enough grasp of inscriptions and pill refining at the very least, so she was either intending to mentor the hidden experts, or provide them with some methods that she had not made use of. Either way, this would be to the benefit of both sides, so it did not matter what exactly was going to occur.


    Instead, he took a few steps back and waved at the ground, right at the location where the spatial stabilisation point was located.


    From the side, Yi Jiazhi had long given up attempting to comprehend how this deal was occurring. He had not had much exposure to the particular dealings of the Yi Patriarch, nor of those close to him, but it was common knowledge that the Patriarch shouldn¡¯t be the one attempting to worsen the deal for himself, which, in his eyes, this appeared to be an obvious example of. Previously, he would get the aid of Wei Yi and few of the risks, but now there was far more danger of being discovered.


    Then again, he understood very little of what they were discussing, so he didn¡¯t attempt to ask any questions. The more that he learnt, the more confused that he would be, and the more that he would need to keep asking about, just as he had already experienced.


    Once he was in the Arbiters, then he could just do whatever his body and mind were currently capable of, and forget about all of the complexities of the world that he had left behind, not just when the Kong Holy Grounds were obliterated, but even when the expedition had departed from the Yi District and proceeded out into the fallen Kong District. Before then, there were a lot of things that he had to consider which simply lost all relevance in the forest, and even though he was hardly able to connect the events of that place with much positivity, it was undeniable that he had a better chance at a freedom than before.


    Without paying much attention to him, save for the thread that she always had kept around everyone in sight, Wei Yi came up to the spatial stabilisation point.


    ¡°Please attempt not to cause too much of a disturbance, if possible,¡± the Jiang Patriarch requested.


    ¡°If it is a regular spatial gateway opening, then there shouldn¡¯t be much of a noticeable effect, but if a certain factor comes into effect, then there will be a very blatant burst of light that goes from here to the Luo and possibly the Bai District. I am able to subdue the perception of most people, but when it comes to the Greats, and those further out from the district, I am afraid I will not have much of a chance.¡±


    ¡°I see. Then, attempt to minimize the disturbance, if it does occur,¡± he changed his request, prompting her to nod while she reached out with her left hand.


    Having done this many times before, she was familiar with the exact method for awakening a spatial stabilisation point, and was instead able to focus on slowing certain parts of it down as to be able to prevent the appearance of the connections in the Yi City Web after its activation, or possibly even sense more about the web than she currently knew.


    All of the information that she currently had was limited to her understanding of the connection between the four districts under her control, and lacked the knowledge of where those districts also linked to. That significantly limited her own ability to seek out the districts that would do the most to expand the web, which would be most helpful to her as it would expand the range in which she had absolute free mobility, and so if she took the time to consider the possible connections of this district, she might also be able to understand the reasoning behind certain connections and thus gain the ability to map out all of the links without needing to personally go to any of the districts to verify her ideas.


    With that knowledge, she could intentionally head only to the districts needed to encircle the central territories, then move in district by district until she and her forces can instantly move to any point in Yi City and endure any attack from the Great Families by not being anywhere near the danger.


    Her energy flowed into the stabilisation point beneath her, and it did not take long for the node to become active, colourful patterns spreading out throughout the ground as silver and crimson rose into the air, forming the shape of a gateway through the Kong Prison Realm. It took a few moments to be stabilised, but once it was, the opening in space displayed a relatively empty plaza through a far smaller gap in ordinary space than usual, as this was meant to be a more low-key gateway.


    Once the Jiang District was properly integrated into the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and the general mission to defeat the Great Families, then it would be widened.


    However, as the gateway was completed, she did not feel any connection to the Yi City Web, causing her to frown for just a moment. She had naturally anticipated this possibility, and it was technically a welcome one as it would prevent anyone who did not need to observe the appearance of the web from learning about the introduction of the Jiang District to the web, but it was still a terrible shame.


    ¡®If I obtain another segment of the Yi City Web that is not connected to the portion that I currently control, would I be able to move between them, or would I need to go to the gateway of the appropriate segment of the web before transporting myself or others?¡¯ she pondered, attempting to deduce the possible connections for the Jiang District that she would need to obtain regardless of the answer to that question in order to propagate her current control of the web, as the more freedom of movement she possessed, the better.


    From the current lack of additional connections to the web, it was blatant that the Kong District would also be needed to connect it and the Jiang District to the Luo District. From there, the Lan District would likely connect with the Jiang, Ze and Wu Districts, just as the Ze District would have to connect with the Kong, Jiang, Yi, Shun and Wu Districts, possibly including the Xin District.


    Out of all the districts, the Ze District might even be on par with the Yi District in terms of the number of links to other districts, which did also make her ponder whether the number of connections in any particular district would affect the Yi City Web itself. Perhaps the powers of the web in the Yi District and the Ze Districts would be significantly more effective than at the Ling or Lan Districts, not that she even understands the powers beyond the simple ability to transport oneself through the inclusion of the Kong Prison Realm.


    In her understanding, this was not a power of the web, but the prison realm, meaning that there was more to the web that she had yet to comprehend. The moment that she understood it fully, her power level would effectively rise by a realm from the simple mastery of the districts.


    ¡°Did the abnormal circumstance occur?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately not, but it likely will once I visit one of the other districts. I will attempt not to provoke it too early, if I can,¡± Wei Yi replied to the Patriarch, ¡°That being said, would you prefer to chat in Paragon, or here?¡±


    ¡°I have always wanted to visit the fortress that endured such an attack. If your companion does not object, I shall follow along,¡± the man in the purple robes said, keeping his hood in his hands.


    Since he brought up Yi Jiazhi, she glanced over to him and found that he was still in a daze, pondering all kinds of things without really registering much of what had occurred after Wei Yi had been permitted to utilise the spatial stabilisation point. As such, he barely knew that he was being talked to, forcing her to flick a light gust of air at his face as to disturb his contemplations.


    He awoke and found that the Patriarch and the Ascendant were staring at him and looked to the latter.


    ¡°Did something happen? Should I leave?¡± he asked, gazing about and failing to observe the significant gateway lighting up Wei Yi¡¯s figure in silver and crimson according to the divide of the killing will form.


    ¡°We are going to the fortress. Get in the gateway and find the plantation area, tell them what you can do, and I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll find something for you to do. Meanwhile, we will stand around arbitrarily for just a few moments,¡± she said, using spiritual will to lift him up and assist him in getting to the gateway as quickly as possible, ¡°Come on, your legs haven¡¯t deteriorated that badly, you can move far more quickly than that.¡±


    He couldn¡¯t get a reply out before he was shoved into the gateway and found himself far, far away from the Jiang District, with the spatial gateway seeming to shut behind him, although the shape itself remained. Instead of the district, the inside of the gateway was replaced by some kind of opaque film.


    With how little he understood prior to this, the previous conclusion that asking questions would just lead to more questions was reaffirmed in his mind and he instead looked around and sought out someone to aid him in his current plight, and possibly guide him towards the plantations that the Ascendant had referenced. Unknown to him, Wei Yi did keep an eye on him for a little while through the gateway, and then continued to do so via her control of the Kong Prison Realm and all things that were connected to it through the spatial gateways, simply to confirm that he wouldn¡¯t get himself into any trouble by accidentally uncovering more of his own history.


    Obviously, the sudden change in intent caused the Jiang Patriarch to frown much like she had not long ago.


    ¡°Are our plans no longer feasible?¡± he inquired.


    ¡°Not so much that as they¡¯re simply delayed. There is someone approaching, and I would prefer to handle him before proceeding with anything. Depending on what he is doing here, it might be possible to take care of him at the same time as we go to Paragon,¡± she replied, turning to the shut entrance to the dark chamber, ¡°Come out already, we don¡¯t have all day.¡±


    There should be no reaction from anyone that knows what they¡¯re doing, of course. If they had experience with breaking in, they would naturally ignore such an exclamations as it was incredibly easy to simply shout out whatever one wanted and hope to catch an intruder once every million years.


    So, to see someone knocking on the door right away, the intruder clearly lacked this experience.


    Without getting anywhere near the person and the door, she waved her hand and opened the door, a wave of spiritual will shoving the person on the other side into the room and immediately sealing the door behind him, ensuring that he wouldn¡¯t randomly rush out and spill details about their meeting due to the shock. The man dropped onto the ground due to the shove, but rose quickly enough, patting the dust away from his clothes.


    Wei Yi glanced to her side, confirmed that the Jiang Patriarch wasn¡¯t familiar with this person, then said, ¡°I¡¯ll give you a few moments to explain.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I am an otherworldly demon!¡± the man suddenly exclaimed, taking out a large and oddly dusty tome out of his pocket, ¡°This is my otherworldly gift! Can I join that Dimensional Domain place that I heard about?¡±


    Considering how poorly he attempted to sneak in, she was tempted to believe him, although the fact that the book in his hands was blatantly invisible to her spiritual perception also made it very obvious that even if he was not from another world, he was certainly in possession of an otherworldly gift. Seeing as he had heard her talking about otherworldly demons and the Dimensional Domain, he must have also been someone who had been near one of the gateways in the other districts, so that slightly narrowed down where he might have come from, although it hardly explained how he tracked her down.


    ¡°What is the book able to do?¡±


    ¡°Are you only going to let me in if I prove that I am of use to the Domain?¡± he asked, his head turning away slightly as he muttered, ¡°I guess that this would be the case. How could anyone just let people in without checking their abilities and selecting those that are not suitable for their purposes¡­ Could never be like with the witches in that one webcomic¡­¡±


    ¡°Um. You are not speaking anywhere near quietly enough for me to miss that, just so you are aware. Also, no, this was not my intention. Rather, I need to know what it is that you¡¯re displaying to me.¡±


    ¡°This book is the Compendium of the Arts! It does¡­ something. I don¡¯t know any painting, so I don¡¯t know what the purpose of this thing would be for me,¡± he stated, waving the large tome around and causing a large quantity of dust to flood the air, ¡°It¡¯s also perpetually dusty, so I can barely breathe when this thing is out! I don¡¯t know what kinds of things others are able to do, but I am almost sure that this thing¡¯s a dud.¡±


    ¡°Ascendant, you intend to recruit and house people like these?¡± the Patriarch whispered to her.


    Indeed, with the current display, it would be difficult to justify recruiting people like him into the Arbiters, or providing them with a special residence at the Dimensional Domain, but she was sure that he also caught an issue with the otherworldly demon¡¯s statement. If his book was called the Compendium of the Arts, then there was likely to be one particular meaning to the last term of that name which was obvious to those originating from the Planar Continents.


    Art, whether it was painting, storytelling or the like, was not uncommon in the Western Continent, but it was far less significant to most adults than the great arts, the five methods to obtain even greater power than regular cultivation would achieve. As such, even if someone decided to create a painting or a story, they might involve one of the five great arts, and so none would automatically assume that the word ¡®art¡¯ had anything to do with the artistic and creative side of human culture. The only person that was likely to do this was an otherworldly demon, and besides confirming that the man knew about their typical failings even if he wasn¡¯t one, it would explain why he deemed the book to lack uses to him. It could even explain why the dust remained on the surface.


    The various otherworldly gifts did have interesting aspects from time to time, and it could be that the dusty tome would become more outstanding in appearance with the improvement of the owner.


    ¡°Have you heard the term ¡®great arts¡¯? It may be one you need to pay attention to.¡±


    ¡°Great arts¡­ don¡¯t tell me I¡¯ve ended up in a place that venerates paintings and the like? I¡¯d be ruined by such a thing¡­¡±


    ¡°No. The five great arts are simple: inscriptions, arrays, talismans, artefacts and pills. Inscription, arrangement, creation, blacksmithing and refining. Together, they compose the five integral aspects of focusing cultivation into an external form that ignores one¡¯s own power, and each one corresponds to its own element, just as each element corresponds to a form of energy, and just as each form of energy corresponds to a greater, deeper aspect of reality,¡± she decided to explain, as there was a chance that an interesting scene would occur.


    ¡°Inscriptions are akin to the veins of the earth, and thus the element of earth is best for creating them. Arrays are a flow of energy guided by nodes, and hence water is the most suitable element. Artefacts involve metal most frequently, or require metal to create, and thus metal-type energy is best. Refining of pills and elixirs requires many natural herbs and ingredients, all of which have an innate wood affinity. A talisman is akin to a fleeting flame, and naturally benefit from fire the most. With each one, a common man could rise to be a legend, although in the hands of a true expert, for whom an item was specifically created, these five great arts can be elevated far beyond that, resulting in one possessing the power of an expert that is unbeatable in the same realm, at the very least. That is the essence of the great arts.¡±


    The otherworldly demon initially looked confused, but as she continued and mentioned some terms that appeared to be familiar to him, his eyes focused and his mind did also, plunging into a deep concentration while one finger unconsciously tapped on the Compendium of the Arts.


    As soon as her last words were spoken, an incredible gust of wind surged out from the tome, forcing it open and blowing away all of the dust that had been gathering upon its surface without any seeming limit. A glaring white light surged from the pages, but it slowly concentrated upon small symbols on the surface of the first page, arranging themselves into words and resulting in the written manifestation of everything that she had just said.


    Seemingly in accordance with her understanding, the outside of the tome also transformed, the cover changing into a representation of what looked to be a Taiji symbol with five distinct parts, each one revolving into the other. The distinct parts lit up as the words relating to them were inscribed onto the first page, with one filling with mysterious symbols and a blazing flame that almost seemed to dance like the real thing, the next being flooded with thin intersecting lines and the brown of earth, the third being occupied by a metallic texture, the fourth being covered by water that flowed in very specific channels and yet in the oceanic mass at the same time, and the fifth and last changing to a jade-like bark.


    This was, without a doubt, a rather high-quality conceptualisation of the meaning that she had conveyed with her words, although it was clearly unable to extract that which she had not said.


    And yet¡­


    ¡°I¡­ I understand! I was foolish to assume that the meaning had to be the same¡­ Thank you, Ascendant, for guiding me in the right direction!¡± the man exclaimed, clearly feeling like he had attained some kind of enlightenment, ¡°I still wish to join the Dimensional Domain, but now, I will make sure to contribute my new understanding to further the scientific- no, the field of the great arts!¡±


    ¡°Good luck with that. Name?¡±


    ¡°Andrew Smith, former manager at a small establishment specialising in the sale of cassette tapes.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t know what that latter part meant, but I am sure that someone will have a better idea. As such, please go away and talk to those that do understand the weird nonsense you otherworldly demons bring with you,¡± she said, looking to the Patriarch, who had been observing the situation without much of an obvious outward expression, ¡°Now you may come along, although I will need to stop elsewhere before we may proceed with our intended conversation.¡±


    He nodded, and then stepped up to the gateway as the thin opaque film vanished from the surface and transformed to the central square of Paragon.


    They passed through the gateway together, and although the behaviour of the otherworldly demon had gotten a little more composed, he appeared to still have some issue with the particular feeling of passing through the gateway, although it was not one that either she or the Jiang Patriarch intended to address. It hardly mattered even if he had some complaints.


    Stepping out onto the stone surface of the Paragon square, Wei Yi quickly grabbed the otherworldly demon¡¯s shoulder and turned him back to the gateway, quickly transforming it to connect it to the Dimensional Domain rather than the Jiang District. Before he had the chance to question what was happening, he was pushed into it, the spatial gateway quickly transforming back to link to the correct destination.


    ¡°Did you not say that you would go with him?¡±


    ¡°Eh, this was quicker, and there are some reasonable people over at the other side that should be able to handle this well enough. Well, as reasonable as otherworldly demons usually are,¡± she replied, putting her focus back onto the Jiang Patriarch, ¡°Anyway, we¡¯ll need to go downstairs.¡±

 V4C84: Sunset Coast

    ¡°¡­ All of this is certainly impressive, Ascendant. This appears to be on par with a minor district, at the very least,¡± the Jiang Patriarch said after having gone through a lot of the fortress with her guidance.


    ¡°Considering the fact that this was a fortress constructed during the Master of Yi City¡¯s prime, I wouldn¡¯t expect anything less. Combine that with a lot of time for natural resources to develop, and a lot of people that are more than willing to put in hard work and effort to ensure that the place continues improving, and you get the current state of Paragon,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°The various planting spots are being used, but they can be optimised or replaced according to the suggestion of your experts. The only thing that they need to consider is that I can only improve and accelerate metal-type materials in their growth, so those should be prioritised.¡±


    ¡°I will note that in my instructions. Will you return to the Jiang District with me?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I intend, although I will leave quickly. Before I do, I would like to get some information about the Lan District first, at the very least. Your family is in control of it, right?¡± she asked, ¡°Telling me where the spatial stabilisation point is would be most useful, but I can live even without that.¡±


    ¡°No, no, I will provide what I can. However, it will take some time for the message to be passed along securely, and I would rather prefer you not to rile anything up before I am able to take care of that matter. If something does occur there, the Great Families should not be as agitated, but it would still increase their suspicions and the degree of attention that they have on us, so it would make things more difficult for both of us.¡±


    ¡°Indeed,¡± the Ascendant nodded, although his words brought up a question in her mind, ¡°By the way, do you know what they¡¯re up to? They¡¯ve been quite quiet as of late.¡±


    ¡°To us, that is normal, but I¡¯d suspect that they are planning for something.¡±


    That was what Wei Yi was thinking, but that did remind her that she was one of the few in the world to have gotten this involved with the Great Families and have dealt with them this frequently in such a short amount of time. A year had yet to pass since her imprisonment, yet she not only fought with them once after breaking out, but then proceeded to agitate them repeatedly, end the third generation of the Great Luo, confront Ping Wu and kill him, then fight a number of them at the Great Ping family¡¯s manor, then end their siege at Paragon with great losses on their side. In comparison, prior to her involvement in the matter of the Greats, they had been a force that appeared once in a generation, coming and going quietly while stealing away the techniques and knowledge of the outside world to hinder their development.


    As such, their current quiet state was far more appropriate for the Greats, but just because they seemed to return to their previous modus operandi didn¡¯t mean that their intentions had to be the same as before.


    ¡®They would have to be planning something, don¡¯t they? If it was possible to get a spy into their ranks, that would be nice, but their numbers are small and all of them are part of distinct families, so it would be very obvious if someone randomly went in and tried to fit in with them,¡¯ she thought, ¡®Still, Yi Shi Ming is working on the defences, we¡¯re getting more and more districts on our side, and my realm is also rising. Once I get to the half-way point of the fifth realm, their second generation should no longer pose a threat, meaning that only the first would be of any danger¡­ and they will be extremely dangerous.¡¯


    She was under no illusion that her power was sufficient in normal circumstances to rival someone in the seventh realm, especially when they had a full understanding of the situation and their own abilities, unlike the Ping Patriarch. When facing someone who was effectively thirty or forty times superior to the usual seventh realm expert, that ability to resist them would fade away entirely.


    The worst thing was that the advantages of both her spatial realm and the Conqueror¡¯s Eye would be limited against the Greats, as they have access to their Testament and an infallible belief in their own righteousness and ability. With the usage of the spatial realm by those in the Oblivion Halo realm, her own Kong Prison Realm could be suppressed without much difficulty, and if she was unable to find herself in close proximity with allies, their belief would overpower her confidence combined with the long-distance mental support of the Arbiters, meaning that many of her Law-based methods would also become unusable. In a way, the first generation was the greatest threat that Wei Yi could possibly find in the world as it was now, without dragons and phoenixes and the like.


    Hence, the only question that did really matter was whether she would be faced with the second generation, or the first. The former would be incredibly easy to overcome with a little more time, perhaps even a sudden breakthrough on the scene of battle, but the latter would require a retreat.


    Of course, there was another possibility, and that was that the first generation could somehow interact with the outside world without coming out themselves, allowing their subconscious mind to seep out of Testament and through some focus that the Great Family members could carry with them into battle. In that situation, she would have the chance to endure the attack and strike back, but it would depend far more on the exact details of such abilities.


    ¡°Pay attention and do inform us if anything out of the ordinary occurs. If you are recruited for some kind of attack, as unlikely as that is, you may proceed with it as long as you tell me and my Arbiters where your forces will be concentrated, as we may otherwise cause a lot of casualties for one another regardless of the attack¡¯s success.¡±


    ¡°That much is only natural. I will not escort you out of the district, as that would attract undue attention to you and my robed self, but I will make sure that the guards will not bother you if you ever return and do something they find untoward. Once our friendly relationship may be shared without fear of repercussion, I will not hold back on any further assistance that I may offer to the cause, nor to you or your people specifically,¡± the Jiang Patriarch said, ¡°If there is anything else you need from the Jiang District, you may speak with those that I send over.¡±


    She nodded, and they spoke for a little more before they separated.


    Some time later, in the dark room of the Jiang District, the Patriarch was leaning on one of the walls and staring out into nothing, seeming to be deep in thought.


    However, the moment that a hidden door opened at his side, his mouth was already open, and he was already looking at the person that emerged from the opening as if he had expected them to emerge from the very beginning.


    ¡°Will you also go?¡± the Patriarch asked.


    ¡°Patriarch¡­ to be honest, I am still not sure about her. Other than the fact that she is most certainly not interested in men, there is little that I could confirm from her words. Also, that man might have been someone she is familiar with, but she had clearly not spoken with him in some time, and they had a number of issues with one another when they had parted¡­¡± the woman said, her appearance being one that Wei Yi would find simultaneously familiar yet distinct from any one person that she had seen before, ¡°Look, my ability is in disguise, not in perception. I¡¯m not some detective that can look at a scene and understand all of it in one go, nor can I understand everything about a person in such a short amount of time.¡±


    ¡°Then what will you do once the connection between our forces is less hidden?¡±


    ¡°At that point, I will visit the Dimensional Domain and see what my fellow ¡®demons¡¯ have gotten up to, of course.¡±


    ¡°This¡­ is the Dimensional Domain? I was hoping for dimensional rifts and the like, but this is far enough as well,¡± Andrew muttered to himself as he walked towards the small village, ¡°That being said, the houses are certainly lacking.¡±


    Aside from one odd pile of dirt at the side, there was one structure seemingly made of incredibly jagged spikes of dirt and stone and a few that looked to be normal yet oddly new and orderly, connected with pristine stone roads that wouldn¡¯t be out of place in a typical medieval fantasy setting, at least in his mind. This was pretty much what he expected from a town with very little time to develop and expand, as he only knew so much about the process of construction in a world that lacked the technology he was familiar with, but it did not yet deserve the name that it had.


    Still, the names of places couldn¡¯t be changed every single minute, and most lands must have had the name before they became something of note in the ancient world.


    He stopped at a random spot along the road, but he did not expect that he would suddenly be called out to by a woman that came out from behind a house that he had intended to pass by, who had medium length dark hair and green eyes, although one was mostly covered by her hair.


    ¡°Who are you supposed to be?¡± she asked, her left hand quickly rising to the left side of her face.


    ¡°Andrew Smith, otherworldly demon and master of the five great arts! Well, future master, hopefully¡­¡±


    ¡°Andrew¡­ Antanian name, right?¡± the woman said.


    ¡°It is.¡±


    ¡°Yes! I mean, of course it is. You wanted to look around the Dimensional Domain, right? See the kinds of things that Wei Yi had helped found and develop here?¡± she asked again, her hand remaining near her eye as if she was about to move away the stray locks of hair obscuring the left eye and unleash some kind of Demon Eye upon him.


    ¡°I came to her, and she told me to get into a portal and learn-¡±


    ¡°Oh, you met her? She had gotten to the Jiang District already? Was she alright? Had she already managed to break through into the next realm, or is she still saving up her strength for an epic reveal?¡±


    He considered himself to be lacking in the judgement of others, but he was rather sure that this woman was more interested in Wei Yi than she had been in any of the things that he was saying. Whether this was related or not, her hand moved away from her face and joined her right hand as she rubbed them together, eager to receive every little bit of information that he could possibly provide about the Ascendant.


    If not for the unlikeliness of this, he would have to assume that there was something between them.


    The way that Yi Jiazhi was shoved out onto the streets of Paragon was rather unceremonious, but he didn¡¯t mind. After their previous interactions, he did have little choice but to admit that the way he had acted, not just towards her but also towards a large number of other women he came across, was rather impolite, to put it extremely mildly.


    Even back then, he did not consider it to be the right thing to do, but he had let his primal desires overwhelm him without properly considering the impact upon those he considered to be lesser than him, as he had been in the upper echelons of the Yi family whereas those he used his mental manipulation method on were always beneath him. At the time, his mind rationalised that and he convinced himself that this was somehow right, with the limitation of the mental manipulation method partially implying to him that the women were interested in him, just failing to properly communicate or realise it.


    That was not the case, of course, and the time he had spent without being fully conscious of his own actions must have forced his mind to realise this.


    Now, he would rather do whatever he could to correct his actions, although this was blatantly impossible due to a number of the women he had interacted with being dead or entirely inaccessible to him at the moment. Instead, he could instead work on providing his abilities, whatever they currently were, to the people that were similarly working towards the improvement of the world, and thus assisting them in that same pursuit and allowing him to make up for his actions, or attempt to at least.


    When it came to finding a pill refiner, which was a great art that he apparently had some understanding in, he found that it was surprisingly easy to do so within the fortress known as Paragon, although it was not one that he had consciously heard of prior to meeting Wei Yi.


    There were no known faces present, nor any particularly famous individuals in the eyes of the residents, but almost everyone he asked was able to refer him to one store or another where a pill refiner would make use of a nearby field¡¯s ingredients to produce various pills that have some use to the people. Mostly, that meant healing and recovery pills for various conditions, as well as various miscellaneous pills that were used for more specific purposes, but there was also a large quantity of cultivation pills that one wouldn¡¯t usually notice in a typical populated settlement.


    On any other day, he might not have noticed this, but he did decide to pay attention this time in order to understand what he would need to contribute to the fortress.


    ¡®I suppose that they must be keen to fight as well, especially after the siege that had happened¡­¡¯


    He stopped in front of a small store that looked exactly the same on the outside as the rest of the alchemical stores that had been described to him and stepped inside.


    There were multiple routes that she could have taken to the Lan District, but, ultimately, Wei Yi decided that the best way to do it would be by heading to the east of the Jiang District first, towards the border between the current Yi City territory and the Empire of the Dawn¡¯s border. Spending some time near the coast would be bound to benefit her mental state, if nothing else, and would make it extremely easy to find her way to the Lan District, which she had never been in the proximity of, and would thus be unable to use her previous experiences to navigate to it with ease.


    By following the coast, she would undoubtedly come across one of the only two coastal major districts in Yi City. Out of the two, with the western one being the Shi District that had some territory spanning a large gap in the terrain between the primary eastern part of the Western Continent and the smaller western part, the Lan District was also the only one that received frequent visits from the Eastern Continents, and so the walls were tall, sturdy and supposedly incredible to look at, with towers acting as lighthouses for the approaching ships of the east. At night-time in particular, the powerful inscriptions that project the light outward cast intense shadows onto the streets and buildings, painting the district in black and bright orange.


    That was certain to be a worthwhile sight, so she was rather keen to approach and enter during the night, although she wouldn¡¯t slow herself down if there was even the slightest reason to hurry up and come in prior to the setting of the sun upon the Western District.


    She had set off at her usual speed during the evening, and so, when she felt the ocean¡¯s breeze upon her skin and saw the distant blue with perfect clarity, the sun still had an hour or two within the sky. If she was to continue at that exact same pace, she would arrive at the Lan District not much sooner than the sun would disappear beneath the horizon, allowing her to see the sight in all of its glory.


    Of course, no journey would be complete without some interruption to slow her down and to allow for some kind people to give away their bloodlines, physique energy and techniques ¨C by being slain and thus having little choice in their items and powers being taken away from them by the Ascendant ¨C and so she was not particularly surprised when she found a small confrontation occurring near the coast. It was one of the larger battles between two groups that she had witnessed in recent times, and so she didn¡¯t rush in right away and figure things out later.


    One side stood on the coast, with the majority making use of ranged combat techniques to repeatedly fire out bolts at the opposing force. The other was approaching the coast on a number of large wooden platforms on vague facsimiles of ships, although the hull of the ship lacked the proper shape that one would need to cross the ocean, and there were no sails or sufficient propulsion methods to be found.


    Clearly, this ship had come from the Western Continent and thus managed to avoid the tumultuous waves between it and the Eastern Continent, meaning that it was likely to be manned by people either from the Empire of the Dawn, the Heavenly Peak Court that was to the east, or the so-called Reclaimed Lands to the south of the Lan District and the east of the Wu District. All of them had easy access to this region without crossing into the deepest and most dangerous parts of the great ocean, and they would likely be the only ones that have any interest in fighting out on the coast, rather than near the district for something in the district.


    With her limited comprehension of the situation so far, going beyond making simple assumptions would be unreasonable, especially when there was a complete lack of any identifiable characteristics common among either group. No robes of traditional colours, no particular techniques, nor any battle cries in support of any particular force, not even a mercenary one, possibly suggesting that the two groups were not even cohesive and singular forces.


    To have a better notion of what was happening, and whether she had any reason to help either or if it would be better to get rid of both sides and obtain whatever items they had on them, perhaps even acquiring whatever might have caused the issues in the first place, she approached a little closer.


    As soon as her spiritual perception was able to reach out to the two groups and comprehend their activity well enough, she created a barrier around herself with the imbued power of Law to distract attention away from her, and then paid attention to their words, as well as the things that were in their possession, from their weapons and equipment to the small scraps of paper in their pockets.


    Those contained various kinds of information from random reminders to themselves to more official messages that had little to do with the current conflict, unless it was caused by some disturbance in the trade of quills between the Jiang District and the Lan District.


    Thus, her attention was placed on the few words that the two groups exclaimed to one another.


    On the coastal side, the strongest figure was in the Half-Step Linked Channels realm, and he was speaking to a woman by his side while both of them repeatedly fired out projectiles at the hull of the incoming boats, attempting to stop them from getting any closer to their coast than they already were, and not being too successful yet.


    ¡°Damn, if we are able to take them down, we will have a whole host of techniques to show to the Greats! They¡¯ll have to take us seriously then, and might even let us form our own Great Family!¡±


    Immediately, it was rather clear that they were not a group that Wei Yi had any need to preserve, nor care for, as their ideas were juvenile at best despite this leader looking like he was in his sixties at the very least, with the age of his energy and lifeforce suggesting a far older true age. To believe that anyone sufficient to intimidate all of the districts and to subdue the world¡¯s development and forcefully throw it back, possibly without any of the assistance from the heavens that they claim to have, would just allow a random gang into their fold because they took down another small group was absolutely silly.


    If they were removed from the world, then everyone might be better off overall. From this distance, she wasn¡¯t really familiar with the kinds of things that they had gotten up to prior to this, but his words did appear to be genuine enough, meaning that this was something he honestly believed.


    She immediately turned her attention to the other side of the conflict, although she still kept her attention on the coastal side as to prevent her from missing any context that might entirely alter her perception of the group, and noted that they were all equipped with heavy plate armour and equipment of similar weight, with a dawn-like insignia upon the chestplate of each one of the troops. Only the few leaders had that symbol painted, while the rest only had the shape of the rising dawn.


    ¡®Empire of the Dawn, then, most likely. They could also be in disguise, although that wouldn¡¯t change the fact that they are carrying something of worth that has brought the attention of the attackers towards them, so I suppose that I can begin by attacking the first group, question the identity of the latter group, and if they claim that they are somebody that might be of use to me, or that might side with me, I could leave them alive,¡¯ Wei Yi thought while waiting for one of the armoured men or women to say anything that would allow her either to strike at both parties at the same time, or to spare the approaching boats and focus her effort without needing caution.


    Unfortunately, the soldiers of the Empire of the Dawn looked to be highly reserved with their words.


    After a few more minutes of standing about, with neither side quite gaining the advantage, she mostly dispelled the barrier around herself, leaving only a little bit to not force all attention to her right away, and leapt into the air, taking a few steps on Aerial Platforms in order to rise as high as she could while maintaining her position.


    Then, with her energy gathered and her power of Law focused in order to allow for the most impactful entrance, she released numerous points of energy around her that quickly became brighter and brighter, crimson and the flaming orange of her various techniques uniting into the framework created by the Defiler¡¯s Point Beams. They gathered into distinct shapes, and then, as some of the gazes on the ground were turned to the air as incredibly bright crimson lights suddenly appeared amidst an orange and blue sky, they fell down upon the coastal group.


    Their initial state was comparable to that of her Ire-based brands, but it quickly grew out into a sphere of Obliteration energy that fell down in the fashion of the Orbital Call method, with each individual point falling onto one of the foes below.


    Those in the fourth realm and below had no chance to even comprehend what happened to them before the momentary beam of absolute energy crashed down upon them, but before it could disintegrate their bodies, it instead crushed them. Unbeknownst to them, the property of the Crushing Dagger technique was implemented into the attack, and thus the Ascendant was able to ensure that the possessions of those affected wouldn¡¯t be damaged.


    Out of everyone she had met so far, save for the spatial spirit Yi Shi Ming, Wei Yi was perhaps the one that could be the most free with destroying items and books, so long as she had scanned them with her spiritual perception. Even before she had acquired the Gilded Library technique, she had been able to piece together countless pages and figure out the Kong Mental Arts. So as long as there were any pieces left of those that she attacked, she would be likely to successfully obtain every little thing that they had on them regardless of the damage that any texts had sustained, as they would already be stored within her mind and thus safe from any physical damage on the outside. That being said, having a closer physical look was always beneficial.


    The force she attacked had several people in the fifth realm, and most of them were brought down with that one attack, with one barely managing to survive but falling to the ground with their entire left arm practically vanishing from the sheer power of the physical collision.


    Only their Half-Step Linked Channels leader, whose energy immediately shot up to meet the descending projectile the moment that he sensed it forming in the air, was able to prevent everything but a minor portion of the damage from striking him with the half-formed channels linking his anchor to the searing marks on the core around it. They weren¡¯t able to reach out of his body in the standard illusory connections to reinforce his techniques, but their enhancement of the energy he used was just barely sufficient.


    ¡°Who are you to so brazenly interfere in the conflict between two groups?¡± the man questioned as he leapt away and quickly raised a dozen barriers around himself.


    ¡°Oh, no-one in particular. You said you were acting in favour of the Greats, were you not?¡±


    She fell from the sky, but released a burst of energy just as she was about to land, removing all of the momentum and dissipating it in a gust of beach sand, making her resemble an immortal that had perfect control over their movement.


    ¡°Indeed, that is our purpose! You dare to-¡±


    He did not get to finish before she raised her hand and casually flicked an immense burst of pure physical energy at him with two fingers, colliding with those barriers and shattering half of them as if they were nothing. With this not being a particularly time or energy consuming technique, she was able to repeat it instantly, another burst of force taking down the barrier that he attempted to manifest around himself and getting through the rest of the ones that had been set up before this.


    Although his mouth opened and he seemed intent to suggest or explain something, judging by the thoughts within his mind, she did not hesitate to send out another burst of force and crush his body.


    With the embers and anchor energy around her slowly heading into her body, she raised her eyes and looked upon the not so distant fleet of four large ships and two smaller ones, on which the approaching forces were looking to one another in concern and uncertainty. Whether or not they had predicted that they would be attacked, they couldn¡¯t have known about the Ascendant¡¯s sudden appearance, especially not while they had no hint of recognition in their eyes just yet. They also did not know whether the method she had just used to take down the entire coastal force could be repeated easily.


    ¡°I¡¯ll give you lot one chance. Are you from Yi City? If you are, do you support or go against the Greats? If not, are you seeking peaceful relations with it?¡± Wei Yi asked, projecting her voice out calmly while some of her energy lingered in the air above her.


    The people on the ships looked to one person for their answer, who stepped up to the front of the ship and said, ¡°We are from the Empire of the Dawn! We would-¡±


    ¡°Ah, just to warn you ahead of time, but I am able to see whether or not you are lying. Also, I am in the third stage of the fifth realm, and happen to have used a bit of energy in order to allow for me to take these people out so easily. If you were to attack me, perhaps you might even have a moment to strike freely before I can properly retaliate.¡±


    On the ship, everyone including the original speaker looked at her as if she had lost her mind, but it was clear that all of their expressions changed slightly. This was made even more obvious when their leader suddenly raised her blade and exclaimed, ¡°The Lan District shall be ours! Go, attack!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, thought so. Thanks for the gifts, everyone.¡±


    Before they could contemplate her words, an incredible beam of black and red fell from the sky, cutting into the ocean itself and directly splitting all of their ships into two, the pure force of the beam torching and melting every piece of wood and metal on their ships respectively. With everyone aboard wearing heavy armour that generously protected all of their bodies, they might as well have been thrown into earth fire.


    ¡®I did need some more additions to my list of techniques, so this lot had a fight at a very suitable time. I¡¯ll need to anonymously thank the Empire of the Dawn at a later time.¡¯

 V4C85: The Coastal District

    Having already scanned the vast majority of what the people had on them, all that remained was to take that information and consciously process it in order to fully comprehend and obtain that which could not be recovered physically. Due to most of the coastal force remaining in a recognisable state, this process applied to very few items of interest, but fewer items endured the Obliteration beam.


    She found the fewest pills, inscriptions and artefacts, so the few that were present were easily able to fit into the expanding space of the House of Gold without interfering with anything else that lay inside. Most weren¡¯t of a particularly high grade nor quality, likely being carried as general support for the forces rather than methods to save lives and win the battles that the groups got themselves into. Otherwise, they might have stood a little more of a chance against her.


    The most valuable things were their techniques, as the approaching force from the ocean were specifically carrying a number of manuals that had caught the attention of the coastal force.


    In particular, one of the things that made her most interested in defeating them and taking everything they owned was the small collection of brand-type techniques that they had stowed away. They were in boxes that were able to resist spiritual perception to a small degree ¨C although it would be sufficient for most in the fourth or fifth realm to be unable to read anything within ¨C and that were sturdy enough to sustain the damage that the rest of the items and boats had endured.


    She did not find the Broken Sky Brand, which she suspected to have been unique to wherever her childhood friend had found it, but she was able to find the Charging Brand, Pulse Brand and Collapsing Brand.


    The first was, as one might glean from the name, able to charge up and then expand, spreading an energy link to nearby foes, then explode the moment that their energy had built up sufficiently, or when the user forced them to explode. The second had the ability to shift around frequently and consistently, and each time it would do so, a pulse of energy would explode outwards, allowing the brands to damage large areas at once. Finally, the Collapsing Brand had a similar function to the modified Defiler¡¯s Point Beams that she had made use of earlier, causing the brands to build up force and gravitational pull that would allow it to pull enemies into it and would likely work extremely well with the previous Pulse Brand.


    Although some of the properties had already been featured in her own creations, finding techniques that had been developed prior to her own attempts was still useful in improving her own creations and figuring out various faults within her own methods that she had failed to discover or correct prior to this. What was even more useful was a new technique.


    It was slightly damaged by the water, having been stored in a worse container than the brand techniques, but she had managed to scan it with her spiritual perception prior to this and was thus able to acquire in full. The tome lacked a proper title on the front, or on the inside, but from the various terms on the inside of the book, she concluded that it had to have been named the Ever-Growing Blaze, or something akin to that.


    The technique had three distinct uses, which one could refer to as moves if not for the fact that little movement was required to make use of any of them. First was Incinerate, which was an attack against a single target that set them alight and kept them burning for as long as there was energy around them for the flames to burn with. Within the tome, the second move that she could find was Eradicate, which was intended to oppose armies or large forces with a wave of flame that would disperse throughout a battlefield and cause less damage to single targets but far more damage overall. Conflagrate was the third move, and it was a balance between the two previous moves in that it caused an explosion which could affect several foes at once, affecting a smaller area than Eradicate and dealing less damage than Incinerate.


    This was, in her eyes, far more important simply because it was a different technique to those that she possessed, while the three brand-type methods were not. They would be unlikely to bring her to an entirely new concept, whereas this had a far larger chance of doing the same.


    Of course, neither were particularly likely to cause as significant a breakthrough as the invention of the Dao of Law, as they were not fundamentally different from the techniques that she already possessed. There were some curious differences between the Ever-Growing Blaze and the majority of the techniques in her possession, so she wouldn¡¯t¡¯ be surprised if the original version was made by an otherworldly demon and then modified in a more natural fashion than their techniques would usually be, but it did not appear to provide any inherent benefit or danger to her.


    Aside from a few more techniques that she had little interest in, there was one last manual that she obtained which was insufficient to permit her to learn the technique described within. Many of the pages were burnt or outright missing, so all that she could be entirely certain about was that it was called the Invader¡¯s Roar.


    Speaking from the name alone, she would assume that it was a technique functioning similarly to the Lion¡¯s Roar, except that it would somehow invade the opponent. A part of a burnt page described affecting the spirit of the target, although another also mentioned something relating to the mind of the user. Most likely, this meant that the user needed to be as powerful as the opponent in terms of their spiritual energy and mental stability in order to effectively use the technique, but this was the case with most techniques that relied on the mind, so this also confirmed little about the intrinsic mechanics and structure of the method.


    ¡®Something to be studied, then. I don¡¯t mind that, although it would have been nicer if the base usage method had been described somewhere in the surviving bits,¡¯ she thought, shutting the manual and throwing it into the House of Gold without looking back at the spatial rift that opened and shut.


    Her quick fight with the two forces did not cause too many waves, literally or otherwise, so far as she was able to tell. The impact of the Obliteration beam into the ocean did raise and displace quite a bit of water, but the waves calmed after a while. Otherwise, the coasts of the Planar Continents would always be barraged by terrible storms from all of the incidental conflicts that occur in the waters around the continents.


    It did take up some of her time, which was why she hurried and did not bother to clean up any of the damage, allowing random travellers and scavengers to acquire whatever they want from the battle.


    With the rather minor changes in elevation near the coast of the Western Continent, particularly near the small coastal haven that was the Lan District and its surroundings, it was difficult not to see the tall towers of that district from far away, but she intentionally kept her attention away from them for a while as to not ruin the surprise and to be able to see them in a good light, or lack thereof.


    To observe the lighthouse-like towers during the day would be doing a disservice to them, and with her extremely accurate and resilient memory, she would hardly forget about that look when she got to see the full brightness of the lighthouses shining down upon the darkness of the district that, as some claimed, intentionally limited other sources of light outside of buildings in order to ensure that the incredible display could be seen by any incoming visitors. Since the Eastern Continent was fond of visiting Yi City, this happened very frequently, and so it wasn¡¯t really feasible to renovate the district every other day.


    As with the majority of things, it was difficult to say whether the Master of Yi City had predicted something like this occurring, especially when the things that he had spoken about to Yi Shi Ming weren¡¯t fully recoverable due to the partial decay of her memory.


    Still, that hardly mattered now, as he was likely dead, and his legacy was fading. Yi City had clearly not gone quite as expected, so she would make sure to let Yi City rise once more. If she had to, it would be at least as good as Kong Shi Meng had wished it to be, but if she had the opportunity, she would ensure that it rose far beyond anything that he could have ever dreamed of. At the end, if she had the chance to speak with him and learn of his view on her achievement, that would make her life complete in that regard.


    She wasn¡¯t someone with no other ambitions, of course, and there were plenty of other things that she would like to get on with. If it was possible to get all of them done, then she would certainly seek to do so, and perhaps the easiest would be to get a girlfriend, or form a proper relationship with those that would likely bear her children.


    ¡®No, stop thinking about that. You can¡¯t do that yet. For all I know, the Great Families will take ten decades to defeat, or perhaps even a thousand decades. Either way, that would suck, but it will be far easier if I am not constantly yearning for something that I cannot handle just yet,¡¯ Wei Yi mentally slapped herself, not holding back in the slightest to ensure that some of her sillier ideas did not have the chance to develop, ¡®Now, the Lan District. I guess I can relax there for a little bit.¡¯


    Since she would need to remain in the coastal district for a while, she would have the opportunity to do a number of more casual things that she didn¡¯t have much of a chance to dream of prior to this, although it would be more likely that she would relax for a little while and find some more things to busy herself with that are no different from what she had been occupying herself with prior to this. Defeating thugs, harvesting various useless techniques, and finding more people that have been affected in odd ways by odd circumstances that may prove to be of some use to her and the Arbiters in the future against the Greats, the Primordial Deities, and even the Hunger of the Beyond, if those entities are still around and still keen to consume the world.


    ¡®I wonder why they haven¡¯t come in yet. Has the general worldly decline led to them not being as interested, or is there some kind of condition that has to be met on either side for them to invade? How many of those things are out there?¡¯ she wondered, but received no reply from herself or the spatial spirit in the Kong Prison Realm, as neither one were fully aware ¨C not to mention the fact that asking herself questions would be extremely unnecessary due to the way in which a human mind supported by the Ascendant¡¯s Library functioned.


    Making a little more progress, she waited for the sun to set a little further and then, finally, raised her head and looked upon the district before her, fully aware that the guards had spotted her as well.


    Just as described in the various documents of the districts that she had passed through so far, the Lan District was surrounded by tall walls with highly similar tall towers placed on regular intervals from one another. Although the elevation of the ground did change, and some of them were even placed into the ocean in order to create a small port area where ships could dock and depart from without fear of excessively strong waves, all of them remained at the exact same height, creating a curtain of light that shone down upon the district and its surroundings. The source of light in each tower was able to shine almost freely, save for the four thin support columns needed to keep the roof standing.


    The walls were positioned in the middle of the towers, with each side being crenelated in such a fashion that defenders could hide from attacks on both sides at once and fire back projectile planar constructs as necessary.


    It was on those walls that a number of guards stood, every other one holding a small inscription that cast a powerful directed light onto the ground, while the other half went without a light as to not dull their perception. One of the guards using the spotlight inscription had noticed her approaching an area that was not particularly near a gate, and hence turned their attention to her in order to figure out what she was up to.


    Since their attention was already on her, she figured that she wouldn¡¯t hold back and approach as one might expect with her level of power, without blatantly stating her identity.


    Slightly bending her knees, she exerted a vast quantity of energy and instantly departed from the ground, rising countless metres into the air within a single breath. As soon as she reached the height that she wanted to remain on, she snapped her fingers generate a force to cancel out the excess momentum caused by a failure to take the terrain beneath her feet into account when jumping, and manifested an aerial platform beneath her feet. Landing calmly in the middle of it, she looked to the guard on the wall and waited for them to react.


    ¡°Would it be an issue for me to enter through here?¡± she asked.


    ¡°N-No, it shouldn¡¯t be¡­ Ahem, no, you should use proper methods of entry the next time you come here!¡± the guard had responded instinctively before correcting their words, realising that they were not far from their fellow guards, ¡°Once you have some form of authentication, this can be excused.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll try and find something. Thank you for your time,¡± Wei Yi said, leaping forward to land on a part of the wall, then jumped from it into the Luo District, ¡°Don¡¯t mind me.¡±


    Naturally, before she lost her vantage point, she also committed the famous sight of the Lan District at night to memory for future review, just in case there was ever a time when she decided to settle down and start painting, or something else of the sort. With the distant shadows cast upon the land by the support pillars of the lighthouse towers, as well as the complex layout of the district wherein homes were packed tightly together, the resulting mixture of colours was worth being painted at some point.


    From above, it was also clear to see that several other pieces of information that she had learnt elsewhere were accurate. There were few lights on the streets, with most barely shining out from the various homes and structures on the ground, although there were a few people carrying sources of light with them.


    Most of the district was also near or directly on the ocean, with a stone foundation for the streets and homes extending out into the shallow water up to a point where smaller ships could approach without touching the ocean floor. From there, the rest of the structures were instead placed either on smaller platforms with similar foundations that were connected by bridges and small walkways, or were made out of wood to be lighter and directly floated on the water instead. Even then, the homes could only occupy a total of two thirds of the walled region of the district, and the rest was dedicated to the harbour and the docks, holding a vast number and variety of vessels.


    At times, the construction of ships was compared to an art ¨C mostly by those that did it, for reasons that should be plain to anyone ¨C and it was clear that the designers of the various boats in the water subscribed to that notion, as all of the ships were clearly detailed and distinct from one another.


    Some were plainer in smaller details but had particular shapes that were more pleasant on the eyes, with some boats of similar sizes being longer or shorter, wider and thinner, some even being far taller, allowing for several stories of lodging to be placed beneath the top of the ship (a detail that Wei Yi would need to note as to avoid her words being easily applicable to something she had little interest in). The particular designs and angles of the hulls would also differ frequently.


    Just as the larger details stood out on some ships, the finer touches on others could be noticed all the way from the wall on the other side of the district, and not just due to Wei Yi¡¯s excellent vision. A few boats were completely covered in small patterns and shapes that made even an entirely flat surface a treat for the eyes, whereas others chose to include larger decorations like unique shapes for masts and the figureheads at the front, although that particular field was dominated by nude or mostly nude figures of women with large breasts. They were, after all, pleasant to look at regardless of one¡¯s own gender, and would have likely been nude and present on every ship if the Lan District had been at the extreme north.


    On a few ships, the sales seemed to tell the owner¡¯s entire life story, beginning from their childhood and ending, presumably, at the point where they wished to be at the end of their lives, with the move from what had been to what they wished to be being rather blatant in her eyes.


    ¡®For now, I have no intentions on going onto any boats, unless they¡¯re docked in the Lan District and staying there for the rest of the time that I need to remain inside, so what I should do first is find a quiet place and have a chat with Great Dark while taking a look at some of the things the district has to offer,¡¯ she distracted her attention from the single moment that she had captured on top of the wall, and landed on the ground, making use of her standard method to break the fall and avoid damaging the ground.


    She landed on a street going between the wall and a line of buildings with angled rooves lined with thin tiles made of various shades of stone, then reached out with her spiritual perception until she noticed a typical gathering spot for visitors and residents alike ¨C a small bar. In other districts, such places contained many sources of information and plenty of people to observe and learn various bits of knowledge from, so even if she couldn¡¯t get drunk or taste the various alcoholic drinks, she could still gain everything necessary to spend her time in the district productively. The meaning of the last term would be up to interpretation, however.


    As she walked, she transformed the shade of her robes to black and that of her hair to silver, making use of her understanding of law, the elements, the natural vibrance of her hair and the killing intent strands in the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival all just to change their colours in a manner that wouldn¡¯t be broken with some casual disruption of planar energy in her vicinity.


    In a way, this was the extension of her ancient project attempting to allow for easy physical manipulation of the body and of the clothing on it, but it had long since gone down an entirely different direction, resulting in something that could not be described as a continuation of the original. Back then, she had considered calling the technique Cloak of Colour, as it was meant to change the colour of her robes, but now it was more suitable to refer to the technique as the Visual Transformation Law. It changed the outer appearance of an object but would not change anything about the way in which it functioned, even if it technically should.


    For instance, if the colour of a piece of clothing somehow empowered its effect, that piece of equipment would still see itself as being the original colour despite any changes she makes.


    That did extent to properties like heat absorption from sunlight and the like, which would usually change based on colour and the texture of the material, making the Visual Transformation Law a flawed technique if anyone was to be well aware of these properties and be looking out for them, or if someone had the kind of vision that Luo Na was both blessed and cursed with, allowing them to see certain intrinsic properties of items rather than their outward appearances.


    ¡®Fortunately, not an issue for now. Those who know about me will learn about me from the guards, or see through the technique, and a simple change of hair and robe colour wouldn¡¯t do much against someone who already knows what I look like,¡¯ she thought, grabbing the Mask of Yama out of the air and turning it around to look upon the mask¡¯s flat front, ¡®This would stand out, too.¡¯


    She put it away, as any modifications that she could make to the golden object wouldn¡¯t make it any less conspicuous, and proceeded on to a more busy street to blend into the crowd, changing her eye colour at the last moment to make her look like a distant relative of the Xin family, which was supported by the three circles in both of her eyes. With all of that, she put herself in the best spot possible without going overboard to turn every part of herself into someone or something else, and continued into the gathering of people walking through the streets, unperturbed by the night.


    Some of the people did look towards her, as her newly silver hair was practically glowing with even the slightest glint of light in her proximity, but with the hair and eye colours that were common in the Western Continent, most quickly turned away and returned to their own thoughts and activities, with only a few keeping their attention on her due to her beauty, as their surface thoughts implied.


    Only one gaze was kept on her beyond that, and in order to deal with them before she stepped into a place where conflict wouldn¡¯t be beneficial to her own goals, she went into an alleyway right away.


    The second that she was obscured from that one gaze by the walls of the surrounding structures, her body vanished from the spot and appeared some distance behind the one that had been staring at her. Without making any sounds, she followed the bald man as he made his way through the crowd and to the same alleyway, speeding up when he realised that she would soon exit the passage between the two structures if she had continued at the same pace as before.


    Needless to say, when he entered the alleyway and found no trace of her, he froze on the spot.


    ¡°Huh? Where did she¡­¡± he muttered, thawing instantly and hastening forward in the hopes of catching her, failing to realise that his foot began to slightly sink into the ground.


    Once he was far enough into the alleyway, an invisible barrier was set up at both ends and Wei Yi voice appeared behind him, leaning on one of the barriers while calmly saying, ¡°So, what is the reason that you¡¯re chasing me? I don¡¯t believe we know one another, so there isn¡¯t really any good reason for you to rush after me with such eagerness.¡±


    His head snapped back, going to the very edge of what a neck could do, and he almost growled.


    ¡°There you are, little mouse¡­ They¡¯re going to pay a great deal for- hm? Why can¡¯t I¡­ What did you do, rat?¡± his confident tone changed to confusion and then anger in just a few seconds, showing a great degree of emotional variance that Wei Yi would have loved to be able to display while acting.


    ¡°That¡¯s why you should pay more attention when you do things. Tell me who you are, why you are after me, and what you wanted to do to me ¨C not that I can¡¯t guess, but a straightforward answer is generally better than guesswork ¨C and I might let you go in one piece. Unlikely, but there is a certain chance of it happening,¡± she said, taking advantage of the angle at which he had to look at her to minimize her effort in lying and faking expressions, ¡°Come on, you¡¯ve been given an opportunity. Try not to waste it this obviously.¡±


    ¡°My name-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t give a fuck, your identity is more important. If you¡¯re not going to mention it, then move on.¡±


    ¡°I am going to be paid to deliver a silver-haired woman to a client at a particular street, but I don¡¯t know who you are, nor who the client is! Let me go!¡±


    He exclaimed that just as he realised that he had begun to sink into the ground, his feet being entirely consumed by the God Burial Sea. As he was only in the lower fourth realm, there was little that he could do against her fifth realm empowered by perfected stages and all of her techniques, and so there was no choice for him but to stand and sink as deep and for as long as Wei Yi wished.


    ¡°You¡¯ve mistaken me for someone else. I had not intended to be here until a few minutes ago, and I shouldn¡¯t have offended anyone here even if I had intended to come here a long time ago,¡± she corrected his seeming assumption that she was the person he sought.


    ¡°Then who are you?¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, Ascendant, Conqueror and so on. I usually have crimson hair and silver eyes, so I wouldn¡¯t be anything like the person you¡¯re chasing after.¡±


    ¡°¡­ You lie!¡±


    ¡°I could lie quite easily, but, since I am stating such things to you, I think that you might be able to understand that I don¡¯t really intend to let you go. As such, I would recommend that you say every little thing you possibly can, and hope that one of those pieces of information is enough for you to be let go safely.¡±


    The man couldn¡¯t be sure whether she was speaking the truth, as there was only so much information that he was able to find with his own eyes and clearly underdeveloped spiritual perception, so she allowed him a little while to catch onto what the best thing to do would be. If he did not respond as she liked, then he would be killed right away, but if he did bring up something of note in his memories or through his own words, then she would let him die more quickly. After all, he was not a good person, so removing him and potentially saving the other silver-haired woman would be for the best, depending on her identity.


    A minute passed, and then he finally said, ¡°I don¡¯t know what they want, but I have been told not to damage the woman¡¯s appearance too greatly. They might want her body, or she might be of some use in a political matter. I don¡¯t know anything else, I promise!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I believe you. That being said, I will not let you live. Goodbye, random thug.¡±


    With a swing of her hand, the sheer force that she was able to generate through that movement separated his head from his neck, ending his life in an instant but not ending her contemplation of it as quickly. She didn¡¯t care much for the man¡¯s life, as she neither knew him nor thought him to be particularly important, but rather for the move that she had made use of.


    Transforming moves to allow them to be used by a sword when they were intended to be used by a mace was something that she had partially figured out all the way back in the pagoda of the Great Earth twins, but now that her comprehension of Law had increased, she felt that there was more to be done with that. Perhaps the limit of that method was not simply transforming one to another, although it seemed more likely to her that developing the individual paths would be more likely to yield success. It would need a long time to be developed, but there was a chance that this could be improved.


    Rather than simply making use of force, she could bring across the nature of it into a different movement.


    ¡®Something to be considered, especially since I already have the Sword Dao, Spear Dao and so on. With them as the foundation, I could improve the current transference of one technique to another by manifesting the very concept within a movement¡­ I¡¯ll need to work on this later, that¡¯s for sure.¡¯


    Setting the body alight and letting it disperse into ash, she stepped out of the alleyway and proceeded to her original destination, that being the bar that was slowly being filled with more and more people, as if she had not just slain a man that might have otherwise sought to kidnap and deliver to someone else with what might be far more nefarious intentions. Her state had been calm enough prior to this, but with the potential of further technique development, she was able to be even calmer.

 V4C86: Familiar Blue

    ¡°So, what do you want?¡±


    ¡°The strongest thing you¡¯ve got, and some information, if you do that kind of thing. Otherwise, I can leave you alone.¡±


    ¡°I think I¡¯d prefer that. As for the strongest thing¡­ have you cultivated any body cultivation methods to reinforce your liver? It would be a shame to kill a young woman like you with a poorly chosen drink,¡± the bartender said, taking a small bottle from beneath the counter and placing it onto the surface between them with great care.


    From that simple act, and due to the proximity of the counter top to the bottle, everything that came into contact with the glass suddenly froze over and became burnt at once, as if it contained the hottest flame and the coldest wind at the same time. It was certainly strange to look at, and made it very clear why the man previously reached beneath the counter and put on a glove onto the hand with which he brought out the bottle. Had he not done so, he might have lost several of his fingers to the bottle alone, not even the thing inside.


    Despite that, Wei Yi had no hesitation in picking up the bottle and inspecting the liquid inside closely, putting her eye in dangerous proximity to the fluid within.


    ¡°This looks interesting, at the very least. I¡¯ll take it, so long as it¡¯s not beyond several planar shards in price,¡± she said, putting it back down in a different spot as to not fully burn and freeze through the counter with the small tap that would occur when the two came into contact with one another.


    ¡°Heh, if you¡¯re certain that you¡¯ll survive, then here. Drink it,¡± the man said, carefully removing the cork from the bottle and then filling a small reinforced shot glass with the fluid from the bottle, being very careful to not spill a single drop as to not be forced to evacuate the bar right there and then, ¡°We¡¯ve got quite a few of these, and they¡¯re all one gold coin. You see, this is failed produce from the Jiang District¡¯s refiners, so it¡¯s cheap to get from them.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I shall try out a few.¡±


    Wei Yi took the shot glass and, after quickly smelling the fumes emanating from the fluid for no particular reason, she drank the contents in one gulp.


    Despite her entrance to the bar being quite calm and uninteresting in the eyes of most, now she had the majority of the people in the building staring at her, her throat, and her chest, likely expecting an explosion of some kind to occur in one of the latter two spots. They waited, and waited, but the glass was soon back on the bar and her left arm was steady as it was rested on the wooden surface, completely devoid of the typical responses to the consumption of something that was, quite literally, not meant for human consumption. Frankly, even dragons, who were believed to have the strongest digestive systems out of the three ancient intelligent species of beasts, were expected to struggle to consume something that toxic, and yet the silver-haired woman managed it with ease.


    Worse yet for those that had hoped to see some amusing demise, she smiled and spoke in a calm and smooth voice, with no hints of the usual burning that might occur to anyone foolish enough to consume the substance.


    ¡°Hm, that was better than expected. I believe that I tasted a slight hint of citrus somewhere in there.¡±


    Nobody knew how to respond to that. To consume one of those drinks and verify it for themselves would be suicidal, and even someone with no attachment to life wouldn¡¯t be able to inform the others about the taste before perishing in a far less pleasant manner than the voice that Wei Yi was able to speak in.


    ¡®Of course, I think that is what I tasted, but with my perception of taste being out of commission for the last twenty years or so, I might have gotten a little rusty when it comes to recognising various flavours. Still, does confirm that this was not supposed to be drunk by people,¡¯ the Ascendant ignored their reactions and summarised in her head, ¡®For such a vibrant taste, I must thank my Yin-Yang Ascendant physique, as it had kept me safe while experiencing the slightly sour delight of that alchemical failure.¡¯


    ¡°Y-You¡­ Shit, are you sure you are fine?¡± the bartender asked with genuine concern.


    ¡°Yup, totally fine. Can I have some more? It has been some time since I last got to taste anything this strong,¡± she replied, taking advantage of the situation to be entirely honest in her request, ¡°Here are five gold coins in advance, just in case.¡±


    ¡°Sure¡­ I¡¯ll¡­ get right on that¡­¡± he muttered, turning away and heading to the back room where more of the dangerous bottles were stored, ¡°What under the heavens was that¡­¡±


    While he was away, she leaned back as much as someone reasonably could on a barstool and looked about as she waited. Her spiritual perception was sufficient to observe everything in perfect detail in a far larger area than her vision was currently able to inform her about, but her gaze was far more likely to be noticed and thus had the highest chance of resulting in interesting encounters, regardless of their exact nature. Whether she would find the person interested in some silver-haired woman or someone pleasant to spend some time with, she would have a higher chance of engagement with direct visual contact.


    No immediate response came, although a few did notice her and locked eyes with her. After a few more glances around, she turned back as the bartender returned with a few thick crates all containing similar small bottles to the ones that she had just consumed. With each one being placed far apart from any other to prevent their collective power from damaging their bottles, the box held far less than it could, but there were still over a dozen small bottles in each crate.


    ¡°How many of these do you dare try?¡± the bartender asked, his voice demonstrating a little of his previous daring bravado seeping into his words, ¡°They¡¯re all a different kind of torment to the body and mind-¡±


    ¡°Thirty-nine, right? Here you go,¡± she cut him off, tossing that many coins onto the bar.


    ¡°¡­ Coming right up. Would you like the one containing the combined poisons of a thousand failed medicinal pills, or the one holding the failed essence of the Extreme Yin Decomposition Pill first?¡±


    ¡°You know, I¡¯ve had some decent poisons recently, and I think that I would be far better off with the latter. I have not had the fortune of experiencing the full power of the Extreme Yin Decomposition Pill in a poor state, since the last time that I tried to make it, it turned out just fine,¡± she said just as casually, ¡°How badly had the refinement process gone in that particular instance? Under thirty percent quality?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a large seven on the cork.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s just wonderful. Come on, hurry up and pour it out, already. Otherwise, give it here and let me drink alone, as you had originally intended me to.¡±


    The bartender gave it a moment of thought, then opened the bottle and poured it for her, replacing his glove the moment that he was done with it. His original glove had already suffered greatly from just two bottles of extreme failed medicinal essence, and if he kept using the same one for too long, all of the conflicting effects would eventually overwhelm it and start destroying his hand instead. Being a cultivator in the third realm, he wouldn¡¯t be able to endure that kind of medicinal effectiveness.


    As before, she took the shot glass and consumed the contents in a single gulp, taking some time to contemplate the taste of the substance she consumed while her physique energy was set to process the substance entering her body to dissolve any useful elements from it and obliterating anything that was unnecessary to her.


    This couldn¡¯t provide much planar energy to her cultivation foundation, which was to be expected from failed products that couldn¡¯t be processed by the Antithesis energy quite as easily as things that she personally created, but drop by drop, an ocean could still be filled eventually. With enough of the failed medicinal essences that had any useful effects at all, whether in refining her body or improving and gathering her energy, she would benefit regardless of whether she would acquire a breakthrough or not, and might even gain a few insights from the various substances that she observed, particularly in the field of pill refining and her Antithesis energy.


    In a way, these bottles contained some of the worst things that could be produced from a certain form of refinement, although they still looked like something that could be consumed by a human, and she had not realised all of the potential ways to fail in creating a pill or elixir, meaning that she could not extract quite as much effectiveness through the Antithesis method as she could with that knowledge being available.


    ¡°Ah, a very cool, mint-like flavour. Not a fan of it personally, but if this was actually drinkable by your usual customers, I would recommend it to them right away.¡±


    ¡°At least you¡¯re aware of your own insanity, woman¡­ Here¡¯s the next one.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. Let¡¯s see¡­ Tastes shit. The medicinal essences from a thousand different pills blatantly don¡¯t work together, so if you keep importing these from the Jiang District, I¡¯d suggest that they shove this into their walls, while the previous stuff should be supplied to you and people like you exclusively.¡±


    She noticed that there was one more of these terrible pill essence drinks in the crates that he had brought out, so she removed one of the coins from the bar and put it back into her House of Gold, masking the action by pretending to place it back into one of her many internal pockets, using her other hand to point at that bottle in the crate as to ensure that he understood her actions.


    By the looks of things, he did, but he had nothing on hand to mark the bottle without the method instantly disintegrating due to the various medicinal effects, so he just had to keep track of it mentally.


    After those two, she was given two more drinks from two more bottles, with the bartender needing to replace the glove once more. Despite this not seeming like a popular, or even consumable, product at the bar, he had a large number of padded low-grade artefact gloves prepared, although many were suitable for other purposes like cleaning and beating away any intruders seeking to get drunk for free or steal the contents of the bar or the various earnings that the bar makes, which were held in a secure box beneath the counter, not far from the initial bottle of medicinal essence.


    At first, she had not been sure how many she would be able to drink, as her body did have certain limits in the same way that others would only be able to consume so much alcohol safely, but the medicinal essence was not particularly alcoholic, nor too difficult on her digestive system when most of the harmful elements were burned away. Due to this, she was able to essentially drink as much as she wanted to without any difficulty at all.


    With that in mind, she kept going while pretending to get just a little exhausted and drunk as a result of everything she had consumed, in order to be able to lure out anyone who had yet to reach out to her, but failed to attract any obvious attention so far.


    Once every failed medicinal essence was consumed and their usefulness extracted, she stayed around for a while longer and decided that she wouldn¡¯t be able to get much of the information that she wanted from the bar now that she had a certain effect on the people currently present, which was to say that the majority of the patrons were looking at her as if she wasn¡¯t human, but rather an ancient beast or some kind of alchemical refinement furnace that had gained a human body and retained the ability to handle anything from that great art. If she wanted honesty and directness, having a slightly less inhuman first impression would have been more effective.


    As she stepped out of the bar, she had to ponder whether getting rid of her current silver hair and black robes and switching to something else would allow for a second attempt.


    ¡®I hadn¡¯t exactly been subtle when I had just entered, and for the same reason as I was immediately mistaken for someone else, if I just reverted back to a different hair colour most would not bother to look at me twice, whereas those who already know me¡­ well, the point is the same as before, so I might as well go through with it. Let¡¯s see¡­¡¯


    Leaving some of those who were still looking towards her behind, she ducked into another alleyway, but she quickly noticed that there was something near her position that was being obfuscated from her spiritual perception. As obfuscation was both more obvious than complete obscuration, and significantly more aggressive, it was easier to nullify even her own spiritual perception, so she was unable to see what was happening even though she was really interested to learn what it was that someone chose to suddenly hide in the middle of a populated district busy with all kinds of things.


    She took a moment to decide the appearance that she would enter the field with, ultimately deciding that her original state was most likely to work here. Regardless of the nature of the field, and that of the things occurring within it, she could always revert her appearance to something else the moment that she gets out of it and needs to appear before someone else again. It would be a bit of a waste of the Visual Transformation Law if she did come across someone that she wouldn¡¯t want to reveal herself to, but it was a quick technique to use, especially when compared to other transformation methods, and so would only need a moment of attention not being on her to be executed.


    With all of that quickly considered and debated, she obscured herself with a stealth method and leapt into the air towards the point of interest. Once she was at the very edge of the field, she probed the field to get an insight into other properties that it possessed.


    In one moment, she comprehended that this wasn¡¯t something to be discovered from the outside. Beside the first layer of obfuscation, there were several more that all applied their own effects and distinctions. Without spending a number of years to decode all of that nonsense, it would be nearly impossible to understand exactly what it would do, and that was with her highly capable mind. In a normal case, the sheer complexity might shock the mind into inactivity for a number of minutes.


    ¡°Eh, fuck it.¡±


    She leapt in right away, deciding that it was unlikely to be greatly damaging to her. At most, she¡¯d endure a few injuries that could be recovered in an instant, as no field that she was aware of would be able to nullify her every cultivation path and innate physical property acquired as a result of her endless physical refinement through cosmic energy. If that did affect her, all that she¡¯d need would be a quick application of Law to forcefully apply it to any enemies as well, and then she would have the upper hand unless they were dragons in human form.


    The moment that her body passed through the dozen layers, she was greeted with a scene that looked far more blue yet bright as a result of the light passing through the field and being generated by it, nullifying the differences in light caused by the lighthouse towers.


    A number of figures stood at the far end, their energy clearly radiating from them, indicating that they were unaffected by the properties of the dome surrounding them, and all of them were facing an area to Wei Yi¡¯s left, although their attention did come to her the moment that she landed on the ground. They did not respond right away, likely being occupied with their silent communication over what to do with her, giving her just enough mental time to understand the restrictions and who they opposed.


    Her first thought was naturally regarding the restrictions imposed upon the area, and quickly confirmed that it was intended to suppress elemental planar energy ¨C including pure planar energy, interestingly enough ¨C which essentially meant all energy that would have any chance of opposing them. However, in order to strengthen the effect, it had clearly focused on suppressing the six individual forms of planar energy, thus avoiding her four manifestations of it as well as the cosmic state of her planar energy, so long as she exerted it outside of her body. Then, there were some more common effects, like slowing down mental processes and weakening bodily vitality, but those were insignificant against her.


    The primary obstacle was the significant weakening of spiritual perception, which was still obfuscated and distorted to a significant degree. If she was careless with any of her perception strands, she might suffer minor mental harm, which could be dangerous if the opponents were able to put up enough of a fight with the advantages that they had.


    Since that was the case, she looked at the person who the group responsible for the barrier was opposing.


    To say that she didn¡¯t immediately recognise a certain resemblance between this woman and someone that she had encountered previously would be entirely disingenuous, but the slight change also made her very uncertain as to whether this was just some coincidence or not.


    To begin with, while the woman she remembered had blue hair, this one had silver, and it happened to be a silver that Wei Yi had closely imitated with her own use of the Visual Transformation Law. It was long and smooth, clearly having been cared for with great effort, and perfectly framed the woman¡¯s red eyes, which looked upon the opponents with such intense concentration that she barely paid attention to Wei Yi¡¯s intrusion.


    Just as she was personally able to dye or modify her hair colour via other means, this was by no means conclusive, so the primary reason for the girl from the past and the woman from the present being likely to be different people was that one was no older than fifteen at the time. With a mostly flat chest and no particular womanly characteristics, she was nothing like the busty and seductive-looking tall woman that didn¡¯t stand anywhere near as high as she did, but still had a number of inches over the majority of women and even some of the shorter men. The difference between those two visuals was too great, and without the ability to scan her body and bones, it was nigh impossible to confirm any close resemblance just yet.


    What did match was her style of clothing. Back then, the girl only had a simple shirt and some similarly simple trousers on, and while the shirt and trousers were both different, they were still plain and lacking in any symbols or distinctive colours to mark her identity. If they were the same person, then the only reason that her clothes did change might have been the growth of her body.


    ¡®Alright, so I¡¯ve entered a strange conflict between someone that might be related to that Lan Mei Xing girl, and a bunch of weird people in robes. Hm¡­ One head would tell me to rescue the woman, if I even can, but that one is not to be trusted, while the one on my shoulders would rather suggest that I figure out the situation first. Just because that person is female and the group looks to be mainly male does not mean that the former will be in the right and the latter will be in the wrong,¡¯ she thought, turning back to the robed people, ¡®Unless it¡¯s the Dao of Lust¡¯s Lesbian Branch acting up again¡­¡¯


    She was just about to open her mouth when one of the robed figures asked, ¡°Do you know what you have intruded upon?¡±


    ¡°Actually, no, no clue. I can leave if you want,¡± the Ascendant replied readily.


    ¡°¡­ You must have infiltrated the barrier on purpose. Take her down, and then we must deal with the silver-haired woman!¡± the leading robed figure ordered, raising his hand as a great mass of strange blue energy in the form of fluid ¨C an opaque and paint-like blue, nothing akin to water ¨C gathered around it.


    With that plainly setting her up as their enemy, she had to do the same as at the coast and turn back to the silver-haired woman, who also looked back upon her as the lapse in her concentration caused the blue restriction of the field to collapse upon her, flooding through her entire body. It did little to her confident stance and general powerful appearance, but as the blue restriction passed through her hair, it caused the silver to be torn away from it, leaving behind a familiar blue.


    That alone made the resemblance so painfully clear that Wei Yi had little choice but to question it right there and then.


    ¡°Lan Mei Xing?¡±


    ¡°The girl with a sense of direction?¡±


    ¡°How does everyone have such specific recollections of very particular actions¡­ Wait, so you are her¡­ Those people, are they after you specifically?¡±


    Although she had no clue who Lan Mei Xing was, other than the fact that she had all of the features of the Lan family and was likely descended from them in a similar manner to Lan Rongqi, she did know that the woman had no sense of direction- no, that she was highly capable, and seemed reasonably polite and non-aggressive. If this wasn¡¯t a misunderstanding of some kind, then the robed figures would likely have bad intentions, and she would have no reason at all to preserve their lives or to allow them to go through with that they were doing.


    ¡°I think so. They¡¯re from some kind of blood-focused group, so they¡¯re probably from that Blood-tinged Church he was constantly bothered by,¡± Lan Mei Xing replied casually, ¡°I didn¡¯t think they¡¯d still be around.¡±


    ¡°You guys are from the Blood-tinged Church?¡±


    ¡°We are from the Corpse Blood Division of the Church, and the heretics-¡±


    They did not get the chance to finish as Wei Yi instantly spread out her planar energy, a cosmic light criss-crossed by distant chains surging out from her body and breaching the tight confines of the blue restriction, exposing details akin to the blood vessels in the body throughout the many layers of the field around them.


    Those patterns could have been innocuous in any other circumstance, but having already been labelled and revealed as the members of the Blood-tinged Church ¨C albeit ones that looked to be far less intelligent than the few she had previously encountered ¨C there was no reason for her to not connect these people with the same organisation that had randomly caused the death of a woman that had been forced into the world and made to serve them while failing to remember her own name. It was a terrible thing, and if they were intending to harm yet another woman that looked to have been rather innocent and pure during their first meeting, she was not going to give them even the slightest chance.


    ¡°Fuck you! The more I see you lot, the more you remind me of the Great Families!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, her left arm transforming into the killing will state as she reached out with it and shot out a vast quantity of pure energy enhanced with the Absolute Dao.


    It burnt through the veins of the restriction and reached out to the group of those in robes, slamming into several of them and forcing them back by a couple of steps. Contained within the blast of energy was her spiritual perception, and in the brief moment that there was a full link between her and the robed group, she collected all of the information on their energy that she required in order to assess their threat level.


    Their leader was in the upper fifth realm, while his subordinates were in the lower fifth realm, with none being lower than the second stage. At the moment, they were within their element, in more ways than one, but since their field incorporated a number of blood-type principles, it allowed her to get a greater grasp on her own form of blood planar energy.


    It, much like her pure planar form of energy, had been near the Full Success stage for some time, and now that she had the opportunity to see how the blood of the dead compares to her own active blood, she could push it to the same stage as her pure planar energy was now at. With the inclusion of her own bloodline, her grasp over the concepts of bloodlines as a whole, and the general benefits granted by Dao upon the elements that they encompass, her blood-type planar energy was significantly more powerful than the last time she had made full use of it.


    ¡°Since you are so fond of blood, let me show you mine!¡± she exclaimed, pulling back her left hand and creating a sphere of energy within it, letting it build up for a moment before transforming it into the Mysterious Blood state.


    The first time that she had used it, the blood shared the characteristics of that which flowed through her veins, including that curious golden shade that she had been unable to guess the origin of. Now, however, it possessed a cosmic light filled with the same intertwining distant chains as her cosmic energy, and the power and luminance that it radiated was as bright as if she had brought out a ball of flame instead, lighting up the entire scene with a crimson and primarily violet shade.


    ¡°You¡­ HERETIC!¡± the leader¡¯s voice suddenly warped, and his figure violently disintegrated.


    Despite that, his voice seemed to linger, a dozen echoing voices repeating his last word as the blood poured into the restricting sphere isolating them from the regular people of the Lan District. All of the strength within him settled into the restriction¡¯s veins, and before Wei Yi could throw out the sphere of blood, the spread-out blood vessels were thrust towards the middle of the zone in an instant.


    All of the thin strands and veins assembled into a humanoid monstrosity with thick blue blood flowing within its transparent blood vessels, visible with ease through the thin film that formed as its skin. Five misshapen arms reached out into the air, the force of the restriction field gathering there and permitting more and more planar energy to form into large spheres comparable to the ones that Wei Yi had created with her blood-type planar energy. While it gained shape and stability, the subordinates in robes placed barriers around themselves and directed the majority of their energy towards the transformed state of their leader.


    ¡°Well, that is one way to reply to you,¡± Lan Mei Xing commented, releasing her own violet energy to repeal some of the restriction around her, ¡°What realm are you in now?¡±


    ¡°Fifth.¡±


    ¡°Oh, me too! How many marks?¡±


    ¡°Are you sure now is a good time for this? That thing is getting stronger with each moment, I¡¯m almost certain, and we should be killing it right away¡­ Fine, fifty-five marks.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve got sixty! We¡¯re quite close, aren¡¯t we? I have to say, you¡¯ve developed incredibly well for how little time we had spent apart. I mean, you looked quite good back in the Kong District, but now it¡¯s like you¡¯ve reached a certain peak-¡±


    ¡°Not now!¡± Wei Yi repeated, throwing the sphere of blood-type energy at the rapidly manifesting creature, and exploding with more of her own cosmic energy as to provide herself with a field in which her power could be exerted fully. Without her spiritual perception being able to reach out to the robed figures, or the amalgamation of the restriction and the blood of their leader, she was unable to understand much regarding their activities, but she did still have an idea of what their actions were intending to achieve.


    Whatever the leader had transformed into couldn¡¯t have been too stable, and so it required the support of the other figures in order to be maintained within the restrictive field. Once outside, it likely wouldn¡¯t endure even without that further contribution, which may have been considered when the field was made to prevent easy exiting from the inside.


    As her simple projectile struck the entity, it caused a number of ripples within the membrane that acted as its skin but did little else. At the same time, fully aware that this was likely to be the case, the Ascendant threw out a probing mass of cosmic energy at the figures at the back, aiming for one that had endured her previous cosmic lance. Out of all of them, he was likely to be the weakest, so if she was able to damage them at all, the attack might even take him out in one go.


    The mixture of stars, nebulae and galaxies flew more quickly than the corporeal sphere of blood, causing it to hit the figure at the back at nearly the same time as the blood had hit the monstrosity.


    Whatever stress the first attack might have caused had no effect on the second, as the barriers around the figures not only managed to endure, but a larger protective shield temporarily formed between all of the figures that protected them all at once, and even that failed to be breached by her attack. She did not make use of a searing mark, nor much of her understanding of techniques to further boost the power of the attack, but this alone was sufficient for her to comprehend the fact that the barrier would not be broken or damaged by her unless she was to go all out and risk damaging not only the two layers of barriers but also the restriction and much of the district.


    ¡°Have you kept up with your practise of combat techniques?¡± she asked the blue-haired woman.


    ¡°Of course I have! I may have only made two stages worth of progress since we last met, but that does not mean that I forgot to practise!¡±


    ¡®Two stages? She was already at the Marked Core realm when we had met at the Kong District? How did she manage to age so rapidly when- no, not important right now,¡¯ Wei Yi dismissed that line of thought and said, ¡°We need to take down the entity, and then we should be able to take out the rest of them. Without their aid, the restriction field should drop, and we can get out!¡±


    ¡°Alright, got it.¡±


    She almost wanted to praise her for being so brief, but since that would just cause the brevity to revert to the very opposite of that concept, the Ascendant instead rushed towards the enormous monstrous entity alongside Lan Mei Xing, with each one running up to one of the legs of the creature.


    Judging by her movements, the blue-haired woman had still kept her focus on her legs and feet for combat purposes, so as they got close to the entity, both of them halted and transferred their momentum to one leg, kicking out while infusing their limb with a great deal of their energy, managing to demonstrate brilliant results.


    The Ascendant, as usual, was surrounded by a halo of cosmic light that surged out from her leg and was transferred with the aid of her high-heeled boot, the star metal at the tip easily stabbing into the transparent membrane wrapping the creature and giving just enough room for her energy to surge in. It did exactly that, enhanced by the properties of Obliteration and Ire amongst other techniques and principles, instantly cutting and tearing through all of the veins in its path as it travelled up the leg and towards the centre of its chest, where a large amalgamation of veins almost formed something resembling a dead yet beating heart.


    Lan Mei Xing performed the same kick, as her move was the original inspiration for the Violet Kick, but whereas her previous uses used little bright and noticeable energy due to the nature of the threats that they opposed, that being that they were too weak, now she was clearly going all out. A vibrant violet that formed into the shapes of distant stars burst out from her body, travelling alongside her leg into the side of the entity, breaching into it with the violent power of the countless phantom celestial bodies falling upon a mere mortal existence, whether or not it could still be called human.


    Together, their attacks shredded much of the two legs the entity was standing on. Vast quantities of blue, dead blood gushed out of the countless blood vessels that they had damaged, but it seemed to do little to prevent the enormous entity from using its many arms to strike down upon the two of them.


    The blue-haired woman dodged to the side of one of the five arms and delivered another blow to the leg of the entity, opening the gap in the membrane further, while Wei Yi simply vanished from the spot via her fourth realm movement method and appeared with a mass of blackened crimson energy already gathered in her hands.


    ¡®I complained about the Kong family¡¯s tradition, but now I am tempted to do it too¡­¡¯ she thought, pondering the matter for just a moment before exclaiming, ¡°Obliteration!¡±


    The incredible beam burst out of her hands in an odd harmony with the technique¡¯s name, landing upon one of the outstretched arms of the entity and tearing much of the membrane apart with ease. She controlled it to travel from the shoulder to the hand below, and the moment that the Obliteration energy was nearly exhausted, she burst open the sphere from which she was firing it, causing a vast explosion of energy that, to those that had seen it previously, would have a strange degree of flame-like properties that it did not have previously.


    It was this new property that she had acquired from the Ever-Growing Blaze, although it was a very minimal integration at the moment and hardly exhibited the best of any of the three forms that the technique could display. With the adhesive and lasting properties of the flames from that technique, she was able to make the incredible power of the Obliteration energy stick to the exposed blood vessels of the entity, allowing the blackened crimson to continue to burn upon the blood and preventing it from pouring out or regenerating.


    As if to match her random exclamation, Lan Mei Xing shouted, ¡°Stellar Kick!¡±


    The technique that she used was clearly distinct from the previous one in two ways. It was brighter and far more eye-catching on first glance, the stars in her energy lighting up as they flew towards a second arm of the monstrosity, readily demonstrating the second difference ¨C effectiveness.


    Whereas the first kick opened a large tear in the transparent membrane, the second completely exploded the arm that it targeted, shredding apart everything contained within and scattering the blue blood all over the street on which they fought. The strike also tore through the terrain beneath the entity, countless bricks being sent flying into the air while the entity was forced to recoil, one leg and two arms being destroyed in just a few moments.


    As Wei Yi avoided the strike from the third arm while preparing a few more spheres of energy with which to strike at the monstrous creature, she glared in the blue-haired woman¡¯s direction.


    ¡°Don¡¯t get into the habit of doing that! We are not doing that!¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s fun, don¡¯t you think? Especially when you called out your technique and the beam did that satisfying sound!¡± Lan Mei Xing replied, also stepping back while looking at one of the arms, ¡°I¡¯ll take that one, you can have those two. Deal?¡±


    Although the Ascendant rolled her eyes, she still focused upon the two arms and threw out the masses of energy, all of them condensing into odd amalgamations of the four brands that she had in her collection. They were small and misshapen, but when they locked onto their target and rapidly appeared above the two arms, their combat potential was immediately displayed with a violent burst of force that seemed intent to pull everything into the brand, acting upon the blood within the entity and stopping it from reacting with the same speed as it otherwise could have.


    Immediately after, they fell upon various points of the arm, thin arcs of energy reaching out to latch onto parts that weren¡¯t directly affected while a vibrant flame burnt everything within their immediate area. The very moment that they struck the membrane, that pull repeated, sucking in the transparent skin and forcefully stretching many points of it. Many areas of the membrane broke right there and then, but everything that was not torn apart was then sent flying out with a pulse of energy.


    At the same time, the thin arcs of the Charging Brand component grew in thickness, absorbing much of the energy that was spat out from the Pulse and Collapsing Brand components, taking just a moment longer to build up before they, too, exploded with great intensity, annihilating the two arms.


    ¡®I think I have just attained some comprehension of a Brand Dao¡­ it is a minor element of the Dao of Law, and even that is only in my case, but they clearly follow a distinct series of laws that I had already explored with my attempts to modify the Destruction Brand, and this is just their natural extension¡­ Yes, a Brand Dao is certainly a thing, although I would need to investigate their true origin in order to figure out more,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, checking the Truth of the Universe display to find that her assumption was indeed correct, as a new Brand Dao appeared at the Initial Accomplishment Stage, ¡®All but the Destruction Brand have a metal-type element, so perhaps has something to do with their deeper nature.¡¯


    While Wei Yi was experiencing a minor epiphany, Lan Mei Xing jumped into the air and, just as her body was at the optimal level to kick at the shoulder region of the last arm of the entity, she did exactly that. Ceasing her rise and fall with a controlled burst of energy, she narrowed her eyes and sent a series of kicks at the entity, although she moved so quickly that it was difficult to figure out whether she kicked countless times in an instant or if her leg simply moved fast enough to create that illusion.


    Either way, when they landed on the entity¡¯s body, they tore through the membrane with the same ease that the rest of their attacks managed to, and the intensity of the kicks was able to prevent any blood from being spilled onto her shoes. Instead, all of that was compressed further and further into the body, creating a visible layer of dead blue where there was previously an open area with countless blood vessels. It hampered the entity¡¯s regeneration, and the moment that she ceased her attacks and used their force to fly back and land at a safe distance, all of the fluids that had been forcefully kept away burst out through every place they could.


    Sprays of sickly blue tore through the remains of the arm, through the entity¡¯s chest, and even damaged something that vaguely resembled a head.


    ¡°Hey, we did about the same amount of damage with that!¡±


    ¡°Not really. Look.¡±


    There was no need to point at what she meant, as the many brands she had cast down were still in play and were only stronger as a result of her minor breakthrough in the Brand Dao. With their initial target gone, they returned into the air, pulled in energy from the air ¨C which was the function of the Collapsing Brand element activating prior to being in striking distance ¨C and crashed down on the remaining pieces of the entity. The chest and back, the poor attempt at a head, and even certain internal elements where the many veins gathered in greater densities were all targeted.


    One moment, the Collapsing Brand component activated once again, pulling in everything that was within range, shredding many of the delicate blood vessels without any difficulty whatsoever. The next, a pulse from the Pulse Brand component shot it all back out and frayed the rest of the feeble bonds in the area, leaving the inside of the entity looking like more of a mess than it was. In the third and final moment that mattered for the monster, all of the links of the Charging Brand component were fully charged and exploded, shattering even the vaguest remains of structure and stability within the enormous thing that had once been, at least in part, the leader of this group of the Blood-tinged Church.


    Despite that, it was not the final moment of the entity. That came in the fourth moment.


    As soon as it was in no state to act, Wei Yi once more vanished from the spot and appeared right beside it, leaping into the membrane and grabbing onto the mass of veins that looked to be the thing¡¯s heart.


    ¡°THE IMPURE BLOOD OF THE HERETIC SHALL FLOW TO THE CRIMSON HIEROPHANT!¡± a voice that barely resembled the leader suddenly emanated from the restriction field itself, prompting all of the blood vessels that still resembled their original appearance to stretch out and grab onto every part of the Ascendant¡¯s skin and flesh that they could find.


    Each one desperately pricked at her skin, clearly intending to enter, but she still grabbed onto the heart and then released all of her energies in one go.


    Cosmic light, the silver and dawn light of her physique energy, the silver and crimson of her killing will, and, finally, the bloodied light of a galaxy that emitted from her bloodline power. The first three, if killing intent and spiritual will were to be seen as one, were about as effective as her raw strength, but the moment that the all-consuming and endlessly developing bloodline power came into contact with the myriad veins and blood vessels, it was the one to devour them rather than the other way around.


    In moments, all of the veins were consumed inside of the body, and just a few seconds after that, even the restriction around them begun to be devoured, the bloodline power finding sustenance in all of the blood that must have been used to create the field and the entity. Or, perhaps, it was feeding upon the remnant bloodline that had been sent into the field when the leader had merged with it, but whatever the case was, it was incredibly effective, being halted only by the fact that the rest of the robed figures were still supporting the field.


    So, in order to end them as quickly as possible, Wei Yi grabbed the brands that were still floating around and threw them at the figures, using the weakening restriction to send another Obliteration beam at the secondary barrier, weakening it just enough for the brands to breach it.


    As soon as they were downed, so was the restriction field.

 V4C87: Distant Memories

    ¡°Phew¡­ That was unpleasant. So, Lan Mei Xing, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s me, again. Did I get your name?¡± the blue-haired woman asked back, nudging some of her blue hair behind her ear.


    ¡°Even if not, I¡¯ve already asked for your name, so I might as well inform you of my own name once again. I am¡­¡± the Ascendant was about to speak, but as her spiritual perception reached the woman, she found that there was a certain resemblance in her that was buried far deeper in her memories, forcing her to pause for a moment.


    At the same time, Lan Mei Xing naturally reached out with her own spiritual perception, not reaching too far into her body out of respect but still went far enough to also demonstrate a shocked reaction.


    Together, the two of them looked at one another with strange expressions, and for several moments, they did not speak a single word. The blue-haired woman seemed keen to let the Ascendant speak first, but Wei Yi wasn¡¯t sure whether her conclusion could possibly make any sense without completely changing their perception of the other person. As she quickly determined via the surface-level thoughts of the blue-haired woman, it was likely that she was having the exact same dilemma in her head as well, further assisting in the uncertainty amongst them.


    ¡°You are¡­ Lan Jia Hao?¡±


    ¡°And you¡­ with the way you put that, it seems less likely, but¡­ you have the characters, right? Would you be¡­¡±


    ¡°I am sorry, but I am not Kong Shi Meng.¡±


    ¡°He¡­¡± Lan Mei Xing unconsciously clenched her teeth while restraining her voice and expression, ¡°He didn¡¯t make it in the end, did he? After we¡¯d promised to one another that we¡¯d reincarnate and fix the problems we came across¡­ Fuck. I knew that was likely, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Just to confirm, you are also able to sense the Truth of the Universe inside of my body, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡±


    The blue-haired woman¡¯s previous aloof cheeriness actively bled away from her entire being, the very air around her and the bright light of her planar energy both getting darker and colder. While the air itself froze and flakes of ice fell to the ground, the stars composing her energy dulled and looked to die, their bright and uncertain exteriors fading into something cold and still.


    ¡°If you came back, who¡¯s to say that he might not?¡±


    ¡°Do you know what he had gone to do? You¡¯ve learned my name, through the characters or from somewhere else, so you should know that I had just faded away back then. He¡­ did not.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± the Ascendant would¡¯ve tried to encourage and reassure the woman, but she knew as well as Yi Shi Ming and Lan Mei Xing that there was almost no chance of the Master of Yi City still being alive and well. In fact, rather than little chance, it would be more accurate to say that the heavens themselves would sooner descend onto the earth and walk amongst humanity than he would return alive from his attempts to sever his otherworldly gift from the azure light, and to oppose the Hunger of the Beyond.


    If she was to try and claim otherwise, it would be plainly disingenuous, and easily seen through by his ancient friend. With her mental state being relatively decent, especially when compared to the worst days, she would also feel like shit if she did actively lie and give her false hope, since that reincarnation method of theirs might have forced her to sit through a million years simply waiting for a chance to reunite. There was little benefit from doing this, and so not even that line of thinking could justify it in her mind, nor did the fact that she still seemed to retain some of that childish innocence from the first time that she had seen her in Yi Shi Ming¡¯s memories.


    Breaking it was necessary in the long run, as it was only a matter of time, but it didn¡¯t feel right.


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming, or, if I understand correctly, a copy of her imprinted onto a blank spatial spirit, is still around. Would you like to meet her?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Honestly, no. It feels like I¡¯d be doing something wrong, even if that makes little sense. I¡¯m hardly responsible for Shi Meng¡¯s actions¡­ But, even putting that aside, I don¡¯t want to speak to her just yet. I¡¯d prefer a lie down, or something¡­ I don¡¯t even know what people do nowadays, since I¡¯ve been too busy looking around for any hints of his return¡­¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ How about getting a place to sleep and retiring for the night? That might help.¡±


    ¡°Probably. It feels like I should be doing something else, but it does seem like the best idea. Do you know of a place?¡±


    ¡°Not right now, but once I deal with the remaining bodies here, I am sure that I will find it within a few minutes,¡± Wei Yi replied, her spiritual perception already reaching back out to its usual range of a kilometre, grasping as much of the district at possible to find a suitable location for them to rest. Given that she wasn¡¯t sure whether Lan Mei Xing would prefer a smaller or larger bed, nor whether she might have the notion of sleeping beside her for some kind of emotional reason, she just looked out for any place where there looked to be few visitors that might prove troublesome.


    Lan Mei Xing approved of that course of action, so she quickly disposed of the bodies and took everything of use that she could find on them, including their bloodlines. She would have preferred to be able to obtain more information about the Blood-tinged Church so that she could dispose of them more easily when they came up again, but neither the monstrosity nor the robed figures were of much help now that they were dead.


    They departed soon after, heading towards the eastern portion of the district where the waves were louder and more places to stay were built for visitors and travellers, many of whom would likely come in via the ocean and would thus look for lodging near the ocean. There were occasional traders from the four nearby coastal nations that had separated themselves from Yi City, those from villages near the coast beside the Jiang District, and most importantly, visitors from the east, where a long voyage would usually encourage finding a place to sleep off the constant waves of the ocean barraging the ship they travelled in and seemed to strike at their very souls ¨C or so the various tales of oceanic travel claimed. Wei Yi had yet to experience such a thing.


    By the time they arrived at a suitable place, many rooms were already occupied, and so the best room that they had available to them had a single large bed. The blue-haired woman did not reject the offer of sleeping beside one another, although her mood was clearly not suitable for anything beyond that, and so they headed up the stairs of the lodging and entered their room.


    After a quick creation of an array to block out sound and intruders, just to ensure that they had the freedom to do what they like, they were able to get around to lying down on the bed. Wei Yi¡¯s clothing was all clean as a result of the robes cleaning themselves while the rest of her items were made of cosmic metal and seemed to lack any spots for dust and dirt to reside, but this was not the case for Lan Mei Xing. To prevent them from unnecessarily dirtying the sheets, the blue-haired woman removed her simple shirt, pants, and shoes, lying down on the surface of the bed in her underwear.


    Performing a few more checks around the room, the Ascendant soon joined her on the other side, placing her hands beneath her head while she looked up at the ceiling in a similar manner to Lan Mei Xing.


    For a while, it was quiet.


    ¡°I want to talk about some things, and while it doesn¡¯t matter whether you listen, I figure I should still ask,¡± Lan Mei Xing said, turning her head to the left, ¡°Do you want to hear a few things about him?¡±


    ¡°About Kong Shi Meng, the Master of Yi City? I have had some interest regarding him for some time, and even with everything that Yi Shi Ming could remember, I can¡¯t say that my curiosity had been entirely sated so far. In comparison to some of the figures remembered by the world, he had not lived all that long, but his deeds are certainly remembered even now.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that seems to be the case¡­ How much do you know about me?¡±


    ¡°I know that you were friends in the Kong District, and that you had called him boss when he taught you some simple games. You had wanted to cultivate elemental-type methods, while he was more interested in acquiring pure planar techniques due to his belief that they were going to be more powerful. After that, however, I am pretty much lost,¡± she replied, turning her head to the right in order to meet Lan Mei Xing¡¯s gaze, ¡°I don¡¯t know whether you remained at the Kong District for long, but I imagine that you had reunited even if you hadn¡¯t left with him.¡±


    ¡°That is the case. I had not left with him right away, instead remaining with my father at the time. He had wanted to head to this place, the current Lan District, but after the disaster of the Kong Clan, he ended up changing his mind,¡± the blue-haired woman said, ¡°We met back up when Shi Meng and I were around fifteen years old, if I remember correctly. Back then, I had no idea that he was not¡­ normal, I suppose. It was clear that he was more mature than I was, but as you might have noticed, I have always been a little carefree in the way I act¡­ He was very powerful after just a short amount of time, though which did catch my attention.¡±


    ¡°Did you want to learn from him and let him continue being your boss? Was he already pulling off all kinds of impressive acts?¡±


    ¡°Yes, and yes. He managed to do a great deal after only a few days of cultivation, and by the time that I had met him in the Yi Clan, he had already leapt to the second realm. His pure planar energy was also something to behold, so I was a little tempted to switch, I¡¯ll admit. He recognised me, so we began to work together again, and he eventually began to teach me his techniques.¡±


    ¡°The violet kick is one of them?¡±


    ¡°The¡­ ah, the Stellar Kick? It¡¯s part of the Stellar Paragon cultivation technique, which is what I switched to practising after some time. In this life, I used it from the start¡­ Let me tell you, my new mother was very shocked to see her child practising cultivation from such a young age.¡±


    ¡°In the modern world, cultivation begins at twelve, not ten. Obviously, she was sure that you¡¯d kill yourself by attempting to copy something from a book without properly understanding it. Had I been unaware of the fact that this was not due to some significant difference in the body, but, rather, the difference in energy density, one that you had bypassed mostly via a highly refined technique, then I would have also been afraid for your life,¡± Wei Yi stated, ¡°Did you stick around your parents, or rush off right away?¡±


    ¡°I rushed off, after giving them some thanks for raising my new body. Perhaps if I had reincarnated with fewer interests and attachments, I might have been able to stay back there and let the past go, but I had hoped that we would have reincarnated together, into the same time, possibly both into women, as well, and we could have returned to fighting, exploring and living life to the fullest.¡±


    Lan Mei Xing sighed, returning her gaze to the ceiling with a trace of regret in her expression, although it was one that faded quickly.


    ¡°I had hoped that you would be him. That¡¯d be great. We could rediscover what had happened since our passing, what our descendants ended up doing¡­ or I could have stayed back there and seen what my new parents were doing. My new mother was a farmer, from what I could tell, and my father often went out and hunted. Both were in the second realm, so it came as quite the shock for them to find their daughter reaching the third realm after only three years of cultivation,¡± she said, her voice quieter than before, ¡°I don¡¯t really know what they think about me. Maybe they thought that their daughter had been possessed, or perhaps they just think me to be some kind of genius¡­¡±


    ¡°As someone who grew up without parents, I would recommend that you go back to visit them at some point. Even if they don¡¯t recognise you, at least you could confirm that they¡¯re doing well after the time you¡¯ve spent apart.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Probably should, shouldn¡¯t I? I¡¯d imagine they¡¯re worried¡­ hm¡­¡±


    Her voice trailed off, and when Wei Yi looked over, she saw that the woman had shut her eyes and fell asleep.


    It was surprising, but only for a moment, as the next allowed her to recall the fact that she is one of the few in the world that does not sleep or rest unless it is absolutely necessary. In theory, her body shouldn¡¯t be able to withstand such a thing, given that she does not have anything resembling a Sleepless physique, but she had yet to collapse from exhaustion after a normal day.


    Since she had started this line of thought, Wei Yi decided to finish it in her own head, and recalled her earliest memories, made legible only by the existence of the Ascendant¡¯s Library. Without it, all of them would likely be lost to time, present only in vague recollections and flashes. Those would still convey the essence of the memories, but not their substance, which was what she needed the most from them right now. She was curious to recall just what her parents had done in their last few days.


    According to her memories, she had reached the age of four before the disaster of the Greats struck, but she obviously did not know about it back then. Most likely, her parents were just as unaware.


    Given that her father was definitely a servant of the Yi family, and her mother was also pretending to be one via some unknown method that had allowed her to blend in without anyone asking questions, there were no particular celebrations for any festival or holiday, including her own birthday. Celebrations upon reaching certain ages did occur within the Planar Continents, although it was usually a series of festivities upon certain milestones of one¡¯s life, and even then that was considered unnecessarily extravagant for most. The Chen family was, as a result, extremely fond of the tradition, so the few people with their surname that she had gotten to know would often brag about their coming of age party and the like.


    Returning to the original topic, on the eighteenth of the second month, in the year 1,201,508, her father had taken longer to return home than usual, and her mother had clearly recognised that something wasn¡¯t right. Back then, both were able to remain quite composed in most situations ¨C likely due to the awareness that most things were not as dangerous as the Great Families that they had hoped they had evaded ¨C and when her father did return, in the middle of the night, they sent her to Aunt Zehao¡¯s home to sleep there while they had a discussion of some kind.


    In a normal family, that might be an excuse for a row or some graphic activity blatantly not meant for minors, but with the benefit of hindsight, there was no chance of that being the case. Her father must have found something that allowed him to determine that the Greats had learnt about them.


    Being a good and obedient girl, she was hardly going to object to their instruction ¨C especially not when she was promptly carried over to Yi Zehao¡¯s care. Her aunt was physically younger then, less obsessed with preserving her own young appearance, and most importantly, she seemed to be far more explicitly caring for her and her family than she was twelve years later. Even after all that time, that care did remain, buried beneath layers of unnecessary displays of arrogance and makeup, but back then, unless she had taken more care to act in an appropriate manner, Yi Zehao looked like a regular human being taking care of a child.


    Unfortunately, the next day, she woke up to terrible news. Her parents had died for unspecified reasons. Their home would not belong to her, but she did have a place to stay.


    At the time, she was not fully capable of understanding the situation, even if the children of the Planar Continents tended to develop more quickly than those of Orbis and its many variants. There was a small ceremony to send them off, which was attended by only a few, and then she had to assist Yi Zehao in return for food and minimal amounts of money.


    None of the attendees looked to be members of the Great Yi Family, but she suspected that they were watching. They had to, considering the blatant sadistic behaviour that they demonstrated to her again and again, as well as their fondness for proving themselves to be above the rest. How could they possibly stay away from her being placed in a terrible home with arrays that they must have put there specifically for her?


    She had been allowed to see her original home before it was taken away, as well as the bodies of her parents. Neither looked to have been damaged or blatantly affected by outside forces, hence why the general conclusion was sudden but unfortunate death due to some unknown and irrelevant condition.


    Aside from confirming that the Greats were able to restrain themselves when it would further their own sadistic goals, it was able to confirm little about what happened at that time. No matter how much clarity she could obtain of her own memories, she couldn¡¯t obtain information that was simply not present in her senses at the time, and since she had yet to cultivate a single wisp of planar energy, she obviously had no access to spiritual perception to obtain every piece of information possible to be processed at a later time, like now. With no blatant signs of combat, struggle or even poison, it was hard to say what they had done to her parents.


    Perhaps those weren¡¯t even their true bodies, and they had been taken away prior to being killed.


    The only thing that could be guaranteed was that her mother was definitely dead, and the Great Families would be unlikely to leave her father alive at that point. In their eyes, he would just be clutter in any prison cell he could be placed into, and letting him go would be too much of a risk for their attempts at secrecy. In order to ensure that their current third generation could exist, they needed her mother to be dead, which was why she could be so sure about her conclusion now, just as she had been back on the nineteenth.


    ¡®Frankly, it is better if she isn¡¯t in their hands right now. If she was, that would be the exact kind of emotional connection that could be used against me, which I had wanted to avoid by forming no romantic relationships. If, by some miracle, she is elsewhere and still safe, then I will obviously not complain.¡¯


    Wei Yi turned onto her side and shut her eyes, although she did not fall into sleep. Instead, using the increase in her bloodline power as a result of the day¡¯s fighting, she directed that excess and the rest of her forms of energy into the nascent rift within her Endless Monolith.


    It had been some time since she had last developed the nascent rift, and while she may not have acquired any immense enlightenment in the nature of the rift itself, the acquisition of the Planar Dao, combined with the Dao of the Elements and everything beneath it, meant that she could push the current state of the rift a little further. At the moment, it was at twenty percent of its full potential, meaning that one fifth of her planar energy would recover every four minutes, or that five percent would recover per minute. Such a thing was naturally extremely powerful, especially in environments with thin or outright non-existent planar energy, but it could be better.


    Having done this many times before, she was able to limit the effect on the outside world and contain all of the energies within her own body, so she wasn¡¯t concerned about damaging the room or even waking Lan Mei Xing up, although she would have a limit to how far she could go. If she was to try and go beyond an increase of five percent, there would be a certain danger of those things occurring, so she would just hold back if that was the case.


    Like the first time that she had channelled everything she had into the nascent rift to open it up further, once her collective energies forced themselves into the rift, they were able to being widening the opening to the planar realm beyond it. Despite all of the changes to her own energy, the violet void behind the rift remained the same, although she could tell that it was becoming denser with the increase of the planar energy density in the world itself. Whatever the planar realm was, whether it was in the Planar Continents themselves or somewhere far beyond them, it was affected by the exact same events, meaning that it might not be impossible to find.


    Of course, it could also be that the planar realm was nothing more than the manifestation of a great deal of planar energy emerging from nowhere, and that the rift of the eighth realm and the gate of the ninth realm were merely symbolic representations of that energy being produced.


    ¡®In that case, does planar energy ever become exhausted? Is it not merely locked up by the anchor energy and the dantians of cultivators, only to then be released and reabsorbed¡­ the planar realm is likely just an illusion, possibly one cultivated within our own minds to explain that which we cannot comprehend. Things must come from somewhere, and return to somewhere, and yet planar energy is technically eternal and infinite while still acting like a limited and finite thing¡­¡¯


    All of a sudden, the faint circle in her eye flashed with intense violet, and the rift within her planar aperture leapt all the way to twenty-five percent awakening before the five forms of energy receded.


    Her Vision of the Planar became overwhelming, flooding her vision with all kinds of information that she had barely had the chance to comprehend. The entire world was painted in violet, and certain particles stood out amongst the rest. On its own, the image meant little to her, but with the understanding of Jia Rong¡¯s view of the world, she was able to understand that this was a similar gaze to the one she possessed. The highlighted particles were most suitable for her, but the rest still appeared as her technique could absorb all energy, and since she understood planar energy to an extent that went far beyond what the million-year-old woman could imagine.


    ¡®My Planar Dao has reached Full Success? That¡¯s¡­ this confirms one thing. There must be some kind of flaw with the heaven¡¯s understanding of the Dao of Law, since I have realised far more about it than I have about planar energy,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded in an instant, dulling her Vision of the Planar as to get acquainted with the new information pouring into her mind, ¡®Still, to reach Full Success in a Dao is still impressive. I can already feel certain effects, although I will need some time to myself to confirm them.¡¯


    While she wouldn¡¯t be opposed to running off and doing that without any delay, she understood that the woman beside her was not a heavy sleeper, not after everything she and Kong Shi Meng had done in her past life. She would still have caution, and so she would act accordingly. There was no real rush to test the Dao out, like she might wish to experiment with a technique, since her comprehension would come around even if she only looked around and observed the natural world around her in the Planar Dao vision state, so she might as well let the blue-haired woman rest and relax on the admittedly comfortable bed in their current lodging. Once the morning came, then both of them would have far more room to do whatever they like, and that would only take a few hours.


    ¡®In the time that I have before then, I suppose that I could work on the theoretical aspects of my techniques and cultivation. It has been some time since I spent a significant amount of time on that¡­¡¯


    Since she needed to get used to the sudden empowerment of the Vision of the Planar, she did not shut her eyes nor fully end the vision state, first checking what her eyes looked like now before simply lying back and focusing most of her efforts within her mind, while the rest was observing the world and the violet that occupied it.


    Everything contained planar energy to some extent, and when it was consumed, it was momentarily faded from that place. However, in time, even if there was a planar stone that could store an infinite amount of energy, that energy would return and fill up the space once more. The only thing that clearly altered this rule were constantly active arrays, or anchor energy, which could seal away energy density until it was broken by the Truth of the Universe. Even then, it was not the anchor energy itself that restrained the most energy, but rather the connection of several instances of it being bound together via the methods of the Great Families.


    In fact, she suspected that anchor energy was another permanent thing prior to the Greats, since she did not see as much of it lying about as one might expect from an energy that can only be used by her and, potentially, a few other people with otherworldly gifts on hand.


    It was likely that prior to the appearance of the Great Families, planar energy in the world would be sealed away to an extent within anchors and would then be taken up by cultivators. It might even be that people were unable to achieve breakthroughs and form planar anchors unless they could source a wisp of anchor energy, and it could also be that achieving the eighth realm, Imperfect Rift, was able to either free the anchor energy, or generate more as a result of the expansion in energy quantity near the cultivator.


    All of this was just her assumption for the moment, as she was unable to verify it just yet, nor did she understand what the effect of the Truth of the Universe upon anchor energy was. There were many potential failings in her theory, but all of it was, in part, informed by her current Planar Dao stage. If this was something that she could push ahead to the First Stage or beyond, if that was even possible for Dao, then her understanding might rise simply from what she is able to see.


    What it does guarantee is that her combat ability would rise significantly against anything that is unable to resist planar energy itself, as well as its derivatives, as anything involving planar energy is now boosted once she interacts with it, while all opposing uses will be naturally weaker.


    ¡®Now, the Greats and the otherworldly demons are the only true challenges in the same realm, and even then, most of the second generation Great Family members are barely able to do anything to me. The otherworldly demons are far more troublesome due to the major gaps in their abilities. Some are near omnipotent, at least in theory, whereas others mostly build houses or make nice clothes from memory,¡¯ she thought, taking a brief amount of time to rest her eyes after eyeing the constantly shifting violet all around her for a little too long, ¡®Whoever is tossing them into the Planar Continents better have a good reason for it, or else I will be sure to track them down and obliterate them for constantly sending in innocent, foolish people that destabilise the world as a result.¡¯


    After a brief break, she reopened her eyes and returned to the effort of fully comprehending the empowered vision state in silence.

 V4C88: True Automaton

    When Lan Mei Xing awoke, she realised that she had turned over to the side and wrapped her arms around Wei Yi¡¯s chest, with her head resting beside one breast while one of her hands shamelessly rested on the other.


    ¡°Good morning. I see your body had ideas other than simply resting,¡± the Ascendant commented, her head still resting on her hands as she had kept staring at the ceiling and observing the planar energy from night to dawn, ¡°I¡¯d not be opposed to letting you take a closer look, but this is not the right time at all.¡±


    ¡°My apologies¡­ Are you attracted to women, then?¡±


    ¡°I am. Judging by the familiarity with which your sleeping body was doing its best to grope me, I suspect that this applies to you as well, or, at the very least, had applied to you. I¡¯ve viewed the memories of men before, but I do not quite know how much the body impacts upon the mind, or the soul, in this instance. Has your change and reincarnation given you different interests, or is the influence of the body rather minimal?¡±


    ¡°Well-¡±


    ¡°To be fair, I shouldn¡¯t say that. A female body does not guarantee a certain sexual preference, with me and the oddly large number of women in my Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters being perfect proof of that, so I should instead say¡­ You know what I mean, so feel free to answer at any time.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Well, with everything I¡¯ve done so far, I¡¯ve not had much of a chance to experiment ¨C not to mention that I¡¯m only¡­ huh, I¡¯ve lost track of my age. What year is it?¡±


    ¡°The last three digits are 523.¡±


    ¡°Then¡­ Nineteen!¡±


    ¡°You are not. You looked like a young girl the last time that we had met, so there is no way that you could have possibly grown that much in so little time.¡±


    ¡°The people of the Lan family are late bloomers, Wei Yi. We tend to mature late, but mature incredibly quickly, leading to those kinds of transformations. Look, I have large boobs now!¡± the woman untangled herself from their sleeping arrangement and propped up her breasts as to show them off, ¡°I thought that you might grow some too, but I guess not¡­¡±


    ¡°A number of women with flat chests may be very keen to beat you up for that, just saying.¡±


    ¡°Right, I hadn¡¯t considered that. I hadn¡¯t spent much time around people back in my original life, and I may have done the same if I kept searching for Kong Shi Meng¡­¡±


    ¡°Indeed. By the way, would you like a proper set of underwear? Even with physique cultivation methods, it would still be better to prop them up with something if you don¡¯t want to deal with the inevitable sagging,¡± Wei Yi said, although she had already retrieved some appropriate items in accordance with the blue-haired woman¡¯s body sizes.


    ¡°You seem like the expert here, so I¡¯ll trust you!¡± Lan Mei Xing exclaimed after a brief moment, her voice clearly intending to recapture the previous cheeriness that she had possessed, ¡°I hadn¡¯t spent too much time or effort on figuring out things like clothing, so if I am doing something entirely wrong and am in danger of ruining something about myself that I can¡¯t even imagine, then please point it out to me right away!¡±


    ¡°Will do, although, so far, you¡¯re doing well enough. Here¡¯s the underwear, by the way,¡± she openly removed it out of the air and gave the bra and panties to her, ¡°Most of this is simple enough to put on, but I can help if necessary.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be able to manage.¡±


    ¡°Women are complicated.¡±


    ¡°Now, you get to be complicated too. Considering that you¡¯ve slept with women in your past life, have you only ever done so as a one-time thing, without ever bothering to get to know the people you were with?¡±


    ¡°I never really had time for it. Kong Shi Meng may have done a lot, but he and I had only lived for so long. We didn¡¯t have the time for that, while he seemed a little averse to it, in fact. I suspect that he was not confident in his own status, likely believing that behind all of the power and otherworldly knowledge, he was still whoever he had been in his original life, in whatever strange world he had come from,¡± Lan Mei Xing replied, putting on a new shirt over the top of her brand new, Fu Zan-brand underwear.


    Since she had gotten half of her wardrobe replaced with something of far greater quality than rags and scraps of cloth, it only seemed natural to exchange the rest of her outfit for something reasonable. As to not push too much complexity onto her at once ¨C Lan Mei Xing struggled with the concept of a strap, tying something behind her back, and even the notion that she should wear more than one layer of clothing, so anything excessive wouldn¡¯t bring her much benefit ¨C she was provided with a fresh white shirt and grey pants. They did not work together too well, but anything was better than what might as well have been some random pieces of fabric placed atop her skin.


    Even with such a subtle change, she still looked far more presentable, which was fortunate considering the guests that were coming towards the building.


    ¡°I see his mother was not the only one to know. That being said, you may want to stop talking about that for now,¡± Wei Yi explained, looking over to the door, ¡°The person we¡¯re about to meet should be sent by the local leader, but even if they are fully ready to cooperate with us, you may not want them to know your or Kong Shi Meng¡¯s true identity.¡±


    At this point, the more limited spiritual perception of the blue-haired woman was also sufficient to observe the approaching figure, so she nodded and made herself look as presentable as she could.


    Given that Wei Yi had helped her by fixing up her hair and by specifically selecting clothing that perfectly suited her figure, thus minimizing the chances of her possibly messing anything up, this was accomplished rather easily, and just in time for the figure to ascend to their floor and head to their door. They then paused before it, likely considering the time as to conclude whether it was suitable to knock and enter or not, but eventually decided to do so.


    To spare them the trouble, just as their hand was about to touch the door, she dispelled the barrier.


    ¡°Come in.¡±


    After a moment, the door was opened, and an average looking man entered the room, looking at the two of them for a moment. He appeared to recognise Wei Yi after that moment, and thus directed his words at her.


    ¡°You have been invited to visit an area of the district. Are you available at this moment, Ascendant?¡± he said, bowing slightly.


    ¡°I am. Is it somewhere that I could find directly, or must I follow your lead in order to locate it?¡± she asked, as the answer would give an indication of the readiness of the Lan District¡¯s leadership to allow her to make use of their spatial stabilisation point. Of course, if they thought that she wouldn¡¯t be able to locate the point on her own, that would be a slightly different matter, but it would still indicate a certain view of her and her abilities.


    ¡°There is someone that wishes to speak to you. It would be best to follow me.¡±


    ¡°Very well then, lead the way.¡±


    The man nodded, turned around, and began walking slowly, allowing the two of them to follow him with ease.


    They left the building and proceeded through the streets, with them not drawing much more attention than they had the previous day. Some naturally looked towards them due to the oddity of the three, as one was clothed in simplistic attire, the second wore a refined black robe, and the third was presenting the most blatantly regal clothing, gold and silver trimmings making his clothing look significantly more valuable and pristine than the rest of their outfits. It wasn¡¯t unusual for people with different amounts of money to walk together, of course, but the very obvious differences between the three of them did inspire curious and imaginative minds.


    So as to not overwhelm herself with their nonsensical ideas, Wei Yi only glanced at a few of their thoughts, and then promptly stopped looking at any more of them. The journey, from what she was able to detect in the Lan District, was not going to be long, and there were plenty of other distractions.


    ¡°By the way, what exactly is it that you¡¯re going over to see?¡±


    ¡°Ideally, it will be a spatial stabilisation point,¡± she answered the blue-haired woman, having put up a thin barrier around themselves as to block her voice from getting too far out, ¡°As you might know, Kong Shi Meng and the few generations after him had set up a number of them throughout the major districts, and, as it turns out, they connect into a Yi City Web that allows for greater freedom in transportation and the like. I¡¯d like to connect it to the nodes I already have, if possible.¡±


    ¡°Right. Are those people going to let you use their spatial stabilisation point, or is there still going to be some negotiation happening?¡±


    ¡°The Jiang District let me take theirs, so the Lan District should follow up soon after. There may be some delays, but, ultimately, the sooner their spatial stabilisation point is linked to the rest of them, the sooner we will be able to obtain more power against the Great Families that are still sitting around somewhere in the dark, waiting to pounce on us¡­¡±


    ¡°I think I understand¡­ Wait a minute, he called you the Ascendant, right? You are also fighting against those old fossils that were born from the previous leaders of the clans, right? I think I¡¯ve heard about you before!¡±


    ¡°You probably have. The War of Ascendancy is easily the biggest one in quite a few generations.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it is, but I didn¡¯t think that you were the one to be leading all of that! Aren¡¯t you eighteen or nineteen, like I am? If this is your second life, then that might make sense, but still¡­¡±


    ¡°I am not nineteen, nor is this my second life. I simply got locked in a spatial realm for twenty years, and came back with a little more mental maturity and certainty regarding what has to be done in order to rebuild, strengthen, and free Yi City from the Great Families, as well as the many other treats that Yi City might face. The Primordial Deities, the Hunger of the Beyond, whatever is responsible for all of the otherworldly demons pouring in constantly¡­¡±


    ¡°We will soon arrive at the destination,¡± the man announced, not having noticed their conversation, ¡°It will be best if you proceed without me, as I have other matters to attend to. Another figure of importance is ready to greet you.¡±


    With that, he stopped before a large but empty warehouse, waving toward it. There were a few crates and boxes inside, but the newest had been placed there several hundred years ago, and the contents were unlikely to be of interest to anyone, especially due to the various signs and labels on them being dedicated to people that didn¡¯t exist. Since the warehouse stood right over the spatial stabilisation point, and the Lan District¡¯s leadership clearly knew of this, the structure was likely put into place in order to cover up the location without preventing them from making use of it if they ever got their hands on a spatial realm.


    If she hadn¡¯t been able to detect the spatial stabilisation points and hadn¡¯t noticed the curious nature and placement of the warehouse, then she would have still been aware that she would likely get to speak with a leader of the district due to the presence of someone at the peak of the sixth realm inside of the building.


    ¡°Very well, we can proceed on our own. Thank you for your guidance so far,¡± the Ascendant said.


    The man nodded and walked away, not even bothering to bring up his name from the start to the end of his guidance. All the way to the warehouse, he had been quiet and content to let them think whatever they wanted, so he was either informed only about the bare minimum regarding the upcoming meeting, or he was not expecting to come into contact with them again. Whether this was a good sign or not would be seen later, but it was not too concerning.


    Together, they entered the warehouse and approached the centre, walking past a number of supporting pillars and low walls that were scattered around and not currently in use ¨C although that only applied to the latter. If the warehouse was to lose its support pillars, it would certainly collapse.


    On their way, they crossed the borders of several arrays, all of which were intended to obscure random intrusion and prevent the observation of that which sits in the middle of the warehouse. Each individual array was mostly insignificant, but when put together and overlapped, their effects grew significantly. At the centre, if someone attempted to enter without proper preparation or permission, they would likely suffer a great deal of mental harm and potentially end up with permanent mental damage.


    They were permitted to enter, so the most that either one had to endure was less than one percent of the total effectiveness of the arrays. Wei Yi didn¡¯t feel a thing, likely benefitting from the combination of the Assured Soul and her high killing will cultivation, whereas Lan Mei Xing looked to be shrugging it off with only a slight hint of effort appearing once they reached the primary focus of the arrays.


    Finally, after crossing a certain threshold, they were able to meet with the person within.


    He was clearly a member of the Jiang family, as one could tell from his blond hair and blue eyes, although the former was darker than usual whereas the blue of his eyes contained a hint of grey. As befitting the leader of a district, even if it was one that was subservient to the Jiang District for the moment, he was wearing a set of traditional robes that were based on the Patriarch¡¯s clothes in the Jiang District, except that they lacked a number of typical ornaments and golden threads that were typically woven into the robes. Other than that, the wood-type energy surging within his body at the ninth stage of Linked Channels was about what both of them expected.


    ¡°Greetings, Ascendant. My name is Jiang Qiu Hu, and I am the custodian of the Lan District while the Lan family is¡­ oh, I see you¡¯ve brought a guest from that family to our meeting. I am not familiar with you, I¡¯m afraid,¡± the man interrupted what must have been a prepared speech, ¡°Your name?¡±


    ¡°Lan Mei Xing. I¡¯m here just incidentally, so no need to pay attention to me. Wei Yi¡¯s the one that knows what she¡¯s doing.¡±


    ¡°I see, I¡¯ll not distract our attention then,¡± Jiang Qiu Hu said, ¡°I have been informed by the Jiang District that you wish to assume control of the spatial stabilisation point at the Lan District. This is, obviously, permissible for allies of the Jiang District, but, as a result of certain circumstances that we are told you may be aware of ¨C the occasional skirmishes near the district being one of many ¨C there are certain things that need to be discussed first.¡±


    ¡°To put it a little more simply, you want to negotiate over something so that you can feel that activating the spatial stabilisation node is in your best interests. Am I right?¡± the Ascendant asked, not that she needed his confirmation.


    ¡°Of course. The Jiang Patriarch must have explained some of our general troubles to you, so I wouldn¡¯t need to clarify it too much, but-¡±


    At the edge of Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception, at the border of the Yi City Web connection between the Chao District and the Ping District, she suddenly saw a great tide of strange energy approaching, and doing so in enormous numbers. Strange figures made it into her vision, albeit in a limited state due to their distance from the web and the limited degree of light entering her gaze, but she was able to tell that there was a large quantity of orange and black colours on the wave. Whether that was part of some natural phenomenon, a unique type of armour, or even the energy colours of cultivators, it was undeniably approaching from the Ju District.


    ¡°Too bad, then. We cannot have negotiations now.¡±


    ¡°What? What do you-¡±


    ¡°Shut it! There is an enormous tide approaching my current territory, and whatever conditions you have, I highly doubt that they cannot be determined after the gateway is open!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed in a single breath, taking a step towards the spatial stabilisation point, ¡°I can guarantee that it will not cause a noticeable phenomenon, and I can close it back down the moment that I pass through, but this is urgent!¡±


    She did not intend to flood her voice with her killing will, but even without the unintentional transformation of her arm into the killing will state her every word was still infused with her powerful will. It struck the custodian directly, and he couldn¡¯t stop himself form taking a few steps back.


    As he was unable to present any further arguments within a few moments, caused almost certainly by the shock caused by her killing will more so than the lack of such arguments, she immediately rushed forward and stood above the spatial stabilisation point, reaching out with one hand and taking just a moment to focus her energy before shooting it into the point on the ground. Previously, this procedure would take far longer in order to allow her to build up her energy, but now that she had a comprehension of the Planar Dao at the Full Success Stage, it became a little quicker than the previous time.


    All that was needed was a blast of cosmic light impacting the centre of the stabilisation point, causing the entire structure allowing it to function to ignite and open a silver and crimson opening.


    The speed with which it occurred barely gave any time for people on either side to react before the Ascendant grabbed Lan Mei Xing¡¯s wrist and brought her along as she leapt into the gateway. As she did so, she naturally observed some of the connections sought out by the spatial stabilisation node, but she noted that down for later contemplation and comprehension alongside the many other things she had noted in the district. Before any of that could be thought about in any detail, she would first need to know that the Chao and Ping Districts weren¡¯t in danger.


    Once they were in the spatial realm, it took the blue-haired woman only a little while to recognise it, causing her to call out, ¡°The Kong Prison Realm? The place Shi Meng made? Wait, is this where Yi Shi Ming is?¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, and yes, but this is not the time,¡± Wei Yi said, turning slightly before raising her voice, ¡°Everyone in the fifth realm and above, come with me! There is a wave approaching the Chao and Ping Districts, and we must investigate immediately if we are not to be consumed by it! If you are far away from the centre, then ask Yi Shi Ming to move you here!¡±


    Quickly, numerous figures appeared out of the air, having been moved through the spatial realm via the powers of the spatial spirit. This included those who were in Paragon, as it was closest and most connected to the Kong Prison Realm, so Great Dark and Great Light were both able to be brought along despite being on the walls and in the mines respectively. Alongside them were the Patriarchs of the Chao, Ping, Bai and Luo Districts, with the Jiang Patriarch still hiding their relationship and thus not being brought over just yet. Finally, the stronger members of the Arbiters showed up alongside the guardians of the districts that still retain them.


    Without any further explanation, for her spiritual perception only had so much power, she called upon the Yi City Web to open up a gateway to an area one kilometre away from the walls of the Ping District, roughly in the middle of the area between the Chao, Ping and Ju Districts.


    They all poured in and carefully looked out into the distance, quickly finding that exact orange and black wave appearing in their vision.


    ¡°What is¡­ Those don¡¯t look humanoid, and the planar energy around them doesn¡¯t seem to be the result of any cultivation technique I can imagine, so¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered, turning around again and pulling a number of figures out of the prison realm, ¡°Alright, otherworldly demons, you¡¯re up. Do those things look like anything to you, or are they just as incomprehensible in your eyes as they are in mine? Let me just share what I can see, and¡­¡±


    The moment that the otherworldly demons received her memory, their eyes widened.


    ¡°Is that a robot army?¡± Fu Zan questioned.


    ¡°Those could be mechs, or enormous walkers,¡± Sarah offered, ¡°Good design, too.¡±


    ¡°Do you think they sell toys of these things? I¡¯d love to have that big one on my shelf, to the left of the knife I had used to repeatedly open up my wounds¡­¡± Min Shi¡¯s chipper words quickly mellowed out by the end.


    ¡°So, if I understand correctly, this is something that you lot have a concept of, at the very least? This is not a new sight?¡±


    ¡°Well, they didn¡¯t look like that when I last watched anime, but this does make more sense,¡± Miyu answered, ¡°I¡¯m not sure most Antanorden mech designs made much sense.¡±


    In any other situation, it would have been an excellent opportunity to marvel at the fact that the Ju District appeared to have been employing otherworldly demons just as readily as the Dimensional Domain, but now, due to the nature of the encroaching force and their sheer quantity, all focus had to be on their exact natures.


    At the front of the tidal wave of orange and black, and seeming to be present in largest numbers, was some kind of automaton with thin limbs and body, standing at around two metres tall. Their arms ended in three-fingered hands, but she could see a faint glow emanating from behind them and suspected that the fingers could be moved away to allow for whatever was behind them to be used. Their heads looked to be constantly turning left and right to gaze upon the world with one large eye in the middle of their heads, and what look to be two more at the sides, allowing them to observe everything around them with minimal rotation of the head.


    In slightly smaller quantities, an entity that was similar was also present. Their height was half a metre larger, and instead of two arms they had four, with two lacking any trace of hands or fingers, only showing the bright orange glow that hid behind the hands on their other two arms.


    The next most common automaton was three metres in height, had four legs supporting a torso placed roughly in the middle of the extended lower section. On the upper body, one hand was mounted with a larger weapon like those that the other entities all had, while the other had a large cylinder with a number of circular holes inside of it, which was connected to a thick ribbon which went into the torso of the robot, as the otherworldly demons had called it. The head had three eyes all facing forward.


    If all of these could be described as humanoid, the next most common entity could not be. In place of legs, it had a pair of treads mounted onto the sides of the primary body, then atop that, an enormous cylinder akin to the glowing arms of the other robots was placed onto a small segment that looked separate from the rest of the body, suggesting that it could be rotated in order to attack any enemy.


    After that, an automaton with a similar lower segment and size was also present, but in place of the singular cannon ¨C she got the word from one of the otherworldly demons, who was imagining that the glowing regions within the arms of the first robots were meant to be plasma cannons, whatever that was supposed to mean ¨C there was something that Fu Zan instantly recognised as an artillery battery, so she was forced to quickly confirm exactly what that meant, whether he was right or not. Apparently, the numerous holes were likely to be able to figure out individual projectiles, whether they were the plasma that the otherworldly demons thought of or a self-propelling physical projectile they called a rocket. Either way, this particular entity had the potential to be incredibly dangerous.


    Then, the next automaton looked much like a spider, with the treads and small numbers of legs of the previous ones being replaced with eight pointed ones. Atop it was a single weapon that began at the back and stretched out all the way to the front, looking to be a pair of rails surrounding a smaller tube which was connected to some kind of box. With her understanding of the weaponry that even seemed to be advanced in the eyes of the otherworldly demons, she was hardly able to identify this, but as if to answer her many questions, one of these robots suddenly released a bright glare of orange as it stopped and aimed the top-mounted weapon at them.


    ¡°Well, demons, you get back into the prison realm,¡± Wei Yi opened up a gateway behind them and moved it forward, pushing them into the spatial realm and then transformed it into a purely visual window, ¡°Everyone else, support me with my barrier.¡±


    She reached out her hand and created a bright barrier to further draw the eye of that robot, quickly receiving the assistance of all of the Patriarchs and the lone Matriarch who directed all of their energy towards the centre of the barrier, resulting in an incredibly dense layer of cosmic light forming behind them, further amplified by the Planar Dao¡¯s Full Success. Against someone in the sixth or even seventh stage, this could hold out for an hour or so, depending on how much of their energy the enemy used.


    Only a few seconds after stopping, the two rails atop the robot lit up with a slight orange slight that was only the precursor for a great blast of orange, from which a streak of light burst out. It travelled at an incredible speed, to the point that the sound from the explosion only reached them a moment before the projectile did. Even then, it was a brief sound that she had no reference for. It sounded nothing like anything that she had heard in this world before, and the attack was certainly deserving of that label as well.


    It struck the barrier with enough force to destroy every dune within the nearest hundred metres, flattening them with the sheer power of the collision, and yet the small projectile kept going. With each moment, more and more cracks formed in the barrier, and after a breath, the incredibly dense sheet of light burst, the projectile shooting past and striking Wei Yi¡¯s body.


    Before she could take a single action, her left arm was separated from the body all the way up to the shoulder, a vast torrent of blood covering the ground beside her.


    ¡°Ow¡­ Fuck. That hurts,¡± she said, prompting her regenerative abilities to quickly reconstruct that arm.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Miyu called out from the Kong Prison Realm, her voice being muffled slightly by the barrier between reality and the spatial realm, not that it stopped her from shouting loud enough to hurt the ears of those standing next to her.


    ¡°Fine. I¡¯ve endured worse before¡­ I think. Hard to compare injuries. That being said, the arm is mostly back already,¡± Wei Yi said, showing off the fresh arm, ¡°They need to work on their aim if they want to kill me in one shot¡­ or so I¡¯d say if there were not at least two more larger and more dangerous entities charging upon us! What the fuck even is this? I would have guessed that they would have been able to make guns or something of the sort, given how long they¡¯ve been sticking to their ideal of not using planar energy, but this is completely over the top! Ah¡­ So as to not have our districts obliterated, I suggest that we immediately set up defences. I¡¯ll begin, you join in, and we¡¯ll hopefully survive¡­¡±

 V4C89: Inhuman Invasion, Part 1

    There was no room for discussion, and after seeing how easily their barrier was destroyed, few of them wished to risk enduring those kinds of attacks on their own. Furthermore, none of the Patriarchs had the ability to regenerate their bodies in a few seconds like Wei Yi could, so they could hardly shrug off an attack without fully blocking it.


    Even if anyone present had the ability to establish the same kind of barrier that they had just used, then use their own strength to regenerate themselves that quickly, Wei Yi had lost much of her body in just one attack from one of the railgun robots. There were at least a hundred of them in the wave, and there could easily be thousands more in the Ju District, waiting to be unleashed once the initial wave was shown to either succeed or fail to fully complete its mission.


    They had no time to establish individual defences in the two districts in greatest danger of attack, so they decided that it would be best to force these approaching forces to converge a single point that could then be defended with the full forces of all districts and forces on the side of the Arbiters. After a brief consideration of terrain, taking into account the mountains between much of the Ping District and the Ju District, it was concluded that occupying a spot from which Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception still covered the edge of walkable terrain before the mountains would be best. Then, they could catch the focus of the invading forces, and thus endure for long enough to comprehend the weaknesses of the invaders, as well as any effective tactics.


    The only positive so far was that the last two entities that the Ascendant had perceived, one being a six-legged colossus with one enormous weapon at the bottom and sixteen mounted around its round head, and the other being a robot with eight legs that were placed in a more regular arrangement than the legs of a spider which was covered entirely in weaponry, were currently staying back and not approaching, or else they would need to deal with monsters that were thirty metres tall or long, respectively.


    In what might have been the greatest speed and degree of effort exerted since the original establishment and rise of Yi City under the rule of Kong Shi Meng, a defensive post was established on the aforementioned location in a single hour.


    All of the districts contributed their own specialties in order to do this as quickly as possible. There were talismans placed on the walls, which contained many overlapping inscriptions and were supported with arrays, while the materials themselves were enhanced by secret alchemical methods from the Jiang District covered by various metals recently purchased from the Ning District, and made into artefacts via the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp. That would have normally exhausted Wei Yi¡¯s energy, but there was one thing that they quickly noticed from the wave, which might have also contributed to her own rapid recognition of the invasion ¨C it turned out that the machines were repelling planar energy away from themselves, and thus brought in a vast wave of it towards their defensive positions.


    ¡°How likely is it that the automatons are run with a power source that ignores planar energy, and that this will be the right approach to dealing with them?¡± Wei Yi asked after the walls were established.


    ¡°Knowing the Ju District, very likely,¡± Luo Na offered, frowning as she gazed upon the scene with her unique vision, ¡°There is only so much that I can perceive from this distance, and none of it confirms or denies any theory we have had so far.¡±


    ¡°If this could be solved with sight alone, then I would almost certainly be able to detect it myself. However, the enormous wave of energy surging towards us is making it rather difficult to perceive what the army at the back looks like, and it may be that if they do use planar energy, they take only the necessary kind of particles into their bodies while spitting out the rest, resulting in this tide. A close examination of one of them will be needed in order to figure out the truth,¡± she said, sighing, ¡°If they somehow ignore or repel planar energy, then only that which is not born of it will be effective. Their attacks are at the seventh realm and above, so if their defences are at the seventh realm¡­¡±


    She paused, but not because she was afraid to finish the sentence. Rather, she had another idea that only she could put into practise, and thus she noted it down for future use, just in case it proved to be necessary. To waste a certain resource that was already limited would be highly unfortunate, but if it was necessary, then so be it.


    ¡°What if they do use planar energy?¡±


    ¡°At that point, everything falls under the concept of planar energy, which is subservient to the laws of reality. Even the heavens are bound to them, I suspect. If that is the case, I will be able to beat them, and we will win.¡±


    Nobody present truly understood her words, especially not how she had meant them, but they were able to comprehend their essence. They would be able to oppose the automatons of the Ju District if they use the powers of the Planar Continents, but if they were facing genuine otherworldly creations that don¡¯t feature a trace of local planar energy, then the effort required to oppose them would be significantly greater. Overall, that would be the worst-case scenario, but it should also be the least likely for one simple reason.


    Even the otherworldly demons used planar energy to some degree, and since the world was so full of them, there were very few chances of them not utilising planar energy in one way or another. The materials that compose the structure of the robots may be planar in origin, or perhaps the source of their power is, but so long as there was a trace of planar energy, the Ascendant could affect it with her abilities.


    In order to account for other possibilities, however, she did decide to bring in a few other combatants that might thrive in the worst case scenario.


    ¡°Ah! W-Wei Yi, this¡­ what are all of those things?¡±


    ¡°Welcome, Jia Rong. This is the army of the Ju District, likely created by otherworldly demons or in collaboration with them, at least. I¡¯m not sure what powers them, but you might be the strongest against them,¡± Wei Yi said, pointing at the smallest of the approaching forces, ¡°If we are forced into direct confrontation, then you can ignore those, as they should be easy enough to contain even if they ignore planar energy itself, since we will still be able to restrain them with constructs. The true danger comes from those things, which we should figure out labels for at some point.¡±


    ¡°Uh, Wei Yi, could I offer a suggestion?¡± Miyu called out from beyond the spatial barrier again, ¡°The small ones are infantry, the larger ones are elite infantry, then the four-legged things are centaurs, the ones with one cannon and treads are tanks, then the artillery, the railgun walker, the colossus and finally the weapon platform.¡±


    ¡°Did you get that from the otherworldly gift?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s it. I guess that the people who made these gave them names while they were working on them, hence the ease with which I can access that kind of information.¡±


    ¡°Right. That also confirms that even if they are the products of some otherworldly gift, they are not themselves an otherworldly entity. They are made from materials that can be produced in this world, and that confirms that they will have a weakness,¡± Wei Yi turned to the rest of the powerful forces at the rushed fortress, ¡°We will have a way to destroy them, and all that we need is time and effort.¡±


    Since she was brought in and informed briefly about the situation, it was time to prevent the enormous wave from surging out onto the lands of the Arbiters, and to ensure that they wouldn¡¯t be risking fighting a war on three fronts at the very least.


    The easiest way that they could see would be to attract the attention of the enormous tide ¨C the railgun walker that had previously attacked her looked to have lost interest after the first shot for some reason ¨C would be to provoke them, and then direct them towards the centre of the walls they had constructed. From there, they would not have the full might of the other districts to call upon directly, but more forces could still be moved in the moment that a tactic presents itself.


    Wei Yi did not think that she would be able to clear out the army on her own, not unless their defensive power does not compare in the slightest to the offensive capability of the railgun walker, in which case they could be swept away with a single wave of her hand. No, what was far more likely was that their physical resistance would be in the fourth realm at the very least, and possibly as high as the seventh realm, although that was less likely considering the sheer difficulty of resisting the kinds of powers that manifest upon the entry to the higher realms.


    For that reason, it was absolutely vital to ensure that the combatants currently present had the ability to truly resist and dismantle the walking and rolling machines, so that the immense numbers did not need to be coped with by something dangerous like the Red Phantom Flood, which would simply tear her mind apart if she consistently made more than a few figures of herself. If it was possible for anyone to take out the robots, then they would need to do so, no matter what that took.


    Ideally, their structures would have a fatal flaw, or some specific point that could be struck to disable them.


    Perhaps they operate with an energy animation core, a concept that had existed in the Planar Continents for some time and could have been used to drive enormous golems if not for the numerous flaws with the initial design, which could be struck and thus disabled, or they might have some integral element that can be struck to block the flow of energy within the metallic body of the automatons, thus stopping them. It was highly unlikely for the latter to be present, as it was simply too obvious to pass by the otherworldly demons that had to have contributed to such unusual designs.


    ¡®Obviously, I¡¯d never complain if they did decide to provide me with such a kind offering. The attack was already unexpected, so the least they could do is make it some kind of sick joke,¡¯ she thought to herself while waiting for the approaching tide to get just a little closer.


    The moment that it was at the perfect distance, she made use of her fourth realm movement method to rapidly appear nearly five hundred metres closer, crossing half of the gap between them, and immediately conjured her many physique abilities and techniques at once, making use of her five meridian networks to allow for nearly twenty different techniques to be actualised at once. The Titanic Conqueror rose up behind her, the Obliteration sphere blazing within its four hands, each one preparing the Delayed Pulses variant of the technique.


    After a moment of build-up that was highly accelerated by the Planar Dao, before any of the encroaching forces had the chance to fire anything at her, everything was released at them.


    Due to the overwhelming nature of the Obliteration energy, everything else was consumed by it as the first pulse shot landed upon the front of the wave, where the infantry was concentrated. Each one landed far apart so that as much of the force could be struck at once, ensuring the largest number of the automatons will be pulled if not all of them choose to attack them at once.


    The instant that the first infantry automaton was struck, she noted that there was indeed an effect upon the collision. All the bipedal entities that were caught in the radius of the blazing blackened crimson beams staggered, a hexagonal energy layer manifesting over their bodies and absorbing much of her attack, leaving only a small fragment of that energy to land upon the black metal that composed their bodies. Some of the bright orange that shone through the armoured plates flickered for a single moment, but after the first beam of Obliteration energy began to dissipate, there was no visible damage upon any of the infantry automatons.


    Naturally, the second pulse followed soon after, impacting the barrier composed of numerous hexagonal fragments and causing a deep sound to emanate from it, although that looked to be the only notable effect.


    The third proceeded after that, and beside the pulse of sound, there was a slight fluctuation on the surface of the protective barrier, allowing just a little more energy to pass through it and land upon the automaton itself. It did not prompt any movement, delay, nor a trace of even insignificant damage to it, which caused the Ascendant to frown.


    There was still one more beam to come, and it would be the most powerful of the set, but the weakest of the automatons had already effortlessly endured half of the power of the attack empowered by all of the Dao under her control, which was also easily one of the most powerful in her control. She had not used the full capacity of her abilities just yet, but this was already terrible news for the potential of any cultivators other than her, as it meant that planar energy itself was not an effective counter.


    ¡®I need to confirm the effectiveness of my full power first, then look for a weakness in the structure of the automatons. If they share one, then we do still have a chance,¡¯ she thought, her attention moving out to the other automatons that were in the area near her, ¡®That being said, they are not going to let me do this without any interruptions, are they?¡¯


    With her Obliteration beams, with four being cast by the Titanic Conqueror and two more being fired out by her, she had managed to hit roughly thirty-six automaton infantry in total, which meant that for every one that she hit, there were ten that were nearer to her and more than ready to fire upon her. The moment that they got into range, their three fingers retracted to open up the path for the cannon occupying half of their arm, which they promptly aimed at her. Like the Obliteration beams, these weapons needed a moment to charge up, but unlike her primary technique, these only needed one.


    Just as the fourth and last blast of the Obliteration beams emerged from her hands, she leapt into the air, soaring past her Titanic Conqueror as it also fired out its last instance of the beams. Those landed upon the infantry that was still keeping their shields up, with their hands also opening up. In place of firing bright spheres of orange matter, however, they were releasing raw heat from within their bodies, coinciding with the stress placed upon the hexagonal barrier.


    ¡®Heat? They do have a flaw, then. Fire-type techniques may be effective.¡¯


    Then, the hundred or so bipedal automatons that had gathered around her fired their first shot, resulting in that sphere of something that looked akin to both energy and extremely hot matter, which seemed to be a state that the otherworldly demons called plasma, hence the names of their weapons in their minds. This plasma shot towards her direction with impressive speed, lower than that of the railgun mounted atop the railgun walker but far more quickly than any arrow, bolt or even bullet could fly. Some planar techniques would overwhelm it, but their number was limited, and they were most certainly the exceptions, not the rule.


    ¡°Stop!¡± the Ascendant exclaimed, calling upon the Law around her to act upon the bolts and the automatons alike. She didn¡¯t know whether she could affect them, but now was the safest time to try, as the larger threats had yet to make their way over.


    Her voice pulsed out like a shockwave, travelling through the plasma and the enemies in an instant, and she saw a most surprising thing ¨C the plasma projectiles were unaffected, being delayed only for a moment, but the automatons outright stopped their activities, all of the orange lights on their bodies fading out to nothing, turning them entirely black. It was akin to a miracle to her, for a moment.


    The very next, the lights ignited once again, and their eyes regained their orange radiance that was focused upon her. Their arm cannons were aimed at her, and their temporary cessation of activity looked to have permitted them to accelerate their charging process, allowing them to figure out a second set of projectiles in just a moment. This time, she was already falling to the ground, but their attacks did take that into account and aimed their shots at the place where she would be if she continued to fall at the natural pace of gravity.


    ¡®Aside from potentially interrupting movement with water or earth-type techniques, perhaps they are not very intelligent. It could be that it is possible to rush into melee range and strike them down without fearing their attacks, as they are unable to take into account a cultivator¡¯s movement capabilities,¡¯ she thought, quickly amending, ¡®At least at first. There is a possibility that the minds driving these things are able to learn, in which case the less I do the better, technically. If their knowledge can also be shared by all of the other automatons¡­ This army shouldn¡¯t have that capability, as this alone is already far beyond anything that the Planar Continents should have been able to produce. To develop a fully intelligent and connected hive mind for these things would imply that the Ju District could have defeated the Great Families a long time ago.¡¯


    That did raise the question of why it was the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and not the Great Family-controlled districts that needed to face the assault, but there was nothing about these automatons that suggested that they would be able to talk, or that they would be keen to do so.


    Due to that, she decided to test her theory by charging straight into the army, reserving some of her energy specifically to be able to unleash it all at once the very moment that it is the right time to do so.


    Luckily for her, the projectiles fired out by the plasma cannons were fast and, when some of them shot past her and struck the ground with an enormous explosion of orange, looked to be clearly powerful, but they did lack any ability to adjust to her after being fired out of the arm cannons. Evading them was easy, especially when the Law-based movement method that she employed permitted literal instantaneous movement in most terrain and environments.


    In mere moments, she was at the incredible wave of automatons, and they were ready to fire upon her. Before they could, she shifted herself another fifty metres forward, ending up amidst a number of those that she had previously assaulted with her Obliteration beam. They were nearly indistinguishable from the rest of the attacking forces due to their uniform design and the lack of clear damage upon their bodies, and so it was only her recollection of their positioning and speed in the wave that allowed her to recognise this. They did not look to care about that, as they quickly joined the rest of the silent forces in firing at her.


    Countless orange spheres of pure power shot in her direction, and when she once again leapt out of the way, they instead flew at the other automatons, quickly colliding with the hexagonal shields that emerged the moment anything threatened their bodies. It did show that they had some kind of physical weakness, or else the creators wouldn¡¯t have bothered with the shield, but not the flaw itself.


    The barrier looked to wrap around the entire automaton, even if it was only glowing and thus highlighting itself at the point of collision, making it look like there were a few hexagonal barriers simply appearing out of thin air whenever the automatons were attacked. Just as they withstood the Obliteration beam, these infantry forces endured the attacks from each other, and appeared to be entirely unperturbed as they were preparing to attack again at the same time as their shields were blocking the attacks from the opposite side of the encirclement that happened to form.


    ¡®Alright, before the rest of those things get here, the ultimate test! Oh, this is going to hurt my head, isn¡¯t it?¡¯ she readied herself for the inevitable outcome, then stretched out her hands.


    Out of the sandy ground, countless small totems emerged, each one topped by a figure akin to the Titanic Conqueror, a single eye made up of blackened crimson glaring upon the encroaching forces of the enemy. Before their figures could fully stabilise, they also reached out with their hands and caused a further set of totems to surge out of the ground, all of which then looked at their nearest automaton and placed their hands close together.


    While the totems were rising, she opened the Truth of the Universe interface and prepared to invest her hard-earned anchor energy points, for she knew that if she was going to test one thing, she should also test a few more.


    Blackened crimson gathered between them, rapidly ballooning into a sphere that scorched their illusory hands with the Ever-Growing Blaze imprisoned within the principles of the Obliteration energy. It was readied in the same amount of time as it took the automatons to be able to attack once more, so before they had the chance to recognise the totems as enemies and destroy them prematurely, Wei Yi split her focus across all of these totems and, with all of them pushing the sphere out at once, joined in with firing the Obliteration beam.


    Then, she also threw in seventy anchor points into the technique, allowing it to be enhanced at the same time.


    At once, more than a hundred incredible beams shot out, each nearby automaton being faced with several beams at once. Their shields looked ready to activate, and that was when the act of potentially wasting seventy anchor energy points came into play. Beside empowering Obliteration to the Seventy-First Stage, a most impressive improvement that makes it the technique at the second highest stage in her arsenal, those seventy points contained a notable quantity of planar energy trapped somewhere within them, preventing it from occupying the world once more. At the instant that they were spent, a small planar energy wave surged out from her body.


    It touched them the instant before the numerous Obliteration beams could. All of the barriers that had been specifically repelling planar energy were suddenly met with a wave of it, and one that wasn¡¯t insignificant in quantity. All of the hexagonal parts of the shield flickered at different times, a clear dissonance occurring within the previously smooth activation of the barriers. Thus, when the blackened crimson struck them, small embers managed to pass through the weaker portions of the shields.


    They touched the metal body of the automatons and lightly scorched it, leaving a trace of ash upon the surface without piercing it at all.


    It did, however, expose the fact that the shields were not only imperfect, but that it was possible to affect the automatons themselves, so the moment that her mind was able to return to full control over her own body rather than the totems, she vanished from the spot again and appeared beside the automaton that had endured the most damage from the first beam attack. The totems continued to fire upon it, making full use of the energy that they had already gathered while the automatons were splitting their attention between the totems and Wei Yi herself.


    Although the infantry automaton attempted to attack her, it was unable to hit her in with the plasma cannon, and its finger-like segments couldn¡¯t move into place fast enough to stop her own fingers from grabbing onto the chest of the automaton. That was both the largest segment of each automaton, meaning that there was either a very thick layer of armour in place to protect something, or that there was a particularly large object contained inside, as there would otherwise be no reason to put such a significant weight onto such a high part of the automaton.


    There were few parts of the body to grab onto, but it was made out of several large plates that weren¡¯t perfectly joined with one another to prevent any trace of seams. Near the chest, in an arrangement similar to the ribcage, two plates on either side reached out from the shoulder area to the middle of the torso, with a small gap between them and the metal beneath that could be grabbed onto.


    She didn¡¯t try to test out her own strength against this entity, as it was simply too dangerous to waste her time if the rest of the automatons were able to inflict damage that was in any way similar to that of the railgun walker. From the very start, she forced the two plates apart with her full strength, and although they proved far more resistant to her attempt than she would have hoped ¨C as a weaker body would mean that the Chao District¡¯s forces would have more of a chance to contribute ¨C but they still failed to hold after her physique energy enhanced her already immense physical strength even further, exposing the inner portion of the automaton.


    Something bright and, as with everything else in the robot army, orange was visible through the two openings, blocked only by the central plate, so she grabbed onto that and tore it off as well. There, beneath the black metal that she threw right into the House of Gold for later inspection, was a glowing spherical object, the luminous orange obscured only by a few thin strands of metal seeming to creep across the top like vines, with no clear purpose so far as she was able to tell.


    ¡®I don¡¯t know what this is, but I¡¯m taking it!¡¯ she exclaimed mentally, grabbing onto the glowing surface and pulling it out of the chest cavity of the robot.


    It partly bent under the pressure from her fingers, but it came out quickly enough. As it parted from something within the automaton, the latter lost all of its light and suddenly collapsed, all of its motion ceasing entirely while the barrier also vanished into naught, allowing some of the remaining planar energy to surge towards the other encroaching infantry automatons.


    That confirmed that the item was somehow vital to the entity, so she promptly grabbed it with both hands, ignoring the surrounding forces preparing to fire upon her, and pressed down with all of her fingers to crack the glowing shell.


    Knowing some of the otherworldly power sources, she did suspect that there was a chance of an enormous explosion upon opening the core, but that was something that she was willing to risk both due to her own resilience and the chance of the explosion injuring the automatons around her due to their power systems being identical. Whether it would be interference from the energy, or the outright power contained within the core being capable of damaging the barriers and bodies of the automatons made via the same method and with the same ingredients, it would be advantageous for her, and she would certainly draw the attention of the other larger automatons to pull them over to the fortress.


    That was not what happened, however. Instead, the orange sphere cracked open, the glowing orange material breaking apart into small shards like it was made of a particularly durable glass, and liquid of the same colour poured out onto the sand, quickly dissipating into steam. All that was left behind was a small particle that fell onto the ground, quickly alerting her perception as she realised the nature of the object that fell.


    ¡®Ah¡­ Ha¡­ So that is how they are getting so much power. Of course¡­¡¯ she turned around and, as a series of plasma spheres shot towards her, she leapt up and activated the ability of the Lion¡¯s Roar, both the physique and technique, ¡°They are powered, albeit indirectly, by planar energy! They can be felled; they can be beaten!¡±

 V4C90: Inhuman Invasion, Part 2

    The flood of planar energy weakened the barriers around the automatons. Physical force and physical applications of planar energy could, presumably, be used to pry apart the bodies of the robots and reveal the core inside. Since the core needed far less effort to break, it could be shattered by anyone with fingers that had been used regularly, regardless of purpose. Within was contained both the key to victory, and an answer to one of Wei Yi¡¯s previous questions.


    Not long ago, she had pondered just what could have happened to so many of the anchor energy points that had to be scattered around the world due to the inevitable death of all things.


    Some had to return to the cultivators of the world, but even if the Great Families began to make use of their multiple anchor method from the very year of the Master of Yi City¡¯s disappearance, they would only have twelve thousand and fifteen generations ¨C more or less, depending on the exact year in which Kong Shi Meng passed from the Planar Continents ¨C to consume anchor energy, which would mean that roughly four hundred and eighty thousand anchor energy points would have been forcefully stolen from the world by a single member of each generation and permanently tied to the world via their vile methods.


    The full number of anchor energy points used per generation would be closer to twenty-two million, one hundred and eight thousand, but that was not the kind of mathematical calculation that the Ascendant wished to be occupying herself with. The exact figures didn¡¯t matter, so even if they were inaccurate, it really wouldn¡¯t matter, unless the key to defeating the Greats, Primordial Deities or even the Hunger of the Beyond was to possess a very specific number of anchor energy points. At that point, she would greatly regret her decision.


    Considering the fact that it typically takes the usual person less than fifty years to reach the third realm and thus interact with anchor energy in any way, there should be far, far more anchor energy points than that being used, generated, or retrieved from the world, and since the average district would get fifty more such cultivators per year at the least¡­


    The point was that there were a number of anchor energy points that should end up lying about and not being used at all, and now she knew one of the uses that had been found.


    As it turned out, there were other otherworldly demons that have the ability to make use of anchor energy points, and the core of the automaton cores were these anchor energy points, somehow being converted into another form of energy that also repelled planar energy with the internal structure and the plentiful orange fluid contained within. That was worrying, as the anchor energy acted as seemingly infinite power when within these cores, but it also meant that there was a chance of victory.


    Planar energy dulled the shields, and behind them, planar energy was hidden. If it could be kept up, she would essentially have all of the momentum needed to push forward for as long as she needed to. Each kill, so to speak, would allow her to release a little more energy, and that would empower the push, perpetuating until there were no more anchor energy-powered cores to be pulled out of the automatons and forced back into the world. Judging by the absolutely enormous army that was currently charging against them, by the time that they were beaten, the seventh realm might become one that was not difficult to reach for those currently in the sixth realm.


    For that reason, she promptly activated that one point that she collected and then retreated quickly, as she would have liked to take an action against another automaton but was confronted with the larger approaching forces.


    A number of the larger elite infantry appeared within the range of fire, and several centaurs weren¡¯t far behind. Some of the tanks stopped and turned their cannons towards her, a few of the artillery automatons were also clearly charging up their weaponry, and a few of the railgun walkers were clearly considering firing at her, so she had no room to linger at her current position.


    With the energy released and thus a few disruptions in the shields of the nearby automatons, the Ascendant retreated back to the fortress, taking advantage of the different perspective to take a look at the currently engaged army with her own eyes, just to appreciate their sheer number properly. There were thousands of the infantry and elite infantry, around a thousand centaurs, several hundred tanks, a few hundred artillery and a hundred railgun walkers, three dozen colossi and ten of the weapon platforms, although there were hints of more powerful lights at the back of the legion suggestion the presence of even more forces of some kind.


    Considering the fact that the colossi might be sufficient to level a district on their own, she hoped that they weren¡¯t any more powerful than them, but this was not guaranteed.


    The moment that she was close enough to confidently transmit her ideas to the other combatants, she did so, sharing everything of immediate note to them so that they didn¡¯t need to take time processing it and could move into battle right away.


    ¡°Anchor energy?¡± Luo Na still asked, proving the wisdom of not including other complex notions.


    ¡°Again, energy that is contained within anchors, which traps a significant amount of the world¡¯s energy allowance and prevents it from being materialised. Normally, this prevents too many third realm cultivators and above existing, leading to a natural drop in energy during prosperity and allowing others to regain the realm of fallen cultivators to regain their numbers, but the Great Families and the Ju District¡¯s otherworldly demons have figured out a way to claim that energy, although I suspect both did so unintentionally. The Greats simply wanted more anchors, while the demons wanted robots.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s an accurate way to put our thinking, I admit. Very fair,¡± Sarah nodded from behind the spatial barrier.


    ¡°So this energy will benefit us once we release it?¡±


    ¡°Directly and indirectly, or, more precisely, in both the short and long term. Right now, I¡¯ll be able to release the energy allocated within and disrupt the shields of the energy, and once this is dealt with, the average cultivation realm will rise by at least one, possibly even two, although the eighth and ninth realms will still be difficult to obtain.¡±


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know what most of that means¡­ no, isn¡¯t energy a tangible thing? What do you mean by allocation of energy?¡± Jia Rong noticed.


    ¡°The reason that planar energy is infinite despite constantly being absorbed, dispersed and so on is that it is allocated and unallocated by a few means. Without anchor energy, any consumption will lead to regeneration, even if it contained without room for escape. If we were to train cultivators up to the second realm only, we would be able to train an infinite amount of them with an appropriate time investment, even if the energy should be consumed a thousand times over. That is how it functions.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± was the general reaction, as that not only went against every common understanding of planar energy but seemed to contradict everything that could be personally observed about it. It should have been impossible, but one thing that was clear was that Wei Yi wouldn¡¯t be wasting their time.


    That meant that there was either some kind of other meaning or intention behind her words, or that this was a genuine theory with a sufficient amount of information, and given the fact that there appeared to be little intelligence behind the approaching army, they had to presume that she wouldn¡¯t be bothering to obscure her words.


    However, it simply seemed impossible for something like that to be true.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I get what all of you are thinking, so instead of that, why don¡¯t we care about the railgun walkers and the like? One of them is- literally firing right now!¡±


    She had to establish another shield again, blocking just as much of the railgun bolt and then enduring another attack to the left arm, which was cut off yet again and forced her to regenerate it as quickly as possible to be able to contribute to the battle. Fortunately, it did meant that the left arm would be slightly more powerful as a result of the purification and amplification caused by her cosmic energy, but the cost wasn¡¯t really worth it when she desperately needed both arms to be able to perform at her best.


    It did, at least, wake up the rest of the combatants, all of whom turned to the battlefield and readied what abilities they did have to resist the tide. The primary method of attack needed to be physical in nature, as it was most effective at both bypassing the primarily energy-based shields and pulling apart the automaton shell, and so Jia Rong and the Chao Patriarch had the advantage in this regard. Luo Na and the rest did have the ability to solidify and manifest planar constructs which would also act in a physical manner, but there was a fundamental issue with the way in which the typical cultivator interacted with planar energy in the solidified state.


    Energy imparted effects in the eyes of the majority, so when they would use solidified energy, they would instead attempt to impart force rather than directly apply it via the solid structure. This was completely unsuitable for the current situation, and so a few changes needed to be made in the worldviews of the people present. That, and a few techniques needed to be created.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if you can imagine that, but instead focus on creating physical force via the energy of the technique itself, rather than by imbuing the energy with the attribute of physical force,¡± she exclaimed, sharing a prototype technique created with the ideas stolen from the railgun walkers and the guns of the centaurs, ¡°Attempt this technique if you can, and provide other types of support if you cannot. Go on!¡±


    As to lead with an example, she reached out with her freshly recovered left hand and brought out a large sphere of her crystalline cosmic energy, splitting it into three portions. One was small, the other two were equally large, but the latter portion formed into two long rails while the former grew denser and smaller while the rails were preparing themselves.


    This was the design she could see on the railgun walkers, and although neither she nor the otherworldly demons fully understood the principle behind this weapon, she did know that the rails were meant to accelerate the projectile at the enemy at a great speed, so that was what she would do.


    Luckily, when it came to techniques and planar energy, as it was not truly a proper solid substance in any controlled state, she could ignore some of the intricacies of the weapon and focus on the general properties.


    The others followed, their energy paling in comparison to the crystalline cosmic wonder that she possessed, but they still made progress fairly quickly, two rails and a projectile appearing before them. Some chose to go with slightly different designs for both, as neither of them had the chance to properly perceive the projectile fired by the railgun walker prior to being fired, but these weren¡¯t specified in the technique that she had shared and thus she didn¡¯t object to their changes. In the event of one of them figuring out a far better method than her own, she would only be happy for them and the increased chances of survival that came with having the ability to fight back.


    Once the rails were prepared and the projectile was placed at the back, closest to their hands, it was time to empower the rails and bestow onto them the property of acceleration. Wei Yi was one of the few to understand the technique in this way, due to the radical difference in which she viewed the world thanks to her understanding of Law and the Planar Dao, but they all grasped the more simplistic notion described in the technique.


    Together, their many rails began to glow with their own lights, mimicking the only entity that had the same kind of ability. The projectile was held in place to prevent it from flying out in the wrong way, and some also chose to charge it with a degree of energy, although it would do little more than annoy the automatons that would receive it. Given that there did not seem to be sufficient intelligent thought occurring within their heads, the notion that they could feel the emotion of annoyance was even more farfetched, so it was unlikely to be a successful element of the technique to be carried forward into the future.


    ¡°In the style of some otherworldly memories¡­ Fuck, I hate this, but¡­ Railgun Bolt, test 1,¡± Wei Yi said, her crystalline rails glowing with enough energy to completely overwhelm that of all of the rest with the light alone, ¡°Fire!¡±


    Unlike the time that the railgun walker fired at them, they were able to tell that they had achieved some form of success from the sound first. It did not match that which they had heard from the railgun of the enemy, but it was close enough, and the flashes of light that were produced by countless bolts, spheres and even shards of planar energy flying out at immense speeds were also similar to what they had seen from the creations of the Ju District and the otherworldly demons within. They may not have understood the exact method they were using, but it was sufficient for now.


    All the colours of the rainbow crossed the rapidly shrinking gap between the fortress and the robot army, and finally collided with the automatons themselves. Most hit the basic infantry, who they expected to have the weakest defences due to their small size preventing larger shield setups from being placed within them if nothing else, but Wei Yi¡¯s attack was specifically targeted at a distant centaur, as she wished to confirm that theory and compare the power of her method with that of the others. Even if their changes to the basic outline of the technique were better than her own, their power should still fall far behind her own due to the inherent strengths that she possesses, and so if her attack is on par with that of another cultivator, it would prove that they figured out something that she had not properly considered within her own attack.


    The small bolts, shards, spheres and the like hit the hexagonal shields and instantly tore apart the nearby sand hills and small dunes, the mere power of the collision being enough to shatter the terrain entirely. This was what the combat of high realm cultivators looked like, and their current numbers looked like those that might be seen in the golden age of Yi City. In a way, since their forces were the first to join into the project to resurrect Yi City, and since Wei Yi was seeking to be the new Master of Yi City, this was akin to the first proper fight of Yi City Reborn.


    Some of the infantry shields were shattered instantly, with the bolts passing through and striking their bodies. It was insufficient to breach the metal shells of their bodies, and only resulted in a light bit of damage to their structure, but it was still something impressive to take note of for the first ever attack against the automatons.


    Of course, for every success, there were a number of failures, and that could be clearly seen due to the railgun bolts touching the shields and promptly dissipating, leading to an impressive impact but resulting in little true damage. That was the issue with attempting to change people¡¯s minds and worldviews in a short amount of time, but once they saw the failure of this attempt, they should keep it in mind and change their actions accordingly. It might still take a few attempts, as they might think that something else was at fault, but they would comprehend the true reason behind their failures in time.


    What was most significant was the collision of the Ascendant¡¯s projectile against the shields of the so-called centaur automaton. Her ray of immense vibrance hit the hexagons surrounding the robot and promptly popped the particular hexagon that she hit, piercing through and heading straight for the head of the entity. With nothing else in the way, it hit that just as easily and, to her own surprise, shot right through the metal, shattering one of the centaur¡¯s gleaming orange eyes.


    On its own, this was not enough to take down the centaur, although she could see how it stumbled slightly upon the collision. The other eyes brightened, as if to compensate for the absence of the largest one, and it was likely needing to take more care with its movement so as to be able to navigate efficiently. This did give her room to manoeuvre when it came to dispatching certain foes by simply taking out their eyes, as most of the automatons did seem to rely on their glowing eyes for navigational purposes, and if all of their eyes were equally easy to damage, then even the weapon platforms would fall to her attacks.


    ¡®This is¡­ it needs to be changed. If I can release one of these every second, if not more quickly, I might be able to take out the shields of the automaton army on my own, leaving their shells for the others to pry apart and extract the anchor energy from within.¡¯


    She quickly split the two rails that she had created into many, fuelling them all with the same amount of energy so that they would return to the same size. With a series of projectiles prepared and more ready to be created, she duplicated the design of the weapon on one of the centaur¡¯s arms and placed the rails in a circle, bringing them a little closer to her hand so that they would surround her open hand. So that it would be easiest to aim and hit the correct enemy each time, these rails could rotate, allowing her to place the ammunition into only the top rail every single time, simplifying the technique itself significantly for those that couldn¡¯t handle loading each rail separately. Once this was all prepared, she activated the first rail and began to activate the others in sequence.


    The others mostly didn¡¯t risk following this idea, with only a few finding themselves comfortable enough with the technique itself to be able to create a second set of planar rails with which to attack.


    With the invisible restrictions around the rails in place from the very beginning, the loaded bolt had nowhere to go but out, and thus the loud but brief noise that the railgun produced repeated itself again as the projectile shot out of the rails. She made use of the technique¡¯s full strength for the attack, but she quickly noted that she would either need to lower her intended attack speed or decrease the power in order to be able to keep up with that speed of attacks, as the pair of rails would take several seconds to recharge to the same degree.


    While her first projectile pierced the shield of one of the nearest infantry and separated the head from the torso, she quickly made adjustments to the rails, weakening them slightly while also slowing down the intended speed of rotation for the many rails. That way, she wouldn¡¯t sacrifice much of either capability and still be able to release at least one consistent shot per second, which would mean that to hit the shields of the entire army of several thousands, she would only need eighty three minutes.


    Of course, it would be more reasonable to instead torment the shields of a few automatons.


    That first bolt removed the head of the infantry robot and did stop the body from moving, meaning that there was a certain reliance on the head, but since the infantry did not drop to the ground or explode, which would have been the best outcome possible, that meant that there might be a chance of them recovering. If this was the case, then removing the head would not be the most effective way of dealing with her enemies, and it might even give the enemy the opportunity to recover and improve their forces if they are able to repair and enhance their troops.


    ¡®In fact, it might be best to instead split this into several moves. Rather than trying to make a single perfect Repeated Bolts technique, I could have the current attempt be labelled Balanced Fire, then create a Rapid Fire purely to pressure the shields of the robots, and a Burst Fire that would activate all rails at their full power to take down a stronger foe,¡¯ she thought, quickly putting together the variants.


    At the same time, the existing manifested rails were rotating and the many small spheres that she had created were loaded into them one after another, and every second they shot out of the rail on the top, slight movements of her hand allowing her to adjust her aiming sufficiently to consistently remove the head an infantry robot every single time that she attacked. However, when the speed of the attack was increased and the power needed to be decreased to compensate, the power of the shots fell greatly, leading to those that were even slightly off to be unable to sever the neck of the automatons they struck, while the well-placed shots still did a sufficient amount of damage but weren¡¯t always able to go all the way through the metal.


    Other than confirming her assumption that balance would not lead to success in this particular instance, it did show exactly how much power was necessary to breach a hexagon of the shields and pierce a thin part of the automaton¡¯s body, so she was able to control the strength of the Burst Fire variant in order to allow her to attack more quickly with it while still guaranteeing the exact amount of damage that she wished to inflict upon her foes.


    With the necessary degree of energy recorded, she was able to cease the function of the current Balanced Fire variant and introduce the changes to it, changing her current setup to the Rapid Fire in order to verify just how effective repeatedly striking the shields would be. If numerous repeated weak strikes could take them down, then it might not be necessary to invoke the railgun at all, and a simple barrage of planar energy would be sufficient to wear them down. She had seen that some of the infantry had needed to vent heat from their bodies after the third strike of the first Obliteration beam, so there was certainly a limit to how much they could withstand. The only question was what that limit was, and what was the minimum amount of strength needed to push towards that limit, as well as the most efficient way to do so.


    ¡°Alright, some of you cannot effectively use the Railgun Bolt effectively, but for those that can, I have introduced a number of changes for you to test. Meanwhile, let me perform another test,¡± she spoke quickly, recharging the rails floating in front of her hand, ¡°Rapid Fire, test 1. Fire!¡±


    This time, the attack wasn¡¯t quite as coordinated, although it was good enough.


    A number of bolts shot out from the rails floating in front of the majority of the Arbiter forces. Some were faster, others were larger, some took longer to be charged, and a few were modified greatly from even the original attempt at the railgun, but all other than Wei Yi chose not to make use of the insights on the more rapid method of firing, meaning that her own technique was the only one leading to a sudden torrent of noise rushing into their ears.


    Sphere after sphere shot out, with the other rails being loaded and charged while they were waiting to be pushed into the correct place, and all of them rained down upon the army without any attempt to aim at specific enemies, colouring the army with the cosmic light of the exploding ammunition. Each shield that was struck quaked and released a noise of blatant displeasure ¨C or so it sounded like despite the obvious lack of consciousness of either the shield or the automaton being protected ¨C but not a single one was breached entirely in one go, with only a few being breached after a projectile struck their shields twice in a row coincidentally.


    Curiously enough, even the elite infantry and the centaurs were able to endure only this much, meaning that their shields matched that of the basic infantry, which was some excellent news for her and the Arbiters.


    She released a few rounds of Rapid Fire prior to stopping, only to quickly charge the rails once more and instead focus a far greater quantity of energy into them, letting them all charge in sequence. The very moment that the top one was ready to fire, she loaded the sphere of energy and, for the sake of going all out, decided to see what planar energy would do once it was propelled at a fast speed without any attempts to convert it into a suitable physical form. It clearly had an effect on the shields even when unbound, so if all energy was theoretically the same, it would work just as well.


    ¡°Burst Fire, test 1. Target: railgun walker¡­ Fire!¡± she exclaimed, mostly having gotten into the mood rather than intending to convey any valuable information to her peers.


    The reason that she targeted that entity of all of the approaching foes was simple. First, the railgun walker closest to them was in the middle of stopping as she spoke, meaning that it would soon fire upon them if given the opportunity to do so. Second, the automaton was perhaps the most dangerous she had experienced so far, and the one that was most likely to inconvenience them the most in the next few minutes. Third, she wished to compare the power of the defences and the structural integrity of the larger automatons to the weaker ones, and verify whether they also had blatant weaknesses such as the energy cores that were close to their surface.


    Thus, she fired out eighteen spheres of pure power at the walker just as it stopped and shot back.


    Her first five shots went right past the shields of the large automaton, striking the black metal hull with wondrous results. First, the crystalline stabilised energy dug into the metal, lodging itself deep in the automaton¡¯s mechanical shell, and then all of the energy contained within those bolts ¨C she did decide that allowing them to deform during flight would be beneficial, as it could guarantee that they would fly at the fastest possible speed through the air ¨C exploded out, blasting the back of the shields.


    Whether due to her energy simply being pure enough to act both as unbound planar energy and as a far more powerful force, or the fact that the shields were attacked from the back rather than the intended front, the other hexagons of the shield suffered greatly from the blasts alone.


    The sixth shot out of her manifested rails burst out at the exact same time as the projectile from the railgun walker¡¯s weapon, and both of them met in the air only a moment after being released, as the gap between the two forces was lessening with every moment, cutting down the flight time to a moment. Once they met, the sky was instantly covered with such an overwhelming radiance that even the sun paled in comparison. All of the blue and soft yellow of sunlight was replaced with the mixture of her cosmic light and the ubiquitous orange of the automatons, causing the entire battlefield to be shaded in these lights as if a nebula fell from the heavens and enveloped the world in its endless radiance.


    Out of the two projectiles, all that seemed to remain was dust that slowly fell to the sky like dust in rays of sunlight, slowly gliding in the wind with no trace of the danger and volatility that the projectiles previously contained. In a calm moment, when there was no necessity for combat, someone could have paused and painted the scene ¨C in fact, the presence of the battlefield and the automatons would make the image far greater, but would put the artist in significant danger. Now, unfortunately, they had no artistic talents on their side, and Wei Yi was not going to focus on the visuals.


    While the sixth projectiles were spreading throughout the battlefield in the form of fine dust, the seventh and the ones after shot out of the invisible barrels formed around the centre of each pair of rails, ensuring that the sphere of energy would proceed in the correct direction when the rails were activated. The rails themselves were split into individual regions that could be activated independently, and then the moment that one of the projectiles was loaded, they would activate in sequence, with the regions at the front attracting the sphere of energy while those at the back repulsed it. Due to the nature of planar energy, it was possible to make these regions infinitely small and precise, so instead of even a million small regions, she instead had the equivalent of one attraction and repulsion segment.


    ¡®It may not be exactly how the railgun of the other world works, and it certainly isn¡¯t, but it is producing an incredible result so far. With the overwhelming amount of power that can be stored inside of the rails, the moment that they are activated, all of that is suddenly forced onto the loaded sphere, resulting in a great deal of forward momentum in an instant,¡¯ she considered, watching her attacks fly out and land upon the remaining hexagons of the shield around the railgun walker.


    With her long barrage, it was now in a rather poor state, and when the last of the projectiles struck the outer shell, it suddenly went a little further than the others. It clearly collided with something beneath the metal shell, as only a moment after the collision the entire automaton suddenly exploded, orange light flooding the scene and striking the barriers around the other robots, causing some visible fluctuations in the hexagonal shields. All of them held out, as the damage was spread out across the hexagons, but some of the shards from the exploding robot body did pierce the barriers that were nearest to it.


    The battle continued.

 V4C91: Inhuman Invasion, Part 3

    The beginning had not looked good for them, but as the situation proceeded, things changed in their favour. The creation of the Railgun Bolt and Repeated Bolts techniques allowed them to recover some of the edge that the automatons seemed to have taken away, and so there was a chance of victory in sight.


    From the start, the biggest issue was that the automatons had large numbers that seemed difficult to decrease with any means that they had available, so the moment that this changed, they might as well have gone from fighting on the same realm, to overwhelming the enemy just like the typical seventh realm cultivator would easily overpower anyone in the fifth realm and below. The numbers still played a part, but they would decrease with each defeated automaton, whereas Wei Yi had sufficient vitality to recover a thousand more arms before it became even slightly troublesome to keep it up.


    Even then, the constant development of lifeforce from the Kong Prison Realm and the districts in her control would make running out nearly impossible. In essence, all that they needed now was caution, as acting recklessly would let the powerful weapons of the enemy become too great of an advantage.


    Hence, they quickly divided up their targets according to personal strength and ability. Wei Yi and the Patriarchs were able to inflict great degrees of damage upon the distant, stronger automatons, such as the tanks and railgun walkers, while the rest could damage the infantry consistently. Luo Na couldn¡¯t participate in the standard way, and so she instead had to work hard on making talismans right there and then, ones that would accurately strike the energy with true physical force.


    At some point, the Jiang Patriarch did also make it over, although he had not been present during the explanation of the way in which planar energy functioned and so proved to be about as effective as Luo Na for the moment. Both of them were trying to develop their skills to have some kind of effect on the battle, and as the two of them realised this, they glanced at one another and began to compete with one another. Whenever one of them made any progress, they would look up and check whether the other was any closer to their own objective than before, and after a while, all of their attention was purely focused on one another.


    Wei Yi would have stopped them if they didn¡¯t need to focus, and if she did not have something far more important to do on her own.


    As a few of the automaton troops were destroyed, she had been collecting the anchor energy from afar, and in no time at all, they were upon them, even if the front lines were constantly being barraged by their collective railgun-type attacks. As such, she had to stop the first line of defence, that being the railgun bolt barrage, and move onto the second line of defence, which involved shoving all of the anchor energy points she had collected into the Obliteration technique via the Truth of the Universe and rushing out with Jia Rong and the Chao Patriarch.


    Together, they were the few that had enough physical strength needed to pry open the automatons without using some unique technique ¨C which was yet to be developed, hence the others staying back for the moment ¨C and so they were the only ones that could begin the tidal wave of victory.


    A surge of violet burst out of the Ascendant¡¯s body as the three of them leapt down from the walls they had established, with the majority of the defensive measures on the wall activating the moment that they went past it. With everything that they had shoved into the small length of wall, it was bound to be able to endure at least one railgun shot from the walker, but it would have been a waste to keep it active prior to this as Wei Yi was both the primary target for the railgun walker and someone that could survive it so long as it kept flying at her left shoulder. Soon enough, she would even have enough material from the recovering Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival to make a few dozen more, albeit without the killing intent threads woven in that permit them to regenerate.


    The blast of violet once again caused the hexagonal shields of the automatons to flicker, giving the three an opportunity to rush past them and approach one of the infantry soldiers each.


    Actually, Jia Rong failed to make it in time, struggling to perfectly match her strength with her intentions, due to her frequent jumps in strength coming from her unique cultivation method, and so she collided with the hexagons in her way. They put up a little resistance, but they only served to slightly slow her down as she just fell through and continued on, as if the barrier was merely a suggestion.


    Her fist was able to go straight into the chest of the infantry automaton, crushing the glowing core and sending a splash of orange fluid flying out of the back. The anchor energy within was freed, allowing Wei Yi to grab it up right away and direct it into the development of Obliteration. The individual points weren¡¯t of great assistance to her for the moment, with each stage requiring more energy than before, but as they went through more and more troops, the four or five points that were needed were quickly acquired.


    In no time at all, it went past the previous highest stage technique, and was soon at the Eighty-Fifth Stage, prompting her to manifest the Titanic Conqueror again just to try out the improvements to the technique.


    A vibrant scorching beam of blackened crimson fell from the skies as the first hour of the battle went onto the second.


    When the weakness of an enemy was known, defeating them merely required sufficient caution to prevent them from learning of one¡¯s own flaws. In other words, the weak infantry forces of the automaton army were only able to delay the forces of the Arbiters, who were slowly moving their attention to the other types of automatons that were coming their way. As the elite infantry had a very similar structure, all that needed to be dealt with was the second set of arms, but it was everything that came after that was more dangerous.


    The centaurs did have a blatant spot where their core likely resided, as plenty of orange light poured from the gaps in their metal bodies, but the shell was thicker and the plates were placed closer together, making it more difficult to grab at them and pull them off at the same time. Wei Yi and Jia Rong were still able to do it, as the latter reached the third stage of Emergent Anchor, but the Chao Patriarch could not.


    From the tank onward, it was a little more challenging to understand where the core could be, and it continued to be this way until the colossus, which had a large body that was almost guaranteed to have the core in its very middle. The tank, however, could have a core in either the upper cannon part, or the lower body, as it could be called. Both would still function with whatever technological magic the otherworldly demons were able to invoke, and both were tough enough to not make it easy to break in and figure it out. Fortunately, random Burst Fire was able to destroy them, but that method tended to give the tank a few shots at them before it would explode in a wondrous, yet confusion fashion. After all, when broken normally, the energy core wouldn¡¯t explode, only spill its orange internal fluid, so why the Railgun Bolt-type techniques were able to invoke a different reaction was uncertain.


    With the artillery, the trouble changed from the location of the core, which had to be in the primary body, but rather that it looked to be in the very centre of what looked to them to be an enormous hunk of metal that even the Ascendant was unable to breach with ease. Of course, this continued with the railgun walker, which had a core somewhere ¨C as proven by the explosion after enough shots had hit it ¨C but the confusing thing that Wei Yi discovered after rushing up to one for an experiment was that it looked to actually have two cores.


    Aside from the vibrant light that surged out of every single gap on every automaton, making her think that this force was never meant to be quiet or stealthy, the primary cause for this conclusion was the subtle energy of the anchor energy that she was attempting to attune herself to. Even with the Planar Dao at Full Success, it was difficult to focus on it without needing the purely visual assistance of the Truth of the Universe, although it could also be due to her Dao that she has any idea that anchor energy is present in the first place. One of the cores looked to be near the front, and was the one that she had hit during an earlier barrage of railgun bolts, but another was placed at the back and it looked to connect to the railgun itself.


    Nothing about the automatons suggested that there had to be only one core within every single automaton but given the nigh endless quantity of energy that seemed to be contained within any individual core, it seemed unnecessary. Even she wanted to obtain one due to that property, but it seemed that they must not be as efficient and boundless as she had assumed as a brief observation of the railgun walker¡¯s operation before it exploded made it a little clearer.


    One of the cores was responsible for the shields and the motor functions of the walker, or the legs and movement, while the other was purely dedicated to the railgun. Perhaps the second one was able to operate the shields when the railgun wasn¡¯t active, but she didn¡¯t have the chance to see that when she was in the middle of destroying an active walker that was in the middle of firing.


    Fortunately, this was clearly not thought out properly, as the destruction of one of the cores in an explosive fashion was more than sufficient to destroy the other one as well, so if the last two automatons they had knowledge of so far were also making use of several cores to allow their many weapons to be active at the same time, it would still be possible to detonate the entirety of a colossus or a weapon platform just by finding one of the energy cored within. While finding and getting to such cores within the two largest automatons seen so far will obviously be difficult, as it was incredibly risky to approach something with seventeen or even more weapons that should be able to move independently and target anyone in sight without the requirement of typical human thought.


    Had they been controlled by people, they might have been fallible to be unable to continually focus on all targets at all times, whereas the automatons functioning on their own appeared to have the ability to control all parts of their body with high precision, but little forethought. Their planning and cooperation skills looked to be non-existent so far, save for not running over one another or not intentionally shooting one another. So far as Wei Yi could tell, they would be far better off being led by a more complex and reasonable mind, even if the rest of them remained rather lacking in complexity.


    ¡®I hope they have not had that idea, though. Wouldn¡¯t be very good to see a properly organised army¡­ although it does give me some ideas for future conflicts¡­¡¯


    The third hour brought automaton casualties into the quadruple digits.


    Meanwhile, human casualty remained at zero. When the robots seemed about to overrun the walls, Luo Na finally completed some of her work and stuck a lot of fresh talismans onto the surface of the wall, nearly covering the stone at the top and converting it to yellowed paper. Upon activation, rather than acting in an offensive manner against the flooding automatons, they caused the barrier to be empowered with the energy that had been pushed towards it and converted the way in which it functioned. Just as the rest of them had spent considering how to convert planar energy into appropriate force, she managed to instead accommodate the defences into one that held up against the attacks of the enemy.


    The automaton forces had only a few primary methods of attack, and every single one employed commonly was ranger, featuring a projectile of some sort. Despite the fingers of the infantry, even the weakest of the automaton troops didn¡¯t seem interested in fighting in direct melee.


    With that, Luo Na converted most of the defensive potential of the walls into one specifically resisting the approach of enemy projectiles, hence increasing its overall efficiency at resisting that kind of threat. Then, she also incorporated the specific types of attack demonstrated so far, that being the plasma weaponry of the majority of the automatons, the rotating gun attached to the arm of the centaur, and the railgun of the walker, and added particular retaliatory and protective measures to the individual talismans so that they could be activated upon the collision between the barrier and a projectile.


    Each time a talisman was used for that purpose, it would need to be redrawn and reapplied to the walls, but given that Luo Na had little else to do, this did not seem to be as much of a problem as it would have been if Wei Yi was the one to be creating these talismans. Naturally, while she found something to occupy herself with, the Jiang Patriarch also came across an interesting method of assisting in the defence.


    As the Patriarch of a district focused primarily on refinement and alchemy, he naturally had a great understanding of herbs and medicinal materials that were often utilised in pills and elixirs, and that extended to metal-type materials. He had not worked with traditional metals as much as a blacksmith, but he still knew whether their properties could be utilised to improve the chances of a successful refinement, as well as which materials best complimented which recipes for the vast majority of pills that he knew about. Pulling upon all of that knowledge, he also took out a variety of ingredients and got to work.


    In a rough manner, he converted them into unrefined medicinal essence, then scattered it over the wall and allowed it to seep into the various structures built into it, thus imbuing them and the structural bricks themselves with the medicinal essence.


    Other than slightly strengthening the wall further, it also applied an odd metallic sheen to the barriers standing between the forces at the back and the three still trying to fight at the front. On first glance, one might assume that it does little, but it truly showed its worth when a large squad of automaton infantry broke through Wei Yi, Jia Rong and the Chao Patriarch¡¯s defensive attempts and rushed at the wall with the intention of shooting at its weaknesses from a close distance to make up for otherwise insufficient precision in their aim.


    Before they could get too close, however, their energy seemed to ebb away, causing them to move far more slowly, weakening their shields and even decreasing the performance of their weaponry in every way possible. They took longer to charge, were slower to fire, heated them more, and when one of the plasma projectiles did land on the barrier before the wall, it did far less than it should have.


    With that, it was significantly more easy to defeat those that passed the defences than before, and it gave Wei Yi just enough time to bite through the skin of her thumb and use the blood to replicate the talismans created by Luo Na, using her killing intent to draw out the symbols in the air while she healed the wound and went straight back to destroying the automatons. The moment that the symbol completed itself in the air, it flashed back to the wall and became emblazoned at the front, glowing with cosmic light as it permeated every aspect of the defensive measures, adding to the current metallic sheen with her signature chained cosmic vibrance.


    The next time a projectile struck the barrier before the wall, rather than activating one of Luo Na¡¯s talismans, the characters at the front of the wall lit up instead, some of the energy they had accumulated pouring out to deal with the attack most effectively before dimming.


    They were still able to act quite a number of times before they would be exhausted, and the constant flow of planar energy towards them from Wei Yi repeatedly raising the stage of her Obliteration would make the recovery of uses even faster than it would otherwise be, but even if that was not present, they would easily save anywhere between fifty and a hundred talismans, depending on the attacks the bloodline talisman endured. The basic plasma was easy to resolve, but the railgun bolts were simply too fast to stop in any meaningful way.


    She had thought about changing Luo Na¡¯s design to instead flip the momentum of the railgun bolts and cause them to fly back at the railgun walkers, but that would require too much energy and a high involvement of the Dao of Law to have any chance of working, which would force her to stay near the wall and constantly apply her Command of Law to keep the effectiveness up.


    It was much easier to do with the small projectiles fired from the weapon of the centaur, which the otherworldly demons knew as a minigun. Since there was no use to questioning the name, she did not bother with it, and instead confirmed the typical design of bullets for such a weapon and combined it with what she had been able to observe in order to allow the barrier at the wall to apply a very specific force to incoming bullets. With it, their trajectory would change and they would effectively flip around and fly back at the army in most scenarios, or at the very least have their precise aim ruined so that they only have the chance of grazing the barrier.


    Given that plasma was also something physical, as far as the otherworldly demons knew, she suspected that it would be possible to modify that aspect of the talisman and affect them in a similar way, but for the moment, simply cooling and dispersing the tight spheres of orange matter made them inflict far less damage on the barrier, as the looser spheres would cool far more quickly and fly far more slowly.


    ¡®A thousand might be down, but only three of the railgun walkers have been taken care of, and the rest of the dangerous automatons are still on the battlefield, occasionally firing in our direction. This will be a long fight no matter how we fight, but I would like to get rid of them as quickly as possible¡­¡¯


    As that thought passed through her head, she grabbed yet another few anchor energy points from the surrounding broken energy cores and threw them into Obliteration, finding only at the last moment that it had reached the Ninety-Ninth Stage already. With no previous experience of what such a stage even meant for a technique, she wasn¡¯t sure what to expect, but when it blurred and changed to the Dao Ascension Stage, she knew that it was not a mistake to develop a technique to such a nonsensical extent.


    The very moment that the stage was reached, she felt many of the complex meanings behind Obliteration becoming clear within her mind, stabilising themselves in the form of the Dao of Obliteration, which was a segment of the Ire Dao, which was beneath the Dao of Law. The top Dao was at Great Stride, seemingly in perpetuity, while the Ire Dao lingered at Initial Accomplishment as a result of her not contemplating that particular aspect as much as the Dao of Law and the Planar Dao. Nonetheless, their combined comprehension reached Full Success, so even if she did not achieve the effects of a Full Success Dao right away, the power of the Dao of Obliteration was instantly the highest of all the Dao at that stage.


    She had been intending to launch a few Railgun Bolts at a few of the distant automatons a moment prior to this, so she proceeded with the plan, but the change from before was immediately obvious. The rails and the projectile alike blazed with the hint of Obliteration energy, the whole technique functioned more quickly, and when the bolts were launched, they did so with a burst of energy that would have likely functioned as a weapon perfectly well on its own.


    Once it hit, it was similar to watching a miracle occur right before one¡¯s eyes. The bolts passed through the hexagonal shields with little effort, releasing an identically powerful burst of blackened crimson as they did so, destabilising the shields around them and momentarily blinding some of the nearby automatons, yet they continued on with seemingly the same amount of imbued energy as before. When they then hit the automatons themselves, that burst occurred again, and unlike the last time she used Obliteration, it looked to be immensely effective, especially when it then passed through the automaton and exploded one last time upon hitting the ground.


    The typical railgun bolt created by her technique was able to sever an arm, leg or head, but it would only do so much brute damage to the enemy due to its small size. However, with the Dao of Obliteration being invoked, the accompanying burst of energy tore apart a hole three times the size.


    ¡®So, there¡¯s a Dao Ascension Stage¡­ All techniques can reach the level of Dao, so, by that logic, all Dao can reach the level of Great Dao? No, I think it would instead become a complete fragment, as the Great Dao shouldn¡¯t be something that can be encompassed with a single notion alone. Fire alone wouldn¡¯t complete the elements, no matter how hard one tried to substitute water with fire, or earth with fire, so the same ought to apply in the instance of Dao,¡¯ Wei Yi reasoned while she took a step back and quickly created as many pairs of railgun rails in the air as she could, choosing to take full advantage of her newly acquired strength, ¡®Nonetheless, if all of my techniques can reach Dao Ascension, I suspect that my combat strength would climb once more to a level where very few even have the chance of damaging me. Something like the Black Sun at Dao Ascension might be enough to destroy the whole world¡­¡¯


    The Great Dao was still a relatively unknown field for her, as she obviously lacked any experience with the complete comprehension of any fragment of it, with the forbidden arts that she had the opportunity to read likely being either flawed or missing valuable information regarding the nature of the world. Forbidden arts should be incomplete fragments, pieces of the Great Dao relevant to the Dao of Nature, for example, which would be something that she improves upon with the last stage of a Dao.


    Even if all that a normal Dao amounted to was a fragment of a fragment, it would still be incredibly powerful in comparison to any ordinary technique, so there were plenty of reasons for her to pursue it for every technique she currently possessed. For instance, her Railgun Bolt and the derivative Repeated Bolts were suitable for a kind of Propulsion Dao, as it was focused entirely on the acceleration and propulsion of energy, so she naturally contemplated the insights that she had obtained from the three hours of barraging the enemy with the railgun bolts and compiled everything that she could into some kind of cohesive principle.


    Propulsion, or the action of kinetic force being applied to an object to cause it to move, was clearly a simple aspect of the Dao of Law, or simple by comparison to certain things like intelligent thought, emotion, deduction and so on. For that reason, she placed the Dao into that category, allowing herself to benefit from her comprehension of the Dao of Law directly to boost its power, and the power of every technique that was based upon the Dao.


    Of course, if she wished to make use of that and that alone, she could have also considered the fact that her method of propulsion was achieved via planar energy, hence making it follow the Planar Branch of the Dao, at least in part. If considering the fact that it was also based upon the elements, primarily fire and metal, the elements that compose lightning, which is what she needed to replicate the principle of the railgun of the automatons, she could easily gain eight additional stages of raw power via those Dao, but she did not choose to do this due to her continued belief in the path that she had chosen.


    That was not the path of the Ascendant, as one might assume if they looked at her naming convention so far. With each step that she took, she felt that it did not fully adhere to who she was, and who she wished to be, and the less she bound herself to it, the better it would be.


    It was for that reason that Obliteration was an aspect of the Dao of Law via the Ire Dao, rather than being an Ascendant method. Even if the Dao of Law was forever stuck in the state that it is currently in, that being the Great Stride stage, she would believe it to be a worthwhile investment simply because it would not be bound to whatever impulse had brought her the Ascendant Dao in the first place. Although it was too late to modify the Ascendant¡¯s Path technique due to her cultivation having been settled for quite some time, she was still working on integrating aspects of Law that she understood into her technique to prevent it from falling behind her comprehension of the natural laws of reality, since that connection was going to bring her above the rest ¨C which seemingly included the heavens.


    One more thing that was really brought to the forefront by the current battle against the automatons was the fact that her power, or the power of planar energy itself, was currently effective, but would not be as effective in the many other worlds that looked to exist around her. She had no clue whether she would ever end up in such a place, but others would come to the Planar Continents.


    She was certain of that simply due to the frequency of the otherworldly demons, who were appearing in the world without any awareness of the reason behind their travel. If it was this simple to end up in another world, then there was had to be those that intentionally travelled to the Planar Continents for one reason to another. Perhaps planar energy was seen as some kind of valuable resource, or maybe one of the many materials in the world had significant value elsewhere, or maybe there were just groups that liked travelling around the many worlds for the sake of personal entertainment. Either way, they would make use of abilities that seemed to make no sense when viewed through the planar lens.


    Against those kinds of threats, the only thing that would be effective was a fundamental principle, something like Law.


    ¡®The Hunger of the Beyond is likely to be an example of that exact kind of force. They may be native to the Planar Continents, but the various descriptions of them clearly make their abilities out to be far beyond anything that the people of the world have been able to display so far. That means that they would be best opposed with something that does not care about realm or a specific type of energy,¡¯ she thought while setting up even more railgun rails in the air, ¡®For instance, in all worlds where living things exist, they will need to search for energy. That energy will often be contained within impure environments such as dirt or the air, which contains a vast variety of elements, so¡­¡¯


    She lowered her gaze to her hand, and found that her energy had suddenly transformed into a strange, translucent state that did not contain much power on its own. However, she was also able to feel something far beneath the ground that greatly overwhelmed anything she had on her at the moment.


    As such, she casually raised her hand and tried to bring out that power, channelling it towards the approaching army. It did not seem to do anything immediately, but after a moment, a vast surge of colourless energy suddenly burst out of the ground, shattering the earth and twisting the terrain as if the Great Worm itself rose up and attempted to make itself known to the world once more. Many of the automatons were thrown off balance and even damaged by the quake, but what was far more significant was the fact that a vast sea of planar energy was brought to the surface.


    All of it was funnelled towards the railgun rails that she had manifested, and they were charged nearly half a second more quickly than she had originally intended, causing a number of them to miss.


    ¡®Eh¡­ I guess that¡¯s a Mysterious Earth Vein energy type, and not only is it the combination of the wood and earth-type element, but it can also power the railguns, the wall, and can allow me to step back and essentially do nothing¡­ Man, contemplating the Dao of Law sure brings me a lot of useful abilities, hasn¡¯t it?¡¯

 V4C92: The Constructor Orb

    The second day of the battle began, and only Wei Yi was able to stay fully awake. The rest were beginning to get tired due to the constant exhaustion of planar energy and their physical stamina, and even the contributions of the earth vein beneath the ground was unable to assist their mental state after a certain point. It was almost bad enough to force them to pull out of the battle, except that there were two things on their side.


    Obviously, the first was that the power of the earth vein beneath the ground did not appear to be reliant on Wei Yi to continue functioning the moment that the energy was rerouted to other purposes, and so the whole length of the wall now got to enjoy a line of over a hundred railguns floating above it, constantly firing in the direction of the approaching forces with spheres of energy also provided by the earth vein. It was inferior to what the Ascendant could do with the same number of railguns, and it was unable to aim at the enemies even as poorly as the automatons aimed, but it was fast, consistent, and completely free from human interaction. It was also enough to take down the weaker shields, so it didn¡¯t matter much.


    While this was good, it was nowhere near as exciting for them as the fact that the tide was slowly decreasing in quantity. At first, there had been an endless number of automatons in the distance, but now they looked to have finally hit the limit of the forces that had been prepared prior to the invasion.


    All of the new troops were still of the same quality, type and construction as the ones that came before them, but when they only needed to face a tenth of the number consistently, the challenge was suddenly greatly reduced. As they were also improving with their theft of the principles and weapons used by the enemy, as well as figuring out the exact ways in which the minimal thought of the automatons functioned, they were able to continue fighting with their full strength the whole way through the night, reaching the morning with great excitement.


    Due to some of the automatons simply being dismantled rather than blown up by various means, Wei Yi had been able to obtain quite a few pieces of the weaponry utilised by the automatons.


    The plasma cannons required something from the energy core via a connection that wasn¡¯t easily removed from the automatons without taking up far more time than she had, but the minigun and railgun alike were easy enough to rip away from the robots and still make use of them in an effective manner. As a result, after she made more of an effort to remove these things without obliterating the energy entirely, as well as manufacturing some of the spare automaton bodies into the less plentiful of the two, and eventually had a number of railguns and miniguns that were still capable of firing without much difficulty or significant requirements on the part of the wielder.


    In other words, she could give the weapons to a bunch of people in the third realm, link them up to the earth vein to power the weaponry and provide some of the necessary ammunition, and she would have an army on par with the automatons in terms of their offensive potential, and possibly more depending on their cohesion and tactics.


    As if that wasn¡¯t enough for them, she also had a bunch of extra anchor energy points ¨C which had to have exceeded the thousand mark by now in terms of the first day¡¯s acquisitions ¨C to shove into a technique. While that didn¡¯t sound quite as appropriate as it should, given that techniques were an advanced thing involving the very concept of reality, it was essentially throwing in anchor energy to advance a concept that she already understood well enough, and bringing it to a new level that she would have needed to develop to for a long time had she tried to do it normally.


    As Obliteration had reached the peak already, and since the Dao of Obliteration would need quite a bit more energy to be developed to any reasonable extent, she did not invest into that. It would have also been quite worrying to see everything in the world according to how it could be destroyed, so she did decide to avoid endangering her sanity unless it was absolutely necessary, due to having experienced the Eldritch Dao.


    She ended up going with the Railgun Obliteration technique, a more intentional combination of the Railgun Bolt and Obliteration than her first use of the former with the Dao of the latter. It was an incredibly powerful technique, and certain to prove to be even more effective against more ordinary foes of the Planar Continents, such as the Great Families and the Patriarchs of the districts that chose not to side with the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, so it was not a waste to invest into it. The only real issue was that it was partially based on something that she only imitated, not fully understood, and so it took far more anchor energy to make up for the gaps in her understanding and bring it forward to a new stage after stage.


    That did not stop it from reaching the Thirteenth Stage by the time of the action, but that was a given with how much energy she was practically gobbling up.


    ¡°What is this? How can the world¡¯s energy change this much with every breath that we take?¡± an alchemist in a dark building questioned, looking with a panicked expression at the work that he had failed once again, ¡°This shouldn¡¯t be possible!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve heard word of the Ascendant, did you not? Perhaps she truly is working against the Greats all of the time,¡± another suggested, raising his head as a wave of energy seemed to pass by them once more, ¡°Look, it is happening yet again. We¡¯ve also been able to observe the scenes of a battle occurring in the vicinity of the Ping District, so it is likely that there is some truth to what we¡¯ve heard. Perhaps that is the scene of a battle against them at this very moment.¡±


    Together, they looked out of the only window in the building, and pondered the truth.


    Further away from them, a woman with blond hair was standing by, her muscular arms folded beside her minimal che-


    ¡°Oi, don¡¯t take this opportunity to break the fourth wall. We¡¯re on a very important mission, aren¡¯t we?¡± she looked to the side, her eyes containing a strange light that did not seem to belong within them, ¡°Well, Ruon?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know why you chose to speak to me in this fashion. You know that Lily is far more keen to act in a distracting fashion¡­ and is also more likely to mention that part of your body,¡± another woman suddenly appeared beside her, blowing a strand of white hair with a black tip away from her face while speaking in a cold voice, ¡°She is also far more prone to breaking any of the seventeen walls.¡±


    ¡°Seventeen? I remember the first twelve on her list, but not the last five. What are they?¡±


    ¡°As you know, the twelfth is an intentional joke about the third wall, so the thirteenth is some kind of convoluted pun about the number in Antanian culture combined with something she saw when looking out in the void, as she does every now and then. The fourteenth-¡±


    The numbers were clearing up, but there was something in the distance that provoked Wei Yi¡¯s intuition, prompting her to set up a few more of the railguns formed from her own energy for defensive purposes. With her guidance, they were actually able to aim at the enemies consistently, so if there was about to be a resurgence in the number of automatons flooding in their direction, these would be able to deal with a small number of them before they had the chance to come to the front lines and become a bother to them.


    For some time, nothing came, but that intuitive sense did not weaken, and neither did her caution.


    ¡°Wait, everyone, can you hear- no, you can¡¯t, but can you see that the approaching army has had a strange delay to it?¡±


    ¡°Delay?¡± Jia Rong, the one closest to her, asked as she glanced into the distance, looking at the wave with furrowed brows, ¡°I don¡¯t really see anything in terms of a delay, but the energy around them is slightly different, I think. There are even fewer of the particles that I usually see being repulsed, and it almost looks like they¡¯re being affected by something else.¡±


    ¡°I see something like that too. Can you get some distance from me? If an attack on me is coming, it would be best if you did not get caught in the range of whatever explosion the automatons manage to produce,¡± Wei Yi warned, ¡°Apparently, the other worlds have something called nuclear energy, and-¡±


    She stopped and looked back in the direction of the tide, clearly seeing an orange light that surpassed all of the enormous automatons they had been dealing with prior to this, including the one colossus and weapons platform that they had managed to dissuade from attacking them just yet (by flooding it with so many attacks that it had little choice but to step back and attempt to recover). It was also travelling in an irregular manner, moving neither like something with legs of the infantry and walkers might bob, nor simply sliding along as if on the treads of the tanks, but it instead looked to glide over the terrain in a strange manner.


    In addition, while the light of the other automatons was consistent and clear, this one occasionally flickered and shifted in brightness in various spots.


    Only once it came into the one kilometre range of her spiritual perception, and her eyesight as well thanks to the very particular landscape of the battlefield that they had chosen for themselves, was she able to confirm what exactly it was supposed to be, and the answer was simultaneously surprising and very much to be expected from the automaton army.


    Just as she thought, the new foe was not travelling via legs or treads, but was instead making its way over through outright levitation, hovering two metres above the ground at all times if the shield was to be included, meaning that every small bump would slightly affect its overall position. Extending quite far all around it, a dense orange shield covered it at all times, containing within it a sphere of black metal that was at least ten metres in diameter, and a vast quantity of metal pieces and chunks that simply orbited it in a chaotic manner, strangely avoiding collision despite that. The point of these items was not immediately obvious, but the guns on its body certainly were.


    They were embedded right into the spherical body, looking far more sleek than the other automatons, and looked to amount to four weapons in total, so long as there was no new weaponry to identify, which could raise the number to nine or more.


    All eight of the obvious weapons were plasma cannons, and did not look to be much more powerful than the large plasma cannon of the centaur, but the ninth was in the middle of the front, looking almost like a large orange eye staring upon the world. It did not look too different from the eyes of the other automatons, but the internal structure was very different and there were also a number of eyes all around its body that should prevent the need for such a blatant spot to bring the attention of its foes to. Hence, it was either a weapon, or some kind of tactical decision on the part of the creators.


    ¡°I¡¯ll try to engage it. Jia Rong, stay at the back and watch out for the two big ones that had come out before this,¡± the Ascendant instructed, rushing off right away.


    The orb was moving more slowly than some of the other automatons, and as both of them got closer to one another, it became more obvious that it wasn¡¯t moving directly towards the fortress walls or the vague direction of the district some distance behind them, as the rest of them were. Instead, it was heading towards some of the automatons that had been disabled by shots of the stationary railguns above the walls, those that still had some structural integrity and did not yet have their energy cores removed from their bodies. Whatever it was up to, she did not wish to give it the opportunity to do too much of it and sped up.


    Even then, a moment before she could get within a proper distance of it to do much, the orb enveloped one of the broken automatons within its orange shield and looked straight at it with the one enormous eye.


    A dozen soft threads reached out, wrapping around the automaton infantry while the whole thing was surrounded by the light from the eye, as well as a number of metal pieces that floated over despite their original trajectory around the orb. Some more threads moved out of the eye and grabbed onto those pieces, the metal suddenly shifting as if it was made of liquid.


    In moments, the metal was transformed into the head and part of the left arm of the broken automaton, the edges fitting perfectly onto the torn and shattered portions of the automaton floating a short distance above the ground. Some more threads bound the new pieces onto the old, and then the infantry automaton was lowered to the ground and brought out of the shield of the orb, which turned up and locked eyes ¨C or its one eye, rather ¨C with Wei Yi, staring at her for a few breaths. Then, it moved back by a few steps and released a loud noise.


    She couldn¡¯t tell whether it was the sound of alarm or some kind of exclamation, but what was very plain was that all of the surrounding automatons suddenly turned their attention towards her.


    ¡®So they did get something to direct the army¡­ I have to wonder whether it was made recently, or if it just took a while to emerge from the Ju District,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, producing a series of Railgun Obliteration rails around herself and aiming all of them at the sphere.


    All of them were manifested and charged in mere moments, the bolts shooting out at the same time and at the area of the same hexagonal portion of the shield, except that the sphere did not appear to have the same type of barrier as the rest of them did. Instead, it was one large, flexible sphere, mimicking the automaton itself, and when her explosive bolts hit the barrier, they caused enormous ripples within the surface.


    Even with the immediate Obliteration energy explosions, the orange obstruction was not destroyed, giving the orb a chance to charge its many weapons.


    Just as she launched all of her attacks at once, so did the automaton, resulting in eight spheres of orange plasma flying at her with far more intelligence put into their direction than before, as one headed for her current position and the others locked down the seven viable directions in which she could dodge. This even took into account her typical movement speed that had been displayed while approaching the automaton, which was far more than could be said for the previous attempts of even the weapons platform automaton.


    Despite that, it was still a little lacking in her eyes.


    ¡°Accelerate!¡± she exclaimed, this time pulling upon the earth vein beneath her in order to supplement some of the energy consumption from the Command of Law with that of the world itself. If the heavens had a problem, they could just figure out the Full Success Stage of the Dao of Law.


    All of the incoming projectiles greatly sped up the moment that the effect of her voice reached them, flying past her in a single breath. The one that would have hit her directly also passed by, as it had intended to hit the place she would have been had she continued moving in a certain direction for a second longer than she had been given the chance to do so thanks to the acceleration.


    The automaton was also affected to a small degree, and it chose to create some distance between the two of them and lock onto another broken automaton to begin performing repairs. Perhaps it thought that it would take her out, or maybe it concluded that it would be unable to defeat her on its own, but either way, it displayed far more intellect than the previous enemies, which had all continued attacking regardless of how far away she got from them, leading to them easily being caught by some of the blasts from the top of the wall.


    ¡®Hm. I think that I need a little more firepower to take it down quickly ¨C pretty sure that¡¯s an otherworldly term, which is highly appropriate ¨C so returning to the walls first would be wise. However, the plasma cannons¡­ I think it is possible to replicate them with the earth vein, despite what I had initially concluded,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she used her fourth realm movement method to appear back on the high wall.


    The others had been observing the situation, and so the moment that she appeared, Miyu had something to say.


    ¡°It¡¯s called a constructor orb!¡± she exclaimed.


    ¡°Thanks, I guessed that already. Does it have the ability to build anything new, or- ah. I guess that it does,¡± she cut herself off as she saw the flying orb stop in an empty part of the battlefield and assemble some of the metal pieces floating around itself into an elite infantry, ¡°Luckily, it appears to be limited to weaker types of automatons, so it shouldn¡¯t be too great of a risk to keep it alive, not that we should do that. What I would like to do is understand is the shielding method, as it seems like an incredibly powerful one to adopt for ourselves, and the principles of the plasma cannons that these things use. The one on the constructor orb is different, so it may be that they are easier to copy.¡±


    ¡°Is that so? I cannot say that I understand any of this, so I will keep maintaining the walls with what little energy I have,¡± the Jiang Patriarch said, ¡°Also, I would advise that you speak with the Lan District¡¯s leader when you have the time.¡±


    ¡°¡¯Course, just not now. This is not at all the time, and I am sure that you understand.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    ¡°Should we go out and put some pressure on it and the things it is assembling?¡± the Chao Patriarch said.


    ¡°Go ahead. I can perceive most of the details about the constructor orb from here, so as long as you don¡¯t bring it outside of the range of my spiritual perception, there won¡¯t be any issues. Now, Luo Na, tell me, have you ever practised making talismans with your own blood?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Can¡¯t say that I have, I¡¯m afraid.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, knowledge infusion, go!¡±


    Wei Yi sent a diluted form of the Bloodline Character Arts into the mind of the Luo Matriarch, one that would be usable with one¡¯s own blood even without an active bloodline and without the madness that was the current cosmic energy, or the Ascendant¡¯s Bloodline. Even then, it was an incredibly long technique, featuring countless deductions and insights on the matter of talismans and blood, so it was not something that she could easily push into someone else¡¯s mind in an instant.


    This was especially true due to the current state of the defenders of the wall, which essentially acted to greatly increase the mental strain of every little task that they might undertake.


    Hence, Luo Na reacted with the expected gritting of teeth and the obvious mental struggle occurring inside of her head. It took almost a whole minute of real time for her to finally be able to open her eyes and look upon the complex world around her, and although the fatigue that had previously been present looked to have been multiplied a thousand fold, there was also a new glimmer in her gaze.


    ¡°That is amazing¡­ you have either spent far too much time developing this, or you have the mind of someone many times as old as you are. What kind of insights did you need to develop this kind of technique?¡±


    ¡°Bleeding a bunch, mostly. In fact, that is how I develop most of my techniques, so stop looking at me as if what you are thinking is even possible for me. Non-functioning female reproductive system and all that¡­ Ahem, so, as I was saying, attempt to incorporate that into your own creations and we should be able to empower the defences further without needing to change any fundamental designs, giving me more room to act out against the various approaching threats without worrying about my own planar energy supply,¡± the Ascendant said, pausing for breath, ¡°Anyway, that does not concern the rest of you. How has your work on the various railgun methods gone so far?¡±


    While Luo Na nodded and proceeded to work on integrating the Bloodline Character Arts into her own talisman creation methods, the Ping Patriarch said, ¡°Given the situation that we¡¯d been left with in the Ping District, I have actually had a few thoughts on the matter. I think that it might be possible to make the railgun more efficient if we¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry, the seventeenth wall remains unbroken. That woman¡¯s certainly not helping it with her quasars, though.¡±


    ¡°Right, I am sure that makes sense to you¡­ actually, I¡¯m not even certain about that¡­¡±


    ¡°No, I am sure it does. Just wait for another few million years, and she will reveal the many layers of the plan that she had been working on since she first revealed the fact that she is very fond of acting like a fool for personal gain.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re meant to be the sensible one, aren¡¯t you, Ruon? You are sounding more and more like a conspiracy nut with every word you speak.¡±


    ¡°Again, no, I do not. Listen to the lack of emotion in my voice. There is no passion that would be found in the words of those that have a genuine interest in conspiracy theories, although I do not blame you for misunderstanding me.¡±


    ¡°This is what you¡¯re going to be doing in the abyss between worlds? Discussing tones of voice?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Lily, that is what we will do. It is entirely your fault,¡± Ruon stated.


    ¡°Not going to mention that tide in the distance?¡± the woman with one eye covered by hair asked, pointing out into the black abyss of space.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡±


    ¡°Is the technique finally ready?¡± the Chao Patriarch asked, his robes torn, and his body bruised and bleeding. He had been fighting against the constructor orb for some time, and so his energy was at the brink of being entirely exhausted.


    Fortunately for him, Wei Yi was indeed in the perfect stage to enter and take over, and she did so with a thousand rails floating above her, all of them aiming at the constructor orb, which was actively building up a number of automatons as she approached. Unlike before, the rails were not separate for every single bolt that she was going to use, but instead they were paired together, connecting four rails together to fire four bolts each, resulting in a vast number of bolts all being projected by the grid of rails.


    It was incredibly powerful in appearance alone, and the sheer fluctuations of energy caused by the combined resonance of those rails prompted everyone near them to back away.


    After a lot of thought, there turned out to be no better method to enhance her own power than to go beyond the current numbers and break every boundary possible to attain something so absolutely destructive that the shield of the constructor orb would have no chance whatsoever to endure it. The previous attacks had clearly had some effectiveness, so multiplying them until they worked would work well enough regardless of the nature of the shield.


    Obviously, the fact that she had gained some understanding of the shield and how it worked was also responsible for her decision, as she was able to confirm that the hexagonal and spherical barriers alike were making use of a plain yet powerful principle of defence. With the plentiful energy within energy cores, the shields actively repulsed anything that attempted to breach them from one side, making use of the individual points of the shield ¨C either hexagons or the particles that composed the constructor orb¡¯s shields ¨C to support one another like the bricks in an arch might keep each other standing regardless of the significant weight put on the top of the arch.


    This could be utilised in many places, but it would take a little time to optimise it in such a fashion that it would be useful without requiring one¡¯s full attention to be devoted to the defensive technique, as the current one did require a lot of focus to maintain.


    That was one additional benefit of the automatons and other entities without an ordinary mind when compared to cultivators. Whereas a cultivator either needed to create a flow of energy that would accomplish what they wanted, or maintain their technique via their own mental energy to prevent it from acting against what they wished of it, the automatons were able to make use of some internal structure to simply keep that functioning regardless of their other actions. If she was to make use of the Red Phantom Flood and properly split her mind into several pieces with it, that might be possible for her as well, but it seemed extremely dangerous to allow herself to become multiple people within one body, as the inevitable differences in decision making and opinion would be bound to lead to her downfall.


    Back to the more immediate matter, she brought those rails closer to the orb, then, using the power of the earth vein to supplement their charging, she allowed the many rails to reach their absolute peak.


    As she did so, the orb was not firing, instead taking advantage of the many pieces of metal around it and on the ground to assemble a larger structure in front of it. The automaton¡¯s design looked to resemble that of the colossus, except that its legs were not yet as long, causing some to become rather worried, but just as it was becoming sufficiently complete, the rails were ready.


    In one go, several hundred bolts were fired in perfect synchronicity, the sheer kinetic force produced by them instantly scattering the rail grid due to the pressure put upon them. Fortunately, this happened only once the bolts were fired, and so the bolts successfully left the so-called barrel and, before even Wei Yi was properly aware of it, they hit the spherical shield that was extended further out to give room for the colossus.


    The shield was breached in an instant, the many bursts of blackened red scorching the sand and turning it to glass, while the bolts continued and travelled right through the colossus shell.


    They fell upon the constructor orb and pierced it, lodging themselves somewhere deep within the spherical body of the automaton. For a moment, it was as if the Obliteration energy explosion had been nullified somewhere else, but then it finally exploded, the sheer might of the detonation completely shattering the body of the constructor orb and sending all of its pieces, both the internal ones and those that had been floating on the outside, out throughout the desert, with some flying far further than they really should have done after any kind of explosion caused by mortal hands.


    ¡°Aside from the damage to the ears, it looks to have worked. Everyone, if you are still able to hear me, that is, the orb is broken and victory is, for the moment, ours! We shall upon the armies of our districts and take the fight to the Ju District, and make sure that they understand the consequences of waging war with the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters!¡±

 V4C93: Scale Armour

    There had been two issues with bringing in weaker combatants into the current battle: defence, and offence. Neither was sufficient for the battle, as the automatons had seventh realm offensive power and roughly sixth realm defensive power, making them completely unbeatable for ordinary members of the fifth realm and below.


    With the creation of the railgun techniques, and the addition of the earth vein to power the rails, offensive capabilities were much more easily provided to every single person that required them, and some of the railguns obtained from railgun walkers could also be used by substituting the internal power core for the external earth vein. This had been in place even before the constructor orb appeared, but now that it was gone and its weaponry had been analysed, plasma weaponry could also be partially copied and put into the hands of other potential combatants.


    Shields were not something that the Ascendant had figured out as a technique just yet, but both inscriptions and arrays permitted for the creation of something similar for anyone within reach of the earth vein, which would include every single person participating in battle.


    When she had been making them, Wei Yi had assumed that the shield generators, as she called them, would be a relatively novel idea, but the otherworldly demons all got excited when she showcased them. Apparently, personal shield generators were a common idea in their science fiction, and so it just came as an expected thing for them despite the rather significant complexity of creating something so advanced in such a compact space. It was even limited to places where she could invoke the earth vein, meaning that they would not function at all in disadvantageous areas to them, and yet the size was still large enough to stand out in someone¡¯s pocket.


    The design was also blatantly created in a hurry, as there were numerous poorly formed segments that made it look more like an uncertain blob than something cohesive, but that also excited the otherworldly demons, so she figured that she might as well leave it for now and focus on optimising the internal structure itself.


    For the moment, the shield generators were able to manifest either the hexagonal shield or the spherical one, with the first being used to resist multiple attacks more effectively while the spherical barrier was better at enduring a single powerful attack due to the entirety of the shield being devoted to a single cohesive structure rather than a number of multiple hexagonal barriers. They needed to be controlled with one¡¯s planar energy and spiritual perception, so someone like Jia Rong could not make use of them, but the average population of the Chao, Bai, Ping and Luo Districts, as well as Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm, had no troubles at all with their energy and employing it in combat scenarios, so this was not an issue.


    As such, she opened up a series of gateways to those four districts and quickly asked for any willing combatants to step forward and participate, then quickly travelled over to the Dimensional Domain and found Fu Zan, who had completed a project that he had been working on for some time.


    ¡°Does the otherworldly gift also allow you to precisely control the exact size and proportions of what you create, or do you just have a good sense for this kind of thing?¡±


    ¡°Working with the star metal is really difficult, but I think it is the latter,¡± Fu Zan replied, ¡°Not that I¡¯d say anything against myself, of course. It was quite hard to put them together in a way that properly functioned, but it has turned out well enough, I think. There is room to put this on, and it covers everything up to the neck.¡±


    ¡°And it looks to fit with the gauntlets and everything else, so that is convenient. Good work.¡±


    She instantly vanished from the spot to put on the newly acquired set of skin-tight armour, but this was not unusual for her, so the otherworldly demon didn¡¯t bother saying anything. It wasn¡¯t like either of them had much time to talk with one another, given that there was a tide of automatons still attempting to emerge from the Ju District and overwhelm them, so there was nothing for him to do other than get back to work and attempt to make some contributions of his own by making more clothing for the people of Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm, as well as all of the active Arbiters.


    For the purpose of changing, she arrived at an underground portion of the Kong Prison Realm, near the Realm of Potential, and quickly removed everything currently covering her body.


    Then, she raised the connected pieces of metal and looked upon their currently blank and smooth surfaces, contemplating how it would be best to engrave her personal Armour Forming inscription upon each of the individual scales of the star metal. Naturally, she could work on each one individually, but there was a certain connection that could be created if something was made in perfect synchronicity with every other piece of an artefact.


    In a way, refining something in one go was the ideal method for the creation of any artefact, array, talisman and so on, as it would minimize the differences between the individual pieces of a creation, and in turn boost its abilities if it relied on that connection to any significant degree. As her set of armour was meant to have countless individual scales that would resonate together and provide her with such an immense layer of Armour Forming protection that nobody beneath the seventh realm would be able to do a thing to her, it would be ideal for her to keep all of the individual parts as cohesive as they could possibly be.


    For other people, this might not be worth the investment, especially since typical Armour Forming inscriptions were only able to provide one layer of metal defence based on the strongest metal used. With ten, hundred, or even a thousand scales of star metal, working on one was no different from working on all of them at different times, as they would have no use other than being given out or sold.


    As with most things in this life of hers, the standards didn¡¯t really apply to her, and so it was absolutely key for her to have all of the scales be completed in the best manner possible, or else she would have wasted quite a bit of star metal on a sub-standard item that might be unable to exert its power in full. This was something that she had to do personally, as she was easily the best in the field amongst the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters for the moment, and since she was going to be wearing the armour on her own body and making use of her own energy to support it, she might as well go all out on this.


    ¡®I have the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp, so I might be able to place the inscription onto the scales while I wear the set of armour, and I might be able to improve the metal while I do so. Indeed, that seems to be the best approach to this,¡¯ she concluded, splitting the scales at the back to open the armour and then attempting to find her way inside, ¡®It would be a pain to take off, but with the Armour Forming inscription, it should be possible to cleanse my body at any time without taking it off, meaning that there would be few times when I truly need to¡­ Hm. Spatial storage could allow for instantaneous removal and equipment afterwards¡­¡¯


    To be able to jump into the air, have a set of armour appear around oneself and a weapon throw itself into one¡¯s hand was the dream of many cultivators that did not like to constantly travel around in all of their equipment, and it was especially prevalent due to the rarity and mysticism of spatial storage methods. It was a known technique that was possible, so far as everyone knew, but few ever had the chance to practise.


    Wei Yi was not about to do so either, as it simply required far too much accuracy in order to put on a set of armour that was so tight and close to her skin. This was something that certainly required a careful technique to put on and take off the armour so that most of the adjustment that is otherwise needed could be avoided by repeating the same movements each time. It would be far easier to predict every single detail of her body, skin and musculature with a specific pose intended for equipping the new set of armour, and so that would lead to a so-called changing technique which would involve rapidly undressing and dressing from common equipment to something specific to battle. Contrary to something imagined by an otherworldly demon ¨C Miyu, to be more specific, when she had heard about the possibility ¨C there would be nothing akin to frozen time to allow for some kind of animation to play out.


    Most cultivators would likely appreciate the opportunity to stop time and perfect their movements, however, as utmost precision was necessary, and usually in a realm when most abandoned directly cultivating their body and physique. Since the Ascendant had not done that, this was not as much of an issue for her, but the accuracy was still a difficult thing to attain.


    After all, while most spatial methods, especially safe ones like the House of Gold, weren¡¯t going to cut her in half if her accuracy was a little off, as that would make them incredible weapons instead, it was still going to fail if not done properly. Stripping off was the easy part, so most would be able to pull it off with ease so long as their spatial storage method did not permit living entities to be stored inside, but if one failed to put on a different piece of clothing afterward, it would lead to one leaping onto a scene with nothing to cover their bodies. Depending on their appearance, that might not be desirable.


    While Wei Yi was not someone who was opposed to showing herself off if it happened to be necessary or unavoidable, given that the whole world would get an image of her naked sooner or later due to the occurrence in the Chu District being recorded, but it was not necessary in this instance.


    For that reason, she put on the armour properly, as one should, without resorting to spatial methods¡­


    She did make use of other methods, however. Everything was affected by law, so she might have used it to skip ahead a little and make it so that the armour would put on itself due to being in the process of being placed around the body. It was a relatively simple trick within her current comprehension of the Dao of Law, but an effective one as it spared her nearly fifteen minutes of effort that she would have otherwise needed.


    ¡®If using such methods didn¡¯t tend to rip apart my insides, I would be constantly using the Dao of Law for every little thing, wouldn¡¯t I?¡¯ she asked herself, knowing that she likely would.


    Still, what mattered was that the armour fit, and it fit strangely well. If someone wasn¡¯t aware of her identity, they might even assume that she was the descendant of a dragon, as the set of black metal looked like scales that belonged right on her body, as if they had originated there from the very beginning. It was a highly pleasant image, to be sure, but it was still blatantly unfinished. The glow of the inscriptions was absent, and without it, she looked to be no more than a pathetic imitation of the real thing.


    Slowly, she made use of the energy within her and brought it to her skin, allowing the star metal to adjust to the presence of her immensely powerful cosmic energy while she prepared a mental image of the exact way in which the inscriptions would need to be created. It was a highly challenging endeavour, even with the Ascendant¡¯s Library, as she would need to synchronise every single plate within her mind and ensure that they were all refined in perfect accordance with one another.


    Hence, she turned to the Realm of Potential.


    ¡°I am using this as a bit of a crutch, aren¡¯t I? My brain can¡¯t handle something at a perfect standard, so off I rush into that place¡­ Even the Dao of Law came from it, although that still felt like an idea that was entirely my own¡­ Odd, but I have no time to ask questions. Shaper¡¯s Grasp time.¡±


    With the exact procedure locked into her energy, she quickly jumped into the Realm of Potential with her mind, and began to practise some techniques of her own.


    All at once, a thousand inscriptions came to life, all of them glowing with the wonderful radiance of the chained cosmic energy used by the Ascendant. The many scales of her armour ignited at once, and a layer of nebulae appeared upon her body for a brief moment before they faded. Of course, this was the light of the Armour Forming inscriptions, and they wouldn¡¯t do a good job of providing constant and quiet protection for the wearer if they blatantly advertised their presence with such a vibrant light as that of the nebulae.


    She had succeeded in her project, even if it was only due to the Realm of Potential, and even managed to adjust some of the metal scales slightly to suit her body even more precisely, meaning that they looked even more natural than before. If she ever met a metal dragon, one capable of transforming into human form, she might confuse them with the scales.


    Of course, there were differences between the human form of dragons and the scales currently covering her body. For instance, humanoid dragons would rarely have their breasts obscured by their scales, instead covering the other flatter portions of the body, if they had many scales at all. Sometimes, all that would be present were horns or unusual eyes, leading to dragons being historically difficult to identify if they do not wish to be found. This was all according to the various tales she had studied, so it could easily be incorrect, but she had little reason to doubt parts like this. Now, if there was a tale of the dragons and phoenixes supporting the Great Families, then she would suspect the validity of the stories.


    Aside from her obvious bias against them, she also did not believe that the great dragons of legend would succumb to the blatant nonsense of the Greats and support them in any fashion.


    In fact, if the dragons had any investment in a human behaviour at all, it would only be for the sake of the world as a whole, and so they would have no reason whatsoever to believe that making the whole world weaker would be a positive thing. That also applied to every other neutral force that had existed in the world, including the phoenixes, qilins, and even the Primordial Deities should have no reason at all to desire the world to be weakened.


    Unlike the normal human cultivators of the world, which had a self-contained mass of energy within their bodies, the Primordial Deities were said to have a far greater connection to the world around them, and so they would desire the quantity and density of planar energy ¨C or the degree that was permitted to the world, if her theory was accurate ¨C to be as high as possible for their own power to be maximised. They would not care as much about the power of the humans, except that they would wish for them to be as weak as possible in a way that did not interfere with their own operations, or the exact opposite of what the Great Families were seeking to achieve.


    ¡®Not important now, either, unfortunately. I have the scale armour, I have the Armour Forming inscriptions, and I know what enemy I intend to oppose. From now on, I should push forward until the various debates and questions can be raised in a genuine manner, rather than me spending all of this time considering all kinds of nonsensical questions that hardly require such thought,¡¯ Wei Yi sighed, moving her body as to get acquainted with the exact limitations the scale armour imposed upon her flexibility, ¡®The thing with the dragons can be answered with one simple question if they ever appear, so it hardly requires this degree of effort.¡¯


    Although she had done her absolute best to ensure that the armour would not restrict her any more than necessary, there were still some clear flaws, as unfortunate as that was. There were some issues with the scales at the elbow, where bending the arm resulted in the scales scraping against one another and partly compromising not only her ability to move quietly, but to fully bend her arm.


    In order to minimize the first issue, she modified some of the scales to contain sound muting inscriptions so that they would no longer cause as much noise, then further adjusted their shape as to give her as much free room to move around as possible. Without completely compromising the physical aspect of the star metal scales and making herself more vulnerable at points like these if the Armour Forming inscriptions ever broke, it was impossible to fully correct the issue, and she was still concerned about the potential fallibility of planar energy to the degree that she did not want to risk it.


    Given her minimal chest, that part of her body posed no issues in terms of movements and comfort, and the rest of her body was likewise sufficiently suitable for the kind of armour that she had ended up receiving. Most issues were either minimal or unavoidable, and so, after a little time passed, she was ready to emerge, with the rest of her clothing put back onto her body and her various movement arts and techniques quickly recalculated as to take into account the difference in mass and exact proportions brought about by the addition of the star metal armour. It was not heavy nor particularly thick, but it still made a difference that could prove to be fatal if she ever got into a battle against a significantly difficult opponent without the appropriate preparation.


    She vanished from the Kong Prison Realm and appeared on the battlefield, where a number of combatants and warriors had already arrived and were paying attention to the instructions that the others were giving them.


    Despite intentionally avoiding every single impressive visual that could have possibly occurred upon her appearance, the attention of the cultivators that had arrived at the wall was immediately turned to her, as if she was a shining star among the darkness of the world. Given her cosmic energy, this wasn¡¯t necessary too inaccurate, but since she had not even displayed that, the thing that had actually prompted them to turn was her armour.


    It simply stood out too much due to the unusual texture and appearance of star metal, including the way in which it soaked up light. Her gauntlets had previously caught quite a few eyes via the same method, and now that she had mostly completed the set, it looked even more outstanding. The scales fit well with the claws on the gauntlets, and created that exact draconic aesthetic that she had observed previously. The fact that only one of the hands was clawed at the moment also resulted in a certain asymmetrical appearance that further drew attention.


    ¡°Ascendant!¡± someone from the crowd exclaimed, although they hid the moment she looked over to them.


    ¡°I did catch who that was, but for the sake of moving onto something important, I will pretend that I did not,¡± she stated in response, appearing before the gathering army in an instant, ¡°As was proclaimed by that fifty-four year old man with a green robe and a sword made out of copper, for whatever reason, I am indeed the Ascendant, and this is a battlefield. Over there, invaders were attempting to overwhelm the Jiang and Chao Districts, and they would have continued if we had not stopped them. Now, we must push back, we must speak with the Ju District¡¯s Patriarch, and we must, in the end, come together to fight against the Great Families. Whether this is done through battle, or through talking, we must not forget about the true enemy that has spent so long bringing down our entire world.¡±


    ¡°Hey, can I ask something?¡± a strange figure appeared, rising a little into the air to be above the crowd.


    Only one glance was needed to conclude that his cultivation was abnormal, as his energy was not quite the same as that of the people of the Western Continent. Despite being in the fourth realm, his anchor and core both looked to be made out of gaseous planar energy rather than the typical solid matter, and traces of lightning were still upon them.


    Without a doubt, this was someone from the Eastern Continent, and since they were not yet attacking, they were not as unpleasant as those other cultivators from the east.


    ¡°Sure, you can do that, although if you intend to take too much time, we will not look kindly upon your actions, easterner,¡± she said, ¡°Of course, if no hostility was intended, then we shall show none to you, either.¡±


    ¡°I did not come here with hostility. Instead, I wished to know whether the words that I had heard about you were true. There are rumours that you are able to bring back energy to the world, slowly resuscitating the planar energy that had long begun to seep away from the world, and I need to know whether this is true,¡± the easterner said, ¡°If it is, the Eastern Continent can offer their support in exchange for the resurrection of the world.¡±


    ¡°You can represent all of the east?¡±


    ¡°No, I cannot. I was sent here as a representative of a major sect of the Eastern Continent, and they do have the ability to persuade the majority of the strongest forces present there. If word of you is truly the truth, then I doubt that most sects would oppose allying themselves to you temporarily, just so that we may all live in a better world.¡±


    ¡°Well, whether you speak the truth or not, I can still display this ability with ease, and you might have already noticed it as a result of all of the recent fighting. The world¡¯s energy had been rising consistently and greatly, and provided that we succeed against the Greats¡­¡±


    She raised her hand and clicked her fingers, instantly consuming a number of anchor points that she had saved up in order to create a vast wave of energy that quickly covered everyone, allowing them to breathe in a wonderful amount of energy which distinctly different from before. Even if someone didn¡¯t want to admit it, they would be unable to miss the surge in energy that she had heralded, so all that had already expected this looked to the easterner to see what his response to the phenomenon was.


    ¡°It¡­ So, it is true! Fantastic! The Flaming Wyrm Sect shall be sure to speak in your favour!¡±


    ¡°Do you intend to stick around and participate in the fighting, or will you run off to the sect as quickly as you can?¡±


    ¡°While I do not quite appreciate the wording, I will choose the second option. If I perish here for any reason, then I will be unable to report back, and the sect may have some concerns about the alliance, and drop it as a result. This would not be in the favour of either of us, so I hope that you do not restrict me from exiting this conflict.¡±


    ¡°I will not. Anyone can participate, and anyone might, so as long as you do not cause something undesirable, I have no issue with that. If you wish, spread the word that the Ju District has finally stopped being quiet and subtle, and that whatever has been happening inside will finally be revealed. Whether the many things that they had done inside will benefit us or not, we will see, but everyone can rest assured that the Greats shall not be forgotten about until every single one of them is gone and everything that they had stored away is released back to the world.¡±


    ¡°I will take note of that, Ascendant. Thank you for your permission,¡± the man lowered himself back to the ground and bowed, the space around him having been emptied out by those in his vicinity from the beginning of the conversation, ¡°May the Great Dao reveal itself to you.¡±


    ¡°Let us hope it shares some details with your Eastern Continent as a whole when the time comes.¡±


    He raised an eyebrow, but did not dwell on the statement and quickly headed off, leaving everyone to return their focus back onto the most significant person amongst them, who also didn¡¯t look to care too much for the conversation that they had just had. This wasn¡¯t truly the case, of course, as she wouldn¡¯t dismiss something as potentially significant as this no matter what, but she did also understand the current priorities.


    As the man from the Eastern Continent had spoken, she had paid attention to his mind and surface thoughts, and confirmed a number of memories that did look to verify his words. There could still be some memories deeper than the ones that she had seen which completely changed the way in which those images could be perceived, but for now, all that mattered was that he was not here with the active intent to act against her. If he truly belonged to some other group with no direct bias towards either her or the Greats ¨C or maybe even the Ju District¡¯s forces ¨C then it would still be fine, especially if that convinced them to act in her favour.


    In the event that every word spoken was true, then she would obviously not oppose having the assistance of an entire continent, with countless talents being hidden away on the Eastern Continent where a completely different type of cultivation was practised, permitting for different stars to shine.


    If not, she still believed that she would make do. She would survive, she would succeed, and she would win in the end, and if it cost her far more than it was worth, then she would have little choice but to accept it and go on with it, if she was given the chance to do so. There was no need to restate her view of the world and her own actions, so she would not do so, but she would not allow herself to be stopped by anyone other than her own lacking ability. In the even that nobody was interested in helping her, she would never blame her own failure on them, not after everything that she had done to ensure that her own strength would be as high as it could possibly be.


    ¡°Everyone, I believe that you have heard what I said to that man, so I will not repeat myself. Instead, let me explain what you shall be doing here. As a result of the earlier battle, an earth vein that was within the ground was raised up, and now we all have access to nearly infinite planar energy from it. You will get to make use of it with a new invention obtained during the battle, based on a technique employed by both sides,¡± she said, manifesting a pair of railgun rails with a few adjustments for the people to be able to hold onto it with ease.


    She turned around and quickly aimed it at an automaton in the distance, firing it at the infantry robot and demonstrating exactly how easy it was to destroy one of them.


    ¡°This is a railgun, and it fires bolts of energy at enemies at a rapid speed. It can pierce the barriers of the enemy, and it can defeat them if you successfully strike their bodies. Then, I also have a set of shield generators, which you can wear and control with your own energy, switching from a purely spherical shield and a hexagonal shield, like the one that you had seen on that automaton that I had just destroyed,¡± the Ascendant continued, bringing out and showcasing the shield generator as well.


    The people were still rather shocked by the sudden firing of the railgun, given that it was an incredibly loud weapon, but their ears still caught her words well enough to comprehend the function of the defensive measure. It was not difficult to use, and the earth vein functioned simultaneously to allow them to function nearly indefinitely on the road to the Ju District, and would be unusable outside of the battlefield unless someone with fifth realm energy or above actively sought to contribute to the equipment with all of their power for as long as they wished to maintain the shield.


    Most likely, it would still be effective as a special tool for particular situations, like if someone was facing a powerful foe and needed to endure one last attack that they would otherwise have no chance of surviving, but nowhere near as simple or versatile as these things would be in the battle against the Ju District.


    ¡°Now, I will not waste your time with needless speeches. You know what you want to protect, and you can see what is trying to attack it. Let us ensure that they do not get the chance to do so!¡±

 V4C94: The Approach

    Given the decrease in the quantity of automaton warriors, and the increase in troops, Wei Yi no longer needed to be on the front lines at all times, and so, after making use of her armour for a while and confirming that it allowed her to block the majority of attacks sent by the ordinary automatons on the battlefield, she made use of the time to travel to some other places.


    There were a lot of people that she needed to converse with, and so she naturally made use of the days that were spent ¨C for the battle did take days, with every few hours requiring the walls to be shifted forward and reconnected to the earth vein to maintain their advantage ¨C to seek them out and do so. One of the first that she wanted to talk to properly was Lan Mei Xing, who she had learned a little about during their initial few days together but were then interrupted as a result of the sudden invasion from the Ju District.


    After she had contributed a little to the battle, the Ascendant took the blue-haired woman aside and moved them over to the Kong Prison Realm, to a quiet place where speaking would be easier.


    Yi Shi Ming was unavailable at that time, and so they talked only with one another for the moment.


    ¡°Have to say, of everything I had expected to face, those automatons weren¡¯t one of them. Where exactly does someone get the imagination for those kinds of things to be made in the first place?¡± Lan Mei Xing questioned when they sat down on some rocks, which had only traces of the former silver on them, ¡°What kind of world does someone need to live in to make things like that¡­ Even Shi Meng had never gone to such an extent with his creations.¡±


    ¡°I think I¡¯ve seen a place or two made by him in the Kong District. Was he afraid to make use of blatantly unusual designs and architecture, or was there some other reason or justification that worked for him?¡±


    ¡°Kong Shi Meng¡­ I think I remember what you might mean. This place with weird black surfaces everywhere, that he called screens, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s it.¡±


    ¡°Those were certainly inspired by his otherworldly knowledge, but they were still less extreme. To those that had no clue what he was building ¨C that being the majority of the people in the Kong District, if not all of them ¨C the screens would just look like a very unusual design choice. If you¡¯ve seen the Ancestral Hall in the Yi District in a state resembling what it had looked like during his reign, then you would know that odd or over the top designs were considered something to be expected from him, even if he wasn¡¯t responsible for that one.¡±


    In the Ascendant¡¯s mind, that made sense. When she had first come across the screens, she had no idea that they were otherworldly in origin and design, and even when writing appeared on one of them, she had just presumed that to be some kind of unusual technique or method to display writing inside of a material.


    Had she been unaware of the prevalence of otherworldly demons in the world, she could have even concluded that the automatons were made by the native people of the world, just ones that had really strange ideas regarding aesthetics and design. There were likely times when she pinned something onto the actions of an otherworldly demon when that was not at all the case, and so she understood exactly how someone could view one thing as being something entirely different, even without anyone intentionally seeking to fool them. The whole world was already influenced by the otherworldly demons, and so any further developments made some sense in the minds of both the local population and those that kept being shoved into the Planar Continents.


    It was also clear that he might have wished to reach out to his fellow otherworldly demons with the design, which is why she didn¡¯t need him to reply. In the even that someone familiar with the screens and the writing managed to pass through the pool of yin water and get into the chambers beneath the Kong District¡¯s surface, they might have an idea of what to do even without the need for direct explanation or theorisation.


    ¡°On a slightly different topic, I would like to ask about the spatial realm itself. There are quite a few rumours about them, and I would like to verify a few if possible.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know as much as you might hope, but I have spent enough time around Shi Meng to pick up on a few details. He had quite a few ideas about everything he came across¡­ Tch. I had hoped to speak with him again¡­¡±


    ¡°Right, so, is it true that the heavens are unable to observe anything occurring inside of here?¡±


    ¡°Straight to that, huh. As far as I know, yes, that is the case. We have never had the heavens directly respond to us, so we have no clue whether such a thing as the heaven¡¯s will even exists, but we have been able to observe that any kind of investigation into the inside of a spatial realm is nearly impossible if it is not actively opened to the outside world. In the current state, it might not be quite as protected, but there are enough such tales for us to have concluded that there must be some degree of validity to it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good. I don¡¯t think that I¡¯ve made it clear yet, but due to the Great Families being able to claim that the heavens are on their side for so long without the heavens taking a single action against them, I have long held a rather negative view of whatever will is out there in the skies. It either doesn¡¯t care about us, or is actively supporting the fall of the very world over which it presides,¡± Wei Yi pointed out, ¡°Even worse, the will of the heavens could be so weak as to be unable to do a single thing, in which case not only is it lacking in countless ways, but is also utterly worthless as any kind of leadership figure for the world. We should not obediently follow such a thing, and we should certainly not reveal anything more than we need to so that it does not have the chance to act against us.¡±


    ¡°Even if the heavens suffered from the decrease in energy quantity and quality ¨C or whatever it was that you had explained about allocated energy concentration ¨C they should have been able to take action against the Greats, so you are likely to be right. If they aren¡¯t happy with that, they can pop down and tell us already.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t expect to find you agreeing so readily.¡±


    ¡°When I reincarnated, I had not seen the heaven¡¯s will, and when Shi Meng and I had spent our time developing Yi City, we had not encountered a single instance of it helping out. Disaster or miracle, it never seemed to actively interact with us.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough. Since this is exactly what I think and have observed so far, let¡¯s move onto the next topic. The Yi City Web. I had mentioned it to you previously, but we did not get the opportunity to discuss it in greater detail. Are you aware of the original intention for the web, as well as the spatial realm that had originally been intended to be connected to it?¡±


    ¡°Not really. I knew that he was making it, but I don¡¯t think that the Yi City Web was ever fully connected, or else it would not be down at the moment. Someone would have maintained control over the web, and they would have ensured that it was active and keeping them in power with its enormous strength. They would be passing along the spatial realm from one leader to another, allowing them to be supported by it, and you would not have a chance, even with your strength,¡± Lan Mei Xing said, shrugging, ¡°I think there was something wrong with it, or he couldn¡¯t get it completed in time, and so it ended up not being revealed to the world.¡±


    ¡°Hence why nobody is attempting to make use of it at the moment?¡±


    ¡°Yes. All of the Patriarchs have got to know where to find a spatial realm, whether it is already owned or not, and they all know about the locations of the spatial stabilisation nodes within their territory, so it would only take a little while to get access to a few links of the web if they did so quietly.¡±


    ¡°Are you aware of any particular things I have to watch out for? For instance, if I link too many districts together, will they explode or something?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t think that this should be an option, since that would mean that Kong Shi Meng had failed far too greatly. Even if he was in a hurry in his last few years here, he would have at the very least gotten rid of the primary structure of the web so that it had no chance of being used. As it still remains, it must be that the flaws are minor ones that are mostly related to the functionality of it,¡± she guessed, ¡°Perhaps it cannot carry as much energy, or maybe it is less precise than it could be, or something like that.¡±


    ¡°Well, it has performed well enough for me so far, so even if those are present, they have yet to disadvantage me in the War of Ascendancy¡­ What about distant and separate connections? If I was to go to the Qiang District, then link up the web to the Ru and Bao Districts, would I be able to travel from the Chao District to the Qiang District through the Yi City Web?¡±


    ¡°That one is something I actually do know about. I believe that the Yi City Web will be activated, but the connection between a node at one side will not form with the other side until there is a node that connects to both sides of the web without any interruptions. So, if you tried to connect the Wu, Shun and Gang Districts via the Lan District, you would find that it would not activate the web properly, but if you added the Ze District and tried to connect it alongside the Yi and Xin Districts, it would work.¡±


    ¡°Do you, by chance, have a proper map of the connections? I would have thought that the Yi District would connect to the Shun District, rather than forming a triangle with the Ze and Xin Districts.¡±


    She shrugged yet again, glancing at the map that Wei Yi instantly formed within the air, ¡°I wish I could tell you with any degree of certainty. He had been quiet about the project, so all I know is what he had muttered about his various plans. There was something about an excessive number of connections, something about the Shun District not fitting with the Yi District quite right, something about a mathematical matrix¡­ You know me well enough by now to understand that I did not understand a single thing. If there were too many connections, only the Ze, Xin and Shun Districts would easy be separated differently, while the others would pose some issues.¡±


    ¡°Issues like¡­?¡±


    The woman rose and walked up to the map, pointing at the circle of districts that surrounded the Yi District.


    ¡°Going clockwise, we have the Ning, Kong, Ze, Shun, Xin, Huang and Chen Districts. If you try and connect the Ning, Kong, and Ze Districts with one triangle, then the connection would flow too closely to the Yi District¡¯s borders, disrupting the territorial power of the Yi City Web. This issue is not present at the Ze, Xin and Shun Districts, because the connections occur between those territories, thus avoiding the problem of territorial disputes, as you could call them,¡± Lan Mei Xing explained, drawing onto the killing will map with her finger to display where she believed the connections to be, ¡°The same occurs if the Chen, Xing and Huang Districts were to be connected. In fact, I think that the Yi District might be the core of the Yi City Web, given that it was the centre of Shi Meng¡¯s activities, but I have seen a number of different things be placed underground at every district, so I am not particularly sure.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, since I neither have the ability nor the particular desire to go to the Yi District at the moment. So long as the Yi City Web does not rely on that district to provide the abilities that I am currently using, I have no room for complaints, nor do I have someone to give them to,¡± she said, dispersing the map and placing the theorised connections onto her existing map of the Western Continent.


    Few of them were certain just yet, other than those she already controlled and those that she had failed to link to, but it was not too important for the moment. She knew that she would get the Ju District¡¯s connection to the rest of the web the moment that she got her hands on the spatial stabilisation point, and with the additional knowledge regarding the connections of the Yi City Web, she suspected that the Shi and Chu Districts would need to be her next targets if she didn¡¯t wish to expose the situation at the Jiang District.


    The issue with that was that the only option after that would be the Fu District, and then the Chen District, but even if the Fu District easily fell into her hands, she would not have much of a chance to progress. She needed the Chen District to grab the Huang District ¨C which might pose a vast number of problems on its own ¨C and that place was too significant according to the standard classification of the families of Yi City. Since the Greats partly mirrored the normal families, this was likely the case for them as well. They would not let the Chen District come under her control.


    ¡°What realm had you reached?¡±


    ¡°Eh, I think I got into the ninth, but¡­ to be honest, the last year or so of my memories from my past life is a little shaky and uncertain. I get the feeling that the method of forcing reincarnation while keeping memories was not perfected at the time, to the point that I do not remember it at all.¡±


    ¡°It looks to have taken you a million years to successfully reincarnate, so I am not surprised that there are some flaws. I don¡¯t know where your memories, soul, or mind were during that process, but they likely did not end up in your new body without any incident. Maybe you accidentally touched the wrong river and dropped a few of your memories, or perhaps the length of time without a body affected you,¡± Wei Yi threw out some guesses, although she was not too committed to the question.


    The possibility of skipping ahead a few thousand years and attempting her current pursuits again was one that had entered her mind, but it was not a suitable plan whatsoever. Putting aside the inherent risks in scattering her mind to the world and allowing the heavens to take care of it, the whole point of acting now was to prevent the total collapse of the world in the hands of the Greats. She had many things on her side at the moment, including the lack of the enemy¡¯s awareness of her exact abilities, origin and power, the access to the Yi City Web, the lack of time that the Greats had to analyse her growth and techniques, and everything else that happened to go in her favour so far.


    If she was to attempt another life, even if she was to ignore everyone she had fought with, for, and against so far, she would still lose all of those things so long as the people of the world had a year¡­ no, even a month to study them without interruption, and without further development. At that point, whether the Greats or the rest of the world was stronger, they would learn of everything she had, and the moment that she reappeared, so long as she reused anything, she would either reveal herself or find herself opposing methods specifically created to combat her.


    It was akin to suicide ¨C a double suicide, at that, as she would first perish in the moment and then in the future ¨C and it was not going to be her choice.


    Perhaps if it was possible to distort time and somehow return to the time when she began to cultivate, she could consider it, but she felt that this would also be a trap. To go back and do everything properly seemed like the perfect scenario, but what was perfect? What was necessary for someone¡¯s development, and what could be safely prevented without agitating things beyond the original scope of the situation?


    The moment that she went back to change one thing, she would think of two more that she wished to change, and she would inevitably fail to alter one by the time she returned to her current position. Then, she would go back, again and again, trying to make everything right, to make everything happen just how she wanted it to¡­ and she would never succeed. How could she? The world was full of people, events, systems, energies, Laws, powers and more that all affected one another all of the time. If she lifted a stone and moved it by an inch, she could accidentally inspire an entirely new technique that would forever rock the world and redefine the meaning of cultivation within the mind of someone who was thought to have no talent at all.


    By saving one person, she might prevent them from realising their true potential, unleash a terrible plague, send the Greats into action a year earlier, and kill a number of others that she also wanted to preserve and safeguard. It would be endless, and hopeless.


    She could always choose to be satisfied with a single route out of all of the options, and simply go along with the best path that she manages to get after a number of attempts, but that would be the same. Every pause would just be filled with the temptation to go back and try again, and nothing would ever make her satisfied. Even if she attained the position that she had thought was necessary, that being the authority above the world that could ensure that Law and justice reigned supreme, she would only ever see things in terms of missed opportunities.


    It was also impossible to travel back in time, so there was no point in thinking about it.


    ¡°The Four Cardinal Beasts array isn¡¯t going too smoothly?¡± the Ascendant asked the spatial spirit while she looked upon the world from above, standing atop her own Endless Monolith and looking upon the round space that was slowly looking more and more like a regular land.


    ¡°It is¡­ rather complex, to say the least. The more I look upon it, the more confused I end up being, and I am afraid that I might be unable to complete it for another few months, at the very least.¡±


    ¡°That should be fine¡­ is what I would like to say. However, I am more and more aware that there is a high chance of the Greats getting up to something while we are distracted by the automaton army, and so it would be best if the basic capabilities of the array could be activated as soon as possible. There is no need to have the four beasts appear and fight, so long as the basic repulsion function works.¡±


    ¡°That should be easier. A week at most, although I may have a breakthrough in my understanding and develop the initial capabilities a little earlier. At that point, the barrier of the array can be put up whenever necessary, and anyone attempting to enter the spatial realm will find it significantly more difficult to do so, raising the difficulty to breaching a seventh or eighth realm array rather than just the spatial walls,¡± the spatial spirit replied, bowing slightly, ¡°I will do my best to complete it as quickly as I can.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to rush if it affects your work. We have some defensive measures in the spatial realm already, and we could probably put up some railguns and plasma cannons around the outer portion of the Kong Prison Realm¡­ or perhaps even hang them up here, then rotate them according to where the enemies attempt to invade from ¨C if they attempt it.¡±


    ¡°While there may not be an earth vein present here, my abilities should allow for me to replicate the power of the railguns at the Ju District¡¯s battlefield. That will also take a few days to set up perfectly, I¡¯m afraid.¡±


    ¡°Again, that¡¯s fine. Are you more worried than I am?¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t that I am concerned about this, but rather that I have a certain sense that I do not believe to be from my original human self. It is akin to a cultivator¡¯s intuition, except that I have even less of a clue what it means than you might if you felt something similar,¡± Yi Shi Ming explained, ¡°I get the feeling that something will happen, but I do not know when, how, what, why or where. Whatever it is, it should be dangerous, or else I shouldn¡¯t have that level of trepidation arising in my heart.¡±


    ¡°Do you still have a heart?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I cannot say that this is something I have ever verified. I would also prefer not to do so, if it isn¡¯t too much of an issue.¡±


    In the time that she had, the Ascendant naturally spent some of it cultivating, using some of the rapidly rising levels of energy alongside a number of pills and materials to assist her own technique and guarantee progress.


    As she did so, she did begin to consider how to incorporate her current understanding of planar energy into the cultivation method, as it would essentially guarantee that she could cultivate as quickly as she wanted, whenever and wherever she wanted, so long as she was able to make use of the energy that was allocated to a space rather than the particles that were present there at any one time. In fact, that was the least of what she thought to achieve with it.


    There was no reason to limit herself to cultivation. By accessing essentially boundless energy, she could allow techniques of all kinds to be used under the premise that energy could be present, rather than actively requiring it. All kinds of complex arrays and other planar methods that would otherwise be unreasonable to power with a normal planar gathering method would suddenly become smaller and easier to use, as such arrays would essentially be unnecessary in powering anything that she wanted to use. Artefacts could rely on the allocation of her energy to be powered at all times, talismans might even be able to stimulate that potential energy rather than their own material, essentially becoming limitless.


    Some of this sounded like fantasy, and almost certainly was, but only for now.


    There were many things in the world that seemed unreasonable for a long time before they were accomplished, and this was likely to be one of those things. She was certain that her understanding of planar energy was correct, at least so far as she had delved into it so far, and that while there may be an even greater truth to it, these kinds of methods wouldn¡¯t be invalidated, in the same way that she could still easily use old planar methods due to them applying to her greater theory of energy. In fact, any further improvement would also need to account for the world as it was, so this wasn¡¯t an issue.


    Instead, she just needed to figure out exactly how she was going to achieve everything that she needed to, and what would be the proper method for accessing the allocation layer of energy rather than the particle one. Her current methods would either require her presence to use the Dao of Law and the Planar Dao to influence the world, which would not suit her own purposes, or it would be far more difficult and less efficient than regular planar methods.


    As such, she mostly dedicated her work to comprehending the basics and how to use them. This naturally extended to cultivation, and was thus her opportunity to test various theories.


    By the time that she was reaching the fourth stage of the Marked Core realm, she had just managed to force the world to reproduce its energy a little more quickly, which was something that she could extend to everything within the domain of the Yi City Web and the Kong Prison Realm, but it was only touching the surface of the full power of her concept for planar energy.


    Everything needed to start somewhere, so she was not worried about that, and instead took her time to accumulate all of her energy and push forward in one go, instantly causing the illusory core and anchor to manifest. On the surface of the Subterranean Shell, two pairs of eleven marks appeared after one another, staggered by the perfected stage¡¯s delayed breakthrough, and slowly stabilised themselves within the scales of the core. So far, every stage brought her eleven marks, and so she was able to calmly conclude her final quantity of marks with absolute confidence.


    Unless her technique was somehow horribly flawed, she would end up with ninety-nine marks, which was the highest amount that can possibly be attained. This was known to Lan Mei Xing and Yi Shi Ming, both of whom came from a far more prosperous past, and it was also known to the modern world, suggesting that this was not merely wisdom generated by folly or ignorance. If it was, then the maximum would be believed to be eighty at most, since few ever reached an amount that was even close to that due to the sheer difficulty of the feat. It was the absolute highest that anyone could aspire to, yet, as she was approaching it, she began to grow a little uncertain about this seemingly obvious conclusion.


    She had seen how an Oblivion Halo with a number of missing marks looked, and knew that this would occur whether there were nine missing marks, or only one. With the current path, and the believed maximum, there would be no chance of attaining the seemingly perfect number ¨C one hundred.


    Was this a genuine limitation of reality, like some aspect of planar energy and cultivation that she had not yet grasped, or was there something that the people of the past and the present alike had yet to learn? Was it possible to attain one hundred marks, complete the ten oblivion halos, and manifest something incredible with their combined power? It seemed unbelievable and unlikely, not to mention excessive considering the power that ten oblivion halos could offer, and yet it was one that she couldn¡¯t stop pondering.


    There had to be something about the seeming maximum of ninety-nine that she did not yet know, and whether that was its false nature or its true nature as the manifestation of an energy limitation typically unseen by humanity, she would do her best to comprehend it. If she wished to be successful with all of her goals and plans, she had no other choice.


    She was able to recall the lectures she had heard about the topic of the higher realms just as well as any other topic thanks to her Ascendant¡¯s Library, and she was sure that it would have something to do with the next few realms: Linked Channels, Oblivion Halo, Imperfect Rift and Eternal Gate. The first two interacted with the searing marks directly, and so she was confident that they held some kind of key to the whole situation. Perhaps one hundred marks could allow for the Linked Channels realm to fully stabilise the core from the outside, allowing for Oblivion Halo to bring a far greater improvement to oneself than it otherwise would, with the Imperfect Rift and Eternal Gate being affected as a result.


    ¡®Or, all of this could be random guesswork. I don¡¯t think that it is, but I suppose that none will ever know the truth until I get there and do my best to find it,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded her cultivation session, rising and departing the Kong Prison Realm.

 V4C95: The Ju District, Part 1

    The third day of the sixth month, 1,201,523.


    Six days after the offensive push against the ever-appearing forces of the Ju District began, their wall had finally reached that of the district itself. There were still automatons pouring out of it, and it became more and more difficult to defend against their numbers as they took less time to exit wherever they were being manufactured and reach their position, not to mention the fact that they were now in their home territory, but they had finally made it.


    In large part, the Ju District was covered in mountains, with the only reasonable entry point being to the east, hence why the automatons had emerged towards the Ping and Chao Districts first. There were plenty of other feasible reasons, but no matter what the Ju District wanted to conquer, they would need to go through those districts first. After that, they could proceed onto Paragon, or towards the Yi District, or even in the opposite direction and invade the Shi District, resulting in their tall mountainous walls being an obstacle for invaders and the inhabitants alike. Furthermore, these mountains contained a lot of defensive measures that made them difficult to alter and destroy, allowing them to endure the test of time far better than anything in the wild, outside of a district.


    The walls at the east were also placed at a higher elevation, standing on stone with only traces of sand appearing as a result of winds. They were made of a combination of metal and stone for the highest possible durability, and on each one stood a type of automaton.


    Some walls were protected by elite infantry, whereas towers were manned by railgun turrets ¨C which were essentially identical to the railgun walkers save for the legs being replaced with a second energy core that was dedicated to the railgun itself. There were also quite a few other automatons scattered about, but not a trace of a human force at the front lines, prompting some of the forces on the side of the Arbiters to wonder whether there even was a human population remaining inside.


    Wei Yi did not need to ask that, as she was able to perceive the inside of the district even from a fair distance and could sense a number of regular cultivators and residents. All of them looked to be getting up to ordinary tasks, except that they avoided straying near the path of the automatons and only ever looked on from the side.


    Some of them would look on from afar and think about various things ¨C the details of which were not available to her due to them being at the edge of her perception ¨C but what was certain about them all was that their lives were not actively being harmed by the automatons. They did not seem to be actively participating in their construction, but the non-human forces weren¡¯t ones that had overtaken the district to the detriment of the native population. On one hand, this meant that she had more potential foes, but on the other, the fact that they were staying behind meant that the automaton army plan wasn¡¯t something that was expected to proceed perfectly.


    Had they been certain of victory, they would have needed to send out human forces alongside their automatons in order to claim the territories taken from others and ensure that they were taken care of properly, so that the army wouldn¡¯t destroy valuable resources or architecture. None of the automatons she could see outside or inside the walls had any purpose other than warfare, so it was impossible to fulfil those roles without proper intelligent oversight.


    On one hand, this meant the possibility of some other method being used to combat them, and thus a greater degree of danger that they would need to watch out for. On the other, it suggested the possibility of the Ju family surrendering or otherwise agreeing to a truce, as they might have seen their path as being a suitable one at the time but might then reconsider it when they figure out that their enemy is far more powerful than they had anticipated. Given the isolationist tendencies of the Ju District as a whole, they might even be unaware of the War of Ascendancy as a whole.


    For that reason, Wei Yi rose into the air and headed far above the wall with which they had approached, barely managing to look into the district due to the incredibly high walls that the Ju District had. She channelled her energy towards her vocal techniques and addressed the district.


    ¡°People of the Ju District, I am Wei Yi, the Ascendant and the one that is fighting to restore the concentration of energy in the world and bring us all back to the united state that we had once been in, where Yi City towered over all else and the ninth realm wasn¡¯t impossible to attain. Recently, your district has attacked two of the districts allied with my Arbiters with an enormous army that is likely to have been produced via the abilities of otherworldly demons,¡± she began, quickly making the situation clear to anyone that wished to listen, ¡°If the Ju Patriarch, or someone who can make decisions with the same degree of authority, does not wish to proceed in a meaningless conflict, I would ask you to come to the walls and speak to me. Otherwise, we will have to treat the Ju District as an enemy force and forcefully breach the walls.¡±


    Due to the aforementioned possibilities of a proper alliance being formed without the need for continued battle, she offered the district the option to negotiate and make their position clear. If there was a good reason for their actions, or if they were open to changing their intentions, then she would be likely to accept so long as it did not force her to sacrifice anything of value to her and her cause. Otherwise, she might as well give the citizens the chance to step back before the battle begins.


    She did not need to wait too long for a response. After a little while, a figure rose onto the top of the walls, walking past a few of the automatons as to stand directly in front of her, not using a single planar method in the process. If not for the aura of energy that lingered around him, he would have seemed to be an ordinary elderly man in a rather ordinary outfit, at least on the surface. Beneath the robes, he had a layer of armoured plates made from a similar material to the one the automatons were made out of, and it protected him in much the way that Wei Yi¡¯s scale armour guarded her. There was even an Armour Forming inscription on one of the plates, although it was far weaker than star metal.


    He also had a number of tokens and items in his pockets, most of which clearly denoted his identity.


    ¡°The Ascendant? I have heard a few things about you, even with my attempts to keep the district away from the world,¡± said the Ju Patriarch, nodding his head politely, ¡°You think that you are a better choice for the people here, native and otherwise, than we are?¡±


    ¡°When it comes to strength, I don¡¯t think that you can really argue with that. So far, your automatons, while impressive, have achieved little more than sharing their methods with us, and I have yet to see any greater foe coming to face us as we stand right before your walls, ready to invade if we must. Did you mean something else, perhaps?¡±


    ¡°No, it was strength, primarily. I do concede that your forces have overtaken mine, but this is not the end. I do have a few more things to challenge you with. If you endure those¡­ perhaps it can be agreed that you are more likely to survive against the Great Families and the other threats in the Planar Continents. I will not speak for those you call otherworldly demons, nor for those of my people that disagree with my judgement at this moment. I will simply let everyone watch and see how you proceed. Would you argue with that?¡±


    ¡°Oh, so you just intend to let me in if I win? No long speech about how you are right or something?¡±


    ¡°If that is what you want, I can certainly provide it to you. I believe that our path is correct. Planar energy is not infinite, whether in quantity or potential. It is possible to exhaust both, one way or another, and it looks to have happened once already. When that time inevitably comes, we will lack the ability to protect ourselves from whatever comes after, be it another form of energy, or an absolute void where the various beasts in the wild are suddenly far superior to us in every single way,¡± the Ju Patriarch said, ¡°Only by focusing on that which does not need planar energy will we be able to overcome such a time, whether it comes tomorrow or in a million years.¡±


    ¡°That would be a fair argument, if the automatons were not powered by anchor energy, something that is intrinsic to planar energy and would not exist without it. If you think the automatons will be your way out, you are wrong.¡±


    ¡°I had an idea that there might be some issue with such a bottomless source of power, but I would say that my chosen path, as well as the path of those that came before me, is not wrong. Although the energy cores themselves will not be usable in their current state, the locomotion will be. The designs will be. The railguns and plasma cannons will be. The minigun principle will be. All of it has a use, and when done without planar energy, it can even allow for us to recover the power of the golden years, before the Master of Yi City vanished from the world. You have proven that already.¡±


    ¡°Is this an assignment that Kong Shi Meng had given to the Ju District¡¯s leadership, or is it something that you and your family had decided to do on their own? Out of all the districts out there, for this to be the only place to come up with such an interesting route of development is certainly unusual, to say the least.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I will answer that question once one of us is victorious.¡±


    ¡°Fine then, I won¡¯t push on that just yet. That being said, do you really think that the best way to display your path is to obliterate the rest of the districts and forcefully replace everything that they have sought to develop with your own creations? Personally, I would have made a case to the other leaders and encouraged the recreation of the full Yi City, although I doubt that I truly need to explain that given everything that I have already done and attempted to do with my time,¡± Wei Yi said.


    ¡°Why is that, I wonder?¡±


    ¡°Because just as you have sought to create and innovate, others have also pursued creating new and more powerful methods. To say that none of them can be applied in a world without planar energy is absolute nonsense, and I am sure that something like the mind and soul are going to be present even without our current foundation, so the work of Xin District would not be pointless in the slightest, just to name a single example,¡± she said, ¡°To simply roll over the world because you are currently powerful is incredibly foolish, in my eyes, hence why I have not pursued direct conflict in most places where I could avoid it.¡±


    ¡°Have you? From what I have heard, most of the people that have access to your Paragon fortress have begun to practise techniques from your own library.¡±


    ¡°Yes, and I have never forced them to do so. In that case, it is like providing people with the means to improve, and if that is suddenly bad, then none of us shall have much of a chance to improve the world before we inevitably perish. You, on the other hand, did not come out and offer to protect territories with the automatons, but instead sieged every territory in sight. If nothing else, our methods are extremely different, and lead to vastly different outcomes as a result.¡±


    ¡°And yet, had you invaded every district in your path, there would be none that wish to challenge your strength. Nothing can be done without sacrifice, Ascendant, and you should realise that well enough if you have gotten this far.¡±


    ¡°It seems like you wish to speak down to me, Patriarch. I don¡¯t appreciate that, since you should not be aware of the full extent of my losses, and cannot even hope to guess what I have already committed to throwing away just for the final result to be possible. Meanwhile, your notion of sacrifice seems to include only the rest of the world losing their foundations, while yours become entrenched throughout the entirety of the Western Continent,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Unless the two of us have a very different definition of sacrifice, I would say that you are more than happy to keep everything you wish to have while letting others discard that which is not convenient to you.¡±


    ¡°It looks like we disagree on quite a bit, Ascendant. Without proof of one another¡¯s abilities, I do not think that we will be able to complete our persuasion of one another, so let us return to the original premise-¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know what you are doing. You have insufficient arguments for your position, so you resort to combat as a simple way to solve your problems. Don¡¯t think that people don¡¯t understand.¡±


    ¡°And you simply proclaim your own superiority due to your successes so far, whereas we had failed to achieve this so far and thus have far fewer opportunities to speak with confidence regarding our own actions. Had we been controlling several districts and making use of a spatial realm to link them all together, then we would be able to proclaim whatever we wanted with the exact same pride and confidence that you are able to display,¡± the Ju Patriarch said, ¡°Let us just fight!¡±


    With that, he promptly turned around and got off of the tall wall, leaving both the Ascendant and the people that had been able to hear the exchange on both sides rather disappointed. The forces of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters had hoped for someone that would be able to justify the extreme power that the automatons held, whereas the people of the Ju District were hoping that their Patriarch would be able to put up a better argument against a force that did appear to have a rather reasonable justification for her approach to the isolated district.


    The Ascendant did not linger in the air, descending to the ground right away as to prepare.


    She was certain that the moment that the Ju Patriarch, whose strength and body were weaker than his creations, stepped down from the wall entirely, leaving the dangerous portion of the battlefield, the automatons would begin to fire upon them, and thus restart the battle that he had been keen to begin. At that point, something stronger would be certain to emerge.


    Otherwise, even if the Ju Patriarch was highly fond of his own automaton army and unreasonably believed it to be far better than it truly was, he wouldn¡¯t be foolish enough to assume that a more prepared and larger force would suddenly struggle against the same kind of energy that they had faced prior to this with no preparation at all. At the moment, she was unable to sense a new type of automaton or weapon anywhere, finding only the same kinds of robots being produced and emerging from the Ju District, so she wasn¡¯t aware of which type would be upgraded this time, if any. Naturally, she kept up her guard and made sure that her spiritual perception would linger around the edge of its range so that any unusual entities would be observed as soon as possible.


    From everything that she had seen of the Ju District so far, she wasn¡¯t sure whether they had any chance of producing an automaton that would completely overcome and overwhelm all of the offensive and defensive methods available to the current Arbiter army, but making a dent was not impossible. All that they would require is a large force with enough firepower, like one may find on a colossus or two, on each one, to emerge at the same time and begin attacking.


    As such, she was not going to insist that her forces did not rush in immediately, but instead silently commanded everyone via a thread of spiritual will to activate their shield generators and prepare to defend themselves in a regular manner just in case the shields did not prove to be sufficient. There were several potential threats that she had already noticed on the outer edges of the Ju District, and it would be foolish of her not to warn the others and to simply expect them to endure the sudden attacks that would be coming towards them.


    Indeed, the moment that he descended from the walls and began to walk away, the many automatons standing at the top of the walls aimed their weaponry at them, while the walls themselves opened up. All of the metal panels on the front were opened inwards, using an unseen hinge at the top, and a series of railguns and plasma cannons were brought up to the openings, all of them similarly taking aim.


    All at once, this immense number of weapons fired upon them.


    ¡°Cease!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, a large quantity of her blood instantly evaporating alongside a few organs as all of the hail of projectiles stopped in mid-air, completely frozen and uncaring about the slight wind that was currently passing by.


    The spheres of orange plasma decayed quickly, and once the effect upon the projectiles ended, while they were able to continue going, the railgun bolts simply dropped out of the air, for they were propelled solely by the rails that they had been fired from. Now that they were out of the railgun and frozen in the air, there was nothing else to force the projectiles to return to their previous speed, and thus they simply fell out of the air. A number of small pieces of metal fell upon the sand and stone near the walls, although most of them still burned with an immense degree of heat caused by their acceleration.


    ¡°Everyone, attack!¡± she ordered, manifesting her railgun grid and promptly accelerating the process with some Law-based trickery so that she was able to fire them all within an instant.


    All of the energy bolts that were loaded into the grid of rails shot out with more energy at a faster speed than the bolts that had been launched by the enemy. They flew towards the individual openings in the wall, and the various weak points located all around it, brimming with blackened crimson light that was forced to burst out nearly instantly as they collided with numerous layers of glowing orange barriers, surging out from the wall, the entities hidden behind it, and something in the district itself.


    Together, they weaved together to result in an incredibly complex net of barriers, and when one of them was struck, the force was dispersed across the rest of them almost immediately. With only a few barriers, the Obliteration energy would not have been successfully scattered this way, but once the energy was finally sent away from the smaller spherical barriers placed right at the wall that had been attacked, the major barrier that turned out to be encompassing the entire district took on the rest of the energy. It trembled and quaked quite significantly, as it had to endure an extreme degree of stress imposed by over a hundred rounds shot out with four rails each, but it ultimately managed to survive the attack and remain in place, keeping the rest of the layers of the barrier in a stable state at the same time.


    ¡®Well, I see that they weren¡¯t being idle while we approached, as the shield looks to have been a more recent invention compared to the hexagonal design, or perhaps they had instead compressed the barrier around the district into one that could function aboard the constructor orbs,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, ¡®Since this has not worked, might as well just continue the attack until it does.¡¯


    The barrier was a powerful one, but that did not mean that it would be there in perpetuity. Even if it was not attacked at all, it would be eventually worn away for one reason or another, and the attack that was currently being performed would simply accelerate the decay of whatever power source was being used. If it was also making use of an energy core or two ¨C presumably of a far larger size than those placed into the automatons, or otherwise in far larger numbers ¨C then it would be overwhelmed and exhausted, and if it employed a more traditional method of acquiring planar energy, then it would be outpaced by the damage to the shield.


    Either way, the Ascendant and her many arbiters had plenty of methods to resolve a layer of protection around a district, and some of them weren¡¯t even that destructive. It would be ideal to minimize the damage to the district as a whole, but if the Ju District made that difficult, they would naturally employ certain means that result in more destruction than is desirable, like the Black Sun and the extreme degree of damage that it could result in.


    In mere seconds, the railgun grid was charged once more and the projectiles were loaded into it, with this occurring at the same time as the enemy weapons were also readied yet again. Both looked to have their own methods to accelerate the process, with Wei Yi using Law and the automatons making use of some aspect of their own structure and the anchor energy that they were making use of, and so the next shot was taken by both sides nearly at the same time, with the latter slightly delaying their shot for the very purpose of attacking at the same time.


    Judging by the increase in intellect that was needed to even attempt to test the feasibility of negating the abilities of the Dao of Law via attacking at the same time, thus hoping that Wei Yi would either need to negate both attacks or let both come through, it was easy to conclude that there was likely another automaton that they would need to deal with, whether it was another constructor orb or something entirely different. It wasn¡¯t something she was particularly excited to observe, as she was not expecting to be able to make use of these automatons personally as more than border guards for her own region, but it did mean that there was some meaning to the Ju Patriarch forcing them to fight. Had he simply wanted to throw more in her direction, she would have been tempted to breach the barrier herself and give him a piece of her mind, by which she meant kicking his ass.


    She¡¯d entertain him for so long as there was no danger to her own domain, but the moment that it was no longer the case, she would not hesitate to pass through the barrier, rush towards the nearest spatial stabilisation point, and instantly integrate it into the Yi City Web already under her control.


    After all, the barrier wasn¡¯t exactly impervious to something like her fourth realm movement method, which skipped the process of movement and simply placed her where she was supposed to be. The barrier might exist for nearly everything else, but so long as she didn¡¯t actually need to cross it, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem. In a way, the Dao of Law and the techniques derived from it was vastly more powerful than anything else that she knew of, but the constant drain on her own vitality was slowly becoming more and more irritating.


    The matter of developing the Dao of Law was one that she most wanted to get onto, but so far, all of her attainment seemed to arrive, in part, from some outside source. As far as she was able to understand, it was the heavens, or the heaven¡¯s will, that had allowed her to catch onto random aspects of Dao and thus obtain far more strength and knowledge than she had initially possessed, but it came at the cost of the exact reliance that she wasn¡¯t fond of and had hoped to avoid. To obtain a new stage of the Dao of Law purely on her own, she would need to complete the same degree of work as bringing a hundred Dao to the Full Success stage from the very start, or possibly even more than that, and somehow force that understanding to manifest within the world itself.


    It was that last part that had convinced her that this theory regarding the heavens had to be accurate. There were plenty of interesting points in the world that the otherworldly demons seemed to consider to be unusual or unnatural, but so far, she had no reason to presume that merely knowing something ¨C or, to be more precise, understanding it to a certain extent ¨C would automatically prompt an impact onto the world to the extent of manifesting physical changes like the circles in her eyes.


    Since every breakthrough in the stage of a Dao tended to come with additional, auxiliary knowledge that was not quite her own, even if it did seem to follow on with her own understanding, it had to come from somewhere, and be prompted by something. Given that the Hunger of the Beyond, the Primordial Deities, and any other vile entities that might exist out there, shouldn¡¯t be very keen to contribute anything to the people of the world, it only seemed to make sense to conclude that it would be the heavens that were lending their own knowledge¡­ and thus limiting the possible avenues of advancement as too little is understood via one¡¯s own experience.


    ¡®I may not yet understand all of this fully just yet, but I can still do something as simple as differentiating direction and purpose via the Dao of Law,¡¯ she thought, one circle in her eyes lighting up as she raised her left hand and instructed, ¡°Advance!¡±


    Her Command of Law still had the limit of only one word, but that did not mean that she couldn¡¯t cheat slightly and combine meaning with the inherent property of a word. In this case, the term advance had to imply travel in a certain direction, so when she clearly pointed it out, there could be no mistaking her intention.


    All of the railgun bolts fired by her side were propelled with greater speed and intensity, whereas all those that had been fired by the automatons within and atop the walls were suddenly flipped in mid-air, their momentum completely twisting round to suddenly force the bolts to fly right back at the very walls that had allowed them to be fired in the first place. It was instantly followed by half of her internal organs vaporising themselves, fortunately avoiding the sensitive parts from her relatively new body parts, but it was very much worthwhile.


    When every single bolt happened to strike the barrier at the exact same time, their power looked to resonate together as the Ascendant¡¯s Dao were applied to every single projectile, amplifying not only the power of the Railgun Obliteration bolts, but also the standard bolts that had been thrown back at the enemy. Together, they collided with the shield and quickly caused incredibly large ripples within the spherical shield, and once they came into contact with one another, they led to a terrible degree of damage. All of them clashed, and the size of the ripples became so significant that one nearly hit the wall of the Arbiters.


    In one wonderful moment, the spherical layer of light shattered, exploding into a shower of energy that coloured the entirety of the battlefield in the strange orange that all of the automatons wielded, exposing the other side of the wall in perfect clarity to all observers.


    ¡°Arbiters, we shall enter, and we shall defeat whatever forces the district still has. Do not harm citizens that have nothing to do with the automatons and destroy as little as you must!¡±

 V4C96: The Ju District, Part 2

    The moment that they could, the Arbiters equipped with plasma cannons raised them and fired at the automatons hiding within the wall, the mechanism of which wasn¡¯t fast enough to allow for the shutters to close before a number of energy bolts got inside and struck the automatons on the other side. One or two projectiles wouldn¡¯t have been anywhere near enough to defeat a regular railgun walker, for instance, as their shields were protected by the majority of the capacity of an energy core, but what they faced was not an exact replica.


    Instead, it was the railgun detached from the walker portion, and the energy core had been devoted to the weapon and spherical shield, which meant that without the spherical layer of the barrier, there was nothing that they could do against the impact of the glowing plasma spheres.


    Upon their destruction, most of the automatons exploded, and when so many did so at once, the whole of the wall was shaken, with numerous parts being pierced entirely and a number of regions on the top dipping in as their foundations were shaken. The wall did not go down entirely, and around half of the automatons that had been standing openly on the top still survived and were able to shoot towards them, but their effect was far lessened as the Arbiters charged right inside.


    There was too little space for all of the army to breach the wall in one go, so they instead used the many holes that had formed all the way through the wall and flooded in from several places, bringing their shield generators with them and making sure that nothing on the other side could do much damage to them. Wei Yi chose to go last, firing off a few more railgun shots to take care of the enemies atop the wall, and then phased right through the obstacle via her movement method, joining the rest of the army on the other side, where a number of automatons were already waiting for them, mostly being those that had not had the chance to pass the wall while they were speaking with the Ju Patriarch and subsequently attacking the district.


    Infantry, tanks, railgun walkers, colossi and so on filled the open sandy field before them, complete with five constructor orbs positioned at an equal distance apart from one another to manage the battlefield most efficiently. All of them had spherical shields save for the few at the very front, who must have been put into place before the idea to switch their defences was brought up.


    Together, all of them fired upon the invading forces, this time staggering some of their attacks so that instead of a curtain of death ¨C which is what it would be against a typical force consisting mostly of those below the fifth realm ¨C there was an irregular shower of projectiles. Once again, this displayed a degree of tactical thinking that had considered her capabilities and took them into account when formulating a strategy, and the source was clearly not any of the constructor orbs, as they barely looked upon them as they formed some of their spare parts into more automatons to throw in their direction. If nothing else, it made her cautious.


    Simply thinking more about defeating her wouldn¡¯t yield the automatons the victory, as she had a few too many things up her sleeve at this point, and even her body couldn¡¯t be severely damaged thanks to the scale armour projecting a layer of Armour Forming energy all around her, but it did suggest a deviation from their initial strategy of simply overpowering and overwhelming the enemy. That meant that there was either a human force in command, or that there was a new automaton design.


    The latter was more concerning simply because of the potential of anchor energy. With one or two particles, it was sufficient to power the railgun walkers, but if they decided to go all out and shove all of the weapons, all of the energy cores, and every other capability they had yet to demonstrate onto a single automaton, there was a good chance of making a dent in her army before they had the chance to break the automaton¡¯s defences and destroy it. This would not be ideal for obvious reasons, and so she was naturally forced to consider how to overcome such a thing before it even had the chance to make itself known to them.


    If it was truly able to learn and advance, it would attempt to overcome the abilities that she had displayed so far, which would either mean avoiding firing in her direction, or using methods that were more difficult to flip over than the railgun bolts. Stronger shields would also be a necessity, perhaps using the strengths of both the hexagonal and spherical designs to overcome the ease with which it was possible to generate the fracturing ripples in the latter and to pierce a single piece of the former. The most logical and easiest would simply be to force all of the current automaton forces to attack her forces, rather than attacking her. They would be unlikely to kill her unless everything in the Ju District was wasted just on her, but if they defeated her Arbiters, it would be a rather terrible loss to the world as a whole, not to mention her own faction.


    Even if she went on to fight against the Greats alongside the Ju District, the loss of numerous talented individuals, as well as the warriors from the four districts in open support of her, would be damaging, if not outright damning.


    ¡®The factories for these things appear to be over in that direction, so if something does arrive, it will be from there,¡¯ she reasoned, quickly considering some adjustments to their current positioning, ¡®Alright, I will attempt to occupy that region, then allow the rest to resolve issues at the other sides. The moment that something appears, outright teleportation to Paragon might be necessary, if there are enough automatons left and if the threat is significant enough.¡¯


    Of course, there was always a chance of her overestimating her foe, but she was not going to simply go along with that and ignore the potential threat. Anything that she does to over-prepare could be used elsewhere, while most people are not easily resurrected, even if she was to turn them into hatred automatons. It would ruin their physical states and damage their minds, and that is even if she manages to successfully transform them after however much damage is done to their bodies as a result of whatever weapon the Ju District¡¯s automatons manage to bring out against her.


    In other words, it was not worth it in the slightest.


    The Arbiters and the automatons fought quickly and intensely, with railgun bolt after railgun bolt being fired from either side. Despite the forces of the Ju District having the advantage of fighting in their home terrain, with the aid of factories and constructor orbs to produce and repair them, the Arbiters were having far more success than one might imagine even if one did not take Wei Yi¡¯s aid into account. They were still able to destroy their enemies, prevent them from being repaired, and even keep themselves alive with their shield generators, as they also employed the exact method that they had just breached through a minute ago.


    When placed closely together and allowed to partially intersect, the spherical shields were able to spread damage out throughout each one with a connection to the other, and thus the shields of a hundred could endure the shots against them together.


    As soon as the Ascendant¡¯s aid was taken into account, things became even easier for them. Her Mysterious Earth Vein energy, as she had decided to call it when she first discovered it, allowed for the earth vein to continue supporting them with even more energy than before, aided in part by the continued revitalisation of the world and her increased cultivation. By occasionally activating one of her many searing marks, it was even possible to further boost the amount of energy infused into the shield generators for a short while, and thus give them enough energy to endure even more powerful blows from the enemy. If railguns or plasma cannons were fired at the same time, it essentially guaranteed that the attack would pierce the shield of anything it hit, provided that the automatons weren¡¯t using the same strategy as they were.


    Despite the effectiveness of it, most of the black and orange robots weren¡¯t making as much use of it as Wei Yi would have imagined, perhaps due to the shields leaving far less space around the automatons than they did around her human forces. It was notably more difficult for even the infantry to stand close together in the right formation to spread the ripples across the shields, and they, alongside elite infantry, were the only ones that were able to take full advantage of the method.


    It was important to state that any kind of direct contact was sufficient for damage to be passed along, but when the two shields didn¡¯t flow into one another and instead simply touched one another, it meant that the ripples would crash into the other shield and do more damage to it as a result, creating more ripples that could quickly cause the two shields to overwhelm one another if they were positioned particularly poorly, and if the ripples came from the right direction and at the right time. She had only managed this kind of thing a few times, as it was rather challenging to get the right angle, but it was possible.


    As such, the automaton forces were rapidly losing their numbers, whereas the human forces were just able to endure without a single loss.


    It was only a matter of time for whatever the last attempt to turn the tide would be for the Ju District¡¯s leadership, and it came not too long after, heralded by the blare of an incredibly loud siren produced by otherworldly means. On its own, it could have been used as a weapon against those without the ability to protect their ears, so mostly the third realm and below, but in the current situation, it was the incoming giant that was far more fearsome to the Arbiters.


    Even the colossus looked small in comparison to that which emerged from the factories, floating onto the battlefield in the same manner as the constructor orb. In fact, it had a similar shape and locomotive function, but everything else differed greatly.


    First of all, while it was still vaguely spherical, the structure was far more angular and irregular, with the front-facing eye sticking out and a number of smaller, yet still positively enormous eyes being positioned around it at various levels of horizontal depth, all of which were currently looking onto the battlefield with a bright orange glow that was projected onto it. On the sides, top and bottom, there were numerous attached plasma cannons, and all of it was surrounded by an incredibly dense shield that rivalled the one that had surrounded the district itself.


    In fact, she was almost certain that it was that exact same barrier, as the side was slightly thinner and weaker as it was in the middle of repairs, as if it had not yet fully recovered from the previous attack.


    In place of the small amount of metal parts that circled the regular constructor orbs, this thing ¨C an overlord orb, according to Miyu ¨C had almost fifty times as many parts all hovering near the back, ensuring that the pieces didn¡¯t get in the way of the cannons and constructor eyes at the front, of which there looked to be no fewer than ten, although she was still struggling with understanding exactly what allowed for any of the eyes to perform the assembly and reformation process of the automaton pieces.


    Had this been a force that was purely dedicated to standing by and assisting the rest of the automatons, like the constructor orbs were want to do, she would have been left to question exactly what the purpose of most parts of the overlord orb were for, but this one was far less passive. It quickly rushed straight towards the front of the battlefield, all of the metal pieces storming forward into the line of sight of the ten smaller eyes at the front. With impressive speed, all of them were quickly assembled into railgun walkers, which were then thrown out of the spherical barrier and onto distant parts of the battlefield, where they promptly aimed at the force of the Arbiters and shot the moment that they could.


    Meanwhile, the overlord orb itself flew to a place where it would be out of the way of any of the railgun walkers and aimed its primary eye at the Ascendant. It became brighter while the shield in front of it became weaker, and after a few seconds of charging, by the end of which the eye was outright blinding to almost everyone at the battlefield, it shot out a powerful beam of raw energy.


    ¡®I see that they have taken inspiration from my Obliteration- no, obviously they didn¡¯t, but the orange does make it look like an inferior version of my own technique,¡¯ Wei Yi noted in her mind while she reached out with one hand and manifested some Obliteration energy in the palm of her hand, ¡®If the Ju Patriarch wants to compete, then I see no reason at all not to show to him just how mistaken he is if he thinks that this orb will be enough to finish anyone off.¡¯


    A moment after the orange light from the overlord orb shot out, so did her Obliteration beam, this time making use of the most ordinary Straight Beam aspect of the technique as to be able to compete properly with the automaton.


    Something like the Delayed Pulses or the Divergent Storm moves would have been poor choices against the long-lasting beam fired by the overlord orb, with one only striking a few times while the other would keep the orange beam far too close for comfort, and Orbital Call would be impractical unless she wanted to take out the orb and then resolve the beam while it was being destroyed. However, given that the orb was making use of the shield that had previously protected the Ju District, it would not be easy to take it down unless a weak point was specifically shot at and targeted with her full strength.


    Thus, the Straight Beam was most effective in this regard, as the two weakest points in the shield at the moment were at the front, where it had weakened with the presumed intention of allowing the orange beam to be shot out without any interference, and at the back, where the previous damage to the shield had moved to after it built ten railgun automatons.


    Her Obliteration beam hit the orange one only moments before it approached her own skin, stopping its movement forward by replying with a similar degree of strength. Neither one was scattered as a result, not right away at least, but the energy that was unable to proceed onwards spread out in the only direction available to it, resulting in a vast circular pulse of energy shooting out from the point of collision. It struck the ground and flew into the air, instantly cutting a thick line into the ground and even reaching the distant walls to the north and south of the district, cutting through a few roads and smaller structures that were fortunately unoccupied at the moment that the splitting occurred.


    She was able to keep going after the initial collision, and so was the automaton overlord orb, resulting in their energy continuing to scatter and damage the terrain, forcing all of the other Arbiters to scatter and take on the railgun walkers instead of directly combatting the overlord orb. They were unable to do much to that enormous monstrosity, and so they had to focus on the enemies that they were genuinely capable of opposing, as the current railguns and plasma cannons wielded by the Arbiters were both sufficient to inflict a significant degree of damage to the spherical shields used by the vast majority of automatons, especially once their attacks were coordinated well against a few targets like the newly created railgun walkers.


    Half were taken out in one go, while the rest fired upon the weakest of the shields that they were able to detect, or so it seemed based on their targets. Three chose to go for those with a cultivation in the second realm ¨C the lowest in the army due to the requirement to be able to fully externalise energy ¨C whereas two others targeted a barrier that had been worn down by the attacks of other automatons, even if their own strength was notably higher.


    ¡°Delay!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed while directing more of her energy into the Obliteration beam.


    Their railgun bolts shot at the shields and nearly struck them before Wei Yi¡¯s words were able to take effect. All of the bolts froze in the air, but their momentum was not completely cleared, instead being temporarily decreased to an absolute crawl before it would return to full speed a moment later.


    If they attempted to leap into the bolts while they were in this state, they would be met with the exact same degree of force as if they allowed it to return to normal speed, as this was only a delay forcefully applied by the manipulation of Law and the world¡¯s nature, not by actively removing any speed from the object. For that reason, the Ascendant was forced to quickly inform them not to do so, as this would be incredibly risky and foolish, and instead warned them to apply a great deal of energy to their own barriers and move as far away from the original destination of the bolts so that they would not suffer as greatly.


    The mere shockwave caused by the bolts striking the ground would be enough to put pressure on some of the shields, but it would not be as damaging as enduring a direct hit.


    Meanwhile, Wei Yi constantly providing more and more energy to the beam emerging from her hands, putting both of them to use to allow for as much of her meridian network to be actively used, healing the damage that her Command of Law was able to impose onto the world while she actively drove her body to its limit. She knew that the automaton she was opposing was likely responsible for the increased intellect of the army she was facing and also far more capable than the vast majority of the automatons she had destroyed so far combined, but she had yet to make full use of the majority of her strength. In fact, she could even add some of the strength from certain less used Dao to boost the power of the Obliteration beam to levels exceeding the seventh realm, but she did not yet need to do so.


    There was only one enemy that she knew of at the moment that would have her using all of her power, and that could easily result in permanent damage to her despite everything that she had invested into her own survivability, and so she was not going to dignify this force with such a thing when it was merely the creation of an otherworldly gift that skipped so much of the work that would have otherwise been required just to discover the concept of anchor energy.


    ¡®Actually, isn¡¯t that one of the worst things about otherworldly gifts? They all allow for things that are theoretically possible, and yet all of the effort, all of the discovery, all of the knowledge that would otherwise be required to obtain those opportunities are skipped with some random gift from an unknown entity and world¡­ As I had theorised before, there might be nothing about the azure lights themselves that impact one¡¯s mentality, but it might easily be the possibility that they offer that corrupts so many¡­ Frankly, it¡¯s rather disgusting that there is something that even creates such things,¡¯ she frowned, noting that her left arm had transformed again into the killing will state, ¡®Alright, looks like my mind is not keen on holding back. Let¡¯s go, you big ball of metal!¡¯


    As she inhaled, the circles in her eyes lit up as the power of the Absolute Dao was applied to the Obliteration beam, instantly causing the crimson hidden within the black light to brighten by several folds, elevating the power of the beam by a similar degree. It pushed back against the orange beam being fired by the overlord orb and quickly brought the point of contact to the middle of the battlefield between them.


    Due to the speed at which the energy had travelled, it barely had the chance to make a dent in the terrain, although the moment that it stopped, all of the Obliteration energy that had been unable to keep pushing forward scattered once again, bursting open an enormous hole in the terrain. It left cracks that kept spreading for almost a kilometre out from the current point of collision, and as one could see from the slow push of the blackened crimson against the orange, it was hardly going to stop there. Instead, it continued to travel forward, not because the power of the beam actively increased at a slow speed, but instead because of the very attribute of the Absolute, which she had recognised some time ago to be a manifestation of the Ire Dao.


    It was a rebellion against the very possibility of failure, a statement against the world that would permit the efforts of any single soul to fail. As she was the only one to grasp the notion of the Absolute Dao for now, she was also the only one to truly take advantage of it.


    Against a human being, it would have been less effective, but when facing a machine with limited intellect and little true wisdom, it grew far more powerful due to the simple fact that the Dao were predicated on comprehension, understanding, learning and personal application. An automaton could likely be made with all the Dao that someone wanted to infuse into it, but in an active scenario, an attack executed with a Dao at the level of the Fifth Stage merely through the combination of the concepts that it relies upon was far more powerful than the concept-less creations of the otherworldly gifts.


    Perhaps that was one saving grace against the incredible power that the otherworldly gifts offered. When utilised via the azure light that was almost always embedded in it from the start ¨C as far as she knew, at least, given that she had yet to encounter a gift that hadn¡¯t intentionally been separated from the azure hidden within ¨C it completely overcame the natural ideas and mental processes that were present in the minds of most. It was unable to call upon the greatest power in the Planar Continents.


    As she had once read in a book about the Eastern Continent, there was a belief that the world all emerged from the Great Dao, and that the Great Dao encompassed all. There was apparently a prevalent belief that it could be represented via the sequence of numbers from one to ten, which was insufficiently explained in that book for her to understand it, but whether or not that part was accurate, it was impossible to deny the fact that everything could be encompassed even with a simple Dao like the Dao of Law ¨C simple in a relative sense ¨C so the Great Dao would indeed need to be even more powerful than the ability to affect anything and everything under the heavens with a single word.


    Of course, if something overpowered the earth and the heavens themselves, that would be a different matter, but the otherworldly gifts never gave their users quite that much strength.


    She ignored the continued killing will state of her arm and exclaimed, ¡°Complete!¡±


    In an instant, most of her internal organs were once again turned into a crimson mist that she had to get rid of in a manner that wouldn¡¯t be too obvious, but the clash between two beams was suddenly brought to an end, with her Obliteration beam hitting the front eye of the overlord orb in a single instant, an explosion of incredible scale following right after.


    She knew that the automaton was not destroyed, but what was hit was the large clump of materials that was floating by the side, within which must have been contained several energy cores that could have been used for constructing new automatons without needing to collect existing wrecks which did not have their internal cores destroyed. Her Obliteration beam could only do so much, and when exploding from the outside, the cores far less than when they blew up from the inside, so when the blackened crimson wave finally cleared, the state of the automaton was not surprising in the slightest.


    Out of the fifty weapons that it had on the sides, thirteen looked to have been brought out of commission. The spherical shield had a number of additional weaknesses within it that were obvious even to the naked eye. Its front eye was cracked and the light coming out of it was weakened greatly, allowing her to see glass and a number of metal components hiding behind that light. Where it previously hovered nicely and smoothly above the ground, one part of it now dipped and the occasional bobbing motion was staggered and clearly unsteady, causing it to tilt and slightly turn every single time that it bobbed. Altogether, it was in a worse state than Wei Yi was at the moment of using the Dao of Law, but it did not have regenerative functions.


    As such, by the time that the two of them could see one another with their own eyes, her body was close to recovering sufficiently whereas it would not be benefitting from any of the damage, to put it mildly.


    ¡®Come to think of it, what are the heavens? What exactly are they up to? People have so many theories, but which ones have any validity in the slightest?¡¯ Wei Yi took the opportunity to continue her line of thought, which looked to be bringing her some favourable results so far, ¡®They do not visibly interact with the world, but their own comprehension is what seems to lead to the development of Dao. From this, it is possible to conclude that some interaction does occur with the world, intentional or not. The heavens have an understanding of what is happening, so they have intelligence, but not enough to know the entirety of the Great Dao¡­ Is it possibly above the heavens themselves?¡¯


    She felt a gaze upon her, but since she was unable to find anyone suspicious within the full extent of her spiritual perception¡¯s range, which was about the same as that of someone in the eighth or ninth realm without a mental energy cultivation, she did not let herself be bothered by it and instead proceeded onwards with her attack. Much of the automaton was now exposed and weakened, and judging by the flickering of the largest central eye, it was not going to be able to repeat that manoeuvre any time soon, so there was no need to save up energy for Obliteration.


    Instead, she reached out both her hands and manifested a great deal of energy, placing down her Endless Monolith behind herself and surrounding herself with the Subterranean Shell. Around her, a great deal of unclear light gathered, but not even when it was ready to attack had it acquired a proper solid form.


    ¡®Techniques are always used in a format that people can imagine, but that is clearly limiting everyone, possibly including the heavens themselves. The Primordial Deities might still fall for it, but the Hunger of the Beyond may be so difficult to kill simply because they overpower such notions. In that case, I should begin experimenting on something that can beat the heavens and everything beyond alike¡­ Except that it is rather difficult to imagine something that is incomprehensible to the human mind. Since I have neither the intention nor the means to transform beyond that¡­ Dao time, I guess,¡¯ she sighed in her mind as she targeted her creation at the overlord orb.


    She had no clue what she wanted to create, what it should look like, nor what it should really do beyond damaging her foes and not damaging others, but she did have an idea of what she wished to make use of for that purpose. As her primary focus was the Dao of Law, she needed something that made use of them for a purely offensive purpose, and something that could overcome any Laws that she encountered that might act against her. Laws surpassed humans and even included otherworldly gifts, with the only caveat being that they were too powerful for her to affect just yet, and so, as long as she could rival them with her own technique, then it would be good enough. When it was, the name, the means of attack and all the rest could be determined at a quieter time.


    Thus, the fabric of space before her was suddenly torn, and the overlord orb that floated before her was broken into a thousand pieces. None were truly separated from one another, and yet she could distinctly see the strange energy that connected all matter together.


    Right before her eyes, the individual pieces were all affected in different ways, some decaying, others heating up, some almost transforming into something entirely different that could only be compared to the original if one saw the process all the way through. Despite that, they were still together, and after the moment that lasted an eternity passed, she witnessed all of it come back together, clearly not impacting the enemy as much as she had wished when it came to the destruction aspect.


    Still, what suddenly fell onto the ground was not at all her opponent any longer. Even while most of it held together, only a small fraction of the orb¡¯s structure was still reminiscent of what it had begun as, and even those parts had rusted, rotted, or otherwise decayed as if they had been left out for over a million years without any proper supervision or care.


    ¡°Well- ugh¡­¡± she contained another burst of blood and viscera from emerging from her mouth, as she knew that it would make it all too clear that this was not something she could replicate endlessly.


    Furthermore, she knew that while she had succeeded with the technique¡¯s usage, she had not acquired some integral element that would complete it and allow it to be reproducible, so if there was another overlord orb that the Ju Patriarch wished to throw at her, she would not be able to destroy it in the same fashion. Perhaps she would be able to accomplish something as effective, yet different, but it was far more likely to simply fail and cause the next orb to grow flowers or something similarly silly.


    ¡°Ju Patriarch, your strongest automaton looks to be dead. As for the rest of them,¡± she raised her hand and conjured as many railgun rails as she could with the energy that was still remaining within her, ¡°Can be destroyed quickly enough. Shall we get back to talking?¡±


    When the elderly man reappeared, it looked like the answer and the outcome was clear.

 V4C97: Spatial Break

    ¡°You are more powerful than I had expected, Ascendant.¡±


    ¡°And you look to have relied solely on that lot to have the success that you currently have. Never thought to consider their flaws and attempt to alleviate them via means other than those solely provided by the otherworldly demons?¡± Wei Yi asked, looking to a small group of people that did not look to belong in the district at all, wearing clothing that she was able to recognise as being rather similar to what the otherworldly demons recognised as ¡®modern¡¯ clothing, ¡°By the way, you lot, don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve heard, but that¡¯s a general term not intended to label you as villainous. You merely impact the world greatly with a single action, often without knowing it, and I consider that to be rather dangerous given the power that some of you end up possessing.¡±


    ¡°W-We did get told about that, but¡­ uh¡­¡± the man that replied quickly turned away, before turning all the way to face away from her as he tried to make himself look as small as possible.


    Most of his otherworldly companions joined him, although a few were able to keep looking straight and facing her without making themselves any smaller. From a brief glance at them, she was aware that they had a higher cultivation and must have encountered some danger prior to ending up in the district, as they would not endure her gaze so easily.


    ¡°There were flaws, but I had truly underestimated the full abilities of those from beyond the district. You have impressed me, Ascendant, and your fellow¡­ Arbiters, did you call them? Yes, they have done well enough too.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t pretend that all of this is under your control, Patriarch. This is not, and you don¡¯t even know how I destroyed that overlord orb. As such, skip all of this arbitrary chatter and tell me whether you will bring me to the spatial stabilisation point and contribute what you have to reunifying Yi City and opposing the Greats. Given their minimal presence here, and the fact that you are openly using otherworldly equipment, you must not be too keen on them either.¡±


    ¡°No, I am not ¡®keen¡¯ on the Great Families. That being said, your actions are reckless.¡±


    ¡°Oh, do stop already. Reckless? Your enormous fucking army was reckless, and you are lucky that I was present to stop it, otherwise countless people and talents would be slaughtered simply because you fail to look out of the figurative window onto the outside of your district.¡±


    ¡°I-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not finished. You are not the first to call me reckless, but trust me, that is very much an understatement. I dare to oppose the Greats, I will fight the Primordial Deities if they ever awaken, and there are threats beyond the Planar Continents that you know little of. If they appear, I shall fight them as well, and unlike you, I will not allow people to sacrifice their minds simply because I need power!¡± she exclaimed, looking back to the otherworldly demons, ¡°All of them have an azure light within their otherworldly gift that will eat away at their sanity. It must be removed.¡±


    ¡°And so we return to the topic of sacrifice-¡±


    ¡°Indeed, we do. I wish to attain something, so I will do what I must. To put it simply, leaving people with such a thing to affect their minds is in direct opposition to my goals, so if you are not happy with other explanations, consider this one,¡± she said, ¡°I know that they have cultivated, which means that you have simply allowed people to begin to lose their minds and become threats to themselves and those around them simply because you wanted to be the one to prevail.¡±


    ¡°And you?¡±


    ¡°I am getting tired of these kinds of questions that ignore my words and merely try to flip thing around on me. That being said, if I could be sure that someone else would do exactly what I need them to, I would let them do it. Good enough for you?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Indeed, I have been foolish. I will not continue this, then. You have given this more thought than I have, so any more will simply make a fool of me for no good reason,¡± the Ju Patriarch admitted, sighing and weakening his stance for a moment before promptly straightening his back and continuing, ¡°You want the spatial stabilisation point, and the district does have a few. What will you give me?¡±


    ¡°Taking advantage of the fact that I did not wish to destroy the automatons?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am. You are similarly taking advantage of the fact that I am not merely fighting for the sake of conflict, so I do not see any reason not to do so.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a clever one? I am glad that you have the time to bargain and debate when the entirety of the world is in danger of being completely drained of planar energy¡­ but you know that, as does everyone in the district, but you think that this kind of thing is permissible, as do I. In fact, you would say that I would demand the exact same kind of thing in your position, wouldn¡¯t you?¡± Wei Yi asked, prompting the Patriarch to nod.


    ¡°It looks like you are. We could be negotiating already, but you are instead preaching.¡±


    ¡°I was not wrong then. What do you want?¡±


    ¡°Resources, manpower, the connections formed by your gateways, and assistance with certain issues that the Ju District has been facing for some time. Assistance in the defence against the Free Tribes of the West, as they call themselves, that live up to the north and occasionally invade our territory.¡±


    ¡°Long list.¡±


    ¡°I could make it far longer. This is the bare minimum that I wish to discuss, and the bare minimum that our district requires from you.¡±


    Wei Yi rolled her eyes, finding the confident stance with which he was speaking to be rather amusing. So far as she was able to tell, even the current Ping Patriarch was likely able to match him in terms of power, and so the current army would be able to defeat him and the automaton horde without much difficulty with enough time. Provided that she delayed for long enough with her words, as she had already been doing to a certain extent, she could recover all of her energy and make use of a powerful enough technique to clear everything in one go as the current conquering status of the district was rising with every moment of confidence on her part and failing on the part of the Ju Patriarch.


    Still, she understood his behaviour, and might not have been too different had she lived a life akin to his own, so there was no point in reprimanding him, especially when everything he had spoken about so far would be provided to him even if he didn¡¯t mention it.


    ¡°From everything that you have said, I-¡±


    Her eyes suddenly widened as she nearly collapsed, clutching an area near her heart as an incredible pain surged throughout her entire body. It was nothing like the sequelae from abusing the Dao of Law, which she had long gotten used to, but instead something akin to damage to the soul, as if someone tore an enormous gash within it and was taking the opportunity to crawl inside.


    Without any care for what it looked like to the others, she identified the source, and instantly appeared at a spot some distance away from their current negotiation grounds.


    ¡°What are you doing, Ascendant?¡±


    ¡°The Great Families are attacking. We will do all of this later, don¡¯t you worry!¡± she replied, opening the gateway with a flick of her hand before pushing the gateway out to be as large as she could possibly make it.


    This time, she was not afraid to display the interior of the Kong Prison Realm, for what had affected her could only be show to the others if she did this. Her seeming injury did not come from her own body, despite what it had felt like, but could instead be seen inside of the spatial realm in the form of an enormous tear within the starry and nebulae-filled sky, revealing an overpowering and sickly white light from which a small group emerged, strange fluctuations of light occurring around them.


    Beside the sudden display of such a place, most gazes instantly locked onto that tear, and onto the people coming out from within, the task being made easier by the gateway being opened to the edge of the prison realm. The clothes of the people were sufficiently ordinary to not stand out on a casual glance, but when someone knew their identity, they immediately became a sign of that very identity that was only made more obvious by the presence of the mirages that hovered around them ¨C or, in the eyes of the Ascendant, who had destroyed a number of such things before, the anchors that floated around every member of the Great Families.


    ¡°Your automaton army is going to be used for defence everywhere else!¡± she provided one last word to the Ju Patriarch before she moved all of the automatons to the edges of the Yi City Web¡¯s territory around her other districts, then leapt into the prison realm, ¡°Arbiters, with me!¡±


    As she did so, she could feel the power of the spatial realm rise slightly from the new connection to her portion of the Yi City Web, and with it, all of the weapons brought it from the Ju District battlefield had enough energy in the air to be fired at a regular speed without needing to give them more than a minute to recover. Her own strength was slightly higher as well, but none of that mattered when the spatial realm was forcefully locked onto and the Greats looked to be coming from whatever domain they occupied.


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming, the Four Cardinal Beasts array-¡±


    ¡°Is not ready! It is not functioning at a proper level just yet!¡±


    ¡°How long do you need? I can¡¯t beat all of them away if they bring even one of the seventh realm members into the area!¡±


    ¡°Two minutes at most! I should be able to seal off the space to a certain extent then!¡±


    The Ascendant didn¡¯t bother saying anything, as it would do nothing to benefit either of them. The spatial spirit needed to be able to focus, as she wasn¡¯t immediately able to focus on everything without any issues with her attention just because she was no longer human, and she needed to get onto opposing the invading forces and ensuring that they wouldn¡¯t have the chance to damage anything.


    As such, she glanced to the various Patriarchs that entered and passed along a series of instructions, ideas and techniques for all of them that they could make use of to be more effective than they currently were. They were all impressive, but against the second generation of the Greats, their power was not going to be quite enough to fully push them back. Against the first generation¡­ well, there was no point of even mentioning that. The Greats that were at the seventh realm were entirely invincible to the Patriarchs unless they were in their home district and making use of something like the array the previous Ping Patriarch had used.


    ¡°Hold them back, I will try to push them back out of the tear. Go!¡±


    She didn¡¯t bother to hold back her killing will state, either, so all of her killing intent was immediately manifested upon her body all the way from her left foot to the left side of her face. Some might have had an issue with it, but her words fortunately contained enough urgency for them to rush straight to the front lines a moment before Wei Yi did the exact same with her power of the spatial realm, appearing only a few metres away from the tear in space.


    When she appeared, the Greats also saw her, and they instantly brought up their anchors to guard themselves against attack.


    At the front of the invading team, she saw only the second generation members, amongst whom she noticed Luo Fu, Bai Chao and Ping Fu, who looked to be particularly unhappy with her appearance. The second one, Bai Chao, was calmest and stepped forward with a confident smile on his ugly face.


    ¡°So, this is where you were hiding-¡±


    Before he had even the slightest chance to finish, the Titanic Conqueror was already up and throwing everything it had in their direction, while Wei Yi manifested her Obliteration energy at her hands and rushed into punching range, intending to amplify her attacks via her physical force and her mental energy at the same time, ensuring that damage was done to them.


    The man looked surprised, but at the same time, all of the invaders so far arranged themselves into position and clapped their palms together, a pure planar energy surrounding them and quickly blocking her advance, even partially extinguishing the powerful blaze contained within her Obliteration energy. Their hands were only together for a moment, as the instant after, they all directed their attacks towards her, manifesting various beams and planar constructs that all charged right towards her, some colliding before any kind of barrier could be placed.


    All of them fell upon the Armour Forming energy that enveloped her, bouncing off and leaving only their physical impacts to be afraid of, which promptly threw her into the ground and forced her to regain her footing.


    ¡°We seek to improve the world, so we would never stay idle, bastard!¡± Bai Chao exclaimed.


    ¡°Enough of your bullshit! Die already!¡± she ignored their words as she called upon the power of her anchor and detonated a series of her searing marks, empowering the attacks of the Titanic Conqueror and her together. The former threw out several chunks of ice seeped with poison that crashed upon the area where the Greats stood, filling the ground beneath them with runes that brimmed with Obliteration energy, and gave her room to condense a more recent technique.


    Countless railgun rails formed all around them, igniting from the sheer amount of energy forced into them as she wanted to make sure that they would not get out alive.


    They shot into the arrangement of the Greats, but before all of that could hit, a flaming hand burst out through the spatial tear and shielded the group with seemingly no effort at all, with every collision exposing a trace of metal underneath that only seemed to be tempered by the strikes. It was as if the hand was merely taking advantage of her attacks, with them having no threat to it at all and thus being something that was only advantageous to it. Given the trace of many anchors and the obvious support of the Great Families, there was no question of which kind of person was responsible for the hand, even if the exact identity was unclear.


    Given the strength of the hand, she had an idea of which generation it came from, but that was not a positive in the slightest. It meant that she had to hurry up and force the Greats out of the spatial realm as quickly as she possible could if she wanted to keep the Kong Prison Realm to herself.


    ¡®And yet, all of this has used up a few seconds at most¡­¡¯


    The Patriarchs that fought on the side were only able to draw the attention of two second generation members each without endangering their lives. Even then, they were barely able to put a dent into the defences of those that had not taken position in the defensive technique that gave the Ascendant quite a bit of trouble. While they were able to occupy one another in this fashion, they were achieving very little.


    As the hand receded, she made use of the fact that their current attacks weren¡¯t quite enough to breach her defences to plant both feet firmly in the sand and channel the energy within her body that was barely able to recover after the previous battle into the world around her, manifesting the circle of Eclipse Ire. Within it, she embedded Obliteration energy, the concept her Dao, and even the concept of the Black Sun to a certain extent, limited by the fact that the technique was not quite compatible with the notion of destruction that was contained within the base technique.


    While the Greats prepared their own techniques, the Ire circle quickly drew upon the energy into the Kong Prison Realm and grew, reaching the edge of the defensive field generated by the strange arrangement of the Great Family members. The moment that they came into contact, countless blackened crimson lightning bolts shot out from her body and locked onto that barrier.


    Their collision did not destroy the defensive layer, doing very little to it, but the Great Family members visibly trembled when a number of the lightning bolts fell upon it. It had some effect, which was enough.


    Since she was able to affect them, she naturally increased the quantity of energy she was pouring into the technique, causing the third and fourth circles to form rapidly, all while the phase of the moon within them grew. In the sky, a sun and moon appeared from within the distant cosmos, shining past all of the powerful nebulae and the other celestial bodies to appear close to the scene of the battle, at the very edge of the spatial tear that continued to let out sickening light from the world beyond. The sun and moon alike slowly shifted to shine upon the Greats, who shared a glance before shifting their position into some other arrangement.


    However, the moment that they did so, she performed a motion with her right hand and forced a series of totems to rise out from the ground, amplified by her home ground advantage to be larger and capable of channelling even more energy throughout their structure. In all of them, she embedded her Obliteration technique, and made them all target the centre of the Great Family member arrangement the moment that it looked to be weakest due to their movements.


    Thus, at that instant, multiple dozen blackened crimson beams met with the blast of moonlight and dawn light fired via her Eclipse Ire, the energies colliding with one another in an explosion of absolute destruction.


    Naturally, she had applied the slight understanding she had attained from the collision of the overlord orb¡¯s orange beam and her own Obliteration beam, but she did also incorporate a concept that she had observed from the Bai District¡¯s strange space. The figure that wielded something akin to her own Obliteration energy had used a number of odd techniques, and from them, she was able to extract a few concepts that she promptly used to amplify the effect of every beam through one burst upon their intersection.


    Somehow, even that wasn¡¯t enough to breach the barrier that the Greats had set up, but the force was enough to knock them loose from their arrangement, giving her the perfect opportunity to point towards the spatial tear with her left hand and exclaim.


    ¡°Exit!¡±


    Her Command of Law took effect instantly, causing the formation of her foes, and her own body alike, to be pushed towards the spatial tear from which they had emerged. To be sure that she got all of them, she did not bother restraining her power of Law and affected every single soul that she could, as she and the others could get out of wherever they ended up easily enough once the battle was over, but the Greats would struggle more once the Four Cardinal Beasts array was completed to the point that it could be activated. As such, there was no reason for her to hold back her own strength when it would only lead to a worse outcome for herself.


    The Great Family members quickly began to resist the command, but as the power of the Absolute was applied to it, without even mentioning everything else that she had added to the many beams to guarantee their effect, they found that their feet were still slowly dragged towards the spatial tear. Some of those that had gotten into a fight with the Patriarchs at the sides were further away and thus less affected, forcing her to make a decision.


    On one hand, she could attempt to bring all of them out and thus risk not only the Kong Prison Realm, but the potential success of her long-term plans as a whole. On the other, it was possible that by leaving behind a number of them, they would not only be able to track down their position once again and use them to return to the Kong Prison Realm, but that their current numbers could overpower the Patriarchs that were protecting the spatial realm and thus get to rampage around the place without anyone strong enough to stop them, which would be entirely unacceptable as well. There were only five that were too far for her to push into the spatial tear, which was what informed her final decision.


    Via a spiritual will transmission, she spoke to the Patriarchs, ¡°Everyone, take down the Great Family members you are currently fighting no matter what. I will take this outside.¡±


    She raised her palm and manifested a Yang Elysian Storm, imbuing it with everything she had as she threw it at the Greats, targeting the weakest and least certain part of their arrangement, simultaneously leaping in and exploding with all of her physique energy as she punched out at the closest set of anchors to her.


    Perhaps due to having experienced some of the damage that the Elysian-type techniques could deal to them, they thought about moving to some other arrangement to deal with it, but the punch she leapt in with completely stopped their plans. It was not much more powerful than the previous strike caused by her Obliteration beams colliding, but what made the difference was that it was a purely physical strike empowered with the strongest physique abilities she had collected, and so the arrangement that had been switched to for the sake of opposing her Obliteration energy and preventing their pull into the spatial tear was entirely unsuitable for the attack that she had released next, causing it to crash into them directly.


    They were pushed by several metres, with a few being brought to the very brink of the spatial tear through which they had entered.


    ¡°Ascendant! You continue to mess with things that you do not understand! This realm is ours, and your theft of it merely deprives the world of a valuable environment in which the vilest criminals can be held. Even if you are among them, you must understand the selfish nature of your actions!¡±


    ¡°Selfish? I am selfish for not wishing the world to dry up of planar energy and die while you sit on its corpse and praise yourselves to the heavens? Fuck off!¡± she snapped, reaching out once more and exclaiming at the loudest volume and with the most conviction that she was able to muster when her continuous use of the Dao of Law kept eroding her lungs, ¡°CONVERSION!¡±


    All of the sudden, the air rich in planar energy twisted and transformed into silver and crimson, with the colour being most distinct around the mirage-like anchors surrounding the Great Family members. The energy that had kept both of them going was rapidly changed into killing intent and spiritual will at the same time, naturally splitting to the left and right in the same manner that it had when the Kong Prison Realm had applied this Law to every single part of the realm so that the energy of the Beast could be converted into something usable to humans.


    This was the last straw as more than half of the force was suddenly pushed out of the prison realm and through the layer of white light, into which Wei Yi quickly followed them, but the others somehow stayed in place and managed to escape the binging of the Dao of Law once she departed the realm.


    At the same time, the ground between them lit up with four distinct colours, piercing through the ground to form a tall barrier within which four different breaths looked to flow, creating an incredible restriction for anyone attempting to intrude. The feathers of a phoenix, the fur of a tiger, the azure scales of a dragon and the black shell of a tortoise could all be seen within that layer of light, and they blocked up the enormous tear within the open air and completely separated the Kong Prison Realm from the space that had been used to intrude into it. Furthermore, with every moment that they existed, the four features grew more powerful and more distinct, as if they were coming alive right before their eyes.


    The Greats that had been pushed out would not be able to return with ease, but this did not apply to the thirteen that had managed to remain inside, alongside the five that had been fighting with the Patriarchs already. While the original number would have been one that did not pose too significant a threat to them, the sudden increase to eighteen completely threw the battle into the favour of the Greats.


    Just as with anything in their favour, this was not missed by the Greats, who quickly looked back into the outside world with a confident, cocky grin that made her want to punch them in the face.


    However, that desire was dulled- no, more like partially delayed, by the sudden appearance of a figure floating near the middle of the Kong Prison Realm. It was shrouded in soft white light, hiding its features entirely, but what could not be hidden was an aura of great strength and authority that surrounded it, making even the slightest movement suddenly appear to be enormous and staggering. The figure raised a hand and looked to reach for something in the air, at which point, all of a sudden, the Four Cardinal Beasts array burst into completion.


    Four beasts emerged from the cardinal directions of the Kong Prison Realm, white from the north, azure from the east, vermillion from the west and black from the south, and all of them rushed towards the group of the Great Family members, crashing into them and rapidly tearing through the anchors that surrounded them, having an easier time now due to the disruption of their defensive formation.


    Wei Yi and the figure floating in the air seemed to lock eyes for a moment, as if the latter wished to assure her.


    She was unable to detect a single thing about his identity and ability, but she could tell that the Four Cardinal Beasts were incredibly effective against the Greats, and so she turned around to face the rest of their forces, glancing back to confirm that everything was still going well. Somehow, even though she was getting aid from someone ¨C or possibly even something ¨C that she did not know nor understand, there was no hint of the Kong Prison Realm falling to those who had previously controlled it, allowing her to put her focus on those in front of her.

 V4C98: Decree of Righteousness

    With that one last glance, she didn¡¯t bother looking back at all, focusing all of her attention on those before her.


    She was already familiar with the twenty or so second generation members standing before her, who looked to have been all that remained from the previous attempt to attack Paragon ¨C and was, in fact, a larger quantity than there should have been given the previous casualties, but she had no time to ask about that just yet due to the danger that they posed ¨C so she only had to look at a lone figure that stood beyond, although it hardly looked to be lone due to the presence of numerous humanoid mirages near the figure that didn¡¯t look entirely dissimilar from the one that appeared in the Kong Prison Realm.


    Fortunately for her, there was a clear difference in everything but their basic appearance, and she was able to tell that even if there were separate minds responsible for those figures, their bodies were not present, and they were mostly bound to the lone figure that sat in a chair at the back of the grassy field she found herself in.


    It seemed that the Great Families had intruded from a random field rather than any of their own locations, which was a shame due to the lack of useful information that she would obtain, but also highly conducive to a higher chance of success and lessened chance of an untimely demise.


    Against the previous force of second generation-only combatants, she had the confidence of surviving no matter what they threw at her, as they were unlikely to employ any attacks that would completely exhaust their vitality and energy due to not wishing to end their lives and force the first generation to have more children, if that was even possible for them. However, based on the energy radiating from that seated figure, she knew that this was someone in the seventh realm, and since their position in the Great Family force looked to be high enough to allow him to casually sit around and do little more than release a single flaming hand into the scene, the fact that this was a first generation member was entirely obvious from a single glance.


    If not for the fact that she sensed a number of anchors around him, she might have even assumed that their seventh realm transformed their anchors into humanoid figures, due to the similarities.


    ¡°So, it appears that you have once again intervened in our plans, so-called Ascendant. That is fine. We will reclaim that which belongs to us in due time, for the heavens will it,¡± the seated figure spoke slowly, in a gruff voice that one might expect to come from the mouth of an experienced blacksmith, ¡°For now, getting rid of you will be enough for us.¡±


    ¡°As I said to the rest of you, fuck right off! I have had enough of your nonsense! To claim that you-¡±


    ¡°Luckily, I have also become tired of your intervention. To weaken the seal just for a person like you¡­¡± the first generation member of the Great Ning shook his head with obvious disappointment, ¡°Since you fail to understand, then we shall prove to you that the world should be under our supervision, not the madness that seems to drive you. You have wondered why we have the right to act, did you not? Witness the Decree of Righteousness given to us by the heavens.¡±


    He casually raised and moved his hand, seemingly not interacting with the energy within or around him at all, and yet an incredible wave suddenly overwhelmed the Ascendant.


    Everything before her transformed, and she was plunged into a strange realm of storm clouds brimming with lightning that occasionally lit up their dark insides. It completely overwhelmed every method of looking through illusions that she possessed, to the point that she was unable to perceive whether this was truly a false environment as she believed, or if she had been thrown into some spatial realm without realising it due to her low cultivation. She stood on a dark stone platform that was partly obscured by a thin layer of dark cloud, so it wasn¡¯t like the environment was necessarily unbelievable due to floating in the air or something of the sort.


    She looked around with every sense she had, but nothing around her was clearly different from any other part of the environment, and the only thing that could draw her attention was the fact that she could not sense a trace of planar energy anywhere, as if it had been purged entirely.


    Within her, there looked to be no such obstruction, but when she wanted to attack with an Obliteration beam to test the environment around her with some casual destruction, the world finally responded. Although she did not see, hear, or otherwise properly perceive this, she was somehow aware that a will had descended into this stormy world alongside her.


    ¡°Your actions have caused the Planar Continents to stray from their intended path,¡± the voice proclaimed, the mere sound causing her bones to tremble from an unexpected power within them, ¡°Witness what could have been.¡±


    Instantly, the storm clouds around her closed in and then parted almost a moment later, but nothing around her was recognisable when compared to what she had previously seen. In place of a stone platform was a dirt around it, and all around it she could see buildings and homes that looked to belong at the edge of a failing village, ones that would barely be sufficient for the people that she had witnessed cultivating via the blood from other creatures.


    Within this strange town, a number of people wearing something most closely comparable to rags were going about their day, walking along the road and carrying various things with them, occasionally turning to one another to offer a friendly greeting nod or something of the sort. They did not see her, as far as she knew, but none of them chose to go straight through her due to some natural instinct. She had no clue whether she was truly present in a physical space, especially as the clouds from before looked to have vanished entirely. There was nothing that would allow her to tell this from reality.


    Even the fact that there was no planar energy in the air looked to fit the Laws of the world, illusory or otherwise.


    ¡°What is this supposed to be? Some argument?¡± she tried to call out to the voice.


    ¡°The people that would have lived in the world where you had not been born would have been safe from planar beasts and viler creatures,¡± it responded after a short delay, everything around her changing as she was suddenly at the edge of the town, where she found no trace of a wall or guards, ¡°They would not be faced with the threats contained within planar energy.¡±


    Again, the scene changed, although it was hard to say whether it was that she that moved or the world around her, or if it truly moved and didn¡¯t simply change. It didn¡¯t stop there, either, and continued to change with increasing speed, causing her to look through a million different scenes in unbelievably little time. She saw scenes of discussion, travel, daily life and various jobs that people occupied themselves, and the sheer quantity of events rapidly overwhelmed her mind.


    In one scene, she witnessed how a family travelled through the woods and picked a few berries to feed themselves on the journey. A child was able to run throughout the woods and fear nothing, only needing to remain in sight of his parents as to not get lost.


    A few people were providing some of their harvest to a pair of figures dressed in regal clothing that did not fit in among the clothing any other person she saw, while those figures provided various instructions and recommendations that she was unable to hear properly, knowing only that they were found to be useful. This pair sat on chairs with high backs that might as well have been thrones in comparison to the random sticks that the other chairs resembled, and they looked to be eating more than sufficiently with everything offered to them.


    To say that she did not recognise their potential identity would be entirely incorrect, but she took a while to comprehend the sheer gall of the Great Families. They thought, for some reason unknown to her, that even once the world was without planar energy, they would be treated as far superior to the people that they attempted to rule over in what seemed to be their own fantasies.


    Once she did realise that error, others also began to jump out at her, and while they did so, her golden soul glowed just a little brighter. She did not know this, however.


    ¡®They have clearly realised just how much of our development requires planar energy and relies upon it, so they adjusted the world accordingly, but do they expect me to see this as some kind of paradise? Just because there are no planar beasts, there is no guarantee that there would be no ordinary beasts either. In fact, they would need to be present for the ecosystem to persist in a reasonable manner,¡¯ she concluded, ¡®That child would be in danger of being devoured by some wolf or bear, and this would not save the parents from a similar fate, as they barely have anything beyond a stick or some stones to defend themselves.¡¯


    She suspected that the reason for their folly was that they had not only spent too long being powerful figures among the world¡¯s population, thus failing to recognise the weakness of someone without a cultivation, but also that their lack of experience and knowledge about the other world that the otherworldly demons came from led to some misunderstandings of what such a world would look like. There, they had developed without any planar energy at all, and they needed to go from using simple stones by tying them to sticks all the way to things resembling the automatons that she had fought.


    However, not only did such a process require countless years, even if some knowledge of the final outcome was already possessed, but it was also one that would limit so much of the human potential that she was aware of. With planar energy, normal human limits were surpassed with some casual cultivation in the case of the majority of cultivators, and if she had the chance to do so, she would ensure that everyone could cultivate rather than removing it from all people.


    ¡°Am I supposed to see this as some paradise?¡±


    ¡°The people here are free from the threat of the Primordial Deities, as well as the otherworldly demons and their cursed artefacts that you are already familiar with.¡±


    ¡°So? Is that supposed to overwhelm everything that planar energy offers us? It is incredible, and allows us not only to overcome the otherworldly gifts, but even gives us the opportunity to become people with far more power than they could ever grant.¡±


    ¡°They are a threat to us all, and the heavens have decreed that they must be removed.¡±


    ¡°And if the heavens willed your demise, how long would it take you to end your own life?¡±


    ¡°The heavens have no such desire.¡±


    ¡°And you think that you know? You are nothing more than a group of absolute power-hungry idiots that have convinced yourselves that you are righteous, whereas in truth the heavens do little more than permit the knowledge of Dao to the oh so poor people of the world, who suffer greatly as a result!¡± she exclaimed, pointing to the people that flashed to the space before her, ¡°Look at all of this! They are weak, feeble, and they look to be entirely subservient to you. Do you think that protection from potential threats is better than freedom, power, and capacity to overcome the heavens themselves?¡±


    A sudden burst of lightning flashed through the scene in front of her, and it vanished only to be replaced with another image of a similar kind, as if she had simply skipped one of the images that the Greats wished to show her.


    ¡°You would question the heavens?¡±


    ¡°I would question every single one that dares to tell me that the world is somehow better off as a rotting carcass!¡± she looked to the scene before her once more, ¡°Yeah, just like them!¡±


    Again, the scene was overwhelmed with a bolt of lightning, and she momentarily saw the dark cloud from which the bolt had emerged. When another one showed up, she could see that it was less stable, and notably less active. Most of the figures were moving in slow motion, and some would not move at all, as if they couldn¡¯t be animated at the same time as the rest.


    ¡°There would be wild beasts here, and we would have lost everything that we currently have to resist them! What kind of wonderful world features humans that have lost all of their abilities and exist in a pathetic imitation of current reality?¡±


    Right before her, the people of the false world were travelling near a forest while picking various fruits and berries. They were not able to get up to taller branches of the tree with ease, and so they had to get certain individuals to climb the trees for them and retrieve those items for them. Even then, just within the time that she had spent observing them, most of the fruit pickers had become tired and were sweating, with their pathetic rags offering no assistance in keeping away the heat that they must have been feeling.


    Had this depiction contained even a trace of planar energy, dulling the heat with an inscription could have been possible. They could have had a cultivation to keep them stronger and fitter. There would be none with great physical damage and injuries, as most wounds were easy to heal and repair if they were not dealt with a powerful planar method.


    She was aware that people had endured things like this in the Orbises from which her otherworldly acquaintances came from, but even there, she would be the first to advocate for somehow providing planar energy to the world due to the many possibilities that it allowed for. With her awareness of what random people could do without being restrained, she would not attempt to simply do something like that on her own and would instead offer the possibility to the people, giving them the final choice, regardless of the ultimate outcome. If they did not find planar energy to be desirable, then there would be little reason to attempt to persuade them.


    There was no reason to trade away possibility and potential for security. Freedom and justice had to prevail, and that was easiest with planar energy flowing richly throughout the world.


    ¡°Indeed, few can see the true beauty of the world that we offer to the masses.¡±


    She couldn¡¯t even find any words to reply to them, so she just let out a laugh at their stupidity. To call this madness, where all the people are subservient to a few old men and women who happen to wear the nicer clothing just because of something potentially done decades ago without informing anyone, a better world, not to mention something with true beauty or anything else of the sort, was preposterous. Giving the voice a punch was very much something that she wished to do, but, unfortunately, it was currently not present beside her in an obvious physical form.


    However, that changed a moment after, when the world suddenly returned back to the stormy clouds that she had initially seen upon entry. The lightning within them only seemed to have gotten more intensive, and as it slowly receded once more, she saw something at the edge of the storm.


    Several tall pillars, the exact quantity of which was difficult to judge due to the stormy clouds covering all but a few that stood at the very front, and atop all of them stood tall thrones that looked down upon the stone platform that she stood upon. On all of the pillars, figures appeared one after another, and they sat down upon the thrones with a confident movement, acting as if they were at the top of the world and above humanity.


    Fine, perhaps Wei Yi was projecting her hatred of the Greats onto the figures a little too much, but when they looked upon her and their eyes lit up with strange light, she confirmed that she wasn¡¯t wrong. They did not treat her as someone on the same level as them, and if someone with her degree of strength and ability to resist them couldn¡¯t be seen as a human being, then she highly doubted that they would treat the majority of the people in the world any differently. That was one of the many concerning things about them that prompted her to completely disregard their attempts to proselytize their nonsense to her after, especially after they had sought to kill her several times.


    ¡°You stray from the will of the heavens, foolish child,¡± the figure sitting at the foremost throne said, his or her voice booming throughout the space, ¡°Do you fail to understand our purpose?¡±


    ¡°I understand what it is that you do, but it is not only wrong, but utterly foolish! I don¡¯t know where you got the notion of being the world¡¯s saviours, but your actions will do nothing at all to truly assist it. Instead, you will doom our Planar Continents to obliteration by threats that you may not even understand.¡±


    ¡°Fool! Your failure to understand will be what truly dooms our world!¡± another replied.


    Together, they waved their hand in a similar fashion to the time that the Great Ning first generation member had when he pulled her into the realm, and an enormous pressure suddenly fell upon her with no warning other than their movements.


    She had never seen this kind of thing before, and yet her mind quickly found a very familiar sensation that had been extracted from the mind of another, instantly being brought to the forefront of her attention before whatever was happening had the chance to affect her. It turned out that it had been something from the mind of an old man she had encountered in the Silver Side of the Kong Prison Realm, and thus she instantly knew what awaited her.


    There were a few statements that would be made, the exact contents of which she had not been able to receive, and while she didn¡¯t know what had happened while they were being made, they nearly permanently scarred the mind of the old man that had endured them. For that reason, as well as the fact that they had been placed into his mind with far more intensity than most thoughts would ever be, she concluded that there had to be some kind of catch to the words, one that she would need to resolve in order to be able to handle them without similar damage occurring to her own mental state. She suspected that she might be able to purge the same kind of damage from her head if necessary, but it would not come without a permanent cost no matter what or how she did it.


    Thus, when one of the few figures that she could see opened their mouth and suddenly applied even more pressure to her position, she was mentally prepared.


    ¡°On their own, the people of the Planar Continents are directionless. They wander through the world and recklessly access countless things that are not meant for them. They kill and steal without any understanding of the larger picture, and they unknowingly call upon darker entities to come through their constant progression,¡± that figure said, ¡°They face countless rains that can scatter their work to nothingness, but can also provide them with life.¡±


    Another took over, ¡°People require a wind to guide the rains, and the Greats can ensure its direction.¡±


    She felt the pressure multiply yet again, forcing every aspect of herself down to the point that she could barely keep standing. With the words of the last sentence on the forefront of her mind, she recognised this from the words mentioned by the old man from Sanctuary, and so she understood that this was what she needed to resolve.


    There were several things that she could say, but she was tired of them making themselves out to be special. Although they did have unusual techniques and the preparation that too many lacked, they were but one of many that could reach the peak of the world with enough effort. Their actions were reckless and stupid, so far as their imagined world was concerned, and yet they dared to proclaim themselves to be capable of directing the winds and rains of the world.


    If this was something that they could do, then there was no reason that she could not do the same, and with that she had the perfect reply to their words that would meet their stupid reasoning directly and give them no choice but to accept it based on the capabilities she had shown so far.


    As such, she forced her head up to meet the eyes of the Greats and barely manifested the Lion¡¯s Roar physique ability.


    ¡°Then I shall be the storm!¡±


    In the instant that the words left her mouth, all of the stormy clouds around her grew closer to her, hiding all but the glowing eyes of the Greats sitting atop the pillars in the distance. At the same time, she also felt the pressure weaken, allowing her to keep her head up with a grin on her face.


    She could sense a trace of greater anger in the next voice, but it still remained calm enough, ¡°How can you be this foolish! In the storms, the people of the Planar Continents are blind and directionless. They have no clue where to go, nor where their foes are. There, the Primordial Deities and the demons alike can prey upon them with ease. All that the storm will cause is pain and torment, and you must recognise this.¡±


    Just like last time, another voice took over after that, saying, ¡°People need light to guide them, and the Greats are the candle that must light the way.¡±


    The pressure doubled again, increasing beyond the intensity that it had reached at first, but she did not need to delay for as long to be able to provide them with an answer. She had seen that they had nothing to reply with, and since she was capable of doing what she asserted, then she would do so.


    They wished to guide the world and guide the people, providing them with a flame that can be seen from afar and provide them with only the knowledge necessary to make their way through danger safely. She was not like them, and if she could provide a flame, she had no reason to limit what the world could see, especially not if she was in the same position that the Greats so desperately wanted to be in. The people would learn everything that they could, and even more through luck and the like, and then the world would be a better place as a result, even if it came at a cost.


    ¡°Then I shall be the torch!¡±


    Again, the pressure was worn away, and the distant eyes narrowed in some unpleasant emotion. The storms did not move closer, but a bright light did appear around her, partly breaking past the darkness that the stormy clouds generated. With it, she was barely able to see the figures on their thrones once more, and since they could likely see her with ease, she made sure to keep her smile strong.


    The first sound from the enthroned figures was a loud sigh, produced by a pair of eyes on the left of the congregation.


    ¡°To simply dismiss our words, you make the mistake of forgetting the wisdom of your elders. With a directionless flame and wild storms, the people will be led only to danger if that is all that they have. There needs to be a leader for them, a ruler that can step forward and show them the way through the darkened world that your foolish actions shall produce. They require the assistance of power that is beyond them.¡±


    ¡°People need a ruler to lead them, and the Greats are the kings that will direct them!¡±


    Since they kept going, so would she, as she believed her own words far more than they could possibly have believed their own. She knew what the ninth realm looked like through some of the memories of Yi Shi Ming, as well as Lan Mei Xing, and she was not afraid of the Hunger of the Beyond, even if it turned out to be far more powerful than anyone could anticipate. She would fight, she could protect the world, and if necessary, she would take on whatever leadership position was required of her, be it a Matriarch or the Master of Yi City, not for the power, but for the potential to make a difference to the world that required the power that the position offered.


    If they wished to be the kings of the world, a position that had truly held meaning only a long time ago, then she would not be any weaker.


    ¡°Then I shall be the emperor!¡±


    ¡°Foolish child, you do not listen to our words!¡± a voice exclaimed, slightly shifting their eyes as the radiance that had formed around the Ascendant only grew more intense with her words, ¡°If you will not listen to the truth that we share with you, then there is only one thing that we can say to you, bastard child.¡±


    Together, the figures stood up and glared at her, their eyes also becoming brighter as if to combat the light she produced with their own luminosity. They opened their mouths and took a breath in preparation to speak.


    ¡°The Great Families have the blessing of the heavens. They follow their will!¡±


    This time, she did not hesitate in the slightest.


    ¡°Then I,¡± she shouted, pushing every capability of hers to its limit, ¡°shall be the god that casts them down!¡±


    With a burst of energy, her cultivation suddenly leapt by one stage and one perfected stage, and the technique that she had created back in the Ping District was completed as she realised a suitable direction for it. Whether by inaction or intention, the heavens had yet to act in humanity¡¯s favour or even make themselves known through anything beyond Dao, so if there was one entity in the world that she truly had to oppose, then it was them.


    She raised her left hand and reached out with her index finger, as if she was seeking to come into contact with something close enough to reach but too far to do so with ease.


    ¡°If your existence is the will of the heavens, then I shall break them as well!¡±


    A powerful surge of power pushed her out of the strange realm that she had found herself in, and she was once again facing the Great Ning first generation member, who looked at her with a sour expression and a raised hand. As she reached for the heavens, he spat and directed his hand towards her, his brows furrowing.


    ¡°You are not worthy of our wisdom. Existence does not need you, Ascendant,¡± he said, their techniques emerging at the same time, ¡°Reality Severance.¡±


    From her side, an overpowering light broke out from the point where her finger met with the air, as if she had touched the heavens themselves and pierced their shell. All of that light surged towards the Great Family members, the air and space itself cracking as it travelled through it, with every pocket of space fluctuating and breaking in different ways. In all of them, she could feel the Laws of the world be distorted and scattered into unrecognisable states.


    At that moment, her left arm seemed to be the thing dictating the survival and collapse of the world.


    However, the lazy hand gesture of the Great Family member suddenly manifested a cut in reality. A single, smooth cut, inferior in size to her Touch the Heavens, but it shot right towards her centre, intending to split her in half.


    The two energies collided with one another, and it was clear that the attack used by the Great Ning family member was superior as it pierced right through the blinding light, ignoring the scattering of Laws as it operated on the same level of power. The Reality Severance could not be stopped, and in the moment before it reached her, she could only shift the position of her left arm as to direct everything from Touch the Heavens at the cut.


    The next moment, the sound of something shattering entered her mind as she felt her existence split, one part being lost forever. The rest was shot back with all of the force that the Reality Severance had contained, and she lost her consciousness.


    END OF VOLUME 4

 Volume Five | Cripple

    There was no mental realm that she found herself in after she fainted. In fact, she didn¡¯t have dreams either, nor did she really experience anything at all.


    All that Wei Yi was sure of was that time had passed, and that it was quite a bit of time.


    During that vague time period, there wasn¡¯t any exhaustion, pain, nor much coherent thought. She knew that she was alive, or at least she thought that she was, and she could hear the faint beat of her heart somewhere in the distance. Until she did finally wake up, she barely even knew if she was injured or if she had recovered from all of the battles that had occurred so soon after one another in the Ju District and then the Kong Prison Realm, followed by some random field.


    She didn¡¯t like the uncertainty, but even that was more of a vague emotion than a clear thought that passed through her head.


    Her awakening was slow, with her eyes refusing to open themselves.


    When they did, the rest of her faculties also looked to return to her. The sense of touch was vague at first, but she soon understood that she was laying on something, and that she was, at the very least, still clothed. She was able to smell meat burning somewhere near her, with the scent of various seasonings suggesting that this was likely to be the meal that someone was cooking for themselves.


    Above her was a wooden roof, lit up just enough by a candle that stood on the right of the place she found herself in. In the distance, through a layer or two of wall, a conversation was occurring.


    ¡°That person looked good enough, even with that,¡± one voice stated, followed by metal sliding against more metal. From the situation that she had inferred, she assumed that this person must be cooking whatever meat she smelled, and that it was over a fire and thus needed to be rotated to be cooked properly and evenly. With spiritual perception, she would have known far more, but it was unfortunately taking its sweet time to emerge from her body.


    ¡°Good enough? You want to do her?¡±


    ¡°Do- No! There are plenty who are interested in the northern people around here. She could fetch a good price, with the flaws not denting it too greatly.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re awfully optimistic despite the many times that such defects mattered far more than you had assumed them to. Remember when we had sold a blind man to a woman that had wanted him to view her art?¡±


    ¡°U-Uh¡­ that bitch was terrifying, wasn¡¯t she?¡±


    ¡°The paintings were worse, trust me. I regret ever trying to spy on what they got up to, even if it did get us out of being slaughtered by her.¡±


    There was no reason for her to continue listening to the conversation, as it was rather clear what they were doing and what they intended. Whether they had rescued her from whatever predicament she had ended up in or not, their current intention to sell her off as some kind of slave was entirely unforgivable. With the additional incentive of food with which to revitalise herself more quickly, she saw no reason to delay.


    She rose out of bed and found that her body was oddly weak, as if it was lacking something vital, which was odd. Planar energy was present, even if it was less plentiful than she was used to in the Kong Prison Realm, and her energy seemed to have regenerated well enough in the time that she had spent in an unconscious state. Everything should have been operating fine, or perhaps even better than usual if her mind performed the standard quiet development that it tended to do when she lost consciousness, but if it did not happen this time, it must have had something to do with not ending up in her mental domain.


    For that reason, she simply continued onward, using her more innate energy senses to perceive that the people were not any higher than the fourth realm, meaning that they would pose no threat to her even if she only had her physical body to rely upon.


    When she stood up, she was able to find a door leading out of the room, with no key or obstacle in front of it to stop her from walking out. She also had everything on her that she had fainted with, meaning that the people that brought her here had not properly considered their behaviour before discussing it before the fire. Even then, she had no interest in letting them go, even if she was able to find some route that entirely avoided them.


    She was a little furious from what could be described as a tie at best, and she would not mind taking it out on some people that deserved it.


    With that, the Ascendant opened the door and emerged into a small corridor, with walls, floor and ceiling alike being made of a dark and thick wood and carried within it a slight warmth. Although she wasn¡¯t sure what the situation outside was, it was certainly comfortable enough within this building. She could have walked without her heels and enjoyed the warmth if she wanted to.


    For now, she did not, and instead walked in the direction that the voices were coming from, finding a door that was slightly ajar. From within, the blazing and flickering light of a fire was clearly pouring through, and the sounds of metal being turned were even more clear.


    Again, she verified that their cultivation was no higher than the fourth realm, and then pushed the door open.


    On the other side, three people wearing thick furs were positioned around a fire in the middle of the room, where a space specifically for this purpose had clearly been created. Atop the fire burned a large pig-like planar beast, and it was being liberally seasoned with more random herbs and spices when she entered by one of the men. Another stood by the side and rotated the pig, and a third person, a woman, sat with her back to the door and was looking upon the pig while audibly salivating.


    Their breaths were slightly visible as they emerged as a soft white mist, clarifying that their current clothing was not being worn just for the sake of personal entertainment or some other silly reason. It was cold, even right next to the fire.


    When she came in, the first person, the one seasoning the food, noticed her and turned, surprise blatant in his eyes.


    ¡°Were you intending to sell me as a slave?¡± she asked once, just to be sure.


    ¡°You¡­ how did she wake up? Did you not say that she would be out for another week at the very least?¡± the man rotating the pig turned to her first, then the woman that sat before her, who promptly leapt up from her seat and retreated behind the pig and flame, staring at Wei Yi.


    ¡°S-She should have stayed unconscious, I-¡±


    ¡°Yes or no?¡±


    ¡°We¡­ we did! So what, you crippled bitch?¡± the first man suddenly exclaimed, grabbing a knife and pointing it at her with a strange degree of confidence for someone that was cowering at the very notion of her waking up only a short moment ago, ¡°You may have been strong at some point, but now you can do nothing to us, understand?¡±


    His remark was so odd that she just had to raise both hands and reach out to the sides as to showcase her full body, ¡°Where exactly am I crippled?¡±


    He did not provide a vocal reply, but their three sets of eyes were clearly looking towards her left, prompting her to look there as well while bringing her left arm over to get a proper look, as to be sure that she wouldn¡¯t miss anything. There were many things that could prompt someone to be termed as crippled in the cultivation world, so perhaps they had mistaken something for another matter that was far more severe.


    Almost instantly, her eyes widened, for she saw nothing ¨C literally.


    Where she had been sure that she had felt her fingers move through the cold air, there was nothing. Where her palm should have been, ready to strike the three before her if she needed to, there was no trace of skin, flesh, or bone. At the place where her armour, the one that she clearly felt upon her body and even on this very arm, she couldn¡¯t see a thing. There was no elbow, no upper arm, and it was only once she got to the shoulder that she saw a trace of what she should have had.


    Despite that, she had felt the arm there, so she moved her right hand to where the left should be, according to her perception, but it passed right through, just as her vision would suggest.


    She moved her right hand down the arm that her body somehow felt, only confirming the accuracy of her vision as she was able to place her palm against a stump found in place of a full shoulder, one that had been bandaged by someone relatively recently, judging by the moist feeling of her blood staining the cloth. It was incredibly surreal, because even then, she was able to feel her left arm with such certainty that she was forced to make use of the Third Eye at its strongest in order to be as sure of one fact over the other, and unfortunately concluded that there was no hint of her arm, and that the star metal that was supposed to wrap around most of her skin was cut off right at the edge of her shoulder, where it had been split along the line formed by the side of her torso.


    That left her with only a little bit of her shoulder, and even though she attempted to accelerate the regeneration of her body by as much as she could, she found that there was no hint of any recovery occurring at the shoulder, as if her body couldn¡¯t even understand that there was something wrong, something missing.


    ¡°S-See! You may have been some powerful martial artist, but without a limb, you will be nothing!¡±


    The voice brought her attention back to the present, where the three had armed themselves and were staring at her to see what she was going to do. While the two men looked to be more on edge than afraid, the woman was the exact opposite, to the point that one had to ask whether she even belonged.


    However, that was not the kind of thing that she could be bothered with at the moment, not when they had already said everything that mattered.


    Calling upon the slowly returning strength within her body, she took a step forward and clenched her one hand into a fist, the simple action causing the air around it to visibly fluctuate due to the power contained within her muscles. Even if all of her planar energy, physique energy and killing will was to be forcefully drained from her body without caring for the damage that it caused, she would still be able to display the raw power of a body that had endured countless rounds of refinement and improvement with countless methods that were able to combine together into an impeccable physique.


    At the moment, she could not see the manifestation of the killing will form upon her left arm for obvious reasons, but she was sure that if her hand had still been there, the three before her would have seen it acquire claws and a layer of black bone that would make it look far more demonic than human.


    ¡°I would be able to beat you lot up even if I lost my cultivation. Try me.¡±


    Although she said that, she did not give them the chance to act first, instead leaping into actions and heading straight for the weakest one amongst them. The woman was afraid and would react slowly, so if she wanted to disrupt their attempt at a defensive formation, she was the most suitable target. Indeed, even when she was disappointed with the speed at which she was able to move, the woman was still slower to react.


    The men attempted to get in front of her and prevent her approach, but they were a moment too slow to prevent her from grabbing onto the woman¡¯s thick clothing. Grasping it as firmly as she could, she threw her at the man standing over at the left, before turning quickly and meeting the approaching knife with the armour on her right arm.


    As she did so, she noticed just how disorienting the loss of an arm could truly be. It was not the heaviest part of the human body, but it was required for a great deal of what people typically did. The arm helped with balance, movement, all kinds of precise interaction and more, and most importantly for her at the moment, the loss of an arm did exactly what she had attempted to avoid causing with the scale armour through modifying her usage of techniques accordingly. Without an identical degree of preparation, her movements were blatantly sloppy.


    Just to name one example, her Heeled Movement Art was developed with an intense focus on perfect balance, and now that it was unable to function at the same level as before, she understood just how much regular women of the various Orbises must have struggled while wearing anything with high heels. Every movement felt like it was about to throw her off balance and send her plummeting to the ground, and she had to take far more care to ensure that she wouldn¡¯t trip up or otherwise misplace the smaller surface area of the heel in such a way that it would result with her standing on an uneven surface. Making such a mistake would promptly send her falling to the ground, and that would give the people before her enough time to run off or get a stab or two in.


    With the strange state of her arm, she was unable to determine whether her regenerative abilities still functioned, so recklessly taking any hits or using the Dao of Law was out of the question.


    As the knife was blocked by her armour, which did not look to possess its Armour Forming properties at the moment given that it failed to protect her Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival, she intended to strike with her left hand and hit the man¡¯s stomach. His clothing was weaker there and would allow her to take him out of the battle with ease if the force of her punch passed through.


    However, she realised after a moment that this was no longer an option.


    For that reason, she failed to take advantage of the knife being in such close proximity to her arm, like attempting to knock it aside and then go in for the punch that she had originally intended for. She also had to dismiss yet another tactic that would have involved the use of her left arm, something that she knew she would need to resolve once her situation was a little calmer, and finally arrived at a reasonable course of action while her weak spiritual perception finally reached out far enough to confirm that the other two were occupied.


    She lunged towards the third figure and to the left, where there would be little chance of her mistakenly believing that the left arm was still an option, then used that momentum to kick his right left. At that moment, he had begun to distance himself from her, but he had begun to do so with the other leg, making this one his only stable anchor to the ground.


    Luckily, even if her heels became far more difficult to walk around in, they did not lose their durability and strength, although the latter resulted more from her legs still being in good condition rather than the material of the heels themselves ¨C which, considering that any issues with the heels came from her own body as well, it was rather unfair to mention them in the first place. Her mind was not operating at its best at the moment, and she did not have the time to review the exact cause at the moment.


    As the man¡¯s knee was hit, the clear sound of breaking bone and damaged flesh was heard by all of those present at the scene. The man was thrown back into a wall, striking the wood hard but failing to damage it in another instance of her being extremely disappointed in the strength that her body managed to display. Nonetheless, the man was out of the fight for now, as she would not be able to do anything with one leg being completely internally shattered, she was able to turn her attention to the other two, who were finally managing to disentangle themselves form one another and thus were about to enter combat.


    The woman naturally fled to the back, her cowardly behaviour being predictable enough, while the man that she used as a shield didn¡¯t seem too bothered about it and instead gritted his teeth as energy flowed throughout his body, his every muscle slightly lighting up with a dull flame that coursed through him.


    ¡°She must be using something on her body! I told you that we should have stripped her rather than bandaging her!¡± the man exclaimed to the one lying against the wall, charging at her.


    As he attacked, so did she, although she did not do so by trying to get closer to him. Instead, she jumped back with one foot, then used the time in the air to remove the heeled boot from her other foot and threw it right at the man, much to his surprise.


    With her one functioning arm and a well-made boot, she was able to exert a little more of her usual strength than before, and thus the star metal flew at him far more quickly than he was able to react to it. It struck his chest and wasn¡¯t able to pierce his clothing directly, but the force that she was able to transmit through the boot was more than sufficient to break something inside of his body, forcing him back by a step as all of the energy within his muscles lit up for a moment during the collision.


    Since walking in just one heeled boot would be rather inconvenient, to put it mildly, so she removed that one as well, secretly making use of the House of Gold since she found that it was fully functional despite everything that didn¡¯t want to go the way that she wanted it to. Her connection to it was strange, her sense of it was also flawed, but she had enough spare space in there to throw in a boot and free herself to do whatever she wanted against the last foe. The woman had looked incredibly terrified, and she still looked the same, but the moment that the man was taken out, she rushed in.


    When she had sat in front of the door, she had been holding onto a sword that had laid by her side, one that might have been used by one of the other two, and when she had leapt up, she ended up carrying it with her to the side. Now that she was the only one that could still participate in the fight, she unsheathed the blade and held it in both hands, her fingers still leaving some space on the blade¡¯s hilt.


    She did seem to have the necessary strength and training to hold it, however, for after a moment of hesitation, followed by a breath in which she looked to let out much of her fear, she came at Wei Yi while channelling her own energy into the weapon, revealing it to be an artefact. It did not light up as brightly nor radiate as much energy as a weapon of medium grade and above should, so she presumed it to be a low-grade weapon and thus was confident that it wouldn¡¯t be able to break past her star metal armour. With that knowledge, she was able to determine several ways to deal with her rather basic horizontal slash, and she chose to do so with a safe test of her own body¡¯s physical endurance.


    It was possible to test later, but whatever happened wouldn¡¯t be fatal anyway, and she had plenty of bandages on her at the moment to cover up any wound. She might as well go ahead and risk it.


    Thus, she waited for the woman to get just close enough, then lunged forward and grabbed onto the weapon, using the precision that she did still possess to only allow it to lightly touch her skin. With the additional stability offered by the woman¡¯s firm grip on the bladed weapon, she kicked with her left leg, calling upon the energy that she was still able to detect within herself.


    Lacking much of the direction that she might usually give it, her energy burst out as a loose wave of silver and dawn light, quickly confirming its nature to her, but that was enough to fall upon the woman and latch onto her thick clothing. Right away, the immense yang within her physique energy set the fur alight, while the yin got underneath the many items of clothing and chilled her body and blood, causing her to freeze up and for her blade to be unable to proceed much further.


    While she was stuck between fleeing to put out the flames on her body and intentionally keeping them going so that they would warm her up, the Ascendant pulled the blade out of the woman¡¯s hand and then promptly stabbed her heart, just barely managing to evade the torrent of blood that followed.


    ¡®I might as well use a sword while I¡¯m over¡­ here, wherever this place is,¡¯ she reasoned, replacing the planar energy stored within by her killing will, as her planar energy would just cause the weapon to explode, ¡®Indeed, a low-grade weapon, and it also seems that the various forms of energy within my body are slowly recovering¡­ To see a time when the energy from someone that looks to only be in the second realm contribute to my planar pool in a noticeable manner is rather unfortunate. That being said, my cultivation should return to normal when given enough time, so that¡¯s good.¡¯


    Before confirming anything beyond that, she looked to the other two and approached the one that she had kicked to the ground by breaking his leg. He looked to be in the best condition of all of them, so he was the best target for interrogation.


    ¡°Hey, idiot, where am I?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I¡¯m not telling you anything!¡± he exclaimed after a moment of thought, ¡°We were wrong to want to sell you, but-¡±


    ¡°Good enough for me. Thanks,¡± she cut him off and swung the blade in her hand, cutting through his neck and stabbing his dantian the moment after, making sure that he wouldn¡¯t be able to make use of some planar energy to recover from the injury by some miracle of technique usage.


    She naturally followed that up by ending the life of the other man, then took the seat that the woman had been using and placed the sword beside her in a similar manner. The pig before her wasn¡¯t yet finished, and so she had the time to consider her own state for a little before she was going to need to figure out how she was going to eat that thing when she was unable to take it apart properly with only one hand available to her. In fact, there was a lot that she would need to consider.


    First of all, her attention naturally went to her dantian, where she confirmed the presence of her Endless Monolith, the Subterranean Shell that was around it, and then the ninety-nine marks that had appeared upon it since her last breakthrough.


    All of it was still present and stable, which was good enough for her, even if the rift at the centre of the Endless Monolith looked to be in a temporary closed state, as if it had been frozen and was slowly attempting to thaw. She was sure that it would in due time, no more than a month by her current estimations, and so that was not particularly concerning to her at the moment.


    What did worry her greatly was the fact that the spatial realm that had existed beneath the Endless Monolith and within the Subterranean Shell for some time was suddenly dull and hazy, as if it did not exist as anything more than a memory. She could not feel the realm, nor the fortress where it had become anchored, and even the districts of the Yi City Web were out of her reach now. The spatial spirit did not look to hear her as she called out to it, and there were no figures present within the mirage of the Kong Prison Realm, only the basic landscape and her complete Ascendant¡¯s Library.


    ¡®We¡¯d discussed a few flaws of the Yi City Web recently, but even the inability to connect the web from afar shouldn¡¯t lead to something as extreme as this. Thus¡­ the Reality Severance?¡¯ she frowned, recalling everything that she could about that attack with the library¡¯s abilities.


    Unlike her planar cultivation, which would be affected to a certain extent by the loss of the Yi City Web¡¯s empowerment and the lack of spatial realm to pull energy from, her mental cultivation and her physique looked to be in perfect condition, whereas her bloodline power was slightly decreased in quantity, just as all her other forms of energy were. Unlike her planar energy, which primarily resided in the dantian and thus didn¡¯t care too much about the size and capacity of meridians when not in use, the other forms of energy primarily occupied the meridians, with this including the mental energies that she had primarily stored in her head in the form of the three library techniques she had ended up going through on her path of killing will cultivation.


    Her physique energy had no place to go at all, and her bloodline power did have some additional quantity thanks to her heart, which could contain a little more than the rest of equivalent spaces in her body, so they were all affected by the loss of an entire arm¡¯s worth of meridians. Since she was able to externalise all of her energies, she could project them outside of the body, but it would not be the same as storing them in meridians.


    ¡°Going from the name alone, Reality Severance should split or sever something. Initially it had gone for my central point, so it would have cut me in half¡­ and the intention must have been not permitting me to recover,¡± she guessed, using her recovering killing will to turn the pig on the fire, ¡°From the view of Laws, perhaps they had cut the very concept of what I must be as a whole, meaning that even if I was to find my lost limb, it would do nothing to help me recover it properly¡­ I can¡¯t verify this with them, but if I loosen the bandages¡­¡±


    Doing so with one hand was a little tough, as they had been put onto her well enough, but at the very least her right hand had already fully recovered from the previous minor cut, minimising the difficulty.


    That quick recovery was also why she had concluded that her regeneration was still functioning about as well as one might expect. She had many methods that allowed her to recover from the most grievous of injuries, so even if she was temporarily frozen in a state of weakness, her severed shoulder would not be bleeding after a few minutes of sitting about.


    Once she removed the bandages and looked as best as she could upon the wound that remained on her body, she was able to confirm one thing. No regeneration had occurred whatsoever, not even to the point of closing the wound and leaving her with a stump covered in skin. It was all as if she had been cut only the moment prior, and so some of the blood had already begun to drip down her robes, which had also been affected by whatever effect Reality Severance had upon her.


    ¡®Another good reason to conclude that there is something more than a powerful cut to the technique. Otherwise, either my arm or the robe should have recovered some time ago,¡¯ she noted, finding that both were in that exact state of idleness that shouldn¡¯t have occurred with their typical properties.


    Perhaps the only positive was that her blood had been staying mostly within her body, and now that she had access both to her energies and control over her own body, she was able to attempt a few things. Healing the wound was a complete failure, further solidifying her conclusion, but she was able to place an invisible barrier at the wound and stop her blood from flowing out, meaning that the Crimson Robes wouldn¡¯t continue to be dyed a darker red by the continued from of the partly celestial crimson that flowed through her veins.


    She sighed, using her one hand to rub her aching forehead as she considered everything that she would need to adjust in order to compensate for the sudden loss of an arm.


    ¡®I also need to figure out how to correct this issue as soon as I possibly can. My cultivation is affected, but that can be ignored due to the incredible power that I should have despite this. The issue is the lack of the meridians found in that arm ¨C my dominant one, considering how often I used it ¨C and the fact that I have one less limb to interact with the world,¡¯ she thought, noticing that the pig before her had finally reached an edible state, ¡°For instance, I now need to just bite into this thing and hope for the best¡­ Well, physique energy is always an option, even if I may not be the biggest fan of just using it for everything.¡±


    Reaching out for the metal spike on which the pig had been impaled, she removed it without much difficulty and found a good place to bite into.


    ¡®Fuck¡­ I could have recovered my sense of taste, at least¡­¡¯ she sighed, and continued.

 V5C2: The Extreme South

    It took her a while to get through the meal, although she did get better at handling herself with only one arm by the end of the process. She still had a lot that she needed to clean up with her physique energy, so she knew that she would still need to improve or acquire some method of touching things even without a physical second arm.


    By the time that she was done, the fire had weakened and the cold atmosphere was a little clearer, although it did not pose much danger to her as she converted all of the meat that she had consumed to planar and physique energy. Together, even in the incredibly low quantities that she had obtained them in, they were sufficient to overcome the cold that she was currently facing and thus gave her all of the confidence and energy she need to take a step outside and take a look at where exactly she had ended up.


    She needed to make her way through a few rooms and corridors of the dark wooden residence, and by the time that she had reached the exit door, she found that the doorway was completely frosted over, with a thick layer of snow lying near the small opening between the bottom of the doorway and the door itself. To pull it open, she had to break through all of the ice that had formed around it, and when she did, she was greeted with a scene of pure white.


    A powerful snowstorm was passing through the area, obscuring her vision so that she could see little more than ten metres ahead of her even with her excellent eyesight. It completely filled up the sky, blocking any traces of sunlight or moonlight, and the ground was similarly encased in snow, with it reaching the bottom of the door with ease.


    Somewhere beneath the snow, she was able to perceive the existence of a staircase, so it was likely that it had gone several metres above what the builders had constructed over.


    While all of this was something that she had never before seen, she did have just enough understanding of the world¡¯s regions to identify the only part of the Western Continent that she was likely to be at.


    ¡°The south. More precisely, the Southern Wastes¡­ My clothing is not at all suited for this place,¡± she noted to herself, finding that her current physical state wasn¡¯t quite sufficient to endure the sheer cold that she was met with, ¡°If I recall correctly, the temperature decreases to an absolute zero at the very south- wait, what am I saying? Of course I remember correctly, so if there is any issue with this, it would be due to incorrect information in various books. Anyway, the Absolute Frost is at the very south, and is at an absolute zero. The closer someone is, the colder it is, and what I¡¯m currently experiencing¡­¡±


    She shut her eyes and focused her spiritual perception on the air before her to analyse the exact temperature that she was faced with.


    ¡®Nearly equivalent to the yin in my body, so I must be near the Absolute Frost. Then¡­ near the Qiang District, perhaps?¡¯ she pondered, shutting the door and heading back to the room where the three bodies still lay. The fire had gone out completely as a result of the cold wind blowing through, but the bodies were in a sufficient state for her to obtain a pair of furred boots from one of them.


    While she expected to be able to endure the cold if given a little more time to recover her own energy, then she would be just fine passing through the cold wastes of the south, but it didn¡¯t quite feel right to walk without any footwear after wearing her heeled boots for such a long time. It would also earn strange gazes from the people that she might come across, although that would happen anyway simply due the rest of her clothing not even attempting to cover up the majority of her body tightly. She could rob more from the bodies, given that they were hardly using anything they had on them, but she was aware that there were some traditions over at the south that she might accidentally go against if she wore something wrong, so she didn¡¯t wish to risk it when she didn¡¯t need to.


    From what she recalled, the furs that one wore on their bodies had some significance, and needed to be hunted by the person that wore them, so if she randomly grabbed things from the bodies of others, she might either earn the ire of the locals or otherwise make the wrong impression.


    Once she came back to the door, she opened it and stepped out into the snow, finding that it completely lacked the soft texture that she had once heard of. Instead, it was incredibly hard and dense, possibly having laid there for hundreds if not thousands of years without much disturbance. Whatever soft properties it might have had were entirely gone as it had nearly frozen into a dense sheet of ice that might be able to endure an incredibly powerful flame being placed right into it and kept going for several decades.


    There was no doubt that she had to be near the very south, so there was only one district to search for, and it was said to be at a relatively low position relative to the ocean around the continent.


    That meant that she had to go down from her current position, or otherwise use some method to determine her exact position with a little more precision than simply being aware that she was somewhere near the south. In fact, she might not even be in the current Yi City, at which point all that her attempt to find a district would result in is earning the ire of some other faction present around the modern territory of the city. It wouldn¡¯t be worth it, not when her body was not operating nearly as well as it could, and so she was beginning to conclude that it would indeed be better to find some identifying factor first.


    Her issue was that she was not particularly aware of anything that existed or occurred near the Qiang District, be it some physical landmark or tradition that might make it easier to track down her position. With everything that she had studied, there was far more information about the Central Plains than either the Northern Desert or the Southern Wastes. Even then, most of the focus was over to the north, as that was the direction that one might go from the Yi District to find the Ning District, the Chen District, the Luo District or the Ju District, all of which were noteworthy in their own ways.


    On the other hand, the south had the rivalry between the Xin and Ling Districts, the so-called district of servants, the Shun District, and the mine of the south, the Qiang District. To put it one way, it was not particularly well known or cared about, especially when the people at the north even had the story of the Master of Yi City¡¯s progression to the north and the establishment of a fortress where he had protected the people of his Yi City from the invaders of the northern territories. The south was often remembered as little more than a trip to gain a little more territory for his city and to find a place to dig for planar materials, so the only ones that took much time to study it were the people of the Chen District, as it involved their obsession with money and trading.


    Wei Yi had not been born in the Chen District, nor had she ever visited it, so she did not get the chance to review any of the information that they had access to, if they would have even permitted her to look through.


    She took a short walk around the house that she had exited from, and came across something.


    It was not what she had expected, but it did give her far more information than she had expected to obtain from something as simple as random wandering about the local area.


    Not far from the residence, there were traces of a high speed and high force collision in a nearby large hill, or perhaps a small mountain. Traces of the collision could be seen far from the actual impact site, and once she attempted to track it down, she found that it was even further than she had anticipated at first, as it took nearly half an hour just to make it over. Admittedly, that was made slower due to her present weakness and the difficulty of the terrain, but it had still looked to be far closer to her at first glance.


    What she did eventually locate was an enormous crater in the side of yet another large hill or small mountain, and it came from something that she had not expected. Well, to begin a little more appropriately, she found a thin line along the snowy ground that was not yet filled up despite the intense snow, and it proceeded towards the centre of the crater.


    There, she located a thin layer of blood that contained a hint of cosmic light within it, which, when combined with the vague shape of a humanoid figure with a single arm partly impressed into the stone, she would need to have turned into an idiot to not realise the origin of this crater.


    ¡°How fucking hard did I hit the ground¡­ No, it actually makes perfect sense. If I had somehow flown from the Central Plains to the extreme south, then I would have left a crater that is at least this large,¡± she muttered, stepping into the crater and quickly taking action to incinerate the blood contained within it so that the situation with the Blood-tinged Church didn¡¯t repeat again, ¡°This also tells me exactly where I am¡­ relatively speaking, of course. I know that I ended up somewhere between the Yi and Ning District while fighting with the Greats, meaning that if I use that line in the snow to calculate exactly how I flew¡­ I might be to the west of the Qiang District? Maybe?¡±


    She wasn¡¯t too certain about that, as even a small deviation in the line in the ground would lead to a very different destination due to the magnification effect of any action across a large distance. Nevertheless, she was able to roughly place her current position as being within the borders of the current Yi City, which was the best that she could have reasonably hoped for. So long as it wasn¡¯t entirely outside of it, she would definitely be fine.


    From some basic guesses and calculations, she was able to determine that she was more likely to find a district by going to the north-east than she was by heading over to the south-west, so she decided that it would be best to go in the safer direction first and see where she would end up. If she ended up going for far too long in one direction without results, she would shift her direction and instead attempt to find one of the coasts, as their more distinctive shape would allow her to get a better grasp of her position than any random mountain or hill in the southern territories.


    There would be some challenge in feeding herself until she was strong enough and absorbing enough energy from the world to sustain herself purely through planar energy, but given the apparent prevalence of pigs, bears and wolves at the south, she wasn¡¯t too concerned in that regard.


    Before travelling anywhere, however, she decided that it would be best to first return to the house within which she had awakened, as that would be the best place to start from due to it being over to the east from the crater. It was more likely to be closer to the Qiang District, and it would give her a chance to use her slowly expanding spiritual perception to find anything else that might be of use to her in the wooden structure.


    With some greater familiarity in traversing the snow, she was able to return a little more quickly than she had left, although that gave the residence itself more than enough time to completely freeze over. Without a flame, even if she did properly shut the door, there was nothing to prevent the outside cold from taking over the inside, and so it was soon transformed by a thick layer of ice forming over the walls and ceiling. That combined with the lack of heat looked to dye the entire place in a dismal colour, making it look as if it had died since the last time that she had taken a proper look at the place. It was quite something to behold for someone that had never once been to the south.


    Still, it was not yet as cold as the outside, nor was there as much snow on the ground, so it took her little effort to look through the place by first scanning a room with spiritual perception, then going through on foot if she caught anything of interest.


    Most of the rooms were devoid of interesting items, but a few did contain various pills that had been frozen in the snow. All were beneath three stars in quality, so she didn¡¯t hesitate to consume them to extract what little energy could be found within to slightly boost her own state, even if it did take a lot of effort to melt them. She wasn¡¯t sure whether there was a proper method for consuming them that didn¡¯t involve using an incredibly potent yang energy, but it did help them to remain in a good state for a long time despite their low quality.


    She found a few damaged and rusted blades in the corner of another room, and recognised that one of the weapons was missing, and that it looked much like the one she currently held.


    ¡®The people that had found me might not have been the original residents of this place, since even the sword is older than they were. Whatever this place was, originally, it must have been picked clean over the years, and yet nobody has done a single thing about it, meaning that the owner is no longer around,¡¯ Wei Yi was able to conclude, given that the pills she had consumed were at least two hundred years old, ¡®Well, even if they show up again and want their things back, they should blame themselves.¡¯


    There were a few pieces of armour as well that she decided to borrow and put over her crimson robes. As they were made made of the leather of some weaker planar beast, it shouldn¡¯t have the same kind of implication to the people of the south as the fur of the same beast, and it would make her stand out less if she had something to cover herself with other than some cloth and a thin layer of metal over her skin. Out of all of the troubles with the clothing that she had expected, one thing that had failed to occur to her was the trouble that came with only having one proper limb to place clothing onto herself with.


    She was able to partly substitute that fault with some guidance from spiritual will, but having spent so long with her own body, she was most familiar with using it and bypassing all of the limitations of the muscles and the physical structure of every limb to achieve the exact effects that she wished for.


    ¡°On a less serious, yet still annoying note, without an arm, having that additional sleeve just looks¡­ wrong. Taking it off wouldn¡¯t be good, but keeping it on doesn¡¯t seem right, either,¡± the Ascendant sighed, instinctively trying to raise her left arm to take a better look at the clothing she had put on only to recall that this wasn¡¯t possible. Even though the sleeve that hung loosely from her body made it obvious that there was nothing there for her to move, her mind repeatedly missed this.


    Her current issue was that no matter what she did, unless she was able to maintain a stable facsimile of an arm underneath her clothing, she would make it very clear that she did not have her full body. What that would incite would be the same kinds of reactions as the one that the three she had recently killed had, resulting in people seeing her as being weak and incapable. It was fine when it came to simply walking through a district, but if she wanted to get her hands on a spatial stabilisation point and earn some respect from the people, she wouldn¡¯t benefit from such an impression.


    Had her power remained in the exact state that it had been prior to the invasion of the Greats, that would have been fine, since she would have just been able to defeat anyone that had the wrong impression of her, but the lack of so many meridians and her dominant arm was not doing her any favours in that regard.


    Hence, she concluded that she would need to find a way to stabilise an arm even if it lacked normal flesh, and established the two conditions that it had to meet. First of all, her new arm had to be able to contain, transfer and utilise planar energy in the same manner that her meridians could without any more than a ninety percent loss in efficiency and efficacy, as any more than that would be too great of a loss compared to just using some planar constructs instead. Second of all, it had to be solid, present at all times, and not require any concentration on her part to maintain. Whether that was to be due to its usage purely instinctive, or due to it being something that only needs to be conjured once in order for it to remain for a minimum of a day without any further action on her part, this was very important.


    ¡®The cold is not the best place for me to practise it, however. I can¡¯t really spend my time doing whatever I want when the air itself can prevent my energy from emerging at the same vibrance that it might usually possess,¡¯ she noted, placing a few last touches onto her body.


    Once she was fully dressed up, she left the residence yet again and took the time to shut the door properly, just so that whoever else might reside here wouldn¡¯t try to track her down to complain. The bodies were taken care of by removing their embers and then draining their physique energy, with that process consuming their corpses and turning them into ash, which she dropped into the fireplace just to be nice.


    With everything readied, she left the wooden residence behind, and began her journey to the north-east, making sure to mark the terrain with heavy footsteps just to ensure that she wouldn¡¯t end up getting lost if her mental capabilities decided to act up again. With the intensity of the constant snow storm, it was difficult for her to clearly identify every part of the world that she had seen, and even the marks she left behind would fade away, but at the very least it would take a little longer for that to occur than if she didn¡¯t bother doing anything at all.


    After a while, she decided that it would be best to keep the sleeve in place rather than removing it, just in case her various assumptions about her arm were wrong.


    She hadn¡¯t been sure how much time she had wasted while being unconscious, so she was unable to accurately assess the exact time or date, but her internal clock functioned as accurately as before the moment that she awoke. As such, she was sure that she had walked for roughly an hour before she finally caught sight of something in the distance.


    During the walk, the extreme cold had prevented most of her body from recovering, meaning that her strength and practical cultivation was still low, but she had been able to prevent any degree of further decay without much difficulty, guaranteeing that she would be able to make it over to wherever she was heading without any further losses. Given that she was able to beat three people in the second realm easily enough, she suspected that she would be able to take down someone in the third realm even at this state, and the fourth realm would still struggle to break her star metal armour if she protected herself well, so she wouldn¡¯t be in danger from regular predators and thieves.


    After she had noticed something in the distance, she naturally accelerated, and soon came up to a lantern hanging from a wooden pole that was stuck in the ground and was almost certainly buried just as deeply as the residence from before, as it was almost at the level of her head despite looking like it was designed for someone to be able to remove or refuel the lantern without physically coming into direct contact with it, perhaps with a large stick or some kind of similar implement.


    Then there was also the fact that it reached down to the surface beneath the snow and then some, meaning that it had certainly been put in while knowing where the ground was.


    It worked well enough, and while standing in the light of this lantern, she was able to see the light of another further along in the distance, prompting her to follow the lights. They were powered by planar methods, meaning that they didn¡¯t really require human intervention unless natural planar energy was somehow prevented from reaching them, so they were not useful at informing her where she might find any kind of living being, but it was still something. Just like the presence of a residence, there had to be a reason for lanterns to be built. If it had a use once upon a time, then there was no reason that they wouldn¡¯t still be used, even if not by the original creator of the lanterns, or perhaps not even for the original purpose.


    In a way, one could see this kind of thing occur all over the Planar Continents if one was to think about the topic in vague enough terms. The very land of the Western Continent must have been home to countless different groups and cultures, and even in the years since the founding of Yi City, certain places had changed hands and uses countless times.


    There were no hints of footprints beside the lanterns, but this was to be expected given the intensity of the snow. Even the heaviest of people wouldn¡¯t dig too deep into the snow without doing it intentionally, like Wei Yi had done, so all that would be needed were a few minutes for any traces of a person¡¯s presence to be completely hidden from the world, with even the compression of the snow being rather unreliable since it had long compressed under its own mass.


    After the second lantern, there was a third, and after that one, a fourth and fifth. They got closer together after a while, and when walked past quite a few of them to the extent that her immediate thoughts no longer bothered to recognise their exact quantity, she finally reached something.


    It was not a district, so far as she was able to tell, given that there were only a few structures that were all close together and without any wall to protect from outside intruders. The place was far more accurately described as a village, and it was all concentrated around a central region where the number of lanterns was largest. One hung from every home, and then there were two or three in between every single structure just to make sure everything was bright enough. The unbound planar energy that seemed to travel with the freezing winds would flow into the glass of the lanterns and keep the orange light inside going, even if that did seem a little contradictory to the typical operation of a lantern.


    Nobody was outside at the moment, but that much was to be expected when considering the weather. She wasn¡¯t sure whether this snowstorm was common, but it was certainly unpleasant.


    Approaching the middle of this small village, she looked around and determined the structure that most looked like a place that a visitor might enter and least resembled a common residence, which was one that had the most worn door, a few windows that were completely frozen over that exceeded those in other buildings, and also a few hints of snow having been compressed a little more at the doorstep of that structure than at any of the others. All of these suggested that it had been more visited, with the windows being something that wouldn¡¯t be necessary for anyone simply using the place as a residence given the lack of anything to look upon.


    In general, windows in the Planar Continents were used more commonly in social spaces, and this had remained consistent enough in the Central Plains and only changed over at the north due to the heat forcing certain buildings to limit the places through which cold air could escape from their various cooling systems. The south was likely to follow the central region¡¯s traditions.


    She headed over to the structure and knocked on the door a few times, then pushed the door open.


    Seeing a light on the inside as well as the quiet muttering in one of the corners, while receiving no hint that she wasn¡¯t wanted here, she stepped inside and shut the door behind her before too much of the cold had the chance to seep into the building and ruin the mood of those that occupied it.


    Even before she took a look at it herself, her spiritual perception was sufficient to confirm her previous guess. The space she entered was primarily dominated by a bar and several barstools on one side, while the other had a whole collection of alcohol bottles on the wall and a large man standing near them, quietly wiping the surface of the bar with a grey towel. From its appearance alone, it was hard to tell whether it was that colour due to dirt and age, or if it had been that way from the very beginning.


    Away from the bar and to the left of the building were two tables with chairs around them, and one of the tables was occupied by a small group of four men, all of whom were still wearing all of their furs despite being inside of a building with sufficiently good thermal insulation. They were also sitting right next to one of the four fires in the room that were desperately attempting to heat the room to a suitable temperature, so it was likely that they were not as capable of dealing with the cold as Wei Yi¡¯s physique permitted her to be.


    When she entered, they had been talking to one another in a low voice, and after a single glance, they continued doing so, not bothering with her.


    The bartender also didn¡¯t react until she got close and sat down on a barstool.


    ¡°Anything that you want?¡±


    ¡°The staircase to the right, does it lead to some rooms? Can I rent one, and do you have a hot bath or something of the sort?¡±


    ¡°We have a room, and the room does have a bath. It is also hot. You want it?¡±


    ¡°I do. How much should I pay you?¡±


    ¡°One silver if you will only stay the night. If you go to the Qiang District, you might be able to reach it by the end of the next day depending on how long it took you to get here, not that I care,¡± the man said, not bothering to do much more than reach out with one hand to collect the fee for the room, ¡°Third room on the second floor. Don¡¯t make a mess, or else it¡¯ll cost you more.¡±


    ¡°Noted,¡± she said, having passed along one of her many spare coins to the man, ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Nothing you need to worry about. Do you want a drink first?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yeah, why not? Something cheap but decent, if you have such a thing.¡±


    ¡°Hmph, asking for the cheap stuff. Do you not have a sense of taste, woman?¡±


    ¡°No, actually. I can barely sense the alcohol, but I¡¯m not in a good state to drink more than I need to for the moment, so nothing excessive.¡±


    ¡°Ah. In that case, here you go.¡±


    He passed her a glass of a dark fluid and let her drink from it, finally paying attention to her actions as she was able to down it without a hint of an unpleasant expression appearing on her face, meaning that she was either speaking the truth or very good at hiding her disgust.


    Given that the people of the south did not look to be interested in random discussions, the Ascendant didn¡¯t waste her time hanging around and quickly departed to the second floor, finding the room she had been given and the bath that had been mentioned. It was the only thing that had even a trace of true warmth around it, and it came from the stones that were placed beneath it, which had a series of cracks upon them. Through them, a magma-like texture could be seen, as if they contained the earth fires of the world within them.


    To her, it didn¡¯t really matter how it worked, so long as it did, so she got rid of her clothing with her House of Gold, then got into the bath and laid back.


    Today, she had taken the first step to recovery, and the first step to expanding her domain. It didn¡¯t matter if she wasn¡¯t able to connect to the Yi City Web right away, or if her arm would not regenerate no matter what she did. All that she cared about was the fact that she would be able to proceed, and also that she would have a chance to wound the Greats yet again.


    ¡®They will die. Then, the Primordial Deities, and if the Hunger of the Beyond dares to invade, I will kill all of them too. I wish I had them near here, just so that I could say this to their face,¡¯ she thought, the left side of her face transforming into the killing intent state.


    It might be difficult, but she had never been so energised.

 V5C3: Interruption on the Road

    The bar that she had found lacked any significant planar materials or anything else that might greatly aid her regeneration, but with a few hours spent in the hot bath, her body had the necessary opportunity to bring itself to a more regular state, and thus jumpstart her recovery far more effectively than devouring a pig. In fact, all that she had needed was a stable, warm environment, and the rest would have been done by the incredible abilities that were contained within her bloodline power, physique energy, planar energy and her killing will.


    As expected, even when she released the barrier around the stump that had once been her shoulder, she did not notice any traces of her body attempting to regenerate, so she didn¡¯t waste too much time on that and instead prioritised getting the rest of her body into a better state.


    With the warmth of the bath, she was able to bring her typical bodily functions to the state of the third realm, and all of her energies to the second realm in terms of power, save for anything that required a strong balance of the presence of a left arm. In other words, her Touch the Heavens wouldn¡¯t work for the moment, as it had depended on her incredible power, physical stability, and the left hand, as it had been the one she had used when inspiration struck.


    The rest of her body was more lucky than that. Now that her physique energy was at a better state, it was able to endure the cold sufficiently to keep her body in a good state, and that meant that her regeneration would proceed far more swiftly. If she had the chance to obtain some yang water, the opposite of the yin water she had found in the Kong District, she might even have the chance to jump straight back to the fifth realm in power just by spending an hour or two inside of it, although that would consume a large amount of it at the same time. Since this might not go down well with whoever might provide her with the water, which was not usually utilised in the way that she had intended to use it, this might be a little difficult to accomplish.


    Still, the hot bath changed the previous estimate of a month to three weeks at most, which was good enough, especially when her regeneration would only accelerate as she got better.


    That was one enormous positive of splitting her focus across five different forms of energy, if cultivating them at once could even be counted as that. What one couldn¡¯t fully accomplish, one of the others could, and thus her body as a whole would balance itself out and would thus boost itself to new heights.


    Once she got out of the bath, she had intended to lie down for a bit, but this was not as easy as she had expected. She had naturally wanted to put her scale armour back on, but then she recalled just how complicated it had been to fit herself into it in the first place. She was easily able to remove it with the spatial storage method, but to put it back on took nearly an hour as she desperately tried to fit herself into the thing while only making use of a single arm.


    Her mental energy was able to contribute to the process, but she had concluded that any future leaps into pools would necessitate keeping the scale armour on her body if she ever intended to wear it again. It was simply that challenging.


    She also took some time to inspect her scale armour and confirm the state of the Armour Forming inscriptions, since they were supposed to be able to keep themselves active through incredible degrees of stress and damage, which they didn¡¯t really sustain as the only thing that had been lost didn¡¯t really affect the structural integrity of the other pieces of the armour. Although she hoped that it would be something that could easily be resolved by channelling some energy into it personally, or something of the sort, she was soon able to confirm that it wouldn¡¯t be this easy.


    Just as her arm and the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival were refusing to regenerate because her body and the regenerative cloth seemed to have lost the very concept of the left arm of her body, her scale armour appeared to have become a little confused as to what it actually was. With no regenerative properties to begin with, it was hard to say whether it could have recovered if it had them, but what was clear was that the Reality Severance looked to have removed something absolutely vital to the armour, which was easy enough to understand once the overall structure of the thing was considered in any detail.


    She had made the scale armour while intending to have it function as a whole all of the time, splitting the stress on the Armour Forming inscriptions across the many scales of the armour, but when it had lost a significant portion of itself, it also lost the very concept of a complete existence.


    It sounded absurd, and yet this was the best guess that she had at the moment. Even if she wasn¡¯t able to obtain the original stability that she had achieved with some luck, the individual scales should still have been recoverable by supplying them with her own energy, and yet no matter how much of her planar energy she supplied to the scales, she wasn¡¯t seeing any hint of their activation. With no better method to analyse or repair the armour for the moment ¨C the Dao of Law was, for the moment, still beyond her body¡¯s abilities ¨C she had no choice but to let it go.


    Fortunately, once she was in bed, it was pleasant enough for her to wait for the sky to slightly brighten, suggesting that either the morning had arrived, or that the storm had slightly subsided. Either way, this was good enough for her, as she didn¡¯t need to care about the time of day no matter what she did due to her tendency to avoid sleep like a plague, so she got up, fixed her clothing, and left the room.


    Downstairs, the people she had seen at the table were no longer present, and the bartender also somewhere else, so she simply exited and headed straight out of the village, ignoring the few people that had also left their homes. She didn¡¯t know what the people that lived here did, and unlike the small tribe where people had cultivated via an unusual method, there wasn¡¯t even anything that she might want to learn from them, so she didn¡¯t bother sticking around. Furthermore, her brief interaction with the bartender and the people confirmed the rumours of the southerners being rather quiet and reserved, so going up and speaking with them would be likely to prompt them to distance themselves from her anyway.


    It wasn¡¯t worthwhile to stick around in such a place either, as the Qiang District would be far more likely to contain both resources to develop her own body back to a decent state, and more knowledge that she could obtain from someone willing to share it. Perhaps she would locate a library, or there would be someone from the Central Plains or Northern Desert that would be open to sharing.


    Given that she was still walking through the snow, she had kept the boots she had recently obtained, and kept leaving distinct marks in the snow just in case.


    Like that, she proceeded to the east, having received just a bit of instruction from the bartender in the form of a small gesture towards the east when he had mentioned the Qiang District. Whether that was accurate or not, he must have had some knowledge of the districts and wasn¡¯t hostile towards them, so it was even more likely that she was in the land of Yi City, and thus near to a district in that vague direction. Even if it took a little longer, she would be fine with it so long as she found what she wanted.


    Since the previous day, her speed had increased by a significant degree, and so the journey that the bartender had expected to take a day should have been cut down by some extent, as he should have had a decent idea of her strength at the time. He was in the third realm, and while that wouldn¡¯t be enough for him to have any idea of her true cultivation, he wouldn¡¯t and didn¡¯t have any troubles with determining her weakness at the time, obviously including the lack of the left arm and the fact that she was barely walking at the speed that she had managed back then. Given his estimates at the time, she was now predicting that it would take her half the time at best.


    Of course, any mathematical problem could only be applicable in the real world if nothing at all happened to interfere with the calculations. For instance, if one was to predict how quickly it was possible to travel a certain distance, that number would only be accurate if that journey happened without any interruptions at all, without encountering anyone or anything at all.


    In reality, such a thing is impossible purely due to the fact that so many other forms of life and random interference existed all around the world. Whether it was at the extreme north or the extreme south, or even in the depths of the ocean that separated the West from the East, one could always find something to prevent them from proceeding with their plans and expectations as they would have wished to.


    In her case, this tendency towards the failure of plans and calculations ¨C especially ones that were loosely made without the use of her Endless Calculation method ¨C manifested in the form of a small pack of planar wolves of some kind bursting onto the path she was using.


    She didn¡¯t bother considering the odd affinity that she seemed to have with wolves, given that she looked to have fought them the most out of all of the wild planar beasts that existed in the world, and instead needed to focus all of her attention on the beasts themselves. Her current strength was at the equivalent of her second realm, which actually meant that she was closer to the third due to her excessive strength in nearly every regard even at that low realm, but her enemies were all at the second and third realm, with two of the largest wolves being in Emergent Anchor while the other five were in Planar Pool.


    They had jumped onto the road ¨C if a random path that the Ascendant chose could even be called that ¨C with their white fur allowing them to nearly blend in with the snow. She was able to see through it due to the different texture of fur in comparison to snow, and so she brought out her new weapon and held it out with her lone hand, quickly confirming its weight and the difference caused by her armour and the rest of what she had changed since last using the sword before any wolf attacked.


    As such wild planar beats tended to do, the white wolves first warned her to back off with a series of growls, but after noticing that she wasn¡¯t stepping back, they quickly pounced.


    Perhaps due to sensing her weakness, the two stronger wolves stayed back and let the weaker ones attack first, possibly believing that they would not be needed. She wasn¡¯t sure whether they were related to one another, with the two larger wolves being the parents of the smaller ones, but she did need some food and fur in order to fit into the southern society better, so she wouldn¡¯t let them get away. With their first attack placing them into a vulnerable position due to their inability to easily shift their trajectory while in the air, she didn¡¯t hesitate to jump in towards them and slash with her blade.


    Even without a greater physical strength, the edge of a low-grade artefact colliding with the fur of a weak beast was highly favourable to her. These wolves seemed to be a relatively common variant of a southern planar wolf, without iron-like fur or anything of the sort, and thus the sword was able to penetrate it without issue.


    While the wolf that was quickly losing its life flew past her, she took a step towards another and stabbed the weapon straight into its open mouth, barely having the time to shift her arm to the side in order to stop the jaws of a third wolf from travelling past it and biting down on her neck.


    Its teeth were unable to pierce the star metal, but it sure did its best to hold onto her arm, giving her the perfect opportunity to quickly turn to the side and slam the wolf on her arm into another one, the collision throwing both of them away with a few fractured bones. The last of the second realm wolves had gone for her leg, so the moment that she threw those two away, she used the opportunity to turn back and kick the fifth wolf in the jaw, definitely breaking something there and managing to launch it several metres away, right into the snow and quite some way into it.


    She hadn¡¯t used her full current capabilities on that kick, but the fact that it had been enough to partially bury the beast confirmed that she would be better off focusing on her legs in combat while her left arm was entirely impossible to use. Once she could do something with it, even if it did not fit her previous criteria, then she could return her focus to the upper limbs like before.


    With the five wolves downed in moments, she drained them of the minimal traces of internal energies that they possessed, those being bloodline power and physique energy, then turned to face the remaining two wolves. The five had been as large as regular wolves, without any planar attainment, but the other two were almost as large as she was if they stood up on their hind legs, and their strength was similarly greater than that of their fellow wolves.


    Against them, the planar anchors that they possessed, and the planar constructs that they would be able to manifest, she naturally had to pay a little more attention to their actions and not act as recklessly as with their children.


    This became even clearer when, the moment that they saw their children ¨C she had just decided to assume that this was the case since it really didn¡¯t matter to her ¨C the larger wolves threw down their anchors and howled loudly, two pairs of jaws manifesting before them and quickly flying at Wei Yi with the obvious intent to bite down on her flesh and do some damage.


    Unlike the five wolves that had jumped at her first, these planar constructs had far more mobility in the air, and so dodging them would be a little more difficult, not to mention using them against one another. The wolves might be inferior in intellect to the average human, but that didn¡¯t mean that they would just let her do whatever they wanted once they were in control of their actions beyond the simple leap that the others had performed. For that reason, she quickly analysed the technique that they had utilised.


    Planar beasts didn¡¯t intentionally study or learn planar methods, possessing constitutions that allowed them to cultivate and obtain various techniques through growth and purely existing, but their techniques still operated in a similar manner to the methods of humans. Their techniques could be obtained and adapted, although there was a lot of disputes on whether that was the way to go.


    On one hand, many believed that this was where humanity had first obtained their planar cultivation methods from, using the techniques of the beasts to create their own, but what was certain was that their techniques had a lot of potential issues ranging from the differences in physique and meridians to the completely different mental states of animals when compared to people. For that reason, applying actual bestial techniques in combat was not as common as being inspired by them to create the like of the Bull Punch or Bestial Palm, both of which weren¡¯t directly borrowed from the techniques of any particular animal but were instead aiming to replicate their abilities.


    Given the number of extremely powerful techniques she had in her Ascendant¡¯s Library, she hardly needed to use the methods of the wolves, but it did help to understand exactly what the strengths and weaknesses of the techniques were so that she could make the best use of her limited strength.


    For the moment, her mind was in a far better state than her body ¨C even if it was slightly tinted by the killing intent that looked to be generating at ten times the speed than it had been previously ¨C and so it was far better to use one strike to finish a battle if she could then attacking a dozen times with brute force. The latter could be used to wind down and relax once she returned to a healthy state, but not now.


    In order to do this more efficiently, Endless Calculation needed to be tweaked a little.


    ¡®To calculate something in full, I need a lot of time, even if it is far less than for the average person. For that reason, it is best to only focus on the outermost faults and the most blatant weaknesses, and target those above all else,¡¯ she thought, her mental energy scanning the jaws that flew at her, ¡®In other words, to understand what makes a man live and think, one needs a lot of knowledge and a lot of time to contemplate it. To take a man out of commission, so to speak, all one needs is to kick him in the balls, which takes a moment to understand once you¡¯re aware of that weakness.¡¯


    One approach was far easier and far quicker than the other, and so she was going to adapt the method of the Endless Calculation to contemplate only the possible faults of the planar construct that she was facing, simultaneously allowing her to overcome any future foes that might have great weaknesses but powerful overall defences.


    Trying out something like this in the middle of combat was a little risky, to put it mildly, but that was why she had chosen to do this with a beast¡¯s planar construct. Unlike the creations of a human being, which could take steps to account for potential faults and flaws in their creation as a result of continued battles and repeated experimentation, beasts were limited to making use of what life gave them, be it incredibly successful or otherwise. There would be fewer flaws in a construct than may initially be found within the creation of a human being, given that nature would have taken some effort to reduce its innate flaws through natural selection and what not, but far more than in most modern techniques.


    Indeed, only a few moments before she was hit, her vision was filled with several blazing fault lines on the surface of the planar constructs, and since she did not have the chance to debate them too greatly, she had to act right away, stabbing at one of the fault lines.


    Despite the seeming stability of the planar construct, the moment that the low-grade artefact hit that spot, it instantly pierced it and stabbed right through it, the planar energy quickly breaking apart as it flew past her, with it quickly scattering into unbound energy that was absorbed by her the moment that it was possible to do so. At the same time, she slashed at the other incoming planar construct and hit another fault line.


    This one did not prove to be quite as effective, as it was only able to crack the shell of the white planar construct, but it gave her enough information about the effectiveness of the newly coined Fault Perception to also dissuade her from rushing into combat and attacks in a similar manner in the future, especially when she didn¡¯t want to be hit.


    With this, she took the jaws with the armoured part of her body, allowing them to clamp down on her before she stabbed the inside of the planar construct using the new information she had learned about the technique to repeat the Fault Perception and get fewer but more accurate marks within her vision, allowing this strike to dispatch the planar construct without much more effort. The jaws clamping down on her and doing their best to bite through her didn¡¯t lead to the most pleasant experience, but thanks to the raw power of the star metal, she was mostly able to survive everything without a trace of pain.


    Both of the wolves weren¡¯t just standing still, of course, and the moment that she was showing signs of resistance, one of the wolves took a few steps back and howled again, focusing its energy into a greater planar construct. Meanwhile, the other one charged forward and surrounded his head and feet with planar energy, using a rather simple technique for the third realm but one that remained effective against anyone who wasn¡¯t strong against planar energy itself.


    As it jumped onto her, she had just dispersed the second set of planar construct jaws, and was thus already in a lowered position with her sword held out. The wolf had leapt onto her from the right angle for her to have a good angle to stab at its throat.


    Unlike its peers or children, whatever the relationship between the wolves was, it reacted swiftly by swiping at the sword with its planar energy-coated paw, stepping on it as it continued to fly towards her. However, as it did nothing to hold onto the weapon, she was able to quickly bring it back and move to the side, raising the sword high before promptly dropping it onto the neck, where the planar energy focused around the head was unable to spread out in time to block the cold silver blade with which its fur was hit.


    In the distance, the other wolf had already manifested a large number of teeth from planar energy, looking like something between actual teeth and pure ice, and bit down on the air as all of them were made to fall upon her. Perhaps it hoped that this threat would dissuade her attack from succeeding, but she was sure enough that leaving behind enemies wouldn¡¯t be a good idea.


    Thus, her sword went straight through the flesh of the wolf, hit a bone that she needed but a moment longer to cut through, and severed the head of the wolf cleanly.


    Most of the planar teeth were likely to hit her scale armour and thus do little damage, but she was aware enough that it wouldn¡¯t be a good idea to take the rest of the teeth with her skin while her body was not at its best. Even if her endurance was enough to survive them, her internal organs were resembling their usual state after she overused the Dao of Law and thus caused them all to be evaporated time and time again, and she would be better off saving her regenerative energy for literally anything else.


    It had to be noted that part of her immense regenerative rate came from the constant and nearly endless supply of lifeforce and vitality from all of the plants around the Kong Prison Realm. When she had a connection to it, she was able to draw upon all of those plants and constantly supply herself with more than enough lifeforce to also spread it throughout the prison realm and keep everyone inside healthy and strong, with their wounds recovering thousands of times more quickly than outside.


    Now that she had only the mirage of the spatial realm within her dantian, that was cut off and both she and the people within were likely feeling the effects. In comparison to last time, when she still had a certain connection with the spatial realm even while she was in the residence of the Greats, she now had nothing but the vaguest link to it, and so she couldn¡¯t keep her physique abilities working for everyone inside of the Kong Prison Realm. Her lifeforce was also now limited, and so, while she could draw upon it right now to bring her recovery speed up, it would also consume a great deal of the pool that she had built up. Given that she had no idea how long it would take her to come over to the Kong Prison Realm and connect with it properly, nor how many more injuries she might sustain, wasting her lifeforce was incredibly risky and stupid, to put it mildly.


    Instead, she focused her killing will within the low-grade artefact she currently wielded, and then thrust it out as the planar teeth approached her.


    Back in her first ever encounter with living cultivators from the Silver Side, she had managed to grab up several interesting techniques from them, one of which had brought about her current Ire Dao. Another, however, was called Strike Deflection, and its primary function was to meet force with force and thus allow less energy to be used than if one attempted to fully shield themselves.


    At this moment, she utilised the mental energy stored within the blade and brought it out all at once, splitting it into tiny threads that all targeted the frost-like teeth that were heading for her body. The rest had no significance, and since their trajectory did not look to be alterable by the wolf after they were sent flying, there was little reason to block those that had no chance of hitting her. Had she had the spare energy, she could have taken all of them out at once, but then she would have already defeated the wolves long ago, if she even bothered to interact with them in the first place.


    The teeth fell down and were promptly met with thin threads of silver and crimson, all of the threads hitting the exact centre of the teeth not in order to actually destroy them, but only to provide enough force to prevent them from continuing on. Judging by their overall strength, she suspected that the sheer qualitative difference would allow her to destroy the teeth with enough investment of energy, but that would naturally require more energy and be a waste overall.


    Every tooth that she hit with the threads cracked upon collision, but most still continued to fly, albeit at a far slower pace. With that, she was able to draw in every loose thread and gather the energy within the sword once more, letting it gather for just a moment before she let it out a second time. This time, she made use of the Decapitating Net ¨C another technique from the Silver Side¡¯s arsenal ¨C and combined it with the Pearl Barrier and Strike Deflection in order to achieve the highest chance of success as she launched that net at the teeth.


    This time, the combination of methods and the greater degree of energy invested, combined with the already present damage to the teeth, meant that the collision completely crumbled the teeth that it struck into nothing but unbound planar energy, which she greedily devoured.


    In the time that it took for the energy to properly return to the existing ecosystem of the world, it would be in a higher concentration than the rest of the energy around her, and thus absorbing it would bring a greater increase in the currently limited pool of her energy than simply draining the world, although she had yet to do that as she was concerned that her currently frail body would be unable to bear the cost of taking in so much energy so quickly.


    ¡®It¡¯s been some time since I had ever felt this way, hasn¡¯t it? I haven¡¯t needed to worry about the energy I can and cannot take in since¡­ the age of sixteen, I think. How times haven¡¯t changed¡­¡¯


    While the wolf in the distance was still recovering from the energy it had expended and considering what it was going to do against her, she charged forward and made use of the Eight Great Changes to lightly coat her weapon in flame. Then, she made use of the Ember Switch move to accelerate her advancement and stabbed the blade straight into the eye of the wolf, piercing its flesh significantly more easily than when she had not made use of a fire-type method. With that alone, it was safe enough to conclude that the wolves were indeed a kind of ice-type beast ¨C a variant of the water element, although it was one that she had yet to encounter as a dual element so she presumed it to be a simple variation of the water element that was weaker to heat.


    This likely applied to most of the creatures in the south, so she intended to keep making use of fire while it remained effective, and seeing as her body was not yet attempting to shatter or explode, it looked like this was something that she was able to manifest safely enough.


    She grabbed the embers from the bodies of the wolves, devoured their energy, and then stored the largest two within her spatial storage method, fully aware that she had insufficient understanding when it came to the exact methods to skin and then make use of the beast¡¯s fur. This was something that needed to be studied first, since there might be countless different rules implicit to southern society which wouldn¡¯t be good to violate by accident.


    Given the fact that fur didn¡¯t typically generate heat, except for fire-type planar materials, there was no real benefit to her making use of it immediately, and so she did not waste her time on it.


    With everything else cleared up just in case leaving behind beast corpses was somehow frowned upon in the south, she departed and continued down the road with the blade cleaned of blood and her energy returned to her body, where it was desperately needed to allow it to contribute to her currently limited pool of power and assist it in recovering more quickly. Her sword was put back into a sheath hanging from the waist by a belt obtained in the residence that she had woken up in, and she managed to fix the slight traces of teeth upon her outer leather armour from the wolf¡¯s bite.

 V5C4: The Qiang District

    That was not the first interruption, but it was the only one to give her the fur ¨C and whole body ¨C of a beast in the third realm, so the rest were of far less use to her. Some more beasts slain and a bandit dispatched far more easily than she had expected, given that he had been in the third realm but only survived one hit, resulted in little personal progress or earnings.


    Nonetheless, she proceeded on and sought out the Qiang District, and after a little while, she finally came up to another set of lanterns on poles that were half-buried in the ground.


    As this seemed to be the universal method of guiding travellers within the southern regions, especially those that looked to endure a constant snowstorm with no traces of beginning or end, she followed them while remaining cautious of any further bandits and beasts that might be interested in pouncing on her. The long journey hadn¡¯t quite exhausted her, but she knew that if she was to face too much physical stress during one day, her regenerative process wouldn¡¯t be assisted by it in the slightest, although it might yield greater results when she has enough planar energy to constantly course it throughout her body and take advantage of the injuries to rebuild those parts more quickly.


    In this case, the long-term was not as significant as the short-term situation, so she made sure to not walk into any ambushes that she might come across on the route that she was taking, although there were none that she personally noticed.


    During the walk, the sky had gone from being slightly lighter to being slightly darker than before, so she was able to conclude that the equivalent of night must have come. With that in mind, as she approached a larger source of light than the lanterns she had been walking past so far, she knew that she would be best off heading back to an inn or some other place to stay for the night. There was still no need to sleep, but she had a feeling she might never refuse a hot bath after this, not for quite a long time.


    The source of the greater point of light was a series of lanterns that were hanging next to one another from a wall, right above a gate that almost blended in with the wood around it due to their materials being the same and both having endured an endless amount of snow falling upon them, leading to the originally dark wood fading into a pale, almost marbled white, with only small specks of dark brown showing through.


    Nobody stood at the gates, nor was she able to sense anyone standing on the wall above them, but there were traces of some inscriptions near and within the gate that would alert anyone to any attempted intrusions, with that being the full extent of the capabilities that she was able to observe for the moment. Considering just how many channels there were in the structure as a whole, she was almost certain that there were dozens of other functions that were accomplished with it, but as she did not have the energy to digest the structure in full, she could only shove it into the Ascendant¡¯s Library and wait until she had the time to understand it.


    From her understanding of the south, there weren¡¯t many districts or families focused on the development of the great arts, at least none that were as dedicated and generally as successful as the northern districts like the Ning District were. The inscriptions in the gate were, as a result, unlikely to be of much use when it came to the study of inscriptions as a whole, but it wouldn¡¯t stop her.


    On one hand, gaining more knowledge was never bad, since it was random knowledge that had given her most of her powerful techniques, but dismissing any information purely due to its origin would be stupid. While the inscriptions may not the best, most advanced, or anything else of the sort, the fact that they are in use in one of the most stressful environments in the entirety of the Planar Continents was enough. Anything that was able to endure the constant snow would need to have at least one element that was done well enough to prevent it from being damaged by the cold, which was a far more dangerous thing to inscriptions and arrays than one might image.


    Just as the heat at the north was sufficient to melt certain artefacts, the cold at the south was able to destabilise the channels within an inscription and prevent the energy from flowing along them correctly.


    This was what set them apart from artefacts made via blacksmithing methods, which had the energy flow directly through the material, hence causing her planar energy to overwhelm the material itself and prompt its explosion. Inscriptions were able to endure her energy, as were arrays, while talismans likely lasted for less time in exchange for far greater effectiveness due to the intensity of her energy burning through the ink or blood used to draw the talismans significantly more quickly than regular planar energy might. When it came to pills, one¡¯s own energy primarily determined refinement, not the actual material of the pill, and so there were no issues in that regard, which was slightly unfortunate as having her energy be able to detonate pills and other items in the hands of others would be an incredibly useful move at this time.


    Back onto the original topic, however, when inscriptions were faced with the intense cold, the resonance between materials and the channels carved into them can be disrupted if they were made poorly, or if no steps to prevent this were taken, and so it meant that the southerners had at the very least figured out a way to do this with all of their inscriptions. She wasn¡¯t able to detect separate inscriptions for this purpose, and so the method had to relate either to the construction method or the materials used. Either way, there was a lot to learn from this.


    Against enemies like the Great Families, it was easy to predict exactly how they will attack and how to endure it, with the most variations in their tactics occurring during her first and last encounters with them, and this would be maintained against the Primordial Deities. However, when facing the amalgamation of an element or concept given form and a malicious will, knowledge needed to be tempered with power and the appropriate preparations to ensure that their power wouldn¡¯t overwhelm the method used to combat them. Whether or not the Primordial Ocean was able to call upon the might of ice to obliterate her Armour Forming inscriptions, if those ever began to work again, there were still plenty of forces that could threaten and be weakened by appropriate preparation.


    ¡®And while my head is thinking less quickly than usual, stopping and standing around for so long makes me look like I¡¯ve fallen asleep while walking, so I should proceed, even if I don¡¯t see any guards standing around.¡¯


    She took a few steps forward and stopped right before the wooden gates, waiting to confirm that there was no response of a hostile kind before proceeding to knock several times. Although it seemed like any sound was lost within the thick wood, she did notice that it activated an inscription whenever she came into contact with the door, and so she took a step back after a few knocks as to allow whoever received the warning to come out.


    It took a little while, but she heard footsteps coming from the top of the wall, and so took a few more steps back to be able to look at the person standing above her.


    Just like most people in the south were likely to be, this person was clothed in a thick layer of fur, and beneath it she was able to see traces of metal. Given that plate armour was supposedly highly popular due to giving masters of the great arts plenty of space to inscribe various temperature regulating inscriptions into the metal, this was also to be expected, and she was at the very least able to conclude that she had come across a settlement where life still existed, unlike that residence and the many lanterns that looked to remain since ancient times, perhaps when the snow was lighter.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± the man asked, his voice as gruff as gravel.


    ¡°I am searching for a place to rest, preferably within the walls of a district. Have I come to the right place?¡± she asked back, unable to determine the exact shape or structure of what it was that she had approached, forcing her to go beyond simply requesting permission for entry.


    ¡°You are in luck then, outsider. This is the Qiang District, home of the Qiang family. If you misbehave, you will be thrown in the mines, and you will be made to work, so keep that in mind,¡± the man said, looking her over as well as he was able to from the distance and through the snow, ¡°Are you from one of the northern districts, woman?¡±


    ¡°Does it matter?¡±


    ¡°Are you from Yi City, or are you a savage that needs to be taken care of?¡± he changed his question, his hand blatantly moving to a weapon on his side.


    ¡°I am, from the Yi District.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ Alright then, you can go inside.¡±


    He looked to have listened to someone else while they were deciding what to do with her, and so she was able to confirm that there was likely a guard captain or otherwise some higher-up that he needed to listen to on the matter. With the stricter security than the open gates of some northern district, this much was to be expected, although she was curious to learn whether there was some situation that made them more wary of the nearby nations or if this was their standard approach at all times.


    If the other nations were more hostile at the south than at the north, or if they perhaps had more power than their equivalents on the other side of the continent, then she was going to be rather concerned regarding the possibility of obtaining the spatial stabilisation point in the Qiang District.


    She was obviously able to simply proceed through the districts and return to the Lan District in order to find the nearest stable gateway to the Kong Prison Realm, provided that it was still active after she had lost her connection with it, but that would be a complete waste of a journey. At the moment, the Greats were likely unaware of her state and location, and so they would have a hard time tracking her down with any accuracy, so if she kept quiet and grabbed a few spatial stabilisation nodes while they weren¡¯t paying attention, she would benefit greatly. All of the nodes could be linked to the northern region and lead to the total benefit to her strength doubling in one go.


    While it may be quicker to rush off to one of the districts under her control, it would also be more likely to lead her into the arms of the Greats, as they would be likely to remain around her territory.


    Given that she had already stepped back, the gates could be opened easily enough, with the two halves opening outwards in order to grant the gates themselves the greatest possible endurance against attacks and significant stress, like that caused by high quantities of snow. On the other hand, the doors in the southern regions looked to primarily open inwards, likely due to the latter reason, as it would be difficult to open a door into the snow if there was a lot of it, but easier to shut a door if a little bit of snow got into the building.


    The gates opened just enough for her to walk through without touching the side of either half of the gate, and she promptly walked inside just in case they decided against letting her inside for whatever reason.


    Once she got in, however, she quickly found that things were very different inside of the Qiang District than on the outside. The constant snowstorm that barraged the walls was far weaker on the inside, and with every step she took, it was as if the weather was heading for the better, with only ten steps allowing her to see a scene that was affected only by the occasional bit of snow that flew in and landed softly on the ground.


    In smaller quantities, the overbearing snow was far less threatening and more beautiful, allowing just a thin coat of snow to coat the rooves the buildings before her. The ground was kept mostly free of it, however, due to a combination of a powerful array that she was able to feel beneath the ground, and a few people that she could already see walking through the streets and swiping away the loose snow in both solid and molten states to keep the streets clean. Most of them were making use of simple techniques to accomplish this, although she could see a number of purely physical implements scattered around for the same purpose.


    Whether this was to be used by the people to clear up their own streets, or if there were some that were specifically made to do it, she couldn¡¯t know for now, but the open streets were enough to provide her with some basic guidance towards a place of interest to her.


    With the sky revealed to her, the Ascendant was able to tell that her previous observations of the slight changes in the colour of the sky were indeed related to the time of day rather than the weather, and that she had arrived just at the night began. All of the lanterns around the district were enough to keep the district lit up as if it was still day, and so it was incredibly easy for her to search out a place that resembled the establishment that she had previously encountered in the village. Their architectural styles were highly similar, and so she only needed a few minutes.


    None of the people she came across had any interest in speaking with her, as she expected, but just before she had the opportunity to enter the inn, she saw that on the opposite side of the stone road, she found a small store where a large number of furs and items made from it and leather were visible on display. Given the fact that every single person had worn something made of fur in a prominent place, she had no choice but to enter and find out whether or not her impression was correct.


    There was nobody at the front of the store, so she took a little time to look over the things that the owner had put on display, finding that while most of the items were rather simple in nature, with some being cloaks whereas others were simply the furs of beasts trimmed slightly to make them easy to put on one¡¯s shoulders. Still, they were well made and lacked any obvious flaws that she could observe, which was about as good a compliment as she could give to anything while being highly unfamiliar with the process of creating and using it. With knowledge of either one, she might have a number of complaints regarding every minor detail of the items, at which point she might have been dissuaded from visiting the store.


    For now, there was none of that, and she had little time to consider further as the owner returned.


    Contrary to her initial impression of the southerners being a purely male community ¨C she had met only one woman so far, so it seemed to her that most of them didn¡¯t go out into public for one reason or another ¨C the owner of the store was a tall and well-built woman, with defined and clear muscle that was still in line with the natural shape of her body, and thus hidden well underneath a thick layer of leather and fur that she wore over most of her skin.


    It didn¡¯t do much to hide the presence of a sizeable bust, nor was it covering her hands, which were dirty but not calloused or dry, contrary to what one may find on the usual craftsman.


    ¡°Need something?¡± the owner asked, her eyes looking through two gaps in long brown hair. Most of the hairs at the front were cut to loosely end near the tip of her nose, while the hair at the back was tied into ornate braids that resembled certain drawings of traditional southern hairstyles that she had seen in some of the books she had read regarding the south.


    ¡°Do you accept commissions, or is this all that you sell?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a northerner, correct?¡± she inquired, looking her over a few times, ¡°Did you want to fit in with the rest of us?¡±


    ¡°It would be ideal not to stand out too greatly, yes. I know of some southern traditions regarding fur clothing, but I cannot say that I am familiar with them. If there is some reason that I cannot purchase these, or obtain your services, then I can leave.¡±


    ¡°No, if you have the materials, then I can make whatever you want. The key is that the beast you wear must be hunted by you, and ideally by you alone. The more powerful it is, the more you can be respected as a hunter and a member of society,¡± the owner explained, looking at the various items on display, ¡°These are just to show that I know what I¡¯m doing. Most of the furs are of first realm planar beasts, so even if you put all of them on at once, you would be laughed at.¡±


    ¡°I see. What about a third realm wolf or two?¡±


    ¡°Hm, with your realm¡­ Should be fine. If you are at a lower realm than the beast you hunted, and you can prove that you had done it, then you deserve much respect, but once you go higher, you aren¡¯t necessarily required to go out and hunt another, stronger beasts, although many do. Now, you got a wolf like that?¡±


    Wei Yi simply nodded and reached into her pocket while turning away with her body, so that the action itself was more obstructed, and simply called upon the House of Gold and brought out the wolf carcass.


    With the common nature of shrinking bags, it should be the natural assumption that someone would make regarding the origin of the wolf body, although she would have still hidden it had she had the spare bodily capacity to make use of the Dao of Law to force thinking in that direction. Without it, all that she could do was be as subtle about it while disguising as much of her movement and the wolf¡¯s body as possible so that nobody was able to witness the wolf suddenly appear out of thin air, a clear manifestation of a spatial storage method.


    From a single glance, it was difficult to tell what the highly reserved southern woman was thinking, but even if she made the more accurate assumption, she couldn¡¯t do much about it.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got another one, but hat one is in an inferior state, so I don¡¯t think that you¡¯d make as good a product out of it. How long would it take to make something basic for me?¡± she asked to quickly change focus to literally anything else.


    ¡°It¡¯ll take a few minutes. I have a lot of practise, so if you want to stick around, you can do so.¡±


    ¡°Then I will accept that offer, if you do not object to me viewing the process. I¡¯d assume that it would still be ideal for me to make my own items out of fur, even if few people will actually know who created it,¡± Wei Yi said, heaving over to a wall and leaning against it, nearly attempting to make use of her left hand to do so a little more smoothly before she was forced to make use of her other hand instead.


    Whether the previous issue was noticed by the owner or not, this was certainly picked up, as she stopped in place and shook her head.


    ¡°There¡¯s no reason to go beyond your abilities in this regard. With one hand, I don¡¯t see how you intend to make your own clothing, even if it is only something as simple as this,¡± the woman said frankly, turning away and heading over to work surface, ¡°You should also check the wound out to make sure that it hasn¡¯t been infected, since that would be even worse for you in the long run than simply missing an arm. Alternatively, it might have frozen over and been frostbitten, in which case¡­¡±


    ¡°Well aware, thank you. What makes you think it¡¯s recent?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t see that mistake on your part. Left-handed, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I was, certainly. My left hand was highly useful, and it just tended to be where most of my powerful techniques were used from. Perhaps if I had lost only the hand, I would have still attempted to make use of the rest of the arm, but without that, I have had some difficulties with adjusting to all of this nonsense.¡±


    ¡°Is it not fresh? The wound, I mean.¡±


    ¡°Depends on how you define that. What¡¯s the date?¡±


    The woman took a little while to recall it, then stated, ¡°The twenty-second of the sixth month, if I recall correctly. Don¡¯t make me mention the year, or else I will be incredibly concerned for you and throw you to an alchemist instead of making something for you.¡±


    ¡°No, no need to mention the year¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered, considering the date of when she had gotten into the fight with the Greats and comparing just how much time had passed, ¡®That means that, if I awoke two days prior, that I had been unconscious for eighteen days¡­ Shit. That is not what I would have hoped for, but it has helped me with resetting the internal clock, if nothing else¡­ I may need to be quicker than I had initially estimated, because the majority of a month is more than enough for the situation in the north to be changed greatly by the Greats and my Arbiters fighting, whether directly or not. I hope that they haven¡¯t done anything stupid, either one of them, or else I¡¯ll be mad.¡¯


    By the time she returned to the north, whether she took her time or not, she would possess as much strength as she had prior to the Reality Severance, even if she would only have one hand to use her abilities with, and so she would still be able to make her dislike of any actions taken by either side clear. It was not what she was hoping to do upon her return, however, so she was hoping that the strange figure that had appeared in the Kong Prison Realm would not run off after the first use of the Four Cardinal Beasts array.


    ¡®Come to think of it, who exactly was that? Why were they helping me? Were they helping me? Was it a human being, or was it some kind of natural force, like the Primordial Deities? Could it be a Primordial Deity?¡¯ she had a lot of questions for herself and that figure, but with the lack of connection to the prison realm, she could only put them away for now.


    Seeing that the Ascendant wasn¡¯t continuing nor providing an answer to the earlier question, the owner of the store focused on her work and quickly took apart the wolf with clear and practised precision. Her technique used a lot of careful planar energy manipulation, and so she was able to avoid coming into contact with the fur with her hands for the majority of the process. In that way, the pristine appearance of her hands, the dirt aside, made a lot more sense. Even if she wasn¡¯t the usual owner of the store or something of the sort, she certainly had the skills to act as them in front of someone with minimal understanding of the process.


    Even if there was anything unusual about the woman, it didn¡¯t really matter to her so long as the fur was processed correctly, as everything after that would be dependant purely on her and no-one else.


    A few more minutes passed until the store owner was done, and what she was able to deliver was a white fur cloak, made up of the majority of the beast¡¯s fur. It was bound at the front with a simple metal clasp which she would certainly need to process with the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp if she wanted to have the cloak last any of the fights that she often got into. The fur at the end of the cloak was cut off to prevent the fur from the limbs of the wolf from dragging along the ground while she walked.


    ¡°Need help with putting it on?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not that useless yet, so no need for that. Is it best to leave it exactly as it is, or does the south not mind if I change some things about the fur for my own personal preference?¡±


    ¡°So long as it¡¯s recognisable, we don¡¯t care. None of my business, I know, but you should take care of that wound anyway. It would be a shame if your body deteriorated as a result of it, given that you seem strong enough.¡±


    ¡°Noted. That being said, my body will be fine. I¡¯ve taken a few terrible injuries in the past, so I will make it out alive. You wouldn¡¯t happen to know whether the establishment across the road has a hot bath available to its customers, would you?¡± Wei Yi took the opportunity provided by the store owner, who decided to keep talking to her for whatever reason.


    ¡°Every inn and place that offers a room for the night has a hot bath in the south, as it is simply too cold outside for anyone not practising a fire or ice-type body cultivation method. The only difference is whether it is in your room or in a shared communal space. That place has the former,¡± the woman said, rising from the seat she had taken to work and headed back to the door through which she had previously entered, ¡°If that¡¯s not what you want, there¡¯s a place three streets to the left that makes it very obvious what they offer. Anyway, I¡¯m busy, so go away.¡±


    The ending of the conversation was rather sudden, but given the rather direct nature of the southern people, the Ascendant just shrugged and exited the building, adjusting the fur cloak slightly before proceeding to the inn.


    At any other time, like when she was in her best state and had both her arm and the spare time to do what she liked, she might have visited the other place she had been informed about and checked out the open baths, but now wasn¡¯t the time. There was little chance of her being able to fully appreciate the baths, and she doubted that others would appreciate someone with a severed arm and a wound that looked like it should still be bleeding ¨C which it was, being kept in only by an energy barrier and her control over her body ¨C entering the waters shared by more than her. Even if she was a dragon, whose blood was known to be able to empower a person due to the case of Chao Jianhong, albeit with terrible side effects that included eventual death, most would prefer to stay away rather than collect the blood.


    For that reason, she entered the first inn that she had come across, requested a room, headed up to it, and found the bath on the inside. It was larger than the one in the village, but not significantly so, giving her enough room to lie down in the hot water and relax once she removed her scale armour again.


    With a little bit of practise from last time, she was a little more confident in removing the armour and putting it back on, although she did attempt to make use of the House of Gold to do this for her, without as much success as she would have hoped for. Taking it off was still easy enough, but she was unable to remain still and consistent enough to return into the scale armour safely. As such, she temporarily put that down the list of priorities and just took a bath normally.


    After a few hours in the hot water, she moved to the bed and laid down to focus on her cultivation and mental energy.

 V5C5: Healing

    Although the snow that constantly bombarded the outside of the Qiang District was not present, the cold very much was, and a hot bath could only do so much against the degree of yin that had built up within her body. After all, even if it somehow took her a whole day to fly from the Central Plains to that random mountain in the south, she would have still remained within it for a minimum of ten days, with that number varying depending on how long she had spent in the cold mountain before the three that she had come across took her out of it.


    In that time, with nearly no energy and a damaged body, her Superior Yin-Yang Ascendant physique was unable to counteract the cold, and so she now needed something else to forcefully raise the yang value until it was sufficient to counteract the yin.


    For the moment, all that the rest in the bath was able to do was stabilise her condition at the third realm in every single type of energy she possessed, which was the easiest part of the process. With every stage and realm of current strength, the effort needed to go further would increase if she was in the position of a normal person, but with her physiques and the Blood Resuscitation realm of physique energy cultivation, the height of the fourth realm should be enough to push her back into the fifth realm in terms of strength, after which the breakthrough into the sixth stage would be sufficient to bring her back to full strength ¨C hopefully. She was still acting based on assumptions regarding her own state.


    Even then, the absent arm would cause her a lot of problems. When she had gotten out of the bath, one of the things she attempted to do was to project her planar energy out of the open meridians at her left shoulder in a manner that replicated the way in which they travelled through the meridians in her body. If such a thing was successful, she could still use techniques with ease, and stabilise energy around the meridians in a replica of her original arm.


    Such things were never quite as easy as they might appear on first glance, however. As she had previously observed, it was easy enough to bring out the energy, but the moment that she attempted to stabilise it in a fashion similar to her previous network of meridians, everything collapsed and a dull pain shot through the remnant of her shoulder, as if attempting to warn her not to pursue this further. Obviously, she did not listen to such silly things, but did take the time to understand just what did and did not work.


    Complete replicas of the original meridian networks, whether in the state that they first appeared in or the final, most optimised version, would always break down in this exact manner when she attempted to recreate them. Even a single point adhering to the original layout was sufficient.


    Something that strayed from either one worked far better, and were nearly entirely stable, but the trouble came with her own lacking experience in regard to alternative meridian networks. She had created her own perfected configuration for the five meridian networks within her body, so she was familiar with what worked well for her, but to prevent the instant collapse of her energy, she had to go against all of that and create something different. In other words, this wasn¡¯t able to make use of her existing knowledge, and required her to contemplate some kind of completely different setup for the sake of the stabilisation of energy.


    It had to be mentioned that one of the many reasons that the meridians were such a valuable part of the human body, and why they were so difficult to repair or duplicate like she had managed to do by accident, was that they were one of the best environments for carrying and storing the five energies of the world. An artificial network of meridians would essentially be the best possible item that a blacksmith, inscription master or possibly even an array arranger could create, as they would allow for far more than the rather limited channels that existed within the items made by these three great arts.


    With meridians, techniques could be executed, the body could be strengthened, medicinal essence could be spread throughout the body, and the being that possessed them was able to surpass the standard limits of the human body, like those encountered by the people of the many Orbises. To create another, entirely different network that was as good as her previous one without infringing upon the previous positions of the channels that were connected to her former and severed arm, was a rather difficult thing to do. Furthermore, given the way in which she currently wanted to create a kind of permanent technique to stabilise a new arm for herself, it wouldn¡¯t be a good idea to stabilise her arm with a poorly made meridian network given the backlash that could result from breaking that technique.


    The experimentation that she had done prior to the morning helped her conclude that it would be possible to implement her attempt in multiple steps. The first would be to create a stable series of meridian pathways through which her energy could be coursed regardless of the presence of an arm, or lack thereof. With those channels, she could still use her techniques and amplify those that were boosted by using two hands at once, such as Obliteration.


    After that, she would need to find some way to maintain the meridian network for longer than a few seconds, as they would be unlikely to remain in place without the equivalent of the flesh and blood that typically composed the arm. Her first step would allow for the new meridians to function as they were meant to, and the second would permit them to have some sense of permanence and stability that might be superior even to her original arm, as that might be more difficult to remove via something akin to Reality Severance. Then again, it was able to completely sever the concept of a left arm from her body, so that was less likely.


    It would be something that completely ignores her physical state and vitality, so it would still be a little more resistant to certain types of damage, and might have a far greater resistance to attacks than even the Armour Forming inscriptions of the scale armour working together could produce.


    Her final step would be to ensure that the new arm was in a constant stable state, which should be the most complicated. When a regular arm moved, the meridians within would shift and the energy within would flow through smoothly enough, especially if one didn¡¯t attempt to use a technique while actively moving her arm in a way that was contrary to the specifications of the technique itself. This was not something that could be replicated via the previous two steps for the simple reason that energy itself couldn¡¯t exactly be moved without affecting itself.


    This would likely be impossible for her to achieve within a month, even if the other steps could be completed tomorrow, as she would need to be able to somehow allow the energy stabilising the arm and the meridians to move freely without compromising the stability of the technique. It was a rather complicated thing to attain, which was why most had a number of vulnerabilities during the usage of their techniques, with most either stopping or otherwise compromising the power of their techniques to provide themselves with more flexibility. In other words, she needed to somehow replicate the functionality of a living human arm while going through the layer of complexity that was the limitations of techniques and energy.


    Wei Yi was unable to complete this before the morning, and so she rose from the bed and put her hand into the still-hot bath, siphoning as much heat from within it as she could without pulling upon the heat contained within the stones beneath it, which would certainly be noticed by whoever would come over to clean up the room or rent it after her, depending on the policies of the inn. It wouldn¡¯t be enough to overcome the yin in her body anyway, so she preferred not to cause any trouble.


    At some other time, she could have overcome everyone present if she wanted to, but for the moment, the owner¡¯s fourth realm and the third realm of his guards would be sufficient to give her a lot of trouble.


    Having paid for the room the day prior, she was free to leave the moment that she wanted to, although she first stopped by the counter at the front to ask the owner about a variety of nearby establishments, all of which came to her mind when she was considering the places where a large quantity of heat or even pure yang may be found. Some of her ideas included the mines where the hot stones were dug out ¨C given the Qiang District¡¯s state as a mining district, there were bound to be a few of those ¨C a training hall with a fire-focused environment, or even some kind of combat arena where the opponents favoured fire-type methods.


    The last one was unlikely to be the most effective method, but she wasn¡¯t going to dismiss the possibility of it until she knew there was a better choice available to her.


    It turned out that all of these places could be found, if one wanted to look for them. Getting into the mines would be a little difficult, as the majority of those that contain valuable ores would be unavailable to anyone other than those from the Qiang District, or more precisely, the Qiang family. Combat arenas did exist, but most of them were purely for people to work out their differences and potentially kill one another, which would mean that she would either need to annoy a few fire-type cultivators to the point that they wouldn¡¯t mind wasting their time trying to kill her.


    There wouldn¡¯t be much of a benefit to such a situation, as the cultivators wouldn¡¯t be interested in preserving her life and playing around with fire to warm her up, which is what she would need from the arena. It did apparently offer a lot of rewards if she put herself up against much more powerful opponents that wanted to kick someone¡¯s ass in a more socially permissible manner than simply running out onto the street and finding a random person, but that would be risky and unnecessarily difficult to make happen in the way that she wanted it to. For that reason, she concluded that the most optimal thing to do would be to seek out the second option she had inquired about, which was a training hall of some kind.


    Such thing existed within every district of Yi City, and was popular in all of them as well, including even the Ju District. The only difference between any of the other districts and the district of non-planar methods was that the halls would feature more low-realm methods of training one¡¯s own strength, and a focus on the physical aspects of the body over cultivation.


    In the rest of the districts, the halls would be owned in part by outsiders and in part by the family of the district, with some having been stablished by the local residents for training their own familiar or other strong forces, while others would have been put into place by forces that weren¡¯t directly connected to the ruling family of the district that wished to make a profit while creating something that their own forces could also use.


    The ones used by the Qiang family would be out of her reach for now, simply due to her not being connected to the district¡¯s leadership, so only the other category was available to her.


    Out of those, there would still be several types for her to consider, with some focusing on individual training, others providing a variety of training types and methods, and others being dedicated to instructing those that wished to study from retired and aging experts that were no longer so focused on personally performing any tasks outside of a limited scope of activity within their chosen district.


    For her, the one of most interest would be those with private chambers, since her method of absorbing heat by sitting in the middle of it comfortably was unlikely to avoid the attention of various people in most of the other training halls. One of her current advantages was that nobody recognised her, and that she was free to move without the fear of the Greats tracking her down and killing her while she is weak. The moment that she makes enough waves down in the south, there would have to be people that would spread word ¨C gossip was a common thing, and not always in favour of the person being discussed regardless of the way in which they were described to others ¨C and others that would recognise the descriptions of the Ascendant.


    She didn¡¯t think that anyone was familiar with most of her cultivation methods, but if it so happened that there were people who did know all of her abilities, closed chambers should still keep her safe from their attention for long enough.


    There was only so much that you could perceive from someone walking into a room, then walking out some time later, and given the variety of techniques that were practised, it was impossible for most people to understand what exactly someone was doing within without forcing one¡¯s spiritual perception through the security measures that the vast majority of training halls were nearly obligated to have to earn the trust of their potential customers. Stealthily looking at the cultivation methods of others was always looked down upon if one had no relation to the person they were spying on.


    Her killing will was still comparatively weak, but she would still be able to prevent anyone from comprehending the exact nature of her actions within any training room that didn¡¯t have glass walls.


    Fortunately, she was able to find several such places from speaking with the inn owner, and a few more from looking about, allowing her to pick and choose some more. The process almost brought her back to the time that she had been in the first realm and searching for a combat arena to fight in and acquire resources with her unusual strength at the time.


    In the end, since she did not really need to even consider competition, nor the feasibility of her surviving against unpredictable foes in situations where she couldn¡¯t reveal her strength, her choice was made quickly enough. Out of the places that had a yang or fire-oriented training chamber, only two permitted her enough freedom inside to regulate the intensity and act however she wanted, and one was simply more expensive than the other. It did offer more options in a single chamber, hence the price increase, but that was completely unnecessary for her and so she was not going to waste her funds on it ¨C a far more significant concern given the current inability to use the Dao of Law to manufacture false coins.


    With the clothing that she now wore, courtesy of that shop owner that she had encountered but was then unable to come across again, as if she had decided that providing a service for a single customer was enough for the month, Wei Yi noticed that the gazes upon her were a little more favourable than before, although the majority still did their best not to look anywhere but in front of themselves, as was customary here. Due to the slightly more favourable reaction, she concluded that she would have a reasonable chance of acquiring a room in the training hall, at least for the day.


    After that, if they had problems with her, she could spend a little more of her limited money.


    The time that she needed to spend in an appropriate training room depended entirely on the state of the yin in her body, the intensity of the yang provided by the room, and a number of random factors that she couldn¡¯t really take into account at the moment. Given the extreme number of Dao that she possessed at a stage above Initial Accomplishment, which she was almost certain exceeded that of any other living being in the Planar Continents due to the sheer coincidence that was needed for her to have that many under her best, all of the factors couldn¡¯t really be considered properly, even with Endless Calculation.


    Perhaps her attainment in the Fire Dao, courtesy of the Dao of the Elements and the Planar Dao above it, would somehow accelerate the process, or perhaps it would instead slow it down due to her greater affinity with the flames preventing them affecting her as much.


    A day would still be beneficial to her, as it would push her current strength higher up to the peak of the third realm, then pave the path to the fourth and fifth realm, and the inevitable step through the half-way point of the fifth realm and whatever comes with it. She hoped that she would be able to get through it with a perfected stage, but given the fact that she had already obtained the highest possible number of searing marks, it should theoretically allow her to endure even without that.


    However, some of the thoughts that had been going through her head prior to the Reality Severance executed by the Greats still stuck around within her head, and prompted far more contemplation now that she had little to do. The maximum number of marks, ninety-nine, was not only commonly accepted but also highly reasonable, especially when the quantity of scales on her Subterranean Shell was considered, but she was also the very same person that had recently ¨C speaking from her experience of time rather than the actual time that had passed ¨C introduced the notion that planar energy wasn¡¯t so much a tangible thing when unbound as much as it was a certain allocated portion that could be increased by using anchor energy via something like the Truth of the Universe.


    There was a reason to believe that ninety-nine wasn¡¯t the peak, and there was just as much of a reason to believe that it was. In particular, the latter was most sound as there should be no more marks appearing upon her Subterranean Shell, but there was also the fact that the sixth stage would be akin to breaking through to a new realm for her. At that time, a number of curious changes would take place, and some would seem like she did indeed reach the next realm a few stages early, whereas others appeared less sensible until she obtained a few more realms.


    It was not at all unreasonable to believe that the sixth stage and its false breakthrough into a new realm could somehow introduce the presence of more searing marks upon the core. What was more concerning was that there was no room at all for the marks, meaning that one would either fit in really oddly, or that there was something that she had not yet understood about the overall structure.


    She did not stay still as she was thinking, which would simply be foolish while she really did need to hurry up, and proceeded to the training hall that she had learned about, taking some time to listen to the conversations of other people on the way. A random word could always provide her with enlightenment on the current topic, as there was a lot to be learned from coincidental connections that allow for one to realise something that they had not previously considered, but even if nothing of the sort occurred, there were still things that she needed to learn about the Qiang District.


    For one, she was really curious to know whether there was a chance for her to come across the Qiang Patriarch in a private space without needing to outright break into the Ancestral Hall like she had done in the Bai District, even if that incident happened purely by accident.


    Having a chance to chat would be incredibly useful in advancing her agenda in the Qiang District, as all that she really needed was a chance to heal and the spatial stabilisation node, which would likely not do much in the district right away due to the lack of spatial realm to connect it to. The Patriarch wouldn¡¯t need to worry about any travel to and from the various lands connected by the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s gateways for some time, and there would certainly be no chance of the Greats learning about the spatial stabilisation node¡¯s usage through the activation process, given that the most striking part was opening the gateway and connecting the Yi City Web.


    In short, if she got to talk to him, she was almost certain that she¡¯d be able to work out a deal, even if it was one that would need to be reconsidered for a long time once the nodes were connected to Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm. This was the case with most of the Patriarchs, but the trouble usually arose in finding a chance to talk to them.


    Most of the Patriarchs were old and highly focused on pursuits important either to them or their district, and so they wouldn¡¯t make too many public appearances. With the subdued natures of the southern people, this would apply even more to the Qiang Patriarch, so to come across him-


    ¡°- he¡¯d address the recent issues with the mines? That Qiang Patriarch?¡±


    That line of thinking promptly stopped as she quietly slowed down and pretended to have some purpose to being near a pair of people that were chatting with one another as they sat on a bench and snacked on some local product. She didn¡¯t hear anything before this, but the two sentences were more than sufficient to inform her of the exact value of such a possibility, meaning that any information that she could obtain on the topic would be incredibly valuable in taking advantage of the situation.


    ¡°It¡¯s bad enough, then. Some say its planar beasts that have stopped the miners from continuing on as usual.¡±


    ¡°Maybe the mines have finally dried up? We¡¯ve been sitting on them for a million years by now, so it was quite amazing that there was still anything left within them,¡± the first man spoke after he had a bite of the local food, ¡°I¡¯d not be surprised, although I don¡¯t know what we¡¯d do if that happened. Most of the things I sell need those materials.¡±


    ¡°The very array keeping the snow away needs them, so it isn¡¯t only your problem. The western nations have been eyeing this district, I¡¯ve heard, so if we suddenly lost the ability to maintain our equipment¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah, wouldn¡¯t be good,¡± the man suddenly stood up and turned away, ¡°I need to go. Later.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡±


    Thus, the two parted uneventfully, with the second person staying behind to finish off what he was eating before he also headed off.


    While their conversation did mostly seem to be based on rumours and speculation, with it ending a little too quickly to obtain anything more precise, that was good enough for her. With a topic to be discussed, as well as the suggestion that it would be brought up soon, she would only need to stick around the district for a while to hopefully come across the Qiang Patriarch. At that point, whether he noticed her or she manages to approach him, the objective of coming across him would be fulfilled, and she would have the chance to move along smoothly.


    For that reason, she continued to pay attention to various conversations that she walked past, and soon found out that the estimated time for the Qiang Patriarch¡¯s appearance was the next day, meaning that she wouldn¡¯t need to wait long at all. This was essentially as good as she could have hoped for.


    ¡®In that case, I should get as much done today and be prepared to somehow attract his attention tomorrow, using a greater degree of strength than I¡¯ve been able to showcase today in order to prevent him from thinking that I am currently incapable of fighting back if necessary. I don¡¯t know the exact nature of the Patriarch, after all, so if he is the type to randomly kill someone off if he doesn¡¯t like the way they look at him, I should give him enough reason to be wary of me to prevent that,¡¯ Wei Yi thought while heading towards the south, where the training hall was located, ¡®I will have no real option to use the Kong Prison Realm and the Arbiters in my favour, after all, so it is only personal strength that can be displayed.¡¯


    The borders of the Qiang District were actually far closer to the Absolute Frost than the Chao District was to the Glass Wastes, to the point that the southernmost wall of the district was exactly five steps away from the border of the region. If one took five steps to the south, their body would instantly freeze unless they possessed truly transcendental methods, as only a few things in the world were able to endure the absolute cold.


    Hence, learning that the training hall with a focus on fire and yang was located near the southern wall was very interesting, to put it mildly, but even before she got there, she had a few ideas regarding why someone would make such a decision.


    Yang and yin were all connected, just as the five elements, the five forms of energy, and plenty of other elements that she wouldn¡¯t bother mentioning if she had to explain this to another person, and so the great quantity of yin that was present to the south could naturally be used for the sake of amplifying the internal yang, if only through the method of making one feel far hotter in the same temperature due to the outside being significantly colder. It wasn¡¯t too significant so long as she still obtained a sufficient quantity and intensity of yang, so she wasn¡¯t going to spend too long thinking about it.


    In this case, given the rather large size of all districts, a short time still meant quite a few minutes, as she had entered from the west of the Qiang District and then headed over to the north for her place of rest for the night. Now, she had to go all the way down to the south in an environment where a good portion of the district was not organised in the slightest.


    Given the fact that it had started out as a mining district, perhaps it wasn¡¯t much of a surprise that the roads and streets of the Qiang District had been built essentially at random, with some crossing and others never coming anywhere near one another for the majority of the district¡¯s length. Furthermore, to the east, most of the region was occupied by the mines that obtained all of the resources that the district used, so the roads built atop solid soil and stone were replaced with wood and bridges that hung above large pits, with some still being excavated near the surface whereas others snaked deep into the earth and only released the occasional sound of metal hitting stone to the surface, which made the place rather difficult to live near if one wasn¡¯t a miner that had gotten used to the noise.


    On her route, she only had to go past one of the pits, mostly because that mine had expanded far further to the west than most of the others, but that was enough for her to understand that it would not be a good idea to stick around for much longer.


    If there was one benefit, it was that the bridges were straighter than the roads, out of necessity.


    The training hall at the southern end of the district was built with a wooden shell on the outside, looking like most of the structures of the southern region, but with her current spiritual perception, she was confident enough that it was only a shell. Inside, many layers of metals and stone protected the people on the outside from any mishaps on the outside, as well as stopping those on the outside from spying on the inside.


    This was good enough for her, and she had spent enough time getting over there, so she headed straight into the building and managed to obtain a room right away, getting into it quickly.


    As her chamber was devoted purely to fire, it was already as hot as in the north when she entered, and it didn¡¯t take long for her to figure out exactly how to best take advantage of the chamber and to make the most of the eight hours that she had within the room. Her focus was to acquire as much yang as she could without burning herself and destroying her body further, and while it required a little bit of experimentation to get things just right for herself, she was able to prepare things in less than five minutes, removing her robes quickly after so that they wouldn¡¯t be damaged too much in the process.


    Her scale armour stayed on, not only because it was a pain to remove it, but primarily due to the potential that it had to greatly assist her in the process of absorbing the flames. Even though it was star metal, it would still heat up and gather some of the thermal energy as it was exposed to heat, and so it would give her a little bit of additional yang to process and absorb, which would also do a lot to prevent her skin from simply burning. Instead, it would boil and melt if it would be affected at all.


    The Ascendant¡¯s current state made it rather difficult for her to be absolutely certain about any particular aspect of her current strengths and weaknesses, as she did technically possess all of the power she had in her prime, it was just dulled by the damage to the body. She should still be able to regenerate quickly, endure absolute heat or absolute cold, and more, but without experiencing it first-hand, she didn¡¯t want to make any assumptions about herself when she did not need to. This was best left until a time that she had the guarantee of security from any source, whether it was her perfect state or any outside force that she could trust.


    With the room prepared and the flames burning in the centre, the air being distorted by the intense heat, she stepped in and began to absorb the heat. It filled her body relatively slowly, but it was able to get deep into her, and target that cold that had set in after her long time inside of the cold mountain.


    Slowly, she was feeling better.

 V5C6: An Agreement

    On the morning of the next day, she emerged into the streets with a far rosier face and warmer skin than before. It was a great improvement to her overall state, and although her attempts to recreate her arm via rebuilding the meridians with energy hadn¡¯t resulted in any significant progress so far, she was feeling the attempts taxing her body far less than before, which was a good improvement regardless of everything else.


    Speaking of that, however, she had some excellent news for the world and terrible ones for the Greats, as her recovery in general was progressing incredibly smoothly. She was already able to showcase the peak of the third realm without any risks to herself, and she could even push into the fourth realm for a little while if she didn¡¯t mind stalling the process of her recovery. The best thing was that her physique was currently at a minimal state of recovery where she would have to do a great deal to push her strength back into the second realm and below, which meant that she could be significantly more reckless with everything that she does without as much risk.


    Eventually, she would have the fifth realm, and her complete capabilities would be returned.


    Her scale armour was still holding onto some of the heat that she had gained within the training hall, and so she proceeded on to make use of it while walking around and seeking out the Ancestral Hall, which she ended up finding over at the eastern region of the district.


    It was on a bit of solid ground amidst a great quantity of bridges and pathways above the mines, and it was on the very brink of remaining in place, with the bit of land it stood on narrowing down the closer it was to the ground, to the point that she was highly concerned the thing was going to fall over if too many people attempted to gather near the Ancestral Hall and pressured the stone pillar unevenly. There were a few protective measures in place, and a few people were actively working on reinforcing it, but she was still a little concerned.


    The Ancestral Halls of the twenty-four districts of Yi City, if one included the fallen Kong District, were all home to a great deal of history and power, so to see them lost to a great collapse into a hole several hundred metres deep at the shallowest part would be highly unfortunate. Most of the things within would still survive, but it would be a shame to have such a place be damaged.


    Not much time passed before she had concluded that she had sought out the right place, as a number of people were already gathering beside the hall and some guards were standing at the bridges connecting to the Ancestral Hall. A number of people were standing before them, and their attention was on the hall itself, so it didn¡¯t look like they were in any conflict with the guards, meaning that there was only one reason for them to be in the area ¨C that she knew of, at the very least.


    With her current spiritual perception, sensing anyone inside of the isolated building was rather difficult, but there was a high chance that the Patriarch would be within.


    ¡®While my armour is still nice and hot, I might as well stick around and wait for him to emerge. After that, I can move onto the next step of the current plan, which would be either speaking with him or seeking out some opportunity to speak with him, depending on how things go during whatever speech he intends to give the people of the Qiang District.¡¯


    Given her current appearance, with her fur cloak and leather armour covering much of the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival, while her hair was a little dull due to the energy that usually flowed near its roots being far weaker than usual, she didn¡¯t expect to be recognised right away. That being said, out of all of the people that would have their attention spread out and that would be familiar with the situations in other district, the Patriarch would be the most likely to be aware of the battles to the north, as well as the appearance of the Ascendant that had initiated the War of Ascendancy against the Greats. Ideally, he wouldn¡¯t be very fond of them, and might even give her better treatment as a result.


    She didn¡¯t require that, but it would always be nice to have a kind and friendly Patriarch that would just give her whatever she wanted, rather than the opposite.


    As she joined the waiting crowds, some bothered to look at her and show some concern regarding her presence, but the majority of the people that stood on the bridge she had chosen due to its stability being the highest out of all of the connecting bridges. This was what she expected, so she just proceeded on to focus her mind and wait for as long as she needed to. Her mental energy still needed to recover a little bit, and it was less bound by the state of the body than the three physical energies, and this was something that could be capitalised on while she had nothing else to do.


    The Ascendant found a good place for herself to rest, and did so, needing to move only a little bit when a few more people gathered around her and had wanted to stand in a group that would have occupied her position.


    Several hours passed before she finally got to see any hints of the Patriarch emerging, as the Ancestral Hall¡¯s gates were slowly pushed open and a few more guards emerged, most of them descending down from the raised platform that the Ancestral Hall was on. They did not go far, and instead stood around and kept an eye on the crowd and the miners that were passing by, making sure that nobody malicious got in the way of the day¡¯s events.


    After that, the figure that everyone was waiting for finally emerged, and his appearance fit the expectations of all on the scene that weren¡¯t already familiar with him, Wei Yi included. He was old, with a long, full beard that covered all of his jaw and barely displayed his lips. His eyes were dark brown, akin to the shade of the earth, and his skin was almost grey and hard, akin to stone. It was a feature that was supposedly common to the people of the Qiang District and the Qiang family, with their long stay in the mines having affected their physiques, but Wei Yi had not seen many people with that kind of features prior to this. She suspected that they were in the mines most of the time.


    His cultivation was obvious enough once he came out into the light, clearly being in the seventh realm and near the upper limit in terms of stages, so he was one of the stronger Patriarchs that she had encountered, and that he would be one of the stronger ones currently alive, given the loss of two Patriarchs in recent time.


    Against him, her current strength would not be sufficient, so she hoped that the exchange between them would be fruitful and peaceful, since she could hardly ask for anything more than that for the moment. Before he began to talk, which he was sure to do soon given his position and quiet clearing of the throat, she straightened her back and made sure to look directly upon him without hiding her aura completely, as she usually would. She hoped that he would notice her presence, and act in the way that would most benefit both of them.


    As she had predicted, not long after he emerged from the Ancestral Hall, he began to speak.


    ¡°I see that you have gathered here even without my explicit instruction. I wonder if you have enough to do in this district, given how long you were able to stay here,¡± he said, to the prompt reaction of embarrassment from some of the audience.


    ¡®Huh. Not how I expected this to begin, but this should mean that he is a person that is more fond of doing work than standing around and talking. This should make the conversation between us easier, if nothing else, and it may also help me in getting on his good side by helping out with the district¡¯s activities,¡¯ Wei Yi thought while the Patriarch lightly stroked his beard, providing a short pause for his fellow Qiang District residents to ponder their actions, or something like that.


    ¡°All of you are aware by now that the mines are not as they were when the Qiang District was founded by the Master of Yi City, or, as some in the north have begun to call him, Kong Shi Meng. The resources within are slowly running out, and this will affect us all,¡± he continued, confirming some of the rumours that the Ascendant ¨C and likely many others ¨C had heard, ¡°That¡¯s not to say that we have lost most of the ore veins we have relied upon. They are still present, and will be for a long time, but certain measures will need to be taken as we approach that time¡­ Those of you who do not trade in ore, metal, or the products of the two, go away. Spend your time supporting the Qiang District.¡±


    His pause fit perfectly into his words, but Wei Yi had seen that he had paused when his gaze similarly paused upon her, and his spiritual perception had rushed in her direction only to stop a few steps away. Furthermore, after he dismissed some of the crowd, he turned to one of the guards next to him and gave him a few instructions that promptly resulted in the guard looking in her direction.


    It looked like he had noticed her after all, so she made herself a little smaller and didn¡¯t try to tower over the rest of the crowd, which, for once, had been a little difficult due to the higher statures of the majority of the Qiang District¡¯s population. Whether this was due to the southern blood of the people, or just some peculiarity of the Qiang District, most of the men were similar to her in height, whereas she usually stood a little above the average height of men and far above most women.


    ¡°Those of you that have remained according to my instructions, and not just because you wish to waste time, you will be asked to submit reports regarding the current state, sales, revenue and so on of your businesses, so that it would be easier to establish the current situation in the district and the available methods of overcoming our upcoming troubles. You may be asked to contribute resources or coin, but this will be preceded by another announcement by me, as well as a letter being sent to your stores and workshops,¡± the Qiang Patriarch explained, the dullness of the words convincing the rest that had stuck around to head back to wherever they came from, ¡°We have some ways to keep our situation stable, but none so far are without sacrifice.¡±


    Judging by the state of the people around her, this came as no major surprise, and the mention of sacrifice was also accepted by them. From the few surface-level thoughts that she was able to look into without catching the attention of the Qiang Patriarch, it seemed that they thought that the sacrifice would come from those other than them, and harm anyone but them, hence the ease with which the notion was accepted, although few thought that they could actively benefit from the situation, with most believing that they would merely be able to mitigate the damage.


    ¡°Now, all of you should stop standing around. Get back to what you were doing. I also have work to do, and I know that many covet the position of Patriarch simply due to the freedom you believe it grants. Thus, if I still have work, you should have a thousand times as much to do,¡± the Patriarch stated.


    He did not wait for the crowd to react to the dismissal, instead heading straight back to the Ancestral Hall but without shutting the doors behind him. With most deciding to scatter quickly, as they were told to, nobody cared about that decision, save for the one person approached by the guard that the Patriarch had spoken to only a brief time ago. Wei Yi had barely noticed him approach, and the residents of the Qiang District completely missed it.


    Although she didn¡¯t want to praise his stealth abilities too much, as they were likely far more effective against her due to her current state, whatever methods he used were still far more effective than many of those that she had seen out in the wild, so to speak. If he demonstrated them again, she was certainly going to complete scanning them and integrate them into her own techniques, if possible.


    For now, she just met his gaze and let him speak first.


    ¡°What is your name?¡± the man asked, one hand resting on a heavy blade resting in a sheath on his belt, while the other was hovering close to his stomach, ready to be used however necessary.


    ¡°Wei Yi. Should I ask for yours as well?¡±


    ¡°No. Come with me.¡±


    As they exchanged those few words, he did attempt to look over her with his spiritual perception, but other than the absent left arm, he was unable to peer too closely at anything occurring within her body, essentially covering up any hints of her internal damage or her current cultivation. Again, it was the same as before, hovering near the beginning of the fifth stage of the fifth realm, but the Endless Monolith had only recently regained its original energy while the Subterranean Shell was still nearly spectral in appearance, with the marks being doubly as difficult to perceive. She was still able to use them, but their effects would be similarly lessened.


    In fact, as she walked, her mind began to consider the way in which such a thing was even possible. After the recent incident with the Greats and the creation of Touch the Heavens, an admittedly silly-sounding name for something that was incredibly effective, she believed that she had learned a little bit about the heavens themselves, and when that was added with everything that she had previously contemplated about them and their function, she actually had a decent understanding of them.


    Combining that with some of her other knowledge, she felt confident enough to consider some of the other aspects of the world, and one of those was the concept of a cultivation remaining the same but simultaneously being less effective.


    She was clearly witnessing it working this way, but logically speaking, it shouldn¡¯t actually make very much sense, hence her curiosity towards the phenomenon rising the longer that she was forced to deal with it. So far as she was able to tell, this was a question that someone in her state could still answer, and she might even have an advantage thanks to actively being affected by the phenomenon she was interested in investigating. Whether Wei Yi could come to a conclusion in just a few minutes, which was all that she had before she would be interrupted by the Patriarch, was another matter.


    Rather quickly, however, she did realise that the problem lay not with the phenomenon itself, but rather with the very nature of one¡¯s cultivation, which did elevate the issue quite significantly.


    Everyone knew how cultivation affected them, and how to do it, so long as they had read a single cultivation technique before, but few were able to state with any confidence exactly why they had a dantian, why it was able to pull in energy, why it could contain it, and why reaching certain levels would suddenly cause a breakthrough in stage and, eventually, realm.


    It was likely why so many otherworldly demons that came from lands other than Enia and its neighbouring nations assumed the planar energy of the world, as well as cultivation, to be some kind of magic. In her eyes, at least, it didn¡¯t really fit the definition, although it would be rather difficult to find anything that did if cultivation as a whole was excluded. It didn¡¯t quite make sense how it could function if one wasn¡¯t already familiar with the existence and nature of cultivation, and now that she was giving it more thought, the same was happening to her as well. It just didn¡¯t make much sense that a realm of cultivation would suddenly be weaker just because her body was weaker, as the energy and realm itself should be the same.


    ¡®Indeed, there is a lot that we simply take for granted, just as I had to when I first woke up. That being said, this really needs to be explored further, since one of the most powerful things I have at the moment is my knowledge and understanding, or the Dao,¡¯ she thought, ¡®Perhaps I could make use of it once the Dao of Law is no longer lethal to me, and forcefully inflict this kind of damage to any of the Greats on a whim, allowing me to take them out with ease.¡¯


    At some point, in theory, provided that things did work in the way that she assumed, it might even be possible for her to transcend the heavens themselves by completely comprehending everything that they knew and doing¡­ something. She wasn¡¯t really sure about what she would need to do, nor why, nor how, and so this was more of a random distant thought rather than a direct intended plan, but having a direction was always good if one didn¡¯t want to simply drift along and receive whatever the world gave them without giving anything back. Such a thing wouldn¡¯t be good, no matter what one actually wished to do with themselves.


    The dantian was certain to exist within the body, but not solely there. It contained energy, but it also converted the external energy of the world that was typically only manifested in the form of a certain fraction that was permitted to appear out of the world¡¯s limit into a genuine quantity of energy that was able to have the same effects, but could also scatter back into unbound energy. One could stab the dantian if they invested a sufficient degree of force, but if one tried to dissect a corpse or even open up a living person, they would be unable to find it or strike it by accident.


    From the otherworldly knowledge she possessed, she was aware that the laws of that world differed. The question was, as she had asked many times prior, whether these laws were meant to apply here as well, but were being subverted in one fashion or another, or whether this was merely the difference between worlds that prevented the same principles applying between worlds.


    Certain things were shared, so the fundamental nature of the world had to be either similar enough, or different in a manner that still allowed for things like boiling water, cooking food, swimming, breathing, jumping and so on. From the minimal degrees of the deeper otherworldly knowledge that she had been able to obtain from the otherworldly demons, she learned that they had the concept of atoms, small particles, and the like, and she had done this some time ago, giving her the chance to consider it in greater depth. From what she was able to confirm, most things were made of smaller pieces, although it was highly difficult to check whether they were truly as small as on Orbis.


    When things were heated, she was also unable to verify whether or not those particles would begin to vibrate and move with greater intensity, but she was sure that people would be able to notice something like that if it did happen. In fact, the Master of Yi City, Kong Shi Meng, would have certainly written it down in all of his techniques from the moment that he had figured it out, and Yi Shi Ming and the rest would also be aware of things like this.


    For that reason, she was of the opinion that there was likely to be some difference between worlds, and thus everything born of planar energy wouldn¡¯t be entirely disconnected from the reality as she knew it.


    ¡®Alright, this is a little much for a quick walk while I am effectively half-dead, so I should focus on the conversation ahead instead before I am caught trying to figure out the nature of existence as a whole. I mean, I¡¯m sure there¡¯s a Patriarch out there that wouldn¡¯t mind engaging in such discussion, but given the current state of the Qiang District, I don¡¯t think that he is one of them at the moment,¡¯ she carefully shifted all of the contemplation that she had completed so far and moved it to a corner of the Ascendant¡¯s Library, then raised her gaze towards the hall as she entered through the front doors.


    The Patriarch was not waiting at the very front of the structure, where some of the crowd would likely be able to spot them, but was instead further below, which was where the guard led her to.


    On the way, he continued to be quiet, and it almost seemed like he had completely forgotten about her existence as he avoided her slight attempts to test his reactions, although she made sure that she didn¡¯t do anything excessive that would result in her looking like some sort of hooligan. Even if the Qiang Patriarch didn¡¯t have his divine sense viewing the Ancestral Hall, it wouldn¡¯t be a good idea to give off a terrible first impression.


    When they finally reached the level below, where the Patriarch was standing with his back to her as she approached, the guard let her pass him and then stepped away, quietly leaving the floor and leaving them on their own.


    ¡°Judging by your presence, you look to be that Ascendant. Are things in the north not going well?¡±


    ¡°Since you¡¯ve heard about me already, I¡¯d imagine that the news will reach you soon enough. I¡¯d rather discuss whether it would be possible for me to get access to your spatial stabilisation point, since you did seem to be interested in being quick and straightforward in that speech of yours,¡± she replied, about to cross her arms before she remembered that this wasn¡¯t an option.


    ¡°Indeed, brevity is preferred in all of my interactions. There is no reason to waste time when we could be doing something more productive,¡± the Qiang Patriarch agreed, nodding as he turned around to face her, ¡°Perhaps I am not the first to say this, but I wish to receive something from you for my troubles.¡±


    ¡°No, the last time felt like it was yesterday, although it really wasn¡¯t. That being said, I can freely admit that I am not currently in a position to give you anything in any kind of negotiation, as I am unable to reach the¡­ actually, I have no reason to keep this hidden any longer, do I? I have no access to the Kong Prison Realm, the place that the Greats had previously been using to imprison the people that they didn¡¯t kill. I had stolen it from them, and I would love to share what it has with the world, but I would appreciate doing this later.¡±


    ¡°Later? You should also understand that this is a difficult thing to agree to.¡±


    ¡°Of course. For that reason, I have a different proposition, and I will first begin with the things that I want from you. It¡¯ll be easier to agree that way, I think.¡±


    ¡°Go on, then,¡± he said, clearly being tempted to cross his arms as well before his gaze blatantly flicked to her empty left sleeve, prompting him to instead put his hands behind his back and wait for her to speak. Whether this was better or worse, she couldn¡¯t quite say, and it was likely that he was also uncertain on the matter, but it would be pointless to debate such things at this time.


    Instead, Wei Yi called upon her killing will and manifested a sheet, managing to stabilise it in a regular fashion with the power that she currently had access to. Right away, she created the first point on the left, and began explaining.


    ¡°First off, the spatial stabilisation point. I don¡¯t know what you¡¯ve heard of from the north, but no phenomenon will occur if I claim the point here. In fact, there will likely not even be a gateway until I can link it back up to the northern region,¡± she said, adding that to the sheet, ¡°As such, you can be sure that nobody will discover it unless you outright tell them. It will be perfectly safe for you. The second thing I require is cultivation resources. Here in the Qiang District, you ought to have plenty of planar stones in the ground, and I wouldn¡¯t need too many of them to break through a stage or two.¡±


    ¡°Planar stones for breaking through stages¡­ Hmph, carry on.¡±


    ¡°Third, I have heard that the mines below aren¡¯t entirely safe. Do you happen to fight there often? If the answer is anything approaching yes, I may benefit from getting involved, although that may sound more like a positive than a negative to you. Either way, it is something that I want, and I would appreciate as few eyes on me as possible.¡±


    ¡°Since that still gives me room to observe, I will not reject that part, regardless of the rest of the agreement.¡±


    ¡°How kind of you. Finally, I would request a place for me to remain for a few days, so that I have the chance to recuperate from the recent battle with the Greats and be in better shape when I leave for one of the nearby districts. I don¡¯t care about the cultivation efficiency of that room, only that it would leave me with few observers ¨C and yes, again, that does mean that you can keep an eye on me with your divine sense if you think it is necessary,¡± she said, ¡°I won¡¯t even stop you from looking at me while I undress, although note that I will be highly disgusted with the very concept while noting the thoroughness of your actions.¡±


    ¡°The days where I would bother with such things are far behind me. If I can spend time peeping on women, I should really occupy myself with something more productive and helpful to the Qiang District, and Yi City as a whole.¡±


    ¡°That is the best way to spend one¡¯s time, I agree.¡±


    The Qiang Patriarch nodded, raising one hand to stroke his beard once before returning it behind his back, his eyes focusing upon her with the condensed divine sense that he had not yet sent out of his body. It caused his eyes to glow with a slight golden shine, although it faded after a moment as he relaxed.


    Since she had nothing more to ask of him, he naturally asked the question that he had been wondering about for a little while now.


    ¡°What do I get?¡±


    ¡°You are having problems with the mines, right? Back in Paragon, we discovered that we have some decent mines of our own. Aside from inviting your district¡¯s best miners over once the connection is established, I think that I can help with your very own mines, allowing you to have as much ore as you require,¡± she replied, ¡°In fact, there¡¯s a chance to allow you to obtain processed metals more easily, if that is something that you aren¡¯t against.¡±


    ¡°How do you intend to achieve something like that? Do you know of another mine nearby?¡±


    ¡°No, please listen more carefully, Qiang Patriarch. I said that I can fix your mines, not give you more of them, even if that would likely be about as enticing of an idea. To put it as simply as possible, I can make the ore in your mines grow out nearly perpetually.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Oh? Ore, growing like a plant? That kind of thing seems rather preposterous, does it not? Does wood and metal mix better than I thought?¡±


    ¡°All of the five elements can be paired together, for they are merely manifestations of a single whole ¨C planar energy. Planar energy is an existence likely caused, supported, or affected to a great extent by the heavens themselves, and above even the heavens is the Great Dao. In short, everything can be united, and everything can be opposing. Everything in yin, yet yang, and just as those concepts can sometimes seem transient and ethereal, they are still as true as any other.¡±


    The Qiang Patriarch¡¯s eyebrows rose a little before plummeting down as he looked to enter deep thought. He stood still for some time, with a hand rising back to his beard to stroke it, as if to further boost his mental capabilities.


    After more than two minutes, he turned around and kept on thinking.


    Only after five minutes did he speak, although he did not seem to have finished his thought process, ¡°Very well. Show me.¡±

 V5C7: The Full Number

    One part of the Qiang District¡¯s mines was cleared out of all workers, and only two figures stood within, with one still occasionally stroking his beard when he thought that he wasn¡¯t actively being looked at. The Patriarch hadn¡¯t gotten shy, but he knew that he couldn¡¯t get too distracted for the moment. Later on, a time would come for him to process everything in full.


    Wei Yi, meanwhile, was looking for an appropriate source of metal to test her abilities on. Given that her current realm was effectively Emergent Anchor, she didn¡¯t think that her Silver-Leaf energy would have as much effect on higher realm materials as it did back in Paragon. As such, she wanted to pick out a material that had enough existing matter to grow out more quickly, but that wouldn¡¯t be as useless and common as iron, copper or silver. All of those could be found in plentiful quantities as they essentially functioned as walls and floors for the mines where regular stone was unavailable.


    Eventually, she located a fourth realm material that was both valuable for those from the third realm all the way to the sixth due to its versatile properties, as well as easy enough to excavate, and then approached it.


    To guarantee that she would be able to keep the ore growing even after she departed from the district, which was greatly assisted in the Kong Prison Realm and Paragon by the presence of her control and energy spreading out throughout her territory, she was going to infuse more energy into the ore and take more time carefully infusing it into the material in such a way that it would be able to absorb more without affecting the material itself.


    ¡®There is an earth vein here, but¡­ right, I need to consider how that works, as well. It doesn¡¯t fit my current theory of the world¡¯s energy, but I suspect that there is- anyway, I can¡¯t just shove it into everything and expect nothing to be affected. The ground will shift no matter what happens to everything else, and given the placement of the Qiang District, it could lead to the complete collapse of most of the district,¡¯ she understood, dismissing the idea of shifting the earth vein up to substitute any other method of providing the necessary energy to the metal ore, ¡®I just need to act carefully and precisely, and I should be able to pull this off easily.¡¯


    Her current situation was very suitable in forcing her to perfect the precise movement and flow of her own energy, especially in interactions with things other than her own body, as that was able to endure and benefit from it no matter what, especially in the case of her planar energy. With all of her previous experiences and practise, she was already at a rather high level, but there was always room for improvement, and she would obviously take advantage of the opportunity to develop her abilities further.


    With a small portion of her energy brought into her right hand, she touched the ore and scanned it with her spiritual perception, using the proximity to have a greater degree of accuracy. It didn¡¯t reveal anything significant, but it did confirm that her initial plan was indeed going to work out as she wanted it to, albeit with a little more work to account for some of the flaws in the material.


    Her planar energy had an intrinsic element of refinement, especially in the cosmic state, and so she would still enhance the material that she worked with even if she didn¡¯t really mean to do so. This was not usually a flaw, but one of the rules that she tended to stick to was that she should never reveal the full extent of her abilities to the people that weren¡¯t directly part of her forces, which the Qiang District was not. This wasn¡¯t a matter of wishing to simply retain her power ¨C which she did want, regardless of the situation, as power allowed her far more freedom to do whatever she wanted or needed to ¨C but rather that she needed it to allow her to remain as safe as possible against potential threats. To give away all of her techniques and methods in full would mean removing the advantage she had against the Greats and those that wished to go against her chosen path.


    There was also the matter of certain materials changing in effectiveness and purpose when they reached their next state, although this was rare as it usually needed a complete transformation of a material that her Silver-Leaf energy did not usually result in. Still, it was best to avoid that.


    ¡°This ore vein is useful to you, correct?¡±


    ¡°It does make a significant number of planar shards every month that are far greater than the investment needed to obtain it,¡± the Qiang Patriarch responded, ¡°Are you able to make this grow?¡±


    ¡°I am¡­ you don¡¯t happen to have some method of guaranteeing a constant energy flow throughout the mines, do you? The planar energy concentration here is a little lacking at the moment, and may not be as quick as I¡¯d like it to be,¡± she explained, lightly tapping the metal ore while looking around, ¡°After all, matter has to come from somewhere. Men and plants alike obtain their nutrients from the world around them, whereas metal and stone have no such function.¡±


    ¡°I can arrange something more permanent later. For now, I will handle it,¡± he said.


    With a raised hand, he made all of the planar energy within the mine rush towards the ore vein, surrounding it to the extent that it became nearly opaque, giving her more than enough energy to work with. Hence, she quickly stepped in ¨C not literally, given that she was already standing right next to the metal ore ¨C and infused the entire vein with her energy, making sure to guide it so that the ore would attempt to use everything that had been gathered around it before targeting anything else, since it wouldn¡¯t be worth it to devour the rest of the mine just to supply this one metal.


    Her energy was weaker than usual, but it was supplemented with the dense mist of violet around the ore, causing it to quickly display the effects of the Silver-Leaf energy in such a way that it couldn¡¯t be missed no matter what one did.


    The surface of the metal ore was suddenly filled with numerous raised spots, from which thin strands of violet metal grew as if they were saplings planted into the ore. Each one quickly gained branches and grew leaves on those, and soon there was a miniature forest growing out of the ore. What was even better was that while the trunk of the small metal trees was still clearly filled with the impurities of ore, the branches were nearly clean, and the leaves were purely metal.


    ¡°There. That looks nice, actually. Do you want me to make an underground forest of metal?¡±


    ¡°¡­ That will not be necessary. This place is not a tourist attraction, and even if it was, the income would not be sufficient in comparison to the gains from this metal. Skipping the refinement step will be incredibly beneficial,¡± the Qiang Patriarch noted as he plucked a leaf from the metal trees, ¡°That being said, if this is how we will be getting our materials from now on, I suspect that there will be some differences in how our miners are trained. This is not the kind of thing that any of the old miners of the district will be used to.¡±


    ¡°Not much training is even needed for the safer areas. Regular people can just come in and pluck the leaves, so if you have a bunch of people in the family without any sensitivity to planar energy, you could employ them instead. The rest can be put to work in more dangerous areas, or in places where it isn¡¯t easy to remove the metal even once it is in such a state. Something like star metal is a good example.¡±


    ¡°We have no star metal here, so there¡¯s no need to consider it¡­ Even if you use it recklessly. How much must you have to cover the majority of your body?¡±


    ¡°Half a sphere that is then made to grow via this same energy.¡±


    ¡°Is that what propelled you into the position that you are now, Ascendant? Did the Great Families get upset at your usage of their star metal, or something of the sort? I could see them holding back a great deal of it.¡±


    ¡°They may be, but this was something I happened to obtain on my own. It was beneficial, but hardly the deciding factor in my prior victories.¡±


    The Qiang Patriarch nodded, without commenting or vocally pronouncing his own judgement of the situation. He took the leaf in his hand and tossed it into the air, supporting it with his energy, and applied a dense matrix of lines manifesting countless techniques that the Patriarch knew, surrounding the leaf and instantly melting the hard metal into liquid, which was quickly formed into a variety of shapes. Spheres, cubes, thin rods and more were formed from the material, and while Wei Yi was unable to verify the true nature of the experiments, she was able to notice that the material was of good quality.


    Clearly, the Qiang Patriarch must have agreed, as after a little while, he stopped and returned the leaf back into its original state, or as close as he could get it without having the ability to revert time and replicate every single detail. Wei Yi was able to spot countless flaws with it, but that was hardly an issue to either one as the leaves themselves weren¡¯t the important part.


    ¡°I can see no issues with the material, nor with the rest of the ore. It looks like there is no flaw at all.¡±


    ¡°As you can see, when wood and metal are united, you get leaves of metal growing out of things. I call it Silver-Leaf energy, but that was mostly based on the colour of metal-type energy rather than anything else.¡±


    ¡°Is it possible to replicate any of this without your particular circumstances? Having a Silver-Leaf method that everyone in the Qiang District could study¡­ It would be far more valuable than allowing every single material in the mines to grow, as it would ensure that the district could keep every future mine developing constantly, and allow us to expand far more quickly than ever before, since no time will need to be taken excavating existing resources.¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think that it¡¯s likely. My techniques come about from literal decades of comprehension and combination, and to impart it onto any one individual would result in a literal collapse of one¡¯s cultivation. I¡¯m afraid that this is not a feasible path, nor one I would allow you.¡±


    ¡°Is it too valuable, in your eyes?¡±


    ¡°Of course it is. If you had all of that in your hands, then nothing at all would stop you from simply dominating the world with far more resources than any other faction could possibly possess, at which point you would be very likely to turn away from the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and the rest of the world and simply take advantage of your sprawling mines to flood the Greats with ore, or something to that effect,¡± the Ascendant joked with a very straight face, ¡°To put it another way, this is my ability, and it is staying this way until the world as a whole gives me a good enough reason to change that.¡±


    The Patriarch looked at her for a few moments with a serious gaze, but dropped it quickly and returned to the same thinking expression that he had all the way down to the mines and since the moment that she had provided him with a small talk regarding the Dao. He stared into the air for a short while before he finally returned to their previous conversation.


    ¡°So long as it is possible for you to keep this up, I will provide you with any planar materials that you require, and access to certain underground battlefields can also be permitted. In fact, there is a particular place where you could be more helpful than some of the district¡¯s own warriors, but I suspect that this will be something that you would wish to discuss once you have recovered from whatever happened in the north,¡± he said.


    ¡°You referring to the arm or the other thing?¡±


    ¡°Given that your arm has not yet returned, I can only assume that either the rumours of your regenerative abilities are very much false, or that there is a reason that it cannot return. As such, it is only your temporarily weakened cultivation that you could reasonably address.¡±


    ¡°Guess that couldn¡¯t really escape the attention of a seventh realm cultivator. That divine sense of the Oblivion Halo realm is incredible given that cultivating it doesn¡¯t take any additional time. Imagine if you bothered to cultivate your spiritual will and combined that with the innate strengthening of mental energy bestowed by the halos¡­¡± Wei Yi said idly, not intending to give him any ideas given that spiritual will cultivation essentially didn¡¯t exist in the Planar Continents, with most cultivators still being in the vicinity of the Kong Prison Realm, ¡°Anyway, can we get to it?¡±


    The next day, the Ascendant received a room that was already filled with planar stones to the extent that the slight radiating energy from them was more than sufficient for the entire room to be dyed violet. It was highly indicative of the sheer quantity of stones, and of the amount that they would be able to provide to the regular cultivator.


    Usually, Wei Yi would need far, far more of the same quality of energy to acquire the same stage and realm as someone else, with an appropriate degree of benefit from every stage, but in this case, she also needed to recover from the excess yin in her body. As such, her energy costs were intensified greatly, although it was also theoretically true that her overall state would actually benefit from the process. All of the energy in her body would eventually be useful to advance her physique energy, as it could devour the yin the moment that it regained a sufficient degree of its strength. It would help ensure that her physique energy remained on par with her planar cultivation.


    There was a certain gap in the two right now, and in her bloodline cultivation as well, so she needed to push them ahead while she had the time to do so.


    To allow her body to readjust to great quantities of energy, she began with a single planar stone and drew out the energy contained within, coursing it throughout her body and bringing it to the edge of her missing arm. She stopped it from travelling beyond the cut of Reality Severance but ensured that the meridians would not dry up or otherwise decay while she was not able to make use of them as optimally. Eventually, this would be resolved, and then it would be bad to still have a weaker side.


    Even then, it did not take her long to begin exhausting the stone¡¯s energy, albeit not without similarly rapid benefits. Her Endless Monolith regained all of its lustre quickly, and the Subterranean Shell also began to light up, while the effective state of her realm rose to the fourth realm.


    The moment that it did, she felt as if the floodgates for her recovery had been opened. As soon as the shell gained some of its previous vividness, her physique energy gained just enough power to begin dissolving the yin that had built up within her, and that gave the rest of her body more strength, allowing her energy to function more quickly. That made it easier to absorb the energy of the planar stones far more quickly, as her body was more stable and capable of handling the larger quantities of planar energy within the stones.


    If the first minute allowed her to regain one percent of her strength, the second contributed to two, and the third contributed to four, meaning that in moments, her aura went from barely being sufficient to be noticed by those without a cultivation of their own ¨C a phenomenon that can occur from the third realm onwards, depending on the type of technique one cultivated ¨C to radiating might.


    Outside of the chamber, the Qiang Patriarch was sitting still and waiting for results. Given the fact that he had been permitted to look upon her at all times to ensure that she was not attempting to act against the district, he was going to take the opportunity to confirm her strength before lessening his surveillance of her. Given that it was rather odd to be watching someone who knew all too well that they would be observed, he figured that he might as well lessen his efforts.


    However, before he had much of an opportunity to take his divine sense away, he noticed how the very walls of the chamber he was sitting beside suddenly quaked as powerful waves of energy surged through them.


    All of the walls were naturally reinforced and supported by various arrays and inscriptions to prevent them from being affected by powerful cultivators breaking through within them, so he was able to confirm right away that the energy that she possessed was clearly different from that of other cultivators. This further confirmed certain rumours that he had heard regarding her abilities, and so he decided to take two steps to protect himself and the district. First, he removed his divine sense from the room, just in case the supposed capability of devouring other energy was true as well, and then he stood up and paid attention with just his innate senses.


    He was curious to see what someone with a powerful technique and all the materials that one could ask for would be able to do in a short amount of time.


    With the usual speed of cultivation for those in the fifth realm, which the Ascendant seemed to be, he expected that a new stage could be attained within an hour if the energy provided was pure and high in quality and quantity alike. Given that she was using some of the best planar stones that he had picked out, she effectively had the most ideal conditions for cultivation.


    Only a moment after, however, a burst of cosmic light flashed through the walls, piercing them in the weakest regions of the wall and leaving behind faint marks on the other side of the corridor. For a second, it seemed as if that must have been an illusion, given that the energy should have simply been too bright and vibrant and caused his vision to be distorted, but as he learned after a moment, the damage had indeed been made. After a little while, he also determined that the energy had just entered the fifth realm, which just made things more confusing.


    Despite this seeming to make little sense, he quickly connected more of the rumours and understood that she must indeed have had multiple forms of energy, and that one of them had just reached the fifth realm. It was only slightly surprising after the burst of energy that came next.


    If it was fair to say that he struggled with the first wave of cosmic light, then the mixture of silver and crimson was even harder to identify as it made use of the cracks that formed within the walls and burst out in strangely geometric and ordered lines, further carving out the walls that he had been standing in front of only moments prior, was even harder to identify. When he noticed that this phenomenon looked to be repeating, he stepped away and made sure to not be struck by the energy, just in case.


    The moment after, a blaze of twin lights, as if from the moon and sun, practically punched through the wall, illuminating the entire building with the twin lights and doing a great deal to confuse everyone that wasn¡¯t aware of the situation, which was everyone other than the Qiang Patriarch. Each individual beam of light was incredibly radiant, and together it seemed as if the sun and moon had truly descended down to the world and revealed their magnificence to all that happened to be nearby. It wasn¡¯t true, and everyone that did see the phenomenon instinctively knew this, but their minds couldn¡¯t help but drift away.


    Only the Patriarch was in the right place and had the right knowledge to comprehend that this was only the effect of multiple breakthroughs in stages at a time, and it was still not her planar energy, leaving him rather concerned that the preparations he had made wouldn¡¯t be sufficient to safeguard the building from the impact of the final breakthrough that was bound to come.


    ¡®Indeed, if this is the kind of cultivation that Silver-Leaf energy comes from, then sharing its secrets would be very threatening. A single misguided soul could obliterate a district if given enough time to prepare and grow, and an army could conquer Yi City if they were not matched with an equally powerful defensive force,¡¯ the Qiang Patriarch noted, slightly misunderstanding the nature of her cultivation but arriving at a sound conclusion nonetheless.


    Bloodline power reached the fifth stage with as little obvious change to her as she was used to, given that she had no form to be working towards other than her own. Her strength rose once more, and it was highly conducive to the breakthroughs that came after.


    Her killing will reached a new stage mostly due to the energy that had accumulated over the days since her last breakthrough, as well as the significant increase in her killing intent since then. With the link between the two mental energies, her spiritual will also rose in strength, and they did so at the same time, resulting in it seeming as if she had broken through with only one type of energy at once. Whether this fooled anyone or not didn¡¯t really matter to her, as she made use of the immense yin that had built up within her to push through a few stages of physique energy at once.


    Due to certain reasons, she was unable to keep her physique energy at the same realm at her planar energy all of the time, so while she was at it, she made sure to boost her physique cultivation to the sixth stage, managing to do so with just a little bit of energy remaining. With her techniques, it was nearly impossible for her to acquire a full, flawless stage, and so it wasn¡¯t an issue this time.


    As soon as all of that was done, her strength had recovered as much as it possibly could while she had a missing arm ¨C and was still unable to regenerate it, further confirming her theory of the nature of Reality Severance ¨C and so she was able to focus the rest of her energy on the process of boosting her planar cultivation to the next stage and perfected stage. With the planar stones placed all around her, she was able to do that with a speed that she had hoped for since she had gotten her hands on the first bunch of planar stones back when she had been fighting the Mirror Planar Aberrations. That being said, she did not use all of them at once.


    Instead, she shoved the majority of the planar stones into the House of Gold, intending to use them later on to boost the Kong Prison Realm once it was possible to do so. This wouldn¡¯t be noticed by the divine sense of the Qiang Patriarch, as he had brought it back since the breakthroughs began to damage their surroundings, and the energy that they radiated would soon be absorbed anyway, so it wouldn¡¯t be possible to determine where it had gone or why.


    Those that remained would still be enough for her, hence why she wasn¡¯t too concerned about this matter. Her physique energy was also able to contribute to the regeneration of her energy, and so, when she had enough to break through to the sixth stage in one go, she naturally had plenty of planar energy to work towards the same result with a different form of cultivation. The boost of her bloodline power was not as blatant, only because it directly amplified her energy in a manner that didn¡¯t directly increase the quantity or quality of incoming energy, instead boosting what she already had, resulting in the effect being diminished.


    If her bloodline power instead generated more energy that she was then able to contain within her body, that would be the most effective and direct boost to her cultivation process.


    ¡®Actually, how does this work? How can accumulated energy differ so significantly from that which is regenerated? I understand this in the first two realms, when the first would directly increase the density of energy while the second built up a pool of energy, but the ones after seem to contradict everything yet again¡­ Cultivation is strange. Has no-one else questioned this?¡¯


    She was sure that there had to be some that were confused by the exact progression of stages and realms, as well as why it was possible to climb through them even if one wasn¡¯t exactly familiar with the progression, but this was yet another thing that she couldn¡¯t really consider at the moment. It would do too much to distract her from the current task, as well as her intended observation of the process of the next breakthrough. The specific events that would occur during it would make it clear whether her previous speculation regarding the quantity of searing marks was accurate or not.


    There was also a chance that the development of the perfected stage would vary depending on the actions that she took while it was occurring. In fact, this could apply in far more stages than merely this one, but¡­


    ¡®I¡¯d be getting off track again if I considered that. It is a little late to consider significant alterations to the technique I am practising, especially given that I have already changed it once and have committed to the current path of Ascendancy and Law. I would prefer to switch to following Law only, if I had to, but as I had observed before, sticking to a single path causes one to miss a lot that other paths would observe, which would not be beneficial given that I am currently a one-woman army, effectively,¡¯ she realised that she was doing it again, and threw that off to the side of the Ascendant¡¯s Library as well, ¡®Anyway, point is, I have to take what I have and make the best of it, and do so when it is actually possible. For the moment, I am still injured, and I have limited access to expanding my repertoire of techniques.¡¯


    She shut her eyes and poured all of her attention into the boundary between the fifth and sixth stage, preparing for a moment before all of her energy was thrust into it, breaking it in a moment.


    In an instant, all of it gathered at the Subterranean Shell and sank into it, fusing with the core and forming countless patterns in between the ninety-nine searing marks that were already upon it. However, rather than being something purely symbolic of a perfected stage, she understood almost immediately what the many connecting patterns resulted in, besides a Subterranean Shell that looked to be ablaze with a layer of earth flame right beneath the surface.


    ¡®Another mark¡­ One hundred marks! It is indeed possible! I guess nobody would have had this kind of cultivation before me, so the assumption would have been that ninety-nine was the absolute limit¡­ Then, my guess regarding the oblivion halos is also right! With one hundred marks, all ten halos can be filled, and when they are complete, then the Imperfect Rift realm might be able to manifest something greater. The perfect rift, if such a thing even exists, would need to originate from the ninth realm no matter what ¨C from my understanding, at least ¨C but it is possible to attain something greater¡­¡¯


    With the nascent rift already in her possession, she was all the more curious about the kinds of things that the perfected marks, channels and halos could coalesce into once she reached the eighth realm. Whether she managed to get another full rift, as with the illusory crystal core she now had, or if it resulted in a vastly greater rift, it would still be an immense advantage to her against powerful foes.


    At that point, the Greats would not be as much of a threat, as their cultivation looks to be as stagnant as the cultivation of the rest of the world, but the Primordial Deities and beyond would certainly be easier to beat if she had every perfected stage and realm combining into a state of cultivation unseen before in the Planar Continents. After all, even the Master of Yi City, the person who was able to use the Truth of the Universe from the beginning of his life in this world, didn¡¯t have the final result of his years of technique generation until he was in the later years of his life, while she got to begin with it at the age of sixteen, and the very first realm.


    Before that, however, she would be able to proudly proclaim to the world that the Greats were also lacking in their comprehension of cultivation, for none of them, to her knowledge, had ever even approached ninety-nine marks, not to mention the whole one hundred.

 V5C8: Prototypical Arm

    ¡°Was that cultivation, or an attempt to destroy the district, Ascendant?¡± the Qiang Patriarch asked the moment that she left the room, ¡°And for one stage, at that?¡±


    ¡°Technically, quite a few stages, but only one planar stage. The next few should be easier to attain, fortunately, and I will be able to near the sixth realm soon enough. At that point, perhaps I will have a chance at deflecting the attacks of the first generation of the Greats, which would make things far easier,¡± she replied, ¡°In short, your planar stones didn¡¯t go to waste.¡±


    ¡°Is it possible to also make them grow like trees?¡±


    ¡°Not quite as easily. Planar energy does not innately have the metal element, whereas the Silver-Leaf energy best targets metal-type resources. Unless you have a mine with planar stones that are immediately found to contain metal-type energy, there¡¯s almost no chance of success.¡±


    ¡°My Qiang District has very strict rules about the planar stone mines, so it is unlikely that any had been contaminated by other types of energy. Even the various intruders in the deeper areas have no access to the planar stones, as those are located within a very specific portion of the mines that are accessible by only the most loyal and honest miners of the Qiang District,¡± the Patriarch explained, ¡°I would advise you to rest after this.¡±


    She shrugged, as the presumption that he worked with was very likely to be incorrect. If he wished her to rest as to become used to her increased strength, then he was indeed simply wasting their time, as she was already familiar enough with the majority of changes after simply standing up once or twice. That being said, there was still something that she wished to do with her time, and it might occupy the rest of the day easily, so she was not going to reject the opportunity to rest and experiment. So long as it wasn¡¯t necessary to act today, there was still some leeway.


    ¡°I can, if it is not going to risk anything on your end.¡±


    ¡°No, it should be fine. It would be best if you could control yourself as well as possible, as to minimize the damage to the mines and the underground battlefield as a whole.¡±


    ¡°I will need an explanation of that later, by the way. Are there places in the Qiang District that have become literal battlefields between two factions, or, as I am assuming based on your previous mentions of the places, is it that a source of danger occupies those spots and thus necessitates the intervention of combatants?¡±


    The Qiang Patriarch nodded alongside her second explanation, ¡°That is correct. I will provide details tomorrow, but your combat style is said to be one that uses few weapons, correct? If so, then the threat I have in mind will not have an advantage against you due to his specific nature.¡±


    Although there were a few scraps of information that she was able to glean from his thoughts, his mind was unfortunately guarded in comparison to that of some of the otherworldly demons, from whom ideas poured as if they wished for people to look upon them. Given that their current cooperation seemed to be going well enough, she expected him to reveal everything relevant to the situation he wanted her to resolve, but obtaining more information if needed would be easier at that time, since his mind would naturally be occupied with the matter.


    Still, it was very interesting to ponder on her own exactly what the threat he intended to present to her was. Most situations where combat was necessary were typically assisted by the presence of good weaponry, so the fact that he wished for her specific capabilities in not using any in most situations, due to weaponry quite literally exploding in her hands, was curious to say the least.


    There were a few entities out there, including metal-type planar beasts and the like, which were able to influence metal outside of their bodies, and some that were very resistant to it, but the majority of artefacts would contain sufficient quantities of planar energy within them to resist such things. Only the kind of common blade or low-grade artefact that she had been using, and that she considered discarding now that her cultivation had returned to a more reasonable state, would have a chance of being affected by any entity beneath the seventh realm, and given that the Patriarch did not wish to address it himself, it was likely to be in the fifth realm or lower.


    As such, the exact nature of the threat was currently impossible to predict, even if she was certainly going to try. She would only use a small quantity of her mental capacity on it, though.


    The rest was to be used for the thing that she wished to do during the time that she was given, and that she had gotten to the moment that she returned into the room. The Qiang Patriarch stated that he would take care of the damage, so she was free to sit around and spend her time and energy on one thing without any chance of being discovered now that she could combine her killing will, bloodline power, and planar energy to manifest a powerful barrier around herself.


    It was not likely to be necessary, given the fact that the Patriarch ¨C whose name was apparently Qiang Jian, if his occasional thoughts were to be believed ¨C had mostly revoked his divine sense, but it would protect against other observers.


    ¡®Revealing that my arm is a little difficult to fix is inevitable, but the exact development of my technique is best to be kept away from the eyes of others, just in case. The possibility of understanding and defeating my technique increases the more knowledge one possesses of it, and I would rather not have it be scattered at a dangerous moment just because I was careful,¡¯ she thought.


    Given the rather generous opening at the top of her Crimson Robes, removing part of them and revealing what remained of her shoulder, covered in full by star metal, was easy. She had taken off the bits of armour that she had picked up on her way to the Qiang District, and within it, after being given accommodation by the Patriarch, and she had yet to put them on again due to not needing to give a false impression to him. She was not a local of the south, and she did not intend to transform into one when it was really not necessary for the moment. At a different time, with a different person, she might consider it, but she doubted that any explanations regarding her physique would satisfy anyone that wished to find fault with her no matter what.


    With the robe and armour out of the way, she was able to look upon the edge of her shoulder directly, and when she began to attempt to bring her energy out like last time, the difference in the stability and strength of her energy became obvious.


    The previous time she had attempted this, her energy would break down before it reached an inch away from her body, and would cause significant pain to her, albeit without much lasting damage. It was not able to go much further this time, nor did it stop harming her body, but both were improved significantly and thus allowed for her to try out significantly more variations of meridian networks, giving her the chance to use the method of brute forcing the solution.


    Every time that she found that a pathway didn¡¯t work and resulted in a collapse, she would simply attempt to make use of a slightly different direction to see whether that would prove to be more effective. For the moment, she was not attempting to condense the full technique, but was instead seeking to develop a suitable pathway for her energy that would not violate the Reality Severance damage. As such, even if the result of the day was not very effective or productive, as she had wanted it to be for the final product, she would be able to make use of the inferior structure temporarily and comprehend the limitations forced upon her through what did work in the outcome of the day¡¯s work.


    ¡®It is already clear that I need to use a different kind of pathway, but nothing else seems to work even remotely well¡­ What exactly am I missing this time? Should I devote some of the anchor energy points into a Dao this time?¡¯ she wondered, glancing at the Truth of the Universe interface while sighing about the fact that her Realm of Potential was set within the Kong Prison Realm and thus unavailable.


    She still had eight hundred anchor energy points, which was great if she wanted to quickly learn a technique without caring much for its development, but she didn¡¯t think that the prototypical and unnamed technique that had appeared at the end of the list would be benefitted by the points, whether she devoted them to the technique itself or a Dao. Just like her Dao of Law, she had to develop this on her own for best results, as doing anything else would simply lead to her being strung along by something that was not her own choice or path.


    Hence, she continued to work upon her meridian pathways in silence, without any intention of making use of any method other than her own mind, body, and energy.


    After several hours, she had not made as much progress as she would have liked, but, at the same time, she was able to conclude that there were several methods for stabilising planar energy outside of the body in a meridian-like arrangement that did not cause the Reality Severance to destroy it.


    For example, she could entwine all of her meridians and attempt to make use of their connections with one another, and planar energy itself as a concept, to allow them to work together and result in a tighter meridian network. It would be even more important to balance her energies in that instance, however, and she would need to quickly raise the level of her bloodline power as to catch up to the rest of her cultivation pathways.


    There was also the possibility of making use of one of her types of energies to coat the rest of the meridian networks, effectively allowing it to be significantly different from the typical structure without sacrificing as much of her efficiency as inferior meridian pathways. The issue with this one was that she needed a type of energy that would be nearly boundless, as it would be perpetually consumed for the sake of maintaining this balance and the stability of the remaining meridians, and the energy would need to be sufficiently powerful to keep the rest in check.


    At this moment, neither one was quite perfect, and so she would need far more time to improve it to the level that she would actually be comfortable to keep it as a permanent technique, as per her original plan. Given that she did not have anything else to do for now, with there being quite a lot of time remaining until the next day, which was when she had to have something to show herself and the Qiang Patriarch if she wanted to keep looking relatively capable of solving her own problems, as that would imply that she could address the issues of others as well. If she couldn¡¯t even display a basic attempt at recreating the arm, then the Patriarch might have some hesitation about bringing her to the underground battlefield.


    As night fell upon the Qiang District, five thin strands of light emerged from the crimson flesh that was still attempting to bleed despite all of her attempts to stop it from doing so. In theory, because her very concept no longer possesses the left arm, it should have stopped acting as a wound and simply froze in a calm state, but it appeared that the damaged concept spread to her body in a slightly different way than that. It meant that the wound remained on two levels and would need to be sealed manually.


    Her arm technique would do so at its peak, and possibly below, but other methods had the risk of damaging the meridians, so she was just going to keep controlling the bleeding herself.


    The five strands of artificial meridians were naturally dyed by the colours of the energy contained within, two being similarly violet and cosmic in appearance, two more containing silver while her physique shined with dawn light and her killing intent radiated crimson. Together, they formed a set of pathways that was likely unseen in all of the world prior to this, and that branched and reconnected like the strands of the earth veins that travelled beneath the ground. Their arrangement was not perfect, nor did she believe that this particular method was going to be productive without rethinking the interaction between the energies completely, but it worked well enough.


    Once the five strands parted into five each, forming the fingers of her hand, she was finally able to connect her phantom arm¡¯s position and sensation with that of the energy that radiated from the meridians, forming the vague image of a full arm and hand.


    All of the fingers were present, and as she remembered them being, and they were likely to be nearly as powerful as her left hand had been without the killing will state. Transforming into it might still be feasible, but it would require breaking the balance of the five energies and thus collapsing the arm instantly, which, despite the seeming stability of it at the moment, was still incredibly likely to occur no matter what.


    The moment that she attempted to move it, this became more obvious than ever.


    It collapsed into countless shards of crystalline energy that rapidly scattered into the air and merged with the natural planar energy allowance, while the attempt to manifest a stable arm caused half of her torso to be struck with a terrible pain that was able to overcome the immense resistance that she had built up to such things. She hardly needed to analyse why this occurred to understand it perfectly.


    Yet again, she had to deal with the matter of her concept being damaged. It prevented her from forming the human network of meridians in the same way that it prevented her from regenerating her arm, as she supposedly did not possess the left arm according to the world itself. When she attempted to move her creation, she had once again trespassed on that field, creating something that acted as her left arm in defiance of this fact. It didn¡¯t matter that the meridians were different, or that her skin and flesh were not present. Just the fact that it would act as the arm crossed the boundary.


    ¡®This shouldn¡¯t be impossible to address, and so my plan of having both arms once more will not be stopped here, but this is troublesome. The most I can do with the current structure is manifest it for a single instant, which will allow me to use some techniques, but most require more than an instant¡­ Why can things never be simple? I¡¯m a little irritated that the world even has such a notion, although there¡¯s nothing I can do about it.¡¯


    For the moment, she was mortal and human. That might change in the ninth realm, or whatever might exist beyond, but for now, she had to go along with the laws of the world.


    ¡°Well, look at her. She¡¯s already thinking about going that extra step.¡±


    ¡°No more interference then, right? The whole point is for the world to¡­ before I go on, are you sure that we have to do skip on important details like this? I know that¡¯s your whole thing, Lily, but it is rather annoying.¡±


    ¡°Trust me, eventually, just as it always happens, you will discover that this conversation is being read by some random people, and it will be essential that the plot is not revealed before the third instalment of the novel that will come about within ten years of the first one, although the second one will provide enough information for the readers to understand what the final intentions of our little group is. At that point, you will be glad that you made the reading experience as nice as possible,¡± the woman whose right eye was covered by her long, straight, black hair stated with extreme confidence.


    ¡°I mean, I appreciate novels and stories, but¡­ why should I give a single fuck? I mean, really, how is that ever a good reason?¡±


    ¡°Imagine if your story is never released, and you end up being a random clump of energy for the rest of all eternity, just because some author didn¡¯t produce a satisfactory result and ended up dropping their efforts?¡±


    ¡°¡­ That¡¯s not how that works.¡±


    ¡°I can confirm, that has never been how it worked,¡± a cold and emotionless voice confirmed.


    ¡°Yeah, I think that this is Lily being¡­ herself again, I guess. She acted about as weirdly back on the Worldship, so this is nothing new¡­¡±


    ¡°Stop the spoilers. We¡¯ve had enough of those.¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be blaming the one that is writing this, if this is your whole thing now?¡±


    The woman with long black hair covering her right eye shrugged. This had gone on for too long.


    The next day, on the twenty-sixth, she emerged with a prototypical technique to show for her efforts. Unlike Touch the Heavens or Obliteration, which were both made after bursts of inspiration and some excellent ideas, she had nothing like that yet, but she suspected that her great understanding of the world itself in the form of all of her collected Dao would lead to a revelation soon enough. All she needed was to find the right path, and the rest would follow naturally.


    Since she was going to fight in a place without scrutiny from the common people of the south, she didn¡¯t bother to put the leather and furs back on, keeping only her Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival, and the metal scales underneath. While she still hadn¡¯t figured out how to individually activate the scales, or how to remove their dependence on the scales that were severed, the star metal was more than sufficient to protect against low-realm attacks, and would not be broken easily unless the likes of the Great Families¡¯ first generation decided to step in with more uses of Reality Severance.


    The Qiang Patriarch wasn¡¯t waiting at the door like the time she began to cultivate, but it was easy enough to spot his location via the powerful divine sense that only he in the entire district possessed. Even though the planar energy quantity of the world kept rising, few had managed to breach the boundary of the seventh realm, leaving only one such expert in the entire Qiang District.


    The Patriarch was within the Ancestral Hall, as usual, and despite the rather large amount of space that it took up, the inner regions were rather easy to traverse. Most of the corridors were straightforward and had few confusing turns, meaning that even if she only knew the room and depth that the Qiang Patriarch was at, without any knowledge of the Ancestral Hall, she would still be able to track down the person with the capabilities of a regular person.


    When she found him, he was sitting in a chamber and examining a rock that did not look particularly unusual, except that she was able to sense traces of far superior metals within it.


    ¡°Finding a new place to mine anyway?¡±


    ¡°Even if all of the mines were operating at their best, without any cessation, I would still seek to expand our domain. There will be more people in the world if the Greats are defeated and Yi City can grow to the previous size, if not larger, and they will all need better materials, as well as more of them.¡±


    ¡°Still not star metal, though. Give me and my Arbiters enough time, and I could provide everyone in the world with a weapon and piece of armour made of star metal¡­ not that I will do that. It would be stupid to arm everyone to the teeth, and incredibly wasteful.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, that is likely to be the case. However, let us not talk about this too much.¡±


    ¡°I would not mind hearing about the underground battlefield that you wish for me to come to. It¡¯s been some time since you told me that you¡¯d share more information with me, and I would really appreciate to know just what kind of threat is best combated with one¡¯s bare fists, and yet would be greatly assisted by someone with such a variety of skills as me¡­¡± she paused, ¡°Admittedly, I don¡¯t think that more knowledge has ever hurt anyone directly, but you know what I meant.¡±


    ¡°It is very simple, Ascendant. There is a figure in the underground battlefield that has been causing trouble for us all, and it has a very uncanny trait of being able to consume weapons to boost its own, somehow. Nobody has witnessed the process, but it has been reported after each encounter that the weapon it uses remains similar, while the power of it is clearly increased with every artefact lost.¡±


    ¡°You say ¡®it¡¯, but since this figure wields a weapon¡­¡±


    ¡°It is human, so far as we know. However, the mines are dark and the figure is usually covered in dirt, dust, and various metal pieces that vaguely act as and resemble armour, so it is difficult to identify the person.¡±


    ¡°Spiritual perception doesn¡¯t work?¡±


    ¡°Somehow, no. I¡¯ve not been there, so I cannot confirm whether divine sense would be of any use.¡±


    ¡°Tch¡­ What do the people that have seen this person say regarding their inability to perceive him or her? Is it simply the inability to comprehend the nature of the entity they face, or does something make it seem as if the person isn¡¯t even there?¡± Wei Yi asked, hoping that the answer would not be the latter option, mostly so that she wouldn¡¯t need to figure out the problems of yet another otherworldly demon, or some person that managed to get the otherworldly gift of one and went insane.


    However, before he could even say a single thing, she could already tell that she wouldn¡¯t like the answer he would provide. It was simply obvious from his expression of slight surprise.


    ¡°You guessed correctly. The reports were consistent in that the figure looked to be absent from the world, to the point that some doubted their eyes. Fortunately, it made it seem as if there was a gap in the world, which made everyone that returned aware of the fact that something wasn¡¯t right. None managed to defeat him so far, however.¡±


    ¡°This is¡­ unfortunate, to say the least, but doesn¡¯t explain why you¡¯re concerned about my weapons.¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t know how the figure absorbs the properties of weaponry, and so it is always risky to allow any weapons near it just in case it will be able to steal it form your hand and empower itself. At that point, if you rely on and bring in an incredibly powerful weapon, then things will be rather terrible.¡±


    ¡°I had one of those¡­ want to see the shards? Do you think the figure will be able to absorb the shards? Is it weapons specifically, or does it also include artefacts and the like? If this person can also take in other things, then I might need to come in with an ordinary robe and nothing else, just in case the scale armour is also susceptible to absorption,¡± she continued asking for more information, as the potential risk that he had mentioned meant that there had to be enough reason to be concerned about the figure¡¯s strength, even when it came to her and the Qiang Patriarch.


    If necessary, she would rather go in naked than wearing something that had the chance to make the figure invincible, as the otherworldly gift being used by them seemed to be affecting their entire body. As such, although the initial ability of the gift may have been to drain the power of weapons and place it into other weapons, going against all logic and reason as usual, it could be that it had expanded to affect even more aspects of the otherworldly demon. At that point, if her robes could be used in the same way as her weapons and applied to the figure¡¯s body, they would suddenly regenerate from any attack while leaving her naked anyway.


    On an unrelated note to the threat itself, she was finding that she felt a little more reluctant to reveal her naked body now that she was missing a whole arm. It wasn¡¯t that she had ever done it to flaunt her beauty ¨C given the amount of time she had spent trying to shift attention away from it, she was thinking that the help Chu Ling had provided before the Kong District expedition may have been unnecessary ¨C but it felt far more like she was exposing her flaws and weaknesses than before.


    ¡°We mostly understood the figure¡¯s capabilities through the various artefacts that the various explorers found lying about after each failed attempt to take it out. All of the weapons looked to be missing or broken, while most other items were not damaged and were simply lying about.¡±


    ¡°Ah, if that¡¯s the case, then perhaps things aren¡¯t as bad as they could be. That being said, I am still rather concerned that you decided to address this dangerous situation by simply feeding the person with more and more weapons each time instead of simply sending in someone capable and taking them out in one go,¡± she said, not dismissing her previous theory regarding the danger level of the otherworldly gift, while also realising that this seemed to be a far better way to label it, ¡®The power comes from the gift, most of the time, and if this is a case of the gift being the primary thing responsible for the great power of the person, whether they are from this world or not, then it is the otherworldly gift that is to blame.¡¯


    ¡°There had been some disagreements with the eastern and western nations that we needed to settle.¡±


    ¡°And not one person could be spared? I doubt that, but it is too late for me to do anything, so I will go over there and take the person out. That being said, if you did know something and then forgot to tell me, perhaps hoping to hurt me and the other entity in the process¡­¡± she raised her mind¡¯s image of the left arm and manifested the prototypical arm within an instant.


    The fingers were open and the palm was pointed straight at him, Obliteration energy gathering near the centre of the ethereal palm. It radiated from the point at the palm that the five strands of meridians split apart into five individual channels, and completely covered the arm in a moment.


    She was only able to present that state for a little while, and the threat would ultimately be hollow either way as she did not think that she had the necessary strength to defeat the Qiang Patriarch without the assistance of the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s vitality and planar energy, so she scattered both the blackened crimson and the five distinct sets of meridians while lowering her mental perception of the arm.


    While the remains of her shoulder did move slightly, it was primarily her phantom limb that decided where the prototypical technique would create her arm. She had kept the false sense of the left limb¡¯s presence since the moment that she awoke to the west of the Qiang District, making it very easy to keep controlling her arm and very inconvenient when the fact that her arm was missing failed to cross her mind. The absence of most of the shoulder did make it far easier to confuse people regarding the position of her arm while she didn¡¯t have a constant replacement for it yet.


    ¡°You did work on something, then. In that case, it should be easier for you to take down the threat in the underground battlefield,¡± the Qiang Patriarch spoke calmly, ¡°I have hidden nothing from you regarding the entity¡¯s actual capabilities, but there are some things that I would rather have you not know. I¡¯m sure you understand.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yeah. Totally.¡±

 V5C9: The Slaughtering Shadow, Part 1

    She descended into the mines not long after, using the path that she had used last time to get as deep as she needed to before finding the rest of the path via her spiritual perception.


    When she was in places that weren¡¯t explicitly sealed away by order of the Qiang Patriarch, she came across plenty of miners that were actively working and digging up the various ores that were contained within the stone, and most of them were fortunately reluctant to waste their time observing her actions. Some were almost certain to be confused as to her identity, and possibly frustrated at the intrusion, but she didn¡¯t care about their opinions.


    Whether they recognised her or not, whether they ever learned what she did before coming to the district, what she did within it, and whatever she managed to do after, it wasn¡¯t particularly important. Any opinions and judgements made about her would only affect things once she had completed her attempt to change the world.


    The underground battlefields effectively existed at the edges of the Qiang District¡¯s control over the mines, where their security forces were unable to maintain perfect order and ward off all enemies that threatened their land. Planar beasts and occasional forces from other territories and factions were able to reside there, and the district would send in their own warriors to combat the intruders and attempt to claim the area for themselves, changing it from a battlefield to an extension of the existing mines. This was not always successful, and so not all places would even be called underground battlefields in modern times.


    Instead, areas that were out of the control of the district for longer than a certain period of time, or that were recaptured before a similar period of time, and thus led to frequent conflict, would be labelled as battlefields, while the safer and simpler to secure areas would only be called dangerous portions of the mines.


    From what she had been able to learn, this kind of naming scheme had originated from a time shortly after Kong Shi Meng¡¯s disappearance. It was then changed as necessary once the threats outside of Yi City drew closer to the Qiang District and forced the district to take greater measures to defend itself.


    Thus, to get to the battlefields, she needed to go beyond the commonly used mines, beyond the emptier areas where only a few miners would descend to for the sake of digging up a small quantity of rare ore that she would boost with her energy as she went past, to allow the ore to grow and not run out while it was still available. Given that her body was as whole as it could be and her energy was back to its fullest strength, with the slight rise in cultivation giving her about as much effective energy as she had before, this was no longer as difficult as before.


    With the nascent rift, she also didn¡¯t need to worry about her planar energy running out by the time that she arrived at the underground battlefield, and so she wasn¡¯t going to save any of it during the journey. From the information that she had obtained about the otherworldly gift and the potential demon that wielded it, they tended to remain in place most of the time, and so she wouldn¡¯t come across them until she got close enough to their hunting grounds, so to speak.


    As she did have the ability to perceive most otherworldly gifts, and thus items that were shrouded by the otherworldly nature, she also believed that she would be able to identify their position before they had a chance to ambush her, and take the time to recover her planar energy while using the other four types of energy to repel any attempt to harm her. After all, the Silver-Leaf energy was a manifestation of planar energy only, and the other four were separate from the particular energy that she used. If she had a single pool of true planar energy ¨C that is, one from which all of the five cultivation types were derived ¨C then there would be more reason to hold back with her usage of energy, as exhausting that one pool would exhaust everything she had.


    ¡®Theoretically speaking, that would be the most perfect setup, simply because it would be closest to the ultimate truth of the world, but it would mean that I would need to find one place for a boundless quantity of energy to reside that isn¡¯t the dantian. It can only fit bound energy, whereas the true nature of planar energy is closer to the unbound state¡­ Possibly. This is one of those things that I may be unable to understand until I witness it personally, since the true answer may be so far out there that my view of the world is insufficient,¡¯ she considered as she walked.


    Given that this wasn¡¯t going to go anywhere, she instead glanced at the place where her mind thought her left hand to be, and contemplated what she could do with it while she attempted to find a better way to form the meridians into a permanent, stable state.


    It was best to use something fast, something that would draw upon the energy manifested into the meridians in order to consume them and prevent their inevitable collapse the moment after from harming her. When it came to the techniques she already had, and the principles that she could call upon, the one that was most volatile and instantaneous was actually her second newest method ¨C Touch the Heavens.


    The technique itself was not suitable, as it would put too much stress upon her body and mind to invoke the full technique before stabilising the left part of her body, but nothing was stopping her from adapting the absolute overpowering nature of the Touch the Heavens to produce something similar. She did not need to break down space and time itself ¨C with time being only slightly distorted, as there was only so much that she could do without violating the laws of the world. If not for that, the properties of the technique would have been useful in time travel and similar impossibilities.


    ¡®So, if I just raise my phantom arm, I might be able to¡­¡¯


    As was slowly becoming more frequent with her attempts to generate techniques, she was going to rely more on her innate comprehension of the world and the energy that she was utilising for the technique. It was technically the same, but her current method relied more on inspiration and subconscious realisations whereas a more standard method would be better if she was trying to create something that did not interact with any of her existing systems and methods.


    Her five meridian networks quickly manifested, and before the world had the chance to declare that she did not have the right to keep it, all of the meridians shattered and converged together into a thin, white line, which then burst into blinding light.


    Unexpectedly, she ended up creating something similar ¨C if not outright identical ¨C to her Elysian techniques, which she had mostly stayed away from for various reasons. This was very much not intentional, but as that light shot out from the location of her phantom limb, it blasted out with an immense speed, crossing a vast distance in an instant and striking the walls of the mine with an overwhelming noise that quickly shattered her eardrums again, forcing her to take a moment to let them recover.


    For some time, she had considered her hair to be the toughest and most resilient part of her body or self, but with the number of times that she managed to create incredibly loud noises which tested her ears time and time again, she was almost certain that the ear drums would eventually become the most resilient part of her body. This would be useful, but not especially so.


    She also didn¡¯t have the chance to contemplate that matter in any detail as she had to rush over to the wall that she had targeted and extend her energy all over it to reinforce the damaged structure. The blast had outright evaporated a great deal of stone, and that had sent a shockwave throughout the stone that she had to suppress as quickly as she could before the entirety of the Qiang District was shaken and many mines were destroyed.


    None of her techniques were explicitly meant for this, but she was able to cease the wave and stabilise the stone quickly enough.


    ¡°Well¡­ The Absolute Dao will be effective here as well, at the very least,¡± Wei Yi noted to herself, patting the stone wall once before getting away from it and returning to the original route that she had intended to take, ¡°Also, the Dao of the Elements, the Planar Dao, the Dao of Law, the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, and so on¡­¡±


    Despite the new creation, which she decided to call the Elysian Blast for lack of better ideas, being in the Initial Accomplishment Stage, the effectiveness of this technique was elevated to an impossible level. Worst of all ¨C for the mines, at least ¨C the first use of her technique was not affected by these, as it had not yet become a proper technique and was thus used directly through the other Dao, rather than being amplified by them. It did mean that she needed to control her strength in this regard, which was a little difficult considering the fact that her strength looked to be taking every opportunity to grow whereas her body had only recently suffered a significant setback.


    That didn¡¯t stop her from doing it, of course, it just meant that she needed to put in a significantly greater degree of effort and focus into the process over the rest of combat and tactics, or even other matters that she might otherwise have been thinking about during any fighting.


    Then again, there was also nothing stopping her from using other techniques, but it was a bit of a personal tradition to make use of new techniques once they were usable by her. Touch the Heavens was used almost immediately after the idea was conceived, her Elysian methods were similarly employed soon after their creation, both physique energy and her mental energies proved to be highly useful not long after she figured them out, and even her planar cultivation¡¯s ever-changing states became useful as she acquired or, or soon after.


    It just wouldn¡¯t be right not to use it at least once in the upcoming fight.


    Even then, it was still some time until she would even have a chance to do anything of the sort. The mines were expansive and incredibly lengthy, and so she had several more opportunities to use the Elysian Blast before she was anywhere near the underground battlefield that she was looking for.


    ¡°Quake after quake¡­ I had heard some things about the northern regions, in particular the enormous rift that had formed near the Luo District after someone decided to cultivate near there,¡± a guardian of the Qiang District said, their senses permitting them to detect the vague remnants of the force that had been mostly suppressed before reaching them.


    ¡°She¡¯s still holding back with those, so just consider what would occur if the Ascendant was actively intending to attack the district. There is no reason not to provide her with the spatial stabilisation point that she asked for,¡± the Patriarch replied, much to the obvious displeasure yet agreement from the guardian, ¡°The south had long stayed away from the matters of the north, but in the current situation, we have no choice but to participate in the continent¡¯s disputes.¡±


    ¡°Are those factions present here as well?¡±


    ¡°Of course. You have seen the figures dressed in simple clothes, have you not? They stride around and make great demands of the district, but they have been quieter as of late.¡±


    The guardian sighed, but he was unable to provide a single response that would be backed up with any objective facts or notions. It was indeed true and very irritating to the guardians of the Qiang District whenever they were forced to submit to certain demands that did not seem to have a proper origin. Even then, he didn¡¯t really wish to acquiesce to the point, as he did not want to leave this to an outsider.


    Still, there was little that he could say regarding this, so he was forced to keep quiet.


    ¡°I can feel your discontent, but you should not endanger the Qiang District over your personal issues. That is your role as guardian, and that is something that you must adhere to if you wish to keep your position.¡±


    ¡°Patriarch-¡±


    ¡°Whatever you wish to say, I don¡¯t need to hear it. Just make sure that you do as you must, and there shall be no need to speak.¡±


    It did take a while, but she finally found her way to the portion of the mines where random artefacts could be found lying about without any owner or purpose. Some were recent, with little dust and the like settling on them, but others were clearly left in place for far longer, resulting in them blending in with the stones around them as if they would eventually become buried within the stone and turn into lost fossils that someone may excavate one day in search of ancient relics of some place that was called Yi City.


    On a less distant and insignificant topic, however, she was already aware of the presence of a void-like figure at the end of the mined-out portion of the cave. There, this figure looked to be sitting with a hand gripping a blade, while another held onto an axe of some kind.


    Both of the weapons were visible to her spiritual perception, but everything beneath an incredibly thin outer shell behaved partially like an otherworldly gift. From this, it was easy enough to conclude that the sword and axe had to have been affected significantly by the otherworldly gift that had to lie somewhere within the body of the figure, whose figure was entirely invisible to spiritual perception. In regards to the figure himself, who looked to lack any female characteristics, she actually suspected that he was not merely an otherworldly demon in the mental sense, as some were due to appearing in the bodies of others, but rather a fully foreign entity.


    His facial features, or what she could make out of them, looked incredibly different from any common Western Continental features, and the body shape also differed from the standard figures that she had come across in the north and south alike. She had no clue how someone¡¯s entire body could be brought over like that, if that was indeed what happened, but it seemed very likely that it had happened.


    If she remembered correctly ¨C something that was usually certain, with very few exceptions ¨C then Miyu and those like her found themselves in the Planar Continents with their bodies altered, meaning that there was a significant chance that they had simply come to inhabit those that were very similar in appearance to them. Also, it was theoretically possible to create a new mindless body and then fill it with a mind and soul from the other worlds, but that would bring up the question of why only certain otherworldly demons were changed, while this one was kept the same.


    The answer, if the aforementioned possibility was accurate, would likely depend on the method by which the otherworldly demon ends up being sent over to the continents. Their stories always differed, and there were only a few similar elements across all of their recollections of their last days on their Orbises.


    So, it was feasible that certain factors would alter how their selves were transported to the Planar Continents. Death on their Orbis could lead to the mind being put in a similarly weakened or injured body, like what might have happened with Yi Henghua and her Fairy of Dust manual. A more uneventful day could lead to their bodies being partly replicated upon arrival, with the alteration occurring during the transportation process due to some difference in worldly laws and the like, or by the influence of their otherworldly gifts and the powers that chose to throw them into the Planar Continents. With this, they were able to ensure that the demons always possessed a dantian and were able to cultivate with whatever method was given to them.


    As the man at the back of the cave was completely shrouded by his otherworldly nature, she couldn¡¯t be sure whether he had also acquired a dantian, but he did not look to be weak despite the length of time spent away from the sun and without any food. Either the gift fed him, or planar energy did.


    Given that he did not seem to have had much time to adjust to things in the Planar Continents, she didn¡¯t expect him to have many techniques to draw upon, and so it wouldn¡¯t really matter even if he was in the ninth realm, as he would not know how to make use of the powers of his realm. The weapons in his hands were the only things that were likely to play a part, and in their case, they might have some abilities that are drawn from the weapons that were used to empower them.


    The man had proved to be a challenge for the forces of the district to take on, so the weapons were likely activated by the otherworldly gift. That meant that it was essentially pointless to consider cultivation in terms of combat strength, and so the key to safely defeating the opponent would be by understanding the abilities of the weapons in his hand and comprehending the best ways to work around them. Even if they were primarily functioning via the otherworldly gift, their abilities would still be affected by planar energy¡¯s five manifestations, and thus it should be possible to block them or dodge them, depending on their strength and the situation.


    For that, she would have liked to find some remnants of previous weapons that had been brought into the mine so that she could comprehend their previous abilities and understand the kinds of things that the sword and axe could now do, but it proved rather difficult. While there were remnants of armour, trinkets, and even more miscellaneous and obscure artefacts, there wasn¡¯t a single weapon anywhere.


    ¡®They are indeed merged with the weapons in his hands, then. Unfortunate, especially considering all of the metal that will be lost in this process. With the Silver-Leaf energy, all of the metal in the mines can grow back, and provide far more resources than were lost, but it is still a meaningful degree of loss in the short term,¡¯ she thought briefly while her primary focus was on the problem of the foe himself, who seemed to have no idea that she was anywhere near him.


    To be fair, she was quite far away, and he was unlikely to possess spiritual perception. Still, it seemed that he was not attempting to be wary of his surroundings, which was hardly a reasonable thing to do when he was apparently considered to be a threatening force in the Qiang District.


    There had to be some reason that he, a man that had survived for a minimum of a year in such a dangerous environment, was not paying attention to his surroundings, and so it was safe enough to confirm that a sneak attack would not be as effective as to finish him in one go. She would have liked not to do so, instead bringing in another powerful force to the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and eventually freeing him from the azure light, possibly avoiding any significant loss in strength as the changes would have already been made, but this was nearly impossible due to the man¡¯s current state.


    She had not yet spoken with him, so it was a little presumptuous to decide what the man was thinking, but even if he was entirely unaffected by the usual otherworldly sickness, so to speak, there was no chance of him being friendly in any way to the people of the Planar Continents. She knew she wouldn¡¯t be if the situation was flipped around.


    In fact, she might even be keen to obliterate the whole world if all that she knew was people rushing in to kill her for no good reason. It would require something more extreme than that, but it was feasible.


    ¡®For that reason, I will attempt to speak with him first, but if he does not know a single language that I do know, or if he gives me no chance to speak at all, it would be best to put him out of his misery and take the otherworldly gift as quickly as possible. Of course, developing my arm technique would also be highly beneficial, but as always, I do have to stay alive in order to benefit from any improvements to my techniques,¡¯ she thought as she briefly manifested the five meridian strands from her left shoulder and confirmed their strength and stability.


    So that they did not damage her body again, she absorbed the energy before it had the chance to collapse, then stepped forward through the slightly smaller opening to the cave in which the otherworldly demon sat, facing the wall with eyes that were likely to be dim and hopeless.


    To verify a little more about the man¡¯s abilities, she decided to bring along her low-grade greatsword, as it was neither strong nor very necessary to her combat abilities. If it was lost, whether through its destruction or its absorption into one of the man¡¯s weapons, she wouldn¡¯t lose anything, and he would not gain anything of note. Depending on how the absorption process worked, he might even lose out due to the dilution of the weapon¡¯s abilities with less useful elements.


    Although she did not do much to prevent her bare feet ¨C she did not bother to put on the furred boots, nor the metal high-heeled ones, as neither were particularly beneficial to her in the current situation and state ¨C from making much noise, other than having the common sense not to actively cause more than necessary, the man did not bother looking back at her.


    He just kept staring at the back wall of the cave, confirming her earlier guess about his gaze.


    There was nothing stopping her from continuing on, other than the increasingly large number of artefacts lying about on the ground that she had to step around so that she didn¡¯t accidentally alert the man more than necessary, or something like that. It would also be rather uncomfortable to walk on the artefacts, but that was not really important. She had walked around on very uncomfortable surfaces, and she was going to continue doing so if she had to. Her feet would not be damaged by something so insignificant.


    ¡°Another one¡­ another one¡­ another one¡­¡± a voice came from the distance, barely reaching even her incredible ears.


    ¡®I guess he has noticed me. Not doing anything yet, though. Good start¡­ possibly. I can¡¯t read his mind from here, and it seems like I won¡¯t be able to do so even if I manage to stand immediately next to him. His entire head is invisible to spiritual perception, so nothing I have will work.¡¯


    Given that she was intending to speak with the man if possible, it seemed like a good start. She had to get a little closer before her voice could reasonably reach him, though, so she did exactly that while attempting to restrain any of the killing intent within her body, just in case he was able to instinctively perceive it one way or another. While there was a slight chance of success in a peaceful negotiation, it wouldn¡¯t be good to waste it.


    ¡°Another one¡­ with a sword, too¡­¡±


    ¡°Are you just guessing, or are you able to perceive that all the way from here?¡± she asked, amplifying her voice as much as she could without risking a cave in.


    ¡°¡­ Why do I understand those words? They are wrong! They should be wrong! Why can I understand what you are saying?¡± he suddenly leapt up from his rocky seat and turned around, his dim eyes meeting her own all the way from across the few hundred metres covered by the cave, ¡°Why can my mouth and lips speak these words as if it is normal? Explain this!¡±


    ¡°You were brought over from another world. Some part of the process gives you that knowledge.¡±


    ¡°PUT ME BACK!¡±


    ¡°¡­ Not exactly easy to cross the boundary of worlds, if it is even within the reach of cultivation as a concept.¡±


    ¡°AAH!¡± the man screamed, slamming his axe into the stone to his side. It looked like the tool of an ordinary lumberjack, and yet, when it struck the stone, it did more than just dig into the stone, which would be impressive enough.


    Instead, it went in all the way to the shaft of the axe, then sent a great tremor through the stone, causing the entire cave to shake and tremble. Pieces of stone fell from the ceiling, although it did not go as far as outright collapsing the cave, which would have been disastrous. It took the man a moment to pull the axe out of the stone, but the moment that he did, he quickly leapt forward with strength that shouldn¡¯t have been contained within a body like his.


    Of course, he wasn¡¯t in terrible shape, even if that may have happened purely due to the regular fighting that he needed to do in order to survive, but without an obvious hint of planar energy usage, there should have been no way for him to clear over fifty metres in a single leap, nor should his weapons have been able to ignite with all kinds of elemental energies that were barely stable enough to remain on the axe head and blade. The fact that they hadn¡¯t yet exploded completely ¨C as small explosions did occur every instant on the spots where opposing energy met ¨C made it very clear that the weapons were reinforced accordingly to the power that filled them.


    Since he was the first to act, she didn¡¯t restrain herself either, quickly conjuring the meridians of the left arm and condensing their energy into an Elysian Blast, firing it the very moment that it was ready as the man leapt forward again, reducing the distance between them to half of what it was in seconds.


    The blast of white light emerged and was nearly at its target before the man could even respond. He didn¡¯t look to have the ability to dodge while in the air, which was to be expected from her current understanding of his nature, but he was able to bring the blazing, freezing, crackling and so on axe to meet the ray of light.


    While the collision was audible and the force from the impact clearly reached the ceiling and floor alike, cracks appearing in the stone from the shockwave, she knew that the man did not perish, instead being thrown back. His body was buried in the stone at the back of the cave within a blink of an eye, but the axe and sword alike were still in his hands, and his body was not instantly turned into a red mist, so it meant that he was very much alive. At best, that impact would cause him to be unconscious, but given the instant sounds of movement that she heard from the end of the cave, she knew that this was also not the case.


    ¡®Well, I did want a fight. Let¡¯s go, random man from another world. I don¡¯t dislike you specifically, but I will not hesitate to end your life and let you rest in peace,¡¯ she thought, momentarily putting away the weapon in her hand, as it did not seem to be suitable for this fight.

 V5C10: The Slaughtering Shadow, Part 2

    The moment that the man removed himself from stone, Wei Yi had already readied her own techniques, bringing them out as soon as she could be reasonably sure that she wouldn¡¯t just end up hitting the cave walls and collapsing the ceiling onto them. Even if this cave was some distance from the Qiang District¡¯s over-ground territory, it wouldn¡¯t be good to cause a major cave-in anywhere.


    She still recalled the degree of damage that she had managed to inflict upon the world back when she had decided to awaken her bloodline power, and even if this was going to be less unusual of a situation, it would still greatly alter the landscape of the world. From her understanding, she was somewhere to the east of the outer walls of the Qiang District, meaning that she would damage either the Ru District ¨C a place that she did not want to needlessly get involved with before it was time to do so, as it had a focus on something of great interest to her ¨C or an unaffiliated territory, which would be less disastrous in the short term.


    In the long term, however, it could provide anything from an invasion opportunity to a reason for a major war to begin, which would be unfortunate due to the state of Yi City. If it was unified, a good opportunity for war without angering other regions would be beneficial, but until then, it would only allow the other nations to claim regions that were currently being held onto by the city¡¯s districts. This was also a topic that really didn¡¯t need to be considered at the time of combat.


    After all, when she projected a dozen railgun bolts above her and shot them all at the otherworldly demon, she found that he moved with greater speed than before and met the bolts with a slash of his blade.


    A normal weapon should have broken, and even a high-grade artefact would have struggled to endure the bolts, not to mention the fact that the man¡¯s body should have failed to endure the immense physical force contained within every single railgun bolt. That¡¯s how it should have been, but since the impact of her Elysian Blast, the energy around the axe and sword only looked to have intensified, and part of it wrapped around the man himself, allowing her to conclude at least one of the characteristics that was added to his two weapons.


    ¡®Some type of berserker artefact, perhaps, that becomes stronger the more the user is injured. The structure is rather difficult to replicate, so it is very rare, but I guess that one of the southerners that went into this particular battlefield decided to bring such a weapon along. Well¡­ Great for him,¡¯ she quickly fired out another Elysian Blast as she infused her greatsword with all of the killing will she had to ensure it didn¡¯t break too easily, ¡®There¡¯s a limit to it, and it shouldn¡¯t be too ridiculous.¡¯


    If there wasn¡¯t, then allowing the fight to get drawn out wouldn¡¯t be good, but the chances of that were very low. While she was unable to detect the internal structure of the artefacts in his hands, she could identify distinct properties of certain types of weapons that she was familiar with due to her blacksmithing knowledge. That meant that even if they were all jammed into two weapons despite the seeming impossibility of such a thing, the distinct artefact channels and structures were still in there somewhere. Even if the properties were combined without any damage or deterioration, it was still highly different from amplifying a property into infinity.


    Such a thing was nearly impossible, in fact, due to the intrinsic laws of reality. It was possible to subvert them to an extent, but as with her Dao of Law, each step further from the laws vastly amplified energy usage ¨C and personal injury, in her case. The azure lights might have been able to provide nearly infinite energy to the otherworldly demons, but true infinity was unlikely to be within their reach. Thus, the gift that had permitted these weapons to exist in their current state would have to have a limit of some kind, especially if the modification was limited.


    The railgun bolts were fast, but they did not exceed the speed that the Elysian Blast reached, which was very likely to be near to the speed of light that was so renowned in the minds of otherworldly demons, meaning that even the empowered state of the otherworldly man was insufficient to block it.


    It launched him back into the wall, but this time his feet struck the stone and dug into it, countless cracks appearing within the even grey before the force was fully transferred to the stone. As soon as he was able to move, he pulled one foot out of the stone and kicked off the wall, instantly forcing his other foot out and sending him flying with even more force than the last leap he performed.


    With this degree of strength, obtained from her continued attacks, he was slowly becoming shrouded with energy that mixed together into an incomprehensible mist, and his movement was accelerating accordingly. He stopped speaking the moment that he went on the offensive, so it was hard to tell whether he was even conscious while in battle, but what was certain was that his current state wasn¡¯t terrible at fighting. On the contrary, while he had yet to perform any kind of complex attack, mostly needing to block the bolts and Elysian Blasts to keep himself alive, he had shown a great proficiency at it.


    Either he had worked it out during the first few attempts to kill him, as he would have had to in order to survive, or he was being influenced by the otherworldly gift. It wouldn¡¯t help him too much no matter what, as simply moving well in combat was rather inferior to extremely refined combat techniques.


    This time, he flew straight at her, slashing down at a slower speed that meant that he would end up bringing the blade down onto her head just as he reached her. Even against weaker foes, she didn¡¯t want to risk being hit by her enemies, so she was not going to simply stand there and allow herself to be hit. Given that the exact strength of her opponent was difficult to judge, she drew upon her killing intent while also raising her arm, flooding it with physique energy to ensure that it could withstand any damage effortlessly.


    As the blade neared her, she released a thin strand of concentrated killing will directly at the edge of the sword, the two colliding nearly instantly.


    In that moment, killing will was able to hold the blade of the sword back for just long enough before it was dissipated, the energies gathering around the sword far surpassing the thin strand that she had used against it. Still, it was enough to slow down the weapon significantly, so that when it continued on, she was easily able to meet it with her right hand instead.


    Since she didn¡¯t want to risk being hit in a more vulnerable position, she used the back of her hand to catch the strike, thrust the blade aside, and punched at him. At the same time, she repeated the Elysian Blast technique, as it was one of the few things that she was able to do with her left arm that approximated the offensive potential of the right arm. If she had the ability to do anything else with the same accuracy and reliability, she would have gone for it instead, as the man would have to slowly realise how the technique worked and what the best ways to work around it were. Mixing Obliteration with it would already be greatly effective, but it was not something she could pull off for now.


    This blast was intended specifically to respond to the weapon contained within the other arm of the enemy, the axe that was being swung the moment that the man must have realised that his sword was not going to hit her as intended.


    Her punch landed on the otherworldly demon¡¯s chest and was somehow absorbed entirely, without applying any force onto him at all. It was strange, given the fact that all of the stone behind him collapsed inwards by a metre from the remaining force of the strike. Thus, his axe and her Elysian Blast collided, pushing his right hand back just long enough to give her time to grab onto the handle of the axe, shoving it over to the right to turn away his entire body and give her time to re-summon her left arm¡¯s meridians and direct all of that energy at his armpit.


    That point was typically a weaker point on any body, and was vital for proper movement, so if she was able to damage it even a little, she would give herself a great advantage.


    It hit right away, but it seemed to only be able to push him away by a step, leading only to further acceleration and empowerment of the two weapons, as well as the man wielding them. The moment that he was no longer within her grip, he moved even more quickly and attacked yet again, the shadows gathering around him slowly overwhelming the figure. Hints of azure slowly seeped in with each moment.


    As he attacked, so did she, needing to meet the sword with her right hand¡¯s abilities while the axe needed to be repelled only with what she could produce using the left side of her body. Even though this man didn¡¯t explicitly have any issue with her in particular, nor was there any real reason for her to develop her killing intent as a result of the battle, but she was frankly furious for some time now. He was not the cause, of course, but his presence only highlighted the very problems that she had wanted to deal with since learning of them. The Greats, the heavens, and, possibly beyond them, whatever led to the otherworldly demons coming into the world ¨C it was all infuriating.


    There were countless things that she had wanted to ask and say since she had ended up in the Kong Prison Realm, and each moment only seemed to add to that list. Some were minor and insignificant, others were far less so, and together, they had begun to gather into a red storm all that time ago.


    When the expedition to the Kong District suffered major losses, those thoughts and questions had merely burst out and overpowered her mind, and the fight with the Greats that lost her an arm and the mad man right now were merely giving the opportunity for the darkness that had not been taken in by the red storm to rise up. With her every strike, Elysian Blast, and parry of the attacks she was facing, a similar darkness that appeared around the man also rose around her.


    In her case, the only real exception was that the shadow was free of azure light, looking far more like smoke than the strange shroud around the otherworldly demon.


    She had removed a lot of limitations that she had placed onto herself after the forceful imprisonment in the Kong Prison Realm, and more still as she realised just what she was facing, but that hardly meant that she had abandoned every possible moral that she and the world had ever held. She hated using anything that manipulated the mind, she did not want to utilise slaves, she did not wish to needlessly torment and kill anyone when there was no real reason to do so at all. Now, her body had recovered as much as it would and her arm could be manifested soon enough, provided that the world didn¡¯t literally appear in humanoid form and slap the idea out of her mind, or something like that.


    Using darker actions in order to lead to greater results was one of the key principles that she had to stick to in order to have any chance of success. This was the case with the crimson manifestation of her killing intent, and it had to be the case with the blackened smoke as well.


    If she abandoned that notion, then all that she would be doing is killing randomly, and committing the worst crimes and deeds that she could possibly image for entertainment. Depending on the outcome of those actions, perhaps there would still be those that regard her as an overall positive force in the world, but it would also be a complete failure to follow the ideal of justice that she had developed. After all, if she was permitted to remain alive in that state, then what person possibly deserved any death or suffering?


    Hence, she needed to make use of that darker side somehow, and where better to use it than to let the endless flood be directed towards something useful? To allow the darkness to become a tool that could bring the light to the world, although it was still difficult to say whether anything that she intends to do could truly be said to be even near to being good, not to mention absolute good. She didn¡¯t even know what kind of form her absolute justice would need to take in order to work as intended.


    That would do nothing to stop her from pursuing her goals, not when the simple act of moving towards them actively revealed more about the world and herself.


    As the axe of her enemy approached her side yet again, its movements accelerating with every single blow that she landed upon him ¨C albeit less quickly than before, which was confirming her earlier guess that the weapons had a limit to empowerment through the berserker effect ¨C she unleashed the darkness. This time, she didn¡¯t bother sealing it within the binding of a meridian, instead allowing the smoke to shape the path of the other four energy meridians as she formed an arm to block the strike coming at her.


    It was something that she had already theorised about, but now that she had actually gotten around to doing it, she realised far more than she had imagined she could possibly learn from something this simple. In a single instant, the crimson light of her killing intent that had long coloured her techniques and nature completely blackened, the quality of the energy multiplied, and the quantity went to an absolutely insane level.


    All of that manifested into a clawed hand connected to her left shoulder by an arm made entirely of the dark smoke. The basic features were akin to the left arm¡¯s previous killing will state, except that the claws were sharper and obviously stronger, with all of the black smoke concentrating at them to form something that was almost solid in appearance.


    In practise, when the axe hit the palm of this hand, it couldn¡¯t penetrate even the surface of the smoke, resulting only in a little bit of smoke momentarily flying off, the killing intent dissipating into the air.


    The entire arm scattered similarly a moment after, plenty of smoke and energy thus vanishing from her body, but all of the killing intent was refilled almost instantly. Still, even that wasn¡¯t the best outcome of the momentary experiment, as she discovered that as the rest of the energy was able to return to her body, it did so without a hint of damage to her body that might usually be present after such an experiment. Even in the killing intent-filled state that she had found herself in, she was able to have a moment of clarity in which she comprehended the fault of Reality Severance.


    ¡®As it cleaved me apart, removing the arm from my body forever, it severed only the state that I was in at the time. It removed the human arm which was influenced by my flesh, blood and energy, and thus any attempts to replicate it would automatically fail. However, the killing will state was a significantly different state of the arm, and was thus distinct from that which was severed. When manifested through killing intent and used to contain the other four energies within meridians that are arranged according to the most optimal setup in such a state, this bypasses my split concept of existence and still permits the arm to exist, even if the current technique only gives me one second to use it, without any movement,¡¯ she understood, her left eye filling with shadow while crimson still shone through at the iris and pupil.


    She allowed her killing intent to seep out even without focusing it into the left arm, flooding the cave with shadow that obscured her maddened grin as she attacked with renewed vigour and greatly intensified strength.


    Without someone to restrain the quakes, they were far more obvious on the surface than before, causing the guardian to look even more grumpy than he had been a few minutes before the battle below the ground began. He had listened to his Patriarch for some time, but the longer that he needed to experience the trembling of the ground, the less he wanted to do so.


    ¡°You look grim, Guardian Mu. The Patriarch has refused to listen to your words again?¡±


    A cloaked figure whose face was obscured by the shadow of a red hood appeared by his side, the voice being obscured in its entirety via an unknown method into a blur that barely conveyed meaning.


    ¡°The Patriarch and I disagree more often with each day¡­ How can he not understand that the outsiders are only going to bring down our district? The south does not need the interference of the north, and especially not of some faction that merely seeks to rile up everything when there is no need to break tradition!¡± Qiang Mu exclaimed, his expression twisting with fury for a moment before he forced himself to relax, ¡°I hate that you are the one that agrees.¡±


    ¡°Me? I and the ones I represent are as fond of traditions as you, and surely upholding tradition does not necessarily require sticking to them when your foe does not?¡±


    ¡°Do not think that such simple words will ever convince me that you are acting in my interests. I know what you want ¨C no, of one thing that you want ¨C and I will not succumb. Do you understand that?¡± Guardian Mu said barely restraining himself from poking a finger at the figure in red.


    ¡°And yet, you would benefit from this greatly, would you not?¡± the strange voice seemed to have no significant emotional response, only offering the guardian a small vial with no more words.


    As soon as it was gone from the figure¡¯s hands, it vanished in the same quiet manner as it had appeared in, leaving the guardian on his own, in a dark room shrouded from the cold with thick walls and a dense, inscription-filled door. He sighed, not bothering to look at the vial. The contents were already known to him, and while he did not wish to consume them, a feeling in his heart made itself more and more obvious the longer he thought on. It was not something he wished to do, but it might be something that he has to do.


    With each strike and collision, Wei Yi was able to get used to the newly manifested Arm of Slaughtering Shadow just a little bit more. It was still limited to an instant of stillness, but now that it did not collapse, she was able to keep conjuring it again and again whenever her arm stood still.


    As her proficiency grew, her opponent¡¯s strength no longer did so. Instead, she was able to make use of the left arm to block his weapons, grab onto him whenever it would be to her advantage, and even stop her own movement whenever optimal by thrusting out her left hand at an incoming wall. She ended up doing the last of that list quite a bit, as she and the otherworldly demon leapt around quite a bit in their fight.


    Since she was getting better and he was not, there was hardly any feasibility for the demon to win over her. His previous injuries that had been absorbed by the berserk effect of both weapons were clearly still present, and so, once she had the right opportunity to do so, she once more approached the man from an opportune angle.


    Given that she had attacked his left armpit several times with Elysian Blasts, that was what she chose to target again with the same method, except that there was no longer any need to hold back her energy. So long as she did not move her arm, the energy that composed it wouldn¡¯t collapse, and thus the quantity of energy that she could unleash through the arm would be similarly amplified and multiplied, and the layer of killing intent that wrapped around the four meridians would affect that energy in some uncertain manner. After all, it was no longer the same intent that produced her Antithesis methods, although that was still in there, beneath the smoke.


    He attempted to get out of the way, but the smoky claws that suddenly grabbed onto his flesh couldn¡¯t be broken out of, not in time. The moment that he was out, it was also when the claws collapsed.


    From the confines of the smoke, a boundless force surged out, tearing into his flesh and manifesting the first obvious wound upon his body. Muscles were ripped apart, skin was cracked and injured, and the bones beneath endured for a single moment before they shattered with a deafening noise, the many shards tearing through his own body without any resistance. In an instant, the sturdy body of the otherworldly demon collapsed, the weapons fell to the ground, and an azure light burst out alongside an ephemeral shape of a sheath covered in vein-like geometric patterns.


    Before the azure light had a moment to move, a clawed hand made of smoke suddenly appeared around it, gripping it tightly without a spot of light having a chance to escape from her grasp. With that, she had all the freedom in the world to activate the Truth of the Universe and send off the light.


    ¡°Antithesis, and now something that can restrain the azure lights for a little bit¡­ The Arm of Slaughtering Shadow might turn out to have been a blessing in disguise.¡±

 V5C11: Artefact Combination

    With the azure light purged, she picked up the strange sheath that fell to the ground. It was blatantly the physical manifestation of the otherworldly gift the man had been using, so when it looked to break up into particles wherever she touched it and then fade into her hands, this was not particularly surprising.


    Once it was in her body, she briefly checked that there were no obvious immediate effects to herself, whether physically or mentally. She knew no way of warding off or removing an otherworldly gift from herself if it was harmful to her in some way, but she could at the very least take precautions and avoid using the gift too much if it did affect her in a negative way, in the same manner that she wouldn¡¯t use the Truth of the Universe to modify and improve techniques unless she had already understood the path for improvement.


    So far, there looked to be nothing, so she focused upon the only hints she had regarding the function of the gift that she had picked up. There were the two weapons on the ground, which, even if they were incredibly useful, she did not want to use due to their connection to the azure light¡¯s influence. They would either break quickly without its support, or affect her even without the light¡¯s presence. It was best not to take the risk, for obvious reasons.


    Then, she also had the various items lying around the underground battlefield, although their number was reduced after the battle. The strongest and most resistant artefacts were still whole, and she could make use of them if the otherworldly gift could indeed combine all artefacts and not just weapons.


    Finally, there was the fact that whenever anything with an artefact-like structure neared the mental image of the sheath on her side, it looked to get more solid for a moment, although she knew that this was not the case. What was made very clear by this was that she would need to place something into the sheath, whether literally or otherwise, and then the effects of the item inside would either be improved by those of other items, or it would be broken down to empower something else. Given that she did not yet know the answer, she was naturally reluctant to use anything of any value to experiment before she could be certain.


    Wei Yi took out a random weapon that she had on her ¨C not the greatsword taken from the southern trio that wanted to sell her off, as she might want to use the otherworldly gift on it later ¨C and a low-quality and low-grade artefact that managed to endure the conflict in the underground battlefield, although it wasn¡¯t in a perfect condition.


    The sheath reacted similarly to both, so she placed the weapon into the sheath physically and focused on the other artefact within her hand. Notably, the sheath changed shape to accommodate the weapon more, although this wasn¡¯t too impressive considering its ethereal form. It would have been far stranger if the otherworldly gift was unable to do even this much, and acted only as a genuine sheath for a regular blade. It would also be strange considering that one of the two weapons used by the otherworldly demon was an axe that would very much not fit into the sheath.


    Out of the two, she wanted the weapon more, so she was hoping that it would be the weapon that would be enhanced in this exchange. To be absolutely sure, she also made sure to will the other artefact to be sacrificed to the weapon rather than the other way around, just in case the arrangement didn¡¯t actually matter and the intent had greater priority.


    She did not need to wait long for a result. The moment that she clearly broadcasted her intent, the artefact she was holding onto collapsed into countless particles of light, sinking into the sheath and then through it into the weapon within. The noteworthy thing that stuck out to her right away was that only half of the particles actively passed through the sheath, with the rest seeming to stick within the sheath without much effect.


    As unfortunate as that was, she was not surprised. The otherworldly gifts were bound to display a limited degree of their abilities until she neared the peak of cultivation, and in this instance, it seemed that the gift would only have the ability to pass on a limited extent of energy from any artefact into another. This was to be expected, of course, and it was ultimately not as bad as it could have been had she gotten her hands onto the item in the first or second realm, as that might have resulted in only ten or twenty percent of an item¡¯s abilities being transferred into her chosen equipment. At that point, she would not have chosen to make use of it.


    Now, however, although she could delay and wait until the sixth realm, there was one thing that she wished to check in order to have the best idea of what she would do with the gift.


    From the House of Gold, she removed a shard of obsidian that contained a number of artefact pathways that were once highly powerful, but only due to the previous application of an azure light. The shards of Demon Killer once composed a powerful blade, but on their own, they were nigh useless as a result of whatever property that allowed it to grow more powerful alongside her vanishing.


    If she could empower them with other artefacts, make each shard into something noteworthy, then merge them together once more with a new hilt and name, she could always create a greater blade that might, perhaps, be capable of handling her planar energy in full. Such a thing would not only be a major success due to that inherent property, but due to the enormous boost that it could offer her combat strength. Her various energy-based manifestations of artefacts were all effective in their own ways, but they were ultimately limited by her own energy projection abilities. They would not be truly empowered by the structure of whatever artefact she manifested.


    Having a weapon to use in specific instances where it would be most beneficial to amplify her strength would certainly be a positive no matter how she ended up getting it, and making use of something that she was already familiar with would obviously be even better.


    She removed the blade from the sheath and held it in her right hand after resting the obsidian shard in her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, focusing on the left as the repository of power and the right as the source. Even assuming a decay of power that can be absorbed after each use of the otherworldly gift, the Artefact Combinator, a single low-quality blade shouldn¡¯t affect that too greatly assuming that it is dependent on the quantity of power and not the items being shoved into others.


    The sword in her hand broke down into particles and then flew into the sheath, which held onto half of the energy and passed on the rest to the obsidian shard in her hand. When it came to the sword, the particles had entered it almost right away, but it took quite a while this time, leaving her to stand for almost five minutes before the shard finally absorbed the energy from the sword, allowing her to safely remove the shard from the left clawed hand and dispel the arm after needing to maintain it for so long. Before doing anything else, she knew that she wouldn¡¯t be able to sit still every time, so she attempted to move both it and the Artefact Combinator into the House of Gold to make the process a little less inconvenient.


    Usually, the otherworldly gifts that didn¡¯t have a direct relation ¨C like the Mask of Yama that came from the House of Gold had, for instance ¨C didn¡¯t interact with one another all that much, with them rarely being able to detect one another, but to her surprise, these two did interact without any difficulty. The moment that she chose to put the Artefact Combinator into the House of Gold, it entered and settled in within the centre of the spatial storage, hovering above the majority of the trash that she had thrown inside after everything useful was already in.


    In there, she finally got to confirm the name of the otherworldly gift, as the House of Gold had that functionality for anything that entered it. Apparently, rather than being named the Artefact Combinator, which made more sense due to the accuracy of the terms, it was instead labelled simply as Artefact Combination. Given that this made little sense, she chose not to adopt this particular label, and simply ignored it, as she did not seem to have the ability to change the names of certain items in there.


    The shards of Demon Killer, however, did not get a new name. All that did change was the description, which suddenly mentioned that it had an additional number of internal artefact channels and the ability to store energy for the use of the cultivator, lacking any other function.


    It was the exact property of the artefact that she had merged with the sword and then integrated with the shard, and although the exact strength looked to have been reduced, she had no problems at all with the outcome. The shard still had plenty of free space for other channels, and depending on how far the otherworldly gift could go with them, it might even be able to double or triple what any blacksmith that had or could ever live in the Planar Continents could place inside the shard. Thus, there was only one more thing that she wished to confirm before proceeding with her plan.


    ¡®Can I shove the artefacts I manifest with my energy into the Artefact Combinator? If I can¡­ then I can put any artefact that I have previously encountered into the otherworldly gift and thus empower each of the shards with such a large number of channels that, when they are combined together¡­¡¯ she paused, as she couldn¡¯t be sure what such a process would result in, ¡®There are two things I can imagine, at least. One is that the channels collapse into a large open space that is able to accept my own energy. The other is that the many channels somehow resonate together and result in a very different effect, since there is no way that they would not interfere with one another to some extent after enough of them are placed into a shard.¡¯


    Logically speaking, such a thing shouldn¡¯t be possible at all. Artefacts that were inherently temporary in nature shouldn¡¯t be able to permanently become parts of other things without any consequences.


    ¡®Wait, couldn¡¯t that happen? Who is to say that a temporary thing cannot have permanent consequences? I could manifest the artefact and kill a man, carve out a hole in the ground, or forge something with a hammer made of energy that has a specific expiration date, so why shouldn¡¯t it work? Now that I think about it¡­ This must be caused by some heavenly mandate.¡¯


    There were countless properties of this type in the Planar Continents. The fact that cultivation realms would arbitrarily increase one¡¯s lifespan, but only to a certain extent that cannot be moved up no matter what else someone attempts to do, unless they transform into something completely inhuman, for example. This was one of the many things in the world that made sense on first glance, but on the second, which most never gave it, it could not. Why would anyone perish on the spot just because they lived for a certain amount of time? It was illogical, silly, arbitrary, and entirely unnatural, as she could conclude from the fact that the Orbises did not have this same problem.


    In those worlds, a lack of cultivation meant that lifespan couldn¡¯t be brought up or down via so-called supernatural means, the seeming lack of the heavens also meant that it was entirely within the control of the people themselves. Those that did what they could to live longer could do so, whereas those that ignored their health would most often see their lifespan drop accordingly, albeit in a manner that could be reversed depending on the nature of the damage one dealt to themselves.


    So far as she was able to conclude, this was what should occur. If aging itself was bypassed ¨C something that the people of the other worlds had apparently discovered was caused by some mechanism in the ¡®cells¡¯ that made up the human body ¨C whether with cultivation or some otherworldly solution, then one should have no issues at all with living for however long that they wanted. With Wei Yi¡¯s various techniques, she was pretty confident that she would be able to accomplish this in one way or another, but she knew that she would age in the same way that anyone once she began to reach into the later years of her current lifespan without reaching a greater realm of cultivation to push that lifespan further back and give herself more time.


    However, this was yet another thing that would require opposing the very heavens on a level that went beyond Touch the Heavens, which was only the lightest of challenges.


    Back on the original topic, the Ascendant had originally thought that the otherworldly gifts would be able to work their impossible magic once more and allow something temporary to become permanent at no permanent cost, but now that she realised it, there was no significant physical change to the artefacts affected by the Artefact Combinator. The channels were formed within existing material, and any changes that occurred could be made from raw energy, which would be present in abundance within artefacts manifested by her planar energy.


    Hence, she bypassed all of her hesitation from before and took out a replica of Freedom Unchained, a weapon that she remembered really well due to having designed and made on her own, so she didn¡¯t need to worry that some fault in the structure would somehow damage her obsidian shards.


    As she had assumed, the Artefact Combinator had accepted the spear without much difficulty, breaking it apart into small cosmic particles that looked like individual stars that contained many galaxies and stars of their own, and if she looked deep into them, she suspected that she would find even more of them within. All of them vanished after a moment, appearing within the House of Gold, then gathered around the same obsidian shard and began to enter it, one by one.


    ¡®It does work. Knew it. Thus, as my left arm has become able to stop azure lights, although only for a little bit, and my understanding of the heavens and the world itself grows¡­¡¯


    In the end, she decided not to stick around and wait for the shard to be infused again, as it looked to be even longer than last time. Clearly, the time required was based in some way on the quality and power of the items being combined, and so a powerful shard being improved by a powerful high-grade artefact naturally took far longer.


    She could wait for it to finish, as she was in no mood or shape to forge a blade anew, and since she didn¡¯t have to hold onto the shard while it was being improved, she headed out of the underground battlefield while grabbing up as many artefacts as she was able to reasonably fit into the House of Gold. Even if the Qiang District¡¯s leader demanded that she returned them, she could always request a small reward for them, either in the form of a few of the artefacts or some other resource that she needed. Perhaps the Qiang District still knew of the nature, appearance and location of spatial metal, in which case she would gladly hand all of the artefacts over to them for nothing else.


    In terms of the original purpose that she had for them, she could replicate every single one with her cosmic energy, so it wasn¡¯t much of an issue.


    So, she soon left the battlefield and returned to the caves that she had travelled through to get to it. As before, there weren¡¯t many people in the areas nearest to the battlefield, and once she arrived at the places that had previously been mined by at least one person, she found that many of them had been deserted or otherwise emptied out for one reason or another. Some were almost certainly gone due to her actions, but most were likely to have left due to other reasons.


    After all, if the miners were permitted to walk out the moment that there was a bit of rumbling near them, they wouldn¡¯t get up to much as they would constantly be sitting away from their place of work. Only those with no supervision at all could get away with such a thing.


    Even if she was somehow responsible for everything, she didn¡¯t really care about that. A day of work lost was nothing in comparison to the immense boost in resources that would be experienced once all of the resources in the district began to grow like crops without the typical limitations of such things. So long as the Patriarch provided the metal crops with an appropriate quantity of planar energy, all of the metal could grow at the same rate that all of the miners could extract it naturally from a source of ore, and thus their yield would only increase with each day that wasn¡¯t used with optimal efficiency to extract the ore and refined metal that grows as leaves.


    The reduced time taken to process that material would also greatly reduce the time between the initial extraction of the material to the point that it is usable, further increasing efficiency. If they allowed the ore to grow enough, the quantity that was able to grow would accordingly increase, and eventually the entire district could supply the rising demand of a world that was freed from the sickening influence of the Greats.


    ¡®When I have the chance, I will change their title to something more suitable, just as I had changed the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s names to the Crimson and Silver Sides,¡¯ she decided, as she had grown tired of the term that they had used for themselves some time ago.


    She had a few ideas, but the final title for them would depend on exactly what she learned regarding them over her long campaign to end their existence. For instance, if there was something about them that would be suitable for exemplifying just how terrible they were, like the story of Chao Jianhong being a perfect example of why the Blood-tinged Church was not to be trusted with the prospect of obtaining more power. Something of this nature would be highly beneficial in discouraging people from ever emulating the Great Families or seeking to side with them while they were still around.


    After another hour, she managed to get to the parts of the mines that were still active, and was able to confirm that the majority had left for reasons other than the quakes, although this was only the explanation that she had heard being muttered from one miner to another. It was very plausible that there were a few that wanted to avoid being crushed by stones that might be knocked loose.


    Additionally, there was a figure that looked to be standing around and waiting while looking in the direction that she had gone in, so she assumed by his sixth realm that he must have been a guardian of the Qiang District sent to look for her. There was little chance of her spiritual perception reaching out to the top of the Ancestral Hall to confirm what the Patriarch was up to, so she couldn¡¯t just ask him, but she hardly needed to speak to him to notice that there was something odd about him. Even if he came during some kind of emergency, there was no reason for him to be as agitated as he was, and certainly no reason for him to be preparing his energy to this extent.


    ¡®I have a bad feeling about him, but I can deal with anything that he might throw at me. If he does¡­ I could get a little more out of the Qiang Patriarch, if I think of something that I want from him,¡¯ she thought, quietly preparing her own energy as well while holding back so that she wouldn¡¯t damage the caves any further with a reckless use of the Elysian Blast with her current Arm of Slaughtering Shadow.


    With the minimal preparation complete, she continued walking, not hiding her gaze upon him as to test what it was that he was going to attempt. She got closer and closer, to the point that she almost had to conclude that he wasn¡¯t going to be doing anything outwardly, when he did strike. In one brief moment, the earth rumbled and he appeared a dozen steps closer to her, his right hand pulled back in the instant that he appeared before her and thrust it out, a great concentration of earth-type energy surging from his body.


    Given that he clearly attacked the supposedly weaker point of her body, she did not think that anyone would complain if she got a little rough.


    Before his fist could draw too close, black claws made of smoke suddenly appeared before it, clamping down upon his skin like an unbreakable vice. Her only mobile hand went straight for his chest, moving at a higher speed than his earth-type cultivation would allow, and struck him easily.


    There were several layers of planar barriers in the way, ones that had been established even before she had the thought of hitting him, but being a layer of passive barriers it was useless for anything other than a really quiet stealth attack which sacrificed strength for invisibility. Her punch was not hidden nor disguised in any way, and while she didn¡¯t unleash the full potential of her body, she did not hold back her physical strength.


    Her fist cracked several ribs and dug into the presumed guardian¡¯s chest, causing him to spit out blood that she evaded after releasing his hand. One hit was enough to cause severe damage, so she wanted to see whether he was going to explain himself or apologise for the sudden attack. Just in case this proved to be an actual foe that was intent on taking her life, which was always a possibility that would have to change some of her other plans, she did not distance herself from the man. She remained as close as she reasonably could while ensuring that she had the time to evade any rapid attacks that the man might be able to manage with abilities that he had not revealed.


    Of all the things that she had imagined him to do next, as part of her tactical considerations, pulling out a small vial that instantly resonated with her bloodline power was low on that list.


    She had been unable to perceive it fully while it was hidden in his clothing and behind his own energy, but now that it was revealed, she knew that this item was of some great importance to the guardian and herself alike. For her, the function of any item that contained a bloodline, or anything relating to one, was obvious, but since she didn¡¯t know what the man was intending to do with it, she couldn¡¯t let him use it for his own purposes, as even losing this vial forever would be far preferable to allowing some abomination akin to Chao Jianhong¡¯s final draconic state to be unleashed upon the world.


    With his right hand having been grabbed onto by her claws, he must have decided that the left was more suitable for handling the vial, giving her the perfect opportunity to unleash the principle of the Crushing Dagger technique with the side of her hand.


    It crashed onto his wrist, but his fingers managed to remain tight as he tried to retreat and pull the flask closer to himself. She naturally closed the distance instantly with her fourth realm movement method, manifesting the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow briefly to release an Elysian Blast at his left arm. She deliberately held back the attack, and thus the blast of dark energy was only able to rip the centre of his arm apart, leaving the skin and a bit of flesh to connect the hand and elbow together.


    With that, he was unable to keep hold of the vial, leaving it to fall.


    For a moment, he glanced into her eyes, their heights placing their eyes at around the same level, then suddenly lunged down with his mouth open, biting down upon the glass vial without any hesitation and breaking it in an instant. Part of the blood entered his mouth and was quickly absorbed into his body, so she rushed to absorb the rest of it via her bloodline power so that he wouldn¡¯t receive as much of a benefit from the blood as he would receive if he got all of it.


    She couldn¡¯t analyse the exact nature of the blood from a second of absorption, but the fact that her bloodline power¡¯s realm was immediately added to significantly made it very clear that she had done the right thing by getting it away from the guardian. The amount that did enter his body took effect a moment after that, and that further confirmed this particular conclusion.


    He lurched back, his irises narrowing down until they were barely visible around the pitch-black pupils that suddenly expanded a moment later. They quickly took up most of his eyes, the sclera of which turned red as the influence of the blood spread throughout his body. The severed hand fused back with the arm, latching onto the elbow and greatly shortening the overall length of the left arm, while the flesh revealed by the torn armour around it similarly gained a crimson hue while countless pustules formed upon the surface, all of them filling with various similarly unpleasant colours, as if each one became home to a distinct toxic substance.


    ¡®It¡¯s a good thing that my bloodline emphasises a stable foundation over adaptation in mind and body, or else absorbing that blood would have caused me to experience some very similar changes¡­ Wait-¡¯


    The body of the guardian suddenly bulged as glowing orange flame surged out from within him, pouring out of his orifices as he roared in either rage or anguish, perhaps both. Unfortunately, that did not kill the monster that the man became, but instead caused the aura radiating from him to grow in strength, and made it very clear that this was just one of the many functions that the blood from the vial possessed.


    ¡®Isn¡¯t that the True Ascendant¡¯s yang-type energy? Fuck, how does he have¡­ Not now,¡¯ she had a couple of suspicions already, but she pushed them over to the side and kicked at the guardian¡¯s crotch while he was still in the middle of his transformation.


    Given his current state, it was difficult to estimate how much it would affect him, but the damage that she would be able to inflict to him with that move was sufficient to buy just enough time.


    As soon as her foot ¨C shielded in many layers of energy for reasons ranging from increasing offensive capability to improving her own hygiene ¨C struck, she turned to the many people that were still in the mines, standing around and staring upon the two of them with a mixture of expressions. Some were still working, which was even worse in her mind as they would be unlikely to have the ability to react to the inevitable battle that would take place. Those that were looking would at least know if something was likely to hurt them or come flying in their direction at dangerous speeds.


    ¡°Everyone, unless you are actually suicidal, get out of here!¡± she exclaimed, ¡°And get the Patriarch, if he isn¡¯t already on his way!¡±


    Her kick landed and threw the guardian, if he could still be called that in his current state, back by a couple of steps, and his landing on the hard stone beneath their feet provided enough of a noise to rouse everyone from their still stances of surprise and made everyone in the underground chamber flee. There were several routes to the surface, or to safer regions, and all of them were taken.


    Thus, she was left alone with a monstrous entity that was already preparing to attack again, while she had a number of questions that she would have loved to ask either of the entity itself, or the source of the blood that had induced this transformation.

 V5C12: The Church’s Influence

    ¡®There are several things to note with the energy. First of all, it is blatantly not the Yin-Yang Ascendant energy that I currently possess, so it is likely that this has come from a similar source to the otherworldly demon that happened to inhabit a body somehow made with my blood. That means that this guardian has some relations to the Blood-tinged Church,¡¯ she was able to conclude now that part of the interferences were gone, freeing up some of her mental capacity for matters that were more significant to her in the long-term, ¡®Blood-tinged Church, and the Great Families. I think I¡¯ll rush and get rid of the next faction that tries to join their ranks, even if it is a little inconvenient, just to prevent their numbers from constantly growing in my mind.¡¯


    Her killing intent and spiritual will, as well as their combined state, may both be rather powerful, but they were unable to cover for the perpetually rising fury at the world, so it would be best for her to quell the causes of it if they ever rose in number. So far, the two factions were the only significantly powerful ones, fortunately for the world and her alike.


    ¡®How my blood can be used to produce physique energy, or something akin to it, is another matter entirely, but it seems like I am able to absorb my old blood into my current bloodline easily enough, so that¡¯s good at the very least,¡¯ Wei Yi found something to prevent her emotional state from fluctuating and focused back on the foe itself, and the potential capabilities that this transformed guardian of the Qiang District might possess.


    She didn¡¯t expect him to be capable of operating at the same mental level as before, although she wasn¡¯t sure what his mind was even capable of considering that he decided to randomly attack her in the middle of the mines with plenty of witnesses.


    Hence, the primary concern was regarding his actual ability. The guardian had been in the sixth stage of Linked Channels, a realm that was capable of enduring her abilities in a favourable environment but not when their abilities were not fully utilised. In that way, the man must have lost some of his overall potential, but it might be that his transformation had more than made up for any losses in reasonable tactics. Out of everything that she was able to guess regarding the abilities granted by the change, she was most concerned about the excessive number of pustules that appeared on his body.


    Each one was filled with something that she almost certainly didn¡¯t wish to touch directly, so the ideal way to fight him would be from the distance, so long as he was not able to use his planar energy well.


    There was no way to be sure without experiencing an attack from this monster, so she went right ahead and attacked first, so that anything she provoked would at the very least be acted out with less strength and energy than the entity might otherwise gather in an ideal situation for itself. If the attack successfully prevented it from attacking at all, that would obviously be even better.


    In an instant, her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow reappeared and lingered before her just long enough to focus her energy through it and unleash it upon the monster¡¯s head. The smoke collapsed into a mass of absolute power that then shot out and pierced right through the right arm that the monster raised in an attempt to block the blast. It didn¡¯t do a very good job at defending from the entirety of the Elysian Blast, but the amount that did hit him was not enough to end his life and prevent him from continuing to be a nuisance.


    The parts of his arm that were evaporated by her Elysian Blast healed with immense speed and without the same physical distortion, while the toxins that had been contained within the pustules on his body burst out and covered him and the ground, forcing her to leap back.


    Even then, she had a difficult time understanding their purpose, as most of the vile fluids touched the stone and had little reaction to it. Furthermore, her spiritual perception did not have the ability to perceive the atoms that the otherworldly demons were so fond of, so she couldn¡¯t just analyse the very structure of some unknown substance and thus figure out what it would be able to do against her or others that might involve themselves in the conflict, so she had to act with appropriate caution until comprehending the purpose of the liquids was possible.


    All that she was able to determine with certainty was that the pustules filled with her former True Ascendant energy were more than capable of burning a sizeable hole in stone with a single drop, resulting in numerous such holes appearing in the ground near the monster. That meant that it was still as effective in this regard as her own energy had been, and so the rest had to have a similar value according to logic, which may not have been taken into account by those that created the mixture that resulted in this transformation. It was what made it so much more difficult to estimate the exact effectiveness of each individual portion of the former guardian, and far more challenging to comprehend the exact intentions of the ones that had allowed it.


    Presumably, the Blood-tinged Church had some interest in the district, hence the vial finding its way to the guardian, but it was hard to be sure whether the vial of blood was a finished product or not.


    ¡®Well, if I manage to find their members in the district, I will be sure to have a word. Before then¡­¡¯ she finally saw the monstrosity move for a purpose other than defending itself, and so she conjured a number of the shields she had duplicated from the automatons that she had fought at the Ju District, combining both the spherical and the hexagonal barriers just to be safe.


    The entity roared again and charged at her, a number of the pustules on its body bursting during the sprint and greatly increasing the speed with each drop of unpleasant fluid that landed upon his skin and flesh. During the sprint, his planar energy was also activated, but all that it looked to be able to do was fluctuate violently and tear through the terrain, effectively expanding the size of its own body in terms of the area that it would strike with the charge. Its body was also made stronger, but this was negligible in comparison to the other effects.


    Most importantly for her, this movement was simplistic and lacking in any further tactics. It was a straightforward rush towards her current position and leaping away was incredibly easy.


    For that reason, she conjured an Obliteration-infused Destruction Brand upon the ground before leaping away, and watched as it latched onto the poor fool and slammed down upon him a moment after. It charred the flesh and ruptured some more of the pustules, although that only led to them recovering a few moments later and the substances within imparting whatever benefits they were able to bestow upon the monster that he had transformed into.


    The regenerative properties of this entity were actually rather astounding, with the overall capabilities rising to the fifth realm of bloodline power cultivation in certain ways. It even fit some of the criteria for the Genetic Comprehension realm, with the changes to his body and, presumably, to his own bloodline, being most notable.


    However, one of the benefits of the brands empowered with her ever-improving energy ¨C with Obliteration in particular being something made of the combination of every method in her possession, meaning that the addition of the Elysian Blast and Touch the Heavens made it even more powerful ¨C was that they would stick around no matter how one attempted to ward them off. There were certainly methods to dispel the brands before they were exhausted of the energy imbued into them, but to a figure that did not have the ability to consciously draw upon its energy and seek to ward off attacks rather than simply engaging in more of its own. Hence, the attacks would persist for a long while.


    Given that this proved to be an effective method of attack, as the brand fell down once more and burst in a storm of blackened crimson, she waved her right hand and summoned a dozen more brands all over the place. Wei Yi then stood behind them and launched another Elysian Blast at the monster in order to catch his attention. It worked as well as anything would, as there was nothing else to grab its interest. Had one of the miners stayed behind, it would have been more difficult.


    Who could assume what intentions the entity had, after all? The current mind of the guardian could have been focused on eating mice over combat, regardless of what it perceived as mice or what it thought to constitute eating. Any kind of interference would have been unfortunate, to say the least.


    She repeated the process several times, luring the monster to attack her, caused it to pick up a brand that charged up the others at the same time, then moved to the next brand. Each time, the entity looked to be trying something new, with different running postures, uses of planar energy, and so on, but the changes were far too minor and failed to take into account previous modifications to the entity¡¯s tactics. In other words, it would try something new each time, but never learn and repeat previous attempts, whether or not they were successful.


    Thus, although the combination of everything that it did could have allowed the former guardian of the Qiang District to gain enough speed and suddenness to catch her off guard and grab onto her, it did not implement them successfully. Each time, all that it got was more Obliteration energy blasting down upon it, and each time it ended with just a little bit more damage that it couldn¡¯t quite fix fast enough.


    In total, it took twenty-four Obliteration-infused brands for the entity to withstand the first attack that it simply couldn¡¯t recover from, which was bound to occur no matter how sturdy it was. Without a nascent rift within its body, and without the ability to rapidly absorb and process planar energy like Wei Yi was able to, the total supply of it within the guardian¡¯s body decreased each time that it had to recover flesh and blood. Even at the greatest efficiency and speed, even if the blood had provided it with a thousand lifetimes of regenerative potential, it would be unable to keep regenerating at some point.


    Of course, the addition of the principles contained within Touch the Heavens helped. Above anything else, Touch the Heavens was focused on subverting the natural order and tearing it apart, challenging the structure that the heavens had established and displaying her own range of Laws to the world. All of the random imposition was likely to damage the world, of course, hence the destructive potential of the technique and why it could endure Reality Severance to an extent.


    Against a monstrosity that should be able to regenerate in near perpetuity so long as it was provided with an appropriate amount of energy, her Lawful imposition would have a number of distinct effects. Most of them, however, would prevent that regeneration one way or another.


    As soon as that energy was exhausted to a sufficient degree, she raised her phantom arm and conjured the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow high up in the air, the palm facing downwards as she resonated her own energy with the individual systems of the twenty-four brands hovering right above the monster. They were not far apart from her, nor from one another ¨C they couldn¡¯t be, even if the guardian had swollen to twice his original size ¨C and thus controlling them herself was incredibly simple and providing them with more energy was even more so.


    Once she had that link, she directed a trace of the true potential of Touch the Heavens to the brands, not daring to get even closer to the full power of the technique simply due to the damage that it would inflict upon her in return. She was still holding back with the Dao of Law, so unleashing the next step after it would be akin to seeking death loudly and proactively.


    Even that was enough to cause the space around the brands to be distorted. She didn¡¯t want to let the brands distort the world too much, as it would cause too much of a commotion if they went out of control, so the moment that this was complete she made them fall upon the monstrosity and explode.


    When the energy of the Touch the Heavens appeared within the brands, the monstrous thing was drawn to look up and behold the brands, although she couldn¡¯t determine whether it had a greater reason for doing so than simply being alerted by the powerful energy. Perhaps the guardian that the body had once been recognised that he was witnessing something unusually powerful, especially when the limit of her fifth realm was considered, or maybe it was the entity that was instinctively observing something within the brands. Either way, it did nothing to move out of the way, sealing its fate.


    The descent of the space-tearing brands was followed by an explosion that almost seemed to begin before they had the chance to touch the guardian. All of the bursts of energy tore through the space and the entity, shredding it to many pieces, scattering the tainted blood within all over the place. However, before it could touch the ground and burn through the stone, her killing will surrounded every single drop and brought it before her so that she could absorb the bloodline power within.


    Ever since the first instance of the Blood-tinged Church abusing her blood to produce a clone, she had become far more cautious about leaving any blood to be used by that faction. They likely had more vials of blood akin to the one used by the guardian, but it was possible that they would benefit from the resulting combination of blood. Perhaps they were attempting to experiment with the effects of her blood and the others in the mixture upon other people, and the Qiang District¡¯s guardian had only gotten involved in the matter coincidentally.


    If that was true, it would be particularly unfortunate. For a faction to get involved somewhere just for an experiment, they must be very relaxed and not concerned that they could be defeated by the ones they are targeting. There was always the possibility that they were hoping to remain unnoticed, but the world had plenty of reason to associate anything related to blood with the Church.


    Hence, the mere presence of the blood-filled vial would make it very obvious who was likely to be involved, whether the guardian was successfully defeated or not. Their location was also not difficult to guess, and an investigation from a force on the level of a district would be capable of discovering an outpost at the very least. Even her random considerations on this matter had already brought her to concluding that the Blood-tinged Church must have some presence in the Huang District, whether they were there with the knowledge of the district¡¯s Patriarch or if they were merely lurking beneath the surface while being a nuisance and danger to everyone.


    It was not necessarily the place that they were using as their primary base, but they certainly left their traces there.


    To prevent them from having a chance of recovering their research, she made sure to absorb all of the blood and contain anything that wouldn¡¯t be taken in by her bloodline power. There were a few particles within the mixed blood of the guardian that didn¡¯t seem too significant, but it was always better to go the extra mile when dealing with a faction that had existed since before the Master of Yi City had begun his life within the Planar Continents.


    A brief time after that, she turned as she finally felt a presence in the seventh realm approaching, and thus had to the Patriarch of the Qiang District unless it had been invaded since she had last looked. New seventh-realm experts would appear with time, but not so soon after the battle with the Ju District.


    He got here not long after, using a fourth realm movement method that must have allowed him to move through the stone, as he made it over along a nearly straight line. Although he entered via the regular entrance to the cave, most of the journey couldn¡¯t have been made as it had been without him actively destroying the majority of the Qiang District¡¯s mines and causing several cave-ins.


    ¡°Ascendant! What¡­ what has happened to Qiang Mu? Did he attack you?¡±


    ¡°I assume you know this man, then. He was a guardian of the Qiang District, right?¡± she confirmed with a nod from him, ¡°I¡¯ll also assume that you were not the reason that he suddenly decided to punch me, failing terribly, then drink a vial of blood that almost certainly came from the Blood-tinged Church.¡±


    ¡°The Church? They¡¯ve made an appearance here? That would certainly explain a great deal regarding Qiang Mu¡¯s actions over the past week.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°He was always against the presence of intruders and northerners. This is not abnormal for us in the south, but the longer you remained here, the more agitated he grew. There was a chance that he had been interacting with a group that had been assisting this agitation, but I had been unable to detect any figures that he had been speaking with using my own perception,¡± the Qiang Patriarch said, sighing, ¡°The Blood-tinged Church must have sent someone with incredible capabilities in disguise or stealth, or perhaps communicating from a distance.¡±


    ¡°Given that a vial of blood had been passed along, the former two must be more likely. Also considering the few things that I have managed to see of the Blood-tinged Church, I do not think that their specialty is in disguise. They are too prone to theatrics. Just look at the shards of the vial.¡±


    A single look exposed that the vial was capped on the top and bottom with highly detailed metal caps. The metal had a golden tint, although it did not appear to be gold, rather some metal that was more durable without reaching the level of immortal gold. Both were ornate and mirrored the other, resulting in the vial seeming to have no clear top or bottom, nor any reasonable place to interact with in order to open it up.


    This was not something that would be made at random, nor by a group that was willing to keep themselves quiet and out of the way. Frankly, being a Church, staying subtle wouldn¡¯t really fit them.


    ¡®Of course, there is another reason for this assumption, but I will need to keep quiet for a little longer before I am able to act upon it confidently. If I rush things and the person gets away, I won¡¯t have a chance to interrogate them regardless of who they actually are,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, glancing around in a natural way while paying attention to a slight shift of light to her right, in the distance.


    She had noticed the presence of something when the Patriarch had entered the area.


    It wasn¡¯t immediately obvious that it belonged to a person, but the longer that it stuck around and failed to move, presumably in an attempt to draw less attention to itself, the more obvious it became to her spiritual perception. She was already very familiar with detecting such things as a result of her experience with otherworldly objects and their absence in the view of spiritual perception, so any disturbances and abnormalities in her view of the world were naturally detected far more quickly and easily than if someone else with similar abilities to her own was present without the same kind of experience that she had.


    Hence, she remained quiet about the discovery and kept gathering as much information about the figure striding about and the technique that it had to be using in order to allow it to remain hidden. No matter which faction was responsible for it, if any, she was not going to throw away the opportunity to learn more about the techniques of the world. There was guaranteed to be something to gain from simply knowing it, even if she didn¡¯t spend her time practising the technique itself.


    Presuming that she somehow had the fortune of discovering that this figure was an ally, the gains from simply studying the various ways in which the technique functioned would be more than enough.


    ¡°Have you had many encounters with the Blood-tinged Church?¡±


    ¡°A few. I know of a faction that had splintered from them, and their knowledge has greatly assisted me in understanding some of their tendencies and specialties. Unfortunately, that had occurred some time ago, and so the exact nature of the Church¡¯s structure at the current moment is difficult to guess,¡± Wei Yi said, deliberately bringing up things that the figure might have some interest in, ¡°I can say that they have several divisions with different focuses, so it is likely that we are dealing with one that experiments with mixtures of bloodlines, or else creates volatile substances that can corrupt blood.¡±


    She had gathered the blood of the guardian and had found that the effects of the vial had led to it containing a strange mixture of energy that didn¡¯t activate any specific bloodline for her. From this, it was obvious that it had somehow scrambled the structure of the guardian on a very fundamental level, but the origin of this was a little uncertain.


    That didn¡¯t stop her from being almost sure that the vial was specifically a mixture of blood that interacted with the bloodline of the one that consumed it, rather than one that led to a distortion of what was already present. Revealing it would likely make the Patriarch trust her more in the matters of the Blood-tinged Church, as knowledge regarding that faction would always benefit the district, but the other figure may be scared off and convinced to run off to report to the Church.


    Given the purpose of her attempts to stall the figure, it would be entirely detrimental to allow such a thing to occur.


    ¡°For them to be experimenting with the blood of guardians¡­ They think they can get away with so much just because we are far away from their main base?¡± the Qiang Patriarch frowned, anger appearing within his expression, ¡°The south may stand far apart and pride ourselves on our independence, but when there is a threat that endangers us all, we will be sure to unite and attack as one. If they do not comprehend this, then they will suffer greatly the moment that they go too far with their actions.¡±


    ¡°I would bring up the fact that the Blood-tinged Church had gone ¡®too far¡¯ every single time stories of their actions got out to the rest of the world, but I understand what you are trying to say. Do you actually know where they are, or are you merely assuming?¡±


    ¡°We have some ideas. All of the world does, I should assume. We know where they appear the most, and where they prefer to operate. They aren¡¯t a clear southern faction, yet they can appear here as well as in the Chao District, so they should be somewhere near the Central Plains. As with all factions, unless they possess spatial realms and stable gateways, they can only have one location in which they can confidently reside and perform their various activities, so this greatly narrows things down. Out of all districts in the Central Plains, the only one that has any clear connection to blood is the Huang District, so I expect that they can be found in the vicinity,¡± the Patriarch explained his ideas.


    ¡°Funnily enough, I¡¯ve come to a similar conclusion. Unlike the Ju District, which is highly secretive due to preventing any outsiders from entering, the Huang District instead has a system of limiting much of their lands to outsiders, only allowing them to see very specific parts of the district. Even there, the people are rather odd and unsociable, with many having features of odd physiques or bloodlines.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, that is rather suspicious. However, if the Blood-tinged Church has the power of a district behind it-¡±


    His eyes widened as Wei Yi suddenly manifested the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and even a number of faint chains around herself. The black palm was almost aiming at the centre of his face, so that combined with the vast quantity of energy that was suddenly pouring out her had the ability to threaten even him with his seventh realm. In particular, a strange feeling akin to the empowerment of a searing mark was present, except that there was no obvious hint of a mark¡¯s usage in her movements and technique, which was odd considering how flashy such things tended to be.


    Before he could ask a single thing of her, nor act to get out of the way of the attack or even fight back, the figure of the Ascendant suddenly vanished from his sight, although he could sense her presence right behind him, prompting him to turn.


    As was the case with many of the cultivators of the world, in a moment like this, he failed to employ his divine sense immediately upon realising that something strange had occurred, and so he was only able to see the Elysian Blast strike a point in the cave that was several metres from the nearest wall. There should have been nothing there, and yet the blast of space-tearing energy was stopped in the air and lit up the vague silhouette of a figure in a hooded robe.


    It stood there for a moment before it was thrown into the wall, as the white energy dispersed.


    ¡°First try. Want to tell us who you are, or should I just kill you here and now?¡± Wei Yi asked, her eyes gleaming as she saw countless chains around herself and the figure, using them to establish the exact location and shape of the entity even while the light dispersed and prevented her from being able to witness it via her sight and spiritual perception.


    She had been able to lock onto it a brief moment ago, and so decided to catch it off-guard by pretending to attack the Patriarch out of nowhere. The plan was rather silly on first glance, and that must have contributed to why the figure stopped being quite as careful with their stealth method, exposing themselves just enough for her to lock onto the exact chains of Law that were being affected by its presence. From there, she just needed to use her fourth realm movement method to displace her position and put herself into the right place to target the entity.


    This didn¡¯t count as movement of the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, as her movement method skipped motion completely, and so she was able to charge up the Elysian Blast safely and easily.


    ¡°You are observant, Ascendant. However, I will not speak with you,¡± the entity stated.


    It sounded almost inhuman, lacking any distinctive property that might identify anything about the person, nor did the clothing of the figure expose a single blatant characteristic that might allow her and the Patriarch to identify them if they saw the figure without the crimson hooded robe. Before they could look even just at that all that much, the figure suddenly rose into the air without any obvious usage of planar energy.


    Naturally, Wei Yi pursued it, leaping into the air and stepping onto one of the many chains of Law to stabilise her stance, needing to jump up a dozen chains that all caused parts of the cave to tremble, crack and twist, as these were still manifestations of Law and not just random projections of energy.


    When she did end up in the perfect place to strike, she did so without hesitation, drawing upon the full strength of her right arm to deliver the strongest punch she could.


    The figure either couldn¡¯t get out of the way fast enough, or decided not to, instead meeting her attack with a dense layer of blood that completely covered it and absorbed the impact of her strike for just a moment. Once it shattered ¨C or, more precisely, lost its structure and splashed all over the cave wall, the figure that had manifested the blood was nowhere to be seen.


    ¡°Tch. Had I mentioned that I don¡¯t really like the Blood-tinged Church?¡±

 V5C13: Moving on to the District of Scholars

    Ultimately, there was only so much that the two of them could do to track down the hooded figure. Her study of the stealth technique was useful in finding traces of the figure, but they all looked to be days old at the very least, meaning that it had somehow vanished right before them and left no traces within the borders of the Qiang District. This was concerning, but also indicated that if she did not want to give the enemy too much time to prepare, she would need to move on swiftly.


    Everything that she did plan to do needed to be accelerated a little, but with a stable body and plenty more resources for cultivation, it wasn¡¯t hard to get it all done.


    She had been correct with her theory that the spatial stabilisation point would be accessible but essentially useless until she was able to connect it to the rest of the Yi City Web, but it did make it just a little easier to reach out with her energy beyond the standard range, thus allowing her to spread out all of the energy that she was able to take in through another large pile of planar stones to the many ores and resources of the Qiang District. It let her cultivate and increase the quantity of replenishing resources at the same time, and ensured that the energy she took in wouldn¡¯t limit the intake of more energy as it was nearly instantly used.


    All of the energy was also put to use manifesting powerful artefacts and artefact structures in order to fill the obsidian shards of Demon Killer, with the time she had allowing her to nearly complete her work on a single shard. It was clearly reaching a degree of saturation, and it might even function well enough as a weapon without being reconstructed, although the sheer number of properties were unlikely to make it very easy to use in the vast majority of situations.


    The one thing that was quite promising was that the many channels appeared to grow stronger and more stable with each infusion of a planar construct artefact, as they were made from her extremely powerful cosmic energy. She wasn¡¯t going to risk anything just yet, but she suspected that her energy might not shatter the final product if she continued to use her planar energy for the improvement process. That would be the ideal outcome for herself, and so she made sure that she would fill all of the other shards with her own energy only as to guarantee that this would work out.


    Over the two days, she had completed more than enough of her promised efforts to allow the district to harvest most of their common resources without the previous concerns for them running out within the lifetime of the current Patriarch. She was also able to work on reaching a new stage.


    Now that she had already broken through to the sixth stage of the Marked Core realm, she knew that the next stages would be all about the development of her current foundation in the direction of the next realm, as well as the improvement of the perfected stage characteristic that she had acquired. Since it was a full marked core, with all one hundred marks, there had to be something unique that this would permit, and so she was very excited to see what the next perfected stage breakthrough, which would occur by the beginning of the next realm alongside the perfected realm breakthrough, would bring to the table.


    Hence, she made sure to dismiss anyone that might interrupt the moment that she reached the next stage, and then set as much of her attention onto the process as possible.


    She neared that stage by the end of the first day, having benefitted from the blood that she had managed to absorb from the guardian and the vial that he had used, and then observed as her vast pool of planar energy burst out onto her Subterranean Shell, seeping into the many marks forged somewhere within the surface.


    For a moment, all of them looked to burst into flame, earning their title of searing marks quickly as they reached the usual peak of vibrance. They should have remained there, burning with an orange flame, but she witnessed the blaze slowly shift in colour while it also dimmed ever so slowly. Hints of red, violet, blue and more shone through, barely appearing amidst the vibrant orange, but they were visible nonetheless.


    Her first breakthrough, the one for the normal stage, finished up quickly, allowing the secondary perfected stage breakthrough to follow and instantly ignite the searing marks once more. They retained some of the shades that had appeared within the blazing light, and once the vibrance reached its peak, the colours became more pronounced, with violet growing the most and others growing far less, with the likes of green barely changing in brightness and size. These colours faded more quickly than the flame within the marks themselves, but unlike the lowest point after the first breakthrough, she was still able to see them in the edges of the one hundred searing marks.


    With each stage, a cultivator gained power, and that wasn¡¯t different in her case, even if the peak of the realm seemed to have been reached. Her planar energy still grew, and the effect of her searing marks also looked to increase ever so slightly. However, she knew that this was nowhere near the peak.


    ¡®Given the current progression of the marks, I suspect that they will have a major transformation upon the breakthrough to the next realm, just before the linked channels manifest at the end of the breakthroughs. Usually, this happens by the first half-way point, as with the Endless Monolith and the Subterranean Shell, but I am not going to object to a second wonderful development occurring after the one hundred marks that appeared as I entered the sixth stage,¡¯ she thought.


    For the rest of that day, as well as the next, she had not been able to spend quite as much time on her cultivation, needing to do a few other things at the same time, but even if she had managed to get the whole two days to nothing but cultivation, she would still have been a little way from the eighth stage. Each stage and realm needed more and more energy to be reached, so maintaining the same intake of planar energy would not be sufficient to deliver the same kinds of results. Otherwise, everyone would be in the ninth realm and higher, if such a thing was possible.


    When she did finally decide to leave, she did so with all of the artefacts that she had managed to gather in the underground battlefield, as the Patriarch managed to forget about them by the time that she had gotten around to leaving. He may have been aware of it, but given the fact that he didn¡¯t bother mentioning them even when they discussed the terms of their agreement, it seemed unlikely.


    She had naturally wanted to get the aid of the Qiang District the moment that it was linked to the Yi City Web and could come over to any battles via the Kong Prison Realm, but they could only agree to so much while the situation of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and all of the allied districts was uncertain. That was why they had not been able to discuss much during their first meeting, and even during this one, all that she could reasonably ask for was for the Qiang District¡¯s forces to come to aid if they were called once her portion of the Yi City Web was linked to their district. After that, there would be room to negotiate and talk more calmly.


    If he did remember the artefacts and the underground battlefield, she was almost sure that he would have brought it up to explain why he would limit the forces he would send if asked to do so, but nothing of the sort even passed through his mind. It was possible that he had no such ideas at all.


    Obviously, such a thing would be ideal, as she did not believe that the majority of the allies that she had made so far were going to side with her no matter what. They were not fond of the Greats, and so they would side with her while they saw no superior option. Once it did appear, there might be some that would turn against her and work with that other faction instead. Something of the sort could be limited to an extent by ensuring that they are so reliant or invested into the faction that it would be far more difficult and costly for them to get out than whatever benefits they would get from doing so.


    What would be far more effective would be a faction formed with tight bonds or some united cause, one that couldn¡¯t be subverted in some way by a different cause of greater priority to the district. Such a thing wasn¡¯t necessarily feasible, as an absolute cause was hardly common, but the more committed a person and faction was, the better it was for her.


    If the Qiang Patriarch was truly focused solely on the threat of the Blood-tinged Church and the Greats, in that order, then there was a high chance of her being able to keep him in the list of allies without needing to put that much effort into it. This would allow her to invest far more time into considering the other parts of the alliance, and thus make it far easier to ensure that the alliance didn¡¯t fall apart when she needed to do something extreme in the eyes of the others. She didn¡¯t even know whether that was something that she would need to do just yet, but it was important to lay the foundation for such a thing if it did become necessary.


    Whatever it was, and whatever happened, she sought to achieve this kind of shared cause with the next districts that she would interact with, which, in her case, would be the Ru District.


    There wasn¡¯t much to say about them, as they had a single, specific, yet very varied focus: research.


    Hence, it was hard to say anything specific about their district and its practises. They valued knowledge, and they did have a certain priority and preference for combat comprehension and anything that could be put to use in combat. That led to the fame of their battle scholars, as some called them, which was also what interested her, but knowledge could take many forms and be attained in many different ways, so they had few precise focuses unlike the Qiang District, for instance.


    Their knowledge was going to be immensely useful no matter how it was stored or what they wanted from others in order to be permitted to access it, as she was very likely to be able to go around such restrictions and harvest anything and everything that she wanted without permission.


    That focus did mean that, in theory, they should be incredibly easy to ally with, as they would appreciate gaining more knowledge and desire to obtain that which the Greats had stolen from the world over the years. She had no issues with sharing almost everything that the people of the world, whether they were from the Ru District or any other part of Yi City, and that was something that very few would be able to do if they managed to defeat the Great Families themselves. After all, very few had techniques that far surpassed the vast majority of the world¡¯s current methods, so they wouldn¡¯t be happy to let that which the Greats deemed too powerful be revealed to the whole world.


    It was also why she should have an easy opportunity to form a strong alliance with the Ru District, as there was so much that she could contribute aside from the techniques hidden by the Greats. If they were open to it, she was even open to helping the district develop some of their own techniques, if they were open to it. She couldn¡¯t guarantee that she wouldn¡¯t introduce some intentional weaknesses for her to utilise if she so wished, as that would depend purely upon the district¡¯s actions and intentions, amongst other factors.


    Before any of that, she would wish to see the battle scholars themselves, learn what they were truly like, and verify the rumours she had heard about them. Those two tasks weren¡¯t necessarily aligned, given that the rumours and the truth didn¡¯t always overlap in any way, but the more that she learned the better it would be.


    She didn¡¯t know exactly what influence they had over the district, and how the Ru family and leadership was connected with it, but she did want to get in touch with them and understand their practises. Supposedly, the battle scholars were able to make use of books as weapons in several ways, and actively utilise knowledge itself in combat as a way to produce or otherwise amplify their own combat potential. Perhaps they had something like the initial Gilded Library, and if so, she would benefit immensely from learning the way in which the technique functioned. The amount of knowledge she had was absolutely immense, and would be incredibly beneficial in literally every way imaginable.


    When it came to planar techniques, after all, so long as the energy itself could be intensified and amplified, then it could be used for anything and anywhere. Whether she was attempting to spread her Silver-Leaf energy throughout a district or fight against the Great Families, being able to even double her power outside of her existing means and possibly go even further beyond that depending on how she implemented it into her tactic.


    Frankly, so long as she could utilise the concept in some way, even if she needed to emulate it through the power of Law at an extreme inefficiency, she would benefit immensely. Her Ascendant¡¯s Library contained enough raw information to fill a dozen regular libraries in reality, so long as the books were filled with extremely small characters that wouldn¡¯t be readable by ordinary men and women. If all of her knowledge was instead transferred to jade slips, then a single library might have been sufficient, but it would still be rather cramped and large.


    ¡®Essentially, knowledge being converted directly to power is one of the most powerful tools I might be able to possess,¡¯ she concluded as she travelled, making use of her stable cultivation to rush straight through the snow and towards the north-east.


    The Ru District was rather close to the Qiang District, existing only a little further north and a little further east than it, but it was still the most difficult journey to make simply due to the horrible weather conditions that couldn¡¯t be felt while within the mining district. The only redeeming aspect was that she could almost feel the intensity of the snows reduce as she proceeded on.


    In fact, the more she travelled on, the more she was convinced that one of the only reasons that she had crashed into the mountain that stopped her flight to the south was due to the snow slowing down her momentum. Without it, she might have been able to get much further, possibly crashing into the Absolute Frost and dying due to her weakened physique at that time. That place could still inflict great damage to her even now that she had grown stronger, with the absence of an arm not helping her to maintain the heat in her body, so had she ended up there with her injured state and without her consciousness to keep herself alive for longer, she would not have woken up.


    Now that she was running on the ground, in a better state, and with a decent idea of the land due to a map that she had obtained in the Qiang District, the journey could be swift and easy.


    While she had been at the Qiang District, she had been able to pick up a few techniques from the few libraries that she did locate, and they also benefitted in the journey. Being the southernmost district of Yi City, it had accumulated several incredibly old and refined techniques intended purely for traversing the snow, with some focusing more on the drops of solid white that fell perpetually from the skies and others instead offering solutions to the dense sheets that gathered upon the ground over the many years of falling snow.


    She naturally incorporated what she could into her other techniques, with the chapters about overcoming snowfall in particular being useful in a number of combat techniques due to the way in which their principles aligned. The rest she was able to use independently of her existing arsenal, as the separate techniques by utilising their principles and meridian circulation to use the techniques without needing to cultivate them first.


    Having practised this for a very long time as far back as in the Yi District, she was very familiar with the best ways to optimise the process. The majority of her methods were only at any level of cultivation due to the curious way in which the otherworldly gifts she had gathered interacted with her cosmic cultivation, with the two effectively allowing for miracles in comparison to the restricted methods of other cultivators. Thus, her movement speed and the effectiveness of the techniques was not impeded in any way by this fact, and her mastery of certain Dao and movement principles combined with the sheer power of her energy allowed her to move at speeds that were far beyond what the original technique should have allowed at Full Success.


    Before she had left, the Qiang Patriarch had predicted that it might take her a day to get to the walls of the Ru District, but that failed to take into account such capabilities. She did it in a few hours.


    It was not very accurate to say that she had seen the walls first, of course. Like a number of districts in Yi City, the walls were not meant to protect the people inside with their solid materials alone. Only the Ning District¡¯s wall could be said to be genuinely effective even when only the structure itself was considered, and even that relied greatly on various supporting methods.


    There was no such immense wall around the Ru District, so what she was able to see even from far away was instead an enormous structure likely placed near the middle of the district. It was dome-shaped, with several large pillars on the sides that went roughly half-way up to the top of the structure, turning sharply and merging back into the main dome, with five being visible to her from the front. She was expecting there to be three more pillars at the back, resulting in a total of eight massive protrusions positioned equal distances apart from one another around the large dome.


    This structure was far taller than anything else that she was able to see, and also significantly larger in every other dimension, with the energy that looked to be lingering around it being similarly enormous.


    If she had to guess ¨C which she didn¡¯t, but she would anyway ¨C then she would say that this was the famed Bottomless Archive of the Ru District, a structure that had been constructed in order to contain all of the knowledge that the district had accumulated. Her latest information on the topic came from a book in the Yi District, and that had been a few hundred thousand years old as well. Back then, the Archive was rather outstanding, but not this excessively large.


    Assuming that she was indeed correct, then this would present a very interesting situation. Over time, every single district had decayed or, at best, remained mostly as it was, but if the Ru District had somehow developed and expanded in every way since the Master of Yi City disappeared from the world, there were several questions to be asked. For one, she was very interested in how the Ru family had been able to overcome the Greats and prevent their books and knowledge from being taken away and destroyed by them. So long as this was actually the case, then she would be very likely to find allies with ease.


    Of course, there was also the possibility that there was something else going on here, which would make the scene far less positive. The Greats could be aware of the Archive (that much was certain) and intentionally allowing it to expand, at least physically, essentially laying a trap for all that seek to grow sufficiently within the world as it currently is. That would not be ideal in the slightest.


    ¡®I hope that this is not the case, as that would simply make things¡­ complicated.¡¯


    She approached the low walls of the district, distinctly feeling the aura of an array surrounding the entire district and acting as the true boundary for intruders to overcome. Much like the Bottomless Archive, it was shaped like a large dome, this one standing over the district and potentially originating, in part, from the Archive, as it looked to have eight primary supporting portions that lined up with the pillars on the sides of the Archive.


    This was also something that had not been mentioned in the books on the topic, hence making her more concerned and excited at the same time. Frankly, the latter was overpowering the former, for one simple reason.


    So long as any knowledge at all was present, it would benefit her in the long term. In fact, it might even be that her overall gains would be far greater if the Greats were indeed present and responsible for every trouble in the Ru District, as that would bestow several incredible opportunities onto her so long as they were unable to mobilise another one of the first generation members. There would be a chance to make a whole district grateful for her intervention, obtain whatever they had sealed away without any arguments against it, and then mobilise the power of a whole district right away.


    Her biggest concern was that she would end up exposing herself to the Greats even if she defeated them cleanly and quickly, which would not be ideal while her Touch the Heavens was not a viable option. So far as she understood it, the Great Families had no issue with manifesting the Reality Severance once more so long as their first generation was out on the field, so to speak.


    For now, she simply approached the barrier that surrounded the district and headed directly towards the nearest guard that she was able to find, who was standing a short distance outside of the physical wall. Aside from being excellent evidence that even the people of the Ru District didn¡¯t see those walls as anything but a symbolic indication of the district¡¯s land, it made it very convenient to get closer to them and get their attention even amidst the perpetual snowstorm.


    The weather had gotten a little better as she had moved to the north, but not significantly so.


    ¡°Hm? You¡­ Northerner, do you want to enter the Ru District?¡± the guard did notice her quickly enough, recognising the darker shade of her skin and addressing her accordingly, even if she looked a little confused at the furs she wore, ¡°Do you know the rules of our lands?¡±


    ¡°The rules for entry? No.¡±


    ¡°We do not permit northern barbarians into our lands, so you must prove that you possess a worthwhile amount of knowledge. Approach the barrier.¡±


    She raised an eyebrow at this requirement, as the books from the Yi District had nothing on the topic while the Qiang District had mostly stayed away from the Ru District and thus knew little about their requirements, but did as requested, following the next instructions to bring her hand close to the barrier without touching it. The guard nodded, then began the explanation of the exact nature of the test that she would need to undergo.


    In what was likely to be an attempt to impress her with the sheer quantity of words, all that the guard ended up explaining was that the Ru District had managed to create a partial inverse jade slip. Rather than holding and then conveying information to the future users of it, this version was instead able to read knowledge granted to it and visually fill up according to the quantity provided to it. Given that this was a rather odd method of utilising the typical structure of a jade slip, it was unable to measure all that much information, and so the only use that the district outwardly found for it was ensuring that they were not dealing with completely ignorant souls.


    This was unlikely to be the full truth, however, and so Wei Yi was naturally reluctant to freely share her mind with the slip taken out by the guard as she was instructed to do. She was sure that the slip was indeed of lower capacity and quality than what she had come across, but that didn¡¯t mean that it would retain no information whatsoever.


    She believed that there was absolutely no chance of the jade slips allowing all of the precious knowledge that would be provided by those that didn¡¯t have an excess amount of it to throw around to slip away. In other words, they wouldn¡¯t waste valuable information.


    As her mind was full of all kinds of information that was true but had no use in any but the most niche of situations, with some coming from personal experience and plenty more originating from her occasional contemplation of topics both mundane and not, she was not going to take the risk of something more valuable being revealed to the Ru District. Anything that they did need to know could be told to them directly, without the barrier and altered jade slip in between them, and everything else would be kept away no matter what.


    ¡°Go on, northerner. Prove your worth to the Ru District.¡±


    She glanced at guard, who hopefully got the message from her gaze, then grabbed the tomes from her mental library and pushed them towards the jade slip. As she had never worked with a jade slip, she couldn¡¯t be entirely sure that she was doing it right at first, but the confirmation quickly came once the guard¡¯s eyes began to reflect a green light originating from the jade slip.


    With every drop of information that she allowed to touch the outside world and the slip on the other side of the barrier, that light gained more vibrance and expanded to cover the entirety of the jade slip in mere moments.


    She had not seen how quickly others might be able to do this same task, so the only thing she was able to guess from was the guard¡¯s widening eyes and dropping jaw. The woman attempted to restrain her own expression, but even the natural stiffness caused by the cold couldn¡¯t prevent her pale face from demonstrating with perfect clarity that there was something unusual about the rate at which Wei Yi had managed to fill up the jade slip.


    ¡®Come to think of it, I¡¯ve not seen many female guards in the south. They need a certain degree of physical strength, after all, and it seems that the typical preference is for men that have a natural advantage in that regard¡­ She looks rather cute,¡¯ the Ascendant noted to herself, forcing her gaze away from the guard¡¯s face and lowering her hand once silently prompted to do so.


    Even if the guard developed any interest in her, she did not have the time or will to engage in those kinds of activities, with the latter in particular being an issue caused primarily by her absent left arm. She wasn¡¯t some kind of vain person that could only allow the perfect side of herself to be presented to the world ¨C she had been someone that had wanted to lose some of her physical beauty, after all, even if that was mostly to avoid the attention and not because she did wish to obtain more imperfections.


    There was no reason to actively worsen herself, as all that it would do was deprive her from being able to fully experience the world. Until she did have a whole, stable arm, no matter what it looked like, even if she was unable to ever make her arm resemble what it had looked like before it had been severed, there was just too much that she would be lacking.


    Returning onto the original topic, however, the female guard managed to recover and lower the jade slip, stepping away and utilising a technique to open up a small gap in the barrier through which Wei Yi was able to enter the boundaries of the district. The guard followed the Ascendant with her gaze for some time but did nothing else as she proceeded towards the open gatehouse in the walls ahead of her.


    When she entered and got out of sight, the guard was finally able to look down upon the glowing jade slip, which she promptly hid within an inner pocket, taking out another, blank slip to replace it in an outside pocket. The glowing green one would be taken to the one that needed to see it.

 V5C14: Learning and Conjecture

    Wei Yi had been able to confirm her suspicions about the jade slips easily enough with her spiritual perception, and while she didn¡¯t know how to access this particular kind of slip, she had been able to confirm the method for opening up the boundary dome. The technique should have been a challenging one to pick up for those that weren¡¯t able to access every detail of it, and it was harder than usual to glean the necessary details from the mind and actions of the guard, but she managed it before the opening was sealed again.


    Many of the techniques intended for overcoming seals as an individual that is meant to access the restriction focused primarily on the aura of one¡¯s planar energy, and thus it became incredibly easy for her to copy it. The rest was essentially a lengthy password essentially written into the technique and then directed into the barrier, which can then resonate with the structure of the dome and prompt it to open in any place that is properly set up to support the integrity of the dome that is otherwise damaged by the opening of a major tear within it. It was simple enough once it was separated into individual elements, but it still showed a clear commitment to using knowledge as one¡¯s strength over brute force or energy quantity and quality.


    The guard that she had interacted with had only a third realm cultivation, but the opening within the barrier would have needed to be supported by energy in the fifth realm in order to allow for the same size and stability of the opening. Instead of random words or even letters, the password was essentially a lengthy series of statements and excerpts of techniques that all looked to be highly accurate and effective, so long as they were put to use in their appropriate ways.


    She already knew quite a few bits of the password, and was very familiar with where the segments came from, although she wouldn¡¯t have been able to throw them together into the password without knowing it ahead of time. By making the password out of such excerpts, the Ru family was able to keep most from guessing it while also teaching those that were aware of it a number of key factors about a great variety of techniques. So long as the guards understood what they were given, they would certainly benefit from it greatly, allowing them to optimise their usage of planar energy and the circulation of it throughout their meridians during combat, travel and most other relevant tasks.


    For now, she was not going to make use of the technique, instead keeping it for future use if the district was not keen to work with her, or even decided to become enemies with her.


    As per her standard approach when alone in an unfamiliar place, she was going to begin without provoking anyone unnecessarily. Instead, she wanted to find the battle scholars and see what the requirements for entering them were. Whether she would actually join them was a different question, but if it led to her being noticed by the Patriarch in the same way as in the Qiang District she would be very pleased.


    Frankly, if things went exactly as they had in the previous district, then it would be absolutely perfect. An additional powerful otherworldly gift, combined with a supportive ally and whole district that would come to her, was more than she would have expected from the first southern district, and what she would be very happy with getting again and again until she did get back into the northern portion of the Western Continent. Obtaining more otherworldly gifts wasn¡¯t necessary, but the benefits that she otherwise obtained were very much helpful regardless of quantity.


    According to the records of the Yi District, ones that were greatly out of date already, the Bottomless Archive was not a place that she could just enter as an outsider, and it was one of the few things that she expected to remain accurate up to this day. The southern tendency to dislike outsiders was consistent for a million years, and as the archive grew, they shouldn¡¯t have gotten any more willing to let in those that they didn¡¯t know or trust.


    Hence, heading straight for the archives wouldn¡¯t be worth her time. The better place to look first would be a more public library, or perhaps some kind of battle scholar-owned structure that would be open to speaking with a northern outsider. If not, joining another group, like she had in the northern districts, would also work, and she could use their connections to get in touch with the battle scholars and the Patriarch above them, one way or another. With her current cultivation and combat ability, there was no chance of being overlooked by any part of the hierarchy.


    Fortunately, the district was very organised, if a little confusing to comprehend at first. Rather than using the same straight roads and grid pattern that Wei Yi had chosen to use in the Ping District, they were instead laid out in a similar fashion to the blood vessels within a human body.


    The equivalents of the veins and arteries were wider roads that allowed each larger region of the district to be reached by foot, carriage or planar beast, and then smaller roads branched off from all of them in a way that ensured that no one narrow road was too long. It was a simple principle, like many in the Planar Continents and beyond, but when done as well as in the Ru District it allowed for people to travel anywhere without encountering particularly busy streets no matter where they went.


    Whether one rated the efficiency or artistic value of such streets, which some people likely did, the place was undeniably designed wisely.


    With that kind of layout, she had no difficulty with locating a library in the district, as there was one located on every other intersection and significant stretch of road. All were owned by different people and were not likely to have any connections beside their placement in the Ru District, but every single one had a number of Ru family guards standing in front of them, alongside protection owned by the library owners themselves. This should have meant that they were safe to access regardless of the stance of the Ru family itself, and so she headed to the largest library that had fewest restrictions for entry that might affect her.


    From afar, her spiritual perception could scan books about as well as when she stood close to something, but her mind had a certain limitation due to the source of her perception being her own body. Her perception was enhanced while in the range of the Kong Prison Realm and within the region of the Yi City Web that was connected to it, as there the realm itself was able to function as the source of her senses.


    In theory, so long as she could replicate this exact property and allow it to be present regardless of the presence of a spatial realm, she would have incredible strength in the aspect of detection and perception, although that was a long-term project among long-term projects, and difficult to attain.


    As she entered the library, all that was asked of her was a quiet glance at her clothing, the spiritual perception of the guards reaching out to identify the nature of the beast that had provided her with the fur that she now wore on her back. The hand of the guard was about to rise and block her, but the moment that their spiritual perception detected a trace of the wolf¡¯s original cultivation, they lowered it again and stepped out of the way to let her past. Given that this response was shared by both types of guards, she presumed that she had passed at least one of their tests.


    On the inside, there was a small waist-high wall between the entry chamber and the rest of the library, including the stairs to the rest of the floors, and the only way through was right near a reception desk.


    ¡°May I enter the library?¡± Wei Yi asked, seeing no obvious indication of who could and could not proceed through to the bookshelves that she was already looking at and actively scanning. Her mental capacity was more than sufficient to be consuming a dozen books even while focusing on something else, and so she wasn¡¯t going to waste her time while she was waiting for a response. If she was refused, having as many books stored as possible would be excellent.


    Nothing would stop her from standing near the library and scanning it anyway, but it could attract attention from those that were more powerful. So long as her actions were observed by the Patriarch and were used to form his first impression, then it might prevent her from allying with him quite as easily as she otherwise might.


    ¡°You are free to read what you like. Please pay one gold coin per hour in advance.¡±


    ¡®One gold coin? For reading? I will need to look around carefully, then, don¡¯t I? There has to be something of note for me to scan,¡¯ she thought, reaching into an inner pocket and taking out four coins, ¡°May I return and add more if I wish to continue reading?¡±


    ¡°So long as you return the next day, then you may. Otherwise, you can only access the library once a day,¡± the man behind the reception desk stated, not bothering to look up at her or reach out a hand to take her money while she had not yet determined exactly how much she was going to pay them, ¡°These are the rules, and will be enforced no matter your identity or status. To break them would mean to sully the legacy of our library.¡±


    She shrugged and took out two more gold coins from her pockets ¨C using the House of Gold, of course, with a minimal invocation of Law to disguise the fact that there were no coins prepared in her pocket ¨C that she then placed on the desk. The man at the reception desk glanced up then, wrote something down in an open book in front of him, took the coins, and pointed towards the opening to his right.


    This looked to be all that she would get from him, so she shrugged and proceeded into the library, having already collected several of the bookshelves that were near the entrance. Given that she could compare books to ones that she had already collected far more quickly than reading them in sufficient detail to understand the words, she didn¡¯t need to browse through every single manual that she saw in full, and could thus clear them far more quickly. Had every single manual and tome been completely new to her, it would have taken her more time, but she might have also opted for a slightly different approach.


    At the moment, she was reading and comprehending those books that she read in full, but she could also scan them in and then understand them at a later point by reading them when she had the time to go through more things more quickly.


    For her, this would be beneficial only if the library itself did not contain anything of value, and if she didn¡¯t need to locate that item of value through hints of some kinds hidden in the books, like she had been able to obtain the Gilded Library from the technique library in the Yi District. It would be rather unfortunate if she discovered something of the sort, but was then unable to access it without requiring a great deal of effort and time.


    ¡®Admittedly, it is very unlikely that there will be anything here right now that will then vanish from the spot the next day, but you can never be too careful in that regard. Had I been at the Yi District¡¯s library some time later, I might have ended up failing to find the text for the Kong Mental Arts, as all that would have needed to happen was for someone to damage the books or decide to replace the pages that had the unusual characters,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself as she approached one of the shelves and picked up a book that did interest her, just in case someone decided to investigate her actions and verify whether she was genuinely reading the book that she had selected.


    She learned from the last time that she had decided to browse books in person, where, although she did end up making a friend for a short while, she had also attracted attention that she didn¡¯t need to. For the moment, while it was unclear whether her activities ¨C short and long-term alike, whether in this district or beyond ¨C would be supported by the owner of the library or the Ru Patriarch, it was best for her not to act in a suspicious manner.


    While she was looking at the page, however, her spiritual perception was settling down in the area and expanding slowly, flowing into the pages of the tomes around her and gathering more and more from them.


    This was not her usual approach, but one informed by the previous thought regarding the faults of her usual spiritual perception. Of course, she couldn¡¯t amend those weaknesses in mere seconds, no matter how powerful Endless Calculation and her mental domain were, but nothing was stopping her from slightly emulating the strength of a mental domain that stretches into the physical world. She only needed to model the world around her, then stabilise her perception via her Endless Monolith to allow it to exist with the same stability as it would had she possessed a spatial gateway to the Kong Prison Realm with her at all times.


    It was a rather risky thing to do given the fact that she was attempting to avoid attention, and since her spiritual perception would eventually accumulate to a point that it would be noticed by a seventh realm expert even if she did her best to hide it from them, but she wanted to try it anyway. This kind of thing would have to be seen in a slightly better light than just blatantly reading everything in range with spiritual perception, if only because she would be seen as someone with a certain skill rather than just a random woman with too much attention to spare on multiple books at once.


    Her manifestation of the world within her mind took some time, as she needed to add it in the appropriate place relating to the Kong Prison Realm and everything else that she had already grasped, not to mention doing so without actually affecting her mental processes. Due to the intense killing intent supporting her mind, she didn¡¯t need to worry too much about it being damaged or decaying due to any mismanagement of the mind, so to speak, she still needed to be careful with what she did.


    Luckily, after almost half an hour of work, during which she managed to get through the book normally and had reason to move onto another shelf to study something else, she was close to a success.


    With a stabilised image of the room within her mind, her spiritual perception could exist within the area using less energy and with less mental strain, and thus she could dedicate more of her attention to the reading process. Her mind had long gotten used to using spiritual perception, and so she was not aided by this as much as if she shared the technique with someone else, but any overall decrease to the cost of her mental energy still came across in the end. Previously, she was able to read no more than two dozen books at the same time, if she had nothing else to do, if she wished to understand each and every word and sentence.


    This process added six to that number, giving her a reading capacity of thirty in total.


    Once that was added to the incredible reading speed that she possessed, it meant that she could go through that many books per minute and remember all but the faintest of details, which she might need to check at a later point. Adding that to the books that she could scan in without reading them at all, and she could get the entire library into her mind within the six hours that she had provided herself with as a result of her earlier payment.


    This kind of thing would have made her very desirable as a student in the eyes of many experts, as one of the issues that they often possessed was the inability to relay all of their vast knowledge in only a few words, which is what certain young masters desired. This often led to simplified lessons and many finer details being left out in favour of fundamentals in certain cases, and the other way around in others, where the teacher believed that they were able to offer something in that regard that would not be obtained through casual study and practise. Some thought this to be sufficient, but failed to consider the true nature of the lessons that they have to teach.


    Often, fine details are very fundamental, and fundamentals result in extremely specific behaviours that cannot be fully explained and taught separately from those fundamentals.


    ¡®Again, yin and yang, light and dark, whatever else. Everything is ultimately very similar, is it not? Perhaps the nature of the heavens can also be explained in a similar manner, so long as I understand exactly what the yin to their yang, and the yang to their yin, is,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, switching to another tome and replying to a frown from a nearby reader who thought that she was being too loud.


    In a way, flipping through a page every few seconds was quite audible and unusual, even as the typical mental ability of a cultivator rose in their cultivation. This effect wasn¡¯t particularly significant at the first realm, but with each one the mental range of a cultivator rose, and thus their minds needed to become stronger in order to be able to withstand the additional information that they are able to obtain at any moment. This doesn¡¯t directly translate to a similar increase to reading speed as the increase to the range of spiritual perception, however.


    It was far more linear of an improvement when compared to the exponential growth offered in the way of spiritual perception range. For instance, if a cultivator in the first realm could read a book in an hour, then the same cultivator in the second realm could get through it in two or three minutes less, as their eyes would be just a little quicker, and their mind would be able to pick up everything provided via the eyes in a little less time.


    Upon reaching the third realm, another few minutes would be gained, and then a few more in the fourth. This was not something that could continue forever, and so it was likely that this growth would slow down in the fifth realm and beyond, as there was only so much that could be done to optimise the mind and allow it to process more information. One was to think about it would be to consider the time needed to understand a single word, or a single character on the page. For a normal person, without any cultivation at all, this might take a second, and then the second realm could knock off a few milliseconds that would be chipped away again in the few realms after that.


    However, time was still needed to understand the word. Simply put, it was entirely impossible to eliminate the processing time without completely changing the human body and mind into something likely to be unrecognisable entirely.


    Thus, once some of the weaknesses of the standard human mind were removed, like the impurities often found within the muscles, there was far fewer improvements to be gained without directly focusing upon it. In her case, she had benefitted greatly from the first time that she had purged her impurities, and then continued to grow in strength as she cultivated physique energy, bloodline power to amplify it, and a form of planar energy that encompassed everything and improved everything. Her mind, on the other hand¡­ it was rather odd, now that she thought about it.


    Before she knew anything about the array beneath her shack in the Yi District, she was a fast reader, but nothing particularly exceptional. She had never earned anything more than small praise for it.


    When the mind was cleared of the array¡¯s influence, however, she experienced an enormous increase in her capabilities, to the level of being able to read through typical technique manuals in moments. It had made sense to her back then, somehow, but now that she had the time to process such things in greater detail, she realised that this was not normal in the slightest.


    ¡®To be fair, I should have considered this far sooner. I also didn¡¯t have the time to do so, what with all of the bullshit that happened during the expedition, in the Kong Prison Realm, and on the two times I had to travel north,¡¯ she considered, frowning as she glanced up from her book, looking at the ceiling of the library, ¡®I had seen the Greats, and I know that they are not this capable. In fact, they are inferior to the usual cultivator, as they are too arrogant and stupid, but with those properties gone their bloodline would still be insufficient to lead to this. The bloodline of the Yi family is similarly lacking in such abilities.¡¯


    She had looked in the direction of the sky as there were two things that had the ability to alter a person like this, or bestow a power to someone that stood out this greatly: otherworldly gifts and the entities that controlled them, or the heavens.


    The first shouldn¡¯t have had the chance to influence her, nor did they leave any of their usual signs of doing so. No parts of her body were invisible to her spiritual perception, especially not her brain, and the only gift that she had since birth was the Truth of the Universe, which was inert for sixteen years due to the absence of an azure light within it. That gift also lacked the ability to accelerate the mind of a person by such an extent, as shown by Kong Shi Meng in his mother¡¯s memories.


    Hence, her thoughts went to the skies and the heavens, but it was hard to conclude anything about them as she had not seen any example of direct action taken by them, at least not as far as she knew. There were also no particular marks of the influence of the heavens, so she couldn¡¯t search for it within herself in order to be sure. Even assuming that she did find something, she wasn¡¯t sure what exactly they would be trying to achieve, since what they ended up creating was a person that hated their existence regardless of the reason for their seeming lack of action in so many situations.


    Of course, it would be silly to dismiss the last possibility ¨C that her mind just happened to be special.


    It was not an impossibility in a world of strange physiques, contradictory Laws and all kinds of other things that had to be noted. Considering the fact that techniques could be used to strengthen the mind significantly, there was clearly room for improvement in a person¡¯s mental ability, and if she happened to be born with such a thing, the arrays would have led to it being obscured for a time.


    The issue was that the continued activity of the arrays used by the Greats wouldn¡¯t have been invisible to those that paid attention to it, as people had back when she was younger. The elders of the Yi District would have been more than happy to find a hidden talent and take all of the credit for bringing it out of them, resulting in a far more honest and loyal follower of the district than someone that learned of their power on their own, like she had ended up doing after the Truth of the Universe was coincidentally awakened by a stray failed talisman.


    ¡®Why do things always have to be this strange when it comes to my life? I¡¯d like a simple answer that doesn¡¯t require me to delve into the very nature of the world for once¡­¡¯ she held back a sigh as she nearly got through a book far too quickly and would have attracted twice as much attention by the rapid reading and the sigh that would seem to come out of nowhere for the people around her.


    Nothing that she did know was able to explain things in full, so she shifted her attention to the various items she had been able to scan from the outer portions of the library, as well as the regions that were out of the view of the common visitors. There were a few uncommon techniques that she had only heard about before, but there wasn¡¯t much that she could reasonably add to her existing methods and combat style. It would still benefit the overall development of her Dao, particularly the Dao of Law and the Dao of the Heavens, which included the Elysian methods and the Planar Dao, the latter of which  appeared within the Truth of the Universe the last time she checked it.


    She did find a few texts describing matters in the district that were written only recently, and one explained that the battle scholars that she wished to encounter were not only real, but offered a method of joining them without any permanent obligations, at least at first.


    That was exactly what she had been looking for, and so the discovery was easily the most pleasant one she had came across so far. As long as there have been no major changes in the scholar¡¯s protocol since the text was written and published, she would be able to enter, learn from them and possibly steal a few things from their secret libraries, then not be bound by any of their rules once she deems it suitable to leave.


    It was unlikely for her to be given the opportunity to browse the techniques she actually wanted through that process, as this process was used to obtain a kind of honorary position, but she would be certain to witness them in action at one point or another. The participation in this process should also ensure that she would be seen by the Ru District¡¯s Patriarch, who was said to be the honorary leader of the battle scholars. She didn¡¯t need a full position to begin with, so that was exactly what she had been looking for in the district.


    Her spiritual perception naturally dove beneath the library¡¯s floor in the search for any hidden tomes, treasures, or anything else of value, but there wasn¡¯t much to be seen down there other than some excessive stockpiles of food and miscellaneous resources. The amount was rather unusual, that was obvious, but she was unable to locate anything of personal interest to her, as she saw no techniques nor artefacts that she could utilise for herself. If this turned out to be some kind of issue to the Patriarch, she could always report it to him when she met him, which she was almost certain would occur before she left the district.


    For now, she did not have any reason to get involved, so she just proceeded on and got through the rest of the library slowly but without missing any book, page or detail.


    ¡°Patriarch, this particular slip was filled far more quickly than any I¡¯ve seen before¡­ I have let her into the district, but I wish to confirm that I had not permitted a terrible monster into our district,¡± the guard reported to the back of the sitting figure, ¡°Forgive me for my interruption.¡±


    She had handed over the hade slip to the figure previously, so the only physical response was the slight shifting of his hood and the movement of his shoulder, amplified by the heavy shoulder pad, as he looked upon it more closely. His metallic gauntlet meant that his fingers could clearly be heard as they rubbed against one another.


    ¡°This¡­ is the most wondrous collection of ideas regarding a single topic that I have ever seen.¡±


    ¡°Patriarch?¡±


    ¡°Beginning with the technique manual of the Crushing Tap, a first-realm finger technique, she then lists all kinds of interesting facts about it and potential uses, complications, methods for improvement, and so on. It is amazing,¡± the Patriarch placed the slip down and clapped his hands together, ¡°This is an excellent scholar, to be sure. Had she been born within our district, I think that she might have made for an excellent candidate for Matriarch.¡±


    ¡°R-Really? Such high praise¡­¡±


    ¡°If she has even a fraction of this knowledge on other matters, then I am not exaggerating. I shall keep an eye out for her.¡±

 V5C15: The Entry Trials

    She left the library without incident and found a place to stay in a similarly stress-free manner. As much as she would have loved to go straight to the battle scholars, who were actually called Preservers within the district, their entry ceremony was held only once a month, at the very first day.


    Hence, she needed to wait for a little while and allow the selection process for the Preservers to begin, and then she would be able to participate and hopefully discover a library to pilfer knowledge from. Fortunately for her, even if she had been someone without the patience to wait for two days ¨C something that she had no problem with after letting twenty years go past her in the Kong Prison Realm ¨C she did have something else to occupy herself with.


    For whatever reason, not long after she had settled down in a small establishment that offered some very comfortable beds, she found herself being observed by figures that had incredibly faint spiritual perception. Against anyone else, they might have been almost invisible due to staying on the very edge of the spiritual perception of someone in the fifth realm, but she had a far greater range and also possessed mental energy that was even more difficult to spot than that of the hidden observers. It was almost trivial to pay attention to them instead, while making it seem as if she had no idea that they existed.


    There were a few people that she suspected to be responsible, or, more precisely, a few groups and factions that these observers would be working for, but the most likely guess at the moment was the Ru District¡¯s Patriarch, and his forces. Given the things she had filled the jade slip at the walls with, it would be odd if he wasn¡¯t interested.


    The Crushing Tap was a technique that she had picked up long ago, but never really employed due to the unsuitability of it in most combat encounters, as well as it applying far more pressure to the finger alone than any other technique. She had also received some memories from the Thunder Lord, fortunately excluding any explicit activities from those ones, and then happened to have the time to process it with Endless Calculation as she waited in the prison realm.


    She had then accumulated even more insights on it through her use of other finger techniques, with her latest Touch the Heavens giving her a great number of ideas to apply to the Crushing Tap.


    In total, she had the equivalent of a vast sea of knowledge that could be described in such a way that it would apply only to the technique that she chose to present to the jade slip at the barrier before the Ru District. The slip was only able to accept a small pond of knowledge, which was a shame given the few moments that she had needed to spend to convert enough information into the right format, but it was sufficient to go beyond what she imagined most people to be capable of. It was only natural to get attention from those that then read the slip.


    Hopefully, given the great respect that seemed to be given to the libraries of the Ru District, as she had not observed a single dispute occurring near any of them, this was going to be positive attention. For now, all it meant was that she couldn¡¯t do anything that she didn¡¯t want others to see.


    That was not very hard due to her rarely ever doing anything that she didn¡¯t believe to be right in one way or another. Meanwhile, other matters that had nothing to do with right or wrong weren¡¯t a pressing concern for her either, since she had no embarrassing physical need to cater to regardless of how that was to even be interpreted. She wasn¡¯t some kind of beast that couldn¡¯t control her base desires.


    ¡®This cannot be said about all of my neighbours, though. I guess the south is less keen on doing it in the open, but the people will not hesitate once they enter the bedroom, even if it is not their own¡­¡¯


    Given that she had stayed right beneath a brothel for a very long time, this wasn¡¯t a particular issue for her, and she instead blocked out such activities and focused on searching through the area where she was meant to go for the purpose of the Preserver Entry Ceremony. It had to be close to one of their libraries, and so there was a chance of learning something from them before the ceremony even begins, or alternatively being more prepared for any unusual challenges that they might present to her that wouldn¡¯t be catering to her usual strengths.


    Since she had a lot of time to prepare, at least relative to those that wouldn¡¯t be able to observe the grounds with their spiritual perception as freely as she could, it would be bad for her not to not be able to put up a proper fight, so to speak. An actual fight was possible, but unlikely to be the only requirement, if there was one at all.


    There wasn¡¯t much to help her, unfortunately. No matter what she looked at, she couldn¡¯t find a definitive answer to what any of the challenges and requirements might be, and none of the people travelling in the area had any idea what they might encounter, although she couldn¡¯t even tell whether they even intended to participate. It was hard to detect that intent without peering deeper into their thoughts, especially when she was far away from the people and needing to face a district full of those that refined their minds and worked far harder on developing them than other districts.


    In the end, she was unable to determine to find anything of use, so she slowly shifted to annoying her observers instead. Her spiritual will was faint enough to bypass the perception of others, and strong enough to nudge objects and throw them at people, meaning that she had a chance to have some fun.


    ¡°First day of observation, fifteenth hour, no exceptional actions so far,¡± the observer noted down in a small journal that easily fit within his breast pocket, meaning that he could hide it within whenever necessary, ¡°Spiritual perception is unable to penetrate her clothing, but nothing suggests physical characteristics contrary to typical human features.¡±


    He frowned, tapping the pen on the page several times and leaving another dot on the paper each time.


    ¡°She does so little, but she doesn¡¯t even look to be cultivating¡­ what exactly is she-¡±


    All of a sudden, a book flew off from a shelf to his left and crashed onto the desk that he was writing on, prompting him to leap up in surprise and look around. First, he used his vision, then quickly switched to spiritual perception in the hope of detecting the energy that must have been used to cause this, but he found nothing either time, which made no sense to him at all.


    Spiritual perception could move around freely ¨C relatively speaking ¨C and get into all kinds of places without the knowledge of others, at least when they were at a lower realm or weren¡¯t paying attention. Planar energy, which he imagined to be necessary in this situation, couldn¡¯t travel quite as freely through objects nor could it be completely removed so quickly that he wouldn¡¯t find even the slightest trace of it anywhere around him. Hence, he was convinced that he had to look closer and search more, only to continue to spot no traces of energy that did not belong to him.


    ¡°What¡­¡± he began to mutter, but stopped himself when he realised that someone must have noticed his presence and would be listening to him, instead focusing his energy to shield himself.


    With the strange incident alone, it was hard to say whether anyone was deliberately targeting him, or if he just happened to get in the way, and it was even more challenging to guess whether anyone wished for his death. As such, he felt that it was safer to protect himself before doing anything else.


    One thing that he was sure of was that this wouldn¡¯t be the end. No matter what it was that had actually occurred, it must have required some effort and time from the person or group responsible, if only to obscure their energy to such an extent that he, a fifth realm expert, couldn¡¯t detect even the faintest hint of it. Something like that wouldn¡¯t be wasted on a simple prank, and so there was naturally more to come for him, with the only real question being what it was going to be and whether it was going to pose a genuine threat, unlike the flying book.


    So, he readied himself and paid attention to his surroundings, using his spiritual perception to its fullest potential within the small room.


    At first, Wei Yi had wanted to throw a few more books in his direction, but the reaction convinced her that it would be best to leave him alone. Whether he realised that she had stopped after one minute or one hour, it would still worry him far more than a continued assault, which he seemed to be expecting based on his surface thoughts.


    For that reason, she had quickly switched targets and bothered one of the other observers, starting out with slightly less intense movements before reaching the point of outright throwing various items around their rooms.


    That approach did result in slightly more entertainment for herself than the currently panicking observer who was still under the assumption that there was more to come. He was still a source of some slight entertainment, but that was almost insignificant in comparison to the reactions of some of the others, like one stalwart-looking woman that had quickly begun screaming a little too much like a young girl first seeing a planar beast out in the wild. It brought back memories of the reactions of some from the same generation as her in the Yi District.


    She noticed some of them presuming that this was the activity of a spirit or a ghost, which did make sense given the focus on the spiritual side of the world over at the south. They had both the Ling and Xin Districts close to them, so the presumption of a spirit¡¯s involvement wasn¡¯t as farfetched as it would have sounded over at the north.


    Even then, spirits weren¡¯t considered to exist in anything resembling the states that the otherworldly demons presume them to, nor is there much evidence of any spiritual entities existing at all. The closest would be ethereal planar beasts, but they were visible to spiritual perception and only posed a genuine threat to those in the first realm and below, as they were unable to perceive the entity and could thus be defeated without much resistance.


    The soul was a strange subject for the exact reason that they didn¡¯t truly seem to exist, even if her own experiences confirmed that something akin to the soul did exist.


    ¡®It is a very confusing field, and so the majority of the techniques used by the Xin and Ling Districts are actually focused at targeting the mind and the atmosphere rather than directly targeting the spirit¡­ Hold on, some of the techniques from the libraries are actually rather similar to the Invader¡¯s Roar thing that I had found¡­¡¯ she distracted herself from that needless activity and instead mentally brought up the many books that she had found regarding mental techniques and put the Invader¡¯s Roar amidst all of them, ¡®I don¡¯t have to get the original, but I might be able to make something myself¡­¡¯


    There was too much absent from the technique that she had incidentally obtained over at the Lan District, so it was almost impossible for her to reconstruct it as it was, but the insights on the soul and mind contained within the tomes from the libraries were good enough to create something.


    She still had some time at the moment of this realisation, so she got straight to work and tried to throw together something really basic that she would be able to experiment with and verify her suspicions. Her understanding of the Invader¡¯s Roar gave her the impression that the technique did involve an element of a genuine roar, so she made use of the Lion¡¯s Roar techniques in order to patch up the method and work only on the elements that were of value.


    In a few hours, her mind couldn¡¯t complete something entirely new to her, but as she left the place that she was staying in and proceeded towards an area that was proceeded to by a number of people, she had prepared a few ideas ready for experimentation. Some of them would be highly effective if they managed to work out, but others were only going to be used if she was not given any other choice, or if she managed to get into a very specific situation where their risk was reduced by some outside factor. Even then, the only ideas that had a chance of functioning accounted for around one percent of all that she had come up with.


    Simply put, there was a lot that could be done with the few principles of the Invader¡¯s Roar that she could obtain from the manual, but the vast majority would need far more work.


    Now that there were some confirmed participants in the upcoming selection process all around her, she shifted her attention to scanning the minds of the people in order to gather up everything that she could prior to the ceremony. Unlike her previous attempt, the results were a little more helpful to her and, well, she did actually get results out of it.


    The first thing that she learned was that the process would have a total of four steps, although she couldn¡¯t determine what that would be. Her understanding was that the four trials would focus on the aspects of comprehension, application, deduction and extrapolation, which could be simple enough to work with, but might pose a few challenges to her. For instance, comprehension might test one¡¯s existing knowledge, or the understanding of new information, both being to her advantage, but the naming might be somewhat misleading and test something entirely different.


    It was also possible that it would require something from her that she was bad at, which was admittedly unlikely given the sheer number of abilities and skills that she had accumulated over the years, but even things she was good at had the potential of challenging her. For instance, a test of learning could be rated according to one¡¯s speed, overall quality of understanding, both, or even by some other metric. Depending on that, she might be found wanting.


    Of course, the first challenge was likely to be easy regardless of how it was carried out, so she was more worried about the other elements.


    Application was obviously going to relate to the usage of knowledge, possibly from the first stage, and this was where she might encounter some more trouble. There was far more room for the tests to not be in her favour. While nearly every technique could be used by her with very little effort, she was not compatible with every one, and not all techniques were ones that she wished to use.


    Deduction could be an easy part of the trial for her, as she did have her Endless Calculation and Fault Perception, so if she needed to work something out from a finite amount of information, then she would be set for an easy victory. In fact, she expected that there would be nobody that could compete with her in that regard, as her mental capacity combined with the sheer calculative abilities that she possessed via the combination of the Ascendant¡¯s Library and the two techniques that she had developed within it.


    Extrapolation also had a similar chance of being her specialty. So long as she was asked to improve or develop a technique along the lines of something that she had already considered, she would be able to do so quickly enough. If she needed to work with something entirely new, that would be a little more difficult, but she was still confident. However, if this required something entirely different, she might struggle.


    ¡®I guess that I shouldn¡¯t spend so much time theorising about this kind of thing, given that all that it will lead me to doing is agitating myself. Let¡¯s see how things go here,¡¯ she finished her unnecessary contemplation and look around as she arrived.


    Other than her, there were more people that did not originate from the south than she had expected, making up almost half of the fifty or so people that had gathered at an open space before a large structure with a front that was reminiscent of the shape of the Bottomless Archive. The rest of the structure fit within a space given by the two buildings around it, so it was unable to maintain the shape all around itself. It looked like it might be a library, but she saw none of the standard symbols for a library that were often used in the district, nor were there any regular visitors.


    The texts that she had read to recognise this place described this as the equivalent of a temple to the Preservers, a place where they could gather but would not stay in for a very long time unless necessary.


    For that reason, the time she had spent on observing the district hadn¡¯t been able to find any obvious members of the Preservers, although the books regarding their processes did confirm exactly what they were meant to wear and look like. None of them had a specific uniform, but that didn¡¯t stop them from primarily wearing heavy plate armour, with long fur capes, large shoulder pads that were often filled with inscriptions to support the wearer. They would have at least one heavy tome on their belt, with that likely being used in combat for the application of certain techniques and methods that benefitted from the book¡¯s structure and contents.


    As their physical melee weapon, which was something that almost everyone needed due to a number of foes and environments resisting pure planar techniques to a significant degree, like the automatons of the Ju District, the Preservers made use of large war hammers. They were made of a hard steel and embellished with a gold alloy, primarily for decoration over any practical purpose. With the shaft and hammer head combined, these hammers were nearly as tall as the ones wielding them.


    This figure was quite an interesting one, as it generally contrasted with the typical notion of a scholar that was held over at the north, but it didn¡¯t quite work with her own combat style. She preferred greater mobility and protecting herself with her own means, so that did discourage her from attempting to comprehend and integrate too many parts of their methodology right now.


    She¡¯d still learn everything she could, as abandoning knowledge would be incredibly foolish, but just as she would usually store away information from books to be browsed at a later time, she would do the same with those types of methods.


    Usually, the Preservers were difficult to find in the Ru District, at least in her experience, so she noticed them very quickly the moment that she noticed them approaching. There was a total of seven tall figures in similar plate armour, with deviations in style and material but perfectly matching stances and overall purpose. If one had no clue about the existence of the Preservers and saw them walking around separately, they would still be fully aware of the connection between them, even if only instinctually.


    Most of the crowd that had gathered was aware of their identities, and those that weren¡¯t parted anyway once they saw that the others were walking away from their path.


    They did not speak until they reached the door of the archive structure, with the man at the front heading up the steps while the rest took position around the sides, slamming down their war hammers on the ground before them. Due to the hammer¡¯s height, they were able to rest their hands on the top of the weapon¡¯s shaft and keep them at the level of their chest, their fingers interlinked.


    ¡®Come to think of it, this kind of equipment could look decent enough too, so I might need to consider equipping a few people at Paragon with this sort of armour. It is imposing and far more defensive than some of the similar outfits in the north, so it could be greatly effective in certain regards and for certain people,¡¯ she thought while she watched the Preserver that stood at the front, who, in turn, observed the people that gathered, her included. His expression didn¡¯t reveal any of his thoughts, but his mind did leak out the uncertainty that he felt.


    Presumably, he had been expecting a certain standard of people to arrive, and from the first glance, some might not have fit the standard, whereas others had the chance to exceed it. Wei Yi had to agree with his assessment, as the fifty that gathered were rather varied in quality and ability.


    Some were from the Ru District, judging by their cultivation methods and appearances, whereas others were from further north, with one of the women clearly coming from the extreme north and wearing a far thicker fur coat than any of the others at the scene. She did not seem to have adapted to the cold well, but she still held onto a book and looked as confident as she could manage while she was likely to be unable to feel her nose and fingers.


    He kept looking at them for a little while, then took the war hammer that was strapped to his back and slammed it down like the rest of the Preservers, clearing his throat at the same time.


    ¡°You have presumably gathered here for the purpose of becoming an honorary member of the Preservers of the Ru District. If you have come here for another purpose, you should leave before you become involved in the matter,¡± he instructed, his voice calm and quiet, yet far-reaching as it managed to easily get to those at the very back of the gathering with perfect clarity.


    None of the people in the area moved, for anyone that had previously been here for another purpose left when they saw their gathering and then the approaching preservers. Still, it was an opportunity for anyone thinking that they would be unable to compete with the rest to depart quietly and easily.


    ¡°Hm. There are ten open spaces this time. In order to pass, you will need to clear four tests. So long as you perform at an above-average level in all of them, or perform extremely well in one, you will be eligible to pass. If there are ten or fewer successful candidates, that will be the end of it,¡± he said, ¡°Otherwise, there will be some other challenge for the worst candidates. The Preservers require only the best, even if you will be part of our organisation in name only. Those that do choose to proceed and join properly will need to be exceptional, so display your best so long as you do have that intention. Does everyone understand this?¡±


    Everybody responded in their own quiet way, judging by the behaviour of the figure before them that a loud response might not be suitable. From his silent nod, this did seem to be the right choice.


    After a moment, the man nodded to one of the men standing at the side of the steps and stepped over to the side to allow him to proceed into the structure, while he remained and continued staring upon the individuals seeking to join his faction. His expression and gaze remained as neutral as it could be, but his eyes did linger on certain people in the crowd after a minute or two passed, with Wei Yi being one of them.


    She didn¡¯t hesitate to look back at him, which didn¡¯t deter his gaze, but it did change it ever so slightly.


    As the person he had sent into the building was beginning to return, he spoke again, ¡°Some of you will be aware, others may not be, but there are four challenges. The first is to check your comprehension. You will receive a manual from the archive, and you will present everything you can about it as quickly as you can, after thirty minutes of reading time. History, practising methods, mistakes and more are valid, including the mention of those of us that are practising the technique. If you can demonstrate something about it, or guide one of us to do so, that is also acceptable. Your performance will be judged according to our standard, not in comparison to the others, so if all of you were incompetent, this would not affect our rating of your ability.¡±


    He finished speaking just as the man emerged out of the building, bringing with him a large pile of books that almost reached the top of his head but barely gave him enough sight to look where he was going. This was despite their number, and due to their thinness. It looked like they had selected technique manuals that were relatively brief, and she happened to have already read quite a few of them, not that it stopped her from doing it again. Whichever technique she was going to be allowed to use in this test, she was going to be certain to succeed.


    ¡°Which one of you will begin with this manual?¡± the man asked, picking up one of the manuals.


    There were a few that begun to look around to ponder who would be brave enough to take up the task, and others did consider doing it themselves, but none were prepared for Wei Yi to step right up to the front ¨C employing some Law-based movement trickery for the purpose of bypassing the majority of the crowd. She went right up to the figure and held out her hand.


    There was hardly any need to question what it was that she wanted, so he gave her the manual and prepared to reach out for another one, but she stopped him.


    ¡°I have already comprehended the entirety of the Thunderous Crash technique, so I¡¯d like to get it out of the way before anyone else tries to act too quickly. The manual in your hand is a decent version, but it has a number of flaws regarding the circulation of energy through the meridians, particularly in the arm, near the elbow, wrist, and slightly below the shoulder, resulting in a great loss of energy efficiency and being the primary contributor to its fame of being excessively costly in terms of energy,¡± she introduced, conjuring the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow thrice to point out the exact locations on her own arm, ¡°When utilised with the Stone Giant¡¯s Fist, it can allow for a tripled output of power with only a small rise in energy usage. I¡¯d get that man to demonstrate, but he has cultivated neither of these techniques beyond the Minor Achievement Stage, so he wouldn¡¯t be able to do so.¡±


    She quickly listed a few more factors to prove her own understanding, providing the rarer and more obscure facts that she could so that it would be clear that she had obtained the deeper knowledge of the technique, not the shallow information that would come from merely reading the manual.


    Hence, she got to witness the man¡¯s expression finally change in a visible way, gaining a certain degree of surprise that seemed unimaginable considering his previous passive stare. He didn¡¯t voice his surprise at first, but when she rattled off a few too many things, the conclusions looked to have formed within his mind, leading to him raising a hand to stop her.


    ¡°First, this has to be confirmed. Have you previously studied this technique?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then, was this the Book Devouring method?¡±


    ¡°Is that a method for absorbing the knowledge from books? Can¡¯t say I¡¯ve actually heard of any like it, so no, that is not the cause. Rather, I have a powerful spiritual perception, and a lot of practise.¡±


    ¡°Hm. You pass this with a perfect grade. Now, step aside and let the others participate.¡±


    The Ascendant did so, while thinking that this might not be as difficult as she had imagined.

 V5C16: Application

    Out of the fifty-three that had initially applied, four were unable to provide anything of value within the half-hour given to them, although that did not mean that they were necessarily out of the competition. Seventeen obtained a poor evaluation, eleven managed to pass, nine performed at an above-average level, seven did well and five, including the Ascendant, did excellently or better.


    As one might expect, the three other people that performed excellently did not do so due to obtaining all of the information from their manual before even coming into physical contact with it, so there were still notable differences between their performances. The worst among them managed to present everything after the thirty minutes of reading and just barely reached the required level, the second managed to present a similar resonant technique combination as she had, and the third managed to finish in twenty-five minutes and by bringing up the kinds of things that the previous two did.


    There were similar differences between the performances of the other groups, so some assumed that the ratings of their ability were done rather arbitrarily.


    None of them were confident enough in announcing such a suspicion, whether due to being afraid of the sixth realm aura that radiated from his body, or because they did think that there was some kind of reasoning hidden behind that still face of his that they did not fully understand.


    What none of them were hesitant to do was admit that if the woman with crimson hair had acted completely fairly, then she was certainly going to be far beyond every single one of them, at least in this challenge. It was incredible to get that much information within such little time with one¡¯s spiritual perception, especially due to their assumption that she wouldn¡¯t be able to reach out all that far with her spiritual perception.


    After all, the typical spiritual perception range of a fifth realm cultivator ¨C which they were able to identify her as due to her releasing her aura freely ¨C was only fifteen metres. From where she had been standing before, she would have barely been able to reach the manuals as they emerged from the archive. Hence, she would have had to scan the manuals the moment that they had neared the door, giving her no more than a minute to get through it and then make the conclusions that she did arrive at. Something like that was absolutely incredible, and not something that they wanted to compete in as there would simply be no point in doing this.


    Fortunately, knowledge didn¡¯t always translate to power, and they didn¡¯t need to best her in this regard. So long as they performed well enough in the four trials, and there weren¡¯t eight more competitors beside them and the red-haired woman, they would have no reason to clash at all.


    ¡°If any of you have reconsidered, then you might as well leave,¡± the man instructed.


    Those that failed did look a little down, but they did not leave and quickly settled their internal conflicts as they raised their heads and radiated whatever confidence they could manage to bring out. The rest had not done too poorly, including the seventeen that still failed to pass, so they imagined that they would be able to redeem themselves with the other parts of the entrance ceremony. Provided that the rule of four passes required the equivalent, and not the exact outcome, a better performance on the other three parts would be sufficient.


    Wei Yi was almost sure that this was not the case, judging by the man¡¯s thoughts, but she wasn¡¯t going to disappoint them this early on. There was a chance for them to excel in some aspect, after all.


    Once they were all confirmed that they had no intention to leave, he was able to continue, ¡°The second aspect is application. Knowledge is useless if it cannot be applied, but there are also different ways of applying anything that you know. For that reason, this test will be more free in nature. You have the choice of any of the techniques that had been brought out, all of which were simple in principle, and you will face someone that has practised that technique. You must use knowledge of that technique and nothing else either to land a hit, or to avoid a hit. You can keep going after the first, but we will hold back less with every attack.¡±


    Given that the people attempting to become honorary members of the Preservers were all in the third realm or above, this wasn¡¯t so much a threat if they wished to compete with the warrior in the same realm. On the other hand, if they were to only use the technique itself in one way or another, they would struggle far more.


    However, most of them also knew that this was something that they would need to do if they wished to succeed in the overall entrance ceremony. So long as they could reach the best outcome that the Preservers hoped to see, they would be able to get in regardless of any previous failures. Hence, the twenty-one that hadn¡¯t had success at first got even more interested in proving themselves than those that had just barely completed what had been wanted from them.


    Wei Yi had wanted to go first, but the leading figure raised his hand and blocked her.


    ¡°This will only give you more time to prepare, which you hardly need, but if you are to go first, you may set an unreasonable standard for the others.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t your rating system independent of our performance?¡± she asked.


    ¡°It is, but I have not explained it, so none of you can be sure. Unless you think that you are worse in this field, then you will be going last, and with a technique that has not yet been explained to a sufficient degree. You will be challenging me in this test. Understood?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I¡¯ve already read every book, so you may want to get another few¡­ or not at all. Can I use one of the techniques that you know?¡±


    ¡°¡­ We will speak about this after the rest of this group makes their attempt.¡±


    She shrugged and stepped back, as she wasn¡¯t particularly concerned with this either way. With her previous performance, she had already passed, so she could skip the next three tests and have as much of an ability to get in as if she did her absolute best on the next few challenges. It would be best for her not to do so, however, as she had no reason to avoid challenge and no reason to avoid getting a good impression from the man in charge.


    Provided that she would be allowed to browse more of the libraries that the Preservers had under their control, she would be all too happy to show off quite a few of her skills, far more than their tests might allow her.


    The others didn¡¯t voice any complaints, so they were able to proceed onto the process of the second challenge, with the northern woman coming first. She had performed at a passing level in the first one, so most were seeking to use her experience to be as ready for the challenge as possible, rather than hoping for a showcase of excellence.


    Judging by the fact that she didn¡¯t even consider picking a different technique to attempt to make use of over the one she had personally read, she wasn¡¯t too confident in herself either, and her trembling hands made it clear to those that noticed that she might not have been confident at all. She only barely managed to pick up the manual, check through every page to make sure she didn¡¯t miss anything about the technique she had chosen, the Starry Torrent. It was a relatively simple technique, as the leading Preserver had said, based around gathering small quantities of energy then sending them out widely and inaccurately as spheres to attack nearby foes.


    This was an introductory technique for the second realm, lacking any particularly defining features that might make it popular among the cultivators of the world. It was made even worse by the fact that it was the closest thing to pure planar techniques that was available to the common people of the Planar Continents, although it had a slight leaning and affinity to flame and was thus a flame-type skill.


    Even without using other planar methods or having a physique, it was relatively easy to evade the attacks by an unskilled cultivator, but equally as difficult to evade when one¡¯s practise and skill was applied to take full advantage of the traits of the method. All of this was similar to what one might expect from a technique, which is what made some confident in saying that there was no such thing as a bad ¨C or worthless, at the very least ¨C technique, only a cultivator that is incapable of using them properly.


    In Wei Yi¡¯s mind, this wasn¡¯t usually the case, as some of her techniques were literally superior to the vast majority of similar techniques that she had seen, but the point still remained. Someone who had cultivated a method for some time would be vastly superior at using it than someone who had first read it half an hour ago, trying to focus on intricate details over the simplest aspects of the technique, which had to be priorities while learning a skill at first.


    For that reason, as she and one of the Preservers that had stood by the side of the steps to the archive came away from their respective groups, the Minor Achievement Stage accomplishment in that technique of the latter was almost certain to overwhelm the woman. She would need to rely on one of the finer details that she did learn to evade an attack if she wanted a higher chance of success, as trying to attack her foe would be more likely to result in a complete failure to properly circulate her energy and instead damage her far more than she could ever damage her foe. It would be incredibly risky to do anything else.


    ¡°I¡­ will attempt to evade the attack.¡±


    The armoured man she faced nodded, clapping his gauntleted hands together. A burst of energy surged out from the collision and quickly formed a small sphere around them, barring others from entering and them from going too far out of the field. After all, if the challenge was won through flying off out of the district, it wouldn¡¯t show a good understanding of the techniques.


    ¡°You have a minute to prepare, after which I will attack. My use of the technique will not kill you, but I cannot guarantee that significant injury will not occur.¡±


    ¡°Understood. I can only use my own strength for this, right?¡± the northern woman asked.


    ¡°Only your own body, and the technique. Any uses of a physique or abnormal physical trait are technically permitted, but they will affect your rating, and will require you to succeed several times against more powerful attacks in order to pass. As such, if you do have an abnormal physical condition, it is best for you to hold back and find a way to make use of knowledge rather than brute force. This will be noted in your assessment, and while it is unlikely to improve your rating, it may work in your favour if you attempt to join us fully.¡±


    The woman nodded and shut her eyes, her trembling hands slowly calming and her breathing slowing down. As the sound from the inside faded, some of the spectating participants were no longer afraid to speak and interrupt the trial of the woman in the centre of the barrier, but they remained quiet.


    Some wanted to avoid interrupting their own thoughts, and others didn¡¯t want to affect others, as they knew that they would be beaten up if they made too much noise. There was a lot to learn from this experience, and if they overlooked it now, they would suffer when it came to be their turn. It was also impossible to ignore the presence of the crimson-haired woman beside them, observing the proceedings carefully.


    Although it was hard to guess what she could do beside reading a book quickly, her general stance and the way that she had talked to the leading figure of the Preservers here displayed that she was certainly worthy of being respected. To needlessly anger her and stop her from studying the situation in the same way would be beyond stupid, regardless of their own wants and desires.


    One minute passed, and the Preserver acted right away.


    From the left hand of the armoured man, a dozen spheres of violet light that was mixed in with crimson burst out and flew at a slow yet agonising pace. It wasn¡¯t that they were too fast to avoid, but that they were just slow enough that any careless movement that could be made against a simple burst of energy wouldn¡¯t work against them, as they would be able to shift their path and travel in the direction of the target before their target could move again. After all, without the use of some technique or even planar energy, moving on the air was impossible.


    Even Wei Yi was not currently able to step on the chains of Law without using some of her energy, and couldn¡¯t go beyond this without overcoming the heavens themselves, a field that she had not yet fully comprehended either.


    All of the bolts of energy spread out and flew towards their target, or, rather, in the woman¡¯s direction. Some were only moving in that direction vaguely for the moment, but would be certain to come back around or curve their trajectory the moment that it seemed advantageous to the one using them. Again, this was what made the technique so dangerous when nothing but the same technique could be utilised, as it was rather hard to predict all of the movements that could be made.


    The northerner didn¡¯t dodge, as expected, but instead drew upon her energy and desperately circulated the energy within her body, trying to manifest a number of similar particles.


    She was attempting to use the technique she had just recently checked in one attempt.


    To the majority of those in the area, this seemed both absurd and incredibly ambitious, so few of them were able to take the proper time needed to comprehend whether there was any legitimate chance of this succeeding.


    ¡®I can tell she won¡¯t be able to fully perform the technique in one go. She is missing too many of the fundamental pathways and is going about their order and speed all wrong. That being said, something will come out of this, and the question is whether she understands this well enough to take advantage of it,¡¯ Wei Yi analysed calmly, resisting the temptation to help her out and quickly provide her with a little guidance via carefully-placed taps of energy, ¡®If I keep getting involved with every woman of note I come across, I¡¯ll seem like the typical main characters of the worst stories I¡¯ve seen. I mean, I¡¯m obviously not doing this for the same reasons as they are, but it is still strange¡­¡¯


    With everything in the world, it was hard to tell what was caused by sheer coincidence, what was the fault of the heavens and their will, and what she had caused with the high level of the Dao she had, so she didn¡¯t devote too much time to it, especially not after she had already decided not to help. Instead, she just watched carefully.


    Exactly as she had predicted, when the northern woman attempted to conjure the Starry Torrent, the outcome was hardly optimal. It clearly affected her body and did some minor damage, and the resulting spheres of energy were closer to flimsy sparks that could be put out with the lightest breeze. Even a normal person with no cultivation whatsoever would only be lightly burned by these sparks, not to mention a Preserver with a fourth realm cultivation and the properly executed version of the technique on their side.


    Hence, with the sparks that were fewer than the spheres by three, she had to do something to overcome the incoming Starry Torrent, which had already gotten half-way to her.


    The woman breathed out a hot breath, a fine red mist coming out alongside it from the internal injuries she had endured. With those sparks floating beside her hand, she thrust it out and willed them all to fly out towards the nearest sparks that were heading straight for her. At the same time, after their movement began, she ran after them.


    This happened quickly, in mere moments, so the outcome was clear in less than a few seconds after the two sides shot out their Starry Torrents. Judging this by the knowledge that most had about the technique, this should have been a clear victory for the Preserver, and some of the audience were clearly sure of this, as they muttered to those near to them about the exact way in which this fight would end, and exactly how the northern woman would fail.


    Despite that, the spark and sphere collided, and both exploded straight away. At once, nine projectiles from both sides were removed from the field, and the three that remained from the Preserver¡¯s use of the technique were too far away to prevent the northern woman from rushing straight up to him.


    She threw a punch at his chest, not managing to summon all that much strength, so when it landed, her fist was hurt more than his plate armour, which was completely unscathed.


    Nevertheless, this was a success.


    ¡°One round out of the way, succeeded in landing a hit via the Starry Torrent method. You would have failed to evade the rest, however, as I could hit you before your body would be able to summon three more projectiles,¡± the Preserver said, his voice once again passing through the barrier that weakened around them, ¡°If you wish, we can continue, but this will tax your arm and may lead to permanent damage to the meridians if you persist in this fashion.¡±


    ¡°No, no need. I had tried to go just far enough to be able to explode your bolts from afar, but I guess it wasn¡¯t that easy.¡±


    ¡°Using a technique on first try ¨C if you aren¡¯t some kind of monster,¡± the Preservers all glanced at Wei Yi, as did the rest of the participants after a moment, ¡°is not meant to be simple. To also manage to control your strength perfectly would require a far greater understanding of the technique.¡±


    ¡°Still all it is, though,¡± Wei Yi said, seeing as she was already being singled out by the rest, ¡°With the right knowledge, you could use a technique while understanding nothing about what it is meant to do. There are plenty of examples of that in history, resulting in people being controlled by a mental technique they unknowingly practise while thinking it is meant to be something else. In the future, it would be good to be sure of the basic circulation method no matter what other information you search for in the technique.¡±


    The latter portion was amended after she considered the fact that some may get a little aggravated at being criticized without any suggestions being offered.


    ¡°Indeed, that is sound advice,¡± the Preserver leading the ceremony nodded, ¡°You have passed, so please leave the barrier and allow the next person to enter. Take the time to heal your internal injuries, and request a basic healing pill if you require it. One can be provided to you, but no more than one per challenge. To use it wisely is also part of the tests.¡±


    As she didn¡¯t wish to be in a vulnerable position in the next two tests, which were likely to involve at least a little action akin to the one she had just experienced, the northern woman accepted one such pill and headed out of the spherical shield, coming out near to the Ascendant.


    She hesitated for a little bit, then came a step closer.


    ¡°Thanks for the advice.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome. The rest will be able to make better use of the advice than you, so¡­ Preserver, are competitors allowed to help one another in any way?¡±


    ¡°That timing is abysmal,¡± he replied dryly, ¡°You have already done so, and there are no rules against it. Don¡¯t go beyond advice and assistance in healing. Any involvement during the challenges, even if it is from an action taken prior to them, will disqualify you and the person you involved.¡±


    ¡°Should I even bring up the fact that healing also affects one¡¯s performance in the next challenges?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to do so, just focus on what it was that you had wanted to do. Also, in the future, you may refer to me as Ru Shi. Since I had forgotten to introduce myself, I can understand the confusion.¡±


    He promptly turned away and waved to another participant, informing them to enter the barrier, so they looked back to one another, and in particular the pill that had been offered to the northern woman. It was a beneficial one for her condition, but it was only a one-star pill that would be effective at little more than alleviating the discomfort from the injury rather than healing it.


    For that reason, Wei Yi would have to modify it ever so slightly.


    ¡°I¡¯m Wei Yi, by the way. Give me that for a moment,¡± she said, holding out her lone hand to accept the pill.


    ¡°Do you have some method of enhancing it?¡± the northern woman asked, passing it over after a moment, ¡°Also, I¡¯m Chao Jin.¡±


    ¡°I do, although it is more of an exchange between the duration of the effect and the¡­ well, the effectiveness. I can boost the latter and shorten the former, which generally benefits the vast majority of pills. Hence, you will receive double the effect in barely half of the time, which should be enough to recover the damage to the fourteen meridian channels you have torn apart there,¡± she explained, holding the pill between her thumb and index finger while carefully weakening her energy so that it wouldn¡¯t do too much, ¡°You are cultivating a fire-type technique, right? You should focus on the meridians in the upper arm during your cultivation for the next few days, which should result in some long-term benefits.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Thank you? Are you sure?¡±


    ¡°If I¡¯m wrong, I might as well abandon entering the Preservers. You can trust me about simple things like this.¡±


    She took her fifth realm energy and slowly spread it out to the level of the fourth realm, then the third, second and finally split apart the thin strands of energy to an enormous cloud of cosmic light, a small clump of which was shoved into the pill. This was a small test of her own energy control, so she didn¡¯t mind it too much.


    The final result should have been sufficiently weak, so she put the pill through the slightly parted lips of the norther woman, shutting her jaw so that she didn¡¯t try to spit it out. Chao Jin¡¯s eyes widened for a moment, a gasp being suppressed by her shut mouth, but she didn¡¯t interpret this strangely and swallowed the pill after a moment, consuming it with her energy at the same time to begin digesting the medicinal essence.


    For a woman in the fourth realm ¨C the very first stage of it, admittedly ¨C it was not particularly difficult to break down a pill, and so she quickly felt the effects of this influenced pill. The moment that the outer shell was broken, the energy within burst out and spread throughout her body.


    It took effect in instants, mending the many minor injuries that formed within her body as a result of the reckless use of the Starry Torrent. That took up little of the overall energy that had been contained within the pill, and so the rest went to influencing many of the previous injuries and general damage that she had sustained over the many years. Given the low grade of the pill, it couldn¡¯t do too much even with the infusion of cosmic energy, but the additional bonus granted by the influence of the Ascendant¡¯s energy gave it just enough power to amend some of the most basic hidden injuries.


    These occurred in almost everyone that ever endured the world around them without the same kind of healing that the cosmic energy and the Ascendant physiques could provide, and so there was plenty to be healed in her body. The northern woman was unable to feel most of these changes, but she did realise that her body felt a little better than usual.


    ¡°This is¡­ amazing. Are you able to share this technique? I have a certain budget for acquiring-¡±


    ¡°Nope. Not compatible with your cultivation method, body, or anything of the sort. Also, this is much more expensive than a simple technique,¡± she interrupted her.


    Chao Jin was, understandably, a little surprised by the sudden rejection, but it was nothing unusual in the world of cultivation. There were plenty of techniques that had certain secrets and abilities that made them impossible to spread, and even if the person using them wanted to, there was always a chance that these techniques belonged to some larger organisation that didn¡¯t want these methods to spread. Hence, it was perfectly ordinary for techniques to be difficult to share.


    Even without that, it would be strange if anyone was willing to share a powerful technique with someone they had met only a few moments ago, so there was no reason to question the blunt refusal from the Ascendant.


    As they finished, the next person in the barrier began, with the barrier having been enhanced by the Preserver that entered after the first one. They fought for several rounds, and then headed out to allow the next pair to enter and perform the same trial. Some were more successful than others, but eventually, it came to Wei Yi¡¯s turn.


    She entered the barrier and looked upon her opponent, the Preserver named Ru Shi, who looked back with an expression that showed a hint of focus and wariness.


    ¡°So, which technique should I be trying to deal with? I can detect thirteen techniques that you have cultivated beyond Minor Achievement, so I can challenge you with any of those and win for at least fifteen rounds, assuming that going beyond that won¡¯t unleash something about the techniques that simply cannot be resolved with an Uninitiated usage of them,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°I could resolve all the seven that are above Great Stride in a similar manner, with the same amendment.¡±


    ¡°Then I will provide no introduction to any of my methods. Begin.¡±


    In a few rounds, the results of the second round were clear, and Wei Yi had once more passed perfectly, in no small part due to the Preserver getting understandably horrified of the way in which every technique¡¯s planar construct seemed to explode with a quick swipe of her hand, or a casual breath.

 V5C17: Deduction, Extrapolation

    There were a few that remained without a sufficient passing rating, and one of them decided that it was worthless to stay once the option to leave was once more presented by Ru Shi.


    The others remained, and continued to participate in the trials, with the third one being explained to them the moment that the one leaver got out of sight and too far away to hear anything that would be said. Whether this was meant to prevent the one that left from listening in, or to give a message to those that remained, was uncertain, but given the way in which some had suffered terrible defeats after only a few exchanges using some of their techniques, most were unwilling to risk stepping out of line.


    ¡°Deduction is exactly what it sounds like. You will be provided with a piece of information, whether it is physical or purely a set of words, and you will need to comprehend the rest of the information that is omitted so that you-¡± he suddenly turned and frowned, ¡°You don¡¯t need to say a thing.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I hadn¡¯t even begun.¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, was it? Are you certain that you will not be satisfied with becoming an honorary member of the Preservers after two whole perfect passes?¡±


    ¡°I see no reason to not fully display what it is that I am able to do. Just because I have already understood half of what you¡¯re planning to bring out is no reason for me to stop doing this kind of thing,¡± she replied, ¡°Really, of all the districts and organisations to have an issue with comprehension and intelligence, the Ru District¡¯s Preservers are the last that I would have expected to react like this.¡±


    ¡°There is a limit to reasonable knowledge and ability, and I am sure that the majority here would agree with that particular statement.¡±


    ¡°Not to begin a completely unnecessary argument, but common agreement and consensus does not indicate the correctness of a belief, statement, or anything else, for that matter. There are a lot of mistaken beliefs, a lot of history that was not kept the way that it should have been, and plenty of entities that exist beyond common understanding. Unfortunately for us, just because the majority are unaware of these things doesn¡¯t mean that they will never appear before us,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°I¡¯m sure the south has heard of certain northern things by now, right?¡±


    ¡°The Great Families, you mean? We have, and while only the Patriarch and the Preserver Commander are likely to know the truth about them, we have all made the effort to speak of them casually,¡± the Preserver Captain admitted, ¡°However, this is not relevant to the ceremony.¡±


    ¡°Fine, fine, I¡¯ll just write down everything and pass it to you later.¡±


    She quickly conjured a killing will book and held it in her lone hand while the pages were filled with the knowledge that she had managed to obtain from the many things that the Preservers were intending to bring out for this test. Given that this was made of her mental energy, it was really easy to prevent anyone from being able to observe the contents if she didn¡¯t want them to, so she made sure to prevent the other participants from peeking in.


    When she had gone to hold the killing will book, she did notice that her hand had tensed and shut into a fist, which took some mental effort to open to grab the floating book instead.


    Other than the odd fear of her mental capabilities, she had no particular reason so far to dislike the Preservers, and so she was going to do her best to display her abilities to them.


    Whether that earned the attention of the Patriarch, the Preserver Commander, or some other figure entirely, she would still benefit from it so long as the Preservers were a group that they looked to be. Their knowledge might well be irreplaceable, and the general attitude of the Ru District was also a rather fortunate one, since simply accepting the existence of the Greats and not being afraid to mention them was a step up from some of the northern districts. Then again, since the last time she had travelled through the districts and spoke about the Greats, she had won against them a few times, and had even earned the ire of the first generation with her actions, managing to ward off one of their attacks.


    So long as news of this were indeed spreading to the world, and were in any part the cause of the calm response of the Ru District, she could expect to see more such reactions in the future, which would be incredibly pleasant to see.


    While the rest of the group properly participated in the ceremony, she sorted through the information that she had been able to acquire from the various pieces of damages documents, statues and strange slates with knowledge encrypted into them. Most of them were easy enough to decipher, mostly due to the knowledge that she already had, but a few required her to almost randomly guess at the possible conclusions that could be drawn from it.


    Most were related to techniques, and so she managed to obtain a few more skills as a result of studying their materials, and those that weren¡¯t instead detailed something about an event or physique, with the first being far more difficult to decipher than the second. Her mind held information about nearly every technique that existed in the minds of the people of the Yi District, as well as the Ning District, Luo District, Ping District, Chao District, Bai District, Jiang District and Lan District, and most recently, the Qiang District and Ru District. In other words, more than half of the districts had provided her with knowledge, and she didn¡¯t struggle to put it to use.


    On the other hand, things that happened long ago and didn¡¯t catch the attention of the rest of the world, or her own back when she was scanning the local libraries, were more difficult to guess about. Oddly enough, it was one such sculpture, depicting an almost-cubical shape composed of several figures in strange poses, which gave her the most immediate benefits.


    It seemed like it would be completely unrelated to her, instead portraying something that had occurred in the year 53,104, when the Ru District attempted to take back some territory that they had begun to lose to the wild, but it had a surprising relation to the Invader¡¯s Roar. The poses depicted were oddly suitable for making use of a certain path that she had come up with for the technique, and what was even better was that she wouldn¡¯t need to stick closely to them after understanding them. As the primary benefit was in the direction of energy and expulsion of it, so long as she understood what to do and why it worked, she could replicate it without moving whatsoever.


    That was one of the many methods that she had accumulated during her life, benefitted to a certain extent by the techniques of Chu Ling, and so she might not even have to demonstrate the strange postures to anyone.


    However, it was very likely that she would need to make use of this ability during the last step of the ceremony ¨C the trials of the ceremony, at least ¨C as it was focused on extrapolation. With the themes of the challenges so far, she would likely be required to use the knowledge from one of the other rounds in order to extrapolate something greater and either create a new technique outright, or simply combine them in an effective manner.


    So long as she could be allowed to use her own methods, she could get to use the Invader¡¯s Roar.


    There would be a certain risk to the usage of a potentially powerful technique without any proper testing to verify its effects and strength, but she had enough confidence in her own abilities to risk such a thing. In the worst-case scenario, if she is unable to properly hold back her power like when the black sun grows too much, she should be able to prevent her target from suffering any long-term damage. Her healing abilities were inferior to her offensive power, but she was still able to allow for people to recover from all kinds of terrible wounds and types of damage.


    If things still went poorly even with her own strength being used to the fullest, creating a quick five or six-star pill to enhance with her own cosmic energy was always an option, and one that she could complete rather quickly even if she was observed at all times. Her Antithesis method doesn¡¯t require the use of a second hand, either, so the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow wouldn¡¯t need to be used too much.


    Returning onto the topic of the Invader¡¯s Roar, her current idea for using as many of the principles contained within the book that she had obtained was rather simple. With a mass of her mental energy, killing will to be more specific, she would attack an enemy¡¯s mind and soul ¨C if that was even possible ¨C with something akin to hitting a person with a hammer. Her intention was less to cause permanent damage, at least against foes that she did not want dead or suffering, but more to stun and confuse the enemy, preventing anything that they were currently planning from succeeding and scattering any planar constructs that they may have manifested.


    There should be more to the technique, considering both the name and all of the concepts within it that she hadn¡¯t yet explored and used, but finding any way to use it was good enough for now. From there, she could even break free of the technique and develop something greater.


    That being said, it was hard to say whether the possible peak of the Invader¡¯s Roar could be beaten easily. If it was capable of actively invading someone¡¯s self, whether through the mind or the soul, not only could a great deal of information be obtained, but it could also permit the control of a person that is unable to defeat the technique. By using something like this against one of the first generation of the Greats, she might be able to obtain so much information that would otherwise require her to break into their Testament and investigate what it was that they had truly been getting up to.


    Even if that was out of her reach, she could easily make use of their strength to greatly damage the plans of the Greats without expending any of her own hidden reserves. Just forcing one of them to use a cosmic method could cause an enormous explosion due to their inability to endure the cosmic energy and maintain it in a stable state.


    ¡°So, Wei Yi, you wished to display your abilities?¡± the Preserver Captain asked.


    ¡°Yes, so here is a book containing everything that I could gather from the things that you had intended to bring out. You still have five items that you haven¡¯t brought out, so I mentioned them as well, but if I wasn¡¯t meant to look at those, then¡­ well, I won¡¯t pretend to be able or willing to remove that stuff from my memory, so I¡¯ll just promise not to share it if I can,¡± she replied to him, handing over the killing will tome, ¡°You can read it with spiritual perception or sight, depending on your preference and the time you have.¡±


    He did not reply immediately, instead opening the book and sending his spiritual perception into it at the same time. The latter was used to probe the latter portions of the book so that he could get through it a little more quickly.


    ¡°¡­ You are mad, indeed. There appear to be no issues with that information at all, so we will move on. You receive a perfect passing grade yet again,¡± the Preserver said, passing the book along to one of the other Preservers, ¡°If you do not object, we will keep this for informing those that have already joined the Preservers, as there is an enormous amount of information here that has not been¡­ easily accessible to most of us.¡±


    ¡°Does that mean that you didn¡¯t know about it?¡±


    ¡°I meant what I said. Everything appears to be in order here, so we shall proceed onto the fourth and final part of the entrance ceremony with the final step, extrapolation. The core is to make use of what we have provided to you so far, combined with any knowledge that you might already possess, to create a new or significantly modified method based on those factors.¡±


    He took one of the scraps from a page that had been presented during the third trial and held it in one hand while the other partly closed. The next moment, just as some could see being described on the remaining portion of the page in his right hand, the left flooded with a green glow that looked perfectly ordinary, yet incredibly unnatural and odd to behold. It was almost horrifying, for some reason, and many averted their eyes whereas a few, the Ascendant included, paid attention to the green light even more and carefully considered how it related to the text present on the scrap of paper.


    Given the information that Wei Yi had already pulled out of the scrap, she didn¡¯t need to spend much effort to understand the nature of the green light ¨C the Lamp of Decay. It was something that likely had otherworldly roots, as it was partially based on the nature of the radiation that was prevalent within their world. Most of the true danger of it was worn away, and what remained was a very curious ability that couldn¡¯t be blocked by anything, giving it the ability to eat any barrier and any defence. The only problem was that the speed of decay would slow down the stronger the foe¡¯s defence was, and so it could take decades to consume something that was at the peak of the ninth realm, for example.


    This didn¡¯t usually come up as a problem, and was still better than being entirely unable to breach such a barrier, but it did mean that it wasn¡¯t a technique she needed to bother with practising personally.


    Instead, taking out the Laws that allowed it to act in such a fashion and shifting it to another technique of greater offensive potential would be of far greater benefit to her. Something like Obliteration would benefit greatly from it, and she could always merge the base principles far more easily into that amalgamation so long as she could utilise the technique itself. Fortunately, this display was more than enough to fill in anything that she might have misunderstood.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to create anything exceptional in nature. The key of this challenge is not to overcome limits, but to utilise principles in the most effective manner, just as with the second trial. For this reason, the fourth part of the ceremony is a battle between the competitors. These will be selected for you, and will be decided based on what you have been provided with so far. Wei Yi will fight the odd one out,¡± Ru Shi decided, ignoring the uncaring shrug from her, ¡°It would be unreasonable to ask most of you to go beyond that, but, of course, you may attempt to study something else and use that in combat. You must, however, make it very clear that this is what you intend to do, or else the battle will not proceed as necessary.¡±


    The reasoning behind this arrangement was rather obvious. In order to have a proper contest with so many different skills in play, they would need to match those with similar abilities against one another, so that their knowledge and usage of those techniques alone would decide the fight, just as with the duel of Starry Torrents. Only by a proper competition could talent be assessed.


    Thus, the skills and pieces of information that would be pitted against one another will be ones that can properly compete with one another, then the abilities of those competing will be tested in the most proper manner. The one that is able to make full use of a unique property that they have, or perhaps a unique property that their opponent is unable to utilise due to their differences, will be the victor, and if they somehow turn around a situation where their skill has certain weaknesses in comparison to that of their opponent and still win easily, it will be clear that they have an excellent understanding of what they are doing.


    Fortunately, these kinds of tests weren¡¯t too biased in favour of those with stronger energy, or else she might be instantly disqualified from this one as well. When it came to using a new technique, trying to apply too much force was likely to be more damaging than deliberately weakening one¡¯s energy. The first to attempt to use a realm difference to win would likely suffer a far greater defeat than if they went against a more informed opponent.


    If this kind of thing had been used back in the Yi District to distinguish the talented from the less-so, Wei Yi may never have come to be, and a Yi Wei might have been actively training in the Yi District at this very moment.


    Perhaps the Greats wouldn¡¯t have bothered had she been progressing down a more normal route, given that they had avoided killing her when they had killed her parents. She couldn¡¯t be sure why they had acted the way they had at the time, but there must have been something that dissuaded them from attacking at the time. This was not something that would ever make her reconsider her perspective on them, as no matter what reason they might have had for leaving her alone at first, they did attack her and everyone close to her in the end.


    She couldn¡¯t help but think about this while the Preservers were going about explaining the last quarter of the trials. There wasn¡¯t much that she needed to learn, as she already had her technique prepared and ready to be tested against whoever was put against her, so all that she bothered to actively pay attention to was that announcement.


    ¡°Wei Yi shall compete against Chao Jin, since they are the last ones left.¡±


    ¡°Our techniques don¡¯t match up whatsoever, you do know that, right?¡± she asked right away, ¡°Are you just trying to give me a hard time by forcing me to combat someone that I have helped, thinking that I¡¯d hold back? I am very capable of inflicting harm on anyone, especially when I can also heal them with incredible ease. Actually, I would probably do more harm than someone without that knowledge or ability.¡±


    ¡°What would you do instead, then? Oppose someone at my realm, someone that has had the time to practise all of these methods a dozen times over, while forcing her to do the same?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I would. Your realm is insignificant, your knowledge is not necessarily that which matters most, and there is nothing to say that a woman who has recently entered the fourth realm couldn¡¯t best someone who had been there for decades.¡±


    Chao Jin¡¯s eyes widened, but she didn¡¯t say anything for fear of interrupting two powerful experts.


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes, really. I don¡¯t know what your techniques are, Preserver Ru Shi. I have not studied them, and I have been unable to find any mention of their full abilities beside rumours. Perhaps you are able to take every single scrap of information that you have learned and convert it directly into power, but none of these pieces of information contain even a bit of that technique. You won¡¯t be able to make use of it to flip the battle in your favour regardless of your own ability,¡± she said, gesturing with her lone hand, ¡°Thus, it becomes a fight of quality, not quantity. I may have gotten to read this stuff only a little while ago, but I believe I excel in quality.¡±


    He looked at her with his usual still face for several moments that seemed to stretch out further with each one that passed, until he suddenly raised his head in a laugh that shifted his gaze to the skies. For a whole minute, he laughed loudly and with such a display of emotion that it made one question whether his previous calm stance was even real. It was hard to match those two extremes of emotion ¨C and lack thereof ¨C but once his head lowered with an audible crack, it was clear his face was the same.


    ¡°I have a great deal of pride in my faction, and for you to say that a twenty-year-old woman-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m forty.¡±


    ¡°- could know more than someone who has dedicated a whole fifty years to study, so let¡¯s test that, shall we?¡±


    Unlike last time, he did not decide to wait and see things play out with the other candidates, instead heading straight into the barrier and reinforcing it the moment that she had gone in as well. He did not explain what he would use, nor did he attempt to instruct her in what she was permitted to use, although that hardly needed mentioning.


    If there was to be any point to this test, it would require her to only use what she obtained from the ceremony, and for the Preserver to do the same, although the things they spoke about implied that he might not limit himself to just that. Something like the usage of fifty years of study at once would instantly prompt her to change her approach as well, and it wouldn¡¯t be very reasonable for him to attempt this. Whatever knowledge-based methods he had would be difficult to use against the absolute nature of Obliteration and the like, and she would only need a brief passing thought to understand his actions before he could even commit to them.


    They looked at one another for a little while in silence, as they had nobody to declare the beginning of the fight. It wasn¡¯t necessary, in their case, as either one could begin and either one would finish, at least in their minds. Ru Shi thought he would win, Wei Yi knew that she would.


    Ultimately, the Preserver acted first, and he began with a technique that resembled the flowing words on a page, scribbled by a steady and poetic hand. He attempted to weave those words around her, with a few other planar constructs manifesting all around him, clearly using as much of the knowledge contained within the texts provided to them as possible, possibly drawing a little too much of his own understanding into the mixture.


    Since he wasn¡¯t holding back, the Ascendant saw no reason to hold back either, and simply took a powerful step forward as she opened her mouth and drew upon the power of the Lion¡¯s Roar.


    From her mouth, a strange sound burst out, shacking the ground and forcing the people outside the barrier to step back, as the force managed to penetrate it while being contained inside. The sound took form before them, a huge, chained form surging out of the air and reaching out a hand to the Preserver Captain, who couldn¡¯t respond in time as his body was frozen by the sheer power of the roar. It touched his head, as lightly as one would touch a relic that was a million years old and looked like it could crumble to dust at any moment. It seemed like an insignificant touch, one that nearly seemed false in the minds of some. After all, she had merely roared. Where had the chained figure come from? How would it occur from such a free and outspoken person?


    What could not be denied was the fact that the Preserver suddenly froze, his eyes widened to their absolute limit, and a look of indescribable shock appeared on his face. It was the third expression to finally appear, so it stood out even for the other Preservers.


    However, none of them could know what he was seeing within his mind, what it was that had caused such a response, what it was that shook him to his very core and stopped his every thought. They couldn¡¯t possibly imagine the vague chained figure suddenly appearing in its full splendour and vibrance, flooding one¡¯s mind with a shock of every chain that bound it suddenly appearing in a state that went beyond the simple visual of countless connected metal links of an uncertain metal.


    No, whatever name Wei Yi used for the chains didn¡¯t change the fact that Law was not something that was as simple as a physical object in the world. Each chains did exist, and she could touch it, but it was merely a conceptual manifestation of a far more complex force that she could barely utilise to her benefit via the power of the Dao of Law. Without that, her vision of chains wouldn¡¯t have been of any use, as she would not have had the ability to interact with the Laws that she imagined forming them, nor would they have been anything more than the symptom of an overactive mind with nothing better to do.


    In that regard, all Dao were incredible in power. So long as one¡¯s conclusions were sound, anything could be possible. Fire could be treated as water, Law could be Chaos, or Chaos could be the most straightforward form of Law. This didn¡¯t make any portrayal any more true than another, of course, so even her perception of chains was merely one perspective, possibly a little more accurate than some.


    Even then, when against a person that had not grasped Dao, that had not seen and conceptualised the chains, against someone that had not prepared their mind, her bound form was more than enough to allow the Invader¡¯s Roar to display an effect that satisfied her fully. Simply showing some of the truth that she understood was enough to completely overwhelm a mind, and the best thing was that she didn¡¯t actually reveal a single thing in the process. It all acted as a hard strike to the Preserver¡¯s head, and the exact nature of the implement would be lost in his mind.


    She was able to simply come forward, step by slow step, right up to him. With her index finger, she calmly tapped his forehead with very little force.


    Had that been intended as a proper attack, it would have been less effective than tickling her foe, but all she needed to do now that Ru Shi couldn¡¯t move or respond was do something to prove that she still could. In this situation, she couldn¡¯t think of anything simpler than coming up to him, and pushing him over with a weak tap.


    That¡¯s all it took, for he had balanced himself poorly while using his abilities. A single tap was sufficient to displace the centre of gravity just far enough to cause him to slowly but surely lean back before dropping onto the ground like a sack of potatoes, his expression still unchanged.


    ¡°I¡¯ll write up an exact explanation of what I had involved in that technique, so if any of you have any complaints, feel free to tell me after you¡¯ve read through it,¡± she spoke to those that could still listen, stepping away and then out of the barrier while brushing back a stray strand of crimson hair, ¡°I¡¯d hate to needlessly repeat myself, after all. I¡¯m sure the Captain wouldn¡¯t like me to do so, either, although I can demonstrate it to any of you as well, if you¡¯d like.¡±


    There were no volunteers.

 V5C18: Mysterious Water Lily

    Her Invader¡¯s Roar didn¡¯t match up to the full potential that she sensed within it, as could be seen by the fact that the Preserver Captain stood up only a minute after she had knocked him down, and managed to vaguely recover after five.


    Still, Ru Shi didn¡¯t feel the need to dispute the results of the battle, short as it may have been, and instead tried to proceed with other matters as calmly as he could. The only sign of the previous battle having actually happened was that every time his gaze passed Wei Yi, he would tremble just a little bit, a flash of chains appearing in his eyes. Only the Ascendant was aware that this was merely an illusion, one that would pass in a day at most, less if his mind was sturdier than that of the average man.


    The first fight to occur after this was between Chao Jin and one of the other competitors, and it was nothing particularly impressive. It began slowly, with some testing attacks using slight variations on the Starry Torrent and the technique learned by her foe, elevating each attack¡¯s strength and complexity just a little bit before the northern woman managed to unleash an attack at just the right time to win. Of course, it wasn¡¯t just the Starry Torrent, as that would be against the intention of the trial, but in comparison to some of the modifications that Wei Yi had pulled off in the past, it wasn¡¯t really worth describing it.


    All that really mattered was that it was a good enough display for Chao Jin to pass this round, and that she did ultimately win, so after improving the healing pill that she was forced to take this time as well, for the same reasons, she stood back and casually observed the rest of the fights without much immediate active focus on them.


    Once they were done, she would still go through them to see if there was anything of note for her to learn from, but it was unnecessary to do so now.


    Her focus for the moment was on the Invader¡¯s Roar, which interested her the most out of everything she had managed to develop in the Ru District so far. It had worked well enough, and gave her quite a few ideas for improvement. For one, it showed her with great clarity that the version of the technique that she was using could be greatly improved simply by refining the concept that she was utilising within her methods.


    A concept was something that many techniques used, and something that she had utilised herself as well plenty of times. However, with the Invader¡¯s Roar, she had the chance to transform a concept into actual power far more directly than with the vast majority of her methods, because the power of the Invader¡¯s Roar¡¯s Imitation Roar ¨C the technique that she had derived from the skill¡¯s materials and used in the fight ¨C was heavily dependent on the cognitive image that she utilised while assaulting the mind of her foe. As seen with Ru Shi, her form bound by chains was very striking, but it was a rather raw, unfocused depiction of the self, very much unlike the form that it was inspired by.


    She still remembered the image of the figure shrouded in light and surrounded by chains that the Realm of Potential had shown her, and it did influence her greatly. It couldn¡¯t be used in its raw form, as it was simply not her, whether she was using similar methods or not, but she could learn from it. Wei Yi knew for a fact that she needed to minimize certain parts of the image, and then boost others so that they would be the focus. Something like the chains of Law was very much effective, but she was sure that she could make it even more effective if she intentionally made use of them.


    Those chains could bind and surround a foe, then unveil their true nature to result in a far greater impact than simply showing the imagined outer shape of the Laws that bind her, the foe, and the entire world, if not even beyond. She did not, after all, know how far a world went, nor what exactly a world was. Perhaps a world was only the Planar Continents, or perhaps the otherworldly demons came from the same world, and the world encompassed a great deal more than she could have imagined.


    Learning something like that would be incredibly beneficial to her, as her current source of power was also knowledge, albeit not as directly as she would have liked to have with the techniques of the Preservers.


    So long as she had a proper comprehension of the world, her every method could get an immense boost in effectiveness and power, as she could obtain numerous Laws to use for her own benefits while also developing millions of other Dao in full from that simple understanding ¨C relatively speaking, of course. The world was something that encompassed everything, after all, and so long as she understood space, she could understand the elements, life and death, energy and more, allowing her to combine the knowledge of planar energy¡¯s true form with the world¡¯s true state to effectively influence it in a way that no cultivator before her could possibly have done.


    Her usage of Law was already similar in this regard, as she got closer to the true nature of the world, and whether she shifted to a Dao of Reality or stuck to her Dao of Law, as she wished to do for now, her strength would still be increased significantly. To affect the fabric of the world itself, directly, rather than going through the layers of additional complexity introduced by typical cultivation, was supreme.


    ¡®My mind just can¡¯t think of anything easier than that, can it? I have to comprehend the nature of the world, I have to consider what leads to everything being as it is instead of simply doing my best with it¡­¡¯ she sighed to herself, ¡®Anyway, once these fights come to an end, I should be able to get to one of the libraries of the Preservers, and possibly have a chat with one of the leaders, if they think that perfectly completing all four of their challenges is worth their time. If not¡­ I¡¯m certain there¡¯s something that I could do to get their interest.¡¯


    She worked a little more on the concepts of the Invader¡¯s Roar while she waited, of course, and made sure to emphasise the true nature of the chains in her conceptual image so that the shock would be greater.


    Time passed, and as the sun begun to set, the trials were finally finished. Many had failed, and beside her, eleven had managed to get into the next step of the process, for there had to be one. It had been stated with perfect clarity at the beginning of this ceremony that only ten were necessary, and so two would have to go, regardless of who that was. If there was one thing that all twelve were rather certain of, it was that Wei Yi would be unlikely to lose her spot.


    Hence, some considered which other participant they might be able to succeed against, whereas a few actually focused on the Ascendant even more as a result. They knew that she could read quickly, comprehend vast amounts of information quickly, and manifest a technique that easily incapacitated the Preserver Captain for quite a while ¨C in terms of a battle, not the world as a whole ¨C so she would be a tough opponent, but that made them think that there had to be something that she was weak to. If there was, then taking advantage of it and defeating her would give them the perfect opportunity to secure a position that others would be afraid to challenge, especially if they won flawlessly.


    The initial words of Ru Shi had implied an additional trial in this situation, but after he took one look at the focused expressions of eleven candidates, he changed his mind. It would be best for the Preservers to get the best, and if they managed to determine this in battle rather than in some other way, he wouldn¡¯t lose out anyway.


    It was not actually necessary to limit the number of new honorary Preservers, given that their power in comparison to true Preservers would be rather insignificant, and their status wouldn¡¯t be that high even in the Ru District, not to mention outside of it, so he could always invite those that lost a battle a few days later. Depending on their timing in entering the libraries of the Preservers, it was even possible for them to never know that this even happened, meaning that no particular explanations would even need to be made.


    ¡°Wei Yi, was it? I challenge you!¡± the silence of the contemplating candidates was broken when one of them suddenly stepped out and pointed at the Ascendant.


    He was a typical southern man, tall, strong and clad in a thick layer of fur and a few pieces of plate, and his voice boomed clearly when he made his declaration. With his aura being clearly displayed since the start, there was no doubt that he was in the fifth realm as well as his chosen opponent, meaning that this wouldn¡¯t put him at as much of a disadvantage as he could have had against a far stronger enemy.


    ¡°Oh, do you? What do you want to compete in? Another fight, or something else?¡±


    ¡°How about a game of cards?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    The man shrugged, not displaying whether he had been hoping to actually win with a card game, and instead waved to the fading barrier that had been put in the middle of the square.


    ¡°A fight of sorts will be sufficient, so long as it is fair. I have obtained methods regarding water-type energy, so I would partake in a competition to see who can shape the most elaborate and most appealing object out of the contents of a bowl of water,¡± the man proposed, ¡°It should be an excellent trial for our abilities and understanding of what we are doing.¡±


    ¡°Is that so? Any other rules you want to specify?¡± she asked, as he was clearly attempting to put himself in a state that would be most beneficial to him and so wanted to make sure that he didn¡¯t slip up in that regard. After all, she was very much interested in challenges that might provoke some inspiration for herself, so if he accidentally made it very easy for her to win, she would be rather disappointed at the missed opportunity, among other things, ¡°After all, if one of us attempts to select the winner, it wouldn¡¯t be very fair, but Ru Shi doesn¡¯t know how to judge our performance just yet.¡±


    ¡°Well, that was most of it. The only thing I would like to add is that these objects, sculptures, or whatever you would like to call them, should have the ability to remain stable for at least fifteen seconds without visible palpations, with or without personal involvement.¡±


    ¡®So that¡¯s what he thinks I won¡¯t be able to do. His earth-type cultivation might actually allow him to use the stuff found in the manuals and materials to achieve that specification, but I don¡¯t see any reason that I won¡¯t be able to do the same, with or without physical water¡­ Nah, I¡¯ll do something better, so long as I can,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, shrugging, ¡°Alright, if you wish. I have no issues with this, so if the Captain doesn¡¯t¡­¡±


    ¡°I can adjudicate this, so you may proceed once¡­ Ru Qi, fetch a large bowl of water and make sure it doesn¡¯t freeze!¡± the Preserver Captain instructed.


    The other Preserver followed the instruction quickly, rushing out and rushing back in after only a few moments, carrying a bowl full of water into the square. It was prevented from spilling out with the use of a layer of planar energy, which he dispelled the moment that he put it down in the middle of the barrier, making sure to reinforce it prior to departing.


    Wei Yi and the southern man glanced at one another, asking a silent question to one another. In theory, going first would put one at a disadvantage, as their foe could learn something from their attempt and therefore win just with that benefit. This was a problem even if they had been evenly matched, but it was undeniable that one was a much faster learner than the other, meaning that the southern man really didn¡¯t wish to give her any help.


    ¡°As the one to issue the challenge, you should go first,¡± Ru Shi said, interrupting their brief staring contest, ¡°It was one made in the belief you would win, is it not?¡±


    ¡°¡­ That was the intention, of course. Very well, I shall be first, but take note of this if the outcome is close!¡± the man proclaimed, stepping up to the barrier¡¯s edge, ¡°At that point, I would at the very least like to request the declaration of a tie!¡±


    ¡®You¡¯re already assuming defeat. That¡¯s in no way beneficial to you, but I guess I won¡¯t tell you that for now. Maybe later, if he takes the defeat well and is open to actually listening to me, unlike a few that have lost to me and then got rather frustrated and angry,¡¯ she thought as he proceeded into the middle of the barrier, stepping up to the bowl and sitting down on his knees.


    His eyes shut and he focused, keeping his hands on his legs for now as he clearly took the time to process everything he was intending to attempt. Even if the basic idea of the technique he wished to use was already settled in his mind, there was a lot that he still had to calculate and understand prior to being able to display something that had a chance of victory. In fact, calculation was an aspect that many needed to consider whenever manifesting a planar construct, but it was often skipped by the understanding of the technique they used, as it was usually considered and done by the creator of the technique in advance.


    They had not set any specification of how long they would have, so there was no attempt to speed him up from anyone in the area, not that some didn¡¯t wish to do so. While reading books hadn¡¯t been the most exciting thing even for those that enjoyed the prospect, doing absolutely nothing was duller.


    Nineteen minutes and several seconds after he began, he finally moved his hands and focused his energy upon the bowl of water, within which a litre of fluid was contained.


    His planar energy spread throughout the liquid, and prompted it to rise out of the bowl, the water forming the rudimentary form of a pineapple, a northern fruit that was very popular amongst men in particular. Down at the south, and even in the Central Plains, the popularity was slightly lesser, so it was quite a surprise to see it as the product of his lengthy deliberation. Still, it was a sensible enough choice.


    A pineapple wasn¡¯t the most complex shape in the world, nor the most varied, but still had enough to make it more complex than a simple sphere or cube. With this, it was clear that he was doing more than just holding up a bit of water with planar energy.


    This sculpture lasted for exactly sixteen seconds before it fell back into the world and nearly splashed out, with the water being contained at the last moment with a cosmic barrier.


    ¡°There, I have done it. Now, it is your turn,¡± the man said, stepping out on clearly unsteady legs.


    ¡°Why a fruit of all things, by the way? Other than the shape making it rather easy to form, of course,¡± the Ascendant asked as she took a step towards the barrier.


    ¡°I have never been to the north, but I have studied many texts of the kinds of things that they have there. I found it interesting enough, so I have attempted to recreate some of them in various methods before. There are a few objects that I have sculpted, which I could display to you,¡± he explained, crossing his arms in an attempt to look stronger than he felt at that moment, ¡°In fact, I might attempt to hire an array master to create something like this in a more permanent manner.¡±


    She didn¡¯t comment, as she had a feeling that she would say something rude to him regarding the quality of his work, and simply stepped inside. It was better to focus on what she was attempting to do rather than the chatter before it.


    Unlike her opponent, she didn¡¯t just want to hold up a bit of water in the air. No, that was possible, but simply too easy when she had so much more ability and potential, not to mention all of the Dao and Laws that she had comprehended in her life ¨C primarily in the last two years, admittedly. If that was not to be used, and if she just allowed her ability to be overlooked by herself, it would be a complete waste of it, regardless of the source and purpose of it. Manifesting a water sculpture might be easy enough, especially with all of the material provided by the Preservers, but it could lead to something greater.


    For that reason, as she reached out towards the bowl and prepared, she didn¡¯t try to direct her planar energy into the container. Instead, she forced it to change.


    The Truth of the Universe had changed her energy for her many times since they awoke, so she was very used to the feeling, and she was also aware that this was something that she was only capable of due to them. Without them, to fundamentally alter the structure of the energy with but a thought would be impossible, at least so long as she was bound by the world¡¯s Laws and planar energy itself.


    As a result, she had relied on them for a long time to do what she could not, and this time, she didn¡¯t intend to shoulder all of the responsibility herself, either. Instead, she wanted to force the change when it might otherwise be restricted, as it usually was before she fully comprehended a new kind of energy. This time, she did not yet have the full cultivation method laid out and perfected, and she didn¡¯t intend to waste her time coming up with a cultivation method, as she knew exactly what she wanted to achieve and knew that she wouldn¡¯t be giving it to anyone else.


    In a single breath, a decade passed within her mind. A simple act of raising a hand was completed with countless effective hours of thought and contemplation, and when her planar energy did leave the body, it did so in a very uncertain state. It almost looked as if it flickered in and out of existence.


    There was only a lone spark, flickering in and out of reality and the view of the audience, as well as the judge and her opponent. Quietly and slowly, it fell upon the water in the bowl, and seemed to do naught but lay there, sinking into the water at an even slower pace than it had prior to landing. It should have been even duller than the previous preparation of the southern man, and yet it was oddly entrancing, somehow.


    ¡°¡­ Wait, is the water-¡±


    ¡°It is rising! The water is actually rising!¡± one of those that successfully passed the previous challenges and now observed the proceedings exclaimed, their eyes widening as they witnessed something seemingly simple, yet absolutely incredible. To someone unfamiliar with cultivation and planar techniques, it might not seem that way, but no-one present was anything less than an expert.


    Bound planar energy didn¡¯t propagate, it couldn¡¯t grow, it couldn¡¯t just randomly enter materials and affect them beyond cutting into them or exploding them. And yet, that is what they saw.


    From the water, a thin strand akin to the shoot of a plant rose up, something slowly blooming at the top of it. It took a little while, but more strands, branches, one might say, began to grow, and the slight bulge at the top spread out into a flower that grew bigger and more detailed with every moment that they existed. These flowers looked to be a cross between a lily and a water lily, with the higher number of petals of the latter and the many leaves that grew from the stem of the former, making it rather easy to find a name for the energy and technique that came out of it.


    ¡®Water Lily¡­ Mysterious Water Lily, if I am to stick to my usual naming scheme. It is¡­ quite beautiful, actually. The best thing is that it should be able to grow on its own¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought, allowing her mind to calm down a little from the previous extensive contemplation and calculation, ¡®Come to think of it, every one of my dual types of energy has resulted in something significantly more effective than a simple alternate form of planar energy. Each one has a special ability, sometimes based on the combination of two elements, sometimes coming from the way in which it is accomplished, like with my lightning energy. The five elements seem so simple on first glance, so clear, but there is a lot to be derived from them, that much is clear.¡¯


    From a lone stem appeared more and more flowers, and as they did so, she felt that her own energy became stronger. Her cosmic energy didn¡¯t rise by a full stage, but her bloodline did, meaning that her overall capability received yet another small boost. With this in mind, she did want to go on and create every other combination of elements that she could, but it was far more difficult to do this than to say it, and she couldn¡¯t exactly get all of the right inspiration in an instant, forcing her to delay it for now.


    Once the flower grew sufficiently, she turned to the man that had challenged her and said, ¡°I don¡¯t want to speak out of turn, or for the Preserver Captain, but I think this is likely to win over your rendition of a pineapple.¡±


    ¡°Seems so. Captain, are you in agreement?¡±


    ¡°There isn¡¯t much competition, frankly. Whether I look at the time taken, the overall result, the ingenuity, complexity or any other aspect, Wei Yi wins by a very clear margin,¡± Ru Shi stated, looking at the water lily that continued to grow, ¡°If it keeps going like this, I suspect the Preserver Commander will be interested in keeping this in his office.¡±


    The comment was simple, but it showed a great deal. Anything that interested powerful figures, especially learned and intelligent ones, had to be noteworthy in some regard, and unlike certain niche items that didn¡¯t usually appeal to anyone but those types, flowers were seen fondly by most. Thus, it won over the transient pineapple water sculpture even when it came to general appeal, meaning that it would be preferred in a situation where it and the pineapple where shown side by side.


    Even if the southern man disagreed with this judgement, there was nothing he could do about it. He sighed and shrugged.


    ¡°Very well, it seems that I have failed¡­  So, I will challenge you instead!¡± he attempted again.


    ¡°There will only be one attempt, and you did not succeed. You may leave,¡± the Preserver Captain interrupted, ¡°If we permit everyone to challenge everyone else at least once, then this will take a whole day, if not more. We do not have time for that, and you hardly need another attempt once you have failed a challenge that you had set out.¡±


    The southern man was clearly unhappy with the decision, but there wasn¡¯t much that he could say in this regard. After a few moments of quiet grumbling, he walked off slowly, clearly glancing back in the hopes of discovering some opportunity to join the Preservers, nonetheless.


    Nothing of the sort came, at least not immediately, leaving eleven people that were attempting to become honorary Preservers. Rightfully, this should have elicited another trial, duel or something of the sort, but the Ascendant wished to cut it short mostly due to not seeing the possibility of anything sufficiently interesting occurring without her involvement. There was much to learn from the people here, but the chances of it being demonstrated in an attempt to score an easier victory over another were unfortunately low. To avoid something unnecessary like that, she went over to the Preserver Captain and leaned over slightly to whisper in his ear.


    ¡°Don¡¯t need to take my word for it, but I¡¯d say that man over there cheated a little bit.¡±


    ¡°He¡­ how?¡±


    ¡°First trial, he had not used the method of the technique you gave him, but a similar one that I had found in a library not far from here. Second part, the summary included several details that he hadn¡¯t actually obtained, based on what he could have possibly read with his gaze and spiritual perception. Third part, he-¡±


    ¡°All of them, right?¡±


    ¡°Pretty much, yeah. If you want to knock someone out quickly, you can do it with him under the premise of trying him out later, while paying a little more attention to his actions. It¡¯d be a good idea even if you don¡¯t kick him out.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Very well, I shall do this. As someone that is about to become an honorary member of the Preservers, I suppose that you have the right to comment on this matter.¡±


    She nodded and walked away again, waiting for the following events to finish up. Whether the man was kicked out or kept in, and regardless of how it happened, she didn¡¯t do more than ensure that anything that happened was kept in her memory for later confirmation. Frankly, the development of the Mysterious Water Lily and the ideas that she had come up with regarding the usage of the Truth of the Universe as a result took a lot out of her, so she wanted to get onto that which mattered to her as quickly as she could.


    The man was told to leave, the rest of the people convened and were officially granted the title of honorary Preservers, and then were led into the archive that they had gathered outside of. Therein they were granted tokens of their identity and permitted to enter the place where their important texts were actually kept, barred from the outside world via an incredibly thick layer of material that deterred spiritual perception and prevented them from being seen by Wei Yi.


    Some explanation followed, but just as with everything before it, she filed it away and prepared to check it out later. Instead, she attempted to make use of her current mental capacity to obtain everything she could from the library and study in full the main techniques of the Preservers.


    There were only a few techniques, and they all fit under the category of knowledge-based methods, to the extent that she felt rather confident about putting them all under a Knowledge Dao. In just a few moments, she was able to find the very thing that she had been seeking, Knowledge Amplification, but she also found Knowledge Slam, a simple enough attack method that made use of a book, Shielded Eyes, which manifested a book that would consume attacks, and Learned Blast, which, unsurprisingly, required a book to slam the air and manifest a large bolt of energy to attack a more distant enemy than the Knowledge Slam would allow.


    Wei Yi had a few things to say about their naming sense, but before she got the chance, her spiritual perception alerted her to an approaching figure.


    ¡°Seventh realm¡­¡± she muttered, turning to the person, ¡°I assume you¡¯re the Patriarch?¡±


    ¡°A very calm and disinterested response, Wei Yi, Ascendant. Were you not intending to speak with me during your visit?¡± the man asked, his voice needing to pass through a rather thick haze that had formed around her consciousness.


    ¡°On the contrary, actually, but I am going to need a moment to recover. I had not intended to create a new combination of elements today, and I had slightly overworked myself. I will require just a moment, so if this is not urgent¡­¡± she didn¡¯t finish, and instead leaned against the bookshelf she had been obtaining her information from and shut her eyes, grabbing the large amount of information in her mind and slowly beginning to separate it all into relevant areas.


    There was a lot to work on, so she presumed it could almost take a whole minute to go through everything, especially if more appeared while she was doing so, like from the Patriarch.

 V5C19: Preservers

    One minute and four seconds later, slightly going above her estimate, she opened her eyes to reveal the clear, deep and gem-like eyes that she had possessed for many years now, the fog gone from them.


    ¡°There, I¡¯m feeling better now. Good evening, Ru Patriarch, and apologies for that,¡± she said to him, inspecting him and his aura in more detail at the same time, ¡°I doubt you come to speak to every new honorary member of the Preservers, so I¡¯d love to know what it is that caught your eye. The performance at the ceremony, or perhaps the supposedly clear jade slip that doesn¡¯t permanently contain information?¡±


    ¡°I had suspected that you might have understood the nature of the process,¡± the Patriarch said, ¡°Otherwise, I would have to question why the Ascendant of the north had studied a finger technique to such an absurd extent.¡±


    He was a tall man that even stood higher than her, clad in thick, dark plate armour which had a symbol of an open book on the middle of the chestplate. Large shoulder pads lay on either side of his stern face, covered in part by the shadow of a hood that covered the top of his head. It didn¡¯t do enough to obstruct the long grey hair that grew beneath it, nor the similarly grey beard which grew longest at his chin and was braided up to his chest, just short enough to not obstruct the symbol of the open book. Even though the general style of the armour was rather traditional and plain, several large glowing blue symbols shone through the metal, and countless smaller characters almost flowed between them.


    Just as with many of his Preservers, the Patriarch had a large hammer on his back, the head of which was covered in similar glowing runes that made it rather clear that their creator must have been the same, as it was difficult to match the style and exact strength of the inscriptions even if one followed the exact same technique with the same cultivation method.


    On his belt, a thick length of leather, an incredibly thick book that could be used as a hammer all on its own was attached, and from it she could sense a great deal of resonance with the Knowledge series of techniques that she had picked up. Out of all of the Patriarchs that she had seen up to this point, this seemed to be the most committed to the practises of the district that they ruled over, and although his realm was not the highest of all the Patriarchs she had met, he still seemed to be one of the strongest.


    ¡°It is one I had considered a little more than most, but I know far more about other techniques, finger-related and not. However, I would rather avoid this topic for now, and focus on the slips, as well as your own purpose. What do you want with everything you gather, and from me?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to explain what we do with the jade slips, is there? The Ru District is home to the largest repository of knowledge in the Planar Continents, and we will never miss the opportunity to add to it. Never,¡± he stated, his brows furrowing as he spoke before he relaxed a moment later, ¡°You, on the other hand, Ascendant, can be a contributor in many ways.¡±


    ¡°Largest repository? You sure about that? I am building up quite a large library myself.¡±


    ¡°Is that so? Where are you building it, in the northern fortress that your Arbiters had settled down in?¡± he asked.


    ¡°In my head, a much better place, in my opinion. Everything is accessible everywhere, and I can freely share any part of it in an incredibly easy way,¡± she answered, tapping the side of her head, ¡°You should try cultivating spiritual will if you haven¡¯t done so already, as I can assure you that it would be of great use to everyone in the district, as well as beyond.¡±


    ¡°Ah, your mind¡­ An untrustworthy place, one that is subject to far more decay than a jade slip. Even with the strongest mental cultivation methods I have seen, your mind will forget or alter significant details far more quickly than even a common piece of paper, or even parchment, not to mention the immediate loss of everything in that head of yours if you happen to perish or get lost somewhere, as is the unfortunate fate of many a clever scholar with a similar mindset to your own,¡± the Ru Patriarch shared, ¡°A physical library would be a far better place for everything you know.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d disagree. That being said, we can always argue later. What do you want from me?¡±


    ¡°How about a trade? There are troubles in this district, and there are things that you also require, Ascendant. We can exchange significant favours, if you will.¡±


    ¡°First thing, then, do you know what I want? For all you know, you will be unable to do a single thing that I actually require, and yet I would have benefited you first and thus wasted my time and effort on something that I didn¡¯t need to do,¡± she said, putting her hand on her waist while straightening her back and quietly continuing to process all of the information that she had not yet digested in full, ¡°Provide an example, if you could.¡±


    ¡°The spatial stabilisation point should be of interest to you, as should the contents of the Bottomless Archive, not to mention certain secrets about the Great Families-¡±


    His lips froze when a fist stopped just a moment from his face, clearly being restrained with some effort by the Ascendant. A crimson light shone at the centre of her eyes, shrouded and surrounded by a dark shadow that almost burned and rose akin to smoke.


    After a few moments, she withdrew her fist and quietly ignored the cracks that formed in the walls.


    ¡°Ahem. You were just mentioning them, right? Sorry about that,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing at the wall that she had struck with the sheer force of her rushing fist and considered how she could correct it.


    She did have the ability to repair things like that, but it was a little challenging to do so in an instant without making it a purely superficial repair that would crumble the moment that it was casually touched, or perhaps even looked at. Hence, she invoked Endless Calculation and quickly let it do its work while she took a step back and calmed her body.


    ¡°You do have the reported dislike of them, I see. We know a few things that they have wished for us to get rid of, but did not. We could provide it to you, provided that you assist the Ru District and family with a certain issue.¡±


    ¡°Hm, I suppose that I could assist with certain problems, although it would be best if our enemy was shared. There wouldn¡¯t happen to be some members of the Preservers of Eternity beneath the Bottomless Archive, would there?¡± she asked, not particularly expecting a single positive response to such a random inquiry. The lack of immediate rebuttal was instantly observed by her, forcing her to look him directly in the eyes and raise an eyebrow.


    ¡°We did not call our scholars the Preservers for no reason.¡±


    ¡°Fuck right off. That is just too blatant and coincidental, isn¡¯t it? Why would you name yourselves after that group?¡±


    ¡°The Preservers of Eternity claim to keep the world stored forever in their tomes, but they do not truly do so. They have their preferences for what they wished to see, and rather than omitting that which they did not like, they obliterate it. Somehow, the best place to restrain them became at the very centre of a trove of that exact knowledge.¡±


    Seeing her stunned expression, the man grinned and quietly chuckled to himself, the metal on his shoulder pads tapping on his chestplate as his shoulders shook.


    ¡°Well, that is why the archives are that large, I suppose. Is their bottom seemingly out of sight only because it is where the Preservers of Eternity are sealed away? No, don¡¯t answer, I can already tell what you¡¯re going to say,¡± she calmed her expression, ¡°Since you continued to talk to them, I can only assume that you wouldn¡¯t object to getting rid of the picky fuckers¡­ by the way, I usually limit my swearing, but the recent mention of the Greats seems to be hitting me worse than usual.¡±


    ¡°We have heard of some things from the north, so there is no need to explain. However, I find it difficult to believe that you will be able to assist too greatly in this regard. They are an ancient threat, with their leader being at the peak of the seventh realm at the time of their sealing. It is hard to say whether their cultivation would have changed or developed, as the intention was to have frozen them in time completely, but the time would have certainly caused their strength to rise notably. Your power will not be sufficient, Ascendant,¡± the Patriarch said, quickly calming and suppressing his laughter to not seem to be ridiculing her.


    ¡°You sure about that? I¡¯ve fought several Patriarchs at this point, killing one of them in their own district at the centre of an incredibly powerful array that, well¡­ something like this,¡± she raised her hand and released some of the spare killing intent that had been produced to manifest a replica of the array.


    She had noted it down during the battle at the Ping District, and she had unintentionally put it to use in the further strengthening of her killing intent, although most was kept away due to the sheer danger of abusing the full features of the array. The Ping Foundation Array ¨C named after the words of the Ping Patriarch when the array was activated ¨C still had much to be drawn out of it, and now that her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow was born, she suspected she would get to that sooner than expected.


    However, the Ru Patriarch was unaware of that fact and had his own perspective on her strength.


    ¡°You speak of the battle at the Ping District? The situation there is somewhat different from that of the district, and so your strength in one place will not necessarily carry over to another¡­ Not to mention your current state. Unless every single report has failed mention this to us, you should have had another arm until recently.¡±


    ¡°I may not have been preparing for this kind of thing, but that doesn¡¯t mean that I am completely useless without it. Most of my strength has already returned, and I have broken through a stage or two.¡±


    ¡°That is not enough¡­ But you are right, I kept talking about them for a reason. We will need to fight them soon, as the statis field in the Bottomless Archive has been decaying recently. Soon enough, there will be a need to fight, and at that point we cannot ignore those who have the ability to help us. As such, this is the deal I propose to you, Ascendant,¡± the Ru Patriarch said, ¡°You will be provided a place here, and a spatial stabilisation point. You may grow and learn, and the moment that the Preservers of Eternity are close to emerging, we shall fight them together.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re really not going to ask me for anything other than that? Frankly, I¡¯d like to get rid of them myself.¡±


    ¡°Our Ru District can always ask for more, but I don¡¯t think that this is necessary at the moment. If both of us perish, it would have been a complete waste of time, one that could have been spent on development and growth,¡± he replied, ¡°However, if you could grant a few things to the Archive-¡±


    ¡°Before you go on, is it necessary to bring knowledge specifically to the Ru District and nowhere else, or does your district support the spread of information in all forms and to all? Depending on the answer, I might get you exactly what you want in a while, the moment that I figure out how to do one of the things that I wish to do. You should know that I am against the keeping of information from the world by the Greats.¡±


    ¡°In truth, while I would very much prefer to have the information all to myself, but the thing I wish for above all is the increase in the world¡¯s available knowledge. After all, the books in our Bottomless Archive spread to the Ru District, the Ru District¡¯s knowledge spreads to the south, everything from the south spreads to the rest of Yi City, and that then spreads to the world. If we gain something individually, then it will inevitably come out, just later, so you might as well get to it,¡± the Patriarch shrugged.


    He didn¡¯t ask for further details, nor did Wei Yi have too many to offer, as she was not yet sure how to accomplish the release of everything that the Greats had stolen and hidden away from the world.


    All she knew about their operations was that they had to have an enormous array to monitor the world and pick up information from anywhere in Yi City, and if that existed, it must be possible to broadcast everything to the world instead. So long as she figured out the right way to do it, either by modifying the array or creating an entirely new one with its principles, she would be able to broadcast everything she ever wanted to the people of the world, whether it was techniques or knowledge of some of the better ideas from the other world.


    No examples needed to be provided, in her opinion, whether one talked about the good or bad ideas of the worlds the otherworldly demons originated from.  There were more than enough obvious things out there.


    ¡°So, other than everything that I have already acquired, what can you offer me, and how much of it will be available to me?¡± she asked, ¡°As in, can I obtain a little more so long as I give more?¡±


    ¡°There are some tomes I can provide you, and some cultivation materials, but anything beyond that will require you to give something more than assistance that you personally admitted you also wished to provide. Explain what you are able to give, and I will consider giving you some additional benefits from my district.¡±


    ¡°Give me a few of your jade slips. I¡¯ll show you exactly what I can offer.¡±


    He had a few on hand, so he took them out and showed them to her, needing to hold them up only for a little while for the slips to be filled to the brim with the various techniques that the Ascendant was willing to offer him.


    None of them were her key methods, and not all were even particularly unique or uncommon, but that didn¡¯t particularly matter when she was able to fill out quite that much. Any technique, when taken to a certain extreme, had the immense potential to change the world ¨C an exaggeration, but not a particularly significant one ¨C and certainly greatly improve their usability in a way that raised them to the level of, or above the level of rarer and stronger techniques.


    This was especially true if this knowledge came alongside the improvement of the technique, which Wei Yi had also offered. For her, it was rather trivial to improve certain basic methods in moments.


    ¡°How much can all of this get me?¡±


    ¡°Before that, it would be easier to determine what it is you want. Then, the exact quantity or quality of information on techniques, as well as the skills themselves, should be easy enough for us to determine.¡±


    She considered it for a moment before saying, ¡°In terms of techniques, I want as many that I don¡¯t yet have as I can get. They all benefit me in the long term, regardless of perceived quality. Your more unique methods are naturally preferred, like unique dual elemental cultivation methods or the Knowledge series of techniques, but I will not demand those. On the other hand, when it comes to resources, I need as much as I can get, so everything that you are unwilling to give in manuals and jade slips can be provided in planar stones of any element.¡±


    ¡°I know how many techniques I am willing to pass onto you, Ascendant, so we can begin with this and exchange for simpler items like planar stones later,¡± he pocketed the jade slips and looked over to the side of the archive, ¡°Let us go and get a few more jade slips, which you can then fill as you wish. I will give you the exact amount I am willing to exchange for.¡±


    In theory, she really didn¡¯t need to bother with such an exchange, as most of the techniques were likely to be within the Bottomless Archive, and would thus become easy for her to obtain the moment that she stepped inside to deal with the Preservers of Eternity, but given the ancient nature of the structure, there were likely to be obstacles. Whether they came in the form of obstructing her spiritual perception or preventing her from scanning the containers of knowledge, it was simpler to do this.


    Providing benefits to the Ru District in this way also made it far easier to request things of them in the future, and would make them more likely to side with her in the War of Ascendancy due to what they will have gained.


    Of course, that wouldn¡¯t stop the Ru Patriarch from acting against her if he concluded that he had sufficient reason to pick another side over her, whether it would be the Great Families or some other force, but it would make him less likely to do so, which was the most that she could hope for with people. There was also a distinct lack of powerful factions other than the Greats which were acting on the level of the world, meaning that even if he did not see the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters as being the most suitable side to ally with, he would have few other choices.


    When he came back with several dozen jade slips, she was actually surprised at the price that he had decided to set for everything that she requested. With all of the techniques she knew, filling each of the slips would be incredibly easy while not revealing a single thing that she would actually want to keep from the Ru District.


    In fact, the development of the simplest techniques would be beneficial to her more so than to the Ru family. They would lose some of their edge in terms of techniques, but she would ensure that the whole world developed as a result of the basic techniques being forward sufficiently far for the more advanced techniques to need to catch up. Once the common people realized that there was use for the simpler, weaker skills of the world, then there might be a surge of everyone with half an understanding of cultivation attempting to innovate and improve their skills, forcing those with higher realms to do the exact same.


    She was not going to explain it to him, since she had already made it clear that he was offering her more benefits than himself, and she didn¡¯t need to make things harder for herself. Simply filling the jade slips was sufficient, and she did so while they were still in his hands.


    ¡°There, done. Now, unless you want me to do anything else, I would like to get to cultivating, and receiving my planar stones. How much can one slip exchange for?¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ if all of your techniques will continue to be of this grade, then I can only give six stones per full slip, and only for the methods that you have not yet shared. Do not think that I will miss you trying to give away more Collapsing Cavern Fists, or anything of the sort,¡± the Patriarch said, ¡°That technique is not useless, especially not with some of the things that I¡¯ve noticed you adding to it, but having a dozen copies is not necessary.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d say that you would benefit, as the jade slips you use are prone to decay, among some other issues. Of course, I am not intending to sell them for much, since you should be able to replicate them easily enough on your own, albeit requiring a little longer to accomplish it than it would for me, but I wouldn¡¯t mind selling a few copies to you.¡±


    He shook his head, ¡°Let us focus on the new techniques for now, and discuss other things later if you somehow still require the planar stones. I do not know what cultivation technique you use, but there are only so many planar stones that you should possibly require. Now, let me lead you over to the Bottomless Archive and provide you with a chamber away from the rest of the Preservers, who may otherwise bother you in an attempt to learn more from you. Given the many secret techniques you practice, I doubt that you want them all to be observed.¡±


    A shrug was all that she provided, not just because there was no real reason for her to specify anything,  but also because the statement prompted her to ponder the matter. Most of her current methods involved a great number of Dao and Laws, and the Dao of Laws and the Law of Dao, if such a thing even existed. As such, was it even possible for people to duplicate any of her personal techniques without also comprehending the Dao and Laws that she used?


    There was a good chance that she was onto something, but she still didn¡¯t want to expose her skills to the world randomly. There was a good time and place to use all of her techniques, and this was not one of them.


    Instead, she simply followed the Ru Patriarch, and made sure to grab up as many more techniques and pieces of information that she could while she was at it. There was a lot to scan, so she was not exactly bored even though their slow journey took quite a long while, at least in comparison to the speeds that she had gotten used to. Nonetheless, it was immensely helpful in resolving a few other problems while she was at it, so she was not going to complain, and she was not going to ask him to speed up while any benefit was still to be gained.


    ¡®Knowledge Amplification is a very powerful method, but it is also rather complex one. I can understand it, but to cultivate it will require a notable degree of effort, especially in comparison to the majority of what I usually practice,¡¯ the Ascendant frowned, biting off another piece of a planar stone that was reduced to a fraction of its initial size.


    This was about as effective as absorbing the planar stones in an ordinary fashion and gave her something to do with her body while she made full use of her mind.


    She had spent seven days sitting, practicing, cultivating, and attempting to fully integrate everything from the Preservers into her own arsenal. This was rather difficult, not because she didn¡¯t know how to use the Knowledge-based methods ¨C on the contrary, they worked with her ability to manifest books from the Ascendant¡¯s Library far better than she had assumed they would ¨C but due to the rather extensive nature of the Knowledge Amplification method. It wasn¡¯t a simple technique, and might even be compared to a complete cultivation method in its complexity and reach.


    There was nothing simple about any technique that changed everything about the way in which one used their energy and mental energy. If she had any method of a similar nature, it would be just as hard to integrate.


    For instance, she could have found something to modify the nature of fire-type techniques entirely, and that would have forced her to modify the way in which she had acted, used planar energy, circulated it during the usage of techniques, and perhaps even breathed, depending on the way in which it was constructed. Fortunately, that last part was not necessary for her, but it was for the member of the Blood Alchemists, Long Huang, who had completely changed the way she acted in order to properly circulate two types of energy at the same time, within the same set of meridians, overcoming a seeming absolute restriction of the world.


    No, what she needed to do was figure out a way to allow her to still make use of the techniques she currently practiced while practicing Knowledge Amplification, or the other way around. So long as the intended results were achieved, she didn¡¯t really mind whether it was the technique or her own cultivation that was altered, provided that it didn¡¯t result in long-term harm to her.


    Most likely, it would be the Knowledge Amplification method that was going to change, as altering everything that she was already using just to allow it to work would be inefficient, at best.


    While this was somewhat of a barrier for her at the moment, her cultivation and stockpiling of planar stones for the inevitable return to the Kong Prison Realm proceeded perfectly smoothly. She reached the eighth stage of Marked Core after two days and saw as the cosmic colours within the symbols on the core grew bolder and occupied more of the searing surface, making it very clear that this was not a mere phantom caused by a recent breakthrough. It was building up for her next realm.


    At the same time, she also brought her physique cultivation to the same stage and equivalent realm, as it was necessary for it to keep up if she wanted to cultivate safely and keep the balance of her body in a stable state.


    Her killing will rose by another stage as well, although this occurred spontaneously when she was thinking about some of the Great Families and their plans at the moment, so as to ensure that she didn¡¯t run into any forces that she couldn¡¯t take care of. This made the darkness of the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow significantly stronger, making it more stable, but not sufficiently so to allow it to move just yet.


    ¡®One more stage, and I¡¯ll be able to near the sixth realm, which would in turn bring me to a level where I can endure attacks made by those in the first generation of the Greats, hopefully,¡¯ she thought to herself while the Ascendant¡¯s Library was filled with so many tomes of Endless Calculation that she could barely move within it, ¡®It may be a little difficult to break through as I keep adding more and more onto my techniques, but the result should be all the more impressive as a result. The linked channels that form, as well as the completed cosmic light within the characters, might be enough to put me on an even level to typical seventh realm experts, even with the growing gaps between realms.¡¯


    The fact that this did need to be considered did make her worry about the eighth and ninth realms, which were Imperfect Rift and Eternal Gate respectively, as she wasn¡¯t sure that she¡¯d be able to keep finding new methods and unusual perfected realm manifestations that would be able to keep her at a level of power that was at least one realm above her own. Had the power of those realms remained as low as the first or second realm, that would be fine, but this was not the case at all.


    Instead, if the seventh realm was enough to dominate a district, the eighth would be able to challenge and change an entire region, while the ninth realm had the ability to dominate the Planar Continents.


    The Eternal Gate realm was absolutely incomparable to the limited power of the Imperfect Rift realm, but the constant supply of planar energy that it could provide still stood miles above the finite supply offered by the Oblivion Halo realm. In comparison, the Linked Channels realm wasn¡¯t too far beneath the seventh realm, nor was the fifth realm too far from the sixth, and the gap between the first and second realm could be said to be nearly non-existent, as proven with Wei Yi¡¯s perfected stages allowing her to overcome the boundary easily enough.


    Theoretically, so long as there was enough room to grow above that as well, which seemed to be the case due to the azure lights easily overcoming anything she had seen in the world so far, the boundaries between the highest realms would be feeble in comparison.


    She wanted to find it, break it, and go far beyond anything imagined by those unaware of the azure lights, overcoming everything and ascending to a position that could rival those lights, and those that were responsible for them, if there was an additional layer to their existence. The Ascendant wished to live up to the title that the heavens forced upon her, and breach through the limits of reality with Law and, in some way, Justice.


    It was hard to be sure how that would work, for many reason, not the least being that she had yet to truly understand justice as she had Law, and even that was clearly insufficient to achieve a full Dao.


    ¡°Ascendant, the seal at the Bottomless Archive is trembling. Come over right away!¡±


    The voice of the Ru Patriarch reached her through a spiritual will connection, with him being located at the place where the barrier was weakest. She didn¡¯t reply to him, mostly to avoid wasting time and her own processing power, and simply rose, cleared her head a little of the Endless Calculation tomes that were least likely to lead to anything productive, and headed down.

 V5C20: False Eternity

    The fourth realm movement method Wei Yi used allowed her to traverse the area in moments, vanishing from the room she was in and shifting over to the back of the room the Ru Patriarch, with some other figures, was in.


    Aside from Ru Shi and a few other captains, who she was not too surprised to see due to all of them being in the Linked Channels realm and thus highly capable in contributing to the upcoming battle, the last figure was both expected and surprising. On one hand, to find the leader of the Preservers ¨C Ru Preservers, perhaps, as to avoid confusion with the Preservers of Eternity ¨C in such a gathering was not strange, but to detect that he was in the Half-Step Oblivion Halo realm was far more unusual for one simple reason.


    Reaching the seventh realm, even only partially, was really challenging up until recently, when her fight against the Greats and the automatons of the Ju District forced far more energy into the world due to it being freed from anchor energy. Thus, anyone who managed to overcome this recently must still have put in more work and had more ability than quite a few others in the world.


    ¡°Thus, the barrier shall- who¡¯s there?¡± the man turned, the hammer from his back flying into his hand, which he held with the same ease that another person might hold a normal weapon.


    ¡°Stand down, Ru Jian. This is the Ascendant, who looks to have reached the eighth stage. She is going to be assisting us, as I had explained,¡± the Patriarch stopped him, looking over to Wei Yi after he made sure that the man was calmed, ¡°Ascendant, this is the Preserver Commander, my fellow leader of the Preservers. You must have read this by now, but in order to ensure that I can focus on my duties while allowing the Preservers to be led competently, the Preservers have had two leaders since the beginning of the faction. I am the Preserver Patriarch, whereas he is the Commander, and will generally be in charge most of the time.¡±


    ¡°I have, yes, so I am not sure why you went out of your way to explain this¡­ Nonetheless, hello there.¡±


    ¡°Hello, Ascendant. I¡¯ll be keeping an eye on you, to make sure that you do not step out of line while inside.¡±


    ¡°Right. Would saving your ass be a step out of that line, or is that kind of thing fine?¡± she asked with a raised eyebrow, trying to regain some of the energy that had been expended on the development and integration of Knowledge Amplification into her own path, and choosing a casual jab in order to accomplish this.


    By the looks of it, he had a few issues with her, perhaps not personally but with some outsider standing around, so she figured that it would also be best to get over their differences as quickly as possible. If the situation wasn¡¯t confronted right away, only handled with a quick remark from the Patriarch asking him to be less aggressive, then it could always put them in a bad place when their disagreement got too significant. While not a perfect example, the situation in the Qiang District perfectly exemplified why certain stances shouldn¡¯t be allowed to sit and fester, so to speak.


    Had that man not wished to deal with outsiders as much as he did, she wouldn¡¯t have needed to fight him and kill one of the guardians of the Qiang District.


    However, as she had not communicated this to the Patriarch, he quickly said, ¡°There is no need to-¡±


    ¡°Ru Wen Xiang, if I may, I would like to handle this right away. Preserver Commander, if you wouldn¡¯t mind, could you explain why your words seemed to be treating me as some subordinate that will get in your way, and why your thoughts were a lot less pleasant than that?¡±


    ¡°You were even staring at my thoughts?¡± the Commander asked, frowning, ¡°It looks like you are the one attempting to stir things up, not I.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. Why do I need an eye kept on me?¡±


    ¡°Is this something that I truly have to explain? You are an unknown element with uncertain intentions that-¡±


    ¡°Oh, please, of everything you could have said, whether you believe it or not, why did you go for that? Please recall who I am ¨C the Ascendant, the one that is responsible for the beginning of the War of Ascendancy that stirred up a certain hornet¡¯s nest that had been ignored for far, far too long in Yi City,¡± she stated, ¡°Is something unclear about that?¡±


    ¡°The ancient families are truly dangerous, but that does not mean that your actions will benefit our Ru District, does it? You have already been given far too much of our materials in return for too little, in my eyes.¡±


    ¡°Well, when I provide the whole world with everything that I am able to gather, I will be sure to omit the Ru District¡¯s people from receiving that information. Clearly, you do not need a single bit of help from me. So, should I just depart? I trust that you will handle the matter of the Preservers of Eternity without a single action from me, and so me being around will indeed be equivalent to simply getting in the way.¡±


    The Preserver Commander frowned, but he couldn¡¯t refute the fact that she was indeed necessary.


    From what both she and all of the Ru Preservers present here knew, the forces of the Preservers of Eternity contained several individuals in the seventh realm, and quite a few in the sixth, with some number of those in lower realms that would essentially be insignificant as far as the battle went. With their own numbers, having only one seventh realm cultivator, they needed all the help they could get.


    ¡°Enough! There is no need to be arguing at this point in time! Ru Jian, I have already explained to you that the Ascendant has not received anything dedicated only to the Preservers, and that she will be departing soon. Calm yourself!¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yes, Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°And you, Ascendant, shouldn¡¯t have aggravated the situation.¡±


    ¡°I disagree. Now, we both understand exactly what your Commander¡¯s problems with me are, and you¡¯ve been able to address a few of them. Imagine had this not happened and we ended up in battle against someone able to create various illusions and affect the mind,¡± she said with a calm shrug, ¡°I will admit, I may have gone at this a little harshly, but it is better than a repeat of what I had experienced in the Qiang District.¡±


    ¡°What did you¡­ No, later. Preservers, Ascendant, eyes to the front,¡± the Patriarch instructed, pointing forward towards the door to the inside of the seal.


    The door itself was plain stone that had been raised into the ceiling via a planar energy-based mechanism, designed in such a fashion as to ensure that it wouldn¡¯t be easier to open if the planar energy was taken from the structure. There were several such doors, but only the one before them was open at the moment, as to guide the entities inside towards them and only them.


    Almost within the doorway was a thick film-like obstruction that had an oily texture, resulting in the light being reflected in the colours of the rainbow, making it difficult to see much on the other side. This effect applied to her spiritual perception as well, meaning that it must have affected the perception of all others present as well at least as much, and showed scenes frozen in time, with everything from lone particles of dust to the figures within standing perfectly still. Of course, if that was it, then there would be no need to be concerned about the barrier.


    Every now and then, at shallow and deep points alike, occasional specks of dust would suddenly shift and move forward by a moment or two, and then everything that they came into contact with would also move.


    One point would spread to a dozen, which would also shift their movement to a thousand more.


    The still figures within would occasionally move forward as a result of the repeated collisions, and each time the period between their bouts of movements got just a little smaller, and the duration of their movement also grew. She could observe their clothing shifting and the silver metallic cloth losing the support of a wind that had likely vanished many decades ago.


    She did not have much time to spend on observation, so she made sure to focus upon them in full. Their mix of fine satin-like robes and thin black metal sheets was clearly similar to the current style of the Ru Preservers, albeit with thinner armour overall, but their faces were obscured in their entirely by a strange layer of shifting light and shadow, with strange patterns scrolling past even as the time around them was frozen completely. Whatever this was, it managed to block her spiritual perception completely, making it hard to comprehend whether these figures were even entirely human, and only their energy could pierce through the veil and barrier combined, confirming their strength.


    At this moment, there were six figures that were in the seventh realm, with one being in the higher stages, three in the middle stages, and the last two residing clearly in the lower stages. This was somewhat worrying, as the techniques of the Preservers of Eternity were bound to display the power that had been lost since the golden age of Yi City. Thus, the higher stages of the seventh realm would be even more dangerous.


    Then, clad in silver cloth and metal sheets, as thin as those of their superiors but made from a different material, there were twenty-two sixth realm experts standing around in the frozen zone.


    In comparison to the stronger six, their disparities in strength didn¡¯t matter all that much, as a gap of a single stage in the seventh realm was three times greater than a stage in the sixth. They would be manageable so long as they could beat the seventh realm leaders, and they would not change the outcome much if they failed.


    Naturally, the fifth realm Preservers of Eternity mattered just as little, mostly because the forces gathered by the Ru Preservers would be more than sufficient to handle them if their leadership was left to take care of the stronger opponents. Even with their superior techniques, it would be hard to compete with all of the combatants that could be called upon whenever needed. Wei Yi noted down all of their locations and the types of energy that they seemed to be employing, something that was difficult to do due to the stagnation of time itself, and then transmitted it to the others around her.


    ¡°I haven¡¯t been told what your strategy is, but I¡¯ve scouted out all I can for now.¡±


    ¡°Once the barrier is broken, will you be able to gather more information than that?¡± the Ru Patriarch asked, his eyes shutting for a moment as he had to process everything that had only taken her a moment to gather, a far shorter moment that he needed.


    ¡°At that point, the only thing that should be difficult for me to obtain is their exact name, age, and sexual orientation, but I trust that we won¡¯t be needing any of those for the strategies that you must have come up with while I had been cultivating,¡± the Ascendant replied, ¡°Actually, I might be able to get the latter two based on certain physical aspects, but I would rather not waste my time on that of all things.¡±


    The Patriarch raised an eyebrow but lowered it quickly and chose to disregard the follow-up. The Commander, on the other hand, did not.


    ¡°You may be unaware, but they all make use of a veil that completely prevents intrusion from-¡±


    ¡°Spiritual perception, so, when combined with the natural effect of stopping time in an area, it is nearly impossible to learn anything about them. That being said, I have learned quite a bit, as you should be perfectly aware due to what I sent to your mind, and I will not struggle to obtain more knowledge once half of the issue is gone. If you would like to have some explanation, think of my spiritual perception as being half a step to the divine sense of the seventh realm, as this is not too far from the actual truth.¡±


    He frowned at her, but also chose to look away and focus on the oily barrier before them, observing the occasional tears within it and the clear signs of intensifying decay that left it with only a few minutes to linger.


    Given that their time to bicker was running out, she didn¡¯t try to go on, especially as her surface-level view of his mental state confirmed that he was understanding her position, but wouldn¡¯t outright agree with her after the clear resistance that he had put up earlier. Something to do with pride and sticking to one¡¯s position regardless of the legitimacy of it, as far as she could understand it.


    There were many problems with such a stance, but she could resolve it at a later time, when it would actually be reasonable to discuss such things in length and the detail that they would benefit from.


    With each passing moment, the stability of the barrier further lessened, so they were soon left with something akin to a patchy, worn cloth, with many dozens of layers slowly revealing more and more gaps through which everything behind them was as visible as if the barrier wasn¡¯t even there. Fortunately, this did not give the Preservers of Eternity complete freedom, but as parts of them were no longer restricted, they were clearly realising that they were no longer in quite the same situation that they had been frozen in.


    Naturally, they had been in some kind of conflict with the forces of the Ru District, whether it was known as that back then, when they were sealed, and thus it did not take them long to understand that regardless of the current nature of the individuals outside of the seal, they were not likely to come across friendly faces.


    ¡°- fifteen-¡± a burst of sound got through the barrier, with it coming from one of the seventh realm figures, addressing another one, ¡°- Shi Gong-¡±


    He was addressing the strongest of the figures present, so the name was quickly understood to be his. From the records of the Preservers of Eternity that Wei Yi was permitted to view ¨C and some that she had secretly read even though there were quite a few obstacles in this pursuit ¨C this fit with the name of their leader. That meant that his current cultivation might very well have risen by several stages, as he had been recorded to be somewhere near the fifth stage at the time that he was sealed.


    In a state of frozen time, one might think that planar energy wouldn¡¯t be able to flow to the cultivators and empower them continually, but this was not quite the case. As she had concluded long ago, planar energy was not a usual form of matter, instead acting as an absolute that would exist in the world at all times according to the fraction of energy that was freed from other elements such as anchor energy and the anchors that would store it, whether or not they actually had anchor energy or would transform into it when broken. That was also rather interesting to investigate, at a later point, but not possible for the moment.


    Thus, even though time would only barely move within the barrier, the energy would still be refilled according to the Laws of the world, and their cultivation would be able to advance alongside that timeless process regardless of the barrier.


    The planar energy would endlessly ¡®regenerate¡¯ and enter the bodies of the Preservers of Eternity, so even though they would have experienced only a few moments within, their realms were not stagnant. If not for the difficulty of creating such a static region, a feat that was mostly permitted by the structure known as the Bottomless Archive and everything that had been put into its foundation, then everyone would prefer to cultivate within such an environment. So long as they had no immediate concerns and no foes that would wish to see them gone right away, they could rest within frozen time and come out a few stages ahead with no effort needed on their part. It wasn¡¯t the best method, but it was a highly effective one for the effort needed once within it.


    ¡°- History¡¯s-¡± another fragmented word emerged through the breaking barrier, one that couldn¡¯t be meddled with from the outside unless they wanted to risk a significant rise in uncertainty and a destabilisation of events. The outcome could be anything from the instant collapse of the barrier to the energy that composed it suddenly being thrust into the entities within, greatly empowering them.


    ¡°- Truth-¡±


    It was hard to know what they wanted to accomplish within that stagnant region, wherein the long-forgotten Preservers of Eternity had lived out a million years within only a few minutes, at most, but it was impossible to overlook the sudden burst of energy that filled the area.


    The power flooded into all of the people present, but the moment that they felt it take effect, they understood that it was different for all of them, and that it was only a taste of what they would be forced to endure once the barrier shattered ¨C for the energy broke through the gaps in the oily layers of frozen time, and it was not a benevolent type of energy, that much was certain the moment that it took effect.


    Although the Ascendant wasn¡¯t sure how it affected everyone around her, she didn¡¯t need to guess what the function of the energy was. From the few words that reached them from within the barrier, the mention of history combined with a sudden influx of immense cold, a weakening of her energy and the searing pain at the stump of her left arm meant it was obvious.


    ¡®They¡¯ve brought back a time period wherein I was weak, and it was either a recent one or the only one that applied to me as Wei Yi, the Ascendant, whereas other situations would be applying to someone else, like Yi Wei, or an indecisive woman over in the Kong Prison Realm,¡¯ she thought, her mind remaining calm as she analysed her own situation, as well as that of the others, ¡®I can¡¯t send out my spiritual perception, and what I had sent out is currently unavailable to perceive, but my own energy is still there, clearly. I can feel it circulating throughout my body, but it seems like it is being used a million times less effectively, hence the weak feeling.¡¯


    One thing that she was always to keep to was a powerful mind and great degrees of focus regardless of the situation, with her only obstacle so far that she couldn¡¯t overcome fully being her killing intent.


    Back then, her killing intent was not much greater than now ¨C in fact, it was even lesser, as she had not unleashed the black smoke that manifested behind the overwhelming crimson light to create the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow ¨C so she had no difficulties with resolving the current state of her mind, and only needed to pay attention to the limitations that were imposed upon her body.


    The best that she could expect now would be for the barrier to either hold for far longer than it really should, or for those within to feel the need to spend a long time talking and explaining just what it is that they intend to achieve upon breaking out.


    At first, she did not find her hopes coming true, for the oily layers suddenly trembled all together and exploded outwards, dissipating before a single particle from them touched the Ascendant and the Ru Preservers. Within, the figures took a moment to catch their breath and then looked towards them, energy that was shaped into countless small characters flowing out of their bodies and surrounding their bodies, only leaving the front of the hood uncovered.


    When a voice that sounded like it was covered in echo, she was tempted to thank the heavens.


    ¡°Ah, so the decades have passed, but there are still those that clearly draw inspiration from us. They see us with hostility, but the connection cannot be denied,¡± the leader spoke slowly.


    His voice flowed from his hood and washed over them in a manner similar to the technique he must have used. It was strangely overwhelming and unpleasant, in a way that would have been difficult to explain had she been asked to do so. The exact unpleasant aspect of the voice originated from something that couldn¡¯t be put across with anything but the original sound.


    Even then, or perhaps specifically due to the slowness of the man¡¯s words, this was a far more comfortable sound to her and to the Patriarch, who, as she noticed, was able to retain a similar level of mental stability to her own. Similar, in this case, meaning that he managed to look ahead and think clearly, whereas the rest were having trouble even looking in the direction of their opponents, with the Preserver Commander having the most luck out of his Ru Preservers but still failing to spend the time productively.


    ¡°In this time, our careful preservation of history has been disturbed by the Ru District¡¯s forces¡­ So much history disturbed and misplaced, so much kept in despite the wasted space in the history books¡­¡± the Preserver of Eternity, the man in black that looked calmly upon the weakened and confused imitators, continued as if he was providing a simple lecture to few young students, ¡°I have seen the potential future for Yi City, and I will ensure that this future comes to pass, no matter what.¡±


    He looked towards them, his gaze noticeably passing over certain people and pausing on them.


    ¡°A Patriarch, a manifestation of Yi City¡¯s faults. What do you call yourself, imitator of our strengths? Preserver? You fail to understand the right path of our organisation, and thus you show that you can merely hold the name, not our purpose.¡±


    The way in which he looked at the people before him almost made it natural that he would know as much as he does, but even if they wanted to ask questions, the only two that were able to ask questions wouldn¡¯t stop him from continuing on with his chatter. Hence, they saw his gaze to the Preserver Commander, who could only occasionally peek at the scene before him while his mind was too confused the rest of the time.


    ¡°A Commander of the same organisation? Two leaders, with such differing stances and yet similar power? Yes, these are the mistakes that we would purge from the world, ensuring that our libraries are cleared of such nonsensical tales. The people of the world shall know only that which they need, only that which works, and the fools shall be no more.¡±


    ¡°¡­ That¡¯s how you excuse your behaviour?¡± Wei Yi decided to speak up, quickly grabbing his attention.


    She could have left him to monologue to himself, which would have left her with a while longer, but she had a number of ideas that could improve her own state while prolonging the delay caused by his talking. It would be foolish not to take the risk.


    ¡°You¡­ huh. What a conflux of madness you are. Ascendant, Aberrant, Greed¡­ are you attempting to amass histories to manifest yourself into something more?¡±


    ¡°No, I have no need to do anything of the sort!¡± she exclaimed proudly, in part due to knowing what might have given him the idea and also to ensure as long a confrontation as possible, ¡°I have a single path, and that is Justice! In the pursuit of it, I have studied Law, Ascendancy, Entropy, Ire, and more, but I have never thought to become another person. I have also never thought to purge history that I dislike, or disagree with. Want to know why, you ancient fossil?¡±


    For this moment, it was fine to drop some accuracy with her words.


    The Preserver of Eternity looked upon her for a moment, with the time feeling stretched as a result of the lack of expression beneath the hood, then reached out with his hand in a motion that invited her to talk.


    ¡°To remove failure is only natural. You think that you have more wisdom than us?¡±


    ¡°If that is what you think, then yes, I do. How are you intending to learn from the supposed failures of those around you if you remove it all?¡±


    ¡°The successes are carried over, while all failure is removed so that none should learn from it. Right now, the world learns from countless failures, like the legacy of the youth that became the Master of Yi City, when the examples of countless successful people have been buried before us, and will have been buried by your Preservers.¡±


    ¡°You idiot, pay attention ¨C and I will even avoid asking who you think we should be looking up to, and following. Once failures, mistakes, blunders, accidents, fortunate and otherwise, are purged, how can a single person know not to commit them again? No, not even that ¨C how can a single person understand what had gone wrong and improve? If they have only a single path before them, forcefully set out by you and your history, then people will inevitably attempt other things, and then, even if your path was absolutely correct ¨C which it isn¡¯t ¨C they might come across reasons to pursue these different paths all the more.


    ¡°When that occurs, not only will more follow, but it may very well be that everyone will consider that alternative path to be the most effective, leading to a far larger number of people going far further away from the supposed best path because of their ignorance. Is that really what you want, supposed Preservers of Eternity? Do you truly wish to repeat mistakes again and again?¡±


    The hooded figure stared at her for a while, his stance not changing much in any way from the moment that she first noticed him up until now. It was hard to know whether he even cared about her words, but it was clear that he was not acting to stop her, making that all the more important to figure out as quickly as she possibly could. So long as her hunch was correct, then she would be able to act with nearly complete certainty of survival.


    ¡°There is no need for others to learn on their own. We can store the right path, and-¡±


    ¡°Who do you think would listen to you? Rebellion is Law, as contradictory as that may sound to you. One generation may follow, maybe even countless millions, but if you think that there won¡¯t be one person to stand out, to try a different path, to become Ascendant among their fellows¡­ You¡¯re wrong.¡±


    ¡°You think you can interrupt us? You are the very example of the wrong path, Ascendant, so you must-¡±


    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you killing me, then? You should be able to do so easily, right? I can only show the power that I had at a bad time of my life, but that shouldn¡¯t be affecting you as well, right?¡± she asked, reaching into the air and pulling out a simple greatsword from her memories, ¡°It isn¡¯t a perfect technique, is it? That¡¯s why you were talking, right? In that case, come and kill me, you fucking idiots!¡±

 V5C21: Growing through Weakness

    Although she said that, she wasn¡¯t going to let them take the first move. Even when she could only hold a sword and barely use the last traces of her energy to strengthen her body just that little bit, she was able to fight, and so she could fight now.


    The Preservers of Eternity might not have been affected as much as she was, and perhaps they weren¡¯t sharing the same effects as she was, but they were clearly unable to unwilling to attack first, and more content to simply speak at their enemies. It stood to reason that whatever the cause, she would have the chance to turn it all around so long as she took it. Whether she would attempt to or not was obvious, as the alternative meant a potentially slow and agonising death ¨C or a fast one, not that she cared.


    Wei Yi rushed past the doors that led to the sealed area of the Bottomless Archive, glancing at the Ru Patriarch as she did so. He was clearly able to stand and listen, but it seemed difficult for him to act.


    Since that was the case, she was just going to need to make it a little easier for him, and there was no way better than to rush at the enemy and prove that her earlier exchange was not merely their trick. So long as she could strike and the enemy could not slay her in one go, then it would be sufficient proof to any mind that there was a chance.


    As she passed the boundary where the barrier had been, she felt the air and land around her fill with a strange feeling that she had sensed only once before, at the mountains where Jia Rong had been imprisoned. It seemed to be the effect of stagnant time, although the intensity of the sensation here was far lesser than in the depths of the cave where the demonic-looking woman had been chained to the stone walls. This made sense, as not only was the barrier here imperfect from the start and broken now, but the stagnation of time on Jia Rong remained even now, with time having bestowed a great deal of strength onto her.


    It was very likely that the flow of time could influence the so-called regeneration of planar energy within a space, albeit not in ways that are commonly imagined by those unaware of the nature of planar energy. Perhaps once time was sufficiently stagnated, or if it was continued without imperfections for long enough, it could twist flesh from a typical rosy tone to an alarming crimson, prompt the development of unusual features like horns and claws, and vastly increase the sheer strength of the person being influenced to the point that they suddenly rival powerful cultivators without any training.


    ¡®No, not this time. I can¡¯t just let myself get distracted to this extent while I don¡¯t even know what capabilities they will be able to showcase,¡¯ Wei Yi reprimanded herself for going off-track in her thoughts yet again, and focused on the closest figure to her, that being one of the fifth realm Preservers of Eternity, ¡®His abilities should be the weakest, and he should be enough to demonstrate the limitations that they have imposed upon themselves.¡¯


    If they were sufficient, she would run straight for the leader, and if not, she would thin out the crowd first.


    Her weapon was partly illusory, conjured from the same past that was attempting to weaken her now, but in truth it was manifested from planar energy, and thus it was as solid, tangible and stable as anything in this world, so she didn¡¯t hesitate to thrust it at the enemy Preserver.


    The robed and hooded figure didn¡¯t move until she had nearly thrust the tip of her weapon into the depths of his hood and learned what was inside, perhaps hoping that she would be unable to complete the strike. At the last moment, he thrust out his hand and summoned the vague phantom of a pack of wolves that quickly pounced at her and attempted to bite down upon her arm, their visage clearly matching that of the wolves she had fought near the Qiang District.


    ¡®They can also summon things from the past? These should be limited in the way they act and what they can do, so the same method for dealing with them should be sufficient,¡¯ the Ascendant concluded, continuing her advance while slightly turning her body.


    All of the wolven phantoms bit down upon her arm and right side of the body, but their semi-stable forms cracked the moment that their teeth couldn¡¯t get past the star metal covering her skin. With a simple burst of physique energy from her body, a burst that was barely able to go past her star metal scale armour and robes, it affected the phantoms and scattered them into naught, giving her the free room to continue the stab exactly as she had intended to from the beginning of the attack, thus reaching its intended target.


    Just before this occurred, however, she attempted two of her experiments within this current state, with the first being the active circulation of energy and the second being reinforcing her weapon. The first proceeded easily enough, confirming her earlier understanding that planar energy was merely being suppressed, not truly removed, but the latter was more of a risky endeavour.


    On one hand, the weapon in her hand was not truly a weapon, only a clump of planar energy that was permitted stability in the current state by the History¡¯s Truth of the Preservers of Eternity. On the other, it was still a weapon, an artefact, and those were affected by the Artefact Combinator.


    Furthermore, she still had plenty of energy and plenty of artefacts to shove into the planar energy blade, no matter how greatly she was weakened and how significantly she was affected by whatever the technique of the Preservers of Eternity was. Hence, within her mind, she saw the blade made of planar energy crossed with a true metal blade being fused with the energy of a few miscellaneous artefacts that she had picked up and stored within the House of Gold over the years of accumulation, the process completing quickly and allowing her to shift her attention back outside, where the blade was about to touch her foe.


    In that instant, it blazed with a dull blue flame that was barely visible over the metallic outer surface.


    ¡°History¡¯s errors are to be purged, so that only success may take their place!¡± the Preserver of Eternity¡¯s voice interrupted, the distance between her and her foe suddenly growing by a hundred steps, causing her blade to miss completely.


    ¡°Fuck off, you annoying piece of- ah!¡± Wei Yi stopped herself, not to avoid swearing at that annoying piece of shit, but because she realised that there was something that was still on her side, even now.


    ¡°Preservers of Eternity, cleanse the slate of history from those imperfections!¡± he said, ignoring her exclamation and waving in the direction of those that were still in a daze, whose numbers fortunately fell by one as the Preserver Commander and Patriarch stood together and faced their foes, ¡°The echoes of the past shall be used to purify our history once more!¡±


    Meanwhile, the Endless Calculation tomes that had been shoved to the side were shoved further out into the unstable manifestation of the world that she had made to extend her spiritual perception further. Instead of all of that, she pulled out one of the first killing intent techniques that she had collected, and then attempted to figure out a reasonable way to transform that into something that didn¡¯t tear her mind apart the moment that she attempted to use it. One could say that it wasn¡¯t the best time for it, but there was hardly any other opportunity to do this after.


    Before it finished, all she could do was hold out her weapon and support the process with her conscious mind as well, hoping that they would be sufficiently afraid to come too close as to give her just enough time.


    ¡®Killing intent and the Red Phantom Flood¡­ controlling entire separate entities is outright impossible for me, but what if I separate it all into separate actions? I can conceptualise millions of actions in an instant, but how do I¡­¡¯ the Ascendant focused to the point that she blocked out everything around her completely, something that wasn¡¯t dangerous in that very moment but would get more and more risky each instant that she allowed to slip past her.


    ¡°That reminds me, despite you picking that up quite early on, isn¡¯t that ability close to our level?¡±


    Countless flaming eyes looked back in reply, ¡°She¡¯s more creative than we were, I will agree with that. We didn¡¯t quite get around to this until the third or fourth time, really.¡±


    ¡°Not the question I had, but¡­ What do you think she¡¯ll make of it?¡±


    This time, the only response was endless laughter that echoed endlessly throughout the darkness the two were in.


    When she opened her eyes, there were hundreds of blades that were heading straight for her, and they were all the same as the one that she held onto, at least visually and superficially. Without planar energy, blocking all of the blows at once would be nearly impossible without having at least two arms, whereas she only had one.


    Despite that, she was even more confident in dealing with this than with the wolves.


    Before a single further moment could proceed, her pupils ignited with crimson while the white of her eyes was consumed by shadow, and then she completed the brief calculations of the best methods to block the attacks that were heading for her.


    As soon as she gave the mental command, countless phantoms made of crimson hatred and robed in pouring smoke burst out of her body, each one wielding the same sword as she was. Each one shifted from her body to the position of the incoming blades, then moved their blades all at once in such a way that none of their weapons collided, although their bodies were partly inside of one another simply due to the lack of space available for them.


    Their every blow and parry was perfect, and the moment that the phantoms they attacked began to crack and fail, they also broke apart into smoke that flew back into the Ascendant.


    ¡°You will not get past me, false Preservers! I may have only a single hand with which to block you right now, but that does not stop me from using a million more to do so for me,¡± she exclaimed, taking the opportunity to infuse a number of additional artefacts into her weapon, ¡°Now, stand and face me, if you dare!¡±


    In an arc around her, the fifth realm Preservers of Eternity had gathered, originally intending to rush past but now forced to face her steady sword. Behind them, the sixth realm members were still standing beside their leader, but they had taken a few steps away and were clearly also attempting something.


    Whatever it was, she was sure that she could take it, as it had been proven by their behaviour so far that they were unable to make use of their full strength while she was kept down. If she prompted them to undo History¡¯s Truth, it would be as much of a success as if she defeated them without it, as her own strength with the improvement of the Red Phantom Flood was more than sufficient to fight them all at once, or so it seemed based on their currently displayed capabilities.


    Thus, she lowered her weapon as to give her arm a chance to relax a little and put her in a better position to respond to attacks that might come from the sides, then began to walk forward.


    A few steps were permitted to her without any interruption or interference before several fifth realm opponents suddenly raised their right hands into the air, keeping them open with the palms facing upwards, with words and characters flowing out of them and downwards, pouring over their bodies. It lasted only for a moment before their leader also became involved.


    ¡°Slayers, arise from the past!¡±


    A column of light fell down upon all those that had raised their hands, shrouding them from the world for a moment. The light faded quickly, but the figures that it had obstructed had changed dramatically. In place of the ordinary robes and empty hands was a dense layer of armour that was gleaming in the light of a sword that appeared in the raised hands. Their other hand was occupied by a variety of equipment, although all were offensive in nature, with no shields to be seen amongst all forty of those that had been affected.


    Every single one of them looked towards her, then lowered their weapons to the levels of their chest and released a great quantity of word-like energy, which then manifested into a figure that mirrored their own, save that its actions did not match theirs.


    The Preservers of Eternity themselves held back while their replicas rushed forward, each one moving at a different speed and clearly acting in accordance with their weaponry, so that they could make the most of it. Furthermore, all forty of the true figures that held back were still gathering more word-like energy, meaning that they were very likely to be able to conjure more of these figures, or that they would be ready to conjure them if those that were already out were destroyed.


    Wei Yi should have raised her sword once more, as it would have been difficult to block any strikes with it at her side, but she instead simply kept moving forward.


    As one of the figures got closer, one of her own red phantoms burst out and stuck a blade inside the approaching manifestation of the past, vanishing quickly just in time for the next crimson phantom with a greatbow to fire a spear-like arrow into the foe. The sword had done little, but the arrow pierced it entirely and continued on to the Preserver behind the historical apparition.


    The robed figure raised their weapon in an attempt to block the arrow, meanwhile the other historical apparitions also began their advance, undeterred by the shattering of one of their own. Presumably, they were just like the other historical apparitions and like the planar projections that had been summoned by warriors like those that were primarily in the Bai District, their group methods summoning similar entities under their control without any of the pain that a normal man might suffer being transmitted back.


    Even then, she did not raise her weapon, simply continuing to stride forward confidently.


    After each step, a crimson shade appeared and blocked one of the historical apparitions from advancing. With every single breath that she took, a bow-wielding phantom manifested, or sometimes just a few arrows and spear-like arrows if she figured out a way to get away with it, the smaller arrows stabbing into the enemy whereas the larger ones would shoot them back into those that created them, forcing their action and delaying the creation of more apparitions.


    ¡°Interesting. Even in the weakest moment of your life, you could manifest this much power? What a wonderful discovery.¡±


    ¡°I was always powerful, in one way or another. At first, I had knowledge and comprehension, which I had used to grow quickly. Of course, I have it now, and hence I could produce a technique to oppose you just now. Then, I obtained power, and I put that to full use to act and explore. Now, that power is still in me, and so I have the ability to resist your attacks with that technique,¡± she said, finally needing to raise her own weapon to block an incoming blow before kicking the historical apparition away and continuing, ¡°Once my strength was insufficient, I had gained fury¡­ and that has only ever grown since then, allowing me to stand here, empowered by it and only it, even in a time where all else fails me.¡±


    She kept her weapon raised and pointed it at the distant leader, Shi Gong.


    ¡°Your kind are those that fuel my fury every single day. Those who seek to starve the world, to keep it back, to force it into weakness and ignorance. You, the Greats, perhaps even those in the Blood-tinged Church, despite their constant forays into the unknown and oft forbidden ¨C all of you seek to crush the world when we attempt to develop, all while acting as if this is for our own good, as if we need to willingly crush ourselves before you. No! You will not terrorise us, Yi City, or the Planar Continents! We will be free of you all!¡±


    Her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow manifested before her, the hand close to her right shoulder, then broke into smoke that shifted to the left, almost replicating the grandiose wave of a hand that she would have otherwise been able to perform.


    With the invisible movement came a sudden wave of smoke and crimson light from her feet, spreading out quickly and occupying much of the ground around her for several metres in any direction. At certain points, where the smoke was thickest, it slowly began to rise, whereas the crimson gathered in those locations and sunk into the ascending and expanding gatherings of smoke-shaped killing intent, requiring all to take a moment to understand what they were seeing.


    Books and bookshelves rose out of the ground, each one shrouded by smoke while the insides were made of crimson fury, and all of them released a thin stream of energy that crept along the ground and returned back to Wei Yi¡¯s feet. It was unclear exactly what this was for at first, but as a book manifested in her hand and the power from the tomes around it rushed towards it instead, it became obvious.


    ¡°The technique of the False Preservers, integrated with your own techniques?¡± Shi Gong exclaimed.


    ¡°Your attempts to crush and suppress us all with your own methods will only result in all of us rising back up, stronger than before!¡± she called out in reply, ¡°So, Preserver of Eternity, dispel this technique and have a chance of surviving, or else you will be beaten without a single chance to endure. What will you do, Shi Gong? Know that I can kill you even now, whereas your historical phantoms barely approach the power of that which they attempt to replicate. In fact, you do a rather poor job in general. Are you sure that you are the ones that had threatened the world to the point that you had to be imprisoned?¡±


    She would have probably not spoken like this in normal circumstances, but at this point she needed them to cease their usage of History¡¯s Truth to regain a certain physical balance. It was benefitting her planar energy to be forced to circulate around her body in these conditions, but there was a limit to it.


    Surviving was better than ending one¡¯s life and being strong a moment before that, and in this situation, if her planar energy was constantly being used and her killing intent was allowed to grow stronger by the growth of her own hatred combined with the empowerment of Knowledge Amplification, then they would grow even further apart and her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow would become unusable, while her other four meridian networks might suffer greatly.


    However, to ask her foe to change their actions because she might be defeated by them would be rather foolish, to put it mildly.


    ¡°You think you can intimidate me, so-called Ascendant? Your methods are not sufficient!¡±


    Wei Yi raised the crimson book positioned it as high as she was able to, gave him just one more chance to act, and then slammed the book down, the crimson and smoke hitting an unseen flat barrier in the air and causing an enormous surge of energy to soar forth.


    It burst out in a small wave around her, but the majority flew out in a dense bolt of crimson, shrouded in smoke, with the faintest semblance of characters floating around it, some being left behind in a trail as it flew past the Preservers of Eternity in the fifth realm. Those that were in the sixth reached out in various attempts stop it, but whether they conjured spectres of the past or used more traditional cultivation methods they were unable to do a single thing to prevent it from drawing too near to their leader.


    ¡°History¡¯s errors be purged!¡± he was forced to shout, the area distorting once again as the entire battlefield twisted and turned.


    His position shifted, as did that of all of the other Preservers, whether they were that of Eternity or the Ru District, but it seemed that with those changes, the Learned Blast was also affected, and not in a way that benefitted the Preservers of Eternity. Rather than being destroyed, this attack was split into many parts that managed to retain their stability and strength, as well as the total empowerment of Knowledge Amplification.


    Not one of these pieces flew towards their leader, but instead split up and targeting a single weaker Preserver each, arriving at their positions only moments after the supposed errors of history were purged. They had no chance to evade, nor modify their positions and battlefield yet again.


    Three dozen cries rang out almost at once, with the mildest wound being a severed arm whereas eleven were outright killed or lost their dantian, and thus their cultivation, making them as good as dead in this battle. It took one simple action, yet it proved the Ascendant¡¯s point about her abilities absolutely perfectly.


    The advantage naturally had to be pressed, and so she took one moment within her mental domain to recalculate the positions of the Preserver combatants and used one stride empowered with killing intent to move just close enough to the next figure shrouded in robes. Rather that bringing down her book onto an unseen surface before her, she used this figure instead, crashing the intangible and yet extremely hard and solid surface of the book with crimson pages and smoke-flooded cover onto the figure¡¯s neck.


    Her Knowledge Slam burst forth, shredding the body of the one that had to endure the majority of its power. Everyone that stood further away only had to face half of its strength, but even that was sufficient to permanently disfigure ten and greatly injure a further fourteen.


    ¡°Release your technique, Shi Gong, or else you shall die like this, humiliated by your own methods!¡±


    ¡°ENOUGH! The History¡¯s Truth be damned, you will burn, False Ascendant! You will become the fuel for our return, the victory that proves our superiority over your methods, your skills, your ideas and ideology, and this damned Yi City that you hold dear! The records of history shall forget this place forever, and only the Great Families shall be remembered as those that kept the world in check!¡± exclaimed the Preserver of Eternity, the effects of his method fading the moment that he began.


    Her own strength surged, but so did that of everyone around her. The Ru Preservers suddenly recovered from their stunned confusion and looked towards their enemies, with their two leaders already able to bring out their planar energy and form a quick obstruction to prevent any of the strengthened Preservers of Eternity from advancing while they were recovering. After all, while both were experiencing a sudden burst of energy from the broken History¡¯s Truth, one side had not been affected by their past negative experiences, and had only been immersed in them to prevent the technique from being broken early.


    With the personal strength of the Preservers of Eternity not yet revealed to them, it was hard to estimate how much the barrier would be able to endure, but the Ascendant judged it to be sufficient in the moment of stability that she had prior to the mention of the Greats.


    The moment that they were mentioned, she vanished from the spot and appeared before their leader, her fist heading straight for the darkness beneath his hood where his head should be.


    Without any of the restrictions upon her own abilities, and with the growth attained by enduring History¡¯s Truth, her speed was returned to an immense level, and the sheer force of her attack easily broke through the boundary of the fifth realm and sat comfortably at the sixth realm. Her physical power was so enormous that the Preserver of Eternity couldn¡¯t do a single thing without making use of his own planar energy.


    In part, she did wish to see what the ancient Preservers of Eternity would be making use of for the sake of cultivating their rather impressive historical-based abilities, although that was only slightly significant to her in her present state.


    Indeed, just before her fist could reach him, a vast quantity of formless energy flooded out and rapidly seemed to burn the air, lining it with endless cracks like one might find on a burning mass of charcoal. It was these cracks and these flaming parts of the space before her that burned most brightly and stopped her fist from advancing. Despite their thin appearance, they contained more energy than the majority of barriers that she had needed to contend with so far, devouring the majority of her momentum and only looking to grow stronger from it.


    ¡®Charcoal¡­ Of course, wood and fire together form charcoal, and it fits perfectly with the techniques that I have seen them using so far. Using the wooden fuel of history, they burn it with their flames and produce phantoms of the past and thus use them against us,¡¯ her mind quickly concluded, the hatred that powered the punch slightly fading, ¡®It isn¡¯t quite as literal, but close enough.¡¯


    As a new combination of energy was discovered, for once being brought across to her by someone else, she didn¡¯t hesitate to comprehend it and attempt to manifest it herself.


    Unlike Knowledge Amplification, which was now active whenever she used the methods of the Ru Preservers until she could improve it further, adding another dual element to her arsenal was almost effortless, especially when she was presented with such a good foundation to duplicate. The Preserver of Eternity was from a far older time, and so his technique was far more powerful than that of more modern experts, who had been worn away by the decay forced by the Great Families and thus deprived of their true potential. There was far less that she needed to improve upon in order to meet her and the Truth of the Universe¡¯s standard to use it herself.


    ¡°Everyone, you take on the rest. I will handle him!¡± she exclaimed, waving her arm to spread the bookshelves further and to enforce her Conqueror¡¯s Eye power over the entire region, empowering all of her allies in order to give them sufficient power, ¡°Shi Gong, you will die by my hand!¡±


    In an instant, she released her own energy to flood the flaming cracks in the air, and transformed the chained cosmic light into something akin to her foe¡¯s energy, except that the cracks were greater in size and number, and the light that shone through was no mere orange, nor a hotter blue or even white. Instead, the same kind of celestial blaze that shone through her own searing marks and that became more and more prominent with every single stage that she attained. These flames were directly from her marks, thus consuming several of them at once just to manifest the cracks.


    When flame burns, it does not discriminate between sources, and devours them equally. However, when one fuel was simply denser and longer-lasting than the other, it was inevitable that it would burn out first, which was exactly what occurred when the heat of her Mysterious Charcoal method spread to the Preserver of Eternity¡¯s defence.


    One moment, it was there, and the next it flickered into nothingness, just in time for her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow to coalesce, infused with the weapon that had been made with her own energy and remained barely stable enough to infuse into the arm, and release an Elysian Blast.


    ¡°Our history will not end this day!¡± the Preserver of Eternity screamed, and suddenly vanished.


    Just like that, the blast hit the wall of the Bottomless Archive and shook the structure, but did not kill the one that it targeted. In fact, Wei Yi was unable to sense a single hint of where he might have disappeared to, and there was no trace of the technique that he had actually used, making it very reminiscent of yet another recent confrontation. It was so alike that she couldn¡¯t stop a wave of killing intent from surging out from her body, striking primarily the nearby Preservers of Eternity.


    ¡°Fuck¡­ I will fucking stab that guy the moment I come across him again¡­¡± she muttered, turning to the closest one of his subordinates with eyes surging with crimson and shrouded by smoke, ¡°Change of plan: you will all die by my hand instead.¡±

 V5C22: Training and Leaving

    On their own, the Ru Preservers would have been enough to handle the Preservers of Eternity, but once a certain angered Ascendant was involved, they did not stand a single chance. A force that had been kept in a sealed space for a very long time were eliminated within minutes, and their embers, physiques, energy and bloodlines were all harvested by said Ascendant.


    The Ru Preservers had assumed that this was in order to vent her frustration, and it was in some small part, but the majority of the effort was to gain more power, and it was an effort that could not be seen by ordinary eyes. After all, with one wave of her hand, she could release a great mass of energy that would devour the body in an instant and obtain all of those things at once. The Preserver Patriarch might have seen through it after the last few bodies, but he did not mention it to her, outright or otherwise.


    As soon as she was done, Wei Yi turned to the Preserver Commander and said, ¡°Check your district and make sure that he didn¡¯t flee there. If he did, I will find you and kick his ass.¡±


    The Commander nodded and left right away, as the killing intent that he felt seemed dangerous even to someone at his level of power, without the full knowledge of its true power and ability. Hence, it was not a good idea for him to stick around after their previous dispute.


    ¡°You think he would stick around in the area and get caught by us?¡±


    ¡°I cannot understand the thinking of people like this in full, but it is a distinct possibility. Sometimes, it is a reasonable idea to hide in the most obvious spot, although that is only sensible when the one you are hiding from cannot be thorough for one reason or another,¡± the Ascendant replied, her somewhat calm words contrasting rather significantly with her repeated striking of the ground beneath her, ¡°How the fuck can they all just vanish like that¡­¡±


    ¡°Not your first experience with this, I suppose. Seeing as you came from the Qiang District, had you encountered a similar foe?¡±


    ¡°Depends on what you mean by similar. He was another member of a horrible mess of an organisation, and it is very likely that the two idiots would get along, but their methods differ and their strength did as well,¡± she answered, slowing down her attacks of the ground due it simply wasting her energy.


    ¡°Then the south is filled with more foes than we may have foreseen. Fortunately, you have come here at a suitable time and with a suitable cause to attract the south¡¯s attention, so we will not be swallowed up by the subversive elements like the Great Families¡­ I understand that you have great enmity with them, but there is a limit to what the Bottomless Archive can actually take. If you keep damaging the floor with the release of your killing intent, it may bring down the whole structure and bury us and the knowledge around us.¡±


    Wei Yi glanced down at the cracked floor and sighed, rubbing her forehead for a few moments.


    ¡°I¡¯ll fix it later. I can also reinforce anything if you give me some time, so I could enhance this to the level of an impenetrable fortress if given a week,¡± she stated.


    The Ru Patriarch nodded, but he suddenly froze and frowned, ¡°It is said that you have the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique. Can it be used to affect the entire world, refining it and enhancing it to the point that all planar energy is improved and can be used to advance to the eighth realm and beyond, possibly making the tenth realm possible?¡±


    ¡°You have some greater aspirations than I in this regard. However, I don¡¯t think that this is very likely, as there is a limit to the range of my physique ability, and will remain there even if I reach the ninth realm in every one of my paths,¡± she said, ¡°Furthermore, this isn¡¯t necessary. The moment that the Greats are defeated, I will be able to greatly raise the allocation of planar energy throughout the world, allowing the seventh realm to become attainable to ordinary people whereas the eighth and ninth opens up to us. Whether the tenth realm exists¡­ is a different issue, and is more of a question of whether planar energy can be used to reach it.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°You have heard of otherworldly demons by now, have you not? They have some incredible abilities, and they are generally powered by an azure light, which comes from somewhere else and gives them powers that far surpass anything we are capable of. From this, it is obvious that there are higher realms than the ninth, but I do not think that the ordinary path of cultivation would allow us to reach any of them.¡±


    ¡°That is possible. The ninth realm is meant to be Eternal Gate, and with an infinite flow of energy there is little room to improve beyond it. A fundamental change would be needed.¡±


    ¡°A fundamental change that, most importantly, will surpass the very Laws of the world that cause cultivation to be as straightforward for us in the west as it can possibly be. The world itself, or the heaven¡¯s will, has its own limits, and once we attempt to overcome them, we will need to put in the work that we had avoided in the previous nine realms. If you have comprehended any Dao, you should know what I mean, and if not, then let¡¯s just say that some Dao have not fully been understood by the heavens,¡± she revealed.


    This was a rather momentous statement, but it was also one that those at higher realms had to realise, even if only unconsciously. The world around them was not perfect, and the more that they learned through the natural process of living and cultivating, the more they had to understand this. As such, while Ru Wen Xiang, the Patriarch, was surprised, he understood what she meant.


    Furthermore, even had he not thought anything of the sort prior to this, he would have had to pay attention to her words after the rather absurd strength she was able to keep displaying, as well as the speed of her study of everything brought to her.


    ¡°So, what exactly would one need to do in order to surpass the ninth realm on one¡¯s own?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve not done it yet, so this is little more than speculation, but you would first need to understand how to improve upon the foundation of the ninth realm. You would need to find a way to surpass a vortex of limitless energy, and that is a rather difficult thing to do, as you have said,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Then, you would need actually accomplish that improved state, which is not exactly simple. Planar energy doesn¡¯t simply form greater constructs, after all.¡±


    ¡°How so? The planar energy within our bodies manifest into the appropriate phenomena at the right time, no?¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you understand what I had just said? The energy around us does not act the way it does because of its natural properties. Otherwise, there would be anchors, cores, searing marks, oblivion halos, imperfect rifts and endless gates all around us, popping up randomly and without being bound to anyone or anything,¡± she explained, ¡°This does not happen in the wild, however, and so it is very clear that something influences energy to act in this particular way. It is also why it just cannot wait to advance once most accumulate enough planar energy, it is why we live for as long as we do, and it is why so many other things occur in a way that shouldn¡¯t be, but seems natural to us as we have never seen an alternative.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I think I understand now. Essentially, we would need to do everything that the heavens do for us on our own, with the energy that we are attempting to weave into something greater, and possibly even face resistance from the heavens. This would require a monumental effort to accomplish, wouldn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Assuming all of those things are accurate, then yes. We may have some things wrong, though.¡±


    Getting some things wrong was pretty much inevitable with such limited information as what they had, so this didn¡¯t need to be said, but it was important to bring up nonetheless. One of the most dangerous things to do would be to assume that one of their theories had to be absolute truth, and then suffer greatly when those assumptions led them to incorrect conclusions and into unnecessary suffering that could have been avoided had they kept an open mind.


    Hence, after a while, they decided that it was time to move on to the other matters of the day, and of the week. Since the spatial stabilisation point was already promised to her, and the reinforcement of the Bottomless Archive was also suggested by her and accepted by the Patriarch, all that was left was to make the most of her time here and then leave as quickly as she could onto her next destination. The Bao District was waiting, and there was plenty that she could obtain within if she continued to be as lucky as she had been so far ¨C speaking in terms of opportunities, not necessarily outcomes.


    This was settled quickly, and then she moved onto the cultivation that she had been forced to cut short as a result of the break of the temporal barrier at the bottom of the Archive.


    With the time she had, she wasn¡¯t expecting to reach the sixth realm in one go, but gaining one more stage would put her at the peak of the fifth realm, and thus allow her to deal with seventh realm threats a little more easily, giving her some energy to spare in sealing their movements and teleportation, which all of the locals seemed to possess.


    Unfortunately, her stay did not result in the Preserver of Eternity being discovered in the district, nor were there any rumours of his appearance anywhere nearby from the few travellers that entered and left the district. There were no traces of his presence at all, at least so far as those people were able to report. She would have gone out to scout on her own, but she did not think that she would find him anywhere nearby now that he appeared to have gone further away, having not appeared in the Ru District or the vicinity.


    It was better to let it go for now, as, even though the man had been in the seventh realm for some time and was also at the peak of his realm, he would not be able to reach the next realm any time soon.


    The eighth realm was simply too high above the seventh, and would not be attainable at all until the energy concentration in the world had gone far enough. Aside from all of the other conditions, this was one that she could definitely control, and so she could be absolutely certain that the moment that she did raise the level of the world sufficiently, she would be able to be ready to deal with him, or at the very least know that he wouldn¡¯t have the chance to cultivate further before then.


    Without the risk of him growing too powerful for her to overcome, as she did think that breaching the gap between the seventh and eighth realm might end up being a little difficult even for her ever-growing prowess, she focused entirely on her cultivation. Her desire was to bring all five paths to a level that would allow them to break through a realm together, resulting in a kind of resonance that would greatly boost the possibility of a second stage attainment right away, or within a short period of time. This would, in turn, increase her overall strength, give her the ability to attack the Great Families far more confidently when the times comes to bring the fight to them once more, and would make it far easier to traverse the south, north, west and east alike.


    One week passed, and she got on about how she expected. One stage in planar cultivation and physique energy, two in killing will as a result of her ever-growing fury ¨C which was a concern, but a minor one for now so long as she got to the next realm of planar energy before killing will did ¨C and four stages in her bloodline power.


    That improvement in particular was very helpful, as it not only meant that she might be able to attain a new bloodline power realm at the same time as the other realms, but also raised her power even further. With just her bloodline alone, she was nearly five times more powerful than another cultivator at the same realm, so once her full power was taken into account, she was at a level that would let her be the Matriarch of a district had she wished to become one, and if she came across someone that actually wanted her in that position. This was not impossible, oddly enough.


    It would put any district that she attempted to lead at danger of being attacked by anyone and everyone that she had made enemies with, however, and that would be a little too dangerous.


    At the end of this period of time, she grabbed the few things that she had obtained within the district and that she chose to carry with her, mainly some more equipment to replace the armour that she had obtained in the previous district, and headed out. The Ru District was not as close to the Bao District as it was to the Qiang District, at least when one considered the distance between the closest points of the latter pair, so it was best to leave early.


    The Ru Patriarch was the only one to accompany her out of the district, and he headed back very shortly to return to his own duties. Given that she didn¡¯t need unnecessary accompaniment, she didn¡¯t mind this at all.


    Most people hadn¡¯t even learned about her entrance into district, and the few that had met her, like Chao Jin, did not know about the things that she had done in the Bottomless Archive and had only met with her once in her two week-long stay. Speaking of that young woman, she seemed to be getting on well enough on her own, and might even be able to reach the second stage within a few days of Wei Yi¡¯s departure, if not earlier. For a regular person, albeit one supported in part by the healing pill that she had enhanced for her, this was not too bad.


    Perhaps she would get back to her someday and catch up, but this was not something she had any interest in doing at this moment. To begin with, while she helped her out, she didn¡¯t really care about her or her life, whether she was in for a good time at the Ru Preservers or if she would suffer greatly there.


    This was the kind of person that she would only be able to protect fully if she defeated the Greats, allowing Yi City and its districts to develop properly and without fear once more.


    At the northern outskirts of the Ru District, the snowfall had gotten less intense than at the southern edge, where she had entered. It would still be completely unapproachable for someone weak that had only lived in the northern regions all their life, but for anyone at her realm this was practically insignificant. They would be able to get through snow like this with ease, and this showed better than anything that she was indeed moving back towards the north, towards the Tundra that separated the Southern Wastes and the Central Plains. Just like how the Chao District was the only one that was unbearably hot at the north, only the Qiang and Ru Districts could be said to be unbearably cold.


    Of course, one was located far from the northern edge of the habitable world, whereas the other was far closer, but this was the nature of hot and cold. Heat could rise almost into infinity, but cold had a clear limit and obvious absolute end.


    She didn¡¯t linger there, and moved on swiftly, warping to the edge of her vision every now and then with her fourth realm movement method, and bypassing one particularly large ravine that she found on the way with her fifth realm levitation method. Really, she should have given them a name by this point, but there wasn¡¯t much of a point in doing so. All of this was based on Law, one way or another, and naming it would be like calling a ball of fire something else just because it was used to cook food.


    It would be a complete waste of time, especially when she never called out the names of her techniques and skills. Her usage of them also differed nearly every time, so it would be too wasteful.


    After several hours passed, she just had to contemplate just how different the process of travelling from district to district was for someone at her current realm and someone at the first or second realm. She recalled her first and last expedition from the Yi District well, and it was rather astounding when she considered it.


    Back then, whether ¡®then¡¯ was to be considered the time she left for the Kong District, or when she had set out to the north after breaking out of the Kong Prison Realm, it took her days and weeks to travel. Each step required effort, and while she could sustain herself for a very long while by minimal amounts of food and drink, that didn¡¯t change the fact that she would still need to spend long enough on the journey for this to become a problem in the first place. Now that she had developed her own abilities, this was no longer the case.


    She had felt as if she had set out only a short time ago, which was essentially the case, and yet she could already see the boundaries of the Bao District, a task made easier by its construction.


    Just as the majority of major districts and families in Yi City had a focus, whether it was on an element or on some principle that they studied to an excessive degree, the Bao District prioritises a single thing that they had in abundance: gemstones, jewels and all kinds of glistening, precious stones.


    The Bao District was only two months into construction and development when an enormous cavern filled with the largest variety of gems to ever be seen in the Planar Continents was found. From then on, the district became focused on nothing more than the jewels, and everything that they did for the next million years was based around either using gems in their craft and activities, or figuring out ways of doing so despite the seeming incompatibility between their pursuit and gems.


    One might assume that gems were not usable for that many things, but this would be a mistake. When the people of the Bao District put all of their time into this, they managed to create artefacts purely from gems, embed inscriptions and arrays into gems, make armour and weapons out of gems, and even carve talismans out of gems. It appeared that the people of the Bao District were completely mad, but that would be an understatement for the sheer amount of work and effort that they invested into this pursuit, and just how much was spent on making this an art that only they would be utilising since the invention of gem-based great arts.


    For some reason, this never became particularly popular anywhere else.


    There were several reasons for that, with the people of the Bao District being very keen to be the only providers of such items to the world, but it was also very difficult to get a single one of the gems compatible with this system outside of the district. Then, there was also the fact that their effectiveness seemed partially tied to the overall quantity of gems in the region.


    As a result, in order for the gems to be particularly effective anywhere else ¨C effective enough to justify their rather high costs outside of the district ¨C they would first need to become popular there. To become popular anywhere that wasn¡¯t full of people obsessed with gems, so anywhere other than the Bao District, they would need to showcase that they were worthwhile in comparison to the other methods of utilising the same array, inscription or talisman via a more ordinary method put onto a more ordinary material.


    In other words, it was nearly impossible for anyone other than the richest and most interested people to use these gems proficiently outside of the Bao District, while the common people had no reason to adopt these items into their daily lives. Thus, they remained relatively obscure after all this time.


    The only reason she knew about them was that they originated from a more northern district than the Qiang and Ru Districts, and due to the innate allure of using precious, visually appealing items in cultivation and combat. Even from where she was standing, looking upon the walls of the Bao District, barred from viewing them in their full glory by the sparse fall of snow and a cool white mist, it was impossible to say that the walls did not look striking.


    Personal preference would dictate whether it was striking in a good way or a bad way, of course, but it was always desirable for cultivators of the world to look awesome in one way or another.


    Most of the walls were constructed out of a dark gemstone, likely a hard and tough one that greatly obstructed typical physical entry, with several large stones set in the upper portions of the walls that were glowing with planar energy. Their internal structures revealed numerous channels somehow embedded in the gemstones themselves without a single obvious place of entry for a tool or a person¡¯s own energy, and their purpose was rather obvious due to their positioning at the front of the walls, facing potential invaders.


    There were some defensive arrays to make it more difficult to leap in or fly in by disrupting the planar energy in front of the walls, some that would generate a barrier to stop attacks on the black gemstone once it endured a significant enough hit, and then even more that would attack those that interacted with the other defensive measures for too long, marking them as a blatant threat or intruder.


    For her, this kind of defensive measure could be circumvented easily enough, but she did not need to do so for now, as the casual approach to the district still seemed possible. Once obstructions were encountered, she would change her approach, just as with all of the other places she had visited, although there had not yet been a single district that completely refused to allow her entry. In this case, it should not be a significant concern.


    Despite keeping their gem-related tricks within their district, they were very fond of showing them off.


    This couldn¡¯t be seen better than when her approach caused several dozen large jewels, all perfectly carved to direct the dim rays of the sun into her face, to fly into the air and assemble into a small array that complimented the ones within them. Further rays of line shone out from within them and joined them together, forming a matrix that corresponded with a basic protective inscription, which would ensure that she couldn¡¯t steal any of the gems or otherwise disrupt their arrangement without greatly exceeding the power of the fifth realm, a sufficient deterrent for most.


    ¡°Traveller, you must identify yourself as friend or foe. If you wish to fight, the Bao District shall oblige without hesitation.¡±


    Unlike some voices, where their strange sound yet human delivery made it difficult to distinguish whether they originated from a human mouth, this one was blatantly synthetic, concocted via some kind of gem-based method and then stored within one of the floating gems. It was, fortunately enough, clear in what it wanted from her.


    ¡°In this instance, I am a friend.¡±


    She could almost hear the disappointed noise from the jewels as they dimmed and descended once more, leaving behind only a thin trail of light which directed her to the left, as to approach a gate into the district.


    For all she knew, she had disappointed the stones themselves, although it was likely that there was some degree of influence from an actual human mind and it was one that needed to focus on their task in order to be any good at this. Thus, when they did not receive the fight that they may have wanted after a long time of sitting around and doing nothing else, it would only be natural to be somewhat displeased with her.


    Even in that state, the trail of light still had a slight gem-like quality to it.


    ¡®This place must not encounter too many problems with the nations to the south-west, or else that reaction wouldn¡¯t be quite the same. On the contrary, they might react with gratitude to hear that I am not yet another intruder seeking to attack them and earn glory for the nation I come from, or whatever it is that people do over there.¡¯


    Unlike a few rare people in Yi City, she and the majority of the population did not think of everyone outside of the city as mindless savages that were barely fit to be called human ¨C which those rare few people did, incidentally ¨C but almost everything that could be reasonably compared between the two led to the conclusion that the people over there were not in the better parts of the world. Their living conditions were generally inferior, with some of the people to the north residing in loose tents while needing to fight over every small planar shard and every bit of food due to the scarcity of it.


    In comparison, it was rather difficult to starve in the Chao District, the northernmost district of Yi City, and cultivation was also feasible for most.


    Despite her own preference for not ever attempting to redo her life, she could say with certainty that she would choose to be born in Yi City over any nation bordering it for that reason. All of the issues with the city could, with sufficient effort, be resolved, but it would be far more difficult to do the same with a weaker foundation and inferior access to planar cultivation materials.


    She proceeded to the gates and waited for a minute before they opened, with the individual gemstone pieces parting in an intricate pattern that was far better at mesmerising a viewer than the majority of lower-realm mental influence techniques. The way in which the light glistened and refracted from the individual stones was exactly what one would want if they were exceptionally wealthy and wished to display it, since each one of the stones in the semi-circular opening of the wall was worth a dozen planar stones each, at least.


    Her earlier assumption regarding the calmness of the district was affirmed when there was only one guard standing by the gates, resting in a chair beside the wall. A flame burned atop a small gem that they were holding in their hand, illuminating the area and keeping them warm.


    ¡°Hm? You are new, aren¡¯t you?¡± the guard, a young and thin man, said when he noticed her, ¡°Don¡¯t know what you want here, but you may be interested in the banquet hosted by the Fashionable Gentleman over at the centre, not far from the Ancestral Hall¡­ I know, the name sounds strange, but it looks like he has gone all out this time. When the wind blows this way, I can smell all of the food and¡­ sorry, didn¡¯t mean to go on like that.¡±


    She had not yet said a thing, but what he said was good enough for her.


    ¡°The Fashionable Gentleman, you said? Is that supposed to be a name, or even a proper title held by someone?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ not too sure, actually. I just know that everyone wants to go there, including most of my fellow guards, so they managed to leave me as the last one, meaning that I can¡¯t go with them¡­ those bastards have no respect for a friend, none at all,¡± he explained, veering off quickly yet again.


    ¡°Right. Centre, near the Ancestral Hall?¡± she began to walk once she received a nod, ¡°Thanks.¡±


    While nothing she was told was enough for her to come to any reasonable conclusions regarding this Fashionable Gentleman or his banquet, the sound of it was rather intriguing. There had been nothing so far that could put her in too great a danger, other than the Greats, so she was unlikely to suffer from the experience.


    Hence, on she went, finding that most people did seem to be absent from their homes, whereas a point at the centre of the district was filled with them.

 V5C23: The Fashionable Gentleman

    ¡°Have you heard? That man is in the district again!¡±


    ¡°No way, the Fashionable Gentleman? How many spots are open for his banquet this time? Is he still not allowing anyone to take the food out? I just want one taste of his legendary frost cake!¡±


    ¡°That thing is said to be made with materials of the seventh realm, you dumbass! Do you think anyone would let you keep a piece of something so precious when they could eat it instead? Now, the honeyed roast, on the other hand¡­¡± the person gulped at the mere thought of it.


    As she went through the Bao District, walking at a reasonable pace to get to the event on time without missing out too much of what was happening in the district, she made sure to listen to the people that had not gathered near the centre. Most were not of the highest echelons of society, nor did they have particularly high cultivation realms, which made a great deal of sense once she had heard the mention of open spots for the event. If there was indeed a limit, the normal people would be unlikely to find a spot open for them.


    Given that she wasn¡¯t exactly a normal person, she expected that there would be a chance of her getting in, but it wouldn¡¯t be too much of a loss if she did miss out.


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard that the Fashionable Gentleman intends to give out a dozen abnormal planar stones that have merged with golden opals, meaning that they will contain a thousand times the typical energy concentration! Imagine if we could get our hands on even a shard of that!¡± another person exclaimed.


    ¡°With one breath of the energy around it, we might finally reach the second realm¡­ and with the whole thing, we could get to the third! Are you sure that they won¡¯t actually give us a single spot there? It would be fine if we have to sit at the edge, on the carpet, so long as we can get even the smallest opportunity to get one of those stones!¡± their partner in conversation asked, ¡°Damn, why did you have to bring this up now?¡±


    ¡®Don¡¯t think I¡¯ve heard of a golden opal planar stone, but there are plenty of things in the world I don¡¯t know about¡­ Alright, missing this might be a little unfortunate if this is true.¡¯


    She quickly checked her Ascendant¡¯s Library with the entirety of her focus and attention, using a moment prior to this to confirm exactly where she would be able to go without bumping into anyone or anything. However, no matter where she looked in her boundless shelves filled with books, she couldn¡¯t locate a single mention of such a thing, which was odd, but still understandable for the moment.


    One or two things that she couldn¡¯t understand at all would be fine, as there were that many things out in the world that wouldn¡¯t have been documented, and apart from the odd familiarity with which the people mentioned the golden opal planar stone, nothing was amiss. She did suspect that there might be something about the object that wasn¡¯t quite getting through, however.


    It was possible that the name was an exaggerated or somehow incorrect one, spread intentionally by the Fashionable Gentleman or otherwise generated in the minds of the people from seeing or hearing something about him. Whether it was deliberate or not, it was fine so long as she received that which benefitted her without somehow harming her and her cause. The man might have certain secrets or certain reasons for setting the banquet up, and the only thing that she needed to get was something to contribute to her cultivation. Even if he was attempting to trick everyone in the district, which was not impossible, she wouldn¡¯t necessarily need to expose him.


    Of course, it wouldn¡¯t be any good for her to conclude such things too early, so she shifted those thoughts to the side and glanced up from the road, her gaze settling on the building that the banquet was being held in.


    Just as the rest of the district was at least partly decorated with gems to an excessive degree, this building also made great use of them. The windows, which covered every outer wall, were made from a transparent diamond, each one embedded with two inscriptions each. One was for cleaning the windows when they become too obscured by dust or snow, and the other was to prevent the windows from being shattered with a sufficiently powerful hammer smash.


    A single pair of doors was located at the front of the structure, although the front wall was the shortest side and was connected to two identical walls on either side, forming a nearly triangular shape on the front and a semi-hexagonal arrangement on the back. The front of the structure was also the second largest room, with the largest being a theatre-like arrangement around a stage, with several floors for the seats that were connected to the other chambers of the structure. Each one of these floors matched with a row of windows, so she could have concluded that there were ten of them even without using her spiritual perception.


    Similarly, she didn¡¯t need to use her spiritual perception to see that half of the floors were completely filled with people, at least in the areas near the windows.


    The doors were open, and two guards stood on either side facing the outside. With just that, they were already more secure in terms of a human security force than the Bao District itself, which she found a little amusing. Of course, the actual defences of the district were stronger, but there was a certain absurdity to it that had to be noted.


    None of the guards acted until she was two steps away from the doors, at which point both of them blocked the way with their spears and looked at her in near perfect synchronicity, with the man on the right and the woman on the left looking her over.


    ¡°Do you have an invitation?¡± the woman asked.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­ You are in the peak of the fifth realm, and your cultivation technique is difficult to discern¡­ That fits the Gentleman¡¯s criteria, right?¡± the man said.


    ¡°Something interesting is what he was looking for, so this should fit. Come inside.¡±


    Their spears parted and their returned their gaze to their front. As their armour and helmets covered their bodies almost completely, showing only their eyes and a thin line of skin between them, this was the only thing that one could be certain about without peering further in through their equipment.


    She had only said a single word and was suddenly permitted entry, so seeing that the guards weren¡¯t in the mood for conversation she proceeded through before they decided to change their mind. At the moment, it was difficult to judge their exact authority in allowing the passage of guests, so if they did decide to stop her from coming in there might be no alternative method to get a seat inside of the large stage inside the building, where she was sure that this mysterious figure would appear, and likely give out the golden opal planar stone alongside his frost cake.


    It would be a shame to sabotage the possibility purely out of curiosity that could be indulged elsewhere, so she got straight to doing that by heading to the most interesting thing that she could find in the entrance chamber, that being the food tables. There were a few people that looked to be vaguely interesting, whether it was due to their cultivation, appearance, or just some small detail that caught her eye ¨C or mind, as it were ¨C but after the excessive number of times that the Fashionable Gentleman¡¯s food had been mentioned on the streets, she had to try at least one of the dishes to verify the accuracy of the rumours.


    As with all food for her, there was no expectation of taste, but the ingredients should result in a great boost to her cultivation and strength if they were not exaggerated by the residents.


    On the table in the front room, one with few people standing by it, she found no trace of a frost cake, whatever that was even meant to be, but there was clearly something roasted in honey from a planar beast, so she took a piece and ate it.


    ¡®As expected, I can only sense the texture¡­ It¡¯s not bad, but it doesn¡¯t seem particularly special, either. Nothing in terms of planar energy benefits, nothing to do with resurrecting the sense of taste, nothing at all, in fact,¡¯ she frowned, grabbing another piece of food from the table, ¡®Yeah, if there is something outstanding here, then I don¡¯t think that I will find it on this table. Unfortunate indeed, considering the expectations that people have of the Fashionable Gentleman. Makes me think where those came from¡­¡¯


    Expectations did not emerge from nowhere, as they all came from someone¡¯s actions, be it simply talking or even acting in a particular way, without intending to do so whatsoever. Perhaps someone just walked about in a way that made them seem particularly satisfied after attending the Fashionable Gentleman¡¯s banquet, leading to some mistaken conclusions regarding it.


    She couldn¡¯t know this without inquiring with the past guests, and given that she had no clue whether repeat attendance was even possible, Wei Yi couldn¡¯t be sure that she would find anyone in the building. It would thus be a bad idea to pursue one particular lead over all others, meaning that she chose to seek out conversation based on the previous assessment of the people¡¯s interesting traits and characteristics. One sufficiently noteworthy person was only a few steps away, so she approached her.


    That it was a woman was purely incidental, as was the fact that she looked incredibly beautiful. The woman wore a black dress that revealed much of her large breasts and soft pale skin, while her face was covered with a black veil that hid all but her luscious red lips.


    ¡°Good evening,¡± she said, the woman turning to her and looking her over.


    ¡°You are not from here, are you?¡± the woman in black said, glancing away in the direction of the theatre room, ¡°I would suggest that you are careful here. There is something about these banquets that has always caused some interest from the district¡¯s leadership, but it is the first time that they have managed to get someone inside.¡±


    ¡°I see. Are you that person?¡±


    ¡°I am. Whatever is happening here, I would prefer to avoid unnecessary harm to outsiders, so don¡¯t get into trouble.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯d say that I am capable of taking care of myself, but since the leadership is wary, I¡¯ll take care.¡±


    ¡°A fifth realm might be sufficient, but it might also bring you down. There are certain troubles that only those in higher realms have to deal with, and given the mysterious nature of the Fashionable Gentleman, it may very well be that he is using such methods. Then again, we could all be getting agitated for no good reason,¡± the woman shrugged, ¡°None of the strange reports relate to death or even any harm.¡±


    ¡°That must not have been enough for you or the Patriarch, though. Well, don¡¯t let me get in the way for too long-¡±


    ¡°Hold on. Since we¡¯ve talked this much already, I would feel bad if I just let you go off and die at this banquet, so take this,¡± she said, handing over a small amulet the size of a coin with a silver chain with which to wear it on one¡¯s neck, ¡°I didn¡¯t get your name, but that is fine. If something does happen, I would hate to remember it.¡±


    With that, she walked away and headed over to another table, where a number of miscellaneous items were placed. None had a particular beneficial function, like a planar stone or artefact might, but they were still interesting to look at, which was what the woman in black did.


    ¡®Huh¡­ What an interesting thing to encounter. Aside from her features, which were nice, the indication of something unusual happening at these events is almost reassuring. It would be far stranger if there was nothing abnormal at all about a figure known only as the Fashionable Gentleman, who, according to the words of others, seems to be a man, although that is rather hard to tell when the Master of Yi City was also referred to as male or female depending on the hopes and preferences of the people mentioning him,¡¯ Wei Yi recalled the way in which everyone had tried to guess his identity.


    It was likely, then, that the Fashionable Gentleman did not reveal too much of their own appearance to outsiders, and that the people who had attended a banquet of this type before did not choose or were unable to spread too much information regarding him to the rest of the district. Of course, she could also be reading a little too much into it.


    The only reason that this was even a problem for her was that the Fashionable Gentleman did not seem to be present anywhere in the building, at least not as far as she could see. Her spiritual perception reached into every corner she perceived ¨C a statement that could be put instead as her being able to see everything that she saw, and nothing more ¨C and none contained a figure that fit the expectations that had been generated for the man.


    Whether that was her problem or that of incorrect expectations would be seen soon enough.


    ¡®For now, I should slowly make my way further inward. The theatre room is still mostly empty, with only a few people sitting in the seats before the stage and seeming to do so only because they were lacking much physical strength or energy to stand elsewhere,¡¯ she noted, ¡®I can get there later.¡¯


    She continued to sample the attractions of the banquet, continuing to confirm that most of the food on the first floor was lacking in anything that might increase her power. The people there were mildly interesting, but the only worthwhile interaction aside from her first one was with a man that was a merchant of gems that was attempting to win some interest over to the north, and he offered her a jewel with a straightforward shield inscription placed within it. Due to her location, it would be highly effective for a while, but would be far less so the moment she left.


    On the topic of interesting things, the amulet that she got from the woman in black was placed in one of her pockets, and the contents seemed to be a rare healing inscription.


    The moment that enough physical harm came to her body in that area, it would trigger and flood her body with regenerative energy that would stimulate its own ability to recover from injuries, which was the most straightforward yet still a rather difficult way to cause healing with something other than a medicinal pill.


    It was for this reason that healing treasures in general were far more rare than offensive or defensive treasures, and why it was generally preferable to prevent or stop an attack than to recover from it. Even if they were more common, the process of recovery was rarely quite as efficient and effective as not being hit at all. Very few would ever attempt to integrate actively being hit into any of their strategies, as only someone with the regenerative abilities like hers would ever dare to endure attacks.


    That amulet alone was sufficient to convince her that the woman wasn¡¯t just an insignificant figure, so even if she was lying about her origin and purpose, she was someone to keep an eye on.


    An hour or two later was when the situation finally began to change. Her attempts to learn more about the banquet and the district in general got her little. She found out about the source of their gemstones, how earth-type cultivation assisted in all of the great arts relating to them, and that she could actually get the position of an apprentice for most of the craftsmen in the district quite easily.


    Despite their unwillingness to go too far out of their way to spread their gem craft, they were more than happy to let people learn it and bring it out themselves. It was hard to do so without access to many of the same gems outside of the district, however, and this was where another roadblock came from. According to some of the people she spoke with, the gems in the Bao District were uniquely suited to their use of them due to the mine at the southern part of the district being filled with a dense earth-type energy.


    This made all of the gems far more effective conductors of planar energy and meant that any opal found in the Bao District would outperform an opal from outside of it no matter how shoddy the craftsmanship of the inscriptions or array within was.


    In theory, it would be possible to replicate this kind of effect elsewhere, so long as the mines actively produced materials and they were steeped in earth energy, but it was easier said than done. The sheer quantity of elemental energy needed to be provided by something or someone, but there were few people with a sufficient pool of energy that were willing to waste it all on some gems.


    That was, in part, because the pool of energy needed was close to the seventh realm, at least. If someone wanted to achieve an even greater effect, then several Patriarchs might not be sufficient.


    Naturally, the question of this energy¡¯s origin arose the moment that it was discovered, but this was where the people of the Bao District struggled to find any answers. Their excavation of the gem mine brought them further and further beneath the ground, and yet they just kept uncovering more and more gems, more and more types, and no end nor beginning to the earth-type energy. If there was a clear increase in quantity as they went down, they would have had some clue, but there was none of that, either, meaning that they didn¡¯t know whether there was even a point to this.


    The digging would not stop for a long time, as new gems were always useful, but the investigation had mostly lost any of the steam that it might have had at the start. Whatever caused their district to be richer in earth-type energy, it was useful and had yet to harm them.


    Onto the change in the situation, however, Wei Yi had found that people were beginning to head towards the stage, finding seats in a semi-random arrangement. Some looked to have a place reserved or picked out in advance, whereas others just found a comfortable place to be and occupied it. They also brought along drinks and a few small plates of food, although the majority went in with a cup or glass only.


    So far as she was able to tell, there was nothing explicit that prompted this gathering, but it did become faster as people noticed others doing it. As she couldn¡¯t find anything else to attempt at this banquet, she accompanied the first third of people and found a seat that she considered sufficiently comfortable in the middle of the front third of the rows.


    It was a good enough place no matter what she really wanted to do, as it was close enough to the stage for her to approach if necessary, but she had access to an escape route close by via one of the doors on the side of the stage if whatever she encountered wasn¡¯t within her power to defeat. Furthermore, there was an area beneath the seat she sat on that she could break into with just a bit of effort and escape that way, which would be useful if the door was obstructed by something that she also couldn¡¯t beat ¨C or the very thing that she wanted to flee from.


    Finally, she had her Mask of Yama, which had sat without too much use in her House of Gold. The golden faceless mask wasn¡¯t useless to her, but there was still a certain preference against any kind of otherworldly gift that significantly affected the world around her. She could avoid recognition by most in the south, so she had not yet taken it out. Perhaps a later point, she would take it out once she crossed the boundary to the Tundra, but before then, it wouldn¡¯t be of much use.


    Everyone else entered slowly and located other places to sit, and the theatre room slowly filled up to around a three-thirds full state.


    There weren¡¯t enough people to occupy every seat, but just enough to prevent every group from sitting at least one seat apart from every other. This was unfortunate for Wei Yi in particular, as the man that sat down to her left looked to be the most irritating person in the room. When he sat down, the majority of those within seven seats of them took the opportunity to shift away, while the rest followed the initial group as they presumed that they must have had a good reason for moving away from the man.


    This was compounded with the interactions between him and the others that she had passively observed but only recognised and processed once he got near to her, which confirmed that he was an obsessive flirter with anyone and anything that had breasts. It wasn¡¯t someone that she wished to be near, and especially not while she couldn¡¯t easily ward him off ¨C the lack of an arm made it more difficult.


    Flirting in itself was not a problem. She was not some kind of fragile sculpture that would crack and shatter the moment anyone looked in her direction, and it seemed that other people would likely suffer more due to her Conqueror¡¯s Eye among other eye-based techniques. That being said, her killing intent constantly being at the brink of bubbling over and exploding all at once did not help her with calmly handling situations that she should really be able to handle without aggression.


    That he didn¡¯t look good regardless of the perspective he was judged from did not help.


    She could only hope for the Fashionable Gentleman to appear as quickly as possible, since she did find the seat that she had occupied to be highly agreeable.


    ¡°Hello there, sexy-¡±


    ¡°Nope,¡± she moved her right hand and flicked a small bunch of air towards the man, manifesting a few barriers behind the man so that nobody and nothing else would be damaged. It was unfortunately too irritating for her to handle at the moment, but not so much that she wouldn¡¯t take the most basic precautions.


    Her finger strength was more than sufficient to hit the man¡¯s face and thrust him straight into that barrier, incapacitating him within an instant.


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t that a little excessive?¡± one of the people that had moved away on her right asked, not seeming particularly concerned about the man himself and more about the relative calmness of the proceedings so far, ¡°He hadn¡¯t even begun his three-hour speech regarding his lengthy and complex preference of women.¡±


    ¡°I had heard them a thousand times with my spiritual perception already. Also, I am not in the mood.¡±


    The man shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t think the rules have ever been explained for this banquet, so¡­ do as you wish.¡±


    ¡°That is something that I will do regardless of your permission,¡± she said, leaning back in the seat and sighing, ¡°That being said, the permission is appreciated greatly. I don¡¯t know what I¡¯d do without it.¡±


    Since her sarcasm could hardly be more obvious, he understood and also stepped away, figuratively. To begin with, he clearly didn¡¯t have any interest in preserving the condition and health of the person that she had incapacitated, so it wasn¡¯t too significant for him to bother to continue on. Furthermore, she had displayed a clear degree of agitation and a notable ability, so he would prefer to not be harmed by her if she found him irritating as well.


    She did not, but it was a safe bet to step away anyway.


    A little more time passed, and then the doors of the chambers shut as abruptly as this sentence makes it seem. None of the people in the room had actually been involved, so far as she or anyone else could tell, forcing their attention to the stage before them.


    There was no indication of a person coming up to the stage, and yet they could distinctly see a figure walk onto it, his body mostly obscured by regal clothing that had a dark golden trim and was primarily composed of a matte black cloth. Altogether, the style was most reminiscent of a suit that she had seen a certain otherworldly demon wearing. The clothes themselves could be found in the Planar Continents anyway, and even the hat on the top of his head was not particularly out of place, although a top hat was not worn commonly anywhere in the Continents, so far as she knew.


    No, that was not concerning at all in comparison to the man¡¯s visage ¨C if the thing before them could even be called a man.


    It had no skin to be seen, having only an amalgam of dirt, mud and stone that amassed together into a horrific humanoid visage with a jagged, pointed mouth and empty eye sockets that sank just a little into its face. This was not the appearance of any human, but a vile mockery from an entity that could never look and speak in the same manner as a man.


    This was something that she was sure of, even before this thing spoke.


    ¡°Greetings, mortal things. Is this an event that you consider to be pleasant to your limited senses? Is this the kind of thing that you desire?¡±


    None of the outward thoughts around Wei Yi helped her recognise this thing, but she was able to easily conclude that nobody at all wanted to let this thing talk for too long. Everyone feared something different, and it was only the general intent of attacking that was shared by each and every single person present.


    All at once, countless masses of energy flooded into the air, some arranging themselves into something complex whereas others simply launched their planar energy at their perceived foe.


    ¡°What a curiosity. The mortal pests seek to overcome eternity?¡± the entity said, the gravelly noise barely being recognisable as speech, ¡°In that case, let me take it. Let me take all of your worthless effort!¡±


    The many projectiles should have struck at that moment, but they instead went wide and struck the stage. Every single attack exploded as it collided, but instead of doing any regular damage to the structure it instead tore a strange gap within the world itself, revealing an absolute darkness behind the fabric of the world. It grew and swallowed up the gaps that remained, and quickly overwhelmed the entire theatre chamber, and seemingly everything beyond it in a breath.


    A single volley and a single entity darkened the world.

 V5C24: Darkness of the Earth

    Wei Yi awoke with a start, instantly sitting up and leaping to her feet once the very first hints of light entered her eyes.


    She knew that what had happened seemingly moments ago seemed absurd and insane, and yet the fact that she had to struggle to locate even one particle ¨C wave, or perhaps ray? ¨C of light was clearly indicating that the sudden darkening of the world may not have been completely false or imaginary. It didn¡¯t help that her spiritual perception was suddenly failing to go further than a metre from her, which made it significantly more difficult for her to assess anything that wasn¡¯t in her immediate vicinity ¨C everything, in other words.


    The only light that did enter the area was faint and of an orange, perhaps slightly red shade. It was nothing like to the yellow shade of sunlight that might be common over to the north, or the bluer colour that typically lit the south when the snow wasn¡¯t pouring down in too great a quantity.


    It was closest to the light that was produced by earth fire, and the slightest degree of warmth that she felt from the light vaguely matched that presumption.


    Since there was an opening within the darkness, she approached it, wary not to do anything until she could vaguely establish what it was that she had gotten herself into ¨C well, technically, she wasn¡¯t the one bombarding the humanoid entity with attacks, but she was lured by her greed into the building all the same. One could say that it was well intentioned, with a noble goal, but ultimately it was desire, whether one would call it greed or not.


    With the state of her spiritual perception, she had to walk slowly and carefully, as the darkness was one that neither her Third Eye nor the sheer power of her vision that had grown since the early days of a serviceable but not abnormal vision could penetrate. She was forced to feel the ground beneath her, to reach for the world around her in order to find hints of walls and obstacles that she could not see.


    That took a while, but when she was out, she found the source of the light.


    Within the ground, which looked to be made of stone or dirt, either with one being unusually soft or the other being particularly hard, was a large crack in length but of rather minimal width. With some effort, she could stick a finger into a crack like it, but she saw no reason to attempt this.


    It was this that provided the light, for from within came a vibrant yet weak orange glow that spread out just a little, primarily spreading up. Up¡­ into naught. Into absolute darkness that covered the entire world, so far as she could see, with the only hint of it being anything but an absolute black ceiling being a small earthen stalagmite that grew from the ground near this crack and rose up and up, until the orange light could no longer illuminate its side. Beyond it, she had no clue what did and did not exist, but it was clear that there was nothing at least for twenty metres.


    She frowned as she looked upon that small stalagmite, which she had seen only incidentally at first. In fact, she had almost wanted to overlook it entirely.


    For some reason, that stone rising mass simply disconcerted her in a way that she could not comprehend. Something about it, whether it was its location, size, position, perhaps the way in which half of it was obscured by the darkness, or maybe all of those combined with a million things that she hadn¡¯t yet perceived or understood, made it seem about as bad as the humanoid entity from before.


    This was such a stupid thing to even think, and yet she couldn¡¯t stop herself at all. For some reason, she just needed to understand it. Well, no, she understood her curiosity, why she wished to learn more about the world, whether it was minor things or not, and why she just needed to comprehend the nature of the oddity that caught her attention. She needed to understand the world, and even if she found herself somewhere out if, she would just understand it far more so that she could return and do so with the knowledge that it would allow her to enhance her own behaviour once she returned to the Planar Continents.


    As for why she was assuming this to be a different world, it had to do with the rather thin planar energy in the one-metre space around her. It felt almost as if there was none at all, and she was just imagining it.


    Thing is, her own energy was still there, and she was able to bring it out of her body without issue, and nothing else was replacing it, so far as she was able to tell. Thus, she had to wonder where the energy had gone, if anywhere at all, and why she could not sense anything else. Even areas where planar energy was sealed away couldn¡¯t do such a good job, and neither could the Kong Prison Realm, so she had to think of things that were beyond them.


    ¡®Also¡­ hm? Is that¡­ People! There are other people here, then!¡¯ she realised as she saw the very faint hint of a person at the edge of the crack¡¯s light, rushing up to them right away.


    She had not bothered to disguise the sound of her movement, intending not to give the wrong impression to the person if they were awake but choosing not to move to avoid detection. If she had moved quietly, then it would be rather reasonable to assume that she might have some kind of negative intentions towards the person, which might then lead to a rift forming between them before they have even had the chance to communicate and learn about one another¡¯s experience. Then, if some valuable information could have been exchanged, it would not be, and her limited spiritual perception might mean that she wouldn¡¯t be able to extract it.


    When she was nearly next to the person, they finally stirred, and her perception allowed her to glean that she had found a man whose cultivation had to be in the fourth realm, at least based on his internal planar structures.


    Oddly enough, she could only obtain this limited information, both from the man and the ground and world around her, despite the fact that her spiritual perception was usually enough to detect nearly everything that there was to know, provided that she knew what she was looking for in order to comprehend it while sorting the rest away into the shelves of her memory.


    ¡°Ah, my head¡­ Where am I? Who are you?¡±


    ¡°Your head seems fine, you are near a crack in the ground and a stalagmite¡­ two, I think, and I am Wei Yi. Were you at the banquet?¡±


    With the darkness obscuring much of his body, it was hard for her to make out any defining features, and so her detailed memories of everyone present weren¡¯t of much use in identifying him. How her spiritual perception was affected by the darkness wasn¡¯t something that she understood, frankly.


    There had never been any connection between light and spiritual perception, as it did not use light to obtain information. Instead, it could pierce and envelop all matter and obtain information through a scan of it, exceeding the power of the majority of the methods on the otherworldly demons¡¯ world of origin due to the amount that spiritual perception could accomplish.


    ¡°Yeah, I was. Wait, I think I do know you! You hit my brother!¡±


    ¡°Your¡­ you were friends with that idiot? I don¡¯t mind hitting you as well, although I would first prefer to interrogate you.¡±


    ¡°No, you misunderstand. I am his brother ¨C as in, we¡¯re related. He has always given me a bad reputation that I have needed to fight against for a long time, so while I don¡¯t like my brother being injured in any way¡­ It¡¯s something I¡¯ve come to expect,¡± he said, ¡°There have been four attempts to cut his dick off, actually, and I¡¯m torn on whether that would actually make things worse.¡±


    ¡°I think I understand what you mean, in a way. Still, I don¡¯t see why you let a person like that walk around.¡±


    ¡°He is still one of the Bao family, and we are both rich and powerful-¡±


    ¡°I have not had much experience with the rich and powerful themselves, but shouldn¡¯t they be all the stricter? Especially when you, someone who supposedly doesn¡¯t act like that, is present. If I was in their position, I would have probably told the guy to fuck off elsewhere, where he wouldn¡¯t bother anyone.¡±


    ¡°Well, he¡­ huh. Why didn¡¯t they do that? It makes perfect sense!¡± the man agreed after a moment of thought, ¡°What were they thinking¡­¡±


    ¡°We got off topic, not entirely without my involvement, but we should return onto it. Do you remember anything after the volley of attacks onto the stage, whether it is in your conscious or unconscious state?¡± the Ascendant asked, ¡°I don¡¯t care if it is rather absurd, because I am frankly used to such shit with everything I¡¯ve gone through.¡±


    The man shrugged, looking around awkwardly, ¡°I was actually rather drunk after finding a whole room of liquors, so I barely noticed anything¡­ Actually, the hangover isn¡¯t here at all, so this has somehow helped me¡­ where are we?¡±


    ¡°Somewhere. Might be another world, might be underground, might be something else entirely. Either way, planar energy here is not particularly rich, if it even exists, and I cannot even perceive anything outside of the darkness, so don¡¯t expect any help from me in that regard,¡± she replied, pulling him out into the light, ¡°This here¡¯s all we have, so unless you are experiencing a different world to me, then we may be in a bit of trouble.¡±


    He shook his head, looking around and finding little. Even without her spiritual perception, she could see the reflection of the world in his eyes, and it looked no different.


    Such a thing could be falsified with any number of ways, including illusions as one of the easiest, but she was on guard against them from the moment she awoke and thus believed that there were none here, at least so far. Her Third Eye and spiritual perception, weak as the latter was at the moment, should have caught onto something, even if it couldn¡¯t clear an illusion fully. With that ¡®something¡¯ she could easily comprehend just what might be being disguised and obscured, even if she couldn¡¯t know what she wasn¡¯t seeing as a result. The information itself would have been sufficient, if not ideal.


    However, with nothing of the sort, and nothing to allow her to conclude that anything was amiss, she couldn¡¯t just presume that everything was false, and that everyone was under the same illusion. It wouldn¡¯t be possible to keep track of all such possibilities and act in a way that would benefit her in all of them at once, no matter how much she could personally understand and process at once.


    ¡°Fuck¡¯s sake. Anyone know what that thing was, then? Anything you¡¯ve seen before?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. I could barely see it, but I have never heard anything about an entity like that¡­ looked human from where I was standing, but only barely. Even I could tell that something about it was off, after a moment.¡±


    ¡°Good for you. None of this helps us, however, so we will need to locate someone else that may be able to contribute, or otherwise come across something that¡­ hm?¡±


    She turned as she heard something in the distance, and soon so did the man, with a speed that she wasn¡¯t very happy with. It wasn¡¯t that he was too slow, but rather that there seemed to be a very small gap between his reaction and her own. This was rather odd, as there shouldn¡¯t have been any reason for her hearing to also suffer greatly due to whatever it was that was happening in this world, or perhaps in this strange realm, or in this extremely powerful illusion.


    With her sight having deteriorated, her spiritual perception being practically neutralised, and now both her hearing and possibly her reaction times also being weakened, she was instantly in a significantly worse place than she might have been otherwise. Had everything been in a perfect state, then she could have attacked any threat that might have emerged and been confident that she wouldn¡¯t suffer much as a result. Unfortunately, this was no longer something she could hope for, as it seemed that the entirety of her abilities were somehow affected by something that happened from the point that the entity made of dirt and stone arrived, up to now.


    Perhaps there was a method of correcting this problem, whatever the cause of it even was, but the issue was that it would not be immediate, and thus anything that she comes across now will not be as secure as she¡¯d like.


    This was not ideal, to put it mildly. She¡¯d prefer to say that it was rather shit, all things considered.


    ¡°Hello? Are you out there? Could you shout back if you¡¯re, well¡­ human? Please? I¡¯m afraid out here¡­¡± the voice that reached out to them again was clearly feminine, as was the approaching silhouette, ¡°Since the banquet, everything gone so dark¡­ Hey, hey, you, you can see me, right? You¡¯re real, right? Please, tell me-¡±


    ¡°We are real, or at least we think we are. Did you not see the light from the crack in the ground?¡± Wei Yi interrupted her once she could confirm that her appearance was also reasonably human.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s only become visible as I got nearer¡­ there¡¯s some kind of fog over the area, so when I woke up, I couldn¡¯t see a single thing. I called out-¡±


    ¡°Like an idiot, since nobody else would just call out to others in an unknown place, in strange darkness.¡±


    ¡°- to someone¡­ hey¡­ I¡­ I¡¯m just the daughter of Bao Long, I¡¯ve never been outside of the house for longer than a few minutes¡­ I had no idea!¡± the woman exclaimed, ¡°B-Bao Kang Min, please, tell her about me!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I know you¡­ Bao Long has a daughter?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s kept me away from the world, but I¡¯ve heard quite a bit of you from the maids and servants at the residence,¡± she said.


    ¡°In that case, what is your name, supposed daughter of some guy at the Bao District?¡±


    She looked like she had something else to remark on the topic of her wording, but she held her words back and instead curtsied, ¡°My name is Bao Jing, second daughter of Bao Long, brother of Guardian Bao Sheng of the Bao District. I-¡±


    ¡°Frankly, not a single part of that has helped me in the slightest. Should I care? Does your identity benefit us in any way while we¡¯re down here, or up here, or perhaps over to the side of wherever we had originally been? No, I didn¡¯t think so,¡± the Ascendant sighed, shutting her eyes and rubbing her forehead for a little while, ¡°Apologies, it seems that, among other things, this place has affected my self-control. In the future, just get to the point, and don¡¯t reveal useless shit that nobody asked you for, alright?¡±


    ¡°A-Alright¡­ alright¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure why I¡¯d trust you or Bao Kang Min over one another, or either of you at all, but you two are the best I¡¯ve got for the moment. Since we do not seem to have anything around us that would be of any use, save for these off-putting stalagmites, we may need to do a little bit of experimentation and exploration. Any complaints, and you¡¯re free to stay in the dark.¡±


    ¡°No, please, don¡¯t do that! We need one another, don¡¯t we?¡± Bao Jing cried out, ¡°You just said that we need to do some experiments!¡±


    ¡°I had just said that if you don¡¯t contribute to said experiments, you¡¯re not needed. Trust me, even if I was in a completely terrible state, then I would still be able to come up with a thousand different things to try out with a single person other than myself,¡± she replied.


    ¡°Oh¡­¡±


    ¡°One thing that I do believe is that you have indeed not left the home for longer than an hour. You should have had some experience in negotiations given your origins, and yet you are pure as a¡­ okay, I¡¯m going off on some strange rant again. Ignore that,¡± Wei Yi waved that thought away and returned onto the original topic, ¡°Will you, or won¡¯t you, help with the experiments in order for us to understand the place we¡¯ve ended up in?¡±


    ¡°I will, just don¡¯t-¡±


    ¡°Shut up, the first part was enough. Now, go back into the darkness and let us see you do so. At the moment you lose sight of us, me to be more specific, yell something, stop, wait for a minute, then return.¡±


    ¡°What is the second person needed for-¡±


    ¡°What did I just tell you, Bao Jing? For all we know, this place is slowly killing us, and yet you are going to be constantly delaying us when you really don¡¯t need to be? We understand that you are immature and inexperienced with everything, and that you can¡¯t even begin to consider why I needed multiple people, but why don¡¯t you let me take care of that? Go on, fuck off already,¡± she said.


    With this final reminder, the woman did walk off, finally allowing Wei Yi to breathe a sigh of relief while keeping an eye on the departing figure.


    ¡°Was she that bad?¡±


    ¡°No. I have a bit of a problem, you see, and seeing people who aren¡¯t very conscious of the situation they¡¯re in doesn¡¯t exactly help, to put it mildly,¡± she explained, ¡°Just wait until you come across someone that knows nothing at all about a field that you are a master in, and the frustration might be a little more understandable. I¡¯d pass along the feeling itself, but that¡¯s not something I can do at the moment. Wait until we get out of here.¡±


    ¡°Is it fine if the person in question is just significantly less intelligent than most? My brother almost always failed to understand a single thing I have suggested to him, and even when I tried to provide some advice on the front he¡¯d be more interested in, he still fucked it up,¡± Bao Kang Min said, quietening down, ¡°Probably shouldn¡¯t be talking about this with a woman, but-¡±


    ¡°Does it have something to do with sex?¡±


    ¡°¡­ One of the women he did manage to bed was very dissatisfied with his performance, if I may put it that way. Apparently, he doesn¡¯t know anything at all about applying himself.¡±


    ¡°An oddly common problem, considering how simple this actually is.¡±


    ¡°Are you, eh¡­¡±


    ¡°Just imagine that I have draconic blood and you should get it all right away. If not, I can go into a lengthy explanation of what is unique about dragons, and why all of them appeared in the forms of women and yet managed to get so many human women pregnant back in the days when they roamed the Planar Continents,¡± Wei Yi said, nodding over to the vague figure of Bao Jing, ¡°First, though, I am about to lose sight of her completely. What about you?¡±


    ¡°Same here¡­ judging by your expression, I am guessing that this isn¡¯t a good thing, is it?¡± the man managed to figure it out.


    ¡°Yes, well done. This is a very bad thing. This means that there is no difference between the two of us, and possibly her as well, effectively removing all advantages of realm and ability. How far can your spiritual perception reach right now, by the way?¡±


    ¡°Around one metre.¡±


    ¡°Same here. Now, look, that woman will return in just a short while, and we will need to find some kind of way to make do with what we do have. Did you bring any weapons with you?¡±


    ¡°I did not. This was supposed to be a calm gathering, and I can defend myself fine enough with the help of some of the district¡¯s guards¡­ no, I didn¡¯t,¡± he stopped himself after he started getting the same look as the woman had before him.


    ¡°Great. I¡­ seem to lack them as well,¡± Wei Yi reached out into the air and pulled out nothing at all, although this did not catch the man¡¯s attention, ¡®The spatial storage, the House of Gold, is not functioning either. I know it is there, but I cannot see the exact contents, nor can I really remove it from there. Hence, there is something at play that is somehow superior to the otherworldly gifts, which, while far weaker without the azure lights, retain the ability to bypass nearly every known planar method, and can only be interfered with by manufacturing otherworldly influences with our own capabilities, like what the Truth of the Universe can do to repel azure lights.¡¯


    Since that was the case and could be confirmed and verified rather easily with all of the experiences that she had, there was only more reason to conclude her otherworldly theory. The methods of the Planar Continents didn¡¯t work, but those of other worlds might well not have this issue. So far as she could tell, the people from different worlds couldn¡¯t interact with one another perfectly, but perhaps that was simply due to their general weakness and lack of knowledge regarding otherworldly gifts.


    Furthermore, she had only ever attempted to discover other otherworldly items ¨C as did otherworldly demons ¨C with her spiritual perception, so the method of inspection could have been letting them down all along.


    With all of that said, there were still a few concerning points about this inability to access her House of Gold. While feasible, it did not make very much sense, as a simple restrictive field shouldn¡¯t be able to target planar and otherworldly abilities at the same time while also completely blocking spatial capability at a seventh realm level or above, likely exceeding the eighth realm in terms of power.


    This was an assumption made purely based on her own knowledge, which was still limited due to her never having encountered an otherworldly entity that actually knew all about how so many of them ended up in the Planar Continents. Hence, it was possible, likely, in fact, that she was very wrong about many parts of her theories so far. This was why she needed to verify every single theory she possibly could as many times as possible, with as many possible, and with as much certainty as she possibly could to avoid potential interference from whatever illusory effects she might suffer from.


    In the end, after one minute of not seeing the young woman they had found most recently, she emerged from the darkness and only then could her footsteps be heard, however barely.


    ¡°S-So, did you get what you wanted?¡±


    ¡°In part. We couldn¡¯t see or hear you at the moment that you lost sight of us, meaning that our limited vision is shared. Even with the light from the crack in the ground, we were unable to peer too far, which means that it was rather lucky that I woke up just close enough to it,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°Furthermore, it means that we cannot reliably confirm anything other than that this restriction is slightly more lax vertically, as we seem to be able to see more of the stalagmites than the ground around us.¡±


    ¡°Does that do anything useful for us?¡± Bao Kang Min asked.


    ¡°It means that we know fuck all regarding where we are. We could be in a small dome that ends just out of sight, but we won¡¯t be able to figure it out without risking never being able to return to any source of light again. We could be beneath the ground, on the surface, in the air, floating in a void, travelling between worlds with every step, but none of that can be confirmed, and we don¡¯t seem to have any indication of native life in the area. Furthermore, the connection between here and the entity at the banquet is incredibly unclear, as only their base element matches.


    ¡°This might be a world belonging to that thing, and we could have ended up here either intentionally on its part, or by accident. We could have fallen into another world when the stage collapsed into darkness, and the presence of dirt and stone could be merely coincidental. This could be some illusion caused by the entity¡¯s technique, and we might need to find some way of breaking out in time.¡±


    Bao Jing waited for a moment to make sure she wasn¡¯t interrupting, then quietly inquired, ¡°Which one of those is more likely?¡±


    ¡°I would have said the illusory world, but I am beginning to have doubts. Don¡¯t know what techniques you¡¯ve got, but they might not be working well, if at all, and my methods against illusions might be affected in the same way. Unfortunately, if I don¡¯t know something is an illusion, I can¡¯t be sure whether I¡¯m accurately seeing through it, or of it has fooled me completely and utterly. Hopefully, we are not in an illusion that I cannot break,¡± she explained, ¡°Due to how limited our methods are, I am putting more of my trust in the theory of us being on another world, intentionally or not. The lack of planar energy, strange Laws of reality, the absolute darkness ¨C all of it would make sense in that case.¡±


    ¡°Can we even break out of another world?¡± said Bao Kang Min.


    ¡°People have fallen into ours often, and we did make the journey here without harm coming to us, so there¡¯s no reason that we can¡¯t go back. Whatever that thing was, it shouldn¡¯t have been able to destroy the entirety of the Planar Continents, even if it did tear space apart at the stage,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°Thus, we need to go looking. Structures, homes, people: all of these have the potential to be our way out of here. Got it? Now, let¡¯s go.¡±

 V5C25: Land of the Damned

    ¡°This crack should end over there¡­ Fuck, we might have only this place to explore safely- Nope, not the case either.¡±


    ¡°W-Why do you say-¡±


    ¡°We have roughly fifteen metres on the ground, in terms of sight, but the light behind us ends fourteen metres from us. Furthermore, there is a quiet rumbling that you should have heard, and it matches with the exact moment that I noticed the change in the crack¡­ alright, I¡¯m changing the name of these things. Light fissures, that¡¯s better, isn¡¯t it?¡± she asked a purely rhetorical question.


    Luckily, the other two understood and didn¡¯t question the change, although she was almost certain that they hadn¡¯t bothered with the name to begin with. With the current situation being what it is, she was perhaps the only one who had gone through enough situations like this one to be sufficiently calm to even care about naming. She was perhaps the only one to care about it in the slightest ¨C even at calmer times ¨C due to Laws, bloodline power and the countless techniques that she had begun to accrue in her arsenal.


    If not for her attention to names, she would just have a complete mess of an archive in her head, and it would be as good as not having the Ascendant¡¯s Library at all.


    ¡°Then, these light fissures might also bring us forward and allow us to discover something more?¡± Bao Kang Min partly suggested and partly inquired, as he couldn¡¯t be sure whether she had already considered this, ¡°Perhaps they aren¡¯t so bad after all?¡±


    ¡°Most likely, they are absolutely shit. Think about it ¨C we are in a strange place, possibly under someone¡¯s control, and they are suddenly deciding to lead the two of- I mean, three of us towards something. What are the possible chances of this actually ending up well, with us going to a place that helps us and results in us benefitting from this whole endeavour?¡± she shook her head, ¡°I truly hope that I don¡¯t need to explain myself further.¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t such a good thing, then?¡±


    ¡°No, Bao Jing, it is not. We could be coming into the open mouth of some kind of terrible monster, and this could be happening literally, for all we know. As such, I would love to illuminate the area, but¡­¡±


    This time, there was no need for confirmation or questioning, even for the clueless daughter of a powerful man. None of them were able to do all that much with their energy, as it seemed nearly impossible to bring it out of the body beyond the skin, and so none of them could use standard methods from the Planar Continents to illuminate the world around them.


    Bao Kang Min and Wei Yi knew some more ordinary means of generating light, one that otherworldly demons might resort to before planar methods, but this wasn¡¯t of much use either. Torches and flame both needed wood of some kind to generate. While wet and moist wood would have been bad, it couldn¡¯t be worse than having nothing at all, nothing that seemed flammable and nothing to start the flame was obviously the worst possible situation. Furthermore, it couldn¡¯t be guaranteed that ordinary flame would be of any use here in the dark, and it could be that the light fissures were the only source of light here.


    ¡°Eleven metres. The thing is definitely shrinking. It seems that, unless we wish to brave the darkness, we don¡¯t really have any other choice than to step forward and see what goes beyond the fifteen metres before us,¡± Wei Yi pointed to their front, ¡°Look, we still have fifteen metres before us.¡±


    Since they still had fifteen metres, the light fissure continued, and thus they had somewhere to go.


    It took some time for the environment to change in any way. Sure, the earth was clearly slightly different, clearly, but the light fissure itself barely differed as they continued. First, it would twist to the left, then to the right, and then it would continue on for a little while, then this would all just loop over and over again with the two turns cancelling one another out to result in a vaguely straight road towards some kind of destination, one as yet unseen by them.


    One thing that did not appear to struggle was her perception of time, although it was difficult to tell due to the absolute lack of sunlight, or a cycle of day and night. The darkness just was, no matter what anyone or anything other than the light fissures did to it, and so the only thing she could rely on was her walking speed, and that of her two followers at that moment.


    The man was steady and kept up with her, whereas the young woman struggled to do so, managing to be just within reach of them at all times mostly due to being afraid of being left behind. When necessary, she would dash forward and try to stick to their pace only to fall behind in moments and be forced to repeat her movements. In a way, she was just as repetitive as the pattern of the snaking light fissure, although she was also providing them with her occasional muttered complaints and requests for forgiveness immediately afterward, prompted mostly by the fact that the star metal gauntlet remained on the Ascendant¡¯s hand and could be brought to one¡¯s attention easily.


    She continued on and on with the rest of them, and only after an entire hour passed did she finally track down a change to the world around her.


    There was a small change in elevation, as the world looked to slope down by a couple of degrees, leading to them descending down towards something, something hopefully new. They did not speak to one another, for the moment, but it was clear that this silence couldn¡¯t persist forever. The darkness was too quiet, too still, too terrifying and disconcerting for reasons that none of them could explain in full, and yet were all too obvious at the same time.


    For them, that took another half an hour to actually find something worthwhile ¨C not a simple change in the slope¡¯s angle, or the height of the terrain, or the size of the light fissure, which had opened up just a little bit further, meaning that they needed to pay a little bit of attention to avoid stepping into it and getting their footwear stuck.


    No, this was no minor change, but was instead a monumental development. From the darkness, a strange, orange lamp suddenly emerged, and a moment later they saw the wall onto which it was attached. Furthermore, this was a reasonably ordinary seeming wall, at least on first glance, and it was possibly part of a larger building that was also entirely normal and entirely ordinary, which was even more fantastic, as seeing one random element that was out of place in this world was possible, but the more and more they saw, the more unusual this was.


    She wasn¡¯t sure whether this was better or worse than seeing only the continuing darkness.


    ¡°This place¡­ it doesn¡¯t look southern, not quite,¡± Bao Kang Min whispered, afraid to let his voice reach too far, ¡°I¡¯ve not been to the north, so-¡±


    ¡°Yi District-like architecture, by the looks of it. The material is odd, but I¡¯ve seen stone buildings like this in a lot of places. That being said, I still think that this is as bad as those stalagmites, don¡¯t you think so as well?¡± Wei Yi cut in, taking a step closer while making sure that she wouldn¡¯t come into contact with the material, ¡°Look, it just doesn¡¯t seem right, does it?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡­¡± Bao Jing muttered, getting just as close as she did, ¡°It looks just like a set of stones piled together, stuck together with some kind of material that probably wouldn¡¯t be of use in the Bao District¡­¡±


    ¡°No. Well, that is what it looks like, but at the same time, something about this doesn¡¯t look right, not in the slightest. Fortunately for us, we don¡¯t need to care about this kind of thing, at least not now. We need to figure out what the structures mean for us,¡± the Ascendant explained, stepping away from the wall and pulling the young woman away from it too, as she did not seem to be intending to do so on her own. Whatever the reason, she would rather not take risks with her current companions.


    Bao Jing was not particularly concerning to her on her own, but if the world was able to affect her if she touched the wrong thing, then that might change. The dirt and stone entity that had pulled them into this world was clearly capable of something impressive, and if it could affect those that came too close to certain elements of its world, then it could be that her body would be hijacked and used against Wei Yi and Bao Kang Min. At that point, their forced parity would allow the woman to deal a inflict great harm upon them, if not outright killing one of them due to whatever empowerment she could receive within this strange world.


    Until some degree of personal ability could be reclaimed, one way or another, it would not be ideal in the slightest to allow for anything of the sort to even attempt to occur.


    Since there was one light available, they proceeded towards it and then discovered that there appeared to be more light over to the right, as the radius of the singular lamp was only sufficient to cover around thirteen metres whereas the three of them were able to see two more metres in that direction than in any other direction.


    They were forced to walk slowly, as they found that the terrain would change quickly as they advanced. It took only a few steps for more semblances of structures to be unveiled, and while a few remained as clear and accurate as the first wall that they came across, one that was missing any windows through which they might peer through, the rest were not at all the same. Most of the walls were clearly made of the same dirt that composed the stalagmites they had come across before, and those structures were of a similar earthly shape, rising from the ground with their largest diameter being at the very surface, then going up and up, higher and higher, until disappearing from their vision.


    Whereas the ordinary-looking structures possessed a certain disconcerting trait, these were far more blatantly unpleasant to behold, although the explanation as to why continued to elude them. They ¨C in this case, Wei Yi and Bao Kang Min, at least ¨C knew that in a normal cave, these same shapes should be comforting and ordinary, even if the darkness came in just as close, but here it was clear that something unknown to them was at play. The shapes were wrong, eerie.


    Hence, they sought to advance with great speed, or as great as the darkness would permit them, and found other differences emerging from the void.


    The light fissure beneath them began to shrink and instead the dirt and stone track changed to a set of collected stones that appeared to form an ordinary stone road, although this was not quite the case once more. Just as with everything in this reality, it was still wrong, and this time was the only one that she was able to explain in any detail at all. She could tell that something about the stones did not match with the standard appearance and formation of stones in the Planar Continents, and their arrangement needed to be changed in order to accommodate the differences with the material. The Ascendant knew all too well that this was something that could be the gateway to the truth of a great deal of other oddities within the world, but even then she could only state with certainty that these were not mere ordinary stones.


    Together, they walked down this street, with at least two walls visible at once, one on either side, with no doors appearing yet, but traces of windows were manifesting. Some indentations within the walls could be seen, at times peeking out through the dirt and stone of the stalagmite-like residences and at others being placed in ordinary positions in ordinary-looking homes, but they did not contain glass.


    Much like some kind of caricature of reality, the material was instead a dark, partly smooth pane of some kind of slate. From the side, and from the furthest point that one could stand from it and still see the world, it did almost look like a poorly made piece of glass, lacking in all transparency and typical beauty. The moment that they did get even an inch closer to one of the windows, they collectively saw that this was an illusion created purely from their own expectations of reality, not by the seeming truth shown to them by their eyes.


    They were rough, lopsided and uneven, clearly looking more like stone than anything else.


    ¡°So¡­ are these actual homes, or do they just look like it?¡± Bao Jing asked a reasonable question for once.


    ¡°We¡¯ll need to find the place where the buildings actually open up, whether they have doors or some other opening that can reasonably be looked through. It would be ideal if we didn¡¯t need to touch anything, as that would be rather dangerous until we have any reason to believe that we will be safe when we touch the walls, floor, ceiling or whatever else we may find inside,¡± Wei Yi responded, ¡°To be fair, there¡¯s no real reason that these buildings should be different from the terrain, light fissure, or anything else, but it is best to be cautious right now and await confirmation. For instance, if another genuine human was to touch the buildings and be fine, then there¡¯s something, at least.¡±


    ¡°What if the effect is delayed, and we will all be infected with some kind of energy that will slowly affect us, or perhaps activate after a certain point and catch us off guard with its effects?¡± Bao Kang Min suggested.


    ¡°Hence why I said there¡¯d be something, not that there would be a solid, concrete reason to not worry.¡±


    The man nodded, while she was able to appreciate coming across him as well as the young woman, not just the latter. Even without her, he might have been able to adapt to the environment of the strange, dark world, but she would have lacked anyone reasonable to communicate with, which would have been highly unfortunate.


    On the other hand, she would have appreciated if the young woman had appeared somewhere else, where she might get stuck until the matter of this dark world was resolved. She did not need someone like her, especially when she just seemed to have the worst elements of a certain other young woman whose presence she had appreciated far more. Adding the fact that she wasn¡¯t known by Bao Kang Min made her even less welcome, as it meant that there was no basis whatsoever to assume that she was even real and not yet another facsimile of reality like the buildings that they were walking past.


    They were continuing just as before when they suddenly came across a fork in the road, where it split perpendicularly and permitted passage towards the left and right. Neither side immediately caught their attention, as the structures on both sides were near identical, and there was no signs or indicators that would suggest that one direction was a better choice, but they finally located a small trace of a door frame on the left, so they headed towards it first without discussion.


    Furthermore, just as they got close, this door, which maintained an element of foreign nature and uncanniness while barely resembling an ordinary wooden door, opened up right before them, revealing both a figure and a large open room behind the figure.


    Due to the current state of her abilities, she couldn¡¯t assess what the other two were thinking, but her attention leapt not to the figure but to the room behind them instead. It would not be odd to find a room inside of a building, of course, but to suddenly find that one could look far further than just fifteen metres for no obvious reason was very much a different story. So long as she wasn¡¯t seeing things, then that meant that the rules of the world either had more complexity, or that it was possible to subvert them, which would be exactly what she wanted. Abusing existing Laws to benefit herself was one of her specialties after all of her work, so perhaps this place would even offer the ability to break through the boundary of the Dao of Law.


    Returning to the other matter of importance and concern, however, the figure that they saw on the other side of the door almost looked human ¨C no, it seemed to be entirely human, without a single oddity. They saw a man, dressed in similar garb to that of the earthen entity from the banquet, with a bushy grey beard and unkempt short hair, as well as a face that looked partly otherworldly.


    Despite that, this looked to be a human, and it looked to be unaffected by the world in which he was forced to reside, presumably.


    ¡°People out on the streets? At this time?¡± he spoke in an accented but understandable language, looking over them, ¡°The earthen horrors have risen on this day, and you come as well. Strangers from a strange land¡­ Come inside if you do not wish to be devoured by those things. Those abominable things from beneath the earth that emerge when the times change once in the dark¡¯s recession, and the light¡¯s arrival.¡±


    ¡°What the¡­ are you human?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    He replied in kind, ¡°Are you, strangers? Can I be sure that you do not conceal earthen flesh beneath that skin of yours?¡±


    ¡°I believe myself to be human, and I am rather sure that I have flesh and blood beneath my skin. However, I have not seen what lies beneath your skin, and for all I know, you merely look human while also having no relation to the earthen abominations, as you referred to them, albeit in a slightly different arrangement of words.¡±


    ¡°Unless you wish me to cut open myself, and for you to do the same in turn, then I see no method to resolve our current disagreement. However, we have little time, for the earthen horrors will soon be upon us all.¡±


    ¡°Can you see into the darkness, or are you just guessing?¡±


    ¡°I am stating the facts. We have lived in these dark lands for many years, and we know how to make our way through the land. Now, come inside and let us dispute the matter here.¡±


    He turned around and walked in, turning around a few steps in and finding them still standing at the threshold.


    ¡°If you do not make your way inside, the darkness shall spread into here as well, and then you shall lose your only opportunity to observe the place at which you have arrived this day,¡± the man stated, putting his hand on the side of the door, ¡°Step inside, or else you shall not be given another opportunity, not by me, at the very least.¡±


    Bao Jing glanced at Wei Yi, Bao Kang Min looked around, and Wei Yi sighed as she realised that they did not have much of a choice at the moment. Due to the strange nature of the world, it was hard to be sure whether the man was a positive omen or not, but if she refused his help then she might not receive any positive omens over here in a very long time, leaving them to wander the dark while earthen horrors stalk them, likely with far better perception within the abyssal blackness that engulfed them at all times.


    The Ascendant did not wish to permit herself to be consumed by them.


    As such, she proceeded to step inside, with the other two following her without much of a delay. Whether or not there were truly earthen horrors out there, the decision had been made.


    When they came inside, there did not seem to be an immediate problem, nor did the next step lead to anything dangerous, so far as they could tell. The man shut the door the moment that they entered, and then led them to a seating area. Since the darkness was, for the moment, dispelled, they could finally see all the way from one end of an area to another, although the sight that greeted them was scarcely different to any of the other facsimiles of the Planar Continents.


    Chairs, tables and other furniture that might have looked to be made of wood or ordinary stone, except that this was clearly not the case. Even those things that could be convincingly made out of any kind of stone still maintained the same oddity, with a shape that did not quite suit them, or odd edges, bumps and indentations that made it clear these things did not come about in a usual manner.


    They were brought to an area with several seats of various kinds positioned in a rough circle, and offered them, although both Wei Yi and Bao Kang Min naturally declined. Only Bao Jing gladly accepted, clearly tired from the long walk and glad to get any kind of opportunity to rest her weary feet. The other two naturally looked at her for a little while to confirm that nothing would occur to her, but even after it looked like she was unaffected by any kind of vile influence, neither of them wished to even attempt to sit in the same chairs.


    ¡°If you will never rest, then the earthen horrors will claim you far more easily. However, I cannot stop you from doing as you wish, so I will not waste my time,¡± the man said, ¡°I am a grave digger, so refer to me as such if you prefer.¡±


    ¡°There are other people here, for whom you can dig graves? Where are they? Are their homes also capable of keeping out the dark? How exactly does that work?¡±


    ¡°You have too many questions. It is simple. These homes keep out the dark, and are kept lit by the blood of the world. At times, perhaps it is the blood¡¯s presence that causes the earthen horrors to pursue us and attempt to devour us, although we could never survive without the world¡¯s blood illuminating our domain. Out in the darkness, it is difficult to overpower the darkness with the tools of us mere mortals, so we are forced to construct as many homes as we can instead.¡±


    ¡°The rest of the questions, then. Go on.¡±


    ¡°There are few of us. We have to survive with the minimal number of resources that we are able to obtain, and-¡±


    A sudden knock on the door interrupted him, prompting them all to look in the direction of the sound. It was a strong sound, followed by a brief pause and three more knocks, after which came another delay and then two more knocks. This sounded highly practised, a pattern that the grave digger had to be used to, and so his reaction made a great deal of sense, for he sprung up right away and rushed to the door, knocking a few times in return as he awaited a response. Only once the next response was also accurate did he open the door.


    On the other side, a figure with a large hat that covered most of his shaven face stepped inside, and behind him there were a number of far more familiar people, all of whom Wei Yi remembered from the Bao District.


    ¡°Grave digger, there are outsiders on the streets! The earthen horrors may be invading soon!¡±


    ¡®Shit, they actually call him that? Does he not have a name? What exactly is this place, how do they survive, why do they look so much like humans¡­ well, I don¡¯t know whether that¡¯s what the problem is, or if they are actually human, since both would cause issues, but I cannot figure it out for the moment thanks to the decrease in spiritual perception effectiveness,¡¯ Wei Yi frowned, the other people once more being far lower on her priority as they did not appear to possess any obvious abnormalities or interesting elements that would demand her attention, ¡®Perhaps I should just cut the guy open and see if he has everything that a man ought to. Even a differing blood colour would make it clear that these are not ordinary¡­ but that could also be caused by whatever it is that they have to eat in here, so their blood might be dirt-like if they need to consume dirt or something of the sort regularly.¡¯


    Of course, with her mind still functioning at something near its peak, to take in the other unfortunate arrivals from the Planar Continents was not challenging, even as something that was mainly at the back of her mind. Aside from the already mentioned fact that they matched up with those that she had personally observed at the Fashionable Gentleman¡¯s banquet, they were mostly ordinary in appearance and level of power, especially with the forced equalization of the world.


    There was a total of seven, five men and two women. Two were in the third realm, two again in the fourth, and three in the fifth, but now the scale of ever-greater fear on their faces made it obvious that they were all brought down a step or three.


    Five, four men and one of the women, had come with some degree of armour or other practical equipment, with one of the women hiding a dagger within a side pocket of her outfit, while one of the men held a sword far more blatantly. The last two, a man and a woman, had come in a fancy robe and dress respectively, clearly having intended to participate in no combat on this day, and that combined with the fifth realm of the woman caused her fearful look to be almost doubled in comparison to her two fellows in the fifth realm.


    It took them a moment to pay attention to the building they entered, which they did without any of the reservation that Wei Yi had shown, and when they saw her group, relief lit up their expressions.


    ¡°More of the people from the banquet! Have you been here long, or have you also just arrived?¡± an armoured man in the fourth realm, the one with a blade, quickly broke off from the group and inquired, ¡°It is good to see familiar faces either way. I recall you in particular, I think.¡±


    He gazed at Wei Yi as she recalled that he had been sitting not far away from him.


    ¡°If there had been just three, that would have been a different story¡­ We must take care,¡± the grave digger stated, ¡°Quickly, mason, shut that door!¡±


    The mason followed his instructions, breaking out of the momentary pause caused by him also noticing Wei Yi and the other two already standing within the building. Clearly, there was some kind of system for the appearance of the earthen horrors, or at least that was what the native people thought, and the seemingly ever-growing number of outsiders did not make them any more enthusiastic about their prospects.


    ¡°The horrors you two fear ¨C are they able to invade these spaces?¡± she questioned.


    ¡°Usually, they tend not to. They are hostile, but to outsiders they are doubly so, and then even the sturdiest of doors and walls may not hold them back for hold. Hopefully, they have not caught sight of you from the darkness, or else¡­¡±


    His words, too, were cut off by a collision with the door, this time the one that Wei Yi had entered through. However, unlike the systematic knocks used as some kind of password by the mason, what they heard next was the clear noise of something sharp scratching against the stone that made up the door. It could not have been human, no matter how odd a human could be.


    They shared a glance of uncertainty.


    ¡°These earthen horrors happen to possess nails or claws of some kind, do they?¡± a quick nod from the grave digger affirmed her supposition, ¡°What are the other traits? Can they be defeated easily?¡±


    ¡°If they could, we would have no fear of them! They are sturdy, and even the weakest is as strong as two men in their prime. Most will have claws, but some will stride on two legs while others stride on four. Some with have large, hulking forms, whereas others take on a thinner appearance, with which comes a far superior speed to their counterparts. They all share a gaping jaw with a jagged mouth, those spikes acting as teeth for it to devour the people of the land,¡± the grave digger explained, ¡°They do not bleed, only releasing a thin mist of stone and dirt, but it is possible to kill them.¡±


    ¡°Any specifics, or should we just slash at them until they die?¡±


    ¡°You think that you can kill them? Ha¡­¡± the mason began to quietly laugh, getting louder and faster as the scratching at the door ramped up to outright bashing, causing the entire building to shake and dust to fall from the ceiling.


    Then, after a sudden pause in the laugh and strikes at the door, the door was thrown off its hinges, flying into the building and falling just short of Bao Kang Min.


    On the other side, a horror was clearly visible.

 V5C26: Earthen Horror

    Indeed, those things did look alike to the Fashionable Gentleman, or at least the figure that might have taken his place. The mouth in particular was identical, while the rest was awfully close, save for the arms and legs.


    Just as described, what found them was a four-legged entity with beast-like feet and large, almost disproportionate clawed hands, with them resembling large spikes or daggers far more than anything a regular animal might utilise. It had a largest torso, and one not covered by any clothing that might make it seem more human than it otherwise appeared, and a constant torrent of dust seemed to fall from its body.


    The biggest change was in the eyes. In the place of the empty indentations of the entity from the Bao District, these things had bright glowing eyes, acting almost as spotlights as they visibly illuminated the room with a distinct flaming red. Although the shade was similar to the one produced by the light fissures, and the so-called blood of the world that was likely found within them and then placed into the man-made lamps around the area they had found themselves in, it was far from an identical match, and only the fact that it was bright and pierced the dark, at least in part, was truly alike to the comparatively safe glow of the light fissures.


    Unfortunately, this thing wasn¡¯t just a static entity that could be safely observed. The moment that it saw them, the earthen horror seemed to growl with the sound of stone scratching against stone, and took a step into the residence of the grave digger. For a moment, it looked around, casting its gaze and crimson light unto all living things within the room.


    Before it did much, the man equipped with both sword and armour rushed forward, barging past the others and wielding the weapon in two hands, pointing it towards his enemy.


    ¡°This cannot be greater than a third realm planar beast, so permit me to slay it!¡±


    At that moment, although it was not visible in any way, Wei Yi was sure that the man attempted to gather his planar energy and manifest it around the weapon, while circulating the rest throughout his body to empower himself and make himself less vulnerable to attack. Perhaps this was due to her Dao, or perhaps some other instinct, but it was clear that the expected outcome did not arrive for him, although it was not obvious to him.


    On the contrary, his reaction speed seemed slower, and so, when the earthen horror pounced only a moment after he attempted to use his planar energy, he had not had the time to process what he saw, only what he thought ought to occur. He hastened forward, attempting to stab the horror¡¯s heart.


    What convinced him that there was a heart there in the first place was a different question. For the moment, all that the rest of the people in the room could perceive was the fact that the horror moved more quickly, and before the sword had even one chance to touch a potentially vital part of its body, its claws were already falling upon the man¡¯s shoulder.


    The sword did graze the side of the earthen thing, but it could barely leave a scratch. The claws of said thing, meanwhile, easily cut through the metal composing the man¡¯s armour, despite the material being no worse than a three-star metal, tore into his flesh and, with a most audible noise, severed muscle and bone alike in one swift motion. Blood splattered everywhere as the arm fell from its place upon his form, the sword leaving his hands with it as he failed to keep hold of the weapon and instead retreated, bumping into Bao Kang Min as he did so.


    ¡°P-Planar energy¡­ doesn¡¯t work! It-¡±


    The jagged teeth-like mouth of the earthen horror put an end to his sentence, although the man¡¯s performance combined with the exclamation that he did manage to provide were sufficient to illustrate the situation.


    In surprising silence, the small gathering of people scattered to the edges of the room, as far away from the earthen entity as they could get, save for the mason proclaiming, ¡°A weapon wielded meekly cannot pierce the stone shell of the earthen horror! Strength and sharpness are required in equal measure, or else a weapon that is heavy and brute in its application is required for use of a man with an equal degree of both! Outsiders like you cannot use such feeble things! If ye have no better way to deal with the thing, throw yourselves to its mercy and give us time to flee!¡±


    ¡°Shut it, or else you will be thrown over first,¡± Wei Yi said, not turning from the earthen thing, ¡°The rest of you, weapons and anything you can. Don¡¯t care what you get, so long as it is effective.¡±


    ¡°What do you intend to do, outsider?¡± the more amicable grave digger inquired.


    ¡°We will kill the earthen horror, of course. You can participate, if you are more interested in survival than your fellow fleeing straight to the door,¡± she answered, taking that moment to dash forward and straight towards the beast in what appeared to be a purely suicidal act, one that the others were so bewildered by that they paid little mind to it.


    Their attention fell to her command instead, for those few moments that ensured that their drive did not turn to early despair at the seeming blatant disregard for one¡¯s own safety and wellbeing.


    She dove down, under the earthen horror¡¯s open jaw, and towards the blade that fell near to it. Even with most of her power locked away by this world ¨C a trend that was becoming rather alarming, as every district seemed to have some way of weakening her ¨C she was still abnormally fast, strong and possessed a reaction speed that far surpassed that of a great number of combatants in the Planar Continents.


    Indeed, the entity moved, but just a moment too slowly, the claws soaring past Wei Yi¡¯s clothing and missing her by just a single millimetre. Dropping onto the ground, she grabbed the severed arm of the dead man.


    Seeing that she did not have the time to remove the weapon from its grip, she promptly dashed back and evaded another attack, although this one did graze her clothes, leaving five faint marks upon it. Furthermore, it seemed that the earthen horror was angered by her deed, and so it became almost visibly faster as everything around it accelerated. The sand and dust that fell from it dropped in larger quantities and with greater speed, and the blaze from its eyes brightened as it locked upon her and dove towards her with rising ferocity.


    With too little time to attempt to free the blade from the admittedly tight fingers of the man¡¯s hand, she could only dodge to the side while throwing the arm down in an attempt to loosen or damage the digits of the hand. She could pry them apart, as the limb had lost any of the support from the body and mind that had it before, but that did not mean that the fingers were easy to move, and that they would let go of their weapon without a great deal of effort on her part.


    Again, her clothes were scathed, but as she fell to the ground with the arm before her, one of the other people from the Planar Continents, the woman with a hidden dagger, suddenly broke out of the group and leapt right at the earthen horror. Her dagger was held semi-competently, suggesting a small amount of direct experience, and it was aimed for the head of the earthen thing. From the lacking strength and skill of the woman alone, it was more than obvious that it would be inferior in power to the failed strike of the armoured man that now lay in a bloody mess on the ground, but it was fortunate that the entity was distracted now as it had not been at the time, providing a unique opportunity.


    Even then, the thing realised that an attack was coming a moment before it struck, but all that did was guide the knife¡¯s blade into one of its eyes.


    It did not pierce the earthen flesh of the entity, nor was it able to cause much harm beyond a few loose particles of dust falling from the eye socket, but it did stop the thing¡¯s movement for just a little while, allowing Wei Yi to evade its attack. She took advantage of this and stopped in place, momentarily let go of the arm in her hand to shift her grip upwards, to the wrist, and slashed down at the earthen horror.


    Such an attack was also not ideal, but as it fell upon the foe, the blade finally cut into the earthen horror, just by a single minute inch. Nevertheless, it did damage the entity, and as the Ascendant quickly retreated, she saw a large volume of stone dust fall from the edge of the sword, far more than could have possibly been picked up from the surface of the entity alone.


    Indeed, the earthen horror had a visible gash on the shoulder, from which dust and sand fell swiftly and without a hint of ceasing, like blood would poor from a wound of a more ordinary living thing. To those present, this was perhaps the best thing they could have witnessed.


    The earthen horror could be slain, it could be beaten, and it could be done with their limited strength, with the inconvenience caused by Wei Yi¡¯s need to grip the blade by the arm of its previous owner confirming that more could be done with superior planning and a proper grip on the weapon. Furthermore, the others could likely do the same, even if their overall strength was inferior, for they had already found a number of sharp objects with which they could stab at the foe that had invaded their space, one that retained its light for now.


    Those with experience naturally hastened forward first and lunged at the thing while it was still impacted by her earlier attack.


    A sharp nail, a metal spike that came from somewhere in the building, and the tip of a shovel all fell upon the earthen horror. The nail pierced the surface, albeit barely, and left no significant mark. Of course, a larger metal spike thrust forth with more force had a greater impact and managed to leave a sufficient indentation in the entity to cause another stream of dust to emerge. Finally, the shovel was thrust directly at the back of the earthen horror and managed to dig into the thing¡¯s skin-like layer, peeling off a thin quantity of dirt and stone from its surface and revealing that which lay beneath, alongside the largest stream of flowing dust so far.


    To expect the thing to not retaliate would be foolish, but it was what one of the women did, the one that had pulled a nail out of some part of the residence. She attempted to strike the same area as before a second time ¨C a wise choice, albeit not as wise as targeting one of the other larger injuries ¨C but failed to take into account the clear indication of imminent movement displayed by the earthen horror.


    In a sharp movement that might have broken the spine of a regular, living entity, it twisted round and bit down upon the woman. The horror bit off a third of her body, including her left arm and much of her neck with a single decisive movement, covering the ground with yet another layer of blood while it miraculously avoided even a single red stain on its body. How this happened was of no concern even to the ever-curious Ascendant, as there were plenty of reason for blood to not remain upon a form, and instead took advantage of the opening once again, jumping to the back and attacking.


    She chose to thrust the tip of the blade into the open wound on the back, applying every bit of force that she could unleash to deliver the strongest blow possible.


    When it hit the exposed dirt and stone that acted as flesh for the earthen horror, she instantly figured out why that open wound seemed like such a good target even when she could easily strike any of the other injuries forming on its body. As it turned out, the skin layer of the entity was tougher and denser than that which lay beneath, thus meaning that the weapon easily penetrated deep into the horror and went quite far before it could progress no more.


    The dirt of the earthen horror provided just enough resistance that the weapon finally slipped from the hand of its original wielder, and allowed her to toss it away and take up the weapon with her own hand.


    This time, her attention was elsewhere. Rather than focusing on her strength, mind, or perhaps even luck, if one was to claim that such a thing existed, her attention was on the fact that her sword had gone just a little bit further than it possibly could have done with everything that she understood about the target of her attack, and her own abilities. Provided that everything distinct between cultivators was truly equalised almost entirely, her attack shouldn¡¯t have been able to pierce nearly half-way through the large torso of the earthen horror. Since this did occur, as undeniably as anything else within this world of earth and stone, there had to be an explanation to consider, and she did not need to think long to understand one such reason.


    Dao. The highest power that existed in the Planar Continents, for Dao surpassed such things as energy. They were the very nature of the world being comprehended in such a fashion that they could be applied to the world without a drop of energy at all, although this was not the case with the limits imposed by merely duplicating the knowledge of the heavens. However, in the true acquisition of Dao, many limits that she had come across would be no more, for she would grasp one aspect of the world in its entirety.


    For all the flaws within her personal comprehension of Law, weapons and Swords, to be more precise, she still had the level of Minor Achievement in the Sword Dao, Initial Accomplishment in the Ascendant¡¯s Combat Dao, last time she checked, and Full Success in the Ascendant¡¯s Dao itself, although the exact effect of that was more difficult to ascertain in any regard.


    What was certain was that, even without the assistance of the heavens, she had to possess at least an Initial Accomplishment stage of the Sword Dao, when the greater Dao were also taken into account. As a result, even if this world was wholly distinct from the Planar Continents, which may well be the case, she had a certain power that the others could not obtain, or did not have, at least. This meant that she, more than ever, was not helpless in this strange and horrifying realm, and that her every blow could not only be effective in the moment, but also benefit her in the long term, for she would be forced to comprehend certain matters without the assistance of the heavens and the Planar Continents.


    ¡®So, as always, there is a way to benefit from the worst things that could be thrown at me¡­ In fact, there is a better chance for the others than for myself. They will have considered far less than I, and so new knowledge could be obtained purely on their own, while I will need to comprehend that which I have been deprived of now that the will of the heaven¡¯s cannot force its own knowledge upon me,¡¯ she considered, pulling out the blade and pondering the presence of her other Dao.


    She had relied greatly upon the Truth of the Universe to determine her exact stage in each of her Dao, conceptual and actual alike, and thus she was not sufficiently familiar with the typical process of determining their stage using her own senses. It would be suicidal to attempt to master this right there and then, so she was only interested in the vaguest senses that she could acquire, as to distinguish the Dao that she had at the moment from those that she did not. Her vision states had not been present since her arrival, so they were not sufficient indicators even for those Dao in which she most excelled, so a less obvious method was required.


    In the moment, the most obvious Dao to reach for were her Dao of Law, Combat Dao, Sword Dao and the Dao of the Heavens, although that last one she could only hope to apply to the possible heavens of this world, rather than using any of the elements it contained. The Earth Dao might still be applicable, due to the prevalence of dirt and stone in the world.


    Even then, she did not expect the elements of the world to match those of the Planar Continents, regardless of the true nature of the environment that she had found herself in. Thus, the five elements that could be produced with planar energy would act as little more than crude references with little substance. It seemed like the majority of the world was made up entirely of the earthen element, if the principles could be matched up in any way, but humans should not be able to endure it, the earthen horrors shouldn¡¯t be able to move quite as they do, and the light fissures and the blood of the world seemed to be more flame-like in origin, which shouldn¡¯t be expected in a world potentially belonging to a purely earth-type entity.


    It took her a single focused breath to understand that the Dao of Law was, at most, at the Initial Accomplishment stage alongside her Sword Dao and Combat Dao. She did have some knowledge of those Dao, after all, and the concept of Dao wasn¡¯t unheard of in the world even for those that didn¡¯t have quite the rich life experience that she did, so to have a stage of several Dao wasn¡¯t particularly unexpected.


    The Ascendant¡¯s Dao had never applied to much beyond her own abilities, and the concept of ascension, so it was hard to detect its presence. Meanwhile, the Dao of the Heavens did not appear to resonate with anything in this world, so even if it was present, she didn¡¯t appear to be able to extract anything of use from it, as unfortunate as that was.


    Nevertheless, she had at least an effective stage of Minor Achievement in her sword usage, and thus her ability to wield anything that could be labelled as a sword within her own consciousness was empowered. This one was one difference between her own Dao and the Dao of heaven¡¯s will, as one was mostly reliant on herself while the other needed to pass through the mind of the heavens, and thus became limited by it. Now that she was the only one defining her own Dao, she had the comprehensions from them, and the applications of those realisations separated from them.


    She could not make use of a vision state with a pseudo-Minor Achievement stage, and even the Great Success stage would be far less obviously empowering to her, but that was hardly a negative for her.


    The less that she was guided for this time ¨C as she believed with absolute certainty that she would return, although the exact duration of her presence here would be decided by factors mostly outside of her own control ¨C the more she would be able to obtain for herself, and thus she would return with the most power that she could possibly claim. Ideally, she could realise the Dao of Law to the Full Success stage, at which point she would be unparalleled in the Planar Continents and thus equipped to combat the heavens or perhaps even otherworldly demons without much risk to herself, at least in comparison.


    In a way, she could be close to divinity in the eyes of others, as the chains of Law would be controllable by her and her alone for a long while, at least until anyone can comprehend exactly what she had understood.


    ¡®Perhaps I could even defeat the heavens using a Full Stage Dao, although it seems that I would need to obtain a Great Dao to truly rival them. In theory, they should have at least one such thing, perhaps the Planar Great Dao, given the name of the world itself,¡¯ Wei Yi quickly thought, returning her attention to the matters at hand, ¡®For now, the comprehension of the weakest points of an entity that must exist regardless of internal organs, combined with my ability to use a sword, ought to be sufficient to defeat the current foe and learn at least a little regarding the truth of the world.¡¯


    Before, given the warnings of the townsfolk of this strange world, she might have been somewhat worried about her own capabilities, as well as those of the other Planar Continentals, but the worries were abated by the presence of her Dao of Law most of all. Out of everything, she saw Law as being the most fundamental aspect of reality, and so long as she could comprehend the Laws that caused the earthen realm to be as it was, then she would not be trapped forever in its grasp, nor within the restrictions that it imposed. She could attain freedom from it, from the earthen horrors, and eventually from the Planar Continents once she developed her own abilities far enough, but for now she did not actively look forward to such a thing.


    ¡°Everyone, don¡¯t attempt to attack this thing more than once! Simply chip away at it, and we shall win in time, regardless of how much longer it may take!¡± she exclaimed, ¡°Actually, dying would make things worse for us, so don¡¯t do it even if you think you can speed things up by a dozen times, or even a million times.¡±


    That last part got one of the Planar Continentals to change the look that they had, so it had been wise to include it. The exaggeration was a little silly, though, even for that purpose.


    She did not delay in attacking again, doing so the moment that she adjusted her grip on the weapon in her hand. The mouth of the earthen horror was wide open, but she did not believe it to be a viable spot to target in the slightest, as she couldn¡¯t help but remember just how easily the claws and teeth of the thing could breach metal and cut through solid armour, meaning that her sword would be just as vulnerable, if not more so due to its general thinness.


    Rather, she took advantage of yet another point on the body that had already been partly chipped away, that being the spot targeted by the woman whose life was lost to yet against prove the power of the earthen horror.


    Using the piercing point of the weapon, as well as the intricate interior channels meant for the flow of planar energy and the overall shape of the weapon, she applied as much force as she possibly could to strike in just the right fashion to damage the entity the most. Furthermore, the earthen horror moved in a rather predictable fashion, lacking a sufficient degree of intelligence to take advantage of its position, and thus she was able to be sure that it would twist to attack her in the right manner to provide her with even more power for her strike.


    Even as it attempted to end her life in the same swift manner as it had ended that of two other Continentals, it simply advanced its own inevitable demise, for the tip of her blade was offered the perfect opportunity to penetrate the layer of tough skin and touch the softer dirt beneath. Only the first moment was difficult ¨C afterward, it just slid right in.


    The previous wound was on the back of the entity, and whether or not the earthen horror had any vital organs, it did not appear to be able to grant her the right angle to strike at them. On the other hand, the point made via the callous strike of the second victim of this earthen horror made it most suitable for penetrating all the way through the body, thus hitting anything that might possibly be most dangerous to the entity. Even if this was not the case, it had already been confirmed that the more she cut through, the more damage she did to this thing. As a result, it couldn¡¯t hurt to do as much as possible.


    Once the blade was nearly fully inside the entity, the surface of it suddenly cracked, with countless small snaking openings within the stone-like skin opening up before them.


    Wei Yi retreated, uncertain of what this sudden change could bring, but the others did not hesitate to take her place and rush in with everything that they had, stabbing at and smashing the earthen horror with everything from the shovel to a chair. The chair was not taken with permission from the grave digger, who did look rather displeased with its usage in this uncouth manner, but he had to forgive this act for the effectiveness it seemed to have.


    Whatever had changed about the entity once the surface of it cracked, it had resulted in it being extremely vulnerable to even the most poorly aimed and delivered blows, resulting in the chair smashing apart its wrist with ease. Those attacks that were made with more appropriate weaponry were even more effective, and soon the earthen horror was scattered into naught but dust.


    ¡°You¡­ you have slain it? You have slain one of the earthen horrors?¡± the grave digger asked no-one in particular, his mind unable to comprehend the sudden change from horror to victory, ¡°Then, does that mean-¡±


    From the dust, a strange earthen-grey mist surged out and flew towards those that had delivered the last blows to the entity. The vast majority travelled towards those that attacked with a chair, shovel and a bunch of random items found at the home of the grave digger, but a small particle flew towards the Ascendant, who took several steps back in an attempt to evade it before the speed of the particle became too rapid for her. She couldn¡¯t be sure exactly what it was from a single look, not when her spiritual perception was so limited, but no sane man or woman would have imagined it to be beneficial.


    However, with no way to ward it off, she could only attempt to understand exactly what the particle was, and whether it would have any immediate adverse effects ¨C especially ones that she could resolve, or manage in some effective way. Inside of her own body, her spiritual perception remained somewhat effective, so she could detect things that would be entirely unseen outside.


    She waited for any sign of negative effects, and yet, all that seemed to emerge was a warm feeling that filled her body and mind, almost as if she was rejuvenated and awakened after a good night¡¯s sleep.


    A strange feeling of power emerged within her, and she could see a strand of grey appear within her veins, overpowering the weakened cosmic blood that flowed within in terms of prominence. Without taking further action, she could tell that she had somehow acquired more strength, although the exact direction in which it functioned was less clear. Strength could be physical, pure energy, mental or even incidental, in that it would act in a manner similar to luck or fortune, and it was hard to establish which category this would fit into. All that could be certain was that it was present, and that this couldn¡¯t be solely limited to her.


    After all, out of everyone in the room, she had absorbed the least of the earthen horror¡¯s power.


    ¡°Outsiders, block up the doorway immediately, before more of the earthen horrors come!¡± the grave digger instructed, looking to them all in desperation, ¡°Even if you can take down one, attracting too many is too dangerous, understand?¡±


    ¡°That much is obvious,¡± Wei Yi agreed, heading over to the nearest and largest piece of furniture that she can see, ¡°I still doubt your nature, so explain everything that you can, as quickly as you can, while we do all the work again. By we, I do mean all of us, so just because you got the last hit on that thing doesn¡¯t mean that you can just stand around and be all happy about it.¡±


    Thus, they got to work, with most temporarily overlooking the strange grey mist.

 V5C27: The Path of the World

    By the next day, if the world even had the proper concept of days, quite a few more of the Planar Continentals were discovered, alongside many locals that guided them to the homes of the grave digger, and the nature of the world became¡­ well, it would be inaccurate to call it clear in any fashion. It was, clearer than before, due to a few rules being revealed to them, but other than that, Wei Yi was still in the dark regarding the true nature of the world, the location of it, the distance from the Planar Continents, and essentially everything else that she had any interest in.


    What was told to them was a kind of myth shared by the locals, speaking of a power hidden within the earthen horrors that made them partly desirable to them, except for the fact that few could ever defeat them even with everything that they possessed.


    Supposedly, this was a power that all of the earthen entities contained, and it was incredibly beneficial. With every particle of the grey dust, one¡¯s abilities would be enhanced in a fashion that did no harm to one¡¯s own body, which, to those that had no knowledge of planar energy, seemed even more fantastic. It was partly more beneficial to a stronger individual, although the variance was minor and did not meant that weaker men would be wasting the grey dust if they received it.


    The Ascendant herself couldn¡¯t say too much on the topic, her physical strength not being affected too significantly by the small particle that she had gained, but from the effects on the others, it was beyond obvious. Those that had done the most damage to the earthen horror as it began to break apart were able to lift heavy objects with much greater ease.


    In other words, while they weren¡¯t receiving the benefit of a second realm equivalent back on the Planar Continents, they were certainly stronger by a stage or two of the first realm, seemingly without any effect on their cultivation. Even her blood was only touched by the grey strand on its surface, without any direct mixing. Their planar energy remained, and their cultivation did not appear to suffer in the slightest, but their own strength rose nonetheless, and there was likely plenty of room for improvement.


    She was a little confused about the fact that she could sense the energy despite its seeming otherworldly origin, but it soon became clear that she couldn¡¯t draw any conclusions from it alone. For one, she had seen the energy of the House of Gold when it had attempted to devour the lives of its former owner¡¯s forces back in the Kong Prison Realm, and this appeared to be similar. When the grey dust was within the earthen horror, she couldn¡¯t perceive it, but she was able to see it now that it was out. In the same way, the Mask of Yama could be seen by others when it was taken out, but cannot be perceived with spiritual perception and can be easily overlooked by anyone reliant on spiritual perception for their observation of the world around them.


    The only problem was that she was observing her insides with spiritual perception, which was exactly when the energy should be unseen. Even there, however, if the grey dust was showing itself to the world, in a visual manner, then even spiritual perception might be able to observe it.


    ¡®I wish that was my current major concern. With enough time, I would be able to figure out exactly what is happening around here, even with my limited abilities, and the world would be unable to hold any secrets from me. That is not the case, however,¡¯ she thought, bringing her glowing lantern forward as to illuminate the darkened street before her, ¡®For the moment, the earthen horrors are the priority.¡¯


    After the battle, and after a few more of the Planar Continentals had made their way over to the grave diggers home, which seemed to be some kind of gathering spot for the people of the nameless town when they came across curiosities, it was concluded that it would be best to hunt the earthen horrors. Many remained on their own as they prowled the darkness, and so it would be possible to work together and fell them without too great an effort, especially for those who had already benefitted from the grey dust and knew what to do in order to damage the earthen horrors.


    Not all of the new arrivals, nor all of those that had fought the first monstrosity, wished to participate, however. A few had noticed the strange grey mist and did not trust it, whereas others did not believe it to be a good use of their time. After all, the horrors had been endured by the locals, so staying here and simply shutting themselves in when the monsters come should have been more than sufficient for their survival.


    There were arguments about this between almost everyone, of course. Those who would go felt that staying back and doing nothing would be a betrayal and a show of laziness, as those people would simply proceed on with the rest of them once a way to return was found. The others were of the opinion that they would only throw their lives away fighting the earthen horrors, to no real benefit. Instead, it would be far better for all of them to settle down and make the most of this place, allowing for families to develop here and for the Planar Continentals to adapt to the new world that they were forced into by circumstance none could quite understand.


    The Ascendant sided with the former opinion, unsurprisingly, although she did not think that forcing those that had no interest in fighting out into the front lines, so to speak, would be wise.


    None of them would be particularly helpful in battle, as they would never invest their full strength and be as ready to leave as the mason, who was not found even after a whole day seemed to pass in the dark. Presumably, he was devoured by some other earthen horror, which was not particularly concerning to any of the other locals.


    Instead, letting those people work on something that they were more interested in would grant better results overall. Having the basic infrastructure of the world be reinforced by them would mean that they would have greatest access to food, equipment and whatever else they needed, although it was difficult to understand exactly how such things were even obtained within the realm of earthen darkness. All that the Ascendant could obtain from the others was that there were things made of stone-like material that could be consumed for sustenance, and from another a clear liquid would regularly drop that could be drunk without negative effects to oneself.


    Armour and weapons could also be produced from the stone and dirt around them, and they would be significantly more suitable in this world than the feeble metallic weaponry that they had managed to enter with.


    Perhaps this didn¡¯t even need to be said, but the various gemstones that were brought in from those that resided in the Bao District were not of much use to either group. The gemstone-focused arts of the Bao District were reliant upon planar energy, which was absent from the earthen realm, as well as other gems, which were also in short supply. Even in the Planar Continents, with just the gems that were brought over by those that had them, they would not be able to display one percent of their potential.


    Being the one to have guided many of the Planar Continentals in attacking the first earthen horror, she had a degree of authority and trust, even with her obvious injury. She was allowed to comment and remark more than the average person, and she made use of that authority to get the two groups to leave one another alone. Eventually, when the threats to them were gone, they could engage in lengthy debate, but for now, the earthen horrors wandered round them still, and so it would be a waste of time, effort and potentially their lives to do so now. The people on both sides weren¡¯t entirely pleased with such a neutral outcome, but they weren¡¯t too upset, either.


    One thing that they did decide to do, however, was to provide a large number of suggestions for her to go off and contribute as much as possible to the effort of exterminating the earthen horrors in the region. This was a task that all of those that wished to leave as soon as possible would participate in, unless they were literally incapable of fighting their enemies at all, and she was asked to take charge.


    Hence, she was in a dark place, holding up a lantern, attempting to locate an earthen horror that was believed to have passed through the area. She had not yet found any definitive traces, as the entire world was filled to the brim with earth and stone and did not change a bit even if someone chipped away at it for a few decades, so it was hard to be certain of anything other than the relative stability of the world itself. As for the homes around her, or what she had to presume to be residences as she could only see their walls and the tips of their rooves, they seemed fine, not that she even knew what they had looked like prior to the supposed arrival of this wave of earthen horrors, who may well have done nothing at all to the area, or have changed it completely.


    A guide would, in theory, have been useful in this regard, but none of the locals were especially strong or agile. In a large mob, perhaps they would have some kind of threat towards either the Planar Continentals or the earthen horrors, but on their own, they would only serve as meals for the latter.


    In addition, it didn¡¯t really matter whether the area was or was not different, so there was really no reason for her to bring anyone at all along. Some did wish to accompany her, mostly to take some part of the grey mist from the slain earthen horrors and benefit themselves, but they were all Planar Continentals and she refused. She could take one of the horrors on without any help, and the only issue was that she needed to take far longer to avoid enemy attacks while inflicting significantly effective attacks of her own.


    She could manage it well enough on her own, and would do so, if there was a chance.


    ¡®So far, it doesn¡¯t look like it, however. Having only fifteen metres ahead of me is rather bad for searching for things that aren¡¯t usually much larger than a human.¡¯


    Even a larger entity would be difficult to see, but at the very least they would leave behind larger marks and have a larger chance of being obvious to her if she did come across them. With the way that everything was made from dirt and stone, to the extent that it was nigh impossible to tell it apart from some of the supposed wood or glass, she could easily have walked past a number of earthen horrors that simply didn¡¯t stand out as much, and didn¡¯t move for one reason or another.


    In fact, what were the restrictions for those things? Could the entire world be made from them?


    The thought was so random, so arbitrary, that she just had to pause and look down at the ground, putting down the lantern a moment later. Certainly, this was extremely absurd, but she did appear to be in another world, so would this not make perfect sense? The earthen horrors were native to the world, or, at the very least, were extremely suited to it, so if they were able to reside her comfortably, then why would they not be able to hide within the ground and leap out to ambush those that were not prepared for such an attack?


    ¡®Normally, I wouldn¡¯t be worried about looking foolish, but here I am not particularly well known, so the darkness is rather beneficial to ensuring that I wouldn¡¯t get a worse reputation and thus less authority in most regards,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she took out her sword and aimed it at a point that seemed most likely to be the hiding place of an earthen horror.


    Although the sword was weaker against the earthen horrors than it would have been in the Planar Continents, it would still endure a stab into the ground, so she wasn¡¯t concerned about damaging it.


    Her weapon plunged into the ground, and for just a moment, it did seem exactly as it should. It simply penetrated the dirt and the stone beneath, meeting some resistance but not as much as she might had she needed to attack from a less convenient position than this one, where her plunge could use all of her strength in combination with the gravity of the world, the downward pressure of which generally matched that of the Planar Continents so far.


    A moment after, however, a series of large cracks formed in the ground, and a grey mist floated out.


    She had quite a bit to say on the matter, but she simply couldn¡¯t get a word out while the grey mist floated into her, and her exclusively, greatly overwhelming the amount that any of the contributors to the first earthen horror kill had received.


    Again, it seemed to only cover her blood, not directly modifying it in any way, and this time, the effect was far more obvious, with everything from her breathing to her strength getting noticeably better. It was essentially all that she had been able to observe about the others, intensified by a noticeable bit, although she couldn¡¯t say that it was an entirely linear progression, rather seeming to provide just a little less benefit than one might have expected from the amount she had received the first time an earthen horror was slain.


    ¡°Not that I have any right to complain¡­ Rather, how did I figure out where to strike, and to do so in the first place?¡± she frowned, for this was far more significant than a power that did not appear to actively result in any detrimental effect, ¡°The stone here was indeed different, just a little bit, but that¡­ ah. Dao. I understand three of five possible combination of earth and the elements in general, and when combined with the Dao of Law, Sword Dao, and so on¡­ it is not impossible that I would detect something subtle. That is the whole power of the Initial Accomplishment of Dao, after all, although I had presumed that this originated in no small part from the will of the heavens, not the Dao itself. Clearly, I must have been mistaken, or else some part of the heaven¡¯s insights have been brought along with me¡­¡±


    There was something about this that she clearly could learn more about, but she could not wait now that she discovered that the entities she and the rest of the Planar Continentals hunted may reside within the walls and floor. Their impression was that they were purely aggressive, so that it was clear that this was not the case, it needed to be reported.


    While the others may not have quite the same luck and ability to perceive and deal with the earthen horrors as her due to the difference in their Dao, so long as they were aware of the possibility, they could be on the lookout for it. After all, there were certain signs that could be perceived so long as one put in the effort, and so long as a sufficient number of weapons were held by the outgoing forces, they could just stab at and smash everything they could. With enough effort and time, they would destroy everything that might lurk near the surface, and then they wouldn¡¯t need to be afraid of attack while repairing everything they damaged.


    Who would even know what the world would end up being like after the earthen horrors, even if it was only the local ones, were dealt with? Perhaps they were, in some part, the cause for the black fog that obscured the entirety of the world, and removing them would allow them to see further into the distance, somehow. It was a little absurd, of course, but so was attacking the street in order to damage an entity that had no right to hide there after the behaviour shown by its fellow horror.


    Rather than going straight to the grave diggers house, however, she took her time and progressed through the streets, seeking other hidden entities. There was no reason to assume that there would only be one hiding in the ground.


    There turned out to have been a total of five within the ground, at least so far as she had been able to observe. She did not only stab in places where she was almost certain that something was amiss, but also in those that just seemed a little odd in one way or another, resulting in her sword being in a less than ideal state by the end of it all.


    She did clean it, but without the right equipment for it, she wouldn¡¯t be able to properly sharpen the blade, and it would fall into decay and lose any value that it still retained.


    This was not something that she would allow to happen, simply because there was no good reason at all to do such a thing, and because it was rather difficult to find a replacement to her weapon. There were quite a few swords around the nameless town in which they had been forced to reside in, but all of them were made from a stone-like substance ¨C presumably, actual stone that would be more suitably called a metal-like stone instead ¨C and were not ones that she wished to even attempt to utilise. In her mind, this was not a safe thing to do, and neither was it particularly reasonable to use a strange stone against more strange stone.


    A normal, functional weapon was best, regardless of the origin, and it would have to be one that she had created, although it was difficult to guess whether there was even such an option in this world. She had relied too greatly on her own physiques and energy, and hence she would be unable to do much without them. This was rather unfortunate, but she couldn¡¯t do much about it unless the grey dust that gathered in her blood vessels would be able to replace either one.


    That wasn¡¯t even guaranteed or likely, so she had already spent a little while on her way to the alleyway in which she had discovered the first hidden earthen horror to calculate a way to apply as much of her existing smithing knowledge to forge a weapon that would be suitable for her. She wasn¡¯t that much of a fan of swords, as strange as that might seem with the number of swords that she happened to use over her life, preferring her fists and hands, as well as claws, but none of those were particularly easy to use, not to mention the fact that they worked far better when one had two hands to fight with. Her current star metal gauntlets were already sufficiently tough, enduring a few tests against other weapons, but with their limited reach she could not confront most earthen horrors nor do much damage against their earthen forms.


    She was slowly beginning to hate the word earthen, which was a far less significant issue.


    The five horrors that she had dispatched with more ease than she had expected at first had all contributed to her power, and that meant that her strength had now notably risen, to the extent that there was essentially no chance of anyone from the Planar Continental group defeating her.


    And yet, she knew from the very moment that she had seen the first earthen horror that this would not allow her to act as she wished within the darkened realm. Those things were terrifying for one without planar energy, but given the nature of earth, there had to be far, far more entities out there that she couldn¡¯t handle with her current strength and equipment. For instance, horrors made of stone rather than tough brown dirt, and entities that were far larger, faster, and stronger than the one that she had actually fought.


    Perhaps there would be entities made of gemstone as well, given that this realm had been accessed through the Bao District, but it was also the case that most gems were rather hard and durable, at least against certain attacks. It would be entirely reasonable to see the strongest entities being composed of the strongest types of diamond that existed in this world.


    It was with this though that she had returned to a street where lights were prevalent and where people could be seen, most armed and ready for attack just in case an earthen horror made its way towards them yet again. These people had all benefitted from the first slain entity, and so they would have some chance against the dirt and stone-made things, and they were keen to fight while the rest of the people remained behind them for the moment, pursuing various attempts and crafts.


    There were all kinds of people that had been pulled into the darkened world, with some presumably simply not being in the area when they appeared and thus not yet known to them, and they had a variety of specialties that had a chance to be useful. The only issue was that the extremely limited materials and tools combined with the lack of planar energy made it rather difficult to actually utilise the vast majority of their skills. Without the same kind of experience that Wei Yi had, it was more difficult for them to adapt, and the lack of familiar items to work with made it far more complicated to know what knowledge they could even apply here.


    Essentially, they were experiencing the same issue as she was, just with far less preparation for something like it.


    Once on a street within the domain that they had claimed in the nameless city, she did not need to go much further. Sure, her perception was currently unable to stretch beyond fifteen metres horizontally, and twenty metres vertically, but that was not applied to her in a manner that meant nothing could reach out further. Everyone on their streets was placed so that they would always see at least one other person at the edge of their vision, two if they were not at the end of a chain of people.


    That meant that so long as one of them was informed of something and called out to his or her fellows, the message could spread throughout the entirety of their zone and be delivered to those that needed to hear it. In this case, it was the majority of the combatants, so things would need to be a little more complex, but not that difficult.


    ¡°Everyone, I have something significant to report regarding the earthen horrors!¡±


    Her voice easily reached the warriors stationed on either side of her perception, and they then shared the message with those that they could see, condensing the wording to simply mention earthen horrors.


    It took a little while for everything to be passed along, but once it was, there was a sudden appearance of numerous figures from the darkened fog, with each one curious what it was that the one-armed woman had to say. Most were not familiar with her, or the word of the Ascendant that had slowly been spreading to the south, so the only significantly abnormal thing that they could latch onto was the fact that she had a single arm and yet more fighting prowess in this kind of environment than most of them.


    All of them had tried only going as far as they would need to in order to be within view of Wei Yi, but that proved rather difficult with the number that accumulated. They had occupied a rather large area, and so they needed to use nearly two thirds of their total willing forces simply to secure the area. Hence, it was all the more important that they figure out a way to expand their range of perception, as they could technically secure larger areas but were simply unable to do so due to the fifteen metres that were keeping them in check.


    Once they were gathered, however, it was her time to speak.


    ¡°I have discovered that the earthen horrors can also hide within the ground. Rather, something that also releases grey mist was doing this, as I have not verified the exact appearance of the entity hidden beneath the ground, but I suspect that they are also dangerous to us,¡± she explained, noting the fact that none of the entities had actively attacked her, not even when she was on her fifth kill of the day.


    ¡°Hide within the ground? Why would any of those things just sit in the ground and do nothing to any of us?¡±


    ¡°Why the fuck would I know? Are you saying that you understand the full nature of the entities that we are facing? I certainly do not, unfortunate as that is, and so we just need to know what is happening for the moment. Once we figure out how to work with the rules of the world, we will likely have understood a little regarding the purpose of them, and will then have the time and energy to further comprehend said purpose,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°Just think about it for a moment, and you should understand that wasting your time understanding why something occurs before dealing with it can be rather dangerous for the moment.¡±


    ¡°How many have you found that were like this? Is it just a coinci-¡±


    ¡°No, it is not a coincidence. I found¡­¡± she turned so that her voice would be clearer for those on the other side of her perceptive radius, ¡°¡­ a total of five such entities within the ground. I don¡¯t know why they did this, when they had decided to bury themselves, or who may have done it for them, and I don¡¯t know what their full body looked like. Anything else?¡±


    ¡°How did they-¡±


    ¡°No idea. Somebody could have come along with a shovel, or maybe they can move through earthen objects with far more ease than we anticipated after the difficulty with which the first one had attacked the door. Perhaps there are different earthen horrors with different abilities that we need to consider.¡±


    She couldn¡¯t answer any of the questions, and neither could the others here, nor the local people. None of them were aware of what the Laws of the world were, whether it was another world, or even if anything they were seeing was absolutely real. Perhaps they were all befuddled by an illusion of the world in which they were in, and the truth of nearly everything they beheld was not what it appeared. Without knowing any of this, attempting to understand the why of anything was essentially pointless, as they might simply figure out the fictitious logic of a world that will not remain as is for long.


    As such, she was going to make sure that they had their priorities straight, even if they ended up going their separate ways for one reason or another. While she did not have any arbitrary attachment to anyone here simply because they were from the same world, she was interested in keeping the civilised and semi-intelligent ¨C well, if one wished to be particularly critical of certain negative elements of society ¨C people of any worlds in the best state possible.


    ¡°In that case, should we just attack everything, everyone and everywhere?¡± one particularly inquisitive person asked after a brief pause.


    ¡°No, that is not ideal. I would, however, suggest to the apparent owners of the town that it might be a good idea to temporarily destroy some buildings to confirm that there are indeed no hidden earthen horrors within them. There don¡¯t appear to be enough people in the town to actually require so many residences, anyway, so it might be wise to do this even if we find nothing, if only to make guarding the place easier,¡± the Ascendant explained, glancing around and finding that there were unfortunately no townsfolk paying attention to her announcement, ¡°For now, just attack any place on the ground that looks abnormal, provided that your weapon has the durability to spare. I don¡¯t know how much force a blunt weapon will require, but if you can just grab a random rock, it should be enough.¡±


    With that, she had little more to say, so she nodded and let them return to their original places, while she sought out someone from the town, preferably the grave digger, to ask them for permission to demolish their homes and property in the hope of finding some earthen horrors. If that proved successful, then they might also have the hope of warding off some of the darkness in order to make their lives slightly more pleasant. However, the chances were ultimately low.


    Of course, not everything would ever be that simple.

 V5C28: Madness, True and Terrible

    Eight days later, things were different, and few of the changes were truly positive to the Planar Continentals.


    First, the positives shall be mentioned, if only because there were so few that one could count them on a single hand, making it especially convenient for the Ascendant. Their first and most notable attainment was that of decent weaponry forged from the metal-like stone found in the basements of certain residences after they were broken down. This equipment was neither perfect nor entirely identical to what was often used back at the Planar Continents, but it was still highly effective and seemed to be more useful against the earthen horrors than the usual metal swords were, perhaps due to the blunter nature of these weapons.


    Against dirt and stone, a sharp tool such as a sword needed to be far sharper, and thus far more fragile than usual in order to have much success, and even the shovel that had proved to have some use against the first earthen horror had lost the ability to damage those that came after. Now, it was delegated to simply digging through the ground and clearing away destroyed buildings.


    The second change was one relating to their overall visibility, and it was not the kind that would actually be desirable in the darkness. Instead, the structures that they had destroyed had indeed provided them with some more grey dust-like energy from a number of hidden earthen horrors, and then opened up a great deal of space for them to stand around in. This was something that they had wanted, so that was fortunate, and it was indeed confirmed that they barely needed the living room offered by all of these residences, even if the structures did offer a far greater degree of vision than the outside. To replace them, a plan to construct walls and a ceiling over a large portion of the explored town using the gathered materials was created, but it did not go too far for the moment.


    Finally, they had learned a bit more about the world, and could now say with confidence that there were indeed more types of earthen horrors that performed various activities for purposes that were so far unknown, and that there was something at the core of all of their actions.


    In theory, taking out this entity would be sufficient to advance their goals by a great degree, although it was hard to have any certainty whether this would simply affect the darkness, their energy, or the world itself, as a whole. Ideally, it would be all of those at the same time, and it would grant them a great deal of freedom and opportunity to do more in the dark without fear of being torn apart by the earthen horrors the moment that they allow a lapse in concentration.


    This was where all of their problems began. The simplest aspect was that the entity that they needed to fell, a kind of earthen horror that resided deep within the ground, through a long series of tunnels that they had only begun to explore three days ago, was incredibly powerful. It was known to be gigantic from the mere tremors that its breathing caused, and from the growth of power of horrors that increased as they got closer to the lair of this thing, it was clear that it wouldn¡¯t be easy to defeat whatsoever.


    Had they had all of the warriors that they had begun with, this might have been somewhat imaginable for most of them. As one might imagine, however, this was not the case ¨C nowhere near, in fact.


    The problem that did come about was to be expected, given the origin of the grey mist that had begun to empower all of them once they had found at least one earthen horror to hunt down, either within a wall or floor or out in the wild, so to speak. It was one that Wei Yi had been wary of, but had been forced to put aside when it did not appear to apply to her, with her being the only person that she was able to inspect in the same detail as she would have liked.


    Those that had defeated more earthen horrors than most suddenly found that they began to see things in the corner of their vision every now and then. This began only a few days after they appeared in the darkened realm, and it looked to occur only to those with the grey mist in their veins ¨C interestingly enough, the Ascendant was safe from this, and could not detect what it was that was causing their problems with her limited senses. Furthermore, she could not advocate that they stop fighting the earthen horrors, for it would both raise suspicion about her motives and also weakened the forces of the nameless town relative to the enemies that they were fighting, which were slowly getting stronger as more powerful earthen horrors emerged from the depths.


    With this alone, there wouldn¡¯t be that much to worry about, as the darkness would naturally inspire certain visions in the minds of those that were not used to it, and yearned for brighter sights and greater clarity of vision.


    On the seventh day of their exile from the Planar Continents, one of the stronger combatants suddenly went berserk. His weapon in hand and his eyes almost glowing red, he rushed at the nearest living thing and tried to cut it apart into a thousand pieces, raving and laughing in a tongue that none of them could understand, although this was likely due to the words being so terribly mangled and not due to his discovery of some new language that none of them knew.


    Luckily, the person that he attempted to slay was none other than Wei Yi herself, who was still at a slight advantage to most of the people present due to her luck ¨C or ability, depending on what one wished to call it ¨C in discovering hidden earthen horrors, as well as her general combat strength and skill. She was able to contend with him fairly evenly, then, after almost five minutes of fighting without either side being able to inflict any injuries, the man provided her with an opening after attempting to spout more incomprehensible words at her, and she was able to slice off his head in a single cut, the weapon forged for her only a day ago proving to be highly successful and effective.


    This was all observed by several others, who verified that she had not attacked first and that there was something wrong with the man from as far back as four days before, where his behaviours were clearly changing, albeit to such a slight extent that it was hard to be certain of anything. One also said that he had complained of strange visions that none of the others could see only a day ago.


    Questioning the others with high quantities of grey dust within their blood led to a single conclusion, and it was not an optimistic one by any measure. The grey mist, either by design or due to some issue between it and the human body, planar energy or something else entirely, would drive anyone who was exposed to enough of its influence to madness. Everyone who had the most mist reported at least a few symptoms that had driven their first loss to insanity, and those with even the smallest drop of it confirmed that they were the ones to see things at the edges of their vision, while those who had never been near an earthen horror were free of this. As such, they knew that they could not sit here and wait to build up their territory and power before trying to free themselves.


    The Ascendant did not experience any of this, and yet this was more concerning than if she had the same symptoms as everyone else.


    With her current focus on Law, what she desired, perhaps needed, the most was some degree of consistency and logic to the world. This was something she could track down in excess, back in the Planar Continents, for despite the confusing mess that it all appeared to be, there were relatively simple answers hidden away everywhere, just waiting to be discovered by someone like her. She was fond of that, to put it mildly.


    Here, where she could not be sure of anything, what she needed was a series of constants from which she could expand her understanding of reality, and this was not easy when she was finding the very notion of this being reality a little stranger by the hour. Nothing overt was occurring to lead her to believe that this was not real, but the way in which the world behaved did not seem to be allowing for long-term existence, only short-term progression from a group like her own, which could be the case for any number of reasons.


    Back onto the odd lack of symptoms that she experienced, she wished that she could know why this was the case, as the worst-case scenario, that of a blatant irregularity in the world¡¯s rules, would be incredibly dangerous. It would mean that things could occur without any rhyme or reason.


    At that point, not only would her notion of Law collapse entirely, even if she did eventually return to the Planar Continents, but it would also mean that anything could happen at any time, and she would be completely incapable of predicting it. Her Endless Calculation, which she couldn¡¯t use anyway, would also have its foundation rocked, for it could only ever compile as much evidence as possible to then arrive at conclusions that were as close as possible to the truth, and at the truth that could be if her limited knowledge was all that existed. This was used by everyone to work with the future, whether they knew it or not, and something that meant that even absolute knowledge would be useless would completely ruin their chances of survival.


    Fortunately, with the range of abnormalities that came together to form her current nature, it was not impossible for something to affect this particular matter without doing anything to the other restrictions of the world. Some of the dantian bones settled within her body, for example, could be negating the madness for the moment, or perhaps her bloodline and physique came together to cancel out the toxicity of the grey mist that flowed atop her blood.


    There were plenty of problems aside from this, however, like the fact that they would need to attack the strongest entity within roughly two weeks if they wanted to have a chance of making it out alive, and possibly leaving the darkened realm as well. This also meant that their construction effort would have to be for naught, for the large structure they wished to create to cover the town in light would not have enough time to be built. It would simply remain as a half-finished pile of stones for the rest of their stay, no matter how much of their time and effort they invested into it, no matter how many went to work on it.


    This did mean that their overall forces were increased by a certain extent. Given the rather low amount of information about the grey dust, it was hard to assess whether it was merely amplifying the madness, or directly causing it, and so the people currently residing in the nameless town did not think themselves safe from it just because they have fought few earthen horrors.


    They would need to put in some effort to become as strong as the outgoing forces, but it was not impossible for them to catch up in the given timeframe.


    Hence, they began their preparations as quickly as they could, and essentially told the locals that were either unable or unwilling to attempt to fight alongside them to hide in the buildings that they had not destroyed, near the centre of their taken territory. There, the people could reside with reasonable safety behind reinforced doors, and await the end, whatever that end may be. It could be that of the Planar Continentals, of the darkness, or of the very world itself, revealing whatever lies behind it to them.


    ¡°The skies are climbing, the skies are-¡±


    ¡°Listen to yourself, you madman,¡± Wei Yi muttered, bashing the fourth figure of the day to begin hallucinating and crying out all kinds of nonsense. They weren¡¯t yet completely gone, and did not begin attacking, so their words were still legible, even if they were absurd by any meaning of the word.


    Another six days had passed, and it was clear that they could not delay any longer. Almost half of their overall forces were now residing within sealed chambers where they would be unable to affect anyone negatively while the rest of them worked, trained and slowly travelled further and further away. This would secure them from attacking others, and prevent the earthen horrors from being able to get to them while they were lacking the right equipment to combat them. That being said, they would still be able to defeat them due to the high quantity of grey dust within their blood, and might be better at this due to their maddened state affording them far more focus on battle than the typical concerns and thoughts of sane people would allow them.


    If their state could be secured for even an hour or two, perhaps letting them come on the expedition to the depths of the darkened world would be beneficial to them, but there appeared to be nothing that could suppress the words that they had to spout, the glazed look of their eyes, and the strange gathering of dirt and earth on their skin that no degree of effort could clean.


    ¡°What will happen if we fail?¡± one of the fighters that had a high quantity of grey dust and yet retained a mostly sane mind asked the Ascendant, ¡°At that point, will we have just wasted everything?¡±


    ¡°I constantly wonder whether you are intentionally doing this, or if you fail to consider of the fact that everything will be wasted if we all go mad and do nothing? We have to do this if we wish to live and have any chance at all, which is, I assume, something that all of us wish for, and so there is no point to question this,¡± she replied, drawing her weapon, ¡°I thought that we had already all understood this, didn¡¯t we?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Apologies, the madness distracted me.¡±


    ¡°Frankly, I don¡¯t entirely trust you here, but that¡¯s irrelevant. Let us go, right now,¡± Wei Yi instructed, keeping her stone blade out just in case. The earthen horrors were prone to attacking without sufficient warning, as one might expect from mostly mindless entities. ¡°Keep within sight of me.¡±


    Theoretically, all of them could just remain within sight of at least one other person in the group, but this would not be ideal in ensuring that all of them were safe and sound throughout the journey. For instance, if they kept at the longest possible distance from one another, then they could easily be picked off one by one with some careful timing by either the earthen horrors or another force that might see them as foes. Whether this would occur in a moment of sanity or otherwise was insignificant, for they would be dangerous regardless.


    ¡°Just because you have obtained less dust than I does not mean that you can simply dismiss my plight, you know. To constantly experience this is¡­ terrible.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure it is. However, if you lose your ability to reason completely, then I would suggest that you do not attempt to speak such things out loud, at least. Once we¡¯re done, one way or another, especially if we break out of here, then you are free to make whatever remarks you wish. If I fuck something up, then you may criticise me however much you like, although it better be fair, or else I can and will hit you if you go too far.¡±


    ¡°You have a very strange way of inviting criticism, Wei Yi,¡± another person said.


    ¡°I have not been in the best mood for some time. As such, I think that providing a warning is very fair, especially if we are on the road out of here. After all, there, I am significantly more powerful than here, and yet most of you struggle to land a hit even with the limitations imposed upon me.¡±


    Two days, and now they stood before it, an enormous thing made of golden opal, with the faintest hint of that familiar figure sitting within the centre, its open mouth and jagged teeth grinning at them.


    They-


    ¡°No!¡± Wei Yi suddenly cried out, as everyone around her, the earthen horror included, froze for a moment due to the sheer abruptness of her exclamation. It was as if a silent entity had released a sound after decades of silence. Although the horror quickly resumed its movement towards them, she was not interested in it at all.


    After so long, seeing this golden opal thing, she finally realised and understood that thing that had been gnawing at her mind since the beginning, and its form allowed her to be as certain of her conclusions as she could ever be.


    ¡°This world, all of this, is wrong! You are that thing from the banquet, aren¡¯t you? All of this¡­ it¡¯s you.¡±


    The entity did not provide her with an answer, and there was no movement within the golden opal, but she did not care.


    ¡°Frankly, I don¡¯t know exactly what you are, but I have finally understood that this, whatever this is, simply does not exist. Not yet, anyway. I should not be able to see otherworldly energy within myself via spiritual perception. There should be no reason for all of my energy to remain and yet be arbitrarily limited, for the very nature of another world means that foreign energy is uncontrolled, if it still functions at all. Here, however, there are straightforward, constant limitations that simply shouldn¡¯t exist!¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, is this the best time? That thing-¡±


    ¡°That thing is false! Come, strike at me. Do it. Right now. I¡¯m sure that wouldn¡¯t take any effort at all for you, given the immense web that you have spun around us.¡±


    It had already begun to swing its enormous golden opal limb at them, and so it continued, seemingly uncaring for all of their words. This would make perfect sense, given the lack of interest displayed by the earthen horrors for their previous pleas, and with the way in which the maddened souls from the Planar Continents also lost their ability to respond in any sensible manner to outside stimuli, it would seem that such uncaring attitudes were normal here.


    The limb descended, and in moments it was almost in contact with the Ascendant.


    ¡°Feel the effort of us so-called mortal pests!¡± she exclaimed, her eyes suddenly igniting like the cosmos.


    A burst of celestial energy, wrapped and bound in countless thin and distant chains, surged out of her, and supporting it was a dense layer of more crimson power that greatly supported the larger volume of energy. Silver and dawn light merged together, splitting off from her centre and covering her left in silver and her right in orange, burning through the world with absolute heat and cold.


    An immense darkness and shadow spread out from her left, especially from the covered-up wound that would never heal, with crimson bursting out from it. A fine and feeble silver almost slipped beneath the dawn light, but in terms of power it was far superior to it, tearing the darkness of reality apart.


    ¡°This wound should not have remained open yet closed, and it should have either bled or healed itself with no restriction from the world to consider. However, I guess that not even you can overcome the heavens, oh Fashionable Gentleman!¡± the Ascendant stated, forming the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow with her palm directly aimed at the golden opal earthen horror, ¡°You want to see the kind of effort we put into our own lives? Then I shall give it to you, now, without any restraint. Feel the power of an Elysian Blast!¡±


    The shadow collapsed and surged out with blinding light, piercing the crystalline surface of the enormous earthen horror and touching the thing that hid beneath.


    ¡°What an amusing notion I have beheld. To slay eternity with the feeble act of a mortal-¡±


    ¡°You have no power of Law, and you might hold a single Dao at a high level, at best. You are weak, and even if you have lived for all eternity, that does not mean that you will always be superior! Eternity and mortality themselves are of no significance, only that which one achieves with them!¡± the Ascendant cut off that disgusting voice, spreading her arms ¨C simulating this act with her left, as always, ¡°Even here, you could not cut off my Dao. You could not cleanse my energy. You could not kill us all with the darkness, so what did you choose to do? To flood us with your own power, so that we may fall into madness and become your pawns, or perhaps merely die within your hell.


    ¡°I did not wish to become Ascendant, but I have never been one to refuse that which I am given. This applies to my power, and this applies to that which you have given me in such ample quantities via your earthen horrors. Do you know what I am best at?¡±


    The entity did not speak.


    ¡°Everything around me is akin to an open book that I can learn from. Every artefact can be of use, every drop of energy can bring me that one step forward to the next stage, the next realm! You, meanwhile, have granted me an ocean of your own power, and with it, understanding that would have required decades to acquire! So, with it, let me show you what I had reserved for those damned Great Families.¡±


    All of the energy that had gathered around her surged out, sinking into the bodies of all those that accompanied her, all those that fell behind, those that died and those that still remained within the nameless town. It sank into the ground, the darkness, the theoretical sky and into the countless earthen horrors that lay in wait, and from all of these things tendrils of her energy drew out a grey dust which flowed with utmost speed into her body, accelerated by her own effort¡­ and that of the entity that looked upon her.


    She knew that it did not believe in her ability to succeed, and so gave her so much power that she could not possibly endure.


    However, even had she not been witnessing her odd immunity to the grey dust since the first drop that she gained, she would have still taken this gamble, for merely witnessing the dust allowed her to comprehend a great deal of the Earth Dao. Most of it was merely boosted by the heavens, undoubtedly, but in one go she felt a vision state forming, perhaps to the point of reaching the Full Success once she was done with all of this. It would take time to digest, but it would be worth it.


    All of her energy surrounded that grey dust, and burned through it with all five of her separate types of energy. There should have been nothing that she could do something against something this powerful, as shown by the first moments, but then it just¡­ melted.


    In a moment, it broke apart into raw power that flooded her meridians, all of them at once and in quantities that she could barely contain, forcing her stages to advance with such a speed that the bursts of power that surged outward merged together into a single unceasing wave of absolute energy, overwhelming the sights around her.


    The darkness was scorched away, the earth disappeared, and the entity made of golden opal vanished into naught. All that remained was the entity that had trapped them here in the first place, and even that could only stare upon her in disbelief as the faint traces of reality appeared around them, the hints of buildings, roads and even people slowly fading in through the immense obstruction that the earthen thing had been able to manifest. Perhaps it had been immortal, eternal, perpetual, but it had a limit, just like all other things.


    ¡°So this is the effort that I shall face¡­ Soon, mortal thing. Soon, you shall be felled, and the world shall return to those that it had belonged to, before your attempts at insurrection.¡±


    ¡°This form, then, is not a display of your full ability? In that case, I shall get rid of you as well, just to send the rest of you a message. I don¡¯t care who you used to be, what position you used to hold, for there comes a time when you must give up what you have worked for, and leave it in the hands of others. You, clearly, were not content to do that. Let me do it for you.¡±


    She shut her eyes, and the next moment, the mirage of the Endless Monolith dominated the district, towering above it and occupying the entire central region with its five-sided radiance and power. Around it, a pair of shells, one crystalline and another resembling the carapace of a thing long forgotten, domed the entire area, covering it from all outside observers. Upon the surface of the Subterranean Shell, one hundred perfect searing marks joined together and burned with a radiance that grew progressively more violet in shade, as if the stars were burning through them and illuminating the world. At the centre, a quiet, small rift released energy in perpetuity, forever flooding her dantian with power regardless of circumstance.


    An enormous burst of energy flooded out of her body, consuming the area and completely overwhelming anything within the nearest hundred metres. A ray of crimson, silver, shadow, dawn and moon light, the chained cosmic energy and the radiant bloodline power all surged up, through the Endless Monolith, and reached up and up, soaring through the air towards the peak of the Subterranean Shell.


    Just as they came into contact with one another, a great wave shook the Subterranean Shell, spreading from the top to the bottom, gliding through the middle layer of the shell and washing over every single mark upon the core.


    It was as if, upon that contact, each mark suddenly sunk in space by a mile, drilling into a void and unveiling the light of a violet cosmos that lay beneath the fabric of reality. From every single searing mark, an astral light burst out with enough radiance to overwhelm the sun and moon together, and formed a single blazing mark that covered the entirety of the inner layer of the Subterranean Shell.


    From the inside, this same effect was visible, except that the light of the marks also formed into thin strands that reached towards the Endless Monolith, just as all of the power from the stars washed over her and disintegrated her form, assembling it anew in the next moment. The remaining influence of the darkened realm was scorched away, and at the last moment, when her body had almost regained its stability, her dantian burst as the outer layer cracked away once again. Behind the perfect lustre that it previously possessed she now saw crystal, a fine, black and smooth surface that matched with the appearance of her anchor.


    Within her mind, her Third Eye lit up with a new energy that closely resembled that of her empowered spiritual will, which also advanced to the peak of its current realm. Both it and her spiritual perception remained relatively simple in appearance, but there was an absolute, immutable quality to them.


    As her eyes opened, she beheld the Bao District, and the central open plaza which most districts possessed. There were no traces of an earthen entity, and her vision state could not assist her in the slightest in detecting even a single trace of it. Her left arm was still gone, with her lacking the opportunity to develop her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow much within the realm that she had been in for some time, and although she wished to linger and comprehend the situation in full, she knew that she had to move on to make up for lost time.


    The blast of energy from her breakthrough did not seem to alert anyone, but it did connect her to the spatial stabilisation point, which meant that she had no reason to remain.


    Thus, she did not.

 V5C29: Approach to the Gang District

    She was unable to confidently name the entity that had trapped her in the Bao District, nor was she too sure of the state of the others that had been trapped, although she was able to confirm that time had passed, and that she had not been forced into an illusion from the moment that the banquet began. On the contrary, it began far, far earlier, and seemed to start from the first time she gazed upon the walls of the district.


    This wasn¡¯t obvious due to reality and illusion appearing to match in most places, but none of the people that she had spoken to in the illusion had any memories of her in reality. Instead, they appeared to have ended up in an equivalent of the Fashionable Gentleman¡¯s banquet in their illusory world, and were then trapped similarly to her. In fact, through their memories it was all the easier to confirm that, despite the seeming detail that she could remember from the darkened realm, she could not actually recall a single face, or many names, or much of the specifics of what she had done there, which matched with the experiences of the others.


    Out of the names that she did catch, and out of the people that she had seen, the woman she had spoken with at the banquet did not appear to exist, and neither did Bao Jing, although both Bao Ru and Bao Kang Min were realm, just to name a few.


    As she had broken through, she had dispersed the illusion for everyone, possibly including the Patriarch himself, and so they were momentarily preoccupied with understanding what had happened and did not notice the remnants of her energy. On one hand, she had wanted to speak with the Patriarch prior to ending up in the illusion, but on the other, it did not seem like a good idea to appear now, as she could always explain things after he has had the time to resolve any problems that might have occurred as a result of being trapped until the end of the month.


    Given that she had ended up near the Bao District on the fourteenth, and then left on the first, it meant that she had wasted a good sixteen days on being trapped in an illusion, something that she wasn¡¯t too fond of. She hoped that the growth of her abilities would make this less likely in the future, although, speaking of which, there was a great deal of developments with all of her cultivation paths.


    Planar energy had reached the first stage of the Linked Channels realm, as one might be able to tell from the thin strands of energy that manifested upon her breakthrough. They joined what she could only call Astral Scars and her Endless Monolith, providing a constant bonus to all of her planar energy, although it also looked like the passive bonus of the one hundred joined marks was doubled by the Astral Scars, resulting in the full amplification of the marks being applied to her at all times. With the added channels, the overall increase was practically absurd.


    She could already see the potential for the perfected realm bonus of this realm, as well, although she would need to get at least one perfected stage in order to have a better idea of what to expect.


    The growth of her killing will was also relatively straightforward, more so due to remaining within the same realm as when she entered the darkened illusion. She was now at the very peak of the sixth realm of killing will, temporarily keeping it within the same realm as all of her other paths, and the next step would lead her onto the Yin-Yang Conduit realm. Once there, not only will the range of her energy grow by a significant margin, but she suspected that she would also be able to manifest the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow far more easily and in a far more stable form, although that stability would be impeded if she reached the realm before any of her other cultivation paths had the chance to advance even by a little bit.


    For now, she was simply able to reach out even further beyond, and do even more with what she had. The shadow of her killing intent grew darker, the crimson became brighter, and the calm silver light of her spiritual will remained about the same, although its power still rose.


    Her physique energy reached the next realm through a rather tremendous shortcut permitted by the sudden infusion of energy from the earthen entity. Originally, she would have had to work her way up to a full physique vein circulation throughout her system, but the burst of energy allowed her to instantly circulate the physique energy throughout all of her body and thus infuse it into everything, thus granting her the path to the next realm. At the same time, her physiques were also brought forward by a significant degree, which meant that she would need to take a little while to process all of them.


    First and most significant, her Yin-Yang Ascendant physique rose by a stage, bringing her to the Imperial Yin-Yang Physique level. In simple terms, this meant that the effect of all of her other physiques was now two stages higher, and in more complex terms, it meant that she was receiving the same benefits from it as from her Dao, meaning that if the two were also able to combine together, even if it was somewhat inefficiently, she could easily raise the level of certain physiques by dozens of stages.


    Her Sun Regalia and Moon Regalia alike rose to the first, Greater Stage. Soothing Moon rose to reach the equivalent Superior stage of the Bright Star physique, same with Silver Form and Mortal Deity. Concentrated Humanity and Displaced Sanity both advanced to the first, Pure stage, and her Blinding Glimmering Heart rose by one stage to become the Enlightening Glimmering Heart, presumably due to all of the earthen energy that she had been dealing with within the illusory realm of the earthen entity, whatever it was.


    She had collected the ember of the remnants of the realm, and that brought the appropriate physique to the Superior Lord of Cinder stage, and as a result, she suddenly realised that a completely new ¨C speaking in terms of what she had obtained, not in terms of what existed in the world ¨C physique had been awakened within her body.


    The Elder Watcher physique was a powerful one, with some relation to the Shaper¡¯s Grasp and Conqueror¡¯s Eye physiques, as well as those that made up the latter, and it was likely awakened due to the empowerment of her Third Eye and spiritual perception. It had two primary abilities according to various descriptions of it, with the first being the ability to see past illusions and various kinds of falsehood, although too few have possessed it to get any clearer descriptions than that. The second was much akin to the ability of Shaper¡¯s Grasp, and partly synergistic with it, as it allowed the cultivator to distort reality and manifest their will upon the world.


    ¡®In fact, that should work well enough with the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, allowing me a little more control over conquered areas without needing to invoke Law,¡¯ Wei Yi noted at a point in her journey.


    With all of the time wasted getting out of the Bao District, she had not wished to waste even a single moment, so she did not pause to verify the effects of the physique. It did not seem to be too different from what it should be, so she didn¡¯t have any complaints even if there were some minor variation in what she ended up being able to use. Simply having one or the other ability would assist her greatly, but having more would always be good too.


    Back onto the topic of physiques, the Conqueror¡¯s Eye had also advanced to the True Conqueror¡¯s Eye, and that was essentially it for the list of physiques. She had not been able to gather up that many more since she had initially obtained most of those currently on the list, in no small part due to the fact that the requirements for obtaining a physique seemed to be quietly rising with her every realm, meaning that she was going to need certain abnormal situations like discovering an otherworldly clone of herself in order to make much more progress in that manner. Fortunately, the number of physiques did not directly translate to her power, so this was not as bad as if she had been unable to gather up more perfected stages.


    Finally, her bloodline power had reached the sixth realm as well, that of Vital Elaboration, and it might well be the first realm in which she could hope to see some development beside the standard amplification of a bloodline.


    Vital Elaboration, as one might guess from the name, focused on the power of the cultivator and advanced certain important elements of the body and blood beyond the level that one might consider human. Furthermore, it was meant to boost the so-called ultimate form that one could achieve via the previous realms of bloodline power cultivation, but since she didn¡¯t quite possess an origin from which such a form might emerge, she had been unable to appreciate such benefits. This could very well change soon.


    From the Vital Elaboration realm, she would be able to obtain some kind of ultimate form of her own, and by the peak of bloodline power, she would almost certainly be able to activate it when necessary to greatly empower her own strength, with the properties of this form being able to multiply the multiplier of bloodline power by at least a single fold, if not more. There could easily be other properties, but those would only emerge once she obtained them, and while she could always pursue specific abilities, the path of the Ascendant was still limited to a certain range of strengths and powers. Doubling other forms of power and consuming those that were compatible was the core, at least so far, and so that is what she expected to empower in the future.


    If there was some kind of Blood of Law, or a Law Physique, or Law Killing Will, or perhaps a cultivation method named the Path of Law, then she suspected that she might have been able to reach much further, but for now, she could only make do with what she had, not that this was particularly limited in any significant way for the moment.


    Within the first stage, she couldn¡¯t say that she was feeling too much of a difference. So far, her internal organs and vital functions were about the same as she remembered them being, akin to that of a typical human but different thanks to her own work on improving her own body. Ideally, this would partly direct the path of Vital Elaboration, and would thus result in her retaining a certain vital element of humanity that she could identify within any single organ or muscle, but she knew those affected by Primordial Corruption, such as Mo Zhouquan, and knew there were other possibilities.


    That black-blooded woman, as her current partner used to say, had been transformed significantly, and while she was outwardly very similar to anyone else in the district where they had met, her insides and her mind were both affected significantly, in a way that Wei Yi would prefer to avoid.


    As for the thing that she had dealt with, her current guess was that it related to Primordial Earth, one way or another. With the powers displayed by it, as well as its capacity to subdue her perception to such an extent that she would gradually overlook more and more significant factors that would break her out of the illusion, not to mention the corrupting influence, it was very likely that it was some minion of a Primordial Deity, if not a fragment of one itself. She did not think that this was the actual Primordial Earth, however, as it was still meant to rest after the battle with Kong Shi Meng. If it had broken out, it would not need to plunge a domain into illusion in order to dominate it, which meant that it was not in an ideal state.


    It would explain a great deal, however, if this theory was correct to any extent. The Bao District was incredibly rich in earth-type energy, and all of the gems were touched by it. Thus, they were likely manifested as a result of the Primordial Earth¡¯s remaining power, although they did not appear to carry the same corruption as it did. Otherwise, she would not have left the district anywhere near as quickly as she did end up doing.


    The question of why she had been immune to its direct influence was also unexplainable for now. As powerful and capable as she was, to completely endure a great quantity of corrupting influence flowing straight into her blood did not make much sense, no matter how one looked at it. Even at the very height of the fifth realm, with ideal conditions, she did not dare to call herself as powerful as things that had existed for countless years and had once dominated humanity as a whole. True, age was not the only deciding factor in one¡¯s power, but what was clear was that the Primordial Deities were threatening entities, whether to Kong Shi Meng, Yi Shi Ming, the Greats or any other force, alive or dead.


    Most likely, it would be some kind of lucky coincidence, but if there was something about her that specifically endured the power of the Primordial Deities, she would be rather concerned ¨C not about them, but herself.


    There would need to be something about her mind, body or energy that was specifically capable of combatting them, and that would suddenly make her a very valuable target for anything interested in either fighting the Primordial Deities, or ensuring that combatting them is impossible. The Blood-tinged Church had already made use of her blood and found her useful, so if they learned that she also had this ability somewhere in her bloodline, they would doubtless be intent on catching her as soon as possible. After that, only they knew what they would go on to do with her.


    Being a sane person, at least for now, this was not something that she wished to happen, and so she was careful to keep her presence down and her attention up, just in case.


    With her current state, travelling from district was even easier, especially with the sixth realm and the flight that it would enable her the moment that she figures out a way to adapt Law to manifest a sixth realm flight method. She could cross the gap between districts in half a day if she so wished, but there was one thing that she came across as she travelled that prevented her from rushing as quickly as she possibly could.


    It was a beast-pulled carriage, with a large, long white-furred entity at the front that was practically dragging itself through the snow, its mouth open as, or perhaps so that, all of the snow in front was fed straight into its gaping jaw. Whether this was to feed the beast or for some other reason, she wasn¡¯t sure.


    These kinds of beasts weren¡¯t particularly significant on their own, and it was instead the carriage and the person within that prompted her to drop back down to the ground. Within, she had seen someone familiar, and thus wished to see whether she could get a better view inside with her spiritual perception by literally finding some kind of excuse to enter. Although she was in the sixth realm with literally all of her cultivation paths, had a great improvement in the Earth Dao, obtained the Elder Watcher physique and improved her spiritual perception to the point that its invisibility to others became absolute, she still had limits to what she could observe.


    For whatever reason, the carriage was sufficient to obstruct all of those.


    ¡®This too, is Law¡­ just as me saying or thinking that is likely to become Law soon enough, if it isn¡¯t already. However, the only kind of absolute, immutable property is one that operates outside of the system that it attempts to affect, as, otherwise, it cannot overcome limitations. There are always boundaries, and breaching them cannot be a simple matter of effort, talent or energy,¡¯ she thought while planning for the best spot to land, ¡®The otherworldly demons have a good grasp of this, I think.¡¯


    Having met no experts on the matter from there just yet, she couldn¡¯t be certain about this, but the fact that even people like Fu Zan were aware of a notion of a speed of light that no object with mass could reach or surpass due to the Laws of Orbis preventing it was a good sign that they were familiar with similar concepts, and likely more so than the Planar Continentals. Given the difference in their development and how they used the energy of their world, this only made sense. For those from Orbis, simply overpowering weaker restrictions was a little too costly.


    With a familiar person, she could have jumped in quietly and calmly, but she decided that it was best to present a more accurate image of herself than what the person had originally seen. Thus, all the way from the sky, she simply fell onto the ground from a great height, not slowing herself at all.


    She was tall and muscular, so she did have some weight to her, and through a quick application of the Earth Dao, her landing sent an enormous shockwave that forced the beast to a stop.


    As she straightened her back and looked into the carriage from the front-facing window, she said loudly, ¡°You seem like a familiar face. Would it be an issue for me to enter the carriage for some part of your journey?¡±


    Naturally, even had they been close friends prior to this, such an entrance would have drawn some strange looks and strange thoughts, for there was no reason for a friend to drop in from the sky in such a literal and unexpected manner. The person on the inside looked at her in an attempt to recognise her, most likely, but due to her wearing only her Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival, she was not dressed in a style familiar to anyone in the southern regions.


    ¡°You¡¯d done a rather good job at making a fur cloak for me, so I wished to thank you.¡±


    Another pause followed, but after a little while, she could clearly see the woman in the carriage nod and open a door on the side for her, without any further invitations or statements.


    She nodded back and quickly made her way over, for there was no particular reason to hold anyone up when they were both clearly heading somewhere, whether together and to the same destination or not. The door was ordinary in design, save for the material clearly repelling spiritual perception far better than most that she had seen, and the inside was much alike, with two places to sit at the front and back, facing one another. The woman sat at the back, facing the front, so she took the opposite position and sat on the side, as to not block the view too much.


    Once the beast in front began to move again, the woman spoke first.


    ¡°I had not expected the cripple to get this far, even with the beast you had hunted.¡±


    ¡°I may have a single arm, but I am not crippled. Eventually, I will be stronger than I could have ever been with an ordinary arm, and it is only a matter of time before this occurs. Look,¡± Wei Yi manifested the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, dispersing it a moment later as to not make the limitations obvious, ¡°That being said, a simple merchant travelling in a carriage like this¡­¡±


    ¡°The Gang family, for all its faults, remembers traditions and the past well. We remember much of what the rest of Yi City has forgotten,¡± the woman replied simply.


    ¡°Gang family¡­ We are both heading to the same place, then, I assume? I think it would be best if we introduced ourselves, as neither of us were particularly forthcoming when we had last spoke at the Qiang District,¡± she suggested, not following up on the suggestion just yet.


    ¡°Is there much of a point? I was selling you a service, you made use of it. Must we go beyond that?¡±


    ¡°Fine, I will state the obvious. Near the peak of the sixth realm, with over fifty channels¡­ you aren¡¯t some ordinary merchant, not unless you¡¯ve got the luck that the heavens wish they had. You are going to the Gang District in a rather effective carriage for hiding your energy and identity, and you are also more surprised to find that I have recovered so well, not that I am in the sixth realm, like you are. Who are you?¡±


    The woman sighed, ¡°Gang Xiu Ling. I had the chance to become Matriarch of the Gang District once, something that you are unlikely to know.¡±


    ¡°My name is Wei Yi. No such luck for me, although I have killed a Patriarch and fought a few more already. Ever heard of the Ascendant from up north?¡± the lack of a visible response did not deter her from continuing, ¡°Given that you had the chance and ended up being a merchant at the very south, I can only assume that you either refused¡­ or weren¡¯t able to take it. I can always help, if you want, so long as you are better than the current Patriarch or Matriarch. Are you even interested, or should I just leave and go my own way?¡±


    She had been able to remain calm before the mention of the offer, but Gang Xiu Ling¡¯s face changed the moment after it, revealing a great deal of buried resentment through her eyes. After looking around, as if they were in a more public space than an otherwise empty carriage, her gaze returned to the Ascendant.


    ¡°Northern Ascendant¡­ I think I recall something on the topic. Fine, I will be as clear and as straightforward as you wish me to be. It is true that I had wished to become Matriarch, and that I may very well have claimed the position without what happened next,¡± Gang Xiu Ling said, glaring at her, ¡°There was another that vied for the position, and his name is Gang Shu Wen. After Gang Long, our previous Patriarch had died of old age, we were going to have a selection according to the old traditions of the Gang family, and this did proceed as expected at first. I say at first, because there is usually an unspoken understanding that certain topics be avoided.¡±


    ¡°Certain topics?¡±


    ¡°¡­ There are a lot of things that the south does not approve of. We believe that we all have specific roles and positions, and that there are certain things that we simply shouldn¡¯t do. For instance, we hold that marriage is a significant element of life, and that relationships were to be between men and women. Strictly speaking, there is no issue with other partnerships, but only for what one might call recreational purposes, and ideally never in public.¡±


    ¡°So, your opponent decided to reveal those kinds of things about you, and in doing so, even though you had never gone beyond the acceptable boundaries of southern society, he was able to use this to build up a case against you, leading to his victory and eventually your departure from the district.¡±


    Gang Xiu Ling raised an eyebrow, ¡°You are clearly not from the south with that kind of attitude. Also, have you been at the Gang District recently?¡±


    ¡°I merely used what you had mentioned to make some basic deductions. I would hope that most are capable of doing the same, or else I would be very concerned about the state of the world and of the people that I am attempting to aid with my battle against the Greats¡­¡± the Ascendant paused, ¡°What exactly happened? I don¡¯t know your selection process all too well, so it¡¯s hard to know whether you even have the chance of returning.¡±


    ¡°In theory, I do. The process of deliberation and selection lasts for a whole year, but from the third day, he began providing a single bit of evidence for actions that contradicted the expectations of a new Matriarch. He had begun with the proof of my past female lover, which, since I was fully aware that I might need to occupy this position, I had been sure to keep quiet and reserved, as any previous Patriarch or Matriarch would have done. The next day, he came up with something else, and then something else the day after, and after a year of slowly bringing up more and more significant elements, I was found to be unsuitable,¡± Gang Xiu Ling explained, ¡°One or two errors would have been tolerated, but so many¡­¡±


    ¡°Is the order in which he presented his findings the reason why you began with mentioning the southern stance on relationships?¡±


    ¡°Do I need even need to explain that I hold a grudge? The fucker could have begun with anything, and have presented anything, but he chose that, of all things¡­ My former lover didn¡¯t help, although it was clear that she had simply been trying to protect herself and her family¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­ Right,¡± Wei Yi leaned forward, manifesting her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow so that she could lean on her left hand, a posture that she vastly preferred to using her right hand, ¡°We have slightly shifted from the original topic, so let me just briefly return us to it so that we may be sure whether there even is any point to a conversation like this. Just imagine if we talk about all this and simply conclude that we cannot work together, or that the current Patriarch is one that would actually suit my interests far more.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t think that he¡¯s an asshole?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve not met him, but for all I know, this is a necessary evil. Admit it, had you thought of it, you might have done the same.¡±


    The woman opposite her frowned, but after a short while, she was unable to refute such a claim. Clearly, she was no saint either, which was to be expected for anyone that might have been at the top of any organisation or group. This was fine, though, since the Ascendant herself had long ago been convinced that any attempt at sainthood wouldn¡¯t be good enough for what she wanted.


    ¡°So, let me ask the thing that I care about most, at least for the moment. Right now, and if you were to claim the position of Matriarch, what would your stance be on the Great Families? Do you believe it is best to elevate the power of the world, even if it puts us at risk, or to drop it as low as possible to keep us safe?¡± Wei Yi paused, wishing that she would have free reign to move her left arm without dispersing and manifesting it repeatedly, as that would allow her to put the two sides of the argument onto a metaphorical set of scales, ¡°You may take your time, but I don¡¯t really think that you need to do so. In this regard, a stance should have formed long ago within your mind.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right. While I am not certain what would be best, I know what I want. The world must be stronger and better, never weaker, even if it is incredibly risky to us all. We did not construct walls and defences only for them to remain untested.¡±


    ¡°And the Greats?¡±


    ¡°I know less of them than you might wish me to, but what little I have been able to hear from my parents has convinced me that they are a blight to the world.¡±


    Wei Yi scattered the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and reached out with her right hand, offering it to the future Matriarch, ¡°In that case, we can very well get along for the moment, and I might even have some ideas for getting you out of your predicament, although you must obviously have some ideas of your own since you¡¯ve decided to travel back to your home district. Let us work together and improve the world, Gang Xiu Ling.¡±


    ¡°I hope this goes well, Wei Yi.¡±

 V5C30: District of Tradition

    Not long after shaking hands, they returned onto the discussion of previous events, and it inevitably led to a certain point.


    ¡°By the way, your reaction to my preferences¡­ Is that a northern standard?¡±


    ¡°You mean the preference for women? It is common over at the very north, but at the Central Plains, where I¡¯m from, a more neutral stance is generally held by the majority. However, when one has the same preferences as you, it is hard to treat this as anything more than a minor, insignificant detail, whether in the grand scheme of things or the minutia.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ Ah, so that¡¯s how it is¡­ There were some rumours about that, weren¡¯t there? You might not be aware, but very little of your actions have gotten over to the south in full. All that we have learned for the moment was that you may be a tyrant, might be a hero, might be a man in disguise, and might have very openly slept with some woman that the man I heard this from was very attracted to, despite never having seen her and only hearing tales of her beauty,¡± Gang Xiu Ling said, looking over her, ¡°You don¡¯t seem like a man, and that is all that I¡¯m sure of, to be honest.¡±


    ¡°That would be the first I¡¯ve heard of such an impression ¨C both you not seeing me as a man or the various rumours. Would you believe that I had been able to disguise myself as a man when I was younger?¡±


    The immediate look to her flat chest was a sufficient answer.


    ¡°You had said that you knew of some ways in which you could help me. Do you intend to use your identity and power to force the Gang District and family to act?¡±


    ¡°While I may be able to do this, I would first like to consider something a little more simple. For instance, what is the restriction on same sex relationships based on? Is it that the south generally dislikes such partnerships, or is the issue with them that they may prevent you from having children and continuing your bloodline?¡±


    ¡°The latter, which is also why it is generally acceptable if it is done quietly. So long as it does not interfere with general, well¡­ so long as I fuck some suitable guy enough and get the family a few capable children, there is no real reason to stop me from having orgies with women on the side.¡±


    ¡°In that case, why was the report of your preferences even significant?¡±


    ¡°First of all, I had spent far more time with my lover than the guardians would have liked. They believed that it could lead to me forgetting to do my supposed duty. Then, there is the issue of me being a woman with interest in the same sex, rather than a man. While the south generally prefers a degree of physical strength and endurance, the Gang family¡¯s techniques in particular necessitate a strong physique, just like the older techniques of Yi City. An area in which men have a natural advantage, as even someone with a body like your own would have to agree.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I understand that very well. Had I followed a different path and had the same resources, I could have been stronger had I been born as a man, although I don¡¯t think that it would have been an overall improvement, nor do I wish for that to ever occur. I happen to prefer the way I am now, frankly.¡±


    ¡°Same. It would be rather unpleasant to have ended up in a different body, even if the memories of this life never came to me¡­ At least, that¡¯s how I imagine it. Without memories, there shouldn¡¯t be any difference what kind of person I become, and what kind of body I end up occupying, unless our souls are indeed as unique and specific as some believe.¡±


    ¡°I would rather not comment on that, but I happen to have experienced the memories of a man. It was strange, and it took me quite a while to get over all of it.¡±


    ¡°So, the significance of the distinction is?¡±


    ¡°If all that is necessary is you having children, I can make it so that your interactions with other women can be treated as a strict positive, and as a step forward for the district as a whole, opening up a whole new path to advance beyond tradition while still adhering to it,¡± Wei Yi explained, raising her hand and conjuring a book of killing will with no title on the front, ¡°Just take a quick look and tell me if this is acceptable to you.¡±


    The manual was based upon the Yin Soul Yang Root, except for the many minor and major modifications that she had needed to make to the method in order to accentuate the unexpected transformation aspect, and to allow someone with less yang energy and fewer yang-type techniques than her arsenal to achieve that same effect.


    Obviously, given the degree of discomfort she had needed to deal with when she had first stumbled across that effect of the Yin Soul Yang Root, she wasn¡¯t just going to throw this at someone without properly explaining exactly what could occur. That being said, with her own experience, she suspected that this would be a far preferable alternative to needing to sleep with some random man found by the family for the sake of procreation. In fact, depending on her exact desires, having a cock might be an improvement without any negatives at all in her eyes.


    She watched as the potential Matriarch of the Gang District slowly read through the modified technique, and observed the eventual realisation of exactly what it was that it permitted.


    ¡°Is this¡­ even possible?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that this doesn¡¯t mean that you aren¡¯t interested. The advantages of this are rather significant, and you could always claim that this was what you were attempting to develop in secret, before your competitor had thrown it out without sufficient context. If that wouldn¡¯t work, then there¡¯s bound to be a better way to explain it, with or without involving the past. As for whether it¡¯s possible,¡± Wei Yi lowered her hand to her waist, parting her robes in order to expose what lay beneath.


    Although she still wore the tight custom-made underwear made by Fu Zan, it was hard not to see what lay beneath, especially not for someone very familiar with what should normally be found in that part of the body.


    ¡°T-That¡­ isn¡¯t that¡­ a¡­ a man¡¯s-¡±


    ¡°No men are involved, don¡¯t you worry. In my case, it was an excess of yang combined with a rather rushed situation where I had too little time to process what I was doing. In your case, I have worked on the technique a little bit, and it can be used in full so long as you are able to find someone to cultivate it with¡­ I¡¯ll have to decline in advance, as I have plenty of other things to handle.¡±


    She fixed her robes, as the continuing stare was making the woman¡¯s intentions a little uncertain and her gaze rather uncomfortable.


    ¡°You mean that you aren¡¯t interested in being on the receiving end?¡±


    ¡°That was one of the fastest recoveries from a moment of embarrassment that I¡¯ve seen in a very long time¡­ In part, yes. The rest is none of your concern, so let us just focus on the technique itself. Are you capable of cultivating it, are there any issues you are able to foresee, and is there anything else that needs to be discussed before we move onto addressing the countless other issues with the current plan of putting you into the position of Matriarch? From what I recall, there were a total of three-hundred and fifty-seven issues to deal with, and only one has been brought up so far,¡± the Ascendant switched the topic as quickly and directly as she possibly could.


    She wasn¡¯t exactly uncomfortable with admitting certain preferences and faults that she had, but she would rather have it occur at a time less vital than now. The year was slowly drawing to a close, and her journey back to the north, to a battle against the Greats and all kinds of other foes of Yi City, had been delayed time and time again, albeit not without some benefits to herself.


    Once things were done and calm for a while, she could easily share each and every one of her fetishes and turn-offs in great detail, if she wanted to do so and there was anyone that would actually listen to her. Even those that had developed a rather unreasonable and uncomfortable interest or attachment to her due to anything from the Dao of Lust to some aspect of her appearance or personality would likely get tired of such a list a short while in, and she saw no reason why every detail even needed to be known by anyone, herself included.


    After all, the majority of desires could and would only ever be carried out in one¡¯s fantasies, and she did not need to make use of any of those for all kinds of reasons.


    ¡°No, the technique appears to be within my capability to practise, and, after the long time I¡¯ve spent thinking about the marriage that I might need to participate in had I become Matriarch, this does seem vastly preferable to any alternatives, at least those that I¡¯ve been able to think of,¡± Gang Xiu Ling said, ¡°As for the three hundred and fifty-six other problems, well, not all of them matter. Essentially, so long as the biggest reasons for them to pick Gang Shu Wen over me are removed, or if a greater reason to not select him is found, it may be possible to convince the guardians to allow me to challenge him for the position.¡±


    ¡°How would that work? Has he received any benefits that would bring him onto the Oblivion Halo realm, or are you expected to cultivate to it on your own?¡± Wei Yi then pointed out the obvious issue that would arrive from the former possibility, ¡°If they¡¯ve already spent resources or energy on him, they may be reluctant to change their selection even if you were a better choice.¡±


    ¡°¡­ True. And most people are rather difficult to persuade if it would mean that they¡¯ve done something wrong. There would need to be something extreme to lead them to change their mind, wouldn¡¯t there?¡±


    The Ascendant shrugged, ¡°You know the answer better than I, so I¡¯m not sure why you¡¯re asking me. Still, while it may be challenging, things like the technique I¡¯ve given you can be explained as something that only came to fruition at a later point, so rather than making a mistake, they were simply unaware of certain information that might have led them to arrive at a different conclusion. The two of us will know that this is essentially the same thing, but they won¡¯t.¡±


    To say that she was being entirely honest with the woman would be a blatant lie, although she had yet to provide a single falsehood to the potential Matriarch. Rather, by making it seem as if the two of them were going to be working together perfectly, she was attempting to make her overlook any instances of her using the exact same methods against her in the future, if she needed to.


    Wei Yi needed to be prepared to burn some bridges and break some alliances in the future, especially those that were only formed by the need to defeat the Greats and grant her Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters some more power as quickly as possible. Perhaps some would remain in a good relationship with her faction, but especially in interactions driven by personal benefit, she did not expect that she would have that luck too many times, and with too many people. Gang Xiu Ling could always prove to be a reliable ally in the future, at which point she could always explain and clarify any of her actions that might otherwise be misinterpreted in a negative way for her, but if not, she would rather keep as many cards to her chest as possible.


    On a completely insignificant note, she had never had the opportunity to play any kind of card game in all of her years of life. It wasn¡¯t much of a problem, but the analogy brought up the thought.


    ¡°So, what are the biggest obstacles in your way if you intend to challenge Gang Shu Wen? I can help with certain matters, but others are more suitable for you to handle, given that you¡¯ve at least been to the Gang District before, unlike me,¡± she said, ¡°At least we¡¯re closer to the Central Plains than the Qiang District had been, so I won¡¯t be completely lost.¡±


    ¡°Out of all the districts you could have come to, the Gang District may be the most different, at least out of those that I¡¯ve been to. Our focus on tradition has kept us many years back in comparison to some of the more ordinary districts, like what the Yi District is meant to be. If there is anything that you need once we¡¯re there, it would be best for you to ask me to either get it for you, or at least to advise you on the proper way of going about it, as you may be thrown out otherwise,¡± Gang Xiu Ling mentioned, ¡°Now, the biggest troubles are fortunately few. I can only think of four other issues.¡±


    ¡°Four? Alright, go ahead, tell me all about them.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s in the seventh realm, and I am not. This is a rather big deal, as he has already been provided with the resources to reach it and they will be unable to give them to me, even if they really wanted to.¡±


    ¡°I can resolve that easily enough. Modifying your technique and giving you a few materials should be sufficient to bump you up to the first stage of the Oblivion Halo realm, and if it isn¡¯t necessary to be in the seventh realm, then it is rather easy to let you have the strength of that realm for a little while. After that, the experience might even allow you to reach the realm yourself with less effort,¡± the Ascendant said.


    ¡°You speak about the seventh realm far too casually, even if you think you can reach it easily.¡±


    ¡°Trust me, in a few more months, the seventh realm will be very standard. It will be the eighth or ninth realm that everyone attempts and struggles to enter, and even that might be far easier depending on how events in the future proceed.¡±


    The potential future Matriarch looked at her with a strange expression, but ultimately chose not to comment and moved on, ¡°The second issue is that I have lost a number of supporters that my opponent has not. Although the guardians and other people that may be involved in the selection process are meant to be impartial due to tradition, it is also just as traditional to have personal interests and preferences. As such, we need to figure out a way to change their minds regarding their chosen selection¡­¡±


    ¡°Do we need to make you seem better, or him seem worse?¡±


    ¡°Both would work just as well, although spoiling his reputation is both easier and more likely to seem like I am acting in a deliberately negative way, while supporting mine is harder to prove and maintain, but it is significantly more positive and far harder to depict in a negative way¡­¡±


    ¡°So, what you¡¯re saying is that both should be done in moderation, right? We use whichever one we can wherever we can, and do our best to balance these out so that it is clear that you are simply showcasing your strengths while indicating the faults of your opponent. I can help with improving your own ability, whether it is simply perceived or true, but you know your enemy better than I will, even if you begin explaining right now.¡±


    As with everyone, especially now that she was out of the restrictive illusory domain at the Bao District, she had been browsing the mental domain of the woman opposite her, and so even if Gang Xiu Ling did provide her with a lengthy explanation of everything that there was to tell of her foe, she might learn little. The mental blocks that most people had within their own subconscious might in fact limit her information and lead to her saying less than her reading her mind would allow Wei Yi to learn, completely defeating the point of even asking for any kind of information to be provided. It was funny how that worked.


    The potential future Matriarch nodded and moved on.


    ¡°The third trouble is that we need something significant that would cause them to consider not only letting me into the district and into the higher echelons of society that I had left, but also to challenge the current Patriarch. This isn¡¯t something that will be obtained by convincingly manufacturing a tale of his preference for the same sex, for instance, not just because he already has a wife with whom he spends quite a bit of time in private, but also because shifting the foundations requires good reason.¡±


    ¡°That much is obvious, and it seems like something we can think about for a while. Perhaps we don¡¯t need to invent anything, just unveil something to the world that he had kept hidden.¡±


    ¡°Would they believe us, though? Clearly, if the knowledge had been hidden away for all the years that he had lived, then it would need to be proven sufficiently for the guardians to actually listen and care about the things that we say. It is rather challenging to prove anything in this world, however¡­¡±


    ¡°Fortunately for you, that is something that I¡¯ve been considering myself, and for quite some time. I can remember almost everything perfectly, so as long as I am able to observe it, or if you choose to share your memories with me, I should be able to not only broadcast it once the time comes, but also prove that it is as authentic as it can be. This will not be possible right away, however, as I have not ironed out any of the ideas that I have been wanting to put into practise a little later than this, and with a slightly larger audience that a few guardians.¡±


    ¡°When did you wish to use it?¡±


    ¡°When confronting the Great Families, to show the entirety of Yi City, and possibly beyond, that they have kept immense quantities of knowledge and power away from them all, and that they are a plague that must be purged if we are to survive and prosper, as we would have done had the Master of Yi City been able to remain and keep us on the path of constant growth.¡±


    ¡°Say¡­¡± Gang Xiu Ling suddenly got a scholarly and wise expression on her face, ¡°Would that be a safe or sustainable thing to do?¡±


    ¡°Safe? Depends on what you mean, exactly, but there is no problem with resources, unlike the situation of certain otherworldly demons that have come to my lands over at the north. Due to the way in which planar energy functions, everything that is derived from it, and thus everything of value to us, is essentially infinite, and even if we were to literally devour materials to attain growth, all materials that are appropriate for a certain planar energy concentration will simply come to be somewhere where we have not yet looked,¡± the Ascendant explained, ¡°You¡¯ve seen how planar energy can never be exhausted, how we can constantly harvest more herbs and treasures, how there are always sufficient materials for blacksmiths to create all kinds of weapons and armour.


    ¡°That is the way of the heavens, and that is also why, as planar energy allocation ¨C essentially, how much of the maximum quantity is present in any one space ¨C rises, we will begin to see the return of certain materials. In theory, spatial metal should come about soon enough, although I do not have the knowledge of what it looks like, nor where it would be found. This is rather unfortunate, but I shan¡¯t bother you with all of the details.¡±


    ¡°Thank you¡­ for all of that¡­ anyway¡­¡± Gang Xiu Ling¡¯s momentary bright expression had faded by that point, and so she seemed to have lost whatever spark of inspiration had driven her to ask the question in the first place, ¡°A-Anyway, the fourth thing¡­ what was the fourth thing?¡±


    ¡°Did I say something abnormal?¡±


    ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t know. It just suddenly slipped my mind, but I am pretty sure that it wasn¡¯t necessary to cover it right away. I¡¯m sure it will come to me once we¡¯ve had a night to rest.¡±


    ¡®I get the feeling that it won¡¯t be that simple, but I can protect a single person with great ease. Fortunately, she isn¡¯t coming along with an army, or else it would have been difficult to resolve the issue once the times comes,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, glancing out of the windows of the carriage in an inconspicuous manner, ¡°Sure, let¡¯s do that, why don¡¯t we. Doesn¡¯t sound odd whatsoever.¡±


    The woman did not appear to pick up on the sarcasm in her voice, and instead returned to reading the technique manual, her cheeks getting noticeably red as she was reaching the ending of the manual. She would occasionally glance up from the words and look upon the Ascendant, perhaps hoping that she would look away for a little while. This was not something that she did for the rest of the journey, and it appeared that the potential future Matriarch also realised that there wouldn¡¯t be much of a point to looking away when they were sitting so close to one another, in the same carriage, and with their spiritual perception occupying the same space.


    It was best for them to be focused upon their entry to the district rather than simple distractions, which even Gang Xiu Ling had to realise after she had gotten through every word in the manual. They were all simple enough, with Wei Yi specifically having removed any and all ambiguity that old techniques tended to build up across the years of failed improvements and minor and insignificant changes, so there was little to mull over. All that she¡¯d need to do was find a willing participant and make use of it.


    Thus, both of them looked out of the window that was most convenient to them as the carriage travelled down an open road to the district, and finally reached the gates of the Gang District, which looked to be prehistoric ¨C figuratively and literally. It was far older than the walls of any other district.


    All of the districts had originated from various settlements, tribes and towns that had existed prior to the foundation of Yi City, before it had even claimed a single district, not to mention the twenty-four that it currently had. Most were brought to a far greater level through Kong Shi Meng¡¯s action, and some caused the nearby population to shift to a different place, but the Gang District differed in that it had been there from the start, so to speak. It had come to be many decades before Kong Shi Meng was born, and it was incredibly capable at the moment that the Master of Yi City had arrived to speak with their leaders and promote unification with Yi City.


    In the end, they were still united, and the Gang City became the Gang District. The details on that process were incredibly sparse, for one reason or another, and Yi Shi Ming was not available to learn what had truly happened, so that little bit of history was all that she had. For now, it was sufficient, so she wasn¡¯t going to pry beyond what she could gather automatically.


    She wasn¡¯t going to be missing out on much as a result, though. With her current range of spiritual perception, capturing half the district with her perception was easy enough, and storing all of the books within her mind was rather straightforward. By the next day, she would have as much of an understanding of things as anyone that had lived in the district for a few years, and after a week or two here, if she needs to spend that much time on the process of promoting a new Matriarch, she would know everything she could.


    At the gates, they were stopped for a brief moment as the guards inspected their carriage, prompting the Ascendant to glance to the potential future Matriarch.


    Given that she was meant to have been exiled in some capacity, getting back in should be somewhat challenging due to the obsessive conformation to tradition. Such a lifestyle should result in rather law-abiding individuals that wouldn¡¯t be lazy and overlook significant factors, and they would certainly not take bribes anywhere near as easily as the guards in the Chen District. Then again, those were a rather complicated matter, as they were either open to any and all bribes, or they were already bribed or otherwise paid off by another figure that was ready to provide a larger sum than the one who wished to bribe them.


    Clearly, this was also what Gang Xiu Ling assumed as she began to remove several silver and gold coins from a small bag hanging from her belt, but after the guards looked upon the carriage for just a little while, they stepped away and let them through.


    ¡°So, someone is either waiting for you or there is something abnormal within the district. What do you want to bet on?¡± Wei Yi asked, receiving no reply by the time that they had gotten through the gates, ¡±Do you have a place that you were intending to stay, or are we just going to be searching for it in our own free time?¡±


    ¡°I do have a place, it¡¯ll just take a while to get there.¡±


    ¡°You sure have a lot of things prepared despite having never returned to this place since you lost the selection.¡±


    ¡°Given that I was returning here before you showed up, I have obviously put some thought into this. My plan wasn¡¯t quite as complete as what you¡¯ve been able to offer me, but I did have one,¡± Gang Xiu Ling insisted, putting back the coins and leaning back in her seat, a frown quickly changing to a smile and returning to a frown a short while later, ¡°There should still be a few people in the district who think of me fondly, so I will be trying to get in contact with them. You should rest.¡±


    ¡°As should you. If you go out immediately, someone will inevitably notice and think of you as being far more dangerous to them than if you just showed up for a good time and nothing more. They might even decide that you aren¡¯t really interested in returning, and be left alone for a while as a result.¡±


    ¡°Good time¡­ should something like growing a new organ be pleasant?¡±


    ¡°For me, it happened while I was asleep after a night of intense activity¡­ what? Why are you looking at me like that?¡±


    ¡°You are describing suddenly getting a cock after sleeping with a woman, so it¡¯s a little odd how you¡¯re not being more explicit. I don¡¯t care, given that I¡¯ll have a similar experience soon enough, but it does seem odd.¡±


    ¡°I can give you a full description of the two hours and seventeen minutes I had spent with the woman I¡¯d slept with, as well as what happened once we woke up to find something extra on my body, but as you have just said, there¡¯s really no point to it. Furthermore, we¡¯re bound to be arriving to your place soon enough, so if you do find someone that is interested in you, then I will be the one that will need to stay away and ignore you.¡±


    Gang Xiu Ling glanced down at the technique manual in her hand, ¡°By the way, what do you wish for me to do with the technique? Is it to be kept secret, or publicised as much as possible?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d prefer it if you kept it away from as many people as possible. Obviously, your family will need to get it so that they believe that your supposed development of this technique wasn¡¯t actually just you carelessly swallowing a dragon¡¯s blood and getting overly lucky,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°That being said, this technique¡­ it is not one that everyone should practise. Without fully being certain of one¡¯s actions, cultivating a technique like this can lead to a permanent and extremely significant change, one that people may never recover from and thus ruin their lives.¡±


    ¡°Is it that bad?¡±


    ¡°I recall when receiving a few too many memories from a man had sent my mind into a growing chaotic state until I was able to resolve some of the issues caused by it. Trust me, it is significant, and incredibly so, and thus I would urge that it remains as secret as it can.¡±


    With the frank and serious tone that Wei Yi spoke with, the potential future Matriarch found little room for argumentation. She simply relaxed and waited for the carriage to bring her to the residence.

 V5C31: The Watcher’s Truth

    The residence that they arrived at was decent enough, sufficient for an outer family member from the Yi District and not so excessive that an inner member would consider it to be a suitable place to live. It had all of the necessities that her former home did not, with several bedrooms and sufficient space for dining, bathing and whatever else one may decide to do within it. With thick walls that did not let much sound through, it would have been perfect for the average person if they didn¡¯t wish to know what others in the house were up to.


    Unfortunately, the two to occupy it was a pair in the sixth realm, with Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception far exceeding that of anyone she had ever met before. As a result, unless she made a very specific effort to close off a part of the residence from her view, she would know exactly what was going on there.


    It was excellent as she had no intention of looking away, and not because she was a voyeur of some kind. Rather, there was a clear need to verify how her technique would act upon another person, if the modified Yin Soul Yang Root could even be referred to as her technique after she had simply modified it and merged it with a few more techniques that did not belong to her. There could be terrible consequences and side effects that she had simply not considered ahead of time.


    There was also the oddity of Gang Xiu Ling suddenly forgetting a fourth significant factor that would need to be resolved for her success. While spontaneous errors in memory and general forgetfulness were both things that she knew of, having experienced them due to the Mental Dispersion array¡¯s influence, for something this important to slip away and then remain unaddressed for so long was obviously abnormal. Combining that with some of the things she had noticed on the way, it was clear that there was something to keep an eye on, and for now she had no-one better to observe than the potential future Matriarch herself.


    It could always turn out that she was being worried for no good reason, but that was extremely rare in her experience, and thus not something that she was expecting now, either.


    ¡°Since you¡¯ve been suggesting that I rest, I will explain everything that you need to know on the next day. This place shouldn¡¯t be visited by anyone, so feel free to occupy whichever room you want. I can begin the search later, since I¡¯ve already sent out some messages to make it a little easier.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me. I¡¯ll just find a place to sit and then keep an eye out on things. I only sleep when I¡¯m forced to, for one reason or another, so if I wasn¡¯t the Ascendant, I¡¯d imagine that I could have easily become a guard somewhere¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered, ¡°Anyway, that was also something you didn¡¯t need to hear, so let me stop sounding like an idiot and go to the central living room. Have fun sleeping, and get used to that bed of yours for one of the next few days.¡±


    ¡°Will do. Don¡¯t exhaust yourself, just in case.¡±


    ¡°What do you think I¡¯ll be doing? Sitting around isn¡¯t that difficult, exhausting or mentally stimulating, most of the time, and I have a lot of practise ¨C more than I probably should.¡±


    ¡°I meant¡­ right, no, never mind, that was just me¡­¡± Gang Xiu Ling¡¯s cheeks reddened involuntarily.


    She turned around and headed off to her room, a chamber on the top floor of the structure that was positioned next to a window on the diagonal roof, allowing the one inside a great view of a large portion of the Gang District. A bed stood in the middle of the room, at the opposite end to the window, meaning that the sun shone in during the sunrise and the moon was currently illuminating the bedroom in the night. Other than that, a few pieces of furniture were placed around the edges of the room, with a bedside cabinet to the left and a small table devoid of items on the right of the bed.


    The bed itself was of the highest quality, with wonderfully soft pillows and cushions, as could be gathered right away by the way in which Gang Xiu Ling sunk into them and quickly began to fall asleep. She shut her eyes, having removed only the thick coat and furs at the entrance, and her breathing calmed after only a little while.


    ¡®Well, she fell asleep quickly. Not even going to try to finish off after everything that had been on her mind since the technique I gave her started providing her imagination with a great deal of material?¡¯ Wei Yi wondered, having stuck around exactly where she had finished talking with the potential future Matriarch, ¡®Yeah, this is not going to be as simple as I¡¯d wish it to be, is it? Time to go and wait then, why don¡¯t I?¡¯


    She moved upstairs and sat down in a room next to the bedroom, widening her eyes slightly as she activated all of her eye-based physique abilities at once.


    A chain-filled mist spread out from her gaze, flooding the room in an instant. Everything that it came in contact with suddenly began to lightly twist and distort while, contradictorily, appearing exactly the same when she blinked, beginning to distort once more after a little while. This was a mere visual property of the Elder Watcher physique ability, and yet it was already incredibly powerful due to the sheer distraction and confusion that it could cause to an unprepared opponent, provided that this visual applied to them as well as her.


    Behind her, the vague shadow of four different arms appeared, illuminated with the great radiance of a series of blood vessels within them, mimicking her own physique veins. They exerted their power upon the world, allowing her Conqueror¡¯s Eye to maintain a foothold without anyone actively believing that she dominated the space to any degree.


    Once she shifted the power of the Elder Watcher ability to her desire, she was able to peer through the wall, upon the sleeping woman on the other side. This ability could be changed to also look through the covers on the bed, or through her clothing, if she was so inclined, but she was hardly in need of something like this. In fact, when Gang Xiu Ling went off to find someone willing to be the recipient of the modified Yin Soul Yang Root technique, she could easily go off and find someone on her own, then obtain a place to spend time with her with the abilities that she had. Besides, this district appeared to be sufficiently open to prostitution and brothels, unlike many other southern districts.


    In short, she did not need to stoop to the level of a common pervert for the sake of her own arousal and libido.


    ¡®What a wonderful thought to begin my watch with. While I process all of the books I¡¯d scanned in, I don¡¯t intend to be thinking about all that much else¡­¡¯ Wei Yi shook her heard slightly and focused upon the room ahead of her, waiting for literally anything to occur.


    Something did occur, and did so quite literally, but before any of it did indeed proceed the world suddenly twisted. A number of tendrils formed within the room ahead of her, and displaced the woman in the bed while manifesting a new image from the combined power of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye and Elder Watch abilities. She conjured the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow to prevent Gang Xiu Ling from falling onto the floor from the insufficiently spacious seat and flicked the side of her head lightly so that she would wake up.


    ¡°¡­ Hm? What-¡±


    ¡°Do be quieter than this, and just pay attention while you¡¯re waking up. Also, take a moment to consider what you might have forgotten to do the previous day, whether it was just telling me something or actively engaging in any kind of activity,¡± Wei Yi placed a finger on her lips somewhat awkwardly, ¡°Hush now.¡±


    Gang Xiu Ling wasn¡¯t entirely certain of what was happening, that much was obvious, but she followed the instruction and looked ahead alongside the Ascendant.


    They saw as a figure entered through the window on the side of the room, landing on the carpet near the window in perfect silence. She ¨C for the figure was unambiguously feminine, with large breasts and a rather sizeable rear being more than obvious when observed from the side ¨C proceeded onwards, taking each step with great care while looking around. From her thoughts, it was hard to tell whether she was expecting an ambush or trap of some kind, as they were well clouded.


    Hence, they kept looking, and observed as this woman came up to the side of the bed, took out a short blade with one serrated edge, and held it close to the image of Gang Xiu Ling projected through the Ascendant¡¯s physique abilities.


    ¡°Purity shall be preserved,¡± the woman muttered, attempting to slice the neck of the illusion.


    It was this that showcased that the Elder Watcher physique ability wasn¡¯t omnipotent, at least not so far. Perhaps at the peak of the Elder Watcher ability, she could transform the entire world exactly as she wanted to, but for now, the moment that the sharp knife¡¯s edge tried to penetrate the illusion¡¯s skin, the latter dissipated and turned into tendrils that sank back into the bed.


    At the same moment, Wei Yi kicked the door open, having opened it beforehand with her killing will so that she didn¡¯t damage anything with this action, and entered the bedroom with a sword of condensed planar energy pointed at the assassin. With the immense glow emitted by the celestial light surging from within, the entire room was illuminated and clearly displayed the dark clothing on the assassin¡¯s body.


    It was made of a soft cloth that stuck tightly to her skin, making it obvious how little else she wore underneath. A separate piece of black cloth covered the lower half of her face, hiding her mouth and showing only a slight bump where her lips were. Her hands were covered almost entirely by gloves made with the same material as the rest, except for the upper half of her fingers, which were left exposed, most likely to allow her to better grip her weapon. Finally, a small sheath for her dagger was tied to a thin cloth belt on her waist, on her left, whereas the right had a ribbon, a few inches in length, that was hanging there without any obvious reason or purpose.


    Altogether, she looked much alike to a member of an assassin organisation, like the Endless Dark, which lined up with the assassination method that she appeared to have been intending to use. This was not quite enough for the Ascendant, however, who was contemplating her earlier words.


    Most assassin organisations were indeed founded for the sake of accomplishing something, and so it was not uncommon for assassins to proclaim that purpose upon slaying yet another person ¨C one that may have nothing to do with that original intention as the goals and ideals of the organisation transform over the years ¨C but she did not recall a single assassin organisation with the intention of maintaining some kind of purity while also avoiding the use of any planar energy directly. So far, this supposed assassin had not made use of a drop of planar energy, having climbed into the window with their own strength, and wielding the knife without infusing it with any energy either.


    Instead, this behaviour seemed more alike to an ancient group that had disappeared long ago, one that she would not be opposed to discovering.


    ¡°Are you a Guardian of Purity? I didn¡¯t realise Gang Shu Wen was practising pure planar energy techniques,¡± Wei Yi said, earning no recognisable reaction from the woman, whether it was outwardly or in her thoughts, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t mind showcasing your planar energy, would you?¡±


    No response followed from her, but she did see a large burst of pure violet suddenly ignite behind the woman, swallowing her up in a moment and leaving behind almost nothing as soon as she was gone. It was made from pure planar energy, that much she was sure of, but there was very little else that her spiritual perception was able to observe from this alone.


    ¡°What¡­ what was that? Where did she go?¡± Gang Xiu Ling stumbled into the room, looking around.


    ¡°We¡¯ll see in a moment.¡±


    The Ascendant opened her eyes further, revealing the entirety of her silver pupils, wrapped in chains that concealed beneath them the shadow and crimson of her killing intent, as well as the fine silver of her spiritual will. With some stimulation of the Elder Watcher ability, the chains atop all of her other powers suddenly twisted and melted into twisting tendrils, all of which seemed to surge out and swallow the area before her despite remaining quite clearly confined to her eyes, being nothing more than an illusion formed by her vast power.


    All of the world¡¯s tendrils focused upon the planar opening that had swallowed up the would-be assassin, grabbing onto it and preventing it from sealing completely. Then, they began to pull that opening apart, forcing it wider and wider until it was the size of a man¡¯s head.


    Through it, a faintest dot of light could be seen by one with powerful eyesight, and even then it was all that could be gained through the singular point of white light.


    ¡°Can you feel anything through there? My spiritual perception can¡¯t enter the¡­ gateway? What is that, anyway?¡± Gang Xiu Ling asked then muttered, her latter words not being intended to reach anyone in particular.


    ¡°It was some kind of portal opened up to bring away a person that had failed on their mission. Now, there is only a slight tear left as a result, but it is one that can easily be accessed and expanded by someone with basic spatial abilities and a sufficiently high level of power, whether through their realm or other capabilities. Fortunately for us, I have both of those things, and I have been around true spatial gateways quite a lot, meaning that I know how to stabilise them with my own strength,¡± the Ascendant replied, ¡°Now, I¡¯ll try to widen it a little further, so do be quiet for a moment.¡±


    Fortunately, the potential future Matriarch didn¡¯t ask why this was the case and just stepped back, forming a basic planar barrier ahead of herself in order to avoid any dangers from the gateway.


    She reached out with her hand and gripped the air ahead of her, then began to open her hand and part her fingers. Obviously, she was not physically attempting to open up the portal with her own body¡¯s strength, but the gesture was useful in amplifying the effects of her Conqueror¡¯s Eye, the Elder Watcher and her Dao of Law, which were combined together to forcefully reconnect the two points in space which were united moments prior.


    The singular point grew to the size of the tip of her finger, and slowly proceeded to stretch that opening even further, with the outer planar light growing three times as much as the point within the centre. Thus, by the time that it was brought to a sufficient level for her to be able to peer through the opening with ease, the portal was the size that it had been when the would-be assassin was dragged away through it. While she was a little disappointed with her own abilities, as she was clearly not as efficient as the person that had initially opened the gateway for her, she still took a step closer.


    On the other side of the portal, she could see a large room with rather flat walls and floor. A single figure sat in the centre of the chamber, kneeling on the ground with their head lowered to the ground, kowtowing to some unknown force or entity. The position from which she observed him shifted slowly but certainly, confirming the instability of the portal¡¯s destination.


    Had she begun this a moment later, she might have been unable to stabilise the portal sufficiently.


    ¡°Good night, Guardian of Purity!¡± she exclaimed with a blatant smile, very much intending to be noticed by the man on the other side.


    When he leapt up and gazed into the air, where his portal was meant to have shut, and saw her gleaming face, he was visibly shaken. He almost fell onto his back with his mouth agape, and only after a few moments did he recover in full, stabilising his footing and drawing upon his planar energy and forming several arrays in the air, directing all of them towards the opening of the portal before him, and the woman within.


    ¡°At least you have not disturbed purity with your presence. Seal that gateway and you shall not be punished in this moment.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d like to know why you¡¯ve decided to protect someone that I am unable to detect even a trace of pure planar energy from. What exactly are you up to? From what little I recall from Yi Shi Ming, I had a decent enough impression of the deeds of your faction in the past, causing me to hope for a better first meeting.¡±


    He had begun to attack before she could finish, and she did not attempt to interrupt him because she knew that a lengthy conversation would simply be impossible in the way that they were currently conducting it. The portal that they formed would be sealed soon enough, and the way in which the chat began was obviously disadvantageous to a pleasant and friendly chat. That being said, the singular exchange that they did have was more than sufficient for her to establish the vague location of the chamber that she saw through the opening, meaning that she could eventually track down the exact position after only a brief period of scouring the district.


    The Ascendant was able to establish that the chamber was in or around the district, as was obvious enough as spatial portals formed like this couldn¡¯t bridge a long gap without being stabilised by something of significant power like a spatial realm. Hence, she just removed support from the portal.


    Before any of the attacks could pass through, the opening had already shut, and the planar energy that formed the larger portal dissipated within moments, leaving naught but a faint tear in space that recovered a minute later. The only trace of anything having occurred in the bedroom was the messy bed, which had been affected by the opening of the portal, and the displacement of its occupant.


    ¡°It does look like¡­ sorry, never mind.¡±


    ¡°And apparently I¡¯m the one not being explicit enough. Are we saying it or aren¡¯t we?¡± Wei Yi asked, taking the silence as a cue to move on, ¡°Have you heard of the Guardians of Purity?¡±


    ¡°Guardians¡­ Uh¡­ I don¡¯t think that I have. There are some things that I have previously read and been told regarding the guardians of the district, of course, and a few other types of guardians that have existed near the Gang District before, but none of them were concerned with- no, they were, but I doubt that it¡¯s the kind that you would be asking about,¡± Gang Xiu Ling said, ¡°You know, preserving a woman¡¯s purity, even though there¡¯s barely a difference whether a woman has slept with a man or another woman before.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to tell me that. In that case, do you care about the ones that tried to kill you?¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡±


    ¡°The Guardians of Purity are a faction from long ago ¨C how suitable for your district, by the way ¨C that were focused on a single goal. They wished to maintain the cultivation of pure planar energy, a thing that, as you might be able to tell, they had failed to do. Over time, the Great Families tore apart everything that Kong Shi Meng, the Master of Yi City, had attempted to leave for his city, and scattered the path that they saw as being unsuitable for their own goals.¡±


    ¡°Pure planar energy¡­ Why are they helping that asshole, Gang Shu Wen, then? He has not practised anything like that, at least not before I had left the district.¡±


    ¡°Having seen some people switch their cultivation method rather suddenly, I am rather certain that this does not apply to Gang Shu Wen. The energy around him is the same, so even if he was able to fool me somehow he wouldn¡¯t be doing so if he wanted to make himself seem like a good Patriarch. He would very much lean on being so traditional that he had obtained an ancient cultivation method.¡±


    ¡°He wouldn¡¯t need to lean on that quite as much now, but I do agree with you. It¡¯s odd.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°I suspect that there is something odd at play here. That is why I was wondering whether you recall the fourth point that you had initially wished to mention to me, as it may very well be connected.¡±


    ¡°Fourth¡­ Uh¡­ Fuck, what was I going to say? That was perhaps the most significant thing I had wished to inform you about, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Not completely back yet, then. Just go back to sleep and think about it, and I¡¯ll see you in the morning without any weapon being at your throat. I¡¯ll just keep a barrier around the area so that you don¡¯t have any chance of coming across them, alright?¡± the Ascendant asked, although a click of her star metal gauntleted fingers was sufficient to establish the barrier before the potential future Matriarch could even provide her with a response.


    Even with her sleepy state, Gang Xiu Ling was able to identify this with her spiritual perception, so she did keep quiet and sat down on her bed, sighing as she removed a little more of her clothing. Since a pair of eyes remained on her, she quickly provided an explanation.


    ¡°I¡¯d been lazy the first time, and it seemed to result in an assassination attempt. Sleeping is better naked, anyway.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. Again, I don¡¯t disagree, so feel free to just do whatever.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Just curious about something, before I go back so sleep. You are interested in women, right? Have you reached the point where you can just look upon an attractive woman ¨C I don¡¯t think that it would be vain to say that I have been described in such a manner ¨C and not be bothered in the slightest, even with the thing between your legs?¡±


    Gang Xiu Ling certainly could be called attractive, as her body was well proportioned, and her face was very pleasant to behold. With the overly long fringe having been cut at some point prior to their second meeting, it was now easy to see the entirety of her visage, and it was what one might expect from the descendant of a family that would consistently reach the seventh realm and thus cleansed many of the impurities that would usually harm one¡¯s appearance in bloodlines that did not have the fortune of attaining the same heights consistently.


    To say that the Ascendant was entirely unaffected would be untrue.


    ¡°I¡¯ve lived right beneath a brothel for twenty years, and my spiritual perception was overlooking everything nearly the whole time. You¡¯re alright, but if I was dominated by lust, I would never be able to get to this point.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Fair enough, I suppose. Good night, Ascendant. Tomorrow¡­ tomorrow we will need to get to work,¡± the potential future Matriarch was already half-asleep at that point, and dropped onto the bed quietly.


    Wei Yi stood around for a few moments, then returned to her original seat in the next room. She did not fully disperse the effects of the Elder Watcher and the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, for it was completely unnecessary to do so while she was still full of energy, not to mention the fact that another assassin, a thief or some other person could come around at any moment and try to invade their space through a method that a relatively simple barrier couldn¡¯t block.


    Spatial transportation was one of those things, although she did not think that there would be another attempt to breach the premises using it any time soon. The leader of the Guardians of Purity, assuming that is who the man was, should be exhausted and concerned that it could allow her too much of an opening to try it right away, whereas the current Patriarch of the Gang District should not have the ability to form such a portal unless he had access either to a spatial realm or artefact that she had absolutely no knowledge of, nor the ability to perceive. In other words, an otherworldly gift of some kind.


    If that was the case, everything about their strategy would need to change, as that simple revelation could lead to the entire district turning against him, while it could also allow for them to bring him to their side ¨C the side of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, anyway ¨C without as much fighting.


    The natural trouble was that it was nigh impossible to know until something overt occurred, but the Ascendant could see nothing obvious so far while Gang Xiu Ling had provided no hints of an otherworldly nature of her sibling either through her words or mental state. She was thus unable to plan ahead for this outcome only, which would be the best situation for her, and forced her to maintain her focus on everything around herself so that she could figure out the truth as quickly as she possibly could. Ideally, by tomorrow, or the day after.


    For this reason, she was already certain that she was not going to sit around all day, and instead explore the rest of the district.


    Using her skill of stabilising an image of the world within her mental domain as to allow her spiritual perception to reach out further, she could use the night to expand her reach a little further, but it couldn¡¯t quite compare to being near to the other side of the district and penetrating all matter with her spiritual perception. Anything that could be found would be found by her, and the only things that could stand in her way were otherworldly objects and materials that were so effective at blocking spiritual perception that even her own senses would be insufficient to detect anything behind the obstacles.


    Illusions were no longer capable of stopping her, and as her realm grew and progressed, she knew that her abilities would slowly rise to the level of divine sense, completely overcoming many obstacles that currently stood in her way. The seventh realm, in many ways, was the point at which great freedom from some obstacles was attained, and new ones were discovered and besieged.


    She had to reach it as soon as possible, and go past it in order to attain her goals.

 V5C32: Underground Community

    In the morning, the moment that Gang Xiu Ling awoke and confirmed her intentions, alongside passing along some information regarding the basics of societal norms and communication within the Gang District, Wei Yi departed from the building and let her do as she intended.


    Whether or not she found someone to bring to her bed, the Ascendant intended to get as much done today to establish what the best path to proceed on was. Their initial strategy was a fine one, provided that everything was as it seemed, but if the alliance with the Guardians of Purity was not formed merely through a feeble deception that could be overcome with sufficient evidence, something that she could provide to the guardians of the district soon enough, then figuring out a way to bring them onto her side would be preferable to outright killing them.


    From what she could tell, the leader of the Guardians was only in the lower stages of Oblivion Halo, so none of his forces should be higher, meaning that it was very much feasible to defeat him. However, if she did so, she would lose a capable force that should still recall a great deal of history, including things that Yi Shi Ming did not learn of or no longer remembers due to her current state.


    Of course, it was possible that the Guardians had fallen from grace in recent years, relative to the existence of Yi City, at least, and that they no longer shared quite the same focuses but retained their terminology. At that point, defeating them to some extent would be necessary, although she would still prefer to get someone else from their faction to take over as leader and bring up a greater focus on their old path of pure planar energy, perhaps with a little bit less aggression towards those that choose to solely use elemental energy. After all, outright ending a faction and their history was often the worst outcome, unless they were the old leaders of the Ping District and the thieves that lived within.


    ¡®Even then, I had destroyed a great deal of information and materials that could have otherwise been of use to myself and the people of the district, so that was not the ideal solution either. Had I been able to handle each district and problem in a vacuum, without any pressure from time or other groups, I would have likely done something slightly different than blowing the whole place up,¡¯ she thought, proceeding to the first area of interest.


    Naturally, that was the other side of the district, where her spiritual perception could not reach in full, not even with the extension method of stabilising the outside in her mental domain.


    On the way, she had a look around the district with her own eyes, finding it to be very much what one may expect after having seen the ancient Kong District, combined with the aesthetic of the southernmost districts that needed to endure the heavy snow at all times. Here, the snowfall was sufficiently calm as to not require a barrier to keep it out of the occupied lands, and it was instead dealt with using rooves that were angled and sloped in such a fashion that only a thin white layer would cover them at any time.


    Hence, there were areas where no snow fell, beneath the rooftops, and then the edges would often experience greater quantities of snowfall, dividing the traffic on the streets into several clear lines. Those walking would usually prefer to stick beneath the rooftops, whereas any carriages, vehicles or planar beasts would travel down the middle, with their larger size usually bringing them under the fall of the snow from the edges of the structures in the area.


    None of this really mattered, but the more information she could absorb within an instant, the more she liked to take note of certain minor details, and try to learn from them whenever possible. In this case, there wasn¡¯t much for her to study at the moment, as she wasn¡¯t exactly intending to revolutionise roads and road traffic within her districts, but there was no reason at all to not apply this elsewhere. Due to the way in which certain entities that could better endure the weather stood at those places, allowing others to use the routes which were more comfortable and advantageous to them, this was very much applicable to something like her meridians, and combined energy as a whole.


    Getting this kind of arrangement with her energy would certainly be of use in stabilising her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, and thus allowing it to move freely and act as an actual arm instead of a mass of energy that it currently was. To have a perfectly stable arm would make a world¡¯s difference in the long run and in any encounter where her power is not yet overwhelming.


    More importantly than anything else, it would restore the perfect stability of her body and return the balance that was so greatly lacking at the moment. It would make it feasible to greatly increase her usage of the Dao of Law, as well as its study, and would grant her the ability to mess around with all kinds of spatial methods far more easily than she currently could. After all, her current explorations of it were limited entirely to the expansion and stabilisation of existing networks and systems, rather than attempting to once more breach the barrier between realms and achieve that which is seen to be impossible at the Linked Channels realm.


    ¡®Trouble is, there¡¯s an obvious difference between concept and execution. I can conceptualise exactly how the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow should work, but actually getting it to function in such a manner is¡­ well, it almost seems fucking impossible, but I know that this isn¡¯t the case.¡¯


    As she headed further to the eastern edge of the district, she found conspicuous traces of alleyways hidden behind a layer of buildings on either side, which seemed to connect to one another in the most unusual yet functional ways. There, a person or two could often be found, and their garb and behaviour alike did not match the typical appearance of the district¡¯s populace. It was odd, and it was clearly overlooked by all outside of the alleyways, so after she had walked for long enough, she decided to investigate further.


    Once she managed to slide into the alleyway through a sufficiently wide space between two ordinary-seeming homes, she quickly confirmed that there were no underground passages or other abnormal methods for traversal, only a careful design that adjoined a great length of such narrow routes together. People travelled on their rarely enough, and so the lack of space did not appear to be a problem, and even then, based on what she could perceive with her spiritual perception, it seemed that everyone was currently headed in the same direction ¨C to the east, somewhere towards the central area at the eastern edge, where her spiritual perception was blocked by an excess of structures and materials that disrupted the passage of her will.


    This alone was enough for her to tell that there was something of interest there, so, since she was already in an alleyway and already heading in the same direction, she saw no particular reason to stop.


    She did not keep her speed down, making use of her long legs and capable body to walk as quickly as she could without switching to a jog, and so it did not take her long to catch up to one of the people ahead of her, a man who was removing his fur cloak and stuffing it into a brown burlap sack as she got close to him.


    After a glance into his mind, she took a bet and called out simply, ¡°Hello there!¡±


    While she had kept her voice down, as to not alert the people on the proper roads on either side of the buildings surrounding them, a sudden interruption like that still startled the man, who turned to glare at her alertly. A moment passed before he relaxed.


    ¡°Ah, you must be going in the same direction as I¡­ You are a foreigner, from the north, aren¡¯t you? I didn¡¯t realise that we had begun accepting people like you, not that I am complaining,¡± he said, fully hiding his cloak in the sack that he then put onto his back and held onto with one hand, ¡°Are you familiar with the way, or should I guide you?¡±


    ¡°I have some idea, but I don¡¯t mind following along. Actually, this is my first time.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s the case. How did you learn of the community in the east, if you do not mind me asking? I doubt the Gang Patriarch¡¯s forces would employ someone like you, so this is just curiosity.¡±


    ¡°No need to worry. I got here recently, noticed something occurring out of the view of the majority of the district, and decided to investigate. The way in which the alleyways are placed seems almost intentional, so if the Gang Patriarch and, presumably, the Gang family as a whole do not condone what it is you¡¯re up to in your community, how did these streets come to be built in the way that they were?¡± she inquired, easily giving up many details.


    For the moment, to get as much information as possible, getting the man to provide it openly and possibly assist her once she did arrive at their community was the easiest route that she could think of. So long as she provided him with sufficient knowledge about herself, there would be little reason for him to be suspicious of her in any regard that she might not have mentioned, as it would seem that she had already given up nearly everything about herself and the reason behind her presence in these hidden alleyways.


    ¡°You noticed them? Then, it may be that we need to improve our concealment¡­ nonetheless, I can tell you a little bit, if you wish,¡± he said, pointing to the buildings on either side, ¡°You see, our district was built long ago with the intention of being able to support and ward off invasions that relied more on warriors than cultivators acting as siege weapons.


    ¡°In the past, it was more common for individual martial prowess to be of greater interest and focus, hence the decision to prioritise it as the number one threat. Every single street was designed in such a fashion that a large portion of the population could hide between the homes and buildings, as well as travel between them with nearly none observing them. It would then allow the people of the district to live unseen, attack when possible, and slowly retake control even while the enemy had no clue of what they were losing to. With a number of specific designs, including the entire district being made in the shape of an array to focus and scatter thought in a particular way, this was made in a way that could even resist spiritual perception, to a certain extent.¡±


    ¡°With nobody targeting the Gang District for the moment, I suppose that the Gang family has no need to use such passages, correct?¡±


    ¡°Yes, so, after some of us noticed them ourselves, we realised that we had an opportunity¡­ I¡¯d love to tell you more about it ¨C I am one of the newer members of the community, so I¡¯ve not had the chance to explain it to another in detail yet ¨C but for our security, I will have to let someone higher up than me make sure that you are safe,¡± the man explained, his tone sounding genuinely apologetic, ¡°If everything¡¯s fine, I wouldn¡¯t mind talking at a later time.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll see what happens with that, I suppose. Do you gather very often, then?¡±


    ¡°Generally, most of us attempt to make it only once a week, if not less frequently. Otherwise, we might draw a little too much attention by breaking away from certain traditional rituals, and thus endanger the entirety of the community.¡±


    ¡°There has to be someone sticking around, doesn¡¯t there?¡± she asked, their slow approach giving her spiritual perception the ability to confirm the presence of a ladder at their destination that led quite deeply into the earth, ¡°Something tells me that they couldn¡¯t possibly maintain any kind of community if they weren¡¯t there the vast majority of the time.¡±


    ¡°Some that have lost the attention of the district go there. Mostly, beggars and various poor souls can reside there permanently, and the few exceptions are powerful figures who intentionally broke away.¡±


    ¡°Including your leadership?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yes, although I would ask that you stop with such questions. It is not too far now, and I don¡¯t like being so uncertain of what I can and cannot reveal! With the rest of the district, it is easy to just hide everything, but with an inquisitive mind like you, I just feel more and more stressed out at everything.¡±


    ¡°Apologies, then. I suppose that I can opt for another topic if you are more inclined to answer: what is it about the traditions of the south, and of the Gang District in particular, that have led you to be so keen to get away from them and to instead join this community? Why are there so many people that feel the same way, and how is it that the Gang Patriarch, family, and the rest of the district¡¯s leadership can overlook such issues, especially if they have been happening for a long time?¡±


    ¡°Tradition is what drives us all, according to the Gang District¡¯s texts. However, it is extremely restrictive. We must do certain things on certain days, interact in certain ways with certain people, and so little of it seems to be present for any particular reason, remaining mostly because it used to be something that was once done, regardless of how wise it is or was.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°That is a rather unfortunate element of a focus on tradition over all else, yes.¡±


    ¡°It binds us, but it binds the Gang Patriarch and everyone under him, as well. They have to act in certain ways, and cannot spend the time searching alleyways for people travelling to a place where the traditions are relaxed or outright thrown away to be able to live like the people of the north, if only for a little while,¡± the man explained, his voice gaining a certain wistful tone when he mentioned the north, ¡°You are from the northern lands, so you should understand that the districts there are freer in their behaviours, and are more open to change. Perhaps it is not ideal, but it is better.¡±


    ¡°You have a far better, and more detailed, answer to this than I had expected. This is what your whole community believes, right? It must have been around for quite some time to develop its arguments to the level of admitting the ability to be wrong, so could you call it somewhat traditional as well?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I don¡¯t wish to answer that question.¡±


    The Ascendant shrugged, but they continued on nonetheless, not too bothered with this disagreement.


    Although they were both cultivators, quick and capable, a district was still an enormous segment of land. To cross from the vaguely central region of the district to the most eastern edge took several hours, most of which were not spend quite as actively nor with as much dialogue between them as in the first few minutes. Their primary topics were exhausted, and neither of them wished to mention too much to the other.


    When they got to the area where a number of alleyways converged and led to the ladder that Wei Yi had noticed a long way from there.


    ¡°Here we are. With your one arm, will you be fine?¡±


    ¡°Two arms are not necessary to climb a ladder, and they¡¯re certainly not needed if all I do is jump down. It isn¡¯t that far, so even if all planar energy was to be wiped from the world as I fell, I would still come out with slightly hurt legs at most,¡± she replied, getting onto the ladder with the man lifting up the cover from it.


    It was indeed a little trickier than the last time that she had needed to navigate a ladder ¨C it was obviously prior to the sudden rush of events near the Ju District, as ladders as a whole weren¡¯t found all that commonly throughout Yi City for no reason in particular ¨C but she managed just fine, simply relying more on her feet rather than her hand for support. While she could have been faster had she just jumped down, she would not have gained that much more of an advantage with a second hand, which was fortunate while she still had no access to a sufficiently stable one.


    Even with the rate at which her energy recovered, to constantly manifest and scatter the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow in such a fashion that it would help her in the climbing process would be rather costly and tiresome, to put it mildly. She would likely be slowed with anything other than perfection.


    At the bottom, the obstacles to her spiritual perception were finally insufficient to obscure any major detail about the place she found herself in, allowing her to take in the place at the same time as she looked at the front entrance with her own eyes. From the front, the place she arrived at seemed to be rather cramped and empty, with a tunnel leading further in with only as much space as the alleyways above offered, and little decoration or signage that might clarify the purpose of the tunnel.


    This was most likely to be an intentional design decision by those that opted to create their community here, as it would mean that anyone who came across this place without knowledge of it would not have much of a reason to look further. What could they find in a dirty, empty tunnel, even if the various objects preceding it resulted in a significant barrier to spiritual perception? Most would simply overlook and ignore this place, concluding that anything of note would have been developed better than a hole that might as well have been dug by an overgrown planar beast at some point in the world¡¯s existence. It seemed to have worked so far, at least.


    However, further on the inside, past a few unintuitive turns and bends that would serve to further confuse and confound an unwanted visitor, was a wide-open space consisting of numerous large chambers that were well decorated and highly clean, almost impressively so. It was split into numerous distinct regions which were clearly allocated for their own purposes.


    One area was clearly intended for dining, another for bathing and washing, another for resting and general relaxation, with that part including a large space covered in pillows and soft fabrics on which a great number of people could sit around and enjoy themselves. Whether their enjoyment would be the strictly innocent kind was hard to judge from the currently unoccupied region with often washed covers and pillows, but it would certainly make for a rather comfortable spot to do whatever one wished to do.


    Over to the left side of the region was a large storage room, several individual bedrooms and even a market-like area, presumably intended for trade, just to name a few places, and the right was similar. There were even some farming regions, although they weren¡¯t being exploited to their full potential.


    If someone wished to, they could easily maintain quite a decent population down here without ever needing to head above the earth that separated them from the Gang District above. Some certainly did so, as there were bedrooms that were clearly more lived in than others, in a way that would not happen if they were rarely claimed, or used by more than a single person for prolonged periods of time. This was why she was curious how those that were down here managed to evade the attention of the Gang District, if it was that overwhelmingly attentive to each and every soul within the walls, and why there weren¡¯t more if it was possible to get out safely.


    When they came to the first true chamber of this underground network, they were met almost right away by a short, young-looking woman with vibrant, emerald-like hair that reached down and covered her back, styled into a number of braids far more standard in the Gang District that almost crowned her head, then scattered into loose hair lower down. Her realm was subdued, but it was still possible for a cultivator to tell that she was in the Linked Channels realm, and her body was also strong despite how thin she looked.


    ¡°I¡¯ve not seen you down here before, nor in the district, so I am going to need to talk to you,¡± she said to Wei Yi straight away, glancing to the man beside her afterwards, ¡°Gang Song, unless you told her about where we are, I suggest you leave and get back to your favourite spot.¡±


    He nodded and didn¡¯t linger, heading off in the direction of the small underground farm, where she could identify traces of his aura on some of the shabbily planted crops.


    ¡°Now, you. Who are you?¡±


    ¡°What kind of answer do you want? I can give you a name, a title or two, what factions I am aligned with, what districts I¡¯ve been to, what I¡¯m doing here, what I think about the Gang District, your community, as he called it, or my stance on chocolate, but I suspect you don¡¯t want or need to hear about all of that.¡±


    ¡°No, I do not. Besides, I don¡¯t know what chocolate is, so that wouldn¡¯t tell me anything,¡± the woman said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you go down the list and stop when I tell you to.¡±


    The Ascendant shrugged, ¡°Sure. I am Wei Yi. In some parts, I am known as the Ascendant-¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute, you¡¯re a northern woman, right? If you¡¯re from up there, and you claim to be called that, then does it mean that you are that Ascendant that everyone from the north keeps talking about? The one with planar energy akin a sea of stars, with power matching the level of a Patriarch, and a seemingly endless range of techniques that grows with every single encounter that you are spotted in? That is you?¡±


    ¡°Is that what they say about me? Sure, I guess that¡¯s close enough. Look,¡± she raised her only hand and brought out a small sphere of cosmic energy, the faint visages of chains now appearing in an additional, closer layer than in her previous realm.


    ¡°I can¡¯t sense any distinct element from that, so¡­ I guess it has to be you. What do you want?¡±


    ¡°Your name, first. Then, I wouldn¡¯t mind being introduced to what it is that you are up to here, since I have stumbled across your little community rather accidentally.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Gang Ya Hui, somewhat of a bastard child of the main Gang family. My community is, well¡­ We all simply call it the New Community. We are bothered by the obsession with tradition in this district, so we¡¯ve got a space where we throw those shackles away for a brief while, indulging in all kinds of things that we would never be permitted to do on the surface, whether due to certain obligations or because the district simply doesn¡¯t permit it,¡± she explained after a brief delay, ¡°We just want to do things that are, well, new. Things that the Gang District has not done, refuses to do, or never considers doing.¡±


    Gang Ya Hui glanced behind herself, ¡°Some of us wish to plant a simple crop or two, and so there¡¯s a small farm for them to do so. Generally, the resulting product isn¡¯t particularly good, nor sufficiently plentiful to ever sustain us down here, but they get their fun while the Gang District¡¯s tradition prevents us from planting any fruits or vegetables for ourselves or for trading purposes. Others may want to share a bath with others, or do anything beyond quickly cleaning themselves and departing. This, too, is actually against tradition, if you can imagine that. I don¡¯t know how it was back at the start, but we now have all the resources we need to sustain a hot fucking bath for more than a minute, and there is no good reason not to have at least one.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t disagree, so no need to convince me.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not what I was doing. Now, if I was to talk on the topic of the rightmost rooms¡­ Can you imagine that this district has a very strict regulation against sleeping around, unless you are a Patriarch who needs to spread his seed all over the place¡­ ew. Didn¡¯t mean to go there, actually¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that this also includes abnormal relationships, too?¡±


    ¡°You mean something like two women sleeping together? Yeah, the Gang District¡¯s traditions go against that as well, much to the displeasure of about half the women over at the rightmost rooms, although the fact that they¡¯ve managed to earn money and find other attractive women with the same interests seems to have offset that displeasure somewhat.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s not particularly surprising. Anyway, if you¡¯ve played any part in recruiting more people to your New Community, or if you¡¯ve paid attention to those that do this for you, how much of the district supports your ideas?¡±


    ¡°I have brought some people in, as I can go wherever thanks to my identity as both an unwanted member of the family and as a theoretically significant one, but to give you anything resembling a precise figure¡­ I¡¯d guess around a third have some sympathy with our ideas, at least. Another third don¡¯t care either way, or think that it won¡¯t really change the way they do things. The rest would rather have the traditions kept intact, whether for their own gains or because they think that it is the right thing to do.¡±


    As they were talking, they had gotten out of the entrance and moved over to a wall further in, standing around while a few people came and went.


    ¡°Would you be interested in making your ideas public?¡±


    ¡°With the current Patriarch? Unless that was an attempt to wish death upon me, then no, I have no such intention. Gang Shu Wen is essentially the representative of traditionalist ideas in the family and district, for the moment,¡± Gang Ya Hui said, ¡°Even the previous Patriarch was a little safer to deal with, but he had died of old age a while back.¡±


    ¡°Then, what would you say if someone else was interested in taking that position, and might be a little more open to change?¡±


    Gang Ya Hui looked at her with an even more perplexed expression for a few moments, ¡°Do you want to take over the Gang District? Are you mad?¡±


    ¡°No, not what I was saying. What if I had been?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be honest with you, oh mighty Ascendant ¨C that¡¯d be a shit idea. You may be strong up north, you may be mighty and famous, but here, you don¡¯t belong. You don¡¯t know this land, you don¡¯t know the people, what they want, what they hate, what they fight for, and so on. A person like you wouldn¡¯t be a good contender for the position of Matriarch, even if the Gang District would ever allow you to pursue it.¡±


    ¡°Then, what if someone from the Gang family returned to claim the title?¡±


    ¡°You aren¡¯t saying that Gang Xiu Ling has returned? Well, if I recall correctly, her downfall began with a rather convincing testimony of how much she enjoyed spending time with another woman, so she would have to bend tradition a little bit if she was to keep that up¡­ However, most of us aren¡¯t combatants nor particularly strong. If you want us to rise up and overwhelm the current order, then I¡¯m afraid that we simply couldn¡¯t do that,¡± she stated, ¡°At most, you can get vocal support from us, nothing more, alright?¡±


    ¡°You understood my intentions quickly. I¡¯ll get back to you if you and the potential future Matriarch is interested in going against tradition beyond the minimum,¡± Wei Yi said.


    ¡°Mhm¡­ You don¡¯t seem so bad. Would you like to get a tour of the area, since you¡¯re already here? It shouldn¡¯t take too long unless you intend to personally participate in every activity we have conceived so far, but if you aren¡¯t interested, then you can feel free to depart at any moment. Just make sure not to take the alleyways on your way back, as to not attract attention to yourself.¡±


    ¡°I can stay. The rightmost part of this community seems interesting enough, so long as anyone there is interested in me,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°And I don¡¯t need to be shown anything that speaks for itself. My spiritual perception is good enough.¡±


    Gang Ya Hui looked over her for a moment, not commenting out loud, then waved her arm towards the left side of the underground area, ¡°We¡¯d best start out there, then, if you want to see much.¡±

 Bonus Chapter: Love and Lust [R-18]

    ¡°And here we have¡­ well, you can see what this is. Women buy one another¡¯s company, and end up leaving with money and satisfaction. Interested in staying for a while?¡± Gang Ya Hui asked.


    ¡°Do you even need to ask? The journey here has been long and cold, but there might be an issue. I suppose it would be best for me to speak with the ladies themselves, rather than you, though,¡± Wei Yi responded, her thoughts naturally turning to the notable abnormality on her body, ¡°They don¡¯t answer to you, do they?¡±


    ¡°No, of course not. Why¡­ ah. I think I¡¯ve heard about something that¡­ never mind. Go ahead.¡±


    As she was clearly unwilling to discuss the matter further, the Ascendant didn¡¯t push it and simply headed inside the chambers designated for this particular purpose. She pushed the doors open with her lone hand, and was greeted by several women standing about.


    They were dressed modestly by northern standards, exposing some cleavage and some skin on their legs, though it was obvious that none of them wore outfits specialised for seduction. Rather, it seemed that they had just put on something decent, then made it a tad more revealing once they got to this part of the New Community. It was to be expected from women that weren¡¯t in the business professionally, so to speak. Had they been, any random prostitute in Beast¡¯s Rest would far exceed their abilities to draw in clients.


    Seeing her enter, they naturally looked in her direction, some looking away promptly while others kept looking. They were effectively telling her whether they would be available to her.


    ¡®Unfortunately, there¡¯s something that needs to be clarified with them first,¡¯ Wei Yi sighed inwardly, inviting them to come closer with her fingers. They did so, most of them noticing the absence of her left arm as they got nearer, but that didn¡¯t seem sufficient to scare off any of them. Still, there was still time for it.


    ¡°You¡¯re not from the Gang District, are you? Is it some northern custom to conquer a few ladies on your first night?¡± one of them, a tall lass with straight black hair and large chest, propped up by her folded arms, said in a teasing tone.


    ¡°Not really. I just want to make sure that nobody here is met with an unfortunate surprise.¡±


    ¡°What would that be?¡± another asked.


    ¡°Are you familiar with a common feature of a draconic bloodline?¡± a few were confused, though the black-haired woman¡¯s eyes lit up nearly instantly, ¡°You might want to explain to the others.¡±


    The woman smirked, ¡°It¡¯s just much to explain. You must mean that you¡¯ve got a cock. Am I right?¡±


    Although she had been expecting a southern woman to be a little subtler, it conveyed the point well enough, and she wasn¡¯t the one to say it, so nobody would have a reason to complain about her manners. Now, all that remained was to see whether any of them were still interested in sleeping with her.


    ¡°That¡­ hm¡­ I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯ll have to refuse,¡± one said quickly, and a few others followed, soon leaving only three people in the group.


    That wasn¡¯t surprising. Although most of the people she had met so far were strangely receptive to her unique physiology, it was a given that there would be those to whom it simply did not appeal. It was a simple principle of physical attraction, which was the only thing at play in a situation such as this one. She respected such preferences, for there were few reasons for her not to. She also understood having specific preferences very well, given her own interests.


    Out of the three that remained, one was the first woman to address her, the one with black hair and green eyes. She seemed entirely unperturbed by Wei Yi¡¯s genitalia, instead taking pleasure in the reactions of her peers, whether positive or negative.


    The second was a short woman, whether by her standards or that of the Planar Continents, whose brown hair was of similar length and in a similar free-flowing style. Her body and features were on the smaller side, but her blue eyes contained a certain eagerness and lust that was a very welcome sight. It seemed to fit her preferences, and the woman¡¯s surface thoughts suggested something similar.


    Both of them looked to be sure of their decision, but the third had some hesitations. She had an average build, height and chest, and her brown eyes weren¡¯t exceptional, but a few things were. Her hair was red and short, an unusual style for the Gang District, and her behind was on par with Wei Yi¡¯s own, though the Ascendant took some interest in her thoughts. She seemed slightly afraid, but there was something in the depths of her concerned ideas that was even more eager than the second woman of the group.


    ¡°Gang Su Shen, you¡¯re not going away?¡± the second woman addressed the third, ¡°You¡¯re usually quite shy¡­¡±


    ¡°Let her stay, Gang Lan. It¡¯ll be great if she can finally break out of her comfort zone,¡± the first woman replied instead, turning to Wei Yi and offering her right hand, ¡°Before you ask, I am Gang Si Yan, at your service.¡±


    The Ascendant accepted, but the moment their hands met in a handshake, Gang Si Yan pulled herself forward and went in for a kiss. Wei Yi could have stopped it, but why would she want to?


    Instead, the moment their lips met, she moved her hand to Gang Si Yan¡¯s back and pushed her closer in, quickly reaching out with her tongue and transforming their kiss into something passionate and deep, as if they were two lovers reconnected after a thousand years, pent up lust flowing out as soon as they find time alone with one another.


    ¡°W-We should get a room, first,¡± Gang Lan suggested from the side, although it took quite a while for Wei Yi and Gang Si Yan to part.


    ¡°Ah Ling! I¡¯m so glad to see you again!¡± a dark-haired woman rushed to embrace Gang Xiu Ling the moment she saw her in the bedroom, ¡°I had been so concerned that I was barely able to stick to all of the rules¡­ Heavens, I love feeling you so close to me¡­ You missed me too, didn¡¯t you? Couldn¡¯t even wait past the first day¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re as excited as usual¡­ I almost don¡¯t think I deserve you.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s nonsense. You don¡¯t need to deserve me. Remember, I love you, I don¡¯t just want to sleep with you, or else I¡¯d still be going from person to person, as before,¡± she assured, in her own unique way, ¡°Though, since you called me¡­¡±


    ¡°I would like to sleep with you, yes,¡± Gang Xiu Ling admitted, her cheeks quickly beginning to blush, ¡°I also have a bit of a surprise for you, Lan Mu.¡±


    ¡°Ooh, a surprise? Are you finally going to rim me?¡±


    ¡°W-What? No, I¡¯m not¡­ That¡¯s just disgusting!¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t mind it when I did it, so I don¡¯t know why you¡¯re complaining,¡± Lan Mu grinned, planting a quick kiss on the other¡¯s nose, ¡°Anyway, if the surprise is going to remain a surprise, then I¡¯ll wait and see. You¡¯ve not managed to disappoint me yet.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, I guess¡­ Should we-¡±


    ¡°Just get rid of the clothes already! You know the drill already,¡± she practically tore off her lover¡¯s clothing, with Gang Xiu Ling assisting after she was down to her underwear.


    As soon as Gang Xiu Ling was undressed, the two kissed, with Lan Mu removing her own clothing with far greater ease and speed. In no time at all, they were both naked, at which point Lan Mu pushed Gang Xiu Ling onto the bed and kneeled at the side of the bed, pushing her legs apart until the labia was out in the open.


    Above it, a small portion of her groin was covered in neatly trimmed brown hair, though none intruded upon her lower lips.


    ¡°You should try shaving as well. It¡¯s not much scarier than cultivating a basic technique¡­¡± Lan Mu muttered, though she knew that she wouldn¡¯t listen at a time like this, ¡°Oh, Ah Ling, you haven¡¯t changed a bit¡­¡±


    The moment the door was shut, Wei Yi slammed the brown-haired lass against it, noting with some satisfaction the delighted moan that Gang Lan produced.


    Behind her, Gang Su Shen retreated to a corner and simply watched, while Gang Si Yan took the opportunity to embrace her from behind, not at all perturbed by the earlier kiss, nor her stained lipstick or how breathy she was. Rather, she was leveraging it, warm breath tickling the Ascendant¡¯s left ear while her hands roamed.


    ¡°Are you going to ravage her?¡± Si Yan whispered, though Gang Lan heard her as well.


    ¡°Of course I will. Isn¡¯t that why I¡¯m here?¡± Wei Yi responded, ¡°What, would you prefer me to fuck you instead?¡±


    ¡°Hm, maybe later. For now, I can serve as your¡­ assistant. Having only one hand ought to be rather inconvenient when you wish to undress a willing, lustful maiden, am I right? I also know a spot that most men love quite a bit, so-¡±


    ¡°The prostate? I have that too.¡±


    ¡°Want me to give it some stimulation?¡±


    ¡°Help me undress first. You¡¯re rushing ahead way too much.¡±


    ¡°Can you blame me? You are¡­ exciting, in a way¡± while she talked, she removed the Ascendant¡¯s crimson robes, revealing only the black undergarments that she wore beneath her scale armour. She had gotten rid of it during her approach to the room, hence making things rather simple for Gang Si Yan.


    While she was removing the Ascendant¡¯s bra, Wei Yi leaned in and kissed Gang Lan¡¯s neck, making sure to leave a mark as she brought her hand down to Gang Lan¡¯s groin, sliding into her panties and feeling the wetness of her lower lips.


    ¡°You seem excited already. Looking forward to being filled to the brim?¡± Wei Yi asked, sliding a finger into her pussy.


    ¡°Y-Yes¡­ It¡¯s the one thing I wish I¡¯d get in a place like this¡­¡± Gang Lan admitted.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re about to- Ancestors¡¯ ass, that is absurd,¡± Si Yan gasped as she had descended, both with her hands and body, feeling up the Ascendant¡¯s cock, ¡°I think you forgot to transform back from your dragon form...¡±


    ¡°I had just mentioned draconic bloodlines for reference. I¡¯m not a dragon,¡± Wei Yi responded dryly, not turning away from Gang Lan as she pulled her undergarments down, ¡°Will you be fine if I-¡±


    ¡°Today¡¯s safe. I won¡¯t get pregnant, so¡­ please, do it! Right here!¡±


    ¡®And I thought my mind reading abilities were good. To be fair, what else was I going to ask,¡¯ the Ascendant dismissed that line of thought and slipped out of her panties the moment that Gang Si Yan lowered them enough, sliding her cock in between Gang Lan¡¯s thighs. It was already half-hard when it was freed from the confines of her panties, and it soon hardened fully, all ten inches sliding in and out.


    ¡°Going to go straight to fucking her? No foreplay?¡± Si Yan asked casually.


    ¡°She hardly needs it. Look at her leaking onto the floor ¨C what a naughty girl,¡± as Wei Yi teased, she moved her cock to slide it in between the gushing pussy lips, ¡°Mind wrapping your arms around me? Your legs will also need to do a little work.¡±


    Of course, Gang Lan didn¡¯t actually have the ability to read the Ascendant¡¯s mind, but when an arm embraced her just beneath her armpit and lifted her up slightly, she understood. She brought her legs up and wrapped the around Wei Yi¡¯s waist, allowing herself to be brought up to a more comfortable level for Wei Yi to penetrate her. Her tip slid in easily, a sloshing sound demonstrating just how wet Gang Lan was, and the rest of her length soon went in as well.


    Although Gang Lan gasped and moaned, her vagina being forced to stretch apart for something far larger than she had ever taken before, she accepted the length and girth with practised ease.


    Clearly, her earlier comment wasn¡¯t just one made from speculation or idle fantasies, though this wasn¡¯t something that Wei Yi intended or was able to consider in significant detail. Aside from the natural distraction of a tight cunt, there was also the presence of Gang Si Yan to keep in mind, as she had stopped feeling up the Ascendant¡¯s abs and instead spread her ass cheeks.


    Gang Xiu Ling was afraid to employ the technique Wei Yi had given her, but it was an opportunity she couldn¡¯t miss. So long as what the Ascendant said was true, it would be entirely safe, and she certainly failed to find any flaws with it. Also, she had already made a promise to Lan Mu. She had to keep it.


    Hence, as Lan Mu had gone down on her, she triggered the Yin Soul Yang Root and experienced a strange sensation at her groin. It wasn¡¯t entirely pleasant on its own, but when combined with her lover¡¯s touch and tongue, she felt her whole body burning up with arousal. With every breath, it grew, and no climax was enough to relieve her, though Lan Mu did not appear to notice. She was too consumed with pleasing her, lapping up her slick eagerly, her gaze bouncing between Gang Xiu Ling¡¯s eyes and groin.


    The arousal grew and grew, until even Lan Mu could tell that something was happening. For a moment, she withdrew her lips, instead inserting two fingers to bring Xiu Ling to climax.


    At that moment, as that rush of lust poured over her, she felt a heat gathering at her groin, transforming to flame soon after. It was like the very essence of yang manifested at the peak of her pussy lips, and it prevented the orgasm from appearing, leaving her hot and bothered as the edge she had been about to cross seemed so close and yet so far.


    This meant that she was barely able to comprehend what was happening to her body, but Lan Mu was certainly not distracted. She clearly saw something manifest upon Gang Xiu Ling¡¯s groin amidst a sea of sun-like light, though the moment the shape solidified, she recognised it.


    Her eyebrow rose as she waited for the outcome. Perhaps this was simply a complex planar construct ¨C such things existed long ago, and would likely exist in the future, as creating a simple shape was trivial, and making something that felt realistic and carried sensations to the user was more difficult, but not impossible. However, to go through such trouble just for that seemed¡­ unreasonable, though that would not be the word she used.


    There was another possibility. She had heard something about the Ascendant of the north, and how she had grown a dragon¡¯s root of yang through some miracle. It seemed like nonsense when she heard it, but the more stable the shape became, and the less of the sun-like brightness remained, the more she was willing to believe the rumours.


    After all, when the energy faded, what remained was clearly made of flesh and blood, and it certainly smelled like it, too. Part of Gang Xiu Ling¡¯s pussy lips were overtaken by a heavy pair of balls that were joined to a rock-hard shaft that jutted straight up into the air, hard and throbbing with arousal. A bead of precum already gathered at the tip, which ended roughly eight, perhaps even nine inches from the base. Although it lacked any semblance of hair, everything else about it was exactly as it should be if Gang Xiu Ling had always had it.


    In the end, Lan Mu could say little more than, ¡°Whoa.¡±


    ¡°This¡­ feels strange¡­¡± Gang Xiu Ling recovered after the earlier wave of arousal and gazed upon the rigid rod, ¡°Is it¡­ is it fine? Is it too small? Does it look alright?¡±


    Lan Mu couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. Although Xiu Ling displayed impressive strength and courage at times, she also managed to look like the younger one of the two, despite the situation being very much the opposite. It was part of what she liked about her, though it also proved annoying when she was too shy to consider certain things, or when her self-esteem failed to match with her actual ability. As her girlfriend, it was only right to correct such things.


    Hence, she moved in again, nuzzling her cheek against the shaft, looking Gang Xiu Ling straight in the eyes, saying, ¡°It¡¯s great, Ah Ling. The length is way above average, too¡­ Want me to prove that I like it?¡±


    Even if the answer was no, Lan Mu couldn¡¯t refuse such a delicious treat.


    As soon as Wei Yi settled into a slow rhythm, Si Yan dove in, her tongue quickly reaching into the tight hole. After a moment of struggle, for the Ascendant¡¯s muscles were incredibly powerful regardless of their location, the ring loosened, permitting Si Yan¡¯s tongue to enter.


    She eagerly tasted her insides, her saliva turning the ring slick in moments, though she lingered for many more of Wei Yi¡¯s thrusts than she needed to. Her every moment was spent seemingly devouring a delicacy that had no equal in the world, and although she certainly enjoyed the experience, it was actually done for another¡¯s sake. Her ability to use spiritual perception while focusing on other matters was minimal, so she couldn¡¯t look in that person¡¯s direction, but she hoped that Gang Su Shen was looking.


    Indeed, she was, and although her typical demeanour would insist that she look away, she couldn¡¯t help herself at all. The sight before her, of one woman being pounded into the door, every thrust reaching into her depths, and another eagerly going into a place that she couldn¡¯t even fathom using for pleasure, was fascinating.


    Her panties quickly grew moist as she imagined herself in both positions, involuntarily at first. The longer this went on, however, the more deliberate such thoughts became, and soon she allowed herself to be consumed in her fantasies.


    At once, she saw herself as both Gang Si Yan and Gang Lan, watching without blinking once.


    It was delightful to observe as Si Yan finally pulled away from Wei Yi¡¯s ass, her lipstick stained all around the Ascendant¡¯s asshole. The tight ring remained slightly parted, a fact that she quickly used to her advantage as she inserted her middle finger. With her earlier effort, she faced no difficulties in sliding in up to the knuckle.


    Wei Yi paused, though only for a moment, ¡°This does feel unusual, I¡¯ll admit¡­ Know what you¡¯re doing?¡±


    ¡°Please, I¡¯ve done this before with far, far less gorgeous fellows¡­ Limp-dicked assholes that couldn¡¯t get it up properly¡­¡± Gang Si Yan muttered, her disposition faltering for a moment, ¡°A-Anyway, it should be right¡­ here!¡±


    Her expertise was rather obvious, for she managed to make the Ascendant falter for a second time, releasing a groan that was rather quiet yet so loud against her otherwise quiet disposition.


    ¡°That¡­¡±


    ¡°Just keep going, honey, you¡¯ll love it,¡± Si Yan encouraged, ¡°Keep thrusting, keep fucking that slut.¡±


    ¡°I get the slightest impression that you wish you were in my place,¡± Wei Yi said, deciding after a moment not to subdue her emotions or feelings and instead experience them in full. That didn¡¯t stop her from easily understanding the situation from some of Gang Si Yan¡¯s surface thoughts.


    ¡°Nah, you¡¯re just¡­ why don¡¯t you focus on the lass¡¯ face instead? Even from what little I can see, she looks gorgeous.¡±


    In an obvious attempt at distraction, she began to finger-fuck the Ascendant¡¯s ass in tandem with the latter¡¯s own thrusts, allowing her to reach that sensitive point inside at regular intervals. Better yet, she clearly saw Wei Yi¡¯s balls tensing up, growing absurdly heavy and full, as if they contained an ocean of cum to unleash into poor Gang Lan. It only encouraged her motions, and the moans bursting from the Ascendant¡¯s lips made every moment worth it.


    Although she might have been a little rusty, and unused to such a size, Lan Mu readily went down on Ah Ling¡¯s cock, her lips easily sliding down the head and letting it fill her mouth. She put her tongue to use right away, swirling it around and coating it with her saliva, which poured unbidden from her mouth.


    She had somehow underestimated her own excitement and sexual hunger, though she wasn¡¯t going to stop. Rather, she saw no better way to show her lover just how much she appreciated her than by polishing this newly grown appendage to such a perfect shine that she could use it as a mirror in the future.


    Of course, that was a silly notion, but the simple thought of sucking Gang Xiu Ling¡¯s dick caused her heart to beat faster and her pussy to get wet at an alarming speed.


    ¡®Eh, I don¡¯t need these panties anyway. If she can become Matriarch, I¡¯ll just spend all day riding her while she rests in her seat of power, letting her fill my cunt every day until she makes me look pregnant, until I go hoarse from crying out in excitement, letting everyone know just how much of a whore I am for her!¡¯ Lan Mu blinked and remembered that she was still in the bedroom, and far from any such fantasy, ¡®Right, carried away¡­ It tastes really good, though¡­¡¯


    That was a less complicated direction to go in, and one that allowed her to focus on her blowjob, so she went there instead, taking the time to taste Ah Ling¡¯s tip fully before descending further down, polishing the upper portion of the shaft.


    In part, it tasted like any of the other dicks she had sucked, sweat and precum mixing together on her tongue, but there was also a hint of something absolutely divine. She had grown used to the regular taste, and put up with it, but this taste and scent were both something that were actually delightful. Both masculine and feminine in its own right, it was unique and fascinating, driving her to plunge more of Gang Xiu Ling¡¯s cock into her mouth, bidding it to strike the back of her throat.


    Even then, she found herself more attracted to the scent. She was even more familiar with the usual smell of sex than with the taste, and what she felt now was akin to the best elements being separated from the rest, then intensified by a thousand times. Primal and lustful, the musky scent of Ah Ling¡¯s cock made her so much more attractive, at least in Lan Mu¡¯s eyes.


    Unfortunately, gaining a new cock seemed to carry with it the complete lack of stamina, as she could clearly see Gang Xiu Ling straining not to cum in her mouth after just a few minutes.


    ¡®I¡¯ll have to train her a bit later¡­ Maybe get her to the edge a few times without letting her cum¡­ Mhm, that should be fun¡­¡¯ Lan Mu smiled internally, her eyes meeting Ah Ling¡¯s, trying and failing to communicate any meaning as the latter immediately looked away with a vivid blush.


    Her body didn¡¯t have much of a choice, however. After a moment, her balls tensed up, her cock grew even harder, and a loud gasp escaped her mouth. The deluge of semen was almost audible, spilling into Lan Mu¡¯s mouth and filling it in several spurts, spilling out from between Lan Mu¡¯s lips before the flood ceased, letting her swallow the load and rise from Xiu Ling¡¯s cock. She was unable to swallow everything in one go, and so she had to separate it into portions, gulping down each one loudly and with great effort.


    Even after she was done, the thick scent of cum felt overwhelming, as if she had been stained for it forever. It wasn¡¯t an unpleasant feeling by any means.


    ¡°Look, Ah Ling, I swallowed it all,¡± Lan Mu opened her mouth wide, showing her clean tongue to her lover, ¡°You weren¡¯t unpleasant at-¡±


    She was forced to pause as she covered up her mouth and burped, causing the already significant smell to become overwhelming. There was a moment of silence between the two of them, before Lan Mu couldn¡¯t help but laugh.


    ¡°First time for everything, I guess¡­¡±


    Gang Su Shen had thought she was paying attention, only to realise that her mind must have slipped away to focus purely on her imaginary scenario at some point. The moment this realisation came was when Gang Lan seemed to almost be thrown down onto the bed beside her, her belly full and her body clearly exhausted of energy.


    Turning back to the front, her vision was invaded by a long, hard cock pointing straight in her direction, roughly at the level of her lips.


    ¡°You¡¯ve been staring for quite some time already. If you want a taste, you have the perfect opportunity to do so right now,¡± Si Yan said with an obvious grin, though Su Shen was unable to remove her gaze from the tip of the Ascendant¡¯s shaft, feeling her mind devoting itself to viewing that hard thing.


    ¡°Hm. I have a different idea.¡±


    ¡°What do you- hey, what are- Ah!¡± Gang Si Yan cried out in surprise as she was grabbed by Wei Yi and pushed down onto the bed, right on top of Su Shen, ¡°H-hey, Su Sh-eEn!¡±


    Her calm and collected tone was shattered when the Ascendant positioned herself behind her and moved her moist panties aside and slid her cum-stained shaft right in, plunging most of it inside in a single go. In moments, her face exhibited just how full she felt, her fa?ade shattering and her lust rushing straight onto the surface.


    ¡°How do you like things being turned around on you?¡± Wei Yi asked, thrusting in to the hilt, ¡°And you, Su Shen, why don¡¯t you taste her lips? I bet she would be all too happy to return the kiss right now. Won¡¯t you, Si Yan?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yesh!¡± she replied, her tongue drooping out of her mouth.


    ¡®I don¡¯t think she knows what she¡¯s replying to,¡¯ Gang Su Shen thought, but she couldn¡¯t deny that she was interested, ¡®She does look so¡­ so¡­¡¯


    Having begun this type of work only a short time ago, she didn¡¯t know most of the words to describe her feelings. Hence, she was left with no choice but to express them directly, moving in to meet Si Yan¡¯s lips and diving into a deep kiss. She was driven purely by instinct, so perhaps she did an awful job, but she loved every moment of Si Yan¡¯s lips and tongue meeting with her own.


    It was messy and sloppy, a fact that wasn¡¯t helped in the slightest by Wei Yi¡¯s continued pounding.


    ¡°You two look really hot like that,¡± she said, ¡°Didn¡¯t realise how much I missed having more than one partner¡­ Su Shen, do you think you¡¯re ready for me?¡±


    Her mind was mostly occupied by Si Yan, but Su Shen understood the question anyway. Given that her pussy was within inches of Si Yan¡¯s, as well as the Ascendant¡¯s cock, there was only one possibility. She wasn¡¯t a virgin, whether it came to men or women, but she had never taken someone as large as Wei Yi before. It was enough to send her heart racing, both from fear and curiosity, eventually bringing her to a decision.


    ¡®Please, do it. Take me,¡¯ she thought, not realising that she had not managed to voice them.


    Despite that, Wei Yi nodded, pulling out of Si Yan¡¯s pussy with a wet sound. She brought the tip to Su Shen¡¯s lower lips, sliding it up and down the slick skin, but she then went lower, pressing her cock against Gang Su Shen¡¯s asshole.


    ¡®W-Wait, that-¡¯


    As before, she had only thought her words, her lips still occupied by Si Yan, but Wei Yi responded nonetheless, ¡°I have a technique for relaxing that hole just enough for penetration¡­ and I won¡¯t be using it on Si Yan, since she clearly appreciates me being rough and going hard¡­ Don¡¯t you, you slut? Don¡¯t bother answering.¡±


    Since Su Shen exhibited no sign of disagreement, a finger was quickly placed on the tight ring of muscle, a strange energy permeating it. In moments, she felt herself relaxing, not just down below but all throughout the body, giving Si Yan an easy time in taking charge and dominating their kiss.


    Wei Yi also didn¡¯t wait long to press the head of her cock against Su Shen¡¯s asshole, which only resisted for a moment before letting it inside.


    Her eyes widened, but any sign of protest was devoured by Si Yan as eagerly as any moans. Since she began, Gang Si Yan had been kissing her with such eagerness that she seemed to have endless energy, going on and on, their saliva mixing and spilling out from their lips, onto their chins and down to their clothing. It was a base and perverse sight, though Su Shen could hardly find the strength to care as her tight butt was penetrated, slowly yet surely.


    She felt every single portion of the Ascendant¡¯s cock with perfect clarity, felt it threatening to split her apart yet failing to truly harm her, resulting in a truly unique experience. It was nothing like the gentle fingers and tongues that she had experienced in the New Community, nor was it anything like she imagined sex with a man to feel like. Rather, it struck a happy medium, where everything was just right.


    It even felt like the red-haired woman knew exactly what felt good for her, moving in just the right way to bring out the most pleasure she could. However, that was silly¡­ right?


    ¡®She¡¯s still going¡­ how large is she? It¡¯s like the trunk of a million-year tree!¡¯ Gang Su Shen exclaimed in her mind, everything else consumed by the sensation in her ass. Having never felt a man penetrate her, she wasn¡¯t prepared even for that much, and now she had to deal with a true behemoth.


    When the Ascendant began thrusting, embracing both her and Si Yan for support, she felt her mind go blank. Every firm thrust blended into a blur, of which she could only recall fullness and satisfaction.


    At some point, Si Yan stopped kissing her lips and went down to her neck, making as many marks as she could in as many ways as she could imagine. Gang Lan had managed to awaken eventually, though she was content to simply hold Su Shen¡¯s hand while the Ascendant fucked the latter. Perhaps she commented on the situation, or whispered something to Gang Su Shen, but she was far too distracted to have any ability to comprehend the situation.


    The fog was shattered when, with one especially forceful thrust, Wei Yi hilted herself inside her, groaning as her balls slapped against Su Shen¡¯s ass and tightened. She felt her ass filling up in moments, the sea of cum flooding further in and causing her belly to bulge. It travelled up, further and further, seeming to reach her stomach.


    Her earlier fullness seemed insignificant to now, the earlier firmness replaced with the texture and viscosity of the Ascendant¡¯s seed.


    ¡°You¡­¡± Si Yan¡¯s voice broke the silence, ¡°Can you go again? I want you to fill me just like this¡­¡±

 V5C33: The Path of Progress

    The tour took a brief while, with the majority of areas being both unoccupied and rather obvious in nature, and then a vastly greater amount of time was occupied by some intimate relations between the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and the New Community.


    In slightly less opaque terms, it turned out that while the rest of the New Community was currently away, the day was apparently the most optimal time for the women in the sex-focused area of the community to seek companionship while making a decent earning for themselves. Since she did not want to trick any of them with her feminine appearance, she did reveal her nature to them, and it turned out that a number were bisexual.


    As such, she had a good time for the first time¡­ in a long while. She wished that she could say that it was helpful for more than her libido, which had been ignored for quite some time, but her mental state appeared to be far beyond help with pure material pleasures. To be more precise, she was not easily affected by matters that could only be considered insignificant in the grand scheme of things, meaning that she wouldn¡¯t be put down by something simplistic, but she would also not be easily benefitted by such things. In order to attain any kind of mental progress, a significant change was necessary, and not attainable at the moment.


    The transformation of her killing intent to shadow was already the most that she could hope for with her available resources and the place she was stuck at.


    To say that it did nothing to make her head clearer would be false, however, so when she departed from the New Community with a reminder to their leader to try to think of a new name, if possible, she was able to head to the residence of the potential future Matriarch while thinking slightly more clearly, and having completed just a little more thought than she might otherwise have done.


    Yes, it was very difficult to find a positive beyond the confirmation of the pointlessness of the distraction. That was the life of the Ascendant in a nutshell, complete with a thousand nutshells over it just to make things harder to understand.


    That was where her occasional contemplation of a simpler life came from, and subsequently died.


    When she entered the residence, she entered to the audible rustling of sheets and the gasps and moans of two high-pitched, feminine voices, making it very clear what she had returned to. It had been some time since she left, so it was no surprise that Gang Xiu Ling had managed to find someone, although it was rather unexpected that they would keep going for such a long amount of time. In a way, it was actually beneficial to her, as she did have a reason to speak with the other woman, so she made her way upstairs.


    As she entered the room, the potential future Matriarch was seated on the side of the bed, her legs apart and her gaze upon the woman that was positioned between them. Contrasting the brown, braided hair of Gang Xiu Ling, this woman had loose dark hair that clung to her sweaty, naked body, allowing the contours of her back to remain somewhat visible despite the thick layer of hair on it.


    One of her hands was on her partner¡¯s leg, and the other rested on the appendage upon Gang Xiu Ling¡¯s crotch.


    ¡°I see it worked,¡± Wei Yi interrupted them, seeing that they had already been here for a while.


    Gang Xiu Ling reacted far more than the woman kneeling before her, who only continued to slowly pump the newfound appendage. She looked flustered as she observed the Ascendant calmly enter the room, her mind racing as she contemplated taking a dozen different actions, only to do nothing due to all of her ideas conflicting in a manner that simply caused her body to tremble uncontrollably, to the point that even the woman beneath her noticed.


    ¡°Ah Ling, I¡¯ve already told you that it is much bigger than usual¡­ there¡¯s no need to be so worried,¡± the woman said, planting a kiss on the tip.


    ¡°Actually, I think she hadn¡¯t been expecting me to enter at this moment,¡± Wei Yi corrected her, having already seen part of their interactions with her spiritual perception and thus being fully aware of how the potential future Matriarch immediately felt insecure about her new dick after it suddenly appeared upon her body, ¡°I would say that I don¡¯t want to disturb you, but it would be better if you decided to resume this some other time. We need to talk, and I don¡¯t know if you would like to be here for any of that.¡±


    The woman finally noticed her presence and turned her head reluctantly, looking over her then looking back to Gang Xiu Ling, who had finally managed to calm herself enough to stop trembling, ¡°Who¡¯s that supposed to be, Ah Ling?¡±


    ¡°That¡­ that is the one that gave me the technique-¡±


    ¡°Oh, is that so? Thank you very much!¡± the woman hopped up and rushed over to the Ascendant, who had seated herself on a chair that stood by the wall, next to the doorway, ¡°Do you mind if I shake your hand? No? Thank you so much for letting her grow something so big and warm¡­ Though, who are you, exactly?¡±


    With their hands parting, Wei Yi said, ¡°My name is Wei Yi, and I am called the Ascendant over at the north. I have a certain interest in helping your friend over there become the new Matriarch of the district, so if you would rather stay away from such things, whether just to maintain a safe distance or if you aren¡¯t interested in supporting such a thing, I would advise you to leave this very moment and come back¡­ well, I¡¯m sure Gang Xiu Ling will find you again when she has the time to spare.¡±


    The woman¡¯s expression froze for a moment, with another look back and forth between her and the woman on the bed, who sat in mostly the same position in her uncertainty, but she shook her head quickly.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to leave, then. Getting dressed might be a good idea ¨C and I think finishing properly would also be smart ¨C but if Ah Ling wants to do something like that, then I will not shy away from it. Oh, and I¡¯m Lan Mu, in case you were wondering.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d observed a certain someone calling it out very loudly, so, no, I didn¡¯t need to be told. However, hearing it directly from you is a little better, so whatever,¡± Wei Yi shrugged, turning to the other woman, ¡°Also, speaking from personal experience, rushing to a finish isn¡¯t always the best. Sometimes, waiting for a little while and letting things build up before taking care of it can be significantly more satisfying.¡±


    ¡°Already aware, but¡­ fine, this comes first,¡± Lan Mu said, heading towards the doorway, ¡°I can go and get dressed, right?¡±


    ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    ¡°H-Hey, why are you two just deciding everything? I¡¯m the one sitting here with my dick out!¡±


    ¡°You are. However, if you let that desire build within yourself for a while, once you get around to relieving it, with your friend or on your own, it will be significantly more satisfying. Again, personal experience¡­ and with a larger¡­ never mind,¡± Wei Yi chose not to bring that up, not while the two of them were around, and instead reached out to make the woman¡¯s clothing fly into her hand, which she then tossed at Gang Xiu Ling, ¡°While she¡¯s looking for her things and follows the trail of your make-out session, there¡¯s something I want to ask.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Is it something that will be hard to discuss with a hard-on?¡±


    ¡°Depends on you, not your cock. It should be a good opportunity to learn to control yourself, since you will have that thing for the rest of your life with all of the advantages and disadvantages of it. For the moment, I know of no way to undo the technique¡¯s effect on you, and I might never find a solution.¡±


    Gang Xiu Ling nodded, her flushed cheeks finally calming down. She took the things that were thrown at her and put them on, quickly but far more steadily than one might expect from someone that was freaking out only a short while ago. Once everything was on ¨C and her new appendage was tucked down a trouser leg as it had yet to calm down like the rest of her body had ¨C she almost seemed like a changed woman, with a far cooler countenance than even before the morning.


    Given that she was rather composed on their journey to the Gang District as well, and was unexpectedly bashful while with a woman at her legs, it seemed that she was far less confident in sexual matters than she had let on with her initial mention of having plentiful experience in that regard. Of course, it might also be that her mind had not yet come to terms with her changed body.


    ¡°Alright, so what did you want to say?¡±


    ¡°We had a plan of going the standard route, so to speak, by using the traditions of the Gang District to support your claim and reinforce your standing. I¡¯ve come across something that allowed me to think of a different path, but it is one that you will need to approve, of course.¡±


    ¡°The only way that I know of is to convince the guardians and maintain a tradition and law that had been used for a million years or more. If you think that there is something else that can be done, then it better be a very viable solution, or else it is almost certainly going to fail and my chances of success will be greatly worsened.¡±


    ¡°There is a large number of people that wish for the Gang District to change, for once.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ wouldn¡¯t actually be surprising. Tradition can only be maintained for so long when it is outdated, and when the people themselves have changed. Still, there¡¯s a difference between wanting change, and actually going out to create it.¡±


    ¡°Quite a few people have been descending into a portion of the district that is not typically observed by the Gang family, and there, they have been going against the traditions that limit their range of activity, among other things. Having spent a little while there, it seems to be a decent enough group of people, and a decent enough place, and I have confirmation from their leader that they would be willing to speak out if you would support their position,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°Thus, the question is whether you would choose to uphold tradition and oppose your sibling on standard terms, or if you be the one to shake things up and make a change, even if you don¡¯t go as far as some may want.¡±


    Gang Xiu Ling did not have an immediate answer. She sat back down and contemplated things, taking long enough for Lan Mu to return in all of her clothing, save for a coat intended to be worn outdoors.


    The woman wore tall, fur-lined boots, into which her dark trousers were tucked in, raising her by a inch above the ground due to the tall heels. A corset was tied around her waist and over a tight sleeveless shirt, although not exceptionally tightly, revealed by the translucent texture of a thin white blouse made of a material that made it useful in the cold weather. Fingerless leather gloves adorned both her hands, with her left index finger being the home of a simple silver ring with only the faintest hint of planar energy around it. A series of internal channels complete with an inscription led to the cold being warded away from her fingers, open to the elements as they were, and instead being directed to the gloves, where the cold could do less.


    With the choker around her neck, her style was very different from what one might expect from a Gang District native, and it was also far more akin to a style of the otherworldly demons than anything else. In fact, she was half-certain that had she appeared before an otherworldly demon, the latter would have concluded that she was a fellow visitor from another world.


    ¡°Interesting choice of apparel.¡±


    ¡°I have to wear a thick fur coat over this anyway, so I might as well try out something more interesting for myself and my lovely Ah Ling,¡± Lan Mu couldn¡¯t stop a smile from appearing as she glanced towards the bed, ¡°That technique you gave to her, by the way¡­ could you share?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°No? Not for anyone?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d have preferred not to give it to Gang Xiu Ling, either, but since it will be of use regardless of what she chooses, I decided to make an exception for her. If I figure out a way for people to manipulate their bodies more freely, then I may change my mind and share it within my domain, whether that ends up being the entirety of Yi City or only some of the districts,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°I won¡¯t even ask what you want it for.¡±


    ¡°Alright, fine, I won¡¯t ask again,¡± Lan Mu acquiesced, ¡°What does she need to choose?¡±


    ¡°Ah Mu, I need to decide whether I¡¯ll go along with our ancient traditions or attempt to change them. I am not sure whether it is even possible, but there is a chance that we will be able to do so much more if we do succeed¡­ What do you think I should do?¡±


    ¡°Go against tradition¡­ Well, we do seem to be doing that a great deal already. Our relationship, your delicious cock, Wei Yi¡¯s involvement-¡±


    ¡°You saying that with a straight face is very¡­ strange.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say that with a straight face. I was giving you bedroom eyes, and I had licked my lips rather openly, but you were distracted. Anyway, you are already clearly going against all of the traditions that have led to you being refused the opportunity of becoming Matriarch. If you do want to take that title for yourself, then it would be very difficult for you to do so traditionally.¡±


    ¡°Then, I guess I can rephrase those choices for you,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°On one hand, even if our original plan goes through, you would need to forget about a number of things that you may wish to do, and follow all the codes and rules of the Gang District without exception. You two could keep fucking, but forget about that outfit, Lan Mu. There¡¯s no way that they¡¯d let you keep wearing that while being in a marriage with a Matriarch¡­ Do you think that the guardians would say that tradition demands particular sex positions?¡±


    ¡°I hope not. The standard in this place¡­ horrendously fucking dull,¡± Lan Mu said.


    ¡°Interesting word choice. The other option is to go against all of that. Attack the current foundations and change them, even if you only replace a single stone in all of them. Even if you adhere to most of the traditions afterwards, you won¡¯t be able to rule over the same Gang District that Gang Shu Wen currently controls. Is that something you can accept, or is something about the current nature of the district desirable to you? I don¡¯t really mind either way, so long as you succeed, so it is your choice.¡±


    ¡°In a way, that is slightly clearer¡­ Well¡­ On one hand, as a member of the Gang family, I should be preserving tradition. It is what has brought us so far, after all, and to throw it away would be more than a little reckless, stupid and arrogant, among other things,¡± Gang Xiu Ling said, ¡°On the other, the other districts have changed. They¡¯ve all gone with what worked best, and they survived, sometimes prospered. We need to do the same, even if it means finally discarding some of the old bullshit meant to keep our population numbers up, among other things like that. If the guardians cannot accept something like that¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about them, or the Patriarch, or anyone else. I am asking you right now, and maybe Lan Mu as well, if you value her opinion in this regard. Other than that, it does not matter.¡±


    She frowned, but, after a moment, made up her mind, ¡°I wish to change things. Whatever the guardians want, they might need to compromise for the first time in a long while. Then, when your faction up north wishes to oppose the Great Families, we can be with you, against the things they have done to stop us all from growing.¡±


    Wei Yi glanced at Lan Mu, who nodded along, and then stepped over to the window, looking out upon the Gang District. For the moment, it was calm and peaceful, as calm as a district in the evening could be, but it was unaware of the turmoil that it would soon encounter. Just as with many other changes in history, it would require a great deal of struggle and conflict, and it was hard to be certain whether they would even be those that would truly benefit the district in the long term. After all, the ones that would make the decision would be a horny pair of women that weren¡¯t initially permitted to sleep together.


    She was currently working for short-term success. It was key to confront the Great Families as soon as possible, even if it meant making some bad allies and sub-par decisions, but she was also committed to ensuring that all of these decisions would only lead to detrimental factors in the short term.


    Perhaps it needed to be said that she was not one to adhere to tradition without fail. She was not at all interested in such a prospect, and was rather happy that the Gang District would advance, where possible. However, as recognised by the New Community, and even Gang Xiu Ling while her trousers still bulged slightly with her new appendage, many traditions, laws, rules and practises were in place because they worked. They were the best option available to a group, community, district, city, nation, or even continent. No better example existed than of the practise of planar energy cultivation, which was widespread not just in the Western Continent, but on the Eastern Continent also, different only in the way that they cultivated.


    Planar energy was not a perfect solution to most problems, and it did bind them to a certain path with certain strengths and weaknesses that most could never resolve in their entirety, but it was a far superior option to anything else that the people thought that they had. Even with her attempts to bring spiritual will, killing intent, physique energy and bloodline power into common knowledge amongst the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, she did not expect the majority to select one of them as their primary path.


    It was the same with tradition. Not everything was satisfactory in full, but achieved enough to outweigh the drawbacks, especially when alternatives were presented. Marriages weren¡¯t always happy or fruitful, but they promoted the bonding of couples, a better childhood than with single parents or no parents at all, and had often supported alliances between groups that were not very fond of one another overall. The Gang District preferred marriage and sex in marriage over any alternatives, and while she herself was not an example of such practises, she did recognise that they had their place in the world.


    As such, she was not very keen to let everything be torn apart, and was careful to constantly bring up the fact that the majority of the foundations could be left in place, or modified at most, because she did believe this to be the case. Sure, some foundational stones had cracked and chipped, and some of the wood may have rotted, but demolishing it entirely was unnecessary, as the overall structure still held up quite well in comparison to a building with nothing at all to keep it standing, or something on a completely new, untested groundwork.


    There was a possibility that this new foundation would far surpass any to come before it, she did have to admit that. It was almost non-existent, but it was there. Assuming that the best came to pass, she could witness a complete revolution in every aspect of society and culture at the Gang District.


    Despite that, she was very confident in saying that this would not occur, and that throwing oneself into the open jaw of a starving dragon would be safer and smarter at the same time. Furthermore, by exchanging one stone or log at a time, the entire structure could be changed gradually and far more safely, whereas doing it at once would at least guarantee a period of unrest and exposure to the elements, whatever they were to represent in this metaphor.


    It was hard to be certain what the potential Gang Matriarch would do had she not made an appearance at all, or if she kept to herself and hadn¡¯t been careful to suggest safer routes for Gang Xiu Ling. She did not want to risk anything unnecessary, and so she was going to keep trying to guide things in the best direction she could.


    After that, if she ended up failing horribly and nurturing a terrible threat to Yi City as a whole, which was, unfortunately, not impossible, she would make use of the previous omissions of truth and the like to gain whatever advantage was needed to take care of the mistakes that she had made. It would need to happen the moment that she actually had the time to spare on amending her problems, and the energy to do so without damaging other pursuits, but there was one thing that she was aiming to do that Kong Shi Meng had clearly failed to achieve.


    She wished to leave Yi City in a stable state, and one that was superior to how she had found it. The current conflicts were less than ideal for obvious reasons, but once they were over and she had the chance to handle things properly, she would do so right away. The worst practises and traditions would be addressed and changed, if not outright removed, and those Patriarchs and Matriarchs that were unsuitable for the positions that they were granted would be removed and replaced with those that were, even if that causes conflict once more. In theory, there was nothing that would prevent her from stabilising the city at the best possible state that she could imagine for it, and she did not intend to allow others to stop her.


    The Ascendant had resolved to do this a long, long time ago, when the notion of becoming the new Master of Yi City had first popped into her mind, and when she considered that enforcing some form of Law to attain the justice that she wished for would be necessary.


    This was just one of those times that she would be responsible for the change in leadership in a district from the very beginning, and would also be the reason for a major change in a district¡¯s function and focus. Wei Yi knew that the Master of Yi City had to have kept the district as it was for a reason, especially when his abilities at the time should have been sufficient to take over by force and implement whatever practises he wanted to, so it was a little risky to encourage change, but she¡¯d do it.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll get on that, then,¡± the Ascendant finally said, having looked out onto the district for a brief while, ¡°While I would love to rush straight into action, there are a few things I need to do before there¡¯s any chance of a successful takeover. You can do what you like and make your own preparation for now, and tomorrow, or the day after, everything should be ready to go.¡±


    ¡°Taking over the district in two days? That sounds rather unbelievable¡­ but Ah Ling trusts you, probably, so I¡¯ll do the same,¡± Lan Mu said.


    ¡°In that case, I will leave you here to do your own thing. There¡¯s a thing that I need to find out in the district, and it won¡¯t require your presence or input. If you need to get me for something, then¡­ well, if I am within the nearest kilometre, then I should be able to observe anything referring to me, or calling for me. If you¡¯re in a situation where you can¡¯t just whisper my name, you could trace it on your palm or something of the sort, or write it down, or use your energy to mention my name to one another. Any of that should work.¡±


    Gang Xiu Ling muttered, ¡°That¡¯s a lot of options.¡±


    ¡°So if you fail to use any, don¡¯t blame me for not showing up and helping you, because I can assume that you are not in any kind of trouble and do not require my assistance. Does that all make sense to you two?¡±


    ¡°I think that I understand, and I wouldn¡¯t say that I¡¯m much smarter than she is,¡± Lan Mu said, ¡°The only difference is that I¡¯ve had quite a few partners before her, and tried going out with a few men and women while she was away, so I don¡¯t get as nervous when someone comes in on us. By the way, you did say that you didn¡¯t mind, right?¡±


    ¡°I had said that I¡¯d prefer you not to mention it again, though.¡±


    ¡°Sorry. See, I also can¡¯t keep my mouth closed sometimes, although I won¡¯t say anything about our plans to anyone else.¡±


    ¡°Does that mean that this whole exchange could have just been avoided? You lot understand what I¡¯ll be doing, how to get me to come over, and what not to do, so just get back on that bed and spend time together,¡± Wei Yi backed away and vanished from the spot without bothering to make it all the way out of the room, using her Dao of Law to reappear at a part of the district where nobody was observing for the moment.


    When she vanished, it only took the two lovebirds a few moments to confirm her absence before Lan Mu grabbed onto the potential future Matriarch and pushed her down onto the bed, their lips locking together without a care in the world, at least for the moment.


    ¡®They are comparable to rabbits, aren¡¯t they? Had I not gone through all the shit I went through, could I have possibly ended up like one of those two?¡¯ Wei Yi wondered for a moment, keeping an eye on the two as to ensure that they wouldn¡¯t be attacked or somehow harmed while she was away, ¡®Perhaps, perhaps not. Maybe I¡¯ll find some time to relax once I¡¯ve got Yi City under control, provided that there¡¯s nothing else getting in the way, and the project to improve the Dao of Law to the extent that I can influence the entire world remains as stuck as it is now, but for the moment, just thinking about that is likely to distract me more than anything.¡¯


    Her current query was the lair of the Guardians of Purity, if it could be called that, and while they shouldn¡¯t be able to pose as much threat as one of the first generation members of the Great Families, the fact that their leader could use spatial abilities meant that he could do a great deal to her. By opening up a spatial portal in just the right place and at just the right time, removing her head from the body wasn¡¯t impossible, provided that she wasn¡¯t stronger than the fabric of space.


    To get distracted with such a possibility of danger would be unwise, to say the least.

 V5C34: Test of Purity

    There were several clues to the lair of the Guardians of Purity, and the first was that it was beneath the ground. She had not seen the exterior of the structure that the portal had been formed in, but from the air, flow of energy, and some of the things that she had been able to scan, she could tell that there was a large amount of earth above it, far more than would be found on a poorly maintained building in the district. That automatically discarded looking for the place from above, and instead necessitated the search for a location where the Guardians could actually create their base without interfering with any other underground installation.


    After all, there was a large underground region occupied by the New Community, which would prevent anything else from being on the same level. In other words, space couldn¡¯t overlap without a very careful usage of spatial techniques that were no longer in use in the Planar Continents.


    That was rather basic knowledge, admittedly.


    Hence, using everything that she had been able to scan from the underground region of the New Community, she identified that at least one third of the district couldn¡¯t be utilised for the hideout without bending space. The space around the district was not eliminated in the slightest, but there was a limited distance from the district that could be close enough to permit spatial transportations of the sort that was used by the leader of the Guardians of Purity.


    It led to quite a big area for her to look through, but she had an entire night and day to do so, and she was fully intent on doing so by first inspecting areas closest to the New Community, where she was most concerned about finding any kind of large force with which she might need to fight. Her techniques were a little destructive, to say the least, and she didn¡¯t want to accidentally kill anyone over at the revolutionary force with excessive attacks that she could use in other areas without as much concern ¨C not that she was fine with killing arbitrarily, but the New Community was the only faction underground that she needed to watch out for.


    ¡®There are a lot of buried structures in this place. The ground isn¡¯t very strong here, unlike the Bao District, and despite the seeming old age of most buildings, there have been at least three individual layers of structures above the initial foundations,¡¯ Wei Yi noted as she looked through the district quietly, employing her stealth methods to avoid any unwanted detection.


    So far, after combing through another half of the Gang District, thus having reviewed a total of eighty-three percent of the region, she had come across no Guardians of Purity, nor any cultivators that made use of pure planar energy, which would have been a basic requirement for membership in the faction. From this, she took a little while to consider why they might be so distant from the district that they were supposed to be most focused upon, and who¡¯s Patriarch they apparently serve, and came to a reasonable conclusion.


    Given that the assassin had previously appeared through a portal, and that the portal location could shift, it was possible for the Guardians to make use of them to travel around, at least before she had tampered with it. Additionally, the Guardians of Purity are an old faction, one that somehow remained undiscovered for quite some time, so they were blatantly not out in the open, nor in a place that could easily be found, like the New Community of the Gang District.


    As a result, it was very likely that their hideout had to be somewhere beneath the ground, and not accessible at all from the surface, as the people of the Gang District would be very likely to find it otherwise. The obvious question brought up was how the current Patriarch of the district could have possibly encountered them and used them to support his own standing in the world, and she suspected that this could be answered by the abilities of the current Patriarch combined with the knowledge that the Gang District and family are bound to have regarding factions that exist near to their lands, or outright beneath them.


    To contact a force within a short range of the district without any physical contact would be possible using the abilities possessed by the district¡¯s leadership, and so it was likely that she should change the approach she was using just a little bit.


    Providing that the order to kill Gang Xiu Ling was given at the time of her arrival, and not a long time prior, which would make things difficult, there should still be traces of their communication and some kind of stable method used to converse with the Guardians of Purity. If she located it, tracked down one side of it, and then handled matters on that side, she would have a good idea of what exactly was happening between them and the district¡¯s leadership, and exactly what she could do with that information during the takeover attempt later in the week.


    She knew where the primary structures of the Gang family were in the district, and that they were focused on a part of the district that she had not spent too much time at yet. Judging by some of the structural layers below the district, she could also guess where there would be enough room for the lair that she had seen through the small portal that she had managed to stabilise.


    With everything that she had already explored, she had concluded that there were only a few regions that could possibly provide a sufficient amount of space for a lair of a once-major faction to exist and operate beneath the ground without any interruptions and challenges that would otherwise be presented by a confined space with no access to open sunlight or farming and hunting areas that are easily accessible outside. It greatly limited the places that she needed to search, and it did a great deal to inform her of where various stabilised communication channels could have been placed without interfering with other matters of the district.


    To put it a little more straightforwardly, she came across the stagnant channel of energy that she had been looking for in less than ten minutes after she had begun, and did so just north of a structure owned by one of the guardians of the Gang District, which allowed her to verify its nature rather easily. There were only so many people, factions and entities that a guardian would need to converse with, and it was the only channel directed towards a point in the ground that she had been unable to scan yet.


    Before she could attempt to deduce what had been transmitted through it, she recognised the faint fluctuation of space before her, and thus realised that she might not even need to do so.


    ¡®Sure, throwing everything I can observe with my spiritual perception into the Ascendant¡¯s Library is wise, but there are only a few things that could be happening with the Guardians of Purity ¨C provided that there isn¡¯t another instance of what might be a Primordial Deity rising from the earth to entrap a great number of people. I can avoid the perception of most, so I should be able to get past them easily enough if my guesses are all proven to be incorrect,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, ultimately deciding that rushing was worthwhile in this instance.


    After a minute, she was able to obtain sufficient information on the two ends of the faint spatial channel, and immediately reached out to grasp one of the chains of Law before her, vanishing the next moment.


    On the other side, she manifested in the air a metre above the ground, landing onto the perfectly flat stone slab that was a perfect example of the only kind of stone tile that could be found all around her. Her destination was an empty chamber with three doorways on three of its five sides, and it was composed entirely of a dull grey stone devoid of any defining features. Had someone found it in a cave, separate from the rest of the stone, the only odd factor would be that the stone was smooth and cut. Positioned sufficiently well, there would be no difference at all, which was rather abnormal for the flooring of an ancient faction.


    Old groups like the Guardians of Purity, Preservers of Eternity and the like tended to become fonder of various decorations and artistic touches as time went on. It seemed to be an extension of the unfortunate obsession with vanity that people had ¨C the Ascendant not excluded ¨C and something that proved to be a better use of their time rather than pursuing some of their other goals.


    From the materials here, however, she could only assume that the reason behind this was the same one that made them all cultivate the same pure planar energy technique. They pursued some form of purity that only they could have really understood, and this included the chambers in which they lived. Planar energy had an intrinsic connection to the elements, hence the five sides of the room and the tiles that they had filled the floor with, and this was one of the few things that they didn¡¯t seem intent on avoiding. Otherwise, these rooms would probably be shaped like circles, the floors would lack any obvious sign of being made from separate tiles, and there would doubtlessly be millions of other things that they would do so long as they had the opportunity to do so.


    The room she was in lacked any hint of human life, impressively enough, but she could now sense more of the underground region and knew that there were more figures further in, carefully cleaning every part of the rooms that they were in only to return to the beginning and repeat their activity all over again, for as one side is cleaned, another gets too impure in their eyes. It seemed absurd to her, but this was what one might expect from a group that was absurdly obsessed with one type of planar energy cultivation over another.


    Something similar was noticeable with the Greats, who disliked pure planar energy and thus did everything to stop it from being used, and also decided to bring the entire world down while they were at it.


    ¡®No, don¡¯t think about those bastards, or else my killing intent will be felt all over the Gang District. I¡¯ve not had the chance to kill one of them in a long while, so all of the times they are mentioned, that killing intent just keeps building up¡­¡¯ Wei Yi sighed, suppressing her killing intent by expanding the Ascendant¡¯s Library with even more wings of deep shadows, condensed from the excess killing intent that couldn¡¯t be used up by her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow.


    She advanced into the room ahead, finding little more than a few ¡®seats¡¯ pressed against the empty walls. They were essentially blocks of stone sanded down to a reasonable height and size, nothing more.


    The only thing she could really comment on here was the fact that the pentagonal chambers couldn¡¯t have been tiled properly without excess empty space being left in between them, so instead they were placed with their bases towards one another, and with their tops occupying the space between pairs of pentagons facing the opposite way. Unlike a more ordinary representation of a pentagon, with each angle being equal, these chambers had a flat bottom the width of the entire shape, and thus needed to have the two closest sides at perfectly right angles to allow the shape to keep five sides without breaking the purity that was apparently present within a perfectly cohesive and smooth pattern, if that was what they wanted from the arrangement.


    Even with all the information regarding them that she had been able to get from Yi Shi Ming¡¯s memories, deciphering things like this was difficult without asking one of them directly, and so she did not linger in the area for too long, moving on to the next mostly empty chamber. That one contained several books on shelves on the walls, partly digging into the wall and partly jutting out as well.


    It was the most complex piece of furniture in the entire underground complex, so far as she was able to understand it, but the books weren¡¯t of much use to her. They were interesting to glance through using her spiritual perception, but most of them seemed to be focused purely on random bouts of philosophical ponderance on the nature of purity in various insignificant elements, in her eyes. As with anything else, she was going to record that for her own viewing at a time when she could spare the mental energy, but it was not going to answer the important questions.


    Further on, she located several more chambers containing shelves, some with benches and some without, and only after half a dozen more rooms did she come across the first populated rooms. Due to the layout of each room, one could only see so far through the open doorways of the chambers, and so her silent footsteps permitted her to get that close before a stealth method would have even been needed.


    To be safe, she had already been employing her methods, and could thus enter the next room with ease, bypassing the robed figure that was busy cleaning one of the so-called benches that stood on a side with no doorway. He had been doing that since she had appeared within the underground chambers, and he looked intent to continue on it, making her wonder whether this was actually a process of slowly sanding away the stone into a shape that is more desirable to the Guardians of Purity. As a method to create furniture, it would make absolutely no sense, nor would it be in line with the usual behaviours exhibited in other rooms and design decisions, but it would certainly be more sensible than needlessly cleaning something so extensively.


    The room after also had someone obsessively cleaning part of it, as did the one after, until the fourth occupied chamber contained two busy Guardians of Purity engaging in the same activity.


    As their numbers rose, so did their realm, going from the second realm that the first three were in, to the third, then fourth, and, as she finally left the honeycomb-like area that she had started out in, she ended up in a larger pentagonal chamber. This one was shaped more accurately to the elemental pentagram which was what all planar anchors were technically part of, albeit as one fifth of the whole thing, and finally had some sensible pieces of furniture that were, still, as much a part of the chamber as the shelves of the previous rooms.


    This one, however, lacked the needless cleaners, and instead had a single aged figure sitting in the middle, kowtowing to nothing and no one in particular. He was the same figure that she had seen through the spatial gateway, and his energy was in the very first stage of Oblivion Halo, although it was highly stable, almost impressively so. His anchor was similar to the initial state of her own, save for the lack of other elements dancing on the surface, being a pure violet crystal akin to planar stone.


    ¡°Mind if we talk for a moment?¡± she said, barriers appearing all around the chamber within a single breath, ¡°I¡¯d rather not fight before we get the chance to do so.¡±


    He leapt up and looked in her direction just as last time, and began to gather his planar energy in the same manner, but she had observed his energy the last time and thus came prepared. Manifesting the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, stretched out and with her hand and fingers pointing vaguely towards the man with greying hair, and focused her will upon the figure while willing her Command of Law to consume only the spare energy that flowed into the arm made of smoke and tinged with crimson. All that she needed was a single command.


    ¡°Cease!¡± Wei Yi said authoritatively, and her Arm instantly disintegrated into naught.


    She tentatively named this Slaughtering Replacement, for it was using the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow to substitute the price that her flesh and blood usually needed to pay for her uses of the Dao of Law beyond simply witnessing the chains of Law. It was not quite as effective as she wished it to be, but it was better than nothing with her current open wound at the left shoulder.


    All of the planar energy that he had brought out from within his body stopped in place, and even his physical form was restricted a great deal. Any chance of attacking her was gone, for the moment.


    ¡°Is it that difficult to converse with me, even if you see me as being impure in some way?¡±


    ¡°All those that trespass the sanctuary must be punished for their misdeeds! There should be nothing odd about this, even if you are someone who is completely ignorant of the practises of the Guardians of Purity! I had warned you already, had I not? You had not done too much the first time, but the second time, I have no recourse but to use my full power against you, even if you call upon the vile filth of the elements to stop me.¡±


    ¡°Then, what if I was to show you this?¡± the Ascendant asked, reaching out to the side with one hand and releasing a wave of pure planar energy, transformed as usual from her cosmic energy into the most powerful state that her entire library of techniques could produce.


    It flooded out of her body and covered the floor of the room, slowly flowing up the walls and the barrier that stood in the doorway. Everything was covered in a dense planar light that slowly coalesced into a layer of crystal, her high realm allowing her to stabilise all of the energy that she had released without any effort on her part. Furthermore, she quietly made use of the seemingly uncontrolled mass of raw power to reinforce the dissipating effect of the Command of Law, restraining his feet and flowing into the robes that he wore, ensuring that it would be very, very difficult for him to move unless she allowed him to.


    ¡°This¡­ p-planar energy? Pure planar energy? You have pure planar energy?¡±


    ¡°I learned it, in part, from a technique belonging to the ancient Kong Clan, further improved by a man by the name of Kong Shi Meng. Does that mean anything to you?¡±


    He did not reply immediately, but the lack of the previous killing intent from him made her rather certain that she did not need to be concerned about a sudden attack. The Guardians of Purity should value purity of planar energy above grudges and concerns about the desecration of their spaces, especially if such concerns are invalidated by the display of pure energy, so this was to be expected so long as they adhered to their traditions like the Gang District had managed to.


    Although it took him quite a while, he did eventually provide her with an answer. Furthermore, he spoke with a highly respectful tone, although his language remained roughly the same, making it rather difficult to tell what conclusion he had reached.


    ¡°I am afraid that the name is not one we know. We have maintained purity, but not all records could be preserved, especially not during the three great collapses of a number of the Gang District¡¯s structures, which had forced us further underground and damaged many of our archives,¡± the man said, occasionally testing the planar energy restraints on him.


    ¡°Hm. Still, we can talk, so let me repeat my earlier question. Gang Shu Wen ¨C why are you supporting him?¡±


    ¡°The Guardians of Purity are devoted to the one with the greatest cultivation and comprehension of pure planar energy. We have been unable to exert as much influence on the world as we had wished, and pure planar energy cultivation has clearly declined, but that has not changed the one that we shall support. Your energy is impressive, I shall admit,¡± he nodded, his head having the most freedom in his current state, ¡°but your realm is still inferior to the one we have pledged to support.¡±


    She visibly raised her eyebrow in response, ¡°He does not cultivate pure planar energy. What led you to think that he does?¡±


    ¡°¡­ You must be mistaken, eh¡­¡±


    ¡°Looking for my name? Wei Yi, although I also go by the title of Ascendant.¡±


    ¡°Ascendant, then. We have a wisp of his energy here, which he may have shrouded on the outside to prevent those that oppose our goals from attacking him and harming his chances to succeed in his own pursuits. I can show it to you, so long as you do not destroy it. Otherwise, I shall have to act, even if you are someone who does cultivate pure planar energy.¡±


    ¡®I have a feeling that it is the other way around, but if they have a wisp of his energy, I don¡¯t need to convince them using my words alone. Much simpler, that,¡¯ she thought, crossing her arm with a well-positioned Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll not damage anything, but I do want to look.¡±


    When he was released from the restraints of Law and energy, he did not say much and moved to one side of the large open space, glancing at her when he stopped by one of the walls in a silent request. She dispersed the crystalline energy there, just enough to allow him to get at a secret compartment in the stone, one that was hidden so well that made it clear that the tiles on the ground were visible deliberately, not due to a limitation of working with natural materials. Once removed from the wall, she could see that the top was indented and displayed a small planar shard.


    The man removed it and held it carefully on the palm of his hand, bringing it closer to her before tapping the shard. It rang softly, as if he had carefully struck a glass, a small sphere of bright violet floating out of it and settling a few centimetres above the planar shard from which it emerged, echoing the ringing continuously.


    From a simple glance ¨C and even with a deeper look with her spiritual perception ¨C the wisp of energy did seem to be pure, non-elemental planar energy.


    ¡°I have a method to dispel all falsehood. The Elder Watcher physique. Do you mind if I use it?¡±


    ¡°Elder Watcher, hm¡­ Ah, yes, that is a physique that is known to us. So long as that is all you do, without attempting to distort the world, then you may proceed and I shall not take any action against you, Ascendant.¡±


    His expression did not suggest that he thought this would change much.


    This time, she was the one to provide no particular reply as she opened her eyes widely and looked upon the wisp of energy, activating the eldritch tendrils of her newest physique ability. All of them wrapped around the violet wisp, and grabbed onto the light as if each of the tendrils was a finger attempting to break open a constrictive shell. They pulled with enough effort to distort the space around them, doing so for several lengthy moments in which each heartbeat within their chests seemed to take a decade each.


    All of a sudden, the violet light exploded and revealed beneath itself the blatant elemental light of wood-type energy, although traces of other colours were present.


    ¡°What¡­ WHAT IS THIS? THAT MAN DARED TO TRICK US AND MAKE US STORE HIS VILE ENERGY WITHIN OUR CHAMBERS?¡± the leader of the Guardians of Purity suddenly erupted, grabbing the wisp of energy and scattering it into naught before taking the planar shard within which it was stored and throwing it to the side in anger, ¡°That man dared to speak to us and tell us that he advanced the pure planar path, even while deceiving us? What a filthy thing!¡±


    For a brief while, neither of them spoke, with one simply fuming on the spot while the other waited.


    ¡°I know, right? How about you help us take him down, and I spread pure planar methods to the entire district? Furthermore, my faction, the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, is very free with sharing all cultivation methods that people can cultivate, including a number of pure planar methods that I have created, and so long as we succeed, everyone in the world will be able to choose it as their primary method,¡± Wei Yi told him, ¡°You could freely address people and inform them of all the reasons why pure planar energy is superior to elemental energy, although you would need to contend with those presenting the opposite view.¡±


    He looked at her, and then exhaled a mouthful of steaming air, ¡°Please produce a wisp of your pure energy, if you could.¡±


    The Ascendant produced exactly that, and the man reached out and grabbed the planar shard with his planar energy, bringing it back into his hand that he then brought closer to the wisp of energy that she had manifested. White light flashed from within the shard and grabbed onto the energy, forcing it into the planar shard with considerable effort.


    ¡®Even if this state, it should still negatively affect the shard, so¡­ I don¡¯t think he will notice if I regenerate that shard a little while he does his thing,¡¯ she thought, for her energy was still cosmic energy even if everything about its appearance suggested otherwise.


    At times, this was to her benefit, but at others, like whenever she wanted to use an artefact to its full potential, it was rather irritating to see them explode before she even has the opportunity to experiment with them. It was one of a million reasons why her mind must have remembered to keep working on her project even while it was under the belief that it was within another world where she couldn¡¯t access the House of Gold. In fact, she had gotten through a few of the shards of her old sword while she was unaware of it, but it would still take a little while for her to be done with them all.


    With the control that she retained over the wisp of energy, even the small quantity that had already seeped into the planar shard, she forcefully made some of it disperse from the concentration of the sixth realm to that of the fifth realm, effectively multiplying its volume significantly, and directed it to instantly seal up any holes within the planar shard.


    In essence, she just used it to rebuild the entire thing as closely as she could, although it was difficult to hide the way in which the shard slowly changed colour from a dull violet to a more vibrant shade tinged with the nebulae of her cosmic energy, as well as a distinct crimson hue that she did not fully recognise. One might imagine that such a thing would be seen as a negative or fault by the leader of the Guardians of Purity, but luckily enough, a glint appeared in his eyes as he observed the change, not appearing to recognise the exact nature of it but instead the simple visual, causing him to glance up at her several times.


    Finally, once it was done, he put the shard back into the indentation in the hidden tile, then went down on one knee before her.


    ¡°Ascendant, Wei Yi, you have the purest planar cultivation in this world. I, Qi Su of the Guardians of Purity, commit myself and our faction to serve you and to assist in your pursuits, infantile or wise, while attempting to elevate pure planar energy to ever greater heights and to bring it to the entire world,¡± he said, his head bowed before her as he waited for any kind of response.


    ¡°Is this what you had done with Gang Shu Wen?¡±


    ¡°We- no, I was mistaken in my assessment, and I had failed to sufficiently investigate the lies that he had fed to us. I assure you that this shall not happen ever again, not so long as we remember this insult to our long-standing traditions.¡±


    ¡°Do you object to changing certain practises or traditions if they would benefit the improvement of pure planar energy or my aim to rebuild Yi City anew, with myself as leader?¡±


    ¡°Had we been persuaded to change our ways, and shown a better path, it would have been very different from being fooled like we were. The only immutable thing is pure planar energy ¨C all else can be rendered void, in time,¡± Qi Su stated, ¡°We are not like the Gang family and their absolute adherence to the past, regardless of success or failure of certain practises. It had made us very uncomfortable to work with them, as they had used elemental energy for far too long to ever consider change without a major reform, but their trickery had misled us.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll accept your service. It will be needed very soon, and there are a few things that I would like to get as soon as possible. For one, anything you know about energy as a whole, and how it may be utilised more effectively. Ideally, none of the purely philosophical books, though, as I¡¯ve already scanned most of those.¡±


    He nodded, ¡°I shall see what we still have, and what others among us know, Ascendant.¡±

 V5C35: Preparing for the Uprising

    The archives of the Guardians of Purity were more extensive than their leader¡¯s comments on their losses would have suggested, but they did not contain the answers that she wanted written in plain text. She was sure that she could obtain them from the words within them, but that occupied time and thus couldn¡¯t be completed before the day had finally come to an end, and the sun began to rise once more to herald the next day.


    It was time for her and the district¡¯s people to act, so sitting around was not an option.


    As for her intentions with the knowledge, it was obviously to improve her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, which could always play a significant part in achieving literally every goal on her list. While something like Touch the Heavens was obviously her most powerful technique so far, the Arm combined five distinct types of energy in a fashion that made it the one with the most potential for exploring the nature of the world itself. Perhaps she could even unite the five types of energy into the absolute state of planar energy, eventually, but it was not necessary nor high on her list of priorities for the moment.


    She provided a few instructions and recommendations to Qi Su, as well as a few suggestions on how to improve his current technique so that he would be of more use during the upcoming conflict, and made sure that he would be able to manifest the portal the next day before departing. Had she not done so, all of the time spent here may have ended up being wasted the next day.


    Disappearing from the underground complex of the Guardians of Purity in the same way that she had ended up there in the first place, she found herself a few dozen metres above the roof of a large mansion located vaguely in the middle of the district. It wasn¡¯t exactly where she had intended to appear, making it rather clear to her that the attempts to calculate spatial coordinates like she¡¯d done the last two uses of her fourth realm movement method were not as successful as she would have liked, but she did at the very least end up above various objects, rather than in them. Depending on how the world handled such a thing, she might lose quite a few more limbs than she had already lost over the years.


    ¡®Now, Gang Xiu Ling, where¡­ ah, there. Already fighting, too. How nice,¡¯ Wei Yi sighed internally, straightening her back and stretching for a moment before she used the safer method of visually establishing her destination for the movement technique.


    Few had even bothered looking up during the night, so none knew that she had even been on the roof.


    ¡°Have you not done enough to sully our reputation and traditions, Xiu Ling?¡± a man asked, holding a mace within one hand and tapping palm of his other hand with the shaft, ¡°The Patriarch had kindly permitted you to depart without any interruption, and yet you not only return here, but you continue to act in the very manner that had gotten you removed from the district! You have not learned a single thing while you were outside, have you?¡±


    The potential future Matriarch and her lover were stopped in the street by a group of armed combatants, who blocked both sides of the road and wielded various weaponry more suitable for injuring and disfiguring than outright killing. With the natural durability of cultivators, the majority of superficial and external injuries could be dealt with, or at the very least survived, as even those who forgot all about refining their bodies after the first realm would have the benefits that powerful energy flowing through the body tended to provide. Hence, so long as one used clubs and other blunt objects to beat someone, they would be able to endure the attacks so long as the attackers were careful never to go beyond a certain limit of force and restrained from attacking the same places over and over again to accumulate injury.


    Maces weren¡¯t the most pleasant weapon to be struck with, but a special planar technique could allow the strikes to be little more than that, in the same way that dulling the sword would allow strikes to be effective at causing bruising far more than cuts and scars.


    ¡°I see no reason to explain myself to someone acting like a basic thug. Are you not concerned with what I could reveal to the people around us?¡± Gang Xiu Ling replied, looking behind him to a small crowd that began to gather once she was stopped in the street. They did not look like anyone important, but as their numbers grew, information revealed here could spread very easily.


    ¡°You have nothing that could ever paint the Patriarch in a negative light, not to mention anything truly negative.¡±


    ¡°How about the fact that he has been tricking an ancient organisation as interested in maintaining tradition as our Gang family has been?¡± Gang Xiu Ling said, raising her voice while stepping closer to Lan Mu as to be able to protect her from the thugs in the fourth and fifth realm ¨C describing them as thugs was only accurate in their current activity, as she recognised a number of them from the main Gang family¡¯s forces. It was why she did not deign to mention their true nature, as they were not acting in a way that suited their identity.


    ¡°Stop your attempt at slandering our Patriarch this very moment-¡±


    ¡°He had intentionally constructed a web of deceit to remove my chance of becoming Matriarch, and now he will prevent this district from benefitting from the growth of the entire world around us!¡± she witnessed their hesitation and continued with far greater confidence than before.


    This turned out to be a mistake, for the moment that she had raised her voice just a little too far, the dozen or so thugs that had surrounded them rushed towards them, raising their weaponry as they prepared to bring it down upon her. Due to their distance from her, she had a few moments to prepare, and chose to first grab Lan Mu¡¯s waist and pull her over into an embrace, conjuring her planar core to surround them both.


    A searing mark on its surface visibly surged as a great mass of branch-like planar constructs burst out from the core¡¯s surface. All of them surged out at the attackers, spreading out into unpredictable shapes and being quickly covered with all kinds of moss and leaves that made the individual branches distinct in both appearance and function.


    It was a staple of the Gang family, and so her opponents reacted quickly, striking at specific parts of the branches with careful bursts of their own energy converted into another element. For typical use, all methods of conversion other than the Ascendant¡¯s were essentially pointless, but when these elemental bursts collided with the weak points of the branches they quickly snapped them off and caused cracks to travel up the wood-type energy, the stability of the construct being negated with a few precise hits.


    Since they attacked from two sides, mainly, half of them were sufficient to ward off the branches while the other half leapt up and momentarily supported themselves with various movement methods, using their time in the air to manifest a large vortex of swirling branches before their chests, with more and more appearing with each breath that they took. As soon as they were unable to maintain their stable position in the air, all five thrust their hands forth, causing the wooden tendrils to do the same.


    Countless branches, dense, thick, and covered in sharp thorns, flew out and collided with the marked core, leaving small dots upon its surface while their summoners dropped to the ground and charged in to replace their fellows.


    ¡°What a rude bunch. I do have to agree with you, Gang Xiu Ling,¡± a voice, feminine yet powerful and incredibly commanding, forced their attention to a nearby rooftop, where they found the source sitting on the edge of the roof with her legs hanging off the edge, waving leisurely back and forth while one hand supported her by clinging onto that same edge.


    She wore a red robe with thick fur boots being clearly visible from their angle of viewing, and her single hand was covered in half by the robe, and in part by a dark metal gauntlet with claw-like fingers and an impossibly perfect surface.


    ¡°These are the matters of the Gang family. Get-¡±


    She glanced at him and, with a mass of smoke suddenly appearing at her left shoulder, said, ¡°Fall.¡±


    The smoke instantly dispersed, bursting outwards and almost reaching some of them before vanishing, but the man she had addressed felt himself suddenly being thrown to the ground, his very perspective on the world shifting until he lay on the ground, unable to stand up nor even contemplate how he may move his limbs and body in order to achieve such a thing. Somehow, the very notion became impossible to him.


    ¡°What do you think-¡±


    A woman from the same force tried to speak up, but she immediately felt the eyes of the woman dressed in red upon her.


    ¡°Pause.¡±


    Smoke appeared and shattered once again, but now the woman could not provide much of an account even if she had been keen on doing so. The moment that the word was said, it was as if the world blinked forward for her, whereas for all the rest, she looked to be completely frozen ¨C not in ice, but in a perfect temporal statis that not even those in the eighth realm were said to be able to achieve.


    The Ascendant turned to the other half of the group that she had yet to target, and they seemed to take that as a form of provocation. Both halves of the group turned to her and leapt into the air, using various methods to either climb with multiple steps or to be thrust upwards in a single go, allowing them to reach her while focusing on other matters during their attempt to reach her. For a moment, it almost seemed that they would succeed, for they did not sense any particular aura rising from the woman in red.


    However, the appearance of the smoke, shaped like an arm and clawed hand, proved them wrong.


    ¡°Drop. Land. Retreat. Revert,¡± she spoke four times in quick succession, the smoke manifesting and dispersing each time as she looked from one group to the other, targeting one at a time.


    With one breath of words, she took down the four nearest to her. The rest paused, as they had been those that used methods to take several steps in the air rather than jumping up in one go, and glanced at one another in an attempt to determine whether it was even worthwhile to continue in their attempt, as, to their knowledge, the woman had yet to use a single ordinary planar method, meaning that most of her power was yet to be seen.


    ¡°What kind of trickery are you using?¡± one asked, energy suddenly surging in their eyes, ¡°We will kill you-¡±


    ¡°Oh, no you won¡¯t. Break,¡± the Ascendant commanded, leaning forward as the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow manifested and broke apart yet again, ¡°Fracture. Cease. Die. Perish. End.¡±


    The last command in particular caused a great number of internal wounds to appear instantly, as the instruction for something to abruptly end was far more challenging to execute than to cause someone to die. After all, death was not only a natural aspect of all life, but could be achieved even by a child so long as they pressed against the right point with sufficient force. To make something end completely and suddenly, however, was to go against the very nature of reality, where all things continued even in death, and thus did a number on her body, luckily not aggravating the existing wound on the left shoulder.


    As she was used to hiding it, all that the observers received was the sight of five perishing without a single chance to dodge, to block any kind of strike, even if it was incredibly fast and tricky to follow. There was nothing that they could do.


    ¡°So, are you lot going to go away now? Make sure to tell your Patriarch that this is the kind of thing that can be developed so long as one bothers to look outside of the narrow bubble of tradition.¡±


    Those left standing, as well as the woman that had been frozen in time for a brief while, took a moment to look at their fallen companions, then rushed away from the scene as quickly as they possibly could. They hastened past the gathered crowd and disappeared soon after, leaving only the crowd and the core within which Gang Xiu Ling and Lan Mu stood, with it disappearing not too long after the last of the attackers left the scene, with the two remaining close together.


    Wei Yi jumped down to their level and quietly patted away the snow from the back of her robe.


    ¡°Why did you not just enter the same way you stopped me on the road?¡± Gang Xiu Ling asked, her hand unconsciously stroking the back of her lover.


    ¡°You are going to be attempting to become a Matriarch, so why don¡¯t you try to think about it more? Right now, we have a lot of observers, do we not?¡± the Ascendant asked quietly, using a thin barrier to keep her voice from reaching any of them, ¡°Now, if they see that a foreign figure was able to take down some decent warriors without so much as a drop of planar energy being visibly expended, do you not think that they will get a much better impression of the outside world that they seem to be happy to ignore. They will see that you have a powerful figure on your side, and that your claim can be more than just a child¡¯s refusal to accept defeat.¡±


    She understood it quickly ¨C it would be difficult not to, when everything was spelled out for her as clearly as it could be without indeed talking down to her like a child ¨C and nodded, ¡°So that¡¯s what it was. I don¡¯t think we had even called out for you, so¡­¡±


    ¡°My spiritual perception extends far, and the time spent in the hideout of the Guardians of Purity was not that long. That being said, mentioning them might not have been the best idea. Now that they know that we know, it will be more difficult to use the element of surprise, not to mention the fact that they will no longer include the Guardians in their plans, thus preventing us from learning about said plans via the Guardians. It shouldn¡¯t cause too many problems, but it is something to pay attention to.¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­¡±


    ¡°She can get like that, sometimes¡­¡± Lan Mu muttered, somehow getting even closer to the woman holding her despite their already tight embrace, ¡°She can also get quite hard, too-¡±


    ¡°This is not the time, please.¡±


    ¡°I should be the one telling you that.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll tell the lot of you that it isn¡¯t the time. How about that?¡± Wei Yi interrupted them and turned towards the larger crowd to their side, removing the barrier as she did so, ¡°The rest of you should go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a big day, and you wouldn¡¯t want to miss it or be out of it when the day comes.¡±


    When she began speaking, everyone in the crowd trembled, with most attempting to restrain their reaction but still failing to hide them. It took most of them some time to realise that they had not been affected by the same kind of effect as those whose bodies lay on the ground, with some slowly losing the blood that remained in their bodies whereas others could almost pass for combatants that had decided to sleep in an odd place, and did so surprisingly calmly. Slowly, the crowd began to fall apart, and in time they were all gone, save for the pedestrians that continued to walk on by, occasionally glancing into the road but looking away soon after.


    Meanwhile, the Ascendant and the potential future Matriarch returned to the home of the latter, with Lan Mu being asked to go to sleep as her realm was not currently high enough to allow her to endure several days in a row without sufficient rest.


    She did want to sleep with her lover, but as Gang Xiu Ling and Wei Yi had important matters to discuss, she understood the severity of the situation and eventually fell asleep in their bed, while the other two occupied two seats by a dining table on the first floor. The potential future Matriarch produced a cup of tea for herself, offering some to the Ascendant, but she refused and instead produced a spare planar shard, biting on it as if it was a snack.


    ¡°That, uh¡­ Are you really doing that? Are your teeth strong enough to do that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just solid planar energy. In the sixth realm, this kind of thing should be easy for most if they infuse their planar energy into their teeth,¡± Wei Yi replied, although she did not need to use the method she herself described as her continued purification and strengthening with her planar energy kept her whole body strong and sturdy, ¡°It¡¯s just that it would be a little wasteful.¡±


    ¡°It seems to me that it still is, even if all of that goes into your body properly¡­ Does it taste good, at least?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t taste a single fucking thing. None. Hence I¡¯m not even trying to drink your tea, although I¡¯m sure it¡¯s great,¡± Wei Yi answered, biting off another small piece of planar material, ¡°There¡¯s a bit of bitterness from this, but that¡¯s the extent of what I can feel from things that are not edible, nor meant to be edible. From regular food, I can¡¯t get anything, and I will be honest, it has been rather annoying for some time.¡±


    ¡°Really? How does that even work? Can you still smell things? Non-food and food alike?¡±


    ¡°I can smell everything in your room, but I suspect that is not what you wanted to know. The way in which this works makes no sense, but it does, so I¡¯ve been forced to deal with it.¡±


    ¡°Well then¡­ I guess¡­ that¡¯s¡­ good?¡±


    ¡°Depends on your preferences, really. If you don¡¯t care about the taste of food, which I don¡¯t, instead being irritated more by the fact that I simply don¡¯t get the choice, or if you like certain tastes and scents far more than others, which I sometimes do, then you will be in a very decent situation where you don¡¯t have to deal with a lot of things,¡± the Ascendant said, her distracted expression and gaze suddenly focusing on the woman before her, ¡°The fourth point ¨C what was it?¡±


    ¡°The fourth¡­ Ah, I remember that I was going to say something, but I cannot remember anything specific at all. It was definitely something important, I am sure of that, but¡­¡± the potential future Matriarch sighed, the rest not needing to be repeated.


    ¡°Expect the next day to be very dangerous, then. We have been able to discard the approval of the guardians for the moment, but that fourth point was nearly guaranteed to be something that would be significant even now. As such, you must be prepared for anything that is within the power of the Gang District, a boundary that you should be more familiar with than I am, so if I see you doing anything recklessly, I will not be kind to you when this is all done,¡± she stated, speaking sternly, ¡°Make sure that you understand that, as well as the fact that Lan Mu is still awake and is going to try to get your pants once you get into the bed, not that you bother with those there, so make sure not to let her.¡±


    ¡°How do you know that?¡±


    ¡°Because she is awake and having fun with herself. Again, I could be more graphic and explicit, but I doubt that you lack an understanding of the matter.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ yeah, I don¡¯t need to be told. You probably also don¡¯t need to know that she may or may not have started it all for me. The interest in women, and sleeping with them, and all that. She was interested in me far earlier than I in her, and-¡±


    ¡°You began that with the accurate guess that I lacked much interest in the subject. Why continue?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Nobody else knows, and I had never told anyone how it happened. You know, being a Matriarch candidate, there are some things you don¡¯t really say even if you lose that identity.¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°There have been some cases of that kind of thing. You being so far at the south since departing from the district hasn¡¯t helped, I imagine. Fine, if you really want to tell me this, and if you believe that I need to hear it, then I can very well listen to everything you have to say. Just don¡¯t expect any particular kind of response from me, as I have already done a little too much to influence the district and its people.¡±


    ¡°Alright. So, Lan Mu¡­¡±


    The next day came, and the three were awake, standing at the doorway, armed and ready.


    Wei Yi did not have any additional weapons to carry, but she did switch from her fur boots to her previous star metal heels. She wanted to be at her best now, and she was going to travel further north soon enough, reaching the Southern Tundra half-way to the Xin or Shun Districts, so there was less point in wearing appropriate attire for the weather and tradition.


    Lan Mu was not going to be able to participate in most battles, as her personal strength was only so high, and her ability to defend herself was also limited as a result, but that is also why she needed to be the most equipped. She replaced most of her usual attire with armoured variants, quickly created by Wei Yi upon her request, as well as a shield similarly made for the occasion. The shield united the admittedly limited comprehension that the Ascendant had on the topic of barriers, protection and shielding, manifesting the properties of a few of her techniques and physiques in order to be imbued with as much power as possible.


    The woman could have been given a sword or some other weapon, but her proficiency with planar energy was superior to her skill in using a weapon, so it was decided that this would not be necessary.


    Gang Xiu Ling had a few pieces of armour from her earlier days of being an ordinary candidate for the position of Matriarch, all of which were enhanced by the Ascendant, and also brought along a speared staff that was made almost entirely of high-grade planar materials weaved into a delicate yet powerful shape. It was useful enough as a physical weapon, but it would do more to enhance the energy of the one using it, amplifying the effects of techniques that Gang Xiu Ling is able to stretch through its channels.


    This was a weapon she had kept but rarely used, mostly due to rather attention-grabbing nature of any ornate and large tool (a comment that would elicit a giggle out of the woman). Despite that, most of her techniques were, as wood-type techniques tended to be, based or inspired by the natural world, and hence had many elements of branches, vines and other natural tendrils, as it were. They were meant to travel through the outside, but they could be directed through channels easily enough.


    With it, her attacks would be a two dozen percent more effective, or somewhere around that level, which was not as great as rising by a stage or two, but it was far more than nothing. With some minimal modification from the Ascendant, it also supported any energy provided with a thin layer of other elements to prevent the same attacks that had been used by the Gang family¡¯s warriors from being effective. Something this simple could be worked around without much effort on the part of their opponents, but it would take a few precious moments to figure out how to deal with the problem that might save her life.


    ¡°Can you still not remember the fourth point?¡±


    ¡°¡­ No. I should be able to, logically speaking, since I don¡¯t think we have any methods to prevent certain memories from being accessed, and-¡±


    ¡°Guardians of Purity shouldn¡¯t be doing anything against you either, and any methods that they had would have been dispersed by now, according to my orders. Thus, this is either your mind failing terribly to recall something significant, you forgetting to inform me about something either deliberately or otherwise, or a secret method of the Gang District that you have never been informed of.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not lying to you, so it has to be one of the other two¡­¡±


    Lan Mu sighed, ¡°You two are strong, though, right? Provided that something wrong does occur, you should be able to protect Ah Ling, so its fine, isn¡¯t it? Speaking of, didn¡¯t you have some kind of plan to quickly raise her realm?¡±


    That caused the two of them to look toward Wei Yi.


    ¡°I did. To cultivate in the best fashion possible, you should adjust to the growth in power as it occurs. Given that we are very likely to get into several violent altercations before the day is done, I have infused the planar materials in your staff with as much energy as I was able to. That should bring you up by at least one stage, and then the rest can be done as you are promoted to Matriarch, at which point there will be much less danger to you.¡±


    ¡°Would being at the seventh realm not make it significantly easier for us to fight, though?¡±


    ¡°Lan Mu, when you had reached the third realm, did you have the same kind of strength that you have now? Did you have all of your techniques, the understanding of said techniques, and ideas on how to use them most effectively? Something tells me that, unless you have been lucky or unlucky enough to have experienced several lives and thus have sufficient experience to know what to do at the third realm, you were rather clueless at the very start,¡± Wei Yi said, turning to Gang Xia Ling, ¡°You may benefit from the seventh realm in terms of raw power, but your inexperience will lead to excessive use of energy and a great deal of damage to your surroundings if you are unable to control yourself sufficiently. Would you want to damage the district you wish to rule?¡±


    ¡°No, I wouldn¡¯t. Still, in the seventh realm, I¡¯d have divine sense, an oblivion halo or few, so I should be able to endure attacks far more effectively, at least.¡±


    ¡°How about the fact that I cannot set up a sufficiently large array to provide you with safe energy without bringing in the entire district onto you and causing an even more significant fight than the one I dealt with before?¡± she asked, ¡°Just stop asking stupid questions and go. I¡¯ll call the other two.¡±


    They were finally convinced to leave, at which point she could begin to reach out with her mental energy.


    ¡®The Patriarch might do something sensible for once, so if you were in the seventh realm, getting rid of you would be more difficult. Surely this is something that would be understood by anyone with half a brain?¡¯ the Ascendant thought to herself, making her selection of Matriarch candidate more and more difficult, ¡®I truly hope she is just being distracted by certain other matters, since she should recall that I had only gone with her because she was on the way. I¡¯ll see, won¡¯t I¡­¡¯

 V5C36: Proof of People’s Will

    On that day, the quiet and unchanging Gang District experienced one of the strangest days of the last few hundred years, at least. A few of the locals were aware of the cause of the upheaval, having seen the altercation the previous night, but the news had not yet been able to spread far.


    As a result, when a large number of people suddenly emerged from the eastern part of the district, dressed in unusual clothing and acting in ways that did not befit them according to tradition, it came as a surprise to most. There were even some that questioned whether this was some kind of attack on the district, but the relatively calm and collected nature of their spreading procession led to most avoiding direct confrontation and simply watching from the sides when their traditions permitted this. The rest went about their day.


    ¡°Everyone, consider the restraints of tradition! You have all spent so long following along with it, without any regard for yourself or the potential betterment of the district, so think to it now!¡± Gang Ya Hui called out at one point, having gone through quite a bit of the district attempting to promote her ideas.


    She had been keeping an eye out for opposition using her spiritual perception, but she did not perceive the presence of a powerful aura until it appeared right before her.


    At that point, she had only a moment to stop before she might have otherwise gotten a little too close for her own comfort, and in that moment she was able to comprehend who it was that had gotten in her way. After all, there were few who had a cultivation of Linked Channels, like she did, but before her was the obvious aura of the seventh realm, radiating freely and with the clear influence of wood-type energy manifesting itself before her.


    ¡°P-Patriarch. How nice of you to check out our little march.¡±


    ¡°This is an attack on our tradition. You must cease your activity at this very moment, or else you should be prepared for punishment,¡± the Patriarch spoke directly, glaring at her and ignoring those behind her, ¡°Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°Apologies, Patriarch, but this is not an attack. We are merely promoting our ideas. We do not have the intention of challenging your position.¡±


    ¡°¡­ So, Gang Xiu Ling had put you up to this?¡±


    ¡°Not exactly, but we are siding with her.¡±


    Gang Shu Wen blatantly disliked the lack of immediate response, but he understood the situation well enough, saying, ¡°When I deal with her, the rest of you shall return to your intended path. Any opposition shall be dealt with according to the traditional punishments, and no disagreement shall be heard from those that cannot respect the system by which we have survived for over a million years.¡±


    ¡°If you defeat her, you mean¡­ Patriarch,¡± Gang Ya Hui added nervously, ¡°That much is not guaranteed, actually.¡±


    ¡°You think that she is capable of¡­ ah, you must be thinking that the other woman I¡¯ve heard about has some ability. Very well, I shall humour you and take my sibling¡¯s attempt at insurrection seriously,¡± the Patriarch said, turning around and vanishing the next moment.


    Only then was the leader of the New Community able to release her held breath, being forced to loosen her collar as she felt her entire body sweating more than it had ever done before. Although the expression of their Patriarch had not changed much during their conversation, the pressure that he was releasing blatantly grew with every single moment, and his advantage of a single realm combined with the additional benefits of cultivating techniques intended for Patriarchs meant that he certainly felt far more powerful than she was.


    To simply stand in his presence was incredibly difficult, so she was finding it very difficult to imagine how Wei Yi and Gang Xiu Ling could possibly oppose him with their own power. Nonetheless, she had decided with them this time, and she would have to quietly believe in them until the inevitable conclusion of the day, whatever that brought them to.


    Hopefully, the future would be better than the past for them and the rest of the district.


    ¡°Do you realise what you are doing? You¡¯ve brought this upon yourself!¡± the soldier of the Gang family called out as he and his fellow combatants summoned a series of enormous planar construct trees with which they targeted the armoured woman before them, ¡°We will kill you this time!¡±


    Gang Xiu Ling replied to their attacks with a series of her own wooden tendrils, blocking the attacks of the tree constructs while she rushed in and struck the nearest soldier with the sharp point of her staff spear. It pierced the defences at his leg and caused him to crumple down after she followed up with a strike at his back, having little time to do anything else as the others broke down what defences she had been able to put up and attacked her.


    She retreated, and it did not take long for her to be backed up against her core, within which her wood-like anchor stood and emanated its energy, boosting her power while it stood outside.


    ¡®They have been training far more since Shu Wen took over¡­ Fuck,¡¯ the potential future Matriarch thought, her fighting skills having been one of her weaker points since the first moment that she had begun training with her body and, later, her planar energy.


    Her temporary work as a tailor and craftsman in the Qiang District was far less profitable than something like mercenary work or fighting in an arena, both of which she could have theoretically done had she wanted to, but she would be far weaker than anyone else in the same realm. Although her technique was not inferior to what Gang Shu Wen had started with prior to switching to his current cultivation method, and her combat methods were equally effective, she did not have the innate sense for planar energy usage and combat that many others in the Planar Continents had.


    Combining this with her lacking experience brought her to this state, where she could barely fight off those in the same and lower realm.


    ¡°Alright, enough. I shall be the one to deal with her,¡± an incredibly familiar voice forced her gaze up into the air, where one of her most despised enemies stood, two thick branches forming within the air to support his position.


    ¡°Shu Wen. I may be bad at this in general, but I recall exactly how you fight!¡±


    ¡°I am disappointed with you. With you being a member of our family, I had intended to let you go free and safe, ignoring your activity further south. You could have gotten away with whatever you had wanted, strayed from however many traditions you may have wished to, and we would have done nothing against you,¡± Gang Shu Wen said, his hands behind his back in a calm manner, ¡°You should have come back on your own, since you were intent on doing so. The fact that you had brought along an outsider who is even more brazen in her disregard for our tradition is completely unforgivable.¡±


    He looked to the warriors that stood on the side, waiting for further instructions, and waved towards the potential future Matriarch.


    With nothing more than that, countless dark wooden roots burst out of the ground and enveloped the core behind her, pressing down upon it and releasing countless thin needles and thorns that struck the surface with sufficient force to produce numerous thin cracks. It was not enough to break it instantly, but the sounds that the pressure created made it clear that it wouldn¡¯t last too long.


    ¡°Get the others to come out, too. Attack her.¡±


    The orders were contradictory to what he had said not long ago, but everyone complied and attacked readily, unleashing attacks that they had time to prepare within their bodies and in the air around them. Blasts of nearly raw energy combined with intricate and complex planar constructs and fell upon Gang Xiu Ling, striking a few layers of her own energy that she hastily threw up, one after another, trying to stop those attacks from landing. She tried desperately to put them up more quickly than her opponents could attack, but she witnessed the four layers quickly falling to three, then two, and then one.


    At the moment of the last layer¡¯s collapse, before she was able to establish another one, she saw the space before her tear open as numerous figures dressed in plain robes suddenly emerged from the air, each one throwing up their arms together.


    Her vision was covered up with a pure violet barrier, thin yet powerful as it absorbed all of the incoming strikes and dissipated them into a raw mist. This mist hovered towards her and allowed her to recover her lost energy almost a dozen times more quickly. At the same time, a number of the robed figures stepped towards her core and laid their hands on the roots, slowly transforming them into a pure mist as well.


    ¡°There you are. Qi Su, what caused you to betray our agreement?¡±


    ¡°You were the one that tricked us all! Right now, it is obvious that you cultivate wood-type energy, and yet you attempted to assert otherwise to obtain our support. We are fortunate to have had someone capable of dispelling your illusion, or else we may have appeared on your side and have assassinated that woman without proper cause!¡±


    ¡°Dispelled the illusion? Let me guess, it was that woman again¡­ You have found an incredibly powerful figure to support you, Xiu Ling. I have to wonder how it is that you pulled her to your side,¡± he asked, shaking his head, ¡°Nevertheless, I had anticipated this. So, since you want to claim the position of Matriarch, why don¡¯t we do this properly? I had never called upon the guardians for the very reason that I wished to give you a chance, my wayward sibling, and I can allow you to challenge me before the entire district.¡±


    ¡°Challenge you? In what way?¡±


    He merely smiled as put his hands behind his back once more and raised his head slightly, exhaling slowly.


    Gang Xiu Ling first thought that she was imagining things when the distance between the two of them suddenly grew greatly, and her view of the world suddenly rose significantly, as if she was gaining a dozen metres in height each moment. Nothing she knew of should have been able to produce such a result, but in the next moment, it was as if a seal was lifted in her mind.


    ¡°So that¡¯s what it was¡­¡±


    ¡°You had tried to reveal our precious secrets to the outside world? To that woman, presumably. Fortunately, it is tradition to suppress all knowledge of the Proof of People¡¯s Will array within the minds of those that depart our district and their position on the chain of succession, so you had been unable to speak of this to her,¡± Gang Shu Wen said, seeming to stand before her in a regular fashion and yet towering above the district¡¯s structures, reaching a hundred metres in height in the form of a deep green phantasm that phased through the same buildings, allowing him to stand at one side of the district without causing unnecessary destruction.


    She seemed to stand on the other side, with a slightly smaller form that reached only ninety metres, as well as one made of a lighter green light. In truth, neither of them had been transformed, and instead they stood somewhere in the phantasm and were projected out in an expanded form with the power of a seven-star array beneath the Gang District. It brimmed with planar energy at all times, and now affected not only them, but also linked to the people of the district, bringing it to their attention.


    The purpose of the array was simple enough ¨C it allowed two or more opponents to argue their case before the entire district, and allowed the people of the district to make up their minds regarding the winner far more quickly than usual via some mental stimulation and acceleration.


    If conflict of a more ordinary, violent kind was occurring on the streets, the combatants on the side of the winning participant would be empowered accordingly to the gap between them and the others. Furthermore, as part of the ancient array, phantoms representing their forces and potential would manifest the moment that they established their positions, allowing them to display exactly what it was that they were offering to the people of the district.


    It was a marvel of design and had never been replicated by the people of the Gang District, and they had obviously never allowed outsiders to look upon it. They were content with having something of this power and ability to settle significantly major disputes, and it was also possible to use this array to empower defenders of the district during invasions or attacks from the outside.


    In the last few hundred years, this array did not see much use, mostly due to the traditions of the Gang District being so clear and developed that there was little more to question and debate. Given that possibilities only seemed to decrease with each passing year due to the decay of planar energy before Wei Yi¡¯s return to the Planar Continents, a traditional district could hardly come up with more cases and situations that had not already been considered in the past.


    From the moment that their phantasms formed, all the people of the district could hear their words, and see their bodies, even through buildings and the embrace of sleep. They could see, and they could decide the victor.


    Hence, Gang Xiu Ling began with a smaller form, and the Guardians of Purity that began to fight with the warriors of the Gang family on the streets below her point of view did not receive a benefit in their fight. Being an ancient organisation with a great deal of strength, both personal and in larger numbers, they were fine for the moment, but provided that she did not provide any sufficient arguments to defend herself, she would only become less significant and her opponent would only gain more power. A loss at this point would guarantee his stay as Patriarch for the rest of his life, as he would have proven himself twice before the people and the guardians alike.


    ¡°If I had adhered purely to tradition, I would have never been able to obtain a method for two women to have a child together. The previous impossibility of such a thing was the basis for a great number of traditions that both ordinary folk and the Gang family adhered to, which could now be improved to prevent important women from being incapacitated for several months each time they are required to have a child,¡± she stated, starting somewhat hastily with the first and only valuable change that she had to offer to the people.


    At once, before anyone could evaluate her words, they became manifested in the forms of numerous phantasmal combatants, all of whom were female. They radiated energy and rushed towards her foe, walking on the air above the homes and streets as if they were on a battlefield and they were merely seeing their projection from that point in space and time.


    Gang Shu Wen replied immediately, ¡°Assuming that this does not stop women from birthing children, little would change. The majority in the district are married, and so this would still mean that most women would be married to other men, and would still need to do the same. In fact, even if you could provide an inverse technique, allowing a man to become pregnant, all it would allow is for a better usage of certain individuals, something that has rarely been a problem up to this point. In other words, your insurrection, upset of our traditions and peace, as well as the introduction of a dangerous outsider to our district, would be exactly as unforgivable as if you had come here with nothing at all.¡±


    When he had begun, the agreement of some had made Gang Xiu Ling¡¯s figure grow to one hundred and thirty metres, but soon her growth stopped and his own began. Alongside the agreement of a great number of people, numerous organised warriors appeared in the air before him, with most being male and most being more powerful than the equivalent troops on the side of Gang Xiu Ling. These phantasms were also affected by the agreement of the people, and of the perceived validity of their words.


    As much as she despised him, the potential future Matriarch had to admit that the district as it was would not benefit too greatly from her technique. It wasn¡¯t even meant to be shared too extensively in the first place, according to its creator, but even if each woman knew of it, their population balance would need to change greatly in order for it to matter.


    For the moment, around half of the Gang District¡¯s population was male, and the other half female, with one or two dozen at most that happened to have manifested a trait of a draconic bloodline, although that was more likely to be one or two in total with the appropriate trait to matter.


    Unless there was suddenly a fifty percent growth in population, with all of that growth consisting of women that had used the modified Yin Soul Yang Root technique, alongside another fifty percent consisting of ordinary women, then all that would happen is that the men would need to get used to seeing women with larger dicks than their own ¨C in certain instances, at least. Even if that was only a coincidence the first two times, both users of the technique were rather certain that this was not a sight that most would be willing to see.


    With the accelerated thought provided by the Proof of People¡¯s Will, most realised this as soon as it was pointed out to them, and thus their support grew for the one that had not upset the district¡¯s peace.


    ¡°You¡­ aren¡¯t you failing to consider anything past the moment? Right now, the reason that you see fewer powerful female combatants, and other significant figures in the district, is because too much of our time is taken by dealing with pregnancy, and it too often leads to our stagnation.¡±


    ¡°You believe that there would suddenly be a surge of sufficiently competent people to offset the damage dealt to our foundations? What reason to you even have to assume that there would be any significant benefit to our district? Instead, I believe that you are simply doing this for your own sake, to avoid some of the responsibilities that you would otherwise need to have, and you wished to have some excuse to re-enter the district when the opportunity presented itself,¡± he said, ¡°I shall give you a chance. Provide me with a single example of another district where an alternate policy had actually resulted in something positive. Come on, I will not speak again until you either accept your mistakes or give me something which we can discuss.¡±


    She was about to provide him with something, when their battlefield above the district was suddenly distorted by an influx of nebulae that overwhelmed nearly half of the entire region, forcing the two to shift to the side and look over to the source of this disturbance. Slowly, a figure rose from the streets, made up of violet light combined with an arm made purely of stars and galaxies.


    ¡°Ah, so this is the fourth point you couldn¡¯t remember. Took me longer than I would have liked to handle, I must admit,¡± Wei Yi said, looking to the other two, taking the opportunity to freely wave her phantasmal left arm, ¡°Need I introduce myself, or should I just begin to respond to you and explaining exactly why miring yourself in tradition will inevitably lead to your downfall, alongside the fall of the entire world as the Great Families destroy it right before your eyes?¡±


    He did not speak right away, which she took advantage off the very moment that her figure grew slightly to fifty metres from public interest in her brazenness.


    ¡°You wish for an example of success without tradition ¨C look no further. I am only forty-one years old, and yet I am comfortably in the sixth realm, having achieved a perfected stage each and every breakthrough, and I have rocked the world north of here, with my faction successfully uniting several major districts together in a way that has been unseen since Yi City had effectively fallen apart,¡± she said, her words manifesting as a single figure that approached the edge of the nebulae and released its phantasmal energy.


    In an instant, all of the phantasmal combatants were utterly overwhelmed with five distinct layers of energy, and that power brought over a great deal of support to the one producing it, thus increasing its power and leading to a kind of feedback loop.


    One thing that was definite about the Proof of People¡¯s Will, even if none of those currently using it truly understood much about the array¡¯s structure, was that the phantasms that it manifests needed to be based on reality to some extent. Whether it was based on the user¡¯s knowledge and belief, or some universal property of truth obtained from the heavens or the world itself, that which was shown was possible, even if it was nearly impossible or unlikely.


    ¡°At the north, we have begun to use more than one type of energy at a time, with some developing additional meridian networks and others choosing to circulate both through the same network. Only a few months have passed since research on this began, and yet this much is already possible. Just consider what will occur in a year or two, and what the potential peak of combining physique energy, spiritual will, killing intent, bloodline power and planar energy is. Alternatively, just look at me,¡± she smiled, spreading the arms of her phantasm.


    A few armies formed before her, each one faceless and lacking a specific form but possessing an obvious strength that far surpassed that of any individual phantasmal soldier other than Wei Yi¡¯s own manifestation.


    ¡°You may have noticed the increase in planar energy density in your district, and all over the world. It is something that I am directly responsible for, and it is something that will continue on and on until everyone can reach the seventh realm, and until the ninth realm is something that is attainable by the most capable and strongest cultivators in the world,¡± she paused to allow the phantasmal battlefield to flood with a thin violet fog that mingled with her nebulae.


    ¡°Over in the Ju District, the people had figured out how to create automatons that require no cultivation and can be produced nearly automatically, and yet are able to contend with Patriarchs and entire districts purely on their own. Their shields cannot be pierced by ordinary planar attacks, and their attacks easily bypass most planar barriers without any work needed by the people who invented them. Had I not been there, the Ju District could have conquered the Chao and Ping Districts easily.¡±


    All of the automatons of the Ju Districts that she had learned of appeared on the battlefield, starting an immediate bombardment against the forces of Gang Shu Wen. Factories appeared behind Wei Yi¡¯s phantasm, and they manufactured even more of the automatons with immense speed. She hadn¡¯t mentioned anything about the fact that these automatons would not be produced in great quantities any longer, for they used anchor energy, but all that mattered was that they were possible.


    None of the people in the Gang District should be familiar with that in the first place, and it was unlikely that they would find out until the world plunged into a complete War of Ascendancy against the Greats.


    ¡°Do you honestly believe that this can all benefit our district? All of the madness at the north-¡±


    ¡°Let me ask your people this instead: Do you wish to live as the flame on a candle, calm but guaranteed to perish once the candle expires, or would you rather rise as an inferno, going further and further, surpassing anything that you have ever imagined possible, to either go out in one burst or rise beyond the heavens?¡± Wei Yi asked, her figure having reached two hundred metres by the time she began.


    A moment of silence was all that preceded the sudden growth of her phantasm, as well as the incredible empowerment of everyone on her side, both in the phantasmal battlefield and on the streets.


    There was no loud cheer on the streets, nor any kind of outcry that could be used to comprehend the thoughts of the people, but the fact that they wished to pursue greatness and glory wherever possible was blatant. It was only natural, and it was a sentiment shared by the rest of the districts, very likely including the Shun District, even if they were best known as the providers of servants to the rest of Yi City. What man had not looked at the sky at one point in their life, and wished to rise into it, to ascend beyond mundanity and to attain things that seemed impossible?


    People became cultivators because they wished to live longer, be stronger, and rise beyond their mortal forms. They sought something that a mundane existence could not grant, and those that did rise could never stop their ascent, not even if they convinced themselves that they should.


    Hence, while one could argue time and time again that it was risky to seek the seventh realm, the eighth realm, the ninth realm, and then going to the peak of the world and seeking the path to rise ever higher, there was no argument against the fact that further success was proven possible by the fact that the first step, that of cultivation, was possible. So long as one step could be taken, why would another ever be impossible?


    The only problem was that change could not be accomplished while remaining still, and this was something that Gang Shu Wen advocated, hence why his phantasmal avatar visibly shrunk while Xiu Ling¡¯s grew, although both paled in comparison to Wei Yi¡¯s violet form. She quickly taxed the power of the Proof of People¡¯s Will to the point that she ¨C due to the physical connection that she had been forced to make with it in order to make her voice heard ¨C could clearly feel it burning out and failing after only another minute. With it temporarily disabled by the excessive stress, their avatars scattered just as quickly as they had formed, placing them back roughly where they had begun. Gang Xiu Ling and Gang Shu Wen faced one another, and only a moment later the Ascendant joined them, going straight to the former¡¯s side.


    ¡°Patriarch, do you intend to surrender? You rightfully should, given that you¡¯ve lost.¡±


    Shu Wen glared at her, maintaining a calm facial expression but unable to hide the obvious displeasure from his failure.


    ¡°I had agreed to discuss, and it is clear that I have lost in this regard. The people¡¯s will has been made clear by your actions, and I will not dispute that,¡± he spoke with surprising restraint when taking into considering the immense quantity of killing intent that radiated from him and increased in quantity with each passing moment, ¡°However, if you truly wish to take over, then I will not give up my position without any complaints. Fight me, if you dare!¡±


    At that moment, his wood-type energy burst out and covered the nearest fifty metres, roots overwhelming the streets and tearing through them without any regard for the damage he caused. It raced towards the Guardians of Purity, Gang Xiu Ling and Wei Yi, countless roots ready to pummel them.


    The first wave was blocked by the rebuilt barrier of the Guardians of Purity, but it was damaged badly.


    ¡°Gang Shu Wen, if we fight, then you also acknowledge your loss. Very well, let me prove to you why you are not suitable to remain in your position!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, rushing past the barrier and towards him.

 V5C37: All Hail the Matriarch

    She opened with an Elysian Blast, striking a shield of roots that quickly assembled before her actual target. Her arm scattered as usual while her energy recovered at a rapid pace, not having suffered much from the forced usage of the Proof of People¡¯s Will array, and she rushed forward to bash the remains of the roots with her fist.


    Her bloodline power made the planar construct even weaker than usual before her hand, breaking through without requiring the use of a technique and thus giving her room to build up an Obliteration beam within her arm¡¯s meridians. Before unleashing it, she manifested her True Titanic Conqueror and directed it to fly back, with it settling at the very back of the current battlefield, its arms stretched out in the shape of a cross for no obvious reason, doing nothing for the moment.


    ¡°You are strong, aren¡¯t you? How did my sibling manage to pull someone like you onto her side?¡± Gang Shu Wen spoke calmly as she pierced the barrier of roots, directing a thousand more towards her.


    ¡°You could have asked that before you decided to send several series of thugs against her, couldn¡¯t you?¡± she replied just as calmly, as neither of them had yet unleashed their most powerful attacks, ¡°The answer might surprise you.¡±


    ¡°Then provide it to me, and get your chance to strike while I am distracted by the surprise.¡±


    ¡°No particular reason at all, actually. I just came across her in the Qiang District, and decided to help her take over the district,¡± she intentionally showcased her smile to him as waited for the exact instant of surprise that he had promised her. On one hand, he should have been expecting something abnormal as a response, since he did have a basic comprehension of words that appeared to be superior to that of a large number of people she had fought so far, but it appeared that his loss due to the Proof of People¡¯s Will had led him to believe something more sensible than what she offered.


    Thus, when she admitted the truth, his hand froze at the wrong moment. In that moment, she thrust her arm forth and unleashed the Obliteration energy within.


    Blackened crimson burst out and struck his body, shredding his outer robes but not going further through as a soft white glow consumed the destructive power. Through the wide open hole in the robes she was able to see a large amulet hanging from his neck on an ordinary-seeming white string, which was the source of the soft white glow.


    It was round and thin, its diameter being near to the length of a man¡¯s index finger. Lying on his chest without any obvious activity at the moment, it had completely avoided the perception of everyone else on the scene, and the moment that it did enter her vision, she was able to make a guess regarding the nature of this object. After all, things that completely bypassed spiritual perception, seemed as if they weren¡¯t there at all unless viewed with one¡¯s own eyes, and that had odd abilities that shouldn¡¯t be possible within the framework of planar energy techniques, tended to only come from a single source, and only have one nature.


    ¡°And you have an otherworldly gift. Where from?¡± she asked, for she deserved one answer.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean. I had found this within the Gang Ancestral Hall, and it is none of your concern what its initial origins were!¡± Gang Shu Wen stated, one hand almost trying to cover the amulet, ¡°Fine, since you pose a danger to me, I shall not hold back any longer.¡±


    He thrust forward with his other hand, another series of roots bursting out of the ground, except that these were closer to masses of elemental energy than the kind of thing found on an ordinary tree. It was as if he had switched from using the roots of an ordinary oak to that of a Wood Manifest Oak, a six-star material of incredible value to those seeking to amplify their power via external objects.


    At the same time, she gave a mental command to the True Titanic Conqueror, which thrust its hand forth and summoned a series of Railgun Bolts, all of which stood still for just a moment before being fired at those radiant green roots. With force that could overwhelm the power of the Patriarchs of the northern districts easily, the bolts pierced them and exploded with further Obliteration energy, powered primarily by the four physiques that made up the Titanic Conqueror.


    With him literally being blown away by the blast, Wei Yi finally activated the combination of the True Conqueror¡¯s Eye and Elder Watcher, effectively stealing what power remained from the Proof of People¡¯s Will in order to become the absolute ruler of the region, if only for a brief moment.


    In that moment, she could finally display that which she had sought to attain with her Dao of Law, even if she was only replicating the true effect. Countless chains became visible to the whole district, binding and connecting all matter and energy in impossible ways, all of them overlapping and passing the same space but never touching and affecting one another, even when they did. Many such chains existed around the current Gang Patriarch, and they were formed from laws both natural and human, absolute and imagined, physical, emotional and spiritual. Simply considering quantity, the chains easily made up half of the total number in the district, at least out of those that became visible to the people of the Gang District.


    Many of them extended to the hand of the Ascendant, who grasped them right away, the chains easily fitting in her hand as they had no true physical form.


    ¡°The people have spoken, Gang Shu Wen, and you did not listen. I promise you now, you and everyone whose ears I reach with my voice, that once the time comes for my decisions to be judged, I shall not refuse to listen,¡± Wei Yi said, her hand tightening, ¡°Now, as the Ascendant and, seemingly, the only one in this world to ponder the Dao of Law, it is my role to ensure that the people¡¯s voice-¡±


    ¡°No! Out of all people, you will not be the one to judge me!¡± Gang Shu Wen¡¯s voice suddenly exploded as he grasped the amulet on his chest tightly and ripped it off the thread around his neck.


    It struck one of the illusory chains, and actually appeared to collide with it. A singular ring of metal shook the district as the chains that linked to Wei Yi were shaken out of her grip, their pressure instantly crushing everything within her hand and being contained only barely by the star metal gauntlet, which ensured that the broken flesh could be kept in place and healed after a few moments. However, she knew that she couldn¡¯t grab onto the chains in the same way as they had begun to resonate and shake violently due to the collision with the amulet.


    ¡®What is the ability of that thing even supposed to be? Is it just an otherworldly property to affect the chains of¡­ actually, it would be, given that the abilities of otherworldly gifts always go against the Laws of the world in ways that couldn¡¯t possibly align with the chains and how they usually function,¡¯ she thought, turning to the empty space where her left arm would be, had her mental image of it not been all that was left of it.


    There was one thing that could hold onto it, and it was something made of overwhelming energy aligned with the Dao of Law, and thus empowered by it and everything that she had comprehended through it. All that she needed was a stable limb to affect the chains sufficiently, and not even one that moved, which was her ideal form of the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, but she had yet to make the step to a stable limb. Making sudden breakthroughs was easiest when a person was under pressure, which was obvious enough, and she did have the materials and theoretical elements that she needed to go beyond her current state, but she didn¡¯t exactly have the time.


    As a result, she had to pull out a few of her otherworldly gifts in order to make use of the instant that she had most efficiently.


    She thrust her mental image of the arm out to the side and stimulated her energy, transforming it into a grey dust that flooded out of the wound on her arm. It formed into the basic image of an arm, with five fingers being recognisable, albeit without any hints of necessary detail or the meridians that made up her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow.


    If she had the ability to enter the Realm of Potential, she would, but the otherworldly gift was located in the Kong Prison Realm, rather than in her own body, mental domain or dantian. As a result, all of the mental processing had to be done entirely on her own, for using the Truth of the Universe would ultimately damage or subvert her project. All that she was able to put to use was the House of Gold¡¯s store of artefacts, which she used as reference for her work, with the planar energy that she had stored on the inside being condensed into an independent artefact rather than merging it into the shards of her previous sword. In terms of pure energy quantity, it did not benefit her as she wasn¡¯t going to be able to directly use it anyway, but it did advance her understanding of channels themselves.


    The Artefact Combinator was not one that functioned in a manner that aligned with the Laws of the Planar Continents, but the products were still partially aligned, albeit stabilised in an impossible manner if the support of the otherworldly gift is not provided. So long as she formed the right kind of artefacts and then made them merge within her House of Gold, she could then guarantee results that would be of some use to her.


    Indeed, only moments after she began ¨C and almost a minute in her own perception of time, as she brought the speed at which her mind processed matters as high as she could without allowing it to happen naturally ¨C the random artefacts consisting purely of planar energy that she had manifested provided her with numerous interesting possibilities, allowing the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow to begin its full manifestation upon her shoulder wound. All of the grey dust collapsed inwards, losing the shape of the arm but gaining the form of numerous meridians and veins, coiled tightly around a non-existent series of bones.


    From the open wound, her cosmic energy flowed out and surrounded the grey dust, mingling with it just a little but otherwise remaining separate. It formed the channels within which the grey dust existed, shimmering and gleaming with wonderful light.


    Meanwhile, within the House of Gold, she began to manifest artefacts that combined various types of energy together, and then forcefully merged planar energy and bloodline power with killing will and physique energy, and combinations like them. Quickly, the combined artefacts gained more and more strange channels that she could quickly identify as being impossible for her own needs, but there were still useful elements found within those products, which she had quickly broken down into energy and reused quickly, meaning that her array of experimental artefacts grew with each moment.


    Soon, spiritual will seemed to pour slowly from her veins, forming a web-like network all over the arm, arranging themselves into the form of a nervous system within an ordinary body.


    All of them entwined with the meridians formed with planar energy, both in the form of grey dust and cosmic energy, forming intricate connections that allowed them to function together and resonate in a way that she could hardly replicate in any other place, and in any other time. Perhaps her creation now would be much like the Proof of People¡¯s Will, which had yet to be replicated despite being open for the viewing of the Gang family ever since it had been created.


    The moment that she witnessed a surprising combination within the House of Gold, her plan was complete, and she released her physique energy and bloodline power at the same time. Her bloodline power formed into the veins of her arm, and the physique energy produced the flesh, with the only exception being a single gleaming physique vein. With all of this, her arm almost resembled a see-through version of an ordinary human arm, but an expert glance could perceive that nothing truly matched, nor was a single element quite where it should be. This was part of her initial need to transform the arm¡¯s structure to avoid the world¡¯s restrictions, and she had only refined the design.


    Even at her fastest, a few seconds had passed, and the Patriarch gazing upon her had noticed what she was attempting to do, although he did not understand it. Seeing that his amulet had some kind of effect, he gave it a glance before attempting to strike the chains that surrounded him a second time.


    ¡°CEASE!¡±


    A forceful exclamation stopped his body, restraining him for a moment ¨C but a moment was sufficient for him to see a boundless black smoke rush out of Wei Yi¡¯s body, covering up the network of energy.


    It surged into a powerful arm, with thick claws made up of smoke that reached the density of solid, almost crystalline matter, resulting in five points at which the smoke did not billow or dissipate, though it did remain in glorious motion. The entire arm was covered in a thinner yet more voluminous killing intent, streaming up to her shoulder and merging with her flesh, with some even entering her veins and colouring them black as a result.


    Her eyes gleamed due to the sudden feeling from a long-lost limb, and although it was not a wise thing to do, she tried to bring it up to her chest, where she might have a better view of the remade and improved Arm of Slaughtering Shadow.


    Immediately, she had confirmation of the fact that she still had work to do, for it did not move smoothly as her mind imagined the movement. Rather, the smoke and everything within lost its structure in the first place and rushed to its new final location, not breaking apart completely but failing to do enough to accomplish everything that movement usually would.


    She could grab something and throw it, provided that it could be held onto by a mass of smoke, but if she wished to do something intricate, something that needed a great deal of precision and minute rapid movements, she would have no success at all. Furthermore, against most opponents, an unstable mass of raw energy would not be enough, so she could only hold onto those that were two realms below her with any degree of consistency. This was most unfortunate, but it was still more than she could have expected from such a rushed attempt, and most importantly it could now be improved until full stability in movement was feasible.


    For now, before the Patriarch could move again, she reached out with the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and grasped the chains, negating their vibrating resonance with a tight, unbreakable grip.


    ¡°The people¡¯s voice shall be heard, and you are judged unworthy of your station!¡±


    Thus, she pulled at the chains, her arm breaking into smoke and bringing the chains closer to herself before stabilising in a different position, leaving her to watch the results.


    She had pulled on the chains of responsibility, of power, of expectation, and most importantly, that of tradition. The rest were brought upon the man by all kinds of events and causes, but the chains of responsibility were accepted by the leaders of the Gang District willingly, and thus out of every single restriction, this one was easily the most effective. Just by applying sufficient force to these bindings, so long as this force was one that could directly affect the chains themselves rather than the many layers of reality between the material and the conceptual, one could end a life entirely, truly or otherwise.


    The Patriarch¡¯s powerful figure instantly faded with the pull of the chains, the planar energy within his body burst out uncontrollably, as if the walls of his dantian had ruptured and his cultivation collapsed right away.


    From the seventh realm, he fell straight into the first stage of the third realm, this realm remaining only due to the endurance of his planar anchor. All of his gathered energy was lost to the air around him, quickly being absorbed by everyone in the district without any intentional activity on their part. Such an enormous quantity of energy belonged within the body of another, and thus it split across the population in such a manner that it did not push any of them through a full realm.


    While a lot about him dissipated in an instant, what was of greatest significance was the fate of the amulet that he had been holding onto. When the chains of Law struck it, focused by the Ascendant¡¯s will, it attempted to repeal them, but with each chain that pressed upon it the resistance of the otherworldly gift lessened. Half were enough to suppress it entirely, but once every single chain acted upon it, the impossible happened right before her eyes. Through the force of the world, and the world alone, an otherworldly object cracked, countless small fractures appeared, and dull azure light shone from within, illuminating the streets.


    The next moment, this otherworldly gift burst, breaking apart into small particles of azure light that shrunk and faded, no hint of the main azure light within.


    Perhaps that is why it broke apart so easily, as it lacked the support of the azure light that permitted most otherworldly gifts to completely surpass the Laws of reality, but the sheer impressive nature of the achievement could not be ignored by anyone aware of the true nature of the item used by the Patriarch.


    Quickly, the chains faded, the excess energy faded, the remaining influence of the Proof of People¡¯s Will and thus the Conqueror¡¯s Eye and Elder Watcher abilities faded, and the district was left in relative silence. All activity ceased for a while, and even when the guardians emerged to examine what it was that had occurred within their district, they could not bring themselves to act against the seeming attacker, nor to support the original candidate for Matriarch. It was hard to act when their senses could barely grasp what had just occurred, but were able to feel the strange change to the world.


    None of the Laws of reality were altered by the Ascendant, of course, but with her defeat of an otherworldly gift and the usage of so many chains, the air itself felt different.


    ¡°¡­ People of the Gang District, your Patriarch has fallen, and there is another that would take his place. She and I stand on the same side, at least for now, and I would suggest that all of you see an alternative path that finally steps away from tradition and grows, to form new and superior ways,¡± Wei Yi spoke after the long pause, being the first to interrupt it with more than uncertain movement on the streets, ¡°If you have some kind of disagreement with the situation, then remember that I am here, and that I am proof that change can be beneficial. Remember that if you do decide to put it down and ensure that the district will lack any chance of keeping up with the world.¡±


    Her words were not addressed at anyone in particular, for the guardians and the common people, as well as all those in between, for all of them had the potential to influence the district. In sufficient numbers, even the weakest force could alter anything that they wished to, as the common citizens could depart from the district and leave a Patriarch with nothing to command and nobody to rule, if they so wished. The stronger cultivators could take the fight directly to the leaders, as Wei Yi had just done.


    For that reason, she did not expect an immediate response from anyone. She cancelled the effects of her other physiques and landed on the ground, her eyes immediately drifting to her Arm.


    It remained where it had been, the mass of smoke blurring and breaking apart during movement of any kind, but it stabilised once she landed, her left hand slightly raised and the palm facing upwards for her own viewing. The shape was alike to the original left arm¡¯s appearance in her killing will state, save for the obvious lack of flesh, blood or bones, but the appearance was significantly more aggressive as a result of the billowing smoke. Approaching someone for the first time with such an arm displayed to them in full could easily convince them of her hostile intent, even if she was careful not to release a drop of killing intent. Her claws had already not been ideal for certain peaceful activities, but even in a more stable state it would be a little too intimidating for casual relations.


    She flipped her hand, finding that part of the reason for the instability was that the smoke did not attempt to turn organically, but instead passed through itself in order to arrive at its final position as quickly as possible.


    This was preferable in certain situations, like when she simply needed to switch the position of her Arm and hand as quickly as possible, but for true, stable movement and continuous motions, it was completely unacceptable. Replacing it would be rather difficult for multiple reasons, prime amongst which was that rather than moving in a mass of smoke and changing position once ever few seconds at most, she would instead need to have the arm stably assume a form many times a second.


    Due to this she did not rush to change anything, and simply stuck with what she had for the moment. It was sufficient for many of the things that she had wanted to have an arm back for, so she was more focused on understanding just what it was that she could and could not do using the Arms current state. A few experiments did not even require any obvious movements and action on her part, so she would naturally proceed with them before even attempting to proceed with anything that she needed to take care of here in the Gang District.


    The people were still shocked from everything that had just happened, while the guardians seemed to be gravitating towards Gang Xiu Ling rather than her, so she had plenty of time.


    ¡®I¡¯d love to verify how Elysian Blast will now function, as I cannot exactly go through the effort of completely reconstructing the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow each time that I use the technique, but an attack right now will just make them more suspicious of me and my intentions, even if I merely strike the air,¡¯ she thought, finally breaking her gaze away from the Arm.


    Funnily enough, her reaction to her regaining a limb was far greater than gaining an entirely new body part, a fact that she had noticed not long after she discovered her difficulty in taking her gaze away from the Arm. Unlike her dick, which she certainly couldn¡¯t complain about in most aspects, the left arm was one that she really needed and had grown reliant upon as her semi-dominant arm, as far back as in the Yi District, where she used both at various times, mostly depending on her preference. She preferred using the left arm for forging weapons, for instance, and so it was convenient that she had finished some semblance of a stable Arm of Slaughtering Shadow prior to needing to reassemble her weapon.


    ¡°Um¡­ I hadn¡¯t been expecting this kind of situation, I¡¯ll be honest,¡± Gang Ya Hui¡¯s voice reached her from the side, prompting her to turn casually, ¡°Shu Wen seems to be¡­ worse than dead, actually.¡±


    ¡°He would be. His cultivation is, effectively, still at the third realm, but he won¡¯t be able to actively make use of that kind of power for a long while. One of his secret weapons is also gone, and his body should have suffered a great deal as a result of the sudden loss of energy,¡± Wei Yi replied, folding her arms and involuntarily smiling when she felt the two limbs touch and linger, ¡°You should speak to Gang Xiu Ling as soon as you have the time.¡±


    ¡°I will, don¡¯t you worry. Her argumentative skills clearly need more work, I can tell, but she has a chance of going far. So long as you remain in touch, then she should develop into a decent Matriarch for us.¡±


    ¡°You already suspect that I won¡¯t remain here, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re the Ascendant. We don¡¯t know much, but the fact that you keep travelling from district to district is very much obvious. Also, I did manage to receive some rumours regarding your presence at all of the districts south of our own, and I have heard that you came from the west, so you had likely been at the Bao District as well. You wouldn¡¯t just stay in the Gang District when your territory is at the north, either,¡± the leader of the New Community said, taking her silence as an answer, ¡°Will you come back here, though?¡±


    ¡°Most likely, you will see me again. However, I cannot reveal too much yet, for several reasons. If you do see me again, it will likely be in a way that will allow you to get in contact with me much more easily from then on,¡± Wei Yi informed her.


    Gang Ya Hui nodded, ¡°Last thing, then. You do support our New Community, right?¡±


    ¡°Strange question after what had just happened. No, I don¡¯t think that tradition ¨C more precisely, absolute adherence to it without a second thought ¨C is the best path for any district. Unrestrained change is not particularly good either, as some things are in place for a reason, but both you and some of your people seem to realise that without the need for me to tell you.¡±


    ¡°I was just wondering whether you had acted for us, or purely for yourself. I mean, you wouldn¡¯t actually admit anything to me, but-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t know if you know yet, but I am attempting to unify Yi City yet again. I want to bring every district together, regain some territory from the outside if there¡¯s an opportune moment for it, and I want to ensure that what I end up creating is superior to Yi City of old. There were clearly a lot of unforeseen problems that occurred after the Master of Yi City disappeared, and I would rather not leave Yi City with a bunch of similar problems at the end of my time, whenever that is,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°For that reason, whenever I attempt to gain more territory, influence and power, it is essential that I do not do so by harming Yi City overall.


    ¡°Gang Xiu Ling was indeed a risk, but combined with a sensible influence, I think that the changes to the district will lead to an overall improvement. After all, this place has remained stagnant for an immense length of time, and in that time the other districts had grown and explored various possibilities even as their overall power declined and their territory was forcefully reduced and challenged, time and time again. It wouldn¡¯t be a good idea for Gang Shu Wen to remain in power for too long, in short.¡±


    ¡°True, I suppose¡­ In that case, hail the Matriarch, and have a good day.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t say that to her face, please.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll think about it.¡±

 V5C38: District of Souls

    ¡°¡­ and this thing should be a spatial stabilisation point. It¡¯s what you were looking for, correct?¡± the newly crowned, so to speak, Gang Matriarch said, presenting her with a node in the ground.


    ¡°It is, and it seems to have some traces of my energy already. I think my fight with Gang Shu Wen had led to some of my energy coming into contact with it,¡± Wei Yi said, walking up to the node, ¡°You don¡¯t want to request anything from me in exchange for this thing, right? Just to make sure that you haven¡¯t come up with any plan alongside those guardians of yours.¡±


    ¡°Ignore those old things. With your help, I¡¯m a moment from breaking through into the seventh realm, so they don¡¯t have any valid reason to argue against me, nor do I have any reason to listen to them. They won¡¯t attack me while I¡¯m breaking through, either, so I¡¯m safe to do what I want.¡±


    ¡°Alright, good. Had you done what they had asked you to, I would be extremely disappointed.¡±


    It went without saying that the Ascendant had been paying attention to everything that the new Matriarch had been up to, especially when she was sealed into a more private space to converse with the guardians of the district. She was able to avoid their detection easily enough ¨C her spiritual perception¡¯s attribute made it incredibly simple ¨C and learned that they were highly unhappy with the way in which Gang Xiu Ling had taken her new position, but that they were willing to permit her to remain so long as she did not act up and continued to follow tradition.


    Of course, given that they were guardians, they didn¡¯t have the right to command a Matriarch in such a manner, and in actuality they needed to beg her far more than command her. Their actions were concerning, so Wei Yi needed to help the new Matriarch out a little more to accelerate her cultivation progress. The moment that she exceeded their realm, and made use of some manuals that the Ascendant ended up sharing, the guardians would have no chance at all to oppose her.


    Now that she confirmed that Gang Xiu Ling was intending to stay the course and remain on the side of the New Community, she would help her further by temporarily weakening the guardians if they even think about acting against her. She had the necessary methods for achieving this from her experience with medicinal refinement, poisons and the like, and with a little bit of Law-based tinkering she was ready to affect the guardians the very moment that she had a literal moment away from the attention of those around her, with her movement method permitting instantaneous movement back and forth at any time.


    For now, though, she was focused on the spatial stabilisation node ahead of her. With her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, she reached out and held her palm above the node, directing a vast quantity of energy through it and down towards the node. Her Arm lost its structure for a brief moment, all of her planar energy surging through it and down into the node, followed right away by its activation.


    She now had enough energy that little technique was actually needed to activate a spatial stabilisation node. A faint connection with the node was felt, as always, but there was little she could do with it.


    ¡°Was that it?¡±


    ¡°Yep, that was it. Of course, I can show off a little more, and provide you with some arbitrary theatrics, but I doubt that you want that, and I really don¡¯t want to do that to myself, either. The point is that I have the node now, and that you will see me again sooner rather than later.¡±


    ¡°That gateway that you had mentioned, will it be something that people can come through right away?¡±


    ¡°Would there be a problem with that?¡±


    ¡°There may be some complications with it and the district¡¯s people, so if it isn¡¯t necessary, it¡¯d be great if you didn¡¯t just usher in tides of people.¡±


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t planning on doing that in the first place, so don¡¯t you worry. I¡¯d prefer for most to stick around where they are most familiar with, and where they can do the most with their own abilities, and instead enable things like trade and exchanges of useful skills and techniques via the gateways,¡± Wei Yi explained.


    ¡°I and the people of the Gang District should be fine with that, since we aren¡¯t like the Ju District¡­ They did open up in the end, after you¡¯d visited, didn¡¯t they? Were those strange bolts you had fired at Shu Wen based on their methods?¡±


    ¡°To an extent, yes. Some of that was still my own energy and methods¡­ Nonetheless, we can discuss all kinds of minor matters at a later time. For now, I need to get going, and I need to return to my territory as quickly as possible, while also doing as much as possible in every district I pass. In other words, I don¡¯t quite have the time to spare for most casual chats just for now,¡± she said, her Arm having long returned to her side, resting there in a neutral manner, ¡°Anything else before I depart? Do you need me to help you with something, or deal with some kind of dissident faction?¡±


    ¡°No, there are none of those apart from the guardians. Good luck.¡±


    ¡°Mhm. You too, Gang Xiu Ling. May we meet again, at a better time, with more achievements under our belts¡­ not that either of us appear to wear one,¡± Wei Yi muttered her last words, gave a casual wave and vanished from the spot, pausing near the location of the guardians, and applying her solution to solve their threat.


    After that, she disappeared from the district¡¯s borders, reappearing at the northern edge. Her destination from here was the Xin District, for it had a high likelihood of being beneficial to her, so it was best to head off to the north-west in order to get there as quickly as possible.


    Within the Xin District, she was seeking to locate an expert on the matter of souls, for her soul had gained a unique property that, unlike the nature of her spiritual perception, she was unable to comprehend in full. The study of the soul was an incredibly niche one, so for her to have experienced any kind of changes to it in the first place was a rather impressive fact. The archives of the Gang District, the oldest remaining city from before the time of Yi City and its Master, lacked any detail on it, and none of the southern and northern districts she had visited so far had anything to comment on regarding the soul, so the Xin and Ling Districts were the only ones she could hope on to have something for her to learn about and study.


    Depending on what they could tell her, she had the potential to greatly advance her path, and in the event that she was completely overestimating the potential of the soul, she could at the very least secure her mind against outside influences. The odd immunity to the influence of Primordial Earth, or whatever had influenced the Bao District, was not guaranteed to extend to all things, or even to all entities of a Primordial nature.


    She was consistently growing in every regard other than her mental resistance to abnormal influences, especially with the addition of the stable Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, so it would be a bad idea to skip the Xin District.


    There was also the matter of the Yi City Web, which she was attempting to link up to her existing territory. She suspected that the Shun, Gang and Wu Districts were linked together, but it was hard to guarantee such a thing, and so it was significantly safer and easier to secure as many potential paths for the channels to flow through in order to combine the entirety of her territory. If the Wu District did not connect with the Gang District, then the Bao, Gang, Ru and Qiang Districts would remain separate from the network that started with the Chao District at the north and ended with the Shun or Wu District at the south.


    It was hard to know how she would be received, though. Her deeds at the south should slowly begin to reach the ears of those further north, especially each time that she did something as excessive as tapping into the ancestral array of a district to debate the current Patriarch, and word from the north was also getting more plentiful the further north she went.


    She did not know much regarding the typical philosophy and beliefs of the Xin District¡¯s people, despite the relative proximity between it and the Yi District combined with the relative openness of the two districts when compared to something like the Ju District. As such, making any educated guesses regarding their nature was also rather difficult, and it was even more complicated when the matter of the War of Ascendancy was taken into account. It had affected the north greatly, and it was likely that the Central Plains and the Southern Tundra were also impacted to a certain extent.


    There should still be Great Family members somewhere at the south, at least those of the third and second generations, but the Central Plains are where Testament was supposed to be, and that is where the focus of the Greats should be. Hence, they would need to focus greatly on keeping their existing territory and preventing intruders from the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters from doing anything to harm their plans any further than they already have.


    Perhaps there had even been some battles while she was away, resulting in people fleeing certain areas, and rushing to others for various reasons.


    ¡®I should just stop guessing and go in there, shouldn¡¯t I?¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she paused some distance from the district, looking upon its walls and gates. Unlike some of the previous locations she had visited, it did not look significantly different from the standard architecture of the Western Continent ¨C if the Yi District¡¯s style could be described as such ¨C and so there was little for her to note or comment on.


    Without much effort, she crossed the cold hills on her way to the district, where snow had begun to thin out to the point of only falling in sufficient quantities to mildly annoy. After falling, it would even melt at times, resulting in the overall air being grey and dull to look at.


    That was likely why the guards weren¡¯t particularly happy with their position, looking extremely grim. In a more upbeat district, someone like this might have experienced a series of terrible events without any positives occurring in the meanwhile, perhaps losing a few significant figures in their lives one after another, but from a brief glance at their outward thoughts, this did not appear to be the case at all. Rather, the grey nature of their surroundings had seeped into their faces, and a few recent stresses in the district had made their expressions worse.


    What those were, she couldn¡¯t determine from afar, and without a greater length of time.


    Even without that, it was quite clear that she should not make too much of a disturbance upon entry, as she would otherwise aggravate the guards, who, although their realm was low and thus not capable of competing against her or the majority of the truly powerful figures in the Planar Continents as a whole, could still lead to her not being permitted easy and lawful entry into the district, which was ideal for peaceful relations with the Patriarch and guardians inside.


    As she neared, one guard raised his hand and stopped her a few steps away from him, with the other guards getting nearer while he said, ¡°Hold it. Are you one of the Yi District lot? Provide the pass.¡±


    ¡°You are mistaken. My name is Wei Yi-¡±


    ¡°Your name could be, uh, Kong Shi Meng, or something like that, but if you¡¯re from there, then you better provide a pass.¡±


    ¡°- and what I was going to say is that I am not ¡®one of the Yi District lot¡¯, whatever you mean. I have never been here before, and I have not received a pass, and I wouldn¡¯t be able to produce one out of the air even with the best spatial storage method,¡± the Ascendant finished speaking.


    ¡°You sure?¡± a second guard muttered, sharing a glance with the others, ¡°Do we have any records of everyone who came in from the Yi District?¡±


    ¡°Why would we? There are thousands of those people¡­¡±


    They went silent as they plunged into thought, and Wei Yi was forced to stand there for quite a long while, waiting for a single one of them to arrive at any conclusion, even at the worst one in existence. If they just refused her entry, that would be workable, since she could simply enter the district through her fourth realm movement method and then reach out to one of the district¡¯s leaders as quickly as possible to amend the situation. Otherwise, leaving or trying to enter in front of several guards would just make things unnecessarily complicated for her, as they would believe that she was some kind of criminal, liar, or worse.


    Again, minimizing trouble was the goal, although there was a certain limit to how long she would endure certain matters simply because they¡¯d take more time than they¡¯d save.


    It was fortunate that she did not need to wait too long, as a superior of the guards finally arrived at the scene, unprompted by any of them but very curious to figure out what it was that they were standing around for. He took one moment to guess at the situation.


    ¡°Red hair, but not someone fleeing from the Yi District? I get that right?¡±


    ¡°You did. It would have been great if they had done so just as quickly,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°I did try to tell them.¡±


    ¡°With the situation at the northern side, we¡¯ve had to accept quite a few people from the Yi District. To make sure that they didn¡¯t run around without any restraint, there¡¯s a temporary system of passes to make it clearer where they came from, what they¡¯re doing, and why they might be unable to provide certain details and forms of identification that those who arrived normally are able to,¡± the superior guard ¨C in both meanings of the term ¨C explained briefly, ¡°If this is your first time here, then I can take care of things. Otherwise, you should know how this works, and what you need to show them.¡±


    ¡°It is my first time at the Xin District. The places I¡¯ve been to before didn¡¯t bother too much with identification, but I suppose that your district chooses to do things slightly differently to what is normal in Yi City at the moment.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s one way to put it. Come on through, don¡¯t hold up the gates,¡± the man said, waving her through and leading her to an empty spot by the side of the main road while answering, ¡°Even if you¡¯re not too familiar with our practises, you should know that we, as a district, focus greatly on people and, more importantly, their souls. We consider it vital to be aware of them, and so most will carry details regarding scans of their soul. It works to prove their identity, and informs us of their nature.¡±


    ¡°Souls are that significant to human behaviour?¡±


    ¡°Not entirely. We know of a few abnormalities that can affect behaviour, and a few that affect only the soul, and some that seem to affect the body, but the first purpose is generally why we insist on soul scans. If you¡¯re not going to remain here for long, and if you don¡¯t intend to go back and forth from the district, you don¡¯t need to bother with it.¡±


    ¡°Noted,¡± she replied, with them arriving at the quiet spot by this point, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what happened at the Yi District? It should be standing strong, still, shouldn¡¯t it?¡±


    The guard sighed, ¡°That thing¡­ War of Ascendancy, some call it. It riled up a faction called the Great Families, and they got a little more protective of their lands than before. They used to hold a great degree of influence in every district, but after a few battles with these Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, they were forced to focus on only a few places. I think they¡¯re holding onto the Yi, Ning, Chu and Chen Districts most fervently, as the Ping, Ju, Luo, Bai and Chao Districts are held by the Arbiters. The Jiang District, and the Lan District, have not done much for either side, and the Shi, Fu and Huang Districts are out of the way, so they haven¡¯t gotten into any battles or skirmishes either.¡±


    ¡°Does that mean that the Yi District has been attacked, or is it simply that the situation there has made it difficult for some to remain there without greatly risking their lives? Otherwise, I see no reason for them to flee ¨C or for the Xin District to accept them.¡±


    ¡°The latter, or so I¡¯ve heard. You can ask one of the people from the Yi District, if you want. They¡¯re all still wearing their traditional robes and garments, so red and silver are the colours that you need to be watching out for. Some have attempted to make a living here, and there is no issue with you patronising their stores and businesses, just make sure to remind them that the rules here can differ, and that they shouldn¡¯t get in the way of existing businesses, at least not as directly as setting up shop right in front of them.¡±


    ¡°I get the feeling that wasn¡¯t a random example.¡±


    ¡°Some of the Yi District people were rather eager to sell various goods, so a bunch gathered together and set up market stalls a step in front of stalls selling the exact same types of items. Even without thinking about any of the rules, that¡¯s just a dick thing to do, full stop, no question about it, and they should have known.¡±


    ¡°Got it. Thank you for your time, and for saving me a great deal of time that the guards at the gate might have otherwise taken from me.¡±


    ¡°Sure thing. Don¡¯t cause trouble,¡± the guard said, turning around and departing quickly.


    She nodded in response, then turned inward, facing the centre of the district through many layers of structures. From her position, she couldn¡¯t see anyone beside a few locals, going about their day without much care for her or anything at a grand scale, and it was hard to imagine that just a little further north, something had forced the people of a district to flee it, heading towards the nearest safest place.


    It was a rather unusual thing for the entirety of Yi City¡¯s history, as the closest thing to have happened previously would be the loss of the Lan District¡¯s leaders, and the general decline of the Lan family, which had caused the Jiang District to step in and take over. Some saw it as them being opportunistic and greedy, others were glad that the district was preserved due to its value and usefulness, and some thought that it was better for the Jiang District to be in charge than the Ze or Wu Districts, both of which were known to be slightly obsessed with perfection and martial arts, to the extent of some labelling them as completely and utterly mad in that regard. That wasn¡¯t quite a fair way to put it, but it would be rather difficult for most to match their standards.


    On a more significant matter for the moment, she spent just a little while to consider what she was going to do regarding the situation of the Yi District¡¯s people in the Xin District. She was not going to correct the problem itself, as that would require far more than she was willing to spare, regardless of the resource, but she could choose either to speak with the refugees, or to avoid them.


    Chances of finding someone she knew among those that fled were rather low, of course. There were a lot of people in the Yi District, and she had become familiar with only a few, and there were even fewer that she had any interest in speaking with. Chances were that many remained in the district, their lives being affected to only a minor degree, if at all, whereas some that did leave could have easily headed to the Shun or Ze Districts, which were, reportedly, still relatively neutral in the War of Ascendancy.


    It was hard to be sure not only of that, but also whether it would be beneficial for her to even do so. Her identity was no longer the same, and she had put in a great deal of effort to distance herself from it.


    To simply rush back into such a thing would be rather odd, and rather unhelpful to her overall goals. The whole point of furthering her knowledge of Law was to eventually overcome the world and attempt to impose some form of justice upon everything beneath her, allowing her to overcome the limitations of being someone in the world that she would improve and never stronger than all other things. By overcoming the will of the heavens, she could ensure that her form of justice is present.


    One of the keys to her plan would be to separate herself from the world, and bringing herself into contact with more people that she still held a significant emotional attachment to would endanger that.


    ¡®I suppose that it might just be best to go around anyone I can, and find the local Patriarch as quickly as I can to get out of here. Dealing with the Yi District just wouldn¡¯t be very straightforward, nor particularly helpful,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded, moving on from her spot and heading in the direction of the Ancestral Hall, where the Patriarch was likely to reside.


    To further reduce the likelihood of interruption, she decided to make use of a few movement methods to skip certain emptier streets and irrelevant locations, hoping to get to her destination as quickly as she could. There were few things in the district that truly interested her, after all, as the stores, market stalls, traders, craftsmen and so on that could be found in any district that she had been in so far, and could likely be seen further out, too, provided that those territories were relatively safe to live in and did not have a completely different culture, like certain outer nations were.


    Even the best laid plans don¡¯t always work out, though, and this was not a well-thought-out plan.


    The issue came about when, after one of her quick warps across a street, she froze involuntarily, her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow flaring up with a hidden crimson at the sight.


    ¡°Here you go, miss. If you ever want more of my services, I am free at any time, and I will be sure to get your measurements again to make sure that your efforts to get a better figure don¡¯t go to waste!¡± a familiar voice said with the same odd degree of excitement and positive energy that always seemed outright impossible in certain circumstances where Wei Yi¡­ no, Yi Wei could not remain calm.


    She was a friend, an old one, who she had met when they were both nine, and who managed to remain friends even after Yi Wei appeared to have no ability in cultivation, relative to her peers, of course. When Yi Dongfang accidentally obtained a great technique and had intended to showcase it to the family, only to be removed and for his achievements to be passed onto an upper member of the family, she was one of the few to both be aware of the situation and remain far stronger than Yi Wei had, although the latter saw her as more and more of a strange pervert as time went on, for she could only vaguely understand what was meant by much of what the tailor said.


    That had changed since then, although it was not Yi Wei that had gotten to benefit from the expanded range of knowledge that Wei Yi currently possessed. Perhaps if she had figured it out earlier, her response to receiving the Thunder Lord¡¯s memories would be¡­ less severe, and less impactful.


    It would have helped her to understand herself and to deal with her own feelings far more effectively than she had ended up doing, and perhaps it would have led to an overall better situation. It was hard to know, as it could change a great deal simply as a result of her being aware of her own sexuality and not being as concerned about the mental influence of the Seventh of Meng. Perhaps there was indeed mental influence, and her mind had been permanently altered? She couldn¡¯t be sure, even now.


    However, whatever had been the case back then, and whatever she wanted to do now, she couldn¡¯t get herself to move before the gaze of the tailor fell upon her, mostly by accident.


    She was almost overlooked, except that the gleaming smile on Yi Kun¡¯s face froze and her gaze couldn¡¯t move on, as it normally would and as it should have in the moment. After all, the woman was talking to a customer at this very moment, and although she was hardly ever quiet about her fondness for other women from the moment that the notion bloomed within her mind, she was otherwise a very professional person that wouldn¡¯t let herself be distracted by anything. Combining that with her general unshakable nature, she could generally be relied upon to remain calm and collected almost always.


    ¡°Ah¡­ I-I¡¯m sorry, there¡¯s a¡­ an old friend¡­ um¡­ p-please come again later,¡± Yi Kun managed.


    Her customer raised an eyebrow, following the gaze of the tailor, resulting in the two looking upon Wei Yi for a brief while. The resemblance and the clear familial relation between the two must have made the statement provided more plausible, as the customer did not ask anything else and nodded, stepping away and quickly walking off.


    Meanwhile, the two remained in place, looking towards one another with their faces frozen, their emotions hidden deep beneath the surface either out of sheer shock or the form that they took.


    For Wei Yi, all of her major emotions had been put into the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, and it had already flared with crimson before Yi Kun even laid eyes upon her. To the tailor, what she saw was what she assumed her old friend to look like at most times, and it was most certainly a stunning image.


    ¡°Y-You¡­ You¡¯re Yi Wei, right? I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m not imagining things, am I?¡±


    Her voice was quiet, extremely so, but the Ascendant had no difficulty in picking it up, nor would she have a difficult time directing her voice to the tailor to pick up from as far as a kilometre or two, provided that she didn¡¯t have any significant obstacles in the way. Despite that, she could not think of what she could possibly say, nor did she have the drive to do so. Instead, she nodded, then shook her head and walked towards her.


    ¡°You are¡­ not? What do you¡­ Uh, no, you didn¡¯t lose your voice, did you? You had such a nice voice, as I recall, so-¡±


    ¡°No, I have not lost my voice,¡± Wei Yi finally said, having gotten far closer in that time.


    ¡°O-Oh, you¡­ I¡­ I don¡¯t even know what to say.¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll be first. I meant that I am who you think I am, but that the name isn¡¯t in use any longer. I tend to go by Wei Yi now, and you might be aware of why. If you¡¯re not sure, think to the time that the district was set on fire.¡±


    ¡°I know¡­ Well, I suspected, but it made sense. I heard that you had returned, but half the district was aflame and I needed to rescue my things from the fire¡­ By the time that I got around to searching for you, all I could find was a damaged street and Yi Yaling¡¯s lifeless body, lying not far from there¡­ Whatever had happened there, it had to have occurred while the Patriarch was aware of it, and he did nothing¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s why. Also, changing the ¡®Wei¡¯ from meaning small, to extraordinary, felt right, even if the words themselves weren¡¯t at fault.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡­ no, it wouldn¡¯t be right to joke like that¡­¡±


    Even though she said that, she had glanced quite clearly at Wei Yi¡¯s chest, making her intentions rather blatant. The Ascendant saw no problem with it, however, and just gestured over to the interior of what she presumed to be Yi Kun¡¯s workplace.


    ¡°I think we should go inside and talk.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯d be best.¡±

 V5C39: A Conversation

    They sat on opposite sides of a small table, a cup of tea standing before the tailor, releasing a thin line of steam from the surface of the hot liquid. It was full even after standing there for quite some time.


    ¡°You¡­ well, you do look quite good, actually. I just wanted to joke a little¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I could have grown bigger boobs had I wanted to, as the Bovine Stomach technique wasn¡¯t exactly difficult to find or comprehend, I just figured that it wouldn¡¯t be the best idea,¡± Wei Yi responded, ¡°On the other hand, you grew up quite a bit since we last spoke. Have you not found some hot girl to sleep with yet, or are you still playing around as you were when you were younger?¡±


    ¡°Ah, you finally understand what I meant? I had almost thought that you¡¯d still have no idea what sex is, not to mention that women can also sleep together¡­ Are you¡­ well, have you¡­ Heavens, I can¡¯t believe that I am so nervous right now,¡± Yi Kun said, awkwardly giggling, ¡°Sorry¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be. I understand what you¡¯re trying to ask, and yes, I do happen to prefer other women. If I understand your words correctly, we both have no attraction to men, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s it¡­ Actually, the reason that I¡¯m so nervous, aside from never expecting to see you again, especially not¡­ like this, I guess. Your arm¡­ No, I won¡¯t get distracted here. When I began to realise that I couldn¡¯t see boys my age in the same way that other girls did, and when I understood that they were significantly more attractive¡­ I had seen you as one of the best, I guess. You weren¡¯t particularly talented at cultivating, but you had gone through four techniques before settling on the fifth, some metal technique, if I recall. You were at a great disadvantage, but you were strong, and you were smart, and you looked quite¡­ cute, I guess¡­¡±


    ¡°I had a rather late awakening, to put it mildly. If not for the memories of an adult man forcing me to think about it, I might never have even considered that I might be attracted to anyone, especially not those of the same sex.¡±


    ¡°That does make sense, what with the amount of time you were able to spend cultivating, training and learning. Had you just been born with a slightly better sense of energy, you could have surpassed everyone in the generation¡­ but that¡¯s irrelevant. Basically, I think that I had a crush on you, and, now¡­ I think that I still do. You feel a lot more mature, now, as if you¡¯ve aged twice as much as I but ended up looking far better than I ever could¡­¡±


    The Ascendant thought that the woman before her looked far better than she did, although that was purely due to her own preferences leaning towards larger breasts and a different facial structure, both of which she could see in Yi Kun. After the several years apart, the tailor had developed a large bust, a larger figure than that of the Ascendant, but she just had less muscle and slightly more fat in the most significant areas. Her butt, thighs, breasts and whatever else one might look at all came together to form a wonderful body, and with their existing connection, there was more than just physical attraction between the two of them.


    Unfortunately, she also knew that there was likely to be one major obstacle.


    ¡°Look, since the last time we saw one another, both in general and without clothing-¡±


    ¡°That was when I brought you to a small pond to clean up after you got beaten again by¡­ some guy. I recall that quite well.¡±


    ¡°There were plenty of people looking to beat me up at the time. Anyway, since then, I have changed quite a bit. To make it as straightforward as possible, I happened to get a dick.¡±


    That immediately brought a look of confusion onto the tailor¡¯s face, as the rather blatant fire in her eyes faded alongside it. There was no need to explain why, for this was far closer to the normal reaction than the odd excitement of certain individuals, with most being bisexual or otherwise more open to variety in their preferences than Yi Kun, or the Ascendant herself.


    ¡°I¡­ There¡¯s no way to get rid of it?¡±


    ¡°Can you get rid of your left arm? I don¡¯t have one, and it wasn¡¯t very easy to fix the problems that it caused¡­ In short, no, it¡¯s not something that I can manifest or remove at a whim, and even if it was, I¡¯m not sure how good of an idea it would be to pretend like I don¡¯t have it while with you.¡±


    ¡°¡­ All of those things that I¡¯d said¡­ They¡¯re still true, of course, but with physical attraction¡­ I¡­ I just can¡¯t handle anything to do with men. Masculine women, sometimes, depending on their face and physique, but even the most feminine of men just¡­ I¡¯m sure those guys are fine people, probably, but I just can¡¯t stand anything to do with their bodies and intimacy and that kind of thing¡­¡± Yi Kun managed, ¡°Sorry¡­¡±


    ¡°No need for the constant apologies, I completely understand. It is quite feminine, though¡­¡±


    ¡°It just¡­ no. Heavens, I get the feeling I shouldn¡¯t have brought any of that up¡­ now everything is just awkward, and rather than having the possibility lingering in my head, it¡¯s just¡­ gone¡­¡±


    Wei Yi leaned forward and nudged the cup of tea forward with her right hand.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have to be speaking as some kind of couple, nor even as¡­ what did you call them? Friends with benefits? We don¡¯t need to have that. As you said, we got along well enough back in the Yi District, and you still respect me, and I appreciate what you¡¯d done for me at the time. There is no reason for us to be on bad terms, even if we don¡¯t end up spending the rest of the day in bed, fucking each other¡¯s brains out,¡± she said, leaning back and producing a cup out of crystalline energy, filling it with her liquid energy to manifest something for herself to drink.


    Yi Kun glanced at the planar energy cup and drink, then at Wei Yi¡¯s silver gem-like eyes, her subconscious mind noting the presence of several clear circles in her irises but her conscious mind failing to realise their presence or significance, and then back down at her own cup of tea.


    ¡°You really have changed, huh. Would have never thought that you¡¯d say something like that openly.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I think I should inform you that I spent roughly twenty years sitting below a brothel, used their services quite a lot ¨C something about the place, time, and my condition put my mind in the mood way too often. I also have a rather powerful spiritual perception, so I had no difficulties in observing everything that happened at all times. I also don¡¯t sleep, nowadays.¡±


    ¡°T-Twenty¡­ years? Wha¡­¡±


    ¡°I should explain then, shouldn¡¯t I? Where would you like me to start? From the expedition, or what happened when I returned?¡±


    ¡°Expedition, please. You¡¯re the only one who returned to us¡­¡±


    ¡°A guy who went on the expedition with us, one of the leaders, drove women to lust for him using a mental manipulation method, but it didn¡¯t work against me, and he ended up stopping in those efforts. We got to the Kong District, which existed to the north-east but collapsed long ago,¡± she explained, clearly seeing that even this much was more than Yi Kun was ready to handle, ¡°Alright, which points do I need to provide more details on? I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s the former point, right?¡±


    ¡°That guy was trying to rape women?¡±


    ¡°Well, not quite. Fifth realm and below, mental manipulation can only amplify feelings, not generate any thoughts, so the women Yi Jiazhi had slept with did have some degree of interest in the guy.¡±


    ¡°He was a known creep where I worked. I hadn¡¯t gotten involved with him personally, but from what I had heard from some of the others, he had started visiting them out of nowhere, they suddenly thought he was the best man ever, they ended up not doing their work for a while, then they came back crying¡­ Some may or may not have ended up asking me to show them what it¡¯s like to be with other women¡­ I had rejected those that were clearly acting irrationally, but I had done my part to teach the others.¡±


    ¡°See, there¡¯s the trouble. When you charm someone with your words, your body, your behaviour and so on, is that wrong?¡± a brief moment was all that Yi Kun needed to shake her head, ¡°How is using your energy any different?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s an outside force, influencing a person¡¯s mind!¡±


    ¡°Outside? Everyone has it, more or less, it is omnipresent, and while it can influence your mind, so does the sexy body of a woman with large tits and whatever physique you prefer,¡± Wei Yi presented the same argument that had been causing her quite a few problems thanks to the existence of the Dao of Lust, and the possibility of it influencing her and those that had fallen for her.


    Yi Kun looked at her for a while, ¡°I still don¡¯t like it.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, that guy didn¡¯t have the best of times since the expedition. He had a bit of a traumatic experience there, to put it mildly. I will take your opinion into consideration, at some point, but before then, I can proceed with the explanation that I had intended to give you,¡± she said, ¡°We had gone to the site of the Kong District, descended into it, then began our exploration. It was a lengthy process, and we hadn¡¯t even known where the rest of the groups were, but we started meeting up rather quickly after a while, with one person in particular ¨C one of the leaders, Yi Henghua, the one cultivating the Fairy of Dust cultivation technique ¨C turning out to be an otherworldly demon. I met up with an assassin, Yi Henghua tried to kill us both, I, the assassin and Yi Fenwu ended up taking her down, and at some point, I had broken through a stage or two.¡±


    ¡°That does not sound like anything even approaching a full description¡­ and yet it is already rather scary. By the way, I managed to get into the Emergent Anchor realm not long ago. What about you?¡± Yi Kun asked.


    ¡°Sixth realm, nearing second stage.¡±


    ¡°The fuck? I guess that¡¯s what twenty extra years gets you¡­ Just joking, of course, I know that you must have worked hard and done your best¡­ it¡¯s just rather amazing to hear. Is that arm¡­¡±


    ¡°Not part of the expedition, nor did I even lose it after I got locked up in a prison spatial realm for twenty years. It also has nothing to do with my realm, although reaching the Linked Channels realm has indeed made it far easier for me to generate and maintain it in the form that you are currently seeing. Just a few days ago, it didn¡¯t even linger permanently, and I needed to manifest it for moments at a time.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t even have a clue of how you managed this¡­ I had not paid as much attention to this as I should have, mostly because I was being taught by one of the best looking women in the district¡­¡±


    ¡°I suppose that your hormones must have kicked in far earlier than my own, as I didn¡¯t really feel enamoured with anyone until I met with a woman called Chu Ling. You probably didn¡¯t know her, but she was one of the people that the burning of the district had claimed. Anyway, with one of our expedition leaders gone, we had eventually managed to get to the spatial realm that we had been looking for, where another leader, Yi Fenwu, decided to kill us all and claim the things inside for herself, making use of Yi Bai, a fellow servant that had cultivated an assassination art by accident and ended up being controlled by a token that Yi Fenwu had on her person, while she sought out the core of the spatial realm and tried to control it.¡±


    Again, poor Yi Kun¡¯s eyes were wide and her jaw started to slowly drop in surprise, prompting the Ascendant to grab the cup of tea with the Arm and force it to her mouth, where she reflexively drank some of the warm liquid and swallowed it. She only realised what she did a moment later, but that did calm her down slightly.


    ¡°You know, I wouldn¡¯t be able to handle this stuff if I was in your place. There¡¯s just too much.¡±


    ¡°So I¡¯ve been told, in regards to certain other matters, of course. This is hardly the only complicated matter that I¡¯ve gotten involved with, and the moment that you realise what I¡¯ve been up to since I departed from the prison realm I mentioned, you should understand exactly what that is. Anyhow, the spatial realm exploded, as those do, and all but Yi Bai and Yi Jiazhi ¨C and me, obviously ¨C died. I was¡­ shaken, to put it mildly. To put it more accurately, I was completely broken by the events, to the point that I barely paid attention as I stumbled back to the district.¡±


    ¡°Was that when the fires began?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I came back, and suddenly, everyone¡¯s either dead or dying. I only stuck around for a brief time before the perpetrators found me. Have you heard of the Great Families yet?¡±


    ¡°I have heard of those. They are part of the reason that the Yi District got into a rather poor state, aren¡¯t they? The northern faction, Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters or whatever they are, got into a fight with them, and now I have to work down here instead of up there.¡±


    ¡°Very eloquent description.¡±


    ¡°Yours are worse, you know. I have no idea what actually happened to you on the expedition, other than that one of the team leaders ended up trying to kill you, then another tried to kill everyone, and then almost succeeded. In comparison, I think that I¡¯ve presented everything I had to say quite clearly and concisely.¡±


    ¡°Probably, but if I was to explain everything, I¡¯d need to give you a lengthy tome filled to the brim with words and explanations that still wouldn¡¯t make much sense to you, so this is simpler,¡± Wei Yi admitted, ¡°Now, it was the Great Families, or, more precisely, the Great Yi Family, that had decided to come after me, because it turns out that one of my parents, my mother, was actually part of their family, and would have participated in their ritual to off most of their children and feed their planar anchors into a single pair to make them significantly more powerful than any usual cultivator with a single anchor. Yes, I am telling the truth, stop looking at me like that.¡±


    ¡°No, I believe you, it just sounds¡­ absurd. Also, that was one of the longest sentences I¡¯ve heard in a while.¡±


    ¡°So, they tracked me down, killed most of the people I had interacted within in that time, and then tried to kill me, only for Yi Yaling to come out to save me. I don¡¯t have a clue what made her think that she could pull it off, as her cultivation realm was lower than mine and her technique was¡­ semi-complete, to put it simply, as she had been inspired by one of my own creations. However, her death drove me to use everything I had, leading to one of the Greats suffering an injury.¡±


    ¡°Did you manage to cut off their arm?¡±


    ¡°No, I scratched a cheek. It was rather disappointing, really, but it pissed them off to such an extent that they shoved me into a prison realm, where time was faster relative to the Planar Continents, but where time in the Planar Continents was slower relative to the prison realm.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that seems like how time would work. I know I don¡¯t get quite a few higher concepts, but that is rather straightforward.¡±


    ¡°And yet, it is very easy to make a mistake and accidentally invert the words without meaning to. I¡¯ve come across more than enough people that do so, and I am certain that I have messed up at least once,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ll skip over what happened there, but I decided that I couldn¡¯t really go by my old name any longer if the Yi District and the Yi family had no interest in protecting those bound by their familial rules. Hence, Wei Yi. I do still have the identity token, though I haven¡¯t really used it for anything¡­¡±


    She flipped her right hand and raised it slightly above the table, leaving her palm to face upwards, and willed the dormant energy within her body to emerge from the hand. It did so somewhat reluctantly, having been left untouched for so long, and seeped through her gauntlet to form into a token that seemed to defy the very nature of reality.


    Unlike most of the times that she had manifested it before, it was not made up of a particular element, nor was it breaking apart like it had before when she had attempted to transform the token into cosmic energy. Perhaps due to her current ability to stabilise energy in a solid state without the necessity to make use of some unique property of the array she had used to form the token in the first place, it could now display the full complexity of her cosmic energy without being compromised whatsoever, and it was certainly a wonder to behold. Countless nebulae, stars and principles compressed within a single uncertain mass that did not appear to exist within the same reality as the rest of her surroundings.


    ¡°Do I¡­ do I even want to guess what kind of energy that is?¡±


    ¡°Planar.¡±


    ¡°That does not answer anything. From what I know, there can be water, fire, metal, wood and earth-type energy, and there¡¯s also that lightning, which doesn¡¯t seem to fit¡­ Everything I know is nothing like reality, I¡¯m guessing?¡±


    ¡°No, you¡¯re spot on, as far as I understand it. Five elements can combine into pairs, producing lightning and the like, but adding more than two together doesn¡¯t work for whatever reason. There¡¯s also pure planar energy, without the touch of any element, and then there¡¯s the thing that I have. Technically, its everything and nothing at the same time, combining the overall power of everything without any of the downsides. It happens to be something that only I can replicate, and something that only I will ever be able to use, which is extremely convenient.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t say.¡±


    ¡°So, I went north, once I escaped, having met the mother of the Master of Yi City, learned that he was named Kong Shi Meng, and then started a faction called the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, named after myself.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    What appeared on her face was an expression containing the most confusion, shock, horror, amazement, terror, fear, uncertainty, dismay, astonishment, bewilderment, disbelief and other emotions that couldn¡¯t be summarised without the sentence becoming absolutely excessive in its repetition and intent.


    Fixing this with tea would be rather difficult, to put it one way, so she leaned forward again and tapped the point of the star metal claw on her index finger on the table. In itself, this action was nothing unusual, save for the design of her gauntlets, but when she applied the slightest semblance of her attempt at completing the Invader¡¯s Road, her Imitation Roar, she could touch another¡¯s mind without causing any significant harm. In her understanding, the worst thing that she could do was cause a momentary instance of memory loss, effectively allowing her to remove an instant from someone¡¯s mind if she so desired.


    For now, she did not, and her utilisation of the sound she extracted from the partial Invader¡¯s Roar had the intended effect. Yi Kun looked like she was slapped for a moment, save for the lack of obvious physical impact, but her expression returned to normal after a short while.


    ¡°Can we talk about what we love the most about women? It seems so much simpler and more fun.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that will get far. We cannot have particularly unique views on the matter, unless you have some very interesting fetishes ¨C or if I have some that I treat as normal ¨C and we will just end up making one another excessively focused on things that we will need to deal with on our own. Instead, there¡¯s something that I¡¯d like your help with, if you can.¡±


    ¡°What do you need? After everything that you were apparently involved with, I¡¯d give up a few of my current comforts just so that I don¡¯t feel like an asshole for not trying to help you more previously¡­¡±


    ¡°I am not going to ask something like that. Rather, I just want to find a way to chat with the local Patriarch, and while I don¡¯t expect you to have a direct contact with him, I am hoping that you have some knowledge of where he can be found, what kinds of things he would be interested in talking about, and how he could be convinced to let me in on a bit of their study of the souls,¡± she explained, not being surprised to find a similar expression of surprise upon her face as before.


    A moment of silence later, she sighed.


    ¡°Not within your abilities?¡±


    ¡°I think that she is simply surprised to find the Patriarch within her abode,¡± a voice prompted Wei Yi to turn her head, finding that the doorway, which was nearly at her back, was suddenly occupied by a figure in violet robes and with a violet hood casting his face in shadow, ¡°Am I interrupting?¡±


    ¡°You aren¡¯t using a technique, cultivation method, or physique. How are you invisible to me?¡±


    ¡°You should already have the answer to your question, Ascendant. We study the soul, and the soul has unique features that can affect the world around us.¡±


    ¡°Some kind of Hidden Soul, then?¡±


    ¡°If that is how you wish to label it, then yes. We have certain other names for the variations of souls that we end up invoking, but your naming is simpler, and more convenient for the conversation. As I see it, you have a unique soul of your own, do you not?¡±


    ¡°Something made me think that it would be suitable to call it the Assured Soul. It seems to have an effect of preventing various forms of mental influence from affecting me, although I don¡¯t think that I grasp even a hundredth of its overall potential,¡± Wei Yi answered truthfully, not only because she did wish to get an expert opinion on the subject, but also due to how little she imagined him being to do with that information.


    There was a great deal of benefit to learning certain mundane facts about others, whether one intended to fight them, negotiate with them, or even charm and seduce them, but the soul was one property that appeared to be incredibly difficult to act upon, for one reason or another. It appeared to have the ability to influence that which it inhabits, as the Hidden Soul demonstrated, and she could be sure that this was not an otherworldly property as she could perceive the Patriarch now that she was aware of his presence. There was none of the absolute invisibility under spiritual perception that she was accustomed to from any of her otherworldly gifts.


    On a different note, the Truth of the Universe, or the Mysterious Characters, were visible to her purely because of her ownership of the object, effectively fooling her spiritual perception into seeing the object. It was odd, but rather obvious, as she had never been able to understand the full nature of the countless shards of the Mysterious Characters, only ever seeing the surface.


    Back to the topic of souls, every little thing that the Patriarch did and said could help her to gain more information about them, even if he did not wish to give anything away.


    ¡°Assured Soul¡­ We might have some idea of what you mean, but I would need to request the archivists to browse through our studies in order to narrow down the possibilities. Before then, you wished to obtain some of our knowledge. Is there something in particular that you wish to do with it, or do you merely pursue information for its own sake? I can appreciate both attitudes, but the former might allow the two of us to help one another.¡±


    ¡°Naturally, I want the information itself, but if you are able to somehow influence my soul, then I would very much be interested in exploring that possibility. That being said, I suspect that you don¡¯t intend to include everyone in this discussion, right?¡±


    ¡°No. I shall step outside, and you may finish the conversation. There is something that might just be perfectly suited for you, but it will require just a moment of preparation.¡±


    He did as he said he would, stepping out and sitting down at a seat not far away from the building that Yi Kun owned. Although the Ascendant had lost sight of him now, she was now aware of his existence, and made sure to perfectly monitor the Patriarch just in case he tried anything strange. Plenty of people were capable of appearing decent enough, but when they stepped out of sight, they might attempt to do something that she would not appreciate. She had the mental capacity to spare, so she would not forget to use it.


    ¡°Eh¡­ I guess you really were telling the truth about the whole Ascendant thing¡­ why did you call yourself that, anyway? Seems arbitrary, and, from what I recall of your style, to not fit with it all that well.¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t, more so than you might imagine, actually. That being said, with the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique, what else am I supposed to call myself? It was before I got my foundation in the Dao of Law, if you have even the slightest notion of what that even means, so I couldn¡¯t have called myself the¡­ Adjudicator? That sounds decent enough, actually. Maybe once this is all done¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered to herself, putting the idea aside for now, ¡°Unless I get forced out of the district right away, I will try to speak with you again once I¡¯m done with the Patriarch. When I return to the north, to my territory, I could bring you along when I next return here.¡±


    ¡°Along to one of the northern districts? I don¡¯t know, the heat there¡­ Let¡¯s just wait and see what happens. I¡¯m not opposed to it, but I will have to consider it.¡±


    The Ascendant nodded, getting up, dissipating the identity token and the cup of energy alike, leaving the building as if she had never been there. For now, the only mark that she had left was a slight scratch on the table, left by the tip of a star metal claw, even despite her attempts to avoid something of the sort.

 V5C40: Awakening the Soul, Part 1

    ¡°Were you expecting me, or did you just walk through the district and come across me by accident?¡± Wei Yi asked, walking alongside the Patriarch through a relatively empty street.


    ¡°With the things that had occurred in the Gang District, I would have been foolish to not expect your arrival. Combined with the knowledge obtained on your general identity, I had a vague idea of your appearance and behaviour, and I knew where you would come from. Using all of that, predicting where you might be, finding your traces, then tracking you to your meeting with an old friend was not difficult at all,¡± the Xin Patriarch answered.


    ¡°Oh, so this district does know about me? Did you catch some images of me being displayed before a crowd in the Chu District?¡±


    ¡°They did spread to this district, but I have advised those working under me to not allow them to spread further. It was not a particularly good idea to anger the Greats, but they were fortunately distracted soon enough, and so they didn¡¯t bother pursuing the matter. You had dealt them a great blow, after all,¡± he said, ¡°It likely did a great deal to ensure that our side did nothing, too.¡±


    ¡°Have the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters begun to raid districts?¡±


    ¡°No, but the majority of the districts have done the same. With the degree of anger your Arbiters have regarding the Great Families, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if attacks had occurred in any other case. Do you disagree?¡±


    ¡°As a matter of fact, I do, and I do so quite significantly. The people of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters aren¡¯t perfect, of course, as I don¡¯t exactly have the luxury of being picky with who I involve in the matter. That being said, they have enough sense to understand the current situation, and not to attack the districts that have been forced under the control of the Greats, who abuse their position and power acquired through despicable means that have never been released to the world at large, and if they do not, I would very much like to inform them of the fact that they are acting like complete idiots. That being said, I still doubt there are any people like this in my Arbiters.¡±


    The Xin Patriarch looked at her quietly for a few moments, then turned away, taking a calm breath while he seemed to ponder something.


    ¡°You have more trust in your faction than I would have assumed.¡±


    ¡°Did you think that I distrusted them all? Why would you ever assume that? I¡¯ve revealed nearly everything to them and the rest of the district, including the true name of the Master of Yi City, a thing that could have earned me a great deal had I just kept it to myself and sold the information to those who would want it most.¡±


    ¡°Your technique is the reason. Nobody that I know of in your faction has ever used anything resembling the celestial energy that you cultivate.¡±


    ¡°In that case, you must not have been paying attention to our chat for as long as I had feared. As I had told my friend, I am literally the only one capable of cultivating the Ascendant¡¯s Path, and I am the only one who can use the precursor to it, the Truth of the Universe or the Mysterious Character techniques,¡± she answered, ¡°Before you ask, it is not because of a physique, soul ¨C that I know of, at least ¨C bloodline or anything else like it. Rather, I have a unique characteristic that allows me to use all of the elements, and the cosmic energy that you see is the result of the amalgamation.¡±


    ¡°Ah, if that is the case, then I suppose I understand. To believe you is rather difficult, but I shall put my trust in you simply due to our potential friendly relationship. We should be able to trust one another, after all, since we will be interacting with souls.¡±


    ¡°I have no reason to lie to you. With the amount of information I do have, if I want to keep something hidden, the easiest thing to do is reveal a dozen other truths instead. This is very much what I intend to do the moment that I am able to address the world at large with my own words, sharing countless techniques while avoiding those that would allow certain unique individuals to greatly destabilise the growth and balance that I wish to attain,¡± the Ascendant explained, ¡°After all, revealing even half of the techniques I have will be enough for the world to pour over them for decades to come without completely understanding everything that I¡¯ve been able to add or create.¡±


    ¡°Very well, the honesty will be taken as such. Please do not give me any reason to distrust you, or else it will be incredibly difficult for you to regain my trust.¡±


    Wei Yi raised an eyebrow, ¡°Now I feel like I¡¯ve taken Yi Kun¡¯s place. There is no good reason for you to explain anything basic to me, as it will neither distract me from paying attention to your actions and the path that we take to the Ancestral Hall, nor will it benefit me in the slightest, as I know the basic definitions of words, among other things.¡±


    The Patriarch shrugged, not offer even the faintest glimpse of an explanation as he paused before the doors to their destination. They had spoken for a while, and made use of the speed that was accessible to those above the fourth realm, allowing them to reach the Ancestral Hall rather quickly. As some examples of the traditional structure were, this one was shut to the public, allowing access only to the district¡¯s leaders, or those of some significance to it, meaning that the Xin Patriarch was required to open it for her.


    He did so by pressing his hands together, palms and fingers mirroring one another, and released what appeared to be his aura. In normal circumstances, no aura could cause any significant changes, and required very specific materials and objects to even measure it.


    In his case, however, a notable grey light shone through, flying out of his body and into the large double doors standing in their way, filling many of the shallow channels within the doors and turning them from a pure black to an almost marbled shade. From this alone, she could comprehend that there was one possibility that was likely to be true in the district of souls, which was that the Patriarch had made use of his particular Hidden Soul through the emanation of aura.


    Thus, it also meant that it was possible for one¡¯s aura to carry the property of their souls, which might also indicate that the nature of aura was not generated purely by one¡¯s energy, but instead by their soul, amplified by the nature of their planar energy. This also indicated that spiritual perception could be influenced to some extent by the soul, as spiritual perception and aura alike were theoretically intrinsic properties of people in the world, merely being brought into reality via the support of planar energy cultivation.


    ¡®If I am correct, then it might be possible to combine spiritual perception with my soul, thus resulting in imperceptible perception that is assured, thus making it more difficult for it to be blocked¡­¡¯


    She would not test her hypothesis here and now, mostly due to not being certain how to invoke the power of her soul while projecting any other type of force, but also because she was concerned that the Patriarch of the Xin District would be able to perceive it and learn more about her than she was willing to provide. After all, beside a basic property of a soul, she understood nothing about it.


    For all she knew, all human memories, emotions and sensations were contained within the soul and its energy, and could be read so long as one knew how to do so. At this point, the Xin Patriarch was the most likely to know how to do this, roughly tied with the Ling Patriarch so long as he was as studious as his counterpart, and performing this attempt within the range of his spiritual perception would just be asking for trouble. She did not consider this to be a likely possibility, as it would be rather absurd according to her current comprehension of the soul, but it was still one.


    ¡®If the soul can affect certain other properties and forms of energy, it might explain why some have unique characteristics that aren¡¯t tied to physiques, and why the spiritual perception of some can be abnormally powerful in comparison to their peers. There aren¡¯t many records of such things, but there are enough to make it clear that this cannot be pinned down to accidental spiritual will cultivation to the peak of the first realm, the only one that does not require an additional set of meridians.¡¯


    The doors opened, and Wei Yi proceeded after the Patriarch into the Ancestral Hall. They came to a grand set of steps down into the ground, located right within the centre of the structure, and proceeded down it.


    Quickly, the straight staircase turned to the left, and began to spiral down and down until they reached another set of doors, having passed multiple floors on the way and ignored them.


    This set of doors needed to be opened via the same method, although it seemed to take him quite a while in order to do so in comparison to the first pair of doors. It was clear that the doors were hiding something of value as a result, and when the doors finally opened, she was able to confirm this without a shadow of a doubt, whereas her spiritual perception was previously obscured by the material.


    Before her was an enormous circular chamber, with a large ring around the inside that stood above the rest of the chamber, which descended down in a series of rings that each had a similar thickness but got progressively smaller as they got closer to the centre. Finally, the middle was a slightly larger circle, although the rest matched the rings. They were akin to a set of steps, each ring being two metres above the other, ending sharply with a sheer edge at the inside and a flat wall at the outside, with the only exception being a set of steps that progressed from the doorway to the middle of the chamber, branching off at the outer edge to provide access to the outermost ring.


    Each one was five metres in length between the inner and outer edge, with the middle being seven metres in diameter, and each one was filled with a series of inscriptions, array nodes, and at least three large pillars on each ring. The pillars did not align with any clear pattern, instead resembling the stars that one might find within a constellation and then ascribe meaning to in an attempt at divination that lacked much practical use.


    Most of the pillars were around three and four metres in diameter, and they were mostly opaque due to numerous layers of metal that was akin to either bronze or gold in appearance overlapping.


    All of the chamber was made up of these types of metal, using the gold-like material at the very edges of the rings and bronze-like material for the rest of the floor and walls. All of the material, whether within the pillars or on the floor, was complete with numerous small inscription channels on the surface.


    The innermost and the outermost ring were the only two segments lacking the pillars, and they were also the most distinct. As the outermost ring had a number of observation positions, some of which were occupied at the moment, it lacked any of the larger arrays used at the other rings. Meanwhile, the innermost circle had an area within which a person could stand, surrounded by several layers of array nodes with a clear intent to target that individual. Most of the arrays around the middle also looked to be targeting either it or the pillars on their level.


    ¡°This is quite a¡­ thing you¡¯ve got going on here. I think I am able to understand what most of these do ¨C those arrays channel energy, those inscriptions hold it, that one projects it, and so on ¨C but I cannot say that I fully understand the purpose. Something to do with the soul, I presume?¡±


    ¡°It is the latest project of the Xin family. Here, we seek to do what has been thought impossible for so long ¨C stimulate the soul¡¯s potential manually. Usually, to attain an attribute of the soul, certain unique and random circumstances need to take place, but with this, we might be able to overcome it and allow people to reach greater heights with their souls with far less risk,¡± the Xin Patriarch explained to her while bringing her onto the observation ring, ¡°Through a complex resonance of energy and other effects, primarily the objects within the focusing pillars, we believe that we can target the soul directly, unlike all of our previous attempts.¡±


    ¡°In the pillars¡­¡± Wei Yi began, trying to search through them with spiritual perception, only to pause and give the Patriarch a concerned look, ¡°Explain. Right now.¡±


    ¡°With the Dimensional Domain that you have started, we expected that you would recognise this. You call the objects otherworldly gifts, if our information is correct. Most of these were gathered over the years, but a few came from our ancestor. It is believed that they were an otherworldly demon, although that fact is one of the few that we can even attempt to guess at regarding them. Our records are limited.¡±


    ¡°So you have gathered a whole bunch of otherworldly gifts and are using them to affect the soul?¡±


    ¡°We are making use of their power, yes. We have succeeded in doing this with the individual otherworldly gifts, and we have gone to great lengths to verify the safety of the process. If this is what concerns you, then do not worry.¡±


    ¡°Theoretically, with something called an Assured Soul, I should be relatively safe, but I would still say that this is an enormous risk. Is the soul not a very significant aspect of the human body and mind? Are you certain that exposing it to the very items that drive so many otherworldly demons insane, mostly due to the ability of the azure lights within to completely overwhelm the Laws of the Planar Continents but dangerous even without them, is in any way wise when interacting with something so vital to the human body?¡±


    ¡°You consider this to be such a major threat?¡±


    ¡°Of course I do. Whatever is the case with the otherworldly gifts, whether there is a single place of origin or a million that end up functioning in similar manners, all including the same kind of azure light, at least as far as I¡¯ve been able to observe, they all influence the mind. They all use properties of other worlds, those that cannot apply to our own, nor in full, anyway. Those that use them almost always go mad, and those that don¡¯t rarely end up in a good state. This includes Kong Shi Meng.¡±


    ¡°Kong¡­ Shi¡­ Meng¡­ He is an otherworldly demon? What? How could this possibly be true? How could he¡­¡±


    ¡°Ask yourself why he managed to become so powerful, so quickly, using a technique unknown to any, mastering countless techniques, creating many impressive structures and artefacts within just a few short years ¨C relatively speaking to most cultivators. I make use of certain advantages too, with all of them coming together in a way that has allowed me to get this far.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Let us return to the previous topic.¡±


    ¡°Sure. Anyway, all of these otherworldly gifts need to be used extremely ¨C and I mean this ¨C carefully, ideally after you¡¯ve given me the chance to confirm that they¡¯re clean of the azure lights. Also, how did none of them attach themselves to you? This has happened every time I observed an unowned gift.¡±


    ¡°How many have you observed? Both of us are likely to benefit from the information that the other has, after all.¡±


    ¡°I have personally witnessed an otherworldly gift entering a person¡¯s body upon the death of the previous owner and the disappearance of the azure light within due to my interaction a total of five times, I believe. Technically, six, but that was a bit of an exceptional case, so I¡¯m not sure it counts,¡± Wei Yi mentioned the Mask of Yama without explicitly describing it, as it remained somewhat hidden from the world and could thus benefit her later, ¡°All of those times, the otherworldly gift simply poured into the person that next touched it.¡±


    ¡°Then, it may be a good thing that we have avoided interacting with a single confirmed otherworldly gift using our bodies, instead employing a variety of means to move them and place them safely within a container, such as the pillars that you see here.  However, if that works, then we should be able to ensure that any excess influence of the otherworldly gifts does not leak out.¡±


    Wei Yi sighed, ¡°Perhaps you do have that ability. I will still confirm that no azure lights remain.¡±


    With the familiarity that she had with otherworldly gifts, demons, and other unusual matters, the Xin Patriarch saw no reason at all to refuse. If she wanted to steal the gifts, she would put herself at risk ¨C that was how he saw it, at least ¨C and would lose the opportunity to empower her own soul.


    The nature of her soul was unclear, both to her and the Xin Patriarch, as he had not yet received the information that he had requested from his subordinate. As such, it was hard to be sure of the exact advantage that it could offer if there was even room for the strengthening of the attribute that it possessed. With what she had seen of the Xin Patriarch¡¯s soul, she was not likely to give up the possibility of attaining something as extreme as practical invisibility before most experts before they became alerted to her presence through some other method, whether it was using their eyesight, ears, or the reports of others.


    She descended down the first few steps to the second ring from the outside, stepping carefully on the metallic material to avoid affecting any of the array nodes or the inscription channels. One of the pillars containing an otherworldly gift was located only a few steps away, and she was able to come into direct contact with one quickly enough, holding out her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow.


    Her energy could phase through the material, but she did not go too far, heading only to the very edge of the innermost layer, beyond which the gift was located, being held up above the floor with a number of methods.


    ¡®Now, provided that there is an azure light in that thing, I should be able to remove it by stimulating the Truth of the Universe¡­ Hm. I don¡¯t feel anything in here, nor does the Truth of the Universe, I think,¡¯ Wei Yi brought her Arm away and attempted to use her other hand instead, just to confirm that there was no difference in response, ¡°This one seems to be clean of an azure light, although I could be failing to detect one. Are there records of capturing any of these otherworldly gifts, or is there nothing for me to be able to determine whether I am the one in the wrong here?¡±


    ¡°There are some records, but out of those I have studied, these otherworldly objects did not appear to release any kind of azure light. This might be an oversight on the part of the archivists, or perhaps they did not see anything at all, and yet this light was present somewhere. Will you need to inspect every otherworldly gift, then?¡±


    ¡°I will, but I cannot even be sure that my method is properly applying. Furthermore, if I attempt to use another, more reliable method, I might accidentally damage the otherworldly gifts themselves. This would not be ideal,¡± she admitted, ¡°Furthermore, if they can only come together and function to affect the soul with the azure lights inside of them, then this whole thing will be completely broken until the eighth realm becomes accessible to us all.¡±


    Her other method, that of the Purifier¡¯s Seal, required her to partially damage whatever she wanted to use it on, find the spot in which the azure light existed, and also to accurately figure out an identifier that only applies to it and nothing else within the otherworldly gift. This would be rather difficult when she has no idea what any of the gifts do, as even the Xin family appeared to have limited knowledge in this regard, and so they would share the characteristics of being from another world, containing some degree of power, and possessing properties that she did not fully understand. That was all that she could really draw upon.


    It would not be good enough for the Purifier¡¯s Seal, and so she had to use only the means available to her via the Truth of the Universe. This did not usually function on azure lights that existed within otherworldly demons and their otherworldly gifts, but she had not had too many opportunities to make use of the Truth of the Universe¡¯s array against an unowned gift, making any guessing difficult.


    Going from otherworldly gift to otherworldly gift, she tested the response of the Truth of the Universe to the contents of the metal pillars, finding that none of them appeared to have an azure light within them that she was able to purge.


    Whether this was due to them being absent from the otherworldly gifts, she couldn¡¯t be sure, but she was actually hoping that she was only unable to detect the azure lights. The reason for this odd view, one that would put her and the others at risk, was that the azure lights were not usually prone to leaving their otherworldly gift around without someone to hold onto it, and the light itself. If they were all clean, then it would somehow mean that the people of the Xin District had somehow removed the azure lights, or managed to obtain countless otherworldly gifts of incredible power without the lights and without any others wishing to grab onto the items. It would indicate something very curious, something that might very well be a far more dangerous situation than azure lights being present.


    Just to name an example, if the Xin District¡¯s people were fully capable of eliminating azure lights on their own, then it would indicate that they possess a degree of power that greatly surpasses even the dedicated energy of the Truth of the Universe. After all, that otherworldly gift only has the power to convince the azure lights to return to wherever they came from, and even that requires direct access to them. For a force of the world to directly influence the lights would indicate something very strange.


    She would, technically, be safer if the azure lights were still present, as they were not absolutely corrupting. They usually influenced the user only, which would mean that she would be relatively safe.


    ¡°You¡¯ve been unable to find anything?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the case, at least unless you will allow me to make use of certain means that have the chance to damage your gathered collection. I cannot guarantee success even if you do, though, so unless you do not require the full power of these otherworldly gifts ¨C which might be granted by the very azure lights that I am attempting to remove, actually ¨C it might be better to simply risk it.¡±


    ¡°Is this not in disagreement with your previous stance? With the potential danger posed by the otherworldly gifts, to suddenly be so certain after your method has apparently failed, or has had a chance of failing¡­¡±


    ¡°There are two reasons. The first is that I am rather curious to see the results of your creation, as it is rather difficult to imagine exactly how all of this will impact a soul, especially my own. The second is that the azure light poses the most threat to the user of the otherworldly gift. Provided that I am not the one using it, or, more precisely, that the gift is not inhabiting my body, it is likely that the overall influence will be reduced, which should make it safe enough to use this once even if all of the otherworldly gifts are inhabited by an azure light.¡±


    Although the Xin Patriarch had an eyebrow slightly raised, he shrugged and waved her towards the centre of the chamber, ¡°Very well, if you are agreeing to the experiment, then I would like to begin.¡±


    ¡°As would I. What exactly do I need to do?¡±


    ¡°Nothing in particular. Energy will be directed towards you, and you should attempt to bring out your soul to make it take in the most of that energy. The rest will act as planar energy, effectively, adding to your cultivation, but that should permit the majority to act upon the soul and imbue it with some fraction of the whole.¡±


    The plan was rather simplistic in nature, which did not make her too confident in the success of the enormous creation, but the enormous combination of array and inscription was completely sufficient to overcome that. Even if the creators of something weren¡¯t confident in their creation, she was able to understand many of the individual components and could identify that they were constructed with incredible prowess and quality. Provided that the theory made some sense, which was possible as the soul had to be somewhere within the human body, the outcome should be vaguely aligned with their current expectations.


    She headed to the middle, but before taking the last step she turned to the Xin Patriarch, who had begun walking over to a point on the outermost observation ring.


    ¡°Is there an issue, Ascendant?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure how much energy you¡¯re ready to pump into this, and into the experiment as a whole, but my cultivation can be rather demanding. Unless you¡¯re ready to provide a sufficient amount to me, I suspect that I could very well drain everything without you having even the slightest possibility of reaching my soul.¡±


    ¡°We will accept whatever costs we may endure, so long as you provide us with the results of our experiment.¡±


    ¡°Sure. Two more things, then. If something strange occurs, whether it is when I¡¯m dealing with the azure lights that could emerge, or taking in the effect on my soul, none of you are permitted to share anything without my permission. Understood?¡±


    ¡°Is there a chance of something being significant?¡±


    ¡°Why the fuck are you asking something this obvious? I had told you not long ago that there is plenty that I can freely share, so if I deliberately ask you not to do so, why would I ever do so with anything that is insignificant?¡± Wei Yi asked, not holding back with the derision in her tone, ¡°Normally, I¡¯d control myself here, but we are about to mess with some otherworldly gifts and attempt to strengthen my very soul. I think it is significant for everything among us to be entirely clear. So, last thing ¨C are my clothes going to survive this?¡±


    ¡°Theoretically, there should be no damage to any of the clothing on your body from affecting the soul, but the sheer quantity of energy-¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll change, then. Just get the thing prepared, don¡¯t bother with me.¡±

 V5C41: Awakening the Soul, Part 2

    Even if someone was really interested in viewing her body naked, as if the images that had spread from the Chu District weren¡¯t enough for them, the Ascendant changed within a matter of seconds, removing her clothing and tossing it all into the House of Gold, from which she then took out a few spare clothes that she had stolen from Fu Zan when he hadn¡¯t been paying attention.


    Given that she was not intending to keep her spare clothing, even if it wasn¡¯t destroyed in the process, she did not opt to take advantage of her new ability to actually put things on without struggling for hours in the process. She chose a loose robe ¨C something referred to as a bathrobe by the otherworldly demon ¨C which had long, loose sleeves and a length of cloth that she tied at the front to keep the robe together. She didn¡¯t have much of a problem with the people present witnessing her naked skin, but there was no point in showing herself off.


    Most of the people in the room were men, so she was hardly interested in charming any of them, nor did she imagine that the women present would be interested or available after the experiment. Far more importantly, she wasn¡¯t in the mood after having gotten things out of her system last district.


    With the potential speed that she could get through some of the next districts, she might even get to the Yi City Web connected territory before her body has the chance to accumulate any amount of desire. She wasn¡¯t expecting for this to occur given the incredible delay posed by the Bao District, one that could, in theory, occur many times over in the Shun, Wu and Ze Districts, but she was also not a beast that had fallen to her primal desires. Even though the second newest appendage on her body, if one counted the Arm, did manage to amplify her lust, it was less and less prominent due to the rapidly growing killing intent raging throughout her system.


    ¡°So, are you lot ready yet?¡± she asked, stepping onto the central platform.


    ¡°There are a few more matters to look at, a few more checks, but that will only take a few more seconds¡­ Ah, we are done now. Please remain still,¡± the Xin Patriarch said, ¡°If that arm functions sufficiently alike to one made of flesh and blood, you may maintain it, otherwise it might be best to temporarily lose it.¡±


    ¡°The Arm of Slaughtering Shadow is as close to a living limb as it can be. It circulates all of my energy, it can come into contact with things, and requires no active maintenance. It¡¯ll stay.¡±


    On the observation ring, the Patriarch nodded and communicated with his people via his energy, quickly delivering instructions while also keeping an eye on Wei Yi. His planar cultivation was partially necessary to activate some of the arrays and inscriptions, which, despite having stored up a decent supply of power, was only going to be sufficient to drive the great structure for a brief while. The density of planar energy in the world was still lacking, relative to the amount needed.


    Technically, Wei Yi herself could power the structure for a significantly longer time, with her total supply of energy vastly exceeding that of any Patriarch that she had met, especially if all five cultivation pathways were to be considered, but it would be somewhat difficult to then apply that same energy at herself in the same way as completely unrelated energy. It was similar to how she could circulate all of her forms of energy throughout her body with ease, but if she shoved it into the body of someone else forcefully, it would not be quite as smooth or seamless, even if it was completely unchanged by the change in vessel. If it behaved in an identical manner, it would rapidly remake and reinforce the body it entered, but with the sheer power of her cosmic energy, this would not be smooth when acting upon someone with a far, far weaker physique.


    Similarly, their energy wouldn¡¯t behave the same in her body, as she might easily be able to ignore any passive effects that it possesses due to her built up endurance to such effects. All of this would be problematic if a very specific effect was required from a particular interaction, so she wasn¡¯t able to provide her own power to the great structure without changing the dynamic.


    That being said, she did not expect this to be the only instance of her using the principles locked within this structure. All otherworldly gifts perform certain functions, and not all were entirely out of her reach, so with the excess energy that she possessed, she could attempt to duplicate the results of the process by constructing everything out of her own cosmic energy. She had already done this with the bloodline refinement technique that she had created, and she was sure that if the soul was an aspect of the Planar Continents, she could influence it without the power of another world.


    First, though, she would need to understand exactly what the structure did, how it did this, and what parts were most significant, all of which she would learn through its activation and effect upon her. For now, she had to trust the experts.


    The dark energy of the Xin Patriarch sunk into the ground and flooded the many open channels in the metal floor, some even soaring up through the walls and into the ceiling, where a further number of channels were placed. Plenty of it filled the outer portions of the pillars, prompting the many portions to shift and jitter, slowly aligning into a different arrangement that continued to shift, and do so more quickly as time went on, taking a minute to accelerate fully.


    It was after that minute passed that the many inscriptions and arrays truly ignited, surging light bursting through the channels and seemingly modifying the appearance of the metal itself, transforming it into a shining and golden surface that seemed to resemble molten metal, although the state of the floors shouldn¡¯t have changed.


    The biggest change came after that, even if one was to include the visual transformation of the entire chamber. First, every single one of the inner rings ¨C effectively meaning all but the outer observatory ring, which was separate from the rest of the arrangement and would not be included in any of the following descriptions ¨C shook and slowly began to move, with certain sides of the rings rising up while the opposite sides descended. Each of them appeared to shift on an unseen axis, being limited in their rotation by the pillars containing the otherworldly gifts, meaning that they essentially wobbled in a circle, spinning around without being able to rotate in full.


    Second was the sheer wave of power that seemed to flood out of the metal pillars, seeping past the ever-shifting metal pillars and thus being transformed into sporadic flashes of energy.


    They raced towards the Ascendant, some passing through the wobbling rings and the others going through entirely untouched, all landing upon her within the first few seconds of activation and adding up to a total of energy that was akin to the usual combined total of a seventh realm cultivator¡¯s planar pool. It enveloped her body and pierced the robes she had put on moments prior, keeping them intact for now.


    Although this alone was sufficient for her to feel her cultivation rising, slowly but certainly, progressing towards the second stage at a far superior speed to what she might be able to accomplish without some other exceptional method, this wasn¡¯t enough to impress her nor to affect her soul. She was attempting to bring it out as much as she could, but with something that she had not used due to a lack of sufficient understanding, it was rather difficult for her to know exactly how to do this. To name an example that she was incredibly familiar with, thanks to having witnessed it herself a number of times, if someone with no experience of using planar energy was told to do so, they might have some vague notion of the process, but it was far, far more likely that they would blunder and attempt to use a completely wrong approach to this.


    Most of the otherworldly demons seemed to have been endowed with some natural knowledge of planar energy to allow them to have a better starting point than an infant, but she did not have the same advantage with the art of using one¡¯s soul.


    What she did have was everything that she could siphon from the Ancestral Hall of the Xin family while she was passing through, even though the Xin Patriarch likely had no clue that she had scanned anywhere near as many tomes, ancient slates and scrolls as he led her through to this large chamber. While standing around, examining the otherworldly gifts, and changing, she had categorised everything she had scanned in, and now that she stood in the centre, she had completed the process and was now able to go through the knowledge she had obtained.


    Aside from the many cultivation techniques and combat methods, there weren¡¯t as many soul-oriented matters as she¡¯d like. For the district of souls, it was distinctly lacking.


    What was there, however, appeared to be of great value on first glance. Most things were kept rather brief and organised in a manner that was rarely seen in many other districts, and so the value of every single word was almost twice as great as that of an ancient tome she had salvaged from the Kong District, back when she had visited it.


    Thus, with the speed at which her mind functioned, she was able to sort out a basic principle from the first few dozen soul-oriented manuals: it was not like planar energy, at least not in the way that it was utilised. In the first place, the way that planar energy was used was difficult to describe, as it was akin to having an arm appear out of nowhere, as it was both foreign and familiar to the people of the Planar Continents. Meanwhile, to use the soul would be like using planar energy for otherworldly demons with no intrinsic information of planar energy being given to them, meaning that it would be entirely different to using any limb that one naturally has knowledge of.


    In essence, to drive the soul, she needed to make use of an entirely new method.


    That was easier said than done, as one might obviously imagine. So long as one was asked to use something they already had, even if they weren¡¯t familiar with it, they could repeat past experiences to eventually figure it out. Meanwhile, when someone attempted to utilise a completely new, completely foreign element, something that had to be deliberately different, they would naturally struggle a great degree.


    Her first few attempts failed, meaning that the first few bursts of energy from the many pillars around her were only able to contribute to the growth of her cultivation. Since it was not as effective as she would have liked, she spent a little longer scanning the various new texts in her Ascendant¡¯s Library.


    Some moments later, she managed to find a method that appeared to have a good chance of working in her case. It was one intended for those that had chosen to cultivate via the absorption and refinement of artefacts into their body, a niche but effective method that could allow many to surpass certain physical weaknesses, granting some the ability to walk despite a crippling disability, among other abilities. This caused numerous issues for most cultivation methods and so no district had this as their focus, nor did any current Patriarchs, to her knowledge, cultivate such a method, so to see something like this within any documents was already rather fortunate, especially because it was intended for someone who completely relied on such a method.


    Now, she did not actually own any internal artefacts, nor had she ever used one for her cultivation. What she did possess was a number of dantian shards, carefully positioned within herself to manifest an array and a series of talismans that functioned as inferior searing marks ¨C and especially Astral Scars ¨C ones that coincided with the effects desired and the positioning needed.


    Whether this was a pure coincidence or if her chosen arrangement was rather beneficial in general, causing the intended layout for the method she found to match, this appeared to be exactly what she needed. This method would allow her to sense her soul more clearly, force it out of her mortal form, and grant her the opportunity to realise how this was performed so that she would be able to replicate this in time, depending on her own talent.


    Of all the things that could have been needed from her, talent was something she had plenty of.


    Thus, when a larger burst emerged from the pillars around her, surging in her direction, she naturally applied everything she could obtain from the techniques she had read so far, combining them with the energy and arrangement of her dantian shards, waiting for just the right timing.


    The very moment before the majority of the pulses of energy would collide with her form and be uselessly absorbed as an increase to her cultivation, she activated all of the talisman dantian shards at once, draining some of the energy that she had accumulated during the previous few moments as well as a number of her Astral Scars to intensify their effects.


    All of it came together to form a visible wave of the sheer rise in energy within her body, rippling out, shaking the various metal pillars around her, and even displacing the robes and hair of the Xin family members standing on the observatory ring. It did more damage to her spare clothing than anything so far, although she knew that the true cause of his was not the wave itself, as impressive as one might deem it to be when she had not truly released even a drop of energy from her body, but instead the faint but incredibly familiar sensation of something within herself that she had only sensed once before, in something that might as well have been purely illusory.


    What little she could observe about the soul so far led her to feeling a degree of surety, of certainty that she did often possess in life in general. It was akin to experiencing someone else¡¯s emotions, without the trap of being overwhelmed by them as it was still her own nature ¨C her own soul.


    It was touched only moments later by the vast energy flowing in from the outside, crashing upon her skin and the thing that appeared to be just a brief yet insurmountable distance below. She sensed the surety, befitting the title of Assured Soul, wavering for a moment, confronted with this foreign power, but that was where her own nature, separate from the exact attribute of her soul, came into play. Flowing out into her soul¡¯s surface, it merged with the attribute, releasing a faint vibration that shook her skin.


    She sensed the property of her soul trembling also, resonating with herself, with the energy outside, with the world. So many different feelings rushed into her head, but she could barely recognise any.


    Another wave came from the pillars, and she forced her soul out yet again, feeling a connection to it that she had not yet sensed before, noticing that it much easier to bring it out and that she recognised, albeit incredibly faintly and with far too little detail to understand in full, how she could pull it off on her own. It was akin to finding a piece of a puzzle, but only one of a hundred.


    ¡®I barely understand what my soul is doing right now, nor do I have any reason to believe that it will even be beneficial to me aside from the words of the Xin Patriarch, but if I am going to continue with this, I shall do this in full, without holding back, just as with my cultivation, my goals, and my overall path,¡¯ Wei Yi, standing within her Ascendant¡¯s Library while observing the state of her body and soul with care, thought, glancing back at the grey dust that had made its way to her mental domain, ¡®Really, I understand this even less, but it may be that I have some kind of affinity to the elements, or planar energy as a whole. It¡¯s one of the few ways that I could have possibly overcome the fragment of Primordial Earth, and since it¡¯s the most reasonable guess I have for now, I might as well attempt to make use of this property¡­¡¯


    Just as with otherworldly gifts, she neither trusted nor was particularly keen to utilise the power of a Primordial Deity, or what seemed to be that, at least, but she was going to use it in full this time.


    Out of all elements, she had only the grey dust, matching with the element of earth, but her cosmic energy represented her best version of all of the elements she had gathered so far, and her general ability should be good enough for her to achieve whatever effect this kind of pursuit would grant her. With all of her power exerted in one go, perhaps the sheer exceptional nature of the grey dust would be equalled by only her own effort.


    Hence, with the second wave that affected her soul, she mentally reached out for the grey dust and crushed it in the smoking Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, which now appeared in her mental domain as well as the physical one. At the same time, she unleashed the rest of her power.


    This time, the wave that followed was absolutely caused by the release of energy from her body, shredding the thin robe she wore in an instant and rushing past the many shifting metal pillars in the area around her. All of the pillars shook, the sheer quantity and density of her built up power almost breaking some of them in some small ways. The wobbling rings cracked and distorted, at least in part, and the outermost ring was shielded at the moment of collision by the planar energy stored within a hidden inscription on the walls of the chamber, preventing those with lower cultivation on the observation ring from being harmed by the excessive power.


    After she did this, she felt her soul practically outgrow her mortal form, if only for a breath, for a moment, for the briefest instant that could possibly exist within this world. Outside of her body, it could receive the full effect of the waves of influenced power, and it most certainly did so when the waves touched it.


    Her sensations from the first effective wave were intensified a thousand times with the second effective wave, an overwhelming sensation of confusion rushing into her mind. It spread to her body, to her energy, all five meridian networks that continually channelled energy throughout her form, and even shook the Ascendant¡¯s Library, almost throwing around some of the many tomes stored on its numerous shelves.


    With monumental effort, she was able to keep each one in their place, and then head outside of that small mental bubble and face the pressure of her soul, and the pressure upon it, directly. She stared upon it and forcefully endured the vast excess of power rushing towards her, utilising everything she still could without resorting to one of her five paths of cultivation, meaning primarily all of her Dao and natural principles that she had comprehended over her latter twenty years of life. Her expectation was that the Dao of Law would be the most useful at this moment, as it had proven to exist even in a simulation of a world without the benefit of the heaven¡¯s will, but when she had felt herself being drawn towards a particular Dao, she realised that the most aligned with her Assured Soul was, in fact, the Absolute Dao, which had almost five times as much effectiveness.


    In an instant, she was able to comprehend why, as this was hardly difficult to figure out. Something or someone certain was guaranteed to be, whether it is to be successful, victorious, tricked or anything else. However, even someone or something assured couldn¡¯t be absolute in whatever matter something is to be described as being certain in.


    In a slightly less opaque way of describing something, the only way to move forward was to overcome the natural capability of even the most certain plan to fail. She needed to make something absolute.


    To become absolute, one would need an incredible quantity of energy and resources. One would need an excessive wealth of knowledge and skills. The comprehension of Dao and principles that would require many decades to even dream of. Most importantly, however, to truly guarantee that something would be absolute, that something could not be circumvented in the slightest, that it would hold against all adversity and all pressure, one either needed to reach the very pinnacle of reality, either as an all-encompassing aspect or as something so basic and foundational that surpassing it was impossible, or to go around the Laws of the world itself so as to prevent any of its limitations from being significant.


    Wei Yi herself was, in her mind, a perfect example of the former attitude. She intended to master the Planar Continents, to comprehend the Dao of Law to an absolute peak, and to impose that which she imagines to be for the betterment of the whole world. Thus, to obtain this aspect, she needed to draw from none other than herself, although the many others around her that had done great things in different ways, such as the pulsing cultivation of Long Huang.


    Meanwhile, the path of otherworldly power was also being walked by her, albeit to a vastly smaller extent, but she could easily supplement all of that with the incredible quantity of otherworldly gifts that had somehow gathered around her, whether by design or by coincidence.


    When she knew what she needed, the world almost twisted itself to provide it for her growing soul. All of the artefacts and all of the energy that had been prepared for the process of awakening her soul were instantly activated in full, charging towards her and forcing the careful balance that she had found herself in and pushing it to the edge, then far past it, leaving her to fly in one direction and vastly passing any limits that she had previously seen before herself. A single breath left her in a place that she had ability to relate to her previous position, and her speed only seemed to increase with every single moment. She barely knew what the process she was enduring even was, for she could barely focus upon it as her soul transformed, but she could see her goal. It was always right before her.


    All that she needed was a single moment in which it was just a little closer than before, for her Arm was long and her fingers were fully capable of gripping and holding onto anything she needed, and in the moment, it was hard to imagine anything she needed more. She required the superior form of her soul, and if it took a subjective eternity, the cost might very well be worthwhile.


    Then, all of a sudden, her goal was right there, right in front of her, just the right distance away for her to take it. So, she did.


    The inner chamber of the Xin Ancestral Hall quaked as a vast shockwave, caused by a combination of factors rendering it as naught but a pulse of overwhelming light and darkness all at once, struck the walls and pillars within, many cracks appearing instantly within the walls and floors.


    This burst broke apart the delicate operation of the chamber, as half of the wobbling rings fractured completely, with the rest losing the integrity of their channels and having many of their array nodes displaced by the combination of the pure force, cracks forming in the rings themselves, or even the erosion of the material used to make up the rings and the things within and on them. A single moment was all that was needed for the incredible structure to be broken into many pieces, rendering it unusable for many years in normal circumstances.


    All that remained in full was the figure at the centre, who, for that moment, looked whole once more. Her entire form was shaded by a luminous bronze, covering up the smoking Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, coating her hair in an absolute glow and making her breasts look just a little larger than usual, although it affected her lower parts more.


    Whatever the others saw as a result of this, Wei Yi herself could sense the absolute nature that her soul had gained, as well as the growth in her own cultivation. The latter was more straightforward.


    Her current realm had been in the first stage for a while, and now it had climbed to the very beginning of the third, bringing with it two more perfected stages. Within her core, the thin strands from the Linked Channels realm had gained an additional four companions, each strand intertwining and forming a thicker, denser string, a kind of rope connecting the Eternal Monolith with the Astral Scars on the inner portion of the Subterranean Shell.


    Provided that this continued on similarly, she would gain up to ten such strands before she reached the half-way point of this realm. She wasn¡¯t sure what the effects of accumulating so many strands would be, but she had already noticed a faint crimson becoming stronger within the depths of her cosmic energy. Most of the perfected realms bestowed upon her a fundamentally different version of things that many other cultivators acquired in their own cultivation, but she wasn¡¯t sure what could possibly happen to the fundamental nature of her planar energy, as it usually remained roughly the same for every single realm, with the minor exception of changing states from gaseous to crystalline ¨C in her case.


    Meanwhile, her Absolute Soul was far more obvious to her own senses than her previous Assured Soul, both due to the change in its nature and the vast quantity of energy that still surged through it, dissipating into her own body and the world around her slowly, while the rest was still being digested by it. It was hard to figure out how to use it, even now, but she was able to control it just a little.


    This breakthrough did appear to affect all of the dantian shards within her system, including those that she had not made use of, but it looked like none of it was permanently harmful to her, nor temporarily inconvenient. She had not used them for some time due to a number of flaws within her methods, and the decline in the effectiveness of the array shards and talisman shards, so even if this connection to her soul rendered them completely unusable, it wouldn¡¯t be particularly harmful to her anyway.


    With a moment of effort and a bit of guessing, she was able to prompt her soul to recede into her body, and instantly felt significantly more comfortable, with every aspect of herself stabilising as a result.


    ¡®It seems like the soul isn¡¯t quite as freely usable in combat as any kind of energy, especially since it doesn¡¯t quite seem to be usable in the same ways as my other cultivation paths,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, glancing at both hands, one of flesh and another of smoking killing intent, and feeling the Absolute Soul within, ¡®Presumably, simply forcing the soul into spiritual perception won¡¯t work, but if I can grab onto the attribute or the aura of it, the same one released by the Xin Patriarch, I should be able to achieve an imperceptible yet absolute spiritual perception.¡¯


    She lowered her hands and looked towards the observatory ring, towards the entrance to the chamber where she saw the majority of the observation crew standing on the remnants of the observatory ring, with the Xin Patriarch keeping that part standing with a spherical barrier.


    ¡°I seem to have caused a bit of a mess. Need help with all of this?¡± she asked, finding that her words seemed to come out of her mouth just a little bit easier than ever before.


    ¡°Ascendant¡­ you have damaged a great deal, so your contributions will be appreciated only if they do not cause any further damage to the area. It has been hard enough as is to hide this place from the Great Families, and any further explosions of the sort shall be incredibly hard to divert their attention from,¡± the Patriarch said, lowering some of the barrier now that there was no active threat targeting them.


    The Ascendant nodded while holding out her arms and mentally reaching into the House of Gold. She willed the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival, her star metal scale bodysuit, the gauntlet for her right arm as well as the high heeled boots to emerge from within, using her spiritual will to briefly raise herself into the air.


    She wasn¡¯t confident that this would succeed, but, when all of those items appeared upon her body and did so exactly as she wanted them to ¨C save for the crimson robes, which were sufficiently loose for them to fall onto her shoulders ¨C she realised that the increased ease of activity extended to more than speech or movement. With the increased sensitivity of her own form, she was able to accurately position her body and her clothing in the right way to equip the latter without requiring anything more than some adjustment of her robes, which she could now do easily using her two hands.


    With that out of the way, she returned to her mental domain and took out the blueprint of the chamber that she had assembled before it had exploded.


    Most of the arrangement was incredibly complex, especially by the standards of many arrays that she had assembled. Perhaps the most comparable thing would be the Four Cardinal Beasts array, and she wasn¡¯t even the one assembling it within the Kong Prison Realm due to the sheer amount of mental capacity that was needed from the one attempting to reconstruct it from memory. However, most of the materials were still near their original locations, and she had many helpful abilities in this regard.


    After taking a breath, she shut her eyes and focused, spreading her will, conquered domain, the influence of the Elder Watcher and Shaper¡¯s Grasp to the entire chamber, grabbing onto every broken fragment and damaged region. Then, she got straight to work.

 V5C42: Departing the District

    Several hours later, the underground chamber was very close to the state that it had originally been in. Naturally, with that much to repair and recover, one could never fix everything within a day, not without a great number of great arts masters specialising in the field of arrays and inscriptions to recreate those, with a few blacksmiths to assist with repairing the materials and some pill refiners to keep the rest of them going with some energy pills and weaker medicines to prevent the mind and body from being exhausted.


    Wei Yi could stand in for all of those, but she did not have access to the herbs or the lifeforce needed to manufacture any pills, nor did she have quite as much knowledge in all of the relevant fields as she¡¯d like. In the past, she had been around the third and fourth realm, meaning that the attainment of five, six or even seven stars in the great arts was being used to its fullest.


    Now that she had the chance to grow quickly, her knowledge was becoming insufficient. She could utilise seven-star methods and techniques rather easily now, and methods suitable for the eighth realm could be applied with a little effort. However, she barely had any of those things, even with her constant attempts to harvest as many manuals, tomes, scrolls and information from jade slips as she was able. All of the districts that she had visited did their best to maintain as much knowledge as they could, of course, but the decline in even the most dedicated of districts, as well as the absence of eighth realm cultivators in the world as a whole, ensured that there was nobody to maintain anything relating to the matters of the eighth realm.


    Theoretically, only the Great Families would have anything of the sort. Some small and secret factions, like the Blood-tinged Church, might also have eighth realm materials, but they were too rare to seek out actively.


    All of this left her with only two methods of acquiring something suitable ¨C inventing it herself or defeating the Greats. It should not be necessary to clarify just how difficult it was to do the latter point, as she had not yet done it despite the great benefit that obtaining the archives of the Great Families would grant her. As for the matter of inventing her own methods, this took time and experience, ideally both of those with eighth realm objects, materials and artefacts.


    None of those were available, and her ideas were not yet good enough to reach that point, either.


    However, it was not all bad for the Xin District, as the resulting repair attempts had returned the structure to roughly ninety-five percent of the state that it had been when she had arrived, and she had even managed to introduce a few rather simple optimisations to the array nodes and channels that meant that they had ten percent more space to work with. In the end, once everything was corrected, they would be able to improve their arrangement without too many difficulties. The otherworldly gifts weren¡¯t affected by the damage, and with some care, they were returned to their pillars with ease.


    ¡°Would you be able to improve the materials using the Shaper¡¯s Grasp? Some of the sixth realm materials that we were forced to use are only barely able to endure the pressure,¡± the Xin Patriarch asked once they were finishing up with the repair effort.


    ¡°I have already done a little, but to do a complete replacement in a way that didn¡¯t make things worse for the entire structure would take quite a while longer. Unfortunately for the two of us, I do not have the time for that at the moment,¡± Wei Yi answered, ¡°I intend to return in a brief while, relatively speaking, so why don¡¯t we get onto that subject? Your spatial stabilisation point ¨C I¡¯d like it, right now.¡±


    The Patriarch glanced at the numerous rings that were being repaired as much as possible by the observers, then back to her, ¡°Very well, I can grant you this. I and my people understand your mission, so we will not force you to stay for long. However, there will be some time when you need to pause and linger somewhere, Ascendant. Whether you rule Yi City, or merely grasp onto a portion of it, there will be a place where you reside during your rule. I would like to know what you intend for that place to be.¡±


    ¡°Is that really such an interesting question to ask?¡±


    ¡°There are some, including me, that consider it to be very important. The Master of Yi City had naturally preferred the Yi District, according to the archives, but you¡­¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any particular plans in this regard. Even if I did, I don¡¯t think it is something that any of the Patriarchs should have a say in. Wherever I end up is my business only, whereas who ends up under my control is something that you can indeed contribute to. Given our current conversation, as well as the time I¡¯ve spent helping you, I assume that you are likely to, at least, not reject alliance with my Arbiters. Beyond that, we can argue and debate, of course.¡±


    ¡°We shall make of that what we can, Ascendant.¡±


    ¡°You better. I have no problem telling you that I don¡¯t think that Kong Shi Meng had made every wise decision he could, and I doubt that the current systems are perfect. Depending on how things work out, I may dismantle quite a few things in Yi City,¡± Wei Yi said, lowering her voice as to not clearly broadcast her voice to the others, ¡°Thing is, I have a bit of a vision for things. I don¡¯t want to get rid of you, nor any of your family specifically, but the family structure has flaws. The district structure, isolating certain skills and people away, has flaws. All of the world¡¯s techniques have flaws, actually. Point is, I don¡¯t know what you expect me to do, but be prepared for me to have a very different approach.¡±


    He did not look away this time, keeping his gaze on her for a long while, ¡°Very well. I shall keep that in mind.¡±


    With a few brief instructions to the other people present, he looked away and headed to the doorway, silently requesting her to follow him. As she did so, he sped up and quickly ascended half-way up to the surface, stepping aside to one of the rooms that seemed unassuming when compared to the soul ascension chamber. There, in the centre, was a spatial stabilisation point, standing out in the open.


    The Xin Patriarch waved towards it.


    ¡°There it is. From my understanding, the phenomenon in the Gang District was not caused by your acquisition of a point like this, so I will trust you to use it without further incident. After that, you may depart via the quick path, if you so choose. I will consider your words before your return.¡±


    ¡°I hope that this will not take too long, but if the War of Ascendancy does not end, then you will see my return, and the people of Yi City shall not forget my name within a thousand years.¡±


    With a simple click of her smoking claws on the Arm, she activated the spatial stabilisation point, feeling an ethereal connection to it form and mostly dissipate. She took a moment longer to permit her spiritual perception reach out further into the Ancestral Hall and grab up everything that she could find, then thanked the Patriarch and began her departure.


    She took the quick path at first, but the moment that the Patriarch was no longer observing her actively she used her fourth realm movement method and appeared in Yi Kun¡¯s residence.


    ¡°¡­ Ah, Yi- I mean, Wei Yi. You could¡¯ve knocked, you know¡­¡± the tailor muttered.


    ¡°I couldn¡¯t have, since I just appeared right here, rather than at the door. The reason I¡¯m doing this is that I¡¯m leaving the district, and it will take me some time to return, no matter how I do so. I won¡¯t pressure you to do anything now, since there is little point in asking you to think of anything while I cannot bring you along with ease,¡± the Ascendant explained, ¡°Trust me, you won¡¯t miss me when I do come back.¡±


    ¡°Are you planning to make that much of an impact?¡± Yi Kun smiled, uncertain whether she was exaggerating or not.


    ¡°An enormous gateway of silver and crimson will form within the district, and it may be called upon to aid in the fight against the Great Families. It will connect to the realm known as the Kong Prison Realm, a spatial realm wherein my Arbiters reside. There, the mother of the Master of Yi City exists as a spatial spirit, and the body of an ancient and incredibly powerful entity is used as the foundation for a city. At the centre, my planar anchor illuminates the world, my core surrounds the borders, numerous searing marks act as stars, and an array from the days of the Master of Yi City is used to defend the entire area. Trust me, you cannot miss such a thing.¡±


    Now, the poor tailor was even more confused as to whether this was accurate or not, but before she could ask too many questions, the Ascendant vanished from the spot and returned to the quick path suggested by the Xin Patriarch.


    After this, Wei Yi did not linger within the Xin District, moving out swiftly.


    During the repairs, she had already discussed a few matters, and had taken the opportunity to also comprehend the rest of the Xin District¡¯s knowledge as fully as she could without exploring it personally, so she knew how to make use of the soul within spiritual perception, at least theoretically. She also shared her understanding of the Absolute Soul, albeit in as little detail as she could possibly provide, mostly because she was rather keen to keep the details of her exact achievement hidden from the world while she could.


    For the moment, she was keeping the fact that she used plenty of otherworldly gifts to herself, mostly because it would be very suspicious if she kept insisting that they were dangerous while grabbing as many as possible for herself. It also gave her a number of cards to hide in her sleeves for later.


    By keeping things to herself, she guaranteed that even if the Xin Patriarch turned against her, or perhaps someone managed to obtain information from him without him being able to stop them, they wouldn¡¯t be able to use that information against her. That is why she willingly released plenty of useless knowledge to others, allowing them to learn that which did not matter to her while hiding that which would be more likely to harm her.


    Unfortunately, it would take her quite a bit of time to master the exact method to infuse her soul into any other form of energy, as the Patriarch stated without any hint of ambiguity that the more powerful or abnormal her soul was, the more stress it would place on her spiritual perception, and the more difficult it would be to utilise it in any useful way. She also needed to get a far better grip on drawing upon her soul in general, as it was otherwise difficult to actively use it in anything, even if she just wanted to showcase it to the world like when she had attained the Absolute Soul.


    In fact, with something like the Absolute Soul, it was all the more important to keep her mouth shut for as long as possible, as it would ensure that she could safely create the impression that her spiritual perception wasn¡¯t too far beyond that of an ordinary cultivator. She could, potentially, have two threads of it at any one time, one with the Absolute Soul imbued and the other ordinary, to make some believe that she did not have the ability to break past their defences, or that she chose not to do so. With the other, utilising the absolute nature of her soul, she could observe everything and everywhere within a vast radius around herself, and guarantee that she saw everything there was to see without anyone else having even the slightest clue of this.


    At the moment, with her progressing cultivation and the development in physique energy and bloodline power that came with the breakthrough of planar energy, she had just a little over four thousand metres of spiritual perception reach. It was, in a word, absurd ¨C not absolute just yet, though.


    The benefit of the Absolute Soul was unlikely to extend the reach of her spiritual perception, unfortunately, although it was harder and harder to say that she particularly needed it. Soon enough, she would be able to observe the entirety of a district from any point without needing to establish a mental map of the world to stabilise her mental energy.


    ¡®I¡¯m not certain whether the Xin Patriarch will end up being someone that disadvantages me, as his particular stance is hard to read due to his Hidden Soul. If he wanted me to side with his district and settle there, it might led to some problems for me in the future, so let¡¯s just hope that he doesn¡¯t get his hopes up in this regard,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she finally left the district, taking a quick glance back at the walls of the district of souls before turning towards her destination, a district that could only be called the district of servants.


    The Shun District was, as most of Yi City¡¯s people knew, was the place where a great number of servants, low-rank craftsmen, guards and so on were raised and trained, with the Patriarch himself being considered to be beneath all of the other district Patriarchs, and with some of the inner family members of the other districts being able to speak on the same level with him.


    That didn¡¯t mean that the Shun Patriarch wasn¡¯t still a capable man, being in the seventh realm as all of his compatriots were. His guardians were also powerful. However, he and his people were expected to work for the benefit of the other districts, doing so under fair circumstances but rarely ever being permitted to hold greater positions due to the combined pressures of traditions, the unwillingness of others to give them this kind of responsibility, and their own lack of preparedness to take on such things over sticking with what they knew best as a result of the incredible length of time being spent on training to serve.


    Of course, there were no absolutes in the world, ordinarily, and so there had been a few that had ended up taking over various organisations that they had been let into to perform less significant tasks, with an even smaller number rebelling and creating their own groups and factions from scratch. In the former case, it was usually due to a lazier, richer person recruiting a Shun family member to be their secretary, slowly allowing them to do more and more until they practically controlled the faction.


    Sometimes, they would be permitted to take over in full, with the original leaders finding that they would prefer to simply sit back and watch the money roll in ¨C not that they are allowed to reap much of the gathering wealth unless they and their hired servant had formed an excellent relationship ¨C whereas at other times the Shun family servant would have to take matters into their own hands and force the previous leaders out with subterfuge and force, depending on what worked best. It was still unusual for them to take over themselves, though, and they would more often attempt to improve the state of the faction or business as a whole by selecting someone that was able to do a better job of managing the place.


    Shun Liu Min was one of the best examples of someone¡¯s potential being squandered as a result of the Shun District¡¯s policies, and the things that have been done to her and the other maids at the home of Ping Gangze were technically not something the Shun District condoned, but that was only in technicality. With the size of Yi City and the sheer number of Shun family members all over the place, it was hard to guarantee that they wouldn¡¯t be forced into anything. With their usual submissive nature and their willingness to do almost anything requested, it was unfortunately easy for those with malicious intentions to force themselves onto their servants.


    It was why Wei Yi wanted to get rid of their current practises, aside from personally experiencing the fact that servants could be treated rather poorly even by those that seemed to care about them just enough to worry about seeing them with extreme burns. She was going to make sure that the foundations of this district, in particular, were shaken with only one possible exception, and that is if she was highly disadvantaged by attempting to do this and had to rush off before getting a chance to do this.


    Even then, she would return, and she would ensure that change occurred. Her intention was to make the Wei family, clan, or whatever faction she ended up forming, be at the very top, but there was no reason for the people of the Shun District, whatever state they ended up being in, to not end up second.


    The Shun District was not too far from the Xin District, especially when crossing the gap between the two from the closest points, located at the east of the Xin District and the west of the Shun District respectively. This walk only needed to be a few hours in length, even if she didn¡¯t run at her greatest speed, but she wanted to get things over with as quickly as possible, prompting her to accelerate her movement to the full by using her fourth realm movement method and some other movement tricks to hurry her progress along. Of course, the time she saved was not going to do much, now or in the longer term, but she had already emphasised speed and saw no reason to stop.


    She encountered nothing unusual on the way, unfortunate as that was in some regards, and was soon right before the gates of the district, coming across a sight that was profoundly different from anything else that she had seen so far. Rather than the tall outer walls and singular primary defensive layer of the majority of districts, here she saw several.


    After the first, low layer, sufficient only to ward off those with the first realm or below, there were several more walls creating roughly round regions, each one rising higher and higher.


    Their first layer was effectively a simple wooden wall, behind which were a number of regions dedicated to work of lower value, such as farming, construction and so on. The people working there were cheap to hire, and would generally only be used for manual labour even if they were recruited for matters other than those that they were specialised for. Those that worked here were not necessarily lower than those above in terms of status, but they were not as adept in some aspects of more complex work.


    On the second layer, which was blocked off by a taller wall made of stone, albeit not one that was thick enough for anyone to stand atop it confidently, or without any benefit to those that did attempt to do so anyway, were those that specialised in more particular and complex tasks, albeit nothing as advanced as the great arts or managing large businesses and factions, whether in part or fully, as in some unfortunate cases.


    There were three more layers with similar elevations in job complexity, living standards while residing in that space and the price of hiring, and obvious reductions in overall space dedicated to them, as was always going to be the case within any ordinary space that did not use spatial methods.


    After all of those, atop a rather large mountain that was, itself, surrounded by some short but sturdy walls, was a large castle that had spread across the mostly flat surface, constructed of a high-grade wood with many angled rooves and numerous levels, resulting in a most wonderful construction within which the most powerful members of the Shun family lived and resided on a daily basis, only rarely being available to hire and only rarely being afforded by the powerful of the other districts. It had only a single path leading to it, and the area was surrounded by the effects of numerous arrays that made it almost impossible for most to ever use flying or hovering movement methods of the fifth and sixth realms respectively, although those with the abnormal power of the Greats, otherworldly demons or someone like Wei Yi could circumvent those, as could those at the level of Patriarchs.


    Fortunately, the Shun District was relied upon by all of Yi City, as even those that employed the usual familial system starting with servants and going up to inner family members preferred to have as many outside individuals dedicated to certain tasks so that they could focus on training up their actual family members and bringing them to a level that they could be satisfied with.


    It wasn¡¯t strictly speaking necessary for any individual district to hire those from the Shun District, which was why the unfortunate obsession with using them and often giving them a worse life than those from the districts was one she wished to stop, in addition to all of the aforementioned reasons. It was fine for districts to make use of talents from other districts, as was only natural for the focuses of the districts to be spread to more than just the one district, but the things that were happening with the Shun District were simply absurd, in her mind.


    This was one place where the expertise of the otherworldly demons could be utilised quite effectively. They had many countries in the world that they had come from, and while certain countries were said to be most capable in certain regards, they would export their goods for reasonable prices and result in most places in the world benefitting without literally devoting themselves to the service of others. It seemed reasonable enough.


    ¡®Can¡¯t just step in and demand change, though, so I will need to step in relatively normally at first. After that, I need to figure out what the current situation is, and then proceed to do as much as possible before departing and leaving things to progress while I work on things elsewhere,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, landing on the ground, patting off the dust from her crimson robes, and then moving forward.


    At the gates, there was little point in having ordinary guards as the walls themselves could be pushed down with a bit of effort, and there were no forces with direct access to the Shun District that would be interested in damaging it actively. Around them, the Xin, Gang, Wu and Ze Districts formed a secure barrier that wouldn¡¯t be broken into the vast majority of the time, and the large numbers of guards that were trained in one of the upper regions of the Shun District meant that if there was a threat, it could be responded to before anything beyond construction yards and small patches of farmland were damaged by any invaders.


    The fact that this was what any invader or attacker would have to get through first made things even safer for the district, actually. Most that chose to attack the district would either be small bands of bandits and thieves, in which case they would lack both the ability to reach the innermost regions, and the desire to get most of the things that could be found therein, or powerful armies from one of the other districts or outside nations.


    Obviously, the former would need food and materials for their own operations, and would thus avoid damaging the farmland excessively, giving the stronger guards enough time to take care of them. The latter would need to have the intention of claiming some part of the district, as there would otherwise be too little reason to attack a place that did not produce much of value aside from workers and servants, all of whom could be purchased and hired with far, far more ease than going in and capturing them, especially if their willingness to work was considered.


    Thus, they would not harm the fields that could feed them and allow them to trade, nor would they want to damage any other segments of the district as the surrounding districts would be certain to come and attack them if they found that they not only took over the district all of a sudden, but also ruined it.


    In short, the Shun District was safe, and any who chose to attack it was not.


    As she approached, she was greeted by a well-dressed servant from one of the inner regions, who bowed to her and spoke with a professional smile, ¡°Welcome to our district. Have you come here for business, entertainment, or do you have some other intention?¡±


    ¡°What does speaking with the Patriarch count as?¡±


    To her credit, the woman didn¡¯t miss a beat as she replied, ¡°Assuming that you wish to purchase or trade for something, then it will still be business. I do not have the authority to schedule any meetings with the Patriarch, but I am able to request that such a thing is done by one of his personal servants. What would you have me tell him?¡±


    ¡°Tell him that the Ascendant has come over, and that she wants to acquire a spatial stabilisation point. That¡¯s it.¡±


    ¡°Understood. While I am delivering that message, would you be interested in making use of some of our services in the inner regions? We have a number of different establishments that should be able to cater to your every need, and, of course, a place to stay if the Patriarch is unable to meet with you immediately,¡± the woman said, ¡°Although I am unfamiliar with the typical price for a spatial stabilisation point, I am sure that you will be able to find somewhere affordable to stay, and something affordable to eat, even if the purchase will affect your available funds.¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re going to be bringing me up there personally, then all I need is a bed. I would stress, in your message up the chain, that I am open to plenty of negotiations in regards to this and other matters, but it is urgent that I get the spatial stabilisation point as soon as possible.¡±


    The servant nodded and waved towards the gates, turning around and beginning to walk slowly, allowing Wei Yi to catch up even if she was no faster than her original state at twelve years old, if not younger. Obviously, this was due to her being unable to perceive exactly how powerful the Ascendant was, as she had only caught the woman¡¯s attention once she was already on the ground, and walking slowly.


    Since she did not wish to delay any longer than necessary, the Ascendant quickly sped up and prompted the servant to do the same. They soon walked at the highest speed at the third realm servant was able to keep up with without actively harming herself through the effort, and made their way through the outermost region, the largest of the lot and the one with the worst roads. There, the roads were often used by the outermost servants residing there, and maintaining them in a perfect state would be highly difficult, whereas it would be far easier to simply have a planar beast or vehicle that would smooth their journey sufficiently.


    Their walk began in the evening, and when they had gotten through the longer segment of the district into long after the sun had set beneath the horizon, leaving them in the light of the lamps lighting the inner segments of the district.


    Already, they were beginning to come across places where she could rest, so, after they walked past a few establishments that didn¡¯t seem to be to the liking of the servant, Wei Yi was addressed again.


    ¡°What kind of budget do you have for a place of rest, and what are some of your other requirements? Based on them, I can direct you to a place that is most suitable to your needs, and then proceed to report your request to the servants of the Patriarch without needing to drag you along for the whole way there.¡±


    ¡°Just a decent bed and nobody that would bother me in excess. Anything aside from that doesn¡¯t matter, especially if you don¡¯t have any particular rules regarding switching the establishment that I occupy.¡±


    ¡°There is no such thing. In that case, permit me to make a slight detour first, so as to provide you with the most suitable place to rest before I proceed onwards. May I?¡±


    The Ascendant shrugged and allowed her to proceed, mostly because she was sure that, regardless of how much she attempted to rush things along, the Patriarch would either see her first thing the next day, or not without some very deliberate prodding and action by her. She might as well allow him to speak with her on his own terms first, also taking advantage of the pause to figure out the situation in the district and whether there was anybody that had formed a similar faction to the New Community of the Gang District.


    If there wasn¡¯t, she would attempt to suggest such a thing to some people, or perhaps even convince the Patriarch himself that the Shun District could do better than being the servants of every other district without ever daring to go above their assigned station. With the way that she was considering removing the presence of families and clans as they currently existed, it would work brilliantly.


    For now, however, she would allow herself an hour or two to lie down and process all of the information from the Xin District, as to be able to use it most effectively the next day.

 V5C43: A Welcome Meeting

    Exactly two hours after she lay down on the admittedly pleasant bed of the establishment selected for her by a gatekeeper of the district, Wei Yi rose from it and quickly stretched her body.


    It was still dark, as the sun had not had enough time to rise once more, and only the moon shone down upon the Shun District. There were plenty of lamps keeping the area lit, and even the establishment that provided her with the room was still open to new visitors, whether they wished to simply eat and drink or receive a room for themselves. Fortunately, the place she was led to was rather quiet and not frequently visited, so she had room to do what she wanted.


    For the moment, before going out anywhere, she wished to confirm the theory of projecting her soul¡¯s power into her spiritual perception, as this was an extremely valuable ability that she should master as soon as possible.


    Thus, she sat back down on the bed and brought out a small ball of spiritual perception. It was not meant to actively observe anything, nor was it going to get in anyone¡¯s way, and it was even less likely to actively harm her in any way even if she did not succeed. Spiritual perception was, to an extent, expendable and could regenerate easily enough, so as long as she did not actively damage her brain, soul or cultivation with her experimentation, she would not suffer any long-lasting harm to herself, and so she wouldn¡¯t be too concerned about it.


    She took her time and carefully released the aura of her soul into the ball of spiritual perception, slowly altering the shape of the latter into a crystalline form that would be most stable under the pressure of her soul. In such a state, it was even more difficult to spread it out like one might usually do, but if she did bring it onto an object, she could perceive as much detail as usual, if not more.


    However, the very moment that she sensed that something might be occurring to her spiritual perception, it immediately cracked and shattered, with all of the mental energy invested in it vanishing from her control. It caused a wave of pain to spread throughout her body, although she remained unharmed other than this. As predicted, she would be able to recover all of her mental energy after a few minutes, but what it made clear was that she could not support the aura of her soul with her current spiritual perception.


    This did raise a question, which was why this could possibly be the case. So far as she was aware, her spiritual perception was not weak in any ordinary way, nor was her soul so powerful that it could actively distort most Laws of the Planar Continents without her own involvement.


    If she needed something like the divine sense of the seventh realm to endure her soul, then it would indicate that her impression of one or the other was mistaken, and that there was either some kind of deficiency within her spiritual perception or a greater degree of power within the Absolute Soul than merely ensuring that spiritual perception remained invisible and could pass through anything. Obviously, the latter was true regardless, as the Absolute Soul could do a great deal so long as she figured out a way to actively invest in it, but she did not think that it would be so powerful even if she just used it as lazily as it seemed to be possible.


    To figure out whether the issue lay primarily with the former or the latter, she decided to mess around with her spiritual perception without involving her soul¡¯s aura, using only her killing intent to put pressure upon the mental energy. With the perfect fusion achieved by her killing will, it was even harder to negatively affect her own energy than it might be for someone that continued to use killing intent and spiritual will separately, but with the sheer power of her killing intent it was still possible.


    By layering a hundred units of killing intent over a single unit of spiritual perception, she was able to feel a portion of the pressure that her power would have on another, and compared it to the some of the suppressive ability that she knew she had against other people. Her conclusion, as lacking in detail at it was, led her to believe that her spiritual perception was decent, at least.


    That meant that it must be primarily the responsibility of the Absolute Soul that she couldn¡¯t actually use it in her own perception, and that she would need to advance it at least a little bit before it became an option at all. Even then, once she was able to apply her soul¡¯s aura to her spiritual perception, or perhaps her divine sense if that is what is needed, she might have certain limitations to the saturation of aura within her mental energy. If that was the case, then her plans of a twin layer of spiritual perception were not going to go anywhere near as smoothly as she would have liked, but she would have to wait and see.


    ¡®A shame, but that does not affect my plans in regards to handling this district. As such-¡¯


    A knock on her door prompted her to turn to it, although she had already perceived the presence of the approaching figure from a long way away.


    ¡®I will first need to handle this. If I am not mistaken, this will be a messenger from the Patriarch, and the meeting that will follow will determine how I go about correcting the unfortunate fate of the Shun District,¡¯ Wei Yi finished her thought after the knock and rose from the bed, heading over to the door and opening it to find a different servant on the other side.


    This one was dressed more akin to a usual maid, with black and white frilly clothing, as well as a significantly higher quality dress that was thinner than the one worn by the gatekeeper servant, although it was less suitable for standing around for such a long time under the open sky.


    Her cultivation was naturally higher as well, being in the first stage of the fourth realm, a rather impressive thing for someone that probably didn¡¯t need to be in such a high realm. It showed that there was some degree of value seen in her, as reaching this realm while being younger than fifty years old was far better than average, especially if they were not given the time, techniques and resources to cultivate more quickly. Given that she was young, busy, and her cultivation method wasn¡¯t particularly good either, nor was she expecting that this servant would be fed as many planar shards or stones as she was able to utilise constantly.


    ¡°You are the Ascendant, Wei Yi, correct?¡± the maid asked, bowing her head slightly while continuing to look at her.


    ¡°That¡¯s me. I hope I am correct to assume that you have come from the Ancestral Hall of your district, if I may label it as such?¡± she replied, glancing in the direction of the castle atop the large hill in the centre of the Shun District.


    The maid smiled somewhat bitterly at her words.


    ¡°We do consider that our Ancestral Hall, even if most outsiders do not see it fit to bear such a name. With the variety of Ancestral Halls in the other districts, one might presume that we would not be much of an exception, but it seems that we are not so lucky,¡± the woman said, managing to make her smile a little more positive as she went on, ¡°If it isn¡¯t too much trouble, the Patriarch would like to speak with you as soon as possible, and I could escort you to his current location right away.¡±


    ¡°Sure, let¡¯s go. Feel free to move as quickly as you like, since I can keep up with any movement method you may have.¡±


    The maid nodded and vanished from the spot using a fourth realm movement method, although this was only in the eyes of ordinary bystanders. To someone that had overused and mastered a very powerful fourth realm movement method like Wei Yi, the movement was rather slow and clumsy, showing a clear lack of practise of refinement, as expected of someone in the first stage of the fourth realm. That being said, to have a movement method as soon as the first stage was also not bad, as it usually took some time and around a stage of progress to figure out the best way to use one¡¯s cultivation and path in movement.


    It was either taught to her, or she figured it out on her own. Either way, that was a good indicator for the Patriarch caring about his servants, which might also extent to the Shun District as a whole. So long as she could make him see her perspective, it was feasible to win his support and change the nature of the Shun District at the same time ¨C or at least begin the latter project more easily than anticipated.


    She followed the maid easily enough, occasionally shifting her location a little more mischievously than she really needed to, but she made sure not to push her too much. With some of her movements, she deliberately attempted to give out some inspiration for how the fourth realm movement method may be improved, but she wasn¡¯t going to pause and verify whether the maid figured it out or not. That was up to her, at least before Wei Yi had the freedom to be wherever she wished at any time.


    At that point, if she didn¡¯t take the time to help out some people that she considered to be rather talented, she would be completely wasting it.


    With this speed, it was not long before they reached the bottom of the small mountain that acted as the base for the castle, and from there, they were able to travel even more quickly, as neither one was constrained by the increase in height between the start and end point of their movement methods. Wei Yi was able to actively ignore it and just used her vision to establish the spatial coordinates for the chains of Law to bring her to, while the maid used a kind of leap that was at an advantage over more horizontal terrain.


    Thus, before the sun could begin to rise, they had cleared the rest of the gap and made it to the front doors of the castle, where the maid slowed down and took her slowly through, taking care to traverse the right pathways and use the right doors as to bring her up to the higher floor, where a single room was accessible only by a small ladder. It was small, barely offering enough space for two to sit comfortably around a low table, as the angled roof greatly limited the space on the left and right.


    After the maid had led her to the ladder, she was asked to ascend on her own, coming up to find the Patriarch sitting on the other side of the table, calmly pouring some tea for himself while he waited for her arrival.


    Once she was seated, he finally spoke, ¡°Welcome to the Ancestral Hall, Ascendant.¡±


    ¡°Were you listening in on our chat? That¡¯s not a polite thing to do, Patriarch, even if you are responsible for the safety of this place.¡±


    ¡°I have no doubts that you have been paying attention to our district as well, and I did keep out of your room when you were alone. I understand the value of privacy for my people and outsiders alike, and I naturally understand the value of doing the best thing possible for my people. In this case, it is inviting you into this place.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s why you keep this whole district as a source of servants for the world?¡±


    ¡°You must be aware that changing that is impossible without some force backing us up. At the moment, the most I can do is attempt to prevent such situations as those at the old Ping District, and limit the number of people available to the likes of Ping Gangze, but if any kind of serious action was attempted, the power of the Ping District combined with the nature of much of our district, as well as our opposition, would prevent success and simply cost all the more lives,¡± the Shun Patriarch said solemnly, ¡°There needs to be a major force of change for anything to be resolved.¡±


    The Ascendant raised an eyebrow, ¡°That¡¯s more direct than I was expecting, and far more likeable to me. I happen to have the same intentions as you do.¡±


    ¡°We have heard some things from the Gang District from those that had come here to drown their sorrows in alcohol and other activities. Not all of the people are happy at the changes to the status quo, but so long as the new Matriarch of the Gang District takes good care of what she has, things will inevitably go well for them in the long run.¡±


    ¡°So, since we do seem to be in agreement, I want to figure out exactly what you think that the Shun District and the Shun family can be. Do you want to become equal to the other districts?¡±


    ¡°I have spent some time attempting to comprehend your actions and intentions, as is customary with every single person that I have attempted to assist as part of my current role. Of course, our relationship has a chance of being significantly different, but I will still do my best in this circumstance,¡± the Shun Patriarch explained, glancing to the side, ¡°You do not want the districts to continue as they are. Most likely, you would not want to arbitrarily elevate one above the other and forcefully devote them to certain tasks. The current limits of Yi City¡­ they¡¯re not something that will hold us for long, whether in your mind or in reality.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to tell me what I think, since you could have just asked. I have not attempted to hide my intentions all that much, save for not going quite as far as I might like due to the many problems with simply rushing into everything without letting the world around me adjust. Just tell me your stance.¡±


    ¡°There is some desire in me to become the Patriarch of the leading district of the new Yi City. However, this is not something that would be viable for my Shun District, nor would it be something that you would allow while you live, which you might well do for a long time. Thus, the best thing would be for our Shun District to claim a position equal to that of the other districts, to figure out some kind of ability that we can be proud of instead of what we are currently known for.


    ¡°Whatever the Shun District will end up becoming, it does need a decent foundation to begin with, and so it would not be sensible to rush into anything. It would be best to give the future generations some time to get used to a different status in society, and then progress from there wherever possible. That is what I have concluded,¡± the Shun Patriarch said, ¡°Is there any part of what I have said that you disagree with? I am open to learning from some that have a more open vision of the future than I and my people have.¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s roughly what I want as well. I want every single district to be a little more free in regards to their focuses, and I would like them to stop with the obsession on family over all else. It is not a beneficial thing to the districts, nor to the city as a whole, and causes a great number of talents to be overlooked far, far too often. Not sure if that¡¯s something you¡¯ve experienced, though.¡±


    ¡°My Shun District and Shun family will gladly teach and instruct all that come here for the sake of learning the same things as my family. Servitude, craftsmanship, gardening and many more fields are taught to those that would care to study them, and those that do not come from my family and district are still able to find places to work and receive the protection of a superior in exchange for their abilities. This is a lifestyle that some prefer to managing their own lives in their entirety, and I hope that you do not intend to stop such people from taking advantage of our services. Do you value the freedom of choice, Ascendant?¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°Yeah, I do. I would hope that most are capable of managing themselves, but even then, the vast majority cannot be leaders in all domains of life. As such, I have no issues with anyone, be it members of your family or otherwise, choosing to serve another.¡±


    ¡°Your problem is the practical inability for those of the Shun family to attain roles of leadership without relying on covert action, and even then, too many of us lack the proper drive to act on their own and actively seek to submit themselves to others¡­ If you permit the vulgarity, such a thing may be fine in bed, or in private relationships, but if one goes through life bowing their head to all, it is incredibly unfortunate for all involved.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t really care about vulgarity, so do whatever you wish. I¡¯m not a kid.¡±


    ¡°How old are you, if you don¡¯t mind answering?¡±


    ¡°Considering how many times I¡¯ve been asked this, I somehow doubt that this hasn¡¯t been spread around. I am forty-one years old, and I have spent half of that near a brothel. I am very familiar with the so-called vulgar.¡±


    ¡°Your appearance suggests a far lower age, while your aura would imply that you a dozen times older at the very least. I simply wished to confirm your exact state so that I may best assist you in the future.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t forget what you had just told me about not lowering your head to all around you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be concerned, Ascendant, I am not intending to continue to behave in this manner in front of everyone around me. That being said, you will be directly above me if your plans end up being successful, and so I should take my time to be most useful to you when I am needed. You intend to wage your War of Ascendancy once more soon, do you not?¡±


    ¡°Sure, of course. It will take me some time, though, so you should wait for me for a while and the moment that I get that spatial stabilisation point I had asked for and then activate it with some of my methods, I will make it overwhelmingly obvious that times are changing, and that the Ascendant will attempt to lead Yi City to a greater state than ever before,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°From there, I will leave it to you to attempt to develop your district, and I will regulate all of the districts under my control to treat you a little more reasonably. Beyond that, unless I suddenly get the ability to control the minds of the world to any extent, I will not be able to change the impression of the district any time soon. Have you put any effort into that yet?¡±


    ¡°The maid that had led you here should be an example. I have taken the time to train all of the servants directly under me, and sent out instructions to ensure that all teachers and instructors in the area do not attempt to degrade their students to lower their self-esteem, and I did this long ago.¡±


    ¡°In that case, excellent. I am glad to see that you did not need me to tell you this, so this is as much of a productive conversation as we could have had. Then, the spatial stabilisation point?¡±


    ¡°You really want to claim this point, don¡¯t you¡­ Our Shun District is a little unusual in this regard. Kong Shi Meng, the Master of Yi City, had only provided us with a single spatial stabilisation point, and it is cited in the archives that he wished to leave it only for a single purpose. This purpose, however, was not cited within those same records, and so we are unable to comprehend what this was, even after the many years of intense study. Are you able to reveal this purpose?¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°I know a bit about Kong Shi Meng, which is where you have likely gotten the name from in the first place, but I cannot be sure of every little thing that the man had done and wanted to do. I know some of his projects, but the rest is essentially unknown to me, and the only person personally familiar with him lacks many of her memories.¡±


    ¡°Is your purpose for the node similar to his?¡±


    ¡°Probably. I am making use of a method that he had created, and it is one that relies on the spatial stabilisation nodes of Yi City, so it is likely that this is very similar. Potentially, he had originally used that very same method which had simply lost effectiveness after he vanished and the city fractured into separate districts without sufficient communication and utilised territory between them,¡± she said, ¡°For now, I will be rather tight-lipped about things, but the moment that there is no point in hiding any of it, I shall share whatever I need to with the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of Yi City. Eventually, I will speak with the entirety of it.¡±


    ¡°Ambitious, to say the least, Ascendant. Nonetheless, greater things have happened in our history, and they may happen yet again. At some point, perhaps the heavens themselves shall be shaken by our actions.¡±


    ¡°They better be.¡±


    The Shun Patriarch couldn¡¯t know how to reply to that, having far too little knowledge of the subject and of Wei Yi¡¯s intentions, so he just finished the last sip of his tea and frowned as he sat in deep thought.


    Since Wei Yi did not have any reason at all to rush this, she shifted her seating position and produced a cup of her planar energy, filled with the same thing, as she had done back at Yi Kun¡¯s place. After taking a quick sip of the energy, she also frowned, glancing at the Shun Patriarch with a questioning gaze.


    ¡°Now that I¡¯m thinking about this, I suspect that I shouldn¡¯t be doing this kind of thing with my energy.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡±


    ¡°Would you go to eagerly consume any fluid that was produced from your body?¡±


    With this, the Shun Patriarch had even less of a clue what to do with her, glancing at his own tea and wondering whether this could also be applied to the fluid he had used to brew this alongside the tea leaves used for them. Fortunately, Wei Yi did not linger on this.


    ¡°I wanted to get something weird out of my system, so we can now focus on something more sensible. We need to finish our chat on the topic of our work together and the stabilisation node, then we can switch onto anything you would like to discuss, and then I can be off the moment that my presence is no longer of any use to either of us. Unless you want me to fight some kind of battle for you ¨C in which case you will still need to convince me that it is beneficial for me to do so ¨C then I suspect that this will be before the end of the coming day.¡±


    ¡°We have been rather fortunate to have no pressing concerns within the year, at least until we begin to change the identity of our district. Since this will begin once you and your forces are more able to come and go freely, I see no reason to bother you with any part of the preparations now. I wouldn¡¯t wish to delay you too greatly, especially not after you stressed the importance of speed.¡±


    ¡°Fine, that¡¯s better for me. Bring me to the spatial stabilisation node.¡±


    The Patriarch did not wish to repeat their previous conversations and knew that he would not get that much more information out of her unless she wished to reveal it explicitly, so he did as she asked. He rose and bid her to head down the ladder first, for it would be rather difficult for him to get past her otherwise. From there, they headed down to the first floor of the castle, out of the back, then proceeded to the small yard that was located there, at the small amount of flat space available there between the main building and the wall at the back, preventing any intruders from trying to climb in from the back side of the castle.


    In the middle, surrounded by a ring of flowers, was something resembling the base of a fountain. There were no decorations nor any source of water, but there were traces of the former being placed there at some point in the past, possibly including some kind of array to condense water.


    ¡°You used the spatial stabilisation point as a fountain?¡±


    ¡°There was a point at which we wished to obscure its presence, and there was no better way than to provide this area with another purpose,¡± the Shun Patriarch explained, waving his hand and clearing away some of the remaining traces of misuse, ¡°This is where you ought to do what you wish.¡±


    ¡°You, meanwhile, could try out making your speech a little simpler. There is no particular reason for you to be as verbose when telling me to claim this spatial stabilisation point.¡±


    While she spoke, she reached out with her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and directed her energy to the Shun District¡¯s spatial stabilisation point, wondering whether she¡¯d be able to perceive the connection nodes of the Lan and Jiang District all the way from here, without the direct connection. Unfortunately, she was unable to do so, and couldn¡¯t verify anything about the current state of the Yi City Web and the situation in the districts connected to it. As much of a shame as this was for the moment, the reports seemed to indicate that things were fine for now.


    Soon enough, she would return, and she would have almost half of the current Yi City on her side, one way or another, so she wasn¡¯t too concerned that the next few days would have a chance to ruin everything. At most, she would return just as something dangerous was occurring, and she would be able to resolve it.


    To make things even better for her, the spies that she had asked Great Dark to place within certain districts that she was unfamiliar with, like the Xin District, which she had been to not long ago, and the Ze District, which she intended to travel to soon, should be able to communicate her presence back to her Arbiters. With the knowledge that she was slowly returning to the north, they would be able to plan their actions accordingly and minimize losses while waiting for her support, provided that it was even necessary in any current problem. Perhaps the current conflict was not as bad for the Arbiters as one might imagine from the sheer potential power of the threat that they face.


    Whatever the case was, she would learn the truth in time, and discover whether any of her actions were of any use to anyone else.


    She stepped back after a moment and glanced at the Patriarch.


    ¡°Alright, now that this is done, let me just say what will happen soon enough. There will be a spatial gateway that will open right here, at the spatial stabilisation point, and there may be a need for you and your district to support us in battle. At that point, I hope that you do not prevent the warriors of the Shun District, however, many there are, from joining us and ensuring that the districts of the Ascendant do not fall to some attack from the Greats.¡±


    ¡°We will do our best, of course. Don¡¯t worry about our participation, as we have no love for the Greats.¡±

 V5C44: The Route to Leadership

    Wei Yi did not spend too long within the Shun District after that. She had little to do there, and even if she was to stop and personally instruct everyone there in ways to improve their techniques ¨C as she wouldn¡¯t attempt to do so with their personalities or anything of the sort, as she was not very fond of the effects that she has had on people when she tried these kinds of things in the past ¨C she would only need to scan them, quickly comprehend their methods, and provide them with a manual on the best ways to go about correcting any flaws.


    Her range of knowledge was still limited, but with every district and every person she met she gained more and more information. Now, so long as she was working with planar energy, she wouldn¡¯t struggle to provide some advice.


    As helping everyone and anyone wasn¡¯t within her plans, she only lingered for a few hours, proceeding to exit towards the east, and towards the Wu District.


    It was, to put it as briefly as possible, a district full of those that were obsessed with martial arts themselves, rather than the planar energy that is the foundation of most of them. They still cultivated, of course, but they were far prouder of being able to defeat another with masterful usage of weapons and refined techniques, regardless of the cultivation gap between one another. Most would rather lock their power prior to a fight than make use of planar energy to win.


    Standing outside of the district, it was clear that martial arts were their one and only interest. Their walls were low and feeble, clearly a far cry from the metal behemoth surrounding the Ning District. However, the guards that stood at the gates, and the people inside of the district, may well be seen as one and the same. Their fashion and looks differed, of course, but it was clear that all had spent some time developing their combat ability, and that they would be superior to the average cultivator if they fought only using their martial arts.


    This did extend to battles reliant more on planar energy, albeit a little less effectively. Many planar techniques and constructs were, in essence, martial arts brought up to a greater level, and learning combat of any kind inevitably leads to greater understanding of tactics, positioning and so on.


    The people of the Wu District were not all actively engaging in combat, nor were they all necessarily interested in it, but the focus on the matter meant that everyone would, at one point or another, spend a few years training and brawling. Even those that simply passed by the district ¨C although few had a reason to do so due to its position away from a direct path between any two other districts ¨C would spend a while at a training hall or observing martial arts matches occurring throughout the Wu District, and would inevitably pick up some knowledge along the way. If this district had been near the centre of Yi City, the overall comprehension of combat in the city would have risen by a significant percentage in comparison to now.


    None of that was what made her particularly hopeful about this place, however. Instead, it was the notion that an outsider has far more opportunities to gain power within the district than in most others. She wasn¡¯t familiar with the exact structure of the district¡¯s power, nor how one would make their way into it, and so she first needed to make her way inside and hear as much as possible from a reliable source of information. Theoretically, not a difficult thing at all.


    ¡°Halt, traveller! If you want to enter our great district, you must prove your capability!¡±


    That was the very first thing said to her by one of the guards as he raised his hand to signal her to stop, before stepping over into her path to make sure she didn¡¯t try and rush past him.


    ¡°My capability? I¡¯m guessing that you want to see how I fare in the field of martial arts?¡± a nod from all of the guards confirmed it, so she continued, ¡°As expected of the district of martial arts. What kind of test do you even intend for me? Should I use my hands or some kind of weapon? Do you want to personally fight me?¡±


    The guard that had blocked her way nodded even more excitedly, ¡°Of course! You are dressed well enough, but this kind of thing doesn¡¯t matter here! Prove that you can beat one of us!¡±


    ¡°With what weapon?¡±


    ¡°You can use whatever you like, although you don¡¯t seem to carry anything on you. The only exception are artefacts, or, more precisely, the power of the artefacts themselves. So long as you use them as any other weapon, there¡¯s no problem at all.¡±


    She shrugged and reached up into the air, grabbing onto the handle of the low-grade weapon she had attained at the southernmost beginning of her journey. With a simple movement, she pulled it out of the House of Gold and swung it down, leaving it at a forty-five-degree angle from the ground and cutting a narrow line within the frozen grass as a result of the sudden stop. It was observed by the guards for a moment, but it did not appear to deter them in the slightest.


    One nodded and said, ¡°A sword, eh? I fight with a sword as well. Let me see whether you have that thing just for show! Remember, no cheating with planar energy! We will have a proper fight!¡±


    The others stepped back and allowed them a large circle in which to fight freely, while the guard wielding a sword removed it from the sheath on his belt and adjusted his posture. As he appeared to be sufficiently capable in this regard, Wei Yi decided that she wouldn¡¯t simply win with the virtue of her raw physical ability, so she took this seriously as well by shifting her stance to one used by the Scorching Blade technique. Although it was a planar method, it still contained a number of principles that could be used without a drop of energy, and it was the one that she had the most familiarity with as a result of her experimentation with it and the Phoenix Transformation passive ability.


    Her only problem was that she needed to use her right hand this time, as her Arm had yet to reach a sufficient level of fluidity to permit proper usage of most weapons. The only thing she could do, for now, would be holding onto a bow while she drew back the string with the other hand.


    Neither of them spoke for a few moments, waiting for the right moment to begin. It was provided, perhaps unsurprisingly, by one of the other guards that had decided to desert their post merely to observe their fight and vaguely surround them to form the arena. The man had been playing with a rock when she had come over, and when he accidentally dropped it, both sides hastened forth.


    A sword was a weapon with limited range, as one might imagine with something of material substance, and so the first thing that any combatant needed to do was close the distance in order to engage their foe. Against a ranged weapon or planar construct of any kind, this would obviously be a problem, but the choice to use a sword against her sword removed such difficulties, while the similar lengths of the blades that they used meant that there wasn¡¯t much of an advantage in Wei Yi¡¯s choice to use a greatsword.


    Their swords clashed only a few moments after the fight began, and they quickly remade the previous gap after that single blow.


    With it, they were able to assess roughly how much strength their opponent had ¨C or was intending to use, in the case of the Ascendant ¨C and thus adjust their strategy to target their weakness while using one¡¯s strength. Against a strong opponent, uses of sheer force would naturally be ineffective, while a significantly weaker one would not require as much finesse to beat, provided that their skills were not a significant leap above one¡¯s own.


    As expected, even when Wei Yi held back as much as possible, her strength was only brought down to the level of the man opposite due to her use of a single hand as opposed to his use of two. This meant that their strength would be roughly matched, and that it would be technique and speed that matter the most. From their clash, it seemed that the latter was also similar, so it was down to technique alone.


    A moment was all that they needed apart from one another, with the guard taking the initiative to close the gap first yet again and slash at her many times in a row, each time striking at a different angle and at a different place than before in order to figure out the easiest way to bypass the Ascendant¡¯s defence. In combat involving ordinary weaponry and no planar energy ¨C and, often enough, even when artefacts and one¡¯s cultivation was involved ¨C the majority of fights were brief, as they could be settled with a single well-placed blow and a single serious wound. Depending on the intensity of the battle, a single sufficient attack could justify its conclusion, even without injury.


    In this case, she didn¡¯t know whether the guards would stop before blood was drawn, although she was sure that they wouldn¡¯t try to kill her. At most, if they had the ability to do so, they would rather beat her up and prevent her from entering the district, whether this was part of the regular procedure or not. The whole process of challenging one of the guards may well be an invention of the guards to deal with boredom, after all.


    Each time the sword strike landed, Wei Yi blocked it and assessed her opponent¡¯s capabilities as well, observing every single blow and identifying the strongest and weakest points of her foe¡¯s body and technique. For instance, his left arm appeared to be slightly weaker than the right, and so attacks that came from the left, relying on the left arm¡¯s muscles, were slightly slower and weaker than those that came from the right. On the other hand, his right leg looked to have sustained some kind of injury in the past, as his current stance leaned more onto his left leg, providing him with a relatively balanced and yet exploitable position, so long as the Ascendant made good use of it.


    She gave him a little more time to act before jumping into action, striking out at the guard¡¯s head with a quick stab. It was one that seemed to have no force invested into it, clearly resembling a feint of little complexity and minimal difficulty to deal with. Thus, the man did not hesitate to lightly swat away the blade while not overextending himself, as to be able to block her next, stronger attack.


    However, that changed the instant that her foot suddenly sunk into the ground and her blade surged forth, almost akin to the terrifying breath of a dragon, surging out from their mouth to consume their foes. It went straight for the neck, and easily cut a thin gash into it.


    ¡°There. Happy with that?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ so you can fight like that, can you? In that case, permit me to go all out and show you what our Wu District can do!¡± the guard shouted with far more energy than one should with a neck injury.


    He took a step back and narrowed his eyes slightly, his aura emerging from his body.


    It was not immensely powerful, as he was only in the third realm and acting as a guard mostly against weaker forces and trespassers, not proper armies or threats at the level of Patriarchs, but it did possess a certain edge that was not often present within the aura of those from other districts. To compare it to something tangible, one might almost say that it was vaguely shaped into numerous sharp edges, like those of a sword, layered together and cutting outward, forcing those around him to take a short step back reflexively.


    As an actual weapon, it lacked any true combat capability apart from intimidating weaker foes, but Wei Yi recognised what was likely to produce this, and where it could end up.


    ¡®The people of this district master particular weapons and martial arts, and so they inevitably become a little¡­ obsessed. This should be able to change their aura, but once aura is brought to a sufficient level, it should have the same kind of power as any other form of energy¡­ More precisely, it is something between planar energy and spiritual will, perhaps with killing intent added to the mix. It lacks the strengths of all of those, and the only advantage is that it is practically infinite so long as one is alive,¡¯ she thought as she quickly concluded what she¡¯d do now, ¡®Theoretically, by combining this level of mastery with my Dao, I might be able to use something akin to sword light without needing to mobilise my planar energy¡­¡¯


    Had her mental domain been completely frozen in time, she might have gone on to explain in detail that everything that the Planar Continents witnessed that differed from the Laws of Orbis appeared to be caused by the presence of planar energy, and that all of the five forms of cultivation were technically still uses of the true state of planar energy, but there was really no need to do such a thing.


    Rather, she took the pause of her opponent to strike out again, this time going straight for his sword rather than his body. She slashed once, then again and again in rapid succession, each time making sure to take advantage of the man¡¯s stance and grip on the weapon to put as much pressure on him as possible. This was her attempt to convert the Dragon¡¯s Ember move into something not reliant on energy, essentially using her energy to apply ever-growing pressure without allowing her foe to rest.


    The guard attempted to get the lead back, but every single time she proceeded to strike in just the right way to force him to defend.


    Ultimately, even if she held back her strength, speed, energy, cultivation and Dao ¨C as much as it was even possible to restrain the passive benefits of forced Dao comprehension granted by the heavens rather than her own understanding ¨C her simple calculative ability far surpassed that of anyone that has not focused a great deal of time on spiritual will cultivation. She knew exactly how to attack and what to target in order to prevent him from being able to do a single thing, and she was not going to subdue that as well.


    The reason for this was that the Sword Dao, for instance, was about the utilisation of the sword, what it was, what it represented, and the concept of a cutting weapon with at least one edge, a long blade, a hilt and, possibly, a cross guard as well. Abusing strength was not quite in line with it, but to use one¡¯s mind and attack correctly as very much the opposite. Hence, this would benefit her anyway.


    After a dozen strikes, she found that his grip faltered, his left hand momentarily left the hilt of the blade, and so she made another attack with the full strength that she intended to use this time, forcing him to drop his weapon.


    ¡°Ah, you¡­ fuck, that hurts¡­¡±


    ¡°Done. Can I go in yet, or should I show you what will happen the moment that I go all out?¡± she asked, deliberately putting away the sword and showcasing her claws.


    With the quality of the processed star metal, even if none of the guards knew of the material and understood how durable and light it truly was, they would still be aware that the gauntlets were of a far higher quality than the blade. It shouldn¡¯t take a genius to go from there and understand that the sword would not be the Ascendant¡¯s primary weapon, and that she might be able to do far, far more if allowed to fight the way that she preferred.


    They may or may not have understood the implication, but it was clear that they were far less willing to attack her now, as they returned to their previous posts while the one she fought put the sword back into the scabbard and lazily waved her through the gates, not making direct eye contact. Although it seemed like rather odd behaviour for a group of people from a district that, stereotypically, spent much of their time challenging one another to fights and being happy to receive all kinds of injuries so long as it would result in them learning something new about their martial arts and developing their methods further.


    Presumably, they weren¡¯t happy being defeated by some outsider, but they would soon feel differently the moment that they realise who they had stopped.


    Leaving them to ponder their own lives and whatever else went through their heads ¨C a list of topics that vastly exceeded the necessity to mention even one of them ¨C she quickly proceeded into the district and looked for the biggest gathering of people she could find. Her goal was to learn anything she could about the district¡¯s structure and the paths available to her, and this was the easiest way.


    People speak a lot around their friends and acquaintances, and within a district, most had encountered one another at least once in their lives. They travelled the same streets, traded with the same merchants, and would often share minor facts that, to many, seemed almost insignificant. To her, however, a casual mention of something could pave the way for her approach to the district, and so she would naturally not pass up the opportunity to listen to everything a little more closely than her spiritual perception would allow.


    The effects were roughly the same when she used her ears, but it always felt a little more natural to combine spiritual perception and ordinary hearing.


    Her destination ended up being a large and open space not far from a raised platform used at the moment of her arrival by two women, both using daggers to fight one another while dressed in the minimal amount of clothing necessary to retain some semblance of modesty. It was a combat arena, one of many present here and in other districts, although the number of people that had gathered was far greater than the crowds she had seen in the Yi District.


    At the moment, it was closest to her point of entry and had the most people in the nearest few hundred metres, so it was the most suitable place to go. Quickly, she got to hear the things that she had come here for.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been hearing more and more about the Heavenly Sword¡¯s fall¡­ Do you think the Patriarch also-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t start saying things like that, not when the next series of selections is beginning not long from now¡­ Imagine if they actually announce that Wu Lang has succumbed to his injuries¡­¡± the man responding paused for a moment, resuming with a lowered voice, ¡°If he and Wu Wei Wang, the Heavenly Sword of twenty years, have both perished, then our knowledge of martial arts will have declined greatly. Remember, Wu Lang had become Patriarch after he had proven himself as the Heavenly Fist, and they have not yet passed down all that they knew¡­ Look at what you¡¯ve done! Now I¡¯m speaking as if he has perished¡­¡±


    He stopped when he glanced over his shoulder and noticed that Wei Yi was standing near him, paying a little too much attention to what they were saying.


    ¡°Sorry, did you say that the Patriarch had earned his position through becoming a Heavenly Fist?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s how it has always worked here. You¡¯re an outsider, aren¡¯t you? What do you want from me?¡±


    ¡°Is that something that everyone is able to do? Become a Heavenly something, I mean.¡±


    ¡°You need to be extremely talented and capable in a field of martial arts, but other than that, yes¡­ You don¡¯t think that you¡¯re going to just take that position when there are so many other people competing for it?¡±


    The Ascendant shrugged, ¡°I might not be able to ¡®just¡¯ take it, but I see no reason why I shouldn¡¯t try. The people that become one of the Heavenly somethings ¨C is there a proper term for that, by the way, or should I just continue to say something that sounds as silly as that ¨C are they able to vie for the position of Patriarch with no other qualifications, or do they need to be a member of the Wu family first?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ oh, I see, you¡¯re just joking, aren¡¯t you? That¡¯s not as funny as you think, outsider,¡± the man tried to make himself laugh even a little bit, but failed and continued while Wei Yi just remained quiet, ¡°Sure, anyone can become the Patriarch, but Wu Lang, our previous Patriarch, had originally mastered fist techniques and then expanded his knowledge to the point of becoming a Heavenly Hand, allowing him to make a claim to his position. He may not have been the best at other hand techniques, but his combined knowledge meant that he was the most suited for leading us and developing our methods, improving our skill in martial arts as a whole, which is the duty of every Patriarch.¡±


    ¡°And that position can be claimed at these selections you mentioned?¡±


    ¡°The position of Heavenly Sword, yes. Once you have that, you can address the guardians and other Heavenly Masters to compete with them and display your mastery in other fields relating to the sword, meaning other weapons. If you were to become the Heavenly Fist, you could compete with the Heavenly Finger and the Heavenly Palm, and as the Heavenly Sword, you can challenge the Heavenly Spear, Heavenly Axe, Heavenly Bow and so on,¡± the man replied, clearly feeling significantly more open now that he had concluded that she was merely joking.


    Seeing as he had given out most of the information she might have wanted to know, she didn¡¯t bother correcting him and slowly distanced herself from him and his companion, staying for a while to observe the two fighting women to get a better grasp of the local combat techniques. None were going to be superior in battle against the Greats, for instance, but they could be helpful to study anyway.


    On one hand, she would be able to be better prepared for the challenges against the other Heavenly Masters, and on the other, she might step just a little bit closer to a full understanding of a weapon¡¯s Dao, with which it would inevitably be significantly easier to attain the position of a Heavenly Master. Once she had that, she could vie for the position of Matriarch, and once she had that, she would have both the spatial stabilisation point and the ability to invoke the power of the district against her foes.


    This was far better to needing to communicate with the Patriarch first and persuade them to act in the way that she wished them to, which she did still need to do with some of those that had aligned with her at the north. There wasn¡¯t that much of a problem most of the time, but the very moment that she decided that she would do something beyond the current expectations of the Patriarchs, beyond something that they would accept her doing, they would put up some resistance and force her to deal with them one way or another if she wanted to guarantee that her plans would be executed exactly as she wanted them to be.


    Obviously, the people involved in her plans all mattered, whether they were Patriarchs or random people off the streets, but it was the former that had more of a chance to obstruct her, while the latter would also know less about her overall goals and be far more easily convinced.


    That aside, now that she knew what she wished to do, she needed to conclude where to go, and that would be accomplished most easily by simply heading towards the Ancestral Hall of the district, where most of the activity related to the Heavenly Masters and the Patriarch was likely to occur. There, not long after she arrived and stopped by, she noticed a small scroll with her spiritual perception and retrieved it from a shelf on the inside of the structure, getting out quickly after that.


    Upon unfurling it, she was able to read the title of the scroll at the top, ¡®Selections of the Heavenly Masters.¡¯


    Naturally, this was why she had taken the scroll to begin with, so she continued to read on.


    ¡®Occurring on the tenth of the eighth month, any participant willing to attempt to attain the position of the Heavenly Sword after the passing of the previous Heavenly Sword may do so at the Master¡¯s Square, at mid-day. A test to select those who are sufficiently capable of representing their weapon¡¯s martial arts will take place no later than ten minutes prior to the next hour, selecting up to twelve people who shall be permitted to process their comprehensions of the Dao prior to the next trial.


    ¡®At that point, further proceedings shall be announced forthwith, provided that the conflict at the south-eastern border do not disturb our intended actions. On that topic, Guardian Wu Fang will report upon the seventeenth at the latest.¡¯


    Aside from the way in which this was written, forcing any casual reader to take twice as long to comprehend it, this provided her with the exact information that she needed, and then allowed her to calculate the exact merit of this method. The delay, potentially taking up as long as nine days from her schedule that might have otherwise been used in the Ze District, as well as in the previous range of the Yi City Web, was a significant one, even if she had anticipated such things in both the Ze and Wu Districts. The benefits were also rather significant, however.


    The power of the Wu District, potential advancement of the Weapon Dao, and a list of other benefits that she could obtain from actively participating within the selection process of this district. Even if it took a total of sixteen days instead ¨C assuming that it took two weeks before the proceedings of the selection process rather than one ¨C then she would be a little more reluctant, but it would still be sufficiently quick for her to count this as a worthwhile usage of her time.


    In actuality, even if she had to choose between Full Success in something like the Sword Dao and the status of Matriarch in the Wu District, she might still spend nine days on it just because of the sheer potential of the former, and the obvious power of the latter. To master the concept of a weapon to the extent of reaching Full Success in a Dao would offer her not only the vision state of that Dao, greatly enhancing her ability to perceive potential dangers to her, as well as allowing her to use far less of her mental energy to deal with threats that could be deflected with the blow of a conceptual blade, but it could also greatly enhance her offensive capability so long as she bound any of her techniques into the form of a sword. Her Obliteration energy, for instance, could always be wrapped around a blade made of energy, or she could create a new method of using it that fired out swords in place of a powerful beam.


    Furthermore, most martial artists loved to pursue the notion that anything could be a sword, and while this was true with planar energy, there was always the potential of making that true without it, fully transferring all of her combat techniques into universal ones. If she lacked a sword and planar energy, she could still use any sword technique simply by willing to do so.


    ¡®Well, this is all speculation, but I see no reason why this wouldn¡¯t be the case. The heavens must have enough comprehension of this kind of thing, unlike with the Dao of Law¡­¡¯

 V5C45: True Competition

    ¡°And now, we see the return of our newest favourite ¨C the one-armed swordswoman!¡± a man that was holding a bottle of alcoholic beverage in one hand and leaning on a low wall to prevent himself from falling over exclaimed, prompting most to give him dirty looks and distance themselves.


    Even then, while they found his unnecessary explanations of events unnecessary, they found that they couldn¡¯t disagree with his assessment of the second person to step onto the fighting ring, or, in this particular case, square. It was surrounded by a road that went around it and a raised section on both sides of the road, where most of the spectators of the fighting arena preferred to stand, both as to not disturb travellers and to get a better view of things.


    In the past two days, a new contestant had been appearing and fighting just about everyone that would accept their challenge. They would oppose those with swords, with axes, fists, clubs and even unusual and rarely used weapons like scythes and flails. Each and every time, this woman would win, but that didn¡¯t stop anyone from watching, nor from challenging her. For whatever reason, she would fight at just the right level to continue the fight for a long time, then, when it was clear that the opponent had nothing new to show them, she would unleash a series of blows that couldn¡¯t be resisted no matter what her foe did, resulting in her victory. Although it was immediately clear who would win, it satisfied both the casual observer, and those wishing to learn from the fight, so there was no reason not to watch her.


    It helped that she was not delayed by things like stamina, as she seemed to have an inexhaustible supply. The gap between each fight needed only be as long as the time it took to find the next foe.


    Due to this, Wei Yi ¨C for who else could be described with such an absurd description as that ¨C had fought nearly two hundred people by the tenth hour of the tenth day, which meant that she would easily have time for one more fight before she needed to go off to the Master¡¯s Square.


    The first ten or so fights that she had participated in were the longest, as she needed to do the most reorganisation of her own methods to allow them to maintain effectiveness without any forms of energy, and had the most that she could learn from. As she got used to this kind of fighting, and once she witnessed a number of the shared principles utilised by those from the Wu District, she had far less to borrow from her opponents each time that she faced them, and so the time taken in the arena decreased as a result.


    Now, she could get most fights done within ten minutes if she wanted to learn everything from her opponent through the combination of her mental scan and by fighting her foe and forcing them to reveal as many of their individual moves as possible. For her last battle here, though, she was not going to drag things out or rush through it, as she had plenty of time to spare while lacking the ability to accelerate the other proceedings no matter how much she may wish to do so.


    She stood on one side of the arena and watched as her opponent prepared. A woman with a larger build than her own, using a thick and heavy greatsword that was also larger than her own, and was heavily scarred and had a constant aura of killing intent around herself was on the other side.


    ¡°So, what kind of challenger are you? Here for the victory, or for learning?¡± Wei Yi asked.


    The other woman was clearly still preparing, so it didn¡¯t hurt to learn more about her while she could. It would also lessen the chances of her getting unreasonably angry afterwards and attempting to kill her, like two of her opponents so far had done. Based on this, she would also know how to pace herself, since it was significantly more straightforward to fight those who only want to practise and train.


    ¡°Obviously, I¡¯m here to win!¡± the woman exclaimed.


    This type of opponent was a less convenient one, to put it one way, as it meant that they were significantly more likely to have a problem with her winning easily and straightforwardly, which is what she ended up doing most of the time. There were a few exceptions, mostly from people that managed to pull out such unusual methods that she couldn¡¯t quite deal with at the normal level that she was attempting to adhere to.


    Whether this person was going to be the same, it was hard to be certain, but she was not going to give her a reason to get upset at her unreasonably. By defeating the other woman clearly and definitively, she would prove that she deserves the victory, and that she is not to be messed with later.


    ¡°Alright, in that case, feel free to go first. I¡¯ll give you a single strike before I fight back, so make the most of it.¡±


    Saying something like that was bound to rile her up, but it also did a decent job of setting up certain expectations. More precisely, someone speaking like this was either a sign of extreme arrogance, or extreme confidence, and the moment that capability was displayed to a sufficient degree most would no longer be upset about being defeated by someone sufficiently powerful.


    The first response of the woman was indeed in line with this assumption, as she glared at the Ascendant and angrily clenched her teeth, holding back a yell. She managed to limit herself to a growl instead, and then, after a moment in which they decided when the battle would occur, and then raced towards Wei Yi, raising her greatsword into the air with a very obvious intent to slam it down upon her and cleave her in two, a basic yet understandable tactic. With her strength, it would be possible to overpower someone without much technique and finesse, and since the Ascendant looked smaller and used a smaller weapon, she was presuming that she would be able to take care of things in this way.


    That was a terrible, terrible mistake, for force was not so effective against proper use of a far lesser quantity of it. Only if something reached an absolute level could it overcome all displays of skill and talent, and the woman before her did not reach that level.


    Just when the greatsword began to fall upon her, Wei Yi simply dodged to the side and waited for the blade to come down further, before slamming her heel onto the edge to force it into the ground.


    ¡°You may want to try again, unless this is the best that you¡¯re able to do. Remember, most targets aren¡¯t just dummies, standing there and waiting to be hit,¡± the Ascendant said, pushing the sword further into the ground, ¡°To hit the majority of opponents, you should strike more quickly and more reasonably, anticipating your foe¡¯s movements and acting in a way that either prevents them, or takes advantage of them.¡±


    ¡°Shut it, you fairy bitch!¡± her foe cried out, forcefully tearing the blade out of the ground.


    Wei Yi evaded that quickly and easily, then raised an eyebrow, ¡°Are you using that the way I think you¡¯re using it? Where did you get that from? Do I look like someone that is selling their body to anyone, or someone that even has the need to do so?¡±


    ¡°You look like one!¡±


    ¡°¡­ Wouldn¡¯t you want to look better, though? I am not going to scar myself or intentionally worsen my appearance so that I can look less like a prostitute¡­ is that all you based that on?¡±


    ¡°Do I need any more than that?¡± the woman asked, performing a wild sideways slash at the same time, with just as little effectiveness as her previous attack. Perhaps her only gain from using this method over the downward slash was that her sword did not get stuck in the ground, and that there was no opportunity for Wei Yi to easily hold it down and limit her movement.


    ¡°Well, yes, you do. Do you assume that every single woman from a long-lasting and powerful bloodline is going to be selling her body? Besides, if someone was to do that, are you going to say that they¡¯re someone worthy of disparaging? What is wrong with choosing to use one¡¯s body to satisfy the needs of others?¡± Wei Yi asked, evading another two strikes in the meantime, ¡°You have chosen to spend your time on fighting and combat, judging by your numerous scars, but if you think that there is no challenge to that field, then you are very wrong.¡±


    ¡°Why are you¡­ what are you even doing? Fight me properly!¡± the woman cried out.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see any reason to do so. You cannot respect those that choose a different path to your own, and so I might as well give you the same treatment. I might as well provide you with as little respect as you would offer another.¡±


    ¡°B-But¡­ eh¡­ You aren¡¯t-¡±


    ¡°You were addressing me as if I was, so clearly I should respond to you accordingly. Besides, if you think you can defeat me, wouldn¡¯t you rather have me be a trained and experienced combatant ¨C which, considering the past two days, you should be aware that I am one ¨C rather than someone who¡­ wait, what exactly were you even thinking?¡±


    ¡°I just¡­ I just said something that sounded insulting¡­¡±


    ¡°In that case, think about your actions and don¡¯t do this again. I can fight you seriously, but the point of these duels is meant to be for us to learn from one another. Let this be your lesson.¡±


    ¡°Alright¡­ I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± the tough woman managed to apologise, halting her blade swinging and bowing slightly, ¡°However, after this, you better fight properly, without anything else getting in the way. I want to see you at your very best, so I that I can fight back in the same way and show you my full power! I want to see exactly what a woman who has yet to lose within our Wu District can display against me, and I want to win!¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t promise you that last part if you don¡¯t do better.¡±


    ¡°I will also do my very best! I promise that you will see the absolute peak of my ability, and I will finally win!¡±


    ¡°Again, can¡¯t promise you victory, nor would I ever do so if we were fighting against one another, but I do encourage you to do your best. From my understanding of the Wu District, all of you wish to perfect your combat styles, so I would never tell you to hold back against me, especially when we aren¡¯t using planar energy and have far less of a chance of killing one another unintentionally.¡±


    The tough woman didn¡¯t reply after that, and neither did Wei Yi attempt to follow up with anything, stepping back a little and readying her sword once more. They faced one another for a moment.


    Then, without any outside prompts, they charged at one another, swords held in their firm hands. One went to slash down, same as before, whereas the Ascendant held back and waited for the best time to attack. On this occasion, it turned out to be just until the blade fell upon her, at which point she shifted to the side and thrust up her weapon, allowing the large greatsword to slide down its side and immediately provided her with the perfect opportunity to slash at the woman¡¯s side, although she held back her strength there.


    As soon as she touched the skin of her opponent, she brought her sword back and left naught but a red mark on her opponent, one that slowly began to secrete drops of blood at a pace that might not end a life even if it was never ceased.


    ¡°What-¡±


    ¡°Keep going, don¡¯t start chatting! Others wouldn¡¯t be kind enough to let you go on!¡±


    This time, the woman listened to her recommendations very quickly, slashing time and time again, each time clearly trying to observe her actions and respond effectively.


    However, most of them lacked sufficient cohesion, almost akin to Wei Yi¡¯s own failures to comprehend the significance of a flow when she had been struggling with blacksmithing. Each individual attack could be absolutely magnificent and flawless in execution and timing, but if it was not followed up correctly, and if one did not make the most of its properties, then all that would occur is disappointment and failure.


    Strike after strike, the woman could not land a single hit, whereas she had to accumulate cut after cut upon her flesh, more and more blood slowly beginning to pour from the small wounds. At first, she was fine, but as the fight went on, she was losing enough blood to feel light-headed.


    That did not stop her attempts to win, again and again, but it was very clear that this could not go on forever, no matter how much she may want it to. Hence, after a little while, when it was clear that her movements were becoming slower and her attacks were losing any chance of hitting even if the Ascendant walked away at a leisurely pace, it was time to end it.


    ¡°You cannot win if that is all you have. For your sake, I can end things impressively, or I can let you have one more go that might just lead to disappointment and misery.¡±


    The woman looked at her in silence for a moment, then shook her head as she shouted vigorously and unleashed what remained of her strength in one last attack. Her aura surged out from her form, almost chopping at the arena beneath her as she attempted to perform a diagonal slash that would split her opponent in two. It was filled with vigour and power such as has not been seen since the very start of the fight.


    However, Wei Yi simply needed to reach out and grab onto the blade to stop it fully.


    ¡°Simply throwing more strength into an attack isn¡¯t sufficient to win. Any opponent that is sufficiently quick or is equipped with a sufficiently tough piece of armour to endure your attack will immediately be able to deal with everything you throw at them and then attack back at their own pace, resulting in their victory. Treat me as a great example, if you wish,¡± she said, lightly pulling on the sword and instantly bringing it out of the hands of her opponent, as there was no more strength within the hands of the woman.


    Even the strongest hand could only grasp onto something while it had the energy to do so, and with the display of strength the moment prior she had exhausted what little had remained within her body. Hence, with such a heavy blade and such significant damage suffered, to disarm the woman was incredibly easy, and would have been even had Wei Yi been an ordinary person.


    ¡°It is good to understand your strengths, but that does not mean that you can, or should, ignore your weaknesses. Only by resolving, circumventing or outright removing them can you possibly be certain of victory, and even then, you should act cautiously and carefully, for you can never guarantee anything.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Couldn¡¯t you have beaten me with something impressive?¡±


    ¡°Did you want me to kill you? If you are so interested in ending your life, then I can contribute, and the Wu District¡¯s rules should permit me to do this, provided that I recall them correctly,¡± the Ascendant replied, naturally omitting commentary on the quality of her memory, ¡°That being said, I don¡¯t think that this is what you want. You wanted to keep some degree of pride by being defeated by a powerful foe that is completely out of your league, but none of my attacks satisfied that desire. You shouldn¡¯t wait for others to fulfil your wants, especially when you are not acting in a way that would lead people to do so.¡±


    The woman did not reply right away, as her body was barely able to remain standing up to that point. After she had replied to the Ascendant, she maintained her stance for only a while longer before she leaned forward and fell to the ground. Wei Yi did not attempt to stop her fall, but she did release a thin mist of spiritual will to soften the fall.


    ¡°Tell me, have you actually practised any specific techniques? Not necessarily anything extravagant, just basics of combat with a sword.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I had spent my last twenty years practising swinging a sword, training my strength, and so on¡­¡±


    ¡°Since you managed to calm yourself and act more reasonably, I will give you some frank advice. It may sound rude, but you did something extremely stupid. Just by having some muscles, you won¡¯t be able to overwhelm most opponents, not unless they are relying on the same kind of handicap as you are, and thus allow the contest to be somewhat fair. Had this been your path of cultivation, and had you been able to use greater planar energy to overcome me, then I would have instead been asking you whether you had made use of any planar techniques, constructs and so on. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I understand. It¡­ is my mistake¡­¡±


    ¡°Now, learn from it and don¡¯t think that simply swinging a sword will bring you victory,¡± Wei Yi finished, although her mind quickly wandered away, ¡®Theoretically, her approach was in line with a Dao, be it a Dao of Strength or the Sword Dao. To master something to an extreme extent has the chance of providing insight into the Dao, and would thus achieve something worthwhile¡­ That being said, this is not the best way to go about things, and so I would not advise anyone to go on such a path. A single, absolute way is bound to lead to doom without supplementing it with other things¡­ which does appear to be the path I am going to take with Law, the further and further I go¡­ not ideal, that, not ideal in the slightest¡­¡¯


    That being said, she could never comprehend all of reality without a far, far superior mind, memory, a great deal of time, a better ability to understand and perceive the world, and many, many more things that she couldn¡¯t just provide to herself on a whim, nor even with a great deal of effort.


    Some would be obtained in time, of course, like divine perception that would allow her to see further, observe things in greater detail, and possibly withstand her Absolute Soul¡¯s aura, but the time that she wished to have to explore the world, comprehend her various Dao and study whatever she had been unable to learn while focusing on saving Yi City from the Greats.


    For now, however, she had to stick to doing what little she could, and that was to attempt to become the Matriarch of a district that might very well be willing to accept her, provided that her skills were indeed as good as she considered them to be. With everything that she had gained over the years, every technique she had accumulated and every distinct art that she had comprehended, she considered her overall arsenal to be very much above that of the majority of cultivators. After taking into account the additional time she had spent training and practising with everything that she had, she believed that she would be able to be victorious in the end.


    Of course, she was aware that she had not been dealing with the strongest residents of the Wu District, and so she was very likely to be inferior in certain regards to other potential opponents.


    She was most concerned about the possibility of some having comprehended Dao, but having a much better grasp of it than her. With how many she had obtained in a relatively short life, she obviously lacked as much time to consider any specific one in the same depth as others might with a Sword Dao, for instance. If they have figured out more of the intricacies of the Sword Dao, and more uses for it, perhaps even attaining a vision state and finding a way to imbue it into their movements and attacks in such a way that it can be mobilised even without drawing upon planar energy, they would be far stronger than she is, at least without her using her extremely powerful physique and other forms of energy.


    They would be incredibly beneficial for her development if she was able to overcome them and understand the principles that they were using for their own power, but rather dangerous if they were superior in some regard that she couldn¡¯t handle.


    It would be ideal for her to win fairly, to win the trust of the people, to prove her ability, and to gather knowledge and experience in the process, but she was ready to cheat a little if she needed to. Given that the current Patriarch appeared to be deceased, there would be no people in the seventh realm that would be able to perceive her energy properly. Thus, she could always bring out her killing will or physique energy to give herself a significant advantage in any fight without most noticing.


    There would be some that did, simply because it was nearly impossible to hide something as abnormal as physique energy and killing will when being used for combat, and so she would need to act in an effective manner to minimize that number. She would then need to handle those that weren¡¯t fond of her actions, one way or another, and from there she would be able to hold onto the power of the Wu District for however long she needed to. After all, she wouldn¡¯t keep onto the district for much longer than she needed to.


    Her intentions were to take the power of the Wu District for however long the War of Ascendancy continued, and after that, she was more than willing to pass it on to anyone else. Ideally, there would be some other Matriarch or Patriarch who would be capable and fitting her ideas for the development of the districts and Yi City as a whole. Whether they would keep the title itself for long was uncertain.


    ¡°¡­ Excuse me, are you still up for fighting? I would like to challenge you¡­¡±


    ¡°Sorry, not up for it anymore. There¡¯s somewhere that I have to be,¡± Wei Yi replied to the rather small woman that had decided to challenge her, ¡°If you¡¯re up for it, you can feel free to join me at the Selection of the Heavenly Masters, but I would guess that it isn¡¯t something you¡¯d risk going into without sufficient preparation. I am not going to be available after that, either, so I would just advise fighting someone else, literally anywhere else.¡±


    The girl ¨C for it felt somewhat wrong to refer to someone so small and young-looking as a woman ¨C looked almost distraught at this, the exact reasons being hard to distinguish simply due to the number of potential causes for her shock.


    It was not something that the Ascendant was going to bother with, since her understanding of the Selection of the Heavenly Masters was that it was not a lethal process unless someone without more than a minute of lifespan attempted to enter. Even if the girl entered and challenged people that were far beyond her in terms of strength and ability ¨C which would be most of them, since the girl did not have much of a cultivation or significant aura, indicating to her that something exception would need to happen for her to win against anyone ¨C she would simply be knocked down and incapacitated, perhaps slightly injured for her efforts, but nothing more.


    As she got down from the square arena, she did actually contemplate what would happen if the girl was some kind of hidden master, but she was not expecting to lose out regardless of the outcome. Since the girl had yet to attempt it on her own, she might very well give up her position even if she completely obliterated the Ascendant in whatever challenges they would face.


    Hence, she did not pay too much attention to the girl¡¯s reaction as she departed, quickly proceeding to the Master¡¯s Square that she had found as soon as she knew that she would need to come there.


    The chances of her missing something so significant within the district were slim due to her spiritual perception, but it didn¡¯t hurt to be certain of exactly where to go, as to be certain that she can account for any potential delays and arrive in time regardless of what the world may throw at her. With certainty regarding the location of the Master¡¯s Square, she could have been obstructed by a million different trials and tribulations on the way, and she could have made it there in the same time as it ended up taking her.


    Whether due to her good luck or something else, she got to the great square with ease and without interference, ending up there an hour early and with few others being there at the moment of arrival. That being said, due to no regular residents choosing to walk through this place, the few that were already standing around and waiting were certain to be potential adversaries in the upcoming Selection of the Heavenly Masters.


    Most were in the fifth realm, and those that were travelling in this direction were at the same level, with a few in the fourth realm and only one person in the sixth realm, that she was able to notice. In a trial of pure physical combat prowess, planar cultivation realm might not be as significant, but to become someone that was equivalent to a guardian of the district, one would generally benefit from being more powerful. If one attempted the Selection at the first two realms, they would be unable to fulfil most other duties of the Heavenly Masters, and would expend too many resources on cultivating to a sufficient level.


    In particular, this would be most problematic in the person¡¯s obvious inability to advise anyone in the field of planar energy usage, something that was still necessary despite the Wu District¡¯s dislike of using anything beyond their mastery of technique. Fighting at the border would also be impossible.


    For that reason, the majority of those that were considered capable in pure swordsmanship but lacked a high cultivation did not appear to be heading in this direction, with most that would fit this description instead sticking around at various combat arenas and challenging others while attempting to improve their overall skills to the point that they would be sufficiently capable to attempt to gain the position in the future. Not all wished for the position of a Heavenly Master, speaking purely generally, but most would want some of the benefits from it while being fine with providing their abilities to the district.


    ¡®Well, the fewer people I need to deal with, the better it may be for me.¡¯

 V5C46: The First Stage

    As the hour was coming closer, more and more people arrived at the square, eventually filling up roughly half of the area without much space in between them. In total, there were roughly three hundred potential participants in the Selection of the Heavenly Masters, the Heavenly Sword to be more precise, and from what the Ascendant was able to gather about their abilities, it did not seem that most would be her equals.


    The vast majority lacked the sign of any Dao vision states, meaning that they would not have an advantage in that regard, and their bodies did not exhibit signs of techniques trained to an excessive degree. Thus, they would not have a combat style that they had polished unceasingly.


    There were three that she could see with marks of a vision state within their irises, but she could not determine the exact Dao that had brought them their vision state. As such, it was difficult to know whether they would be particularly effective in combat as a result of the vision state, as they might very well have accidentally comprehended the Dao of Baking, and thus have become exceptional at providing baked goods for the district and not at all capable of properly combatting others with that skill, even if it did have a theoretical application in the arena.


    Out of those that she could detect and evaluate with any degree of accuracy, there were two that she was most concerned with. The first was obviously a Wu District resident, and likely a family member, with a vision state circle within his irises and a powerful body that had clearly been trained for many, many years, and the second¡­ the second made it very difficult for her to remain calm and quiet.


    So far as she could tell, the figure on the other side of the Master¡¯s Square, standing away from the others with a familiar arrogant and irritating expression, was a member of the Great Wu Family. The aura of thirty-nine distinct anchors, as well as fifty searing marks upon his core, made it very clear that she was facing one of the second generation members of the Great Families, and although he lacked any distinct features that might indicate him to be from a specific family ¨C something common in the regular Wu family as they were far more open to outside visits and quickly allowed permanent residence so long as one proved themselves to be capable ¨C he had a very different aura to the majority of the Great Family members that she had interacted with up to this point.


    Rather than the usual focus on the anchors within his dantian, his innate aura was that of thirty-nine swords, arranged in the same manner as his anchors were. It was still obvious what his origins were, as his aura didn¡¯t even attempt to hide that, but it was the first time she had seen one like this.


    From the current distance, she was fortunately remaining away from the gaze of the Great Family member, or else she might have had an even more adverse reaction to him. While he might have become aware of her and attempted to combat her, she would be fine in that case, as she had dealt with plenty of those at his level before she had even reached her current realm. The true problem would be the reaction of the district to her actions, as they might see her as a disruption to the process and thus a foe, to a certain extent.


    Whether it got her kicked out of the district, or just led to her being seen as a bad pick for either a Heavenly Sword or the Matriarch, it would not be ideal.


    As a result, she was trying very hard to keep calm, and could be said to be succeeding aside from the extreme surge of smoke-like energy from the eternal wound at her left shoulder, all of the ground beneath her was cracking, some of the structures behind her were being eroded by her fury, and her robes were actively fluttering as if she was standing in the middle of a hurricane.


    Most had chosen to distance themselves from her, resulting in two wide open spaces around her and the Great Family member by the time that the people in charge of this selection process finally arrived at the square. There were five figures, four men and a woman, guarded on the left and right by armed and armoured guards that looked to be there mostly for appearance rather than function, as their cultivation and equipment were inferior to that of the five in the middle.


    They did not respond to the odd spaces around her and the Great, instead travelling to the middle of the square and looking around, while their guards stepped aside and travelled to the edges.


    ¡°Are all of you those that believe themselves to be suitable to become the new Heavenly Sword?¡±


    All those present provided some sign of acknowledgement and agreement, with even the Great Family member managing to do so without a disdainful look upon the five in the middle. It was rather exceptional, and was made far less shocking after he lowered his gaze and his expression twisted into a look of disgust, alleviated only by the sight of his own hand, which he held near his chest in a fist.


    The man that had spoken first quietly shook his head and looked to the woman, who held up a small box that she had brought with her. One of the other men took a step closer, carefully placed their hand on the lid, then addressed the crowd, ¡°There are simply too many of you. If you think that you may claim this position, then you must prove that you understand the sword, and would not fall to ordinary blows and plain attacks. Remain standing for a minute, and that proof shall be given to us, and you may remain. The rest ought to leave, before they hurt themselves further.¡±


    Of course, those that had chosen to come here did not do so without any thought, and thus they were convinced that they were right to be here. Not even the most cowardly would step out this early, as they would either not have been here from the start, or would leave after the first round, willingly or otherwise. For that reason, none of the three hundred chose to move, and instead gave a few glances to those that they might assume would leave instead, looking away when they did not.


    The figures standing in the middle shook their heads together, with the man with his hand on the lid of the box quietly lifting it by just an inch.


    From within, a vast and indescribable aura burst out, instantly overwhelming the area with an impossible sensation of extreme might. It felt as if a world was dropped onto them, and yet that was somehow the least of their current problems, and of the extreme sensations that fell upon them without any ability to endure them, at least not so far as they were able to perceive and catch.


    The Ascendant felt all of that crash upon her, but the impact was far lesser on her due to a combination of reasons, with the most recent one clearly being the acquisition of the Absolute Soul. She still felt the sensations, and sensed the difficulty of getting through it, but it was almost as if her mind could exist in two states ¨C one weak and enduring the brunt of the attack, and another that could then observe it from the side and learn from all of the damage dealt to the first part without her needing to suffer it personally.


    It wasn¡¯t quite how it worked, but it was close enough, and it was very much to her benefit.


    One of the problems with gaining a significant resistance to anything was that one could no longer use that to temper themselves, whether in that field or in general. For instance, she was essentially immune to common forms of physical attacks, like an ordinary sword being used by an ordinary person without a cultivation, so if she ever got into a fight with someone like that, she would not be able to gain anything from battling them, no matter how hard she tried.


    Since she retained the ability to experience the full brunt of whatever aura had emerged from the box, and also analyse it personally, she benefitted from it twice. As a result, she was almost tempted to thank the five that brought the box out after this event, as they had allowed her to experience a great level of stress while being entirely safe. It was perfect, in fact, and she would have liked to keep that box among her collection of otherworldly gifts. For now, she was perfectly content to stand by and observe, focusing mostly on her opponent at the other side of the Master¡¯s Square, where the Great Family member stood, enduring the mental blow.


    Unlike her, he did not appear to have any kind of abnormal soul, and even the presence of one would be very unlikely to provide him with the exact kind of resistant attribute that she had, so he had to deal with the immense aura using his own strength, and that alone.


    As a result, she got to witness the blades of his aura congregate in a barrier around him, trembling and lightly ringing as they dealt with the absurd onslaught of pressure. Beneath the layer of illusory blades, he stood firm and proud, his back straight and his eyes finally raised to look upon those that he undoubtedly disdained with a passion.


    He started to look on to those to his left, and slowly began to turn towards the right, as if to take in all those that were inferior to him. Many were unable to withstand the force of the pressure within the box, and those he looked at for a moment, but a few other than the Ascendant could, prompting him to look away far more quickly, hence the assumption of his purpose in doing so in the first place. If he had turned over to her, he would have likely recognised her either for her ability to stand around and seemingly ignore the pressure, or for the rather obvious crimson hair, silver eyes, red robes, missing left arm and all of the other things that she possessed that few others did. For that reason, she was very pleased to see that his gaze did not end up reaching her.


    The box was shut very suddenly, allowing those that had been overwhelmed by it to see the world around them. Many realised that they had fallen to the ground, and a few noticed that they were close to doing so, barely remaining standing at this point.


    Far more than two thirds of the initial group had fallen, and they were now out.


    ¡°All of you, get out of the Master¡¯s Square this very moment. You have no ability deal with the rest of the competition, and so you no longer need to disgrace us with your presence,¡± the man that had opened the box declared, removing his hand from the lid and quietly spitting at the people that fell first. It seemed that this was the extent of his intentions, but there were a few drops of blood within his spit, making it immediately obvious to Wei Yi that he had not been spared from the extreme influence within the box.


    As her spiritual perception had been unable to perceive what was within the box, she had no clue what lay within, although she did have a little bit of an idea.


    Based on what she had sensed, there was a clear trace of aura and intent within the box, and it was unlikely that the box could hold those two things themselves and be used regularly without them being exhausted quickly. It needed to be some kind of object, then, one capable of storing and possibly producing the intent actively, perhaps a fragment of an artefact or some kind of otherworldly gift. The latter would be significantly more abnormal, obviously, as those things rarely broke.


    It was most likely to be some kind of artefact shard from a time long past, created by one of the ancient ancestors of the Wu District, and imbued with their energy and techniques to the extent that the fragments of the artefacts retained a certain degree of their user¡¯s original power long after they were broken apart and left to rot in a box. Given the immense aura, it might very well be beyond the capacity of most within the modern world to even stand near it and endure it, so she wasn¡¯t surprised that it would be kept within the box for so long instead of being actively used to better the people of the district, or at the very least of the Wu family¡­ which, technically speaking, it was, as the people that would join the district¡¯s forces as a result of the Selection of the Heavenly Masters would indeed be beneficial.


    The occasional exposure to the immense hostile aura contained within would certainly make the family members more able to endure it and other forms of killing intent. Provided that their foes at the Reclaimed Lands, over to the south-east, used it often, it would even benefit them actively during any battles that they fought in, regardless of the status they eventually earned.


    Whatever the nature of that thing was, she wanted to get her hands on it, and if she did become a Matriarch of the district, she would most certainly do so. An artefact shard, if that is what it was, might not be the most useful weapon on its own, regardless of its overall quality, but there were always uses for it. For instance, if all it was good for was manifesting that aura of terror and complete suppression that she and the rest in the Master¡¯s Square endured, then her own killing intent was likely to be able to empower that effect and allow her to spread it further, while controlling it herself to a certain extent.


    While she was pondering all of that, those that had fallen to the ground had left the square, some willingly and others far less so. A few attempted to make their displeasure known to the five that took up the middle of the square, but their voices were ignored and they were threatened with repeated exposure to the contents of the box, or the power of the ones that stood around it, quickly lessening their will to engage.


    In a way, this did make them even less suitable to be a Heavenly Sword, for the Wu District believed that one must be willing to face adversity, doing as much as possible even if one would then surrender, simply to learn as much as possible from it. By failing to do so, they showed cowardice.


    ¡®I would personally disagree in some instances, but hey, I have no reason to make a fuss about that,¡¯ she thought, preparing to make a fuss about something completely different as she took a step forward, ¡°Excuse me, what is that thing? I¡¯ve not been here long, so perhaps I¡¯ve just missed out on the name of that¡­ artefact, I¡¯d guess?¡±


    The man holding the box looked at her, as did a few others, the Great Family member fortunately being excluded from the list for the time being.


    ¡°It is a relic from a long time ago. However, you need not know more about it, for you endured it perfectly sufficiently,¡± the woman replied, ¡°If you do intend to learn more, then you ought to do so at a different time, perhaps once you have proven yourself in more ways than just one.¡±


    Her words still didn¡¯t catch the attention of the Great Family member ¨C whose name was, providing that they still adhered to their previous naming scheme, Wu Chao ¨C but after the initial reluctance to be seen by him, she had come up with a different plan. Since she could suffer as a result of the rules of the district, then it would, at least in theory, be possible to reverse this and force him into a position where he could not make use of the powers of the other Great Family members in order to cheat in the Selection, or to bring the Ascendant to their attention.


    Based on the fact that Wu Chao was participating in the process normally instead of simply barging in and demanding some degree of power, he was still constrained by the rules of the Wu District, and that meant that if he was the aggressor, and she offered a method to resolve it that satisfied the district¡¯s current leaders, she could steer the situation in her own favour really easily.


    For that reason, she did not back down and instead asked, ¡°In that case, why did you stop right now? Had you kept the box open for a little while longer, there may have been a few more than would be eliminated, and you would need to spend less time on the rest of the Selection process.¡±


    ¡°Endurance of violent auras are not the only sign of a good swordsman, and testing only that will have no value whatsoever. All that is necessary is for those involved to be able to endure enough of it to not fall before a foe in battle, and then they needed to be able to handle combat in full, whether they fight another swordsman or some foe that is entirely unfamiliar,¡± the woman answered with surprising patience, ¡°For that reason, there is no point to removing those that could stand up for themselves, either, as it would mean that a moment of fear would not lead to them losing a battle completely. Unfortunately, none wished to do so, and now you are the only ones that are left.¡±


    Finally, the Great Family member looked in her direction and had the immediate reaction that she expected from him. He gasped first, then reached for his sword and unleashed the spectral phantoms of his thirty-nine anchors, all of which instantly shifted the attention from her to him. At the same time, he reached into his robes for something.


    This was dangerous, as it could very well be part of the method that they used for communicating with one another from such a long distance, so Wei Yi did not wait before beginning her plan.


    ¡°That man-¡±


    ¡°Cease that behaviour right now, Wu Chao!¡± one of the four men in the middle beat her to it, prompting the Great Family member to look in his direction and, miraculously, pause his movements. Although he did still keep the anchors around himself, projected in full, to the extent that even the common person would be able to detect a trace of them, it was still both impressive and very much to her advantage. It was exactly what she needed, in fact.


    ¡°I wish to challenge that fu- that man!¡± Wei Yi called out, using the pause as well as she could, ¡°We have a certain relation, and so I wish to make use of the Selection¡¯s guidelines to ensure that he does not impact it or any of the other participants, nor force me to do the same.¡±


    The third man, the one that had stopped Wu Chao, turned to her, ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°You must know of his identity. You might be aware of my identity, as well, or have a certain clue regarding it.¡±


    ¡°So that really is that bitch-¡± Wu Chao froze mid-sentence when an overwhelming wave of killing intent burst out from the other side of the square, easily reaching him and practically punching him in the face with the sheer power contained within.


    ¡°SHUT IT, YOU MISERABLE PLAGUE UPON THIS WORLD!¡± Wei Yi couldn¡¯t stop herself from shouting, her killing intent blasting out of her body, primarily from the wound on her left, instantly breaking the ground and forming a great crater in the square, complete with an endless network of cracks spreading out to the nearby residences and structures. Those that were closest to her creaked and crumbled, numerous bricks dropping into a pile that nobody could ever recognise as a home, even had they seen it moments prior.


    This was her attempt to keep her killing intent under control, which was important to note.


    ¡°Do control your temper, or else you will have failed as much as those that have already left,¡± the third man said.


    ¡°Believe it or not, this is the most control that I can display right now. Provided that you do ensure that the assho- the man- Wu Chao doesn¡¯t do anything to affect this process, I will restrain myself and ensure that I also keep to the rules. I have no intention of skewing the competition in any way beyond my own abilities, as I have a great deal of respect for the Wu District¡¯s practises.¡±


    She was naturally speaking a little more respectfully than she actually felt, but this was nothing in comparison to holding back a world¡¯s worth of killing intent that could double in quantity at any given time. If it wasn¡¯t a little more troublesome to condense the conduit of the seventh realm than to barge through all of the previous realms combined, then she might well have been on her way past the Yin-Yang Conduit realm and onto the Mental Discord realm, if going past the seventh realm was feasible with her cultivation paths before the world¡¯s planar energy density had recovered to a sufficient degree, whatever that exact point was.


    Luckily, few had the means to detect someone¡¯s lies, and even then there would be plenty of methods of tricking such means, so she didn¡¯t need to worry about being discovered.


    ¡°What means of his are you aware of, that we ought to watch out for?¡±


    From his tone, it seemed that the man was not asking purely to learn, but more so to confirm her own knowledge, so she replied immediately and briefly, ¡°A communication method that be used to communicate with his elders over at their Testament. His anchors can easily be used to crush others without using any planar energy. The very aura of them can do the same, and most don¡¯t even know that they are anchors. His aura can only perform as a result of those-¡±


    ¡°One¡¯s cultivation is not any of our concern, Wei Yi. Provided that one does not go against Yi City and our Wu District, then even one that cultivates by slaughtering nations has a chance of becoming a Heavenly Sword.¡±


    ¡°I hope that was not an attempt to say anything rude about me¡­ Would you keep an eye on him?¡±


    ¡°The Selection of the Heavenly Masters must proceed properly, or else there is no value to any of the results. Since these are concerns, we will naturally ensure that no methods that go against our rules are permitted,¡± the woman said, ¡°However, we will observe your actions just the same, so do not attempt to do what you should not.¡±


    ¡°No need to do that. I am confident enough in my victory, provided that the piece of shi- Wu Chao does not force my hand,¡± the Ascendant confirmed.


    The fourth man of the group, who had yet to speak, suddenly spoke up, ¡°You clearly carry a great deal of hatred and anger within yourself. It is not a beneficial force for yourself, even if it does carry some benefits with itself.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t bother with that. I am aware, but it is currently essential for me, not to mention the fact that the source ¨C one of many, unfortunately ¨C of it is in front of me. At a later time, when they are gone and other matters have been resolves, that might become a possibility, but before then, I will not be able to do anything about it,¡± she replied, as uncertain as she was about the sudden interest in her killing intent from this otherwise silent figure.


    This, too, wasn¡¯t entirely honest, as she was not intending to dispose of her killing intent if she suddenly won the War of Ascendancy, and whatever other battles occurred in the future. The ultimate state of planar energy required the combination of every aspect of it, and so she could not dispose of one fifth of the total state.


    It would be possible to tone down the effect of killing intent upon her, as well as weakening its nature to a certain extent, but beside that, she would maintain it no matter what. This was a significant aspect of herself no matter what, as her crimson light and the black smoke alike were manifestations of a greater part of her, even if she did lose any reason to pursue the true form of planar energy due to some significant change in either the world or her own state, whatever that may be. Her notion of justice did originate, to a certain extent, from her fury at the world¡¯s terrible state, so losing it may also indicate that she has to lose her justice.


    She restrained her killing intent further, stepped out of the crater formed by it, and then a little further out to avoid standing on a thick layer of dust formed from the stone surface that had been there prior, and crossed her arms, waiting for the Selection of the Heavenly Masters to proceed.


    There was a bit of a delay in that, as some workers were called to manage the place and ensure that the two-stepped crater in the ground did not continue to grow out of their control.


    Provided that the Ascendant was permitted to move around too much, she would slowly force the entire Master¡¯s Square down by a dozen metres, and so some reinforcement needed to be done on the other parts of the square before she had the chance to damage them. At the same time, the Great Wu Family member was surrounded by the four men and affected by a number of techniques that would prevent him from using most means that might interfere with the Selection.


    All of the methods used were unlikely to truly stop him, that much Wei Yi was certain about, but she said nothing as they would provide her with a certain amount of time in which to take any appropriate action that she could think of. They would also ensure that the Wu District¡¯s current authorities knew about the actions of the Great Family member, and would thus lead to them inevitably concluding that she was at least partially justified in whatever action she ended up taking against him. They might object to her violently slaughtering him and tearing him into tiny pieces of flesh and bone, but that was fine.


    So long as they understood why she acted the way that she did, they couldn¡¯t deny that taking down that vile entity would be for the best.


    ¡°Now that these things are sorted, we may proceed to learn who among you have any capability in swordsmanship, and who came here in the bid to pass by purely on luck or endurance to mental effects,¡± the woman announced once all of this was done, ¡°This time, you will finally confront one another, and you will fight until one is either exhausted or struck by an attack.¡±


    Before anyone could ask for further information, the first man provided it, ¡°No planar energy may be used, nor anything derived from it. All that you may use are your own skills in swordsmanship, using a weapon that will be given to you by us, and you must choose a single target to oppose. For the sake of preventing unnecessary damage, Wu Chao and Wei Yi shall not fight one another yet, and can instead settle their differences at a different time, provided that the two do not fail to progress onto the next stages. An array shall be applied to the area to limit your physical strength as well, for beating someone up with one¡¯s raw strength is certainly impressive, but useless in this district.¡±


    That much did not need to be said to most that remained, for they would not have been able to endure the previous aura from within the box had they been unaware of the way in which they would be tested, and how they would need to compete with one another.


    Those few that didn¡¯t know the ways of the Wu District already restrained their questions and simply proceeded, looking around the significantly emptier square in search of those that they would be able to defeat, and do so well enough. They needed to showcase their talent, after all, so it would not be wise to beat up someone that had no ability or talent beside resisting the immense aura of the artefact within the box.

 V5C47: The Duel of Learning

    There was little of note to describe about most of the battles that took place around the Ascendant. Although there were certainly those that were capable and talented, especially the Wu family member with a vision state and, as much as she hated yet expected it, Wu Chao, most were not exhibiting their greatest skills nor were they fighting the most suitable foes.


    Most had ended up matching up with those that were significantly different to them in one way or another, allowing them to end the battle quickly enough as a result. If two people with significantly disparate attributes faced off against one another, with one having extreme strength and the other possessing extreme speed and dexterity, just to provide an example, then it was almost inevitable that most displays of swordsmanship would end up on the side, instead concluding based on the one that best used their attribute. A fast enough attack could land before the other was able to act, or a significantly strong hit could knock a weapon out of a person¡¯s hand and leave them defenceless.


    This happened even with the attempted equalisation of physical prowess for all involved, as the array beneath the Master¡¯s Square wasn¡¯t exactly perfect, nor made to match everyone exactly.


    Levelling out strength entirely wouldn¡¯t be very good even in this kind of conflict, as some were taller and stronger and more focused on a degree of brute force. Such inequalities do exist throughout the world and would persist to do so unless everyone was temporarily placed into different bodies specifically made for the fights. This was theoretically possible so long as one made use of an illusory realm, but that would come with its own problems, like requiring all that entered to retrain themselves to adjust to a new body.


    Then, if one wanted to truly level out the playing field, they would need to force all into either male or female bodies, which would come with its own level of awkwardness and discomfort for either a smaller or larger portion of the combatants, yielding little overall benefit.


    Wei Yi still paid attention to all that were involved, and made sure that she was keeping it all within her Ascendant¡¯s Library, where she extracted any interesting or important elements from within the scenes of battle for future use. Mainly, she was trying to understand the more complex meaning of what she was seeing, and the Sword Dao itself. There was a great deal to ponder in that regard, as unlike the Dao of Law, for instance, it was not truly a natural aspect of reality, not necessarily.


    There was no such thing as a sword in the natural realm, and so she had to approach matters from that perspective. One could argue that, since the ultimate realm of the Sword Dao and techniques was meant to permit one to use anything as a sword, that this kind of perspective would not be beneficial to her pursuit, but the core of Dao as a concept was that there were multiple ways to view any single Dao. Many of her Dao were viewed through the lens of Law, Ascendant, or Absolute principles, and there was no reason that she couldn¡¯t see the Sword Dao through the lens of Law, or perhaps through some other view if it worked out better for her.


    It was rather difficult to figure out a Dao, though, especially when she attempted to use a view that the heavens could not assist her with.


    For all she knew, the heavens also lacked the same perspective on the Sword Dao as she did, which might be the case if they viewed the world as being, in a way, constant since the manifestation of human civilization. In that case, it would be the second Dao that she was attempting to force through on her own without seeing any contribution from the heavens, and if she managed to succeed here or with the Dao of Law, she would be incredibly pleased to be able to shove it in their face ¨C if the heavens even had such a thing ¨C before she punched them a few million times.


    ¡®Would the heavens even have a gender? Depending on their exact nature, they should either lack human features, or be an embodiment of all of them to some extent, and the latter would make it far easier to punch them¡­ I¡¯d love to do so right now, even if it backfired to a certain extent, as it might very well make it easier for me to control my killing intent and subdue the constant forceful rush of killing will ahead of the other cultivation paths,¡¯ she thought, waiting a little longer for her turn to fight.


    Before it was her turn, she made one more observation, which was that the defeated were not always told to vacate the area. Just as with the first part of the Selection, the immense aura that knocked out most of the original participants, so long as the person did not leave and surrender on their own, they were permitted to remain. Far more people did this now that they knew that this was a genuine option, and it meant that only half of those that were defeated ended up leaving the square. It was likely that they wouldn¡¯t stand as good a chance to win the position of the Heavenly Sword in the end even if they did well in the other parts of the Selection, as someone that succeeded in every step would be a superior Heavenly Master than one that did not perform exceptionally.


    It was close to the way in which things were handled in a number of other districts, as she had herself experienced, except that it was for a far more significant position than a new recruit for some faction.


    ¡°Now that this battle has concluded, it is Wei Yi¡¯s turn to select an opponent,¡± the second man of the Wu District said after a short while, waving his hand in order to clear the area where one woman had just been bested rather blatantly by a man with a far greater cultivation and age, ¡°All those that have not yet fought are eligible foes, save for Wu Chao.¡±


    ¡°Then, I can just fight that one,¡± the Ascendant pointed almost at random, quickly finding an opponent that would suit her current state the most. She selected a man with no particular strengths, but a very good grasp of using the sword to defend and attack without ever providing any obvious openings.


    He had yet to fight, but this much was clear from the surface of his mind, where various tactics and methods for dealing with attacks and defences that occurred before him popped up endlessly. His body wasn¡¯t particularly dexterous nor strong, hence her perception of his average physical abilities, and from his current stance, it was clear that his actual technique wasn¡¯t exceptional either, meaning that his mental images and understanding of the battle would be the only things that he could rely upon with any surety.


    This would let her please the five figures from the Wu District, who presumably acted as judges in this instance, and give her the opportunity to ponder the way in which a sword was used.


    In order to comprehend a Dao, it was necessary to see the ultimate and simplest purpose of the aspect of reality she was pondering. Swords were used in combat, and they had plenty of distinct uses due to their relative simplicity. A sword was simply a length of metal attached to a hilt, generally with a guard that could be as simple as a bar of material between the blade and grip, and so it was possible to stab and slash, as well as block numerous parts of the body while revealing others, intentionally or otherwise.


    All of that depended on how the weapon was held, who held it, how they wished to use it, and so on.


    ¡®I technically have Minor Achievement in the Sword Dao already, but that hardly means anything when most of that is simply a bonus given to me by the world. My own understanding of the Dao is as shallow as a flat floor with a drop of water somewhere on it, and this is not good enough if I am to use the sword as my primary weapon despite my preference for fists and claws¡­ When I create the new blade from the shards of the old, it must be made with the absolute peak of knowledge, so that it can be as powerful as the weapon of a Master of Yi City must be,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, taking her place in the segment of the Master¡¯s Square designated for one of the many fights taking place around the same time as one another.


    With the sword given to her in her right hand, she quickly performed a few movements in order to get accustomed to the weapon¡¯s size and speed, then slightly bended her knees and looked the man in the eyes.


    He met her gaze confidently in the first moment, and far less so in the next, a variety of thoughts and emotions arising within his surface thoughts. Most of them were about the gem-like appearance of her irises, the circles within them, and the numerous other abnormalities that were obvious about her eyes and face. Since she didn¡¯t try to hide any of that, it was inevitable that her features were noticed and stunned a relatively young lad into still silence for a while.


    The moment that he realised that he was doing nothing relevant to the battle, he shut his eyes and shook his head lightly, his mind quickly filling with images of swords and combat.


    Aside from the speed of his recovery, Wei Yi was very much happy with his mental view of the upcoming battle, as he had decently analysed her and made a number of presumptions regarding the ways in which she might fight. He was not completely right ¨C he was mostly wrong, in fact ¨C but it was far more of a capable guess than some random swordsman might have.


    He was a hidden talent, and so she was going to take advantage of that while also providing him with a bit of support with her own as a repayment for the favour. Whether he gained much was up to him, and whatever he ended up doing with it was none of her concern, as he simply couldn¡¯t compete with the sheer quantity of experience that she had, combined with the extreme calculative ability of her mind. So long as she wished to win against the man, she would do so, the only question was how long it would take her.


    ¡°You may begin at any time,¡± the second man said calmly, his attention quickly shifting away to the rest of the Master¡¯s Square as there was no reason for him to pay particular attention to any one of the duels taking place at the moment.


    At that point, the two of them began, the Ascendant going in first as this would force her foe to go on the defensive and demonstrate the various moves that he had been imagining within his mind. His attacks would not take as much thought from her to handle, and this would undermine the whole point of this exercise, and limit the amount that she would be able to take away from it. With few chances of great success as is, she really needed every little bonus that she could get.


    The following few slashes were hardly exceptional, as they were not meant to be, nor was the defence against them too extreme. It was skilful and fast while avoiding the exposure of openings to her, which was noteworthy, but when she did not make use of any exceptional movements he did not need to use any exceptional defences.


    She slowly stepped up her assault and the intensity of her attacks, as well as their complexity, but she did not pay much attention to the progress of the fight. Her own stamina might as well be boundless, and the stamina of her foe would last for however long it could, so she didn¡¯t have any necessity to do everything within a single moment. This was the blessing of an event that she could not accelerate, which was more of a curse if all that she could do was sit in place and do nothing. Most of her mind was dedicated to the processing of the sword movements themselves, irrespective of the context of the battle, although that context was also significant in a different way.


    It was a little strange to look at them in such a manner, especially after the effort she had invested into bringing every movement together into a complete philosophy, but the biggest challenge was in finding some kind of greater meaning or purpose to them. There needed to be some kind of principle to base her proper step into the Sword Dao, and she could not determine one even after fifty blows were exchanged.


    That wasn¡¯t a large number, though, so she kept going, and kept arranging everything she did within the Ascendant¡¯s Library, each image of each strike manifesting within the illusory Kong Prison Realm.


    The wall of images grew to an enormous dome that soon surrounded the entire mental domain as her core had done in reality. Some were very similar, others were not, but all showcased an attempt by her, and the rebuttal by her enemy. In some cases, the latter was executed masterfully, in others it was hard to describe it quite as kindly, but he still proved effective enough.


    So, the fight went on.


    And on.


    And on.


    For her, thanks to the ability of her mind to accelerate itself and slow down the time around it, at least in terms of her perception of it, she was sitting within her mental domain for many days, if not weeks by the point that she was running out of things to draw from her current opponent.


    Sure, she was battling a genius in some regards, but unlike the tales that the otherworldly demons would speak of, there was no possibility for anyone to grow infinitely in a single battle, unless that battle itself was infinite, and provided sufficient time for one to pause, consider and understand all events that had taken place up to that point. This was simply how things worked, for no mind was flawless and instant, not even her own, not even when it functioned at its best and correctly caught onto all significant details.


    Thus, after the few initial bursts of skill, he began to tire and stagnate, failing more and more in his actions, all the while she lacked any coherent understanding of what it was that she was even working towards. She struggled to even figure out the perspective from which to approach her Sword Dao.


    In the case of the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, she would need to understand a way in which swordsmanship allowed one to elevate themselves beyond all those around them. This might seem easy enough, given that swordsmen could easily defeat several other men if they used their strengths correctly, but that did not give them true ascension in any meaning of the term. Through usage of the sword alone, they could not avoid illness or injury, nor could they cut off the ever-approaching end of their lifespan and live eternally, unbowed by the limits imposed upon them and all the world by the ever-silent heavens, or whatever other force had the ability if not the right to dictate such a thing.


    The Dao of Law had little to say regarding the natural laws of swordsmanship, or the usage of a weapon in general. One might say something about the way in which it was natural to make use of tools to amplify one¡¯s strengths, but she felt that there was something missing in that statement, and that it was not sufficient nor quite in line with her own definition of Law. It might just be a minor lacking aspect.


    She couldn¡¯t decide whether it was better or worse that she seemed to get more insight into the matter of Dao itself than in the Sword Dao, Weapon Dao, or anything else of the sort. From what she could observe with the structure of Dao and techniques in the Truth of the Universe, the Dao attained from the support of the heavens were hardly complete when reaching the Full Success stage, and would go on to be developed through a great number of nameless stages, but this should not align with the true nature of something as powerful as Dao. In theory, the moment that one comprehended enough of any Dao to touch it even a little, their ability and power in that field would vastly surpass that of most others, and of all in a similar power bracket.


    One thing that would be certain would be an innate vision state, much alike to those she had gained via the Great Stride stage in the Dao of Law, Planar Dao and Earth Dao, just to name a few. This would be the first true stage of a journey to mastery of a Dao, but with little personal experience, she did not want to go too far in her guesswork. It might well prove to be right even if she assumed the roles and names of other stages, but she wasn¡¯t in a rush to catalogue them even if they were feasible.


    To truly grasp a Dao, she would, after all, need to reach a similar level of comprehension to the one the heavens could bestow, and that was no easy task no matter how one looked at it.


    Even if the heavens never spent a moment deliberating on the nature of any Dao, and purely observed the reality around them without seeking to gain much from it, their understanding of many natural phenomena would vastly surpass that of all but the oldest and most powerful. The dragons, phoenixes and qilins that had been at the ninth realm and persisted, for instance, could have a small fraction of that same knowledge through a great amount of hard work and perseverance, and yet she lacked both the time and, for the moment, power.


    Her sixth realm might be far superior to that of any other cultivator she knew of, but in the face of the unlimited flow of energy in the eighth and ninth realms, she might as well be a joke. The weakest of the Primordial Deities, if they awakened now, might be able to best her effortlessly.


    She had to advance her abilities as quickly as possible just in case, but it was incredibly difficult to do so while her mind was unable to come up with anything sufficiently sophisticated to fulfil the criteria of Dao. The true stage of Dao was not necessary, as she acquired a certain degree of influence over the Dao even while the heavens were contributing most of their knowledge in place of her own understanding, but every Day at Full Success should grant her greater ability to resolve all kinds of threats. Simply having the Dao of Law at the Great Stride stage was, after all, enough for her to rebuild districts, so having a dozen more would never hurt.


    ¡®Unfortunately, being aware of the necessity has not advanced the Sword Dao in any way, so that¡¯s not particularly beneficial¡­ What exactly am I missing here?¡¯


    The Ascendant gazed around the numerous images of movements, stances and attacks, looking over all of them time and time again, making them spin around her while she deliberated on them so that she didn¡¯t have to rotate herself instead. Within her mind, doing either thing was about as simple, and neither could cause her any discomfort, since most sources of those came from the body and not the mind, but sticking with what was more consistent with her typical state was significantly more helpful, or so she felt, at least.


    ¡®What is the Law-based reference point for all of this? The method for ascension contained within? Where exactly is it? How in the world is it so difficult to find something that should be so simple?¡¯ she couldn¡¯t help but question, as the Dao of Law seemed to come far more naturally, the support of the heavens not being a factor given that they should be assisting her in this case as well, ¡®It would make a great deal of sense if I have a certain affinity for it and not for the Sword Dao¡­ in which case, I should really be focusing more so on the Weapon Dao and Hand Dao, the latter of which will be easier to progress in as I naturally gravitated towards using my hands and claws, once I got those and had the chance to get used to having them.¡¯


    Those two could be understood through swordsmanship and combat, fortunately enough, so she did not need to dispose of everything she had been attempting to understand, but she would need to include a far greater quantity of images and motions in order to get a full comprehension of the Weapon Dao. Depending on how she put it, she might even be able to include the Hand Dao in there ¨C so long as she believed this to be the case, and found a way to correctly align it with her vision of the Dao, then there should be no issues whatsoever ¨C but she did not believe this to be a good way to go.


    For there to be a meaning to the term, some distinction between what were and were not weapons needed to be established, giving her a clear quantity of weapons and concepts to work with and develop her thoughts on.


    Otherwise, if her hands were to be considered weapons, why not her legs and feet? If all of her body was a weapon, then what makes a random leaf any different? All things, regardless of how dangerous they might be on first glance, have the potential to harm or outright kill a person in certain circumstances, so why not classify the entirety of the world as a deadly weapon? After that, how would she ever be able to summarise all of that under any simple principles.


    This would not align with her understanding of weapons, hand, feet or whatever else ¨C she lacked any significant understanding of the third factor in particular, having only studied some leg techniques and having looked at some feet before, but hardly to the same extent as she was not attempting to understand weaponry and various hand-based techniques.


    ¡®Hm. Legs aren¡¯t that bad, though¡­ and here is me clearly failing to focus on this point. It appears that the inspiration that I require is not currently present, since I am managing to think of something like that instead of something far more important. Usually, I¡¯m able to focus my attention onto more relevant tasks, so clearly there isn¡¯t much benefit to continuing this battle. I¡¯ve likely bored everyone around me already, so if they were hoping for a rapid and impressive victory, they might be rather disappointed, provided that they fail to comprehend why I did not go for such a thing.¡¯


    She froze the spinning scene within her mental domain and returned to reality, quickly elevating her strength and speed and catching her opponent off guard. With a well-placed blow, she knocked the sword out of his hand easily, then brought it to the side of his neck before he could attempt to act.


    ¡°There.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ while you were fighting me, were you actually focusing on our fight? Your eyes seemed a little dull the whole way through¡­¡± her opponent asked quietly, freezing on the spot.


    ¡°I was, technically speaking. I wasn¡¯t really trying to win up until now, though. Since you did fine, you don¡¯t need to go anywhere unless those five tell you to,¡± she told him, glancing at the sword that she was fighting with and finding a great number of scratches and chipped parts that one might imagine finding on a weapon that had seen a dozen difficult battles.


    He had kept going for far longer than anyone with the stamina befitting his realm should have been able to endure, and if he was able to keep learning throughout the next few stages of the Selection of the Heavenly Masters, whatever those were, he might very well earn some kind of place within the Wu District. Most likely, it would not be anywhere near the position of a Heavenly Master, but they would be stupid to completely throw away someone like him just because he lost to a person who, while lacking the ability to split her mind in two, could still focus on something completely different and succeed with ease.


    Her opponent did not have anything in particular to say to her, but he did not in appreciation to her feedback. It seemed like he was able to handle a loss well enough, which made her wish that there were more people like him in the world.


    While he tried with great difficulty to pick up his sword and return to his previous spot in the Master¡¯s Square, finding it challenging to even bend his legs without collapsing, she did so effortlessly, looking over to the five representatives of the Wu District, curious whether they¡¯d have anything to comment. It took a few moments, but the second man, the one that had instructed her to take her turn in combat, eventually turned to her.


    ¡°You fought well, but trying to comprehend matters while you fight should be left for a different time. At the moment, you are engaging in a contest for a very highly sought-after position.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a rare opportunity, and one I need to take in order to ensure my success at the end. I will try to not draw things out to the same extent in the future, though,¡± she said, shrugging as she took her previous position and folded her arms, keeping her blade in her left hand since it did not have the same physical sensations as her right hand, nor did it get tired from anything.


    Even with her current physique, the right hand did not appreciate being forced to simply grip onto something for what might well be a number of hours, seeing as there were still a number of those that had yet to fight and that most of the strongest and fastest fighters were already done. She would need to stand around for quite a bit before it was over, and longer still depending on what the five of the Wu District had to say after the fact.


    In the end, she stood by for quite a little while, four hours passing by and the sun beginning to set before all of the fights were complete, and the number of people on the street finally reduced to two thirds of who had been there at the beginning of the duels.


    Obviously, there were those that lost and stayed, including the young talented man that Wei Yi had fought, but not all felt that they were going to be able to succeed in future stages with their current skills and training. To stay and simply be beaten, time and time again, wouldn¡¯t be of any significant benefit to them, as learning from an opponent could only be done reasonably if they were within reach of one another¡¯s abilities. Seeing someone too far above them wouldn¡¯t lead to much more than envy.


    ¡°Now that you remain, you will have battled and learned. The Heavenly Sword must possess a higher understanding of the sword than merely how to swing it, and thus you shall be given two weeks of silent contemplation, after which we shall test what you have learned in further duels. As such, we would ask that if you have no interest in displaying more than superficial knowledge, you ought to depart at this very moment, and disturb our process no longer,¡± the woman from the five said to all the people remaining in the Master¡¯s Square, releasing the array that had been subduing all of their power.


    The four men turned and looked in the same direction together, pointing towards it in an obvious manner to all those present.


    There weren¡¯t many with sufficiently powerful spiritual perception, but the few that could see far enough were able to observe a number of sealed chambers that were quiet and empty, away from the sun, wind and all else that might distract one from contemplating their actions prior to this point, and attempting to improve on their skills and techniques in solitude.


    On one hand, this was not particularly ideal for the Ascendant, as she was more interested in observing as many distinct battles and contemplating as many distinct movements as possible, but she was content with this so long as she was truly uninterrupted.


    With the two weeks that seemed to be guaranteed according to the announcement of the Selection of the Heavenly Masters, she would have enough time to solidify her notions of the Weapon and Hand Dao and then create something that would, at least, pass for the Sword Dao in combat. The Wu District likely wasn¡¯t expecting this kind of thing from any of their participants, but they would undoubtedly be pleased to accept someone who did master the Sword Dao to some extent as their Heavenly Sword. If they then saw that she had significant expertise in the Dao of Law, Planar Dao and so on, they would be more open to her becoming the Matriarch.


    In a way, the presence of Wu Chao was also incredibly helpful to her. It ensured that she had a foe that she would easily be able to kill without regretting it for a single moment, and it meant that the next best candidate for Patriarch would not be lost in any kind of lethal confrontation. Perhaps it might even give her a chance to form a better relationship with them, allowing her to have a great deal of influence on the leader of the Wu District once she gave up the position.


    For that reason, she accepted the delay that she had already anticipated, and followed the lead of the five, finding a quiet spot to meditate at.

 V5C48: The Start of Battle

    For nine days, the Ascendant did not move, breathing being the only action that shifted her body even a little, her chest rising and falling at a constant pace.


    From the outside, one might assume her to be some kind of calm and silent monk, her long crimson hair flowing from her head and residing just a millimetre above the floor, supported by her spiritual will while it was untied. Her robes were loose, revealing a part of her star metal scale armour covering her chest and showcasing little more than that.


    On the inside, her mental domain was becoming even more full and absurd.


    Her initial arrangement of sword techniques and strikes had initially covered the entirety of the sky, but now that she had shrunk them down and arranged them a little more carefully, she had been able to make those images occupy only a hundredth of the dome that should have been the sky ¨C and instead filled the rest with even more conceptual manifestations. It was rather overwhelming to look at for the first few moments, but she got used to it and immediately began to work, putting together the images of every single movements in every single combat technique and skill that she had accumulated over the years.


    Those that she had personally cultivated and used more than once or twice occupied roughly a fifth of the dome of her mental domain, and the rest was filled with¡­ well, the rest of what she had.


    From the moment that she had any memories, she had seen various fights and combatants, and since the exact level of combat techniques didn¡¯t matter when she was attempting to figure out a whole Dao, she included every single one of those within her mental arrangement. Experts and complete novices alike were put together into the most complete image of combat and weaponry usage that she could possibly create, techniques from as far back as the age of the Master of Yi City sitting alongside those that she had invented only a few months ago.


    With these images overhead, she had spent nine days in the outside world simply pondering them, and within her mental domain, she had used up what felt like an entire year simply staring at all of them and trying to find what it was that united every single one of them.


    Needless to say, she had not yet arrived at a satisfactory conclusion. There was still something missing, and to vastly shorten her dilemma to a few words, she believed that she needed to see a little more practical demonstrations of everything she was trying to sum up instead of simply looking at them within her mind. This was not due to her mind being particularly unfaithful to reality, at least most of the time, but because it wasn¡¯t reality, no matter how closely she could recreate it.


    Theoretically, if someone else was to enter it and stare at what she presented, then they would be able to comprehend the same Dao that she did, and likely along the same paths. However, Dao that she did not yet understand, with or without the support of the heavens, would not be found within, no matter how hard she tried to invent them for herself.


    In the outside world, all that the heavens knew, she could obtain, and all that the people figured out, she could borrow as well. Of course, there was one other alternative, and that was a spatial realm, where Laws and Dao were needed in order for them to contain life or anything. There, she would have any Dao and Laws invested into the spatial realm to learn about, and then any that might have developed as a result of the things that had existed there, living or otherwise. In theory, so long as a spatial realm contained a certain ecosystem or particular types of matter for long enough, a semblance of a Dao would need to form and be readable from it, provided that one knew where to look and what to pay attention to.


    It was quite a shame that spatial realms weren¡¯t particularly common in the modern world, and that it would take quite a while for them to be made and stabilised even once the eighth realm could be reached by the strongest, and the seventh realm was no longer out of the reach of the more ordinary.


    Once she returned to the Kong Prison Realm, she would be sure to examine it in greater detail, and she had already attempted to scan through her memories of the Kong Holy Grounds without too much success, but she had little left beside that. Testament would be a good option, but she would only be able to come there once the battle against the Greats was approaching its zenith, so she could hardly expect to use it for any kind of breakthrough in a Dao before the next step of the Selection of the Heavenly Masters. Other than that, she knew of no other spatial realm she could access, or even find.


    ¡®So, I have a whole bunch of images that aren¡¯t helpful, a number of spatial realms I can¡¯t do anything with, and a Dao that doesn¡¯t want to be figured out. Grand. What would help the most is someone coming along to interrupt my contemplation, and¡­ well, they already are, since my spiritual perception has never stopped monitoring everything around me and I can see them approaching¡­¡¯


    She stabilised all of the mental projections within her mental domain and exited. Her hair landed softly on the ground as she did so, although it was unable to pick up even a single particle of dust unless she put in a great deal of effort into doing so. With the aid of her physique energy, her body was perfectly clean and healthy, making it easy to rise from her seated position and brush a number of hairs back, out of her line of vision.


    ¡®It hasn¡¯t really stopped growing, even with my attempts to minimize that¡­ It sure has a whole lot of vitality, doesn¡¯t it?¡¯ she noted, as the longest hairs still reached the ground even while she stood.


    A moment later, she did not receive a knock on the door, but instead felt a rumble that shook every single contemplation chamber, forcing a large number of people out of their thoughts and meditation. Many were immediately upset at this, but then also realised that there would not be such a disturbance without some good reason, prompting them to rise and head to the door as well.


    Wei Yi was still the first out, and she was the one that caused the figure, a middle-aged man dressed in armour and holding onto a guandao while a spare sword sat on his back, to begin his address to all the people present.


    ¡°I am sorry to interrupt all of you at such an important moment, but the Wu District is under attack by the Reclaimed Lands! Too many of our forces were caught away from the battlefield, and we require urgent assistance from all those that would fight for the Wu District,¡± the man explained, looking to all those that had emerged in that time, ¡°Since you are here with the pursuit of becoming our Heavenly Sword, it is your duty to fight for us!¡±


    Not all were pleased with such a statement, but it was impossible to disagree with it. Whether they wished to benefit themselves or some other group, all those that did not come here for the sake of the Wu District alone understood that if they did attempt to claim their position, then they would need to work for the position.


    All the others were perfectly fine with assisting the district that they had either been born in, or one that they had moved to and lived in for a long while. The only concern was that this battle would naturally come with a far greater amount of danger to them than any of the steps of the Selection of the Heavenly Masters they knew of, and there would be far fewer chances of any of the people in the Wu District being able to protect them from outside threats while not in controlled conditions. It was only natural for them to be concerned for their lives.


    Nevertheless, it was hard for anyone involved to say no.


    ¡°This may be a disruption to our intended process, but it gives us the perfect opportunity for you to display your skills in a different setting to individual duels,¡± the man proceeded to say, stabbing his guandao into the ground to quietly provide himself with some additional support while he recovered his energy from the rush here, ¡°Now, please prepare as quickly as you can, and we shall depart the moment that you are able!¡±


    Most in the Selection of the Heavenly Masters were above the second and third realms, so for them, there was relatively little to take care of and little to prepare before they were able to leave. Those few that were not were able to handle their matters quickly enough, and so all one hundred of them were ready to depart before an hour was up, a fast time from a certain perspective.


    Of course, when talking about battles and assaults on the borders of a large nation like Yi City, if one was to view it in a more accurate manner than as a large city, a single minute could lead to significant changes in the situation, and a lengthy journey back and forth from the Wu District combined with a delay of an entire hour meant that a great deal would be different by the time that the man wielding the guandao returned with reinforcements. Even before arriving anywhere near the scene, the Ascendant could reach the vague area of the battle with her spiritual perception and find that most of it had already passed.


    There had been several thousand soldiers on both sides, with nearly twice as many on the side of the Reclaimed Lands, while the Wu District¡¯s troops were, on average, eight stages above their opponents.


    As a result, the number disparity was effectively corrected, and so the battle could proceed relatively evenly and smoothly. Instead of ending within a few minutes, as a fight might in the case of two sides that were vastly disparate in power and could use overwhelming force to obliterate the other, this one dragged on for quite a while, slowing down after the combatants began to run out of energy and were forced to turn to defence and retreating, even while knowing that their foes were in the same position and being able to do nothing about it.


    Hence, the thousands that had fought shrunk roughly to a tenth of their original number, with most of the casualties having come from the initial few minutes. All that they were waiting for now was for the reinforcements from their side to arrive and finish off the other.


    When they got nearer to this scene, Wei Yi had been standing near the back, and she was able to see the approaching forces of the enemy not only with her absurd spiritual perception, but also with her own eyes, the blue mist of the skies locking away her vision far from the end of the encroaching army. Unlike the reinforcements of the Wu District, which was only so large, containing mostly elite forces from the Selection of the Heavenly Masters and a bunch of other experts, the Reclaimed Lands were relying far more on numbers to claim an advantage. There were almost as many in the second army as there were in the first, and the overall strength of the legion was also similar.


    ¡®Throwing away lives for a lengthy battle isn¡¯t technically ideal, no matter how you look at it, but if they are able to provide me with the right amount of inspiration, then it should be no trouble at all to finish off all of the opponents and quickly take whatever land the Reclaimed Lands have stopped protecting thanks to their attack effort. I hope the other outside nations don¡¯t join in, or else I might need to invoke a black sun to get rid of them,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, ¡®Wouldn¡¯t it be significantly stronger now? I would need to be extremely careful with it¡­¡¯


    When she had just reached the fifth realm, her black sun had devoured much of the Ping District, mostly thanks to the plentiful energy fed to it, but it was still immense even had it only had the district itself to feed upon. Once it was empowered by the constant bonus from her marks and the linked channels, as well as the general development of her cultivation, the black sun would be larger and would grow more easily, leading to a far more devastating effect that would be harder to stop.


    It was fortunate, then, that she did not intend to make use of it for now, as it would be significantly better to rely on her vast array of sword techniques instead in order to make a better impression on those from the Wu District that would be paying attention to her actions.


    Still, in order for her to feel confident in discarding the sheer quantity of research material that this battlefield offered, she would need to either get something from it, or she¡¯d require the certainty that she would not be getting anything. Both of those should not require much more than ten minutes of combat at most, provided that both sides put their all into it, although that would only count once the forces from both sides arrived to reinvigorate the battlefield. Whether they showcased swordsmanship or use of other equipment, it would assist the Weapon Dao, and once that was done, the Sword Dao, Spear Dao and whatever else one might include beneath the Weapon Dao would be easier to comprehend.


    Actually, this would be better than watching twice as many battles over in Yi City alone, as the kinds of combat techniques available there would be different, if only due to the extreme separation between the two nations, and the presumed absence of the Greats within them. Their overall resources weren¡¯t at all comparable, with all of the outside nations combined being significantly poorer in almost all regards, but when left on their own to develop their own ways, unique combat methods were bound to arise and be developed to great heights.


    There might be a vast number of differences between them, but one thing that ultimately connected them was the origin from the heavens, or perhaps the heavens¡¯ comprehension of them through the people of the world. Provided that she was able to understand that which was provided to her, she would greatly expand her understanding of the Dao she was seeking to study.


    In any other situation, especially after she had been reprimanded for delaying things and not getting the fight over with only nine days ago, she would be a little hesitant to stay back this time, but luckily she was not the only one who wished to do so. Out of the few that did, she was also the one with the most convincing argument, as she made the case for holding back, observing the tactics of the enemy, then using her using cultivation in conjunction with her other methods to quickly cut down the opposing army before their side had to suffer losses that were too significant for them to accept. This argument had issues, sure, but nobody was in the right state of mind to go through it in detail.


    Thus, she stood with her arms folded ¨C doing so as often as she could since she rather enjoyed the pose after all of the time that she had been unable to pull it off reasonably ¨C and watched, focusing to an extent on Wu Chao and his rush into the fray.


    Even without words or scanning his mind, it was very obvious what he intended to do by showcasing his anchors blatantly and pulling out a sword before he even got near the battlefield. He wished to make his case for why he would be the best Heavenly Sword, and, at the very least, he genuinely believed that this was the case, so he wasn¡¯t actively deceiving anyone other than himself by doing something like this.


    So long as he beat his enemies easily and showcased the skills that others might be unable to acquire, he might well become the only reasonable candidate, worming his way into the Wu District.


    ¡®Fortunately for us all, that piece of shit is not going to have a good time. The planar energy at the battlefield is odd, and the number of dead is also off based on the capabilities currently being showcased by both sides,¡¯ Wei Yi analysed, allowing her killing intent to surge into the air and thus limiting its damage to merely blowing on her robes as if she stood in a heavy wing, ¡®There is something that they can do that is more dangerous to those in higher realms, and I want to see it before I do anything else.¡¯


    In the meanwhile, she would naturally stick to her primary goal. The moment that she was able to observe the battlefield, she did so, scanning it in great detail and paying attention to every single thing that she could spot. Every combat skill, every movements, every success and failure on both sides was seen and stored within her mental domain, adding to the dome that she had compressed yet again.


    Any individual action would not lead her to the truth that she pursued, but everything was combined and she got to see every possibility, perhaps the truth would finally emerge, and she could claim some aspect of a Dao for her own, ideally without the heavens getting their greasy fingers into her head in the form of whatever supplementary knowledge was needed for a vision state to form, and for her to see reality through the lens of the Weapon Dao.


    Wu Chao ran quickly and in a straight line, unconcerned that he would be hit by anything while doing so. At first, he was not noticed by his enemies, but once he got closer, roughly having a third of the initial gap to cross, there were finally some enemy soldiers that realised his potential danger.


    At once, a series of arrows were fired in his direction, as most soldiers simply lacked the ability to manifest planar constructs at a sufficiently distance to affect him without a physical projectile. They were shot with little coordination, each archer drawing their bows and releasing the arrows without any outside guidance, and thus they did not so much resemble a sheet of metal points as they did a swarm of insects, heading at great speed towards their target, ready to impale it and leech the blood from within, sapping it from the body and leaving it on the ground to dry and be forgotten¡­ The Ascendant shook her head and focused.


    Depending on how one looked at this, it did indeed make them more difficult to block in one go, but they were dealing with one of the Greats, the perpetual plague upon Yi City.


    Once the arrows neared him, Wu Chao did not slow down, but instead willed his anchors into action, all thirty-nine of them condensing energy before themselves. A large ball of metallic light formed in front of all of them, shooting out quickly and being replaced a moment after, with the speeding light forming itself into the shape of a lengthy sword in a swinging, arcing motion.


    They swung at the arrows once they neared them, cutting through them in various placed and splitting some apart, while others were almost perfectly cut in half by the flying energy blade. Most could separate and stop as many as twelve individual arrows in a single cut, which one might presume to be insufficient when dealing with several volleys of arrows fired by several dozen archers, some of whom were even able to fire as many as five in a single go ¨C albeit with accuracy that could only be described as poor, since guiding the arrows with planar energy could not be done from a great distance at their realm ¨C but the speed at which the point beam lights reformed and shot out once again meant that he had a curtain of blades protecting him. To pierce it, one would either need to overpower the planar constructs, a difficult task due to the thirty-nine anchors, or they would have to prevent them from being manifested in the first place.


    If one was to put aside the fact that the anchors couldn¡¯t be retrieved into the dantian due to some flaw of the cultivation method used by the Greats, it was still possible to suppress them to the extent that they could no longer function. Wei Yi would have helped out by destroying one or two of the anchors without drawing much attention to herself, but it was almost guaranteed that she¡¯d be found out no matter how hard she attempted to hide it.


    All that would need to be considered would be the fact that she was the only one with both the ability and the significant motive to actively hinder the Great Family member from the side of Yi City and the Wu District. If the battle was significantly more heated and there were far more aggressors capable of tackling Wu Chao and repelling him ¨C like if the equivalent of a Patriarch came in from the so-called Reclaimed Lands to attack Yi City ¨C then she might be able to get away with it so long as she did not do the deed herself. She could provide an opening for one of the Great Family member¡¯s opponents, let him be hit, then strike back to benefit the Wu District overall.


    While she was pondering that, alongside all of her other deliberations on Dao, Wu Chao neared those that had fired arrows at him, having ceased after some time and switched to their weapons while preparing to confront him in close combat. They presumed that the planar construct swords would only be effective against small projectiles.


    Perhaps it didn¡¯t need to be stated, but they were completely wrong about that.


    As soon as they got near enough for the planar point beam blades to last long enough to strike at their foes, rather than the arrows that no longer flew towards them, those blades instead shot through them, slicing them apart and shredding some into a number of chunks. Blood flew everywhere, covering the ground where it was not already crimson from the previous conflict, and adding on to the pool of blood and viscera where the wounds of battle had already torn the earth. Of course, none of the blood reached the one that was spilling it so readily.


    She must have left an impression on him, for after he killed those few dozens, Wu Chao turned to her and grinned, his expression obviously proclaiming his superiority.


    ¡®You can¡¯t even do better, can you, Ascendant?¡¯ he seemed to be saying.


    In response, she quietly mouthed something back and did her best to prevent her killing intent from harming anyone in the Wu District¡¯s camp.


    ¡®Go suck a dick,¡¯ she said in reply. Fortunately, the language of the Planar Continents meant that the individual pronunciations of the words were almost impossible to mistake, ensuring that anyone with eyes could make out what she was saying even with no experience in lip reading whatsoever.


    He didn¡¯t quite appreciate it and turned away very swiftly.


    Wu Chao returned to slaughtering the foes of Yi City, and the Ascendant returned to watching her surroundings carefully, paying attention to every single technique being used in the battles so far. The opposing legions were nearing, so she was also nearing the most significant part of her observation process, meaning that she needed to dismiss the Wu District¡¯s forces from bothering her and focused the entirety of her attention onto this merger of two forces into a battle that should have ended already.


    The first wave from the Reclaimed Lands, the one that had attacked the Wu District and forced them to call for reinforcements, was mostly taken out by those who came from the Selection of the Heavenly Masters, with the Great Family member taking on two thirds of that wave on his own. Still, the extermination effort was a minute or two too slow, and so, the moment that the forces of the Reclaimed Lands were able to participate, they were able to save half a hundred of their own with a blast of planar constructs and physical projectiles that flew into the battlefield and forced the Wu District¡¯s forces to retreat.


    Much as she expected, once the powerful arrived with all of their energy still within them, the Ascendant got to witness their most unique methods in play.


    The first one, and one she was interested in right away, was performed by a number of cultivators in the fourth realm. They had arrived in a small bunch, and once they found a large cluster of people to target, they paused and entwined their hands, lowering their heads and focusing their wills and energy together.


    All of it was launched into the air, stabilising in the sky, and after it sat there for just a little while, it suddenly bulged and turned from a transparent mass of planar energy into a sphere of flame. From it, numerous small splinters of flame broke off, sitting beside it while the mass of flame itself gathered heat, transforming from a soft orange to a crimson, then descended into a powerful blue that burned the very air around it.


    Then, as abruptly as the blue colour appeared, the mass fell from the sky, gaining speed at an extreme pace. It caught the targets of the ball off-guard, for the sudden acceleration was at odds with the seemingly slow nature of the technique, and crashed into them with an explosion of azure flame.


    In one instant, the lives of twenty were gone, and the lives of thirty more were endangered as the blue fire flew outwards and scorched their flesh, melted their armour, and boiled anything that it could not affect in the previous two ways. Most of these effects couldn¡¯t quite kill anyone above the second realm, which made up the majority of the surviving Wu District forces and the reinforcements from the Selection, but they still forced concentrated groups to disperse and focus on healing themselves rather than investing their effort into attacks.


    Making things even worse for them was the following barrage of small flame particles that followed, falling a moment after the main sphere. None had anything resembling the overall power of the sphere, but those embers were still sufficient to harm and incapacitate someone so long as they landed at the right spot and damaged the right part of the body. If nothing else, it could disable one¡¯s genitalia easily.


    ¡®Ah, there it is. Exactly as I expected, a perfect demonstration of ineptitude and genius at the same time,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, adding the enormous ball of flame into her arsenal with just a casual glance, ¡®The ineptitude is in the fact that it took six cultivators in the fourth realm to create this, and the genius is the sheer quantity of energy that they were able to unleash, and the speed at which that ball of flame could travel. With the right preparation¡­ yeah, I will make some kind of static defence out of that, I will most certainly do that when I get the opportunity.¡¯


    To prevent things from ending too quickly, she softly breathed out and released a vast quantity of lifeforce from her remaining pool, accumulated thanks to the constant farming she had been doing when she had access to the Kong Prison Realm. It flowed towards all those that fought for the Wu District ¨C avoiding Wu Chao for obvious reasons ¨C and prompted hurried regeneration of their flesh and mind, allowing them to re-enter the battle right away. They knew not who helped them, but they wouldn¡¯t complain.


    Meanwhile, the Ascendant continued to watch and ponder, occasionally disabling those attacks that would not contribute to her deliberation, but did little to change the overall course of battle.


    It was not yet time.

 V5C49: Concept of a Weapon

    She had been looking for two things out of this battle ¨C an effective attack against Wu Chao, and the development of her Weapon Dao, or the Sword Dao, or a Hand Dao. Any would do.


    The latter was, as usual, difficult to obtain, but she had a great deal of hope for the former as one of the other squads from the Reclaimed Lands was clearly paying attention to him and staying back from the rest of the fighting. They were dressed even more abnormally than the one that threw the ball of flame, with several layers of strange metal plates arranged in odd manners, circulating energy around them, and their eyes were absent from their heads. Since they had only their spiritual perception to guide them, they moved slowly and carefully, their collective spiritual perception reaching out far enough to spy upon Wu Chao¡¯s actions.


    It took them some time and some quiet whispers that were unpleasant to listen to due to the profane dialect in which they spoke that almost radiated the same kind of energy one would expect from a forbidden skill, if their names weren¡¯t quite different from their true nature. With her limited experience, it was hard to assess the exact element of significance in this instance, but she still recorded all of it, as she did with everything else in the area.


    After the Great Family member killed a few more using his methods, most being in alignment with what she had seen so far from the other Great Family techniques, the strange figures finally stepped in and acted, two kneeling down, two others lowered themselves slightly, leaning upon the shoulders of their companions, and the other three put their hands upon those of their comrades, but they did not lower themselves to the same position, creating an unfathomable stack of figures that all faced Wu Chao and pointed their faces in his direction.


    Their clothing revealed only the lower half of their faces, prompting one¡¯s gaze to their dark lips as they opened, and a sound emerged from within. Where they previously spoke, now the sound could not be described by any words available to the Ascendant, if they were words at all.


    Whatever one may describe the sound as, it surged from their mouths in a visible mass, the air trembling around the swirling mass and making it significantly more visible than a mostly transparent thing would be. It was hard for her to find any terms to describe it, but fortunately enough, even if she was seeking to figure out the origin Dao for it, she would not need the terms themselves, but only the meaning behind them.


    That thing flew towards Wu Chao, who gave it a single glance and fired out two point beam swords towards the moving mass, completely failing to notice the sound associated with it, persisting within.


    Perhaps unsurprisingly, the edges that should have easily cut through any agglomeration of energy beneath the fifth realm failed to do. The collision only led to the swords slowing down, and any parts where the sword touched the mass suddenly began to melt. It was not akin to how one might imagine an ordinary sword, or any thing made of metal, to turn into liquid, lacking any heating, reddening, or anything of the sort. Instead, the blades made of planar energy just lost their cohesion and turned into an unseemly blob that passed through the mass and broke apart soon after.


    ¡®This¡­ I might be a big fan of the effects of this thing. My spiritual perception is slightly affected, but since the point beam blades are nearly nullified, then it could very well be a sign of them being able to target the very stabilisation of anchors¡­¡¯


    From what she could tell, the method by which the colourless mass was produced was not one that she would ever invoke, for it involved a great deal of physical harm and unnecessary mutilation to modify the way in which planar energy flowed through the body, following with a release of it through a resonant choir of ruined voices. This was not practical for her, and she had no desire to damage the bodies of others for something like this, when there was a far easier option.


    Converting almost anything to a standard planar energy technique was feasible with either with an excessive calculation ability, or through an epiphany, both of which were long-term options, but she was most certainly going to keep this in mind. She simply couldn¡¯t throw away the opportunity to have a technique to instantly weaken the attacks of the Greats, and, if it worked as it appeared to¡­


    When the uncertain mass flew further, the Great Family member tried to evade, but his body was hardly as strong or fast as that of an ordinary warrior, and when he attempted to use the pressure from his anchors, it seemed to burst out in uncontrolled ways, shredding some of his robes. In the moment that he froze in amazement at the situation, the mass finally reached him, touching his flesh and, far more significantly, all of the anchors that existed outside of his body ¨C in other words, all of them. It visibly changed then, inhuman tongue-like shapes manifesting from the surface and lapping at the anchors.


    In that moment, the vast aura of the fifth realm combined with the thirty-nine anchors suddenly tremored. His body shook with it, and he could barely maintain his footing while all of the point beam blades he had sent out suddenly fell apart into a loose mass of raw planar energy.


    All of a sudden, a few dozen opponents that should have fallen easily did not, and they were all free and ready to strike back in however much or little time they had available. A number of swords, axes, maces and strange implements that couldn¡¯t quite be described as any of those usual categories, all headed straight for his unprotected body, and just two or three went for the illusory anchors around him, for they did not understand what they saw and sought only to hamper whatever it was that they were witnessing. Perhaps they didn¡¯t even expect this to lead to any significant results, other than inconveniencing him, but the Ascendant knew better.


    When they tried to hit him, a protective artefact activated and resisted the blows, leaving only faint scratches on his skin ¨C enough to piss him off, nonetheless ¨C but there was no such thing for his anchors.


    In one go, two of his vile anchors were shattered, and the anchor energy within fell out into the world, readily being grabbed up by Wei Yi without anyone noticing. Wu Chao had a chance of observing such a thing in his normal state, provided that the Greats were as aware of otherworldly demons as an early encounter would suggest, but now he could barely move or exert any form of his energy.


    However, that disturbance also affected the unclear mass, shaking off the strange tongues that extended from within, and with a rush of clear killing intent, numerous point beam blades condensed in a moment and pierced through all those that surrounded him. The colourless mass attempted to grasp onto them once more, but with a single surge of the anchors¡¯ influence, it was blasted apart, leaving Wu Chao free to do as he wished.


    ¡®That does make a great deal of sense, I suppose. If the mass is made to counter a particular arrangement of anchors and to dull their influence, it would instantly become less effective when the arrangement of anchors was changed,¡¯ the Ascendant assessed quickly, ¡®Had it been omnipotent, then there is no chance that they wouldn¡¯t have already conquered Yi City with this kind of ability. It is easy to account for once it is known, but it is least effective against those who rely the least upon planar anchors themselves. Only the Greats would be in significant danger, and it is precisely them who should be removed as swiftly as possible¡­ Had they waged war, we might have gotten rid of the hold of the Greats earlier.¡¯


    She was not too fond of the fact that this would lead to the legacy of Kong Shi Meng being ruined in all the ways that she did not appreciate, as she did have some attachment to Yi City as a whole, but perhaps a general weakening of the Greats would have allowed the other districts to break free.


    It was not how things had gone, and their intervention was not necessary now, so she didn¡¯t bother coming over to them to mentioning it. At this moment, they were just invaders and threats to the Wu District, so they would be forced back or killed, depending on their own attitude. She could let them retreat if they so wished, but something told her that they were not just willing to fight to the death, but that whatever method she came up with would not give them much of a chance to decide one way or the other.


    After all of this observation ¨C at least ten minutes of constant fighting between a few thousand opponents now ¨C she had not yet attained any stage in her Dao, but she felt that she was getting close. There was something on the edge of her consciousness, and with just a little more, she could create a technique to further boost that attainment into an overwhelming force.


    Then, when she did reach Full Success, on her own or through the heavens, that technique would be amplified, and it could be practical for any kind of conflict.


    ¡®Since I am going for the position of a Heavenly Sword, I ought to pursue something sword edge-related¡­ but to limit myself to a field I have limited comprehension in would be rather silly. As such, Edge Replication¡­ the recreation of the power of any edged weapon, disguised as whatever suits me best at that moment,¡¯ she nodded to herself, the first bit of movement since her silent reply to the Great Wu Family member a few minutes back.


    ¡°Ascendant, you must act soon,¡± a voice came from behind her, straight from the mouth of the fourth man that she had seen back at the Wu District, ¡°As we had told you before, simply observing is not right for an aspiring Heavenly Sword.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m learning and watching. Once I¡¯m done, I can take care of things quickly. Incidentally, I don¡¯t think that any of you have told your names to any of us. Isn¡¯t that a little rude when you seem to know both me and Wu Chao, and feel compelled to refer to us by those names?¡± the Ascendant asked back, not bothering to look behind herself.


    ¡°You would find little interest in those. I am Wu Wu.¡±


    ¡°I had counted you lot in my head, but I didn¡¯t expect such a coincidence,¡± Wei Yi muttered, ¡°You are disrupting me, by the way. Are you fine with losing more of your Wu District¡¯s people, or do you just want that asshole dead as much as I do?¡±


    ¡°There is nothing for me to say on this topic. Act soon, or else you will lose your chance.¡±


    There was no need to explain any further, but she wasn¡¯t going to stand back for too long. After a short while, Wu Chao would either flee or defeat too many of the forces from the Reclaimed Lands for her to make any kind of significant impact. For the moment, it looked like it would be the former, as the loss of anchors led to him losing his edge and his opponents had clearly realised this. Provided that he wasn¡¯t some complete moron, he would get out of there before more anchors were damaged.


    After a while, he began to do exactly that, and she took a step forward and vanished from the spot. In an instant, she manifested far closer to the battlefield, standing before a number of soldiers from the Reclaimed Lands with her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow held out ahead of her, palm facing toward her eyes, a moment of thought delaying her further.


    ¡®No, this time the Arm is not going to be of use. It does not align with my concept of a Weapon¡­ It is, instead, a living part of my body, a concentration of hatred and law, the true purpose of which is to complete me and empower me¡­¡¯ her thoughts had been mostly unbidden, but when she had begun to think on the topic, she just continued, ¡®In fact, that is a significant distinction. Armour can be weaponry too, as can planar techniques, but we do not see them in the same way. The fourth realm of killing will, and the two paths that form it, both create weapons that are different from the constructs one might create with the energy prior to reaching the fourth realm¡­


    ¡®Yes, the fifth realm does not provide a weapon, even though the armour can very much help with attacking someone¡­ A weapon, to be that and not a tool, or armour, or some utility, needs to be used for attack first and foremost. A sword, convenient as it may be to block blows with it, will be damaged quickly by repeated glancing strikes, and most are too narrow to act as decent shields. A spear, although allowing for greater freedom in positioning, is a long length of material with a pointed end. Generally, it has many of the same flaws, and is not a useful shield unless that is all that one has to protect themselves with¡­ My gauntlets have been used for protection, and they are certainly effective in that regard¡­¡¯


    The smoke before her broke apart and shifted back to her side, while she raised her right hand and looked at the claws atop her fingers.


    ¡®Despite that, they are weapons. Whatever other use I have found for them, these are truly weapons intended for the defeat of the Greats and all others that think that they can weaken and twist this world as if they are the ones who have any right or reason to lead¡­¡¯ she looked up and at her enemies, ¡°If what I wield is a weapon, then I can most certainly cut the lot of you apart. I¡¯ll get to the other one afterwards.¡±


    Her Arm suddenly broke apart and allowed the plentiful crimson within to surge out and surround her, a great deal settling upon the tips of her claws. It quickly reformed with further killing intent pouring out of her body, but all of the crimson that had accumulated was sent flying with a single slash.


    There weren¡¯t only five lines of intent, but hundreds and thousands, and all of them moved with such speed that none of the targets had even the faintest intent that they were being targeted.


    In one breath, the ground was torn asunder and numerous bodies were severed into two, a fine cut being the only damage dealt to all of them. Swords were split, shields were cut apart, and any armour that attempted to stand in the way of her killing intent was cleaved as easily as a hot knife might go through air. At the same time, a circle formed within both of her irises.


    Before her, the entire world gained yet another dimension of depth, with everything that matched her comprehension of a weapon being brought to her attention, all things about them being made clear within a glance. Combining with the vision states of her Dao of Law, Ire Dao, the embedded understanding of the Sword Dao, Absolute Dao, Planar Dao and the Earth Dao, she felt for just a moment that the vision states were able to provide a vague semblance of the whole picture, even if she still missed such a great list of concepts and ideas.


    Aside from just making her all the more interested in obtaining more Dao and gaining their vision states, she was also all the more aware of the benefits that a true Dao vision state would grant her. For the moment, she was relying on the knowledge of the heavens.


    What if she could view all information? Everything that was available to look at, not just the things that the heavens learned. There was so much that was absent from her current vision states, and so much that she knew was out there, so if she gained the opportunity to obtain it¡­ she was almost certain that she would, even with an extreme price. So long as she could then use it to correct whatever it cost her, there would be no loss.


    Of course, if there was such an opportunity, there is no way that any mortal or even the heavens themselves would ever be too cowardly to attempt it. There had to be far more difficulty to obtaining such a thing than simply passing some obvious challenge. Understanding and learning were essential, clearly, and she would study everything including the Dao of Law until the first stage of the true Dao was gained. It might take a dozen years, or a hundred, or many millions if she was particularly unlucky, but she would go on for so long as she lived, and she could live for quite a while. At the ninth realm, which she believes she would reach, would guarantee her one million, six hundred and thirty-eight thousand, and four hundred years of life for herself.


    From there, she was nearly certain that one of her other cultivation paths, alongside the development of her Dao, there would be a way to extend that further. The Dao of Law was clearly the most suitable path to travel, simply due to it aligning closely with the limitations of lifespan in the first place, but perhaps some other paths would also give her some success if she approached the situation slightly differently. She could always slow time around herself and try to duplicate her mind outside of that temporal lock, giving her more time to think without exhausting lifespan, or she could even go the same route as Yi Shi Ming, so long as she put a little more thought into the plan than her and her son.


    A cry in an unfamiliar dialect of the language of the Planar Continents interrupted her, ¡°Kill her! Kill that one, and we will have success!¡±


    Her head snapped to the side, locking eyes with the one that had spoken. All of her vision states broke him apart into numerous factors, and she quickly collated all of the information she could obtain from him without even using her spiritual perception to obtain that information.


    The peak of the sixth realm, four daggers hidden in his clothes, one axe on his back, gauntlets with spikes on the knuckles to facilitate stronger punches. Earth-adherent technique, a ring with a fire-type inscription, a particular force targeting the water element that sought the level of the Absolute while remaining far from it. He had a great deal of anger towards powerful authorities, although the Ire was dampened by his own identity, meaning that it could not showcase its full power.


    Her spiritual perception might allow her to gain more, but she held back and removed it from around him, putting away whatever readings it had already attained on a distant shelf in her mind.


    One of the best ways to further her own usage of the Dao was to rely on it as much as possible, forcefully bringing out the flaws and strengths alike to recognise and resolve the former while using the latter to their utmost.


    ¡°Good luck with that,¡± she replied back to him, transmitting her voice via spiritual will so that it would reach that man first of all. At once, she dashed forth, the crimson around her cutting into the ground and laving numerous thin cuts upon the frost-covered dirt, while many other strands shot out and severed the soldiers that attempted to get to her.


    The leader on the opposite side did not respond to her, only removing the axe from his back and roaring, the very earth around him trembling as his aura was forcefully released from within him. Grey stone-like masses of planar energy formed around the head of the axe, creating a second layer atop the metal that was sharper and tougher, at least on first glance. It most certainly empowered the aura of a Weapon from it, which was all that she needed to know to be sure that this wouldn¡¯t be entirely worthless and purely for the visual.


    She reached into the air on one of her steps and willed some of the loose killing intent to form into an element that she rarely made use of ¨C the blade of the Searing Torch realm. It was a powerful and malleable weapon, despite what the cultivators of the Crimson Side had presumed due to their lacking experience with realms above the third. They probably should have focused on the name of the realm instead, as it was highly fitting for the true nature of the killing intent realm that she now saw through the vision state of her Dao. Rather than a simple weapon, it was a blinding torch of one¡¯s power to the outside world.


    In this case, she only needed to shape it to her will, to let it shine boldly, so that all may see her power even if night fell upon the world.


    A great surge of crimson flame burst out of her right hand, spreading out into the shape of a greatsword that had once come from the House of Gold. The blade itself was solid and stable, nothing alike to the guard of the sword, which burned and crackled with energy that greatly resembled her Obliteration energy. All of it together blazed gloriously and wondrously, condensing within itself a great quantity of her comprehension that blinded all that tried to look upon them.


    Then, in a flash, she appeared beside her foe, slashing down at the man without regard for his weapon.


    ¡°You oppose Long Song Lao, Great Crusher of the Reclaimed Lands, and you will prove my superiority to these cowards!¡± he proclaimed, it being rather unclear whether he was referring to his own forces or to those that he was fighting with.


    Either way, when confronted with her incoming sword, he naturally used his axe and swung it at the edge, clearly wishing to shatter what he must have imagined to be a planar construct.


    He moved as quickly as he could, but Wei Yi had limited herself to what was roughly his speed with the intention of completing her Edge Replication while she had the perfect opportunity to do so. Since her enemy was capable and relatively powerful, she would be able to see how another person made use of all of the weapons that they had, learn from their errors, and thus improve her Weapon Dao in the process.


    Crimson blade and stone collided, and it was the stone that shattered, leaving the blade to collide with the head of the axe, the two clashing and parting, just like the two of them. The collision shot out numerous sharp strands of killing intent that had the shape of the sharpest of edges, cutting deeper into the ground and obliterating the rest of the soldiers that had not yet managed to get out of the area, or chose not to do so. They stood opposite one another for just a moment before the very earth suddenly cracked and shattered, cracking and collapsing in a violent phenomenon that sent all of them falling into an unseen cave that had been not far beneath them.


    They all fell for two dozen metres, landing with varying levels of grace on the loose dirt and stones that had ended up beneath them.


    Obviously, the experts like the Ascendant and Long Song Lao were able to use their methods to land safely regardless of their own talents and experiences in such things, and the latter was not going to waste the opportunity to rush forth and strike her while she might be disoriented. What he must have missed was how every single rock and piece of hardened earth beneath his feet was clearly sliced apart by the same energy that she was using, and that there would have been no such collapse without deliberate action on the part of one that was all too familiar with the earth around her.


    He learnt his mistake the moment that he stepped onto the edge of one of the earthen chunks. It seemed like any other ¨C and in the case of this earthen pit, it certainly was ¨C but when he touched the edge, his entire foot felt as if it was cut apart, a thin line of blood appearing on the bottom of his foot and beginning to soak into his shoe.


    Most of the damage was only in his mind, with his body itself enduring only a slightly annoying cut, but one irritating fact about it was that the cut wouldn¡¯t recover no matter how much energy he directed towards it, nor did any of the techniques he attempted to use upon it have any effectiveness. This forced him to pause his rush and stabilise his standing, resulting in yet another shallow cut and incredibly deep feeling of injury and pain as he made the mistake of stepping just a little too far with the other foot, leading to a single cut on both of them. After shifting his standing, he glared at her and brought back the layer of stone upon his axe.


    ¡°What is your name, coward?¡±


    ¡°Most of the cowards seem to have fallen unconscious or suffered grievous injuries, so I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll get a reply.¡±


    ¡°I was asking for you name!¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Wei Yi. Nice to meet you, Long Song Lao.¡±


    ¡°Your methods are cheap and cowardly, Wei Yi! Face me properly, if you dare, or else I shall destroy you without any regard for your honour!¡± the man proclaimed loudly, thrusting his axe towards her, ¡°What say you?¡±


    ¡°Nah.¡±


    He did not speak in reply, only yelling loudly and angrily as he leapt forth and bypassed the bladed edges of the earth beneath him. The axe was raised and his arm was ready to fall upon her.


    All she did was raise the Arm and, with a notable amount of difficulty caused by her claws, she clicked her fingers, prompting a mass of earth to burst out of the upper layer of debris and head straight for the figure of Long Song Lao. Although the spikes seemed almost random in appearance, size and overall deadliness, they were all sharp and protruding in ways much alike to the point of a blade. Given the degree of damage dealt to the mind by random edges of the dirt, this was a clear danger to him.


    Thus, the man switched his plan of attack, grasped onto the handle of the axe with both hands, and slammed it down, infusing his vast quantity of energy into the axe head and letting it surge out of the edge, exploding out onto the spiked terrain.


    At the same time, a ring on his finger lit up with flames. A mass of blue flickered out, and a ball of flame the size of a small house suddenly formed in the air, but a few metres above the Ascendant. Just like the Fire Storms of the previous users of the technique, it fell swiftly the instant that it was ready, and she was given no choice but to face the incoming mass of flame in order to prevent her robes from being slightly singed. That would be the only damage that could be dealt to her due to her physiques, among other cultivation paths that she had chosen to pursue.


    ¡®This¡­ I suppose it could be called a weapon by my definition. It would be shit as a defensive measure, certainly, as the only defensive property is that it may dissuade attacks due to the potential threat.¡¯


    Since that was the case, then she raised her right hand with her index finger held out, pointed towards the ball of blue flame. It did not appear to move, tremble or shake, naturally making the one that had manifested it very pleased as he landed safely again and watched how she had proceeded. That joy changed swiftly as something far worse occurred.


    The blue mass suddenly distorted, with a line in the middle rushing down and towards him, while the rest of the flames contorted to follow, quickly forming a sword out of the flames. It moved with an even greater speed than it had in the form of a ball, and from a single glance at the edge, he could feel it cutting into him, making it very blatant that the moment it did hit him, it could very well be significantly more dangerous than his technique, invoked from the artefact on his finger, was meant to have been.


    For some reason that he couldn¡¯t quite identify, he glanced at that finger, finding that it was absent. Instead, the glint of blue was being held between two of the Ascendant¡¯s fingers, her two pointed claws keeping it in place.


    ¡°Huh. I thought that by making the cause of this the loss of your finger, you would lose it as well¡­¡±


    Only a moment after she said that, a vast quantity of blood suddenly splashed onto his face and the ground. Some of it seemed to fall onto an invisible edge above the edges of the shattered terrain beneath him, being cut apart into finer splashes of crimson, but it could only last for a little while before the blue flames crashed down upon him and evaporated not only that, but him as well.

 V5C50: Accelerating the Selections

    After the primary commander of the army from the Reclaimed Lands fell, it was only natural that the battle could not continue for much longer. The rest of the opposing forces were taken out by those who could still fight, with the Ascendant finishing off those in her vicinity, primarily the pit that she had made for dramatic effect and experimentation. Once they were done and the battlefield was looted, with the Ascendant doing the most of that as well as she could and had the spatial storage capacity to effectively grab everything she wanted, they gathered at the far side of the battlefield.


    There, some of the Reclaimed Lands were visible even for those with relatively weaker vision, with a number of towns close to one another.


    Although some soldiers and guards remained there, their numbers were pitiful in comparison to the force that had just been defeated, and perhaps it was no surprise that the Wu District saw an opportunity in this. As districts go, it had a closer border with an outside nation than many, and they would be too hard-pressed to expand their territory just a little bit, claiming a region of the former lands of Yi City and finally allowing it to expand after thousands of years of decay and stagnation.


    Wei Yi had no opposition, and, fortunately enough, Wu Chao did not have any significant problems either, his attention being focused on his own wellbeing. Thus, the army went enough and headed straight for the towns, surrounding them with their superior forces and quickly overwhelming every single combatant that intended to resist.


    Most did not, as their priority was the safety of their land and property, but the few that did were not killed on the spot, instead being restrained and put into appropriate spaces within the towns. There, they would be interrogated and informed of their fate at a later time, with a number of soldiers from the Wu District staying behind to keep an eye on the situation. The rest would return, with many returning once they had rested and recovered from their injuries on the battlefield. If they did not do this, then they would have the numbers needed to keep a firm grip on some of the doubly Reclaimed Lands, but their actual strength would be inferior to that of a paper tiger, and they could be defeated in no time by whatever powers remained in the Reclaimed Lands.


    Obviously, the people from the Selection of the Heavenly Masters, whether they were from the Wu District or not, would not be going back right away, as the Selection was still a priority for them and the district alike. In part, the reason for the attack on the Wu District was likely due to the lack of a Master.


    The absence of a Patriarch was also significant, but it seemed to have been hidden better.


    It was unclear how much the Reclaimed Lands knew of the Wu District¡¯s actions and state, but the knowledge that an important and powerful figure had died would be certain to reach them one way or another. From there, the leaders of the nation would know that someone else of a similar power would rise eventually, and would thus plan the attack as quickly as possible in order to take advantage of the situation while they still could.


    Such an approach could well have led to not all forces in the land agreeing. That would certainly explain why there was only one power at the level of the sixth realm attempting to move into the Wu District¡¯s lands, when an outside nation would require at least a few at such a level in order to have a chance of remaining as one. At the time that they broke away, there were most certainly greater figures amongst them, so it would only make sense for there to still be a few at the level of the Patriarchs, since their methods and power should have passed down more efficiently than in Yi City.


    Provided that those forces learned of the loss of one of their own, they might have some mixed feelings regarding the loss of a portion of their lands. On one hand, there would be one less competitor for ultimate power in the nation, and on the other, they might be a little upset at the sudden conquering of a portion of their lands without any questions asked.


    It was for that reason that the Wu District limited itself to taking only a small portion of the Reclaimed Lands. There was no guarantee that it would avoid a forceful retaliation, but it would surely lessen it, and it would make it significantly easier to split the nation apart or conquer the entirety of it in the future, when the district¡¯s state was a little better than now. When they had a Patriarch ¨C or, as Wei Yi would have it, a temporary but incredibly powerful Matriarch ¨C and a Heavenly Sword, they could safely go out and take more land. Once Yi City itself was in a better state, then there would be no challenge in taking on the closest outside nations as a united whole, rather than the current broken shell.


    However, that was unlikely to be within the expectations of the Wu District for the moment, as that was primarily what the Ascendant was thinking about while waiting for the continuation of the Selection of the Heavenly Sword.


    Luckily, not long after they had returned and had an hour to rest and recover, the five reappeared at the Master¡¯s Square and looked at those that remained.


    The conflict had claimed a few lives despite the attempts of most of Wu District¡¯s people present at the battlefield to prevent such a thing from happening. Generally, those that perished were those that only had an advantage in one-on-one encounters, and were thus easily overwhelmed by numbers and felled without extreme effort on the part of their enemies. Two had also fled early into the battle, and that left the Selection with eighty-three candidates.


    Wei Yi remained, Wu Chao remained, albeit in a terrible mood, and the man from the Wu District, the one that had a vision state, also remained. Although not everyone understood that they were the primary candidates, they were aware that at least one of them was most certainly in that list. The display that the Ascendant had provided for them at the battlefield did lead to many including her in that list, but there were some that considered it unlikely for the skills she displayed to function without planar energy.


    They weren¡¯t wrong, for the moment. While she relied on her killing intent to manifest Edge Replication without requiring any movement, or needed to invoke the Earth Dao combined with the Weapon Dao on fragments of earth infused with planar energy, she did not yet have a Weapon or Sword Dao that she could manifest without any form of planar energy ¨C for now, at least.


    ¡°It was not intended for you to participate in a major battle with the lands outside Yi City¡¯s borders, but since it occurred, we will proceed onto our next step earlier than originally intended,¡± the woman, possibly named Wu Er if the naming scheme for the five was consistent, ¡°Tomorrow, you shall battle once more, and it shall be done in accordance with our judgement of your performance, and who would best challenge both sides. It shall begin with those we see as the weakest, and then the victors shall challenge one another once more, with the victor remaining until we have a clear and definitive conclusion.¡±


    It was incredibly fortunate that she was not going to be the first one to fight with anyone, since that would give her the right opportunity to further her development of the Dao and then defeat Wu Chao in such a manner that he would have zero opportunity to succeed. While fighting with naught but one¡¯s own strength, without drawing upon any form of planar energy, and while keeping her strength down so that she was still competing in swordsmanship, she did not have a significant advantage. More important than that was the fact that they would be judged by the Wu District¡¯s people, and they would wish to see attainment in swordsmanship.


    The best example of this was the Sword Dao, and that could be exhibited without releasing her energy out into the world. With Edge Replication, she could make a sword out of the air itself so long as she drew upon her power of Dao, costing her only a few internal injuries, but she needed Full Success in the Weapon Dao in order to manifest something sufficiently impressive. Otherwise, it might just look like basic cheating with her planar energy, not at all what she needed to achieve with her effort.


    Those present and alive weren¡¯t idiots, so they understood what the announcement meant. The Wu District wished to accelerate their recruitment of a Heavenly Master, for there would otherwise be a greater number of steps than just more fights to determine who would enter such a significant position.


    After all, if they were fine with just some fighting finishing things, then they could have let the first set of duels repeat, taking out half of the group each time, until the strongest two fought and concluded who would end up being the victor. At that point, they would have had a Heavenly Sword when the Reclaimed Lands invaded, and they could then have provided the Heavenly Sword with whatever resources they might need to advance their realm and further their strength in every way possible. The invasion would thus have been curbed much more easily.


    If they had gotten Wei Yi involved, then she might well have created some kind of immense barrier around the Wu District alongside Yi City as a whole once she challenged the remnants of the Great Family¡¯s forces. By the time that the Reclaimed Lands did invade, she would have gotten to the Ze District, and maybe some other district if she chose to visit them on the way.


    Unfortunately, the Wu District¡¯s leaders, however many of them were even left at the moment, did not have the foresight to do such a thing, and they must have failed to comprehend that she was easily their best option. With her sights set on the whole of Yi City, she wouldn¡¯t keep her control tight over a district even if she was some terrible tyrant, but the Greats absolutely would now that she had riled them up. This would go on for some time, since they would need to prevent a similar form of rebellion.


    Back onto what was actually happening, rather than what she wished had happened, the fact that she would need to stay around for a day longer was something she had already prepared for, so it wasn¡¯t too bothersome. Wu Chao did not appear to have sent back any information yet, so it meant that there was no ticking clock for herself and the Greats to consider. In their case, it would be her return, and it would prompt a rapid destruction of all of her forces before she has a chance to join them and reclaim all of the resources and powers that she had accumulated. They might well even seek to claim or destroy the Kong Prison Realm, while they¡¯re at it.


    For her, the equivalent clock would obviously be the time necessary to prepare such an attack, which couldn¡¯t be much longer than a few days. They might need some time to bring out one of their first generation members, but once they were present, there was no reason for them not to rush forth and obliterate all that stands in their way. For the moment, their power was simply unparalleled.


    She would change that soon enough, but if she had to rush back now, she would have a worse chance.


    Due to this, she naturally didn¡¯t bring up any complaints, and instead gladly returned to the chambers offered to them previously for meditation and contemplation. This time, the focus was more on resting than thinking, but she did not need the former and would focus all the more on the latter, since her rapid breakthrough into the Great Stride stage with both the Weapon and Sword Dao meant that she was close to the next step as well, with only a little gap remaining on the path to Full Success, or the false version thereof.


    The topic of the true Dao and true Dao stages had been on her mind while she was abusing the power of Dao to obliterate the army of the Reclaimed Lands, and she had concluded that naming the stages in the same way would only lead to confusion. As such, she had been trying to figure out good alternatives to the current framework, and had come up with nothing. Just like the first time she tried it, she knew too little about the true versions and attainment in Dao to make any guesses.


    This was very different to when she had predicted the names of the killing will cultivation realms. There, she had been working with the known five realms of killing intent and all nine of spiritual will, as well as her personal observations. She knew that a weapon could be produced in the fourth realm, protection in the fifth, and the sixth was likely to affect the body ¨C as it did, in the end ¨C so progressing from there was relatively easy. It would have been stranger if killing will had taken a completely different path from the assumed progression of spiritual will on the part of the Silver Side¡¯s scholars and thinkers.


    All that she could assume was that the first true stage of attainment in a Dao would allow her to have a vision state of her own, and that was still the only thing she had come up with up to this point.


    She wasn¡¯t too disappointed with the lack of progress, as any significant revelation would have to come with either a breakthrough in a Dao or some massive chunk of information regarding the nature of the world as a whole, both of which would take up some time to fully understand and process. If she was distracted from becoming the Heavenly Sword of the Wu District, then the Dao revelation better be incredibly powerful to make up for that. If she attained a true stage of the Dao of Law ¨C a true realm, perhaps ¨C and could manipulate it freely, that would be sufficient.


    It would also make it significantly more difficult to observe the Great Yi Family member not far from her. He was always looking a little suspicious, and now that he had been injured, he was clearly contemplating calling in his fellow leeches- Great Family members for aid.


    For her, it would naturally not be ideal to see him invoke his methods and call in the strongest members of the Great families, even with her current strength. She might not have much of a challenge when it comes to defeating the second generation, much like when she made use of all her methods to obliterate the invading army that wished to challenge her Kong Prison Realm and Paragon, but she had not yet reached the level of being able to resolve the Reality Severance of the first generation.


    Until she was able to handle that, there was no point in attempting to challenge them.


    Of course, she did not think that the Greats were able to use something like Reality Severance easily, and without consequence, and she most certainly didn¡¯t think that they would use something like it recklessly even if that was not the case. Her very being had been split in two, an arm somewhere far from her likely still surviving due to the plentiful vitality within her body. It might be impossible to fix without power at the eighth realm and above, which neither she nor the Greats had, at least as far as she was aware.


    Hence, if they were to randomly use Reality Severance on everything that bothered them, they would inevitably fragment the world as a whole. Each cut passed through the air, possibly splitting that permanently, and they would touch the ground and others at times, so there would slowly be more and more gaps that could not be healed by anything, save for the heavens ¨C and it may be that they can do nothing either. There was a significant difference between breaching and cutting space, and severing the very concept of something, and since all spatial tears were usually corrected right away by spatial spirits and the like, it would be very odd if the heavens did not consider such cuts to be a significant enough threat to address right away.


    At the seventh realm, she would have some confidence in being able to stop any usage of Reality Severance and prevent it from striking her, and she would then have confidence in her ability to defeat one of the first generation members. Once she could kill one of them, she could kill two, three, and eventually all forty-eight of them, and then their threat would be removed.


    The Great Leeches could be cleansed from the world, and the world could have a better chance.


    ¡®In fact, the Great Leeches is a suitable name for that filth. They would just sap the world of all it has to offer, and if they wish to be great, then let them be great. They will be known as horrible things that should have never been allowed to be, and I hope that the people of the future, with or without my presence, will realise this and not revert to the mistakes of the past,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, making sure to note down that name in her mind so that she could announce it when she had the chance to do so.


    While Wu Chao wasn¡¯t actively doing anything annoying, she had nothing else on the outside to focus on, so she kept her spiritual perception on the world and settled down for another day of intense pondering of everything she could think of.


    It was hard to be sure of the exact level of productivity achieved by this day¡¯s worth of effort, but she wouldn¡¯t need to debate that for much longer, for those that were still in the Selections of the Heavenly Sword were all being gathered in the Master¡¯s Square once again. There, they would battle, and there their ultimate status would be decided. As with the day before, the favourites of most present were obvious, and the list of expected winners was just as brief, although Wu Chao and Wei Yi had been climbing it.


    Before, the strongest Wu family member, the one with a vision state, was mixed into the top three without much doubt, but after a day of thought, they concluded that it was very unlikely that he would indeed be the victor. This was an opinion shared even by those from the Wu District, for a few plain and straightforward reason.


    On one hand, there was Wu Chao, a member of a Great Family. Most did not know of that position well enough to judge anything based on it, but they could tell that he was significantly more powerful and capable that the vast majority of cultivators they had ever met. From their previous observation of his combat ability, they know that his swordsmanship is also noteworthy, although it was too difficult to compare it to the overall level of swordsmanship of others in the selection with the minimal degree of pure swordsmanship demonstrated up to this point. It was very unlikely for a man to be so confident in the situation if he didn¡¯t have something up his sleeve.


    Then, there was Wei Yi. There weren¡¯t many that could truly understand the extent of her abilities, since she was easily the least conventional in terms of the techniques and types of energy that she used. Most had no clue that killing intent, spiritual will, physique energy or bloodline power even existed, so it was nearly impossible for them to understand how it was that she could obliterate so many with so little effort at the battlefield.


    She did demonstrate a great mastery of basic sword techniques when she had battled the young man during the first series of duels, but mastery of the basics did not translate directly to the overall ability in a battle.


    After all, one could have a perfect understanding of how to swing a sword and block attacks, but when they would be faced with something specifically intended to deal with such simple things, they would need to step up to more complex manoeuvres to resolve their problems. At that point, even the most significant mastery of the basic movements would prove to be insufficient, as the right way to connect them into a perfect flow to defeat any opposing method is what one would need to comprehend instead. Still, there was a lot going for her, even if she lacked such abilities.


    The first battle began and ended after a few minutes, and then the others proceeded afterwards. To prevent the strongest ones eliminating one another right away, and thus limiting their ability to compete properly at the second stage of these duels, the Wu District didn¡¯t hide the fact that they were doing exactly this. Wei Yi, Wu Chao and the Wu District¡¯s representative did not meet in battle.


    While the Ascendant fought with some woman, the Great Leech representative met with a stronger individual from the Wu District, and the man with a vision state encountered an outsider who might have come from the Ze District, for he had two perfected stages despite only being in the fourth realm. Ultimately, in fights that did not benefit from planar cultivation, such a thing was not very useful, as he had not cultivated his body using that energy, and so all three of the most likely victors moved through to the next stage while their opponents did not. This time, they were not given the option of remaining, and were made to step away immediately, although they were permitted to watch.


    Just like that, the total number of competitors shrunk down to forty-two, with one participant lacking an opponent and thus being permitted to stick around and instead be the first in the second set of duels.


    From there, everything was incredibly straightforward. One by one, the weakest two remaining would fight, one would win and the other lose, and then the next opponent of a similar strength would arrive onto the arena.


    Some would win a number of times, others would not, but it was almost inevitable that both sides would lose then and now, resulting in the two opponents gradually rising in power and ability. If that did not occur, then it would mean that there was a hidden gem amongst the weaker-looking combatants, and the Wu District would certainly not reject the victory of someone like that, even if they weren¡¯t expecting it. Of course, what everyone believed they¡¯d see is the eventual competition between the three strongest individuals present, and the methods that they could invoke.


    Given that the man from the Wu District had a vision state, and that the Great Leeches had been around for a very long time, the Ascendant was expecting the final two or three battles to involve the Sword Dao in one shape or another. Whether they were all as able to use it as she was, they could also apply the knowledge granted to them to fight more effectively.


    In a way, however, she was looking forward to witnessing proper usage of a Dao, even against herself.


    Up to this point, she had not seen anyone being able to apply a Dao in any way beyond a vision state, and even then, it was likely the Xin District¡¯s awakening of the soul that came with the awakening of the three vision states for the Soul, Spirit and Ghost Dao, or something along those lines. Given that children of the Xin District were able to survive without being shocked by such a different view of the world, it was probable that the vision states were significantly inferior to those of the Great Stride stage, or of a true Dao realm, only allowing them to see spirits and not truly comprehend what they were seeing through the lens of their appropriate Dao.


    Forbidden skills were a form of Dao, too, provided that she understood them correctly. They could be classed as being under the combination of the Human Dao, and a secondary Dao that they attempt to invoke from within. Back at the Yi District, Chu Ling had a forbidden skill that invoked the Wood Dao from within the Human Dao, and Jiang Sheng¡¯s Ice Demon¡¯s Will invoked something like the Yin Dao or the Cold Dao from within the Human Dao. Yi Henghua¡¯s Fairy of Dust skill was, despite its otherworldly nature, also a forbidden skill, and that invoked the Dust Dao.


    That was not the best way to go about it, however, and thus they came with a great cost. The human aspect would get worn away and overwhelmed by the invoked Dao, and so Chu Ling was bound to her Timeless Grove, while Jiang Sheng transformed into a cold entity that would not be called human if he had progressed in the forbidden skill further. Yi Henghua went mad from the combination of the otherworldly gift and her rapid transformation into dust as she overworked her cultivation method.


    It could be seen as them having fragments of a Dao, or as them being tools of the Human Dao being used to an extreme, but the overall point was that she had little to learn from them in regard to Dao. Her perspective differed greatly, and so she would only muddle her understanding with the interpretation of others.


    This was the unfortunate nature of Dao, as far as she understood it, and she would persevere with it while she had to, and expand her horizons once she had the option to do so. Presumably, this would occur with the step out of the territory of Dao and into the field of Great Dao, where it ceased to describe a concept through the world and instead explained the world through a concept. At that point, once the world as a whole could be summarised via the Dao of Law ¨C just as an example ¨C then it would be impossible to stick with a limited quantity of truth regarding that Dao, and it would, by definition, become greater than before.


    Of course, just as the true Dao realms that she had imagined, this was speculation. She had yet to speak with the heavens, the only ones that might be aware of the nature of Great Dao, the possibility of true Dao realms, and whatever other properties of reality she hadn¡¯t quite grasped up to this point.


    Whether that was even a possibility was hard to say, since she had not yet interacted with the heavens personally, so perhaps all of her guessing about them was completely inaccurate. She could believe that, even if she would be a little disappointed to see her predictions be completely incorrect. If there was no sapient entity to hit in the face once she met with them, then it would make the experience significantly less relaxing, and perhaps it would mean that she has a far worse chance of achieving her goals of teaching it about all of the mistakes that it had made so far.


    As she thought about that, and a whole bunch of other matters, the battles were progressing, and it was roughly as everyone predicted. Some managed to stay around for a few fights in a row, but they were almost always replaced after that and left the arena with the two competitors that everyone had been waiting for ¨C Wu Chao and, as he turned out to be called, Wu Liang.


    They faced one another intently and silently. Wu Liang held in a single hand a shorter, thin sword that was sharpened to an almost excessive degree, seeming ready to cut the world with it despite the impossibility of doing such a thing with only an ordinary weapon made of tougher steel than some. Wu Chao was using a more ordinary longsword, one hand ready to grip onto it when necessary, one that was polished to a great shine, but nothing else about it was abnormal. His own weapon was significantly fancier in appearance, as one might imagine from one of the Great Leeches, but he was obviously not permitted to make use of it in a fair battle like this one.


    For one reason or another, Wu Chao appeared to be sufficiently respectful of his opponent, an abnormal behaviour no matter how one looked at it. It would certainly be worth paying attention to this, but the Ascendant already had an idea of how things would go.

 V5C51: Battle of Dao

    ¡°If you are ready, then the two of you¡­ may begin!¡±


    Even now, they managed to remain silent, plunging into the fight without any hesitation or deliberation. Wu Chao began with a slash from above, his left hand rising to grip the hilt as well and provide more force, while the representative of the Wu District started with a direct stab using the point of his blade.


    With these two attacks, one would need to adapt their strategy in order to guarantee success, or else they would just slice into one another and leave themselves with injuries that would make it significantly more difficulty to resolve the battle with a single decisive blow. One injury would grow to two, three and more, since there would be no reason to stop with just a few. Instead of a plain battle to the first successful strike, it would elevate to a battle to the death, and if the Wu District wished for a clear outcome, they would need to let this happen even if they did not wish to do so.


    For this reason, Wu Chao attacked significantly earlier than he might have intended, slashing down at the approaching sword and forcing it away, before following up with a slash back in order to attempt to strike his opponent before he could recover.


    Naturally, Wu Liang was not going to simply run into the sword and let himself be killed like that, and instead stepped to his right, away from the direction of the slash. Then, he stabbed forward yet again, taking advantage of the opening provided to him to guarantee that any response would be, at best, either delayed or weakened by the current movement, and so he hoped to hit and at least lightly scratch his opponent.


    Wu Chao hit back, rapidly changing the direction of his blow to block the stab.


    Wu Liang blocked, retreating and narrowing his eyes.


    Meanwhile, the Ascendant stood by the side and observed them all carefully, attempting to comprehend not only her own matters, but also what it was that Wu Liang¡¯s vision state was. If it was anything that could be applied in battle, then it was undoubtedly going to be used in a difficult battle, and so he was going to be using it right now to gain whatever advantage he could.


    So far, he had not exposed a single obvious point, but the state of his sword and the ways in which he was attacking did give her some ideas.


    ¡®His swordsmanship is obviously good enough, so this vision state is unlikely to have come from an unrelated Dao¡­ In that case, it is either some kind of Sword Dao, or a Dao relating to the sword. Edge Dao, Sharp Dao, Stab Dao¡­ All of those are, technically, Dao, because there is no real restriction to them or the interpretations and thus paths taken with Dao¡­ This shit is rather confusing if you think about it constantly for twelve days in a row, and I don¡¯t think that this is really the best way to go about it,¡¯ she sighed internally, observing the slowly accelerating battle, ¡®Action really is more productive in these regards, so it is good that I will soon have a chance to practise.¡¯


    Before she was certain what Dao Wu Liang had comprehended, or what vision state had been bestowed onto him with methods that she did not fully understand, it was hard to be certain of who would be victorious. Nevertheless, she had a decent enough guess, for he was slowly but surely being led into the flow of his opponent, rather than maintaining his own.


    When one controlled the battle, they were essentially in control of victory, especially when battles were on roughly even footing. In other cases, like when someone in the ninth realm fought another in the first, the former would obviously be able to win in all but the most exceptional circumstances regardless of what they did, but when two people fought without planar energy, using similar swords of high quality, and with bodies that weren¡¯t exceptional but still durable enough to withstand a lengthy fight, the only factor remaining was the one in the lead. In this case, Wu Chao was slowly taking it.


    Indeed, as this fight continued, Wu Liang was forced to use more abnormal and unusual techniques to handle the assault from the Great Leech family member, while Wu Chao did not need to do anything of the sort. Their stamina may have been comparable at first, but when one started to expend twice as much as the other for the same effect, then it was yet another factor against the one that was not able to maintain initiative.


    Slowly, she was seeing his defeat approaching, and worse yet, she was finding that it was becoming more and more likely that this would not simply end in defeat for Wu Liang.


    It was not surprising that Wu Chao might want to harm his opponent, for he had been rather annoyed at the point of entering the duel, but there was not only the desire to harm, but the blatant desire to kill combined with the real possibility of it. Whatever Dao Wu Liang had mastered, it would not help him once Wu Chao built up enough momentum to be able to execute a single decisive strike. At that point, life and death would be up to him, for the Wu District¡¯s authorities couldn¡¯t possibly have a better overview of the situation combined with sufficient power to let him perform the decisive strike and yet stop him before it claimed a life.


    Most likely, they would lose their chosen fighter, and would have to deal with the winner between Wei Yi and Wu Chao as their new Heavenly Sword. The problem was that the Ascendant would much rather have Wu Liang as the Patriarch after her go, and she would rather see Wu Chao dead.


    For that reason, she needed to do something in order to prevent something like this happening, and she needed to be ready to act in a way that might displease the Wu District¡¯s authorities in this regard, and provide a sufficient explanation for them to not use that against her. She had some ideas, but the easiest would be to invoke a Dao in a manner that would make it impossible to argue with her claim to the position.


    The easiest way to do so likely didn¡¯t need to be explained to anyone that had the ability to observe her actions in great detail, but revealing the power of Dao without making it worse needed a Dao at Full Success, at which point she could forcefully project some of its power into the world without strictly spending any planar energy, thus allowing her to use it and not displease the district.


    It wasn¡¯t possible to advance it on a whim, however, and so she was instead going to intervene, force things into a state where her mind would finally pass whatever threshold she needed to, and then attain Full Success in a Dao and overwhelm her opponent in a way that couldn¡¯t be ignored or denied.


    Before she could do that, she naturally watched and waited. She learned and studied, paying attention to the minute actions of all those that she saw, and when she observed that the sword being used by Wu Chao was being marked with far more chips and nicks than Wu Liang¡¯s weapon, she suspected that she had accidentally figured out exactly what Dao Wu Liang had mastered, and what it was that he was trying to accomplish with his strikes now that he found that he wasn¡¯t able to win with basic combat methods.


    With how his sword was slowly cutting more and more into the blade of Wu Chao, he had likely comprehended a kind of Sharp Dao, aligning well with the extreme sharpness of his weapon and thus letting him do significantly more harm to the blade of his foe than should be reasonably possible. It was hard to be sure of what he had comprehended of sharpness to bring him to the Great Stride stage, but it was very likely that he had somehow found some meaning in the sharp edge of a sword and pushed himself to a ridiculous extent, perhaps due to the heavens being aware of the progression and development of swords and sharp weapons, allowing it to bestow a great deal of knowledge to Wu Liang while failing to inform Wei Yi of the notion of Law.


    Still, she wasn¡¯t upset at them, and instead wanted to thank the heavens for not being too knowledgeable in the one thing she had taken a great deal of interest in. It saved a lot of effort.


    Wu Liang and Wu Chao continued to fight until, all of a sudden, the latter moved far more quickly than before, tapping into his personal physical strength, and bypassed the sharp sword to directly stab into Wu Liang¡¯s neck in a manner that would leave him with no chance of survival. He was doing so in a manner that would leave him with a rather significant pain in his arm for some time, but completely overwhelming an opponent must seem like a worthwhile trade.


    One of the five that was observing the battle definitely noticed, but the rate at which their planar energy moved was simply too slow, especially combined with the fact that it did not appear to be intended to affect the situation until after the sword collided with Wu Liang¡¯s throat.


    A sudden flash of crimson formed into a blade in motion, colliding with the incoming stab and forcing the blade aside, cutting naught but the air.


    In an instant, attention turned from the strike to the one that had caused this with a method that did not even attempt to disguise her involvement. It matched the technique the Ascendant had used at the battle with the Reclaimed Lands, and so none were surprised to find her standing not far behind Wu Liang, who wisely got out of the way the moment that he understood what had happened, retreating quietly but not so far as to get out of the combat arena. For the moment, it was uncertain how this would proceed, so he needed to stick around as to not be disqualified too early.


    ¡°Wei Yi, do you understand what you have done?¡±


    ¡°I have stopped one of your descendants from dying. This man intended to kill him, and I prevented this.¡±


    ¡°By doing so, you interrupted-¡± Wu Er began, but she was interrupted before she could get far.


    ¡°I cannot speak for Wu Liang, but I see that the battle was not in his favour, and that he would have been lost. If so, then it does not matter whether I interfered or not, and we can simply proceed onto the next step. I will not use my planar energy at all, not unless the leech does so first. At that point, I would hope that you allow us to fight it out to the end, as I doubt that either one of us will be happy if the outcome of the battle is decided without our input.¡±


    ¡°Wu Liang, are you of the opinion that you would have lost?¡± the woman asked.


    ¡°¡­ The blade coming for me was sharp. It would have been certain to wound me greatly, and it may have well ended my life. I accept my defeat.¡±


    His voice was incredibly hesitant, but he was forced to admit the truth if he was to not appear as either a liar or an idiot, neither of which would paint him in the greatest light. With that admission, he had no choice but to step out of the designated square and join those that continued observing the battles, looking at the Ascendant with some hope in his eyes. She had, after all, saved him, and now she was the only one with a chance of defeating the Great Leech and preventing the Wu District from being grasped by someone with no respect for the deathless nature of the competition.


    In theory, at least, if Wu Liang had gotten the strike instead, he would have aimed for a significant part of the body, but without leading to a chance of death. Even the move that had nearly killed him had the opportunity to target a point below the neck, all the way down to his chest and beneath the shoulder, where a cut would have been very decisive without leading to instant death.


    As such, it was very simple to label the action attempted by Wu Chao as being more than a little impolite in a reasonable duel such as this one. Wei Yi had a whole bunch of other words that she might describe this situation with, but they would not be suitable for a description that was to remain within a million words or less, as she had far more words in her mental domain than most would ever come across in their entire lives.


    ¡°In that case, the final duel shall begin. Wei Yi, Wu Chao, you are the last participants in the Selection of the Heavenly Sword. The victor shall have the honour of joining our district and learning from it, but also the responsibility of providing their talents to benefit the Wu District. If you wish, you may take the surname of Wu, but that is not a necessity,¡± the third man, likely named Wu Si because he was the fourth out of the group, ¡°Due to your existing rivalry, as well as what had just happened, you shall fight until one admits defeat, or one falls and perishes. We shall not stop you from killing one another unless you surrender clearly, but we will if you make use of energy that contradicts the nature of our values. Is this understood by both sides?¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, as did Wu Chao, a moment later. His face flickered between anger and excitement, for he was seeing the very figure that stood by and let two of his anchors be damaged, and he had the chance to kill her now, for the Wu District would not stop him from doing so.


    Even with her inherent dislike of the Great Leeches ¨C or perhaps specifically due to it forcing her to take them more seriously ¨C she was aware that the man was not stupid, and that he would understand that defeating her wouldn¡¯t be particularly simple. With his arm strained due to the attempt at a killing blow, he was now in a tenuous position where his left arm was no longer reliable, meaning that only his dominant arm could be used for any risky attacks.


    This greatly limited the range of his attacks, and thus limited the possibility of defeating the Ascendant using only his physical form and power.


    Needless to say, such a thing would cause him plenty of problems, but there was no way for him to recover in just a few minutes. For that reason, before they began, Wei Yi was able to see a moment of hesitation in his eyes and actions, for he tried to understand how to handle the situation with the most certainty of victory.


    At some point during that deliberation, the thought of employing planar energy to slay her must have crossed his mind. It was undoubtedly tempting, for it would give him an opportunity to remove her from the Planar Continents once and for all, all that the cost of a single measly district that could be acquired by more forceful means. The biggest problem for the moment was, after all, the fact that the Ascendant could come at any time and threaten the few Great Leech family members that remain, prompting their current stance of caution.


    Whatever he had concluded upon, Wei Yi was ready to see him act in the worst way possible, for it would not only be incredibly helpful to her overall goal in the Wu District, but it would also make it incredibly easy for her to justify any kind of behaviour even if she failed to advance her Weapon Dao, and the Sword Dao by proxy. So long as she forced him into taking action, any response could be justified with little effort. It would, technically, be best to agitate him as much as possible with taunts and deliberately improper techniques, but she was not going to do something like that. She wasn¡¯t above rude tactics ¨C especially kicking the nether regions of men, for it was too good a target to pass up ¨C but it would leave a bad impression on the Wu District¡¯s people and not fit with the image that she was attempting to create as the Ascendant, Arbiter, and whatever other title she could invent.


    It may also be completely unnecessary, provided that she understood her opponent well enough.


    This was put to the test right away, for they did not hesitate to strike at one another with methods that could kill if they landed successfully. By correctly guessing the movements he would use due to the contraction of his muscles, she was able to account for the attack before it even came, and thus force him into a defensive action before he had the chance to attempt to land a single hit on her, a positive outcome in her eyes.


    When he tried to block and stab, she made use of the motion of his blade to reverse the attack, prompting him to step to the side and close the gap while attempting to land a punch.


    Such strikes weren¡¯t necessarily expected in a battle of blades, but it was expected due to the way in which the Wu District wished for those using the sword to understand the sword, and the same for other weapons. If using a different weapon, or a completely different method, could defeat the weapon, then there was no good reason not to permit it, unless it was planar energy.


    In this case, his fist was not infused with planar energy, even if there was plenty inside his meridians, and so it was perfectly acceptable, as was the Ascendant¡¯s swift turning of the blade in her hand to place the pommel of the weapon right in the fist¡¯s path.


    The collision forced her to grip onto the sword a little more tightly, as to prevent it from being knocked out of her grip, but it also forced the unprotected hand of Wu Chao to land on a tough metal object that sent a wave of pain through his hand. It did not hit any vital parts of his fingers, but as he used the same arm as the one he tried to kill Wu Liang with, the wave it sent through the strained elbow most certainly hurt far more than was desirable.


    He placed that hand around the hilt of the weapon and abandoned the attempts to involve his fists in the fight, only to immediately follow with a basic slash that prompted her to dodge to the side with a kick to her leg. Anyone with any understanding of combat would know that he was attempting to figure out her weaknesses, and when she responded more quickly and brought her foot down, pinning his foot to the ground, it was also difficult not to notice how significantly she was currently overpowering him simply by using a greater extent of her physical abilities than before.


    By the rules of the arena, she was still well within her limits, as she was not directly using planar energy, physique energy, or her bloodline power, so to simply reveal more of her own power was perfectly fine.


    That did not make the Great Leech happy, though. He also had more to bring to the fight, but he was reluctant to employ certain methods due to their potential threat to himself, or perhaps due to wishing to keep them hidden in case he ever attempted to compete for the position of Patriarch in the district. Having some secret cards hidden in his sleeve for the inevitable fights then would be of immense use.


    ¡®Obviously, that¡¯s exactly what I want this asshole to ponder. Once he decides on that, and still can¡¯t beat me, he will inevitably deem that it is only right for him to win, and will then employ planar energy. At that point¡­¡¯ she paused in her thoughts, although she continued to fight as usual, ¡®Actually, since I¡¯ve already connected a part of my Weapon Dao with my Sword Dao, allowing those two to advance at the same time, if I understand the Sharp Dao that Wu Liang had come across, then I should be able to push for a breakthrough in this regard rather easily. Perhaps, if that doesn¡¯t work, I could try to expand the current focus on the Sword Dao to an Edge Dao, involving all edged weapons, and use that to push my understanding of weapons as a whole forward¡­¡¯


    As this was exactly what she had assumed would happen the moment that she got into a proper fight, she had already prepared some space in her mental domain to focus on this kind of thing while the rest of her attention was on planning her combat moves ahead to minimize the time wasted on them.


    The overall mental processing necessary was larger as a result, but she was able to push it ahead while the fight was still progressing at a reasonable pace and used sensible and relatively straightforward techniques. In this way, when things did get rather hectic, she would have already been prepared for most potential moves that Wu Chao could use, and would thus be able to transition from deliberation on one topic to another with far more smoothness.


    These thoughts did lead to her to adopting some slightly unusual techniques in the battle, mostly with the intention of developing the Dao further, but also to unnerve her opponent. For her, whether she went with some ordinary slash or absurd twist and strike was nearly irrelevant, but he would need to adapt to every random thing that she did.


    One of the things that could be understood without any doubt about the Great Leeches was that their mind-set was a little stagnant, no matter which one of them you looked at. From birth, they had been taught a single world view, and had been instilled in them that it was the right way to go for countless years, removing any reason for them to reconsider their actions and stances on nearly everything. It was much like how the Ascendant would not waver on the concept of the Dao of Law, or the fact that the Greats needed to end.


    When almost everything in life did not need any deliberation on one¡¯s righteousness and correctness, the rest of one¡¯s actions tended to become overly certain as well, hence Wei Yi¡¯s attempts to expand her range of Dao and not limit herself to a single one. While Wu Chao had a single perspective to use to deal with her actions, she was able to take a look from a dozen different Dao vision states ¨C among other things, of course ¨C and thus act with a little more sense than the Greats did, at least for now. If she was pushed along one of her Dao to something so significant that she was tied into a single worldview, then that might be a problem, but she was expecting to get to the eighth or ninth realm by that point.


    ¡°Damn¡­¡± the Great Leech muttered under his breath as he found that he couldn¡¯t find a solution to anything that she was throwing against him. Slowly but surely, he was entering that exact same state as what he had forced onto Wu Liang, and so his inevitable end was also obvious.


    Eventually, she would overcome him, and she would kill him, for she had no reason to hesitate.


    His surface thoughts gave that away without a shadow of a doubt, as well as the conflict regarding the best way to proceed, prompting the Ascendant to force him down a single road with something that she knew would irritate him. When he was at the brink of making a conclusion, she looked him right in the eyes and smiled.


    In that instant, a decision was made, planar energy rushed out of his meridians and around the weapon, and he slammed the sword down on the Ascendant, seeking to cut through her blade and carve a great wound in her body at the very least, if not carving her in half at best.


    ¡®Finally! Now, you piece of shit, you will finally die!¡¯ Wei Yi couldn¡¯t stop that smile from growing further as she deliberately allowed Wu Chao¡¯s sword to cut straight through her own as she held it in her left hand. Her Arm could not move particularly fluidly or with as much force as one might want in a swordfight, so it only made sense to free her right hand instead as she brought it up to face the incoming blow.


    She held her fingers flatly, forming a flat plane with all five, and met the incoming glowing edge with the right side of her hand.


    Normally, her star metal would be sufficient to block the incoming attack, but the sword did not collide with the side of her gauntlets. Instead, it bounced right off an inch away, as if it struck an invisible edge that would only be found on a sword.


    The sound, the sensation upon the collision, the way in which his sword bounced off and he was forced to steady his hand to prevent it from flying straight out of them ¨C all of it matched the sensation of a sword, and yet it was impossible to deny that there was no planar energy focused around her hand, even if there were traces of inscriptions in the metal plates that made up her gauntlet. Wu Chao¡¯s eyes widened as he tried to comprehend what it was that he had just witnessed, desperately attempting to comprehend this seeming nonsense, until he looked back into her eyes and witnessed a strange sight of a circle glowing vibrantly within her irises, resembling interlocked blades while lacking any such features on another glance.


    In a fit of anger, he tried to thrust his sword into her eyes, but another invisible edge blocked his way once more, this time not even being attached to the side of her hand. Her hand did soon follow, further pushing away his blade and going for his shoulder. For a moment, as her hand shifted, he could see a glint of metal where there was none.


    ¡°What is this?¡± he exclaimed, ¡°What kind of energy do you use now, Rebel?¡±


    ¡°I use the knowledge that you, the Leeches, have sought to steal from all of us. This is Dao, and it is something that your twisted view shall never grant you.¡±


    She was not strictly speaking the truth, but it did not matter to the few that not only heard it, but had a good grasp of what she could possibly mean. Wu Chao understood just a little, but the latter part was a clear insult towards him and the families that he was a part of, so it did not matter whether or not she was accurate. Meanwhile, those of the Wu District that had pursued Dao when their use of certain skills and weapons began to limit their own development realised that was they were seeing was not only a vision state, of which they had heard of but had rarely seen or achieved.


    No, this was Full Success, the beginning of the path towards the Great Dao that they all sought.


    As such, the leaders of the district suddenly began to lean in favour of the Ascendant, even though some had seen her as being a meddlesome intruder that should not have come with the grudges that she possessed.


    In a situation where she had been at a disadvantage, they may have assisted her, but they did not see that right now. Instead, she was only showing a little bit of her power, and she was already managing to go for a successful strike after what appeared to be only three attacks with some power of the Dao bound around her hand and air, or perhaps the aura of her vibrant silver eyes.


    That invisible edge bound around her hand pierced into his shoulder and severed a number of significant muscles, doing so with incredible ease due to the length of her Dao blade being incredibly difficult to judge when it itself was invisible to anyone that did not master the Weapon Dao, or the Sword Dao. One instant led to a great quantity of his blood pouring out, much of it nearing the Ascendant¡¯s body but ultimately falling away without leaving a single drop upon her Crimson Robes.


    ¡°Rebellious bitch!¡± Wu Chao cried out, desperately taking a step away, ¡°Our flame shall not be put out by the likes of you!¡±


    ¡°All of your flames shall be extinguished by the incoming storm, no matter what you do!¡±


    She did not cease her attacks and proceeded to stab at the Great Leech once more, targeting his neck this time, but just an instant prior to the collision, she witnessed a ray of light surge from his forehead, moving just as his mouth twitched one more time than would be necessary for him to complete his sentence.


    There was no point to hesitate or restrain herself then, for she recalled how Ping Wu had used this exact method to transmit some quantity of information to Testament, leading to her rather daring plan to infiltrate one of their territories and take advantage of them for her own gains. She instantly activated her physique energy and channelled her cosmic energy, accelerating her own movement by a few dozen times, allowing her to separate the vile Great Leech¡¯s head from him body within an instant. Unfortunately, the ray of light left just a moment before.


    ¡°Fuck¡­¡± she exhaled, turning to the five that were observing the battle, ¡°Look, I¡¯m going to need to challenge the other Heavenly Masters of the Weapon variety. I need to become Matriarch.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Very well. That can be organised,¡± Wu Wu said calmly and unexpectedly.

 V5C52: Rite of Progression

    Perhaps the only two that weren¡¯t confused right now were the Ascendant and the fifth man from the oddly named group, for even the other four were rather lost, not to mention the other participants in the Selection of Heavenly Masters, and the Heavenly Spear, Heavenly Axe, Heavenly Mace, Heavenly Dagger and Heavenly Bow. All of them came promptly and without any questions, but once they saw the scene of an unfamiliar woman standing by a decapitated body, surrounded by a whole bunch of other fighters that looked as lost as they were, the number of questions certainly rose quite a bit. They turned to Wu Wu for answers.


    ¡°What is happening? The Selection of the Heavenly Masters doesn¡¯t usually end in death, does it?¡± the Heavenly Spear asked, a short woman with a spear on her back, an eyepatch over the left, empty eye socket, and a length of voluminous hair tied into a full ponytail.


    ¡°My one hadn¡¯t, but there were quite a few chopped trees,¡± replied the Heavenly Axe, a tall and very muscular man who had two axes on his belt, both simple enough in appearance but well-polished and sharpened, ready for use. He had his arms crossed, his head slightly raised as to look down at everything around him.


    ¡°There were many deaths during the Selection of the Heavenly Mace. Injuries from blunt weapons can be difficult to heal,¡± stated the Heavenly Mace, a slimmer man with an exaggeratedly ornate mace on his side, looking like it was more of an absurd toy than any kind of actual weapon.


    The Heavenly Dagger glanced at the Heavenly Mace and took a silent step away while he walked, a hand resting right by the dagger on his back, ready to be used at any time.


    ¡°Since we were all called here for some reason, I can only assume that this is our new Heavenly Sword?¡± the woman that was the Heavenly Bow asked, a bow and quiver on her back and short black hair on her head, clearly trimmed in such a manner that it would have no chance of affecting her while she was attempting to loose an arrow accurately. Out of the whole lot, she appeared to be the most practical in terms of appearance, but that meant little since the nature of planar energy allowed for a great variety of unusual abilities and natures.


    Given that the Heavenly Bow was the closest to the mark, Wu Wu turned to her in order to reply.


    ¡°Wei Yi has become the Heavenly Sword after defeating the final challenger, a member of the Great Wu Family by the name of Wu Chao. He had attempted to slay her with planar energy and sent a message that went against our rules when he failed, so she killed him as agreed prior to this,¡± he explained, answering as many questions as were raised, ¡°Now, our Heavenly Sword wishes to compete for the position of Heavenly Weapon, and that of Matriarch at the same time.¡±


    ¡°She wants to do what?¡± the Heavenly Axe exclaimed, ¡°Is that not a little too early for someone who is only in the sixth realm, and has just taken the position?¡±


    ¡°Be careful when you say ¡®only¡¯, as you will underestimate me and just lose more quickly,¡± Wei Yi said before anyone else could speak, ¡°I had studied your rules, and while this is certainly extremely unconventional, there appears to be nothing that prohibits such an action. Now, can we get on with this?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the rush, exactly?¡± the Heavenly Spear said.


    ¡°Wu Chao, the Leech, sent a message to his fellow Leeches over at Testament, so this district might very well be attacked by at least one of their first generation, seventh realm experts. I would rather prevent that, and so I would like to get straight to whatever the challenge is for becoming a Matriarch.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± the Heavenly Masters looked at one another as they considered her words. The first to speak was the Heavenly Dagger, who looked at Wu Wu with a raised eyebrow, ¡°If we¡¯re going along with this, then I have to assume that we wish to get things done as quickly as we possibly can, so¡­ Wei Yi, that¡¯s your name, right? I can see some faint marks in your irises, hard as it is to see due to the colour of your eyes¡­ have you managed to attain the vision state of a Dao?¡±


    ¡°If all that you need is a demonstration of Dao, then I can provide not only the Sword Dao, but the Weapon Dao to you. Would that be enough for the lot of you?¡±


    ¡°A Weapon Dao would indeed be enough. Demonstrate it, now,¡± the Heavenly Mace said.


    She did not appreciate his words and tone, but if it was able to get things done quickly, then she would not complain yet. Once she was Matriarch, it would be incredibly easy to make any kind of demand of the man if she was tempted to do so in the future.


    Instead of that, she raised her right hand and, after a brief pause, she clicked her fingers with no other outward action. She shut her eyes, quickly racing through a million thoughts within her head in order to provide a demonstration of her abilities in a fashion that could not possibly be denied, even if one really wished to do so.


    At first, there was nothing obvious, but the Heavenly Masters frowned as they felt a vast pulse of something that could be described as neither energy nor aura. It was more fundamental and inhuman, something that was not usually harnessed by the mortal men and women of the Planar Continents. They did not know this, but it was the power of Law being driven with the boundless killing intent of her Arm, and it stimulated the power of the Weapon Dao alongside the natural Laws of reality to will them into her control.


    After that uncertain pause, every single sword in the hands and on the belts of the surrounding participants in the Selection of the Heavenly Sword rose out of their grips, floating into the air and righting themselves as if they were being held by invisible figures unseen by all.


    The weapons of the Heavenly Masters were also attempting to get away from them, but they did not let go and Wei Yi did not force them to, not just yet.


    Instead, the moment that every sword in the area shifted into a position that might well be used in combat, they rushed towards her with great speed, bobbing in the hands of their invisible users ¨C the manifestations of the Law of Weapons, the combination of her knowledge of techniques being put into the hands of the world to do with them as it would if it wished to strike her down.


    Seconds from that exact thing happening, countless phantoms of crimson and smoke manifested from the air and met the incoming swords with singular blows that repelled them in one go, right before breaking into naught and being replaced by other phantoms. They blocked and parried strikes, pushing back the floating blades for a second. Scattering and reforming with new quantities of killing intent each time, the phantoms slowly blended into an unceasing whole, resulting in what looked like a battle between two forces consisting of floating blades and crimson shades.


    Neither side used planar energy techniques, for one could not and the other would not employ the killing intent equivalent, but the battle was entrancing nonetheless. In one minute, it seemed to convey a vast sea of knowledge to those who looked and saw the insights hidden in each strike, far surpassing what might be learned from a decade of individual combat and training. The simple range of insights alone led to that.


    When the Heavenly Masters took this in, they let their weapons join the simulated battle as well, causing a major change. The Ascendant did not simply get more sword-wielding crimson phantoms to battle against the dagger, mace, bow, axe and spear, but instead manifested the appropriate weapons to confront them with. A dagger, mace, axe and spear could fight against one another easily enough without further contributions from her, given that they were all melee weapons and perfectly equipped to block, counter, parry and generally trade blows with wielders of similar weapons, but a bow was a ranged weapon that used arrows and had no use in close combat without particularly exceptional and unusual archery methods.


    Instead, she made use of the nature of the weapon to do with it differently than with the others, providing arrows made of cosmic light to the real thing and crimson strands of light for the phantoms. They were also not made to fight one another, but instead supported the fights between the other four.


    Each arrow fired burst and exploded in a spectacular yet harmless fashion, thus forcing the figures on either side to perform additional actions to evade them, and the shots from the bow of the Heavenly Bow landed near the mass of other crimson figures, forcing them to evade as well. This altered the battle overall, and when a dozen additional combatants manifested from the air, it only seemed natural for the battle to expand, to the point that none questioned why the figures made of subdued silver were as they were, and how exactly they were made.


    Just like the soldiers of killing intent and spiritual will once fought within her mental domain, doing so endlessly and fruitlessly, so did the silver phantoms supplement the battle now, their actions being just as useless as her influence permitted her to perfectly respond to every single strike and balance out the situation without flaws.


    Whereas only the sword wielders in the audience were able to truly appreciate the initial skirmish, now all were able to marvel and take in the fighting, learning from it as various situations they had only imagined in their heads played out. They were so engrossed that, as the battle grew and more figures appeared, wielding other types of equipment and being matched with all kinds of other combat styles, it seemed perfectly natural that they were consumed by a vortex of silver and crimson, as if they were brought to another world, another reality where this was all that existed, and where this kind of conflict was eternal.


    Once all at the Selection had been brought into this boundless vortex, Wei Yi saw no true reason to push it even further. Her range of spiritual perception and energy was immense and barely sufficient to cover the district, so that was what she did, spreading out the battle to the entirety of the Wu District.


    Everyone that had been standing around without much knowledge of the situation in the Master¡¯s Square suddenly found themselves surrounded by fighters in the middle of an overwhelming battle. Silver on crimson, soft white on shadow, formless and transient while being so solid and powerful that they almost appeared to be an invading force from some other nation or district. Whether the observer was without a cultivation or in the fifth and sixth realms, they all found themselves glued to the astonishing visuals before them, some comprehending it, others simply marvelling at the sight.


    Normally, something this absurd would catch the attention of forces that she did not wish to alert, but now that the Greats were likely to be coming after her, the Ascendant saw no reason to hold back. Provided that she could go far enough with this storm, this Domain of Weapons, a densely concentrated region full of the principles of her Dao, she would become Matriarch and move on swiftly.


    ¡®My Planar Dao is at Full Success, so I can also bring that in, and instead of simple weaponised combat, I can introduce some combat techniques¡­ and that Dao of the Heavens could work, provided that I am able to use it in a way that I imagine something by that name being used¡­¡¯ she thought to that enigmatic Dao in the screen of the Truth of the Universe, which had not been of use back in the illusory realm of Primordial Earth, and attempted to invoke the small accomplishment that she had within it via the Dao of Law, ¡®The heavens preside over a world, so if I can temporarily manifest the boundaries of a world, to make this place mine for just a moment, I could grant all of these entities a semblance of life¡­¡¯


    What this could bring her hardly needed to be explained. One major issue with her current power was that it was limited to herself and a few kilometres in any direction, which was not sufficient when dealing with numerous opposing forces, armies, and a far larger number of powerful individuals than just her lone self. Having an army that could exist within the expanded range of her spiritual perception near the spatial stabilisation points would solve that right away.


    Furthermore, if she could claim a quantity of power that was thought to belong to the heavens, then her aspirations of removing them from their current position and taking over to impose her Law and aspire for Justice would be far less difficult.


    After how often her random attempts at manifesting her various ideas into reality worked out without any major incidents, she had assumed that something like this would also be sufficiently easy to manage. By using the standard activation method via the Dao of Law, she attempted to manifest the abilities of the Dao of the Heavens and place it within the Domain that she had created, to make it an independent place where her words and whims could, for just the briefest of moments, truly become Law. It should have needed little more than that in order to work.


    Instead, she felt everything within her body crumble and collapse, bursting into a crimson cloud that escaped through her mouth, a significant quantity of blood splashing onto her gauntlet as she attempted to minimize the amount that escaped. Her Arm scattered into an incomprehensible cloud, barely residing anywhere near her, and all of the wonderful phantoms scattered in an instant.


    All attention turned to her as she coughed up more blood, some dripping from her gauntlet onto the ground while she desperately recovered her energy and reformed the inside of her body, cancelling her vain attempts to use something that was clearly far beyond her.


    Only after the vital parts of her body were reconstructed was she even able to perceive her surroundings properly, and comprehend that the Heavenly Masters had naturally gotten closer to her, having reclaimed their weapons before they could fall to the ground without the support of her energy. Their expressions were a mix of curiosity and worry, although it was also clear that they had some suspicion that she had overworked herself by manifesting such a large Domain of Dao, not that they knew of the terms she had invented.


    ¡°A-Apologies¡­¡± she said, faintly aware that her voice did not sound anything like it usually did, ¡°I tried to go further, and it did not go well¡­¡±


    ¡°Your voice-¡±


    ¡°I had¡­ ahem,¡± she coughed as she had finally rebuilt her vocal chords properly, ¡°I had made use of my body in order to be able to use Dao more effectively, and it usually just shreds a part of my heart or a lung, but this time it decided to pulverise everything but my bones. Those are the toughest thing in my body, aside from my hair, if that counts.¡±


    She took the moment to also refocus her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, forcing it to return to a stable state now that all of her energy wasn¡¯t being used to keep her body from collapsing into itself and looking rather terrible.


    ¡°¡­ How is hair ever tougher than another part of your body?¡±


    ¡°Even without cultivation, hair can be really resilient. With cultivation and refinement, as well as the preference for it being long, it is possible to go far beyond just that,¡± Wei Yi replied, using her bloodline power to reabsorb her cosmic blood and prevent it from staining the ground ¨C or burning through it, as it appeared to be attempting to do, ¡°Anyway, putting this failed attempt aside, I could repeat my previous performance if you really want me to, but I would rather not do so if that was enough for the lot of you.¡±


    ¡°What is happening here? Who had created those phantoms from a moment ago?¡± before there was a reply, another series of figures emerged, these ones having one hand covered by a thick glove while the other was obviously trained and extremely experienced in the usage of a single type of hand technique each, ¡°Was it you, red-haired woman?¡±


    ¡°My name is Wei Yi, and I was attempting to apply for the position of Matriarch. Are you opposed?¡±


    ¡°¡­ What?¡±


    In the end, all of the Heavenly Masters in the district gathered at the spot and learned about the origin of the phantoms that had shocked them all, and so they were forced to come to a single simple yet shocking conclusion ¨C if there was to be a Matriarch or Patriarch in the district, she was most suitable.


    ¡°This method of acquiring your position is¡­ unconventional, to say the least. At a later time-¡±


    ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t want to keep the position for much longer than a few years, at most. If you have heard of me before, you might know that my goals are to take the entirety of Yi City from the grip of the Great Leeches, at which point having control of a district with so little relation to me would not be beneficial,¡± Wei Yi explained to silence their concerns, ¡°Wu Liang seemed decent enough at the combat side of things, so if you would spend some time training him or a replacement that you feel is more suitable, then they can take over the moment that there is no more necessity for this position.¡±


    ¡°Your words might not be taken too kindly by all,¡± Wu Wu said, preventing the Heavenly Masters from speaking, ¡°Nonetheless, we must proceed with appropriate rituals. There is a process to becoming Matriarch-¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t have time for it, nor is it a good idea to throw my name and appearance out to everyone that doesn¡¯t already have it. For all I know, the Greats do not have some details about me, but any kind of public and lengthy ceremony will ensure that they get it all significantly earlier than they need to. Once I have reconnected to my territories, then we can consider this when we have time.¡±


    The Heavenly Spear sighed, ¡°Perhaps that¡¯s for the best, if you wish to pass along your position¡­¡±


    She didn¡¯t sound too pleased, and the other Heavenly Masters looked rather discontent with her decision, but she didn¡¯t have the option of doing anything different even if she wanted nothing more than to satisfy their wishes. As such, she looked to Wu Wu and waited for him to continue.


    ¡°I suppose that you would instead ask for the treasures of the district and the spatial stabilisation point, then?¡± he said.


    ¡°That would be very much preferable. There is something that needs to be done, and it will be best achieved with plentiful resources and items of value. I would be polite and kindly request them, but since I am being given the position of Matriarch, I will take everything that might be of use to me, and return it the moment that your treasury is a safer and more easily accessible place for them,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°Bring me to your treasury!¡±


    ¡°That has to be too much-¡±


    ¡°You are within your right as Matriarch to do with the district¡¯s resources as you wish. Please, follow me,¡± Wu Wu ignored the interruption from a Heavenly Master and turned in the direction of the Ancestral Hall, leading her to it without any complaint.


    With the notably odd behaviour that he had previously displayed, at least in comparison to his fellows that seemed to practise the same technique, be in the same realm, and almost exist alongside one another at all times, she chose to follow him without hesitation. The Heavenly Masters were clearly unaware of whatever it was that he knew, and if he did not speak out right there and then, then he would not do so if she pressed him, or she might just harm herself in the process if he did. As he was the only one to go to the Ancestral Hall, she waited until they began to descend into it to speak.


    ¡°So, are you going to explain what you know that the others do not?¡±


    ¡°If you refer to the five of us, then all that is different is that I am the oldest, and part of the longest chain. All five have received knowledge and direct memories from our predecessors, but only my chain had been able to persist since a time near to the life of the Master of Yi City. I had seen, through eyes that are not my own, far more than they had, and I understand that the adherence to standard practises are only useful when those practises themselves will help us. At the moment, this is not the case.¡±


    ¡°You understand the issue of the Great Leeches far more so than they do, then. What happened with the other four chains?¡±


    ¡°One way or another, they were cut short before the accumulated memories could be passed on. This is highly unfortunate, of course, but we went on and found new and capable warriors to take on the positions. I had been fifth, and fifth I still am, for so long as there is a Wu District to protect.¡±


    He stopped before a small door that looked to be made of wood, then tapped it several times. On a single glance, there seemed to be no particular logic or reason to the taps, but with each one the door seemed to shimmer just a little, and the last tap caused it to twist and change, growing rapidly until it was the size of a gateway, and the one door changed to two, taking up the entirety of the space on the wall between the doors on either side of it. Once the illusion vanished, all of the aura from the contents within also began to seep out, and that alone was highly encouraging.


    The Ascendant had been able to sense something about the wooden door, and had guessed it would be of importance once Wu Wu stopped beside it, but the entirety of illusion still evaded her, for now.


    ¡®In the future, once I have my own version of divine sense, and especially if that is able to contain my Absolute Soul¡¯s aura, I should have no trouble seeing through things like this,¡¯ she thought while waiting for these large doors to be opened, ¡°Then, you truly have no problems with me taking everything I want from this place?¡±


    ¡°Obviously, you ought to have some sense. However, if that was something that you lacked significantly, you would not be in the position that you are currently in, nor would your power be as it is. Your method of storage would not benefit from random things filling it to the brim.¡±


    She shrugged while stepping inside, ¡°You¡¯re not wrong, but I happen to have a rather major smithing project lined up for my visit to the Ze District. It will cost a great deal, and you may not be prepared for that¡­ then again, neither am I, so I will do exactly as I had said and grab up everything that might even come close to being beneficial at that point, and I will certainly not spare all of those planar stones. I have a great use for them in a few days.¡±


    ¡°Good to know. What will you give in return?¡±


    ¡°Did you not say that I could do as I liked, within reason?¡± Wei Yi asked, raising an eyebrow at his question.


    ¡°You would not simply leave this place with naught, would you? As the Ascendant, your aim is to revitalise Yi City and to return the Planar Continents to new heights, so how could you possibly bring a district to poverty and only provide a few glimpses of Dao to the few that were in the right state of mind to comprehend them?¡±


    ¡°¡­ How much have you actually learned about me?¡±


    ¡°As much as was necessary to side with you in most situations. My question was only meant to push the conversation along, not as a demand.¡±


    ¡°And yet, you¡¯re neither right nor wrong. On one hand, I shall not give you anything this very moment. I need everything I can get for the reforging of a good sword I once used, so if I did leave anything, I would be returning for it in a day or two and thus wasting my time, and that of everyone relying on my speed,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°On the other, the moment that the spatial stabilisation point is linked with every node that I control up north, I will be able to provide you with trade, resources, knowledge and techniques with preferential treatment to make up for that, and you can receive my forces in order to compensate for the lack of troops in any future conflict.¡±


    ¡°Your spatial realm is able to link to so many places at once? It is rather impressive, but even with whatever links you rely upon, a spatial realm will inevitably reach a limit,¡± Wu Wu suddenly explained, ¡°Have you any spatial metal?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t even know what it looks like.¡±


    ¡°Then it could be difficult to manage a rapid expansion of connections to your spatial realm. We have no spatial metal, nor do we know where to find it, but I can advise you on the typical appearance of spatial metal. The colour is described differently each time it is mentioned in historical descriptions, and my chain had seen five different shades in person, so you cannot rely on that alone. In a raw form, it will be akin to crystal, but if it has a shape without being refined, it may appear to be rather simple and unremarkable.


    ¡°However, regardless of appearance, spatial metal cannot be destroyed by ordinary means, and will endure all attacks from the fifth realm and below, while those at a higher level are unlikely to permanently damage anything, with all damage recovering after some time. As such, separating pieces of spatial metal from one another is typically challenging,¡± the man explained, ¡°When it is in the form of an ingot, as it usually is for any form of crafting, it will be bright and celestial, a mixture of silver, cyan, and the faint reflection of the stars when viewed from any angle. At that point, you cannot possibly fail to recognise it, so you ought to take it for yourself if there is an opportunity. With it, a spatial spirit could advise you on the uses for it far better than I could.¡±


    While he talked, Wei Yi had snapped up everything that she was interested in within the treasury, leaving it almost barren of goods. She left quite a few treasures, since she did not need them on hand to memorise their internal structure and recreate them if she ever wished to do so.


    She did pause when she heard his description of the raw forms of spatial metal, but did not allow this to slow herself too greatly and finished her pillaging without further delay.


    ¡°Tough, unremarkable¡­ Right. I will take note of that. Now, spatial stabilisation node, please. Oh, and that shard that you had made use of ¨C I might have a good use for it, so let me take that as well. If it proves to be less effective than I want it to be, I¡¯ll bring it back within a week or two, provided that I am able to.¡±


    He nodded and complied immediately.

 V5C53: Forge of Perfection

    Even with her best attempts to get things done in time, she ended up leaving the district and travelling upon the disappearance of the sun from the sky, and so she arrived at the Ze District as the moon was only beginning to do the same.


    At this moment, most of the people in the district sat within their homes, sleeping or cultivating, for there was little reason to be outside in the mostly dreary night of the Central Plains, and they had few resources to mine or extract within their domain. Some were up and working on various projects, or performing deeds that were frowned upon by the waking world, but they were in a significant minority, barely making up a small portion of the total population, making them irrelevant in the face of the whole.


    As one might expect from the district of perfection, a place that had studied perfected stages far more so than any other, there were significantly more people there that had at least one perfected stage than the rest of Yi City as a whole. It was incredible if one wasn¡¯t a cultivator whose every single stage was perfected, or if one compared it to the state of the Master of Yi City, who had certainly mastered a large number of perfected stages and might have even gotten a perfected realm.


    Their techniques were specifically made with the intention of promoting perfected stages over all else, disregarding certain functions that cultivation methods of other districts had built into their very core. From her knowledge of this place, they did not place as much value on their perfected stage attainment as the people of the Wu District placed on their martial arts, but it was still considered proper to have acquired at least one perfected stage every hundred years or so. Otherwise, with the incredible techniques of the Ze District, how could one not achieve at least that much while still living on the land of the district?


    Despite the Ze District¡¯s immediate placement to the right of the Yi District, it did not communicate much with it at the time of her life in the Yi District. As such, even when Great Light and Great Dark had mentioned it to her once or twice, they did not know as much about it as they did about the Chen District, Shun District, or even the Lan District, which was accessible most easily through the Ze District.


    There was nothing like the general aversion to outsiders often seen in the south, nor the abnormal openness of the people to the north. Instead, it was simply that the overall impression of the district was sufficient to discourage many from even attempting to enter its borders, making them take routes around it or pass through it as quickly as possible without taking the time to understand it. In fact, it could very well be said to be the most abnormal in overall appearance and structure, not to mention its odd and uneven shape.


    The reason was that, rather than usual walls, mountains or anything else that might be used to create the borders of a district, the Ze District had¡­ a mixture of those, in a way.


    At the centre was a crater caused by a powerful impact from many years ago, and the sheer power of it had formed numerous cracks within the ground. Some had resulted in jagged spires and walls bursting out of the ground, various materials and metal pouring out onto the surface, and a great wealth of earth fire coming so close to the surface that it was only natural to make use of it to create a forge. This became known as the Forge of Perfection, the place where the Ascendant wished to forge a blade with which to strike at the Great Leeches once again.


    Although this provided the people with great wealth and plentiful materials to be significantly more casual with expending them than other districts, this also meant that much more of the terrain was rather unpleasant to live near at best, and completely inhospitable at worst.


    The Ning District was an extreme example where every single metre was used as effectively as possible, as necessitated by the tall walls created by Kong Shi Meng. It likely reached ninety-nine percent utilisation of the space available to it, very much an impressive achievement no matter how one looked at it. On the other hand, out of all the land available to the Ze District, no more than twenty-five percent were actively being used, and only fifty more percent were actually available to be travelled by those beneath the sixth realm. After all, the hot magma that brimmed beneath the surface was significantly warmer than the typical light of the sun, or the fire of a bonfire made by a casual traveller.


    At the sixth realm, it was significantly easier to resist the earth fire, and thus it was possible to traverse it and utilise the heat or material itself for whatever purposes one had. Mostly, blacksmiths were those that found the most uses for it, but there had been a few pill refiners that had managed to produce a pill or two through the particular conditions created by it.


    For Wei Yi, that didn¡¯t matter as much as the Forge of Perfection, but she couldn¡¯t just barge her way in and take hold of it for a while without causing a number of issues for herself and others. The former were naturally more significant to her, as the interruption of a lengthy and complex forging process that she could only begin to guess at would be rather devastating, and would force her to sit by for a few weeks just waiting for the Artefact Combinator to reproduce enough shards infused with her energy to the point that they would be sufficient for a different blade.


    She had also taken the time to begin saving her energy in fragments for the forging process ever since she came to the Wu District and completed the processing of all shards of Demon Killer. Those pieces of concentrated cosmic light were formed into the intermediary shapes of the new weapon, so that she could blend the energy with matter and reinforce each step of the process. In theory, the changes in the state of the artefact fragments would permit her to add on a few more layers of energy to empower the future blade further, and if that worked, then the eventual creation would be significantly more powerful.


    All that she considered did leave her a little worried about one thing ¨C the name. Everything she had already decided on left the things she hadn¡¯t significantly more blatant, and she could hardly disregard the significance of the name within her own mind, as well as those of others.


    For all the times that she laughed ¨C or shouted in anger ¨C at those who called out the names of their techniques, she did know that these things mattered a great deal to others, and to herself as well. Her Dao of Law, Ascendancy, the alternate name for the Greats and all kinds of other matters were all of immense importance to how she viewed them, and how she presented herself to the world around her. There was no good reason for her to dismiss the naming of something that could very well come with her all the way to her peak, and so she had to ponder it for a while.


    This could be done while working on the blade and, before that, making her entrance into the Ze District. After all, she was getting quite a bit ahead of herself.


    With her fourth realm movement method, she moved herself into the Ze District and looked for the nearest guardian or Patriarch, finding that it was the latter that was most convenient to come to for the moment. He was standing beside one of the large jagged stone walls that made up an inner wall of the district and had a number of bridges attached to it to allow people to traverse the lake of magma that flowed around both sides of the jagged walls, in addition to a few structures built atop it.


    At the moment of her arrival, he was making use of his energy to stabilise the structure and reinforce it, so ensure that the million-year-old unnatural formations did not break down and collapse into naught, leaving the district with even fewer places to travel and construct structures. Theoretically, it would be feasible ¨C and rather easy ¨C to construct additional jagged spikes much like this, but there was a problem in that the natural arrangement was actually significantly tougher than anything made less naturally.


    Again, saying that it was natural wasn¡¯t accurate, but rather than being made deliberately, these jagged walls appeared from an intense collision with the ground, bringing up a great number of natural resources and the like. This made the earthen walls far stronger than anything made without involving the exact same materials and decades of earthen compression, both of which needed significant effort to replicate to a sufficient capacity. Combining this with the fact that the rest of the terrain would need to be affected in order to allow these structures to be as stable as the natural ones, it was usually far easier to reinforce the existing ones before they could be eroded by the constant magma flows throughout the Ze District.


    By the looks of it, the restoration was well underway and nearly compete when she arrived, so she simply stopped nearby and watched on without hiding it.


    The Ze Patriarch noticed her presence almost immediately, as obvious by the way in which his technique was nearly broken and his efforts wasted, but he stabilised his emotional state and got on with his work a little more quickly. His subordinates did not appear to notice this momentary occurrence, and instead focused on assisting him, allowing the process to be completed within a few minutes of her appearance.


    Once he was done, he instantly dismissed his subordinates with reasons that did finally cause them to notice something, but they did not question further and simply departed as instructed. When left on his own, he turned directly to the Ascendant, looking at her with some worry in his eyes.


    ¡°I recognise you, especially now that your aura has elevated to such a level. You are the Ascendant, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. I want to use your forge.¡±


    His expression softened a little, ¡°Ah, so you did not come here for the sake of conquering our lands?¡±


    ¡°When have I done that, aside from the Ping District? That place deserved the conquering, by the way, although I would have avoided the destruction of it had I been able to do so at the time,¡± she said, ¡°Have the Great Leeches been spreading misinformation, or have you just misunderstood my actions a little?¡±


    ¡°Not relevant. Since you speak of a forge, you must mean the Forge of Perfection. It is a very significant item, so I cannot just leave it to you for however long you need it.¡±


    ¡°Personally, I would rather get things done and then discuss finer details. I¡¯m in a bit of a rush, whereas you should want the Greats gone as soon as possible so that you can improve your district¡¯s overall state. Once I¡¯m capable of keeping the situation in check with a new weapon, we can have lengthy discussions about various conditions, trades and so on,¡± she suggested, glancing out in the direction of the Yi District while she spoke.


    The Ze Patriarch frowned at her words, looking out in the same direction for a while before he turned back to her and only deepened his frown, for he had many of the same thoughts. Time was of the essence in a number of matters, but to throw away certainty prior to action was unpleasant.


    ¡°At most, I can give you access to the Forge of Perfection, but nothing more. No materials, no assistance, no trade, nothing of the sort, do you understand that?¡±


    ¡°I can speak our common language, yes. Don¡¯t speak down to me just because I, apparently, only look to be twenty years old. I am forty-one, and you are not the first Patriarch that I have spoken with at this point,¡± she responded, pointing her right index finger at the Forge of Perfection, ¡°So, am I able to go over there, or do you have some problem with that?¡±


    ¡°Do so. I will observe.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I may also grab your spatial stabilisation point in the process, albeit somewhat unintentionally but very much in my favour.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Explain yourself.¡±


    ¡°The creation of a weapon as powerful as the one that I wish to make will be extremely impactful, possibly resulting in a number of phenomena and a breakthrough or two, for me in particular. At that point, I would have to put some significant effort into preventing the spatial stabilisation point from being claimed, and given that I control similar points in the Jiang and Lan Districts¡­ means that I might actually need to slow it down exactly as I had described,¡± Wei Yi slowed down as she shifted her gaze slightly from the Forge to the north, where an ancient ruined district stood, ¡°Yeah, I will lay claim to it, but delay activation for just a little bit. I won¡¯t be able to stop it entirely, though.¡±


    The Ze Patriarch¡¯s frown got even more intense, ¡°Out of the experts I have previously met with, you might very well be the strangest. Nevertheless, so long as you don¡¯t let in anyone through the gateway that will form above the spatial stabilisation point, I will accept it.¡±


    ¡°How kind of you. Ask nobody to bother me, because I might accidentally cut into anyone that does so. Again, not intentionally, but it might be if they decide to get annoying.¡±


    ¡°Just go.¡±


    She nodded and disappeared from the spot, appearing beside the large anvil placed in the very centre of the chamber. It, and a number of other implements placed around it, were lit by the earth fire that flowed right through the area, providing some heat to the anvil and significantly more to a pool specifically marked out to be used for heating materials that one was working with.


    There was no hammer placed at the scene, nor too many other tools, so the Ascendant reached out and willed a number of pieces of metal to drop out of the House of Gold. Keeping them in the air with her energy, she applied her Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp in order to shape them quickly and reinforce them with vast quantities of energy, infusing them with as much as she possibly could before mentally reaching for the Artefact Combinator.


    With a few of the spare artefacts that she had, she was able to infuse each of the tools with some properties to reinforce them and allow them to function at the level that she was going to act at in order to create something that would be worthy of being used against the Greats.


    During her work, she could apply further enhancements to her tools, so she didn¡¯t need to instantly bring them up to the highest level that they would need to reach by the end. The beginning of the process would be least difficult and intensive, so even tools sufficient for the fourth realm would be fine for now.


    She left everything to float in the air once this was done and removed a series of metal shards from the House of Gold, putting them beside the magma pool not far from her. After a moment, she also put a large planar stone there, considering a use for it that would need to be experimented with in order to be sure of it. Another moment passed, and she glanced into the House of Gold and looked at the shard taken from the Wu District.


    Within the otherworldly gift, it was labelled as a Shard of Warfare. The description was rather minimal, but it mentioned a vast quantity of killing intent being contained within. This suited her just fine.


    ¡®This might be rather good for me, actually. If I invest some more energy into this, then employ it in the sword, then perhaps my new weapon will reach a level that is sufficient to confront the Primordial Deities in the future¡­¡¯ she considered, making use of some of her stored energy pieces to enhance the Shard of Warfare as much as she was able to with how expensive it appeared to be to provide it with any level of improvement. In a way, this was rather fortunate for her, since it would minimize the chances of somehow damaging the artefact shard and removing one of her options.


    After obtaining the shard from the Wu District, much to the uncertain displeasure of the Heavenly Masters, she had directly put it into the House of Gold and not looked at it personally, so she wasn¡¯t certain exactly what she could obtain from it, but she had a slight suspicion that there might be information stored within it.


    Killing intent was, after all, a projection of one¡¯s emotions, and they were not formed without context or reason, even if the reason may be poor in some cases. The immense quantity of killing intent within the Shard of Warfare may well have come from one source, or a million, but there would be clear memories and knowledge contained within. So long as she was able to perceive them, she might even learn of the origin of the shard, as well as what had caused the shattering of the weapon it came from.


    How significant this actually was to her and the current conflict was hard to guess, but she had some hope of witnessing some powerful techniques at the very least.


    Before she would even attempt to bring it out of the House of Gold and take on the vast killing intent, she was going to begin the reforging of Demon Killer, and she intended to get far enough to be certain that her plans were going to work, so that her attention could be shifted elsewhere and the forging process could simply proceed as planned. The shard could then be integrated into the design, or if this experiment proves to be unsuccessful in one way or another, it could be excluded and a different arrangement of pieces could be utilised. With the amount of time she had to contemplate this matter, she had a few to choose from.


    However, as she went to pick up the first shard and hammer it into place, she paused and thought about the district she had come from. The Wu District gave her the Weapon and Sword Dao, but the former was the most important, as was the confirmation that her affinity was not with the sword.


    So, if she was to make a weapon for herself, would making another sword not be failing to take advantage of her strengths? It was the most natural thing to go for, that much was obvious due to the materials on hand, but since she could use the power of Dao and Law and infuse those into the things under her control, her mind went in a different direction, and a new blueprint and plan quickly came together in her head.


    ¡°Patriarch, what is¡­ is that-¡±


    ¡°The Ascendant has come to our district, and she wanted to use the Forge of Perfection to make a weapon for herself. I have permitted this, but we must pay closer attention.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± one of the guardians that had awoken moments prior, upon their Patriarch¡¯s command, asked a little too bluntly and without care. His superior disregarded that, and instead waved in the direction of the Forge, which was, for them, obscured by a small hill and nothing else.


    ¡°Since she has come here, on her own, without asking for craftsmen or experts to support her, she is expecting to make a weapon on her own. Even if her own skills are not exceptional, there must be something that gives her confidence in this regard,¡± the Ze Patriarch explained, ¡°The only terms for our agreement were that she would get the Forge and a spatial stabilisation point, whereas we ought to not bother her. I do not see how observing her actions and studying them would be bothersome, especially from a distance.¡±


    ¡°Ah, so you would have us learn from her work?¡± another guardian suggested.


    ¡°Provided that she is not attempting to trick us, for whatever reason, then we are bound to see some methods that defy our current understanding. Learning them may even advance our attainment of perfected realms, for her cultivation¡­¡± he paused, glancing towards the Forge once more while he licked his lips, finding them to be dry all of a sudden, ¡°She might have attained every perfected stage possible.¡±


    There might have been a chorus of questioning voices if not for every single one that heard this statement being far too amazed to get a single word past their lips.


    Most of them weren¡¯t especially familiar with the Ascendant, or, rather, the stories told about her, but even from here they were able to tell that she was in the sixth realm, meaning that even if she was just at the first stage, she would have climbed forty-six stages to get there. Forty-six perfected stages by the sixth realm¡­ that was not just unprecedented. It was absurd, impossible, and amazing.


    If any one of them knew the method to accomplishing such a thing, they would gladly betray everyone and anyone that knew with only a little shame to ensure that they kept it. After all, such a method would double their power in comparison to another similar cultivator, and it would guarantee that they would have immense fame and respect in most of Yi City, the outside nations, and likely even grant them quite a bit of both in the Daoist Continent. Naturally, not all would be proud of doing such a thing, but the rewards would most certainly be worthwhile.


    ¡°She is unlikely to reveal it in an obvious manner, but we may be able to learn something through observing her. In addition, she mentioned that there may be a risk to those that get near, so we must prepare the defensive measures ahead of time. Fortunately, the defensive array has been reinforced a moment before she arrived, so there should be no chance of its collapse at an inopportune time,¡± said the Ze Patriarch.


    Together, they went over the hill and looked upon the centre of the crater, where a lone figure robed in crimson stood beside the anvil. In her right hand was a hammer that glowed with cosmic light while a series of vein-like channels had particular vibrance that stood out from the rest of the glowing energy.


    Her left arm, meanwhile, gripped tongs with which she brought a shard of metal onto the anvil, where another already lay.


    ¡°Those shards¡­ She is attempting to reforge an artefact of some kind, that much is obvious, but those shards themselves¡­ Why do they look as if they are a million artefacts compressed into one?¡± the Ze Patriarch noticed the oddity of the shards right away, and realised a moment later that the hammer, as well as every other tool present before her, shared similar traits, ¡°Everyone, spread out and stay near a node of the protective array. This might be significantly more impactful than we believe, for there is nothing that can produce such things within the seven realms available to us.¡±


    A hammer rose into the air, then fell. One sharp, powerful clang of metal rung out throughout the district, slowly awakening the people as they couldn¡¯t help but look out and learn the origin of the noise, as was only natural.


    A hammer rose into the air, then fell. A wave of energy surged out from the collision, illuminating the district, prompting all attention to the Forge of Perfection.


    The Ascendant¡¯s hand rose and fell once more, a rhythm established based on the metal she was working with. Each fall of the hammer allowed her to squeeze in just a little more energy into the process via the Artefact Combinator, and she made sure not to miss out on a single drop that could be introduced to the equation. She was already investing nearly everything she had right now into this project, so putting in just a little more was only sensible while she was at it.


    Slowly, the shards that were turned into artefacts were forced together.


    The sky above turned lighter as the moon fell and sun rose, the night turned to day, and she finally moved on from simply hammering some of the pieces together to a vital step of the process that she needed to go through if she wished to improve the potential outcome of the weapon she was making. Thus, she briefly raised her head and met the gaze of the Ze Patriarch, then glancing to the nearest earthen spire next to him. Once she confirmed that he also looked towards it, and would be more prepared to act if necessary even if he didn¡¯t understand the warning she was giving him, Wei Yi returned her focus to the anvil, and brought out the Shard of Warfare.


    In an instant, a vast blast of crimson exploded from the centre of the Ze District, passing through the streets and blasting into homes, blasting away a layer of dust that had built up across the decades.


    A moment after, the barriers throughout the district activated, vibrant golden light surging out from the various stone outcroppings, spires and walls, The Ze Patriarch drew upon his energy to reinforce this barrier, and the guardians that had been mobilized to the other parts of the district did the exact same thing.


    Meanwhile, the Ascendant felt her mind being pulled into a world unfamiliar yet close to her. Dyed by crimson and surrounded by blood, she witnessed a scene from the past, flooding into her head and overwhelming much of her current attention. There, numerous combatants stood side by side, weapons of all kinds in hand, their energy radiating from them and anchors standing at their back, glowing vibrantly with barriers guarding them, marks burning on their surface, channels connecting to the anchors within and halos orbiting the cores. They numbered in the thousands, if not tens of thousands, and yet such an impressive force faced a single foe.


    It stood, or, rather, floated, before them, a thing of vaguely human shape yet completely inhuman in nature. A thing that looked to be tearing through the very boundary of the world itself, a rift of humanoid form that threatened to devour all that came its way. From within, the aura of a realm beyond could be felt clearly. The eighth realm, even if most characteristics of it were absent.


    Against such a thing, a Primordial Deity of some kind, the entire army could not stand tall, other than a lone man that was before all of them. He had a head of black hair and sharp silver eyes that stared directly at the thing before them, although the Ascendant saw a faint rectangular shape in his eyes that did not match up with reality. In addition to the pure planar energy that flowed throughout his meridians, his identity was obvious.


    ¡°Stand tall, men! This thing¡­ the Primordial Invader will not best you!¡±


    The troops could not reply before a chorus of raw madness invaded their ears, even once Kong Shi Meng raised a barrier to stop it from nearing them. It was beyond human comprehension, and even guessing whether it was a language or simply an attack was impossible.


    All that one could be certain of was that the noise originated from within the tear that was the Primordial Invader, a thing that should not be, yet was. Its position shifted from a somewhat neutral stance, in which the arms looked to be placed on the sides of the entity, to one where its arms were raised, hands and, presumably, fingers facing in the direction of the sky as the volume of the inane chattering rose steadily, the sounds visibly clashing into the violet barrier and making larger and larger impacts as the volume rose.


    Just as the Master of Yi City began to take a step forward, the image flashed out of existence, leaving the Ascendant amidst another strike of the anvil, where the Shard of Warfare burned with the condensed rage and killing intent of a million years ago. It seethed with the battle against Primordial Invader, some Primordial Deity unknown to Wei Yi or, seemingly, Yi Shi Ming.


    Nevertheless, as she went to strike with the hammer once more, the images returned.

 V5C54: Fighting a Primordial Deity

    The square in Kong Shi Meng¡¯s eyes flashed as he suddenly pushed on the barrier and forced it forward, rushing towards the Primordial Deity and almost crashing into it before the entire thing, the rift in existence as all knew it, almost looked to break and rearrange itself into a more preferable state, a thousand limbs of unknown natures appearing where there were once only four ¨C or what seemed like four, anyway.


    Even the head was replaced by limbs that were splayed out in maddening shapes and arrangements, creating a web that looked to crack reality. All that could be certain was that the thing shown by the rift, if that was even what it truly was, could not be seen nor understood. Wei Yi could say with certainty that the insides of the entity¡¯s figure, which were clearly marked by a vibrant light flowing in from the outside, almost acting as if space was two-dimensional and the entity was a hole in that sheet of space, were not what they should be if one simply looked at the other side of the thing, but it was impossible to perceive that which it truly was.


    Perhaps there was a void, an absolute blackness devoid of value or meaning, or maybe the thing contained within itself a glorious world of power and prosperity, a dream come true. If that was indeed the case, then the only thing the Ascendant could say was that it was completely incompatible with the people of the Planar Continents, for the potential glory of that place was nothing more than madness to the ears of those that were forced to hear it.


    Indeed, when the thing changed shape and met the barrier, some incomprehensible change took place, the endless limbs piercing forth, striking the violet mist that came towards them. In an instant, it was torn apart, leaving the people unprotected from the endless chattering that it released.


    Her hammer struck metal in that moment, momentarily flashing her back into reality, where another piece had been added to her masterpiece. Unknowingly, she had altered her original blueprint slightly, but as she looked upon the product for a moment, she realised that this was very much in her favour. It fit with one of her other plans for her weapon, and so she would not change that accident back. Instead, she raised the hammer and watched herself be brought back into the battle, where chaotic mumbling pursued the brave warriors of the seventh realm.


    But the Master of Yi City would not simply stand by and permit that to happen. He took action right away, vibrant violet surging out in the shape of two symbols repeating endlessly atop one another, both from his original world. One was a ¡®1¡¯, the other ¡®0¡¯, and they were intertwined in ways that could not be understood even by those that could, by some miracle, comprehend the intended meaning of the pattern, a thing that Wei Yi could not do even after she had spent a long time learning about everything she could from the worlds of the otherworldly demons.


    All she was able to do is watch as these symbols met the madness of the thing opposite them, and suddenly twisted in much the same way as Primordial Invader had done moments prior, latching onto the outer portion of this unknowable thing. They changed from arbitrary binary to a series of ropes, chains, cables and more that the Ascendant could not identify, and all of these grabbed the Primordial Deity and kept it still, albeit for a moment.


    Above the Forge of Perfection, a faint phantom began to form, but despite the great degree of attention paid to such things by the Patriarch, he was unable to conclude on what he was seeing.


    At times, it resembled a sword, but then it would become an axe, or a mace, or even a mass of fragments that looked to have no purpose or benefit as a weapon. It was horrifying to behold at times, but he was forced to keep his eyes on it while maintaining the protective barriers around the Forge. The former was done in order to have even the slightest chance of understanding it and determining the kind of danger that it might pose to him and his district, and the latter had to be done to prevent the waves of killing intent from finally devouring the district, which they seemed want to do as their power grew each time the hammer was swung.


    He could almost feel something coming from within, vague images and memories, but he could not even attempt to comprehend them before they vanished from his head, never to return in the same fashion.


    Even if it was easy to take it all in, he was aware that it was beyond him to fit all of that into his head. There was a limit to the human mind, especially when one had not cultivated a few very specific mental cultivation methods, so he was not too eager to attempt to do that which he could not.


    Instead, he requested that a few planar stones be brought over in order to keep his planar energy pool filled, and to allow the barrier to remain standing for as long as possible.


    In the next moment, Primordial Invader changed once more, endless limbs compressing into only four arms and what might be two legs, their sudden change completely shattering all of the restraints upon him. The moment after that, it suddenly moved forward at an immense speed, appearing right in front of Kong Shi Meng, its hands becoming incredibly defined as it almost seemed to grasp at him.


    Each limb had six clawed fingers that were most notably blazing with the surging energy of whatever lay within it. Due to the appearance of the entity being at an immense contrast with the world around it, it seemed extremely out of place when it was so close to the Master of Yi City, and especially when its limbs were on either side of his head from the strange perspective that the Ascendant had within these memories. From them, it was nearly impossible to tell whether she was viewing events through the eyes of one or many, nor whether eyes were involved at all.


    Kong Shi Meng did not simply let himself be grabbed by Primordial Invader, for that would be stupid. He instead produced a sword from somewhere, and with this sword he performed a straightforward horizontal slash.


    It was, by all appearances, incredibly simple, and yet Wei Yi understood this not to be the case when Primordial Invader suddenly recoiled, a clear gash appearing within the uncertain void that was its internal contents. There, those blazing inward flames were visible, and a strange ichor that was even harder to properly discern the appearance of poured from that opening, forcing the Primordial Deity to change form once more to cover the injury.


    All of a sudden, the image in the air above the Ascendant stabilised while remaining in complete chaos, shocking the Ze Patriarch as he attempted to comprehend what it was that he saw.


    He saw a sword stabilise out of a million different weapons, the names of which he couldn¡¯t even guess. Beside it, a hand was formed from a number of other hands, all of which were positioned in very specific manners. A moment of thought led him to conclude that these were the various kinds of martial arts that could be performed with one¡¯s hand, including palm techniques, finger techniques, punches and so on. These were easier to recognise, but he once again got lost in trying to identify every single one.


    What was obvious was that these phantoms were radiating from the forging process below, and that they were influencing it at the same time. Each time the hammer struck, they would strengthen, and over time, more faint images looked to form in the air.


    ¡°Everyone, attack it! This Primordial Deity shall not endure if you focus and attack all at once!¡± Kong Shi Meng proclaimed, urging his followers to fight on while he kept an eye on the Primordial Deity, tightly gripping the weapon in his hand while he attempted to ascertain whether the thing had been able to recover from his attack.


    She was able to guess that the technique must have been made or modified using the Truth of the Universe not long ago, unless this battle was one that he had been planning for a long time and had appropriately prepared the exact techniques needed but failed to test them properly. If that was the case, then she would be a little suspicious of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s planning, for there was no real reason not to find some tests to approximate the kind of impact that his attacks would have on his opponent. Then again, she couldn¡¯t identify the nature of Primordial Invader from the memories.


    Perhaps it had a very different structure of the other Primordial Deities, or maybe it was able to do more than he was aware of, but that didn¡¯t really matter for the moment.


    The seventh realm army attacked the unknowable thing with numerous techniques, most of them not even attempting to get near to the strange thing, and the Primordial Deity took those attacks for just a little while as it stared upon them ¨C or seemed to, at least.


    Just as with the last restriction upon it, the thing suddenly shifted, and this time it shattered into numerous individual entities of similar insanity as the initial Primordial Invader had been. These things all had a small wound upon their front, but the overall size of the injury only seemed to match up with the total size of the wound inflicted upon the original Primordial Deity. In other words, it had split its injury across a dozen bodies.


    All of them turned in different directions and smashed a limb down onto the ground, causing a similar rift to itself form from within the ground and travel in a large tear towards the surrounding squads.


    This happened in an instant, and the one after, the travelling tears burst at the centre of a number of squads, exploding into large openings within the world that consumed the legs and even the lower halves of those that had failed to get away in time. Those in the worst condition couldn¡¯t even begin to get away before they fell down into the rift and were devoured by it.


    The large combination of weapons and hands shattered under the observation of the Ze Patriarch, but that somehow managed to only enhance their wholeness. He might have spent some time questioning the absurdity of such a statement, and yet his attention was taken up by the slow formation of a number of other unknown phantoms in the air. For the moment, the most obvious was the appearance of an illusory reality all around the Ze District, partially enveloping it.


    With the current vagueness of the phantoms, it was impossible to discern details and identify the nature of the reality, so he didn¡¯t attempt it, and instead looked to the other phenomena.


    In the sky above, numerous chains were appearing above the clouds, more and more intersecting one another to the point that it seemed that the sky would be consumed by them. However, beneath them appeared a pair of round shapes, with one split apart to reveal the one above.


    He didn¡¯t know what gave him this impression, but he was almost certain that those were a sun and moon, one above the other, shining upon the world. It would certainly explain why the district had retained light even when the night began to fall, for there was no other good reason for such a thing to occur.


    The Master of Yi City attempted to keep Primordial Invader under control, as difficult as it was to do so when there were dozens of it that looked to be just as real as any other, but the situation was clearly not going in his favour. His sword swings improved every single time, as was only natural with the power at his disposal, but they did not keep up with the abilities of the Primordial Deity, which seemed to have no end of strange methods to pull out of nowhere ¨C or somewhere, depending on what was truly within, past or through it.


    After it had started producing those rifts in the ground, it also started creating spheres of rift-like matter that could completely consume anything that they passed through. Smaller limbs emerging through the rifts was the next skill to be added to its arsenal, and that one endangered even Kong Shi Meng, for there were more and more such rifts forming within the terrain, to the point that he and the entire army was being surrounded by them.


    It didn¡¯t take long for Wei Yi to conclude that this had to be deliberate on the part of the part of Primordial Invader, and it appeared that the Master of Yi City concluded something similar.


    If nothing else, his expression became more serious, and he gritted his teeth for a moment before looking off to the side, where he must have willed a great deal of energy to enter into some technique of his, judging by the prominence of the rectangular shape within his eyes. As with Wei Yi¡¯s experience of the Truth of the Universe, even in its weakened state, improvements were nearly instant, and that much was obvious by the sudden burst of energy within Kong Shi Meng¡¯s body, all of which was focused upon the sword in his hand.


    A blazing eye of blackened crimson stared down upon the land, four hands forming a cross around it. One held soft while light that formed an insignia before its palm, another was surrounded by frost. A third was dripping with a noxious substance, and the fourth gripped a banner made of ethereal mist and of an uncertain nature and colour.


    Another eye was on the opposite side of the split moon and shining sun directly above the Ascendant, and this one was held by a strange hand with a crimson glow around it.


    The illusory reality spun and formed a vibrant vortex of crimson and silver around the Forge of Perfection, partly obscuring Wei Yi and yet making her all the more prominent as she and the strikes of the hammer easily shone through the obfuscating air, especially with every single strike of hammer on metal shard. Part of the enormous crimson might contained within the Shard of Warfare would pour into the vortex with each collision, and that vortex seemed to slowly feed back into the forging process via some uncertain means.


    A vast network of celestial veins pumped through the air, pulsing as more and more cosmic blood accumulated in them and slowly forced them to expand to the capacity that one may find if they looked upon the veins of a living being in their prime.


    In the distance, a phantom of a humanoid thing, male and female at once, looked down upon the process. A slight bronze hue was all that defined its appearance other than the obvious physical characteristics, but that did not help the Ze Patriarch to figure out anything about the significance of that thing in particular, if it even had any. With the number of phantoms, it was becoming difficult for him to tell, and staring at the ever-growing phenomenon for a few days in a row was not helping.


    More of the Ascendant¡¯s spilling energy congregated into a shape akin to a five-sided planar anchor, but instead of crystallised energy this was composed of the individual states of her planar cultivation.


    Brimming golden flames composed one side, marred only by crackling golden lightning and a side of charcoal. A sturdy basalt made up the majority of another side, except for a patch of raw flowing energy and another patch composed of a metal ore that seemed to contain within itself the very cosmos. A dark metal was on the third side, dripping with blood and sharing the crackling arcs of gold that spread between it and the side of fire. Much of the water was muddied by blood, but a wondrous flower grew from the purest part of the mass of water, inherently drawing attention to itself. Finally, the wooden side was burnt in part, and yet the raw energy of the earthen side appeared there, next to which a metal plant spread with incredible speed.


    In between all of that, a mass of violet both soft and volatile sparked and surged, occasionally bursting out of the open sides of the anchor-like structure and dyeing the sky purple for just a little while before the traces vanished.


    From the sun above, dawn light fell upon the anchor-like structure, dying it a beautiful orange.


    Within the flames of the anchor, the faint shape of feathers appeared every now and then, and at one point the head of a phoenix popped out from within as if to behold where it had appeared. A single glance from the Ze Patriarch, who was naturally incredibly curious to see such an active and living phenomenon appear, prompted it to hide, and not appear in full again.


    Between the sun and the chains far above, in the layer of clouds, a symbol of yin and yang slowly spun, although both sides were not as distinctly defined as one might typically imagine. Instead, the edges of white and black mixed together like paint or dye, and formed an uncertain boundary filled with strands of both colours, as if they were unable to mix and yet did in the most impossible and confusing of fashions.


    From the chains above, a powerful energy rumbled and shook the world, making its ire known to the Ze District, to which the phantoms were mostly contained. Some would be visible on the outside even if the Patriarch put in a great deal of effort to prevent such a thing, so he didn¡¯t bother and simply let it all be seen. With something like this, if the Ascendant had really wanted to hide it, she would have taken some steps to prevent it from going this far, or that was what seemed to be the most reasonable course of action, at least. Obviously, he couldn¡¯t know what she had and hadn¡¯t considered, nor whether she was even aware of all the phenomena appearing above her.


    A series of tears in the ground travelled towards the Master of Yi City, who reversed the grip on his weapon and rushed forward, towards one of the separate parts of Primordial Invader.


    From the Ascendant¡¯s point of view, that thing looked no different than any of the other pieces of the Primordial Deity, so whether this was just an arbitrary choice or not was difficult to answer for the moment, but what earned more of her attention was the way in which he approached the incoming rips in the world before him.


    There was no hesitation as he leapt right into the centre of where the tears would stop and the larger rifts would open, nor was there any slowness to his actions despite the minimal amount of practise that he would have had. With Wei Yi¡¯s own experiences, she knew that the Truth of the Universe could bestow most understanding of the technique upon use, but it couldn¡¯t fully familiarise one with the movements and execution, which was what practise in the Realm of Potential was able to grant her. Thus, although some of the Master of Yi City¡¯s ability was obviously granted to him from a source other than his own mind and body, to be so quick to adapt to newly developed methods was obviously a skill that he had personally acquired.


    As he fell upon the ending point of the travelling tear, where the larger rift was about to manifest, he slammed down his blade and stabbed it right into the ground, a blast of his energy exploding from the tip at the same time as the rift attempted to open.


    In that moment, instead of opening as usual, the sword being devoured, and Kong Shi Meng following shortly after, the burst of energy forced the rupture in reality apart, causing it to erupt around the position of the Master of Yi City, leaving an unaffected spot for him to stand in. The rift around his released a chorus of maddening voices and several limbs with which to reach out towards him, but he did not linger in place for long and leapt out before he could be targeted by either attack.


    More of the tears reached towards him, and each time he struck down with the intention of breaking apart the rifts. Each time, he did improve just a little, allowing him to increase that circle of safety by an inch at a time, but nothing he was able to do successfully shattered the incoming rifts entirely, until Primordial Invader threw out a series of spherical tears.


    In the case of the ground-bound rifts, they were not at their most lethal until their explosion, at which point they would remain in place for a time, but the round projectiles were in their most lethal state constantly, from the moment of their appearance. They were also mobile, unlike the ground-bound rifts, meaning that they might very well be more fragile in their movement. As such, if it was possible to damage these, then it might also be possible to obliterate them entirely, granting Kong Shi Meng safe passage.


    The Ascendant, lacking experience with such things and being rather focused on the forging process as opposed to the specific details of the battle ¨C she could review the latter later within the Ascendant¡¯s Library, but the shards she was reconnecting with one another could not be handled at a later time ¨C couldn¡¯t come up with a method to damage either form of rift, but Kong Shi Meng was already rushing straight towards the sphere that blocked his way to Primordial Invader.


    Flipping the grip on his sword once more, he held it with both hands and plunged the tip into the gap in reality, a single burst of his pure planar energy erupting not only from the tip of the blade, but also from numerous spots on the sides, forming a web of crack-like patterns on the metal.


    This energy was shoved straight into the tear within reality, and it popped the moment after, almost like a bubble being pierced. All of the hostile potential within vanished completely, letting Kong Shi Meng continue on and stab into incoming sphere after sphere, all while making slow yet certain progress towards the chosen piece of Primordial Invader. All of the other pieces had few soldiers to attack now, for most had either fled or were staying back with their cores guarding them, so they focused their barrage upon the Master of Yi City, their energy seeming to be endless as the open wound on their centre slowly closed.


    In fact, both Kong Shi Meng and Primordial Invader were in the eighth realm, and thus they were both close to the absolute limit of energy regeneration. An Imperfect Rift existed within their dantians, where their anchors used to be, and they would be able to fight for an eternity if this was what they wished to do.


    Within the centre of the mass of elements that seemed to match the shape of an anchor, the Ze Patriarch witnessed a small, nearly transparent rift form within the centre, from which the pure planar energy began to pour in even larger quantities.


    At a glance, it was hard to say much about it, but he could see not only that the rift was widening, just a little bit, but also that this was not some arbitrary thing born of the great concentration of energy that had to come together to manifest the many phantoms in the air. Rather, this was a vital, powerful thing, and a moment of mental silence brought his attention to ancient texts regarding the realms beyond the seventh. In those descriptions, the words ¡®Imperfect Rift¡¯ were most prominent, to the point that they were impossible to ignore.


    Once he realised what he might very well be seeing, he had to pay attention to everything else that appeared in the air, just in case it permitted him to advance by a stage through the power of enlightenment. He looked upon the blackened crimson energy at the centre of the left eye, the one surrounded by four arms, and saw similarities between it and the vast ire pouring from the chains above. He looked to the plain air, and there he saw the absolute and undeniable.


    Within the spinning mixed symbol of yin and yang, there was propulsion, barely peeking through the concepts of yin and yang, although it was also mixed in, allowing repulsion to manifest opposite it.


    The edges of all things manifested were constantly being eroded and remade, to the extent that it was almost impossible to see, but this entropy could not escape the eye of one that had now been staring at this phenomenon for long enough to damage the vision of an expert in the seventh realm. Whatever this perpetual devouring force was, it was contained and almost part of the natural state of these phantoms, if one could even say that there was a natural state for them to be in. How this could even be possible evaded the Ze Patriarch, for erosion and entropy was a perpetual terror for all things with a life and mind to comprehend its inevitable end.


    As he couldn¡¯t understand that, he looked out to the skies again, finding numerous books floating amidst the chains, unable to get through, being restrained by every single one of them no matter how they tried to escape. These tomes would occasionally be nearly touched by passing wisps of energy from the representation of the anchor below, but they never came into direct contact.


    Beside the looser, less defined phantoms were round marks, with symbols blazing upon them, branding the world with unknown runes of strange purpose and meaning. On some, the violent blackened crimson from above rested calmly, and on others was a vibrant pulsing flame.


    From the moon, a powerful beam of moonlight illuminated the Ze District, despite being split in two. It shone vibrantly and softly, yet harshly, as if one could cut themselves if they stepped through the boundary between moonlight and sunlight with too great a speed, or without sufficient care. If the Ze Patriarch was free to move around and examine these phenomena, he might have tested it himself just to be sure, but he instead looked on.


    Aside from the vague phantom that made his mind think of the shape of a woman, despite the phantom itself being nigh formless, the last thing he could find within the sky was¡­ oddly enough, the sky itself. It should have been entirely ordinary, the clouds and blue sky above being part of the world as a whole, and yet the heavens were oddly doubled in his vision, as if there were two identical images placed atop one another, but slightly crookedly, leading to one being visible through the other. It was even more absurd than the other phantoms, for the simple reason of the other phantoms being representations of concepts that the Patriarch was unfortunately unable to grasp from the images themselves.


    This, on the other hand, was immensely complex and natural, containing far more detail than any of the others even could. Even if one ignored that, what could such a thing represent¡­ but the world itself?

 V5C55: The War Forged Seal

    Kong Shi Meng had continued to break apart incoming attacks, moving at a constant pace, as if time itself was not an issue, but that much was obviously not the case. From the memories of the distant past alone, it was impossible to tell what part of the conflict against the Primordial Deities was depicted here, and thus whether there were still many left, but whenever a battle dragged on for a long time, people suffered. The Master of Yi City was never entirely without enemies in the Planar Continents at the time of his life, and if there were other Primordial Deities out there, they would not hesitate to lay claim to more lands and harm more human lives and retreat once the battle was done.


    Hence, when he suddenly changed his strategy, simply avoided the large number of projectiles, leapt over another few, and went straight for the fragment of the Primordial Deity, swinging his blade in a manner similar to the initial strike that had prompted it to change tactics. It began to evade this time, aware of the danger, but the energy within his blade extended by a whole metre.


    Thus, it cut into Primordial Invader, leaving another mark upon the surface of the rip in the world. A diagonal cut joined the one that had remained on the part of the Primordial Deity, but unlike that one it was larger and bled significantly more vile ichor than the initial wound, but that much was to be expected. When split into a dozen figures, each one was clearly weaker and less capable of action than the united whole. The wounds didn¡¯t move onto the other figures, either, meaning that it was currently contained to the one part.


    In what might well be the most natural part of its behaviour so far, the cut entity made a significantly louder noise, almost screeching at the Master of Yi City as it retreated, a number of the other portions following it in what had to be an attempt to re-join.


    Assuming that they could share their injuries by doing so, the wound would once again be split across a number of segments rather than a single one, and thus the overall impact of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s blow would have lessened significantly, which is not something that he wished for. Despite that, Wei Yi saw him suddenly vanish from the spot and appear beside another one of the Primordial Invader¡¯s parts, slashing several times in rapid succession.


    These attacks landed with ease, and this time the thing most definitely released a screech as it suddenly collapsed into the ground and moved a hundred metres in an instant, appearing beside one of the other parts and merging into it, the intensity of the new wounds being lessened while the open initial wound opened a little more.


    ¡°Did you think you could trick me? You were staying back and attacking the least, so unless a part of you got lazy, then that particular part of you had to be significant!¡± the Master of Yi City exclaimed, glancing briefly at his sword and at the small cracks that appeared on the surface, ¡°You will not get away that easily from someone that had defeated every raid boss with the smallest team possible, while playing the worst class possible! I¡¯ve seen things a million times smarter than you, and they were all¡­ ahem, too much¡­ too much¡­¡±


    Those who could still hear Kong Shi Meng might have assumed him to be saying something esoteric and beyond their understanding, and, in a way, they were indeed correct, albeit not for the reasons that they thought. His otherworldly knowledge was simply too difficult to grasp without an explanation.


    Wei Yi was able to guess at bits and pieces, but if she had heard all of the strange exclamations that he had made over the years, then even her attempts to study such things would prove insufficient. In part, this was due to the lack of personal experience in the other worlds from which the otherworldly demons hailed. She could view the memories of others, hear about the fashions and standards of worlds other than her own, and even see attempts to recreate them, but unless she saw things with her own eyes and spiritual perception, it would not be sufficient. That was an unfortunate limitation of different types of perception and thought which were imbued into ideas and memory.


    The only thing that could circumvent such a thing would be a perfect replica that was connected to her at all times so that her ideas successfully passed between one and the other as if they were a single whole. Then, different experiences would change her mental state, and those memories would still be fully usable.


    However, this was a little off topic for the moment, so she brought her focus back.


    Before the thing could get far enough away, the Master of Yi City threw out another one of the binary webs, which bound the thing and allowed him a moment to charge in and slash it once more.


    This time, the injury was indeed lessened, but it was still severe, and better yet, both he and she saw that the injury was also leaking out a greater quantity of ichor than the previous injuries of a similar size. However, as much ichor had poured out already, it didn¡¯t have any obvious effect on the radiant energy that poured in from the outside, on the unknowable shape on the inside, nor any other elements of the Primordial Deity that might be recognised by her or Kong Shi Meng.


    It wasn¡¯t surprising to see the Master of Yi City bite his lip to the point of a drop of blood emerging, a tough feat considering his cultivation realm and the techniques he must have cultivated on this path. That pause lasted for a moment before he brought one hand away from the sword.


    A mass of pure white suddenly poured out his hand and into the shape of a weapon identical to the one in his other hand, albeit softly flowing in place as if it was a river captured as a moving image, and portrayed in the shape of a blade. He brought both hands out, holding out the sword parallel to one another, and raised his head.


    Wei Yi noted that this appeared to be the tool of the Weapon Condensation realm of spiritual will.


    ¡°Warriors whose lives I failed to protect! Warriors that yet live, and would see Primordial Invader fall! Warriors that did not come, out of reason or emotion, who still wish to keep their district safe!¡± he called out, his energy emerging in the meanwhile to safeguard himself from the incoming rifts and spheres, although he could only ward them off and not destroy them, ¡°In this moment, grant me your anger! Grant me your fury! The killing intent that you feel towards this thing that would end your lives and take your homes!¡±


    His words, were, on the surface, just words. Although the soldiers that still lived and were present may be able to take action, how much could they really do when no precise command was given?


    Despite that, a mass of crimson suddenly arose, gathering from all the places were the dead fell, and where their bodies lay still. It poured from the soldiers that stood far away, watching the battle, pouring from their heads and bodies. An enormous wave surged from the outside, from far beyond the scope of these memories, and it doubtlessly belonged to the very people that Kong Shi Meng had addressed with his words.


    Looking at it with the knowledge of the Kong Prison Realm, and the ability to convert planar energy to killing intent and spiritual will exhibited by it, both the Weapon Condensation realm and the control of killing intent only made sense. It would be stranger if he had no methods associated with this despite his control of both those energies by the end of his life.


    The crimson amassed beside him, but it was unable to condense into anything before he slammed the true sword and spiritual will sword together, forcing them to directly combine into one.


    An explosion of energy of unbelievable power and unknown nature shook the earth and the memory, momentarily bringing her out of it for the millionth time over the forging process. If not for the Ascendant¡¯s Library allowing her to perfectly piece the memories together and not get lost, it would have been rather difficult to watch such a lengthy and complex scene without being driven to some level of insanity.


    In reality, she looked upon the weapon lying on the anvil, moments before her hand would fall upon it once again. At this point in time, as the memories were clearly drawing to some climax, so was the forging process. She could see the full shape of her final weapon right before her.


    From a single glance, it looked shoddy, broken, fractured into more pieces than it had originally been, although that wasn¡¯t actually the case. Despite all of that, she could see something far greater within the weapon than there could have ever been within the sword that was called Demon Killer. It would, most certainly, lack all of the attributes of that weapon, for it couldn¡¯t possibly maintain the otherworldly nature of the artefact once it was shredded into tiny pieces, flooded with artefact channels, then forced back together by a woman who might not be considered sane by those around her if she was too vocal about every single thought that passed through her head at certain times.


    Every piece was connected, and not. The channels were aligned perfectly with one another, and yet there was a gulf as wide as the ocean between the Western and Eastern Continents between them.


    The weapon was as close to a living, breathing contradiction as an inanimate object could ever be. Yin and yang mixed together, yet remaining far apart, prompted by the work of someone who should have not been trusted to pick up a hammer and create equipment, driven in part by her Dao and in part by the core of this new sword.


    All of the memories were informative, but they also hid within them secrets of great value. Techniques and events that she could learn from, even if she couldn¡¯t analyse them at the same level as she would had she been present physically. The basic sword swings, the strange net of zeroes and ones, the disruption of rifts, and the possibility of combining the weapon of spiritual will cultivation with a physical sword. Some would only be of use against a single potential foe, but others had the chance of becoming incredibly vital ¨C such as what she would see next.


    Her hammer fell once more, and a wave of crimson burst out.


    Two things, physical and energy, attempted to take up the same place, and they were surrounded by an absolutely overwhelming storm of killing intent gathered from thousands, if not millions of people.


    It sat around the swords, gathering power with every single moment, to the extent that it alone was enough to disrupt the incoming attacks from Primordial Invader. It did not directly enter, instead occupying the many cracks that formed into the physical blade, and that continued to form as the condensed weapon of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s spiritual will cultivation was made to merge with it when there should be no possibility of such a thing.


    ¡°Primordial Invader, your time is no more!¡± the Master of Yi City exclaimed as he vanished from his position once again, except that this time it was not simply a movement method that could be countered by the Primordial Deity now that it had seen him do it previously.


    No, this was a shift of heaven and earth, a sudden transfer of a pool of energy of thousands. The earth broke, a great dent was made in the world, and a shockwave tore out the nearby frozen trees and cleansed the earth of remaining snow. His figure moved forward, a single sword held in both hands above his head, as he brought down an enormous quantity of energy upon the merged Primordial Invader, whose injuries were mostly nullified by this point. The simple descent of the weapon was enough to tear the clouds above, and the moment it fell was something else.


    The Ascendant could see the Shard of Warfare burst into a far stronger crimson light than before, standing out blatantly within her weapon as she went to strike it yet again.


    She could see it becoming eager to provide her with the last piece of memory, so she hurried to bring the hammer down. As she did, her vision went white even as she was plunged into memory, and she could tell that a great phenomena akin to her first bloodline power awakening began at that instant, but she could not see it in full.


    Kong Shi Meng¡¯s blade cut into the head of Primordial Invader, digging in all the way to the neck, but when it stopped, the energy did not. It surrounded the entity and crushed it with the weight of a dozen mountains, compressing a rather large figure into one the size of a human, albeit with a dozen arms and, oddly enough, three leg-like shapes at the bottom. There were clear sounds emerging from within, akin to some form of displeasure, but it was not the only thing suffering.


    The sword that was forced to contain the power of spiritual will and was enveloped by killing intent visibly cracked and shattered at great speeds, its state worsening with every single moment even while Primordial Invader was clearly not going to be restrained fast enough.


    Indeed, after it shrunk down to the size of a child, the sword exploded, fragments flying out but stopping in the air after a moment of flight. The Primordial Deity dashed away in that instant, only for all of the shards to fly up and fall down in a rain of blade shards, most failing to strike the thing directly but all of them bursting out with impossible quantities of power that would have reached it even if it was on the other side of the battlefield. It was phenomenal to behold, that much could be said without any doubt, but it was still not enough to damage the Primordial Deity, never mind destroying it.


    To make matters even worse for Kong Shi Meng, all of the shards that were restraining the entity were clearly beginning to lose their grip upon it, as their united whole could hardly be described as such any longer. It was clear that something had to be done, and when he held out his hand, he clearly thought the same.


    All of the phantoms that had gathered above the Ze District, including the duplicate heavens, suddenly fell down upon the Forge of Perfection, coming together into an absolute source of light.


    The next moment, after an endless instant of silence and stillness that could bring dread into the minds of all that saw it, a beam of impossible brightness burst forth, shining into the heavens as if to burn into them a permanent mark.


    With naught but light, the barriers around the Forge of Perfection were worn away at a thousand times the speed of the rest of the forging process, forcing the Ze Patriarch and his guardians to commit nearly all of their planar energy to keeping them in some semblance of stability so that the rest of the district would not be overwhelmed and consumed in an instant of infinite radiance. No matter what methods were used, peering through it was impossible, and as such none of them had even the faintest clue of whether this explosion of luminance was in the favour of the Ascendant or not.


    In fact, they struggled to imagine her surviving such a thing if even they struggled this much, but they suspected that she could do so readily. The tales of the Ascendant led them to expect that.


    ¡®Ascendant, whatever you produce with such a ruckus, it better be worth it! That better be able to bring down the Greats and grant us all a golden age!¡¯ the Ze Patriarch found himself thinking, and without any awareness of a clear silver mist that flowed from his form and towards the centre of the district.


    Similarly, all of the people in the Ze District that looked upon the light found themselves thinking of better days, of better lives and a greater world. They dreamed of peace, of power, of glory and greatness, for themselves and for all. Their dreams surged out and took on a shape unseen by all, and was brought to the Forge of Perfection, flowing into the sword on the anvil, into the cracks and broken segments, and filling the crimson Shard of Warfare with boundless spiritual will at the level of the seventh realm, just as a second source of it joined this endless flow. This lone source doubled the quantity of energy, but came from the body of a single soul that smashed a hammer down onto the sword one final time.


    A boundless energy, violet and raging, tore out of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s hand and grabbed onto Primordial Invader, instantly collapsing it to the size of a man¡¯s head, even when it tried to bring out all of its limbs to the furthest points that it could reach.


    ¡°You shall not disturb Yi City! You shall not let these people¡¯s wills be unfulfilled!¡± he proclaimed as he suddenly pulled his hand back, the action causing Primordial Invader to fly towards him.


    Just a moment before they might have touched, both of his hands flew out again, clapping down on the Primordial Deity while his cultivation poured out from his whole form, shrouding him in vibrant violet. It pressed down on the entity, forcing it to be smaller and smaller, making it weaker and weaker, until it was no larger than a peanut. Then, all of the shards of the sword flew to surround it, forming a miniature array of sorts that combined with the power of Kong Shi Meng, and forced the entity into submission.


    It was reduced to the size of a single, infinitely small point in space, at which point it vanished, the pieces of the sword falling around it, still brimming with the killing intent that had been used to apply the seal to the Primordial Deity, but they were not the only thing around which crimson lingered.


    Kong Shi Meng himself glanced at his skin and found the traces of the seal, most obviously residing in his dantian, visible from the outside as a circle of crimson framing something that was best left undisturbed. He clenched his fist as he looked at those around him, at all of the dead, the wounded, and the living that he had failed to protect, as he had claimed he would.


    The threat was still dealt with, and might not return within the lifetime of the ninth realm, meaning that he might well be celebrated for that long, if not longer, but it was not enough. It was not in keeping with his attempts to improve everything he could, for he had ended the lives of many just to command their remaining wills to give up even themselves to seal this terrible foe. Some may see it as an achievement, but to him it was a disappointment, a terrible failure that he had to improve upon.


    ¡°So, with that azure thing sealed, this is what I amount to? I can¡¯t even deal with this¡­ and there has to be something beyond. Once it comes up, what could I do?¡± he muttered in remorse, ¡°So much for being the leader of a nation. So much for the Master of Yi City¡­¡±


    He waved his hand, and the killing intent that focused on his dispersed, at least visually. The seal that it formed was still there, but he could obscure that with his own power. What couldn¡¯t be hidden was the endless and extreme killing intent that lingered on the pieces of the blade, which he picked up with his energy and, at first, brought into a pile.


    However, something prompted him to change his mind, for he separated them and took out a single shard before waving the rest towards a ring on his finger, which he then tapped in order to make the shards disappear into them. With the single shard, he looked towards those who survived and found them unconscious, allowing him to come up to one almost at random and awaken him with a wave of spiritual will. The man saw him and tried to stand, only to find that his body wouldn¡¯t let him do so in the presence of an overwhelming aura.


    ¡°Master Shi Meng, this-¡±


    ¡°This will be in your care, Wu Song. This shard¡­ it holds within a price of our warfare, whether against one another or the Primordial Deities that seek to reclaim their place. Never forget that, no matter what happens to me.¡±


    In a way, Kong Shi Meng was right. Whatever he had thought of his own achievements, a million years later he was still known all over the Western Continent, and was often mentioned at the Eastern Continent as well, from what Wei Yi had heard. He was a great existence, a person that could never be surpassed, a figure to whom all the great figures that came after would inevitably be compared, only to find these new figures falling short.


    He did fail terribly, though. It was not obvious on the surface, at least not before the War of Ascendancy had begun by Wei Yi¡¯s hand, but every great thing he had made began to rot long ago.


    The Great Leeches, the districts and their purposes, the outside nations and the great deterrent against them ¨C a two-fold system of suppressing them in strength and making them undesirable places in comparison to the jewel that was Yi City ¨C had all begun wondrously, and still seemed to be exactly the same from an outside glance. There were few traces of the Leeches, which were the ancient powers that Kong Shi Meng had sought to quell with the creation of districts. The districts themselves worked, and produced great men and women from time to time, as he would have wanted. Even with how brazen some empires and kingdoms on the outside were, they did not dare to invade the inner districts, and had to respect their power and authority. Many would rather leave them and live in Yi City, for there was far more opportunity to be found there in almost all cases, the only real exception being if one wished to easily lord over a group of weaker people, which was easier in nations where the structures of power were less rigid.


    And yet, the Greats did exist. The districts were slowly decaying. With enough time, the outside nations would reach the current level of Yi City, and surpass it. At that point, the people of Yi City would flee to the outside, not the other way around.


    That is why things needed to be changed once more, why a great figure needed to rise from the common people, just as Kong Shi Meng had done. Someone to burn away the rot, to forge things anew, to understand the greatness of what had come before and bestow upon it a glory that could never have been seen prior.


    Most importantly, that figure needed to resolve the greatest problems that the Master of Yi City couldn¡¯t defeat: the otherworldly, and the hungry.


    Naturally, that figure had a name, a name known best to the people of Yi City, but the one to make the most impact was still not that name. Rather, it was a title begotten by a single act done in battle, almost at a whim, when a technique was advanced and a people with no day or night got to witness both, if only for a moment. That title was no longer relevant to the one that had earned it, but there was another that deserved it most of all, for, although it was shattered, it was now made whole.


    A blade, with a handle of dark planar stone and a blade made of stars, was raised up, the tip reaching the sky and almost seeming to tap at it, in a clear display of power and ability that few would even dare imagine.


    ¡°I name you Moon Splitter,¡± Wei Yi spoke for the first time in four days.


    In that instant, the blade shattered, splitting into numerous pieces, with a single shard of boundless smoke mixed with a pure silver standing out within the middle, the energies spinning in a vortex that rotated regardless of the state of the shard itself. All of the shards shone brightly towards the sky, where an illusory moon returned to the sky but for a moment, and broke alongside the blade.


    The moon, as untrue as it was, could be seen from all over the Planar Continents, even on the distant Eastern Continent. All the world could behold the splitting of a moon, the breaking of a perpetual whole into two large chunks and numerous tiny pieces that could barely be seen from the ground.


    And while they marvelled at it, or perhaps laughed or cried or even shouted angrily at the phenomenon, all kinds of thoughts passing through their heads as would happen regardless of the appearance of the moon, the central shards of the blade were touched by soft yet strong fingers, released from the gauntlet in which they had been sealed for far too long. The Ascendant lightly stroked the shard, and felt the power within, attempting to feel the thing to which it should have connected if it still served its purpose.


    All that the search revealed, however, was naught. There was nothing, meaning that the killing intent still lingered, but did not do one of the things that it should have.


    In other words, there was no support for the seal of Primordial Invader from the power of the Shard of Warfare, or the Shard of Moon Splitter as it was now going to be called. That left only a single source of power for the seal.


    A source that had not lived for a million years.


    ¡®Even with the lower quantity of energy, the Primordial Deities should not have vanished entirely. It means that there is still something keeping them sealed, something other than Kong Shi Meng, and other than these shards, wherever the others ended up¡­ but what is it?¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself, unable to arrive at an answer.

 V5C56: Declaration of War

    The Ze Patriarch wished to address the Ascendant the moment that the process was complete, but he found that the light faded and revealed no figure standing within it. The sword that should have been created was also absent, but he could tell that there had been no death nor great disaster.


    As he felt his legs tire and his whole body demand rest, for his energy was nearly expended and his mind had not had a single opportunity to pause and relax, he fell without much grace onto the stone wall nearest to him, managing to remain in a vaguely vertical position as he did so. Once he was sure that he wouldn¡¯t fall, he reached out with a ray of spiritual will to the nearest guardian to him, succeeding in reaching him after a moment of uncertainty.


    ¡°Check the spatial stabilisation point and see what has emerged!¡± he passed on the message, not caring that much whether the guardian himself would be the one to investigate.


    All of them were exhausted and clearly in no state to run about to confirm anything, but if they passed the message on and then brought back the answer, it would only take a short while for the Patriarch to learn what he wanted to know.


    That was exactly what they seemed to do, for the Ze Patriarch could just see the nearest of the guardians in a position much akin to his own, sitting on the stone with his back on the wall, his head being the only thing that he could move at all. His lips moved a little as the message was passed on, and then he was still, only his eyes occasionally blinking. He was still alive, that much was clear, but it would be a while before he would be able to recover his energy and do anything more than that. Had there been a threat to his life there and then, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to survive without outside assistance.


    After a while, the message from the other side finally returned to the Patriarch, and it was rather surprising to him, ¡®The spatial stabilisation node is currently inactive, but there is a large thing above it, like some kind of rune or brand. It is in active motion and is twisting constantly, and it seems to be getting brighter as I look upon it.¡¯


    Certainly, all of that could have caught his attention, but the most significant factor was that the node was not yet active, completely shocking the Ze Patriarch.


    With the way in which the Ascendant vanished, she could have easily snapped up the node and departed, perhaps even grabbing the Ze District once she had connected the node to Paragon, from which her forces could have emerged and conquered the lands easily enough. That she didn¡¯t do this shocked him far more than it probably should have, especially considering the straightforward fashion in which she had behaved prior to this.


    Since he and his district were not in danger for the moment, he allowed himself to relax just a little.


    Inevitably, that moment of quiet slowly led to him falling asleep, his eyes shutting and his mind going off to matters other than his own, to worlds far beyond that seemed to wondrous in comparison. Upon his awakening, all of that would be forgotten, and the few fragments that remain would seem to be incredibly absurd, to the extent that it would not make sense for him to ever dream of such a thing.


    Whether or not that was the truth would be anyone¡¯s guess, for what adult would speak of their dreams in length? They were insignificant matters, best forgotten in the waking world.


    At the edge of a great cliff, leading into the Kong District¡¯s land, crimson hair fluttered in the wind, the lengthy ponytail being blown back as the Ascendant looked down into those lands and recalled the last time that she had visited them.


    Last time, she had been in a far, far lower realm than now, and the gap had widened even further with the breakthrough that occurred upon the forging of her sword. All of the energy unleashed from within the Shard of Warfare combined with the power of the planar stones she had pulled out of the Wu District¡¯s treasury, not to mention the various materials that she had taken out and then merged into the refining process, unleashing much of their energy in the meanwhile.


    First and foremost, the most significant breakthrough that she had succeeded in was either the development of her nascent rift, or the next step of her killing will.


    If she had to pick one, she would probably be most proud of the sudden expansion of the nascent rift from twenty-five percent to a terrifying fifty. In far more precise terms, it meant that instead of it taking her a total of sixteen minutes to regenerate all of her planar energy in an environment with no planar energy whatsoever, it would only take her eight. Within four minutes, she would regain half of her planar energy, and within one minute, she would regain twelve and a half percent. This was an enormous increase, and one that couldn¡¯t be compared to the growth of her killing will cultivation.


    With the quantity of killing will that could endlessly pour of her body, to go up a single realm wouldn¡¯t be too difficult with some dedicated effort, but now she had just thrown herself out of balance yet again only to give herself¡­ well, it wasn¡¯t in any way fair to claim that she was not gaining a great deal from it.


    Upon ascension to the seventh realm, called the Yin-Yang Conduit realm, a structure had formed within her body and within the mental domain. In shape, it was much akin to the vortex that manifested around the Shard of Warfare, smoke and silver light spinning around, one seeming to chase the other while also being pursued, never truly merging nor separating. The form of the conduit itself was difficult to establish, but the function did not need a single moment of contemplation to be witnessed.


    So long as she made use of the conduit, all of her killing will would be able to reach far further, and contain far more power. Combining that with the simple growth in the density of her energy, if she could previously overwhelm most Patriarchs with an Ire-based technique utilising either killing intent or spiritual will as the primary core of the technique, now she could kill them with a little effort. Of course, this was a bit of a simplification, for no battle was as simple as one man standing in place while she attempted to kill them, but it was still a significant difference that could allow her to resolve threats posed by Patriarchs with far less difficulty.


    The other reason that she was not particularly impressed by this breakthrough was that she did gain two more stages in each of her other cultivation paths. Her bloodline power, physique energy and cosmic energy all reached the fifth stage, with four perfected stages, roughly equating to the ninth stage for normal cultivators.


    With a single further step, a stage and perfected stage would be gained, and with those, her cultivation would undergo a great transformation that would give her the chance to step into the seventh realm at an early stage, whether by attaining something that was normally relegated to that realm, or by gaining a power equivalent to it. So far, she was still unable to guess what she would gain, but as the linked channels gained additional chains and her energy gained further crimson nebulae, it was clear that the changes would be related to her energy, a rather surprising phenomenon at this point in time.


    One of the core factors of planar cultivation was that there was a certain limit to planar energy itself. Even if one could advance it past a gaseous state and into a liquid one, then a solid one, and maybe even a crystalline one without cultivating any kind of core, planar pool, anchor or anything else of the sort, it would not make them on par with those that did the same the normal way. Energy alone had a limit, and it seemed to be the crystalline state that she had attained some time ago. Past that, one needed to manifest an anchor to stabilise it and allow it to be projected out to greater distances, a core to do the same and to protect the anchor, marks to empower the energy and planar constructs as they emerged from the body, channels to connect that energy back to the anchor, halos to expand one¡¯s power and further concentrate force upon the anchor, and then, finally, a rift forged from the broken anchor that would surpass all of the previous structures.


    Despite that, there seemed to be a further step for planar energy itself, of which she had never heard of prior to this. It was very much to her liking, as she would very much appreciate the added advantage against the Primordial Deities and Great Leeches ¨C to her knowledge, both used ordinary planar energy.


    Her physique energy and bloodline power could be said to be more ordinary in terms of advancement, as she had not been able to attain any kind of perfected stage and instead just progressed by two ordinary stages, with her overall power rising due to the increases of both. The growth was still appreciated, and it helped stabilise the state of her body and the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, but it was far outmatched by her planar cultivation.


    This gap was certain to become even larger once she got to the seventh realm, and the eighth realm after that, at which point only the ninth realms of bloodline power, physique energy and killing will would be able to match the near-unlimited power offered by the Imperfect Rift realm. The only method of changing that would be to fuse all five into their original, true state ¨C that of the true planar energy that all five cultivation paths came from. Once that was done, the power of all five would go into one path, and the single path would empower all five, allowing her development of bloodline power, for instance, to directly benefit her planar energy rather than doing so through the incidental bonus of bloodline cultivation multiplicatively enhancing the other forms of energy in her body.


    ¡®Unfortunately, I have no time for that right now. The Kong District awaits, and I have a thing to say to the bastards in Testament¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she vanished from the spot, pulling herself to the position of a chain in the valley of the Kong District. There, she spread out her spiritual perception to its absolute limit, a total of nearly six thousand metres, and quickly found the spatial stabilisation node.


    With another usage of the fourth realm movement method, she appeared beside that, finding herself in the centre of what must, at some ancient point in time, have been a great plaza, with the node being placed inside of the centre of a fountain-like structure that was itself centred in the central square. It was also quite close to the middle of the Kong District itself, so it was clearly put there either by impossible coincidence or deliberate planning, with the latter indicating that Kong Shi Meng himself might have come by to place it down.


    Otherwise, there would have been none in the Kong District who could do such a thing. Even at their peak, their leaders were generally in the fifth and sixth realms at most, which wouldn¡¯t be sufficient to work with any kind of spatial node like the ones bound to the Yi City Web.


    She stood over it, but did not active it immediately.


    As she recalled, she battled a member of the first generation of the Great Ning family on the sixth of the third month, and it was now the twenty-fourth of the eighth. A total of eighteen days and five months had passed since then, nearly half a year, and she was finally intending to make her return to the conflict that she had started.


    It wouldn¡¯t be right to do so without proper preparation, and without the right kind of presentation. Furthermore, she had to be ready for the Great Leeches to attack in full force the moment that she made herself known beyond killing one of their own in the Wu District, through the activation of the Yi City Web in a manner that put a powerful wall to the right of their districts. Thus, she had two objectives in mind.


    The first was to guarantee that her reappearance would show her at her best, in the best light possible, and in a manner that would make it nearly impossible for anyone to conclude either that her injury from nearly six months ago was a detriment for her in any way. In that regard, she was somewhat ready.


    Her newly reforged blade, Moon Splitter, was a very impactful weapon, and it could do far more than simply act as a sword and break apart and then repeat the technique used by Kong Shi Meng in the memories of the Shard of Warfare. It could shift into any weapon that she had mastery over, and she suspected that she could find far more uses to manipulating the metal shards freely than were obvious right away. As such, there was no need to worry that anyone would see her weapon as one that was unfit for the Ascendant, or one that wished to combat the Great Leeches and tear them down once and for all.


    Although she had not taken much care of it since her awakening on the southern border, her hair was not significantly different from before, not that it would earn much attention anyway.


    Obviously, the development of her cultivation couldn¡¯t be ignored, so a simple display of her Endless Monolith, Subterranean Shell, Astral Scars and the chain-like channels should be enough to prove that the delay did not prevent her from cultivating to a point where she would soon be able to fight one-on-one with the first generation and win. Only she knew that she could have done far more had she been provided with a few more resources, but that didn¡¯t need to be said.


    Her Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival were essentially the only thing that she wore, aside from the broken scale armour, the star metal heeled boots and star metal gauntlet. There wasn¡¯t much to swap them to, nor did she see much of a reason to do so when her attire was good enough for the job.


    In a way, she hoped that the permanence of that would grant some people hope that her path and her objective could not be thwarted even by the best efforts of the Greats, and that she would not fall no matter what she was forced to endure. So long as people knew that, they would have a higher chance of risking their own lives as well.


    For that, the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow might even be a benefit, for it could display in full how she had been permanently maimed and yet came out as the winner in the long run. For the moment, it lacked the same freedom as her previous arm had, but that would change the instant she either became powerful enough, or found the right method to controlling it more efficiently. However, just as with a number of her other afflictions, she was able to hide them from the world and simply not reveal those kinds of details, and many wouldn¡¯t believe them even if the Greats found out and spread the word deliberately, deciding to take advantage of the common people that they despised. Her fighting ability would only go up with every single day, so how could she not be at her best?


    ¡®In this regard, I suppose that I don¡¯t have much to change or address, do I? That¡¯s good,¡¯ she nodded, moving onto the second significant point she needed to consider.


    The second factor was that she wished to bring her voice to as many people as possible, be they Great or not. She wanted the world to learn of her return, and to bring the challenge to the Great Leeches in the most overt possible, so that nobody could possibly claim that they didn¡¯t know of her actions. There had been a time for subterfuge, and it was far gone.


    From now on, there would only be over conflict and war until her enemies fell, or until she failed to do what she wished. Either way, one side would win and the other fail, and the world could be plunged into light or darkness, with some viewing either as a positive and either as a negative. That was the natural Law of things, for some thrived beneath the morning sun and others could only emerge in the night, when nearly no light remained except for the few feeble sparks that mankind had lit for themselves.


    She wasn¡¯t arrogant enough to claim that she knew best, but if she didn¡¯t strive towards something, all of her actions would be meaningless, for they would simply meander and go nowhere regardless of how long she fought.


    Part of the problem in delivering her message, however, was the fact that she still lacked the appropriate methods to make her voice heard anywhere and everywhere. In the ninth realm of all cultivation paths, perhaps the range of her energy would be sufficient to reach all in the Western Continent, if not the Eastern Continent, but she didn¡¯t have the power to simply sit around and wait for that to come. Sitting around wouldn¡¯t even permit her to go up by a stage within a thousand years, thin as the energy of the world was for someone like her, and if her Arbiters endured for that long, then she would very much be impressed.


    After all, they weren¡¯t a proper, well developed faction with proper procedures and clearly defined plans to adhere to. They were a name slapped onto a large group, and that group would only last for as long as they were bound together by a shared hope and will ¨C hope of success, and the will to remove the Greats, and all threats to the people of Yi City.


    For them to persist past a few years without the supervision of the one that had thrown them together and given them the name that they now used, they would need to greatly change their operating procedures and figure out ways in which to achieve that which they wished for without relying on the power of a few with abnormal strength. If they did that, it wouldn¡¯t be right for her to claim any responsibility for such a success, as she could have been replaced by any other so long as the same people met one another.


    ¡®Besides, I had wanted to rename the Kong District at one point, so that my children could live there and learn and grow. Considering that I might already need to stay away from them once they are actually born, it would be even worse of me to completely break any promise I had made to them,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, aware that her thoughts were once again slipping away from her, and that it wasn¡¯t helping the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow to keep itself to a more sensible state.


    When she did let it loose, the mass of smoke and the vibrance of her power would expand greatly, causing the claws to grow and the limb to gain an aura of overwhelming threat and destruction. It was powerful in the right place and time, that much she wouldn¡¯t argue with, but it was not the kind of image that she wished to present to the world if she did manage to find a way to reach every single one of them in a single message. As the Ascendant, she was attempting to bring a better world to all those that would have it, and if she radiated her killing intent towards all without any reservation, then few would wish to take her up on that offer. The few that would, might only do so as they would hope to get a world of blood and fire.


    That was not the world she wished for, and so she had no use for their company and their intent.


    Hence, she brought herself back to the right topic yet again, ¡®With my current range of spiritual perception, it will allow me to cover the majority of every single district that I control through the Yi City Web. That means that if I am able to produce some kind of array using the area of every single district, one that would send a single message to all, the combined area of nearly half of Yi City might very well be enough to reach out to the people of the Shi, Chu, Ning, Fu, Chen, Yi, Huang and Ling Districts, even if they do not wish to hear my message.¡¯


    The most difficult to reach might be the Fu or Chen District, for they would be more than a district away from the border of any of her controlled districts, but she did have one method for expanding her reach further ¨C other than the mental replication of the world to impose the spatial stabilisation node state in places where she did not have such a thing, which she would use anyway.


    That method had a name, personality, and lengthy memory, meaning that she would need to call out to her first. To do that, the connection to the Yi City Web needed to be formed first.


    She glanced to the south, where the spatial stabilisation node of the Ze District was going to be claimed by a brand that she had set down with the intention of delaying the wave of her energy from reaching it right away. There, it would be able to connect with the Jiang and Lan Districts, thus forming a connection between three districts, thus having a large chance of activating the phenomenon of the Yi City Web even if it didn¡¯t allow a connection to the Luo District and all those to its north, which she wanted to avoid for the same reason that she was making sure she was as prepared as possible for the activation of the node here in the Kong District.


    Although she was too far from the brand to judge its condition accurately, she could guess that it was nearing the end of its duration. In a moment, it would activate the spatial stabilisation note, and then she would have to act anyway.


    So, she might as well be the first to activate a node.


    Reaching out with her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, she brought forth her vast power and focused it upon the spatial stabilisation node hidden within the remnants of a fountain. It took her only a moment to activate it, even quicker than the last time she had interacted with a node like it properly, and then felt a wave of force hit her with the force of a mountain.


    ¡°The rebellion of the vile thing I had fought is only gaining traction. The people¡¯s minds seem to have declined as planar energy density has risen,¡± Ning Huang, ¡°We will need to take action soon, if-¡±


    He, and all of the Great Leeches present, looked to the large map of the Western Continent, where the number of mentions of their names had clearly increased from before they knew of the threat of the Ascendant.


    That should have been it, but they all felt a disturbance from the Death of Words, one that manifested moments later with the sudden ignition of vibrant points ¨C no, vast spheres ¨C of light above the Chao, Ju, Bai, Ping, Luo, Jiang, Kong, Ze, Lan, Shun, Wu, Gang, Xin, Bao, Ru and Qiang Districts, as well as a point to the north of the Chao District, where a marker was added to the map with the simple label of ¡®Fortress¡¯. More than half of the districts in the current Yi City were affected, naturally interrupting their discussion as they looked upon the ensuing chaos.


    The former fountain, long unused for such a purpose, exploded into a grey mist that quickly spread out before crimson and silver erupted from the spatial stabilisation point. Aside from the great quantity of smoke that poured out from the crimson, the gateway itself was unchanged, the energy rising up and then being pulled apart to reveal a familiar landscape within.


    On the other side, a woman with silver eyes and red hair stood ready, even if she had likely manifested her avatar there only a moment prior. She stepped out ¨C projecting her state out of the spatial realm -and looked at the Ascendant with a stunned face, as many emotions brimmed within her eyes.


    ¡°Wei Yi¡­¡±


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming, with the current range of the Yi City Web, would it be possible to broadcast my voice to all of the other districts?¡±


    The mother of the Master of Yi City froze with her mouth half-open, stopping herself and instead considering the question for a brief while. Her figure blurred for a little while, with her perception clearly travelling through all parts of the world where the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s influence was able to reach. Once she returned to full stability, she bit her lip as she thought for a little longer, the energy around the spatial stabilisation nodes being affected as she likely tested a number of her theories.


    ¡°I believe that this would be possible, with a little disturbance in the districts where the node is located beneath earth or rock. If you wish, it might even be feasible to send across your image in some limited capacity.¡±


    ¡°Please do so right away. I have a thing I wish to say to the Great Leeches.¡±


    The spatial spirit nodded and waited for the Ascendant to take a step back before waving her hand and driving all of the energy within the range of the spatial stabilisation nodes.


    Before the Ascendant began, the people within the districts that were already under her control, and that were within the Kong Prison Realm at the moment, had managed to begin gathering near the gateways at the circle of gateways, and they looked out of the gateway at the Ascendant with varying expressions. Most were still easily recognisable, with their cultivation having grown by no more than a realm, and their bodies looking much like they did when they and Wei Yi had last spoken, but she could tell even from the single glance that she sent their way that they were not unchanged after all of the time they had spent apart.


    Still, this was not something she could spend her time on right now, as she had something to say.


    At the Qiang District, the Patriarch looked on as the smoke-covered crimson and silver gateway that formed but moments prior began to release numerous threads and lines of controlled planar energy, spreading out far and wide throughout the chamber where the stabilisation node was located. This energy shook the land and brought quite a bit of alarm to the guardians that remained, as well as the new one that he had procured since the loss of one at the hands of the Blood-tinged Church.


    ¡°Remain calm. Whatever it is that she does, she has no reason to damage us. I suspect that this is a message.¡±


    ¡°Message to us?¡±


    ¡°To those figures in simple robes. Rather, I should say that they are the Great Families, if the Ascendant does not come up with some alternate name for those things. Judging by our interactions in her brief stay in our district, she very well might.¡±


    Within the Ru District, the Bottomless Archive was lit up by the activation of a crimson and silver gateway, from which strands of blue and violet snaked out like the tendrils of a hungry nest.


    Their completely envelopment of the great structure and a number of buildings outside was naturally a shock to many, but when these tendrils sank into some of the tomes scattered around the district, the mood was strangely lifted. Although this was still a rather suspicious matter, with the length of time spent on studying knowledge and the tomes of the past, for something else to access the same means meant that it had to be aligned with them, at least in part.


    In the Bao District, the activation of the spatial stabilisation point was very much a surprise to those who could immediately identify it. None of them could remember the false realm that they had been plunged into, and they certainly wouldn¡¯t expect that the thing and people that they saw might have also been witnessed by another that had come and gone without their notice.


    The Patriarch attempted to comprehend the matter, but only managed to glance inside of the gateway and see a sky filled with Astral Scars, chains, and a scale-covered shell covering it all before the strands of energy emerged from within, weaving around every single one of the gems within the six thousand metre reach of the spatial stabilisation node and activating their powers in a manner that the people of the district couldn¡¯t imagine in the past. It was not their usual method of usage, but the overall power that was produced was significantly greater in quantity and efficacy than anything that they had been able to produce so far.


    Hence, the Bao Patriarch wasn¡¯t going to interrupt the process, not yet.


    When Gang Xiu Ling saw the emergence of the gateway, she was perhaps the calmest of the Patriarchs at the south, for she had been informed of what might happen upon the opening of the gateway. The guardians that stood by the side were, as always, muttering, and she was highly tempted to tell them to shut up.


    Before she could, though, the gateway opened fully, the other side briefly showing two figures with crimson hair that caught the new Matriarch¡¯s eye, and then the strange threads of energy poured out from within, surging out and seemingly trying to consume the district.


    ¡°W-What is this? We need to-¡±


    ¡°You will do nothing, guardian!¡± she snapped at them, pointing towards the distant figure of the Ascendant, ¡°She¡¯s right there, and she now has the support of all the other districts right here, a few steps away from us. If you try to pull anything at all, not only will you need to fight one Matriarch, but you will also have to deal with the Ascendant, with a dozen Patriarchs, and with whatever forces her Arbiters include. Do you think you can take that on?¡±


    Their silence was sufficient for her to turn away from them and look back into the gateway, her expression taking on a degree of pensiveness.


    ¡°Since you¡¯re so worried, keep an eye out for this. I¡¯ll have a chat with Lan Mu¡­¡±


    In the Xin District, the great construct in the Ancestral Hall was nearing the state of full recovery with the great deal of effort that had been invested into making it function at an even greater level than before. Their efforts were, however, distracted as they saw numerous strands of power reaching towards the air, seeming to wrap around invisible entities of an uncertain nature and appearance, save for the fact that they were vaguely humanoid. With the nature of the district¡¯s focus, there were a few conclusions that were more naturally drawn than others.


    ¡°Are these¡­ souls? Spirits? Are they¡­¡± the Xin Patriarch questioned nobody in particular, but he couldn¡¯t go far with that line of questioning, for he was as at odds with the Ling District¡¯s fondness of natural ghosts and the like as any other Patriarch of the Xin District.


    Hence, he went quiet and instead ordered the temporary pause of the repairs of the soul awakening structure, as to guarantee that it couldn¡¯t be damaged no matter what these tendrils were intended to accomplish. At the same time, he took some time to attempt to comprehend their nature, for that might very well make a great impact on further actions, even if they came from a reliable source or one that could be trusted.


    A moment of further thought brought him to the gateway itself, and the things on the other side, leading to all of his focus going to determining the purpose of the tendrils instead.


    For all of the oddities of the Ascendant, she was not against them, only the Great Families.


    Within the Shun District, the Shun Patriarch had noticed the development of the spatial stabilisation node¡¯s state earlier than most, and thus he gathered a number of his trusted aides and servants to observe the opening of the gateway.


    They weren¡¯t sure whether to expect a direct greeting from the other side, but it wouldn¡¯t hurt to be prepared and see what it was that the Ascendant truly had behind her.


    Provided that they were not disappointed or did not consider themselves to have been misled, then there would be no problem at all with continuing their current plans, and if they were seeing more than they had initially expected, then the Shun Patriarch would most certainly increase his investment into this plan in particular. He had planned for a few other matters and routes to increase the chances of success, but if the Ascendant succeeded, then he might as well drop all of that.


    When the spatial realm on the other side of the gateway became visible, he was nearly convinced.


    Then, when he saw a mass of other spatial gateways and a gathering of people that grew with every second, he felt even more encouraged. His aides might well have thought the same, but before he could ask, the numerous tendrils emerged.


    Instantly, they snapped up a great portion of the territory and began to faintly vibrate, in a manner that made it very difficult to ascertain their true purpose at first glance.


    Despite that, the Shun Patriarch knew that these were not only in their district, but in all districts connected by the gateway before him, and he could also guess that the effort required to manifest something of this size and complexity couldn¡¯t be minor in the slightest. This indicated a great level of strength and ability, as well as an enormous range of energy control that few of the Patriarchs he had come close to in the past could show. With the Ascendant¡¯s current realm, this was an even more impressive feat.


    His support of the Ascendant grew even more that day.


    The Wu District¡¯s guardians and Heavenly Masters beheld the opening spatial gateway and were looking to one another constantly in silent questioning of what they should do if things did not go well.


    Their adherence to tradition was never as great as that of the Gang District, but as the Gang District gained a new Matriarch a brief time ago, their fondness of tradition would eventually rise above that of the former District of Tradition. As such, after they had been apart from the Ascendant for a few days, they had begun to worry a great deal about what it was that they had unleashed upon the world.


    For that reason, they sat by the spatial stabilisation point for significantly longer than may have been healthy, or beneficial for the process of studying their chosen martial arts or weapons. They had been the top in their field at the moment of Wei Yi¡¯s entry into their territory, so a little less practise wouldn¡¯t harm them all that much, but the extreme degree of thought that went into attempting to understand the best route for their district made it incredibly difficult for them to even keep their level of ability constant, meaning that every single day was essentially leading to them losing a month of progress, development and practise.


    When they saw opening, they felt like they lost another decade of experience, only for the other side to suddenly reveal the presence of numerous other Patriarchs looking upon the spatial realm and others at the outside of other spatial gateways.


    Then, numerous strands of uncertain purpose stretched out and snapped onto anything they were able to find, and then activated in a fashion that sent a single blatant message into their heads. Although they didn¡¯t have the time to hear and process it all within an instant, that simple fact led to them changing their opinions ever so slightly.


    The Ze Patriarch was finally able to stand up once the brand was activated, courtesy of a number of planar stones and a recovery pill brought to him by a helpful citizen of the district from their stores. He suspected that they would expect an endorsement from him in the future, but he didn¡¯t mind doing such a thing given that the recovery pill was sufficient to alleviate his physical exhaustion a great deal, and even assisted with the low quantity of planar energy within his body. If this was not an exception to the norm of those pills, he would like to purchase quite a few more.


    Before then, of course, he looked to the open gateway and the reaching tendrils, and rushed over to the opening in space in order to catch even a single glance of what lay beyond with his own eyes, and not a vague form of spiritual perception that could never reach as far as the spiritual perception of his cultivation.


    Unlike many, he was not too concerned with the tendrils themselves, as they paled in comparison to all of the madness that manifested above the Ascendant when she worked upon her blade, but he had not yet seen a single spatial gateway or spatial realm with his own eyes despite the incredible amount of time that he had lived and studied various pursuits of perfected stages and other forms of perfection, whatever shape they may take. If he missed out on an opportunity ¨C for he could hardly be certain of how long such a gateway would be open, nor whether the other side would remain the same for long ¨C then he might never get one again, and it would be one of the biggest losses for any Patriarch or Matriarch of Yi City.


    In fact, that was true even without mention of the possibility of comprehending the nature of spatial realms to a sufficient degree not only to discover spatial metal, but also to create a spatial realm or some form of spatial storage of one¡¯s own. That was a dream of most living men.


    ¡°The report¡­ it was not another one of their deceptions,¡± Ning Huang muttered, looking onto the Death of Words as numerous lights from the districts controlled by the Ascendant began to expand, further and further, spreading onto the districts that had never once been visited by the people of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters.


    It was not long before that sudden wave of energy reached not just the people that they sought to oversee, but also the very Greats themselves. Their Testament shook and quivered as a wave of power, manifested not as an attack but as some other force, invaded their lands, and forced them to witness its arrival. A strange trembling reached them, forming numerous vein-like strands within the air, until a singular form breached into their minds, standing tall and stalwart with a blade held before it, both hands resting on the pommel while the tip stood buried just a little in the ground.


    Long crimson hair was tied into a ponytail that fluttered in a light wind, a few looser strands hovering beside deep and glistening silver eyes that seemed to stare straight into their souls.


    ¡°I greet all people of Yi City, whether northern or southern, eastern or western, and even the Great Leeches that sit in our lands and drain us all of resources and knowledge while they fatten themselves and wait for our fall. In particular, I address this message to them,¡± Wei Yi said, narrowing her eyes as if she had locked eyes with one of the Greats, ¡°I want to tell you that the War of Ascendancy, the war that I had begun for the sake of freeing the continent, will reach its apex soon. After the Great Leeches had attempted to slay me, I had survived and now I come to strike back with half of Yi City at my back, and you may all join me.¡±


    She deliberately raised her left hand from the sword¡¯s hilt, turning it around and tightening it into a fist, showing something that seemed to resemble completely smooth movement of a limb that most certainly did not belong on an ordinary woman ¨C not that she could be said to be one.


    ¡°I have no conflict with the people of Yi City, only the Great Leeches. If you are forced to serve them, flee, and we will protect you. If you are in their lands and do not wish to be, leave, and we will provide a place for you to stay. If you wish to fight, but see no method to do so, then we can grant you the way to do so, just so long as you ask!¡± the Ascendant slammed her clawed hand of smoke back onto the pommel, ¡°Do not be afraid, and do not regret your decision!


    ¡°And for the Great Leeches, I wish to tell you one thing ¨C the storm is coming! Your winds of drought and decay will be obliterated by the incoming storm of value and potential. There will be challenges for us all, there will be struggle, there will be suffering, but we can come out into a new age, into a far greater world than ever before!


    ¡°The eighth realm is out there, and the ninth realm is out there. If there is a tenth realm, then I will guarantee that we could all reach it! The Greats would never grant you such a thing, for the only thing they would promise you is that you could live while being under their boot, forced to clean it and delight in the fact that they did not force you to do something more disgusting!¡± Wei Yi pulled the sword out of the ground, pointing it towards the gathered members of the Great Families, ¡°I bring war to those leeches! I will destroy them, and I will ensure that their path cannot continue! This I promise all of you!¡±


    All of a sudden, her sword broke apart into many pieces, and followed the hilt as she raised it further up.


    ¡°See you soon, leeches of a million years!¡±


    The many shards crashed down and exploded in vast cosmic light, the image vanishing from the eyes of the Great Leeches. For a few minutes, they sat in perfect silence, unable to move or even breathe as they tried to come to some conclusion regarding the madness that they had seen.

 V5C57: Awaiting the Storm

    The explosions were simulated with masses of the Ascendant¡¯s energy, for it would be silly to blow up either the Kong District or the spatial gateway, and the shards soon returned to her sword. Once she put that into the House of Gold, she sighed and glanced at the sky for a moment, uncertain what it was that she even hoped to find there.


    Finding nothing of note, regardless of original intent, she lowered her gaze and looked to the spatial spirit.


    ¡°Now, I can speak. Hi, Yi Shi Ming,¡± she said, a faint smile appearing on her face, ¡°Hello, the lot of you. I can see you standing back there, so don¡¯t think that I have gone blind in addition to losing an arm. Speaking of, did any of you come across my arm?¡±


    She waved her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow as if she needed to make things more blatant to herself.


    Perhaps unsurprisingly, that led to a longer period of silence had she not made that joke in the first place. Seeing that this was the case, and that the others still refused to produce even a single word in response to her, she glanced back into the Kong Prison Realm and noted the absence of one that would most certainly be present had she wished to do so.


    ¡°Did Miyu decide not to visit?¡±


    ¡°I think it was concluded that it would be best not to bother her while she adapts to the concept of being pregnant.¡±


    ¡°Oh, she is¡­ right, I can check myself. It¡¯s been a while,¡± the Ascendant sighed, glancing into her dantian and finding the Kong Prison Realm around the anchor, standing there as it had often done before, and as it really should have been in the past few months.


    Around the edge of the spatial realm, the Four Cardinal Beasts array lay and glowed vibrantly, having progressed a bit further than the last time Wei Yi had seen it, although it was not as developed as she might have liked to see it. However, it did not take long to see clearly why this was the case, and why the spatial realm as a whole had not advanced all that significantly. All around the realm were spots of planar energy conversion to killing intent and spiritual will, and the vivid fauna and flora that she had attempted to cultivate barely remained in a stable state.


    In other words, things had gone downhill since her disappearance, at least in this regard, and that wasn¡¯t that much of a surprise. Her physique abilities were a vital aspect of growing various plants.


    Now that she was back, she made sure to get to it right away, lest she let the spatial realm decay any further than that. All of her physique energy poured out through the massive nexus that was the Endless Monolith, and everything quickly began to bloom and grow, before the other part of the cultivation and harvesting plan could be put into effect. With her other physique ability, she began to sap away some of the energy that she had just provided to the plants, allowing her lifeforce supply to be maintained.


    ¡°Since we seem to be struggling with simple chatter, can we go to some pleasant spot so that you can tell me what happened while I was gone? I¡¯d love to know, and, honestly, I don¡¯t see how some of you in particular can look so stunned, still. Great Dark, you¡¯ve seen me return from near-fatal injury before.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I do suppose that is true¡­ even if I wasn¡¯t present to see you be sent to this realm.¡±


    She stepped into the Kong Prison Realm and looked at the others, finding another lacking vital member of the Arbiters that also offered her the chance to start a conversation.


    ¡°Long Huang, I see that you¡¯ve managed to improve your technique, but before then, could you tell me what state Mo Zhouquan has been in? Last time I checked, the influence of Primordial Corruption was beginning to become clearer than before, and if the increase in general planar energy quantity has a direct effect on that, then it may be that she is in a worse state too.¡±


    ¡°That is¡­ quite accurate, unfortunately. I had suggested that we drop a certain oddity of our relationship, but apparently its presence around my neck made her feel quite a bit better, so¡­¡± she didn¡¯t need to finish that sentence, as the soft touch of the collar offered plenty of information.


    ¡°I see you upgraded that thing since last time,¡± Wei Yi mentioned, instantly causing the woman to blush and turn away, ¡°Nonetheless, if possible, I wouldn¡¯t want to just stand here and mention familiar people and events, so can we proceed to Beast¡¯s Rest and have a chat? Oh, first, though, I¡¯d like to address those that have decided to stand around here and look into the Kong Prison Realm through the gateways that I opened.¡±


    She looked into the gateways leading out of the central plaza of Paragon and into the districts under her control, where a number of Patriarchs and Matriarchs looked in.


    ¡°You can come in, if you wish, but I¡¯m not going to be welcoming you in for the moment. I have more important things to handle, and there might not be much time after this in order to bring the lot of you around the Kong Prison Realm, Paragon, and the other districts that you may not have yet visited. Given the current state of the world, I presume that this is indeed a rather large portion of the lands within the alliance of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, so while I will encourage you to look around, I will also warn you that I have no intention to force the other leaders to let you in if they do not wish to do so. Any questions?¡±


    ¡°Is it really more important to catch up with some friends than greet so many Patriarchs?¡± Gang Xiu Ling asked, stepping forward through the gateway, with Lan Mu in her embrace. They hadn¡¯t ended up having the time or opportunity for any private interaction, as overwhelming as the Ascendant¡¯s presence was in her message, so they instead ended up together near the gateway.


    ¡°Yes, it is more important. My mental state happens to be rather significant to my abilities overall.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡± the Gang Matriarch asked, ¡°When I try to say that, those people always complain that I¡¯m not being focused enough.¡±


    ¡°Those people being your guardians, I assume¡­ Just tell them to fuck off until they adjust to the new way of things for the Gang District, provided that you don¡¯t go too far. Not just because you will have wasted your time, but because there can also be too much of a good thing, the possibility of which rises with every single additional year that you live,¡± the Ascendant replied, giving a threatening glance to the guardians that stood in the background, ¡°As for my own state, this Arm of Slaughtering Shadow is literally made from my excess killing intent, hence the constant billowing of smoke. In a way, it is helpful for me to maintain a reasonable quantity of hatred within my mind, but not so much as to overcome the balance of energy within my body.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not the strongest in that regard, so I¡¯ll presume that you¡¯re correct.¡±


    She went away from the gateway and came a little closer to the Ascendant, as if intending to get past.


    ¡°By the way, I heard that there are some¡­ interesting places in the fortress under your control,¡± Gang Xiu Ling whispered as she walked past, slowing down as to be able to get all of the words out, ¡°Could you point me to them?¡±


    ¡°What level of interesting?¡±


    ¡°Very.¡±


    ¡°Over there,¡± Wei Yi pointed towards a part of Beast¡¯s Rest, through the appropriate gateway, ¡°Four hundred and fifty metres.¡±


    The Gang Matriarch nodded in gratitude and moved along, with Lan Mu also sending a grateful glance towards the Ascendant as she passed by, with most of her attention being on the woman that was holding her in her arms. Some of the other Patriarchs were a little displeased by their behaviour, thinking that she did not fit the usual attitude of a leader of a district, but they did not say anything and instead stepped into the Paragon square after her, walking around the Ascendant and her people and heading off to other parts of the fortress, or moving on to some part of the Kong Prison Realm.


    In that brief time, she readjusted herself to viewing the spatial realm and Paragon with the reach of the spatial stabilisation points, as well as her own influence as the owner of the former, although the extreme range acquired through the newly added points in the southern districts was still taking a bit of time to get used to.


    Eventually, her ability to monitor the Western Continent would improve to the necessary degree, so by the time she did acquire further spatial stabilisation points it should be sufficient. It almost made her want to rush out soon and simply snap up the points in the Great Leech-controlled districts the moment that she did stabilise her perception, allowing her forces to invade, but her current inability to view everything at once was hardly the only reason why she didn¡¯t wish to do so.


    Her original reason for avoiding such a thing was due to her not being powerful enough to handle the first generation of the Greats, and that was still partially true today. With the increases in her cultivation, matching up against one of the first generation was feasible, but she would need to invoke some of her strongest methods in order to have any guarantee of success, and even that could lead to further injury. In particular, Reality Severance was something that she had no hope of dealing with for the moment, as her power was not sufficient to overwhelm a spatial method of that sort, even with Touch the Heavens imbued with the peak Yang Elysian Storm.


    Currently, the larger concern was that she would open up a direct passage into the Kong Prison Realm ¨C more precisely, Paragon and, a few steps after that, the Kong Prison Realm ¨C by linking her part of the Yi City Web with the Ning District, for instance. Once given a direct opportunity like that, if the Great Leeches didn¡¯t act to take advantage of it, she would be very concerned.


    After all, they weren¡¯t stupid in that way. For them to miss an opportunity like that would indicate that they had something even greater planned, or that there was something preoccupying them to the extent that they wouldn¡¯t even be able to handle one of the biggest threats to their existence at the moment. If that was indeed the case, then she would first slaughter all of them, then improve her defences and attempt to face this threat herself. If that didn¡¯t work, for one reason or another, she would obviously reach out to the allies that she apparently had over to the east, in the Eastern Continent, and hope that they would be able to assist her. If that didn¡¯t work out either then¡­ well, she¡¯d say that she and the continent were in great danger.


    The Ascendant and her Arbiters, at least the ones that came out to greet her, ended up sitting down within her office beneath the ground floor of Beast¡¯s Rest. Since the last time she had seen it, the place had turned into more of a conference room than an office, but since she didn¡¯t like sitting in here anyway, this was not something she objected to. Her old seat was still in place, so she took it and let the others find their own places.


    ¡°So, are the rest of you still going to be quiet?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s difficult not to be, Wei Yi,¡± Luo Lia Kun replied, her hand brushing past a lock of hair near her forehead, which was no longer obscured as it once was, ¡°You nearly die, and then you return like this¡­ we¡¯ve not even been able to find your arm, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Ah. A shame, given that I would have liked to see if it was indeed possible to put it back on¡­¡±


    ¡°Why hasn¡¯t it grown back yet? I recall that you can drink poison and be just fine, and you have been cut up quite a bit before, but you would always recover.¡±


    ¡°Since you weren¡¯t there, you must not have heard what the Great Leech had said. Rather than just cutting my arm off, he used a method called Reality Severance, which permanently severed the concept of a left arm from my body. Now, there is a left arm somewhere that can recover nearly infinitely, but cannot ever go beyond that, and here is me, a full being with the exception of an arm of flesh and blood¡­ well, save for my bloodline power that composes its veins, which is technically blood, so it¡¯s only the flesh that¡¯s missing.¡±


    ¡°So, that arm¡­¡±


    ¡°I call it the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, since it is, quite literally, a mass of my killing intent, reinforces with nerves of spiritual will, meridians of planar energy, flesh composed of physique energy, and veins of bloodline power.¡±


    ¡°And the shape of it seems to be like your killing will form.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s due to the concept of a normal arm being severed from my body. Fortunately, at the time of the Reality Severance activating, I had not been in my killing will state, and thus it was possible to form something that vaguely resembles the clawed hand that I had in that state. Nevertheless, it is not a simple replica by any definition of the word, for it does not have a single structure or element that is identical to my original killing will arm¡­ but I suspect that this is not too interesting for the lot of you.¡±


    ¡°I could appreciate the technique you have developed¡­¡± Great Dark nodded, ¡°¡­ but this may not be the best time for us to discuss it¡­ seeing as the lot of us have not gathered for this reason.¡±


    ¡°Just as well, since none of you will be able to use it¡­ Alright, as the conversation appears to be stalling once again, can one of my older questions be answered? What is it that happened after I departed, who was that figure that appeared and stopped the spatial realm from breaking open, and how have you proceeded in the three months since I was kicked over to the north?¡±


    Yi Shi Ming was the one that answered, ¡°I am not sure which figure you mean, Wei Yi.¡±


    ¡°I am talking about the man that had activated the Four Cardinal Beasts array and also assisted with the repairs of the spatial realm, so far as I can tell, at least. Given how bright that man was, it would be very odd if you missed him.¡±


    ¡°¡­ On one hand, the activation of the Four Cardinal Beast¡¯s array was indeed rather convenient, but I hadn¡¯t¡­ Huh. Now that I think of it, there should have been something to cause the array¡¯s activation, and there must have been something to provide it with sufficient energy to activate at the level that it did, and yet I remember coming across nothing, nor was I particularly surprised to see the array refusing to function afterwards, forcing my continued repairs,¡± the spatial spirit said, ¡°That I hadn¡¯t given this further thought is my fault. I apologise for my negligence.¡±


    The Ascendant give it a moment of thought, then shook her head.


    ¡°No point in apologising, nor could you have done all that much. So far as I can tell, whatever had affected you should be acting at a level above your own. In other words, unless you had known that something would happen, you wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything about it,¡± Wei Yi suggested, looking back to the appearance of the figure.


    It was still difficult to remember any details about it, but she was sure that it was incredibly powerful due to what it had been able to do. Activating the Four Cardinal Beasts array at the peak of its ability without even needing to fully complete the array itself was very impressive, as it needed the man to sustain the array entirely using his own power, only supplementing that with the existing array structure rather than the other way around.


    So far as both the Ascendant and Yi Shi Ming had been able to tell, the Four Cardinal Beast¡¯s array at its peak should be a nine-star array, which meant that a cultivator capable of driving it themselves should also be at, or around, the ninth realm in terms of overall capability.


    ¡®This leaves us with no possible candidates for that mysterious figure, however, and since Yi Shi Ming has no clue, there¡¯s not much I can gather from back then,¡¯ she had already glanced in the direction of where the figure had appeared, and there were no traces that her spiritual perception could detect, at least without the added aid of her Absolute Soul. With it, maybe that would be possible, and perhaps she would learn that there had been some kind of spatial invasion from another world where the ninth realm remained a feasible cultivation realm for some, but that was very unlikely, and wouldn¡¯t explain why one person from that realm moved in, assisted one group in an invasion by another group that they wouldn¡¯t know anything about, then left without saying anything else.


    There could always be action taken on a whim, but this was unlikely, so it shouldn¡¯t be assumed.


    ¡°Well, whatever happened, let¡¯s just be glad for the assistance, and focus on improving our current Four Cardinal Beasts array to guarantee that it will be able to protect us in the future. What happened next?¡±


    ¡°Once the rip in the spatial realm was sealed, and you could no longer be felt by Yi Shi Ming, the Kong Prison Realm went to shit,¡± Long Huang said, ¡°It wasn¡¯t as bad as time Mo Zhouquan decided to go into our bath and deliberately mess with it, but that was a rather special case¡­ Ahem. Your anchor nearly vanished, all of the things that you set up with your energy nearly broke down, and all of the plants and animals you put here also didn¡¯t fare well.¡±


    ¡°Almost?¡±


    ¡°Yi Shi Ming stepped in right away and activated the old properties of the spatial realm, causing most significant elements to be supported by the planar energy of those that came in to use them. The anchor was faked with a simple illusion, as were all of the other aspects of your cultivation, and most people were fortunately preoccupied with other things and didn¡¯t really notice. Idiots¡­¡±


    ¡°Now that¡¯s hardly fair,¡± Luo Lia Kun said, ¡°This isn¡¯t the first time that Wei Yi had gone off, so most people probably assumed that something similar was happening. In a way, they weren¡¯t completely off, since she did come back with something overwhelming last time as well¡­¡±


    ¡°Do you want to see the combat technique that I can use with this Arm, by the way?¡± the Ascendant inquired, given that her Obliteration did indeed make quite an impact on those who had seen it, and so her new Elysian Blast might be even nicer to witness, especially if she involved Obliteration energy and some of her other methods in order to spice up the blast. Given that she controlled the spatial realm, putting them somewhere else within the Kong Prison Realm, or even outside of it, wouldn¡¯t be particularly difficult.


    The Arbiters looked to one another, looked back, and provided a variety of responses ranging from an uncertain shrug to a rather enthusiastic nod from Zhi Qiu Ya, who had not spoken up to this point and was seemingly afraid to even meet her gaze up to this point. Even once she did provide her nod, she looked away right away, a blush on her face.


    After Wei Yi was reminded of Chao Ru, and decided to check on her via her view of the Kong Prison Realm to confirm that she, like Miyu and Shun Liu Min, were doing well, she proceeded to wave her right hand and transport all of them into an empty region at the former Silver Side of the spatial realm.


    Now, it was significantly less silver, so there wasn¡¯t much of a point to calling it that, but no new name had appeared for it in conversation so far, so she would just continue until that changed. If the people living in the Silver Side, and within Sanctuary and the three Sanctums, decided that they liked that name, then she was obviously not going to force them to change anything, but she would be rather curious to know why they had a worse naming sense than she did.


    Most people tended to reside over at Beast¡¯s Rest, assisted in no small part by the fact that it was both nicer and significantly more developed for new residents than the occupied Sanctuary, where the majority of towers were already filled and where the outside was used for the sake of rearing all kinds of beasts that the Ascendant had found and thrown in while she was bored.


    She would throw more in, though, since the place was currently rather empty. It was good for the day, though, given that it would allow for a perfect demonstration without needing to slaughter some random beasts. She wasn¡¯t opposed to doing so when necessary, but now that she had taken even a moment to throw them into the Kong Prison Realm, it would be a little wasteful. In theory, setting up a full ecosystem with planar beasts, plants, herbs and all of the other things that she is able to shove into a spatial realm would enhance her comprehension of the Dao of the Heavens, since the Planar Continents might very well be equivalent to a spatial realm in terms of its overall state.


    However, that was her getting distracted again.


    ¡°Should I just hit the ground, or would you prefer to see a wall explode?¡± she inquired, somewhat interested in experimenting with her current power over the spatial realm but not sufficiently so to waste people¡¯s time.


    When she had first acquired the Kong Prison Realm, she was still below the fifth realm, and that was the case even when she gained the spatial stabilisation node at Paragon, which partly aided with the degree of control that she could exert. As such, she needed to let Yi Shi Ming take care of most changes to the landscape and world, and she was limited to slowly transforming the spatial realm into her mental image of it. As a process, it required less effort and energy than active transformation ¨C although terraforming might be a more suitable term in this instance ¨C and was possible from the moment that a spatial realm was anchored on one¡¯s anchor. Now that she was nearing the same realm as the spatial spirit, she should have a greater degree of control over the spatial realm, so she would be able to near Yi Shi Ming¡¯s level of power within this realm.


    Once their realms matched, it would be her that would assist the spatial spirit, and once she went further, to the higher stages and maybe even the eighth and ninth realm, then she would advance the power of Yi Shi Ming with each major breakthrough ¨C with one condition. To advance a spatial realm, one needed spatial metal, and spatial metal was not an easy material to locate. After all of her time looking around the world during her adventures, unwilling and unintentional as some were, she had only a single clue for where some spatial metal could be found.


    Her old mask fit some of the necessary criteria for being raw but processed spatial metal, so she was certainly going to grab it the moment that she got near the Yi District, but before then, she had no other clues at all.


    ¡°You might as well have an exploding wall, if you want to,¡± Long Huang said, ¡°If you can explode a decently sized wall, then I won¡¯t complain.¡±


    ¡°In that case, one explosive wall coming up right away,¡± the Ascendant nodded.


    She looked out into the plains and focused on a good spot that was far enough away to prevent the explosion from harming anyone present, but close enough to be visible to everyone even if they didn¡¯t use any eye techniques, then held out her right hand and drew upon the energy of the spatial realm. To a certain extent, she could affect it using her Earth Dao alone, but the amplification of her control over the Kong Prison Realm became obvious a moment after she began.


    What began as a slow ascent of earth and stone from the ground turned into a surge of stone that rose to a height twice that of the tallest person present ¨C that being Wei Yi herself ¨C before pausing due to her own control.


    It stood somewhat unsteadily, being composed of a variety of materials that weren¡¯t especially adhesive to one another after being torn out of the ground like that. Before it fell apart, she turned her hand and aimed her palm at the wall, using it to focus her Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp power onto the wall and stabilise the overall structure without enhancing the overall quality and stability of the material.


    While it was possible for her to do so, and still breach and obliterate the wall even without the application of Obliteration energy, she did not wish to make things harder for herself. None of the others would have much of an idea regardless of what she did, but it would make her expend more energy twice. First, she¡¯d need to enhance the material of the wall, costing herself a bit of physique energy, then make use of all of her pools of energy in order to produce the most powerful Elysian Blast possible, which she would most certainly need in order to get through the reinforced wall.


    On any other day, something like that would be fine, especially with the expanded nascent rift, but since the Greats could attack at any moment, and should, given their usual temperament, it would be risky not to be as near to her strongest state as possible at any one time.


    ¡°Alright, here it is. Don¡¯t blame me if your eyes get hurt.¡±


    She raised her Arm and opened her clawed hand, replacing her right hand in aiming her palm at the wall.


    Since the wall that she had created was rather large, she deemed it best to target the left side of the wall first and leave the right for the display of the strongest possible Elysian Blast, rather than a general one. This would make it much clearer what her general strength was, and what she could pull off when she needed to against the stronger foes and threats.


    All of the energy within her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow condensed into a thin strand, the smoke mostly covering up the process as it continued to billow from her shoulder. It gathered further, into a smaller, gleaming mass, and then burst out in a vast ray of white that struck the wall and exploded, scattering stone and dirt everywhere within the nearest hundred metres, with some dust from the explosion continuing to travel even further out.


    It did stop just a few metres from the gathered group of Arbiters, proving her estimations right.


    ¡°There. Now, if I-¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, there is a force at the borders of your perception in the Luo District,¡± Yi Shi Ming interrupted, appearing in front of the Ascendant, ¡°Judging by their auras, it is very likely that they are the forces of the Great Families.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll be called the Great Leeches now, whether they like it or not. Fortunately, I was expecting those horrible creatures, so I didn¡¯t waste my energy. Everyone, if you wish to come along, you may, but I would advise everyone to stay behind at the walls and observe. Provided that one of their first generation members emerge, which is most likely, I do not expect to be able to spare any of my attention on protecting you, so you will instead need to protect yourselves and deal with the second and third generation, if they decide to send in those false copies or the real ones.¡±


    As sudden as this was, the Arbiters had already prepared for attacks prior to the Ascendant¡¯s return, so all it took was a moment for them to adjust to the fact that this was still a threat before they were ready to go.


    ¡°If you need help-¡±


    ¡°If I need help, then I will obviously call for it. That being said, do you really believe that you can offer it? One of the problems with the Great Leeches of Yi City is that they are significantly stronger than any regular cultivator, and while some of you are exceptional in your power ¨C Long Huang has her mixed bloodline power and planar energy, for instance ¨C it is nowhere near the level of exceptional that you should be at in order to contend with them.¡±


    Luo Lia Kun nodded after a brief delay, ¡°Indeed, that is true. We¡¯ll stand back, don¡¯t worry.¡±

 V5C58: Second Confrontation

    The last time that Wei Yi fought the Great Leeches, in particular, one of the first generation of the Great Ning, they had chosen to invade the Kong Prison Realm through some random field in the Central Plains, where they had made a breach into the spatial realm and then brought in their cavalry, so to speak. This time, it did not appear like they were planning to take the same approach.


    In many ways, this was likely due to the inefficiency of attempting the same strategy after it had been clearly shown that a weaker Ascendant and a weaker set of Arbiters were able to handle the situation without any preparation for it. Now that they were stronger, more prepared, and the Greats hadn¡¯t grown stronger to even out the odds to a similar level to what they might have been before, so taking the same approach would naturally lead to the victory of the same force, with fewer losses. For all they know, Wei Yi might have even figured out a way to stop their Reality Severance, in which case they might have no more cards up their sleeves.


    All they did have was the apparent ability to manifest replicas of those she had already slain, for the figures she observed were far too similar in appearance to those that had fallen for it to be coincidental. Even if the Great Leeches possessed the ability to reproduce and age faster than most insects, the new generation would likely possess at least a few notable differences.


    Their approach this time was to go to the Luo District, do so openly, and with their energy ready to strike at what they saw.


    Obviously, the Ascendant did not simply let them do such a thing, and, after placing herself and the Arbiters upon the walls of the district ¨C walls built since her last visit there, in addition to the layers of talismans ¨C she leapt down and vanished from the spot, reappearing a significant distance further ahead and much closer to the Great Leech forces than either side anticipated.


    Last time, they ended up having a chat, with her being plunged into their strange realm of easily refutable statements, and neither of them were stupid enough to presume that they would repeat this part of the process either, so once the Greats caught sight of her, they spread out their anchors and activated their standard point beam techniques. Only the first generation member of the Great Ning family, Ning Huang, did not immediately strike out, and now that the Ascendant was in a higher realm, she could tell that he was amassing the energy of his searing marks and anchors in order to condense one of his incredibly powerful planar constructs. It wasn¡¯t enough for her to identify the full nature of the technique to the extent of replicating it, like she able to do with the point beams, but she would get there in time, provided that they showed off such methods often enough.


    She did not stand still and watch them do whatever they wanted, raising her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and repeating the process of gathering the energy that connected it. Before firing it at the leeches, however, she brought out the concept of Obliteration and surrounded the ray of light with it.


    Before a single one of the point beams could be condensed and fired, a blast of light shot out.


    Only a moment after it emerged and exploded in a flash as it collided with the body of one of the second generation replicas, a vast and overwhelming blackened crimson ray exploded from her Arm with a dozen times the radius of the initial ray, and an even greater speed. The two ended up striking only moments apart from one another, and a massive eruption of energy followed.


    A blast of blackened crimson and absolute white formed into a whirlpool that expanded with every second that it existed, much like her black star.


    That got Ning Huang¡¯s attention, for he instantly took the energy that he had already built up and manifested a flaming hand. It appeared above him and then flew over to the storm of crimson and white, its fingers opening up during the flight. For a moment, it froze above the storm, with the glow of a searing mark igniting clearly being visible upon the planar construct, and only then did it crash down onto the eye of the storm.


    What followed was a massive eruption of energy as the flaming hand was ripped apart by the Obliteration energy, but also led to the destabilisation of the whirlpool that she had accidentally created with the two distinct energies. As a result, a mass of overwhelming power, raw and violent, exploded outwards, devouring a number of the Great Leech replicas, shredding them into purposeless energy ¨C and bits of anchor energy, which the Ascendant snapped up the very instant that they became available. The storm cleared after many minutes, although neither Wei Yi nor Ning Huang needed to wait for it to know that all of those caught within it had perished.


    ¡°That is¡­ the moment we come back, I am learning that!¡± Zhi Qiu Ya exclaimed, speaking more freely now that the Ascendant was not listening, ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll be able to make use of it!¡±


    ¡°I doubt it. I¡¯m no expert, but both the white beam and the blackened crimson beam came from a combination of energies. My body is barely managing with two, and that is after I¡¯ve split up my meridians and managed to modify myself quite significantly, far more so than the Blood Alchemists might have recommended had I still been in their lands,¡± Long Huang shook her head, glancing at the wolven woman¡¯s head, ¡°Now that you¡¯re out of the spatial realm, are those getting any worse?¡±


    ¡°Those¡­ ah, my bestial features? They¡¯ve not calmed down at all since Wei Yi got¡­ y¡¯know, captured, or so it seemed. I¡¯ve been trying everything we had, but not even the most rigorous of massages have been of any use¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­ I see. Do keep an eye on that, not that I need to tell you to do so.¡±


    ¡°There you are, silly girl. Your new arm is not as good as your old one, is it?¡±


    ¡°How can you say that when I have just obliterated a whole lot of your idiotic replicas? Last time, those they are replicating had given me quite a lot of trouble, but this time, you needed to waste one of your enormous hand constructs for the sake of dealing with my methods. If you¡¯re just trying to show off your bravado, sound just a little more reasonable,¡± Wei Yi said, managing to keep her mood in check due to the combination of needing killing intent to rebuild her Arm and the poor attempt of her foe to rile her up so poorly.


    ¡°That arm lacks full mobility. Did you think that we wouldn¡¯t notice something like that when you broadcast it to all of us?¡± Ning Huang said.


    ¡°Again, how fucking stupid are you? Look!¡±


    She brought out Moon Splitter and waved it around using the Arm, applying some of her spiritual will in order to move the sword a little more flexibly than she actually could. Due to the nature of her spiritual will, there was practically no chance of him being able to detect her mental energy, and so she was confident enough in the manoeuvre succeeding.


    ¡°Let¡¯s assume you are being honest, stupid girl. That sword is another example of your folly.¡±


    ¡°Nope. Here, look at what it can do,¡± the Ascendant said, quickly swapping the weapon to her other hand before swinging down with a fractured blade.


    All of the shards flew out and towards the first generation Great Ning family member, who simply projected his core around himself and all of his anchors, beginning to work on another condensation of a planar construct hand.


    Thus, when the blade shards suddenly accelerated and then exploded in a mass of cosmic light, with the former Shard of Warfare bursting into a significantly larger mass of absolute crimson right on top of the core. Wei Yi didn¡¯t check the outcome of this bombardment before she charged in, thrusting the hilt of Moon Splitter forward so that the many shards had a far easier time of returning to it, each one crashing into the weapon and assuming their rightful place among one another by the time that she made it to where Ning Huang was.


    She was instantly greeted with a series of point beam blasts, forcing her to put Moon Splitter before herself and will it to transform into a shield, the many shards forming an incredible barrier between themselves.


    All of the beams struck either the shards or the barrier they created and were nullified, but they occupied enough of her time for the cosmic light and killing intent to clear and reveal Ning Huang¡¯s position. He stood in the same place, but the core had vanished between the explosions and the release of his point beams. The construct he had been manifesting had also clearly changed in its aura, and had obviously changed in shape when it appeared a moment later in the form of a flaming mass vaguely carrying the shape of a sword. The Great Ning family member grabbed onto the weapon and swung it down, with the Ascendant blocking it before it could descend more than half-way.


    ¡°Five, six¡­ seven. Seven in the fifth realm, while we have Great Dark in the sixth, me and Long Huang in the fifth, Zhi Qiu Ya in the fourth¡­¡± Luo Lia Kun muttered as she looked upon the replicas that remained, ¡°Yi Shi Ming, how much can you do at this distance from the spatial stabilisation point of the Luo District?¡±


    ¡°Well, it is of no issue for me to reach out to the Luo Matriarch. Luo Na will come within a minute, and she has a number of talismans that will be of use to you. With her cultivation having been in the seventh realm for some time now, they have improved a great deal,¡± the spatial spirit replied before waving her hand and manifesting a series of railgun bolts in the air, ¡°Furthermore, Wei Yi¡¯s radius of energy manipulation has expanded greatly, and so has my ability to act outside of the Kong Prison Realm. Combining that with her techniques¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll be able to kick ass, right?¡± Long Huang nodded, ¡°I¡¯m taking that ugly one.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re all¡­ are you certain that it is a good idea for you to be fighting them while in the same realm? Don¡¯t you remember what happened the last time they tried to invade?¡± Luo Lia Kun asked worriedly.


    ¡°Her choice of target is very sensible¡­ that one¡¯s energy is in slight disarray, meaning that bloodline power will have a larger effect¡­¡± Great Dark noted, ¡°Furthermore, with talismans and the automatons of the Ju District¡­ we will have a far better chance than the last time¡­ when we had not prepared sufficiently.¡±


    Zhi Qiu Ya sniffed, ¡°Where are they, by the way? The automatons? I can¡¯t smell them anywhere.¡±


    In response, both Great Dark and Yi Shi Ming simply looked out to the field between the battle of Ascendant and Ning Huang, where the seven Great Leech replicas were rushing in their direction at the highest speed allowed to them by their fourth and fifth realm movement methods. Both were relatively impressive when compared to the average movement method, but when taking into account the Ascendant¡¯s instant movement between any two points, it ceased to have any power to amaze.


    There, after a moment of nothingness, the ground was suddenly shaken and torn as numerous entities broke out of the ground, each one glowing with an obvious orange colour that started out dim and brightened quickly, until each point of light was as bright as a star at night.


    Out of a total of fifty automatons, forty were elite infantry, eight were centaurs, and two were railgun walkers, with the latter ten appearing significantly further away from the seven Great Leeches in order to have a chance of attacking them and succeeding in it. They had been underground, mostly dormant so that they wouldn¡¯t waste the power that they obtained from anchor energy, but the moment that they were activated in full, they were able to locate the threats and begin their attempts to neutralise all seven of them within two seconds.


    Eighty small blasts of plasma and eight larger bursts shot out at the seven, and although the Great Leech replicas did their best in order to evade these attacks, the concentrated fire guaranteed that half of both types of attacks fell upon them, their cores and their anchors. The orange light completely overwhelmed the scene for a few moments, forcing all other than Yi Shi Ming to shield their eyes or look away.


    She threw off the mass of flames and then stabbed forward, seeming to do so in the standard thrusting action for a sword. The end of the blade would have been just a little short, especially once Ning Huang took a step back, but then the blade suddenly slid apart and extended outward, forming into the shape of a spear in the blink of an eye.


    The tip of the spear collided with the anchors of the Great Leech, clearly cracking the surface of one, but he brought it back and instead blasted point beams from every other anchor.


    ¡°You-¡±


    He had to stop when he saw her Arm stretched out one more, blackened crimson emerging from within. At the same time, he noticed a large figure floating behind the Ascendant, all four arms glowing with the same Obliteration energy, having already gathered a great quantity of it into two spheres that lingered near the right and left pair of arms respectively. With his previous exposure to her methods, he recognised that immediately, and the ignition of that same light within one of the Ascendant¡¯s eyes while the other filled with an eldritch radiance and the phantoms of tendrils put him on alert instantly, forcing him to put up his core and block everything that travelled towards him.


    The Elysian Blast hit first, then the Obliteration aftershock, then the effect of the Elder Watcher and Conqueror¡¯s Eye were applied, grasping onto the Great Leech and distorting the world around him as to make it nearly impossible for him to escape. Finally, after all that, the two beams from the Titanic Conqueror were fired out and began to converge upon his position, one that he could only barely shift from with obvious effort.


    Her initial Elysian Blast caused a crack within the core, one that was quickly mitigated by the ignition of a searing mark. The aftershock hit the same point, and it forced that gap open once more, cracks spreading across the core as it merged with the remaining Elysian energy and formed the same vortex as before. Using nothing but the faith that the present Arbiters had in her, the Conqueror¡¯s Eye was able to influence the open cracks and conquer their position, making the ignition of a second mark ¨C and the third in this battle, out of a total of fifty-two that she was able to see ¨C unable to have the same effectiveness as that of the previous mark. With the Elder Watcher ability, she distorted the core¡¯s structure, causing it to bend and twist ever so slightly, but sufficiently to influence its stability.


    A core was at its strongest in a spherical form, for it allowed the entire structure to support itself, the energy within, and be supported by both the dantian and the inward pull of the anchor, at least in the cultivation of an ordinary person. For the Greats, the presence of the anchor was usually absent when the core was internal, but externally, the multiple anchors more than sufficed for this same purpose.


    Once the spherical shape was influenced, however, that same pull lost a great deal of its beneficial properties, and instead became a liability. Now, certain parts of the core were closer to the pull than others, and all they needed to become vulnerabilities was a little bit of external pressure. Luckily for the Ascendant, she had two sources of exactly that converging upon Ning Huang¡¯s location, and when she stepped back to prevent herself from being caught in the blast, she not only willed for a series of railgun bolts infused with Obliteration energy to appear in the air, but also transformed Moon Splitter into a bow.


    While the railgun bolts charged, she drew back the string of pure energy and generated an arrow from her bloodline power, aiming it directly at the vulnerability of the core.


    Then, when the converging rays of the Titanic Conqueror¡¯s Obliteration were only moments from colliding and generating an explosion that would further infuse the vortex that began to form, she released all of her projectiles at the same time. All of the railgun bolts shot out, crossing the gap between them in a flash, and so did the arrow that she had readied, with every single one of the projectiles being infused using her Astral Scars to guarantee their power and success.


    One of the Great Leech replicas was instantly slain by the barrage, due to some failure on his part to put up the core and endure as few plasma blasts as possible, but the other six either had better luck or better skill.


    The moment that the barrage was done, and the railgun fire from Yi Shi Ming and the two railgun walkers had not yet begun, they retrieved their cores and fired out as many point beams as they were able to, striking the hexagonal shields of the automatons and being absorbed by the barriers easily enough. Of course, with their concentrated power, a few of the automatons were struck and even damaged once they breached the hexagonal shields, but the total losses were the arm of one of the elite infantry and the machine gun arm of a centaur that had not had the opportunity to make use of it yet.


    Naturally, the remaining seven centaurs did not waste the opportunity to attack with their machine guns while they still had them, barraging the cores of the six replicas while they regrouped and attempted to find a different avenue of attack. They had little time to do this before the second threat came, and did so with far greater speed than the plasma projectiles.


    Twenty railgun bolts were manifested from raw energy by Yi Shi Ming, and two more came from the railguns of the walkers, which were shot out from different distances but reached their targets at the exact same time, for Yi Shi Ming¡¯s bolts were slower but more numerous and contained great quantities of energy within their structure that the physical bolts of the two railgun walkers could not contain without the assistance of a master inscriber or blacksmith, or a significant improvement to the now-destroyed factories for the automatons.


    The impacts of the physical bolts were plain and natural, only creating clouds of dust and dirt upon the collision. Meanwhile, the energy-based projectiles shattered into raw planar energy that acted together with the incredible physical force contained within them to inflict two separate types of damage at the same time to the cores of the six. Although faint, the wondrous sound of cracking and fracturing could be heard all the way from the walls.


    It was then that Luo Na, the Luo District¡¯s Matriarch, made her way onto the top of the walls, numerous talismans in a bag that was attached by way of a strap going over the neck and resting by the waist.


    ¡°I see that the lot of you are doing well. Meanwhile, she is throwing around even more things for no good reason. Simply focusing her energy on one or two methods should be significantly more efficient,¡± the Luo Matriarch said, her false vibrant green eyes glancing across the battlefield and her finger pointing to five of the figures closer to them, ¡°Those ones are still fine, the other one has a half-broken core. Target these later, and we will be able to avoid wasting our energy by trying to take them all down at the same time. Understand?¡±


    ¡°Please, we¡¯re not stupid,¡± Long Huang muttered, ¡°Can you not do that every time we meet?¡±


    ¡°In comparison to Wei Yi¡¯s faults of being a little too showy in her techniques, yours are generally significantly larger. If I had not come at the right time, you may have killed yourself with your attempts to improve that cultivation method of yours. Had you called me first, you wouldn¡¯t have had a chance to die at all, since my eyes would have seen through the mistakes you were about to make.¡±


    ¡°Fuck you.¡±


    ¡°The Ascendant might.¡±


    ¡°Not interested.¡±


    ¡°Neither am I.¡±


    The others couldn¡¯t help but look at this and shake their heads, even though they were in the middle of a battle ¨C mostly due to them being in the middle of a battle. Such a disruption was entirely unnecessary, and yet entirely expected from the two. Their personalities clashed like that often.


    ¡°It would be best if you focused on the battle at hand, and handle your disputes at a later time,¡± Yi Shi Ming interrupted their dispute and brought out two dozen more railgun bolts, ¡°Luo Na, please assist us with your talismans in whatever ways you can, or else I predict that at least two of the replicas will be able to damage your district¡¯s walls.¡±


    That got her attention, and prompted the throwing of six talismans at the sixth Great Leech replica, the one with the cracked core.


    In an instant, their numbers were reduced once more.


    On the distant part of the battlefield that the others only dared to look upon with great care, as to avoid hurting their eyes and confusing their perception through the sheer madness of the types of techniques that the Ascendant attempted to use regularly.


    Throwing together so many disparate types of energy, including all five elements and all five variants of planar energy, not to mention manifestations of Dao and greater powers than even the combined elements that she also had plenty of, was in no way ordinary or expected. Most had no clue how to handle such things beyond simply throwing more of their own power into either defending or attacking in hopes of ceasing the onslaught before it could kill them in much the same way. From her experiences so far, there were none that succeeded entirely, and only Ning Huang had managed to damage her permanently in such a manner.


    Now, she was hoping to damage him just as much, although she was not going to risk using Touch the Heavens unless there was no other choice.


    Her Arm was indeed functional in almost every regard, but before it attained full constancy and stability, trying to use something like that technique would just scatter it and leave her with a weakened version of the technique with the potential to injure her as much as it would injure an opponent. The only positive thing was that she could invoke more strength from Touch the Heavens and not care about injuring herself, meaning that the power might be balanced out somewhat.


    Nonetheless, she wouldn¡¯t risk it yet.


    The Obliteration beams converged, railgun bolts hit, the Elder Watcher and Conqueror¡¯s Eye took effect, and Moon Splitter was readied to execute any methods that she wished to make use of on top of those things.


    She heard a crack, but what followed was the sudden ignition of a dozen searing marks followed with the eruption of six flaming hands that caught the incoming projectiles and blocked them all, flying out wildly. They first gained some distance from him, and then turned to fly towards the Ascendant, each one of the flaming hands gaining luminance with every moment as their power was rapidly expended.


    ¡°You force me to do this, young girl! If you will not fall to us, then to keep the seal intact, you must be severed!¡±


    Her plans were thrown out of the window right away, for the very word carried with it a great deal of risk. The moment that the Great Leech was prepared to make use of Reality Severance, all of that deliberation needed to be ignored in place of ensuring that another use of that technique could not possibly occur. Whether it hit her or someone else, it would permanently mar the world even further, something she did not wish to see no matter what.


    Hence, she released the railgun bolts right away and brought her energy into the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, while her mind thought back to the first and last time she made use of the full state of Touch the Heavens. With little of her previous slowness, she reached out with one finger towards the sky.


    An incredible light appeared atop the point of her claw while the bolts collided with the hands and tore them all into a few parts, with two outright dispersing from the impact and the Obliteration energy that followed. Opposite her, Ning Huang also followed the same actions that he had performed last time, and the power that gathered around him matched as well, making it plain that he hadn¡¯t simply been taunting her.


    ¡°Do you still dare to reach towards the heavens?¡± he exclaimed.


    ¡°I will do far more! If I must, I shall pull them down to our level!¡± came her reply, the light brightening as the point of her claw seemed to latch onto the heavens and the sky, gaining the faint shadow of chains that seemed to originate from nowhere.


    Just as the first time, they brought down their attacks at the same time, with the same exclamations, and with the same hopes and intent.


    ¡°Reality Severance!¡±


    ¡°Touch the Heavens!¡±


    A single smooth light travelled towards the absolute and overwhelming light of the heavens bursting out of the smoke of her Arm and consuming it completely, the former creating an obvious and permanent mark within the air while the latter cracked each and every part of the world it touched into tiny, insignificant pieces. Within each one, the Laws distorted and broke apart, reforming and transforming to an extent that even the Ascendant¡¯s current grasp could not inform her of in full. These powers met within the middle, and the earth trembled upon their collision.


    The cut split away so many of the cracks in space, but with each one, the slash faded just a little. Slowly, both lights dimmed, but the physical force that they released only seemed to expand with every moment, splitting apart into the ground and air in equal quantities.


    For a moment, the Ascendant was brought back to the time that she unleashed her bloodline power for the first time, both in the range of destruction and the way in which two powers slowly devoured one another. She hoped beyond all reason that it would be her light that would crush the Reality Severance cut this time, but that was not to be.


    Instead, in one final moment of their existence, they pulsed with boundless physical force and simply faded, neither one being able to make a mark upon their intended target ¨C not directly.


    Wei Yi managed to raise a barrier to prevent all of that force from striking her and all of the forces behind her, but likely due to the use of Reality Severance, Ning Huang did not appear to be able to do much. His core was still up, and it bore the brunt of the physical energy, the cracks upon it rapidly expanding until¡­


    The sound of shattering glass made its way past the barrier and into the Ascendant¡¯s ear, while the Great Leech was thrown back and out of view, far too quickly for her to reconsider her approach and try to apprehend him.


    She managed to ward off one of the first generation members of the Great Ning family.

 V5C59: Going on the Offensive

    The very instant that the wave of force had calmed, she brought down the barrier and used her movement method to appear where Ning Huang had stood, finding no trace of his presence thanks to the destruction caused by the collision of two absolute powers. What concerned her was not the enormous fracture and crater formed right in front of the Luo District, which, although rather devastating for the empty land before it, had not done much to harm the district of talismans, and might even provide them with more opportunities thanks to the remnant energies.


    Instead, she looked around in search of what only she could detect, and concluded, ¡®No anchor energy¡­ It shattered the core, but it seems that it was unable to break any anchors, and it might well have failed to destroy the core entirely. He might be in a state of a partial core, where he will lack much of the power of the fifth and seventh realms, but will retain his cultivation and the marks that weren¡¯t present on that part of the core¡­ Like some kind of cockroach, he endures even that¡­¡¯


    She was very irritated, but she could hardly deny the fact that this went significantly better than she had anticipated. Sure, she needed to condense her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow again, but that wasn¡¯t too difficult in comparison to how impossible it seemed to be to ward off the Reality Severance.


    Despite that, she did succeed, and she even managed to damage Ning Huang¡¯s core with the aftershock of the collision, while she got out unharmed. This was easily the best outcome she could have wanted without going into the realm of impossibility, and it gave her plenty of information to work with in order to further her understanding of her Dao, the Great Leeches, and all kinds of other things that were produced as a result of the fine cracks and segments in reality produced by the second use of Touch the Heavens.


    ¡®Even if I didn¡¯t destroy his core, he will still be nearly crippled for quite some time. That should provide me some respite from him, and more combatants from the first generation shouldn¡¯t emerge since they¡¯re concerned about weakening some kind of seal. Whatever it is, so long as it gets them to stay down, I¡¯m fine with it,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, smoke reforming at her left as she turned and looked at the other part of the battlefield.


    There, a number of automatons had fallen, but only one of the replicas remained, and did so without a core and barely any lifeforce remaining. Before he could die, she shifted her position to him.


    His image was very close to that of Ning Chao, the male member of the second generation of the Great Ning family, but she could see that this was not who he was. In a way, his aura resembled the strange timeless aura within the mountains where she had found Jia Rong, who was within Paragon at the moment, sleeping at the time that Wei Yi had arrived.


    ¡°Were you a member of one of the previous generations? Are you now within Testament, having settled there since becoming one of the first generation of¡­ your generations are a little difficult to talk about, you know that?¡± she asked, trying to keep her comments quieter as to not distract him.


    However, although the mouth of the Great Leech opened and audible words should have emerged, no doubt disparaging her and trying to explain to her the error of wishing to keep the world intact, all that she could hear was a muffled mess barely resembling any kind of communication. Only by taking it and breaking all of it apart into individual pieces within her Ascendant¡¯s Library was she able to decipher the nature of it. For some reason, these replicas spoke in jumbled words and phrases with no apparent connection to one another, resulting in a completely meaningless dialogue that she couldn¡¯t understand.


    Her only guess was that the replicas were based on past images and appearances of the Great Leeches that came before the current three generations. Thus, they would be able to display a variety of abilities based on the power that they were summoned with, or, more precisely, which realm they were summoned in, but their ability to converse and generate new ideas would naturally be negatively affected.


    Since there was no clear chance of getting information from this replica, she glanced at her Arbiters to confirm that none of them had anything to say.


    ¡°Wei Yi, what do you intend to do with it?¡± Yi Shi Ming did have something to say, and she said it after appearing beside her, putting up an illusory barrier between herself and the replica just in case. It seemed that she had the same idea that Wei Yi had regarding these replicas.


    ¡°Normally, it is a good idea to capture enemies and interrogate them. Perhaps we could convince one of the Great Leeches that their path is wrong, and convince them to join our side, thus making things far, far more difficult for ourselves in the future when it comes to the ones that we will and will not kill. However, with these replicas, not only is interrogating them incredibly difficult, but there¡¯s a chance that they can be used by the other Leeches to view our lands and actions from within, so it is best to get rid of the replica before it tries anything.¡±


    ¡°I have to concur that this is the best option until we are more aware of the nature of the replicas, as well as whether they truly hold any information that is useful to us.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, raised Moon Splitter, and pierced the man¡¯s neck with a stab, bringing his life to an end soon after, ¡°And now¡­¡±


    The replica remained as a body should have for a little while, until it just collapsed inwards, as if it was something made from a glass mesh that lost whatever had been supporting it from within. It turned to a glass shard-like texture and colour, but melted more like ice, turning into a pure planar energy liquid before it then proceeded to scatter into the air, upping the energy density of the area for a brief while.


    ¡°Interesting. If I am not mistaken, these are based on some property of Testament, combined with the energy of Ning Huang or some other first generation individual. Presumably, they are limited in only being able to conjure replicas of those that had existed, as they had existed, and they must utilise more energy than they can regularly spare, or else they would have been conjuring these far before they began running out of forces to send our way. After all, after they lost one of their kind, they shouldn¡¯t have risked losing any more if they truly cared about whatever seal they had mentioned.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, that is likely,¡± Luo Na jumped down to her position, using a talisman to accelerate her movement, ¡°Just some false images wasted thirty talismans and plenty of those automatons.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll remake them soon enough, and the automatons¡­ How¡¯s the Ju District doing?¡±


    ¡°About the same as before, from what I know. Their enormous factories have not been rebuilt, but I heard that they had hidden one of their large orbs somewhere before your intrusion into their lands and so they can still construct more automatons to support the rest of your districts. Those buried automatons were my idea.¡±


    ¡°And it was a good one¡­ Sorry, but I have just taken a look around, and I think that we shouldn¡¯t linger any longer.¡±


    ¡°Are there more of them?¡±


    ¡°No, but we should not let this opportunity get away from us. We can target the Greats and conquer some territories if we put effort into it, and just putting pressure on them will be ideal. Once we attack the Chu, Ning, Chen and Yi Districts and prevent them from doing anything untoward, things will be easier, and we can relax for a little bit. The Shi District may be neutral, on their side, or on our own, so we will also need to watch out for that, and the Ling, Huang and Fu Districts may also try something, so we need to discourage all four of those from acting up,¡± Wei Yi explained in length, ¡°Also, you need to figure out some use for this place, since I don¡¯t intend to attempt to undo the damage dealt to the terrain.¡±


    ¡°Well, we are used to that aspect of your personality, at least. Don¡¯t think we don¡¯t remember the last explosion of cosmic light outside of our lands.¡±


    ¡°That one was less intentional than this one. Also, the energy concentration there is still higher than in other areas, presumably due to the influence of my bloodline power, so it shouldn¡¯t be surprising that there are so many people there attempting to cultivate. Shit, there are quite a few there¡­¡±


    ¡°I thought that I had disallowed them from doing that¡­ but I suppose that they might as well keep going with it. The stronger my district, the sooner I will be able to get you away from here.¡±


    ¡°Me? What did I do to you?¡±


    ¡°You brought that suicidal moron over, and I don¡¯t like speaking with her beyond what is necessary. As such, if you are able to prevent her from coming over when not necessary, I can forgive you, but otherwise I will be aiming to establish my own power in this city when I get a few more guardians within the upper stages of the seventh realm.¡±


    Wei Yi sighed, ¡°Just get along better. I¡¯m not going to bother with this kind of nonsense.¡±


    She turned away from the Matriarch and looked to the Arbiters that had descended from the walls, who all glanced at the remnants of Great Leech replica at the ground, if only for a moment.


    ¡°I heard something about an attack on the four districts controlled by the Greats?¡± Long Huang said, although it was more likely that she was simply aware of the intended strategy for the Arbiters that might have been carried out significantly further back had the Ascendant not been thrown all the way to the southern border, ¡°I¡¯m up for it right away, especially if it is as far away from the Luo District as it is possible to be.¡±


    ¡°Stop that, or else I¡¯ll suggest something that¡¯ll make the both of you bond very quickly.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah?¡± Long Huang said.


    ¡°Like what?¡± Luo Na asked.


    ¡°I have some attainment in the Dao of Lust and memory influence. I could always arrange the two of you to find the other immensely attractive, and while I don¡¯t know what Mo Zhouquan would say about that, I don¡¯t expect her to be the type to adhere entirely to a monogamous relationship.¡±


    Most of that was complete nonsense, mostly because she would not be utilising mental influence on people for something this petty and unhelpful to the goals of defeating the Great Leeches, as well as whatever stood behind them. Her Dao of Lust was also entirely useless when it came to actively affecting other people, as even with the Dao of Law she sensed that she would only be able to further ignite the feelings that were already there, providing them with a new spark that might make a fading relationship blossom once again. In that way, it was akin to fifth realm methods and below.


    She still wasn¡¯t sure why she got the Dao of Lust, when she obtained it, nor why it was something that advanced so quickly when her mind had fewer lustful thoughts than the majority of men and women whose minds she had peeked at throughout the years. If she was able to advance through the Dao of Lust with just that, then everyone around her should secretly be in the Full Success stage, or perhaps even in the true realms of Dao that she had theorised about previously. So long as she questioned those people sufficiently, she might be able to advance her Dao of Law to Full Success far more easily than she presumed, but she was more than aware that this was unlikely to be the case, albeit not due to any concrete feeling or information.


    Rather, there were some strange occurrences in the past that made her almost certain that there was more to things than what met the eye, with the vagueness of ¡®things¡¯ being rather perfect in this case.


    Until she got to a high enough level of power to be able to interact with the greater nature of the world at a sufficient level, she had no hope of confronting the heavens as she wished to, or whatever was causing the intrusion of otherworldly demons, the gifts on them, or the azure lights within those. However, she did not believe this to be outside of her reach, and so she was never going to ignore the possibility and the potential of such a thing.


    One day, she would reach the heavens, and either beat them up, or slaughter them completely. Eventually, she would learn what brought so much chaos to the world in the form of otherworldly gifts and demons. There must be a time that she could see the truth of what lay beyond the Planar Continents, primarily in terms of the other worlds that seemed to come to the Planar Continents with odd regularly when there were so many other worlds to getting sent to. Of course, if every world was passing people along from one to the other, then she would be very interested in learning what caused such a thing, and why people that came to other worlds always seemed to get such powerful gifts.


    It was obviously not something that would just happen naturally in the simplest system possible, which would be what the natural world leans towards. She knew that in a world where there was no ubiquitous and incredibly powerful energy that changed the world through its very existence, like in the worlds of the otherworldly demons she had met so far, there was a leaning in everything towards the simplest possible solution. The laws of physics over there all apparently function in relatively simple and consistent ways, although they are not yet fully understood by the people there.


    Something like the otherworldly gifts just doesn¡¯t make sense under such a premise. They were too varied in power, nature and influence, in their response to the loss of azure lights, and that was without going into detail regarding the azure lights themselves, which were just sources of infinite energy without any clear reason for existing.


    There had to be a source for them, that much she knew, and it was likely to be intelligent.


    Perhaps the azure lights came from one force, or many, and perhaps they were all as different as the cultivation techniques of the Planar Continents, simply seeming to be identical due to her lack of knowledge about them. Of course, it could always be that they are all the same ¨C maybe even literally.


    She did not know that, and she couldn¡¯t know that without greatly growing in power and exploring these aspects of the world herself. As such, she was currently content with having it be within her plans to do so at a later time, and to take any opportunity that came her way to learn things more quickly than if she took no risks or chances at all. Ultimately, even if it wasn¡¯t for the troubles caused to her by otherworldly influence, the rest of the Planar Continents had been changed innumerable times by them, and it was vital to learn of their origin and whether it would be possible to stop such unwanted intrusions in the future.


    And, in the time that she went through all that within her head, she saw the eyes of both Long Huang and Luo Na widen before they glanced at one another and took a step to distance themselves from the other, ¡°I¡¯m guessing that the idea is not one you like.¡±


    ¡°I doubt your ability to do such a thing, Ascendant, but I am not going to risk it,¡± Luo Na said.


    Long Huang put it much more simply, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare!¡±


    ¡°Then stop fighting. I don¡¯t know what the lot of you do while I¡¯m not around ¨C the last explanation got interrupted by this attack ¨C but there is no possible way for the two of you to have gotten this agitated with one another in just the three months that I was away. Furthermore, as a form of conflict, random bickering is far less effective than, say, frequent sparring and duelling, which would at least get the two of you to practise your techniques and improve your overall ability in combat.¡±


    ¡°Fine¡­¡± the two of them said almost at the same time, but refused to acknowledge that and instead went further away from one another.


    ¡°Luo Na, don¡¯t go so far. Your forces will be joining the fight, so you need to be present.¡±


    She clearly heard that right away, but delayed and only turned around once she was entirely certain that Long Huang had gotten far enough away for her to not need to be within her proximity upon returning to Wei Yi¡¯s position.


    ¡°Very well, I shall remain for a little longer. What plans do you have?¡±


    ¡°Mo Zhouquan really isn¡¯t doing well as of late, is she?¡± Wei Yi commented as she looked into the room where the corrupted woman lay, with Long Huang standing beside her bed, one hand placed on Mo Zhouquan¡¯s forehead to check her temperature, ¡°Has she been like this for a while now, or has it gotten worse?¡±


    Long Huang nodded, ¡°A little worse¡­ Hey, can you hear me?¡±


    She was naturally addressing the woman lying in the bed, and received no audible response other than the slight shift of Mo Zhouquan¡¯s body.


    A few minutes passed before she was ready to step away and let Wei Yi have a go, although she did not go much further than a seat in the corner of the room. There was a window out to Beast¡¯s Rest there, but that did not stop her from focusing only on the corrupted woman, one hand resting near the collar on her neck almost the entire time, leaving it for moments at a time to return to touching it for reassurance.


    ¡°You can try your method,¡± was all that she said.


    ¡°Sure. Don¡¯t do anything while I¡¯m trying this, or else I may accidentally damage your mind and body.¡±


    After the Ascendant had given instructions to all of the leaders under her command, she knew that she had to return to Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm, which was exactly what she ended up doing. There were a few things that needed to be looked at, and she would handle them right away.


    It turned out that the first thing that she could address most quickly was the state of Mo Zhouquan, and since it was something that benefitted her attempts to learn more about the Primordial Deities immensely, she saw no good reason to postpone that until later. From what she was able to tell, it was indeed the influence of Primordial Corruption that played the biggest part in the corruptor woman¡¯s current weakened state, as the elevation in the average energy density of the Planar Continents was bound to benefit those ancient things in escaping from their seals.


    From her limited interaction with the influence of Primordial Corruption that remained within Mo Zhouquan¡¯s body, she couldn¡¯t fully assess what the best way to go about resolving the matter was, so she concluded that she first needed to speak with the one suffering from the symptoms of Primordial Deity influence first.


    The woman did not appear to be in the right state to do so normally, so Wei Yi was going to make use of her greater realm in killing will to communicate in a different fashion than usual.


    ¡®Alright, Mo Zhouquan, you are about to feel very uncomfortable, and I don¡¯t really care. Neither should you if I figure out a way to help you,¡¯ the Ascendant thought to herself, sitting down beside her on the bed and placing a hand on the woman¡¯s forehead, a little like how Long Huang had done.


    Obviously, she was doing so far less affectionately, and she had little interest in trying to feel up the woman¡¯s skin due to the rather unpleasant features forced onto her by the influence of Primordial Corruption. Long Huang also claimed to dislike those features, as demonstrated very clearly by her disgust during the initial interactions that the Ascendant had seen, but that feeling had begun to fade when their new relationship blossomed, and it had completely disappeared since then.


    Using her spiritual will, and that alone, she intruded into the mental domain of the corrupted woman, infusing her consciousness with hers so that they could communicate even when one side was barely breathing and surviving at the moment.


    ¡®Do you hear me?¡¯ the Ascendant asked mentally, uncertain if her attempt was successful.


    Only a moment later, she received her answer, for her surroundings were suddenly transformed into a dark and moist pit, with a stygian sky and the faint traces of movement above her.


    She stood at one side of the pit, and on the other was a feeble figure that barely breathed, just as she did in reality. From this, it was obvious enough what her identity was, and so she quickly approached the figure as quickly as she could while wading through the unpleasant liquid at the bottom of the pit, the nature of which she did not know but was immediately aware that she did not wish to get closer to it than necessary, for it would be disgusting and very much harmful to her overall condition in this odd mental state.


    As soon as she got near enough, Wei Yi called out, ¡°Mo Zhouquan, is this what you¡¯ve been seeing for a while now?¡±


    Her question was vague, but that did not stop the reply from coming over right away.


    ¡°Yes, I have been here for a very long time.¡±


    ¡°That must be unpleasant.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Is this your mind, or that of another?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ I remember hearing things from the outside, but I couldn¡¯t recognise it¡­ Where is this place?¡±


    ¡®She¡¯s not doing well, then. In that case, I need to figure out where this place is¡­ because I know what it is. This place is almost certainly Primordial Corruption¡¯s world, mental image or something of the sort, and she is in here because I haven¡¯t managed to get rid of the seed of corruption within her¡­¡¯ Wei Yi paused, recalling what the seed of corruption look like and then remembered the image of the azure lights, ¡®I mean, they¡¯re hardly similar in appearance, but their function, leech-like nature, and the rest of it¡­ Are they perhaps identical in intrinsic nature? Is the seed of corruption something that may be able to grow into the azure light? Is the azure light-¡¯


    The entire realm quaked all of a sudden, as she remembered that she was effectively sharing the mind of another person, and through her she was influencing the entity that had created this image and forced Mo Zhouquan to endure it.


    Naturally, with how much time she had spent thinking about these kinds of things, she was entirely used to all kinds of abnormal ideas that the people of the Planar Continents would be concerned about. Mo Zhouquan had interacted with her for a while, so her attitude had adjusted slightly, and her current state of mind hardly allowed her to process every bit of information that passed through to any significant extent.


    All that was left was the Primordial Deity that had latched onto all of the members of the Corruptor¡¯s Enclave, and it was clearly not used to this kind of influence, especially not in its weak state.


    Whether it was only a fragment of the whole, left out in the world while the rest was sealed, or if this was the whole in a far weaker state than even Primordial Earth, it was not at all used to interacting with things beyond its own power. That it was merely theory and concepts did not change that, apparently.


    If she had to guess at that very moment, then she would probably ascribe the most significant portion of damage dealt to Primordial Corruption¡¯s influence and consciousness to the fact that her comprehension of certain truths and elements of reality was guaranteed th advance her Dao, not just due to the further contribution of the heavens, but because she slowly began to grasp the nature of reality and connect the separate pieces together. Technically, so long as one was aware of the right pieces of information, one only needed to know and comprehend the absolute minimum to get a grasp of the world as a whole.


    Such a piece could hardly be appreciated by an entity that was forever stagnant and still.


    Thus, the pit itself quaked, unravelling into tendrils, revealing the flat terrain around the stagnant pool within which Wei Yi and Mo Zhouquan had ended up in. The fluid poured out, slowly as a thick and unpleasant liquid would, and the corrupted woman was freed from a number of tendrils that had apparently been holding onto her this entire time.


    Then, it was just quiet. Nothing seemed to be happening, and there were no traces of outside influences.


    ¡°Ow, my head hurts¡­¡±


    ¡°At least you seem more awake than before. I think I scared off Primordial Corruption.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ Yeah, I can see that happening. You¡¯re scary at times, but in a very different way, so it may be enough to scare off a Primordial Deity¡­ How long have I been here, exactly? Where is here? Why are you here?¡±


    ¡°For a little while, as far as I know. This is your mental domain, or, at least, a projection of some part of it intermingled with that of Primordial Corruption, or its influence. I¡¯m here because your pet ¨C or did you two end up settling on calling one another girlfriends? ¨C asked me to help you out, and I did so in whatever way I was able to think of,¡± Wei Yi responded to the questions one by one, ¡°I¡¯ll break the mental connection once you¡¯re alright, and then you will be able to relax on your own, or with Long Huang.¡±


    ¡°Mhm. Probably with her. It¡¯ll be better for me¡­ I feel odd, though.¡±


    ¡°Depending on the exact nature of this odd feeling, I may or may not be able to help you, or even explain it to you.¡±


    ¡°The whispers¡­ they¡¯re not present. I can¡¯t hear them.¡±


    Wei Yi shrugged, ¡°Might have scared off Primordial Corruption more than I had anticipated.¡±

 V5C60: The Tailor and the Trio

    The whispers did not return even after the Ascendant broke apart their mental connection. This was fortunate for the two of them, so although they both tried to learn more about the cause of this odd phenomenon, they were happy enough to leave it be for the moment, since it appeared that Wei Yi could repeal Primordial Corruption in the future with a similar approach.


    Mo Zhouquan did not get up and walk around right away, finding that her body remained rather tired after all of this, and Wei Yi did not force her to get up, instead leaving her with Long Huang.


    Those two would figure things out with one another, and should eventually return to the battlefields formed around the Chu, Ning and Yi Districts, for they were the most easily accessible through her current territory. The Chen District was harder to get to due to it being placed between the Yi and Huang Districts, with one being obviously hostile while the other was rather ambiguous in nature and current purpose. To go there while there was a large degree of danger posed to anyone attempting to pass through the area between the two districts, would be rather unwise for the moment.


    Still, it was enough, and the moment that either the Ning or Chu Districts were taken, which would happen far earlier than the Yi District was claimed, she could assault the Chen District as well, and expected it to be easy enough to take.


    Not the Great Chen family, of course, but the ordinary Chen family, the one that ruled the district. They were incredibly likely to fall to her due to her ability to easily guarantee them wealth and power, as she had no qualms in lying to them in this regard. Sure, it would cause them to dislike her later on, and the other districts might have a problem with it, but at that point, the situation would be very different.


    Rather than attempting to bring Yi City to her side, she would be trying to go beyond it and comprehend a method to impose some notion of justice onto reality, and at that point her strength would simply be too great for anyone to do anything about her. If it turned out that her success still ended with people¡¯s dislike of her, and they managed to end her life, then that would be the end of her, and although she would naturally be somewhat disappointed with such a thing, a dead person could hardly care all that much about what happened with their legacy. Her remnant spirit, if one even ended up existing, would need to deal with it if it happened.


    She instead put her focus on the things that she did care about right now, which was the Dao insight that she had obtained via her contemplation in Primordial Corruption¡¯s mental domain.


    It was clearly not as significant advancement as she might have liked, given that she attained no Dao vision state, and there was only a single change in her Truth of the Universe. The problem with that was the change itself.


    The Dao of the Heavens changed from the previous Minor Achievement state to a different one. She would have been happy to reveal this to anyone that asked ¨C mostly because there was nobody in the world that knew the full extent of her Dao, and would thus be unable to do her any harm due to this ¨C but she only found a series of opaque rectangles in place of any clear information. There was no trace of stage, realm or anything else, only ¡®¨€¨€¨€¨€¨€¡¯, which was completely useless as far information was concerned.


    This was the first time that one of the otherworldly gifts failed her to such an extent, and so she was a little concerned about what it was that she had done.


    ¡®Is the nature of azure lights outside of the jurisdiction of the otherworldly gifts, and the information stored within them? If so, it would make some sense, and if the heavens also have some kind of energy seed, then perhaps they can¡¯t or won¡¯t contribute any of their knowledge in this regard, meaning¡­¡¯ a smile appeared on her face as she glanced up into the sky of the Kong Prison Realm, although her intent was to look upon the heavens of the outside world, ¡®That¡¯s a second Dao that I have no obstacles in advancing on my own. He¡­ hehe¡­ I am not going to let that go, and if the heavens can hear that, then I have no problems with announcing that I will steal your very position if that is what it takes to correct your countless mistakes.¡¯


    Usually, she received no reply, and this should have been the case this time as well, but she felt something on the very edges of her perception in the outside world, where the spatial stabilisation points could barely reach. It was faint and difficult to identify as anything in particular, but no matter what it was, she knew for certain that it was there.


    In a way, this led to one of the best feelings that she could have imagined, for something had clearly heard her message, but it couldn¡¯t or didn¡¯t do anything. She had an edge of some kind ¨C all she needed to do was figure out what it was, then abuse it endlessly to get her way.


    Why wouldn¡¯t she?


    ¡®Before that, though, it¡¯s time to pay Fu Zan a visit. His store looks about as busy as always, but we will need to check the state of my star metal scale armour and see if it is possible to amend it,¡¯ she moved the previous thoughts to one side, ready to return to them once she had some inspiration and time to move forward with her theories regarding reality and azure lights, and instead appeared beside the door of the tailor and knocked upon it.


    It took quite a long while for him to finally emerge, and when he did, he looked tired and haggard, as if he was ready to fall over the next moment.


    Of course, she had already seen that state of his through her spiritual perception, but to see it with her own eyes did let her confirm that she hadn¡¯t imagined any part of his state. It helped ¨C at least in that regard, if no other ¨C when he nearly did fall right in front of her, forcing her to raise a finger and put up a barrier before him.


    ¡°I see you¡¯re doing well, as always.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Who are you?¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, the one for whom you made clothing for quite a while without even knowing because I would steal it from your store without you having a clue about it, at least as far as I was able to notice. It helped me hide my dick for a while before that got revealed to the world.¡±


    ¡°Di¡­ Ah, Wei Yi, I remember! Why do you not have an arm?¡±


    ¡°I see you haven¡¯t been paying any attention in the last day or so. Mind if I come in? I imagine that having a place to sit will make things a little better.¡±


    He nodded and stepped back, essentially falling onto the chair after several steps of uncertainty and confusion. The Ascendant leaned on a nearby table, filled as it was with numerous pieces of cloth and fabric that would, most likely, go into the production of panties.


    She glanced at some and mentally picked out a few materials that she was fond of more than others, for no particular reasons, and then turned her attention back to the tailor. Although his current exhausted state could be easily explained by being provided with a larger amount of work to complete, this not only didn¡¯t make much sense given that his customer base hadn¡¯t expanded for three months prior to today, but also that his body was supported by his cultivation and the various supporting properties of the Kong Prison Realm.


    Granted, that was not applicable in that three month period, but the support of Wei Yi¡¯s various physiques prior to then should have guaranteed his good health.


    There was one reason that she was able to think of, especially with what she had been contemplating as of late, and that was a faint absence located vaguely within his chest, near his heart. It was impossible to detect naturally, and even she was only partially sure of its existence and presence in that location, but she felt a slight sensation akin to the feeling on the outer parts of her perception in the outside world.


    ¡°Have you been getting more and more exhausted as you have been using your otherworldly gift?¡±


    The otherworldly tailor glanced up at her and shrugged, ¡°I¡¯ve been focusing mostly on work, so I¡¯ve not had the chance to think about it all that much. Maybe that is what happens, but maybe it isn¡¯t, and I don¡¯t know¡­¡±


    ¡°Want me to fix it? By fix it, incidentally, I mean that I will make it so that you can cultivate regularly and safely, thus avoiding any chance of losing your mind in the future.¡±


    ¡°¡­ What are you saying? Is it going to be beneficial or not?¡±


    ¡°It will be.¡±


    He nodded, ¡°Go ahead, then.¡±


    ¡°In that case, you have no right to be upset at me in the future, get it? I won¡¯t listen to you in the first place, since I can always just remove myself from your vicinity at any moment, but I am warning you ahead of time so that you don¡¯t waste your energy on doing something that will be completely ignored,¡± the Ascendant said, using the time to set up a number of barriers and lock onto the thing that she had sensed within his body. She needed both in order to succeed, and he would certainly appreciate the discomfort being reduced as much as possible.


    Then, bringing forth her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, she placed the point of the claw on her index finger on his chest, piercing his clothing and stabbing just a little into his skin, sufficiently to draw a drop of blood but not injure anything of significance to him or her.


    Before he was able to raise a single question, she invoked the Purifier¡¯s Seal through her Arm, forcing it to act upon that point within the man¡¯s body. With her recent recognition of the nature of azure lights, she had another clue for identifying them in the criteria for the activation of the Purifier¡¯s Seal, and she didn¡¯t hesitate to apply it to him.


    ¡°What are- AH! F-¡± the sound was unable to leave his body as the area beside his heart seemed to burn and melt, with the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow bursting in a similar manner.


    It only lasted for a moment before an azure spark suddenly left his body, and another moment before a powerful wave emerged from Wei Yi¡¯s body and forced that azure light to escape. That process was incredibly brief in comparison to what happened with Miyu and the removal of the light within her eye.


    ¡°¡­ Ah. That hurt. That really, really¡­ hurt¡­¡±


    ¡°And now, you can cultivate without any issues at all. You are very welcome, Fu Zan. Now, make me more things and help me with this armour.¡±


    ¡°Is this what those office workers feel like when they are overworked and forced to remain in the office for a week without being able to go home? Is that what they feel like?¡±


    ¡°Why the fuck would I know? We don¡¯t have offices here, and while my mind is present, you won¡¯t need anything of the sort. If I¡¯m gone, you can look to Yi Shi Ming for assistance in that regard, and if she¡¯s gone¡­ Well, you¡¯re fucked, and I don¡¯t really care what you get up to. If I¡¯m gone, I would either be dead or so far away that I can¡¯t really pay attention to the things you get up so, and while I would most certainly like Yi City to follow certain principles, they may not be well suited for any kind of situation that it encounters.¡±


    Clearly, that did not help Fu Zan, who only seemed to be more confused from her words, but she could hardly blame him for the ideas that poured straight from her head, so she instead grabbed the pieces of fabric that she liked the least and put it into his hands, ignoring his increasing confusion.


    ¡°What am I supposed to do with this?¡±


    ¡°Make some panties or something. You don¡¯t have an azure light anymore, and you only have the second realm in planar cultivation combined with the third realm in spiritual will cultivation, meaning that your overall power is incredibly small relative to your overall potential. Thus, the effects of your otherworldly gift, whatever its name is, will be lessened significantly. As always, feel free to make use of Miyu¡¯s case as reference,¡± she said, ¡°You need to check how much of your previous ability you have left, and whether you will be able to continue what you¡¯ve been doing up to this point. If not, you should shut down shop as soon as possible, and focus on regaining your abilities and gaining your strength so that you can return.¡±


    ¡°I may no longer be able to¡­ right, that is how that works¡­¡±


    ¡°I am talking to so many absentminded people today. Get on with it, and if it works out, I need new underwear, so get on to making that.¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you have had me take a look at the armour first? If I don¡¯t have my original strength anymore, I may not even be able to influence the star metal.¡±


    ¡°Of course, but I think you might be able to tell that it didn¡¯t help me much at the most vital of times, and that it is essentially useless to me now that I have gotten even stronger. Whether or not I have this layer of protection doesn¡¯t matter, except for a situation in which all of my forms of cultivation are sealed, my nascent rift is sealed, my incredibly powerful body is sealed, and so on. If everything else that makes me powerful is somehow removed, then yes, the star metal would help.¡±


    ¡°Is there a point to fixing it, then?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I want armour to work, and I think that it provides a decent enough visual alongside my gauntlets and boots. Since that is all that they are really able to offer at the moment, I see no reason why I shouldn¡¯t maximise that advantage.¡±


    ¡°How is it an advantage?¡±


    ¡°I had thought your mind recovered a little, but it seems that I was mistaken. Think back to your own advertisement of your products, like the underwear that you could have been holding in your hands if you had gotten to work already. What was it that you were trying to provide to the people you were selling it to?¡±


    ¡°Comfort and¡­ ah, visuals that a partner could appreciate, I think.¡±


    ¡°Exactly ¨C by which I mean that this is along the lines of what I was talking about, not that this was exactly how you sold your wares to me and your other customers,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°In my case, I have an image that the world has been shown. I am powerful, unique, dedicated to my goal, and I am not cowed by the threats of the Great Leeches or their attempts to break me. I am armoured during most of my appearances, and I am fierce.¡±


    ¡°Do people really think that about you? I¡¯ve not actually gotten out of here much, except for when Miyu forced me out several times for a discussion on baby names in Enian.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s thinking ahead, I see. Though, ¡®baby¡¯ names are a rather useless distinction. Saying just ¡®names¡¯ would be far more productive, as there is no change in one¡¯s name when they grow older, unless you are one of the Great Leeches that just wants to make things difficult for me and anyone else that tries to address them by name.¡±


    ¡°I, uh¡­ So, about my previous question?¡±


    ¡°They seem to, certainly. If nothing else, I am believed to be rather mysterious and powerful, and since I have not yet been called the inheritor of the Master of Yi City, my abilities are clearly somewhat unique in the eyes of others. Given how much I talk about killing the Greats, seeing me as anything other than dedicated would be odd, same with my continued attempts to end their existence. I do indeed wear armour regularly since I acquired this, and I have been known to make quite the impression with my ferocity ¨C and neck tearing.¡±


    ¡°That might be true¡­ Fine, give me a moment. I need to focus.¡±


    She nodded and took a step back, not bothering to turn around as it wouldn¡¯t really affect his workflow even if she did so. Usually, the finished product would just be in his hands the moment that her attention wavered for even an instant, which did happen fairly often as she had not yet reached absolute perfection in any regard or method of observation, so turning away would do little in that instance.


    It was obviously possible that the removal of the azure light would compromise his ability to such an extent that he would no longer be able to complete anything instantly, nor make use of material to create something that was impossible to manufacture from a needle, some thread and fabric.


    There was no need for her to wait for much longer, as she noticed that the finished product did not simply appear in Fu Zan¡¯s hands as always, nor did he sit still without doing much at all until her attention wavered. Rather, she could see him beginning to work, moving very quickly and smoothly, but moving clearly nonetheless.


    ¡®So this had the effect we expected. Fair enough, I guess. At least he can be pushed forward in his cultivation, and then he will be able to personally obtain the power of the otherworldly gift¡­ Can the Law of an otherworldly gift be extracted and condensed into a technique?¡¯ her line of thought shifted completely to something significantly more advanced, but her ideas had to be temporarily shelved, much like plenty of other great concepts that sat within her head for plenty of time now. Most of them were possible, that much was easy to verify simply due to the existence of otherworldly gifts, but her current power and the fact that even Kong Shi Meng could only do so much with the Truth of the Universe meant that her power at the moment was not at all sufficient to recreate the power of otherworldly gifts or to separate it from the gift itself.


    She knew that she would need to get at least to the seventh realm before attempting anything of the sort, and maybe even the eighth in order to have a good chance of success. Of course, she could always create techniques that perform similar functions, that have similar intentions, or that are inspired by some aspect of the otherworldly gifts, but that was not her intention, nor did she have much need for that sort of thing.


    At the moment, most of her needs were fulfilled by her own power or an otherworldly gift, and she had many ideas of her own for techniques to be developed in the future. If she ever lost access to her trove of otherworldly gifts, that would indeed be a shame, but the most significant one to her was the House of Gold. That one would indeed require the seventh realm for the power to manipulate space and spatial metal to a sufficient extent. Without that, she would certainly need to expend significantly more energy and do so less efficiently than with the halos of the seventh realm, so it was unwise to attempt to do anything regarding that now.


    It had to be noted that if she did lose the House of Gold, she would almost certainly lose everything within, so it wouldn¡¯t even be that she needed to create another form of spatial storage to keep all of the things within safe.


    Wei Yi spent a great deal of time within her thoughts by the time that Fu Zan was finally done, and when she turned back to look upon his work, she only had one thing to say.


    ¡°I think you will suddenly have far fewer customers.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a rather cruel thing to say to someone that you had just removed the ability to work from¡­ I can tell that it took me significantly longer than usual, but is the quality that much worse? It looks around the same to me.¡±


    ¡°If that is the case, then I might have accidentally damaged your vision, or the lack of the azure light might have led to the loss of a certain degree of talent associated with tailoring, sewing and the like, so now you need to learn all of that stuff yourself, ideally with the things that you have previously worked on,¡± the Ascendant replied, grabbing his work from his hands, ¡°This is poorly sewn, has an uncomfortable shape, and will likely tear apart within a few uses, which is not at all suitable for anything other than an outfit made of leaves or any other natural product. There are some who would appreciate that aspect of this, but I don¡¯t think you mean to sell to such a crowd.¡±


    ¡°Some¡­ ah, I think I get it¡­ but I made it the same as I usually would, so how has the outcome changed so much?¡± Fu Zan asked, grabbing some of his previous creations and comparing them.


    ¡°I had explained it to you not that long ago. Please do listen to what I tell you.¡±


    He frowned and recalled her words, then examined everything that he had produced before this, comparing them with what he had made just now and finding every single element that did not align, and after a long while, he likely came to some reasonable conclusions. However, by that time, the Ascendant no longer stood before him.


    Instead of standing around and waiting for him to finish his thoughts, Wei Yi had moved on to the next person that she wished to visit, although she could hardly visit her without also meeting up with two others. They were Chao Ru, Shun Liu Min, and Miyu, who were currently in a similar predicament due to what Wei Yi had gotten up to between the situation with the various factions from Yi City coming over to the area near Paragon and the battle with the Ping District. Namely, it was that Wei Yi had decided that she would have children, and those three had decided that they weren¡¯t opposed to having her children.


    Had she been in her position, she expected that she might have refused to do anything of the sort, but then again, she was someone that was a little uncomfortable with being pregnant with any child, regardless of origin. Obviously, she would not say that to any of the three.


    At this point in time, the three were still very early on in their bearing of the Ascendant¡¯s children, but it appears that they had already formed a small group where they shared their tales and spent their time together. It was rather interesting to observe from the outside, which she did do for a while as she observed their state, the state of their pregnancies, and their cultivation, among plenty of other matters.


    Their cultivation, to begin with the simplest topic, had advanced as one might expect. Miyu was now at the peak of the third realm, showcasing her clear dedication to cultivation. Shun Liu Min had gotten to the fourth realm, which was to be expected with her intellect and talent. Chao Ru had also progressed onto the fourth realm, but was only in the first stage, while Shun Liu Min was in the third. As a trio of combatants, they would not be that impactful in the world, but it was still impressive enough given the fact that the Ascendant could clearly see the growing life in their bodies consuming some of their energy.


    Having never witnessed a new life being formed with such detail, she had been unaware that it was not only the bloodline and energy build up from previous generations that affected a child, but the active cultivation of a parent. Learning this information prompted her to instruct Yi Shi Ming to create a place for the three to cultivate without interruption, and absorb as much energy as possible.


    Overall, the health of these three seemed good enough, and the health of their future children was also as good as she could imagine it being, although she had no past experiences to compare them with. That should have been fine, but she suddenly found her mind being drawn to various methods and techniques that could be used to improve the physical and mental conditions of the three and their children, when they are born, and she couldn¡¯t stop herself from elaborating on them more and more.


    In just a few moments of real time, she had come up with a whole compendium of techniques specifically for the next six months, and worst of all, she felt like she could make a dozen more.


    ¡®What the¡­ I know there¡¯s such a thing as parental instinct, but is this not a little excessive?¡¯ she couldn¡¯t help but ask herself, and unlike matters with Dao and the heavens, she had nothing to rely upon in this mater, ¡®Well, since I do have all of this, I might as well come in¡­¡¯


    Still very much concerned with how easily her mind was taken over by this, she knocked on the door of the residence that they were in and waited for the response.


    ¡°¡­ and then, in the desert, we-¡± Shun Liu Min¡¯s story was interrupted by the noise, with all three turning in the direction of the door, ¡°Did somebody finally decide to bother us? I don¡¯t¡­ oh. That¡­ I¡¯ll get the door!¡±


    The former maid practically leapt up and rushed over, opening the door as quickly as she could and instantly meeting the gaze of the Ascendant. She was very much familiar with the general aura, physical appearance and height of Wei Yi, and to say that she had gotten used to providing eye contact during their time in the sands of the north would be an understatement. Fortunately, she had not been allowed to make any statement at all due to the interruption, or else coming in at this time would have been rather awkward for the Ascendant.


    ¡°Hi. I see you three are doing well.¡±


    ¡°W-Wei Yi?¡± Chao Ru, who had initially not been too interested in the visitor, looked over and froze, with her eyes widened.


    ¡°You¡¯re back!¡± Aimi Miyu finished for her, the sentiment certainly matching even if their exact words would not have done, ¡°I¡­ I have so many things to say, but I can¡¯t decide which one to start with first! Oh my god¡­¡±


    ¡°Other than the last part, that seems to be a common enough sentiment here¡­ How have you been?¡±


    The Antanorden woman gave a moment to her response, only for a blush to blossom on her face, ¡°¡­ a little sexually unsatisfied¡­¡±


    ¡°Considering the topic of discussion before I came in, I can see how that was the first thing you thought of¡­ Sort of. What do you mean by ¡®a little¡¯? What have you three even being doing all of this time, and why are you two unable to contain a grin?¡±


    ¡°Eh, well¡­ We may or may not have decided to experiment together a little¡­¡±


    Seeing how Miyu just blushed even more, it appeared that Shun Liu Min¡¯s words were very accurate, and that those two were still far more leading in these matters than Miyu could be with her continued shyness in regard to her sexuality. Regardless of the rather surprising initial topic, Wei Yi was hardly a stranger to sex and lust ¨C she was apparently familiar enough to get a Dao of Lust, whatever that was worth ¨C so she had no issues with carrying on with exactly that.


    Besides, she had agreed to something like this in an earlier discussion with Shun Liu Min, which felt like it had been years ago by this point, so she had no right to get upset even if she had some kind of issue with this. Fortunately, she didn¡¯t, especially as it gave her an opportunity to spy on their activities with their consent and let off some of her killing intent in that manner.


    Before she knew it, the day had come to an end, and the three got to be a little more satisfied than they previously were.

 Bonus Chapter: A Little Satisfaction [R-18]

    She wasn¡¯t sure how a casual discussion ended up developing into the current situation, but none of the four were intending to object.


    They weren¡¯t in a bedroom, but there was enough room on the floor for the chat the three had been having, so there were also a number of cushions and a comfortable rug on which they sat. It was more than enough comfort for the lot of them, especially when one was already used to sleeping around in a desert, on some stone or wood, depending on what they had on hand.


    Hence, it was Shun Liu Min that took charge, guiding Wei Yi further in and then getting on her knees before her, with a cushion positioned in just the right place to offer her support. While the Ascendant sorted out her armour and robes, she invited the other two over with a wave of her hand.


    ¡°What are we¡­ oh, I know¡­¡± Miyu muttered to herself, quickly taking her place at Shun Liu Min¡¯s side, ¡°Didn¡¯t think we¡¯d actually do something like this¡­¡±


    ¡°Why not? You said all kinds of things are common over in Orbis,¡± Chao Ru asked as she did the same, ending on up Wei Yi¡¯s left while her otherworldly peer was on the Ascendant¡¯s right.


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s different.¡±


    Wei Yi pitched in helpfully, ¡°She means that she had seen this kind of thing in porn all the time, but hadn¡¯t thought that she would ever experience it herself, even though I had already given her exactly what she had asked for, based on that pornographic material.¡±


    Of course, what might have been helpful in an informative sense to her and the other two didn¡¯t necessarily mean that it was helpful for Miyu. She happened to not be so fond of it.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to bring it up like that!¡± she cried out, grabbing Wei Yi¡¯s robe and pulling it apart.


    As there was nothing left behind it, the three of them got exposed to the Ascendant¡¯s naked body, and found themselves stunned. They had thought that the biggest change would have been the strange arm made of smoke, which they had already gotten used to ¨C more or less ¨C but a closer look at her body suggested otherwise.


    Every major detail was as they remembered it, such as the currently flaccid dick and the general proportions of Wei Yi¡¯s body, and there weren¡¯t even any scars or marks left from her experiences in the south. Really, there was nothing that stood out when they attempted to identify it, and yet something about the Ascendant¡¯s current appearance seemed wholly unique to what she had been like before.


    Obviously, they couldn¡¯t know the full details of her cultivation, and more importantly, the five types of energy that affected her body this whole time. Her bloodline power, cosmic energy and physique energy all had the effect of directly enhancing her body as their realm grew, but rather gradually.


    When separated from her for many stages and a whole cultivation realm, those gradual changes showed up at once. Her skin had become smoother and cleaner, almost resembling a statue made of a well-polished, life-like stone more so than a human. As always, her muscles were firm and prominent, though not excessively so, and just added to the effect. Had she chosen to return while remaining perfectly still, in some statuesque pose, she might well have been mistaken for an actual statue.


    And yet, although that description might make her sound inhuman and lifeless, it had the opposite effect in their eyes. She seemed to brim with vitality and vigour in a manner never seen before.


    This pause gave Miyu the chance to regain control. She had very little understanding about cultivation in the first place, so any changes that Wei Yi underwent were purely cosmetic in her eyes. Given her familiarity with various beauty products from Orbis, it wasn¡¯t especially unusual to see someone attaining an otherwise unreasonable beauty standard, and her porn had set up even more excessive ideas in her mind. Hence, she simply took the opportunity and moved in, parting her lips and giving a lewd kiss to the Ascendant¡¯s balls.


    As before, they were hairless, smooth and heavy, visibly straining the sack with their fullness, and there was a faint layer of musk radiating from them. From afar, it was far subtler than usual, but once her tongue came into contact with them, the taste returned in full.


    It was intense and primal, but it was addictive, and she had missed it.


    ¡°Hey, you¡­¡± Chao Ru began to complain, but stopped when she realised she could simply do the same thing from her side.


    Hence, both of them were soon polishing the Ascendant¡¯s balls, eagerly tasting them and slobbering all over them. Any trace of decorum that had previously been maintained was gone, leaving only Shun Liu Min to find her place. Their ministrations led to Wei Yi¡¯s cock hardening quickly, rising into a stiff hard pillar that ended up merely inches away from Shun Liu Min¡¯s face.


    ¡°Not entirely how I had thought our reunion would go¡­¡± she muttered, her hot breath landing on the tip of the Ascendant¡¯s dick, ¡°¡­ but I¡¯m not against this¡­ I¡¯ll be the first to taste it¡­¡±


    Miyu withdrew for a moment, her eyes widening as she realised the error of her ways, but the former maid had already taken the tip inside her mouth. Her soft red lips shut tightly around the shaft, enveloping the entirety of the glans, her tongue getting to work and circling the head.


    With such an iron grip upon her target, the North Antanian woman had no choice but to return to Wei Yi¡¯s right ball, her eyes meeting Chao Ru¡¯s as they competed in their positions. Neither of the two were thinking especially clearly at the moment, that much even they understood, but it was so pleasant to flood their senses with the Ascendant¡¯s sweat and musk that they couldn¡¯t help themselves, and let themselves surrender to their lust.


    ¡®These three are more enthusiastic about this than I am¡­ Again, I¡¯m starting to doubt that the Lust Dao should belong to me and not this lot,¡¯ Wei Yi gazed down and was met with three pairs of eyes looking back at her, each one filled with unique arousal.


    It was, in its own wonderful way, absolutely gorgeous. This was the kind of scene she wished to see once the War of Ascendancy was finished, and all other threats were removed.


    For now, she let them keep going as they wished, simply enjoying the sheer passion clearly imbuing their every action. The three also enjoyed themselves for a while, letting the time slip past, her balls and glans getting polished to such a wondrous sheen that her marble-like skin couldn¡¯t compare. Wet sounds filled the room, tongues and lips working the great dragon ¨C a phrase she had considered once and immediately decided to never repeat.


    Her cock leaked precum into Shun Liu Min¡¯s mouth from the moment the maid began fellating her, but apparently that wasn¡¯t enough for her, as she began to move further down. She took more of the shaft into her mouth, enveloping more than half the length before the tip struck the back of her throat, causing her to gag. She drew back for a moment, breathing in through her nose.


    Even if she wanted to go deeper, neither her throat nor the rigid shaft permitted it, so she stuck to working the portion of the shaft that she was able to take.


    She bobbed back and forth, leaving a layer of her drool all over the hard shaft, though it hardly matched up to the wet state of her mouth ¨C or that of the other two. They were salivating as if they were presented with the greatest meal in the world, and not only were they not bothered at all about showing this to one another, all three seemed to delight in displaying their current states, eagerly looking up into the Ascendant¡¯s eyes whenever they had the opportunity to do so.


    Perhaps she intended to keep going until she milked every drop of cum out of Wei Yi¡¯s balls, volume that was sure to be huge given the efforts of Chao Ru and Miyu, but the Ascendant did not want to let her have all the fun.


    Hence, once she saw Shun Liu Min getting too enthusiastic, she brought down her right hand and forced her off her shaft, almost feeling bad when she saw the maid¡¯s desperate gaze.


    ¡°You need to let the other two have a chance,¡± she said, not dulling the desperation in the slightest, ¡°Come on, don¡¯t you want to taste the efforts of your peers?¡±


    She needed a moment to understand Wei Yi¡¯s meaning, and only then she reluctantly permitted the Ascendant to lower her head and slide it forward, letting her nestle her nose in between Wei Yi¡¯s cock and balls. Miyu, being especially active today, took the chance to rise and place her lips on the side of the shaft, enveloping it and putting her tongue to work.


    Chao Ru joined her a moment later, their lips meeting and their noses nearly colliding. If not for the Ascendant¡¯s cock, they would have been engaging in a deep, passionate kiss, and that didn¡¯t stop them from doing their best, working the shaft together. Somewhat unsubtly, both of them put their hands on the back of Shun Liu Min¡¯s head, and forced her deeper into the crevice beneath the Ascendant¡¯s cock, an action that left the maid with no room to inhale fresh air, trapping her with the intense musk that the other two had encouraged.


    Before, she had only been exposed to Wei Yi¡¯s abdomen, a place that was generally kept clean and lacked all but a faint natural fragrance, but this was not the case for her dick. Even if she did her best to constantly cleanse it with her physique energy, she could never subdue its natural functions. Her whole body was optimised and refined numerous times to be the best it could be, and her cock had been manifested thanks to the influence of her energy, lacking many faults of typical human genitalia.


    Although humans were the dominant species in the current world, they were rather simple beasts, and often relied on simple things to attract one another. Strength and general capability were often a source of charm in the eyes of those who needed it, but an even simpler source of attraction existed.


    The body, and its impact on the senses through which another perceived it. A woman¡¯s large chest or bountiful buttocks entranced the eyes ¨C Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, at least ¨C the soft sensation of those assets pleased one¡¯s sense of touch, a sweet voice pleased one¡¯s hearing, and the last two, taste and smell, were often bound together.


    Perfumes were an attempt at pleasing one of those in a civilized manner, but that was not a standard tool of human seduction back when such luxuries were rare ¨C whenever that had been.


    Humans may lack typical pheromones, at least as far as Wei Yi and the otherworldly demons knew, but that didn¡¯t stop them from having their own distinct scents, produced naturally by their bodies and amplified by their sweat. In addition, there was a need to signal one¡¯s sexual prowess beyond the bulge in their clothes or the width of their hips, and so Wei Yi¡¯s dick performed that function at a level that likely exceeded most dragons, which were known to seduce women in their spare time.


    While most of the Ascendant¡¯s body could be said to be refined, pristine and so on, there was no way that a primal musk could ever be the same. It was raw, almost animalistic, evoking thoughts of simple and bestial lust, of sex, of rutting like animals.


    Even if humans had forgotten the simpler times, their bodies were still roughly the same. They still had the same instincts and the same simple desires, and so, when Shun Liu Min¡¯s nose was filled with Wei Yi¡¯s primal musk, all desire for clean air was thrown aside. She was a cultivator, so it wasn¡¯t as necessary anyway, meaning that she could devote herself to the will of the paragon of virility before her.


    To prove her reverence, she inhaled deeply and parted her lips, taking one of the balls into her mouth and sucking on it. She would have taken both, but even now she understood her limits in this regard.


    ¡®They know exactly how to please me, don¡¯t they?¡¯ the Ascendant gasped, clenching her teeth afterwards to restrain a moan, ¡°You lot have gotten a lot more passionate since the last time we¡¯d met¡­ or is the presence of the other two?¡±


    It was difficult for any of them to respond, at least if they wished to keep tasting her cock, but their surface-level thoughts revealed a hint of both. Although it was nice to see them cooperating in such a manner, she was hardly unaffected by their efforts, and so she had to consider how she was going to handle the first of her many orgasms.


    There were plenty of options, but eventually a single visual she had imagined won out.


    She could think faster than anyone she¡¯d ever met, so she arrived at the conclusion rather quickly and then let her thoughts remain mostly empty, focusing all her attention on the efforts of her lovers. The tongues and lips of Chao Ru and Miyu continued to please her shaft, which throbbed from their attention, and the maid¡­ well, she was trying her best, but any coordination or reason were clearly beyond her at the moment. Her head was so full of the Ascendant¡¯s scent that it was amazing that she still had the ability to think at all.


    For the sake of her health, it was best not to drag things out too much, so once her body was nearing orgasm, she did nothing to restrain it. She could, with sheer willpower or her control over every aspect of her body, but there was no need to do so.


    ¡°Everyone, back off for a moment and get close together,¡± she instructed, helping Shun Liu Min out from beneath her dick, ¡°Make sure to share this, okay?¡±


    They couldn¡¯t know the exact meaning of words as vague as that, but there wasn¡¯t much to figure out. Apart from the dazed maid, who immediately went to sucking the tip of Wei Yi¡¯s cock, they were close together, their mouths were still open as they breathed heavily, and they had heard not long ago that the Ascendant appreciated their closeness. They had already tasted her dick together, so they were prepared for what was about to come.


    Moments later, as Wei Yi bit her bottom lip, her first orgasm of the day arrived. As the underside of her cock bulged, a thick rope of cum burst into Shun Liu Min¡¯s eager mouth, filling it in moments, forcing her to back away as to not be overwhelmed.


    A second wave covered much of the maid¡¯s face, thick, musky semen splattering onto her skin and staining her blond hair. With a quick twist of her hips, the Ascendant directed the following ropes into the ready mouths of Chao Ru and Miyu, though more inevitably went onto their faces and bodies, coating them in a thick layer of white. Every drop was thick and viscous, sticking to their skin, and if they cared for the long-term, it would be a pain to clean up, especially the scent that would seep into their very core.


    However, they did not care. Wei Yi had her ways, and the other three were perfectly comfortable with being marked by her, in whatever way she wished.


    More importantly for now, the three looked to one another and, with Miyu keeping her initiative, turning to her right and placing a hand on Shun Liu Min¡¯s cum-stained cheek. She turned the maid¡¯s head towards herself, and then went in for a kiss.


    Their lips met, and soon Shun Liu Min reciprocated, their eyes shut but their tongues playing with one another, exchanging the load that they had both received. Wei Yi¡¯s seed had filled their mouths completely, so it was inevitable that they would swallow some of it in the process, but even then plenty remained when Chao Ru finally opened one of her eyes ¨C the others was covered in cum ¨C and realised what they had gotten up to.


    She would¡¯ve voiced a complaint, but with a full mouth, she could only attempt to burn it into Miyu¡¯s open eyes with her own gaze, ¡®Give me a chance! You greedy bitch!¡¯


    Of course, Chao Ru held no particular ill will for either one of them, especially in the long term, but it was frustrating to see herself being left out, even if it was almost inevitable in a kiss. Hence, the moment that Miyu showed weakness, her arm relaxing their embrace around Shun Liu Min, she took action, forcing them apart.


    Some seed spilled onto Miyu and Shun Liu Min¡¯s chins, but they were able to keep most of it inside, feeling the mixture of cum and saliva burning their insides with the vast heat the former exuded.


    Chao Ru placed her fingers beneath Miyu¡¯s chin, lifting it up as she got closer, positioning her parted lips above and tilting her head slightly. She let Wei Yi¡¯s seed drip down from her mouth and into Miyu¡¯s, replacing some of what the otherworldly demon had swallowed. After a few seconds, Chao Ru closed the gap between them and entered into a kiss, soon forgetting all about Shun Liu Min or Wei Yi, though the latter¡¯s presence was easily felt due to her blazing hot seed.


    Miyu and Chao Ru delighted in one another¡¯s soft lips, and appreciated one another¡¯s talents. Miyu was relatively inexperienced, and so her kissing was full of passion but devoid of any skill. It was chaotic, almost random, trying to emulate what she had seen in pornographic material, but that was hardly an instruction manual.


    Meanwhile, Chao Ru had far more actual practise. Before her heart was stolen by Wei Yi and her particular talents, and her body was stolen by her massive cock, she had slept with numerous ladies, and kissed even more. She knew exactly what had pleased most of them, and so she applied that here as well, though she suspected that Miyu hardly needed it. A single touch left the otherworldly demon blushing and gasping for breath, and if she went much further, then there would need to be an immediate intervention with some healing methods.


    That left two of them separate from the kiss yet again, and gave the maid a little time to recover from her musk-induced daze. Wei Yi simply enjoyed the sights for a while, her cock remaining hard the whole time, but once Shun Liu Min¡¯s mind obtained a hint of proper coherency, she kindly helped her out of the tangle of bodies.


    She looked up at the Ascendant ¨C even when she was standing, she couldn¡¯t hope to match her unusual height ¨C and communicated via her thoughts, knowing that Wei Yi would hear them, ¡®So, uh¡­ Do you want to kiss me as well? Or¡­ would you¡­ uh¡­¡¯


    ¡°Did that curiosity finally evolve into a fetish?¡± the Ascendant asked, feeling some delight at seeing the panic in the maid¡¯s eyes, ¡°They¡¯re not paying attention anyway, don¡¯t worry.¡±


    Shun Liu Min glanced down and found that she was right. Chao Ru had, at some point, pushed Miyu down and was now groping her chest, rubbing some of the spilt seed into Miyu¡¯s skin in the process. After she was satisfied with that, she moved to the nipples, twisting and pulling on them, receiving more elated moans from the otherworldly demon as she did so. Then again, Miyu was pleased with just about anything, making Chao Ru a little jealous of how easy she was to please.


    ¡®I guess you¡¯re right¡­ Still, is this¡­ I mean, should I really-¡¯


    ¡°Do you want to or not? Everything aside from that can pretty much be ignored. There¡¯s no particular health risk to you, given the current purity of my body, and even if there was, I doubt there is anything that I couldn¡¯t resolve in one way or another,¡± the Ascendant assured her, getting closer to Shun Liu Min and sliding her cock in between her thighs, ¡°So, as long as you want it, we can try it.¡±


    ¡®¡­ What if I wanted to get a dick and stick it in yours?¡¯


    ¡°Stop listening to Miyu¡¯s ideas. It¡¯s not good for you,¡± Wei Yi wanted to interrupt that train of thought as soon as possible, but she just had to add, ¡°I imagine I could get a technique for that- No, stop that¡­¡±


    ¡®I didn¡¯t say anything.¡¯


    ¡°I did¡­ So, want to fulfil the original, desert-born fantasy?¡±


    The maid considered it for a while, her surface-level thoughts managing to focus entirely upon it and move on from both the otherworldly demon¡¯s idea and the presence of hot seed in her mouth. Eventually, she made up her mind, and as soon as the conclusion formed, the Ascendant learned about it and promptly closed the small gap between them, parting the maid¡¯s lips with her own and quickly plugged the gap that formed with her tongue.


    Of course, the taste of her own cum was present and strong, as it bypassed her lack of taste thanks to not being food. That didn¡¯t stop her from enjoying the kiss, as it wasn¡¯t that bad at all, although she could never quite understand why those she slept with seemed so fond of it, among other things.


    She swallowed some of it, and invited Shun Liu Min to swallow the rest, letting her fill her belly. It was not enough to count as a meal of any kind, but if she exerted herself enough, she could fix that issue. She was a little concerned about the possibility of throwing away her taste of it in that manner, but since she didn¡¯t understand the exact principle behind that particular deficiency of her body, she wasn¡¯t going to risk it.


    ¡°I think you¡¯re getting a little distracted¡­¡± Shun Liu Min noticed, quite correctly, ¡°Is it about-¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s my own issues. Come on, they¡¯re almost done, if you still want this¡­ yes, I see you do,¡± the Ascendant smiled as she saw the maid returning to her knees, approaching the tip of her dick with far more reluctance than before, ¡°Now, just put your lips around it and give me a moment.¡±


    She¡¯d add details, like she was fond of doing, but she knew that it would be a bit much when the former maid was already so nervous. Her fantasy would remain embarrassing to her whether she knew that Wei Yi¡¯s piss was as clean as fresh water, or anything like that. Furthermore, the more they said, even if they never mentioned the act specifically, the more the other two would understand, which, in Shun Liu Min¡¯s mind, would be a disaster.


    Back when she had first gained her dick, she had tried it out in all the ways she could think of, and peeing while standing up naturally came up. It wasn¡¯t an especially necessary ability, not even if one ignored her ability to purify all of her body¡¯s waste products with her physique energy, but she had done it a couple of times, when she felt like it.


    Simply urinating wasn¡¯t a new experience, but when another person was involved, the feeling suddenly changed quite a bit.


    In concept, their current position was similar to a blowjob wherein one participant stood and another kneeled, a thing she had experienced more than enough times, and yet there was this sense of unique intimacy and¡­ well, she hardly knew what it was, but even she felt a degree of shyness, while Shun Liu Min¡¯s face was practically ablaze. If they had been in a different situation, perhaps just standing next to one another, Wei Yi would have suspected that she had a fever.


    In their current position, as she relaxed her bladder and willed her body to do its thing, all while Shun Liu Min was looking up at her with obvious shame and a hint of expectation, every moment felt like an hour. It made her heart beat quickly, almost uncomfortably so ¨C an impressive feat given her body.


    After a few moments, it finally came, a small spray erupting into the maid¡¯s waiting mouth.


    For a second, Shun Liu Min¡¯s eyes went wide as she comprehended the fact that this was actually happening. There was nothing especially unpleasant nor great about the thin stream, almost making her feel as if she was drinking from a clean spring, but the sheer taboo of what she was doing made the experience absolutely fascinating and exciting.


    She was even a little disappointed that there wasn¡¯t a stronger taste, but as she began to swallow, she also decided to move a little, moving her head in to envelop the entirety of Wei Yi¡¯s glans before retreating. Her focus on that ridge quickly made the Ascendant¡¯s cock throb, returning to full hardness, though that didn¡¯t prevent her from filling Shun Liu Min¡¯s mouth with her piss, producing the necessary fluid with some cultivation-based trickery.


    If she wished, she could keep going for as long as she wished, but she knew that the maid had finite space within her body ¨C and her bladder, which would inevitably be filled after this ¨C and so it would be best to finish up.


    The stream weakened and ceased, leaving Shun Liu Min bobbing on her cock with a strange sense of tranquillity within her mind. Having settled this, as unconventional as the act was, the maid felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her, and she was free to move on. She wasn¡¯t sure if she was going to try anything of the sort again ¨C that was a matter to be decided when she was alone and free to think ¨C but she was sure that she would find it much easier to go on with her life than she previously had been.


    At least, that was the idea.


    ¡°She finally did it? Now I want to taste her piss as well¡­¡± Miyu¡¯s voice suddenly entered her ears, prompting her to turn her gaze slowly to the side. There, she found her and Chao Ru lying together, still stained with cum, their bellies clearly fuller than before, and both of them looking directly at her, with Wei Yi¡¯s cock still in her mouth.


    ¡°You two are disgusting¡­ but you are tempting me¡­¡± Chao Ru joined in, hesitating for a moment before sniffing the air, ¡°I don¡¯t smell anything awful¡­¡±


    Shun Liu Min quickly backed away, swallowing anything that remained in her mouth, and grabbed a pillow. The thought of hiding behind it and throwing it at one of the others appeared in her head, and after a moment of hesitation, she chose the latter.

 V5C61: State of the Dimensional Domain

    In the end, although she enjoyed her time with them, and they certainly enjoyed their time with her, she still had other matters to take care of. She passed on the techniques she had invented in the forms of killing will tomes, then, as the sun rose over the Planar Continents, she headed to her next destination.


    It was not within the districts, Paragon or the Kong Prison Realm, but it was within the range of the spatial stabilisation nodes, so she could get there easily enough without needing to make use of any movement methods or skills. What greeted her was surprising, although it was not a particularly unpleasant surprise, for the development of an area and the large number of people that now lived there was in no way a negative change. Given the number of otherworldly demons that seemed to exist in the world, it was only natural that once they had a place to congregate, they would do so.


    After she had fought with the Greats once more, that growth must have been boosted quite significantly, for she now saw numerous residences, roads, and people roaming them.


    Most of them looked like the native populace of the Planar Continents, with a few being an exception to that, but their fashion and general mannerisms, as well as average cultivation level, clearly differed significantly. There were a few in the higher realms of cultivation ¨C meaning the third and fourth, not the seventh and above as Wei Yi might usually mean by the phrase ¨C but they were in the clear minority in comparison to those in the second and first.


    None were lacking in cultivation entirely, and all had a clear trace of an otherworldly gift within their body, or on it in the case of those items that functioned more like artefacts than innate abilities. Presumably, the influence of the azure lights and the natural tendency towards curiosity present within all people she had encountered so far meant that all had either begun their journey of cultivation before coming here, or had simply been placed into the world or even within the body of another who had already done this before them, and would have thus had no options to be in any other state unless they wished to scatter their cultivation willingly and deliberately.


    Their clothing had originated from Fu Zan and some of the other tailors in the Dimensional Domain, with the current quality being brought down by the latter more so than it will be by the former, once he gets back to making things. Some were obviously styled after the fashion of the native worlds that they had come from, but a good portion was at least partially blended with the styles of the Planar Continents. It was rather pleasant to see, even if Wei Yi had no significant attachment to these kinds of things, as it showed that they were not completely disregarding the world they had come to.


    Her arrival had not gone unnoticed, though, so she could not stand around forever.


    Going over to the nearest person to her, a man clothed in something that she did not know the name of, yet knew that all the memories she accumulated so far saw it as being standard attire for a type of particularly lazy individual, and said, ¡°If you know where one Sarah Wilson is, I¡¯d appreciate it if you told me.¡±


    He looked at her, started to look away while raising a hand, presumably to point, but looked back and quickly moved that hand back to himself as a gleam appeared in his eyes.


    ¡°Wait a minute, are you that Ascendant person?¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t need to add the ¡®person¡¯ part, but yes, that is what I call myself. Did you want to speak with me?¡±


    ¡°I have the ability to create figurines of people that I have at least shook hands with! The model is extremely accurate, and it is one of the most popular products on Orbis! Trust me, with this, you will be able to make millions of¡­ whatever currency is present here, I promise you that!¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± Wei Yi couldn¡¯t say anything right away as she was just too stunned by this kind of approach. With little else that she could say, she ended up asking, ¡°Are you sure that there¡¯s such a market here?¡±


    ¡°Of course! Look, let me provide you with an example! Actually, I think that Sarah went there not long ago, so the two of you might meet if she hasn¡¯t yet left!¡± he continued speaking with an absurd level of excitement, reaching out to grab her hand before noticing that her left was made of endless billowing smoke and had claws in place of ordinary fingers. He tried to take her other hand, but the clawed gauntlet upon it made him rethink that notion very quickly.


    Instead, he just did as he had originally intended, pointing towards his place of residence and work. The Ascendant scanned that area with her mental energy, concluded that this was the right direction, and then promptly removed her spiritual perception as she found all of the figurines that the otherworldly demon had been mentioning.


    For once, her term for these visitors and invaders from another world seemed extremely appropriate.


    Still, she did need to speak with Sarah, so she had to follow the man to his abode, as uncomfortable as she was with the nature of his residence. Perhaps others would be fine with it, and there was a clear interest in this kind of thing within the memories of his world that she was able to grab up, but there were two rather significant differences that she could find from the little fragments of memory that she could obtain without trying to delve deeper than the mind would allow.


    First of all, there was her personal feelings and culture, which obviously differed from that of whatever Orbis the man had come from. This was less significant for most, although obviously important for her.


    The second difference was that the images the figurines were based upon were, as far as she was able to tell, entirely fictional, whereas every figurine produced through the man¡¯s otherworldly gift was obviously based upon a real person ¨C there were a few traces of attempts to create those kinds of figurines without the use of the otherworldly gift, which was a good thing, but even the best attempts could not match up to a beginner sculptor¡¯s work. In fact, her own work from before she had figured out how blacksmithing was best done would be better, although she was still somewhat better than most at the time, given the minimal quantity of experience she had.


    There was something rather disturbing about seeing a real person¡¯s image being captured in a figurine that did not attempt to be realistic, like a statue might be. All of the primary features were exaggerated in strange ways that seemed to be in keeping with the aesthetic popular within the nation of Antanord, and it did not mesh well with reality.


    In another context, if she knew none of the people depicted, or couldn¡¯t find traces of them in Dimensional Domain, then she might have seen this as slightly less unpleasant.


    ¡°Here it is, my chamber of wonders! Behold the figurines, and tell me how they affect you.¡±


    ¡°How should they be affecting me?¡±


    ¡°Do they excite you?¡±


    ¡°No?¡±


    ¡°No? This doesn¡¯t make sense, though¡­ You are the woman who had gained a¡­ well, a¡­ how should I put it¡­¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, have you also gotten to meet this¡­ individual?¡± he was interrupted and completely ignored by Sarah, who approached and nudged the man out of the way, making sure to limit physical contact with it by using only the tip of her finger, ¡°Before you ask, these kinds of things do exist where I¡¯m from, although never with real people¡­ Many people will have an image of their favourite character on their main watch face, a holographic projection for their AI assistant, some figurines in their glass display at home, and their¡­ I¡¯m not making any sense to you, am I?¡±


    ¡°No, but I suspect that this applies to him as well,¡± Wei Yi nodded towards the man.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°See? Just remember that the lot of you are either from different versions of the same world, or from different time periods and nations, so while there may be similarities between your experiences, that does not guarantee that there will necessarily be complete understanding.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to tell me that, we¡¯ve figured it out the last time I tried asking someone to make me a replica of my watch¡­ I don¡¯t know what they thought they were giving me, but it was nothing alike.¡±


    ¡°It seemed to be exactly what you had been describing to me-¡±


    ¡°Please stop talking, we are having a conversation on our own at the moment. Later on, when we¡¯re done, then I¡¯m sure the two of us might want to continue whatever conversations we were having with you, but if that is the case, we will inform you then. Got it?¡± upon seeing him nod ¨C however reluctantly ¨C she put her right arm around Sarah and brought them a little further away from both the man and his residence, ¡°Now, I don¡¯t necessarily dislike that person, but I get the feeling he hasn¡¯t quite adjusted to the world, or to people. His eagerness to make use of otherworldly gifts is also concerning when they have little practical benefit.¡±


    ¡°I got that impression too. People like him are not too uncommon in the world I¡¯m from, and they have a natural interest in the fantastic and supernatural. He¡¯ll calm down eventually, so I just made a large and empty residence for him to use his energy in a more productive way.¡±


    ¡°If you can call it that-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Tabuchi Shoji, by the way!¡± the man called out, forcing the two of them to turn towards him, ¡°Shoji is my name, and Tabuchi is the family name-¡±


    ¡°Look, while I don¡¯t mind you doing your thing, provided that you don¡¯t do anything untoward. I can even forgive your curiosity regarding my sexual interests ¨C providing that was what you were asking, and that I didn¡¯t misinterpret your question. If I had, sorry, and if I haven¡¯t, I¡¯m not answering anyway.¡±


    ¡°I, uh, well¡­ Yeah, I¡¯ll step back. Sorry¡­¡±


    He took a step back, then a few more, then went behind a wall and focused on something completely different, leaving the Ascendant and Sarah on their own.


    ¡°Well¡­ Is it true that dragons in this world are all hermaphrodites?¡±


    ¡°I would comment on how much of a non-sequitur that is, but I did so anyway and can now move onto the more important matter. Have I started releasing some kind of aura that makes people think about sex and sexual organs, or was that just on your mind without there being any experts on the matter that could inform you about this prior to my arrival? I mean, I don¡¯t know that much either, having never met a dragon in person, but that is what all records about them state, so if that was all you wanted to know¡­ you now do,¡± Wei Yi said, sighing.


    ¡°It¡­ it¡¯s that guy¡¯s fault, what with him bringing it up and making every single one of the figurines be incredibly and overtly¡­ eroticised.¡±


    ¡°Not sexualised?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a difference, and if there¡¯s one thing that clearly the same within our two worlds, it is that the Antanorden are very familiar with it. In fact, they might well be the sole purveyors of it, though I had not made it a habit to investigate such things¡­¡± Sarah glanced at the figurines in the back of the room, then towards the Ascendant, ¡°I don¡¯t think that I had gotten the answer last time we spoke, but¡­ are you a dragon?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re asking whether I have a dick or not.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yes.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Ah-¡±


    ¡°But I am no dragon, so don¡¯t you worry about me doing whatever dragons typically do¡­ Depending on interpretation, either looting all artefacts and treasures, kidnapping women, or providing you will dull poetry on very, very interesting matters.¡±


    ¡°¡­ So, what did you want to talk to me about?¡±


    ¡°About the current state of this Dimensional Domain, and the fact that I might be able to remove the azure light from your body now. The only problem is that it will compromise your ability to construct this place significantly, at least until your cultivation rises to something reasonable, so if the current Dimensional Domain is not sufficiently advanced, then it may be wiser to delay it until there are more structures and more room for people to live without needing immediate construction efforts¡­ I could assist a little more with that in the future, but my current construction abilities are still lacking.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s excellent. I have been a little worried about my state, so if those kinds of dangers are removed, then I shall not mind a temporary halt in construction. In fact, I¡¯d like it soon, since it is quite tiring to manage an actual city with real people and problems, unlike the city building games I usually play.¡±


    ¡°Are you actually leading these people, then, or are you only the construction team?¡±


    ¡°Both, in part. We¡¯re civil enough, so there¡¯s not much that needs to be done, and even those who are used to receiving everything in shops and orders from online stores have managed to find others that can provide those kinds of services,¡± Sarah Wilson stated, deciding to lean against one of the walls and look up at the wooden ceiling, ¡°It¡¯s quite surprising, actually, but that¡¯s how it is, and I am not about to complain.¡±


    ¡°Good, in that case, I can remove the azure light and you can relax for a little while, before or after you show me what it is that you¡¯ve created here. When should I do it?¡±


    ¡°Now, unless it will exhaust me greatly.¡±


    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t. The biggest danger is that you will be hurt in some outwardly obvious way, but from what I can tell, your otherworldly gift is residing somewhere near¡­¡± Wei Yi raised her right hand and lightly brought her clawed fingertip to Sarah¡¯s forehead, ¡°Here. Even if there is some outward damage, it will not be as significant as the loss of vision within one of your eyes, like in the case of Miyu.¡±


    ¡°Then, if you could¡­¡±


    The Ascendant nodded and removed that finger, swapping to her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow for the ease with which she could execute her method of azure light removal. By channelling all of the power of the Purifier¡¯s Seal through the artificial limb, she could invoke more strength in the same manner that using it to perform Touch the Heavens, as it granted her more room to amplify her energy without regard for her own wellbeing. In theory, she could go as far as she wanted even without it, provided that she did not permanently damage herself, but shredding flesh and bone was significantly less pleasant and far more time consuming than temporarily scattering a bunch of smoke.


    She focused on the trace of azure light within Sarah¡¯s body, then, with a slight nudge of her finger, she pierced the skin and invoked the power of the Purifier¡¯s Seal. It grabbed onto the azure light and melted it away from the otherworldly gift contained within the woman¡¯s skull, forcing the light out of her.


    The very instant that it was no longer settled snuggly within her body and otherworldly gift, the array of the Truth of the Universe activated, acting upon the azure light and forcing it to depart in the manner that they usually would. Each time she saw this, Wei Yi pondered where these lights would travel, and whether there would be a living being on the other side that would receive them.


    Given that the lights appeared to be pieces of energy, potentially seeds for something greater, masses that would produce the power of some fundamental aspect, there needed to be someone or something that wished for their return, or else there would be no reason for them to depart when provided with a relatively simple signal ¨C at least when compared to the power of the azure lights themselves.


    Wei Yi believed that the difference between the azure lights and the Imperfect Rift and Eternal Gate of cultivation was that the latter two were purely sources of planar energy, and dependant on both the Laws of the Planar Continents and the state of the cultivator. The azure lights did not appear to be anything like this.


    All of them were outside of the Laws of the Planar Continents, and thus imperceptible by using only spiritual perception and powers originating from the continents themselves. Their power was infinite regardless of what the heavens wished, and the energy that they generated was not limited to the five aspects of planar energy. In other words, it was a purer and more powerful and it could simulate planar energy because the latter was only a manifestation of the greater form of energy provided by azure lights, and likely used by the world itself.


    She didn¡¯t know what name to give it, nor did she think that she would be the one to do so. It was almost guaranteed that she did not invent or discover it first, and if there were so many of these azure lights in just the Planar Continents, then there were likely to be hundreds of other worlds with millions of azure lights bound to the same number of otherworldly gifts, doing whatever it was that they were meant to be doing. The Ascendant had no clue what that purpose was, not yet.


    In theory, pursuing that form of energy would be key for her, as it would allow her to surpass nearly every limit within the Planar Continents and the methods of cultivation available to her. Trying to rush straight toward that would not be advisable, to put it mildly, as it would be nearly impossible without an outright miracle, if those things could even be said to be omnipotent. Instead, her plan was to use her five cultivation paths, condense true planar energy once she had the ability to do so, and then use that to derive the nature of energy that was closer to the original, absolute, perfect energy. In theory, there was something at the very peak, at the very core, from which all energy was derived, something so fundamental that there was nothing simpler than it.


    Of course, this was her getting distracted again.


    ¡°¡­ Ow. That hurts. That really hurts, actually¡­¡± Sarah said, her words getting faster as she put her hand on her forehead and tried her best not to cry out, ¡°Fuck¡­ Was this what Miyu dealt with, but in her eye instead?¡±


    ¡°Possibly, although it took me far longer to figure out what I was doing back then, and so she would have suffered longer.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­ When I next see her, I will be much nicer. Bake her a cake, or ask Lilian to do so for me, since she has an otherworldly gift for that. It¡¯s the intent that matters, I think.¡±


    ¡°You can figure that out on your own. Before then,¡± Wei Yi suddenly pushed Sarah back a step and pinned her against the wall with her right arm, ¡°I don¡¯t think that people just ask about things without a reason for it. You were curious about me just a minute ago, so what is it that you wished to learn with your question? Has it just been a while since you dealt with those kinds of needs?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ That guy isn¡¯t watching us, is he?¡±


    ¡°I put up a barrier some time ago, so he has no choice but to look elsewhere. Do keep in mind that, now that you have asked that, I am not going to accept you just changing the subject like last time, so think carefully about what you do next.¡±


    Sarah did try to shift her position slightly, but once the Arm was placed on her other side, she had little room to do so, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll tell you¡­ You¡¯re not entirely wrong. I had a partner on Orbis, and, obviously, he hadn¡¯t come with me¡­ I heard that the culture here is a little different, and that you had gotten three women pregnant despite being a woman yourself, so-¡±


    ¡°You knew that, but still had to ask whether I have a cock? Really?¡±


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know what magic can do! Perhaps that¡¯s just normal for people in the Planar Continents, and so I had to check¡­¡±


    ¡°So, did I catch your attention? Have you always wanted to get to know a woman with something extra?¡±


    She swallowed audibly, no longer able to meet the Ascendant¡¯s gaze, ¡°Had I gotten to do this on my own terms, I might have explained a variety of reasons and, ultimately, excuses about why you grabbed my attention, why I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about you, why I was hoping you¡¯d return from whatever had happened over to the north¡­ If it is true that things are done differently here, then can I just ask for a favour? Just one, and we don¡¯t have to do anything again¡­ at least, I don¡¯t intend to do so at the moment.¡±


    ¡°Do what? I can read your mind to a certain extent, but not to the extent of being able to understand your every want and desire. Even if I could, hearing you say it is far more to my liking,¡± Wei Yi smiled, although it would be hard not to see her expression as somewhat predatory considering the context.


    ¡°¡­ If this makes it out of your barrier, I will never speak to you again¡­¡± Sarah said, finally meeting her eyes once more as she bit her lip and blushed, ¡°I want to have a taste of it. You know what I mean.¡±


    ¡°I do. You want this to be a casual, one-time thing, right?¡±


    ¡°If that¡¯s possible¡­¡±


    ¡°Guessing by the way you¡¯re acting, that is not necessarily going to be the case if you change your mind. Nonetheless, I don¡¯t have a problem with that, and if the three at Paragon and the Kong Prison Realm had a problem with it, they would have said something after I got the other two pregnant,¡± the Ascendant said, moving her hands from the wall and taking a step back, ¡°Here, or at a more pleasant location?¡±


    Judging by the woman¡¯s suddenly widening eyes, she might have forgotten about their current locale completely, ¡°Oh, anywhere but here¡­ although my bedroom would be best.¡±


    ¡°Very well, then. Take my hand.¡±


    ¡°Ah, so this must be the Ascendant I had heard so much about ¨C and saw not long ago. By the way, Sarah, is there something wrong?¡±


    ¡°Hm? No, nothing at all. Why would you ask?¡±


    ¡°You look a little red.¡±


    That description by another otherworldly demon, an athletic woman wearing a tight sporty shirt and similar shorts, was quite an understatement, as Wei Yi and her knew and as Sarah realised only moments later, since it was difficult not to.


    The architect of the Dimensional Domain had hot crimson cheeks and a distracted gaze, with one hand resting beside her lips and a finger attempting to slip in whenever she stopped paying attention. Her eyes were prone to glancing towards the crimson-haired woman on her left, and if that wasn¡¯t bad enough, it also tended to go downwards in an attempt to rest at a certain part of the body.


    Given her experience in her original world, as well as her general age, behaving like this should have been out of the realm of possibility, and yet an interaction that she had wished to be so simple left such an impact on her. The attempt to clean her face of the Ascendant¡¯s smell only seemed to bring it more into her focus, while similar attempts to wash out the taste did little more than to put it at the forefront of her mind. She recognised how much she was acting like an inexperienced teenager who had decided to experiment a little with a friend that they liked, in no small part due to how her original experience of this kind was very, very different.


    Perhaps that was what left her so off-guard for her mind¡¯s obsession with the silver-eyed woman, since she had never had never been so pleasantly surprised by a first-time interaction before.


    ¡°Uh, is she alright? She¡¯s not been paying attention for the last few minutes, and I don¡¯t know what kinds of ailments can come upon someone in this world¡­¡± the other otherworldly demon, who had introduced herself simply as Monique to the Ascendant, said.


    ¡°She just had to go through a few rather shocking things recently, mainly the removal of the azure light from her otherworldly gift. I¡¯m sure that she¡¯ll get better soon enough, so just give her a little space to adjust,¡± Wei Yi responded, tapping Sarah on the shoulder to get her attention, ¡°You were going to introduce us to one another, and yet you are so distracted that I have gotten most of the introductions out of the way myself. Would you prefer to go and lie down while I walk around on my own? I¡¯d be fine with that.¡±


    ¡°N-No, sorry, I was just¡­ Uh, this is- wait, you already¡­ Ah, fuck it, I¡¯ll go back home,¡± she decided, muttering quietly afterward, ¡°No way I¡¯d go to the bed, though. That place¡­ It¡¯d be even more distracting¡­¡±


    She rushed off a little too quickly, and barged into her own home before running up to the second floor bedroom and shutting the door behind herself, only to realise how much of a mistake that was moments later. The door had been shut before that, so that she could use the bathroom without the very scent she had tried to wash away heading right back towards her, and the ventilation was best described as nigh non-existent, so what she returned to was the same as when she had left it.


    It was impossible for her to ignore the warmth, the overwhelming smell, nor her body¡¯s reaction to it. Sitting down right on the floor, beside the bed, where she had been only a few minutes before that.


    Her hand gravitated towards the moist spot between her thighs, her breaths heavy and her eyes half-shut as she thought back to the taste of a white, thick fluid within her mouth and upon her tongue. Moving her drenched panties to the side, she inserted a finger without any difficulty at all.


    ¡®Why? Why am I feeling like this? I thought that I¡¯d be able to distract myself with something that would remind me of him instead, but now¡­¡¯ she tried to contain her moans and whimpers, but soon she was unable to do even that, using three of her fingers to pleasure herself, ¡®It must be some kind of magic from this world¡­ There¡¯s no way that something like that can be so pleasant¡­ and delicious¡­¡¯

 Bonus Chapter: Just This Once [R-18]

    ¡°So, here¡¯s my bedroom. I would have copied what I had at home, but that would just make me feel¡­¡± she chose not to finish that sentence, looking back at Wei Yi, ¡°What do you think about it?¡±


    ¡°Does it matter? If I said it was awful, would you change it?¡±


    ¡°Uhm¡­ Alright, fair point, especially since I said that I wanted this to be casual¡­ stupid mouth saying stupid things¡­¡± she paused, before her shoulders fell and she sighed, ¡°I said all of that out loud, didn¡¯t I? Fuck my life¡­¡±


    ¡°You asked me not to.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t start with that. You, with your big smug face, that overly confident attitude, your beautiful eyes- shit, again!¡± Sarah clenched her teeth and a fist, shaking the latter at nobody and nothing in particular, doing so for a few seconds before pausing and returning to a more neutral stance, ¡°Have you ever held back from masturbating for a week?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I guess? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever-¡±


    ¡°Now imagine that, only a few days after a beautiful, nice day spent with your husband-¡±


    ¡°Can I swap that out with ¡®wife¡¯ instead?¡±


    ¡°You do whatever you want, I guess¡­ anyway, nice day, but you drink just a tad too much and, all of a sudden, you vanish from the Great Empire of Antania and show up in some shitty shack near some dirty, uncouth people. In a few days, I had realised that I was not coming back any time soon, and I was forced to handle this new world full of magical bullshit that pretends it makes sense,¡± she said, reaching out and deftly grabbing a bottle of otherworldly wine, ¡°Even now, in this place, with stuff like this, it doesn¡¯t feel right, and I¡¯ve not even touched this second bottle¡­ after many days.¡±


    ¡°Do you usually drink wine regularly?¡±


    ¡°Every other day. My¡­ it might be best not to mention him, actually. I¡¯ll just feel worse about this,¡± Sarah sighed, putting the bottle back, ¡°Anyway¡­ I¡¯m feeling a bit pent up. I want to do something, but I can¡¯t possibly like another man while he¡¯s still on Orbis¡­¡±


    ¡°No need to explain. Back when I ended up in the Kong Prison Realm, I¡¯d needed a good fuck to sort things out. A blowjob might be enough to help you through the next few weeks, provided you enjoy-¡±


    Her usual long-winded explanation was cut off when Sarah came closer and put both hands on her shoulders, leading Wei Yi closer to the bed. She looked her straight in the eyes, then patted her shoulders with a very serious expression. Then, she sat down on the bed, leaving the Ascendant standing right before her, her groin roughly level with Sarah¡¯s lips.


    ¡°Please, shut up. You can say smart things at times, but you even with your ability to read people¡¯s minds, you seem to suck at the emotional stuff.¡±


    ¡®That can happen when you keep learning, cultivating, and changing¡­ doesn¡¯t help that most of the time, I¡¯m having to restrain my killing intent, as well as gaze upon the world in countless different vision states,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, silently disrobing, ¡°Do you want me to say nothing at all? No noise, either?¡±


    ¡°You can moan or grunt, I guess¡­ No talking, though.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    As she said that, she finally removed the last bit of her clothing, thus leaving Sarah to gaze upon her flaccid dick. In this state, it was small and relatively unimposing, hence why she was able to hide it under her clothing in the majority of cases, with only her balls causing her a few issues. Even then, the full, round pair of heavy balls made it very clear that she was a grower, not a shower.


    ¡°All this talk of me sucking you off, and you¡¯re not even hard¡­ Tch,¡± Sarah sighed, reaching out and cupping the Ascendant¡¯s balls, ¡°Heavy¡­ at least that¡¯s good enough.¡±


    She caressed the twin orbs for a while, the corners of her lips moving up just a little bit in the process. Once Wei Yi¡¯s dick began to grow and harden, rising up slowly thanks to her gentle touches, she brought her other hand to it, moving it about and examining it.


    After giving it a few strokes, she leaned in and breathed in through her nose, hesitantly backing away once she repeated that a few more times.


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ different¡­¡± Sarah muttered, glancing up into Wei Yi¡¯s eyes, not voicing the rest of her thoughts, ¡®Not bad, though. It¡¯s nothing like those musky body washes that try to imitate this. Those are blatantly fake, and this¡­ Fuck, it¡¯s making my mouth water already, I better not make that too obvious¡­¡¯


    She glanced up again, but froze when she realised that the Ascendant tended to read people¡¯s minds rather easily and freely. Perhaps the only saving grace for her was that she had already asked Wei Yi to keep quiet, or else she would have certainly heard a comment or two about it by now.


    Hence, she slowly exhaled and distracted herself from those kinds of matters. It wasn¡¯t important what others would think, because they wouldn¡¯t hear about it ¨C unless she said it herself, of course. Wei Yi had already agreed to doing this only once, so that was fine as well. Right now, she just needed to focus upon herself and her own pleasure, the outside world(s) be damned¡­ for now. After all, it was just a blowjob.


    By this point, Wei Yi¡¯s cock had already grown quite a bit, reaching around seven inches, and was getting hard enough for Sarah to tighten her grip and slide her hand down the shaft.


    It peeled back the Ascendant¡¯s foreskin, revealing the head of her cock, as well as releasing a greater wave of her natural scent. Sarah¡¯s cheeks flushed as she inhaled through her nose at the same time, getting a full dose of the musk that she had been admiring earlier, but she remained focused and stroked the Ascendant¡¯s cock, going slowly for the moment.


    She gazed intently upon the shaft, watching it grow even larger, soon filling out her hand entirely and then becoming too large for her to fully wrap her fingers around the girth. For a moment, she stopped, simply looking upon the fully hard beast in her hand, before gulping loudly.


    Her mouth had already filled up with her saliva by that point, caused by her erotic desire, but she was also rather concerned. Although she did not want to make unnecessary comparisons, she had to acknowledge that Wei Yi was much, much larger than what she was used to. She might have obtained some benefits from this world¡¯s cultivation, she had not learnt how to take something so absolutely excessive.


    ¡°I have to ask, is this¡­ did you¡­ how did you get so big?¡± Sarah found words eluding her, especially when she had to invest a great deal of effort to stop herself from actively drooling.


    ¡°Just came out that way,¡± the Ascendant replied.


    ¡°Lucky bitch¡­ even I am feeling jealous,¡± the otherworldly demon muttered, breaking her gaze away from Wei Yi¡¯s cock for a moment to look her in the eyes, ¡°No more talking, though. Just moan. Actually, moan as much as you can. It¡­ I happen to like that.¡±


    Although she received a nod in response, she wasn¡¯t looking up any longer. Sarah was purely focused on the tip of Wei Yi¡¯s cock, breathing deeply through her nose, though even she couldn¡¯t decide whether she was doing so consciously or deliberately. Either way, she was feeling her head filling up with musk, a thick scent that grew thicker with each breath, clearly emanating from the glorious shaft and full balls before her.


    Her lips parted and she moved her head forward, opening her mouth as wide as she could. Soon, she had the tip in between her lips, so she wrapped them around it and stuck out her tongue, licking around in a circle. Aside from the musky scent that she had begun to grow accustomed to, sticking to her tongue and filling her mouth, she could taste little else, but then she flicked the tip of her tongue against the urethral slit. When she had gazed upon the tip before, it had been dry, but now she found a bead of fluid that she lapped up.


    This time, although her mind froze, her body did not, and her tongue went back to the slit, attempting to coax out more precum. The reason was simple ¨C it tasted absolutely divine.


    It was completely unlike anything she had tasted before, containing the expected salty taste but also something more. There was a pleasant sweetness, making it downright delightful to lick up and keep on her tongue for as long as possible.


    She had never expected this part of the process to be wonderful. Her previous experiences had been passable at best, and rather unpleasant at worst ¨C an event that had prompted the suggestion of a diet change for her husband back when he was still her boyfriend ¨C but this blew them all out of the water, making her desire little more than to fill her mouth with this wonderful flavour, to fill her head with the Ascendant¡¯s musk, and to drown herself in this delight forever.


    Obviously, it was rather difficult to do such a thing when she had decided to do this only once. She would need to stop eventually.


    ¡®In that case, I just need to make the most of this, don¡¯t I? I should enjoy it to the fullest¡­¡¯ a dangerous glint appeared within her eyes, but it faded quickly and she focused on the beast before her, speeding up and taking a little more of it into her mouth.


    As her tongue worked the rock-hard glans, Wei Yi finally permitted herself to release a moan, a much deserved sign of praise for Sarah¡¯s work. Her life back on her Orbis had clearly given her more than enough experience, and now that she had been prevented from enjoying herself for a long while, she was adding plenty of enthusiasm to it. She quickly determined exactly what the Ascendant liked, and then improved on it, bringing more and more pleasure to her.


    Had she been taking charge here, she would have begun moving as well, thrusting into Sarah¡¯s mouth, but she restrained herself and instead let her natural semen production recover.


    Given that she couldn¡¯t be sure how Sarah would react to her dick, she had limited its production to about a hundredth of the usual rate, and now she let it climb back up. The few beads of precum that filled the otherworldly demon¡¯s mouth were soon matched and exceeded by the steady stream that poured from her urethra.


    Sarah clearly noticed, for she paused to glance up into the Ascendant¡¯s eyes and then moved her head back, so that only the tip remained behind her lips. For a few moments, she simply lapped up the white drops, tasting each and every one of them with the same care as the first, but even when she went back to fellating the upper half of the shaft she continued to look up. At the same time, her hand returned to massaging Wei Yi¡¯s balls, while the other settled on the back of the Ascendant¡¯s thigh, which she used to support herself as she took her cock deeper.


    Soon, she had taken it to the back of her throat, a quick tap leading to her gagging for a moment. Continuing to demonstrate the skills of an expert, she needed only a moment to recover and resume working on the length she was able to take, her tongue focusing on the underside of Wei Yi¡¯s dick while her lips and sensual gaze did their best to please the rest of it in a similar way.


    It took her a while to get used to it, but soon her hand moved from the Ascendant¡¯s thigh to the remaining few inches of her cock, stroking it deftly, making use of the ample saliva that was covering the length. Her mouth had begun to water long ago, and it was not showing any signs of stopping.


    The steady dripping of precum was similar, except it continued to grow in volume, elevating to a sizeable flow of pre that Sarah was forced to gulp down every few seconds, the movement causing her mouth to become tighter and to press down on the shaft within. Obviously, that only pleased Wei Yi more, and alongside the growing number and volume of her moans, her cock also made sure to demonstrate its delight.


    Although it was in the wrong hole for that, it seemed utterly intent on breeding here there and now, on filling her throat with musky seed that would mark her breath for the rest of her life. It would let the people around her know that she was just the bitch that offered herself up to be bred first, the whore that got the approval of her master-


    She pulled away and let the entire shaft outside her mouth, ceasing the strokes and using that hand to instead collect the stream of precum that lost its original receptacle.


    ¡°Hah¡­ ha¡­ ah¡­ My head feels strange¡­¡± Sarah gasped for air, finding that her lungs felt oddly empty after a period of time that felt so brief and insignificant, ¡°And what¡¯s with this? I hope you¡¯re not cumming already.¡±


    By that point, the stream of pre had already formed a sizeable pool in her hand, and made it very clear that it was very thick and potent in its own right. On Orbis, the one that Sarah was familiar with, any man that came a load like that would be seen as incomparably virile and impressive, easily surpassing the few millilitres that were expected, and yet, she had just drank far, far more. It seemed almost ludicrous, excessive, even.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not. Trust me, you¡¯ll know when I cum,¡± Wei Yi reassured her, glancing at her thoughts.


    The otherworldly demon didn¡¯t comment on that, her attention still focused on the fluid gathering in her hand. It was already reaching the point of overflowing, and it had certainly overcome anything that her husband had managed to produce. Better diet or not, that man was an ordinary human, not whatever virile beast the woman before her was.


    She considered drinking the precum, but a better idea came to mind. Removing her other hand from Wei Yi¡¯s bulging, full nuts, the heat and scent of which made a clear mark upon her palm and fingers, she brought it to the Ascendant¡¯s tip. Sarah moved her full hand down the shaft and slathered the pre onto it, adding another wet, sticky layer of the dark length, and used the other hand to catch the streaming precum and similarly rub it all over the glans, taking particular care with it.


    For good measure, she also spat all of the saliva filling her mouth onto the length, making this the messiest, stickiest, wettest handjob she had ever given another.


    ¡®How does it just look so¡­ so¡­ delicious? Enticing? Hot? I don¡¯t even know anymore,¡¯ she exhaled a mouthful of steam, her breath unexpectedly hot and heavy despite all the effort she had put into calming down earlier, ¡®But, it¡¯s just this once¡­ F-fuck, why did I say that¡­¡¯


    The feeling of regret met with her earlier ideas, and when assisted by the dense, overwhelming fog of thick and smelly arousal, she thought she had a good idea for handling this. It was difficult to assess it as such in most other circumstances, and even in the same ones, but it was the choice she made nonetheless. Wei Yi wasn¡¯t going to talk her out of it, even if reading her mind at this time didn¡¯t present her with that same thick fog of incomprehensible gibberish mostly lusting after her dick, balls, or even her whole body.


    Sarah¡¯s strokes sped up and her fingers tightened around the shaft, one primarily focusing on making the tip while the other took care of the rest of the length, rubbing the fruits of her labour into the dark skin and into her own hands at the same time. She recognised that she would likely never be able to remove the smell of cock and seed with ordinary means, but it was too alluring to stop.


    Wei Yi¡¯s moans grew breathier and more rapid, her heavy nuts tensed up, her cock throbbed, and with a loud grunt and a thrust of her hips, she let her load burst out. Indeed, Sarah had noticed her orgasm approaching, and just as the first rope of cum shot out, she shifted her head to the left and aimed Wei Yi¡¯s cock to the right, causing the first spurt to fly right past her. It would have splattered onto the bed, but the Ascendant kindly released some of her energy to catch it first.


    Similarly, all of the following ropes of seed went wide, with only a few landing upon the otherworldly demon¡¯s shoulders and staining her skin.


    As she had been asked to keep silent, the Ascendant simply raised an eyebrow.


    When she noticed, Sarah¡¯s face went red, but she continued to stroke slowly, ¡°Well¡­ it doesn¡¯t count if you don¡¯t cum in me, right? So, if I just keep myself¡­ mostly clean, then I can keep going for as long as I want!¡±


    ¡®Yeah, she¡¯s lost it. I don¡¯t mind being made to cum a dozen times, but I get the feeling that she needs to make up her mind on how she will handle her life in this world.¡¯


    On one hand, she could view it as a temporary disturbance, one that she would inevitably overcome and return to her lover on Orbis. It was an optimistic view, though not one supported by reality, at least so far as the Ascendant knew. Even the strongest of the otherworldly demons in recorded history, Kong Shi Meng, seems to have failed to return to his world, leaving his otherworldly gift to another that could use it.


    The other alternative was to forget the other world, or, more precisely, to treat it as a place that she would never return to. If Sarah did that, she should be able to effectively adapt to the world she had found herself in and move on to whatever it offered. In that case, it would not be necessary to constantly take her husband into account, in a similar way that one might remarry after their previous partner passed away or otherwise disappeared from the world ¨C something that presumably occurred to her on her version of Orbis, assuming that her body and mind were both transported.


    It might not be the most faithful thing to do, but Wei Yi could see good reasons to arrive at both conclusions, though she could offer neither to the young otherworldly demon.


    This was Sarah¡¯s choice to make, and whatever the Ascendant suggested would never be able to take into account everything that there was to consider, and might sway her in a direction that she would later regret. Hence, all she could do for now was ensure that the decision was made before it was made for her by her own horny brain.


    Sarah was unaware, as she kept stroking Wei Yi¡¯s dick, clearly devoting her attention to it, whispering to herself, ¡°Come on, big boy, cum for mommy¡­ cover her in your white stuff¡­¡±


    ¡®Okay¡­ I¡¯ll only ask about that if we do this again,¡¯ the Ascendant decided, taking matters into her own hands again ¨C as she seemed to need to do rather often when it came to sex with otherworldly demons ¨C and thrust her hips forward, throwing Sarah¡¯s pace off completely and leading her hand to slap right against Wei Yi¡¯s groin.


    A small spurt of seed splattered onto the otherworldly demon¡¯s cheek, causing her to freeze and granting Wei Yi the perfect opportunity to get free of her grip and move over, getting onto the bed, turning so that she faced the same direction as the demon. She gripped the woman¡¯s shoulders and pulled her back, letting her slap her dick right onto Sarah¡¯s face, a layer of saliva and cum leaving a mark on her fair skin.


    ¡°W-What are-¡± her open mouth was all that the Ascendant needed to thrust her dick inside, adjusting their position further before she went in even deeper.


    Although Sarah had been confused by the sudden change in their interaction, she put up no resistance, and even adjusted her seating to offer the Ascendant easier access to her mouth. Wei Yi would have given her a thankful smile ¨C she did, actually ¨C but with her whole ass between her smile and the otherworldly demon¡¯s eyes, it was rather challenging to convey that silently.


    So, she instead displayed her appreciation by settling on an angle of approach, grabbing her by the neck, and plunging her cock right in. Her thrust let her hilt nearly her full length in Sarah¡¯s throat, which bulged from its girth, her balls slapping right onto the demon¡¯s face.


    They landed just beside her nose, letting their scent flood into her mind. At first, they had only a faint smell to them, thanks to a quick wave of physique energy cleansing Wei Yi¡¯s body before this sexual encounter began, but that changed during their activity, the earlier orgasm making the biggest difference. Now, her throbbing shaft and full nuts were covered in sweat and stained by precum and saliva from Sarah¡¯s earlier blowjob.


    In her current position, Sarah was trapped within a sweltering sauna of musk, a visible wet mark being left behind when Wei Yi¡¯s balls slapped against her face. It burned her nose, caused her to sweat and feel like she had stepped into the hottest of Orbis deserts, but all she could focus on was the Ascendant forever burning herself into her mind, with her body capturing all of her senses.


    She got to enjoy her throat being filled to its fullest with a titanic dick, to feel its heat spreading throughout her body, to taste its salty flavour and delight in its pungent stench ¨C not at all a bad thing in her mind ¨C and to hear the Ascendant using her body for her own delight.


    Wei Yi rocked her hips back and forth, plunging her cock in as deeply as she could with each thrust, making sure to slam her length in with all the strength that Sarah would be able to handle. By keeping her grip on the demon¡¯s throat, she made sure that Sarah dealt every little detail on her intruding length, including the bulging veins that became especially obvious when they rubbed against her tongue and throat.


    Inside Sarah¡¯s mind, there was little more than a mixture of pleasure and contentment, all other thoughts long burnt away by the rough treatment and the visible cloud of musky scent.


    It was difficult for her to focus on anything else, but she could recognise a hint of gratitude within her own thoughts. Her own situation had presented a certain conundrum to her, one that she could not solve even when she was thinking straight, but now she had a reprieve from it, if only for a moment. The big, bad temptress simply took her and did as she wished, so she could still make the choice later.


    Of course, if she was to consider this at a later time, in a moment of greater clarity, she would know that this was essentially admitting that she leaned towards one option rather than the other, but she could come to terms with that at a later time.


    For now she simply let herself enjoy being used, though she made sure to contribute what she could to ensure that Wei Yi felt as could as she could. Her tongue had little room to move, but she tried.


    Both of them lost track of time ¨C for the moment, in Wei Yi¡¯s case ¨C and before they knew it, the second climax of the night was arriving. The Ascendant¡¯s balls had been growing fuller and heavier with every thrust, and now they tensed up, her dick growing even harder as she sheathed herself inside the tight throat one last time, losing her balance in the process.


    She fell to the bed, and as Sarah was right beneath her, she fell also, ending up right on the bed while Wei Yi was seated on her face, her dick now straining her throat even more, its features almost clearly visible even on the outside, letting one distinguish individual veins and the like.


    The Ascendant threw her head back as she felt a tidal wave surge out of her dick, flooding into the otherworldly demon¡¯s stomach in countless spurts. Each thick rope of dense seed added to a growing bulge at Sarah¡¯s belly, having no chance to go anywhere else thanks to the absolute seal in the demon¡¯s throat in the form of Wei Yi¡¯s colossal cock. It almost felt as if she had an ocean of cum inside her, for every spurt was no smaller than the last.


    Fortunately for poor Sarah, whose body lacked the proper capacity to fit even a sea, whether literal or figurative, that was not the case. Whatever mysterious means permitted her body to produce and release as much seed as it often did failed to reach the realm of infinity, meaning that the steady torrent of white eventually ceased, doing so just as the otherworldly demon reached her limit.


    Now, she just seemed to be heavily pregnant¡­ perhaps with twins. A regular body shouldn¡¯t have been able to contain so much inside the digestive system alone, but it appeared that the minimal cultivation Sarah had done enhanced her flexibility to some extent.


    ¡®That, or some pervert can¡¯t be bothered to adhere to reality in order to satisfy themselves¡­¡¯


    ¡°Is she wrong? She¡¯s not wrong, is she? Tell you what,¡± several pairs of green flaming eyes grew unnecessarily close to the face of the figure with a violet eye, ¡°Let¡¯s give them all di-¡±


    ¡°No, Alexia. Bad idea.¡±


    ¡°Buzzkill,¡± yet another figure rolled her eyes, ¡°I don¡¯t see how this is any different. You keep fucking her reality, so perhaps she could give you a firm pounding in exchange! Give you a taste of your favourite medicine!¡±


    No response could follow before the cacophony of laughter and giggling flooded the void.


    ¡°W-wha¡­ I feel¡­¡± as Sarah rose from the bed, she found one of her own fingers resting on her lips, and couldn¡¯t resist the sudden urge to lick it, only for her eyes to widen, ¡°That smell¡­¡±


    At the same time, it was absolutely disgusting and utterly divine, and because she recognised it so well, she didn¡¯t wish to decide which one it was. More importantly, however, she knew that she couldn¡¯t possibly go outside while she reeked of cock and cum, an obvious scent of sex that should not be present around a woman that claimed to have a husband that she was intending to return to.


    She glanced towards the bathroom door, only to find the Ascendant standing by it, the door already opened.


    ¡°I helped you absorb most of that, but you can wash yourself if you wish. Apologies for taking it as far as that for our first and only time, but I¡¯ll not touch you again if you don¡¯t want me to. I¡¯ll say nothing to anyone, and we can just pretend we had a dream or something.¡±


    Her words reminded Sarah of her own, causing her to blush and groan inwardly, ¡®Just this once, a one-time thing¡­ How can I possibly keep it that way after¡­ all that?¡¯

 V5C62: Making the Lightless Domain

    Wei Yi¡¯s spiritual perception could naturally see something that was occurring only a few minutes of walking away, and as much as her primal side enjoyed viewing something like that, she was getting all the more concerned about herself and her effects upon others.


    She had anticipated that Sarah¡¯s request would not conclude without any effects upon either person involved, but she was significantly more on the mark than she had wanted to be. Part of the trouble was that she still lacked an understanding of what was the result of her own body and characteristics, what was due to the other person¡¯s preferences, and what, if anything, was influenced by her mysterious Dao of Lust, which had fortunately not advanced in stage since the last time she took a look at it within the Truth of the Universe¡¯s display.


    With her Dao of Law, she could tell if she had incidentally had an effect on the world around her, and judge what to do about it. Sometimes, it was convenient to her, sometimes it was greatly beneficial, and in a few cases it was neither, at which point she would attempt to correct whatever issue it caused. She couldn¡¯t do that with the Dao of Lust, and it was still as bothersome as when she first realised that the possibility of manipulating everyone ¨C well, the women, at least ¨C around her through it was present, no matter how slim or unlikely. When she obtained the vision state of the Eldritch Dao, she was able to seal it because she understood it to a certain extent, but she did not know what the Dao of Lust truly was, and thus had nothing to base any attempts to seal it on.


    This lack of knowledge was her greatest foe in far too many regards, aside from just the Dao of Lust and seemingly charming every woman she had some physical interest in, but she would love to know whether Sarah had just awakened to something or whether Wei Yi had affected her mind and body in a way that she had not meant to do.


    After all, the distinction between natural effects, like arousing someone based on one¡¯s appearance, and those that she considered to be beyond that label, like the power of a Dao that she hadn¡¯t even wanted to acquire, also needed to be clearly defined, at least in her own mind. If she had not involved a Dao at all, intentionally or otherwise, then is the way in which Sarah seems to have become fascinated with her a negative that she needs to get worried about?


    Was the use of Dao in an unintentional manner wrong, either? What if someone had a Dao¡¯s influence, was unaware of it, and ended up affecting the minds of a whole bunch of people in the same way that a convincing speaker, attractive model or an inspiring leader might, perhaps also unknowingly? Is one of those wrong, are all of them wrong, or is everything perfectly acceptable? How could an answer even be obtained when the people that should be best to ask about such a thing, the ones that may fall victim to the influence of some uncontrollable characteristic, already under its effect, and thus unable to display proper judgement?


    ¡®Well, if going on nothing but precedent, then it should be fine, even if it leads to me getting a fourth child in the future¡­ I am concerned, but if I don¡¯t stop giving it as much of my attention, I¡¯ll end up just as distracted as Sarah had been while standing here.¡¯


    Her thoughts could pass by a lot quicker, of course, which was why she could go through a short novel¡¯s worth of contemplation in the same time that Sarah Wilson figured out whether it would be a good idea to remain while she was acting in a similar manner to a blushing girl who had just experienced her first kiss, and now couldn¡¯t stop thinking about it. Instead, she looked back at Monique, who did not appear to have realised her distraction.


    After Sarah had brought Wei Yi over to this otherworldly demon, Wei Yi had learnt her name, the nature of her otherworldly gift, as well as the things she had been getting up to in the Dimensional Domain. Her gift was one that combined two of her passions from her original world, although one was much more of a passion than the other ¨C exercise, which she did on the weekends to keep herself fit, and painting, which was both her job, hobby, and something that she loved with all her heart, to the point of it consuming much of her life and leaving her with far less contact with others than she may have liked.


    Now that she was in the Planar Continents, in a small community of those with similar fates in a range of ways, she had decided to amend that, encouraged to some extent by the otherworldly gift she had.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s called Body Artistry, and I think you can see why¡­¡± the woman lifted her shirt and showed a number of patterns drawn onto her belly, their meandering lines and random turns and straights making it difficult to find any particular purpose in them.


    According to her, they would appear as she trained her body, whether by simple jogging or intensive exercise, but she could also draw them in order to accelerate her physical development. According to some logic that she hadn¡¯t fully understood, there would never be too many of these patterns on her body at once, so she didn¡¯t look like a walking art piece while wearing something even remotely concealing.


    It had an effect on her planar cultivation as well, but it was minor enough that she decided it was worth the risk to keep using it actively. Before she knew it, she had gotten to the fourth stage of Planar Pool, having started in the first, so it was lucky that the Ascendant had come along when she had, or else she might have easily climbed onto further realms and had ideas of becoming the world¡¯s leading athlete by violent means, or something similar. The woman did have enough sense to tone down her workout routine once she noticed that her cultivation was rising more quickly than she had thought it would, so it had only advanced by a stage since the first month of her living in the Dimensional Domain.


    ¡°How much of your body have you covered with those?¡±


    ¡°Everything that isn¡¯t covered by my most open clothes, which are these ones,¡± she answered, ¡°I don¡¯t mind the patterns that much, but it¡¯s still a little weird to put them out there¡­ I wasn¡¯t the type to have tattoos back on Orbis, and I don¡¯t think that I want to change that here.¡±


    ¡°I see. What kind of art did you usually do, then? Landscapes, portraits?¡±


    ¡°Landscapes, mostly. Would you like to have a look? You could also meet with Lilian, who-¡±


    ¡°Makes good cakes, right? Sarah had mentioned her already. I don¡¯t have any interest in meeting her specifically, but I will need to speak with every single person living here, so we might as well meet up while she is around. I had once promised to remove the azure lights from all of you, so that you may cultivate freely, and I intend to keep that promise.¡±


    ¡°Remove them¡­ From my understanding, that will weaken the otherworldly gift things, right?¡±


    ¡°That is correct. Their abilities will mostly recover as you reach a higher realm, though, so just think of it as changing from a static, powerful ability to one that can grow to, potentially, an even higher level than the original one.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°The azure lights are still limited in what they can do, that much I am certain of. However, it is not impossible for you to go beyond the limits of the world, to ascend to a higher level of power. Whether you somehow integrate the power of the otherworldly gift, or simply use your own strength to empower them further, it will almost inevitably bring you greater benefits than simply allowing the azure light to force you onto a path.¡±


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re more of the expert, so I¡¯ll trust you on that. Shall I lead you to my home?¡± she asked, ¡°I¡¯m pretty much done with my jog anyway.¡±


    ¡°Please do.¡±


    ¡°Ah, Monique! You¡¯re¡­ ah, it¡¯s¡­ uh¡­¡±


    ¡°Ascendant, or Wei Yi.¡±


    ¡°Right, my apologies. Would you like a cake?¡± Lilian asked, holding up one such cake while also staring upon it with such hungry eyes that one might assume that she had not eaten within the last decade, despite that clearly not being the case when one looked behind her.


    There, in what should have been Monique¡¯s kitchen, were five plates with traces of various crumbs, icing and what not that must have been cleared recently, for everything was still fresh, moist and warm.


    ¡°You can have it, if Monique doesn¡¯t want it.¡±


    ¡°No thank you.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll have this one too!¡± she exclaimed, immediately confirming the earlier guess by removing a slice of cake and swallowing the whole of it as if she had just breathed in some air in cake form. The visual was slightly more ordinary, but that didn¡¯t stop both Wei Yi and Monique from being slightly concerned about Lilian¡¯s wellbeing.


    ¡°Is this the only thing you eat?¡±


    ¡°You mean cakes? No, I eat other things too, it¡¯s just¡­ They¡¯re too good! You have to try even a little bit, and then you¡¯ll understand!¡±


    ¡°I doubt it¡­ but if you are willing to give me a bit, I will try it.¡±


    She almost instantly received a slice of cake, which she had to convince the woman to reduce to just an amount that would fit on a fork, at which point she put the piece of cake into her mouth and, against her better judgement, hoped to feel even a bit of taste upon her tongue. That would make it the first food item that she had tasted since her imprisonment in the Kong Prison Realm had robbed her of the ability to taste food, and it would certainly be a pleasant experience, even if she tended to be able to taste the lips of others quite often.


    Of course, even though the cake was made through an otherworldly gift, the cake itself was not an otherworldly item. It might have been the most delicious cake in the world, in the entire universe, but she could not taste a thing.


    ¡°As I thought, my sense of taste won¡¯t return just because of this. You can keep the rest of the cake if you wish, although I don¡¯t know what else you would do with it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, there are plenty of people around here that like my cakes. They¡¯ll gladly eat them if I offer them, so the moment that I have had enough ¨C and there comes a time when I¡¯ve had enough, since they are all quite sweet and filling no matter how otherwise delicious they are ¨C I tend to let everyone else have a go. Somehow, they eat far less than I do.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because your portions are rather abnormal.¡±


    ¡°No they¡¯re not. How much do you usually eat a day?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say I was an example of a reasonable diet, for most, but I eat nothing at all. I have no sense of taste, I have an almost constant level of energy thanks to planar energy and physique energy, primarily, and I don¡¯t ever really have the want or need to eat or drink normally, so I don¡¯t do so.¡±


    Lilian¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°You¡­ you can¡¯t be human, can you?¡±


    ¡°I am.¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s not possible! Everyone loves cakes!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s your problem¡­ Anyway, how much of an effect does your otherworldly gift have on your production of cakes? Once you lose it, will that ability be completely compromised?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m decent enough at cakes, I guess, but¡­ wait, don¡¯t you change the subject!¡±


    ¡°Maybe after I remove the azure light from your body. It seems to be somewhere in your right palm, so give it here,¡± Wei Yi instructed, and Lilian gave it to her before she was able to give it much thought, allowing the Ascendant to hold her hand tightly once she began to reconsider, ¡°This will hurt a little, but far less so due to the position within your body. If you scream, you might want to keep it down a little, but otherwise I don¡¯t care what you do or do not do.¡±


    Then, without any further delay, she activated the Purifier¡¯s Seal and focused it upon the odd spot in the woman¡¯s hand. So far, her method of detecting the azure lights had proven to be extremely reliable, and as she used it once more, she confirmed that it still was. Right away, the chosen parameter for the Purifier¡¯s Seal was detected, and a point in the woman¡¯s hand visibly heated up.


    A point of azure light emerged from her skin, and was warded off the moment after via the Truth of the Universe. To the eyes of the other two, it seemed like a vast blast of power forced that azure thing away, and since it was a misunderstanding that not only she had, but that was also quite beneficial to her image, so she didn¡¯t bother correcting it at all. For any of the otherworldly demons to figure it out would be rather unlikely, but even if they did, it would take decades of study and contemplation in order to reach a similar level to her own, so the conflict with the Great Leeches would be near conclusion by that point.


    Furthermore, it was hardly her fault if others misinterpreted her actions, so she wasn¡¯t too concerned about negative consequences from this.


    ¡°Is¡­ is it done? Do I not have that azure light thing anymore?¡±


    ¡°No, you no longer have an azure light. You might say that your otherworldly gift is now lightless, and so your cakes will be slightly less tasty until you either cultivate to a higher realm, or figure out exactly what had been making them taste good and replicate it on your own,¡± Wei Yi explained.


    ¡°Oh¡­ oh no, I need to run! Sorry, Monique, I¡¯ll speak with you later!¡± the woman exclaimed and ran off without another word.


    Thus, Wei Yi and Monique were left alone within the latter¡¯s residence.


    ¡°What?¡± the latter had to ask, unable to comprehend what had just happened.


    ¡°I suspect, although I may be wrong, that she is rather worried about the state of her cakes, and so- oh, she¡¯s just now feeling the burn in her hand. She could¡¯ve stuck around and let me heal her a little, but I suppose I forgot to mention that¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered, ¡°Presumably, once she verified how good or bad her cakes will now be, she will either return or stay there and improve her craft until it reaches some old standard.¡±


    ¡°You can¡­ right, you should be able to see that all the way from here with your abilities. Is it time for me to go through the same thing, then?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Come here, and don¡¯t mind me getting near your breast. The azure light is residing there.¡±


    Although she acted completely nonchalant about this, her energy was being used up quickly with each instance of azure light separation and then banishment, with the Truth of the Universe characters devouring her energy as quickly as Lilian had devoured the cakes. Using her nascent rift and rapid recovery from the other cultivation paths, she was able to sustain semi-rapid usage of the azure light repulsion array, but since she was about to use it for the third time in just an hour, with her characters still needing more energy than her planar pool was able to fit.


    She could remove the azure light from Monique¡¯s otherworldly gift, but if she wished to go through the entirety of the Dimensional Domain¡¯s residents and make all of their gifts lightless, then she would spend another day just on that and recovering energy.


    ¡®There are people I can catch up with here, so it isn¡¯t that bad, but using my time a little more actively would be preferable after this. If I waste too much time, the Great Leeches will recover and attack again, so I should strike before they have the chance to do the same,¡¯ she concluded while activating the Purifier¡¯s Seal and seeing her Arm scatter into naught while the azure light hidden within the otherworldly demon¡¯s body emerged.


    Once more the characters arranged themselves into the array, and once more the azure light was sent off to some unknown place.


    The moment that her Arm had scattered and the array within her body had begun to calm, Monique put a hand on her chest and clenched her teeth, clearly trying to restrain a cry of pain. She managed it, albeit barely, and all that did emerge was a bit of smoke from within her body, caused by the melting of flesh.


    ¡°¡­ Ow. That was¡­ not pleasant.¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t meant to be. I am literally melting the otherworldly gift, alongside your body around it, and extracting the azure light, before I then banish it with one of my methods. If they weren¡¯t so much of a problem, I wouldn¡¯t need to get rid of them, and they could just be called an innate physique or something of the sort ¨C aside from the two being entirely different, of course, but that is beside the point,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°You¡¯re going to need to experiment with your otherworldly gift as well, but it shouldn¡¯t impede you much if you just keep jogging every now and then, regardless of the effect.¡±


    ¡°I may do more if it isn¡¯t dangerous to me anymore. Well, we originally came here to look at my paintings, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s correct. Are you in the condition to show them to me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I should be¡­ there¡¯s a strange feeling, like something¡¯s pressing down on my heart just a little bit. Is that normal, or have I got some kind of heart condition from this?¡± Monique asked, grasping her chest.


    ¡°You should be fine. The otherworldly gift had been rather close to the heart, so I must have affected it as a result. It should get better within a short while, but to make it happen even faster¡­¡± Wei Yi put her right hand on her chest this time and applied the physique ability of Vitality Siphon to move over some of her overwhelming and overflowing lifeforce into the otherworldly demon, focusing it upon the region within which the otherworldly gift resided.


    There was little difference, but Monique¡¯s expression clearly changed to that of relief, so there had to be some benefit for the woman. As such, the Ascendant waited until she could be certain that there was nothing more to be achieved with lifeforce, then stopped providing it and moved her hand back, making sure to heal the slight mark she left upon her skin with the tip of the star metal gauntlet. As of late, she had stopped bothering to put up a protective barrier to stop others from being hurt by it ¨C and didn¡¯t need to do so with herself, as there were always claws on her left hand and the gauntlet was usually present on the right, which meant that she had adjusted to touching herself or any personal belongings in such a way as to not damage them ¨C and it showed, what with the number of people she had already poked with the tip of her claws.


    ¡°That did feel significantly more comfortable. Alright, let me show you some of my work, and then¡­ Is that a cake? Did Lilian leave one of her cakes? Oh no, now we will also need to deal with all of this¡­¡±


    ¡°Later.¡±


    The Ascendant prompted her towards the small art gallery that she had detected within the house long ago, while quietly putting up a small illusion array around the cake so that it would distract the otherworldly woman from it. She was perfectly fine with her doing anything with the cake later on, whether it would be used well or wasted completely, even if it was something she found unpleasant (with her frequent glances into people¡¯s minds, she came across plenty of things that fit that label, and a few had included various baked products) but ideally not now.


    Rather than wasting her time while she recovered her energy and refilled the Truth of the Universe, she would prefer to look at a bunch of paintings, learn the kind of art that her world had led her to create, and study the nature of the people that she now had under her leadership thanks to the existence of the Dimensional Domain.


    Also, it would grant her the perfect chance to consider changing the name to the Lightless Domain instead, as it would suit the new nature of the nation far more.


    The small art gallery was located on the other side of the residence, which was large enough for her to be able to label it as a small mansion, which was the case with most homes within the Domain. There was plenty of space and only around a hundred people residing there, so there were no issues at all with taking up as much empty space as possible. On the contrary, the more they occupied, the easier it would be to connect the three districts it sat between even without the use of her spatial gateways.


    While she and the Kong Prison Realm were still around, there was no need to worry about such a thing, but only temporarily. After enough time passed, the spatial gateways would become the main methods of transportation for all those that do not want to waste days traversing the dangerous wilds, and then they would be rather crowded and busy at almost all times of the day.


    Having an alternative route, on which one may access the services of a group of people with incredible abilities and ideas rarely seen in other parts of the Planar Continents, would certainly be beneficial to many travellers, merchants, warriors and whoever else chose to travel between districts. There were plenty of people like this, and eventually they would allow the various cultures of the otherworldly demons to merge to a certain extent with that of Yi City¡¯s various districts, ideally allowing the better parts of both to remain while the rest was forgotten about over time. Since she had less experience with the world of Orbis, she couldn¡¯t say that she found most aspects of its culture preferable, but perhaps she had not yet seen the better parts.


    Wherever those better parts were, she had a hard time deciding whether the paintings before her fit that label. If nothing else, they were certainly made well and without major flaws.


    Monique had chosen to paint a series of images, and most were depicting green rolling hills and trees, with a soft blue sky above and some mountains or lakes in the distance. Focus was put on the individual blades of grass to the same extent as on the distant features, allowing every part of the image to contain sufficient detail. It did certainly look pleasant enough, that much she could say with certainty.


    Wei Yi had never spent too much time looking at art, whether it was painted, sculpted, or something else, and so she had little to compare this to. This was made even more challenging by the fact that almost all paintings in the Planar Continents would involve planar energy, materials, and the great arts to some extent, as there was very little reason to be interested in a painting otherwise. Most of the time, the effects of a painting would be far inferior to a specialised item of a great art, but their added aesthetic appeal allowed them to be popular in the homes of those that could afford them.


    It was hard to say whether this should be taken into account when judging the images, and so she could find little more to do than provide a shrug as a reaction to the paintings presented to her. If nothing else, their creator seemed to like them.


    ¡°This one was based on what I had seen when I had come to in this world! Look, the grass was being blown about in the wind and looked gorgeous! I had tried to memorise exactly what it looked like, but I couldn¡¯t quite get all the details right¡­ I think. Obviously, since I don¡¯t remember it all, I can¡¯t remember what it was that I had gotten right or wrong¡­¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. Why have you never painted anything from your world?¡±


    ¡°Haven¡¯t I?¡± Monique asked rather calmly at first, but when she took another careful look at every one of her creations, her eyes widened ever so slightly, ¡°Wait, I swear I would have made something¡­ I couldn¡¯t have forgotten to make a painting of the Great Shard, or of¡­¡±


    ¡°This does happen occasionally.¡±


    ¡°W-What does? Memory problems?¡±


    ¡°Those too. Something about the process of being thrown into another world is, surprisingly enough, not ideal for you. That tends to lead to certain memories and ideas seeming to exist, but completely fading from the mind until you suddenly cannot recall them at all when prompted. One woman I knew had lost her name entirely, and she perished not long afterwards¡­¡± seeing that the otherworldly demon was clearly misunderstanding, she clarified, ¡°The death wasn¡¯t directly related, so don¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯d advise you to spend some time remembering everything that you think should be obvious, like that Great Shard, and encourage others to do the same.¡±


    ¡°Could we still remember things like this if we have forgotten them? I mean, there¡¯s only so much that needs to be remembered about most towers and monuments, but if we have nothing, then we have nothing.¡±


    ¡°You have something, however. There is still some memory of the thing itself, and so it has not vanished from your mind entirely. Unlike the name of the woman I had mentioned, you know the name of the thing that you recall, and that it is located in a particular nation with a particular style. Even if the actual thing cannot be remembered, create something in its spirit.¡±


    ¡°Would that be good enough, though?¡±


    ¡°It will bring your thoughts back to the world you have lost, and even if the images of old are not returned to your mind, at least the others will be able to bring their minds back as well. Perhaps when you put many images together, things you have lost will return to you, or perhaps they will serve as inspiration for those of this world and allow you to share your ideas and culture with the Planar Continents even if the key monuments cannot be displayed or replicated.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yeah, that might be good. I¡¯ll get to painting right away! Please, don¡¯t stop me, or else I will lose this inspiration!¡±


    ¡®Eh¡­ Sure, I¡¯ll just go then¡­ Everyone has to run off when I help them, don¡¯t they?¡¯

 V5C63: Offensive on the Chu District

    In the end, she met watch makers, artists, professional scammers and more, and she didn¡¯t appreciate that in the slightest. It took an absurd amount of effort, including the integration of numerous planar stones into the Kong Prison Realm and the siphoning of the energy that they released into the Truth of the Universe, but she succeeded in removing the azure lights from each and every one of the residents without issue.


    Meeting back up with Min Shi was pleasant enough, even if the way in which she immediately snapped to calling her ¡®dad¡¯ was rather odd now that she had a moment to consider that.


    Her otherworldly gift, Wound Refinement, was contained within her neck, which meant that she had to take a great deal of effort to remove it from her body, but she had plenty of practise after all the gifts she had dimmed ¨C she wasn¡¯t sure what to call the process yet, but that term seemed fitting ¨C and so it went with surprisingly little damage to the young woman.


    She would experience the equivalent of a sore throat for a few days, but given that she was still rather quiet and reserved, it wouldn¡¯t affect her all that much. On the contrary, the fact that she had far less to gain from self-harm would ensure that it would be easier to speak with her, as conversing with people that seemed to be obsessive and absolute masochists was rather challenging, but speaking with a reasonable person was always possible for those for whom communication itself wasn¡¯t already rather difficult.


    If things were different, she may have stuck around, conversed with Sarah a little more, helped her figure out her own feelings and settled on something that was acceptable for the both of them, but she had already wasted far too long on rather meaningless things, like sex and more sex.


    ¡®Of course, it depends on how one defines meaningful things, but although I may have enjoyed all of it, that did not progress any of my major goals, which this ought to,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, hovering above the Chu District as she considered her next course of action, ¡®According to my instructions, much of the fighting has been occurring nearer the Ning and Yi Districts, so the Chu District is not as on edge as those two. Furthermore, the other two have multiple surrounding districts threatening them, but the Chu District only has the Ju District, separated by large mountains, and the Ping District, which isn¡¯t in ideal condition even now.¡¯


    That left the Chu District with little more than one and a bit of a district¡¯s attacking force. As such, the Greats made a reasonable decision for once and shifted their forces in the direction of the districts at greatest risk of attack while keeping only Chu Fu and Chu Chao, the second generation members of the Great Chu, at the district to protect it.


    It gave her an opportunity, and an important one, to attack before the Great Leeches realised the full extent of the attacks to their east and moved their forces back to a more reasonable arrangement.


    This was exactly what she intended to do, and so she was now recalling her own experience with the district, observing its current state, and establishing exactly what the best method of attack would be while minimising unrelated casualties and damage to significant parts of the district. She was intending to capture it from the hold of the Great Leeches, not obliterate it, so it was vital to not appear to be some kind of maniac in the eyes of the people, and to instead leave a good impression.


    From her understanding of the district¡¯s culture, gathered in small part when she had last been here and far more so from her interactions with Chu Ling and other people from the Chu District, she determined the location of the Ancestral Hall, a number of significant buildings, and some of the people that were most likely to be important to the people.


    Unlike many of the districts, the Ancestral Hall was not simply a structure made of stone, placed somewhere near the centre and with a great deal of space below or above, depending on what was most convenient. Instead, in line with the nature-focused approach of the Chu family, it was within an enormous dead tree that was once an eighth realm material, although it had since degraded to the seventh realm and even then, it functioned best while part of the whole. The moment that part of the tree was carved away, the removed material was said to rot to the level of the third realm or lower, leading to this powerful object in the eyes of the modern world remaining mostly untouched.


    There was some rooms beneath the first floor, but the majority of the structure was above the ground, reaching up through the tree canopy, and ended a good distance above.


    Tomes, manuals, slates and even a few jade slips of varying quality and durability were scattered around the insides of the trees, alongside a number of alchemical furnaces and the like, with the great art of most interest to the people of the Chu District clearly being alchemy and pill refinement. None of the rooms and chambers were clearly most significant, which meant that she couldn¡¯t damage a single part of it recklessly and then excuse herself by appealing to the fact that she hadn¡¯t damaged the most significant parts of it.


    A seventh realm material was difficult to alter, violently or otherwise, but only for those not near its level of power. A third realm cultivator couldn¡¯t remove a slice of wood from the great tree even if they would find a good use for the rotten material, but the second generation of the Great Leeches had power that was roughly equivalent to the sixth or seventh realm, while the Ascendant was in the former and could face those in the latter with little effort. So long as they fought without restraint, the great tree would most certainly be damaged, so the first thing she needed to do was to keep it out of the crossfire.


    There were several areas dedicated to parks and groves, not entirely unlike the Timeless Grove of Chu Ling. She could find none that were as well hidden as that space of peace and serenity, nor were there many users of forbidden skills at all, but there was still a clear focus on, and interest in, the groves.


    Next on the list of things that she shouldn¡¯t destroy, and that she should encourage the Great Leeches to attempt to destroy so that she could save them and improve her own reputation, were a series of artistic pieces and sculptures formed by living materials, like wood, grass, flowers, vines or other flora, and all of them were clearly intended to communicate something beyond the paintings created by Monique of the Lightless Domain.


    Presumably, this was part of their attempts to study the nature of¡­ well, nature, and various people would stop by to look upon those images and attempt to gain some kind of enlightenment from them, with some even adjusting their techniques on the spot as they did so. Most did not do that good of a job, as was only natural in a world where such a thing was rare, and in a district where such things were clearly not appreciated by those that had to deal with the consequences of idiots ruining their cultivation and bodies by attempting such things without proper preparation.


    In the best of cases, there was a need to quickly provide healing of some kind and lead the one attempting it away, as to prevent an accidental collapse of their cultivation and a great explosion.


    On the other hand, the worst possible consequence was something akin to the effects of a failed talisman, except not contained to a single piece of talisman paper and many times greater in power. The energy within a single talisman was rarely ever even close to a hundredth of a cultivator¡¯s overall planar pool, due to a combination of inefficiency, impracticality, and a host of other matters that meant it was nearly impossible and completely unnecessary to attempt such a thing. For most, after all, planar energy did not recover within a few minutes, but could take an hour or two at the higher realms, prior to reaching the eighth realm and escaping the issue of lacking planar energy supply altogether.


    Explosions that used the full power of cultivators were terrifying, and they made the eighth and ninth realms all the more dangerous, for they were able to display their full power in individual attacks with little delay between each strike. For the eighth realm, a little wait would be needed to permit the Imperfect Rift to refill one¡¯s dantian, but in the ninth, this recovery was said to be nearly instant.


    Of course, the Ascendant had not yet had any personal experience with that realm, having only seen glimpses of its potential in memories relating to Kong Shi Meng, but the knowledge that Yi Shi Ming had been able to retain informed her that the only way to run out of energy at the ninth realm would be to overdraw it and oneself to such an extent that the everything was drained from the body, leaving even the Eternal Gate dry for a while. It would need to occur in an instant, and without any preparation to quickly begin the recovery process afterwards, and even then it would only be a temporary state.


    The fact that azure lights might well go beyond all of that was rather hard to imagine or believe, but she had little choice but to acknowledge that it had to be the truth from her observations so far.


    ¡®Alright, I¡¯m starting to go into the irrelevant for the moment stuff again, and I don¡¯t even have a way to verify whether I have comprehended more of the Dao of the Heavens via the Truth of the Universe anymore. If there¡¯s no vision state by the Great Stride stage, then I could be rising by a stage a breath and not realise it until a true realm is reached.¡¯


    Her tendency to get stuck in all kinds of deliberations and contemplations of no relevance to the moment was getting worse as of late, as she had far more to ponder and far more concepts to get through, but she restrained herself now and quickly concluded the best way to finish the fight quickly.


    With only a few enemies, she needed to remove them from the equation, then ensure that they did not send a distress signal of some kind to the other Great Leeches. Then, she would need to speak with the leaders of the Chu District ¨C which, while she was contemplating matters, had gotten closer to the Greats ¨C and ensure that they did not continue assisting her enemies, even if they did not provide active support for her. Removing a significant portion of territory from the Great Leeches would be sufficient, but obtaining it for herself would be significantly better, and what she was aiming for as the expected outcome.


    To make sure that her opportunity did not pass, she moved her position to above the gathering of Great and Patriarch, then stepped off the chains of Law that had been holding her up in the air.


    As she fell, she brought out Moon Splitter, raised it above herself, and then swung down.


    The many shards of the blade broke apart and fell down with an even greater speed than her own, accelerating far beyond the typical terminal velocity of the Planar Continents. All of them lit up with cosmic light and Obliteration energy, smoking with killing intent and shining with the faint silver of spiritual will. Only the Shard of Warfare stood out, the crimson around it getting more and more vibrant, almost turning into a beacon amidst darkness due to its relative brightness.


    With such a show, those below could hardly overlook it, but even the fastest of men could not do much before the shards struck the ground, bursts of dust and dirt scattering everywhere, but being stopped by an invisible barrier of spiritual will around the two Great Leeches. The shards mainly hit the ground, for they were deliberately scattered as to cover the area instead of only hitting her foes, but a few did crash into the hastily raised cores that cracked from the collision, getting stuck within the glass-like energy while the power within built up.


    Then, the many shards exploded, completely filling the area within the barrier with so much light that all were forced to look away. Cracking and fracturing was heard once more as the Ascendant fell into that space, temporarily opening up the barrier at the top and falling through it, allowing the energy within to surge out in one flash of celestial luminance.


    Within the enclosed space, the Shard of Warfare exploded last, scattering the cosmic light and replacing it with an absolute crimson that finally revealed the situation to those within, and without.


    The cores of the two Great Leeches were in a poor state, the marks on them barely remaining functional, but the ones hiding within them were still fine, and very much ready to act as soon as they had any clue what was happening. One began with the standard barrage of point beams, while the other rushed closer and condensed a wooden sword construct with the stabilisation of all of his anchors, meaning that it had great offensive and defensive potential from that alone.


    In order to finish this quickly, Wei Yi first reformed Moon Splitter and met the incoming blade, forcing it to cease in its approach, then used the force of the strike to break it apart and come into the way of the point beams, each shard blocking them effectively.


    While the female Great Leech, the one that had fired the point beams, stayed back and prepared another planar construct to match that of her brother, the brother was a far better target, so the Ascendant splintered Moon Splitter into two and attacked with both, slashing using her left hand ¨C for it was easier to do so with a straightforward motion ¨C and stabbing with her right, naturally avoiding the large sword construct that her opponent attempted to use to defend himself. He did block the slash, not that it would have been difficult for anyone who had the raw power to do so, but the stab got past him and pierced his skin, albeit not deep enough to truly harm him.


    That didn¡¯t stop the shards from exploding once more, the one at the tip of the blade erupting in cosmic light that bypassed any attempt to raise his core in defence, and throwing him back at the barrier between the battle and the rest of the district with a great gash in his chest. For the moment, he could do little else, for his body was at the brink of death.


    His sister¡¯s calm expression twitched as the attempts to form a planar constructs split apart into thirty-eight individual blades that then rushed towards the Ascendant, doing so with little strategy and planning, at least as far as the target was able to see. Such an assault could have been blocked in a number of ways, but since there was an audience, there was some motivation to act in ways that would appear to be most striking ¨C and in a battle, one of the most striking things was to do nothing.


    All of the blades came at slightly different speeds and from different anchors, so they did not arrive at once, allowing Wei Yi to release her boundless killing intent and let it spread across the ground, building up a great deal of it before any of the blade constructs even had the chance to draw near to the large pool of smoke and, far beneath that, vibrant crimson. The moment that the first blade went into the air above the pool, a figure manifested from a small quantity of the smoke, made of smoke and wielding a crimson blade trailed by more smoke.


    The crimson blade met the one stabilised by one of the many planar anchors floating around the female Great Leech, and although it did not shatter the soaring construct, it forced it off course.


    A second blade was met with a second strike from such a phantom, and so were numerous others, while the Ascendant turned and gathered the shards of Moon Splitter, raising the weapon and swinging right away at the core of the male Leech. He had raised his core again, prioritising the overall state of his body to protecting his dantian, but as the blade fell once, then twice, it brought the core to a terrible state.


    ¡°N-No! You must not-¡± the man began, but whatever statement he wished to make was completely overwhelmed by the third swing of Moon Splitter, which was joined by the faint light of the moon around the sides of the blade, while the weapon itself emitted the boundless light of the sun.


    It cut into the core, breaking it apart completely, and severed the form of the Great Leech, blood pouring from both sides in the moment before the heat of the sun became too great and completely burnt the husk to a crisp. All of his anchors were shattered with the light of the moon, but that did not stop a burst of energy surging from within his heart, shattering what remained of that and easily passing through the planar barrier Wei Yi had set up, for she had not never been able to suppress some of the methods used by the Greats and had not yet managed to comprehend their nature.


    Most likely, there was some property of the multiple anchors combined with their connection to Testament that permitted them to bypass simple barriers and obstructions, and she had not yet mastered the technique of the Reclaimed Lands, the Overwhelming Resonance.


    It was not an immediate problem, as most of their actions took a while to impact, but it was unfortunate still.


    ¡®It just means that I need to take care of that piece of shit first, and then manage whatever that man had unleashed,¡¯ she easily concluded, turning to the female Great Leech and putting Moon Splitter away, raising her free right hand and bringing her index and middle finger together before performing a slashing motion, as if she was wielding a blade.


    The core of her opponent had been raised as a precaution, but it was not able to endure the sudden strike of an impossibly sharp blade falling upon it, cutting the sphere in two and breaking several anchors. An attempt to block it with several obstructions made of planar energy failed completely, with the invisible edge cutting straight through all of them and finally landing upon the Great Leech, splitting her in two as well. There was no following flash of energy from her body, for whatever reason, which allowed Wei Yi to lower the barrier and turn towards the Patriarch, who looked back sternly and with blatant disapproval.


    ¡°Ascendant. Do you understand what you do, and in whose lands?¡±


    ¡°Were you not looking at how I had deliberately restricted the fighting to a small region? Do you not know what I had done to the Ping District, where I very much intended to attack the ruling Patriarch?¡±


    ¡°That you had done worse elsewhere is no justification for your deeds.¡±


    ¡°So, was it wrong of me to kill the Greats? Do you know what they intend to do, and do you support their stupid plans?¡± Wei Yi asked, ¡°They seek to bring this entire world down, just so that they can reign at the top. I have seen the illusion they had used to force others into obedience.¡±


    ¡°Do you deny the threat of the Primordial Deities? Are you of the opinion that there is nothing out there that will emerge once you force this world back into the ancient times? Do you think that just because you are not wise enough to fear such things, that others must suffer alongside you and deal with those horrors as well?¡±


    ¡°Why did you bother cultivating, Patriarch?¡±


    ¡°You have not answered a single one of my questions yet, Ascendant-¡±


    ¡°Then answer this one. If you had wanted to run away from the world around you, to hide in some hole and pretend that this was all that existed in the world, I am sure that you could have done. In fact, that is what everyone can do. And yet, we do not. We go out, we hunt planar beasts, we cultivate, we grow in power and knowledge, and we pursue fields that were once unknown even in the golden age of Yi City. What makes other threats any different?¡± the Ascendant asked again, ¡°Kong Shi Meng had faced the Primordial Deities, and won, sealing them all. He had faced a threat from beyond our world, and he had slain one of their number, and had been studying a way to not only defeat them, but to overcome a far greater problem, that of the otherworldly demons.¡±


    ¡°Are you Kong Shi Meng, then? Are you someone who is capable of fighting at his level, of keeping the world safe?¡±


    ¡°Two things, Patriarch: I don¡¯t need to be him, and in some ways, I can be better.¡±


    ¡°What an arrogant thing to say, Ascendant. I recall you calling the Great Families arrogant at some point, and yet they have never once claimed to be able to stand above the man that had unified most of the Western Continent.¡±


    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll begin with my second point. Kong Shi Meng had fought against the Primordial Deities, but he was clearly outmatched in certain regards. I have faced the influence of Primordial Earth within the Bao District, and although it was only a small fragment, I had managed to suppress it. If I could suppress a single fragment, then there is no reason why I cannot face the greater threat and come out as the victor. Already, I have reached far greater heights than most, and I walk a path that even Kong Shi Meng had not imagined, with what you may even consider to be his blessings.¡±


    ¡°Unless you are able to prove your words, you may as well explain your first point as well. It would not do much good, but since you already speak, you can finish.¡±


    ¡°How kind of you to permit me to do so, Patriarch. I shall remember that kindness forever,¡± Wei Yi made sure that the sarcasm could not be more blatant, ¡°I don¡¯t need to be Kong Shi Meng, because I don¡¯t intend to stand alone. The world as a whole could grow, could learn, and develop into something far greater than it had ever been before, and then the threats that once terrified us would fall before us.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°My Arbiters already use methods that permit them to cultivate two paths at once. Those who are closer to me have even managed to develop all kinds of insane techniques, like using a single set of meridians to pulse planar energy and bloodline power in a way that greatly empowers both. Sure, on their own such things would not permit victory against a far superior foe, but if the entire world grows with the power of my physique abilities, with my shared knowledge, with my techniques ¨C I do not see a single reason why we could not improve.


    ¡°In fact, I had seen what happened when the Master of Yi City had fought Primordial Invader near the Wu District. His troops fell in droves because they were far weaker in comparison to him, and all that they were able to contribute was their killing intent to assist in sealing the Primordial Deity,¡± she brought out Moon Splitter and broke apart the blade, revealing the overwhelming crimson light within, ¡°This did not need to be case, and I will guarantee that the next fight has far fewer losses.¡±


    ¡°You claim that you would share your techniques just like that?¡±


    ¡°I already do, and had you sent someone to visit any of the districts with a connection to the realm the Great Leeches had once stolen from Kong Shi Meng, you would have seen an archive with countless techniques and insights woven into tomes of mental energy that anyone can study and learn from.¡±


    ¡°And you would share this with the world as well?¡±


    ¡°I would provide it to Yi City.¡±


    The Chu Patriarch narrowed his eyes, ¡°You want to become the Master of Yi City, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Name a single reason why I shouldn¡¯t. I can give you all the time in the world, so long as you do not attempt to stop me from fighting whatever forces had been called upon by the death of those two leeches. Your help would also be appreciated, but likely to not be necessary.¡±


    ¡°So you would prefer to discuss things at a later time, once you have already stolen my cooperation from me with boasts and outlandish claims. Why should I trust you at all, Ascendant?¡±


    ¡°And why do you trust the Great Leeches, if they are who you would rather get your information from? Have they been significantly more open during your lifetime? Did you receive numerous gifts and techniques from them at no cost to yourself or your time? Is it in your interest to lose all power and structure and revert to a primitive world where none can cultivate, and where the few that had decided the fate of the world wish to rule as kings?¡±


    ¡°That last part could describe you, expect in a different outcome.¡±


    ¡°Not at all. I have a vision for Yi City. With the power that I have, and whatever power I may gain in the future, I will do whatever I can to make it happen. If the outcome is positive, I don¡¯t need praise, for I would live in a better world. If it is not¡­ then my failure would be worse than my demise.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Ha. So you have this kind of view, then¡­ Fine, Ascendant. As Patriarch of the Chu District, Chu Su, I make a declaration now that the Chu District will not oppose you for the duration of this War of Ascendancy, and especially not in the battle that you expect to come shortly. Any of my citizens that disregards this will be punished,¡± the Patriarch said, ¡°For now, I will not provide you with any of the benefits that the other Patriarchs seemed all too eager to hand out, but if you can display the truth of your words, then I shall reconsider.¡±


    ¡°In that case, if you want to protect your land, activate all of your protective methods and stay within your district. I have a horde of enemies to deal with, and I won¡¯t be holding back this time.¡±


    ¡°You need not worry about that. The state of my Chu District has already been greatly disrupted by your activity, and I would rather not have it continue for even a moment longer than it must,¡± he said, floating into the air while his energy poured out from his form, ¡°Go, before I seal you in here with us, and do not return while there is still danger to my lands.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded and vanished from the spot, reappearing outside of the walls of the Chu District. Behind her, numerous branches and roots suddenly rose out from under the ground, acting in ways that seemed random at first, but as more and more rose and more and more grew further up, out, and towards the centre of the district, it was clear that they were forming a large dome around the entire district. Given the focus of the district, this was no surprise, but it was still a more costly and complex method of defence than previously seen in the likes of the Ping District, which was why she had copied it all before leaving.


    Within the barrier, the guardians of the Chu District finally arrived onto the scene, finding a large square of marred ground, two corpses, and the Chu Patriarch activating the defensive array with a serious look in his eyes.


    ¡°Patriarch-¡±


    ¡°That woman better be telling the truth, and if so, she better win. The land as a whole was dying only a few years prior, but now it begins to bloom once more¡­¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± the guardians shared a look, then took a step back and began to assist the defensive array.

 V5C64: False Armies

    Even before departing the district, Wei Yi had observed traces of great quantities of energy arriving from the south-east, from the vague directions of the three core districts belonging to the Great Leeches. It wasn¡¯t clear what their exact origin was, but if there was a force dedicated to keeping districts from falling into her hands, it would make sense for all three to contain it.


    Technically, that would also mean that there would be two effective waves, or one delayed yet larger wave, but depending on the exact methods of the Leeches and their access to spatial gateways via their Testament, they might be able to skip the travelling process to some extent.


    Ultimately, none of that really mattered, for there were two generations that she needed to even care about ¨C and that were still left in any vaguely relevant numbers. The second generation had suffered as greatly as the first, but their ability to summon older images of past generations meant that there was effectively a dozen second generations at least that she needed to deal with. In larger numbers, they would be difficult to handle, which meant that she needed to hope that they couldn¡¯t call upon significantly larger numbers.


    The other was the first generation, but they were fortunately limited in numbers that would emerge unless they wanted to no longer bother with whatever seal Ning Huang had mentioned during their first confrontation. If they did, then she would be in a great deal of trouble, and might need to invoke risky or undesirable methods in order to succeed. Considering that she had few such methods, it would not be ideal.


    What was more likely was that she would meet one or two of the first generation, and they would learn from their mistakes and not leave themselves as vulnerable to her as Ning Huang had been.


    ¡®Still, the energy that I am sensing¡­ ah, now I know the answer. It was the first option,¡¯ a single glimpse of that which was coming answered her question, and forced her to move out as to intercept this force before it got too close. While the Chu District did have defences, it could still get damaged under a constant barrage of point beams and constructs.


    There was also the fact that the best arena for combatting the incoming forces would not be with her back against a wall, but in a place where she could move freely and be more likely to damage territory belonging to her foes than temporarily temporary allies.


    Thus, she rushed into the forests between the Chu, Chen and Ning Districts, making a great deal of progress towards the incoming forces that seemed to number in the hundreds ¨C a bad sign, but since each one was only in the fifth realm, and only an echo of the past, this was nowhere near the worst possible scenario ¨C and stopped before she would be anywhere near the range of the Great Leeches. There, she glanced up into the sky and appeared there, far above the canopy, the Titanic Conqueror manifesting right behind her as she put together all six hands and formed a great mass of Obliteration energy.


    This was not targeted at the army, mostly because she wouldn¡¯t be able to reach them, but instead at the ground below. Once the mass grew to the size of a small black star, she unleashed it.


    One could only imagine what the replicas of the past Great Leeches must have thought and seen from their position in the trees, but even if there were numerous layers of wood in their way, it would have been impossible to miss the sheer overwhelming power and sound produced by a beam of blackened crimson that was easily more than twenty metres in diameter, all falling upon a spot in the woods and blasting out in a great surge of power.


    It tore through trees as if they were mere matchsticks put up in the way of a furious storm, shredding those closest and forcefully uprooting countless others that were too far away for the direct power of Obliteration to collide with them. Of course, that did not stop the physical force of such a beam colliding with the ground from travelling even further out, at least partially uprooting and knocking over an even larger area of ancient flora that had been in place for numerous millennia prior to this, an act that would be certain to upset the Chu District once they learned about this.


    Her goal was to create a clear place for herself to fight in, for many of her methods did rely on direct collisions and impacts in order to harm her foes. Only something like the Dao of Law was more indirect, but she could not use as much of it as she would like without risking her own survival, so she couldn¡¯t use it as her primary method of attack.


    Such a battlefield was likely to benefit the Great Leeches as well, for many of their methods were awfully straightforward and simple, but she had enough material to work with beneath her to minimize their chances of success.


    Obviously, she was focused on the plentiful earth and stone beneath the trees that were no longer present, a material that she could pull out of the ground with her Earth Dao being amplified via the Dao of Law with almost no cost or danger to herself. Combining it with some of her other abilities, like the Red Shaper¡¯s Grasp that would reinforce such terrain, it meant that she could raise obstructions and lower them almost at will, forcing the Greats to be in an area akin to the forest, except at her full control and mercy ¨C or the obvious lack thereof, for they were all replicas of vile scum that needed to be removed from existence once more, if dying once hadn¡¯t been enough for them.


    To prevent her physique energy from running out during the battle and affecting her ability to create more powerful defensive obstructions for herself, she descended to the ground and put her right hand onto the burnt dirt below. Her energy spread out throughout the earth, and with the empowerment of her Dao, applied her physique energy in ways that would seem random to others.


    Out of an even layer of earth and stone beneath that, she made numerous plates of hardened material that were free to emerge and descend into the ground at any time, without interruption from the nearby segments. In a way, she had based it upon the appearance of her Subterranean Shell, and the many scales that the shell seemed to have perfectly overlaying one another in a smooth and seamless manner. Whether this would give her any kind of significant bonus was unknown, but it should make it far easier to manipulate the battlefield, even if it will be a little more predictable after a while.


    ¡°Alright. My weapons are on me, my armour is¡­ pretending to be there. My body is ready, and my mind is fine. This place is too far for me to invoke a spatial gateway, so no allies or reinforcements within the near future, but I don¡¯t see any reason to bother the others. I can handle a simple horde.¡±


    She spoke to nobody in particular, for her attention was currently upon the distant forces, and the wait for their arrival. As quickly as she was able to travel, there were still vast distances between the districts, and so no army could move between them within an instant. The best speeds could be achieved by lone travellers, for they had no need to pay attention to others and keep their pace consistent, whereas united armies were focused on it.


    It was still taking a while, so once she had made every preparation possible and necessary, she began the last step of her plan, and that was very aggressive cultivation.


    So long as things went well, she did not expect to break through to the second half of the sixth realm during the fight, as that would be rather unreasonable and wouldn¡¯t be permitted by the Greats unless they were utter fools ¨C even more so than usual ¨C especially while she so greatly lacked in large quantities of planar energy.


    Instead, this would allow her to drain the surrounding area of a large amount of planar energy that would not recover within a short period of time, meaning that she could use her nascent rift to its fullest and keep up a constant barrage of attacks and defences while the Great Leeches would need to pace themselves and act in a way that saved up sufficient planar energy for any emergencies that they might face during the battle, mainly those that would have a chance of killing them. The replicas may not be anything more than that, but the traces of humanity that were present within the Leeches could also be found within them, and so they would not simply throw away their lives like the useless pawns that they truly were.


    This was beneficial to her, since it would limit the ferocity and recklessness of the combatants she would face, so she did not intend to break to them that they were long gone, and that the world mostly despised them. An explanation was unlikely to do anything, actually, seeing as they could not speak regularly and might very well be unable to listen properly either.


    The instant that the incoming forces crossed the threshold ¨C the line where trees still stood ¨C and entered into the arena she had devised for their battle, Wei Yi opened her eyes and invoked her twin vision physique abilities. Everything in sight was conquered with her blackened crimson power, and the Elder Watcher ensured that the outside borders became as unapproachable as possible, even if it could not raise anything of significant danger to any of the Great Leech replicas and would simply scare them away.


    Now that they got as close as they could for a confrontation to begin, she would have been able to confidently state their total number if not for the fact that there was a lengthy stream of replicas pouring out from the three districts ¨C presumably, as her spiritual perception did not reach that far ¨C and that there was no end to them at all. Just in her range of perception, there was already more than a thousand replicas, and more were coming in with every moment.


    Still, she had not been scared away by the arrival of the first generation Leech, so this wouldn¡¯t scare her either. Moon Splitter was already in her right hand, and the Arm was being filled with energy.


    Upon their cry of garbled words and meaningless noise, she brought the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow forth and unleashed everything that she had built up in an Elysian Blast, the sheer power of which rocked the world as it struck the cores of the incoming troops.


    An absolute blast tore through the front lines of the Great Leeches and scattered those on the outer edges of the impact outwards, sending them all flying the moment that the extreme eruption of energy expanded to its fullest within an instant. This was the most terrifying thing about a force that seemed to ignore the vast length of space and reach the end point within a single moment, and this was exactly why the Ascendant attempted to replicate this performance by spreading her killing intent out there and allowing more arm-like shapes to form in the air.


    They coalesced into something that couldn¡¯t truly be called the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, not even a poor replica of it, but when they merged into a ray of light and blasted out at the Great Leeches that had scattered out to the sides, it was still very effective. Fine beams of light directly removed body parts from those who did not have their cores raised, and made significant cracks within the cores of those that did.


    ¡®Didn¡¯t really work, that. None of the attacks are sufficiently powerful, especially not when compared to the true Elysian Blast,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, gathering her own Arm while assessing the field.


    Her initial attacks only defeated a few, but that was enough for the false entities to split their straightforward charge and instead begin to approach from a far larger area, where a single attack would not be sufficient to kill them unless she used the Obliteration strike with a greater degree of power concentrated into the same space ¨C the beam used to clear the forest would not kill most of them unless she condensed that unnecessary range of the beam into a diameter no larger than a metre or so.


    At that point, it would be far less effective as an area-focused attack, so it wouldn¡¯t be worthwhile.


    Instead, she let them make some way into the field that she had cleared in preparation, and then invoked her standard array of techniques and physique abilities. A Titanic Conqueror manifested far above her, not bothering with Obliteration and instead focusing upon the four physiques that had led to the creation of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye, with all four hands filling with energy as they sought the best targets for their attacks.


    Numerous phantoms from her version of the Red Phantom Flood were condensed within the fog that spread out from the ground, and countless arrays manifested within the air form just a small quantity of her planar energy. Naturally, she also scattered her Obliteration-infused brands all over the place with a wave of her right arm, then brought out Moon Splitter and met the gaze of numerous Great Leeches that were eyeing her for any sign of weakness. Obviously, they wouldn¡¯t simply stand around and do nothing more than that, so they made use of their standard methods of attack.


    Point beams and weaker planar constructs than those they usually utilised were directed towards her with less precision than would be needed to have a chance of hitting her with every strike, but that was obviously not their intention. Normally, attacks needed to be avoided, so by peppering the area where she stood with attacks, she would find it so much more difficult to do so.


    This was all nullified the moment that the ground shifted, and a great slab of stone rose from the ground, absorbing every single incoming beam.


    Just as quickly, that slab descended and numerous shards of Moon Splitter crashed onto those that had failed to strike her, while the Titanic Conqueror threw out all four attacks at the same time, two for her left and two for her right. A torrent of cold shards flew directly towards the Great Leeches on her left, their evasion made difficult by the appearance of runes upon the ground, all of which were clearly building up in power and were thus best to be avoided as long as it was possible, and she placed them around the Leeches in such a manner that it would be nearly impossible to avoid the runes so long as they had moved.


    On her right, waves of toxins seemed to burst out of the ground as numerous banners fell from the sky, peppering the ground and making sure to hit as many different Leeches with each falling rod and length of cloth. Some were able to deal with the force of the banners, others could handle the noxious fluids, but together, these posed a great threat to the cores of the Leeches, and their bodies alike, but she did not think that this would be enough.


    After all, behind them were literal thousands of second generation Leech replicas, and while the current front lines may not be doing that well at the moment, so she was forced to consider some alternative measures to add onto her existing arsenal. The first was simple enough, and she tried it the moment that the initial attacks of her physiques had struck and took out a good portion of those that were in range. She had perfect control of her energy within the battlefield she had made for herself, and so all it took was a moment to bring enough of it to the banners.


    With them acting as rudimentary anchors, she copied the Ancestral Call technique but applied it to the banners, causing celestial clouds with vaguely human forms to rise from the tips of the banners.


    They were rather unstable in this form, as the structure of the banners she had set down was very much unsuitable for this kind of technique, so she determined that they would only have a single opportunity to attack before they would scatter and need to be recreated atop the banners. That fact immediately inspired her to attempt a few things.


    Since the figures would be dispersed after a single strike regardless of what they did, she saw no reason to use them for anything but the most powerful attacks that they could possibly produce, ones that would shatter the forms of any human that attempted to make use of them.


    While raising more lengths of stone from the ground to block additional attacks, she bid the ancestral figures to focus all of the energy that went into them towards a purer mass of power, one that was not going to be constrained by their form and the channels that could be formed within. Hammers of flame and earth, spears of lightning, orbs of cold, as well as other combinations, shapes and elements were produced from the ancestral phantoms, and all of them turned towards the largest groups of Great Leeches in their vicinity, raising those masses of energy into the air. Then, after a moment in which the attack was finalised, they struck.


    The first to reach were the thrown spears and orbs, which flew along the ground or just manifested above their targets, with the phantoms that had summoned them blasting off with the attacks as their mass joined them and prevented any energy remaining in place and somehow aiding the Great Leeches by increasing the energy quantity within the space.


    Flames devoured the cores and flesh of those that they latched onto, and great bolts of electricity obliterated all defences of others, achieving much the same in a very different yet destructive manner. It was absolutely glorious to witness, and it prompted the Ascendant to do more and more of the same thing, slamming down more banners and conjuring more ancestral phantoms while orbs of electricity slammed down from the sky and burst in the middle of large groups, earthen spikes and chunks bursting from the ground and tearing into cores and flesh, and absolute frost turning a number of false replicas into naught.


    All the while, her cultivation realm slowly crept onwards, until it approached that boundary of progression, the sixth stage. The first past the initial nine attainable via the combination of perfected and ordinary stages, and thus one that would bestow unto her a greater power than any other stage.


    Given the time spent at the fifth stage, and the fact that she had hardly been sitting dormant and doing nothing at all, she had a clue regarding the nature of this boon. It was clearly a change in her energy, one that would transform it from the violet celestial glow so familiar to her to one that was more alike to her bloodline power, with a clear red tint to the starry sky and nebulae that fill it. Why the change in colour would occur was beyond her, for things like this tended to just occur within the planar cultivation path. It was one of the many reasons why she believed this not to be the most natural possible path for the advancement of energy, and why it was likely something created, not formed.


    In a natural system, something like the creation of a planar anchor would be on the part of the cultivator, not the natural progression of some energy condensing further than a liquid state. The way in which only one element was usually cultivated also made little sense, as elements rarely existed in a perfect vacuum. Wood would be near earth, which would be near water and metal, and fire would illuminate and heat it all, whereas cultivators had to deal with an odd exclusivity.


    That was just the tip of the iceberg that was the oddity of the world, and so she could confidently say that the heavens, or some force beyond even them, had created something very deliberately. Why this was done, how this was done, and whether it was even possible to alter was not something that she could answer at the moment, for even the contemplation of the matter caused her a headache while the Truth of the Universe interface continued to display a number of black rectangles in place of any typical text beside the Dao of the Heavens.


    For the moment, knowledge and potential alone were enough, at least in this field, for her breakthrough could be guided perfectly by the knowledge of this artificiality.


    Unlike a natural system with flaws, oddities and deeper concepts that would be impossible to account for, a rigid system with limited parameters and options had to have limited outcomes, and have a best possible outcome. Pursuing that alone would guarantee her a better level of power than of any other cultivator, and she already knew that she was on the right path.


    The Great Leeches were powerful, that much was clear, but there was something that had been bothering her about their nature for some time now. All of the first generation Leeches were in the seventh realm, which was standard for the times, but in the past, she had no hints of them being any higher than that. Admittedly, she had little exposure to their past activities, nor had she seen any memories that featured them in enough detail to perceive their cultivation realm, but by the simple nature of a perfected realm, she had to be getting the best possible outcome from a realm.


    That outcome was not multiple anchors, but one. When one tried reaching the eighth realm, they would need to collapse their anchor into an imperfect rift. With multiple anchors, doing so might very well be impossible.


    Thus, the Greats might be incapable of getting to the eighth realm, which was why they weren¡¯t able to do much against Kong Shi Meng, nor his city, until the power level of the world as a whole dropped significantly. If that was indeed the case, then it would follow why they would believe that lowering the cultivation realms of the world continuously would be to their advantage, and why they were not seen as much of a threat in the past, when the eighth and ninth realms were available to talented individuals in the common populace. It would clarify also why they were the only ones that even had multiple anchors, and why all of their first generation would be in the seventh realm, even though a single one in the eighth would overpower all current Great Leeches on their lonesome.


    Provided that the anchors were indeed limiting in regards to the realm that they would allow a cultivator to reach, then she had a sort of safety net. No matter how much she raised the power level of the world, the Great Leeches would be incapable of truly taking advantage of it, not unless they completely changed their practises beyond recognition.


    With that, she pushed her cultivation forward, manipulating more and more of the region to keep the Great Leeches away from her and getting rid of as many of the swarm of replicas via the ancestral phantoms and the like before they could near her. Had one of the otherworldly demons been here, they might have likened the situation to a game in the tower defence genre, but she hardly felt the need to do so given the similarity of the rising walls and pathways to a fortress, with guards and guard towers where they may stand.


    She was the one that these guard stations were meant to protect, and she would need that protection for just a little while, as the breakthrough was right around the corner.


    The seemingly endless legions of the Great Leech replicas only grew in number and speed with which they appeared, and they had spread their approach from simply entering at a single point to forming a semi-circle on the outside of the battlefield, then attempting to storm in from all points at once. At first, they were not enough to breach the numerous walls that the Ascendant had put up, but sheer numbers were able to overwhelm her power ¨C at least for now.


    For every dozen that perished from a strike, a few would go further into her fortress, and since her focus was not on the fight itself, she was not making as good a use of all of her tools as she could be. Otherwise, the few that remained after the easier attacks to perform could be whittled down to around one or two at most, but the closer she got to the next stage, the more she was certain that she was not going to require that kind of assistance afterwards. Simply approaching the sixth stage and seeing the crimson further grow in depth and intensity led to her power rising vastly, and she could tell that she had underestimated the exact nature of the change by the fact that it was no simple change of state.


    No, it was instead a transformation of the very nature of her planar energy, to the point that it might no longer be suitable to refer to it as planar energy. In fact, she wasn¡¯t sure that it was even reasonable to call it energy anymore ¨C but that was because she already had physique energy, and so she had wanted to figure out some reason to change the name of one of the energies.


    Still, there was a major distinction between a basic, base element of reality, and something more advanced and complex, something that could reach a closer level to the true state of energy despite that.


    One might say that none of this made any sense, and, frankly, she wished to agree with them. Energy randomly changing into something completely different, with a crimson tint, and the like, shouldn¡¯t just occur out of nowhere, and if it did, the Ascendant should not be able to make use of a single technique she had been using up to this point because the nature of her new energy ¨C one that she wished to call oblivion essence due to the immense power and amazing potential of the power she intended to achieve ¨C but given the nature of the world, this would not be the case.


    It would be easily usable, it would be incredibly simple to adjust to, and her path would progress regardless. Despite her fondness of a personal path, she had no choice in taking her own.


    ¡®True, right now I require my power to be as great as possible to do that which I desire, but if it had been possible, I would have much preferred to take a thousand times as long to cultivate so long as I was able to avoid all of the restrictions of the heavens¡­ Well, whatever. I suppose I shall beat up the heavens at a later time, and then I will figure out something for myself¡­ hopefully.¡¯


    As she finally stood at the precipice of the sixth stage, and then the Great Leeches surrounded her, beginning the manifestation of numerous constructs with the intention of ending her life, she still wished to take action to prevent the world from forcing her to progress as the heavens usually did. To take at least something like this into her own hands, she raised the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and clicked her fingers, forcing the power of Law to be invoked upon her own body, concentrating all of the power into that arm and then prompting her cultivation to step forth, to advance on her own whim since it had to do so anyway.


    ¡°Give me a moment, would you? I¡¯m busy,¡± she said with a grin.

 V5C65: Oblivion Essence

    When her power rushed forth, the simple wave of energy released from her body was enough to shatter the planar constructs that had been created around her.


    Her cosmic light flooded out of her form, coating the skin and transforming her into a perfect constellation that stood upon the mortal world. Her Endless Monolith appeared around her, towering into the heavens and glowing with the subtle yet boundless light of Touch the Heavens at the very tip, where it did seem to come into direct contact with the wondrous sky above.


    An immense core with a hundred Astral Scars glowing upon each interlocking scale surrounded the army of the replicas Leeches. Nine sets of chains surged from the Endless Monolith and linked with each the Astral Scars, weaving around one another as they did so. That much was completely standard for the cultivation of the Ascendant, but the soft glimmering chain that went directly from the anchor and core without wrapping around any of the other chains. It felt illusory and ethereal, as if it did not even exist, but none of the replica Great Leeches could be bothered with contemplating such a thing, for the thing that came next forced their attention away.


    The magnificent celestial light that surrounded the Ascendant, tinged with crimson but hardly consumed by it up to this point, burst out as if to flood the entirety of the core with energy in the same way that it was in her dantian.


    At the same time, in the most contradictory of manners, the energy seemed to get denser and thicker, multiplying in quantity by such a significant degree that the many false anchors around the replicas were shaken and nearly broken by that simple expansion, which travelled mostly along the linked channels that travelled out of the Endless Monolith. As it did so, blatant crimson flooded in, and the celestial image that could be seen through it deepened greatly.


    From a relatively straightforward combination of nebulae and stars in relatively unexciting arrangements, combined with the distant images of chains far, far away, the energy transformed blatantly and extremely. All of that rushed forth and multiplied, chains most of all, for they covered the middle layer of the sky as well as the layer that was furthest to the back. Nebulae grew denser and more vibrant, their quantity growing with each breath, and the stars formed clusters and galaxies, all of which revolved around the black suns that the Ascendant had mastered long ago, even if they still had the tendency to do collateral damage.


    This seemed to be the manner in which galaxies worked in the worlds of the otherworldly demons, but Wei Yi naturally pushed it forward and modified the arrangement.


    All the chains that were able to reach linked to some of the distant galaxies, passing through them, wrapping and weaving around various celestial objects, not to mention countless other elements. They forced the movements of the stars, the rotation of the galaxies, the clouded shapes of nebulae, the acts of gravity, and numerous other properties that Wei Yi had not yet learnt the names for, yet began to comprehend the more that she viewed the world and the way in which it functioned. All that mattered was that she knew one force, and the rest could be extrapolated from it to a sufficient degree.


    This energy was ultimately the creation of the heavens, and that much she could not change without completely tearing herself out of the system that existed within the Planar Continents, but it did not stop her from making her own path clearer within it. It was a way for her to make her existence clearer in this vast and vicious reality, and she would take that way for as long as it was available to her.


    She didn¡¯t care if her name was known to the heavens, or any entities beyond, but she wanted to make it absolutely certain that they would see her actions and her impact on the Planar Continents. Even if she died in the next moment, even if all traces of her existence other than this clarification of existence were removed from reality without a single trace, then she would have at the very least brought the Dao of Law to the forefront within what might well be the very first manifestation of oblivion essence, and anyone that attempted to step onto the same path in the future might develop the same kind of oblivion essence as her own.


    It was hard to say how effective such a path would be, but she knew that there was something about this that just felt absolutely right. With how limited such a feeling was, it was difficult to be certain of what type of intuition even brought about such a feeling, but she had yet to be waylaid by her intuition, especially not when it came to the Dao of Law and the path she wished to take. Until she saw a good reason to distrust it, she would side with it for the moment.


    Once all of that boundless power reached the outer edge of the Subterranean Shell and flooded it completely, it was as if this illusion simply popped, and the crimson returned to her.


    A single instant was all that was needed for all of the energy in the entire battlefield to be drained alongside the ebb of that oblivion essence, as if the essence was in control of all the free, unbound planar energy in her surroundings. It was so striking that it completely sapped the power of the Great Leech replicas, leaving their cores and anchors but with almost no energy to use either one, save for the minimal quantity that remained deep within them and that couldn¡¯t be grasped by the powerful gravitational pull of the Ascendant¡¯s oblivion essence.


    What it revealed was a figure standing tall, with two stars in her silver eyes, clouded with crimson nebulae. Her hair fluttered in an invisible wind, even when her robes did not. Throughout her body, a clear light of oblivion essence shone through the flesh and skin unlike any other power within her body, even through her robes and scale armour.


    All of that was insignificant to the Leeches when compared to the sheer pressure she now emitted. It completely overwhelmed a similar level of pressure manifested by their anchors, and was enough to cause both their bodies and their anchors to tremble, slightly but visibly.


    ¡°I was right about it remaining usable, then¡­ which one of you replicas wants to die first?¡±


    As she spoke, however, she saw clearly a far greater degree of information than before, and it was clearly a combination of some progress in her Dao and the development of her oblivion essence. It must have had an effect upon both her spiritual perception and other forms of energy, for it was intimately connected to her bloodline, partially with her physique energy, and formed the initial manifestation of killing intent and spiritual will, and its nature inspired killing will to a certain extent.


    With her current state, she was able to perceive the Great Leech replicas as clearly unnatural, in a manner that she had never witnessed before. It was just as minimal as her intuition in regards to clarifying her existence, but in this case, it was clearly accurate, for she knew the truth.


    It was still something, and even if she believed it to be a mere figment of her imagination, then she would still not permit the Great Leeches to reply, as she did not care about that whatsoever. All of them will be destroyed, whether immediately or after a brief battle, and she would be absolutely certain to destroy whatever their source was as well, which was likely to lead to the destruction of any that she had ended up missing during the battle, by some miracle of the heavens trying to do exactly as the Greats claim they would.


    As her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow had reformed during the breakthrough, she was easily able to raise it once more and will the power within to condense into the lance of the Elysian Blast.


    It did so with unbelievable speed, to the extent that she barely managed to recognise it by the time that she was able to fire it at the Leeches, which she did naturally and immediately. The soft white of the beam was gone, however, and in its place was an overwhelming power that a monarch over the heavens themselves might possess. White remained to some extent, but it was tinged by the colour of oblivion essence and its power was obviously affected in the same manner.


    That much was clear as the moment that it hit, the Great Leeches that she had targeted, their cores and anchors, the wall that they stood upon, and many of those in their surroundings were simply wiped out in a flash of power.


    ¡®This¡­ Fuck me, it is five times more powerful than my previous planar energy¡­ With the halos of the seventh realm, that will be an additional multiplier of fifty atop that¡­  I think I see why the seventh realm is so immensely powerful on the battlefield, and why the upper three realms are so different from the other six¡­ This is where the peak of cultivation finally begins.¡¯


    She did not hesitate to hold out her right hand and bid fifty ancestral totems to emerge from the ground, finding that the glow of the ancestors was affected just the same by the oblivion essence. All of them lacked the power of the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, but it was still enough for a wave of their spectral arms to produce a dozen railgun bolts each, every single one not only crackling with the power of Obliteration energy, within which the crimson now stood out significantly more than the darkness, but also glowing with the raw might of her oblivion essence. The Great Leeches might have been stunned from previous events, but they knew enough about the railgun bolts to attempt to flee.


    Of course, she would never grant them the opportunity. The very instant that the bolts were ready, far more quickly than usual and incredibly convenient, for it occurred moments prior to the first of the Leeches jumping down the stone walls and getting into some vague semblance of cover, she let them loose. Each one burst out at once, within the exact same instant, and struck before she could take a single breath. Eruptions of vast power occurred with every single collision, and it flooded the battlefield with blackened crimson.


    After a moment, the stone slabs slid back down into the earth, the Ascendant¡¯s Earth Dao¡¯s effectiveness seeming to have multiplied alongside the power of her oblivion essence.


    Most of those around her were gone, but the Leeches were still out there, a trail still travelling from the Chen, Ning and Yi District, merging into a single army and besieging her at the former forest some distance from the Chu District. She could kill them, and so she had the duty to do so while chasing them down and discovering their origins.


    ¡®The Ning or Chu Districts would make for good strongholds for my Arbiters, and so I could capture one of them while I¡¯m at it. Weakening the Great Leeches to such an extent will bring the war to a far earlier end than it originally might have done,¡¯ she concluded, conjuring the Titanic Conqueror to bring out a few Obliteration beams to finish off the remaining replicas before she turned towards her territories in the north, bringing her Arm forth and forcefully stretching a spatial connection to this area.


    A gateway, extremely small and feeble, but a gateway nonetheless, manifested before her, and before it could collapse, she brought her voice through it, amplifying it so that the people of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters would hear.


    ¡°I have repelled an attack by the Great Leeches upon the Chu District, and I now intend to strike at the Ning District. Come with me, and we shall see what the Leeches try to do against us!¡±


    Her words were simple, but she hardly needed more than that. The people within her faction, and those that she had allied with, had a dislike of the Great Leeches for various reasons, some that she shared, and others that she had not yet learned about ¨C otherwise, she would very likely share them, given that the Greats are excellent at making poor first, second, third and last impressions no matter which one of their families and generations are considered. Now that there was a chance of moving against them and winning, few wouldn¡¯t take the chance.


    With her view of the districts within the range of the Yi City Web, she could see an army appear at the Luo District, the closest one to the Ning District and most easily traversable in order to then rush at the district of blacksmiths. Out of the two options, it might seem riskier to attack the district walled off by an ancient structure the craftsmanship of which is unmatched in the current world, but she knew the layout and standard techniques of the Ning District. Meanwhile, the Chen District was essentially unknown to her, and she could not be certain that they did not have a method that would perfectly counter one or many of her primary methods.


    The oblivion essence she had should make it far easier for her to overcome certain restrictions of the world, but there was no guarantee that she would be successful in every regard, so it was best to minimise risk within this instance. She wouldn¡¯t lose her oblivion essence if she failed, presumably, but it would ensure that the Great Leeches could be prepared the second time.


    So, within only an hour, with the combination of group movement techniques, oddly efficient planning, and a whole bunch of additional methods like talismans and pills, they were approaching the Ning District. Giving them that much time was the most that the Ascendant could afford, for she could tell that there was something gathering within the Ning District, but she needed to provide it for them as she would otherwise be near incapable of limiting the collateral damage from barging into a district and obliterating all threats.


    Even before, the difference between a lethal strike and one that wasn¡¯t was incredibly small. Going from one hundredth of her full power to two hundredths could cross that gap, and with oblivion essence, that was now the gap between two and four thousandths, which was immensely difficult to regulate in a dangerous situation. If that did not describe a fight with one of the first generation of the Great Leeches, if not multiple, then she wasn¡¯t sure what the point of the word would even be.


    Alongside her Arbiters, she charged into the territory of the Ning District, seeking the exact source of that powerful aura that she had felt from a long way away.


    Numerous guards stood atop the walls, some clearly related to the forces of the Great Leeches themselves, whereas others appeared to have been recruited from the existing guard forces and lacked the same enthusiasm. The latter type of people were exactly those that she wished to keep alive and relatively well ¨C some injuries couldn¡¯t be avoided in warfare, even with extreme and excessive levels of precision, so she wouldn¡¯t attempt to do so ¨C and those were going to be handled by the Arbiters while she took care of the Great Leech replicas and the first generation, as well as whoever was left from the other generations.


    She planned to strike then and there, but before she could do anything, that terrible aura that was present in the region pulsed with a hundred times the power, and it clearly surged within the area of this district in particular.


    ¡®What is¡­ No, since I called the others here first, I ought to take care of them,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, turning in the direction of her forces and amplifying her voice with the standard combination of the Lion¡¯s Roar physique ability and technique, ¡°Don¡¯t approach yet! They may be attempting to use the district¡¯s unique defensive methods!¡±


    Her spiritual perception would have only reached some of the people present, and none of the most significant ones, so this type of approach seemed most suitable to her. There was some delay in the sound reaching her troops, but it did end up doing so, and it also functioned well enough as a method of attack. As she was very close to the walls of the Ning District, the guards and Leech-aligned combatants were practically hit in the face with the sound, barely being able to perceive what she was saying but needing to deal with the impact of the sound waves nonetheless. Some were instantly incapacitated, but most endured due to their constitution, physique or realm.


    As it turned out, her instruction was given at just the right time, for in the next moment, a vast quantity of a sickly, ghostly green burst out of the ground.


    It surrounded the district, shone through the ground within, and clearly came from the outside, from the south-west. The many beams and wisps of light came together into a dense shield, the spaces between them being protected with the shine of individual components coming together into an array that was clearly within the seventh realm, if not standing on the precipice of the eighth realm, albeit a step from it and thus significant weaker in comparison.


    She could tell right away that the source was a series of channels beneath the ground, illuminated by this energy, extending to all three districts within sight and putting them into a singular barrier, which connected to a point in space that glowed with almost heavenly light.


    The point stood between the Ning and Yi Districts, closer to the Chen District than what remained of the Kong District, meaning that it was still well within the boundary of the barrier that its power created. From an outside perspective, this might be anything from an otherworldly gift to some kind of ancient, incredibly powerful artefact, but the Ascendant had enough experience with the snaking channels within the ground and the glow behind it, or the kinds of things that produced such things, at least, as well as some alternative uses of them.


    Due to that realisation, she quickly used her fourth realm movement method to quickly place herself beside Great Dark and some of the others who would understand her, before explaining the situation.


    ¡°The Great Leeches have managed to make use of the Yi City Web via what I can only presume to be Testament. I don¡¯t know if this barrier is a usual function of the web, given that I¡¯ve only used the spatial connection that it creates, but given the way in which their energy does not appear to be very natural in appearance, I suspect that they¡¯re doing this forcefully.¡±


    Her words, the ghostly green barrier and the situation in general led to a slight delay in Great Dark¡¯s response, but he managed to respond reasonably quickly nonetheless, ¡°Are you able to confirm this with absolute certainty?¡±


    ¡°Yes. The reaching strands of the Yi City Web that I can usually feel have been forcefully parted the moment that the barrier formed, and I suspect that this is because they decided to experiment with the spatial stabilisation nodes at their end. Their initial plans had clearly been to stay under the radar ¨C otherworldly term, a radar being a thing that can detect other things around it according to a certain signature, level of heat, motion or any other property ¨C but since we had forced them out, now they are going all out,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°At least, that¡¯s what it seems like. I think that point in the distance is Testament just because it is the only spatial realm that I know of which belongs to the Great Leeches, and would be in the vicinity and have enough power to stimulate such a barrier.¡±


    ¡°We do know of few spatial realms that even exist in this age¡­¡± Great Dark paused, making up for the pause he had failed to include in his last sentence, ¡°This would make sense¡­ Can you do anything?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t know. The great quantity of power contained within my newly obtained oblivion essence may or may not be enough to defeat the great quantity of power contained within the Yi City Web, Testament, and all of the energy they¡¯ve condensed here and now. Either way, we should make sure that they can¡¯t stop this and move onto some kind of offensive actions, so,¡± she turned to the rest of the army, ¡°Everyone, surround the districts of the Leeches, and stand guard for anything that they may attempt to do!¡±


    Since she was now amidst her forces, she didn¡¯t repeat her method of deafening those near her, using her spiritual will instead to deliver her words more efficiently and clearly. Once her forces ¨C that she hadn¡¯t managed sufficiently to identify their squads and organisation ¨C began to move, she went towards the barrier and faced the people on the other side.


    None of them seemed certain of what had happened, and so most lacked clear confidence in their eyes. The forces that were loyal to the Leeches had more confidence than the regular guards, who weren¡¯t certain whether they ought to flee or stand their ground at all. As soon as the Ascendant allowed her oblivion essence to flow out from her back, casting a vast shadow of absolute power, she gave them a look that prompted most to back down or outright run away, ensuring that they wouldn¡¯t be hurt quite as easily as those that she had no problems with killing in violent and terrible ways, since they had already made their choice.


    She raised her right hand and concentrated some oblivion essence at her palm, spreading it apart into numerous small points that the Great Leeches would immediately recognise as a derivate of the point beams that they loved to use far too frequently.


    Out of all of her methods, this was perhaps the weakest due to lacking development and partial reliance on her anchor shards, which did advance alongside her Endless Monolith but insufficiently, so if this was successful in breaching the barrier, then she would not need to invoke any other technique. It would allow her to target only those that she wished to strike down due to the fine scale of the beams. Otherwise, her other attacks would cover larger areas, and could not be aimed quite as precisely, but she would need to invoke them in order to bypass a stronger barrier than expected.


    The points condensed into their final state within a breath, demonstrating once more the rapid speed with which oblivion essence appeared to be able to complete techniques. It was extremely powerful in a battle on relatively equal footing in other respects, for it would ensure that she could perform any kind of attack, defensive technique or movement five times as quickly as her foes ¨C more if her other abilities were taken into account ¨C and thus do five times as much in the same amount of time.


    She released them swiftly, letting each point beam collide at the weakest spots of the barrier that she was able to see after a glance. Each one struck, but there wasn¡¯t so much as a wave on the barrier.


    The barrier had clearly needed to expend energy in order to prevent the technique from passing through, but it was able to do so without any visible ripples or exhaustion of energy, meaning that the total power stored within the Yi City Web that connected the Yi, Chen and Ning Districts was currently far greater than the little energy she made use of to attack it.


    Meanwhile, the guards on the other side weren¡¯t yet sure what to make of this, for most were clearly able to recognise that this was not even close to the overall power she could display, but that didn¡¯t stop some from getting a slight glimmer in their eyes. If the great Ascendant herself could not get through their barrier, then whether they were on the side of the Great Leeches or not, they would be safe for some time, and would not need to fear their demise. She couldn¡¯t tell exactly what they were saying, for her spiritual perception and hearing alike were blocked by the barrier, but their lips gave her enough of an idea.


    They were muttering to one another various bets regarding how long it would take her to break through, what she would end up using for it, and whether it was a good idea to flee now or once she does manage to breach the barrier. Many appeared to be of the opinion that they would need to flee soon enough, and even tried backing away right now while putting someone else in their way, as to let them be hurt first while they escape.


    Great Dark had remained near, and began, ¡°Are you unable to-¡±


    ¡°It was a test. The barrier isn¡¯t just a paper sheet blocking our way, so now I will step it up a little. Stand back.¡±


    He did so right away, and then she stepped up her attack by going straight to an Obliteration beam. If it wasn¡¯t enough, she would need to attempt something significantly more extreme, which she did not wish to do for aforementioned reasons. Still, if Obliteration at its full power wasn¡¯t sufficient, there were few methods that she could apply that would have a good chance of success.


    The problem was that she couldn¡¯t make use of the majority of those methods without seriously risking permanent damage to the world. Something like Touch the Heavens might seem like it was relatively harmless when compared to the Reality Severance, which left a visible trail in the air for all those that looked for it, but that did not mean it wasn¡¯t dangerous. Just like Reality Severance created a permanent separation of the world that couldn¡¯t be truly amended without a great deal of hard work on the part of something that might not even be sentient or intelligent, Touch the Heavens would do much of the same, except that its impact was not immediately obvious.


    Her blackened crimson burst out and surged into the sky, forming a sphere of energy there that coalesced into a greater and greater size and vibrance until the entire region was illuminated only by its power. Once she invested the most energy that she could reasonably control into that sphere, she willed it to strike down upon the barrier, targeting a similar spot just in case there was unseen damage to the barrier that she could exploit.


    It fell with a quake that rippled throughout the outskirts of the Ning District, tearing apart the ground and forcing the stronger individuals within her Arbiter force to step in to safeguard the weaker ones. The sheer might of essence-empowered Obliteration could be said to be nigh unrivalled in even the seventh realm, so it was only natural for everyone to have high hopes regarding its success.


    There was no change, however. The barrier remained as it had been once the blackened crimson cleared.


    ¡°Everyone, step back one more time. There¡¯s one last thing I wish to try.¡±


    She didn¡¯t wait for the people to respond before she provided them with an excellent reason to do so. As she raised her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and pointed the tip of her index finger¡¯s claw up to the sky, an overwhelming heavenly light shone upon all that saw it. Instinctively, they all looked away.


    The Ascendant did not bother paying attention to the reactions of those within the Ning District, and simply invested all of her might into the Arm so as to get the most possible out of a single strike. She used her Dao of Law to focus upon all that she understood about the heavens and the earth, as well as reality as a whole, latching onto it with her sharp claw as soon as she found it. Finally raising her eyes to look at the top of the great metal walls of the Ning District, she grasped that notion with the whole of her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and unleashed it upon a barrier.


    A crack in reality formed, and multiplied. Numerous sources of light and dark, entropy and growth, expansion and contraction, progression and regression, acceleration and deceleration, and countless concepts that made up reality as a whole, manifested within the endless cracks that followed, spreading rapidly towards the barrier around the Ning District.


    When it came into contact with the light of the barrier, the latter shook and trembled for the first time today, the patterns of the array channels distorting and barely being able to maintain shape ¨C but they did so nonetheless. There were several visible cracks, but in the time that it would take to repeat the use of Touch the Heavens, it was nearly guaranteed that these cracks would correct themselves by the time she was able to do so, but the cracks within reality¡­


    ¡°Wei Yi, you ought to-¡±


    ¡°Look at the air,¡± she interrupted Great Dark, using her reforming Arm to indicate the most notable point in space, ¡°Just like Reality Severance separated reality itself, my Touch the Heavens fucks up every single Law I can get my hands on. One attack is fine, but two, three¡­ There may be a spot of permanent damage to the world, one that the heavens may struggle to deal with. As such¡­ I would like to find an alternative approach. Provided that I am, say, in the seventh realm, I should be able to use a technique that doesn¡¯t ruin space, time, and reality as a whole.¡±


    ¡°But¡­ are you capable of cultivating to such a realm¡­ quickly enough to defeat this barrier in a reasonable timeframe?¡± he inquired.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± she dragged out the word, sighing as she did so, but before she was even able to finish, her attention was grabbed by something in the distance. It was much like her exhalation, except that it did not come from a living thing, but the world itself, made all the more prominent by her ever improving understanding of it.


    She might have dismissed it for the moment, if it hadn¡¯t come from the mountains where the oldest living human, Jia Rong, had been discovered, within the timeless passages and caverns of the great peaks.

 V5C66: That Which Survived

    She couldn¡¯t peer far enough into the world with her spiritual perception to identify the nature of this sigh-like shift, but she had enough of an understanding to determine that this had to be significant. For that reason, she did not risk fracturing reality with her constant breaking of Law, and instead commanded her forces to make camp around the barrier and ensure that it would be impossible for the barrier to be lowered and turned into something that would have the potential of attacking instead.


    It was hard to be certain of the abilities of the Yi City Web when she didn¡¯t even know whether this was an intended use or not, meaning that it would depend on how far the Great Leeches were willing to push the web for their own gains to determine how much it was able to do. If it was intended, then she had never learned about that function, and would need to spend some time experimenting with it in order to establish reasonable limits for such methods, among other things. Given that she wanted to do things as quickly as possible, she had no time to waste on such things, and would instead benefit from simply preventing as much action as possible from the opposing side.


    Even then, it took the rest of the day, and she was only able to proceed towards the mountains and investigate them the day after, on the twenty-eighth.


    After one final check that the Great Leeches weren¡¯t trying to get up to something while her attention was distracted, she travelled to the mountains via her movement method and floated in the air before them, examining them with every method that was available to her. However, while her spiritual perception lacked the Absolute attribute of her soul, it was limited in overall usefulness in this regard.


    ¡®I do have some ideas about what could be found here, and what might have caused all the commotion, but¡­ going into things I don¡¯t understand is always risky,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, shifting her location closer to the mountains, ¡®Hm¡­ I recall the mountains well enough, but I don¡¯t think that the cave there was present previously¡­ Shouldn¡¯t be possible given the fact that the area is essentially frozen in time due to that odd aura that covers these mountains, but if it is indeed different, then it is very likely that this is where I need to be looking.¡¯


    Once she prepared some energy that she could invoke to stop any attacks from landing if she wasn¡¯t able to draw upon any of the energy stored away within her dantian for whatever reason, she took a step inside, and then a few more to be able to have any kind of impression of the area.


    The entrance looked like what one might expect to find as the entrance of a cave, and so did the next few minutes of walking through it at a normal pace. All of the stone was grey, with just the slightest tinge of brown, and it was not abnormal aside from the timeless aura. Just as the last time that she had stepped into a cave like this, the aura intensified the further in she went, but there was also a notable warmth that began to be noticeable after twenty minutes of travel.


    It wasn¡¯t something that she couldn¡¯t ignore completely thanks to her physique, but it would be very clear to a more normal person.


    Ten more minutes passed after that, twenty more after that, and thirty after that, adding up to one hour and twenty minutes of journeying through the cave. Nothing of note occurred in that time, save for the fact that the cave system was entirely devoid of any forks or side passages that would typically be found within caves. It wasn¡¯t impossible for something like that to occur, especially not with the intervention of cultivators and planar energy making things that would seem impossible to some become the very opposite, but whenever cultivators get themselves involved with the natural world, there was usually some kind of reason for it.


    Throughout history, there were some instances of people obsessed with certain matters like symmetry, order, or other matters that she didn¡¯t have enough information about to accurately understand. They would go into areas that did not meet their standards, and make use of their power to change it as much as possible to fit the preference, or how they imagined it.


    Not all instances of such changes did indeed improve an area in that regard ¨C some attempts to improve symmetry, for instance, made things less symmetrical, but only after the attempt had ended and others had the time to examine the changes from a different angle ¨C but that was not relevant for the moment. All that really mattered was that there were no obvious traces of artificial cave formations here, nor should it be possible for changes to have been made within recent history. If someone had actively done something of the sort despite the restrictions, or could even do so, then there would need to be a greater reason for such an act.


    That fact ensured that she wasn¡¯t too surprised to find a change to the cave walls. From a rough surface with no specific intent nor purpose, it changed to a clearer rectangular layout, with two walls on either side, a ceiling and a floor that were distinctly separated from one another with ninety-degree angles. The floor was clearly polished and smooth, albeit not to the extent of making it too slippery to traverse, but the ceiling was carved with some regular geometric patterns.


    However, it was the walls that attracted most of her attention, for they were clearly decorated with imagery that had some intent beyond mere decoration. There was imagery of natural scenery, mountains, rolling hills and forests, that of living things carved into and protruding from the stone, and even scenes from the history of the individual or faction that had created these engravings in the passages. Unfortunately, there were no descriptions on these portrayals, and so it was rather troublesome to decode exactly what some of the more esoteric imagery is meant to be conveying to her, or whoever these images were even for.


    There were mythical beasts like dragons, qilins and phoenixes, but also men and women of clear human origin, and activities they were engaging in ranged from the obvious ¨C warfare, debates, discussion, and one scene that was very likely to be portraying some very vigorous copulation between a dragon and a human woman ¨C to completely incomprehensible, like them all standing in different realms and lands, gazing in different directions, and seeming to achieve nothing at all from it.


    She would have liked to guess the nature of the people living here based on these images, but without proper context or description for them, there was almost nothing to go off of. Perhaps they were describing the heroic acts of the dragons by humans that wished to venerate them, or maybe this place was built by qilins that wished to present the terrible acts of the phoenixes and dragons in ancient days before Yi City. Perhaps the creators of the cave system were archivist and historians alike to those that can be found in the Ru District, and they had no particular bias nor view about the situation at all, which would be a completely different interpretation and meaning altogether.


    A hint to the truth was only obtained as she walked further in and found the cave system expanding, changing from a simple square corridor to a vast space and corridor. It was a large hall, with pillars positioned on either side, but empty other than that.


    The warmth did intensify, and noticeably so.


    She would have guessed at which ancient beast could have inhabited this place from that warmth, but there was a slight problem in that regard. Phoenixes were an all-female species, so one could align them with yin, but they were most commonly associated with flames. Dragons were yin and yang, male and female, but they were also fond of flames. Qilins were a male-only species, most easily aligned with yang, but their most common element was, as one might expect by this point, fire.


    In other words, if it was the flames of one of the three that was heating the caves, then she might as well just guess randomly.


    ¡®The craftsmanship here is rather good, though, so it shouldn¡¯t be the work of some random group, and it shouldn¡¯t be possible for an individual to complete all of this unless they are really dedicated to it¡­ In other words, I still know nothing about this place.¡¯


    Wei Yi sighed at that fact, and progressed onwards a little more quickly, seeking to find anything of note before the day was over. Given the size of the mountains and the number of halls and corridors that could be built in all directions without ever even risking breaking out onto the surface, she could easily walk through this place for days or even weeks without exploring everything that there was to see. It was only due to the fact that her spiritual perception still worked, albeit lacking the ability to look particularly far and could only linger in places that it had already been, that she had any confidence in exploring the area and not getting lost there.


    Her Ascendant¡¯s Library was good at remembering everything that there was to remember, but if two areas were entirely identical, then she could hardly rely on memory alone to determine her location.


    Fortunately, there was a guiding hand in her exploration, and it was the heat that was gradually increasing the deeper she went. Whatever was causing it had to have some significance within the underground passages, although whether it would necessarily be that which she was looking for was hard to say.


    Almost six hours into her expedition, she finally observed that which she was looking for all along. A clue to the nature and identity of the creators of the underground passages, or at least the faction or group that those creators put most of their focus upon. This came in the form of some ancient objects that almost appeared to be fossilised after the many years that they had spent here, and although she had never seen their shape in person, she had a good feeling that what she was looking at were eggs ¨C dragon eggs.


    The last time she had seen anything like it was during the apparent seventh iteration of a talisman-based performance of the Fated Dragon Hatchling, so it was hard to be sure whether this depiction was necessarily accurate, but from what she knew of phoenixes and qilins, this egg was unlikely to belong to either one of them. A qilin was not an avian species, and did not lay eggs in the first place, instead impregnating human women for reproductive purposes. On the other hand, phoenixes were most akin to ordinary birds, especially in their beast form, but their eggs were said to be exceptionally smooth, of a shade relating to their element, and with a large symbol or series of symbols covering the surface of the egg.


    What she saw before her was not that, but instead a rough, coarse exterior akin to that of her Subterranean Shell, made even rougher by the accumulation of stone, dust and whatever else on the outside of the shell. Each one resembled the roughest possible stones that one could find.


    All of these eggs were covered by the timeless aura, and thus she couldn¡¯t sense anything within, so she could hardly identify whether these eggs were even redeemable from their current state, but since there were quite a few within various alcoves in hall she had come across, then it was likely that there were even more, further in.


    These eggs would be best placed near the heat source within the caves, provided that the source of heat had existed back when the eggs had been placed here, as eggs needed to be put near something warm. In regular times, a dragon would remain beside their egg, keeping it warm for however long they needed to before it would hatch. Of course, with her lacking knowledge, the Ascendant did not know how much time that was, but presuming any part of the Fated Dragon Hatchling¡¯s story was accurate, then it wouldn¡¯t be immediate in regular circumstances.


    Hence, she rushed on, and saw more of these fossilised eggs, most in a similarly poor state, but the further on she went, the more she was able to find that didn¡¯t look quite as bad. Slowly but surely, as she went on further in, the eggs returned to a more and more decent state.


    What came first was not a living egg ¨C if one may call an egg that ¨C but a figure that simply stood there, right in the open, clearly awaiting her entry.


    From the figure, one might have imagined this person to be a simple woman, but the ash-grey robes she wore exposed more than enough to show red scales on the hands and arms, on her neck, and a few on her feet. The addition of darker red horns on the forehead, short but obvious against her black hair, and the orange eyes with narrow pupils, made it all too obvious who she was seeing before her ¨C even if they should have all vanished long ago.


    ¡°You have heard our awakening. I would greet you by name, but I fear that I do not know it.¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi. You are?¡±


    ¡°Lihe, or Li He, if you prefer. We put less value on family names, so most of our names are a single word,¡± the dragon introduced herself, ¡°You do recognise my nature, right? If history has forgotten us, then it would truly disappoint all of us.¡±


    ¡°No, you haven¡¯t been forgotten¡­ What¡­ Where¡­ No, let me try that again. What exactly happened to your kind, why and how did you vanish before suddenly reappearing here?¡±


    ¡°The situation¡­¡± Li He licked her lips during the pause, and the Ascendant had paid a great deal of attention to it, not just to confirm the shape of her tongue ¨C it was not forked or reptilian in any way, unlike what some claimed about it ¨C but to admire the inhuman beauty of the dragon before her, ¡°I don¡¯t think that I am the one who could best explain this to you. There are few of us that are awake at the moment, and I am one of the young and the weak. Only one is old, powerful, and knowledgeable¡­ She will have a far better explanation for you.¡±


    ¡°I would like to speak with that woman, then¡­ before then, can I ask a few more miscellaneous questions first? Dragons have quite a few tales and myths about them, and it has been impossible to confirm certain elements.¡±


    ¡°Certainly, our leader has waited for a while, and she had not expected you to arrive so quickly in the first place. Before then, I see that you have no obvious trace of a draconic bloodline, and yet¡­¡±


    The dragon¡¯s glance downwards told her more than enough about the topic of her inquiry.


    ¡°It was a bit of an accident with a technique I had chosen to practise,¡± Wei Yi presented the manual to her using her killing will, which the dragon accepted with an undisguised look of delight and interest in her eyes, ¡°I found no relation to dragons within this, so it is unlikely that you will have any special understanding of it, but since you¡¯re here-¡±


    ¡°Oh, this is fascinating! In fact, it does have a slight connection!¡±


    ¡°It does?¡±


    ¡°While the principle of how this transforms your body greatly differs from the manner in which we may change our shape according to our wills, with some of us preferring to maintain the male reproductive organ at all times, while others would only make use of it if absolutely necessary, the changes to the body do align with how we manifest them ourselves,¡± Li He explained as she lifted the front of her robes, revealing that the dragons did not seem to care for underwear or common standards of decency, ¡°The way in which it affects the yin and yang within our bodies¡­ well, just look!¡±


    Right before the Ascendant¡¯s eyes, the draconic woman¡¯s flashed and changed, the smooth lower lips being covered up by a penis that greatly exceeded the human average size, and heavy balls to match. The vagina was still there, for dragons were hermaphrodites, and the arrangement matched Wei Yi¡¯s.


    ¡°You¡¯re right, there is quite a great similarity¡­ Someone must have been fond of dragons, then.¡±


    The dragon smiled, putting her robes back and undoing the transformation, ¡°From what I recall of our days outside, that was very common. There is a great deal of appeal in our human forms to those that dislike the extreme roughness of the qilin men, or even the human warriors that would often be found in ancient times.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t need to explain it to me. I¡¯m very well aware,¡± Wei Yi nodded, agreeing with the assessment entirely, ¡°Is it possible for me to replicate the transformation method? I wouldn¡¯t even ask, normally, but my spiritual perception is more than a little compromised in this place.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I would wish to give you good news in this regard, but I do not believe that this would be possible for you. Even if you gained draconic blood and absorbed it without any issue, a thing that is not often seen among humans, your body does still differ too greatly. We dragons exist in a kind of flux state, where both our draconic forms and the two variants of our human ones are present. Imagine this form being covered by an Armour Forming inscription composed of the power of our scales at all times, but in such a way where damage to one would also enact equal damage to the other. Thus, we need little power to transform from one state to another, and can choose to grow a dick right in the middle of sex, at times surprising those who do not know of our true form¡¯s enormous...¡± the dragon coughed, her gaze clearly trailing away from reality, ¡°You, on the other hand, are what you are. That arm, your skin and flesh, the meridian networks¡­ All of it is constant.¡±


    ¡°In the same way that cleaving away reality permanently removed my left arm, I would need to do something on that level to casually transform?¡±


    ¡°No, it is not that bad. Human transformation methods ought to be able to aid you in this regard, but although some believe us dragons to be highly skilled in transformation, it is merely part of our natural skillset. There are few that ever studied changing either form beyond what its natural state, for it is rather rare for us to be born with undesirable features. I hope I do not sound vain when I say that most of us have impeccable beauty and physical fitness.¡±


    ¡°No, I would certainly agree with the first part from my limited experience.¡±


    ¡°You are gorgeous yourself, Wei Yi¡­ but although I did say that we have time, I would rather not keep our leader waiting just so that we can flirt with one another.¡±


    ¡°It would be rather impolite, to say the least.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. I suspect that you will have more than enough time to spend with us in the future, so I should bring you to her first. Just to make it clear, I would not be at all against resuming this once your conversation ends.¡±


    The Ascendant had nothing to argue with, so she nodded and let the dragon bring her further in. It was as if the draconic woman had been some kind of threshold, for the moment that they went past her location, dragons began appearing around corners and in rooms, their numbers small but far exceeding the zero that had been seen in the last few hundred thousand years. All of the dragon¡¯s eggs that appeared from then on were also clearly intact, if a little older than one would assume an egg should be.


    As they got further and further in, the heat grew until she felt like she was standing in a furnace that was able to affect even her extreme Yin-Yang Ascendant physique. If it had continued on for long enough, and intensified at the same rate, she might have begun to feel highly uncomfortable, but they stopped just before that point, with Li He stopping by the side of an open doorway, and a dark room.


    ¡°Here. I¡¯ll remain outside. Our leader is¡­ weak. She would not wish to deal with more than one of us at a time, and I would rather not distract her.¡±


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t ask about that either, nor did she stretch out her spiritual perception further than she needed to. She would see the woman on the other side soon enough, with her own eyes, so there was no need to at all to make use of such powers when the person was aged and tired. Furthermore, provided that her guess was right, the person on the other side might well be significantly older than any of these dragons appear to be.


    She didn¡¯t know who to expect, but she had an idea of their age, strength ¨C or former strength, provided that there was no chance of an eighth or ninth realm expert existing in the current age ¨C and wished to see them the way she might in a world with different Laws.


    Fine, that wasn¡¯t entirely true. She felt like it was rather appropriate to avoid peering in with her mental energy, but far too many of her actions were motivated by personal gain that she had no clue how to justify such a thing to herself. It was not too much of a concern, as one inefficient action wasn¡¯t necessarily going to harm her in any significant way, but it was something that occurred to her all of a sudden and she felt that she needed to find a way to address it to herself. Perhaps if the next minute was different, she would have thought about this more, but¡­


    As she stepped into the chamber, she found a small room with no source of light at the end, with the only light coming from some shining red stones that had been illuminating her path from the moment that she began entering the larger halls. It narrowed towards the end, resulting in an area where a human-sized figure could sit with some hint of comfort, and where one did sit.


    Her face was wrinkled and aged, clearly beyond the typical effects of aging on long-lived species like dragons. Whereas most would end up resembling people at the age of fifty or sixty at most, this woman seemed to be in her eighties or nineties, and her vitality reflected that.


    Even without the use of spiritual perception, the energy within her body could be felt clearly. It conjured the illusion of the inside of her dantian from merely glancing upon her form, allowing the Ascendant to see something that, on first glance, seemed like the standard anchor, core and halos of a seventh realm draconic cultivation. However, the anchor seemed to be ethereal, and within it one could see a large and open gate that permitted endless energy to pour from within before remaining frozen within the anchor, as if it served more as a prison than the typical fuel for the ignition and opening of the imperfect rift.


    It was likely that this was a ninth realm dragon, at least once upon a time, but this was not what caught her interest most of all.


    Instead, it was the appearance of this dragon that she took note of the most. Black scales and an appearance that resembled one she had seen once before. Furthermore, she was found in a cave that was much like the images she had seen long before, same with the eggs, the halls, the warmth¡­ There was some potential identities for this person before she saw her, but now there was only one.


    ¡°Long Mingyun?¡±


    ¡°¡­ You are not him, and yet you have his trait¡­ I had hoped he would return¡­¡±


    Given that there was no denial to her question, it was essentially confirmed, and that commentary made it all the more obvious that she knew of Kong Shi Meng, the Truth of the Universe, and the fact that he had intended to depart and potentially never return, just like the Fated Dragon Hatchling implied.


    ¡°No, he did not return. I have received the otherworldly gift that he had used, and it had been the basis for my cultivation method for some time.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡± the dragon¡¯s voice was also old, but there was a hint of similarity to what she had heard in the talisman presentation of the Fated Dragon Hatchling, making it very clear that the one who created that talisman sheet had a far greater understanding of the tale than most, ¡°You are strong. Once you reach the eighth realm, the power that will flow from the open rift within your body can bring the world as a whole to a higher realm.¡±


    ¡°Wait, you mean that the rift will feed the world as well as myself?¡±


    ¡°With an endless source of energy, do you believe that it will just wait for you to use it? No, that is a greater realm¡­ a realm of full control, and one that is not within my reach, nor was it within his. Shi Meng¡¯s best attempts to attain perfection in the higher realms was wasted by imperfection in earlier ones,¡± Long Mingyun said, looking up at the Ascendant, ¡°You must have realised by now that the perfected stages do not simply accelerate development. They are something else, and the more realms you attain, the further you step away from what is possible with ordinary cultivation¡­¡±


    ¡°The oblivion essence that I have created is part of that, presumably. Do you know what it could lead to?¡±


    ¡°Oblivion essence¡­ Chaos made coherent, and malleable¡­ yes, that is a good name¡­¡± the ancient dragon muttered to herself, her gaze falling back down as she seemed to lack the strength to keep even her gaze up, ¡°Kong Shi Meng never had it.¡±


    ¡°Even in the ninth realm?¡±


    ¡°His first perfected realm was the eighth, and it was also the only one.¡±


    ¡°Then, all of his understanding led to me being able to do what he could not. What did his perfected realm in the eighth realm provide him, then?¡±


    ¡°Nothing. It was too late, and so all of his growth stagnated. He only reached the third stage of the Eternal Gate realm, and although he was similar in strength to me, whose bloodline had led me straight to the ninth stage, but both of us were stuck at that level, unable to take even another step beyond¡­ What is beyond that?¡±


    ¡°So far as I can tell, the heavens offer you no further step.¡±


    ¡°No, but the heavens shouldn¡¯t be here. This place is timeless, and although it is affected by the changes on the outside, it will be a while until the will of the heavens is able to affect this place. It is the same with any other region displaced from the normal passage of time, of which Shi Meng had found many, even if his discovery of them had only led to the distortions resolving themselves that much more quickly¡­¡±


    ¡°The heavens had their eyes on him?¡±


    ¡°Likely. We knew too little, in the end¡­ Did Yi Shi Ming survive? He had said that he had a method to preserve her life, but never exposed it to me, nor anyone that I knew of.¡±


    ¡°She does still live, albeit as a spatial spirit.¡±


    ¡°Good¡­ Take of that. The less they know, the better, and if they don¡¯t know, then it is good for us all.¡±


    That raised an eyebrow, for her words seemed both incoherent and like they were trying to indicate something. Although that latter part was harder to guess at, the stance of disapproving or otherwise being doubtful of the heavens was truly unexpected, and somewhat refreshing to find, especially since it meant that the most notable ancients had a similar view to her own.


    ¡°Did Kong Shi Meng also distrust the heavens? I have a desire to hit them in the face if I ever meet them, personally.¡±


    Long Mingyun showed a smile, a weak but clear expression, ¡°I hope you can. He would like it¡­¡±

 V5C67: Learning from the Dragons

    The Ascendant had so much to ask of Long Mingyun beyond that, and naturally asked about as much as she could, at least that which felt appropriate. She had others to ask regarding dragon physiology and other topics that someone who was a million years old would likely not wish to discuss with someone as young as her, and there was no necessity to push it.


    Her focus instead went to the matters of decades past, which the ancient dragon was perfectly pleased with explaining in great detail, except for the tendency to go off on seemingly irrelevant tangents making it difficult to piece together everything smoothly.


    According to her, the tale of the Fated Dragon Hatchling, as presented in the seventh iteration by a man presumed to be from the Luo District, was not perfectly accurate, but closer than she would have expected after so many years had passed. She did not know how she had been named by her parents, nor what they had been getting up to in their last few years, but the memory of them being torn apart for materials was very much entrenched within her mind ever since it happened. Similarly, the journey to these mountains was also one that matched the tale that the Ascendant had watched, save for the greater number of planar beasts and entities that Long Mingyun had ended up meeting, fighting and interacting with.


    The dragon herself thought that this part of her history wasn¡¯t worth talking about, which Wei Yi had to agree with due to the lack of relevancy to modern times and her current state, so she skipped through to the time that she was besieged within these very caves, and the way in which Kong Shi Meng had stepped in to end the fighting.


    At the time, she was rather distrustful of him, for he was a human that had arrived alongside so many others, and was also the source of the sudden human expansion into draconic territories. Her birth had occurred somewhere around the initial founding of Yi City, when the might of humanity had begun to rise to the sixth and seventh realms rather consistently, and Kong Shi Meng himself had been progressing into the eighth realm slowly but surely. What did change that was the appearance of the Primordial Deities.


    Against them, Long Mingyun couldn¡¯t get hung up on such grudges, and she did come to his aid. They fought together many times, and that had led to the dragon realising that if there was someone to trust in, the Master of Yi City might be the best choice. Thus, they worked together for quite some time.


    In the end, she got far closer to the otherworldly man than she had expected, and they learnt far more about one another than mere allies would. His plans regarding his otherworldly gift, and the fact that it existed in the first place, were probably the most significant pieces of information to the dragon, for it allowed her to understand far more about the world than most of her kind, and the contribution of a cultivation method by Kong Shi Meng allowed her to progress almost at the same pace as he had, meaning that they ended up within the ninth realm around the same time, and both got to the third realm before the Master of Yi City vanished.


    Where he went, exactly, Long Mingyun had no clue. She knew what he wished to do with the otherworldly gift within his possession, and could tell that he had some modicum of success based on Wei Yi¡¯s presence before her, but she had no idea how he had achieved it nor what it had cost him in the end.


    ¡°I hope that I will be able to meet him again¡­ He was a good person, I think.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not sure?¡±


    ¡°He kept much to himself, and even his mother only learnt so much. It was not possible to know everything about him, not when much of his language tended to refer to things that I couldn¡¯t understand even when he explained them to me to the best of his abilities. Video games, ballistic weapons, physics, biology and chemistry¡­ Pieces, I could grasp, but the whole was always a step away, no matter how hard I tried to understand.¡±


    That much wasn¡¯t surprising. She might have been young when she met with Kong Shi Meng, but she had lived enough to gain an understanding of the world. Learning something else that so greatly contrasted with it was difficult, and it was especially so in an older age, where knowledge was more scarce, and thus one¡¯s horizons were significantly closer and narrower.


    Even Yi Shi Ming, who had listened to her son for many years, and Wei Yi, who had spoken with many otherworldly demons ¨C and slept with two, at least so far ¨C couldn¡¯t entirely understand how nor why many elements of the world Kong Shi Meng came from functioned the way that they did, and when it came to entertainment and the like, it was even more difficult to understand. Their games were odd, and would be very likely to displease the local population if they were released without any changes to the way that they were played, or what their content was.


    Still, the original subject had been Kong Shi Meng¡¯s nature, and that was something that Wei Yi had some knowledge of thanks to viewing memories of him through his mother¡¯s eyes, as well as the latest memory of him located within the Shard of Warfare.


    From those fragments of information, she was rather confident in assessing him as someone with a conscience. He was clearly not a psychopath that would do anything and everything for his own gains without a care for any other, for the loss of life during the attack on Primordial Invader had clearly not been pleasant to him. If he was maintaining a fa?ade at that time, then it would mean that he did so constantly, and that would make it nearly impossible to guess what he could truly be.


    As such, she didn¡¯t try to guess at it from that perspective. Generally, the more straightforward option was the more likely one, so until she was given a reason to doubt Kong Shi Meng, she wouldn¡¯t.


    ¡°By the way, I am not dying yet¡­¡±


    ¡°What are you saying all of a sudden?¡± Wei Yi asked, ¡°You do look to be nearing the end of your life, but I didn¡¯t think that it would be coming soon enough to affect the conversation.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t believe that you did. However, with how long we¡¯ve been talking, one might almost come to such a conclusion¡­ We¡¯ll have more time to talk, and you didn¡¯t come here with that expectation, did you? You wished to deal with a threat, and an obstruction, and when we finally awakened, you came here with the hope of finding a method to resolve both¡­¡±


    ¡°The Great Leeches. Have you heard of them?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I think I know what you mean. A remnant of the past that refused to change with Kong Shi Meng¡¯s will, now draining the world for their own benefit. Am I right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s a suitable way to describe them. The Leeches call themselves the Great Families, and before I began my battle against them, there was a family for every major district of Yi City, three generations in each. Nowadays, there are significantly fewer of those bastards.¡±


    ¡°Good. All leeches need to be removed, as per the standard practices of the dragons, and as per Shi Meng¡¯s order. In a world where so many can do so much, to merely leech from a greater whole and do so intentionally, willingly and deliberately is a worse crime than many that humans see as being significantly more reprehensible,¡± Long Mingyun stated, with the Ascendant finding no particular room to disagree with her, ¡°Since you are combatting those remnants, you understand the challenge that they pose best. We have quite a few resources down here¡­ and you will doubtlessly find those that would assist you.¡±


    ¡°Would you or the other dragons fight with us?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t¡­ I am too old, and it is only the timeless field here that keeps me alive, and lets me retain the ninth realm, even if it only a semblance of it contained within an anchor. The others, however, can leave in small numbers and participate, but most must remain. At a later time, when the world changes, and the energy density rises greatly, then we will be able to emerge in full force, and make our presence known once more.¡±


    The Ascendant nodded, ¡°Good, I¡¯d like some aid. The Great Leeches may be handled soon enough, but even if we breach through the barrier they constructed via the Yi City Web-¡±


    ¡°Ah, if that is the case¡­ I didn¡¯t think that they would¡­ hm¡­¡±


    ¡°You know something about the Yi City Web?¡±


    ¡°A little bit. His project was vast and great, hidden from all but a few, and I understand the kind of power that it can wield. In part, it can gather vast quantities of energy from the land beneath the world, where no gaze typically falls, but it is also capable of storing such an immense amount of it that, after a million years, it may still not be full¡­ How many nodes are being used?¡±


    ¡°Three. Yi District, Ning District and Chen District.¡±


    ¡°¡­ You will require the seventh realm to break through without damaging the fabric of reality. That much I can absolutely guarantee you.¡±


    ¡°Even with oblivion essence?¡±


    ¡°Only with the amplification of the halos of the Oblivion Halo realm will it be enough¡­ and now that you mention it, your naming of oblivion essence is suitable to the nature of the seventh realm. I suspect that the halos will experience a great change under the influence of your essence, but before then, you must reach the realm and experience its power,¡± Long Mingyun said, ¡°We have plenty of materials that you may use. I would only say that you should not learn too many new techniques at this point in time. Do you know why?¡±


    ¡°With what I have already, I can already do most things, and have a reasonable combat strategy and system. If I shove more things in, even if I can perfectly cultivate and practise them without somehow damaging my own body, then there will be no significant benefit.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. If you want, you can learn some of our techniques, but that should be the extent of your actions¡­¡± the ancient dragon exhaled, her voice clearly tiring after the lengthy talk.


    Since she was clearly in a poor state, the Ascendant did not bother her more than necessary, allowing her to rest as she quietly stepped out of the room she sat in. As she did so, she noted that her spiritual perception was able to comprehend just a little bit about her surroundings, something that meant that the timeless aura was indeed dissipating slowly, as the dragon had said it would.


    On one hand, this was a positive for her, as it meant that she would be able to scan through all of the items of the dragons easily enough once the aura lifted a little more, but the fact that the heavens would get a better notion of what was happening here was much less to her liking. In theory, at least, the heavens would be able to do anything to her or the ancient dragon just by learning what hid in the mountains, for the Laws of the heavens were already imposed and it was only the will that was negatively affected in any way. The dragon¡¯s lifespan had a limited value, and it was not one that the heavens should alter based on all of their actions so far.


    In fact, she suspected that there was already some discrepancy in the lifespan of Long Mingyun, as she was very near to death but had lived for four hundred thousand years fewer than a human would need to in order to reach the end of their lifespan. This could be explained by various methods that use lifespan, a difference in the lifespan of humans and dragons ¨C a very likely thing, except that she would expect dragons to be able to live longer than humans ¨C or some distortion caused by the timeless aura.


    A fact that would alter her stance on the second point was that dragons were long-lived from the start, having a far greater lifespan than regular humans from birth. It was said to be near to a hundred thousand years at least, and a million years at most. For a species like that, which started with a fifth realm cultivation from birth, it was possible that the increases to lifespan in the higher realms were reduced significantly, to the point that a dragon at the ninth realm ¨C reaching it once should be sufficient to provide that increase to lifespan, even if it was currently sealed by the world itself ¨C might only have a million and two hundred thousand years of life in total. In that case, Long Mingyun wouldn¡¯t have even needed to sacrifice her lifespan to be in the state she is now.


    ¡°You¡¯ve finished? It took less than expected,¡± Li He said as she saw the Ascendant emerge, having sat down near the doorway sometime after bringing her there, ¡°I had not known her in her younger days, but my mother would often tell me how much Long Mingyun could speak about even the simplest of topics¡­¡±


    ¡°We both identified the fact that she wouldn¡¯t be going anywhere else just yet, so I ought to get some help with my problem and then resolve that prior to continuing to talk about all kinds of things that barely even have relevance anymore,¡± Wei Yi answered, ¡°As such, I would like to postpone the continued flirting for just a little while longer, and would instead ask you to bring me to any technique libraries, artefact and treasure vaults, as well as whatever else you might have here. I need anything that would allow me to rush to the seventh realm as quickly as possible.¡±


    ¡°Actually, flirting could help with that, since your technique-¡±


    ¡°I know, dual cultivation, and you likely have a bunch of dragons in the seventh realm around here. However, I would need the conventional methods first, such as a bunch of planar stones, if you have those.¡±


    ¡°Tch. Fine, but you ought to know that your physique will be very popular amongst us. You¡¯re fit and strong, but not overly affected by yang, meaning that you retain a proper feminine beauty, which is very much to our liking,¡± the young dragon said, ¡°I didn¡¯t mention it before, but sitting around and waiting can be rather boring, meaning that my mind went to a different place.¡±


    ¡°That both makes sense, and really doesn¡¯t, given how you¡¯ve been here for a while already. What did you do around here before?¡±


    ¡°For one, there¡¯s a difference between waiting a while longer when nothing is happening, and waiting for a while after interacting with a human for the first time in¡­ well, a long time. The second matter is that we didn¡¯t actually sit around the whole time. Most of us¡­ could you guess it, perhaps?¡±


    Although she said that, her gaze did travel around the hall, prompting the Ascendant¡¯s attention towards the things that surrounded them. Aside from stone and the like, the most common thing to be found within the underground hall were the scaled and rough eggs, all in different shades and all containing the clear warmth of life, greatly contributing to the overall heat found in this area. Since the stone couldn¡¯t be the answer to any question the dragon might wish to pose to her, the only answer that remained was rather obvious.


    ¡°Is it normal for dragons to return to their eggs?¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s not normal at all. In fact, it shouldn¡¯t happen at all, but when the entire world decayed, we couldn¡¯t remain. Long Mingyun had her power suppressed back into an anchor, and many of us were sealed in eggs¡­ truth be told, I don¡¯t fully understand how or when that happened, only that not long ago, we had begun to awaken.¡±


    ¡°Was that the source of the sigh?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. I, and many others, awoke from a long slumber, and we felt the world once more¡­ In a number of ways.¡±


    ¡°Is it true, then, that the dragons are incredibly lustful creatures that would kidnap princesses and cause noise at the level of a thunderstorm for days in a row before bringing back the same princesses with a large belly and a rather intense desire to return to the dragon?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not true at all! We would never kidnap a princess, nor would we impregnate someone without permission. We¡¯re not savages, even if humans were and clearly still are, given that they cannot ensure that accurate information is passed along in their records,¡± the young dragon shook her head, ¡°On a slightly more serious note, though, we have a greater sexual drive than most humans, and we happen to be attractive to a number of humans. Hence, there were few difficulties in finding willing partners among the humans, no matter what kind of thing a dragon may wish to do with them, with very few exceptions.¡±


    ¡®I would like to continue bringing up certain negative stereotypes of dragons, if only because it is somewhat amusing, but that experience is rather similar to my own. That does mean that there might be less interference from the mysterious Dao of Lust than I keep assuming there is, although I shouldn¡¯t rule out the possibility¡­ A Dao of Dao would very much be helpful, but then that¡¯s just the Great Dao, and that¡¯s a little beyond my current level.¡¯


    To get a step on the Great Dao, she would theoretically need to master a Dao to the level of Great Dao Completion, the equivalent of the Dao Ascension stage for techniques, or else achieve at least a single true realm, or a proper step onto a Dao that does not rely on the power of the heavens whatsoever. Only then could she possibly use her Dao of Law to do more than simply imposing her Law on the world, and actively influence the other Dao directly. At that point, she would be able to see how the other Dao affect reality, and from there, comprehend exactly how her Dao of Lust impacts the people around her, if it has any effect at all.


    If there is indeed no impact from the Dao of Lust, she would be incredibly annoyed at herself, and at whoever or whatever had led to it growing to such an extent and scaring her for so long.


    ¡°I¡¯ll consider whether I wish to spend any time with the other dragons after I know what else I¡¯m working with, so please hurry up already. Provided that you aren¡¯t lying to me, you should be making things more difficult for yourself as well as me by delaying, so let¡¯s not do that any longer,¡± the Ascendant suggested, and the young dragon appeared very happy to accept.


    With an excited gait, Li He led her through the halls once more, this time walking far less and bringing her to a large library that appeared to have partially melded with the stone that it should have stood on separately. There weren¡¯t many books within, but all were clearly ancient and also at the point of turning to stone due to how long they must have laid there, untouched and unused by the dormant dragons. A few of them were essentially collections of jade slips, which would take a little longer to go through than usual due to the limited depth that her spiritual perception was able to go to for the moment, but the books were scannable just fine.


    Thus, she quickly took in as much as possible, and quickly verified that Long Mingyun¡¯s advice wasn¡¯t wrong at all. Even if she adapted all of these techniques to be usable by a human body, meridian network, and her particular cultivation, managing to make use of all of these techniques and principles within her own combat style would be rather challenging, to say the least. The dragons specialised in techniques that created singular eruptions of power, relying on brief, fearsome battles above all else.


    The Ascendant did like that kind of approach, but it relied too greatly on singular attacks while she needed to fight against multiple opponent frequently and would thus exhaust herself in a manner that wasn¡¯t solved by her nascent rift.


    Integrating her Obliteration, Dao of Law and the rest of her abilities into the draconic techniques would also be highly difficult, for they were focused around the draconic bloodline and body, neither of which the Ascendant possessed. The former was easy enough to grab if she so wished, but the latter wouldn¡¯t be attainable unless she somehow transferred her mind into the body of a dragon, but that would require either killing one of the living dragons and stealing their body ¨C and compromising all of her abilities as a result, due to everything that had built up within her ¨C or forcing herself into the egg of a dragon hatchling and effectively killing a dragon nonetheless. That would give her more room to incorporate her own power into the developing body, but it wouldn¡¯t guarantee that she could transfer everything.


    In short, it would be significantly worse than simply understanding the techniques and using them to improve her techniques and Dao.


    That didn¡¯t take too long, which she found to be the case with most learning nowadays. By comprehending even pieces of one Dao, she ends up grasping bits and pieces of their greater substance, and from there things that are affected by and fall under the same principles end up being absorbed far more quickly. She had a grasp of the Dao of the Heavens, Planar Dao, Dao of the Elements and Fire Dao, which meant that the primarily fire-based techniques of these dragons were effortless to learn for her.


    There were quite a few other elements and techniques in the draconic arsenal, but fire was the primary element simply due to the draconic heart¡¯s constant flaming ember of power. It led to frost dragons breathing frost flame instead of simple yin, gold dragons being able to breathe out lightning flame, which would act far more like fire than lightning and land on foes and set them alight, if only relatively briefly, and even legendary dragons like void dragons breathing void flames.


    She couldn¡¯t verify whether that last part was true, for she had no idea what a void flame would even look like, but the tendency towards flame was clear and undeniable. For her, flames were limited to one fifth of one fifth of true planar energy, which was one miniscule aspect of the overall nature of reality, so to bind herself to flame on her road to improvement would be a poor choice by any metric.


    ¡°Are you already done?¡± Li He asked.


    ¡°I am. I have a very big mental library, and an immense capacity for processing information, so most things generally take me a few moments to process. Combine that with my mind¡¯s ability to accelerate to the point that time effectively slows down around me, and I don¡¯t need long to do anything.¡±


    ¡°That-¡±


    ¡°That is not normal, Wei Yi,¡± the voice of Long Mingyun suddenly appeared in their ears, with Li He freezing in place while the Ascendant simply looked in the direction of the ancient dragon¡¯s chamber, ¡°You ought to have realised this by now, but processing so much shouldn¡¯t be possible even by entities that are specialised in the field of the mind. You are a human, and although you have a few interesting bloodlines, you are not one of those entities.¡±


    ¡°I know. However, I¡¯m guessing you have no clue why I might have these capabilities, right? I have far too many things to be concerned about already, and I¡¯d rather not add this to it.¡±


    ¡°And yet, I would suggest that you do keep this in mind. Something like this doesn¡¯t just happen.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Shi Meng and I had a good understanding of the natural limits of the world. It was, in part, with my aid that we established criteria for who a good successor to him would be. I had hoped that he would never make use of them, but¡­¡± Long Mingyun¡¯s pause was the exact length of one of her sighs, ¡°There may be a danger to your power that can be exploited.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure that there are plenty of methods to exploit any of my abilities, but I have a decent enough understanding of my foes at the moment. Both the current ones, being the Great Leeches, and the future ones, like the sealed Primordial Deities or the things that had intimidated Kong Shi Meng.¡±


    ¡°The Hunger of the Beyond¡­ No, they are not adept at this, and they wouldn¡¯t be acting in the favour of the world¡­ not that we ever grasped their exact natures and desires,¡± the dragon said, going silent for quite a while after that. With the suppressive property of the timeless aura, there was significant challenge in grasping exactly what she was up to in that time, but Li He did recover during that time and managed to simply pretend not to be listening while also glancing in the Ascendant¡¯s direction any time anything interesting was mentioned.


    Given the nature of their conversation, it meant that she was pretending not to listen while paying as much attention to it as was humanly possible, making it rather ineffective.


    ¡°You have done well enough so far, from my understanding, so I ought not to push you into any course of action. Do what you think is best, and take precautions where possible. If you fail to do so, and no-one is near to aid you at a time when you are weak, then you shall have only yourself to blame¡­ and I will be highly disappointed.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I haven¡¯t disappointed myself yet, and I might have higher standards than you will.¡±


    Although that sounded extremely odd when talking about a dragon of such an immense age, who was familiar with one of the strongest cultivators in the known history of the Western Continent, and would thus be likely to compare her to him, the Ascendant was well aware that she had been aiming above all of that for a while. She couldn¡¯t be sure when the very idea of imposing some notion of Justice upon the world had begun to form in her head, but it had remained with her for a long while, as did the preference for the Dao of Law and the wish to surpass the heavens and any other force that might stand in her way, whether there was only the source of the otherworldly demons, or countless others.


    From what she knew, Kong Shi Meng simply wanted to bring some stability to the world, make the lives of people in his Yi City better, and prevent the world from being destroyed. It may seem like a lot in comparison to the usual person, but neither of them could really be called that.


    ¡°¡­ Perhaps. Do as you will.¡±

 Bonus Chapter: Dragon Orgy, Part 1 [R-18]

    After her collection of most useful items in the possession of the dragons, the topic of utilising dual cultivation to help her out ¨C and sate their endless lust ¨C naturally came out. They discussed the matter for a while, then arrived at something the Ascendant was more or less happy with.


    ¡°Fine, I can agree to this arrangement. However, if even one of you tries to take charge, do whatever you like, then I¡¯m out,¡± Wei Yi stated, to the disappointed whines of a few dragons.


    One of the most vocal was a dragon with scales akin to bark, who appeared to be getting aroused already. Her dick was large even in comparison to the other dragons, and it exceeded the Ascendant¡¯s size as well, though that simply meant that it was rather unsuitable for the majority of human women in the world. Presumably, this dragon either didn¡¯t care, or wanted to show off before a new visitor, not that it mattered much.


    Still, despite their disappointment, none of them tried to dissuade her. The only thing that came close was a request for clarification from Li He, who said, ¡°Just to be clear, are you against us penetrating you as well?¡±


    ¡°Typically, I would be, but this is the first time I¡¯ve run into dragons, and so it¡¯s the first time I¡¯m finding those that have dicks and are attractive to me,¡± her words elicited a number of understanding nods from the dragons, ¡°I¡¯ll take this as an opportunity to experience more things. However, if I say no, I mean it, is that clear?¡±


    ¡°I get it,¡± Li He replied, the other dragons doing the same in their own ways.


    One of them, a smaller dragon with dark blue scales, appeared to stop listening when the topic of penetrating came up, and only nodded along once everyone else started doing it. That, combined with the strangely meek look the ancient beast had, seemed to communicate her preferences far more effectively than any lengthy diatribe could, though Wei Yi had known a few people that could act very differently from what their usual appearances implied.


    Still, it hardly mattered, as they would soon discover one another¡¯s interests directly, without any need for guessing.


    They lost their clothes quickly and gathered the planar energy stones and energy storage items in one area, where a series of varied elevations would permit them to make themselves comfortable in whatever positions they liked.


    It was all made of hard, timeless stone, possibly carved out for that very purpose, but the material wasn¡¯t going to be a problem for either the Ascendant or the dragons. Both were physically tough, and a little hard stone wasn¡¯t going to stop them. More likely, an ordinary stone would suffer from their activities, and wear away until it was in the exact state that would be most comfortable, though that would make the room last for only a few sessions before it would need to be maintained and carved out again.


    ¡°So, you lot have more experience with this, I presume. Any suggestions for how we ought to begin this¡­ I¡¯d give it a different name, but this is essentially just going to be an orgy, so I won¡¯t bother.¡±


    ¡°Since all of us have plenty of stamina, we ought to start out slow. No reason to go right into the most exciting action from the start,¡± Li He said, glancing over at the bark-scaled dragon, Long Hua, ¡°Let¡¯s feel one another out, see how we can best satisfy everyone¡¯s interests, and then just rut until everyone¡¯s happy¡­ and the energy is transferred to you, of course.¡±


    ¡°I call her pussy!¡± a dragon with silver scales exclaimed right away.


    ¡°Not sure that¡¯s a good idea. That part of me hasn¡¯t exactly seen much action so far, and I would rather avoid something trying to go into a place it really doesn¡¯t belong.¡±


    To demonstrate, Wei Yi briefly lifted up her balls, giving that eager dragon the opportunity to duck down and take a look. As soon as she had been given a second, she let go, much to the visible frustration of that dragon in particular, whose dick had visibly grown harder in that moment.


    ¡°Damn it. You sure you won¡¯t try?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure your dick is literally larger than the hole, so¡­ You can give it a go, but you will have much more of a chance with my ass.¡±


    Another dragon, with scales of a violet shade and a curious refractive property, almost jumped up when she heard that, ¡°Can I? Can I? I want to fuck those fat cheeks and spank them as I flood your insides with my-¡±


    ¡°Calm down, Li Ran,¡± a dragon with obsidian scales put a hand on her shoulder.


    Wei Yi nodded, though she couldn¡¯t help but notice that the obsidian-scaled dragon was almost as large as she was while still soft. It exceeded the size of the bark-scaled dragon¡¯s cock easily, meaning that the few people that could take the dragon with bark-like scales wouldn¡¯t even be able to dream of taking, no matter which hole they used. It was rather impressive, though she struggled to fathom exactly how she intended to use such a monster.


    ¡°I have to agree. We ought to start out with the basics, so¡­ blowjobs?¡±


    ¡°Me!¡±


    ¡°Giving or taking?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure Long Tao will take both of us, but I¡¯d like to try your mouth. You wouldn¡¯t mind, right?¡± a golden-scaled dragon asked, ¡°Oh, I¡¯m Long Ru, by the way.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll give it a go,¡± Wei Yi accepted the request, finding a place where she could sit down, ¡°Long Tao is¡­¡±


    ¡°Me,¡± a dragon that had been quiet before this, dark blue scales scattered all over her body, spoke up, ¡°Do you mind if I just¡­ find a place at your feet, and¡­ give your nice human dick all of the love it deserves?¡±


    ¡®She got excited rather quickly¡­ get the feeling she likes being at people¡¯s feet,¡¯ the Ascendant noted, sliding back on the smooth stone and opening her legs, ¡°Go for it. Long Ru, come on.¡±


    While Long Tao quickly got to her knees and reached out with her warm hands, cupping Wei Yi¡¯s full balls, Long Ru took her time, approaching slowly and glancing at her fellow dragons. The others were currently standing by, their dicks growing hard, but they seemed to be in no rush to join in. Although that seemed at odds with their earlier excitement, they looked to be having plenty of fun simply thinking about the sex they would inevitably have.


    Long Tao had moved one hand from the Ascendant¡¯s sack and to her dick, her nimble fingers wrapping around the growing length. She spat onto the shaft, spreading her blazing hot saliva all over the length before she started stroking the lower half and sucking the upper half. Her tongue moved masterfully around the tip, caressing every sensitive place with an obvious passion, showcasing skills built up in the many years of her life. When she got to sucking on the tip, she did so in a sloppy manner ¨C in the best meaning of the word, of course.


    Layers of the dragon¡¯s saliva quickly built up on the shaft, dripping down onto her balls and the stone below, but Long Tao only got more enthusiastic with every moment she spent between the Ascendant¡¯s legs. Considering that Long Ru had finally completed her slow walk over, it almost felt as if she was setting some unrealistic expectations for Wei Yi¡¯s performance.


    The golden-scaled dragon seemed to have gotten a similar idea, as she said, ¡°You don¡¯t need to match that one. She¡¯s second only Long Lin in her oral skills.¡±


    A dragon in the crowd waved in response to the Ascendant¡¯s gaze, her bronze scales shimmering.


    ¡°Well¡­ alright then.¡±


    By that point, Long Ru was already close, and the next moment she stepped up onto the stone layer that Wei Yi sat on, presenting her cock straight to her. It had a similar size to most of the dragons, which was only a little smaller than her own, meaning that she should be able to handle it. What stood out on Long Ru in particular was her pair of balls, which were so full, so large, that they were close to the size of Wei Yi¡¯s fists.


    Their weight caused the dragons¡¯ ball sack to bulge and hang low, and in combination with the dragon¡¯s innate virility, it caused her to produce a cloud of musky scent comparable to the Ascendant¡¯s own.


    It was the first time that Wei Yi had taken the time to smell someone¡¯s dick and balls ¨C she had not met anyone with a draconic bloodline prior to this, unfortunately ¨C and she gained a better understanding of what others liked about her own scent. There was a primal, powerful aspect to it, and she couldn¡¯t help but enjoy it.


    ¡®Still, despite this dragon clearly letting that musk build up, it isn¡¯t anywhere close to what others seem to experience with me¡­ Wish I understood why. I¡¯m not entirely opposed to experiencing the things others do, but it seems rather challenging to do so,¡¯ the Ascendant sighed internally and, after a moment of hesitation, reached out with her right hand. Her Arm was still incomplete, and so it wouldn¡¯t be ideal for a precise operation like giving her very first handjob ¨C and assisting her with her very first blowjob.


    Her fingers settled on the long shaft, feelings its heat for a few second before she gripped it properly, just behind the glans. The entire length twitched, and although the movement was slight, it was right before her face, suddenly making the motion rather intimidating.


    ¡®I can suddenly understand the feelings of all those women who¡¯d given me blowjobs¡­¡¯ she calmed herself and tightened her grip a little before moving her hand down the shaft.


    The foreskin slid down with a wet sound, revealing the tip of the dragon¡¯s cock. A bead of milky fluid appeared at the slit, slowly dripping out, but Wei Yi wasn¡¯t going to touch it just yet. She had just touched another¡¯s dick for the very first time ¨C an important fact to repeat given how much she¡¯d managed to use her own in this time ¨C and if she rushed through, she would forever miss out on countless experiences. Furthermore, since their time together had just begun, the dragons were all patient, and had no issues with her exploring and experimenting, whereas they would likely devolve to primal rutting by the end.


    Right now was the best time for her to get familiar with something, slowly and at her own pace.


    Hence, she slid her hand up and down the shaft slowly, getting a feel for the hard length and watching how the golden-scaled dragon responded. Long Ru was not at all shy about hiding her enjoyment, and made it very easy for the Ascendant to learn. In fact, she had rarely ever stroked her own dick, so this was probably the longest she had spent on the activity.


    After she had become familiar with the length itself, she tried out a few simple things, like twisting her hand or changing up her speed, bringing her hand up the shaft quickly and sliding down slowly. The dragon seemed rather easy to please, given her quiet moaning throughout, but it still felt good to provide that pleasure through means other than her own dick. It brought her back to an older time, back in the prison realm.


    ¡°Oh yeah, right there¡­ You have really nice fingers¡­¡± the dragon gasped, though her gaze remained mostly calm, ¡°But won¡¯t you use those pretty lips? They¡¯re absolutely gorgeous, just so you know¡­¡±


    ¡°I know. You¡¯ve been staring at them the whole time,¡± Wei Yi replied.


    That prompted a yell from the current audience, from a dragon with light-blue scales, ¡°She¡¯s a total oral fanatic! You should have seen her demanding blowjobs when she woke up.¡±


    ¡°Oi, Li Kong, don¡¯t get me started on how you tried to shove my face in your ass,¡± Long Ru spoke back, ¡°I¡¯m a fan of blowjobs only, and I can handle myself just fine when it comes to other things. It¡¯s just my favourite activity. So, Wei Yi, dear?¡±


    ¡°Fine, fine. Let me just¡­¡± Wei Yi glanced down, at the submissive dragon that had been continuing her diligent service, and promptly placed a leg on the dragon¡¯s back, ¡°Have fun, Long Tao.¡±


    With that, she forced her down onto her dick, instantly hilting herself to the base in the dragon¡¯s mouth. Long Tao gagged and choked on the invader, but being a dragon, she had plenty of air left in her lungs. Hence, Wei Yi simply kept her there, only allowing her to move a little bit to allow Long Tao to continue bobbing on her shaft, and soon she felt herself nearing the edge.


    She moaned as she pressed the dragon down with her leg, feeling her balls emptying into the dragon¡¯s stomach, spurt after mighty spurt slightly lessening the weight of her nuts. However, her body was already producing more cum, and if she really wanted to, she could simply keep filling Long Tao until the limits of the humanoid draconic body were tested. Fortunately for the dragon ¨C or unfortunately, depending on her particular preferences ¨C this time she simply wished to let off a bit of stress.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got some impressive virility there, Wei Yi,¡± Li He noted from the side.


    ¡°Stop distracting me. We¡¯ll fuck later anyway,¡± the Ascendant didn¡¯t bother looking in her direction and instead kept her attention on Long Ru¡¯s shaft, taking a deep breath in preparation.


    Thanks to her compulsive recording of just about everything within the Ascendant¡¯s Library, she recalled what others did when it came to blowjobs, and with her unnatural ability to replicate recorded skills with her own body, it wouldn¡¯t be difficult to provide a decent performance. However, she was feeling a little intimidated, a feeling that intensified with every moment she spent considering this.


    After all, her mouth was only so large, while that thing was, by human standards, enormous. Perhaps the only thing that made it less intimidating was that, unlike her own rock-hard shaft, which refused to bend most of the time, the dragon¡¯s dick retained a little softness, though that would only matter if she managed to take this behemoth all the way into her mouth, and bring it to her throat. In order to do that¡­


    ¡®Ah, fuck it. Although I may have refined my teeth quite a bit, they shouldn¡¯t do any harm to a dragon unless I try to bite her,¡¯ Wei Yi exhaled a mouthful of hot air, causing Long Ru¡¯s cock to jump a little, then breathed in and moved in.


    Her lips parted, opening wide, and she wrapped them around the tip, sliding her head forward along the length and reaching out to taste the head. With a simple lick of the tip, tasting the dripping precum as a result, she got her first experience of another¡¯s cock ¨C and to her surprise, it was much better than she had been expecting.


    Much like her own dick, the dragons possessed a clear hint of femininity that made the strong taste more than tolerable. In her mind, it was similar in concept to eating out an ordinary woman, though the taste of these dragons was far superior. Her limited experience with food ¨C or dicks, for that matter ¨C made it difficult to make proper comparisons, but it did not stop her from displaying her appreciation with her tongue, lightly sucking on the tip as she did so.


    That got a loud, breathy moan out of Long Ru, who nearly reached out to push her head further in before a single killing will-filled glance from the Ascendant stopped her.


    Aside from that quick reminder of their agreement, Wei Yi continued as she intended, slowly tasting and licking the tip and taking more of the shaft into her mouth, bobbing back and forth as she got used to it. Her mouth was only barely able to open wide enough to take the full girth of the dragon¡¯s shaft, the only challenge that remained was the length.


    ¡°Your mouth feels so good, oh yes¡­ W-Wait, Long Su, are you-¡±


    ¡°This slut has been sucking on the human¡¯s cock this whole time and waving her pretty little ass about. I think we all know what she wants, and since the human isn¡¯t giving up her pussy, I¡¯ll just fuck Long Tao¡¯s¡­ for the thousandth time¡­¡± a dragon with light silver scales coughed after the last sentence and got into position behind Long Tao, who, as described, was in the perfect position to get her tight pussy pounded.


    She quickly lined herself up, and then thrust inside, her dick easily penetrating the dripping hole with a wet shlick. Long Tao¡¯s lips and tongue trembled for a moment, stopping their efforts on pleasing Wei Yi, but recovered rather quickly, resuming her work with even more vigour.


    Clearly, Long Tao also made some effort on her back side, as Long Su moaned and slapped the submissive dragon¡¯s ass as she got into a nice rhythm, slamming her hips in with great vigour, ¡°Fuck yeah, this pussy hasn¡¯t gotten loose after all this time. Come on, keep gripping onto me tightly, you little slut!¡±


    Her thrusts pushed Long Tao further down onto Wei Yi¡¯s cock, though the Ascendant had already managed to get used to the attention enough not to be distracted from her own efforts.


    With her accumulated knowledge and previous experiences guiding her along, she was able to take roughly half of the Long Ru¡¯s length within her mouth, sucking on it and working the length with her tongue before withdrawing and licking the shaft. She also tried tasting the twin orbs hanging from the dragon¡¯s groin, covering them in her saliva and taking each into her mouth ¨C one at a time, of course, as she couldn¡¯t fit even one into her mouth fully.


    As a result, much of her own face was covered in her spit and the dragon¡¯s precum, mostly gathered around her lips and chin, but she actively didn¡¯t cleanse her skin, instead permitting it all to accumulate and mark her plentiful efforts in her first foray into being on the receiving end in sex, even if she had yet to get has ass involved. That would be a much greater challenge to undertake, but for the moment, she was happy with what she was able to do. Her accumulated memories transformed into her own skills, and she felt more than happy to put them to use.


    ¡°Yes, if you keep going, I won¡¯t be able to hold back,¡± Long Ru said, gritting her teeth for a moment, ¡°Do you want me to cover your face, or feed you the huge load that you¡¯ve earned?¡±


    Wei Yi would¡¯ve brought her out of her mouth to reply, but she was beginning to rather enjoy the hot shaft between her lips, so she instead used her spiritual will, ¡°Can¡¯t we do a bit of both? With balls like that, you ought to have enough to cover me and fill my hungry belly, right?¡±


    ¡°Oh, you greedy slut¡­ I love you.¡±


    ¡°Which is it?¡±


    ¡°Both, of course,¡± the dragon grinned, bringing Wei Yi¡¯s suggestion back to her in a manner that must have seemed rather smart to her, ¡°Now, try deepthroating me. Come on, I know that you can do it!¡±


    The Ascendant quietly rolled her eyes and did as she was asked, using a bit of her control over her own body to ensure that she didn¡¯t gag from the intruding length. Even without that, she could handle a tap or two against the back of her throat, but her body had yet to acclimate to anything trying to force its way down her throat and stay there. In fact, she barely ate food as of late, so her throat swallowed little in general.


    After bringing the head of Long Ru¡¯s dick to the back of her mouth, she replaced the air she could no longer inhale with her oblivion essence, and then dove forward, the tip of her nose soon meeting the dragon¡¯s abdomen. She took the whole length in a single go, then stayed there, simply caressing the underside of the shaft with her tongue while looking up, straight into Long Ru¡¯s eyes.


    She loved it when others did it, and it seemed like the dragon loved it too, as her shaft throbbed and seemed to grow just a little bit larger, filling her tight throat even more.


    ¡°Heavens, you look¡­ fuck, you¡¯re too hot! I can¡¯t hold back!¡± Long Ru exclaimed, her hips thrusting forward even as she exhibited an impressive degree of self-control in keeping her hands away from Wei Yi¡¯s head, ¡°Take it all!¡±


    The Ascendant felt the underside of the dragon¡¯s cock bulge as her balls began to empty themselves, fluid surging through the shaft before it exploded within her, audibly flooding down her throat and right into her stomach. Even without her physique energy, her body was able to break down the semen within seconds, but the sheer volume of cum meant that even she struggled to keep up, soon filling up her throat and forcing her to bring her head back if she didn¡¯t wish to simply drown in the endless torrent of seed.


    As soon as the tip returned into her mouth, her tongue was drowned in the dragon¡¯s taste, the potent salty flavour of cum searing itself into her memory ¨C not that it took much, given her mental library.


    With no chance of swallowing the thick and sticky seed, she quickly finished backing her head away and released the shaft from the confines of her lips. Right away, her face was splattered with seed, copious ropes of white covering her pristine skin, forcing both of her eyes shut. Despite how much the dragon had already released, Long Ru kept going on and on, getting her seed all over Wei Yi¡¯s crimson hair and flat chest.


    However, even the dragons had their limit, and after adding a second layer of cum onto the Ascendant¡¯s face and chest, her ejaculation finally reduced to a trickle of seed. Her balls had gotten visibly smaller, though they were already refilling themselves at a staggering rate.


    ¡°Oh¡­ phew¡­ it¡¯s been a while since¡­ I¡¯ve cum so much¡­¡± the dragon¡¯s breath was heavy as she stepped away, sitting down on the stone, ¡°You¡­ you alright, Wei Yi?¡±


    Though she was rather stunned by the dragon¡¯s load, it didn¡¯t stop her from wiping it away from her eyes using her fingers, while licking up anything within the vicinity of her lips. Opening her eyes was difficult, as the plentiful seed still on her face quickly attempted to drip down and cover them again, but speaking was much easier.


    ¡°Do you have any plans for taking care of all this?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, we-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll take care of it, don¡¯t worry!¡± an excited voice swooped in, and moments later a tongue lapped up the seed still on Wei Yi¡¯s fingers, lips soon joining in as a dragon sucked on a finger at a time.


    The Ascendant¡¯s spiritual perception was sufficient to perceive her identity, even in the timeless caves, but she chose to let the dragon do her work instead. It wouldn¡¯t take much longer either way, as the dragon finished with her hand at record speed and moved on to her face, starting out with a kiss, getting her tongue involved right away to clean up any traces of cum remaining inside Wei Yi¡¯s mouth. Although they had just started, Wei Yi tasted multiple layers of seed on the dragon¡¯s tongue, likely originating from the others dragons in the timeless caves.


    ¡®Does she do this regularly? These dragons must be rather committed to particular fetishes¡­ not that I object,¡¯ the Ascendant resisted the urge to trap the intruding tongue in her mouth and keep the kiss going for a while longer and shut her mouth to let the dragon do her work as effectively as possible.


    With remarkable efficiency, the dragon cleaned her chin, her faintly red cheeks, licked her nose ¨C tickling her a little, though she refused to show it ¨C and finally got around to the eyes. As soon as she was done with them, Wei Yi took a look at her, finding that this dragon had white scales, a little similar to pearls in appearance and texture. Perhaps misunderstanding her gaze, this dragon backed away and showed Wei Yi her open mouth, still full of seed, her tongue sticking out lewdly.


    This made her wonder whether the appearance of a dragon had anything to do with their personality and, more importantly, sexual interests. After all, the euphemism ¡®pearl necklace¡¯ existed, and this dragon just happened to have pearl-like scales.


    ¡°She¡¯s Long Xiu. Her preference is to clean up as much of the mess left after our encounters as she can, preferably with her tongue¡­ it¡¯s quite hot, don¡¯t you think?¡± Li He said helpfully.


    ¡°I won¡¯t argue with that,¡± Wei Yi said back, putting her right hand in Long Xiu¡¯s path as she went to clean her hair in a similar manner, finding the dragon¡¯s tongue quickly licking her palm, ¡°I¡¯ll take care of that, so you ought to look lower. My hair is a bit of a¡­ delicate thing, though it is the very opposite of the word.¡±


    Long Xiu stopped licking her palm, tilted her head to the side in confusion, but eventually did as she was asked. She took care of the Ascendant¡¯s neck, moving down to her breasts, at which point she paused for a moment and glanced into Wei Yi¡¯s eyes. Whatever she was meaning to convey, Wei Yi failed to understand until the dragon quickly moved in and wrapped her lips around her right nipple, sucking on it eagerly.


    A gasp escaped the Ascendant¡¯s mouth due to the surprise, though she quickly composed herself. It was just in time, too, as Long Xiu also put her hand on her other breast and played with her left nipple, prompting a shiver of pleasure to run through her body.


    ¡°This slut has just tightened up... Human, did you do something on your end?¡± Long Su asked, prompting Wei Yi to take a look at how Long Toa was faring.


    The desperate yet delighted look in the dragon¡¯s eyes as she tried to breathe around the rod completely filling her throat provided a good enough explanation. Cum stained her pretty red lips, much of it also remaining on the Ascendant¡¯s shaft from one of her earlier orgasms, and there was a visible fullness to the dragon¡¯s belly, putting a big smile on Wei Yi¡¯s face.


    ¡°Oh, nothing much. She¡¯s just a little full. Wanna finish together?¡±


    ¡°Sure, why not. I¡¯ve been holding back on filling Long Tao¡¯s pussy all this time, even while you¡¯ve been giving me a good show. I¡¯ll do all the moving, ¡®kay?¡±


    She hardly gave Wei Yi the choice, but that was fine by her. As Long Su made her thrusts quicker and stronger, slamming her hips against Long Tao¡¯s ass with monstrous draconic strength, the latter¡¯s mouth ended up bouncing on Wei Yi¡¯s dick, further adding to the stimulation she was already providing. As they moved with no care for delaying their gratification, both soon approached their climax, and with some effort on the Ascendant¡¯s side, they reached it at the very same time, both of them hilting themselves fully inside Long Tao¡¯s holes.


    At once, they released their loads into the submissive dragon, one filling her womb while the other flooded her stomach. Whether through her deliberate effort or not, Long Tao¡¯s throat tightened around Wei Yi¡¯s cock, further milking out her seed, and soon exhausted everything the Ascendant had accumulated, leaving the dragon with a pregnant-looking belly and a very satisfied expression ¨C as soon as she got to breathe, that is.


    Wei Yi pulled her softening dick out of Long Toa¡¯s mouth, only for Long Xiu to stop playing with her nipples and descend to her groin, taking the cum-covered shaft into her mouth and cleaning it with continued diligence.


    ¡°Ah¡­ That was good. Glad I got to her before Long Hua,¡± Long Su said, glancing at the dragon with bark-like scales, ¡°She tends to leave most of us rather¡­ loose.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to tell me. I have eyes, too,¡± the Ascendant replied, having noted Long Hua¡¯s larger features earlier, ¡°I would have been more interested in hearing how that one handles her arousal. Her dick seems a little excessive.¡±


    Now that all of the dragons were fully hard, or close to it, she was able to see that one amongst them had a behemoth that the others couldn¡¯t compete with in any regard. It was longer and thicker, approaching two feet in length ¨C or somewhere around fifty-six centimetres ¨C and the pair of balls that hung below was similarly enormous, a steamy cloud of musk surrounding them. They looked human, lacking any unusual features other than size, but this size was beginning to approach what the dragons were bound to have in their true, draconic forms.


    Her earlier question barely had the time to be voiced before she believed she had found the answer. Just as she was eyeing up every dragon in the room, the dragons were looking at what interested them, and the obsidian-scaled dragon in particular was looking at the feet of those in the middle of the room. For the moment, only Long Tao¡¯s were on full display, so her gaze also focused there.


    ¡°Never mind.¡±


    For a while, the action in the timeless caves died down, with all of those involved getting themselves refreshed in whatever manner they wished, with Wei Yi in particular getting cleaned with a dragon¡¯s help and her own physique energy.


    The calm did not last particularly long, though, as none of them remained soft for long, whereas most had yet to get more than a little masturbation done. Hence, they began to eye the Ascendant¡¯s ass soon enough, and even if her spiritual perception was somewhat hampered by the timeless aura, she was fully aware of this fact. She wasn¡¯t opposed to letting them penetrate her, but it had to be done with sufficient preparation.


    ¡°You lot have a wide range of fetishes, so¡­ anyone into rimming?¡±


    To no surprise whatsoever, two dragons quickly made themselves known, one with light-blue scales and an above-average (for a dragon) dick, the other with bronze scales and no exceptional features other than a long tongue that she demonstrated right away.


    ¡°You should¡¯ve asked whether we¡¯re into having it, or giving it. Since you need your asshole loosened up, I think Long Lin is more suited for the job,¡± the first dragon waved over to the other one, but her hand froze in the air before she could lower it, ¡°Huh. I have a good idea for you, Wei Yi. Are you into it?¡±


    ¡°Assuming you mean eating someone¡¯s ass out, then yes. Let me guess, she prefers giving it, and you like to take it, right?¡±


    ¡°Absolutely correct!¡± the dragon with bronze scales confirmed, licking her lips, ¡°More precisely, I love sucking, licking, and so on¡­ anything involving my mouth, really. So, if you ever want to share a deep, passionate kiss, I¡¯m here for you!¡±


    Her seductive tone, as well as the bite of her bottom lip that followed, made her seem awfully attractive, though Wei Yi¡¯s cock was already hard and could not get much harder. The way in which all of the dragons so far displayed a particular trait did make her a little unsure about something. After a pause, she voiced that curiosity.


    ¡°¡­ Noted. Does every dragon have a dedicated fetish, or is this just coincidental?¡±


    ¡°Nah, everyone here is into most things, although some greatly prefer to be on one end rather than the other,¡± Long Lin looked at Long Hua and then Long Tao, her meaning obvious, ¡°To not wear you out too much, though, we¡¯ll focus on our favourites.¡±


    ¡°How very kind of you,¡± Wei Yi said, looking at the other dragon, ¡°Your name is¡­¡±


    ¡°Li Kong. So, we doing this?¡±


    ¡°Sure. Come on over,¡± the Ascendant nodded, ¡®This will end up being a rather long day, won¡¯t it? Even with the limited stamina of others, I manage to keep going for hours, and with a great number of tireless dragons, I will need to be very careful about the time.¡¯


    She held back a sigh as to not mislead the dragons. Their company was much appreciated, as it let her do just about anything she wanted ¨C as long as it was sexual ¨C and to experience things she otherwise wouldn¡¯t, but it was a shame that she found it at a time like this. Just as with most pleasant moments, it would have been great if she had no matters to attend to and no major worries to deal with at the time they came up, letting her take her time and act freely.


    Eventually, a time like that would come. She was sure of it, if only because she would fight until such a time arrived. For now, though, she¡¯d have to make full use of the limited time she had.

 V5C68: To Rise Beyond

    Collecting the large supply of planar stones and various energy storage artefacts that the dragons had ¨C those that still worked, for a number had been turned to stone ¨C took little time, and so they were left to move onto the next part of her visit, and it was one that appeared to be on the minds of a number of dragons.


    Based upon their appearance and strength, the Ascendant felt confident enough in labelling them all as young adults, at the exact age range where one would be met with regular feelings of lust and desire, at least in the case of humans. It appeared that there was a strong similarity in draconic physical development, for the majority were clearly wiser than humans at an equivalent age, but that didn¡¯t stop them from thinking with their lower halves. With those that didn¡¯t hide their twin genitalia, that was even more blatant than with the others.


    Their involvement would allow her to process all of the energy that she intended to take for herself significantly more quickly, so she didn¡¯t have any reason to deny her own wants and desires either. Her only objection was that a lot of the dragons seemed to be trying to be on top, which was her place.


    To her surprise, they didn¡¯t object, and quite a few were very happy with the arrangement.


    If there was a need to provide a lengthy description of what followed, one may be better off seeking something specifically meant to go into detail on such events above all others, such as an additional chapter. A large number dragons, most having dicks as large or larger than the Ascendant¡¯s, made quite the mess, and all that really needed to be known was that it took quite a while to clean up after the fact, even when physique energy was put to use.


    She had gained a better idea of whether she liked being penetrated, though she couldn¡¯t make use of the typical hole as she was too tight and small for such a thing. Nevertheless, two out of three holes did get used, and it wasn¡¯t a terrible experience. She enjoyed their taste, and their warmth.


    After it was all done, the dragons mostly headed back to rest, while Wei Yi travelled back out of the cave system and sat down on the outside, right beside the entrance. She waited there for a while, processing the energy that she had already absorbed via her own power and the yin and yang energy of the dragons, as well as throwing a large number of planar stones into the Kong Prison Realm, filling it with as much planar energy as she possibly could. It was almost getting full, as odd as that may be for such an immense realm, but with her own cultivation beginning to head towards the seventh realm, she had an impression of what she might be feeling.


    There was a boundary between the seventh and eighth realm because one¡¯s power went from finite to infinite, from being bound by the outside world to, at least partially, coming from the self.


    Once she reached the seventh realm, she would be at that same boundary. Her spatial realm was currently capable of producing someone in the seventh realm, provided that they used a less excessive cultivation method than her own, but once it passed this boundary in energy quantity, the eighth realm would be feasible. Unfortunately, she didn¡¯t think she would manage it on her own.


    The boundary might be near, but to truly condense all of the power in the spatial realm to a significant enough extent that it could be breathed in instead of simply lingering as loose particles within the air, she would need an incredible quantity of energy, far more than she currently had. There was even a possibility that she would need to provide some spatial metal to strengthen the stability of the spatial realm to prevent it from falling apart in the same manner that the Kong Holy Grounds had when their stability was ruined by her.


    Her previous guess regarding a location of spatial metal couldn¡¯t be proven due to the current barrier around the Yi District, so she had to postpone that in particular and wait for the world around her to develop first.


    Not too long after she got done with all of that, she heard the footsteps of dragons from within the caves, and could sense everything else about them with her spiritual perception. Just like her after her first time, they were positively glowing, although that was odd given their immense age in comparison to her own. Perhaps their bodies had effectively reformed during their long sleep within eggshells that they should not have had, and now they were unused to the things that their minds easily remembered.


    ¡°¡­ I forgot this path was so long¡­ Ancients forbid we have some sensibly short route to the surface,¡± one of the dragons that proved to have quite a lot of stamina earlier, Long Hua, muttered before she came out onto the surface, covering her eyes from the bright rising sun that shone into their eyes, ¡°I hope we haven¡¯t kept you waiting too long.¡±


    ¡°No, not at all. Unlike a longer lived species, I apparently have patience¡­ and far more to do.¡±


    ¡°Like what?¡± Li He asked.


    ¡°Like throwing all of the planar stones I picked up with you into the Kong Prison Realm. Speaking of which, do you want to travel to the barrier around the three central districts of Yi City, or would you rather go straight to my spatial realm and get acquainted with the people there?¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯ve got the Yi City Web, then it should not be a problem to go the spatial realm, then exit beside the barrier,¡± said a third, a shy but knowledgeable and clever short dragon who was significantly quieter than when Wei Yi and another dragon were inside her, ¡°I¡¯d like to find a place to study all of the techniques that your people have come up with, since we¡¯ve not had much of a chance to study that kind of thing over here.¡±


    ¡°Please, we¡¯ve made plenty of improvements in the time underground,¡± Long Hua said.


    ¡°If you mean improvements to how everyone shagged one another, then sure¡­¡± the shy dragon, Long Tao, muttered, ¡°I¡¯m glad the smell didn¡¯t stick around in the million years¡­¡±


    ¡°On one hand, I agree with you, but on the other, all of your scents are vastly nicer than those of humans, so if you ever get a spatial stabilisation point in here, many would still be keen to visit,¡± Wei Yi said, coughing as she moved the conversation back onto the tracks, ¡°Anyway, if you would stand still for a little while, I¡¯ll move you over.¡±


    They didn¡¯t add any other comments, nor did the remaining four add anything, simply getting a little closer and preparing for the spatial transportation. One did try to place a hand on her ass, which was understandable given that it was one of her more noteworthy assets from a certain point of view, but she quietly nudged it via her spiritual will onto the backside of one of the other dragons and shut her eyes, activating the transportation array as soon as it manifested beneath their feet. Crimson and silver poured out from within, and after a moment, they vanished from the mountains.


    A moment after that, Beast¡¯s Rest was illuminated by the silver and crimson that had once been so completely intrinsic to it, but were now shoved to the side by the overwhelming light of her oblivion essence glowing through the Subterranean Shell above.


    Although the crimson of oblivion essence and killing will could indeed be likened to one another, none of the local population could ever mistake one for the other. Even the most intense killing intent displayed prior to the opening of the Kong Prison Realm out to the world, that of the Ascendant, was simple in shade and texture, being a relatively monotone and flat red that could work as a wall paint colour, provided that someone was willing to even attempt to paint with something so intense.


    Oblivion essence had incredible depth and detail, even in comparison to her cosmic energy. Stars, galaxies and nebulae completely filled it, crisscrossed by the chains of Law, and thus the light that it shone down upon the Kong Prison Realm was far more complex than the absolute red glow that had initially consumed the left side of the spatial realm.


    ¡°Well¡­ This is quite the place.¡±


    ¡°I hope that was a compliment,¡± Wei Yi said, stepping away and turning around to face the dragons, ¡°This place is Beast¡¯s Rest, for it lies upon the body of an ancient beast from beyond the world. If you know what they are, then you¡¯ll guess it soon enough. Other than that, you are free to get a place here, in Sanctuary, Paragon ¨C that¡¯s the fortress to the north of Yi City ¨C but any of the districts other than the former Kong District are not places you should go, just to prevent any kind of unnecessary conflict. After all, the districts are under the control of Patriarchs and Matriarchs, who may not be keen to see you intruding upon their lands.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t forget about the Wu District, where you are the current Matriarch,¡± the Matriarch of the Luo District happened to be nearby around the time of their entry, and so joined in when she found it appropriate, ¡°By the way, are these¡­ dragons?¡±


    ¡°All seven are, yes. Feel free to have a chat with them while they don¡¯t have much to do, since that will soon change.¡±


    ¡°You have found a way to break the barrier the Greats have formed around the three districts, then,¡± Luo Na switched topics right away, for that was far more significant in the short term, ¡°How long do you estimate this will take? I have observed a number of changes around the barrier, making me think that the Leeches are finding ways to better utilise the energy at their disposal than simply forming a large obstruction. Offensive measures are likely to appear within two weeks.¡±


    ¡°I should be done by then. I got a lot of energy from that trip, and I should be able to push myself to the seventh realm within that time. Do your best, save up your talismans wherever necessary, and do use a few to lower the stability of the barrier whenever you get a failed talisman or something of the sort.¡±


    ¡°Noted. I¡¯ll not interrupt you any longer.¡±


    She quickly stepped away, leaving Wei Yi alone with the seven dragons, at least if one didn¡¯t include the numerous people that resided in the city and would walk quite close to the spatial gateway in the centre, and thus the many other gateways on the other side, within Paragon.


    ¡°So, you¡¯ve got four stages to go through. Where and how do you intend to make that many steps within two weeks?¡± Long Hua inquired.


    ¡°Not near the barrier, but everywhere else should be entirely fine. In fact, it may be best for me to hop around and drain all of the energy that I am able to get my hands on, so I won¡¯t be lingering in a single place. Combine that with my constant connection to the spatial realm, and¡­ Actually, before that, I would like to introduce the lot of you to some of my acquaintances, who I think you may be able to get along with quite well. First of all, Long Tao, there¡¯s someone else who is very familiar with techniques that you will be able to exchange a lot of knowledge with¡­¡±


    A day passed, and she had hopped through two of the districts already, and she was reaching the seventh stage by that point.


    This was while she was making the most of her nascent rift and available planar stones, of which she had thirty to herself, and she had expended three so far. On one hand, this wasn¡¯t that significant, for most cultivators would need more stones than that, but her use of them meant that the Kong Prison Realm wouldn¡¯t receive a notable quantity of planar energy. For the moment, it was less significant due to it reaching its limit, but once she brought it to the point that it was able to foster the development of eighth realm cultivators, the amount built up will effectively cascade onwards at an immense rate, multiplying the present quantity at regular intervals.


    For a normal cultivator, such a thing would be especially noticeable from the ninth realm, for the eighth would only form an imperfect rift that would consume some of the energy it releases to maintain itself. The ninth realm would be the one that provided constant gain without as much of a cost, a completed gate having attained complete stability and thus being able to simply provide planar energy.


    A spatial realm wasn¡¯t quite the same as a cultivator, and it didn¡¯t have an imperfect rift nor gate through which it obtained energy. Instead, it functioned according to the same Laws at the Planar Continents themselves, and had a total allocated quantity of energy that could be expanded by the possible energy being converted into practical planar energy quantity. It might seem rather odd how that works, but that was exactly what allowed the Ascendant to be confident about her conclusion of the nature of the world being rather artificial.


    There was something in the worlds of the otherworldly demons that was called conservation of mass, which states that any system that is closed off, in a vacuum, will not experience any changes in mass regardless of what goes on inside, for no mass can be produced or destroyed, only changed in form. This did not align with the nature of planar energy, which existed in an infinite quantity within the world, nor with the ability of energy to create stable and permanent structures at higher realms.


    In theory, there still needed to be some level of conservation of mass and energy, so long as all worlds followed the same set of rules, and would lean towards such a thing even if they did not. A world which followed this principle would have a limited set of matter and energy, thus having limited complexity, thus being able to exist in near perpetuity without outside interference. However, in worlds where energy seemed to come from nowhere, it had to originate from somewhere nonetheless. Perhaps it wouldn¡¯t be originating from the world itself, but from outside it, from some unseen source that might go a million layers beyond anything that Wei Yi could even conceive, but there had to be a source to everything.


    Even if such a source was infinite, the world would continually increase in complexity as more and more energy was pulled in, allowing those within to grow stronger and then demand more energy, forming the same loop as the ninth realm would provide for her ¨C she would obtain more oblivion essence, break through into the next stage, be able to attain more energy, and then obtain more without even needing to look to the outside world.


    It would have a higher demand, higher instability, and higher potential of individuals outright breaking the system and going beyond, potentially even attaining something akin to the azure lights without needing to travel outside of a world. At that point, she had no idea how anything would function, so she didn¡¯t bother contemplating it for now and instead focused on taking advantage of her Law-based method of inducing the potential energy density of the world to be refilled within an instant. This permitted her to vastly increase the rate of cultivation to the point that earning a single stage within a day, despite being at the sixth realm and with all perfected realms, was possible for her.


    Once she stepped over the edge to the seventh stage, she felt the entirety of her oblivion essence as if it was a heart, a single contraction pumping lifeforce throughout her body. There was no great change to the essence itself, nor to the links, but she felt an aura emerge around the dantian as a whole.


    That aura did not provide her any significant bonus, but the power of her cultivation did rise as one might normally expect. From her previous testing of the Yi City Web¡¯s barrier, she knew that Long Mingyun¡¯s assessment of her power was correct, so she would indeed require the seventh realm in order to breach it, and so she did not hesitate to proceed onwards to the next stage and the next district, for there was a certain limit to what her Law-based power was able to do.


    Each time that she subverted the natural regeneration of planar energy within the Planar Continents, she had to expend a greater quantity of energy to do so. The limit she decided upon was however much energy was needed to completely scatter her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, and she had just used that much to push herself to the seventh stage. Thus, it would not be very practical to stay.


    The approach to the eighth stage took an agonizing two days, during which she hopped around and further drained all of the energy of the region.


    All of the attention that could possibly be placed upon this process was on it, but she still had plenty to spare a great deal of it onto observing the various phenomena occurring around the Yi City Web¡¯s central barrier. Just as almost everyone who had taken a look at that ghostly green barrier had assumed, the Great Leeches weren¡¯t going to be content with simply sitting behind their barrier and letting the rest of the world proceed according to its own will.


    Just yet, there were no offensive measures being used against the forces of the Ascendant, but there were frequent changes in the barrier, albeit not ones that could be used to breach it. None of the experiments that were occurring sufficed, clearly, for they were undone soon enough, replaced soon enough by further attempts to modify their methods. Most of it needed to be permitted, for doing otherwise would require the breaching of the barrier, but a few of the attempts to expand it were met with fierce resistance that fell upon a less stable segment of the ghostly light, promptly causing a retreat of the energy to its previous state.


    The Ascendant was considering whether to come over and help out, but it turned out to not be necessary, so she instead showed up after everyone had moved their attention away and snapped up all of the energy that was thrown about during that quick collision.


    None of the others would be able to make use of it, so she took everything for herself instead.


    That did greatly assist her by skipping forward by an hour of cultivation, allowing her to step into the next stage just before the sun began to rise once again. She sat down in a planar energy-rich region and brought in all of that energy as well, pushing her over the edge and prompting that same unknown aura to appear in greater quantities around her dantian. Her oblivion essence pulsed in the same manner, and the rest remained unchanged, except for the slightest hint of something around the core, positioned on what an otherworldly demon might term as the equator of it.


    From her previous glances at the dantians of those in the Oblivion Halo realm, she recalled that their halos would form in a sequence that began in the middle of the core, and would then occur below and above that halo, with the optimal arrangement of halos essentially surrounding the core entirely from the sides, leaving only the top and bottom open.


    So long as her halos were not going to deviate from the standard arrangement ¨C which they would, since she would have ten and not just nine, and thus either have an additional halo at the top or bottom, or an entirely different arrangement entirely ¨C then this greater gathering of aura would indeed indicate the beginning of the first halo. Seeing as she was only at the eighth stage now, it was a little early for something like that, but perhaps she would see the manifestation of some spectral halos before the real ones come up, and then get two pairs of them, just like with her current cores. This would be a little absurd, especially if they provided their full power and literally doubled the number of halos, but she wasn¡¯t going to complain.


    As she moved from her spot once more to seek out more planar energy, she found it necessary to contemplate the two realms that would come after the seventh, for both were going to be essential to her future development, and also give her the power that she had been seeking for very long.


    In theory, she was going to attain the ten halos that would come as standard from having one hundred marks, and then the step to the sixth stage would advance those halos to something greater. She had no clue what that would be, at least just yet, but all of the changes so far were fundamental, yet did not change the base function or behaviour of the planar structures, so the seventh realm shouldn¡¯t be any exception.


    This could very well change in the eighth realm, where the imperfect rift might well advance to the perfect, somewhat complete, competent or maybe even a slightly better than usual rift, depending on her mood when she was naming it. Perhaps there would be a repeat of the second realm¡¯s spectral cores, where there was a notable difference in what the perfected stages ended up affecting, or maybe something entirely unique would occur and catch her off-guard. That was very much a possibility, and she needed to consider all of these.


    Her technique for cultivating was her own, after all. At this point, she barely took what the Master of Yi City had created into consideration, and when she did check her own findings against what he had made, she had to conclude that there would be very few advantages to sticking with his technique as opposed to her own.


    It wasn¡¯t that his Mysterious Character technique ¨C or perhaps the Truth of the Universe technique, which would be more appropriate to the true name of the otherworldly gift within which it was contained ¨C was particularly bad, but it was simply no longer suitable for her or her Dao. Kong Shi Meng had never anticipated having five meridian networks, with killing will, physique energy and bloodline power, nor the exact effects of all perfected stages and thus perfected realms, the Dao of the Ascendant, Dao of Law, Dao of the Heavens, and all of the other Dao that she had accumulated up to this point, which was likely a far greater quantity than the Master of Yi City had acquired due to his reliance on the Truth of the Universe for such a long period of time.


    Within that technique, there was likely guidance towards the eighth realm, and the ninth realm after that, although it could only provide theoretical recommendations after the third stage based on Kong Shi Meng¡¯s attainment.


    That information would be fed to her stage by stage as she progressed through the stages, but she didn¡¯t wish to wait for that to decide how she was going to move forward. Instead, she thought to the most powerful thing she knew, the one source of energy that surpassed the world she existed within and could provide seemingly infinite power. Obviously, she was contemplating some method of advancing her path to the level of an azure light.


    She knew that it was an advanced step on the path of a seed of power, a concentration of some principle and source of energy. In theory, the structures of the seven initial realms would be beneficial in forming something like that, but the natural cultivation path would only lead her to forming an imperfect rift and then an eternal gate, which didn¡¯t quite align with that progression path.


    ¡®Both act as sources of energy, but something that effectively goes inward, piercing some unknown space for the energy within, is very different from a quantity of matter ¨C presumably, since all I¡¯ve ever seen is the light itself ¨C that¡­ hm. Are they all that different? No, even if they were identical in nature, I¡¯d need something extremely abnormal to turn the power of the world to something that goes far beyond,¡¯ the Ascendant concluded, placing her fingers on the bridge of her nose as she tried to hold back the sudden headache, ¡®Clearly, I need some hands-on experience with this stuff.¡¯


    Four days were needed to bring herself to the ninth stage, and when she broke through, she finally felt a noteworthy change.


    The aura that had been gathering with the last few stages had condensed to an even greater extent, finally gaining form upon the second to last beat of oblivion essence that she would see, provided that it did not continue within the seventh realm and beyond. It was indeed much akin to the shape of a halo, but the aura around it did not gather into the other halos, instead forming a large sphere around the entirety of the dantian.


    If this sphere had a similar width to the spectral mass representing the first halo, she would simply assume that the next breakthrough would lead to that aura condensing into the other halos, but it instead maintained a significantly larger area all around the dantian. The aura thinned out the further it went, but it continued on with sufficient density to form further spectral halos for almost ten times the diameter of the first halo, which was not at all how the halos should be arranged. Either this would change with future stages, and the aura had yet to condense fully, or she could just throw away any expectation of being able to follow existing techniques and standards in regards to her cultivation.


    Either way, just because she got to the ninth stage didn¡¯t mean that she could drop her cultivation and rush towards the central barrier of the Great Leeches, as she would need quite a bit more energy to push into the seventh realm. Thus, she moved to another region where energy was plentiful, and used a moment to take note of the current state of the barrier.


    Since last time, there had been more experiments and more changes, but none were able to affect the outside just yet. The issue was that her forces also weren¡¯t able to do a single thing against the blatant second layer that was forming behind the first, with patterns very reminiscent of array channels used for offensive purposes. In other words, they were constructing various combat arrays behind the barrier, which could be used to attack simply by shifting around the arrangement of the barrier, and there was nothing that either Wei Yi or any of her Arbiters could do about it.


    Luckily, it appeared that the estimations regarding the completion date of such modifications were accurate. A week had passed, but it seemed like this arrangement would take around a week more to be completed. The actual offensive arrays would likely need only five or six days, but it would take some time for the proper method to utilise them to be devised. Something as stable as the barrier couldn¡¯t just be moved around without exposing weakness or outright compromising the stability of it.


    That was exactly why her first body cultivation method, the Condensed Formation body, was a unique creation. It incorporated something very complex into a living, breathing being that would never remain still, and yet it retained a degree of stability to this day. Such a thing was extremely abnormal.


    ¡®That, my mind¡¯s capacity to process information, and my acquisition of the Truth of the Universe, and¡­ In essence, there is a lot that could be investigated, just as Long Mingyun had said, but I can only spare my attention to a limited quantity of things for the moment, and the best thing to focus upon would be resolving the barrier, reaching the seventh realm, and ending the Great Leeches as quickly as possible,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded, shutting her eyes and shifting her thoughts onto activating the powers of Law as to acquire more planar energy to fill her dantian.


    She had a long way to go.

 Bonus Chapter: Dragon Orgy, Part 2 [R-18]

    Placing her hands on one of the taller stone segments nearby, Li Kong stuck out her full, soft ass towards the Ascendant, wiggling her hips about. Her knees rested directly on stone, but it didn¡¯t seem to be much of a concern for this dragon, and her stiff cock pointed straight down, swinging back and forth alongside her ass.


    As an invitation, her position worked extremely well, though Wei Yi would have preferred to fuck her ass rather than eat her out. Still, she was sure that she¡¯d get the chance to take the ass of at least one of the dragons, so that was good enough for her.


    She got into a similar position to Li Kong, getting onto her knees and resting her hands on the dragon¡¯s ass. It filled her hands with ease and made it a delight to grope, though she had to stop and focus on her main objective. As she spread those plump cheeks apart, she felt a pair of hands doing the same with her prodigious behind, prompting her to pause and glance behind herself. There, Long Lin smiled back, winking and sticking her long tongue out to give her a hint of what to look forward to.


    It rivalled that of any other partner she¡¯d had, so it set up some expectations that the dragon appeared eager to live up to.


    ¡°Come on~, can¡¯t we get started already?¡± Li Kong urged, also glancing back, ¡°Stop ogling one another.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not¡­ oh fuck it,¡± Wei Yi exhaled onto the dragon¡¯s ass, proceeding to kiss one of her soft cheeks. That instantly shut that dragon up, and prompted Long Lin to begin her work as well, moving straight to the Ascendant¡¯s tight asshole, her plump, warm lips connecting with the rim. She didn¡¯t attempt to enter immediately, but it still sent a shiver down Wei Yi¡¯s spine.


    She was not going to rush in with the same speed, especially because Li Kong was not going to be the one getting her ass fucked in a short while. Even if she failed to loosen the dragon up, she would be fine.


    Instead, Wei Yi prioritised the build-up, the foreplay, and mainly just touching the gorgeous dragon¡¯s body. Although she had been around plenty of attractive women ¨C and got to sleep with more than a few of them, before and after gaining her dick ¨C the dragons here all had a different type of beauty, a different aura and appeal. They were strong yet refined, seeming to have ordinary, feeble mortal forms yet exuding a clear confidence and power that impressed even her.


    ¡®I can definitely see why so many women were eager to sleep with a dragon a million years back. If I had been looking for a long-term relationship, the dragons here would certainly present a number of options¡­¡¯ she sighed internally, not wanting to influence the mood in the room, ¡®When the War of Ascendancy and what not is done, when I¡¯ve solved the immediate problems, I should get a place for myself. A bar or a tavern, or an inn. Some kind of calm place where there¡¯s no rush, where people can just meet and talk¡­ If it doesn¡¯t take a million years, then I could ever run it with a girlfriend or wife¡­ or several¡­¡¯


    Rather than shaking her head and moving on, which was difficult considering her position, she chose to focus on the task before her even more, a series of quick kisses leading her to the dragon¡¯s rear hole.


    She brought her tongue out and ran it around the ring of muscle, tasting the sweaty backside and the dragon¡¯s anticipation. Whether the dragons had the same internal processes as humans or not, Li Kong¡¯s butt had the same scent and taste as the rest of her body, though that didn¡¯t prevent this particular hole from feeling rather taboo to approach ¨C a funny thing considering how often she¡¯d made use of it in her previous sexual encounters. Still, her arousal was currently greater than her hesitation, so she gave the tight asshole another lick before prodding at the entrance.


    Meanwhile, behind her, Long Lin had also begun her assault, her strong tongue overcoming the Ascendant¡¯s anal muscles and slipping inside. She remained near the entrance, forcing her ring to loosen up slowly but surely. The dragon¡¯s tongue was hot and wet, its intrusion getting more pleasant by the minute.


    ¡®Okay, I might not be able to take this as calmly as usual¡­ fuck, is her saliva an aphrodisiac or something?¡¯ Wei Yi held in her moans and focused on the ass before her, rather than her own.


    Long Lin slipped in deeper, and with a little more room to move, she began to swirl the tip of her tongue about, forcing the Ascendant¡¯s insides to accept her intrusion, to open up and let her feel the pleasure that the dragon¡¯s experienced muscle could provide. Although she had received her fair share of rimjobs prior to this, the long, powerful tongue also awoke some ancient curiosities of her mind and body.


    Up until now, she had never had the chance to be penetrated by more than the fingers of a woman that would soon be moaning and screaming beneath her. These dragons, although they were most certainly capable of the same ¨C Long Tao being the first and foremost example ¨C were a very different kind of partner.


    They possessed strength that Wei Yi didn¡¯t completely outmatch, and they had dicks that simultaneously made most men look insignificant in comparison, and didn¡¯t provoke the same degree of apathy ¨C on a good day ¨C or outright revulsion ¨C on a bad one ¨C that men¡¯s bodies could.


    Hence, this time, she saw Long Lin¡¯s intrusion as more than just a brief tease, and started to imagine what she would feel like with a dragon¡¯s firm cock inside her.


    In her experience, most women had some thoughts about sex and penetration prior to actually experiencing it. Whether they preferred men or women, it was only natural to be curious, and it would be wrong to say that she had never had some interest in the matter. Her particular preference for dominance in bed, which sprouted around the time she actually got to experience sex through her own body rather than some old pervert¡¯s memories, mostly led to those contemplations being discarded and forgotten.


    The dragon behind her did a fantastic job of bringing them into the light, however, and the first experiences weren¡¯t bad at all. Her dick leaked as much precum as usual, but her often neglected pussy had gotten wet to the point of her arousal dripping down her thighs.


    Thanks to her position, her balls did not obstruct that view from the dragon licking her ass, and every now and then, when Long Lin pulled back for a breath or two, the other dragons got a good look as well. Even without looking, Wei Yi was sure that Long Su ¨C the dragon that had displayed interest in her pussy earlier ¨C was the one who¡¯s gaze seemed powerful enough to burn her body, though the eyes of all the others did give her a certain feeling of¡­


    It was complicated, to say the least. To an extent, there was vulnerability, but that unpleasant aspect was buried beneath the safety layer of control she had established before this all began. She knew that she was in control, that if she wished to put this to an end, she could at any time, even if the dragons tried to refuse. Hence, the vulnerable feeling somehow transformed to be more empowering, though she knew, deep down, that her preference for control could show itself as an obsession every now and then, preventing her from even considering giving it up and enjoying it.


    She knew that there was nothing wrong with it. She knew that others, strong or weak, dominant or submissive, could enjoy being in another¡¯s hands and in their control, if only for a while, but she neither had the power nor the desire to force herself to view the possibility in a different light. It was not the time for deep retrospection, and it was hardly the first thing she¡¯d focus on if it was.


    Helpfully, Long Lin provided a nice distracted when her tongue reached in deep and found a point within her, prodding at it eagerly. Wei Yi failed to hold back a gasp as her prostate was pressed, causing a small spurt of cum to shoot out from her cock.


    ¡°Hey, Long Lin, could you do that again? Her tongue felt very nice there¡­ yes, that¡¯s it¡­ oh¡­¡± Li Kong moaned, slightly pushing back her hips in an attempt to grind against the Ascendant¡¯s face.


    The dragon seemed to remember their agreement in time, not exceeding Wei Yi¡¯s limits, and so both Long Lin and Wei Yi continued, doing their best for a while.


    Although the Ascendant¡¯s tongue was shorter, and certainly lacked the ability to explore all of Li Kong¡¯s ass, she made up for it with her resilient strength and the mental recordings of thousands of others doing their best. It appeared to please the dragon, though her favoured moments still seemed to be whenever Long Lin switched from playing around near Wei Yi¡¯s entrance and gave her prostate a lick.


    As they did their thing, so did the other dragons, with a number beginning to masturbate in whatever ways suited them. A few looked to one another, but they held back for now, though their patience for a different matter lasted far less.


    ¡°Come on, let me fuck her ass already! I might waste my load on the stone at this rate!¡± a dragon with violet, crystalline scales said, her hard shaft throbbing and bulging with need.


    She had been similar in size to most of the dragons, but her current arousal made her seem rather large and intimidating, the monster on her groin red and rock- no, diamond-hard with pent-up desire, while her balls almost seemed to be growing visibly heavier by the moment, the twin orbs becoming more prominent within the hairless sack after the dragon¡¯s minimal touching and the continued focus on Wei Yi¡¯s butt.


    In other words, she looked ready to blow after doing almost nothing, prompting Long Lin to withdraw with a sigh, ¡°Fine, fine. Wei Yi¡¯s plenty loose anyway, so you should fit with a bit of effort.¡±


    ¡°Why did you make me wait this long, then?¡±


    ¡°Hehe. I liked her taste,¡± the dragon with bronze scales smiled, ¡°I also wanted to give her pussy some appreciation.¡±


    ¡°In that case¡­¡± Wei Yi also moved back from Li Kong¡¯s ass, glancing at the one that wanted to penetrate her full, gorgeous behind, ¡°I suppose we ought to move on. I could do this for a lot longer, but then again, so could all of you do¡­ whatever it is you¡¯re into.¡±


    ¡°Yay! I get her ass first! Fuck you, Long Hua!¡±


    ¡°Her asshole probably wouldn¡¯t fit me anyway. Good thing Long Tao¡¯s always available,¡± Long Hua, the bark-scaled and big-dicked dragon, shrugged.


    In that time, Li Kong withdrew and


    ¡°No need to discuss that for now,¡± Wei Yi interrupted this before it got out of hand, ¡°Instead, tell me where and how you intend to fuck me. Since you lot have been behaving so far, I¡¯ll let you choose.¡±


    The visible jump of Li Ran¡¯s cock made her a little concerned that the dragon would try something she would regret, but Wei Yi decided to trust her for now. After all, these dragons were all far older than she was, and she had enough self-control to supress a boundless ocean of killing intent, so these dragons ought to be capable of controlling their libido for a day.


    Of course, it had to be remembered that the dragons had only lived for a small portion of their total age ¨C whatever returned them to their eggs put a pause on their lives, after all ¨C so the Ascendant hoped that they would prove her right, at least this once.


    ¡°Ooh, since you¡¯re letting me pick¡­ Just stay there, on your hands and knees. You look so hot like that¡­¡± Li Ran said, coming over and slapping her cock down onto Wei Yi¡¯s ass, right in between the cheeks, her precum splattering onto the Ascendant¡¯s back, ¡°Oh, that¡¯s so nice¡­ You¡¯ve got such a big ass, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯ll be able to resist going right in.¡±


    ¡°You better hold back, or else I¡¯ll be sure to return the favour.¡±


    ¡°No need, I was just kidding¡­ probably,¡± Li Ran¡¯s voice lacked the confidence she would have wanted to convey, but it didn¡¯t stop her from sliding her dick in between Wei Yi¡¯s butt cheeks, groaning in pleasure, ¡°Oh yeah¡­¡±


    She firmly grasped the Ascendant¡¯s ass, one cheek in each hand, and tightened their grip on her cock, sliding it back and forth as she did so. Her hips thrust in slowly and steadily at first, letting her entire length feel the soft embrace of Wei Yi¡¯s butt, though Li Ran¡¯s pace slowly betrayed her impatience and building arousal.


    Her thrusts grew quicker and stronger, her hips slamming against Wei Yi¡¯s ass while her balls ended up slapping against the Ascendant¡¯s pussy. The latter fact in particular prompted Wei Yi to clench her teeth each time it happened, as the slaps, while not especially hard or painful, were still rather striking after all of the careful touches and licks that her lower lips had received prior to this. Her movement back was slower, it still grew faster as she went on.


    Soon, she was outright fucking the tight crevice in between the Ascendant¡¯s buns, and her twitching shaft constantly drooled its precum onto her partner¡¯s back. It was rather unusual to feel something building up on her like that, not to mention the sensation of someone with a cock only a hair¡¯s width from her asshole, but she was coping with it well enough so far.


    ¡®I suppose the fact that my dick is still so fucking hard shows that I don¡¯t entirely dislike this¡­ Though she really ought to try going inside me before she blows a load or two,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, fully aware that her cheeks were beginning to become red, ¡°Are you planning on actually going into my ass?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Oh, right, I¡­ ah¡­ alright¡­¡± the dragon remembered, slowing her movements, biting her lip as she desperately attempted to stop her hips, ¡°Your ass is so good, though¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t have to tell us,¡± Long Hua muttered on the side, turning to Long Tao, ¡°Fuck it, she¡¯ll do.¡±


    Nobody seemed to ask what she meant, and certainly not the submissive dragon. She promptly raised her ass into the air, reaching back and spreading her ass cheeks to give Long Hua easy access to whichever hole she wished to use.


    Long Tao¡¯s pussy lips were still parted after her previous draconic partner, the formerly tight hole dripping with thick white seed. With every heavy breath, her pussy twitched and a dollop of white seed joined the steady stream. It seemed to please Long Hua ¨C or perhaps she was just especially aroused already ¨C as she approached quickly and plunged her shaft inside, displacing a large volume of semen that quickly splattered onto the floor.


    She didn¡¯t hesitate to begin using Long Tao for her own pleasure, though that seemed to be exactly what the submissive dragon wanted. Both began moaning in pleasure soon enough, and that got some of the other dragons riled up.


    Li He practically jumped on a dragon with dark green scales, exclaiming, ¡°Come on, fuck my tits already! I know you want to, Long Ping!¡±


    ¡®That¡¯s quite a change from her earlier tone¡­ though not that great. I guess-¡¯ Wei Yi¡¯s thoughts were interrupted when she felt the tip of Li Ran¡¯s cock against her asshole, which was still slick from the earlier tongue-fucking and not at all loose enough to easily accommodate the absolute behemoth that seemed so intent on penetrating her.


    Having read the minds of others plenty of times, she knew what it felt like to have a cock pressed against a tight hole that felt far, far smaller than the intruding object. It should have been entirely familiar to her, and yet she couldn¡¯t believe how intimidating the dragon¡¯s dick felt.


    She found her eyes widening, her body trying to instinctively protect itself by closing her legs and trying to move away before she controlled herself and stopped it. It was a silly fear when she knew how much her body could take, and yet simply considering her asshole being forced open made a shiver go down her spine ¨C both from terror and just a drop of raw, unadulterated lust. Clearly, her body wished for this even while it feared it, a mixture of emotions she turned out to have zero experience in handling.


    ¡°G-Go slowly, and carefully,¡± Wei Yi instructed, feeling the urge to slap herself for the slight stutter.


    ¡°I think I¡¯ll have to¡­ Damn, this will be really tight,¡± Li Ran did not appear to notice, instead withdrawing and replacing her prodding cock with a single finger, ¡°You don¡¯t mind if I help out, first?¡±


    ¡°If you want¡­ oh¡­¡± the Ascendant felt some relief when the pressure was reduced to such an extent, but there was just the slightest drop of disappointment, ¡®I think I ought to discard my preconceptions, and the experiences of others¡­ I have no idea how my body or mind will handle this, and I should just let it happen however it happens¡­ so long as nobody goes out of line.¡¯


    There was one thing she was sure of, it was that her obsession for control wouldn¡¯t just vanish.


    Unlike the vast girth of Li Ran¡¯s cock, her fingers were thin and firm, easily sliding inside Wei Yi¡¯s ass, slowly loosening the tight hole with clear experience.


    Meanwhile, Li He had already been pushed to the ground ¨C somewhat gently, given the stone surface below ¨C and straddled by Long Ping, who spat onto her own cock before shoving it in between Li He¡¯s large breasts. She wasted no time in making use of them, pumping her cock in and out while Li He held her breasts tightly around the shaft. Their moans and slaps soon joined the sounds produced by Long Tao and Long Hua, and yet the majority of attention was still focused on Wei Yi.


    Somehow, all of the dragons decided that she was the most interesting to observe, and she vaguely understood why this was. The other dragons had already experienced this plenty of times, and their reactions were simple and predictable. She, meanwhile¡­


    ¡°Second finger~,¡± Li Ran said rather excitedly, her index finger being joined by the middle finger, ¡°Would you like me to find your prostate while-¡±


    ¡°No!¡± the Ascendant responded more loudly than she should have, earning some of the aforementioned attention, ¡°Don¡¯t go too far right now. What¡­ what would be the point of actually fucking me then?¡±


    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right,¡± the dragon smiled, ¡°Let me loosen you up just a little more¡­¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± her affirmation sounded more like a moan, but it got her intentions across well enough, ¡®Maybe I should have spread my Yin Soul Yang Root a bit more¡­ though now, these dragons will essentially do it for me. When they spread out across the world, many women without partners ¨C and a few with them, for better or worse ¨C will end up bearing draconic blood¡­¡¯


    Whether that was a good thing for the world as a whole or not, she didn¡¯t have a clue, but it was obvious that the women of the world would need to begin training some physical cultivation techniques to get a lot more¡­ flexible, stretchy, even.


    It didn¡¯t take long for Li Ran to finish opening her up, and soon the tip of her cock pressed against the Ascendant¡¯s ass again. Her hole might have been loosened up a little, but that didn¡¯t stop the prospect of being filled from scaring her. For a few moments, the dragon simply covered her tip in the saliva lingering around Wei Yi¡¯s asshole, and then, finally, she pushed forward, forcing her thick tip into the Ascendant.


    Wei Yi couldn¡¯t restrain her voice and gasped, the air fleeing her lungs against her will.


    She knew it was just the tip. In comparison to the whole thing, she might as well be taking a single handful of sand from the whole Northern Desert, but even this was¡­ was¡­


    ¡®I can¡¯t decide if it is utterly horrifying or absolutely wonderful!¡¯ the Ascendant decided not to make that decision just yet, and instead clenched her teeth while forcing her body to cooperate with her. Obviously, the human body was not meant for anal sex ¨C that was the typical perversion of humanity at play, coming up with something entirely unnecessary and finding it massively arousing ¨C so her ass tried to clench around the invading shaft and force it out.


    It might have been pleasurable enough for Li Ran, and there was no chance Wei Yi would harm herself no matter what she did, but it would be absurdly difficult for the dragon to proceed onward with the absolute grip of the Ascendant¡¯s ass.


    ¡®This better not make its way into any kind of written text¡­ Just thinking this stuff is absurdly embarrassing, and I constantly read the minds of everyone around me, so that says a lot.¡¯


    ¡°Holyfuckingshitwhatisthisohheavens!¡± the dragon muttered, forgetting to breathe for several moments, ¡°Why do you feel so good? How¡­ oh, shit¡­ h-hey, Wei Yi, how do you feel about me cumming early?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you¡­ dare!¡± Wei Yi looked back and glared, ¡®There¡¯s no way I¡¯d stay here if given an out¡­¡¯


    Her killing intent must have flared up again, as Li Ran nodded without any hesitation and did not make a disappointment of herself. After a few breaths, the dragon gripped the Ascendant¡¯s hips and slowly slid in deeper.


    If the previous sensation was overwhelming, this was at an even greater level than that, shaking her entire mental domain. The feeling of having her body stretching to fit the invading shaft was completely unbelievable. For a moment, her vision faded as she desperately gripped the stone beneath her while attempting to maintain her composure.


    Even when the immediate shock wore off, the sheer amazement did not. It was difficult to decide whether she should envy or pity those she had put through a similar experience, though.


    ¡°I¡­ ah¡­ I wonder whether I should have let Long Tao go first...¡± Li Ran muttered, pausing again.


    ¡°I can handle it,¡± Wei Yi also muttered, unable to raise her voice in the slightest, ¡®Also, stop suggesting easier options! You¡¯ll convince me eventually, and I¡¯ll waste my first time! And¡­ fuck, I can¡¯t actually say any of this to her because¡­ pride or something. At least it¡¯s only a problem in sex¡­¡¯


    It was absurdly difficult to think straight, as the overwhelming heat of Li Ran¡¯s dick, combined with her sheer girth and the few droplets of precum that spilt from her tip, formed such a fantastic sensation that she could get lost in it forever. She could never have imagined that this was what it felt like, and considered ¨C if only for a brief moment, so brief that most would never catch it ¨C that she may have made a mistake in refusing to be on the bottom the rest of her life.


    The thoughts within her mind couldn¡¯t be witnessed by the dragons, but they could certainly see her hard cock throb as Li Ran advanced just a little further. A small spurt of seed shot out from her cock, spilling onto the stone uselessly, and moans burst out from the lips of both of them, joining the noises that the other dragons were producing at the same time, with Long Hua hilting herself in Long Tao while Li He¡¯s tits and face were covered in seed from Long Ping¡¯s heavy balls. The whole room filled with lust, and the ones at the centre of it was hardly unaffected.


    Li Ran sped up her efforts, advancing into the Ascendant¡¯s rear, finding her progress to be easier and smoother, permitting her to strike another spot that elicited an audible cry.


    Her cock struck the prostate, and the earlier spurt was dwarfed by a large rope of cum that audibly splattered onto the floor. The most difficult part of the journey had been completed, and thus the dragon was able to begin pumping in and out, advancing a little further with each thrust. What little composure the Ascendant had at first was chipped away with every firm slam of the dragon¡¯s hips.


    Sighs and groans were elevated to loud gasps and moans that filled the stone chamber, a pool of thick cum accumulating on the floor, spreading out to stain Wei Yi¡¯s knees. The thrusts grew longer and stronger, as Li Ran was truly fucking, pounding the great Ascendant as if she was simply a lustful slut like any of the others that the dragons had delighted in a million years ago, in the golden age of Yi City and the dragons.


    ¡°Yes, fuck, take it¡­¡± Li Ran moaned, barely maintaining her composure, ¡°Shit, I want to go all the way¡­¡±


    Although her words were clear enough, her mind must have been struggling to think straight, as she reached out to grab onto Wei Yi¡¯s crimson ponytail, gripping it firmly and pulling on it, eliciting a gasp from her.


    Then, the world was bathed in crimson and shadow. It overwhelmed all of the dragons, and it especially struck the one responsible, though not in time for Li Ran to release her grip or otherwise apologise. Instead, she found herself falling to the ground, back first, with only enough time to react to land elbows first rather than taking the impact with her skull. In what felt like a single moment, her shaft was gone from the tight confines of the Ascendant¡¯s ass, and what she got instead was the most terrifying glare she had the misfortune of experiencing.


    ¡°Did you not listen?¡± her words were quiet, yet caused the dragon to shiver even when she calmed her tone a little, ¡°You¡¯re lucky I¡¯m in a decent mood, so I won¡¯t do anything unpleasant. However, we¡¯re doing this my way from now on.¡±


    Li Ran could only nod, as it felt that any other option would bring her a swift yet absolutely unpleasant death. She watched as Wei Yi moved forward, stepping over her until her hips were positioned over her ¨C still erect ¨C cock. Then, the Ascendant lowered herself until her ass was just an inch away from the dragon¡¯s shaft, reaching out with her right hand to adjust its position and line it up with her asshole.


    ¡°Now, no movement, no nonsense, and no hair grabbing. Get it?¡±


    ¡°Yes daddy.¡±


    ¡°Not you as well¡­¡± although she felt that such a response was a little odd, she was happy to have something that redirected her anger to simple discomfort, taking that opportunity to bring herself down onto the dragon¡¯s firm cock.


    It slid inside easily, most of the length going in before it reached the limit of Li Ran¡¯s earlier thrusts. She found it acceptable, for only an inch or two remained outside her body, and leaned forward, feeling her insides being rearranged to accommodate the amazing girth. With her hands on the dragon¡¯s chest, groping it idly, she began to rock her hips, moving up and down slowly.


    Her movements grew faster and more confident with every breath, and soon she was riding that dick as well as any of the prostitutes in Beast¡¯s Rest. Both of them had already been fucking for a while, and both were close, so there was no need to be slow or gentle.


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m going to-¡± Li Ran cried out.


    ¡°Do it!¡± Wei Yi commanded, feeling her cock throb and her balls tense up.


    She brought herself up, then slammed her hips down, fully hilting the dragon inside herself. That brought them both over the edge, as she felt her insides being filled with a vast volume of seed. Only a moment later, she came as well, spraying her cum all over Li Ran¡¯s face and chest, feeling her ass tighten even more and milk out more of the dragon¡¯s semen.


    The moment was both brief and felt like an eternity, but either way, it exhausted her greatly, even if only temporarily. With a deep breath to fill her empty lungs, she lay down on Li Ran¡¯s chest, kissing the dragon¡¯s cum-stained face.


    For a short while, she simply enjoyed the moment ¨C both her fullness and the gorgeous dragon in front of her ¨C before she glanced up.


    ¡°Long Lin, if you¡¯d be so kind¡­¡±

 V5C69: Breaching the Barrier

    Eleventh day of the ninth month. The Arbiters stood by and watched as the second layer of the ghostly green barrier before them and their target, the three districts of the Great Leeches, formed and wobbled, getting closer to the first layer and clearly coming closer to being able to pose some kind of threat to them.


    Around the lands of Yi City, it became common knowledge that the Ascendant was cultivating, for the plentiful planar energy of the world was constantly being drawn out by a figure that none could catch nor observe, moving around the districts under the control of the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters in a manner that only that woman could. Some did try and claim that this was not her attempts to cultivate ¨C for the quantity of energy drawn far surpassed that of any known Matriarch or Patriarch, making it a little absurd in the eyes of some ¨C but that it was instead the energy that she had been using to pretend to raise overall planar density of the world dissipating after a while.


    In short, they wished to accuse her of perpetrating a trick on the entirety of the Planar Continents, for even the Eastern Continent was known to believe her words. The only problem with doing such a thing was that the energy would swiftly return, and do so in even greater quantities.


    From that, it was clear that unless the Ascendant was a particular kind of idiot, she wouldn¡¯t have allowed such a drop to occur while she was able to fake far more energy quantity in every district. She did not appear to be any kind of idiot, since nothing she had done so far had been negative to her or her goals, so those who were doubtful of her remained in the minority and had little room to proclaim their theories as having any accuracy.


    None could tell what her exact stage even was until she appeared before the barrier of the three central districts with her aura being sufficient to turn the earth beneath her to fine powder, then break it apart even further until it turned to naught and blew away. Other than that, there was nothing immediately different about her, and only those with the ability to perceive her cultivation even through her passive obstructions to the spiritual sense of others were able to tell that she was at the precipice of a new realms.


    They instead became curious what about the purpose of coming over now instead of when her breakthrough had occurred and finished smoothly, but that was also easily answered.


    ¡°Everyone, clear away to other portions of the barrier and leave me with a two hundred metres in any direction, or else I may hit you and I won¡¯t apologise for it. I have warned you, so go,¡± she said, speaking softly yet reaching everyone who needed to hear her.


    All those in the fourth realm and below left immediately, rushing as quickly as they possibly could, and those in the fifth and sixth realms left after taking a moment to look in her direction. Only the Patriarchs, Matriarchs and the dragons that chose to stand by, for it would be far, far too risky for any but them to stay. Even they were not going to fare well if they remained for too long, but they at the very least had the chance to leave, and the curiosity that came with a higher realm.


    ¡°What exactly do you intend to do?¡± one Patriarch asked.


    ¡°Blow this thing up and allow all of that energy to not only suffuse into the rest of the Yi City Web, but also to flood the world with planar energy. We will require it in order to elevate the level of the world as a whole, and that will be necessary in order to face the threats that will appear once we deal with the Leeches¡­ for now, just stand back and let me handle things. You wouldn¡¯t be useful.¡±


    ¡°You will use your breakthrough to unleash something devastation, won¡¯t you?¡± Luo Na said, sighing, ¡°And you¡¯re doing it near the Luo District, again¡­¡±


    ¡°Nearest to the Ning District, but yes, I¡¯ll likely make a mess. If that¡¯s an issue, stand around and fix it, otherwise help out at the other parts of the barrier, but either way, don¡¯t be too close. Hitting you and absolutely slaughtering you by accident wouldn¡¯t be pleasant, regardless of the reason for such a thing happening¡­ aside from a scenario in which you decide to attack me on your own, in which case I will retaliate.¡±


    ¡°No, no intention to do such a thing. I¡¯m not suicidal yet,¡± the Luo Matriarch shook her head.


    The others might have had some objections as well, but the rather flat tone of the Ascendant combined with what one could easily construe as a threat targeted at all of them persuaded them not to push the matter, even if they had problems with her. Naturally, the dragons had no issues at all, for they were aware that she could speak to Long Mingyun like an equal despite their gaps in age, experience and power, and that she was significantly more powerful than the vast majority of their own kind, who were already stronger than most humans by virtue of their bloodline.


    If she was instructing them to do something, then it would be best to follow her commands for their own good, and the benefit of Yi City as a whole.


    After a few minutes, she stood far from anyone else, and turned towards the ghostly green light that flooded the area. Behind it, there were almost certainly Great Leeches and those who fought on their side, willing or otherwise, but it was harder to see now that there was a second layer of light attempting to merge with the first.


    However, those on the other side would be almost certainly able to see or otherwise perceive her, and so the changes on the other side began soon, with the offensive layer stepping forth to ward her off and prevent her own offensive. This was not her concern, however, because her attention was entirely upon the state of her dantian, and the overflowing energy within that was close to rampaging and breaking through her dantian and core alike.


    For her, this was a first. All of her previous realms had been contained by the power of her cultivation method and the Truth of the Universe, but with oblivion essence she went beyond that which was known to Kong Shi Meng.


    Her technique also lacked a degree of refinement that was present in the Mysterious Characters technique, which was to be expected from something she was making up in the moment, but it necessitated that she shift all but a minority of her focus onto the state of her energy in order to prevent great physical harm coming to herself.


    That did not prevent her from being aware of what she said to the others, but she had the twin advantage and disadvantage of not being affected as much by her will and emotions. The positive was that she wouldn¡¯t be quite as angry from a glance towards the Great Leeches and their work, the negative was that she couldn¡¯t suppress her more biting comments, as one may put it. She wasn¡¯t concerned about offending anyone with her words, especially not when she would soon have the same cultivation realm as the strongest forces of the Yi District and significantly more power than them, but far more power than any of them could hope to command without perfected realms.


    To fix this as soon as possible she had her focus on the next steps of her technique, and the way in which she would attempt to drive her energy during the breakthrough, ¡®If I think about things broadly, an eternal gate is a structure that contain a stable source of energy. I will inevitably have ten halos, in some arrangement, so I ought to make use of them and the foundation of the rift to form something superior along the lines of the azure light¡­¡¯


    Just as with the use of the point beams of the Great Leeches, she was fine with using a power that would benefit her so long as it did not itself come at a cost or with consequences that were unacceptable to her. So far as she could tell, the azure lights had their effect partly because they simply provided power to those that greatly desired it, but also because of some kind of will within them that affected those that they inhabited, directly or through an otherworldly gift being in close proximity. If that will was her own, or if she managed to create something like an azure light with no will at all, then it should be safe for her to use, and it might even allow her to figure out a method to affect the other azure lights and make them safe for use as well, instead of sending them away.


    Although that was something she was considering, she would rather take the azure lights for herself at that point. On one hand, the simple corrupting effect of power would be reason enough to deprive others of it, especially if she could do so without harming them like she would now, but it would also be excellent to prevent the azure lights from returning to wherever they came from, or affecting others.


    She would never claim that their power wasn¡¯t attractive to her, and that she wouldn¡¯t want to claim it for herself, but if she managed to form an azure light on her own, she could always make two, three or however many she needed, but there would be no way of simply removing azure lights from the world with the immense power that surged from within. When she collapsed a black sun, all of that power would explode outwards, and an azure light had to contain a million times of that energy, meaning that collapsing something like an azure light would be enough to obliterate the Planar Continents as she knew them.


    ¡®In short, the seventh realm sets up the stabilising halos that permit the imperfect rift to be maintained. Under the influence of oblivion essence and the structures set up for it, my rift should turn into an¡­ uh, name should be decided on later. I don¡¯t have the mental capacity for that right now. In the second half of Imperfect Rift, that will be developing until a gate can be formed from the rift and stabilised to the point that it no longer draws outside energy¡­ but what if I don¡¯t want a gate?¡¯


    Within the standard paths of cultivation, whether one was on the Western or Eastern Continent, one would need to follow a single arrangement, and perhaps this was also the case here. After all, even with her best attempts to obtain certain results from her cultivation, it was ultimately the heavens that had the last say.


    Still, if she just transformed the gate from that into something that could produce something even greater than a boundless source of oblivion essence, then she would truly have the ability to challenge the heavens. She would, at that point, be at least on par with the strongest force the world itself could produce, and then she could compete with it on an even footing. In a best case scenario for herself, the formation of an azure light would be something feasible through the system of the Planar Continents, but not a power of the world itself. Thus, she would take a step beyond, and their competition would be as uneven as her fight against a normal cultivator at a similar realm to her own.


    It was too much to expect that scenario, but she would certainly appreciate an easier fight.


    ¡®For now, though, it seems that the Great Leeches have finally figured out a way to attack me. Time to deal with this and push through to the Oblivion Halo realm¡­¡¯


    She raised her silver eyes and looked upon the green barrier before her, as well as the numerous orbs that were forming right at the edge of the protective layer, at the central points of numerous offensive array channels.


    Her Conqueror¡¯s Eye and Elder Watcher physique abilities were activated in an instant, both being illuminated by the faint celestial glow and the background of chains manifested from the power of her oblivion essence. That power also appeared in a faint corona around her, almost akin to the rift-like visual of Primordial Invader, except that the light of the Primordial Deity could not be likened to her crimson might in any way.


    The very instant that these orbs emerged through the barrier, her eyes narrowed just a little and an invisible aura appeared right before them, slicing down and up and to the side. Each slash severed a sphere of energy and cut just a little into the unstable points on the barrier, although those recovered far too quickly for the Ascendant to take advantage of them.


    More orbs appeared, this time nearly quadrupling the number of the first wave and preventing Wei Yi from targeting all of them with her Edge Replication, allowing her to see what the attack was even supposed to be. They didn¡¯t simply fly out at a constant speed, but instead hovered a metre away from the barrier before a series of bursts suddenly occurred, randomly popping inside each sphere that then suddenly shot out at a vast speed. A strange noise that she would have expected to hear from the weapons of the Ju District¡¯s automatons followed each burst, but that delay simply meant that it was easier for her to manage these attacks.


    She simply made use of additional waves of Edge Replication to destroy those before they could strike her, but she determined that as a method of expending her overflowing planar energy, it was far too efficient and slow to use up enough.


    When it came to her cultivation, the energy that was actually present in the core didn¡¯t matter as much as the energy that she had absorbed and integrated into her cultivation. Initially, it was all about filling up her core, but in the higher realms, the core would always have full capacity and absorbed energy would instead contribute to the construction and development of further planar structures within one¡¯s dantian.


    Hence, it was not only completely safe to throw out her planar energy at whatever task she could conceive of, but it would also greatly benefit her without much of a cost, as she wouldn¡¯t need to focus on maintaining the stability of quite as much oblivion essence. With that in mind, she switched her method of defence just a little and spread out her killing will, flooding the earth with the power of the third stage of the Yin-Yang Conduit realm. She applied the power of the conduit on all of her killing will, and even made use of her oblivion essence to further boost the capability of the conduit by as much as she could.


    By this point, her technique was well known, and none were surprised to find numerous figures sprouting from the ground and striking down the incoming spheres before they could even get near, but the Great Leeches simply couldn¡¯t do anything about it.


    ¡°Well done for coming up with a new technique,¡± the Ascendant suddenly said, not trying to meet the gaze of anyone in particular, ¡°Shame you started learning far too late.¡±


    She hardly needed to explain what she meant, nor who she was addressing. Those behind the project to transform the one layer of the green barrier into two had to be some of the most knowledgeable among the forces of the Great Leeches, and those with the greatest ability to process information and to calculate it. One thing that couldn¡¯t be denied about the first generation of the Leeches was that they were some of the strongest in this regard, and so at least one of them would be watching her at this very moment.


    As for their timing, that became obvious when the faint echo of a circle formed around her, distorting light and energy as if she was a black sun and the halo around her was the odd light that formed around such a celestial phenomenon.


    Her cultivation was progressing, and the Leeches naturally took action to stop her, reverting to more familiar tactics as they switched the simple orbs to beams and planar constructs in the shapes of hands, animalistic heads and more strange images that she couldn¡¯t be bothered to classify or identify. She shifted her focus back onto her energy, and allowed the rest of her abilities to take care of things. The Titanic Conqueror appeared behind her and spread out its four arms within which the four distinct energies gathered to hold back the incoming attacks. It was able to act without direct and constant instruction directed at it at all times, so she made full use of that ability.


    With enough killing will spread out to counter a few dozen thousand attacks from the Great Leeches, enough physique energy to support the continued use of the Titanic Conqueror for at least as long, while empowering the momentary phantoms of killing will using the banners to make their attacks capable of taking out several enemy offensive measures in one go, she was completely safe.


    From the outside, it seemed that there was an immutable barrier between her and the attacks coming her way, but she cared the most about the manner in which her cultivation decided to progress on this particular breakthrough. Generally, all five of her paths would take a step forward at once, sometimes with her killing will leaping ahead in between breakthroughs and thus not advancing quite as much, but this time the individual paths seemed to be acting almost on their own, with the first being bloodline power.


    Her veins were filled with a vast power as everything that her blood touched transformed, every blood vessel seeming to turn to pure light as they changed to immortal veins. From this, not only did the bloodline multiplier rise to the seventh realm¡¯s first stage, but the final product of that complex equation was further doubled, meaning that her spiritual perception rushed out to distances unimaginable to her in the past.


    The rest of her energy was naturally affected in a similar manner, her killing will phantoms growing significantly denser and tougher just as their weapons did, allowing their attacks and defensive measures to take out the beams and planar constructs without a single failure to do so in one strike.


    Once the power of her bloodline combined with the greater density of killing will, that also advanced by a stage, and pushed forward the realm of her physique energy. Physical Amplification turned to Mortality Extrication, the influence of her physique vein network bursting out to cover the entirety of her body, her every particle changing alongside the previous influence of bloodline and once again repeating her experience with every single realm prior to this. She had no ultimate destination set out by a bloodline, and her physique was also changed by all of her work up to this point, and the numerous physique abilities she had managed to absorb up to this point.


    Thus, her form had no necessary changes to undergo, but instead to improve that which was there.


    Every crimson strand hair gained an even more vibrant shade, every muscle became even more powerful, and her whole existence¡¯s nature was further clarified to herself and all others around her. For her, it was the former that mattered, for her current path needed no confirmation nor affirmation from any other than herself, and no denial of her attempts to change the world would matter until she had completed her work.


    Right then, the physique abilities that had remained still for some time suddenly leapt forward, and the first to advance was her core physique ¨C the Yin-Yang Ascendant physique. From the Imperial Yin-Yang Ascendant, it rushed forward, the incredible yin and yang gaining an even greater intensity until she could say without a shadow of a doubt that there was no purer state for either form of energy than what she now possessed. The dawn light turned to raw heat, a plasma bound by her will, and the silver light of the moon turned still into an absolute frost, completely freezing all within its reach.


    Sun¡¯s Regalia and Moon¡¯s Regalia followed, advancing to their Royal Regalia states. The emblem upon her chest shone for a moment, having been suppressed for countless days, but their separate states suddenly merged into one, half of a sun and half of a moon remaining without any overlap upon her skin within that same Royal state.


    She could only name the new physique the Celestial Regalia before being forced to move on to the next pair of physiques that underwent that exact same change, merging from Bright Sun and Soothing Moon to the second, Luminous stage of Blooming Cosmos, manifesting itself within her eyes as the untainted cosmos, dark and yet bright beyond measure, with a pure white celestial object occupying the positions of her pupils.


    In fact, it seemed that all of her physiques would merge when the Golden Form and Silver Form also manifested upon her skin at once, but then merged into a single bronze shade that was almost identical to her skin colour, making it difficult to tell exactly when the Imperial Alloy Form faded from sight.


    Immortal Mortal and Mortal Deity also came together, blending into the Celestial True Existence, yet another physique that she had seemingly created with her body acting as the forge. The rampant nature bestowed onto energy by the Mortal Deity physique vanished, the stability of the meridians intensified by a dozen times, and yet she could feel that she would have even more control of her energy from then on, as if the boundary between flesh and meridian was removed completely. In this regard, the name that came to her head represented that distancing from an obsession with certain ideals, like the image of divinity that was so sacred in the eyes of some. She did not need to be anyone, but if it would help her, then she would become anything that she considers acceptable.


    The development of Deepened Pool was less impressive from a glance, but the manner in which it rapidly consumed some of her current oblivion essence and forced her cultivation forward helped a great deal. In addition, the Superior Deepened Pool also expanded the full capacity of all of her forms of energy by several folds with no other cost.


    Her Glimmering Heart advanced to its peak, the Celestial Glimmering Heart, and that advancement combined with one other distracted her from the rest. Certainly, something like the Soul of Cinder physique advancing was incredibly noteworthy, for the power of the embers taken from others had greatly contributed to her current strength, but she simply couldn¡¯t allow herself to be distracted from the manner in which a series of physique abilities took a bold leap forward.


    The Conqueror¡¯s Eye suddenly turned red, the blackened crimson aura becoming more alike to her current oblivion essence, and with it she gained the Elder Shaper¡¯s Grasp, Awakened Elder Watcher and Red Titanic Conqueror physique abilities, all of them becoming prominent on the outside immediately.


    Behind her, the form of the Titanic Conqueror transformed in a burst of raw power, the previous state being discarded entirely. Instead, the whole figure was robed in grey, a hood revealing only a field of crimson stars and nebulae, with the cloth ceasing at the four arms and turning into the respective outfits of the four segments of the Conqueror¡¯s Eye. One was protected by star metal, another was covered in thin yet impenetrable dark leather, a third was decorated in a strip of stars condensed into cloth, and the last retained the robe of the rest of the body.


    All four arms were brought forward, palms facing a central point at the level of the Titanic Conqueror¡¯s chest, but in that moment it matched the height of the Ascendant, who also brought her hands forth.


    Both of her limbs crackled with the colours of the stars, of oblivion essence, of killing will, of physique energy and with the radiance of her bloodline, even though one was made of flesh and another was not.


    In fact, in this brief moment, her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow approached infinitely close to that perfect stage that she had wished for, of free movement and perfect equivalence to her original limb in all the ways that mattered, but this was a transient thing that she might only be able to duplicate after the breakthrough if she had a really productive time in the Ning District, which she faced and focused her will upon.


    Most importantly, the phantom of a ring around her, of the first halo of the presumed ten, finally began to solidify as she could no longer be said to be in the sixth realm. At that point, the horizontal halo suddenly shook and began to rotate.


    It used the sides of the core within her dantian and the air outside as the axis on which it spun, and every single full orbit made the halo more stable and more tangible, with all of her energy becoming even stronger with every single rotation. Most significantly for her, at this particular moment, was the clear development of her spiritual perception, and the manner in which it grew to reach even further beyond, but most significantly, gained a level of stability and raw force that couldn¡¯t be overlooked.


    Of course, with her attribute of spiritual perception, what couldn¡¯t be ignored was, and what should be seen wasn¡¯t. That was the strange power of the Hidden attribute, and once the Absolute power of the soul leaked into the strengthened spiritual perception, it neared collapse nearly instantly. However, it remained stable, and then pierced right through the Yi City Web¡¯s barrier.


    An instant changed the calm and subdued silver of her perception to the dark shade of immortal gold. It poured out from her form, both solid and ethereal, piercing the ground and travelling rapidly through the air, perceiving the entirety of the barrier and going far, far beyond. The gold light went beyond, to the borders of the Luo and Chu Districts, and even further out, even reaching the edges of some of the districts she had never been to before ceasing, and stabilising in a new form known to the world as divine sense.


    She was able to see the district of blacksmiths with immense clarity, observing all of the measures taken by the Great Leeches, and created a plan within a single breath.


    Her energy focused onto a single point, infinitely small yet enormous, and the oblivion halo that had been spinning around her ceased its movement for that moment, the ring pointing towards the Yi City Web¡¯s barrier alongside her hands, and those of the Titanic Conqueror.


    The secondary layer of the barrier, the offensive portion that had been continuously attempting to barrage her with ineffective attacks, receded right away and put up only the defensive portion to resist her imminent attack, for none of the Great Leeches could possibly underestimate the Ascendant after everything she had done. All of the green light grew denser, the offensive portion was outright disassembled a moment after that, but it was clear from the further reinforcement of the barrier and the appearance of several additional layers behind the first ¨C which desperately attempted to form fully before the attack came ¨C that the Greats did not believe in the strength of their defences against her.


    They were right to doubt them.


    When the small point burst forth, the power of five cultivation paths all in the seventh realm momentarily shattered space, exposing the cosmic void on the other side, and pierced the green barrier as though the resulting beam had passed through paper. All of the planar energy condensed into those obstructions scattered, and the beam instead fell on the wall of the Ning District, melting the metal without delay.


    One moment was all that was needed to permanently damage something akin to a monument of Yi City, a thing that had stood for a million years without any breaches or damage. More importantly, however, it was that moment that allowed the War of Ascendancy to resume.

 Bonus Chapter: Dragon Orgy, Part 3 [R-18]

    Long Lin¡¯s kindness included a sloppy kiss and a quick clean-up for both her and Li Ran, who seemed even more exhausted than Wei Yi herself was. Given that the Ascendant would recover within a minute, that wasn¡¯t much of a surprise, though still worth mentioning.


    For now, Wei Yi remained impaled on Li Ran¡¯s cock, which had only softened a little. Thus, it filled her almost as much as before, and in combination with the small ocean of cum that filled her guts, it provided her with a very unique experience. She couldn¡¯t quite quell her growing smile, even if she had to remain being angry at the dragon inside her for taking things a bit far.


    ¡°So, how does it feel?¡± Li He suddenly appeared right next to her, bending down to be level with the Ascendant, ¡°It¡¯s your first time, after all.¡±


    ¡°It is, and it¡­ isn¡¯t bad, I suppose,¡± Wei Yi looked away, trying to subdue her blush, ¡°I think I prefer being the one to penetrate, but¡­ I will admit that I¡¯ve been missing out on an entirely different kind of experience.¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Nothing. You just look¡­ surprisingly cute.¡±


    Wei Yi raised an eyebrow, ¡°What exactly does that mean?¡±


    ¡°You know, when you first came down here, you had quite an intimidating aura about you. Now, I get to see you in a different light,¡± the dragon explained, though the Ascendant hardly needed her typical mind reading to understand that there was something else, most likely the afterglow of her new sexual experience.


    ¡°Sure, that¡¯s definitely it. The earlier wave of killing intent must have enhanced my beauty a lot,¡± she replied sarcastically, looking to Li Ran, ¡°Isn¡¯t that right?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m scared¡­¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll get off you in a bit,¡± Wei Yi turned back to Li He, then after a moment of hesitation, she reached her hand out, cupping the dragon¡¯s chin and bringing her closer. She parted her lips and went in for a quick kiss, tasting Li He¡¯s mouth, a mixture of flavours landing on her tongue.


    Although the dragon was in a rather uncomfortable position, she didn¡¯t hesitate to return the attention, exploring one another with their tongues for several seconds that felt far longer than that.


    ¡°Ah¡­ You taste great. It¡¯s no wonder dragons charmed the women of the Planar Continents with such ease,¡± Wei Yi smiled, quickly squeezing her anal muscles when she felt Li Ran going soft inside her, ¡°Anyway, we should be moving on. Still so many of you left unsatisfied¡­ like the lass with the biggest dick I¡¯ve ever seen. How do you ever satisfy that beast?¡±


    ¡°Long Li? She-¡±


    ¡°Wei Yi, let me ask you a question. Have you ever appreciated a girl¡¯s feet?¡± Long Li interrupted, slowly walking over to them, ¡°Have you?¡±


    ¡°Um, not particularly.¡±


    ¡°Well, I love them. I¡¯d explain, but¡­ I think it¡¯s something you ought to figure out yourself. If it¡¯s not for you, then it¡¯s just not for you,¡± the dragon said surprisingly calmly and reasonably, despite her massive, throbbing hard on, ¡°Would you be open to trying?¡±


    ¡°Do you want me to lick your feet, or something? I mean, not necessarily against that, but-¡±


    ¡°No, not at all. Well¡­ hm. I¡¯ll consider it, but for now, I would like to feel your feet on my dick,¡± Long Li said, pointing somewhat shyly down to her length.


    Wei Yi was tempted to raise an eyebrow again, though they felt as exhausted as the rest of her body, so she decided that there was no reason to bother. Instead, she applied a drop of oblivion essence to restore all of her energy instantly, overcoming her body¡¯s desire to sit still for a while longer, and rose slowly. Feeling the firm cock leaving her ass was delightful, reminding her of what it had done not long ago.


    She was tempted to go back down, to fill the emptiness inside her that suddenly appeared, but she endured it and got the full length outside of her body, stepping aside and scooping up some of the seed that dripped out of her gaping asshole.


    Without any hesitation, she tasted it, finding it even more delicious than the cum that went straight down her throat. ¡®Maybe it¡¯s the difference in effort invested¡­ or something.¡¯


    The Ascendant got over to the nearest elevated stone surface and lay down, reaching out with her feet and moving them about. She didn¡¯t usually employ her feet for all that much, but her plentiful experience with wearing heeled boots, as well as her Heeled Movement Art, meant that she had more than enough control over every part of her body. Although she¡¯d never used her feet for such a purpose, she was sure that she would manage with whatever it is that Long Li was expecting her to do.


    She wriggled her toes and waved the dragon over ¨C with her right hand, though she was tempted to employ her feet ¨C and looked around the chamber while waiting for her. Unlike the initial, calm state that most dragons had been in, they were starting to get quite rowdy, with them touching one another while looking between one another and the Ascendant.


    Their interests appeared rather varied, as if that wasn¡¯t obvious enough already, and thus their attention slowly divided across every being in the chamber, with every one of them having something they found appealing. For example, after finishing with Long Tao, Long Hua was already eyeing another dragon to fuck, and her eyes seemed set on Long Li, who was currently unaware that her pussy was in great danger.


    ¡°You sure you¡¯ve not done this before?¡± Long Li asked, sliding her cock in between Wei Yi¡¯s feet, ¡°You seem very prepared for it.¡±


    ¡°Nah, I can just guess what I need to do.¡±


    Indeed, she had to make some guesses, as the number of footjobs that were received within reach of her spiritual perception were rather few, though the dragon¡¯s enormous size also played a part. Whatever was common with a regular dick couldn¡¯t be put to use here, so all she could rely on were the ideas.


    She placed her feet on either side of the shaft, her soles at the foreskin-covered glans and her toes settling further down the length. The dragon sighed softly in response, clearly enjoying the touch of her pristine skin.


    Another sound of pleasure followed when Wei Yi shifted the position of her feet a little, getting a better grip on Long Li¡¯s shaft, then slid her feet down the length.


    ¡°Yes, just move like that,¡± the dragon said as her shaft was caressed, her foreskin being pulled back to reveal her enormous, throbbing glans. It had been peeled back with a wet shlick, one that delighted the Ascendant quite a bit, filling her cheeks with red. The lewdness of the noise was hard to describe, nor why she liked it quite so much, but she couldn¡¯t sit still after hearing it and finding the action needed to produce it being rather¡­ simple, for lack of a better word.


    Sure, feet weren¡¯t usually employed for purposes like this, but assholes weren¡¯t meant for sex, either. The latter felt good, even with the unfortunate circumstance near the end, so there was no reason that her feet wouldn¡¯t work well enough.


    There was also a certain sense of power in using her feet, rather than her hands or any of her holes.


    ¡®I¡¯ll figure it out in a little while, I¡¯m sure, but for now, I ought to decide whether I tell Long Li about Long Hua,¡¯ Wei Yi began sliding her feet up and down while glancing to the side, where the dominant dragon was approaching Long Li from behind, meeting her not-so-subtle gaze, ¡®Hm¡­ I¡¯ll let it happen. I doubt this lot doesn¡¯t know about one another¡¯s likes and dislikes.¡¯


    That, and it seemed rather fun to let it happen. Whether Long Li was used to this type of thing, it would make this experience more than just a simple footjob.


    ¡°Yeah, babe, keep going like- Ah! F-fuck, Long Hua, did you- oh¡­¡± the dragon melted into Long Hua¡¯s arms as the latter slid right into her pussy, her lower lips opening wide without any resistance, ¡°Did you¡­ have to¡­ do it now?¡±


    ¡°Why not? You know you love it, you slut,¡± Long Hua smiled, quickly leaning in to kiss Long Li¡¯s cheek.


    Their movements made it a bit more challenging to stroke Long Li¡¯s shaft, but she adjusted easily, interrupting the two soon afterwards, ¡°Could you not steal all of her attention away like that? Makes it difficult to know if I¡¯m doing well, you know.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, she¡¯ll focus on you soon enough,¡± Long Hua laughed, ¡°By the Ancients, her obsession with feet is¡­ well, I¡¯ve never seen someone so good at licking them, that¡¯s all I¡¯ll say.¡±


    ¡°And now you¡¯re making me feel like I¡¯m missing out,¡± the Ascendant said, placing one foot over the tip of Long Li¡¯s dick and covering her sole in precum for some additional slickness, ¡°As long as she cleans up my feet after this, I won¡¯t complain. What do you say, Long Li? Are you going to be so kind as to assist in the cleaning effort?¡±


    Even without the dragon¡¯s shy and affirmative reply, Wei Yi understood a part of the appeal ¨C at least for her, and in this moment.  It was almost like she was stepping onto the dragon, trampling this proud and beautiful creature, easily making her do whatever the Ascendant wanted, even if it wasn¡¯t so different from what Long Li herself wanted. It gave her the opportunity to regain some of the control she had lost earlier.


    ¡®Ah, my mind and its power games¡­ Fuck the Great Leeches, in the worst way possible. That¡¯s all.¡¯


    Both Long Li and Long Hua appeared to enjoy it, with the former¡¯s cock growing even harder while the latter¡¯s smile grew even wider, and her thrusts into the former¡¯s cunt grew deeper and faster.


    Not to be outdone, the Ascendant also improved her efforts, experimenting with various positions, speeds and paces while the dragon was still able to respond. When she found the things that Long Li liked, she would do them a little more, and if Wei Yi herself liked the action, she would do it even more than that. It was a pleasant enough time, interrupted by the appearance of a familiar face between her legs.


    ¡°Hey there,¡± Long Lin smiled as she nuzzled the Ascendant¡¯s hard cock, her head resting on her balls, ¡°Mind if I suck you off while you¡¯re busy? Give your cock some well-deserved love?¡±


    ¡°Not going to complain, that¡¯s for sure. I hope you¡¯ll show me a few tricks for¡­ later use.¡±


    The dragon planted a quick kiss on the side of Wei Yi¡¯s shaft and descended below, even lower than her balls. There, the neglected slit has been growing wet the whole time, and so it led to a sloppy wet sound when the dragon licked it.


    ¡°Oh shit¡­ Couldn¡¯t you have warned me?¡± the Ascendant asked quietly, not even realising she had changed her tone until a moment later, ¡°This is rather sudden¡­¡±


    She remained buried in between her thighs, but she visibly shrugged her shoulders, ¡°True, but don¡¯t you think it¡¯s a shame to see such a nice part of you go untouched? I just wanted to give it a little bit more love while I¡­ ah¡­ get used to your musk. It¡¯s so nice for a human¡­ much nicer than any half-dragon I¡¯d tasted, either¡­¡±


    The compliments were punctuated with regular licks and kisses, causing a surprising amount of pleasure to spread throughout Wei Yi¡¯s body. This warmth made it rather difficult to keep Long Li pleased ¨C even if Long Hua was slowly occupying more and more of the dragon¡¯s attention ¨C but she persisted for now, desperately delaying the orgasm that was already attempting to creep up on her. It was unexpected, yet entirely reasonable after not touching that part of herself for a long while.


    ¡°You taste so sweet down here¡­ All the girls that you¡¯ve fucked must have missed out on your nectar. What a shame¡­¡± Long Lin eagerly slurped up her arousal, ¡°I¡¯ll get to drain you dry and there won¡¯t be a thing left for your lovely ladies back home¡­¡±


    ¡°Okay, what¡¯s with that?¡± the Ascendant subdued her quiet whimpers to inquire.


    It got the dragon to pause for a moment as well, ¡°With what?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe I¡¯d mentioned having a bunch of women that I sleep with, on occasion, so why do you believe that I have¡­ well, a harem?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s extremely common for all of us,¡± Long Lin pulled away and popped up over Wei Yi¡¯s sack, their gazes meeting, ¡°Back when we roamed the world, there were so many women that needed our attention. Some just had an endless sea of lust that needed taming, whereas others had some troublesome circumstances that no human men or women wished to address. You humans have all kinds of complex politics that prevent you from taking action, whereas we could always come in and handle things without issues.¡±


    ¡°You saved the princesses rather than kidnapping them?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ we might have taken away some lasses for longer¡­ sessions. They never complained, that much I can confirm,¡± she grinned, kissing Wei Yi¡¯s balls in her occasional pauses, ¡°Would you complain if I took you away for a night? Would you~?¡±


    ¡°Not at all,¡± the Ascendant replied, relaxing again and focusing on her efforts with her feet, as she would certainly slack off if the oral-loving dragon kept providing her with her oral love.


    Unlike Long Hua, whose efforts were clearly skilled but mostly driven by her own lust, Long Lin appeared to focus on pleasuring her partner. She had the experience to know what Wei Yi would likely enjoy, and performed each and every action with absolutely amazing skill and precision. If she had been pleasuring some other woman ¨C or, world forbid, a man ¨C they would have likely cum by now, as Wei Yi was struggling not to.


    The dragon returned to licking her lower lips, digging in deep and eating her out like she was the best meal of her life. It was hard to be sure about her comments, given that she was currently restricted by the timeless aura and couldn¡¯t read her mind, but Wei Yi was more than happy enough to believe it.


    It felt rather nice to simply trust another¡¯s words, even if they were obvious flirtatious lines meant to arouse her.


    ¡°Look, I¡­ I like this quite a lot, but could you switch to my dick already?¡± Wei Yi felt almost like she was begging, with her tone certainly giving that impression, ¡®I don¡¯t know whether to love or hate these dragons. On one hand, they keep pushing me to submissive positions and annoying me, and on the other, they might break me out of this¡­ shell. I doubt it will ever be that simple, though.¡¯


    Having spent over twenty years in the presence of her own killing intent, she knew that very well.


    Suddenly, Long Li¡¯s voice brought her presence back to the Ascendant¡¯s attention, ¡°W-Wei Yi, I¡¯m about to-¡±


    ¡°No, you aren¡¯t!¡± she instantly moved her feet away from the dragon¡¯s shaft and brought them to the base, clamping down to ensure that not a drop of seed could pass through, ¡°We¡¯re just getting started, so no splattering me and Long Lin in cum just yet. Understand?¡±


    ¡°Long Lin? Oh, when did she get there?¡± Long Hua looked past Long Li and finally noticed the dragon¡¯s presence, ¡°I see you¡¯ve been having fun here as well.¡±


    ¡°As if I didn¡¯t enjoy using my feet without all this¡­ though it does add a lot to the experience, I have to admit,¡± Wei Yi muttered, relaxing her grip on Long Li¡¯s length when it became clear that she wasn¡¯t going to orgasm just yet, ¡°You need some more endurance. We¡¯ve only been here for a while, and yet you¡¯re already- ah, f-fuck¡­¡±


    Seeming intent on providing that this also applied to the Ascendant, Long Lin wrapped her lips around one of Wei Yi¡¯s balls, sucking on the orb and slathering over it with her warm tongue. At the same time, she inhaled loudly with her nose, taking in the cloud of scent that had grown stronger and denser.


    That, too, was a lewd sound and action that Wei Yi couldn¡¯t help but enjoy. It was simple and primal, actions and sounds that suited a beast more than a refined lady that every dragon had initially appeared as, completely lacking in any sense of romance ¨C not that she was especially familiar with it herself. It was absolutely delightful to experience that desire, that bestial hunger and lust, all of these aimed and caused by her.


    She couldn¡¯t have hidden her blush even if she wished to.


    Long Lin must have known the impact she had, because the corners of her lips were high up and her eyes were glistening even as she was covering her pretty face in the Ascendant¡¯s sweat and musk.


    It was something that Long Li noticed, causing her cock to throb again, forcing Wei Yi to pause her own efforts to prevent the dragon from shooting her load too soon. At the same time, she was trying to prevent her own orgasm from arriving, as Long Lin¡¯s efforts were growing more and more intense, as if she was taking personal offence at this.


    Surprisingly, the first to bring this up was Long Hua, whose grunts had become rather loud recently, ¡°Hey, Wei Yi, wanna make this bitch cum? I¡¯m pretty close myself, and you don¡¯t look like you could hold on for that long either. Your blushing is very cute, by the way.¡±


    ¡°T-Thanks. I¡­ I guess I¡¯ll agree,¡± Wei Yi responded hesitantly, ¡®I appreciate you so much right now.¡¯


    She could not hold back for much longer, but she didn¡¯t want to be the first to raise the flag of surrender. Hence, since she could finally let herself go and grab Long Lin by the hair, pull her away from her balls ¨C a thing that happened with an audible pop ¨C and forced her onto the shaft. After the first moment of uncertainty, the oral-loving dragon didn¡¯t resist and went right into her new task with overwhelming vigour, slathering the glans with an overwhelming amount of saliva before wrapping her mouth around the length and descending onto it.


    With no trouble at all, she took most of Wei Yi¡¯s cock into her mouth, working it with her tongue. Her skill and effort was absolutely amazing, and she even came close to enveloping the entire length.


    Unfortunately, the Ascendant did not get to experience that, as Long Hua and Long Li both arrived at their peak. Long Hua slammed her hips against Long Li¡¯s ass, grunting loudly as her balls began to empty themselves in her pussy. Long Li moaned, her huge dick jumping and bulging as a small ocean of seed rose up from her nuts, the great orbs that had been teased this entire time.


    The great torrent of seed burst out with the might of a falling star, splashing all over the Ascendant¡¯s body, Long Lin¡¯s fine head of hair, and easily reaching Wei Yi¡¯s mouth and head as well, flooding into her parted lips.


    At the same time, Wei Yi let herself go and released her load into Long Lin¡¯s mouth, filling her throat in an instant, her throbbing cock completely occupying the tight hole and ensuring that all of her seed poured into her stomach. The dragon dutifully gulped it down ¨C not that she had much of a choice ¨C and managed to endure until the vast majority of the Ascendant¡¯s cum was inside her, and pulled back only then, with the ejaculations of all of them beginning to cease.


    Even then, her face was covered in Wei Yi¡¯s blazing hot seed, only barely leaving her eyes uncovered.


    ¡°Phew¡­ this was¡­ Ancients, this was the best one of the night¡­¡± Long Hua said, embracing Long Li while keeping her cock deep inside her, ¡°Want me to stay like this, babe? You can keep my cock nice and warm for the rest of the day¡­¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t seem like you could stay still for that long,¡± Wei Yi said, reaching to wipe away the heavy covering of seed from her eyes before stopping herself, ¡°Long Xiu, if you wouldn¡¯t mind¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m a little tempted to help her, to be honest,¡± Long Lin whispered, cleaning the Ascendant¡¯s cock with continued diligence, ¡°Such a nice, heady scent mixed with a rich taste, all from a warm pair of balls that should make all of us jealous¡­ Fuck, I almost wish you had been a woman I¡¯d met in my younger days, so that I could have taken you away and given you the love you deserve for weeks¡­¡±


    ¡®Someone¡¯s got a good impression of my dick and balls, I see,¡¯ Wei Yi thought while her face was being licked clean, deciding not to disturb Long Xiu until her work was done, ¡°I mean, I¡¯m not against spending more time with you ¨C any of you ¨C but it¡¯s a little tough at the moment. You know, war and all.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­ but I love these¡­ it¡¯s just so addictive, so delightful, so delicious¡­ You must have been blessed by the Ancients and the heavens at once.¡±


    ¡°Hope not. It would make it very difficult to punch the latter in the face,¡± she said, only causing a brief pause for the three dragons closest to her, ¡°Anyway, if you two wish, you can have some fun with one another elsewhere, but I get the feeling there are still a bunch of dragons that want to get involved¡­ Long Lin? Are you going to stay there?¡±


    ¡°Yes~¡­ You taste so good¡­ I just want to keep drinking your lust forever~¡­¡±


    ¡°Okay¡­ Sure¡­ Feel free to do that for a while longer-¡± Wei Yi was stopped by the approach of Long Ru, whose eyes were glistening vibrantly, ¡°¡­ Again?¡±


    ¡°Could you suck my balls? Please? Please?¡±


    The Ascendant shrugged, ¡°If you really want me to, sure. Just don¡¯t expect me to be like Long Lin and spend the rest of my life slobbering over them.¡±


    ¡°Hey, I¡­ no, it¡¯s not worth parting from your lower lips,¡± Long Lin¡¯s warmth tongue quickly returned to Wei Yi¡¯s wet pussy, feasting on the streaming arousal without reservation. After nearly draining Wei Yi dry, she switched to kisses, putting her hands to work squeezing the Ascendant¡¯s ass, playing with her thighs and doing just about anything else that she could without outright dominating Wei Yi¡¯s attention.


    That was for the best, as she had to focus quite a bit on Long Ru¡¯s balls in order to please them properly. One might imagine that it was rather simple, but it was surprisingly challenging to do it just right while a gorgeous woman was feasting on her lower lips. She had to be careful with her teeth, to apply just the right amount of pressure with her lips, and to suck in just the right manner.


    After the time spent in this room, which was starting to heat up quite a bit, the dragon¡¯s balls were growing similarly hot and sweaty, covered in a layer of grease that should have been unbecoming of an ordinary lady. In this case, however, Wei Yi loved it, and she knew for a fact that many of the dragons did as well. In particular, Long Li¡¯s gaze remained on her and her activities, and her cock remained hard as she undoubtedly pondered the various ways in which she could take such things to a greater level and employ her enormous shaft in the meanwhile.


    Fortunately for Wei Yi, that didn¡¯t matter. The fact that she was currently covering Long Lin¡¯s lips with endless fluids from her own lower lips, also staining the stone floor more than the twin lustful demons of Beast¡¯s Rest ever could, wasn¡¯t important.


    All she truly needed to focus upon was the twin orbs belonging to the dragon standing over her.


    It was relaxing, in a way. This part of being beneath another, the ability to simply devote her attention to them, was more pleasant than she could have ever expected, even after every time that she permitted another to take charge. She gladly enjoyed it, tasting the sweat from Long Ru¡¯s sack and the faint hints of seed that seemed to come through the skin.


    Wei Yi sucked on them vigorously, the thought of directly getting the cum from them coming to mind for a moment before withdrawing due to the silliness of the concept.


    Either way, she soon got to get to the semen the normal way, as she felt the dragon¡¯s balls tighten and rise, a torrent of seed being unleashed only moments later. In an instant, Wei Yi tilted the shaft down and raised herself up, wrapping her lips around the crown to ensure that not a single drop would go to waste.


    It flooded into her open mouth, coating her tongue, and slipped down her throat with ease ¨C especially after she deliberately manipulated her muscles to allow the thick clumps of jizz to enter her.


    She was forced to swallow again and again, her belly bulging for a while as her stomach worked overtime to digest the dense substance. For some time, she could do nothing else but drink, and even when the stream of cum slowed down, she could do little more than encourage the last few gallons out with her tongue, licking the glans and teasing the urethral slit. The strong taste of the dragon¡¯s seed certainly left its mark on her, at least until she underwent her regular physique energy cleansing.


    ¡°Ah¡­¡± Wei Yi parted her lips from the shaft, pulling away and taking in some air, ¡°Look, I want to fuck one of you after this. There¡¯s a limit to how much I can take-¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you like my cum?¡±


    ¡°- even if I didn¡¯t particularly mind¡­ Anyone up for it?¡±


    ¡°Well, I suppose I have to offer myself up before you,¡± Li He approached, bending her knees to go in for a quick kiss, her lips clamping over the Ascendant¡¯s lower lip and licking up some of the cum staining it, ¡°I¡¯m more flexible than many of the others, after all¡­ But are you happy with having just that? Why don¡¯t we make things a little more interesting than that? Let¡¯s get you a nice, loving treatment, with¡­ oh, I know-¡±

 V5C70: Conquering the Ning District

    Due to the length of time taken for the breakthrough, it was now morning once again, meaning that the fight resumed upon the dawn of a new day, in the same manner that it itself was a new dawn.


    Although both sides were expecting her victory, especially after she brought in dragons and began jumping around the districts under her control and cultivating with ten times the energy that most thought was even available, none were truly prepared for it. They saw the open gap in the green barrier ¨C for it remained in part around the Chen and Yi Districts, with the latter having a significantly stronger remnant than the district of wealth ¨C and simply stood there, mouths agape and minds utterly blown, attempting to understand the sight before them.


    The moment after that, however, the frozen world reverted to a natural state of chaos. All forces of the Ascendant charged in, with many choosing to travel towards the open gap in the metal walls to invade far more easily. Some did stand by at the other parts of the district, making sure that some of the defenders would be occupied by their efforts even if they did not succeed in getting in.


    On the other hand, the Great Leeches and the forces under them splintered into two. There was one half that promptly leapt out of the Ning District as quickly as possible and surrendered themselves to the invaders, with most later being confirmed to be simple guards, residents and other combatants that were sufficiently capable to stand near the walls and defend them, but not at all wishing to participate in a battle like this.


    Others were further away from the walls, but there was enough of a distraction in the form of the Ascendant¡¯s breach for them to escape the attention of the Greats and get out later, leaving only the second group.


    The group that was loyal to the Leeches, or believed their side to be far more likely to succeed, mostly didn¡¯t bother trying to stop such fleeing people. Most of them weren¡¯t complete psychopaths that had no regard for fellow human lives, especially not of those that they had lived with and known for some time, and the few that would slaughter anyone on a whim had no reason to waste their time attacking fleeing civilians and the like. This battle would only last for a day or two, and in that time the fleeing populace could only inconvenience the side of the Arbiters, not assist them.


    In truth, there was also the third group, the one that did not fight at all, whether due to being unwilling or incapable. Most had a low cultivation, no real combat ability, or something else of the sort, and so the Greats must not have pushed them to fight and allowed them to hide away within their homes. This was helpful to the Ascendant and her Arbiters, as it would reduce the chances of collateral damage and casualties.


    Wei Yi allowed her forces to take care of the weakest forces first, as her power had elevated even further and even the simplest of techniques could destroy the body of a man if she just slightly missed her target or miscalculated her effort. The presence of the halo certainly didn¡¯t assist that.


    Instead, she took the time to get acquainted with her new state, simply supplementing her forces with a few dozen banners to ensure their survival. Having already observed the changes brought about by and to her physique energy and bloodline power, all that remained to consider was her oblivion essence, her dantian, the core that formed within and the halo that formed around it.


    Her dantian remained crystalline at the moment, but her current experience with just about everything led her to conclude that there were likely to be one or two additional forms that her dantian bones could take. One might well resemble the Endless Monolith, another might have some celestial presence due to the prevalence of cosmic themes within a number of physiques and abilities, as well as the fact that the combination of all elemental energy appeared to become cosmic energy for whatever reason.


    The halo that had briefly formed within reality did not remain there for long, returning to her body and continuing to spin just as it had from the start. This confirmed that she was going to experience noteworthy differences in her path from the start of her cultivation, rather than from the sixth stage onwards. As the aura that had contributed to the formation of the first halo remained, she could tell that the other halos were also going to have a different arrangement, and that they might very well spin as well. If so, then they might very well be connected to one another, and thus the final ten halos would form an extremely complex series of rotating rings.


    She had no clue whether that was a positive thing on its own, but the final outcome is ought to be beneficial to the ultimate state of her cultivation.


    Unlike regular halos, this one did not have an attachment to ten of her Astral Scars, although she could see momentary sparks bursting out of the centre of Scars and striking the nearest point on the spinning halo when the ring of the halo passed over the Scar. Coincidentally, there were usually ten sparks, all mixtures of violet and crimson, occurring at a time, although that seemed more like a coincidence due to the arrangement of the Astral Scars.


    As she had a single halo at this moment, she experienced a power multiplier of five that applied to everything she had, just like how the anchor and Endless Monolith was able to stabilise and enhance bloodline power, physique energy and killing will, albeit more indirectly than the halos.


    This much was standard, and part of the power that the seventh realm had and that the other realms wished they could obtain, and with every additional halo, she would attain another identical multiplier that worked additively with the previous halo. Even if they all began to orbit one another instead of sitting beside one another as they would for most, that shouldn¡¯t change to a multiplicative increase, and if it did, she would be extremely concerned for herself and for everyone around her, as that would be absolutely nonsensical and impossible. It would simply bring out far, far more questions regarding the nature of the world, and she had enough to deal with.


    The final increase would be a total of fifty, and if the changes to her anchor had taught her anything, it would be that the transformation of her halos by the sixth stage would double their properties. If so, the final multiplier would be one hundred, and that¡­ well, it would be just as extreme of a change, but it would certainly bring her power up to a realm that could eventually be transformed to infinity.


    Even without that, the boost to the range of her spiritual perception- no, it had to be called divine sense now, for she had infused the power of her soul into it not just for a moment, as she had initially wished, but permanently instead. Thus, where a normal cultivator might not care too much about the distinction of divine sense and spiritual perception, it was an extreme difference for her that couldn¡¯t be ignored no matter what else she thought to do.


    It was now able to perceive significantly more than her spiritual perception ever could, and the most noteworthy of those was an absolutely enormous change that she didn¡¯t even believe to be possible.


    An excellent demonstration of this was the sudden discovery of a number of faint traces of something within her body where there had been nothing prior to this. For instance, one such thing was located within her dantian, at the exact position of the numerous shards that made up the character portion of the Truth of the Universe.


    ¡®Now, I can¡¯t detect them precisely, nor can I identify anything about these things just yet, but I am able to sense the vague presence of the otherworldly gifts¡­ Fuck, now I have to figure out exactly what led to that change, and how that lines up with my understanding of the nature of spiritual perception as a whole,¡¯ Wei Yi sighed to herself, her problems likely being those that many wished they could have instead of the very prospect of breaking through being out of their reach, ¡®Let¡¯s see, so spiritual perception and the Dao of the world are obtained from a kind of archive that the heavens themselves either have, or effectively provide to the world. Thus, all that they know, we can know, and all that they do not, we would have to study on our own.


    ¡®In that regard, the upgrade from spiritual perception to divine sense is not only in the overall stability of the mental energy, but possibly also in the increase of information that can be obtained. However, it has already been determined that the heavens do not understand azure lights or otherworldly gifts as a whole, for only those who know exactly what to look for ¨C or more precisely, to take note of absences of something ¨C can detect the presence of otherworldly gifts regardless of realm.


    ¡®From that, I can conclude that it is not some increase in permissions that has allowed me to perceive otherworldly gifts. I don¡¯t know whether the heavens truly do or do not know anything, but nothing so far indicates that they understand the gifts or the azure lights, which is enough for me to know that they are not the right entity to preside over the world. Aside from that, it does narrow down the source of this new development, and I suspect that it in part originates from the combination of my Dao of the Heavens, and the influence the otherworldly gifts have had upon me up to this point.


    ¡®The form of oblivion essence I have, even if oblivion essence itself can be attained by others, is very unlikely to exist without the stabilising property of the Truth of the Universe. Obliteration energy, a significant element of my path, is also quite similar to some concepts that managed to elevate the power of my soul, which are presumably otherworldly in origin.¡¯


    She had plenty of other encounters of an otherworldly nature, and had dealt with quite a few things that were typically beyond someone at her realm, but more importantly than that, the energy of azure lights and the physical elements of otherworldly gifts had to exist. That much may sound obvious and pointless as a statement, but if they exist, then they affect the world, which can be verified easily by the fact that otherworldly gifts with a solid form can be visually perceived by others, and some will have energy that is also visible to others, although many will conceal some or all parts of their effects upon the world via their otherworldly natures.


    Presumably, when the power of divine sense is elevated to its Absolute peak, like with the power of her soul, an unusual halo affected by Astral Scars in place of searing marks, an Endless Monolith, Subterranean Shell, the seventh realm in killing will cultivation, and the further boost of her bloodline, it would be able to pick up on such subtle signs, for they were the lone elements that the heavens had to recognise.


    That allowed her mental energy to pick up on the faint waves released by the otherworldly gifts, and that allowed her to understand their origin and nature. Eventually, she might be able to use those waves to perceive an otherworldly gift in its entirety, simply by extrapolation.


    She brought her attention away from that and onto the remnants of the Yi City Web barrier, which had adjusted itself to wrap around only the Chen and Yi District, with the primary quantity of energy being around the Yi District. The typical cultivator would still struggle to break into the lands of the Yi District ¨C and most importantly, the point that was likely the physical position of Testament, which remained within a short distance to the Yi District ¨C but fortunately, she did not intend to breach that district first, nor did she wish to run straight at the Chen District either.


    Instead, she wanted to take on the districts one by one, claiming the spatial stabilisation points for herself, and cutting off any further supply of energy to the main district of the Leeches. Also, there were likely to be some Great Leeches stationed in the Ning and Chen Districts, so she would greatly benefit from taking them on and reducing their power before confronting them on their home grounds.


    As someone who also owned a spatial realm, she knew all too well that when one was within a domain that they owned and could control, they would have an immense advantage in comparison to the outside force, which would need to comprehend the exact nature of the spatial realm they found themselves in, as well as its Laws, restrictions, principles and geography. Even if Testament was a simple field and the last point could be disregarded, a simple Law like the conversion of planar energy to something else could completely devastate an invading force and give them far more to work with, which was something she naturally didn¡¯t want to do.


    Furthermore, there was no immediate rush to kill all of the Great Leeches. Their plans were always in the long term, and the primary element that forced her haste was that they were too dangerous to be left on their own, without anyone to pressure them. As such, now that pressure was being actively applied, there was much less need to take out everything at once. Going through, district by district, Great Leech by Leech, would be sufficient.


    ¡®On that note, my Arbiters appear to have handled the outermost forces, so it is time for me to come in,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, subduing her vast power so that an accidental step didn¡¯t shatter the rest of the metal walls around the Ning District and taking a step inside.


    A few arrows and planar constructs immediately fell upon her, but she didn¡¯t even need to invoke her energy in order to handle them. Her divine sense was sufficient to stop the advancement of most projectiles, and a quick increase in the concentration of her divine sense was enough to crush anything that she couldn¡¯t stop.


    Then, she lifted the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and clicked her fingers, although she mostly simulated the sound and performed the motion for effect. Claws alone made it difficult enough to make a clicking sound, and when her whole Arm could only move in odd jumps that didn¡¯t quite work as they should, it was even more difficult. It did, however, make for an absolutely wonderful and inherently satisfying motion to perform for anything that had a great effect, and so she tended to perform it every time she was given the opportunity to do so.


    This time, it was even more appropriate as she scattered the tips of her claws and used them to form a series of red phantoms around her to retaliate against those that had attacked her.


    Although only that much of her hand had been expended, it produced nearly a hundred phantoms of the same grade that had previously managed to resolve to deal with an attack from the Yi City Web¡¯s barrier on their own. With a hundred of them, all targeting different individuals that were nowhere near the seventh realm or thirty anchors, there was essentially no chance for them to survive any strike intended to be lethal.


    With those that tried to strike at her gone, she simply moved onward and allowed the remaining energy to float around her and form into additional phantoms when there was a need for it. One by one, resistance was eliminated or chased off, and the Ascendant eventually came up to the Ning Ancestral Hall, where Long Hua, Great Dark and a few other stood.


    They were somewhat preoccupied by dealing with those that were attempting to ward them away from the entrance of the Ancestral Hall, but that was resolved with a quick wave of Wei Yi¡¯s finger. To minimize damage to the district itself, she did not use the same phantoms but instead applied Edge Replication to cut right through the opposition, letting them drop to the ground as she turned towards Great Dark.


    ¡°Having problems?¡±


    ¡°The Greats have occupied the Ancestral Hall, and they appear intent on staying in there¡­ It is likely that the spatial stabilisation point is inside¡­ and so they would like to reconstruct some part of the barrier.¡±


    ¡°That, or do any number of things with the plentiful energy located within the Yi City Web. Give me a moment,¡± she said, turning to the district and all of the people that were currently within and ready to fight. For someone who had fought against the Great Leeches from the moment that she had her first unfortunate interaction with them, it was odd seeing that there were quite as many people on their side, so she decided that it would be best to ask these people a simple question that anyone fighting within a war, or even within a battle that had many days leading up to it, could answer.


    She amplified her voice using her physique ability alone, for using her technique in conjunction with it might lead to her killing half of her intended audience by accident.


    ¡°What exactly are you fighting for?¡± the Ascendant asked her main question, then moved onto some more for good measure, ¡°Do you think the Great Leeches are the ones that will provide it to you? Do you believe that they will preserve whatever it is that you value? Are you under the impression that I will be the one to take these things from you, or prevent you from ever having them?¡±


    Naturally, this wasn¡¯t some kind of calm, organised scenario in which any of those that she was speaking to would answer. With thousands of people being her intended audience, it was also highly unlikely for all of them to reply with a single answer, since that would require all of them to be identical in mind and body, and this was not something that would be found within humanity, nor within any other living thing. Only a pure element, whether one known to otherworldly demons or the five elements of the world, could have identical particles, although even that wasn¡¯t an entirely accurate statement.


    To return onto more relevant matters, she knew that there would be a few particular focuses for the people of the district, so it was best to begin with those instead of more obscure factors that only one or two would ever care for.


    ¡°Most of you ought to care about the wellbeing of the district, but I think that it is your own state that all of you care for the most. Know this, then ¨C this war is not against you. It is only against the Great Leeches, those vile things that would drain the world of all planar energy to make themselves kings amidst you, and if that is what you desire¡­ I am sure you know of a method to put yourself beneath another. Do not force all others to suffer alongside you.¡±


    There wasn¡¯t much of a reaction, so she didn¡¯t give people time to sit around and ponder.


    ¡°The majority of you naturally desire strength, and with the growth of planar energy and development of techniques that all within the domain of the Arbiters get to view at no cost to themselves, strength is what the world as a whole will gain. Most ought to prefer growth, development, improvement in all fields relevant to them, and that is something that I wish for while the Great Leeches constantly suppress it, just like they suppress all things,¡± she stated, ¡°I wish to let the world develop, while they do the very opposite-¡±


    ¡°Then what is with your attack on us all?¡± a voice finally decided to make itself known to Wei Yi, putting the slightest of smiles upon her face.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that you could have missed those that fled, and those that did no harm to me. They are alive, and they are well, and those that are out of the district are already under the effect of a number of recovery physique abilities to ensure their health. Personally, I have also made a great deal of effort not to strike at even a single soul that had not attacked first. Where do you see us being the attackers?¡±


    Of course, people did not like being in the wrong, nor any indication of such a thing, so before anyone could get riled up at all of her words, which were accurate but very deliberate in the way they painted things, she made sure to switch her tone to one that was more in their favour.


    ¡°Again, you are not my targets, and if any of the Arbiters attack those that do not fight, they will be punished. Just stand back, let us take care of the Leeches of this world, and then the whole district will see the benefits of a spatial gateway linking to all the other districts, my numerous physique abilities being applied to this place at all times, the techniques of numerous times and districts accessible via a free archive for all, and even comprehendible by anyone due to the mental energy the manuals are made from. Just stand back, let us do what must be done, and if any unnecessary damage is done, then it shall be repaired or accounted for, that much you can be certain of after the battle at the Ping District.¡±


    Knowledge of battles in different districts, effectively separated by the Luo District, was not the most widespread, but the near destruction of a good portion of a district and a complete upset of its former ruling structure was hard to ignore or miss. As such, most of those with some combat capacity ¨C the majority of those that the Ascendant was addressing right now ¨C did know of the event.


    They were aware of how the district had been greatly damaged during the battle between the Ascendant and the Ping Patriarch, and the fact that it had been the Ping Patriarch that had begun with the most dangerous of methods was also well known. Although the majority of the destruction was indeed caused by Wei Yi¡¯s black sun, it was also obvious from the ridiculous speed of the rebuilding effort that she did care about correcting the damage she dealt.


    What the cause of this desire was, they couldn¡¯t know for certain, as trusting her word would not be worthwhile if they already believed her to be unreliable, but it was there, and they could rely on that.


    Hence, there was a slow movement that spread across the district. A number of men and women across the Ning District lowered their weapons and calmed their circulation of planar energy, although most didn¡¯t outright throw themselves into the arms of the Arbiters and surrender themselves, but instead tried to get out of the way of anyone else that still wished to fight.


    The number of those that were still keen for battle were fortunately low, although the Ascendant could see that there were more than enough willing combatants within the Ning Ancestral Hall. All of them were Great Leech replicas or actual Great Leeches, so their folly was to be expected, and since she did intend to kill every one of them, she did not even bother to attempt convincing any single one of them. Perhaps there would be one or two amongst them that would be convinced by something, but to completely change their minds after a million years of adhering to a specific set of ideas and ideology would be impossible.


    It would also call into question her previous relentless killing, with that being the least of her potential concerns, so she would rather end the Greats cleanly, remove all of their worst ideas from their methods, and remove their worst methods from active use, and then release the rest in the same manner that she had plenty of other techniques. At worst, she would kill a few more people than necessary, but with the deaths she had already caused, she wasn¡¯t too concerned about that.


    ¡°I have said everything I wished to say. If you continue to fight, you will die, and that much I can guarantee. At this moment, I am in the seventh realm, the same as your Patriarch, with all perfected realms, and the cultivation paths of physique, killing intent, spiritual will and bloodline power. When I had been far weaker, I was able to destroy a great deal of the Ping District through resonance with the array the Ping Patriarch had used in the attempt to repel me. Now, I could do the same without the need for such a thing, but I would rather not do it. Do not force me to.¡±


    Threats of force were always an effective method against those who understood reason, but only in respect to their own survival. Indeed, she found great success here as well, for the rest of the combatants dropped their weapons and surrendered, prompting their fellows that had stepped back to do the same.


    When there were none that would fight, ensuring that they would get the best treatment in surrender seemed to be the next best choice, but Wei Yi didn¡¯t care much for that.


    ¡°So, with my moment given, we can proceed. You lot are on protection duty, I will handle the Great Leeches and whatever methods they¡¯ll use, as, at the moment, they appear to be sitting around and waiting for my arrival, while the Ning Patriarch stands in front of them and waits for me also.¡±


    She had been observing things down there since the moment that she got her divine sense under control after the breakthrough, and although she caught no conversation, she suspected that the Ning Patriarch was currently on the side of the Great Leeches but not willing to simply throw his life away for their cause. Most likely, he would like to have a similar interaction with her as the Chu Patriarch had two weeks ago, and might step away if things were to his satisfaction. Ultimately, however, even if he did decide to fight alongside the pair of Great Leeches in the first generation that stood further in the Ancestral Hall, he would be completely useless and would simply throw his own life away for no real benefit to himself or his district.


    Wei Yi¡¯s cultivation was now at the seventh realm, with a series of perfected realms for every single previous realm effectively being quadrupled in terms of basic power. This was amplified by the halo, Endless Monolith, Subterranean Shell, bloodline power and its seventh realm, as well as numerous other powers and methods that she had attained. Against a regular seventh realm cultivator, like what the Ning Patriarch appeared to be, she might as well be the heavens themselves.


    Since she had previously been able to beat the first generation member of the Great Ning family, she suspected that she wouldn¡¯t have very much trouble dealing with them, either, and that trouble would be reduced even further with every halo that she acquired.


    ¡°A dragon on protection duty¡­¡± Long Hua muttered to herself, noticed by most near her.


    ¡°You have precise enough control over your energy, and your overall power is sufficiently high to ward off my stray power but not too great as to inflict the same amount of damage that I could. At the moment, my mental energy is in relative balance to all of my other cultivation paths, so I am sufficiently in control of myself, but when I come across the Leeches in person, I may get a little excessive with my attacks,¡± the Ascendant explained, demonstrating said restraint by not immediately shattering the Ancestral Hall and barging into the lower levels, ¡°Now, go on and get inside.¡±

 Bonus Chapter: Dragon Orgy, Part 4 [R-18]

    ¡°Hey, Long Ping?¡± Long Li said, grabbing onto the dragon¡¯s tits to get her attention, ¡°Would you mind trying something with me?¡±


    In response, the dark green-scaled dragon met her gaze with a mixture of eagerness and curiosity, ¡°Sure, if you want to suck my nipples, I¡¯m all up for it. Thought you weren¡¯t especially into that, though. What changed?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that, actually. I had this idea and I just felt you were the most natural choice.¡±


    She leaned in and whispered into her ear, the suggestion causing blood to rush into Long Ping¡¯s cheeks. There was also a hint of confusion, however.


    ¡°Uhm¡­ Long Lin, Long Xiu and Long Tao are all right there. Why me?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ You love this kind of thing when it¡¯s done with your breasts, right? Also, you can put those nice tits to use, which should be enough for you,¡± Long Li suggested, her dick throbbing every time the thoughts passed through her mind.


    This was something Long Ping noticed easily, glancing in Li Sheng¡¯s direction ¨C a fellow boob lover ¨C for a moment before sighing.


    ¡°Alright, I can see that this is something you really want to try, so I won¡¯t stop you. I see that you¡¯ve been getting your dick ready the whole time, too, so¡­ I¡¯ll need to get a lengthy bath after this, won¡¯t I?¡± she sighed audibly, to make sure that her quick acceptance wasn¡¯t interpreted as outright enthusiasm, ¡°When your thick, greasy sweat covers my smooth skin, staining it with that thick stench of yours¡­ Heavens, you seem to have more of a thing for this than feet. Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yeah, I¡­ I¡¯m feeling a tad lightheaded, that¡¯s all,¡± Long Li managed to say, her bulging, colossal shaft reaching past two feet in length, thicker than it had ever been. Her balls were surpassing Long Ru¡¯s, and all of her masculine features were dripping with sweat that she had permitted to build up from the moment the idea came to her mind.


    That idea was spawned by seeing Wei Yi¡¯s face repeatedly covered in the fluids of the dragons, and since she had an excessively sized cock, her ideas were also rather exaggerated. Rather than covering someone¡¯s face, she wished to cover their whole body, to completely and utterly mark them as her own, with a scent that would linger for days before even beginning to thin. Such ideas, primal and simplistic, had not appealed to her before, but it was starting to become more and more arousing after the last few minutes.


    ¡®Maybe bringing in humans wasn¡¯t the best idea. All of us are now just perverts with an ever-growing list of fetishes¡­¡¯ Long Ping sighed again, this time internally, and got onto an elevated part of the stone floor, laying down with her legs hanging off the side, ¡°Come on, then.¡±


    Long Li did as she was asked, getting in between her legs. With a slight shift of her hips, she brought her cock down onto Long Ping¡¯s body, slapping the length against her with an audible wet slap, covering the entire point of contact with her cock grease. It was as hot as her length, and even from afar Long Ping felt her nose being filled up with the overwhelming stench.


    Her nostrils flared and she felt herself being drowned in it, and yet it wasn¡¯t that bad at all. It was the curse and blessing of the dragons to be vastly superior to most human beings in appearance, sound and scent alike. This extended to their sweat and musk, emanating for the cocks that all dragons had. Hence, even if one was placed in a room filled to the brim with that stench, absolutely drowning out all else, they would be unable to find it off-putting, at least not in the usual manner.


    Of course, when one was a pervert ¨C like most dragons were, their libidos fuelled by their twin sets of genitals ¨C a delightful scent was not needed. The mere concept of the scent was enough for them.


    Long Ping was, as much as she¡¯d hate to admit it, a pervert. She focused it on breasts the majority of the time, but the moment she was hooked on something new, she would be unable to restrain herself. Facing such a potent musk at such a time was outright addictive.


    ¡°Your face¡­ I love that look!¡± Long Li exclaimed, her rod growing even larger with a thick clump of precum dropping in between Long Ping¡¯s soft tits, ¡°It just makes me want to cover you completely!¡±


    ¡®That¡¯s what you were already planning on doing! What¡¯s the point of¡­ ugh, whatever,¡¯ she just chose to accept it, because there was no way she was going to refuse something that was already getting her so hot and bothered. Her cock, even while it was trapped beneath Long Li¡¯s far more impressive member, was harder than immortal gold and aroused beyond belief without so much as a deliberate touch from her or the other dragon.


    She simply indulged the other dragon ¨C and her own desire, of course ¨C and squeezed her breasts together so that they pressed against the vast shaft. It was not yet long enough to reach her head, and thus she could not use her tongue or lips to pleasure the tip, but she could most certainly smell the length with perfect clarity.


    It was so intense that she lost all awareness of her surroundings, simply huffing the musk and letting her body be claimed by Long Li.


    ¡°Are you sure you¡¯ll be comfortable down there?¡± Wei Yi asked, looking back at Long Lin and Long Tao.


    The two were next to one another and on their knees, one positioned lower down than the other. Long Lin was on the left, her nose close to the Ascendant¡¯s balls, quietly sniffing them, ready to provide her oral skills once more. Long Tao, the submissive dragon, was to the right and higher up, her lips positioned only a few inches from Wei Yi¡¯s asshole, though it was clear that she wasn¡¯t opposed to contributing her talents to the Ascendant¡¯s drooling lower lips.


    Since these two tended to be good at using their lips and tongues, giving them a chance seemed like a good idea. On the Ascendant¡¯s other end, her ass in the air and her pussy ready, was Li He.


    She wasn¡¯t the last of their group, however. After they decided to do this, Long Ru also got involved, and she decided that she needed some of the same appreciation as Wei Yi had received earlier ¨C in other words, for the first time since they began, a dragon had hidden their dick and were showing only their feminine parts.


    It was a little strange to look at, but it wasn¡¯t a bad view in her eyes. The lower lips of dragons were essentially identical to those of humans, with no exaggerated features or anything of the sort, and might have let these dragons pass for humans easily if they found a way to hide their scales.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ll¡­ mm~, you smell great,¡± Long Lin didn¡¯t even finish the sentence and just moved closer, bringing her tongue out for a moment to lick up a drop of sweat sliding down the Ascendant¡¯s smooth sack.


    ¡°I¡¯ll definitely be fine, I might actually like it if things are less comfortable¡­ No, never mind that,¡± Long Tao wisely stopped talking, especially when her pussy was still wide open and gaping after the last few dragons were done with her. If she encouraged a few more of them to fuck her, then they would wear her out for a long, long while.


    ¡®This lot¡­ Well, they are dragons, so it¡¯s not like a young, inexperienced woman making things difficult for herself,¡¯ Wei Yi looked forward and asked the other two, ¡°Are both of you comfortable?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Oh, yes, I am,¡± Li He¡¯s response was delayed as her attention appeared to be on Long Ru¡¯s body.


    ¡°We can handle anything thrown at us, you know. No need to be so careful with us,¡± Long Ru said, stroking Li He¡¯s hair affectionately, ¡°Go on.¡±


    With all of them providing their consent in one way or another, how could she make them wait? She released her grip on her cock and let it fall onto Li He¡¯s ass, slapping against her smooth skin. The Ascendant brought her hips back and aligned her cock with the dragon¡¯s lower lips, liquid arousal dripping from them, quickly coating the tip that rubbed against them.


    Li He¡¯s voice contained the hint of a smile, ¡°Come on, stop teasing me already. Fuck~. Me~.¡±


    She certainly couldn¡¯t refuse that request, nor her own desires. Her cock was twitching, her balls seeming to fill up in preparation for impregnating the wet cunt in front of her.


    Wei Yi slid inside, her firm dick parting the labia and quickly filling up the dragon¡¯s tight hole. Although there was little resistance, in part thanks to the extreme slickness of Li He¡¯s pussy, the dragon was still impressively tight, causing her to groan as she had to endure the urge to flood her cunt there and then.


    Although she¡¯d released a few loads today, that only encouraged her balls to work harder and to fill up even more quickly than usual. If they kept going for a few more hours, the Ascendant could singlehandedly impregnate the entire young dragon population, provided none of them took deliberate efforts to prevent such a thing, then paint the many stone chambers white before her vast pools of vitality and energy would have a chance of running dry.


    After a breath, she went in deeper, plunging half of her length inside, eliciting a moan from Li He. Only a moment after, however, Long Ru pushed her head down and into her groin.


    ¡°Mmphm~,¡± the vague noise did not express any dissatisfaction, and it was appreciated by Long Ru, who forced her even closer. Long Ru sighed as Li He put her lips to work, kissing her lower lips and lapping up the slick arousal that gathered there.


    The Ascendant gave them a moment to settle into it, then got started on her own efforts, thrusting deeper in and trying to settle into a rhythm, sliding in and out at that depth. There would be a time for going in balls deep, pounding the dragon¡¯s womb without holding back, but there was no need to rush things at the moment.


    As she found a comfortable pace for herself, the two behind her also got to work. Long Lin caught one of Wei Yi¡¯s balls in between her lips, sucking on the orb with her usual level of skill. Her tongue slathered the smooth surface in her spit, polishing the dark skin, though she could not add much to her earlier work. No matter how hot the room had gotten, and how much all of them sweated, some time had to pass before a substantial flavour could accumulate.


    That clearly didn¡¯t matter to Long Tao, who dove right in between the Ascendant¡¯s ass cheeks and kissed the tight ring that lay between them. There was still a trail of cum dripping from it, but the hole itself had closed up after the earlier pounding from Li Ran. On one hand, that meant that Long Tao had to work her way in all over again, but on the positive side, this had trapped some blazing hot draconic seed inside Wei Yi¡¯s body. It was a tantalising reward for Long Tao¡¯s efforts, and one that made her work fast.


    After lapping up the small amount of seed that had dripped out, she prodded at the tight ring with her tongue, trying to force her way inside.


    It was a little challenging to keep thrusting with their involvement, but Wei Yi kept going, soon prompting a question from Long Ru, even as she continued stroking Li He¡¯s hair and faintly moaning each time the other dragon reached a sensitive spot with her efforts.


    ¡°So, how¡¯s your first time with a dragon¡¯s wet, greedy pussy? How do we match up to today¡¯s women?¡±


    ¡°Dragons are¡­ different,¡± the Ascendant offered a diplomatic reply, ¡°I mean, do you really want me going into detail on how tight or wet Li He is?¡±


    ¡°Yes~!¡± Long Ru grinned, pushing Li He¡¯s head down again, ¡°I want to hear it all!¡±


    ¡®I don¡¯t¡­ Different fetishes for different people, I suppose. I could indulge her, if only a little,¡¯ she sighed internally and hilted herself inside Li He. The tip of her cock struck the entrance to the dragon¡¯s womb, her hips slapping against the dragon¡¯s ass, forcing her balls out of Long Lin¡¯s lips to her immense disappointment.


    Long Tao managed to make use of the situation to dive in even deeper, her tongue invading the Ascendant¡¯s ass and lapping up the hot, steaming seed still within. She slid her firm muscle in deep, and with a bit of effort, Long Tao found what she was seeking.


    Wei Yi¡¯s attempt to come up with a sensible response was interrupted by a gasp as her prostate was reached again. Her shaft throbbed, spurting out a rope of precum that was as thick as a common man¡¯s seed. Li He trembled, her hands clenching Long Ru¡¯s thighs from the sudden shock. It distracted the latter dragon for just long enough to move their conversation on, and shift their focus to the carnal acts they were all engaged in.


    Long Ping was in heaven. Her whole world was enveloped in a rich fragrance that sent her whole body ablaze, lust consuming her mind as her gaze focused solely on its source ¨C the enormous shaft that had been covering her chest in precum for a long while.


    Her whole body was already covered in cock grease, and she might not be able to feel completely clean no matter how much she attempts to bathe in the coming decades, but her mind could hardly spare the effort to consider such a thing. Instead, she tried to use her small body to please the rod above her, her tits pushed together and her back arcing slightly so that she could press more of herself against it.


    The thick dick even reached her own cock, her own hard, straining dick that felt like it would erupt at any moment, but she held it back by the force of will she didn¡¯t even know she had.


    Long Li was just as consumed as Long Ping was, because her enormous length was just as sensitive in every inch as the clit of a human woman. As she rubbed her cock against the other dragon, the combination of physical and mental arousal fried her mind, and soon she simply couldn¡¯t take it anymore.


    With a loud cry, she thrust her hips forward and felt her balls emptying like the great ocean bursting out from a dam, spilling out onto the world.


    Her vision turned white and her whole body went numb as a bucket of seed shot out straight from the tip of her cock, splashing against the wall of the chamber and instantly producing a large pool of dense, sticky seed.


    The next ropes were just as copious and thick as the first, splattering all over the walls and sticking to them, dripping down so slowly that it almost seemed solid. Her seed quickly flooded the room with its stench, the sheer virility of the scent threatening to knock up everyone present, surpassing even the Ascendant¡¯s inability to bear a child herself.


    Of course, it was only a feeling, not reality.


    Only when Long Li¡¯s stream of seed slowed to a crawl ¨C relative to her initial ejaculation ¨C did it slow down enough to pour onto Long Ping¡¯s face and then her chest. It poured into her mouth, in between her boobs, and spilled down the rest of her body, covering much of her torso.


    If the earlier musk was intense, this nearly burned Long Ping¡¯s mind, her body experiencing unprecedented desire and arousal. She found a thousand fantasies rushing through her head, but she could hardly convey a single one before Long Li happened to fulfil one, withdrawing and placing her cock against her drooling lower lips, pushing in. Of course, her vast girth made it nearly impossible for her to force more than just the tip of her dick inside, but that was enough for her to spurt her last few drops of cum inside Long Ping¡¯s cunt.


    The heat of the chamber grew even more when Long Li¡¯s pool of cum forced on the side of the room, filling it with the dragon¡¯s earthy scent. Any inhibitions the dragons had retained up to this point vanished, and every one of them ended up either fucking or getting fucked, in one way or another. One chose to approach the group with Wei Yi in the middle, however.


    Li Sheng approached from the back and leaned in, her hard cock prodding against Wei Yi¡¯s back as she breathed on her ear.


    ¡°I just noticed that you¡¯ve been missing out on something, human,¡± Li Sheng¡¯s hot breath against her ear made Wei Yi tremble ¨C just a little, of course, ¡°You have a nice chest¡­ Your tits may be on the smaller side, but that doesn¡¯t mean they should go untouched.¡±


    She reached around and placed her hands on the Ascendant¡¯s breasts, both thumbs and index fingers latching onto their respective nipple.


    Although her grip was weak, it still disrupted Wei Yi¡¯s rhythm, causing her thrusts to pause and her attention to switch to the sudden addition to their small group. Ideally, she would have had a long chat with her about the initial agreement not to do anything unexpected and unnecessarily dominant, but that was a little challenging at a time like this.


    So, she instead gave the dragon a look while attempting to disregard her actions.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll not try anything excessive¡­ unless covering your back in cum and giving your breasts some love is too much,¡± Li Sheng said, moving a little closer after Long Tao and Long Lin shifted aside, her wet tip sliding up the Ascendant¡¯s back, ¡°Don¡¯t you think you deserve it?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s mostly debatable,¡± Wei Yi replied, lowering her voice as much as she could before continuing, ¡°Could you touch my ears instead? It felt better.¡±


    ¡°Aw, that¡¯s cute¡­ but you¡¯re not getting away that easily. I don¡¯t need my hands to give them a little love as well,¡± Li Sheng¡¯s grin was obvious in her voice, ¡°Once upon a time, humans used to beg me to kiss~ and lick~ and lightly bite their ears, pledging their eternal love and allegiance to me just for a few more moments with me¡­ It was such a great time. It¡¯s a shame that all ended, but I can always bring my skills back to the world.¡±


    She kept gripping Wei Yi¡¯s nipples, squeezing them lightly as she brought her lips closer to the Ascendant¡¯s ear. Her warm breath sent another shiver throughout Wei Yi¡¯s body, and when lips quickly wrapped around the upper corner of her ear, that tingly feeling only intensified.


    ¡°¡­ Fine¡­ Just don¡¯t go overboard.¡±


    ¡°I already promised, didn¡¯t I?¡± her whispers were already in a rather erotic tone, but It was greatly amplified by her proximity, ¡°You deserve a good time, so that is what I¡¯ll give you.¡±


    Li Sheng lightly nibbled on Wei Yi¡¯s ear, moving down to her earlobe, before leaning in a little further and planting a quick kiss on the middle of her ear. The wet smooch proved surprisingly sensual and arousing, the Ascendant¡¯s cock growing harder and her back tingling. It was an unusual feeling ¨C the latter, mostly ¨C but she wasn¡¯t going to complain so far.


    ¡®If she overdoes it, though-¡¯


    ¡°H-Hey, W-Wei Yi!¡± Long Ping¡¯s sudden entrance wasn¡¯t exactly unexpected, given the overwhelming musk clouding around her, but it was rather staggering that she was still able to walk and not covered completely and utterly in seed after what happened to her earlier, ¡°I¡­ I wanna kiss you!¡±


    She climbed on top of Li He, leaning on her knees so that she wouldn¡¯t outright sit on the other dragon. That didn¡¯t prevent all of the fluids staining her from dripping onto the dragon below, adding to the sweat that already made Li He¡¯s skin wet and slick. It seemed to only encourage Long Ru, who only ever let Li He rise up from her cunt for the briefest breaths of air, and made her force the dragon down yet again.


    The Ascendant almost felt bad for her, though she wouldn¡¯t have had many complains in her place.


    ¡°Feel free to do so, if you- mhm~!¡± her words were cut off by a full kiss, a tongue invading her mouth only a moment later.


    The enthusiasm did not stall there, only growing as everyone around Wei Yi seemed to get even more excited than before. Long Lin and Long Tao both intensified their efforts, one switching to the Ascendant¡¯s other ball while the other went deeper into her ass, her tongue maintaining the energy it had way back when she started. Li He¡¯s pussy grew wetter as she clenched tighter, trying to rush Wei Yi to her inevitable climax, and Long Ru just kept being herself. She¡¯d been extremely aroused already, after all.


    Li Sheng chuckled in her ear, then licked it, remaining only a hair¡¯s width from the inner ear. The sensation was incredibly¡­ well, the Ascendant hardly knew how to put it. Undeniably, it was pleasant, as she wanted her to do it again, to lean into the dragon behind her and let her do with her as she wished, though she struggled to even consider admitting that to anyone, herself included.


    The dragon¡¯s constant teasing of her nipples didn¡¯t help her make up her mind nor remain calm, though the biggest result was that her climax was approaching with incredible speed. Her iron will was wavering, and she only needed a little more to push her over the edge.


    As if Li Sheng knew that perfectly, she quickly switched to licking Wei Yi¡¯s other ear as she briefly withdrew her hips, the slick tip of her cock leaving the Ascendant¡¯s back. For a moment, Wei Yi managed to overcome all of the other stimulation she was receiving and attempt to guess what the dragon behind her would do ¨C there were a few things she wouldn¡¯t forgive her for doing, after all ¨C but she hardly had to guess after a moment.


    The mischievous dragon¡¯s dick suddenly slid in between her thighs, forcing Long Tao out of the way and Long Lin to adopt a slightly different position in the rather cramped space behind her. The length slid right against her wet lower lips, causing Wei Yi to gasp as a spark of killing intent lit up within her eyes, ready to put the dragon back into line.


    ¡°I won¡¯t shove it in. I told you already, nothing over the top¡­¡± her licking ceased, and her whispers gained a sombre note, ¡°I have to say, I hadn¡¯t realised just how bad it must have been for you. To get so restless and panicked so easily¡­ I am sorry for any worry I caused. Please, relax. Just for a moment.¡±


    The Ascendant shut her eyes and sighed, the shadow and crimson vanishing from her pupils when they next saw the world. She tried to relax as the dragon behind her embraced her, though she didn¡¯t stop playing with her nipples ¨C Li Sheng just switched which hand was closest to which breast. Her chest, large and soft, pressed against Wei Yi¡¯s back, almost acting as warm cushions for her to rest against, to lean back onto and relax.


    Of course, in the middle of everything, it was difficult to do that, so she opted for the next best thing and, within her mind, stepped out of the Ascendant¡¯s Library and away from the mental domain¡¯s civilized regions. She headed for the very outer edges of the world, and briefly allowed herself to be away from the countless thoughts and memories that usually surrounded her.


    In the next moment, Wei Yi realised just how much she had been overlooking. So many sensations, so much stimulation that could have made any person cum a thousand times over.


    The sheer volume of everything was staggering, though the great wave of pleasure certainly dominated the front of her mind. She pumped into Li He¡¯s pussy a few more times, forcing herself to move even as her body could only focus on a single thing, and then surrendered herself to that same desire, crying out as she hilted herself inside the dragon and drained her balls inside the unprepared woman.


    It seemed to cause a bit of a chain reaction, as Li He gasped and orgasmed, her cock spurting seed onto the stone beneath her while her lower lips clenched tightly around the Ascendant¡¯s cock. As her belly slowly filled, Long Ru also let out a pleasured cry and came, though not before wrapping her legs around Li He¡¯s head to ensure she wouldn¡¯t be going anywhere.


    Though Li Sheng subdued her voice, only letting out a quiet whimper, the ropes of cum covering the back of Wei Yi¡¯s balls was hard to miss, especially for Long Lin. Long Lin¡¯s orgasm followed a moment later, though it was weak from the minimal amount of direct stimulation, a thing that could not be said for Long Tao. The submissive dragon had begun fingering her own ass a while back, using three fingers with ease and working up to a great wave of seed spilling from her cock, adding to the rapidly growing pool on the ground.


    This might have exhausted lesser beings, but all involved could go hundreds of times before needing a break. So, that was exactly what they did.


    ¡°Do it before I change my mind¡­ And figure out a way to clean the room after we¡¯re done. My legs¡­ well, I don¡¯t need to tell you,¡± Wei Yi kneeled on the floor before all of the dragons that had been participating, who huddled together with their hard cocks pointed in her vague direction. Everything at the knee at below was submerged in the pool of blazing hot cum that had filled up the room, and she was preparing to endure even more of it.


    With her request, all of the dragons began stroking their lengths, some choosing to stimulate other parts of their bodies as well. Some went for their breasts and nipples, others touched their wet pussies, and a few went for their assholes, some finding it far easier to slide in than others.


    Long Tao attempted to join in, but her dick refused to remain hard no matter what she tried, until the thought of joining the Ascendant came to mind. It didn¡¯t take long for her to jump out of the small crowd and onto the floor, sliding up to Wei Yi so that they made for an easier target. The Ascendant quickly pulled her in, embracing her to bring them even closer, but resisted the urge to give the dragon a kiss ¨C for now.


    Instead, she and Long Tao opened their mouths and awaited the dragons.


    Everyone had already brought themselves close to the edge before this, so, in less than a minute, they were ready. Managing to roughly match one another¡¯s pace, they pumped their lengths and came.


    Countless ropes of white, steaming cum shot out, quickly splattering onto Wei Yi and Long Tao¡¯s bodies. In seconds, their skin was bathed with it, their hair not being far behind, and soon the excess began to spill down, adding to the vast pool on the floor. Each of the dragons emptied their balls quickly, and once their climax died down, Wei Yi turned to Long Tao and, using her Arm to suggest she turn as well, went in for the kiss.


    They were already holding as much seed in their mouth as possible, so much of it spilled out or had to be swallowed by one or the other, but that didn¡¯t stop them from swapping the seed back and forth, letting them taste it plenty of times before they were done with it.


    Oh, and they had made sure to employ a dual cultivation technique the whole time. It would have been rather unfortunate to forget about it after exhausting the energy and seed of a million years.

 V5C71: The Ning Patriarch and Great Ning

    The door of the Ancestral Hall was exploded inwards, and a group of those in the sixth and seventh realms stepped inside.


    A few defenders on the other side still attempted to prevent their progress inwards, but they were stopped by a few casual waves of the Ascendant¡¯s armoured finger. Each time, she employed Edge Replication, expending more energy than strictly necessary for the task but achieving less needless collateral damage to the various smithing implements and tools that were places around the sides of the first floor of the Ancestral Hall.


    Most of them were rather old and of far higher quality than the common items found within the Planar Continents at this time, and so although the world would soon rise in overall power and be able to make things like this, if not better, it would take some time for these items to be replaced.


    She had also stated that she wouldn¡¯t harm the district needlessly, and destroying such things was the very definition of needless harm. Even if one tried to reason that the forges of the Ning District could be used to forge weaponry that would then be used against the Ascendant, it would require forgetting about the fact that it would not be done within the day, nor within many even if the greatest of blacksmiths decided to work on making something sensible. After all, even with a complete set of shards that simply needed to be put together, using something as powerful as the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique, the Ascendant needed quite some time to forge Moon Splitter.


    In the middle of battle, without the right materials or preparation, there were none that would be able to make a decent weapon before being killed by the Ascendant or her forces.


    They descended to the lower floors easily enough after the first few waves of defenders were scared off, or just killed. Unlike something as absurd as the Qiang District, where mining was at the heart of the district¡¯s traditions and their Ancestral Hall reflected it perfectly, the Ning District did not have much room to go into the hard stone of the ground beneath them.


    That there even were three floors to descend was already abnormal in the Ning District, and the lowest one was the largest. It was home to a great forge meant to be used by some of the greatest blacksmiths of the Ning District, namely the Divine Smiths of the Ning family. All of the individual implements and tools were clearly designed for this, and any regular blacksmith that used them would not see as much improvement from using them as they would from using their own tools, even if their tools were of lower quality.


    So long as one cultivated the Eternal Anvil Pledge, the technique of the Divine Smiths, they would devote their very body to the great art of blacksmithing, and they would sacrifice a great deal in exchange for the ability to shape metal more freely, almost transforming it with every single strike.


    It didn¡¯t match up with the Shaper¡¯s Grasp, as that was a rare and powerful physique, and it came with a greater cost, but that was a small cost to pay for some. Many Divine Smiths sacrificed their lives for this very willingly, at least at first ¨C even with the amount of information that was suppressed about the Eternal Anvil Pledge, tales of Divine Smiths wishing they could feel anything more than the heat of the forge and the texture of metal in exchange for their skills were common ¨C and so that was the best possible method for the majority to approach the level of the Shaper¡¯s Grasp physique and the reforging of metals without needing to expend any additional materials.


    This forge was one that she certainly didn¡¯t want to harm right now, as it would worsen whatever impression the Patriarch had of her, but the likes of the Divine Smiths were not going to last long with her around. She did not like techniques that drained some part of a cultivator¡¯s vital sensations, as she was already suffering from simply being unable to taste food, and her experiences with the Magnanimous Leech technique convinced her that any draining of sensations and strengths was something that shouldn¡¯t be permitted to occur, even if all involved knew what they were getting into.


    Mainly, this was due to most people not truly being aware of the manner in which the loss of something ordinary would affect them. When every day involves feeling the warm air on one¡¯s skin, the taste of something like authamite wine, or perhaps the gentle ¨C or not so gentle ¨C touch of one¡¯s lover, and they feel this for a dozen, hundred, perhaps even a thousand years, such things become routine.


    When the option to throw them away in return for great power was given, there were many that would agree. It would only be some time later that they would comprehend the consequences.


    Still, that was a matter for a later discussion with the Ning Patriarch, as well as Luo Na, whose district also had the practise of burning lifeforce to strengthen talismans via the Searing Inferno technique. Lifeforce could be substituted with some of her physique abilities, and likely the physiques of some of the people living in either that district or in the Chao District, but there were few that had access to quite as much lifeforce as the Ascendant had, and few of those people would be willing to share all of it at an appropriate cost. Others, like Wei Yi herself, could spare plenty for free, but she rarely had the time to stand around and supplement lifeforce for those that were lacking in it.


    ¡®And before I have to take note of the fact that my presence and power likely won¡¯t be as eternal as I might wish it to be, I ought to take care of the Ning Patriarch,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, turning to those accompanying her, ¡°Stand by and keep others from getting in. I¡¯ll take care of them.¡±


    The others didn¡¯t provide any commentary this time, so she went forward right away and met the Patriarch¡¯s gaze. It wasn¡¯t quite as angry as one might expect from the situation, so the encounter was bound to go better than with the Ping District¡¯s former Patriarch, but she still prepared a few drops of energy to deal with him quickly and as safely as possible if it became necessary to do so. Then, before she could say anything, he began first.


    ¡°Ascendant. I have heard a portion of what you said on the surface.¡±


    ¡°Why are you standing in my way, then? Just to make sure you¡¯re aware, your strength is far inferior to those two, so even if you tried your best to protect them, it¡¯d be pointless.¡±


    ¡°I am no fool, Ascendant. Otherwise, I would have waged war with you a long time ago, and would have also refused to side with any existing faction, and might have attempted to conquer Yi City for myself. I have done none of those things, and refused plenty of other follies as well, so you need not attempt to educate me,¡± the man stated, his words being diplomatic yet hiding clear jabs at her own actions, ¡°There is one thing that I will ask about, that I believe you have lied about. If you were truthful, explain yourself.¡±


    ¡°What a polite inquiry. I certainly wouldn¡¯t want to simply replace you with some other Patriarch candidate and tell everyone else that the Great Leeches had ended your life while I attempted to stop them¡­ in other words, get on with it.¡±


    ¡°You claim that you would share techniques-¡±


    That was all that she needed to hear before she raised her right hand and performed a simple palm strike forward, targeting the head of the Patriarch. He attempted to block her, but the sudden impact of a wave of information forcing its way into his head stopped his movement before he was able to do anything.


    When he managed to figure out what she had given him, his eyes widened and he gritted his teeth before taking the slightest step to the side and addressing her.


    ¡°That technique¡­ it¡¯s not full, but it is based on the Shaper¡¯s Grasp, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°I threw it together just now. It¡¯s better than your Eternal Anvil Pledge already, and it doesn¡¯t rid people of so much. Teach it to whoever you want, because soon a version of it will be available within the Kong Prison Realm, in the central archive, for anyone under the protection of the Arbiters to browse through and comprehend. Now, out of the way, and, if you want to live, up a floor or two.¡±


    He was clearly not happy with the way she spoke to him, but since he had already acknowledged both the truth of her claims and her overall power, he had no choice but to depart, walking past the dragons and the others in as dignified a manner as he could.


    The instant that he took the first step onto the stairs up, the Ascendant¡¯s head turned towards the final chamber of this floor, where the two Great Leeches of the first generation of the Great Ning family stood on either side of the spatial stabilisation point. It was lit up with a ghostly green light, as weak as it was for the moment, and they were attempting to do something with it and not doing all that well in this regard. One was Ning Huang, around whom she could still sense and see the broken anchors and the faint trace of the broken edges of his core. The other had similar features, so she was likely Ning Hui, the female member of the first generation of the Great Ning.


    Her state was significantly better at the moment, and so she was doing most of the work while Ning Huang was effectively standing by and keeping watch, although both had shifted their attention towards the doorway that the Ascendant occupied. Almost unconsciously, the male Leech receded just a little, and the female one moved forward, also just a little, in preparation for the battle that would inevitably follow.


    They tried hard to disguise it, but both attempted to build up something to attack her with, as if the Ascendant wasn¡¯t going to notice something like that.


    ¡°Do you idiots think that by hiding it, you would catch me off-guard? It seems that my divine sense finally overpowers yours,¡± Wei Yi said, taking a step forward while withdrawing Moon Splitter from the House of Gold, ¡°Come on and let me kill you already. Save both of us the effort.¡±


    Naturally, they wouldn¡¯t do that, and the Ascendant wouldn¡¯t skip out on hitting those two in the face a few thousand times either. It would be good practise for the battle against the heavens, if that ever came up, and also an opportunity to develop the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow to its final form via a prolonged battle in which she was truly challenged. If she didn¡¯t manage to take this opportunity now, the stable state of her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow would decay back to its previous condition, and she would need to find a different opportunity with far more effort.


    She was ready to take the stronger attack with her sword, letting the shards of Moon Splitter loose to get lodged in the planar construct and shatter, while some of the smoke from her Arm blocked a few point beams sent out by Ning Huang. It was easy enough to do so, for the number of beams he could produce was halved and their overall power also fell greatly.


    Although the number of beams was tied to the planar anchors used by a Great Leech, planar energy as a whole was also affected by the number of anchors, and their technique relied on the stabilising effects of multiple anchors working together. In fact, that was what all of their methods, including their cultivation, appeared reliant upon, which was why the Overwhelming Resonance of the outer nations proved to be so effective. They were stuck with a single series of techniques that they propagated time and time again, and none of them could lose them and fail to pass them on to the next generation, so a faction that could never reconnect with the world was created.


    It was certainly a shame for the Leeches that she had ended up facing, but she had no problems with taking care of them and ensuring that others were able to learn their lesson.


    Since Ning Huang wasn¡¯t going to be much of an issue for her, she ignored him and instead attacked Ning Hui, throwing out the shards of her sword that were already out in the air from her prior attack. They rushed at the woman, striking a series of hastily assembled planar constructs, which did serve their function to force the shards to burst out energy early.


    Ning Huang attempted to land a blow on the Ascendant with a weak yet hastily assembled flaming metal hand, but it was only a little larger than her smoking hand and so allowed her to grab onto the construct and crush it, quietly taking advantage of the slight resonance around the construct to attempt a few things with her own Arm and see whether any of the effects of the anchor¡¯s stabilisation could be used to improve the state of the Arm. Unfortunately, this particular planar construct arrangement didn¡¯t suit her.


    Thus, she quickly switched up her tactics and brought the sword shards back into her hand and rushed forward using her Arm as her primary weapon. She had already confirmed the strength of her opponents, and she knew that the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow would be sufficient to handle them with the amount of strength they were able to display so far, so it was the best possible time to experiment with it.


    The female Leech took a step forward, blocking her brother while she sent out a few basic point beams as an obvious distraction. Her brother placed his hands on the surface of the spatial stabilisation point, his own energy pouring out at a great speed while he attempted to manipulate the energy within.


    ¡®Don¡¯t think that you can get out of this so fast, you irritating leech,¡¯ the Ascendant quickly calculated every possibility she could conceive of, throwing together every option possible via Endless Calculation until she had a few conclusive results, and then decided that it would be for the better to let him do his work, for two simple reasons.


    The first was the same as before ¨C she wanted to finish her Arm, and a stronger attack would give her that opportunity. Meanwhile, the second was that the Great Leeches had made a bit of a mistake right here. Instead of having the stronger one of the two use the spatial stabilisation point¡¯s connection with their Testament to unleash something capable of handling her, the weaker one did so instead, and the stronger one exposed herself to the Ascendant to essentially be slaughtered first, while the weaker one would waste their time and end up perishing as well, turning to naught but embers.


    In short, this nearly guaranteed her victory, meaning that she was free to do as she wished unless the other Leeches came over.


    However, she was nearly certain that this wouldn¡¯t occur. Her divine sense reached to the other districts easily, and even the influence of her soul¡¯s power ¨C something that couldn¡¯t extend forever, but was sufficient to fill at least half of the excessive range of her current mental energy ¨C went far enough to let her take a glance at the actions of the Leeches within the Chen and Yi Districts, albeit not sufficient to penetrate into Testament.


    There were no reinforcements coming, as far as she was able to tell. Thus, there would be none that could take advantage of some poor planning on her part, or the weak spots that she would inevitably expose by fighting with her attention on developing a technique rather than defeating opponents.


    She did also have to note that she had a brief period of time in which she would be significantly calmer than usual when facing the Leeches. The stabilising effects of the breakthrough still applied to the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, and the primary element of it was mental energy, which was exactly what greatly elevated her aggravation in most situations. In time, even if the stabilising effect persisted forever, she knew that the realm of killing will would climb up to the eighth realm, or do its best to reach it, and there it would sit and destabilise her mind while also acting as its immovable foundation, a series of contradictions that had been the source of her very existence.


    At the moment, she knew of no way to amend that than to elevate her other cultivation paths at an even greater rate to catch up to and match the development of killing will, which was simply impossible. Her oblivion essence and its advancement directly affected her physique energy and bloodline power, allowing those to keep up during her breakthroughs, but oblivion essence came from the world and her nascent rift. The rift provided her a constant flow of energy, but it was too slow to allow for consistent cultivation, and the world¡¯s energy quantity was also too low for her to quickly reach the eighth realm without siphoning the energy from the Yi City Web, or some other large repository of energy. For now, she knew of none that would fit her needs.


    Thus, every moment was used wisely. She provoked as many attacks from the female Leech as she possibly could, constantly pretending to near her brother only to allow her to get in the way in the last moment and force her to unleash a stronger strike in order to get her to move away. It worked, if only because she let it, and then the attacks were used to check resonance with her Arm.


    It worked extremely smoothly, and after five minutes of pointless collisions, she ended up with the glimpse of success. As such, she instantly threw the right method of resonance and shifted the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow into the method of Endless Calculation. She spurred it on with all of the excess killing will that she had in her possession, forcing it to go on and on with the greatest speed that her mind could manage. Of course, for a mind that was odd even in the eyes of a ninth realm dragon from the days of Kong Shi Meng, that was a far greater speed than most could ever hope to experience.


    A few years passed within a moment, or at least it certainly felt like that. Her Endless Calculation could make use of each year as if it was a hundred, and this advantage was most obvious in matters that could be settled objectively and with pure logic and mathematics, as her emotions couldn¡¯t catch up to it.


    Thus, her solution was found, and she put it to use immediately, scattering the current Arm of Slaughtering Shadow in a single explosion of energy so vast and powerful that it shook the land and forced everyone protecting the Ancestral Hall ¨C Ning Patriarch included, as he had taken up the floor above and gathered everyone capable of reinforcing the floor and walls to do so as quickly as possible ¨C to push themselves to their limits in order to be able to keep the place from collapsing.


    Ning Hui was thrown back right into Ning Huang at the vital point, destroying his arrangements.


    They landed on the other wall and saw the limb of shadow regenerate, similar to before yet so vitally different that it was impossible to compare them properly. One was a messy combination of energies used to condense a completely deficient limb, and the other was¡­ a perfect arm that could be used in full.


    Visually, it was still composed of smoke, with the colours of her energies lying within, but the endless plumes were reduced significantly, for that was always an element of inefficiency, even if it worked flawlessly for her. Each finger had immense detail, as if they were naturally formed and not created to substitute a greater thing. Each muscle, although made from energy and not flesh, was more refined and even more accurate than the strongest results that a physique could ever produce, even with all of the absolute physiques she had discovered.


    Most importantly, however, she had achieved eternity.


    She did not make herself eternal, obviously, but the Arm could now feel sensation, move as a normal arm would, and she knew that there was a certain connection between it and her state ¨C her nature, the very concept of her being. That connection was feeble, extremely feeble, but it was there, and it was not going anywhere, and it had been formed by her own power, and the combination of several other techniques.


    The Overwhelming Resonance of the Reclaimed Lands combined well with the anchor-bound reverberations of energy produced by the Great Leeches, and when she examined the latter, she was able to conclude that just as the Great Leech obsession with their anchors permeated their common techniques, it also spread to the greatest technique they had displayed so far ¨C Reality Severance.


    In other words, their method for breaching reality and splitting concepts was technically engrained within their other techniques, although Wei Yi had not figured out a way to make use of the Reality Severance, both because she lacked sufficient information about it, and because she didn¡¯t wish to do so. Touch the Heavens was sufficiently destructive to the world, so adding on something specifically meant to cut through reality would not be particularly beneficial to her intentions of keeping everything stable and intact.


    Still, although she now regained the limb that she had lost a long time ago, she was more curious about the actions of the Leeches, so she pointed her left index finger at them and asked them directly.


    ¡°Your anchors exist outside of your bodies at all times, and you are able to protect them with your cores. Why do you never bring out your halos, then? That¡¯s something that can be done, just as with all other planar structures¡­ Unless you aren¡¯t able to do so. Are you?¡±


    Obviously, if they responded to her words, they would be incredibly foolish and it would make it very strange that the Leeches had been able to survive for a million years, like they have now. Provided that she was right, there were plenty of repercussions that would be immediately understood about them, and it might very well allow everyone in the world to turn against them now that they understood some significant threat to their current position.


    The Ascendant knew that their path had limitations, and she had already suspected that the Leeches had a problem in the seventh realm, but if she was able to confirm it once and for all, it would give her the certainty to act however she wished since she could be absolutely certain that the Greats would never be able to reach the eighth realm. If they cannot do so, then even if their strength proves to be far superior to her own in the moment, they would be overwhelmed once she either gets to the sixth stage, or the eighth realm, both of which were certain to happen, just not right away. On the other hand, if they can get to the eighth realm, then the ticking clock she had resolved by breaking into the barrier would return in a different form, forcing her to rush forth in a manner that was not advantageous to her own plans. Obviously, this wasn¡¯t ideal in any way.


    She used Moon Splitter to form walls of shards on either side of the pair of Leeches, then approached them through the open front, covering the spatial stabilisation point in her own energy to prevent them from using it.


    ¡°Bring out your halo right now. I know you both have five halos around your dantians, so bring them out and let me see how your technique allows you to resolve the problems that would inevitably be caused by having dozens of anchors inside of a single core¡­ oh, forgive me, your anchor counts don¡¯t match any longer. Still, dozens,¡± she said, grabbing Ning Hui¡¯s neck and lifting her up, ¡°Come on, you¡¯ve been so brave and haughty up to this point. Where¡¯s that energy gone, Leech?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ Why would I ever tell you- AH!¡±


    The woman cried out and spat out a mouthful of blood when Wei Yi grabbed onto her arm ¨C the left one, of course ¨C and pulled it off without any hesitation.


    ¡°You were saying? Your brother is next, and I don¡¯t intend to hold back. Communicating with mental energy should be easy for you two, and I can keep you alive regardless of the wounds I inflict with my lifeforce, so don¡¯t think that you can get out of this just by getting so injured that there is no real way for your words to emerge from your mouth.¡±


    In truth, she doubted that she would be able to carry on torturing the two of them for long enough to keep to her word. Now that she had broken the previous balance of her energy via the empowerment of her Arm, she felt her killing will becoming more powerful and unrestrained with every moment. Perhaps it wouldn¡¯t reach the next realm today, but the stability of her power would disappear within a few minutes, leaving her without the ability to stop herself from outright slaughtering them right then and there.


    ¡°Ugh¡­ You psychopath-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you try that. After everything you¡¯ve done to fuck over the world, bring everyone down, and kill anyone that slightly displeased you, don¡¯t try calling me psychopathic.¡±


    She was a little too relaxed about killing others, sure, but at least she kept those who should have only been able to inconvenience her alive. Had she had an unwanted child with someone and learnt of their survival in some district, she would certainly not rush in to kill them or imprison them in a spatial realm, although she couldn¡¯t deny that knowing how poorly such a thing could turn out was also a major factor that would dissuade anything resembling this approach, regardless of the circumstances.


    This was obviously not something she would say to them, or to most others.


    ¡°You won¡¯t get anything out of us! The heavens are on our side!¡± Ning Huang exclaimed, all of a sudden.


    ¡°If you¡¯re not saying anything helpful, just shut it,¡± Wei Yi didn¡¯t even bother looking at him and simply conjured a few phantoms to stab the man a few dozen times in a single second. At that moment, it felt oddly like this was what the Red Phantom Flood was meant to be used for, even if she was only capable of conjuring a phantom for a single action at most.


    He managed to restrain his cry of pain, just barely, with the Ascendant ignoring him still.


    ¡°Actually, I¡¯m not sure why I¡¯m wasting so much time. I¡¯m now in the seventh realm, so if I use my favourite Dao¡­¡±


    She hadn¡¯t attempted something like this before, but since now had both a stable arm and the seventh realm, she chose to attempt it. Using the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, she grabbed onto the space where the woman¡¯s dantian was supposed to be and applied all of the strength that she could exert to a single Command of Law.


    ¡°Emerge!¡±


    It was as targeted as she could make it, and she could sense that her command did apply to something, for the energy stored within her Arm began to be exhausted at a rapid pace. Despite a core appearing around her, Ning Hui and Ning Huang, and the marks igniting on its surface, she didn¡¯t see even the slightest glimpse of a halo. There should be five of them at least, given the quantity of marks upon the core, and yet their aura remained within the body.


    Once her energy started to get exhausted too quickly ¨C more precisely, once the rate of recovery fell far below the rate of consumption ¨C she ceased the command and threw Ning Hui at the wall, hearing a few bones break as a result.


    ¡°You cannot bring a halo outside of your body. You cannot bring your anchors into your body. Without the halos to facilitate the collapse of an anchor, even if it was possible to use thirty anchors for an imperfect rift, you won¡¯t be able to break through to the eighth realm. In conclusion,¡± she released her killing will in vast quantities as a vicious grin appeared on her face, and the restraint she had been exhibiting so far vanished into the void, ¡°All of you are scum that are frozen within the seventh realm forever. To make up for your own weakness, you bring down the world as a whole! For your crimes of a million years, I judge you guilty, and punish you by death!¡±


    In that instant, she did not allow them any action, nor did she permit herself the vaguest semblance of relaxation or hesitation. Every method she could think of to keep them frozen in place was activated, and when she attacked, she did so with her most powerful techniques merged into Obliteration, save for Touch the Heavens as to prevent damaging the world.


    A single strike landing on the weak flesh of the Great Leeches reduced their number by two.

 V5C72: Advancing while Waiting

    ¡°I did do my best to avoid damaging the area too much, but I got a little excited. If anything vital was destroyed, I can quickly rebuild it via my Elder Shaper¡¯s Grasp,¡± Wei Yi said to the Ning Patriarch, who was somewhat displeased in the large hole that appeared at the back of the third basement floor, ¡°First, though, I doubt that you can have any particular objections to me claiming this spatial stabilisation point.¡±


    They were standing over the topic of discussion, the point being placed right in the middle and still glowing with a little ghostly green, although celestial crimson overwhelmed it on the surface.


    At the moment, although the primary users of the spatial stabilisation point were slain, the connection it had to Testament remained. She could subjugate it easily enough with a little effort, as her energy would inevitably overwhelm the limited connection it had to the spatial realm regardless of the size and energy density within Testament, but it first important to speak with the Patriarch and check that he would permit her to have it. If he did not, he couldn¡¯t really stop her, but it would make things slightly more difficult if she wanted to cooperate with the district as it currently was.


    For the moment, she didn¡¯t wish to stage another revolution and change the priorities of the district like with a few districts prior to this, so having an amicable relationship would be best. There was always room for alternative solutions after the simpler one was tested.


    ¡°To connect the Ning District to the Kong Prison Realm, and to let the people view that archive of yours, correct?¡±


    ¡°Technically, it¡¯s the Ascendant¡¯s Library, a mental technique I have cultivated, but that¡¯s only the foundation, so calling it an archive is nicer to differentiate the two¡­ Anyway, I¡¯m in a better mood after killing those two, so I might even be willing to negotiate with you,¡± the Ascendant said, aware that one might easily misconstrue the expression on her face as some sadistic grin.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s¡­ clear. Very well, do as you wish. I shall see what you have to offer in your spatial realm.¡±


    She tried to adjust her smile to a more positive one and placed her left hand above the spatial stabilisation point, releasing her vast power for almost a whole minute before her oblivion essence finally overwhelmed the influence of the spatial realm that it was linked to prior to this. The ghostly green burst, and her cosmic light overwhelmed the node on the ground, prompting the emergence of shadowed crimson and shining silver. A gateway formed before them, linking to Paragon.


    Instead of directly leading him over to the other side, she pointed towards the stairs to her archive visible through one of the gateways and let him take a look on his own, since she had no issues with him studying any of the techniques she had put into the archive. All that would be problematic was contained within her own mind, away from the world until such a time that she took a step further and could discard her inventions and everything she had collected so far. There would be such a time, and it would make everyone trust her words far more when they too could attempt to form something akin to an Obliteration beam.


    It shouldn¡¯t require saying that few would be able to accomplish anything that would truly resemble it, if only because the requirement for matching it was having five types of energy of five very particular types and aspects come together smoothly and with a pure vision. Few had all of those things at once.


    While the Patriarch departed, Wei Yi stayed and quickly shifted her position away from the Ancestral Hall, appearing in the air above it, looking towards the remaining two districts under the control of the Great Leeches. She saw the green walls around it, still, but it looked like the Leeches were actually attempting to rebuild the barrier once more.


    This made little sense to her, since the barriers would be unable to hold her back even with her current strength, not to mention the realm she could achieve with just a little more effort using all of the energy stored within the Yi City Web. However, it did present a certain opportunity.


    ¡°Wei Yi, there you are¡­ Are the Leeches still trying to repair their barrier? Isn¡¯t that a bit pointless?¡± Li He asked, flying up with wings that were produced by a partial transformation.


    ¡°I suspect they intend to make use of that energy to solidify a barrier and create something that would have a chance of hurting me, since inventing a completely new arrangement and usage for the Yi City Web would almost certainly take far too long for them to manage it before I come over and kill all of them¡­ Can your divine sense reach all the way over there?¡±


    ¡°Nope. I¡¯m guessing yours can.¡±


    ¡°Mhm. It seems to me that, once it reaches a certain point of reconstruction, there will be a moment in which it is temporarily weakened, and the energy released upon shattering the barrier would be greatly increased. If that is the case, then it might be better to temporarily delay our attack on the Chen District,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°It seems like it would be eight days until that point, so we have eight days until that point. Alternatively, we can just leap in at any other time and break it at an earlier point, since it¡¯s not that difficult to breach even now.¡±


    ¡°So, wanna fuck?¡±


    ¡°You lot are more like rabbits than dragons. Don¡¯t be so eager, or else you won¡¯t be able to get any human partners for yourselves. Remember, you lot have far more stamina than nearly everyone else.¡±


    ¡°With all of your attempts to strengthen people within the radius of your influence, that should not be the case soon enough. With enough effort, we could get all humans in the world to have a draconic bloodline and both parts, allowing the whole Western Continent to be a perfect land-¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t start on that. The people will do as they wish, and if that means that all of the women pair up with dragons, then that¡¯s what will happen. Now, unless you have something useful to say beside trying to quietly take over the world, I¡¯d appreciate it if you moved on to doing something useful. Even performing some dual cultivation with some people that¡¯d benefit from it would be fine with me, in truth.¡±


    ¡°I heard that humans are fond of marriage and single partners. You won¡¯t try to claim me as one?¡±


    ¡°No. Go already.¡±


    The dragon shrugged, clearly seeing that whatever she was trying to do wasn¡¯t working, and flew off to do whatever she had initially been planning to do, leaving the Ascendant alone, at least for a little while. With the number of people she had in her Arbiters, and that she had gotten involved with as a result of passing through as many districts as she had, it was almost guaranteed that she would run into someone else simply by floating in the air and looking on into the distance. The visual was certainly interesting enough for some she had never met to also try involving themselves with her.


    This time, however, it was the most familiar of acquaintances.


    ¡°You have noticed it as well, I presume?¡± Yi Shi Ming asked, her figure appearing beside the Ascendant, ¡°Something changed upon the demise of the two Greats, but I have not been able to determine the nature of the change.¡±


    ¡°Aside from the energy that they had been hoarding being freed, the other change¡­ It¡¯s probably that seal they keep going on about.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s only one thing that they could be sealing without our knowledge.¡±


    ¡°Yep, that seems to be the case. However, should I change my plans just because ending them might unleash a greater threat?¡± Wei Yi asked, ¡°I had already mentioned the potential of greater dangers to the world, or, at least, to the districts that I had been able to reach with my words, and I have hardly held back the necessary techniques to deal with such threats. Not everyone needs to go beyond the common boundaries of humanity like I have just to survive, and I will have to be the one dealing with most of the threats anyway¡­ Of course, if the phoenixes or the qilins finally came out of hiding, like the dragons have, then I could have some stronger combatants on my side, so one percent of the work could be delegated¡­¡±


    ¡°This situation, it shouldn¡¯t surprise you to learn, is not entirely unfamiliar to me. My son did end up doing a lot of things himself, except that he had fewer skills, fewer ambitions, and less work as a result.¡±


    ¡°I know. I¡¯ve seen him fight against Primordial Invader and lose numerous soldiers because he was far more powerful than them, forcing him to use their killing intent to trap the Primordial Deity in the Shard of Warfare, or whatever it had originally been called,¡± the Ascendant replied, raising Moon Splitter for a moment, ¡°The problem is, he used pure planar energy. Others could have replicated his cultivation method, and even reach a similar level to his own with advancements I had come up with.¡±


    ¡°But the majority would not reach that realm, unless you have figured out a method for replicating the Truth of the Universe without the use of the otherworldly gift material. Personally, I have had little luck in that regard.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve not had much time to experiment with it, but the power of Law should be able to yield some success. Before then, though, I can experiment with trying to convert the power of certain unusual artefacts into techniques as practise. It would be a good idea to comprehend exactly how to do so before even trying to invoke some kind of otherworldly power. Before then, though, I should break through a stage or two, since I have all of this energy right here.¡±


    The mother of the Master of Yi City nodded, turning back towards the green barrier.


    ¡°Their mastery of protective barriers appears to be inspired to some extent by the same method that we use, the Four Cardinal Beasts array.¡±


    ¡°Meaning that they should have an archive that contains some semblance of the technique on its shelves? If so, then it would mean that all of the techniques they have stolen from the world do remain, and that would mean that we can release them once more and let the world recover to what it had once been, except with a great number of new additions.¡±


    ¡°However, they were clearly lacking in the understanding of how to resolve the obstruction we had formed via the defences around the Kong Prison Realm, which means that they shouldn¡¯t have access to the whole thing.¡±


    ¡°Maybe¡­ Perhaps they just weren¡¯t ready to make good use of the knowledge they did have, and lacked practise in it. After all, the two of us are somewhat anomalous in the world, since my mental domain is capable of containing limitless quantities of knowledge while you are a spatial spirit that is anchored, in part, within my head, meaning that you share this ability. The Great Leeches, on the other hand, are idiots that probably wouldn¡¯t cultivate a mental technique if it couldn¡¯t resonate with their anchors, and even then it would be something to make them less intelligent rather than the opposite.¡±


    ¡°I know that you often don¡¯t mean it, but still, I ought to remind you to take them seriously while they are still a potential threat to us.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I know that. However, it really helps when dealing with my killing intent, since this is a non-destructive manner of venting it a little,¡± Wei Yi sighed, ¡°For now, it is enough, but soon, it won¡¯t be. As such, let¡¯s get moving before someone else decides to pop up and have a chat with me while I¡¯m floating about.¡±


    The spatial spirit nodded and vanished from the spot, followed not long after by the Ascendant, who reappeared within the Ancestral Hall and grabbed onto the remaining sparks of energy that were attempting to suffuse into the environment. In addition to the arrangements intended to manipulate the Yi City Web, she had enough energy to potentially break through a stage before she had to attack the Chen District, which would make things far easier regardless of what the Great Leeches might attempt to throw at her at that time.


    Claiming that spare energy for herself, she retreated to the Kong Prison Realm as well, and went about absorbing that energy for one half of her time, and examined a few of the more unusual artefacts in her possession in the other half. Fortunately for her, she did have quite a few.


    The End, Signet Ring, for instance, could stop time, and that much was very worth investigating. If she managed to replicate it, then she would have an incredible power when it came to defensive measures, whether for herself or others that she currently couldn¡¯t protect fully. She could stop the Leeches from teleporting away, like they did sometimes do, and if she comprehended some kind of method to undo events ¨C rewinding time was impossible, but copying the phenomena that one would interpret as such an event was theoretically possible ¨C then she could force an entity that did escape her grasp to return to her, even if she might need to effectively repeat their teleportation effect in reverse.


    For now, she had yet to witness a single event like this that her divine sense could analyse, so she couldn¡¯t experiment with it.


    Another item of interest was the Abyssal Eye, which could summon wholly independent armies to fight on her command. This was exactly what she would benefit from in the upcoming conflicts, as she could ensure that there was no need to involve weaker fighters that would just get swallowed up by the fighting and slaughtered in massive numbers and without any benefit to her whatsoever. A weak force that simply acted as a numerous swarm would replace regular armies entirely.


    The Spiralling Twig was also effective, if only because it was able to amplify the majority of attacks incredibly easily. Making that in large numbers and spreading it to everyone who used techniques and projectile attacks would allow her to multiply the power of her armies by three.


    Additionally, the Blistering Tome was one that could allow even the weakest of individuals to perform powerful techniques against their foes without needing any mastery or knowledge of techniques and cultivation methods themselves. She did not have many combatants that lacked all knowledge of techniques and cultivations, and she also had the ability to bestow some of her own comprehension onto all those who were willing to learn, so it was lower on the list of priorities, but there was always the possibility of constructing variations of these tomes for a massive army copied from a replica Abyssal Eye that could then bypass their own lacking abilities and throw out all kinds of techniques incredibly easily.


    Learning how to replicate the effects of such artefacts would allow her to comprehend how such things work in the Planar Continents, and then she would have a chance of understanding how other properties might be replicated in the form of techniques. From there, once she was able to replicate effects without having a physical blueprint for them, she could attempt to put together the necessary properties to create something akin to the primary abilities of the Truth of the Universe, which were the calculator fragment, and the forced upgrade aspect.


    The former was self-explanatory, allowing her and Kong Shi Meng before her to develop certain techniques far more quickly than they otherwise could by substituting the necessary mental deliberation and experimentation with its own power.


    The latter was more significant for the moment, as it could allow existing information and known improvements to a technique ¨C also known as the stages of a technique, from the first stage onto the Dao Ascension stage ¨C to be applied instantly with a vast quantity of energy serving to facilitate the changes to the body and mind necessary to upgrade the stage of a technique. This was what the calculator component also achieved, but the Ascendant knew that trying to put both of those functions into a single technique, array or artefact would be impossible before implementing them separately and comprehending the best manner in which to refine these components.


    Of course, she knew that simply deciphering the manner in which the otherworldly gifts functioned wouldn¡¯t be the only obstacle in the path of developing a replacement for actual gifts.


    Anchor energy points were far more effective as a form of energy than simple wisps of planar energy, for they contained the very thing that dictated the overall energy density of the world. As such, substituting them with planar energy or even oblivion essence wouldn¡¯t be feasible unless she was able to elevate oblivion essence to an even greater height that it would genuinely compare to anchor energy.


    Given that anchor energy was necessary in large quantities to advance techniques even when all steps of improvement were known, requiring a minimum of one point in order to simply unify a series of methods together into what she had called the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, a method confined to the Laws of the world would be less efficient and would thus require even more energy to be consumed, somehow. This would also require the development of some method of capturing sufficient quantities of energy at a sufficient speed, as typical methods of planar condensation would require a build-up of decades before being able to perform a single improvement in stage for anyone that wished to use them, even if all other necessities were prepared in advance.


    This naturally posited a significant issue to her plans, since she did not currently have any artefacts that specialised in this, nor did she own an otherworldly gift with this ability. Certainly, most artefacts possessed some element of planar absorption and condensation, as this was necessary for them to be able to perform their function, but the most common method was taking in the energy of the cultivator. Unless a cultivator willingly released their anchors for the artefact to feed upon, they could never obtain an anchor energy point for the usage of the artefact in their possession.


    Hence, her cultivation actually progressed more quickly than this work.


    It took two days, and it was in the afternoon that she opened her eyes to see one halo appear in the air before her, begin to spin, sink into her body only for another halo to manifest. As always, her two consecutive breakthroughs brought two consecutive developments to her planar structures, and she got to experience the sheer power of two more oscillating halos atop her existing ones.


    As she had suspected before this, the aura that had manifested around her dantian was indeed the size of the space that all of the halos would occupy once they appeared, as each one went further out than the one before and spun in conjunction with one another in the most fascinating of ways. Despite that, the halos still managed to affect around thirty Astral Scars at a time, arcs of red lightning manifesting whenever there wasn¡¯t another halo in between the two points. She hadn¡¯t seen some of the more advanced technological developments of the various Orbises, but some descriptions of their inventions did seem similar to the combination of halos.


    The remaining aura around her dantian was sufficient for six or seven additional halos, and she expected there to be a total of ten due to the manner in which breakthroughs occurred. By reaching the effective ninth stage, or the fifth stage with four perfected stages, she would have naturally acquired nine halos. Then, as she broke through to the sixth stage, she would attain a halo during the regular breakthrough, and experience whatever transformation would come afterward during the next, as they are technically one and the same.


    Nonetheless, now that she was not breaking through into a new realm, she had far less difficulty in controlling her oblivion essence, so she had been able to focus on some of her ideas from two days ago, and she had even come up with a few decent creations ¨C potentially decent, in truth.


    She hadn¡¯t had the time to experiment with them, nor could she accurately estimate how people other than herself would fare when dealing with such creations. As risking the lives of innocent civilians was not something that she wished to do, she had to test them with the most powerful and physically fit individuals that she knew of. Prior to a few weeks ago, that would have been the population of the domains of physique cultivators in the Kong Prison Realm, but now she had far better candidates.


    ¡°So, Long Tao, since you¡¯re most familiar with techniques ¨C and well acquainted with Shun Liu Min, from what I¡¯ve observed ¨C you should be attempting this first.¡±


    The Ascendant provided a manual made up from a mass of smoke with writing of silver upon its pages, and the dragon accepted it, opening it and immediately feeling the insights contained within rushing into her head. With this effect, it only took her a few minutes to get through the whole thing and understand the basics, so she was able to test it soon after.


    ¡°This¡­ should this work? It doesn¡¯t feel like it should¡­¡± Long Tao said.


    ¡°Yeah, it should work just fine. I¡¯m here, so unless you are erased from existence the moment you test the technique, I will be able to keep you safe from whatever negative effects might be unleashed by this untested method.¡±


    ¡°Have you tested it?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to shatter the surroundings of some unrelated districts again, so no.¡±


    ¡°Would it hurt you?¡±


    ¡°No. In fact, I don¡¯t think one of my own techniques can really hurt me.¡±


    Long Tao¡¯s eyes momentarily widened before narrowing, ¡°Can I at least see what you were attempting to make here? If I know, then I could control my energy to keep the chances of something terrible happening down, but otherwise¡­ otherwise I will just be throwing myself straight into the deep end of the magma pool without knowing what swimming looks like.¡±


    ¡°You lot swim in magma pools?¡±


    ¡°Not too often, unless you¡¯re a fire or red dragon, or make use of a fire-based technique¡­ My scales are blue, I practise a water-type technique, and I¡¯m much better at recovery-type techniques rather than outright defending myself, so jumping into something unsuitable would hurt¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright, back onto the topic of my technique. I would reveal it to you, but anything that isn¡¯t explicitly written in the manual could affect your performance of the technique, and so it might well damage it without us having much of a chance to comprehend exactly what led to the failure. If one attempt is inconclusive at best, then I will show you, but otherwise, please make do of what you have,¡± Wei Yi said, pausing only for a moment before adding, ¡°Incidentally, if you invent something different as a result of the technique¡¯s lacking clarity, you might greatly contribute to its development.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ Fine, I¡¯ll do it¡­ Could you, after this, pound me-¡±


    ¡°Just get on with it, and after that you can tell me whether dragons have a mating season or go into heat, because otherwise I see no explanation for your consistent horniness.¡±


    ¡°Is that a word?¡±


    ¡°It is now. Test the technique already.¡±


    Long Tao nodded and shut her eyes. She put her hands together, held them up so that she could rest her chin upon them, and focused on circulating her energy through her body in the correct manner to activate the replica technique as well as she could.


    Even with all of the comprehension provided to her, there was a limit to what someone could do with a brand-new technique that is not only unfamiliar to her, but also extremely unrefined due to effectively transposing the artefact channels into a proper technique that did not rely on a single artefact being present. This requires a great deal of changes to facilitate the proper effects of the mortal body upon energy, and the opposite, as artefacts were often made with materials that would improve their ability to perform a particular ability and resonate with the material to amplify certain effects. With the body, such things were difficult to achieve unless one made a technique for a specific bloodline or physique.


    The Ascendant did not intend to do so until she came up with a superior Abyssal Eye that might produce entities that had a level equivalent to human cultivators. Then, she might deliberately create entities with specific physiques and meridian structures which would be conducive to specific methods which she could bestow onto them via something like a Blistering Tome.


    Of course, the fact that the Blistering Tome would be the thing that she needed to alter was not the point here, although it was valid.


    ¡°I think¡­ I think I have it. Now, watch me!¡±


    Wei Yi had been doing so already, and simply increased her focus on everything about the dragon as all of the energy applied to the technique was released. The power emerged in the form of several masses of energy not unlike the light unleashed by the Great Leeches in the barrier around their districts. In a way, they resembled spirits far more than the energy she often compared to the appearances of ghosts. There were a total of seven, and they scattered around the open field they had chosen to perform this test in.


    Each one landed and sank into the ground, seeming to do nothing for a moment before the ground at their points of entry collapsed in, seeming to fall into a pool of water. This occurred at each point, and from each one a series of cracks expanded out and snaked about, a few meeting and forming smaller pits while the rest simply ended after an arbitrary distance.


    However, there were no abyssal entities that emerged from within, nor any hint of there being sufficient space to use such cracks as tunnels for regular cultivators. In fact, there was only a few inches of space in the deepest of openings, and much of that was occupied by water.


    ¡°Eh¡­ W-Was this it? I¡­ What is this?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s meant to have produced some entities from within, and, technically, there are a bunch of bones in there. Presumably, had this succeeded, then we could have had those bones come together.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ I hope I wasn¡¯t at fault here?¡±


    ¡°It seems to me like the water element wasn¡¯t of much harm to the technique, only altering its effect somewhat. Instead, the technique itself failed to produce semi-sentient minions because I hadn¡¯t properly converted that portion, in no small part because that is easily my weakest point. Otherwise, I might have been able to use a variety of other techniques that require a separate consciousness far more easily,¡± the Ascendant said.


    ¡°Hm¡­ Fuck me, please?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    Ultimately, the dragon did get her wish. She regretted riling up the Ascendant, however, and finally calmed down just a little bit.


    "Hey, do you think the readers will expect some more lewd stuff even after all of the previous scenes?"


    ¡°Lily, what exactly do you expect me to say to that? I¡¯ve already pointed out your insanity numerous times, and going along with it is silly too. Also, your voyeuristic tendencies are too much,¡± a figure with eyes that glistened with numerous star-like specks shook her head, ¡°Do you really not get tired of doing things like this?¡±


    ¡°Like what?¡±


    ¡°You¡­ no, not worth it. Never mind. I want a drink.¡±


    ¡°Do you want me to give you one?¡± the figure with a violet eye asked.


    ¡°Will it be anything other than a sexual fluid?¡±


    ¡°You know the answer to that. This time, you¡¯re being repetitive,¡± she grinned, not even bothering to react to the displeased look the other figure gave her.

 V5C73: The Replica Abyssal Eye Experiments

    With a cleared head after she worked through a few of her frustrations, the Ascendant returned to her attempts to remake the Abyssal Eye in some vaguely effective manner. Although the formation of wet cracks in the ground did have its uses, especially when the strange spectres that were formed first could easily be used to distract or confuse the enemy, it was not at all at the level of a typical seventh realm technique. It wasn¡¯t even at the sixth realm, which was what one would need to perform it, but closer to the fourth or even third.


    Simply throwing out some planar energy should have been less efficient, and yet it could do significantly more damage to the terrain even without the Ascendant¡¯s immense power. Thus, the Replica Abyssal Eye was indeed insufficient at this stage.


    The fact that it had a clear response to the element of energy poured into the technique was a bit of an inspiration to her, so her next target for testing was Li He, although she did have to wait for two more days before she had created something worth testing. As she had managed to replicate the ruptures formed by the true Abyssal Eye, she knew that her focus ought to move onto the other part.


    Minions were extremely difficult to recreate, as the structure of the Abyssal Eye itself didn¡¯t accurately convey the manner in which it accomplished everything that it did, so the first thing she needed to create was any independent entity, whether or not it was going to be of the same nature as the abyssal creatures of the Eye or not. Perhaps she would simply create some clumps of matter that would jump out of the abyssal cracks and land elsewhere without much consequence, but that would be sufficient for her purposes. The moment that she had completed that would also be the moment that she gained the ability to properly manifest phantoms and other entities for her own use.


    After all, there wasn¡¯t as much difference between two minds, regardless of their nature, as there was between a mind and anything other than a mind. Being able to make one mind could allow her to make as many of them as she wished, and of any type that she wanted. Sure, it would take some additional effort, but that didn¡¯t really matter in comparison to getting any variation right first, and the additional experimentation might well result in some additional developments that she didn¡¯t otherwise expect to achieve.


    This was already the case with the creation of a dynamic technique that functioned regardless of element, an abnormal thing by any standard, and she had a good feeling about attempt number 2.


    ¡°This is the same technique that Long Tao had been disappointed by?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d heard that she had been quite impressed by- oh, shit, I¡¯m getting infected by your constant talk of sex. Try the technique and don¡¯t get me started like she had, since I don¡¯t have the patience to deal with a second horny dragon.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not that obsessed with my arousal, and I know of ways to deal with it. Long Tao knows too, but she can get a little¡­ anyway, technique. Doing it.¡±


    The red-scaled dragon focused upon the technique and circulated her energy for a notably shorter period of time before she was able to release her energy. This time, there were no projectiles, and instead her power rushed through the ground at a vast speed before arriving at the point where it was to be unleashed.


    There, a blast of it knocked the ground asunder, revealing a pit of magma just below the surface. From that, a series of flaming masses surged out of the ground and spread out, hovering around without much purpose for a little while. To test whether this was it, or if there could be more to attempt 2 of the Replica Abyssal Eye, the Ascendant lifted her Arm and unleashed the dark smoke of her killing intent to produce a few phantoms that she made to attack both the central magma pit and the red dragon, although she made sure that none of her strikes could actually damage Li He.


    She timed the first series of attacks, against the magma pool, to come half a second earlier than those aimed at the dragon, and confirmed that it was only the second series of attacks by the phantoms that elicited a response.


    From the moment that the killing intent contained within the phantoms was aimed at the dragon, the spheres of flame moved quickly and rushed towards the attacking entities, moving quickly enough to reach them before they could attack or disappear. As soon as they came into contact with one of the phantoms, brushing against the smoke and displacing it slightly, the masses of energy burst and exploded, completely shrouding their position in an immense heat and quantity of flame.


    It came near to both Wei Yi and Li He, but neither one cared. One had an immense resistance to all yang, skin tough enough to endure even the strongest strikes from ordinary weaponry, and flesh that could recover from the gravest wounds in moments, and the other was a dragon. They were far more impressed with the effect itself.


    ¡°They moved¡­ without my involvement? That¡¯s not what Long Tao said should happen.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I tried something different. Ideally, I¡¯d make the masses of flame into some type of minion that I could command, at least vaguely, and the small pit into massive networks of cracks and caverns that could be traversed both by my summoned entities, myself, and anyone that I may wish to bring into the cracks,¡± the Ascendant explained, seeing as the dragon had already been informed of some details of her plan, ¡°For the moment, the individual segments of the final technique are in development, and I¡¯m having others test them to verify their effectiveness.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­ Do you have any more of these for me to test? It was quite interesting to do so, actually, and I wouldn¡¯t mind having another go.¡±


    ¡°Later. I need to work on understanding the reason that the flame spheres moved as they did.¡±


    Li He nodded and, after a glance to confirm that there was nothing more for them to speak about right now, she departed, leaving the Ascendant to stare upon the land that cooled and recovered to a state vaguely reminiscent of how it had been before. Only the grass could not be repaired immediately.


    ¡°Wei Yi, have you decided completely against utilising the thing you have placed into the depths of the Kong Prison Realm?¡± Yi Shi Ming¡¯s voice came from beside her, the spatial spirit appearing beside her, ¡°It has come to my attention that you haven¡¯t made much use of it, whereas it had been a major part of your activities prior to this.¡±


    ¡°The Mirror of Potential? I haven¡¯t been able to employ it while wandering around, but now that I¡¯ve returned¡­ It might not be a good idea to use it much more than I need to. For most, it seems like the higher their realm, the more they are affected by otherworldly gifts. Most that I¡¯ve come across start out fine, and end up at their most insane when they near their limits and lose track of themselves. For me, the conclusion would have to come by the ninth realm, whether or not I manage to go past that to something unseen within the Planar Continents prior to now.¡±


    ¡°You believe that the otherworldly gifts would finally have an effect upon you?¡±


    ¡°Before that, I don¡¯t think that it is absolutely safe to say that I have never been affected. Perhaps I have been, and, in fact, I can tell that I certainly have experienced some changes as a result of the Truth of the Universe.¡±


    She referred to how the memories hidden in the characters of the Truth of the Universe had come up many times in her earlier days, and how they had almost certainly contributed to the memories of the Thunder Lord in spurring on her exploration of her own sexuality, among other matters. Whether or not those memories had directly led to her lack of desire for men and the complete opposite for women, or if a number of her key traits had come from the minds and memories of others, she couldn¡¯t know.


    Hence, she knew that she could be led to doing things that she might otherwise not do, even if it only meant that they would be done sooner. That could lead to some vital changes to her before the right time, and that could lead to her doing that which she did not wish to do, at least now. A right action taken at the wrong time could still lead to negative developments, after all, so even if all that the influence of various otherworldly gifts and their power could only lead to her deeper parts being unveiled sooner, it might still be utterly devastating.


    ¡°Aside from that danger, there is also the fact that the more I use my own head, the more that I advance my own understanding of reality and the phenomena that lead to it being what it is. With enough work, I could bring out all kinds of wonders relying purely on my own talent, and I think that such a thing would be significantly more valuable than relying on an outside factor.¡±


    ¡°That much is certainly true. The possibility of these gifts being taken away in some manner is present, but if your mind was to ever vanish¡­¡±


    ¡°It would be no different from me vanishing. At that point, I doubt I would have much input regarding my fate, or the fate of the Planar Continents, even if I may have wished to do a whole lot prior to such an event occurring,¡± Wei Yi nodded, ¡°By the way, the barrier is progressing as we were expecting it to, right? These experiments, and my attempts to find more planar stones in places where my divine sense barely reaches, have taken up quite a bit of my attention.¡±


    ¡°The changes do appear to be occurring to your expectations. Their purpose is still unclear, though.¡±


    ¡°It seems rather straightforward, actually. They either want to make use of the foundation of the barrier to make a weapon, or they want to use it for their personal benefit. Once the Chen District is taken and we see their response, we¡¯ll know exactly which one it is.¡±


    ¡°Even then, there could be quite a significant variety to what they might produce. Some of their creations can be dangerous to you, whereas others would be incredibly harmful to the lands that they control, or the people within their reach,¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City said, turning in the direction of the barrier, which could be seen all the way from the northern lands of the Luo District thanks to their cultivation realms, ¡°Ideally, you would be certain that you can disrupt their arrangements before any such damage is done.¡±


    ¡°I can break most of what they¡¯ve got right now, and if I invoke Touch the Heavens, I can guarantee that something breaks ¨C not necessarily what we might want broken, though.¡±


    She too looked out at the green walls of light, extending far into the sky and interfering with the movements of the clouds, and narrowed her eyes as she gazed upon this obstruction. It was indeed somewhat risky to simply allow its repairs to continue untouched, but since the potential reward outweighed the risk, she was going through with this decision.


    ¡°You must be enjoying the testing process, Wei Yi,¡± Long Hua said, ¡°How many techniques have you managed to create at this point?¡±


    ¡°None. Alternatively, you could say that this is the third one, but that would be if the various iterations of the technique were to be classified as independent techniques, which could be done if I was sufficiently bored¡­¡± the Ascendant replied while handing the technique manual to the dragon, ¡°Were you expecting me to have come up with a thousand techniques by now? I don¡¯t think that I¡¯ve ever worked that quickly.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard differently. For instance, there was apparently a war with some automatons that you¡¯d won by coming up with a series of techniques in just a few days, before unleashing the prototype of yet another one at the end and shocking everyone present.¡±


    ¡°Technically, there were two or three techniques used at most. The Railgun Bolt and Repeated Bolt techniques are indeed different, but their variants are not, and Touch the Heavens was a work in progress, as you¡¯ve already said. Still, comparing that situation to this one isn¡¯t reasonable, as there I was simply attempting to replicate a physical phenomenon while here I have to recreate a complex and rather unique artefact in the form of a technique, and attempt to do so in a manner that is compatible with the bodies of ordinary cultivators.¡±


    ¡°Dragons aren¡¯t exactly¡­ ordinary, though I¡¯m sure you know that.¡±


    ¡°Your meridian channels are more alike to normal people than mine are, and you¡¯re tougher than them but far less so than me, meaning that you function as sufficiently tough and accurate testers.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­¡±


    Although Long Hua was not the most familiar with the development of techniques, as exhibited by her mistaking variations of a technique for individual techniques, she was fast enough at processing all of the knowledge that went to her head, and was able to use it not long afterwards. This test took place a day after the previous experiment, and so the dragon had not had too much information on the previous tests, aside from the fact that they did occur, meaning this speed of learning was her own.


    Perhaps she was somewhat of an overlooked talent in this regard, although it wouldn¡¯t matter much as she was a dragon, whose strongest methods were generally belonging to her blood. New ones could be provided, and they might even work quite well, but the improvement would be marginal at best, insignificant at worst.


    The only thing that would strengthen a dragon significantly would be something so fundamental that it couldn¡¯t be compared to most existing techniques, and could never be equalled to traditional draconic techniques. For instance, the cultivation methods that Kong Shi Meng had provided to Long Mingyun, who then passed along the techniques to the dragons under her protection, were minor improvements to their natural methods, and could hardly be improved further even with full use of the Truth of the Universe and the Ascendant¡¯s mind, which was a powerful tool in and of itself. To reach the point of fundamental change, she would need to create something akin to her own Ascendant¡¯s Dao ¨C the cultivation method, not the Dao itself ¨C or the five meridian network technique.


    However, such things needed some time to become valuable and effective, as trying to bring in something like that in the middle of a war that ought to last less than a few years would not give the dragons enough time to properly cultivate their other paths, and thus all but the development of bloodline power would give them no benefit whatsoever. Instead, it would be best to focus on training that which they already have, and improve it as much as possible.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m doing it now. Stand back, if you need to.¡±


    As always, the Ascendant had kept the details of the technique to a minimum, which was possible through a highly detailed description of how to use all of the energy provided instead of it.


    Thus, the dragon¡¯s energy was released, and a large rift formed within the ground and rushed forth, spreading out to cover a large portion of the field before them ¨C a far better display than the initial cracks formed by the first attempt of the Replica Abyssal Eye technique. It wasn¡¯t conjured by spirit-like masses, which was very much intentional, but the release of humanoid, bloated limbs with grey skin was not. Each one pushed its way out of the cracks, revealing the body and head of the bodies that were in similar conditions to their hands, but that is where they stopped.


    ¡°Uh¡­ I didn¡¯t control them emerging in the first place, so I don¡¯t know if this is intentional¡­¡±


    ¡°No, not quite, but now we need to check if this is the full extent of their actions. Let me verify that they won¡¯t bring themselves further out if something provokes them, since that has previously happened with the last attempt.¡±


    The dragon hadn¡¯t had the time to ask further questions before the testing phantoms appeared at various points around the bodies, some simply standing by whereas others were made to actively poke and stab at them. One was bound to produce some kind of interesting result, provided that one was possible in the first place, so there was little reason to delay attempting anything in particular with the vast quantity of test material she was able to work with.


    As it turns out, that was a good decision, for only the attempts to directly touch the corpses was productive and conducive to any kind of change to the outcome of the technique.


    Every single bloated corpse that was touched suddenly swelled up and burst into an explosion of flame and raw wood-type planar energy, clearly derived from the dragon¡¯s affinity with wood, wood-type cultivation technique, and her wood-like scales. This resulted in a certain mixture of colours most pleasing to the eye, but the destructive power far outweighed the visual splendour of such mixed shades. It was far more impressive than the mere rupturing of earth, and it performed at the level of the upper fourth realm, lower fifth realm at the least, which was far superior to the previous displays, if only slightly.


    ¡°Whoa, that¡¯s an¡­ interesting technique you¡¯ve made there. Any reason to make exploding bodies like that, or do you just have some strange interests when it comes to designing techniques?¡± Long Hua said.


    ¡°No, I had no clue how this would turn out. Again, the intention is not to make a technique that I can use, which is rather simple, but to develop a sensible technique from the foundation of an artefact¡¯s channels. As such, I am having to experiment with live subjects, which also produces variation due to your cultivation paths and elements. However, the bodies do have quite a bit of potential.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡±


    ¡°They are very much a misleading factor for the enemy. Imagine seeing someone perform this technique, then only find some bodies partially crawling out of the ground. You would think that they have either failed in some way, or that there was something else to look out for. The latter is a worse outcome, but the former is very helpful,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°Just like some of my phantoms, the enemy might try to touch the bodies while laughing at your failure.¡±


    ¡°Only to be exploded¡­ I suppose that does have its uses, even if a simpler, faster explosive technique would be more useful most of the time.¡±


    ¡°Few techniques are Absolute, so most vary greatly in usefulness. For some opponents, attempt 3 would be utterly useless, but against others it would be lethal the vast majority of the time. In addition, everything that I figure out here could lead to me improving my overall skills, so it is very much worthwhile to improve these attempts until I get to something that could be described as being perfect, at least for the role that I wish this technique to perform. Even if that fails, at least I will have some interesting variants.¡±


    ¡°What are you trying to make?¡±


    ¡°An army of independent minds, capable of obliterating my foes and acting as disposable minions in times where I require them, but have no such entities to spare. After all, I don¡¯t want to throw away the people under my protection, and I might well get stronger forces from the final form of this.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that is interesting. I look forward to seeing what you are able to produce in the future, but I suspect that I no longer have any ability to help you.¡±


    ¡°Not at the moment, no. I will test out some more variants of my technique when I come up with them, but for the purposes of seeing how different people manage to use my variants differently, I won¡¯t be inviting you again. Once I¡¯m finished, though, I can share it with everyone via my killing will archive in the centre of the Kong Prison Realm, so I¡¯ll tell you once it¡¯s available. Now, go away,¡± Wei Yi waved away, turning away from the dragon and focusing on the remnants of her technique.


    The dragon was clearly disappointed by this, but she must have gotten the hint from her peers and did not remain for long, disappearing off to some part of the Ascendant¡¯s domain. A dragon was hard to miss, though, so she was sure she could find her if necessary.


    ¡°M-Master! You¡¯ve decided to speak with me, finally¡­ What is that manual?¡± Ju Yazhu asked.


    ¡°I want you to test the technique, and since you¡¯ve got some perfected stages ¨C a decent amount, for a regular person, even ¨C combined with my cultivation technique, which you can update by checking the archive, if you haven¡¯t done so already, you ought to be strongest at this cultivation realm and stage, and the most suitable overall.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I will try and perform this technique for you, master-¡±


    ¡°Stop. First of all, why the change from teacher to master, and second of all, can you not? Just use the technique, see what happens, and if it works out, then feel free to use it for yourself in the future, if you wish.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, teacher, I-¡±


    ¡°Just fucking do it.¡±


    There was no comment from her student, only the sounds of her flipping open the tome and browsing through its contents, studying it intently. All of the necessary comprehension flowed into her mind via the mental energy that composed the manual, and when she was finally finished, quite a length of time afterward, the mental energy dissipated into naught. Her student was left empty handed, and she didn¡¯t move for a few more minutes as she processed all of it.


    In this regard, she confirmed that the dragons were certainly significantly more skilled in basic reading comprehension than most humans, but she wasn¡¯t going to distract Ju Yazhu just to inform her of that fact.


    Fortunately, when her eyes opened, she didn¡¯t hesitate to begin her attempt at using attempt four of the Replica Abyssal Eye technique. She focused her energy, circulated it according to the pathways laid out within the technique manual, and only two minutes after that, she was beginning to manifest the effect of the technique. Given the slowing down necessary for a third realm cultivator to perform a technique designed for someone in the sixth and seventh realm, this was a decent display, even if it clearly displayed a great need for improvement.


    As one might guess from the fact that the Ascendant wasn¡¯t just designing this technique for herself, offering others the possibility of using her Replica Abyssal Eye was also significant, since it could permit her to multiply any army vastly and let the individual combatants stay behind while summoned minions did their work for them. Hence, optimising such things would benefit her in the end.


    Once the technique went off properly, the results were staggeringly different. Instead of travelling through the ground, all of that energy shot out at a great speed and touched the earth before them. It did not linger, but instead pulled up what it touched and slowly did the same with the surrounding earth, amassing a great clump of dirt that slowly attained the vague form of an entity with legs and arms, although the distinction between the two could hardly be formed from looking upon it. This thing didn¡¯t stand still, either, and instead rushed off in a seemingly random direction, flailing wildly and generally being a major nuisance to whoever cared about the field that Wei Yi had chosen for this test, as it was completely ruined after this.


    It did not go on for long. With each step, some dirt fell from the entity, and not four minutes before it began, it fell apart completely.


    The same could be said about Ju Yazhu¡¯s planar energy pool, for it was consumed nearly entirely to perform the technique and had no opportunity to recover with anything approaching the recovery speed provided by the nascent rift or the full Ascendant¡¯s Dao (technique).


    ¡°Ah, that¡­¡± her student could say much before she simply fell, right into the Ascendant¡¯s arms.


    ¡°It seems like it worked out well enough. This is not quite what I was intending to achieve, but since it worked with someone at your realm, the effectiveness for others will be incredibly higher for all of my attempts of this technique, as soon as I modify them accordingly,¡± Wei Yi said, bringing her a little closer and casually stroking her hair as she did so, ¡°By the way, how have you been doing? Any problems you¡¯ve run into since we last spoke?¡±


    Ju Yazhu was clearly shocked by the sudden caress, for it took her almost a whole minute to stutter, ¡°P-Problems? What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Well, after you were turned into a woman, I hadn¡¯t stuck around for too long, so you could have easily come across a whole number of issues that you couldn¡¯t have ever come across before. Why don¡¯t you tell me about how things had gone since we¡¯ve last spoken?¡±


    ¡°Where is this coming from? Did I do something wrong? Am I going to die soon?¡±


    ¡°No, you¡¯re not, but I suppose I might have overdone it a little. I just figured it might be a good idea to see how you¡¯re doing.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ Well, I¡¯m fine, mostly. It was a little strange when I was getting used to everything, but now that I¡¯ve been a woman for five months, I think I¡¯ve adjusted to everything. Only¡­ I might have asked this already, but is it normal for me to still be attracted to women¡­ no, other women? I figured there might be a chance that this would change¡­¡±


    ¡°Why would it? Your mind is mostly the same, isn¡¯t it? Your body is still your own, even if it has been affected by the extreme quantity of yin you now possess. Why would your preferences change?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I guess they wouldn¡¯t¡­ Thank you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡±

 V5C74: The Chen District

    On the twentieth, the barrier blossomed and boomed with power, nearly sufficient to return to its former strength, albeit not its former coverage. However, that was not to be, for the foe of the Great Leeches was none other than the Ascendant, an entity hitherto unseen within the Planar Continents in a great number of ways. Her power, as well as the range and types of it, was so extreme that there were few in this world that could even attempt to handle it while at a higher realm, not to mention being at the same or lower realm.


    Nevertheless, it was clear to the people of the Chen District that there was little choice but to use the same tactics time and time again, and that meant keeping up the barrier with as much power as can be provided to it.


    Most weren¡¯t interested in supporting the Leeches, albeit not because of some ideological difference in stance. Rather, the Chen District had a number of names, like the district of money, wealth, trading, greed and more, but all of it narrowed down to wishing the proper remuneration for that which they did. The Leeches did not like providing money alongside demands, so there were disagreements.


    That didn¡¯t mean that there were none willing to fight the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters, and that none were aware of their intentions. Some had clearly comprehended that the Ascendant would attack as the barrier strengthened, even if they didn¡¯t quite understand the purpose of doing such a thing, and so there was quite the crowd waiting for the Ascendant¡¯s arrival. This much Wei Yi could learn from a few simple glances into the barrier of the Great Leeches, and so she was ready for them the moment that she broke the barrier. Speaking of that, she didn¡¯t think it would take long even with some of the improvements and changes the Leeches had made to it.


    As soon as the right moment came, she brought out the vast power she wielded and concentrated it into her own fist, making use of her favourite method ¨C a pure and simple punch.


    She did hold back a little, for she knew that the people on the other side might change their mind about confronting her once they saw her strike, but that didn¡¯t stop her blow from shattering the ghostly green light completely, and barging into the lands of the Chen District right away. It left the people on the other side facing her directly, and there were one or two that promptly turned and departed with utmost haste.


    Of course, the others must have already concluded that they would fight here and then, or else they wouldn¡¯t have come to the front lines in the first place. Thus, the few that did flee were given dirty glances by all that had the opportunity to do so.


    ¡°People of the Chen District-¡±


    ¡°Ascendant, the people outside the walls have refused the protection of our walls, and have agreed to disregard their familial heritage and status. As such, feel free to dispatch them as swiftly as you wish, and we may be able to speak properly inside the walls, without unnecessary violence,¡± a voice from the district, belonging to their Patriarch, interrupted Wei Yi¡¯s standard address to the people.


    It was a little annoying, but it was a perfect excuse for her to test some techniques, so she didn¡¯t say anything to him. ¡°Your Patriarch doesn¡¯t seem to mind, so please, come forth. Try me.¡±


    They did, for they had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do.


    Wei Yi only gave them a moment before she thrust her left hand forth, grasped the air, and lifted her hand up, a mass of energy condensing around her smoking hand. Those who focused more on her than their own offensive noted with some curiosity that the energy she was gathering was only at the fifth realm in terms of density, meaning that she was not even using her full power against the attackers. A few were upset, whereas the others understood this perfectly ¨C out of the entire crowd that gathered to attempt fighting her, there were only three in the sixth realm, an insignificant number against a woman that had fought with Patriarchs even in the fifth realm.


    The mass in her hand was released when she opened up her fingers, shooting up and flying in the direction of her foes. Each individual projectile flew towards a different location, ultimately landing at similar times and burrowing into the earth.


    A moment of uncertainty was all they had. After all, none could miss the following bulging of the earth and the vast cracks that spread across its surface, preceding the sudden rupturing of several points by vast limbs made of celestial light. Great maws of earth opened up at random points along the sprawling cracks, unleashing those crimson cosmic entities without cessation, all of whom were malformed horrors with multiple limbs and bladed edges on most of them.


    At the points where multiple cracks collided in their expansion, a larger gap in the earth was formed, and more entities emerged from within, their star-like eyes shining brightly as they looked out.


    ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s what she was trying to do¡­¡± the dragons said collectively, glancing at one another as they did so. They were at the back, alongside the majority of the Arbiters, and they were seeing that their role on future battlefields might well be lessened even further so long as the technique on display is as effective as it looks.


    The many entities that were formed charged towards those that they looked upon, a horrifying screech emerging from their mouths and numerous explosions occurring with every step as their energy collided with the matter of the world.


    Each one flailed and slashed without much direction nor technique to their attacks, but the sheer force exhibited by their celestial limbs easily overwhelmed the defences and flesh of their foes. At the same time, there things were relatively fragile despite the might that they could exert, so those that chose to sacrifice themselves for the sake of taking down the celestial entities whether to preserve the lives of their allies ¨C which made up the minority of such people, of course ¨C or to earn themselves some kind of honour or prestige ¨C a greater number, as such prestige could be profitable ¨C did have some success.


    They managed to take down a dozen such things around the same time, for the strategies to doing so were extremely straightforward, and got to witness the consequence of doing such a thing.


    Having learned from her previous tests of the Replica Abyssal Eye, the Ascendant naturally made use of the experiments that resulted in exploding bodies and traps to focus all of those onto the entities that her working first attempt produced. Upon their death, the cosmic entities did not break or shatter, unlike what some of their opponents assumed, but instead split into several pieces and rapidly coalesced into spheres of raw energy that boiled with unseen fury.


    A moment was given for all around them to evade, but they could hardly capitalise on it when the orbs did move at such a vast speed that no ordinary gaze could ever capture their movement beyond the start and end point. They were in their original places, and then they weren¡¯t.


    Their explosions could not be missed by anyone with even a single sense, regardless of its strength.


    Each burst tore into the ground, obliterating the forms of all those within the nearest twenty metres, and still had enough power within to pass it onto any nearby celestial entities, causing their glow to brighten and their power to surge to the lowest threshold of the sixth realm, in terms of overall energy density.


    Some had the faintest hope that this would be it, but the defeat of a sixth realm monstrosity only produced more explosions, more powerful bursts of force that culled the ranks of the Ascendant¡¯s opposition and further empowered the entities that were caught within its expanded range to the middle of the sixth realm, although this didn¡¯t matter when the majority of the fighting crowd was dead and gone. Perhaps some trace of their existence remained within the heavens, their energy bound to something in the past, but it would decay and their legacies would be gone, all because they thought to fight the wrong battle just this once.


    There was something to be said regarding the unfairness of such a thing, but even without the involvement of the heavens, the world could never be a fair place. Wei Yi knew that, and if those that fought her didn¡¯t, that was their responsibility, and their fault for lacking such basic knowledge.


    Hence, as they headed forth, through the shattered fields before the Chen District, she didn¡¯t bother addressing the few that remained. She went up to the walls of the district, avoiding the gates that weren¡¯t too far away, and raised her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow once more, pointing its palm at the wall with a neutral expression, as if she was simply taking a casual stroll down the street instead of doing anything else.


    ¡°Ascendant, if you wish, you can-¡±


    ¡°Open,¡± she ignored the voice of the Chen Patriarch and invoked the Dao of Law, her eyes lighting up with the images of her physique abilities to amplify its power.


    The wall before her shook as a series of holes formed within the gilded obstacle. Each one seemed to have the shape of a large chain, each link around the size of an open hand, and each one moved and expanded as the chains shifted and tightened their grip on the wall. It took them a moment to get a proper grip, but once they did, they pushed with unimaginable force.


    Any gold that stood in the way was violently torn asunder, opening up a wide gash within the walls, from which the inside of the wall leaked out, revealing plenty of molten immortal gold that quickly cooled and turned solid, providing a smooth surface on which the Ascendant could walk with ease. One might think that such an event would surprise the people of the Chen District, for such a large quantity of immortal gold was valuable and immensely beneficial even if one could only claim a drop of it from the walls, but the presence of gold in the walls was such a common theory that it was essentially common knowledge for the people of the district. After all, there had to be a place where the wealth of the district could be stored securely, and which place was more secure than the walls themselves?


    Others did think that it was a little stupid to presume such a thing, but there were few places in the Chen District that hadn¡¯t traded hands dozen of times every week, with purchases, trades, bets and auctions occurring with such excessive regularity that there were no places consistently owned by the leaders of the Chen family that might be used for the storage of wealth. Despite that, they had wealth, and plenty of it, so it had to be somewhere.


    When molten, immortal gold was significantly more malleable than in a solid state ¨C obviously ¨C but it also had a slightly higher density than solid immortal gold, meaning that it was easier to store.


    ¡°Ascendant, you¡­ you didn¡¯t have to¡­ the walls¡­¡±


    ¡°Stop crying. This place is excellent for another gate, don¡¯t you think?¡± Wei Yi said casually, stepping onto the gold and into the Chen District, ¡°You could have stopped them from coming out in the first place, but didn¡¯t, so I¡¯m sure that you didn¡¯t mind if I had done some collateral damage to the wall during the fight. It¡¯s lucky that I had controlled myself earlier and opened up a way more calmly.¡±


    ¡°¡­ If you say so. Just proceed inside already, and give my people some time to rebuild the walls before anyone touches the gold inside.¡±


    ¡°A little late for that¡­¡±


    Obviously, the moment that gold became available to the people of the Chen District, they did everything they could to obtain it, rushing towards it like a ravenous swarm towards the first piece of food in months. Most acted in person, for they had to do so to be sure that they would get as much wealth as possible, but they were kind enough to give the Ascendant passage so that she and her people were able to get through without obstruction.


    This was likely done so that they could get their hands on the gold she had walked upon first, but that was the problem of the Chen family, not her own. As such, she didn¡¯t care for their behaviour whatsoever.


    Wei Yi headed straight for the Ancestral Hall, went inside, and was stopped only by the steps further down where the Great Leeches of the Chen District sat. At the door to those stairs stood the Chen Patriarch, who was obviously flustered and had gone there hastily to prevent her from proceeding further. If she had moved a little quicker, she could have outrun his attempts at using a movement technique, but she figured that it would be a good idea to get his side of the story and figure out what he wanted from her.


    ¡°Ascendant, you waited¡­ No matter, I won¡¯t complain, for I wish to make sure you understand something. I and my family have no issues with you attacking the Great Families, even those that have chosen to hide in our Ancestral Hall, but we wish for a trade. A simple trade, an extremely simple trade, of knowledge for passage to the Greats.¡±


    ¡°Trade of knowledge? You could just join the Ascendant¡¯s Arbiters and get all of the techniques and information that we have.¡±


    ¡°That may be considered later, but we want an immediate trade. Think of it as a whim of the Chen family, and one that shouldn¡¯t come as much of a cost to you, seeing as you proudly boast of having so much knowledge about everything and anything,¡± the Chen Patriarch said, ¡°Just provide us with some things that you can spare, and we will be content with it, although the quantity and significance are both relevant.¡±


    ¡°How will you verify the accuracy of my words? If it is insignificant information, you may not be able to verify it whatsoever until long after it even has any potential value, and long after I had taken advantage of lies to obtain that which I want from you.¡±


    ¡°Ah, then you have never come to our Chen District. Please, come with me and I shall explain exactly how we guarantee truthfulness.¡±


    This was an interesting proposition, if only because the Ascendant wished to obtain something similar, and also due to her not being aware of anything that would enable this within her surroundings, even though her divine sense was able to see even what the Leeches were doing in great detail. Either they were lying to her, which was possible, or there was a method that she had not studied and was thus unable to identify from a careful examination of the district¡¯s methods. If that was the case, then she would eagerly study it in depths to prevent this from happening in the future, and if it had some use to her¡­ she would make sure to comprehend it beyond anything currently imagined.


    She had a better idea of where to look once their destination became nearly obvious, but even then all she had to work with was a combination of array and an inscription placed beneath a large waist-high surface, functioning as a dividing desk between two chairs. The array was mostly concentrated in the desk itself, but the channels of the inscription stretched far beneath the ground, occupying most of the space beneath the floor of this room.


    ¡°What is this?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll provide this to you for free, Ascendant, as a symbol of our willingness to cooperate. This arrangement here is called the Spoken Word¡¯s Truth, and it is used very commonly for all transactions involving information in our district. It is fantastic, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Wei Yi did not respond right away, for she was a little busy scanning both this combination, all of those in other chambers, and also the array that she was able to see just beneath the spatial stabilisation point, where two of the first generation of the Great Chen family stood and focused their energy. This lower array and inscription appeared to have no direct relation to the spatial stabilisation point, but what interested her most of all was the fact that this array appeared to be absolutely incredible, both in its construction and the manner in which it could help her.


    The construction made it rather close to an eighth star great work, which was decent enough of a reason for her to have interest in it on its own. Completely comprehending the manner in which it was created and what made it tick, so to speak, would allow her to replicate that in the future, eventually permitting the creation of her own eight star arrays and inscriptions.


    On the other hand, her desire for something of this nature could be sated even by the weaker four star arrays used more commonly by the people of the district, as she merely wanted a method to verify the truth of words ¨C her own words. It was necessary to do so if she wished to bring the Western Continent to her side, as there would still be plenty of opposition to her will even if she was the most powerful entity in the world. She did not wish to force everyone into submission to do her will, certainly not when she could easily convince people to side with her instead, but to do so she needed some method of confirming truth that could be transmitted over a vast distance, and a method of communication to impart her words to others.


    Provided that she wished to make use of the same gateway resonance method that she previously used to amplify her voice, she had the means of transmitting her voice to anyone within her lands, and further out now that she was in the seventh realm, but no method to prove her words. She could see whether her words were believed via the Proof of People¡¯s Will, if she found a way to incorporate it into her method of communication, but those who didn¡¯t believe her yet would be difficult to convince.


    However, if there was a reliable method that she could employ, one that would be identifiable and verifiable, then she could ensure that she had plenty of support.


    With plenty of support, she could employ the Proof of People¡¯s Will in all future conflict, empowering herself greatly with a few more modifications to its structure that would channel the power entirely to her instead of concocting some kind of elaborate battlefield of ideas. Against the Great Leeches, and those that would come after they were gone and the power of the world rose, such aid would be immensely helpful, and if she was able to make use of it, she was certainly going to do so, especially with the countless other benefits that would be obtained from simply persuading the world that her and their interests aligned.


    Since she believed that with complete honesty, there would be no problems in making that kind of statement via the arrays used in the Chen District. Some might be convinced by that little, which was incredibly convenient, and the others could be handled with simple enough arguments.


    ¡°I will be using this array of yours. If you have any problems with that, you better state it right away.¡±


    ¡°You¡­ I see that you have recognised the immense value of our Spoken Word¡¯s Truth, and for that reason, we offer you a discount-¡±


    ¡°Fuck off. I can read thoughts, so I know that you had never wished to sell it in the first place. Now that you are getting a buyer, just provide a reasonable offer and don¡¯t try it,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°So, I can be incredibly nice to you, but you should remember that if the Chen District becomes rather troublesome, then I will take action to prevent that from getting any worse. Is that clear?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I¡¯d speak as a senior to tell you to be more polite, but there is little point to doing such a thing. You are too strong for the Patriarchs of the world to properly dispute your words, especially since I¡¯ve heard that you have become a Matriarch yourself,¡± the Chen Patriarch said, ¡°This can be part of the information exchange, but you ought to make sure that I receive something worthwhile for all this¡­ Oh, and I will not permit you to tear out the greater World¡¯s Truth great work from the basement of my Ancestral Hall. I don¡¯t care how much you want it, make it yourself.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s my intention, Patriarch, and not because I consider the work of your family to be low quality. Rather, I have my own intentions for the array, and it will require modification and, most likely, putting together everything from scratch using my own energy. If nothing else, it would be cheaper.¡±


    ¡°Something being cheaper is always good¡­¡± the Patriarch said, not understanding exactly what she was up to, ¡°So, please sit down and we may proceed.¡±


    ¡°Certainly.¡±


    They sat down on either side of the surface within which the array of the Spoken Word¡¯s Truth resided, with the Ascendant happening to take the spot that would usually be occupied by the people of the Chen District due to her prior position in the room. It didn¡¯t seem to matter in the operation of the array, and even if there was some kind of etiquette regarding this, the Patriarch wasn¡¯t bringing it up, allowing them to get on with the trade smoothly.


    Although they had agreed to exchange information for access to the Great Leeches and no obstructions in using replicas of the World¡¯s Truth arrays, as well as some information regarding its function and how to best replicate it, the Chen Patriarch hadn¡¯t specified exactly how much was needed nor how the quantity and quality of information would be determined, so this is where he began.


    ¡°To ensure that our trade goes smoothly, my Chen District has a number of methods for assessing the value of certain types of knowledge. If it is something purely related to cultivation, like a particular technique, then it shall be assessed on the combination of its realm and how it compares to others of the same realm. As an example, if a technique performs at the level of the sixth realm while being in the first, it would naturally have boundless value, but the opposite is complete and utter trash that needs to be discarded with utmost haste, before it can somehow damage the rest of our techniques with its incompetence.¡±


    ¡°Harsh, but I would do the same provided that the gap was smaller. With a technique that bad, I would actually want to investigate and study it, to figure out how it wastes so much energy.¡±


    ¡°In that case, we will instead direct all such techniques to you in the future, Ascendant,¡± the Chen Patriarch said, though even he wasn¡¯t sure whether he was just joking or not, ¡°Next is information relating to particular places or groups, that might only have relevance if one is in geographical proximity to it. We have to judge it based on our ability to access it, as knowledge of a peerless divine artefact manifesting itself in the air above the Eastern Continent¡¯s most eastern point is entirely useless to us and anyone that will be within reach of us, but the discovery of a valuable metal ore a few kilometres away can be utilised by nearly everyone, and will thus be far more easily traded and provide us with greater returns overall. With the presence of your spatial gateways, we might reassess the specific criteria, but the overall principle shall remain.¡±


    Wei Yi nodded, ¡°That is also sensible.¡±


    ¡°Since I have just mentioned local information, I might as well explain how we approach global information, or things that concern the world as a whole. For instance, fundamental knowledge regarding the nature of planar energy, something we¡¯ve heard you have more than enough of, is useful anywhere in the Planar Continents, and so the value will need to be assessed based on how common it is, how useful it is, and how closely it relates to Dao¡­ which you ought to also be familiar with.¡±


    ¡°I have good reason to believe that I am far more familiar with Dao than most are, so that is a fair enough statement,¡± she said, ¡°After all, the manner in which I had opened up a new gate in your walls was based on a Dao.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Which one?¡±


    ¡°The Dao of Law. I think it¡¯s the best. Feel free to categorise my opinion as the most significant of the pieces of information I can offer you.¡±


    ¡°I would very much rather not.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine too. I was joking about that, but I do think that the Dao of Law is a very effective one. You may want to consider it if you are ever going to study a Dao of your own, although the Dao of Wealth may be more suitable¡­¡± she saw him light up at the mere concept of such a Dao, so she had to add, ¡°I don¡¯t actually know if there is such a Dao at the moment, so you would need to complete it on your own if that is the kind of thing you are interested in. Otherwise, the heavens would fill in most things for you, which is beneficial if you don¡¯t really care about developing the Dao itself.¡±


    ¡°With how long we have been around, the Dao of Wealth has to exist, so I will consider it¡­ Oh, this ought to be considered part of the transaction, so I shall assess this as¡­ No, if this is to be done, we must do this properly! Place your hand on the surface between us, and we shall begin our transaction with this as our first exchange.¡±


    As he spoke, he also put his hand on the surface, his skin being touched by the energy flowing beneath, so Wei Yi followed not long after, having already taken in all of the physical components of the Spoken Word¡¯s Truth and the World¡¯s Truth arrays in the time she had.


    ¡°So long as you believe your words to be true, and they resonate with the truth of the world according to the nature of planar energy, that which you contribute shall raise a pillar of light. Once it exceeds my height, you have provided enough, and you may take the Great Families, the spatial stabilisation node, and the manuals for constructing these arrays, although you may not need them at this point, seeing as you have likely been scanning everything since you¡¯ve come here. Come now, begin.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡±


    She put forward just a little bit of what she knew, and that pillar was instantly full. It shocked the Chen Patriarch, but after he reviewed that which she provided, he understood that it was best to go with it.

 V5C75: Removing the Great Chen

    ¡°I¡¯ll be out in a little while. Take good care of the district, or else there may be a little collateral damage you won¡¯t stop in time,¡± Wei Yi warned the Patriarch as she stood at the passage down, ¡°Just in case that wasn¡¯t clear, I¡¯m not saying I¡¯ll ruin your district deliberately, but instead that I¡¯ll likely do some damage in the fight and you ought to protect it to minimize harm.¡±


    ¡°No, I wasn¡¯t assuming that at all¡­¡±


    She ignored him and proceeded down the stairs, getting further and further down until the gilded walls became even more golden, and the stairs changed from something sensible to pure gold. It wasn¡¯t even immortal gold, since ordinary gold was significantly brighter and more vibrant, meaning that her every step left the slightest of marks upon the surface. The Great Leeches hadn¡¯t left any prints as obvious as her own, but there were faint marks and traces of dirt on the gold belonging to the bare feet of the Great Chen family.


    Simply walking down the steps took quite a while, since it was a lengthy trip that she couldn¡¯t skip particularly easily due to the low ceiling and minimal space for the application of movement techniques, but she did deliberately avoid the use of her fourth realm movement method.


    Unlike the Great Leeches, that might have done so out of arrogance or the like, she was instead more interested in observing the reaction of the Leeches to her destruction of the barrier for as long as she could. There was a lot to be learned from what they did, and she would be a fool not to pay attention while they left themselves as open as the two Great Chen Family members were at this moment. Even if she had a good notion of what they were attempting, it didn¡¯t hurt to confirm it.


    Unlike before, there was something else that she had to note about the Great Leeches that appeared in the Chen District. Those in the Ning District had clearly been present in full at the spatial stabilisation node, but the two here were less so. She wasn¡¯t sure how she¡¯d even explain it if she had to, but the simplest way of going about it would be to state that only a certain fraction of both mind and body was present in the Chen District, with a clear link flowing through the spatial stabilisation node to the physical placement of the spatial realm she had to presume to be Testament.


    Judging by what she had understood about the Leeches up to this point, it was likely that this was due to them requiring their first generation to reside within Testament and keep that seal of theirs strong.


    The Great Ning family¡¯s first generation member that she had fought with initially, Ning Huang, had emerged in full to fight her and have a chance of success, but he was weakening said seal by doing so, and his sister emerged likely due to the effect being lesser than if the member of another family came out. Now that they were gone and they had no chance of supporting Testament¡¯s efforts, the Great Leeches wouldn¡¯t be stupid enough to waste everything they had by throwing out pairs of their first generation just to end up weakening themselves and benefitting only her and those who are currently on her side.


    Instead, these strange malformed phantoms of the Great Chen¡¯s first generation was what she had to contend with, and it was clear that the Yi District had a similar force by their spatial stabilisation point. Within Testament, she would then need to face at least forty of the Leeches at the seventh realm, but there was a possibility that the phantoms were just that and the Great Chen and Great Yi would survive.


    This was unfortunate, but there was something else to be considered. The first generation of the Great Leeches were no older than three hundred years, which left a major question unanswered ¨C what happened to the previous first generation, and all the ones before that?


    Their lifespan, even if it was unable to properly progress into the territory of the seventh realm, should have remained at six thousand and four hundred years, meaning that there should have been sixty-four generations in total present at any one time. Obviously, that would mean that a single family could release sixty seventh realm combatants on a whim and not harm their seal all that much ¨C unless it somehow required the presence of all but one or two to even barely function ¨C and this was not something that was ever done.


    Something needed to be forcing their early end, or unavailability, and it was likely to be connected to Testament. Her reasoning was that the phantoms conjured prior to her meeting with the dragons, as well as the two she was about to see, couldn¡¯t be formed without something to form them and provide their power, or else all would fight with conjured combatants instead of true ones.


    Even her own technique was very lacking in comparison to an equal number of combatants that had cultivated to the same realms that the cosmic entities had exhibited. The fact that they were able to explode themselves and benefit one another as a result was very impressive, and she was proud of this function, but she knew that a prepared and competent force would be able to handle it after understanding the principles of her technique, whereas she would need to modify the technique itself or infuse it with uncertain elements in the form of Obliteration energy or the like to make it sufficiently different and avoid such an outcome.


    ¡®Anyway, it¡¯s a good thing my mind might as well be a hundred times faster than the rest of the world all of the time, or else I would have been standing near the bottom of the stairs for an hour simply thinking about everything,¡¯ Wei Yi noted as she finally completed her descent.


    Both of the Great Leeches turned towards her at the exact same moment, their total of eighty anchors surrounding them in a grid to maximise protection. Their cores manifested a moment after that, while the two pulled out large sacks of coins that they let loose, their energy grabbing onto them and sending them into the air to act as extensions of their favourite basic technique, the point beam that each of the Great Leech families knew.


    However, their faces were devoid of emotion, their eyes were dull and partly filled with the ghostly green light of the Yi City Web barrier, and the anchors around them were partly spectral in the true sense of the word, rather than simply being difficult to comprehend for those that did not know of their nature.


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing you are much akin to the shadows within the Deadly Martial Colosseum, then. A shame I won¡¯t get to kill you in your proper states,¡± she remarked, bringing out Moon Splitter.


    They didn¡¯t respond, not that she expected them to, and instead acted at the same time, which did demonstrate far more cohesion than the majority of the previous Leeches had been able to show. Both thrust a series of coins forth, just past their cores, before putting their hands together and condensing a planar construct in between themselves, putting in all of their power to form it as soon as possible so that it had even the slightest chance to actually collide with her. Of course, Wei Yi did not intend to let them get on with that, even if she wasn¡¯t too afraid of their attempts.


    Their overconfidence had previous led to her enduring twenty years in the Kong Prison Realm before emerging to fight and succeed against them, so although she could act with a degree of certainty regarding battles like this, effort had to be put in or else she would simply throw away her life for no good reason. If she was taken out by an attack she simply couldn¡¯t comprehend, then she would have nobody to blame but herself.


    Since their beams were shot at the same time, Wei Yi met them with a spin of Moon Splitter, using a technique derived from the Eight Great Changes¡¯ Repealing Spark to divert their energy, then rushed in, bringing along some of the energy that the fragmented blade was able to catch.


    Her attempt to strike the combined cores was met with an onslaught of immortal gold coins. They acted in the same defensive manners as the anchors, forming a tough barrier that did match up with what they were mimicking almost exactly, being a little sturdier due to the doubled quantity of coins in comparison to their total number of anchors.


    It was still easy to cut through immortal gold with a weapon that was made with enough power to harm Primordial Deities, and so she breached that layer and struck the core. Cracks spread out from the surface, but with their combined efforts to strengthen the defences of their cores, as well as the ignition of a total of eight searing marks, the damage was far lesser than she might have preferred. To correct that mistake, she boosted her output of Obliteration energy to the blade and stabbed it into the core instead.


    Then, with the Shard of Warfare acting as the conduit for her power, she allowed it all to surge out of the tip of the blade, instantly making a small hole in the core and piercing through the phantasmal flesh of the entity acting as the mortal, ordinary Leeches. The effect was disappointing, for it only removed part of the false form and didn¡¯t appear to impede movement in the slightest, but it was enough that the outer portion of the core was broken and the searing mark should have been removed.


    She deemed this as being sufficient due to the fact that the searing mark did remain, and there was still a semi-transparent layer of light where the core should have been. In other words, both existed in reality before her, but their true forms were only in whatever place the two of the Great Leeches were truly residing. It was safe to presume that said location was Testament, but she couldn¡¯t discard the possibility that this technique was instead performed from a separate location in order to conjure the pair of phantoms with a greater degree of accuracy or power. As such, she was going to figure that out first.


    Using the blade that was already plunged into the broken core, she thrust it further in and sliced through the core, opening it up further while also grabbing onto as much of the energy that was released as a result.


    This was done literally, using her free right hand to gather it within her fist, and she then suffused it with her Obliteration energy and threw it back onto the blade, coating it in a strange mixture that released the pure aura of death. She found it to be extremely fitting, given what she intended to provide to the Leeches, and proceeded to perform a single sideways slash.


    That extreme power cut through the cores with ease, separating their cores into two alongside their very bodies.


    With that, the cores were brought to a stage near collapse even in their phantasmal states, for the powerful energy between them prevented them from recovering or maintaining proper stability, and this extended to the pair standing within, as well as the planar construct that they had begun to create. The amount of work they put in was significantly greater than expected, again showing their impressive coordination, but it wasn¡¯t enough when a further stroke of Moon Splitter was sufficient to fracture it into naught but ash and mist.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll give you a chance to talk, just in case that¡¯s even something you can do.¡±


    Obviously, she was also beginning a deeper trace of their energy at the same time, as one function that the oddly mechanical phantoms before her were bound to have is a form of self-destruction in the event of capture and investigation. Provided that their bodies were being controlled from afar, whether by a single mind or many, this would be done deliberately once they saw that they couldn¡¯t handle the Ascendant, and if there was no mind, only a certain process that couldn¡¯t be interfered with by the Leeches, then there would already be a function prepared in the event of capture.


    It wouldn¡¯t even be a waste of the energy that they were composed of, for a powerful explosion of raw energy done without any care whatsoever for the wellbeing of the user of the technique could be utterly devastating. Even if the Ascendant endured it, she might well be unable to protect those around her, and she¡¯d still have to deal with the fallout.


    Contrary to her expectation, again, both did respond at once, ¡°You are damaging the world and going against the will of the heavens.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s just great. I¡¯m sure that I¡¯ve done far less damage than you lot, so don¡¯t even try to argue this. Either inform me what you¡¯re doing, how you¡¯re doing it, and exactly how to stop it, so that you are even slightly helpful, or else shut it and make things simpler for me either way.¡±


    ¡°Your deeds shall not go unpunished!¡±


    ¡°Like I care. If the heavens come down and try to take me down, then I welcome their challenge.¡±


    ¡°This is the wrong path!¡±


    ¡°No, really, do you think you can convince me, and do you think that I care about the potential threat? I think I know what your seal keeps away from us, but I will break it if I have to.¡±


    ¡°This is nothing but folly!¡± the male and female phantom exclaimed, ¡°Do not think that you are above the world! You are bound by it, by its rules and principles, and your actions will harm everything around you, even if you do not care for what you do to the Planar Continents! Because of us, both continents have been kept safe from horrors you could never comprehend-¡±


    ¡°No. I believe that this is something the otherworldly demons have labelled as projection. You care only for yourselves, for your strength, for your position at the top of the world, whereas I am taking steps to elevate the power of everyone in my alliance as to ensure their ability to face that which comes for us. Instead of cowering from such threats, I will defeat them, and if I fail, if we all fail¡­ why exactly do you think that your methods are necessarily superior? If you purge planar energy as a concept, what stops that seal of yours from shattering and everything being released? What stops the heavens from doing whatever the fuck they want, same as usual?¡±


    The two didn¡¯t respond, nor did she need them to do so. She had already confirmed that their presence stemmed from the spatial stabilisation node, and Testament as an extension, so she simply brought forth her now empty left hand and released her oblivion essence to dominate the spatial node.


    As her power had risen since last time, she needed significantly less effort to do so.


    Thus, the node was claimed, the two phantasms vanished as they decayed into raw energy that the Ascendant happily grabbed onto the moment that it was set loose, and the remnants of the ghostly barrier around the Chen District went in much the same manner, first into the air and then right into her bottomless dantian and planar pool.


    She knew that although this was incredibly easy relative to some of her previous battles, the Great Leeches had clearly improved from last time, even if it was purely accidental. In the Ning District, she had actively defeated the last of the Great Ning, meaning that they had no chance of maintaining the seal in Testament despite the time taken to get rid of the two of them. That time would have been relevant if not for their barrier lacking any and all ability to withstand her, as well as her interest in observing their attempts to reform it and ruining them at the best time to waste as much of their energy as possible.


    In other words, they could have not protected their spatial stabilisation nodes at all, and would have just as much time as they did now.


    The Yi District seemed to have another instance of the phantoms she had fought here, which might or might not expend any significant quantity of energy of the Great Leeches, but they were unlikely to remove them until she got over there and took care of them. Any energy spent was already used up, so dissipating them now wouldn¡¯t have any positive effect, and would only increase the chances of the Yi District deciding to rise up against them in favour of the forces of the Ascendant.


    Of course, that depended on whether the people of the Yi District were siding with the Greats simply because they had occupied it in full force and positioned Testament near it, or if they were truly aligned with the goals and ideals of the Leeches. The latter would allow the Great Leeches to depart without worry, but the former required a degree of constant pressure on the district.


    ¡®Still, that doesn¡¯t really matter for me. With this new gateway, travelling between districts is even easier, so I will need to make sure that the Chen family don¡¯t try to take over everything they can think of. Other than that¡­ I may wait for another few days to confirm this, but I believe that their recreation of the barrier is merely to make use of its framework to focus the energy of the Yi City Web onto their seal in Testament instead,¡¯ the Ascendant concluded from the fact that there were signs of a weak barrier rising around the Yi District once again, despite the complete uselessness of it, ¡®Maybe I could observe more about the seal itself, and figure out whether it can be dealt with or maintained in some manner, since I don¡¯t necessarily want to let out every major threat to the world if I don¡¯t have to¡­¡¯


    However, she wasn¡¯t na?ve enough to think that this would be likely at all. The world and the entities within were tied to the level of planar energy density, meaning that as the latter rose, there would be more and more threats that people would need to face in order to retain their place in the world.


    Even if the seal of the Leeches was sufficient at the moment, the growth of the world would be able to elevate the level of all natural phenomena associated with it, including the things within the seal. When the eighth realm is within reach, and certainly when the ninth realm is no longer an impossibility, then the seal will have no chance of holding up against the endless power that the ninth realm is able to use.


    In fact, there was a guarantee of the seal breaking upon the world being able to sustain the ninth realm, for that realm was the closest thing to absolute infinity that could be attained in the Planar Continents. Once such an infinity was present in the world, then everything could benefit from it, rising until the infinity became standard, and whatever lay within the seal would benefit just the same.


    The ideal thing to do would be to release the seal earlier than that, end everything within that was truly hostile, and then have sufficient room to deal with the threat of the Hunger of the Beyond, which is bound to come once the world grows in power. If there¡¯s something they hunger after most of all, the high density of planar energy attained in the best years of the Planar Continents was likely to be it. So, unless the Ascendant find some method of effectively hiding the development of planar energy from anything outside of the continents themselves, a confrontation with them was inevitable, and a dire prospect for the world as it currently was.


    Frankly, she wasn¡¯t even sure whether it was possible for such a thing to be done, nor whether the people of the world would be able to fight the Hunger of the Beyond no matter how much she attempted to assist them.


    This was due to the power of the lone Beast that lay in the Kong Prison Realm, which she had only been able to glimpse at this point. A single beast could pose a significant danger to one of the strongest cultivators that had existed prior to her, Kong Shi Meng, and reaching his realm was incredibly difficult due to the effect of the Truth of the Universe. It allowed him to rise to the top in a matter of decades rather than hundreds and thousands of years, which is the amount of time one might normally expect to wait between the first and the ninth realm in the ancient years of the Western Continent.


    The Eastern Continent was apparently faster at progressing through realms, but they compensated for that with the high death rate of tribulations. Many that might have been able to reach the seventh realm safely in the Western District would perish during one of the earlier tribulations due to a lack of preparation or excessive and misplaced confidence in their strength. For this reason, there were fewer who attempted to cultivate beyond the first two realms, but more higher realm cultivators on average.


    ¡®Tribulations don¡¯t really work here, so even if I could guarantee their safety, that wouldn¡¯t help much either, and that¡¯s without even mentioning the fact that simply rising in power wouldn¡¯t allow them to fully use it as well as if they headed up to that realm on their own¡­¡¯ she paused and turned just as the Chen Patriarch came into view, ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I was simply coming down to inspect the situation. You appeared to be done far more quickly than you had suggested you would be, so I wished to be sure that you and my district were alright¡­ I assume that you succeeded?¡±


    ¡°Of course I have. They had only sent in some phantoms of their true selves, so I could dispel them by claiming the spatial stabilisation node, which I have right here. Feel free to check out Paragon on the other side, as well as the Kong Prison Realm if you want, but before then, I want to remind you that you are within my territory now,¡± she stated, checking his response before explaining, ¡°You may want to bring your business to the rest of the districts with the newfound access, but don¡¯t you dare go beyond that. I will stop you, and I may well force the position of Patriarch to move to another. I do not need your greed getting in the way of Yi City¡¯s development.¡±


    ¡°You are asking for a lot, Ascendant, for greed is in our blood¡­ but I understand your meaning. You are concerned that our endless pursuit of benefits shall damage the city¡¯s ability to progress at a normal pace, and that our fighting for profits may do similar damage¡­¡± the Chen Patriarch was surprisingly understanding, ¡°I will avoid such things, at least while conflict lasts. After that-¡±


    ¡°We shall have another discussion then.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that would be best. Between then and now, many things could change, especially if the conflict does not come to an end as soon as the Greats are gone.¡±


    ¡°Presumably you¡¯ve heard their mentions of a seal, then. Do you know what it is that they aim to restrain, or should I provide you a hint of what I and a number of knowledgeable others have concluded?¡± the man shook his head, so she didn¡¯t reply, whether or not he truly knew, ¡°Yes, the fight might last longer than it ideally would, but that is almost the Law of the world. Nothing comes on its own, and wherever there is one problem, there shall always be two¡­ Of course, that¡¯s no specific binding of the world, but simply how things tend to go in any complex situation.¡±


    ¡°As a man of business, I can understand that more than a number of Patriarchs that I¡¯ve personally met. In that case, I shall leave you to continue your assault on the Greats while I scout for business opportunities that shall benefit the both of us. I am sure you can reach me if you must, Ascendant.¡±


    She nodded, for she had a method to reach everyone within the reach of the Yi City Web segment under her control if she so wished, and let him depart through the gateway while she remained in place for a little while. There wasn¡¯t much to be done near the spatial stabilisation node, but it was easily the most convenient place to converse with the spatial spirit residing within, and the underground golden chambers did remind her of the library conceived of by Kong Shi Meng.


    ¡°Wei Yi, I understand you intend to wait for the barrier to be rebuilt again?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. They have fewer Leech phantoms to work with, but also a smaller area to cover, so it might take a similar or slightly longer period of time. It should be enough for the Chen and Ning Districts to get integrated into the rest of the Yi City Web¡¯s community, and enough for people to be prepared for an attack on Testament, if they are needed.¡±


    ¡°You must make sure to not give them the chance to do something that you wouldn¡¯t be able to undo,¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City advised sternly, ¡°I know you understand, but-¡±


    ¡°But the manner in which I easily defeated these two phantoms might make me somewhat complacent. Yes, I understand that all too well, but this might give me the opportunity to observe their seal in greater detail, now that there is little else to pay attention to. Maintaining the seal via the Kong Prison Realm and my own power could allow for a more controlled release of the things restrained by it, even if fighting them will almost be necessary in the grand scheme of things, and even if it is broken, I could slightly delay its full opening for a little while.¡±


    ¡°This isn¡¯t something that I would normally say, but¡­ might this not cause more problems?¡±


    ¡°You mean that people will see that I could stop the opening of the seal, but didn¡¯t? Aside from me simply needing not to mention it to avert that particular problem, the negatives far outweigh the positives. People require some time to prepare, and even if they are all asked to start at this very moment, without care for the Greats, only the current Patriarchs and Matriarchs even stand a chance, simply due to the gap in realm being far too vast to be bridged by skill and talent.


    ¡°By delaying the appearance of our next foe, we can give everyone some time to learn and adjust, and to grow with the increased planar energy density. Furthermore, once the Yi City Web has the Yi District, and possibly Testament as well, it might be possible to employ my strategy of forcing the refilling of planar energy outside of the normal pace to accelerate cultivation for everyone in our reach,¡± the Ascendant explained, ¡°I can always stall one threat at a time, regardless of relative power, so as long as we¡¯re able to maintain no more than one unmanaged foe at a time, it will all be as fine as it can be.¡±


    ¡°I certainly hope that you¡¯re right. After all this time, for us to fail due to what the Greats have been keeping away¡­¡±

 V5C76: The Yi District

    On the twenty-ninth of the ninth month, the barrier of the Great Leeches was rising to its peak state once more, and just like the last time, it was approaching a vital stage in the reconstructive effort when Wei Yi decided to begin her attack. If the Greats were surprised by this, then they only had themselves to blame, for all of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs understood her actions well enough without the need for a direct explanation.


    Furthermore, all of them wished to make use of the benefits granted by her archive within the Kong Prison Realm, so the more time they had before anything requiring their personal involvement, the better. Each one found something worthwhile to read through and absorb in the floating archive, from one of the great arts to some miscellaneous subjects that Gang Xiu Ling in particular found to be particularly interesting. Together, they occupied a significant portion of the archive, although that was remedied by a quick expansion of the space that was especially easy with the Ascendant¡¯s plentiful mental energy.


    Her killing will had reached the fifth stage of the Yin-Yang Conduit realm a few days prior, prompting her calm mind to deteriorate slightly, but by the time that she was standing at the barrier, it had not affected her too much. Rather, it wasn¡¯t the reason for her current feelings.


    As she looked upon the lands of the Yi District, as well as all of the familiar buildings and streets, she couldn¡¯t help but gaze upon the place where the Yi Patriarch sat, his frowning face clear even from this great distance, regardless of the use of divine sense. Presumably, he had some knowledge of what was coming to him, and was now attempting to figure out how to resolve the situation.


    There were a few others to note, mainly a woman that was in the middle of fighting some guards of the Yi District alongside some of her own warriors, although all of them were moving oddly and irregularly, causing their overall power to be diminished. Although she didn¡¯t recognise the exact methods used here, the blood-like energy used by the woman made it obvious that this was Yi Taizhi being up to something unexpected. The last time they saw one another, she had been a rather reasonable and amicable individual, and not one that would earn the ire of the guards of the district.


    Clearly, Yi Wei¡¯s impression at the time was wrong, and Wei Yi got to improve her understanding of the woman in this manner.


    On one hand, it wasn¡¯t any of her business. Only the Great Leeches mattered at the moment, and she had long ago discarded any relation to the Yi District. Their problems could be handled on their own, and if they weren¡¯t capable of doing it, then she might step in as the future Master of Yi City, for she might as well call herself that at this point. She was doing it with far more power and control than Kong Shi Meng had, so there shouldn¡¯t be any issues in that regard.


    However, one of her goals for taking over and defeating the Greats was to improve the world, to prevent situations like her own from repeating, among many others. She hated that people could be so weak and powerless, that it necessitated a power as abnormal as the Truth of the Universe and the otherworldly gifts in order for her to have a reasonable chance of changing it all. The fact that people could do whatever harm they wished to others without repercussions did permit for the greatest freedom, of course, but the concept of justice that she and many others did favour was simply absent from a world like this.


    Thus, if the world didn¡¯t provide justice, then someone else had to do the work instead. Currently, everyone else was too busy with cultivation and their own lives, which was fair and perfectly understandable, but it only left one person that could truly overcome both the heavens and the world.


    If she didn¡¯t take action and do what she could before her grand plan could come to fruition, then what exactly would she be? She would simply be the same as all others that could promise grand things but never deliver, and although her intentions were indeed some of the grandest she had heard of ¨C imposing a system of justice upon the Planar Continents was not likely to be possible through power alone, after all ¨C she did have the ability to get rid of certain individuals whose actions were rather easy to judge even with her current understanding.


    She could have broken through the barrier and went on to the Patriarch and the two Leech phantoms, but instead, when a strike took down the barrier at its vital point, she instead appeared before the guards and Yi Taizhi, with both sides freezing for a few moments as they tried to comprehend where she came from.


    ¡°Don¡¯t stand around here and head back to the district. Tell your Patriarch that he¡¯ll be getting a visit from me very soon,¡± the Ascendant said, glancing at the guards before keeping her gaze on Yi Taizhi, ¡°Meanwhile, I¡¯d like to have a talk with you.¡±


    ¡°What do I¡­ Wait a minute, you-¡±


    ¡°Thanks for instructing a young girl on how to create an identity token. It wasn¡¯t of much use in the end, but it was a decent enough thing to do, besides being your responsibility anyway.¡±


    It was then that the spark of recognition blossomed in her eyes, but despite that, it did not lead to her stopping her attacks or preventing those following her from going towards the guards and Wei Yi. Instead, the recognition was replaced by an immense greed and desire, accompanied by the movement of her arm and the obvious attempt to perform some kind of technique that intended to target the Ascendant.


    Although she could have stopped it, the combination of sheer curiosity combined with what one might describe as the intuitive sense of safety stalled her hand. If there was no chance of harm coming to her or the guards, who, at this point, were far enough away for there to be little chance of Yi Taizhi even being able to target them, then there was little harm to indulging her curiosity.


    Indeed, it was most entertaining, for she got to see the woman before her gasp in confusion.


    ¡°You¡­ You must have practised the Disciple of Blood, I know you have! What technique are you cultivating, Yi Wei?¡±


    ¡°You appear to have recognised one name, but have missed another. Let me tell you something,¡± the Ascendant took a calm step forward, her eyes narrowing, ¡°One year, three months and eighteen days or so ago, Yi Wei died when the Yi District stood by and watched her be sent to the Kong Prison Realm by the third generation of the Great Yi Family. The district burned simply due to that, and none cared whatsoever. In the Kong Prison Realm, there came to be another, who could do that which Yi Wei never could, and who would not be stopped by the same things that she would be. Her name¡­¡±


    A large figure rose from behind her, four arms spread apart, a crimson cosmos shrouding it all. Chains surrounded it, coming close but not touching the one that the figure shadowed. They did come into contact with the faint vision of an enormous shattered monolith, a core marked by a hundred astral symbols, three halos that rapidly rotated around the core in a most unbelievable of fashions, and the sparks of crimson that connected the chains on the inside of the core to the halos, all of which seemed to devour the very world until they were all that existed. Even if Yi Taizhi looked away, all that she saw was the vast aura of these objects.


    ¡°The Ascendant, Wei Yi. After all, I¡¯m not as kind as Kong Shi Meng, the Master of Yi City. I would never name some of my greater creations after those that couldn¡¯t care less for my existence when I wasn¡¯t strong.¡±


    ¡°W-What are you¡­ that technique¡­¡±


    ¡°It was helpful of you to provide a weak girl a technique like the Disciple of Blood, even if your intentions were far from good¡­ Your one is likely to turn you into a crimson ghoul, as a few would call it,¡± Wei Yi said, suddenly appearing only a step away from her, ¡°However, the red eyes, fangs, reliance on blood, all of those are better known as vampires to common folk and otherworldly demons alike.¡±


    That seemed to trigger something in the woman, for she suddenly leapt back and declared, ¡°Even without your blood, I can rise to the sixth realm! Behold!¡±


    She was already in the Half-Step Linked Channels realm, so she wasn¡¯t merely boasting. With a forceful usage of her power, the woman pushed herself into the first stage, even if it left her weaker than if she waited and built up more energy for a proper breakthrough. Immediately, the features of a crimson ghoul marred her face as they became prominent, overwhelming her original appearance completely and making her almost unrecognisable.


    However¡­


    ¡°You missed that I am not those guards. Check behind me again.¡±


    Indeed, a gap between realms was difficult to cross in ordinary circumstances, and here was a woman who had barely taken a single step into the sixth realm facing against a woman in the seventh, who had the ability to defeat Patriarch as far back as the fifth realm.


    This could be felt from the pressure that the two released simply by standing, and by the manner in which a casual glance of the Ascendant could completely crush the aura of the crimson ghoul. In fact, even if all of that was absent, her attainment in bloodline power meant that with a simple mental command, she could grasp onto all of the blood in the woman¡¯s body and do whatever she wished with it, potentially even converting the bloodline she had developed ¨C for a crimson ghoul was bound to a bloodline, to a certain extent, according to what Wei Yi knew ¨C to the Ascendant¡¯s own blood, forcing Yi Taizhi to obey her instinctively.


    She could do that, but what reason did she have to bother? If she hadn¡¯t come across her on the outside of the district, Wei Yi wouldn¡¯t have even looked for her for a long, long time, if ever.


    ¡°Given that you tried to drain my power, you must have hunted others, too. For that alone, I will end your life. You can try to persuade me not to, but¡­ I wouldn¡¯t count on that. If you want to have a choice in the matter, kill yourself first via your preferred method.¡±


    ¡°Aura alone doesn¡¯t mean anything-¡±


    ¡°Indeed,¡± before the Ascendant even finished the word, she had already raised the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow and released a little bit of power in the form of an Elysian Blast, creating an enormous hole in the body of the crimson ghoul, separating the bottom half of her legs from what little remained of her upper half. This was already her controlling her power as well as she could, since she didn¡¯t wish to accidentally destroy a district with an attack like this.


    ¡°Y-You¡­ how did¡­ you¡­¡±


    ¡°I think you would much rather have me forget those lacking final words, but I will not. Instead, I¡¯ll simply avoid telling anyone about them, so it should be good enough for you, right?¡±


    Wei Yi got no response from the body, not that she expected to, and instead vanished from the spot again, appearing on the outer edge of the Yi District and off to the north-east, where she reached out and forced a small collection of items to appear from their hidden spot. Most were utterly useless for her now, but she deliberately reached out with her right hand and grabbed onto the dark mask that had once been the face of Da Gang, for the world had no opportunities to see her own face behind it while she used the name.


    On her own, she couldn¡¯t be certain of what this mask was made of, as her divine sense didn¡¯t return anything particularly significant when she scanned it. As such, she made use of the House of Gold, tossing it in and checking the description the otherworldly gift provided.


    ¡®A black mask. Difficult to damage,¡¯ she read, frowning, ¡®Right, that is not strange at all.¡¯


    She brought it back out and held it using her left hand instead, as she would be able to exert more force through it without needing to be concerned about the state of the star metal gauntlet on her right hand. Gripping the mask tightly in between her clawed fingers, making sure as many of their points were on the mask as possible, she then applied all of her strength at once.


    With most materials, such effort would quickly lead to her holding little more than dust in her hand, and covering the floor with much more dust than that, but this did not happen with the mask. Instead, it was completely unaffected even when she ignited her physique energy and bloodline power to stimulate her strength to its limit. Other methods of damaging the mask didn¡¯t have any success either, which could be seen as giving her no useful information at all, but it was also an excellent confirmation that what she held was beyond the vast majority of materials she had previously handled. Thus, it was either an abnormal case, like the time-lost caverns she had visited twice now, or the material was far tougher and, as a result, more valuable.


    In this instance, it was likely to be valuable beyond mere currency.


    ¡®Yi Shi Ming, if this is spatial metal, what will happen when I throw this into the Kong Prison Realm? Do you need to process it, or¡­¡¯


    ¡®Actually, no, there is no need for that. So long as it is spatial metal, Ah Shi Meng¡¯s efforts will ensure that we are able to extract enough of it to improve the density of energy in the spatial realm, expand its borders, make it more stable, and even give you some benefits at the same time¡­ However, it will take me some time to manage it, especially if all of the existing structures and people are to be maintained as they are.¡¯


    ¡®Do keep everything running, please. It would be rather unfortunate if anything was interrupted.¡¯


    ¡®I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Any energy that can be provided to the Kong Prison Realm will accelerate the process somewhat, so if you come across any additional planar stones, it might be best to invest them into this realm.¡¯


    ¡®Mhm, I figured.¡¯


    She looked ahead and opened a small gateway to the centre of the Kong Prison Realm, casually tossing the black mask into it. With the possibility of all of that happening even with spatial metal that hadn¡¯t been properly processed, she was now very hopeful to see this occur, in no small part due to all of the knowledge it would bestow her regarding the function of spatial realms and spatial interaction in general, so she was a little more optimistic about this than she really should have been. After all, it was just a random mask she had come across, being sold by a random merchant.


    It should have had no chance of being valuable, and yet, the moment it touched the space of the Kong Prison Realm, it was as if the mask broke apart into two. One part was a thin film that had perfectly covered the mask, while the other could hardly be described with any reference to common materials and items.


    The mass that emerged quickly spread into the air, dissolving slowly as it expanded further and further out. Before it could get too large, Yi Shi Ming¡¯s figure appeared and held out her hand, containing the expanding cosmos and disappearing alongside it, with the outer edges of the spatial realm trembling as if a wind was passing through a curtain. Most weren¡¯t observing the outer walls of the Kong Prison Realm at the time, and the palpations and trembling calmed once the mother of the Master of Yi City managed to take control of the energy brought in through the old mask, so there were quite a few that didn¡¯t even know that their world was changing.


    ¡®How is it? Will this allow you to do everything you had mentioned?¡¯


    ¡®Yes, this should be fine,¡¯ Yi Shi Ming said, her voice clearly rather strained at the moment, ¡®If possible, please let me focus on this, since I wasn¡¯t expecting quite this much spatial metal¡­¡¯


    ¡®That was a lot of metal? I¡¯m guessing that it isn¡¯t the same size as it appears at first.¡¯


    ¡®To a certain extent¡­ I¡¯ll explain once I¡¯ve managed it.¡¯


    Seeing that she was truly occupied far more than she usually would be, Wei Yi didn¡¯t bother her any more than that and turned her attention back to the Yi District, where the guards she had spoken with earlier were only now managing to near the Yi Patriarch¡¯s location. She had a slight hope that she might take a little longer and thus give those people something to do instead of simply running back and forth without any benefit, but now that she had little more to do than meet the Patriarch, she chose to do that right away.


    First, though, she did appear before the guards and raised her hand to stop them, not saying anything and simply turning towards the path to the Patriarch as an indication of her intention. Whether or not they understood this didn¡¯t matter, since they stopped and let her go on.


    Instead of climbing the steps up to the Patriarch¡¯s chamber, she simply shifted her position over using her fourth realm movement method and appeared right at the doorway to the room in which he sat on a throne. His head was leaned on the balled-up right hand, his right elbow placed on the appropriate armrest, while his left hand rested on the armrest on his left, giving him a tired and aged impression, especially so with his long white beard and wrinkled skin.


    He did not immediately respond to her, his gaze rising to meet her own and understanding slowly appearing in his eyes.


    ¡°You are the girl that had been thought to have perished within our borders, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°To be most precise, I¡¯d say that she had perished, just in the Kong Prison Realm instead of this district. Of course, you and your guardians did nothing at all to stop that, so I suppose I ought to take note of your inaction in this regard.¡±


    ¡°There was nothing I could have done.¡±


    The sound of something cracking could be heard with perfect clarity despite nothing in the room being damaged. Both of them knew the source, for the extreme glare the Ascendant sent towards the Patriarch, complete with so much killing will that it could have shredded the Yi City Web barrier all on its own, must have somehow produced such a noise.


    ¡°Choose your words very carefully. Of all the defences you could have attempted, this may very well be the worst.¡±


    Her clenched teeth, as well as her tightly clenched fists, made that very clear.


    ¡°The Great Families-¡±


    ¡°Leeches. Call them anything else, and you¡¯re dead.¡±


    ¡°¡­ The Greats are simply too powerful a force. For me, or anyone else to take action, would mean endangering the district, harming more people, and even if the third generation was to be defeated, the second generation could best me, not to mention the first.¡±


    Wei Yi took a deep breath before stepping forward, her heeled boots fracturing the ground with a single seemingly light step.


    Before she could even say a word, the Patriarch felt as if he was trapped within an inescapable place entirely under her command. Winds of crimson mixed with a thick smoke blew through the chamber, devouring all until only the two of them remained, as well as his throne and the carpeted floor that connected them.


    ¡°If a person of your district is in danger, it is supposed to be your duty as Patriarch to, at the very least, instruct the guards to provide aid. If they are not sufficient, you send guardians. If they are not sufficient, you step in yourself and activate the protective methods of the Yi District!¡± her words got faster and louder as she went on, ¡°You claim that you wished to protect lives, and yet you witnessed numerous innocents perish with your divine sense and did nothing! You claim you want to protect the district, and yet a vast grove and numerous buildings burned under your watch, and like a stone statue sitting in that throne of yours, you did fucking nothing!


    ¡°Not once did you attempt to minimize destruction, not once did you try to keep the district safe! With a Patriarch like you, this place might as well have had a statue in your place, for the power emanating from it might have scared away the Great Leeches until they were certain that the statue would not come to life. On the other hand, they have no need to fear you, for you wouldn¡¯t even be able to do less while dead!¡±


    ¡°You are young, so perhaps you do not understand-¡±


    ¡°I am over forty years of age already, thanks to your dedication to your own security. Unlike you, I have managed a faction, I have taken care of district, I am, for fucks sake, a Matriarch already! I am the Wu Matriarch, all because you had to sit on your ass and do nothing!¡±


    ¡°What would you have had me do, huh? What exactly do you expect me to do against them?¡±


    ¡°Exactly what I¡¯ve done! I was stranded in a world that could have easily killed me, but I stood, I protected myself, and I sought to rise back to a state where I could act! In the time you had spent sitting here, doing whatever the fuck it is you do, I had taken over the Kong Prison Realm, I had escaped, I had confronted the Great Leeches, I have brought together several districts together in my War of Ascendancy, and now I am standing before you, telling you that you are a fucking coward!¡± she was now shouting at him, but he could do nothing about it, ¡°Step in, tell the Leeches to calm their murderous rampage, tell them to focus on those that they have deemed worthy of being attacked if nothing else! No, you did not do that, for I saw the district burning! I saw the Timeless Grove burning! I saw so many die and flee from the Leeches because the Yi District would never step in on their side!¡±


    ¡°¡­ I had no choice!¡±


    ¡°You had a choice! There is always a choice, old man, but both then and now, when faced with a choice, you would much rather sit around and do nothing, simply trying to lie about your failure. Face it, if you are truly regretful! Accept your wrongdoing and change! However, you¡¯re not going to do that, are you? You are simply trying to stop yourself from being hurt by appeasing me¡­¡±


    His lack of response in the quiet that followed made it clear that she had understood him correctly ¨C a rather simple proposition given the fact that she could scan the surface of his mind even more easily than usual after attaining divine sense.


    ¡°Let me demonstrate how one makes a choice, by doing so at this very moment,¡± the Ascendant said, raising her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, ¡°I have chosen to give the Yi District a new leader, who would actually do what is required of them. To let you learn your lesson and see your mistakes, I also choose not to end your pathetic life, but to instead reduce you to a state akin to the girl who you had ignored when your support could have easily transformed her life entirely. If you will not act with your power, then you do not deserve it. Break!¡±


    The Yi Patriarch tried to leap up at that moment, to do something ¨C anything ¨C to protect himself, or perhaps to attack her, or perhaps to flee, or perhaps to do something entirely different, but he suddenly found that he could not. A single click of clawed fingers led to the vast power under his control to break out of his body, for the halos to shatter, the core to split, the searing marks to extinguish, the anchor to fracture, his planar pool to spill, and his dantian to crack.


    With one crack, control over his energy became nearly impossible, and when that crack rapidly consumed the entirety of the dantian, he could only watch his power sink into the world.


    He barely felt anything when the bone structure turned to dust, forever robbing him of his ability to cultivate. At that point, his weak body was barely able to breathe, although the vitality he had accumulated up to that point permitted his existence to continue without directly shutting down there and then.


    ¡°This is what you deserve, Yi Patriarch.¡±


    Whatever the Ascendant said, he could barely hear her, much less argue with her statement. This wasn¡¯t just because his mind felt impossibly slow in comparison to his usual state, but also because that slow mind suddenly came to the conclusion that she had to be right, at least in a certain way. If he had protected her, if he had stopped the flames and deaths, if he had done anything to prevent the Ascendant from standing before him today, he would have his cultivation and his power. Clearly, he had indeed made a mistake, although he could barely understand what it was.


    Wei Yi did not care for him, and instead turned around and broadcast her voice, ¡°People of the Yi District, your former Patriarch was unsuitable for his position. It is up to you to find a replacement within the next seven days. Whatever their realm and current status, I will allow them to reach the seventh realm, and shall not dispute their rule of the district, for that is their duty as personally bestowed upon them by your collective will.¡±


    She didn¡¯t care how her statement would be received, for she had a far more significant matter to deal with, in the form of the Leech phantoms that still resided by the spatial stabilisation point, this one less deep in the ground and more accessible to the common man.


    In that regard, it was more convenient for the whole district to access the gateway that she would form atop the spatial stabilisation point, but it also meant that she needed to deal with those that occupy it quickly so that they didn¡¯t have a chance of setting flame to the district once again. Even if this district was no longer her home, and even if she did not share the bloodline of the people living here, she did not need to see the place burn when she could do something to stop it. Although her example may not be appreciated by the former Patriarch, she was sure others would.

 V5C77: Awaiting Testament

    Just like the phantoms of the Great Chen, these two had a mechanical reaction to her appearance.


    They readied their anchors, placing them in front of themselves as a barrier, put up their cores, ignited a searing mark to make their defences more sturdy, and then looked towards her, their dull eyes lighting up with the most focus that they could possibly display.


    ¡°Rethink your deeds before you make any further mistakes!¡± the two said, although it was clear that their words were more to slow her down than to actually convince her of anything. By this point, if the Great Leeches hadn¡¯t figured out that they were not going to be able to change her mind, then they would have to be impostors or doubles standing in the place of the true force that had been able to suppress Yi City.


    Instead, they were likely meaning to simply delay her, not that it would do them much good even if they kept her in place for a whole week.


    ¡°I¡¯ve already had this talk with the former Yi Patriarch. Just die already.¡±


    She attacked right away, not letting them prepare anything else even though they were certainly attempting to do so. Unlike their previous counterparts in the Chen District, they were a little faster and more organised in their defence, for once they saw her attack they did not attempt to cease her blows with her ordinary barriers and instead split up, both leaping to the side.


    Their speed was also greater, perhaps showing some improvement in their method of manifesting the Leech phantoms, or perhaps it was simply due to these two seeming younger and fitter than the Great Chen. How this could be possible when they seemed to be synchronising their generations with those of the other families, she didn¡¯t quite know, but perhaps they had simply taken better care of themselves due to their leading position in the Great Leech hierarchy, for they did look quite a bit younger than the others.


    The third generation had always appeared to be no older than twenty, meaning that she would have been able to avoid their attention had she simply been born a few years earlier. On the other hand, she might have faced the second generation, and they would have been able to kill her with ease.


    Since she already thought about it, the second generation were older in appearance ¨C and in actual age by a hundred years, although that much was obvious if one knew anything about them ¨C nearing the appearance of someone in their early forties or later thirties. While the youthful and soft appearances of the third generation could lead to them being mistaken for teenagers, especially in the early days of their term as the third generation, the second generation certainly couldn¡¯t be.


    A similar gap was present between the second and first generations, with both the Great Chen and Great Ning presenting those that were physically aged at around seventy. In this, the Great Yi did show the exception that prompted her consideration of all this in the first place, and they were closer to their sixties in appearance, and the earlier sixties at that.


    Whether this was due to their true forms having more vitality, or the phantoms being reconstructed from stronger, younger forms, the result was that the pair acted with a notably higher speed than their peers from the other districts. When she slashed at them, they were able to evade with minimal damage to their cores and anchors, and it took nearly a minute for her to take out an anchor without relying on some of her stronger abilities. If she had brought them out right away, the outcome would obviously be drastically altered, but she hardly needed to do anything of the sort against the first two pairs of first generation Great Leeches.


    ¡°Finally taking my advice and learning?¡± she spoke for the first time during the battle, a silence encouraged by the Leeches also managing to keep their mouths shut.


    Somehow, the two even managed to respond without pissing her off, ¡°You are a different threat than usual. If we stagnated against you, then everything our families have worked to maintain would be destroyed by your reckless hands.¡±


    Well, it was mostly reasonable, although that last part was certainly pushing it for her. It did a great deal to push her killing will forth to the next stage, albeit was far from enough to accomplish that just yet. Rather than the simple negative remark getting her bothered, it was the extreme contrast to her own careful attempts to ensure that everything she wished to do occurred with minimal incident and harm to those that she did not wish to harm. Since there were so many that did deserve her ire, this wasn¡¯t very difficult, but it was still worthwhile to note.


    She wasn¡¯t surprised that the two Leeches failed to notice this, nor did she have any interest in convincing them otherwise.


    To put an end to their nonsense, she invoked her Obliteration energy, infused it into her blade, then launched all of the power contained within the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow into Moon Splitter as well and simply cut a full circle around her with a single slash. The Leeches might have wished to evade, and they did try to, but the thin sheet of energy that filled the chamber quickly burst out and covered everything that it hadn¡¯t cut through directly, blasting through their defences.


    As if that wasn¡¯t enough to bring them down, the wave of energy then further condensed into two spheres akin to those manifested via the use of the Replica Abyssal Eye technique. Each one condensed near to a Leech phantom, and before they could hope to block them, destroy them or simply flee from them, the masses of power exploded, the sounds of their remaining anchors shattering filling the room.


    Even then, they survived, albeit the flesh of the phantoms was clearly beginning to erode with no support being provided by their anchors or core. Their internal halos also had the possibility of being broken, not that it would matter all that much when nothing capable of supporting or working with them remained, nor did they have any power remaining to actually utilise using the effects of their halos. All that remained were two shells of energy that would soon dissipate into the world, and wipe away any traces that they ever existed.


    After all, even the room in which they fought was marked only by Wei Yi¡¯s power, not their own.


    ¡°So, do you have anything to say before you¡¯re ended as well? I¡¯m still not certain whether you have independent minds or not, but I¡¯m sure there¡¯s something useful you can say either way.¡±


    ¡°Go back onto the right path while you still can!¡± the two phantoms said, their pained voices still synchronising perfectly, ¡°When you unleash that which we have sealed, you will see that you have made a great mistake, and that you have no chance of dealing with the threat! Do you understand us, Wei Yi?¡±


    ¡°I understand you perfectly. You are all cowards at best, and clearly used to your stagnant states.¡±


    ¡°They are not something you can handle!¡±


    ¡°Try me. I¡¯ve only recently gotten to the seventh realm, and yet I¡¯m able to rival you. I know they are significantly stronger than any of you, that much is obvious by the realm difference, and the difference in the gaps between realms, not to mention that they are concentrated power whereas you are¡­¡± she chose not to provide a single word, since she had far too many to choose from ¨C and was already doing them a massive favour by simply conversing with them semi-casually, ¡°Just with everything you¡¯re bound to have in your Testament, I should be able to climb up to the sixth stage and see what perfected stages will offer me this time.¡±


    ¡°You fool!¡±


    ¡°And you have failed to give me any reason to believe you. Hm, given the meaning of the name of your spatial realm, you¡¯d think that you would have plenty of evidence to provide to me regarding the many claims you make. Come, show me your testament ¨C show me that you are speaking the truth, and do so not only to me and to the world as well!¡± she exclaimed, ¡°Come, let us all see that you are misunderstood heroes- okay, that will make me throw up, so I¡¯m not going any further¡­¡±


    Even with her incredible control over her body, she wasn¡¯t able to speak such things without wishing to remove whatever foul influence prompted such a thing in the first place.


    ¡°Ahem. You should understand what I mean.¡±


    ¡°¡­ You will not realise the error of your ways until you doom the entire world, will you?¡± the two said suddenly, a pause preceding their words and a very different tone setting them apart from the rest of their drivel, ¡°So be it. Watch the world burn. Once we ascend to the heavens, you will be able to apologise to us.¡±


    ¡°I will not. Even if, by some miracle, I have done wrong, then I will have done it according to my understanding, logic and so on. I will not have had any better option, so I can hardly be blamed.¡±


    They did not reply, for their forms had already greatly decayed by that point. If not for some miracle of planar energy constructs, they wouldn¡¯t have been able to speak at all, and even their last words were already showing a degree of oddity to their speech, as if they were losing their very humanity. Of course, given that she was speaking with the Great Leeches, the fact that they had any humanity to their speech at all was impressive enough.


    With them gone, she stepped towards the spatial stabilisation point and held out her hand.


    Her energy was mobilised already, having mostly recovered from the minor loss of energy during the brief conversation held with the Leeches, but when she was about to take control of the point, a vast burst of power rushed out of Testament¡¯s location. It crossed the distance in an instant, partly utilising the spatial stabilisation point and partly moving that distance physically, and it crashed into her Arm and forced her back by a step, although she stabilised her footing immediately after that. To prevent further movement, she drilled some of her energy into the ground through her heels.


    Given that this spatial stabilisation point was the last one to connect Testament to the Yi City Web, there was little need to question the purpose of such a force, but it was not the only thing that came towards her.


    Not only was there a noise reminiscent of a lightning storm mixed with a tornado, as well as a chorus of voices, but she spotted a certain method activating from the location of Testament, independent of this torrent of noise. In structure, it seemed similar to her own method of communicating with the districts within reach of her parts of the Yi City Web, but it obviously lacked the support of such a wide-reaching structure and instead used something else.


    ¡°People of Yi City, hold back your Ascendant¡¯s rampage!¡± the voices of over forty voices suddenly emerged from the chaos, both to her and everything reached by the influence of Testament, ¡°She demands proof of our words, of the truth of our lengthy vigil to protect the world, when she herself is an agent of destruction and chaos!¡±


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re so original¡­ I suppose, when you have nothing better to do, you might as well try this,¡± the Ascendant sighed, but she knew that she couldn¡¯t simply let this go.


    Her own pride or status didn¡¯t matter quite as much as the chance of the Greats both having something akin to the Proof of People¡¯s Will, and enough ability to convince those unfamiliar with her that it might be better to side with the Leeches than her. However, their method did provide her with the opportunity to do something that she had come up with an extremely long time ago, when the prospect of fighting the Great Leeches was still something beyond her own ability.


    Luckily, in the time it had taken for the Leeches to re-stabilise the barrier around the Yi District and their Testament, she had finished developing everything necessary to accomplish this. With both hands, she brought out an amount of energy to match that of the Great Leeches, drawing on however much of the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s supply that she was able to without endangering Yi Shi Ming¡¯s efforts. With it, she filled the skies above the Yi District, stabilising all of her oblivion essence in the form of numerous arrays that interweaved the structures of the World¡¯s Truth and Proof of People¡¯s Will, infusing it all with her killing will shaped to resemble the power of jade slips.


    Since the Great Leeches were going to oppose her in this manner, then she would gladly take up the gauntlet and fight them in the exact same way. It helped that she was rather good at this, whereas the Greats were lacking.


    The difference lay simply in the fact that she not only had plenty of information she could give away freely, while benefitting her own goals, whereas the Great Leeches were, as her name for them implied, interested only in draining everything from around them and not providing anything back. Although their previous stance on hiding from most of the world was obviously breached by making an announcement to Yi City as a whole, every drop of information they revealed would set them back a hundred years.


    That much could be seen with the difference in response when they or the Ascendant was asked for information. She would throw out plenty to satisfy the desires of those asking for it, deliberately throwing out so much that they wouldn¡¯t ever dare ask for more, mostly because they could never process all of it within a reasonable timeframe. Meanwhile, the Great Leeches would assert everything they could, but never provide the proper evidence, as they did not have it.


    Thus, while their assertions were always more confident than her own, since she wasn¡¯t as practised as they were in this regard, her evidence was always superior.


    Strictly speaking, the Great Leeches could have some decent evidence hidden away somewhere, like if they simply admitted to what they were keeping sealed and made an effort to explain to the world that they were doing everything to ensure that this foe didn¡¯t escape, they would have a lot more support than they currently do. After all, the Ascendant had deliberately kept things to herself quite a bit, and people would naturally feel distrustful of those that hid away anything ¨C hence why the reaction to the Leeches was not generally positive among the districts and families of Yi City that she had visited so far.


    The problem with revealing such information, from the perspective of the Greats, was twofold. Although the vast majority of the world was opposed to the things they hid away, on the surface at least, there were still those that were interested in allowed the ancient entities to return and reign supreme once more. In particular, it was a common expectation that the outside of Yi City wanted that.


    Most likely, this was just a bit of uninformed prejudice on the part of Yi City¡¯s populace, as most did not like going outside the borders unless it was to the Eastern Continent, but it was impossible to deny the allure of power. Once it was known that the great foes of the past were not slain but imprisoned, even if it had been a million years since they last saw the Planar Continents, there would be those that would eagerly try to get them out, if only to be the first ones to do so and receive their blessings in place of others.


    Of course, those kinds of people would always be in a minority, but the majority wouldn¡¯t necessarily align with the Leeches either. When faced with the possibility of a strong threat, the typical first instinct wasn¡¯t to throw away all weapons and strength, but to become as powerful as one possibly could.


    This was in obvious conflict with the methods used by the Leeches, and few explanations would suffice. Perhaps if it could be guaranteed that the threat would be removed forever after a thousand years of intentional regression in all elements relating to cultivation, then there would be agreement with it on the surface and a great deal of obvious reluctance for anyone to do anything other than the minimum, like halting development rather than outright reversing it. This was an issue all on its own, for them.


    However, there was no such guarantee that could be given. Many forces in the world, like the dragons, were immutable, meaning that they would remain even if all but two humans perished, leaving naught but a man and woman to reproduce and attempt to remake civilization. Once those two had enough time to themselves ¨C whether to imitate a bunch of rabbits or find some manner to have children without that ¨C and cultivation rose to the seventh and eighth realms once more, then the threats the Greats were trying to contain would emerge once more. At that point, even they shouldn¡¯t be present, so at least they would be out of the picture.


    Irrelevant tangents aside, once her methods were condensed, her voice was also able to boom into the ears of all that the Great Leeches were also able to reach.


    ¡°If you wished for a debate, Leeches, you ought to have informed me ahead of time. You should be very well aware that I¡¯ve wanted to talk to the lot of you directly. However, given that this is in a public setting, with so many listeners, I ought to address your words first,¡± Wei Yi spoke, managing to restrain herself from flooding her sentences with profanity to an extent that surprised even her, ¡°Do you mind?¡±


    She didn¡¯t bother awaiting any kind of response, since they¡¯ve already said enough.


    ¡°So, calling me Yi City¡¯s Ascendant is fair enough, since that is the region I am currently most concerned with, but what rampage am I going on? I have slain far fewer than you have when you simply wanted to catch a single young girl from Yi City that happened to be a child of one of your own sacrificial pawns,¡± she said, and with this began to expose the abilities of those arrays she set up. Aside from her voice reaching everyone, everywhere within the reach of Yi City, all that heard her words felt oddly convinced by them.


    It took people a while to understand exactly why this was. Knowledge that shouldn¡¯t have been present in their minds suddenly was, and after a moment of thinking about it, they found that it did not appear to be false nor misleading. Everything aligned with what the Ascendant said, and the case of them raiding the Yi District was unmistakably in her favour.


    The booming chorus of the Leeches attempted to rise, but Wei Yi knocked it down with a boom of her own.


    ¡°It is only obvious for me to demand your Testament, in both meaning of the word, for I have been very open in what I do. I will elevate the planar level of the world, I will give out techniques, and, since there are apparently those that still don¡¯t believe me in this regard, let me do it right now. Everyone, think of a type of technique you wish to possess. A body technique, cultivation method, maybe a movement skill,¡± her voice had the subtle hint of a smile in it that those who stood to lose from her actions were not at all pleased to hear, ¡°Fire, water, wood, earth or metal, perhaps all or none of those ¨C it¡¯s up to you, and it is only the first of the countless techniques you can acquire from my archive in the Kong Prison Realm, once used by the Great Leeches to imprison all those that were against them.


    ¡°Before you ask why I might provide such things to you, since it is rather odd for someone to throw away powerful methods without any seeming gains to myself, so I don¡¯t mind saying that I do have some techniques I keep to myself. Even if I was really keen to give everything away, it is nearly impossible for many of my techniques to be cultivated by others. However, this is where the matter of the threat to the world comes in.¡±


    She didn¡¯t have a physical figure of the Great Leeches to turn to in reality, but she did turn anyway.


    ¡°If there is a threat, which there is and likely more than one, then we shall be as well-equipped as we can possibly be. Every person in the world has the ability to protect themselves, at the very least, and I intend to guarantee that everyone does exactly this.¡±


    To prove the truth of her words, she entered her Ascendant¡¯s Library and turned towards the doors, which were typically left shut for there were none that needed to leave or enter the place regularly. With a shove of her Arm, she opened up the doors and manifested numerous representations of her own techniques, basing them on the response provided by the Proof of People¡¯s Will element of her enormous array. Through the resonance kindly provided to her by the Great Leeches, which they used to contact Yi City first, she then sent out all of those techniques with the jade slip structure.


    The result was that the entire world suddenly had to stop. Even those that had managed to focus on something else up to this point were confronted with the influx of a whole technique, a matter that couldn¡¯t be taken in and understood by most without taking several minutes to process all of the information. That was even if everything was already as simple as it could be.


    Luckily, the Ascendant had noted the capabilities of her mind up to this point, and even if she didn¡¯t understand them, she did understand a few methods to let people comprehend information just a little bit more quickly. Mainly, this was by accentuating their strengths via the power of her own mental energy, which was not the most advanced of methods, but it did well enough to allow her to rush that along to a minute or less, passing along a technique to the level of Full Success at an absolutely unprecedented speed for nearly everyone in the world. On its own, without the conflict between her and the Leeches, this might have permitted her to win everyone over to her side with ease.


    ¡°You have one technique, and it is for free. You can get any number you wish by visiting any district that has a spatial stabilisation point linked to my spatial realm, then proceeding to my archive in the centre. There is no cost, no charge of any kind.


    ¡°Back when I was away from my lands, there had to be a degree of siphoning of mental energy from people to permit the archive to remain, but this practise had been stopped the moment that I returned, so no need to worry about that,¡± she said, in particular to those who might have noticed something abnormal, ¡°If you have a problem with your mental energy reserves, I have plenty of manuals to offer you to improve it, and I would suggest that all cultivate at least one such method.¡±


    She didn¡¯t go on with this, as most weren¡¯t looking for a lengthy explanation of the best practises of cultivation nor her casual advice on the topic, so she returned to the very reason that she began.


    ¡°There is indeed a threat out there, people. It is significant, it is likely to hurt us all quite a bit if we aren¡¯t prepared for it, which is exactly why I am taking action to guarantee that we are prepared. I am giving you techniques, I am going to put up defences around the districts, work with the people of the districts to ensure that they are ready, provide some additional protection in the form of the Ju District¡¯s automatons as well as my Kong Prison Realm¡¯s forces, and the moment that the threat emerges, I promise that I shall be on the front lines, doing everything I can before anyone other than me even has to risk their lives. Of course, there is only one of me out there, so I likely won¡¯t be able to handle everything at once¡­ but I am not the Great Leeches. I will act, even when they are too cowardly to attempt it.¡±


    ¡°Do you truly understand what you speak of? This world could have been safe forevermore if you simply stood by, and yet you now inflict conflict upon all the people of the world simply to sate your own desires! Do you dare to call yourself the hero?¡±


    ¡°I am no hero. I am simply doing that which has to be done. You are mistaken if you honestly believe that the world would decay and remain stagnant, for that is not how planar energy functions! It exists permanently and infinitely, with the Planar Continents and all spatial realms possessing a certain permitted energy quantity that they will maintain. Even if all planar cultivation is abandoned, do you think that there will be no planar beasts? No people that choose the other four facets of cultivation, those being killing intent, spiritual will, physique energy or bloodline power?¡±


    ¡°You understand nothing of the heavens!¡±


    ¡°Fuck me, do you have nothing beside that to say? Don¡¯t understand that, don¡¯t understand this¡­ You would love for the world around you to be mindless fools incapable of even a single coherent thought of their own, wouldn¡¯t you? I have seen your ideal vision of the future under your guiding flame and wind, under your oh so benevolent rule¡­ It is a society that had deliberately broken its legs just to avoid the chance of tripping over, that removed its arms just to make sure that nothing would ever be dropped, that threw away their minds to make sure that they could never make a mistake and then left that to you, perhaps because even you subconsciously realise that your mistakes exceed all others.¡±


    With her killing intent, she broke through the obstruction that had been placed before her, at the spatial stabilisation point. She stole it forcefully, even under their watch and the watch of all in the world, and didn¡¯t hesitate to shift her position to the area where Testament appeared to stand, its light dyed by some heavenly shade completely inappropriate to its true nature.


    ¡°If we forgo all risk to ensure safety as mere beasts, then what point is there in living?¡±


    There was an obvious barrier in the way, and an incredibly powerful one for a spatial realm with no proper standing in the Planar Continents, but that didn¡¯t matter.


    ¡°We have the potential of reaching the ninth realm, and that is where all of us shall go! If the Great Leeches offer an attractive proposition of becoming something worse than common livestock, then you are free to leave, but since its beginning, Yi City has been founded on the principle of growing beyond the fragmented state of the Western Continents! Kong Shi Meng united countless tribes and factions under one banner, encouraged their growth to a far greater state, and we ought to follow such ambitions while we live!¡± the Ascendant proclaimed, ¡°Remember that once upon a time, Yi City sat in the ninth realm and lived! All kinds of horrors were at our doors, but we fought back and remained the most powerful nation in the world, even up to this day! Why can¡¯t we do the same today?


    ¡°If you would see us return to this great state, then that is enough for me. With your wish, I shall have enough strength to bring the fight directly to the Leeches, to give us back all that they stole, and to let Yi City prosper!¡±


    When she formed a technique to wear away the barrier, the feedback was immediate and obvious. Even with her current incredible power, surpassing all Patriarchs known to her by many magnitudes, could still be multiplied to the extent that a spatial realm with the age and capability of Testament was not going to be able to endure her attack for more than a few days, no matter what they did, no matter what they tried.


    Finally, she would have a chance to end the Great Families once and for all.

 V5C78: Inside Testament

    Three days was what it took, in the end. The Leeches tried, they tried to exert so much power that they might have even managed to breach the space of the Planar Continents if they were trying it somewhere else, but in the face of her assault via a hastily created technique to drill away at their defences, they could do naught.


    Surprisingly, the delay did little to dampen the surge of support that the Ascendant had managed to attain to make this possible. To some extent, she was maintaining it by borrowing the notion of television from the otherworldly demons and sending out the image of the drill technique burrowing deeper and deeper into the barrier to all that would see it, but all that did was provide confidence that she was actually doing what she claimed to want and intend. Even without that, she estimated that she would receive enough power through the altered Proof of People¡¯s Will to handle things just fine. It made her just a little proud of the people of Yi City.


    Prior interactions with them had left her mostly neutral on the average person in Yi City, but this was certainly a decent point in their favour.


    Back to the events at hand, however, she stood at the front door of Testament, or what one might term as such. Her technique was moments away from finishing its work, and from what she was able to observe of the spatial realm, she was able to say without a shadow of a doubt that the next moment, she would be able to enter. Indeed, although there was a significant reluctance from the spatial realm at the last moment, it was not enough to stop her.


    A final push with her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow took the small hole formed by her technique and forced it to widen into a spatial gateway, borders formed of pure heavenly light around a dark and windy interior.


    The floor was level with the grassy field on which Testament was placed, but it lacked any hint of natural growth or life. All she saw was the same grey stone that she had stood upon when she had been pulled into some kind of illusion by the Leeches when she first fought with the Great Ning¡¯s male first generation member. However, there was clearly more than the circle that she had seen last time, and no hint of the figures in the distance, who she expected to belong to either the current first generation, or the past members of the Great Families.


    For now, all that stood before her was an empty landscape, so she took a step towards it and held her left hand out once more. She may be able to enter now, but she recalled how troublesome it had been to find the exit of the Kong Holy Grounds when everything was collapsing around her. If the Leeches decided to destroy their Testament with her in it, before she finds some way to prevent it, she might well get swallowed alive and shattered by the voids outside the spatial realm upon its collapse.


    Her seventh realm was good enough for her to hold back against the void between worlds for a while, as the power of the second and third realm was enough to endure for a while if enough people worked together, but her power wasn¡¯t endless. The nascent rift in her dantian could only provide her with a limited rate of regeneration for her oblivion essence, but the void would consume and feed until she was gone, getting through all she had faster with each breath. This acceleration would be unnoticeable at first, but so long as it was present, it was enough. After all, she had no method of escaping the void between worlds, so even if she had a million years, she would have nowhere to go.


    To guarantee her own safety, she used the Kong Prison Realm to stabilise the gateway into Testament, causing crimson and silver to form in a smaller circle within the existing gateway, propping it open even if the Leeches wished it shut.


    Then, she took her first step inside.


    ¡°Cold¡­ one might say it¡¯s like the grave¡­¡± she muttered to herself, though the Great Leeches were welcome to listen.


    All around her, the darkness extended without obvious limit. A storm raged above her, obscuring whatever sky this place might have had, although it did so quietly and rather dimly despite the intense sparks of lightning that she could see occurring above her. Presumably, this was part of whatever Laws the Great Leeches had put into their Testament, and those that they had left out.


    It didn¡¯t matter much to her, for the sky could be made of anything and look like anything so long as it did not obstruct her in her path. The terrain was of far greater significance, as despite its flat and empty nature, there was no hint of a direction for her to travel down. She expected that the Leeches would place her at the further point available to them, but she could see the stone extending to all sides, even behind the gateway she used to enter. Had this been the realm she entered instead of the Kong Holy Grounds, she might have been extremely lost and incapable of doing anything but leaving without any gains or losses, other than time wasted.


    Now, she had divine sense, and plenty of it. It could spread for endless miles without any emotional support, but she didn¡¯t even need to consider the worst conditions, for she was in the place that she had wished to be in for so many years.


    Even before she had the slightest clue to her origins and the identity of her mother, she understood that there were those that wished to make things difficult for her. Some were not acting for any reason beyond pettiness and entertainment for themselves, like the many that chose to beat her up when she was weak and powerless to do anything to stop them. Back then, she had wished to see the source of such things, and put it to an end, but she had presumed that it would only extend this far, and cease somewhere in the Yi District.


    After everything she had gone through since the awakening of the Truth of the Universe, a coincidence that had acted with numerous other coincidences to put her where she stands today, she understood that at least one thread could be traced here, and could be put to an end here. The thread of the mortal world, the one that ended with the seventh realm and could never see the glory of an imperfect rift.


    For her, the Leeches stood at the end of this thread, and the eighth realm was beyond, on a different thread of different circumstances that she wished to overcome.


    ¡°Found you, you fuckers.¡±


    She vanished from the spot, the ground fracturing and turning to dust beneath her as she distorted space itself to shift herself to the entrance to their true lair amidst this stone eternity. Unlike the things that they had showed her up to this point, the area she found was bright and regal, although it was still as muted in light and sound ¨C and in the very motion of space within it ¨C as the skies above, which were covered by a ceiling of magnificent wood unlikely to exist in modern times. She would not be surprised in the slightest if they were both the direct and indirect reason for such a thing, cutting down the trees before ensuring that the world wasn¡¯t powerful enough to sustain the creation of any more.


    There was a lengthy corridor leading up to an enormous open chamber, wherein a map of the Western Continent was placed. Numerous leylines appeared to be drawn upon the surface, and countless spots would flare up for a reason that the Ascendant could guess easily.


    ¡°None but us should have seen the Death of Words. It itself should have perished, once its task was done.¡±


    The voice was strange, but it belonged to two figures in white standing atop it, on an elevated platform leading to another passage elsewhere in this roofed domain. Both were identical in appearance, except that she knew that one was male and the other female. Their voices, however, did not belong to two human figures, that much she could say with absolute certainty even if she wasn¡¯t using her divine sense to peer into their bodies.


    If she had to guess at the reason, it would be the same thing that caused them to seem as if they had been duplicated atop themselves a thousand times. Their forms were akin to identical images cut out and stacked, and this gave them the feeling of oddity that could not be seen if one was to look at appearance alone.


    Still, their words made it all too clear that they were the very ones that she had been looking for.


    ¡°Leeches, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    One began, ¡°Your presence here is incorrect.¡±


    ¡°Remove yourself at once,¡± they replied, almost as if they hadn¡¯t even heard her.


    Most likely, that was because they truly hadn¡¯t.


    With the phantoms she had fought on the outside, she had gotten the impression of the Leeches being slightly mechanical in their behaviour, but they were always responding to the outside world. They couldn¡¯t ever follow a script, so to speak, if they wished to be even a little successful, which they could be described as being due to living for more than a few moments before being wiped out by someone other than the Ascendant. Acting in a freer manner appeared to be harmful to their seal, so therefore none of the entities directly within Testament would do so.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I will. If you are akin to the phantoms on the outside, and you have even a fragment of sentience in you, then I just want you to know that you are the very reason I am here. You only have yourselves to blame for your downfall.¡±


    ¡°Remove yourself at once.¡±


    ¡°No. I had given you the chance to do whatever, so now I will break this place apart.¡±


    She released all of her power at once, her every cultivation path blasting out with so much force that space itself was shaken with her power. It was able to rampage for a single moment before the pair before her appeared to activate, their eyes igniting with heavenly white light as they placed their hands together and reached out with their other hands to release a vast beam of energy towards her, two strands colliding upon her position.


    They were powerful, supported by the spatial realm in the most obvious of manners, with their power being amplified via invisible energy being applied to it, and her power being supressed, but Testament was only able to do so much to her. The latter suppression could be handled easily by her own power from the Kong Prison Realm, and the former¡­


    ¡°Invert!¡±


    The powers of the spatial realms were suddenly flipped, nearly nullifying the attack heading towards her to the point that the dissipating energy from her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow was sufficient to scatter it into naught. Since that energy was already being scattered as a result of expending it for the sake of her Command of Law, executed via the method of her Slaughtering Replacement, this was essentially free for her, and permitted her to use her right hand to manifest a hundred railgun bolts all around her, targeting nothing in particular even when the threat was right before her.


    She had no need to target those two, as their power was based on the spatial realm. Therefore, if she damaged the parts of the spatial realm that provided them with support, and wrecked the foundation of the Leeches, she might be able to damage Testament and yet keep it intact for her own use later.


    At least, that was what she was currently thinking. The Ascendant couldn¡¯t be certain that she would remember such a thing in a few minutes, provided that the fighting had to continue, and she knew that the last time she fought recklessly in a spatial realm with her full power, there was a high chance of completely ruining the place even if a spatial spirit invested their every drop of energy into limiting the damage.


    These railgun bolts hovered in the air for just a moment before the infusion of Obliteration energy allowed them to blast out and collide with the needlessly regal walls of the structure, with just a few flying straight towards the pair while a good dozen others managed to land near them. Each one exploded in a wave of crimson blackness, utterly shredding the terrain and opening it up for her to see.


    Beneath was the same grey stone as everywhere else in the spatial realm, but it could not be broken through with a force of that level. Unlike the constructions made by the Leeches to make this place their home, as well as whatever it was they were creating here, the foundational stone was the spatial realm¡¯s borders made manifest, meaning that she would need to pierce through the realm itself to damage them. They and the central map of the chamber she was in were the only things that remained in perfect condition, and only the latter required her attention.


    She was unfamiliar with the array that made up the underlying components of the map, but the fact that it was incredibly important was immediately clear from the fact that the spatial realm¡¯s power instantly focused upon the map to protect it. This made her very tempted to ruin it specifically.


    Unfortunately, her sane mind recognized that it was not reasonable to do so, since there was still something that could be done with the map if it was indeed the source of their ability to reach out to the world despite lacking a proper connection to the Yi City Web. As she had promised, she would need to share the things she learned inside Testament, and using Testament itself for that purpose was both easiest and most indicative of her victory.


    Moving herself on top of the map, where she would be least likely to damage it with deliberate attacks against her two foes, she brought out the Titanic Conqueror and followed with two pairs of Obliteration beams. Focusing two spheres of what might well be her most used form of energy at her own two hands and the hands of the Titanic Conqueror, she launched them both at the point between the pair that remained in place, their clothes torn but their bodies and skin unaffected entirely by her previous attack. This was not something she could immediately amend, but the first attack gave her a trace of energy to follow with her divine sense.


    The force protecting them would need to continue doing so, and each attack would give her more to work with.


    Indeed, as the blast hit the two, they had only begun to move back in an attempt to evade, and thus the power defending them had to take most of the impact instead, bringing her attention to that which lay behind them. Her divine sense hadn¡¯t noticed anything there at first, but now that she knew she was looking for something, she could direct the Absolute power of her soul to reveal the truth.


    ¡®I could rush straight there, but whatever is defending these two has to have some limited source of power. As such, if I rush in and try and take it on, I may well run into trouble with whatever else resides there. Instead, if I force them back and push them into the path of the thing defending them, I¡¯ll waste their energy, might be able to learn more on the way, and might make it difficult for the spatial realm¡¯s power to retaliate if they don¡¯t wish to harm them at the same time,¡¯ Wei Yi quickly concluded, making her Titanic Conqueror take a step back from her, or the equivalent of a step while floating, ¡®That means that as I go, I can also fuck everything up! Perfect!¡¯


    To further boost her own destructive potential, she manifested numerous Red Phantoms while she went along and got them to attack the nearest wall or structure of interest, when she occasionally came across such things in openings to either side of the corridor.


    ¡°Intruders are to be punished,¡± the left figure in white proclaimed.


    ¡°Testament must remain pure,¡± the figure on the right asserted.


    Together, they separated and used both hands to conjure masses of anchor-like phantoms, before which a series of planar constructs formed in the shapes of spikes, each aimed directly at the Ascendant regardless of her own movement. For every dozen phantoms, there was a single spike, but the concentration of phantoms was so enormous that the spikes themselves acted as a sufficient shield for the pair and were able to conduct and break any attack aimed at an area rather than a fine and precise point.


    Some of her attacks were sufficient to damage the spikes while others outright shattered them, but just as Wei Yi had nigh infinite oblivion essence thanks to her nascent rift, they had a boundless supply of energy from that one point in the distance, luckily placed on the main path of corridors and chambers that she could easily lead the pair down. Every other attack pushed them back by a step, and since she could strike many times in a second, their movement was very hurried.


    From the chamber with the map, which she kept her divine sense on just in case, she continued to advance into the corridor behind it, then another chamber, some twists and turns, and so on. While she proceeded onwards, she did occasionally stall and limit the force of her abilities to destroy larger spaces or otherwise examine the areas she came across. She expected at least some place to contain other Leeches, provided that the spatial realm was incredibly large, but even if she presumed that some were invisible to her combination of divine sense and soul¡¯s power, she was unable to see anything or anyone of note.


    Her issue with this was that the space was vast and detailed, filled with numerous rooms and even bits of furniture, but there were no people here at all. From her understanding of the Greats, she knew that the third and second generations would stay within their chosen mansions and residences, but since there was so much room occupied here, then there should have been someone using it.


    If so, where were those people?


    She had no answer to that now, especially since she suspected that the first generation wouldn¡¯t be engaging in common activities or forms of entertainment, which were present in Testament in small quantities. It was a mystery that couldn¡¯t remain for long, so she didn¡¯t worry too much about this.


    Other than the minor point of confusion in regards to the wasted space, she was more interested in understanding the structure of the area and breaking it all down. Her intention was to weaken the stability and power of Testament, so figuring out the layout of the place was important for the potential detection of any kind of channels running through the place. Perhaps everything was laid out so as to produce a pseudo array over the entire spatial realm, and perhaps it could play a major role in throwing her out even if she did her best to remain.


    There was also the possibility of the spatial realm rebuilding itself after she departed and using a certain lapse in her attention to make her believe that nothing behind her had changed. If she ended up travelling in a circle without noticing, finding identical chambers would make it far easier to realise the truth and alter her plans quickly.


    However, she did not end up needing to use such knowledge, for once she pushed the pair back enough, she came across a chamber of interest without its arrangement relative to the outside.


    It was filled with pedestals and numerous objects of indeterminate value. From a pure visual standpoint, she might have guessed that this was the collection of some old man or woman with odd interests, for there was little cohesion between any of the objects ¨C and some of the pedestals contained broken items, with some being outright ground to dust ¨C but her divine sense informed her of the vaguest and subtlest points somewhere within those objects. Each one was an otherworldly gift.


    Given that the first time she had come across the Leeches after escaping the Kong Prison Realm, they were hunting someone making use of the Arrow of Artemis, she wasn¡¯t surprised by that alone. The number of otherworldly gifts was also above her expectations, but not particularly amazing to behold.


    Rather, her interest was in the manner in which a number of these otherworldly gifts had managed to retain their azure lights and yet damage the otherworldly gifts. She had not had much success in damaging otherworldly gifts without using one to separate it from the azure light, thus making it more vulnerable to her influence, but the opposition these Leeches had to the otherworldly gifts would indicate that they shouldn¡¯t use any gifts that still contain an azure light, which was not a thing that they could actually verify without the use of either Absolute divine sense, or an otherworldly gift of their own, which she couldn¡¯t locate with a glance.


    That it wouldn¡¯t be possible to do so with most otherworldly gifts wasn¡¯t something that needed to be mentioned, for few had a direct correlation between appearance and function.


    Her Purifier¡¯s Seal didn¡¯t look like it should be able to melt apart objects into their components, the Truth of the Universe certainly didn¡¯t look like it was capable of storing numerous pieces of information and calculating even more of them in moments, the House of Gold was shaped like a book and shouldn¡¯t have been able to contain as vast a spatial storage as it does, and so on. Therefore, one of the otherworldly gifts here might well be usable for locating azure lights, provided that the Leeches wished to risk using a gift in this manner.


    Whatever the case was, she had some interest in these items. Simply picking them up would be equivalent to suicide, for it would let the azure light invade her body and thus ruin all of her attempts to prevent such a thing.


    That made it rather complicated, since she was sure that something would keep these items out of her grip if she failed to pick them up now, but she couldn¡¯t pick them up now since it would take time that she didn¡¯t really have. Her current plan was essentially just to barge through the place and obliterate everything in sight, and this was not conducive to careful operation and extraction of azure lights.


    Hence, she needed to use a slightly different approach, and so she dedicated her mental presence to the production of red phantoms that would strike with Obliteration, which was the most effective attack by far due to a perfect combination of forces to push her foes back, and leapt to one of the furthest pedestals from the pair. Before opening the transparent cover atop it, she examined it.


    The material used for the covers atop the pedestals was akin to glass, but made of some kind of stronger material that was then inscribed with numerous defences to prevent the objects within from influencing the outside. Whether the Leeches realised it or not, most of the defensive methods were actually closer to illusory inscriptions, acting upon the otherworldly gifts in a manner resembling the array of the Truth of the Universe, which was able to effectively recall the azure lights to wherever it was that they came from.


    In this instance, all of the protective inscriptions ended up merely preventing the otherworldly gift from reacting to the outside world, with the power of Testament adding on to boost that further.


    ¡®I can copy parts of this and put my stance of taking the things that work from the Leeches and discarding all the bullshit that comes with it into practise,¡¯ Wei Yi thought while she attempted to bring out some of her own attention from the pair of Leeches before her to the glass-like covers atop the pedestals without drawing too much of it. This was a problem to her due to her ever-present inability to literally split her mind into several pieces.


    Luckily, after some brief analysis, she managed to discover a good place for breaching the obstructing inscriptions, and was in and ready to use her power of the Purifier¡¯s Seal to separate the azure light from the otherworldly gift.


    ¡°Contact with the weapons of the invaders is not permitted!¡±


    ¡°You shall distance yourself at once!¡±


    The two suddenly stopped simply gathering their planar constructs and fired them out, and in doing so perfectly demonstrated the difference between ordinary constructs and her own railgun bolts. All of the spikes they launched at her flew quickly, sufficient to prevent most cultivators from reacting in time, but they had no true kinetic force, and were simply being made to shift position rather than truly moving. This was very much a positive for her, as aside from showing that the Leeches inside Testament hadn¡¯t learnt, it meant that she was easily able to handle it with the phantoms she was already making.


    Obliteration was good at breaking down energy, but there was a certain deficiency at ceasing the advance of physical objects, hence her need to take out the automatons of the Ju District before they could attack her. Facing the exact opposite of their methods, she was now free to separate the azure lights from the otherworldly gifts.


    She began with a large white feather, then a simple stone, then a pile of ash, then some bones stuck together for no obvious reason, and more. To make sure that she didn¡¯t fuck up any part of the process, she followed very strict timing and never tried to use an otherworldly gift and learn of its power, nor did any of them force themselves into her body like the Mirror of Potential and House of Gold had. As such, she wasn¡¯t sure whether the items would be of any use to her, now or in the future, but that wasn¡¯t the most significant point. Rather, she needed to grab everything with her mental energy, bring it with her, and then advance towards her original destination, which was now so much nearer than before.


    Otherworldly gifts had power, that much could be guessed from a simple glance at one of them in action, but they didn¡¯t necessarily need to be used in the same manner as they were meant to be used. The current Xin Patriarch had figured this out, for instance, and managed to awaken the power of her soul in a process that the Ascendant still hadn¡¯t been able to fully replicate within her own body, without the use of any outside otherworldly gifts.


    It might well turn out that she would not have the chance to apply them properly before using their influence over the Planar Continents in a more raw form to defeat the Leeches.


    That¡¯s not to say that they would all be expended in such a manner, as the otherworldly gifts sealed off by the Xin District were all usable many times, but her oddly reliable intuition did lead her to believe that she would not be facing the same level of opposition as the Xin family.

 V5C79: The Crowded Sky of a Million Years

    ¡°Every weapon of the invaders has been compromised!¡±


    ¡°Retreat to the Crowded Sky is necessary.¡±


    No sooner than the pair said that, they were already in rapid retreat, prompting the Ascendant to take the items she had collected and chase after them immediately. Even if they had no plan prepared to take her on once they reached that Crowded Sky of theirs, it would be foolish to give them time to come up with one while she still had the advantage.


    Fortunately for her, imparting physical force upon the otherworldly gifts via her killing will neither counted as touching them physically, nor as her attempting to directly use her energy to manipulate them, so dragging them alongside her was easy. Without the obstacle of the Leeches, she was also able to focus her attacks purely on her surroundings and the rest of her attention on movement, so she made rapid progress. A room filled with something of use would have slowed her down, but perhaps due to the general trend of making rooms purely to occupy space, she didn¡¯t come across anything of the sort until the chamber that stood before the place the pair had fled to.


    The chamber was very singular in its purpose, and that purpose was most obvious no matter where one looked ¨C unless one looked at some random floor tile and ignored all else, of course.


    A library of great proportions was laid out before her, numerous shelves lined up in a very simple grid, each one three floors high and absolutely filled to the brim with tomes. There did not appear to be any sorting based on the cultivation realm the techniques were intended to be for, but they were nonetheless ordered vaguely appropriately due to the order instead being chronological. The closest tomes to the place where she entered were clearly obtained relatively recently, their material far from fresh, but hardly weathered by time.


    Nothing of the sort could be said about the furthest books here, which were closer to compressed dust than pages bound together to be read by someone. This was even with the spatial realm¡¯s influence slowing down the aging of all within, meaning that the true age of the books was significantly higher than it appeared.


    Still, even in this condition, the words on the pages still existed, and thus everything that she wanted to know was present. Everything from the secrets of the seventh realm to some slightly more minor yet vital aspects of the ninth realm, paving a clear road for anyone with any cultivation path at all to advance to the ninth realm if they so wished. Of course, there was a bit of a problem in that regard, and it was that the Ascendant somehow managed to avoid every standard cultivation path of planar energy and step onto the path of oblivion essence mixed in with just about everything under the sun of the Planar Continents. It was fortunate that she had no intention of taking an ordinary path.


    Her Ascendant¡¯s Dao, and investigations into the Dao of Law, were sufficient, but integrating all of the techniques here ought to be sufficient to bring her into the ninth realm safely.


    The techniques here had also came at the wrong time. Had she managed to chance her way before she even held the House of Gold, she might have been able to acquire a nice series of techniques to actively utilise against her opposition, but the issue originated from her current arsenal of methods giving her no room to fit such things into her combat system. The most that she could do was integrate some elements into her Obliteration energy, and her overall Dao comprehension.


    In a way, her attention was thusly more focused upon the thing that lay behind the oldest shelves and tomes, wherein the power of the ninth realm was clear even though no energy was imbued into the ancient dust resembling books. There, at the back, was an obstruction of light within a small doorway, at least in comparison to those that she had traversed up to this point.


    It would only be sufficient for two men to enter at once, rather than the open arch on the other side of the room through which a small army could likely run through unimpeded, and it was currently blocked by a pure veil of light, akin to the heavenly glow marking the gateway to this spatial realm. Through there, although she could not see a thing clearly with either her divine sense or her sight ¨C something unusual, but expected from a spatial realm as ancient and well-maintained as Testament had to be ¨C she could almost feel a vast field of sparkling lights, almost akin to the night¡¯s sky illuminated by numerous stars.


    Such a thing was very different from her typical cosmos, whether it was the original view through her cosmic energy or the current crimson sight visible through oblivion energy, although an outside observer may not be able to tell the difference. Frankly, without seeing it in person, she couldn¡¯t be sure whether her impression of whatever lay on the other side was even accurate, so it may be far closer than she imagined.


    Nonetheless, what mattered more was that there was a barrier, and she could recognise the structure of the defensive layer.


    Last time, it took her a very long to take her out, and it was on the outside, with the full support of the people of Yi City being needed to get her the result in anything resembling a sensible timeframe. This time¡­ she might have had less power from her version of the Proof of People¡¯s Will array right now, but with everything around her, she could smile confidently.


    ¡°Alright then¡­ People of the world, I have found the archive of the Great Leeches!¡± she exclaimed, forcing her voice outside of Testament, ¡°The rest of the Leeches seem to be hiding away in a part of their Testament, but since they¡¯ve left everything else unattended, let me give you a gift!¡±


    She spread her energy out and connected her will to the map in the earlier chamber, taking the time to trace exactly how it connected to her current location along all of the corridors she had travelled. When she did so, taking in everything at once, she realised that the leylines depicted on the map were nearly identical to the layout of the corridors of Testament¡¯s chambers, and also that the overall layout of the interior area matched the shape of Yi City as a whole. In other words, she understood how the Leeches managed to achieve their method to contact Yi City without the Yi City Web.


    Rather than having a network of nodes all across Yi City, as the Web did, they created a smaller version of everything in their spatial realm and then projected it outwards as a substitute, effectively gaining the ability to benefit from both a wide net such as the Yi City Web and a compact array with precise points like something a reasonable person might create for their own use. For once, their actions showed the slightest hint of genius.


    It was fortunate for her that this was the full extent of it, for their decision to place the library right next to the barrier she wished to break meant that she could maximise its power in the Proof of People¡¯s Will portion of her array, and the size of the indoor region of Testament was just large enough for her to be able to reach out to it and control all of their map array and substitute leylines with ease. The method used by the Leeches was certainly different to her own, and through it she knew that she could repeat what she had done not long ago and provide the world with a technique that they would find most useful, but this difference prompted her to change her approach to her gift just a little bit¡­ no, quite a bit.


    Then, instead of a single technique, tailored to an individual based on their thoughts and talents, she provided every single person with a mixture of information. Some was incredibly specific, relating either to the techniques she had previously passed down, or properties that they would greatly benefit from, and there was also plenty of more general things, like insights on how to manipulate energy.


    Altogether, everything she had provided was essentially equivalent to the learning that could be done in a hundred years by another.


    In the ages prior to Kong Shi Meng and his Yi City, the disorganised tribes might have only been able to collect the same quantity of insight within a thousand years. Perhaps the eastern sects might have the ability to acquire a similar quantity of knowledge within a smaller length of time, but from what she understood of their power structure, it would be granted only to the most capable and talented, as well as their sect master. Thus, by providing such a large amount of understanding to everyone at once, she effectively provided more than a hundred years of pure experience to everyone who was in range.


    She used her existing mental capability to accelerate the comprehension process for the others, since it was essentially necessary for anyone other than her to go through the equivalent of the library she stood in within a few minutes at most.


    The moment that all of this really set in for the people that she supported with this method, she almost found the array she had constructed collapsing as the positive feedback from the technique was so immense that it overwhelmed it completely. Of course, with brute force and some quick modifications she was able to amend such things, and thus make full use of the power surging through her method and flood her with enough force to distort the barrier before her even prior to using any techniques.


    Once she did manifest her breaching technique, the obstruction of light trembled and shook with increasing frequency as the power provided to her also grew.


    For the first time in quite a while, her power was able to prompt the refinement of her body and meridians, although there wasn¡¯t much room for progression in this sense. Her every path was already in the seventh realm, approaching the peak of what could be done without drawing upon nigh endless energy from the eighth and ninth realms, but that didn¡¯t stop the path of the Ascendant.


    In that regard, she had to appreciate that she did possess the Ascendant¡¯s Dao, even if the origin was somewhat dubious. It did not align with her preferred path, and the extent to which this was true appeared to grow with every moment that she made any advancement to her own Dao of Law, but the benefits of aligning with everything and growing past existing standards was incredibly helpful to her progression of power. Without it, she would have certainly had a rather bad time whenever she needed to deal with things that Law could not overcome in as simple a manner.


    Her body had been purged of all impurity long ago, and yet her energy was able to keep burning through in perpetuity, refining every cell and particle composing the entirety of her form to some unseen, unreachable point that was nevertheless drawing ever closer to her.


    In a moment, some threshold unknown to her and the world as a whole was passed, and the barrier was pierced. Her body flashed for just a moment as her oblivion essence was raised to an absurd level and repeated a phenomena of the early cultivation realms, the power surging out and constructing a thin shell of force around her. Unlike the armour that she would see in those realms, this was a layer over her skin, hair, and every part of her body that was exposed to the outside.


    For the briefest of moments, she was akin to an entity of pure energy in appearance, and everything beneath that layer was so suffused with oblivion essence that there was more of it than her own body.


    Even that could only last for a brief moment before it was exhausted and her body and energy returned to normal, and the effects seemed almost non-existent when compared to the benefits provided by everything else that strengthened her. Still, in her current state, a small addition was multiplied significantly, and it would only take her a little while to see the effects in full, as the obstacle of light before her broke apart and revealed a sea of stars above a pillar of stone, surrounded on the sides by a storm that was even more familiar to her than the exact stone that was laid out before her, for she stepped forward right away to look around.


    When she peeked out through the boundary of the door, she witnessed that the storm appeared to expand into the library, but that much was obviously not true, for she was very familiar with the state of the library.


    Thus, it was obviously a spatial gateway of some kind, and she crossed through a moment after.


    ¡°Your intrusion shall not be forgiven. You tread where you should never be, and now you will pay the price,¡± a voice came from the depths, and the gateway behind her attempted to close while the vague shadows of figures drew forward from the storm, the stars in the distance also moving forward alongside it.


    The stars were completely monochromatic, white on the black backdrop of the storm and dark sky, and in this it was distinguishable easily from her oblivion essence.


    Meanwhile, the voice was as one would expect from the Leeches at this point ¨C mechanical, synthetic, and as blank and void of emotion as anything in the world could be while still resembling humanity. It was rather fantastic, in fact, for the entities should have been entirely human regardless of their particular savage proclivities when it came to their method of acquiring multiple anchors, and yet it spatial spirits proved to be far more human in their behaviour from her experience.


    ¡°Yeah, good luck with that,¡± she managed to remain calm, but her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow flared as if the power within had tripled in a single moment, signifying her true emotions, ¡°I won¡¯t leave a single one of you alive.¡±


    The mouths of her opponents couldn¡¯t be seen from her position, and the Crowded Sky made it very difficult to ascertain any detail of their appearances, but she didn¡¯t care whether or not they were prepared for her. After everything they¡¯ve done in the Planar Continents, and in Yi City most importantly, they should be more than ready for all of the retribution that would come their way. After all, in this moment, Wei Yi did not come as just herself, but as the representative of all those in Yi City that wished the Leeches gone, or wanted her to take their place. As the one who could revive Yi City¡¯s glorious past, or usher in an even greater future, after it had been ravaged in small part by time and in far greater part by the endless greedy biting swarm that were the Great Leeches.


    She had to put them to an end, now and forever.


    Her body vanished from the spot, and she reappeared a dozen metres in the air, the Titanic Conqueror behind her and numerous red phantoms accompanying her as they all blasted out Obliteration energy in ¨C frankly ¨C excessive quantities.


    It pierced the storm and hit the bodies of the figures in the dark, instantly revealing their forms with the vibrant crimson. Each one was as one might expect an elderly member of each of the Great Leech families to look, with the ones she was facing being a man and a woman of the same family. Their features were near identical, and their auras were as well, but it was in this respect that they differed most significantly from the second and third generation members she had fought up to this point, as well as the three pairs from the first generation.


    Those Leeches had no more than fifty anchors each, and so their power was relatively subdued in comparison to the absurd emanation of force from the two she could see with clarity.


    The effect was so ludicrous that it nearly nullified her oblivion essence in the form of Obliteration before it could hit them, and the rest was scattered upon the collision, resulting in little more than insignificant singes upon their skin. It recovered a moment after that, so it was truly and entirely worthless in terms of damage.


    Obviously, she continued attacking with her full power while examining the cause for such an event.


    ¡®Not even a hundred anchors would be able to provide them with so much power, not when I am at my most powerful state in quite a while. Their realm is still limited to the seventh realm, and there is a certain limit to the power of anchors, so¡­¡¯


    All was as usual, save for the battlefield, and the most unusual factor about the battlefield was not the storm, which could have a dozen origins that would have no relevance to her, but the distant stars. While she couldn¡¯t immediately guess their nature from afar, when her divine sense was muddled by the power of Testament, she could guess that they were not stars in a manner that the otherworldly demons would be able to recognise. There was little reason for the Leeches to put up such things, especially not as densely as they were positioned here. As such, it was only natural to conclude that they were something else.


    Judging by their behaviour up to this point, it shouldn¡¯t be anything like an azure light, which would be the worst possible scenario. The Truth of the Universe could resolve the existence of a few azure lights by forcefully recalling them, but a hundred or thousand would be far too much with her current rate of oblivion essence recovery. It would also mean that she wouldn¡¯t have a chance to affect even one azure light, since the Leeches would be able to kill her in an instant.


    The most reasonable answer was that the distant gleaming was that of anchors, but logically speaking, there should be no more than those surrounding the few before her.


    ¡®The previous Leeches disappeared to somewhere, but there is no reason for them to have actually vanished¡­ Unless they were placing themselves in an area where those other than the Leeches couldn¡¯t possibly explore. Testament fits that description best, and this room is the most difficult to access within it¡­¡¯ the Ascendant thought as the attacks of her foes began to come for her.


    Although there were only two first generation Leeches that were currently on the offensive, with other indistinct figures remaining in the storm, they conjured planar constructs rapidly, and their power and quantity alike was a force to be reckoned with.


    For instance, the traditional point beams were expanded to vast rays the width of four metres each, capable of piercing an ordinary barrier of oblivion essence within seconds, even though they did not leave a single mark upon the stone. The safest thing for the Ascendant to do was dodge each one, but that took up quite a bit of her body¡¯s potential movement and limited what she was able to do against them, or any of the other projectiles and attacks that she had to face. Larger spikes, akin to those used by the previous pair belonging to an uncertain Great Family, constructs of various powerful beasts, and more that she didn¡¯t pay much attention to.


    It had been quite a long while since she had been forced to engage with the battle to such an extent, and before she could get used to the rhythm of battle and do anything without disrupting it, the other figures drew forward just a little. Their eyes gleamed akin to the stars that followed them, and when their attacks began, she was forced to defend instead of evading.


    However, with four sources of power instead of two, she had a greater degree of clarity in regards to its origin. She knew for a fact that it was not coming from them, and that it was still the power of the seventh realm, simply multiplied in a manner that wasn¡¯t possible with more anchors. As such, it would not only require the use of an unusual method, but also the degree of control that couldn¡¯t be exhibited by a force as small as the one before her, like the original pair or the second one that emerged only shortly after.


    The easiest way to achieve that, the actual difficulty of it aside, was the combination of several minds onto a single task.


    To confirm her theory, she needed a clear look through the storm, a thing that could somehow obstruct both her mental energy and her body, both of which were imbued with the power of her soul. Thus, she needed to invoke a great quantity of energy in a manner that couldn¡¯t be supressed by Testament¡¯s energy and Laws.


    With all of the otherworldly gifts that she had been dragging behind her, she formed a certain arrangement of nodes and directed the planar energy of Testament towards them, manifesting an array out of them. She didn¡¯t have the time to analyse any of the gifts yet, and so she didn¡¯t know their exact function, but the simple fact that the world itself lacked knowledge of them, and couldn¡¯t interact with them as it would with anything originating from it, meant that these objects contained vast potential.


    By targeting that potential towards the forces of the world, Laws could be superseded with one¡¯s own will, and the advancement that one wished to occur would do so promptly. This method permitted the awakening of a soul¡¯s latent power, eroding the barriers to such a development and letting it happen right away, and since the Ascendant was the most knowledgeable individual when it came to the Dao of Law that might have ever lived in the Planar Continents, she had the confidence to break away a layer or two of stormy clouds and look upon that which might be witnessed with one¡¯s own eyes. It merely required her command to happen.


    There were a number of words that would do, but words had meaning, and their meaning correlated with the exact function of her instruction. Picking wisely was greatly advantageous in comparison to saying whatever she wished.


    Hence, she raised her Arm and proclaimed, ¡°Show!¡±


    Out of all the options, it was difficult to pick just one word that would do exactly what she wished. For instance, ¡®reveal¡¯ might not necessarily show her that which she wanted to see, and could intensify the obstructing effect of the storm by revealing parts of its true nature that she had no ability to perceive right now. The Ascendant could control the power of Law to a certain extent, but before she reached the stage of Full Success ¨C or the first true realm, if she lucked into acquiring such a thing ¨C there was a limit to the power and control she could exhibit at a time, with the power of her Arm.


    Showing was much more straightforward. Implicitly, it targeted only that which was unseen, and only that which was not currently seen about things that were visible in some portion. Hence, whatever there was that she did not yet see, she would see and would not miss anything that fit that description, which she believed to be the answer she sought.


    Indeed, as the power of the otherworldly artefacts burst out and her Arm returned to little more than a frame of feeble smoke, the storm parted and unveiled a series of figures, much akin to the giant shapes before her, each one hanging with their head tilted to the side as if an invisible rope sat around their neck. It was a curious visual, to be sure, but what interested her far more was the fact that both had a series of anchors each, ranging from three to four dozen in number, as well as a clear link to a distant surface that encompassed this entire stone arena, previously hidden behind the clouds of the storm.


    All of the figures, both the giant ones she was fighting now and the smaller ones in the distance, were linked to that distant surface, and it was clearly acting as a barrier for something.


    From that, she had an understanding of what to do. The barrier was linked to the stability of the Leeches, and the past first generations were hanging from the air to boost the power of the current first generation, who were supplying their will to stabilise the barrier.


    Breaking a single part of this loop would destroy all others, which meant that there was little chance of her maintaining the barrier while ending the lives of the current and old first generation Leeches, but she wasn¡¯t too concerned about that. She had already understood that this would be highly difficult, if not impossible, so she was more interested in the best method to fracture this cycle in a manner that would minimize the excess damage to the barrier, which was simply not necessary, as far as she knew.


    Their connection to the barrier was not to the extent that they would only live and die together, and so the only efforts that needed to be invested were those that would prevent the immediate collapse of the barrier, rather than those that would only damage it. One might not be able to find much of a difference between the two, but then the Ascendant would tell them to search for their brain first.


    She needed a moment to calculate the best manner to target the weaknesses of her opponents, so she rushed straight into battle once more and left her otherworldly artefact collection behind her, flinging numerous phantoms and masses of Obliteration energy everywhere. Wei Yi could take a few hits now that she knew what she was doing, since there was no chance of the battle dragging out forever. There were a few points that contributed to this, but aside from those already stated, the fact that none of the Leeches ¨C current or past, moving or frozen in a hanged position ¨C were in the eighth realm or above mattered a great deal.


    When comparing her own recovery of energy through the nascent rift, and the replenishment of the world to meet a certain quota of planar energy in a region, her method won out, and had the advantage of providing her with energy that she instantly had control over. In fact, this was also very significant.


    Whether one was in the first realm, or the ninth, they could only control their own energy, not the energy of the world around them. Even the Ascendant could only grasp everything around her quickly, not command energy that was unbound. Thus, even if the rate of replenishment for natural planar energy doubled, then the Leeches would still require some time to take control of it, and they did not have Testament¡¯s aid in this regard, as there was no spatial spirit to contribute to complex tasks. Instead, their spatial realm was devoted entirely to maintaining their barrier and the map of Yi City¡¯s array.


    Her oblivion essence was stronger, and it would recover more quickly than their planar energy. Their power was not infinite, and thus she could fight on for as long as she wished.

 V5C80: Testament Falls

    Four minutes and thirty-nine seconds might seem like a brief time when one is doing something relaxing and safe, but when one had the mental capacity of the Ascendant and was in the middle of a battle that now had her engaging with a total of forty-six opponents, this was a very long time.


    She lost several limbs ¨C several times ¨C and might have been disfigured to the point of complete unrecognizability if not for her rapid regeneration and the ability to survive nearly anything. Instead of that, a moment was enough for her vast vitality to reconstruct her body, and a moment more was needed for her loose killing will to reconstruct her Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival. Technically, she could have abandoned those alongside her star metal boots and armour, which now lay in the House of Gold until a time when it could reasonably be used without needing to be replaced every moment, but it didn¡¯t seem right.


    Killing something in the nude was only suitable when her opponent was going to bleed so much that she might drown in their blood, and the Leeches were rather devoid of blood in this place.


    Of course, that was all under her careful calculation to minimize the wasted energy on recovery while maximising the amount spent on her mental processes. The calculation of the proper arrangement for herself and the otherworldly gifts behind her was a difficult one only because she lacked experience in this exact matter, but it would be forever added to her arsenal afterwards.


    As such, she accepted the injuries, and once she had the right method calculated and planned out, she put it into action right away. The previous dozens of red phantoms suddenly multiplied to a thousand, all spreading out before her, some standing on the ground and others high up in the air, and all of them manifested a small black sun that oddly gleamed within the darkness, standing out amidst the returning storm.


    The Leeches seemed to be aware of the power of the thing they faced, for all of the figures instantly drew back and set up a series of defensive arrays before themselves. On the surface, this was a good response, but as usual, their thinking was far too mechanical.


    Although their quantity of anchors differed, their techniques were effectively the same, and the overall resonance of their energy was very similar. Due to them all doing the exact same thing at the same time, without any of the individual Leeches, or pairs of Leeches, they produced a single defence that, in other circumstances, might have been inordinately effective against someone that lacked the ability to disrupt their resonance, but the Ascendant wanted this exact outcome to occur. As such, she stabilised her footing and brought back the otherworldly gifts, moving them with the greatest speed possible to prevent the Leeches from being able to respond in time to ruin her plans.


    All of the otherworldly gifts were placed into the appropriate space right away, and her power was directed towards them and into them without a hint of restraint. A wave of crimson was sent into them from her body, tearing the Crimson Robe of the Third Arrival yet again, but when it collided with the array she had formed, the result was magnificent.


    The collision was akin to what might occur if light was passed through a magnifying glass, for it was a relatively small wave that suddenly expanded to a thousand times its original size. Every drop of oblivion essence was not only made vast, but a singular drop of otherworldly nature was somehow inherited upon it and thus acted upon the entire world of Testament, causing space to tremble and planar energy to be disrupted. Although it shook with the rhythm Wei Yi partly copied from the Overwhelming Resonance of the Reclaimed Lands, when one peered upon it with ordinary spiritual perception, the image was very different.


    It was akin to a void that was briefly flashing in and out of existence, existing one moment and completely vanishing the next, and yet every single state existed at the same time. From the memories of the otherworldly demons, she could associate this phenomenon with their quantum mechanics, but she didn¡¯t think that either she or the demons she had interacted with so far truly understood whatever it was that their origin worlds had come up with.


    The most significant point was that the void did and did not exist at once, meaning that it could bypass the most common of defences, those that were being used to stop the dark suns.


    Perhaps the Leeches would have understood what happened and changed their plans to prevent this from proceeding, for planar energy could still influence the otherworldly gifts so long as it was done deliberately, albeit to a lesser extent, but this wave occurred in an instant. One moment, there was only the black storm, but the next an intense crimson cosmos overwhelmed it all.


    Both behind and in front of the Leech figures, the stars and nebulae overcame everything. They could not see a single thing around them, so even when their barriers were shattered and the energy traversed towards a target far more vital to them, these former mortal men and women had no idea. Only when something absolutely vital about them suddenly shattered did they recover their ability to perceive the world about them, a flash of human thought reappearing within their minds as they pierced through the overwhelming cosmos and looked upon the source of their distress.


    There, the fragments of a hundred anchors scattered across space.


    All of a sudden, it was as if the fog in the form of the cosmos cleared, and they recognised the problem, but it was not before the shattering of one anchor caused the collapse of two more beside it. Each one was positioned far away from the other affected anchors, so none were directly connected, and thus each of the hundred anchors affected two individual anchors, which were brought to the brink of collapse just as quickly.


    There were countless anchors here, and thus even as the collapse spread once more, it barely affected the total quantity. In fact, there were literal millions of stable anchors here, assisted by the presence of all of the Great Ning¡¯s anchors other than those belonging to the latest of the first generation, allowing the power of the inhuman first generation to equal and surpass the Ascendant¡¯s. This would have been enough to nullify the collapse and return to bringing her down, but their anchors needed to be placed together, and they needed to work together in an incredible resonance that multiplied their ability greatly.


    When one anchor in a sequence was broken, the resonance was shaken. After two were damaged, there was a significant effect upon the whole. Best of all, once the first shattered and the second spread its damaging influence outwards, there was a certain degree of damage that could not be undone nor negated even if no more damage occurred.


    Thus, over twenty-five million anchors were shaken by the destruction of a mere few hundred, and as a result they caused the distant forms of the past first generation Leeches to become a little less guarded, and a little more prominent.


    ¡®Combining that with the manifestation of emotional thought in those at the front lines, the barrier ought to be weakened by a certain extent. Now, to ensure that this instance produces a downward spiral, and the result I am looking for will occur even if I was to drop dead the moment after and fail to uphold my promises and adhere to my desires,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded, confirming this when the faintest crack formed upon the distant sphere around this battlefield of stone and storm. She used her red phantoms to throw out the black suns, then moved into battle herself.


    The suns were incredibly powerful on their own, but with the current otherworldly state of much of her released energy, even their current small states were potentially lethal for any of the Leeches. Of course, while their protective layer of anchors was damaged, not all of the distant first generation Leech bodies were vulnerable yet, a fact that they managed to use to their advantage.


    Out of those current first generation members that were threatened by the suns, which was unfortunately not all, the majority moved around to enforce the defences that they had and set up more planar shields wherever they could. The rest moved with the remaining numbers of the first generation to breach the line of the red phantoms, which were already disintegrating on their own, and tried an all-out barrage upon the Ascendant, clearly hoping to overcome her regenerative ability.


    In doing so, however, there was a clear dissonance with the aura of the barrier encompassing the battlefield, and so their strength was affected. For far too long had they resided in a state of pure mechanical movement and though, driven in some part by the Law of Testament itself more so than any of their own creations, and even if the operation of their barrier did not rely upon such a state of mind, simply disrupting the current state would lead to negative consequences in the short term, where their mental energy shifted rom the barrier to the current state of the battle. Perhaps it would earn them a tactical advantage ¨C something that seemed to be true so far, since the current attack was already more dangerous than those that came before ¨C but it was too little and too late, with them having too little practise.


    Wei Yi waited for all of the point beams and planar constructs to charge and fly towards her before vanishing from the spot and appearing high in the air, reaching part-way into the storms.


    From there, she thrust out her hand and unleashed a storm of oblivion essence to confront the storms of Testament, but after a brief while she allowed it to drop into the ground, the quantity vastly overwhelming the surface of the stone. However, not long after, it sank into the ground and seemed to vanish from sight.


    The moment after that, a series of cosmic limbs suddenly emerged from the ground. Hands came first, followed by heads without a hint of an eye, only a layer of crimson stars and nebulae peering through the veil of reality, and the torso and legs soon after. In structure, they were very akin to the abyssal monstrosities of Wei Yi¡¯s first working attempt of the Replica Abyssal Eye, but instead of having much offensive capability of their own, they instead had a series of three runes floating before them, all of which took a little longer to form but were ready by the time they got onto their own two feet.


    Half of the Leeches on the offensive tried to strike them down, but the hundreds of cosmic entities responded instantly with the touch of one of the runes. Some went for the first rune, and others chose the third, but the second was untouched for the moment.


    Those that touched the first rune were those meeting a point beam, and every single one had the rune they touched shatter and expand immensely, growing to a massive crackling sphere of Obliteration energy. It took only a moment to stabilise, and the moment after it shot out in a thick and dense beam to meet the point beams of the Leeches. The collision was destructive and very bright to behold, but the result was somehow completely even, with neither side being hit or damaged.


    On the other hand, those entities that reached for the third rune were opposing a planar construct that was being formed in the air before one of the Leeches, and thus their method of response was naturally different. As the third rune shattered and the energy condensed within emerged, it almost seemed to disappear from sight, although the Great Leeches were likely able to recognise that it rapidly moved upward, where it condensed into a massive ball of celestial flame. Just as the Obliteration energy from the first rune, it lingered in the process of condensing for only a brief moments before falling, gaining speed rapidly and turning into a flash of light by the end.


    Each mass fell upon a planar construct, and the collision shattered the constructs nearly every time, with the explosion finishing off the rest, while the small clumps of flame that fell away strayed towards other constructs and the huge figures of the Leeches themselves. These flames did little damage physically, but that was not the only form of damage.


    ¡°You¡­ ASCENDANT!¡± Shun Huang suddenly cried out, his eyes igniting with rage as he and all of the hanged figures behind him lunged forward, vast uncontrolled quantities of energy manifesting before him.


    In response, all of the celestial entities facing him touched the second rune, and produced a series of projectiles that flew into the ground and executed the first working attempt of the Replica Abyssal Eye. Not five seconds after, before the Leech could even hope to traverse the distance between them, a new wave of abyssal entities composed of crimson stars stood on the stone battlefield. This did nothing to abate his rage, that much was obvious soon after.


    ¡°YOU MOCK US, AND YET YOU EMPLOY THE SAME METHODS!¡±


    ¡°I created a series of entities specifically to fight you, whereas you will throw the people of the districts away for your own goals. I fail to see the resemblance!¡±


    ¡°THEIR MINDS ARE CLEARLY NOT WHOLE!¡±


    ¡°Because they are planar constructs, made to fight this battle, with specific instructions that I gave them, and nothing more. On the other hand, your minds are segmented because you decided to form a barrier using thousands of your own generations, which is something that I have no intention of doing.¡±


    ¡°HA¡­ You will do as we had predicted, then, and let the world burn for your pointless war. Is that it, Ascendant?¡±


    ¡°I will make sure you burn, that much I can promise. As for the world¡­ It will endure, I guarantee that.¡±


    By that point, she had descended from the air and landed on the stone, in the middle of the platform, surrounded by the cosmic entities she had formed. She faced Shun Huang and Shun Hui, the latter of whom was also clearly advancing towards the recovery of her human thoughts and emotions, and raised her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, facing her palm towards the two as if she would simply use something like the Elysian Blast.


    Instead, she focused her power and tapped into her comprehension of Law, and in the last moment, she shifted one of the otherworldly gifts floating around her and sent all of the built-up energy through her Arm.


    ¡®Strictly speaking, Touch the Heavens doesn¡¯t require the actual act, so¡­¡¯


    In an instant, the Arm scattered as much as it could without outright breaking, and countless cracks spread throughout the air, numerous small gaps within reality exposing the collapse of all kinds of Laws and principles. Light was overwhelming in some, absent in others, time rushed forth in a different set of fragmented cracks and stagnated in others, and it was all directed towards the otherworldly gift she had placed some distance in front of her. The only conscious Leech at the moment, Shun Huang, moved to stop it, but her movement was somehow far slower than any of the slowly crawling cracks.


    The collision was oddly calm and slow, even more so than the expansion of the cracks, with the wooden spoon-like objects fracturing slowly, as if one applied paint to the surface and now watched it break apart. This might be something that could be watched in peace and quiet, but simply observing the phenomenon seemed sufficient for it to expand with odd abruptness to fill not only the wooden spoon, but also everything around it, and, most importantly, the area nearest to the Leeches.


    From a mostly uniform layer of storm, that open space transformed to a broken and fractured zone that touched Shun Hui and eroded her very existence, tearing open a hole into the Planar Continents that Testament could seal, but not without the Leech¡¯s obliteration.


    ¡°YOU-¡±


    ¡°In a way, it works excellently, doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°¡­ What?¡± Shun Huang was distracted by the casual manner in which the Ascendant managed to speak while staring upon the numerous cracks in Testament¡¯s fabric.


    ¡°By opening a gap in your spatial realm, you do indeed get closer to the heavens, so you Touch the Heavens, in a way¡­ The name still applies, and the full extent of power can be unleashed perfectly, intensified by the fact that Testament is still a spatial realm with limited Laws and lacking stability in comparison to the Planar Continents themselves,¡± Wei Yi explained, her Arm nearly recovered in full thanks to the peace granted by her summoned cosmic entities distracting the other Leeches, ¡°By the way, what will you choose?¡±


    Shun Huang glared at her as much as it was possible to glare ay anyone, but that alone would not save him from death, or Testament¡¯s operating loop from destruction. Since both would ultimately lead to the same conclusion, even if the Ascendant was to be slain and the process was to be slowed with all of their effort.


    He glared at her for a good while, and then finally decided that exhibiting his rage would be best.


    The figure rushed forth and appeared above the platform, his size decreasing vastly until he was only twice as high as a normal man should be, standing in the air above the stone, but even when he attempted to attack and end her life ¨C or do some harm to her lifeforce, at the very least ¨C he found her appearing right beside him, Moon Splitter in hand, eyes blazing with killing intent over any of the other four types of energy within her meridian networks.


    ¡°If you act with rage, then I shall do the same! Testament shall burn amidst our fury!¡± she proclaimed, her killing will cultivation instantly leaping up to the sixth stage.


    Moon Splitter¡¯s edge crashed into the Leech¡¯s figure, colliding as if a hammer hit solid stone. The weapon could not do more than chip away at the Great Leech, but the force of the impact was permeated to the brim with raging crimson that entered the cracks in his figure and forced the individual pieces apart.


    ¡°We are the Great Families! We have been protecting this world for a million years!¡±


    ¡°You are the Leeches, vile and low! You have nearly brought this world to ruin!¡±


    Planar energy and oblivion essence also erupted from them, and although Wei Yi was cut and marred by the power of the Leech, she could recover while every single injury dealt to Shun Huang was nearly permanent, leading to more and more pieces breaking off from his form.


    After an effective strike, the dantian of the Leech was exposed just sufficiently for Moon Splitter¡¯s Shard of Warfare to pierce the flesh and strike at the bone structure, crushing it one moment and completely shattering the form of Shun Huang the next. With the dantian gone, all of the anchors supporting his power could no longer exist, crushing his ability to endure the collapse from Touch the Heavens, and then all of the past first generation Leeches of the Shun family suffered as a result, their anchors cracking even when Wei Yi¡¯s first attack didn¡¯t touch them.


    ¡°Shun Huang! You¡­ I WILL PROTECT OUR PROJECT!¡± Shun Hui¡¯s eyes lit up with her will, and she also rushed forth.


    Bao Huang followed only moments after, ¡°What¡­ Shun Hui, you mustn¡¯t act alone!¡±


    Bai Hui¡¯s predecessors and anchors were already in danger, so she was also brought out of her mechanical state, and thus three beset the Ascendant with impressive speed and cohesion for those that had not needed to coordinate with one another for as long as one hundred years, all of which were spent in Testament.


    Their attacks landed upon her body, but the split shards of Moon Splitter also stabbed into the widening gaps within their existences, forcing them to widen even further. Wei Yi could recover, but they could barely maintain a damaged state even without the effect of Touch the Heavens.


    After all, she had hit only Shun Huang, expending an otherworldly gift in the process, leaving a mark in the air that the three currently attacking her were able to avoid. Without something to truly change their states and force their stability further into decline, they could continue to fight on for quite a long while before the Ascendant could put them to an end, or they could defeat her by some impossible miracle.


    Perhaps the way forward was clear, but if most others were in her place, they would look upon the otherworldly gifts and ponder whether it was truly wise to expend them in such a manner. Sure, the destruction of one of the Leeches was equivalent to permanent damage to their operation, and would accelerate the destruction of all of the anchors currently linked to their forms, but there was a great deal that could be done with an otherworldly gift. For the moment, she lacked the ability to replicate the powers of otherworldly gifts, and she couldn¡¯t scan their structures and store them for a later point, when she did gain that ability, so anything she shattered would be destroyed permanently and without any hope of return or repair.


    Despite that, an otherworldly gift appeared an inch from her Arm, and she struck it with the claws of smoke and imparted the force of Touch the Heavens directly, ensuring that none of the energy would be wasted in shattering Testament on the way.


    The otherworldly gift exploded right there and then, the variation in distance clearly making her technique significantly more effective, and the power contained within scattered out to latch onto the injuries of the three she was currently fighting. Thus, their existence became significantly more strenuous, and the moment that the Ascendant had the opportunity to act, she took Moon Splitter and stabbed it right into the body of Bai Hui, whose exclamation of pain was extremely pleasant to hear even as her limbs were constantly barraged by numerous beams and constructs.


    ¡°Do you know how long I¡¯ve wanted to do something like this? Ever since you fuckers appeared in my life, I wished I could tear you to shreds!¡± Wei Yi forced the shards of Moon Splitter just a little further.


    That push touched the dantian and broke it, fracturing Bai Hui¡¯s existence while all of the past Leeches connected to her were impacted in much the same way, every single anchor linked to them suffering a fracture at the same time. A few had already been damaged to a certain extent, so they shattered moments after, and it acted as fuel for the Ascendant¡¯s flame.


    Each death of a Leech was a wonderful emotional support, but each shattered anchor could also be collected by the Ascendant, and then simply burnt by dedicating it to something that she understood well by this point, like the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow. It had taken her a short while to build up to the current state of the technique, but since it was now at Full Success, she knew exactly what worked and what didn¡¯t. To advance it would be as easy as it had been to push Obliteration to the Dao Ascension state, and so she made sure to invest every single anchor energy point into exactly this, nudging forth the development of the world in the meantime.


    She brought out another otherworldly gift and shattered it, finishing off Shun Hui when she attempted to get too near to her, exclaiming, ¡°You should just die! Rid the world of your existence!¡±


    ¡°Do you not understand what you will unleash?¡± Gang Huang appeared beside her, the planar construct of a sword slashing down upon her, ¡°They are out there, and with each one of us you strike, the barrier trembles!¡±


    Indeed, that was true. A single glance by anyone, even the most unaware and unobservant sort, would be sufficient to notice the cracks and fractures appearing in the sphere consuming this stone battlefield. No light shone through them, not yet, for the moment that it did the things behind it would be free to emerge and invade however they wished, and yet each and every minor fracture was visible with perfect clarity for anyone that deigned to look at them.


    ¡°This was a danger of the world, and it is one that we will deal with, just as with hunger, thirst, cultivation, planar beasts, and all those unknown things that must have threatened mankind at first!¡± Wei Yi replied, another strike with the Arm yielding even better results as the stage of the technique climbed unimaginably quickly, ¡°You, meanwhile, made this issue! You sought to steal away our power, and so a threat that was handled by Kong Shi Meng was now a deadly thing that could not be opposed by the men and women of the Planar Continents! This was your deed, your doing, and the result of your foolish actions, and I will make sure that as much as possible is undone!¡±


    Although her blade and otherworldly power pierced Ze Hui¡¯s abdomen only moments after she regained consciousness, she managed to say, ¡°You have not fought them. You have not heard the requests of the heavens¡­ You-¡±


    ¡°I DON¡¯T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE HEAVENS!¡± she decapitated the figure before she could say more, ¡°Why should we do anything because they demand it? Why should we ever follow the demands of an entity that does not care to even invest its own abilities into preventing this? The threat you currently seal is one that the heavens could end at any moment if they so desired, but you want me to believe that they left you here to leech away all planar energy until the threat was removed that way?¡±


    ¡°It is the truth!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a fucking joke! All of you are the grimmest joke I had ever seen¡­¡± the Ascendant¡¯s words punctuated yet another death of a Great Leech, and the advance of her Arm, and the slight but nonetheless notable advance of her own cultivation.


    Every single anchor energy point that she expended produced a few drops of planar energy that she was able to absorb for herself. It was slow, extremely slow, but when she was getting hundreds, thousands, and soon, millions of anchor energy points, the droplets turned into a rain that preceded a massive tidal wave, capable of bringing her forth by a stage. Thus, she fought with great effort and intensity, and soon her foes were at half their earlier number, and continued falling with greater speed after each and every strike.


    Of course, the otherworldly gifts were still needed to end them fully, and it just so turned out that as she was facing her last foe, she had to expend her last collected otherworldly gift, allowing its otherworldly aura to join the faint mist that had built up at the edges of Moon Splitter. Given that it started life as an otherworldly gift, perhaps this was only natural.


    ¡°The Primordial Deities¡­ You cannot defeat them, Ascendant!¡± Chen Huang was the last one standing, and he spoke with absolute certainty as her blade split his dantian in half.


    ¡°Even if that was true, the error would be somewhere in my path, not in failing to take yours!¡± she slashed one last time, cutting him in half vertically as well, ¡°If you persist in this world, then watch our fight against them. No matter what disaster comes our way, we shall not surrender just because it is the easier or safer choice! We will stand tall, and we will bring Yi City and the world as a whole to a far greater level than either one had ever reached! Perhaps, if you see it, you will realise your error.¡±


    He was closer to dust than a living being at that point, so no reply could be attained, nor would the Ascendant have listened. The collapse of all of the distant figures around her, their anchors breaking and releasing their anchors energy, and the rapid expansion of all cracks in the barrier distracted her, and forced her to invest all of her attention into resolving this in the best possible way.


    She took hold of the barrier, replacing the Leeches in stabilising it and doing whatever she could to slow it down. All of the anchor energy that she attained, she used to reach the tipping point of her current stage, and with the vast surge of power that came with a breakthrough, she reinforced the barrier as much as she was possibly able to, so that the world would have a chance to learn of the incoming threat and respond to it with something more than disorganised flailing and unnecessary conflict with one another.


    After all that, she and the world still had less than a week of safety from the Primordial Deities.

 V5C81: Final Preparations

    The sixth of the tenth month. Within the Yi District, things were rather tense for those in any position of power, although the common men and women were not entirely spared from this atmosphere. They were able to do little to prepare for either the promotion of a new Patriarch or the terrible horrors that would soon appear throughout the world, according to some woman in red robes and with red hair, so the impact was ultimately minimal.


    Meanwhile, those in the higher echelons of society were feeling the pressure greatly, and thus they gathered in the district that the only one capable of assisting with the situation chose to reside in for the moment. That this happened to be the woman in red was only obvious to those that knew her.


    ¡°Are you sure you can¡¯t just bump me up to the eighth realm? I have no clue whether there are any Primordial Deity domains near the Gang District, but if there is even one, I don¡¯t think my second stage will be enough to handle it and keep everyone alive,¡± Gang Xiu Ling muttered, glancing with excessive regularity in the direction where her girlfriend was bathing, not far from the building they were conversing in, ¡°I wish I had focused just a little more on actual cultivation, but I guess it¡¯s a little bit too late now¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve said this five times, now. If you had been doing anything other than just peeping on Lan Mu¡­ actually, had you simply used the Yin Soul Yang Root, you would have been better off now.¡±


    ¡°Right, that would be an improvement¡­¡±


    ¡°Ascendant, how did you figure that this woman would make for a good replacement for the previous Gang Patriarch?¡± Shun Wang asked, quickly adding, ¡°I understand that there might have been few other options, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Technically, my intention was not to obtain a powerful fighting force, but someone that would force the district¡¯s stale traditions to change. She can find others to make better decisions.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡±


    ¡°Prove me wrong for even a moment, and I will rescind my words.¡±


    ¡°Um¡­ Can I not?¡±


    ¡°Can we speak about the Primordial Deities instead? Even with my best attempts to nurture my district¡¯s people, using all of the resources at hand, there is no way that we will have anything resembling a fighting force within the week,¡± Chu Su, the Chu Patriarch, exclaimed while Gang Xiu Ling quietly shuffled away from the Ascendant, ¡°Another Patriarch joining us will certainly help, but that is still only one man.¡±


    ¡°The Yi District could pick a woman, especially if they attempt to appease me or something. I won¡¯t mind, so long as they don¡¯t regret it.¡±


    ¡°Why would they do that?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d imagine word that I like women has gotten around by now, so, perhaps a female leader would be preferred by me.¡±


    ¡°Is that something you¡¯d want?¡±


    ¡°Nah. If I was looking for a romantic partner ¨C or even someone to fuck ¨C then it would matter, but there is no need for someone to be a Matriarch to fit either category. Fitting into them would also do little to advance their ability as Matriarch, whether that is in terms of their cultivation or leadership ability, so it would be entirely pointless to pick anyone on this basis.¡±


    Luo Na frowned, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you stop them, then? I can see their list of selections featuring quite a few women famed for little more than their attractiveness. In fact, I think one is currently within an adult establishment of sorts.¡±


    ¡°Then they have made a mistake, or at least they believe this to be the case. It isn¡¯t necessary that those without accomplishments up to this point will lack them completely, but who knows at this point¡­ I don¡¯t really know what every single person in the world is capable of, nor what they will end up accomplishing, so there is no good reason not to give people the chance. In the worst case scenario, I¡¯ll just say that someone else is the Patriarch or Matriarch, then allow people to make of that what they will.¡±


    The Luo Matriarch shrugged and leaned back, staring up at the ceiling while simply basking in the plentiful planar energy surrounding all of them.


    ¡°What about the safety of our districts?¡±


    ¡°Chu Su, you have the highest chance of reaching the eighth realm within the next few months, maybe weeks if you manage to make full use of what we have. Unfortunately, you claim to not have any additional materials, and I have already used everything I could from the raw materials of Testament, which cannot be directly used to advance to the fourth stage or beyond, not to mention the eighth realm. That leaves us with nothing, unless there is something that is escaping the majority of the Yi City Web and my divine sense,¡± Wei Yi said, glancing completely unsubtly at Chu Su, who was unable to meet her gaze and ended up joining Luo Na in staring at the ceiling.


    She was aware that he had withheld some materials for his and his district¡¯s use, but even if she took all of them and refined them into pills for her own use, then it would be barely sufficient to push her to a potential breakthrough a little later on. This was not enough for her, nor for the world.


    As such, she didn¡¯t bother to force him to give up his things, instead waiting for the choice of the Yi District while she sat around in a rented structure, although she could have just requisitioned it permanently with her power and control over the Yi District. Strictly speaking, she couldn¡¯t be said to be a Master of Yi City while the Shi, Fu, Huang and Ling Districts weren¡¯t within her control, as she chose not to waste time managing them while she travelled around and ensured that each district already supported by her was in the best state possible.


    The Ascendant spread techniques to everyone that had the mental space to absorb them, supported everyone¡¯s cultivation by spreading her physique abilities throughout the districts and ensuring that all available planar energy allocation was always active and being used by someone, somewhere. It led to quite a few breakthroughs, some to the sixth realm, a few to the seventh, but it was not good enough. To truly advance, the eighth realm was required, for it would push the Planar Continents forth greatly.


    Once the power of the eighth realm was available in the world, then the seventh realm would become as common as the sixth realm was now, and as the fifth realm was mere months ago.


    Ideally, this would happen under her observation and under her control, but she suspected that this would not occur like this for as long as it was even possible for things to go awry. Either there was an expert in the outside world, or she would simply be unable to progress quickly enough before the Primordial Deities would overcome them.


    There was also the problem of the parallel between empowering the world and empowering the Primordial Deities. Since the increase in planar energy allocation would rise with every step into the realms of infinity, it would be best if she was the one to attain the eighth realm within the next few hours, as any Primordial Deities that emerged as a result would be opponents that she could reasonably attempt to handle, whereas the current Patriarchs and Matriarchs would be too weak in comparison to such an ancient force.


    It also had to be noted that, just as dragons, phoenixes and qilins had different forms of cultivation as a result of their natural traits, Primordial Deities were described as lacking the typical structures that cultivators would construct. They had their equivalent of the imperfect rift, a pure spring of energy bound specifically to their path, but no marks, halos, or even a proper core. For that reason, they were said to be bound to the eighth realm no matter what they wished to do, for surpassing it and reaching true infinity via the ninth realm would require something to stabilise their springs of energy, and it was something that they did not have the ability to attain.


    As if in exchange for this absolute limit, each Primordial Deity was significantly stronger than a normal cultivator in the eighth realm. The Master of Yi City had himself been very powerful in comparison to usual eighth realm cultivators, and even he struggled to face them alongside them.


    Still, so long as humanity was in the eighth realm, then the Primordial Deities would be slightly less dangerous, and could be held back for long enough to allow others to benefit. If the one to break through was away from Yi City, and had no interest in working with them¡­ then she would be greatly distressed. This wouldn¡¯t be the end of the world by any margin, but it would cause a great deal of trouble and stress to her and everyone that she needed to manage.


    To a certain extent, it was a bit of an annoyance for all of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs to gather around her and sit alongside her instead of doing anything useful, but the difference between actively cultivating elsewhere and here wasn¡¯t too significant. Both she and the leaders of the districts needed more than just the natural quantity of planar energy in the world to make any significant progress in their cultivation, so they might as well linger here and be available to depart at any moment to the place where the Primordial Deities emerge.


    ¡°Hm? It seems like they¡¯re finally coming up¡­ Lan Mu, wait for me¡­¡±


    ¡°I think she¡¯d love to have the opportunity to do so once in a while, but do whatever you want,¡± Wei Yi pushed her away and stood up, folding her arms as the figure from the Yi District entered their room.


    ¡°Ascendant, I have been told we have a candidate. Would you like to follow me to them?¡± the figure was a woman in the third realm, not part of any particular group or faction in the Yi District, but very clearly a member of the Yi family. Her red hair and silver eyes would have been striking had she not been standing right before Wei Yi¡¯s crimson mane and gemstone-like irises.


    From what she paid attention to, it appeared that they chose to send a woman deliberately, which did not provide her the confidence she would have liked, but it was fine. Even if they selected the most competent of their guardians and let her bring them up to the seventh realm, they would be incapable of attaining the eighth realm faster than either the Ascendant or Chu Su, whose realm was currently higher.


    As such, the difference between the most and least competent candidate for the role of Patriarch was actually smaller than it might seem.


    ¡°I was told to guide you here. If there is something else, you should speak with them, as I¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a waitress at a local establishment, I know. Still, you did well reaching this far without much support, especially when the dancers working there failed to attain the second realm with more support from the owners. Anyhow, return to your duties if they don¡¯t have anything else to do, and if you ever wish to depart and are not permitted to, my Arbiters can ensure that you aren¡¯t troubled.¡±


    ¡°R-Really? I, uh¡­ thank you, Ascendant. I¡¯ll go now.¡±


    She almost ran off as soon as she said that, and Wei Yi wasn¡¯t able to understand all that much about her mental state even with her ability to peer into her mind. This was rather fantastic, even, and since she knew that she would be able to observe the woman¡¯s situation from anywhere within Yi City, she wasn¡¯t too concerned about her suffering as a result of this extremely brief interaction. It was already unlikely enough for anyone to dare attack or harm her while the Ascendant and her Arbiters were in the district and actively watching over it, but the extra layer of security was nice.


    ¡®Not that I care too much for her. As things are now, it is very likely that there will be many losses before the Primordial Deities can be held back, and even more before they are completely subdued ¨C if that ever even happens,¡¯ Wei Yi sighed, stepping into the building she had been led to.


    There, the guardians of the Yi District were sweating visibly while they stared at the doorway.


    From the presence of one other person there, who was positioned several steps away from any of the others, it would have been obvious to anyone who they had selected. A man, looking like he was around thirty years of age at most, was standing with a straight back and even straighter legs, perhaps attempting to resemble a plank of wood or some pillar in the room. His energy was in the sixth realm, although he was only in the first stage that seemed to have been achieved recently.


    Some of the district¡¯s resources were clearly expended for the purpose of raising his cultivation, so they had some reason to believe he would be a good choice.


    One of the guardians said, ¡°Ascendant. This is-¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure he can explain his own name and identity. If you wouldn¡¯t mind.¡±


    The man looked to the guardians, who remained silent for long enough that he must have had enough time to gather his thoughts and decide on how he would proceed. He took a step forward, his figure managing to remain entirely straight, and performed the slightest of bows.


    ¡°I am Yi Lang, a member of the Yi District¡¯s guard. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve met prior to this,¡± he said to her, meeting her gaze.


    ¡°Probably not. What realm were you in a week ago, Yi Lang?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I was in the peak of the fourth realm, Lady Ascendant.¡±


    ¡°Just Ascendant is fine. Since the guardians have chosen you, it appears that you are the Yi District¡¯s choice, but do you believe that you can lead the Yi District, and is it something that you wish to do? If the answer is yes, then do share with me the plans you have for the district, and the kinds of things you wish to do with it while it remains under your control.¡±


    ¡°To be frank, I had no idea that I would be in this position a week prior, but, now that I am here, I do believe that I have the ability to do a sufficiently good job. I know little about managing so many people, but I had been the leader of a small squad prior to this. I made sure that all my men were in a good place, helped them train, and made sure that they never fell behind a number of the other squads,¡± Yi Lang said, his gaze shifting slightly as his memories occupied his focus, ¡°There was quite a bit of competition among the squads, although there wasn¡¯t much of a purpose for it when we first had no real threats, and then the Great Families observing everything and leaving us with only common thugs¡­¡±


    ¡°Yi Lang, focus on-¡± one of the guardians failed to finish the sentence when he noticed Wei Yi¡¯s gaze upon him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t interrupt while your chosen Patriarch is talking. I had the impression that respect towards authority was valued by this district, and yet its guardians keep failing to adhere to that. Seems a little odd to me, but who am I to complain about such things?¡±


    The guardians might have commented that she was one of the few that did have the ability to complain and change whatever she wanted for the moment, as her power allowed her to overcome anyone that would want to stop her, but all of them managed to restrain themselves. On one hand, they didn¡¯t want to give her ideas, and on the other, they understood that bringing more attention to this would make it even more difficult to have any influence over their chosen candidate, as an annoyed Patriarch and Ascendant could easily remove them from the equation entirely.


    ¡°Um, so, I would like to encourage everyone to train and improve at the things that they are best at. There are plenty of techniques in the district¡¯s libraries already, but more harmless and effective techniques need to be available to everyone, not just the upper members of the families. After all, that which assists people of the district, it will assist the district as a whole.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough, but do not forget that a number of techniques are not suitable for most to cultivate due to their complexity. Given that I will already be sharing most of what I have with you and the people, I will modulate that to a certain extent, but some techniques available in the libraries ought to be provided only once a cultivator already understands the principles behind simpler methods and skills,¡± Wei Yi said.


    ¡°I will note that.¡±


    ¡°By the way, guardians, if you know anything about a child by the name of Yi Dongfang¡­ No, it doesn¡¯t matter. Just make sure that the discovery of the Broken Sky Brand is attributed to him, not to Yi Juan.¡±


    ¡°Who-¡±


    ¡°Just do it and fuck off. I¡¯ll be bringing your Patriarch up to a proper realm, and you are not needed for this whatsoever. The impression you¡¯ve given me is also rather unfortunate, to say the least, so before you get the chance to worsen that impression, it would be best if you returned to the things you should be doing as guardians.¡±


    They got the message quickly enough and left, though a subtle quantity of killing intent ¨C at least, it was subtle from her perspective ¨C certainly expedited the process.


    Thus, she was left alone with this Yi Lang, who did seem like a reasonable enough person so far. Had she come across him as an aspiring Patriarch prior to the War of Ascendancy and everything related to it, she would have found his platform to be a little unlikely to win, for the Yi District was needlessly fond of adhering to its tiered society of servants, lower, middle and then upper members of the Yi family, but it would have had more use than now. With her archive being open to all, and numerous concepts already being shared with everyone imaginable, there was far less use for the people of the Yi District to visit the district¡¯s libraries and get books that they would need to slowly read through and understand.


    As long as the idea was good, though, there was always the possibility of coming up with more decent ideas, so she wouldn¡¯t bother explaining to him exactly what was and wasn¡¯t feasible in the current age. He could figure that out on his own.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to be impolite-¡±


    ¡°Do whatever. Politeness doesn¡¯t matter to me, but rather what you do and say.¡±


    ¡°Uhm, then, might I ask whether that killing intent is normal for you? It seemed immense despite your primary enemy being defeated.¡±


    ¡°That¡­ you¡¯re not quite on point there, Yi Lang. Think of it this way ¨C I am rather angry about quite a few things in this world, and the Great Leeches were the human-made manifestation of some of those things. When they¡¯re gone, that problem is gone, at least for now, but it also leaves me with nothing more than the world itself to be angry at¡­¡± she sighed, ¡°It¡¯s a little difficult to direct that anger at anything in particular, especially when I cannot have absolute certainty that there is an entity by the name of the heavens, or that there is much intelligent activity outside the Planar Continents to begin with. I have my suspicions about certain things, of course, but that is all I can have until I receive some proper evidence.¡±


    ¡°I, uh, think I understand. Should I prepare, somehow?¡±


    ¡°Nah, sit down on the floor. It¡¯ll only take a moment- actually, no, don¡¯t do that here. I suspect that some people will be upset if this place gets destroyed, so let¡¯s move to the outside.¡±


    He hadn¡¯t had the time to sit down, so he just straightened his back and legs again and followed her. They stepped outside of the warehouse that the guardians had chosen to occupy for whatever reason, and the Ascendant brought him to the largest open space within the nearest mile, an open square of the district emptied by the fires caused by the Great Leeches.


    There, he was able to sit down with his legs crossed and his hands upon his knees, an array appearing all around him from the energy of the Ascendant¡¯s killing will. A moment of observation was completely insufficient for him to absorb any significant part of it, so he shut his eyes and allowed the Ascendant to do as she wished. Had she wanted to harm him in some manner, then she would have been able to do so without any difficulty, and if she wanted him to know how and what she was doing, then she would have informed him.


    It would take a short while for energy to condense from only the natural planar energy of the world, so in addition to simply maximising the quantity of energy being drawn towards Yi Lang¡¯s position, Wei Yi had to provide just a drop of her own oblivion essence.


    Previously, with her sixth realm energy, it would have taken some distillation and weakening of the energy in order to allow anyone even the slightest of hopes of refining it, but now that it had changed so significantly, this was made more difficult. This was where the array came in, with numerous other arrays incorporated into it in order to allow for oblivion essence to enter the outer regions then be melted down into unbound planar energy of high density of the high sixth or low seventh realm.


    Both should be sufficient for the future Yi Patriarch to cultivate, and if he lacked the ability to handle the power of the seventh realm, then it would be a little dangerous for him to attempt reaching the seventh realm. A stable cultivation method and body should be able to handle far greater quantities of power than what was required for any form of stable progress, and since he was a guard captain that had worked for a very long time, he should be able to manage even if his own technique had never reached a proper level.


    ¡°If this hurts, then you better endure it until it has the chance of killing you in an instant. Before then, I have either understood the state of your body and accounted for it, or I believe that I will be able to maintain your life, so anything you do will just fuck it up. Do you understand that?¡± the Ascendant confirmed before she began.


    ¡°I do.¡±


    ¡°Good. For the record, the planar energy will still be influenced by my cultivation, so it is likely to hurt. However, this will be a purely positive thing, so don¡¯t complain afterwards.¡±


    She wasn¡¯t saying this to prevent him from doing so, but mostly to inform him that there was little benefit in speaking to her about it. Throughout the reach of her part of the Yi City Web, there were plenty of those who didn¡¯t like her, or had something to complain about when it came to her, so she had long gotten used to ignoring such people¡¯s words when there was nothing that she could do, or actively wished to do about their problems with her.


    Luckily, guards were usually a little more used to physical and mental stress alike than the average person, and this former captain was no exception as he simply nodded and allowed her to do her work, which took the form of providing the smallest of droplets to the array so that it could begin.


    That droplet rapidly diffused through the outer portions of the array and was forcefully scattered and dispersed, lowering its density more and more while enhancing the ambient planar energy density for a little while. With it, Yi Lang should have enough time to adjust to the raised quantity of planar energy, and have an easier time absorbing the crystalline form of diluted oblivion essence that he would soon receive. It took some time for the oblivion essence to get anywhere near the state of ordinary planar energy in the seventh realm, and it would take even longer for it to descend to the point that it would be usable in the sixth realm.


    As such, the Ascendant kept much of her attention on the Planar Continents themselves, as well as anything caught within the Yi City Web. She had no clue what would be occurring far beyond it, so it was difficult to prepare for threats from there, but she could monitor most people of Yi City and would certainly step in to stop them if they were up to no good, even if it meant interrupting the array.


    For the moment, the biggest danger was an outside entity reaching the eighth realm and being opposed to the people of Yi City, and, most importantly for her at this moment, the Arbiters and the Ascendant that leads them. Aside from the sheer power they would attain at that point, far rivalling that of the fragment of a Primordial Deity she had managed to defeat at the Bao District, their breakthrough would release said Primordial Deities earlier than intended, even if that would only amount to a few hours now.


    Stopping them and harnessing their excess energy would be ideal, but if it was impossible, telling those would be at greatest risk of a Primordial Deity attack to either flee ¨C if the Primordial Deity would appear too close to their lands ¨C or set up defences ¨C if there was enough room to avoid the direct power of the ancient entities ¨C in preparation for this event, and inform all of Yi City that it would be best if they put up their guard for any other Primordial Deities that might emerge. She wasn¡¯t sure she knew of all that would come to be threats, and all that could emerge, so until a semblance of certainty was gained, caution was not just advisable, but highly necessary if she was to be able to harness the situation to her own advantage, or at least limit her disadvantage.


    Her energy flowed into the future Yi Patriarch after some time, his meridians clearly struggling at first and taking most of the process to adjust, but the rise in his cultivation was immediate. A second of stabilisation brought on by the influx of power ensured his first stage wouldn¡¯t collapse under any pressure, and the aura of the second stage rushed out of his body not long after.


    The third stage came after a minute, and the fourth came after three, with the fifth being the first stage in which there was not only significant risk to Yi Lang himself, but also his cultivation. Wei Yi¡¯s planar energy retained the property of incinerating and enhancing the body as it went through the future Patriarch, meaning that enough of it could outright kill him if he wasn¡¯t able to handle it, but the rush through the stages didn¡¯t give him much of an opportunity to stabilise his cultivation or get used to his growing power.


    Her physique abilities were able to keep him safe, but her attention was forced to the extreme north when a great wave of energy hastened from there, causing her heart to skip a beat as it adjusted to the sudden increase in energy density.


    It wasn¡¯t anything like her oblivion essence, but it was unmistakably belonging to the eighth realm. She didn¡¯t know what the technique creating it was ¨C there were similarities to a number of those that she had seen so far, but not exactly identical to any of them, nor the particular cultivation of anyone she knew ¨C but since it came from outside Yi City and lacked the distinctive traits of her own techniques, the chances of this being the breakthrough of an opponent was very high.


    That there was a sudden rumbling of earth and the appearance of two spots from which immense energy surged, one near the Chu District and one off to the north, slightly west of Paragon, made it clear that the evening was likely to be the last peaceful one that Yi City would enjoy in quite a long time.


    The Primordial Deities were awakening.

 V5C82: Growth of the Chu District

    From the histories of some of the districts, it was possible to guess at where Primordial Deities had previously resided, and where they would emerge upon their escape from the barrier that Kong Shi Meng had set up, and that the Leeches had kept going since his disappearance.


    For example, the Bao District had a certain connection to the earth, for it was the district of gems, and by far the richest spot for obtaining them, regardless of colour, shape or value. The fact that Primordial Earth had appeared there was, perhaps, only natural, even if the Ascendant had only come across traces of that ancient thing. The Wu District had remnants of the weapon used by the Master of Yi City to imprison Primordial Invader, so it was also clear that the Primordial Deity would be found there once more as soon as it emerged.


    Primordial Inferno would obvious reside in a place of heat and perpetual flames, which suited the north, and Primordial Nature would obviously reside in a place that had an immense focus on nature, flora and fauna that was significantly more lush than in most of the Planar Continents. There could only be one place that fit that description, and that is where Wei Yi was right now.


    The Chu District was not yet harmed, but the north-eastern edges of the district were engulfed with waves of green light, which immediately sank into anything living if it came into contact with it. Saplings sprouted in instants, trees grew by a dozen metres in a matter of seconds, vines and mosses spread across all things that had not yet been covered by them. Beasts grew in size and obtained strange features and mutations, with most gaining limbs, eyes and layers of tough skin, fur or scales.


    All of the medicinal herbs also changed in strange ways, with the least concerning transformation being a similar increase in size to everything else, while the strangest turned a rather ordinary red medicinal flowed into a writhing thing akin to a hungry nest.


    Every wave emerged from a point outside the borders, where a mass of foliage condensed a bulb the size of a mansion. Every part wriggled and undulated in a manner that was sickening to behold, and the combination of all kinds of textures and shapes certainly didn¡¯t assist those with weak stomachs and inabilities to handle certain sights. For the Ascendant, however, the thing to note was the thing inside, the aura of which was clearly in the eighth realm. Furthermore, this Primordial Deity looked to be in the upper stages, for the aura from the north which unleashed it was far inferior in every way imaginable.


    In normal circumstances, the Primordial Deity would need to emerge in order to be truly dangerous to anyone, but what all of them possessed was the ability to influence and change the world according to their element and nature. Primordial Nature represented the element of wood, and thus all life was influenced by it, and things with less intellect than men were rapidly altered into its minions.


    Humans could also be changed, but historical records stated that this required either prolonged exposure or deliberate submission to the Primordial Deity. Simply getting caught once or twice by the waves of altering power wouldn¡¯t affect even someone with no cultivation at all. Dragons, phoenixes and qilins were also safe, for their natural state was significantly stronger than that of humans. Perhaps if they took the initiative to submit to the Primordial Deity and be changed, there would be some effect, but nothing of the sort was recorded.


    Back on the topic of beasts being transformed, such a phenomenon caught numerous creatures that had been staying near the north-east side of the Chu District, and now most were effectively in the fifth or sixth realm of power just from standing near the Primordial Deity¡¯s position. All now rushed to them.


    A sieging force of beasts and even moving plants and trees was already frightening to many guards, and their power lacked in comparison to the threat, forcing the Ascendant and the Chu Patriarch to personally stand at the walls and protect this land. The other Patriarchs and Matriarchs were ready to assist them, but they currently remained in their own districts to prevent any other Primordial Deity from catching them off guard.


    ¡°The Primordial Deity¡­ It is turning all before us into its own territory just with its presence¡­¡± the Chu Patriarch sighed.


    ¡°I¡¯m not certain that¡¯s quite how it works. Rather, the contained power of Primordial Nature has emerged, and it will conquer a certain territory with ease before needing more effort to take on other areas. Otherwise, the days prior to Kong Shi Meng¡¯s life would have lacked any lands where these ancient things did not reign.¡±


    ¡°That is true. I would ask whether we could decipher their methods, but¡­¡±


    ¡°No certainty of winning, unfortunately. Still, I had made a promise, and you had assisted me, so you have no right to complain now.¡±


    ¡°Although I might wish to do so, this threat had been faced by Yi City when it was first founded. If we are unable to address it on our own, now, with our lands united, our people brimming with your insights, and with all kinds of plans made specifically to address this inevitability, then what right do we have to be Patriarchs or Matriarchs of our districts? As the Wu Matriarch, I hope that you are able to understand this sentiment.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t need to be a Matriarch to understand a single thing¡­ speaking of which, I need to give my position over to someone else now that I am effectively Master of Yi City,¡± Wei Yi muttered to herself, looking out to the wilds outside the wall, ¡°The next wave will be here soon. Focus.¡±


    Although she said that, she was rather distracted by her attempts to decipher not only the exact nature of the waves emanating from the green bulb of Primordial Nature, but also the form of their cultivation and methods to resolve the consequences of their reappearance in the world. When she had managed to deal with Primordial Earth¡¯s fragment, or whatever it was, she had accidentally absorbed some of its power to the extent that it remained within her to this day, allowing her to use the grey dust form of energy whenever, and she wanted to repeat that.


    Having the ability to absorb even a portion of the energy released by the Primordial Deities would make it extremely simple for her to benefit from their appearance, clean the area that they infect and influence, and also limit their own power to a certain extent. Even if she could only take one millionth of what the Primordial Deities had during an encounter, that would still leave them just a little weaker.


    Barring the ideal outcome, simply understanding what Primordial Nature did and how it did so would leave her and all of the forces on her side with more opportunities to comprehend how to oppose any of its actions. For instance, her current knowledge of how the flora and fauna was transformed permitted her to have a clue of how others things that were not yet touched would change, and what their strengths and weaknesses would be. With that, determining the proper method of ending the lives of that which she could not save, and limiting the transformation of what which she could, would be feasible for her and for anyone with the right abilities and techniques to perform the same methods as her own.


    For now, though, she could handle the incoming foes with naught but force, and so she did exactly that alongside the Patriarch of the Chu District. She summoned the Titanic Conqueror and left it to barrage the ever-growing wilds with Obliteration energy, taking additional care with some of the tougher beasts in the form of summoned planar constructs of artefacts that she then lobbed at the enemy before they could explode.


    The Chu Patriarch had a slightly less destructive approach, creating a vast tree of wood-type planar energy behind himself that rapidly manifested and then fired small needles at the invading forces. These needles were small enough to be unable to harm most men even with a great deal of force, but when they pierced the enemy, a series of vines suddenly exploded out, completely destroying all of the internal components of the things these needles pierced. Although Wei Yi copied the technique immediately, she had the feeling that this couldn¡¯t go on for very long ¨C and she was right.


    Ultimately, a Primordial Deity was an entity with an innate and immense connection to some form of matter, energy or state of reality. Perhaps they possessed knowledge or sheer innate insight into Dao, or perhaps the effect was replicated through a different method, but they had as much control over their affinity as Wei Yi had over the Dao of Obliteration or Dao of Law.


    As a result, attempting to employ the power of the wood element against Primordial Nature, a thing which might as well be the physical manifestation of the element, was a lacking strategy.


    She didn¡¯t say anything right away as she wanted to get a better grasp of the Primordial Deity¡¯s current state based on its response to these attacks, as she suspected that she might be able to detect exactly when it truly manifests within the world as soon as these needles either fail to act as usual, or are used against the forces of Yi City. In the Primordial Deity¡¯s current state, it was nearly impossible to tell what it was doing, or what state it was in, as the bulb that contained it was dense enough to completely overcome any senses that might be employed to peer through it and discern the state of that which was occurring within.


    The Chu Patriarch had to have some understanding of this matter, for few could be so oblivious as to not realise the flaws in using a small spark against a great blaze, or a stick against a behemoth of a tree, but he did not stop, only increase the number of planar constructs.


    Some continued to use needles, others launched exploding nuts or slow leaves that spread out a toxic mist throughout the battlefield. Altogether, they made the inside of the Chu District seem almost as wild and overgrown as the outside was beginning to be, and that made them both concerned about the potential power of Primordial Nature. If a relatively normal man could manifest such a garden, what kind of wild land would a Primordial Deity conjure?


    The answer was given far earlier than any of them would have liked, for a sudden wave from the Primordial Deity¡¯s bulb hit the planar construct trees and stole them from the control of the Chu Patriarch, instantly leading them to recover their projectiles, grow to double the size, and launch anything and everything they had towards the Ascendant and the Patriarch.


    ¡°What tools these mortals have taken for themselves. Shall I unleash the hounds upon your feeble walls, or simply show you how earthen construction falls before life¡¯s endless power?¡± a voice emerged from the bulb, which opened slowly to reveal a humanoid figure within it.


    The figure rose from kneeling on one leg and revealed its full height, a size roughly equivalent to ten men standing atop one another¡¯s shoulders. It had a large body, similarly to a body cultivator that brimmed with muscle, but the closest thing to skin on this entity was a dark green moss atop rough brown bark, the latter resembling the musculature of a human only vaguely. A series of furs covered this entity, one draped on its left shoulder, another tied around its waist, and one tied around its neck in a manner resembling a cape or cloak. Taking only this into consideration, it almost appeared humanoid, like a man with a mutated physique and very odd choices in which techniques to cultivate.


    However, the twisted face betrayed that impression entirely. Akin to the Fashionable Gentleman, it had jagged teeth made of thick spines and needles, and in place of one eye there were a thousand small black orbs that constantly shifted and twitched, while the other hole within its unseen skull was filled with vines that grew over the rest of its face, covering nearly half of it entirely and obscuring another quarter.


    ¡°Primordial Nature.¡±


    ¡°You have a filthy aura, mortal thing. It must be purged from my domain!¡±


    ¡°I-I can¡¯t dispel the planar constructs!¡± the Chu Patriarch exclaimed, for although they both evaded the first barrage from his defensive measures, they were clearly able to strike once more far too quickly for them to handle both the planar constructs and the Primordial Deity.


    ¡°They are the least of our problems!¡± Wei Yi replied, slashing with Moon Splitter.


    A single strike sent a wave of energy, mixing her various techniques together, that cut through the planar constructs with ease, Elysian light damaging them while Obliteration energy ensured that they could not recover. They might have been stolen from Chu Su by Primordial Nature, but they were still very similar in structure, and Wei Yi had plenty of time to analyse them and find their weaknesses.


    Even then, they could hardly relax and focus on Primordial Nature alone. While she attacked, the Primordial Deity raised one of its thick arms and an open hand, from which another wave of energy and vitality surged out. It touched a large pack of beasts that had not yet made their way to the Chu District and changed them in an instant. Every one of them lost an eye ¨C with most retaining dozens more due to their transformations ¨C and had roots and vines grow out from the bleeding wound, covering their bodies as they swelled and expanded in every proportion. Just before their growth became too much for their body to handle, the vines would apply one layer to stabilise their form, and the roots would form another once the peak of their size was reached.


    Thus, some wolves that had been no larger than a man now were nearly as large as Primordial Nature itself, with dozens of limbs, claws, jaws filled to the brim with teeth, additional eyes and mouths, and even features from other beasts or flora.


    All of them rushed straight towards the walls without any care for their own stability.


    ¡°Focus on them!¡± Wei Yi commanded, ancestral totems appearing around her to flood her portion of the wall with entities that gathered Obliteration energy between their hands.


    The Chu Patriarch also drew upon his power and made a more abstract construct of wood-type energy, fearing that making anything akin to his previous constructs would result in Primordial Nature stealing them from him just as easily. After a breath in which even the slowest of transformed beasts were nearly upon the walls, they both launched their attacks.


    ¡®Wood is the element of life. Just as earth encompasses all that is a part of the world without the constant beat of life, and fire occupies all that which moves regardless of the reason, wood is present within flora and fauna to a great extent. A normal cultivator could influence such things via techniques, but that is due to their inability to harness the natural energy of the world without refining it,¡¯ Wei Yi recalled as she saw the Primordial Deity¡¯s eye-vines twitch in the distance, ¡®But a Primordial Deity can control far more than men or ancient beasts. Thus, just like we can use planar constructs¡­¡¯


    Provided that the beasts had continued on the same path, with the same speed, their every attack would have hit with ease, and perhaps they would have succeeded in removing some of the threats, but at the last moment every beast suddenly dodged and moved in manners possible only due to their excessive number of limbs. Furthermore, they did so with clear traces of technique and skill, advancing forth just as much as if they hadn¡¯t been interrupted, while also shifting positions and kicking up great quantities of dust and dirt to obfuscate their perception. Each one was surrounded by traces of wood-type planar energy, the glow of which only grew brighter as they advanced.


    ¡®A beast is as easy to manipulate as a beast-like planar construct. In this way, could Primordial Invader make use of otherworldly gifts, or is the notion of invasion somehow different?¡¯ the Ascendant felt curious, but she knew that she couldn¡¯t pursue this matter in the moment.


    Instead, she combined the spare Obliteration power from the totems and merged it into the sphere conjured by her Titanic Conqueror, focusing it all into a beam into the sky as to perform the widest bombardment that she could possibly hope for. It had less of a chance to kill many incoming beasts, but it would at the very least weaken them and possibly disperse the method that elevated their power by destroying some of the vines or roots upon their bodies.


    The blackened crimson surged and then fell, crashing into the ground with enough force to quake the ground and open massive rifts within the ground, from which the earth¡¯s dormant heat surged in a burst of steam and heat. Something definitely burned beneath that crashing beam, and she could detect the loss of several powerful lives beneath it, but for every one loss, she knew that there would be a thousand left.


    Just like she expected, a moment later she felt the wall beneath her shake and promptly used her fourth realm movement method to appear beside Chu Su, grabbed shoulder, and moved both of them back and into the air, as to guarantee safety from ground-based entities.


    Everything left of the wall was completely destroyed the moment after. Green and wood-brown light exploded at certain spots, where some of the creatures detonated themselves for the sake of effectively breaching their defences, and others managed to tear into the walls with their enormous limbs and rip them as easily as they might rip a sheet of paper. Some trees grew right beneath the stone of the walls and finished the job, removing what rubble remained and opening up an easy path for everything that still remained.


    It was an absolute devastation of the Chu District¡¯s walls, and all it took was a few seconds.


    ¡°It seems the mortal things still lack the capacity to endure the hunt! Such mistakes can only be made by those who failed to learn nature¡¯s lessons.¡±


    ¡°Just to be sure, you hear it too, right? That noise of wood rubbing against wood that creates a voice?¡±


    ¡°I can, but¡­ What do we do?¡± Chu Su swiftly changed topics, his eyes locked on the distant figure of the Primordial Deity, fear and anxiety obvious within his expression, ¡°If we cannot even slay his influenced entities, then do we even have the ability to fight the monster itself?¡±


    ¡°Mortal things have always been most suited to be prey, rather than the hunters of the wild.¡±


    ¡°Shut your fucking mouth, you vile infection!¡± Wei Yi exclaimed, drawing upon her killing will to amplify her voice and empower her strength as she stared straight towards that thing with a very different expression, ¡°That¡¯s what the Primordial Deities seem to be, in my eyes. Things that reside in the world and twist it into all kinds of shapes that it should never take.¡±


    ¡°When you know so little, mortal thing, ought you not shut those lips? During a hunt, a single pause can bring your death,¡± Primordial Nature almost seemed to smile as it looked behind the Ascendant.


    If that hadn¡¯t been enough of a clue, Wei Yi had already detected that it was drawing upon the world¡¯s energy and influencing both the flora and fauna in her surroundings. Even Chu Su was targeted by some of the energy, although it was clear that it could not flood into someone¡¯s mind and body any quicker than it had in the Bao District incident. Oddly, she was the only thing that was not touched at all, and she could hardly tell whether this was deliberate.


    Still, knowing that something would appear didn¡¯t mean that it would be easy to handle, and so she had to shift the Chu Patriarch¡¯s position away before rising even further up, moments away from a colossal thing of plant matter and bark to burst through the ground and attempt to grab her.


    With a dozen thousand tendrils, limbs and whatever else it had, this thing couldn¡¯t be compared to anything in the natural world, nor would any comparison even have the hope of truly representing the sheer madness that one would need to suffer through in order to imagine such a thing. Thus, she could do nothing more than blast it with as many railgun bolts as could be conjured above it, filling each and every one to the brim with so much Obliteration energy that they were ready to explode before she also added a series of artefact channels into all of them.


    Their fall was marked by the usual noise of a released bolt, but the collision manifested a shockwave so powerful that it managed to hurt even her own ears, not to mention the ears of the nearby Patriarch. The district¡¯s walls were also hit, but only the parts that were already broken, and the houses over to the south-west were already emptied in preparation, so none were hurt.


    In this manner, the thing was torn to shreds, most limbs and tendrils being left on the ground after the impacts, but the faint breath of vitality remained within the thing, as it twitched still.


    ¡°So this mortal thing has the tools of the hunt! Nevertheless, prey is prey, even if its flailing prior to death may slay a predator. Your flesh shall feed the greatest of hunters in my domain!¡± Primordial Nature announced with a sound resembling laughter, stepping towards the Chu District as it did so.


    A single step somehow brought it right next to the walls, and the next might very well have left it standing right next to the Ascendant¡¯s flying figure, but she knew that she couldn¡¯t let that thing get within the district¡¯s walls and harm the foundation of the Chu District any further. Once it was inside, its influence would undoubtedly spread, and it would be far more difficult to push it out once this happened. Furthermore, she simply didn¡¯t want a fight to end with a complete loss on her part, even if she found that she lacked the ability to truly injure the entity before her. In part, that was due to her pride, and also because a failure here would essentially guarantee a loss by the end of the war.


    She instantly shifted her position to the walls, blocking the Primordial Deity¡¯s advance, and swung her Moon Splitter in an expanded state, making all of the shards fly far apart from one another as to make the blade large enough to match her opponent¡¯s size. With Obliteration energy flowing between them, there would be no negative to lacking a proper solid cutting edge on the majority of the blade, where shards could only be connected by her energy.


    It fell upon the ancient entity¡¯s hand, for it had raised them as quickly as she had swung her blade, and sank just an inch into the equivalent of its flesh. The blackened crimson blaze sought to scatter its plant-like flesh and remove at least one of its hands, but even when she tried to silently invoke the power of Law, she didn¡¯t find it going further than it had already done.


    ¡°Lacking strength, mortal thing!¡± Primordial Nature chuckled as it grabbed onto Moon Splitter as best it could before forcing it out of its own hand, which recovered quickly.


    Since they were already awfully close, the Ascendant figured that it might be best to try everything that it had within her arsenal and removed her left hand from the blade, extending it out so that her index finger pointed straight at the entity¡¯s chest.


    Heavenly light flashed for just a moment before everything condensing her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow sank into a single point that then tore through the world, cracks forming in reality itself. The Primordial Deity¡¯s eyes, or whatever one could describe its two equivalents thereof, widened ever so slightly, and the endlessly expanding cracks met the so-called flesh of that thing, digging into it without a sound. A single crack continued all the way through it, but the rest were lost within.


    It got the Primordial Deity to let go of Moon Splitter, giving her the moment necessary to withdraw just enough to get out of its reach and examine the damage she had inflicted upon it.


    Wei Yi hoped that there would be a permanent wound upon its body, forcing it back and out of combat for a good length of time. That much shouldn¡¯t be too excessive of a request from the world, but apparently it was, for she saw only the faintest of openings within its form, and little more. No blood poured out, if that thing even had an ichor which it could bleed with, and it barely seemed to inconvenience it as it straightened its back and glared at her with those thousands of small black insect-like orbs.


    ¡°That is all that this mortal thing can do? To hope to fracture the world with such limited power is the mistake of cornered prey!¡± that thing declared, suddenly waiving its hand from left to right, a surge of power arising from the world.


    Almost instantly, numerous colossal plants burst out of the ground, fracturing walls and shredding structures, and through the openings created in them, or even directly through the plants themselves, came an endless horde of monstrous beasts that flooded into the Chu District with the clear intent to destroy as much as they were possibly able to. Each stomp cracked the ground, and each lunge levelled a structure with ease.


    Countless red phantoms and totems were raised as soon as possible, each one using a different method to meet the siege of flora and fauna, but as railgun bolts fell and all kinds of power scorched what little remained of the Chu District¡¯s ruined north-east side, it was all too clear that this wasn¡¯t enough ¨C not even close to it.


    A strange feeling arose within her chest, and slightly shook the Ascendant¡¯s Library within her mental domain. It took her some time to understand what it could possibly be.


    Some kind of fear, or anxiety. The fear of loss. Of defeat against a thing that she had known would come, and that she had challenged deliberately and knowingly. For far too long, everything seemed to go just too right for her, and although she had noticed the fortunes of her life a number of times, there wasn¡¯t much to be done about it, especially since it was clearly beneficial in attaining her goals. Now, however, that fortune seemed to vanish, and she had no clue as how she might go about obtaining it once more, nor why it chose now of all times to leave.


    ¡°My hunting grounds shall be established here. The soil is rich, and the food is plentiful!¡±


    Primordial Nature may have noticed that slightest of feelings, for it ignored her as it made its proclamations. Perhaps it knew that she had little more to call upon unless she wished to break some of her previous promises to herself.


    And then, it was as if the world itself suddenly condensed into a pure violet, and formed into a vast beam that encompassed the Primordial Deity and a great number of its monstrosities. Each and every one was burned ¨C although use of that word was almost vulgar in comparison to the reaction that truly occurred, but burning was the simplest comparison that could be made and understood without being present at the scene ¨C and even Primordial Nature screeched as it retreated out of the Chu District.


    As soon as it left, a massive spherical barrier appeared around its domain, planar energy flowing freely from the world and reinforcing this barrier. In a moment, a terrible threat was dealt with ¨C for now.


    Wei Yi and Chu Su both turned to face a figure that floated in the sky, descending slowly and gracefully. A mane of crimson hair was affected by whatever method was used, floating alongside the figure, and a pure white robe matched the softly glowing silver eyes. The figure seemed to be a man, physically no older than thirty, with a thin but still imposing body, and an incredible aura.


    ¡°I seem to have arrived a little late. I wish to offer my apologies.¡±


    The previous fluttering of fear was completely overwhelmed as the face matched another in the Ascendant¡¯s memory, the match being so perfect and so unexpected that she paused for a good while before she could force the question out of her mouth, ¡°¡­ Kong Shi Meng?¡±

 V5C83: The Man of the Golden Age

    The man landed on the ground, a few metres from the Ascendant, a thin smile upon his face as he offered the slightest of nods in response.


    ¡°That is my name. That it is still remembered is a good sign, I hope.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, Ascendant, this¡­ that name¡­ it couldn¡¯t be the same person that I am thinking of, could it?¡± Chu Su questioned, beginning quietly but quickly failing to control his voice and talking loudly enough that even a man without a hint of cultivation would have certainly been able to distinguish each and every word.


    Still, Kong Shi Meng did not speak, and left things to the Ascendant to handle as she wished ¨C or so she presumed, for his mind was impossible to read with her methods.


    ¡°¡­ Maybe,¡± she could hardly offer any kind of definitive answer after seeing the man for the first time, so she turned to him and stared at him without any attempt to hide her attempts to spot any oddities or discrepancies in any aspect of him, ¡°I would ask whether you could give me one of your titles, but¡­ that figure in the spatial realm I own ¨C was it you?¡±


    ¡°Although you are vague, I think you refer to the time when I reinforced an array of a spatial realm at risk of invasion. It was a hasty act, not one I should have done from a long-term perspective, but I had to risk my existence for it.¡±


    ¡°In that case, how are you alive?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ can¡¯t be sure. All I know is that I do exist, and that I have to protect the things that I had worked to create. I also know that I shouldn¡¯t be here, and so what I can do is limited.¡±


    ¡°Is that why you didn¡¯t just kill Primordial Nature?¡±


    While they spoke, the Ascendant had carefully attempted to peer into the man¡¯s dantian and determine the state of his cultivation, for she knew what technique Kong Shi Meng had practiced and what realm he had been in, at least at the last time he had been seen in the Planar Continents, but it proved difficult in multiple ways. Even when she did get her divine sense in, all she saw was a series of white clouds shrouding an opening, from which the slightest of glimmers of light emerged at all times.


    On one hand, this was extremely odd, but on the other, the form of the opening was akin to that produced by the realm of Eternal Gate, so even if the gate was obstructed in some manner, there should have been an infinite source of ninth realm planar energy within there, ready to be used.


    ¡°My impact has to be minimal, and so I use a barrier and not a stronger offensive method. In excess, I would endanger myself and the world in one go.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°There is a limit upon me. I think I have the attention of something that does not wish for me to act in certain ways, and I have not found a method of dealing with it just yet. I do not know if it is even possible, so I shall instead do my best and let the next best option take care of the threat with my assistance. From my observation so far, you are exactly that.¡±


    ¡°Just leaving everything for me to handle¡­ What about the Truth of the Universe?¡±


    ¡°What about it?¡±


    ¡°Did you leave it to someone like me deliberately, or did it end up in my hands by some cosmic coincidence?¡±


    ¡°I left it to one that would have a chance of succeeding where I could not. I left it to a person who would be the greatest of their generation, who would have the talent and intellect necessary to soar above all their peers,¡± Kong Shi Meng said, his relatively flat tone changing to a passionate one briefly, ¡°I could not be certain when I found find the one I sought, but as the Truth of the Universe resides with you, I can confirm that I had found the most suitable of people. Your comprehension is far broader and deeper than I could have hoped.¡±


    ¡°Again, what exactly do you refer to? My knowledge in general, my Dao, or something else?¡±


    His voice returned to normal by this point, ¡°Everything. You may be aware that the greater one¡¯s realm, the more they can perceive about the world around them, and I can sense how you stand out amidst the rest of the world. I am sure that you can succeed.¡±


    Wei Yi sighed, as the things he said were true enough, but also gave her no ability to decipher whether or not he was indeed the true Kong Shi Meng, or someone posing as him. Neither option was particularly reasonable, as the Master of Yi City should have died long ago while there should be none in the ninth realm to even attempt to imitate him, and yet one had to be true. This couldn¡¯t be a simple illusion, as her various senses would see right through at least one aspect of it.


    There was also the fact that he was very vague with most of the things he said, meaning that he could easily be making everything up on the spot and simply getting it right.


    ¡®I don¡¯t even know whether I should be this suspicious of him, but¡­ Actually, no, I should be, even if he is truly Kong Shi Meng. For all we know, there is something wrong with his state that he either cannot explicitly reveal, or doesn¡¯t know of himself, and close attention will increase my chances of spotting it and dealing with it in a timely manner,¡¯ the Ascendant decided, mentally glancing towards the Kong Prison Realm and checking on Yi Shi Ming¡¯s state. She would be of use in identifying the man that might be her son, but as she was still busy and seemed to be struggling enough already, she chose not to bother the spatial spirit.


    Since she would not do anything Kong Shi Meng suggested without thinking over it all first, and since she could be relatively sure that her mind would get taken over even if this man was the strongest entity in the ninth realm that could exist, she wouldn¡¯t lose much from waiting a little longer.


    ¡°So, what do you suggest I do now? My strength is lacking to combat the Primordial Deities right now.¡±


    ¡°Strength alone is not the only thing that matters. Planar energy at all realms can interact with any other realm, as you might have learned yourself. In the first realm, it is possible to externalise energy, so even those kinds of barriers are dependent on one¡¯s own effort,¡± Kong Shi Meng said, ¡°Nature has strengths and weaknesses. Understand them, and you will grow in the process.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯d care to tell me the answers so that I could protect the world a bit more quickly, would you?¡±


    ¡°I may not have watched your every step prior to this, but I know for a fact that none could get as far as you without learning and understanding things on your own. Only in this way will you truly be able to reach your peak, no matter your pursuit.¡±


    ¡°That much is true,¡± she nodded, ¡°Well then, will you at least ensure that the districts are safe? Will you tell me about what you got up to a millions years ago? It¡¯s fine if you don¡¯t want to appear in front of others, if that is against whatever restrictions are upon you, but I imagine that there is a lot to be heard about the Planar Continents a million years ago. Some of it might help me take down the Primordial Deities sooner.¡±


    ¡°I will say what I can, and what I know. Of course, I will also protect these lands, but I can only do so much.¡±


    ¡°Are you ever going to be able to do more?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± he did not speak for quite a while, but the message was carried across nonetheless. From his expression, which remained minimal ¨C much like his mother¡¯s rather subtle expressions, though that was to be expected ¨C it was clear that he wasn¡¯t too happy about this either, which created as many problems as it solved. On one hand, at least he wasn¡¯t a complete heartless bastard willing to let the world burn while he did nothing, but on the other, there were far too many limitations upon him for the Ascendant to feel particularly comfortable about it.


    If there was something that was actively restricting Kong Shi Meng, there should be no reason that they wouldn¡¯t be able to restrict the Ascendant, and so she was in danger. Alternatively, if something was restraining him specifically, then it might well end up affecting her as well, since she would be advancing Kong Shi Meng¡¯s goals.


    There was also the chance of him harming her as a result of some of the information that he had failed to disclose for one reason or another. It could even be entirely accidental, not that it would make it any better, but that did force her to pay a greater degree of attention to everything he was doing, as well as everything happening around him. So long as this didn¡¯t prevent him from continuing to create and support such barriers, it wouldn¡¯t be too bad, but it was still a major nuisance.


    ¡°Fine, let¡¯s take care of the district before doing anything else. I¡¯ll also pay attention to Primordial Nature¡¯s activity while I¡¯m at it,¡± Wei Yi said, turning to Chu Su, ¡°You ought to help me move some of the houses and figure out a better place for them. Until Primordial Nature is removed entirely, letting people remain close is far too dangerous, in my opinion.¡±


    ¡°Very well. I have some notion of where things could go, but I would rather leave the moving itself to you. My techniques rely on the element of wood, and, frankly, I don¡¯t trust it right now.¡±


    ¡°My barrier will prevent the Primordial Deity¡¯s influence upon your power, but you may do as you wish. I have a certain sense of the state of the other Primordial Deities, so I shall alert you once I observe an emergence.¡±


    Thus, they went to work, and hours passed quickly.


    Moving half of a district onto the other side of the district, effectively nudging the entirety of the Chu District over to the south-east, was not the easiest of tasks, and the other districts didn¡¯t make it any easier. The buildings they moved were able to fit in the space left by the Fu and Chen Districts, the former being primarily over to the west, and slightly to the south, and the latter being directly south, but that didn¡¯t mean the gap didn¡¯t suddenly shrink to almost nothing.


    Of course, as it was the Ascendant¡¯s will, the Patriarchs couldn¡¯t do much, even the Fu Patriarch, who was not part of the Arbiter¡¯s alliance. They could complain however much they wished to, and it wouldn¡¯t matter whatsoever.


    The thought of simply merging the districts did come to mind, both for Chu Su and Wei Yi, but both rejected it for their own reason. Obviously, the Chu Patriarch would not wish to suddenly lose control of his district and have two others get involved in managing it, nor did he think that it would be a good idea for the three districts to merge when their systems and practises differed greatly. The Ascendant shared that opinion, and knew that there had to be a number of different cultures and districts in order for Yi City to thrive, as mixing up the mastery of the wood element, whatever the Fu District did to obtain such large quantities of resources, and the greed of the Chen District would be unlikely to lead to the best possible outcome.


    It didn¡¯t help that the Fu Patriarch was very reluctant to speak with her, or get anywhere near her. Her divine sense was able to reach him and examine much of his lands, so it wasn¡¯t like there was much that she didn¡¯t know even without his contribution. In fact, his actions only made her want to inspect his lands all the more, as it seemed likely that she would be able to discover the secret of the Fu District¡¯s wealth if she chose to look deeply enough, thus benefitting herself and Yi City as a whole with whatever she found.


    For now, though, things were calm enough ¨C one Primordial Deity was apparently happy to sit over at the north and burn away, while the other was temporarily sealed by Kong Shi Meng and could only act within a circular domain ¨C so she wouldn¡¯t do the unnecessary just yet. Maybe later.


    While they were busy relocating structures, Chu Su approached her and asked using his divine sense, ¡°You have more experience with the Master of Yi City, so I have to rely on your insight. Is that man truly who he claims to be, or should we be on our guard?¡±


    ¡°No idea. I¡¯d need to speak with him far more,¡± she replied simply.


    ¡°That is not¡­ encouraging,¡± Chu Su said, glancing in the direction of the figure warily, ¡°I shall enforce a barrier of my own around the one set up by him, as I do not wish to see my district end in my lifetime.¡±


    ¡°Go ahead. So long as I am free to spare my energy on such matters, I will also keep a barrier up to prevent any kind of accidents, whether it is some kind of deliberate sabotage or something out of his control¡­ That being said, I do think that you are making a bit of a mistake discussing something so close to him. He appears to be in the ninth realm, and his divine sense should not only be able to reach far enough to detect our conversation, but it should be powerful enough to discern exactly what you are saying. He may miss out on my side of the conversation, though, depending on his ability to see through my unique traits.¡±


    ¡°Ah. I will admit, I must have overlooked such a detail. I shall return to work, then.¡±


    He hastened off to shift some more buildings very quickly, with both of them paying attention in the direction of Kong Shi Meng, who did not show any signs of noticing or caring either part of the interaction. Perhaps he hadn¡¯t even been paying attention ¨C a possibility, given that she didn¡¯t detect his divine sense anywhere ¨C or perhaps he couldn¡¯t be bothered with such things. The latter certainly seemed likely, given his temperament so far.


    If he didn¡¯t bring it up, then they didn¡¯t need to bring it up either, and instead focus on more important matters.


    For instance, the matter of the Primordial Deities, who the Ascendant was constantly tempted to call the Primordial Leeches due to the familiarity of the latter term and the fact that they could be described as leeching off the world in a certain manner. When their work was nearly done, Kong Shi Meng appeared beside her and spoke.


    ¡°Primordial Energy and Entropy are emerging. Look north and south, Wei Yi.¡±


    Not a moment after he said it, the air trembled as two waves came from the north and south. Notably, the northern wave was significantly weaker and subtler than the other one, but both had a very discernible nature to them that allowed her to confirm his words.


    From the south, there was a wave akin to the purest of planar energy, the true form of planar energy. Physique, bloodline, killing intent, spiritual will and the five elements came together as one, forming a certain impact that could be felt anywhere in the world. The power of the five elements, or, rather, the planar energy that coalesced from them, was the strongest presence, making Wei Yi ponder whether there were also a Primordial Blood, Primordial Physique and Primordial Mind. The records were rather vague on the Primordial Deities, even in the archives of the Great Leeches.


    She had a suspicion on where Primordial Energy would appear, and sure enough, it was exactly where she thought it would be ¨C the Qiang District, land of plentiful planar stone mines.


    It manifested within the earth, thus being at the edge of her divine sense¡¯s reach, but it was also near to the north-east of the district, just like Primordial Nature decided to make its appearance to the north-east of the Chu District. Most likely, this was coincidental, not some kind of pattern that could be followed, as Primordial Inferno appeared in the middle of some outside nations and tribes, and Entropy¡­ was somewhere.


    The waves of decay and complete disintegration were clear, even if they were far weaker, but she could not nail down a single spot where Entropy resided at the moment. From the behaviour of Primordial Nature, one could guess that Primordial Deities liked to claim territory first, developing it before spreading too far out, so Entropy should be doing something similar.


    And yet, she still failed to find traces of a land where things decayed excessively.


    ¡°Is it supposed to be difficult to find Entropy? Also, why just Entropy, and not Primordial Entropy?¡±


    ¡°Their names are what they are. They are known to all that know of them, and it does not appear to be something that scholars question,¡± Kong Shi Meng answered her second question first, ¡°There are some abnormal circumstances with Entropy, so it is likely that locating it shall be more challenging. However, that does also mean that you shall not have to worry about it as much as the other Primordial Deities.¡±


    As interesting as the first answer was, mostly in the way he chose to phrase it, Wei Yi shrugged and said, ¡°Good. Will you seal Primordial Energy?¡±


    ¡°You will need to be present to strike first and establish a certain standard of resistance. It is effectively one stage lower than Primordial Nature, so you ought to find the confrontation easier in that regard. Energy is also something you understand better than the element of wood.¡±


    That was also true. Other than the Earth Dao, which was at Full Success after she had bested Primordial Earth¡¯s fragment, the rest of her elemental Dao were at the Minor Achievement stage. Technically, they were boosted by her other Dao, especially the unknown stage of the Dao of the Heavens, but as shown by the fact that the vision state of the four wasn¡¯t yet attained by her, there was a significant difference in power and understanding. Just because the understanding of grander overarching Dao boosted the power of the five elemental Dao, she wouldn¡¯t automatically comprehend everything there was to know about them.


    Her Planar Dao was at Full Success, so when it came to dealing with Primordial Energy, she was bound to have more understanding of the foe she faced than when she stood against Primordial Nature.


    ¡°Alright then, the rest of the moving process can be done by Chu Su. We-¡±


    ¡°I can bring you towards the Qiang District instantly. Stand still for a moment,¡± Kong Shi Meng interrupted her plans, placing his hand upon her shoulder and shutting his eyes for the briefest of moments.


    All of a sudden, her surroundings vanished, and ancient stone took their place. Light was absent from the scene, so only her divine sense was able to make sense of the things around her, but before any of that, she wanted to understand how she ended up here. Obviously, she wasn¡¯t in the ninth realm and couldn¡¯t understand all of the intricacies of that realm, but she should have still been able to detect something ¨C anything, for that matter ¨C in between the hand being placed upon her shoulder in the Chu District and being removed in the depths of the Qiang District.


    It was even more extreme than her own movement method, which permitted her to cut out any movement between departure and arrival, but it was by no means perfect. She still touched the chains of Law and shifted her location based on that, so ripples could be detected via various means. Kong Shi Meng did not seem to do anything even remotely similar.


    Within a single instant, they shifted positions as easily as if the very world itself nudged them over.


    ¡°You have your own capabilities, but this is most efficient to get you to the location of Primordial Energy. From here, you ought to know where to go.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Is this your fourth realm movement method? Well, I don¡¯t know whether it can even be called that, but this has to be some kind of technique, right?¡± the Ascendant asked a question that might be seen as being rather obvious and unnecessary. However, she had to make sure for her own sake, since his action was a little too incomprehensible even with the kinds of ridiculous things that she had accomplished on her own.


    ¡°Yes. Planar energy is universal, so transposing our position from one place to another is simple.¡±


    Despite the vague explanation, and partly even due to it, her reaction to this was significantly more positive than if he had proclaimed something else. For instance, if he stated that he had controlled the heavens, it would be difficult for her to do anything about it, but she had plenty of familiarity with techniques, and maybe even more with planar energy. Thus, she immediately got to deciphering it.


    He said that planar energy was universal, and so it was clearly involved in the process of transposition. On its own, that didn¡¯t mean much, but there were only so many things that could be done with planar energy alone, especially energy without an element ¨C which she presumed to be involved due to Kong Shi Meng¡¯s typical techniques from the days of the founding of Yi City. The first idea she had was to encase herself entirely in particles of planar energy, then somehow trick the world itself into believing that she was meant to be somewhere completely different by relying on the nature of planar energy being infinite and based upon the allotted density of any area.


    This was something that could, potentially, be achieved via Law, for the function of planar energy was connected to the Law of the world, but she wasn¡¯t sure how to achieve this just yet. Her comprehension of planar energy would need to reach a slightly greater level, surpassing the natural functions of the world sufficiently to permit her to play with them as the heavens themselves might be able to influence that which they wished.


    On that note, raising her own attainment in a Dao above that of the heavens might be sufficient to allow her whatever level of control she needed, as, in theory, the restrictions to certain powers would be applied to the world via the will of the heavens. Their Dao impose how the abilities of those in the Planar Continents ought to function, so if the Ascendant had greater control over any of the Dao, she should be able to take away that control ¨C though it was unlikely to be that simple, nor particularly easy. Aside from the fact that even her natural affinity for the Dao of Law had not yet managed to bring her forward by a single stage since she reached the limit of what the heavens knew, there was also the matter of control over the world itself.


    Spatial spirits were more powerful within their own domains than cultivations of the same realm, as they were directly linked to their spatial realms. The exact difference caused by this was difficult to assess without being able to experiment with the will of the heavens directly, but she knew for a fact that she would need a significant enough difference in power and comprehension to win.


    ¡°Anyway, where is it?¡± the Ascendant asked, being forced to halt the contemplation as she couldn¡¯t advance her Dao of Law instantly no matter how much she wanted to, hence being unable to test the theory.


    ¡°Directly ahead.¡±


    ¡°Alright. The more damage I am able to do, the smaller the area that it has to work with, and thus the less it can build up before I confront it at a later stage?¡±


    ¡°The barriers are not eternal, but the rest is as you say. The more of the Primordial Deity¡¯s power you are able to expend, the easier it will be to contain it within a smaller area, limiting the damage it can do in the immediate future. However, after a certain amount of time, their power will overwhelm the world¡¯s natural planar energy recovery, and then another barrier would need to be established¡­ but it is not so straightforward when one deals with living, thinking beings.¡±


    ¡°I guess that they would learn what we¡¯re doing and find some way to impair the creation of a barrier the second time that you attempt it, so even if you are successful, either the duration would be lessened, or the size would be increased.¡±


    ¡°That is correct. As such, do your best in one attempt, and become stronger quickly.¡±


    Given his previous statements regarding strength, she understood that this did not include raw power alone, so she nodded and proceeded into the cave systems as quickly as possible. It had been a few minutes since Primordial Energy had emerged, but that had been enough for Primordial Nature to completely overwhelm her and Chu Su, nearly barging into the Chu District as if it owned the place.


    Fortunately, it was rather easy to find due to the flow of energy within the caves. Everything flowed towards it, whether slowly or quickly, and so there hadn¡¯t even been much point to asking Kong Shi Meng about it as she found Primordial Energy only a few seconds after she started the search ¨C assisted to a great degree by her constant usage of her fourth realm movement method to skip out on walking through the lengthy cave passages. Its appearance was as one might expect.


    A huge figure of pure planar light, though the inside of the figure rotated and churned with five slight shades that were barely visible through the outside mist. There were two slightly denser masses where eyes might be, but no trace of a mouth or nose.


    With Primordial Nature, Wei Yi needed quite a while to decipher what would truly be effective against it, but here, she experienced a sudden yet rather unusual epiphany that led her to perform a single further movement until she appeared right before the Primordial Deity. It had a rapid reaction time, attacking far more quickly than even she might be able to had she been attacked instead, but she didn¡¯t do anything that would require more than a single thought. Rather, the Ascendant simply concentrated the full power of her cultivation method on the space before her, forcing it to absorb that vast cloud of planar energy.


    Had she been given a second outside of the world, to look at what she did and comment on it, she would have said that this never should have worked. A moment after, she would have disagreed.


    From the moment she began to use the skill she had then called the Mysterious Character technique, she had the ability to absorb energy that was already bound to another, and although the entity before her was far more than any cultivator she had fought up to this point, the absolute basics were still the same. It had energy, this energy was planar energy at its core, and she could absorb such energy with her cultivation method and the power of Law, which she applied regardless of necessity.


    Thus, a number of drops of energy surged into her dantian, bumping up her cultivation realm by just a little, and the Primordial Deity produced a noise that could only be described as a screech. In an instant, she damaged it far more than she had hurt Primordial Nature.


    The next, a barrier was established, and she was thrown right out, leaving Primordial Energy with half the space that Primordial Nature had been able to obtain.


    ¡°Well done. Shall I bring you back?¡± Kong Shi Meng asked, his expression as still as before.

 V5C84: Ancient Worldly Secret

    Standing at the barrier between the Chu District and Primordial Nature¡¯s domain, the Ascendant¡¯s vision was indeed expanded after her first attempt. The method she used with Primordial Energy couldn¡¯t work with Primordial Nature, as she had not yet figured out a method of dissolving flesh via a cultivation technique ¨C although it was theoretically possible, as planar energy could be used on its own to produce flesh, and flesh could dissolve into pure planar energy if one used the right method ¨C but that didn¡¯t mean that she didn¡¯t gain a new direction to go into as a result of her experience.


    The thing she learned was rather obvious in hindsight, and it was that the Primordial Deities did more than just represent the elements and concepts that were at their core. They were those concepts, given form and will according to some particular interpretation of those elements. For instance, the element of wood stood for nature, and nature thrived on the concept of prey and predator, as well as adapting to the situation and mastering one¡¯s talents.


    An otherworldly demon had called this the survival of the fittest, a concept some man from their world had come up with, and it fit here well enough, except that evolution occurred only with the flora and fauna under Primordial Nature¡¯s control, nor the Primordial Deity itself.


    Rather, the Primordial Deity encompassed the creature at the top of the food chain, the one that was able to stand above it all due to using elements that come from without as well as that which is sourced from within. Primordial Nature itself was powerful, no doubt about it, but all of its attacks rely upon the flora and fauna it controls, while a part of its defences have to come from the odd clothing that it wears.


    From that, one can predict that if Wei Yi was able to get rid of one or more of those factors, she would bring the Primordial Deity down a notch or two. It might not seem that significant, but if that was all that lay between it and those on the food chain, such as Wei Yi herself or the people of the Planar Continents, then it would mean that it goes from an unassailable, untouchable target, to something that she can hope to bring down. To use an example from her own experience, someone like Yi Shi Ming in her current state as a spatial spirit was at the seventh realm, but her true strength was not that high. Outside of the Kong Prison Realm, it was even lower, meaning that someone in the sixth realm should have no trouble taking her on.


    So long as she could destroy one of the things that Primordial Nature relies upon, then she would knock it down to a similar state, and then endless energy wouldn¡¯t mean anything. It would come down to the quality of it, as well as their ability to use it. In that, Wei Yi had a little more confidence.


    ¡®Water nourishes wood, but I lack sufficient control of water. Wood feeds fire, but my flames aren¡¯t quite enough to devour Primordial Nature, as I have seen it deal with my Obliteration energy easily enough ¨C those are akin to flames, in part,¡¯ the Ascendant thought while she stood upon the ruined remnants of the Chu District¡¯s walls, staring into the barrier while wind passed through her hair and caused her crimson robes to flutter.


    She kept her hands in front of her, folded, moving with the slow rise and fall of her chest. Her feet were placed upon two stable stones, one slightly above the other, thus giving her figure a certain unevenness that some painter would certainly love to capture, had she allowed anyone to even get near Primordial Nature¡¯s barrier.


    Only Chu Su could come and go, and although he could hardly deny that there was aesthetic appeal to be found in her stance, he had a thousand better things to focus on before any of that.


    ¡®Metal opposes wood, but the situation is the same there. Wood opposes earth¡­ Hm. Wood and earth¡­ In nature, the earth nourished flora, which in turn feeds fauna, the bodies of which eventually return to the earth, creating a cycle. Cut out one part, and just like the numerous anchors of the Leeches, things should crumble,¡¯ she thought, her eyebrows shifting a little lower, ¡®I would say that I don¡¯t have enough understanding of the earth to accomplish such a thing either, but I can say with certainty that the worst type of soil for anything would be something dry and devoid of any nutrients, a dull grey dust.¡¯


    Her hand was raised, and a small clump of dry grey dust floated above it, wobbling up and down.


    The energy was acquired from Primordial Earth, and it was very close to what she was looking for, except that it couldn¡¯t possibly be enough to win the fight. After all, even with her oblivion essence and what not, she was in the seventh realm. She did not even have all of her oblivion halos or the unique feature of the sixth stage, whatever that would result in, and the energy she had at her disposal was also limited.


    ¡°Kong Shi Meng, can I ask you something?¡± Wei Yi said, partly curious to check the extent of his divine sense, and also to confirm how much attention he paid to others with his divine sense.


    The fact that she couldn¡¯t detect even the slightest hint of his mental energy certainly didn¡¯t help in establishing where he was, so she couldn¡¯t even find his location and go over to him. An otherworldly gift was easier to spot at this point, since she could detect the absence of its information while the Master of Yi City simply blended into the world seamlessly.


    She thought there might be a delay, but he responded instantly, ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    ¡®I don¡¯t think that even Yi Shi Ming had ever responded this quickly. He has some talent as a spatial spirit, if he ever gets bored of being¡­ whatever he is doing now,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, restraining that line of thought before she could say any part of it out loud, ¡°Can the energy of the barrier be used to empower some technique of mine? It¡¯s already there, so if it is dispersed, it could go somewhere and be useful instead.¡±


    ¡°¡­ In theory, but this can only be done once, maybe twice at most. Beyond that, it would infringe upon the restrictions upon me.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a shame. Will you ever explain exactly why?¡±


    ¡°I cannot do so at the moment.¡±


    ¡°In that case, can you estimate the effect of the remaining energy if we were to attack in, say, two hours?¡± she said, putting aside that matter for now as she needed to take care of the return of the Primordial Deities and let things settle down before questioning him about anything.


    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be enough for victory, regardless of means.¡±


    ¡°Not even with something like this?¡± Wei Yi raised her hand higher, putting the floating grey dust roughly at the level of both of their faces.


    He seemed to have no particular reaction to seeing it, saying simply, ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°In that case, we need materials. Something that would be able to resonate with the battlefield condition and amplify it significantly¡­ Earth and wood should be plentiful enough in the Fu District, and if they do have a secret source of resources that none have been able to confirm up to this point, then that might be enough to provide a burst of power against the Primordial Deity and, maybe, even take it down.¡±


    ¡°Killing the Primordial Deity outright will not be possible.¡±


    ¡°Sealing them against might be, though.¡±


    ¡°Possibly.¡±


    That left them in silence for a while, with neither being sure of how to proceed. The first to break said silence was Kong Shi Meng, who held out a hand a short distance from her shoulder.


    ¡°Would you have me move you over to the Fu District?¡±


    ¡°Provided that you are able to keep doing this without incurring the exact same repercussions as overusing the world¡¯s energy, then I wouldn¡¯t mind you using that technique of yours to move around until I figure out how to use it myself.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Stand still for a moment.¡±


    Once more, he placed his hand upon her shoulder, and in an instant, their position shifted to a different part of the world. Last time, she was caught entirely off guard, for she did not know that such a method was even possible, but now she paid close attention to the instant that passed during their teleportation. There had to be something significant occurring during the shift that she would be able to observe, or else she would need to go from doubting the man¡¯s identity to doubting his nature as a human being.


    Indeed, there was something there, as slight as it was. Using the previous guidance from Kong Shi Meng, she took note of the shifting of planar energy just prior to the teleportation.


    The movement was slight and nigh insignificant, but there was a slight rearrangement of planar energy particles before she was suddenly on the outskirts of the Fu District, where the energy appeared to have the exact same arrangement around them. With her divine sense, she could confirm that the space they occupied was replaced with the same energy that previously occupied their new position.


    With the way in which planar energy functioned, it shouldn¡¯t have been much of a surprise that such a thing was possible, but it still took her a little while to get her head around how such a form of substitution would ever work, or how she might go about performing it.


    One or two experiences with the technique weren¡¯t going to be enough for her to figure it all out, but by the time that the instant after the teleportation had concluded, she did think that she could explore the next time a little further than before, and try to track particular particles of planar energy to verify how they are affected. Depending on the specifics of the process, there might be a chance of replicating the technique at a smaller scale, with something like a technique or a weapon.


    For instance, she could manifest a railgun bolt, fire it, then wrap it in planar energy and quickly complete most of its journey for it, allowing it to end up wherever she wished it to be within the blink of an eye. She could keep the trajectory the same, alter it entirely, make it fly back at where she released it from if she so wished, and her enemies might not be able to do anything about it if they didn¡¯t have the chance to face this method multiple times across a lengthy period of time. Given that she preferred to end things within a single fight wherever possible ¨C and that it was generally her opposition that kept finding ways to escape and get in her way later ¨C this was not that difficult to achieve.


    ¡®Still, to perform something like this will be rather difficult, and the fact that Kong Shi Meng pulls it off in an instant says quite a bit about his own abilities. It appears that he does indeed have quite a bit going for him aside from the Truth of the Universe,¡¯ the Ascendant noted, though she wasn¡¯t too surprised given that he had managed to rise to the top of the world, a difficult feat for the other otherworldly demons who have incredibly powerful otherworldly gifts of their own.


    If the Master of Yi City¡¯s successes were purely down to his gift, then every single otherworldly demon would dominate the world during their lifetimes, and the Planar Continents would go through a thousand rulers in the years since Kong Shi Meng vanished.


    Given that he had managed to endure in the minds of the people for a million years, it was clear that all those that came after him were far less successful. Sure, there were bound to be quite a few that got their names into the history remembered by most, their names being commonplace in certain districts and locations, a feat that was in itself decent due to the intervention of the Great Leeches in the later years, when they became stronger with their accumulation of knowledge and force that the rest of the world lost.


    These things aside, Wei Yi stored everything in her memory and then asked, ¡°You appeared in front of Chu Su, but do you intend to do the same for the other Patriarchs?¡±


    ¡°I will limit my appearances. You have taken over the role of Master of Yi City, and my appearance would impact your ability to retain the authority you currently possess. A Patriarch or Matriarch ought to possess enough wisdom to understand that my powers are limited now, but the common populace can struggle with accurately estimating a person¡¯s power.¡±


    ¡°That is true, unfortunate as that is. My assistance in terms of knowledge and insight ought to improve that just a little, but it will take a long time for everyone to acclimate and properly integrate that into their own thought process.¡±


    Kong Shi Meng simply nodded, though he certainly understood what she meant given that she was simply expanding on what he had already mentioned, then turned to the walls of the Fu District, which were nothing in comparison to the now broken walls of the Ning District. In fact, the current state of the Ning District¡¯s defences was still superior to the Fu District¡¯s, which should say quite a bit about the Fu District¡¯s utterly lacking fortifications. Alternatively, one could use the comparison to point out that the Ning District was absolutely unmatched in the entirety of Yi City when it came to defences.


    Rather than a powerful stronghold, or a fortress, the Fu District resembled an idyllic, peaceful land, with rivers flowing through a picturesque landscape littered with the occasional home or store.


    If the Ascendant needed a place to stay after she managed to accomplish everything she wanted to, then the Fu District would be rather perfect for her. She could acquire a small residence for herself in an area between one of the quieter rivers and a small farm field that could occupy her time whenever she couldn¡¯t find something else to use her time for.


    To say that this would be a desirable outcome for her was rather difficult, however. With how she had lived her life since her sixteenth year, to settle down and do nothing, even if that was all that she could do, would be nearly impossible. She would go out of her way just to find some other journey to embark upon, something else to pursue, even if it was even more challenging to attain than the defeat of the Leeches, the Primordial Deities, and then whatever would be found once the Hunger of the Beyond makes its way into the Planar Continents. It was probably not for the best, given that there had to be an end to one¡¯s journey eventually, but it was also better than wishing to do nothing at all.


    ¡®This line of thought is, also, completely irrelevant¡­ If it was possible to cultivate via pointless mental tangents, I think I would have reached the ninth realm ages ago,¡¯ she thought, having stepped onto one of the chains of Law in order to proceed towards the Fu District.


    She could have made a more ordinary entry, but she did not intend to act in an ordinary manner on this particular visit. She wanted to demand access to whatever source of resources the Fu District possessed, and she did not intend to take no for an answer when the entirety of the Western Continent could be lost if she did not receive what she required. If anyone had a problem with that, then they were free to talk with her at a later time, once the crisis is averted.


    In actuality, she could have taken whatever she wanted without notifying anyone, but there was the slightest of problems in the form of lacking information. She had no clue where to look.


    This was a problem that plagued everyone that sought to discover the source of the Fu District¡¯s resource richness. One might imagine that a quick scan with one¡¯s mental energy ought to be enough, but then the Ascendant wouldn¡¯t need to come here in person and investigate it all. She could grab a lot of things using only her mental energy from the adjacent districts and not meet with the Fu Patriarch at all, but that was impossible when nothing about the district appeared to be distinctly wrong. Nothing stood out.


    As with all districts and all lands in general, there were hidden spots and secret goings on that one could discover with relative ease with divine sense as powerful as her own, but nothing would lead to the Fu District¡¯s people infinitely obtaining all of the resources that were expended without care on anything and everything. It was this that forced her to visit in person.


    Her entrance had not been too stunning as she had simply walked on the air, so when she stood near the Patriarch¡¯s residence and confirmed that he hadn¡¯t noticed, she reached out and conjured a mass of planar energy. She didn¡¯t use her cosmic energy, but tried to copy another kind instead.


    Last time, the pilfering of a Primordial Deity¡¯s energy allowed her to replicate its grey dust, so when she got a few drops directly from Primordial Energy¡¯s source, she imagined that she should be able to perform a similar feat again. Thus, she used the pure planar energy form most familiar to her, and imbued into it everything she had been able to memorise during the few moments of direct confrontation with Primordial Energy, while also urging every drop of that power to emerge in whatever form it was able to take through her influence and cultivation. The exact result didn¡¯t matter, for it would look impactful nonetheless.


    It turned out that she might have underestimated herself just that slightest bit.


    When the mass was produced, it quickly expanded and grew into this orb of energy that could not be described as anything but primal and violent, raging and quaking as if it was a terrible beast ready to devour the world. It was difficult to control, and she was able to say that after using a form of raw planar energy which was able to literally devour her body rapidly.


    To keep it for too long would be impossible, as the very energy she controlled seemed to be getting out of her control, and as she released it, she realised exactly why.


    She was trying to conjure the energy of Primordial Energy ¨C in other words, Primordial Energy itself.


    If that ever went well, then she would have power over a Primordial Deity, and that would solve the vast majority of her problems ¨C provided that it didn¡¯t run into the same problem as Kong Shi Meng, forcing it to use an incredibly limited array of powers that ultimately made it significantly less useful. Instead, all that she had to do was discard the energy she manifested and let it explode in the air, releasing all of the oblivion essence she had collected and letting the Fu District have it.


    The violet mass retained its vague shape for a moment longer, then exploded with a misleading vigour. Witnessing it would have led one to presume that there would be a wave of force sufficient to obliterate most of the structures within their district, but it had almost no force whatsoever.


    Soon, the dense violet spread out into a mellow mist that washed into the buildings of the district, turning every space ever so slightly purple. Although the oblivion essence state had been bound to her, the resulting mist was completely freed of the control of either the Primordial Deity or the Ascendant, meaning that everyone with the slightest ability to cultivate now had a great quantity of planar energy to utilise as they saw fit. For most ¨C although it would be more accurate to say all ¨C it would be impossible to utilise all of it in their own cultivation, and most couldn¡¯t handle it all anyway, but it was still akin to releasing a dozen planar shards to everyone.


    For those in the first and second realm, she essentially offered a stage of progress, and for the rest, it was a boost that might have otherwise been difficult to come by. The Fu District had plenty of natural resources in nearly every category other than pure planar stones or shards, which were found in largest numbers at the Qiang District.


    ¡®Not quite the entrance I had been intending to make, but this should provide a better first impression, at least,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, this idea very much being confirmed by the Patriarch¡¯s jovial expression when the cloud of energy reached him.


    Just like all the Patriarchs, he was in the seventh realm, but he was only in the first stage despite presumably rising to his position earlier than those that the Ascendant had boosted into place. Thus, the benefit was still notable, and it acted as a significantly better gift than a random series of planar shards, which would be more difficult to refine and less efficient overall.


    He took a brief while to take in all of the energy he could, and then stepped outside.


    ¡°Ascendant? I have heard of your deeds in the rest of Yi City, but I don¡¯t know why you should be here at this moment,¡± the Patriarch said, hesitating for a second before he chose to float up to stand at her level.


    ¡°You don¡¯t think that you should be getting involved with the return of the Primordial Deities?¡±


    ¡°That is not what I meant. Resources necessary for handling their return will of course be provided at minimal prices, but there is little that my Fu District can do directly.¡±


    ¡°Incorrect, Patriarch. You are able to give me the resources necessary to weaken and potentially defeat Primordial Nature, and I will take them in whichever way appears to be necessary. For that reason, I am offering you the chance to tell me exactly where the Fu District¡¯s resources come from, and if you do choose to give it up willingly, then we can part in an amicable manner and you can join in whatever manner you can to protecting my part of Yi City.¡±


    ¡°So you are like all the others? You simply want me to give up our district¡¯s secrets?¡±


    As he spoke, he called upon his energy and manifested an aura around himself, a mixture of the elements of wood and water. It was certainly not the worst aura that she had seen, like Yi Shi Ming¡¯s rather lacking outward aura due to her lack of talent and experience in combat, but even if she had still been in the sixth realm, it would have been completely safe to approach it.


    In this manner, he utterly failed to appear intimidating in the slightest, and only exhibited more faults for Wei Yi to latch onto.


    ¡°First of all, why does this infinite source suddenly belong exclusively to your district? If you or your family have personally created it, then you could make some kind of argument, but anything at the level of infinity is extremely powerful. Provided that the abilities of the ninth realm masters that lived around the golden age of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s rule of Yi City were enough to produce such things, then all of the districts would have done the same thing as your ancestors. They did not, and no attempts survived to this day even if they evaded Kong Shi Meng¡¯s attention.¡±


    He did not reply to her, nor did he provide any kind of obvious reaction this time.


    ¡°Thus, I have to presume that the source of your resources is natural, even if I cannot necessarily guess the exact nature of it. You happen to be sitting on it, figuratively or literally, and when Yi City calls for aid, you proudly continue to sit on your ass instead of letting people know how to obtain it.¡±


    ¡°I know you have revealed a great deal of the people of Yi City, but even you have not shared your cultivation technique-¡±


    ¡°Because it will literally kill you. I am not the Great Leeches, unfortunately for your comparison, but I am happy to provide a better one myself ¨C I have plenty of weapons and resources of my own that I store within either the Kong Prison Realm or a spatial storage artefact I happened to obtain within the aforementioned spatial realm,¡± she said, though she didn¡¯t bother showing off the opening to the House of Gold as he wouldn¡¯t be able to see it anyway, ¡°I am keeping quite a bit to myself. Want to know why?¡±


    ¡°Why is that?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t need any of it at the moment, but if there comes a time that it is necessary, I will use up everything I have built up. I can expend the wealth, the materials, the texts that I have not directly placed into the archives accessible within the Kong Prison Realm ¨C there are a few things like that, mostly incomplete methods or those that I consider to be far too dangerous for anyone, myself included, to even attempt to use ¨C and if others require it, I will not immediately go on the defensive.¡±


    ¡°Your words hardly implied that you gave me any choice!¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t. I will take what you have, because failing to do so would mean the potential fall of the Chu District, and the eventual collapse of Yi City. That is unacceptable to me, and I am willing to do a great deal to make sure it doesn¡¯t happen.¡±


    ¡°Even intimidating and stealing from a Patriarch who can do nothing at all to defend himself or his district against you?¡±


    ¡°You have a family of your own, right? A child, maybe only a wife, or perhaps you only have close friends¡­ If you saw a bunch of bandits attacking them while they can do nothing to defend themselves, would you speak to them calmly, or would you take the nearest weapon you can find and rush right in, protecting those you care about?¡±


    ¡°Is that how you see Yi City? Something you care about?¡±


    ¡°To an extent. There are some that I couldn¡¯t give less of a fuck about, but for the Planar Continents to endure in the hands of humanity, the Primordial Deities must fall. I will ensure this happens, or I will perish in the process. You have no reason to refuse to help me, none at all.¡±


    ¡°What makes you so sure about that? Perhaps what I possess is not accessible by mortal hands.¡±


    ¡°Then you wouldn¡¯t be able to access it. I am not an idiot, Fu Patriarch, so skip all of this bullshit and tell me the exact situation, if you are truly unable to give me what I require.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Very well, Ascendant, I shall reveal to you the truth. We are in the possession of an extremely rare phenomenon, one that is said to have been considered absurdly valuable even by the Master of Yi City,¡± the man turned around and looked up into the sky, perhaps meaning the face the heavens themselves, ¡°A natural spatial realm, where resources pour unendingly.¡±

 V5C85: Hungry Soil Starving Wood

    The Ascendant looked at him for a brief while, then raised an eyebrow and physically restrained her urge to hit the heavens in the face. Strictly speaking, she was neither able to strike the heavens nor were they the ones to blame for her current irritation, but it was a reflexive thought at this point.


    ¡°¡­ It is rather unbelievable, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a surprisingly suitable word for your actions. Patriarch, I am familiar enough with the concept, but I see no reason at all why you had to drag this out instead of simply informing me and providing me with the materials I would request once I understood exactly what you had to offer.¡±


    ¡°It is a natural spatial realm, the likes of which have not been seen anywhere else in the Planar Continents!¡±


    He was correct, so far as she knew. Spatial realms were made exclusively made by the hands of intelligent beings like humans or ancient beasts, but there had never been a record of a spatial realm coming about on its own accord, nor of the heavens deliberately working towards producing a spatial realm. To those for whom the behaviour of the natural world, and the heavens as an extension of this, was of interest, the question of why this was the case was always an enticing one.


    However, when it came to using natural resources, most agreed that it was best to use them wherever necessary, sparing only the amount necessary to ensure that a regenerating resource wouldn¡¯t run out entirely. For instance, this was done with authamite, which could recover if left alone for long enough, and any other materials with a leaning towards the element of wood especially.


    ¡°And what exactly is the problem?¡±


    ¡°It¡­ well, is this something that should be exploited?¡±


    ¡°I might be mistaken, but is the entirety of the Fu District not based around eagerly exploiting every little thing that the natural spatial realm provides?¡±


    ¡°We are merely using the bare minimum to keep our homes in a reasonable state!¡±


    ¡°This reasonable state exceeds the living standards of most of the people of Yi City, and has done so for an absurdly long time. Perhaps if the resources within had been available to the rest of Yi City, things would have been better for all of us.¡±


    ¡°To give them away for free-¡±


    ¡°This is a special situation, hence me not taking no for an answer. At other times, you could have allowed far more of this realm¡¯s production to be accessed by the neighbouring districts at least, and any within reach at best. That way, perhaps the Ju District wouldn¡¯t have thought about separating from Yi City¡¯s foundation entirely and taking over with a bunch of automaton troops,¡± Wei Yi muttered the latter part, returning to the initial topic immediately after, ¡°Give me the spatial stabilisation point, and I will not only make sure that Primordial Nature doesn¡¯t escape its current containment, but also that you have the chance to trade with all but the Shi District, Huang District and Ling District, at least for now.¡±


    ¡°Ascendant, I hope you understand that my concern regarding the natural spatial realm was entirely genuine. I do not know what will happen if our usage of the spatial realm is greatly increased.¡±


    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t cause any problems.¡±


    That was a rather significant oversimplification of the potential consequences that might arise, as well as the things she would need to address as a result, but the Fu Patriarch could hardly say anything in response. Despite living in the Fu District all his life, he could not be said to have as much experience with spatial realms as the woman who owned both a spatial artefact and a spatial realm, and who had messed around with both of those and had the expertise of Yi Shi Ming on her side.


    In addition, he wasn¡¯t aware of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s return, who would also have knowledge about the natural spatial realm, likely vastly exceeding that of the Fu Patriarch as he and his ancestors did not appear to have researched the natural spatial realm.


    Even if the former Master of Yi City had not done much to research the spatial realm himself, then his current cultivation realm would still grant him additional insights. If he had both done his research and was truly in the ninth realm, as he should be and as his odd state of cultivation suggested, then any insights he had attained back then would still be incredibly useful to understanding further aspects of the natural spatial realm that he had been unable to comprehend at the time. To put it another way, Kong Shi Meng was bound to have something to contribute.


    ¡°The spatial stabilisation point is immediately next to the largest and clearest entrance to the spatial realm. They aren¡¯t anchored to one another directly, as that might lead to damage to the natural spatial realm, but it appears to have been sufficient to allow us consistent entry into the natural spatial realm via our homes.¡±


    ¡°Hm¡­¡± the Ascendant glanced towards the various homes of the people of the Fu District, and noted how the people that travelled down into their basements would step into a strange space that aligned with their basement, but did not exactly match it, meaning that they would occasionally wander beyond the boundaries of their basements, and sometimes into obstacles that she couldn¡¯t perfectly perceive from where she stood.


    They were also able to obtain things that they shouldn¡¯t have had from within their homes, clearly marking the locations of their spatial realm access points.


    Still, it was extremely fascinating to look at, even if this couldn¡¯t be considered as the most advanced of uses for a spatial realm, and even if this was likely done semi-unintentionally by whoever had initially settled by the natural spatial realm. If Wei Yi had been given access to this natural spatial realm and been permitted to do whatever she wished with it ¨C not that she would ask anyone for permission ¨C she would have attempted to perform a greater level of integration with the world, or perhaps locked it off and tried to create a separate, safer space where the most valuable and trusted members of the Fu District could reside and progress the district¡¯s development of whatever was necessary.


    For now, this was none of her concern, and thus she didn¡¯t bother to ask the Fu Patriarch about those matters, and just headed to the spatial stabilisation point, which she was able to detect the moment that she knew what sought.


    Spatial fluctuations were usually rather obvious when looked upon from the outside, or the inside, as space was a rather fundamental thing that was easy to perceive with some understanding of it. This was a matter in which the natural spatial realm differed, as it would share a significantly larger quantity of natural laws to any of the spatial realms made by mankind.


    Still, there were obvious hints of the fluctuations, present all over the district.


    They were concentrated to the west, and after a brief while, she spotted the spatial stabilisation node there as well. They were placed opposite one another, and the soft outside edge of the gateway into the natural spatial realm was nearly invisible. Peering through the gateway from the side would almost make it seem as if there was no gateway there at all, and the natural environment just ended up positioned in the most curious of ways.


    Planar energy poured into the spatial realm, as it had a lower energy concentration than the world currently possessed, but she knew that the spatial realm would once have had more energy allocation than the Planar Continents. Furthermore, it was likely that the natural spatial realm would slowly accommodate to the rise in planar energy allocation, since it couldn¡¯t have been this high while the Patriarch of the Fu District was only in the first stage. Thus, it was possible that this natural spatial realm had the additional traits of adapting to the outside world, something that the Kong Prison Realm did not do, currently to its own benefit.


    She reached into the gateway with her divine sense, quickly confirming some basic natural laws and properties to ensure that she could indeed get in safely, without damaging the spatial realm.


    ¡®It appears to be entirely identical, and the state of the spatial realm appears to be entirely stable, regardless of the size that it is. Hopefully, it won¡¯t just collapse the moment I attempt to use my own energy, which would almost certainly have damaged something like the Kong Holy Grounds,¡¯ Wei Yi took a step towards the gateway, looked closely into it with her vision to confirm her observations, then took another to enter. She did not choose to claim the spatial stabilisation point first, as she wanted to minimize the chance of the natural spatial realm¡¯s collapse while she was inside.


    Her House of Gold had plenty of space to store any materials that she might acquire, and she didn¡¯t know whether there would be any necessity to drag out more than would fit. As such, even if the natural spatial realm collapsed the moment after she departed, she wouldn¡¯t lose out on her opportunity to confront Primordial Nature on vaguely more even grounds.


    The loss of the natural spatial realm was obviously not desirable, but it was a long-term matter that could only become an issue if Primordial Nature and the other Primordial Deities were defeated, at least as far as the Ascendant could see.


    Another step brought her inside, although it certainly didn¡¯t feel like she had crossed a boundary of any kind. There was far too many similarities between the outside and inside for there to be such a thing, and she could likely be fooled if this entrance was placed within a physical gate and her divine sense wasn¡¯t used. She was intrigued by why such a thing could even occur, but an answer came to her significantly earlier than she would have expected.


    ¡°This natural spatial realm is indeed the only one in existence. The Fu District¡¯s Patriarch is correct in this regard,¡± Kong Shi Meng suddenly appeared right beside her, standing with his hands behind his back, looking up into the blue skies of this realm, his eyes narrowed just a little, ¡°This place has been created many decades ago, and has stood here since then, a permanent space formed in a world of temporality. With everything taken from it, the spatial realm will attempt to recover itself to its previous state, and nearly everything will do so without any flaw at all. There are some things that could not change, however¡­¡±


    He did not continue, leaving the Ascendant to ponder exactly what she could and could not take away from this place without any lasting harm, though she did not do so for long. Now that she was here and got to look at whatever she wished, she only needed to find the things that she would use.


    ¡°Earth-type materials are found within this patch of the earth, wood-type grow from the field there, and the strongest metal-type materials should be¡­ hm. They appear to have weakened since I last checked,¡± Kong Shi Meng said, though he slowly descended into muttering with a tone that differed slightly from his previous monotone. It was rather subtle, and it was still not outside the character she expected from him, so it wasn¡¯t a point for concern.


    That did remind her that she had never been able to find some kind of definitive method of confirming his identity, and it was clearly still on the forefront of her mind. He was currently helping her, which was obviously a positive, but the more she learned about his knowledge, the more she was apprehensive about who he could also be.


    After all, a weakling with no true power or information could pose as Kong Shi Meng for a while, but some basic checks would confirm his identity to be other than what he wishes to present. On the other hand, someone that is able to appear exactly like the Master of Yi City in every way will have to be powerful, knowledgeable or both, and from what she has seen so far, the man before her was both strong and wise. It meant that she needed to pay close attention to him at all times, a thing that was rather difficult when he was able to move around even more quietly than Yi Shi Ming.


    ¡°I need the earth-type materials. Which ones are most reactive to the element of wood?¡±


    ¡°The dirt wrapped in brambles there is most fitting,¡± Kong Shi Meng said, pointing into a distant forest darkened by a thick canopy of black wood and excessively thick leaves, ¡°It is harmless to you.¡±


    She didn¡¯t need to ask whether this would apply to the average person without a cultivation, as the appearance of the forest alone answered most questions. It writhed and shifted in a manner akin to the influenced flora of Primordial Nature, as some aspect of the planar materials that composed that forest in particular, and if an ordinary person was to attempt to enter that place, they would not survive long.


    Against her, an abnormally powerful individual at a realm as high as the materials she wanted, the most the plants could do was slightly bother her and maybe try to reach somewhere that they should not go ¨C on that topic, the hard and rough material of the roots and brambles was in no way appealing.


    The Ascendant mentally gave her libido a light slap and headed into the bramble forest.


    Since she knew what she was looking for, with the aid of her divine sense that had stretched out across the entirety of the hilly region that was the natural spatial realm, she found it in moments, appearing beside the area of bramble-wrapped dirt that had a shape akin to endless roots wrapped together into a thick sheet. Vitality flowed from it as if it was an ocean of it.


    ¡®Perfect. There¡¯s traces of the element of wood, and there is clear cooperation between the wood and earth. At the same time, it is outside the control of Primordial Nature, and it is exactly what I need, in the quantities that I need¡­ roughly. I might need a little more than just this patch of bramble dirt,¡¯ the Ascendant concluded after a quick check of the total volume of the material, storing it in the House of Gold, appearing beside Kong Shi Meng a moment after, ¡°What other materials share these exact traits? In fact, the more resonance with wood, the better, so long as it is not wood-type itself.¡±


    ¡°North-west, three thousand and fifty-three metres. South, five hundred and ninety-eight metres. East, exactly ten thousand metres.¡±


    ¡°Got it. Will that have any kind of significant impact on the natural spatial realm?¡±


    ¡°Some. Nothing permanent, provided that you do not rip out the root of these resource nodes,¡± the former Master of Yi City said, glancing in the direction of the barren patch of the bramble forest, ¡°You should know what I mean, given that you have left it intact.¡±


    ¡°I suppose that you aren¡¯t simply referring to the material itself. Is there some kind of marker that the world has for where things are meant to be, and from where it would then recover the materials, no matter how much I take?¡± after seeing him nod, Wei Yi continued, ¡°Therefore, there is a certain blueprint to the world, just like the Kong Prison Realm can be altered according to my imagined vision of it even if I don¡¯t or cannot personally exert the effort to change it?¡±


    Again, he simply nodded.


    She didn¡¯t press him on this any further, as she believed that she understood the matter well enough herself. After all, she had been comparing spatial realms to the world itself, and thus a spatial spirit to the heavens, long before Kong Shi Meng had tacitly agreed to her interpretation, and so she understood that she had been on point in this regard.


    In that sense, it would also explain why natural spatial realms were scarce, as a spatial spirit wouldn¡¯t then go on to create a spatial realm inside of its domain with its own spatial spirit, but the fact that a natural spatial realm did exist did make things a little confusing.


    Logically speaking, there are two possibilities for how such a thing came into existence. The first is that there is some kind of natural process that can culminate in the existence of a spatial realm, and this process occurred to produce the Fu District¡¯s spatial realm. However, the obvious question after that is why the Fu District¡¯s natural spatial realm is the only one of its kind. With the Planar Continents being millions, if not billions, years old, whatever freak coincidence had to occur to produce the natural spatial realm couldn¡¯t have occurred only once. The heavens could have interfered, but it doesn¡¯t make sense that they wouldn¡¯t then destroy or prevent this natural spatial realm from forming as well.


    Hence, it had to be concluded that the heavens either wished for this natural spatial realm to exist, or deliberately created it. That clashed with the previous conclusion, and would imply that the heavens were capable of considering all kinds of things, and it would thus mean that the heavens had been intending to accomplish something with the creation of this natural spatial realm. It wasn¡¯t clear what this was, however.


    From the amount that Kong Shi Meng had been willing to reveal, it was clear that he didn¡¯t have much to say to her for the moment. As such, she had to look for her answers elsewhere.


    ¡®I mean, I can¡¯t inquire with the heavens themselves, so the best I¡¯ve got is just investigating all of this shit on my own¡­ Man, it is a shame that the Primordial Deities seem so insistent on coming out and immediately fucking up nearly everything. With the Great Leeches, I was able to get some time to myself in between the major battles, but now I need to handle all of their emergences before I can do anything without feeling like an asshole¡­¡¯ she sighed, ¡®Not the only issue, of course, but it is doing a great deal to prevent the stress from being relieved.¡¯


    The more she thought about it, the more it would bother her, so she quickly hurried up and grabbed the rest of the materials that she needed. With her capabilities, it didn¡¯t take her very long at all, and soon she was ready to leave.


    Kong Shi Meng followed, and while she took the spatial stabilisation point, he did something to stabilise the gateway to the natural spatial realm, or the spatial realm itself.


    As with a few other things, he did not explain a thing in anything resembling actual detail, so she didn¡¯t try to get it out of him and instead just organised everything in the House of Gold and contemplated how she would ultimately approach the battle. She did not have much time before the next Primordial Deities would pop out somewhere, and she wanted to clear up at least one prior to that happening.


    Thus, she would need to act right away, and she would need to succeed with just one chance.


    ¡°You want me to go to one of the other districts? Am I that useless?¡± the Chu Patriarch asked, clearly displeased with the request.


    ¡°I could say yes, but that wouldn¡¯t be entirely true. You have the ability to resist a Primordial Deity for a few moments, but you have to be facing one that is unable to directly nullify all of your techniques. You cannot fight Primordial Nature properly, and so it would be far better for you to stay at another district at risk of Primordial Deity emergence while I fight it here,¡± Wei Yi explained, ¡°Don¡¯t bother arguing, by the way. This may be your district, but you cannot save it.¡±


    ¡°Do you anticipate that the fight will last for a dozen hours? Do you think you are strong enough?¡±


    ¡°You should hope that I am, or else your district is fucked and in nothing even closely resembling a good way. Trust me on that.¡±


    He sighed, ¡°I will not question your expertise with assessing the danger of Primordial Nature, but¡­ Ah, fuck this. I will follow your instructions, but I will never permit you to have rest in the afterlife if you fail and leave my district to burn.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll not let myself rest, so don¡¯t worry about that.¡±


    He sighed again and glanced in the direction of the barrier containing Primordial Nature, as well as all of the madness occurring inside while it was only able to modify a relatively small patch of land in comparison to the territory it had wished to occupy initially. Parts of the Chu District¡¯s walls were caught within the barrier, and they were barely recognisable even through the faded mists of the pure energy forming the obstruction between them. To someone that had worked for much of their life to improve the district that they had inherited from their ancestors, it was a painful sight.


    Still, he had to leave and let an outsider take care of things, as he was equivalent to a boost to Primordial Nature¡¯s power at the moment.


    ¡°Don¡¯t destroy anything that you don¡¯t need to, Ascendant. I want to find this place in something vaguely resembling the state that I will leave it in, though I suppose there isn¡¯t much I can do if you do ruin it all¡­¡±


    The man sighed one final time and began his departure, and Wei Yi did not wait for him to get back before she headed over to the barrier and also had a glance inside. Her divine sense could penetrate the barrier in part, lacking perfect clarity but providing her with enough information that viewing it in person was more of a personal ritual than any kind of practical deed. She didn¡¯t need to look in person, but it all too often proved to be a necessity within her mind.


    It was, strictly speaking, an issue, but hardly one that required addressing anytime soon.


    She instead processed the area before her and quickly calculated the most efficient layout for all of her gathered materials while also taking into account the current landscape ¨C and all of the changes caused to it by Primordial Nature¡¯s powers ¨C and the entities occupying and growing on that landscape. Neither would make things too easy for her.


    It had to be mentioned that in a few minutes, Primordial Nature utterly changed the area it emerged from completely, and now it had been given quite a while longer to fester beneath Kong Shi Meng¡¯s barrier. The landscape was easy to account for, but it was difficult to change under the feet of a Primordial Deity without it noticing and doing its best to prevent whatever it thought she was attempting to do. That she was doing a thing that seemed beneficial on the surface might not deter it effectively. When it came to the flora and fauna, however, she had to deal with the exact opposite ¨C dealing with the changed entities was necessary and relatively simple, but their constant change and growth made them the worst kind of pain in the ass.


    From her experience with the establishment of the barrier, she estimated a small window in which she would be able to do whatever without the Primordial Deity being able to intervene. That meant that she had the briefest of whiles to do the things that she needed to.


    Calculating the right approach was necessary, and the moment that she had completed all of her preparations, she requested Kong Shi Meng to lower the barrier and waited for it to be done.


    ¡°Mortal thing, you have finally appeared again!¡± the Primordial Deity¡¯s rustling and crackling voice echoed throughout the Chu District¡¯s lands, ¡°Although the heavens had blocked my advance, you shall see what a hunter can do with worthy prey! Whatever you had used to stall me shall never help you again!¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t be so sure about that,¡± Wei Yi muttered before raising her voice, ¡°I only needed the once.¡±


    ¡°Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer, mortal thing. In the hunt, all things must be at their peak ability regardless of their belief in victory. I shall teach you this!¡± Primordial Nature decided to go into another one of its educational speeches, though it did not remain still while it did so.


    It must have learned from their previous encounter, for the Primordial Deity mobilised everything that it had manifested and changed and made them attack right away, using its monologue to give time for some of the slower entities to prepare. The fastest used similar methods to the planar constructs of Chu Su, firing needles and spines at immense speeds and in excessive numbers to purely strike at her, while the slowest were akin to the artillery used by the Ju District¡¯s automatons, or the worlds that the otherworldly demons hailed from.


    The slowest finished around the time it declared his intent to educate her, and joined an absurd volley of natural material that was clearly meant to cover her, her escapes, any directions one might go towards after an attempt to escape, and the nearest few dozen streets for good measure. It was a terrible thing to manage, requiring plenty of energy regardless of how she intended to deal with it, but for once, the deflection of projectiles could do more than merely guard herself and her lands.


    She chose to meet the barrage with the Arm, gathering energy into it before encasing it with the shards of Moon Splitter and filling those with even more energy. When the flood came close, she struck.


    All of that force blasted out of her with a simple palm, one that was not intended to pierce or target weakness. Rather, all of the force that she had built up was spread out across the widest area possible while maintaining the necessary force to push all the things that flew towards her back. At the same time, a few drops of her energy lingered on each projectile.


    ¡°A beast that can only defend is already lost, mortal thing!¡±


    Indeed, when thrown back, the spines, needles, rocks, malformed eggs and the fleshy chunks shot out by some of its creations lost much of the velocity they once had, and though they flew far, they were easily dodged or simply rendered harmless due to some aspect of their nature. Most of the spines, for instance, did not even land with their tip facing the ground or target, only the force with which they flew permitting a few to be lodged into the ground and to sink in just a little, quickly filling the bramble-shaped dirt with all kinds of junk.


    Before the Primordial Deity could do something else, Wei Yi asked, ¡°Mind if I give a lesson of my own?¡±


    She raised her right hand, as she still waited for the Arm of Slaughtering Shadow to recover its power, and focused on the land that she had altered, the brambles of which formed a thick enough layer either on the surface or a short distance within the ground of the area that Primordial Nature had been sealed in.


    It was outside of her body, but it was still her oblivion essence. When she demanded it, she could change its form to that which she required.


    ¡°All things need food and water. The stronger one¡¯s body, the more they need. When starved of both, even the mightiest of dragons can be rendered inferior to a child with a knife, provided that the knife is sharp enough to pierce the dragon¡¯s scales. In this case, I¡¯ve got the perfect knife for you.¡±


    Thus, all of her external power transformed into a dry grey dust, and rapidly spread into the dirt.

 V5C86: The Path of Fitness

    Perhaps it could be said that Primordial Deities are arrogant, for their behaviour would certainly suggest such a thing so far. They might be rather rigid in their behaviour and tendencies, for their very existence was a representation of an eternal, mostly unchanging concept. However, they weren¡¯t simply stupid enough to let a foe do as they like in their own domain.


    Primordial Nature directed its many modified entities to rush forth and besiege her in whatever manners they could, even at the cost of their own continued existences.


    That was not enough to safeguard the flora, however, as the earth beneath them suddenly dried up and lost any semblance of the nutrients contained within, and soon the earth¡¯s dry state seemed to reach an absolute point. It had to recover, and thus it reached for the nearest source of vitality and nourishment available to it. Everything it touched dried and decayed, the soil attempting to maintain the faintest semblance of equilibrium with the things that fed upon the dirt and its bounties, and with every moment this drain grew faster.


    Those enormous behemoths formed of wood and plant-matter suffered first, and most obviously, their lush appearances quickly drying and yellowing. Beasts suffered far less, for they were not directly connected to the earth, but as their vitality flowed from the earth in much the same way, they weren¡¯t entirely resistant to the sudden drying of the bramble dirt that took over their lands in the brief moments before the barrier had fallen completely.


    ¡°Ah, so this mortal thing carried poison in its defence! I understand you now, mortal thing, and I see hope in the species you are a part of!¡± the Primordial Deity suddenly unleashed a bout of praise, ¡°Out of the mortal things, you must be the culmination of their adaptation to their inevitable fall! The greatest example of adaptation!¡±


    ¡°What the fuck are you on about?¡±


    ¡°There are many mortal things that lived in ages past, but few had learned to use the earth to drain the endless sea of vitality that nature thrives upon. Their learnings obviously reside within you!¡±


    It instantly took action once the words emerged from what could be considered its mouth, and the Ascendant did not sit still either. Both hastened forth and met in the rapidly drying land, numerous beasts and plants trying to move towards the Ascendant but declining so quickly that some outright shrank into naught. Thus, when they clashed, the Primordial Deity¡¯s fist colliding with the tip of Moon Splitter, countless entities turned to dust and scattered in a great cloud of grey.


    Wei Yi, despite attempting to cut into Primordial Nature, found herself flying back almost instantly, returning to the outer fringes of the drying lands until she managed to find footing and stick her blade into the ground, forcing herself to slow down.


    She raised her head only to be met with the visage of Primordial Nature holding a bow and firing a great arrow befitting its own grand scale towards her.


    ¡®Oh fuck, it¡¯s also an archer¡­ Fuck Yi Fenwu, in the worst way,¡¯ the Ascendant had a vaguely related thought while she forced her body up and gripped Moon Splitter with both hands, forcing her physique energy to blaze with as much power as it could produce before the arrow came flying towards her, scattering even more entities into grey dust.


    She met the arrow with her blade, not intending to sever or strike it down but only to force its immense momentum to be directed literally anywhere but at her.


    The collision broke the structure of Moon Splitter ¨C though the design of the blade nullified the long-term consequences of that ¨C and knocked her even further back, the arrow itself flying off into the distance before landing in the distance, somewhere in the water between the primary landmass of the Western Continent and the lands to its left, connected only by the borders of the Shi District and a relatively small portion of land to the south.


    Although the noise of the clash managed to shake her hearing, causing an unpleasant ringing to overwhelm most other sources of sound, she forced herself to rise once more and raised her sword at the same time as she checked what Primordial Nature was getting up to. Luckily for her, she was ready with Moon Splitter before she could even begin to look in its direction, for what she saw were a dozen arrows held within its fingers, ready to be loosed upon her on short notice. It had to be noted that she was indeed lucky even when it came to its tactics, as each arrow was smaller than the first one she had to deal with.


    To prevent herself from being pushed back all the way, she dashed forward, aware that she would not require as much stability in her footing to knock the arrows aside, and stabilised the state of Moon Splitter just in time to meet the incoming barrage.


    They were clearly shot one by one, aimed with great precision, but it might as well have been a large squad of expert archers that released an organised volley from a single point. She was able to deflect one more easily than the previous arrow, but the rest were more and more difficult to knock aside. Her body was forced to move with greater speed than ever before, for once matching the true extent of her capabilities due to fighting someone at the same level as her. By some miracle, it was only the last arrow that bypassed her rapid swings and stuck itself within her left shoulder.


    It lodged itself deep in her flesh, the arrowhead completely trapping itself within her, but removing the shaft of the arrow was enough to neutralise its effect. Her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow did not rely upon her muscles, and so damage to the shoulder was the least of her concerns. Instead, she let her physique energy work on burning the arrowhead, and rushed back towards Primordial Nature.


    Perhaps seeing that the first attack proved more successful, it prepared another larger arrow, loosing it more quickly than the first time.


    However, this time, she was closer and no longer needed to concern herself with the Primordial Deity striking the Chu District if it missed her, and so she waited for the arrow to be released from his grip and instantly shifted her position to the side, evading the arrow entirely. It would have been a major part of her strategy, but she found that the arrowhead cost as much to shift with her as the rest of her body multiplied by ten. She could try to exclude it from her movement, but that would take mental processing time that she was currently dedicating entirely to figuring out the best strategy for drawing out the fight.


    As Primordial Nature¡¯s creations withered and turned to dust, its own body was also clearly affected by the grey dust, but the drying was nigh unnoticeable at the moment, and was progressing at a terribly slow pace. Hence, she needed to fight for much longer before she would have a chance to do anything.


    She attempted to advance and was interrupted with each step, an arrow or some other projectile flying in her direction. No matter what was directed towards her, it forced her to evade or deflect the strike, slowing her advance as a deflected strike nullified her momentum, and a dodged one forced her to move to the side instead of forward, whether she chose to evade via her fourth realm movement method or more conventional means. Still, with her energy recovery, this was leaning in her favour.


    This lasted for a good while, and only after an hour of evasion and deflection was she finally able to get close enough to Primordial Nature that she would have a good chance of hitting it with whatever methods she chose to employ. Additionally, the Primordial Deity was finally noticeably affected by the continued effects of her grey dust form of energy. The bark and natural material composing its body had become yellowed and dry, and all of its abnormal features were slightly less active than before, though that did not hinder it overall anywhere near as much as the Ascendant would have liked. At most, it had lost one percent of its greatest displayed strength up to this point, while she fared a little worse.


    Her regenerative capabilities were excessive by any metric, and they were what permitted her to maintain her own combat prowess. Not all of the attacks targeting her were overcome successfully, and many arrows ended up being lodged in her body and slowly burnt by her physique energy. Furthermore, the occasional bouts of vitality that led to flora sprouting out to grab her were not helping.


    All that time, Primordial Nature had maintained the assault of arrows, but in the same manner that she chose to alter her strategy in that moment, so did the Primordial Deity.


    The bow split apart into numerous dry branches, leaving the Primordial Deity¡¯s hands empty as two shapes burst out of the ground and occupying both almost immediately. Both shapes were curved knives, daggers with a sharp edge on the outer, longer side, but one was straighter than the other, a strange asymmetry that seemed to serve little purpose but aligned excellently with Primordial Nature¡¯s own appearance.


    Had Primordial Nature had the same size as her, or as any human, then the knives could present a disadvantage to the Primordial Deity, but the blades that seemed small in its hands were larger than two greatswords put together, making them incredibly formidable even if it was not skilled at all.


    Unfortunately, not only was the Primordial Deity blatantly familiar with the usage of various weapons, perhaps relying on the trait of adaptation that it had mentioned, but it went into action instantly, swinging both daggers even more easily than if it was holding nothing at all. The mere swing of both weapons in her general direction produced a wave of force so powerful that light distorted around it, severing the air and producing a temporary vacuum on their path, smashing into the ground only an instant after she vanished from that spot.


    ¡°Is this enough to intimidate a mortal thing? Their fitness is truly lacking!¡±


    She did not give it a vocal response, instead coming closer to him and forming Moon Splitter into a wider, longer blade, leaving a gap open in the middle of the shards.


    In such a state, it was nowhere near the size of either dagger, but it was the most she could get while retaining the necessary stability to be able to face the kinds of attacks that it was obviously capable of producing without any effort at all. If she relied upon energy to maintain the state of Moon Splitter, then there would be an addition oblivion essence cost and lessened overall structural strength.


    The transformation occurred just in time for Primordial Nature to arrive at her location and slam the longer knife down upon her, forcing her to support Moon Splitter with both hands so that it wasn¡¯t used to smash her head in.


    ¡°Show the world your worth, mortal thing, and do what your fellows failed to do!¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Wei Yi asked while it swung both blades from either side, necessitating that she dodge at least one of the two, which she ended up accomplishing by using the momentum of the other swing to throw her to the side, ¡°You know, you should be able to use words like ¡®human¡¯ without any problems, and yet you constantly refuse to do so.¡±


    ¡°Mortal things are mortal things, regardless of species. All mortal things have failed to grow, failed to adapt to the world, so you are lacking and require my infusion!¡± Primordial Nature quickly returned within range and swung the curved blade in reverse, aiming to catch her with the dull side while also swinging the other blade correctly, presumably to limit her movement before forcing a strike to hit, ¡°One million years ago, when the mortal things fought, they earned a chance that they have clearly squandered!¡±


    ¡°Earned a chance? You don¡¯t think that Kong Shi Meng was- agh¡­¡± she was interrupted by the blunt part of the blade striking her with enough force to launch her into a nearby hill.


    ¡°I know not of the identities of mortal things, for no hunter learns the name of prey. None of the mortal things then earned the right of avoiding the necessary changes of adaptation,¡± the Primordial Deity stated, ¡°You have not done so either, mortal thing, so show me your worth!¡±


    It didn¡¯t give her the pause she would greatly appreciate and simply leapt onto her again, swinging both daggers downward while she was still partly buried in the dry dust that the land that transformed into. Since it used both weapons and had none of the limitations that humans would have due to their musculature and the like, it exhibited the full force that it could possibly use with both weapons, thus making them equivalent to an eighth realm attack through naught but physical force.


    Still, it had to be noted that this was actually the Primordial Deity in an incredibly weakened state. Whereas most cultivators would use their own power to form planar constructs or outright enhance their strength, Primordial Nature appeared to be limited to manifesting its primary affinity ¨C whatever Wood Dao it was a culmination of ¨C and using it to attack instead. This let it use the planar constructs of Chu Su when they had first encountered it, but now that its domain was completely ruined by the Ascendant¡¯s grey dust, that left it with only the body of an entity far beyond humanity, at least on the physical front.


    In such a state, it would actually be far inferior to an eighth realm physique cultivator, or even a standard body cultivator that knew nothing of physique energy. Unfortunately, the eighth realm was only held by one person in the world, at they were somewhere to the north, likely not on her side.


    ¡®It was two percent weaker a short time ago, and now it appears to be leaning towards three percent. Clearly, it is decaying, just too fucking slowly. Meanwhile, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve been this bruised since¡­ I think pinpointing a time will take far too long, so it¡¯ll just be a while back,¡¯ she decided, not at all in the right state or mood to be browsing through her absurdly large collection of memories in the Ascendant¡¯s Library, ¡°You say that, but you¡¯ve not been able to kill me either, you piece of shit! Why should you be the one to decide one¡¯s fitness?¡±


    ¡°Ha! The mortal thing tries to be clever, but you fail to see that the hunter is but one of countless millions! What one hunter may fail to conquer, the rest shall learn from, and soon all mortal things shall be brought to a greater state! All shall display their utmost fitness!¡±


    When it spoke, it did not sound fanatical, like those within the Blood-tinged Church or some other insane organisation, but it was simply proclaiming things in the boldest of fashions. Perhaps there was not even any malice or particular intent to its actions, but only an adherence to that which it does, and must do. After all, these things were either created by the heavens, or part of the world regardless of their desire, and they had adhered to a particular mind-set since their first recorded appearance.


    It was very possible that they were effectively machines, or a form of natural laws, lacking the ability to think logically about their deeds and determine whether they truly wished to do what they did.


    That was one of the things that made it more difficult to be angry at them specifically, as one could hardly be angry at a flame for burning someone if they stepped into its path. To a certain extent, it did dull the endless figurative flames of her killing will, though they could not be extinguished for so long as the world posed unreasonable threats to the people that lived within it. The Great Leeches, the Primordial Deities, the Hunger of the Beyond, and the otherworldly gifts that emerged from seemingly nowhere, all of them had to be dealt with one way or another, and even then the Ascendant suspected that she would simply learn of even more risks and dangers.


    ¡®Actually, why should I care whether or not they are conscious of their misdeeds? Their deeds harm every human in the world, and they seek to transform everything into vile malformations that only barely resemble their origin¡­ I don¡¯t care whether they understand their mistakes! If they will not correct them, then the Primordial Deities will be destroyed completely!¡¯


    Her eyes lit up with killing will, smoke lit by crimson and silver, but a moment before she could act, their arena was suddenly enveloped in draconic flame. It flooded the small area that she had chosen as the battlefield, focusing her divine sense and all other forms of perception, scorching her clothing and completely overwhelming the Primordial Deity¡¯s body. Vaguely, she could hear the exclamations of familiar draconic voices, clearly belonging to the few dragons that she had brought with her outside of the ancient cavers of the north.


    In comparison to any of that, what she valued most was the slightest of openings that appeared upon the outer shell of Primordial Nature, something through which a faint mist of the purest planar energy poured out into the world.


    Whatever had been the exact cause for the appearance of the injury, it was a kind of wound, and thus it was a weakness that she was able to target. It was a small opening, barely sufficient to insert anything through it, but if one directed force towards it, they would be able to strike the internal parts of the Primordial Deity. With that kind of attack, she would have a chance to do something greater, even if she had no clue how or what that would be.


    She ignored the flames that burnt her Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival off her body, only a few strands remaining, all of which fell off her body and landed on the scorched ground that was now a mix of ash and dust, and gripped Moon Splitter with both hands. Using all of the energy at her disposal, disregarding any caution she still had, she adjusted her footing and opened her mouth.


    ¡°NOW!¡±


    The dragons were out of reach by now, presumably ¨C she was not paying active attention to them ¨C but a single man could hear her regardless.


    As she stabbed forth with her blade, a pure violet appeared first, but it was rapidly overwhelmed by a raw heavenly white that grew far beyond the current state of Moon Splitter¡¯s shards. It stretched back, as if her weapon was wielded by the entire world alongside her, light twisting and bending as all reality was shaken and distorted by their combined powers. It took a single moment to accumulate, but she could sense without a shadow of a doubt that the power contained in this strike overwhelmed the domain of the Primordial Deity at its strongest.


    Then, she stabbed forth, and that endless spear of light followed, colliding alongside her own power with Primordial Nature¡¯s body. It touched that one spot upon its form and cut through a small part of its outer form, allowing the spear of heavenly light and the tip of Moon Splitter to cut through and strike something on the inside of its body.


    A burst of wood-type energy exploded out, ending the flames and clearing the area, revealing the hardened earth that lay beneath what was one a lush and green region. They stood upon it, Moon Splitter¡¯s shards temporarily separated and the chest of Primordial Nature temporarily torn asunder. Even more green flowed from within, spilling out of a series of vine, branch and root webs vaguely resembling flesh and muscle, and the mere contact with the ground caused it to liven up and bloom once more, grass and flowers sprouting instantly while saplings took a little longer to emerge and begin their growth.


    Primordial Nature¡¯s mouth was still, as was the rest of its body, but that did not mean that it was finished. It was a Primordial Deity, and they could not be slain, and even sealing them required a great deal of effort that could not be afforded in this moment.


    ¡°Mortal things¡­ even now, they fail¡­ to prove their fitness for this world-¡±


    ¡°Enough!¡± she exclaimed, surprising even herself as she dashed forward and thrust her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow into the gap in its body, grabbing onto its disgusting interior and forcing herself closer, ¡°I¡¯ve handled the energy of your fellow Primordial Deities, and I will take yours as well! If I can take all of your power as my own as well, then what right do you have to assess my fitness?¡±


    She forced every drop of energy that she could find to flood into her body, her technique and meridians being pushed to their limits within an instant of this mad attempt.


    Although the Primordial Deity lacked a true human face, a mocking smile could still be detected upon what passed for its features. There was no need to hear its words, for it would certainly mock her folly, proclaim the uselessness of mortal things, and that none are truly worthy.


    At that moment, she could not see how that could possibly be true. Where Primordial Deities were forever stuck in the eighth realm, and the Great Leeches were stuck in the seventh despite proclaiming their constant adherence to the heavens, humans greater and lesser than her alike had reached far further. They could go beyond their limits, even if far too many were content to waste away after reaching a perceived boundary within their lives. Even with all of those wasteful men in mind, mortal life was able to go so far beyond the immortal that its very ideas seemed beyond insulting.


    Unconsciously, she drew upon a greater quantity of energy from within its body, feeling it damage the very structure of her left Arm. Her meridians were stretched and pained, her muscles aching, her flesh burning with the foreign energy, and when it all reached her dantian, she expected much of the same. It would not stop her from committing to this act, even if it led to her end.


    The green mist touched the crystalline walls of the dantian slowly, as if gently caressing a lover¡¯s face. There was a strange feeling in her chest, a tremble of her mental library, and then came the storm.


    All of the rampaging energy burst towards her abdomen, flooding into the dantian and overwhelming the crystalline surface with such intensity that it seemed to change it. Parts even cracked and broke away, but what should have been damaging her cultivation with each instant only made her sense of energy far stronger, meaning that she was completely incapable of missing what happened with the rest of its power.


    It didn¡¯t destroy her cultivation, nor was it placed aside from her main oblivion essence, but it instead flowed right into it, almost willingly mixing in and transforming into her own power. Each breath caused more energy to flow into her, and each breath allowed her to absorb more of it, until the rate of absorption overcame the energy that Primordial Nature could release.


    ¡°What are you¡­ what kind of mortal thing are you to take this energy so freely?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care, just give me more!¡± she grabbed a side of the opening within its chest with her right hand and forcefully tore it open, the weakening of Primordial Nature and the strengthening of her own energy making it nigh trivial in comparison to before, ¡°Give it all!¡±


    She shoved her right hand into its form, allowing its wood energy to flow through and alongside both arms, the mist condensing into a liquid that poured down her naked form and covered it. The faint sensation of leaves sliding along her skin, old bark pressing upon her, soft fur of some unfamiliar beast, all of it were felt at once, and she sensed her comprehension of the Wood Dao increasing with each moment. After a few moments, she felt the transformation of her dantian complete, and looked inside herself as if she did not have one of the greatest threats to humanity right in front of her.


    What was once whole was now broken, arcs of violet arcing in between the gaps, yet just as the planar anchor was inferior to the Endless Monolith, this form of the dantian seemed far stronger than what she had before. The shade of what could hardly be called dantian bone became darker, and it looked ever so slightly like the Truth of the Universe¡¯s many characters.


    Her mind could not come up with any other label for this than ¡®primordial¡¯, and thus she attained a primordial dantian.


    It gave her insight as well, for she realised that the mortal form was flooded with imperfection, and that nothing that could be broken could ever be perfect or eternal. The shattering of dantian bone or planar anchor material was only reducing the solid, vulnerable components of her cultivation, making it advance towards some unimaginable perfection that was so close yet so far away from her, though an image of a single glowing point of infinite power did come to her mind.


    That image in particular was hardly new to her, but this time it did bring out a force that had remained mostly unseen before. From her changed dantian, where so much more force gathered with each breath, she willed all of her power to emerge and wash over her foundation up to this point. All of the loose dantian bone shards that had been knocked aside when she had previously cultivated were touched, and the eroding power of Primordial Nature took hold within all of them, burning away the impure and imperfect shards that had once covered the surface of her dantian. All of them melted slowly, their power merging into her own directly.


    As the oblivion halos rotated around her core, the phantoms of two more appeared around them, oscillating in turn and magnifying the power that filled her body. That burned away the dantian bone shards more quickly, and only accelerated the manifestation of her next stage.


    ¡°Mortal thing-¡±


    ¡°My name is Wei Yi!¡± the Ascendant gripped its substitute for flesh more tightly, exerting a power that went beyond mere physical force, ¡°I don¡¯t care if the Primordial Deities may never die, nor if you see us all as being beneath you! I will kill you and all of your kind, so that the Planar Continents may be free of you forever! Now, die, you mortal thing!¡±


    With one final exertion of force, she did the unthinkable. She tore Primordial Nature in half, and all of its vast power burst out, with the majority flowing into her.


    The rest exploded all across their battlefield, verdant grass and the beginnings of great forests sprouting out of the ground within a single instant. Even if she had maintained the power of grey dust, it would not have been enough to prevent all of the ash and dust from turning into the richest of soils.


    Although the wood-type energy was contained here, a different wave of force still spread out throughout the Western Continent. It was the very antithesis of the surge of Law and Dao that had alerted Wei Yi to the emergence of each Primordial Deity, even though it was still attuned to the element of wood. It was an unfamiliar tone to all that were able to perceive it, but the faintest hint of rebellion mixed with an even fainter trace of freedom, though what was rebelled against and what kind of freedom was obtained was unknown to all.


    From above, a drop of cool water landed on the Ascendant¡¯s bare skin, followed by another, and then a steady downpour. The soil was further nourished, and the dried blood on her skin was cleansed.

 V5C87: A Dream of Victory

    For some time, Wei Yi did not move, simply letting the water wash her naked form. Her crimson robes were somewhere in the grass, likely being penetrated by a number of newly growing trees, but they wouldn¡¯t be able to obliterate every trace of fabric, so she could pick them up and let them recover whenever she wanted.


    She wasn¡¯t interested in doing so at the moment. The water would be comfortable even to the ordinary person, its temperature being close to perfect, so she enjoyed the pause as much as it was possible to.


    Soon, she would need to return into action. There were still more Primordial Deities out there, and likely not even the heavens knew whether she would be able to beat them as she did Primordial Nature. Her power did grow, but she did not expect that every one of them would have as exploitable a weakness as the manifestation of the Wood Dao. Furthermore, the more time passed, the greater the energy density and allocation of the world would be, and thus the natural energy available to the Primordial Deities would also grow.


    It also had to be noted that her winning strike was facilitated by a power of Kong Shi Meng that he claimed to be unable to repeat more than once after this, meaning that she would need to find some other source of burst force until she was able to push herself into the eighth realm.


    ¡®Stop that. Right now, it¡¯s quiet, so I should relax¡­ I¡¯ll only have a little longer anyway¡­¡¯


    ¡°Wait a minute, did her dick get larger? I though humans stopped growing after twenty or so, while she was forty already-¡±


    ¡°Long Hua, you could have just remained quiet. I was having a nice time relaxing, even if you did land rather loudly, but now you¡¯ve taken me out of it,¡± Wei Yi said, opening her eyes and lowering her gaze to look upon the dragons. Her hair had broken loose at some point during the battle, resulting in half of her vision being covered by crimson strands, but she didn¡¯t bother to move those out of the way for now.


    The majority of the time, she wore her hair in a simple ponytail, and just as the fall of rain upon her skin felt unusually pleasant, so did the touch of her wet hair. Furthermore, there was no need to be worried about any inconvenience relating to her hair, as it would always be perfectly tidy and clean.


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind having some fun out here. With how long we¡¯ve been underground, fucking in a field is bound to be a nice change of pace,¡± Long Hua shrugged, ¡°Would be a good way to celebrate.¡±


    ¡°I want something calm, and even in the calmest of acts, sex is an inherently stimulating experience¡­ Still, your note regarding my size is noteworthy, for all the reasons you probably didn¡¯t intend,¡± she turned to the other dragons, who didn¡¯t hide their attention upon her lower regions at all, ¡°You¡¯ve seen me before, so tell me ¨C can you notice any major changes?¡±


    ¡°You seem just a little larger. In every way, I mean, not just¡­¡± Long Tao muttered.


    ¡°There¡¯s a branch-like pattern on your right arm, looking a bit like a scar. If it is, it¡¯s very nice, and if it¡¯s deliberate, it could have done with a bit more work,¡± Li He said.


    ¡°Your balls grew noticeably.¡±


    ¡°Trust me, I can tell, Long Hua¡­ How has your sex drive not calmed down after everything you¡¯ve been doing in my lands? Don¡¯t answer that, by the way, since I know that you still have sex on your mind. As for the pattern¡­¡± she looked upon her right arm, noting the branch-like patterns that began between her fingers, and spread up to her elbow, spreading out to cover her skin quite densely. It was just subtle enough to be overlooked on first glance, and the vague shapes of leaves between the branches were even harder to perceive. Frankly, she was quite glad about that.


    Although one could not say that these marks were strictly negative, same as with her very own dick and balls, the latter was enough of an oddity for her to not desire another one. Even if it was incredibly pleasant, these marks upon her body were entirely unnecessary and rather concerning.


    Nothing of the sort appeared when she had taken the grey dust of Primordial Earth. As such, she had to presume that the source of this oddity was her particular choice to grab the Primordial Deity¡¯s insides and hold onto them with her arms. If her left arm wasn¡¯t composed entirely of smoke and energy, she expected that she would be finding similar patterns upon its surface. Of course, the quantity of energy also needed to be taken into consideration.


    She knew that her Wood Dao had leapt up to the Full Success stage, for she had gained a vision state and the Truth of the Universe was able to display it to her, unlike her Dao of the Heavens, and her cultivation stage had leapt up with the added contribution of her old dantian bone shards. However, it was the power over nature ¨C the element of wood, specifically ¨C that she found most intriguing.


    Unlike the grey dust, which was the only power she could exert in whichever way she could think of, her affinity with the Wood Dao seems to have been raised significantly. With a random movement of her finger, she felt as if she could will a forest into being, or force a pack of beasts to perform some particular action without any question. In reality, it would likely be quite different, for her realm had not gotten anywhere near to the eighth or ninth realm yet, but she was nearly sure that there was a slightly different use for that power.


    ¡°Now-¡±


    ¡°Do you think your balls will produce more-¡± Long Hua¡¯s words were cut off by a vine snapping onto her head and in between her lips, being bitten through a moment later but effectively stopping her.


    ¡°This does work, to a certain extent. From now on, Long Hua, if you talk about sex things when we are nowhere close to having it, or not even planning to have it, then you will get lashed by a vine in some way,¡± the Ascendant declared, and just to prove that she could, she made another vine spring out of the ground and slap the dragon¡¯s ass, ¡°Really, I don¡¯t know if dragons go into heat, but that should finish eventually, shouldn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Sorry¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not, but I¡¯ll leave you alone if you do stop.¡±


    Long Hua nodded, though Wei Yi quickly shifted her attention to a change within, yet without ¨C the Kong Prison Realm, a place anchored to her Endless Monolith yet theoretically existing elsewhere. Some of the power from Primordial Nature had clearly gone there, and with it the stability of the spatial realm had been increased enough to allow Yi Shi Ming to finish its expansion. She could sense it clearly.


    The borders that had once been so clear now grew by fifty miles in all directions, for a total of an additional one hundred miles of diameter. The Four Cardinal Beasts array formed an inner wall, and the outer portions were untouched by its effects, but were very much affected by the energy of Primordial Nature, as well as its contribution to the Ascendant¡¯s own power. Just as the battlefield around her had already grown into a small forest, obscuring a large portion of the rain from falling on her directly ¨C prompting her to will the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival to be delivered to her by the root of a nearby tree ¨C so were the outer reaches of the Kong Prison Realm flowering with untold thousands of all kinds of flora.


    Fortunately, none of the plants were in the same state as the creations of Primordial Nature, and so they were safe to keep around. Many were medicinal herbs of the sixth and seventh realms, so it would be a terrible shame to get rid of them.


    The planar energy density in the spatial realm also grew, reaching a step beyond the level of the Planar Continents, but remained beneath the boundary of easy eighth realm accessibility. For that to be reached, either the Ascendant would reach the eighth realm, allowing some of her excess power to flood into the Kong Prison Realm and invigorate it further, or the level of the spatial realm would need to be elevated with additional planar stones and spatial metal until it reached the necessary level of maintaining such a quantity of planar energy on its own.


    ¡°Can one of you go over to Chu Su¡¯s location and tell him that the threat to his district is gone?¡±


    One of the dragons was about to nod when all of them suddenly looked behind the Ascendant, though she turned a moment after as she noticed the presence of Kong Shi Meng as well.


    As usual, he was able to move without any outward signs of motion, and even the knowledge of his apparent method was not enough for Wei Yi to feel it. His presence was noticeable, however, so once he was by her side, finding him was significantly simpler. It helped that her energy had grown stronger as a result of the confrontation, and the state of her dantian had also improved, granting an improvement in the perception of energy as a whole.


    ¡°Who-¡±


    ¡°Is that-¡±


    ¡°The red hair-¡±


    ¡°T-The-¡±


    The dragons spoke out at once, and silenced themselves as a result, looking to the significantly calmer Ascendant for guidance or some form of explanation. She glanced at Kong Shi Meng for a moment, finding something odd about him at first, but speaking when she couldn¡¯t confirm anything.


    ¡°Horny dragons, this is Kong Shi Meng, the Master of Yi City. Kong Shi Meng, these are the horny dragons that know your dragon friend.¡±


    ¡°I can speak with them later. For now, I need to confirm what the outcome of your fight with Primordial Nature was. You appear to have been victorious, but I must confirm the state of the Primordial Deity first.¡±


    ¡°I killed it.¡±


    The expression on his face had always been frozen, but now it seemed to be even more still than usual. Aside from the slight degree of training this would offer her in comprehending the subtlest of expressions, it did make her a little more convinced that he was the true Kong Shi Meng ¨C or at least a human, and not some kind of entity attempting to pose as the old Master of Yi City to obtain something from the world or her. Any entity like that would have to have a less natural reaction to this.


    ¡°I¡­ had not been observing the situation after assisting you for a moment, but when did this happen?¡±


    ¡°After I managed to pierce its body with your aid, I stuck a hand in and took its energy. It didn¡¯t seem like it would work at first, but once it came into contact with my dantian, everything went very smoothly, and now I have a part of its power and a new stage,¡± she explained as simply as possible, as she was unlikely to be able to present a new perspective on most things to someone that had fought the Primordial Deities so many times. The necessary parts were provided, and anything else was unnecessary, maybe unhelpful, even.


    ¡°That shouldn¡¯t quite be possible¡­ The energy of the Primordial Deities is not the same as the typical energy cultivated by all, in part preventing their own development, and in part ensuring that they will be unable to devise a cultivation method for themselves,¡± Kong Shi Meng said, his voice still marked with clear uncertainty.


    ¡°Still, I managed it.¡±


    ¡°Apparently so.¡±


    ¡°I also did the same with the grey dust from Primordial Earth, and a bit of Primordial Energy¡¯s energy, but I guessed that the latter was more of a coincidence due to the Primordial Deity being focused on planar energy itself, making it more vulnerable.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yes, so did I. It appears that this may require further investigation.¡±


    He stopped and looked to the north, right in the direction of Paragon and the spatial realm primarily anchored there.


    ¡°I believe a change occurred with the Kong Prison Realm. While the other Primordial Deities still linger away from the world of men, it might be wise to inspect the situation and clear up any issues that might have arisen in your absence.¡±


    ¡°Do you also want to take a look? It¡¯s been a while since you¡¯ve been there ¨C for long, anyway.¡±


    She was referring to his apparent appearance in the Kong Prison Realm during the battle with the Great Leeches, wherein he assisted in the sealing of the spatial realm¡¯s outer walls. From her understanding, his entry and departure followed one another shortly, as he appeared there purely to prevent the Kong Prison Realm from being breached during her absence, and so he might not have had the opportunity to examine the things there in any great detail.


    It also had to be noted that she did also want to test him just a little. Until she could have absolute certainty about his identity, every test had the chance of unveiling some mistake in the disguise of an entity completely opposite to him, and potentially saving Yi City. Hence, she said little about the Kong Prison Realm itself, and let him react as he would.


    ¡°Following you will not impact my ability to oversee the rest of the Western Continent, so I can follow you if you wish.¡±


    ¡°Then¡­ let me try something, actually. If it works out, then I have a new transportation method for myself and everyone who is a little less fast,¡± Wei Yi said, looking in a random direction that was devoid of people or dragons, raising her only hand of flesh and blood.


    Just like how she would use her Dao, she attempted to invoke that other power that she gained from the Primordial Deity. Simply using it was easy enough, as she could do it nearly subconsciously, much like she did right then by thinking about her clothing at the same time. Although Yi Shi Ming had the ability to see her naked at any time, and likely did see her in such a state on many an occasion due to her hardly being shy about her sexual activities in the Kong Prison Realm, it didn¡¯t feel right to return to her land without a thing on her body when there was something only a few metres away.


    A few of the nearby tree branches curved and picked up the Crimson Robes, placing them upon her body and letting her simply insert her arms into the sleeves and return to her original attempt.


    With a number of plants and random flora, she willed that a gate be formed before her, although it wasn¡¯t as much the physical shape that she was concerned with as the functionality and spatial properties of it. She wanted to create a gateway to the Kong Prison Realm, even if it would be temporary and last for just long enough to bring her and the dragons through. It wasn¡¯t even really necessary, as the Chu District gateway was not far from her, but she wanted to try it.


    Provided that all Dao converged into the Great Dao, a powerful enough force of the Wood Dao ¨C of the Branch of Fitness, from what she could tell as a result of Primordial Nature¡¯s ramblings ¨C should be able to interact with space and form a full gateway. In theory, the properties of wood might even allow it to be stabilised permanently.


    It was easy enough to form the gateway¡¯s physical form, but the next step was the more challenging one. She needed to connect this place with the Kong Prison Realm, and before she tried her usual approach, Wei Yi attempted to replicate the phenomenon of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s movement technique in a different manner to his own. He moved the people within a cloud of planar energy, but if it was possible to trick reality in that regard, could she not also manifest a passage in a place that should not have one? Speaking purely theoretically, there should be no reason why she couldn¡¯t pull something like that off.


    Of course, practise oft differed from theory. Despite her best attempts to make it work, the energy in the gateway and in the Kong Prison Realm fluctuated without much success.


    ¡°Huh. Fine, a more standard approach then¡­¡±


    Adding a bit more of her energy into the mix, she former a more stable foundation for the standard form of a spatial gateway that she forced open with her power, empowering it with the plentiful wood-type aura of the region.


    With her connection she had to the Kong Prison Realm, she forced a spatial gateway to form within the air, stabilised by the additional energy imparted into the physical structure, smoking crimson and flowing silver forming around the edges to herald the connection of two foreign spaces. As soon as the opening formed, the dragons rushed through, understanding that the gateway would not linger for long, and the Ascendant followed them, glancing at Kong Shi Meng as she expected him to use his standard method.


    However, he simply walked forward, taking very slow steps forward until he made his way through the gateway, at which point he looked back at the Ascendant, as if in response.


    ¡°Ah, Wei Yi, I¡­¡± the voice of the spatial spirit reached them instantly, the mother of the Master of Yi City appearing beside them in a similar manner to Kong Shi Meng¡¯s own movement method, but she stopped when she laid her eyes upon her apparent son. Aside from mirroring her own reaction to seeing the man, Wei Yi noted that she looked similar to what she must have looked like when she first saw Yi Shi Ming in the Kong Prison Realm, appearing right out of her own memories to greet her.


    ¡®Right, she hasn¡¯t been paying attention prior to now, so we will see how she responds. If something is outwardly wrong¡­ I don¡¯t even know what to do. He is clearly powerful, so it may be that I will not be able to take him on even if a confrontation is necessary,¡¯ she noted, waiting for her response.


    Yi Shi Ming looked forward, right at her apparent child, her mouth slightly open while her expression was frozen in her typical look nowadays ¨C the corners of her lips raised just a little in a welcoming smile, her eyes flooded with ancient melancholy. The latter was changing, and doing so quickly as tears appeared in the corners of her eyes, though it was hard to say exactly what emotion overtook what was there before. Perhaps not even the spatial spirit herself could assess such a thing, for which she could not be blamed in the slightest.


    Her son, Kong Shi Meng, could not be said to be much clearer, a degree of surprise being the only evident thing.


    ¡°Mother¡­ I wasn¡¯t sure that I¡¯d still be able to see you.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I could say the same¡­¡±


    ¡®I suppose I wouldn¡¯t have much to say in their place either¡­¡¯ Wei Yi thought, glancing at the dragons with just the right amount of killing intent to prompt them to disappear as promptly as possible. With their excessive lust, anything they might do would be worse than having them leave.


    The dragons departed quickly enough, and mother and child were left with only the Ascendant for audience, not that they seemed to notice. Even now, both looked at one another as if they weren¡¯t sure that they were real, and it made perfect sense for both of them. Kong Shi Meng couldn¡¯t have known that the Kong Prison Realm would remain intact after his departure, and so confirming that his mother was preserved as its spatial spirit was naturally stunning. Yi Shi Ming knew that his otherworldly gift had ended up with Wei Yi, and so it was very likely that he had met his end somewhere beyond the scope of her awareness.


    ¡°So, have you been well?¡±


    ¡°I suppose so. What about you?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ There are some things that I cannot say right now, so¡­ uh¡­¡±


    ¡®Right, I don¡¯t think that they will be able to manage much like that,¡¯ the Ascendant adjusted her robes and stepped forward, ¡°I am going to guess that you will need some time to manage, well, everything. Can I speak with Yi Shi Ming for a while?¡±


    ¡°¡­ That might be best. I had not thought that I would be this unprepared, but¡­ I shall wait near the centre.¡±


    He did not use his previous method this time, either, walking simply and directly towards the centre of the spatial realm. It was an incredibly slow method, to the point that it had to be looked at by both of the others present at the scene for a short while. The incongruity between his ability and chosen mode of transportation did eventually lose its significance in their thoughts, and it wasn¡¯t significant enough to be able to directly draw any conclusions right now.


    Once the man was out of reach, Wei Yi turned and spoke first.


    ¡°I¡¯d ask if you noticed something amiss, but if he is in the ninth realm as his dantian suggests, or higher, it may be that I cannot even block his attempts to listen to us,¡± she said, not bothering to put up any barrier, ¡°Let¡¯s instead talk about what you¡¯ve managed with the Kong Prison Realm. Has the expansion gone well?¡±


    ¡°It has, thanks in part to the energy you had been able to obtain from a recent battle. It provided me not only with the raw energy necessary to facilitate the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s expansion, but also gave me the ability to improve some of the natural Laws present in this place¡­ Are you sure we shouldn¡¯t-¡±


    ¡°Focus on the spatial realm. Clearly, you can talk about that just fine, and when we¡¯re done, maybe you¡¯ll figure out how to speak with him, or if there is something amiss with him. At that point, if you want me to leave the two of you alone, I can do so for a day at most. After that, I will need help with containing another Primordial Deity, so I suppose that if you choose to do this after all of them are out, then you have all the time in the world,¡± the Ascendant said, lowering her head slightly as she muttered, ¡°Although I cannot guarantee how long the world will last if I don¡¯t manage to take care of the Primordial Deities, and if I cannot draw upon Shi Meng¡¯s energy when I attack them¡­¡±


    The mother of the Master of Yi City glanced towards the figure of Kong Shi Meng, who still walked slowly towards the realm¡¯s centre, then looked back.


    ¡°Very well, I will focus on this for now. The original Kong Prison Realm was meant to emulate the outside world to a certain extent, but it was not complete in the majority of ways, so everything we grew in here was somewhat lacking. With the addition of the wood element, it should permit for anything living to receive significant benefits, including the people living here.¡±


    ¡°Were they previously affected negatively? They seemed to be just fine.¡±


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t so much that they were being harmed, but instead that they could not benefit as much as if they were in the Planar Continents, growing within a complete space. Incidentally, the wood element¡­¡±


    ¡°I got it from Primordial Nature.¡±


    In what was easily the greatest change in expression since they met, her eyes widened, mouth opened, and her body shook for the briefest of moments, with this in particular being suppressed far earlier than the other two. Wei Yi knew that she wasn¡¯t more shocked by this than Kong Shi Meng¡¯s reappearance, but instead that the shock from before combined with this one to manifest such a response from the stoic spirit.


    Then again, beating the Primordial Deities was also incredibly strange, for Kong Shi Meng was also incapable of handling them beyond sealing them with his own power and some other items.


    ¡°How did you manage to steal its power? Did you trick the Primordial Deity, or did you have some kind of method to¡­ no, what exactly did you manage to accomplish? What did you do to take any amount of power from an entity as powerful as that?¡±


    ¡°I just stabbed it a bunch. You know, no big deal.¡±


    ¡°No, it is a very significant deal. My son had been unable to deal with them, so if we use your method-¡±


    ¡°Not sure that¡¯s actually possible. You see, my method is a little specific, in that it requires me to absorb the energy of the Primordial Deity directly, and from what I can tell, that is not a very normal thing to do. I don¡¯t know if anyone else had tried it, but their energy and that of regular cultivators should be completely incompatible.¡±


    ¡°Indeed, it should be¡­ But you say that you managed to do it without issue? If so, perhaps others¡­ No.¡±


    ¡°No?¡±


    ¡°Even in the best circumstances, it shouldn¡¯t be possible for anyone other than you to interact with that energy. Since this spatial realm is bound to you, and was partly processed by you on the way to me, I was able to control it, but if I was a normal cultivator, then even that wouldn¡¯t have been enough for me,¡± Yi Shi Ming said, ¡°Right, when I think about it, I recall that it was highly out of the ordinary, but I used it since I was focusing entirely on improving the spatial realm. I have likely missed some significant details, for which I apologise.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, though, why would I have no problem with it? Is it my Dao? My cultivation method? It can¡¯t be, given that it has a similar foundation to Kong Shi Meng¡¯s technique, and he didn¡¯t manage it. Also, my energy wasn¡¯t able to take care of the Primordial Deity¡¯s power until it neared my dantian.¡±


    ¡°The otherworldly gift also shouldn¡¯t be of assistance, then, as Ah Shi Meng had it¡­ I do not know.¡±


    ¡°In that case, let¡¯s put that off for now and focus back on the spatial realm, which I have been trying to do for a while now¡­¡± Wei Yi sighed, looking towards the outer portions of the spatial realm, ¡°What kinds of things would you do with that space? Aside from moving the medicinal herbs and the like over there, of course.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­¡±


    All of a sudden, a cry from the depths of the Kong Prison Realm reached her with ease, ¡°Wei Yi, my animal features vanished! What do I do?¡±


    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll address Zhi Qiu Ya¡¯s problem first. You can tell me on the way.¡±

 V5C88: Flames of the North, Dust of the South

    They did not have long before the next pair of Primordial Deities began their emergence, and this time the pair was not at all difficult to find.


    One emerged to the west, on the other side of a lake separating the western and eastern portions of the Western Continent, and the other on the eastern side, near the Empire of the Dawn. The shockwave of one belonged to the primal element of water, as was only natural for something that appeared in the largest volume of water in the Western Continent.


    The other was aligned with the element of metal, and the wave it had released was sharp and jagged, as if a thousand sharp blades were stabbed into the Ascendant¡¯s skin the moment she felt it outside of the Kong Prison Realm.


    It wasn¡¯t harmful or particularly difficult to handle, but it was quite disconcerting. Perhaps the only positive that she was able to spot was the fact that both of the auras not only began on the edges of Yi City¡¯s lands, but also that they did not choose to travel into her territory. The metal aura originated further away, over to the east, and the element of water stuck around the other part of the continent. Strictly speaking, it could likely make its way over to the main portion of the Western Continent easily enough, but the proclivities of the Primordial Deities meant that it very unlikely that they would move from their initial territories.


    She did not want to let any part of Yi City be consumed and changed by those ancient things, but it was better than her own lands being scoured, so she only did the minimum she had to.


    Her focus was instead placed upon the heat originating from the north, which did seem to slowly travel south. It was not making significant progress of any kind, but it was best to prevent the approach of a Primordial Deity while the opportunity was present. Soon, there would be more Primordial Deities out there, and she would need to deal with more of them while a bunch of other ancient entities sought to near Yi City and devour all of her work, as well as the work of countless others before her.


    There was also another reason why she placed a great deal of attention on Primordial Inferno specifically, and that was its proximity to the location of the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s primary anchor, Paragon. If it was attacked, there might be a great deal of trouble coming her way.


    Hence, on the day after, when the path of Primordial Inferno could be confirmed, she stood in Paragon and looked to the Master of Yi City, who seemed to be looking directly at the ancient Primordial Deity despite the numerous sandy dunes in the way. As always, his aura was subdued and his movements were done almost exclusively through his movement method, with his behaviour in the Kong Prison Realm being a very odd exception to that rule that she had still not been able to figure out ¨C not that she didn¡¯t try, albeit subtly and quietly.


    ¡°Kong Shi Meng, you¡¯re not able to do anything without my presence, right?¡± she said, knowing that he would hear her words regardless of how loudly she spoke, or where she directed her voice.


    ¡°I have limited power at the moment. I could assist with barriers and certain offensive projects.¡±


    ¡°How many more times can you utilise that power of yours? The one that let me damage the body of Primordial Nature?¡±


    ¡°¡­ At most, I could afford to repeat it once, and even then I might need to limit the total output of energy. I had overestimated the quantity I was able to use without repercussions, and I hope that you will be able to make do with the little that remains. Considering the increase of your cultivation, it might be sufficient provided you face an enemy of a similar realm.¡±


    ¡°Well, thanks for that.¡±


    ¡°I am not responsible for my own limitations. There are certain things that I cannot handle with my power.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh,¡± Wei Yi nodded, as she did understand that was unlikely to be false, but still didn¡¯t like the limitations placed upon him, and her as a result.


    The more aid she was able to get at a time like this, the better it would be, and it would take away some of the questionable decisions she needed to make about anything and everything so far. She did not like sacrificing lives, endangering the people of Yi City to protect others, even if they lived in the same great city, or doing that which might be termed morally questionable at best, but it was what she had to do in order to allow herself to ultimately succeed and have people that could even attempt to judge her.


    Still, bothering him about it didn¡¯t seem like it would accomplish much, whether it was the truth or not, so she simply let the silence linger for a brief while before moving on with the conversation, not that Kong Shi Meng seemed to mind.


    ¡°Before anything else pops up, I would like to, at the very least, get a grasp of Primordial Inferno¡¯s abilities, current state, and territory. I know it will have claimed the lands and people of the nations and tribes north of Yi City, but I have never gotten closely acquainted with them, so that tells me unfortunately little.¡±


    ¡°I have¡­ had some familiarity with them in the past, but it would be harder to imagine their current state, after Primordial Inferno affected their bodies and minds.¡±


    ¡°How does that work, by the way?¡±


    ¡°The power of a Primordial Deity can seep into anything, if given enough time and energy. Humans have the strongest mind and most stable psyche out of the common population of the world, and when that energy pervades them, that is wiped out and replaced by the raw power of the Primordial Deity. Be it fire, water, metal, energy, or even entropy, they can take the body and replace all of the loose planar energy with their own, replacing the mind with their own desires, and leaving a walking husk that is more powerful, but empty of most things that made that person who they were.¡±


    ¡°No way to counteract it, I¡¯m guessing,¡± she asked, though she knew the answer well enough.


    ¡°Two things would need to happen. The first is that the foreign energy is completely removed, which is difficult when none ¨C mostly none, depending on your own abilities ¨C are able to use or command it, and when that energy is partly parasitic in nature, meaning that it is able to linger and then grow back if a particle is not collected,¡± Kong Shi Meng explained, ¡°The second matter is that the mind and body need to be restored to a state vaguely resembling themselves prior to the influencing. Restoring the body can be done with minimal skill, so long as one has medicinal items or a physique, but it is more difficult to handle the mind.¡±


    Wei Yi sighed, ¡°Yeah, I am familiar with that. Even if you think that you know what you¡¯re doing, something comes along and ends up going wrong. Sometimes, it is in your favour, and in others, it isn¡¯t quite as good¡­¡±


    She had her number of incidents with the mind and its changes, so she knew that even when it was simply scattered, not outright devoured by malignant energy, it couldn¡¯t be dismissed as easily as one may wish to. After all, the human mind was incredibly complex, to the extent that neither the greatest cultivators of the Planar Continents nor the brightest minds of the otherworldly demons were able to fully grasp it all, while the various methods of mind control were really closer to shortcuts.


    With enough power, one could alter whatever they wished, more or less. One didn¡¯t need to understand how a mind worked if they could create thoughts and desires at a whim with at technique.


    ¡°That is one way to put it, I am sure.¡±


    ¡°So, when dealing with anyone whose mind has been completely destroyed, I might as well treat them as being entirely lost. Makes things simpler for me, not that I like it¡­ The lands, judging from the current state of Primordial Nature¡¯s emergence point, seem to not be under the same constraint, right? How so?¡±


    ¡°Aside from the complexity of human minds in comparison to the earth?¡±


    ¡°Strictly speaking, there are plenty of factors regarding the natural world that are also highly complex. Each object is composed of numerous small particles, all of which could be different and unique in many ways, and although the earth is not restored perfectly, it still recovers.¡±


    ¡°There is a significant difference. The earth is able to take numerous forms and do whatever it may, and all shall acknowledge it as the earth regardless. For instance, the land of the Chu District is nothing akin to what it was before, but it is vibrant and lush, so the people of the Chu District will likely accept it,¡± Kong Shi Meng said, glancing towards her before looking back out into the sands.


    A wave of heat reached them from the sands, partly natural and carried by the winds, and partly produced by the breath of the Primordial Deity.


    ¡°Imagine someone took you, removed a vital memory, and returned you to the world. Nothing is different other than that, but none would claim that you are fine. That vital memory might be key to a certain part of your personality, and with it gone, or perhaps even just altered, you might end up as something entirely different,¡± Kong Shi Meng stated, ¡°Perhaps there is a concept you are attached to, or a person you care for, or something you have affinity for, and that could vanish or change entirely. Would you be satisfied with that?¡±


    ¡°Do the heavens support this?¡±


    His brows lowered just a little, marking a clear frown, ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±


    ¡°I mean, you might have come into contact with whatever will exists behind the heavens. Do they support the Primordial Deities, and their influence and destruction of mankind? In fact, did they support the rise of the Great Leeches, as well as their endless siphoning of this world¡¯s development?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I do not know.¡±


    ¡°Do you think that it is fine if they do support such things? In general, what is your stance on the heavens?¡±


    ¡°¡­¡± his frown grew just a little more, ¡°¡­ They may be restricted just the same.¡±


    ¡°By what? The azure lights of the otherworldly demons?¡±


    ¡°The- ah, I understand. There are certain limitations that may be difficult to see, so, although I have never managed to converse with the heavens, it is difficult to see them negatively.¡±


    Wei Yi didn¡¯t deign to comment on something like that. She had her stance, and, so long as Kong Shi Meng did the things that he told her he would do, then she wouldn¡¯t be able to benefit much from his opinion. Furthermore, with the amount that he constantly refused to say, whether for good reason or not, she knew that pressuring him to answer in any greater detail would likely be impossible, no matter what she wanted.


    That didn¡¯t mean that she wasn¡¯t dissatisfied, and also slightly curious as to whether this was consistent with his stance prior to the million year disappearance. It wasn¡¯t impossible that he changed his mind to some extent, but the change couldn¡¯t have been too significant.


    It could have offered her some additional hints as to the true identity of this man, whatever it was.


    ¡°Well then, let us¡­ hm?¡± she and Kong Shi Meng both turned to the south, frowning when they felt a wave of energy building there.


    It wasn¡¯t the emergence of any Primordial Deities yet, but it was clearly nearing such a thing.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it usually a bit more spaced out? It¡¯s been a while since both Primordial Ocean and Primordial Metal emerged, but yet a whole day, like before,¡± the Ascendant said, turning to the more knowledgeable Master of Yi City ¨C at least, he was more knowledgeable in the matters that were more significant at this moment in time.


    ¡°The level of the world is rising. Planar energy density will soon break through a particular barrier, and the eighth realm will become accessible to more than just one or two.¡±


    ¡°That accelerates the emergence of the Primordial Deities?¡±


    ¡°Not sufficiently to make a notable difference. There are only a few more left, and a few may tarry a little longer,¡± the Master of Yi City said, ¡°In particular, there are Primordial Yin and Primordial Yang that are most likely to have a delayed emergence, as their own nature is¡­ strange. It is difficult to describe in a manner that would make any sense, but perhaps out of all of the Primordial Deities, the pair of yin and yang are the most poorly aligned with the elements of the Planar Continents.¡±


    ¡°Not Primordial Invader?¡±


    ¡°People from other worlds are rather common here, but the particularities of Primordial Yin and Yang are not so.¡±


    ¡°What is odd about them?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ Truth be told, I cannot understand it myself. When they emerge from the space that they occupy when not out in the Planar Continents, then you shall have the opportunity to witness it yourself, and perhaps understand it.¡±


    ¡°Although I would much rather know just what is so odd about them, I¡¯ll ignore it for now¡­ When will they emerge? The current pair, nor Primordial Yin and Yang.¡±


    ¡°Two, up to three hours before that.¡±


    The Ascendant sighed, but there wasn¡¯t much that could be done when facing the Primordial Deities. As the most dangerous of natural calamities in the world, she had to deal with them when they came. Unfortunately, there was no possibility of delaying them without greater degrees of effort or, at the very least, preparation than she could have possibly had while she still lacked the power to end them normally.


    Primordial Inferno was still the first ¨C technically, second ¨C entity that she wished to attack, as she had been preparing for it, but she would need to prevent the actions of the other two first.


    Going to the two right away wouldn¡¯t allow her to take on either of the Primordial Deities before they emerge, so she remained in her current position for a while longer, splitting her attention between the three most relevant threats until there was something to be actively done. Naturally, she asked Yi Shi Ming to tell the relevant people at the districts most likely to be affected to get away from the dangerous locations and to prepare either temporary residences for the people that would be affected, or just move the buildings outright.


    She was relatively sure of where one of the entities would be found, for the increasingly earthy aura was obviously going to appear at the Bao District, but the other one seemed closer to the enigmatic Huang District, which she did still attempt to warn.


    They did not respond, but by the time she was sure of that she narrowed down the emergence location to be roughly between the Huang District and the small nation to the west, calling itself the Blood Clan.


    Since they didn¡¯t care to speak with her, then she wouldn¡¯t go out of her way to protect them for now, especially since the oddities of the Huang District had not been explored even by the spies that she had attempted to send there with Great Dark¡¯s aid. Some never managed to get into the district, others were never heard from once they did, and others yet were interrupted on some part of the journey there and ended up not arriving at the Huang District.


    On the other hand, Great Dark¡¯s spies managed to get to Lan, Fu, Xin, Ling and Ze Districts, not that most of those efforts led to any significant improvements to her attempts to kill the Primordial Deities. She now had the majority of those lands close to her due to the Yi City Web, and some under her control, and only the Huang and Ling Districts were still partly obscured.


    The Ling District, the district of spirits and ghosts, was certainly interesting, and she would like to visit it in the future and learn from their studies, but that could wait. So far as she knew, perhaps only Primordial Mind ¨C the manifestation of mental energy in the form of a Primordial Deity ¨C would be vulnerable to the methods of the Ling District, and even then the Xin District¡¯s means were the most familiar to her, and thus the ones that she would choose to employ. The rest were not alike to the spirits that the Ling District wished to rear and tame, and that they apparently have had some successes in doing.


    Perhaps if she needed additional forces, she could call upon some of the spirits they had control over, but it seemed simpler to use her Replica Abyssal Eye techniques.


    Anyway, with the primary unresolved threat remaining being Primordial Earth, she came to the Bao District¡¯s lands once the emergence neared. Some people moved, others couldn¡¯t, but either way the threat was understood and being prepared for, in whatever manners people were capable of.


    A few thought they might fight the emerging Primordial Deity on their own, which was not a wise idea in the slightest, and Wei Yi made sure to inform them of that as clearly as possible. Those that didn¡¯t listen, she persuaded by throwing the weakest of her techniques vaguely in their direction, and that usually did the trick. The Patriarch and the various guardians were smart enough to understand that they wouldn¡¯t have a chance against the Primordial Deity, so the only ones that were close to Wei Yi¡¯s realm weren¡¯t involved, and the rest couldn¡¯t withstand a careless release of energy near them, not to mention proper offensive techniques.


    Then, another hour progressed, and the Primordial Deity¡¯s emergence began. The wave of earth-type energy erupted, a cocoon of grey dust formed, and it rapidly spread throughout the gems of the Bao District. Each one of them suddenly lost its vibrance and wondrous shade, and in that moment it was confirmed that the unusual gem-based disciplines of the Bao District¡¯s million year-long studies would be utterly useless.


    As expected, their source was Primordial Earth, but what she had not expected ¨C although, considering its fragment emerging when she had come to visit ¨C was that the passive energy of the Primordial Deity would be collected by it once it emerged.


    She may not have expected it, but she had prepared for it, among other things.


    ¡°Uh, Ascendant¡­ I know that with the things I have said before, this might seem like I am simply trying to flee, but¡­ my primary methods were these gems, and all of them are¡­¡±


    ¡°Just go away, Patriarch. It would be best for you to watch over the people and make sure that nobody gets any dumb ideas. Also, you could attempt supporting the barrier that will be formed soon, as I don¡¯t think anyone has yet had the time to stand around and support it with more than the world¡¯s energy alone.¡±


    ¡°Would that be of much help? I have plenty of planar energy to spare right now, so I will contribute everything that I have ¨C save for my cultivation, of course. I can study techniques later, after all.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, do that. Now, let me focus on this, and only come over if Primordial Inferno or something of the sort decides to attack one of our districts or fortresses. Everything else can be ignored, although I certainly wouldn¡¯t want to ignore it. Get it?¡±


    ¡°Understood, Ascendant!¡± the Bao Patriarch stated eagerly.


    The way he ran off was also eager, and far less presentable, but it was done quickly enough for her to not care. Watching the cocoon of grey dust and countless other elements and powers encased within it ¨C though, just as Primordial Nature seemed to embody the Branch of Fitness, Primordial Earth appeared to encompass the Branch of Dust, or something of the sort ¨C she was unwilling to focus on anything other than Kong Shi Meng¡¯s eventual appearance by her side, which was the only reassuring thing in this current moment.


    With his aid, a hopeless battle could be turned to one with a chance of success, and¡­ well, the more she thought about it, the more she hated it.


    It wasn¡¯t that he was willing to aid her, obviously. Assistance of all kinds was appreciated, although it was often not necessary and largely unhelpful in the long run, but it was the fact that it wasn¡¯t merely an option, but a requirement. She hated that powerlessness that reared its head when Primordial Nature emerged, and the fact that defeating it wasn¡¯t enough to remove it was frustrating.


    To a certain extent, it was the same as with the heavens, or the Great Leeches, at least if it was imagined that all of their intentions were purely good. Even if they were the most capable when it came to dealing with some threat, she hated the fact that she couldn¡¯t step in and do it herself without knowingly throwing away her life in vain. She wanted to be able to do something ¨C anything ¨C and even if she couldn¡¯t, it would be fantastic if there was someone else like her that could. If there was someone sane, who prioritised the freedom of people over some absurd notions of unnecessary balance or the demands of an unseen, unknown entity, then she wouldn¡¯t mind them being able to do what she could not.


    Kong Shi Meng could have been that exact person, but spending time with him, or someone that she thought to be him, wasn¡¯t all too encouraging.


    ¡®It isn¡¯t even the earlier comments about the heavens. I can forgive an uncertain reaction to a complex issue, since I also don¡¯t know all the details, but that does not mean I like any of it,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, a drop of sweat falling from her brow.


    From the outside, she seemed to be doing little, but she was actually employing the greatest quantity of her own energy since her fights with Primordial Nature and the Great Leeches before it.


    Soon, more time passed, and the energy streaming towards the centre of the dome of dust surged outward for just a moment, signalling the appearance of a form within the middle. Unlike Primordial Nature, there weren¡¯t stream of foes going towards her, nor any other parts of Yi City, but this was likely due to the differences in their Dao and overall nature. Nature was plentiful and active, whereas the earth generally lay still, and dust moved only loosely, in clouds when moved by the wind.


    The world that she had seen when trapped in the Primordial Deity¡¯s illusion was clearly not a perfect indicator of the kinds of abilities that it would showcase, though it could still be used as guidance. Upon its emergence, Primordial Earth could always employ various methods to manifest further forces to oppose her and the rest of Yi City¡¯s people, but the creation of troops for itself was not a natural aspect of itself. This was helpful to learn, since she had not been able to observe Primordial Inferno¡¯s emergence, but was able to see plenty of flame-wrought entities within its territory over the dunes of the north.


    ¡°Where is that mortal thing? I recall it¡¯s annoying head. I wish to smash it!¡± a lumbering, slow voice, spoken so slowly that one might assume the speaker had less than zero energy to spare, echoed throughout the lands, though it was clearly not human.


    Primordial Earth finally became visible, and it ¨C Yi Shi Ming had referred to the various Primordial Deities with genders, but seeing as they were not human or even remotely close to ordinary living things with sexual dimorphism and that sort of thing, she wasn¡¯t sure it was a good idea to apply such notions to them ¨C wasn¡¯t quite the same as the Fashionable Gentleman that had appeared before.


    That figure had been rather tall, thin, and wore something akin to a suit of the otherworldly demons. The entity before her was none of those things, though it could still be described as humanoid due to possessing two legs, two arms, and a head, alongside a vertical body and bearing. If one was to be a little more precise, it was a towering hulk with enormous limbs and a body with a large belly, as if it belonged to a greatly obese man. It was only the size of the rest of it that allowed it to look somewhat reasonable in this regard.


    Its figure was made of stone and hardened earth, with just a glimpse of glowing red through numerous smaller cracks within its body. Most of these were found near the belly, although that was presumably due to its size.


    Of course, the substitute for a face was just as disturbing and inhuman as that of the Fashionable Gentleman, and Primordial Nature, with Primordial Inferno and the others likely having very similar features. The jagged teeth-like arrangements were made of hardened stone, one eye glistened with a gemstone while another was simply a hole through which grey dust poured out into the world.


    ¡°Looking for someone?¡± the Ascendant called out, just loud enough for it to hear.


    Primordial Earth turned instantly, presumably looking at her with its eye substitutes, and produced a growl akin to the sound of a hundred rocks rubbing against one another.


    ¡°Ah, mortal thing. I promised that you would learn of your errors¡­ Come, be devoured by me and join this earth. It has lingered for long without sustenance, and it is time for it to be fed by the mortal things of this world.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Without further warning, it suddenly leapt at her, moving slower now, more befitting of its enormous size. Earth-type energy gathered in vast quantities, much of it pouring out of it, and more emerging form the clouds of dust that had not yet been devoured by it, and in that moment, as a rupture appeared upon the Ascendant¡¯s skin and celestial blood leaked onto her skin, she forced all of the energy that she had released to stall.


    That was all, and yet, out of all the grey dust that gathered, much of it was her own. Thus, Primordial Earth was stopped by it, and whatever lay inside it was clearly affected.


    ¡°Is this enough?¡±


    ¡°It is. I shall seal him,¡± Kong Shi Meng said, bidding the world to assemble the barrier.

 V5C89: What Was, Will Burn

    ¡°My energy is roughly¡­ one hundredth of a hundredth of this barrier¡¯s overall power¡­ Nonetheless, Ascendant, I shall contribute all I can to the cause! Let it not be said that the Bao District was unwilling to help in the conflict against an enemy to mankind itself!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure being quiet would save on energy and give you more to work with.¡±


    The Bao Patriarch did not seem entirely pleased with this, but he had to stick to his words and so he remained quiet enough. That left little more to do at what had once been the lands of the Bao District, and so she moved on as swiftly as possible, returning to the northern part of the Western Continent again.


    There were, at least in theory, quite a few things that she could do at the Bao District, especially if she didn¡¯t care about time and the state of the other districts under her protection. She could help with building residences that couldn¡¯t be moved or built in time, she could aid those that were most affected, or offer plenty of other support, but just as the Chu District had to work things out on its own, so would the former land of gems and jewels. It wasn¡¯t even reasonable to assist them over the Chu District, as the Bao District could still be damaged by further attacks from Primordial Earth once she chose to confront it.


    Taking care of Primordial Inferno first was a better idea, especially if she was able to defeat it outright. The element of flame supported earth, and so she could use the elemental interaction to achieve greater results than throwing oblivion essence at it alone.


    She did already have Primordial Nature¡¯s Branch of Fitness, and all the benefits that it bestowed upon her, which purportedly opposed the element of earth, but this was not enough for her victory. With Primordial Nature, she won due to its particular reliance on minions, as well as the attachment to the earth, so by sabotaging their foundation it was easy enough to ruin much of Primordial Nature¡¯s power. For Primordial Earth, trying the reverse would lead to the same outcome, except in its favour.


    The grey dust would devour the vitality of her wood-type energy, and then she would simply throw away her oblivion essence in a very inefficient manner.


    ¡®Somehow, it seems that acting upon the elements that directly support one another is easier than dealing with opposing ones. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how it is meant to work, but it should be easier once I get rid of this kind of entity. Other things should have less attunement to individual elements and properties of the world, so my various Dao will be more effective.¡¯


    The Dao of Law, and other rare Dao, retained their effectiveness, but the trouble was that Law would have less of a direct effect upon her foes unless she came up with something ingenious or paid a great price, some of which were difficult to handle during an intense battle like those she expected.


    As always, everything she was considering did nothing at all to prevent her from moving to her original destination, the northern deserts, and she arrived there only minutes after her departure thanks to stopping by in the fortress of Paragon to make sure that everyone there was alright, and didn¡¯t attempt to rush out at a wrong time. The people of the Bao District didn¡¯t get the chance to do so, but she knew thanks to her divine sense that there were many who were considering doing something stupid like that. It wouldn¡¯t help them or her whatsoever, but they clearly didn¡¯t realise that.


    ¡°Alright, attempt two¡­ Any more Primordial Deities emerging within the next hour?¡± she addressed Kong Shi Meng, who appeared by her side as usual.


    ¡°You will have twenty-two hours and nine minutes, give or take four minutes.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s very precise¡­ and I think I understand how you calculated that, so I should only need to confirm it once more with you, though there will only be three or four more emergences in total¡­¡± Wei Yi muttered, unsure of how Primordial Yin and Primordial Yang would appear and how they would differ, ¡°I think I may attempt to use your energy here as well, but only if there is a clear opportunity to get something similar to Primordial Nature¡¯s fight. I don¡¯t even know if Primordial Inferno has some kind of shell I can breach, nor whether I will manage it with what you can give me, but you should pay attention to anything I do or say.¡±


    ¡°For the sake of the Planar Continents, I have been doing so already, but I shall raise my focus for this battle.¡±


    She didn¡¯t expect that to be immediately followed by the clear sense of attention upon her, akin to a regular divine sense of a Patriarch except a thousand times more powerful. It felt sufficient to crush her with ease so long as force was properly exerted, and it was extremely fortunate that this was not the case. If nothing else, it proved that he clearly possessed a great deal of power in all ways, even now.


    It was a little unusual in nature, however, whether she compared it to the typical spiritual perception of a native or an otherworldly demon, but given that his dantian and the presumed gate within were also unusual, that much was almost expected.


    He vanished after that, presumably moving to a place where he wouldn¡¯t interrupt her, and she wouldn¡¯t interrupt him, so she quickly moved into the sands and ignored some of the tribes that were moving about not far from here. A number of them were fleeing from the Primordial Deity, others were trying to capitalise on the situation in some way, and others were doing something she couldn¡¯t quite understand at a glance ¨C though it was unlikely to be noteworthy when most were in the fifth realm and below, making it impossible for them to damage her whatsoever.


    Rather than any human beings in the sands, what she paid attention to was the growing heat, and not just the source but also the exact nature of it.


    Part of handling her threat was understanding it, and if the Dao of Primordial Inferno was somehow exploitable, then it would bring her that little bit closer to the possibility of complete victory. It was what she would prefer to get today, but the observations she had been able to make regarding the flames so far did not suggest this advantage. The heat was akin to what one might experience if they stepped into a burning building and were suffocated by the smoke, a blaze of immense proportions, and while grey dust may help calm the flame, she would need vast quantities to truly smother the flame forever.


    Simply throwing grey dust into the equation wouldn¡¯t help, and letting them consume wood wouldn¡¯t do much more than fan the flames and cause them to grow, far out of any semblance of control that she might imagine having over it for now.


    It did not take long for her to see the source of those boundless flames.


    As all the others, Primordial Inferno stood tall in comparison to any human being Wei Yi had met. Its form was composed of surging flames, beginning with a bright red on some outside portions and complete with white and blue in the densest, hottest parts of its body. Strictly speaking, the colours of the flame couldn¡¯t correlate with their actual temperature, as the Ascendant could withstand such things easily enough but was already sweating from the Primordial Deity¡¯s heat from quite a long distance away.


    She was glad that she had taken a new strand of hair to tie her crimson locks into her usual ponytail, for any strand that touched her body would have stuck to it in moments.


    Unlike Primordial Nature and Primordial Earth, who clearly had masculine appearances, Primordial Inferno was the first Primordial Deity she was meeting in person that was more feminine. Long tongues of flame, white and blue, formed long hair that rose up as if in water. On a lithe body of fluctuating flames, two portions of flame rested on the chest and two more at the hips, forming breasts and buttocks that changed size with every movement of the fire.


    The feet of this entity were about as wild as the rest of it, but the hands were dense and concentrated, resembling one of the suns the Ascendant had previously conjured, looking solid enough to be able to grab and lift anything that they didn¡¯t instantly scorch.


    Had this been an entity with less absurd animosity towards humanity and the world as a whole, Wei Yi might have been tempted to look at her as more than just a clump of flame, though its face ruined any thoughts to doing such a thing. Tongues of flames formed the traditional spiked teeth, the eyes were so hot that they crossed the boundary of light and turned pitch-black ¨C otherworldly demons had once mentioned something about blackbody radiation, but they didn¡¯t understand it and so Wei Yi couldn¡¯t learn much either ¨C and if one was to read some expression from that facsimile of a face, it would not be a pleasant one no matter how much they may try.


    The Ascendant was a great distance away from this Primordial Deity, and yet a random movement of her fingers seemed to attract its attention.


    ¡°Ah, a mortal thing!¡±


    ¡®For fuck¡¯s sake, can you¡­ ugh,¡¯ the Ascendant couldn¡¯t stop herself from cursing at that thing for its language, making her curious whether this was a very odd instance of some misunderstanding in their language, since they could easily mean any number of other things if they had some odd accent that didn¡¯t show in other words and phrases.


    ¡°Come to me! Let me burn you! Come!¡±


    The tone of the thing, aside from sounding like a fireplace filled to the brim with crackling logs, had the clear cadence of a young child, perhaps a teenager, demanding to play with her favourite toy, and all the innocence that came with it. Of course, she wouldn¡¯t have a change of heart because of it.


    One thing that could be confirmed for certain in this world was that the Primordial Deities, whether they were consciously evil or simply made in a way that put them at odds with humanity, were incompatible with the continued development of the world and Yi City. They needed to be stopped, or else their power might well grow alongside that of the world, and in the ninth realm, they might become even more insane than they currently were. At that point, if there was another force breaking into the ninth realm before the Ascendant, she might have no chance of victory at all.


    As such, she prepared her energy, imbuing the oblivion essence with the element of water to grant it some additional effectiveness, even if it would only be minimal.


    However, before she could do a thing, the Primordial Deity suddenly changed its posture and expression, glaring at her while its whole body fluctuated in shape and colour, the flames shifting with each moment.


    ¡°You mortal bitch! I shall destroy you!¡±


    No comments regarding the flame¡¯s volatility or similarity to some women that Wei Yi had come across before had the chance to cross her mind before Primordial Inferno surged forward, her hand raised yet falling rapidly upon her, a mass of flame formed before its hand. This was shocking when compared to some of the slower foes the Ascendant had come across up to this point, but at the very least she was prepared for every aspect of this entity that it had demonstrated so far.


    She used her oblivion essence to cover herself and protect herself from the heat, applied her physique energy to her body to accelerate her movement, and then dashed aside to avoid the hit entirely.


    The mass of flame landed on the sands and turned them to glass at the same time as scattering it all over the place. Drops of molten glass showered the ground for miles, the heat contained within causing the glass to spread across the sands, turning the desert from a sandy brown to a shining white. It was as if the Glass Wastes came south.


    ¡°Ah, what a precious mortal thing! I shall make sure you are preserved in these glass wastes!¡±


    ¡®I am starting to be very disappointed at the fact that the Primordial Deities have the ability to speak¡­¡¯ the Ascendant quickly formed a sphere of Obliteration energy and cast it into the air, so as to have a beam fall upon the Primordial Deity in a few moments, and to test its effectiveness.


    It was easy to describe her Obliteration energy as being a blaze of blackened crimson, or crimson blackness, and if the presumed Branch of Blaze mastered by Primordial Inferno applied to such vague resemblances as these, it would be significantly weakened against this particular threat. Using water-type energy was more effective when it came to resisting the heat of the Primordial Deity, so it should be more effective at harming it as well. If not, then she would gladly employ her favourite methods in order to defeat it.


    The energy fell upon the feminine-shaped flames and briefly wreathed the entity in the crimson blackness, but it faded only moments after, leaving it in yet another shape and charging at her.


    A wave of flame sprouted from the half-glass desert, burning with enough heat to lightly char Wei Yi¡¯s skin when it got too close. She was forced to jump back, closer to the territory of Primordial Inferno, and the ancient entity did not stop with just one attack. A dozen waves and surges of heat followed, one only a second after another, very effectively preventing her retreat unless she chose to use her Law-based movement method.


    Unfortunately, that required a little bit of time to calculate her destination, and it was just an instant longer than she managed to obtain despite her best attempts. To get any more, she would need to let herself be pushed back into the Primordial Deity¡¯s territory, but that was too dangerous.


    Just by getting nearer to the edge of those lands, the Ascendant could tell that she wouldn¡¯t like being there at all. The lands was burnt or turned to glass, flames sprouted from every crevice and crack in the ground, and numerous entities made of flame travelled the horrendous landscape and seemed to do very little. Nonetheless, each one was equivalent to the sixth or seventh realm in power, horrendously dangerous to the outside world if they ever decided to head outside the boundaries of Primordial Inferno¡¯s chosen territory. Fortunately, they were slightly less dangerous than the Primordial Deity that conjured them, so a liberal application of water would be enough.


    ¡°Yes, a mortal thing within my lands!¡± the ancient entity giggled like a child, ¡°Please, put yourself into a glass cage for me, so that I may admire you!¡±


    ¡®Nope. This one should not have the right to speak at all,¡¯ Wei Yi hesitated on the edge.


    On one side, there was Primordial Inferno, and on the other was its land. Neither were an ideal place to be, but she didn¡¯t even get to make a decision when the ground shook in front of her ¨C and behind Primordial Inferno ¨C and the sands were hewn asunder by an enormous thing emerging from the ground.


    It was absurdly large, over a hundred metres in width, and it was clearly a worm that the Ascendant had gotten to see in action before. The Great Worm.


    ¡®What had they said back then¡­ What was, will be? What will be, was?¡¯


    She couldn¡¯t understand the meaning of such a statement, since it was extremely odd in most interpretations, but it was very clear that in the eyes of those that worshipped it, the Great Worm was equivalent to a god. Perhaps, one could say that it was a primordial deity of a kind, but even if it was not, then Primordial Inferno appeared to have a similar level of power to that thing from the aura both of them released. It was very possible for the two of them to truly combat one another on even ground.


    That didn¡¯t answer where the Great Worm had come from, nor why it had that level of power when it existed long before the Primordial Deities had emerged from wherever they typically stayed, but if it was usable, she had to accept it, just as the Dao of the Primordial Deities she currently used.


    ¡°I think they said-¡±


    ¡°Praise the Great Worm!¡±


    ¡®Yeah, that was- wait, the fuck?¡¯


    ¡°So that its foe perishes, we must do our part!¡± the chorus of Great Worm worshippers sounded from afar, to the extent that her divine sense could not perceive them, yet her ears could.


    It was nearly impossible for her to verify whether their chanting had any particular effect, unlike the last time that she had witnessed it, for they were located far away, in a place that she couldn¡¯t see from her current position, but the Great Worm most certainly did rush in the direction of Primordial Inferno, racing at an unimaginable speed for an entity that large.


    ¡°That twisted prison is ruining the fun! Mortal thing, come back~! Don¡¯t stray too far from me!¡±


    The changes in Primordial Inferno¡¯s mood were too difficult to track, and Wei Yi didn¡¯t even try to do so as she fled into its territory, throwing out her oblivion essence without hesitation to blow away any of the weaker minions used by the Primordial Deity.


    Water-type oblivion essence splashed all over the place as she disposed of the weaker enemies, and although Primordial Inferno chased after her, it was more the Great Worm that she was now concerned about. It travelled towards them, and with its open mouth ¨C the result of a hundred different mouth parts opening to permit her to peer into the inside of it for just a moment ¨C she could see that the inside of the Great Worm was not quite as one might imagine from a simple ancient worm. Inside of it, there was a powerful aura of decay, and it eroded itself and the fabric of the world itself.


    She couldn¡¯t be sure if this was comparable to whatever power Entropy would have, for she had not yet caught sight of it, but she could say with confidence that it was as dangerous as a Primordial Deity for sure, and that it would be even more dangerous if she got caught within its enormous jaws. Her oblivion essence might not be enough to withstand the erosion.


    As such, she needed to get far enough away from that thing before it had the chance to devour her, but not so far so that Primordial Inferno wouldn¡¯t be caught.


    ¡®Incidentally, Inferno doesn¡¯t call it a mortal thing, so that¡¯s knew, at least. Twisted prison, though¡­ another thing that doesn¡¯t quite make sense yet, but will probably click into place when whatever it seals breaks free,¡¯ she thought, using her divine sense to check on the Worm¡¯s approach.


    Even when she used her Law-based movement method, her every step was overshadowed by the distance travelled by the Great Worm, and so she could barely make it a tenth of the way into the territory of Primordial Inferno before it was nearly right above her, crashing into the ground only a moment after. The sheer force of its body moving through the air was enough to knock her off her feet, throwing her into a distant charred hill.


    Fortunately, it did land upon Primordial Inferno, seeming to swallow it without any issue as it burrowed into the ground, breaking the terrain on its path as it travelled forth, passing under Wei Yi.


    ¡°Praise the Great Worm!¡±


    ¡®I¡¯d be tempted to praise it too, if it succeeded, but there is no explosion of energy, nor the collapse of the entities summoned by the Primordial Deity. Given the way that I had defeated Primordial Nature, it might be that the entities remaining around is completely normal, but there is no way that it wouldn¡¯t be obvious that something actually changed upon its demise,¡¯ the Ascendant rose and looked around with every sense that she had available to her, still unable to locate the Perpetuals of the Worm, but finding the fire-type energy of Primordial Inferno¡¯s territory moving more actively than before.


    Although it was absurdly difficult to track down any rhyme or reason to it, the moment that there was a level of energy build-up equivalent to one of the waves of flame used by Primordial Inferno, she shifted her position to a prepared coordinate.


    The fact that the sand that had just been beneath her feet turned to naught ¨C literally exploding into nothing from an extreme level of concentrated heat ¨C at the same time made her very confident that the cultivator¡¯s intuition continued to exist and aid her in the best of ways. She also appreciated that the ancient entity she was opposing didn¡¯t have the brains to trick her even a little better, instead just appearing not far from her once the attack failed to land.


    ¡°Listen, mortal thing. Listen,¡± Primordial Inferno said, suddenly, in an aged, wizened tone.


    ¡®¡­?¡¯


    She chose not to obey its instructions this time, either, for it would be better to miss some detail of potential importance than to be destroyed by an entity far more powerful than her in an obvious trap.


    That turned out to be an excellent choice, for the same attack as before occurred upon her position, seemingly turning the glassy sand into a pure explosive force that struck Wei Yi even though she had already moved her position to the opposite side of Primordial Inferno. Furthermore, a series of flaming waves and surges came towards her even with her rapid movement, forcing her to meet the attacks with her own energy if she wished to survive them.


    Water-type energy collided with raw flames, and all the while the minions of the Primordial Deity were torn asunder as if they were not important to the ancient entity at all. Most likely, this was also due to the capricious nature of the flames, as well as the fact that all of them were completely replaceable and lacking in specific identity. Any of the minions she or the Great Worm had taken out were rapidly shifting in form, and their power could also fluctuate, meaning that when she had taken on those in the sixth realm of power, she could have beaten them more easily simply by waiting for their flame to flicker and their power to drop.


    Still, her oblivion essence was still sufficient, and she didn¡¯t need to take on the threat itself when the Great Worm was clearly still in the area, followed by the monotonous chants of the Perpetuals of the Worm.


    Only a brief while after the chase began, the ancient worm was already heading back towards them, rushing through the sands beneath and bursting out of the ground in another attempt to swallow Primordial Inferno. Last time, Wei Yi had done her best to flee the entity and avoid being swallowed, but this time she chose to stop and produce the largest mass of ice that she could, combining her Conqueror¡¯s Eye physiques with her general oblivion essence to manifest the coldest mass that she was even capable of creating with her power.


    To add to that even more, she naturally included every drop of energy she could borrow from the Yi City Web while at this distance, suffusing everything she produced with the world¡¯s natural energy condensed into an enormous network beneath the ground. It did not match the exact element of her attack, nor was it easily transformed like her oblivion essence was, but it still helped.


    She threw it out at the same time that the Great Worm surfaced.


    Thus, when the eroding power of the Great Worm bit down upon Primordial Inferno, the ice also struck, bursting from its bite and shattering within the worm¡¯s jaws. Much of it fell upon the flames of Primordial Inferno, at least from what she could see before the Great Worm¡¯s mouth snapped shut.


    Her divine sense did attempt to breach its dense flesh, and might have succeeded if not for the eroding power within completely devouring any hint of her divine sense and thus preventing any of her unique attributes from helping her. Fortunately for her, she did not need to see anything when the one she relied upon right now was Kong Shi Meng, a man in the ninth realm with divine sense that had a far more obvious power than her own, though it was impossible to compare the two when she had not had the chance to see its power first-hand. Either way, he had been able to perceive things that she could not, from great distance, so all she needed was for him to know the right time to act.


    A white light burst out of the Great Worm¡¯s body, throwing it out and back into the ground, where it burrowed naturally, as if it was intending for this very thing. The light expanded quickly, consuming more and more of the area, nearly swallowing up or throwing away the Ascendant ¨C depending on the way it functioned ¨C if not for her evading via her fourth realm movement method.


    It grew to consume the entire territory of Primordial Inferno before ceasing growth, and it was obviously identifiable as one of the barriers manifested by Kong Shi Meng.


    As usual, he was able to employ the power of the world in a manner that needed to be seen to be believed in a world where such a thing was nigh impossible, and it may have been a topic for concern in any other circumstance. Right now, however, the sealing of Primordial Inferno was a far greater matter than that, and Wei Yi had to appreciate the fact that it happened right then, for the Great Worm did seem interested in devouring her as well. Most likely, it was keen to eat anything and everything it saw.


    Whatever the case, Wei Yi was alive for another day, and Yi City was temporarily free of one threat.

 V5C90: The Hungry Behemoth

    The trouble was that the first threat was not the only one. The Great Worm, now lacking the backing of numerous Perpetuals of the Worm, still remained in the area, and it was clearly not going to leave based on the continued quakes of the earth, which seemed to only ever grow nearer, never further.


    ¡°Kong Shi Meng, would you¡­ let me guess, no help?¡±


    ¡°I am afraid that I am unable to help you here, but there are those that would aid you. Give them time to get here, and you shall have a significant advantage in the battle.¡±


    ¡°Cool. Any suggestions of dealing with a massive fucking worm that wants to eat me and, possibly, break down anything composing me into the purest form of energy that can possibly exist out there¡­ Not planar energy, but-¡± Wei Yi flicked her forehead with enough force to crush a lesser skull when she remembered that she had far better things to do than guess at the nature of the Great Worm¡¯s eroding internal energy.


    She threw out a series of Replica Abyssal Eye orbs that sank into the ground, wherever the Great Worm had not yet passed. Its passing made the ground far too unstable to allow her planar constructs to sprout.


    It might have been a little wasteful to use as much of her oblivion essence as she did, but before she determined exactly what the worm could do and what it would target in its seemingly random rampage through the area, she had to take whatever chances she could and minimize the possibility of damage. At other times, her various abilities could have permitted her to recover from a drop of blood or a fragment of her overall existence, but the erosion of the Great Worm posed too much risk to her right now. The various entities spawned by her Replica Abyssal Eye technique could help clarify the risk.


    Learning more about the worm, regardless of its effect upon her life, also ought to make it easier to contain or hunt it in the future, for she would almost certainly have the need to do such a thing. An entity as large or terrifying as this one could pose as much threat to the world as a Primordial Deity, at least in terms of raw power. It could never be allowed to roam unhindered.


    The Great Worm burst out of the ground more quietly than last time, biting down upon a number of planar construct minions as it surged up, and headed straight for Wei Yi on the way down.


    While she bid her various summoned planar constructs to attack whatever part of the worm they could, she used the sands that had been turned to glass during the earlier battle and formed them into railgun bolt-like spears that she then fired in the exact manner that her usual Railgun Bolt technique would function. A number of these bolts cracked and shattered before they could be fired, and others turned to dust mid-flight, but enough endured to strike the monstrous entity.


    Blasts of crimson blackness erupted upon collision, the minimal Obliteration energy imbued within allowing the bolts to contain force that could be useful both against planar entities and those that responded only to more traditional kinetic force.


    Unfortunately, the power of her attacks was insufficient to breach the dense layer of whatever natural material composed the outside of the Great Worm. There were some slight dents in its body, some slight burns from her Obliteration energy, but Wei Yi still needed to shift her position rapidly in order to get away from the ancient entity¡¯s gaping, hungry maw.


    It burrowed into the ground once more, taking with it numerous planar constructs that tried to stab any kind of weapon they had on them, whether they were the natural blade-like limbs of the more bestial monstrosities, or vague planar constructs of the more humanoid entities. There were quite a few that were able to get their weapons jammed, and were brought beneath the ground, getting crushed and destroyed by the earth from which they had emerged only a brief while prior to this. Their detonation managed to make more of an impact due to their proximity and the surrounding sands preventing the energy from being wasted, but even that didn¡¯t seem to have a strong effect.


    As it returned beneath the earth completely, the Ascendant pondered what kind of force would have the ability to make any kind of significant impact at a time like this. She was not using the strongest methods at her disposal, just as she refused to use her Touch the Heavens against the Great Leeches more than necessary, but her powers were still greater than most Patriarchs of Yi City despite her relatively low realm and minimal time spent in the seventh realm.


    Of course, there were still a few candidates and forces that had the potential to make a difference, but other than the dragons, she had not seen any trace of the qilins, phoenixes, or any other ancient forces of significant power hidden in the world.


    With her ability to look all over the Western Continent thanks to the Yi City Web, she was able to pay attention to any movements out in the world now that Primordial Inferno was sealed and she only had the Great Worm to combat, and there had still not been any sightings of such forces or entities. There were few places left as a result, and although she had requested for aid from the Eastern Continent, she didn¡¯t expect that she would get much of it before the battle against the Primordial Deities was done with.


    The Eastern Continent was far from here, and the people there were sure to have their own problems to handle now that the Primordial Deities have been unleashed. She wasn¡¯t actually sure whether there were any over at the Eastern Continent, but there were bound to be hostile forces with which they would need to battle to ensure that they were able to keep their place in the future.


    That left her with the Western Continent, which was either under her control and for her to call upon, part of Yi City but not yet connected to the Yi City Web, or part of an outside nation which, as far as she knew, at least, lacked any powerful cultivators with the ability to change the tide of battle here.


    ¡®Still, Kong Shi Meng should have no reason to lie for now, and I can always flee the Great Worm if I must. It has not been too keen on leaving its territory prior to the emergence of the Primordial Deities, so that behaviour should not change now, and so the Western Continent will mostly be safe from the Great Worm. If not¡­ well, I don¡¯t know what the fuck I can do here, so I won¡¯t bother considering this,¡¯ she watched as the ancient worm emerged from the ground yet again, still trying to devour her.


    She had prepared for the latest instance of the worm bursting out of the ground, having manifested an enormous sphere of Obliteration energy in order to experiment with the most effective attacks against it. Primordial Inferno was able to ignore the crimson blackness easily enough, meaning that she would need to change up the nature of Obliteration if she wanted to guarantee its effectiveness against any enemies she came across in the future, but the Great Worm did not have the same resistance specifically to this form of offense.


    Instead, it was resistant to just about everything, even though there was really no need to have such an odd endurance.


    If she was to look at it from a more objective perspective, she could easily identify the reason for such a defence. The Great Worm contained an incredibly powerful erosive force within itself, and since the overall thickness of the worm was difficult to assess, it might well be that it still affects the outer portions of the Great Worm as much as the inside.


    Thus, the ancient entity would need to have the tenacity to endure an energy as powerful as that constantly. Without some form of energy cultivation, all that the worm could have was a powerful body. It would make for a decent material, if she managed to defeat it in the future.


    Back to the actual battle, Wei Yi loosed that mass of Obliteration energy upon the side of the Great Worm, starting with the right of its jaw and moving down its length until about half-way, when her gathered Obliteration energy ran out.


    There was a brief moment before any quantity of her oblivion essence could be transformed into Obliteration energy, and despite the general lack of impact of this fact, it did mean that she couldn¡¯t generate and maintain a constant beam of energy against an opponent. Still, the effects wouldn¡¯t be too different, given that the cut made by her energy was nearly invisible once more.


    ¡®Still, there is an effect. I ought to try the most impactful form of my Obliteration beam,¡¯ she thought, shifting her position away from the Great Worm¡¯s path to a pre-prepared coordinate.


    Although she didn¡¯t make a large dent, or anything even remotely close to it, there was damage, and if there was damage, she could achieve further damage with a little bit of additional effort. If the power of her Obliteration beam was not spread out across half of the Great Worm¡¯s incredibly lengthy body, and if it was gathered in even larger quantities, she might be able to breach the body of the worm and potentially lead to the entropic energy within to either break out and weaken the entity, or begin devouring weaker parts of its flesh, forcing it to escape.


    Naturally, she waited for the Great Worm to make another appearance with the Titanic Conqueror behind her, the power that could be summoned by the both of them united into a single mass a short distance from her, as she knew that she would need to dodge regardless of where the worm emerged.


    Once it did, she used her killing will to grab up all of the things that she had summoned so far and threw them onto the Great Worm, before then unleashing those blasts of Obliteration energy upon the deepest mark on the right side of the beast that she was able to find. A pulse with the full power of her previous beam landed with a sound that could be described as satisfactory, enlarging and slightly deepening that dent in its side, and it was quickly followed by another one.


    The second blast was larger and denser, and it only preceded the third, fourth, and finally fifth blast.


    The last one was the first to produce a drop of fluid from the worm¡¯s flesh, a drop that she had to presume to be blood. It was small, to the point that even a normal human wouldn¡¯t suffer from losing such a small amount, but where there was blood, there was a wound, and a wound didn¡¯t stop after a single drop in the majority of cases.


    A small stream of black blood poured from the worm¡¯s flesh, tinting the sands as it sank back beneath them, the sand falling into the wound and limiting the amount of blood that poured out.


    ¡®That¡¯s good, but if the wound seals from either the sand or its natural regenerative abilities, then this will be rather pointless. I don¡¯t have enough time to attack it multiple times before it sinks beneath the ground, and if the Great Worm has a sense of pain, there¡¯s no way that it will allow me to keep attacking it if it realises it is becoming injured,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, carefully observing the entity¡¯s recovery ¨C or, as it turned out, the lack of it.


    Although a little unexpected, it seemed to make complete sense. The Great Worm had a powerful regenerative ability, but it wasn¡¯t growing out of control ¨C rather, it seemed to be rather stagnant in appearance, meaning that it did not have an excess of this ability. Most likely, it was all being used to prevent itself from being consumed by the entropic energy within itself, and now that something had damaged it sufficiently, it would need some time to recover, or perhaps seek out a greater source of sustenance than the dry sands to boost its regenerative ability.


    After only a brief while, the ancient worm began to emerge again, and the mark upon its body was still present, if not just a little smaller and less deep than before. It did attempt to move away from her, not heading straight towards her this time, but perhaps due to lacking experience, it did little else.


    Most importantly for the Great Worm, and for her efforts against it, the attempts to evade her did not stop her from targeting that part of its flesh which she had weakened after several attempts. Thus, knowing that there was some effect, she prepared the greatest quantity of oblivion essence that she was able to bring out and attempted to perform the delayed blast variant of her Obliteration energy to a greater level than ever before.


    Typically, such a form of Obliteration was only able to produce four to five blasts, as their density, size, and required power increased with every single burst. It was what allowed it to be as powerful as it was, and each time she wanted to repeat a burst, she would require a significantly greater degree of power to pull it off.


    With planar energy, four had been her limit. With oblivion essence, she hadn¡¯t had too many opportunities to experiment with such things, and the five she had produced earlier went very smoothly and hadn¡¯t strained her as much as she might have presumed. If she had the boost of a half-way perfected realm, or got the sixth stage in other words, she might be able to employ whatever benefit she gained in stabilising the manifestation of her Obliteration pulses, but the halos currently in use were sufficient to push her limits and produce enough energy for the release of at least six pulses. Whether it was going to be possible to pull off was another matter.


    The instant that the worm surfaced, she abandoned any attempts to throw other things at it, or to goad it into any particular actions, and instead repositioned to target it most effectively.


    As before, she had no difficulty in employing the first blast, and the second and third. The fourth followed, each one resounding more loudly throughout the north of the Western Continent, catching the attention of some of the tribesmen that had fled their lands when Primordial Inferno had travelled south, as well as some of the Yi City people that had strayed into these lands. That didn¡¯t bother her, but it did mean aid would be able to find her more easily.


    That being said, when the fifth blast landed and prompted another few drops of blood to spurt out of the entity¡¯s flesh, she was beginning to doubt that such a thing would be necessary. While the Great Worm moved only like a regular beast would, with no use of energy or anything that a planar beast would produce, it wouldn¡¯t be able to do much against her now that she understood its pattern.


    She noted an unusually lengthy delay preceding the sixth pulse of energy, but it was very much worthwhile. For some reason, this pulse was doubled in size and greatly multiplied in power, feeling like it might well cut straight through the Great Worm in a single go.


    Unfortunately, it did not do so, and was instead followed by a large cloud of black blood mist from the widened wound, and a larger wave of entropic power. Given that the former already covered several cubic metres easily enough, the latter flooded roughly two dozen cubic metres, the air within vanishing and thus collapsing into a vacuum, causing everything around this eroded space to be sucked in to fill the void. On its own, this didn¡¯t worry her too much, but the fact that this power did not cease erupting and even began to assume a semi-intelligent form was most concerning.


    Even then, she still had enough Obliteration energy pooled up, and her body, mind and cultivation were all able to endure the stress required to produce a seventh pulse. It had to draw upon forms of energy other than her oblivion essence far more than usual, tinting it with various shades, but that did nothing to dull its power.


    Where the previous pulses might be described as needles ¨C enormous ones, but only in comparison to a typical needle ¨C this one was a mighty spear, cutting through the world as effectively as Reality Severance or Touch the Heavens. It distorted the fabric of the world, smoke and silver flooding through in one moment, yin and yang shining through in another, and the hint of a field of crimson stars was visible in a third. Together, they struck the Great Worm with a vast amount of force, and that was just the kinetic energy that was generated by affecting space. The true power of Obliteration was not contained within such things, for it either didn¡¯t generate a pure physical impact, or far surpassed it.


    In this case, it was the latter, and yet the basic force was still enough to push the Great Worm¡¯s head back while the blaze of Obliteration scorched its side, leaving behind a most obvious wound from which blood flowed freely and readily, like water poured from a spring.


    From this wound, the formless yet shaped form of the entropic power within bled out even more quickly, and it quickly sought the Obliteration energy and clashed with it, disrupting it and itself. The rest amassed itself into a larger figure, though one still devoid of shape, and almost hastened towards the Ascendant, something akin to a hand yet not one outstretched with clear desire or hunger towards her.


    She could have defended herself, but she could feel a sudden release of energy not far from her that led to her simply producing a series of railgun bolts and launching them into the wound of the worm while it was still in sight. Given her momentary focus upon the usage of her Obliteration Delayed Pulses, she had mostly overlooked the battlefield as she did not see any potential threats nearby prior to beginning her attack, and since her attention was now returned to the surroundings, she got to see the incoming attack on their shared foe in full.


    A series of figures with antlers on their heads, glowing orbs of pure gold in place of normal eyes, and topless bodies flew in the sky, clouds beneath their feet, and masses of flame bursting out of their hand upon the Great Worm¡¯s entropic energy.


    The two clashed, the flames being devoured by the decay, but they did slowly consume the entropic power. Clearly, whatever the source of it was, it did not extend far beyond the Great Worm, and whatever conscious efforts were being made by the thing controlling it lacked the ability to make too great an impact on the world. When the Ascendant¡¯s railgun bolts struck the worm¡¯s flesh, her aim ensuring that they went past the entropic energy, it was further repelled alongside the worm.


    With the threat nudged away, and assistance incoming, Wei Yi turned to the latter, easily identifying their nature.


    ¡°Qilins of the Qilin Isle. What prompted you to emerge now, and not when the so-called Qilin¡¯s Temple was burnt?¡± she asked, projecting her voice to them, referring to the territory near the extreme north where the people worshipped the qilins from the closest place to them on the northern part of the Western Continent.


    It was to be expected that the qilin at the front had no clue what she was on about.


    He, like all of his companions, was tall, broad-shouldered, muscular, and with a strong jaw and fierce eyes, much of it on full display thanks to their minimal clothing. Considering that what they had in their pants ¨C if their loincloths could really be referred to as such ¨C was as impressive, it was no surprise that they were in the hearts of many women of ages past, when qilins roamed the Planar Continents without any hesitation in doing so.


    For the Ascendant, however, their most notable feature was the rather unpleasant smell of a damp, unwashed animal, as well as the more humanoid odour of male sweat, neither of which she was very fond of.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a place by the north calling itself the Qilin¡¯s Temple. Have you never communicated with them?¡±


    ¡°¡­ I do not recall such a thing.¡±


    ¡°Well, disregard it, then. The Qilin¡¯s Temple is unlikely to endure for long with the current state of things,¡± she said, quietly producing a cold wind that blew their scent away from her and kept the both of them just a little cooler, ¡°My name is Wei Yi, the Ascendant, and current Master of Yi City.¡±


    ¡°Yi City¡­ We do remember that. My name is Qi Xun, and the other five are Qi Fen, Qi Hai, Qi Ming, Qi Lin, and Qi Hao, from your left to your right,¡± the man introduced himself, ¡°I am at the peak of the seventh realm, and the others are not far behind. We came as soon as we had accumulated enough strength, although we had awakened some time ago.¡±


    ¡°I think I noticed. Something had moved on the Qilin Territory when it should have been empty.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately, none of us had been looking past our shores at the time¡­ Should we focus upon this large worm first, though?¡±


    ¡°Sure. Let me try something. Release a bunch of your energy for me, in the shape of thin, long bolts.¡±


    The request was sudden and obviously unexpected, especially when the qilins barely had an understanding of the land that they had arrived to after an absence of a million years, but one thing that they could know for sure was that the Ascendant was capable of fighting against the Great Worm ¨C not that they knew the name of it either ¨C and that she shouldn¡¯t have been expecting their presence. Furthermore, one¡¯s own planar energy was generally believed to be the safest thing to use in any occasion.


    One¡¯s physical power could be redirected, one¡¯s scheming could be turned against them, but planar energy was generally easy to control and, at the very least, revoke if someone tried to turn it against the cultivator using it.


    Thus, they formed spears of fire, aimed at the worm, and watched as Wei Yi wrapped each one in numerous rails, infusing vast quantities of energy within each one, imbuing flame with Obliteration.


    From their control, the flame spears were ripped out and shot into the worm¡¯s side, blasts of crimson blackness erupting with far more ferocity than before, backed up by the natural flames of a powerful set of qilins. Each one also carried a significant kinetic force that further threw the worm¡¯s length into the ground, forcing it to dive beneath the ground in a most unfortunate manner for it, clearly worsening the wound on its side.


    When it was gone beneath the ground, it didn¡¯t remain to leap out towards the Ascendant or the qilins again, departing further away and leaving the Ascendant¡¯s range of divine sense. With that, it was finally finished off for the day, and Wei Yi was able to turn back to the qilins.


    ¡°By the way, if you were interested in helping with Primordial Inferno, you¡¯ve come quite late, Qi Xun.¡±


    ¡°It takes time to cross the ocean and come here, and we were also unaware of the strategies of the people of the continent. From what little we had been able to determine, the north had been neglected by any combatants, and we hadn¡¯t expected such a barrier to be constructed on such short notice¡­¡± the qilin said, crossing his thick arms, ¡°It is as if the heavens themselves produced that shield.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re exaggerating just a little, I think. Kong Shi Meng is impressive, but there is too great a difference between the two so far.¡±


    ¡°Kong Shi Meng. You humans have only had one Kong Shi Meng of particular note in the last two millions years, correct?¡± Qi Xun asked, a nod quickly coming in reply, ¡°His life was thought to be lost. If he is back, then it is a good thing for the humans, dragons, qilins and phoenixes alike, as well as whatever other forces still reside in the Planar Continents. Incidentally, have those dragons returned as well, or-¡±


    ¡°They have. Is it a problem for you?¡±


    ¡°No, not at all¡­ Damn dragons¡­¡±


    ¡®If this is another instance of a horny ancient beast species being disappointed that they cannot have as much sex as humanly possible, then I will be very disappointed with them, and the phoenixes in advance,¡¯ the Ascendant unsubtly rolled her eyes, ¡°You going to help with other Primordial Deities?¡±


    ¡°That is exactly what we came here for. Is there some kind of centre of operations in your Yi City, or is everyone as scattered as they were when some of the last qilins fell asleep?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve made some progress on that. I can show you to Paragon, an old fortress built by Kong Shi Meng, and from there you can essentially go to the majority of Yi City¡¯s districts. For whatever reason, the Primordial Deities are primarily in or near Yi City right now, so I suspect that the others will also emerge near there, and you should be able to get anywhere that a new Primordial Deity appears,¡± she said, ¡°The majority of them are currently sealed in the same barriers that Primordial Inferno is in, and breaking them will prevent them from being successfully reformed.¡±


    ¡°In that case, we shall accompany you-¡±


    ¡°No trying to sleep with random women without their permission, got it?¡±


    ¡°Wh-¡±


    ¡°Yes or no?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Understood,¡± Qi Xun said, but when he prepared to step forward again, Wei Yi stopped him.


    ¡°The five behind you ought to say it as well. The dragons are bad enough, since my divine sense is kept on Yi City at all times and so comes across them busying themselves with over-eager ladies. If you join in, it would be too much,¡± she explained, ¡°Also, not into guys, though I already end up watching so many of them that I don¡¯t mind¡­¡±


    The qilin couldn¡¯t speak for quite a while, and even when he tried to speak, his mouth just hung open for a while, ¡°I cannot even begin to imagine what you do in your spare time¡­¡±


    ¡°Getting desensitised to the weird shit people do in their own time, and making sure nobody is trying to destroy Yi City at the same time. Get going before I figure out how to best share that kind of thing with you, so that you also get disappointed with the average person.¡±

 V5C91: Observation

    The qilins did not force her to use such terrible means, and thus they got to Paragon and got some people to show them around instead of the Ascendant. It wasn¡¯t that they had some problem with her, or that she didn¡¯t want to help them out ¨C even if their unfortunate smell was slowly getting stronger for no clear reason ¨C but she did have two other things with which she needed to concern herself.


    First, and perhaps most important in the moment, she needed to confirm the state of the Primordial Deities that were going to emerge by the end of the day.


    There was something that she had asked Kong Shi Meng about not long ago, and it was whether it would be possible to simply contain the Primordial Deities with those barriers. Reinforcing them with energy gathering arrays and the like was not particularly difficult in theory, and the people of the Bao District were already contributing to such a barrier with their own minimal quantity of energy, so it should be feasible to use the improving energy of the world to construct greater arrays and improve them beyond what the Primordial Deities could ever oppose with their limited strength.


    According to the original Master of Yi City, this was not viable as the power drawn upon to form each barrier was limited. When used excessively, it would be exhausted far more quickly than anyone could refill it, and there would also be the issue of those restrictions that were apparently upon him.


    It was hard to verify much of what he said, seeing as much of it would require experimentation that she simply couldn¡¯t perform, so she was forced to trust him right now and thus had to focus in part on defeating one of the currently sealed Primordial Deities as to minimize the chances of any of them breaking out outside of her or Kong Shi Meng¡¯s control. Given that she had fought Primordial Inferno more than the other Primordial Deities, she thought it would be best to prioritise it.


    Naturally, sealing away the other Primordial Deities first was necessary, and so she had the two things that she needed to occupy herself with. Observing Primordial Inferno, and containing other Primordial Deities when they appeared.


    That night, the two to emerge from the unknown void that housed the Primordial Deities up to this point were both relatively unknown, and both were within Yi City¡¯s borders once again.


    One had a celestial aura, judging by the wave emitted from somewhere in between the Ning District and the Wei District ¨C or the former Kong District ¨C but the odd thing was that there was no sign of the Primordial Deity or its territory anywhere. She tried to find it somewhere, looking into the sky and beneath the ground, as far as her divine sense was able to reach, and yet she was unable to find even the smallest trace of the Primordial Deity. It was odd, and very concerning in one way, but it also meant that, in theory, Primordial Cosmos wouldn¡¯t be able to pose much of a threat to her right now.


    Her attention was thus turned to the other Primordial Deity, which appeared at the north, between the Chao District and Bai District. Its aura was very reminiscent of her own physique energy, and upon glimpsing it, she understood that it could be nothing other than Primordial Physique.


    This one didn¡¯t try to hide at all ¨C though Primordial Cosmos may not have been trying either ¨C and stood most prominently in its own territory. It, like the others, had a humanoid form overall, and was seemingly composed of little more than muscle, forming a titan of flesh that seemed strong enough to punch a hole through the Planar Continents. Oddly enough, in comparison to the other entities, from which an aura of their energy emanated at all times, even if it was subtler on some of them, Primordial Physique appeared to lack anything of the sort, and some brief observation led to her understanding the most likely possibility.


    The Primordial Deities were embodiments of their Dao, representing fundamental elements of the Planar Continents, and thus their forms were aligned with some variant of the element they represented. Fundamentally, a physique was connected to the body, and physique energy was something that should, at least in concept, remain within the body, flowing through the physique veins. As such, all of that energy would be contained within the body, and the body alone.


    However, she wasn¡¯t about to assume that the Primordial Deity would be less dangerous as a result. Even if no forms of external energy would be seen from it, the body alone was a sufficient threat.


    ¡®It also means that I cannot use the strategy I employed against Primordial Earth, not that it would have been possible when I only had my own physique energy. It isn¡¯t even transformed into something greater, like my planar energy changed into oblivion essence, so I don¡¯t have any advantage against the purest, strongest form of physique energy¡­¡¯ the Ascendant sighed, looking upon the entity.


    The entity¡¯s contained energy meant that it had minimal influence on its surroundings, but even then, it was not safe to leave such a thing out in the world. The ground did change beneath its feet, and entities exposed to its power would likely be affected just the same. It would take a longer period of time, and might be easier to avoid for humans, but in this part of the world, there were still plenty of planar beasts that would change into muscular abominations and ravage the world if the entity was left unchecked.


    Fortunately, she had some confidence in her own strength, and wouldn¡¯t even need to rely on it alone, unlike the Primordial Deity she was about to approach.


    In order to maximise her own chances, Wei Yi chose to make her entrance from the skies, heading up as far as was reasonable. She positioned herself directly above the entity, transformed Moon Splitter¡¯s shards into claws to enhance the power of her bare hands, and then leapt down.


    The fall lasted quite a while, and in that time she checked up on the dragons and qilins, as well as the general state of Yi City, while also searching for any traces of Primordial Cosmos. The two ancient beast species were doing just fine for the moment, managing to avoid confronting one another, though it was clear that their more animalistic territories tendencies were being riled up. Yi City was doing about as well as it had been a minute ago, when she last checked, and Primordial Cosmos was unseen still.


    It was all the kind of thing that she would check for regularly, as she had to do so in her position as Master of Yi City. There had been no official conferment of the title, nor did most ordinary people have much of a clue about this, but it didn¡¯t matter to her. She was effectively the Master of Yi City, especially while Kong Shi Meng didn¡¯t appear to have any desire to return to his original position, and so she had to do anything and everything possible to keep Yi City going, and improve it whenever she had the opportunity to do so. Eventually, she might be able to implement her concept of a just world, but until then, she had to make up for the lack of it in other ways.


    For instance, by beating the shit out of this muscular abomination.


    She had minimized the amount of noise she made, as well as reducing any other signs of her approach, and yet Primordial Physique spotted her just a little earlier than she would have liked. It ¨C for there were no distinguishing features upon its body, whether one looked at the chest or crotch, so it would be impossible to even guess, unlike with Primordial Inferno or Primordial Nature ¨C looked up, the mouthless and eyeless face meeting her gaze, and immediately balled its hands into fists, throwing one up to meet her.


    The movements were incredibly simplistic, to the point that it looked downright silly in comparison to the expert cultivators she had fought in her prior years, but the vast amount of force somehow produced by them exceeded even her own estimations. Before the fist had the chance to reach her, she was already thrown up and away by the shockwave of its muscles rippling during movement.


    Obviously, she threw a few punches its way while in mid-air, imbuing them with energy to make them have a decent impact, but that wasn¡¯t going to be enough.


    In comparison to direct contact, force transmitted through the air was never going to reach in full. The otherworldly demons understood this due to their concept of energy being the vibration of small particles composing all matter, air included, and even if the fundamentals differed at a level that Wei Yi couldn¡¯t observe yet, she could be certain that the overall theory of energy transmission being most efficient through solid objects still applied.


    Generally, it was, as always, planar energy that upset the natural way of things, for it could manufacture any kind of energy through the way in which it was shaped and released. Even a still planar construct could manifest vast kinetic force on contact with something, and power could be stored in a planar construct to let it traverse any distance without any effort.


    The Ascendant could rely on this and this alone, but the fact that Primordial Physique managed to pull of such power without cheating with planar energy meant it was possible to go another route ¨C as far as she could tell, neither the elemental form nor the greater form, which combined physique energy, bloodline power, killing will and elemental planar energy, were utilised. Strictly speaking, she probably shouldn¡¯t go out of her way to make things more difficult for herself, but with the elevation of planar energy density came the question of where it would end, and how exactly it would do so.


    What if, one day, planar energy changed, just as her own power changed to oblivion essence? What if it didn¡¯t just stop there, and perhaps effectively vanished completely? What if the Laws of planar energy were to transform after the Hunger of the Beyond was gone?


    Relying on the current rules of planar energy wouldn¡¯t let her protect Yi City, or even herself, at that point. Thus, although it was stupid, and although there was really no good reason to do this to herself, she forced her body to adjust, to release as much force as possible, to use her power as well as she possibly could, with Primordial Physique acting as the perfect guide of how humanoid muscles could move and act.


    She was only satisfied when she managed to land a proper strike upon it with enough force to interrupt its movements, at which point Kong Shi Meng¡¯s barrier began to appear, signalling the end of the fight.


    After that, she got around to doing the thing that she would need to do for quite some time ¨C looking at Primordial Inferno through the light-forged dome containing it and its domain. The task wasn¡¯t too entertaining in itself, though she didn¡¯t care. There was plenty to look at, even if entertainment had been what she was after, and much to learn regardless of her purpose, especially when the Master of Yi City stood around her.


    ¡°Incidentally, while I¡¯m staring at this barrier, could you tell me the reasoning behind the Four Cardinal Beast array¡¯s particular arrangement? What was it, again¡­¡±


    ¡°White tiger in the north, Azure Dragon in the east, Black Tortoise in the south, and Vermillion Bird in the west. The reasoning¡­ It is how it is within the stories of my home country. I¡¯m not sure there is a specific reason for it there.¡±


    ¡°Oh. That¡¯s disappointing. Were you just able to make it work?¡±


    ¡°Of course not. It took some time to arrive at the current stage.¡±


    ¡°Right,¡± Wei Yi nodded, ¡®Those are¡­ explanations that greatly lack in detail. Also, the order of beasts¡­ Hm.¡¯


    If she was to be honest with herself, she didn¡¯t want to poke the sleeping bear, or the quiet beehive, that was the matter of this Kong Shi Meng¡¯s identity. She was already concerning herself with far too much, and it was not at all good for her mental state, and her Ascendant¡¯s Library was often shaking and trembling from the excess flipping of pages.


    None of the storms that had formed prior to her imprisonment in the Kong Prison Realm had appeared, fortunately enough, but the pressure was clearly there. One day, it could easily spiral out of control, and she wished to limit that possibility.


    However, one thing that would be certain to ruin such attempts was if the people of Yi City were destroyed by a phenomenon or entity that she had allowed to travel freely throughout it, despite having the opportunity to confirm its identity and prevent such a thing. This made it very challenging for her, as neither decision was right, and neither one was strictly wrong, either. Such scenarios were most irritating when her ultimate goal was a straightforward, complete deciphering of a concept that was as debatable as justice, though it was clear that the ultimate issue was something she had brought upon herself with her ambition.


    There was more to work with regarding Kong Shi Meng, and so she had to consider every manner possible in which to put herself into the best position.


    ¡°Actually, it is possible for the Primordial Deities to get into the Kong Prison Realm, right?¡±


    ¡°An intrusion is possible, though unlikely at the moment.¡±


    ¡°Still, since we¡¯re talking about barriers, I would like to go and reinforce the Four Cardinal Beasts array while I can. Will you come with me, or will you keep an eye on Primordial Inferno while I am away? Given your restrictions, asking you to assist here is-¡±


    ¡°I will remain. I had supported the spatial realm¡¯s array before, but I cannot empower it now.¡±


    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll try to integrate the spatial wall with the array itself, so I¡¯ll be sealing the Kong Prison Realm for just a moment. I don¡¯t know if you are even able to enter at that point, but do avoid it unless there¡¯s a significant event, like Primordial Inferno breaking out of the barrier or something like that,¡± she said, the man nodding promptly in response, ¡°Be back in a minute.¡±


    He didn¡¯t do anything else, his gaze remaining on the barrier and the flaming Primordial Deity within, not turning even when the smoke and silver of the gateway to the Kong Prison Realm was at its brightest.


    The moment she entered, she put up the spatial realm¡¯s barriers, temporarily closing up every single gateway leading to or from it. There would be some disruption, inevitably, but she did intend to stick to her estimate of using only a few minutes as she only had a little bit she wished to do. Mostly, that wasn¡¯t even the reinforcement of the Kong Prison Realm¡¯s barrier, which she most certainly did wish to attempt, but rather the intended conversation with the spatial spirit of the realm, and the one that would know Kong Shi Meng best.


    ¡°Wei Yi, is something the matter? Sealing the spatial realm so suddenly¡­¡±


    ¡°Just had a chat with Kong Shi Meng, and that thing I had noticed when the barrier was last activated came to mind. What is the proper order for the Four Cardinal Beasts array?¡±


    ¡°If one was to start at the north, and go clockwise, it would be the Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, White Tiger and then the Vermilion Bird.¡±


    ¡°Now, what did you see when the array was activated during the intrusion of the Great Leeches? I can provide my memory to you, if you want, but simply recalling the memory accurately should be enough to point out the error.¡±


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t it the sa- Ah. I see. That¡­ That is incredibly odd. I recalled everything being absolutely correct¡­¡± the spatial spirit frowned, showing off a greater range of expression than usual, ¡°Wait, you had said that there was a figure in the Kong Prison Realm during the activation of the array, and until now, I hadn¡¯t recalled such a thing, but now my memories seem to contain it as well! Was it a humanoid figure seemingly made of, or shrouded entirely in light?¡±


    ¡°White light.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s exactly it!¡± the excitement of Yi Shi Ming quickly reverted to trepidation, ¡°So, if the array wasn¡¯t activated correctly¡­ No, that can¡¯t be right either. It was activated, so perhaps it was something already built into the array¡¯s structure?¡±


    ¡°How about you check the array? I imagine that it is possible, but surely this is something that you would have noticed after working on it for such a long time?¡±


    The mother of the Master of Yi City didn¡¯t say anything, but both of them moved to the northern part of the array, though while Yi Shi Ming got on with her usual duties at the same time, Wei Yi instead spread out her energy and attempted to perform the barrier strengthening that she had claimed she wanted to accomplish while in here.


    If she failed, it would be acceptable, and if she succeeded, then it would be even better, since she obviously did want the spatial realm to be better defended. Both would be believable to Kong Shi Meng, whether or not that was truly him, and the time taken was also very reasonable so far.


    ¡°Hm, the array¡­ Hm.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    Yi Shi Ming¡¯s face fluctuated between a few very subtle expressions, ¡°This would obviously sound odd, but it doesn¡¯t seem like the array has ever been activated to the extent of summoning the cardinal beasts.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t the beasts have been due to, uh, potentially false Shi Meng? Xu Shi Meng?¡±


    ¡°It might not be a good idea to start throwing around names,¡± the mother of the Master of Yi City muttered, ¡°Still, my experience was that the array itself did light up. If Shi Meng, true or false, had wanted to support us with his own methods, there would be no reason to imitate the activation of the array itself. Especially not when he wasn¡¯t aware of the proper order of the cardinal beasts, which seems to be the case. Oh, and there is nothing I could find within the array that would allow for the beasts to be switched, though you suspected it already.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, he was odd prior to this particular revelation, but this was enough proof to alert you beyond what I had already attempted to do,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°Just like it isn¡¯t a very good idea to reveal Kong Shi Meng¡¯s existence to the world, it isn¡¯t a good idea to reveal Xu Shi Meng just yet. However, one day, I will confront him, and if he wishes to stand by and help Yi City¡­¡±


    ¡°I can feel your anger returning. Take care, please.¡±


    ¡°Will do. Thanks to the Great Leeches, I have way more practise than I would have liked to ever have¡­¡±


    She sighed, trying to calm herself to a sufficient point. It was rather challenging, for there was no situation that she was entirely happy with, but she contained the fury within tomes of the Ascendant¡¯s Library and the outer edges of the Kong Prison Realm, filling the skies with additional smoke.


    ¡°Anyway, we should probably move on, seeing as I suggested the better of the possibilities and was already in a terrible mood. When it does come time to speak with him, whoever he truly is, I don¡¯t think I will be able to contain myself. I would not want to be in his position when the time comes, but I may not want to be within my own position when the times comes, either, so it¡¯s not a particularly good situation either way¡­¡±


    She sighed, but ultimately she had to go back and observe.


    ¡°It does feel like a good idea to rush in there, but there¡¯s a difference between what will work and what feels right. In this case, cultivator intuition doesn¡¯t seem to be on my side.¡±


    Wei Yi spoke as she stood in the air, atop a chain of Law, looking upon Primordial Inferno¡¯s activity within the barrier of heavenly light. She was addressing the man who appeared to be Kong Shi Meng, for she had to keep going as if she noticed nothing, but there was also the possibility that Xu Shi Meng was in fact the true Kong Shi Meng but with lacking or altered memories.


    Even if that was not the case, she could benefit from him right now, and so she had to do so.


    ¡°You should not rush in. The Primordial Deities can wait, for a while, but if you breach the barrier, it will never be shut again. At that point, you will either fall to Primordial Inferno, or be occupied by it until your victory.¡±


    ¡°I know, I know¡­ How much time has passed since the last Primordial Deity emergence?¡±


    ¡°The next one will occur within five minutes.¡±


    ¡°Ah. Time sure moves quickly as of late, doesn¡¯t it?¡± she sighed, stepping off one of the chains of Law to another, ¡°Let me guess, it¡¯s going to be Primordial Invader and Primordial Corruption.¡±


    ¡°There are only three Primordial Deities that have not yet emerged in the current sequence.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t stop me from making a guess,¡± the Ascendant looked southward, for it was highly unlikely that either one of the three would be making their appearance at the Northern Desert again. Presumably, if the three remaining were Primordial Corruption, Primordial Invader and Primordial Mind, then the first would appear in the Central Plains, where conditions were most hospitable, the second would emerge near the Wu District, and Primordial Mind¡­ she wasn¡¯t sure about that one.


    Still, the heat of the north wasn¡¯t very conducive to thinking, so it was very likely to be closer the centre as well. Perhaps the Ru District would be the home for Primordial Mind, though she would have expected to have heard more legends about the Primordial Deity if that was the case. Then again, she didn¡¯t know whether every single Primordial Deity that had been in one place ended up returning to the same place, as the majority of their original domains had not been well documented throughout the records she had studied. The Patriarchs also lacked some of that information, so she mostly had to guess with two of the three.


    She did have the Corruptor¡¯s Enclave to go to if she wanted to learn about Primordial Corruption¡¯s likely point of emergence, but since she had not yet found it, it would be more likely that the Primordial Deity would lead her to them instead. Frankly, it was rather frightening, considering the entity¡¯s horror.


    The waves had begun some time ago, but the presence of Primordial Inferno and the barrier containing it just a short distance away from her made it very difficult to detect it initially. Now, however, as their time of emergence drew even nearer, little effort was required to perceive them. One pulse of energy was concentrated at a point west of the Yi District and south of the Chen District, and the other was exactly where she expected it to be ¨C just south-east of the Wu District.


    Primordial Invader was to be expected, and she had begun considering what to do about it, but she was at least able to apply the knowledge of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s battle against it to have some clue.


    Meanwhile, Primordial Corruption was far more concerning, as she neither understood what exactly that thing was supposed to be, nor what to do against it. Even when she had last come across Primordial Corruption, when it infected her with a seed of corruption that she promptly spat out, it seemed to be more effective against her than the power of Primordial Earth, especially when her power had been unable to dissolve the energy of the Primordial Deity in the same way as with Primordial Earth and Primordial Nature.


    Whatever miracle permitted her to take Primordial Earth¡¯s grey dust and Primordial Nature¡¯s power might well not apply to Primordial Corruption, making the entity so much more dangerous. Its whole focus was the corruption of others, and if Wei Yi lacked immunity, she could be utterly terrifying.


    That¡¯s right, it was her own power that most concerned her. As her normal self, she could already do a great deal of damage, but if she was taken over by Primordial Corruption, her power would absolutely devastate the world. Furthermore, if Primordial Corruption was able to take the abilities of the things that it corrupted, then it would be even worse, for the power of the Ascendant would suddenly join an entity that was already fearsome on its own.


    She did not want that to happen, and so she was rather wary about entering Primordial Corruption¡¯s domain in any way. Still, she had to interact with it eventually if she wanted to seal the Primordial Deity and contain its corruption, even if it would only be for a little while. That necessitated a battle, so far as she understood the flow of things.


    It did not take long for the emergence to occur, and when it did, the Ascendant was forced to make a quick decision regarding the Primordial Deity that she would need to take on first. With the dangers of Primordial Corruption already considered, there was good reason to take it on first, before it had the chance to grow unnecessarily, but the fact that Primordial Invader appeared so close to the Wu District did tip the scales in its favour. She had experience with it, thanks to Kong Shi Meng, so fighting it should be at least somewhat easier than the unknown that was Primordial Corruption.


    ¡°Shi Meng, while I¡¯m still considering this ¨C Primordial Corruption or Primordial Invader?¡±


    ¡°Primordial Corruption poses a vast threat to everyone around it. However, the open space within which it appeared means that there is time before it will affect others. Primordial Invader is immediately next to the Wu District, and there is a very high possibility that the barrier will swallow most of it with the Primordial Deity if it is not weakened sufficiently.¡±


    ¡°Pretty much what I was thinking¡­ You know about the Hunger of the Beyond, right? Can you tell me if they are less irritating than the Primordial Deities?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Far more dangerous, that much I can guarantee.¡±

 V5C92: Invader and Corruption

    The walls of the Wu District were shattered when that rift, a thing that should not be yet was, appeared and shattered the world. Most did not recognise it, for even their distant ancestors had not lived when it last appeared within the world, but certain tales and legends did remain, especially among the Heavenly Masters.


    Primordial Invader, a rift in reality, a thing from some other world, stood at their doorstep for the second time in two million years, and they were far weaker than last time.


    Fortunately for them, they had someone to stand at the forefront and protect them.


    The Master of Yi City, someone that was effectively a god among men ¨C though not in a bad way, as the Primordial Deities were ¨C stood at the front lines, ready to fight for them and prevent anyone from falling before they did


    Most likely, nobody had anticipated that a situation would repeat itself for a second time, with a completely different person acting in the same role, with a similar level of power despite the gap of a realm between them. As good as that was, the fact that Primordial Invader had returned did dampen that enthusiasm quite a bit, and the realisation by those who knew their history that Kong Shi Meng couldn¡¯t defeat the Primordial Deity on his own did not bode well for the Ascendant, who, despite her power, was not in the eighth realm. Her energy was more limited than Kong Shi Meng¡¯s, and some attributes unique to the eighth realm were also absent.


    Nonetheless, this was what they had, and they had to let Wei Yi fight for them.


    She wasn¡¯t feeling too good about the entity either, for she discovered that it not only didn¡¯t respond to her divine sense, but also that it behaved much like an otherworldly gift. In other words, it had partial resistance to everything that wasn¡¯t otherworldly in nature, and that included all of her powers. It was what made Primordial Invader so difficult to handle.


    Even with the Truth of the Universe, Kong Shi Meng had a limited array of skills that could be employed. Some could be borrowed, and the rest needed to be invented on the spot.


    Primordial Invader did not have the same issue. Its various abilities were likely not used in full even when it opposed the original Master of Yi City, so she couldn¡¯t rely purely on things like that to plan her strategy.


    ¡®Whatever. I shall damage it until the barrier can be constructed, at the very least, and I hope that I will not need to invoke the same kind of method as Kong Shi Meng had used when he made the Shard of Warfare,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, having already decided that she would wield Moon Splitter in a form similar to the old Master of Yi City¡¯s sword, as was only fitting. It would also make it easiest to copy his techniques with the limited knowledge she possessed about them.


    She would have liked to have the first move in battle, but even with the haste with which she arrived, Primordial Invader had already begun spitting out rift-like spheres and projectiles.


    Some were slow, and others weren¡¯t, but the ultimate conclusion was that she had to prevent them from opening up into larger stationary rifts anywhere near the Wu District, where the current Heavenly Masters stood near the front and were prepared to fight for their district after their Matriarch fell, or had to retreat. Most of them hadn¡¯t yet decided which one they¡¯d prefer, since one meant the slow destruction of Yi City by the rampaging Primordial Invader, who seemed to lack a traditional territory, and the other still offered Yi City a chance but doomed the Wu District while the Ascendant recuperated elsewhere.


    While they were thinking, Wei Yi shifted her position forward, manifesting a number of phantoms near some of the more distant projectiles, and infused her power into Moon Splitter and the phantoms she created. Then, with every blade she had placed onto the battlefield, she first attempted the technique that she had been able to reconstruct from observing the memories sealed in the Shard of Warfare.


    Every strike had been times to catch the rift-like orbs just as they approached, and each one struck exquisitely, matching the best of Kong Shi Meng¡¯s strikes in terms of the general execution of the technique, if not necessarily the power or outcome yet.


    The collisions were difficult to perceive, even when relying upon her own weapon and not that of the phantoms, but she could tell that she had succeeded in something when the explosion of energy forced the sphere to erupt into the stationary variant. It seemed that any significant collision was able to cause such a thing, but the Ascendant wanted to completely remove such projectiles from the equation, as it would make things significantly simpler for her, especially when it came to protecting the Wu District, and keeping the battlefield tidy.


    ¡®What would cause these to be damaged? Energy being released isn¡¯t enough, and physical collisions, like with railgun bolts, should have the same result,¡¯ she stopped herself there, ¡®I should just test it.¡¯


    Primordial Invader¡¯s roars continued as they had, numerous orbs emitting from it while it seemed to watch her, the living rift in reality maintaining a vaguely humanoid form for now. Nonetheless, its numerous potential wriggling limbs and what not made it a far more disconcerting sight than she had remembered it from Kong Shi Meng¡¯s memories.


    Manifesting a number of railgun bolts was incredibly simple with the amount of experience she had with it, so the moment that a few of the spheres were produced from within the body of the Primordial Deity, she fired the bolts at them.


    As expected, the orbs burst into the larger rifts, and the railgun bolts were swallowed with great speed, sheltered for only a brief moments due to the energy she had imbued into them based on the technique she had used with her sword, and the phantoms used with theirs. This meant that the method was lacking if she did wish to do more than delay the projectiles. She would have liked to continue her experimentation, but Primordial Invader did not linger in the distance, waiting for her to act.


    Instead, the Primordial Deity¡¯s arms ¨C one pair of many, or perhaps the only ones that were initially visible ¨C split off from the main rift and formed into smaller figures, each one producing a dozen more arms that spread out and pointed towards the Ascendant. Their legs, of which each one had only two obvious ones, bent and the figures soon leapt forth.


    Wei Yi had to meet them with herself and a phantom to which she kept a greater connection than usual, straining her mind as it was forced apart. It was only enough for her to endure two moves, rather than the usual singular action of a phantom, but against an entity as maddening as Primordial Invader, she suspected that such a thing could make a world of difference. To it, she also gave her current form of Moon Splitter, and thus the two of them stood right in the path of the split forms of the Primordial Deity, swords raised and tips gleaming with a crimson sea of stars that pierced reality in a manner not dissimilar to Primordial Invader itself.


    Her hands fell just in time, but the entity before her did not move as one might expect. Both stopped in mid-air, one simply jumping in another direction while the other manifested a dozen of the rift orbs that it then threw at her.


    Thus, her phantom merely struck one of the orbs, causing an eruption of a rift that swallowed it before she could attempt to perform a second move, and she was forced to quickly move to obstruct the other figure. Fortunately, the removal of the second phantom yielded a great increase in her ability to think and act efficiently, and so she managed to conserve the force of her strike and still have it land upon the figure. Glowing and vibrant, Moon Splitter sought to split the thing that could so easily devour the moon if it ever touched it, but no significant cut was produced.


    There was something, sure, but it was nigh insignificant, and it began to heal in moments, the size halving itself in just that time. To make it worse, Moon Splitter was close to being damaged just by that.


    ¡®Shit,¡¯ the Ascendant thought as the main body of Primordial Invader also moved forward, appearing right in front of her within an instant, just as it had done to Kong Shi Meng. Its arms sought to wrap around her, perhaps to devour her or to transport her somewhere that she did not wish to end up no matter what.


    Rather than let that happen, she made use of her Dao of Law, a thing that the first Master of Yi City did not have, and forcefully shifted her position and rotation so that she would appear behind the entity, Moon Splitter already raised and covered in a layer of energy to minimize the contact of the actual weapon with her foe. She swung down again, seeing no particular reason to change the technique to anything more advanced when this enemy was not one that tended to use techniques or any proper tactics in general.


    It didn¡¯t turn, but instead seemed to flip its limbs in such a manner that they pointed towards her once more. Still, it took just a little longer than if it continued grabbing at her from its original front, so she had just enough time to bring down Moon Splitter.


    Her blade was able to reach it without coming into contact with the rift directly, and cut open a larger gash within the Primordial Deity. The impossible ichor that she had seen in Kong Shi Meng¡¯s battle dripped out just a little, the narrow opening barely allowing for more than a few drops to gather in between. The wound was clearly shallow, if depth meant anything to the entity that didn¡¯t conform to any dimension in full, failing to be three dimensional and two dimensional at once.


    That would be fine if Primordial Invader had appeared a great distance from the Wu District, as even the smallest injury would allow Xu Shi Meng to manifest the barrier around it and prevent its escape for some time, but it had not moved any further from the Wu District during their battle. On the contrary, this terrible thing just kept moving closer and closer.


    It forced her back with every movement it performed, and it had to be noted that she had managed to wound an incomplete portion of Primordial Invader, not the whole. She had struck the largest and strongest portion of it, sure, but that was nothing when compared to the overall entity, with all of its power concentrated into one place, which was what Kong Shi Meng had been able to take on in his battle against the Primordial Deity. Once again, she was unfortunately lacking, and without defeating one of the Primordial Deities, she would not be able to advance to a sufficiently high stage to win.


    Before she knew it, her back was pressed against the Wu District¡¯s walls, and the moment after, two things occurred at once. First, a number of figures leapt down from the walls, each one carrying a particular weapon, with some having none at all. These people, the Heavenly Masters, were mostly in the sixth realm, with two having reached the seventh realm only recently, but they still leapt forward in the attempt to protect their district.


    It was, in a way, admirable, but it was also completely and utterly stupid. They were guaranteed to die.


    Only when the second thing occurred did the meaning of their actions change slightly, even if they themselves were not yet aware of this. The voice of Xu Shi Meng came from the heavens, right into her mind, ¡°Wei Yi, these people¡­ I could create a different type of barrier.¡±


    His words reached her within an instant, and she processed them just as quickly, replying to him and beginning a brief exchange within the time that it took for the Heavenly Masters to go from being a millimetre above the ground to standing directly upon it. In other words, it might as well have been instant.


    ¡°What type?¡±


    ¡°If they stand together and keep Primordial Invader at bay, the energy that would make a barrier could be used to increase their strength. They don¡¯t rely on realm-based techniques, instead using an overall understanding of combat to achieve their power, so lacking a true realm won¡¯t disadvantage them.¡±


    It was left unsaid, but understood by both, that there would be no requirement to weaken Primordial Invader prior to starting the barrier.


    ¡°They¡­ Fuck, I hate this kind of thing! But¡­ I will ask these idiots, but I know what they¡¯re going to say already,¡± Wei Yi stepped away from the wall she had been pinned to, and spoke out loud, ¡°Heavenly Masters, are you willing to protect your district until the death? If given the chance to die to prolong the safety of the Wu District for just a little longer, will you-¡±


    ¡°Of course we will!¡± the Heavenly Spear exclaimed before she could finish, ¡°What else is the point of being a Heavenly Master?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I figured¡­¡± she didn¡¯t look down on them, but she wasn¡¯t in the best of moods, so she just turned slightly and reverted to their previous form of communication to say, ¡°Just do it already. With enough power, they¡¯ll be able to contain it for some time, and by then¡­¡±


    ¡°The Wu District shall not fall for some time. They shall have endless vigour, stamina, and might, and so long as they do not err, they cannot fall. That much, as little as it is, I can promise,¡± the man that was unlikely to be Kong Shi Meng said with a voice tinged with the slightest hint of regret, for some deed so far unknown.


    She had to trust that man once more, but she needed to make sure that it would be the last time, or as close to it as she could possibly allow. The next two Primordial Deities that she would need to seal, Primordial Corruption and Primordial Mind, when that one emerged, would be the last battles that she could leave without a complete victory, wherein the Primordial Deity was defeated and, possibly, their powers taken for herself or someone else that could use them responsibly and effectively. It had to be mentioned that she knew of no such people yet.


    Despite accepting the fact that she would need to depart right away, lacking in success, she didn¡¯t want to leave while having accomplished nothing at all.


    Thus, just when the energy of the world converged upon the area, she forcefully commanded that vast congregation of power and performed a certain variant of the technique she had been using as her movement method. Rather than omitting the travel time and distance from movement, she omitted the necessary body and weapon with which one might attack a foe and simply declared that it was so. Omission of Law, a name that came to her just then, but worked perfectly.


    If nothing else, it was better than calling it the Law-based fourth realm movement method derivative.


    With it, she was able to perform several strikes with Moon Splitter despite it remaining in her hand, many metres away from the conflict. Despite that, the sword trembled with the strikes, and the marks left upon the Primordial Deity¡¯s form were obvious.


    The cost was the dissipation of her Arm ¨C which would soon recover, as it always did ¨C and a good portion of her energy ¨C which would take a while longer to return. This was something she could use in a troublesome time, and she knew that it was superior to phantoms in a number of ways, but there was a long way to go before her invention of the Omit Attacker move could be considered as a proper and useful technique in battle.


    Before she could do anything about that, she did need to depart, and track down the Primordial Deity that was yet to be sealed, which she did without looking back.


    Every moment spent on looking back would be wasting the efforts of the Heavenly Masters, and that was not something she wished to do when the potential cost was half of Yi City being scoured before she attains the ability to properly combat Primordial Invader. It also wouldn¡¯t be a good idea to inflame her killing intent while it was already a problem, as else she might lose control and do something stupid.


    Although Primordial Invader was easy to describe as eldritch or indecipherable, for it was very foreign to the world in which it appeared, there was a completely different and, perhaps, an even worse incomprehensibility to Primordial Corruption.


    It was born of this world, so far as the Ascendant could determine, and it seemed to take every step imaginable ¨C and unimaginable, yet possible ¨C to disturb and corrupt that which one could understand.


    Despite emerging from its prison in the beyond merely half an hour prior to Wei Yi¡¯s arrival, its influence had already stained the earth and twisted it, flooding the air with vile fumes and pungent mists that were a thousand times more intense than anything that Mo Zhouquan had produced when the Primordial Deity¡¯s seed had been influencing her most greatly. The complete madness that the land had turned into was nigh impossible to describe, nor would she wish to do so.


    Fortunately for her, she didn¡¯t need to describe a thing.


    The ground slithered, wriggled and writhed, innumerable masses of flesh twitched and breathed, some elongated and tendril-like while others were more like beating hearts and purposeless muscles, and all of it was tinted purple. Each and every thing had an extremely moist and slimy texture, and although most elements were rather arbitrary and unrecognisable beyond the fact that they were flesh of some kind ¨C and presumably blood ¨C there were just a few that had a significantly more sexual and erotic slant.


    From Mo Zhouquan¡¯s behaviour back in the Brotherhood of Power, it was clear that there was some connection between Primordial Corruption and the aspect of lust, but it had not been so explicit back then as it was now. She could see a number of elements that clearly resembled male or female genitalia, mostly human in appearance, and then there were some tentacles which were clearly tipped with penises. Subtlety was clearly not the strong suit of Primordial Corruption.


    Of course, the Primordial Deity itself was no better. It was not made of those same tentacles ¨C as far as she was able to perceive ¨C but it was still a terrible thing.


    An overall feminine body, with large breasts, sizeable bottom, and soft-looking flesh, long hair that fell most of the way down her back, but such an appearance could only be perceived at first glance and never again. Each of its hairs was abnormally thick, because they were made of tapered tentacles that wriggled around and constantly altered the form of its hair. Every part of the body was composed of numerous shapes that should not have been, and when that entity ¡®breathed¡¯, if that is what that process even was, openings within the body formed, noxious gases were exuded from within, and glimpses of internal organs that should not be there and muscles that should not move as they did were attained through those openings.


    The entity was perhaps the most disgusting one she had come across so far. All of the Primordial Deities were mockeries of whatever Dao they were aligned with, whether they spawned the Dao or the Dao spawned them, but this was a mockery of reality itself, of the very concept of a living, breathing thing.


    It might have been an even greater insult that this thing was as connected to sex as it was, for those that it was able to attract would be pushed into the same eldritch state as it, leaving those less fortunate than Mo Zhouquan as naught but husks that outwardly resemble their origin.


    Primordial Invader might have the ability to destroy Yi City, but Primordial Corruption would forever destroy the Planar Continents if left unchecked.


    Surely, then, it would be simple to rush in and give it a beating while the Ascendant had the chance, sealing it in and forcing it to recuperate while she sought the necessary power to end it, but things were not as simple for one single reason ¨C the Primordial Deity, contrary to their typical natures, wasn¡¯t attacking, or actively swallowing up a territory.


    Rather, Primordial Corruption sat in one place, on a seat of undulating flesh that was cloaked in a thick mist containing just a hint of violet, and looked right towards Wei Yi, something that was meant to be a smile resting on its face. Its corruption spread, but did so slowly and almost lazily, making it all the more terrifying that it already controlled a circle one mile in radius after doing nothing to actively spread its influence. Furthermore, through some deliberate method or accidental decision made within a mind that could not comprehend ordinary thought, Primordial Corruption was not resisting its entrapment.


    ¡°I can contain it right now¡­¡± even Xu Shi Meng wasn¡¯t sure about what to do.


    ¡°If I don¡¯t hit her even once, then won¡¯t it just consume everything in sight, and then, maybe, even begin changing the barrier itself? It¡¯s possible in theory, so if this thing has the time, it will almost certainly attempt it.¡±


    ¡°You cannot resist its corruption.¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t even check that, since it could easily infect some vital part of me and send me on a downward spiral that I cannot stop¡­ Otherworldly demons seem fond of that kind of thing, by the way.¡±


    ¡°¡­ What?¡±


    ¡°They apparently have erotic games with those kinds of themes, and from what little I¡¯ve been able to absorb via their memories and one that has an otherworldly gift of creating gaming computers, it seems like they would be excellent servants for Primordial Corruption without even needing to be physically or mentally affected,¡± the Ascendant commented, realising only after finishing the sentence that this was not at all the right time or place, ¡°Fuck, the stench produced by the land is terrible, but it is very clear what it is based on. We need to come to a decision before I somehow get affected further. You¡¯ve already said everything you mean to, right?¡±


    ¡°That is correct. I have little else to offer, I¡¯m afraid.¡±


    ¡°Tch. In that case¡­ Actually, I¡¯ve got a way to speak with that thing relatively safely. Let me attempt it first.¡±


    ¡°Even your energy may be corrupted by that entity. Remember that.¡±


    ¡°I already know, and am keeping that in mind. I can stand to lose some of my energy if I absolutely must,¡± the Ascendant replied, for it would be incredibly easy for her to recover it once the Primordial Deities were once again fully contained, ¡°You can, and should stand guard anyway.¡±


    The man didn¡¯t bother nodding, vanishing from sight the moment that she blinked, leaving her as alone as she could be. Primordial Corruption still sat in the same place, staring at her all this time, those orbs pretending to be eyes containing a hint of curiosity, or something of the like. It didn¡¯t really matter, since she was going to make this attempt regardless, and then seal the Primordial Deity whether or not she deemed it necessary to fight right now.


    She brought some of her energy outside of her body, a gateway to a crimson sea of stars encased within a perfect crystal, and forced it to expand, reducing it from crystalline to solid, and from the power of her seventh realm to a more ordinary level. This alone made it as large as she was, so she simply shaped it into a humanoid form and then used Omission of Law to place it beside Primordial Corruption.


    Although the crimson gateway to stars and nebulae resembled her superficially, it lacked any internal organs, bones, or whatever else one might find in a human being. It was a positive when it came to resisting any form of corruption, as the only thing that could be corrupted is the outward form and her energy itself, and it wasn¡¯t an obstacle to communicating with the Primordial Deity directly, as planar energy was about as much of an absurd contradiction with every theoretical natural law as an otherworldly gift could be.


    The only real differences were that otherworldly gifts broke even the laws of planar energy, and that one had been a typical part of people¡¯s lives for millions of years, whereas the other tended to appear with otherworldly demons, and often disappeared not long after they did.


    As such, she could produce a voice from its mouth, and gaze through its eyes, more or less.


    ¡°What exactly do you think you¡¯re doing, Primordial Corruption? Do you think that we will just let you spread your filthy tendrils all over the world?¡±


    ¡°Oh, mortal thing, you are just the most wonderful thing,¡± it replied, though it spoke through mouths on its left thigh, right shoulder, and the centre of its chin, ¡°Do whatever you wish, and you will embrace my offers eventually. You will see the worth of my way, and you will be changed by me. You have already seen my form, haven¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°So, what would you want me to do? Block you in or let you roam free and be bombarded from the outside?¡±


    ¡°Why, of course I will spread throughout the world! Including this sweet energy of yours-¡±


    The energy that she had used to communicate with the Primordial Deity was immediately severed from the Ascendant, very much deliberately, and with an additional command for it to explode if it could, before she glanced at Xu Shi Meng with a silent instruction to create the barrier.


    Really, she had no choice but to establish a barrier, as the worst possible outcome of restricting Primordial Corruption for a while was not as bad as letting it go free and ravage the worst while the Ascendant continued to stare at Primordial Inferno¡¯s breasts ¨C not that she did that a whole lot, but she found it nicest to rest her eyes there when nothing else came to mind. As such, even though it was clear that Primordial Corruption was likely wishing for her to do exactly this, she had to play into the Primordial Deity¡¯s hands this time.


    Once Primordial Mind emerged and was also sealed, she would have to end the existence of any other Primordial Deity as soon as possible, if she did not wish to fail so quickly.

 V5C93: A Mind in Turmoil

    The Ascendant changed her mind about staring at Primordial Inferno¡¯s chest, and switched to its ass instead, not that it made too much of a difference.


    Both fluctuated with the flames of its body, so the sizes of its assets changed constantly, and thus one could look wherever they wished and see the full array of physical sizes within the conventionally accepted range of attractiveness within a short amount of time. If they lingered, that variety would somehow increase exponentially and infinitely, for the tongues of flame never quite settled in the same places as before.


    This was not her goal, of course. Rather, she was attempting to understand what it was that the changing flames meant on a far deeper level, so that she could have some influence over flame and the ability to negate Primordial Inferno¡¯s absurd level of control over anything even vaguely blaze-related.


    It was a rather difficult task, and she was slowly starting to realise that she was not going to be able to get anywhere with just staring. Aside from her divine sense being quite significantly obstructed by the dome of heavenly light, meaning that she couldn¡¯t get as much information from each moment as possible, she needed to get some experiments out of the way with Primordial Inferno, and that could not be done without the barrier being opened and the Primordial Deity being loosed upon the Planar Continents.


    Hence, she was mostly staring and waiting for Primordial Mind to appear, as getting it under control would guarantee some free time for her to attack any of the Primordial Deities currently out there. Whether she stuck with Primordial Inferno or attacked some other entity, like the elusive Primordial Cosmos, was not something she had figured out yet, but whatever it was, it would be better than sitting around and doing nothing.


    ¡°How long?¡± the Ascendant glanced to the side, where Xu Shi Meng was standing by as always, though whether he just appeared there or had been there all along was hard to say.


    He didn¡¯t ask what she meant, simply answering, ¡°Two hours and fifteen minutes.¡±


    That meant that she had two hours and fifteen minutes before Primordial Mind would emerge from its current prison, and the repeating cycle of emergences would cease, at least in theory. Primordial Yin and Primordial Yang apparently had some unique circumstances that would keep them sealed a little longer, so they weren¡¯t much of an immediate concern either.


    ¡®When it comes to Primordial Mind, I might have a significant advantage, provided that my energy is as effective against it as it typically is against the typical cultivator,¡¯ she attempted to think more optimistically than usual, as pointless as the exercise was, ¡®No, mental techniques should be weak against it due to the Dao it embodies, but Primordial Energy was vulnerable to me, so perhaps Primordial Mind would be vulnerable to the Invader¡¯s Roar, or some other method that strikes strongest against the mind.¡¯


    The exact manner in which the Primordial Deities operated was not yet fully grasped by the Ascendant, only being able to conclude that they all had their specialties and particular branches, but still represented the whole of an element or aspect.


    Each one had a controlling influence on the world around it, save for the foreign Primordial Invader, and for whatever reason, Entropy wasn¡¯t Primordial Entropy, even though everything else was. Perhaps Entropy had never aged or changed, so it remained as the one and only Entropy. She had no clue, Xu Shi Meng didn¡¯t give her any answers in this regard, whether he knew or not, and Yi Shi Ming had already told her everything she could about the Primordial Deities.


    Whatever the answer was to some or all of her questions, the facts remained ¨C there would need to be a battle between her and the Primordial Deities that remained, and it would need to end in her victory if the world was to survive in a state agreeable to humans. This did necessitate action, regardless of what kinds of things the cultists that had once worshipped the Primordial Deities might say in response, and that was a little better than the Great Leeches and the fact that their solutions did work, if only at the cost of literally everything.


    ¡°And now?¡±


    ¡°One minute and-¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going.¡±


    ¡°You understand where the emergence is going to occur? How have you managed to accomplish such a thing?¡±


    ¡°Divine sense is mental energy, so the Primordial Deity¡¯s energy resonates with it the most. It just so happens that the area between the Xin District and Shun District is particularly hostile to my divine sense,¡± the Ascendant said, using Omit Movement to appear near that position, ¡°As I thought, there that thing is¡­ Looks weird, in comparison to Primordial Nature.¡±


    She chose a position in the air, as always, standing on a chain of Law as she overlooked the space where Primordial Mind was beginning to appear. There, the space looked disturbed, as if it was bent and torn, but within was no disruption of space or time, but instead a completely different phenomenon was taking place. The vague images that Wei Yi could recall appeared inside, some vibrant and others not, though the majority were not pulled from the many shelves of her Ascendant¡¯s Library but instead her surface thoughts, recollections that appeared and disappeared with every casual moment regardless of the situation.


    Most likely, this was not something that the Primordial Deity was able to actively derive from her mind, but was instead a side effect of its power. Whether it was able to use her memories against her would need to be determined in battle, if it got the chance to try.


    Ideally, it would not.


    There were only a few more moments before Primordial Mind emerged, all of which the Ascendant spent on contemplating various scenarios using the tried and true method of Endless Calculation in order to test what some potential uses of potential techniques might have against potential possibilities of the Primordial Deity she was about to face.


    It was, ultimately, a lot of speculation with unfortunately little productive outcome, for even a billion predictions could all be entirely inaccurate and, perhaps, even counterproductive by making her believe something that wouldn¡¯t be true. Still, it was some form of preparation against her foe.


    From her understanding, the Primordial Deities were not granted the same benefit, not that any one of them required it. Each one emerged with relatively little knowledge or preparation against her.


    When Primordial Mind emerged and tainted the world with its presence, the phenomenon was rather different from what the Ascendant had anticipated, but not entirely out of the realm of imagined possibility. It appeared rather unceremoniously, but the moment after a wave of those surface memories that had previously surrounded it spread out, quickly touching and covering Wei Yi as it expanded in all directions.


    In that wave, she could sense a slight connection to a great number of other minds, and most were malignant and obviously hostile. They screeched and roared at her from afar, and one stood out among the rest.


    The direction of this mind was identical in reality and in this strange network of minds, allowing it to identify it as Primordial Mind right away. She couldn¡¯t be sure exactly what the intention and meaning of this network was, whether it was deliberate or not, but she knew that an opportunity like this would not appear for a while if Primordial Mind realised what it was doing and identified its potential weakness to a mental attack while in such a state. To put it significantly more straightforwardly, it was a necessity for her to strike at this immediate moment.


    She did so by invoking her killing will, forcing it toward that powerful mind, and imbued it with whatever she could extract from the principles of the Invader¡¯s Roar. Her research had stalled on a number of her techniques, and fortunate inspiration had also not been appearing as of late, but that didn¡¯t mean that she lacked any progress at all.


    Previously, she had been able to invoke it with a tap of clawed fingers on a table, and now she merely needed to pair her release of killing will with an audible shout.


    Given that the area between the Xin District and Shun District was already vacated by most living things that mattered, and Xu Shi Meng was likely immune to whatever she could do even if he was standing by somewhere near, so there was no reason to worry about collateral damage. It wasn¡¯t rare to come across such situations in her current pursuit ¨C the killing of all the Primordial Deities ¨C for it naturally scared away the majority of the world¡¯s population, but this was the first time that the Primordial Deity had given her such a direct connection to it, as strong as it might well be.


    Her Invader¡¯s Roar reached the entity, and that network instantly shook. The visual of Primordial Mind, an unclear and rather blurred one, also trembled, though far less, until the rest of her energy reached it in the form of her killing will. The smoke and silver of her energy interweaved and pierced the Primordial Deity, and in that moment the mental field that had enveloped her changed, breaking apart from the cacophony that the other minds provided and instead left her and that thing alone.


    Form appeared where there was none before, reminiscent of the mental landscape she had entered when assisting Mo Zhouquan and her Primordial Corruption-inflicted weakness. Fortunately, this time she did not need to deal with the moist and fleshy limbs embodying corruption, but was instead presented with a strange world that was reminiscent of a web of jewels, within which an infinitely large web of memories lay. It was a peculiar sight at first, but a moment of thought led to the landscape making more sense. All that needed to be done was to interpret it as something similar to the concepts of the inside of the human brain generated by the otherworldly demons.


    They had a concept of neurons lighting up within the brain, bouncing around in a striking manner to the people of other worlds, and the many webs she saw now shared an aesthetic with their wild imaginings.


    In the centre of it all was the physical form of Primordial Mind, if the contents of a mental landscape could really be described as such. A hundred spider-like limbs were upon its body, and yet they were placed into the form of two legs and two arms, with a head on the top of the vertical torso. It was oddly humanoid despite the multitude of limbs, contrasting with Primordial Invader¡¯s constant breaking from the humanoid form that it initially held.


    She couldn¡¯t be sure whether this was even a good thing, but if Primordial Mind stuck to it, things would be significantly simpler for her.


    ¡°You¡­ a thing like that can make such a sound? How unexpected,¡± it spoke, slowly and quietly.


    ¡°So you won¡¯t call me a mortal thing, just like the others do? That¡¯s a surprise,¡± she replied, though she did not forget to infuse the Invader¡¯s Roar to guarantee that her words would have some effect, even if it would only mildly inconvenience the Primordial Deity, ¡°Tell me, what exactly do you mean by ¡®such a sound¡¯?¡±


    Her every word caused that odd figure to tremble, prompting her to elevate the power dedicated to the Invader¡¯s Roar with every word, but it was not yet enough to do significant damage to it. The Primordial Deity managed to speak not long after she finished.


    ¡°It is not right! The sound twists the mind¡­ No thing should have a sound like that¡­¡±


    That didn¡¯t explain much that the Ascendant¡¯s didn¡¯t already know, for the Invader¡¯s Roar was a blatant attack on the mind and little more so far. She did lose interest in listening to it by the second sentence, as she felt some inspiration finally coming to her after all this time, provided by the manner in which Primordial Mind seemed to connect to the world around it, and the effectiveness of her Invader¡¯s Roar derivative within.


    The entity¡¯s words could also be taken to mean that the sound was foreign to the world, but considering the influence that otherworldly demons had on the Planar Continents, it was not surprising.


    Quite obviously, the Invader¡¯s Roar was meant to break into the mind of another to damage it, but the fact that it grew stronger when used within that person¡¯s mind led to her considering that the purpose of the Invader¡¯s Roar might not be as simple as she thought. Rather than simply attacking the mind, the full thing would do far more if it literally invaded it and rampaged within, wreaking havoc wherever possible. It could be done by the technique itself, or, as was happening now, by intruding with one¡¯s own mind to gain a certain advantage against an unsuspecting target. Of course, someone with a mental landscape and a proper cognition of it would be more resistant to such an invasion.


    Primordial Mind did have something that was likely to be its version of a mental landscape, but it was still a better place to be than outside of it, as she could target said landscape direction.


    ¡®What kind of thing is most effective against a mind? I have a number of physiques that are theoretically effective, and a whole lot of techniques that work outside of a mental landscape, but things here shouldn¡¯t match the outside world precisely,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, thinking back to what proved most effective against Primordial Corruption when she encountered it within Mo Zhouquan¡¯s mental landscape.


    Back then, she had managed to affect the mental domain with some revelations in Dao, as well as some general secrets that the Primordial Deities did not appear to be able to handle all too well. It was always possible to make use of this again, but she suspected that it would be a bad idea to try it against an entity like Primordial Mind. Unless she was able to finish it right here and now, the Primordial Deity might be able to learn and understand the knowledge she used, and then she would be dealing with a hyper-intelligent entity that had far more raw power than her.


    Even Primordial Corruption might have benefitted from the knowledge that the Ascendant freely gave out, explaining in some part why it behaved differently than the insane and ravenous corruptor that Wei Yi had envisaged.


    ¡®Well, since I¡¯m here anyway, and I need something powerful that shouldn¡¯t give Primordial Mind an advantage, I should make use of the physique abilities I have first and see what that does,¡¯ she concluded, unleashing some of the physique abilities that had been produced after the most recent breakthrough in their power, as well as the fusion of several major physiques.


    The Celestial Regalia appeared upon the chest of her mental projection, a merged sun and moon piercing this dark and blue world of Primordial Mind. Her eyes changed to projections of the Blooming Cosmos, flooding the mental domain with stars that overwhelmed the lights of the Primordial Deity¡¯s neurons ¨C or whatever those were. When her flesh changed to the Alloy Form, that made her presence all the more blatant and powerful, nearly overwhelming that of the entity that owned the mental domain.


    With all of these, she understood that the mental domain was more focused on thought and ideas ¨C something she already understood to a certain extent, for it was rather obvious ¨C but also that the belief that something will work would translate into its successful operation ¨C which was less clear.


    Those physique weren¡¯t strictly present in the mental domain, but she knew what they were and what they were supposed to do. Thus, the physiques were actuated, and she now had the abilities that the physique abilities bestowed, perhaps at an even stronger level as they were able to benefit from the power of her killing will and general mental strength, which was rather good at the worst of times. Of course, she then activated the last of her merged physique abilities.


    True Existence was not a physique that had existed prior to her obtaining it, as far as she knew. It merged the strengthening of meridians belonging to Immortal Mortal and the ability to circulate energy outside the meridians, originating from Mortal Deity, but the results produced were far more outstanding than the combinations of all the other physiques. Her Celestial True Existence somehow responded to her Dao of Law, responding in particular to the chains of Law with which it was connected, and while she was not sure about the exact nature of this power, she could tell that it had an impact upon the Primordial Deity.


    The mental domain, which had been entirely inhospitable to her previously, suddenly became stable and familiar, letting her stand calmly where she previously needed a certain portion of her mental energy to stabilise her existence.


    ¡°What is that? How much are you capable of doing, thing that should not be?¡±


    ¡°Oh, so I got elevated to that level¡­ Begone!¡± she instructed, adding the Command of Law to the Invader¡¯s Roar.


    Together, these abilities shook Primordial Mind far more than the previous attacks, and all that was really needed was the minimal degree of damage that would permit Xu Shi Meng to establish the barrier over the Primordial Deity. The mental world was broken, she was set free, white light gathered and the districts around Primordial Mind¡¯s emergence point were saved, but the Ascendant had her focus elsewhere.


    ¡°The barriers are being worn away. It is slow, but they are gradually going to vanish entirely, and there are two things that will accelerate it. The world¡¯s breakthroughs, and your own.¡±


    ¡°I know. How much time do I have?¡±


    ¡°Before something is able to escape? A week at most, less if you advance more quickly. Sealing your cultivation, or breaking it entirely, will not decelerate it whatsoever. As such, you may need to hurry, despite my earlier suggestions to do otherwise,¡± Xu Shi Meng said to her, ¡°There is still something I could do to assist you, as you recall, but the limit of a single empowered attack is still there.¡±


    ¡°Then I will need to fight with Primordial Inferno, won¡¯t I? I understand that already, so the moment that I figure out the best way to do it, I¡¯m working on that right now.¡±


    ¡°I will leave you alone, then.¡±


    Xu Shi Meng vanished, and silence overtook the area. The Ascendant stood on the side of the dome covering Primordial Inferno, staring into it as she had done many times before, and the only real development that occurred was the realisation that a certain physique ability was effective against one of the many Primordial Deities. It was far less than she would have liked, especially when previous passive uses of the physique weren¡¯t effective against the others, but just as Xu Shi Meng said, she needed to do something if she was to have any chance of success.


    To a certain extent, she was in a similar state that the Primordial Deity of the mind had been left in thanks to her attack, but she hadn¡¯t even begun to fight with Primordial Inferno yet. It didn¡¯t help that she also wasn¡¯t sure where Entropy was currently located.


    ¡®Still, I should review things. I have a number of Dao, but the most effective had proven to be the one that feeds whatever element the Primordial Deity represents. Presumably, it is because I lacked the power to overwhelm their control of the Dao, but I was able to prevent it from coming into play in the first place, like by removing all life from the vicinity of Primordial Nature,¡¯ she thought, glancing at the Truth of the Universe¡¯s display briefly, ¡®I have Primordial Nature¡¯s Dao now, so it might be that I can apply it to the battle, but it is already burning freely, without the presence of any fuel, ignoring one of the three key aspects of flame¡­¡¯


    Technically, she also had Full Success in the Earth Dao, but she had only partial control over the grey dust that Primordial Earth controlled. It would be far less effective than she would prefer.


    ¡®My Dao of Metal is also rather poor, even if I was to count the power of the Dao of the Elements, Planar Dao, and whatever stage the Dao of the Heavens is currently at. I don¡¯t have a unique ability there, and imagining one spontaneously will be fucking tough,¡¯ the Ascendant sighed, a large plant sprouting from the ground to form a seat for her.


    She put her right hand on her chin, her left on her knee, and looked straight forward, where Primordial Inferno seemed to turn towards her just the same. Most likely, it had no clue that she was there, or didn¡¯t really care, but the Ascendant didn¡¯t mind having a better view of the thing that she needed to fight. The entity¡¯s body had to hide some aspect of its nature, and a lengthy stare at it combined with her recent considerations of Dao led to her thinking in a slightly different direction to before, although one that should have been incredibly obvious given her specialty.


    In theory, at least, the Primordial Deity of flame was still following the basic principles of fire, even if they were substituted in some way by the power of Dao and the properties of energy made form. Even if there was no fuel, and perhaps no oxygen for the flame to burn with, it was still possible to disrupt the reaction and force the flames to stall, at least for a little time. If that provided her with enough additional strength relative to the entity itself, a single empowered strike might be sufficient for her to take it down. Xu Shi Meng did not appear to have any good reason to lie to her on the topic of supporting her for one last attack ¨C as he could have just claimed to be unable to empower another strike ¨C so that much was certain.


    ¡®Unfortunately, my Dao of Law is still stuck at the Great Stride stage, because heaven¡¯s will still cannot figure out the concept of Law. My own attainment of it is unknown, and due to the way I interpret Law, it empowers my other Dao but is not empowered by anything other than my Ascendant¡¯s Dao, which I am mostly ignoring. It would be very easy to flip my view of the world around and simply state that Law is but one aspect of everything else, but that would fuck up everything else in the long term¡­¡¯


    As the flames of Primordial Inferno burned, her brow furrowed.


    ¡®Why not empower the Fire Dao directly, then? If Primordial Inferno wishes to be flame, then I ought to ensure that it follows the proper Laws of reality! The world is most fond of following natural Laws, hence why anything that subverts them requires additional energy. Potentially, even if I cannot freely impose the natural order on Primordial Inferno, it would still have a greater effect than the majority of attacks I am able to perform against it,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, rising from the seat produced by a casual use of the Wood Dao in a land barren of life, ¡®Alright then, I should attempt it.¡¯


    She stopped only a step after she began, ¡®This is odd. While Xu Shi Meng was standing by, I didn¡¯t have much major inspiration, and it appears nearly the moment he fucks off. It is too much to presume that he was actively responsible, but I should watch out for that sort of thing in the future.¡¯


    In order to quickly verify whether her theory had any truth to it at all, she checked whether Xu Shi Meng was anywhere near her, finding little to suggest his presence. That didn¡¯t mean that he couldn¡¯t be around, but at least it wasn¡¯t as obvious as when he was standing right before her, making himself known openly and directly.


    She wasn¡¯t sure what kind of difference the man could be making if he wasn¡¯t doing something deliberately, but she couldn¡¯t make many assumptions after a one-off occurrence. From her other interactions with men, she was sure that she hadn¡¯t developed some kind of gender-wide dislike, and the man didn¡¯t seem to have an abnormal aura that would influence her process of thought, nor could she recognise the significant presence of any active Dao, either.


    The man was almost certain to have a Dao or two, whether or not he was Kong Shi Meng, so it wasn¡¯t impossible for him to have the same type of influence as her Dao of Lust might have over others.


    Of course, speculation was less important now that she had a potential solution to the menace of Primordial Inferno, so the Ascendant went right up to the barrier with little additional hesitation and knocked upon it with her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow.


    ¡°Hey, Shi Meng, if you¡¯re away, can you still hear me?¡±


    ¡°Do you wish me to open the barrier? I had only left you for a few minutes, so it may be a good idea to rethink your plans once or twice.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m already done with that. If it succeeds, then I will win, otherwise no new ideas might arise. This might also take quite a long time, so the sooner I begin, the less risk there is of the barriers for all the other Primordial Deities weakening. Incidentally, will defeating Primordial Inferno let the other barriers remain stronger?¡± the Ascendant asked, turning to her left, where the man appeared as usual.


    At the same time, she was already sending out instructions to her forces, the dragons and whoever else was available, as she had a pretty good idea of what would happen in the end. Whether Xu Shi Meng agreed or not, she would need to fight Primordial Inferno, and that would only require more people to come along. While the other barriers were not at risk, it was a good idea to hasten into the fight and take care of it.


    ¡°No. It will-¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯m going in anyway. Open it up, and keep as much of it up while I¡¯m in there. I don¡¯t want the Planar Continents to be besieged while I¡¯m fighting the Primordial Deity.¡±


    ¡°Very well. A small opening shall be granted.¡±

 V5C94: Putting out the Blaze

    The white light was parted and the Ascendant stepped within, the white light attempting to seal itself and failing to do so. Gaps were formed within the dome, through which some flaming entities manifested by Primordial Inferno¡¯s influence attempted to escape with varying results. Fortunately, the forces of Yi City had been called to keep this place protected, just like all the others, and the seventh realm foes were difficult but not impossible to slay.


    The dragons also came to assist the outside battles soon, lending their slowly growing power to the world, but nothing they did mattered anywhere near as much as what occurred within the dome.


    Endless flames of a blazing entity scorched the outer portions of the dome¡¯s interior, forcing the Ascendant to get closer, but it was only another reason for her to rush straight in and attempt that which she had conceptualised moments prior. She tended to alter and subvert Law the majority of the time, so she needed to modify her usual methods a little, but by the time the clash was inevitable, she had come up with not just the principle, but also a suitable name for this new invention, which might well fill out her arsenal of Law-based techniques.


    One technique had been named Omission of Law, so this one naturally became Enforcement of Law, being marked by the sudden tightening of chains around the entirety of the dome. It cost her half of the energy within the Arm, but she considered it to be worth every drop.


    Primordial Inferno had no chance to make some random proclamation, whether mad or reasoned, before its entire body was surrounded by invisible yet obvious chains of Law, encasing it and dimming the flames. They burnt without care for Law or order, yet they were not completely immune to such principles, for they were products of the world, just like any other living thing. Primordial Deities as a whole were not otherworldly entities that could ignore the restrictions of the Planar Continents.


    Thus, when one brazenly attempted to bypass such Laws, the world seemed happy to press the chains down upon them and put them in their place.


    Although the figure made of flames began at the eighth realm, at quite a high stage, its aura now dropped visibly alongside its size. Primordial Inferno¡¯s flames could no longer reach as far, the fluctuating tongues of flame being forced to adhere to whatever conceptual frame existed within their depths. A titan that was as large as ten men was forced to be no taller than seven.


    ¡°Mortal thing, what are you- what have you done! The mortal thing is touching me! So¡­ so disgusting!¡± as always, the words of Primordial Inferno could be an excellent mood killer at the best of times, and extremely effective distractions in others, but the Ascendant did not allow herself to listen.


    Instead, she sought to deprive as much of the entity¡¯s energy as quickly as possible, by wasting it on everything that regular flame would generally spread to. Wooden branches, twigs, leaves and so on, all would force the flames to grow and devour, but in doing so, they would expend a certain quantity of oxygen in doing so. Furthermore, even if she constrained this blaze to the typical Law of flame, it was still a planar entity first and foremost, so anything that prompted it to spread out and waste its energy would be effective.


    With a whim, she could produce a thousand branches and roots, and it would expend a whim¡¯s worth of Primordial Inferno¡¯s power, but it might well tip things in her favour.


    ¡°Do you think you can swallow the flames?¡±


    ¡°No, I want to put them out!¡± Wei Yi replied to that one, though that did make her reconsider whether it would be a good idea to attempt something like that. In theory, if she could pull it off with Primordial Energy and Primordial Nature, she would have a chance with Primordial Inferno, but it was difficult to rely on such a thing when she still had a few other things to attempt with far more surety.


    ¡°Would you not swallow the rich nectar of a lover?¡±


    ¡®Not a relevant question, you glorified candle flame,¡¯ the Ascendant returned her focus to the battle, where it would be far better utilised, and swapped the branches to hollow, dry ones.


    Flames gained energy from the material they consumed, and thus the branches she provided had to feed the less than they expended in order for the flames to be efficient. By combining the Wood Dao with the incomplete grey dust of Primordial Earth, she produced a dry substance that the flames would eat up readily, but would not have much to offer it. Ideally, it would starve the flame in much the way that the dust starved Primordial Nature¡¯ power.


    At the same time, she stepped back and let the Primordial Deity distract itself while working upon the Dao of Law, trying to figure out a deeper way to strike at the weakened Primordial Inferno. She either needed an attack that was powerful enough to bring it down ¨C when combined with Xu Shi Meng¡¯s aid ¨C or something to weaken it further to the seventh realm, where she could fight with it easily.


    ¡®Of course, randomly inventing things to throw in the direction of the Primordial Deity is not generally easy, for me or for others. Even Kong Shi Meng could only bring out so much thanks to his Truth of the Universe, which I mostly refuse to use for the development of techniques themselves,¡¯ Wei Yi thought, quickly executing Omit Attack to strike at Primordial Inferno when it tried to get away from her chains, ¡®I have Imposition of Law, but that is not sufficient to overwhelm the power of Primordial Inferno just yet. The heavens do not understand Law either, so I cannot hope for miraculous assistance, certainly not the type I would like¡­¡¯


    She considered another approach, while a direct binding of Law was not effective. As she was already able to omit herself from an attack that was meant to be performed by her, she was curious whether it would be possible to overwrite certain other aspects of her attacks and eventually produce something that would provide her with enough power to slash through Primordial Inferno¡¯s flames into something more core to it, like the innards of Primordial Nature that she had absorbed.


    ¡®I have the energy, I can recover it, so if I skip the movement¡­¡¯


    After a moment, she saw an opportunity and shifted her position forward, enduring the absurd heat of the flames as she placed both hands upon Moon Splitter¡¯s grip, holding it before her as if she was about to perform an ordinary downward slash.


    It took a moment for a vast swath of her energy to vanish, and for a strange shimmer in the air to appear. Whether or not Primordial Inferno wished to comment this time, it didn¡¯t get the chance as a dozen cuts were made in an instant, without a single one being the Ascendant¡¯s own. She kept her weapon steady, lowering it as soon afterward as she could, though it didn¡¯t help much.


    Every slash dug into the flames, forcing some apart and pulling others together, mostly heating up the shards of her blade more so than damaging the enemy. If this had been at no additional cost beside that, it might well have been a fine experiment, but the sudden movements that she had not made were still transferred upon her arms, material and energy-based alike. Her arms were able to handle one attack, or as many attacks as she wished within a reasonable timespan, but when twelve powerful attacks were performed in the time that she would generally not be able to complete one, that did hurt quite a bit.


    Both arms were damaged to a certain extent, the Arm wasting a whole bunch of its energy while the right one suffered a number of broken bones and torn musculature.


    ¡®I haven¡¯t omitted enough, have I? Fuck¡­ I would say it¡¯s been a while, but Primordial Physique had injured me better than this,¡¯ she thought, forcing her body to recover from the injuries in seconds. She switched her strategy after that, backing up and refocusing on the previous usage of Law and the Wood Dao. With an even more extreme application of grey dust, she made it so that each root and branch ended up as only lengths of dry dust and nothing more.


    That let it burn regardless, but it was cheapest on her oblivion essence supply.


    ¡°The flames shall touch you¡­ gently, and kindly. That is how flame must be, and if you do not understand, then you shall be burned. Do you understand, Wei Yi?¡±


    ¡°?¡± the Ascendant¡¯s thoughts and sound of surprise couldn¡¯t be expressed as anything beyond a question mark ¨C the Planar Continental equivalent, of course. From any other person, the words may have been entirely ordinary, perhaps a little odd at most, but the thing before her was not a person, but a Primordial Deity. It was something that should have lacked all knowledge of her name.


    Furthermore, the previous voices, produced through maddened roaring flame, were completely different from this oddly human tone.


    ¡°What are you?¡±


    ¡°It will all burn, so jump into the inferno!¡± the old flames returned immediately, the oddly intelligent voice vanishing in an instant, forcing the Ascendant to retreat and try and put things together within her head.


    To say that it might be difficult was an understatement of an era, for the advice of the Primordial Deity was rather inconsistent with its own nature, and also proved that there was something more to consider about them if this voice was indeed something that they produced ¨C a fact that the Ascendant had wished to never encounter in the process of fighting the Primordial Deities, since it would generate far too much complexity for her to handle right now.


    As such, she chose to switch to the words themselves, and tried to comprehend some actual meaning to them. The part about flames being gentle was, at first, incomprehensible.


    However, a second thought led to her having a sudden unexpected revelation of a most welcome kind.


    ¡®Flames are often called violent and destructive ¨C and they are ¨C but the physical force of flame is minor. One could pass through it with no effort at all if they are not burned, but physical force is also unable to have much effect upon them. Rather, it will be the air distorting the heated flames for a moment, and perhaps breaking them sufficiently to put them out¡­¡¯


    In the corner of her vision, she could see the Truth of the Universe displaying her Fire Dao rising by a stage. The increase was not earned, as she had understood a single principle and the heavens filled in the rest without her knowledge, but since it would be of use, she didn¡¯t reject the appearance of the vision state. Calm, soothing flames became visible in all things, living and not, shrinking until each one was so small that she needed her divine sense to peer into the nature of a single one. Nevertheless, when looking at the world from this perspective, she understood a great deal more than she had before, allowing her to take one step further.


    This step was both mental and physical, for she advanced towards the Primordial Deity and disregarded the growing heat washing over her tanned skin.


    ¡®A blaze is mighty, yet it is nothing without the source, without the fuel that it consumes. Rain can put out the heat and render the fuel unusable, sand can deprive it of air, an axe can separate it from the rest of the area and keep a large house safe, and even the driest wood will stop burning when one of the other elements prevents the flame¡¯s growth,¡¯ she looked upon Primordial Inferno and saw it looking back at her, far less intelligence within its eyes.


    ¡°A mortal thing as young as yourself should-¡±


    ¡°A flame does not burn without fuel.¡±


    Instantly, the figure of Primordial Inferno shrunk further, drooping to the ground and distorting the previous humanoid form. It tried to retain parts of its shape, but that merely led to it resembling a monster far more so than if it had accepted the change.


    The entity glared at her, or perhaps didn¡¯t care for her at all. Often, it was rather hard to tell.


    What it did do was jump at her, as if to embrace and devour her with flames, whether to get rid of her or to empower itself. As always, the Primordial Deity moved quickly and without hesitation, meaning that evasion even with Omit Movement would prove to be rather challenging. Instead, Wei Yi put her left hand forward, her palm facing the incoming blaze.


    ¡°Heat is spread through the air. Then, the air around me shall be still.¡±


    A horrible blaze enveloped her, and yet she stood still, untouched and unburnt. Around her, a field no larger than a single particle of air was forcefully kept still with the combination of the Dao of Law and Flame Dao, but it was enough.


    Oddly enough, some heat did still reach her, though it appeared to be far less than what she would have been enduring otherwise. From talks with otherworldly demons, she surmised this to be heat spread via radiation, something found most commonly outside their planet, and the manner by which heat reached them from their sun. This was something she hadn¡¯t accounted for, but it was only a little dangerous right now.


    She could endure for quite a while, if necessary.


    ¡°This dome is a sealed space. Flames had been burning for days, and all the oxygen ought to have been expended. You have no right to burn here.¡±


    The flames of Primordial Inferno dulled and sputtered, though not enough to make a major difference to its stage. It was forced to cover even less of the Ascendant¡¯s figure, leaving her hair free of flame, not that the vibrant crimson made it obvious. From afar, one might even imagine that her hair was the only thing to truly burn.


    ¡°How do you do this, mortal thing? Why do you put out my warmth? Am I so terrible to you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you are. You are a killer with no care for your actions. You destroy everything and turn it to flame, regardless of its purpose and nature. Just like Primordial Corruption, you twist the world itself.¡±


    ¡°The flame is part of it. Everything burns, and I make it burn. You cannot say that such an existence is wrong, no matter how it affects you-¡±


    ¡°I can say plenty of things, Primordial Inferno. Most importantly, the fact that you do not follow the Law of the Planar Continents means one thing above all else ¨C you, just like Primordial Invader, are not native elements of this world,¡± the Ascendant said, her words being almost as surprising to herself as they would be to anyone else that heard them, ¡°Thus, whether I am to act in favour of humanity, or the world itself, I have the right.¡±


    ¡°You-¡±


    ¡°Whether as Ascendant or Arbiter, I can freely pronounce you an enemy to us and the world.¡±


    At that moment, she released the vast killing will that had built up within her body and let it run rampant in the dome that still covered this area. The white light was still present in sufficient quantities and density to prevent the escape of smoke and silver, but it was obviously stressed the very instant that her power struck the walls. That allowed it to bounce off and strike its main target.


    The smoke swallowed the flames of Primordial Inferno, forcing it down to the point that it barely reached above her waist. Beneath, silver rose and cut off the blaze from the ground that it had used as fuel, leading to the overall size of the entity compressing until it was half of its original size.


    When it shrunk just a millimetre below that, there was a change. One of the many tongues of flame that remained, composing the overall form of the Primordial Deity, suddenly grew slower and denser, changing from whatever plasma a fire was to a strange fluid mass that hovered in the air. It was very prominent among the raging inferno due to its odd calm, and the Ascendant didn¡¯t hesitate to reach out to this thing with her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow, grasping the strange energy with two plans in mind and no clue which would work out.


    With the power of the Primordial Deities, one might attempt to destroy it entirely, wiping them out of existence, or they could attempt something that only the Ascendant has performed so far.


    Upon touching the soft matter, she felt the power in her Arm burning away rapidly as it was forced to confront power that surpassed her own, but she endured and willed the energy of Primordial Inferno to travel into her body, ignoring the manner in which it continued to burn along the way, scorching everything and anything that it touched, destroying veins, meridians and muscle with no effort at all, for she had more difficulty maintaining her body temperature than the heat of the air.


    Ultimately, it would be decided by the moment that it came into contact with her dantian, and she saw the result a second later. It was a terrifying pause, even when she believed that she might be able to purge the energy in the event of failure.


    A moment of contact settled its fate. Her primordial dantian snapped up the energy of Primordial Inferno readily, and the energy surged in just as happily, flooding in and changing to her oblivion essence as if that was always what it was meant to be. In one absolutely wondrous step, she felt her cultivation leap into the fifth stage of the seventh realm, two more halos appearing around her dantian, and completing the nine that most would ever be able to dream of obtaining even in the most perfect of circumstances.


    Arcs of crimson joined the constantly spinning halos, leading to constant arcs between the centre and the outside.


    Her physique energy, bloodline power and killing will both advanced by a stage, with the killing will was brought to the peak of the Yin-Yang Conduit realm, which would have been concerning had it not followed with the last step she would theoretically require in order to breach the sixth stage of the Oblivion Halo realm and thus achieve a far greater level of power than she currently had.


    Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t quite at the level of surpassing that which she needed, as she was currently managing to defeat the Primordial Deities mostly by a combination of luck, coincidence and good fortune ¨C terms that she knew were typically synonymous.


    With her advancement, the power that Primordial Inferno still had was swallowed by her, and a second Primordial Deity became no more.


    What little was wasted ¨C by her standard, which, by the standard of the world, was an extremely large amount ¨C burst out of the remnants of the ancient entity, torching the sands and turning what little remained of the desert into smooth, completely transparent glass. It spread to the edges of the dome, and when that vanished due to the death of Primordial Inferno, the heat spread further outwards, coating the wide desert in an ever-thinning layer of glass, stopping many miles away.


    The minions of Primordial Inferno had remained alive up until now, unlike the monstrosities created by Primordial Nature, so Wei Yi naturally took a good look at what happened to them upon the death of their creator.


    From the moment that it had begun to suffer, so did its minions, and when it had been absorbed in one figurative gulp, the flames of the minions had sputtered and they began to stumble and fall, allowing anyone with the ability to damage them to do so freely and easily. Obviously, the dragons had a very easy time, their natural affinity to flame allowing them to endure the heat and take out a great number of monstrosities with ease. Others struggled a little more and needed to invest a good length of time into it, but they didn¡¯t need to struggle for long.


    As soon as the last spark of Primordial Inferno ended, so did the things it created, turning to ash or hot air that soon left the battlefield silent.


    There was no downpour of rain this time, and a few threads of the Crimson Robes of the Third Arrival had endured upon her body, allowing them to reform the moment that the heat cooled. This didn¡¯t stop a few of the distant dragons from ogling her, as usual, nor Xu Shi Meng from stepping in when her clothing had fully recovered.


    ¡°It took a day, but you have defeated another Primordial Deity¡­ Is it also dead?¡±


    ¡°Of course it is. Now, I have the full power of two Primordial Deities,¡± the Ascendant said, raising her right hand and making the air turn into a heated flame, compressing into a sphere that burned for a moment before vanishing, according to her will, ¡°Did you not catch it this time, either?¡±


    ¡°I had distanced myself to prevent distraction or any other problems. I would have still been able to assist you with an empowered attack, but you appeared not to require it.¡±


    ¡°Luckily enough.¡±


    ¡°Indeed,¡± Xu Shi Meng said, his expression remaining about as still as usual, turning towards the approaching draconic and human forces, ¡°I will speak with you at a later time, but I would personally recommend handling Primordial Ocean and Primordial Cosmos before most of the other Primordial Deities.¡±


    ¡°Why those two?¡±


    ¡°Your people can tell you, and I would rather let you work on your own. Impeding your growth by imposing myself upon you would not be helpful to you, or to myself.¡±


    He disappeared before she had the chance to reply, leaving her to face the incoming dragons and Patriarchs on her own, though it wasn¡¯t much of a problem. She had dealt with more confusing situations and far more difficult ones ¨C apparently, she had just spent a day managing a far more challenging one ¨C but it was rather annoying to be unable to converse with a man that clearly knew more than he was letting on, while also being rather ignorant in regards to other elements.


    Understanding which one was which would be of great aid to her, but this was not so easy to achieve.


    ¡°Wei Yi, I can feel myself getting stronger!¡± Long Hua exclaimed, the other dragons nodding alongside her, ¡°There might be a chance that more of us emerge, hopefully more quickly than those¡­ qilins. I certainly hope so.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you generally more popular than the qilins?¡±


    ¡°It depends on what the people like. If they¡¯re fond of massive dicks, then both of us have those,¡± the boisterous dragon replied.


    ¡°Both sides would like to believe that the other is inferior, but that is rarely the case,¡± Li He added, ignoring the displeased glance from Long Hua as she continued, ¡°If that isn¡¯t the only thing being looked at, then the question is whether a person prefers male or female bodies. That is usually more of a draw, as unfortunate as that is for us.¡±


    ¡°Most of the dragons and qilins prefer women, perhaps out of some reproductive instincts,¡± Long Tao added, more quietly than both of her peers, ¡°The same explanation doesn¡¯t apply to human women, though, who have varying preferences¡­¡±


    ¡°Right. Enough about that,¡± Wei Yi was aware that she had allowed the conversation to steer in the wrong direction, but her curiosity needed to be sated and something needed to done to calm her killing will after she had unleashed it, ¡°I need to ask you and the others about Primordial Ocean and Primordial Cosmos, since I might have missed something about those two entities while I had been fighting Primordial Inferno.¡±


    ¡°You did miss something,¡± Luo Na said, having gotten close enough a while ago, but unwilling to contribute to the discussion of reproductive instincts, ¡°The Shi District has reached out to the people of the Ju District, and the rest of us by extension, as they were under attack by Primordial Ocean and were not able to handle it. Meanwhile, Primordial Cosmos¡­ Ning Bao Su, would you?¡±


    ¡°Although you should have been able to handle that on your own, considering how much you seem to know, I shall proceed,¡± the Ning Patriarch stepped up, nodding to greet Wei Yi, ¡°I had kept in touch with my people at the Ning District, and word of a strange entity began to appear not long after you entered the barrier surrounding Primordial Inferno. At first, they had presumed that it had been something you created, for it was shrouded in stars and nebulae that were similar to your own¡­ oblivion essence, I believe you call it. However, those with more understanding recalled that your energy has a crimson tone, whereas that celestial entity was more monochrome.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is oblivion essence, named after the oblivion halos,¡± the Ascendant said, turning away.


    Physically, even her sight couldn¡¯t peer far enough to see the lands of the Ning District or the Shi District from her current position in the sands ¨C she did not have the power to see through the many hills of dunes and the like, either ¨C but it did not stop her divine sense from focusing on those places.


    The Shi District was outside of her territory, so she could only see the eastern portion of the district, but the lands near the Ning District were nearly fully covered by her divine sense. Thus, she had little difficulty in perceiving every possible location where Primordial Cosmos was supposed to be. The trouble was that she failed to see even the slightest glimpse of it, no remnants of starry trails or whatever else Primordial Cosmos might leave behind.


    ¡°I can¡¯t find a single thing. Dragons, qilins, you head over to support the Shi District and the area by the Ning District,¡± she instructed upon turning back, ¡°I¡¯ll rest and train in the meanwhile, and if Primordial Cosmos is found first, I¡¯ll take it on. Otherwise, I shall go to the Shi District and ensure that it does not fall.¡±


    With that, it was settled, and everyone got to work.

 V5C95: Deep Waters

    She fought with Primordial Inferno primarily on the thirteenth, and soon it was the fourteenth. The dragons and qilins split up, the former heading to the Shi District while the latter proceeded onto the lands between the Ning and Wei Districts, attempting to discover anything relating to Primordial Cosmos. Judging from the words of the Ning Patriarch, she expected it to be relatively easy and quick for them to track it down.


    It turned out not to be the case. Sure, there were sightings every other minute ¨C that being an exaggeration, of course ¨C but whenever they or Wei Yi tried to follow the entity, it was nowhere to be found.


    In fact, even after a whole day¡¯s attempts to track down anything even vaguely related to the Primordial Deity of the cosmos, the only outcome was a wasted day and nothing at all to show for it.


    The Ascendant didn¡¯t like that very much, but she could not find a single person to complain to, so she simply accepted the situation. Frankly, it would be rather pointless to complain, for the only entity that could contribute here would be the heavens, and she did not have the opportunity to chat with them so far. Provided that her earlier conclusion about Primordial Inferno was accurate, then it might be that even the will of the heavens cannot assist her in this matter, as they might well be blinded to the deeds of the Primordial Deities to some extent.


    In that case, she would have to rely entirely upon herself, but fortunately she didn¡¯t need to actively handle Primordial Cosmos yet. There had been no reports regarding any actual damage inflicted by this oddly transient Primordial Deity, and so it meant that she could place her focus in its entirety upon the Shi District.


    Half-way through that day of searching, as well as practising her new-found control over blazing heat and flames in combination with her other abilities, she was greeted by the sudden appearance of several powerful entities in the area where the passage to Long Mingyun and her dragons was located.


    It took less than a moment for her to bring her divine sense over and confirm that they were, just as one might expect, dragons, and that each one was also in the seventh realm, nearing the peak or resting right upon it. Although she technically had the time to meet with them, given that a few minutes of chatter wouldn¡¯t interfere with her training, which could be conducted within the Kong Prison Realm to greater effect than it would be within the Planar Continents themselves, she still chose to let Li He take care of it instead.


    Mostly, she had already had enough of the dragons and their incessant lust.


    ¡®Considering that I am the one with the Dao of Lust, perhaps I shouldn¡¯t be the one complaining, but tales of dragons and qilins going around and filling the world with their offspring are more than common. I mean, the Yi family bloodline originated from a qilin, so they clearly had enough presence all the way down here even though they ended up sitting in the north, burning in the sands of their isle or whatever it was that they got up to,¡¯ the Ascendant had thought, paying a little attention to their chatter.


    Ultimately, they didn¡¯t say that much of use, so once she confirmed that they were heading in the right direction, Wei Yi returned her full attention to herself, and spent her time that way.


    Fifteenth of the tenth month. Primordial Cosmos had appeared a few dozen more times in rumours, but never was the Ascendant able to perceive its presence. It seemed to make no sense at all, for she previously didn¡¯t have any difficulty in detecting any of the other Primordial Deities ¨C like the currently rampaging Primordial Ocean, for instance ¨C but she began to accept that this might well be the unique property of Primordial Cosmos in particular. The true reason would be discovered only once she reached a sufficiently high realm to gain a superior grasp over energy in comparison to the Primordial Deities.


    Alternatively, if Primordial Cosmos decided not to hide itself from her for whatever reason, that would also provide plenty of explanations, but that was unlikely. Whatever reason it had not to appear right now, it shouldn¡¯t change any time soon.


    As soon as the sun rose and she had nothing else to do before this, she headed to the Shi District by going straight through the nearest gateway and then rushed over to the borders with rapid uses of Omit Movement. The reckless movement threw her near a few planar beasts, which were slowly rising in power as well, leading to her encountering a few entities within the sixth and even seventh realm.


    Such foes might have been dangerous to the ordinary Patriarchs or Matriarchs of Yi City, but Wei Yi was not only a dual Matriarch of the Wu and Wei Districts, but she had her oblivion essence and everything else she had built up to this point. Against her, such beasts fell with an attack or two, and it was almost disappointing to see them fall so quickly before her. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that even fighting against them was an unnecessary waste of time, she might have held back and tried against while sticking to their level.


    With the minimal delays, she arrived at her destination within a few minutes of setting off, and found¡­ well, what one might expect to find in a district ravaged by Primordial Ocean.


    The culprit itself was very obvious in the distance, rising above the ocean waters. Constant waves ravaged the shores and tore up the blue expanse, whirling around a colossal figure that looked far too calm for the madness that it was inflicting upon its surroundings.


    It was shaped like a woman, with an average figure and face that, on a human being, wouldn¡¯t be unattractive even at the worst of times. Of course, the traits of Primordial Deities manifested upon this figure as well, and so any hint of attractiveness was completely marred by the unnatural flood of hair and, more importantly, the foaming mouth that revealed an endless sea of sharp waves within it. Somehow, every one of the Primordial Deities had such jagged teeth ¨C or whatever the waves were meant to be in the case of Primordial Ocean ¨C and all of them managed to make complete mockeries of the humanoid features they did retain.


    They would have looked far better if they didn¡¯t even attempt to resemble humanity.


    Going back on topic, Primordial Ocean was currently residing in the water between the two halves of the Shi District, and its minions, things made of water or infused with copious amounts of it, were attacking the eastern portion of the land, while the western half was already devoured by it some time ago.


    That¡¯s not to say that the western portion, technically also located on the Western Continent but past a great divide of water that nearly split a segment of land from the rest, was completely unrecognisable, but if anyone free of Primordial Ocean¡¯s influence still lived there, they would not be found easily. Most things there were weathered by water, drowned in it, torn and shredded into something barely resembling the original structures and land.


    The east still had a chance, for while many buildings were damaged and most of the smaller structures, roads, monuments and whatever else were obliterated during the conflict, one could easily reconstruct the most severe damage within a week at most. Bigger homes, residences, businesses and even most of the walls were still intact, meaning that one could move in right now and only have to handle the water monstrosities formed by Primordial Ocean, with the rest of their day being reasonable enough. Of course, the minions poured in as constantly as water poured through a river, so there wouldn¡¯t be much of the day not occupied by them, but it was still better than nothing.


    ¡®For as long as Primordial Ocean remains over there, I should be able to fight with its minions easily enough, but that isn¡¯t the core of the problem. Rather, I need to either get it sealed or kill it outright, if such a thing is currently possible,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, looking on as one of the previously pristine buildings collapsed due to a casual attack from one of the minions of Primordial Ocean, ¡®To get it sealed, I would need to remove it from the eastern portion of the Shi District, as to not leave it for Primordial Ocean to destroy, but that¡­¡¯


    For those that the otherworldly demons would describe as normal, those without a cultivation or abnormal powers of any kind, redirecting a stream was a feasible feat if they knew what they were doing. It didn¡¯t require much brute force, after all. However, moving an ocean was impossible.


    In this situation, if the overall power of her and Primordial Ocean was brought down to more easily understood levels, then she would be the ordinary person, and the Primordial Deity would be the ocean. Defeating it without any care for her surroundings might be on the level of getting rid of a sea, something smaller but still extremely difficult, yet somehow more feasible when compared to the other option simply due to an even more difficult option being available.


    Human psychology worked in interesting ways, sometimes, and the Ascendant didn¡¯t mind it right now.


    ¡®Alright, I guess I should jump in, clear up the area, then try to push back Primordial Ocean somewhere else,¡¯ Wei Yi concluded after a moment, vanishing from her position moments before a loose blast of water from the battlefield shattered the small hill that she had chosen to stand upon, ¡®The first thing to do would be to contact the¡­ wait. What is this?¡¯


    She appeared in the air above the walls of the Shi District and instantly attacked the nearest foes with some precision railgun bolts, minimizing their explosive potential as to limit needless damage, but her mind was distracted by a strange sensation that she couldn¡¯t quite identify.


    It was familiar, oddly so, and it took her a good length of time to recall what it was, for there was no exact match within her memories. Otherwise, she would have been able to match the memory and current reality within an instant of the outside world, and she would not have had to deliberate on the matter for almost fifteen seconds before the flipping pages of the Ascendant¡¯s Library ended up delivering the answer.


    The answer was not one she liked.


    While she couldn¡¯t confirm that the current aura and the previous record of something like it in her mind originated from the same place, nor that they truly had much of a relation, the strange draining of an unseen force by an unseen, yet definite thing. It was all around the entities of Primordial Ocean, and oddly enough, it surrounded many of the Shi family¡¯s people too.


    As soon as she recognised it, she had to investigate, and thus she switched her plans quite a bit. She put down a few totems to channel her power, conjured a series of phantoms through them, and then quickly applied Omit Movement a few dozen times to flood the Shi District with phantoms of herself, before using every one of the totems and their phantoms to produce a railgun bolt and a series of rails for the bolt to be fired from. When they were ready and aimed at something reasonable, she moved again and left them to be released upon her foes.


    Instead of managing that, she let the synchronised explosions sound in the distance and appeared before the person with the most authority that she was able to find right now.


    It was a woman who was surrounded by a few competent combatants, and numerous less-competent ones. They listened to her instructions, as few as she provided during the Ascendant¡¯s observation of her and her group, and her armour was of higher quality and with more ornamentation than that of her peers.


    Since she didn¡¯t have the time to bother with normal conversational procedures, she appeared right in front of this woman and placed her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow upon her shoulder, preventing her from jumping back in fright.


    ¡°AH! You- who-¡±


    ¡°Tell me, do you know anything about a technique by the name of the Magnanimous Leech?¡±


    From the rather intense expression of fear on her face, the Ascendant had almost been expecting her to wet herself if given another second, but that suddenly receded when she heard the title.


    ¡°W-What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Shi Jing! Get away from Shi Jing, you-¡±


    ¡°Shi Mu Tao, please, wait a moment,¡± the woman replied, their exchange helpfully informing Wei Yi about both of their names and confirming that her initial assessment of the Shi District¡¯s forces were overly optimistic, ¡°You¡­ are you that Ascendant I¡¯ve heard of?¡±


    ¡°That Ascendant you¡¯ve heard of¡­ I¡¯m starting to regret letting you talk normally, instead of grabbing your neck and demanding answers and nothing else,¡± Wei Yi muttered, her grip tightening.


    ¡°S-Sorry, I had been a little distracted by the forces of Primordial Ocean, I promise-¡±


    ¡°Answer. My. Fucking. Question.¡±


    ¡°I might know!¡±


    The Ascendant raised an eyebrow and couldn¡¯t decide whether to tighter her grip, move it to the woman¡¯s throat, or to let her go and pick someone more competent to question. Most of the soldiers surrounding her and this Shi Jing appeared to be even worse regardless of how she viewed them, so she would need to look for a different group.


    She took another look at the woman she was gripping, and realised that she had an odd beauty that effectively answered the question for her. Shi Jing¡¯s skin was oddly pure and soft, her eyes were unusually bright and striking, and the rest of her body was similar.


    A large but not excessive pair of breasts and buttocks, fit physique, smooth hair, and even a pleasant smell despite participating in combat for quite some time without an opportunity to wash herself. Some people were born with some of these features naturally, but rarely did such things unite in one person without abnormal circumstances or dedicated cultivation of one¡¯s body or appearance. The Ascendant was an example of such abnormal circumstances, and so far as she was able to determine, this woman and her peers also had to be.


    Indeed, Shi Mu Tao also had a strangely fit body and what she presumed to be a good appearance, though she couldn¡¯t judge it effectively due to him being a man.


    ¡°Are you people using it?¡±


    ¡°We¡­ I don¡¯t know of a Magnanimous Leech, but- BUT!¡± the woman exclaimed when Wei Yi moved her other hand just a little, ¡°The Shi District has tales of a Gluttonous Leech.¡±


    ¡°So, are you using it right now?¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t even know if it is a technique! its ancient history, and I¡¯m only thirty-three!¡±


    ¡°Is that stopping you from learning ancient history? Do you need to be over a certain age to do that kind of study?¡± the Ascendant asked, shaking her head and returning back to the proper topic when she realised she got carried away, ¡°Who knows more, or where would information about this be found? Ideally, as quick as possible.¡±


    ¡°Um¡­ The west side of the Shi District.¡±


    ¡°Ah. That¡¯s a problem, but if Primordial Ocean hasn¡¯t fucked that place entirely, then it shouldn¡¯t be a problem to recover it at a later time. If there¡¯s no good place to find out about it, is there a knowledgeable person that might still live?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m not sure who¡¯s still alive¡­¡±


    The Ascendant decided to let go of this woman¡¯s shoulder, and step back to ponder the situation. With her divine sense, she was able to inspect most things within the eastern portion of the district, and a lot of the western portion, but neither one contained definite answers nor any hint of the term Gluttonous Leech. She had already gone to the person holding the most authority out of those alive and well, with there being no hint of a Patriarch or guardians anywhere nearby, so it appeared like she wouldn¡¯t be able to rush to an answer while ignoring the district¡¯s state.


    Given that she would need to attack the Primordial Deity anyway, it was rather helpful that she wasn¡¯t completely distracted by something else, but it was still incredibly irritating right now.


    ¡°Shi Jing, right?¡±


    ¡°Y-Yes?¡±


    ¡°Who are you, exactly?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not someone special, but my father is¡­ was a guardian of the Shi District,¡± she replied, pausing despite her best efforts to speak as quickly as possible.


    ¡°That¡¯s why these people are listening to you?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±


    ¡°What about the Patriarch? Is he alive, or was he slain or changed by Primordial Ocean?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Shi Mu Tao?¡±


    ¡°There has been no trace of him since the second day of Primordial Ocean¡¯s attack. We are presuming Shi Song Lao has been slain by Primordial Ocean,¡± the male guard from before said.


    ¡°In that case, you might as well be the next Matriarch. If you listen to me and don¡¯t slow me down like you have already done, then the eastern half of the district will certainly be saved. I can¡¯t promise anything when it comes to the western part, though,¡± Wei Yi said, giving them no time to reply or consider her words before proceeding, ¡°Also, I¡¯m taking your spatial stabilisation point, and you will be joining the new Yi City whether you like it or not.¡±


    ¡°T-Then, could you answer my question?¡±


    ¡°I am the Ascendant, though perhaps you know of someone else that goes by that title. If so, then we have no relation at all.¡±


    ¡°Oh, alright¡­¡±


    Since that conversation was over, the Ascendant moved on to the matter of the conflict, and decided that the best thing to do would be to create a battle plan and let the people that surrounded this Shi Jing go off and join her own forces and participate more effectively than just sitting around and looking after this one woman.


    ¡°What are you lot doing here? It seems to me that you¡¯re not even attempting to strike at the minions of Primordial Ocean, not to mention succeeding in it.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re trying to survive!¡±


    ¡°Seem to be wasting your time so far, but never mind that. I can help you out with that, though even with my power you won¡¯t suddenly be capable of matching the seventh realm entities that Primordial Ocean manifests rather casually,¡± Wei Yi said, having perceived a good hundred or so such entities just in the time that they had been talking, ¡°The dragons will still contribute far more to the battle than any of you will.¡±


    Their looks were able to ask a question in place of words, for all of them seemed to be rather shocked at the premise of dragons participating in the conflict, but there was no better answer to their silent amazement than the display of a dragon¡¯s power.


    Liquid entities had been all around them, avoiding the area so far due to the Ascendant¡¯s quiet intervention with some of her energy. A sound that did not reach the people under her current protection alerted all of the monstrosities striding about, and they raised whatever passed for heads on their bodies up, towards a series of enormous entities and swooped in and unleashed an enormous sea of flame upon their targets, scorching any flesh that remained and melting the liquid that made up the rest of their mass.


    It took only a brief while for all of them to melt completely, and none of the terrain was damaged by some unseen miracle to the people of the Shi District.


    ¡®I¡¯ll not say that I had put up a barrier to prevent these raging horny beasts from simply burning everything to a crisp,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, her mind drifting off a little, ¡®I might be able to say such things in front of others as well, given that they do have pretty good horns. Jia Rong would appreciate them, probably.¡¯


    Although she had learned quite a bit about the million year old girl in the time she had spent with her and the other Arbiters, she managed to avoid gathering whether the demonic woman had any appreciation for those horns upon her head, or the claws upon her hands. Frankly, the longer she was continuing on her path, the more she was certain that the Ascendant¡¯s Library wasn¡¯t quite as perfect as she thought, for there were too many small facts that had to have appeared, and yet they weren¡¯t recorded. It was very likely that they had been there at some point, but were then either lost or destroyed for some reason that was beyond her.


    Frankly, it was rather concerning, but at the very least the important things remained within her mental domain, and the less important ones could be acquired again and stored more securely or in an additional wing of the Ascendant¡¯s Library now that she knew the problem was present.


    ¡°D-Dragons!¡±


    ¡°I did tell you.¡±


    ¡°What kinds of things do you need us to do, Master of Dragon- uh, Ascendant?¡±


    ¡°First of all, here¡¯s a map of the Shi District, as it currently appears to be to my divine sense,¡± Wei Yi ignored the slip of the tongue and produced a map of killing will upon the nearest open space, complete with verticality to represent the taller and lower areas, as well as plenty of markers for their foes and allies, ¡°Just in case you¡¯re wondering, I cleared up that area there, but Primordial Ocean¡¯s minions are already pouring in to reclaim it. Starting from the outside will be best, and will allow for areas to be fortified and reclaimed by the outside more easily.¡±


    ¡°Okay¡­ By the way, the spatial stabilisation point¡­¡±


    ¡°If you know of it, just tell me already instead of forgetting all about it while trying to figure out my title.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s in the western portion of the Shi District.¡±


    ¡°I noticed. The Yi City Web isn¡¯t linked to this side of the continent, at least not directly, and there is no spatial stabilisation point in the area, so it has to be over there, even if Primordial Ocean is ruining any chance of me being able to find it right now. Still, when we get around to it, I am taking it, whatever you try to say about it.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no problem with that, Ascendant! On our own, as we are, we wouldn¡¯t even be able to get out of this place alive, not to mention reclaiming the Shi District or its spatial stabilisation points¡­ Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Doing that too soon, but I won¡¯t object.¡±


    She expected to succeed in time, as there would be no point in presuming otherwise, but she expected that there might well be a long time before she would manage to do so. By that point, this woman would likely forget all about this day, not that the Ascendant would object to being thanked yet again, so long as the woman grew a little smarter by that time.


    ¡®No, I¡¯m being a little harsh to her right now. It¡¯s only due to the presence of the Magnanimous ¨C or Gluttonous, in this case ¨C Leech in the district that I am so agitated¡­¡¯


    ¡°if you ever require any assistance, I would be more than happy to provide it,¡± the voice of the mother of the Master of Yi City reached her from the Kong Prison Realm, ¡°Given the current situation, it might be best for both of us to relax and-¡±


    ¡®We don¡¯t have the luxury of relaxation. Once I have figured out a plan for this lot, I will need to see which methods are most effective against Primordial Ocean¡¯s minions and, by extension, the Primordial Deity itself. You can do what you like ¨C though I would prefer you to aid with managing the spatial realm and improving it, as well as checking whether Testament can be shoved in there without breaking everything¡­¡¯ the Ascendant spoke while allowing her Endless Calculation to take care of the duller details of her plan, ¡®I asked you to do that a while ago, hadn¡¯t I?¡¯


    Yi Shi Ming replied within her mind, ¡°It is very likely that this will not be possible. The Laws of Testament and the Kong Prison Realm differ too greatly, and putting spatial realms together is not something that I or Shi Meng had any experience with. Nonetheless, I shall attempt to figure out a solution to your query while I cannot assist you with things at the Shi District.¡±


    ¡®Then, let¡¯s get on with it.¡¯

 V5C96: Reclaiming What Remains

    The plans that the Ascendant created were neither complex nor unusual, for there was no need for either quality. She was working with people that, if she was to describe them politely, were rather dull mentally, in part due to the stressful situation they were currently in. Whether she had a problem with it or not ¨C she did, but there wasn¡¯t much to be done about that now ¨C she needed to make use of them as effectively as possible in order to have the higher chance of success.


    Thus, she simply instructed them to move in particular ways, to head to specific places, and to perform certain actions while she and her dragons took advantage of their movements to take out foes.


    At the same time, she studied the district and sought answers to some of the questions that she had not been able to pry out of Shi Jing. Mainly, she had been seeking any kind of information about the Gluttonous Leech that were available, but it was a topic that most could not recognise and thought to either be nonsense, or simply couldn¡¯t reply to whatsoever.


    There was one thing that she confirmed, and it was that some of the people of the Shi District were in favour of Primordial Ocean when it emerged within the water between the two halves of the western district.


    To put it in the words of Shi Jing, ¡°A few weeks ago, some cults and groups that were fond of the ocean didn¡¯t matter much¡­ Now, with the ocean rising up and trying to eat us whole, we couldn¡¯t even stand united. Those people walked to the water and threw themselves in readily¡­ It was horrifying to look at when we thought they were just killing themselves, and now¡­ It hasn¡¯t gotten any better, I will say that much.¡±


    In the Ascendant¡¯s words, ¡°Some idiots figured that their great god has risen from the sea, and jumped into its kingdom. Your father, and the Patriarch by extension, were also idiots for not stopping it.¡±


    The daughter of a guardian lacked a response to that, and the Ascendant wouldn¡¯t have listened to one even if it was provided. She headed off to target more of Primordial Ocean¡¯s forces, and Shi Jing did her best to do as she was asked without losing her life to the monstrous horrors flooding the district¡¯s lands.


    Only a few hours passed since the battle was joined by Wei Yi, but those that saw her in action quickly learned that she wasn¡¯t just a woman with dragons on her side. No, some were even considering whether she or Primordial Ocean were more terrifying.


    To understand why, one would need to return to the beginning of her experimentation attempts.


    When she had finished her first talk with Shi Jing, she went out to the largest crowd of Primordial Ocean¡¯s minions in the eastern portion of the district and began to test out her most powerful elemental Dao, those that bore some unique feature from a Primordial Deity. Grey dust, the power over nature and over heat and flame were what she had, and at least one was bound to be effective against the water of Primordial Ocean.


    Her first attempt was with flame, and it proved curiously counterproductive. When the entities of Primordial Ocean¡¯s creation were heated, they only grew more destructive, their fluids boiling and tearing into the terrain with every drop that inevitably poured away from their bodies, while the steam was enough to kill men at the third realm or below.


    There weren¡¯t many like that remaining in the district, but it was still damaging to stronger people.


    Hence, she was forced to change her approach. The grey dust of Primordial Earth was always effective, but even the minions of the Primordial Deity were somewhat resistant to her influence, forcing her to apply additional energy to dry them.


    Thus, the Ascendant switched to her remaining power, appearing in another large group as that one had been expended by her previous two tests, and raised her Arm of Slaughtering Shadow with her palm pointed upwards, her black claws closing as a vast pulse of oblivion essence was released and suffused into the land.


    Numerous terrible horrors noticed her by that point, heads and what not, but as soon as one tried to move towards her, a massive root suddenly broke through the ground and pierced it with absolute ease.


    Hundreds of others shot out of the terrain and thrust into the bodies of the other water-based minions, but these did not crush them right away, but instead made use of the ability that roots possessed, even those that were not manifested by the power of the Ascendant or a Primordial Deity. Roots fed the plants from which they grew, harvesting fluid and minerals from the earth, and the many tendrils she had summoned could do so at a thousand times the speed of their natural counterparts.


    When combining that with the rich presence of water and a lesser quantity of other nutrients that could be found in the body of a human being, the roots had plenty to draw from, and did so without hesitation.


    In moments, countless influenced entities were destroyed, and all of that flowed towards the Ascendant¡¯s energy node beneath the ground, which she then used to recover her own energy. This was a partly experimental part of the chain, and could be used to manifest more roots independently or to directly recover her oblivion essence, but when she cleared a hundred minions with the roots and felt the energy that they fed to their origin, she confirmed that both applications would be viable without much difficulty.


    Hence, she had to work out one more issue, which was that these roots would inevitably damage the terrain and structures of the district as much as the threats they sought to oppose.


    ¡®If I was to simply give this thing a mind of its own, it would likely cause quite a few problems when it grows powerful enough, and I would somehow need to replicate my own mind¡¯s capabilities in a plant. Considering that neither Yi Shi Ming, Xu Shi Meng, or Long Mingyun have a clue as to how my body and mind work, this will not be a simple task by any metric,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, using this time to send a few more sets of roots into the district¡¯s streets, ¡®However, I can¡¯t manage it the whole time, either.¡¯


    Inevitably, she would need to fight with Primordial Ocean, and at that time she would not be able to manage to situation herself. Leaving it to the dragons would be difficult without having the coastal areas be devoured in flame, and keeping herself distracted would give Primordial Ocean far too much of an advantage.


    ¡®What could I¡­ Jia Rong.¡¯


    She turned towards Paragon and reached out with her divine sense, reaching the demonic woman in an instant and, fortunately, catching her while she was sitting in a small establishment and drinking some fruit juice, made from a red fruit that was famously believed to improve one¡¯s strength.


    ¡°W-What? Wei Yi? Did I do something wrong?¡±


    ¡°No. Well, I hadn¡¯t been paying attention to you lately, so you might have done something I don¡¯t approve of, but this is not why I reached out to you,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Rather, I want you to come over and see if your abilities extend to crushing the energy of Primordial Deities as well. I should have asked you about this earlier, really, but I didn¡¯t want to bring you into something like this.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll come over right away!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t need to shout, by the way. Everyone around you is being rather concerned about your sudden exclamations to the sky.¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­ I¡¯ll come. Where should I go?¡±


    ¡°Just stand there for a moment, and I should be able to make a small gateway for you. Don¡¯t move around too much, and get in as quickly as you can so that there¡¯s no chance of spatial rupturing or something of the sorts.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Can that happen?¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t tested it, and I don¡¯t think anyone wants that. The scars caused by Reality Severance and my Touch the Heavens still haven¡¯t healed fully, and those were controlled attacks. Mostly.¡±


    Jia Rong didn¡¯t say anything else, mostly because she did not have the chance to do so before the gateway began to take form before her. Silver and smoke rose up from the ground, slowly widening into an opening just wide enough to fit the woman and her horns. The edges were unstable at first, but the Ascendant sorted it out by improving the structure and making it larger, so that the overall increase in safely traversable space became sufficient for Jia Rong to cross over without issue.


    She did so a moment later, stepping through warily. It was her first time using this specific form of transportation, but she was nowhere near as phased as those that watched her exclaim to the sky, then vanish through an opening in the world that opened and shut in seconds.


    ¡°So, what do I do?¡±


    ¡°Hit one of those things in the face,¡± Wei Yi replied, turning in the direction of a Primordial Ocean-influenced minion being delivered by one of the roots that she had been controlling while bringing the demonic woman over here, ¡°If you can¡¯t figure out where that is ¨C not that I would blame you ¨C hit any of the watery bits.¡±


    In theory, it would be fine if Jia Rong struck any parts of Primordial Ocean¡¯s minions, but just to be safe, she instructed her to target the most vulnerable parts to the timeless properties of the demonic woman. If it worked, then she would likely start hitting whatever was easiest in time, and if it did not, she wouldn¡¯t linger on this battlefield for too long, as she would simply be an uncertain liability that might be turned against them at any moment.


    Obviously, she would rather not have this million year old woman die simply because she was a little careless, but if her sacrifice could end yet another Primordial Deity, it might be worthwhile.


    With the instruction given, Jia Rong rushed into action, the strength she gained simply from existing manifesting itself readily. Since the last time she had been given the opportunity to fight, she had effectively ascended two realms, though neither one generated the typical structure nor offered her any particular abilities. She was still limited to physical force.


    That physical force did reach such a level that even the Ascendant might be insufficient to match the sheer speed and power exerted within an instant, unless she made use of Dao and Law and her other forms of cultivation. One moment, she stood in the street, a few metres away from her foe, and the next there would have been a crater in her place, if not for Wei Yi reinforcing the land in a great hurry. There was no reinforcement of the roots or of the minion she targeted, and thus both were turned to naught with her strike, some dust ending up in the skies and forming a faint cloud before the setting sun.


    ¡°Was that good?¡±


    ¡°¡­ Yeah, that works too.¡±


    ¡°By the way, do you still need me to mention the particles that I can see? I know you¡¯ve been studying, and that you have something called a¡­ vision state?¡±


    ¡°I do have a Planar Dao and a Dao of the Heavens vision state, both of which do let me view some aspects of planar energy, but it is likely that you can see something I do not. Please, do enlighten me on anything strange.¡±


    ¡°First of all, everything around us seems to be¡­ flowing. Like its in a massive ocean.¡±


    ¡°That much is normal. We¡¯re facing Primordial Ocean, after all, so a bunch of planar energy that¡¯s often referred to as flowing, and so on, would fall partly under its domain. Additionally, we are within the centre of the land that it is attempting to conquer, even if my Conqueror¡¯s Eye is keeping it back, so energy within its domain would conform to its will, just as my conquered territory manifests chains and the like.¡±


    ¡°Although I never really understood the chains thing, I will just trust you with it. So, the second thing is that the particles are¡­ picking up other ones and sort of merging with them?¡±


    ¡°Given that you¡¯re not sure about what you¡¯re seeing, I-¡± Wei Yi¡¯s eyes widened, and her gaze, which had wandered off into the distance, snapped back onto Jia Rong, ¡°Where is this currently most prominent? Show me right now!¡±


    She jumped, but managed to point in a direction quickly and speak without stuttering, ¡°There.¡±


    The Ascendant turned and focused all of her perceptive abilities upon that area, partly withdrawing her divine sense from everything within her domain until the attention of a seventh realm expert ¨C if such a was even fit for her when she so vastly outranked the vast majority of so-called experts ¨C was placed onto a single wall of a structure that must have had a minimum of four before the other parts collapsed and left it as little more than a reminder of a building¡¯s presence among a pile of ruined building materials.


    There, subtle yet most prominent to one that looked for it, she could see the bricks almost melting, smudging a little as invisible winds claimed parts of them and drew those parts away, somewhere into the distance.


    ¡°The Gluttonous Leech.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Is that some kind of technique?¡±


    ¡°The Magnanimous Leech certainly is, and the Shi District¡¯s Gluttonous Leech might also be. More importantly, however, the properties of these techniques should match with Primordial Ocean¡¯s power, meaning that the Magnanimous Leech I had come across in the Kong Prison Realm should have been based, directly or indirectly, on the energy of this Primordial Deity!¡±


    ¡°M-Meaning?¡± the demonic woman did stutter this time, though not too badly.


    ¡°It means that Primordial Ocean had influence here before, and at some point the Patriarchs of the Shi District would have been on its side. Back then, they might well have used the Gluttonous Leech actively, leading to their people gaining oddly perfect appearances, devoid of flaws yet rich in variety that shouldn¡¯t have been present from a family that cared about its lineage and didn¡¯t just sleep around with everyone, everywhere.¡±


    There was no comment, likely due to Jia Rong having rather limited experience with matters of the adult variety thanks to being chained in a cave from an age that might have led to her having an interest in such matters. Wei Yi continued regardless.


    ¡°Although they do not appear to be actively utilising their Gluttonous Leech now, it is still present and effective upon them. If Primordial Ocean is slain, they might suffer as a result, but that is fine. Rather, it is quite ideal, as they should learn, now and forever more, that attempting to play with such things will never end well,¡± she said, ¡°Perhaps if I left them on their own, they would go through the techniques of the Great Leeches and try to copy them as well, since both their old techniques and the people so keen to ruin Yi City both featured the word ¡®Leech¡¯ in their titles.¡±


    One of those wasn¡¯t voluntary, nor ever embraced by the people that she had attached it to, but she had gladly badmouthed the Great Leeches even when they were still present and at full power. With them now gone, there was no reason to hold back, though there were also few opportunities to say anything against them now that they didn¡¯t irritate her regularly.


    Jia Rong was clearly more interested in the energy around them, for she had stopped listening rather quickly and returned her attention to the particles of planar energy that were visible only to her.


    ¡°So, what should I do? It doesn¡¯t seem like this Gluttonous Leech property is affecting either you or me, but it is getting progressively more and more unpleasant to look at the more I do it, so maybe it would be a good idea for me to go¡­¡±


    ¡°Stay. I will pay attention to this draining effect, try to keep it at bay with all of my methods, and make sure that the dragons don¡¯t contribute to the power of Primordial Ocean any more than they might already have done,¡± Wei Yi said, ¡°Your power is quite helpful here, so long as you keep the physical force down a little. I had wanted to limit the attention I needed to pay to the average minions, but if I have to protect the district from you constantly, it won¡¯t be much of an improvement.¡±


    ¡°Oh, had I used too much strength? It¡¯s been growing lately, and I haven¡¯t had the chance to practise much.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that can happen.¡±


    The Ascendant remembered how she had managed to lodge herself into a cave wall the first time she had improved her physique, and could understand it entirely, even if her words might come off as rather dismissive by a party that was unaware of this.


    ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s go, and I¡¯ll give you a few opportunities to practise your strength before we go off on our own. Is there anything else that you want to point it, or was that everything?¡±


    She shook her head, ¡°I can¡¯t find anything. If I notice something that¡¯s even a little odd, I will point it out immediately! I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ll hear it, though, since you said you will be focusing on other things, and you are rarely ever near me when I might want to reach you, but¡­ I¡¯m sure it would be totally fine!¡±


    ¡°Great enthusiasm.¡±


    ¡°Thank you!¡± the not-so-young woman smiled and, accidentally or not, presented her head in a manner that made it easy to pat it and praise her for her actions, though the Ascendant resisted the latter part and simply satisfied herself that way.


    Then, they set out and split up, Jia Rong going off to the parts of the district that were more occupied by the Primordial Deity¡¯s minions, and the Ascendant heading towards Primordial Ocean itself. In order to force back the tide of its minions, it was necessary to force Primordial Ocean to retreat or otherwise expend all of its power on her instead of its influenced monstrosities. Additionally, she had to figure out a way to take care of its Leech effect as quickly as possible, so that the people of the Shi District weren¡¯t completely drained by it during battle, or something of the sort.


    Wei Yi also needed to consider the matter of her own safety, as she had no guarantee that the current power of the Primordial Deity¡¯s leeching would remain constant, nor that it would continue to avoid targeting her or her allies like it currently did. Perhaps all it needed was a concerted effort by Primordial Ocean to focus that power upon her, or the Arbiters, and she would be affected as well.


    Such a thing would be absurdly concerning, not because Primordial Ocean would grow more intelligent, but because the Magnanimous Leech was a permanent drain upon its target. Every single drop of anything that Wei Yi lost could never be recovered, at least presumably, and this was something that she could never, ever accept. Perhaps she would only ever lose one thousandth of a percent of her overall intelligence, power, memory or something else, but this could be fatal and completely ruin whatever abnormal power she currently had. It was impossible to know exactly what it would do to her state.


    If Primordial Ocean¡¯s leeching somehow took a percentage of an element rather than a quantity, then it might well lead to the worst possible situation of all, which she didn¡¯t even wish to consider.


    As she travelled towards the ancient Primordial Deity, she continued to conjure roots wherever there weren¡¯t other forces taking care of oceanic minions, and advanced at a decent pace as a result. It was far slower than if she just moved herself to the destination with Omit Movement, but the result was that the district was slowly cleared of unsightly influences, even if that still lagged behind her own movements. By the time she got to the front, her forces were half of the way through.


    She let out a few more sets of vines while she could, ensuring that none of her forces would lose any ground, and then turned to the water, the waves readily attempting to crash into her with enough force to break an ordinary woman into tiny pieces, if not dust.


    ¡®Conqueror¡¯s Eye with Elder Watcher is good enough to resist something this simple,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, forcing her eyes to light up with the power of the two physique abilities.


    Their power surged out, chains and tendrils trapping the raging waves and forcing them to stall. It was resisted for a moment by the power of Primordial Ocean, but then the light of her True Existence joined her other powers, stalling the water and letting a pathway form all the way to the Primordial Deity¡¯s body.


    Wei Yi stepped on it right away, only waiting for the step before her to stabilise before proceeding. Although the distance between her and the Primordial Deity she was targeting was long, she hardly needed to get close enough to touch before they would have to confront one another. Indeed, only after getting through a tenth of the distance between them, Primordial Ocean lazily turned its head in her direction, water bubbling in place of eyes.


    ¡°Mortal thing¡­ Get out of here. Your stench, the aura around you, pollutes my waters simply by proximity,¡± Primordial Ocean said, being a great change of pace after Primordial Inferno¡¯s insane rambling, ¡°This place does not belong to you.¡±


    ¡°It does not belong to you either, mortal thing,¡± the Ascendant spoke back, ¡°I have killed two of your peers already, and wield the third¡¯s power, and you will not be any different!¡±


    ¡°How arrogant. I gave you the opportunity to leave, I hope you remember that.¡±


    Until then, Primordial Ocean had been incredibly calm and quiet, as if she was dealing with a random passer-by and not an enemy that was intending to kill her and everything she manifested during her brief stay in the Shi District. It was like conversing with a woman that was half-asleep, and not a strange entity like a Primordial Deity, but rather just an ordinary woman. That all changed after the Ascendant¡¯s reply.


    The calm water that made up the entity itself boiled and bubbled, foam forming on the surface, transforming the blue to a pale white. When the foam appeared, a hint of the attributes this monstrosity was taking from the world around it became prominent, for colours not belonging on pure ocean water began to appear like paint seeping through the world.


    One could see vitality, strength, intelligence, memory and skills all mixing together on the Primordial Deity¡¯s surface, manifesting visually despite most attributes being abstract in nature and rarely ever visualised. With every bubble of foam that formed, the aura of this ancient entity grew bolder and more mighty, and it changed from this sleepy, tired humanoid to a raging beast that almost generated the element of blaze from the sheer anger that it suddenly bore, though it was not too surprising of a phenomenon.


    Primordial Ocean must have taken the people¡¯s mental energy just the same as it took everything else, and one thing that it must have picked up was the people¡¯s anger at, well, just about everything. There was plenty of reason to find rage and hatred in the everyday world, but in a district suddenly ravaged by unknown forces to most of the population, it was only natural that everyone would be furious regardless of their eventual outcome.


    Far too many perished before the Ascendant arrived with her dragons and one demoness, and now their anger will be applying to the very thing that had ruined their lives. Of course, that also applied to their skill, speed, intellect and whatever else those people had to spare.


    All of these things were turned against Wei Yi the instant after Primordial Ocean¡¯s transformation, a vast tsunami spawning from the moisture of the air and rushing towards her. The wave seemed to encompass the world, forcing her to pay attention to the fact that these Primordial Deities did have stages of their own, although they may never be able to advance on their own, relying on the world to push them back or forth. Some were weaker, some were stronger, regardless of their stage, but Primordial Ocean was most certainly at the peak of what a Primordial Deity could be. This wave was no joke, even to her.


    Well, none of the Primordial Deities have been a joke so far. Perhaps Primordial Cosmos could be said to be a joke, for it had not yet appeared or hurt anyone, or Primordial Energy, as it took only a moment to seal it, but when they got the chance to strike, their power had been consistently overwhelming. Thus, even with her every physique power activated, she was forced to guard and evade at once.

 V5C97: Shifting the Tides

    Roots, water, and hastily assembled barriers made up the majority of the Ascendant¡¯s battle as the sun set and, slowly, began to rose over the horizon.


    Just as the roots had proved to be effective upon the minions of the Primordial Deity, they affected the entity itself, and although Primordial Ocean was able to scatter and break the roots as they appeared, Wei Yi was still able to have a good portion of roots settle within the entity for long enough to have some effect.


    She had not experienced the Primordial Deity¡¯s Leech property so far, so she could not compare it to her own roots, but the latter certainly did not function on a percentage. Rather, the roots had a limited quantity of energy that they were able to draw from the entity they targeted, and most weren¡¯t even able to return that energy to the central node, from where the Ascendant could easily put it to use again. As a result, the effect on Primordial Ocean was unfortunately limited, to the point that it was only as effective on it as the grey dust had been on Primordial Nature itself, wasting numerous hours.


    As for the barriers, they had the purpose of negating the sheer destructive force of the tsunami waves being sent in her direction every second. It wasn¡¯t necessary to stop them completely, only to deflect the impact and to ensure that the structures they would have hit did not collapse.


    Obviously, she employed additional roots and flora to reinforce every structure that was suitable for her rather rough method ¨C her mind was occupied by other things, so more precise manipulation of plant life was not viable in the slightest ¨C but there was only so much that could be done even after the Shaper¡¯s Grasp, Conqueror¡¯s Eye and Elder Watcher were applied. She could only produce so much with her methods, and a seventh or eighth realm material was not yet within her capabilities.


    ¡®Really, it should be, but my techniques are partially lacking thanks to lacking time and material to work with, at least when it comes to suitable methods,¡¯ Wei Yi thought.


    That thought had happened at some point before the battle altered once more, when both of them had figured out that things weren¡¯t going particularly well, nor were especially likely to change without some external force. Both acted at once, to the extent of it being rather difficult to figure out whether one of them had started it or if they had just managed to identify the situation at the exact same time and simply match one another by accident. Whatever the case, both Wei Yi and Primordial Ocean had an idea, and carried it out.


    Primordial Ocean¡¯s idea arrived instantly, possibly being transported via the waters of the Primordial Deity. It was a figure that the Ascendant did not recognise, but she could tell that others did, and soon understood why.


    It was a figure that was humanoid, almost resembling an elderly man with a lengthy beard and hair that merged together into a flowing length akin to the Primordial Deity¡¯s own hair. When it first emerged, the figure almost seemed to be screaming at the skies, its attention unfocused and turned away from the battle, but some unheard command from Primordial Ocean forced its head down to face the Ascendant, some hint of humanoid eyes remaining within something resembling a skull.


    ¡°P-Patriarch!¡± a shout came from afar, as Shi Jing recognised the figure.


    As the Ascendant had expected, Primordial Ocean did not simply sit in the middle of the Shi District without any purpose to its actions. Rather, it had occupied itself, or at least some part of its power, with conquering and altering one of the strongest presences in the district, and it now decided to unleash its creation. Perhaps the Patriarch had just completed the change, or maybe it just liked the timing.


    The Ascendant¡¯s response was similar, in that it involved a single individual coming onto the battlefield, except that her reinforcements were already present at the scene.


    ¡°Is that their Patriarch? In my eyes, he looks¡­ even worse,¡± Jia Rong muttered, though most could still hear her, ¡°Are you sure that this is someone that I am even able to handle? Wei Yi? Are you not even going to reply?¡±


    ¡°No. Get over there and hit him in the face.¡±


    ¡°Can he be saved?¡±


    ¡°Can you reverse time?¡±


    Jia Rong got the point ¨C and her surface-level thoughts indicated that she recalled how many people she had already slaughtered without giving them a chance to recover ¨C and wanted to rush into the water, but she was unlikely to make much progress as she had no ability stand on water. Before she could get far, the Ascendant produced a vine and let it grab onto the former Patriarch, pulling him away from the water before what remained of his body had the chance to break it, throwing the body right towards Jia Rong.


    Primordial Ocean glared at her through the foam, ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing? Mortal thing, infusing the world with more abnormal stench won¡¯t grant you victory.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t give a fuck. I¡¯ll fight you, and Jia Rong can fight the mockery you¡¯ve made of this district¡¯s Patriarch. Feel free to leave if you don¡¯t want to, but something tells me that you don¡¯t intend to do so,¡± Wei Yi replied, ¡°Now, come at me, and let me devour your power as well! Let me purify this world of your influence!¡±


    As always, her passionate words were followed by an eruption of killing will, which could never be exhausted even when it was drawn upon constantly and without hesitation. Her other abilities were already being utilised in full, and so that was all that she could do to boost her strength before jumping in. Given that Primordial Ocean was certain to try and gain an advantage to finish her off after their lengthy battle, it was imperative that she did not permit it to go past her, and so it was necessary to use everything she had.


    She was concerned that her killing will would rush into the eighth realm, gain an even greater degree of control over her, and grow far beyond her ability to subdue to the extent that it would absolutely dominate her even in times when it was not at all helpful. However, this did not yet happen.


    There was an obstruction of some kind before the eighth realm, and she was not inclined to seek out the nature of this obstacle as it offered her the chance to finally catch up to her killing will realm and match it, allowing her cultivation to stabilise perfectly. It would enhance her power, enhance her control, and possibly permit killing will to contribute to the other cultivation paths more effectively and allow them to grow at the same time.


    ¡®Well, whatever will happen, I doubt the heavens will choose an outcome that benefits me. Ideally, I won¡¯t need to rely upon them at all,¡¯ the Ascendant thought for a moment.


    Jia Rong, despite the length of time spent in the new world, had not fully acclimated to the constant combat that everyone around the Planar Continents seemed to love engaging in. She had spent some time in various training centres, mostly to experience them at least once, but she still had very limited practise in actual combat.


    Right away, she recognised that this was not the case for her foe, a man that likely had the surname of Shi but would not be known as such any longer. This man, the former Patriarch of the District, still retained knowledge of combat, tactics and whatever else, whether through Primordial Ocean or his own body. When he was sent flying towards her, she could only respond with a straightforward punch to what had been his face, but the former Patriarch shifted in the air and moved to gather energy that Jia Rong had no ability to counter with energy of her own.


    All that she could do was continue with the punch, and see how it would go.


    ¡®I bet that Wei Yi would have appreciated a fighter being stuck in time far more than me¡­¡¯ the demonic woman thought, though she shook that thought out of her head ¨C mentally, for she couldn¡¯t afford to move her head in reality, ¡®No, I can do this. I can use my body, and I can hit things. That¡¯s enough!¡¯


    Her fist struck the body of the former Patriarch, and his power was directed at her stomach, perhaps hoping to force her guts outside of her body and bring her to an early end. Both of them hit their target without much issue, for Jia Rong did not intend to put up her guard, while the former Patriarch had attempted to put up a few layers of water to block her fist but ultimately failed due to their lacking power.


    The moment that his energy touched her, it faded or simply travelled around her, flowing past like she was a stone within a river. Even that would have affected the stone, but in this analogy the stone was also water repellent and completely immune to the water¡¯s effect, so the result was that a vast wave of water-type energy instead burst into the district.


    Much fell on its structures, sinking into their foundation and being consumed by Wei Yi¡¯s roots, while the rest headed towards the remaining few living men and women. The latter were shielded or otherwise moved away by the dragons, saving both Jia Rong and Wei Yi the headache.


    On the other hand, Jia Rong¡¯s fist pushed into the fluid that made up most of the former Patriarch¡¯s current body, and struck some invisible solid within. It managed to repulse her hand, forcing it back out of the liquid, but it also shook the former Patriarch, his form distorting and wobbling wildly, resembling a jelly more so than a common fluid. How such a thing occurred wasn¡¯t clear, but what became overwhelmingly obvious after a few more strikes was that it had to have some importance, no matter how vague.


    Even if it did not, that was for Wei Yi, not her, to decide.


    The Ascendant might have been described as an avatar of nature had one first witnessed her in this battle. Roots spawned from every segment of land available, and their number overwhelmed even the quantity of energy she sent at the Primordial Deity. Of course, Primordial Ocean tried to fight back, but the situation quickly settled down to their previous stalemate.


    ¡°Wei Yi, have you noticed that this guy is constantly wobbling when I hit him?¡± Jia Rong¡¯s voice reached her from the back.


    ¡®I have, since I needed to pay attention to everything you did to minimize the damage to the land, but¡­ I suppose this calls for another use of Law. Don¡¯t know why I am always so reluctant to employ it, especially when I now have a great mass of energy concentrated below the earth,¡¯ the Ascendant thought, raising both hands and conjuring a vast wall of wood just in time to block Primordial Ocean¡¯s latest attack, ¡®Why not. I¡¯ve wanted to comprehend another Dao in a few minutes again.¡¯


    A wave of her hands led to the roots parting, letting her look upon Primordial Ocean without interference or interruption. As always, the entity looked horrendous by human standards, and it only seemed to get worse the longer they fought, but that wasn¡¯t what she was paying attention to now.


    Rather, she sought to find the most pivotal aspect of the entity, then crush it just like she extinguished Primordial Inferno.


    Her first idea was to address the shape of the entity, for she already had experience with reverting a form of energy or matter to one that it should have been in. The entities created by it were maintained in their intended form by something within them, but whatever the source, it went against natural Law. Therefore, she had some power over it, and with Primordial Ocean being weakened a little after their conflict, it was the best time to attempt something against the Primordial Deity, though she wasn¡¯t relying on this plan alone.


    There were several different factors she could target, and this attempt was only the one she had successfully applied most recently. Already, she was seeking other chains to manipulate in order to accomplish her alternative plans.


    ¡°Water is a fluid that fits the shape of its container. You defy Law.¡±


    The Ascendant¡¯s words caused resonance with the world, but the power of Primordial Ocean collided with the rippling of chains and forced them to be nearly still. A faint jangle of chains could still be heard, but it would not be enough to crush the Primordial Deity into a useless puddle on the ground. It was a fact that the Primordial Deity appeared rather gleeful about.


    ¡°Your horrendous clanging should be put to an end, mortal thing. Your voice irritates me to no end. Begone!¡±


    It produced a vast wave to sweep her away once more, as if this was the only technique available to Primordial Ocean, but Wei Yi wasn¡¯t fazed.


    ¡®I expected this much, so let¡¯s attempt the next thing,¡¯ she said to herself, raising her hand again, ¡®Doing something that leans towards their nature, rather than trying to impose the natural world¡¯s Laws upon them, is significantly easier, so¡­ Fluidity, pooling together, siphoning power from another¡­ When water behaves as water does, it ought to do so all the way, and thus Primordial Ocean ought to be one with the ocean of the continents¡­¡¯


    With another eruption of her killing will, as to subdue the power of the Primordial Deity, she called out, ¡°Water mixes and converges, flowing towards the larger ocean. Now, do as you should, Leech of mankind.¡±


    Her purpose was two-fold. Other than simply wishing for Primordial Ocean to behave according to her will, she believed that she would make the battle far simpler for her forces by removing the Primordial Deity¡¯s influence from the rest of the Shi District. She didn¡¯t even expect to solve the problem completely, as her Dao of Law was still lacking, but managing even one would be incredibly helpful.


    The power of the world¡¯s chains of Law resonated with far more vigour this time, for she encouraged the natural deviations of the Primordial Deity and forced them into overdrive. Fortunately, she had not accentuated the element of leeching in her command, only mentioning it as a title, so while Primordial Ocean¡¯s energy still attempted to siphon from the world around it, it barely managed to do such a thing before it was ripped away from whatever it had grabbed onto, and forced into the centre of the battlefield, as if it was on the edge of a great whirlpool and got pulled in.


    This affected every minion and every spawn of Primordial Ocean that was present, including the former Patriarch of the Shi District, though it did not immediately end him or the other entities.


    She could see the particles flowing away clearly, and while the pull did not take everything, Jia Rong could see that thing that made it stable. Rather, she could perceive it far more clearly than before, and so she had to take the opportunity.


    As before, she went to strike as simply as she could, trying to avoid any chances of failure when such a thing was simply not permissible, but when the entity that had been the Patriarch feebly dodged, she had the strange idea of going for a kick instead. It was not something she specialised in, but she had seen Lan Mei Xing practising quite a lot, and she had gotten involved a few times. When compared to a complete novice, she was a little better.


    Her footing had been affected by the missed swing, but she used it to her advantage in order to move forward, planting her right foot into the ground with all the force she could muster. Then, with her left, she focused upon the technique demonstrated by Lan Mei Xing and, almost forgetting that she was on the battlefield, simply copied exactly what her mind had recorded.


    In her time in the Ascendant¡¯s domain, a Yi City that was returning to its former size, she had attempted to use some of the mental techniques recorded in the freely accessible archives to improve her memory and mental capacity, but most of the tomes did not match with her mind very well. As such, she had neither a mental library nor a great palace in the mind, but she must have accumulated plenty of space in her head after more than a million, if not billion years in the depths of a cave, for certain things stuck in her memory almost perfectly.


    She hadn¡¯t imagined this type of kick to be one of them, but she was proved wrong by a strangely satisfying sound of impact, alongside a kind of sloshing and pouring sound.


    To prevent herself from getting caught off-guard, Jia Rong brought her attention back to the real world, only to find the shape of the former Patriarch breaking apart and splattering onto the ground, leaving a wet puddle where this man once stood.


    ¡®I¡­ did that? Wasn¡¯t that a bit easy?¡¯


    At the time, Wei Yi wasn¡¯t paying much attention to the demonic woman¡¯s thoughts, as she was instead gathering her power to force Law to bend the world to her will once more. Primordial Ocean was still in the divide between the Shi District, and she needed to change that, especially now that it was growing more powerful due to its power gathering upon one spot.


    ¡°Water adheres to itself. If countless droplets were to be let loose, they would form into a single pool. So, flow to where your presence is greatest.¡±


    Ideally, she would have done this earlier, for much of Primordial Ocean¡¯s power had already returned to it, but fortunately for the Ascendant, the Primordial Deity decided to set its roots in the western portion of the Shi District. There was still plenty of its energy left there, and it suddenly found itself being pulled in that direction without any explicit forces that it could counter. It was as if the world itself simply picked up a piece from a board and moved it elsewhere, disregarding its opinions entirely.


    ¡°Mortal thing, you have tested my patience again and again. You-¡±


    ¡°As water gets deeper, its level rises. So, rise to the western coast and join the rest of your corrupting power.¡±


    This time, she was going against common sense when it came to natural Law, for water flowed down and pooled in the deepest parts of the world first, but it was also true that it rose as more accumulated. At her current level of the Dao of Law, completely altering it was impossible without more energy than she could provide even with her killing will being completely exhausted, but if she just moved around a few figurative clauses, it was still reasonable to employ during the battle. The moment it had been moved far enough, she could relax that Law.


    Primordial Ocean was forcefully pulled up the western shore, and it seemed to take full advantage of being locked into a retreat while full of power to produce an abnormal variety of waves, watery lances and whatever else water could form into, and launched it all in the direction of the Ascendant. Luckily, this was also affected by her power over the Laws around her.


    ¡®Not to say that it¡¯s particularly cheap, though,¡¯ she thought, feeling her body trying to collapse onto itself again, ¡®Even with the mass of energy beneath the ground, it seems that it is my body that takes the brunt of the world¡¯s retaliation. As expected of the incompetent heavens, I suppose¡­¡¯


    She waited and watched to see which would give out first, and it was then that Jia Rong had struck down Primordial Ocean¡¯s mockery of the Shi District¡¯s Patriarch. When she observed it, her focus had been on the state of the former Patriarch rather than the thoughts of his killer, and she noticed that the supposed death wasn¡¯t much more than the disruption of the former Patriarch¡¯s facsimile. With its destruction, all of that remaining energy flowed back to its source.


    As it turned out, the former Patriarch had held a good portion of the Primordial Deity¡¯s power, and with it returning to its origin, a major anchor for Primordial Ocean was removed. In one moment, it was thrown back a dozen metres, something that had previously taken half a minute to occur at the moment of least resistance. Better yet, this simply accelerated.


    For Primordial Ocean to reach the other shore, it took a mere five minutes, and another two for it to be pulled far enough along for her command to become insufficiently effective in comparison to the draw it had upon her vitality and energy. She cancelled her commands, and took their place by rushing in and colliding with her foe on her own. Physical strength was combined with her cultivation paths, and she performed a physical strike against Primordial Ocean to force it to confront her in close combat rather than her typical waves and what not.


    ¡°Have you no shame?¡±


    ¡°If you think that making me laugh will be a more effective strategy than your waves had been, you might be right,¡± the Ascendant said, ¡°You don¡¯t appear to be able to take me down, but I might well be distracted by your bullshit and slip up somewhere. Frankly, I¡¯d just prefer you to die.¡±


    As always, the greedy Primordial Deity would never do such a thing, and so it instead tried to make use of its power to avoid being hit. It split into a dozen waves, then converged upon the wave that went furthest from the Ascendant and manifested an enormous vortex to surround itself and prevent Wei Yi from getting any closer. The fluids of the western side of the Shi District were pulled in to conjure a wall of spears so full of just about everything that could be placed in water.


    Such a method had its place against ordinary cultivators and warriors in general, but the Ascendant had an advantage as she could travel literally anywhere within a vague vicinity of herself in an instant. With no Law-based power being kept up at the moment, it was literally something that required no cost or effort whatsoever.


    When the whirlpool shifted in just the right way, she appeared beside the Primordial Deity and ¨C with Moon Splitter brought out and put into her left hand ¨C she swung down with killing will infused into the blade beyond anything resembling a safe level.


    It tore through the surface of the entity¡¯s body, but it simply splashed onto the rest of it and flooded back into the wound.


    Wei Yi knew that her attacks wouldn¡¯t do much without an additional element, so as the Primordial Deity¡¯s form attempted to repair itself, she willed a vast number of roots to burst out of the ground and sink into the opening provided by her attack. They were unable to pierce too far, but unlike before, the Primordial Deity also wasn¡¯t able to remove the roots because Wei Yi appeared at a different point and slashed down again, breaching the surface as before.


    Her presumption as she repeated her attacks without any pause or delay, using every root that had grown beneath the earth in preparation for this, was that the roots would continue to be mostly ineffective at inflicting real damage to Primordial Ocean, but that their sapping of its energy would give her more room to carry out some other attack, perhaps using Law, or perhaps not. Contrary to this expectation, when the waters of the Primordial Deity passed through the roots for a little while, the roots suddenly grew stronger and denser, their rapid improvement causing the Ascendant to remember why such a phenomena could occur.


    ¡®I hold the Branch of Fitness after taking it from Primordial Nature, and that is essentially the principle of adaptation to the scenario at hand. When given the power to do so, the roots will naturally be able to take the traits of Primordial Ocean¡¯s energy and either borrow them, or figure out a way to overcome them more effectively. Their purpose is to drain energy, so becoming more efficient at it is only natural¡­¡¯


    Perhaps Primordial Ocean would have opened what passed for a mouth and protested, but Wei Yi pre-empted it and shoved her roots just about everywhere they could go. With a human woman, perhaps she might have permitted her some dignity and avoided certain sensitive areas out of a completely unnecessary politeness, but even if the Primordial Deity removed every single inhuman feature on its body and acted as a shy maiden caught up in the conflict, the Ascendant would never let it go.


    Soon, the Primordial Deity was utterly swallowed by Wei Yi¡¯s boundless roots, and it cried out from within, not that she cared.


    Instead, the second that the roots were tough enough to not be broken by Primordial Ocean¡¯s efforts, she redirected all of the energy they could have consumed to her own body, and let it pass through her meridians and enter her dantian, where the primordial walls seemed to easily take ownership of the energy that settled into them.


    Her cultivation rushed to a higher realm, rising more and more, but at the last moment, when the cries of Primordial Ocean vanished completely from within the roots, her progress stalled at the very edge.


    It was the gap between the fifth and sixth stage, the latter of which would very likely give her the ability to confront the Primordial Deities with slightly more ordinary methods than excessive roots being shoved in places where they didn¡¯t belong, and yet the power of Primordial Ocean was apparently insufficient to bridge the gap. How this was possible when she had just defeated the most powerful Primordial Deity so far, at least purely energy-wise, she had no clue, but it was still the case.


    Still, she had to turn to the world and proclaim, ¡°Primordial Ocean is dead! The Shi District is safe!¡±

 V5C98: Chasing the Stars

    The Ascendant claimed the spatial stabilisation node, quickly threw a few remaining drops of her energy remaining in the roots to the future Matriarch of the Shi District, and then departed. It wasn¡¯t that she really didn¡¯t wish to stick around the Shi District, as it was perfectly fine as far as districts went¡­ mostly. The feeling of the Gluttonous Leech was still present, and it was incredibly unpleasant, but she had handled worse things.


    On that note, she had confirmed the origin of the Gluttonous Leech, and the Magnanimous Leech as a result. Many years ago, the Primordial Deity had been present in what would become the Shi District, and just as wild beasts influenced some to create techniques, the calmer Primordial Ocean must have influenced someone to create a technique that would give them a leeching ability similar to the entity that they resided beside. Due to lacking information, she couldn¡¯t confirm whether this had influence from Primordial Ocean itself, but what was clear was that the Shi family had become immensely capable due to their usage of the Gluttonous Leech.


    Enemies would be deprived of all of their positive traits, leaving little more than husks, while they thrived, becoming the leaders of the Shi District when Kong Shi Meng defeated the Primordial Deity that previously ruled there.


    It was also then that the Shi family had to ease up on their usage of the Leech, due to the loss of a Primordial Deity that directly supported a skill combined with Kong Shi Meng¡¯s presumed distaste for such a method, and it was slowly lost to time. The central Shi family knew about it still, but only by name, hardly remembering the function of the ability that had given them so much power.


    The one place that did not lose the technique was the Kong Prison Realm, where it changed into the Magnanimous Leech and was eventually put to use by a descendant of the Shi family, Shi Luo Feng.


    Tracing that woman¡¯s lineage was impossible, so it was uncertain whether she had a direct relation or if she just acquired the surname by chance, and it wasn¡¯t particularly worthwhile. At best, she¡¯d just confirm the source of yet another vile technique that needed to be removed from the public¡¯s eye in the state that it was in, so that none had the chance of abusing it to the extent that Shi Luo Feng or the old Shi family did.


    Returning to the reason that she left, it was due to an external factor in the form of Primordial Cosmos.


    It had yet to make a proper appearance that she was able to see herself, but for the first time since its emergence, she had been able to perceive its presence tangibly. The Primordial Deity was out there somewhere, and if it began to pose a threat to Yi City, it would need to be taken down. More importantly, if she had a similar strength against it as against Primordial Energy, which suffered quite a bit after she took a bit of its energy, then it would essentially be a free boost to the sixth stage that she wanted so much at the moment.


    The chance couldn¡¯t be overlooked, and the other Primordial Deities were temporarily sealed with no chance of releasing them only to seal them back up ¨C save for Primordial Metal, which was out of the way for now ¨C so it was easily the best and most suitable target.


    Since Primordial Cosmos appeared once, she headed right over to where she glimpsed it and watched for any further appearance. In order to not spend all of her time staring at grass and whatnot, as the area between the Ning District and Wei District lacked much else, she split up her focus somewhat. By remaining in the region where the Primordial Deity was sighted, she would ensure that her divine sense was strongest there, but by shifting her mind into the Kong Prison Realm, and thus the Yi City Web, she could appear there and focus on taking care of what few problems she could handle in her lands. She was still unsure exactly how she had managed to do this while unconscious those few times, but she was replicating it effectively enough.


    Jia Rong did not express much interest in conversing, being occupied by some matters that she did not care to share, but Lan Mei Xing, her inspiration for the kick that took out the former Shi Patriarch, did find the Ascendant almost the moment that she showed up in Paragon. The old friend of Kong Shi Meng didn¡¯t make what she wanted clear, at first, but it soon became obvious regardless.


    She had a wary expression, a frown on her face, and couldn¡¯t stand entirely still, all of which was rather uncharacteristic of the woman.


    ¡°Do you mind isolating us from any observation? I am rather concerned about something.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± the Ascendant said, that alone giving her a bit of a clue, but she had to shift her position into the Kong Prison Realm in order to then seal it away from the outside world, where certain people might be listening in.


    It took a moment to move around, but sealing the spatial realm was something she was getting more and more experience with, so it did not take long.


    ¡°You¡¯ve done it, right? I have a suspicion about Kong Shi Meng-¡±


    ¡°Most likely, he isn¡¯t who he claims to be, though I have not yet identified who he actually is. For all I know, that man isn¡¯t human,¡± Wei Yi finished for her, ¡°I know, but I haven¡¯t shared it to prevent him from learning, and to minimize the general worry about such things. Everyone who knows about him is significant enough to matter in the conflict against the Primordial Deities, and anything that will come next, so if they were to suddenly be distraught after learning that Kong Shi Meng is not Kong Shi Meng, it wouldn¡¯t be very good for any one of us.¡±


    ¡°Have you been keeping an eye on him, then?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. From the moment that I had my suspicions. So far as I can tell, I¡¯ve kept him away from anything too important, and I haven¡¯t even been using his strength to defeat the Primordial Deities. Nonetheless, there isn¡¯t much that can be done against him for the moment, especially when his identity isn¡¯t clear.¡±


    ¡°You would just let someone like that parade about and impersonate my boss? My best friend? Does Shi Meng mean nothing to you?¡± Lan Mei Xing exclaimed with extreme passion.


    ¡°Although I haven¡¯t met him in person, his achievements do mean a great deal. However, I cannot simply do whatever I like and expect it to go smoothly. This Xu Shi Meng is a powerful figure even if he is somehow lacking in comparison to the true Kong Shi Meng, and if he was to be a foe, he could wipe us out. You of all people should not only know, but clearly remember the gap between the seventh, eighth and ninth realms.¡±


    ¡°¡­ I know. It just¡­ sucks, you know?¡±


    ¡°I am well aware. I would love to change the situation, but there is only so much I can do at a time. For now, Xu Shi Meng is on our side, and we need to take advantage of it.¡±


    ¡°Tch. I-¡±


    The Ascendant cut off her words by raising her hand and turning to the side, unsealing the Kong Prison Realm and gazing into the outside world. She had very little knowledge about anything taking place outside of it while it was separated from the world, but she did have just enough to perceive a presence felt only the day before.


    ¡°Primordial Cosmos, again. I have to go.¡±


    Lan Mei Xing didn¡¯t need further explanation, not that she could have received it even if she wanted one. As soon as she caught wind of Primordial Cosmos¡¯ presence, Wei Yi headed right over, leaving the Kong Prison Realm without hesitation.


    She appeared a moment later in the area between the Wei District and Ning District, standing at the spot where her remaining divine sense had spotted the presence of a Primordial Deity, and for the first time, saw a physical trace. It was rather surreal, actually, as the blades of grass at that spot were partially broken up into gleaming stars, with larger bunches manifesting into monochrome nebulae and galaxies.


    Somehow, the shape of the grass remained mostly intact, and it still moved in the wind as if she was just seeing an illusion of some kind.


    ¡®Looks fascinating, but there doesn¡¯t seem to be any obvious reason why the Primordial Deity had appeared just now and touched the grass before fucking off as quickly as it had shown up,¡¯ Wei Yi thought as she carefully reached out to pluck a blade of said grass in the hopes of being able to discover something even vaguely useful from the energy left upon it.


    Instead, however, the energy seemed so happy to come into contact with her, that it seeped right into her body and towards her dantian the moment she came near it. It was absurdly insistent on this, to the point that she had to suspect it to be a trap of some kind, but by that point it had already gotten to the area where all the other Primordial Deities found their energy turning against them¡­ and the cosmos that had entered now was no different. It merged with her cultivation incredibly smoothly, a star appearing within the endless sea of the oblivion essence.


    The quantity was insufficient to advance her realm, but with the star gleaming in her oblivion essence, she could partially guess where to go in order to track down more of Primordial Cosmos¡¯ stars. Right now, it seemed to be somewhere to her south.


    She hastened in that direction right away, and soon a flash of the Primordial Deity¡¯s presence appeared for a second time. It was slightly off from her predicted direction, as she was essentially guessing something based on no information whatsoever, but it was only a slight discrepancy that she corrected right away with Omit Movement.


    For whatever reason, the second trace was another bunch of star-changed grass.


    ¡®Alright, this one has a fetish for grass, or something like that. Alternatively, it doesn¡¯t want to touch the world too much, but has decided to do so now¡­ Why? Is it expecting me?¡¯


    Even if that was the case, she had no clue what the Primordial Deity was looking for. Did it want to kill her, influence her, eat her, or maybe even meet with her and have a pleasant chat? She had no idea whatsoever, for the behaviour of this Primordial Deity so far had been greatly outside of her expectations. She would have liked to learn more before getting into a potential confrontation, but this was not a privilege she had with an entity that was not sealed, and that might well remain that way.


    After picking up the next trace, she tried to track down the direction that the entity continued in. judging by her last guess, she presumed that she had some ability to predict the direction that it would travel in, but the next appearance was in a completely different direction, and of a completely different nature. Thinking about it, this did seem to make quite a great deal of sense, for the entity appeared and disappeared at will, so perhaps it wasn¡¯t travelling somewhere at all, instead popping in and out of existence as easily as the Ascendant could if she perfected the Omit Movement technique and memorized the right coordinate points.


    Thus, tracking it in an ordinary manner was impossible.


    What she could do was pursue the spatial movements that it made, for Primordial Deities were still a part of the world, even if they crossed whatever line the heavens had. They would leave marks that would be obvious to all that knew what to look for, and it was something that Wei Yi did have to learn soon.


    She was in the seventh realm, and climbing steadily towards the eighth, but she barely understood spatial principles sufficiently to create a spatial realm of her own.


    Once upon a time, this would have been rather embarrassing for a seventh realm cultivator, and yet she was the leader of the Arbiters, a force that had ¨C mostly thanks to her own power ¨C purged the world of one great threat, and was on its way to permanently removing another. To make up for her current faults, she needed to improve, and if this Primordial Deity was so keen on giving her the opportunity to learn, she would gladly take it and learn from it while she had the chance to do so.


    After all, once it was gone completely, the Dao it would give her would be greatly lacking in comparison to her own knowledge and skill. With a Full Success of her own in something like the Dao of Law, she would have already dominated the world, but she had not had the chance to reach it yet.


    ¡®Either way, off I go, following this thing until it shows itself properly, or until I comprehend the nature of space. One seems more likely to come before the other, though.¡¯


    She picked up the next trace and let it join her cultivation before shifting her position elsewhere with her movement method. It proved to be quite a way off soon, when the next hint of the Primordial Deity manifested, but it was close enough for her to make another movement and arrive at that spot, picking up that trace as well and continuing on. Each time, she analysed everything in the environment that she was able to perceive, and compared it to everything she had spotted previously. There wasn¡¯t much that stuck out at first, but such things would become obvious with enough examples.


    Once she could eliminate anything caused by the grass, the air, the ambient planar energy and everything else that existed there, she would have to be observing only the influence of Primordial Cosmos, and the method it used to traverse space. At that point, she could also detect where it travelled, how it did so, where it would go next, and more. She didn¡¯t expect the Primordial Deity to be so kind, though.


    Another appearance, another use of Omit Movement, and more observation. This cycle repeated itself a great number of times, to the point that she was getting rather bored of it.


    Just before the one hundredth trace to examine and analyse, she finally spotted it herself.


    Not just some influenced grass, not some air that had changed into a growing nebula, but instead the entity itself, floating above the ground while seeming like it was facing in her direction, though it was incredibly difficult to confirm this.


    Much like Primordial Invader seemed to be a rift in space rather than a solid entity, Primordial Cosmos was a mass of monochrome stars that didn¡¯t effectively convey depth when looked at from the front or back. The Primordial Deity was either facing her or away from her, and it was standing mostly still, in a humanoid pose that was very much unlike Primordial Invader¡¯s otherworldly stances.


    It was shaped like a human, with slightly longer legs than average ¨C obviously, when viewed proportionally, as it was still around twenty metres tall ¨C and hints of a feminine physique, though it could easily be caused by stars that drifted further than others. Beyond that, it had no eyes that were visible at the moment, no defined facial features, no obvious marks of musculature or the like. It was just a floating cloud that had forced the Ascendant to run around for no obvious reason before settling down in the middle of nowhere, with no territory, no influenced flora or fauna, nothing like the normal activities of the Primordial Deities.


    ¡°What are you doing? What are you, exactly?¡± Wei Yi asked, not expecting an answer, but certainly not opposed to one.


    If there was an answer, and it was a good one, then she might ¨C potentially ¨C gain some kind of ally, or at least a source of information she would otherwise miss out on. Even if it kept quiet, as she expected this strange entity to, then she wouldn¡¯t lose out on much by attempting a conversation. Nobody was even around her, so nobody could make an argument that she was consorting with the Primordial Deities when she wasn¡¯t supposed to, not that anyone would dare to make such an argument even if they believed this.


    After all, she didn¡¯t confront Xu Shi Meng for very similar reasons.


    The Primordial Deity did not answer, but it did drift forward slowly and without threat, the left hand rising to reach out to her. As strange as the gesture was, Wei Yi only had one reasonable response.


    Obviously, she took the hand of this entity, for there was no better option. Whatever it was attempting to do, she could still benefit from this close contact and steal some of its power in the same way that she had taken it from the marks it left behind. If there was some kind of abnormality with it, then maybe it could lead her into contact with some deeper areas of reality that she had not yet gotten to explore to her heart¡¯s content.


    Although there was no touch per se, there was contact, and there was the same rush of energy she had experienced with the marks left by Primordial Cosmos. The problem was that she wasn¡¯t interacting with a small influenced mark, but the Primordial Deity itself.


    ¡®Is it just giving away its power? What¡­ the fuck? No, really, this is more concerning than any kind of attack that it could carry out!¡¯ the Ascendant gasped, but even then, she had to let it happen, as it was the best chance to get a great deal of power without any need for combat. To miss out on such a thing would be equivalent to throwing away the path to immortality for any other person, or the opportunity to impose whatever form of justice she would eventually settle upon onto the world. Either way, she had no other choice.


    The stars poured in, headed to her dantian, and, with a wondrous feeling, rushed in to supplement her cultivation, breaching the barrier to the sixth stage.


    At once, the figure distorted and broke, the power of this entity was swallowed up, and the last oblivion halo took form within her body, only to be changed into a completely different arrangement. Each of the spinning halos paused and formed a single circle around her, their power resonating together to multiply her overall strength by one hundred, double of what the ten halos on their own would produce.


    This new form of the oblivion halos required a name, but luckily she had already imagined one.


    ¡°True Apertures¡­ perhaps a True Aperture might even be more fitting, since they¡¯ve merged into one¡­ but what for? Why did you do this?¡±


    Unfortunately, Primordial Cosmos had almost vanished by that point, and the rest of its power joined her cultivation with no ability to reply to her. It was, in a way, a great shame, but even then the Ascendant was not about to shed a tear for a Primordial Deity. That simply wouldn¡¯t be right, even if it had simply surrendered to her.


    Rather, that was the duty of a Primordial Deity, for the sake of the world.


    Her advance in planar cultivation signalled the advance of her other paths as well, save for her killing will. It remained stagnant, and it was very fortunate that it did so, though she could sense it pushing against the threshold of the realm. There would not be too much time before it broke, inevitably.


    She obtained its Dao of Space, along the Branch of Stars, but more importantly, she finally obtained a revelation that she had been working upon for some time. It wasn¡¯t quite the one that she had wanted ¨C her comprehension of space did improve, but not to the point that she could confidently set up a spatial realm if she obtained some spatial metal ¨C but she had figured out a seventh realm movement method, alternatively called a seventh realm flight method.


    The name of her technique was Chain Resonance, and it was one that continued on her path of using the chains of Law. Rather than omitting movement, she would instead temporarily bind herself to them.


    With that, she could achieve free movement anywhere that chains were present, a longer way of saying just ¡®anywhere¡¯. Alternatively, if she was to be more precise, it would be most accurate to say that she could employ this method anywhere that she could interact with chains, and anywhere that she lived. Currently, the requirement for both was the presence of the structure of planar energy, as she might not be able to endure in a world where it was simply absent as a concept altogether, even with a nascent rift and the like, but a world without Law would be one where life couldn¡¯t exist, and so she wouldn¡¯t have the chance to use Chain Resonance before her existence would end.


    Obviously, with her power overflowing and her general mood being quite high despite the oddity of the Primordial Deity, she leapt into the air and let herself soar dozens of metres up with just her physical strength. Once she was high enough, she stepped onto the nearest chain of Law and then stood on it for a moment, letting herself become attuned to them.


    This was not going to be a necessary step in the future, once she became accustomed to doing things like this, but it didn¡¯t hurt to get a feeling for the chains she was going to rely upon before ending up face-first in the ground just because she was too lazy. It wouldn¡¯t hurt her too much, as it would concern the grass and dirt beneath her far more so than it would affect her, but there was no good reason to plant herself into the ground just for experimentation¡¯s sake.


    After a short while, she believed she had it, so she stepped off the chain and let herself fall.


    She allowed herself a few metres before engaging her newly created Chain Resonance, and sent out a number of infinitely thin chains with which she formed a connection to the world¡¯s Laws. At her current level of both calculative prowess and energy, she limited herself to two dozen connections, as she was concerned with the potential damage caused by throwing together a hundred chains and forcing them to interact with one another when she had still not attained full control over the Dao of Law.


    These thin strands latched on and, after a moment in which she continued to fall, she was suddenly sprung forth, the strands being partly elastic by some mistake in the calculations. The upper strands had stretched a little, and caused her to be bounced back up, allowing her to fly for just a moment.


    It might have been fun to play around with, if she was seeking to do such a thing, but it was very much not her intention to do so. She wished for a proper movement method, and so she dispersed those strands and reformed them, but she did keep the possibility of making them elastic, as she could employ it in order to control her movement a little more precisely than if she had to use only rigid strands and needed to find well-placed chains in order to finely control her motion.


    When she produced her next set of strands, she was reassured that it had been wise to reduce their total number, as she would now need to manipulate the threads more precisely in order to achieve the best results. To a certain extent, there was more precision involved than in ordinary cultivation or technique usage, as she would typically have the same body, meridian networks and so on. However, the chains of Law were many and ever-changing, despite being constant at the same time. No place had the exact same arrangement of chains, so she needed to maintain an eye on them constantly. Only if she knew exactly how and where she would move could she create a stable path that would require no further elaboration.


    Of course, even a pre-planned path couldn¡¯t be as simple as that. The chains would shift with significant occurrences, such as powerful techniques or anything that could tear the fabric of the world, like Touch the Heavens or Reality Severance. As the foes she fights become stronger, changing from men to Primordial Deities and then to the Hunger of the Beyond, their ability to shake the chains of Law would also rise. In combat against them, both sides would constantly shift the chains in their favour, even if they were unaware that they were doing so.


    ¡®The Dao of Law is complex, but if I can get down to a deeper level of it, I can change my understanding of the chains to something more¡­ controllable. I could manipulate each chain according to my will, and let them carry me forth instead of necessitating the creation of my own strands. Unfortunately¡­ Hm?¡¯ as she was getting used to the method of flight, her thoughts had drifted, and she was forced to stop when she saw something in the distance, among the many chains of Law.


    It seemed to vanish in the next moment, as if she had merely been seeing things, but when the chains trembled and shifted, with her other vision states also proved that something was changing. Every chain moved and rotated in space, the spatial waves that were visible through her newly acquired vision state grew deeper, not that it made much sense to her either, and all of the other factors she was able to observe changed similarly. Everything became denser, deeper, greater, and even the ground around her transformed after the world had the chance to perform a breath. That was mostly everything she needed to comprehend what happened.


    Had she been at all confused, the appearance of Xu Shi Meng would have cleared it all up.


    The man showed up in front of her in his usual fashion, and spoke as soon as he saw that she had registered his presence.


    ¡°It has come. With your rise into the sixth stage, the energy density of the world has finally passed the threshold of the seventh realm, and now sits in the eighth. This comes with both good and bad news, of course,¡± Xu Shi Meng stated, ¡°Which ones do you already know of?¡±


    Before she responded, she noted that he had grown stronger since she had last seen him, although she was unable to quantify it in any way thanks to the obfuscation of his internal light.


    ¡°The positives are obvious. Patriarchs and Matriarchs will be able to rise to the eighth realm with less difficulty, and the overall power level of humanity will also rise. On the other hand, the Primordial Deities will grow too, and they may well begin escaping from their barriers, or lettings parts of their energy or influence escape. Alternatively, they would open spaces for their minions instead, and let them spread those two things in their stead.¡±


    Just by the end of her sentence, she took another quick look, and it seemed as if he had grown even stronger than a moment earlier, along with the world. It was curious, but she didn¡¯t mention it.


    ¡°It is the latter. It might be wise to send your forces to the barriers, and accelerate your work.¡±


    The Ascendant did not nod, and instead went straight to do exactly that. She couldn¡¯t be sure how each Primordial Deity would attempt to use their monstrosities, but there was no reason to ever allow them to go unchecked.

 V5C99: Steeling the Self

    ¡®At least the strongest of the seventh realm monsters are being kept in the barrier, so the Patriarchs can take care of most of them,¡¯ the Ascendant thought as she observed the scene of a few dragons fighting the minions of Primordial Energy, ¡®Is it just me, or has Primordial Energy lost a stage since I¡¯ve last seen it?¡¯


    It was a little difficult to tell with a Primordial Deity, but it did appear to have lost out on a significant portion of its previous aura. In theory, she should have only dealt some temporary damage to it before it simply recovered thanks to its eighth realm property, but given that its entire existence was planar energy, perhaps there was some permanent damage that could be done by stealing its power, a thing that she could do with incredible ease. As such, she was considering whether it might be a good idea to target this Primordial Deity right away, or if Primordial Energy might be a good tool for elevating the world¡¯s overall level of energy since it had already progressed.


    That was something she would consider later, as she was more interested in getting to master her current level of strength, and preparing for the inevitable appearance of the two Primordial Deities that were not currently sealed: Primordial Metal and Entropy.


    For the moment, Primordial Invader, which was not sealed with the typical barrier, was not on the list as the Heavenly Masters of the Wu District were able to handle him surprisingly well. While they were still able to fight, it was best not to challenge an entity that she wasn¡¯t sure she could beat. It did not adhere to the typical natural Laws of the world, so her Law-oriented methods did not function very well against it. Additionally, the Heavenly Masters were slowly rising in stage, so they might well get to the seventh and eighth realms by the end.


    If they were able to rise to that level and remain alive, she would have a number of powerful combatants on her side that had personal experience with combatting one of the stranger Primordial Deities. The amount that would translate to other Primordial Deities would be minimal, but it was better than nothing.


    Anyway, with Primordial Invader out of consideration, she had only Primordial Metal and Entropy. The latter also couldn¡¯t make for a good target, as she had no clue where it was.


    ¡®With the deepening of¡­ everything, I suppose that I might be able to perceive the trembling of entropic principles, but chasing that ancient worm is still troublesome,¡¯ she thought, glancing over to the east, ¡®Meanwhile, Primordial Metal is sitting somewhere in those territories, and it has yet to make an appearance despite there being several opportune times. Most likely, it is influencing a territory there before heading out to target Yi City.¡¯


    There was a good reason to target it while it was still in the middle of that process, but there were quite a few others against it, most in the form of the home territory advantage and the presence of forces hostile to Yi City. They may not be particularly powerful, but they would still be a problem.


    By letting Primordial Metal come to her lands, where her people might be prepared for its appearance, she could eliminate most of its support and cut it down in a place where her Dao of Law was strongest, thanks to its resonance with her Conqueror¡¯s Eye, Elder Watcher and other territorial abilities. The people of Yi City would be on her side in the conflict, for few would be stupid enough to do otherwise when she was responsible for saving them and protecting them from both the Great Leeches and Primordial Deities, whereas the people of the Empire of the Dawn, the Coastal Lord¡¯s Kingdom, and maybe even the Heavenly Peak Court, if it is reached by Primordial Metal, might have mixed feelings about the growing power to their west.


    Fighting a Primordial Deity while she lacked much control over her strength was also an issue, as it would damage things she wanted to keep safe and limit the accuracy with which she could act, negatively affecting just about everything she attempted to do. It was not wise to attempt it while she was still a realm behind those ancient behemoths in vaguely humanoid form.


    So, instead of doing that, she headed to the land of corruption, the territory between the enigmatic Huang District and rather plain Yi District, and chose to be the only one that would fight the things that emerged from the barrier. It had to be noted that the previous pure white light of the barrier had changed since she had last visited, and gained an unpleasant violet undertone, though that much was expected given the nature of Primordial Corruption. It was something that both Wei Yi and Xu Shi Meng had guessed would happen before they even set up the barrier.


    As the barrier itself was affected, the ground behind it looked even more hideous, writhing and almost breathing in a manner that did not look right whatsoever. It was a terrible sight.


    Monsters within the territory mostly remained there, fortunately, for their presence outside instantly rotted the environment and turned it into something perverted, and not in any of the more positive meanings of the word. Most likely, Primordial Corruption wanted to maintain that previous odd air of nonchalance while devouring whatever it could from the barrier around it, until it was able to overcome the Ascendant and Xu Shi Meng.


    Just as with other opponents that she currently wasn¡¯t able to confront, she had to hold back still, as she had not figured out a way to totally negate the corruptive properties of the Primordial Deity. It could, after all, attack something that existed at the ninth realm ¨C as far as she was able to tell, anyway ¨C and just like with Primordial Invader, it didn¡¯t quite adhere to the natural order of things to the extent that Law could be used to resist it sufficiently for her liking. Enforcing existing Law would be effective, but corruption might well do the same as she did and pervert the Law into something useful for the Primordial Deity instead.


    Its minions carried its influence, but they were still less powerful. Even if they focused on corrupting her, she would have enough power to resist their attempts, and studying the otherworldly tales accumulating within the Dimensional Domain meant she wouldn¡¯t fall for any tricks, either.


    ¡®Really, the more of their stories they reproduce here ¨C or produce, since I don¡¯t have a clue what the people in their worlds have and have not already come up with ¨C the more I am both concerned and impressed. If Primordial Corruption touched one of them, could it form a gateway into their world? Nah, unlikely, but it would make it all the more important that I keep them away from the stranger Primordial Deities,¡¯ Wei Yi thought to herself.


    She stopped by one of the larger entities, and brought out Moon Splitter before bringing it to her waist, holding on to it as if she was to unsheathe it in a glorious fashion.


    Of course, she could do so, but she instead wished to skip that part of the process and simply cut into the entity that stood before her. It hadn¡¯t realised that she was near it, yet, but she would rather avoid letting it do so as it was the most absurd mass of flesh, tentacles and a whole lot of other things that she did not want to touch at all. Literally, there was no context in which the kinds of limbs and surfaces that existed on the seven-legged, thousand-tentacled horror would be welcome anywhere in her vicinity.


    That was not the greatest motivation she could have had, but it seemed to work well enough when combined with the world¡¯s growth and her rising insights into various Dao thanks to defeating the Primordial Deities.


    ¡®I still cannot remove every aspect of an attack, but if I work out every step, then I can put each one together and eliminate everything but the strike itself. For now, I ought to focus upon eliminating the swing. The motion of the swing. I need to cut without the blade moving. No planar energy, no Sword Dao, only Law¡­¡¯ the Ascendant thought, holding the blade so steadily that space itself seemed to freeze around it. In a way, that did happen thanks to the influence of her Dao of Space, but she would not use it for an attack for so long as she believed in the Dao of Law.


    She had stuck to it for this long, and she would never abandon it now.


    Thus, keeping the sword still, she shut her eyes and focused on the chains that she could perceive most clearly with her divine sense. They were everywhere, endlessly tangled yet perfectly meshed, and one of them controlled the fate of her blade, the swing that it could perform, the cut that it could make. Right now, she would still include the weapon, include the time it takes to swing it, include the energy, air resistance, and all else, but exclude the swing itself.


    By that point, the monster she was facing observed her presence. It turned toward her, if folding onto itself and twisting various parts of the body into place could be called turning, and opened one jaw.


    A strange flash passed through the air, rather slowly, to the point that it could be followed by an ordinary eye. If it were to be made with a weapon, it would be a simple swing, so simple that a child could see through it and either dodge or block it ¨C the former being more likely in the case of an actual child ¨C making it almost laughable.


    Despite that, it severed the monstrosity in half, and its blood remained on Moon Splitter.


    ¡®One.¡¯


    The next moment, she vanished, and appeared elsewhere, her blade held just as still as before, but her focus was greater. In the first swing that never was, she realised that she had gained something in the Dao of Law, but she could not understand it no matter how much she tried without attempting to swing again. She couldn¡¯t even begin to describe it as anything other than an odd but hardly unpleasant familiarity, though she knew not with what.


    Regardless, she placed herself elsewhere, and tried again, then again, then again. She didn¡¯t have all the time in the world, but she would act as if she did for now.


    She had defeated Primordial Ocean on the seventeenth of the tenth month, in the year 1,201,523. Four days were spent on practise and training, and in that time, she had recovered full control over her power. Her killing will remained still for now, and so did her Law Omission, but she had managed to clarify some aspects of the aforementioned familiarity.


    It was clearly related to her Dao of Law, for she found that selecting the right chains was slightly easier than it had been before, but she still struggled to perceive the cause of this improvement. Perhaps she had made some progress with her true Dao, or perhaps she was beginning to personally catch up to the understanding someone in the Great Stride stage should have had already. After all, most of her comprehension was due to the false knowledge of the heavens, one that she could not freely access or confirm.


    Whatever it was, it was in her favour, so she currently prioritised using it to her advantage before comprehending the exact source and nature of this improvement. After all, she had bigger problems for the moment, and likely for quite a long while after this one was dealt with.


    As expected, it was Primordial Metal. The Primordial Deity came from the east, from the lands of the Empire of the Dawn, and it did not come alone. From her observation, it appeared that the entirety of that Empire was brought together with its power, and they chose the Jiang District as their first target for assault. Each member of their forces was no weaker than the sixth realm, the strongest occupying the upper seventh realm, but all of them had clearly not achieved this purely due to their own power.


    Jagged metal shards, broken blades and twisted fragments filled their flesh, much of it seeming to be growing right out of them. It was obvious that they were changed by Primordial Metal.


    At the back, yet clearly in charge of the crowd, was a man close to the eighth realm, but infinitely far from it, and his state was even more ruined by the Primordial Deity than any of the others. If there was flesh within that metal shell, then even her divine sense struggled to perceive it beyond a mere hope that some aspect of it remained.


    Most likely, this man was the emperor of the Empire of the Dawn, as could be observed by the banner-carrying soldiers next to him, and the symbol of a rising sun overshadowed by a jagged metallic figure upon the banners and his armour. Of course, the fact that he was leading the army was enough of an indicator of his status ¨C although she noticed quite soon that it might well be that this emperor did not retain recognisable gender characteristics, so for all she knew, the Empire of the Dawn was ruled by an Empress, not that it mattered whatsoever.


    She wasn¡¯t someone that would act differently based on gender, unless it came to romance or sex, though that was only natural. Everyone had their own preferences, whether it was in love, food, entertainment activities or whatever else one could imagine. To have no preference would be unusual.


    Anyway, she was able to detect their arrival before the relatively slowly marching armies made their way near the Jiang District¡¯s walls and its people, so she would naturally never permit them to progress without her say. Since they were the forces of Primordial Metal no matter how she looked at them, she wouldn¡¯t give them the opportunity to intrude upon her lands for as long as she had the power to stop them.


    Thus, she appeared before the enormous army, holding Moon Splitter in one hand while keeping it down. There would be a fight, but raising a sword was not necessary.


    ¡°Cease your advance. Explain your purpose before I obliterate you and your entire nation.¡±


    ¡°Kraah¡­ ah¡­¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. Nice communication, there,¡± the Ascendant muttered, trying to tone down her killing will while she had the chance to do so, ¡°Emperor, do you have nothing to say as you invade? What a kind ruler you are.¡±


    She had no clue whether he was considered a kind ruler, but sarcasm was always pleasant.


    ¡°The Emperor does not need to speak with you! He is blessed by Primordial Metal, god of our nation!¡±


    ¡®Well, that¡¯s fantastic. I can¡¯t be sure whether they had believed this before they were affected, but given the fact that they have been changed to this significant degree, it is very likely that the majority submitted willingly and eagerly,¡¯ Wei Yi noted, confirming that none in the crowd were lacking in metallic shards on the insides of their bodies, even if they were less visible outside, ¡°To confirm, you side with Primordial Metal over humanity?¡±


    ¡°Our god shall dominate-¡±


    She did not allow their nonsense to continue and shifted her hold on Moon Splitter, moving her left Arm down onto the blade and her right onto the handle. It was a common pose for one that wished to unsheathe a blade hanging on the belt, but she had no sheath, and she had no reason to draw it in a literal manner.


    The moment after, a thousand mirages appeared before the troops of the Empire of the Dawn, and each one performed a motion that was simple, yet could not be followed clearly.


    It was all that preceded a thousand vast cuts manifesting in the army, slicing through countless warriors as easily as a sword might cut through air. None of the metal shards and pieces within their flesh had even the slightest chance of enduring the attack, and yet none could even perceive it.


    ¡°Emperor and Primordial Metal. If one of you two think you can intrude, then you will need to come yourselves. The minions you have produced will merely flood the soil with metallic blood, and taint this place with your stench forever,¡± she said, shifting her grip on the blade, ¡°Actually, do exactly that. It would give me all the more motivation to end you and purify the land with your own power. Well? Come at me.¡±


    ¡°YOU. CUT. YOU,¡± a voice burst out from the distance, cutting the air and her ears with the most unpleasant screech of metal on metal that she had ever heard.


    The voice did not give the impression that the entity was less intelligent than its counterparts, but rather that the sheer difficulty of producing a coherent sound via a method as unsophisticated as Primordial Metal¡¯s was a struggle that it did not wish to go through. It would be better if it did remain quiet, as the flora within the nearest few miles of its voice died almost instantly.


    Although the bodies of the Empire of the Dawn¡¯s people suffered also, they nonetheless obeyed the instruction as if it was a command from the heavens. Each warrior dropped their previous slow marching pace and rushed in with the greatest speed that they could manage, resulting in a messy wave of flesh and metal that converged upon the Ascendant¡¯s position with a great number of blades, spears, axes, maces, hammers and even ordinary farming scythes effectively melting into a single mass of iron and steel.


    ¡®And yet, that is not Primordial Metal¡¯s nature, is it? Each one of these people have shards within their bodies, and even now that they effectively melt into a single attack, every single shard remains ready to cut me. I swear, the levels of power demonstrated by these Primordial Deities is horrendously inconsistent, and I should be glad that Primordial Nature popped out first. If I had to deal with this, it might have been difficult.¡¯


    To cut a sea of shards would be foolish, even if her blade could cut through quite a bit, especially when she had the Dao of Law and had the ability to force the illogical to be logical, and the opposite to also be true.


    In this case, she needed to make things behave as they ought to, so she had the world on her side.


    All that her foes could hear was a faint jangling of a chain, but the effect became obvious in an instant. The tidal wave of steel shards broke apart into individual men and women, who quickly fell and tripped over one another as they were far too close to one another to possibly continue advancing alongside one another without incident.


    The force of the wave was nullified in an instant, and then it was time for a quick application of Omit Slash and Omit Attacker. She had no ability to unify the two into one proper technique just yet, but her first strike against the army was a decent enough combination to take down enemies at this level. With Omit Attacker, she duplicated her presence elsewhere through the manipulation of chains, and with Omit Slash, she could perform an attack without the necessary movements. This permitted her to overcome some of the potential weaknesses of both methods, but the perfect fusion would require far more work.


    Once a thousand mirages appeared and cut through the army, her attention returned to the Emperor and Primordial Metal. She couldn¡¯t see the latter figure, as it was somewhere in the depths of the Empire of the Dawn, but she could sense its powerful aura consuming the nation that it had so easily occupied. That thing was not content with sitting still, though she couldn¡¯t determine whether that also included its physical state or not. Its energy certainly was in motion.


    As with the other Primordial Deities, it did not fight with typical techniques, for it had neither the same cultivation nor the same meridians as humans did. Instead, it used the power of the world, amplifying certain natural Laws beyond their typical limits and forcing them to exist where they shouldn¡¯t.


    In this case, it exploited the presence of countless broken and split metal soldiers, using their shards and their bodies as shards to manifest a two-fold array of metal shards that suddenly thrust towards Wei Yi once more, a spear forming from them and rushing towards her heart as naturally as a river would flow downstream, or the sun rose and fell every single day, without end, without hesitation, without deviation. All Law was supposed to act like that, but it could only do so when nothing interfered, when no other Law forced change to it.


    ¡®So, since I¡¯m self-imposing the restriction of using only Law in this fight, at least for now, I need to understand this. What exactly puts planar energy above everything else? Can it not be placed lower in the order of superiority, or eliminated entirely? After all, it is almost false in comparison to such things as kinetic energy or thermal energy, which have an exact quantity and location¡­¡¯


    Indeed, planar energy was almost ephemeral, able to exist and not exist whenever and wherever a cultivator wished it to be. It had no defined volume, no defined effect, nothing of the sort.


    Why should it ever be placed as highly as other forms of energy? How could such a thing even share the same term, the same name as clear factors that should pervade every reality within which Laws even vaguely resembled those of the Planar Continents, and of the world that the otherworldly demons came from? It was already obvious that it was done by a will of some kind, whether that was the will of the heavens or something or someone above it, but the purpose still remained elusive.


    ¡®Still, with natural Laws, understanding why something happens isn¡¯t necessary if one knows it does.¡¯


    When it came to the negotiable rules of society, understanding the purpose of a law permitted acting around it, or using it to one¡¯s own advantage while breaking it by referring to the spirit of the law, among many other uses. Such a thing could not be done with natural Law. It just was, and while one could understand why it happened ¨C such as the principles of atoms, forces and whatever else the otherworldly demons had come up with that she could not yet understand in full ¨C it didn¡¯t help with simply using a Law to one¡¯s advantage. This applied even more so to the Ascendant, who used chains of Law instead of any other method.


    It let her touch the Laws directly, instead of using some round-about way that did require greater understanding. In this manner, a lack of knowledge in one area could be made up for with knowledge in another, just as greater Dao improved lesser Dao that were placed beneath them.


    With these chains of Law, a single one could dominate the world if used correctly, and in this case, a single shifting length of nothingness could stop countless shards.


    Each one fell for a moment, but before the majority could even touch the ground, they began to rise once more. A single chain wielded with lacking knowledge didn¡¯t overwhelm the natural connection that a Primordial Deity had to the world it inhabited, but it was more than enough to leap onto the pile of shards and rush past them, using the chains of Law to avoid touching any directly, and let her people take care of the spear of shards once it attempted to rise a second time.


    ¡°Come on, Emperor, will you not meet a visit from the nation that owns your land?¡±


    She addressed that horrid metallic figure at the back of the army ¨C which remained enormous despite the many that she had taken down ¨C without much expectation of a reply, nor of a rational response from the people that the Primordial Deity had already changed. It was mostly to confirm to the people of Yi City that what they would fight would not be an army with opposing views and ideas, but instead a mindless horde lead by an entity that they could not control or supress in an ordinary manner, only by death.


    It was important that the forces of the Empire of the Dawn were different from the people of the other outside nations, as she had some ideas for obtaining their aid, especially from the Heavenly Peak Court and Coastal Lord¡¯s Kingdom.


    So long as the two were clearly distinguished and separated, fighting alongside the other nations would be easier, not that she believed most people of Yi City to be particularly difficult to persuade so long as she simply instructed them to do as she required them to. Still, while she was holding back a little, it was best to plan ahead and ensure that there were as few potential failings in her path as she could guarantee.


    ¡°THING. ATTACK,¡± Primordial Metal¡¯s horrendous screech sounded once again, and it only became clear that this was an order for the Emperor when his metallic body moved.


    The metal figure was on a different level to its peers, even if both were similarly cursed by Primordial Metal¡¯s power. Whatever power the leader of the Empire of the Dawn had originally seemed to be gone, or else he had originally been incredibly obsessed with metal shards and metal-type energy in general, for a massive swarm of shards quickly formed around him and assembled into another layer of armour.


    He had already been larger than the average man, with the shards implanted in him increasing that even further, and now his technique boosted his size to nearly eight metres, letting him tower over the battlefield.


    With her full abilities, she had the power to defeat this entity without too much difficulty, but that wouldn¡¯t change her ability to take care of Primordial Metal. Rather, it would guarantee that its full attention would be on her, even if she could steal its power from the Emperor after defeating him. Thus, she did not intent to release her self-imposed restrictions, and would instead take advantage of the presence of two other nations to the Empire¡¯s east.


    For now, though, she would engage the thing that had been the Emperor in battle, and see how far her Law could take her.